PMID- 28861051
TI  - Host Ecology Rather Than Host Phylogeny Drives Amphibian Skin Microbial Community
      Structure in the Biodiversity Hotspot of Madagascar.
AB  - Host-associated microbiotas of vertebrates are diverse and complex communities
      that contribute to host health. In particular, for amphibians, cutaneous
      microbial communities likely play a significant role in pathogen defense;
      however, our ecological understanding of these communities is still in its
      infancy. Here, we take advantage of the fully endemic and locally species-rich
      amphibian fauna of Madagascar to investigate the factors structuring amphibian
      skin microbiota on a large scale. Using amplicon-based sequencing, we evaluate
      how multiple host species traits and site factors affect host bacterial diversity
      and community structure. Madagascar is home to over 400 native frog species, all
      of which are endemic to the island; more than 100 different species are known to
      occur in sympatry within multiple rainforest sites. We intensively sampled frog
      skin bacterial communities, from over 800 amphibians from 89 species across 30
      sites in Madagascar during three field visits, and found that skin bacterial
      communities differed strongly from those of the surrounding environment. Richness
      of bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and phylogenetic diversity
      differed among host ecomorphs, with arboreal frogs exhibiting lower richness and
      diversity than terrestrial and aquatic frogs. Host ecomorphology was the
      strongest factor influencing microbial community structure, with host phylogeny
      and site parameters (latitude and elevation) explaining less but significant
      portions of the observed variation. Correlation analysis and topological
      congruency analyses revealed little to no phylosymbiosis for amphibian skin
      microbiota. Despite the observed geographic variation and low phylosymbiosis, we
      found particular OTUs that were differentially abundant between particular
      ecomorphs. For example, the genus Pigmentiphaga (Alcaligenaceae) was
      significantly enriched on arboreal frogs, Methylotenera (Methylophilaceae) was
      enriched on aquatic frogs, and Agrobacterium (Rhizobiaceae) was enriched on
      terrestrial frogs. The presence of shared bacterial OTUs across geographic
      regions for selected host genera suggests the presence of core microbial
      communities which in Madagascar, might be driven more strongly by a species'
      preference for specific microhabitats than by the physical, physiological or
      biochemical properties of their skin. These results corroborate that both host
      and environmental factors are driving community assembly of amphibian cutaneous
      microbial communities, and provide an improved foundation for elucidating their
      role in disease resistance.

PMID- 28861052
TI  - EXPOSE-R2: The Astrobiological ESA Mission on Board of the International Space
      Station.
AB  - On July 23, 2014, the Progress cargo spacecraft 56P was launched from Baikonur to
      the International Space Station (ISS), carrying EXPOSE-R2, the third ESA
      (European Space Agency) EXPOSE facility, the second EXPOSE on the outside
      platform of the Russian Zvezda module, with four international astrobiological
      experiments into space. More than 600 biological samples of archaea, bacteria (as
      biofilms and in planktonic form), lichens, fungi, plant seeds, triops eggs,
      mosses and 150 samples of organic compounds were exposed to the harsh space
      environment and to parameters similar to those on the Mars surface. Radiation
      dosimeters distributed over the whole facility complemented the scientific
      payload. Three extravehicular activities later the chemical samples were returned
      to Earth on March 2, 2016, with Soyuz 44S, having spent 588 days in space. The
      biological samples arrived back later, on June 18, 2016, with 45S, after a total
      duration in space of 531 days. The exposure of the samples to Low Earth Orbit
      vacuum lasted for 531 days and was divided in two parts: protected against solar
      irradiation during the first 62 days, followed by exposure to solar radiation
      during the subsequent 469 days. In parallel to the space mission, a Mission
      Ground Reference (MGR) experiment with a flight identical Hardware and a complete
      flight identical set of samples was performed at the premises of DLR (German
      Aerospace Center) in Cologne by MUSC (Microgravity User Support Center),
      according to the mission data either downloaded from the ISS (temperature data,
      facility status, inner pressure status) or provided by RedShift Design and
      Engineering BVBA, Belgium (calculated ultra violet radiation fluence data). In
      this paper, the EXPOSE-R2 facility, the experimental samples, mission parameters,
      environmental parameters, and the overall mission and MGR sequences are
      described, building the background for the research papers of the individual
      experiments, their analysis and results.

PMID- 28861053
TI  - Enhanced Biocide Treatments with D-amino Acid Mixtures against a Biofilm
      Consortium from a Water Cooling Tower.
AB  - Different species of microbes form mixed-culture biofilms in cooling water
      systems. They cause microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) and biofouling,
      leading to increased operational and maintenance costs. In this work, two D-amino
      acid mixtures were found to enhance two non-oxidizing biocides [tetrakis
      hydroxymethyl phosphonium sulfate (THPS) and NALCO 7330 (isothiazoline
      derivatives)] and one oxidizing biocide [bleach (NaClO)] against a biofilm
      consortium from a water cooling tower in lab tests. Fifty ppm (w/w) of an
      equimass mixture of D-methionine, D-leucine, D-tyrosine, D-tryptophan, D-serine,
      D-threonine, D-phenylalanine, and D-valine (D8) enhanced 15 ppm THPS and 15 ppm
      NALCO 7330 with similar efficacies achieved by the 30 ppm THPS alone treatment
      and the 30 ppm NALCO 7330 alone treatment, respectively in the single-batch 3-h
      biofilm removal test. A sequential treatment method was used to enhance bleach
      because D-amino acids react with bleach. After a 4-h biofilm removal test, the
      sequential treatment of 5 ppm bleach followed by 50 ppm D8 achieved extra 1-log
      reduction in sessile cell counts of acid producing bacteria, sulfate reducing
      bacteria, and general heterotrophic bacteria compared with the 5 ppm bleach alone
      treatment. The 10 ppm bleach alone treatment showed a similar efficacy with the
      sequential treatment of 5 ppm bleach followed by 50 ppm D8. The efficacy of D8
      was found better than that of D4 (an equimass mixture of D-methionine, D-leucine,
      D-tyrosine, and D-tryptophan) in the enhancement of the three individual biocides
      against the biofilm consortium.

PMID- 28861054
TI  - Screening of TB Actives for Activity against Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Delivers
      High Hit Rates.
AB  - The prevalence of lung disease due to infections with nontuberculous mycobacteria
      (NTM) has been increasing and surpassed tuberculosis (TB) in some countries.
      Treatment outcomes are often unsatisfactory, highlighting an urgent need for new
      anti-NTM medications. Although NTM in general do not respond well to TB specific
      drugs, the similarities between NTM and Mycobacterium tuberculosis at the
      molecular and cell structural level suggest that compound libraries active
      against TB could be leveraged for NTM drug discovery. Here we tested this
      hypothesis. The Pathogen Box from the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) is a
      collection of 400 diverse drug-like compounds, among which 129 are known to be
      active against M. tuberculosis. By screening this compound collection against two
      NTM species, Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium avium, we showed that
      indeed the hit rates for NTM among TB active compounds is significantly higher
      compared to compounds that are not active against TB. MIC/dose response
      confirmation identified 10 top hits. Bactericidal activity determination
      demonstrated attractive potency for a subset of the confirmed hits. In vivo
      pharmacokinetic profiling showed that some of the compounds present reasonable
      starting points for medicinal chemistry programs. Three of the top hits were
      oxazolidinones, suggesting the potential for repositioning this class of protein
      synthesis inhibitors to replace linezolid which suffers from low potency. Two
      hits were inhibitors of the trehalose monomycolate transporter MmpL3, suggesting
      that this transmembrane protein may be an attractive target for NTM. Other hits
      are predicted to target a range of functions, including cell division (FtsZ), DNA
      gyrase (GyrB), dihydrofolate reductase, RNA polymerase and ABC transporters. In
      conclusion, our study showed that screening TB active compounds for activity
      against NTM resulted in high hit rates, suggesting that this may be an attractive
      approach to kick start NTM drug discovery projects. In addition, the work
      identified a series of novel high value NTM hits with associated candidate
      targets which can be followed up in hit-to-lead projects for the discovery of new
      NTM antibiotics.

PMID- 28861055
TI  - Genomic Characteristics of Bifidobacterium thermacidophilum Pig Isolates and Wild
      Boar Isolates Reveal the Unique Presence of a Putative Mobile Genetic Element
      with tetW for Pig Farm Isolates.
AB  - Genomic analysis was performed on seven strains of Bifidobacterium
      thermacidophilum, a Sus-associated Bifidobacterium. Three strains from the feces
      of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) and four strains from the rectal feces
      of free-range Japanese wild boars (S. s. scrofa) were compared. The phylogenetic
      position of these isolates suggested by genomic analyses were not concordant with
      that suggested by 16S rRNA sequence. There was biased distribution of genes for
      virulence, phage, metabolism of aromatic compounds, iron acquisition, cell
      division, and DNA metabolism. In particular four wild boar isolates harbored
      fiber-degrading enzymes, such as endoglucanase, while two of the pig isolates
      obtained from those grown under an intensive feeding practice with routine use of
      antimicrobials, particularly tetracycline harbored a tetracycline resistance
      gene, which was further proved functional by disk diffusion test. The tetW gene
      is associated with a serine recombinase of an apparently non-bifidobacterial
      origin. The insertion site of the tetW cassette was precisely defined by
      analyzing the corresponding genomic regions in the other tetracycline-susceptible
      isolates. The cassette may have been transferred from some other bacteria in the
      pig gut.

PMID- 28861056
TI  - Identification of Novel Conjugative Plasmids with Multiple Copies of fosB that
      Confer High-Level Fosfomycin Resistance to Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci.
AB  - To further characterize the fosB-carrying plasmids of 19 vancomycin-resistant
      enterococci, the complete sequences of the fosB- and vanA-containing plasmids of
      Enterococcus faecium (pEMA120) and E. avium (pEA19081) were obtained by single
      molecule, real-time sequencing. We found that these two plasmids are essentially
      identical (99.99% nucleotide sequence identity), which proved the possibility of
      interspecies transmission. Comparative analysis of the plasmids revealed that the
      backbone of pEMA120 is 99% similar to a conjugative fosB-negative E. faecium
      plasmid, pZB18. There is a traE disrupted in the transfer region of pEMA120, in
      comparison to pZB18 with an intact traE. The difference of their transfer
      frequencies between pEMA120 and pZB18 suggests this interruption of traE might
      affect conjugative transfer. Two copies of the fosB gene linked to a tnpA gene,
      forming an ISL3-like transposon, were found at separate locations within pEMA120,
      which had not been reported previously. These two fosB-carrying transposons were
      confirmed to form circular intermediates by inverse PCR. The hybridization of
      plasmid DNA digested by BsaI, having restriction site within the fosB sequence,
      demonstrated that the presence of multiple copies of fosB per plasmid is common.
      The total copy number of the fosB gene as revealed by qRT-PCR did not correlate
      with fosfomycin MICs or growth rates at sub-MICs of fosfomycin in different
      transconjugants. From susceptibility tests, the fosB gene, regardless of the copy
      number, conferred high fosfomycin MICs that ranged from 16384 to 65536 MUg/ml.
      This first complete nucleotide sequence of a plasmid carrying two copies of fosB
      in VRE suggests that the fosB gene can transfer to multiple loci of plasmids by
      the ISL3 family transposase TnpA, possibly in the form of circular intermediates,
      leading to the dissemination of high fosfomycin resistance in VRE.

PMID- 28861058
TI  - Editorial: Management of Fusarium Species and their Mycotoxins in Cereal Food and
      Feed.

PMID- 28861057
TI  - The Complete Genome Sequence of the Fish Pathogen Tenacibaculum maritimum
      Provides Insights into Virulence Mechanisms.
AB  - Tenacibaculum maritimum is a devastating bacterial pathogen of wild and farmed
      marine fish with a broad host range and a worldwide distribution. We report here
      the complete genome sequence of the T. maritimum type strain NCIMB 2154T. The
      genome consists of a 3,435,971-base pair circular chromosome with 2,866 predicted
      protein-coding genes. Genes encoding the biosynthesis of exopolysaccharides, the
      type IX secretion system, iron uptake systems, adhesins, hemolysins, proteases,
      and glycoside hydrolases were identified. They are likely involved in the
      virulence process including immune escape, invasion, colonization, destruction of
      host tissues, and nutrient scavenging. Among the predicted virulence factors,
      type IX secretion-mediated and cell-surface exposed proteins were identified
      including an atypical sialidase, a sphingomyelinase and a chondroitin AC lyase
      which activities were demonstrated in vitro.

PMID- 28861059
TI  - Characterization of Full-Length and Truncated Recombinant kappa-Carrageenase
      Expressed in Pichia pastoris.
AB  - kappa-Carrageenase belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 16 and cleaves the beta
      (1->4) linkages of kappa-carrageenan. In this study, genes encoding the full
      length (cgkZ), Por secretion tail-truncated (cgkZDeltaPst) and carbohydrate
      binding domain-truncated (cgkZDeltaCBM) kappa-carrageenase proteins were
      expressed in Pichia pastoris. The copy numbers of gene cgkZ, cgkZDeltaPst and
      cgkZDeltaCBM were 7, 7 and 6, respectively. The enzymatic activities of
      recombinant enzymes cgkZ, cgkZDeltaPst and cgkZDeltaCBM reached 4.68, 5.70, and
      3.02 U/mL, respectively, after 120 h of shake flask fermentation at 22 degrees C
      and pH 6 in the presence of 1 % (v/v) methanol. The molecular weights of
      recombinant cgkZ, cgkZDeltaPst, and cgkZDeltaCBM were approximately 65, 45, and
      40 kDa; their Km values were 2.07, 1.85, and 1.04 mg/mL; and they exhibited
      optimal activity at 45-50 degrees C and pH 6-7. All the recombinant enzymes were
      stimulated by Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, and dithiothreitol. The end-products of enzymatic
      hydrolysis were mainly composed of kappa-carrageenan tetrasaccharide and
      hexasaccharide. The removal of the Por secretion tail of kappa-carrageenase
      promoted the transcription of kappa-carrageenase gene, enhancing the specific
      activity of kappa-carrageenase without significantly changing its catalytic
      properties. Although the transcription level of kappa-carrageenase gene after the
      removal of the carbohydrate binding domain was relatively high, the specific
      activity of the recombinant enzyme significantly decreased. The comprehensive
      application of the P. pastoris expression system combined with the rational
      modification of genes may provide a novel approach for the heterologous
      expression of various marine enzymes with high activities.

PMID- 28861060
TI  - CRISPR-Cas Systems Features and the Gene-Reservoir Role of Coagulase-Negative
      Staphylococci.
AB  - The claimed role of gene reservoir of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS)
      could be contradicted by estimates that CRISPR/Cas systems are found in the
      genomes of 40-50% of bacteria, as these systems interfere with plasmid uptake in
      staphylococci. To further correlate this role with presence of CRISPR, we
      analyzed, by computational methods, 122 genomes from 15 species of CoNS. Only 15%
      of them harbored CRISPR/Cas systems, and this proportion was much lower for S.
      epidermidis and S. haemolyticus, the CoNS most frequently associated with
      opportunistic infections in humans. These systems are of type II or III, and at
      least two of them are located within SCCmec, a mobile genetic element of
      Staphylococcus bacterial species. An analysis of the spacers of these CRISPRs,
      which come from exogenous origin, allowed us to track the transference of the
      SCCmec, which was exchanged between different strains, species and hosts. Some of
      the spacers are derived from plasmids described in Staphylococcus species that
      are different from those in which the CRISPR are found, evidencing the attempt
      (and failure) of plasmid transference between them. Based on the polymorphisms of
      the cas1 gene in CRISPRs of types II and III, we developed a multiplex polymerase
      chain reaction (PCR) suitable to screen and type CRISPR systems in CoNS. The PCR
      was tested in 59 S. haemolyticus strains, of which only two contained a type III
      cas1. This gene was shown to be expressed in the exponential growth, stationary
      phase and during biofilm formation. The low abundance of CRISPRs in CoNS is in
      accordance with their role as gene reservoirs, but when present, their spacers
      sequence evidence and give an insight on the dynamics of horizontal genetic
      transfer among staphylococci.

PMID- 28861061
TI  - Small, Enigmatic Plasmids of the Nosocomial Pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii:
      Good, Bad, Who Knows?
AB  - Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative nosocomial pathogen that has become a
      serious healthcare concern within a span of two decades due to its ability to
      rapidly acquire resistance to all classes of antimicrobial compounds. One of the
      key features of the A. baumannii genome is an open pan genome with a plethora of
      plasmids, transposons, integrons, and genomic islands, all of which play
      important roles in the evolution and success of this clinical pathogen,
      particularly in the acquisition of multidrug resistance determinants. An
      interesting genetic feature seen in majority of A. baumannii genomes analyzed is
      the presence of small plasmids that usually ranged from 2 to 10 kb in size, some
      of which harbor antibiotic resistance genes and homologs of plasmid mobilization
      genes. These plasmids are often overlooked when compared to their larger,
      conjugative counterparts that harbor multiple antibiotic resistance genes and
      transposable elements. In this mini-review, we will examine our current knowledge
      of these small A. baumannii plasmids and look into their genetic diversity and
      phylogenetic relationships. Some of these plasmids, such as the Rep-3 superfamily
      group and the pRAY-type, which has no recognizable replicase genes, are quite
      widespread among diverse A. baumannii clinical isolates worldwide, hinting at
      their usefulness to the lifestyle of this pathogen. Other small plasmids
      especially those from the Rep-1 superfamily are truly enigmatic, encoding only
      hypothetical proteins of unknown function, leading to the question of whether
      these small plasmids are "good" or "bad" to their host A. baumannii.

PMID- 28861063
TI  - Variation of Oxygenation Conditions on a Hydrocarbonoclastic Microbial Community
      Reveals Alcanivorax and Cycloclasticus Ecotypes.
AB  - Deciphering the ecology of marine obligate hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (MOHCB)
      is of crucial importance for understanding their success in occupying distinct
      niches in hydrocarbon-contaminated marine environments after oil spills. In
      marine coastal sediments, MOHCB are particularly subjected to extreme fluctuating
      conditions due to redox oscillations several times a day as a result of
      mechanical (tide, waves and currents) and biological (bioturbation) reworking of
      the sediment. The adaptation of MOHCB to the redox oscillations was investigated
      by an experimental ecology approach, subjecting a hydrocarbon-degrading microbial
      community to contrasting oxygenation regimes including permanent anoxic
      conditions, anoxic/oxic oscillations and permanent oxic conditions. The most
      ubiquitous MOHCB, Alcanivorax and Cycloclasticus, showed different behaviors,
      especially under anoxic/oxic oscillation conditions, which were more favorable
      for Alcanivorax than for Cycloclasticus. The micro-diversity of 16S rRNA gene
      transcripts from these genera revealed specific ecotypes for different
      oxygenation conditions and their dynamics. It is likely that such ecotypes allow
      the colonization of distinct ecological niches that may explain the success of
      Alcanivorax and Cycloclasticus in hydrocarbon-contaminated coastal sediments
      during oil-spills.

PMID- 28861062
TI  - Evolutionary Genetic Analysis Uncovers Multiple Species with Distinct Habitat
      Preferences and Antibiotic Resistance Phenotypes in the Stenotrophomonas
      maltophilia Complex.
AB  - The genus Stenotrophomonas (Gammaproteobacteria) has a broad environmental
      distribution. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is its best known species because it
      is a globally emerging, multidrug-resistant (MDR), opportunistic pathogen.
      Members of this species are known to display high genetic, ecological and
      phenotypic diversity, forming the so-called S. maltophilia complex (Smc).
      Heterogeneous resistance and virulence phenotypes have been reported for
      environmental Smc isolates of diverse ecological origin. We hypothesized that
      this heterogeneity could be in part due to the potential lumping of several
      cryptic species in the Smc. Here we used state-of-the-art phylogenetic and
      population genetics methods to test this hypothesis based on the multilocus
      dataset available for the genus at pubmlst.org. It was extended with sequences
      from complete and draft genome sequences to assemble a comprehensive set of
      reference sequences. This framework was used to analyze 108 environmental
      isolates obtained in this study from the sediment and water column of four rivers
      and streams in Central Mexico, affected by contrasting levels of anthropogenic
      pollution. The aim of the study was to identify species in this collection,
      defined as genetically cohesive sequence clusters, and to determine the extent of
      their genetic, ecological and phenotypic differentiation. The multispecies
      coalescent, coupled with Bayes factor analysis was used to delimit species
      borders, together with population genetic structure analyses, recombination and
      gene flow estimates between sequence clusters. These analyses consistently
      revealed that the Smc contains at least 5 significantly differentiated lineages:
      S. maltophilia and Smc1 to Smc4. Only S. maltophilia was found to be
      intrinsically MDR, all its members expressing metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs). The
      other Smc lineages were not MDR and did not express MBLs. We also obtained
      isolates related to S. acidaminiphila, S. humi and S. terrae. They were
      significantly more susceptible to antibiotics than S. maltophilia. We demonstrate
      that the sympatric lineages recovered display significantly differentiated
      habitat preferences, antibiotic resistance profiles and beta-lactamase expression
      phenotypes, as shown by diverse multivariate analyses and robust univariate
      statistical tests. We discuss our data in light of current models of bacterial
      speciation, which fit these data well, stressing the implications of species
      delimitation in ecological, evolutionary and clinical research.

PMID- 28861064
TI  - Screening and Characterization of Potentially Suppressive Soils against
      Gaeumannomyces graminis under Extensive Wheat Cropping by Chilean Indigenous
      Communities.
AB  - Wheat production around the world is severely compromised by the occurrence of
      "take-all" disease, which is caused by the soil-borne pathogen Gaeumannomyces
      graminis var. tritici (Ggt). In this context, suppressive soils are those
      environments in which plants comparatively suffer less soil-borne pathogen
      diseases than expected, owing to native soil microorganism activities. In
      southern Chile, where 85% of the national cereal production takes place, several
      studies have suggested the existence of suppressive soils under extensive wheat
      cropping. Thus, this study aimed to screen Ggt-suppressive soil occurrence in 16
      locations managed by indigenous "Mapuche" communities, using extensive wheat
      cropping for more than 10 years. Ggt growth inhibition in vitro screenings
      allowed the identification of nine putative suppressive soils. Six of these
      soils, including Andisols and Ultisols, were confirmed to be suppressive, since
      they reduced take-all disease in wheat plants growing under greenhouse
      conditions. Suppressiveness was lost upon soil sterilization, and recovered by
      adding 1% of the natural soil, hence confirming that suppressiveness was closely
      associated to the soil microbiome community composition. Our results demonstrate
      that long-term extensive wheat cropping, established by small Mapuche
      communities, can generate suppressive soils that can be used as effective
      microorganism sources for take-all disease biocontrol. Accordingly, suppressive
      soil identification and characterization are key steps for the development of
      environmentally-friendly and efficient biotechnological applications for soil
      borne disease control.

PMID- 28861065
TI  - Effect of Pre-weaning Diet on the Ruminal Archaeal, Bacterial, and Fungal
      Communities of Dairy Calves.
AB  - At birth, calves display an underdeveloped rumen that eventually matures into a
      fully functional rumen as a result of solid food intake and microbial activity.
      However, little is known regarding the gradual impact of pre-weaning diet on the
      establishment of the rumen microbiota. Here, we employed next-generation
      sequencing to investigate the effects of the inclusion of starter concentrate (M:
      milk-fed vs. MC: milk plus starter concentrate fed) on archaeal, bacterial and
      anaerobic fungal communities in the rumens of 45 crossbred dairy calves across
      pre-weaning development (7, 28, 49, and 63 days). Our results show that archaeal,
      bacterial, and fungal taxa commonly found in the mature rumen were already
      established in the rumens of calves at 7 days old, regardless of diet. This
      confirms that microbiota colonization occurs in the absence of solid substrate.
      However, diet did significantly impact some microbial taxa. In the bacterial
      community, feeding starter concentrate promoted greater diversity of bacterial
      taxa known to degrade readily fermentable carbohydrates in the rumen (e.g.,
      Megasphaera, Sharpea, and Succinivribrio). Shifts in the ruminal bacterial
      community also correlated to changes in fermentation patterns that favored the
      colonization of Methanosphaera sp. A4 in the rumen of MC calves. In contrast, M
      calves displayed a bacterial community dominated by taxa able to utilize milk
      nutrients (e.g., Lactobacillus, Bacteroides, and Parabacteroides). In both diet
      groups, the dominance of these milk-associated taxa decreased with age,
      suggesting that diet and age simultaneously drive changes in the structure and
      abundance of bacterial communities in the developing rumen. Changes in the
      composition and abundance of archaeal communities were attributed exclusively to
      diet, with more highly abundant Methanosphaera and less abundant
      Methanobrevibacter in MC calves. Finally, the fungal community was dominated by
      members of the genus SK3 and Caecomyces. Relative anaerobic fungal abundances did
      not change significantly in response to diet or age, likely due to high inter
      animal variation and the low fiber content of starter concentrate. This study
      provides new insights into the colonization of archaea, bacteria, and anaerobic
      fungi communities in pre-ruminant calves that may be useful in designing
      strategies to promote colonization of target communities to improve functional
      development.

PMID- 28861066
TI  - Unraveling the Fecal Microbiota and Metagenomic Functional Capacity Associated
      with Feed Efficiency in Pigs.
AB  - Gut microbiota plays fundamental roles in energy harvest, nutrient digestion, and
      intestinal health, especially in processing indigestible components of
      polysaccharides in diet. Unraveling the microbial taxa and functional capacity of
      gut microbiome associated with feed efficiency can provide important knowledge to
      improve pig feed efficiency in swine industry. In the current research, we
      studied the association of fecal microbiota with feed efficiency in 280
      commercial Duroc pigs. All experimental pigs could be clustered into two
      enterotype-like groups. Different enterotypes showed the tendency of association
      with the feed efficiency (P = 0.07). We further identified 31 operational
      taxonomic units (OTUs) showing the potential associations with porcine feed
      efficiency. These OTUs were mainly annotated to the bacteria related to the
      metabolisms of dietary polysaccharides. Although we did not identify the RFI
      associated bacterial species at FDR < 0.05 level, metagenomic sequencing analysis
      did find the distinct function capacities of gut microbiome between the high and
      low RFI pigs (FDR < 0.05). The KEGG orthologies related to nitrogen metabolism,
      amino acid metabolism, and transport system, and eight KEGG pathways including
      glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism were positively associated with porcine
      feed efficiency. We inferred that gut microbiota might improve porcine feed
      efficiency through promoting intestinal health by the SCFAs produced by
      fermenting dietary polysaccharides and improving the utilization of dietary
      protein. The present results provided important basic knowledge for improving
      porcine feed efficiency through modulating gut microbiome.

PMID- 28861067
TI  - Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal Differential Gene Expression of Immune and Cell
      Death Pathways in the Brains of Mice Infected with West Nile Virus and
      Chikungunya Virus.
AB  - West Nile virus (WNV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are arboviruses that are
      constantly (re-)emerging and expanding their territory. Both viruses often cause
      a mild form of disease, but severe forms of the disease can consist of
      neurological symptoms, most often observed in the elderly and young children,
      respectively, for which the mechanisms are poorly understood. To further
      elucidate the mechanisms responsible for end-stage WNV and CHIKV neuroinvasive
      disease, we used transcriptomics to compare the induction of effector pathways in
      the brain during the early and late stage of disease in young mice. In addition
      to the more commonly described cell death pathways such as apoptosis and
      autophagy, we also found evidence for the differential expression of pyroptosis
      and necroptosis cell death markers during both WNV and CHIKV neuroinvasive
      disease. In contrast, no evidence of cell dysfunction was observed, indicating
      that cell death may be the most important mechanism of disease. Interestingly,
      there was overlap when comparing immune markers involved in neuroinvasive disease
      to those seen in neurodegenerative diseases. Nonetheless, further validation
      studies are needed to determine the activation and involvement of these effector
      pathways at the end stage of disease. Furthermore, evidence for a strong
      inflammatory response was found in mice infected with WNV and CHIKV. The
      transcriptomics profile measured in mice with WNV and CHIKV neuroinvasive disease
      in our study showed strong overlap with the mRNA profile described in the
      literature for other viral neuroinvasive diseases. More studies are warranted to
      decipher the role of cell inflammation and cell death in viral neuroinvasive
      disease and whether common mechanisms are active in both neurodegenerative and
      brain infectious diseases.

PMID- 28861068
TI  - Protein-Protein Interactions in Virus-Host Systems.
AB  - To study virus-host protein interactions, knowledge about viral and host protein
      architectures and repertoires, their particular evolutionary mechanisms, and
      information on relevant sources of biological data is essential. The purpose of
      this review article is to provide a thorough overview about these aspects.
      Protein domains are basic units defining protein interactions, and the uniqueness
      of viral domain repertoires, their mode of evolution, and their roles during
      viral infection make viruses interesting models of study. Mutations at protein
      interfaces can reduce or increase their binding affinities by changing protein
      electrostatics and structural properties. During the course of a viral infection,
      both pathogen and cellular proteins are constantly competing for binding
      partners. Endogenous interfaces mediating intraspecific interactions-viral-viral
      or host-host interactions-are constantly targeted and inhibited by exogenous
      interfaces mediating viral-host interactions. From a biomedical perspective,
      blocking such interactions is the main mechanism underlying antiviral therapies.
      Some proteins are able to bind multiple partners, and their modes of interaction
      define how fast these "hub proteins" evolve. "Party hubs" have multiple
      interfaces; they establish simultaneous/stable (domain-domain) interactions, and
      tend to evolve slowly. On the other hand, "date hubs" have few interfaces; they
      establish transient/weak (domain-motif) interactions by means of short linear
      peptides (15 or fewer residues), and can evolve faster. Viral infections are
      mediated by several protein-protein interactions (PPIs), which can be represented
      as networks (protein interaction networks, PINs), with proteins being depicted as
      nodes, and their interactions as edges. It has been suggested that viral proteins
      tend to establish interactions with more central and highly connected host
      proteins. In an evolutionary arms race, viral and host proteins are constantly
      changing their interface residues, either to evade or to optimize their binding
      capabilities. Apart from gaining and losing interactions via rewiring mechanisms,
      virus-host PINs also evolve via gene duplication (paralogy); conservation
      (orthology); horizontal gene transfer (HGT) (xenology); and molecular mimicry
      (convergence). The last sections of this review focus on PPI experimental
      approaches and their limitations, and provide an overview of sources of
      biomolecular data for studying virus-host protein interactions.

PMID- 28861069
TI  - Vertical Transmission of H9N2 Avian Influenza Virus in Goose.
AB  - During a study on high mortality cases of goose embryo in Shandong Province,
      China (2014-2015), we isolated an H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) strain
      (A/goose/Shandong/DP01/2014, DP01), which was supposedly the causative agent for
      goose embryo death. Sequence analysis revealed that DP01 shared 99.9% homology in
      the HA gene with a classic immune suppression strain SD06. To study the potential
      vertical transmission ability of the DP01 strain in breeder goose, a total of 105
      Taizhou breeder geese, which were 360 days old, were equally divided into five
      groups (A, B, C, D, and E) for experimental infection. H9N2 AIV (DP01) was used
      for inoculating through intravenous (group A), intranasal instillation (group B),
      and throat inoculation (group C) routes, respectively. The geese in group D were
      inoculated with phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and those in group E were the non
      treated group. At 24 h post inoculation, H9N2 viral RNA could be detected at
      vitelline membrane, embryos, and allantoic fluid of goose embryos from H9N2
      inoculated groups. Furthermore, the HA gene of H9N2 virus from vitelline
      membrane, embryo, allantoic fluid, and gosling shared almost 100% homology with
      an H9N2 virus isolated from the ovary of breeder goose, which laid these eggs,
      indicating that H9N2 AIV can be vertically transmitted in goose. The present
      research study provides evidence that vertical transmission of H9N2 AIV from
      breeding goose to goslings is possible.

PMID- 28861070
TI  - Environmental Pollutant Benzo[a]Pyrene Impacts the Volatile Metabolome and
      Transcriptome of the Human Gut Microbiota.
AB  - Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is a ubiquitous, persistent, and carcinogenic pollutant
      that belongs to the large family of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Population
      exposure primarily occurs via contaminated food products, which introduces the
      pollutant to the digestive tract. Although the metabolism of B[a]P by host cells
      is well known, its impacts on the human gut microbiota, which plays a key role in
      health and disease, remain unexplored. We performed an in vitro assay using 16S
      barcoding, metatranscriptomics and volatile metabolomics to study the impact of
      B[a]P on two distinct human fecal microbiota. B[a]P exposure did not induce a
      significant change in the microbial structure; however, it altered the microbial
      volatolome in a dose-dependent manner. The transcript levels related to several
      metabolic pathways, such as vitamin and cofactor metabolism, cell wall compound
      metabolism, DNA repair and replication systems, and aromatic compound metabolism,
      were upregulated, whereas the transcript levels related to the glycolysis
      gluconeogenesis pathway and bacterial chemotaxis toward simple carbohydrates were
      downregulated. These primary findings show that food pollutants, such as B[a]P,
      alter human gut microbiota activity. The observed shift in the volatolome
      demonstrates that B[a]P induces a specific deviation in the microbial metabolism.

PMID- 28861071
TI  - Tetrathionate and Elemental Sulfur Shape the Isotope Composition of Sulfate in
      Acid Mine Drainage.
AB  - Sulfur compounds in intermediate valence states, for example elemental sulfur,
      thiosulfate, and tetrathionate, are important players in the biogeochemical
      sulfur cycle. However, key understanding about the pathways of oxidation
      involving mixed-valance state sulfur species is still missing. Here we report the
      sulfur and oxygen isotope fractionation effects during the oxidation of
      tetrathionate (S4O62-) and elemental sulfur (S degrees ) to sulfate in bacterial
      cultures in acidic conditions. Oxidation of tetrathionate by Acidithiobacillus
      thiooxidans produced thiosulfate, elemental sulfur and sulfate. Up to 34% of the
      tetrathionate consumed by the bacteria could not be accounted for in sulfate or
      other intermediate-valence state sulfur species over the experiments. The
      oxidation of tetrathionate yielded sulfate that was initially enriched in 34S
      (epsilon34SSO4-S4O6) by +7.90/00, followed by a decrease to +1.40/00 over the
      experiment duration, with an average epsilon34SSO4-S4O6 of +3.5 +/- 0.20/00 after
      a month of incubation. We attribute this significant sulfur isotope fractionation
      to enzymatic disproportionation reactions occurring during tetrathionate
      decomposition, and to the incomplete transformation of tetrathionate into
      sulfate. The oxygen isotope composition of sulfate (delta18OSO4) from the
      tetrathionate oxidation experiments indicate that 62% of the oxygen in the formed
      sulfate was derived from water. The remaining 38% of the oxygen was either
      inherited from the supplied tetrathionate, or supplied from dissolved atmospheric
      oxygen (O2). During the oxidation of elemental sulfur, the product sulfate became
      depleted in 34S between -1.8 and 00/00 relative to the elemental sulfur with an
      average for epsilon34SSO4-S0 of -0.9 +/- 0.20/00 and all the oxygen atoms in the
      sulfate derived from water with an average normal oxygen isotope fractionation
      (epsilon18OSO4-H2O) of -4.40/00. The differences observed in delta18OSO4 and the
      sulfur isotope composition of sulfate (delta34SSO4), acid production, and mixed
      valence state sulfur species generated by the oxidation of the two different
      substrates suggests a metabolic flexibility in response to sulfur substrate
      availability. Our results demonstrate that microbial processing of mixed-valence
      state sulfur species generates a significant sulfur isotope fractionation in
      acidic environments and oxidation of mixed-valence state sulfur species may
      produce sulfate with characteristic sulfur and oxygen isotope signatures.
      Elemental sulfur and tetrathionate are not only intermediate-valence state sulfur
      compounds that play a central role in sulfur oxidation pathways, but also key
      factors in shaping these isotope patterns.

PMID- 28861073
TI  - Epithelial Cell Damage Activates Bactericidal/Permeability Increasing-Protein
      (BPI) Expression in Intestinal Epithelium.
AB  - As the first line of defense against invading pathogen, intestinal epithelium
      produces various antimicrobial proteins (AMP) that help in clearance of pathogen.
      Bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) is a 55 kDa AMP that is
      expressed in intestinal epithelium. Dysregulation of BPI in intestinal epithelium
      is associated with various inflammatory diseases like Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative
      colitis, and Infectious enteritis's. In this paper, we report a direct
      correlation between intestinal damage and BPI expression. In Caco-2 cells, we see
      a significant increase in BPI levels upon membrane damage mediated by S. aureus
      infection and pore-forming toxins (Streptolysin and Listeriolysin). Cells detect
      changes in potassium level as a Danger-associated molecular pattern associated
      with cell damage and induce BPI expression in a p38 dependent manner. These
      results are further supported by in vivo findings that the BPI expression in
      murine intestinal epithelium is induced upon infection with bacteria which cause
      intestinal damage (Salmonella Typhimurium and Shigella flexneri) whereas mutants
      that do not cause intestinal damage (STM DeltafliC and STM DeltainvC) did not
      induce BPI expression. Our results suggest that epithelial damage associated with
      infection act as a signal to induce BPI expression.

PMID- 28861072
TI  - UroPathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) Infections: Virulence Factors, Bladder
      Responses, Antibiotic, and Non-antibiotic Antimicrobial Strategies.
AB  - Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common pathological
      conditions in both community and hospital settings. It has been estimated that
      about 150 million people worldwide develop UTI each year, with high social costs
      in terms of hospitalizations and medical expenses. Among the common uropathogens
      associated to UTIs development, UroPathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the
      primary cause. UPEC strains possess a plethora of both structural (as fimbriae,
      pili, curli, flagella) and secreted (toxins, iron-acquisition systems) virulence
      factors that contribute to their capacity to cause disease, although the ability
      to adhere to host epithelial cells in the urinary tract represents the most
      important determinant of pathogenicity. On the opposite side, the bladder
      epithelium shows a multifaceted array of host defenses including the urine flow
      and the secretion of antimicrobial substances, which represent useful tools to
      counteract bacterial infections. The fascinating and intricate dynamics between
      these players determine a complex interaction system that needs to be revealed.
      This review will focus on the most relevant components of UPEC arsenal of
      pathogenicity together with the major host responses to infection, the current
      approved treatment and the emergence of resistant UPEC strains, the vaccine
      strategies, the natural antimicrobial compounds along with innovative anti
      adhesive and prophylactic approaches to prevent UTIs.

PMID- 28861074
TI  - The Probiotic Combination of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis CECT 7210 and
      Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BPL6 Reduces Pathogen Loads and Improves
      Gut Health of Weaned Piglets Orally Challenged with Salmonella Typhimurium.
AB  - Probiotics have been demonstrated to be useful to enhance gut health and prevent
      gastrointestinal infections in humans. Additionally, some multi-strain probiotic
      combinations have been suggested to have greater efficacy than single strains.
      The objective of this study is to demonstrate the potential of a combination of
      the probiotic strains: Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis CECT 7210 (brand
      name B. infantis IM1(r)) and B. animalis subsp. lactis BPL6 to enhance gut health
      and to ameliorate the outcome of a Salmonella challenge using a weaning piglet
      model. Seventy-two 28-day-old weanling piglets, 7.7 (+/-0.28) kg of body-weight,
      were distributed in a 2 * 2 factorial design; treated or not with the probiotic
      combination and challenged or not with the pathogen. Animals were orally
      challenged after an adaptation period (Day 8) with a single dose (5 * 108 cfu) of
      Salmonella Typhimurium. One animal per pen was euthanized on Day 12 (Day 4 post
      inoculation [PI]) and Day 16 (Day 8 PI). All parameters responded to the
      challenge and 4 deaths were registered, indicating a severe but self-limiting
      challenge. Improvements registered in the challenged animals due to the probiotic
      were: increased voluntary feed-intake (P probiotic * challenge = 0.078), reduced
      fecal excretion of Salmonella (P = 0.028 at Day 1 PI and P < 0.10 at Days 3 and 5
      PI), decreased rectal temperature (P probiotic * day = 0.048) and improvements in
      the villous:crypt ratio (P probiotic * challenge < 0.001). Moreover, general
      probiotic benefits were observed in both challenged and non-challenged groups:
      decreased diarrhea scores of the PI period (P = 0.014), improved fermentation
      profiles on Day 8 PI (increased ileal acetic acid [P = 0.008] and a tendency to
      lower colonic ammonia concentrations [P = 0.078]), stimulation of intestinal
      immune response by increasing villous intraepithelial lymphocytes (P = 0.015 on
      Day 8 PI) and an improved villous:crypt ratio (P = 0.011). In conclusion, the
      multi-strain probiotic had a positive effect on reducing pathogen loads and
      alleviating animals in a Salmonella challenge. In addition, enhanced gut health
      and immunity was recorded in all animals receiving the probiotic, indicating an
      improvement in the post-weaning outcome.

PMID- 28861075
TI  - Ebola Virus Glycoprotein Induces an Innate Immune Response In vivo via TLR4.
AB  - Ebola virus (EBOV), a member of the Filoviridae family, causes the most severe
      form of viral hemorrhagic fever. Although no FDA licensed vaccine or treatment
      against Ebola virus disease (EVD) is currently available, Ebola virus
      glycoprotein (GP) is the major antigen used in all candidate Ebola vaccines.
      Recent reports of protection as quickly as within 6 days of administration of the
      rVSV-based vaccine expressing EBOV GP before robust humoral responses were
      generated suggests that the innate immune responses elicited early after
      vaccination may contribute to the protection. However, the innate immune
      responses induced by EBOV GP in the absence of viral vectors or adjuvants have
      not been fully characterized in vivo. Our recent studies demonstrated that
      immunization with highly purified recombinant GP in the absence of adjuvants
      induced a robust IgG response and partial protection against EBOV infection
      suggesting that GP alone can induce protective immunity. In this study we
      investigated the early immune response to purified EBOV GP alone in vitro and in
      vivo. We show that GP was efficiently internalized by antigen presenting cells
      and subsequently induced production of key inflammatory cytokines. In vivo,
      immunization of mice with EBOV GP triggered the production of key Th1 and Th2
      innate immune cytokines and chemokines, which directly governed the recruitment
      of CD11b+ macrophages and CD11c+ dendritic cells to the draining lymph nodes
      (DLNs). Pre-treatment of mice with a TLR4 antagonist inhibited GP-induced
      cytokine production and recruitment of immune cells to the DLN. EBOV GP also
      upregulated the expression of costimulatory molecules in bone marrow derived
      macrophages suggesting its ability to enhance APC stimulatory capacity, which is
      critical for the induction of effective antigen-specific adaptive immunity.
      Collectively, these results provide the first in vivo evidence that early innate
      immune responses to EBOV GP are mediated via the TLR4 pathway and are able to
      modulate the innate-adaptive interface. These mechanistic insights into the
      adjuvant-like property of EBOV GP may help to develop a better understanding of
      how optimal prophylactic efficacy of EBOV vaccines can be achieved as well as
      further explore the potential post-exposure use of vaccines to prevent filoviral
      disease.

PMID- 28861076
TI  - Case of Meningitis in a Neonate Caused by an Extended-Spectrum-Beta-Lactamase
      Producing Strain of Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae.
AB  - Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the most important infectious agents among
      neonates. This pathogen has a potential to develop an increased antimicrobial
      resistance and virulence. The classic non-virulent strain of K. pneumoniae,
      producing an extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL), is associated with
      nosocomial infection mainly in preterm neonates. Hypervirulent K. pneumoniae
      strains are associated with invasive infection among previously healthy
      ambulatory patients, and most of them exhibit antimicrobial susceptibility.
      During the last few years, several cases of diseases caused by hypervirulent K.
      pneumoniae producing ESBL have been registered in different geographical regions
      of the world. However, reports of such cases in neonates are rare. Here, we
      reported that this pathogen can cause pyogenic meningitis in full-term neonate
      with poor prognosis. A previously healthy, full-term, 12-day-old neonate was
      admitted to the infectious diseases hospital with suspected meningitis. The
      clinical symptoms included loss of appetite, irritability, fever, seizures, and a
      bulging anterior fontanelle. The analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid confirmed
      the diagnosis of meningitis. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid cultures were positive
      for K. pneumoniae, producing ESBL. K. pneumoniae isolates were resistant to
      aminopenicillins, 3rd generation cephalosporins but were sensitive to imipenem
      and meropenem. The "string test" was positive. The study of the virulence factors
      of K. pneumoniae by PCR revealed the presence of the rmpA gene. A combination of
      K. pneumoniae virulence and drug resistance complicated by cerebral oedema led to
      the death of the neonate. We concluded that both the risk of developing severe
      forms of infection and the outcome of the disease due to K. pneumonia are
      associated with the phenotypic features of the pathogen such as its antibiotic
      susceptibility and virulence factors. Emergence of the ESBL-producing strain of
      hypervirulent K. pneumoniae could represent a new serious threat to public
      health, suggesting an urgent need to enhance clinical awareness and
      epidemiological surveillance.

PMID- 28861077
TI  - Identification of a New Target slr0946 of the Response Regulator Sll0649
      Involving Cadmium Tolerance in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.
AB  - Survival of photosynthetic cyanobacteria is challenged by environmental
      contaminations like heavy metals. Among them, deciphering the regulatory
      mechanisms for cadmium (Cd) in cyanobacteria would facilitate the construction of
      Cd-resistant strains. In this study, the DNA-Affinity-Purified-chromatin
      immunoprecipitation assay was employed to identify the direct targets of Sll0649,
      which was a Cd2+-related response regulator identified in our previous work in
      model cyanobacteria Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. As a result, the promoter region
      of slr0946 encoding the arsenate reductase was enriched fourfolds by quantitative
      real time PCR analysis. Further, deletion of slr0946 led to a sensitive phenotype
      to Cd2+ stress compared with the wild type (WT) and the sensitive phenotype of
      Deltaslr0946 could be rescued by complementation assay via introducing slr0946
      back into Deltaslr0946. Finally, individually overexpression of slr0946 as well
      as two Cd2+-related genes identified priviously (i.e., sll1598 and slr0798) in WT
      could significantly improve the tolerance of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 to Cd2+.
      This study provided a better understanding of the tolerance mechanism to Cd2+ in
      cyanobacteria and also feasible strategies for tolerance modifications to heavy
      metals in the future.

PMID- 28861078
TI  - Increased Innate Lymphoid Cells in Periodontal Tissue of the Murine Model of
      Periodontitis: The Role of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase and Relevance for the
      Human Condition.
AB  - Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are master regulators of immune and inflammatory
      responses, but their own regulatory mechanisms and functional roles of their
      subtypes (i.e., ILC1s-ILC3s) remain largely unresolved. Interestingly, AMP
      activated protein kinase (AMPK), influences inflammatory responses, but its role
      in modulation of ILCs is not known. Periodontitis is a prevalent disorder with
      impairment of immune and inflammatory responses contributing importantly to its
      pathogenesis; however, neither the role of ILCs nor AMPK has been explored in
      this condition. We tested the hypotheses that (a) periodontitis increases ILCs
      and expression of relevant cytokines thereby contributing to inflammation and (b)
      knockdown of AMPK worsens indices of periodontitis in association with further
      increases in subtypes of ILCs and cytokine expression. The studies utilized wild
      type (WT) and AMPK knockout (KO) mice, subjected to ligature-induced
      periodontitis or sham operation, in association with the use of micro-CT for
      assessment of bone loss, immunogold electron microscopy to show presence of ILCs
      in periodontal tissues, flow cytometry for quantitative assessment of subtypes of
      ILCs and RT-polymerase chain reaction analyses to measure mRNA expression of
      several relevant cytokines. The results for the first time show (a) presence of
      each subtype of ILCs in periodontal tissues of sham control and periodontitis
      animals, (b) that periodontitis is associated with increased frequencies of ILC1s
      ILC3s with the effect more marked for ILC2s and differential phenotypic marker
      expression for ILC3s, (c) that AMPK KO mice display exacerbation of indices of
      periodontitis in association with further increases in the frequency of subtypes
      of ILCs with persistence of ILC2s effect, and (d) that periodontitis increased
      mRNA for interleukin (IL)-33, but not IL-5 or IL-13, in WT mice but expression of
      these cytokines was markedly increased in AMPK KO mice with periodontitis.
      Subsequently, we showed that human periodontitis is associated with increases in
      each ILCs subtype with the effect more marked for ILC2s and that mRNA expressions
      for IL-33 and IL-5 are markedly greater for sites affected by periodontitis than
      healthy sites. Collectively, these novel observations indicate a pivotal role for
      ILCs in pathogenesis of periodontitis and that AMPK is a regulator of their
      phenotype expression in this condition.

PMID- 28861079
TI  - Tocilizumab Contributes to the Inflammatory Status of Mature Dendritic Cells
      through Interleukin-6 Receptor Subunits Modulation.
AB  - Tocilizumab, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor alpha (IL-6Ralpha) is widely used in
      the treatment of a panel of pathologies such as adult and juvenile rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) and the systemic form of juvenile idiopathic arthritis in
      children. Its indications are expected to be largely extended to other
      inflammatory diseases in close future. Dendritic cells (DCs) appear to be deeply
      involved in the immunopathology of these diseases, yet the effects of tocilizumab
      on these cells were poorly studied. In this study, we explored the effect of
      tocilizumab on the regulation of IL-6R subunits [gp130, soluble form of IL
      6Ralpha (sIL-6Ralpha), and mIL-6Ralpha] in human monocyte-derived DCs. Human DCs
      were derived from CD14+ monocytes purified with beads with IL-4 and granulocyte
      macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Ex vivo cultures of DCs were performed in
      the presence of tocilizumab. Using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) maturation of DCs, we
      demonstrated that tocilizumab did not inhibit IL-6 secretion, enhanced mIL
      6Ralpha expression, and largely increased sIL-6Ralpha secretion. MAPK modulated
      STAT3 phosphorylation and surface expression of IL-6Ralpha in LPS-DCs.
      Tocilizumab had no impact on STAT3 phosphorylation in LPS-DCs while both LPS and
      IL-6 increased its activation. Tocilizumab modulated the regulation of IL-6R
      subunits leading to an inflammatory status of DCs and a massive secretion of IL
      6Ralpha. Our results demonstrate that DCs acquire a pro-inflammatory profile
      following tocilizumab treatment, becoming a major source of IL-6 trans-signaling
      activation that might explain the poor clinical benefit in some RA patients.

PMID- 28861080
TI  - Isolation of Single-Domain Antibody Fragments That Preferentially Detect Intact
      (146S) Particles of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus for Use in Vaccine Quality
      Control.
AB  - Intact (146S) foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDVs) can dissociate into specific
      (12S) viral capsid degradation products. FMD vaccines normally consist of
      inactivated virions. Vaccine quality is dependent on 146S virus particles rather
      than 12S particles. We earlier isolated two llama single-domain antibody
      fragments (VHHs) that specifically recognize 146S particles of FMDV strain O1
      Manisa and shown their potential use in quality control of FMD vaccines during
      manufacturing. These 146S-specific VHHs were specific for particular O serotype
      strains and did not bind strains from other FMDV serotypes. Here, we describe the
      isolation of 146S-specific VHHs against FMDV SAT2 and Asia 1 strains by phage
      display selection from llama immune libraries. VHHs that bind both 12S and 146S
      particles were readily isolated but VHHs that bind specifically to 146S particles
      could only be isolated by phage display selection using prior depletion for 12S
      particles. We obtained one 146S-specific VHH-M332F-that binds to strain Asia 1
      Shamir and several VHHs that preferentially bind 146S particles of SAT2 strain
      SAU/2/00, from which we selected VHH M379F for further characterization. Both
      M332F and M379F did not bind FMDV strains from other serotypes. In a sandwich
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) employing unlabeled and biotinylated
      versions of the same VHH M332F showed high specificity for 146S particles but
      M379F showed lower 146S-specificity with some cross-reaction with 12S particles.
      These ELISAs could detect 146S particle concentrations as low as 2.3-4.6 ug/l.
      They can be used for FMD vaccine quality control and research and development,
      for example, to identify virion stabilizing excipients.

PMID- 28861081
TI  - 14 Years after Discovery: Clinical Follow-up on 15 Patients with Inducible Co
      Stimulator Deficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) deficiency was the first monogenic
      defect reported to cause common variable immunodeficiency (CVID)-like disease in
      2003. Since then, 16 patients have been reported worldwide with an increasing
      range of clinical phenotypes. OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare the clinical and
      immunological phenotype and provide clinical follow-up and therapeutic approaches
      for treating ICOS-deficient patients. METHODS: We describe the clinical and
      laboratory data of 15 patients with available clinical data. Previous
      publications and clinical assessment were used as data sources. RESULTS: The
      observed ICOS gene mutations were all deletions leading to undetectable protein
      expression. The clinical phenotype of ICOS deficiency is much broader than
      initially anticipated and includes not only CVID-like disease but an increased
      susceptibility to viral and opportunistic infections, as well as cancer. Impaired
      B-cell development led to decreased memory B-cells in all patients, and
      hypogammaglobulinemia in all but one patient. Circulating CXCR5+ CD4+ follicular
      T-helper-cell numbers were also reduced in all patients. Treatment included
      immunoglobulin replacement, regular antibiotic prophylaxis, corticosteroids, and
      steroid-sparing agents. Three patients underwent hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation; one of them died due to capillary leak syndrome on day 5
      posttransplantation. CONCLUSION: The disease spectrum of ICOS deficiency is
      expanding from solely B-cell to combined B- and T-cell immunodeficiency,
      suggesting genetic and environmental modifiers. Genetic diagnosis is the only
      tool to distinguish ICOS deficiency from other immunological defects. Patients
      with antibody deficiency, autoimmunity, and combined immunodeficiency should be
      screened for ICOS mutations.

PMID- 28861082
TI  - Polyvinylpyrrolidone-Capped Silver Nanoparticle Inhibits Infection of Carbapenem
      Resistant Strain of Acinetobacter baumannii in the Human Pulmonary Epithelial
      Cell.
AB  - Acinetobacter baumannii, an opportunistic ESKAPE pathogen, causes respiratory and
      urinary tract infections. Its prevalence increases gradually in the clinical
      setup. Pathogenicity of Acinetobacter is significantly influenced by its ability
      to infect and survive in human pulmonary cells. Therefore, it is important to
      study the infection of A. baumannii in human pulmonary host cell (A-549),
      monitoring surface interacting and internalized bacteria. It was found that
      during infection of A. baumannii, about 40% bacteria adhered to A-549, whereas
      20% got internalized inside pulmonary cell and induces threefold increase in the
      reactive oxygen species production. We have synthesized polyvinylpyrrolidone
      (PVP)-capped AgNPs using chemical methods and tested its efficacy against
      carbapenem-resistant strain of A. baumannii. PVP-capped silver nanoparticles (PVP
      AgNPs) (30 uM) have shown antibacterial activity against carbapenem-resistant
      strain of A. baumannii and this concentration does not have any cytotoxic effect
      on the human pulmonary cell line (IC50 is 130 uM). Similarly, PVP-AgNPs treatment
      decreases 80% viability of intracellular bacteria, decreases adherence of A.
      baumannii to A-549 (40 to 2.2%), and decreases intracellular concentration (20 to
      1.3%) of A. baumannii. This concludes that PVP-AgNPs can be developed as a
      substitute for carbapenem to control the infection caused by carbapenem-resistant
      A. baumannii.

PMID- 28861083
TI  - d(-) Lactic Acid-Induced Adhesion of Bovine Neutrophils onto Endothelial Cells Is
      Dependent on Neutrophils Extracellular Traps Formation and CD11b Expression.
AB  - Bovine ruminal acidosis is of economic importance as it contributes to reduced
      milk and meat production. This phenomenon is mainly attributed to an overload of
      highly fermentable carbohydrate, resulting in increased d(-) lactic acid levels
      in serum and plasma. Ruminal acidosis correlates with elevated acute phase
      proteins in blood, along with neutrophil activation and infiltration into various
      tissues leading to laminitis and aseptic polysynovitis. Previous studies in
      bovine neutrophils indicated that d(-) lactic acid decreased expression of L
      selectin and increased expression of CD11b to concentrations higher than 6 mM,
      suggesting a potential role in neutrophil adhesion onto endothelia. The two aims
      of this study were to evaluate whether d(-) lactic acid influenced neutrophil and
      endothelial adhesion and to trigger neutrophil extracellular trap (NET)
      production (NETosis) in exposed neutrophils. Exposure of bovine neutrophils to 5
      mM d(-) lactic acid elevated NET release compared to unstimulated neutrophil
      negative controls. Moreover, this NET contains CD11b and histone H4
      citrullinated, the latter was dependent on PAD4 activation, a critical enzyme in
      DNA decondensation and NETosis. Furthermore, NET formation was dependent on d(-)
      lactic acid plasma membrane transport through monocarboxylate transporter 1
      (MCT1). d(-) lactic acid enhanced neutrophil adhesion onto endothelial sheets as
      demonstrated by in vitro neutrophil adhesion assays under continuous
      physiological flow conditions, indicating that cell adhesion was a NET- and a
      CD11b/ICAM-1-dependent process. Finally, d(-) lactic acid was demonstrated for
      the first time to trigger NETosis in a PAD4- and MCT1-dependent manner. Thus, d(
      ) lactic acid-mediated neutrophil activation may contribute to neutrophil-derived
      pro-inflammatory processes, such as aseptic laminitis and/or polysynovitis in
      animals suffering acute ruminal acidosis.

PMID- 28861084
TI  - Autoantibody Repertoire in APECED Patients Targets Two Distinct Subgroups of
      Proteins.
AB  - High titer autoantibodies produced by B lymphocytes are clinically important
      features of many common autoimmune diseases. APECED patients with deficient
      autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene collectively display a broad repertoire of high
      titer autoantibodies, including some which are pathognomonic for major autoimmune
      diseases. AIRE deficiency severely reduces thymic expression of gene-products
      ordinarily restricted to discrete peripheral tissues, and developing T cells
      reactive to those gene-products are not inactivated during their development.
      However, the extent of the autoantibody repertoire in APECED and its relation to
      thymic expression of self-antigens are unclear. We here undertook a broad protein
      array approach to assess autoantibody repertoire in APECED patients. Our results
      show that in addition to shared autoantigen reactivities, APECED patients display
      high inter-individual variation in their autoantigen profiles, which collectively
      are enriched in evolutionarily conserved, cytosolic and nuclear phosphoproteins.
      The APECED autoantigens have two major origins; proteins expressed in thymic
      medullary epithelial cells and proteins expressed in lymphoid cells. These
      findings support the hypothesis that specific protein properties strongly
      contribute to the etiology of B cell autoimmunity.

PMID- 28861085
TI  - Neurotrophin Receptor p75NTR Regulates Immune Function of Plasmacytoid Dendritic
      Cells.
AB  - Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) regulate innate and adaptive immunity.
      Neurotrophins and their receptors control the function of neuronal tissue. In
      addition, they have been demonstrated to be part of the immune response but
      little is known about the effector immune cells involved. We report, for the
      first time, the expression and immune-regulatory function of the low affinity
      neurotrophin receptor p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) by the antigen
      presenting pDCs, mediated by toll-like receptor (TLR) 9 activation and
      differential phosphorylation of interferon regulatory factor 3 and 7. The
      modulation of p75NTR on pDCs significantly influences disease progression of
      asthma in an ovalbumin-induced mouse model mediated by the TLR9 signaling
      pathway. p75NTR activation of pDCs from patients with asthma increased allergen
      specific T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion in nerve growth factor
      concentration-dependent manner. Further, p75NTR activation of pDCs delayed the
      onset of autoimmune diabetes in RIP-CD80GP mice and aggravated graft-versus-host
      disease in a xenotransplantation model. Thus, p75NTR signaling on pDCs
      constitutes a new and critical mechanism connecting neurotrophin signaling and
      immune response regulation with great therapeutic potential for a variety of
      immune disorders.

PMID- 28861087
TI  - Alanine Mutagenesis in the Complementarity Determining Region 3 of the MTB and
      HIV-1 Peptide-Bispecific T Cell Receptor Beta Chain Affects Ligand Recognition.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus (MTB/HIV) coinfection
      presents a special challenge to the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis and
      HIV/AIDS. Adoptive transfer of high-affinity T cell receptor (TCR) gene-modified
      T cells against MTB and HIV antigens is a promising approach to treating MTB/HIV
      coinfected patients whose cellular immunity is obviously disordered. We have
      previously successfully identified that a bispecific TCR screened out from
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a HLA-A*0201+ healthy individual using the
      complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) spectratype analysis recognizes both
      MTB Ag85B199-207 and HIV-1 Env120-128 peptide. However, it has not been known how
      residues on CDR3 loops, which have been shown to play a leading role in antigen
      binding and specificity contribute to the bispecific TCR contact with the peptide
      major histocompatibility complex (MHC) complexes. In this study, we provided an
      extensive investigation of residues in the predicted CDR3 of the bispecific TCR
      beta (beta) chain using alanine scanning mutagenesis. Our data showed that three
      of the five substituted residues (G115A, T116A, A117G) in CDR3beta of the
      bispecific TCR caused a significantly diminished T cell response to antigen,
      whereas the remaining two substituted residues (D114A, S118A) resulted in
      completely eliminated response, thus identifying the two residues that were
      particularly critical for the recognition of peptide-MHC in the bispecific TCR.
      These findings will provide an imperative foundation for generating an improved
      high-affinity bispecific TCR for use in T cell adoptive immunotherapy for MTB/HIV
      coinfected individuals.

PMID- 28861086
TI  - Immunobiography and the Heterogeneity of Immune Responses in the Elderly: A Focus
      on Inflammaging and Trained Immunity.
AB  - Owing to its memory and plasticity, the immune system (IS) is capable of
      recording all the immunological experiences and stimuli it was exposed to. The
      combination of type, dose, intensity, and temporal sequence of antigenic stimuli
      that each individual is exposed to has been named "immunobiography." This
      immunological history induces a lifelong continuous adaptation of the IS, which
      is responsible for the capability to mount strong, weak or no response to
      specific antigens, thus determining the large heterogeneity of immunological
      responses. In the last years, it is becoming clear that memory is not solely a
      feature of adaptive immunity, as it has been observed that also innate immune
      cells are provided with a sort of memory, dubbed "trained immunity." In this
      review, we discuss the main characteristics of trained immunity as a possible
      contributor to inflammaging within the perspective of immunobiography, with
      particular attention to the phenotypic changes of the cell populations known to
      be involved in trained immunity. In conclusion, immunobiography emerges as a
      pervasive and comprehensive concept that could help in understanding and
      interpret the individual heterogeneity of immune responses (to infections and
      vaccinations) that becomes particularly evident at old age and could affect
      immunosenescence and inflammaging.

PMID- 28861088
TI  - The Unresolved Role of Interferon-lambda in Asthma Bronchiale.
AB  - Asthma bronchiale is a disease of the airways with increasing incidence, that
      often begins during infancy. So far, therapeutic options are mainly symptomatic
      and thus there is an increasing need for better treatment and/or prevention
      strategies. Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) are a major cause of asthma exacerbations
      and might cause acute wheezing associated with local production of pro
      inflammatory mediators resulting in neutrophilic inflammatory response. Viral
      infections induce a characteristic activation of immune response, e.g., TLR3, 4,
      7, 8, 9 in the endosome and their downstream targets, especially MyD88. Moreover,
      other cytoplasmic pattern recognition molecules (PRMs) like RIG1 and MDA5 play
      important roles in the activation of interferons (IFNs) of all types. Depending
      on the stimulation of the different PRMs, the levels of the IFNs induced might
      differ. Recent studies focused on Type I IFNs in samples from control and asthma
      patients. However, the administration of type I IFN-alpha was accompanied by side
      effects, thus this possible therapy was abandoned. Type III IFN-lambda acts more
      specifically, as fewer cells express the IFN-lambda receptor chain 1. In
      addition, it has been shown that asthmatic mice treated with recombinant or
      adenoviral expressed IFN-lambda2 (IL-28A) showed an amelioration of symptoms,
      indicating that treatment with IFN-lambda might be beneficial for asthmatic
      patients.

PMID- 28861089
TI  - Black Raspberries Enhance Natural Killer Cell Infiltration into the Colon and
      Suppress the Progression of Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells are an essential component of innate immunity against
      cancer development. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate immune
      modulating effects using dietary compounds. Our laboratory has been investigating
      the chemopreventive potential of black raspberries (BRBs) and previously
      demonstrated their beneficial modulation of genetic and epigenetic biomarkers in
      patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). The current study investigated their
      potential on modulating NK cells. To avoid the excessive inflammation caused by
      the dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) treatment that leads to colitis, we treated the
      mice with overnight DSS so that it would slightly irritate the colon but still
      promote colon carcinogenesis with 100% incidence in both the ApcMin/+ mice and
      azoxymethane (AOM)-treated mice. A significant decrease of tissue-infiltrating NK
      cells along the progression of microadenoma-to-adenoma and adenoma-to
      adenocarcinoma was observed in the ApcMin/+ /DSS and AOM/DSS mice, respectively.
      Depletion of NK cells significantly promoted the development of CRC, suggesting a
      critical role of NK cells in combating CRC progression. BRBs significantly
      suppressed the CRC progression and increased the number of tissue-infiltrating NK
      cells in both mouse models. Moreover, we further determined BRBs' effects on NK
      cells in the human biopsy specimens collected from our previously completed
      clinical trial, in which CRC patients consumed BRBs for an average of 4 weeks
      during a presurgical window. We observed an increased number and an enhanced
      cytotoxicity of NK cells by BRB intervention. The current study provides evidence
      that BRBs have the potential to enhance the tumor immunesurveillance of NK cells
      that can be beneficial in the setting of CRC prevention and treatment.

PMID- 28861090
TI  - Dynamics of Natural Killer Cells Cytotoxicity in Microwell Arrays with Connecting
      Channels.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells serve an important role in immune system by recognizing
      and killing the potentially malignant cells without antigen sensitization, and
      could be promising in cancer therapy. We have designed and fabricated microwell
      arrays with microchannel connections in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates to
      study the interaction dynamics of NK-92MI cells with MCF7 breast cancer cells
      using time-lapse imaging by fluorescence microscopy for 15 h. Although cell
      seeding density was the same, NK cell cytotoxicity was found to be higher in
      larger microwells, which is manifested as increased target death ratio from 13.7
      +/- 3.1 to 46.3 +/- 3.3% and shorter triggering time of first target lysis from
      502 +/- 49 to 391 +/- 63 min in 150 MUm * 150 MUm microwells comparing to 50 MUm
      * 50 MUm wells in 15 h. Mirochannel connection between adjacent microwells of the
      same size increased the overall target death ratio by >10%, while connection
      between microwells of different sizes led to significantly increased target death
      ratio and delayed first target lysis in smaller microwells. Our findings reveal
      unique cell interaction dynamics, such as initiation and stimulation, of NK cell
      cytotoxicity in a confined microenvironment, which is different from population
      based study, and the results could lead to a better understanding of the dynamics
      of NK cell cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28861091
TI  - Insufficient Chilling Effects Vary among Boreal Tree Species and Chilling
      Duration.
AB  - Insufficient chilling resulting from rising winter temperatures associated with
      climate warming has been an area of particular interest in boreal and temperate
      regions where a period of cool temperatures in fall and winter is required to
      break plant dormancy. In this study, we examined the budburst and growth of
      trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera
      L.), white birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.)
      B.S.P.), white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss), jack pine (Pinus banksiana
      Lamb.), and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex. Loud.) seedlings subjected
      to typical northern Ontario, Canada, spring conditions in climate chambers after
      different exposures to natural chilling. Results indicate that chilling
      requirements (cumulative weighted chilling hours) differed substantially among
      the seven species, ranging from 300 to 500 h for spruce seedlings to more than
      1100 h for trembling aspen and lodgepole pine. Only spruce seedlings had
      fulfilled their chilling requirements before December 31, whereas the other
      species continued chilling well into March and April. Species with lower chilling
      requirements needed more heat accumulation for budburst and vice versa.
      Insufficient chilling delayed budburst but only extremely restricted chilling
      hours (<400) resulted in abnormal budburst and growth, including reduced needle
      and shoot expansion, early budburst in lower crowns, and erratic budburst on
      lower stems and roots. Effects, however, depended on both the species' chilling
      requirements and the chilling-heat relationship. Among the seven tree species
      examined, trembling aspen is most likely to be affected by reduced chilling
      accumulation possible under future climate scenarios, followed by balsam poplar,
      white birch, lodgepole pine, and jack pine. Black and white spruce are least
      likely to be affected by changes in chilling hours.

PMID- 28861092
TI  - Testing the Hypothesis of Multiple Origins of Holoparasitism in Orobanchaceae:
      Phylogenetic Evidence from the Last Two Unplaced Holoparasitic Genera, Gleadovia
      and Phacellanthus.
AB  - Orobanchaceae is the largest family among the parasitic angiosperms. It comprises
      non-parasites, hemi- and holoparasites, making this family an ideal test case for
      studying the evolution of parasitism. Previous phylogenetic analyses showed that
      holoparasitism had arisen at least three times from the hemiparasitic taxa in
      Orobanchaceae. Until now, however, not all known genera of Orobanchaceae were
      investigated in detail. Among them, the unknown phylogenetic positions of the
      holoparasites Gleadovia and Phacellanthus are the key to testing how many times
      holoparasitism evolved. Here, we provide clear evidence for the first time that
      they are members of the tribe Orobancheae, using sequence data from multiple loci
      (nuclear genes ITS, PHYA, PHYB, and plastid genes rps2, matK). Gleadovia is an
      independent lineage whereas Phacellanthus should be merged into genus Orobanche
      section Orobanche. Our results unambiguously support the hypothesis that there
      are only three origins of holoparasitism in Orobanchaceae. Divergence dating
      reveals for the first time that the three origins of holoparasitism were not
      synchronous. Our findings suggest that holoparasitism can persist in specific
      clades for a long time and holoparasitism may evolve independently as an
      adaptation to certain hosts.

PMID- 28861093
TI  - The Phenylpropanoid Pathway and Lignin in Defense against Ganoderma boninense
      Colonized Root Tissues in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.).
AB  - Basal stem rot, caused by the basidiomycete fungus, Ganoderma boninense, is an
      economically devastating disease in Malaysia. Our study investigated the changes
      in lignin content and composition along with activity and expression of the
      phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes and genes in oil palm root tissues during G.
      boninense infection. We sampled control (non-inoculated) and infected
      (inoculated) seedlings at seven time points [1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 12 weeks post
      inoculation (wpi)] in a randomized design. The expression profiles of
      phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD), and
      peroxidase (POD) genes were monitored at 1, 2, and 3 wpi using real-time
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Seedlings at 4, 8, and 12 wpi were
      screened for lignin content, lignin composition, enzyme activities (PAL, CAD, and
      POD), growth (weight and height), and disease severity (DS). Gene expression
      analysis demonstrated up-regulation of PAL, CAD, and POD genes in the infected
      seedlings, relative to the control seedlings at 1, 2, and 3 wpi. At 2 and 3 wpi,
      CAD showed highest transcript levels compared to PAL and POD. DS increased
      progressively throughout sampling, with 5, 34, and 69% at 4, 8, and 12 wpi,
      respectively. Fresh weight and height of the infected seedlings were
      significantly lower compared to the control seedlings at 8 and 12 wpi. Lignin
      content of the infected seedlings at 4 wpi was significantly higher than the
      control seedlings, remained elicited with no change at 8 wpi, and then collapsed
      with a significant reduction at 12 wpi. The nitrobenzene oxidation products of
      oil palm root lignin yielded both syringyl and guaiacyl monomers. Accumulation of
      lignin in the infected seedlings was in parallel to increased syringyl monomers,
      at 4 and 8 wpi. The activities of PAL and CAD enzymes in the infected seedlings
      at DS = 5-34% were significantly higher than the control seedlings and thereafter
      collapsed at DS = 69%.

PMID- 28861094
TI  - On Being the Right Size as an Animal with Plastids.
AB  - Plastids typically reside in plant or algal cells-with one notable exception.
      There is one group of multicellular animals, sea slugs in the order Sacoglossa,
      members of which feed on siphonaceous algae. The slugs sequester the ingested
      plastids in the cytosol of cells in their digestive gland, giving the animals the
      color of leaves. In a few species of slugs, including members of the genus
      Elysia, the stolen plastids (kleptoplasts) can remain morphologically intact for
      weeks and months, surrounded by the animal cytosol, which is separated from the
      plastid stroma by only the inner and outer plastid membranes. The kleptoplasts of
      the Sacoglossa are the only case described so far in nature where plastids
      interface directly with the metazoan cytosol. That makes them interesting in
      their own right, but it has also led to the idea that it might someday be
      possible to engineer photosynthetic animals. Is that really possible? And if so,
      how big would the photosynthetic organs of such animals need to be? Here we
      provide two sets of calculations: one based on a best case scenario assuming that
      animals with kleptoplasts can be, on a per cm2 basis, as efficient at CO2
      fixation as maize leaves, and one based on 14CO2 fixation rates measured in
      plastid-bearing sea slugs. We also tabulate an overview of the literature going
      back to 1970 reporting direct measurements or indirect estimates of the CO2
      fixing capabilities of Sacoglossan slugs with plastids.

PMID- 28861095
TI  - Overexpression of CtCHS1 Increases Accumulation of Quinochalcone in Safflower.
AB  - Carthami flos, the dried petal of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) has been
      widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cardiovascular and
      cerebrovascular diseases, in which quinochalcone glucosides such as
      hydrosafflower yellow A (HSYA), carthamin are uniquely present and have been
      identified as active compounds. In the present study, through sequencing of a
      safflower floret cDNA library and subsequent microarray analysis, we found 23
      unigenes (5 PALs, 1 C4Hs, 5 4CLs, 6 CHSs, 2 CHIs, 2 DFRs, 2 FLSs) involved in
      flavonoid pathway, of which 4 were up-regulated differentially during
      quinochalcone glucosides accumulation with the floret developing stage. The up
      regulated genes were verified by PCR methods. Considering chalcone synthase are
      entry enzyme in flavonoid biosynthesis, CHS1 was focused on target gene to verify
      its function furtherly. Bioinformation analysis showed that CHS1 shared 86.94%
      conserved residues with CHS from other plants. Subcellular localization showed
      that CtCHS1 was localized in cytoplasm in onion epidermal cells. The transgenic
      safflower plant with overexpression CtCHS1 by Agrobacterium-mediated pollen-tube
      pathway method was firstly generated. The results present that expression of
      PAL2, PAL3, CHS1, CHS4, CHS6 increased and expression of CHI1 and CHI2 decreased
      in the transgenic plant floret. Meanwhile, the accumulation of quinochalcone
      glucosides increased by ~20-30% and accumulation of quercetin-3-beta-D-glucoside
      and quercetin decreased by 48 and 63% in the transgenic plant floret. These
      results suggested that CtCHS1 played an important role in quinochalcone
      glucosides biosynthesis rather than flavonol biosynthesis. These results also
      demonstrated that the pollen-tube pathway method was an efficient method for gene
      transformation in safflower. Our study will provide a deep understanding of
      potential synthetic genes involved in quinochalcone biosynthetic pathway.

PMID- 28861096
TI  - Effects of Cultivar and Maternal Environment on Seed Quality in Vicia sativa.
AB  - Production of high quality seeds is of fundamental importance for successful crop
      production. However, knowledge of the effects of increased temperature resulting
      from global warming on seed quality of alpine species is limited. We investigated
      the effect of maternal environment on seed quality of three cultivars of the
      leguminous forage species Vicia sativa, giving particular attention to
      temperature. Plants of each cultivar were grown at 1700 and 3000 m a.s.l., and
      mass, germination, electrical conductivity (EC) of leakage and longevity were
      determined for mature seeds. Seeds of all three cultivars produced at the low
      elevation had a significantly lower mass and longevity but higher EC of leachate
      than those produced at the high elevation, suggesting that increased temperatures
      decreased seed quality. However, seed viability did not differ between
      elevations. The effects of maternal environment on seed germination strongly
      depended on cultivar and germination temperature. At 10 and 15 degrees C, seeds
      of "Lanjian 3" produced at high elevation germinated to higher percentages and
      rates than those produced at low elevation, but the opposite trend was observed
      at 20 degrees C. However, for seeds of "Lanjian 1" and "Lanjian 2," no
      significant effect of elevation was observed in germination percentage. Our
      results indicate that the best environment for the production of high quality
      seeds (e.g., high seed mass, low EC, high seed longevity) of V. sativa is one in
      which temperatures are relatively low during seed development.

PMID- 28861097
TI  - Editorial: Grassland-Invertebrate Interactions: Plant Productivity, Resilience
      and Community Dynamics.

PMID- 28861098
TI  - Development of an Efficient Protein Extraction Method Compatible with LC-MS/MS
      for Proteome Mapping in Two Australian Seagrasses Zostera muelleri and Posidonia
      australis.
AB  - The availability of the first complete genome sequence of the marine flowering
      plant Zostera marina (commonly known as seagrass) in early 2016, is expected to
      significantly raise the impact of seagrass proteomics. Seagrasses are marine
      ecosystem engineers that are currently declining worldwide at an alarming rate
      due to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Seagrasses (especially
      species of the genus Zostera) are compromised for proteomic studies primarily due
      to the lack of efficient protein extraction methods because of their recalcitrant
      cell wall which is rich in complex polysaccharides and a high abundance of
      secondary metabolites in their cells. In the present study, three protein
      extraction methods that are commonly used in plant proteomics i.e., phenol (P);
      trichloroacetic acid/acetone/SDS/phenol (TASP); and borax/polyvinyl
      polypyrrolidone/phenol (BPP) extraction, were evaluated quantitatively and
      qualitatively based on two dimensional isoelectric focusing (2D-IEF) maps and LC
      MS/MS analysis using the two most abundant Australian seagrass species, namely
      Zostera muelleri and Posidonia australis. All three tested methods produced high
      quality protein extracts with excellent 2D-IEF maps in P. australis. However, the
      BPP method produces better results in Z. muelleri compared to TASP and P.
      Therefore, we further modified the BPP method (M-BPP) by homogenizing the tissue
      in a modified protein extraction buffer containing both ionic and non-ionic
      detergents (0.5% SDS; 1.5% Triton X-100), 2% PVPP and protease inhibitors.
      Further, the extracted proteins were solubilized in 0.5% of zwitterionic
      detergent (C7BzO) instead of 4% CHAPS. This slight modification to the BPP method
      resulted in a higher protein yield, and good quality 2-DE maps with a higher
      number of protein spots in both the tested seagrasses. Further, the M-BPP method
      was successfully utilized in western-blot analysis of phosphoenolpyruvate
      carboxylase (PEPC-a key enzyme for carbon metabolism). This optimized protein
      extraction method will be a significant stride toward seagrass proteome mining
      and identifying the protein biomarkers to stress response of seagrasses under the
      scenario of global climate change and anthropogenic perturbations.

PMID- 28861100
TI  - Editorial: Aquaporins: Dynamic Role and Regulation.

PMID- 28861101
TI  - Functional Disruption of a Chloroplast Pseudouridine Synthase Desensitizes
      Arabidopsis Plants to Phosphate Starvation.
AB  - Phosphate (Pi) deficiency is a common nutritional stress of plants in both
      agricultural and natural ecosystems. Plants respond to Pi starvation in the
      environment by triggering a suite of biochemical, physiological, and
      developmental changes that increase survival and growth. The key factors that
      determine plant sensitivity to Pi starvation, however, are unclear. In this
      research, we identified an Arabidopsis mutant, dps1, with greatly reduced
      sensitivity to Pi starvation. The dps1 phenotypes are caused by a mutation in the
      previously characterized SVR1 (SUPPRESSION OF VARIAGATION 1) gene, which encodes
      a chloroplast-localized pseudouridine synthase. The mutation of SVR1 results in
      defects in chloroplast rRNA biogenesis, which subsequently reduces chloroplast
      translation. Another mutant, rps5, which contains a mutation in the chloroplast
      ribosomal protein RPS5 and has reduced chloroplast translation, also displayed
      decreased sensitivity to Pi starvation. Furthermore, wild type plants treated
      with lincomycin, a chemical inhibitor of chloroplast translation, showed similar
      growth phenotypes and Pi starvation responses as dps1 and rps5. These results
      suggest that impaired chloroplast translation desensitizes plants to Pi
      starvation. Combined with previously published results showing that enhanced leaf
      photosynthesis augments plant responses to Pi starvation, we propose that the
      decrease in responses to Pi starvation in dps1, rps5, and lincomycin-treated
      plants is due to their reduced demand for Pi input from the environment.

PMID- 28861099
TI  - New Biotechnological Tools for the Genetic Improvement of Major Woody Fruit
      Species.
AB  - The improvement of woody fruit species by traditional plant breeding techniques
      has several limitations mainly caused by their high degree of heterozygosity, the
      length of their juvenile phase and auto-incompatibility. The development of new
      biotechnological tools (NBTs), such as RNA interference (RNAi), trans-grafting,
      cisgenesis/intragenesis, and genome editing tools, like zinc-finger and
      CRISPR/Cas9, has introduced the possibility of more precise and faster genetic
      modifications of plants. This aspect is of particular importance for the
      introduction or modification of specific traits in woody fruit species while
      maintaining unchanged general characteristics of a selected cultivar. Moreover,
      some of these new tools give the possibility to obtain transgene-free modified
      fruit tree genomes, which should increase consumer's acceptance. Over the decades
      biotechnological tools have undergone rapid development and there is a continuous
      addition of new and valuable techniques for plant breeders. This makes it
      possible to create desirable woody fruit varieties in a fast and more efficient
      way to meet the demand for sustainable agricultural productivity. Although, NBTs
      have a common goal i.e., precise, fast, and efficient crop improvement,
      individually they are markedly different in approach and characteristics from
      each other. In this review we describe in detail their mechanisms and
      applications for the improvement of fruit trees and consider the relationship
      between these biotechnological tools and the EU biosafety regulations applied to
      the plants and products obtained through these techniques.

PMID- 28861102
TI  - Comparative Transcriptome Analyses of Gene Expression Changes Triggered by
      Rhizoctonia solani AG1 IA Infection in Resistant and Susceptible Rice Varieties.
AB  - Rice sheath blight, caused by Rhizoctonia solani, is one of the most devastating
      diseases for stable rice production in most rice-growing regions of the world.
      Currently, studies of the molecular mechanism of rice sheath blight resistance
      are scarce. Here, we used an RNA-seq approach to analyze the gene expression
      changes induced by the AG1 IA strain of R. solani in rice at 12, 24, 36, 48, and
      72 h. By comparing the transcriptomes of TeQing (a moderately resistant cultivar)
      and Lemont (a susceptible cultivar) leaves, variable transcriptional responses
      under control and infection conditions were revealed. From these data, 4,802
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Gene ontology and pathway
      enrichment analyses suggested that most DEGs and related metabolic pathways in
      both rice genotypes were common and spanned most biological activities after AG1
      IA inoculation. The main difference between the resistant and susceptible plants
      was a difference in the timing of the response to AG1 IA infection.
      Photosynthesis, photorespiration, and jasmonic acid and phenylpropanoid
      metabolism play important roles in disease resistance, and the relative response
      of disease resistance-related pathways in TeQing leaves was more rapid than that
      of Lemont leaves at 12 h. Here, the transcription data include the most
      comprehensive list of genes and pathway candidates induced by AG1 IA that is
      available for rice and will serve as a resource for future studies into the
      molecular mechanisms of the responses of rice to AG1 IA.

PMID- 28861103
TI  - Integrated RNA Sequencing and QTL Mapping to Identify Candidate Genes from Oryza
      rufipogon Associated with Salt Tolerance at the Seedling Stage.
AB  - Soil salinity is a common abiotic stress affecting crop productivity. To identify
      favorable alleles from wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.) that enhance salinity
      tolerance of rice (O. sativa L.), a set of introgression lines (ILs) were
      developed. The ILs were derived from an O. rufipogon accession collected from
      Chaling (Hunan Province, China) as the donor, and a widely grown O. sativa indica
      cultivar 93-11 as the recipient. Through evaluating the salt tolerance of 285 ILs
      at the seedling stage, a total of 10 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to
      salt tolerance were identified on chromosomes 1, 5, 7 and 9-12, with individual
      QTLs explaining 2-8% of phenotypic variance. The O. rufipogon-derived alleles at
      four QTLs improved salt tolerance in the 93-11 background. At the same time, a
      salt-tolerant IL, 9L136, was identified and characterized. Compared with the
      recipient parent 93-11, a total of 1,391 differentially expressed genes (DEGs)
      were detected specifically in 9L136 between salt stress and normal condition
      through genome-wide expression analysis. Of these, four DEGs located in the QTL
      regions carried by 9L136, suggesting that the four genes might be candidates
      associated with salt tolerance. Both the highly salt-tolerant ILs and the
      favorable O. rufipogon-derived QTLs identified in the present study will provide
      new genetic resources for improving the resistance of cultivated rice against
      salinity stress using molecular breeding strategies in the future.

PMID- 28861104
TI  - Identification of Genes under Positive Selection Reveals Differences in
      Evolutionary Adaptation between Brown-Algal Species.
AB  - Brown algae are an important taxonomic group in coastal ecosystems. The model
      brown algal species Ectocarpus siliculosus and Saccharina japonica are closely
      related lineages. Despite their close phylogenetic relationship, they vary
      greatly in morphology and physiology. To obtain further insights into the
      evolutionary forces driving divergence in brown algae, we analyzed 3,909
      orthologs from both species to identify Genes Under Positive Selection (GUPS).
      About 12% of the orthologs in each species were considered to be under positive
      selection. Many GUPS are involved in membrane transport, regulation of
      homeostasis, and sexual reproduction in the small sporophyte of E. siliculosus,
      which is known to have a complex life cycle and to occupy a wide range of
      habitats. Genes involved in photosynthesis and cell division dominated the group
      of GUPS in the large kelp of S. japonica, which might explain why this alga has
      evolved the ability to grow very rapidly and to form some of the largest
      sporophytes. A significant number of molecular chaperones (e.g., heat-shock
      proteins) involved in stress responses were identified to be under positive
      selection in both species, potentially indicating their important roles for
      macroalgae to cope with the relatively variable environment of coastal
      ecosystems. Moreover, analysis of previously published microarray data of E.
      siliculosus showed that many GUPS in E. siliculosus were responsive to stress
      conditions, such as oxidative and hyposaline stress, whereas our RNA-seq data of
      S. japonica showed that GUPS in this species were most highly expressed in large
      sporophytes, which supports the suggestion that selection largely acts on
      different sets of genes in both marcoalgal species, potentially reflecting their
      adaptation to different ecological niches.

PMID- 28861105
TI  - Interplay between Light and Plant Hormones in the Control of Arabidopsis Seedling
      Chlorophyll Biosynthesis.
AB  - Chlorophyll biosynthesis is one of the most important cellular processes and is
      essential for plant photosynthesis. After germination under the soil, dark-grown
      seedlings are etiolated and accumulate the chlorophyll precursor
      protochlorophyllide (Pchlide) in cotyledons. Upon exposure to light, Pchlide is
      rapidly converted to chlorophyll to initiate photoautotrophic growth. In this
      light-regulated de-etiolation process, multiple endogenous phytohormones are also
      involved. Although the co-regulation of seedling greening by light and hormones
      has long been observed, recent studies greatly advanced our understanding of
      their interplay by identifying the key components connecting these pathways. The
      integrators, such as PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTORs, ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5,
      ETHYLENE INSENSTIVE 3 and DELLA proteins, are key transcription regulators in
      light or hormone signaling pathways. This review focuses on these integrators and
      illustrates the regulatory networks of light and hormone interactions in
      chlorophyll biosynthesis.

PMID- 28861106
TI  - Unraveling Salt Tolerance Mechanisms in Halophytes: A Comparative Study on Four
      Mediterranean Limonium Species with Different Geographic Distribution Patterns.
AB  - We have performed an extensive study on the responses to salt stress in four
      related Limonium halophytes with different geographic distribution patterns,
      during seed germination and early vegetative growth. The aims of the work were
      twofold: to establish the basis for the different chorology of these species, and
      to identify relevant mechanisms of salt tolerance dependent on the control of ion
      transport and osmolyte accumulation. Seeds were germinated in vitro, in the
      presence of increasing NaCl concentrations, and subjected to "recovery of
      germination" tests; germination percentages and velocity were determined to
      establish the relative tolerance and competitiveness of the four Limonium taxa.
      Salt treatments were also applied to young plants, by 1-month irrigation with
      NaCl up to 800 mM; then, growth parameters, levels of monovalent and divalent
      ions (in roots and leaves), and leaf contents of photosynthetic pigments and
      common osmolytes were determined in control and stressed plants of the four
      species. Seed germination is the most salt-sensitive developmental phase in
      Limonium. The different germination behavior of the investigated species appears
      to be responsible for their geographical range size: L. narbonense and L.
      virgatum, widespread throughout the Mediterranean, are the most tolerant and the
      most competitive at higher soil salinities; the endemic L. santapolense and L.
      girardianum are the most sensitive and more competitive only at lower salinities.
      During early vegetative growth, all taxa showed a strong tolerance to salt
      stress, although slightly higher in L. virgatum and L. santapolense. Salt
      tolerance is based on the efficient transport of Na+ and Cl- to the leaves and on
      the accumulation of fructose and proline for osmotic adjustment. Despite some
      species-specific quantitative differences, the accumulation patterns of the
      different ions were similar in all species, not explaining differences in
      tolerance, except for the apparent activation of K+ transport to the leaves at
      high external salinity, observed only in the most tolerant L. narbonense and L.
      virgatum. This specific response may be therefore relevant for salt tolerance in
      Limonium. The ecological implications of these results, which can contribute to a
      more efficient management of salt marshes conservation/regeneration programs, are
      also discussed.

PMID- 28861107
TI  - PIWI-like protein, HIWI2 is aberrantly expressed in retinoblastoma cells and
      affects cell-cycle potentially through OTX2.
AB  - Retinoblastoma (RB), a childhood cancer, is caused by biallelic mutation of the
      RB1 gene, but its development is not clearly understood. Furthermore, the
      presence of a cancer stem cell subpopulation in RB might impact its treatment.
      PIWI protein, known for its role in stem cell self-renewal, is aberrantly
      expressed in cancers. We examined the role of the PIWI-like protein HIWI2 in RB
      and its effect on the stem cell markers in cells of the RB line, Y79. The
      expression of HIWI2 is significantly increased in Y79 compared with its level in
      HeLa and ARPE19 cells. The stem cell markers Oct-3/4, Nanog and Sox-2 were not
      altered upon HIWI2 knockdown in Y79 cells. Interestingly, OTX2 was significantly
      downregulated in the absence of HIWI2. Otx2 transcripts also decreased in HIWI2
      silenced Y79 and ARPE19 cells. Moreover, silencing HIWI2 in Y79 accumulated the
      cells at G2-M phase and reduced the levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen
      (PCNA) and the tumor suppressor, p16. Our results demonstrate that HIWI2 is
      aberrantly expressed in Y79 cells and silencing of HIWI2 downregulates OTX2,
      suggesting that HIWI2 might play a role in the progression of RB.

PMID- 28861109
TI  - Serum free IgE guided dose reduction of omalizumab: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Omalizumab is a human IgG1 antibody against IgE used as a therapy for
      sever asthmatic patients with asthma. According to the guidelines of the Global
      Initiative for Asthma, omalizumab is an add-on drug at treatment step 5 that is
      used for severe asthma patients who are allergic to perennial allergens. The
      effects of omalizumab for severe asthma therapy have been validated in multiple
      clinical studies. However, the long-term effects of omalizumab on IgE production
      and possibility of resetting of administration dose of omalizumab remain unknown.
      CASE PRESENTATION: The serum total and free IgE levels were measured over time in
      a 63-year-old female patient with allergic asthma who was administered 375 mg
      omalizumab biweekly for 36 months. Her symptoms did not worsen and clinical
      course remained favorable after reducing the dose to 375 mg per month. The serum
      free IgE levels temporarily increased following a dose reduction of omalizumab.
      The serum free IgE trough level temporarily increased at 4 weeks after capable to
      reduce the dosage; however, thereafter, the serum free IgE level decreased to
      desired levels (below 30 ng/mL). CONCLUSIONS: The present case shows the
      possibility of reducing the dose following the long-term use of omalizumab.
      Considering the high medical cost of omalizumab, the dose reduction may be a
      viable option. It may be useful to measure the serum free IgE level to
      appropriately identify patients in whom the dose can be reduced, and to carefully
      monitor the clinical course.

PMID- 28861108
TI  - Gene functioning and storage within a folded genome.
AB  - In mammals, genomic DNA that is roughly 2 m long is folded to fit the size of the
      cell nucleus that has a diameter of about 10 MUm. The folding of genomic DNA is
      mediated via assembly of DNA-protein complex, chromatin. In addition to the
      reduction of genomic DNA linear dimensions, the assembly of chromatin allows to
      discriminate and to mark active (transcribed) and repressed (non-transcribed)
      genes. Consequently, epigenetic regulation of gene expression occurs at the level
      of DNA packaging in chromatin. Taking into account the increasing attention of
      scientific community toward epigenetic systems of gene regulation, it is very
      important to understand how DNA folding in chromatin is related to gene activity.
      For many years the hierarchical model of DNA folding was the most popular. It was
      assumed that nucleosome fiber (10-nm fiber) is folded into 30-nm fiber and
      further on into chromatin loops attached to a nuclear/chromosome scaffold. Recent
      studies have demonstrated that there is much less regularity in chromatin folding
      within the cell nucleus. The very existence of 30-nm chromatin fibers in living
      cells was questioned. On the other hand, it was found that chromosomes are
      partitioned into self-interacting spatial domains that restrict the area of
      enhancers action. Thus, TADs can be considered as structural-functional domains
      of the chromosomes. Here we discuss the modern view of DNA packaging within the
      cell nucleus in relation to the regulation of gene expression. Special attention
      is paid to the possible mechanisms of the chromatin fiber self-assembly into
      TADs. We discuss the model postulating that partitioning of the chromosome into
      TADs is determined by the distribution of active and inactive chromatin segments
      along the chromosome. This article was specially invited by the editors and
      represents work by leading researchers.

PMID- 28861110
TI  - Chorioamnionitis: Is a major player in the development of bronchopulmonary
      dysplasia?
AB  - Chorioamnionitis is an inflammation in the fetal membranes or placenta. When
      chorioamnionitis develops, fetal lungs are exposed to inflammatory cytokines and
      mediators via amniotic fluid. Because inflammation plays a pivotal role in the
      development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic lung disease of
      prematurity, fetal lung inflammation induced by chorioamnionitis has been
      considered to be one of the major pathogenetic factors for BPD. Although there
      have been a number of studies that demonstrated the relationship between
      chorioamnionitis and BPD, there are still controversies on this issue. The
      controversies on the relationship between chorioamnionitis and BPD arise from not
      unified definitions of chorioamnionitis and BPD, different study populations, and
      the proportion of contribution between inflammation and infectious
      microorganisms. The publication bias also contributes to the controversies.
      Clinical trials targeting chorioamnionitis or microorganisms that cause
      chorioamnionitis will answer on the actual relationship between chorioamnionitis
      and BPD and provide a novel prophylactic strategy against BPD based on that
      relationship.

PMID- 28861111
TI  - Association of Toll-like receptor 2-positive monocytes with coronary artery
      lesions and treatment nonresponse in Kawasaki disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Activation of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) present on circulating
      monocytes in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) can lead to the production of
      proinflammatory cytokines and interleukin-10 (IL-10). We aimed to determine the
      association of the frequency of circulating TLR2+/CD14+ monocytes (FTLR2%) with
      the outcomes of KD, as well as to compare FTLR2% to the usefulness of sIL-10.
      METHODS: The FTLR2% in patients with KD was measured by flow cytometry. Serum
      levels of IL-10 (sIL-10) were determined in 31 patients with KD before the
      initial treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and in 21 febrile
      controls by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Patients were classified as
      having coronary artery lesions (CALs) based on the maximal internal diameters of
      the proximal right coronary artery and proximal left anterior descending coronary
      artery one month after the initial diagnosis. RESULTS: We found that FTLR2%
      greater than 92.62% predicted CALs with 80% sensitivity and 68.4% specificity,
      whereas FTLR2% more than 94.61% predicted IVIG resistance with 66.7% sensitivity
      and 71.4% specificity. Moreover, sIL-10 more than 15.52 pg/mL predicted CALs and
      IVIG resistance with 40% and 66.7% sensitivity, respectively, and 73.7% and 76.2%
      specificity, respectively. CONCLUSION: We showed that measuring FTLR2% before the
      initial treatment could be useful in predicting CAL development with better
      sensitivity than sIL-10 and with results comparable to sIL-10 results for the
      prediction of IVIG resistance in patients with KD. However, further studies are
      necessary to validate FTLR2% as a marker of prognosis and severity of KD.

PMID- 28861112
TI  - Relationship between vitamin D levels and intravenous immunoglobulin resistance
      in Kawasaki disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Vitamin D is associated with various pathological conditions such as
      cardiovascular diseases and cancer. We investigated the relationship between
      vitamin D and Kawasaki disease (KD). METHODS: We performed a retrospective review
      of the medical records of patients with KD between February 2013 and March 2016
      in Daegu Fatima Hospital. Study participants were grouped according to vitamin D
      serum concentration. Group 1 included patients with 25(OH)-vitamin D >=20 ng/mL.
      Group 2 included patients with 25(OH)-vitamin D <20 ng/mL. We analyzed the
      clinical characteristics and laboratory data of the 2 groups. RESULTS: Of the 91
      patients, 52 were included in group 1, and 39 in group 2. Group 1 patients had
      significantly higher levels of calcium, phosphate, albumin and sodium than group
      2 patients did. There were no differences in clinical characteristics, but the
      proportion of patients with polymorphic rash was significantly higher in group 2.
      Resistance to intravenous immunoglobulin was more frequent in group 2 (P=0.023).
      No significant difference in the incidence of coronary artery complications was
      observed. CONCLUSION: Low vitamin D levels are associated with resistance to
      intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in KD. Vitamin D deficiency might be a risk
      factor for immunoglobulin resistance in KD.

PMID- 28861113
TI  - Uropathogenic Escherichia coli ST131 in urinary tract infections in children.
AB  - PURPOSE: Escherichia coli sequence type (ST) 131, a multidrug-resistant clone
      causing extraintestinal infections, has rapidly become prevalent worldwide.
      However, the epidemiological and clinical features of pediatric infections are
      poorly understood. We aimed to explore the characteristics of ST131 Escherichia
      coli isolated from Korean children with urinary tract infections. METHODS: We
      examined 114 uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) isolates from children hospitalized at
      Chung-Ang University Hospital between 2011 and 2014. Bacterial strains were
      classified into STs by partial sequencing of seven housekeeping genes (adk, fumC,
      gyrB, icd, mdh, purA, and recA). Clinical characteristics and antimicrobial
      susceptibility were compared between ST131 and non-ST131 UPEC isolates. RESULTS:
      Sixteen UPEC isolates (14.0%) were extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)
      producers; 50.0% of ESBL-producers were ST131 isolates. Of all the isolates
      tested, 13.2% (15 of 114) were classified as ST131. There were no statistically
      significant associations between ST131 and age, sex, or clinical characteristics,
      including fever, white blood cell counts in urine and serum, C-reactive protein,
      radiologic abnormalities, and clinical outcome. However, ST131 isolates showed
      significantly lower rates of susceptibility to cefazolin (26.7%), cefotaxime
      (40.0%), cefepime (40.0%), and ciprofloxacin (53.3%) than non-ST131 isolates
      (65.7%, 91.9%, 92.9%, and 87.9%, respectively; P<0.001 for all). ESBL was more
      frequently produced in ST131 (53.3%) than in non-ST131 (8.1%) isolates (P<0.01).
      CONCLUSION: ST131 E. coli isolates were prevalent uropathogens in children at a
      single medical center in Korea between 2011 and 2014. Although ST131 isolates
      showed higher rates of antimicrobial resistance, clinical presentation and
      outcomes of patients were similar to those of patients infected with non-ST131
      isolates.

PMID- 28861114
TI  - Effects of low-dose topiramate on language function in children with migraine.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to verify the safety of low-dose topiramate on language
      development in pediatric patients with migraine. METHODS: Thirty newly diagnosed
      pediatric patients with migraine who needed topiramate were enrolled and assessed
      twice with standard language tests, including the Test of Language Problem
      Solving Abilities (TOPs), Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Urimal Test
      of Articulation and Phonology, and computerized speech laboratory analysis. Data
      were collected before treatment, and topiramate as monotherapy was sustained for
      at least 3 months. The mean follow-up period was 4.3+/-2.7 months. The mean
      topiramate dosage was 0.9 mg/kg/day. RESULTS: The patient's mean age was 144.1+/
      42.3 months (male-to-female ratio, 9:21). The values of all the language
      parameters of the TOPs were not changed significantly after the topiramate
      treatment as follows: Determine cause, from 15.0+/-4.4 to 15.4+/-4.8 (P>0.05);
      making inference, from 17.6+/-5.6 to 17.5+/-6.6 (P>0.05); predicting, from 11.5+/
      4.5 to 12.3+/-4.0 (P>0.05); and total TOPs score, from 44.1+/- 13.4 to 45.3+/
      13.6 (P>0.05). The total mean length of utterance in words during the test
      decreased from 44.1+/-13.4 to 45.3+/-13.6 (P<0.05). The Receptive and Expressive
      Vocabulary Test results decreased from 97.7+/-22.1 to 96.3+/-19.9 months, and
      from 81.8+/-23.4 to 82.3+/-25.4 months, respectively (P>0.05). In the
      articulation and phonology validation in both groups, speech pitch and energy
      were not significant, and all the vowel test results showed no other significant
      values. CONCLUSION: No significant difference was found in the language-speaking
      ability between the patients; however, the number of vocabularies used decreased.
      Therefore, topiramate should be used cautiously for children with migraine.

PMID- 28861115
TI  - A pediatric case of relapsed pulmonary alveolar proteinosis despite successful
      whole lung lavage.
AB  - Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare disease in children characterized
      by intra-alveolar accumulation of surfactant proteins, which severely reduces
      gaseous exchange. Whole lung lavage (WLL) is the preferred technique for the
      treatment of severe PAP. Herein, we present a pediatric case of PAP treated with
      WLL. An 11-year-old boy was admitted with the chief complaint of a dry cough
      lasting 6 months. He developed symptoms of dyspnea on exertion and had difficulty
      in climbing stairs. He was ultimately diagnosed with PAP through video-assisted
      thoracoscopic lung biopsy. As first-line of treatment for PAP, he underwent
      therapeutic WLL for each of his lungs on separate days. After a brief recovery,
      his symptoms gradually worsened; therefore, he underwent a second WLL. This is
      the first pediatric case of PAP relapse despite successful WLL in Korea.

PMID- 28861116
TI  - Enabling a genetically informed approach to cancer medicine: evaluation of the
      impact of comprehensive tumor sequencing.
AB  - "The role of next-generation sequencing to determine appropriateness of anti
      PD1/PD-L1 therapy needs further investigation, but has shown promise in
      predicting response and survival in melanoma and urothelial carcinoma."

PMID- 28861117
TI  - Quantification of seed-soil contact of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) using X-ray
      Computed Tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Seed-soil contact is important to ensure successful germination,
      however, there is a paucity of reported studies that have quantified the
      microstructure at and around this critical interface, mainly due to the opacity
      of soil. RESULTS: Here we describe a novel methodology to non-destructively
      calculate the seed-soil contact area using X-ray Computed Tomography. Under
      controlled conditions, we observed that seed-soil contact was strongly influenced
      by the size and type of seed, with a seed-soil contact of ca. 15% for naked sugar
      beet seeds compared to ca. 32% for pelleted and coated seeds. Similar results
      were obtained for seeds sampled from the field albeit with a higher spatial
      variability. CONCLUSIONS: By application of this new quantification method it is
      hoped seed enhancement technologies can be optimised and ultimately seedbed
      preparation improved to ensure better germination.

PMID- 28861118
TI  - Biologically feasible gene trees, reconciliation maps and informative triples.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The history of gene families-which are equivalent to event-labeled
      gene trees-can be reconstructed from empirically estimated evolutionary event
      relations containing pairs of orthologous, paralogous or xenologous genes. The
      question then arises as whether inferred event-labeled gene trees are
      biologically feasible, that is, if there is a possible true history that would
      explain a given gene tree. In practice, this problem is boiled down to finding a
      reconciliation map-also known as DTL-scenario-between the event-labeled gene
      trees and a (possibly unknown) species tree. RESULTS: In this contribution, we
      first characterize whether there is a valid reconciliation map for binary event
      labeled gene trees T that contain speciation, duplication and horizontal gene
      transfer events and some unknown species tree S in terms of "informative" triples
      that are displayed in T and provide information of the topology of S. These
      informative triples are used to infer the unknown species tree S for T. We obtain
      a similar result for non-binary gene trees. To this end, however, the
      reconciliation map needs to be further restricted. We provide a polynomial-time
      algorithm to decide whether there is a species tree for a given event-labeled
      gene tree, and in the positive case, to construct the species tree and the
      respective (restricted) reconciliation map. However, informative triples as well
      as DTL-scenarios have their limitations when they are used to explain the
      biological feasibility of gene trees. While reconciliation maps imply biological
      feasibility, we show that the converse is not true in general. Moreover, we show
      that informative triples neither provide enough information to characterize
      "relaxed" DTL-scenarios nor non-restricted reconciliation maps for non-binary
      biologically feasible gene trees.

PMID- 28861120
TI  - Edaravone: a baby in the bathwater?

PMID- 28861119
TI  - Evaluation of a multimodal pain therapy concept for chronic pain after total knee
      arthroplasty: a pilot study in 21 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In spite of the improvement of many aspects around Total knee
      arthroplasty (TKA), there is still a group of 10% to 34% of patients who is not
      satisfied with the outcome. The therapy of chronic pain after TKA remains a
      medical challenge that requires an interdisciplinary therapy concept. The aim of
      this prospective pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy of a multimodal pain
      therapy in chronic complaints after TKA. METHODS: In a prospective cohort pilot
      study, we included patients with chronic pain after TKA who obtained in-patient
      care, especially multimodal pain therapy (MMPT), for at least 10 days. Essential
      elements of this therapy concept were physiotherapy, pain medication therapy,
      topical application of ketamine, local infiltration and Traditional Chinese
      Medicine. Patients with varying causes of complaints were excluded in advance.
      Before the start of the study all test persons were informed and gave their
      written consent. Moreover, each patient was examined and questioned at hospital
      admission, discharge and at its first as well as second follow-up. Additionally,
      knee joint mobility and stability were investigated at all examination times.
      RESULTS: From 03/07/2016 to 07/14/2016, 21 patients were included in the pilot
      study. 52% of the considered population were female (11 persons). The median age
      was 65 years (45-79 years) and the median stay in hospital amounted 9 days (8-14
      days). The first follow-up was scheduled after six weeks (median: 38 days, 30-112
      days) and the second one after six months (median: 8 months, 7-12 months). The
      number of patients of the first follow-up was 17 out of 21 (19% drop out). The
      drop out of the last follow-up accounted for 33%. All patients benefit from the
      presented applications and therapies with regard to pain, function and range of
      motion. Especially, during the period of in-patient treatment, nearly all
      patients have improved in all terms. However, during the first follow-up clear
      deteriorations occurred in all areas, which stagnated up to the second follow-up.
      The range of motion has even worsened slightly. CONCLUSIONS: With the presented
      pilot study on multimodal in-patient therapy of chronic complaints due to TKA,
      the improvement of pain, function and mobility could be verified, especially
      during the stationary stay. Even though the results deteriorate during the follow
      up period, they did never relapse to their initial level. In order to ensure an
      effective treatment, a clear diagnostic algorithm is essential, by which
      treatable causes, such as low-grade infections or loosenings, are safely
      excluded. Further prospective studies are necessary to obtain precise statements
      on prospects of success of our therapy plan.

PMID- 28861121
TI  - Tacrolimus in the treatment of myasthenia gravis in patients with an inadequate
      response to glucocorticoid therapy: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled
      study conducted in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To determine the efficacy of low-dose, immediate-release tacrolimus
      in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) with inadequate response to
      glucocorticoid therapy in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
      METHODS: Eligible patients had inadequate response to glucocorticoids (GCs) after
      ?6 weeks of treatment with prednisone ?0.75 mg/kg/day or 60-100 mg/day. Patients
      were randomized to receive 3 mg tacrolimus or placebo daily (orally) for 24
      weeks. Concomitant glucocorticoids and pyridostigmine were allowed. Patients
      continued GC therapy from weeks 1-4; from week 5, the dose was decreased at the
      discretion of the investigator. The primary efficacy outcome measure was a
      reduction, relative to baseline, in quantitative myasthenia gravis (QMG) score
      assessed using a generalized linear model; supportive analyses used alternative
      models. RESULTS: Of 138 patients screened, 83 [tacrolimus (n = 45); placebo (n =
      38)] were enrolled and treated. The change in adjusted mean QMG score from
      baseline to week 24 was -4.9 for tacrolimus and -3.3 for placebo (least squares
      mean difference: -1.7, 95% confidence interval: -3.5, -0.1; p = 0.067). A post
      hoc analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference for QMG score
      reduction of ?4 points in the tacrolimus group (68.2%) versus the placebo group
      (44.7%; p = 0.044). Adverse event profiles were similar between treatment groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Tacrolimus 3 mg treatment for patients with MG and inadequate
      response to GCs did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in
      the primary endpoint versus placebo over 24 weeks; however, a post-hoc analysis
      demonstrated a statistically significant difference for QMG score reduction of ?4
      points in the tacrolimus group versus the placebo group. This study was limited
      by the low number of patients, the absence of testing for acetylcholine receptor
      antibody and the absence of stratification by disease duration (which led to a
      disparity between the two groups). ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01325571.

PMID- 28861122
TI  - The role of natalizumab in the treatment of multiple sclerosis: benefits and
      risks.
AB  - Natalizumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks lymphocyte infiltration in the
      central nervous system, is a valuable tool in the treatment of relapsing forms of
      multiple sclerosis (MS). In a phase III clinical trial comparing natalizumab with
      placebo over 2 years, natalizumab reduced annualized relapse rate by 68%, 12-week
      confirmed disability progression by 42%, and reduced contrast-enhancing lesions
      by 92%. In post hoc analyses, natalizumab treatment was associated with 37% of
      patients achieving no evidence of disease activity (versus 7% on placebo) and 30%
      achieving sustained disability improvement (versus 19% on placebo). Natalizumab
      did not achieve a statistically significant primary composite disability outcome
      in a trial of 887 patients with secondary progressive MS, but it did demonstrate
      a benefit on a prespecified component of the 9-Hole Peg Test. The greatest risk
      of natalizumab treatment is progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML),
      with a 23% mortality rate. Risk stratification on the basis of immunosuppressant
      exposure, natalizumab treatment duration and anti-John Cunningham virus (JCV)
      antibody status and index has greatly improved clinical decision making. Other
      potential serious natalizumab-associated risks reported in clinical trials and
      postmarketing settings include infusion reactions, hepatotoxicity and rare,
      serious opportunistic infections. With more than a decade of continuous
      postmarketing experience, natalizumab remains a very effective option for
      patients with relapsing forms of MS. To optimize appropriate selection of
      natalizumab for patients with relapsing MS, however, a thorough understanding of
      individual patient risk factors for PML or other adverse events is also required.

PMID- 28861123
TI  - An explorative qualitative study to determine the footwear needs of workers in
      standing environments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many work places require standing for prolonged periods of time and
      are potentially damaging to health, with links to musculoskeletal disorders and
      acute trauma from workplace accidents. Footwear provides the only interaction
      between the body and the ground and therefore a potential means to impact
      musculoskeletal disorders. However, there is very limited research into the
      necessary design and development of footwear based on both the physical
      environmental constraints and the personal preference of the workers. Therefore,
      the purpose of this study was to explore workers needs for footwear in the
      'standing' workplace in relation to MSD, symptoms, comfort and design. METHOD:
      Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from demanding work
      environments that require standing for high proportions of the working day.
      Thematic analysis was used to analyse the results and gain an exploratory
      understanding into the footwear needs of these workers. RESULTS: Interviews
      revealed the environmental demands and a very high percentage of musculoskeletal
      disorders, including day to day discomfort and chronic problems. It was
      identified that when designing work footwear for standing environments, the
      functionality of the shoe for the environment must be addressed, the sensations
      and symptoms of the workers taken into account to encourage adherence and the
      decision influencers should be met to encourage initial footwear choice. Meeting
      all these criteria could encourage the use of footwear with the correct safety
      features and comfort. Development of the correct footwear and increased education
      regarding foot health and footwear choice could help to reduce or improve the
      effect of the high number of musculoskeletal disorders repeatedly recorded in
      jobs that require prolonged periods of standing. CONCLUSION: This study provides
      a unique insight into the footwear needs of some workers in environments that
      require prolonged standing. This user based enquiry has provided information
      which is important to workplace footwear design.

PMID- 28861124
TI  - Forest disturbances under climate change.
AB  - Forest disturbances are sensitive to climate. However, our understanding of
      disturbance dynamics in response to climatic changes remains incomplete,
      particularly regarding large-scale patterns, interaction effects and dampening
      feedbacks. Here we provide a global synthesis of climate change effects on
      important abiotic (fire, drought, wind, snow and ice) and biotic (insects and
      pathogens) disturbance agents. Warmer and drier conditions particularly
      facilitate fire, drought and insect disturbances, while warmer and wetter
      conditions increase disturbances from wind and pathogens. Widespread interactions
      between agents are likely to amplify disturbances, while indirect climate effects
      such as vegetation changes can dampen long-term disturbance sensitivities to
      climate. Future changes in disturbance are likely to be most pronounced in
      coniferous forests and the boreal biome. We conclude that both ecosystems and
      society should be prepared for an increasingly disturbed future of forests.

PMID- 28861125
TI  - ABC classification of posterior shoulder instability.
AB  - Posterior glenohumeral instability (PGHI) is a commonly under- and misdiagnosed
      pathology owing to its variety of clinical presentations. In order to facilitate
      diagnosis and treatment, the simple yet comprehensive ABC classification for PGHI
      is based on the underlying pathomechanical principles and current standard of
      treatment. Three main groups of PGHI are distinguished based on the type of
      instability: A (first time), B (dynamic), C (static). Two subtypes further
      differentiate these groups in terms of their specific pathomechanism and provide
      a guideline in the choice of appropriate treatment: A (1, subluxation; 2,
      dislocation), B (1, functional; 2, structural), C (1, constitutional; 2,
      acquired). While conservative treatment is warranted in most patients with type 1
      PGHI (A1, B1, C1), surgical treatment should be considered on an individual basis
      in patients with type 2 PGHI (A2, B2, C2), while keeping in mind that the
      different groups and subtypes can overlap, co-exist, or even progress from one to
      another over time. Of course the necessity for surgical treatment depends on the
      extent of the structural defects, on the severity of symptoms, on the chronicity,
      as well as on patient-specific functional demand, age, and health status.
      Nonetheless, the ABC classification helps to correctly diagnose the type of PGHI
      and provides a guideline for the generally recommended type of treatment.

PMID- 28861126
TI  - Soft tissue-based surgical techniques for treatment of posterior shoulder
      instability.
AB  - Posterior shoulder instability is a rare clinical condition that encompasses
      different degrees of severity including various possible pathologies involving
      the labrum, capsule, bony lesions, and even locked posterior dislocation. When
      focusing on soft tissue involvement, the diagnosis of posterior instability may
      be difficult to make because frequently patients report vague symptoms not
      associated with a clear history of traumatic shoulder dislocation. Pathological
      soft tissue conditions associated with posterior instability in most cases are
      related to posterior labral tear and/or posterior capsular detensioning/tear. The
      diagnosis can be facilitated by physical examination using specific clinical
      tests (i. e., jerk test, Kim test, and reinterpreted O'Brien test) together with
      appropriate imaging studies (i. e., magnetic resonance arthrography). Arthroscopy
      may help in a complete evaluation of the joint and allows for the treatment of
      soft tissue lesions in posterior instability. Caution is warranted in the case of
      concomitant posterior glenoid chondral defect as a potential cause of poor
      outcome after soft tissue repair in posterior instability.

PMID- 28861127
TI  - Multi-parameter comparison of a standardized mixed meal tolerance test in healthy
      and type 2 diabetic subjects: the PhenFlex challenge.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A key feature of metabolic health is the ability to adapt upon
      dietary perturbations. Recently, it was shown that metabolic challenge tests in
      combination with the new generation biomarkers allow the simultaneous
      quantification of major metabolic health processes. Currently, applied challenge
      tests are largely non-standardized. A systematic review defined an optimal
      nutritional challenge test, the "PhenFlex test" (PFT). This study aimed to prove
      that PFT modulates all relevant processes governing metabolic health thereby
      allowing to distinguish subjects with different metabolic health status.
      Therefore, 20 healthy and 20 type 2 diabetic (T2D) male subjects were challenged
      both by PFT and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). During the 8-h response time
      course, 132 parameters were quantified that report on 26 metabolic processes
      distributed over 7 organs (gut, liver, adipose, pancreas, vasculature, muscle,
      kidney) and systemic stress. RESULTS: In healthy subjects, 110 of the 132
      parameters showed a time course response. Patients with T2D showed 18 parameters
      to be significantly different after overnight fasting compared to healthy
      subjects, while 58 parameters were different in the post-challenge time course
      after the PFT. This demonstrates the added value of PFT in distinguishing
      subjects with different health status. The OGTT and PFT response was highly
      comparable for glucose metabolism as identical amounts of glucose were present in
      both challenge tests. Yet the PFT reports on additional processes, including
      vasculature, systemic stress, and metabolic flexibility. CONCLUSION: The PFT
      enables the quantification of all relevant metabolic processes involved in
      maintaining or regaining homeostasis of metabolic health. Studying both healthy
      subjects and subjects with impaired metabolic health showed that the PFT revealed
      new processes laying underneath health. This study provides the first evidence
      towards adopting the PFT as gold standard in nutrition research.

PMID- 28861128
TI  - Pyrosequencing quantified methylation level of miR-124 predicts shorter survival
      for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aberrant CpG island methylation has been increasingly recognized as a
      common event in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). To date, most of the previous
      studies of miR-124 in MDS have focused on epigenetic changes and little is known
      about the underlying mechanism through which miR-124 regulates CDK6 expression.
      RESULTS: In the present study, we employed pyrosequencing analysis to quantify
      the methylation levels of upstream regions of the miR-124 genes (miR-124-1, miR
      124-2 and miR-124-3) in 56 primary MDS patients. We found the three miR-124 genes
      were methylated in MDS patients. Univariate analysis revealed that the World
      Health Organization (WHO) classification, marrow blast count, karyotype,
      International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS), mean corpuscular volume, as well
      as high methylation of miR-124-1, miR-124-2 and miR-124-3 were significantly
      related to overall survival. In leukaemia-free survival, patients who were older
      and had an advanced WHO classification, high marrow blast counts, high IPSS risk
      and high methylation of miR-124-1 and miR-124-2 progressed rapidly to acute
      myeloid leukaemia. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that high methylation of
      miR-124-3 was an independent factor of overall survival. Median survival of
      patients with high miR-124-3 methylation was significantly shorter (7.6 months)
      than patients with low methylation (32.7 months; P = 0.010). A functional study
      revealed that silencing of miR-124 resulted in upregulation of its target gene,
      cyclin dependent kinase CDK6, which in turn promoted cell proliferation in the
      MDS cell line SKM-1. CONCLUSIONS: High methylation of miR-124-3 predicts shorter
      survival for patients with MDS, which may be a useful prognostic marker in MDS.

PMID- 28861130
TI  - Using Expectancy Value Theory as a Framework to Reduce Student Resistance to
      Active Learning: A Proof of Concept.
AB  - There has been a national movement to transition college science courses from
      passive lectures to active learning environments. Active learning has been shown
      to be a more effective way for students to learn, yet there is concern that some
      students are resistant to active learning approaches. Although there is much
      discussion about student resistance to active learning, few studies have explored
      this topic. Furthermore, a limited number of studies have applied theoretical
      frameworks to student engagement in active learning. We propose using a
      theoretical lens of expectancy value theory to understand student resistance to
      active learning. In this study, we examined student perceptions of active
      learning after participating in 40 hours of active learning. We used the
      principal components of expectancy value theory to probe student experience in
      active learning: student perceived self-efficacy in active learning, value of
      active learning, and potential cost of participating in active learning. We found
      that students showed positive changes in the components of expectancy value
      theory and reported high levels of engagement in active learning, which provide
      proof of concept that expectancy value theory can be used to boost student
      perceptions of active learning and their engagement in active learning
      classrooms. From these findings, we have built a theoretical framework of
      expectancy value theory applied to active learning.

PMID- 28861129
TI  - Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis in blood cells from patients with Werner
      syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Werner syndrome is a progeroid disorder characterized by premature
      age-related phenotypes. Although it is well established that autosomal recessive
      mutations in the WRN gene is responsible for Werner syndrome, the molecular
      alterations that lead to disease phenotype remain still unidentified. RESULTS: To
      address whether epigenetic changes can be associated with Werner syndrome
      phenotype, we analysed genome-wide DNA methylation profile using the Infinium
      MethylationEPIC BeadChip in the whole blood from three patients affected by
      Werner syndrome compared with three age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
      Hypermethylated probes were enriched in glycosphingolipid biosynthesis, FoxO
      signalling and insulin signalling pathways, while hypomethylated probes were
      enriched in PI3K-Akt signalling and focal adhesion pathways. Twenty-two out of 47
      of the differentially methylated genes belonging to the enriched pathways
      resulted differentially expressed in a publicly available dataset on Werner
      syndrome fibroblasts. Interestingly, differentially methylated regions identified
      CERS1 and CERS3, two members of the ceramide synthase family. Moreover, we found
      differentially methylated probes within ITGA9 and ADAM12 genes, whose methylation
      is altered in systemic sclerosis, and within the PRDM8 gene, whose methylation is
      affected in dyskeratosis congenita and Down syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: DNA
      methylation changes in the peripheral blood from Werner syndrome patients provide
      new insight in the pathogenesis of the disease, highlighting in some cases a
      functional correlation of gene expression and methylation status.

PMID- 28861131
TI  - Unique Down to Our Microbes-Assessment of an Inquiry-Based Metagenomics Activity.
AB  - Metagenomics is an important method for studying microbial life. However,
      undergraduate exposure to metagenomics is hindered by associated software,
      computing demands, and dataset access. In this inquiry-based activity designed
      for introductory life science majors and nonmajors, students perform an
      investigation of the bacterial communities inhabiting the human belly button and
      associated metagenomics data collected through a citizen science project and
      visualized using an open-access bioinformatics tool. The activity is designed for
      attainment of the following student learning outcomes: defining terms associated
      with metagenomics analyses, describing the biological impact of the microbiota on
      human health, formulating a hypothesis, analyzing and interpreting metagenomics
      data to compare microbiota, evaluating a specific hypothesis, and synthesizing a
      conceptual model as to why bacterial populations vary. This activity was
      implemented in six introductory biology and biotechnology courses across five
      institutions. Attainment of student learning outcomes was assessed through
      completion of a quiz and students' presentations of their findings. In
      presentations, students demonstrated their ability to develop novel hypotheses
      and analyze and interpret metagenomic data to evaluate their hypothesis. In
      quizzes, students demonstrated their ability to define key terms and describe the
      biological impact of the microbiota on human health. Student learning gains
      assessment also revealed that students perceived gains for all student learning
      outcomes. Collectively, our assessment demonstrates achievement of the learning
      outcomes and supports the utility of this inquiry-based activity to engage
      undergraduates in the scientific process via analyses of metagenomics datasets
      and associated exploration of a microbial community that lives on the human body.

PMID- 28861132
TI  - Hands-On Assembly of DNA Sequencing Reads as a Gateway to Bioinformatics.

PMID- 28861133
TI  - Microbial Murders Crime Scene Investigation: An Active Team-Based Learning
      Project that Enhances Student Enthusiasm and Comprehension of Clinical Microbial
      Pathogens.
AB  - Microbial disease knowledge is a critical component of microbiology courses and
      is beneficial for many students' future careers. Microbiology courses
      traditionally cover core concepts through lectures and labs, but specific
      instruction on microbial diseases varies greatly depending on the instructor and
      course. A common project involves students researching and presenting a disease
      to the class. This method alone is not very effective, and course evaluations
      have consistently indicated that students felt they lacked adequate disease
      knowledge; therefore, a more hands-on and interactive disease project was
      developed called Microbial Murders. For this team-based project, a group of
      students chooses a pathogen, researches the disease, creates a "mugshot" of the
      pathogen, and develops a corresponding "crime scene," where a hypothetical
      patient has died from the microbe. Each group gives a presentation introducing
      the microbial pathogen, signs/symptoms, treatments, and overall characteristics.
      The students then visit each other's crime scenes to match the pathogen with the
      correct crime scene by critically thinking through the clues. This project has
      shown remarkable success. Surveys indicate that 73% of students thought the
      project helped them understand the material and 84% said it was worth their time.
      Student participation, excitement, understanding, and application of microbial
      disease knowledge have increased and are evident through an increase in course
      evaluations and in student assessment scores. This project is easy to implement
      and can be used in a wide variety of biology, microbiology, or health classes for
      any level (middle school through college).

PMID- 28861134
TI  - Introducing Mammalian Cell Culture and Cell Viability Techniques in the
      Undergraduate Biology Laboratory.
AB  - Undergraduate students learn about mammalian cell culture applications in
      introductory biology courses. However, laboratory modules are rarely designed to
      provide hands-on experience with mammalian cells or teach cell culture
      techniques, such as trypsinization and cell counting. Students are more likely to
      learn about cell culture using bacteria or yeast, as they are typically easier to
      grow, culture, and manipulate given the equipment, tools, and environment of most
      undergraduate biology laboratories. In contrast, the utilization of mammalian
      cells requires a dedicated biological safety cabinet and rigorous antiseptic
      techniques. For this reason, we have devised a laboratory module and method
      herein that familiarizes students with common cell culture procedures, without
      the use of a sterile hood or large cell culture facility. Students design and
      perform a time-efficient inquiry-based cell viability experiment using HeLa cells
      and tools that are readily available in an undergraduate biology laboratory.
      Students will become familiar with common techniques such as trypsinizing cells,
      cell counting with a hemocytometer, performing serial dilutions, and determining
      cell viability using trypan blue dye. Additionally, students will work with
      graphing software to analyze their data and think critically about the mechanism
      of death on a cellular level. Two different adaptations of this inquiry-based lab
      are presented-one for non-biology majors and one for biology majors. Overall,
      these laboratories aim to expose students to mammalian cell culture and basic
      techniques and help them to conceptualize their application in scientific
      research.

PMID- 28861135
TI  - Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large
      College Course.

PMID- 28861136
TI  - A Hands-On Activity to Demonstrate the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology Via a
      Simulated VDJ Recombination Activity.

PMID- 28861137
TI  - Modeling and Visualizing Bacterial Colony Purification Without the Use of
      Bacteria or Laboratory Equipment.

PMID- 28861138
TI  - New Changes for JMBE: A Look Forward.

PMID- 28861139
TI  - Education is the Only Business Where the Customer is Satisfied with Less of the
      Product.

PMID- 28861140
TI  - Microbiology Education in Nursing Practice.
AB  - Nurses must have sufficient education and training in microbiology to perform
      many roles within clinical nursing practice (e.g., administering antibiotics,
      collecting specimens, preparing specimens for transport and delivery, educating
      patients and families, communicating results to the healthcare team, and
      developing care plans based on results of microbiology studies and patient
      immunological status). It is unclear whether the current microbiology courses
      required of nursing students in the United States focus on the topics that are
      most relevant to nursing practice. To gauge the relevance of current microbiology
      education to nursing practice, we created a confidential, web-based survey that
      asked nurses about their past microbiology education, the types of microbiology
      specimens they collect, their duties that require knowledge of microbiology, and
      how frequently they encounter infectious diseases in practice. We used the survey
      responses to develop data-driven recommendations for educators who teach
      microbiology to pre-nursing and nursing students. Two hundred ninety-six
      Registered Nurses (RNs) completed the survey. The topics they deemed most
      relevant to current practice were infection control, hospital-acquired
      infections, disease transmission, and collection and handling of patient
      specimens. Topics deemed least relevant were the Gram stain procedure and
      microscope use. In addition, RNs expressed little interest in molecular testing
      methods. This may reflect a gap in their understanding of the uses of these
      tests, which could be bridged in a microbiology course. We now have data in
      support of anecdotal evidence that nurses are most engaged when learning about
      microbiology topics that have the greatest impact on patient care. Information
      from this survey will be used to shift the focus of microbiology courses at our
      university to topics more relevant to nursing practice. Further, these findings
      may also support an effort to evolve national recommendations for microbiology
      education in pre-nursing and nursing curricula.

PMID- 28861141
TI  - Multi-Institutional, Multidisciplinary Study of the Impact of Course-Based
      Research Experiences.
AB  - Numerous national reports have called for reforming laboratory courses so that
      all students experience the research process. In response, many course-based
      research experiences (CREs) have been developed and implemented. Research on the
      impact of these CREs suggests that student benefits can be similar to those of
      traditional apprentice-model research experiences. However, most assessments of
      CREs have been in individual courses at individual institutions or across
      institutions using the same CRE model. Furthermore, which structures and
      components of CREs result in the greatest student gains is unknown. We explored
      the impact of different CRE models in different contexts on student self-reported
      gains in understanding, skills, and professional development using the Classroom
      Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) survey. Our analysis included 49 courses
      developed and taught at seven diverse institutions. Overall, students reported
      greater gains for all benefits when compared with the reported national means for
      the Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE). Two aspects of these
      CREs were associated with greater student gains: 1) CREs that were the focus of
      the entire course or that more fully integrated modules within a traditional
      laboratory and 2) CREs that had a higher degree of student input and results that
      were unknown to both students and faculty.

PMID- 28861142
TI  - Integration of RCR and Ethics Education into Course-Based Undergraduate Research
      Experiences in the Biological Sciences: A Needed Discussion.
AB  - Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been identified as a
      promising vehicle to broaden novices' participation in authentic scientific
      opportunities. While recent studies in the bioeducation literature have focused
      on the influence of CUREs on cognitive and non-cognitive student outcomes (e.g.,
      attitudes and motivation, science process skills development), few investigations
      have examined the extent to which the contextual features inherent in such
      experiences affect students' academic and professional growth. Central among
      these factors is that of ethics and the responsible conduct of research (RCR)
      essential cornerstones of the scientific enterprise. In this article, we examine
      the intersectionality of ethics/RCR instruction within CURE contexts through a
      critical review of existing literature that details mechanisms for the
      integration of ethics/RCR education into undergraduate laboratory experiences in
      the science domains. Building upon this foundation, we propose a novel, evidence
      based framework that seeks to illustrate posited interactions between core
      ethics/RCR principles and unique dimensions of CUREs. It is our intent that this
      framework will inform and encourage open dialogue around an often-overlooked
      aspect of CURE instruction-how to best prepare ethically responsible scholars for
      entrance into the global scientific workforce.

PMID- 28861143
TI  - Artificial Urine for Teaching Urinalysis Concepts and Diagnosis of Urinary Tract
      Infection in the Medical Microbiology Laboratory.
AB  - Dipstick urinalysis is an informative, quick, cost-effective and non-invasive
      diagnostic tool that is useful in clinical practice for the diagnosis of urinary
      tract infections (UTIs), kidney diseases, and diabetes. We used dipstick
      urinalysis as a hands-on microbiology laboratory exercise to reinforce student
      learning about UTIs with a particular focus on cystitis, which is a common
      bacterial infection. To avoid exposure to potentially contaminated human urine
      samples, we prepared artificial urine using easily acquired and affordable
      ingredients, which allowed less-experienced students to perform urinalysis
      without the risk of exposure to pathogenic organisms and ensured reliable
      availability of the urine samples. This practical class taught medical students
      how to use urinalysis data in conjunction with medical history to diagnose
      diseases from urine samples and to determine a treatment plan for clinical
      scenarios.

PMID- 28861144
TI  - Design and Revision of an Open-Educational Resource Microbiology Lab Manual Using
      Student Feedback.

PMID- 28861145
TI  - Bacterial DNA Extraction Using Individual Enzymes and Phenol/Chloroform
      Separation.

PMID- 28861146
TI  - Therapeutic effects of fibroblast growth factor-10 on hyperoxia-induced
      bronchopulmonary dysplasia in neonatal mice.
AB  - The survival rate of preterm neonates increases significantly with the
      development of neonatal care and comprehensive treatment, but more and more high
      risk preterm neonates suffer from bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Currently,
      there is no effective treatment for BPD, thus it is still a major cause of
      disability and mortality in neonates. Thus, it is imperative to investigate the
      pathogenesis and treatment of BPD in depth. Fibroblast growth factor-10 (FGF-10)
      is a paracrine growth factor binding its receptors (FGFR1 and FGFR2) to regulate
      a lot of biological processes. FGF-10, with mitotic and chemotactic activities,
      plays an important role in histogenesis during embryonic stage. It can prevent
      and attenuate mechanical or infection induced inflammation in lung. Results
      showed lung FGF-10 expression reduced significantly in neonatal mice with BPD,
      and exogenous FGF-10 was able to promote the growth of pulmonary mesenchymal stem
      cells and alveolar epithelial cells type II and reduce the expression of pro
      inflammatory cytokines. We preliminarily explored the relationship between FGF-10
      and NF-kappaB in this animal model and found FGF-10 could inhibit NF-kappaB p65
      expression as a feedback. Thus, to investigate the protective effects of FGF-10
      on hyperoxia induced BPD in neonatal mice will provide a new strategy for the
      treatment of BPD.

PMID- 28861147
TI  - MiR-214 inhibits cell migration, invasion and promotes the drug sensitivity in
      human cervical cancer by targeting FOXM1.
AB  - OBJECT: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in progression of cervical cancer. In
      the present study, we investigated the role of miR-214 in the process of
      migration, invasion and drug sensitivity to cisplatin in cervical cancer.
      METHODS: We detected the differential expression of miR-214 in 19 cases cervical
      cancer tissues and normal tissues as well as 4 cervical cancer cells and one
      normal cervical cells by Real-time PCR. Then, wound healing assay, transwell
      invasion assay and MTT were used to detect the effects of migration, invasion and
      sensitivity to cisplatin of cervical cancer when miR-214 was overexpressed.
      Western blot, immunofluorescence and Flow Cytometry were used to detect the
      mechanism of migration, invasion and sensitivity to cisplatin. Next,
      bioinformatics analysis was used to find the target of miR-214. Through the
      luciferase reporter assay, Real-time PCR and western blot, we confirmed the
      binding relationship of miR-214 and FOXM1. In cervical cancer tissues, the
      expression of FOXM1 was detected by western blot and Immunohistochemistry. We
      also knocked down FOXM1 in cervical cancer cells, wound healing assay, transwell
      invasion assay and MTT were performed to detect the migration, invasion and
      sensitivity to cisplatin abilities of FOXM1. Western blot and Flow Cytometry were
      used to detect the mechanism of migration, invasion and sensitivity to cisplatin
      by FOXM1. Finally, we performed rescue expriments to confirm the function
      relationship between miR-214 and FOXM1. RESULTS: 1. Our results showed that miR
      214 was frequently downregulated in tumor tissues and cancer cells especially in
      CIN III and cervical cancer stages. 2. Overexpression of miR-214 significantly
      inhibited migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells and prompted the
      sensitivity to cisplatin. 3. FOXM1 was identified as a target of miR-214 and down
      regulated by miR-214. 4. Knocking down FOXM1 could inhibited migration and
      invasion of cervical cancer cells and prompted the sensitivity to cisplatin. 5.
      FOXM1 was upregulated in tumor tissues. 6. The mechanism of migration, invasion
      and sensitivity to cisplatin were the resluts of changes of EMT and apoptosis. 7.
      The restoration of FOXM1 expression can counteract the effect of miR-214 on cell
      migration, invasion and sensitivity to cisplatin of cervical cancer cells.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that miR-214 acts as a tumor suppressor
      during the process of migration, invasion and drug sensitivity through targeting
      FOXM1, suggesting miR-214 as a potential new diagnostic and therapeutic target
      for the treatment of cervical cancer.

PMID- 28861148
TI  - A proteomics-based investigation on the anticancer activity of alisertib, an
      Aurora kinase A inhibitor, in hepatocellular carcinoma Hep3B cells.
AB  - Targeted therapy may provide survival benefit for advanced hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) and Aurora A kinase (AURKA) represents a feasible target in
      cancer treatment. The purpose of this study is to investigate the anticancer
      activity of alisertib (ALS) on Hep3B cells based on a proteomic study conducted
      with the stable-isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC). The
      proteomic response to ALS was obtained with SILAC-based proteomic study. Cell
      cycle distribution and apoptosis were assessed using flow cytometry and autophagy
      was determined using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. ALS inhibited the
      proliferation of Hep3B cells, with IC50 values for 24- and 48-h exposure of 46.8
      and 28.0 MUM, respectively. Our SILAC study demonstrated that there were at least
      565 proteins responding to ALS treatment, with 256 upregulated, 275 downregulated
      and 35 stable. Ninety-four signaling pathways, majority of which involved cell
      proliferation and survival, programmed cell death, and nutrition and energy
      metabolism, were regulated by ALS. ALS significantly inhibited the
      phosphorylation of AURKA at Thr288 in a concentration-dependent manner.
      Subsequent study showed that ALS remarkably arrested Hep3B cells in G2/M phase
      via regulating the expression of key cell cycle regulators, and induced a marked
      autophagy via the PI3K/Akt/mTOR axis. Inhibition of autophagy enhanced the
      anticancer activity of ALS in Hep3B cells. Overall, ALS leads to comprehensive
      proteomic response, inhibits cellular proliferation, and induces cell cycle
      arrest and autophagy in Hep3B cells. Further studies are warranted to explore the
      role of ALS in the treatment of HCC.

PMID- 28861150
TI  - MicroRNA-130a-3p suppresses cell viability, proliferation and invasion in
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma by inhibiting CXCL12.
AB  - Incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has remained high worldwide, posing a
      serious health problem. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of about 20-23
      nucleotides small non-coding molecules, which play a significant role in NPC. In
      this study, we explored the molecular mechanisms of miR-130a-3p in inhibiting
      viability, proliferation, migration and invasion of NPC cells by suppressing
      CXCL12. The relative expression of miR-130a-3p and CXCL12 mRNA expression in
      tissues and cells was measured by qRT-PCR. NPC cell line CNE-2Z was transfected
      with miR-130a-3p mimics, CXCL12 siRNA, cDNA-CXCL12 and negative control. Western
      Blot was performed to detect CXCL12 expression. The MTT assay was performed to
      study cell viability. The colony formation assay was done to test cell growth.
      Flow cytometry was conducted to analyze cell cycle and apoptosis. The Transwell
      assay was used to investigate cell migration and invasion. The results found that
      the up-regulation of miR-130a-3p or down-regulation of CXCL12 could inhibit
      viability, proliferation, migration and invasion of CNE-2Z cells. Luciferase
      reporting system assay was performed to investigate miR-130a-3p could bind to the
      3'UTR region of CXCL12 and the overexpression of miR-130a-3p could suppress
      CXCL12 expression. Collectively, our finding suggested demonstrated that miR-130a
      3p could prohibit the progression of NPC by suppressing CXCL12, which might serve
      as potential therapeutic targets for NPC.

PMID- 28861149
TI  - Posttranslational modifications of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase
      IIdelta and its downstream signaling in human failing hearts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In human failing hearts (HF) of different origin (coronary artery
      disease-CAD, dilated-DCM, restrictive and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-OTHER), we
      investigated the active forms of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIdelta
      (p-Thr287-CaMKIIdelta, oxMet281/282-CaMKIIdelta) and their role in phenotypes of
      the disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: Although basic diagnostic and clinical markers
      indicating the attenuated cardiac contractility and remodeling were comparable in
      HF groups, CaMKIIdelta-mediated axis was different. P-Thr287-CaMKIIdelta was
      unaltered in CAD group, whereas it was upregulated in non-ischemic
      cardiomyopathic groups. No correlation between the upregulated p-Thr287
      CaMKIIdelta and QT interval prolongation was detected. Unlike in DCM,
      oxMet281/282-CaMKIIdelta did not differ among HF groups. Independently of
      CaMKIIdelta phosphorylation/oxidation, activation of its downstreams
      phospholamban and cardiac myosin binding protein-C was significantly
      downregulated supporting both diminished cardiac lusitropy and inotropy in all
      hearts. Content of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase 2a in all HF was unchanged.
      Protein phosphatase1beta was upregulated in CAD and DCM only, while 2A did not
      differ among groups. CONCLUSION: This is the first demonstration that the
      posttranslational activation of CaMKIIdelta differs in HF depending on etiology.
      Lower levels of downstream molecular targets of CaMKIIdelta do not correlate with
      either activation of CaMKIIdelta or the expression of major protein phosphatases
      in the HF. Thus, it is unlikely that these mechanisms exclusively underlie
      failing of the heart.

PMID- 28861151
TI  - microRNA-204 modulates chemosensitivity and apoptosis of prostate cancer cells by
      targeting zinc-finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1).
AB  - Epigenetic gene inactivation by microRNAs (miRNAs) is crucial in malignant
      transformation, prevention of apoptosis, development of drug resistance, and
      metastasis. miR-204 dysregulation has been reported in prostate cancer (PC). It
      is considered to exert tumor suppressor functions and is associated with the
      development of chemoresistance. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying the
      role of miR-204 in PC, particularly in chemoresistance, remain to be fully
      elucidated. In this study, analysis using miRNA microarray showed that miR-204 is
      downregulated in chemoresistant PC tissues with respect to its expression in
      chemosensitive PC tissues and benign prostatic hyperplasia tissues. Microarray
      results were validated via qPCR. The changes in miR-204 expression levels were
      also observed in vitro. Forced overexpression of miR-204 evidently attenuated
      docetaxel chemoresistance and promoted apoptosis in PC-3-R cells, whereas miR-204
      knockdown effectively reduced docetaxel-induced cell death and inhibited cell
      apoptosis. Mechanistically, miR-204 directly targets the 3'-untranslated region
      of zinc-finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) and inhibits its protein
      expression via translational repression. Furthermore, suppression of ZEB1 could
      effectively improve miR-204 deficiency-triggered chemoresistance in PC cells. Our
      results collectively indicate that miR-204 expression is downregulated in
      chemoresistant PC tissues and cells and that miR-204/ZEB1 could potentially be
      used as adjunct therapy for patients with advanced/chemoresistant PC.

PMID- 28861152
TI  - MicroRNA-138 attenuates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition by targeting SOX4 in
      clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs which can serve as oncogenes or
      tumor suppressor genes in human cancers. Herein, the transcriptomic differences
      of miRNAs in ccRCC were globally assessed using publicly available microarray
      dataset (GSE71302) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and we identified miR-138
      as a potential onco-suppressive miRNA. We further found that the expression of
      miR-138 was dramatically decreased in ccRCC cell lines and clinical ccRCC tissue
      samples, and the low miR-138 expression was closely correlated with tumor
      progression and prognosis in ccRCC patients. Overexpression of miR-138 inhibited,
      whereas downregulation of miR-138 promoted, the proliferation, migration and
      invasion of ccRCC cells in vitro, suggesting that miR-138 may function as a tumor
      suppressor in ccRCC. Furthermore, for the first time, we identified the EMT
      related transcription factor SOX4 as a direct target gene of miR-138, evidenced
      by the direct binding of miR-138 with the 3'UTR of SOX4. Notably, the EMT marker
      E-cadherin or vimentin was also upregulated or downregulated upon miR-138
      overexpression, and these effects were restored by SOX4 overexpression. We have
      also shown SOX4 overexpression reversed the attenuated migratory and invasive
      capacities mediated by miR-138. These results revealed that miR-138 functions as
      a tumor suppressor in ccRCC by targeting SOX4 and the EMT process and might
      represent a potential target in the treatment of human ccRCC.

PMID- 28861153
TI  - Peripheral blood Th9 cells reconstitution and its relationship with acute graft
      versus-host disease after matched-sibling peripheral blood hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation.
AB  - T helper type 9 (Th9) cells have recently been identified as a new effector T
      cell subset. This study is to analyze the reconstitution of Th9 cell after
      matched sibling peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (MS
      PBSCT) and the relationship between Th9 cell and acute graft-versus-host disease
      (aGVHD). Flow cytometry and ELISA were used to analyze the percentages of Th9
      cell, levels of IL-9, TGF-beta, IFN-gamma, and IL-4. The results showed that for
      patients without aGVHD, Th9 cells recovery started from day 60 after
      transplantation and reached normal level on day 90. Serum TGF-beta, IL-4, and IFN
      gamma reached normal levels on day 60, 60, and 90 post transplantation
      respectively. The serum IL-9 recovery is slower than that of IFN-gamma and IL-4.
      For patients suffering from aGVHD, they had declined Th9 cell numbers, lower IL-9
      and TGF-beta levels, but higher serum IFN-gamma level when compared with those
      without aGVHD after transplantation. Serum IFN-gamma/IL-9 ratios increased
      linearly with grades of aGVHD. In conclusion, Th9 cells recovery is delayed after
      MS-PBSCT in patients with aGVHD but early in patients without aGVHD, indicating
      quick immune reconstitution of Th9 cells and IL-9 after MS-PBSCT may promote the
      immune tolerance.

PMID- 28861154
TI  - Curcumin inhibits human non-small cell lung cancer xenografts by targeting STAT3
      pathway.
AB  - Human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common cause of cancer
      related death in men. Signal transducers and activators of transcription 3
      (STAT3) is a potential molecular target in angiogenesis-mediated cancer therapy.
      In this study, we subcutaneously injected athymic nude mice with NCI-H460 cells
      to induce ectopic xenograft model, and treated the animals with curcumin (100
      mg/kg) or vehicle by oral gavage. Tumor size and tumor weight were significantly
      reduced by curcumin treatment. Besides, curcumin significantly decreased
      hemoglobin content and mRNA expression of CD31 and CD105 in tumor tissue,
      suggesting that curcumin could inhibit angiogenesis in NSCLC xenograft.
      Similarly, we intrathoracally injected athymic nude mice with H1975 cells to
      induce orthotopic xenograft model, in which curcumin significantly reduced tumor
      weight as well as improved the survival rate of mice. STAT3 pathway was involved
      in curcumin-induced tumor inhibition, in which phosphorylation of STAT3 and JAK
      in ectopic xenograft were both declined after curcumin treatment, and the STAT3
      regulated promoter activation of VEGF, Bcl-xL, Cyclin D1 was also significantly
      reduced after treatment. In in vitro assays, curcumin significantly inhibited
      cell migration and tube formation of NCI-H460 cells, but transfection with pMXs
      Stat3C, a dominant active mutant, could abolish the inhibitory effects of
      curcumin on the cells, suggesting curcumin inhibited tumor angiogenesis of NCI
      H460 cells through the inactivation of STAT3. All data showed that curcumin could
      be a potential drug targeting STAT3 to treat NSCLC.

PMID- 28861155
TI  - Calcitriol promotes survival of experimental random pattern flap via activation
      of autophagy.
AB  - Calcitriol can promote random pattern flap survival and increase autophagy
      activity. However, effect of autophagy on flap survival after calcitriol
      treatment, along with the underlying mechanism, is undefined. In this study, the
      "McFarlane flap" model was established in 72 rats divided into control,
      calcitriol, and calcitriol+3-methyladenine (3MA) groups and injected with saline,
      calcitriol, and calcitriol plus 3MA, respectively. The percentage flap survival
      area and tissue water content were tested after 7 days. The extent of autophagy
      was evaluated by the expression of the autophagy markers LC3-II/I, Beclin1, and
      p62. Flap angiogenesis was assessed via hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and
      immunohistochemistry (for CD34 levels). The level of vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF) protein/mRNA was measured. Oxidative stress was assessed by
      measuring the activity of tissue superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the contents of
      glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA). Our results showed that 3MA
      decreased autophagy in random skin flap treated with calcitriol. Compared with
      the calcitriol group, the calcitriol+3MA group showed a smaller mean flap
      survival area and greater tissue edema, had a markedly decreased level of VEGF
      mRNA/protein and SOD activity, and a significantly higher level of MDA and GSH.
      H&E staining and immunohistochemistry showed that angiogenesis was inhibited in
      this group. In conclusion, calcitriol increased angiogenesis and reduced
      oxidative stress via activation of autophagy, contributing to a significant
      increase in random skin flap survival.

PMID- 28861156
TI  - MIR-519d suppresses the gastric cancer epithelial-mesenchymal transition via
      Twist1 and inhibits Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) deregulation is frequent in human gastric cancer (GC). MiR
      519d has been reported to function as tumor suppressor microRNA in some tumors.
      However, the role of miR-519d in GC progression remains unclear. In the study, we
      demonstrated that the expression of miR-519d was down-regulated in gastric cancer
      tissues and cell lines, and lower miR-519d expression was associated with distant
      metastasis, lymph node metastasis and clinical stage for patients with GC.
      Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis showed that lower miR-519d expression
      was positively associated with shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and the over
      survival (OS) time for GC patients and was an independent predictor. Kaplan-Meier
      curve and log-rank test also demonstrated that lower miR-519d had a poor shorter
      DFS and OS for GC patients. Function analysis showed that the inhibition of miR
      519d expression was able to promote the cell proliferation, migration and
      invasion and over-expression of miR-519d in GC cells had inhibited effects.
      Moreover, we demonstrated that over-expression of miR-519d significantly
      inhibited the process of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in GC cells and
      miR-519d can directly target at 3'-untranslation region of Twist1 and regulate
      its expression. We also demonstrated that miR-519d could suppress the Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling pathway in GC cells. In vivo, we showed that miR-519d inhibited
      the tumor growth. Thus, our results suggested that miR-519d functioned as a tumor
      suppressor in GC and could be a promising therapeutic target for GC.

PMID- 28861157
TI  - TIM-1 attenuates the protection of ischemic preconditioning for ischemia
      reperfusion injury in liver transplantation.
AB  - Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) has been introduced to protect grafts against
      ischemic reperfusion injury (IRI) during liver transplantation (LT) in recent
      years. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of IPC are not fully
      understood. We aimed to confirm whether the efficacy of IPC is dependent on T
      cell Immunoglobulin and Mucin domain-containing molecules-1 (TIM-1). Quantitative
      real-time reverse transcription PCR and western blotting were used to detect the
      expression of genes of interest. Graft function was assessed using the levels of
      alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST), percentage of
      apoptosis cells and pathological examination. IPC treatment alleviated graft
      function after ischemic reperfusion. AST, ALT, CD68, CD3 positive cells and
      tissue myeloperoxidase activity were decreased significantly by IPC. IPC
      decreased the expressions of the cytokines and chemokines. Compared with the IRI
      group, TIM-1 expression and TIM-1 positive cells were inhibited significantly in
      the IPC group. TIM-1 blockage abolished the protective effect of IPC on IRI
      damage. IPC could not further improve graft function and decrease the
      sequestration of immune cells after blocking TIM-1 signaling. IPC is a convenient
      therapeutic strategy against IRI during LT. The benefit of IPC depends on TIM-1
      signaling.

PMID- 28861158
TI  - FL118, a novel survivin inhibitor, wins the battle against drug-resistant and
      metastatic lung cancers through inhibition of cancer stem cell-like properties.
AB  - Failure of cancer treatment caused by drug resistance and metastasis is mainly
      due to existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Therefore, targeting CSCs to
      overcome cancers is a challenging issue in clinic. In this report, in view of the
      important role of survivin in tumor growth and CSCs maintaining, we aimed to
      confirm that FL118, as a novel survivin inhibitor, may effectively inhibit lung
      cancer stem cells. We showed that lung cancer stem cells have the obviously
      higher expression of survivin than their parental cells. After treated with
      FL118, the survivin level in CSCs was suppressed. Consistently, lung cancer stem
      cells displayed significantly growth inhibition over time. Here, we compared the
      antitumor efficacy between FL118 and cisplatin. The data revealed that CSCs are
      more sensitive to FL118 than cisplatin. To further demonstrate the inhibitory
      effect of FL118 on CSCs, we found that FL118 down-regulated the expression of
      CSCs markers (ABCG2, ALDH1A1, Oct4) and drug resistant proteins (P-gp, ERCC1),
      suggesting that FL118 may change CSCs phenotype and improve drug-sensitivity of
      tumor cells. Moreover, FL118 effectively decreased the invasive ability of CSCs.
      These findings expand the uniqueness of FL118 as an attractive therapeutic option
      for cancers with drug-resistant or metastatic potential.

PMID- 28861159
TI  - Relationship and mechanism of Kv2.1 expression to ADH secretion in rats with
      heart failure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the mechanisms of Kv2.1 on the secretion of ADH in rats
      with heart failure. METHODS: In the animal study, 70 healthy male SD rats were
      selected. Ligation of coronary heart failure model surgery was performed in 60
      rats and sham surgery was performed in the other 10 rats. Q-PCR was used to
      detect the mRNA expression of Kv2.1 in hypothalamus and heart. The protein
      expression of Kv2.1 and ADH was detected by western blot. In the cell culture
      study, hypothalamic neurons were cultured and divided into 7 groups. The mRNA
      expression of Kv2.1 and ADH was detected by Q-PCR. The protein expression of
      Kv2.1, CamKII, phosphorylation SynapsinI, dephosphorylation SynapsinI and ADH was
      detected by western blot. RESULTS: Compared with the control group of heart
      failure, LVEDD, LVESD, LVEDV and LVESV were significantly decreased (P < 0.01),
      and LVEF and LVFS were significantly increased (P < 0.01) in the Kv2.1 agonist
      group; in the Kv2.1 inhibitor group, LVEDD, LVESD, LVEDV and LVESV were
      significantly increased (P < 0.01), and LVEF and LVFS were significantly
      decreased (P < 0.01). In cell culture study, after the different concentrations
      of Kv2.1 inhibitor gradient down the expression of Kv2.1, intracellular Ca2+
      concentration gradient increased (P < 0.01), CamKII and phosphorylation of
      SynapsinI protein expression gradient increased (P < 0.01), dephosphorylation of
      SynapsinI protein expression gradient decreased (P < 0.01), and the ADH mRNA and
      protein expression of gradient increased (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Kv2.1 agonist
      can prevent the calcium overload by reducing the intracellular Ca2+
      concentration, so that the phosphorylation of SynapsinI reduces and exocytosis in
      hypothalamic neurons is inhibited, which ease the secretion of ADH.

PMID- 28861160
TI  - Long nonding RNA UCA1 regulates neural stem cell differentiation by controlling
      miR-1/Hes1 expression.
AB  - Neural stem cells are able to self-renew and generate glial and neuronal
      lineages. Neural stem cell may serve as therapeutic method for neurological
      disorders including spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's
      disease and Alzheimer's disease. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are longer than
      200 nucleotides with limited protein-coding capacity. Recent studies have
      demonstreated that lncRNAs play an important role in several cellular processes
      including cell differentiation, cell development, proliferation, apoptosis,
      invasion and migration. However, the role of lncRNA human urothelial carcinoma
      associated 1 (UCA1) in the development of neural stem cells remains unknown. In
      this study, we showed that the expression of UCA1 was upregulated in the neural
      stem cell in a time-dependent manner. Knockdown of UCA1 suppressed the neural
      stem cell proliferation. Inhibition of UCA1 decreased the expression of nestin
      and the formation of neurosphere. Moreover, knockdown of UCA1 suppressed the
      neural stem cell differentiation to astrocyte and promoted the neural stem cell
      differentiation to neuron. Furthermore, we demonstrated that knockdown of UCA1
      increased the expression of miR-1 in the neural stem cell and suppressed the
      expresion of Hes1, which is one target gene of miR-1. In addition, ectopic
      expression of Hes1 could impair siUCA1-induced neural stem cells proliferation.
      Overexpression of Hes1 suppressed siUCA1-induced beta-tubulin expression and
      promoted siUCA1-inhibited GFAP expression in the neural stem cell. These results
      suggested that UCA1 regulated the neural stem cell proliferation and
      differentiation through regulating Hes1 expression.

PMID- 28861161
TI  - miR-320 inhibited ovarian cancer oncogenicity via targeting TWIST1 expression.
AB  - Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer in most countries.
      Increasing studies have demonstrated that dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) can
      contribute to cancer progression. In this study, we showed that miR-320 was
      underexpressed in ovarian cancer samples compared to their non-tumor tissues. The
      expression of Twist homolog 1 (TWIST1) in ovarian cancer tissues was upregulated
      compared with that in the non-tumorous tissues. We found that the expression of
      TWIST1 was inversely correlated with that of miR-320 in the ovarian cancer.
      Overexpression of miR-320 suppressed cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion
      in ovarian cancer. We identified TWIST1 as a direct target gene of miR-320 in the
      ovarian cancer cell. Overexpression of TWIST1 promoted the ovarian cancer cell
      proliferation, cell cycle and invasion. Ectopic expression of TWIST1 restored the
      effects of miR-320 on cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion. These findings
      revealed that miR-320 was a tumor suppressive gene that supressed cell
      prloferation, cycle and invasion through targeting TWIST1 in ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28861162
TI  - Suppression of miR-4735-3p in androgen receptor-expressing prostate cancer cells
      increases cell death during chemotherapy.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in the tumorigenesis of prostate cancer,
      while the biological function of miR-4735-3p is unknown. Mitogen-activated
      protein kinase kinase kinase 1 (MEKK1) has been shown to induce androgen receptor
      (AR)-dependent apoptosis in prostate cancer cells, but the regulation of MEKK1 in
      prostate cancer cells remains poorly defined. Here, we showed that miR-4735-3p
      was a MEKK1-targeting miRNA, and was highly expressed in AR+ prostate cancer
      specimens. Moreover, the levels of miR-4735-3p and MEKK1 inversely correlated.
      MiR-4735-3p-low subjects had a better overall survival, compared to miR-4735-3p
      high subjects. MiR-4735-3p targeted the 3'-UTR of MEKK1 mRNA to inhibit its
      protein translation. Overexpression of miR-4735-3p inhibited MEKK1-mediated cell
      apoptosis upon docetaxel treatment, while depletion of miR-4735-3p enhanced it.
      Together, our data suggest that miR-4735-3p may suppress MEKK1-mediated prostate
      cancer cell apoptosis during chemotherapy. Inhibition of miR-4735-3p may improve
      the outcome of chemotherapy for some prostate cancers.

PMID- 28861163
TI  - Image-guided stem cells with functionalized self-assembling peptide nanofibers
      for treatment of acute myocardial infarction in a mouse model.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the survival of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)
      and the therapeutic effect for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) after co
      transplantation with the functionalized self-assembling peptide nanofiber RAD/PRG
      or RAD/KLT. METHODS: AMI of balb/c mice was induced. Mice were randomly divided
      into four groups, and received treatment of phosphate buffered saline (PBS)
      (Group A), GFP/Fluc-BMSCs (Group B), GFP/Fluc-BMSCs + RAD/PRG (Group C), and
      GFP/Fluc-BMSCs + RAD/KLT (Group D), respectively. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI)
      was performed on day 1 (d-1), d-4, d-7, d-10, and d-13 after transplantation.
      Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed at baseline (d-4 before
      transplantation) and d-29 after treatment. Mice were euthanized on d-29 following
      treatment. Paraffin sections were obtained from the top, mid and bottom part of
      the infarcted region along the long-axis of the heart. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE)
      staining and immunohistochemical staining were performed. The infarct ratio micro
      vascular density (MVD) was quantified. RESULTS: There was a significant higher of
      BLI signal intensity of BMSCs in Group C than that in Group B (d-4, 9713+/-320
      vs. 8164+/-378, P=0.0008; d-7, 6489+/-241 vs. 5417+/-361, P=0.0026; d-10, 3768+/
      255 vs. 0, P < 0.0001). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) via MRI
      examination was significantly improved in both Group C and Group D. Infarct ratio
      and MVD were significantly improved in both Group C and Group D. CONCLUSION: Our
      data highlights BMSCs combining functionalized self-assembling peptide nanofibers
      RAD/PRG or RAD/KLT as promising therapy for AMI.

PMID- 28861164
TI  - Danggui buxue tang suppresses high glucose-induced proliferation and
      extracellular matrix accumulation of mesangial cells via inhibiting lncRNA PVT1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT), a traditional Chinese medicine decoction,
      has been proven to have satisfactory effects on treating diabetic nephropathy
      (DN). In this study, we explored the potential underlying mechanism of DBT in DN
      treatment. METHODS: The DBT-containning serum was prepared by intragastric
      administration with DBT for rats. The levels of fibronectin (FN), laminin (LN)
      and collagen IV (COL IV) and TGF-beta1 protein secreted in cell culture medium
      were determined by ELISA assay. The mRNA and protein expression of related
      molecule was measured using qRT-PCR and western blotting. MTT assay was applied
      to test MCs proliferation. RESULTS: DBT has a negative effect on the high glucose
      (HG)-induced proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation of
      mesangial cells (MCs). Further research showed that DBT reduced the acetylation
      level of histone H3 at the site of PVT1 promoter to promote PVT1 downregulation,
      which was accompanied by a decrease in TGF-beta and c-myc expression. Moreover,
      PVT1 overexpression significantly enhanced cell viability and promoted the
      expression levels of TGF-beta1 and c-myc. Furthermore, PVT1 overexpression
      significantly reversed the inhibition of DBT on HG-induced cell viability and ECM
      accumulation and also lifted the effect of DBT on TGF-beta1 and c-myc expression.
      CONCLUSION: DBT inhibited TGF-beta1 and c-myc expression through downregulating
      PVT1, and thus attenuated MCs excessive proliferation and ECM accumulation in DN.

PMID- 28861165
TI  - Association of ECRG4 with PLK1, CDK4, PLOD1 and PLOD2 in esophageal squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - Esophageal cancer-related gene 4 (ECRG4) is a tumor suppressor gene associated
      with the prognosis of esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC). Studies have
      reported that ECRG4 effectively inhibits the proliferation, migration and
      invasion of ESCC cells. In the current study, ectopic expression of ECRG4
      significantly induced ESCC cell apoptosis. To further understand the molecular
      profile of ECRG4 overexpression in ESCC cells, tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling
      followed by LC-MS/MS analysis was applied on samples from ECRG4 overexpressed
      cells and control cells. Among the identified differentially expressed proteins,
      four up-regulated proteins (PLK1, CDK4, PLOD1 and PLOD2) associated with cell
      apoptosis, cell cycle and metastasis were chosen for the further investigation.
      The effects of ECRG4 protein levels on the expression of these four proteins were
      validated by manipulating the expression of ECRG4 in ESCC cells followed by
      Western blotting analysis. The immunohistochemical staining results showed a
      significant decrease in ECRG4 levels and a notable increase in the four proteins
      in ESCC samples as compared to matched esophageal tissues (n=75). More
      importantly, the protein levels of ECRG4 had a negative association with those of
      PLK1, CDK4, PLOD1 and PLOD2. Thus, our data suggested that the tumor-repressor
      functions of ECRG4 may be associated with PLK1, CDK4, PLOD1 and PLOD2, providing
      important insights into the molecular mechanisms of esophageal carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28861166
TI  - YKL-40 promotes the migration and invasion of prostate cancer cells by regulating
      epithelial mesenchymal transition.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to observe the expression of YKL-40 in prostate cancer
      and whether YKL-40 can affect the migration and invasion of tumor cells by
      regulating epithelial mesenchymal transition. METHODS: We collected 14 cases of
      prostate cancer tissues and adjacent tissues in this study. The expression levels
      of YKL-40 in the tissues were analyzed by western blotting and
      immunohistochemical methods. The expression of YKL-40 in human prostate cancer
      cell line DU145 and PC3 was detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR and western
      blotting methods. The expression levels of YKL-40 in different cells were up
      regulated or down- regulated by lentivirus to observe the changes of cell
      migration and invasion. The expression levels of EMT related genes were analyzed
      by RT-PCR and Western blotting methods. RESULTS: The expression level of YKL-40
      in prostate cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues
      (P<0.01), and it was higher in DU145 cells than that in PC3 cells (P<0.05). The
      expression level of YKL-40 was positively correlated with cell migration and
      invasion. YKL-40 can regulate the expression of EMT related genes (Twist, Snail,
      Slug, N-cadherin, Vimentin and E-cadherin). CONCLUSIONS: The expression level of
      YKL-40 was positively correlated with the migration and invasion of prostate
      cells, it affects cancer metastasis by regulating EMT.

PMID- 28861167
TI  - Can rheumatoid arthritis ever cease to exist: a review of various therapeutic
      modalities to maintain drug-free remission?
AB  - Therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were mostly aimed at reducing the pain,
      stiffness and further progression of joint destruction. However, with the advent
      of biologic agents that act against specific inflammatory cytokines contributing
      to RA pathogenesis (treat-to-target strategy), the degree of remission achieved
      has been remarkably impressive. In particular, inhibition of tumor necrosis
      factor alpha (TNFalpha), interleukins-1 and -6 and receptor-activator of nuclear
      kappa B ligand by neutralizing antibodies in early diagnosed RA patients has
      resulted in lowering of disease activity to levels that enable them to function
      as in the pre-disease stage. There are other biologic approaches such as
      depletion of B cells and blocking T-cell co-stimulators that have been included
      successfully in RA therapy under the class of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic
      drugs (DMARD). Given the excellent clinical outcomes of biologic DMARDs when
      initiated early in RA, discontinuation or dose tapering is practised. Because
      biologic DMARDs are expensive and also known to make users vulnerable to viral
      infections, dose reduction and drug holiday are reasonable steps when sustained
      good clinical response has been achieved. Majority clinical studies have been
      done with TNF inhibitors and data suggest that sustained remission of RA is
      achieved in several multi-centric studies carried out worldwide. However, high
      flare rate and reappearance of disease has been reported in several cases. This
      review critically discusses response predictors of biologic DMARDs, the case for
      treatment relaxation, strategizing drug tapering considering patient eligibility
      and timing in light of available clinical practice guidelines of RA.

PMID- 28861168
TI  - Inhibition of Wnt/beta-catenin by anthelmintic drug niclosamide effectively
      targets growth, survival, and angiogenesis of retinoblastoma.
AB  - Retinoblastoma is an angiogenesis-dependent ocular tumor, the clinical management
      of which remains a challenge. Agents that can target tumor cells and
      angiogenesis, as well as augment current chemotherapy efficacy, present a
      promising therapeutic strategy for retinoblastoma. We demonstrated that
      niclosamide, an FDA-approved anthelmintic drug, is effective against multiple
      aspects of retinoblastoma. Niclosamide inhibited proliferation via causing cell
      cycle arrest at the G2/M phase and induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in a panel
      of retinoblastoma cell lines, including Y79, RB116, and WERI-Rb-1. In addition,
      niclosamide inhibited retinoblastoma angiogenesis by disrupting capillary network
      formation, decreasing migration and proliferation, and inducing apoptosis of
      human primary retinal microvascular endothelial cells. We also demonstrated that
      niclosamide specifically suppresses the levels of p-LRP6, Dvl2, and beta-catenin,
      but not p-STAT3, in Y79 cells. It decreased beta-catenin activity and the mRNA
      expression levels of Wnt/beta-catenin target genes. Stabilization of beta-catenin
      with the Wnt activator lithium or overexpression of beta-catenin reversed the
      inhibitory effects of niclosamide in Y79 cells, confirming Wnt/beta-catenin as
      the molecular target of niclosamide in retinoblastoma cells. Importantly,
      niclosamide significantly enhanced the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of
      carboplatin and inhibited Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in a retinoblastoma
      xenograft mouse model. Our data suggest that niclosamide is a promising candidate
      for the treatment armamentarium for retinoblastoma. Our work also highlights that
      targeting Wnt/beta-catenin is a potential therapeutic strategy in retinoblastoma.

PMID- 28861169
TI  - Knockdown of REGgamma inhibits proliferation by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle
      arrest in prostate cancer.
AB  - Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignant tumor and the second leading
      cause of cancer related death among men in western countries. REGgamma, a
      proteasome activator, is reported to play important roles in various human
      cancers. However, the expression patterns and potential roles of REGgamma in
      prostate cancer have never been reported. In this study, we found for the first
      time that REGgamma is overexpressed in prostate cancer tissues and cell lines at
      both protein and mRNA levels. In addition, we demonstrated that knockdown of
      REGgamma significantly inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis and
      cell cycle arrest in PCa cell lines PC-3 and DU145. Moreover, we observed that
      the expressions of P21 were increased while the levels of cycinD1 and bcl-2 were
      decreased after knockdown of REGgamma in PCa cells. And the stabilization of P21
      was enhanced after REGgamma knockdown in PC-3 cells. In summary, our findings
      suggest that REGgamma may play important roles in prostate cancer and may serve
      as a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of PCa patients.

PMID- 28861170
TI  - MiR-663a/MiR-423-5p are involved in the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis via
      modulating the activation of NF-kappaB by targeting TNIP2.
AB  - Lupus nephritis (LN) is a kidney disorder resulting from systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune inflammatory disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have
      emerged as a new class of therapeutic targets in LN treatment, but how they
      specifically contribute to the disease development remains unknown. In this
      study, the expression of miR-663a/miR-423-5p and TNIP2 were compared between
      human renal biopsy tissues from LN patients and renal cell carcinoma patients.
      Additionally, the LN mouse model was used to measure the levels of miR-663a/miR
      423-5p and TNIP2 in the control group and the experiment group. Dual luciferase
      reporter assay was used to validate TNIP2 as the target of miR-663a/miR-423-5p.
      MiR-663a/miR-423-5p were highly expressed in kidney tissues from LN patients as
      compared to kidney tissues from SLE patients and normal tissues. TNIP2 showed
      comparatively low expression in tissues from LN patients. In the LN mouse model,
      the levels of miR-663a/miR-423-5p were improved whereas TNIP2 was reduced in
      response to renal injury stimulated by pristine. MiR-663a/miR-423-5p mimics and
      inhibitors triggered decrease and increase of TNIP2 levels, respectively. Dual
      luciferase assay showed that TNIP2 was a direct target of miR-663a/miR-423-5p. In
      addition, detection of inflammatory factors confirmed that miR-663a/miR-423-5p
      and TNIP2 fundamentally contributed to LPS-induced NF-kappaB activation. Our
      findings suggested the involvement of miR-663a/miR-423-5p-TNIP2-NF-kappaB axis in
      the development of LN, thereby providing new therapeutic targets for LN
      treatment.

PMID- 28861171
TI  - Caragaphenol a induces reactive oxygen species related apoptosis in human gastric
      cancer cells.
AB  - Caragaphenol A (CAA) is a novel resveratrol trimer isolated from the roots of
      Caraganastenophylla. However, the biological activity of CAA is still unknown. In
      the present study, we investigated the anticancer effects of CAA on gastric
      cancer cells. CAA selectively inhibited cell growth of human gastric cancer
      cells. Moreover, CAA potently induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and
      apoptosis with the increased intracellular reactive oxidative species (ROS)
      level. Inhibition of ROS could partially rescue CAA-induced cell apoptosis.
      Additionally, DNA is not the target of CAA. CAA in combination with DDP or 5FU
      synergistically inhibited the growth of human gastric cancer cells. Altogether,
      our study provides the evidence for the potential therapeutic application of CAA
      on human gastric cancer.

PMID- 28861172
TI  - Hepatocyte growth factor induces breast cancer cell invasion via the PI3K/Akt and
      p38 MAPK signaling pathways to up-regulate the expression of COX2.
AB  - Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a multifunctional growth factor that plays
      important roles in promoting the invasion and metastasis of various tumor cells.
      However, there are few reports about the exact mechanisms of HGF involved in the
      regulation of cell invasion via the induction of COX2. In this study, we found
      that HGF could activate its receptor c-Met and up-regulate COX2 expression in a
      dose- and time-dependent manner, which resulted in an increase in MMP-9
      expression and subsequent invasiveness of the breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231
      and MCF-7. The HGF-induced expression of COX2 and MMP-9 and cell invasion were
      partially suppressed by COX2 gene silencing. The PI3K/Akt and p38 MAPK signaling
      pathways were activated by HGF in both cell lines. However, PI3K/Akt or p38 MAPK
      specific inhibition alone partially attenuated HGF-induced COX2 and MMP-9
      expression and the invasiveness of the two breast cancer cell lines, and these
      HGF-induced effects were almost completely abolished by simultaneous treatment
      with both inhibitors. Therefore, we concluded that HGF mediates the up-regulation
      of COX2 predominantly through the PI3K/Akt and p38 MAPK signaling pathways,
      leading to MMP-9 expression and the subsequent invasion of two breast cancer cell
      lines. This study improves our understanding of the signal transduction
      mechanisms in the HGF-induced invasion and progression of breast cancer.

PMID- 28861173
TI  - Therapeutic effect of rosuvastatin and propylthiouracil on ameliorating high
      cholesterol diet-induced fatty liver disease, fibrosis and inflammation in
      rabbit.
AB  - This study tested the hypothesis that high-cholesterol diet (HCD)-induced fatty
      liver disease could be ameliorated by rosuvastatin (Ros) and propylthiouracil
      (PTU) therapy. Thirty-two Zealand rabbits were equally divided into group 1 (sham
      control), group 2 (HCD for 8 weeks), group 3 [HCD-Ros (20 mg/kg/day
      administration after 4-week HFD for 4 weeks)], group 4 [HCD-PTU (0.1% PTU in
      drinking water) with treatment course as group 3]. Liver weight, fibrosis,
      collagen deposition area, and serum levels of AST/ALT were highest in group 2,
      lowest in group 1, and significantly higher in group 4 than group 3 (all
      P<0.0001). The levels of inflammatory (TNF-alpha/NF-kappaB/IL-1beta/IL-6/MMP
      9/VCAM-1/PAI-1/TLR-4, MyD88/IL-12/IFN-gamma), oxidative stress (NOX-1/NOX
      2/oxidized protein), apoptotic (Bax/cleaved-capase-3/PARP), fibrotic (Smad-3/TGF
      beta), and mitochondria-damaged (cytosolic-cytochrome-C) proteins showed an
      identical pattern, whereas antiapoptotic (Bcl-2), mitochondrial-integrity
      (mitochondrial-cytochrome-C) and antioxidative (SIRT1/SIRT3) biomarkers exhibited
      an opposite pattern to fibrosis among the four groups (all P<0.0001). The
      cellular expressions of inflammatory (Kupffer/CD14/CD44), alpha-fetoprotein
      positively stained biomarkers, apoptotic nuclei and fat cells displayed an
      identical pattern to fibrosis (all P<0.0001). In conclusion, Ros-PTU therapy
      attenuated liver fibrosis, inflammatory reaction and generation of oxidative
      stress and fatty liver after HCD challenge in rabbits.

PMID- 28861174
TI  - Protective effect of asiatic acid in an experimental cerulein-induced model of
      acute pancreatitis in mice.
AB  - Asiatic acid (AA), a triterpenoid derived from the medicinal plant Centella
      asiatica, is considered to have anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic and anti-tumor
      effects, but its effects in acute pancreatitis (AP) are unknown. Our purpose of
      this study was to investigate the effects of AA in a mouse model of cerulein
      induced pancreatitis. We evaluated AA in an experimental model of AP induced in
      mice by six hourly intraperitoneal injections of cerulein 50 ug/kg. Mice were
      pretreated with vehicle or AA 50 mg/kg 2 h before the first cerulein injection.
      The severity of AP was evaluated histologically and by biochemistry,
      myeloperoxidase activity, proinflammatory cytokine production, and nuclear factor
      (NF)-kappaB activity. Administration of AA significantly reduced the severity of
      AP, and was associated with reduction of serum amylase and lipase levels,
      decreased pancreatic histological damage, and decreased myeloperoxidase activity.
      The serum levels and mRNA expression of interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and NF-kappaB activity were reduced. AA also
      significantly improved the in vitro viability of pancreatic acinar cells induced
      by cholecystokinin (CCK) and suppressed NF-kappaB activity. AA protected against
      experimental AP, possibly by reducing production of proinflammatory cytokines via
      suppression NF-kappaB activation.

PMID- 28861175
TI  - The STAT3 inhibitor pimozide impedes cell proliferation and induces ROS
      generation in human osteosarcoma by suppressing catalase expression.
AB  - Currently, there is a considerable need to develop new treatments for
      osteosarcoma (OS), a very aggressive bone cancer. The activation of STAT3
      signaling is positively associated with poor prognosis and aggressive progression
      in OS patients. Our previous study reported that the FDA-approved antipsychotic
      drug pimozide had anti-tumor activity against hepatocellular carcinoma and
      prostate cancer cells by suppressing STAT3 activity. Therefore, the aim of this
      study was to investigate the specific effect of pimozide on OS cells and the
      underlying molecular mechanism. Pimozide inhibited cell proliferation, colony
      formation, and sphere formation capacities of the OS cells in a dose-dependent
      manner, inducing G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest. Pimozide reduced the percentage
      of side population cells representing cancer stem-like cells and enhanced the
      sensitivity of OS cells to 5-FU induced proliferative inhibition. In addition,
      pimozide induced apoptosis of U2OS cells, which showed increased expression of
      cleaved-PARP, a marker of programmed cell death. Moreover, pimozide suppressed
      Erk signaling in OS cells. Importantly, pimozide induced ROS generation by
      downregulating the expression of the antioxidant enzyme catalase (CAT). NAC
      treatment partially reversed the ROS generation and cytotoxic effects induced by
      pimozide. CAT treatment attenuated the pimozide-induced proliferation inhibition.
      The decrease of CAT expression induced by pimozide was potentially mediated
      through the suppression of cellular STAT3 activity in OS cells. Thus, pimozide
      may be a novel STAT3 inhibitor that suppresses cellular STAT3 activity to inhibit
      OS cells or stem-like cells and is a novel potential anti-cancer agent in OS
      treatment.

PMID- 28861176
TI  - Prevalence of obesity and diabetes in patients with schizophrenia.
AB  - AIM: To compare the prevalence of diabetes in patients with schizophrenia treated
      at a community mental health center with controls in the same metropolitan area
      and to examine the effect of antipsychotic exposure on diabetes prevalence in
      schizophrenia patients. METHODS: The study was a comprehensive chart review of
      psychiatric notes of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder
      treated at a psychosis program in a community mental health center. Data
      collected included psychiatric diagnoses, diabetes mellitus diagnosis,
      medications, allergies, primary care status, height, weight, body mass index
      (BMI), substance use and mental status exam. Local population data was downloaded
      from the Centers for Disease Control Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
      Statistical methods used were chi2 test, Student's t test, general linear model
      procedure and binary logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The study sample
      included 326 patients with schizophrenia and 1899 subjects in the population
      control group. Demographic data showed control group was on average 7.6 years
      older (P = 0.000), more Caucasians (78.7% vs 38.3%, P = 0.000), and lower
      percentage of males (40.7% vs 58.3%, P = 0.000). Patients with schizophrenia had
      a higher average BMI than the subjects in the population control (32.11, SD =
      7.72 vs 27.62, SD = 5.93, P = 0.000). Patients with schizophrenia had a
      significantly higher percentage of obesity (58.5% vs 27%, P = 0.000) than the
      population group. The patients with schizophrenia also had a much higher rate of
      diabetes compared to population control (23.9% vs 12.2%, P = 0.000). After
      controlling for age sex, and race, having schizophrenia was still associated with
      increased risk for both obesity (OR = 3.25, P = 0.000) and diabetes (OR = 2.42, P
      = 0.000). The increased risk for diabetes remained even after controlling for
      obesity (OR = 1.82, P = 0.001). There was no difference in the distribution of
      antipsychotic dosage, second generation antipsychotic use or multiple
      antipsychotic use within different BMI categories or with diabetes status in the
      schizophrenia group. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the high prevalence of
      obesity and diabetes in schizophrenia patients and indicates that antipsychotics
      may not be the only contributor to this risk.

PMID- 28861177
TI  - Age-dependent changes in the association between sleep duration and impaired
      glucose metabolism.
AB  - AIM: To investigate whether the association between sleep duration and impaired
      glucose metabolism varies among younger and older populations. METHODS: We
      reviewed data of self-reported habitual sleep duration per night, HbA1c levels,
      and clinically relevant factors in a cross-sectional checkup database of 75472
      Japanese from the general population aged 20-79 years (51695 men and 23777
      women). Associations of prediabetes (HbA1c >= 5.7% and/or diabetic
      pharmacotherapy) or diabetes (HbA1c >= 6.5% and/or diabetic pharmacotherapy) with
      short and long sleep durations compared with a reference sleep duration (7 h)
      were investigated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. We controlled for
      potential relevant confounders, including age, sex, and work duration per day
      according to younger and older subjects. RESULTS: As age advanced, sleep duration
      became longer and this increase in the 40s and 50s was two times greater in men
      than in women. This finding was accompanied by a deterioration in HbA1c levels.
      In subjects aged younger than 40 years (n = 32929), HbA1c levels were inversely
      and linearly correlated with sleep duration in both sexes. However, in subjects
      aged 40 years or older (n = 42543), HbA1c levels showed a non-linear relationship
      against sleep duration with a nadir at 7 h. Multivariate logistic regression
      analysis showed that in younger subjects, short durations of sleep (<= 5 h and 6
      h) were positively associated with prediabetes (both P < 0.001), but a long
      duration of sleep (>= 8 h) was inversely associated with prediabetes (P < 0.001).
      These associations remained significant after adjustment for relevant
      confounders, including age, sex, and work duration per day (ORs = 1.20, 95%CI:
      1.05-1.37, P < 0.001; ORs = 1.12, 95%CI: 1.02-1.24, P < 0.05; and ORs = 0.84,
      95%CI: 0.72-0.99, P < 0.05, respectively). In contrast, in older subjects,
      besides an association of prediabetes with a short duration of sleep (<= 5 h)
      (ORs = 1.12, 95%CI: 1.03-1.21, P < 0.01), diabetes was significantly associated
      with a long duration of sleep (>= 8 h) (ORs = 1.11, 95%CI: 1.02-1.25, P < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: A short sleep duration may be associated with prediabetes throughout
      life. However, the association between a long sleep duration and glucose
      metabolism can change with aging.

PMID- 28861178
TI  - Clinico-epidemiological factors of health related quality of life among people
      with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the quality of life (QOL) and its clinical and
      epidemiological correlates among people with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: This cross
      sectional study was conducted in Tabriz, Northwest of Iran, including a total of
      394 people with type 2 diabetes using convenient sampling method from November
      2014 to March 2015. General information including demographic, socioeconomic
      status and lifestyle factors were collected by trained interviewers. Clinical
      information was retrieved from clinic's record and QOL was assessed using the 26
      item WHOQOL-BRIFE questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate linear regression
      were performed to assess the related factors and QOL dimensions. RESULTS: The
      mean of overall health related QOL was 52.11 +/- 11.53 and the maximum and
      minimum dimensions were respectively seen in psychological (60.38 +/- 14.54) and
      social (38.32 +/- 16.94) dimensions. The results of multiple linear regression
      showed a significant overall relationship between HRQOL and age (b = -1.48%,
      95%CI: -0.03 and -2.93) level of education (b = 4.12%, 95%CI: 2.73 and 5.5),
      number of comorbidities (b = -2.41%, 95%CI: -3.89 and -9.41), and level of income
      (b = 1.98, 95%CI: 0.05 and 3.9), functional limitation (b = -3.59, 95%CI: -2.26
      and -4.92) and psychological distress (b = -2.02%, 95%CI: -2.83 and -1.21). Level
      of education, functional limitation, psychological distress were associated with
      the score of physical, mental and environmental dimensions, and number of
      comorbidities was associated with the score of physical and mental dimensions.
      CONCLUSION: Based on our findings, lifestyle modification and increasing
      facilities of clinics providing service can be effective steps to improve the QOL
      among people with type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28861179
TI  - Impact on dietary intake of a self-directed, gender-tailored diabetes prevention
      program in men.
AB  - AIM: To investigate changes in dietary intake following a 6-mo randomised
      controlled trial of the self-directed, gender-tailored type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM) Prevention Using LifeStyle Education (PULSE) program in men. METHODS: Men
      aged 18-65 years, with a body mass index (BMI) 25-40 kg/m2, and at high risk for
      developing T2DM were recruited from the Hunter Region of New South Wales,
      Australia. Eligible participants were randomised into one of two groups: (1)
      waitlist control; or (2) PULSE intervention. Dietary intake was assessed at
      baseline and immediately post-program using the Australian Eating Survey food
      frequency questionnaire and diet quality measured using the Australian
      Recommended Food Score (ARFS). RESULTS: One hundred and one participants (n = 48,
      control; n = 53, intervention, mean age 52.3 +/- 9.7 years, BMI of 32.6 +/- 3.3
      kg/m2) commenced the study. Following the active phase, differences between
      groups were observed for proportion of total energy consumed from healthful
      (core) foods (+7.6%EI, P < 0.001), energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods (-7.6%EI, P
      < 0.001), sodium (-369 mg, P = 0.047), and diet quality (ARFS) (+4.3, P = 0.004),
      including sub-scales for fruit (+1.1, P = 0.03), meat (+0.9, P = 0.004) and non
      meat protein (+0.5, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: The PULSE prevention program's
      nutrition messages led to significant improvements in dietary intake in men at
      risk of T2DM.

PMID- 28861180
TI  - Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy in Undiagnosed Systemic Lupus Erythematous: A
      Case Report.
AB  - A 33-year old Malay woman with undiagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and
      other comorbids presented with acute glomerularnephritis, hypertensive emergency
      and later acute confusional state. Cranial MRI revealed features consistent with
      posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES).

PMID- 28861181
TI  - Separate Belly and Tendon of Flexor Digitorum Superficialis to the Fifth Digit.
AB  - Variation in the origin of long flexor tendons in the anterior compartment of
      forearm is common. During routine cadaveric dissection at Melaka Manipal Medical
      College (Manipal Campus), we observed a separate muscle belly and tendon of
      flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) to the fifth digit in the right upper limb
      of a 60 year-old male cadaver. The anomalous muscle belly originated from the
      common flexor tendon from the medial epicondyle of the humerus and continued as a
      thin tendon at the middle of the forearm to get inserted into the middle phalanx
      of the fifth digit. This can be considered as a case of split flexor digitorum
      superficialis. Such muscle variations and knowledge of their frequency,
      appearance, and location can be helpful for surgeons.

PMID- 28861182
TI  - Salvage Surgery in Endoscopic Era.
AB  - Common bile duct stones are usually managed by Gastroenterologists using
      Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreaticography (ERCP) and services of Surgeons
      are required if the stone is large or impacted. But at times, emergency bile duct
      explorations become mandatory in some unusual complications of ERCP. We describe
      one such situation of impacted dormia basket during ERCP which required rescue
      surgery.

PMID- 28861183
TI  - Small Bowel Obstruction due to Meckel's Diverticulum: A Case Report.
AB  - Meckel's diverticulum is the most common congenital anomaly of the small
      intestine. Common complications related to Meckel's diverticulum include
      hemorrhage, intestinal obstruction and inflammation. Small bowel obstruction due
      to mesodiverticular band of Meckel's diverticulum is a rare complication. Herein,
      we report the diagnosis and management of a small bowel obstruction occurring due
      to the mesodiverticular band of a Meckel's diverticulum.

PMID- 28861184
TI  - Largest Serous Cystadenoma in the first Trimester treated Laparoscopically: A
      Case Report.
AB  - We report the first case of a giant serous cystadenoma approximately 7.5kg in
      weight in a 28-year old primigravida at 8 weeks of gestation which was
      successfully excised laparoscopically. Postoperatively, she had a quick recovery
      and she was discharged on post op day 3 with an intact pregnancy and no
      complications. This is the largest ovarian cyst in early pregnancy that has been
      ever reported from our hospital. We also believe this cyst to be the largest cyst
      in early pregnancy ever reported in the literature that has been managed by
      Laparoscopy.

PMID- 28861185
TI  - Primary Ovarian Clear Cell Adenofibroma of Borderline Malignancy.
AB  - Clear cell adenofibromas of borderline malignancy are extremely rare tumors of
      ovary. We report a case of ovarian borderline clear cell adenofibroma in a 53
      year-old postmenopausal woman. The patient had abdominal hysterectomy and
      bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy because of left adnexeal mass. The tumor was well
      demarcated, solid and multinodular mass, measuring 12*10.5*6 cm. Microscopically,
      the tumor consisted mainly of fibrous stroma and glands composed of cells with
      eosinophilic or clear cytoplasm. The epithelium focally showed moderate nuclear
      atypia and mitotic figures. The histopathologic diagnosis was borderline clear
      cell adenofibroma. The patient is alive and well without signs of recurrence 6
      months after the operation.

PMID- 28861186
TI  - Primary Lymphoepithelioma-like Carcinoma of the Lung in a 13 year old Girl.
AB  - Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma, a large cell carcinoma with pronounced
      lymphocyte infiltration, is a rare entity mostly seen in the nasopharynx. But
      primary pulmonary LELC in children & adolescents is extremely rare. Here we
      present a 13 year old girl with chief complaint of fever, cough, shortness of
      breath and heaviness in the left side of chest. She underwent left upper
      lobectomy. Histopathological examination of the biopsy specimen confirmed it to
      be a case of large cell carcinoma of lung, lymphoepithelioma type, invading
      pleura (stage pT3N0M0) with high serum titre of anti Epstein-Barr virus IgG
      antibody.

PMID- 28861187
TI  - Uterine Artery Embolization in Postpartum Hemorrhage: A Case Report.
AB  - A case of secondary postpartum hemorrhage was treated by uterine artery
      embolization with a view to preserve fertility as the patient was of low parity.

PMID- 28861188
TI  - Exercise Based Cardiac Rehabilitation for Unstable Angina: A Case Report.
AB  - A 42-year-old male was hospitalized with unstable angina (UA) which had resulted
      in severe impairment of his daily activities. Coronary angiography revealed a
      100% occlusion of the right coronary artery (RCA) and a 50% stenosis within the
      left anterior descending coronary artery. However, in view of the previously
      occluded RCA that was supplied by discernible collaterals, medical management was
      recommended and he was rehabilitated using a progressive exercise regimen to
      increase his anginal threshold and functional capacity. Following rehabilitation,
      the patient demonstrated increases in the rate-pressure product of his anginal
      threshold, as well as his symptom-limited walking distance. At discharge, he was
      able to negotiate 400 m without angina and was asymptomatic during his daily
      activities. He was started on a home-based exercise program and followed for 9
      months during which time he was functionally independent and walked at least 1 km
      each day. These findings highlight the benefits of an exercise-based cardiac
      rehabilitation program among patients with previous UA in whom other treatment
      options have been exhausted.

PMID- 28861189
TI  - Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans of Male Breast: An Unusual Presentation.
AB  - Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a rare tumor, which usually presents
      during early or middle adult life, as erythematous indurated firm subcutaneous
      nodules. DFSP involving the breast is a rare phenomenon and even rarer in males.
      We describe a case of a male patient who presented with this tumor in his left
      breast.

PMID- 28861190
TI  - Cylindrical Cell Papilloma (Oncocytic Schneiderian Papilloma):
      Clinicopathological Study of Five Cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the clinicopathological findings of cylindrical cell
      papilloma (oncocytic schneiderian papilloma) diagnosed among patients at Bahrain
      Defense Force Hospital with review of literature. METHODS: All cases of
      cylindrical cell papilloma were retrieved from the pathology register from 2006
      2010. The medical records of the cases were studied for age, sex, clinical
      presentation, and imaging reports along with the histopathological findings.
      RESULTS: Five cases were found and showed male to female ratio 4:1. Their ages
      were between 36-71 years with average age of 55 years. The main symptom found was
      unilateral nasal obstruction mainly involving the left side. All papillomas were
      removed by endoscopic sinus surgery. Four patients had regular followup with
      complete recovery, while only one case was lost for followup. CONCLUSION:
      Cylindrical cell papilloma is a variant of sinonasal schneiderian papilloma.
      Although most are benign complete excision is the treatment of choice to prevent
      tumour recurrence as a proportion exhibit unpredictable biological behavior. This
      study is an important reminder for both clinicians and pathologists to recognize
      this tumor and to differentiate it from other tumours and rhinosporidiosis.
      Regular followup is an important strategy for complete recovery and tumour-free
      surveillance.

PMID- 28861191
TI  - Porous Femoral Fixation in Total Hip Arthroplasty with Short Anatomical Stem:
      Radiographic Evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hip prostheses with short anatomical stems were designed for
      metaphyseal fixation and to spare bone stock. We present a study of a short
      anatomical femoral stem used in all age groups of patients with Dorr A and B type
      of femora. METHODS: We reviewed radiographs of 85 hips in 74 patients who had a
      cementless total hip arthroplasty with a short anatomical 80 mm femoral stem
      designed to achieve pure metaphyseal fixation. A ream-only technique was used for
      femoral canal preparation in all patients. At each follow-up, radiological
      evaluation was performed for stem alignment, proximal metaphyseal fill,
      subsidence, status of biological fixation of the femoral stem, heterotrophic
      ossification, radiolucency, osteolysis, and limb length discrepancy of the stem.
      Acetabular components were evaluated for positioning, acetabular bone coverage,
      and radiolucent and osteolytic lesions. RESULTS: The final mean alignment of
      femoral stem was 2 degrees  valgus. The average intramedullary fill by the stem
      at the proximal level of the lesser trochanter was 93% in the coronal plane and
      88% in the sagittal plane. No components were considered to be undersized.
      Thirteen hips (15.2%) presented radiolucent lines (10 hips < 1 mm in width and 3
      hips [3.5%] 2 mm in width) and 100% of them were not progressive with respect to
      the last follow-up radiograph. All of the stems had excellent fixation by
      demonstrating bone ingrowth at the latest follow-up. At the last follow-up,
      heterotopic ossification was noted in 5 hips. The mean preoperative limb length
      discrepancy was 9.3 mm and the mean postoperative discrepancy was 3.8 mm. The
      mean acetabular component angle of the 85 components was 41.2 degrees  with a
      mean anteversion of 22.1 degrees . At the last follow-up, there were no revisions
      of the femoral component. One patient, 25 months after the index operation,
      required an acetabular component revision because of recurrent hip dislocation.
      There were no radiological signs of loosening in any of the short-stem prostheses
      at the last examination. CONCLUSIONS: The short, metaphyseal-fitting anatomic
      cementless femoral stem provided stable fixation without relying on diaphyseal
      fixation.

PMID- 28861192
TI  - Comparison of Outcomes of Total Hip Arthroplasty between Patients with Ankylosing
      Spondylitis and Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to compare clinical and radiological
      outcomes of total hip arthroplasty (THA) between ankylosing spondylitis (AS) of
      the hip joint and avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head. METHODS: Thirty
      patients (30 hips) underwent cementless THA for AS between 2003 and 2012. They
      were compared to 30 patients (30 hips) who underwent the same procedure for AVN
      of the femoral head. Each group was matched for age and gender, and both groups
      had similar preoperative demographic characteristics. All cases were followed for
      minimum 4 postoperative years. Clinical evaluation was based on operation time,
      intraoperative blood loss, quantity of postoperative drainage, Harris Hip Score
      (HHS), and range of motion (ROM). Radiological results were evaluated by
      acetabular cup anteversion and inclination, femoral stem orientation, pre- and
      postoperative leg length discrepancy, and postoperative complications. RESULTS:
      The operation time was significantly longer in the AS group (120.2 +/- 26.2 min)
      than in the AVN group (79.5 +/- 11.1 min). The volume of postoperative drainage
      was significantly greater in the AS group (764.5 +/- 355.4 mL vs. 510.5 +/- 195.6
      mL). Preoperative HHS was lower in the AS group (55.6 +/- 13.8 vs. 59.2 +/- 2.8).
      Similarly, postoperative HHS was significantly lower in the AS group (92.8 +/-
      2.7 vs. 97.4 +/- 2.6). The arc of ROM was improved from 146.5 degrees  +/- 13.2
      degrees  preoperatively to 254.7 degrees  +/- 17.2 degrees  postoperatively in
      the AS group and from 182.6 degrees  +/- 15.5 degrees  to 260.4 degrees  +/- 13.7
      degrees  in the AVN group. Implant position and postoperative leg length
      discrepancy were not different between the groups. However, three cases of
      heterotopic ossification was observed in the AS group, whereas only 1 case was
      found in the AVN group. One deep infection and one aseptic stem loosening were
      found in the AS group, whereas none was observed in the AVN group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Cementless THA showed satisfactory clinical and radiological results in both
      groups, despite the longer operation time, larger blood loss volume, and lower
      HHS score of the AS group. Our findings suggest that cementless THA is an
      effective and reliable treatment for both AS and AVN.

PMID- 28861193
TI  - Comparison of Poly-L-Lactic Acid and Poly-L-Lactic Acid/Hydroxyapatite
      Bioabsorbable Screws for Tibial Fixation in ACL Reconstruction: Clinical and
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging Results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical and
      radiological results of 2 different tibial fixations performed using
      bioabsorbable screws with added hydroxyapatite (HA) and pure poly-L-lactic acid
      (PLLA) screws in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. METHODS: A
      total of 394 patients who underwent arthroscopic ACL reconstruction between March
      2009 and June 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Of those, 172 patients who took
      the radiological and clinical evaluations at more than 2 years after surgery were
      enrolled and divided into 2 groups: PLLA group (n = 86) and PLLA-HA group (n =
      86). Both groups were assessed by means of the Lysholm score, International Knee
      Documentation Committee (IKDC) subjective knee score, and Tegner activity score.
      Stability was evaluated using the KT-2000 arthrometer. Magnetic resonance imaging
      was performed to evaluate tibial tunnel widening, screw resorption,
      osteoingeration, and foreign body reactions. RESULTS: The PLLA-HA group showed
      significant reduction in the extent of tibial tunnel widening and foreign body
      reactions and significant increase in screw resorption compared to the pure PLLA
      group (p < 0.001 for both). In contrast, postoperative Lysholm score, Tegner
      activity score, IKDC score, and side-to-side difference on the KT-2000
      arthrometer showed no significant differences between groups (p = 0.478, p =
      0.906, p = 0.362, and p = 0.078, respectively). The PLLA group showed more
      significant widening in the proximal tibial tunnel than the PLLA-HA group (p =
      0.001). In the correlation analysis, proximal tibial tunnel widening revealed a
      positive correlation with knee laxity (r = 0.866) and a negative correlation with
      Lysholm score (r = -0.753) (p < 0.01 for both). CONCLUSIONS: The HA added PLLA
      screws would be advantageous for tibial graft fixation by reducing tibial tunnel
      widening, improving osteointegration, and lowering foreign body reactions. Even
      though no clinically significant differences were noted between the pure PLLA
      group and PLLA-HA group, widening of the proximal area of the tibial tunnel
      showed a tendency to increase knee laxity measured using the KT-2000 arthrometer.

PMID- 28861194
TI  - Tibial Base Plate for Total Knee Arthroplasty: Symmetric or Asymmetric?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ideal positioning and best coverage of the tibial base plate are
      essential in total knee arthroplasty. There are 2 types of tibial base plates:
      symmetric and asymmetric. The superiority of one to the other is still
      controversial. The aim of this study was to compare symmetric and asymmetric
      tibial base plates for total knee arthroplasty in terms of rotational alignment
      and coverage. METHODS: The study was conducted on a total of 80 cadaveric tibial
      bones. Two surgeons were asked to place 20 symmetric (group 1) and 20 asymmetric
      (group 2) tibial base plates taking care to ensure the best coverage that they
      were able to determine. Afterwards, the rotational errors and coverage were
      assessed with reference to the posterior tibial margin and posterior condylar
      axis on the three-dimensional computed tomography (3D CT) scan. In the second
      part of the study, the surgeons were asked to place 20 symmetric (group 3) and 20
      asymmetric (group 4) base plates taking care to ensure the best rotational
      alignment. The rotational errors and the areas uncovered or overstuffed after the
      application were measured on the 3D CT scan. RESULTS: On the comparison of
      rotational errors, while there was no significant difference between group 1 and
      group 2 in terms of coverage (p = 0.624), the mean external rotation error was
      significantly greater in group 2 (p = 0.034). On the comparison of coverage,
      while there was no significant difference between group 3 and group 4 in terms of
      rotation (p = 0.36), the mean ratios of the uncovered tibial surface to the total
      tibial surface (p = 0.041) and also the overstuffed area to the total base plate
      surface (p = 0.029) were significantly greater in group 4. CONCLUSIONS: The
      determination of correct size and rotation of the tibial component is essential
      for favorable outcomes of total knee arthroplasty. In this study, the symmetric
      tibial base plate design was more effective than the asymmetric design in
      providing the ideal tibial rotation and coverage.

PMID- 28861195
TI  - India-Based Knee Osteoarthritis Evaluation (iKare): A Multi-Centre Cross
      Sectional Study on the Management of Knee Pain and Early Osteoarthritis in India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Access to early knee osteoarthritis treatment in low and middle
      income nations is often believed to be limited. We conducted a cross-sectional
      study in India to assess prior access to treatment among patients presenting with
      knee pain to specialist orthopaedic clinics. METHODS: The multi-centre, cross
      sectional study included patients presenting with knee pain at 3 hospitals in
      India. Patients who met the inclusion criteria and provided informed consent
      completed a questionnaire designed to assess patient demographics, socioeconomic
      status, knee pain, treatment method, and patient's knowledge on osteoarthritis
      (OA). Their orthopaedic surgeons also completed a questionnaire on the severity
      of patient's OA and their recommended treatments. The impact of demographic
      characteristics on the prescription of treatment options was analyzed using
      logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 714 patients met the eligibility
      criteria and participated in this study. The majority of patients had been
      experiencing pain for less than 1 year (64.8%) and had previously been prescribed
      medications (91.6%), supplements (68.6%), and nonpharmacological (81.9%)
      treatments to manage their knee OA. Current treatment recommendations included
      oral medications (83.3%), intra-articular injections (29.8%), and surgical
      intervention (12.7%). Prescription of oral medications was related to younger
      age, lack of deformities, and lower Kellgren-Lawrence grades (p < 0.01). Patients
      treated in private hospital settings were more likely to have been previously
      treated with medications (range, 84.3% to 92.6%; p < 0.01) and physical
      treatments (range, 61.8% to 84.8%; p < 0.01) than patients treated at government
      hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to the perception, our findings suggest a
      similar proportion of early knee OA treatment between India and North America.

PMID- 28861196
TI  - Patellofemoral Joint Arthroplasty: Early Results and Functional Outcome of the
      Zimmer Gender Solutions Patello-Femoral Joint System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improved knee prosthesis designs have led to an increase in the use
      of patellofemoral arthroplasty as a primary treatment option in recent times. We
      report the early results and outcomes of the Zimmer Gender Solutions Patello
      Femoral Joint (PFJ) system used to treat isolated patellofemoral osteoarthritis
      (PFA). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed and analysed data of patients who
      underwent PFJ replacement (PFJR) at our institution with a minimum follow-up of 2
      years. RESULTS: Median Oxford Knee score (OKS) was 38 (interquartile range, 28 to
      42) at the latest follow-up with a significant improvement from preoperative
      scores (p < 0.0005). Median OKS was 40 for unilateral PFJRs and 39 for nonobese
      patients (body mass index [BMI] < 30 kg/m2). There was no significant difference
      in OKS between unilateral and bilateral procedures (p = 0.462). Likewise, there
      was no significant difference in OKS between obese and nonobese patients (p =
      0.272). Two knees (4%) were revised for progression of osteoarthritis. No
      complications were reported related to infectious or thromboembolic causes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed good early results of the PFJ system, at least
      equal to those of other leading brands in the National Joint Registry for
      England, Wales and Northern Ireland (NJR). There have been no complications
      related to either the implantation technique or prosthetic design for this new
      implant. Progression of tibiofemoral arthritis remains a major concern. Our study
      also suggests that PFJR in obese patients and bilateral procedures can have good
      results.

PMID- 28861197
TI  - Comparison of the Effect of Continuous Femoral Nerve Block and Adductor Canal
      Block after Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the effects of femoral nerve block and
      adductor canal block on postoperative pain, quadriceps strength, and walking
      ability after primary total knee arthroplasty. METHODS: Between November 2014 and
      February 2015, 60 patients underwent primary total knee arthroplasty. Thirty
      patients received femoral nerve block and the other 30 received adductor canal
      block for postoperative pain control. Before spinal anesthesia, the patients
      received nerve block via a catheter (20 mL 0.75% ropivacaine was administered
      initially, followed by intermittent bolus injection of 10 mL 0.2% ropivacaine
      every 6 hours for 3 days). The catheters were maintained in the exact location of
      nerve block in 24 patients in the femoral nerve block group and in 19 patients in
      the adductor canal block group. Data collection was carried out from these 43
      patients. To evaluate postoperative pain control, the numerical rating scale
      scores at rest and 45 degrees  flexion of the knee were recorded. To evaluate
      quadriceps strength, manual muscle testing was performed. Walking ability was
      assessed using the Timed Up and Go test. We also evaluated analgesic consumption
      and complications of peripheral nerve block. RESULTS: No significant intergroup
      difference was observed in the numerical rating scale scores at rest and 45
      degrees  flexion of the knee on postoperative days 1, 2, 3, and 7. The adductor
      canal block group had significantly greater quadriceps strength than did the
      femoral nerve block group, as assessed by manual muscle testing on postoperative
      days 1, 2, and 3. The 2 groups showed no difference in walking ability on
      postoperative day 1, but on postoperative days 2, 3, walking ability was
      significantly better in the adductor canal block group than in the femoral nerve
      block group. No significant intergroup difference was observed in analgesic
      consumption. CONCLUSIONS: The groups showed no difference in postoperative pain
      control. Adductor canal block was superior to femoral nerve block in preserving
      quadriceps strength and walking ability. However, adductor canal block was
      inferior to femoral nerve block in maintaining the exact location of the
      catheter.

PMID- 28861198
TI  - Lumbar Single-Level Dynamic Stabilization with Semi-Rigid and Full Dynamic
      Systems: A Retrospective Clinical and Radiological Analysis of 71 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compares the clinical and radiological results of three
      most commonly used dynamic stabilization systems in the field of orthopedic
      surgery. METHODS: A total of 71 patients underwent single-level posterior
      transpedicular dynamic stabilization between 2011 and 2014 due to lumbar
      degenerative disc disease. Three different dynamic systems used include: (1) the
      Dynesys system; (2) a dynamic screw with a PEEK rod; and (3) a full dynamic
      system (a dynamic screw with a dynamic rod; BalanC). The mean patient age was
      45.8 years. The mean follow-up was 29.7 months. Clinical and radiological data
      were obtained for each patient preoperatively and at 6, 12, and 24 months of
      follow-up. RESULTS: Clinical outcomes were significantly improved in all
      patients. There were no significant differences in the radiological outcomes
      among the groups divided according to the system used. Screw loosening was
      detected in 2 patients, and 1 patient developed screw breakage. All patients with
      screw loosening or breakage underwent revision surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Each
      procedure offered satisfactory outcome regardless of which system was applied.

PMID- 28861199
TI  - The Efficacy of Vitamin C on Postoperative Outcomes after Posterior Lumbar
      Interbody Fusion: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vitamin C has critical features relavant to postoperative pain
      management and functional improvement; however, no study has yet evaluated the
      effectiveness of vitamin C on improving the surgical outcomes for spine
      pathologies. Thus, this study aimed to explore the impact of vitamin C on
      postoperative outcomes after single-level posterior lumbar interbody fusion
      (PLIF) for lumbar spinal stenosis in prospectively randomized design. We
      conducted a 1-year prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind
      study to evaluate the impact of vitamin C on the postoperative outcomes after
      PLIF surgery. METHODS: A total of 123 eligible patients were randomly assigned to
      either group A (62 patients with vitamin C) or group B (61 patients with
      placebo). Patient follow-up was continued for at least 1 year after surgery. The
      primary outcome measure was pain intensity in the lower back using a visual
      analogue scale. The secondary outcome measures were: (1) the clinical outcome
      assessed using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI); (2) the fusion rate assessed
      using dynamic radiographs and computed tomography scans; and (3) complications.
      RESULTS: Pain intensity in the lower back was significantly improved in both
      groups compared with preoperative pain intensity, but no significant difference
      was observed between the 2 groups over the follow-up period. The ODI score of
      group A at the third postoperative month was significantly higher than the score
      of group B. After the sixth postoperative month, the ODI score of group A was
      slightly higher than the score of group B; however, this difference was not
      significant. The fusion rates at 1 year after surgery and the complication rates
      were not significantly different between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative
      pain intensity, the primary outcome measure, was not significantly different at 1
      year after surgery between the 2 groups. However, vitamin C may be associated
      with improving functional status after PLIF surgery, especially during the first
      3 postoperative months.

PMID- 28861200
TI  - Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are limited data available regarding the results of reverse
      shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We
      performed a systematic review of the literature to investigate the radiological
      and clinical outcomes after RSA in patients with RA. METHODS: A literature search
      for publications between 1987 and 2014 was conducted by 2 independent reviewers
      using PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.
      Articles were retrieved by an electronic search using keywords and their
      combinations. Studies that met inclusion criteria were assessed for pertinent
      data. RESULTS: Seven studies including 123 shoulders met the inclusion criteria.
      The mean age of the patients was 67.9 years and the mean follow-up period was
      46.6 months. The mean Constant score and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons
      (ASES) score increased from 18.6 and 27.5 preoperatively to 58.6 and 73.7,
      respectively, at the final follow-up evaluation. The mean active forward flexion,
      abduction, and external rotation increased from 57.2 degrees , 50.4 degrees , and
      11.4 degrees  to 127.1 degrees , 116.7 degrees , and 26.4 degrees , respectively.
      The incidence of scapular notching was 33.7%. Twenty-seven (22.0%) of 123
      shoulders had one or more complications, 12 of which (44.4%) had intraoperative
      or postoperative fractures. Nine shoulders (7.3%) had one or more revision
      surgeries. CONCLUSIONS: RSA in RA showed similar short- to mid-term results
      without higher complication rates as compared to RSA in cuff tear arthropathy.
      Although RSA can be considered a reliable treatment option in patients with RA,
      further large-scale studies are required to determine the long-term survival of
      the implant.

PMID- 28861201
TI  - Arthroscopic Evaluation of Subluxation of the Long Head of the Biceps Tendon and
      Its Relationship with Subscapularis Tears.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the angle between the long
      head of the biceps tendon (LHBT) and the glenoid during arthroscopic surgery and
      its correlation with biceps subluxation on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
      Furthermore, we evaluated the relationship of this angle with subscapularis tears
      and biceps pathologies. METHODS: MRI and arthroscopic images of 270 consecutive
      patients who had undergone arthroscopic surgery were retrospectively evaluated.
      On MRI, 60 shoulders with biceps subluxation and 210 shoulders without
      subluxation were identified. On the arthroscopic view from the posterior portal,
      the angle between the LHBT and the glenoid (biceps-glenoid angle) was measured.
      The biceps-glenoid angle, tears of the LHBT, degenerative superior labrum
      anterior to posterior (SLAP) lesions, and presence of a subscapularis tear were
      compared according to the presence of biceps subluxation on MRI. RESULTS: In the
      subluxation group, 51 (85%) had a subscapularis tendon tear and all shoulders
      showed biceps tendon pathologies. In the non-subluxation group, 116 (55.2%) had a
      subscapularis tendon tear, 125 (60%) had tears in the biceps tendon, and 191
      (91%) had degenerative SLAP lesions. The incidences of subscapularis tears (p <
      0.001) and biceps pathologies (p < 0.001) showed significant differences. The
      mean biceps-glenoid angle was 87.0 degrees  (standard deviation [SD], 11.4
      degrees ) in the subluxation group and 90.0 degrees  (SD, 9.6 degrees ) in the
      non-subluxation group, showing a statistically significant difference (p =
      0.037). CONCLUSIONS: Shoulders with subluxation of the biceps tendon on the
      preoperative MRI revealed more pathologies in the subscapularis tendon and biceps
      tendon during arthroscopy. However, the arthroscopically measured biceps-glenoid
      angle did not have clinical relevance to the determination of subluxation of the
      LHBT from the bicipital groove.

PMID- 28861202
TI  - Comparison of Arthroscopically Guided Suprascapular Nerve Block and Blinded
      Axillary Nerve Block vs. Blinded Suprascapular Nerve Block in Arthroscopic
      Rotator Cuff Repair: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the results of
      arthroscopically guided suprascapular nerve block (SSNB) and blinded axillary
      nerve block with those of blinded SSNB in terms of postoperative pain and
      satisfaction within the first 48 hours after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.
      METHODS: Forty patients who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair for medium
      sized full thickness rotator cuff tears were included in this study. Among them,
      20 patients were randomly assigned to group 1 and preemptively underwent blinded
      SSNB and axillary nerve block of 10 mL 0.25% ropivacaine and received
      arthroscopically guided SSNB with 10 mL of 0.25% ropivacaine. The other 20
      patients were assigned to group 2 and received blinded SSNB with 10 mL of 0.25%
      ropivacaine. Visual analog scale (VAS) score for pain and patient satisfaction
      score were assessed 4, 8, 12, 24, 36, and 48 hours postoperatively. RESULTS: The
      mean VAS score for pain was significantly lower 4, 8, 12, 24, 36, and 48 hours
      postoperatively in group 1 (group 1 vs. group 2; 5.2 vs. 7.4, 4.1 vs. 6.1, 3.0
      vs. 5.1, 2.1 vs. 4.2, 0.9 vs. 3.9, and 1.3 vs. 3.3, respectively). The mean
      patient satisfaction score was significantly higher at postoperative 4, 8, 12,
      24, 36, and 48 hours in group 1 (group 1 vs. group 2; 6.7 vs. 3.9, 7.4 vs. 5.1,
      8.8 vs. 5.9, 9.2 vs. 6.7, 9.5 vs. 6.9, and 9.0 vs. 7.2, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Arthroscopically guided SSNB and blinded axillary nerve block in
      arthroscopic rotator cuff repair for medium-sized rotator cuff tears provided
      more improvement in VAS for pain and greater patient satisfaction in the first 48
      postoperative hours than blinded SSNB.

PMID- 28861203
TI  - Differences between the Upper Extremity and the Lower Extremity in Reconstruction
      Using an Anterolateral Thigh Perforator Flap.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While reconstruction of soft tissue defects is the common purpose,
      surgical reconstructions of upper extremities and lower extremities have
      different goals in terms of functional and aesthetic outcomes. The purpose of the
      current study was to compare and analyze differences between reconstructions of
      upper extremities and lower extremities using an anterolateral thigh (ALT) flap.
      METHODS: We analyzed 74 patients who underwent reconstructions of upper
      extremities and lower extremities using an ALT flap from October 2006 to August
      2012 (upper extremities, 45 cases; lower extremities, 29 cases). The study
      focused on the statistical analysis of patient satisfaction according to the
      donor site of the ALT flap and the timing of a debulking procedure. RESULTS: On
      the choice of donor site, in the upper extremity reconstruction, flap elevation
      from the opposite side of the recipient limb was preferred (p = 0.019) because it
      causes less inconvenience while walking. In the lower extremity reconstruction,
      flap elevation from the same side of the recipient limb (p = 0.002) was
      preferred. The debulking procedure performed on the upper extremities at 4 weeks
      after reconstruction led to better functional results and enhanced patient
      satisfaction (p = 0.022). In the case of lower extremities, enhanced satisfaction
      was noted in patients who underwent the procedure at 6 months after
      reconstruction (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Elevation of the flap in reconstruction
      reduced inconvenience when performed on the same side of the recipient limb for
      lower extremities and on the opposite side for upper extremities. In addition,
      debulking resulted in better satisfaction when performed 4 weeks postoperatively
      in the upper extremities and 6 months postoperatively in the lower extremities.

PMID- 28861204
TI  - Clinical Outcome of Lateral Wedge Osteotomy of the Radius in Advanced Stages of
      Kienbock's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radius osteotomies showed favorable clinical outcome in Kienbock's
      disease. However, few articles have been published on the long-term outcome of
      lateral wedge osteotomy of the radius in patients with advanced stage Kienbock's
      disease. METHODS: Eleven patients with Lichtman stage IIIB/IV Kienbock's disease
      (group A; mean follow-up period, 86.1 months; range, 48 to 163 months) and 14
      patients with Lichtman stage IIIA Kienbock's disease (group B; mean follow-up
      period, 85.1 months; range, 49 to 144 months) underwent radial wedge osteotomy
      between August 2004 and August 2012. Radiological changes of the lunate and
      radiocarpal joint were compared between two groups after osteotomy. The wrist
      flexion/extension angle, grip strength, and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and
      Hand (DASH) scores were evaluated preoperatively and at the final follow-up. The
      Nakamura Scoring System (NSSK) was used for comprehensive understanding of
      radiological and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Nine patients of group A and 11
      patients of group B showed radiological improvement in the lunate regarding
      sclerosis, cystic changes, or fragmentation. No patients showed progression of
      arthritic changes in radiocarpal and midcarpal joints. The wrist
      flexion/extension angle, grip strength, and DASH score were significantly
      improved in both groups after operation, but intergroup difference was not
      statistically significant at the final follow-up (p = 0.149, p = 0.267, and p =
      0.536, respectively). The mean NSSK was 21.6 (range, 15 to 27) in group A and
      21.8 (range, 15 to 26) in group B. CONCLUSIONS: Radial wedge osteotomy yielded
      excellent radiological and functional outcomes in advanced stages of Kienbock's
      disease and these results were comparable to those of Lichtman stage IIIA
      disease. This technique could be a useful alternative to salvage procedures in
      the treatment of Lichtman stage IIIB/IV Kienbock's disease without severe
      radiocarpal arthritis.

PMID- 28861205
TI  - Gait Analysis of Symptomatic Flatfoot in Children: An Observational Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Flatfoot deformity is a lever arm disease that incurs kinetic
      inefficiency during gait. The purpose of this study was to measure the degree of
      kinetic inefficiency by comparing the gait analysis data of a flatfoot group with
      a normal control group. METHODS: The patient group consisted of 26 children (21
      males and 5 females) with symptomatic flatfoot. They were examined with gait
      analysis between May 2005 and February 2014. Exclusion criteria were patients
      with secondary flatfoot caused by neuromuscular disorders, tarsal coalition,
      vertical talus, or others. Patients' mean age was 9.5 years (range, 7 to 13
      years). The gait analysis data of the study group and the normal control group
      were compared. RESULTS: The mean vertical ground reaction force (GRF) in the push
      off phase was 0.99 for the patient group and 1.15 for the control group (p <
      0.05). The mean ankle moment in the sagittal plane during the push-off phase was
      0.89 for the patient group and 1.27 for the control group (p < 0.05). The mean
      ankle power in the sagittal plane during the push-off phase was 1.38 for the
      patient group and 2.52 for the control group (p < 0.05). The aforementioned
      results show that patients with pes planovalgus had a reduction of moment, power,
      and GRF in the push-off phase during gait. CONCLUSIONS: Symptomatic flatfeet had
      a moment inefficiency of 30% and power inefficiency of 45% during gait compared
      to feet with preserved medial longitudinal arches.

PMID- 28861206
TI  - Comparison of Pasteurized Autograft-Prosthesis Composite Reconstruction and
      Resection Hip Arthroplasty for Periacetabular Tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because of the high complication rate of anatomical reconstruction
      after periacetabular resection, the strategy of resection alone has been
      revisited. However, in terms of complications and functional outcome, whether
      resection hip arthroplasty (RHA) shows a superior result to that of pelvic ring
      reconstruction remains controversial. METHODS: We compared 24 RHAs and 16
      pasteurized autograft-prosthesis composite (PPC) reconstructions regarding the
      complication rates, operative time, blood loss, and functional outcome. RESULTS:
      Compared to 16 PPC hips, 24 RHA hips showed lower major and minor complication
      rates (p < 0.001), shorter surgical time (p < 0.001), and superior
      Musculoskeletal Tumor Society scores (p < 0.001). Of the 24 RHA hips, bony neo
      acetabulum was identified in 7 on computed tomography and partial neo-acetabulum
      in 9; the remaining 8 had no bony acetabular structure. The average time to bony
      neo-acetabulum formation was 7 months (range, 4 to 13 months). CONCLUSIONS: RHA
      for periacetabular tumors can be an excellent alternative to anatomical
      reconstruction. It offers short surgical time, low complication rates, and
      functional results comparable to those of other reconstruction methods. However,
      this procedure is indicated for patients who can accept some limb shortening, and
      a tumor should be confined to the periacetabular area.

PMID- 28861207
TI  - Clinical Outcomes in Musculoskeletal Involvement of Burkholderia Pseudomallei
      Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal involvement in melioidosis is often seen in
      conjunction with a disseminated illness. Recent reports suggest that operative
      management of musculoskeletal melioidosis has favourable results. The purpose of
      this study was to review the patient profile and clinical outcomes of
      Burkholderia pseudomallei infection in the musculoskeletal system. METHODS:
      Hospital records of 163 patients who were diagnosed to have B. pseudomallei
      infection between January 2009 and December 2014 were reviewed. Patients
      underwent surgical and nonsurgical management depending upon the tissue of
      involvement. Epidata software was used to record the data. The SPSS ver. 17.0 was
      used for analysis. RESULTS: Eighteen out of 24 patients who had musculoskeletal
      melioidosis were available for follow-up. Septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and
      intramuscular abscess were the common diagnosis, with 6 patients in each group.
      Twelve patients required surgical intervention. All patients received a full
      course of parenteral ceftazidime followed by oral doxycycline and co-trimoxazole.
      Two out of 6 patients (33.3%) died among those who had nonsurgical management as
      compared to none in the group who had surgical management. This was significant
      at 10% level of significance (p = 0.098). The rest were followed up for a minimum
      of 1 year with no evidence of disease recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: This series
      describing musculoskeletal involvement in melioidosis is the largest such study
      from a recently recognized 'endemic' region. Of importance are the patterns of
      musculoskeletal involvement, pitfalls in diagnosis and adequate clinical response
      with timely diagnosis and appropriate surgical management.

PMID- 28861208
TI  - Retrograde Intramedullary Nailing for Humerus Fracture in a Supine Position:
      Performing an Unfamiliar Procedure in a Familiar Position.
AB  - Intramedullary (IM) nailing for humeral shaft fracture has provided excellent
      outcomes in terms of fracture biology and cosmetic appearance because of the
      relatively small incision involved. However, antegrade nailing causes issues such
      as iatrogenic rotator cuff injury. Retrograde nail fixation method could avoid
      cuff injury, but has shortcomings such as the need for the prone or lateral
      decubitus position during surgery. We report that the retrograde IM nail fixation
      technique performed in a supine position and some ancillary techniques for
      minimizing scars or complications can provide the advantages of both retrograde
      nailing and supine position during surgery.

PMID- 28861209
TI  - Erratum to "Clinical Outcomes and Complications during the Learning Curve for
      Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty: An Analysis of the First 40 Cases".
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 213 in vol. 9, PMID: 28567225.].

PMID- 28861210
TI  - Pharmacogenetics and precision medicine: Is inflammation a covert threat to
      effective genotype-based therapy?

PMID- 28861211
TI  - Adverse effects of proton-pump inhibitor use in older adults: a review of the
      evidence.
AB  - Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) are a widely prescribed class of medications used
      to treat acid-related disorders and use has significantly increased over the last
      few decades. PPIs are often inappropriately prescribed and since they have been
      on the market, a number of post-marketing studies have been published
      demonstrating associations between longer duration of PPI therapy and a number of
      adverse effects that are a concern in older adults. The objective of this review
      is to discuss the existing literature of potential adverse effects with long-term
      PPI use in older adults and to summarize the implications in clinical practice. A
      PubMed search was conducted to identify studies evaluating the potential long
      term adverse effects of PPI therapy in older adults, and publications were
      selected based on relevant criteria. PPIs have been associated with an increased
      risk of a number of adverse effects including osteoporotic-related fractures,
      Clostridium difficile infection, community-acquired pneumonia, vitamin B12
      deficiency, kidney disease, and dementia, demonstrated by a number of case
      control, cohort studies, and meta-analyses. Older adults should be periodically
      evaluated for the need for continued use of PPI therapy given the number of
      potential adverse effects associated with long-term use.

PMID- 28861212
TI  - Revised disproportionality analysis of Mirena and benign intracranial
      hypertension.

PMID- 28861213
TI  - Idiopathic non-histaminergic acquired angioedema: a case series and discussion of
      published clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Idiopathic non-histaminergic acquired angioedema (InH-AAE) is a rare
      disease for which there are no available laboratory parameters to clearly define
      the disorder. Therapy is often difficult and various treatment options have been
      proposed. In this paper, we have evaluated the most effective therapies for InH
      AAE on the basis of current literature and report the therapeutic effect of
      omalizumab in three patients with InH-AAE. METHODS: Literature was searched with
      a combination of MeSH/EMTREE terms and freetext search for angioedema and
      therapy/omalizumab in the databases Medline (Ovid), PubMed/Premedline, Embase,
      Cochrane library and Scopus with no time or language restrictions. In three
      patients affected by InH-AAE the therapeutic effect of omalizumab was
      demonstrated by clinical outcome. In one patient the FcepsilonRI receptor density
      on basophils was monitored under therapy with omalizumab. RESULTS: From the
      review of the current literature, 25 out of 286 publications dealing with
      relevant therapeutic recommendations for InH-AAE were analyzed. Six publications
      with 98 patients referred to tranexamic acid, of which 27 had a complete, 70 a
      partial and 1 no response. In three case reports ecallantide showed 2 patients
      with a complete and 1 a partial response. In four case reports for Icatibant 2
      had a complete and 3 a partial response. When evaluated in three reports, C1-INH
      found complete and partial responses in 2 patients each. One patient had a
      complete response to progestin. Omalizumab was described in 6 reports with 20
      patients, all of whom showed a complete response. All three patients described in
      our study responded to omalizumab with a complete remission. Density of
      FcepsilonRI receptors on basophils, monitored in patient 1 on a long-term course
      of 31 months, decreased from 74,051.61 to a minimal level of 1907 receptors per
      cell. CONCLUSIONS: Omalizumab seems to be the most effective therapy in InH-AAE.
      The continuous decrease of FcepsilonRI-receptor density on basophils under
      therapy with omalizumab along with clinical improvement observed in one patient,
      could serve as a new approach for further studies to evaluate FcepsilonRI
      receptor density as a surrogate marker for therapeutic efficacy and for dosing
      and determining injection intervals of omalizumab. Trial registration BASEC-Nr.
      Req-2016-00692. Retrospectively registered 24.11.2016.

PMID- 28861214
TI  - Phylogeography of a migratory songbird across its Canadian breeding range:
      Implications for conservation units.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to describe and evaluate potential drivers of
      genetic structure in Canadian breeding populations of the Ovenbird, Seiurus
      aurocapilla. We performed genetic analyses on feather samples of individuals from
      six study sites using nuclear microsatellites. We also assessed species identity
      and population genetic structure of quill mites (Acariformes, Syringophilidae).
      For male Ovenbirds breeding in three study sites, we collected light-level
      geolocator data to document migratory paths and identify the wintering grounds.
      We also generated paleohindcast projections from bioclimatic models of Ovenbird
      distribution to identify potential refugia during the last glacial maximum (LGM,
      21,000 years before present) as a factor explaining population genetic structure.
      Birds breeding in the Cypress Hills (Alberta/Saskatchewan) may be considered a
      distinct genetic unit, but there was no evidence for genetic differentiation
      among any other populations. We found relatively strong migratory connectivity in
      both western and eastern populations, but some evidence of mixing among
      populations on the wintering grounds. There was also little genetic variation
      among syringophilid mites from the different Ovenbird populations. These results
      are consistent with paleohindcast distribution predictions derived from two
      different global climate models indicating a continuous single LGM refugium, with
      the possibility of two refugia. Our results suggest that Ovenbird populations
      breeding in boreal and hemiboreal regions are panmictic, whereas the population
      breeding in Cypress Hills should be considered a distinct management unit.

PMID- 28861215
TI  - Historic changes in length distributions of three Baltic cod (Gadus morhua)
      stocks: Evidence of growth retardation.
AB  - Understanding how combinations of fishing effort and selectivity affect
      productivity is central to fisheries research. We investigate the roles of
      fishing regulation in comparison with ecosystem status for Baltic Sea cod stock
      productivity, growth performance, and population stability. This case study is
      interesting because three cod populations with different exploitation patterns
      and stock status are located in three adjacent but partially, ecologically
      different areas. In assessing stock status, growth, and productivity, we use
      survey information and rather basic stock parameters without relying on age
      readings. Because there is an urgent interest of better understanding of the
      current development of the Eastern Baltic cod stock, we argue that our approach
      represents partly a novel way of interpreting monitoring information together
      with catch data in a simplified yet more informative way. Our study reports how
      the Eastern and Western Baltic cod have gone toward more truncated size
      structures between 1991 and 2016, in particular for the Eastern Baltic cod,
      whereas the Oresund cod show no trend. We suggest that selective fishing may
      disrupt fish population dynamic stability and that lower natural productivity
      might amplify the effects of selective fishing. In support of earlier findings on
      a density-dependent growth of Eastern Baltic cod, management is advised to
      acknowledge that sustainable exploitation levels for Eastern Baltic cod are much
      more limited than perceived in regular assessments. Of more general importance,
      our results emphasize the need to embrace a more realistic view on what
      ecosystems can produce regarding tractable fish biomass to facilitate a more
      ecosystem-based fisheries management.

PMID- 28861216
TI  - Simultaneous estimation of diet composition and calibration coefficients with
      fatty acid signature data.
AB  - Knowledge of animal diets provides essential insights into their life history and
      ecology, although diet estimation is challenging and remains an active area of
      research. Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) has become a popular
      method of estimating diet composition, especially for marine species. A primary
      assumption of QFASA is that constants called calibration coefficients, which
      account for the differential metabolism of individual fatty acids, are known. In
      practice, however, calibration coefficients are not known, but rather have been
      estimated in feeding trials with captive animals of a limited number of model
      species. The impossibility of verifying the accuracy of feeding trial derived
      calibration coefficients to estimate the diets of wild animals is a foundational
      problem with QFASA that has generated considerable criticism. We present a new
      model that allows simultaneous estimation of diet composition and calibration
      coefficients based only on fatty acid signature samples from wild predators and
      potential prey. Our model performed almost flawlessly in four tests with
      constructed examples, estimating both diet proportions and calibration
      coefficients with essentially no error. We also applied the model to data from
      Chukchi Sea polar bears, obtaining diet estimates that were more diverse than
      estimates conditioned on feeding trial calibration coefficients. Our model avoids
      bias in diet estimates caused by conditioning on inaccurate calibration
      coefficients, invalidates the primary criticism of QFASA, eliminates the need to
      conduct feeding trials solely for diet estimation, and consequently expands the
      utility of fatty acid data to investigate aspects of ecology linked to animal
      diets.

PMID- 28861217
TI  - The evolution of mutualism with modifiers.
AB  - Mutualisms are widespread, yet their evolution has received less theoretical
      attention than within-species social behaviors. Here, we extend previous models
      of unconditional pairwise interspecies social behavior, to consider selection for
      donation but also for donation-suppressing modifiers. We present conditions under
      which modifiers that suppress costly donation receive either positive or negative
      selection; assortment only at the donation locus always leads to selection for
      donation suppression, as in within-species greenbeard traits. However, genomewide
      assortment with modifier loci can lead to intermediate levels of donation, and
      these can differ in the two species even when payoffs from donation are additive
      and symmetric. When costly donation between species can evolve without being
      suppressed, we argue that it is most appropriately explained by indirect fitness
      benefits within the donating species, using partner species as vectors for
      altruism. Our work has implications for identifying both the stability and the
      ultimate beneficiaries of social behavior between species.

PMID- 28861218
TI  - No evidence of nonlinear effects of predator density, refuge availability, or
      body size of prey on prey mortality rates.
AB  - Predator density, refuge availability, and body size of prey can all affect the
      mortality rate of prey. We assume that more predators will lead to an increase in
      prey mortality rate, but behavioral interactions between predators and prey, and
      availability of refuge, may lead to nonlinear effects of increased number of
      predators on prey mortality rates. We tested for nonlinear effects in prey
      mortality rates in a mesocosm experiment with different size classes of western
      mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) as the prey, different numbers of green sunfish
      (Lepomis cyanellus) as the predators, and different levels of refuge. Predator
      number and size class of prey, but not refuge availability, had significant
      effects on the mortality rate of prey. Change in mortality rate of prey was
      linear and equal across the range of predator numbers. Each new predator
      increased the mortality rate by about 10% overall, and mortality rates were
      higher for smaller size classes. Predator-prey interactions at the individual
      level may not scale up to create nonlinearity in prey mortality rates with
      increasing predator density at the population level.

PMID- 28861219
TI  - Disentangling the genetic and morphological structure of Patella candei complex
      in Macaronesia (NE Atlantic).
AB  - The uptake of natural living resources for human consumption has triggered
      serious changes in the balance of ecosystems. In the archipelagos of Macaronesia
      (NE Atlantic), limpets have been extensively exploited probably since islands
      were first colonized. This has led to profound consequences in the dynamics of
      rocky shore communities. The Patella candei complex includes various subspecies
      of limpets that are ascribed to a particular archipelago and has been the focus
      of several taxonomic surveys without much agreement. Under a conservational
      perspective, we apply morphometric and genetic analyses to test subspecies
      boundaries in P. candei and to evaluate its current population connectivity
      throughout Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, and Canaries). A highly significant
      genetic break between archipelagos following isolation by distance was detected
      (FST = 0.369, p < .001). Contrastingly, significant genetic differentiation among
      islands (i.e., Azores) was absent possibly indicating ongoing gene flow via
      larval exchange between populations. Significant shell-shape differences among
      archipelagos were also detected using both distance-based and geometric
      morphometric analyses. Adaptive processes associated with niche differentiation
      and strong barriers to gene flow among archipelagos may be the mechanisms
      underlying P. candei diversification in Macaronesia. Under the very probable
      assumption that populations of P. candei from each archipelago are geographically
      and/or ecologically isolated populations, the various subspecies within the P.
      candei complex may be best thought of as true species using the denomination: P.
      candei in Selvagens, Patella gomesii in Azores, Patella ordinaria in Madeira, and
      Patella crenata for Canaries. This would be in agreement with stock delimitation
      and units of conservation of P. candei sensu latu along Macaronesia.

PMID- 28861220
TI  - The ability to manipulate plant glucosinolates and nutrients explains the better
      performance of Bemisia tabaci Middle East-Asia Minor 1 than Mediterranean on
      cabbage plants.
AB  - The performance of herbivorous insects is greatly affected by host chemical
      defenses and nutritional quality. Some herbivores have developed the ability to
      manipulate plant defenses via signaling pathways. It is currently unclear,
      however, whether a herbivore can benefit by simultaneously reducing plant
      defenses and enhancing plant nutritional quality. Here, we show that the better
      performance of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1;
      formerly the "B" biotype) than Mediterranean (MED; formerly the "Q" biotype) on
      cabbage is associated with a suppression of glucosinolate (GS) content and an
      increase in amino acid supply in MEAM1-infested cabbage compared with MED
      infested cabbage. MEAM1 had higher survival, higher fecundity, higher intrinsic
      rate of increase (rm), a longer life span, and a shorter developmental time than
      MED on cabbage plants. Amino acid content was higher in cabbage infested with
      MEAM1 than MED. Although infestation by either biotype decreased the levels of
      total GS, aliphatic GS, glucoiberin, sinigrin, glucobrassicin, and 4OH
      glucobrassicin, and the expression of related genes in cabbage, MED infestation
      increased the levels of 4ME-glucobrassicin, neoglucobrassicin, progoitrin, and
      glucoraphanin. The GS content and expression of GS-related genes were higher in
      cabbage infested with MED than with MEAM1. Our results suggest that MEAM1
      performs better than MED on cabbage by manipulating host defenses and nutritional
      quality.

PMID- 28861221
TI  - Temperature, energy metabolism, and adaptive divergence in two oyster subspecies.
AB  - Comparisons of related species that have diverse spatial distributions provide an
      efficient way to investigate adaptive evolution in face of increasing global
      warming. The oyster subjected to high environmental selections is a model species
      as sessile marine invertebrate. This study aimed to detect the adaptive
      divergence of energy metabolism in two oyster subspecies from the genus
      Crassostrea-C. gigas gigas and C. gigas angulata-which are broadly distributed
      along the northern and southern coasts of China, respectively. We examined the
      effects of acute thermal stress on energy metabolism in two oyster subspecies
      after being common gardened for one generation in identical conditions. Thermal
      responses were assessed by incorporating physiological, molecular, and genomic
      approaches. Southern oysters exhibited higher fluctuations in metabolic rate,
      activities of key energetic enzymes, and levels of thermally induced gene
      expression than northern oysters. For genes involved in energy metabolism, the
      former displayed higher basal levels of gene expression and a more pronounced
      downregulation of thermally induced expression, while the later exhibited lower
      basal levels and a less pronounced downregulation of gene expression. Contrary
      expression pattern was observed in oxidative stress gene. Besides, energy
      metabolic tradeoffs were detected in both subspecies. Furthermore, the genetic
      divergence of a nonsynonymous SNP (SOD-132) and five synonymous SNPs in other
      genes was identified and validated in these two subspecies, which possibly
      affects downstream functions and explains the aforementioned phenotypic
      variations. Our study demonstrates that differentiations in energy metabolism
      underlie the plasticity of adaptive divergence in two oyster subspecies and
      suggest C. gigas angulata with moderate phenotypic plasticity has higher adaptive
      potential to cope with exacerbated global warming.

PMID- 28861222
TI  - Supplementary feeding increases nestling feather corticosterone early in the
      breeding season in house sparrows.
AB  - Several studies on birds have proposed that a lack of invertebrate prey in
      urbanized areas could be the main cause for generally lower levels of breeding
      success compared to rural habitats. Previous work on house sparrows Passer
      domesticus found that supplemental feeding in urbanized areas increased breeding
      success but did not contribute to population growth. Here, we hypothesize that
      supplementary feeding allows house sparrows to achieve higher breeding success
      but at the cost of lower nestling quality. As abundant food supplies may permit
      both high- and low-quality nestlings to survive, we also predict that within
      brood variation in proxies of nestling quality would be larger for supplemental
      food broods than for unfed broods. As proxies of nestling quality, we considered
      feather corticosterone (CORT f), body condition (scaled mass index, SMI), and
      tarsus-based fluctuating asymmetry (FA). Our hypothesis was only partially
      supported as we did not find an overall effect of food supplementation on FA or
      SMI. Rather, food supplementation affected nestling phenotype only early in the
      breeding season in terms of elevated CORT f levels and a tendency for more
      variable within-brood CORT f and FA. Early food supplemented nests therefore
      seemed to include at least some nestlings that faced increased stressors during
      development, possibly due to harsher environmental (e.g., related to food and
      temperature) conditions early in the breeding season that would increase sibling
      competition, especially in larger broods. The fact that CORT f was positively,
      rather than inversely, related to nestling SMI further suggests that factors
      influencing CORT f and SMI are likely operating over different periods or,
      alternatively, that nestlings in good nutritional condition also invest in high
      quality feathers.

PMID- 28861223
TI  - Populations genetically rifting within a complex geological system: The case of
      strong structure and low genetic diversity in the migratory freshwater catfish,
      Bagrus docmak, in East Africa.
AB  - The complex geological history of East Africa has been a driving factor in the
      rapid evolution of teleost biodiversity. While there is some understanding of how
      macroevolutionary drivers have shaped teleost speciation in East Africa, there is
      a paucity of research into how the same biogeographical factors have affected
      microevolutionary processes within lakes and rivers. To address this deficiency,
      population genetic diversity, demography, and structure were investigated in a
      widely distributed and migratory (potamodromous) African teleost species,
      Ssemutundu (Bagrus docmak). Samples were acquired from five geographical
      locations in East Africa within two major drainage basins; the Albertine Rift and
      Lake Victoria Basin. Individuals (N = 175) were genotyped at 12 microsatellite
      loci and 93 individuals sequenced at the mitochondrial DNA control region.
      Results suggested populations from Lakes Edward and Victoria had undergone a
      severe historic bottleneck resulting in very low nucleotide diversity (pi = 0.004
      and 0.006, respectively) and negatively significant Fu values (-3.769 and -5.049;
      p < .05). Heterozygosity deficiencies and restricted effective population size
      (NeLD) suggested contemporary exposure of these populations to stress, consistent
      with reports of the species decline in the East African Region. High genetic
      structuring between drainages was detected at both historical (phiST = 0.62 for
      mtDNA; p < .001) and contemporary (microsatellite FST = 0.460; p < .001) levels.
      Patterns of low genetic diversity and strong population structure revealed are
      consistent with speciation patterns that have been linked to the complex
      biogeography of East Africa, suggesting that these biogeographical features have
      operated as both macro- and micro-evolutionary forces in the formation of the
      East African teleost fauna.

PMID- 28861224
TI  - Genomic patterns in Acropora cervicornis show extensive population structure and
      variable genetic diversity.
AB  - Threatened Caribbean coral communities can benefit from high-resolution genetic
      data used to inform management and conservation action. We use Genotyping by
      Sequencing (GBS) to investigate genetic patterns in the threatened coral,
      Acropora cervicornis, across the Florida Reef Tract (FRT) and the western
      Caribbean. Results show extensive population structure at regional scales and
      resolve previously unknown structure within the FRT. Different regions also
      exhibit up to threefold differences in genetic diversity (He), suggesting
      targeted management based on the goals and resources of each population is
      needed. Patterns of genetic diversity have a strong spatial component, and our
      results show Broward and the Lower Keys are among the most diverse populations in
      Florida. The genetic diversity of Caribbean staghorn coral is concentrated within
      populations and within individual reefs (AMOVA), highlighting the complex mosaic
      of population structure. This variance structure is similar over regional and
      local scales, which suggests that in situ nurseries are adequately capturing
      natural patterns of diversity, representing a resource that can replicate the
      average diversity of wild assemblages, serving to increase intraspecific
      diversity and potentially leading to improved biodiversity and ecosystem
      function. Results presented here can be translated into specific goals for the
      recovery of A. cervicornis, including active focus on low diversity areas,
      protection of high diversity and connectivity, and practical thresholds for
      responsible restoration.

PMID- 28861225
TI  - Life history constraints explain negative relationship between fish productivity
      and dissolved organic carbon in lakes.
AB  - Resource availability constrains the life history strategies available to
      organisms and may thereby limit population growth rates and productivity. We used
      this conceptual framework to explore the mechanisms driving recently reported
      negative relationships between fish productivity and dissolved organic carbon
      (DOC) concentrations in lakes. We studied populations of bluegill (Lepomis
      macrochirus) in a set of lakes with DOC concentrations ranging from 3 to 24 mg/L;
      previous work has demonstrated that primary and secondary productivity of food
      webs is negatively related to DOC concentration across this gradient. For each
      population, we quantified individual growth rate, age at maturity, age-specific
      fecundity, maximum age, length-weight and length-egg size relationships, and
      other life history characteristics. We observed a strong negative relationship
      between maximum size and DOC concentration; for instance, fish reached masses of
      150 to 260 g in low-DOC lakes but <120 g in high-DOC lakes. Relationships between
      fecundity and length, and between egg size and length, were constant across the
      DOC gradient. Because fish in high-DOC lakes reached smaller sizes but had
      similar fecundity and egg size at a given size, their total lifetime fecundity
      was as much as two orders of magnitude lower than fish in low-DOC lakes. High DOC
      concentrations appeared to constrain the range of bluegill life history
      strategies available; populations in high-DOC lakes always had low initial growth
      rates and high ages at maturity, whereas populations in low-DOC showed higher
      variability in these traits. This was also the case for the intrinsic rates of
      natural increase of these populations, which were always low at the high end of
      the DOC gradient. The potentially lower capacity for fish populations in high-DOC
      lakes to recover from exploitation has clear implications for the sustainable
      management of recreational fisheries in the face of considerable spatial
      heterogeneity and ongoing temporal change in lake DOC concentrations.

PMID- 28861226
TI  - Genetic sampling for estimating density of common species.
AB  - Understanding population dynamics requires reliable estimates of population
      density, yet this basic information is often surprisingly difficult to obtain.
      With rare or difficult-to-capture species, genetic surveys from noninvasive
      collection of hair or scat has proved cost-efficient for estimating densities.
      Here, we explored whether noninvasive genetic sampling (NGS) also offers promise
      for sampling a relatively common species, the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus
      Erxleben, 1777), in comparison with traditional live trapping. We optimized a
      protocol for single-session NGS sampling of hares. We compared spatial capture
      recapture population estimates from live trapping to estimates derived from NGS,
      and assessed NGS costs. NGS provided population estimates similar to those
      derived from live trapping, but a higher density of sampling plots was required
      for NGS. The optimal NGS protocol for our study entailed deploying 160 sampling
      plots for 4 days and genotyping one pellet per plot. NGS laboratory costs ranged
      from approximately $670 to $3000 USD per field site. While live trapping does not
      incur laboratory costs, its field costs can be considerably higher than for NGS,
      especially when study sites are difficult to access. We conclude that NGS can
      work for common species, but that it will require field and laboratory pilot
      testing to develop cost-effective sampling protocols.

PMID- 28861227
TI  - Human influence on the temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of forest
      biomass carbon in China.
AB  - Global carbon cycles are impacted by human activity primarily via fossil fuel
      combustion and forest carbon budget alterations. In this study, the temporal
      dynamics and spatial distribution of forest biomass carbon (FBC) stock and
      density in China were analyzed to assess the large-scale effects of humans on
      FBC. The results indicated that from 1977 to 2013, the FBC stock increased by
      62.9%, from 4,335 to 7,064 Tg C, owing to human-driven forestation and ecological
      restoration programs. Because of intensive human impacts, 44.2%-54.6% of the FBC
      stock was concentrated in four provinces (Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia,
      and Sichuan) and the FBC density increased from the densely populated
      southeastern provinces to the sparsely populated northeastern and western
      provinces. On a spatial scale, the FBC density was significantly negatively
      related to population density, and the degree of the dependence of the FBC
      density on population density has been declining since 1998. This improvement in
      human-forest relations is related to economic development and programs in China
      that have promoted forestation and reduced deforestation. These results suggest
      that human impacts, including forestation, deforestation, population density, and
      economic development, have played significant roles in determining the temporal
      and spatial variations of FBC in the anthropogenic era. Moreover, our findings
      have implications for forest management and improvement of the forest carbon sink
      in China.

PMID- 28861228
TI  - Resurgence of cucurbit downy mildew in the United States: Insights from
      comparative genomic analysis of Pseudoperonospora cubensis.
AB  - Pseudoperonospora cubensis, the causal agent of cucurbit downy mildew (CDM), is
      known to exhibit host specialization. The virulence of different isolates of the
      pathogen can be classified into pathotypes based on their compatibility with a
      differential set composed of specific cucurbit host types. However, the genetic
      basis of host specialization within P. cubensis is not yet known. Total genomic
      DNA extracted from nine isolates of P. cubensis collected from 2008 to 2013 from
      diverse cucurbit host types (Cucumis sativus, C. melo var. reticulatus, Cucurbita
      maxima, C. moschata, C. pepo, and Citrullus lanatus) in the United States were
      subjected to whole-genome sequencing. Comparative analysis of these nine genomes
      confirmed the presence of two distinct evolutionary lineages (lineages I and II)
      of P. cubensis. Many fixed polymorphisms separated lineage I comprising isolates
      from Cucurbita pepo, C. moschata, and Citrullus lanatus from lineage II
      comprising isolates from Cucumis spp. and Cucurbita maxima. Phenotypic
      characterization showed that lineage II isolates were of the A1 mating type and
      belonged to pathotypes 1 and 3 that were not known to be present in the United
      States prior to the resurgence of CDM in 2004. The association of lineage II
      isolates with the new pathotypes and a lack of genetic diversity among these
      isolates suggest that lineage II of P. cubensis is associated with the resurgence
      of CDM on cucumber in the United States.

PMID- 28861229
TI  - Influence of olfactory and visual cover on nest site selection and nest success
      for grassland-nesting birds.
AB  - Habitat selection by animals is influenced by and mitigates the effects of
      predation and environmental extremes. For birds, nest site selection is crucial
      to offspring production because nests are exposed to extreme weather and
      predation pressure. Predators that forage using olfaction often dominate nest
      predator communities; therefore, factors that influence olfactory detection
      (e.g., airflow and weather variables, including turbulence and moisture) should
      influence nest site selection and survival. However, few studies have assessed
      the importance of olfactory cover for habitat selection and survival. We assessed
      whether ground-nesting birds select nest sites based on visual and/or olfactory
      cover. Additionally, we assessed the importance of visual cover and airflow and
      weather variables associated with olfactory cover in influencing nest survival.
      In managed grasslands in Oklahoma, USA, we monitored nests of Northern Bobwhite
      (Colinus virginianus), Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna), and Grasshopper
      Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) during 2015 and 2016. To assess nest site
      selection, we compared cover variables between nests and random points. To assess
      factors influencing nest survival, we used visual cover and olfactory-related
      measurements (i.e., airflow and weather variables) to model daily nest survival.
      For nest site selection, nest sites had greater overhead visual cover than random
      points, but no other significant differences were found. Weather variables
      hypothesized to influence olfactory detection, specifically precipitation and
      relative humidity, were the best predictors of and were positively related to
      daily nest survival. Selection for overhead cover likely contributed to
      mitigation of thermal extremes and possibly reduced detectability of nests. For
      daily nest survival, we hypothesize that major nest predators focused on prey
      other than the monitored species' nests during high moisture conditions, thus
      increasing nest survival on these days. Our study highlights how mechanistic
      approaches to studying cover informs which dimensions are perceived and selected
      by animals and which dimensions confer fitness-related benefits.

PMID- 28861230
TI  - Oxygen minimum zone: An important oceanographic habitat for deep-diving northern
      elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris.
AB  - Little is known about the foraging behavior of top predators in the deep
      mesopelagic ocean. Elephant seals dive to the deep biota-poor oxygen minimum zone
      (OMZ) (>800 m depth) despite high diving costs in terms of energy and time, but
      how they successfully forage in the OMZ remains largely unknown. Assessment of
      their feeding rate is the key to understanding their foraging behavior, but this
      has been challenging. Here, we assessed the feeding rate of 14 female northern
      elephant seals determined by jaw motion events (JME) and dive cycle time to
      examine how feeding rates varied with dive depth, particularly in the OMZ. We
      also obtained video footage from seal-mounted videos to understand their feeding
      in the OMZ. While the diel vertical migration pattern was apparent for most
      depths of the JME, some very deep dives, beyond the normal diel depth ranges,
      occurred episodically during daylight hours. The midmesopelagic zone was the main
      foraging zone for all seals. Larger seals tended to show smaller numbers of JME
      and lower feeding rates than smaller seals during migration, suggesting that
      larger seals tended to feed on larger prey to satisfy their metabolic needs.
      Larger seals also dived frequently to the deep OMZ, possibly because of a greater
      diving ability than smaller seals, suggesting their dependency on food in the
      deeper depth zones. Video observations showed that seals encountered the rarely
      reported ragfish (Icosteus aenigmaticus) in the depths of the OMZ, which failed
      to show an escape response from the seals, suggesting that low oxygen
      concentrations might reduce prey mobility. Less mobile prey in OMZ would enhance
      the efficiency of foraging in this zone, especially for large seals that can dive
      deeper and longer. We suggest that the OMZ plays an important role in structuring
      the mesopelagic ecosystem and for the survival and evolution of elephant seals.

PMID- 28861231
TI  - Habitat predictors of genetic diversity for two sympatric wetland-breeding
      amphibian species.
AB  - Population genetic diversity is widely accepted as important to the conservation
      and management of wildlife. However, habitat features may differentially affect
      evolutionary processes that facilitate population genetic diversity among
      sympatric species. We measured genetic diversity for two pond-breeding amphibian
      species (Dwarf salamanders, Eurycea quadridigitata; and Southern Leopard frogs,
      Lithobates sphenocephalus) to understand how habitat characteristics and spatial
      scale affect genetic diversity across a landscape. Samples were collected from
      wetlands on a longleaf pine reserve in Georgia. We genotyped microsatellite loci
      for both species to assess population structures and determine which habitat
      features were most closely associated with observed heterozygosity and rarefied
      allelic richness. Both species exhibited significant population genetic
      structure; however, structure in Southern Leopard frogs was driven primarily by
      one outlier site. Dwarf salamander allelic richness was greater at sites with
      less surrounding road area within 0.5 km and more wetland area within 1.0 and 2.5
      km, and heterozygosity was greater at sites with more wetland area within 0.5 km.
      In contrast, neither measure of Southern Leopard frog genetic diversity was
      associated with any habitat features at any scale we evaluated. Genetic diversity
      in the Dwarf salamander was strongly associated with land cover variables up to
      2.5 km away from breeding wetlands, and/or results suggest that minimizing roads
      in wetland buffers may be beneficial to the maintenance of population genetic
      diversity. This study suggests that patterns of genetic differentiation and
      genetic diversity have associations with different habitat features across
      different spatial scales for two syntopic pond-breeding amphibian species.

PMID- 28861232
TI  - Modeling the impact of reproductive mode on masting.
AB  - Masting is defined as the intermittent highly variable production of seed in a
      plant population. According to reproductive modes, that is, sexual and asexual
      reproduction, masting species can be separated into three groups, that is, (1)
      species, for example, bamboo, flower only once before they die; (2) species, for
      example, Fagus, reproduce sexually; and (3) species, for example, Stipa
      tenacissima, reproduce both sexually and asexually. Several theories have been
      proposed to explore the underlying mechanisms of masting. However, to our
      knowledge, no theory has been found to explain the mechanism of masting species
      that reproduce both sexually and asexually. Here we refine the Resource Budget
      Model by considering a trade-off between sexual and asexual reproduction. Besides
      the depletion efficient (i.e., the ratio of the cost of seed setting and the cost
      of flowering), other factors, such as the annual remaining resource (i.e., the
      rest of the resource from the photosynthetic activity after allocating to growth
      and maintenance), the trade-off between sexual and asexual reproduction, and the
      reproductive thresholds, also affect masting. Moreover, two potential
      reproductive strategies are found to explain the mechanisms: (1) When the annual
      remaining resource is relatively low, plants reproduce asexually and a part of
      the resource is accumulated as the cost of asexual reproduction is less than the
      annual remaining resource. Plants flower and set fruits once the accumulated
      resource exceeds the threshold of sexual reproduction; (2) when the annual
      remaining resource is relatively high, and the accumulated resource surpasses the
      threshold of sexual reproduction, masting occurs. Remarkably, under certain
      depletion efficient, more investigation in sexual reproduction will lead plants
      to reproduce periodically. Additionally, plants investigate less resource to
      reproduce periodically when depletion efficient keeps increasing as plants can
      reproduce efficiently. Overall, our study provides new insights into the
      interpretation of masting, especially for species that reproduce both sexually
      and asexually.

PMID- 28861233
TI  - Assessing the relationships between phylogenetic and functional singularities in
      sharks (Chondrichthyes).
AB  - The relationships between diversity and ecosystem functioning have become a major
      focus of science. A crucial issue is to estimate functional diversity, as it is
      intended to impact ecosystem dynamics and stability. However, depending on the
      ecosystem, it may be challenging or even impossible to directly measure
      ecological functions and thus functional diversity. Phylogenetic diversity was
      recently under consideration as a proxy for functional diversity. Phylogenetic
      diversity is indeed supposed to match functional diversity if functions are
      conservative traits along evolution. However, in case of adaptive radiation
      and/or evolutive convergence, a mismatch may appear between species phylogenetic
      and functional singularities. Using highly threatened taxa, sharks, this study
      aimed to explore the relationships between phylogenetic and functional
      diversities and singularities. Different statistical computations were used in
      order to test both methodological issue (phylogenetic reconstruction) and overall
      a theoretical questioning: the predictive power of phylogeny for function
      diversity. Despite these several methodological approaches, a mismatch between
      phylogeny and function was highlighted. This mismatch revealed that (i) functions
      are apparently nonconservative in shark species, and (ii) phylogenetic
      singularity is not a proxy for functional singularity. Functions appeared to be
      not conservative along the evolution of sharks, raising the conservational
      challenge to identify and protect both phylogenetic and functional singular
      species. Facing the current rate of species loss, it is indeed of major
      importance to target phylogenetically singular species to protect genetic
      diversity and also functionally singular species in order to maintain particular
      functions within ecosystem.

PMID- 28861234
TI  - The spitting image of plant defenses: Effects of plant secondary chemistry on the
      efficacy of caterpillar regurgitant as an anti-predator defense.
AB  - In the arms race between plants, herbivores, and their natural enemies,
      specialized herbivores may use plant defenses for their own benefit, and
      variation in plant traits may affect the benefits that herbivores derive from
      these defenses. Pieris brassicae is a specialist herbivore of plants containing
      glucosinolates, a specific class of defensive secondary metabolites. Caterpillars
      of P. brassicae are known to actively spit on attacking natural enemies,
      including their main parasitoid, the braconid wasp Cotesia glomerata. Here, we
      tested the hypothesis that variation in the secondary metabolites of host plants
      affects the efficacy of caterpillar regurgitant as an anti-predator defense.
      Using a total of 10 host plants with different glucosinolate profiles, we first
      studied natural regurgitation events of caterpillars on parasitoids. We then
      studied manual applications of water or regurgitant on parasitoids during
      parasitization events. Results from natural regurgitation events revealed that
      parasitoids spent more time grooming after attack when foraging on radish and
      nasturtium than on Brassica spp., and when the regurgitant came in contact with
      the wings rather than any other body part. Results from manual applications of
      regurgitant showed that all parameters of parasitoid behavior (initial attack
      duration, attack interruption, grooming time, and likelihood of a second attack)
      were more affected when regurgitant was applied rather than water. The proportion
      of parasitoids re-attacking a caterpillar within 15 min was the lowest when
      regurgitant originated from radish-fed caterpillars. However, we found no
      correlation between glucosinolate content and regurgitant effects, and parasitoid
      behavior was equally affected when regurgitant originated from a glucosinolate
      deficient Arabidopsis thaliana mutant line. In conclusion, host plant affects to
      a certain extent the efficacy of spit from P. brassicae caterpillars as a defense
      against parasitoids, but this is not due to glucosinolate content. The nature of
      the defensive compounds present in the spit remains to be determined, and the
      ecological relevance of this anti-predator defense needs to be further evaluated
      in the field.

PMID- 28861235
TI  - Switching from monoculture to polyculture farming benefits birds in oil palm
      production landscapes: Evidence from mist netting data.
AB  - Monoculture farming is pervasive in industrial oil palm agriculture, including
      those RSPO plantations certified as sustainably managed. This farming practice
      does not promote the maintenance of farmland biodiversity. However, little
      scientific attention has been given to polyculture farming in oil palm production
      landscapes. Polyculture farming is likely to increase the floristic diversity and
      stand structural complexity that underpins biodiversity. Mist nets were used to
      sample birds at 120 smallholdings in Peninsular Malaysia. At each site, 12
      vegetation structure characteristics were measured. We compared bird species
      richness, abundance, and composition between monoculture and polyculture
      smallholdings and used predictive models to examine the effects of habitat
      quality on avian biodiversity. Bird species richness was significantly greater in
      polyculture than that of monoculture smallholdings. The number of fallen and
      standing, dead oil palms were also important positive predictors of species
      richness. Bird abundance was also strongly increased by standing and dead oil
      palms and decreased with oil palm stand height. Our results indicate that
      polyculture farming can improve bird species richness in oil palm production
      landscapes. In addition, key habitat variables that are closely associated with
      farming practices, such as the removal of dead trees, should and can be managed
      by oil palm growers in order to promote biodiversity. To increase the
      sustainability of oil palm agriculture, it is imperative that stakeholders modify
      the way oil palms are currently planted and managed. Our findings can guide
      policy makers and certification bodies to promote oil palm production landscapes
      that will function more sustainably and increase existing biodiversity of oil
      palm landscapes.

PMID- 28861236
TI  - Incorporating thresholds into understanding salinity tolerance: A study using
      salt-tolerant plants in salt marshes.
AB  - Although salinity in many ecosystems such as salt marshes can be extremely high,
      an asymmetry in salinity range between experimental studies (relatively narrow)
      and field conditions (potentially broad) has strongly affected current
      understanding of plant salinity tolerance. To improve understanding, it is thus
      important to examine plant tolerances over a broad range of salinities and
      identify potential tolerance thresholds. We examine tolerances of two widely
      distributed marsh plants, Suaeda salsa and Salicornia europaea, to salinities
      ranging from 0 to 100 g/kg, and determine survival, above- and belowground
      biomass after 8 weeks of salinity treatment. Both species, Sa. europaea in
      particular, have much broader salinity tolerances than other plants previously
      examined, (2) plant survival, above- and belowground biomass have remarkably
      different responses to salinity, and (3) there is a nonlinear, threshold response
      of S. salsa to salinity, above which S. salsa survivorship drastically decreases.
      These results provide multiple important insights. Our study suggests that the
      potential for using these halophytes to revegetate and restore salt-affected land
      may be greater than previously thought, and highlights the importance of studying
      multiple plant responses. Importantly, our study calls for a better integration
      of thresholds into understanding plant salinity tolerances and their
      applications.

PMID- 28861237
TI  - Nonannual tree rings in a climate-sensitive Prioria copaifera chronology in the
      Atrato River, Colombia.
AB  - In temperate climates, tree growth dormancy usually ensures the annual nature of
      tree rings, but in tropical environments, determination of annual periodicity can
      be more complex. The purposes of the work are as follows: (1) to generate a
      reliable tree-ring width chronology for Prioria copaifera Griseb. (Leguminoceae),
      a tropical tree species dwelling in the Atrato River floodplains, Colombia; (2)
      to assess the climate signal recorded by the tree-ring records; and (3) to
      validate the annual periodicity of the tree rings using independent methods. We
      used standard dendrochronological procedures to generate the P. copaifera tree
      ring chronology. We used Pearson correlations to evaluate the relationship of the
      chronology with the meteorological records, climate regional indices, and gridded
      precipitation/sea surface temperature products. We also evaluated 24 high
      precision 14C measurements spread over a range of preselected tree rings, with
      assigned calendar years by dendrochronological techniques, before and after the
      bomb spike in order to validate the annual nature of the tree rings. The tree
      ring width chronology was statistically reliable, and it correlated significantly
      with local records of annual and October-December (OND) streamflow and
      precipitation across the upper river watershed (positive), and OND temperature
      (negative). It was also significantly related to the Oceanic Nino Index, Pacific
      Decadal Oscillation, and the Southern Oscillation Index, as well as sea surface
      temperatures over the Caribbean and the Pacific region. However, 14C high
      precision measurements over the tree rings demonstrated offsets of up to 40 years
      that indicate that P. copaifera can produce more than one ring in certain years.
      Results derived from the strongest climate-growth relationship during the most
      recent years of the record suggest that the climatic signal reported may be due
      to the presence of annual rings in some of those trees in recent years. Our study
      alerts about the risk of applying dendrochronology in species with challenging
      anatomical features defining tree rings, commonly found in the tropics, without
      an independent validation of annual periodicity of tree rings. High-precision 14C
      measurements in multiple trees are a useful method to validate the identification
      of annual tree rings.

PMID- 28861238
TI  - Explosive radiation and spatial expansion across the cold environments of the Old
      World in an avian family.
AB  - Our objective was to elucidate the biogeography and speciation patterns in an
      entire avian family, which shows a complex pattern of overlapping and
      nonoverlapping geographical distributions, and much variation in plumage, but
      less in size and structure. We estimated the phylogeny and divergence times for
      all of the world's species of Prunella based on multiple genetic loci, and
      analyzed morphometric divergence and biogeographical history. The common ancestor
      of Prunella was present in the Sino-Himalayan Mountains or these mountains and
      Central Asia-Mongolia more than 9 million years ago (mya), but a burst of
      speciations took place during the mid-Pliocene to early Pleistocene. The
      relationships among the six primary lineages resulting from that differentiation
      are unresolved, probably because of the rapid radiation. A general increase in
      sympatry with increasing time since divergence is evident. With one exception,
      species in clades younger than c. 3.7 my are allopatric. Species that are widely
      sympatric, including the most recently diverged (2.4 mya) sympatric sisters, are
      generally more divergent in size/structure than allo-/parapatric close relatives.
      The distributional pattern and inferred ages suggest divergence in allopatry and
      substantial waiting time until secondary contact, likely due to competitive
      exclusion. All sympatrically breeding species are ecologically segregated, as
      suggested by differences in size/structure and habitat. Colonizations of new
      areas were facilitated during glacial periods, followed by fragmentation during
      interglacials-contrary to the usual view that glacial periods resulted mainly in
      fragmentations.

PMID- 28861239
TI  - A neutral view of the evolving genomic architecture of speciation.
AB  - Analyses of genomewide polymorphism data have begun to shed light on speciation
      and adaptation. Genome scans to identify regions of the genome that are unusually
      different between populations or species, possibly due to divergent natural or
      sexual selection, are widespread in speciation genomics. Theoretical and
      empirical work suggests that such outlier regions may grow faster than linearly
      during speciation with gene flow due to a rapid transition between low and high
      reproductive isolation. We investigate whether this pattern could be attributed
      to neutral processes by simulating genomes under neutral evolution with varying
      amounts and timing of gene flow. Under both neutral evolution and divergent
      selection, simulations with little or no gene flow, or with a long allopatric
      period after its cessation, resulted in faster than linear growth of the
      proportion of the genome lying in outlier regions. Without selection, higher
      recent gene flow erased differentiation; with divergent selection, these same
      scenarios produced nonlinear growth to a plateau. Our results suggest that, given
      a history of gene flow, the growth of the divergent genome is informative about
      selection during divergence, but that in many scenarios, this pattern does not
      easily distinguish neutral and non-neutral processes during speciation with gene
      flow.

PMID- 28861240
TI  - Habitat selection by Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is primarily driven by avoidance
      of human activity during day and prey availability during night.
AB  - The greatest threat to the protected Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Central Europe
      is human-induced mortality. As the availability of lynx prey often peaks in human
      modified areas, lynx have to balance successful prey hunting with the risk of
      encounters with humans. We hypothesized that lynx minimize this risk by adjusting
      habitat choices to the phases of the day and over seasons. We predicted that (1)
      due to avoidance of human-dominated areas during daytime, lynx range use is
      higher at nighttime, that (2) prey availability drives lynx habitat selection at
      night, whereas high cover, terrain inaccessibility, and distance to human
      infrastructure drive habitat selection during the day, and that (3) habitat
      selection also differs between seasons, with altitude being a dominant factor in
      winter. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed telemetry data (GPS, VHF) of 10
      lynx in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem (Germany, Czech Republic) between 2005 and
      2013 using generalized additive mixed models and considering various predictor
      variables. Night ranges exceeded day ranges by more than 10%. At night, lynx
      selected open habitats, such as meadows, which are associated with high ungulate
      abundance. By contrast, during the day, lynx selected habitats offering dense
      understorey cover and rugged terrain away from human infrastructure. In summer,
      land-cover type greatly shaped lynx habitats, whereas in winter, lynx selected
      lower altitudes. We concluded that open habitats need to be considered for more
      realistic habitat models and contribute to future management and conservation
      (habitat suitability, carrying capacity) of Eurasian lynx in Central Europe.

PMID- 28861241
TI  - Evaluation of an automated protocol for efficient and reliable DNA extraction of
      dietary samples.
AB  - Molecular techniques have become an important tool to empirically assess feeding
      interactions. The increased usage of next-generation sequencing approaches has
      stressed the need of fast DNA extraction that does not compromise DNA quality.
      Dietary samples here pose a particular challenge, as these demand high-quality
      DNA extraction procedures for obtaining the minute quantities of short-fragmented
      food DNA. Automatic high-throughput procedures significantly decrease time and
      costs and allow for standardization of extracting total DNA. However, these
      approaches have not yet been evaluated for dietary samples. We tested the
      efficiency of an automatic DNA extraction platform and a traditional CTAB
      protocol, employing a variety of dietary samples including invertebrate whole
      body extracts as well as invertebrate and vertebrate gut content samples and
      feces. Extraction efficacy was quantified using the proportions of successful PCR
      amplifications of both total and prey DNA, and cost was estimated in terms of
      time and material expense. For extraction of total DNA, the automated platform
      performed better for both invertebrate and vertebrate samples. This was also true
      for prey detection in vertebrate samples. For the dietary analysis in
      invertebrates, there is still room for improvement when using the high-throughput
      system for optimal DNA yields. Overall, the automated DNA extraction system
      turned out as a promising alternative to labor-intensive, low-throughput manual
      extraction methods such as CTAB. It is opening up the opportunity for an
      extensive use of this cost-efficient and innovative methodology at low
      contamination risk also in trophic ecology.

PMID- 28861242
TI  - Genomic and phenotypic signatures of climate adaptation in an Anolis lizard.
AB  - Integrated knowledge on phenotype, physiology, and genomic adaptations is
      required to understand the effects of climate on evolution. The functional
      genomic basis of organismal adaptation to changes in the abiotic environment, its
      phenotypic consequences, and its possible convergence across vertebrates are
      still understudied. In this study, we use a comparative approach to verify
      predicted gene functions for vertebrate thermal adaptation with observed
      functions underlying repeated genomic adaptations in response to elevation in the
      lizard Anolis cybotes. We establish a direct link between recurrently evolved
      phenotypes and functional genomics of altitude-related climate adaptation in
      three highland and lowland populations in the Dominican Republic. We show that
      across vertebrates, genes contained in this interactome are expressed within the
      brain, the endocrine system, and during development. These results are relevant
      to elucidate the effect of global climate change across vertebrates and might aid
      in furthering insight into gene-environment relationships under disturbances to
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28861243
TI  - Assessing patterns of genetic admixture between sheep breeds: Case study in
      Algeria.
AB  - In developing countries, cross-breeding between local breeds and indigene or
      exotic breeds represents one of the main threats to the livestock diversity,
      leading to genetic dilution and loss of unique allelic combination underlying
      essential local adaptive traits. In this study, two Algerian sheep breeds, known
      to be highly admixed, were considered as a case study, to demonstrate how
      combination of different methodologies coupled with the use of specific softwares
      can be efficient to assess the spatial structuration of a hybrid zone, even in a
      case of extreme admixture. A fine sampling covering distribution areas of both
      breeds was implemented in order to study the admixture area and adjacent zones
      from a phenotypic (i.e., 19 quantitative traits were considered) and a genetic
      point of view (i.e., 21 microsatellites markers were used). Both approaches gave
      concordant patterns, highlighting areas with sheep most differentiated (or less
      admixed) for each breed. In detail, the region of Biskra appeared as the most
      preserved for the Ouled-Djellal breed and the northwest of Laghouat was
      identified as the most preserved area for the Rembi breed. The approach proposed
      in the study offers a low-cost solution to identify the most representative
      flocks of a breed, allowing the implementation of efficient conservation plans.

PMID- 28861244
TI  - Using a historic drought and high-heat event to validate thermal exposure
      predictions for ground-dwelling birds.
AB  - Deviations from typical environmental conditions can provide insight into how
      organisms may respond to future weather extremes predicted by climate modeling.
      During an episodic and multimonth heat wave event (i.e., ambient temperature up
      to 43.4 degrees C), we studied the thermal ecology of a ground-dwelling bird
      species in Western Oklahoma, USA. Specifically, we measured black bulb
      temperature (Tbb) and vegetation parameters at northern bobwhite (Colinus
      virginianus; hereafter bobwhite) adult and brood locations as well as at
      stratified random points in the study area. On the hottest days (i.e., >=39
      degrees C), adults and broods obtained thermal refuge using tall woody cover that
      remained on average up to 16.51 degrees C cooler than random sites on the
      landscape which reached >57 degrees C. We also found that refuge sites used by
      bobwhites moderated thermal conditions by more than twofold compared to
      stratified random sites on the landscape but that Tbb commonly exceeded thermal
      stress thresholds for bobwhites (39 degrees C) for several hours of the day
      within thermal refuges. The serendipitous high heat conditions captured in our
      study represent extreme heat for our study region as well as thermal stress for
      our study species, and subsequently allowed us to assess ground-dwelling bird
      responses to temperatures that are predicted to become more common in the future.
      Our findings confirm the critical importance of tall woody cover for moderating
      temperatures and functioning as important islands of thermal refuge for ground
      dwelling birds, especially during extreme heat. However, the potential for
      extreme heat loads within thermal refuges that we observed (albeit much less
      extreme than the landscape) indicates that the functionality of tall woody cover
      to mitigate heat extremes may be increasingly limited in the future, thereby
      reinforcing predictions that climate change represents a clear and present danger
      for these species.

PMID- 28861245
TI  - Herbivore grazing-or trampling? Trampling effects by a large ungulate in cold
      high-latitude ecosystems.
AB  - Mammalian herbivores have important top-down effects on ecological processes and
      landscapes by generating vegetation changes through grazing and trampling. For
      free-ranging herbivores on large landscapes, trampling is an important ecological
      factor. However, whereas grazing is widely studied, low-intensity trampling is
      rarely studied and quantified. The cold-adapted northern tundra reindeer
      (Rangifer tarandus) is a wide-ranging keystone herbivore in large open alpine and
      Arctic ecosystems. Reindeer may largely subsist on different species of slow
      growing ground lichens, particularly in winter. Lichen grows in dry, snow-poor
      habitats with frost. Their varying elasticity makes them suitable for studying
      trampling. In replicated factorial experiments, high-resolution 3D laser scanning
      was used to quantify lichen volume loss from trampling by a reindeer hoof. Losses
      were substantial, that is, about 0.3 dm3 per imprint in dry thick lichen, but
      depended on type of lichen mat and humidity. Immediate trampling volume loss was
      about twice as high in dry, compared to humid thin (2-3 cm), lichen mats and
      about three times as high in dry vs. humid thick (6-8 cm) lichen mats, There was
      no significant difference in volume loss between 100% and 50% wetted lichen.
      Regained volume with time was insignificant for dry lichen, whereas 50% humid
      lichen regained substantial volumes, and 100% humid lichen regained almost all
      lost volume, and mostly within 10-20 min. Reindeer trampling may have from near
      none to devastating effects on exposed lichen forage. During a normal week of
      foraging, daily moving 5 km across dry 6- to 8-cm-thick continuous lichen mats,
      one adult reindeer may trample a lichen volume corresponding to about a year's
      supply of lichen. However, the lichen humidity appears to be an important factor
      for trampling loss, in addition to the extent of reindeer movement.

PMID- 28861246
TI  - Leaf and root litter decomposition is discontinued at high altitude tropical
      montane rainforests contributing to carbon sequestration.
AB  - We investigated how altitude affects the decomposition of leaf and root litter in
      the Andean tropical montane rainforest of southern Ecuador, that is, through
      changes in the litter quality between altitudes or other site-specific
      differences in microenvironmental conditions. Leaf litter from three abundant
      tree species and roots of different diameter from sites at 1,000, 2,000, and
      3,000 m were placed in litterbags and incubated for 6, 12, 24, 36, and 48 months.
      Environmental conditions at the three altitudes and the sampling time were the
      main factors driving litter decomposition, while origin, and therefore quality of
      the litter, was of minor importance. At 2,000 and 3,000 m decomposition of litter
      declined for 12 months reaching a limit value of ~50% of initial and not
      decomposing further for about 24 months. After 36 months, decomposition commenced
      at low rates resulting in an average of 37.9% and 44.4% of initial remaining
      after 48 months. In contrast, at 1,000 m decomposition continued for 48 months
      until only 10.9% of the initial litter mass remained. Changes in decomposition
      rates were paralleled by changes in microorganisms with microbial biomass
      decreasing after 24 months at 2,000 and 3,000 m, while varying little at 1,000 m.
      The results show that, irrespective of litter origin (1,000, 2,000, 3,000 m) and
      type (leaves, roots), unfavorable microenvironmental conditions at high altitudes
      inhibit decomposition processes resulting in the sequestration of carbon in thick
      organic layers.

PMID- 28861247
TI  - The components of biodiversity, with a particular focus on phylogenetic
      information.
AB  - We present a framework for biodiversity metrics that organizes the growing
      panoply of metrics. Our framework distinguishes metrics based on the type of
      information-abundance, phylogeny, function-and two common properties-magnitude
      and variability. Our new metrics of phylogenetic diversity are based on a
      partition of the total branch lengths of a cladogram into the proportional share
      of each species, including: a measure of divergence which standardizes the amount
      of evolutionary divergence by species richness and time depth of the cladogram; a
      measure of regularity which is maximal when the tree is perfectly symmetrical so
      that all species have the same proportional branch lengths; a measure that
      combines information on the magnitude and variability of abundance with
      phylogenetic variability, and a measure of phylogenetically weighted effective
      mean abundance; and indicate how those metrics can be decomposed into alpha and
      beta components. We illustrate the utility of these new metrics using empirical
      data on the bat fauna of Manu, Peru. Divergence was greatest in lowland
      rainforest and at the transition between cloud and elfin forests, and least in
      upper elfin forests and in cloud forests. In contrast, regularity was greatest in
      lowland rainforest, dipping to its smallest values in mid-elevation cloud
      forests, and then increasing in high elevation elfin forests. These patterns
      indicate that the first species to drop out with increasing elevation are ones
      that are closely related to other species in the metacommunity. Measures of the
      effective number of phylogenetically independent or distinct species decreased
      very rapidly with elevation, and beta-diversity was larger. In contrast, a
      comparison of feeding guilds shows a different effect of phylogenetic patterning.
      Along the elevational gradient, each guild generally loses some species from each
      clade-rather than entire clades-explaining the maintenance of functional
      diversity as phylogenetic diversity decreases.

PMID- 28861248
TI  - Growth form evolution and hybridization in Senecio (Asteraceae) from the high
      equatorial Andes.
AB  - Changes in growth forms frequently accompany plant adaptive radiations, including
      paramo-a high-elevation treeless habitat type of the northern Andes. We tested
      whether diverse group of Senecio inhabiting montane forests and paramo
      represented such growth form changes. We also investigated the role of Andean
      geography and environment in structuring genetic variation of this group. We
      sampled 108 populations and 28 species of Senecio (focusing on species from
      former genera Lasiocephalus and Culcitium) and analyzed their genetic
      relationships and patterns of intraspecific variation using DNA fingerprinting
      (AFLPs) and nuclear DNA sequences (ITS). We partitioned genetic variation into
      environmental and geographical components. ITS-based phylogeny supported
      monophyly of a Lasiocephalus-Culcitium clade. A grade of herbaceous alpine
      Senecio species subtended the Lasiocephalus-Culcitium clade suggesting a change
      from the herbaceous to the woody growth form. Both ITS sequences and the AFLPs
      separated a group composed of the majority of paramo subshrubs from other
      group(s) comprising both forest and paramo species of various growth forms. These
      morphologically variable group(s) further split into clades encompassing both the
      paramo subshrubs and forest lianas, indicating independent switches among the
      growth forms and habitats. The finest AFLP genetic structure corresponded to
      morphologically delimited species except in two independent cases in which
      patterns of genetic variation instead reflected geography. Several
      morphologically variable species were genetically admixed, which suggests
      possible hybrid origins. Latitude and longitude accounted for 5%-8% of genetic
      variation in each of three AFLP groups, while the proportion of variation
      attributed to environment varied between 8% and 31% among them. A change from the
      herbaceous to the woody growth form is suggested for species of high-elevation
      Andean Senecio. Independent switches between habitats and growth forms likely
      occurred within the group. Hybridization likely played an important role in
      species diversification.

PMID- 28861249
TI  - Influence of density-dependent competition on foraging and migratory behavior of
      a subtropical colonial seabird.
AB  - Density-dependent competition for food resources influences both foraging ecology
      and reproduction in a variety of animals. The relationship between colony size,
      local prey depletion, and reproductive output in colonial central-place foragers
      has been extensively studied in seabirds; however, most studies have focused on
      effects of intraspecific competition during the breeding season, while little is
      known about whether density-dependent resource depletion influences individual
      migratory behavior outside the breeding season. Using breeding colony size as a
      surrogate for intraspecific resource competition, we tested for effects of colony
      size on breeding home range, nestling health, and migratory patterns of a
      nearshore colonial seabird, the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis),
      originating from seven breeding colonies of varying sizes in the subtropical
      northern Gulf of Mexico. We found evidence for density-dependent effects on
      foraging behavior during the breeding season, as individual foraging areas
      increased linearly with the number of breeding pairs per colony. Contrary to our
      predictions, however, nestlings from more numerous colonies with larger foraging
      ranges did not experience either decreased condition or increased stress. During
      nonbreeding, individuals from larger colonies were more likely to migrate, and
      traveled longer distances, than individuals from smaller colonies, indicating
      that the influence of density-dependent effects on distribution persists into the
      nonbreeding period. We also found significant effects of individual physical
      condition, particularly body size, on migratory behavior, which in combination
      with colony size suggesting that dominant individuals remain closer to breeding
      sites during winter. We conclude that density-dependent competition may be an
      important driver of both the extent of foraging ranges and the degree of
      migration exhibited by brown pelicans. However, the effects of density-dependent
      competition on breeding success and population regulation remain uncertain in
      this system.

PMID- 28861250
TI  - Does responsiveness to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi depend on plant invasive
      status?
AB  - Differences in the direction and degree to which invasive alien and native plants
      are influenced by mycorrhizal associations could indicate a general mechanism of
      plant invasion, but whether or not such differences exist is unclear. Here, we
      tested whether mycorrhizal responsiveness varies by plant invasive status while
      controlling for phylogenetic relatedness among plants with two large grassland
      datasets. Mycorrhizal responsiveness was measured for 68 taxa from the Northern
      Plains, and data for 95 taxa from the Central Plains were included. Nineteen
      percent of taxa from the Northern Plains had greater total biomass with
      mycorrhizas while 61% of taxa from the Central Plains responded positively. For
      the Northern Plains taxa, measurable effects often depended on the response
      variable (i.e., total biomass, shoot biomass, and root mass ratio) suggesting
      varied resource allocation strategies when roots are colonized by arbuscular
      mycorrhizal fungi. In both datasets, invasive status was nonrandomly distributed
      on the phylogeny. Invasive taxa were mainly from two clades, that is, Poaceae and
      Asteraceae families. In contrast, mycorrhizal responsiveness was randomly
      distributed over the phylogeny for taxa from the Northern Plains, but nonrandomly
      distributed for taxa from the Central Plains. After controlling for phylogenetic
      similarity, we found no evidence that invasive taxa responded differently to
      mycorrhizas than other taxa. Although it is possible that mycorrhizal
      responsiveness contributes to invasiveness in particular species, we find no
      evidence that invasiveness in general is associated with the degree of
      mycorrhizal responsiveness. However, mycorrhizal responsiveness among species
      grown under common conditions was highly variable, and more work is needed to
      determine the causes of this variation.

PMID- 28861251
TI  - Facing herbivory on the climb up: Lost opportunities as the main cost of
      herbivory in the wild yam Dioscorea praehensilis.
AB  - Plants with simple architecture and strong constraints on their growth may offer
      critical insights into how growth strategies affect the tolerance of plants to
      herbivory. Although Dioscorea praehensilis, a wild yam of African forests, is
      perennial, both aerial apparatus and tuber are annually renewed. Each year, the
      tuber produces a single stem that climbs from the ground to the forest canopy.
      This stem bears no leaves and no branches until it reaches optimal light
      conditions. Once in the canopy, the plant's production fuels the filling of a new
      tuber before the plant dies back to the ground. We hypothesized that if deprived
      of ant defense, the leafless growth phase is a vulnerable part of the cycle,
      during which a small amount of herbivory entails a high cost in terms of loss of
      opportunity. We compared the growth of stems bearing ants or not as well as of
      intact stems and stems subjected to simulated or natural herbivory. Ants reduce
      herbivory; herbivory delays arrival to the canopy and shortens the season of
      production. Artificially prolonging the stem growth to the canopy increased plant
      mortality in the following year and, in surviving plants, reduced the stem
      diameter and likely the underground reserves produced. Tuber size is a key
      variable in plant performance as it affects both the size of the aerial apparatus
      and the duration of its single season of production. Aerial apparatus and tuber
      are thus locked into a cycle of reciprocal annual renewal. Costs due to loss of
      opportunity may play a major role in plant tolerance to herbivory, especially
      when architectural constraints interact with ecological conditions to shape the
      plant's growth strategy.

PMID- 28861252
TI  - Florally rich habitats reduce insect pollination and the reproductive success of
      isolated plants.
AB  - Landscape heterogeneity in floral communities has the potential to modify
      pollinator behavior. Pollinator foraging varies with the diversity, abundance,
      and spatial configuration of floral resources. However, the implications of this
      variation for pollen transfer and ultimately the reproductive success of insect
      pollinated plants remains unclear, especially for species which are rare or
      isolated in the landscape. We used a landscape-scale experiment, coupled with
      microsatellite genotyping, to explore how the floral richness of habitats
      affected pollinator behavior and pollination effectiveness. Small arrays of the
      partially self-compatible plant Californian poppy (Eschscholzia californica) were
      introduced across a landscape gradient to simulate rare, spatially isolated
      populations. The effects on pollinator activity, outcrossing, and plant
      reproduction were measured. In florally rich habitats, we found reduced pollen
      movement between plants, leading to fewer long-distance pollination events, lower
      plant outcrossing, and a higher incidence of pollen limitation. This pattern
      indicates a potential reduction in per capita pollinator visitation, as suggested
      by the lower activity densities and richness of pollinators observed within
      florally rich habitats. In addition, seed production reduced by a factor of 1.8
      in plants within florally rich habitats and progeny germination reduced by a
      factor of 1.2. We show this to be a consequence of self-fertilization within the
      partially self-compatible plant, E. californica. These findings indicate that
      locally rare plants are at a competitive disadvantage within florally rich
      habitats because neighboring plant species disrupt conspecific mating by co
      opting pollinators. Ultimately, this Allee effect may play an important role in
      determining the long-term persistence of rarer plants in the landscape, both in
      terms of seed production and viability. Community context therefore requires
      consideration when designing and implementing conservation management for plants
      which are comparatively rare in the landscape.

PMID- 28861253
TI  - The multigenerational effects of water contamination and endocrine disrupting
      chemicals on the fitness of Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - Water pollution due to human activities produces sedimentation, excessive
      nutrients, and toxic chemicals, and this, in turn, has an effect on the normal
      endocrine functioning of living beings. Overall, water pollution may affect some
      components of the fitness of organisms (e.g., developmental time and fertility).
      Some toxic compounds found in polluted waters are known as endocrine disruptors
      (ED), and among these are nonhalogenated phenolic chemicals such as bisphenol A
      and nonylphenol. To evaluate the effect of nonhalogenated phenolic chemicals on
      the endocrine system, we subjected two generations (F0 and F1) of Drosophila
      melanogaster to different concentrations of ED. Specifically, treatments involved
      wastewater, which had the highest level of ED (bisphenol A and nonylphenol) and
      treated wastewater from a constructed Heliconia psittacorum wetland with
      horizontal subsurface water flow (He); the treated wastewater was the treatment
      with the lowest level of ED. We evaluated the development time from egg to pupa
      and from pupa to adult as well as fertility. The results show that for
      individuals exposed to treated wastewater, the developmental time from egg to
      pupae was shorter in individuals of the F1 generation than in the F0 generation.
      Additionally, the time from pupae to adult was longer for flies growing in the H.
      psittacorum treated wastewater. Furthermore, fertility was lower in the F1
      generation than in the F0 generation. Although different concentrations of
      bisphenol A and nonylphenol had no significant effect on the components of
      fitness of D. melanogaster (developmental time and fertility), there was a trend
      across generations, likely as a result of selection imposed on the flies. It is
      possible that the flies developed different strategies to avoid the effects of
      the various environmental stressors.

PMID- 28861254
TI  - No obvious genetic erosion, but evident relict status at the westernmost range
      edge of the Pontic-Pannonian steppe plant Linum flavum L. (Linaceae) in Central
      Europe.
AB  - We investigate patterns of genetic variation along an east-west transect of
      Central European populations of Linum flavum and interpret the Quaternary history
      of its peripheral populations, especially those at the westernmost isolated range
      edge, discussing their migrations and possible relict status. We defined our
      peripheral transect across three study regions from Central Hungary, eastern
      Austria to southwestern Germany. Using AFLP fingerprinting and cpDNA sequence
      variation (rpL16 intron, atpI-H), we analyzed 267 and 95 individuals,
      respectively, representing each study region by four populations. Hierarchical
      AMOVA (AFLPs) indicated significant variation among study regions (12% of total
      variance) and moderate differentiation between populations (10%). Population
      differentiation was high at the westernmost range edge (11.5%, Germany), but also
      in the east (13.4%, Hungary), compared to the Austrian study region (8.6%).
      Correspondingly, AFLP diversity was highest in the center of the study transect
      in eastern Austria. CpDNA haplotypes support a pattern of regional structuring
      with the strongest separation of the westernmost range edge, and some haplotype
      sharing among Austrian and Hungarian individuals. Equilibrating nucleotide versus
      haplotype diversity patterns, the highly diverse populations at the Pannonian
      range edge (Austria) indicate long-term persistence, while Central Pannonian
      populations are obviously effected by recent bottlenecks. Intermediate
      nucleotide, but high haplotype diversity within the westernmost exclave (Swabian
      Alb), is indicative of a founder bottleneck during its pre-LGM or early
      postglacial migration history, followed by sufficient time to accumulate cpDNA
      variation. The not obviously reduced genetic diversity and distinctiveness of L.
      flavum at the westernmost range edge suggest a long-term persistence (relict
      status) of populations in this region, where the species has survived probably
      even the Wurm glaciation in extra-Mediterranean refugia. This genetic relict
      variation represents an important part of the overall genetic diversity found in
      the western periphery of this steppe plant and highlights the high conservation
      priority of respective gene pools.

PMID- 28861255
TI  - Coevolution of competing Callosobruchus species does not stabilize coexistence.
AB  - Interspecific resource competition is expected to select for divergence in
      resource use, weakening interspecific relative to intraspecific competition, thus
      promoting stable coexistence. More broadly, because interspecific competition
      reduces fitness, any mechanism of interspecific competition should generate
      selection favoring traits that weaken interspecific competition. However, species
      also can adapt to competition by increasing their competitive ability,
      potentially destabilizing coexistence. We reared two species of bean beetles, the
      specialist Callosobruchus maculatus and the generalist C. chinensis, in allopatry
      and sympatry on a mixture of adzuki beans and lentils, and assayed mutual
      invasibility after four, eight, and twelve generations of evolution. Contrary to
      the expectation that coevolution of competitors will weaken interspecific
      competition, the rate of mutual invasibility did not differ between sympatry and
      allopatry. Rather, the invasion rate of C. chinensis, but not C. maculatus,
      increased with duration of evolution, as C. chinensis adapted to lentils without
      experiencing reduced adaptation to adzuki beans, and regardless of the presence
      or absence of C. maculatus. Our results highlight that evolutionary responses to
      interspecific competition promote stable coexistence only under specific
      conditions that can be difficult to produce in practice.

PMID- 28861256
TI  - Interactions among salt marsh plants vary geographically but not latitudinally
      along the California coast.
AB  - The strength of species interactions often varies geographically and locally with
      environmental conditions. Competitive interactions are predicted to be stronger
      in benign environments while facilitation is expected to be stronger in harsh
      ones. We tested these ideas with an aboveground neighbor removal experiment at
      six salt marshes along the California coast. We determined the effect of removals
      of either the dominant species, Salicornia pacifica, or the subordinate species
      on plant cover, aboveground biomass and community composition, as well as soil
      salinity and moisture. We found that S. pacifica consistently competed with the
      subordinate species and that the strength of competition varied among sites. In
      contrast with other studies showing that dominant species facilitate subordinates
      by moderating physical stress, here the subordinate species facilitated S.
      pacifica shortly after removal treatments were imposed, but the effect
      disappeared over time. Contrary to expectations based on patterns observed in
      east coast salt marshes, we did not see patterns in species interactions in
      relation to latitude, climate, or soil edaphic characteristics. Our results
      suggest that variation in interactions among salt marsh plants may be influenced
      by local-scale site differences such as nutrients more than broad latitudinal
      gradients.

PMID- 28861257
TI  - Spatial heterogeneity and scale-dependent habitat selection for two sympatric
      raptors in mixed-grass prairie.
AB  - Sympatric predators are predicted to partition resources, especially under
      conditions of food limitation. Spatial heterogeneity that influences prey
      availability might play an important role in the scales at which potential
      competitors select habitat. We assessed potential mechanisms for coexistence by
      examining the role of heterogeneity in resource partitioning between sympatric
      raptors overwintering in the southern Great Plains. We conducted surveys for
      wintering Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) and Northern Harrier (Circus
      cyanea) at two state wildlife management areas in Oklahoma, USA. We used
      information from repeated distance sampling to project use locations in a GIS. We
      applied resource selection functions to model habitat selection at three scales
      and analyzed for niche partitioning using the outlying mean index. Habitat
      selection of the two predators was mediated by spatial heterogeneity. The two
      predators demonstrated significant fine-scale discrimination in habitat selection
      in homogeneous landscapes, but were more sympatric in heterogeneous landscapes.
      Red-tailed hawk used a variety of cover types in heterogeneous landscapes but
      specialized on riparian forest in homogeneous landscapes. Northern Harrier
      specialized on upland grasslands in homogeneous landscapes but selected more
      cover types in heterogeneous landscapes. Our study supports the growing body of
      evidence that landscapes can affect animal behaviors. In the system we studied,
      larger patches of primary land cover types were associated with greater allopatry
      in habitat selection between two potentially competing predators. Heterogeneity
      within the scale of raptor home ranges was associated with greater sympatry in
      use and less specialization in land cover types selected.

PMID- 28861258
TI  - Predation risk and abiotic habitat parameters affect personality traits in
      extremophile populations of a neotropical fish (Poecilia vivipara).
AB  - Understanding whether and how ambient ecological conditions affect the
      distribution of personality types within and among populations lies at the heart
      of research on animal personality. Several studies have focussed on only one
      agent of divergent selection (or driver of plastic changes in behavior),
      considering either predation risk or a single abiotic ecological factor. Here, we
      investigated how an array of abiotic and biotic environmental factors
      simultaneously shape population differences in boldness, activity in an open
      field test, and sociability/shoaling in the livebearing fish Poecilia vivipara
      from six ecologically different lagoons in southeastern Brazil. We evaluated the
      relative contributions of variation in predation risk, water
      transparency/visibility, salinity (ranging from oligo- to hypersaline), and
      dissolved oxygen. We also investigated the role played by environmental factors
      for the emergence, strength, and direction of behavioral correlations. Water
      transparency explained most of the behavioral variation, whereby fish from
      lagoons with low water transparency were significantly shyer, less active, and
      shoaled less than fish living under clear water conditions. When we tested
      additional wild-caught fish from the same lagoons after acclimating them to
      homogeneous laboratory conditions, population differences were largely absent,
      pointing toward behavioral plasticity as a mechanism underlying the observed
      behavioral differences. Furthermore, we found correlations between personality
      traits (behavioral syndromes) to vary substantially in strength and direction
      among populations, with no obvious associations with ecological factors
      (including predation risk). Altogether, our results suggest that various habitat
      parameters simultaneously shape the distribution of personality types, with
      abiotic factors playing a vital (as yet underestimated) role. Furthermore, while
      predation is often thought to lead to the emergence of behavioral syndromes, our
      data do not support this assumption.

PMID- 28861259
TI  - Spatial models to account for variation in observer effort in bird atlases.
AB  - To assess the importance of variation in observer effort between and within bird
      atlas projects and demonstrate the use of relatively simple conditional
      autoregressive (CAR) models for analyzing grid-based atlas data with varying
      effort. Pennsylvania and West Virginia, United States of America. We used varying
      proportions of randomly selected training data to assess whether variations in
      observer effort can be accounted for using CAR models and whether such models
      would still be useful for atlases with incomplete data. We then evaluated whether
      the application of these models influenced our assessment of distribution change
      between two atlas projects separated by twenty years (Pennsylvania), and tested
      our modeling methodology on a state bird atlas with incomplete coverage (West
      Virginia). Conditional Autoregressive models which included observer effort and
      landscape covariates were able to make robust predictions of species
      distributions in cases of sparse data coverage. Further, we found that CAR models
      without landscape covariates performed favorably. These models also account for
      variation in observer effort between atlas projects and can have a profound
      effect on the overall assessment of distribution change. Accounting for variation
      in observer effort in atlas projects is critically important. CAR models provide
      a useful modeling framework for accounting for variation in observer effort in
      bird atlas data because they are relatively simple to apply, and quick to run.

PMID- 28861261
TI  - To forage, mate, or thermoregulate: Influence of resource manipulation on male
      rattlesnake behavior.
AB  - Male animals should preferentially allocate their time to performing activities
      that promote enhancing reproductive opportunity, but the need to acquire
      resources for growth and survival may compete with those behaviors in the short
      term. Thus, behaviors which require differing movement patterns such as ambushing
      prey and actively searching for mates can be mutually exclusive. Consequently,
      males that succeed at foraging could invest greater time and energy into mate
      searching. We radio-tracked sixteen male massasauga rattlesnakes (Sistrurus
      catenatus) and supplemented the diets of half the snakes with mice across an
      active season. We tested the predictions that reduced foraging needs would allow
      fed snakes to move (i.e., mate search) more, but that they would consequently be
      stationary to thermoregulate less, than unfed controls. Contrary to our first
      prediction, we found no evidence that fed snakes altered their mate searching
      behavior compared to controls. However, we found controls maintained higher body
      temperatures than fed snakes during the breeding season, perhaps because fed
      snakes spent less time in exposed ambush sites. Fed snakes had higher body
      condition scores than controls when the breeding season ended. Our results
      suggest the potential costs incurred by devoting time to stationary foraging may
      be outweighed by the drive to increase mating opportunities. Such instances may
      be especially valuable for massasaugas and other temperate reptiles that can
      remain inactive for upwards of half their lives or longer in some cases, and for
      female rattlesnakes that generally exhibit biennial or more protracted
      reproductive cycles.

PMID- 28861260
TI  - Morphological plasticity in a native freshwater fish from semiarid Australia in
      response to variable water flows.
AB  - In fishes, alterations to the natural flow regime are associated with divergence
      in body shape morphology compared with individuals from unaltered habitats.
      However, it is unclear whether this morphological divergence is attributable to
      evolutionary responses to modified flows, or is a result of phenotypic
      plasticity. Fishes inhabiting arid regions are ideal candidates for studying
      morphological plasticity as they are frequently exposed to extreme natural
      hydrological variability. We examined the effect of early exposure to flows on
      the development of body shape morphology in the western rainbowfish (Melanotaenia
      australis), a freshwater fish that is native to semiarid northwest Australia.
      Wild fish were collected from a region (the Hamersley Ranges) where fish in some
      habitats are subject to altered water flows due to mining activity. The offspring
      of wild-caught fish were reared in replicated fast-flow or slow-flow channels,
      and geometric morphometric analyses were used to evaluate variation in fish body
      shape following 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of exposure. Water flows influenced fish
      morphology after 6 and 9 months of flow exposure, with fish in fast-flow
      environments displaying a more robust body shape than those in slow-flow
      habitats. No effect of flow exposure was observed at 3 and 12 months. Fishes also
      showed significant morphological variation within flow treatments, perhaps due to
      subtle differences in water flow among the replicate channels. Our findings
      suggest that early exposure to water flows can induce shifts in body shape
      morphology in arid zone freshwater fishes. Morphological plasticity may act to
      buffer arid zone populations from the impacts of anthropogenic activities, but
      further studies are required to link body shape plasticity with behavioral
      performance in habitats with modified flows.

PMID- 28861262
TI  - Assessing the effects of iron enrichment across holobiont compartments reveals
      reduced microbial nitrogen fixation in the Red Sea coral Pocillopora verrucosa.
AB  - The productivity of coral reefs in oligotrophic tropical waters is sustained by
      an efficient uptake and recycling of nutrients. In reef-building corals, the
      engineers of these ecosystems, this nutrient recycling is facilitated by a
      constant exchange of nutrients between the animal host and endosymbiotic
      photosynthetic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae), bacteria, and other microbes. Due
      to the complex interactions in this so-called coral holobiont, it has proven
      difficult to understand the environmental limitations of productivity in corals.
      Among others, the micronutrient iron has been proposed to limit primary
      productivity due to its essential role in photosynthesis and bacterial processes.
      Here, we tested the effect of iron enrichment on the physiology of the coral
      Pocillopora verrucosa from the central Red Sea during a 12-day experiment.
      Contrary to previous reports, we did not see an increase in zooxanthellae
      population density or gross photosynthesis. Conversely, respiration rates were
      significantly increased, and microbial nitrogen fixation was significantly
      decreased. Taken together, our data suggest that iron is not a limiting factor of
      primary productivity in Red Sea corals. Rather, increased metabolic demands in
      response to iron enrichment, as evidenced by increased respiration rates, may
      reduce carbon (i.e., energy) availability in the coral holobiont, resulting in
      reduced microbial nitrogen fixation. This decrease in nitrogen supply in turn may
      exacerbate the limitation of other nutrients, creating a negative feedback loop.
      Thereby, our results highlight that the effects of iron enrichment appear to be
      strongly dependent on local environmental conditions and ultimately may depend on
      the availability of other nutrients.

PMID- 28861263
TI  - Nest trampling and ground nesting birds: Quantifying temporal and spatial overlap
      between cattle activity and breeding redshank.
AB  - Conservation grazing for breeding birds needs to balance the positive effects on
      vegetation structure and negative effects of nest trampling. In the UK,
      populations of Common redshank Tringa totanus breeding on saltmarshes declined by
      >50% between 1985 and 2011. These declines have been linked to changes in grazing
      management. The highest breeding densities of redshank on saltmarshes are found
      in lightly grazed areas. Conservation initiatives have encouraged low-intensity
      grazing at <1 cattle/ha, but even these levels of grazing can result in high
      levels of nest trampling. If livestock distribution is not spatially or
      temporally homogenous but concentrated where and when redshank breed, rates of
      nest trampling may be much higher than expected based on livestock density alone.
      By GPS tracking cattle on saltmarshes and monitoring trampling of dummy nests,
      this study quantified (i) the spatial and temporal distribution of cattle in
      relation to the distribution of redshank nesting habitats and (ii) trampling
      rates of dummy nests. The distribution of livestock was highly variable depending
      on both time in the season and the saltmarsh under study, with cattle using
      between 3% and 42% of the saltmarsh extent and spending most their time on higher
      elevation habitat within 500 m of the sea wall, but moving further onto the
      saltmarsh as the season progressed. Breeding redshank also nest on these higher
      elevation zones, and this breeding coincides with the early period of grazing.
      Probability of nest trampling was correlated to livestock density and was up to
      six times higher in the areas where redshank breed. This overlap in both space
      and time of the habitat use of cattle and redshank means that the trampling
      probability of a nest can be much higher than would be expected based on standard
      measures of cattle density. Synthesis and applications: Because saltmarsh grazing
      is required to maintain a favorable vegetation structure for redshank breeding,
      grazing management should aim to keep livestock away from redshank nesting
      habitat between mid-April and mid-July when nests are active, through delaying
      the onset of grazing or introducing a rotational grazing system.

PMID- 28861264
TI  - Corrigendum.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2528.].

PMID- 28794856
TI  - ChemMaps: Towards an approach for visualizing the chemical space based on
      adaptive satellite compounds.
AB  - We present a novel approach called ChemMaps for visualizing chemical space based
      on the similarity matrix of compound datasets generated with molecular
      fingerprints' similarity. The method uses a 'satellites' approach, where
      satellites are, in principle, molecules whose similarity to the rest of the
      molecules in the database provides sufficient information for generating a
      visualization of the chemical space. Such an approach could help make chemical
      space visualizations more efficient. We hereby describe a proof-of-principle
      application of the method to various databases that have different diversity
      measures. Unsurprisingly, we found the method works better with databases that
      have low 2D diversity. 3D diversity played a secondary role, although it seems to
      be more relevant as 2D diversity increases. For less diverse datasets, taking as
      few as 25% satellites seems to be sufficient for a fair depiction of the chemical
      space. We propose to iteratively increase the satellites number by a factor of 5%
      relative to the whole database, and stop when the new and the prior chemical
      space correlate highly. This Research Note represents a first exploratory step,
      prior to the full application of this method for several datasets.

PMID- 28751970
TI  - Service evaluation of the implementation of a digitally-enabled care pathway for
      the recognition and management of acute kidney injury.
AB  - Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), an abrupt deterioration in kidney function, is defined
      by changes in urine output or serum creatinine. AKI is common (affecting up to
      20% of acute hospital admissions in the United Kingdom), associated with
      significant morbidity and mortality, and expensive (excess costs to the National
      Health Service in England alone may exceed L1 billion per year). NHS England has
      mandated the implementation of an automated algorithm to detect AKI based on
      changes in serum creatinine, and to alert clinicians. It is uncertain, however,
      whether 'alerting' alone improves care quality. We have thus developed a
      digitally-enabled care pathway as a clinical service to inpatients in the Royal
      Free Hospital (RFH), a large London hospital. This pathway incorporates a mobile
      software application - the "Streams-AKI" app, developed by DeepMind Health - that
      applies the NHS AKI algorithm to routinely collected serum creatinine data in
      hospital inpatients. Streams-AKI alerts clinicians to potential AKI cases,
      furnishing them with a trend view of kidney function alongside other relevant
      data, in real-time, on a mobile device. A clinical response team comprising
      nephrologists and critical care nurses responds to these AKI alerts by reviewing
      individual patients and administering interventions according to existing
      clinical practice guidelines. We propose a mixed methods service evaluation of
      the implementation of this care pathway. This evaluation will assess how the care
      pathway meets the health and care needs of service users (RFH inpatients), in
      terms of clinical outcome, processes of care, and NHS costs. It will also seek to
      assess acceptance of the pathway by members of the response team and wider
      hospital community. All analyses will be undertaken by the service evaluation
      team from UCL (Department of Applied Health Research) and St George's, University
      of London (Population Health Research Institute).

PMID- 28861267
TI  - Frequency of antiseptic resistance genes in clinical staphycocci and enterococci
      isolates in Turkey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Disinfectants and antiseptics are biocides widely used in hospitals
      to prevent spread of pathogens. It has been reported that antiseptic resistance
      genes, qac's, caused tolerance to a variety of biocidal agents, such as
      benzalkonium chloride (BAC) and chlorhexidine digluconate (CHDG) in
      Staphylococcus spp. isolates. We aimed to search the frequency of antiseptic
      resistance genes in clinical Staphylococcus spp. and Enterococcus spp. isolates
      to investigate the possible association with antiseptic tolerance and antibiotic
      resistance. METHODS: Antiseptic resistance genes (qacA/B, smr, qacG, qacH, and
      qacJ) isolated from Gram-positive cocci (69 Staphylococcus spp. and 69
      Enterococcus spp.) were analyzed by PCR method. The minimum inhibitory
      concentrations (MICs) of BAC and CHDG were determined by agar dilution method,
      whereas antibiotic susceptibility was analyzed by disk diffusion method according
      to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) criteria. RESULTS: The
      frequency of antiseptic resistance genes was found to be high (49/69; 71.0%) in
      our clinical staphylococci isolates but absent (0/69; 0%) in enterococci
      isolates. The frequency of qacA/B and smr genes was higher (25/40; 62.5% and
      7/40; 17.5%, respectively) in coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) when
      compared to Staphylococcus aureus strains (3/29; 10.3%, and 4/29; 13.8%,
      respectively). In contrast, the frequency of qacG and qacJ genes was higher
      (11/29; 37.9% and 8/29; 27.5%, respectively) in S. aureus than those of CNS
      (5/40; 12.5%, 10/40; 25.0%) strains. qacH was not identified in none of the
      strains. We found an association between presence of antiseptic resistance genes
      and increased MIC values of BAC (>4 MUg/mL) in staphylococci and it was found to
      be statistically statistically significant (p < 0.01). We also showed that MICs
      of BAC and CHDG of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) isolates were
      significantly higher than those of vancomycin-susceptible enterococci (VSE)
      isolates (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: For our knowledge, our study is the first to
      investigate antiseptic resistance genes in enterococci and also qacG, qacH, and
      qacJ genes in staphylococci isolates in Turkey. Further studies are needed to
      revise the biocide policy and to support infection control programs to avoid the
      development of new resistance mechanisms.

PMID- 28861268
TI  - Diagnostic laparoscopy for pneumatosis intestinalis in a very elderly patient: A
      case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pneumatosis intestinalis is rare but may be associated with life
      threatening intra-abdominal conditions such as intestinal ischemia or
      perforation. However, it can be difficult, particularly in the very elderly, to
      identify candidates for immediate surgical intervention. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A
      94-year-old man with abdominal distension underwent abdominal computed
      tomography, which demonstrated accumulation of air bubbles within the intestinal
      wall and some free intraperitoneal air, suggestive of pneumatosis intestinalis.
      His vital signs showed evidence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and
      laboratory examination revealed inflammation and hypoxia. As the patient was
      frail, with his age and concomitant conditions which may have masked the symptoms
      and severity of his illness, immediate diagnostic laparoscopy was performed,
      which confirmed the diagnosis of pneumatosis intestinalis, with multiple gas
      filled cysts seen within the subserosa of the small intestine. No additional
      surgical procedure was performed. His symptoms improved postoperatively.
      DISCUSSION: Optimal management of pneumatosis intestinalis in a timely manner
      requires a comprehensive evaluation of factors in each individual. In patients
      with severe symptoms, PI might be a sign of a life-threatening intra-abdominal
      emergency. Despite the contrast-enhanced CT and prediction markers in previous
      reports, it considered to be difficult to completely rule out these fatal
      conditions without surgery, especially in very elderly patients with poor
      performance status. CONCLUSION: Diagnostic laparoscopy may be a useful option for
      definitively ruling out the lethal conditions associated with pneumatosis
      intestinalis in frail elderly patients with severe conditions in the emergency
      setting.

PMID- 28861269
TI  - Defunctioning stoma- a prognosticator for leaks in low rectal restorative cancer
      resection: A retrospective analysis of stoma database.
AB  - AIMS: Low anterior resection (LAR) has higher risk of anastomotic leak with its
      attendant morbidity -mortality. De-functioning loop ileostomy (DLI), claimed to
      mitigate the consequences of anastomotic leak, has been questioned in recent
      years. This study aims to evaluate the impact of ileostomy on LAR. METHODS: A
      retrospective analysis of stoma database. 136 patients with stoma (March 2011
      July 2015) were assessed. Data was analysed in respect to LAR anastomotic leak
      rate, impact on morbidity-mortality, short and long-term stoma complications,
      rate of ileostomy reversal and reasons for non-reversal. RESULTS: 45 patients had
      loop ileostomy for LAR. Male (28) to female (17) ratio was 1.65:1 with median age
      of 69 (IQR: 56-75.5). Only 3 anastomotic leaks (3/45, 6.5%) occurred, all treated
      conservatively with no mortality. 29 had reversal, average reversal time is 10
      months (3-24) and 5 awaiting. Reasons for non-reversal included patients' choice
      (7), death from cardiac cause (1), chemotherapy (1), unfit for surgery (1) and
      failed reversal (1). Acute complications included high output & reversible AKI
      (1), bleeding (3) and minor complications (6) as skin excoriation, separation and
      appliance issues. Parastomal hernia was repaired during reversal (12/15).
      CONCLUSIONS: De-functioning ileostomy for LAR is a safe procedure with low
      morbidity. Most stomas are reversible. Series highlights a late reversal contrary
      to the nationally recommended guidelines. Most interestingly, the study
      demonstrated de-functioning mitigated clinical consequences of anastomotic leak
      to an extent that reoperation was avoidable, in keeping with recent meta-analysis
      indicating a significantly low anastomotic leakage rates and reoperation. Larger
      study is invaluable to substantiate findings.

PMID- 28861270
TI  - Phosphate disturbance in critically ill children: Incidence, associated risk
      factors and clinical outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypophosphatemia is one of the common disorders that develop in
      critically ill patients. It has potential complications and is often unrecognized
      in those patients. OBJECTIVE: Determining the incidence of hypophosphatemia in
      critically ill children, its association with clinical outcomes and the possible
      risk factors. METHODS: 50 patients were enrolled in the study. Levels of serum
      phosphate were measured on day 1 and day 7 of PICU (Pediatric intensive care
      unit) stay. The following variables were analyzed: age, gender, diagnosis on
      admission, malnutrition, phosphorus intake, clinical severity score on admission
      OFI (Organ Failure Index) and daily scores PELOD (Pediatric Logistic Organ
      Dysfunction), sepsis, use of dopamine, furosemide and steroids and assessment of
      nutrition by z scores. RESULTS: The incidence of hypophosphatemia on admission
      was 42%. On seventh day of admission incidence of hypophosphatemia was 62%.
      Malnutrition was present in 24% of patients, serum phosphorus level was
      significantly lower in malnourished than in well-nourished children (p value =
      0.018). Hypophosphatemia was associated with prolonged PICU length of stay (p <
      0.001) but was not associated with increased mortality (p = 0.13). Cases on
      parenteral nutrition and insufficient oral intake while on mechanical ventilator
      significantly showed hypophosphatemia (p = 0.017). Hypophosphatemia was
      associated with the use of furosemide, dopamine, steroids and beta2 agonist.
      CONCLUSION: Hypophosphatemia was common in the first 7 days of PICU
      hospitalization and was associated with prolonged PICU stay, Significant
      association between hypophosphatemia and duration of use of mechanical
      ventilation, use of furosemide, dopamine, steroids and beta2 agonist.

PMID- 28861271
TI  - No apparent gain from continuing migration for more than 3000 kilometres: willow
      warblers breeding in Denmark winter across the entire northern Savannah as
      revealed by geolocators.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For most Afro-Palearctic migrants, particularly small songbirds,
      spatiotemporal migration schedules and migratory connectivity remain poorly
      understood. We mapped migration from breeding through winter of one of the
      smallest Afro-Palearctic migrants, the willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus,
      using geolocators (n = 15). RESULTS: Birds migrated from North European breeding
      grounds to West Africa via the Iberian Peninsula following a narrow corridor
      along the West Coast of Africa. Birds then dispersed across the northern Savannah
      with termination of migration highly variable among individuals. The termination
      of migration appeared not to be related to timing, current and previous years'
      vegetation conditions or biometrics. During winter, most birds moved southwards
      to improved vegetation. CONCLUSION: The willow warblers showed a large,
      unexpected longitudinal spread in winter sites of more than 3000 km between
      individuals breeding within a 500 m range resulting in a low degree of
      connectivity. The large wintering area may well be related to generalist
      behaviour in the species. Our findings contribute to understanding the link
      between breeding and wintering ecology in long-distance migratory birds.

PMID- 28861272
TI  - Three-dimensional space use during the bottom phase of southern elephant seal
      dives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In marine pelagic ecosystems, the spatial distribution of biomass is
      heterogeneous and dynamic. At large scales, physical processes are the main
      driving forces of biomass distribution. At fine scales, both biotic and abiotic
      parameters are likely to be key determinants in the horizontal and vertical
      distribution of biomass, with direct consequences on the foraging behaviour of
      diving predators. However, fine scale three-dimensional (3D) spatial interactions
      between diving predators and their prey are still poorly known. RESULTS: We
      reconstructed and examined the patterns of southern elephant seals 3D path during
      the bottom phase of their dives, and related them to estimated prey encounter
      density. We found that southern elephant seal tracks at bottom are strongly
      dominated by a single horizontal direction. In high prey density areas, seals
      travelled shorter distances but their track remained strongly orientated
      according to a main linear direction. Horizontal, and more importantly, vertical
      deviations from this main direction, were related negatively to the estimated
      prey density. We found that prey encounter density decreased with diving depth
      but tended to be more predictable. CONCLUSION: Southern elephant seal behaviour
      during the bottom phase of their dives suggest that the prey are dispersed and
      distributed into layers in which their density relates to the vertical spread of
      the layer. The linear trajectories performed by the elephant seals would allow to
      explore the largest volume of water, maximizing the opportunities of prey
      encounter, while travelling great horizontal distances.

PMID- 28861273
TI  - Family Connections versus optimised treatment-as-usual for family members of
      individuals with borderline personality disorder: non-randomised controlled
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is challenging for family
      members who are often required to fulfil multiple roles such as those of
      advocate, caregiver, coach and guardian. To date, two uncontrolled studies by the
      treatment developers suggest that Family Connections (FC) is an effective
      programme to support, educate and teach skills to family members of individuals
      with BPD. However, such studies have been limited by lack of comparison to other
      treatment approaches. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of FC with an
      optimised treatment-as-usual (OTAU) programme for family members of individuals
      with BPD. A secondary aim was to introduce a long term follow-up to investigate
      if positive gains from the intervention would be maintained following programme
      completion. METHODS: This study was a non-randomised controlled study, with
      assessment of outcomes at baseline (pre-intervention) and end of programme (post
      intervention) for both FC and OTAU groups, and at follow-up (3 months post
      intervention; 12 or 19 months post-intervention) for the FC group. Eighty family
      members participated in the FC (n = 51) and the OTAU (n = 29) programmes. Outcome
      measures included burden, grief, depression and mastery. Linear mixed-effects
      models were used to assess baseline differences in the outcome measures by
      gender, age group and type of relationship to the individual with BPD. Linear
      mixed-effects models were also used to estimate the treatment effect (FC versus
      OTAU) utilising all available data from baseline and end of programme. RESULTS:
      The FC group showed changes indicating significant improvement with respect to
      all four outcome measures (p < 0.001). The OTAU group showed changes in the same
      direction as the intervention group but none of the changes were statistically
      significant. The intervention effect was statistically significant for total
      burden (including both subscales; p = .02 for subjective burden and p = .048 for
      objective burden) and grief (p = 0.013). Improvements were maintained at follow
      up for FC participants. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the current study indicate
      that FC results in statistically significant improvements on key measures while
      OTAU does not yield comparable changes. Lack of significant change on all
      measures for OTAU suggests that a three session psycho-education programme is of
      limited benefit. Further research is warranted on programme components and long
      term supports for family members.

PMID- 28861274
TI  - Long-term left ventricular remodelling after revascularisation for ST-segment
      elevation myocardial infarction as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance
      imaging.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Left ventricular remodelling following a ST-segment elevated
      myocardial infarction (STEMI) is an adaptive response to maintain the cardiac
      output despite myocardial tissue loss. Limited studies have evaluated long term
      ventricular function using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) after STEMI.
      METHODS: Study population consisted of 155 primary percutaneous coronary
      intervention treated first STEMI patients. CMR was performed at 4+/-2 days, 4
      months and 24 months follow-up. Patients were treated with beta-blockers, ACE
      inhibitors or AT-II- inhibitors, statins and dual antiplatelet according to
      current international guidelines. RESULTS: Mean left ventricular ejection
      fraction (LVEF) at baseline was 44%+/-8%. Twenty-one per cent of the study
      population had an increase of more than 5.0% after 4 months of follow-up and 21%
      of the cohort had a decrease of more than 5.0%. Patients with long-term LVEF
      deterioration have significantly larger end-systolic volumes than patients with
      improvement of LVEF (61+/-23 mL/m2 compared with 52+/-21 mL/m2, p=0.02) and less
      wall thickening in the remote zone. Patients with LVEF improvement had
      significantly greater improvement in wall thickening in the infarct areas and in
      the non-infarct or remote zone. CONCLUSION: Contrary to previous studies, we
      demonstrate that myocardial remodelling after STEMI is a long-term process. Long
      term LVEF deterioration is characterised by an increase in end-systolic volume
      and less wall thickening in the remote zones. Patients with LVEF improvement
      exhibit an increase in left ventricular wall thickening both in the infarct as
      well as in the remote zones. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The HEBE study is registered in
      The Netherlands Trial Register #NTR166 (www.trialregister.nl) and the
      International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial, #ISRCTN95796863 (https://c-d
      qn9pqajji.sec.amc.nl).

PMID- 28861275
TI  - The burning issue of white phosphorus: a case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Burns from white phosphorus are rare and remain a challenge for
      clinicians. White phosphorus burns are often associated with smaller surface
      areas and high morbidity rates. Classed as a chemical burn, white phosphorus is
      used for military purposes and within industry, for the manufacture of fireworks
      and agricultural products. CASE PRESENTATION: In this report, we discuss the case
      of a 40 years old female who sustained 2% Total Body Surface Area partial to full
      thickness burns from white phosphorus. The burns were treated conservatively with
      mafenide acetate on the medial calf and dorsum of foot and Flaminal Forte was
      used for the palmar region. The patient was discharged 22 days after admission
      and followed up in the outpatient clinic. Despite the use of pressure garments,
      hypertrophic scarring began to develop on the dorsum of her right foot.
      CONCLUSIONS: During peacetime, white phosphorus possess a significant danger to
      civilians. Awareness of the unique nature of white phosphorus among military burn
      clinicians should be emphasized.

PMID- 28861276
TI  - Red-shift of spectral sensitivity due to screening pigment migration in the eyes
      of a moth, Adoxophyes orana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We have found that the spectral sensitivity of the compound eye in
      the summer fruit tortrix moth (Adoxophyes orana) differs in laboratory strains
      originating from different regions of Japan. We have investigated the mechanisms
      underlying this anomalous spectral sensitivity. METHODS: We applied
      electrophysiology, light and electron microscopy, opsin gene cloning,
      mathematical modeling, and behavioral analysis. RESULTS: The ERG-determined
      spectral sensitivity of dark-adapted individuals of all strains peaks around 520
      nm. When light-adapted, the spectral sensitivity of the Nagano strain narrows and
      its peak shifts to 580 nm, while that in other strains remains unchanged. All
      tested strains appear to be identical in terms of the basic structure of the eye,
      the pigment migration in response to light- and dark-adaptation, and the
      molecular structure of long-wavelength absorbing visual pigments. However, the
      color of the perirhabdomal pigment clearly differs; it is orange in the Nagano
      strain and purple in the others. The action spectrum of phototaxis appears to be
      shifted towards longer wavelengths in the Nagano individuals. CONCLUSIONS: The
      spectral sensitivities of light-adapted eyes can be modeled under the assumption
      that this screening pigment plays a crucial role in determining the spectral
      sensitivity. The action spectrum of phototaxis indicates that the change in the
      eye spectral sensitivity is behaviorally relevant.

PMID- 28861277
TI  - Long read reference genome-free reconstruction of a full-length transcriptome
      from Astragalus membranaceus reveals transcript variants involved in bioactive
      compound biosynthesis.
AB  - Astragalus membranaceus, also known as Huangqi in China, is one of the most
      widely used medicinal herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Traditional Chinese
      Medicine formulations from Astragalus membranaceus have been used to treat a wide
      range of illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, nephritis
      and cancers. Pharmacological studies have shown that immunomodulating, anti
      hyperglycemic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antiviral activities exist in
      the extract of Astragalus membranaceus. Therefore, characterising the
      biosynthesis of bioactive compounds in Astragalus membranaceus, such as
      Astragalosides, Calycosin and Calycosin-7-O-beta-d-glucoside, is of particular
      importance for further genetic studies of Astragalus membranaceus. In this study,
      we reconstructed the Astragalus membranaceus full-length transcriptomes from leaf
      and root tissues using PacBio Iso-Seq long reads. We identified 27 975 and 22 343
      full-length unique transcript models in each tissue respectively. Compared with
      previous studies that used short read sequencing, our reconstructed transcripts
      are longer, and are more likely to be full-length and include numerous transcript
      variants. Moreover, we also re-characterised and identified potential transcript
      variants of genes involved in Astragalosides, Calycosin and Calycosin-7-O-beta-d
      glucoside biosynthesis. In conclusion, our study provides a practical pipeline to
      characterise the full-length transcriptome for species without a reference genome
      and a useful genomic resource for exploring the biosynthesis of active compounds
      in Astragalus membranaceus.

PMID- 28861278
TI  - Comparing structural and transcriptional drug networks reveals signatures of drug
      activity and toxicity in transcriptional responses.
AB  - We performed an integrated analysis of drug chemical structures and drug-induced
      transcriptional responses. We demonstrated that a network representing three
      dimensional structural similarities among 5452 compounds can be used to
      automatically group together drugs with similar scaffolds, physicochemical
      parameters and mode-of-action. We compared the structural network to a network
      representing transcriptional similarities among a subset of 1309 drugs for which
      transcriptional response were available in the Connectivity Map data set.
      Analysis of structurally similar, but transcriptionally different drugs sharing
      the same MOA enabled us to detect and remove weak and noisy transcriptional
      responses, greatly enhancing the reliability of transcription-based approaches to
      drug discovery and drug repositioning. Cardiac glycosides exhibited the strongest
      transcriptional responses with a significant induction of pathways related to
      epigenetic regulation, which suggests an epigenetic mechanism of action for these
      drugs. Drug classes with the weakest transcriptional responses tended to induce
      expression of cytochrome P450 enzymes, hinting at drug-induced drug resistance.
      Analysis of transcriptionally similar, but structurally different drugs with
      unrelated MOA, led us to the identification of a 'toxic' transcriptional
      signature indicative of lysosomal stress (lysosomotropism) and lipid accumulation
      (phospholipidosis) partially masking the target-specific transcriptional effects
      of these drugs. We found that this transcriptional signature is shared by 258
      compounds and it is associated to the activation of the transcription factor
      TFEB, a master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy. Finally, we built
      a predictive Random Forest model of these 258 compounds based on 128
      physicochemical parameters, which should help in the early identification of
      potentially toxic drug candidates.

PMID- 28861279
TI  - Computer modeling defines the system driving a constant current crucial for
      homeostasis in the mammalian cochlea by integrating unique ion transports.
AB  - The cochlear lateral wall-an epithelial-like tissue comprising inner and outer
      layers-maintains +80 mV in endolymph. This endocochlear potential supports
      hearing and represents the sum of all membrane potentials across apical and
      basolateral surfaces of both layers. The apical surfaces are governed by K+
      equilibrium potentials. Underlying extracellular and intracellular [K+] is likely
      controlled by the "circulation current," which crosses the two layers and
      unidirectionally flows throughout the cochlea. This idea was conceptually
      reinforced by our computational model integrating ion channels and transporters;
      however, contribution of the outer layer's basolateral surface remains unclear.
      Recent experiments showed that this basolateral surface transports K+ using Na+,
      K+-ATPases and an unusual characteristic of greater permeability to Na+ than to
      other ions. To determine whether and how these machineries are involved in the
      circulation current, we used an in silico approach. In our updated model, the
      outer layer's basolateral surface was provided with only Na+, K+-ATPases, Na+
      conductance, and leak conductance. Under normal conditions, the circulation
      current was assumed to consist of K+ and be driven predominantly by Na+, K+
      ATPases. The model replicated the experimentally measured electrochemical
      properties in all compartments of the lateral wall, and endocochlear potential,
      under normal conditions and during blocking of Na+, K+-ATPases. Therefore, the
      circulation current across the outer layer's basolateral surface depends
      primarily on the three ion transport mechanisms. During the blockage, the reduced
      circulation current partially consisted of transiently evoked Na+ flow via the
      two conductances. This work defines the comprehensive system driving the
      circulation current.

PMID- 28861280
TI  - Multicentre phase II study of nivolumab in Japanese patients with advanced or
      recurrent non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nivolumab is a fully human IgG4 programmed cell death 1 immune
      checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and
      efficacy of nivolumab in Japanese patients with advanced or recurrent non
      squamous NSCLC. METHODS: In this multicentre phase II study, patients with
      advanced or recurrent non-squamous NSCLC, which had progressed after platinum
      containing chemotherapy, were treated with nivolumab 3 mg/kg, intravenously every
      2 weeks until progressive disease or unacceptable toxicity was observed. The
      primary end point was independent radiology review committee (IRC) assessed
      overall response rate (ORR) and the secondary endpoints included ORR
      (investigator assessed), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS),
      duration of response, time to response, best overall response, and safety.
      RESULTS: 76 patients were enrolled across 19 sites in Japan. The ORR (IRC
      assessed) was 22.4% (95% CI 14.5% to 32.9%). The median PFS and OS were 2.8
      months (95% CI 1.4 to 3.4) and 17.1 months (95% CI 13.3 to 23.0), respectively.
      The OS rate at 1 year was 68.0% (95% CI 56.2% to 77.3%). Current/former smokers
      were more responsive to treatment than non-smokers (ORR 29.1% vs 4.8%). Patients
      with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation wild type/unknown showed
      higher ORR compared with EGFR mutation-positive patients (ORR 28.6% vs 5.0%) and
      programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression was likely associated with
      higher ORR, longer PFS and OS. Treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or
      higher were reported in 17 patients; these events resolved or were resolving with
      appropriate treatment including steroid therapy or discontinuation of nivolumab.
      CONCLUSIONS: Nivolumab was well tolerated and showed clinical efficacy in
      Japanese patients with non-squamous NSCLC progressed after platinum-containing
      chemotherapy, especially in those with a history of smoking, wild type/unknown
      EGFR mutation status or positive PD-L1 expression. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      JapicCTI-132073.

PMID- 28861281
TI  - Comparing intensities and modalities within the sensory attenuation paradigm:
      Preliminary evidence.
AB  - It is well-documented that the intensity of a self-generated somatosensory
      stimulus is perceived to be attenuated in respect to an identical stimulus
      generated by others. At present, it is not clear whether such a phenomenon, known
      as somatosensory attenuation, is based not only on feedforward motor signals but
      also on re-afferences towards the body. To answer this question, in the present
      pilot investigation on twelve healthy subjects, three types of stimulations
      (sensory non-nociceptive electrical - ES, nociceptive electrical - NES, and
      vibrotactile - VTS) and intensities (1 = sensory threshold * 2.5 + 2 mA, 2 =
      sensory threshold * 2.5 + 3 mA, 3 = sensory threshold * 2.5 + 4 mA for ES and
      NES; 1 = sensory threshold * 2 Hz, 2 = sensory threshold * 3 Hz, 3 = sensory
      threshold * 4 Hz for VTS) have been directly compared in a somatosensory
      attenuation paradigm. The results show that the attenuation effect emerged only
      with electrical stimuli and that it increased with higher intensities. These
      pilot findings suggest that, depending on the type and the intensity of
      stimulation, re-afferences can have a role in somatosensory attenuation.
      Additionally, it is possible to speculate the effect is present only with
      electrical stimuli because those stimuli are prospectively judged as potentially
      dangerous. This, in turn, would optimize planning successful reactions to
      incoming threatening stimuli.

PMID- 28861282
TI  - Convective thermal and concentration transfer effects in hydromagnetic
      peristaltic transport with Ohmic heating.
AB  - The primary theme of this communication is to employ convective condition of mass
      transfer in the theory of peristalsis. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) peristaltic
      transport of viscous liquid in an asymmetric channel was considered for this
      purpose. Effects of Ohmic heating and Soret and Dufour are presented. The
      governing mathematical model was expressed in terms of closed form solution
      expressions. Attention has been focused to the analysis of temperature and
      concentration distributions. The graphical results are presented to visualize the
      impact of sundry quantities on temperature and concentration. It is visualized
      that the liquid temperature was enhanced with the enhancing values of Soret
      Dufour parameters. The liquid temperature was reduced when the values of Biot
      number were larger. It is also examined that mass transfer Biot number for one
      wall has no impact on transfer rate. Different mass transfer Biot numbers
      generate a non-uniform concentration profile throughout the channel cross
      section.

PMID- 28861283
TI  - Overview of newly announced clinical data sharing policy from the International
      Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

PMID- 28861284
TI  - Alveolar socket preservation with demineralised bovine bone mineral and a
      collagen matrix.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the healing of post
      extraction sockets following alveolar ridge preservation clinically,
      radiologically, and histologically. METHODS: Overall, 7 extraction sockets in 7
      patients were grafted with demineralised bovine bone mineral and covered with a
      porcine-derived non-crosslinked collagen matrix (CM). Soft tissue healing was
      clinically evaluated on the basis of a specific healing index. Horizontal and
      vertical ridge dimensional changes were assessed clinically and radiographically
      at baseline and 6 months after implant placement. For histological and
      histomorphometric analysis, bone biopsies were harvested from the augmented sites
      during implant surgery 6 months after the socket preservation procedure. RESULTS:
      Clinically, healing proceeded uneventfully in all the sockets. A trend towards
      reduced horizontal and vertical socket dimensions was observed from baseline to
      the final examination. The mean width and height of resorption were 1.21 mm
      (P=0.005) and 0.46 mm (P=0.004), respectively. Histologically, residual xenograft
      particles (31.97%+/-3.52%) were surrounded by either newly formed bone (16.02%+/
      7.06%) or connective tissue (50.67%+/-8.42%) without fibrous encapsulation. The
      CM underwent a physiological substitution process in favour of well-vascularised
      collagen-rich connective tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Socket preservation using
      demineralised bovine bone mineral in combination with CM provided stable
      dimensional changes of the alveolar ridge associated with good re
      epithelialisation of the soft tissues during a 6-month healing period.

PMID- 28861285
TI  - Pattern analysis of patients with temporomandibular disorders resulting from
      unilateral mastication due to chronic periodontitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to perform a pattern analysis in
      patients with temporomandibular disorder (TMD) resulting from unilateral
      mastication due to chronic periodontitis. METHODS: Thirty participants with signs
      or symptoms of TMD who engaged in unilateral mastication due to periodontitis
      related discomfort (test group) were selected. Another 30 subjects exhibiting
      signs or symptoms of TMD resulting from unilateral mastication not due to chronic
      periodontitis (control group) were also recruited. An interview-based
      questionnaire was administered, and an examination of the temporomandibular joint
      (TMJ) with determination of periodontal status was performed. RESULTS: The
      duration of unilateral mastication was significantly longer in the control group
      than in the test group. There was a significant negative correlation between the
      duration of unilateral mastication and the Community Periodontal Index score.
      Using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) axis I algorithms, all
      the subjects were assigned to 3 main groups. The test group exhibited
      significantly a higher diagnostic distribution of group III (arthralgia,
      osteoarthritis, or osteoarthrosis), and in both the test and control groups, the
      number of diagnoses was larger for the non-chewing side. The control group showed
      a significantly higher diagnostic distribution of group I (myofacial pain), and
      in both the test and control groups, the number of diagnoses was larger for the
      chewing side. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study indicate that
      unilateral mastication due to chronic periodontitis could induce not only pain
      but also structural TMJ changes if adequate treatment is not administered and
      supported within a short time from the onset of the condition. Therefore,
      immediate treatment of chronic periodontitis is recommended to prevent not only
      the primary progress of periodontal disease, but also secondary TMJ-related
      problems. Furthermore, subjects who have suffered chronic long-term periodontitis
      without treatment should be urged to undergo a TMJ examination.

PMID- 28861286
TI  - Comparison of periodontitis-associated oral biofilm formation under dynamic and
      static conditions.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the characteristics of single-
      and dual-species in vitro oral biofilms made by static and dynamic methods.
      METHODS: Hydroxyapatite (HA) disks, 12.7 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick, were
      coated with processed saliva for 4 hours. The disks were divided into a static
      method group and a dynamic method group. The disks treated with a static method
      were cultured in 12-well plates, and the disks in the dynamic method group were
      cultured in a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) biofilm reactor for
      72 hours. In the single- and dual-species biofilms, Fusobacterium nucleatum and
      Porphyromonas gingivalis were used, and the amount of adhering bacteria,
      proportions of species, and bacterial reduction of chlorhexidine were examined.
      Bacterial adhesion was examined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
      confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). RESULTS: Compared with the biofilms
      made using the static method, the biofilms made using the dynamic method had
      significantly lower amounts of adhering and looser bacterial accumulation in SEM
      and CLSM images. The proportion of P. gingivalis was higher in the dynamic method
      group than in the static method group; however, the difference was not
      statistically significant. Furthermore, the biofilm thickness and bacterial
      reduction by chlorhexidine showed no significant differences between the 2
      methods. CONCLUSIONS: When used to reproduce periodontal biofilms composed of F.
      nucleatum and P. gingivalis, the dynamic method (CDC biofilm reactor) formed
      looser biofilms containing fewer bacteria than the well plate. However, this
      difference did not influence the thickness of the biofilms or the activity of
      chlorhexidine. Therefore, both methods are useful for mimicking periodontitis
      associated oral biofilms.

PMID- 28861287
TI  - Marginal bone level changes in association with different vertical implant
      positions: a 3-year retrospective study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To retrospectively evaluate the relationship between the vertical
      position of the implant-abutment interface and marginal bone loss over 3 years
      using radiological analysis. METHODS: In total, 286 implant surfaces of 143
      implants from 61 patients were analyzed. Panoramic radiographic images were taken
      immediately after implant installation and at 6, 12, and 36 months after loading.
      The implants were classified into 3 groups based on the vertical position of the
      implant-abutment interface: group A (above bone level), group B (at bone level),
      and group C (below bone level). The radiographs were analyzed by a single
      examiner. RESULTS: Changes in marginal bone levels of 0.99+/-1.45, 1.13+/-0.91,
      and 1.76+/-0.78 mm were observed at 36 months after loading in groups A, B, and
      C, respectively, and bone loss was significantly greater in group C than in
      groups A and B. CONCLUSIONS: The vertical position of the implant-abutment
      interface may affect marginal bone level change. Marginal bone loss was
      significantly greater in cases where the implant-abutment interface was
      positioned below the marginal bone. Further long-term study is required to
      validate our results.

PMID- 28861288
TI  - Prevalence and risk indicators of peri-implantitis in Korean patients with a
      history of periodontal disease: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and risk indicators
      of peri-implantitis in Korean patients with history of periodontal disease.
      METHODS: A total of 444 patients with 1,485 implants were selected from patients
      who had been treated at the Department of Periodontology, Chonbuk National
      University Dental Hospital between July 2014 and June 2015. A group with a
      history of peri-implantitis (HP) (370 patients with 1,189 implants) and a group
      with a current peri-implantitis (CP) (318 patients with 1,004 implants) were
      created based on the radiographic and clinical assessments of implants. The
      prevalence of peri-implantitis was calculated at both the patient and implant
      levels. The influence of risk variables on the occurrence of peri-implantitis was
      analyzed using generalized estimating equations analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence
      of peri-implantitis in the HP and CP groups ranged from 6.7% to 19.7%. The
      cumulative peri-implantitis rate in the HP group estimated with the Kaplan-Meier
      method was higher than that in the CP group over the follow-up period. Among the
      patient-related risk variables, supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) was the only
      significant risk indicator for the occurrence of peri-implantitis in both groups.
      In the analysis of implant-related variables, implants supporting fixed dental
      prosthesis (FDP) and implants with subjective discomfort were associated with a
      higher prevalence of peri-implantitis than single implants and implants without
      subjective discomfort in the HP group. The presence of subjective discomfort was
      the only significant implant-related variable predictive of peri-implantitis in
      the CP group. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitations of this study, the prevalence
      of peri-implantitis in Korean patients with a history of periodontal disease was
      similar to that reported in other population samples. Regular SPT was important
      for preventing peri-implantitis. Single implants were found to be less
      susceptible to peri-implantitis than those supporting FDP. Patients' subjective
      discomfort was found to be a strong risk indicator for peri-implantitis.

PMID- 28861289
TI  - Effects of implant tilting and the loading direction on the displacement and
      micromotion of immediately loaded implants: an in vitro experiment and finite
      element analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of implant
      tilting and the loading direction on the displacement and micromotion (relative
      displacement between the implant and bone) of immediately loaded implants by in
      vitro experiments and finite element analysis (FEA). METHODS: Six artificial bone
      blocks were prepared. Six screw-type implants with a length of 10 mm and diameter
      of 4.3 mm were placed, with 3 positioned axially and 3 tilted. The tilted
      implants were 30 degrees  distally inclined to the axial implants. Vertical and
      mesiodistal oblique (45 degrees  angle) loads of 200 N were applied to the top of
      the abutment, and the abutment displacement was recorded. Nonlinear finite
      element models simulating the in vitro experiment were constructed, and the
      abutment displacement and micromotion were calculated. The data on the abutment
      displacement from in vitro experiments and FEA were compared, and the validity of
      the finite element model was evaluated. RESULTS: The abutment displacement was
      greater under oblique loading than under axial loading and greater for the tilted
      implants than for the axial implants. The in vitro and FEA results showed
      satisfactory consistency. The maximum micromotion was 2.8- to 4.1-fold higher
      under oblique loading than under vertical loading. The maximum micromotion values
      in the axial and tilted implants were very close under vertical loading. However,
      in the tilted implant model, the maximum micromotion was 38.7% less than in the
      axial implant model under oblique loading. The relationship between abutment
      displacement and micromotion varied according to the loading direction (vertical
      or oblique) as well as the implant insertion angle (axial or tilted).
      CONCLUSIONS: Tilted implants may have a lower maximum extent of micromotion than
      axial implants under mesiodistal oblique loading. The maximum micromotion values
      were strongly influenced by the loading direction. The maximum micromotion values
      did not reflect the abutment displacement values.

PMID- 28861291
TI  - Score 3 prostate lesions: a gray zone for PI-RADS v2.
AB  - Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System version 2 (PI-RADS v2) does not offer
      a precise guidance on the clinical management (biopsy or not biopsy) for PI-RADS
      v2 score 3 lesions. Lesion volume calculated on biparametric MRI (bpMRI) [T2
      weighted imaging (T2WI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)] by introducing a
      cut-off of 0.5 mL, allows to distinguish the lesions assigned by the
      multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) to the category PI-RADS v2 score 3 in two subgroups:
      a) Indolent or low risk lesions with volume <0.5 mL, and b) Significant or high
      risk lesions with volume >=0.5 mL. For mpMRI lesions assigned to PI-RADS v2 score
      3, we suggest the following management: 1) Subgroup a (low-risk lesion): Clinical
      surveillance (accurate evaluation of age and clinical informations, periodic
      monitoring of prostate specific antigen value and repeated bpMRI 1 year later);
      2) Subgroup b (high-risk lesion): Targeted biopsy. The proposed management would
      reduce the use of unnecessary biopsies and increase the diagostic yield of
      significant prostate cancer of approximately 50% and 30% respectively. These
      approaches encourage the radiologist to adopt MRI lesion volume to improve PI
      RADS v2 and to optimize the management of PI-RADS v2 score 3 lesions.

PMID- 28861290
TI  - Mystery and realities of phalloplasty: a systematic review.
AB  - The neophallus creation is still a mystery and it remains challenging even today.
      In this article, we performed a comprehensive review of the literature regarding
      phalloplasty and penile reconstructive surgery between January 2008 and May 2016.
      In this review, we have included 15 research articles and the results of 276
      patients were examined. Studies revealed several indications and when indications
      were reviewed, 191 patients were female-to-male transgender, 9 patients had
      disorder of sex development/micropenis, 16 had penile amputation/trauma, 9 had
      ambiguus genitalia, 40 had exstrophy and/or epispadias, 11 had other problems. As
      a result of this review, phalloplasty is a reliable and useful operation with
      good functional and aesthetical results.

PMID- 28861292
TI  - Update on the novel management and future paternity situation in adolescents with
      varicocele.
AB  - Varicocele is a progressive disease, and the incidence of varicocele and
      varicocele related testicular hypotrophy increases with puberty. This review
      updates novel management and future paternity potential in adolescents with
      varicocele. Main goal of treatment of the adolescent varicoceles is preservation
      of fertility. Current recommendations for adolescent varicocele repair are
      testicular hypotrophy (>2 mL or >20%) on the affected side and/or impaired
      spermatogenesis in the post-pubertal period. The best treatment modality for
      adolescent varicocele should include elimination of the varicocele with lower
      complication rates. Microsurgical varicocelectomy techniques have been shown to
      result in fewer recurrences and postoperative complications than conventional
      varicocelectomy in adolescents. We conducted a meta-analysis, including 2 studies
      with the control groups, and reporting paternity situation after varicocele
      treatment. In this meta-analysis, varicocele repair increases paternity rate 2.42
      times with a p value of 0.000. Adolescents with varicocele and their families
      should be counselled in the light of these findings.

PMID- 28861293
TI  - Erectile dysfunction in the elderly male.
AB  - Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a health problem which mainly effects elderly men
      and this problem has become a more important health problem with the increased
      life expectancy. The basic risk factors of ED are hypertension, dyslipidemia,
      diabetes mellitus, and atherosclerotic heart disease which also have a higher
      incidence in the elderly men. The aim of this review article is to highlight the
      age-related changes in ED together with recommendations for patient evaluation
      and treatment.

PMID- 28861294
TI  - Retrograde intrarenal surgery for renal stones - Part 2.
AB  - Retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) has become an effective and safe treatment
      modality in the management of urinary system stone disease. Recent developments
      and innovations in the flexible ureterorenoscope and auxiliary equipment have
      made this procedure easier and more effective with increased success rates. RIRS
      can be used as a primary treatment in patients with renal stones smaller than 2
      cm, prior unsuccessful shock wave lithotripsy, infundibular stenosis,
      renoureteral malformation, skeletal-muscular deformity, bleeding diathesis and
      obese patients. In the second part of this detailed review for RIRS, effect of
      stone composition on success rate, preoperative assessment of stone-free rate,
      the cost of this modality, education for RIRS, fluoroscopy use, the current role
      of RIRS in the treatment of various urolithiasis types and special conditions,
      and combined treatment methods are discussed with up-to-date literature.

PMID- 28861296
TI  - Ductal variant of prostate adenocarcinoma harbor Xenotropic murine leukemia virus
      related virus (XMRV) infection: a novel finding in subtype of prostate cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus (XMRV), is the first
      gammaretrovirus identified a decade ago, in human tissue bearing adenocarcinoma
      of prostate, followed by several researches documenting little or no prevalence
      of XMRV in prostate cancer samples. However, the status of XMRV within subtype of
      prostate adenocarcinoma has not been investigated yet. In this study, we
      investigated the relationship between XMRV and broad spectrum morphological
      entities of prostate adenocarcinoma, including acinar, ductal and other rare
      subtypes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The prevalence of XMRV DNA in different
      histological subtypes of prostate adenocarcinoma was examined after
      characterizing the tumors into groups, using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded
      tissue samples from newly diagnosed prostate adenocarcinomas and archival
      prostate cancer tissue from our XMRV case control analysis. Broad-spectrum XMRV
      DNA amplification was performed by end-point polymerase chain reaction, using
      commercially available primer set. RESULTS: The study included 100 patients with
      prostate cancer. XMRV DNA was detected in 4 of 8 (50%) ductal adenocarcinomas,
      exhibiting papillary and cribriform histological features. XMRV DNA was not
      detected in any other variant of adenocarcinoma including acinar (0/91) and
      mucinous carcinomas (0/1). Majority of XMRV positive cases were biologically
      aggressive and present cancer at an early age upon diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Ductal
      adenocarcinomas demonstrate a significant association of XMRV DNA while other
      histological variants of prostate adenocarcinoma seem unrelated to XMRV
      infection.

PMID- 28861295
TI  - Evaluation of the diagnostic efficacy of strain elastography in infertile
      population with normal and abnormal semen parameters.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the diagnostic value
      of strain elastography (SE) of testicular tissues in infertile population. We
      also evaluated the correlation between SE results with semen parameters and
      hormone profiles of the patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 61 patients
      and 122 testes were evaluated. Patients who were evaluated in an andrology
      outpatient clinic with the diagnosis of infertility and referred to radiology
      department for investigation of reproductive organs between June 2015 and January
      2016 were included. Patients were divided into two groups according to semen
      analyses results as normal (Group 1) and abnormal (Group 2). Hormone profiles,
      semen analyses, B-mode, coloured Doppler ultrasonography and sonoelastography
      examinations were performed for each patient. Measurements of testicular volumes,
      resistive indices (RI) in intraparenchymal arteries, strain, strain ratio (SR)
      and presence of varicocele were recorded. RESULTS: Mean age of participants was
      33.7+/-6.3 years. Mean testicular volumes (Group 1, 19.41+/-4.8 mL, and Group 2,
      17.64+/-3.62 mL) were significantly different between groups (p=0.023). Mean SRs
      were also different between Groups 1 and 2 (0.12+/-0.08 vs. 0.22+/-0.18,
      p<0.001). Testicular volumes were directly proportional with SRs in Group 1.
      Strain values had inverse relationship with sperm concentration and total motile
      sperm counts in Group 2 (p=0.01). SRs were found to be positively correlated with
      RI and sperm morphology in Group 2 (p<0.05). Although FSH values showed
      significant difference among groups, any correlation between FSH and
      elastographic parameters could not be displayed. CONCLUSION: Strain elastography
      results were found to be significantly different in patients with abnormal sperm
      counts. This technique may provide promising results, however, further large
      scale studies may help to clarify the value of this imaging modality in the
      assessment of male infertility.

PMID- 28861297
TI  - Maintenance treatment with gemcitabine have a promising activity on metastatic
      bladder cancer survival.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of gemcitabine maintenance treatment on
      survival in patients with metastatic bladder cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Gemcitabine maintenance monotherapy was administered following the standard
      platinum-gemcitabine therapy in patients with metastatic bladder cancer. Patients
      who had responded to standard treatment received maintenance gemcitabine therapy
      as 1000 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every three weeks until progression or development
      of unacceptable toxicity. The following clinical factors were noted: performance
      status, age, sex, stage, site of metastasis, choice of cisplatin-gemcitabine or
      carboplatin-gemcitabine, response rates to the initial chemotherapy. Progression
      free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for standard treatment, and
      following gemcitabine monotreatment and for maintenance gemcitabine therapy were
      calculated using Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: A total of 88 patients with
      metastatic bladder cancer treated between February 2009 to October 2015 were
      evaluated retrospectively and 23 patients (26.1%) who had responded to six cycles
      of platinum-gemcitabine treatment were included in this study. Maintenance
      gamcitabine was administered for a median of 7 times (range 3-14 times). Grade 3
      hematotoxicity according to the criteria of the Common Terminology Criteria of
      Adverse Events was observed in 7 (30.4%) patients. Median PFS of patients was 46
      (range: 30-82) weeks for platinum-based treatment plus maintenance gemcitabine
      therapy. A higher median PFS was obtained in patients who were <65 year-olds,
      without organ metastasis with objective response rate, however, it was
      statistically insignificant. CONCLUSION: Gemcitabine maintenance therapy in
      metastatic bladder cancer patients who did not shown progression after the
      standard platinum-gemcitabine treatment contributes to survival and presents low
      toxicity profile, when compared to historical controls.

PMID- 28861298
TI  - A pilot study assessing the association between paraoxonase 1 gene polymorphism
      and prostate cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to show the relationship between paraoxonase 1 (PON1) gene
      polymorphism and the development of prostate cancer (PCa). MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      We investigated the association of single nuclotide polymorphisms of PON1 enzyme
      with the development of PCa risk. A total of 147 male patients were divided into
      PCa, and control groups. The control group was also divided into two subgroups
      according to serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels as non PCa-high PSA (>4
      ng/mL) and non PCa-low PSA (<=4 ng/mL) groups. RESULTS: The mean ages of the
      patients were 64.81 years, 63.27 years and 64.22 years in PCa group, non PCa-low
      PSA and non PCa -high PSA groups, respectively. The mean PSA levels were 10.9
      ng/mL, 1.16 ng/mL and 6.63 ng/mL for PCa group, non PCa -low PSA and non PCa 
      high PSA groups, respectively. In terms of PON1 polymorphisms and allele
      frequencies, there were no statistically significant differences between PCa and
      control groups. There was not a statistically significant difference between PCa
      and non PCa-high PSA groups as for genotypic and allelic frequencies. As a result
      of this small sample sized hypothetical study of polymorphism, a relationship
      could not be detected between PCa development and PON1 gene polymorphism.
      CONCLUSION: According to the results of this preliminary study, it is thought
      that more comprehensive future studies are necessary to clarify the possible role
      of PON1 gene polymorphism in the etiology of PCa.

PMID- 28861299
TI  - Association between systemic inflammation and serum prostate-specific antigen in
      a healthy Korean population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) may be elevated in healthy men
      with systemic inflammation. We aimed to investigate the association between
      systemic inflammation markers and serum PSA in a healthy Korean population.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cohort of 20,151 healthy native Korean men without
      prostate disease between the ages of 40 and 65 years who underwent medical
      checkups were studied from January 2007 to December 2013. Serum total PSA and
      serum C-reactive protein concentrations, neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet
      counts were determined. The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet
      lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were calculated. We checked the correlation between
      systemic inflammation markers and PSA. RESULTS: Data obtained from 18,800 healthy
      men were analyzed. The mean age of the study subjects was 50.72+/-7.62 years and
      the mean NLR was 1.764+/-0.804. Correlation analysis after adjustment for age and
      body mass index (BMI) revealed that neutrophil count (coefficient = 0.028, p
      value <0.001), and NLR (coefficient = 0.027, p value <0.001) correlated with PSA.
      Multivariate analysis using the full model revealed that age, neutrophil count
      and NLR were positively correlated with PSA (p<0.001, 0.001, and 0.043
      respectively). Multivariate analysis using a stepwise model revealed that age,
      neutrophil count and NLR were positively correlated with PSA (p<0.001, 0.001, and
      0.040, respectively) and BMI was negatively correlated with PSA (p<0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Systemic inflammation markers are useful with a serum PSA in a
      healthy Korean population. NLR in particular is significantly associated with
      serum PSA.

PMID- 28861300
TI  - Low free and bioavailable testosterone levels may predict pathologically-proven
      high-risk prostate cancer: a prospective, clinical trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the predictive value of free and bioavailable
      testosterone levels on the detection of high-grade prostate cancer proven by
      histopathological examination of transrectal prostate biopsy specimens. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: A total of 405 patients who underwent transrectal prostate biopsy
      due to high prostatic specific antigen (PSA) (>2.5 ng/mL) and/or abnormal
      findings at digital rectal examination were included in this study. Blood free
      and bioavailable testosterone levels were calculated by the formula recommended
      by International Society for the Study of the Aging Male (ISSAM). The patients
      were stratified according to the D'Amico classification based on PSA levels and
      histological outcomes of prostate biopsies as benign, low, intermediate and high
      risk prostate cancer. Patients were also divided into five groups according to
      the percentage of cancerous cores. RESULTS: Prostate cancer was detected in 160
      of 405 (39.5%) patients. Total, free and bioavailable testosterone levels did not
      differ significantly between the patients with benign or malign histology.
      However, mean free (6.2 vs. 5.2 ng/dL, p=0.02) and bioavailable (151 vs. 125
      ng/dL, p=0.001) testosterone levels were found to be significantly different in
      men with low-intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer. Moreover, a significant
      correlation was found between free, and bioavailable testosterone levels and
      percentage of cores with cancer (p=0.002 for free and p=0.016 for bioavailable
      testosterone, respectively). CONCLUSION: This prospective clinical study
      demonstrates that reduced levels of calculated blood free and bioavailable
      testosterone levels are associated with an increased risk of high-grade prostate
      cancer. Based on these findings blood free and bioavailable testosterone levels
      may be be thought to be an adjunctive factor in the prediction of high-risk
      prostate cancer.

PMID- 28861301
TI  - Longer biopsy cores do not increase prostate cancer detection rate: A large-scale
      cohort study refuting cut-off values indicated in the literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Only a few papers in the literature aimed to evaluate biopsy core
      lengths. Additionally, studies evaluated the core length with different
      approaches. We aimed to determine whether prostate cancer (PCa) detection is
      affected from core lengths according to three different approaches in a large
      standard cohort and compare our cut-off values with the published cut-offs.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 1,523 initial consecutive
      transrectal ultrasound-guided 12-core prostate biopsies. Biopsies were evaluated
      with respect to total core length (total length of each patients' core) average
      core length (total core length divided by total number of cores in each patient),
      and mean core length (mean length of all cores pooled), and compared our cut-off
      values with the published cut-offs. The prostate volumes were categorized into
      four groups (<30, 30-59.99, 60-119.99, >=120 cm3) and PCa detection rates in
      these categories were examined. RESULTS: PCa was found in 41.5% patients. There
      was no difference between benign and malignant mean core lengths of the pooled
      cores (p>0.05). Total core length and average core length were not significantly
      associated with PCa in multivariate logistic regression analyses (p>0.05). The
      core lengths (mean, average and total core lengths) increased (p<0.001) and PCa
      rates decreased (p<0.001) steadily with increasing prostate volume categories.
      PCa percentages decreased in all categories above the utilized cut-offs for mean
      (p>0.05), average (p<0.05), and total core lengths (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: There
      was no difference between mean core lengths of benign and malignant cores. Total
      core length and average core length were not significantly associated with PCa.
      Contrary to the cut-offs used for mean and average core lengths in the published
      studies, PCa rates decrease as these core lengths increase. Larger studies are
      necessary for the determination and acceptance of accurate cut-offs.

PMID- 28861302
TI  - Factors associated with postoperative pain after retrograde intrarenal surgery
      for kidney stones.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate factors related to early postoperative pain
      after retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective
      data analysis of 250 patients who underwent RIRS due to kidney stones was
      performed. Postoperative pain was evaluated in all patients by using visual
      analogue scale (VAS). Patients with severe pain (VAS score >=7) were separated
      and included in Group I (n=46). While patients without pain or with insignificant
      pain were included in Group II (n=204). The impact of patient-related (age,
      gender, renal anomalies, shock wave lithotripsy history, preoperative
      hydronephrosis) stone-related (stone number, side, size, location and opacity)
      and operation-related (preoperative and postoperative ureteral J-stenting,
      ureteral injury, postoperative bleeding and fever, stone-free rates, size of
      access sheath, and sheath indwelling time) factors on early stage postoperative
      pain (if any) were investigated. RESULTS: Female gender increased the risk for
      pain 3.6-fold (p<0.05). One millimeter increase in stone diameter increased the
      risk for postoperative pain 1.15-fold. Prolonged sheath time was another
      important factor which increased the risk for pain (p<0.05). Patients with high
      residual fragments were also prone to early postoperative pain. CONCLUSION:
      According to our results, patient-, stone-and operation-related factors
      associated with postoperative pain after RIRS were female gender, stone size and
      sheath time.

PMID- 28861303
TI  - Flouroscopy-free technique is safe and feasible in retrograde intrarenal surgery
      for renal stones.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to present outcomes of our patients who had
      undergone retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) with fluoroscopy-free technique
      and evaluate the efficacy and safety of the technique. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Between January 2013 and June 2015 the outcomes of 93 patients who had undergone
      RIRS with fluoroscopy-free technique were retrospectively evaluated. Our RIRS
      technique involved preoperative assessment of ureter by semi-rigid ureteroscope,
      inserting guidewire through semi-rigid ureteroscope, inserting ureteral access
      sheath over the guidewire with the visiual guidance of semi-rigid ureteroscope,
      passing flexible ureteroscope through the sheath, dusting the stone with holmium
      laser, rechecking the ureter with semi-rigid ureteroscope and inserting double J
      stent through semi-rigid ureteroscope. Low-dose computerized tomography scan was
      performed to all patients in postoperative first month and the results were
      classified as stone-free (absence of any fragment), clinically insignificant
      residual fragments (CIRF) (<=4 mm) and residual stone. RESULTS: Study population
      consisted of 62 (66.6%) male and 31 (33.3%) female patients with a mean age of
      47.8+/-14 (range 14-93) years. Mean stone size was 14.7+/-5 (7-32) mm. Median
      operative time was 72 (30-125) minutes. Stone-free rate was achieved in 65
      (69.9%) patients while CIRF was achieved in 13 (13.9%) and residual stones were
      detected in 15 (16.1%) patients. Five patients (5.37%) had minor complications,
      including hematuria and fever. No major complications were observed. CONCLUSION:
      Fluoroscopy-free technique is effective and safe technique in management of renal
      stone. Furthermore fluoroscopy-free technique can protect the surgeon from the
      negative effects of radiation.

PMID- 28861304
TI  - Laparoscopic ureteral reimplantation with Boari flap for the management of long-
      segment ureteral defect: A case series with review of the literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The incidence of ureteral stricture is showing a rising trend due to
      increased use of laparoscopic and upper urinary tract endoscopic procedures.
      Boari flap is the preferred method of repairing long- segment ureteral defects of
      8-12 cm. The procedure has undergone change from classical open (transperitoneal
      and retroperitoneal) method to laparoscopic surgery and recently robotic surgery.
      Laparoscopic approach is cosmetically appealing, less morbid and with shorter
      hospital stay. In this case series, we report our experience of performing
      laparoscopic ureteral reimplantation with Boari flap in 3 patients. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: This prospective study was conducted between January 2011 December 2014.
      The patients with a long- segment ureteral defect who had undergone laparoscopic
      Boari flap reconstruction were included in the study. Outcome of laparoscopic
      ureteral reimplantation with Boari flap for the manangement of long segment
      ureteral defect was evaluated. RESULTS: The procedure was performed on 3
      patients, and male to female ratio was 1:2. One patient had bilateral and other
      two patient had left ureteral stricture. The mean length of ureteral stricture
      was 8.6 cm (range 8.2-9.2 cm). The mean operative time was 206 min (190 to 220
      min). The average estimated blood loss was 100 mL (range 90-110 mL) and mean
      hospital stay was 6 days (range 5 to 7 days). The mean follow up was 19 months
      (range 17-22 months). None of the patients experienced any complication related
      to the procedure in perioperative period. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic ureteral
      reimplantation with Boari flap is safe, feasible and has excellent long term
      results. However, the procedure is technically challenging, requires extensive
      experience of intracorporeal suturing.

PMID- 28861305
TI  - Laparoscopic transperitoneal and retroperitoneal simple nephrectomy: The impact
      of etiological factors of the results of surgical treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study compares the perioperative outcomes of
      laparoscopic simple nephrectomy (LSN) in patients with urinary stone disease
      (USD) in comparison with LSNs performed for other etiological factors. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: 115 LSNs were identified from the two teaching hospitals' database.
      Depending on the etiological factors, patients were stratified in 2 groups. Group
      1 consisted of 63 (mean age 44.8+/-1.7 [21-71] years) patients; where the cause
      of non-functioning kidney was USD. Meanwhile, Group 2 included 52 (mean age was
      43.6+/-2.0 [19-78] years) patients; who underwent LSN because of other benign
      diseases. In both groups, a standardized transabdominal or retroperitoneal
      approach was used according to the discretion of the attending surgeon. Two
      groups were compared statistically in terms of perioperative parameters and
      standardized surgical complications. RESULTS: The use of transperitoneal approach
      was higher in Group 1 (69.8% vs. 30.2%) compared to Group 2 (51.9% vs. 48.1%).
      Elective open conversion was needed in 3 and 2 patients in Groups 1 and 2,
      respectively. The results for mean operative time (108.9+/-4.0 min vs. 106.7+/
      5.0), estimated blood loss (92.5+/-8.2 vs. 86.8+/-10.1 mL) and length of hospital
      stay (4.1+/-0.33 vs. 3.85+/-0.42 days) were similar between the groups. Despite
      intraoperative complications were similar between the groups, overall post
      operative complications were significantly higher (17.5% vs. 3.8%) in Group 1.
      However, the rate of significant complications (Clavien 3-5) was similar between
      the groups. CONCLUSION: The present study revealed that perioperative outcomes of
      patients undergoing LSN for USD are similar to those seen in patients undergoing
      LSN for other etiological factors.

PMID- 28861306
TI  - The predictive value of platelet to lymphocyte and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio
      in determining urethral stricture after transurethral resection of prostate.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The pathology of urethral stricture disease is still unclear however
      progressive inflammation may contribute to the development of urethral stricture.
      The platelet-to- lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a new and simple marker that indicates
      inflammation. In this study we aimed to investigate the predictive value of
      neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and PLR in patients with urethral stricture
      who underwent transurethral resection of prostate (TURP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      total of 208 patients who underwent bipolar-TURP were included in this study.
      Patients who had previously undergone surgery due to any urethral pathology,
      posterior urethral strictures, previous or ongoing treatment for any cancer,
      hematologic disorders, presence of an active infection at the time of surgical
      intervention, and prior blood transfusion were excluded. PLR, NLR and red cell
      distribution width (RDW) levels were measured. In order to investigate the
      predictive values of NLR and PLR variables, binary logistic regression analysis
      was performed. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were observed
      between the groups in terms of age, NLR, RDW, prostate size and operative times.
      Statistically significant differences were presented only in the median PLR-
      values. For predicting urethral stricture, the optimal cut-off value was 112.5,
      (sensitivity: 0.84, specificity: 0.64; AUC=0.762, 95% CI 0.684-0.84). CONCLUSION:
      In this study we showed that PLR can be used to determine urethral stricture as a
      cost-effective, common, and simple biomarker in patients after TURP.

PMID- 28861307
TI  - Preliminary feasibility study of a new method of hypothermia in an experimental
      canine model.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To build up a new microcontroller thermoelectric system to achieve
      renal hypothermia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Renal hypothermia system was tested
      under in vivo conditions in the kidneys of ten Mongrel dogs. Ambient temperature
      was evaluated using two different microcontrollers. In order to ensure
      hypothermia in the renal parenchyma, selection can be made among 4 modules and
      sensors which detect the temperature of the area. The temperature range of the
      system was adjusted between -50 degrees C and +50 degrees C. RESULTS: When single
      and double poles of the kidney were cooled, initial mean intraperitoneal
      temperature values were found 37.7 degrees C for rectum and 36.5 degrees C for
      renal cortex and medulla. After the temperature of the cooling module was set to
      12 degrees C, the module was placed on the poles of the kidney. After fifteen
      minutes, temperature was 15.4 degrees C in the lower pole of the kidney, 28.1
      degrees C in the cortex of the other side and 29.2 degrees C in the
      intramedullary region. The temperature was found to be 15 degrees C in the
      vicinity and 26.1 degrees C in the cortex across the module. After the system was
      stabilized, a very slight change was observed in the temperature. CONCLUSION:
      Hypothermia system developed ensured desired cooling of the targeted part of the
      kidney; however, it did not cause a change in the temperature of other parts of
      the kidney or general body temperature. Thus, it was possible to create a long
      term study area for renal parenchymal surgery.

PMID- 28861309
TI  - Isolation and in vitro cultivation of human urine-derived cells: an alternative
      stem cell source.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: For in vitro tissue engineering in urology, stem cells are commonly
      isolated from tissue specimens obtained during open or endoscopic surgery. Within
      the context of the present study our aim was to isolate cells from human urine by
      an alternative and safe technique rather than using the indicated method.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: After human urine samples had been collected from young and
      healthy donors via urethral catheterization, cells were precipitated by
      centrifugation and cultured. Following this isolation procedure, cells were
      characterized by immunocytochemical method using specific antibodies. RESULTS:
      When these cells were characterized by immunocytochemical methods using specific
      antibodies some of them were positive for mesenchymal stem cell marker CD90 while
      the others were labelled with urothelial marker cytokeratin 7. When all these
      results were taken into consideration, urothelial cells together with stem cells
      were observed in the urine- derived cell population. CONCLUSION: According to the
      results obtained from this study human urine may be preferred as an alternative
      stem cell and urothelial cell source in that this method is and easily
      reproducible non-invasive method.

PMID- 28861308
TI  - Giant hydronephrosis: still a reality!
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Giant hydronephrosis (GH) is a rare entity in both developed and
      developing countries with less than 500 cases reported in the literature. Delayed
      diagnosis and management of GH, can result in long-term complications like
      hypertension, rupture of the kidney, renal failure and malignant change. We aim
      to highlight the importance of this often neglected entity and build a consensus
      for its early diagnosis and management. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients with GH
      were thoroughly worked up, managed and followed up between June 2013 and December
      2015 and epidemiologic, radiological, perioperative and follow-up data was
      recorded. RESULTS: A total of 35 patients (adults and children) were reported.
      Flank pain in adults and abdominal lump in children were the most common clinical
      presentation. Percutaneous nephrostomy tube was placed in all patients and
      detailed work up was done to reach final diagnosis. Pelvi-ureteric junction
      obstruction (PUJO) was the final diagnosis in 32 patients (91.4%). Kidneys were
      non-functioning in 13 cases (37.1%) so nephrectomies were performed. Reduction
      pyeloplasty with nephropexy was done in 21 patients (60%) with 81% success and
      23.1% complication rates. CONCLUSION: GH requires early diagnosis and management
      to prevent higher nephrectomy rate along with poor success rate of conservative
      surgery like pyeloplasty.

PMID- 28861310
TI  - Does site of buccal mucosa graft for bulbar urethra stricture affect outcome? A
      comparative analysis of ventral, dorso-lateral and dorsal buccal mucosa graft
      augmentation urethroplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare long- term outcomes of buccal mucosa graft (BMG)
      augmentation urethroplasty for long segment bulbar urethral strictures done by
      placing the graft ventrally, dorso-laterally and dorsally. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      We conducted a single institution retrospective study on 112 who underwent BMG
      augmentation urethroplasty for non-traumatic bulbar urethral strictures between
      January 2005 to December 2014. The cases were divided into three groups based on
      the site of placement of BMG graft i.e. (a) Ventral (n=44), (b) Dorso-lateral
      (n=48) and (c) Dorsal (n=20). Follow-up period was from one year to five years.
      Patients with failed outcomes underwent urethroscopy or retrograde urethrogram to
      note the site of recurrence of stricture. RESULTS: Out of 112 cases 91 (81%) were
      successful and 21 (19%) failed. The success rates for ventral, dorso-lateral and
      dorsal BMG augmentation procedures were 89%, 79% and 70%, respectively (p=0.18).
      Among 21 failed cases, 12 cases (57%) had stricture at proximal anastomotic site,
      4 cases (19%) at graft and 5 cases (24%) at distal anastomotic site (p=0.01).
      CONCLUSION: The overall success rate for BMG augmentation urethroplasty is equal
      for all techniques. Ventral onlay urethroplasty provides better exposure of
      proximal anastomotic site thus it is associated with minimum proximal anastomotic
      site recurrence rates. Patients with extensive spongiofibrosis and long segment
      strictures had higher rates of failure.

PMID- 28861311
TI  - Our experiences with robot- assisted laparoscopic surgery in pediatric patients:
      the first case series from Turkey.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Robotic surgery is a leading treatment option for minimally invasive
      surgery and has an increasing popularity in pediatric population, as well. In
      this article, we reported our case series of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery
      in pediatric population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 29
      consecutive pediatric patients who underwent robot- assisted procedures between
      May 2014 and October 2016. Patient demographics, hospitalization time, estimated
      blood loss, robotic time and total operative and peri-, and post-operative
      complications were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 24 ureter units (18 patients)
      with grade 1-5 vesicoureteral reflux in 13 female and 5 male, 1 male patient with
      vesicoureteral stenosis were underwent robot- assisted laparoscopic ureteral
      reimplantation (RALUR). All patients had complete resolution after surgery. Robot
      assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty (RALP) was performed in 6 patients with
      ureteropelvic junction obstruction. All patients had complete resolution after
      surgery. Completely intracorporeal robotic assisted laparoscopic augmentation
      ileocystoplasty (RLAIC) was applied to two patients with neurogenic bladder. The
      symptoms and preoperative hydronephrosis were regressed on the first month of
      follow-up. Robot-assisted laparoscopic reduction cystoplasty (RALRC) was
      performed in 14-year-old boy with a bladder diverticula and recurrent urinary
      tract infection. The last case was eleven- year-old female patient with non
      functioning kidney. She had recurrent urinary tract infections and was treated
      with robotic assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy (RALN). CONCLUSION: Robot-assisted
      laparoscopic surgery is safe and efficient in pediatric population. Although open
      surgery is still the gold standard for many pediatric diseases, inherent
      reconstructive advantages of robotic assisted laparoscopy have a chance to change
      this view.

PMID- 28861312
TI  - Effective predictors for surgical decision in antenatal hydronephrosis: a
      prospective multiparameter analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The majority of antenatal hydronephrosis disappears spontaneously. In
      our study, we have investigated the effective predictors for surgical decision in
      antenatal hydronephrosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-four patients found to have
      renal pelvic anteroposterior (AP) diameter more than 10-mm on antenatal
      ultrasonograpy were followed after birth. The study groups were divided into two
      groups: follow-up and surgery group. On follow-up, longitudinal diameter of the
      kidney, parenchymal thickness of the kidney, AP diameter of renal pelvis, AP
      diameter of middle calyces on ultrasonograpy, and differential renal function,
      20th minute clearance, half-life of radionuclide tracer (T1/2), Tmax, Tmax-T1/2,
      normalised residual activity (NORA) on diuretic renography were evaluated.
      Ultrasonograpy and diuretic renography measurements were compared in patients
      whose hydronephrosis resolve or proceeded to surgery. RESULTS: Forty-four
      patients were diagnosed as antenatal hydronephrosis, spontaneous resolution
      occurred in 23 (52%), and surgery was performed in 21 patients (48%). Mean age at
      operation was 8.5+/-6.5 months (3-24 months). Mean AP diameter of renal pelvis
      was 29.5+/-14.2 mm for surgery group, 13.6+/-4.2 mm for follow-up group
      (p<0.001). Univariate analyses showed significance for all ultrasonographic
      measurements and only the differential renal function by diuretic renography.
      Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed significance for AP diameter of
      renal pelvis (odds ratio 1.37; 95% Cl 1.13-1.66), and differential renal function
      (odds ratio 1.14; 95% Cl 1.01-1.29). CONCLUSION: AP diameter of renal pelvis and
      differential renal function were the most effective parameters for surgical
      decision. These parameters can be used for appropriate management of antenatal
      hydronephrosis.

PMID- 28861313
TI  - Using negative pressure therapy for improving skin graft taking on genital area
      defects following Fournier gangrene.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Fournier's gangrene is an infective necrotizing fasciitis of the
      perineal, genital and perianal regions. Treatment includes aggressive surgical
      debridement that often results in extensive loss of genital skin. Skin grafts may
      be used for reconstruction but skin grafting of the male genitalia is diffucult
      because the penis and scrotum are mobile and deformable. A variety of methods are
      used to secure skin graft to recipient beds. We used negative pressure therapy
      (NPT) to secure skin grafts and improve skin graft taking. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      We used negative pressure therapy for graft fixation in 13 male patients who
      underwent debridements with the indication of Fournier gangrene, and whose
      defects formed were reconstructed with grafts between January 2009, and January
      2014. Information about age of the patients, sessions of negative pressure
      therapy applied before, and after reconstruction, duration of hospital stay, and
      graft losses during postoperative period were recorded. RESULTS: Median age of
      the patients was 56.15 (46-72) years. NPT was applied to patients for an average
      of 6.64 sessions (4-12) before and 1 sessions after graft reconstruction.
      Patients were hospitalized for an average of 26.7 (20-39) days. Any graft loss
      was not seen after NPT. CONCLUSION: Because of the peculiar anatomy of the
      genital region, anchoring of grafts is difficult so graft losses are often
      encountered. Use of NPT for ensuring graft fixation on the genital region
      prevents skin graft shearing.

PMID- 28861314
TI  - New surgical technique applied with urological instruments in bilobar multiple
      hepatolithiasis: Ultra-mini percutaneous hepatolithotomy.
AB  - Intrahepatic bile duct stones may emerge with manifestations as chronic stomach
      ache, cholestasis, cholangitis, abscess, post-obstructive atrophy and liver
      cirrhosis presentation may occur. Thus the treatment of symptomatic
      hepatolithiasis patients should be provided. Different methods such as biliary
      decompression, endoscopic, percutaneous or open surgery are recommended for the
      treatment of patients with intrahepatic gallstones. The aim of the treatment is
      to extract the stones and regain biliary drainage. But the treatment regimen to
      be applied should be determined after examining the age, performance condition,
      general condition of the patient and location of the stone carefully. In this
      case, we presented a young female patient who had many unsuccessful surgical
      interventions due to coledochal cyst and congenital malformation in bile ducts,
      had large stones in right and left intrahepatic bile ducts and in whom we
      provided complete stone-free condition through Ultra-Mini Percutaneous
      Hepatolithotomy (UM-PHL) using urological instruments.

PMID- 28861315
TI  - Renal angiomyoadenomatous tumour.
AB  - Renal angiomyoadenomatous tumour is a newly described rare neoplasm. This tumour
      is characterised microscopically by admixture of three components- epithelial
      cells arranged in tubules and nests, angiomyomatous stroma and capillary sized
      interconnecting vascular channels in close association with the epithelial cell
      clusters. Microscopically it has wide range of differential diagnoses which
      include mixed epithelial and stromal tumour of kidney, angiomyolipoma and clear
      cell renal cell carcinoma with angiomyolipomatous/angiomyoadenomatous areas.
      Renal angiomyoadenomatous tumour should be differentiated from these tumours.
      Till now, only 10 cases have been reported in English medical literature. Here,
      we are reporting a case of renal angiomyoadenomatous tumour in a 29 year- old
      female patient who presented with hematuria and low backache and describing its
      main features so as to differentiate this entity from other renal tumours. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first case to be reported from India.

PMID- 28861316
TI  - Granular cell tumor of the urinary bladder.
AB  - Granular cell tumors (GCTs) are extremely rare neoplasms of the bladder. In the
      literature, there are only a few reported cases. We present a GCT case with
      clinical, radiological, histomorphological, immunohistochemical findings and its
      differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28861317
TI  - Removal of a retroperitoneal foreign body through single port laparoscopy using
      nephroscope.
AB  - Foreign bodies are rare and challenging issues leading to symptoms according to
      the location. Laparoscopy is a popular and minimally invasive method used for
      removal of foreign bodies in the abdominal cavity or retroperitoneum. We herein
      report a case with retroperitoneal foreign body that was removed through
      retroperitoneal single- port laparoscopy using nephroscope. To our knowledge this
      is the first case of removal of a retroperitoneal foreign body through single-
      port laparoscopy using nephroscope.

PMID- 28861318
TI  - DiGeorge Syndrome Associated with Azoospermia: First case in the literature.
AB  - DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) is one of the most frequently seen chromosomal
      abnormalities. The major genetic cause of DGS is a microdeletion on chromosome
      22q11.2. Majority of the cases are diagnosed during their childhood. DGS is
      rarely considered and diagnosed in adulthood. Herein, we report the first case of
      a patient with DGS and azoospermia in the literature. Our patient was a 35-year
      old male with mild dysmorphic features, hypernasal voice, mental retardation, and
      azoospermia. His laboratory tests and echocardiographic assessments were normal.
      Clinical clues to DGS were hypernasal voice and dysmorphic features with mild
      mental retardation. The diagnosis of DGS was confirmed by fluorescence in situ
      hybridization (FISH). Negative effects of cognitive disorders on reproductivity
      are already known; however, we haven't find any studies in the literature that
      evaluated infertile patients with DGS using semen analysis, apart from these
      potential unfavourable effectc of cognitive disorders. Coexistence of DGS and
      azoospermia may be completely coincidental, but azoospermia can be also one of
      the unknown clinical features of this syndrome. Many patients with a mild
      phenotype of DGS may be underdiagnosed. DGS should be considered in adults who
      have mental, behavioral, or psychiatric disorders with mild dysmorphic features,
      even in the absence of classical features.

PMID- 28861320
TI  - CS1 (SLAMF7, CD319) is an effective immunotherapeutic target for multiple
      myeloma.
AB  - CS1 (also known as CD319, CRACC and SLAMF7) was identified as an NK cell receptor
      regulating immune functions. It is also expressed on B cells, T cells, Dendritic
      cells, NK-T cells, and monocytes. CS1 is overexpressed in multiple myeloma and
      makes it a target for immunotherapy. A humanized anti-CS1 antibody, Elotuzumab or
      Empliciti has shown promising results in clinical studies. This review focuses on
      the biology of CS1 in NK and other hematopoietic cells and multiple myeloma. Anti
      CS1 mAb can activate natural cytotoxicity of NK cells as well as enhance ADCC
      (antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity) and thus makes an effective
      target for immunotherapy of MM.

PMID- 28861321
TI  - FoxC1 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition through PBX1 dependent
      transactivation of ZEB2 in esophageal cancer.
AB  - Esophageal cancer (EC) was one of the most lethal malignancies worldwide with
      intricate mechanisms. Here we reported that Forkhead box C1 (FoxC1), a member of
      the forkhead family transcription factors, was up-regulated in EC tissues and
      cell lines in comparison with controls. FoxC1 levels were negatively correlated
      with tumor stage, lymph node metastasis and survival status of EC patients.
      Knockdown of FoxC1 inhibited the proliferation, colony formation and epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT) of EC cells, while overexpression of FoxC1 promoted
      these biological behaviors. Mechanically, serial deletion and chromatin
      immunoprecipitation assays showed that ZEB2, a well-reported transcriptional
      suppressor of E-cadherin, was a direct transcriptional target of FoxC1. Moreover,
      FoxC1 was recruited to the ZEB2 promoter by its interaction with the pioneer
      transcription factor pre-B-cell leukemia homeobox 1 (PBX1). Importantly,
      significant correlation between levels of FoxC1 and ZEB2 was observed in EC
      tissues and the two proteins could be used as prognostic biomarkers together.
      Hence, our results revealed a critical role of FoxC1 in the EMT process of EC and
      uncovered a novel mechanism for the regulation of ZEB2-E-cadherin axis in EC.

PMID- 28861319
TI  - Steroid hormone receptors as prognostic markers in breast cancer.
AB  - Despite the existence of many promising anti-cancer therapies, not all breast
      cancers are equally treatable, due partly to the fact that focus has been
      primarily on a few select breast cancer biomarkers- notably ERalpha, PR and HER2.
      In cases like triple negative breast cancer (ERalpha-, PR-, and HER2-), there is
      a complete lack of available biomarkers for prognosis and therapeutic purposes.
      The goal of this review is to determine if other steroid receptors, like ERbeta
      and AR, could play a prognostic and/or therapeutic role. Data from various in
      vitro, in vivo, and clinical breast cancer studies were examined to analyze the
      presence and function of ERbeta, PR, and AR in the presence and absence of
      ERalpha. Additionally, we focused on studies that examined how expression of the
      various steroid receptor isoforms affects breast cancer progression. Our findings
      suggest that while we have a solid understanding of how these receptors work
      individually, how they interact and behave in the presence and absence of other
      receptors requires further research. Furthermore, there is an incomplete
      understanding of how the various steroid receptor isoforms interact and impact
      receptor function and breast cancer progression, partly due to the difficulty in
      detecting all the various isoforms. More large-scale clinical studies must be
      made to analyze systematically the expression of steroid hormone receptors and
      their respective isoforms in breast cancer patients in order to determine how
      these receptors interact with each other and in turn affect cancer progression.

PMID- 28861322
TI  - 14-3-3zeta loss impedes oncogene-induced mammary tumorigenesis and metastasis by
      attenuating oncogenic signaling.
AB  - The 14-3-3zeta protein belongs to the 14-3-3 family of regulatory eukaryotic
      proteins that modulate signaling by binding to wide variety of signaling
      molecules. 14-3-3zeta expression is amplified in over 40% breast cancer patients
      and is associated with a poor prognosis. Various in vitro and xenograft models
      have suggested that attenuating 14-3-3zeta expression may provide therapeutic
      benefits but there has been no study looking at tumor onset and metastasis in
      breast cancer mouse models with a targeted deletion of 14-3-3zeta. We generated a
      14-3-3zeta knockout mouse model to characterize the role of 14-3-3zeta in breast
      cancer progression. Crossing 14-3-3zeta-/- mice with MMTV-PyMT and MMTV-Neu
      transgenic mice revealed that loss of 14-3-3zeta prolonged tumor latency and
      reduced lung metastasis as compared to MMTV-PyMT and MMTV-Neu mice.
      Mechanistically, loss of 14-3-3zeta suppressed tumor proliferation and
      angiogenesis and promoted apoptosis by suppressing the Akt and Erk pathway and
      upregulated the expression of the tumor suppressor p53. Our results provide
      evidence showing that attenuating 14-3-3zeta expression/activity in mammary
      tumors can provide a therapeutic benefit.

PMID- 28861323
TI  - POU2F1 promotes growth and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma through the
      FAT1 signaling pathway.
AB  - Increasing evidence suggests that POU domain class 2 transcription factor 1
      (POU2F1) participates in carcinogenesis and cancer progression via promotion of
      cell proliferation and metastasis; however, the functional role of POU2F1 in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is largely unknown. In this study, we determined
      that POU2F1 was significantly up-regulated in HCC tumor tissue and cell lines. We
      demonstrated that POU2F1 over-expression promoted HCC cell proliferation, colony
      formation, migration, and invasion, while silencing of POU2F1 inhibited these
      malignant phenotypes. In vivo experiments indicated that knockdown of POU2F1
      inhibited HCC cell metastasis and xenograft growth, whereas ectopic expression of
      POU2F1 promoted these cellular functions. Microarray analysis suggests that FAT
      atypical cadherin 1 (FAT1) can function downstream of POU2F1. Functionally, we
      demonstrated that POU2F1 knockdown induced growth suppression and metastasis
      inhibition of HCC cells and inactivated the FAT1 pathway, indicating that POU2F1
      is a potential novel therapeutic target in HCC.

PMID- 28861324
TI  - MicroRNA-1179 inhibits glioblastoma cell proliferation and cell cycle progression
      via directly targeting E2F transcription factor 5.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an extraordinary aggressive disease that
      requires more effective therapeutic options. In the past few years, many
      microRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to have important roles in promoting
      GBM progression. However, little is known about the role of miR-1179 in GBM. In
      the present study, we found that miR-1179 was significantly downregulated in
      glioma tissues and cell lines. Functional experiments showed that introduction of
      miR-1179 dramatically suppressed GBM cell proliferation and cell cycle
      progression. Importantly, treatment of miR-1179 strongly inhibited tumor growth
      in a subcutaneous GBM model. Further studies showed that E2F transcription factor
      5 (E2F5), a key transcription factor that controls cell cycle transition, was a
      direct target of miR-1179. Silencing of E2F5 inhibited the proliferative ability
      of GBM cells and induces cell cycle arrest, which were consistent with the
      effects of miR-1179 overexpression. More importantly, reintroduction of E2F5 into
      GBM cells reversed the tumor-suppressive function of miR-1179. Finally, we
      demonstrated that miR-1179 expression was negatively correlated with E2F5
      messenger RNA (mRNA) levels in high-grade gliomas. Our findings provide new
      insights into the role of miR-1179 in the progression of GBM, and implicate the
      potential application of miR-1179 in GBM therapy.

PMID- 28861325
TI  - The efficacy of combination therapy with oncolytic herpes simplex virus HF10 and
      dacarbazine in a mouse melanoma model.
AB  - Advanced melanoma has long been treated with chemotherapy using cytotoxic agents
      like dacarbazine (DTIC), but overall survival rates with these drugs have been
      generally low. Recently, immunoregulatory monoclonal antibodies and molecularly
      targeted therapy with a BRAF inhibitor and/or a MEK inhibitor, have been used to
      treat malignant melanoma and have improved the survival rate of patients with
      advanced melanoma. However, high prices of these drugs are problematic. In this
      study, we evaluated the oncolytic efficacy of HF10, an attenuated, replication
      competent HSV, with DTIC in immunocompetent mice model of malignant melanoma. For
      in vitro studies, cytotoxicity assays were conducted in clone M3 mouse melanoma
      cells. For the in vivo studies, subcutaneous melanoma models were prepared in
      DBA/2 mice with clone M3 cells, and then HF10 was intratumorally inoculated
      with/without intraperitoneal DTIC injection. The efficacy of the therapies was
      evaluated by survival, growth of subcutaneous tumor, and histopathological and
      immunological analyses. Both HF10 infection and DTIC treatment showed cytotoxic
      effects in melanoma cells, but combination treatment with HF10 and DTIC showed a
      rapid and strong cytotoxic effect compared with monotherapy. In the subcutaneous
      melanoma model, intratumoral HF10 inoculation significantly inhibited tumor
      growth. HF10 also inhibited the growth of non-inoculated contralateral tumors
      when it was injected into the ipsilateral tumors of mice. In histologic and
      immunohistochemical analysis, tumor lysis and inflammatory cell infiltration were
      observed after intratumoral HF10 inoculation. When mice were treated with HF10
      and DTIC, the combination therapy induced a robust systemic anti-tumor immune
      response and prolonged survival. IFN-gamma secretion from splenocytes of the HF10
      DTIC combination therapy group showed more IFN-gamma secretion than did the other
      groups. These data showed the efficacy of HF10 and DTIC combination therapy in a
      mouse melanoma model.

PMID- 28861326
TI  - LncRNA SNHG5 regulates imatinib resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia via acting
      as a CeRNA against MiR-205-5p.
AB  - Imatinib resistance has become a major obstacle for the treatment of chronic
      myeloid leukemia (CML). The present study aimed to investigate the effects of the
      long non-coding RNA, SNHG5 on imatinib resistance in CML and explored the
      underlying mechanisms. The quantitative real-time PCR results showed that SNHG5
      and ABCC2 expressions were up-regulated in the isolated peripheral blood cells of
      the CML patients when compared with healthy controls, and SNHG5 expression levels
      was positively correlated with ABCC2 in CML patients. In vitro studies showed
      that the expressions of SNHG5 and ABCC2 were up-regulated in imatinib resistant
      cells (K562-R) when compared to K562 cells. Bioinformatics analysis showed the
      interaction between SNHG5 and miR-205-5p, which was further confirmed by
      luciferase reporter assay and RNA immune-precipitation in K562 cells.
      Overexpression of SNHG5 suppressed the expression of miR-205-5p and the
      expression of SNHG5 was negatively correlated with the miR-205-5p expression in
      CML patients. In addition, ABCC2 was predicted as a downstream target of miR-205
      5p, which was further confirmed by the luciferase reporter assay in K562-R cells,
      and overexpression of miR-205-5p suppressed the expression of ABCC2 in K562-R
      cells. In vitro functional assay showed that overexpression of SNHG5 in K562
      cells increased imatinib resistance and knock-down of SNHG5 reduced the imatinib
      resistance in K562-R cells. Further experiments showed that SNHG5 promotes
      imatinib resistance through regulating ABCC2. Taken together, SNHG5 promotes
      imatinib resistance in CML via acting as a competing endogenous RNA against miR
      205-5p.

PMID- 28861327
TI  - A human recombinant IL-7/HGFbeta hybrid cytokine enhances antitumor immunity in
      mice.
AB  - We purified a hybrid cytokine that contains interleukin-7 (IL-7) and the beta
      chain of hepatocyte growth factor (HGFbeta) from a unique long-term murine bone
      marrow culture system. We have cloned and expressed the human form of IL
      7/HGFbeta in which the IL-7 and HGFbeta genes are connected by a flexible linker
      to produce a single-chain recombinant human IL-7/HGFbeta protein (hrIL
      7/HGFbeta). To determine whether hrIL-7/HGFbeta has antitumor activity, we
      injected this hybrid cytokine into melanoma and colon cancer animal models, and
      then assessed the local tumor growth and tumor metastasis. We show here that in
      vivo administration of hrIL-7/HGFbeta significantly inhibited the growth and
      metastasis of malignant melanoma and colon cancer in mice. The antitumor activity
      was involved in a marked increase in the number of tumor-infiltrating CD4+ and
      CD8+ T cells and activated dendritic cells. The immunological mechanism by which
      hrIL-7/HGFbeta inhibits tumor growth was confirmed by its inability to inhibit
      tumor growth in vitro and in immunodeficient mice. Furthermore, immune cells from
      hrIL-7/HGFbeta-treated cancer-bearing mice can be adoptively transferred into
      naive mice to resist same tumor cell challenge. Therefore, hrIL-7/HGFbeta has
      potential applications in the treatment of cancer patients.

PMID- 28861329
TI  - MiR-210-3p inhibits the tumor growth and metastasis of bladder cancer via
      targeting fibroblast growth factor receptor-like 1.
AB  - Current evidence indicates that microRNAs are widely down-regulated in various
      tumors including colorectal carcinoma, liver cancer and lung cancer, and function
      as tumor suppressors through inhibiting cancer cell growth, invasion and
      migration. Here, we demonstrated that miR-210-3p level was significantly reduced
      in the bladder cancer compared to paratumor tissues, and attempt to reveal the
      regulatory role of miR-210-3p in bladder cancer progression. Exogenous
      overexpression of miR-210-3p inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion
      of bladder cancer cells in vitro. In addition, the nude mouse xenograft model
      showed that miR-210-3p over-expressing inhibited bladder cancer growth and liver
      metastasis whereas silencing miR-210-3p caused an opposite outcome, which is
      mainly regulated by targeting fibroblast growth factor receptor-like 1 (FGFRL1).
      We also demonstrated that the expression of FGFRL1 in bladder cancer specimens
      were negatively correlated with miR-210-3p level, and FGFRL1 overexpression
      rescued the cell proliferation and invasion inhibited by ectopic expression of
      miR-210-3p. Moreover, knockdown of FGFRL1 was able to mimic the cell growth and
      metastasis effects induced by miR-210-3p over-expressing in bladder cancer cells.
      Together, these results indicate that miR-210-3p plays an important role in the
      regulation of bladder cancer growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo through
      targeting FGFRL1.

PMID- 28861328
TI  - Targeting MYC sensitizes malignant mesothelioma cells to PAK blockage-induced
      cytotoxicity.
AB  - Clinical management of malignant mesothelioma (MM) is very challenging due to
      marked resistance of this tumor to chemotherapy. Various mechanisms lead to a
      less than ideal drug concentration inside of MM cells, diminishing cytotoxicity.
      Consequently, single cytotoxic drugs achieve very modest response rates in MM
      patients, and combination regimens using standard and novel therapies have
      achieved only limited improvement in overall survival. Here, we demonstrate that
      MYC has either proliferative or pro-survival effects in MM cells during normal or
      stressed conditions, respectively. A MYC inhibitor 10058-F4 reduced MM cell
      proliferation via down regulation of cyclin D. Under serum starvation conditions,
      MM cells became quiescent, and the addition of MYC inhibitors triggered apoptosis
      in the resting MM cells. We also found that high concentrations of the PAK
      inhibitor PF3758309 killed MM cells, but the drug had only cytostatic effects at
      lower concentrations. These quiescent cells underwent apoptosis upon
      pharmacological inhibition of MYC. A novel MYC inhibitor KJ-Pyr-9 and a newer PAK
      inhibitor, FRAX597, also demonstrated marked cytotoxic cooperativity.
      Collectively, these findings demonstrate that targeting of MYC can sensitize MM
      cells and provide rationale for inhibition of MYC and PAK as a novel combinatory
      regimen for the treatment of this otherwise therapy-resistant, clinically
      incurable malignancy.

PMID- 28861330
TI  - A Plasma Cell Dyscrasia Presenting as Amyloid Cardiomyopathy and Autonomic
      Dysfunction in a Healthy Patient.
AB  - Systemic amyloidosis is a rare multisystem disease caused by incorrectly folded
      proteins that deposit pathologically in different tissues and organs of the human
      body. It has a very wide spectrum of clinical presentations according to the
      affected organ(s), and its diagnosis is commonly delayed. Cardiac involvement is
      the leading cause of morbidity and mortality and carries a poor prognosis,
      especially in primary light chain amyloidosis. Therefore any delay in the
      diagnosis can result in devastating outcomes for the patient. We report the case
      of a 65-year-old man who presented with dizziness and lightheadedness. He was
      found to have orthostatic hypotension and further investigations revealed the
      diagnosis of amyloid cardiomyopathy complicating a plasma cell dyscrasia. What is
      worth noting, in this case, is that the patient had cardiac amyloidosis
      presenting primarily as autonomic dysfunction and orthostatic hypotension,
      without any cardiac-specific symptoms such as heart failure or angina. This is a
      very unusual presentation of advanced-stage cardiac amyloidosis. This article
      highlights the variety of clinical presentations of cardiac amyloidosis, and
      focuses on the recent progress such as novel diagnostic and surveillance
      approaches using imaging, biomarkers, and new histological typing techniques.
      Current and future promising treatment options are also discussed, including
      methods directly targeting the amyloid deposits.

PMID- 28861331
TI  - Alteration of Interneuron Immunoreactivity and Autophagic Activity in Rat
      Hippocampus after Single High-Dose Whole-Brain Irradiation.
AB  - The effects of high dose gamma radiation on brain tissue are poorly understood,
      with both limited and major changes reported. The present study compared the
      effects of gamma irradiation on the expression of interneuron markers within the
      hippocampal cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) region with expression in control matched rats.
      This area was chosen for study because of its well-characterized circuitry. Male
      Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 60 Gy of whole brain gamma radiation and
      after 24 or 48 hours, the brains were removed, fixed and sectioned to quantitate
      expression of parvalbumin (PV), calbindin-D28K (CB), reelin, neuropeptide-Y
      (NPY), and somatostatin. All of these markers increased in expression over the
      first 48 hours, except NPY, which decreased. This provides novel information on
      changes in gene expression in the hippocampal interneurons following radiation.
      Staining for Beclin 1, a marker of autophagy, increased most strongly in the
      subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus (DG). Overall, the results are
      consistent with the hypothesis that increased intracellular calcium follows
      irradiation, leading to an increased expression of calcium binding proteins.
      Increased autophagy occurs in the neurogenic zone of the dentate hilus,
      consistent with reduced effective neurogenesis after irradiation.

PMID- 28861332
TI  - EML4-ALK-positive lung adenocarcinoma presenting an unusual metastatic pattern in
      a 29-year-old woman who is alive and well in her third year follow up:A case
      report.
AB  - : Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a frequent tumor entity with high
      mortality. Although several newly discovered chromosomal translocations and
      mutations opened new horizons for targeted therapy, literature still lacks large
      series of NSCLC with chromosomal abberations and their correlations with
      histological and clinical features. We present a case of echinoderm microtubule
      associated protein-like 4-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (EML4-ALK) translocation
      positive adenocarcinoma of the lung with an unusual metastatic pattern in a 29
      year-old young woman. CONCLUSION: Young adult non-smoker female patients with an
      unexplained pleural effusion and signs of metastatic disease should alert the
      physicians straight away for all types of malignancies including lung cancer. Any
      skin lesions should be evaluated carefully, biopsies should be done to exclude
      metastasis in urgency. On the other hand, an uncommon clinical presentation of a
      lung cancer requires corresponding molecular testing rapidly in order to offer
      the best treatment option.

PMID- 28861333
TI  - Successful treatment of limited-stage small-cell lung cancer in the right
      mainstem bronchus by a combination of chemotherapy and argon plasma coagulation.
AB  - The current standard-of-care treatment for patients with limited-stage small-cell
      lung cancer (SCLC) is concurrent chemoradiotherapy for local and systemic
      control. However, standard-of-care treatment strategies have not been established
      for those with limited-stage SCLC who have a history of thoracic radiotherapy due
      to concerns with complications associated with radiation overdose. A 37-year-old
      male developed an aspergilloma in the postoperative left thoracic space after he
      was treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy for mediastinal type lung
      adenocarcionoma and subsequent left upper lobectomy for heterochronous dual
      adenocarcinoma. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed to examine the status of
      the suspected bronchopleural fistula when a polypoid mass was observed in the
      right mainstem bronchus. A histological examination showed that the mass was SCLC
      at a clinical stage of cTisN0M0, stageIA, without local invasion. Since thoracic
      radiotherapy was not an option due to a previous history of thoracic irradiation,
      a combination treatment of carboplatin and etoposide was administered for 4
      cycles and resulted in good partial response. In addition, argon plasma
      coagulation (APC) was performed as an alternative to curative radiotherapy on day
      22 of the 4th cycle. The 5th cycle was administered 7 days after APC at which the
      anticancer therapy was completed. The patient remains disease-free 60 months
      after the completion of treatment, which suggests that this combination therapy
      may resolve very early-stage SCLC.

PMID- 28861334
TI  - Severe pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia in a patient on temozolomide therapy: A
      case report and review of literature.
AB  - A 66 year old man was diagnosed with CNS diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and
      underwent treatment with Temozolomide, Dexamethasone, Rituximab, and radiation
      therapy, and prolonged steroid taper with Dexamethasone. Approximately one month
      after this, he presented with severe acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, and was
      admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit. Imaging showed diffuse ground glass
      opacities. Patient underwent diagnostic bronchoalveolar lavage which was positive
      for Pneumocystis jiroveci. He did not respond well to appropriate therapy and was
      transitioned to comfort care per his family's wishes, and expired. Pneumocystis
      jiroveci should always be included in the differential diagnosis of pneumonia in
      patients treated with Temozolomide, especially when this agent is used in
      combination with long term, high dose corticosteroids and radiation therapy.

PMID- 28861335
TI  - Diffusion tensor image segmentation of the cerebrum provides a single measure of
      cerebral small vessel disease severity related to cognitive change.
AB  - Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is the primary cause of vascular cognitive
      impairment and is associated with decline in executive function (EF) and
      information processing speed (IPS). Imaging biomarkers are needed that can
      monitor and identify individuals at risk of severe cognitive decline. Recently
      there has been interest in combining several magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      markers of SVD into a unitary score to describe disease severity. Here we apply a
      diffusion tensor image (DTI) segmentation technique (DSEG) to describe SVD
      related changes in a single unitary score across the whole cerebrum, to
      investigate its relationship with cognitive change over a three-year period. 98
      patients (aged 43-89) with SVD underwent annual MRI scanning and cognitive
      testing for up to three years. DSEG provides a vector of 16 discrete segments
      describing brain microstructure of healthy and/or damaged tissue. By calculating
      the scalar product of each DSEG vector in reference to that of a healthy ageing
      control we generate an angular measure (DSEG theta) describing the patients'
      brain tissue microstructural similarity to a disease free model of a healthy
      ageing brain. Conventional MRI markers of SVD brain change were also assessed
      including white matter hyperintensities, cerebral atrophy, incident lacunes,
      cerebral-microbleeds, and white matter microstructural damage measured by DTI
      histogram parameters. The impact of brain change on cognition was explored using
      linear mixed-effects models. Post-hoc sample size analysis was used to assess the
      viability of DSEG theta as a tool for clinical trials. Changes in brain structure
      described by DSEG theta were related to change in EF and IPS (p < 0.001) and
      remained significant in multivariate models including other MRI markers of SVD as
      well as age, gender and premorbid IQ. Of the conventional markers, presence of
      new lacunes was the only marker to remain a significant predictor of change in EF
      and IPS in the multivariate models (p = 0.002). Change in DSEG theta was also
      related to change in all other MRI markers (p < 0.017), suggesting it may be used
      as a surrogate marker of SVD damage across the cerebrum. Sample size estimates
      indicated that fewer patients would be required to detect treatment effects using
      DSEG theta compared to conventional MRI and DTI markers of SVD severity. DSEG
      theta is a powerful tool for characterising subtle brain change in SVD that has a
      negative impact on cognition and remains a significant predictor of cognitive
      change when other MRI markers of brain change are accounted for. DSEG provides an
      automatic segmentation of the whole cerebrum that is sensitive to a range of SVD
      related structural changes and successfully predicts cognitive change. Power
      analysis shows DSEG theta has potential as a monitoring tool in clinical trials.
      As such it may provide a marker of SVD severity from a single imaging modality
      (i.e. DTIs).

PMID- 28861336
TI  - A whole-brain computational modeling approach to explain the alterations in
      resting-state functional connectivity during progression of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common dementia with dramatic consequences.
      The research in structural and functional neuroimaging showed altered brain
      connectivity in AD. In this study, we investigated the whole-brain resting state
      functional connectivity (FC) of the subjects with preclinical Alzheimer's disease
      (PAD), mild cognitive impairment due to AD (MCI) and mild dementia due to
      Alzheimer's disease (AD), the impact of APOE4 carriership, as well as in relation
      to variations in core AD CSF biomarkers. The synchronization in the whole-brain
      was monotonously decreasing during the course of the disease progression.
      Furthermore, in AD patients we found widespread significant decreases in
      functional connectivity (FC) strengths particularly in the brain regions with
      high global connectivity. We employed a whole-brain computational modeling
      approach to study the mechanisms underlying these alterations. To characterize
      the causal interactions between brain regions, we estimated the effective
      connectivity (EC) in the model. We found that the significant EC differences in
      AD were primarily located in left temporal lobe. Then, we systematically
      manipulated the underlying dynamics of the model to investigate simulated changes
      in FC based on the healthy control subjects. Furthermore, we found distinct
      patterns involving CSF biomarkers of amyloid-beta (Abeta1 - 42) total tau (t-tau)
      and phosphorylated tau (p-tau). CSF Abeta1 - 42 was associated to the contrast
      between healthy control subjects and clinical groups. Nevertheless, tau CSF
      biomarkers were associated to the variability in whole-brain synchronization and
      sensory integration regions. These associations were robust across clinical
      groups, unlike the associations that were found for CSF Abeta1 - 42. APOE4
      carriership showed no significant correlations with the connectivity measures.

PMID- 28861337
TI  - Clinical neuroimaging in the preterm infant: Diagnosis and prognosis.
AB  - Perinatal care advances emerging over the past twenty years have helped to
      diminish the mortality and severe neurological morbidity of extremely and very
      preterm neonates (e.g., cystic Periventricular Leukomalacia [c-PVL] and Germinal
      Matrix Hemorrhage - Intraventricular Hemorrhage [GMH-IVH grade 3-4/4]; 22 to < 32
      weeks of gestational age, GA). However, motor and/or cognitive disabilities
      associated with mild-to-moderate white and gray matter injury are frequently
      present in this population (e.g., non-cystic Periventricular Leukomalacia [non
      cystic PVL], neuronal-axonal injury and GMH-IVH grade 1-2/4). Brain research
      studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) report that 50% to 80% of
      extremely and very preterm neonates have diffuse white matter abnormalities (WMA)
      which correspond to only the minimum grade of severity. Nevertheless, mild-to
      moderate diffuse WMA has also been associated with significant affectations of
      motor and cognitive activities. Due to increased neonatal survival and the
      intrinsic characteristics of diffuse WMA, there is a growing need to study the
      brain of the premature infant using non-invasive neuroimaging techniques
      sensitive to microscopic and/or diffuse lesions. This emerging need has led the
      scientific community to try to bridge the gap between concepts or ideas from
      different methodologies and approaches; for instance, neuropathology,
      neuroimaging and clinical findings. This is evident from the combination of
      intense pre-clinical and clinicopathologic research along with neonatal neurology
      and quantitative neuroimaging research. In the following review, we explore
      literature relating the most frequently observed neuropathological patterns with
      the recent neuroimaging findings in preterm newborns and infants with perinatal
      brain injury. Specifically, we focus our discussions on the use of neuroimaging
      to aid diagnosis, measure morphometric brain damage, and track long-term
      neurodevelopmental outcomes.

PMID- 28861338
TI  - Increased default-mode variability is related to reduced task-performance and is
      evident in adults with ADHD.
AB  - Insufficient suppression and connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) is a
      potential mediator of cognitive dysfunctions across various disorders, including
      attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, it remains unclear if
      alterations in sustained DMN suppression, variability and connectivity during
      prolonged cognitive engagement are implicated in adult ADHD pathophysiology, and
      to which degree methylphenidate (MPH) remediates any DMN abnormalities. This
      randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, cross-over clinical trial of MPH
      (clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01831622) explored large-scale brain network
      dynamics in 20 adults with ADHD on and off MPH, compared to 27 healthy controls,
      while performing a reward based decision-making task. DMN task-related
      activation, variability, and connectivity were estimated and compared between
      groups and conditions using independent component analysis, dual regression, and
      Bayesian linear mixed models. The results show that the DMN exhibited more
      variable activation patterns in unmedicated patients compared to healthy
      controls. Group differences in functional connectivity both between and within
      functional networks were evident. Further, functional connectivity between and
      within attention and DMN networks was sensitive both to task performance and case
      control status. MPH altered within-network connectivity of the DMN and visual
      networks, but not between-network connectivity or temporal variability. This
      study thus provides novel fMRI evidence of reduced sustained DMN suppression in
      adults with ADHD during value-based decision-making, a pattern that was not
      alleviated by MPH. We infer from multiple analytical approaches further support
      to the default mode interference hypothesis, in that higher DMN activation
      variability is evident in adult ADHD and associated with lower task performance.

PMID- 28861339
TI  - Spatio-temporal source cluster analysis reveals fronto-temporal auditory change
      processing differences within a shared autistic and schizotypal trait phenotype.
AB  - Social Disorganisation (SD) is a shared autistic and schizotypal phenotype that
      is present in the subclinical population. Auditory processing deficits,
      particularly in mismatch negativity/field (MMN/F) have been reported across both
      spectrum disorders. This study investigates differences in MMN/F cortical spatio
      temporal source activity between higher and lower quintiles of the SD spectrum.
      Sixteen low (9 female) and 19 high (9 female) SD subclinical adults (18-40years)
      underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG) during an MMF paradigm where standard
      tones (50ms) were interrupted by infrequent duration deviants (100ms). Spatio
      temporal source cluster analysis with permutation testing revealed no difference
      between the groups in source activation to the standard tone. To the deviant tone
      however, there was significantly reduced right hemisphere fronto-temporal and
      insular cortex activation for the high SD group (p= 0.038). The MMF, as a product
      of the cortical response to the deviant minus that to the standard, did not
      differ significantly between the high and low Social Disorganisation groups.
      These data demonstrate a deficit in right fronto-temporal processing of an
      auditory change for those with more of the shared SD phenotype, indicating that
      right fronto-temporal auditory processing may be associated with psychosocial
      functioning.

PMID- 28861340
TI  - Multivariate pattern analysis strategies in detection of remitted major
      depressive disorder using resting state functional connectivity.
AB  - Understanding abnormal resting-state functional connectivity of distributed brain
      networks may aid in probing and targeting mechanisms involved in major depressive
      disorder (MDD). To date, few studies have used resting state functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to attempt to discriminate individuals with MDD from
      individuals without MDD, and to our knowledge no investigations have examined a
      remitted (r) population. In this study, we examined the efficiency of support
      vector machine (SVM) classifier to successfully discriminate rMDD individuals
      from healthy controls (HCs) in a narrow early-adult age range. We empirically
      evaluated four feature selection methods including multivariate Least Absolute
      Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Elastic Net feature selection
      algorithms. Our results showed that SVM classification with Elastic Net feature
      selection achieved the highest classification accuracy of 76.1% (sensitivity of
      81.5% and specificity of 68.9%) by leave-one-out cross-validation across subjects
      from a dataset consisting of 38 rMDD individuals and 29 healthy controls. The
      highest discriminating functional connections were between the left amygdala,
      left posterior cingulate cortex, bilateral dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex, and
      right ventral striatum. These appear to be key nodes in the etiopathophysiology
      of MDD, within and between default mode, salience and cognitive control networks.
      This technique demonstrates early promise for using rs-fMRI connectivity as a
      putative neurobiological marker capable of distinguishing between individuals
      with and without rMDD. These methods may be extended to periods of risk prior to
      illness onset, thereby allowing for earlier diagnosis, prevention, and
      intervention.

PMID- 28861341
TI  - Blockade of angiopoietin-2/Tie2 signaling pathway specifically promotes
      inflammation-induced angiogenesis in mouse cornea.
AB  - AIM: To investigate angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2)/Tie2 signaling pathway involving in
      inflammatory angiogenesis. METHODS: Three interrupted 11-0 nylon sutures were
      placed into the corneal stroma of BALB/c mice (6wk old) to induce inflammatory
      neovascularization. Expression of Ang-2 and Tie2 protein on neovascularization
      were examined by immunofluorescence. The dynamic expression of Ang-2 mRNA on
      neovascularization was examined by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Finally, the mouse model of suture-induced
      corneal neovascularization was used to assess the role of Ang-2/Tie2 signaling
      pathway in inflammatory angiogenesis by systemic application of L1-10, an Ang-2
      specific inhibitor. Mouse corneal hemangiogenesis were evaluated by whole mount
      immunofluorescence. RESULTS: Both Ang-2 and Tie2 were expressed on newly
      generated blood vessels in inflammatory cornea. Ang-2 expression was gradually
      upregulated around 2wk following injury, which was concurrent with an increased
      number of blood vessels. Blockade of Ang-2/Tie2 signaling pathway obviously
      promoted angiogenesis in inflammatory cornea. CONCLUSION: Ang-2/Tie2 signaling
      pathway seems to play an important role during angiogenesis in inflammatory
      cornea. This may open new therapeutic applications in pathological processes such
      as corneal graft survival, wound healing and carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28861342
TI  - MiR-200c suppresses the migration of retinoblastoma cells by reversing epithelial
      mesenchymal transition.
AB  - AIM: To analyze the relationship between clinical features and epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT) in retinoblastoma (RB), further to investigate
      whether miR-200c regulates the EMT and migration of RB cells. METHODS: Expression
      of EMT-related markers and tumor-related factors were detected by immuno
      histochemistry analysis in RB tissue from 29 cases. Correlations between their
      expression and clinical characteristics were analyzed. The regulation effects of
      miR-200c on EMT-related markers, tumor-related factors were observed in mRNA
      level and protein level by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western
      blot, respectively, in Y79 and Weri-rb1 cells. Its effects on migration force of
      these RB cell lines were also detected with Transwell test. RESULTS: Lower
      expression of E-cadherin was present in the cases with malignant prognosis. MiR
      200c promoted the expression of E-cadherin and decreased the expression of
      Vimentin and N-cadherin in Y79 and Weri-rb1 cells. Migration force of RB cells
      could be inhibited by miR-200c. CONCLUSION: EMT might be associated with bad
      prognosis in RB. MiR-200c suppresses the migration of retinoblastomatous cells by
      reverse EMT.

PMID- 28861344
TI  - Inhibitory effect of tenomodulin versus ranibizumab on in vitro angiogenesis.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate anti-angiogenic effect of tenomodulin (TNMD) and ranibizumab on
      cell proliferation and capillary-like morphogenesis of vascular endothelial cells
      under the stimulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in vitro.
      METHODS: The effects of TNMD and ranibizumab on VEGF-induced proliferation of
      human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were evaluated by MTT assay, and
      the effects of TNMD and ranibizumab on capillary-like structures formed by HUVECs
      under the stimulation of VEGF were examined in culture. Capillary-like
      morphogenesis of HUVECs was quantitatively evaluated, and total lengths of tube
      like structures per field were measured in a masked way. RESULTS: HUVECs with
      both ranibizumab and TNMD protein showed MTT reduction in VEGF-stimulated cell
      proliferation as expected, while MTT absorbance in the HUVECs with TNMD was
      significantly declined than that with ranibizumab (P<0.01). The capillary-like
      structures formed by HUVECs were markedly impaired by the presence of both TNMD
      and ranibizumab in the culture medium. The total length of the capillary-like
      structures per field was significantly shorter in the medium with TNMD than that
      of ranibizumab (P<0.01). The inhibitory effect of TNMD on tube formation in vitro
      angiogenesis was significantly stronger than that of ranibizumab. CONCLUSION:
      TNMD may have stronger inhibitory effect than ranibizumab on in vitro
      angiogenesis.

PMID- 28861343
TI  - Aralia elata inhibits neurodegeneration by downregulating O-GlcNAcylation of NF
      kappaB in diabetic mice.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the role of O-GlcNAcylation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF
      kappaB) in retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death and analysedthe effect of Aralia
      elata (AE) on neurodegeneration in diabetic mice. METHODS: C57BL/6mice with
      streptozotocin-induced diabetes were fed daily with AE extract or control (CTL)
      diet at the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM). Two months after injection of
      streptozotocin or saline, the degree of cell death and the expression of O-GlcNAc
      transferase (OGT), N-acetyl-b-D-glucosaminidase (OGA), O-GlcNAcylated proteins,
      and O-GlcNAcylation of NF-kappaB were examined. RESULTS: AE did not affect the
      metabolic status of diabetic mice. The decrease in the inner retinal thickness
      (P<0.001 vs CTL, P<0.01 vs DM) and increases in RGCs with terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling (P<0.001 vs CTL,
      P<0.0001 vs DM), glial activation, and active caspase-3 (P<0.0001 vs CTL,
      P<0.0001 vs DM) were blocked in diabetic retinas of AE extract-fed mice.
      Expression levels of protein O-GlcNAcylation and OGT were increased in diabetic
      retinas (P<0.0001 vs CTL), and the level of O-GlcNAcylation of the NF-kappaB p65
      subunit was higher in diabetic retinas than in controls (P<0.0001 vs CTL). AE
      extract downregulated O-GlcNAcylation of NF-kappaB and prevented
      neurodegeneration induced by hyperglycemia (P<0.0001 vs DM). CONCLUSION: O
      GlcNAcylation of NF-kappaB is concerned in neuronal degeneration and that AE
      prevents diabetes-induced RGC apoptosis via downregulation of NF-kappaB O
      GlcNAcylation. Hence, O-GlcNAcylation may be a new object for the treatment of
      DR, and AE may have therapeutic possibility to prevent diabetes-induced
      neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28861345
TI  - Possible role of sialylation of retinal protein glycans in the regulation of
      electroretinogram response in mice.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate if the nature, degree and extent of Siaalpha2-3-/Siaalpha2-6
      sialylation of retinal protein glycans plays a possible role in the development
      and regulation of electroretinogram response (ERG) in mice. METHODS: Proteins
      extracted, from retinae of postnatal day 2 (PN2), PN7, and PN14 wild type (wt)
      and retinal degeneration 1 (rd1) mice were quantified, labeled and used for
      lectin-microarray profiling with immobilized lectins which recognize a wide range
      of N-/O-glycans. Net fluorescence intensities of lectin-ligand complexes were
      measured and images of fluorescent lectin-microarrays were acquired. From the
      binding curves between each lectin and protein extracts from PN14 wt and PN14 rd1
      mice retinae, the protein concentration was selected to determine optimum signal
      intensity for lectin-ligand binding. Mean+/-SEM values of proteins and
      fluorescence-intensities of lectin-ligand-complexes between 45 lectins and 36
      protein extracts from wt and rd1 mice retinae were compared for significance of
      differences. RESULTS: Comparison of the progressive relative changes in the
      sialylated glycans of retinal proteins from wt and rd1 mice showed that Siaalpha2
      3Galbeta1-4GlcNAc-glycans (but not Siaalpha2-6-glycans) were detectable and
      quantifiable from the retinal-proteins of PN7 and PN14 wt and rd1 mice. Siaalpha2
      3-sialylation of retinal-protein Gal/alpha-linked-Gal-glycans was significantly
      increased with age in PN7 and PN14 wt and less so in PN14 rd1 mice. Siaalpha2-3
      /Siaalpha2-6-sialylation of retinal-protein Gal/alpha-linked-Gal-glycans was
      absent in PN2 wt and rd1 mice. Comparison of published ERG responses of wt and
      rd1 mice retinae with degree of Siaalpha2-3-sialylation of retinal-protein
      glycans showed that PN2 wt and rd1 mice lack both the ERG response and Siaalpha2
      3-/Siaalpha2-6-sialylation of retinal-protein Gal/alpha-linked-Gal-glycans; rd1
      mice with relatively lower Siaalpha2-3-sialylation of retinal-protein Gal/alpha
      linked-Gal-glycans showed aberrant ERG response; and wt mice with significantly
      higher Siaalpha2-3-sialylation of retinal-protein Gal/alpha-linked-Gal-glycans
      showed normal ERG response. CONCLUSION: Degree of Siaalpha2-3-sialylation of
      glycans possibly regulates ERG function in mice.

PMID- 28861346
TI  - Identification of rare paired box 3 variant in strabismus by whole exome
      sequencing.
AB  - AIM: To identify the potentially pathogenic gene variants that contributes to the
      etiology of strabismus. METHODS: A Chinese pedigree with strabismus was collected
      and the exomes of two affected individuals were sequenced using the next
      generation sequencing technology. The resulting variants from exome sequencing
      were filtered by subsequent bioinformatics methods and the candidate mutation was
      verified as heterozygous in the affected proposita and her mother by sanger
      sequencing. RESULTS: Whole exome sequencing and filtering identified a
      nonsynonymous mutation c.434G-T transition in paired box 3 (PAX3) in the two
      affected individuals, which were predicted to be deleterious by more than 4
      bioinformatics programs. This altered amino acid residue was located in the
      conserved PAX domain of PAX3. This gene encodes a member of the PAX family of
      transcription factors, which play critical roles during fetal development.
      Mutations in PAX3 were associated with Waardenburg syndrome with strabismus.
      CONCLUSION: Our results report that the c.434G-T mutation (p.R145L) in PAX3 may
      contribute to strabismus, expanding our understanding of the causally relevant
      genes for this disorder.

PMID- 28861347
TI  - Association of the macrophage migration inhibitory factor promoter polymorphisms
      with benign lymphoepithelial lesion of lacrimal gland.
AB  - AIM: To identify the association of the macrophage migration inhibitory factor
      (MIF) gene polymorphism with the susceptibility of benign lymphoepithelial
      lesions (BLEL) of the lacrimal gland. METHODS: A total of 40 BLEL of lacrimal
      gland cases were matched with 40 healthy subjects (HS). Extraction the plasma and
      whole blood DNA of patients of lacrimal gland BLEL and HS. Elisa and polymerase
      chain reaction was used to determine in plasma contents of MIF and MIF gene SNP
      173G>C and STR -794 CATT(5-8) polymorphism, respectively. RESULTS: The MIF levels
      in plasma were significantly higher in patients with lacrimal gland BLEL versus
      HS (P<0.001). The -173 G>C MIF polymorphism was significantly associated with
      lacrimal gland BLEL, with a significantly higher frequency of the C allele in
      lacrimal gland BLEL patients compared with HS (OR=2.38, 95% CI=1.07-5.31,
      P=0.032), and the -173 C/x is more frequent in patients than in HS, P=0.037.
      Besides, we found that the carriage rate of the MIF -173C/x is associated with
      higher plasma levels of MIF in the BLEL of lacrimal gland. CONCLUSION: MIF 
      173G/C variants play an insidious role in susceptibility of BLEL of lacrimal
      gland. Otherwise, there is no statistically significant correlation exists
      between MIF-794 CATT (5-8) and BLEL of lacrimal gland.

PMID- 28861348
TI  - Diurnal macular choroidal area fluctuation in normal and primary open angle
      glaucoma groups.
AB  - AIM: To assess and compare the diurnal macular choroidal area fluctuation in
      normal and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) groups using enhanced depth imaging
      optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT). METHODS: Twenty-eight normal and 27 POAG
      eyes were enrolled in this study. EDI-OCT was used to measure the macular
      choroidal area every 3h from 9:00 a.m. to 21:00 p.m. RESULTS: Significant diurnal
      fluctuations of macular choroidal area were observed in both normal (P=0.003) and
      POAG groups (P<0.001). But no significant macular choroidal area difference has
      been found between the two groups at all the five measurement time-points
      (512778+/-166242 vs 455079+/-207278 um2, P=0.195 at 9:00 a.m.; 501526+/-168953 vs
      447846+/-211147 um2, P=0.245 at 12:00 a.m.; 501982+/-173158 vs 448024+/-206653
      um2, P=0.239 at 15:00 p.m.; 508912+/-174589 vs 457783+/-207081 um2, P=0.252 at
      18:00 p.m.; 503787+/-171241 vs 453230+/-205955 um2, P=0.274 at 21:00 p.m.;
      respectively). Furthermore, neither the fluctuation manners nor the change in
      macular choroidal area between the two adjacent measurement time points showed
      significant difference between normal and POAG groups (all P>0.05). In the
      meantime, significant diurnal intraocular pressure fluctuations were also
      observed in normal and POAG groups (both P<0.001). CONCLUSION: In diurnal time,
      the macular choroidal area in both normal and POAG groups fluctuated
      significantly; moreover, neither the value of macular choroidal area, nor the
      fluctuation of macular choroidal area in POAG group is significantly different
      from that in normal group.

PMID- 28861349
TI  - The change of anterior segment parameters after cataract surgery in normal
      tension glaucoma.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the change of anterior chamber angle morphology and
      intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction after cataract surgery in patients with
      normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS
      OCT). METHODS: This prospective, comparative, observational study recruited
      patients into two groups. Group 1 was the control group including normal subjects
      except those with cataracts (cataract group, n=67 eyes of 67 patients), and group
      2 was NTG group including patients who were diagnosed with NTG and cataracts
      (n=43 eyes of 43 patients), which were treated with phacoemulsification and
      intraocular lens implantation. Before surgery, and at postoperative 1 and 6mo,
      anterior chamber angles were evaluated by SS-OCT under dark conditions using
      three-dimensional angle analysis scan protocol. Angle opening distance (AOD),
      angle recess area (ARA), and trabecular-iris surface area (TISA) at four
      quadrants (temporal, nasal, superior, and inferior) were calculated automatically
      by SS-OCT, after the observer marked scleral spurs. RESULTS: A total of 106
      patients (54 males and 52 females) were enrolled in the study. Angle parameters,
      AOD, ARA, and TISA were increased after surgery in both groups. However, changes
      of angle parameters were only significant in group 2. In group 2, preoperative
      IOP was 13.2+/-2.9 mm Hg, and postoperative IOP at 1 and 6mo were 10.5+/-3.0 and
      10.7+/-2.8 mm Hg, respectively. In group 1, preoperative IOP was 12.4+/-2.8 mm
      Hg, and postoperative IOP at 1 and 6mo were 11.6+/-2.5 and 12.0+/-2.8 mm Hg,
      respectively. After cataract surgery, angle parameters changed significantly
      while IOP significantly reduced and was maintained in group 2 (P<0.001). The
      changes in angle parameters (DeltaAOD500, DeltaTISA500 at temporal; DeltaAOD500,
      DeltaARA500 at nasal) were linearly correlated with postoperative IOP changes.
      CONCLUSION: Cataract surgery may have improved anterior chamber angle parameters
      and decreased IOP in NTG patients.

PMID- 28861350
TI  - Refractive errors and biometry of primary angle-closure disease in a mixed
      Malaysian population.
AB  - AIM: To assess the refractive status, anterior chamber depth (ACD) and axial
      length (AL) of patients with primary angle-closure disease (PACD). METHODS:
      Retrospective cohort. Data was collected from charts of all PACD patients treated
      from April 2013 to December 2015. Analysis was done on 137 patient charts with
      complete biometric data. Patient demographics, PACD type, refractive status
      (spherical equivalent), ACD and AL were studied. RESULTS: The median age of 137
      subjects [53 with primary angle-closure suspects (PACS), 27 with primary angle
      closure (PAC) and 57 with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG)] was 68y (range
      21-88y). The majority was Chinese (n=68; 49.6%) and most of them were women
      (n=75; 54.7%). The distribution of myopia (n=51; 37.2%) and hyperopia (n=49;
      35.8%) was similar. The ACD was shallower in myopes compared to hyperopes
      (P=0.02) and emmetropia (P=0.049) but the AL was not significantly different
      between groups. There were no patients blind from PACG. CONCLUSION: Both myopia
      and hyperopia can occur in PACD. Despite a shallower ACD in angle closure myopes,
      the AL was not different between groups.

PMID- 28861351
TI  - Efficacy and safety of bimatoprost in glaucoma and ocular hypertension in non
      responder patients.
AB  - AIM: To establish the efficacy and safety of bimatoprost 0.03% monotherapy in
      glaucoma and ocular hypertension (OHT) patients with inadequate intraocular
      pressure (IOP)on current therapy. METHODS: Pre- and post-switch IOPs were
      analyzed for 59 consecutive patients who were switched from current therapy to
      bimatoprost monotherapy between 2011-2015. Demographic information, diagnosis,
      and any adverse events were recorded. Change in IOP post-pre switch was analyzed
      using a 2-sided Student's paired t-test at the 5% significance level. RESULTS:
      There was a statistically significant mean reduction in IOP at the first follow
      up visit, which was maintained at subsequent follow up visits for patients
      regardless of diagnosis, or pre-switch treatment (P<0.001). Subgroup analysis
      also demonstrated a statistically significant mean reduction in IOP when looking
      at OHT patients only, as well as patients with any diagnosis switched from
      latanoprost monotherapy to bimatoprost monotherapy (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This is
      the largest independent data set which supports switching glaucoma patients with
      poor response to current treatment onto bimatoprost monotherapy before
      considering other adjuvant medical or more invasive therapy.

PMID- 28861352
TI  - Area and volume ratios for prediction of visual outcome in idiopathic macular
      hole.
AB  - AIM: To predict the visual outcome in patients undergoing macular hole surgery by
      two novel three-dimensional morphological parameters on optical coherence
      tomography (OCT): area ratio factor (ARF) and volume ratio factor (VRF). METHODS:
      A clinical case series was conducted, including 54 eyes of 54 patients with an
      idiopathic macular hole (IMH). Each patient had an OCT examination before and
      after surgery. Morphological parameters of the macular hole, such as minimum
      diameter, base diameter, and height were measured. Then, the macular hole index
      (MHI), tractional hole index (THI), and hole form factor (HFF) were calculated.
      Meanwhile, novel postoperative macular hole (MH) factors, ARF and VRF were
      calculated by three-dimensional morphology. Bivariate correlations were performed
      to acquire asymptotic significance values between the steady best corrected
      visual acuity (BCVA) after surgery and 2D/3D arguments of MH by the Pearson
      method with two-tailed test. All significant factors were analyzed by the
      receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of SPSS software which
      were responsible for vision recovery. ROC curves analyses were performed to
      further discuss the different parameters on the prediction of visual outcome.
      RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation values of patients' age, symptoms
      duration, and follow-up time were 64.8+/-8.9y (range: 28-81), 18.6+/-11.5d
      (range: 2-60), and 11.4+/-0.4mo (range: 6-24), respectively. Steady-post-BCVA
      analyzed with bivariate correlations was found to be significantly correlated
      with base diameter (r=0.521, P<0.001), minimum diameter (r=0.514, P<0.001), MHI
      (r=-0.531, P<0.001), THI (r=-0.386, P=0.004), HFF (r=-0.508, P<0.001), and ARF
      (r=-0.532, P<0.001). Other characteristic parameters such as age, duration of
      surgery, height, diameter hole index, and VRF were not statistically significant
      with steady-post-BCVA. According to area under the curve (AUC) values, values of
      ARF, MHI, HFF, minimum diameter, THI, and base diameter are 0.806, 0.772, 0.750,
      0.705, 0.690, and 0.686, respectively. However, Steady-post-BCVA analysis with
      bivariate correlations for VRF was no statistical significance. Results of ROC
      curve analysis indicated that the MHI value, HFF, and ARF was greater than 0.427,
      1.027 and 1.558 respectively which could correlate with better visual acuity.
      CONCLUSION: Compared with MHI and HFF, ARF could effectively express three
      dimensional characteristics of macular hole and achieve better sensitivity and
      specificity. Thus, ARF could be the most effective parameter to predict the
      visual outcome in macular hole surgery.

PMID- 28861353
TI  - Role of short-wavelength filtering lenses in delaying myopia progression and
      amelioration of asthenopia in juveniles.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the positive effects of blue-violet light filtering lenses in
      delaying myopia and relieving asthenopia in juveniles. METHODS: Sixty ametropia
      juveniles (aged range, 11-15y) were randomized into two groups: the test group
      (30 children, 60 eyes), wearing blue-violet light filtering lenses; and the
      control group (30 children, 60 eyes), wearing ordinary aspherical lenses.
      Baseline refractive power of the affected eyes and axial length of the two groups
      was recorded. After 1-year, the patients underwent contrast sensitivity (glare
      and non-glare under bright and dark conditions), accommodation-related testing,
      asthenopia questionnaire assessment, and adverse reaction questionnaire
      assessment. RESULTS: After 1y of wearing the filtering lenses, changes in
      refractive power and axial length were not significantly different between the
      two groups (P>0.05). Under bright conditions, the contrast sensitivities at low
      and medium-frequency grating (vision angles of 6.3 degrees , 4.0 degrees , and
      2.5 degrees ) with glare in the test group were significantly higher than in the
      control group (P<0.05), while the contrast sensitivity at low-frequency grating
      (vision angles of 6.3 degrees  and 4.0 degrees ) in the absence of glare in the
      test group was higher than in the control group (P<0.05). Under glare and non
      glare dark conditions, the contrast sensitivities of various frequencies in the
      test group did not show significant differences compared with those in the
      control group (P>0.05). In the test group, the amplitude of accommodation,
      accommodative lag, and accommodative sensitivity of patients wearing glasses for
      6 and 12mo were significantly elevated (P<0.05), while the asthenopia gratings
      were significantly decreased (P<0.05). Nevertheless, in the control group, the
      amplitude of accommodation, accommodative lag, and accommodative sensitivity
      after 12mo were not significantly altered compared with baseline (P>0.05), and
      the asthenopia grating was not significantly decreased (P>0.05). In addition,
      after wearing glasses for 6 to 12mo, the asthenopia grating of patients in the
      test group decreased significantly compared with the control group (P<0.05). At
      12mo, the constituent ratio of adverse reactions did not show significant
      difference between the two groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: A 1-year follow-up reveal
      that compare with ordinary glasses, short-wavelength filtering lenses
      (blue/violet-light filters) increase the low- and medium-frequency contrast
      sensitivity under bright conditions and improved accommodation. They effectively
      relieved asthenopia without severe adverse reactions, suggesting potential for
      clinical application. However, no significant advantages in terms of refractive
      power or axial length progression were found compared with ordinary aspheric
      lenses.

PMID- 28861354
TI  - Epstein-Barr virus-encoded small RNAs in idiopathic orbital inflammatory
      pseudotumor tissues: a comparative case series.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the positive rate and types of cells that express Epstein
      Barr virus-encoded small RNAs (EBERs) and to determine the distribution of EBER
      expressing cells in idiopathic orbital inflammatory pseudotumor (IOIP) tissues.
      METHODS: We retrospectively examined 40 archived paraffin specimens from two
      teaching hospitals in Southern China between January 2007 and January 2015 that
      were pathologically determined to exhibit IOIP. Eleven concurrent paraffin
      specimens of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) composed the control group.
      In situ hybridization was performed to detect EBERs. Immunohistochemistry was
      employed to detect CD3, CD20, Vimentin, and smooth muscle actin (SMA), and the
      positive rate, types of positive cells, and distribution and location of EBERs
      were evaluated. RESULTS: The positive expression rate of EBERs was 47.5% (19/40)
      in the IOIP group, which was significantly higher than that in the TAO group [0
      (0/11), P=0.011]. In the IOIP group, the lymphocyte infiltrative subtype,
      fibrotic subtype, and mixed subtype exhibited EBER-positive rates of 57.1%
      (12/21), 12.5% (1/8), and 54.5% (6/11), respectively, and no significant
      differences were found between these subtypes (P=0.085). Positive signals of
      EBERs were mainly present in medium-small lymphocytes between or around follicles
      and in the nuclei of activated immunoblasts (14/19). CONCLUSION: The positive
      rate, types, and distribution of EBER-expressing cells in IOIP have been
      documented. These findings are conducive for a better understanding of the
      underlying mechanisms of Epstein-Barr virus infection in IOIP pathogenesis.

PMID- 28861355
TI  - Prevalence of retinopathy of prematurity in Iran: a systematic review and Meta
      analysis.
AB  - AIM: To estimate overall prevalence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in Iran
      using a systematic review and Meta-analysis. METHODS: A systematic review and
      Meta-analysis was performed of all published studies pertaining to prevalence of
      ROP using international and national electronic databases (ISI Web of Sciences,
      PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, SID, MagIran, and IranMedex) from their inception
      until May 2016 with standard keywords. Begg and Egger tests were used to examine
      the publication bias and Cochran test and I2 statistics were used to evaluate the
      statistical heterogeneity. Pooled estimate of the prevalence of ROP were
      calculated using random effects Meta-analysis. RESULTS: The publication bias
      assumption was rejected by Egger tests with P-value equal to 0.024. The results
      of Cochran test and I2 statistics revealed substantial heterogeneity (Q=1099.02,
      df=25, I2=97.7%, P=0.001). The overall prevalence of ROP using the random effect
      model in Iran was 26.1% (95% CI: 20.3%-31.8%). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of ROP
      is relatively high in Iran. Low birth weight and gestational age are significant
      risk factors for the disease. Improved care, including oxygen delivery and
      monitoring, for preterm babies in all facility settings would reduce the number
      of babies affected with ROP.

PMID- 28861356
TI  - Combined therapy versus anti-vascular endothelial growth factor monotherapy for
      polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy: a Meta-analysis.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of anti-vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF) combined with photodynamic therapy (PDT) versus anti-VEGF
      monotherapy for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). METHODS: We conducted a
      Meta-analysis of 9 studies to compare the efficacy and safety between combined
      therapy and anti-VEGF monotherapy for PCV. The programs of RevMan 5.3 and Stata
      12.0 were used to analyze data. RESULTS: The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA)
      in combined therapy group were significantly better than those of anti-VEGF
      monotherapy group at 6, 24 and 36mo, with pooled weighted means differences
      (WMDs) of 0.12 (0.06, 0.18), 0.25 (0.12, 0.38) and 0.28 (0.13, 0.43),
      respectively. The central retinal thickness (CRT) reductions in combined therapy
      group were higher than that in anti-VEGF monotherapy group at 1, 3, 6 and 9mo,
      with pooled WMDs of 63.90 (20.41, 107.38), 33.47 (4.69, 62.24), 30.57 (0.12,
      60.01) and 28.00 (2.51, 53.49), respectively. The regression rate of polyps in
      combined therapy group was much higher than that in anti-VEGF monotherapy group
      [RD: 0.47 (0.26, 0.68); P<0.0001]. The adverse event retinal hemorrhage did not
      differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Our findings clearly
      document that anti-VEGF combined with PDT is a more effective therapy for PCV
      compared with anti-VEGF monotherapy. Furthermore, combined therapy does not
      increase the incidence of retinal hemorrhage.

PMID- 28861357
TI  - The evolution of refractive status in Chinese infants during the first year of
      life and its affected factors.
AB  - AIM: To study the evolution of the refractive status and examine the affected
      factors in infants during the first year of life in a large sample size in China.
      METHODS: A total of 1258 babies (2516 eyes) aged 32wk gestational age to 1y
      participated in the study, including 766 premature and 492 full-term infants.
      First, each baby received an orthoptic examination, slit-lamp checking and fundus
      imaging. Patients with diseases which might affect refractive status were
      excluded from the cohort. The cycloplegia retinoscopy was performed. Their
      neonatal histories were reviewed. Each measurement contained the refractive
      status and calculation of the spherical equivalent (SE). RESULTS: Refractive
      state showed an average hyperopia of +0.94+/-1.63 D at early ages, followed by a
      trend toward more hyperopia. The refractive state reached the top (+2.43+/-1.46
      D) at the age of one to two months. Then gliding till one year old when the
      refractive state reached +0.59+/-1.41 D. The prevalence of astigmatism was 42.17%
      in the study, being 2.82% myopic astigmatism and 39.35% hyperopic astigmatism.
      The 94.1% of hyperopic astigmatism was with-the-rule astigmatism and 71.83% of
      myopic astigmatism was with-the-rule astigmatism. Refractive state between boys
      and girls was different. The mean SE of boys was +1.97+/-1.57 D, while that of
      girls was +1.79+/-1.46 D, and the difference was significant. CONCLUSION: Before
      one year old, the change of refractive status is associated with checking age and
      sex. At the age of one to two months, the degree of hyperopia reaches the top.
      Boys have more hyperopic degree than girls, and with-the-rule astigmatism is
      predominant. Excluding premature infants with advanced retinopathy of
      prematurity, premature and full-term children have same refraction status.

PMID- 28861358
TI  - Epidemiologic characteristics and outcomes of open globe injury in Shanghai.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the epidemiologic characteristics and outcomes of open globe
      injury in Shanghai. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted for 148
      unilateral open globe injury cases presenting to a tertiary referral hospital of
      Shanghai. Electronic medical records were reviewed and phone surveys were
      conducted to collect and analyze 1) background of patient; 2) setting of injury
      and clinical signs at presentation; 3) treatment procedure and outcome; 4)
      quality of life after injury. RESULTS: There were more male patients (77.03%)
      than females (22.97%), more temporary habitants (79.05%) than residents (20.95%).
      The subjects in this study presented a significantly lower constitutional status
      of education than that of the whole Shanghai population (P<0.001). Occupational
      injury was the first cause of injuries (39.86%), followed by home accident
      (20.27%), road accident (16.89%), violent behavior (16.89%) and outdoor injury
      (6.08%). The 143 subjects (96.62%) were not wearing spectacles at the time of
      injury. Of all patients, 77 subjects (52.03%) had the outcome of no vision
      (including enucleation). The classification and regression tree (CART) prognosis
      presents 59.58% sensitivity to predict visual survival correctly and 80.19%
      specificity to predict no vision correctly. The patients whose injured eye had no
      vision reported more reduction of life quality. CONCLUSION: We found that male
      subject, temporary habitants, low educational status and no eyewear are risk
      factors of open globe injury in Shanghai. Occupational injury is the leading
      cause. CART analysis presents a certain agreement to the actual visual outcome.
      The injury imposes negative impact on quality of life especially in no vision
      cases. The education of eye protection may help to avoid the injury.

PMID- 28861359
TI  - Intraocular lymphoma.
AB  - Intraocular lymphoma (IOL) is a rare lymphocytic malignancy which contains two
      main distinct forms. Primary intraocular lymphoma (PIOL) is mainly a sub-type of
      primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL). Alternatively, IOL can originate
      from outside the central nervous system (CNS) by metastasizing to the eye. These
      tumors are known as secondary intraocular lymphoma (SIOL). The IOL can arise in
      the retina, uvea, vitreous, Bruch's membrane and optic nerve. There are
      predominantly of B-cell origin; however there are also rare T-cell variants.
      Diagnosis remains challenging for ophthalmologists and pathologists, due to its
      ability to masquerade as noninfectious or infectious uveitis, white dot
      syndromes, or occasionally as other metastatic cancers. Laboratory tests include
      flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, interleukin detection (IL-10: IL-6, ratio
      >1), and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Methotrexate-based
      systemic chemotherapy with external beam radiotherapy and intravitreal
      chemotherapy with methotrexate are useful for controlling the disease, but the
      prognosis remains poor. Therefore, it is important to make an early diagnose and
      treatment. This review is focused on the clinical manifestations, diagnosis,
      treatment and prognosis of the IOL.

PMID- 28861362
TI  - A case of non-Acanthamoeba keratitis with radial keratoneuritis.

PMID- 28861360
TI  - Metalloproteinases as mediators of inflammation and the eyes: molecular genetic
      underpinnings governing ocular pathophysiology.
AB  - There are many vision threatening diseases of the eye affecting millions of
      people worldwide. In this article, we are summarizing potential role of various
      matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs); the Zn (2+)-dependent endoproteases in eye
      health along with pathogenesis of prominent ocular diseases such as macular
      degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma via understanding MMPs
      regulation in affected patients, interactions of MMPs with their substrate
      molecules, and key regulatory functions of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases
      (TIMPs) towards maintaining overall homeostasis.

PMID- 28861361
TI  - Cysticercosis of the eye.
AB  - Cysticercosis is a preventable and eradicable cause of blindness endemic in the
      Indian subcontinent, South-East Asia and other developing countries. Ocular and
      orbital cysticercosis has varied presentations depending upon the site of
      involvement, number of lesion and the host immune response. In this article we
      present a review of the various clinical manifestations, diagnosis and management
      protocol for orbital and ocular cysticercosis. Owing to its varied presentation,
      cysticercosis may pose a diagnostic challenge to the health professionals. Early
      diagnosis and management can prevent the vision loss and optimize visual
      outcomes.

PMID- 28861363
TI  - Optical coherence tomography-angiography of juxtapapillary hamartoma.

PMID- 28861364
TI  - Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography dynamic changes and steroid response
      in multiple evanescent white dot syndrome.

PMID- 28861365
TI  - Comment on "Comparison of 45-degree Kelman and 45-degree balanced phaco tip
      designs in torsional microcoaxial phacoemulsification".

PMID- 28861366
TI  - Serum phosphorus values for early prediction of hypocalcemia in total
      thyroidectomy.

PMID- 28861367
TI  - Safety of same-day thyroidectomy: meta-analysis and systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Performance of thyroid surgery as a same day surgery procedure has
      been a controversial topic. This study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy
      of outpatient thyroid surgery with inpatient thyroid surgery by meta-analysis of
      current literature. METHODS: Articles were identified from the following keyword
      searches: outpatient thyroidectomy/thyroid surgery, same day
      thyroidectomy/thyroid surgery. Outcomes included perioperative complications
      including recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury, hypocalcemia, and readmissions.
      Data were extracted following review of appropriate studies by authors and random
      effects models were used. RESULTS: 34 potentially relevant publications were
      identified and 14 studies fulfilled the predetermined inclusion criteria,
      totaling 10,478 patients, 4,565 of whom were discharged the same day following
      thyroid surgery. There was no difference in malignancy rate between the two
      groups (95% CI, 0.84-2.31; P=0.196). Inpatient group were 2.23 times (95% CI,
      1.36-3.36; P=0.001) more likely to develop transient RLN injury and 2.32 times
      (95% CI, 1.06-5.06; P=0.034) more likely to have documented transient
      hypocalcemia compared to outpatients. Inpatient groups were 2.10 times (95% CI,
      1.33-3.33; P=0.002) more likely to have documented other complications. The two
      groups also had similar readmission rates (95% CI, 0.71-1.41; P=1.000).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis suggests that discharging selective patients the
      same day after a thyroid surgery is as safe, feasible, and efficacious as
      admitting them for observation. Admitting patients after thyroid surgery is
      associated with higher reported risk of complications.

PMID- 28861368
TI  - Can magnetic resonance imaging obviate the need for biopsy for
      microcalcifications?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although microcalcifications detected with mammography (MG) are
      usually biopsied, biopsies cannot be performed in all cases. We sought to
      determine if magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings could indicate whether
      stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy (SVAB) is necessary. METHODS: Patients with
      mammographically detected Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) 3,
      4, and 5 microcalcifications were analyzed from April 2012 to September 2014. All
      patients underwent MRI. All patients with enhancing lesions in the region of the
      microcalcifications underwent SVAB. Non-enhancing lesions were followed or
      biopsied, depending on the patient's preferences. MRI findings were classified as
      either malignant-suspicious or benign-suspicious ("none" or "nonspecific"), and
      we evaluated the positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value
      (NPV) of these classifications for predicting malignancy. RESULTS: A total of 87
      patients underwent both MRI and SVAB. The NPV of MRI was 100% in the group with
      no enhancement. In BI-RADS category 3, there were 57 benign-suspicious lesions on
      MRI, of which eight were malignant (NPV of MRI: 85.0%). CONCLUSIONS: It may be
      possible to omit SVAB for microcalcifications if there is no enhancement on MRI;
      however, any kind of enhancement indicates the need for biopsy in cases of BI
      RADS 3 calcifications on MG.

PMID- 28861369
TI  - Microsurgical dissection of facial nerve in parotidectomy: a discussion of
      techniques and long-term results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parotidectomy has well-documented post-operative complications.
      Dissection of the facial nerve branches can be challenging even under loupe
      magnification, and partial, or complete injury of the nerve branches can occur
      during surgery. To reduce this risk and the associated complications, we propose
      a number of microsurgical best practices, which can be performed during
      parotidectomy. METHODS: A retrospective survey was conducted on 109 patients (45
      males and 64 females, average age 46.2 years, range of 6 to 74 years) who
      underwent parotidectomy in two different institutions. RESULTS: Our data showed
      no permanent injury to the facial nerve, and 17% of neuroapraxia that had
      resolved with time. Post-operative complications have occurred in 33 cases (30%
      rate). In the superficial parotidectomy cohort (78 patients), the number of
      complications was 17 (21%). In the total parotidectomy cohort (31 patients), the
      number of complications was 16 (51%). CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we
      believe that the use of microsurgical techniques during parotidectomy may
      represent a useful tool in improving accuracy and minimising local tissue trauma
      that can affect nerve recovery. This is particularly true in situations such as
      tumor recurrence, tissue fibrosis or in case of sizeable tumors around the facial
      nerve branches. We believe that the decreased risk of facial nerve post-operative
      symptoms outweigh the disadvantage of increased operative time of this procedure.

PMID- 28861370
TI  - Increased risk of recurrence associated with certain risk factors in breast
      cancer patients after DIEP-flap reconstruction and lipofilling-a matched cohort
      study with 200 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lipofilling is performed in breast cancer patients to optimize the
      aesthetic outcome following breast reconstruction after mastectomy. Despite its
      common usage worldwide, little is known about the interaction of the lipoaspirate
      and dormant cancer cells. Up to date, no risk factors that increase the risk for
      cancer recurrence have been established. This study aims to identify risk factors
      for lipofilling candidates after breast cancer and questions the oncological
      safety of lipofilling in lymph node positive disease. METHODS: Matched
      retrospective cohort study: the disease-free survival (DFS) between 100 breast
      cancer patients undergoing a lipofilling after their DIEP-flap reconstruction and
      100 matched control patients with no subsequent lipofilling was analyzed.
      Further, patients were subdivided according to risk factors, which were
      categorized as patient-dependent factors (PDFs) and tumor-dependent factors
      (TDFs). DFS and hazard ratios (HR) were compared to identify potential risk
      factors that may increase cancer recurrence. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 76.5
      months from the mastectomy, and 31 months from the startpoint to the end of
      follow-up. Seven and eleven patients had recurrence in the lipofilling and
      control group, respectively, presenting with comparable DFS rates and an
      insignificant HR =0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.22-1.47, P=0.24.
      According to subgroup survival analysis, lipofilling increased the risk of
      recurrence in women with a positive nodal status (P=0.035) and a high-grade
      neoplasia (P=0.049). CONCLUSIONS: No general increased recurrence risk was
      observed between the lipofilling and control group. The subgroup analysis
      identified high-grade neoplasia and positive nodal status to be a risk factor for
      cancer recurrence. Patients with a known node positive disease have an increased
      risk of occult micrometastases in their lymph nodes. Further studies are
      necessary to clarify whether dormant breast cancer cells in form of
      micrometastases in the lymph nodes can be reactivated by the factors secreted by
      adipose derived stem cells.

PMID- 28861371
TI  - Laparoscopic versus open 1-stage resection of synchronous liver metastases and
      primary colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to compare the perioperative and oncologic
      outcomes of open and laparoscopic approaches for concomitant resection of
      synchronous colorectal cancer and liver metastases. METHODS: Between 2006 and
      2015, all patients undergoing combined resection of primary colorectal cancer and
      liver metastases were included in the study (n=43). Laparoscopic and open groups
      were compared regarding clinical, perioperative and oncologic outcomes. RESULTS:
      There were 29 patients in the open group and 14 patients in the laparoscopic
      group. The groups were similar regarding demographics, comorbidities,
      histopathological characteristics of the primary tumor and liver metastases.
      Postoperative complication rate (44.8% vs. 7.1%, P=0.016) was higher, and
      hospital stay (10 vs. 6.4 days, P=0.001) longer in the open compared to the
      laparoscopic group. Overall survival (OS) was comparable between the groups
      (P=0.10); whereas, disease-free survival (DFS) was longer in laparoscopic group
      (P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: According to the results, in patients, whose primary
      colorectal cancer and metastatic liver disease was amenable to a minimally
      invasive resection, a concomitant laparoscopic approach resulted in less
      morbidity without compromising oncologic outcomes. This suggests that a
      laparoscopic approach may be considered in appropriate patients by surgeons with
      experience in both advanced laparoscopic liver and colorectal techniques.

PMID- 28861372
TI  - Estimation of tumor size in breast cancer comparing clinical examination,
      mammography, ultrasound and MRI-correlation with the pathological analysis of the
      surgical specimen.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the best method in our center to measure preoperative
      tumor size in breast tumors, using as reference the tumor size in the
      postoperative surgical specimen. We compared physical examination vs. mammography
      vs. resonance vs. ultrasound. There are different studies in the literature with
      disparate results. METHODS: This is a retrospective study. All the included
      patients have been studied by clinical examination performed by gynecologist or
      surgeon specialists in senology, and radiological tests (mammography, ultrasound
      and magnetic resonance imaging). The correlation of mammary examination,
      ultrasound, mammography and resonance with pathological anatomy was studied using
      the Pearson index. Subsequently, the results of such imaging tests were compared
      with the tumor size of the infiltrating component measured by anatomopathological
      study using a student's t test for related variables. The level of significance
      was set at 95%. Statistical package R. was used. RESULTS: A total of 73 cases
      were collected from October 2015 to July 2016 with diagnosis of infiltrating
      breast carcinoma. Twelve cases of carcinoma in situ and seven cases of
      neoadjuvant carcinoma are excluded. Finally, a total of 56 cases were included in
      the analysis. The mean age of the patients is 57 years. The histology is of
      infiltrating ductal carcinoma in 46 patients (80.7%), lobular in 8 (14%) and
      other carcinomas in 3 cases (5.2%). We verified the relationship between
      preoperative tumor size by physical examination, mammography, ultrasound (US) and
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and the final size of the surgical specimen by
      applying a Pearson correlation test. A strong correlation was found between the
      physical examination results 0.62 (0.43-0.76 at 95% CI), ultrasound 0.68 (0.51
      0.8 at 95% CI), mammography 0.57 (0.36-0.72 at 95% CI) and RM 0.51 (0.29-0.68 at
      95% CI) with respect to pathological anatomy. The mean tumor size of the surgical
      specimen was 16.1 mm. Mean of tumor size by physical examination was 12.1 mm
      (P<0.05), by 14 mm US (P<0.05), by mammography of 14.3 (P<0.05) and by MRI of
      22.53 mm (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasonography is the best predictor of tumor
      size in breast cancer, compared with clinical examination, mammography, and
      resonance. Our work could help the decision-making process such as the type of
      conservative surgery, the possible need for oncoplastic surgery or the decision
      to start treatment with neoadjuvant therapy, in patients with unifocal tumors.

PMID- 28861373
TI  - Staged approach to partial breast reconstruction to avoid mastectomy in women
      with breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The lateral chest wall perforator flaps (CWPF) offer an excellent
      option for partial breast reconstruction (PBR) in women undergoing breast
      conservation surgery (BCS) for laterally placed tumours in small to moderate non
      ptotic breasts. METHODS: A total of 20 patients underwent PBR with lateral CWPF
      over the last 4 years, as two-stage approach. This approach was undertaken for
      patients with high tumour to breast ratio (>30% predicted resection) in an
      attempt to avoid mastectomy. The reconstruction was carried out 2-4 weeks after
      wide local excision in order to ensure clear margins prior to undertaking PBR.
      RESULTS: Twenty-three women were selected for attempt at BCS with 2-stage
      approach. Three patients had extensive disease so they were then counseled for
      mastectomy after the first surgery and 20 patients had successful BCS. Out of 20
      patients, 13 were symptomatic and 7 were screen-detected with mean age of 49
      years. The median tumour size on pre-op imaging was 43 mm (23-75 mm). A
      percentage of 50% women with unifocal cancers undergoing primary surgery had
      disease overestimated on pre-op imaging. The complication rate was low. Good to
      excellent aesthetic outcomes were reported in 90% cases. Patients reported high
      satisfaction scores. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend considering two-stage approach in
      selected women with high tumour-breast ratio to ensure successful BCS prior to
      PBR. This approach facilitates BCS and avoids mastectomy in borderline cases,
      particularly lobular cancers, DCIS, bifocal cancers and post neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy where pre-operative disease estimation could be challenging. Our
      small series has shown that this approach results in safe oncological surgery
      with good aesthetic outcomes in the selected group of women.

PMID- 28861374
TI  - Oncoplastic round block technique has comparable operative parameters as standard
      wide local excision: a matched case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although oncoplastic breast surgery is used to resect larger tumors
      with lower re-excision rates compared to standard wide local excision (sWLE),
      criticisms of oncoplastic surgery include a longer-albeit, well concealed-scar,
      longer operating time and hospital stay, and increased risk of complications.
      Round block technique has been reported to be very suitable for patients with
      relatively smaller breasts and minimal ptosis. We aim to determine if round block
      technique will result in operative parameters comparable with sWLE. METHODS:
      Breast cancer patients who underwent a round block procedure from 1st May 2014 to
      31st January 2016 were included in the study. These patients were then matched
      for the type of axillary procedure, on a one to one basis, with breast cancer
      patients who had undergone sWLE from 1st August 2011 to 31st January 2016. The
      operative parameters between the 2 groups were compared. RESULTS: 22 patients
      were included in the study. Patient demographics and histologic parameters were
      similar in the 2 groups. No complications were reported in either group. The mean
      operating time was 122 and 114 minutes in the round block and sWLE groups,
      respectively (P=0.64). Length of stay was similar in the 2 groups (P=0.11). Round
      block patients had better cosmesis and lower re-excision rates. A higher rate of
      recurrence was observed in the sWLE group. CONCLUSION: The round block technique
      has comparable operative parameters to sWLE with no evidence of increased
      complications. Lower re-excision rate and better cosmesis were observed in the
      round block patients suggesting that the round block technique is not only
      comparable in general, but may have advantages to sWLE in selected cases.

PMID- 28861375
TI  - The role of laparoscopic resection of metastases to adrenal glands.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The potential role of the laparoscopic approach for metastases to the
      adrenal gland is debated. We review here a series of patients consecutively
      submitted to laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) for suspected adrenal metastasis
      (AM). METHODS: Retrospective study (consecutive series) of LA for AM. We measured
      parameters associated to primary tumor and metastasis. Statistical analysis:
      stepwise regression model. RESULTS: Thirty-seven LA were performed on 36
      patients. The mean age was 62.1 yrs. The side was right in 13 cases. Primary
      tumor was in the lung (n=22), breast (n=4), colon-rectum (n=4), kidney (n=3),
      thyroid, melanoma and ovary (n=1 each). Thirty-three out of 37 were confirmed to
      be AM (mean diameter 50 mm). Twenty-five were single metastasis. One LA was
      converted due to cava vein infiltration. Mean operative time was 142 min', median
      p.o. hospital stay was 3 days. After a mean follow-up of 33 months, 9 patients
      (25%) were alive free of disease, 6 (17%) were alive with disease. Mean post
      adrenalectomy DFI was 19 months (range, 0-97 months), and it was the most
      predictive variable for survival (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The dimensions and
      absence of invasion on imaging, the evolutive status of the disease and the
      performance status of the patient are key factors for LA, which is associated
      with adequate oncologic results, a quicker postoperative recovery, and potential
      survival benefits.

PMID- 28861377
TI  - Concomitant thyroid disease and primary hyperparathyroidism in patients
      undergoing parathyroidectomy or thyroidectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thyroid abnormalities have been found intraoperatively during
      parathyroidectomy and have resulted in concomitant thyroidectomy. The
      identification of concomitant disease is important prior to primary operation in
      order to minimize reoperations. This study investigates the incidence of
      concomitant primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) and thyroid nodular disease in
      patients undergoing thyroidectomy or parathyroidectomy. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective review of prospectively gathered data for 621 patients who
      underwent thyroidectomy, parathyroidectomy, or both at Tulane Medical Center.
      Information obtained included initial referral, initial thyroid stimulating
      hormone (TSH), initial parathyroid hormone (PTH), fine needle aspiration (FNA)
      results, ultrasound results, type of operation performed, final diagnosis, and
      final pathology. RESULTS: Among the 400 patients referred primarily for thyroid
      disease, 13.50% underwent a thyroidectomy and parathyroidectomy (PTX)
      simultaneously and 10.75% received a final diagnosis of thyroid and concomitant
      parathyroid disease. Among the 103 patients referred primarily for parathyroid
      disease, 26.21% underwent a PTX and thyroidectomy and 24.27% received a final
      diagnosis of both thyroid and parathyroid disease. Patients referred primarily
      for parathyroid disease were more likely to receive a final diagnosis of both
      parathyroid and thyroid disease and were more likely to undergo a combined
      operation. CONCLUSIONS: Concomitant thyroid and parathyroid disease occur and
      preoperative analysis is important to avoid increased complications from
      reoperations.

PMID- 28861376
TI  - Patient determinants as independent risk factors for postoperative complications
      of breast reconstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast reconstruction is an essential component in the treatment of
      breast cancer. Postoperative complications after breast reconstruction are common
      and affect patient satisfaction. Determining independent risk factors using
      patient characteristics could be advantageous for patient assessment and
      counseling. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 623 consecutive patients who
      underwent reconstruction with a deep inferior epigastric perforator flap (DIEP),
      latissimus dorsi flap (LD), lateral thoracodorsal flap (LTDF), or tissue expander
      with a secondary implant (EXP) in this study. Information on demographic and
      perioperative factors was collected, as well as information on all postoperative
      complications. Logistic regression was used to analyze associations between
      possible patient-related risk factors and postoperative complications. RESULTS:
      Smoking was associated with the highest number of early overall complications
      [odds ratio (OR) 2.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-3.37, P=0.0005],
      followed by body mass index (BMI) (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.13, P=0.017). High BMI
      was associated with the highest number of late overall postoperative
      complications (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00-1.11, P=0.042), followed by history of
      radiotherapy (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.01-2.74, P=0.046). When the risk factors were
      combined, the risk for postoperative complications rose exponentially.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence that patients should cease smoking and
      overweight patients should lose weight before undergoing breast reconstruction.
      Additionally, if the patient has received radiotherapy, the reconstruction method
      should be carefully chosen. High BMI, history of radiotherapy, and smoking are
      independent risk factors for many types of both early and late postoperative
      complications in breast reconstructive surgery. Combining these risk factors
      multiplies the risk of postoperative complications.

PMID- 28861378
TI  - Microsurgical refinements with the use of internal mammary (IM) perforators as
      recipient vessels in transverse upper gracilis (TUG) autologous breast
      reconstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The transverse upper gracilis (TUG) flap is the senior authors'
      second choice for autologous breast reconstruction when the DIEP flap is not
      available. It provides durable, pliable tissue with well hidden scars. The main
      criticism of this flap is the limited volume, donor site complications, short
      pedicle and vessel mismatch depending on which recipient vessels are used. We
      described methods of reducing vessel mismatch, complications of venous coupler
      and refinements to help give a more superior aesthetic outcome. METHODS: We
      describe several maneuvers to help reduce vessel mismatch with the use of the
      internal mammary (IM) perforator vessels with a modification of the Harashina
      fish-mouth technique or the use of a vessel bifurcation to increase vessel
      diameter. We also describe the optimum method of perforator preparation and
      potential methods to prevent palpable venous couplers. The author's describe
      their case series of 14 TUG flaps to reconstruct 13 breasts in 12 patients.
      RESULTS: Eight unilateral, 2 partial breast reconstruction, 1 bilateral and 1
      bilateral TUG flap for a unilateral reconstruction was carried out. All flaps
      survived with one partial flap necrosis, one donor site seroma and two cases of
      palpable/tender venous couplers. The mean reconstructed breast was 320 grams.
      CONCLUSIONS: The TUG flap is a reconstructive challenge, but with correct
      planning a good aesthetic outcome is possible. The IM perforator is our first
      choice recipient vessel in TUG breast reconstructions. With meticulous
      preparation and by overcoming vessel mismatch the use of this recipient vessel is
      a reliable option.

PMID- 28861379
TI  - The current status of robotic transaxillary thyroidectomy in the United States:
      an experience from two centers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies exist regarding the state of robotic transaxillary
      thyroidectomy (RT) and its outcomes at high-volume institutions. METHODS: Eighty
      nine patients underwent RT between January 2009 and September 2015 at two
      tertiary centers. Data were collected from prospectively-maintained IRB-approved
      databases. Patient demographic and clinical data, and trends were evaluated.
      RESULTS: Indications for RT included biopsy-proven or suspicion for malignancy in
      20.2%, atypical cells or follicular neoplasm in 27.7%, multinodular goiter in
      26.6%, thyrotoxicosis in 8.5%, need for completion thyroidectomy in 5.3%, and non
      diagnostic FNA in 3.2%. 56% underwent total thyroidectomy and 44% lobectomy.
      Operative time (OT) was 153.5 minutes for lobectomies and 192.6 minutes for total
      thyroidectomy. The complication rate was 11.7%: temporary RLN neuropraxia in 2
      patients, permanent hypoparathyroidism in 1 patient, temporary hypoparathyroidism
      in 6 patients, flap seroma in 1 patient, and flap hematoma in 1 patient.
      Pathology showed malignancy in 43 patients. At a mean follow-up of 31.9 months,
      there were no recurrences. Since 2013, the number of RTs performed has risen. The
      number of out-of-state patients increased from 18% to 37% after 2011.
      CONCLUSIONS: RT was performed without compromising outcomes in selected patients.
      There remains interest among patients seeking this procedure in expert centers.

PMID- 28861380
TI  - Smoking and mortality in women diagnosed with breast cancer-a systematic review
      with meta-analysis based on 400,944 breast cancer cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is evident that smoking is causing disease and increased mortality
      in general. Recently published data are now suggesting that smoking might
      increase both the overall mortality in women diagnosed with breast cancer but
      also increase their risk of dying from their breast cancer. METHODS: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis on smoking status in women diagnosed with breast cancer,
      their mortality rate and cause of death. Based on all cohort studies published
      within the last ten years. RESULTS: Twelve studies met our inclusion criteria,
      and 400,944 women diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer was included.
      Hazard ratio (HR) for breast cancer associated death in former smokers was 1.02
      (0.93, 1.12) and for current smokers 1.28 (1.17, 1.41) when compared to never
      smokers. For all-cause death, the HR for former smokers was 1.12 (1.04, 1.19),
      and for current smokers 1.52 (1.32, 1.76) when compared to never smokers.
      CONCLUSIONS: This large systematic review and meta-analysis found a 28% increase
      in breast cancer-associated mortality in those who were current smokers compared
      to never smokers. The mortality in former smokers was equal to the one found in
      never smokers. This indicates that breast cancer patients ceasing to smoke can
      lower their risk of dying from their breast cancer disease dramatically, and
      possibly regain the risk of a never smoker.

PMID- 28861381
TI  - Use of acellular dermal matrix (ADM) in nipple reconstruction: the 'central
      pillar technique'.
AB  - Nipple reconstructions are prone to a variable and unpredictable degree of
      flattening, which in some cases lead to secondary reconstruction. The use of an
      acellular dermal matrix (ADM) augmentation may be appropriate in cases with very
      thin dermis that are particularly prone to flattening or in revision cases where
      the first procedure has already failed. The authors present a series of 13 nipple
      reconstructions in ten cases. Average projection at 12 months was 51% in primary
      cases and 46% in secondary revision cases. This represents a better than expected
      long term result in a difficult cohort of patients.

PMID- 28861382
TI  - Minimalist breast conserving surgical approaches for inferiorly sited cancers.
AB  - Contemporary data suggests that breast conservation treatment (BCT) may confer a
      survival advantage when compared to mastectomy. Hence, it would be logical to
      adopt strategies which increase eligibility of successful BCT without
      compromising oncologic principles or cosmetic outcome. With respect to achieving
      good aesthetics, inferiorly sited breast cancers pose a particular technical
      challenge. A vast array of techniques, collectively referred to as oncoplastic
      breast surgery (OBS) have been developed to minimise post treatment distortion.
      The purported advantages of these approaches are the acquisition of wider margins
      and reduced re-excision rates. However, to date, there is a lack of data
      demonstrating significant reduction in local recurrence and overall survival when
      compared with less extensive procedures. In this review, "minimalist" procedures
      are described where strict oncologic criteria of clear margins are fulfilled and
      acceptable cosmesis are simultaneously achieved. These techniques offer less
      tissue loss, less extensive parenchymal mobilisation and shorter operating times
      without compromising margin status and aesthetics. They involve the combination
      of innovative incision designs and certain parenchymal resection patterns.
      Incision designs include the boomerang, golf-tee, anchor and arrowhead incisions
      which have been previously described but not widely used. Parenchymal resection
      patterns follow the "sick lobe hypothesis". These techniques, termed
      "reductionist", or "minimalist" comprising approaches where breast conserving
      surgery is condensed to its irreducible elements, offer alternatives which align
      with contemporary objectives of surgery where optimal survival outcomes are
      achieved through individualised procedures resulting in reduced iatrogenic
      impact. This logically allows scope for de-escalation of surgical therapy for
      breast cancer.

PMID- 28861383
TI  - Robotic transaxillary parathyroidectomy.
AB  - We recently reported on the safety and feasibility of robotic transaxillary
      approaches for parathyroid surgeries with benefit of avoiding a visible cervical
      scar. Herein, we demonstrate our technique with utilization of intraoperative
      nerve monitoring and indocyanine green (ICG) imaging. The patient was discharged
      a few hours after the surgery.

PMID- 28861384
TI  - A rare presentation of malignant phyllodes tumor with bloody nipple discharge
      report of a case.
AB  - Phyllodes tumor of the breast is a rare neoplasm, particularly in young women. It
      is usually presented as a unilateral palpable mass and nipple discharge presented
      as a symptom is rare. We reported a 22-year-old Taiwanese woman in our hospital
      for right breast tumor with nipple discharge. Preoperative diagnosis was
      intraductal papilloma but the histological examination showed a malignant
      phyllodes tumor with intraductal growth. Symptom of nipple discharge and
      intraductal growth in phyllodes tumor are rare presentations. Therefore, the
      management and the biological behavior of this uncommon tumor are discussed in
      this patient.

PMID- 28861385
TI  - IPTH cost-effectiveness in thyroid surgery.

PMID- 28861386
TI  - Less postoperative pain in patients receiving trans-oral vestibular endoscopic
      thyroidectomy: a plausible finding?

PMID- 28861387
TI  - Erratum to Professor Hoon Yub Kim: Transoral Robotic Thyroidectomy shows
      promising results with ideal outcomes.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.21037/gs.2016.12.10.].

PMID- 28861388
TI  - Reader's Forum.

PMID- 28861389
TI  - Cone-beam computed tomographic evaluation of the temporomandibular joint and
      dental characteristics of patients with Class II subdivision malocclusion and
      asymmetry.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Treating Class II subdivision malocclusion with asymmetry has been a
      challenge for orthodontists because of the complicated characteristics of
      asymmetry. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of dental and skeletal
      asymmetry in Class II subdivision malocclusion, and to assess the relationship
      between the condyle-glenoid fossa and first molar. METHODS: Cone-beam computed
      tomographic images of 32 patients with Class II subdivision malocclusion were
      three-dimensionally reconstructed using the Mimics software. Forty-five anatomic
      landmarks on the reconstructed structures were selected and 27 linear and angular
      measurements were performed. Paired-samples t-tests were used to compare the
      average differences between the Class I and Class II sides; Pearson correlation
      coefficient (r) was used for analyzing the linear association. RESULTS: The
      faciolingual crown angulation of the mandibular first molar (p < 0.05), sagittal
      position of the maxillary and mandibular first molars (p < 0.01), condylar head
      height (p < 0.01), condylar process height (p < 0.05), and angle of the posterior
      wall of the articular tubercle and coronal position of the glenoid fossa (p <
      0.01) were significantly different between the two sides. The morphology and
      position of the condyle-glenoid fossa significantly correlated with the three
      dimensional changes in the first molar. CONCLUSIONS: Asymmetry in the sagittal
      position of the maxillary and mandibular first molars between the two sides and
      significant lingual inclination of the mandibular first molar on the Class II
      side were the dental characteristics of Class II subdivision malocclusion.
      Condylar morphology and glenoid fossa position asymmetries were the major
      components of skeletal asymmetry and were well correlated with the three
      dimensional position of the first molar.

PMID- 28861390
TI  - Biomechanical analysis of distalization of mandibular molars by placing a mini
      plate: A finite element study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze the patterns of tooth
      movements when distalization of mandibular molars using a mini-plate took place.
      A finite element analysis was applied to analyze patterns of tooth movements.
      METHODS: The model of the mandible and teeth were used to build a finite element
      analysis model, and a mini-plate was inserted in the mandibular ramus. Two
      different orthodontic forces were established for displacement of mandibular
      molars. Orthodontic forces were applied at the level of the bracket and at the
      level of the cemento-enamel junction in the mandibular canine respectively.
      RESULTS: orthodontic forces at the level of the cemento-enamel junction resulted
      in a greater biomechanical bodily movement in distalization of the mandibular
      molars compared to when the orthodontic forces were applied at the level of the
      bracket. Applying orthodontic forces to the cemento-enamel junction also resulted
      in unwanted greater extrusive movements in distalization of the mandibular molars
      compared to the bracket level. CONCLUSIONS: With considering the mode of
      orthodontic teeth movement, applying different vertical orthodontic forces for
      distalization of mandibular molars can lead to more effective distalization of
      teeth.

PMID- 28861391
TI  - Time series analysis of patients seeking orthodontic treatment at Seoul National
      University Dental Hospital over the past decade.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper describes changes in the characteristics of patients
      seeking orthodontic treatment over the past decade and the treatment they
      received, to identify any seasonal variations or trends. METHODS: This single
      center retrospective cohort study included all patients who presented to Seoul
      National University Dental Hospital for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment
      between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2015. The study analyzed a set of
      heterogeneous variables grouped into the following categories: demographic (age,
      gender, and address), clinical (Angle Classification, anomaly, mode of
      orthodontic treatment, removable appliances for Phase 1 treatment, fixed
      appliances for Phase 2 treatment, orthognathic surgery, extraction, mini-plate,
      mini-implant, and patient transfer) and time-related variables (date of first
      visit and orthodontic treatment time). Time series analysis was applied to each
      variable. RESULTS: The sample included 14,510 patients with a median age of 19.5
      years. The number of patients and their ages demonstrated a clear seasonal
      variation, which peaked in the summer and winter. Increasing trends were observed
      for the proportion of male patients, use of non-extraction treatment modality,
      use of ceramic brackets, patients from provinces outside the Seoul region at
      large, patients transferred from private practitioners, and patients who
      underwent orthognathic surgery performed by university surgeons. Decreasing
      trends included the use of metal brackets and orthodontic treatment time.
      CONCLUSIONS: Time series analysis revealed a seasonal variation in some
      characteristics, and several variables showed changing trends over the past
      decade.

PMID- 28861392
TI  - The effect of fluoride-containing oral rinses on the corrosion resistance of
      titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of commercially
      available fluoride-containing oral rinses on the corrosion behavior of titanium
      alloys, which are the main components of orthodontic miniscrews. METHODS: Four
      commercially available oral rinses (solution A, pH 4.46/260 ppm fluoride;
      solution B, pH 4.41/178 ppm fluoride; solution C, pH 6.30/117 ppm fluoride; and
      solution D, pH 4.17/3.92 ppm fluoride) were tested on titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V)
      circular plates, and saline was used as the control. The open-circuit potential
      and potentiodynamic polarization of these materials were measured. Thereafter,
      all samples were evaluated under a field-emission scanning electron microscope.
      RESULTS: Among the tested oral rinses, except solution D, the more the fluoride
      content was, the greater was the corrosion potential downtrend; the corrosion
      resistance of the titanium alloy sample was also lowered significantly (p <
      0.05). Field-emission scanning electron microscopic analysis of the surface
      morphology of the titanium alloy samples revealed that all samples had some
      defects, crevices, or pitting after exposure to the oral rinses than before
      treatment. In particular, the samples in solution A showed the most changes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Commercially available oral rinses having a high fluoride
      concentration and a low pH may reduce the corrosion resistance of titanium alloys
      used in dental appliances such as orthodontic titanium miniscrews and brackets.

PMID- 28861393
TI  - Stability of dental, alveolar, and skeletal changes after miniscrew-assisted
      rapid palatal expansion.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Miniscrew-assisted rapid palatal expansion (MARPE) is a means for
      expanding the basal bone without surgical intervention in young adults. Here, we
      assessed the differences in dental, alveolar, and skeletal measurements taken
      before (T0), immediately after (T1), and 1 year after (T2) MARPE. METHODS: Twenty
      four patients (mean age, 21.6 years) who had undergone MARPE and cone-beam
      computed tomography at T0, T1, and T2 were included. Changes in the following
      parameters were compared using paired t-tests: intercusp, interapex, alveolar,
      nasal floor, and nasal cavity widths; inclination of the first molar (M1) and its
      alveolus; and thickness and height of the alveolar bone. A linear mixed-effects
      model was used to determine variables that affected periodontal changes in the
      M1. RESULTS: MARPE produced significant increases in most measurements during T0
      T2, despite relapse of some measurements during T1-T2. The alveolar thickness
      decreased on the buccal side, but increased on the palatal side. The alveolar
      crest level at the first premolar moved apically. Changes in the thickness and
      height of the alveolar bone were affected by the corresponding initial values.
      CONCLUSIONS: MARPE can be used as an effective tool for correcting
      maxillomandibular transverse discrepancy, showing stable outcomes 1 year after
      expansion.

PMID- 28861394
TI  - Long-term survival of retained deciduous mandibular second molars and maxillary
      canine incorporated into final occlusion.
AB  - Orthodontic treatment of a complex case that involves retained deciduous
      mandibular second molars with missing permanent successors is challenging.
      Usually, congenitally missing teeth are manifested with other dental anomalies
      that further complicate orthodontic treatment, such as retained deciduous teeth,
      impactions, transpositions and peg-shaped lateral incisors. Even though the long
      term prognosis of the retained deciduous tooth is not fully predictable, if the
      teeth are in good condition, the patient and clinician may incline towards a
      decision to preserve the deciduous teeth as long as possible. This case report
      demonstrates that deciduous teeth, in this case the mandibular second molars and
      maxillary canine, can be incorporated into final occlusion with clinically stable
      long-term results.

PMID- 28861395
TI  - Teeth discoloration during orthodontic treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Teeth discoloration is a rare orthodontic complication. The aim of
      this study was to report the clinical progression of discoloration during
      orthodontic treatment. METHODS: Discolored teeth, detected during orthodontic
      treatment between January 2003 and December 2012 by a single dentist using
      similar techniques and appliances, were analyzed. RESULTS: The total number of
      teeth that showed discoloration was 28. Progression of discoloration was
      evaluated in only 24 teeth that were observed without any treatment. During the
      observation period, the discoloration "improved" in 8 of the 24 teeth (33.3%) and
      was "maintained" in 16 (66.6%). The electric pulp test performed at the time of
      initial detection of discoloration showed 14.3% positivity, which improved to
      21.4% at the final follow-up. None of the initial and final follow-up
      radiographic findings showed any abnormalities. CONCLUSIONS: When teeth
      discoloration is detected during orthodontic treatment, observation as an initial
      management is recommended over immediate treatments.

PMID- 28861396
TI  - The Role of OmpR in the Expression of Genes of the KdgR Regulon Involved in the
      Uptake and Depolymerization of Oligogalacturonides in Yersinia enterocolitica.
AB  - Oligogalacturonide (OGA)-specific porins of the KdgM family have previously been
      identified and characterized in enterobacterial plant pathogens. We found that
      deletion of the gene encoding response regulator OmpR causes the porin KdgM2 to
      become one of the most abundant proteins in the outer membrane of the human
      enteropathogen Yersinia enterocolitica. Reporter gene fusion and real-time PCR
      analysis confirmed that the expression of kdgM2 is repressed by OmpR. We also
      found that kdgM2 expression is subject to negative regulation by KdgR, a specific
      repressor of genes involved in the uptake and metabolism of pectin derivatives in
      plant pathogens. The additive effect of kdgR and ompR mutations suggested that
      KdgR and OmpR regulate kdgM2 expression independently. We confirmed that kdgM2
      occurs in an operon with the pelP gene, encoding the periplasmic pectate lyase
      PelP. A pectinolytic assay showed strong upregulation of PelP production/activity
      in a Y. enterocolitica strain lacking OmpR and KdgR, which corroborates the
      repression exerted by these regulators on kdgM2. In addition, our data showed
      that OmpR is responsible for up regulation of the kdgM1 gene encoding the second
      specific oligogalacturonide porin KdgM1. This indicates the involvement of OmpR
      in the reciprocal regulation of both KdgM1 and KdgM2. Moreover, we demonstrated
      the negative impact of OmpR on kdgR transcription, which might positively affect
      the expression of genes of the KdgR regulon. Binding of OmpR to the promoter
      regions of the kdgM2-pelP-sghX operon, and kdgM1 and kdgR genes was confirmed
      using the electrophoretic mobility shift assay, suggesting that OmpR can directly
      regulate their transcription. We also found that the overexpression of porin
      KdgM2 increases outer membrane permeability. Thus, OmpR-mediated regulation of
      the KdgM porins may contribute to the fitness of Y. enterocolitica in particular
      local environments.

PMID- 28861398
TI  - Extensive Metabolic Remodeling Differentiates Non-pathogenic and Pathogenic
      Growth Forms of the Dimorphic Pathogen Talaromyces marneffei.
AB  - Fungal infections are an increasing public health problem, particularly in
      immunocompromised individuals. While these pathogenic fungi show polyphyletic
      origins with closely related non-pathogenic species, many undergo morphological
      transitions to produce pathogenic cell types that are associated with increased
      virulence. However, the characteristics of these pathogenic cells that contribute
      to virulence are poorly defined. Talaromyces marneffei grows as a non-pathogenic
      hyphal form at 25 degrees C but undergoes a dimorphic transition to a pathogenic
      yeast form at 37 degrees C in vitro and following inhalation of asexual conidia
      by a host. Here we show that this transition is associated with major changes in
      central carbon metabolism, and that these changes are correlated with increased
      virulence of the yeast form. Comprehensive metabolite profiling and 13C-labeling
      studies showed that hyphal cells exhibited very active glycolytic metabolism and
      contain low levels of internal carbohydrate reserves. In contrast, yeast cells
      fully catabolized glucose in the mitochondrial TCA cycle, and store excess
      glucose in large intracellular pools of trehalose and mannitol. Inhibition of the
      yeast TCA cycle inhibited replication in culture and in host cells. Yeast, but
      not hyphae, were also able to use myo-inositol and amino acids as secondary
      carbon sources, which may support their survival in host macrophages. These
      analyses suggest that T. marneffei yeast cells exhibit a more efficient oxidative
      metabolism and are capable of utilizing a diverse range of carbon sources, which
      contributes to their virulence in animal tissues, highlighting the importance of
      dimorphic switching in pathogenic yeast.

PMID- 28861399
TI  - Overexpression of Adenylyl Cyclase Encoded by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      Rv2212 Gene Confers Improved Fitness, Accelerated Recovery from Dormancy and
      Enhanced Virulence in Mice.
AB  - Earlier we demonstrated that the adenylyl cyclase (AC) encoded by the MSMEG_4279
      gene plays a key role in the resuscitation and growth of dormant Mycobacterium
      smegmatis and that overexpression of this gene leads to an increase in
      intracellular cAMP concentration and prevents the transition of M. smegmatis from
      active growth to dormancy in an extended stationary phase accompanied by medium
      acidification. We surmised that the homologous Rv2212 gene of M. tuberculosis
      (Mtb), the main cAMP producer, plays similar physiological roles by supporting,
      under these conditions, the active state and reactivation of dormant bacteria. To
      test this hypothesis, we established Mtb strain overexpressing Rv2212 and
      compared its in vitro and in vivo growth characteristics with a control strain.
      In vitro, the AC-overexpressing pMindRv2212 strain demonstrated faster growth in
      a liquid medium, prolonged capacity to form CFUs and a significant delay or even
      prevention of transition toward dormancy. AC-overexpressing cells exhibited
      easier recovery from dormancy. In vivo, AC-overexpressing bacteria demonstrated
      significantly higher growth rates (virulence) in the lungs and spleens of
      infected mice compared to the control strain, and, unlike the latter, killed mice
      in the TB-resistant strain before month 8 of infection. Even in the absence of
      selecting hygromycin B, all pMindRv2212 CFUs retained the Rv2212 insert during in
      vivo growth, strongly suggesting that AC overexpression is beneficial for
      bacteria. Taken together, our results indicate that cAMP supports the maintenance
      of Mtb cells vitality under unfavorable conditions in vitro and their virulence
      in vivo.

PMID- 28861397
TI  - Modulation of Host Immunity by Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Virulence
      Factors: A Synergic Inhibition of Both Innate and Adaptive Immunity.
AB  - The Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (hRSV) is a major cause of acute lower
      respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) and high rates of hospitalizations in
      children and in the elderly worldwide. Symptoms of hRSV infection include
      bronchiolitis and pneumonia. The lung pathology observed during hRSV infection is
      due in part to an exacerbated host immune response, characterized by immune cell
      infiltration to the lungs. HRSV is an enveloped virus, a member of the
      Pneumoviridae family, with a non-segmented genome and negative polarity-single
      RNA that contains 10 genes encoding for 11 proteins. These include the Fusion
      protein (F), the Glycoprotein (G), and the Small Hydrophobic (SH) protein, which
      are located on the virus surface. In addition, the Nucleoprotein (N),
      Phosphoprotein (P) large polymerase protein (L) part of the RNA-dependent RNA
      polymerase complex, the M2-1 protein as a transcription elongation factor, the M2
      2 protein as a regulator of viral transcription and (M) protein all of which
      locate inside the virion. Apart from the structural proteins, the hRSV genome
      encodes for the non-structural 1 and 2 proteins (NS1 and NS2). HRSV has developed
      different strategies to evade the host immunity by means of the function of some
      of these proteins that work as virulence factors to improve the infection in the
      lung tissue. Also, hRSV NS-1 and NS-2 proteins have been shown to inhibit the
      activation of the type I interferon response. Furthermore, the hRSV nucleoprotein
      has been shown to inhibit the immunological synapsis between the dendritic cells
      and T cells during infection, resulting in an inefficient T cell activation.
      Here, we discuss the hRSV virulence factors and the host immunological features
      raised during infection with this virus.

PMID- 28861400
TI  - Entamoeba histolytica EhCP112 Dislocates and Degrades Claudin-1 and Claudin-2 at
      Tight Junctions of the Intestinal Epithelium.
AB  - During intestinal invasion, Entamoeba histolytica opens tight junctions (TJs)
      reflected by transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) dropping. To explore
      the molecular mechanisms underlying this, we studied in vitro and in vivo the
      damage produced by the recombinant E. histolytica cysteine protease (rEhCP112) on
      TJ functions and proteins. rEhCP112 reduced TEER in Caco-2 cells in a dose- and
      time-dependent manner; and EhCP112-overexpressing trophozoites provoked major
      epithelial injury compared to control trophozoites. rEhCP112 penetrated through
      the intercellular space, and consequently the ion flux increased and the TJs
      fence function was disturbed. However, macromolecular flux was not altered.
      Functional in vitro assays revealed specific association of rEhCP112 with claudin
      1 and claudin-2, that are both involved in regulating ion flux and fence
      function. Of note, rEhCP112 did not interact with occludin that is responsible
      for regulating macromolecular flux. Moreover, rEhCP112 degraded and delocalized
      claudin-1, thus affecting interepithelial adhesion. Concomitantly, expression of
      the leaky claudin-2 at TJ, first increased and then it was degraded. In vivo,
      rEhCP112 increased intestinal epithelial permeability in the mouse colon, likely
      due to apical erosion and claudin-1 and claudin-2 degradation. In conclusion, we
      provide evidence that EhCP112 causes epithelial dysfunction by specifically
      altering claudins at TJ. Thus, EhCP112 could be a potential target for
      therapeutic approaches against amoebiasis.

PMID- 28861403
TI  - Acotiamide hydrochloride hydrate added to combination treatment with an alpha
      blocker and a cholinergic drug improved the QOL of women with acute urinary
      retention: case series.
AB  - Acute urinary retention is the most common urological emergency. To resolve this
      emergency, urethral catheterization is performed. If the procedure fails and
      permanent transurethral catheterization is required, the patient's quality of
      life is significantly affected. Therefore, catheter-free treatment is the ideal
      goal of therapy for patients with acute urinary retention. Especially, for women,
      placement of a catheter poses a cosmetic problem. Therefore, the aim of this
      study was to treat female patients who had already received urapidil/distigmine
      bromide with acotiamide. Acotiamide was administered at a dose of 100 mg three
      times daily for 2 weeks, and the outcome of trial without catheter was evaluated.
      Only female patients were enrolled for this study. Treatment proved successful
      and all patients become catheter free.

PMID- 28861401
TI  - Micropathogen Community Analysis in Hyalomma rufipes via High-Throughput
      Sequencing of Small RNAs.
AB  - Ticks are important vectors in the transmission of a broad range of
      micropathogens to vertebrates, including humans. Because of the role of ticks in
      disease transmission, identifying and characterizing the micropathogen profiles
      of tick populations have become increasingly important. The objective of this
      study was to survey the micropathogens of Hyalomma rufipes ticks. Illumina
      HiSeq2000 technology was utilized to perform deep sequencing of small RNAs
      (sRNAs) extracted from field-collected H. rufipes ticks in Gansu Province, China.
      The resultant sRNA library data revealed that the surveyed tick populations
      produced reads that were homologous to St. Croix River Virus (SCRV) sequences. We
      also observed many reads that were homologous to microbial and/or pathogenic
      isolates, including bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. As part of this analysis, a
      phylogenetic tree was constructed to display the relationships among the
      homologous sequences that were identified. The study offered a unique opportunity
      to gain insight into the micropathogens of H. rufipes ticks. The effective
      control of arthropod vectors in the future will require knowledge of the
      micropathogen composition of vectors harboring infectious agents. Understanding
      the ecological factors that regulate vector propagation in association with the
      prevalence and persistence of micropathogen lineages is also imperative. These
      interactions may affect the evolution of micropathogen lineages, especially if
      the micropathogens rely on the vector or host for dispersal. The sRNA deep
      sequencing approach used in this analysis provides an intuitive method to survey
      micropathogen prevalence in ticks and other vector species.

PMID- 28861402
TI  - Ixodes scapularis Tick Cells Control Anaplasma phagocytophilum Infection by
      Increasing the Synthesis of Phosphoenolpyruvate from Tyrosine.
AB  - The obligate intracellular pathogen, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, is the causative
      agent of life-threatening diseases in humans and animals. A. phagocytophilum is
      an emerging tick-borne pathogen in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia,
      with increasing numbers of infected people and animals every year. It is
      increasingly recognized that intracellular pathogens modify host cell metabolic
      pathways to increase infection and transmission in both vertebrate and
      invertebrate hosts. Recent reports have shown that amino acids are central to the
      host-pathogen metabolic interaction. In this study, a genome-wide search for
      components of amino acid metabolic pathways was performed in Ixodes scapularis,
      the main tick vector of A. phagocytophilum in the United States, for which the
      genome was recently published. The enzymes involved in the synthesis and
      degradation pathways of the twenty amino acids were identified. Then, the
      available transcriptomics and proteomics data was used to characterize the mRNA
      and protein levels of I. scapularis amino acid metabolic pathway components in
      response to A. phagocytophilum infection of tick tissues and ISE6 tick cells. Our
      analysis was focused on the interplay between carbohydrate and amino acid
      metabolism during A. phagocytophilum infection in ISE6 cells. The results showed
      that tick cells increase the synthesis of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) from tyrosine
      to control A. phagocytophilum infection. Metabolic pathway analysis suggested
      that this is achieved by (i) increasing the transcript and protein levels of
      mitochondrial phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK-M), (ii) shunting tyrosine
      into the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle to increase fumarate and oxaloacetate
      which will be converted into PEP by PEPCK-M, and (iii) blocking all the pathways
      that use PEP downstream gluconeogenesis (i.e., de novo serine synthesis pathway
      (SSP), glyceroneogenesis and gluconeogenesis). While sequestering host PEP may be
      critical for this bacterium because it cannot actively carry out glycolysis to
      produce PEP, excess of this metabolite may be toxic for A. phagocytophilum. The
      present work provides a more comprehensive view of the major amino acid metabolic
      pathways involved in the response to pathogen infection in ticks, and provides
      the basis for further studies to develop novel strategies for the control of
      granulocytic anaplasmosis.

PMID- 28861404
TI  - Effectiveness of percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation in the treatment of
      overactive bladder syndrome.
AB  - Overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) is a common condition affecting adults and
      children worldwide, resulting in a substantial economic and psychological burden.
      Percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS) is derived from acupuncture used in
      Chinese traditional medicine and was first described in the early 1980s. It is a
      neuromodulation technique used to modulate bladder function and facilitate
      storage. Being a minimally invasive, easily applicable, but time-consuming
      treatment, future developments with implantable devices might be the solution for
      the logistical problems and economic burden associated with PTNS on the long
      term. This nonsystematic review provides a current overview on PTNS and its
      effectiveness in the treatment of OAB for both adults and children.

PMID- 28861405
TI  - Procedural techniques and multicenter postmarket experience using minimally
      invasive convective radiofrequency thermal therapy with Rezum system for
      treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This report evaluates clinical experience with the Rezum system after
      US Food and Drug Administration clearance in consecutive cases accrued by
      multiple community urologists for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms
      (LUTS) associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Treatment techniques
      for transurethral convective radiofrequency water-vapor thermal therapy and
      outcomes with up to 12 months' follow-up are presented. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      total of 131 patients with moderate-severe LUTS were included in a retrospective
      analysis of BPH procedures with the Rezum system. Pre- and postprocedure
      assessments included International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of
      life, peak urinary flow rate, voided volume, and postvoid residual urine volume.
      Urologists used their own discretion for patient selection, with variable
      prostate sizes, LUTS severity, urinary retention, or presence of an obstructing
      median lobe. Safety signals and surgical retreatment rates were monitored
      prospectively. RESULTS: Men aged 47-96 years with prostates 13-183 cm3 showed
      significant improvement in IPSS, quality of life, and postvoid residual volume
      durable through 12 months after thermal therapy. Patients with either moderate
      (IPSS 8-19) or severe (IPSS 20-35) symptoms achieved significantly improved
      scores. Postprocedure adverse events normally anticipated and related to
      endoscopic instrumentation were transient and mild-moderate in nature. No de novo
      erectile or ejaculatory dysfunction was reported. CONCLUSION: This study
      corroborates prior published pilot and randomized controlled trial results
      indicating significant relief of urinary symptoms and reproducibility of
      responses to thermal therapy. Convective radiofrequency thermal therapy with the
      Rezum system warrants consideration as a first-line treatment for LUTS/BPH as an
      alternative to the use of pharmaceutical agents.

PMID- 28861406
TI  - Erratum to: Usefulness and capability of three-dimensional, full high-definition
      movies for surgical education.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40902-017-0107-3.].

PMID- 28861408
TI  - A Latent Markov Model with Covariates to Study Unobserved Heterogeneity among
      Fertility Patterns of Couples Employing Natural Family Planning Methods.
AB  - PURPOSE: We use the historical data from the European Study of Daily
      Fecundability and we develop an algorithm to determine the fertile window in a
      woman's cycle according to the rules of the C.A.Me.N. symptothermal method
      proposed by the Centro Ambrosiano Metodi Naturali. Our aim is to identify
      variables acting on the probability of conception by considering the fertile
      window and factors that cannot be explained by employing the observed covariates
      of individuals and couples. METHODS: We adopt the latent Markov model with
      covariates tailored for data collected at times when a latent process detects the
      dependence across fertile periods of each woman's cycle. We consider measurement
      errors, transitions between conception and non-conception, and the prediction of
      conception rate over the fertile windows. CONCLUSION: We find that the conception
      pattern is mainly related to sexual intercourse behavior during the fertile
      window and to previous pregnancies. For the cohort under study, we predict a
      steep decline in the average conception rate across fertile windows.

PMID- 28861407
TI  - Alterations in Cerebral Blood Flow after Resuscitation from Cardiac Arrest.
AB  - Greater than 50% of patients successfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest have
      evidence of neurological disability. Numerous studies in children and adults, as
      well as in animal models have demonstrated that cerebral blood flow (CBF) is
      impaired after cardiac arrest. Stages of cerebral perfusion post-resuscitation
      include early hyperemia, followed by hypoperfusion, and finally either resolution
      of normal blood flow or protracted hyperemia. At the level of the
      microcirculation the blood flow is heterogeneous, with areas of no flow, low
      flow, and increased flow. CBF directed therapies in animal models of cardiac
      arrest improved neurological outcome, and therefore, the alterations in CBF after
      cardiac arrest likely contribute to the development of hypoxic ischemic
      encephalopathy. Current intensive care after cardiac arrest is centered upon
      maintaining systemic oxygenation, normal blood pressure values for age,
      maintaining general homeostasis, and avoiding hyperthermia. Assessment of CBF and
      oxygenation is not routinely performed after cardiac arrest. Currently available
      and underutilized techniques to assess cerebral perfusion include transcranial
      doppler, near-infrared spectroscopy, and arterial spin labeling magnetic
      resonance imaging. Limited clinical studies established the role of CBF and
      oxygenation monitoring in prognostication after cardiac arrest and few studies
      suggest that guiding critical care post-resuscitation to mean arterial pressures
      above the minimal autoregulatory range might improve outcome. Important knowledge
      gaps thus remain in cerebral monitoring and CBF and oxygen goal-directed
      therapies post-resuscitation from cardiac arrest.

PMID- 28861409
TI  - Editorial: The Impact of School Food Consumption on Children's Cognition,
      Educational Attainment and Social Development.

PMID- 28861410
TI  - Psychosocial Hazard Analysis in a Heterogeneous Workforce: Determinants of Work
      Stress in Blue- and White-Collar Workers of the European Steel Industry.
AB  - The European steel industry's workforce is highly heterogeneous and consists of
      various occupational groups, presumably facing different psychosocial stressors.
      The few existing studies on the subject mainly focused on physical constraints of
      blue-collar workers, whereas the supposable psychosocial workload received only
      little research attention. This is remarkable considering the challenges
      associated with statutory required risk assessment of psychosocial hazards. Valid
      measures of hazard analysis must account for various stressors and reliably
      identify them, also between occupational groups. The present study, based on a
      sample of blue- and white-collar workers (N = 124) from the European steel
      industry, aims to provide a first insight into psychosocial stressors and strain
      at work in this rarely researched industrial sector. Furthermore, two well-known
      theoretical roadmaps in job analysis are examined regarding their utility for
      risk assessment in heterogeneous workforces: the German standard version of the
      Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) and the short version of the
      effort-reward imbalance questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses
      revealed that the COPSOQ was better suited to predict various strain indices in
      the present sample. Especially stressors relating to socioemotional aspects, such
      as work-privacy conflict, revealed a reasonable impact, indicating the need for
      comprehensive solutions at the organizational level instead of solutions focusing
      on single workplaces. To conclude, a broadly diversified and validated approach
      in psychosocial risk assessment is needed to adequately assess the variety of
      psychosocial factors at work and in different occupational groups.

PMID- 28861411
TI  - Reduction and Alkylation of Proteins in 2D Gel Electrophoresis: Before or after
      Isoelectric Focusing?

PMID- 28861412
TI  - Stable Production of the Antimalarial Drug Artemisinin in the Moss Physcomitrella
      patens.
AB  - Malaria is a real and constant danger to nearly half of the world's population of
      7.4 billion people. In 2015, 212 million cases were reported along with 429,000
      estimated deaths. The World Health Organization recommends artemisinin-based
      combinatorial therapies, and the artemisinin for this purpose is mainly isolated
      from the plant Artemisia annua. However, the plant supply of artemisinin is
      irregular, leading to fluctuation in prices. Here, we report the development of a
      simple, sustainable, and scalable production platform of artemisinin. The five
      genes involved in artemisinin biosynthesis were engineered into the moss
      Physcomitrella patens via direct in vivo assembly of multiple DNA fragments. In
      vivo biosynthesis of artemisinin was obtained without further modifications. A
      high initial production of 0.21 mg/g dry weight artemisinin was observed after
      only 3 days of cultivation. Our study shows that P. patens can be a sustainable
      and efficient production platform of artemisinin that without further
      modifications allow for industrial-scale production. A stable supply of
      artemisinin will lower the price of artemisinin-based treatments, hence become
      more affordable to the lower income communities most affected by malaria; an
      important step toward containment of this deadly disease threatening millions
      every year.

PMID- 28861414
TI  - Continuous Spinal Anesthesia for Obstetric Anesthesia and Analgesia.
AB  - The widespread use of continuous spinal anesthesia (CSA) in obstetrics has been
      slow because of the high risk for post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) associated
      with epidural needles and catheters. New advances in equipment and technique have
      not significantly overcome this disadvantage. However, CSA offers an alternative
      to epidural anesthesia in morbidly obese women, women with severe cardiac
      disease, and patients with prior spinal surgery. It should be strongly considered
      in parturients who receive an accidental dural puncture with a large bore needle,
      on the basis of recent work suggesting significant reduction in PDPH when
      intrathecal catheters are used. Small doses of drug can be administered and
      extension of labor analgesia for emergency cesarean delivery may occur more
      rapidly compared to continuous epidural techniques.

PMID- 28861413
TI  - Paying the Toll in Nuclear Reprogramming.
AB  - The ability to reverse lineage-committed cells toward pluripotent stem cells or
      to another cell type is one of the ultimate goals in regenerative medicine. We
      recently discovered that activation of innate immunity, through Toll-like
      receptor 3, is required during this conversion of cell fate by causing global
      changes in the expression and activity of epigenetic modifiers. Here we discuss,
      in a comprehensive manner, the recent studies on the role of innate immunity in
      nuclear reprogramming and transdifferentiation, the underlying mechanisms, and
      its role in regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28861415
TI  - More Haste, Less Speed: Could Public-Private Partnerships Advance Cellular
      Immunotherapies?
AB  - Cellular immunotherapies promise to transform cancer care. However, they must
      overcome serious challenges, including: (1) the need to identify and characterize
      novel cancer antigens to expand the range of therapeutic targets; (2) the need to
      develop strategies to minimize serious adverse events, such as cytokine release
      syndrome and treatment-related toxicities; and (3) the need to develop efficient
      production/manufacturing processes to reduce costs. Here, we discuss whether
      these challenges might better be addressed through forms of public-private
      research collaborations, including public-private partnerships (PPPs), or whether
      these challenges are best addressed by way of standard market transactions. We
      reviewed 14 public-private relationships and 25 underlying agreements for the
      clinical development of cancer cellular immunotherapies in the US. Most were
      based on bilateral research agreements and pure market transactions in the form
      of service contracts and technology licenses, which is representative of the
      commercialization focus of the field. We make the strategic case that multiparty
      PPPs may better advance cancer antigen discovery and characterization and
      improved cell processing/manufacturing and related activities. In the rush toward
      the competitive end of the translational continuum for cancer cellular
      immunotherapy and the attendant focus on commercialization, many gaps have
      appeared in our understanding of cellular biology, immunology, and
      bioengineering. We conclude that the model of bilateral agreements between
      leading research institutions and the private sector may be inadequate to
      efficiently harness the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge of the public and
      private sectors to bring these promising therapies to the clinic for the benefit
      of cancer patients.

PMID- 28861416
TI  - Etiology of intracranial stenosis in young patients: a high-resolution magnetic
      resonance imaging study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI), we sought
      to investigate the underlying etiology of intracranial stenosis in young
      patients. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 122 Chinese young adult patients
      (from 18 to 45 years old, mean age 36.2+/-7.5 years) with unilateral middle
      cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis based on a prospectively established HRMRI
      database. The eccentricity, degree of stenosis, and remodeling types of MCA
      lesions were analyzed. The MCA lesions were classified as eccentric (presumed
      atherosclerosis) or concentric stenosis (presumed non-atherosclerosis). The
      clinical data and vessel wall properties were compared between the patients >35
      years old and the patients <=35 years old. RESULTS: Eccentric stenosis was
      observed in 98 (80.3%) patients and concentric stenosis in 24 (19.7%) patients.
      The patients with eccentric stenosis were older (37.5+/-6.8 vs. 31.4+/-8.4 years
      old, P<0.001) and more likely had atherosclerosis risk factors (56.1% vs. 25.0%,
      P=0.006). The patients >35 years old had higher prevalence (90.1% vs. 66.7%,
      P=0.001) of eccentric stenosis and atherosclerosis factors (60.6% vs. 35.3%,
      P=0.006) than the patients <=35 years old. Most of the patients with concentric
      stenosis were <=35 years old (17/24, 70.8%) and were female (16/24, 66.7%).
      Binary Logistic analysis suggested smoking (OR =3.171; 95% CI, 1.210-8.314) and
      remodeling ratio (OR =1.625; 95% CI, 1.001-2.636) were independent predictive
      factors for symptomatic stenosis. CONCLUSIONS: Atherosclerosis is the most common
      cause of intracranial stenosis in Chinese young patients. Non-atherosclerosis
      disease is an important etiology in young female, especially in the patients aged
      35 years old or younger.

PMID- 28861417
TI  - Impact of diverticular inflammation and complication assessment classification on
      the burden of medical therapies in preventing diverticular disease complications
      in Italy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several treatments are currently advised to manage diverticular
      disease (DD) patients, but their impact on the burden of the disease is unknown.
      Our aim was to assess the economic analysis of using the recent Diverticular
      Inflammation and Complication Assessment (DICA) endoscopic classification on the
      burden of medical therapies prescribed in preventing DD complications occurrence
      in Italy. METHODS: We assessed retrospectively the cost/year of treatments in
      estimated DICA 1, DICA 2 and DICA 3 population. Analysis of diverticulosis
      prevalence was estimated according to data population provided by Italian
      Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). Cost of treatments calculated according to data
      on drugs' consumption collected during the DICA study. RESULTS: We estimated that
      >8 million of Italian people >60 years may have diverticulosis, and that about
      75% of diverticular population are on DICA 1, about 30% on DICA 2, and about 13%
      on DICA 3. We estimated that >387 million of euros could be spent in DICA 1
      population, >203 million of euros in DICA 2 population, and >88 million of euros
      in DICA 3 population. Since medical treatments did not show any significant
      advantage when treating DICA 1 and DICA 3 people in terms of prevention of acute
      diverticulitis occurrence/recurrence and surgery occurrence, we can estimated
      that >475 million of euros could be spent in Italy without any significant
      benefit in preventing DD complications occurrence. CONCLUSIONS: DICA endoscopic
      classification may have a significant impact on the burden of DD in Italy,
      because it helps to select DD people who effectively need treatments in terms of
      prevention of acute diverticulitis occurrence/recurrence and surgery occurrence.

PMID- 28861418
TI  - Incidence of postoperative delirium in patients undergoing total knee
      arthroplasty-an Asian perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Very little is known in the literature with regards to the incidence
      of postoperative delirium following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in Asians and
      the associated surgical factors. We conducted a retrospective study on incidence
      of postoperative delirium following TKA in Asians. METHODS: One thousand sixteen
      knees of 954 consecutive patients who underwent TKA by the senior author of this
      study in the year 2006 were included in this review. All written and electronic
      medical records for patients were screened. Delirium was recorded to be present
      based on clinical entry onto the patients' inpatient hospital notes and a
      diagnosis made by psychiatrist based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
      Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV). All statistical analysis was performed
      using SPSS v.18.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: The incidence of
      postoperative delirium in our patients undergoing TKA was 0.59%. Six patients had
      a confirmed diagnosis of delirium postoperatively. We noted an association
      between a higher mean age (P<0.0001), a lower body mass index (P<0.0001), Chinese
      ethnicity (P=0.002), male gender (P=0.002) and chronic opioid use (P<0.0001) with
      incidence of post-operative delirium. We also noted a higher proportion of post
      operative DVT (P<0.0001) and wound infection (P<0.0001) in the delirium group.
      CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of postoperative delirium in Asians undergoing TKA in
      our institution is very low at 0.59%. Advanced age, lower body mass index,
      Chinese ethnicity, male gender and preoperative chronic opioid use may be
      associated with developing postoperative delirium.

PMID- 28861419
TI  - Direct oral anticoagulants: analysis of worldwide use and popularity using Google
      Trends.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Four direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have been approved for
      clinical use by many medicines regulatory agencies around the world. Due to
      increasing use of these drugs in routine practice, we planned an original study
      to investigate their worldwide diffusion using a popular Web-search engine.
      METHODS: Two electronic searches were performed using Google Trends, the former
      using the keywords "warfarin" AND "heparin" AND "fondaparinux", and the latter
      using the keywords "warfarin" AND "dabigatran" AND "rivaroxaban" AND "apixaban"
      AND "edoxaban", both using the search criterion "prescription drug". No language
      restriction was applied, and the searches were carried out from the first date
      available in Google Trends (January 1st, 2004) to present time (June 1st, 2017).
      RESULTS: The median Google Trends score of warfarin (i.e., 86) was consistently
      higher than that of heparin (54; P<0.001), fondaparinux (6; P<0.001), dabigatran
      (11; P<0.001), rivaroxaban (5; P<0.001), apixaban (1; P<0.001) and edoxaban (1;
      P<0.001). Specific analysis of the trends shows that the score of warfarin
      exhibits a highly significant decrease over time (r=-0.40; P<0.001), whilst that
      of heparin has remained virtually unchanged (r=0.12; P=0.127), and that of
      fondaparinux has marginally increased (r=0.16; P=0.038). As regards DOACs, the
      scores of these drugs significantly increased during the search period
      (dabigatran, r=0.79; rivaroxaban, r=0.99; apixaban, r=0.98; edoxaban, r=0.78; all
      P<0.001). When the analysis was limited to the past five years, the dabigatran
      score significantly decreased (r=-0.57; P<0.001), whereas that of the other DOACs
      exhibited an even sharper increase. Most Google searches for DOACs were performed
      in North America, central-eastern Europe and Australia. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      of our analysis suggest that the popularity of DOACs is constantly increasing
      around the world, whereas that of warfarin has exhibited a constant and
      inexorable decline.

PMID- 28861420
TI  - Balanced versus isotonic saline resuscitation-a systematic review and meta
      analysis of randomized controlled trials in operation rooms and intensive care
      units.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fluid resuscitation is the cornerstone in treatment of shock, and
      intravenous fluid administration is the most frequent intervention in operation
      rooms and intensive care units (ICUs). The composition of fluids used for fluid
      resuscitation gained interest over the past decade, with recent focus on whether
      balanced solutions should be preferred over isotonic saline. METHODS: Systematic
      review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing fluid
      resuscitation with a balanced solution versus isotonic saline in adult patients
      in operation room or ICUs. Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, secondary
      outcomes included occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI) and need for renal
      replacement therapy (RRT). RESULTS: The search identified 11 RCTs involving 2,703
      patients; 8 trials were conducted in operation room and 3 in ICU. In-hospital
      mortality, as well as the occurrence of AKI and need for RRT was not different
      between resuscitation with balanced solutions versus isotonic saline, neither in
      operation room nor in ICU patients. Serum chloride levels, but not arterial pH,
      were significantly lower in patients resuscitated with balanced solutions.
      CONCLUSIONS: Currently evidence insufficiently supports the use of balanced over
      isotonic saline for fluid resuscitation to improve outcome of operation room and
      ICU patients.

PMID- 28861421
TI  - The role of reactive oxygen species in myocardial redox signaling and regulation.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are subcellular messengers in gene regulatory and
      signal transduction pathways. In pathological situations, ROS accumulate due to
      excessive production or insufficient degradation, leading to oxidative stress
      (OS). OS causes oxidation of DNA, membranes, cellular lipids, and proteins,
      impairing their normal function and leading ultimately to cell death. OS in the
      heart is increased in response to ischemia/reperfusion, hypertrophy, and heart
      failure. The concentration of ROS is determined by their rates of production and
      clearance by antioxidants. Increases in OS in heart failure are primarily a
      result of the functional uncoupling of the respiratory chain due to inactivation
      of complex I. However, increased ROS in the failing myocardium may also be caused
      by impaired antioxidant capacity, such as decreased activity of Cu/Zn superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) or stimulation of enzymatic sources,
      including, cyclooxygenase, xanthine oxidase (XO), nitric oxide synthase, and
      nonphagocytic NAD(P)H oxidases (Noxs). Mitochondria are the main source of ROS
      during heart failure and aging. Increased production of ROS in the failing heart
      leads to mitochondrial permeability transition, which results in matrix swelling,
      outer membrane rupture, a release of apoptotic signaling molecules, and
      irreversible injury to the mitochondria. Alterations of "redox homeostasis" leads
      to major cellular consequences, and cellular survival requires an optimal
      regulation of the redox balance.

PMID- 28861422
TI  - Is "symmetric" gap balancing still the gold standard in primary total knee
      arthroplasty?
AB  - A rectangular and symmetrical gap in flexion as well as in extension is mandatory
      to achieve good outcomes and good long-term results in total knee arthroplasty
      (TKA) using classical designs. Recently, as showed in several fluoroscopic
      studies, different modern designs (medial congruent or sagittally stable
      implants) have been demonstrated to better reproduce the more physiological
      medial pivoting (MP) biomechanics of the normal knee when compared to classical
      postero-stabilized (PS) and cruciate-retaining (CR) designs. These modern
      designs, characterized by different level of conformity, might require adopting a
      different surgical technique in terms of soft tissue balancing technique for
      primary TKA. In such cases, the current authors suggest to reproduce a slightly
      asymmetric extension and flexion gaps with a tighter medial then lateral
      compartment to re-establish the MP kinematics of the normal knee.

PMID- 28861424
TI  - Cystic adventitial disease-case series and review of literature.
AB  - Cystic adventitial disease (CAD) is a rare vascular disorder that involves the
      arteries and rarely the veins, most commonly found in the popliteal artery of
      male patients. Etiology of CAD is uncertain and currently without a consensus
      agreement. Clinically, the most common presenting symptom is claudication.
      Diagnosis requires a strong clinical suspicion in patients with intermittent
      claudication, but without other risk factors for atherosclerotic disease.
      Angiography, ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) can all be used for diagnosis. Treatment of CAD can be done via
      surgical resection or percutaneous intervention such as aspiration. CAD can
      rarely recur after treatment.

PMID- 28861423
TI  - The role of reactive oxygen species in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular
      diseases and the clinical significance of myocardial redox.
AB  - Acute and chronic excessive intracellular increase of reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) is involved in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases.
      ROS are by-products of various oxidative physiological and biochemical processes.
      Sources of ROS are mitochondrial respiration, NADH/NADPH oxidase, xanthine
      oxidoreductase or the uncoupling of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in vascular
      cells. ROS mediate various signaling pathways that underlie cardiovascular
      pathophysiology. The delicate equilibrium between free-radical generation and
      antioxidant defense is altered in favor of the former, thus leading to redox
      imbalance, oxidative stress, and increased cellular injury. An understanding of
      the pathophysiological mechanisms mediated by oxidative stress is crucial to the
      prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28861425
TI  - Single-incision video-assisted thoracoscopic evaluation and emergent surgery for
      severe lung and chest wall injury after thoracic trauma in a water park.
AB  - Thoracic trauma is a challenging situation with potential severe chest wall and
      intrathoracic organ injuries. We present a case of emergent surgery in a 23-year
      old man with hemorrhagic shock due to massive lung and chest wall injury after
      thoracic trauma in a water slide. We performed a SI-VATS approach in order to
      define intrathoracic and chest wall injuries, and once checked the extension of
      the chest wall injury, we added a middle size thoracotomy just over the affected
      area in order to stabilize rib fractures with Judet plates, that had caused
      massive laceration in left lower lobe (LLL) and injured the pericardium causing
      myocardical tear. After checking bronchial and vascular viability of LLL we
      suggested a lung parenchyma preserving technique with PTFE protected pulmonary
      primary suture in order to avoid a lobectomy. Chest tubes were removed on 3rd
      postoperative day and patient was discharged on 14th postoperative day. He has
      already recovered his normal activity 6 months after surgery.

PMID- 28861426
TI  - The gender paradox in TAVR.

PMID- 28861427
TI  - Sex differences in outcomes with transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

PMID- 28861428
TI  - Ethical challenges and terminal deactivation of left ventricular assist device.

PMID- 28861429
TI  - Favorable outcomes for female patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement?

PMID- 28861430
TI  - Evolving treatment options for valve and aortic disease with bicuspid aortic
      valve.

PMID- 28861431
TI  - Another passenger for the TAVR speeding train.

PMID- 28861432
TI  - CBT-I and the short sleep duration insomnia phenotype: a comment on Bathgate,
      Edinger and Krystal.

PMID- 28861433
TI  - Is it time to get some SHUT-i?

PMID- 28861434
TI  - Exosomes may play a crucial role in HIV dendritic cell immunotherapy.

PMID- 28861435
TI  - Markers of increased risk in primary mitral regurgitation.

PMID- 28861436
TI  - Low levels of interleukin-10 in patients with transfusion-related acute lung
      injury.

PMID- 28861438
TI  - Crystallographic anomalous diffraction data for the experimental phasing of two
      myelin proteins, gliomedin and periaxin.
AB  - We present datasets that can be used for the experimental phasing of crystal
      structures of two myelin proteins. The structures were recently described in the
      articles "Periaxin and AHNAK nucleoprotein 2 form intertwined homodimers through
      domain swapping" (H. Han, P. Kursula, 2014) [1] and "The olfactomedin domain from
      gliomedin is a beta-propeller with unique structural properties" (H. Han, P.
      Kursula, 2015) [2]. Crystals of periaxin were derivatized with tungsten and xenon
      prior to data collection, and diffraction data for these crystals are reported at
      3 and 1 wavelengths, respectively. Crystallographic data for two different
      pressurizing times for xenon are provided. Gliomedin was derivatized with
      platinum, and data for single-wavelength anomalous dispersion are included. The
      data can be used to repeat the phasing experiments, to analyze heavy atom binding
      sites in proteins, as well as to optimize future derivatization experiments of
      protein crystals with these and other heavy-atom compounds.

PMID- 28861437
TI  - Saccular Kommerell aneurysm, a potential pitfall on MDCT imaging - A review of
      imaging features and potential mimics.
AB  - Saccular Kommerell aneurysm represents a potential pitfall on Multidetector CT
      (MDCT) imaging, mimicking conditions such as saccular aneurysm of the thoracic
      aorta, ductus diverticulum and dilated Kommerell diverticulum. Accurate diagnosis
      of this condition is critical in the management of this potentially fatal
      condition. This paper reviews the MDCT imaging features of Kommerell aneurysms
      and its mimics and demonstrates how to make an accurate diagnosis through a
      series of four cases. MDCT features of Kommerell aneurysms, either saccular or
      fusiform types arising from a Kommerell diverticulum with atherosclerotic plaque
      and mural thrombus are discussed.

PMID- 28861439
TI  - Data on the power of the creatinine to uromodulin ratio in serum to predict
      cardiovascular events in coronary patients.
AB  - Uromodulin is a protein which is produced by the tubular cells of the thick
      ascending limb in the kidneys and the creatinine to uromodulin ratio in serum
      recently has attracted interest as a marker of kidney disease. Whether this ratio
      also is associated with cardiovascular event risk is unknown. This article
      provides additional data on the association of the creatinine to uromodulin ratio
      with its power to predict cardiovascular events and major cardiovascular events
      in coronary patients. In addition, this data article demonstrates the performance
      of the creatinine to uromodulin ratio as a biomarker using c-statistics. Analyzed
      data was derived from 529 coronary patients. Uromodulin and creatinine were
      measured and cardiovascular events were recorded for up to 8 years. This data
      article is related to a research article titled "Serum Uromodulin is a predictive
      biomarker for cardiovascular events and overall mortality in coronary patients"
      [1].

PMID- 28861440
TI  - Description of long-term climate data in Eastern and Southeastern Ethiopia.
AB  - This article presents long-term analyzed climate data from nine weather stations
      in eastern and southeastern parts of Ethiopia. At the outset of this data
      process, unrefined meteorological data was obtained from National Meteorological
      Agency (NMA) of Ethiopia for the analysis. The analyzed data in this article
      shows patterns of rainfall variability, frequency of drought years, seasonal
      concentration of precipitation and temperature conditions. As issues related to
      climate conditions are very intricate, different techniques and indices were
      applied to analyze and refine the data. The analysis reveals that eastern and
      southeastern parts Ethiopia are severely affected by recurrent droughts, erratic
      rainfall, and high and increasing temperature conditions. The long-term (1981
      2009) mean annual total rainfall had been fluctuating between about 850 mm and
      1350 mm. Most stations receive maximum rainfall in summer (June, July and August)
      except Gode which gets over 50% of its rainfall in spring season (March, April
      and May). The inter-annual rainfall difference was found to be very high. The
      Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) is greater than 11 for all the stations
      showing that rainfall is concentrated in a few months. PCI is extremely high
      (greater than 20) for very dry stations such as Gode. Food production and
      consumer price index were found to be fluctuating with rainfall patters.

PMID- 28861441
TI  - Statistical analyses on Si microwire solar cells.
AB  - In this data, the statistical analyses of silicon microwire (SiMW) solar cells
      are presented for the research article entitled "Electrical and optical
      properties of Si microwire solar cells" (H.-S. Kim, D. B. Patel, H. Kim, M.
      Patel, K. R. Chauhan, W. Park, and J. Kim) [1]. This article shows the
      statistical analyses on performances of the various SiMW solar cells. The
      accuracy of solar cell parameters is discussed on the basis of data sets.

PMID- 28861442
TI  - Development of Au nanowire injector system to deliver plasmid into mouse embryo.
AB  - In this data article, we developed a Au nanowire injector (Au NWI) for directly
      delivering plasmid into the 1-cell stage of the mouse embryos designed to
      successfully attach and detach the plasmid on the Au NWI, highly minimizing
      physical and chemical damage on the embryos. This data presents that a Au NWI
      system does not induce detrimental damages on development of embryos and
      efficiently express the green fluorescence protein in vitro. The data provided
      herein is in association with the research article related to reduce the
      occurrence of mosaicism by a Au NWI," Suppressing Mosaicism by Au Nanowire
      Injector-driven Direct Delivery of Plasmids into Mouse Embryos" (Park et al.,
      2017 [1]).

PMID- 28861443
TI  - Biochemical characteristics of a free cyanide and total nitrogen assimilating
      Fusarium oxysporum EKT01/02 isolate from cyanide contaminated soil.
AB  - Sustainability of nutrient requirements for microbial proliferation on a large
      scale is a challenge in bioremediation processes. This article presents data on
      biochemical properties of a free cyanide resistant and total nitrogen
      assimilating fungal isolate from the rhizosphere of Zeamays (maize) growing in
      soil contaminated with a cyanide-based pesticide. DNA extracted from this isolate
      were PCR amplified using universal primers; TEF1-alpha and ITS. The raw sequence
      files are available on the NCBI database. Characterisation using biochemical data
      was obtained using colorimetric reagents analysed with VITEK(r) 2 software
      version 7.01. The data will be informative in selection of biocatalyst for
      environmental engineering application.

PMID- 28861444
TI  - Estimates of average energy requirements in Bangladesh: Adult Male Equivalent
      values for use in analyzing household consumption and expenditure surveys.
AB  - This dataset contains Adult Male Equivalent (AME) values for use in Bangladesh.
      These were constructed using prescriptive nutritional constructs adapted to the
      actual growth and weight pattern seen in Bangladesh. This dataset provides a
      common base to facilitate for future work with household consumption and
      expenditure data in Bangladesh while updating the average energy requirements for
      infants and young children for the WHO 2006 growth standards and 2007 growth
      reference curves.

PMID- 28861445
TI  - Data regarding the growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM on different
      carbohydrates and recombinant production of elongation factor G and pyruvate
      kinase.
AB  - The present study describes the growth of the very well-known probiotic bacterium
      Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM on different carbohydrates. Furthermore,
      recombinant production of putative moonlighting proteins elongation factor G and
      pyruvate kinase from this bacterium is described. For further and detailed
      interpretation of the data presented here, please see the research article "Mucin
      and carbohydrate-stimulated adhesion and subproteome changes of the probiotic
      bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM" (Celebioglu et al., 2017) [1].

PMID- 28861447
TI  - Input data for mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of switched
      reluctance machines.
AB  - The modeling and simulation of Switched Reluctance (SR) machine and drives is
      challenging for its dual pole salient structure and magnetic saturation. This
      paper presents the input data in form of experimentally obtained magnetization
      characteristics. This data was used for computer simulation based model of SR
      machine, "Selecting Best Interpolation Technique for Simulation Modeling of
      Switched Reluctance Machine" [1], "Modeling of Static Characteristics of Switched
      Reluctance Motor" [2]. This data is primary source of other data tables of co
      energy and static torque which are also among the required data essential for the
      simulation and can be derived from this data. The procedure and experimental
      setup for collection of the data is presented in detail.

PMID- 28861446
TI  - Raw data of the effects of Chlorogenic acid in 3-Nitropropionic acid induced
      toxicity and genotoxicity.
AB  - The raw data showed in this article comes from the published research article
      entitled "Protective effects of Chlorogenic acid in 3-Nitropropionic acid induced
      toxicity and genotoxicity" Food Chem Toxicol. 2017 May 3. pii: S0278
      6915(17)30226-0. DOI:10.1016/j.fct.2017.04.048. [1]. Data illustrates antitoxic
      and antigenotoxic effects of Chlorogenic acid (CGA) on toxicity and genotoxicity
      produced by the in vivo treatment with mitochondria toxin 3-Nitropropionic acid
      (3-NP) in mice. Toxicity and genotoxicity was evaluated in erythrocytes of
      peripheral blood through the micronuclei assay. Data was share at the Elsevier
      repository under the reference number FCT9033.

PMID- 28861448
TI  - Modeling and performance analysis dataset of a CIGS solar cell with ZnS buffer
      layer.
AB  - This article represents the baseline data of the several semiconductor materials
      used in the model of a CIGS thin film solar cell with an inclusion of ZnS buffer
      layer. As well, input parameters, contact layer data and operating conditions for
      CIGS solar cell simulation with ZnS buffer layer have been described. The
      schematic diagram of photovoltaic solar cell has been depicted. Moreover, the
      most important performance measurement graph, J-V characteristic curve, resulting
      from CIGS solar cell simulation has been analyzed to estimate the optimum values
      of fill factor and cell efficiency. These optimum results have been obtained from
      the open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, and the maximum points
      of voltage and current density generated from the cell.

PMID- 28861449
TI  - Data of added-value lipid production, Arachidonic acid, among other lipids by
      Mortierella elongata, using low cost simulated wastewater.
AB  - This article presented an innovative data of feasibility to produce Arachidonic
      acid (ARA), as added-value Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA), among other lipids
      from Mortierella elongata, using simulated low cost sugarcane wastewater,
      vinasse, as a carbon source. Data from lipids quantification by total lipids
      extraction and by lipid classes was presented. M. elongata was able to produce
      156.45mg of ARA per g of total lipids.

PMID- 28861450
TI  - Data describing IFNgamma-mediated viral clearance in an adult mouse model of
      respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
AB  - The data presented here are related to the research article entitled "Age
      predicts cytokine kinetics and innate immune cell activation following intranasal
      delivery of IFNgamma and GM-CSF in a mouse model of RSV infection" (Eichinger et
      al., 2017) [1]. The cited manuscript demonstrated that the macrophage-stimulating
      cytokine, interferon gamma (IFNgamma), but not granulocyte macrophage-colony
      stimulating factor (GM-CSF), effectively enhanced viral clearance in infant mice
      infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) following intranasal delivery.
      This article describes the immune response and viral clearing effects of
      intranasal IFNgamma in RSV-infected adult BALB/c mice demonstrating delayed
      production of endogenous IFNgamma. The dataset is made publicly available to
      extrapolate the role of IFNgamma in RSV-infected adult mice.

PMID- 28861451
TI  - Data on heavy metal levels (Cd, Co, and Cu) in wheat grains cultured in
      Dashtestan County, Iran.
AB  - Due to importance of wheat as the most popular food, in this data article, we
      determined the accumulation of heavy metal levels including Cd, Co, and Cu in
      wheat grains in Dashtestan county, Iran. The concentration levels of heavy metals
      in wheat grains cultured were determined by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry
      (FAAS).

PMID- 28861452
TI  - RNA-seq assembly and analysis of Garcinia mangostana transcriptome during seed
      germination.
AB  - Garcinia mangostana is a tropical fruit plant rich in antioxidant and bears
      recalcitrant seeds. The extent of water loss and low temperature tolerable by
      recalcitrant seed varies from regular orthodox seeds. Present study generates
      transcriptome resources for G. mangostana to postulate potential transcriptome
      differences between recalcitrant and orthodox seeds during seed germination
      process. Raw reads of pooled samples used for the assembly have been deposited in
      genbank accession SRR5412332.

PMID- 28861453
TI  - Data on the effect of oral feeding of Arachidonic acid or Docosahexanoic acid on
      haematopoiesis in mice.
AB  - Stem cells have peculiar property to self-renew and differentiate. It is
      important to control their fate in safe and effective ways for their therapeutic
      use. The mediators of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) namely
      Arachidonic acid (AA) and Docosahexanoic acid (DHA) are known to play a role in
      haematopoiesis via various metabolic pathways [1]. However the direct effect of
      purified AA or DHA on haematopoiesis has not been well investigated yet. We have
      reported that oral administration of PUFAs enhanced haematopoiesis in mice [2].
      Signaling Leukocyte Antigen Molecule (SLAM) (CD48-CD150+) phenotype consists of
      pure population of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Herein we observed higher
      percentage of SLAM (CD48-CD150+) phenotype in the bone marrow (BM) cells of mice
      fed with AA or DHA compared to PBS fed control mice. Data from engraftment study
      depicts that BM from AA/DHA-fed mice showed higher absolute number of donor cells
      in recipient mice compared to control. The enhanced hematopoiesis observed in
      AA/DHA-fed mice was returned to normal when the mice were kept on normal diet for
      six weeks (after ten days of oral feeding). We confirmed GCMS (Gas Chromatography
      Mass Spectroscopy) retention times of AA and DHA by co-injecting fatty acid
      extract from AA or DHA fed mice with purified AA or DHA standards respectively.
      Representative flow cytometry profile of Lin-Sca-1+c-kit+(LSK) cells showed
      higher expression of CXCR4 protein and ligands of Wnt, Notch1 signaling in BM of
      AA/DHA-fed mice.

PMID- 28861454
TI  - Hemodynamic response function parameters obtained from resting-state functional
      MRI data in soldiers with trauma.
AB  - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an indirect measure of brain
      activity, i.e. it is a convolution of the latent (unmeasured) neural signal and
      the hemodynamic response function (HRF). As such, the HRF has been shown to vary
      across brain regions and individuals. The shape of the HRF is controlled by both
      neural and non-neural factors. The shape of the HRF can be characterized by three
      parameters (response height, time-to-peak and full-width at half-max). The data
      presented here provides the three HRF parameters at every voxel, obtained from
      U.S. Army soldiers (N=87) diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
      with comorbid PTSD and mild-traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and matched healthy
      combat controls. Findings from this data and further interpretations are
      available in our recent research study (Rangaprakash et al., 2017) [1]. This data
      is a valuable asset in studying the impact of HRF variability on fMRI data
      analysis, specifically resting state functional connectivity.

PMID- 28861455
TI  - Baseline characteristics and event rates among anticoagulated patients with
      atrial fibrillation in practice and pivotal NOAC trials.
AB  - The data report details the baseline characteristics and observed outcomes among
      patients included in a large US administrative claims database (Optum Labs Data
      Warehouse) and those enrolled in the pivotal phase III clinical trials examining
      apixaban, dabigratan, edoxaban and rivaroxaban versus warfarin for the prevention
      of cardio embolism (Granger et al., 2011; Cannolly et al., 2009; Patel et al.,
      2011; Giugliano et al., 2013) [1], [2], [3], [4]. These data are to be
      interpreted in the context of the linked publication (Noseworthy et al., 2017)
      [5]. These data illustrate baseline characteristics in patients treated in
      routine practice and those enrolled in clinical trials. For instance, patients
      treated with apixaban in practice tended to be slightly older and we more likely
      to be female than those enrolled in the apixaban clinical trial. Patient treated
      with rivaroxaban in practice tended to have lower CHADS2 scores than those
      included in the rivaroxaban clinical trial. Overall, and stratified by baseline
      CHADS2 scores, patients treated with NOACs in routine practice had comparable or
      slightly lower stroke risks than those in the clinical trials. Patients treated
      with NOACs in routine practice had slightly higher bleeding risk in practice,
      particularly in high-risk patients with CHADS2 >= 3, compared to those in the
      clinical trials. These data may serve as a benchmark for realized outcomes among
      anticoagulated patients with atrial fibrillation in the United States and may
      serve as a useful comparison to other datasets or countries.

PMID- 28861456
TI  - Atomoxetine in abstinent cocaine users: Sex differences.
AB  - Data presented are from a sex-differences secondary analysis of a human
      laboratory investigation of single doses of atomoxetine (40 mg and 80 mg) versus
      placebo in abstinent individuals with cocaine use disorders (CUD). Subjective
      drug effects, cognitive performance and cardiovascular measures were assessed.
      The primary atomoxetine dose analyses (which do not consider sex as a factor) are
      reported in full elsewhere (DeVito et al., 2017) [1].

PMID- 28861457
TI  - Data and material of the Safe-Range-Inventory: An assistance tool helping to
      improve the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
AB  - The Safe-Range-Inventory (SRI) was constructed in order to help public
      authorities to improve the charging infrastructures for electric vehicles [1;
      10.1016/j.trf.2017.04.011]. Specifically, the impact of fast (vs slow) charging
      stations on people's range anxiety was examined. Ninety-seven electric vehicle
      users from Germany (81 male; Mage=46.3 years, SD=12.1) were recruited to
      participate in the experimental design. Statistical analyses were conducted using
      ANOVA for repeated measures to test for interaction effects of available charging
      stations and remaining range with the dependent variable range anxiety. The full
      data set is publicly available via https://osf.io/bveyw/ (Carbon and Gebauer,
      2017) [2].

PMID- 28861458
TI  - XRD and spectral dataset of the UV-A stable nanotubes of 3,5
      bis(trifluoromethyl)benzylamine derivative of tyrosine.
AB  - The data presented in this article are related to the research entitled of UV-A
      stable nanotubes. The nanotubes have been prepared from 3,5
      bis(trifluoromethyl)benzylamine derivative of tyrosine (BTTP). XRD data reveals
      the size of the nanotubes. As-synthesized nanotubes (BTTPNTs) are characterized
      by UV-vis optical absorption studies [1] and photo physical degradation kinetics.
      The resulted dataset is made available to enable critical or extended analyzes of
      the BTTPNTs as an excellent light resistive materials.

PMID- 28861459
TI  - Development of a comprehensive and sustainable gynecologic oncology training
      program in western Kenya, a low resource setting.
AB  - To provide information on the development of a gynecologic oncology training
      program in a low-resource setting in Kenya. This is a review of a collaboration
      between Kenyan and North American physicians who worked together to develop a
      gynecologic oncology training in Kenya. We review the published data on the
      increase of cancer incidence in sub-Saharan Africa and outline the steps that
      were taken to develop this program. The incidence of cervical cancer in Kenya is
      very high and is the leading cause of cancer mortality in Kenya. WHO identifies
      cancer as a new epidemic affecting countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, a
      country of 45 million, there is limited resources to diagnose and treat cancer.
      In 2009 in western Kenya, at Moi University there was no strategy to manage
      oncology in the Reproductive Health department. There was only 1 gynecologic
      oncologists in Kenya in 2009. A collaboration between Canadian and Kenya
      physicians resulted in development of a gynecologic oncology clinical program and
      initiation of fellowship training in Kenya. In the past 4 years, five fellows
      have graduated from a 2 year fellowship training program. Integration of data
      collection on all the patients as part of this program provided opportunities to
      do clinical research and to acquire peer reviewed grants. This is the first
      recognized fellowship training program in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South
      Africa. It is an example of a collaborative effort to improve women's health in a
      low-resource country. This is a Kenyan managed program through Moi University.
      These subspecialty trained doctors will also provide advice that will shape
      health care policy and provide sustainable expertise for women diagnosed with a
      gynecologic cancer.

PMID- 28861460
TI  - Incidental fallopian tube mesothelioma diagnosed at time of elective bilateral
      salpingectomy for sterilisation: A case report.
AB  - *Incidental finding of a fallopian tube lesion at the time of bilateral
      salpingectomy*Histopathological appearance not consistent with mucinous or serous
      carcinoma, appearance of mesothelioma*Very rare known primary neoplasm of tubal
      mesothelium, favours an indolent course*Recommendation for prophylactic
      hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy*If nil further spread, generally nil
      further treatment is required.

PMID- 28861461
TI  - Verifying Heisenberg's error-disturbance relation using a single trapped ion.
AB  - Heisenberg's uncertainty relations have played an essential role in quantum
      physics since its very beginning. The uncertainty relations in the modern quantum
      formalism have become a fundamental limitation on the joint measurements of
      general quantum mechanical observables, going much beyond the original discussion
      of the trade-off between knowing a particle's position and momentum. Recently,
      the uncertainty relations have generated a considerable amount of lively debate
      as a result of the new inequalities proposed as extensions of the original
      uncertainty relations. We report an experimental test of one of the new
      Heisenberg's uncertainty relations using a single 40Ca+ ion trapped in a harmonic
      potential. By performing unitary operations under carrier transitions, we verify
      the uncertainty relation proposed by Busch, Lahti, and Werner (BLW) based on a
      general error-trade-off relation for joint measurements on two compatible
      observables. The positive operator-valued measure, required by the compatible
      observables, is constructed by single-qubit operations, and the lower bound of
      the uncertainty, as observed, is satisfied in a state-independent manner. Our
      results provide the first evidence confirming the BLW-formulated uncertainty at a
      single-spin level and will stimulate broad interests in various fields associated
      with quantum mechanics.

PMID- 28861462
TI  - Nonlinear climate sensitivity and its implications for future greenhouse warming.
AB  - Global mean surface temperatures are rising in response to anthropogenic
      greenhouse gas emissions. The magnitude of this warming at equilibrium for a
      given radiative forcing-referred to as specific equilibrium climate sensitivity
      (S)-is still subject to uncertainties. We estimate global mean temperature
      variations and S using a 784,000-year-long field reconstruction of sea surface
      temperatures and a transient paleoclimate model simulation. Our results reveal
      that S is strongly dependent on the climate background state, with significantly
      larger values attained during warm phases. Using the Representative Concentration
      Pathway 8.5 for future greenhouse radiative forcing, we find that the range of
      paleo-based estimates of Earth's future warming by 2100 CE overlaps with the
      upper range of climate simulations conducted as part of the Coupled Model
      Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Furthermore, we find that within the
      21st century, global mean temperatures will very likely exceed maximum levels
      reconstructed for the last 784,000 years. On the basis of temperature data from
      eight glacial cycles, our results provide an independent validation of the
      magnitude of current CMIP5 warming projections.

PMID- 28861463
TI  - Marine plastic debris emits a keystone infochemical for olfactory foraging
      seabirds.
AB  - Plastic debris is ingested by hundreds of species of organisms, from zooplankton
      to baleen whales, but how such a diversity of consumers can mistake plastic for
      their natural prey is largely unknown. The sensory mechanisms underlying plastic
      detection and consumption have rarely been examined within the context of sensory
      signals driving marine food web dynamics. We demonstrate experimentally that
      marine-seasoned microplastics produce a dimethyl sulfide (DMS) signature that is
      also a keystone odorant for natural trophic interactions. We further demonstrate
      a positive relationship between DMS responsiveness and plastic ingestion
      frequency using procellariiform seabirds as a model taxonomic group. Together,
      these results suggest that plastic debris emits the scent of a marine
      infochemical, creating an olfactory trap for susceptible marine wildlife.

PMID- 28861465
TI  - Incorporating explicit geospatial data shows more species at risk of extinction
      than the current Red List.
AB  - The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List classifies
      species according to their risk of extinction, informing global to local
      conservation decisions. Unfortunately, important geospatial data do not
      explicitly or efficiently enter this process. Rapid growth in the availability of
      remotely sensed observations provides fine-scale data on elevation and
      increasingly sophisticated characterizations of land cover and its changes. These
      data readily show that species are likely not present within many areas within
      the overall envelopes of their distributions. Additionally, global databases on
      protected areas inform how extensively ranges are protected. We selected 586
      endemic and threatened forest bird species from six of the world's most
      biodiverse and threatened places (Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Central America,
      Western Andes of Colombia, Madagascar, Sumatra, and Southeast Asia). The Red List
      deems 18% of these species to be threatened (15 critically endangered, 29
      endangered, and 64 vulnerable). Inevitably, after refining ranges by elevation
      and forest cover, ranges shrink. Do they do so consistently? For example, refined
      ranges of critically endangered species might reduce by (say) 50% but so might
      the ranges of endangered, vulnerable, and nonthreatened species. Critically, this
      is not the case. We find that 43% of species fall below the range threshold where
      comparable species are deemed threatened. Some 210 bird species belong in a
      higher-threat category than the current Red List placement, including 189 species
      that are currently deemed nonthreatened. Incorporating readily available spatial
      data substantially increases the numbers of species that should be considered at
      risk and alters priority areas for conservation.

PMID- 28861464
TI  - Organic electronics for high-resolution electrocorticography of the human brain.
AB  - Localizing neuronal patterns that generate pathological brain signals may assist
      with tissue resection and intervention strategies in patients with neurological
      diseases. Precise localization requires high spatiotemporal recording from
      populations of neurons while minimizing invasiveness and adverse events. We
      describe a large-scale, high-density, organic material-based, conformable neural
      interface device ("NeuroGrid") capable of simultaneously recording local field
      potentials (LFPs) and action potentials from the cortical surface. We demonstrate
      the feasibility and safety of intraoperative recording with NeuroGrids in
      anesthetized and awake subjects. Highly localized and propagating physiological
      and pathological LFP patterns were recorded, and correlated neural firing
      provided evidence about their local generation. Application of NeuroGrids to
      brain disorders, such as epilepsy, may improve diagnostic precision and
      therapeutic outcomes while reducing complications associated with invasive
      electrodes conventionally used to acquire high-resolution and spiking data.

PMID- 28861466
TI  - Molecular structure of bottlebrush polymers in melts.
AB  - Bottlebrushes are fascinating macromolecules that display an intriguing
      combination of molecular and particulate features having vital implications in
      both living and synthetic systems, such as cartilage and ultrasoft elastomers.
      However, the progress in practical applications is impeded by the lack of
      knowledge about the hierarchic organization of both individual bottlebrushes and
      their assemblies. We delineate fundamental correlations between molecular
      architecture, mesoscopic conformation, and macroscopic properties of polymer
      melts. Numerical simulations corroborate theoretical predictions for the effect
      of grafting density and side-chain length on the dimensions and rigidity of
      bottlebrushes, which effectively behave as a melt of flexible filaments. These
      findings provide quantitative guidelines for the design of novel materials that
      allow architectural tuning of their properties in a broad range without changing
      chemical composition.

PMID- 28861467
TI  - There are many ways to spin a photon: Half-quantization of a total optical
      angular momentum.
AB  - The angular momentum of light plays an important role in many areas, from optical
      trapping to quantum information. In the usual three-dimensional setting, the
      angular momentum quantum numbers of the photon are integers, in units of the
      Planck constant h. We show that, in reduced dimensions, photons can have a half
      integer total angular momentum. We identify a new form of total angular momentum,
      carried by beams of light, comprising an unequal mixture of spin and orbital
      contributions. We demonstrate the half-integer quantization of this total angular
      momentum using noise measurements. We conclude that for light, as is known for
      electrons, reduced dimensionality allows new forms of quantization.

PMID- 28861468
TI  - Rapid identification of health care-associated infections with an integrated
      fluorescence anisotropy system.
AB  - Health care-associated infections (HAIs) and drug-resistant pathogens have become
      a major health care issue with millions of reported cases every year. Advanced
      diagnostics would allow clinicians to more quickly determine the most effective
      treatment, reduce the nonspecific use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials, and
      facilitate enrollment in new antibiotic treatments. We present a new integrated
      system, polarization anisotropy diagnostics (PAD), for rapid detection of HAI
      pathogens. The PAD uses changes of fluorescence anisotropy when detection probes
      recognize target bacterial nucleic acids. The technology is inherently robust
      against environmental noise and economically scalable for parallel measurements.
      The assay is fast (2 hours) and performed on-site in a single-tube format. When
      applied to clinical samples obtained from interventional procedures, the PAD
      determined the overall bacterial burden, differentiated HAI bacterial species,
      and identified drug resistance and virulence status. The PAD system holds promise
      as a powerful tool for near-patient, rapid HAI testing.

PMID- 28861469
TI  - An electromechanical Ising Hamiltonian.
AB  - Solving intractable mathematical problems in simulators composed of atoms, ions,
      photons, or electrons has recently emerged as a subject of intense interest. We
      extend this concept to phonons that are localized in spectrally pure resonances
      in an electromechanical system that enables their interactions to be exquisitely
      fashioned via electrical means. We harness this platform to emulate the Ising
      Hamiltonian whose spin 1/2 particles are replicated by the phase bistable
      vibrations from the parametric resonances of multiple modes. The coupling between
      the mechanical spins is created by generating two-mode squeezed states, which
      impart correlations between modes that can imitate a random, ferromagnetic state
      or an antiferromagnetic state on demand. These results suggest that an
      electromechanical simulator could be built for the Ising Hamiltonian in a
      nontrivial configuration, namely, for a large number of spins with multiple
      degrees of coupling.

PMID- 28861470
TI  - A strongly robust type II Weyl fermion semimetal state in Ta3S2.
AB  - Weyl semimetals are of great interest because they provide the first realization
      of the Weyl fermion, exhibit exotic quantum anomalies, and host Fermi arc surface
      states. The separation between Weyl nodes of opposite chirality gives a measure
      of the robustness of the Weyl semimetal state. To exploit the novel phenomena
      that arise from Weyl fermions in applications, it is crucially important to find
      robust separated Weyl nodes. We propose a methodology to design robust Weyl
      semimetals with well-separated Weyl nodes. Using this methodology as a guideline,
      we search among the material parameter space and identify by far the most robust
      and ideal Weyl semimetal candidate in the single-crystalline compound tantalum
      sulfide (Ta3S2) with new and novel properties beyond TaAs. Crucially, our results
      show that Ta3S2 has the largest k-space separation between Weyl nodes among known
      Weyl semimetal candidates, which is about twice larger than the measured value in
      TaAs and 20 times larger than the predicted value in WTe2. Moreover, all Weyl
      nodes in Ta3S2 are of type II. Therefore, Ta3S2 is a type II Weyl semimetal.
      Furthermore, we predict that increasing the lattice by <4% can annihilate all
      Weyl nodes, driving a novel topological metal-to-insulator transition from a Weyl
      semimetal state to a topological insulator state. The robust type II Weyl
      semimetal state and the topological metal-to-insulator transition in Ta3S2 are
      potentially useful in device applications. Our methodology can be generally
      applied to search for new Weyl semimetals.

PMID- 28861472
TI  - Microscale spatial heterogeneity of protein structural transitions in fibrin
      matrices.
AB  - Following an injury, a blood clot must form at the wound site to stop bleeding
      before skin repair can occur. Blood clots must satisfy a unique set of material
      requirements; they need to be sufficiently strong to resist pressure from the
      arterial blood flow but must be highly flexible to support large strains
      associated with tissue movement around the wound. These combined properties are
      enabled by a fibrous matrix consisting of the protein fibrin. Fibrin hydrogels
      can support large macroscopic strains owing to the unfolding transition of alpha
      helical fibril structures to beta sheets at the molecular level, among other
      reasons. Imaging protein secondary structure on the submicrometer length scale,
      we reveal that another length scale is relevant for fibrin function. We observe
      that the protein polymorphism in the gel becomes spatially heterogeneous on a
      micrometer length scale with increasing tensile strain, directly showing load
      bearing inhomogeneity and nonaffinity. Supramolecular structural features in the
      hydrogel observed under strain indicate that a uniform fibrin hydrogel develops a
      composite-like microstructure in tension, even in the absence of cellular
      inclusions.

PMID- 28861471
TI  - Mimosa Origami: A nanostructure-enabled directional self-organization regime of
      materials.
AB  - One of the innate fundamentals of living systems is their ability to respond
      toward distinct stimuli by various self-organization behaviors. Despite extensive
      progress, the engineering of spontaneous motion in man-made inorganic materials
      still lacks the directionality and scale observed in nature. We report the
      directional self-organization of soft materials into three-dimensional geometries
      by the rapid propagation of a folding stimulus along a predetermined path. We
      engineer a unique Janus bilayer architecture with superior chemical and
      mechanical properties that enables the efficient transformation of surface energy
      into directional kinetic and elastic energies. This Janus bilayer can respond to
      pinpoint water stimuli by a rapid, several-centimeters-long self-assembly that is
      reminiscent of the Mimosa pudica's leaflet folding. The Janus bilayers also
      shuttle water at flow rates up to two orders of magnitude higher than traditional
      wicking-based devices, reaching velocities of 8 cm/s and flow rates of 4.7 MUl/s.
      This self-organization regime enables the ease of fabricating curved, bent, and
      split flexible channels with lengths greater than 10 cm, demonstrating immense
      potential for microfluidics, biosensors, and water purification applications.

PMID- 28861473
TI  - Introduction to Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

PMID- 28861474
TI  - Expression of Cannabinoid Receptors in Human Osteoarthritic Cartilage:
      Implications for Future Therapies.
AB  - Introduction: Cannabinoids have shown to reduce joint damage in animal models of
      arthritis and reduce matrix metalloproteinase expression in primary human
      osteoarthritic (OA) chondrocytes. The actions of cannabinoids are mediated by a
      number of receptors, including cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2 (CB1 and CB2), G
      protein-coupled receptors 55 and 18 (GPR55 and GPR18), transient receptor
      potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors
      alpha and gamma (PPARalpha and PPARgamma). However, to date very few studies have
      investigated the expression and localization of these receptors in human
      chondrocytes, and expression during degeneration, and thus their potential in
      clinical applications is unknown. Methods: Human articular cartilage from
      patients with symptomatic OA was graded histologically and the expression and
      localization of cannabinoid receptors within OA cartilage and underlying bone
      were determined immunohistochemically. Expression levels across regions of
      cartilage and changes with degeneration were investigated. Results: Expression of
      all the cannabinoid receptors investigated was observed with no change with grade
      of degeneration seen in the expression of CB1, CB2, GPR55, PPARalpha, and
      PPARgamma. Conversely, the number of chondrocytes within the deep zone of
      cartilage displaying immunopositivity for GPR18 and TRPV1 was significantly
      decreased in degenerate cartilage. Receptor expression was higher in chondrocytes
      than in osteocytes in the underlying bone. Conclusions: Chondrocytes from OA
      joints were shown to express a wide range of cannabinoid receptors even in
      degenerate tissues, demonstrating that these cells could respond to cannabinoids.
      Cannabinoids designed to bind to receptors inhibiting the catabolic and pain
      pathways within the arthritic joint, while avoiding psychoactive effects, could
      provide potential arthritis therapies.

PMID- 28861475
TI  - Adherence to Medical Cannabis Among Licensed Patients in Israel.
AB  - Objectives: To evaluate adherence among Israeli patients who are licensed to use
      medical cannabis and to identify factors associated with adherence to medical
      cannabis. Methods: Ninety-five novice licensed patients were interviewed for this
      cross-sectional study. The questionnaire measured demographics, the perceived
      patient-physician relationship, and the level of patients' active involvement in
      their healthcare. In addition, patients were queried about adverse effect(s) and
      about their overall satisfaction from this medical treatment. Results: Eighty
      percent (n=76) has been identified as adherent to medical cannabis use. Variables
      found associated with adherence were "country of origin" (immigrant status),
      "type of illness" (cancer vs. non-cancer), and "experiencing adverse effect(s)."
      Three predictors of adherence were found significant in a logistic regression
      model: "type of illness" (odds ratio [OR] 0.101), patient-physician relationship
      (OR 1.406), and level of patient activation (OR 1.132). 71.5% rated themselves
      being "completely satisfied" or "satisfied" from medical cannabis use.
      Conclusions: Our findings show a relatively high adherence rate for medical
      cannabis, as well as relative safety and high satisfaction among licensed
      patients. Additionally indicated is the need to develop and implement
      standardized education about this evolving field-to both patients and physicians.

PMID- 28861477
TI  - Tackling the Pharmaceutical Frontier: Regulation of Cannabinoid-Based Medicines
      in Postwar Japan.
AB  - Background: The valley of death, which refers to the gap due to the lack of
      support for the translation of basic research to related clinical studies, exists
      in the field of translational cannabinoid research in Japan owing to regulations.
      Article 4 of the Cannabis Control Act (CCA) of 1948 prohibits the use of Cannabis
      based medicines. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the history of the
      establishment of regulations on the medical use of Cannabis-based medicines and
      discuss the current status of cannabinoid research and its regulation in Japan.
      Methods: We conducted a literature review of nationally archived official
      documents from the end of World War II in 1945 to 1948, which is the year the CCA
      was established. The documents were examined, specifically focusing on the
      sequence of events. Results: We found three memoranda related to the
      establishment of the CCA. The establishment of law on controlling narcotics was
      instructed by the general headquarters (GHQ)/Supreme Commander for the Allied
      Powers (SCAP) during the period of occupation after World War II. However, the
      Japanese Government decided to regulate Cannabis separately from other narcotics.
      Item (ii) of article 4 in the CCA, which prohibits medical application of
      Cannabis, was included to protect farmers growing Cannabis for the hemp content.
      Conclusion: Current Japanese regulations prohibiting clinical research in
      phytocannabinoids were instituted during the postwar era of World War II.
      Scientific discoveries have advanced cannabinoid research and have led positive
      reforms of the regulation of Cannabis in other countries. Therefore, there is
      ample motivation and opportunity for Japanese stakeholders to revise article 4 of
      the CCA for the benefit of patients.

PMID- 28861476
TI  - Allosteric Modulators of the CB1 Cannabinoid Receptor: A Structural Update
      Review.
AB  - In 2005, the first evidence of an allosteric binding site at the CB1R was
      provided by the identification of three indoles of the company Organon that were
      allosteric enhancers of agonist binding affinity and, functionally, allosteric
      inhibitors of agonist activity. Since then, structure-activity relationships of
      indoles as CB1R modulators have been reported. Targeting the allosteric site on
      CB1R, new families structurally based on urea and on 3-phenyltropane analogs of
      cocaine have been discovered as CB1R-negative allosteric modulators (NAMs),
      respectively, by Prosidion and by the Research Triangle Park. Endogenous
      allosteric ligands of different nature have been identified more recently. Thus,
      the therapeutic neuroprotection application of lipoxin A4, an arachidonic acid
      derivative, as an allosteric enhancer of CB1R activity has been confirmed in
      vivo. It was also the case of the steroid hormone, pregnenolone, whose negative
      allosteric effects on Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta9-THC) were reproduced in
      vivo in a behavioral tetrad model and in food intake and memory impairment
      assays. Curiously, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonist
      fenofibrate or polypeptides such as pepcan-12 have been shown to act on the
      endocannabinoid system through CB1R allosteric modulation. The mechanistic bases
      of the effects of the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) are still not fully
      explained. However, there is evidence that CBD behaves as an NAM of Delta9-THC-
      and 2-AG. Allosteric modulation at CB1R offers new opportunities for therapeutic
      applications. Therefore, further understanding of the chemical features required
      for allosteric modulation as well as their orthosteric probe dependence may
      broaden novel approaches for fine-tuning the signaling pathways of the CB1R.

PMID- 28861478
TI  - Cannabinoids in Medical Practice.
AB  - Many patients with chronic medical illnesses use cannabinoids. There are two FDA
      approved cannabinoid products, whereas medical marijuana purchased at legal
      dispensaries is not FDA regulated and may contain uncertain concentrations of
      various compounds. Cannabinoids have shown efficacy in treating chemotherapy
      related nausea and vomiting, poor appetite in advanced HIV, some pain states, and
      multiple sclerosis-associated spasticity. Recreational cannabinoid use has many
      known potential serious harms. Physicians should be knowledgeable about
      cannabinoids and should inquire with their patients about cannabinoid use.
      Practical suggestions for clinical approaches are included.

PMID- 28861479
TI  - The Cannabis sativa Versus Cannabis indica Debate: An Interview with Ethan Russo,
      MD.
AB  - Dr. Ethan Russo, MD, is a board-certified neurologist, psychopharmacology
      researcher, and Medical Director of PHYTECS, a biotechnology company researching
      and developing innovative approaches targeting the human endocannabinoid system.
      Previously, from 2003 to 2014, he served as Senior Medical Advisor and study
      physician to GW Pharmaceuticals for three Phase III clinical trials of Sativex(r)
      for alleviation of cancer pain unresponsive to optimized opioid treatment and
      studies of Epidiolex(r) for intractable epilepsy. He has held faculty
      appointments in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Montana, in Medicine
      at the University of Washington, and as visiting Professor, Chinese Academy of
      Sciences. He is a past President of the International Cannabinoid Research
      Society and former Chairman of the International Association for Cannabinoid
      Medicines. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the American Botanical
      Council. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters, and articles on
      Cannabis, ethnobotany, and herbal medicine. His research interests have included
      correlations of historical uses of Cannabis with modern pharmacological
      mechanisms, phytopharmaceutical treatment of migraine and chronic pain, and
      phytocannabinoid/terpenoid/serotonergic/vanilloid interactions.

PMID- 28861480
TI  - Legal or Illegal, Cannabis Is Still Addictive.

PMID- 28861481
TI  - Endocannabinoids and Immunity.
AB  - Over the last 10 years, a great boost of knowledge accumulated on the
      immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties of endocannabinoids (eCBs). In
      this scenario, these bioactive lipids, which are produced by most immune cells
      along with a set of receptors and enzymes that regulate their synthesis and
      degradation, act as secondary modulators and increase or decrease a plethora of
      immune functions. In this review, the manifold immunomodulatory effects of the
      main eCBs in different compartments of innate and adaptive immunity will be
      discussed, suggesting that they could be considered as master regulators of
      innate-adaptive immune axis and as potent immunoresolvents.

PMID- 28861482
TI  - Medicinal Cannabis in California: An Interview with Igor Grant, MD.
AB  - Dr. Igor Grant, MD, is distinguished professor and chair of psychiatry and
      director of the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program and the Center for Medicinal
      Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Grant is a
      neuropsychiatrist who graduated from the University of British Columbia School of
      Medicine (1966), and received specialty training in psychiatry at the University
      of Pennsylvania (1967-1971), and additional training in neurology at the
      Institute of Neurology (1980-1981), London, U.K. Dr. Grant's academic interests
      focus on the effects of various diseases on brain and behavior, with an emphasis
      on translational studies in HIV, and drugs of abuse. He has contributed to ~700
      scholarly publications and is principal investigator of several NIH studies,
      including an NIDA P50 (Translational Methamphetamine AIDS Research Center-TMARC),
      and is codirector of the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC).

PMID- 28861483
TI  - Enhancement of Anandamide-Mediated Endocannabinoid Signaling Corrects Autism
      Related Social Impairment.
AB  - Introduction: We recently uncovered a signaling mechanism by which the
      endocannabinoid anandamide mediates the action of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that
      is crucial for social behavior, to control social reward. Oxytocin signaling has
      been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and social reward is a key
      aspect of social functioning that is thought to be disrupted in ASD. Therefore,
      as a proof of principle for the core component of ASD-social impairment-we tested
      an endocannabinoid-enhancing compound on two widely studied mouse models of ASD,
      the BTBR and fmr1-/- (model of Fragile X Syndrome). Methods: We used the
      established three-chambered social approach test. We specifically increased the
      activity of anandamide by administering the compound URB597, a selective
      inhibitor of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the hydrolytic enzyme for
      anandamide. Results: Remarkably, we found that FAAH blockade completely reversed
      the social impairment in both mouse models. CB1 receptor blockade prevented the
      prosocial action of FAAH inhibition in BTBR mice. These results were likely
      independent of effects on anxiety, as FAAH inhibition did not alter the
      performance of BTBR mice in the elevated plus maze. Conclusions: The results
      suggest that increasing anandamide activity at CB1 receptors improves ASD-related
      social impairment and identify FAAH as a novel therapeutic target for ASD.

PMID- 28861484
TI  - Human Metabolites of Cannabidiol: A Review on Their Formation, Biological
      Activity, and Relevance in Therapy.
AB  - Cannabidiol (CBD), the main nonpsychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa, has
      shown a wide range of therapeutically promising pharmacological effects either as
      a sole drug or in combination with other drugs in adjunctive therapy. However,
      the targets involved in the therapeutic effects of CBD appear to be elusive.
      Furthermore, scarce information is available on the biological activity of its
      human metabolites which, when formed in pharmacologically relevant concentration,
      might contribute to or even account for the observed therapeutic effects. The
      present overview summarizes our current knowledge on the pharmacokinetics and
      metabolic fate of CBD in humans, reviews studies on the biological activity of
      CBD metabolites either in vitro or in vivo, and discusses relevant drug-drug
      interactions. To facilitate further research in the area, the reported syntheses
      of CBD metabolites are also catalogued.

PMID- 28861485
TI  - Identification of Psychoactive Degradants of Cannabidiol in Simulated Gastric and
      Physiological Fluid.
AB  - Introduction: In recent research, orally administered cannabidiol (CBD) showed a
      relatively high incidence of somnolence in a pediatric population. Previous work
      has suggested that when CBD is exposed to an acidic environment, it degrades to
      Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other psychoactive cannabinoids. To gain a
      better understanding of quantitative exposure, we completed an in vitro study by
      evaluating the formation of psychoactive cannabinoids when CBD is exposed to
      simulated gastric fluid (SGF). Methods: Materials included synthetic CBD, Delta8
      THC, and Delta9-THC. Linearity was demonstrated for each component over the
      concentration range used in this study. CBD was spiked into media containing 1%
      sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Samples were analyzed using chromatography with UV
      and mass spectrometry detection. An assessment time of 3 h was chosen as
      representative of the maximal duration of exposure to gastric fluid. Results: CBD
      in SGF with 1% SDS was degraded about 85% after 60 min and more than 98% at 120
      min. The degradation followed first-order kinetics at a rate constant of -0.031
      min-1 (R2=0.9933). The major products formed were Delta9-THC and Delta8-THC with
      less significant levels of other related cannabinoids. CBD in physiological
      buffer performed as a control did not convert to THC. Confirmation of THC
      formation was demonstrated by comparison of mass spectral analysis, mass
      identification, and retention time of Delta9-THC and Delta8-THC in the SGF
      samples against authentic reference standards. Conclusions: SGF converts CBD into
      the psychoactive components Delta9-THC and Delta8-THC. The first-order kinetics
      observed in this study allowed estimated levels to be calculated and indicated
      that the acidic environment during normal gastrointestinal transit can expose
      orally CBD-treated patients to levels of THC and other psychoactive cannabinoids
      that may exceed the threshold for a physiological response. Delivery methods that
      decrease the potential for formation of psychoactive cannabinoids should be
      explored.

PMID- 28861487
TI  - Furthering Cannabis Research and Education: An Interview with Fundacion CANNA.
AB  - Fundacion CANNA is a nonprofit initiative of CANNA, a multinational company
      producing high-quality fertilizers for fast growing plants. The Foundation
      carries out studies and conducts research on cannabis and its active compounds.
      Fundacion CANNA supports different congresses, initiatives, and scientific
      studies to push forward the knowledge about cannabinoids as a medicine.

PMID- 28861486
TI  - Cannabinoid Regulation of Acute and Anticipatory Nausea.
AB  - Chemotherapy-induced nausea is one of the most distressing symptoms reported by
      patients undergoing treatment, and even with the introduction of newer
      antiemetics such as ondansetron and aprepitant, nausea remains problematic in the
      clinic. Indeed, when acute nausea is not properly managed, the cues of the clinic
      can become associated with this distressing symptom resulting in anticipatory
      nausea for which no effective treatments are available. Clinical trials exploring
      the potential of exogenous or endogenous cannabinoids to reduce chemotherapy
      induced nausea are sparse; therefore, we must rely on the data from pre-clinical
      rat models of nausea. In this review, we explore the human and pre-clinical
      animal literature examining the potential for exogenous and endogenous
      cannabinoid treatments to regulate chemotherapy-induced nausea. The pre-clinical
      evidence points to a compelling need to evaluate the antinausea potential of
      cannabidiol, cannabidiolic acid, and treatments that boost the functioning of the
      endocannabinoid system in human clinical trials.

PMID- 28861488
TI  - Can You Pass the Acid Test? Critical Review and Novel Therapeutic Perspectives of
      Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid A.
AB  - Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid A (THCA-A) is the acidic precursor of Delta9
      tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive compound found in Cannabis
      sativa. THCA-A is biosynthesized and accumulated in glandular trichomes present
      on flowers and leaves, where it serves protective functions and can represent up
      to 90% of the total THC contained in the plant. THCA-A slowly decarboxylates to
      form THC during storage and fermentation and can further degrade to cannabinol.
      Decarboxylation also occurs rapidly during baking of edibles, smoking, or
      vaporizing, the most common ways in which the general population consumes
      Cannabis. Contrary to THC, THCA-A does not elicit psychoactive effects in humans
      and, perhaps for this reason, its pharmacological value is often neglected. In
      fact, many studies use the term "THCA" to refer indistinctly to several acid
      derivatives of THC. Despite this perception, many in vitro studies seem to
      indicate that THCA-A interacts with a number of molecular targets and displays a
      robust pharmacological profile that includes potential anti-inflammatory,
      immunomodulatory, neuroprotective, and antineoplastic properties. Moreover, the
      few in vivo studies performed with THCA-A indicate that this compound exerts
      pharmacological actions in rodents, likely by engaging type-1 cannabinoid (CB1)
      receptors. Although these findings may seem counterintuitive due to the lack of
      cannabinoid-related psychoactivity, a careful perusal of the available literature
      yields a plausible explanation to this conundrum and points toward novel
      therapeutic perspectives for raw, unheated Cannabis preparations in humans.

PMID- 28861489
TI  - A Cross-Sectional Survey of Medical Cannabis Users: Patterns of Use and Perceived
      Efficacy.
AB  - Background: The political climate around Cannabis as a medicine is rapidly
      changing. Legislators are adopting policies regarding appropriate medical
      applications, while the paucity of research may make policy decisions around
      conditions for which Cannabis is an effective medicine difficult. Methods: An
      anonymous online survey was developed to query medical Cannabis users about the
      conditions they use Cannabis to treat, their use patterns, perception of
      efficacy, and physical and mental health. Participants were recruited through
      social media and Cannabis dispensaries in Washington State. Results: A total of
      1429 participants identified as medical Cannabis users. The most frequently
      reported conditions for which they used Cannabis were pain (61.2%), anxiety
      (58.1%), depression (50.3%), headache/migraine (35.5%), nausea (27.4%), and
      muscle spasticity (18.4%). On average, participants reported an 86% reduction in
      symptoms as a result of Cannabis use; 59.8% of medical users reported using
      Cannabis as an alternative to pharmaceutical prescriptions. Global health scores
      were on par with the general population for mental health and physical health.
      Conclusions: While patient-reported outcomes favor strong efficacy for a broad
      range of symptoms, many medical users are using Cannabis without physician
      supervision and for conditions for which there is no formal research to support
      the use of Cannabis (e.g., depression and anxiety). Future research and public
      policy should attempt to reduce the incongruence between approved and actual use.

PMID- 28861490
TI  - Maintenance of Blinding in Clinical Trials and the Implications for Studying
      Analgesia Using Cannabinoids.
AB  - The design of analgesic clinical trials invariably involves a comparison between
      placebo and active study medication. An assumption is made that treatment effects
      can be approximated by subtracting the response to placebo from that attained
      with the use of active study medication. However, the psychoactivity of
      cannabinoids may unmask their presence and lead to an expectation and/or
      conditioning of pain relief. For example, study participants biased toward the
      belief that cannabis is beneficial for their condition might be more inclined to
      report positive effects if they were to accurately identify the active treatment
      because of its psychoactivity. This may lead to incorrect assumptions regarding
      the efficacy of a cannabinoid. Methodologies designed to counteract unmasking
      need to be implemented in the design phase of a study. During the clinical trial,
      it is also important to query participants as to which treatment they believe
      they have received. Blinding can be considered to be preserved when the accuracy
      of treatment guesses is not considerably different than random guessing, which is
      estimated to be correct 50% of the time. After a study has been completed, the
      use of statistical methodologies such as regression and mediation analysis are
      worthy of consideration to see whether psychoactive effects biased the results.

PMID- 28861491
TI  - Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency Reconsidered: Current Research Supports the
      Theory in Migraine, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel, and Other Treatment-Resistant
      Syndromes.
AB  - Medicine continues to struggle in its approaches to numerous common subjective
      pain syndromes that lack objective signs and remain treatment resistant. Foremost
      among these are migraine, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome, disorders
      that may overlap in their affected populations and whose sufferers have all
      endured the stigma of a psychosomatic label, as well as the failure of endless
      pharmacotherapeutic interventions with substandard benefit. The commonality in
      symptomatology in these conditions displaying hyperalgesia and central
      sensitization with possible common underlying pathophysiology suggests that a
      clinical endocannabinoid deficiency might characterize their origin. Its base
      hypothesis is that all humans have an underlying endocannabinoid tone that is a
      reflection of levels of the endocannabinoids, anandamide
      (arachidonylethanolamide), and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, their production,
      metabolism, and the relative abundance and state of cannabinoid receptors. Its
      theory is that in certain conditions, whether congenital or acquired,
      endocannabinoid tone becomes deficient and productive of pathophysiological
      syndromes. When first proposed in 2001 and subsequently, this theory was based on
      genetic overlap and comorbidity, patterns of symptomatology that could be
      mediated by the endocannabinoid system (ECS), and the fact that exogenous
      cannabinoid treatment frequently provided symptomatic benefit. However, objective
      proof and formal clinical trial data were lacking. Currently, however,
      statistically significant differences in cerebrospinal fluid anandamide levels
      have been documented in migraineurs, and advanced imaging studies have
      demonstrated ECS hypofunction in post-traumatic stress disorder. Additional
      studies have provided a firmer foundation for the theory, while clinical data
      have also produced evidence for decreased pain, improved sleep, and other
      benefits to cannabinoid treatment and adjunctive lifestyle approaches affecting
      the ECS.

PMID- 28861492
TI  - Sex Differences in Cannabis Use and Effects: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Cannabis
      Users.
AB  - Introduction: Despite known sex differences in the endocannabinoid system of
      animals, little attention has been paid to sex differences in human's cannabis
      use patterns and effects. The purpose of the present study was to examine sex
      differences in cannabis use patterns and effects in a large sample of
      recreational and medical cannabis users. Methods: A large sample (n=2374) of
      cannabis users completed an anonymous, online survey that assessed their cannabis
      use practices and experiences, including the short-term acute effects of cannabis
      and withdrawal effects. A subsample of 1418 medical cannabis users further
      indicated the medical conditions for which they use cannabis and its perceived
      efficacy. Results: The results indicated that men reported using cannabis more
      frequently and in higher quantities than did women. Men were more likely to
      report using joints/blunts, vaporizers, and concentrates, while women were more
      likely to report using pipes and oral administration. Men were more likely than
      women to report increased appetite, improved memory, enthusiasm, altered time
      perception, and increased musicality when high, while women were more likely than
      men to report loss of appetite and desire to clean when high. Men were more
      likely than women to report insomnia and vivid dreams during periods of
      withdrawal, while women were more likely than men to report nausea and anxiety as
      withdrawal symptoms. Sex differences in the conditions for which medical cannabis
      is used, and its efficacy, were trivial. Conclusions: These results may be used
      to focus research on biological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying cannabis
      related sex differences, to inform clinicians treating individuals with cannabis
      use disorders, and to inform cannabis consumers, clinicians, and policymakers
      about the risks and benefits of cannabis for both sexes.

PMID- 28861493
TI  - Increased Renal 2-Arachidonoylglycerol Level Is Associated with Improved Renal
      Function in a Mouse Model of Acute Kidney Injury.
AB  - Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with a significantly
      increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a
      major cause of AKI. In this study, we investigated the role of the
      endocannabinoid (EC) system in renal IRI using a well-established mouse model.
      Materials and Methods: Renal ischemia was induced in male C57BL/6 mice by
      clamping both kidney pedicles for 30 min followed by 24 h of reperfusion. To
      increase renal 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) levels, mice were pretreated with
      JZL184 (16 mg/kg), 30 min before IRI. Serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen
      (BUN), renal tubular damage, renal content of ECs and renal expression of markers
      of inflammation and oxidative stress were measured. Results: Renal IRI was
      associated with significantly increased serum BUN and creatinine, increased
      tubular damage score, increased expression of renal markers of inflammation and
      oxidative stress and elevated renal 2-AG content. Pretreatment with JZL184 was
      associated with a significant increase in renal 2-AG content and there was also
      improved serum BUN, creatinine and tubular damage score. However, renal
      expression of inflammation and oxidative stress markers remained unchanged.
      Conclusions: This is the first report documenting that renal IRI is associated
      with an increase in kidney 2-AG content. Further enhancement of 2-AG levels using
      JZL184 improved indices of renal function and histology, but did not lower renal
      expression of markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. Further studies are
      needed to determine the mechanisms responsible for the effects observed and the
      potential value of 2-AG as a therapeutic target in renal IRI.

PMID- 28861494
TI  - The Name of Cannabis: A Short Guide for Nonbotanists.
AB  - The genus Cannabis (Family Cannabaceae) is probably indigenous to wet habitats of
      Asiatic continent. The long coexistence between mankind and Cannabis led to an
      early domestication of the plant, which soon showed an amazing spectrum of
      possible utilizations, as a source of textile fibers, as well as narcotic and
      psychoactive compounds. Nowadays, the specie(s) belonging to the genus Cannabis
      are represented by myriads of cultivated varieties, often with unstable taxonomic
      foundations. The nomenclature of Cannabis has been the object of numerous
      nomenclatural treatments. Linnaeus in Species Plantarum (1753) described a single
      species of hemp, Cannabis sativa, whereas Lamarck (1785) proposed two species of
      Cannabis: C. sativa, the species largely cultivated in Western Continent, and
      Cannabis indica, a wild species growing in India and neighboring countries. The
      dilemma about the existence of the species C. indica considered distinct from C.
      sativa continues up to present days. Due to their prevalent economic interest,
      the nomenclatural treatment is particularly important as far as it concerns the
      cultivated varieties of Cannabis. In this context, we propose to avoid the
      distinction between sativa and indica, suggesting a bimodal approach: when a
      cultivar has been correctly established. It could be advisable to apply a
      nomenclature system based on the International Code of Nomenclature for
      Cultivated Plants (ICNCP): it is not necessary to use the species epithets,
      sativa or indica, and a combination of the genus name and a cultivar epithet in
      any language and bounded by single quotation marks define an exclusive name for
      each Cannabis cultivar. In contrast, Cannabis varieties named with vernacular
      names by medical patients and recreational users, and lacking an adequate
      description as required by ICNCP, should be named as Cannabis strain, followed by
      their popularized name and without single quotation marks, having in mind that
      their names have no taxonomical validity.

PMID- 28861495
TI  - Cannabis Users' Recommended Warnings for Packages of Legally Sold Cannabis: An
      Australia-Centered Study.
AB  - Introduction: Although cannabis use creates health risks, governments have
      recently been legalizing either medical use or leisure use. These governments can
      mandate health warnings on cannabis packages. Prior research examined recommended
      warnings of cannabis experts. The aim of this study was to obtain suggested
      cannabis health and safety warnings from cannabis users. Methods: We used a media
      release, Facebook postings, and announcements in university classes to seek
      individuals who had used cannabis at least once according to their own report.
      Using online data collection software that keeps participants anonymous, we asked
      the individuals to suggest a warning that governments could mandate on cannabis
      packages. Results: In total, 288 users suggested warnings. Categorizing the
      warnings into content categories led to six warning topics: (1) risk of harm to
      mental health and psychological functioning; (2) risk of operating machinery
      while under the influence; (3) short-term physical side effects; (4) responsible
      use; (5) long-term negative physical effects; and (6) dependence, addiction, or
      abuse. The user-suggested warnings overlapped with six expert-recommended
      warnings identified in prior survey research and included two content areas that
      did not feature in expert-recommended warnings: short-term physical side effects
      and the importance of responsible use. Conclusions: The results are consistent
      with prior findings that some youths perceive cannabis use as potentially
      harmful. The current findings provide possible new content for warnings on
      cannabis packages.

PMID- 28861496
TI  - Training and Practices of Cannabis Dispensary Staff.
AB  - Introduction: The proliferation of cannabis dispensaries within the United States
      has emerged from patient demand for the legalization of cannabis as an
      alternative treatment for a number of conditions and symptoms. Unfortunately,
      nothing is known about the practices of dispensary staff with respect to
      recommendation of cannabis strains/concentrations for specific patient ailments.
      To address this limitation, the present study assessed the training and practices
      of cannabis dispensary staff. Materials and Methods: Medical and nonmedical
      dispensary staff (n=55) were recruited via e-mail and social media to complete an
      online survey assessing their demographic characteristics, dispensary features,
      patient characteristics, formal training, and cannabis recommendation practices.
      Results: Fifty-five percent of dispensary staff reported some formal training for
      their position, with 20% reporting medical/scientific training. A majority (94%)
      indicated that they provide specific cannabis advice to patients. In terms of
      strains, dispensary staff trended toward recommendations of Indica for anxiety,
      chronic pain, insomnia, nightmares, and Tourette's syndrome. They were more
      likely to recommend Indica and hybrid plants for post-traumatic stress disorder
      (PTSD)/trauma and muscle spasms. In contrast, staff were less likely to recommend
      Indica for depression; hybrid strains were most often recommended for amyotrophic
      lateral sclerosis (ALS). In terms of cannabinoid concentrations, dispensary staff
      were most likely to recommend a 1:1 ratio of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol
      (THC):cannabidiol (CBD) for patients suffering from anxiety, Crohn's disease,
      hepatitis C, and PTSD/trauma, while patients seeking appetite stimulation were
      most likely to be recommended THC. Staff recommended high CBD for arthritis and
      Alzheimer's disease and a high CBD or 1:1 ratio for ALS, epilepsy, and muscle
      spasms. Conclusions: Although many dispensary staff are making recommendations
      consistent with current evidence, some are recommending cannabis that has either
      not been shown effective for, or could exacerbate, a patient's condition.
      Findings underscore the importance of consistent, evidence-based, training of
      dispensary staff who provide specific recommendations for patient medical
      conditions.

PMID- 28861498
TI  - Decarboxylation Study of Acidic Cannabinoids: A Novel Approach Using Ultra-High
      Performance Supercritical Fluid Chromatography/Photodiode Array-Mass
      Spectrometry.
AB  - Introduction: Decarboxylation is an important step for efficient production of
      the major active components in cannabis, for example, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol
      (Delta9-THC), cannabidiol (CBD), and cannabigerol (CBG). These cannabinoids do
      not occur in significant concentrations in cannabis but can be formed by
      decarboxylation of their corresponding acids, the predominant cannabinoids in the
      plant. Study of the kinetics of decarboxylation is of importance for
      phytocannabinoid isolation and dosage formulation for medical use. Efficient
      analytical methods are essential for simultaneous detection of both neutral and
      acidic cannabinoids. Methods:C. sativa extracts were used for the studies.
      Decarboxylation conditions were examined at 80 degrees C, 95 degrees C, 110
      degrees C, 130 degrees C, and 145 degrees C for different times up to 60 min in a
      vacuum oven. An ultra-high performance supercritical fluid
      chromatography/photodiode array-mass spectrometry (UHPSFC/PDA-MS) method was used
      for the analysis of acidic and neutral cannabinoids before and after
      decarboxylation. Results: Decarboxylation at different temperatures displayed an
      exponential relationship between concentration and time indicating a first-order
      or pseudo-first-order reaction. The rate constants for Delta9
      tetrahydrocannabinolic acid-A (THCA-A) were twice those of the cannabidiolic acid
      (CBDA) and cannabigerolic acid (CBGA). Decarboxylation of THCA-A was forthright
      with no side reactions or by-products. Decarboxylation of CBDA and CBGA was not
      as straightforward due to the unexplained loss of reactants or products.
      Conclusion: The reported UHPSFC/PDA-MS method provided consistent and sensitive
      analysis of phytocannabinoids and their decarboxylation products and degradants.
      The rate of change of acidic cannabinoid concentrations over time allowed for
      determination of rate constants. Variations of rate constants with temperature
      yielded values for reaction energy.

PMID- 28861497
TI  - Preliminary Development of a Brief Cannabis Use Disorder Screening Tool: The
      Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test Short-Form.
AB  - Introduction: Rates of cannabis use disorder (CUD) among vulnerable populations
      have increased in recent years, highlighting a need to equip providers with an
      efficient screening tool. Materials and Methods: A short form of the Cannabis Use
      Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R) was developed by using item
      response theory and traditional statistical methods, with data from two community
      samples of cannabis users representing two countries. Four item selection methods
      (Rasch regression, test characteristic curve, logistic regression, discriminant
      function analysis) were employed to identify the optimal three-item shortened
      version. The diagnostic ability of the short form was evaluated by using receiver
      operating characteristic curves. Results: Using a cut score of 2, the 3-item
      CUDIT-Short Form (CUDIT-SF; reliability alpha=0.66, Sample 1; 0.80, Sample 2)
      identified 78.26% of participants in Sample 1 and 78.31% of participants in
      Sample 2 who met DSM-5 criteria for CUD, with 98% agreement in Sample 1 and 93%
      agreement in Sample 2 with the full CUDIT-R on CUD classifications using a cut
      score of 13. Specificity was 76.70 and 78.00 in Samples 1 and 2, respectively.
      Conclusions: The CUDIT-SF may be useful in busy clinical settings for a stepwise
      screening. Further validation of this shortened version with larger samples and
      in different settings is warranted.

PMID- 28861499
TI  - Even High Doses of Oral Cannabidol Do Not Cause THC-Like Effects in Humans:
      Comment on Merrick et al. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 2016;1(1):102-112;
      DOI: 10.1089/can.2015.0004.
AB  - This short communication examines the question whether the experimental data
      presented in a study by Merrick et al. are of clinical relevance. These authors
      found that cannabidiol (CBD), a major cannabinoid of the cannabis plant devoid of
      psychotropic effects and of great interest for therapeutic use in several medical
      conditions, may be converted in gastric fluid into the psychoactive cannabinoids
      delta-8-THC and delta-9-THC to a relevant degree. They concluded that "the acidic
      environment during normal gastrointestinal transit can expose orally CBD-treated
      patients to levels of THC and other psychoactive cannabinoids that may exceed the
      threshold for a positive physiological response." They issued a warning
      concerning oral use of CBD and recommend the development of other delivery
      methods. However, the available clinical data do not support this conclusion and
      recommendation, since even high doses of oral CBD do not cause psychological,
      psychomotor, cognitive, or physical effects that are characteristic for THC or
      cannabis rich in THC. On the contrary, in the past decades and by several groups,
      high doses of oral CBD were consistently shown to cause opposite effects to those
      of THC in clinical studies. In addition, administration of CBD did not result in
      detectable THC blood concentrations. Thus, there is no reason to avoid oral use
      of CBD, which has been demonstrated to be a safe means of administration of CBD,
      even at very high doses.

PMID- 28861500
TI  - Conversion of Cannabidiol Following Oral Administration: Authors' Response to
      Grotenhermen et al. DOI: 10.1089/can.2016.0036.
AB  - In a commentary, Grotenhermen, Russo, and Zuardi questioned not only the clinical
      relevance but also the conclusions of a recently published study by Merrick et
      al. on the conversion of cannabidiol (CBD) to delta-8 and delta-9
      tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in simulated gastric fluid. In response, this article
      aims to provide a thorough review of the in vitro and in vivo studies of gastric
      CBD conversion as well as potential consequences resulting from such conversion.
      Findings highlight (1) consistent evidence over the past half century of gastric
      conversion of CBD, (2) evidence from human studies, indicating the importance of
      testing for THC metabolites as well as a number of other cannabinoids in the
      detection of such conversion, and (3) THC-like effects after administration of
      oral CBD in humans that may not only stem from CBD's conversion to THC, but also
      its conversion to 9alpha-hydroxy-hexahydrocannabinol and 8alpha-hydroxy-iso
      hexahydrocannabinol. These findings, coupled with a number of limitations in the
      existing literature, point to the need for large-scale human studies,
      specifically designed to explore gastric conversion and potential THC-like side
      effects after oral administration of CBD.

PMID- 28861501
TI  - Palmitoylethanolamide Modulates GPR55 Receptor Signaling in the Ventral
      Hippocampus to Regulate Mesolimbic Dopamine Activity, Social Interaction, and
      Memory Processing.
AB  - Introduction: The GPR55 receptor has been identified as an atypical cannabinoid
      receptor and is implicated in various physiological processes. However, its
      functional role in the central nervous system is not currently understood. The
      presence of GPR55 receptor in neural regions such as the ventral hippocampus
      (vHipp), which is critical for cognition, recognition memory, and affective
      processing, led us to hypothesize that intra-vHipp GPR55 transmission may
      modulate mesolimbic activity states and related behavioral phenomena. The vHipp
      is involved in contextual memory and affective regulation through functional
      interactions with the mesolimbic dopamine system. Materials and Methods: Using a
      combination of in vivo electrophysiology and behavioral pharmacological assays in
      rats, we tested whether intra-vHipp activation of GPR55 receptor transmission
      with the fatty acid amide, palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), a lipid neuromodulator
      with agonist actions at the GPR55 receptor, may modulate mesolimbic dopaminergic
      activity states. We further examined the potential effects of intra-vHipp PEA in
      affective, cognitive and contextual memory tasks. Discussion: We report that
      intra-vHipp PEA produces a hyper-dopaminergic state in the mesolimbic system
      characterized by increased firing and bursting activity of ventral tegmental area
      dopaminergic neuron populations. Furthermore, while PEA-induced activation of
      GPR55 transmission had no effects on opiate-related reward-related memory
      formation, we observed strong disruptions in social interaction and recognition
      memory, spatial location memory, and context-independent associative fear memory
      formation. Finally, the effects of intra-vHipp PEA were blocked by a selective
      GPR55 receptor antagonist, CID160 and were dependent upon NMDA receptor
      transmission, directly in the vHipp. Conclusions: The present results add to a
      growing body of evidence demonstrating important functional roles for GPR55
      signaling in cannabinoid-related neuronal and behavioral phenomena and underscore
      the potential for GPR55 signaling in the mediation of cannabinoid-related effects
      independently of the CB1/CB2 receptor systems.

PMID- 28861503
TI  - Identification of Terpenoid Chemotypes Among High (-)-trans-Delta9-
      Tetrahydrocannabinol-Producing Cannabis sativa L. Cultivars.
AB  - Introduction: With laws changing around the world regarding the legal status of
      Cannabis sativa (cannabis) it is important to develop objective classification
      systems that help explain the chemical variation found among various cultivars.
      Currently cannabis cultivars are named using obscure and inconsistent
      nomenclature. Terpenoids, responsible for the aroma of cannabis, are a useful
      group of compounds for distinguishing cannabis cultivars with similar cannabinoid
      content. Methods: In this study we analyzed terpenoid content of cannabis samples
      obtained from a single medical cannabis dispensary in California over the course
      of a year. Terpenoids were quantified by gas chromatography with flame ionization
      detection and peak identification was confirmed with gas chromatography mass
      spectrometry. Quantitative data from 16 major terpenoids were analyzed using
      hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA),
      partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and orthogonal partial
      least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Results: A total of 233 samples
      representing 30 cultivars were used to develop a classification scheme based on
      quantitative data, HCA, PCA, and OPLS-DA. Initially cultivars were divided into
      five major groups, which were subdivided into 13 classes based on differences in
      terpenoid profile. Different classification models were compared with PLS-DA and
      found to perform best when many representative samples of a particular class were
      included. Conclusion: A hierarchy of terpenoid chemotypes was observed in the
      data set. Some cultivars fit into distinct chemotypes, whereas others seemed to
      represent a continuum of chemotypes. This study has demonstrated an approach to
      classifying cannabis cultivars based on terpenoid profile.

PMID- 28861502
TI  - Cannabinoids in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - The endocannabinoid system plays a regulatory role in a number of physiological
      processes and has been found altered in different pathological conditions,
      including movement disorders. The interactions between cannabinoids and dopamine
      in the basal ganglia are remarkably complex and involve both the modulation of
      other neurotransmitters (gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, opioids, peptides)
      and the activation of different receptors subtypes (cannabinoid receptor type 1
      and 2). In the last years, experimental studies contributed to enrich this
      scenario reporting interactions between cannabinoids and other receptor systems
      (transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 cation channel, adenosine
      receptors, 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors). The improved knowledge, adding new
      interpretation on the biochemical interaction between cannabinoids and other
      signaling pathways, may contribute to develop new pharmacological strategies. A
      number of preclinical studies in different experimental Parkinson's disease (PD)
      models demonstrated that modulating the cannabinoid system may be useful to treat
      some motor symptoms. Despite new cannabinoid-based medicines have been proposed
      for motor and nonmotor symptoms of PD, so far, results from clinical studies are
      controversial and inconclusive. Further clinical studies involving larger samples
      of patients, appropriate molecular targets, and specific clinical outcome
      measures are needed to clarify the effectiveness of cannabinoid-based therapies.

PMID- 28861504
TI  - Cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 Receptor Signaling and Bias.
AB  - An agonist that acts through a single receptor can activate numerous signaling
      pathways. Recent studies have suggested that different ligands can differentially
      activate these pathways by stabilizing a limited range of receptor conformations,
      which in turn preferentially drive different downstream signaling cascades. This
      concept, termed "biased signaling" represents an exciting therapeutic opportunity
      to target specific pathways that elicit only desired effects, while avoiding
      undesired effects mediated by different signaling cascades. The cannabinoid
      receptors CB1 and CB2 each activate multiple pathways, and evidence is emerging
      for bias within these pathways. This review will summarize the current evidence
      for biased signaling through cannabinoid receptor subtypes CB1 and CB2.

PMID- 28861505
TI  - The Use of Cannabis for Headache Disorders.
AB  - Headache disorders are common, debilitating, and, in many cases, inadequately
      managed by existing treatments. Although clinical trials of cannabis for
      neuropathic pain have shown promising results, there has been limited research on
      its use, specifically for headache disorders. This review considers historical
      prescription practices, summarizes the existing reports on the use of cannabis
      for headache, and examines the preclinical literature exploring the role of
      exogenous and endogenous cannabinoids to alter headache pathophysiology.
      Currently, there is not enough evidence from well-designed clinical trials to
      support the use of cannabis for headache, but there are sufficient anecdotal and
      preliminary results, as well as plausible neurobiological mechanisms, to warrant
      properly designed clinical trials. Such trials are needed to determine short- and
      long-term efficacy for specific headache types, compatibility with existing
      treatments, optimal administration practices, as well as potential risks.

PMID- 28861507
TI  - A Conversion of Oral Cannabidiol to Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Seems Not to
      Occur in Humans.
AB  - Cannabidiol (CBD), a major cannabinoid of hemp, does not bind to CB1 receptors
      and is therefore devoid of psychotomimetic properties. Under acidic conditions,
      CBD can be transformed to delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other
      cannabinoids. It has been argued that this may occur also after oral
      administration in humans. However, the experimental conversion of CBD to THC and
      delta8-THC in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) is a highly artificial approach that
      deviates significantly from physiological conditions in the stomach; therefore,
      SGF does not allow an extrapolation to in vivo conditions. Unsurprisingly, the
      conversion of oral CBD to THC and its metabolites has not been observed to occur
      in vivo, even after high doses of oral CBD. In addition, the typical spectrum of
      side effects of THC, or of the very similar synthetic cannabinoid nabilone, as
      listed in the official Summary of Product Characteristics (e.g., dizziness,
      euphoria/high, thinking abnormal/concentration difficulties, nausea, tachycardia)
      has not been observed after treatment with CBD in double-blind, randomized,
      controlled clinical trials. In conclusion, the conversion of CBD to THC in SGF
      seems to be an in vitro artifact.

PMID- 28861506
TI  - The Clinical Significance of Endocannabinoids in Endometriosis Pain Management.
AB  - Introduction: Patients with endometriosis often suffer from diffuse and poorly
      localized severe pain. The current pain management strategies include medical and
      hormonal therapy, as well as surgery. Medical management of pain is often
      insufficient and is associated with high rate of recurrence. Better pain
      management is therefore of urgent need. Methods: Among the various candidates,
      the endocannabinoid system (ECS) has recently emerged as a relevant
      pharmacological target for the management of endometriosis-related pain. A
      computerized literature search was performed to identify relevant studies
      combining the keywords "endometriosis," "endocannabinoid," "cannabinoid
      receptor," "THC," and "pain mechanisms." Conclusions: This review describes the
      multiple and complex pain mechanisms associated with endometriosis. Current data
      and theories concerning the link between the ECS and pain management for
      endometriosis patients are presented. Finally, we will discuss which aspects of
      endometriosis-associated pain can be targeted by modulation of the ECS.

PMID- 28861508
TI  - Affinity and Efficacy Studies of Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid A at Cannabinoid
      Receptor Types One and Two.
AB  - Introduction:Cannabis biosynthesizes Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA-A),
      which decarboxylates into Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). There is growing
      interest in the therapeutic use of THCA-A, but its clinical application may be
      hampered by instability. THCA-A lacks cannabimimetic effects; we hypothesize that
      it has little binding affinity at cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1). Materials and
      Methods: Purity of certified reference standards were tested with high
      performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Binding affinity of THCA-A and THC at
      human (h) CB1 and hCB2 was measured in competition binding assays, using
      transfected HEK cells and [3H]CP55,940. Efficacy at hCB1 and hCB2 was measured in
      a cyclic adenosine monophosphase (cAMP) assay, using a Bioluminescence Resonance
      Energy Transfer (BRET) biosensor. Results: The THCA-A reagent contained 2% THC.
      THCA-A displayed small but measurable binding at both hCB1 and hCB2, equating to
      approximate Ki values of 3.1MUM and 12.5MUM, respectively. THC showed 62-fold
      greater affinity at hCB1 and 125-fold greater affinity at hCB2. In efficacy
      tests, THCA-A (10MUM) slightly inhibited forskolin-stimulated cAMP at hCB1,
      suggestive of weak agonist activity, and no measurable efficacy at hCB2.
      Discussion: The presence of THC in our THCA-A certified standard agrees with
      decarboxylation kinetics (literature reviewed herein), which indicate
      contamination with THC is nearly unavoidable. THCA-A binding at 10MUM
      approximated THC binding at 200nM. We therefore suspect some of our THCA-A
      binding curve was artifact-from its inevitable decarboxylation into THC-and the
      binding affinity of THCA-A is even weaker than our estimated values. We conclude
      that THCA-A has little affinity or efficacy at CB1 or CB2.

PMID- 28861510
TI  - Cannabidiol Does Not Dampen Responses to Emotional Stimuli in Healthy Adults.
AB  - Introduction: Cannabidiol (CBD) is a nonpsychoactive constituent of whole plant
      cannabis that has been reported to reduce anxiety-like behaviors in both pre
      clinical and human laboratory studies. Yet, no controlled clinical studies have
      demonstrated its ability to reduce negative mood or dampen responses to negative
      emotional stimuli in humans. The objective of this study was to investigate the
      effects of CBD on responses to negative emotional stimuli, as a model for its
      potential anxiety-reducing effects. Materials and Methods: The study used a
      double-blind, placebo (PLB)-controlled, within-subjects design in which 38
      healthy, drug-free participants consumed oral CBD (300, 600, and 900 mg) or PLB
      before completing several behavioral tasks selected to assess reactivity to
      negative stimuli. Dependent measures included emotional arousal to negative and
      positive visual stimuli, perceptual sensitivity to emotional facial expressions,
      attentional bias toward emotional facial expressions, and feelings of social
      rejection. In addition, subjective drug effects and physiological data were also
      gathered during each experimental session to assess drug effects. Discussion: CBD
      did not dampen responses to negative emotional stimuli and did not affect
      feelings of social rejection. The high dose of CBD (900 mg) marginally reduced
      attentional bias toward happy and sad facial expressions, and produced a slight
      increase in late-session heart rate. CBD did not produce detectable subjective
      effects or alterations in mood or anxiety. Conclusion: These findings indicate
      that CBD has minimal behavioral and subjective effects in healthy volunteers,
      even when they are presented with emotional stimuli. Further research into the
      behavioral and neural mechanisms of CBD and other phytocannabinoids is needed to
      ascertain the clinical function of this drug.

PMID- 28861509
TI  - Cannabis and Pain: A Clinical Review.
AB  - Introduction: Cannabis has been used for medical purposes across the world for
      centuries. As states and countries implement medical and recreational cannabis
      policies, increasing numbers of people are using cannabis pharmacotherapy for
      pain. There is a theoretical rationale for cannabis' efficacy for pain
      management, although the subjective pain relief from cannabis may not match
      objective measurements of analgesia. As more patients turn to cannabis for pain
      relief, there is a need for additional scientific evidence to evaluate this
      increase. Materials and Methods: Research for this review was performed in the
      PubMed/National Library of Medicine database. Discussion: Preclinical studies
      demonstrate a narrow therapeutic window for cannabis as pharmacotherapy for pain;
      the body of clinical evidence for this indication is not as extensive. A recent
      meta-analysis of clinical trials of cannabis and cannabinoids for pain found
      modest evidence supporting the use of cannabinoid pharmacotherapy for pain.
      Recent epidemiological studies have provided initial evidence for a possible
      reduction in opioid pharmacotherapy for pain as a result of increased
      implementation of medical cannabis regimens. Conclusion: With increased use of
      medical cannabis as pharmacotherapy for pain comes a need for comprehensive risk
      benefit discussions that take into account cannabis' significant possible side
      effects. As cannabis use increases in the context of medical and recreational
      cannabis policies, additional research to support or refute the current evidence
      base is essential to attempt to answer the questions that so many healthcare
      professionals and patients are asking.

PMID- 28861511
TI  - Explorative Placebo-Controlled Double-Blind Intervention Study with Low Doses of
      Inhaled Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol Reveals No Effect on Sweet
      Taste Intensity Perception and Liking in Humans.
AB  - Introduction: The endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays an important role in food
      reward. For example, in humans, liking of palatable foods is assumed to be
      modulated by endocannabinoid activity. Studies in rodents suggest that the ECS
      also plays a role in sweet taste intensity perception, but it is unknown to what
      extent this can be extrapolated to humans. Therefore, this study aimed at
      elucidating whether Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD)
      affects sweet taste intensity perception and liking in humans, potentially
      resulting in alterations in food preferences. Materials and Methods: In a
      randomized placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study, 10 healthy males
      participated in three test sessions that were 2 weeks apart. During the test
      sessions, participants received THC-rich, CBD-rich, or placebo Cannabis by
      inhalation divided over two doses (4 + 1 mg THC; 25 + 10 mg CBD). Participants
      tasted seven chocolate milk-like drinks that differed in sugar concentration and
      they rated sweet taste intensity and liking of the drinks. They were then asked
      to rank the seven drinks according to how much they liked the drinks and were
      offered ad libitum access to their favorite drink. In addition, they completed a
      computerized food preference task and completed an appetite questionnaire at the
      start, midway, and end of the test sessions. Results: Inhalation of the Cannabis
      preparations did not affect sweet taste intensity perception and liking, ranking
      order, or ad libitum consumption of the favorite drink. In addition, food
      preferences were not influenced by the interventions. Reported fullness was
      lower, whereas desire to eat was higher throughout the THC compared to the CBD
      condition. Conclusions: These results suggest that administration of Cannabis
      preparations at the low doses tested does not affect sweet taste intensity
      perception and liking, nor does it influence food preferences in humans.

PMID- 28861512
TI  - Identification of a Widespread Palmitoylethanolamide Contamination in Standard
      Laboratory Glassware.
AB  - Introduction: Fatty acid ethanolamides (FAEs) are a family of lipid mediators
      that participate in a host of biological functions. Procedures for the
      quantitative analysis of FAEs include organic solvent extraction from biological
      matrices (e.g., blood), followed by purification and subsequent quantitation by
      liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) or gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry. During the validation process of a new method for LC/MS analysis of
      FAEs in biological samples, we observed unusually high levels of the FAE,
      palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), in blank samples that did not contain any biological
      material. Materials and Methods: We investigated a possible source of this PEA
      artifact via liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, as well
      as accurate mass analysis. Results: We found that high levels of a contaminant
      indistinguishable from PEA is present in new 5.75" glass Pasteur pipettes, which
      are routinely used by laboratories to carry out lipid extractions. This artifact
      might account for discrepancies found in the literature regarding PEA levels in
      human blood serum and other tissues. Conclusions: It is recommended to take into
      account this pitfall by analyzing potential contamination of the disposable
      glassware during the validation process of any method used for analysis of FAEs.

PMID- 28861513
TI  - Prevalence and Correlates of Cannabis Use in Outpatients with Serious Mental
      Illness Receiving Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders.
AB  - Introduction: People with serious mental illness (SMI) use cannabis more than any
      other illicit drug. Cannabis use is associated with increased psychotic symptoms
      and is highly comorbid with alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Despite the national
      trend toward decriminalization, little is known about the prevalence, correlates,
      and impact of cannabis use on those with SMI receiving treatment for substance
      use disorders, a group at high risk for the negative effects of cannabis use.
      Methods: In this secondary data analysis, cannabis use prevalence, correlates,
      and impact on treatment outcomes were examined in 121 adults with cooccurring SMI
      and AUDs receiving outpatient addiction treatment in a randomized trial of
      contingency management (CM) for alcohol. Prevalence and frequency of cannabis use
      were calculated across the 7-month study period using self-report and urine
      tests. Cannabis users were compared with nonusers by SMI diagnosis, psychiatric
      symptoms, medical problems, legal problems, and HIV-risk behavior. The
      relationship between cannabis use and longest duration of alcohol abstinence in
      participants randomized to CM (n=40) was assessed. Results: Fifty-seven (47%) of
      participants submitted at least one cannabis-positive urine sample during the
      study. Out of the 2834 total samples submitted, 751 (27%) were positive for
      cannabis. Cannabis users were 2.2 times more likely to submit an alcohol-positive
      sample, and 2.5 times more likely to submit a cocaine-positive sample at
      baseline, relative to noncannabis users (p=0.01). Cannabis users were more likely
      to engage in risky sexual behavior (p=0.01) and to report being homeless (p=0.03)
      than nonusers. When controlling for pretreatment alcohol use, the relationship
      between comorbid cannabis use and alcohol abstinence during CM was not
      significant (p=0.77). Conclusion: Rates of comorbid cannabis use were high in
      this sample of adults with SMI and AUDs. Cannabis use was correlated with recent
      alcohol and cocaine use, risky sexual behavior, and homelessness, but not with
      alcohol abstinence during CM.

PMID- 28861515
TI  - A Guide to the National Academy of Science Report on Cannabis: An Exclusive
      Discussion with Panel Members.

PMID- 28861514
TI  - An Update on Safety and Side Effects of Cannabidiol: A Review of Clinical Data
      and Relevant Animal Studies.
AB  - Introduction: This literature survey aims to extend the comprehensive survey
      performed by Bergamaschi et al. in 2011 on cannabidiol (CBD) safety and side
      effects. Apart from updating the literature, this article focuses on clinical
      studies and CBD potential interactions with other drugs. Results: In general, the
      often described favorable safety profile of CBD in humans was confirmed and
      extended by the reviewed research. The majority of studies were performed for
      treatment of epilepsy and psychotic disorders. Here, the most commonly reported
      side effects were tiredness, diarrhea, and changes of appetite/weight. In
      comparison with other drugs, used for the treatment of these medical conditions,
      CBD has a better side effect profile. This could improve patients' compliance and
      adherence to treatment. CBD is often used as adjunct therapy. Therefore, more
      clinical research is warranted on CBD action on hepatic enzymes, drug
      transporters, and interactions with other drugs and to see if this mainly leads
      to positive or negative effects, for example, reducing the needed clobazam doses
      in epilepsy and therefore clobazam's side effects. Conclusion: This review also
      illustrates that some important toxicological parameters are yet to be studied,
      for example, if CBD has an effect on hormones. Additionally, more clinical trials
      with a greater number of participants and longer chronic CBD administration are
      still lacking.

PMID- 28861516
TI  - Cannabis as a Substitute for Opioid-Based Pain Medication: Patient Self-Report.
AB  - Introduction: Prescription drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental
      death in the United States. Alternatives to opioids for the treatment of pain are
      necessary to address this issue. Cannabis can be an effective treatment for pain,
      greatly reduces the chance of dependence, and eliminates the risk of fatal
      overdose compared to opioid-based medications. Medical cannabis patients report
      that cannabis is just as effective, if not more, than opioid-based medications
      for pain. Materials and Methods: The current study examined the use of cannabis
      as a substitute for opioid-based pain medication by collecting survey data from
      2897 medical cannabis patients. Discussion: Thirty-four percent of the sample
      reported using opioid-based pain medication in the past 6 months. Respondents
      overwhelmingly reported that cannabis provided relief on par with their other
      medications, but without the unwanted side effects. Ninety-seven percent of the
      sample "strongly agreed/agreed" that they are able to decrease the amount of
      opiates they consume when they also use cannabis, and 81% "strongly
      agreed/agreed" that taking cannabis by itself was more effective at treating
      their condition than taking cannabis with opioids. Results were similar for those
      using cannabis with nonopioid-based pain medications. Conclusion: Future research
      should track clinical outcomes where cannabis is offered as a viable substitute
      for pain treatment and examine the outcomes of using cannabis as a medication
      assisted treatment for opioid dependence.

PMID- 28861517
TI  - The Microtubule-Stabilizing Protein CLASP1 Associates with the Theileria annulata
      Schizont Surface via Its Kinetochore-Binding Domain.
AB  - Theileria is an apicomplexan parasite whose presence within the cytoplasm of a
      leukocyte induces cellular transformation and causes uncontrolled proliferation
      and clonal expansion of the infected cell. The intracellular schizont utilizes
      the host cell's own mitotic machinery to ensure its distribution to both daughter
      cells by associating closely with microtubules (MTs) and incorporating itself
      within the central spindle. We show that CLASP1, an MT-stabilizing protein that
      plays important roles in regulating kinetochore-MT attachment and central spindle
      positioning, is sequestered at the Theileria annulata schizont surface. We used
      live-cell imaging and immunofluorescence in combination with MT depolymerization
      assays to demonstrate that CLASP1 binds to the schizont surface in an MT
      independent manner throughout the cell cycle and that the recruitment of the
      related CLASP2 protein to the schizont is MT dependent. By transfecting Theileria
      infected cells with a panel of truncation mutants, we found that the kinetochore
      binding domain of CLASP1 is necessary and sufficient for parasite localization,
      revealing that CLASP1 interaction with the parasite occurs independently of EB1.
      We overexpressed the MT-binding domain of CLASP1 in parasitized cells. This
      exhibited a dominant negative effect on host MT stability and led to altered
      parasite size and morphology, emphasizing the importance of proper MT dynamics
      for Theileria partitioning during host cell division. Using
      coimmunoprecipitation, we demonstrate that CLASP1 interacts, directly or
      indirectly, with the schizont membrane protein p104, and we describe for the
      first time TA03615, a Theileria protein which localizes to the parasite surface,
      where it has the potential to participate in parasite-host interactions.
      IMPORTANCET. annulata, the only eukaryote known to be capable of transforming
      another eukaryote, is a widespread parasite of veterinary importance that puts
      250 million cattle at risk worldwide and limits livestock development for some of
      the poorest people in the world. Crucial to the pathology of Theileria is its
      ability to interact with host microtubules and the mitotic spindle of the
      infected cell. This study builds on our previous work in investigating the host
      and parasite molecules involved in mediating this interaction. Because it is not
      possible to genetically manipulate Theileria schizonts, identifying protein
      interaction partners is critical to understanding the function of parasite
      proteins. By identifying two Theileria surface proteins that are involved in the
      interaction between CLASP1 and the parasite, we provide important insights into
      the molecular basis of Theileria persistence within a dividing cell.

PMID- 28861518
TI  - Butyrate Supplementation at High Concentrations Alters Enteric Bacterial
      Communities and Reduces Intestinal Inflammation in Mice Infected with Citrobacter
      rodentium.
AB  - Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid by-product of the microbial fermentation of
      dietary fermentable materials in the large intestine; it is the main energy
      source for enterocyte regeneration, modulates the enteric microbial community,
      and contributes to increasing host health via mechanisms that are relatively
      poorly defined. Limited research has examined the therapeutic potential of
      butyrate using models of enteric inflammation incited by pathogenic organisms. We
      used Citrobacter rodentium to incite acute Th1/Th17 inflammation to ascertain the
      impact of butyrate on the host-microbiota relationship. Rectal administration of
      140 mM butyrate to mice increased fecal concentrations of butyrate and increased
      food consumption and weight gain in mice infected with C. rodentium. Histological
      scores of colonic inflammation were lower in infected mice administered 140 mM
      butyrate. Expression of Il10, Tgfbeta, and Muc2 was elevated in noninfected mice
      administered butyrate in comparison to mice not administered butyrate. Infected
      mice administered butyrate displayed elevated expression of genes necessary for
      pathogen clearance (i.e., Il17A and Il1beta) and of genes involved in epithelial
      barrier repair and restoration (i.e., Relmbeta, Tff3, and Myd88). Butyrate
      supplemented to inflamed colons increased the abundances of Proteobacteria and
      Lachnospiraceae and reduced the abundance of Clostridiaceae species. Mice with
      enteritis that were administered butyrate also exhibited an increased abundance
      of mucus-associated bacteria. In summary, rectal administration of butyrate
      increased feed consumption and weight gain, ameliorated C. rodentium-induced cell
      injury through enhanced expression of immune regulation and tissue repair
      mechanisms, and increased the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria in mice
      with enteritis. IMPORTANCE The study findings provide evidence that
      administration of butyrate in a dose-dependent manner can increase weight gain in
      infected mice, enhance clearance of the infection, reduce inflammation through
      altered cytokine expression, and enhance tissue repair and mucus secretion.
      Moreover, butyrate treatment also affected the abundance of bacterial populations
      in both noninflamed and inflamed intestines. Notably, this investigation provides
      foundational information that can be used to determine the effects of prebiotics
      and other functional foods on the production of butyrate by enteric bacteria and
      their impact on intestinal health and host well-being.

PMID- 28861519
TI  - An Aptamer-Based Biosensor for the Azole Class of Antifungal Drugs.
AB  - This technical report describes the development of an aptamer for sensing azole
      antifungal drugs during therapeutic drug monitoring. Modified synthetic evolution
      of ligands through exponential enrichment (SELEX) was used to discover a DNA
      aptamer recognizing azole class antifungal drugs. This aptamer undergoes a
      secondary structural change upon binding to its target molecule, as shown through
      fluorescence anisotropy-based binding measurements. Experiments using circular
      dichroism spectroscopy revealed a unique G-quadruplex structure that was
      essential and specific for binding to the azole antifungal target. Aptamer
      functionalized graphene field effect transistor (GFET) devices were created and
      used to measure the strength of binding of azole antifungals to this surface. In
      total, this aptamer and the supporting sensing platform provide a valuable tool
      for therapeutic drug monitoring of patients with invasive fungal infections.
      IMPORTANCE We have developed the first aptamer directed toward the azole class of
      antifungal drugs and a functional biosensor for these drugs. This aptamer has a
      unique secondary structure that allows it to bind to highly hydrophobic drugs.
      The aptamer works as a capture component of a graphene field effect transistor
      device. These devices can provide a quick and easy assay for determining drug
      concentrations. These will be useful for therapeutic drug monitoring of azole
      antifungal drugs, which is necessary to deal with the complex drug dosage
      profiles.

PMID- 28861520
TI  - Arginine Exposure Decreases Acidogenesis in Long-Term Oral Biofilm Microcosms.
AB  - Arginine is an important pH-elevating agent in the oral cavity. It has been
      incorporated in oral hygiene formulations to mitigate sensitivity and to prevent
      caries. In this investigation, the effects of sustained arginine dosing of dental
      plaque microcosms on bacteriological composition and pH were evaluated under
      controlled conditions. Plaque microcosms were established in constant-depth film
      fermentors (CDFFs) using salivary inocula and fed continuously with artificial
      saliva. To simulate resting and cariogenic states, the CDFFs were supplemented
      with sterile water or 5% sucrose, respectively. Plaques were then dosed twice
      daily with a dentifrice with 1.5% arginine arginine added (DA) or without
      arginine (DN). This regimen continued for over 3 weeks, after which fermentors
      were maintained without dosing. Microcosms were analyzed by differential viable
      counting, with a pH microelectrode, and by eubacterial DNA profiling. Sucrose
      dosing was associated with significantly (P < 0.001) decreased pH, significantly
      (P < 0.05) increased counts of total aerobes, Gram-negative anaerobes, aciduric
      species, acidogenic species, arginine utilizing species, bifidobacteria,
      lactobacilli and streptococci, and significant (P < 0.05) changes in DNA
      profiles. Plaques dosed with DA had a significantly (P < 0.001) higher pH than
      those dosed with DN, with or without sucrose supplementation. Dosing with DA but
      not DN significantly (P < 0.05) decreased counts of all functional bacterial
      groups apart from the total anaerobes in cariogenic plaques, and in resting
      plaques, dosing with DA significantly (P < 0.05) decreased counts of
      streptococci, lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, and acidogenic bacteria. In summary,
      sustained exposure of oral microcosms to arginine in formulation significantly
      increased plaque pH and significantly reduced the viability of cariogenic
      bacterial species. IMPORTANCE Arginine is used in dental health formulations to
      help prevent dental cavities. This study assessed the effects of the long-term
      dosing of laboratory dental plaques with an arginine dentifrice. Data indicate
      that the addition of arginine dentifrice during sucrose challenge significantly
      increased plaque pH, thus potentially mitigating cariogenesis. Counts of several
      functional groups of bacteria associated with tooth decay were significantly
      decreased in the laboratory plaques during exposure to the arginine dentifrice.

PMID- 28861521
TI  - Options for Synthetic DNA Order Screening, Revisited.
AB  - Gene synthesis providers affiliated with the International Gene Synthesis
      Consortium (IGSC) voluntarily screen double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) synthesis orders
      over 200 bp to check for matches to regulated pathogens and to screen customers.
      Questions have been raised, however, about the continuing feasibility and
      effectiveness of screening. There are technical challenges (e.g.,
      oligonucleotides and tracts of DNA less than 200 bp are not screened) and
      corporate challenges (e.g., the costs of screening are high, but other costs are
      dropping, so screening is an increasing portion of operating costs). In this
      article, we describe tangible actions that should be taken to (i) preserve the
      effectiveness of DNA order screening as a security tool and (ii) develop
      additional mechanisms to increase the safety and security of DNA synthesis
      technologies. Screening is not a perfect solution to DNA synthesis security
      challenges, but we believe it is still a valuable addition to security, and it
      can remain effective for some time.

PMID- 28861522
TI  - A Serendipitous Mutation Reveals the Severe Virulence Defect of a Klebsiella
      pneumoniae fepB Mutant.
AB  - Klebsiella pneumoniae is considered a significant public health threat because of
      the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains and the challenge associated with
      treating life-threatening infections. Capsule, siderophores, and adhesins have
      been implicated as virulence determinants of K. pneumoniae, yet we lack a clear
      understanding of how this pathogen causes disease. In a previous screen for
      virulence genes, we identified a potential new virulence locus and constructed a
      mutant (smr) with this locus deleted. In this study, we characterize the smr
      mutant and show that this mutation renders K. pneumoniae avirulent in a pneumonia
      model of infection. The smr mutant was expected to have a deletion of three
      genes, but subsequent genome sequencing indicated that a much larger deletion had
      occurred. Further analysis of the deleted region indicated that the virulence
      defect of the smr mutant could be attributed to the loss of FepB, a periplasmic
      protein required for import of the siderophore enterobactin. Interestingly, a
      DeltafepB mutant was more attenuated than a mutant unable to synthesize
      enterobactin, suggesting that additional processes are affected. As FepB is
      highly conserved among the members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, therapeutic
      targeting of FepB may be useful for the treatment of Klebsiella and other
      bacterial infections. IMPORTANCE In addition to having a reputation as the
      causative agent of several types of hospital-acquired infections, Klebsiella
      pneumoniae has gained widespread attention as a pathogen with a propensity for
      acquiring antibiotic resistance. It is capable of causing a range of infections,
      including urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and sepsis. Because of the rapid
      emergence of carbapenem resistance among Klebsiella strains, there is a dire need
      for a better understanding of virulence mechanisms and identification of new drug
      targets. Here, we identify the periplasmic transporter FepB as one such potential
      target.

PMID- 28861523
TI  - Monodeuterated Methane, an Isotopic Tool To Assess Biological Methane Metabolism
      Rates.
AB  - Biological methane oxidation is a globally relevant process that mediates the
      flux of an important greenhouse gas through both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic
      pathways. However, measuring these metabolic rates presents many obstacles, from
      logistical barriers to regulatory hurdles and poor precision. Here we present a
      new approach for investigating microbial methane metabolism based on hydrogen
      atom dynamics, which is complementary to carbon-focused assessments of
      methanotrophy. The method uses monodeuterated methane (CH3D) as a metabolic
      substrate, quantifying the aqueous D/H ratio over time using off-axis integrated
      cavity output spectroscopy. This approach represents a nontoxic, comparatively
      rapid, and straightforward approach that supplements existing radiotopic and
      stable carbon isotopic methods; by probing hydrogen atoms, it offers an
      additional dimension for examining rates and pathways of methane metabolism. We
      provide direct comparisons between the CH3D procedure and the well-established
      14CH4 radiotracer method for several methanotrophic systems, including type I and
      II aerobic methanotroph cultures and methane-seep sediment slurries and carbonate
      rocks under anoxic and oxic incubation conditions. In all applications tested,
      methane consumption values calculated via the CH3D method were directly and
      consistently proportional to 14C radiolabel-derived methane oxidation rates. We
      also employed this method in a nontraditional experimental setup, using flexible,
      gas-impermeable bags to investigate the role of pressure on seep sediment methane
      oxidation rates. Results revealed an 80% increase over atmospheric pressure in
      methanotrophic rates the equivalent of ~900-m water depth, highlighting the
      importance of this parameter on methane metabolism and exhibiting the flexibility
      of the newly described method. IMPORTANCE Microbial methane consumption is a
      critical component of the global carbon cycle, with wide-ranging implications for
      climate regulation and hydrocarbon exploitation. Nonetheless, quantifying methane
      metabolism typically involves logistically challenging methods and/or specialized
      equipment; these impediments have limited our understanding of methane fluxes and
      reservoirs in natural systems, making effective management difficult. Here, we
      offer an easily implementable, precise method using monodeuterated methane (CH3D)
      that advances three specific aims. First, it allows users to directly compare
      methane consumption rates between different experimental treatments of the same
      inoculum. Second, by empirically linking the CH3D procedure with the well
      established 14C radiocarbon approach, we determine absolute scaling factors that
      facilitate rate measurements for several aerobic and anaerobic systems of
      interest. Third, CH3D represents a helpful tool in evaluating the relationship
      between methane activation and full oxidation in methanotrophic metabolisms. The
      procedural advantages, consistency, and novel research questions enabled by the
      CH3D method should prove useful in a wide range of culture-based and
      environmental microbial systems to further elucidate methane metabolism dynamics.

PMID- 28861524
TI  - Deep Sequencing of RNA from Blood and Oral Swab Samples Reveals the Presence of
      Nucleic Acid from a Number of Pathogens in Patients with Acute Ebola Virus
      Disease and Is Consistent with Bacterial Translocation across the Gut.
AB  - In this study, samples from the 2013-2016 West African Ebola virus outbreak from
      patients in Guinea with Ebola virus disease (EVD) were analyzed to discover and
      classify what other pathogens were present. Throat swabs were taken from deceased
      EVD patients, and peripheral blood samples were analyzed that had been taken from
      patients when they presented at the treatment center with acute illness. High
      throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatics were used to identify the
      potential microorganisms. This approach confirmed Ebola virus (EBOV) in all
      samples from patients diagnosed as acute positive for the virus by quantitative
      reverse transcription-PCR in deployed field laboratories. Nucleic acid mapping to
      Plasmodium was also used on the patient samples, confirming results obtained with
      an antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (RDT) conducted in the field laboratories.
      The data suggested that a high Plasmodium load, as determined by sequence read
      depth, was associated with mortality and influenced the host response, whereas a
      lower parasite load did not appear to affect outcome. The identifications of
      selected bacteria from throat swabs via RNA-seq were confirmed by culture. The
      data indicated that the potential pathogens identified in the blood samples were
      associated with translocation from the gut, suggesting the presence of
      bacteremia, which transcriptome data suggested may induce or aggravate the acute
      phase response observed during EVD. Transcripts mapping to different viruses were
      also identified, including those indicative of lytic infections. The development
      of high-resolution analysis of samples from patients with EVD will help inform
      care pathways and the most appropriate general antimicrobial therapy to be used
      in a resource-poor setting. IMPORTANCE Our results highlight the identification
      of an array of pathogens in the blood of patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD).
      This has not been done before, and the data have important implications for the
      treatment of patients with EVD, particularly considering antibiotic stewardship.
      We show that EVD patients who were also infected with Plasmodium, particularly at
      higher loads, had more adverse outcomes than patients with lower levels of
      Plasmodium. However, the presence of Plasmodium did not influence the innate
      immune response, and it is likely that the presence of EBOV dominated this
      response. Several viruses other than EBOV were identified, and bacteria
      associated with sepsis were also identified. These findings were indicative of
      bacterial translocation across the gut during the acute phase of EVD.

PMID- 28861525
TI  - Impacts of Penicillin Binding Protein 2 Inactivation on beta-Lactamase Expression
      and Muropeptide Profile in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.
AB  - Penicillin binding proteins (PBPs) are involved in peptidoglycan synthesis, and
      their inactivation is linked to beta-lactamase expression in ampR-beta-lactamase
      module-harboring Gram-negative bacteria. There are seven annotated PBP genes,
      namely, mrcA, mrcB, pbpC, mrdA, ftsI, dacB, and dacC, in the Stenotrophomonas
      maltophilia genome, and these genes encode PBP1a, PBP1b, PBP1c, PBP2, PBP3, PBP4,
      and PBP6, respectively. In addition, S. maltophilia harbors two beta-lactamase
      genes, L1 and L2, whose expression is induced via beta-lactam challenge. The
      impact of PBP inactivation on L1/L2 expression was assessed in this study.
      Inactivation of mrdA resulted in increased L1/L2 expression in the absence of
      beta-lactam challenge, and the underlying mechanism was further elucidated. The
      roles of ampNG, ampDI (the homologue of Escherichia coli ampD), nagZ, ampR, and
      creBC in L1/L2 expression mediated by a DeltamrdA mutant strain were assessed via
      mutant construction and beta-lactamase activity determinations. Furthermore, the
      strain DeltamrdA-mediated change in the muropeptide profile was assessed using
      liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The mutant DeltamrdA-mediated
      L1/L2 expression relied on functional AmpNG, AmpR, and NagZ, was restricted by
      AmpDI, and was less related to the CreBC two-component system. Inactivation of
      mrdA significantly increased the levels of total and periplasmic N
      acetylglucosaminyl-1,6-anhydro-N-acetylmuramyl-l-alanyl-d-glutamyl-meso
      diamnopimelic acid-d-alanine (GlcNAc-anhMurNAc tetrapeptide, or M4N), supporting
      that the critical activator ligands for mutant strain DeltamrdA-mediated L1/L2
      expression are anhMurNAc tetrapeptides. IMPORTANCE Inducible expression of
      chromosomally encoded beta-lactamase(s) is a key mechanism for beta-lactam
      resistance in Enterobacter cloacae, Citrobacter freundii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
      and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. The muropeptides produced during the
      peptidoglycan recycling pathway act as activator ligands for beta-lactamase(s)
      induction. The muropeptides 1,6-anhydromuramyl pentapeptide and 1,6
      anhydromuramyl tripeptide are the known activator ligands for ampC beta-lactamase
      expression in E. cloacae. Here, we dissected the type of muropepetides for L1/L2
      beta-lactamase expression in an mrdA deletion mutant of S. maltophilia. Distinct
      from the findings with the ampC system, 1,6-anhydromuramyl tetrapeptide is the
      candidate for DeltamrdA-mediated beta-lactamase expression in S. maltophilia. Our
      work extends the understanding of beta-lactamase induction and provides valuable
      information for combating the occurrence of beta-lactam resistance.

PMID- 28861527
TI  - Gender Variance Among Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Retrospective Chart
      Review.
AB  - Purpose: Increasing clinical evidence suggests an overrepresentation of gender
      variance (GV) among patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This
      retrospective chart review aims to contribute to the existing literature on co
      occurring ASD and gender dysphoria (GD). We compare the rate of parent-reported
      GV in patients with an ASD diagnosis to that of parent-reported GV in a normative
      nonreferred data set. Methods: Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) charts were
      collected from 492 children and adolescents (409 natal males and 83 natal
      females) aged 6-18 years who have received a diagnosis of ASD at the New York
      University Child Study Center. Parent-reported GV was determined through
      endorsement of CBCL sex item 110, which assesses the presence of gender-related
      issues. We calculated the odds ratio of endorsement of item 110 between our ASD
      sample and the CBCL sample data. Results: The subjects diagnosed with ASD were
      7.76 times more likely to report GV than the CBCL sample. This finding was
      statistically significant. About 5.1% of the patients in the ASD group and 0.7%
      of the CBCL nonreferred group endorsed sex item 110. 5.1% of natal males and 4.8%
      of natal females endorsed sex item 110. Neither gender nor age influenced the
      rate of endorsement. Conclusion: This finding supports the growing research
      suggesting a heightened co-occurrence rate of ASD and GD. Focus should be placed
      upon improving our understanding of the nature of this co-occurrence and on
      gender identity development within the atypical development of ASD.

PMID- 28861526
TI  - Metabolic Network Analysis and Metatranscriptomics Reveal Auxotrophies and
      Nutrient Sources of the Cosmopolitan Freshwater Microbial Lineage acI.
AB  - An explosion in the number of available genome sequences obtained through
      metagenomics and single-cell genomics has enabled a new view of the diversity of
      microbial life, yet we know surprisingly little about how microbes interact with
      each other or their environment. In fact, the majority of microbial species
      remain uncultivated, while our perception of their ecological niches is based on
      reconstruction of their metabolic potential. In this work, we demonstrate how the
      "seed set framework," which computes the set of compounds that an organism must
      acquire from its environment (E. Borenstein, M. Kupiec, M. W. Feldman, and E.
      Ruppin, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:14482-14487, 2008,
      https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0806162105), enables computational analysis of
      metabolic reconstructions while providing new insights into a microbe's metabolic
      capabilities, such as nutrient use and auxotrophies. We apply this framework to
      members of the ubiquitous freshwater actinobacterial lineage acI, confirming and
      extending previous experimental and genomic observations implying that acI
      bacteria are heterotrophs reliant on peptides and saccharides. We also present
      the first metatranscriptomic study of the acI lineage, revealing high expression
      of transport proteins and the light-harvesting protein actinorhodopsin. Putative
      transport proteins complement predictions of nutrients and essential metabolites
      while providing additional support of the hypothesis that members of the acI are
      photoheterotrophs. IMPORTANCE The metabolic activity of uncultivated
      microorganisms contributes to numerous ecosystem processes, ranging from nutrient
      cycling in the environment to influencing human health and disease. Advances in
      sequencing technology have enabled the assembly of genomes for these
      microorganisms, but our ability to generate reference genomes far outstrips our
      ability to analyze them. Common approaches to analyzing microbial metabolism
      require reconstructing the entirety of an organism's metabolic pathways or
      performing targeted searches for genes involved in a specific process. This paper
      presents a third approach, in which draft metabolic reconstructions are used to
      identify compounds through which an organism may interact with its environment.
      These compounds can then guide more-intensive metabolic reconstruction efforts
      and can also provide new hypotheses about the specific contributions that
      microbes make to ecosystem-scale metabolic processes.

PMID- 28861528
TI  - Policy Perspective: Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Gender
      Nonconforming Children and Adolescents.
AB  - Despite recent notable advances in societal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
      and transgender (LGBT) individuals, youth who identify as trans* or gender
      nonconforming, in particular, continue to experience significant challenges
      accessing the services they need to grow into healthy adults. This policy
      perspective first offers background information describing this population, their
      unique healthcare needs, and obstacles when seeking care, including case study
      examples. The authors then provide recommendations for medical education, health
      systems, and insurance payers, as well as recommendations for school systems and
      broader public policy changes to improve the health and well-being of gender
      nonconforming youth.

PMID- 28861529
TI  - Multidisciplinary Care for Gender-Diverse Youth: A Narrative Review and Unique
      Model of Gender-Affirming Care.
AB  - Heightened public awareness about gender diversity in childhood and adolescence
      has resulted in more youth and families seeking medical and mental health
      services. In response to these needs, there has been nationwide growth in
      specialized multidisciplinary clinics treating gender-diverse and transgender
      youth. Despite general agreement that comprehensive treatment is best delivered
      through a multidisciplinary team by both medical and mental health clinicians
      with gender-related expertise and familiarity with child and adolescent
      development, there is currently no consensus regarding the best approach to
      clinical care with gender-diverse and transgender youth. In this article, we
      provide a narrative review of the gender affirmative model guiding our clinical
      practice and describe the development of our unique model of affirming care
      within the Gender and Sex Development Program at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie
      Children's Hospital of Chicago.

PMID- 28861530
TI  - A Comparison of HIV-Related Risk Factors Between Black Transgender Women and
      Black Men Who Have Sex with Men.
AB  - Purpose: Rates of HIV infection among transgender women (TW) are higher than
      rates observed among men who have sex with men (MSM), and black or African
      American individuals are at a disproportionately higher risk for HIV than
      individuals of other races. Limited information, however, is available regarding
      the needs of black TW and their risk for HIV. Numerous scholarly works and
      surveillance reports have combined TW with MSM, which has stymied our ability to
      understand the unique needs of black TW. Methods: To identify patterns of HIV
      risk among black TW and black MSM, the current study utilized a cross-sectional,
      convenience sample to compare sociodemographic risk factors, HIV prevention
      tools, HIV-related risk factors, and psychosocial and sexual risk factors in a
      sample of 58 black TW and 764 black MSM. Participants were recruited between 2012
      and 2014 from Atlanta, GA. Results: Findings demonstrated that black TW were
      significantly more likely to report lower educational attainment (odds ratio
      [OR]=0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.42-0.85, p=0.005), greater likelihood
      of being homeless (OR=2.49, 95% CI: 1.30-4.78, p=0.006), lower HIV testing
      knowledge (OR=0.66, 95% CI: 0.52-0.83, p=0.001), and higher likelihood of having
      engaged in transactional sex (OR=1.95, 95% CI: 0.99-3.83, p=0.052) compared to
      black MSM. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to understand how risk
      factors for HIV present themselves similarly and differently for both black TW
      and black MSM, and for HIV prevention programs and interventions to incorporate
      evidence-based content for each group.

PMID- 28861531
TI  - The Association Between Geographic Location and Anxiety and Depression in
      Transgender Individuals: An Exploratory Study of an Online Sample.
AB  - Purpose: Research has demonstrated associations between discrimination and mental
      health in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations. However, little is
      known about the influence of geographic location on psychological distress in
      these populations, particularly among transgender people. Methods: This secondary
      analysis conducted on a national sample of transgender individuals (N=414) offers
      a preliminary understanding of the effects of geographic location on
      psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression). A univariate analysis of
      variance was calculated to determine this relationship. Results: The West South
      Central division (i.e., Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) revealed
      highest psychological distress. Conclusion: Results suggest an urgent need for
      transgender-competent healthcare in this division.

PMID- 28861532
TI  - Perceptions of Barriers to and Facilitators of Participation in Health Research
      Among Transgender People.
AB  - Purpose: Although transgender people may be at increased risk for a range of
      health problems, they have been the subject of relatively little health research.
      An important step toward expanding the evidence base is to understand and address
      the reasons for nonparticipation and dropout. The aim of this study was to
      explore the perceptions of barriers to and facilitators of participation in
      health research among a sample of transgender people in San Francisco, CA, and
      Atlanta, GA. Methods: Twelve in-person focus groups (FGs) were conducted; six
      (three with transwomen, three with transmen) were conducted in San Francisco and
      six FGs were conducted in Atlanta (three with transwomen and three with
      transmen). FGs were audiorecorded, transcribed, and uploaded to MaxQDA software
      for analysis. A codebook was used to code transcripts; new codes were added
      iteratively as they arose. All transcripts were coded by at least 2 of the 4
      researchers and, after each transcript was coded, the researchers met to discuss
      any discrepancies, which were resolved by consensus. Results: Among 67 FG
      participants, 37 (55%) identified as transmen and 30 (45%) identified as
      transwomen. The average age of participants was ~41 years (range 18-67) and the
      majority (61%) were non-Hispanic Whites. Several barriers that can hinder
      participation in health research were identified, including logistical concerns,
      issues related to mistrust, a lack of awareness about participation
      opportunities, and psychosocial/emotional concerns related to being "outed." A
      broad range of facilitators were also identified, including the opportunity to
      gain knowledge, access medical services, and contribute to the transgender
      community. Conclusion: These findings provide insights about the perceived
      barriers to and facilitators of research participation and offer some guidance
      for researchers in our ongoing effort to engage the transgender community in
      health research.

PMID- 28861533
TI  - Fertility-Related Care for Gender and Sex Diverse Individuals: A Provider Needs
      Assessment Survey.
AB  - Twelve providers (eight institutions) participating in a Gender and Sex Diversity
      Fertility Working Group completed a survey assessing their hospital's
      transgender, disorders/differences of sex development (DSD), and fertility
      healthcare teams. Participants also prioritized the development of a: (1)
      Provider Assessment Tool (questionnaire assessing knowledge/feelings about future
      fertility), or (2) decision aid (DA). Healthcare team presence by institution:
      transgender (6/8; 75%), DSD (75%), and fertility preservation (75%). Two-thirds
      of providers reported that the DA was most needed. Respondents recommended the DA
      to: help manage complex information, have a take-home reference, and provide
      neutral information. Other identified resource needs included: fertility
      specialists in clinic and financial resources.

PMID- 28861534
TI  - Scalp Hair Regrowth in Hormone-Treated Transgender Woman.
AB  - Evidence of androgenetic alopecia, or male pattern baldness, can be distressing
      for transgender women. Here we present the case of a transgender woman with scalp
      hair regrowth after ~6 months on oral estradiol and spironolactone therapy
      achieving testosterone levels within normal female range.

PMID- 28861535
TI  - Patient Perspectives on Gender Identity Data Collection in Electronic Health
      Records: An Analysis of Disclosure, Privacy, and Access to Care.
AB  - Purpose: In 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ruled that
      health organizations comply with additional requirements for electronic health
      records (EHRs), known as "Meaningful Use," and develop the capacity to collect
      gender identity data. Research has established effectiveness of a two-step gender
      identity question to collect these data. This study examines transgender patient
      perspectives on the use of a two-step question and experiences with privacy and
      sensitive disclosures in EHRs and healthcare settings. Methods: Four focus groups
      (N=30) were conducted in Chicago, Illinois in 2014-2015. Participants were asked
      to compare two intake forms-one with a two-step question and one with a single
      question-and discuss experiences with gender identity disclosure, privacy, and
      access to care. Narratives were transcribed verbatim to identify patterns and
      themes; the extended case method was used and grounded the data analysis process
      in the concept of intersectionality. Results: Participants expressed appreciation
      for improved reliability and competencies that the two-part question may afford.
      Narratives reveal concerns related to patient privacy, safety, and access because
      of the contexts in which these data are collected and transmitted. Virtually all
      participants described situations whereby sensitive gender identity information
      had been involuntarily disclosed, misinterpreted, or abused, and safety and care
      were compromised. Conclusion: Participants recognized the potential of the two
      part question as a measurement and competency tool, but anticipated new privacy
      violations and involuntary disclosures. Narratives indicate that effects of
      sensitive disclosures may vary intersectionally, whereby white participants
      experienced lesser harms than their immigrant, HIV-positive, and black trans
      feminine counterparts. Discrimination and privacy violations may occur regardless
      of a two-part or one-part gender identity question, but increasing these
      sensitive disclosures within expanding EHR infrastructures may require a range of
      mechanisms that have flexibility across contexts to safeguard sensitive
      information and access to care.

PMID- 28861536
TI  - Opportunities and Gaps in Primary Care Preventative Health Services for
      Transgender Patients: A Systemic Review.
AB  - Purpose: Transgender people face barriers to accessing healthcare, resulting in
      population-level disparities in health outcomes. Little research is available to
      better understand the receipt of primary healthcare among transgender patients or
      how the rate of receipt of preventive care may differ among transgender
      populations. Methods: The medical literature regarding U.S. adult transgender
      primary healthcare was reviewed using a keyword search strategy: transgender OR
      transsexual OR transvestite OR gender nonconforming for articles published
      between January 1, 2001 and June 15, 2015. Studies addressing the following
      topics as assessed by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were
      extracted for qualitative review: colorectal cancer screenings, mammography or
      chest/breast tissue examinations, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings,
      tobacco use and smoking cessation, cervical cancer or human papillomavirus (HPV)
      screenings, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), annual flu shot, and insurance
      coverage. Results: The search identified 1304 eligible records, of which 41
      discussed transgender primary or preventive care. The majority of studies
      discussed HIV rates or risk behaviors, while fewer articles addressed pelvic
      examinations, tobacco use, insurance coverage, and cholesterol screenings. No
      studies addressed mammography or chest/breast tissue examinations, colorectal
      screenings, or flu shots. Conclusions: Findings from articles addressing five
      topics are discussed: HIV, cholesterol screenings, tobacco use, pelvic health,
      and insurance coverage. Gaps in the extant literature, including the lack of
      studies of nonbinary people, transgender men of color, and transgender people
      living outside of large coastal urban centers, are discussed. This review,
      coincident with other health disparity findings, suggests an urgent need for
      research that addresses the primary care needs of all transgender and gender
      nonconforming people.

PMID- 28861537
TI  - An Exploratory Study of Transgender New Yorkers' Use of Sexual Health Services
      and Interest in Receiving Services at Planned Parenthood of New York City.
AB  - Purpose: Transgender individuals experience barriers to healthcare, including
      discrimination in care provision and lack of knowledge about transgender health.
      We assessed New York City (NYC) transgender and gender nonconforming individuals'
      sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs, access to services, and interest in
      receiving services from Planned Parenthood of NYC (PPNYC). Methods: We conducted
      an anonymous Internet-based survey of transgender individuals residing in NYC
      from September to December 2014 by using snowball sampling. Results: Data were
      analyzed from 113 surveys. Although 74% (71/96) of respondents avoided or delayed
      healthcare in the past year, most respondents adhered to medically indicated SRH
      screenings. In the past year, 64% (45/70) and 67% (46/69) of respondents were
      tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, respectively. In the
      past 3 years, 80% (39/49) of respondents received clinical breast/chest
      examinations and 83% (35/42) of eligible individuals received Pap tests.
      Respondents most often received care at LGBT specialty clinics (35% [37/105]) or
      at private doctors' offices (31% [32/105]). Eighteen percent (19/107) had ever
      been to a Planned Parenthood health center. On a four-point scale, respondents
      rated the following factors as most influential on whether they would seek care
      at PPNYC: assurance that staff received transsensitivity training (mean 3.8), the
      existence of gender identity nondiscrimination policies (mean 3.7), and the
      availability of transgender-specific services, such as hormone therapy (mean
      3.7). Conclusions: Although the majority of transgender individuals in our sample
      received recommended SRH screenings, respondents reported barriers to accessing
      needed medical care. Healthcare organizations interested in better serving the
      transgender community should ensure a high level of training around
      transsensitivity and explore the provision of transgender-specific services.

PMID- 28861538
TI  - Exploring Healthcare Experiences of Transgender Individuals.
AB  - Purpose: It has been widely noted that existing healthcare systems do not always
      function effectively for the transgender population. Despite existing healthcare
      barriers, however, transgender individuals have been shown to have positive
      healthcare experiences. This study explored a cohort of transgender individuals
      who had positive healthcare experiences, and those who were involved in creating
      a positive healthcare experience for transgender individuals. Methods: A single
      case study was conducted, which included 10 interviews with transgender
      individuals, healthcare providers, and friends/family/significant others of
      transgender individuals. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Results:
      Seven key themes emerged within macro levels (large-scale system), meso levels
      (local/interpersonal), and micro levels (individual/internal) of healthcare
      system support. At a macro level, few system strengths were shown, with hope for
      change in the future. On a meso level, both external supports and informal
      networking emerged as key factors in positive healthcare experiences. At the
      micro level, self-navigation, characteristics for success, and personal strategy
      development were important for achieving positive experiences. Conclusion:
      Factors that contribute to positive healthcare experiences for transgender
      individuals were outlined in this study, showing that meso and micro level
      support compensate for large-scale healthcare system deficits.

PMID- 28861539
TI  - Identifying the Transgender Population in the Medicare Program.
AB  - Purpose: To identify and describe the transgender population in the Medicare
      program using administrative data. Methods: Using a combination of International
      Classification of Diseases ninth edition (ICD-9) codes relating to transsexualism
      and gender identity disorder, we analyzed 100% of the 2013 Centers for Medicare &
      Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) "final action" claims from
      both institutional and noninstitutional providers (~1 billion claims) to identify
      individuals who may be transgender Medicare beneficiaries. To confirm, we
      developed and applied a multistage validation process. Results: Four thousand
      ninety-eight transgender beneficiaries were identified, of which ~90% had
      confirmatory diagnoses, billing codes, or evidence of a hormone prescription. In
      general, the racial, ethnic, and geographic distribution of the Medicare
      transgender population tends to reflect the broader Medicare population. However,
      age, original entitlement status, and disease burden of the transgender
      population appear substantially different. Conclusions: Using a variety of claims
      information, ranging from claims history to additional diagnoses, billing
      modifiers, and hormone prescriptions, we demonstrate that administrative data
      provide a valuable resource for identifying a lower bound of the Medicare
      transgender population. In addition, we provide a baseline description of the
      diversity and disease burden of the population and a framework for future
      research.

PMID- 28861540
TI  - High Willingness to Use HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Among Transgender Women in
      Argentina.
AB  - Purpose: In Argentina, transgender women face a disproportionately high
      prevalence of HIV infection (34%). Although not currently approved in Argentina,
      pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may offer a potential effective HIV prevention
      tool for this population. In this study, we assessed the willingness to use PrEP
      among transgender women in Argentina. Methods: Data were drawn from a nationwide
      cross-sectional survey conducted among transgender women in 2013. Using
      multivariable logistic regression, we assessed the prevalence of and factors
      associated with willingness to use PrEP among transgender women with negative or
      unknown HIV status. Results: This study included 337 transgender women (278 HIV
      negative and 59 with unknown HIV status), most of whom had a history of sex work
      involvement (81.8%). Overall, 301 (89.3%) expressed willingness to use PrEP. In a
      multivariable analysis, having casual sexual partners was positively associated
      with willingness to use PrEP (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=4.26, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1.73-10.51), while discrimination by healthcare workers was
      negatively associated (AOR=0.33, 95% CI 0.12-0.88). Conclusion: We found high
      levels of willingness to use PrEP among transgender women in Argentina,
      suggesting that there is high perception of HIV risk in this population. However,
      discrimination by healthcare workers was a strong negative correlate of
      willingness to use PrEP, suggesting that multilevel interventions that address
      gender-based stigma in healthcare settings will be critical for the success of
      PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy in this population.

PMID- 28861541
TI  - Rumination as a Marker of Psychological Improvement in Transsexual Women
      Postoperative.
AB  - Purpose: This study aimed to analyze rumination levels of transsexual women
      before and after gender affirmation surgery (GAS). Rumination scores may
      represent a broader measure of GAS success and an alternative to patient-reported
      satisfaction, quality of life, well-being, or the presence of "caseness" for
      anxiety or depression as previously established in the literature. Methods:
      Thirty-nine transsexual women were recruited. The participants completed the
      rumination scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ) and were divided into
      three subsets according to the treatment time. Results: The rumination scores
      were lower in the transsexual women who had undergone surgical procedures on
      primary sexual characteristics and gradually decreased with each additional
      procedure completed with respect to secondary sexual characteristics. Conclusion:
      Rumination appears to comprise an important marker of improvement in post-GAS
      transsexual women.

PMID- 28861542
TI  - Psychosocial Disparities Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Transgender Young Adults
      and Young Men Who Have Sex with Men Living in Detroit.
AB  - Purpose: Transgender populations in the United States experience unique
      inequities in health and social well-being; however, they continue to be
      categorized with men who have sex with men (MSM) in HIV surveillance. To
      illustrate the differences in the lived realities of young MSM and transgender
      youth, we compare psychosocial outcomes across a sample of transgender and MSM
      youth from Detroit. Methods: Data for this study come from a community-based
      cross-sectional survey of young adults (ages 18-29) living in Detroit who
      identify as transgender and/or as cisgender young men who have sex with men
      (YMSM). Using participants' geographic location within the city of Detroit, we
      matched transgender participants (N=26) to YMSM (N=123) living in the same area,
      and compared the prevalence in risk and resilience indicators across the two
      groups. Results: Transgender participants were more likely than YMSM to
      experience socioeconomic vulnerability across several indicators, including lower
      educational attainment and workforce participation, greater residential
      instability, and higher lifetime experiences of transactional sex. Transgender
      participants were more likely than YMSM to report poorer health status, higher
      symptoms of depression and anxiety, and greater experiences of daily hassles and
      gender-related discrimination. Transgender participants did not differ from YMSM
      peers on health-promotive factors, including self-esteem, coping mastery, purpose
      in life, or social support. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance
      of addressing the social and economic inequities experienced by transgender young
      adults. Local- and national-level programmatic and policy interventions are
      recommended to alleviate the psychosocial vulnerability experienced by
      transgender young adults and to improve their health and social well-being.

PMID- 28861543
TI  - Interviews with Patients and Providers on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming
      Health Data Collection in the Electronic Health Record.
AB  - Purpose: Meaningful use (MU) and Uniform Data Systems (UDSs) are calling for the
      collection of gender identity (GI) in electronic health record (EHR) systems;
      however, many transgender and nonconforming (TGNC) patients may not feel safe
      disclosing their GI and the data collection is not designed to guide care
      provision. This study explores the complexities surrounding the inclusion of GI
      in EHR data collection and how it can best serve patients and providers. Methods:
      Using a semistructured interview format, TGNC patients (n=7) and providers (n=5)
      who care for TGNC patients were asked about data collection procedures and the
      use of these data within community health centers in Oregon. Using a constant
      comparative data analysis methodology, interview transcripts were coded for
      emergent concepts until overlapping themes were identified. Results: Both
      patients and providers expressed a need for the EHR to expand upon MU and UDS
      recommended fields to include current pronouns and name and gender identifiers in
      a forward-facing display to prevent misgendering by clinic staff and providers.
      Furthermore, they both cited the need for a broader range of birth-assigned sex
      and gender options. TGNC patients and providers disagreed on the scope of health
      information to be collected as well as who should be tasked with the data
      collection. Conclusion: These interviews offer us a glimpse into the structural
      difficulties of creating an EHR system that serves the needs of clinicians while
      providing safe and culturally competent care to TGNC patients.

PMID- 28861544
TI  - Transgender and Gender Nonconforming in Emergency Departments: A Qualitative
      Report of Patient Experiences.
AB  - Background: Individuals who have a transgender or gender nonconforming (TGGNC)
      experience belong to a marginalized segment of the U.S. population, and
      healthcare can be difficult for them to navigate. Although emergency departments
      (EDs) traditionally serve as healthcare "safety nets" for vulnerable populations,
      quantitative studies outside the United States have found that TGGNC-experienced
      persons tend to avoid EDs and/or have negative experiences. This qualitative
      study primarily describes the ED experiences of people with a TGGNC history;
      furthermore, the study explores reasons why this population avoids U.S. EDs and
      their recommendations for improvements to ED care. Methods: This qualitative
      study used data about TGGNC-historied persons' experiences in U.S. EDs from
      retrospective, anonymous, written surveys (paper or web based). National data
      collection took place from June 2012 through December 2014. Participant responses
      (n=240) were examined using thematic analysis. Results: Using a framework that
      recognized positive and negative responses, the themes of Self-Efficacy and Power
      Inequity surfaced. These themes exposed the tension between patients with TGGNC
      experiences and clinicians who were perceived to lack training in this area,
      resulting in negative patient experiences. When practitioners had specific
      training about this population, participants reported positive care experiences.
      Conclusions: This study indicates that many TGGNC-historied persons who use U.S.
      EDs have negative experiences, largely due to lack of provider sensitivity toward
      and training about this patient population. Data from this investigation suggest
      that training of U.S. ED providers and institutional support would help improve
      care for this marginalized group.

PMID- 28861545
TI  - Transgender Noninclusive Healthcare and Delaying Care Because of Fear:
      Connections to General Health and Mental Health Among Transgender Adults.
AB  - Purpose: There are many barriers to reliable healthcare for transgender people
      that often contribute to delaying or avoiding needed medical care. Yet, few
      studies have examined whether noninclusive healthcare and delaying needed medical
      care because of fear of discrimination are associated with poorer health among
      transgender adults. This study aims to address these gaps in the knowledge base.
      Methods: This study analyzed secondary data from a statewide survey of 417
      transgender adults in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Independent
      variables included noninclusive healthcare from a primary care provider (PCP) and
      delay of needed medical care because of fear of discrimination. Dependent
      variables assessed general health and mental health. Results: Transgender
      individuals who delayed healthcare because of fear of discrimination had worse
      general health in the past month than those who did not delay or delayed care for
      other reasons (B=-0.26, p<0.05); they also had 3.08 greater odds of having
      current depression, 3.81 greater odds of a past year suicide attempt, and 2.93
      greater odds of past year suicidal ideation (p<0.001). After controlling for
      delayed care because of fear of discrimination, having a noninclusive PCP was not
      significantly associated with either general health or mental health. Conclusion:
      This study suggests a significant association between delaying healthcare because
      of fear of discrimination and worse general and mental health among transgender
      adults. These relationships remain significant even when controlling for provider
      noninclusivity, suggesting that fear of discrimination and consequent delay of
      care are at the forefront of health challenges for transgender adults. The lack
      of statistical significance for noninclusive healthcare may be related to the
      measurement approach used; future research is needed to develop an improved tool
      for measuring transgender noninclusive healthcare.

PMID- 28861546
TI  - Addressing the Needs of Transgender Military Veterans: Better Access and More
      Comprehensive Care.
AB  - Purpose: There is a gap in social science literature addressing issues of access
      and quality of care for transgender military veterans. Psychologists, medical
      doctors, and other health professionals are beginning to address some of the
      barriers present in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system that affect
      veterans who are also transgender and intersex. Over a 7-year period, between
      2006 and 2013, 2600 transgender veterans were served by the VA. Data from several
      surveys revealed that most transgender veterans perceive the Veterans Health
      Administration (VHA) to be less than accommodating for their special needs. The
      goal of this study was to investigate the experiences of a sample of transgender
      veterans with regard to their experiences with healthcare services provided by
      the VHA. Methods: Using snowball sampling techniques, we were able to recruit 22
      transgender military veterans to participate in our study. A combination of
      telephone interviews and questionnaires provided data from veterans in various
      branches of the military throughout the United States. Results: Findings indicate
      that even though the VHA is working to address issues of inequality for
      transgender veterans, our participants indicated that there are still some
      problems with administration of care, proper training of staff and physicians,
      and availability of comprehensive services for the unique healthcare needs of
      transgender individuals. Conclusion: Since our data were collected, the VA has
      worked to bridge the gap by focusing on increased training for VHA providers and
      staff and establishing LGBT programs at VA facilities. However, we suggest that
      one key area of importance should continue to focus on how mental health and
      medical providers and ancillary staff are trained to interact with and provide
      care for their transgender patients.

PMID- 28861547
TI  - A Systematic Review of Interventions to Reduce Problematic Substance Use Among
      Transgender Individuals: A Call to Action.
AB  - Persons who are transgender (i.e., individuals who are assigned one sex at birth,
      but who do not identify with that sex) are at elevated risk for developing
      problematic substance use. Recent studies indicate that transgender persons have
      high rates of alcohol use, illicit drug use, and nonmedical use of prescription
      drugs and evince more severe misuse of these substances compared with
      nontransgender individuals. Despite the high rates of substance use among
      transgender persons and the multiple conceptual and narrative recommendations for
      substance use treatments, there is a lack of consensus or awareness of
      empirically tested interventions and programs effective for this population.
      Thus, it is critical to examine current substance use interventions for
      transgender individuals to identify gaps in the field and to immediately put
      forth efforts to reduce problematic substance use. This systematic review is the
      first to attempt a comprehensive identification and synthesis of the available
      evidence on interventions for reducing problematic substance use among
      transgender persons. Reflective of the state of the field regarding transgender
      care for substance use, we found a deficiency of studies to include in this
      systematic review (n=2). Perhaps the most important conclusion of this review is
      that well-designed, theoretically informed culturally sensitive research focused
      on developing and rigorously testing interventions for substance use among
      transgender individuals is alarmingly scarce. This review discusses barriers to
      intervention design and synthesizes treatment recommendations for future work.

PMID- 28861549
TI  - Overrepresentation of Adopted Adolescents at a Hospital-Based Gender Dysphoria
      Clinic.
AB  - Purpose: We have noted a greater than expected prevalence of adopted children
      presenting to our multidisciplinary gender program for evaluation of gender
      dysphoria. Methods: A retrospective review of 184 patient charts was conducted to
      assess the prevalence of adopted children presenting to gender clinic. Results:
      Fifteen of 184 patients seen were living with adoptive families (8.2%). This is
      significantly higher than expected based on U.S. census data. Conclusion: Adopted
      children are referred to our gender program more than would be expected based on
      the percentage of adopted children in our state and the United States at large.
      This may be due to a true increased risk of gender dysphoria in adopted children,
      or could represent presentation bias. Gender programs should be prepared to
      provide assessments for adopted children. Further work is needed to understand
      the relationship between adopted status and gender development.

PMID- 28861550
TI  - Transgender Health Accepted for Indexing in PubMed Central and Inclusion in
      PubMed.

PMID- 28861548
TI  - Varied Reports of Adult Transgender Suicidality: Synthesizing and Describing the
      Peer-Reviewed and Gray Literature.
AB  - Purpose: This article reports on the findings of a meta-synthesis undertaken on
      published gray transgender suicidality literature, to determine the average rate
      of suicidal ideation and attempts in this population. Methods: Studies included
      in this synthesis were restricted to the 42 that reported on 5 or more Canadian
      or U.S. adult participants, as published between 1997 and February 2016 in either
      gray or peer-reviewed health literature. Results: Across these 42 studies an
      average of 55% of respondents ideated about and 29% attempted suicide in their
      lifetimes. Within the past year, these averages were, respectively, 51% and 11%,
      or 14 and 22 times that of the general public. Overall, suicidal ideation was
      higher among individuals of a male-to-female (MTF) than female-to-male (FTM)
      alignment, and lowest among those who were gender non-conforming (GNC).
      Conversely, attempts occurred most often among FTM individuals, then decreased
      for MTF individuals, followed by GNC individuals. Conclusion: These findings may
      be useful in creating targeted interventions that take into account both the
      alarmingly high rate of suicidality in this population, and the relatively
      differential experience of FTM, MTF, and GNC individuals. Future research should
      examine minority stress theory and suicidality protection/resilience factors,
      particularly transition, on this population.

PMID- 28861551
TI  - Access to Medical and Mental Health Services Across the HIV Care Continuum Among
      Young Transgender Women: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - Purpose: (1) To describe psychosocial, medical, and mental health outcomes of
      young transgender women (YTW) living with or at risk for HIV infection and (2) to
      explore barriers and facilitators to medical and mental health services across
      the HIV care continuum. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional observational
      study of YTW aged 16-24 years who were at risk for contracting or living with
      HIV. Participants were recruited from an adolescent HIV clinic and local
      community-based organizations that serve YTW. The single study visit included: a
      computer-assisted self-interview of demographics, medical and mental health
      measures, a qualitative semi-structured interview, optional rapid HIV testing for
      HIV-negative/status-unknown participants, and a chart review to determine rates
      of antiretroviral therapy (ART) prescription and viral suppression among HIV+
      participants. Descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data, and a
      modified-grounded theory approach was used for qualitative analysis. Results:
      Participants (n=25) had a mean age of 21.2 years; the majority were non-white
      (76%), had less than a college education (76%), were unemployed (52%), and had an
      income <$12,000/year (80%). More than one-third were unstably housed (36%) and
      uninsured (36%), and 28% reported having transactional sex. A majority had taken
      gender-affirming hormones (72%), but 17% obtained them from a source other than
      their doctor. Among HIV+ participants (n=8), 50% were prescribed ART and all four
      participants achieved viral suppression. Qualitative themes included lack of
      respect for or misunderstanding of gender identity, mismatch of mental health
      needs with available provider skills, challenges in finding HIV prevention
      services during adolescence or when transitioning to adult care, and importance
      of workforce diversity, including representation of transgender women in care
      teams. Conclusion: This study identified significant unmet mental health needs
      and several barriers and facilitators to engaging in healthcare for YTW across
      the HIV care continuum. Our data suggest an urgent need for provider competency
      training in gender-affirming care and integration of appropriate mental health
      and gender-affirming treatment with HIV prevention and treatment services for
      this population.

PMID- 28861552
TI  - Internal Medicine Resident Attitudes, Prior Education, Comfort, and Knowledge
      Regarding Delivering Comprehensive Primary Care to Transgender Patients.
AB  - Transgender patients face a multitude of health disparities and often a lack of
      understanding by healthcare professionals. A survey was undertaken of internal
      medicine residents in a large urban academic training program to determine prior
      education, attitudes, comfort, and knowledge in providing care for transgender
      individuals in a primary care setting. Total N=67 respondents (52% of those
      eligible). A full 97% of residents believe transgender medical issues are
      relevant to their practice, but only 45% had prior education about the care of
      transgender patients. Less than one-third of respondents felt comfortable
      describing hormonal/surgical therapy options or referring to another physician to
      meet these patient needs. HIV, gonorrhea, and chlamydia risk was underestimated
      for the trans woman population. Most medical residents did not feel up to date
      with screening guidelines. In contrast, most residents correctly identified
      higher rates of depression/suicidality in transgender individuals, as well as
      lower adherence to human papillomavirus screening recommendations for trans men.

PMID- 28861553
TI  - MANOTA: a promising bifunctional chelating agent for copper-64 immunoPET.
AB  - Improved bifunctional chelating agents (BFC) are required for copper-64
      radiolabelling of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) under mild conditions to yield
      stable, target-specific imaging agents. Four different bifunctional chelating
      agents (BFC) were evaluated for Fab (Fragment antigen binding) conjugation and
      radiolabelling with copper-64. Two DOTA- (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10
      tetraacetic acid) and two NOTA- (1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid)
      derivatives bearing a p-benzyl-isothiocyanate group were conjugated to Fab
      trastuzumab - which targets the HER2/neu receptor - and the average number of
      chelators attached ranged from 2.4 to 4.3 macrocycles per Fab. Labelling of the
      immunoconjugate with copper-64 was achieved in high radiochemical yields after 45
      min at 37  degrees C, and the radiochemical purity of each 64Cu-BFC-Fab
      trastuzumab reached 97% after purification. The affinity of each 64Cu-BFC-Fab
      trastuzumab ranged between 10 and 50 nM as evaluated by in vitro saturation
      assays using the HCC1954 breast cancer cell line. PET-MR imaging and
      biodistribution studies were performed in mice bearing breast cancer BT-474
      xenografts. BT-474 tumours were clearly visualized on PET images at 4 and 24
      hours post-injection. The tumour uptake of 64Cu-BFC-Fab-trastuzumab reached 8.9
      to 12.8% ID g-1 24 hours post-injection and significant differences in non
      specific liver uptake were observed depending on the BFC conjugated, the lowest
      being observed with MANOTA. These results show that MANOTA is a valuable tool for
      copper-64 radiolabelling.

PMID- 28861554
TI  - Giant lattice expansion by quantum stress and universal atomic forces in
      semiconductors under instant ultrafast laser excitation.
AB  - Femtosecond lasers (fs) can cause a disparity between electronic and lattice
      temperatures in the very short period after irradiation. In this relatively cool
      lattice regime, the material properties can differ drastically from those under
      thermal equilibrium. In particular, first-principles calculations reveal two
      general mechanical effects on semiconductors. Firstly, the excitation can induce
      a negative pressure on the lattice, causing a >10% expansion, even for superhard
      diamond. Secondly, it induces inhomogeneous local forces on the atoms, for both
      perfect and distorted lattices. In the case of phase-change-memory for Ge2Sb2Te5
      and GeTe alloys, such random forces cause a simultaneous phase transition from
      crystalline to amorphous, which enables faster data writing. These excitation
      effects are further supported by the time-dependent density functional theory.
      This work could be an important step in advancing fs laser techniques for the
      atomic-level control of structures, rather than relying on traditional melting or
      ablation approaches which often apply to much larger and non-atomic scales.

PMID- 28861555
TI  - Cranberry Proanthocyanidins - Protein complexes for macrophage activation.
AB  - In this work we characterize the interaction of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon)
      proanthocyanidins (PAC) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and hen egg-white
      lysozyme (HEL) and determine the effects of these complexes on macrophage
      activation and antigen presentation. We isolated PAC from cranberry and complexed
      the isolated PAC with BSA and HEL. The properties of the PAC-protein complexes
      were studied by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass
      spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), gel electrophoresis and zeta-potential. The effects
      of PAC-BSA complexes on macrophage activation were studied in RAW 264.7
      macrophage like cells after treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Fluorescence
      microscopy was used to study the endocytosis of PAC-BSA complexes. The effects of
      the PAC complexes on macrophage antigen presentation were studied in an in vitro
      model of HEL antigen presentation by mouse peritoneal mononuclear cells to a T
      cell hybridoma. The mass spectra of the PAC complexes with BSA and HEL differed
      from the spectra of the proteins alone by the presence of broad shoulders on the
      singly and doubly charged protein peaks. Complexation with PAC altered the
      electrophoretic mobility shift assay in native agarose gel and the
      electrophoretic mobility (zeta-potential) values. These results indicate that the
      PAC-protein complexes are stable and alter the protein structure without
      precipitating the protein. Fluorescence microscopy showed that the RAW 264.7
      macrophages endocytosed BSA and PAC-BSA complexes in discrete vesicles that
      surrounded the nucleus. Macrophages treated with increasing amounts of PAC-BSA
      complexes had significantly reduced COX-2 and iNOS expression in response to
      treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in comparison to the controls. The PAC
      HEL complexes modulated antigen uptake, processing and presentation in murine
      peritoneal macrophages. After 4 h of pre-incubation, only trace amounts of IL-2
      were detected in the co-cultures treated with HEL alone, whereas the PAC-HEL
      complex had already reached the maximum IL-2 expression. Cranberry PAC may
      increase the rate of endocytosis of HEL and subsequent expression of IL-2 by the
      T-cell hybridomas. These results suggest that PAC-protein complexes modulate
      aspects of innate and acquired immune responses in macrophages.

PMID- 28861556
TI  - Frontiers of solvent-free functional molecular liquids.
AB  - The chemistry of functional molecular liquids (FMLs) is a recently developed
      research area that describes the unique properties of the liquid physical state
      of the materials under solvent-free conditions. FMLs are generally composed of
      uncharged molecular units and exist in free-flowing as well as amorphous states
      in nature under ambient conditions. Attachment of flexible and bulky alkyl chains
      to a pi-conjugated chromophore is the most common method for producing such
      molecular liquids. FMLs exhibit many uncommon phenomena, including inherent
      molecular properties which have rarely been observed for conventional organic
      condensed materials. In the last decade, these optoelectronically active
      alkylated-pi liquids have attracted significant attention because of their
      applicability to flexible/foldable electronic devices with high stability towards
      photo-oxidation and thermal decomposition, as well as facile processability into
      devices. Besides these pi-conjugated chromophore-based liquids, a few other types
      of fluidic materials such as liquid biomaterials and liquid metals also exhibit
      many attractive functions in their solvent-free state. The breakthrough of FMLs
      in cutting-edge research and their fundamental liquid features on the basis of
      intermolecular architectures are highlighted in this Feature Article. It is
      expected that this Feature Article will encourage the understanding of liquid
      properties as a consequence of intermolecular interactions and inspire the
      development of molecular architectures that could be useful for designing more
      attractive FMLs with specific functions in the future.

PMID- 28861557
TI  - Diesel particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fire stations.
AB  - Firefighters are known to be exposed to a wide variety of combustion products
      during operational and training firefighting activities. However, the potential
      for exposure to diesel exhaust emissions, recently classified as carcinogenic to
      humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, also exists within the
      fire station environment. In this study, concentrations of diesel particulate
      matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been measured in the engine
      bays, duty offices and dormitory areas of eight fire stations in Queensland,
      Australia. Operation of fire appliances and mechanical equipment during start of
      shift checks were found to contribute more strongly to overall engine bay diesel
      particulate matter concentrations than the number of fire appliance departures
      and returns. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were found to be transported
      further into fire station living environments than diesel particulate matter.
      This study highlights a number of potential strategies for reducing firefighter
      exposures to components of diesel engine exhaust in the fire station environment.

PMID- 28861558
TI  - O-O bond formation in ruthenium-catalyzed water oxidation: single-site
      nucleophilic attack vs. O-O radical coupling.
AB  - In this review we discuss at the mechanistic level the different steps involved
      in water oxidation catalysis with ruthenium-based molecular catalysts. We have
      chosen to focus on ruthenium-based catalysts to provide a more coherent
      discussion and because of the availability of detailed mechanistic studies for
      these systems but many of the aspects presented in this review are applicable to
      other systems as well. The water oxidation cycle has been divided in four major
      steps: water oxidative activation, O-O bond formation, oxidative activation of
      peroxide intermediates, and O2 evolution. A significant portion of the review is
      dedicated to the O-O bond formation step as the key step in water oxidation
      catalysis. The two main pathways to accomplish this step, single-site water
      nucleophilic attack and O-O radical coupling, are discussed in detail and
      compared in terms of their potential use in photoelectrochemical cells for solar
      fuels generation.

PMID- 28861559
TI  - Dietary fucoidan of Acaudina molpadioides alters gut microbiota and mitigates
      intestinal mucosal injury induced by cyclophosphamide.
AB  - Cyclophosphamide (cy) is a widely used cancer drug. Many researchers have focused
      on the prevention and alleviation of its side effects, particularly damage to the
      intestinal mucosal barrier. In this study, we examined the effects of fucoidan,
      isolated from Acaudina molpadioides, on mice with intestinal mucosal damage
      induced by cyclophosphamide. Our results showed that fucoidan intervention could
      relieve injury such as decreasing inflammation and increasing the expression of
      tight junction proteins, and 50 kDa fucoidan significantly increased the
      abundance of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) producer Coprococcus, Rikenella, and
      Butyricicoccus (p < 0.05, p < 0.001, and p < 0.05, respectively) species within
      the intestinal mucosa compared with the cyclophosphamide group, as determined by
      16S rDNA gene high-throughput sequencing. In addition, SCFAs, particularly
      propionate, butyrate, and total SCFAs, were increased in the feces, and SCFA
      receptors were upregulated in the small intestine. The protective effects of
      fucoidan on cyclophosphamide treatment may be associated with gut microflora, and
      50 kDa fucoidan had superior effects. Therefore, fucoidan may have applications
      as an effective supplement to protect against intestinal mucosal barrier damage
      during chemotherapy.

PMID- 28861560
TI  - Pushing to the low limits: tetraazaanthracenes with very low-lying LUMO levels
      and near-infrared absorption.
AB  - Here we propose the combination of the 4-alkoxythiazole donor motif with highly
      photostable tetraazaanthracenes as electron-acceptor units. The segregated
      frontier orbitals in these dyes afford optical band gaps of 1.4-1.1 eV. Cyclic
      voltammetry confirmed the very low-lying LUMO levels that are attributed to the
      highly electron-deficient tetraazaanthracene moiety.

PMID- 28861561
TI  - The influence of water content in a proton-conducting ionic liquid on the double
      layer properties of the Pt/PIL interface.
AB  - The influence of the water content of 2-sulfoethylmethylammonium
      trifluoromethanesulfonate [2-Sema][TfO] on the double layer properties of the
      interface of platinum and the proton conducting ionic liquid (PIL) is
      investigated by means of impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. By
      fitting the impedance spectra as complex capacitances, up to four differential
      double layer capacitances and corresponding time constants are obtained,
      depending on the potential (U = 0-1.6 V/RHE), water content (0.7-6.1 wt%) and
      temperature (T = 70-110  degrees C). Within the whole potential range
      investigated, a high frequency capacitance, C1, and a low frequency capacitance,
      C2, can be calculated. In the potential region of hydrogen underpotential
      deposition (HUPD), C1 can be separated into two parts, C1a and C1b. Whereas the
      high frequency capacitive processes can mainly be attributed to ion transport
      processes in the double layer, the low frequency process is ascribed to changes
      in the interfacial layer, including ad-/desorption and Faradaic processes.
      Alternative interpretations regarding the reorientation of ions, reconstruction
      of the metal surface and partial electron transfer between anions and Pt are
      considered.

PMID- 28861562
TI  - Tumour-vessel-on-a-chip models for drug delivery.
AB  - Nanocarriers for drug delivery have great potential to revolutionize cancer
      treatment, due to their enhanced selectivity and efficacy. Despite this great
      promise, researchers have had limited success in the clinical translation of this
      approach. One of the main causes of these difficulties is that standard in vitro
      models, typically used to understand nanocarriers' behaviour and screen their
      efficiency, do not provide the complexity typically encountered in living
      systems. In contrast, in vivo models, despite being highly physiological, display
      serious bottlenecks which threaten the relevancy of the obtained data.
      Microfluidics and nanofabrication can dramatically contribute to solving this
      issue, providing 3D high-throughput models with improved resemblance to in vivo
      systems. In particular, microfluidic models of tumour blood vessels can be used
      to better elucidate how new nanocarriers behave in the microcirculation of
      healthy and cancerous tissues. Several key steps of the drug delivery process
      such as extravasation, immune response and endothelial targeting happen under
      flow in capillaries and can be accurately modelled using microfluidics. In this
      review, we will present how tumour-vessel-on-a-chip systems can be used to
      investigate targeted drug delivery and which key factors need to be considered
      for the rational design of these materials. Future applications of this approach
      and its role in driving forward the next generation of targeted drug delivery
      methods will be discussed.

PMID- 28861563
TI  - Metal-based magnetic fluids with core-shell structure FeB@SiO2 amorphous
      particles.
AB  - FeB@SiO2 amorphous particles were firstly introduced into Ga85.8In14.2 alloys to
      prepare metal-based magnetic fluids. The morphology of the FeB amorphous
      particles is spherical with an average particle size of about 190 nm. The shape
      of the particles is regular and the particle size is homogeneous. Stable core
      shell structure SiO2 modified FeB amorphous particles are obtained and the
      thickness of the SiO2 coatings is observed to be about 40 nm. The results of VSM
      confirm that the saturation magnetization of the FeB amorphous particles is 131.5
      emu g-1, which is almost two times higher than that of the Fe3O4 particles. The
      saturation magnetization of the FeB@SiO2 amorphous particles is 106.9 emu g-1, an
      approximate decrease of 18.7% due to the non-magnetic SiO2 coatings. The results
      from the torsional oscillation viscometer show that the metal-based magnetic
      fluids with FeB amorphous particles exhibit a desirable high temperature
      performance and are ideal candidates for high temperature use.

PMID- 28861565
TI  - Surface effects on converse piezoelectricity of crystals.
AB  - The contribution of surface units to bulk properties are often neglected in
      theoretical and computational studies of crystalline systems. We demonstrate that
      this assumption has to be made with caution in the case of (electric field)
      polarization. As a generalization of an earlier work on quasi-one-dimensional
      systems [Springborg, et al., Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter Mater. Phys., 2010,
      82, 165442], it is shown that the polarization for 2D and 3D systems contains a
      surface contribution that can, in principle, take any value (within physical
      limits) and has consequences for converse piezoelectric responses. Subsequently,
      we determine the surface effects quantitatively for a group of ferroelectric
      perovskite structures. Our results indicate that such contributions can be
      substantial.

PMID- 28861564
TI  - Selective reduction of carboxylic acids to aldehydes with hydrosilane via
      photoredox catalysis.
AB  - The direct reduction of carboxylic acids to aldehydes with hydrosilane was
      achieved through visible light photoredox catalysis. The combination of both
      single electron transfer and hydrogen atom transfer steps offers a novel and
      convenient approach to selective reduction of carboxylic acids to aldehydes. The
      method also features mild conditions, high yields, broad substrate scope, and
      good functional group tolerance, such as alkyne, ester, ketone, amide and amine
      groups.

PMID- 28861566
TI  - Microfluidic generation of aqueous two-phase-system (ATPS) droplets by oil
      droplet choppers.
AB  - Existing approaches for droplet generation with an ultra-low interfacial tension
      using aqueous two-phase systems, ATPS, are either constricted by a narrow range
      of flow conditions using passive methods or subjected to complex chip fabrication
      with the integration of external components using active actuation. To address
      these issues, we present a simple approach to produce uniform ATPS droplets
      facilitated by oil-droplet choppers in microfluidics. Our solution counts on the
      synchronized formation of high-interfacial-tension oil-in-water and low
      interfacial-tension water-in-water droplets, where the ATPS interface is
      distorted by oil droplets and decays into water-in-water droplets. In the
      synchronization regime, the size and generation frequency of ATPS droplets can be
      controlled independently by tuning the flow rates of the dispersed aqueous and
      oil phases, respectively. Our method demonstrates high uniformity of droplets
      (coefficient of variation between 0.75% and 2.45%), a wide range of available
      droplet size (droplet radius from 5 MUm to 180 MUm), and a maximum generation
      frequency of about 2.1 kHz that is nearly two orders of magnitude faster than
      that in existing methods. We develop theoretical models to precisely predict the
      minimum and maximum frequencies of droplet generation and the droplet size. The
      produced ATPS droplets and oil choppers are separated in the channel using
      density difference. Our method would boost emulsion-based biological applications
      such as cell encapsulation, biomolecule delivery, bioreactors, and biomaterials
      synthesis with ATPS droplets.

PMID- 28861568
TI  - Asymmetric conjugate addition of alkylzirconium reagents to alpha,beta
      unsaturated thioesters: access to fragrances and acyclic stereochemical arrays.
AB  - Copper-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of alkylzirconium species to
      alpha,beta-unsaturated thioesters is reported. A variety of functionalized alkyl
      nucleophiles were introduced with yields around 70% and ee's over 92%. The method
      was applied to the straightforward syntheses of the commercially important
      fragrances phenoxanol (both enantiomers 97% ee), and hydroxycitronellal (98% ee).
      The 1,4-addition products can be converted to enantiomerically enriched linear
      building blocks bearing a terminal functional group. Formation of further
      alpha,beta-unsaturated thioesters provides an iterative route for the
      stereocontrolled synthesis of functionalized acyclic arrays and we demonstrate
      almost complete catalyst control in the formation of additional stereocentres.

PMID- 28861567
TI  - How the electron-deficient cavity of heterocalixarenes recognizes anions:
      insights from computation.
AB  - We have quantum chemically analyzed the bonding mechanism behind the affinity of
      various heterocalixarenes for anions with a range of geometries and net charges,
      using modern dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3BJ). The
      purpose is to better understand the physical factors that are responsible for the
      computed affinities and thus to develop principles for a more rational design of
      anion receptors. Our model systems comprise heterocalixarenes 1-4 as hosts, which
      are characterized by different bridging heteroatoms (O, N, S) as well as the
      anionic guests Cl-, Br-, I-, BF4-, CH3CO2-, H2PO4-, HSO4-, NCS-, NO3-, PF6-, and
      SO42-. We use various analysis schemes (EDA, NCI, and NBO) to elucidate the
      interactions between the calixarene cavity and the anions to probe the importance
      of the different bonding modes (anion-pi, lone-pair electron-pi, sigma-complexes,
      hydrogen bonds, and others) of the interactions. Electrostatic interactions
      appear to be dominant for heterocalixarenes with oxygen bridges whereas orbital
      interactions prevail in the case of nitrogen and sulfur bridges. Dispersion
      interactions are however in all cases non-negligible.

PMID- 28861569
TI  - A naked-eye colorimetric sensor for Hg2+ monitoring with cascade signal
      amplification based on target-induced conjunction of split DNAzyme fragments.
AB  - A colorimetric sensor for the visual detection of Hg2+ with cascade signal
      amplification has been successfully constructed using split DNAzyme subunits as
      sensing elements and gold nanoparticles as signal reporters. The biosensor is
      ultrasensitive, enabling the visual detection of trace levels of Hg2+ as low as
      10 pM without instrumentation.

PMID- 28861570
TI  - NIR-emissive PEG-b-TCL micelles for breast tumor imaging and minimally invasive
      pharmacokinetic analysis.
AB  - Motivated by the goal of developing a fully biodegradable optical contrast agent
      with translational clinical potential, a nanoparticle delivery vehicle was
      generated from the self-assembly of poly(ethylene-glycol)-block-poly(trimethylene
      carbonate-co-caprolactone) (PEG-b-TCL) copolymers. Cryogenic transmission
      electron microscopy verified that PEG-b-TCL-based micelles were formed at low
      solution temperatures (~38  degrees C). Detailed spectroscopic experiments
      validated facile loading of large quantities of the high emission dipole
      strength, tris(porphyrin)-based fluorophore PZn3 within their cores, and the
      micelles displayed negligible in vitro and in vivo toxicities in model systems.
      The pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of PZn3-loaded PEG-b-TCL-based micelles
      injected intravenously were determined via ex vivo near-infrared (NIR) imaging of
      PZn3 emission in microcapillary tubes containing minute quantities of blood, to
      establish a novel method for minimally invasive pharmacokinetic monitoring. The
      in vivo circulatory half-life of the PEG-b-TCL-based micelles was found to be
      ~19.6 h. Additionally, longitudinal in vivo imaging of orthotopically
      transplanted breast tumors enabled determination of micelle biodistribution that
      correlated to ex vivo imaging results, demonstrating accumulation predominantly
      within the tumors and livers of mice. The PEG-b-TCL-based micelles quickly
      extravasated within 4T1 orthotopic mammary carcinomas, exhibiting peak
      accumulation at ~48 h following intravenous tail-vein injection. In summary, PEG
      b-TCL-based micelles demonstrated favorable characteristics for further
      development as in vivo optical contrast agents for minimally invasive imaging of
      breast tumors.

PMID- 28861572
TI  - 1,5-Electrocyclization of conjugated azomethine ylides derived from 3-formyl
      chromene and N-alkyl amino acids/esters.
AB  - A novel strategy has been developed for the synthesis of chromeno[3,4-b]pyrrol
      4(3H)-one and substituted pyrrole derivatives through 1,5-electrocyclization of
      conjugated azomethine ylides. This is the first example of the preparation of
      highly substituted pyrrole derivatives from chromene-3-carboxaldehydes (non
      enolizable aldehydes) and N-alkyl amino acids/esters. This method is simple and
      applicable to a diverse range of substrates.

PMID- 28861571
TI  - Synthetic approach to tailored physical associations in peptide
      polyurea/polyurethane hybrids.
AB  - Nature has achieved diverse functionality via hierarchical organization driven by
      physical interactions such as hydrogen bonding. Synthetically, polymer-peptide
      hybrids have been utilized to achieve these architectural arrangements and obtain
      diverse mechanical properties, stimuli responsiveness, and bioactivity. Here, we
      explore the impact of peptide ordering and soft/hard phase interactions in PEG
      based non-chain extended and chain extended peptidic polyurea (PU) and
      polyurea/polyurethane (PUU) hybrids towards tunable mechanics. Increasing the
      peptide content of poly(epsilon-carbobenzyloxy-l-lysine) (PZLY) revealed an
      increase in alpha-helical formation and modulation in amine/ether hydrogen
      bonding, suggesting enhanced intermolecular hydrogen bonding between peptide
      segments and soft/hard blocks. A balance of phase mixing and microphase
      segregation was observed depending on competitive hydrogen bonding and the hybrid
      architecture. This phase behaviour strongly modulated the mechanical response,
      particularly modulus and extensibility. We anticipate that this solid-state,
      synthetic framework will expand the reach of our peptide hybrids into
      biointerfacing materials, including scaffolds and responsive actuators via
      peptide selection.

PMID- 28861573
TI  - Anisotropic permeability in deterministic lateral displacement arrays.
AB  - We uncover anisotropic permeability in microfluidic deterministic lateral
      displacement (DLD) arrays. A DLD array can achieve high-resolution bimodal size
      based separation of microparticles, including bioparticles, such as cells. For an
      application with a given separation size, correct device operation requires that
      the flow remains at a fixed angle to the obstacle array. We demonstrate via
      experiments and lattice-Boltzmann simulations that subtle array design features
      cause anisotropic permeability. Anisotropic permeability indicates the
      microfluidic array's intrinsic tendency to induce an undesired lateral pressure
      gradient. This can cause an inclined flow and therefore local changes in the
      critical separation size. Thus, particle trajectories can become unpredictable
      and the device useless for the desired separation task. Anisotropy becomes severe
      for arrays with unequal axial and lateral gaps between obstacle posts and highly
      asymmetric post shapes. Furthermore, of the two equivalent array layouts employed
      with the DLD, the rotated-square layout does not display intrinsic anisotropy. We
      therefore recommend this layout over the easier-to-implement parallelogram
      layout. We provide additional guidelines for avoiding adverse effects of
      anisotropy on the DLD.

PMID- 28861574
TI  - Direct, efficient NHC-catalysed aldehyde oxidative amidation: in situ formed
      benzils as unconventional acylating agents.
AB  - A new N-heterocyclic carbene-catalysed oxidative amidation of aldehydes has been
      developed which converts the aldehyde to a benzil acylating agent in situ. The
      process uses an air-recyclable oxidant and a nucleophilic co-catalyst and does
      not require the use of a large excess of either one coupling partner or catalyst.

PMID- 28861576
TI  - Unusually low and density-insensitive thermal conductivity of three-dimensional
      gyroid graphene.
AB  - Graphene has excellent mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. However,
      there are limitations in utilizing monolayers of graphene for mechanical
      engineering applications due to its atomic thickness and lack of bending
      rigidity. Synthesizing graphene aerogels or foams is one approach to utilize
      graphene in three-dimensional bulk forms. Recently, graphene with a gyroidal
      geometry has been proposed. A gyroid is a triply periodic minimal surface that
      allows graphene sheets to form a three-dimensional structure. Its light weight
      and high mechanical strength suggests that the graphene that constitutes this
      geometry can synergistically contribute to the mechanics of the bulk material.
      However, it is not clear whether gyroid graphene can preserve the high thermal
      conductivity of pristine graphene sheets. Here, we investigate the thermal
      conductivities of gyroid graphene with different porosities by using full-atom
      molecular dynamics simulations. In contrast to its excellent mechanical
      properties, we find that the thermal conductivity of gyroid graphene is more than
      300 times lower than that of pristine graphene, with a bulk density of only about
      one-third of that of graphene. We derive a scaling law showing that the thermal
      conductivity does not vary much with different bulk densities, which contrasts
      the behavior of conventional porous materials. Our analysis shows that the poor
      thermal conductivity of gyroid graphene can be attributed to defects and
      curvatures of graphene, which increase with the density, resulting in the
      reduction of a phonon mean free path by phonon scattering. Our study shows that
      three-dimensional porous graphene has potential that may be utilized in designing
      new lightweight structural materials with low and density-insensitive thermal
      properties and superior mechanical strength.

PMID- 28861575
TI  - Investigation into the energy storage behaviour of layered alpha-V2O5 as a pseudo
      capacitive electrode using operando Raman spectroscopy and a quartz crystal
      microbalance.
AB  - alpha-V2O5 nanowires with a layered structure have been fabricated through a two
      step procedure. When measured as a pseudo-capacitive electrode with a three
      electrode configuration in 1 M Na2SO4 aqueous solutions, alpha-V2O5 exhibits
      ideal capacitive characteristics with a specific capacitance of ~238 F g-1 at a
      high current of 2 A g-1, but poor cycling stability with a continuous drop in the
      first 2000 cycles before it is maintained. To find possible solutions towards
      this problem, the energy storage behavior of the alpha-V2O5 electrode has been
      carefully investigated. In situ Raman analysis suggests that it is electrolytic
      hydrated cations [Na(H2O)n]+ rather than anions (SO42-) that are involved in the
      energy storage process through reversible adsorption/desorption on the surface or
      intercalation/deintercalation at the interlayer of the (001) planes accompanied
      by interlayer spacing expansion/contraction. Moreover, the electrochemical quartz
      crystal microbalance results indicate that, besides a reversible mass change,
      there is a continuous mass loss that may originate from slow dissolution of V2O5,
      which should bear the main responsibility for the poor stability (initial
      dramatic drop). Hence, how to inhibit dissolution, such as by coating or adding
      additives in the electrolyte, is found to be the key approach to improve the
      stability of V2O5 based electrodes.

PMID- 28861577
TI  - Anion photoelectron spectroscopy of free [Au25(SC12H25)18].
AB  - Previous theoretical studies have shown that the thiolated gold cluster compound
      [Au25(SR)18]- can be viewed as a prototypical superatom with a closed electronic
      structure. The quantized electronic structure of [Au25(SR)18]- has been
      experimentally demonstrated by optical and electrochemical methods in the
      dispersed state. Nevertheless, no direct information is available on the energy
      levels and densities of occupied states. Here, we report the photoelectron
      spectrum of [Au25(SC12H25)18]- isolated under vacuum for the first time. The
      spectrum exhibits two distinct peaks, corresponding to electron detachment from
      the superatomic 1P orbitals and Au 5d orbitals of the Au13 core. The adiabatic
      electron affinity of [Au25(SC12H25)18]0 was experimentally determined to be 2.2
      eV, which is significantly smaller than that of [Au25(SCH3)18]0 predicted
      theoretically.

PMID- 28861578
TI  - A multiplex microplatform for the detection of multiple DNA methylation events
      using gold-DNA affinity.
AB  - We report a new multiplexed strategy for the electrochemical detection of
      regional DNA methylation across multiple regions. Using the sequence dependent
      affinity of bisulfite treated DNA towards gold surfaces, the method integrates
      the high sensitivity of a micro-fabricated multiplex device comprising a
      microarray of gold electrodes, with the powerful multiplexing capability of
      multiplex-PCR. The synergy of this combination enables the monitoring of the
      methylation changes across several genomic regions simultaneously from as low as
      500 pg MUl-1 of DNA with no sequencing requirement.

PMID- 28861579
TI  - mRNA-miRNA bipartite network reconstruction to predict prognostic module
      biomarkers in colorectal cancer stage differentiation.
AB  - Biomarker detection is one of the most important and challenging problems in
      cancer studies. Recently, non-coding RNA based biomarkers such as miRNA
      expression levels have been used for early diagnosis of many cancer types. In
      this study, a systems biology approach was used to detect novel miRNA based
      biomarkers for CRC diagnosis in early stages. The mRNA expression data from three
      CRC stages (Low-grade Intraepithelial Neoplasia (LIN), High-grade Intraepithelial
      Neoplasia (HIN) and Adenocarcinoma) were used to reconstruct co-expression
      networks. The networks were clustered to extract co-expression modules and
      detected low preserved modules among CRC stages. Then, the experimentally
      validated mRNA-miRNA interaction data were applied to reconstruct three mRNA
      miRNA bipartite networks. Twenty miRNAs with the highest degree (hub miRNAs) were
      selected in each bipartite network to reconstruct three bipartite subnetworks for
      further analysis. The analysis of these hub miRNAs in the bipartite subnetworks
      revealed 30 distinct important miRNAs as prognostic markers in CRC stages. There
      are two novel CRC related miRNAs (hsa-miR-190a-3p and hsa-miR-1277-5p) in these
      30 hub miRNAs that have not been previously reported in CRC. Furthermore, a drug
      gene interaction network was reconstructed to detect potential candidate drugs
      for CRC treatment. Our analysis shows that the hub miRNAs in the mRNA-miRNA
      bipartite network are very essential in CRC progression and should be
      investigated precisely in future studies. In addition, there are many important
      target genes in the results that may be critical in CRC progression and can be
      analyzed as therapeutic targets in future research.

PMID- 28861580
TI  - Oxidative C-H functionalization of N-carbamoyl 1,2-dihydroquinolines.
AB  - A modular and efficient method for the synthesis of alpha-substituted 1,2
      dihydroquinolines is described. Under mild metal-free conditions, readily
      available N-carbamoyl 1,2-dihydroquinolines undergo oxidative C-H alkynylation,
      alkenylation, and allylation with a range of potassium trifluoroborates using
      TEMPO oxoammonium salt as an oxidant.

PMID- 28861581
TI  - A microfluidic device for the batch adsorption of a protein on adsorbent
      particles.
AB  - A microfluidic platform or "microfluidic batch adsorption device" is presented,
      which performs two sets of 9 parallel protein incubations with/without adsorbent
      particles to achieve an adsorption isotherm of a protein in a single experiment.
      The stepwise concentration gradient of a target protein was created by the
      integration of microvalves into the device. The nanoliter-scale reactor (41 nl)
      allows about 5000 times reduction of sample consumption and fast analysis
      compared with a conventional 96 well plate. The integration of two sets of
      parallel reactors as reference reactors and adsorption reactors, respectively, in
      a single microfluidic format has many advantages, such as the exclusion of the
      influence of undesired experimental fluctuations, and the possibility of real
      time tracing of adsorption processes. We performed batch adsorption of albumin
      fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugate (FITC-BSA) on polymeric particles (Source
      15Q) to obtain an adsorption isotherm. The obtained on-chip parameters maximum
      adsorption amount (Qmax) and adsorption constant (Keq) were 0.33 +/- 0.03 ng per
      particle and 0.97 +/- 0.22 L g-1, respectively, which are in good agreement with
      off-chip values (Qmax = 0.34 +/- 0.01 ng per particle and Keq = 0.81 +/- 0.10 L g
      1). On-chip adsorption isotherms of FITC-BSA at various concentrations of sodium
      chloride (NaCl) were measured to evaluate the effect of this salt on the
      adsorption capability of Source 15Q. The microfluidic device serves as a new
      analytical tool, useful in biotechnological and industrial applications, where
      the adsorption behavior of (bio)molecules on commercial adsorbent particles plays
      critical roles, such as protein separation and purification, detection of
      analytes and biomarkers, and solid-phase immunoassays.

PMID- 28861583
TI  - Tunable emergent structures and traveling waves in mixtures of passive and
      contact-triggered-active particles.
AB  - We investigate emergent behavior in binary mixtures comprised of passive
      particles and contact-triggered active particles (CAPs), where a propulsion force
      is applied on CAPs towards passive particles when the two are in contact. We show
      that such mixtures phase separate into distinct dense and dilute phases with as
      few as 10% CAPs. Furthermore, the structure of the dense phase can be tuned by
      varying the fraction of CAPs and the strength of their propulsion force. The
      dense phase is classified into seven structure types, which includes both 6-fold
      and 4-fold ordered crystals, and kinetically arrested gels and clusters. Mixtures
      with fewer than 35% CAPs exhibit traveling density waves such that one end of the
      dense phase recedes while the other propagates. This phenomenon results from the
      spontaneous symmetry breaking of particle flux at the dense-dilute interface. We
      show that contact-triggered activity can be employed to develop materials with a
      wide range of structures and dynamics.

PMID- 28861582
TI  - A systems biology approach to identify microRNAs contributing to cisplatin
      resistance in human ovarian cancer cells.
AB  - Cisplatin (CDDP)-based chemotherapy is a standard first-line therapy for ovarian
      cancer. However, drug resistance remains a major obstacle to its efficacy.
      Recently, increasing evidence suggested that the aberrant expression of microRNAs
      (miRNAs) may contribute to drug resistance. Here, we proposed a systems biology
      analysis strategy to identify the novel miRNAs potentially involved in CDDP
      resistance in human ovarian cancer cells. Firstly, we identified the candidate
      miRNAs associated with CDDP resistance using NCI-60 data. Next, the
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the CDDP-resistant ovarian cancer cell
      line OVCAR-8R were obtained. After mapping the DEGs to a human protein-protein
      interaction network, a CDDP resistance-related sub-network for ovarian cancer was
      constructed, and subsequently the functional gene modules were identified. Then,
      based on the experimentally validated miRNA regulations to target genes, 4
      candidate miRNAs (miR-24-3p, miR-192-5p, miR-139-5p and miR-155-5p) were
      identified to potentially contribute to ovarian cancer cell chemoresistance to
      CDDP through mediating OVCAR-8R cell CDDP resistance-related gene modules, which
      participated in functions that were closely related to "apoptosis", "cell cycle"
      and "adhesion". In addition, we predicted the therapeutic drugs that might reduce
      or reverse CDDP resistance by targeting these 4 identified miRNAs. This study
      revealed the underlying mechanism of CDDP resistance, and provided novel
      potential drug targets and therapeutics for CDDP-resistant ovarian cancer
      patients.

PMID- 28861584
TI  - Synthetic route to chiral indolines via Cu(OAc)2-catalyzed ring-opening/C(sp2)-H
      activation of activated aziridines.
AB  - A simple strategy for the synthesis of highly functionalized indolines via Lewis
      acid catalyzed ring-opening of activated aziridines with various nucleophiles
      followed by Cu(OAc)2-mediated intramolecular C-H amination in one-pot has been
      developed with excellent enantio- and diastereospecificity (ee 99%; de >99%). The
      reaction proceeds via Cu(OAc)2-catalyzed SN2-type ring-opening of 2-phenyl-N-(2
      pyridinesulfonyl)aziridine with alcohols and arene, followed by copper-mediated
      pyridine-2-sulfonamide directed intramolecular C(sp2)-H activation/cyclization in
      a stepwise fashion to furnish the indoline derivatives in excellent yields (up to
      91%).

PMID- 28861585
TI  - A model derived from hydrodynamic simulations for extracting the size of
      spherical particles from the quartz crystal microbalance.
AB  - One challenging aspect of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements is the
      characterization of adsorbed particles as the change in resonance frequency
      (Deltaf) is proportional not only to the inertia of the adsorbed layer but also
      to that of the hydrodynamically coupled fluid. Herein, by solving numerically the
      Navier-Stokes equations, we scrutinize Deltaf for sparsely deposited, rigid
      spherical particles that are firmly attached to an oscillating surface. The
      analysis is shown to be applicable to adsorbed, small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs)
      of controlled size under experimental conditions in which adhesion-induced
      vesicle deformation is negligible. The model supports a hydrodynamic explanation
      for the overtone dependence of Deltaf, and was fitted to experimental data
      concerning three monodisperse populations of SUVs with different average sizes
      ranging between 56 and 114 nm diameter. Using this procedure, we determined the
      average size of adsorbed vesicles to be within 16% of the size that was measured
      by dynamic light scattering experiments in bulk solution. In conclusion, this
      model offers a means to extract the particle size from QCM-D measurement data,
      with applications to biological and synthetic nanoparticles.

PMID- 28861586
TI  - Cu(ii)-Mediated keto C(sp3)-H bond alpha-acyloxylation of N,N-dialkylamides with
      aromatic carboxylic acids.
AB  - The selective oxidative coupling of aromatic carboxylic acids with the C(sp3)-H
      bond adjacent to the keto group of alkylamides has been developed by employing a
      low cost copper source. This provides an efficient approach for synthesis of O
      benzoylglycolamides. The protocol displayed good functional group tolerance. A
      broad range of benzoic acids directly coupled with alkylamides to afford a
      variety of O-benzoylglycolamides in moderate to good yields. In addition, a
      reasonable radical mechanism was proposed based on EPR experiments.

PMID- 28861587
TI  - Electronic effects on a one-pot aromatization cascade involving alkynyl-Prins
      cyclization, Friedel-Crafts alkylation and dehydration to tricyclic
      benzo[f]isochromenes.
AB  - A three-step domino reaction between 1-aryl-3-hexyne-2,6-diol derivatives and
      aldehydes is used to construct tricyclic 1,4-dihydro-2H-benzo[f]isochromenes. The
      cascade is initiated by BF3.OEt2 and involves alkynyl-Prins cyclization, Friedel
      Crafts alkenylation, and dehydration/aromatization to create a new, central
      aromatic ring and eliminate 2 equiv. of water. Electron-donating substituents on
      the aryl ring of the 1-aryl-3-hexyne-2,6-diols significantly increase overall
      yields as do electron-rich aldehyde reaction partners. For 2,4-disubstituted 2H
      benzo[f]isochromene products, diastereoselectivities in the alkynyl-Prins
      reaction are ~1.4 : 1 in favor of the cis-diastereomer. The stereochemistry of
      one cis-product was verified by X-ray crystallographic analysis and a second
      structure was also verified by X-ray analysis.

PMID- 28861588
TI  - Efficient genome-wide association in biobanks using topic modeling identifies
      multiple novel disease loci.
AB  - Biobanks and national registries represent a powerful tool for genomic discovery,
      but rely on diagnostic codes that may be unreliable and fail to capture the
      relationship between related diagnoses. We developed an efficient means of
      conducting genome-wide association studies using combinations of diagnostic codes
      from electronic health records (EHR) for 10845 participants in a biobanking
      program at two large academic medical centers. Specifically, we applied latent
      Dirichilet allocation to fit 50 disease topics based on diagnostic codes, then
      conducted genome-wide common-variant association for each topic. In sensitivity
      analysis, these results were contrasted with those obtained from traditional
      single-diagnosis phenome-wide association analysis, as well as those in which
      only a subset of diagnostic codes are included per topic. In meta-analysis across
      three biobank cohorts, we identified 23 disease-associated loci with p<1e-15,
      including previously associated autoimmune disease loci. In all cases, observed
      significant associations were of greater magnitude than for single phenome-wide
      diagnostic codes, and incorporation of less strongly-loading diagnostic codes
      enhanced association. This strategy provides a more efficient means of phenome
      wide association in biobanks with coded clinical data.

PMID- 28861589
TI  - Erratum to: CT-Guided Percutaneous Trans-scapular Lung Biopsy in the Diagnosis of
      Peripheral Pulmonary Lesion Nodules of the Superior Lobes Using Large Needles.

PMID- 28861590
TI  - [Botulinum toxin in otorhinolaryngology - an update].
AB  - During recent decades, the clinical use of botulinum toxin has become
      increasingly well established. In the field of otorhinolaryngology there are many
      indications for which botulinum toxin can improve patients' quality of life.
      These include applications in the region of the head and neck muscles and the
      autonomic nervous system in patients suffering from movement disorders of special
      muscles and secretory disorders (salivary, lacrimal, and sweat glands). The
      present article presents an overview of well-established and new indications for
      application of botulinum toxin in the head and neck region.

PMID- 28861591
TI  - Multianalyte quantitative competitive PCR on optically encoded microspheres for
      an eight-gene panel related to prostate cancer.
AB  - Nucleic acid-based tests have a profound impact in every medical discipline.
      Because multigene tests offer higher diagnostic accuracy and lower overall cost
      than single assays, they are especially useful for diseases, like prostate
      cancer, that present variability at the molecular level and diversity of
      available therapeutic interventions. We have developed a quantitative competitive
      PCR for an eight-gene panel, related to prostate cancer, that includes five genes
      of the human tissue kallikrein family (KLKs), prostate-specific membrane antigen
      (PSMA), prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3), and HPRT1 as a reference gene. Using
      PCR as a synthetic tool, a competitor was prepared for each target sequence
      containing the same primer binding sites as the target but differing in a short
      segment to enable discrimination by hybridization. The assay involves multiplex
      amplification of targets and competitors followed by a multiplex hybridization
      assay for the 16 amplification products. The assay was performed on optically
      encoded microspheres with oligonucleotide probes attached to their surface. The
      microspheres were analyzed rapidly (1 min) by flow cytometry. The signal ratio of
      the target and cognate competitor is a function of the target copy number in the
      sample prior to amplification. The multiplexing potential of the proposed method
      is much higher than real-time PCR and other end-point methods since there are 100
      sets of commercially available microspheres.

PMID- 28861592
TI  - Increased alertness, better than posture prioritization, explains dual-task
      performance in prosthesis users and controls under increasing postural and
      cognitive challenge.
AB  - Sensorimotor impairments after limb amputation impose a threat to stability.
      Commonly described strategies for maintaining stability are the posture first
      strategy (prioritization of balance) and posture second strategy (prioritization
      of concurrent tasks). The existence of these strategies was examined in 13 below
      knee prosthesis users and 15 controls during dual-task standing under increasing
      postural and cognitive challenge by evaluating path length, 95% sway area, and
      anterior-posterior and medial-lateral amplitudes of the center of pressure. The
      subjects stood on two force platforms under usual (hard surface/eyes open) and
      difficult (soft surface/eyes closed) conditions, first alone and while performing
      a cognitive task without and then with instruction on cognitive prioritization.
      During standing alone, sway was not significantly different between groups. After
      adding the cognitive task without prioritization instruction, prosthesis users
      increased sway more under the dual-task than single-task standing (p <= 0.028)
      during both usual and difficult conditions, favoring the posture second strategy.
      Controls, however, reduced dual-task sway under a greater postural challenge (p
      <= 0.017), suggesting the posture first strategy. With prioritization of the
      cognitive task, sway was unchanged or reduced in prosthesis users, suggesting
      departure from the posture second strategy, whereas controls maintained the
      posture first strategy. Individual analysis of dual tasking revealed that greater
      postural demand in controls and greater cognitive challenge in prosthesis users
      led to both reduced sway and improved cognitive performance, suggesting cognitive
      motor facilitation. Thus, activation of additional resources through increased
      alertness, rather than posture prioritization, may explain dual-task performance
      in both prosthesis users and controls under increasing postural and cognitive
      challenge.

PMID- 28861593
TI  - Effects of Elevated Ozone on Polka Dot Plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) with
      Variegated Leaves.
AB  - In this study, impacts of O3 on four cultivars ('Rose', 'Pink', 'Blush' and
      'White') of the polka dot plant with variegated leaves were investigated for the
      first time. Ozone fumigation [(120 +/- 20 ppb) for 14 days (8 h day-1, from 8:30
      to 16:30)] resulted in visible foliar injuries, decreased contents of pigments
      (chlorophyll a and b, and carotenoid), the inhibition of photosynthesis, the
      increase of quantum yield of non-regulated heat dissipation and fluorescence
      emission (Y(NO)), and the damage of cell membrane. Elevated O3 increased the
      content of anthocyanin (Ant). 'White' showed the highest, and 'Rose' the lowest
      amount of injured leaf area, indicating that the former was the most sensitive,
      and the latter the most tolerant to O3 stress. After O3 exposure, the highest Ant
      content was found in 'Rose', followed by 'Pink', 'Blush', and 'White'. Levels of
      Ant were likely responsible for the different sensitivities to O3 due to their
      roles in photoprotection.

PMID- 28861594
TI  - [Corticosteroids compromise survival in glioblastoma patients after radio- and
      chemotherapy].

PMID- 28861595
TI  - Oxysterols Versus Cholesterol in Model Neuronal Membrane. I. The Case of 7
      Ketocholesterol. The Langmuir Monolayer Study.
AB  - Oxysterols are products of cholesterol oxidation. They can be formed endogenously
      (in both enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions) as well as exogenously (delivered
      with food). Recent studies clearly demonstrate cytotoxic properties of these
      compounds, being mainly due to their incorporation into natural lipid bilayers.
      This process can influence mechanical and physicochemical properties of
      biomembrane-mainly by modifying the interactions between its components, which
      may result in the disruption of proper functioning of cell membrane and could
      lead to its degradation. Therefore, it can be assumed that oxysterols may affect
      the initiation of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease.
      However, the mode of action of these molecules at the molecular level is not
      fully known. To get a better understanding of the role of oxysterols in
      neurodegeneration, it is of great importance to examine mutual interactions
      between oxysterols and neuronal membrane components. One of the most promising
      techniques that can be used to analyze such interactions is the Langmuir
      monolayer technique. In this work, we have prepared an artificial neuronal
      membrane modeled as multicomponent Langmuir monolayer built up with cholesterol,
      1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC), and sphingomyelin (SM).
      To examine whether there are any changes in the membrane properties under
      oxidative stress, in this paper we have investigated the impact of the
      representative ring-oxidized oxysterol: 7-ketocholesterol (7-KC). Our results
      show that replacing cholesterol with 7-KC increases the interaction between
      molecules in the model membrane.

PMID- 28861597
TI  - Single high dose versus repeated bone-targeted radionuclide therapy.

PMID- 28861596
TI  - Effects of lesions in different nuclei of the amygdala on conditioned taste
      aversion.
AB  - Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is an adaptive learning that depends on brain
      mechanisms not completely identified. The amygdala is one of the structures that
      make up these mechanisms, but the involvement of its nuclei in the acquisition of
      CTA is unclear. Lesion studies suggest that the basolateral complex of the
      amygdala, including the basolateral and lateral amygdala, could be involved in
      CTA. The central amygdala has also been considered as an important nucleus for
      the acquisition of CTA in some studies. However, to the best of our knowledge,
      the effect of lesions of the basolateral complex of the amygdala on the
      acquisition of CTA has not been directly compared with the effect of lesions of
      the central and medial nuclei of the amygdala. The aim of this study is to
      compare the effect of lesions of different nuclei of the amygdala (the central
      and medial amygdala and the basolateral complex) on the acquisition of taste
      aversion in male Wistar rats. The results indicate that lesions of the
      basolateral complex of the amygdala reduce the magnitude of the CTA when compared
      with lesions of the other nuclei and with animals without lesions. These findings
      suggest that the involvement of the amygdala in the acquisition of CTA seems to
      depend particularly on the integrity of the basolateral complex of the amygdala.

PMID- 28861598
TI  - Screening and Characterization of Phytases from Bacteria Isolated from Chilean
      Hydrothermal Environments.
AB  - Phytases are enzymes involved in organic phosphorus cycling in nature and widely
      used as feed additives in animal diets. Thermal tolerance is a desired property
      of phytases. The objectives of this study were to screen and characterize
      bacterial phytases from Chilean hydrothermal environments. In this study, 60% (30
      of 63) of screened thermophilic (60  degrees C) isolates showed phytase activity
      in crude protein extracts. The characterization of phytase from two selected
      isolates (9B and 15C) revealed that both isolates produce phytases with a pH
      optimum at 5.0. The temperature optimum for phytate dephosphorylation was
      determined to be 60 and 50  degrees C for the phytases from the isolates 9B and
      15C, respectively. Interestingly, the phytase from the isolate 15C showed a
      residual activity of 46% after incubation at 90  degrees C for 20 min. The
      stepwise dephosphorylation of phytate by protein extracts of the isolates 9B and
      15C was verified by HLPC analysis. Finally, the isolates 9B and 15C were
      identified by partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene as members of the genera
      Bacillus and Geobacillus, respectively.

PMID- 28861599
TI  - Interleukin-6 in idiopathic multicentric Castleman's disease after long-term
      tocilizumab.

PMID- 28861600
TI  - Imaging Findings of Atypical Type II Endoleak Through Vasa Vasorum After
      Abdominal Endovascular Aneurysm Repair.
AB  - A type II endoleak (T2EL) is the most common endoleak after endovascular aneurysm
      repair (EVAR), and a persistent T2EL has been occasionally associated with
      aneurysmal enlargement. Typical findings of a T2EL consist of an endoleak cavity
      with inflow and outflow arteries of aortic branch vessels. However, an atypical
      T2EL, in which hypertrophied vasa vasorum and enlargement of a thrombosed
      aneurysm are observed, has no endoleak cavity. We have seen three cases of
      continuous aortic aneurysmal growth after EVAR caused by atypical T2ELs without
      endoleak cavities through developed vasa vasorum. In this report, the imaging
      findings of selective angiography and dynamic computed tomography of these cases
      are reviewed.

PMID- 28861602
TI  - Episodic future thinking improves children's prospective memory performance in a
      complex task setting with real life task demands.
AB  - Research on children's prospective memory (PM) shows an increase of performance
      across childhood and provides first evidence that encoding strategies such as
      episodic future thinking (EFT; i.e., engaging in a vivid prospection of oneself
      performing future tasks) may improve performance. The present study aimed at
      testing whether the beneficial effects of EFT extend from typical lab-based tasks
      to more complex tasks with real life demands. Further, it was tested whether
      children's ability to project themselves into different perspectives (i.e., self
      projection) moderates the effects of EFT encoding on PM. Overall, 56 children
      (mean age: M = 10.73 years) were included in this study who were randomly
      assigned to either an EFT or control condition. Children participated in a
      'sightseeing tour' (ongoing activity) inside the lab with various socially
      relevant and neutral PM tasks embedded. Results showed significantly higher PM
      performance in the EFT compared to the control group. There was no difference
      between neutral and social PM tasks and no interaction between type of PM tasks
      with encoding condition. Further, self-projection did not moderate the effects of
      EFT encoding on PM. Results suggest that EFT is an effective strategy to improve
      children's everyday PM. These beneficial effects seem to occur independent from
      children's general ability to change perspectives and for different types of PM
      tasks.

PMID- 28861601
TI  - The role of high-risk human papillomavirus infections in laryngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - The contribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) to the development and clinical
      outcome of oropharyngeal cancers has been well documented. The association of HPV
      in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) has been examined in several studies,
      but controversy exists regarding its role in carcinogenesis, the outcome of the
      patients and thus, clinical significance of HPV testing in LSCC. In this review,
      we give an update of known associations between HPV-positive testing and
      carcinogenesis in laryngeal cancer. In an early study, the HPV-DNA detection rate
      in LSCC was documented being 24.0% with significant regional differences. Non-HPV
      16 types were more often detected in LSCC when compared to the oropharynx. Later,
      single institution case series revealed markedly fewer amounts (<10%) of HPV DNA
      in LSCC and the results suggested that high-risk HPV infections seem to be
      biologically irrelevant in most LSCC. The significance of p16INK4a (p16)
      expression as a surrogate marker towards high-risk HPV infection and the outcome
      in LSCC is doubtful, since only few p16-positive LSCC samples are HPV RNA
      positive and accordingly there was poor correlation of p16-test results towards
      the outcome in LSCC. Recent meta-analysis (n = 2739) and large case series (n =
      1042) of LSCC revealed the true rate of HPV-driven LSCC being 8.6%, respectively,
      <5%. In the latter the rate of DNA-, DNA/RNA-, DNA/p16, and DNA/RNA/p16
      positivity was 5.7, 3.1, 1.9, and 1.5%, respectively. These results indicate
      relevant amounts of insignificant/transient HPV infection in LSCC specimen.
      However, in the same study the rate of transforming HPV infections increased
      since 2000, and younger patients had higher amounts of HPV-driven LSCC. Serologic
      testing of E6/E7 antibodies additionally revealed odds ratios between 2 and 5 as
      a hint for a weak contribution of high-risk HPV infection and the development of
      LSCC. The contribution of HPV for the development of LSCC needs future
      investigations, to date, routine HPV testing of LSCC specimen is not warranted.

PMID- 28861603
TI  - Pleasantness of olfactory and trigeminal stimulants in different Italian regions.
AB  - Although individuals categorize odors according to their pleasantness, experience
      may also influence odor perception-a phenomenon that partially explains why
      different populations perceive odors differently. Italy, which comprises 20
      regions, is characterized by very different cultures. In the present study, we
      investigated for the first time how Italian regional differences can affect odor
      perception. 254 healthy volunteers coming from northern, central, southern Italy,
      and Sicily, one of the two major Italian islands, were recruited in Padua, Rome,
      Naples, and Syracuse, respectively. Olfactory function was tested with Sniffin'
      Sticks identification subtest. Subjects who had a score in the range within the
      mean identification value +/- 1 SD, in accordance with the age classes identified
      in the literature, were asked to judge the odor pleasantness of 20 substances.
      The hedonic tone of the odorants was categorized as pleasant, neutral,
      unpleasant, and very unpleasant. Some odorants were appreciated more in northern
      Italy than in the other parts of the country, whereas others were appreciated
      more in the south and in Sicily than in the north. Unpleasant odorants were
      judged less unpleasant in central Italy. Some odorants such as strawberry and
      vanilla were perceived similarly in all the regional areas. Our study indicates
      that in Italy, hedonic perception of odorants differs probably in relation with
      genetic, cultural, and environmental factors. Further investigation is needed to
      delve deeper into the factors that influence the quality odor perception amongst
      humans.

PMID- 28861605
TI  - [Sepsis and mortality after severe infections : How epidemiological data confirm
      results of animal experiments].

PMID- 28861604
TI  - Cardiac optogenetics: using light to monitor cardiac physiology.
AB  - Our current understanding of cardiac excitation and its coupling to contraction
      is largely based on ex vivo studies utilising fluorescent organic dyes to assess
      cardiac action potentials and signal transduction. Recent advances in optogenetic
      sensors open exciting new possibilities for cardiac research and allow us to
      answer research questions that cannot be addressed using the classic organic
      dyes. Especially thrilling is the possibility to use optogenetic sensors to
      record parameters of cardiac excitation and contraction in vivo. In addition,
      optogenetics provide a high spatial resolution, as sensors can be coupled to
      motifs and targeted to specific cell types and subcellular domains of the heart.
      In this review, we will give a comprehensive overview of relevant optogenetic
      sensors, how they can be utilised in cardiac research and how they have been
      applied in cardiac research up to now.

PMID- 28861606
TI  - Attention capacity in European adolescents: role of different health-related
      factors. The HELENA study.
AB  - : We compared the level of attention capacity between adolescents from the center
      and south of Europe. The study included 627 European adolescents (54% girls),
      aged 12.5-17.5 years, who participated in the HELENA Study. The d2 Test of
      Attention was administered to assess attention capacity. The main results showed
      that adolescents from the south of Europe had significantly higher score in
      attention capacity compared with adolescents from central Europe (score + 8.1;
      95%CI, 2.44-13.61) after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic indicators, body
      mass index, cardiorespiratory fitness and diet quality index (p = 0.012).
      CONCLUSION: Adolescents from the south of Europe had higher levels of attention
      capacity than their counterparts from central Europe independently of
      sociodemographic and health-related factors. These differences should be taken
      into account by educational institutions when promoting new approaches for
      putting into the practice student's capacities. What is Known? * Attention is a
      crucial capacity during adolescence. * Several health-related factors (i.e.,
      physical activity, fitness or fatness) may influence attention capacity in
      adolescents. What is New? * Adolescents from the south of Europe had higher
      levels of attention capacity than their counterparts from the center, after
      accounting for socioeconomic factors, fitness, fatness and quality of diet. *
      These differences should be taken into account by educational institutions when
      promoting new approaches for putting into the practice student's capacities.

PMID- 28861607
TI  - Glomerular and tubular effects of nitric oxide (NO) are regulated by angiotensin
      II (Ang II) in an age-dependent manner through activation of both angiotensin
      receptors (AT1Rs and AT2Rs) in conscious lambs.
AB  - Renin-angiotensin (RAS) and nitric oxide (NO) systems and the balance and
      interaction between them are considered of primary importance in maintaining
      fluid and electrolyte homeostasis. It has been suggested that the effects of NO
      may be modulated at least in part by the angiotensin (Ang) II, yet the roles of
      angiotensin receptor type 1 (AT1R) and type 2 (AT2R) are not well understood.
      Even though both Ang II and NO are elevated at birth and during the newborn
      period, their contribution to the adaptation of the newborn to life after birth
      as well as their physiological roles during development are poorly understood.
      The aim of this study was to determine if NO regulation of renal function during
      postnatal maturation is modulated by Ang II through activation of AT1R or AT2R or
      both receptors. Glomerular and tubular effects of either AT1R selective
      antagonist ZD 7155, AT2R selective antagonist PD 123319, and both antagonists ZD
      7155 plus PD 123319, were measured in 1- (N = 9) and 6-week-old (N = 13)
      conscious, chronically instrumented lambs before and after removal of endogenous
      NO with L-arginine analogue, L-NAME. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
      procedures for repeated measures over time with factors age and treatment were
      used to compare the effects of the treatments on several glomerular and tubular
      variables in both groups. This study showed that L-NAME infusion after pre
      treatment with ATR antagonists did not alter glomerular function in 1- or 6-week
      old lambs. NO effects on electrolytes handling along the nephron during postnatal
      development were modulated by Ang II through AT1R and AT2R in an age-dependent
      manner. Selective inhibition of AT1R and AT2R increased excretion of Na+, K+, and
      Cl- in 6- but not in 1-week-old lambs. In 6-week-old lambs, urinary flow rate
      increased by 200%, free water clearance increased by 50%, and urine osmolality
      decreased by 40% after L-NAME was added to the pre-treatment with ZD 7155 plus PD
      123319. When L-NAME was added either to ZD 7155 or PD 123319, the same trend in
      the alterations of these variables was observed, albeit to a lower degree. In
      conclusion, in conscious animals, during postnatal maturation, Ang II modulates
      the effects of NO on glomerular function, fluid, and electrolyte homeostasis
      through AT1Rs and AT2Rs in an age-dependent manner. Under physiological
      conditions, AT2Rs may potentiate the effects of AT1R, providing evidence of a
      crosstalk between ATRs in modulating NO effects on fluid and electrolyte
      homeostasis during postnatal maturation. This study provides new insights on the
      regulation of renal function during early postnatal development showing that,
      compared with later in life, newborns have impaired capacity to regulate
      glomerular function, water, and electrolyte balance.

PMID- 28861608
TI  - Donepezil effects on cholesterol and oxysterol plasma levels of Alzheimer's
      disease patients.
AB  - Cholesterol is an essential component in the structure and function of cell
      membranes and has been associated with the major pathological signatures of
      Alzheimer's disease (AD). To maintain brain cholesterol homeostasis, it is
      converted into 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol (24OHC) which can be driven through the
      blood-brain barrier. Several studies have already described a decrease in 24OHC
      and an increase of 27(S)-hydroxycholesterol (27OHC) in AD, as a reflection of
      disease burden, the loss of metabolically active neurons and the degree of
      structural atrophy. It is also well known that peripheral cholesterol is altered
      in AD patients. However, there are no data regarding effects of AD treatment in
      this cholesterol pathway. Since a study from our group indicated a significant
      increase in membrane phospholipid metabolism by donepezil, the aim of this study
      was to evaluate the effect of short- and long-term donepezil treatment on
      cholesterol and metabolites 24OHC and 27OHC in plasma of AD patients and in
      healthy volunteers. At baseline, we found a decrease of 24OHC (p = 0.003) in AD
      patients. Cholesterol levels increased with donepezil treatment (p = 0.04) but no
      differences were observed regarding 24OHC and 27OHC. However, these results
      confirm and extend previous studies demonstrating disturbed cholesterol turnover
      in Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28861609
TI  - MiR-375 and YAP1 expression profiling in medullary thyroid carcinoma and their
      correlation with clinical-pathological features and outcome.
AB  - Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a tumor marked by an indolent growth for which
      few prognostic factors and therapeutic strategies are actually available.
      Different studies have recently appraised well-differentiated thyroid cancers are
      characterized by a dysregulation in different microRNA sets; however, only few of
      them investigated the role of miRNA expression in MTCs. In this study, we have
      assessed the miR-375 expression in a series of 130 MTCs (104 are sporadic and 26
      familial) with a median follow-up of 39 months (range 1-138) and then we have
      correlated our results with the clinical-pathological features and the patients'
      outcome.Moreover, we have appraised YAP1 (Yes-associated protein 1)
      immunohistochemical expression in the same MTC series and in 5 C-cells
      hyperplasia (CCH) samples as well. We observed a significant upregulation of miR
      375 in all MTCs, when compared to the normal thyroid tissues. Besides, miR-375
      expression was found to be closely linked to neoplastic size, a chance of thyroid
      capsule infiltration, the risk of lymph node metastasis, and the staging of the
      tumor. At the end of follow-up, only 10% (13/130) showed a tumor progression and
      a higher miR-375 expression was found to be closely linked to a worst patient'
      outcome. On the contrary, YAP1 immunohistochemical expression was sharply
      downregulated in tumors, whereas it was weakly expressed in CCHs. Our results
      suggest miR-375 plays a central role in MTC progression and, therefore, we seek
      following the idea that miR-375 pathway may be an effective target in novel MTC
      therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28861610
TI  - Inhibitors of the proteasome stimulate the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC)
      through SGK1 and mimic the effect of aldosterone.
AB  - The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) marks the tightly regulated, rate-limiting
      step of sodium re-absorption in the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron (ASDN).
      Stimulation of ENaC activity by aldosterone involves the serum and glucocorticoid
      induced kinase 1 (SGK1) and is mediated via complex mechanisms including
      inhibition of channel retrieval. Retrieved channels may be recycled or degraded,
      e.g. by the proteasomal pathway. The aim of the present study was to investigate
      whether inhibitors of the proteasome affect ENaC activity and surface expression,
      and to explore a possible involvement of SGK1. Short circuit current (I SC)
      measurements were performed on confluent mCCDcl1 murine cortical collecting duct
      cells to investigate the effect of two distinct proteasomal inhibitors, MG132 and
      bortezomib, on amiloride-sensitive ENaC-mediated I SC. Both inhibitors robustly
      stimulated amiloride-sensitive I SC. The time course and magnitude of the
      stimulatory effect of the proteasomal inhibitors on I SC were similar to those of
      aldosterone. Both, MG132 and aldosterone, significantly increased the abundance
      of beta-ENaC at the cell surface. SGK1 activity was assessed by monitoring the
      phosphorylation of a downstream target, NDRG1, and was found to be increased by
      MG132. Importantly, inhibiting SGK1 activity prevented not only the stimulatory
      effect of aldosterone but also that of proteasomal inhibition. In conclusion,
      these data suggest that ENaC stimulation following proteasomal inhibition is due
      to an accumulation of active SGK1 resulting in increased expression of ENaC at
      the cell surface. Thus, inhibition of the proteasome mimics SGK1-dependent
      stimulation of ENaC by aldosterone.

PMID- 28861611
TI  - The maize WRKY transcription factor ZmWRKY17 negatively regulates salt stress
      tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: We cloned and characterized the ZmWRKY17 gene from maize.
      Overexpression of ZmWRKY17 in Arabidopsis led to increased sensitivity to salt
      stress and decreased ABA sensitivity through regulating the expression of some
      ABA- and stress-responsive genes. The WRKY transcription factors have been
      reported to function as positive or negative regulators in many different
      biological processes including plant development, defense regulation and stress
      response. This study isolated a maize WRKY gene, ZmWRKY17, and characterized its
      role in tolerance to salt stress by generating transgenic Arabidopsis plants.
      Expression of the ZmWRKY17 was up-regulated by drought, salt and abscisic acid
      (ABA) treatments. ZmWRKY17 was localized in the nucleus with no transcriptional
      activation in yeast. Yeast one-hybrid assay showed that ZmWRKY17 can specifically
      bind to W-box, and it can activate W-box-dependent transcription in planta.
      Heterologous overexpression of ZmWRKY17 in Arabidopsis remarkably reduced plant
      tolerance to salt stress, as determined through physiological analyses of the
      cotyledons greening rate, root growth, relative electrical leakage and
      malondialdehyde content. Additionally, ZmWRKY17 transgenic plants showed
      decreased sensitivity to ABA during seed germination and early seedling growth.
      Transgenic plants accumulated higher content of ABA than wild-type (WT) plants
      under NaCl condition. Transcriptome and quantitative real-time PCR analyses
      revealed that some stress-related genes in transgenic seedlings showed lower
      expression level than that in the WT when treated with NaCl. Taken together,
      these results suggest that ZmWRKY17 may act as a negative regulator involved in
      the salt stress responses through ABA signalling.

PMID- 28861612
TI  - Molecular characterization of Enterocytozoon bieneusi isolates in laboratory
      macaques in north China: zoonotic concerns.
AB  - The significance of wild and zoo nonhuman primates (NHPs) as potential sources of
      human Enterocytozoon bieneusi infections has been increasingly appreciated, while
      the role of laboratory NHPs in zoonotic transmission of microsporidiosis remains
      elusive. In this study, the infection rate, genetic characteristic, and zoonotic
      potential of E. bieneusi were investigated for 205 laboratory macaques in
      Beijing, north China. The parasite was identified in 37 (18.0%) animals by nested
      PCR and sequencing of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS), with an
      infection rate of 25.6% in Macaca fascicularis (34/133) and 4.2% in Macaca
      mulatta (3/72). The differences in infection rate between the two species of
      macaques and between young macaques aged <= 5 years (29.6%, 32/108) and adults
      aged > 5 years (5.2%, 5/97) were significant (p < 0.01). Analysis of the ITS
      sequence polymorphisms recognized eight known genotypes (CC4, CM1, CM2, D, Peru8,
      Peru11, Type IV, and WL21) and two new genotypes (named as CMB1 and CMB2), with
      well-known human-pathogenic genotypes (D, Peru8, Peru11, and Type IV) most
      frequently detected. The rest genotypes (CC4, CM1, CM2, WL21, CMB1, and CMB2)
      were clustered into zoonotic group 1 in phylogenetic analysis. The high diversity
      and widespread presence of the human-pathogenic or group 1 E. bieneusi genotypes
      in laboratory NHPs, notably M. fascicularis and the young animals, suggest
      potential of zoonotic transmission. These findings imply that laboratory rhesus
      macaques could be significant reservoirs for human microsporidiosis.

PMID- 28861613
TI  - First mortality analysis in the French cohort of uranium millers (F-Millers),
      period 1968-2013.
AB  - PURPOSE: Epidemiological studies in cohorts of uranium millers can be informative
      to improve knowledge of the health effects of uranium, but are very rare. The aim
      of this study was to analyze, for the first time, mortality in a French cohort of
      uranium millers. METHODS: The F-Millers cohort includes permanent contract
      workers employed at least 6 months at French uranium milling plants. Vital status
      and causes of death were obtained from national registries between 1968 and 2013,
      in order to perform comparisons with French national and local mortality rates by
      computing standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%
      CI). RESULTS: The cohort includes 1291 workers. The average duration of follow-up
      is 32.1 years. At the end of follow-up, 448 workers were deceased and 13 lost to
      follow-up. We observed a significant deficit of mortality for all causes combined
      when the national reference was considered (SMR 0.81; 95% CI [0.74;0.89]), but no
      significant difference when the local reference was considered (SMR 0.97; 95% CI
      [0.88;1.07]). Significant excesses were observed only in a subgroup of 552
      workers hired at the manufacturing unit, mainly when the local reference was
      considered. CONCLUSION: No significant excess of mortality was observed at the
      scale of the full cohort. The cause-specific excesses of mortality observed in
      the subgroup of workers hired at the manufacturing unit were based on small
      number of cases, but would warrant further investigations. Undertaking analytical
      studies and combined analyses of cohorts of uranium millers would help to study
      the influence of potential risk factors and obtain more precise results.

PMID- 28861614
TI  - Gender differences in SCRABBLE performance and associated engagement in
      purposeful practice activities.
AB  - In two studies, the SCRABBLE skill of male and female participants at the
      National SCRABBLE Championship was analyzed and revealed superior performance for
      males. By collecting increasingly detailed information about the participants'
      engagement in practice-related activities, we found that over half of the
      variance in SCRABBLE performance was accounted for by measures of starting ages
      and the amount of different types of practice activities. Males and females did
      not differ significantly in the benefits to their performance derived from
      engagement in SCRABBLE-specific practice alone (purposeful practice). However,
      gender differences in performance were fully mediated by lower engagement in
      purposeful practice by females and by their rated preference for playing games of
      SCRABBLE-an activity where more extended engagement is not associated with
      increased SCRABBLE performance. General implications from our account of gender
      differences in skill acquisition are discussed, and future research is proposed
      for how the duration of engagement in effective deliberate practice can be
      experimentally manipulated.

PMID- 28861615
TI  - About MET expression and other biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer.

PMID- 28861616
TI  - 9th International Conference on Pediatric Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy.

PMID- 28861617
TI  - Novel Therapeutic Approaches to Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases. The
      number of people affected by AD is relatively high and seems to be rising.
      Although mild and moderate forms of the disease can be well controlled by the use
      of emollients, topical corticosteroids, and topical calcineurin inhibitors,
      treatment of severe is still a huge challenge. The new hope is biologic drugs,
      magic bullets in allergy, targeted at different points of the complex
      pathomechanism of inflammation in AD. In this review, novel biologic therapies
      are discussed, including recombinant monoclonal antibodies directed against
      various interleukin pathways (such as IL-4, IL-13, TSLP, IL-31, and IL-12/23), on
      immunoglobulin E, molecules acting as T cells, B cells, etc. Of biological drugs,
      the most promising seems to be anti-IL-4/IL-13 therapy (dupilumab-the biological
      agent) and phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor (crisaborole-a small molecule). A deep
      understanding of the AD pathomechanism provides a new perspective for tailor-made
      treatment of severe atopic dermatitis.

PMID- 28861618
TI  - Why do people participate in health-related studies?

PMID- 28861619
TI  - Efficacy and economic analysis of two treatment regimens using toltrazuril in
      lambs naturally infected with Eimeria spp. on pasture.
AB  - This study evaluated the efficacy and the economic viability of two anticoccidial
      treatment regimens tested in lambs naturally exposed to Eimeria spp. re
      infections in a grazing system during a 140-day period. Twenty-four suckling
      lambs were distributed into three groups based on the individual count of oocysts
      per gram of feces (OPG) and body weight. Animals were treated with toltrazuril 5%
      (20 mg/kg) at 14- (GI) or 21-day (GII) intervals, and GIII was kept as untreated
      control. A cost-benefit analysis of each treatment regimen was calculated.
      Additionally, economic analysis was performed on four hypothetical scenarios, in
      which lambs could be having 10, 25, 50, or 85% decrease in their expected body
      weight gain due to clinical. Efficacy of toltrazuril against Eimeria spp. was
      96.9-99.9% (GI) and 74.2-99.9% (GII). E. ovinoidalis was most frequently
      identified, but no clinical signs of coccidiosis were observed in lambs. There
      were no differences in weight gain among the groups. The cost of treatment per
      lamb was $13.09 (GI) and $7.83 (GII). The estimation model showed that the cost
      benefit ratio favored treatment with toltrazuril when lambs fail to gain weight.
      In the studied flock, the break-even point for toltrazuril administered at 14-day
      intervals was reached with 85% decrease in mean weight gain. In conclusion,
      toltrazuril can be used at 14-day intervals to control Eimeria spp. (re)
      infection in lambs raised on pasture. This treatment regimen was not economically
      feasible for subclinical coccidiosis; however, it may be feasible when used to
      prevent weight loss caused by clinical coccidiosis.

PMID- 28861620
TI  - Nationwide survey of hereditary pancreatitis in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hereditary pancreatitis (HP) is a rare cause of chronic pancreatitis.
      We here report a nationwide survey to clarify the epidemiological, genetic, and
      clinical features of HP in Japan. METHODS: Target subjects were patients with HP
      and their family members who had visited selected hospitals between 2005 and
      2014. This study consisted of two-stage surveys; patients with HP were identified
      by the first questionnaire and their clinical features were assessed by the
      second questionnaire. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-one patients (153 males and
      118 females) in 100 families diagnosed based on the Japanese criteria or 231
      patients (131 males and 100 females) patients in 80 families based on the EUROPAC
      criteria were reported. Of the families undertaking genetic tests, 41% had the
      PRSS1 mutations (p.R122H 33%, p.N29I 8%) and 36% had the SPINK1 mutations (p.N34S
      22%, c.194+2T>C 14%, p.P45S 1%). The mean age at symptom onset was 17.8 years.
      The cumulative rates of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency and diabetes mellitus
      were 16.1 and 5.5% at 20 years old, and 45.3 and 28.2% at 40 years, respectively.
      Forty-four percent of the patients underwent endoscopic treatment and/or surgery.
      The cumulative rate of pancreatic cancer diagnosis was 2.8% at 40 years old,
      10.8% at 60 years, and 22.8% at 70 years. CONCLUSIONS: HP was characterized by
      early disease onset, frequent development of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency
      and diabetes mellitus, requirement of endoscopic treatment and/or surgery, and
      increased risk of pancreatic cancer. PRSS1 and SPINK1 mutations serve as genetic
      background for HP in Japan.

PMID- 28861621
TI  - Enteroviruses in blood of patients with type 1 diabetes detected by integrated
      cell culture and reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR.
AB  - AIMS: Enteroviruses (EV) have been associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D), but EV
      RNA detection has been reported in only a small proportion of T1D patients. We
      studied whether integrated cell culture and reverse transcription real-time PCR
      could improve EV detection in blood samples from patients with T1D. METHODS:
      Blood was collected from 13 patients with T1D. The presence of EV RNA in blood
      was investigated by using real-time RT-PCR. In addition, plasma and white blood
      cells (WBC) were inoculated to BGM and Vero cell line cultures. Culture
      supernatants and cells collected on day 7 and day 14 were tested for EV RNA by
      real-time RT-PCR. Enterovirus identification was performed through sequencing of
      the VP4/VP2 region. RESULTS: Enterovirus RNA was detected in blood by using real
      time RT-PCR in only one out of 13 patients. The detection of EV RNA in cultures
      inoculated with clinical samples (plasma and/or WBC) gave positive results in
      five other patients. The viral loads were low, ranging from 45 to 4420 copies/ng
      of total RNA. One isolate was successfully identified as coxsackievirus B1.
      CONCLUSIONS: Integrated cell culture and reverse transcription real-time PCR can
      improve the detection rate of EV in blood samples of patients with T1D and can be
      useful to investigate further the relationship between EV and the disease.

PMID- 28861622
TI  - Perfusion magnetic resonance imaging in pediatric brain tumors.
AB  - PURPOSE: The use of DSC-MR imaging in pediatric neuroradiology is gradually
      growing. However, the number of studies listed in the literature remains limited.
      We propose to assess the perfusion and permeability parameters in pediatric brain
      tumor grading. METHODS: Thirty children with a brain tumor having benefited from
      a DSC-MR perfusion sequence have been retrospectively explored. Relative CBF and
      CBV were computed on the ROI with the largest lesion coverage. Assessment of the
      lesion's permeability was also performed through the semi-quantitative PSR
      parameter and the K2 model-based parameter on the whole-lesion ROI and a reduced
      ROI drawn on the permeability maps. A statistical comparison of high- and low
      grade groups (HG, LG) as well as a ROC analysis was performed on the histogram
      based parameters. RESULTS: Our results showed a statistically significant
      difference between LG and HG groups for mean rCBV (p < 10-3), rCBF (p < 10-3),
      and for PSR (p = 0.03) but not for the K2 factor (p = 0.5). However, the ratio
      K2/PSR was shown to be a strong discriminating factor between the two groups of
      lesions (p < 10-3). For rCBV and rCBF indicators, high values of ROC AUC were
      obtained (> 0.9) and mean value thresholds were observed at 1.07 and 1.03,
      respectively. For K2/PSR in the reduced area, AUC was also superior to 0.9.
      CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a dynamic T2* perfusion sequence provided
      reliable results using an objective whole-lesion ROI. Perfusion parameters as
      well as a new permeability indicator could efficiently discriminate high-grade
      from low-grade lesions in the pediatric population.

PMID- 28861623
TI  - Arthroscopic management of snapping scapula syndrome improves pain and functional
      outcomes, although a high rate of residual symptoms has been reported.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the use of arthroscopy in the management of patients with
      snapping scapula syndrome, including aetiology, surgical decision-making,
      outcomes, complications, effectiveness of arthroscopy, and quality of evidence of
      the existing literature. METHODS: Three databases (PubMed, Ovid [MEDLINE], and
      EMBASE) were searched independently and in duplicate to systematically screen the
      literature. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta
      analyses (PRISMA) checklist guided the reporting and data abstraction.
      Methodological quality of all included papers was assessed using the MINORS
      criteria. The results are presented in a narrative summary fashion using
      descriptive statistics including means, proportions, and ranges. RESULTS:
      Overall, 18 studies (5 case reports and 13 case series; all level IV evidence)
      were identified, including 201 patients (203 shoulders). The mean follow-up
      period was 32.7 months (range 1-154 months). Surgical decision-making for the use
      of arthroscopy was most commonly based on a failed trial of initial non-operative
      management in 17 studies (94%). Overall, 21% of cases achieved complete
      resolution of pre-operative symptoms, including pain, crepitus, and range of
      motion, while 68% of cases obtained some clinical improvement, but reported some
      residual symptoms (persistent crepitus [12%] and persistent scapulothoracic pain
      [4%]). Moreover, poor outcomes were reported 11% of cases and the most common
      complication was scapular oedema (6%). CONCLUSION: Arthroscopic management of
      snapping scapula syndrome yields improvement in pain, crepitus, and range of
      motion in a majority of patients; however, most patients experience residual
      symptoms. Further studies are needed to compare the outcomes of shoulder
      arthroscopy with other available treatment options for snapping scapula syndrome.
      Shoulder arthroscopy for snapping scapula can improve patients' symptoms;
      however, patients must be informed about the high likelihood of persistent
      symptoms post-operatively. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Systematic review of Level IV
      studies.

PMID- 28861625
TI  - The hydroxyapatite Turkish Delight: a technical note.
AB  - Nasal dorsum augmentation is commonly performed using autologous cartilage
      grafts, also in the Turkish Delight technique. The aim of this study was to
      describe a modification of the Turkish Delight technique for dorsal augmentation
      consisting of small hydroxyapatite-calcium carbonate granules (0.5-1 mm) that
      were wrapped in layers of oxidized cellulose and glued with 1-2-cm3 fibrin
      sealant and to compare its utility with that of other techniques. Clinically
      stable and satisfactory results were achieved in the four cases examined. Cone
      beam computerized tomography (CBCT) imaging revealed that there was no
      degradation of the graft up to 2 years after surgery. The use of a modified
      Turkish Delight method using hydroxyapatite granules promises to be a valuable
      option for the correction of nasal dorsum deficiency.

PMID- 28861624
TI  - Docking-assisted 3D-QSAR studies on xanthones as alpha-glucosidase inhibitors.
AB  - Recently, a series of xanthone analogues has been identified as alpha-glucosidase
      inhibitors. To provide deeper insight into the three-dimensional (3D) structural
      requirements for the activities of these molecules, CoMFA and CoMSIA approaches
      were employed on 54 xanthones to construct 3D-QSAR models. Their bioactive
      conformations were first investigated by docking studies and optimized by
      subsequent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the homology modeled
      structure of the target protein. Based on the docking/MD-determined conformers,
      3D-QSAR studies generated several significant models in terms of 47 molecules as
      the training set. The best model (CoMSIA-SHA) yielded q 2 of 0.713, r 2 of 0.967
      and F of 140.250. The robustness of the model was further externally confirmed by
      a test set of the remaining molecules (q 2 = 0.793, r 2 = 0.902, and k = 0.905).
      Contour maps provided much information for future design and optimization of new
      compounds with high inhibitory activities towards alpha-glucosidase. Graphical
      Abstract CoMSIA/SHA contour map of xanthone alpha-glucosidase inhibitor.

PMID- 28861626
TI  - Alanyl-glutamine but not glycyl-glutamine improved the proliferation of
      enterocytes as glutamine substitution in vitro.
AB  - The synthetic dipeptides alanyl-glutamine (Ala-Gln) and glycyl-glutamine (Gly
      Gln) are used as Gln substitution to provide energy source in the
      gastrointestinal tract due to their high solubility and stability. This study
      aimed to investigate the effects of Gln, Ala-Gln and Gly-Gln on mitochondrial
      respiration and protein turnover of enterocytes. Intestinal porcine epithelial
      cells (IPEC-J2) were cultured for 2 days in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's-F12 Ham
      medium (DMEM-F12) containing 2.5 mM Gln, Ala-Gln or Gly-Gln. Results from 5
      ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine incorporation and flow cytometry analysis indicated that
      there were no differences in proliferation between free Gln and Ala-Gln-treated
      cells, whereas Gly-Gln treatment inhibited the cell growth compared with Gln
      treatment. Significantly lower mRNA expressions of Sp1 and PepT1 were also
      observed in Gly-Gln-treated cells than that of Ala-Gln treatment. Ala-Gln
      treatment increased the basal respiration and ATP production, compared with free
      Gln and Gly-Gln treatments. There were no differences in protein turnover between
      free Gln and Ala-Gln-treated cells, but Gly-Gln treatment reduced protein
      synthesis and increased protein degradation. Ala-Gln treatment stimulated mTOR
      activation whereas Gly-Gln decreased mTOR phosphorylation and increased the UB
      protein expression compared with free Gln treatment. These results indicate that
      Ala-Gln has the very similar functional profile to free Gln in porcine
      enterocytes in vitro and can be substituted Gln as energy and protein sources in
      the gastrointestinal tract.

PMID- 28861627
TI  - Is the addition of a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist beneficial in moderately
      emetogenic chemotherapy?-a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: This systematic review evaluates the efficacy of neurokinin-1 receptor
      antagonists (NK1RAs) for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and
      vomiting (CINV) in moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC) excluding
      anthracycline-cyclophosphamide-based regimens. METHODS: A systematic review of
      MEDLINE (via PubMed and OVID) and Central databases, plus major oncology
      conferences, identified randomized trials evaluating NK1RAs in combination with a
      5-HT3 RA plus a glucocorticoid for management of CINV. Efficacy endpoints were
      complete response (CR), no emesis and no nausea rates. Data were analyzed using a
      random effects model. RESULTS: Sixteen trials (3848 patients) were identified.
      Results were separately analyzed for (a) pure MEC regimens (excluding regimens
      containing carboplatin or oxaliplatin), (b) carboplatin-based regimens, and (c)
      oxaliplatin-based regimens. (a) Two trials (abstracts) enrolled 715 patients. The
      odds ratio for overall CR with the addition of an NK1-RA was 1.46 (95% 1.06-2.02;
      p = 0.02) with an absolute risk difference (RD) of 8%. (b) Nine trials (1790
      patients) were identified. The OR for achieving an overall CR was 1.96 (95% CI
      1.57-2.45; p < 0.00001) in favor of the NK1RA containing regimen with an RD of
      15%. (c) Three trials (1190 patients) were identified. The OR for achieving an
      overall CR was 1.34 (95% CI 0.88-2.04; p = 0.17) not reaching statistical
      significance with a RD of 4%. CONCLUSION: Clear clinically significant benefit
      was seen with the addition of NK1RAs in carboplatin-based chemotherapy. A global
      benefit of an NK1RA containing regimen for the whole MEC category cannot be
      attested yet and warrants more randomized trials exclusively testing pure MEC
      regimens without carboplatin.

PMID- 28861628
TI  - HSV-2 encephalitis presenting as multifocal ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28861629
TI  - Predicting medical practices using various risk attitude measures.
AB  - This paper investigates the predictive power of several risk attitude measures on
      a series of medical practices. We elicit risk preferences on a sample of 1500
      French general practitioners (GPs) using two different classes of tools: scales,
      which measure GPs' own perception of their willingness to take risks between 0
      and 10; and lotteries, which require GPs to choose between a safe and a risky
      option in a series of hypothetical situations. In addition to a daily life risk
      scale that measures a general risk attitude, risk taking is measured in different
      domains for each tool: financial matters, GPs' own health, and patients' health.
      We take advantage of the rare opportunity to combine these multiple risk attitude
      measures with a series of self-reported or administratively recorded medical
      practices. We successively test the predictive power of our seven risk attitude
      measures on eleven medical practices affecting the GPs' own health or their
      patients' health. We find that domain-specific measures are far better predictors
      than the general risk attitude measure. Neither of the two classes of tools
      (scales or lotteries) seems to perform indisputably better than the other, except
      when we concentrate on the only non-declarative practice (prescription of
      biological tests), for which the classic money-lottery test works well. From a
      public health perspective, appropriate measures of willingness to take risks may
      be used to make a quick, but efficient, profiling of GPs and target them with
      personalized communications, or interventions, aimed at improving practices.

PMID- 28861631
TI  - Unenhanced magnetic resonance imaging immediately after radiofrequency ablation
      of liver malignancy: preliminary results.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the accuracy of unenhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      immediately after the percutaneous ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation
      (RFA) of liver malignancy in predicting treatment efficacy at CT follow-up.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Percutaneous ablation was prospectively performed in 23
      liver malignancies (20 hepatocarcinomas and 3 metastases). After the procedure in
      the same day all patients were studied with unenhanced MRI. The best sequence to
      detect the coagulative necrosis was visually established. Pre-RFA CT and post-RFA
      MRI were registered with non-rigid transformation algorithm. Manual segmentation
      of lesions and ablated areas in pre-RFA CT, post-RFA MRI, and follow-up CT were
      obtained. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative
      predicitve value (NPV), and accuracy of MRI in predicting the correct centering
      and the complete treatment of the lesion were calculated in respect to the 1
      month follow-up CT. RESULTS: Fat-saturated T1-weighted (fs T1-w) was the sequence
      in which the best conspicuity of the ablated area was depicted. Coagulative
      necrosis was hyperintense in fs T1-w sequence in 17/23 (74%). In respect to
      follow-up CT, MRI predicted the correct centering of the lesions in 19/20 lesions
      with sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of 100%, 75%, 95%, 100%,
      and 100%, respectively. MRI predicted the complete treatment of the lesions in
      17/17 lesions with sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of 100%.
      CONCLUSION: MRI with the single fs T1-w sequence was highly accurate in
      predicting the treatment efficacy of percutaneous ablation of liver malignancies
      in comparison to follow-up CT control. Unnecessary CT in case of incomplete
      treatment can be therefore easily avoided.

PMID- 28861630
TI  - An integrated inverse model-experimental approach to determine soft tissue three
      dimensional constitutive parameters: application to post-infarcted myocardium.
AB  - Knowledge of the complete three-dimensional (3D) mechanical behavior of soft
      tissues is essential in understanding their pathophysiology and in developing
      novel therapies. Despite significant progress made in experimentation and
      modeling, a complete approach for the full characterization of soft tissue 3D
      behavior remains elusive. A major challenge is the complex architecture of soft
      tissues, such as myocardium, which endows them with strongly anisotropic and
      heterogeneous mechanical properties. Available experimental approaches for
      quantifying the 3D mechanical behavior of myocardium are limited to preselected
      planar biaxial and 3D cuboidal shear tests. These approaches fall short in
      pursuing a model-driven approach that operates over the full kinematic space. To
      address these limitations, we took the following approach. First, based on a
      kinematical analysis and using a given strain energy density function (SEDF), we
      obtained an optimal set of displacement paths based on the full 3D deformation
      gradient tensor. We then applied this optimal set to obtain novel experimental
      data from a 1-cm cube of post-infarcted left ventricular myocardium. Next, we
      developed an inverse finite element (FE) simulation of the experimental
      configuration embedded in a parameter optimization scheme for estimation of the
      SEDF parameters. Notable features of this approach include: (i) enhanced
      determinability and predictive capability of the estimated parameters following
      an optimal design of experiments, (ii) accurate simulation of the experimental
      setup and transmural variation of local fiber directions in the FE environment,
      and (iii) application of all displacement paths to a single specimen to minimize
      testing time so that tissue viability could be maintained. Our results indicated
      that, in contrast to the common approach of conducting preselected tests and
      choosing an SEDF a posteriori, the optimal design of experiments, integrated with
      a chosen SEDF and full 3D kinematics, leads to a more robust characterization of
      the mechanical behavior of myocardium and higher predictive capabilities of the
      SEDF. The methodology proposed and demonstrated herein will ultimately provide a
      means to reliably predict tissue-level behaviors, thus facilitating organ-level
      simulations for efficient diagnosis and evaluation of potential treatments. While
      applied to myocardium, such developments are also applicable to characterization
      of other types of soft tissues.

PMID- 28861632
TI  - Margination and adhesion of micro- and nanoparticles in the coronary circulation:
      a step towards optimised drug carrier design.
AB  - Obstruction of left anterior descending artery (LAD) due to the thrombosis or
      atherosclerotic plaques is the leading cause of death worldwide. Targeted
      delivery of drugs through micro- and nanoparticles is a very promising approach
      for developing new strategies in clot-busting or treating restenosis. In this
      work, we modelled the blood flow characteristics in a patient-specific
      reconstructed LAD artery by the fluid-solid interaction method and based on
      physiological boundary conditions. Next, we provided a Lagrangian description of
      micro- and nanoparticles dynamics in the blood flow considering their Brownian
      motion and the particle-particle interactions. Our results state that the number
      of spherical particles migrating towards the region of lumen with potential of
      thrombus existence (PTE) rises by increasing the particle size. Also, an optimum
      scope of particle size in which the adhesive probability parameter reaches its
      maximum was determined. We acquired an optimum scope for a specific degree of
      particle sphericity in which the thrombus surfaces experience the maximum density
      of interaction with particles. We learned that the ligand-receptor mechanism
      based drug carriers are better choices for treating LAD arterial diseases when
      the addressees are patients with low haematocrit-related diseases. While due to
      the amount of shear stress exerting on the diseased area, generally exploiting
      nanoshear-activated drug carriers would be the more effective option when it
      comes to the thrombolytic therapies of patients with high haematocrit-related
      diseases.

PMID- 28861633
TI  - Efficacy of pedobarographic analysis to evaluate proximal medial gastrocnemius
      recession in patients with gastrocnemius tightness and metatarsalgia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Proximal medial gastrocnemius recession (PMGR) is a surgical procedure
      performed in patients with gastrocnemius tightness (GT). The purpose of this
      study is to evaluate the efficacy of pedobarographic analysis on PMGR in patients
      with GT and metatarsalgia. METHODS: This prospective study included 52 patients
      diagnosed with GT treated surgically with PMGR and 49 non-operated upon patients
      (control group). A total of 55 PMGRs (three bilateral) were performed as an
      isolated or combined procedure in the treatment group. Passive ankle dorsiflexion
      with knee flexion and extension was evaluated in all patients. In addition,
      pedobarographic analysis was performed before and after surgery. RESULTS: Median
      preoperative ankle dorsiflexion was -10.0 degrees  (equinus) with extended knee
      and 10.0 degrees  with flexed knee and postoperative differences in median ankle
      dorsiflexion was 12.5 degrees  (extended knee) (p = 0.000) and 5.0 degrees 
      (flexed knee) (p = 0.002). After the PMGR, the median area of the contact surface
      (-3.0 cm2) (p = 0.009), the maximum (-13,239.0 Pa) (p = 0.019) and mean pressure
      (-2,942.0 Pa) and the forefoot force (-70.0 N) (p = 0.000) decreased. An increase
      in hindfoot force (20.0 N), hindfoot bearing time (4.0 ms) (p = 0.005), and
      forefoot bearing time (1.0 ms) was also observed. CONCLUSIONS: Pedobarographic
      analysis is an efficient tool to evaluate surgical procedures that assess
      metatarsal overload. PMGR is an effective surgical procedure to improve passive
      ankle range of motion and decrease forefoot plantar overload.

PMID- 28861634
TI  - Novel one-pot ATP regeneration system based on three-enzyme cascade for
      industrial CTP production.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop a new one-pot polyphosphate kinase (PPK) system with low
      cost and high efficiency for ATP regeneration in industrial CTP production.
      RESULTS: We developed a new one-pot PPK system by applying a three-enzyme cascade
      (CMK, NDK and PPK) with an in vitro polyP-based ATP regeneration system. The PPK
      was selected from twenty sources, and was made solvable by fusion expressing with
      soluble protein and constructing polycistronic plasmids, or co-expressing with
      molecular chaperones GroES/EL. Activities of other enzymes were optimized by
      employing fusion expression, tac-pBAD system, Rosetta host and codon
      optimization. After 24 h, the concentration of CDP and CTP reached 3.8 +/- 0.2
      and 6.9 +/- 0.3 mM l-1 respectively with a yield of approximately 79%. The molar
      conversion rate of CTP was 51%, and its yield and conversion rate increased 100%
      from the traditional system. CONCLUSIONS: A new one-pot ATP regeneration system
      applying polyphosphate kinase for CTP production was developed.

PMID- 28861635
TI  - Diffusion-weighted imaging of the pericholecystic hepatic parenchyma for
      distinguishing acute and chronic cholecystitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to measure the performance of restricted
      diffusion of the pericholecystic hepatic parenchyma for distinguishing between
      acute and chronic cholecystitis. METHODS: The institutional review board approved
      this HIPAA-compliant retrospective study. Two hundred sixty-six patients
      presenting with acute right upper quadrant pain between 10/3/2010 and 11/28/2012
      undergoing MR within 48 h of equivocal utility of ultrasound (US) were included.
      Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences (b = 0, 600 s/mm2, apparent diffusion
      coefficient (ADC) maps) were reviewed and graded in a blinded fashion by two
      abdominal fellowship-trained radiologists for the presence of restricted
      diffusion in the pericholecystic hepatic parenchyma and the gallbladder wall.
      Sensitivity, specificity, and inter-observer agreement for individual imaging
      signs were calculated using surgical pathology as the reference standard for
      acute cholecystitis. RESULTS: Of the 266 patients, 113 were treated
      conservatively and 153 underwent cholecystectomy. Restricted diffusion of the
      pericholecystic hepatic parenchyma showed low sensitivity (reviewer 1, 40%;
      reviewer 2, 30%) and moderately high specificity (reviewer 1, 84%; reviewer 2,
      75%) for distinguishing acute and chronic cholecystitis. Restricted diffusion in
      the gallbladder wall showed low sensitivity (reviewer 1, 30%; reviewer 2, 7%) and
      high specificity (reviewer 1, 93%; reviewer 2, 97%) for distinguishing acute and
      chronic cholecystitis. CONCLUSION: Diffusion-weighted imaging of the
      pericholecystic hepatic parenchyma shows moderately high specificity for
      distinguishing between acute and chronic cholecystitis.

PMID- 28861638
TI  - Why critical appraisal is so important these days.

PMID- 28861636
TI  - Self-perception of fracture risk: what can it tell us?
AB  - : In this study, we report that self-perception of fracture risk captures some
      aspect of fracture risk not currently measured using conventional fracture
      prediction tools and is associated with improved medication uptake. It suggests
      that adequate appreciation of fracture risk may be beneficial and lead to greater
      healthcare engagement and treatment. INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to assess how
      well self-perception of fracture risk, and fracture risk as estimated by the
      fracture prediction tool FRAX, related to fracture incidence and uptake and
      persistence of anti-osteoporosis medication among women participating in the
      Global Longitudinal study of Osteoporosis in Women (GLOW). METHODS: GLOW is an
      international cohort study involving 723 physician practices across 10 countries
      in Europe, North America and Australia. Aged >= 55 years, 60,393 women completed
      baseline questionnaires detailing medical history, including co-morbidities,
      fractures and self-perceived fracture risk (SPR). Annual follow-up included self
      reported incident fractures and anti-osteoporosis medication (AOM) use. We
      calculated FRAX risk without bone mineral density measurement. RESULTS: Of the
      39,241 women with at least 1 year of follow-up data, 2132 (5.4%) sustained an
      incident major osteoporotic fracture over 5 years of follow-up. Within each SPR
      category, risk of fracture increased as the FRAX categorisation of risk
      increased. In GLOW, only 11% of women with a lower baseline SPR were taking AOM
      at baseline, compared with 46% of women with a higher SPR. AOM use tended to
      increase in the years after a reported fracture. However, women with a lower SPR
      who were fractured still reported lower AOM rates than women with or without a
      fracture but had a higher SPR. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that SPR
      captures some aspect of fracture risk not currently measured using conventional
      fracture prediction tools and is also associated with improved medication uptake.

PMID- 28861637
TI  - Impact of repeat HER2 testing after initial equivocal HER2 FISH results using
      2013 ASCO/CAP guidelines.
AB  - PURPOSE: The updated 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of
      American Pathologists guideline recommendations for human epidermal growth factor
      receptor 2 (HER2) testing have made some major changes in HER2 fluorescence in
      situ hybridization (FISH) interpretation criteria with additional FISH equivocal
      cases. Repeat HER2 testing is recommended after initial HER2 FISH equivocal
      results; however, little is known about its impact on final HER2 status. The aim
      of this study is to investigate whether reflex test clarifies HER2 status, and to
      characterize clinicopathological features of the newly defined HER2 equivocal
      group. METHODS: A total of 886 consecutive cases of primary invasive breast
      cancer conducted with dual-probe HER2 FISH testing between November 2013 and
      December 2015 were reviewed. HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and FISH testing
      were performed on a different tissue block or a new specimen after initial HER2
      FISH equivocal results. RESULTS: Compared to 2007 guideline, 85 (9.6%) cases
      changed their category by using 2013 guideline. The major change of the 85 cases
      is that 57 (6.4%) cases in HER2 FISH-negative category changed to equivocal, and
      the equivocal category cases increased from 36 to 67. HER2 FISH equivocal was
      significantly associated with HER2 IHC equivocal (2+) and chromosome 17 polysomy
      (P < 0.01). Repeat testing by IHC and FISH clarified HER2 status in 33 and 42% of
      HER2 equivocal cases, respectively. Overall 32 (48%) initial HER2 equivocal cases
      stayed HER2 equivocal after repeat FISH and or IHC testing. These tumors were
      ER/PR+, with high KI-67 index. CONCLUSION: New guidelines classify more HER2 FISH
      equivocal cases. Repeat HER2 testing clarifies HER2 status in about 50% of
      initial HER2 FISH equivocal cases. In addition, HER2 equivocal cases merit
      further study as there is limited information about prognosis and optimal
      treatment strategy for this population.

PMID- 28861639
TI  - Repositioning of proton pump inhibitors in cancer therapy.
AB  - Drug repositioning, as a smart way to exploit new molecular targets of a known
      drug, has been gaining increasing attention in the discovery of anti-cancer
      drugs. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) as benzimidazole derivatives, which are
      essentially H+-K+-ATPases inhibitors, are commonly used in the treatment of acid
      related diseases such as gastric ulcer. In recent years, exploring the new
      application of PPIs in anti-cancer field has become a hot research topic.
      Interestingly, cancer cells display an alkaline intracellular pH and an acidic
      extracellular pH. The extracellular acidity of tumors can be corrected by PPIs
      that are selectively activated in an acid milieu. It is generally believed that
      PPIs might provoke disruption of pH homeostasis by targeting V-ATPase on cancer
      cells, which is the theoretical basis for PPIs to play an anti-cancer role.
      Numerous studies have shown specialized effects of the PPIs on tumor cell growth,
      metastasis, chemoresistance, and autophagy. PPIs may really represent new anti
      cancer drugs due to better safety and tolerance, the potential selectivity in
      targeting tumor acidity, and the ability to inhibit mechanism pivotal for cancer
      homeostasis. In this review, we focus on the new therapeutic applications of PPIs
      in multiple cancers, explaining the rationale behind this approach and providing
      practical evidence.

PMID- 28861640
TI  - Bone Mineral Density in Boys Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case
      Control Study.
AB  - This study compared bone mineral density (BMD) of the spine obtained by dual
      energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), nutritional status, biochemical markers, and
      gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in 4-8 year old boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder
      (ASD) with a group of age-matched, healthy boys without ASD. Boys with ASD had
      significantly lower spine BMD compared to controls but this was not correlated
      with any biochemical markers, dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D,
      elimination diet status, or GI symptomology. Reduced BMD in 4-8 year old boys
      with ASD appears to involve factors other than nutrient intake and GI status, and
      requires further study.

PMID- 28861642
TI  - Chronic pain and other symptoms among breast cancer survivors: prevalence,
      predictors, and effects on quality of life.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate prevalence and risk factors associated with self-reported
      chronic pain, and other symptoms related to breast cancer or its treatment among
      breast cancer survivors (BCS). METHODS: A cross-sectional study of a random
      sample of 410 female BCS, members of "Leumit" healthcare fund, diagnosed with
      primary nonmetastatic invasive breast cancer in the years 2002-2012. The study
      questionnaire included questions on health-related quality of life, pain
      symptoms, and was completed by all women contacted. RESULTS: A total of 305 BCS
      (74%), with a median of 7.4 years since diagnosis reported chronic pain, of whom
      84% had moderate pain, and 97% experienced pain at least 1-3 days/week. Other
      symptoms were paresthesia (63%), allodynia (48%), and phantom sensations (15%).
      Report of pain symptoms, alone or combined, was significantly associated with
      poorer quality of life. In multivariable analyses, chronic pain was positively
      associated with mastectomy compared to breast-conserving surgery [Odds ratio
      (OR), 3.54; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.46-8.59; P = 0.005], radiotherapy
      compared to non-radiotherapy (OR 2.96; 95% CI 1.43-6.12; P = 0.003), breast
      cancer stage at diagnosis-regional versus localized (OR 3.63; 95% CI 2.00-6.57; P
      < 0.001), and inversely with age (OR per one-year increment, 0.96; 95% CI 0.94
      0.99; P = 0.002), and with time since diagnosis (OR per one-year increment, 0.82;
      95% CI 0.75-0.90; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: With the increasing incidence of
      detected breast cancer and the improvements in treatment and consequently
      survival, knowledge about prevalence, and factors related to treatment late
      effects of chronic pain is highly relevant for potential prevention or management
      without negatively impacting quality of life.

PMID- 28861641
TI  - Medicinal plant extracts modulate respiratory burst and proliferation activity of
      rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) leukocytes.
AB  - The present study was designed to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of
      Aloe vera, Curcuma longa, Echinacea purpurea, Lavandula officinalis, Origanum
      vulgare, Panax ginseng, and Rheum officinale extracts on leukocytes purified from
      rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) head kidney. The cells were cultured in a
      medium containing increasing doses of extracts; afterwards, they were tested for
      reactive oxygen species production after stimulation with phorbol myristate
      acetate (PMA) and proliferation in the presence or absence of phytohemagglutinin
      from Phaseolus vulgaris (PHA-P). After a 2-h exposure, the extracts of L.
      officinalis, O. vulgare, and R. officinale strongly reduced the oxidative burst
      activity of PMA-stimulated leukocytes, in a dose-dependent manner (P <= 0.05). A.
      vera, C. longa, E. purpurea, and P. ginseng extracts reduced this response with
      lower efficacy and especially at lower concentrations. On the contrary, the
      highest concentration of ginseng extract stimulated the respiratory burst of
      leukocytes compared to untreated control cells. After a 72-h exposure, the
      extracts of L. officinalis, R. officinale, C. longa, E. purpurea, and P. ginseng
      had a clear dose-dependent stimulatory effect on leukocyte proliferation (P <=
      0.05). The results suggest that these medicinal plants can be considered as
      reliable sources of new antioxidants or immunostimulants to be used in
      aquaculture.

PMID- 28861643
TI  - N-acetylcysteine manipulation fails to elicit an increase in glutathione in a
      teleost model.
AB  - Levels of oxidative stress can be affected by a range of compounds including
      toxins and pharmaceuticals. Antioxidants are important protective compounds which
      counteract the damaging effects of oxidative stress. Glutathione (GSH) is one of
      the main antioxidants for many organisms and can be synthesized from administered
      N-acetylcysteine (NAC). NAC has therefore often been used in a wide range of taxa
      to manipulate levels of GSH. Our objective was to validate this approach in a
      wild temperate teleost fish model, the brown trout (Salmo trutta). We used
      intracoelomic injections of NAC in saline and vegetable shortening, at two
      different concentrations (100 and 400 mg/kg), with the appropriate controls and
      shams, under controlled laboratory settings. We found that NAC failed to elicit
      an increase in GSH over three time periods and concluded that NAC is not an
      effective method to enhance GSH levels in teleost fish using the concentrations
      and vehicles tested here. We emphasize the importance of validation studies
      across all new species/taxa when possible and suggest that more investigation is
      required with regard to NAC manipulation in fish if this approach is to be used.

PMID- 28861644
TI  - Epistemological rehabilitation of "shoe leather" epidemiology: the lesson of
      cholera in Haiti.

PMID- 28861646
TI  - Nanocomposite particles with improved microstructure for 3D culture systems and
      bone regeneration.
AB  - Nano-apatite and gelatin-alginate hydrogel microparticles have been prepared by a
      one-step synthesis combined with electrostatic bead generation, for the
      reconstruction of bone defects. Based on the analysis of bone composition,
      architecture and embryonic intramembranous ossification, a bio-inspired
      fabrication has been developed. Accordingly, the mineral phase has been in situ
      synthesized, calcifying the hydrogel matrix while the latter was crosslinked,
      finally generating microparticles that can assemble into a bone defect to ensure
      interconnected pores. Although nano-apatite-biopolymer composites have been
      widely investigated, microstructural optimization to provide improved
      distribution and stability of the mineral is rarely achieved. The optimization of
      the developed method progressively resulted in two types of formulations (15P and
      7.5P), with 15 and 7.5 (wt%) phosphate content in the initial precursor. The
      osteolytic potential was investigated using differentiated macrophages. A
      commercially available calcium phosphate bone graft substitute (Eurocer 400) was
      incorporated into the hydrogel, and the obtained composites were in vitro tested
      for comparison. The cytocompatibility of the microparticles was studied with
      mouse osteoblast-like cell line MC3T3-E1. Results indicated the best in vitro
      performance have been obtained for the sample loaded with 7.5P. Preliminary
      evaluation of biocompatibility into a critical size (3 mm) defect in rabbits
      showed that 7.5P nanocomposite is associated with newly formed bone in the
      proximity of the microparticles, after 28 days.

PMID- 28861647
TI  - Fiber-type distribution and expression of myosin heavy chain isoforms in newborn
      heterozygous myostatin-knockout pigs.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the effects of heterozygous myostatin-knockout (MSNT+/-)
      on muscle characteristics, specifically fiber-type distribution and expression of
      myosin heavy chain isoforms in pigs. RESULTS: The fiber cross-sectional area of
      the semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles were much larger in MSTN+/- pigs
      at birth than in wild-type (WT) pigs. MSTN+/- pigs had a higher proportion of
      fast-type fibers and lower succinate dehydrogenase activity in muscles than WT
      pigs. The myosin heavy chain IIB mRNA level in both two muscles was ~ threefold
      higher in MSTN+/- pigs compared with WT pigs. CONCLUSION: MSTN+/- pigs exhibit a
      disproportionate increase in muscle mass and can have a higher body weight due to
      fiber hypertrophy, a change in the fiber-type distribution, and alteration of
      myosin heavy chain isoforms levels, leading to more fast glycolytic fibers.

PMID- 28861648
TI  - The Role of Secondary Calciprotein Particles in the Mineralisation Paradox of
      Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - Mineralisation paradox is prevalent in chronic kidney disease and ageing where
      increased vascular calcification is accompanied by reduced bone mineralisation
      and osteopenia. Secondary calciprotein particles (CPP2), colloidal nanoparticles
      containing hydroxyapatite crystal stabilised by a protein shell, have been
      implicated in vascular calcification in chronic kidney disease. Here, we describe
      the effect of CPP2 on osteoblasts and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC)
      mineralisation in an in vitro model system. The mineralisation paradox can be
      simulated in vitro by the addition of phosphate ions (Pi, 3 mM) and CPP2 (10
      ug/ml of Ca equivalent). Pi alone induced osteoblast mineralisation but had no
      effect on VSMC mineralisation. CPP2 alone had no effect on mineralisation in
      either cell line, but when combined with elevated Pi, reduced osteoblast-like
      mineralisation (P < 0.001) whilst induced VSMC mineralisation (P < 0.001). These
      results suggest that in an in vitro system the synergistic interaction between Pi
      and CPP2 could mimic the mineralisation paradox, and may provide a potential
      mechanistic link to explain these clinical observations.

PMID- 28861649
TI  - Parents Suggest Which Indicators of Progress and Outcomes Should be Measured in
      Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - Evaluation of interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is
      hampered by the multitude of outcomes measured and tools used. Measurement in
      research with young children tends to focus on core impairments in ASD. We
      conducted a systematic review of qualitative studies of what matters to parents.
      Parent advisory groups completed structured activities to explore their
      perceptions of the relative importance of a wide range of outcome constructs.
      Their highest ranked outcomes impacted directly on everyday life and functioning
      (anxiety, distress, hypersensitivity, sleep problems, happiness, relationships
      with brothers and sisters, and parent stress). Collaboration between
      professionals, researchers and parents/carers is required to determine an agreed
      core set of outcomes to use across evaluation research.

PMID- 28861650
TI  - Optimal timing of drug sensitivity testing for patients on first-line
      tuberculosis treatment.
AB  - Effective treatment for tuberculosis (TB) patients on first-line treatment
      involves triaging those with drug-resistant (DR) TB to appropriate treatment
      alternatives. Patients likely to have DR TB are identified using results from
      repeated inexpensive sputum-smear (SS) tests and expensive but definitive drug
      sensitivity tests (DST). Early DST may lead to high costs and unnecessary
      testing; late DST may lead to poor health outcomes and disease transmission. We
      use a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) framework to determine
      optimal DST timing. We develop policy-relevant structural properties of the POMDP
      model. We apply our model to TB in India to identify the patterns of SS test
      results that should prompt DST if transmission costs remain at status-quo levels.
      Unlike previous analyses of personalized treatment policies, we take a societal
      perspective and consider the effects of disease transmission. The inclusion of
      such effects can significantly alter the optimal policy. We find that an optimal
      DST policy could save India approximately $1.9 billion annually.

PMID- 28861645
TI  - [Guideline for "rhinosinusitis"-long version : S2k guideline of the German
      College of General Practitioners and Family Physicians and the German Society for
      Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery].

PMID- 28861651
TI  - Parent-Mediated Intervention for One-Year-Olds Screened as At-Risk for Autism
      Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - Theoretically, interventions initiated with at-risk infants prior to the point in
      time a definitive autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis can be made will
      improve outcomes. Pursuing this idea, we tested the efficacy of a parent-mediated
      early intervention called Adapted Responsive Teaching (ART) via a randomized
      controlled trial with 87 one-year-olds identified by community screening with the
      First Year Inventory as at-risk of later ASD diagnoses. We found minimal evidence
      for main effects of ART on child outcomes. However, ART group parents showed
      significantly greater increases in responsiveness to their infants than control
      group parents. Further, significant indirect (mediation) effects of assignment
      group on multiple child outcomes through changes in parent responsiveness
      supported our theory of change.

PMID- 28861652
TI  - Mental Wellbeing of Family Members of Autistic Adults.
AB  - Family members are often the primary caregiver for autistic adults and this
      responsibility may impact on the carer's wellbeing and quality of life. 109
      family members of autistic adults completed an online survey assessing their
      wellbeing relating to their caring role for their autistic relative. Family
      members who were supporting an autistic relative with co-occurring mental health
      difficulties and who they reported as unprepared for the future, self-reported
      higher levels of worry, depression, anxiety and stress, and poorer quality of
      life. These findings emphasise the importance of support for family members of
      autistic adults, whether through external services to support their relative or
      individual mental health support for the carer.

PMID- 28861654
TI  - Breast Cancer Screening for Patients of Rural Accountable Care Organization
      Clinics: A Multi-Level Analysis of Barriers and Facilitators.
AB  - Not all women 50-74 years received biennial mammography and the situation is
      worse in rural areas. Accountable care organizations (ACO) emphasize coordinated
      care, use of electronic health system, and preventive quality measures and these
      practices may improve their patients' breast cancer screening rate. Using medical
      record data of 8,347 women patients aged 50-74 years from eight rural ACO clinics
      in Nebraska, this study examined patient-, provider-, and county-level barriers
      and facilitators for breast cancer screening. A generalized estimating equations
      model was used to account for the correlation among patients from the same
      provider and county. The multi-level logistic regression results suggest that
      uninsured non-Hispanic Black patients were less likely to meet the biennial
      mammography screening guideline. Patients whose preferred language being English,
      having a preventive visit in the past 12 months, having one or more chronic
      conditions were more likely to meet the biennial mammography screening guideline.
      Patients with a primary care provider (PCP) that was male, without a medical
      doctor degree were less likely to screen biennially. Patients with a PCP that
      reviewed performance report quarterly, or manually checked patients' mammography
      screening status during visits were more likely to screen biennially.
      Interestingly, patients whose PCP reported being reminded by a care coordination
      team were less likely to screen biennially. Patients living in counties with more
      PCPs were also more likely to screen biennially. The study findings suggest that
      efforts targeting individual and practice-level barriers could be most effective
      in improving mammography screening for these rural ACO patients.

PMID- 28861653
TI  - Behavioral Phenotype of ASD Preschoolers with Gastrointestinal Symptoms or Food
      Selectivity.
AB  - This study investigated the prevalence and type of gastrointestinal (GI) and food
      selectivity (FS) symptoms in 163 preschoolers with ASD, and their possible links
      with core ASD features and emotional/behavioural problems. 40.5% of children with
      ASD had at least one severe GI symptom or FS. Preschoolers with and without GI
      symptoms and with and without FS were significantly different on several
      emotional/behavioural problems and restrictive/repetitive behaviours, whereas
      they did not differ significantly on performance IQ and autistic severity. The GI
      plus FS group presented with Sleep Problems, Self-injurious Behaviors and Anxiety
      Problems. Results indicated the need for early identification of GI disturbances
      and FS in order to design tailored intervention for these symptoms frequently
      associated to challenging behaviours in ASD.

PMID- 28861655
TI  - Inhaled anesthetic agent sedation in the ICU and trace gas concentrations: a
      review.
AB  - There is a growing interest in the use of volatile anesthetics for inhalational
      sedation of adult critically ill patients in the ICU. Its safety and efficacy has
      been demonstrated in various studies and technical equipment such as the
      anaesthetic conserving device (AnaConDaTM; Sedana Medical, Uppsala, Sweden) or
      the MIRUSTM system (Pall Medical, Dreieich, Germany) have significantly
      simplified the application of volatile anesthetics in the ICU. However, the
      personnel's exposure to waste anesthetic gas during daily work is possibly
      disadvantageous, because there is still uncertainty about potential health risks.
      The fact that average threshold limit concentrations for isoflurane, sevoflurane
      and desflurane either differ significantly between countries or are not even
      defined at all, leads to raising concerns among ICU staff. In this review,
      benefits, risks, and technical aspects of inhalational sedation in the ICU are
      discussed. Further, the potential health effects of occupational long-term low
      concentration agent exposure, the staffs' exposure levels in clinical practice,
      and strategies to minimize the individual gas exposure are reviewed.

PMID- 28861656
TI  - An opportune and unique research to evaluate the public health impact of
      electronic cigarettes.
AB  - In response to the growing public health concern regarding the risks or benefits
      of electronic cigarettes (e-cig) use relative to smoking, the National Institute
      on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has recently introduced the first standardized- and well-
      characterized e-cig device to the research community (see,
      https://www.drugabuse.gov/funding/supplemental-information-nida-e-cig ). E-cig
      are promoted as safe alternatives to conventional tobacco cigarettes and/or as
      aides to smoking cessation. E-cig are highly popular among cigarette smokers who
      are unable/unwilling to quit but are willing to switch to putatively less-harmful
      tobacco substitutes. E-cig are also becoming increasingly popular among youth who
      have never experimented with combustible cigarettes. However, chemical analyses
      of e-cig juices (both in liquid form and after being heated into vapor) have
      shown that many carcinogens present in cigarette smoke are also found in a range
      of e-cig products. To date, the cancer-causing potential of e-cig has not been
      investigated in e-cig users (i.e., vapers). Use of e-cig without a prior history
      of smoking is currently a rare phenomenon in adults, but is increasingly common
      among youth. Consequently, investigating the carcinogenic potential of e-cig in
      nonsmoking youth provides a unique opportunity to verify the health impact of e
      cig use, without the confounding effects of cigarette smoking. Within this
      context, the availability of the NIDA Standard Research e-cig offers a unique
      research opportunity with tremendous public health implications. Comparing and
      contrasting the cancer-causing potentials of standard vaping and smoking in youth
      will help determine the health risks or benefits of e-cig use relative to
      cigarette smoking. This information will be instrumental in making scientifically
      based decisions on the development and evaluation of policies and regulations on
      e-cig manufacture, marketing, and distribution. Ultimately, evidence-based
      guidelines and legislations on e-cig will help reduce the burden of tobacco
      related diseases, particularly on minors and vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28861658
TI  - BMI change and abdominal circumference are risk factors for breast cancer, even
      in Asian women.
AB  - PURPOSE: We investigated the association between breast cancer incidence and
      obesity among Asian women. METHODS: We used data from 30,109 women who had
      undergone medical check-ups and opportunistic breast cancer screening at least
      twice at the St. Luke's International Hospital Affiliated Clinic, Center for
      Preventive Medicine, between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2014. This study
      evaluated obesity through body mass index (BMI) at age 18-20 years (BMI18-20y),
      BMI at research entry (entry BMI), change of BMI from age 18-20 to research entry
      (DeltaBMI), abdominal circumference at research entry (AC), and HbA1c [N] at
      research entry (HbA1c). We used a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model to
      evaluate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). RESULTS: Of
      the 30,109 women, 325 were initially diagnosed with breast cancer over 131,657
      person-years. Postmenopausal women whose BMI increased >=+5.0 were significantly
      more likely to develop breast cancer (HR 1.902, 95% CI 1.202-3.009) than were the
      stable BMI group (DeltaBMI: -2.5 to +2.5). Postmenopausal women with AC >=90 cm
      were significantly likelier to develop breast cancer than were those with AC <70
      cm (HR 2.500, 95% CI 1.091-5.730). Among postmenopausal women whose BMI18-20y was
      >=20, those with high (>=6.5) HbA1c were more likely to develop breast cancer
      than those with low (<5.5) HbA1c (HR 3.325, 95% CI 1.307-8.460). CONCLUSIONS:
      Breast cancer incidence and obesity are positively associated in postmenopausal
      Asian women.

PMID- 28861659
TI  - The Influence of Static and Dynamic Intrapersonal Factors on Longitudinal
      Patterns of Peer Victimization through Mid-adolescence: a Latent Transition
      Analysis.
AB  - Using 6 cycles (grade 5 through grade 10) of data obtained from a large
      prospective sample of Canadian school children (N = 700; 52.6% girls), we
      replicated previous findings concerning the empirical definition of peer
      victimization (i.e., being bullied) and examined static and dynamic intrapersonal
      factors associated with its emergence and experiential continuity through mid
      adolescence. Latent class analyses consistently revealed a low victimization and
      an elevated victimization class across time, supporting previous work suggesting
      peer victimization was defined by degree rather than by type (e.g., physical).
      Using latent transition analyses (LTA), we found that child sex, parent-perceived
      pubertal development, and internalizing symptoms influenced the probability of
      transitioning from the low to the elevated victimization class across time.
      Higher-order extensions within the LTA modeling framework revealed a lasting
      effect of grade 5 victimization status on grade 10 victimization status and a
      large effect of chronic victimization on later parent-reported youth
      internalizing symptoms (net of prior parent-reported internalizing symptoms) in
      later adolescence (grade 11). Implications of the current findings for the
      experience of peer victimization, as well as the application of latent transition
      analysis as a useful approach for peer victimization research, are discussed.

PMID- 28861657
TI  - The interplay of psychosis and victimisation across the life course: a
      prospective study in the general population.
AB  - PURPOSE: Psychosis has been associated with adult victimisation. However, it
      remains unclear whether psychosis predicts incident adult victimisation, or
      whether adult victimisation predicts incident psychosis. Furthermore, a
      moderating effect of childhood victimisation on the association between psychosis
      and adult victimisation has not been investigated. METHODS: The longitudinal
      association between baseline psychotic experiences and six-year incidence of
      adult victimisation was assessed in a prospective general population cohort of
      6646 adults using logistic regression analysis. The association between baseline
      adult victimisation and six-year incidence of psychotic experiences was examined
      as well. Furthermore, the moderating effect of childhood victimisation on these
      bidirectional associations was analysed. RESULTS: Psychotic experiences and
      childhood victimisation were both associated with an increased risk of incident
      adult victimisation. However, this was through competing pathways, as suggested
      by a negative interaction between psychotic experiences and childhood
      victimisation. Baseline adult victimisation and childhood victimisation both
      independently increased the risk of incident psychotic experiences, but there was
      no interaction between adult victimisation and childhood victimisation.
      CONCLUSIONS: Psychosis and victimisation are interconnected throughout the life
      course. Childhood victimisation is connected to psychosis through two pathways:
      one direct and one indirect through adult victimisation. In individuals without
      childhood victimisation, psychosis and adult victimisation bidirectionally impact
      on each other.

PMID- 28861660
TI  - Shape memory activation can affect cell seeding of shape memory polymer scaffolds
      designed for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
AB  - The ability of a three-dimensional scaffold to support cell seeding prior to
      implantation is a critical criterion for many scaffold-based tissue engineering
      and regenerative medicine strategies. Shape memory polymer functionality may
      present important new opportunities and challenges in cell seeding, but the
      extent to which shape memory activation can positively or negatively affect cell
      seeding has yet to be reported. The goal of this study was to determine whether
      shape memory activation can affect cell seeding. The hypothesis was that shape
      memory activation of porous scaffolds during cell seeding can affect both the
      number of cells seeded in a scaffold and the distribution (in terms of average
      infiltration distance) of cells following seeding. Here, we used a porous shape
      memory foam scaffold programmed to expand when triggered to study cell number and
      average cell infiltration distance following shape memory activation. We found
      that shape memory activation can affect both the number of cells and the average
      cell infiltration distance. The effect was found to be a function of rate of
      shape change and scaffold pore interconnectivity. Magnitude of shape change had
      no effect. Only reductions in cell number and infiltration distance (relative to
      control and benchmark) were observed. The findings suggest that strategies for
      tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that involve shape memory activation
      in the presence of a cell-containing medium in vitro or in vivo should consider
      how recovery rate and scaffold pore interconnectivity may ultimately impact cell
      seeding.

PMID- 28861661
TI  - Brief Report: Social Support, Depression and Suicidal Ideation in Adults with
      Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased risk of suicide
      compared to the general population. Research has yet to identify the mechanisms
      underlying this increased risk. This study examined perceived social support as a
      potential protective factor for depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in 76
      adults with ASD. Twenty-five percent of participants were in the clinical range
      for depression, and 20% reported recent suicidal ideation. Social support in the
      form of appraisal and belonging was not associated with depression or ideation;
      however the perceived availability of tangible (material) support indirectly
      acted on ideation through depression. The findings suggest that tangible support,
      but not appraisal or belonging, may act as an indirect protective factor against
      suicidality in ASD.

PMID- 28861663
TI  - Environmental risk assessment of cobalt and manganese from industrial sources in
      an estuarine system.
AB  - A total of 74 samples of soil, sediment, industrial sludge, and surface water
      were collected in a Mediterranean estuarine system in order to assess the
      potential ecological impact of elevated concentrations of Co and Mn associated
      with a Terephthalic (PTA) and Isophthalic (PIPA) acids production plant. Samples
      were analyzed for elemental composition (37 elements), pH, redox potential,
      organic carbon, and CaCO3 content, and a group of 16 selected samples were
      additionally subjected to a Tessier sequential extraction. Co and Mn soil
      concentrations were significantly higher inside the industrial facility and
      around its perimeter than in background samples, and maximum dissolved Co and Mn
      concentrations were found in a creek near the plant's discharge point, reaching
      values 17,700 and 156 times higher than their respective background
      concentrations. The ecological risk was evaluated as a function of Co and Mn
      fractionation and bioavailability which were controlled by the environmental
      conditions generated by the advance of seawater into the estuarine system during
      high tide. Co appeared to precipitate near the river mouth due to the pH increase
      produced by the influence of seawater intrusion, reaching hazardous
      concentrations in sediments. In terms of their bioavailability and the
      corresponding risk assessment code, both Co and Mn present sediment
      concentrations that result in medium to high ecological risk whereas water
      concentrations of both elements reach values that more than double their
      corresponding Secondary Acute Values.

PMID- 28861662
TI  - Extracellular Expression in Aspergillus niger of an Antibody Fused to Leishmania
      sp. Antigens.
AB  - Nucleoside hydrolase and sterol 24-c-methyltransferase, two antigenic proteins of
      Leishmania sp., were expressed in Aspergillus niger. Genetic transformation of
      conidia was achieved using underwater shock waves. scFv antibody addressed to
      DEC205, a receptor of dendritic cells, was fused to two proteins of Leishmania
      sp. Receptor 205 has a relevant role in the immune system in mammals; it can
      modulate T cell response to different antigens. Extracellular expression strategy
      of recombinant antibody was achieved using a fragment of native glucoamylase A
      (514 aa) as a carrier. Fermentations in shake flasks showed that the recombinant
      protein (104 kDa) was expressed and secreted only when maltose was used as carbon
      source; on the contrary, the expression was highly repressed in presence of
      xylose. Noteworthy, recombinant protein was secreted without glucoamylase-carrier
      and accumulation at intracellular level was not observed. The results presented
      here demonstrate the high value of Aspergillus niger as biotechnological platform
      for recombinant antibodies against Leishmania sp. at low cost. To the best of our
      knowledge, this is the first report about the recombinant expression of antigenic
      proteins of Leishmania sp. in filamentous fungi. The protein obtained can be used
      to explore novel strategies to induce immunity against Leishmania sp. or it can
      be employed in diagnostic kits to detect this neglected disease.

PMID- 28861664
TI  - The Associations of Area-Level Violent Crime Rates and Self-Reported Violent
      Crime Exposure with Adolescent Behavioral Health.
AB  - The effects of witnessing and experiencing crime have seldom been disaggregated.
      Little research has assessed the effect of multiple exposures to crime. We assess
      independent contributions of self-reported crime and area-level crime to
      adolescent behavioral health outcomes. Cross sectional data on 5519 adolescents
      from the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their
      Families Program was linked to FBI crime rate data to assess associations of
      mutually exclusive categories of self-reported crime exposure and area-level
      crime rates with mental health and substance abuse. Self-reported crime exposure
      was significantly associated with poorer behavioral health. Violent victimization
      had the largest association with all outcomes except internalizing scores. All
      self-reported crime variables were significantly associated with three of the
      outcomes. Area-level crime rates were associated with one mental health outcome.
      Providers should assess direct and indirect crime exposure rather than only
      focusing on violent victimization.

PMID- 28861665
TI  - Non-visualized sentinel nodes in breast cancer patients; prevalence, risk
      factors, and prognosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence and consensus is lacking in international guidelines
      regarding axillary treatment recommendations for patients in whom a sentinel
      lymph node (SLN) cannot be visualized (non-vSLN) during the sentinel node
      procedure. In this study we aimed to determine the prevalence of non-vSLNs in a
      Dutch population of breast cancer patients and to examine predictors and survival
      rate for non-vSLN. METHODS: A nationwide, retrospective, population-based study
      was performed including 116,920 patients with invasive breast cancer who
      underwent a SLN procedure in the Netherlands between January 2005 and December
      2013. RESULTS: Of the 76,472 clinically negative patients who underwent a SLN
      procedure, 1924 patients (2.5%) had a non-vSLN, of whom 1552 (80.7%) underwent an
      ALND. Multivariate analysis showed predictive factors for non-vSLN: older age (p
      < 0.001), diagnosis in the period 2005-2009 (p < 0.001), larger tumor size (p =
      0.003), and extensive nodal involvement (p < 0.001). Multivariate survival
      analysis showed a significantly worse survival (HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.03-1.34, p =
      0.015) for non-vSLNs patients. However, in the non-vSLN group, an ALND was not
      statistically significantly associated with a better survival (HR 0.96, 95% CI
      0.53-1.75, p = 0.891). CONCLUSION: Patients with non-vSLNs had less favorable
      disease characteristics and a worse survival compared to patients with a
      visualized SLN. Performing an ALND was not associated with a significantly better
      survival in patients with non-vSLNs. However, further research on the necessity
      of axillary treatment in this specific patient group is required.

PMID- 28861667
TI  - Workplace Social System and Sustained Return-to-Work: A Study of Supervisor and
      Co-worker Supportiveness and Injury Reaction.
AB  - Objective To examine the impact of the social workplace system on sustained
      return-to-work (SRTW). Methods A random sample of workers' compensation claimants
      was recruited to complete a survey following claim acceptance (baseline), and 6
      months later (time 2). SRTW, at baseline and time 2, was classified as those
      reporting being back at work for >28 days. Co-worker and supervisor support were
      assessed using five and seven items, respectively, and total scores were
      produced. A list of potential supervisory and co-worker reactions were presented
      to participants who were asked whether the reaction applied to them; response
      were coded as positive or non-positive. Demographic and injury characteristics,
      and work context factors were collected. Baseline and at time 2 multivariable
      models were conducted to examine the impact of supervisory and coworker support
      and injury reaction on SRTW. Results 551 (baseline) and 403 (time 2) participants
      from the overall cohort met study eligibility criteria. At baseline, 59% of all
      participants indicated SRTW; 70% reported SRTW at time 2. Participants reported
      moderate support from their supervisor (mean = 8.5 +/- 3.9; median = 8.2; range =
      5-15) and co-workers (mean = 10.2 +/- 4.5; median = 10.3; range = 5-25). Over
      half reported a positive supervisor (59%) or co-worker injury reaction (71%).
      Multivariable models found that a positive supervisor injury reaction was
      significantly associated with SRTW at baseline (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.4-3.9) and time
      2 (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.1-2.3). Conclusions Promoting supervisor positivity towards
      an injured worker is an important organizational work disability management
      strategy.

PMID- 28861666
TI  - Epidemiology of glioma: clinical characteristics, symptoms, and predictors of
      glioma patients grade I-IV in the the Danish Neuro-Oncology Registry.
AB  - In this national population-based study of glioma, we present epidemiologic data
      on incidence, demographics, survival, clinical characteristics and symptoms, and
      evaluate the association of specific indicators with the grade of glioma. We
      included 1930 patients registered in the Danish Neuro-Oncology Registry (DNOR)
      from 2009 to 2014. DNOR is a large-scale national population-based database
      including all adult glioma patients in Denmark. The age-adjusted annual incidence
      of histologic verified glioma was 7.3 cases pr. 100,000 person-years. High-grade
      gliomas were present in 85% and low-grade glioma in 15%. The overall male:female
      ratio was 3:2 and the mean age at onset was 60 years. Data for WHO grade I, II,
      III and IV glioma showed several important differences regarding age and sex
      distribution and symptomatology at presentation. The mean age increased with the
      grade of glioma and males predominated in all grades. Focal deficits were the
      most frequent presenting symptom, but among patients with glioma, grade II
      epileptic seizures were the most frequent symptom. Headache was a rare mono
      symptomatic onset symptom. At presentation, higher age, focal deficits and
      cognitive change for <3 months duration, and headache <1 month were significant
      independent indicators of high-grade gliomas. Younger age and epileptic seizures
      for more than 3 months were indicative for low-grade gliomas. Survival rates for
      glioma grade I-IV showed decreasing survival with increasing grade. Glioma grade
      I-IV showed high diversity regarding several demographic and clinical
      characteristics emphasizing the importance of individually tailored disease
      treatments and support.

PMID- 28861668
TI  - Neuroprotective Activities of Spirulina platensis in the 6-OHDA Model of
      Parkinson's Disease Are Related to Its Anti-Inflammatory Effects.
AB  - Spirulina platensis (SPI) is a cyanobacterium, presenting anti-inflammatory and
      antioxidant actions. Considering the importance of inflammation and oxidative
      stress in Parkinson's disease (PD), SPI neuroprotective effects were evaluated in
      a model of PD. Male Wistar rats were divided into: sham-operated (SO), untreated
      6-OHDA and 6-OHDA treated with SPI (25 and 50 mg/kg, p.o.). The 6-OHDA was
      injected into the right striata and SPI treatments started 24 h later for 2
      weeks. The SO and untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned groups were administered with
      distilled water, for the same period. Afterwards, the animals were subjected to
      the apomorphine-induced rotational test and euthanized for striatal measurements
      of DA and DOPAC, nitrite and TBARS and immunohistochemistry assays for TH, DAT,
      iNOS and COX-2. SPI reduced the apomorphine-induced rotational behavior, DA and
      DOPAC depletions and nitrite and TBARS increases, at its high dose. Furthermore,
      TH and DAT immunoreactivities in the lesioned striatum of the untreated 6-OHDA
      lesioned group were attenuated by SPI. Similarly, immunoreactivities for iNOS and
      COX-2 were also decreased after SPI treatments. In conclusion, we showed that
      behavioral and neurochemical alterations in hemiparkinsonian rats were partly
      reversed by SPI, characterizing the neuroprotective potential of Spirulina and
      stimulating translational studies focusing on its use as an alternative treatment
      for PD.

PMID- 28861669
TI  - Reproducibility of the Pleth Variability Index in premature infants.
AB  - The aim was to assess the reproducibility of the Pleth Variability Index (PVI),
      developed for non-invasive monitoring of peripheral perfusion, in preterm
      neonates below 32 weeks of gestational age. Three PVI measurements were
      consecutively performed in stable, comfortable preterm neonates in the first 48 h
      of life. On each occasion, pulse oximeter sensors were attached to two different
      limbs for 5 min. Reproducibility was assessed with the intra-class correlation
      coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altman analysis. A total of 25 preterm neonates were
      included. Inter-limb comparison showed fair to moderate ICC's with 95%-confidence
      intervals (95%-CI). Left hand-right hand ICC = 0.498, 95%-CI (0.119-0.753); right
      foot-right hand ICC = 0.314 (-0.088-0.644); right foot-left foot ICC = 0.315 (
      0.089-0.628). Intra-limb comparison showed fair to moderate ICC for right foot
      right foot ICC = 0.380 (-0.014-0.677); and good ICC for right hand-right hand ICC
      = 0.646 (0.194-0.852). Bland-Altman plots showed moderate reproducibility of
      measurements between different limbs and of the same limb in consecutive time
      periods, with large biases and wide limits of agreement. The findings from this
      study indicate that PVI measurement is poorly reproducible when measured on
      different limbs and on the same limb in stable and comfortable preterm neonates.

PMID- 28861671
TI  - Intensive care medicine in 2050: vasopressors in sepsis.

PMID- 28861670
TI  - Anthranilic acid, the new player in the ensemble of aromatic residue labeling
      precursor compounds.
AB  - The application of metabolic precursors for selective stable isotope labeling of
      aromatic residues in cell-based protein overexpression has already resulted in
      numerous NMR probes to study the structural and dynamic characteristics of
      proteins. With anthranilic acid, we present the structurally simplest precursor
      for exclusive tryptophan side chain labeling. A synthetic route to 13C, 2H
      isotopologues allows the installation of isolated 13C-1H spin systems in the
      indole ring of tryptophan, representing a versatile tool to investigate side
      chain motion using relaxation-based experiments without the loss of magnetization
      due to strong 1JCC and weaker 2JCH scalar couplings, as well as dipolar
      interactions with remote hydrogens. In this article, we want to introduce this
      novel precursor in the context of hitherto existing techniques of in vivo
      aromatic residue labeling.

PMID- 28861672
TI  - Use of Traditional Healing Practices in Two Ontario First Nations.
AB  - Colonization has negatively impacted Canada's Aboriginal people, with one of the
      consequences being loss of traditional knowledge, beliefs and practices,
      including traditional healing practices. In a study of two Ontario First Nations,
      the objectives of this research were to examine: (1) the extent of use of
      traditional healing practices, including traditional medicines and healers; (2)
      factors associated with their use and people's desire to use them; and (3)
      reasons for not using them among those who want to use them, but currently do
      not. Registered Band Members and volunteers from two First Nations communities (N
      = 613) participated in a well-being survey. About 15% of participants used both
      traditional medicines and healers, 15% used traditional medicines only, 3% used a
      traditional healer only, and 63% did not use either. Of those who did not use
      traditional healing practices, 51% reported that they would like to use them. Use
      was more common among men, older people, and those with more than high school
      education. Those who used traditional healing practices were found to have a
      stronger First Nations identity, better self-reported spiritual health, higher
      scores on historical loss and historical loss symptoms and higher levels of
      anxiety compared with people who did not use them. Common reasons for not using
      traditional practices were: not knowing enough about them, not knowing how to
      access or where to access them. These findings may be useful for promoting the
      use of traditional healing practices for the purpose of improving the health of
      First Nations people.

PMID- 28861674
TI  - [Ocular involvement in rheumatoid arthritis, connective tissue diseases and
      vasculitis].
AB  - There are many interfaces between ophthalmologists and rheumatologists. On the
      one hand ophthalmologists face the question if an inflammation of the eye is
      caused by systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases and on the other hand
      rheumatologists have to consider that ocular manifestations are relatively common
      in some inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Furthermore, these ocular manifestations
      may influence therapeutic decisions of the rheumatologist. This article
      summarizes which ocular inflammations can be associated with rheumatoid
      arthritis, connective tissue diseases and vasculitides. The description of acute
      anterior uveitis in spondyloarthritis and in juvenile idiopathic arthritis is
      omitted in this article but will be dealt with elsewhere in this issue.

PMID- 28861673
TI  - SOD1 Mutations Causing Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Induce Toxicity in
      Astrocytes: Evidence for Bystander Effects in a Continuum of Astrogliosis.
AB  - Astrocytes contribute to the death of motor neurons via non-cell autonomous
      mechanisms of injury in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Since mutations in
      the gene encoding Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) underlie the neuropathology
      of some forms of familial ALS, we explored how expression of mutant SOD1 protein
      A4V SOD1-EGFP affected the biology of secondary murine astrocytes. A4V SOD1-EGFP
      expressing astrocytes (72 h after transfection) displayed decreased mitochondrial
      activity (~45%) and L-glutamate transport (~25%), relative to cells expressing
      wild-type SOD1-EGFP. A4V SOD1-EGFP altered F-actin and Hoechst staining,
      indicative of cytoskeletal and nuclear changes, and altered GM130 labelling
      suggesting fragmentation of Golgi apparatus. SOD1 inclusion formation shifted
      from discrete to "punctate" over 72 h with A4V SOD1-EGFP more rapidly producing
      inclusions than G85R SOD1-EGFP, and forming more punctate aggregates. A4V, not
      wild-type SOD1-EGFP, exerted a substantial, time-dependent effect on GFAP
      expression, and ~60% of astrocytes became stellate and hypertrophic at 72 h.
      Spreading toxicity was inferred since at 72 h ~80% of bystander cells exhibited
      hypertrophy and stellation. This evidence favours mutant SOD1-containing
      astrocytes releasing destructive species that alter the biology of adjacent
      astrocytes. This panoply of mutant SOD1-induced destructive events favours
      recruitment of astrocytes to non-cell autonomous injury in ALS.

PMID- 28861675
TI  - Kinetics of Radiological Response of Thoracic Invasive Fungal Disease in Chronic
      Granulomatous Disease.

PMID- 28861676
TI  - Machete injuries to the upper extremity.
AB  - PURPOSE: We intend to describe and analyze the spectrum of upper extremity
      injuries that arises from both accidental and intentional machete injuries with a
      focus on associated complications and comorbidities. This review is the first
      from a United States institution, and the only from a designated level 1 trauma
      center. METHODS: A retrospective review of machete related upper extremity
      injuries admitted to a level 1 trauma center from 2008 to 2016. The following
      data was collected on admitted patients: demographics, mechanism of injury,
      surgical management, and complications. We assessed the data with Pearson Chi
      square analysis. RESULTS: This cohort consisted of 48 patients (mean = 42 +/- 13
      years old); the majority were men (96%) involved in an assault (81%). These
      patients had a high rate of documented psychiatric history, substance and tobacco
      abuse, and being underinsured. Patient follow-up was extremely variable: 75% of
      patients presented for follow-up care (mean = 149 +/- 344 days; range 8-1846
      days). 44% had complications (i.e., infection, tendon rupture, nerve palsy). We
      identified no associations when examining follow-up rates or complication rates
      regarding patient comorbidities, insurance status, mechanism of injury, or the
      need for a nerve, artery, or tendon repair. Patients with current tobacco use did
      have an increased risk for infection. The majority (52%) of injuries occurred on
      the ulnar side of the forearm and to the non-dominant extremity (66%). Patients
      assaulted by machetes are significantly more likely to have a history of
      psychiatric illness, substance abuse, tobacco use, and are more likely to be
      underinsured compared to those with accidental machete injuries. CONCLUSIONS:
      While machete injuries may be uncommon in most areas of the United States,
      physicians should give special attention to the patient comorbidities as many of
      these patients have complex medical and social issues which could complicate
      attempts of appropriate treatment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV; Prognostic Study.

PMID- 28861677
TI  - Seroepidemiological survey on Leptospira spp. infection in wild and domestic
      mammals in two distinct areas of the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil.
AB  - Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonotic disease that causes severe reproductive
      problems in livestock and generates economic losses for farmers. This study aimed
      to determine the seroprevalence of anti-Leptospira antibodies in small mammals,
      both wild and domestic, in two distinct areas of the semi-arid region of
      northeastern Brazil: the National Park of Serra das Confusoes (NPSC), state of
      Piaui, a preserved area; and rural areas in the municipalities of Petrolina and
      Lagoa Grande, state of Pernambuco, non-preserved areas. Serum samples were
      evaluated using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Approximately 4%
      (6/152) of the wild animals were positive, all of them in the non-preserved area.
      Overall, the seroprevalence rates among goats and sheep were 13.4 (77/576) and
      4.6% (24/518), respectively, confirmed in both areas. The seroprevalence rates in
      dogs and cats were 5.6 (10/180) and 4.7% (2/43) and were determined only in the
      non-preserved area. The risk factors associated with Leptospira spp. infection
      were as follows: ages of 1-3 and > 3 years for goats and sheep, region (preserved
      area) for goats, intensive management system for sheep, and region (non-preserved
      area) for dogs and wildlife. The present study confirmed the presence of
      circulation of Leptospira spp. in both of these areas of the Caatinga biome, as
      well as a variety of serotypes in these areas.

PMID- 28861678
TI  - Perioperative serum creatinine changes and ureteral injury.
AB  - PURPOSE: To illustrate a simple method that screens for ureteral injury in the
      acute postoperative period after urogynecologic surgeries. METHODS: Serum
      creatinine measurements in the preoperative (baseline) and postoperative periods
      of urogynecologic surgeries were determined and the correlation of the change to
      ureteral injury and/or obstruction analyzed. The sample size calculation showed 7
      cases and 28 controls were sufficient to detect significant changes in
      creatinine. Each of the seven cases was matched for age and type of surgery with
      a control patient in a 1:4 ratio following standard protocol. RESULTS: Chart
      review of patients (273 cases) undergoing urogynecologic surgeries from October
      2009 to June 2014 were undertaken. There were 7 cases of ureteral injury and 28
      matching control cases. All cases had intraoperative cystoscopy confirming
      bilateral ureteral flow. In the ureteral injury group, blockage of ureter was
      confirmed by CT scan with IV contrast. There was a 59.8% increase in serum
      creatinine levels postoperative in the ureteral injury group versus a 3.8%
      decrease in controls. A difference of creatinine levels greater than or equal to
      0.3 mg/dL over baseline was evident in ureteral injury cases. CONCLUSION: A small
      change in serum creatinine level over baseline after urogynecologic surgery
      alerted the possibility of ureteral injury or obstruction. A simple and
      inexpensive evaluation of perioperative creatinine levels can promptly diagnose
      ureteral damage in the acute postoperative period for gynecologic reconstructive
      surgeries.

PMID- 28861679
TI  - Acclimation of Swedish and Italian ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana to light
      intensity.
AB  - This study addressed whether ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana from Sweden and
      Italy exhibited differences in foliar acclimation to high versus low growth light
      intensity, and compared CO2 uptake under growth conditions with light- and CO2
      saturated intrinsic photosynthetic capacity and leaf morphological and vascular
      features. Differential responses between ecotypes occurred mainly at the scale of
      leaf architecture, with thicker leaves with higher intrinsic photosynthetic
      capacities and chlorophyll contents per leaf area, but no difference in
      photosynthetic capacity on a chlorophyll basis, in high light-grown leaves of the
      Swedish versus the Italian ecotype. Greater intrinsic photosynthetic capacity per
      leaf area in the Swedish ecotype was accompanied by a greater capacity of
      vascular infrastructure for sugar and water transport, but this was not
      associated with greater CO2 uptake rates under growth conditions. The Swedish
      ecotype with its thick leaves is thus constructed for high intrinsic
      photosynthetic and vascular flux capacity even under growth chamber conditions
      that may not permit full utilization of this potential. Conversely, the Swedish
      ecotype was less tolerant of low growth light intensity than the Italian ecotype,
      with smaller rosette areas and lesser aboveground biomass accumulation in low
      light-grown plants. Foliar vein density and stomatal density were both enhanced
      by high growth light intensity with no significant difference between ecotypes,
      and the ratio of water to sugar conduits was also similar between the two
      ecotypes during light acclimation. These findings add to the understanding of the
      foliar vasculature's role in plant photosynthetic acclimation and adaptation.

PMID- 28861680
TI  - Image Retrieval Based on Local Mesh Vector Co-occurrence Pattern for Medical
      Diagnosis from MRI Brain Images.
AB  - In modern health-care, for evidence-based diagnosis, there is a requirement for
      an efficient image retrieval approach to retrieve the cases of interest that have
      similar characteristics from the large image databases. This paper presents a
      feature extraction approach that aims at extracting texture features present in
      the medical images using Local Pattern Descriptor (LPD) and Gray-level Co
      occurrence Matrix (GLCM). As a main contribution, a novel local pattern named
      Local Mesh Vector Co-occurrence Pattern (LMVCoP) has been proposed by
      concatenating the Local Mesh Co-occurrence Pattern (LMCoP) and the Local Vector
      Co-occurrence Pattern (LVCoP). The fusion of GLCM with the Local Mesh Pattern
      (LMeP) and the Local Vector Pattern (LVP) produces LMCoP and LVCoP respectively.
      The LMVCoP method has been investigated on the Open Access Series of Imaging
      Studies (OASIS): a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain image database. LMVCoP
      descriptor achieves 87.57% of ARP and 53.21% of ARR which are higher than the
      existing methods of LTCoP, PVEP, LBDP, LMeP and LVP. The LMVCoP method enhances
      the retrieval results of LMeP/LVP from 81.36%/83.52% to 87.57% in terms of ARP on
      OASIS MRI brain database.

PMID- 28861682
TI  - Chemotherapeutic dosing implicated by pharmacodynamic modeling of in vitro
      cytotoxic data: a case study of paclitaxel.
AB  - Conventional maximum tolerated doses (MTD) in chemotherapy are recently
      challenged by an alternative dosing method with low doses and high dosing
      frequency (LDHF). Still, it remains unclear which chemotherapies would
      potentially benefit from LDHF. The pharmacokinetic (PK) differences between MTD
      and LDHF are drug exposure magnitude (concentration) and exposure duration
      (time), two fundamental PK elements that are associated with the pharmacodynamics
      (PD) of chemotherapies. Here we hypothesized that quantitatively analyzing the
      contribution of each PK element to the overall cytotoxic effects would provide
      insights to the selection of the preferred chemotherapeutic dosing. Based on in
      vitro cytotoxic data, we developed a cellular PD model, which assumed that tumor
      cells were generally comprised of two subpopulations that were susceptible to
      either concentration- or time-dependent cytotoxicity. The developed PD model
      exhibited high flexibility to describe diverse patterns of cell survival curves.
      Integrated with a PK model, the cellular PD model was further extended to predict
      and compare the anti-tumor effect of paclitaxel in two dosing regimens: multiple
      MTD bolus and continuous constant infusion (an extreme LDHF). Our simulations of
      paclitaxel in treatment of three types of cancers were consistent with clinical
      observations that LDHF yielded higher patient efficacy than MTD. Our further
      analysis suggested that the ratio between drug steady-state concentrations and
      its cytotoxic sensitivity (C ss /KC 50 ) was a critical factor that largely
      determines favored dosing regimen. LDHF would produce higher efficacy when the
      ratio C ss /KC 50 is greater than 1. Otherwise MTD was favored. The developed PD
      model presented an approach simply based on in vitro cytotoxic data to predict
      the potentially favored chemotherapeutic dosing between MTD and LDHF.

PMID- 28861681
TI  - In vivo estimation of normal amygdala volume from structural MRI scans with
      anatomical-based segmentation.
AB  - PURPOSE: Literature includes a number of studies using structural MRI (sMRI) to
      determine the volume of the amygdala, which is modified in various pathologic
      conditions. The reported values vary widely mainly because of different
      anatomical approaches to the complex. This study aims at estimating of the normal
      amygdala volume from sMRI scans using a recent anatomical definition described in
      a study based on post-mortem material. METHODS: The amygdala volume has been
      calculated in 106 healthy subjects, using sMRI and anatomical-based segmentation.
      The resulting volumes have been analyzed for differences related to hemisphere,
      sex, and age. RESULTS: The mean amygdalar volume was estimated at 1.42 cm3. The
      mean right amygdala volume has been found larger than the left, but the
      difference for the raw values was within the limits of the method error. No
      intersexual differences or age-related alterations have been observed.
      CONCLUSION: The study provides a method for determining the boundaries of the
      amygdala in sMRI scans based on recent anatomical considerations and an
      estimation of the mean normal amygdala volume from a quite large number of scans
      for future use in comparative studies.

PMID- 28861683
TI  - Neuroendocrine Response to School Load in Prepubertal Children: Focus on Trait
      Anxiety.
AB  - At the time of school-age, the most frequent stress stimuli are related to school
      environment and educational process. Anxiety may play a big role in coping with
      stressful situations associated with school load. To approach this issue, we
      performed a real-life study at school during the classwork. The sample consisted
      of 36 healthy children aged 10 years, which were divided to low and high trait
      anxiety group based on the median value of the anxiety score. The investigations
      were carried out in the classroom during a stress condition (final exams) and non
      stress condition (without any exam). In the whole sample, the condition with exam
      was associated with higher cortisol and lower testosterone concentrations in
      saliva compared to the condition without exam. The activity of salivary alpha
      amylase increased at the end of the exam. Anxious children showed higher
      concentrations of aldosterone and lower activity of alpha-amylase compared to
      children with low trait anxiety. Cortisol levels were higher in anxious children
      in the first morning samples before starting the lessons. Children with high and
      low trait anxiety did not differ in extraversion, neuroticism, as well as non
      verbal intelligence and school success. Thus, the anxious children at school
      showed a more rapid decrease of anticipatory stress-induced cortisol
      concentrations, higher aldosterone levels, and lower alpha-amylase activities
      compared to non-anxious children. These changes, particularly high concentrations
      of aldosterone in children with high trait anxiety, may have an impact on their
      psychophysiological development.

PMID- 28861685
TI  - Bayesian Estimation of the DINA Q matrix.
AB  - Cognitive diagnosis models are partially ordered latent class models and are used
      to classify students into skill mastery profiles. The deterministic inputs, noisy
      "and" gate model (DINA) is a popular psychometric model for cognitive diagnosis.
      Application of the DINA model requires content expert knowledge of a Q matrix,
      which maps the attributes or skills needed to master a collection of items.
      Misspecification of Q has been shown to yield biased diagnostic classifications.
      We propose a Bayesian framework for estimating the DINA Q matrix. The developed
      algorithm builds upon prior research (Chen, Liu, Xu, & Ying, in J Am Stat Assoc
      110(510):850-866, 2015) and ensures the estimated Q matrix is identified. Monte
      Carlo evidence is presented to support the accuracy of parameter recovery. The
      developed methodology is applied to Tatsuoka's fraction-subtraction dataset.

PMID- 28861686
TI  - Bell's phenomenon in thyroid-associated inferior rectus myopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine Bell's phenomenon in patients with unilateral thyroid
      associated inferior rectus myopathy and changes in this phenomenon after inferior
      rectus muscle recession. METHODS: This prospective interventional study included
      12 patients who underwent inferior rectus muscle recession with or without nasal
      transposition. Bell's phenomenon was examined before and 3 months after surgery.
      The upper eyelid was held open by a finger to prevent complete eyelid closure.
      Then, the distance of upward excursion of the inferior corneal limbus or the
      corneal light reflex was measured during voluntary maximum forced eyelid closure.
      The pre- and postoperative distances of upward excursion on the affected side
      were statistically compared with the preoperative distance on the unaffected side
      using the Mann-Whitney U test, and the pre- and postoperative distances on the
      affected side were statistically compared using paired t-test. The relationships
      among postoperative changes of Bell's phenomenon, patient age, the amount of
      recession and nasal transposition of the inferior rectus muscle, postoperative
      angle of ocular deviation, and reduction in the angle after surgery were analyzed
      using stepwise multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: The preoperative
      measurement of Bell's phenomenon was significantly shorter on the affected side
      (1.6 +/- 1.6 mm) than the unaffected side (4.3 +/- 1.6 mm; P = 0.001). However,
      the distance on the affected side significantly increased after surgery (4.1 +/-
      1.9 mm; P < 0.001), compared to the preoperative distance on the unaffected side
      (P = 0.843). Using a stepwise method, all variables were deleted from the
      regression equation. CONCLUSIONS: Bell's phenomenon decreased on the affected
      side, which improved after inferior rectus muscle recession.

PMID- 28861684
TI  - Curcumin revitalizes Amyloid beta (25-35)-induced and organophosphate pesticides
      pestered neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y and IMR-32 cells via activation of APE1 and
      Nrf2.
AB  - Amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide deposition is the primary cause of neurodegeneration
      in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Several reports point towards the role
      of pesticides in the AD pathogenesis, especially organophosphate pesticides
      (OPPs). Monocrotophos (MCP) and Chlorpyrifos (CP) are the most widely used OPPs.
      In this study, the role of MCP and CP in augmenting the Abeta-induced oxidative
      stress associated with the neurodegeneration in AD has been assessed in human
      neuroblastoma IMR-32 and SH-SY5Y cell lines. From the cell survival assay, it was
      observed that MCP and CP reduced cell survival both dose- and time-dependently.
      Nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT) based assay for determination of intracellular
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) demonstrated that Abeta(25-35), MCP or CP produce
      significant oxidative stress alone or synergistically in IMR-32 and SH-SY5Y
      cells, while pretreatment of curcumin reduced ROS levels significantly in all
      treatment combinations. In this study, we also demonstrate that treatment of
      Abeta(25-35) and MCP upregulated inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS/NOS2)
      whereas, no change was observed in neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS/NOS1),
      but down-regulation of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)
      level was observed. While curcumin pretreatment resulted in upregulation of iNOS
      and Nrf2 proteins. Also, the expression of key DNA repair enzymes APE1, DNA
      polymerase beta (Pol beta), and PARP1 were found to be downregulated upon
      treatment with MCP, Abeta(25-35) and their combinations at 24 h and 48 h time
      points. In this study, pretreatment of curcumin to the SH-SY5Y cells enhanced the
      expression of DNA repair enzymes APE1, pol beta, and PARP1 enzymes to counter the
      oxidative DNA base damage via base excision repair (BER) pathway, and also
      activated the antioxidant element (ARE) via Nrf2 upregulation. Furthermore, the
      immunofluorescent confocal imaging studies in SH-SY5Y and IMR-32 cells treated
      with Abeta(25-35) and MCP-mediated oxidative stress and their combinations at
      different time periods suggesting for cross-talk between the two proteins APE1
      and Nrf2. The APE1's association with Nrf2 might be associated with the redox
      function of APE1 that might be directly regulating the ARE-mediated neuronal
      survival mechanisms.

PMID- 28861687
TI  - Conservation of the Notch antagonist Hairless in arthropods: functional analysis
      of the crustacean Daphnia pulex Hairless gene.
AB  - The Notch signaling pathway is highly conserved in all animal metazoa: upon Notch
      receptor activation, transcription of Notch target genes is turned on by an
      activator complex that centers on the transcription factor CSL. In the absence of
      signal, CSL assembles transcriptional repression complexes that display
      remarkable evolutionary diversity. The major antagonist of Notch signaling in
      insects named Hairless was originally identified in Drosophila melanogaster. It
      binds to the Drosophila CSL homologue Suppressor of Hairless [Su(H)] and recruits
      the two general co-repressors, Groucho and C-terminal binding protein. Whereas
      the majority of Notch signaling components is conserved between insects and
      vertebrates, Hairless is found only in insects. Here, we present the analysis of
      the Hairless gene from Daphnia pulex and, hence, for the first time from a
      crustacean. Daphnia and Drosophila Hairless protein sequences are highly
      diverged. Known functional domains, however, the Su(H), Groucho and the C
      terminal binding protein interactions domains, are well conserved. Moreover,
      direct binding of the Daphnia Hairless protein and the respective Drosophila
      interaction partners was detected, demonstrating the conservation at the
      molecular level. In addition, interaction between Daphnia Hairless and Drosophila
      Su(H) was demonstrated in vivo, as co-overexpression of the respective genes
      during Drosophila development resulted in the expected downregulation of Notch
      activity in the fly. Structural models show that the Hairless-Su(H) repressor
      complexes from Daphnia and Drosophila are almost indistinguishable from one
      another. Amino acid residues in direct contact within the Hairless-Su(H) complex
      are at absolutely identical positions in the two homologues.

PMID- 28861688
TI  - Predicting Major Adverse Kidney Events among Critically Ill Adults Using the
      Electronic Health Record.
AB  - Prediction of major adverse kidney events in critically ill patients may help
      target therapy, allow risk adjustment, and facilitate the conduct of clinical
      trials. In a cohort comprised of all critically ill adults admitted to five
      intensive care units at a single tertiary care center over one year, we developed
      a logistic regression model for the outcome of Major Adverse Kidney Events within
      30 days (MAKE30), the composite of persistent renal dysfunction, new renal
      replacement therapy (RRT), and in-hospital mortality. Proposed risk factors for
      the MAKE30 outcome were selected a priori and included age, race, gender,
      University Health System Consortium (UHC) expected mortality, baseline
      creatinine, volume of isotonic crystalloid fluid received in the prior 24 h,
      admission service, intensive care unit (ICU), source of admission, mechanical
      ventilation or receipt of vasopressors within 24 h of ICU admission, renal
      replacement therapy prior to ICU admission, acute kidney injury, chronic kidney
      disease as defined by baseline creatinine value, and renal failure as defined by
      the Elixhauser index. Among 10,983 patients in the study population, 1489
      patients (13.6%) met the MAKE30 endpoint. The strongest independent predictors of
      MAKE30 were UHC expected mortality (OR 2.32 [95%CI 2.06-2.61]) and presence of
      acute kidney injury at ICU admission (OR 4.98 [95%CI 4.12-6.03]). The model had
      strong predictive properties including excellent discrimination with a bootstrap
      corrected area-under-the-curve (AUC) of 0.903, and high precision of calibration
      with a mean absolute error prediction of 1.7%. The MAKE30 composite outcome can
      be reliably predicted from factors present within 24 h of ICU admission using
      data derived from the electronic health record.

PMID- 28861689
TI  - Superactive human leptin antagonist (SHLA), triple Lan1 and quadruple Lan2 leptin
      mutein as a promising treatment for human folliculoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: There are no data showing a direct correlation between obesity and
      increased blood leptin levels with folliculoma. Moreover, folliculoma is not the
      best studied among other ovarian cancer types. We investigated whether oestradiol
      can modulate ObR expression in some oestrogen-responsive tissues and that leptin
      exerts its activity not only via the leptin receptor but also through cross talk
      with other signalling systems. We hypothesise that blocking ObR expression could
      be a novel treatment for gonadal ovarian cancer. METHODS: We evaluated the effect
      of SHLA, Lan1 and Lan2 blockers on cell proliferation (BrdU incorporation assay),
      ObR and ERalpha/beta gene expression (qPCR), oestradiol secretion (ELISA) and
      cell cycle protein expression (Western blot) in the non-cancerous cell line HGrC1
      and two granulosa cancer cell lines: the juvenile form (COV434) and the adult
      form (KGN). RESULTS: ObR gene expression in cancer cell lines was 50% higher than
      in the non-cancer cells. Lan-1 and Lan-2 decreased ObR expression in COV434,
      while it had no effect in KGN cells. Higher ERbeta expression in non-cancer and
      higher ERalpha expression in both cancer cell lines was noted. SHLA and Lan-1
      changed the ratio towards greater expression of ERbeta, characteristic of non
      cancer granulosa cells. All ObR antagonists in HCrC1 and KGN but only Lan-2 in
      COV434 reversed leptin-stimulated proliferation. In both non-cancer and cancer
      granulosa cells, leptin acts as a cyclinD/cdk4, cyclin A/cdk2 and E2F inhibitor.
      CONCLUSION: These results indicate that SHLA and Lan2 are promising leptin
      receptor inhibitors that can eliminate the negative effects of leptin. These
      compounds should be considered in further ex vivo studies on the cancer
      microenvironment.

PMID- 28861690
TI  - Sexual Minority Stress, Coping, and Physical Health Indicators.
AB  - Sexual minorities experience higher rates of several physical health problems
      compared to their heterosexual counterparts. The present study uses Meyer's
      Minority Stress Model (Psychological Bulletin, 129(5): 674-697, 2003) to examine
      physical health indicators among 250 adults who identified as sexual minorities.
      Study hypotheses include that sexual minority stress is predictive of two
      physical health indicators (i.e., engagement in a health-promoting lifestyle and
      number of physical health problems) and that planning (i.e., problem-focused) and
      social support coping will partially mediate the relationship between sexual
      minority stress and each physical health indicator. Results showed that as level
      of sexual minority stress increased, engagement in a health-promoting lifestyle
      decreased and the number of physical health problems increased. Planning and
      social support coping did not mediate these relationships; however, as levels of
      coping increased, engagement in a health-promoting lifestyle increased. These
      findings have implications for researchers and healthcare professionals in their
      efforts to promote the physical health of sexual minorities.

PMID- 28861692
TI  - Highly selective capture of phosphate ions from water by a water stable metal
      organic framework modified with polyethyleneimine.
AB  - In this work, a series of polyethyleneimine (PEI) impregnated metal-organic
      framework (UiO-66) with varying PEI loadings were prepared and applied as
      sorbents to capture phosphate ions from water. As indicated by SEM and XRD
      analysis, PEI was dispersed on the outer surface and the inner pores of UiO-66.
      At 9.45% PEI loadings (UiO-66-3), the saturated adsorption capacity of phosphate
      reached 73.15 mg P/g at 298 K, which is superior to most sorbents ever reported.
      UiO-66-3 could sequestrate phosphate over a wide pH range from 2.0 to 7.0 with
      high efficiency. The sorption toward phosphate reached equilibrium in 50 min.
      Unlike commercial anion exchanger IRA-900, UiO-66-3 still exhibited high removal
      toward phosphate even large amount of coexisted anions were present. Successive
      sorption assay demonstrated that the removal efficiency of UiO-66-3 toward
      phosphate remained constant after six cyclic runs. All the above results
      indicated the great potential of UiO-66-3 as a promising sorbent for the
      decontamination of water from phosphate.

PMID- 28861691
TI  - Post-prostatectomy radiotherapy adversely affects urinary continence irrespective
      of radiotherapy regime.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of different postoperative radiotherapy
      (RT) regimes on post-prostatectomy continence and QoL. METHODS: Men after
      prostatectomy (RP) and RT were assigned in adjuvant (ART), early salvage (ESRT)
      and salvage radiotherapy (SRT) groups depending on time of initiation, indication
      and pre-RT-PSA (<=/>0.5 ng/ml). Continence and QoL outcomes were evaluated by
      validated questionnaire. Statistical analysis included students t test, Chi
      square, Fisher's test, ROC- and McNemar-Bowker-Analyses. RESULTS: The mean follow
      up was 5.1 years. 33.5, 38.2 and 28.3% received ART, ESRT and SRT, respectively.
      Mean time to RT was 0.3 (+/-0.4), 1.8 (+/-2.5) and 3.3 (+/-3.6) years
      respectively. Differences in age at RP (p = 0.54) and RT (p = 0.47) between
      groups were not significant. Mean-RT-dose was similar (p = 0.70). Differences in
      continence distribution between groups before (p = 0.56) and after RT (p = 0.38)
      were not significant. No significant differences were observed for frequency (p =
      0.58) or amount (p = 0.88) of urine loss, impact on QoL (p = 0.13) and ICIQ-SF
      scores (p = 0.69) between groups. Even though no significant difference in post
      RT-continence (p = 0.89) was observed in the direct comparison between groups, a
      significant worsening of long-term continence was observed in all groups (p <
      0.001). We found no cutoff and no time-point after RP at which this negative
      effect of RT on continence became insignificant (AUC = 0.474). A subgroup with
      apparent local recurrence showed no differences for ICIQ-SF-score (p = 0.155),
      QoL (0.077), incontinence grade (p = 0.387), frequency (p = 0.182) and amount (p
      = 0.415) of urine loss. Proportionally more men in this subgroup remembered
      deterioration of continence after RT (p = 0.029). CONCLUSION: Postoperative RT
      adversely affects long-term continence; this negative effect is irrespective of
      time of initiation or indication for RT. These results suggest a need for
      innovative strategies of prostate cancer therapy with lasting oncological,
      functional and QoL outcomes.

PMID- 28861693
TI  - Mixed reality ultrasound guidance system: a case study in system development and
      a cautionary tale.
AB  - PURPOSE: Real-time ultrasound has become a crucial aspect of several image-guided
      interventions. One of the main constraints of such an approach is the difficulty
      in interpretability of the limited field of view of the image, a problem that has
      recently been addressed using mixed reality, such as augmented reality and
      augmented virtuality. The growing popularity and maturity of mixed reality has
      led to a series of informal guidelines to direct development of new systems and
      to facilitate regulatory approval. However, the goals of mixed reality image
      guidance systems and the guidelines for their development have not been
      thoroughly discussed. The purpose of this paper is to identify and critically
      examine development guidelines in the context of a mixed reality ultrasound
      guidance system through a case study. METHODS: A mixed reality ultrasound
      guidance system tailored to central line insertions was developed in close
      collaboration with an expert user. This system outperformed ultrasound-only
      guidance in a novice user study and has obtained clearance for clinical use in
      humans. A phantom study with 25 experienced physicians was carried out to compare
      the performance of the mixed reality ultrasound system against conventional
      ultrasound-only guidance. Despite the previous promising results, there was no
      statistically significant difference between the two systems. RESULTS: Guidelines
      for developing mixed reality image guidance systems cannot be applied
      indiscriminately. Each design decision, no matter how well justified, should be
      the subject of scientific and technical investigation. Iterative and small-scale
      evaluation can readily unearth issues and previously unknown or implicit system
      requirements. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend a wary eye in development of mixed
      reality ultrasound image guidance systems emphasizing small-scale iterative
      evaluation alongside system development. Ultimately, we recommend that the image
      guided intervention community furthers and deepens this discussion into best
      practices in developing image-guided interventions.

PMID- 28861695
TI  - Pharmacometrics models with hidden Markovian dynamics.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of pharmacometric models that
      involve some latent process with Markovian dynamics. Such models include hidden
      Markov models which may be useful for describing the dynamics of a disease state
      that jumps from one state to another at discrete times. On the contrary,
      diffusion models are continuous-time and continuous-state Markov models that are
      relevant for modelling non observed phenomena that fluctuate continuously and
      randomly over time. We show that an extension of these models to mixed effects
      models is straightforward in a population context. We then show how the forward
      backward algorithm used for inference in hidden Markov models and the extended
      Kalman filter used for inference in diffusion models can be combined with
      standard inference algorithms in mixed effects models for estimating the
      parameters of the model. The use of these models is illustrated with two
      applications: a hidden Markov model for describing the epileptic activity of a
      large number of patients and a stochastic differential equation based model for
      describing the pharmacokinetics of theophyllin.

PMID- 28861694
TI  - Effects of sex on the levels of metals and metalloids in the hair of a group of
      healthy Spanish adolescents (13 to 16 years old).
AB  - Human biomonitoring can be a reliable tool to protect the health of the citizens
      of major urban environments. Human hair may be an invaluable specimen to
      determine chronic exposure to any environmental contaminant in an individual,
      especially in the young population. However, different factors including a lack
      of studies that have established reference values for metals and metalloids
      (trace elements) in human scalp hair make the use of this matrix controversial. A
      monitoring study was performed to establish possible normal or tentative
      reference values of Al, As, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Pb, Sn, Ti, Tl and Zn in
      adolescents' (aged 13-16) hair who have lived since birth in Alcala de Henares,
      Madrid region (Spain). Strict inclusion criteria were followed to study the
      effect of sex on the hair metal content, and the levels of the above contaminants
      were also studied in park topsoils from Alcala de Henares. Scalp hair samples
      were collected from 96 healthy adolescents (28 boys and 68 girls), and reference
      values were calculated following the recommendations of the International Union
      of Pure and Applied Chemistry. The levels of Cd, Cu, Pb, Sn and Zn in hair of
      adolescents from Alcala de Henares show a sex dependency, being significantly
      higher in female participants. Sex should be a factor taken into account when
      developing future reference values and hair metal content. Soil metal
      contamination was not correlated with the levels found in hair. To conclude, the
      values of metals and metalloids here analysed and discussed could be considered
      as tentative reference values for Spanish adolescents aged 13-16 years living in
      the Madrid region, and may be used to identify the level of exposure of
      adolescents in this Spanish region to the various metals and metalloids.

PMID- 28861696
TI  - Treatment of Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies After Biliopancreatic Diversion
      With or Without Duodenal Switch: a Major Challenge.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are a major concern after
      biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) and BPD with duodenal switch (BPD/DS). Evidence
      based guidelines how to prevent or how to treat deficiencies in these patients
      are currently lacking. The aim of the current study is to give an overview of
      postsurgical deficiencies and how to prevent and treat these deficiencies.
      METHODS: Retrospective evaluation of a 1-year structured monitoring and treatment
      schedule for various deficiencies in 34 patients after BPD or BPD/DS. RESULTS:
      Patients were introduced into the program 12-90 months after surgery. Vitamin B1,
      B6, B9, and B12 deficiencies could be prevented by mean daily doses of 2.75 mg,
      980 MUg, 600 MUg, and 350 MUg, respectively. However, many patients continued to
      develop deficiencies of vitamin A, D, iron, calcium, and zinc despite major dose
      adjustments. Current observations suggest that at least total daily doses of 200
      mg Fe in premenopausal women and 100 mg in men, 100 mg of Zinc, 3000 mg of
      calcium, and weekly doses of at least 50,000 IU solubilized vitamin A and vitamin
      D are needed to prevent the occurrence of major deficiencies. CONCLUSION:
      Exceptionally high supplementation doses are needed to prevent and treat vitamin
      and mineral deficiencies in patients after BPD or BPD/DS. Further refinement and
      simplification of treatment schedules is needed. Focus on improvement of
      compliance to treatment is recommended.

PMID- 28861697
TI  - Optical coherence tomography angiography in acute arteritic and non-arteritic
      anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to describe the feature of acute non
      arteritic or arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NA-AION and A-AION)
      using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) and to compare it with
      fluorescein angiography (FA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA). METHODS:
      In this retrospective, observational case-control study four NA-AION patients and
      one A-AION patient were examined by FA, ICGA and OCT-A within 2 weeks from
      disease presentation. The characteristics of the images were analyzed. Optic
      nerve head (ONH) and radial peripapillary capillaries (RPC) vessel densities
      (VDs) were compared between NA-AION and controls. RESULTS: In two of four NA-AION
      cases and in the A-AION patient, OCT-A clearly identified the boundary of the
      ischemic area at the level of the optic nerve head, which was comparable to optic
      disc filling defects detected by FA. In the other two NA-AION cases, a
      generalized leakage from the disc was visible with FA, yet OCT-A still
      demonstrated sectorial peripapillary capillary network reduction. Both ONH and
      RPC VDs were reduced in NA-AION patients, when compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS:
      OCT-A was able to identify microvascular defects and VD reduction in cases of
      acute optic disc edema due to NA-AION and A-AION. OCT-A provides additional
      information in ischemic conditions of the optic nerve head.

PMID- 28861698
TI  - Polyester Preserves the Highest Breaking Point After Prolonged Incubation in
      Pancreatic Juice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of suture materials on the development of pancreatic
      fistula after pancreaticoduodenectomy remains unclear. Thus, their choice among
      pancreatic surgeons is still mostly experience-based. Aim of the present study is
      to assess what is the best suture material to be used for pancreaticojejunostomy.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The force needed to reach the breaking point of five
      widely used suture materials (polypropylene, polyester, polydioxanone, silk, and
      polyglactin 910) has been determined through a digital precision dynamometer at
      baseline and after 5 and 20 days of incubation in pancreatic juice, bile, or a
      mixture of both. RESULTS: Regardless of the condition, polyglactin 910 has
      retained only 10% of its baseline force. Silk has maintained almost 90% of its
      initial force showing a very low baseline value of force. In pancreatic juice,
      polypropylene has lost less force compared to polyester (0.25 vs. 0.93 N; p =
      0.03) and polydioxanone (0.25 vs. 3.67 N; p = 0.04). Polyester and polydioxanone
      have showed similar values of force. However, polydioxanone has lost a
      significant amount of force in pancreatic juice when compared to polyester (0.93
      vs. 3.67 N; p = 0.03). Polyester has showed the highest value of force needed to
      reach the breaking point after 20 days of incubation in pancreatic juice.
      CONCLUSIONS: After incubation in pancreaticobiliary secretions, polyglactin 910
      loses almost all its force. Polypropylene preserves its characteristic, but
      polydioxanone and polyester show absolute higher breaking points, with polyester
      retaining the highest value of force needed to reach its breaking point after
      incubation in pancreatic juice.

PMID- 28861699
TI  - Effects of solar photovoltaic technology on the environment in China.
AB  - Among the various types of renewable energy, solar photovoltaic has elicited the
      most attention because of its low pollution, abundant reserve, and endless
      supply. Solar photovoltaic technology generates both positive and negative
      effects on the environment. The environmental loss of 0.00666 yuan/kWh from solar
      photovoltaic technology is lower than that from coal-fired power generation
      (0.05216 yuan/kWh). The negative effects of solar photovoltaic system production
      include wastewater and waste gas pollutions, the representatives of which contain
      fluorine, chromium with wastewater and hydrogen fluoride, and silicon
      tetrachloride gas. Solar panels are also a source of light pollution. Improper
      disposal of solar cells that have reached the end of their service life harms the
      environment through the stench they produce and the damage they cause to the
      soil. So, the positive and negative effects of green energy photovoltaic power
      generation technology on the environment should be considered.

PMID- 28861700
TI  - A method for going from 2D laparoscope to 3D acquisition of surface landmarks by
      a novel computer vision approach.
AB  - PURPOSE: This paper presents a method to use the Smart Trocars-our new surgical
      instrument recognition system-or any accurate localization system of surgical
      instrument for acquiring intraoperative surface data. Complex laparoscopic
      surgeries need a proper guidance system which requires registering the
      preoperative data from a CT or MRI scan to the intraoperative patient state. The
      Smart Trocar can be used to localize the instruments when it comes to contact
      with the soft tissue surface. METHOD: Two successive views through the
      laparoscope at different angles with the 3D localization of a fixed tool at one
      single location using the Smart Trocars can point out visible features during the
      surgery and acquire their location in 3D to provide a depth map in the region of
      interest. In other words, our method transforms a standard laparoscope system
      into a system with three-dimensional registration capability. RESULT: This method
      was initially tested on a simulation for uncertainty assessment and then on a
      rigid model for verification with an accuracy within 2 mm distance. In addition,
      an in vivo experiment on pig model was also conducted to investigate how the
      method might be used during a physiologic respiratory cycle. CONCLUSION: This
      method can be applied in a large number of surgical applications as a guidance
      system on its own or in conjunction with other navigation techniques. Our work
      encourages further testing with realistic surgical applications in the near
      future.

PMID- 28861701
TI  - Heat stress differentially modifies ethylene biosynthesis and signaling in pea
      floral and fruit tissues.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Ethylene biosynthesis is regulated in reproductive tissues in
      response to heat stress in a manner to optimize resource allocation to pollinated
      fruits with developing seeds. High temperatures during reproductive development
      are particularly detrimental to crop fruit/seed production. Ethylene plays vital
      roles in plant development and abiotic stress responses; however, little is known
      about ethylene's role in reproductive tissues during development under heat
      stress. We assessed ethylene biosynthesis and signaling regulation within the
      reproductive and associated tissues of pea during the developmental phase that
      sets the stage for fruit-set and seed development under normal and heat-stress
      conditions. The transcript abundance profiles of PsACS [encode enzymes that
      convert S-adenosyl-L-methionine to 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC)]
      and PsACO (encode enzymes that convert ACC to ethylene), and ethylene evolution
      were developmentally, environmentally, and tissue-specifically regulated in the
      floral/fruit/pedicel tissues of pea. Higher transcript abundance of PsACS and
      PsACO in the ovaries, and PsACO in the pedicels was correlated with higher
      ethylene evolution and ovary senescence and pedicel abscission in fruits that
      were not pollinated under control temperature conditions. Under heat-stress
      conditions, up-regulation of ethylene biosynthesis gene expression in pre
      pollinated ovaries was also associated with higher ethylene evolution and lower
      retention of these fruits. Following successful pollination and ovule
      fertilization, heat-stress modified PsACS and PsACO transcript profiles in a
      manner that suppressed ovary ethylene evolution. The normal ethylene burst in the
      stigma/style and petals following pollination was also suppressed by heat-stress.
      Transcript abundance profiles of ethylene receptor and signaling-related genes
      acted as qualitative markers of tissue ethylene signaling events. These data
      support the hypothesis that ethylene biosynthesis is regulated in reproductive
      tissues in response to heat stress to modulate resource allocation dynamics.

PMID- 28861702
TI  - Simulation of facial expressions using person-specific sEMG signals controlling a
      biomechanical face model.
AB  - PURPOSE: Functional inoperability in advanced oral cancer is difficult to assess
      preoperatively. To assess functions of lips and tongue, biomechanical models are
      required. Apart from adjusting generic models to individual anatomy, muscle
      activation patterns (MAPs) driving patient-specific functional movements are
      necessary to predict remaining functional outcome. We aim to evaluate how
      volunteer-specific MAPs derived from surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals
      control a biomechanical face model. METHODS: Muscle activity of seven facial
      muscles in six volunteers was measured bilaterally with sEMG. A triple camera set
      up recorded 3D lip movement. The generic face model in ArtiSynth was adapted to
      our needs. We controlled the model using the volunteer-specific MAPs. Three
      activation strategies were tested: activating all muscles [Formula: see text],
      selecting the three muscles showing highest muscle activity bilaterally [Formula:
      see text]-this was calculated by taking the mean of left and right muscles and
      then selecting the three with highest variance-and activating the muscles
      considered most relevant per instruction [Formula: see text], bilaterally. The
      model's lip movement was compared to the actual lip movement performed by the
      volunteers, using 3D correlation coefficients [Formula: see text]. RESULTS: The
      correlation coefficient between simulations and measurements with [Formula: see
      text] resulted in a median [Formula: see text] of 0.77. [Formula: see text] had a
      median [Formula: see text] of 0.78, whereas with [Formula: see text] the median
      [Formula: see text] decreased to 0.45. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that MAPs
      derived from noninvasive sEMG measurements can control movement of the lips in a
      generic finite element face model with a median [Formula: see text] of 0.78.
      Ultimately, this is important to show the patient-specific residual movement
      using the patient's own MAPs. When the required treatment tools and
      personalisation techniques for geometry and anatomy become available, this may
      enable surgeons to test the functional results of wedge excisions for lip cancer
      in a virtual environment and to weigh surgery versus organ-sparing radiotherapy
      or photodynamic therapy.

PMID- 28861703
TI  - Robotic-assisted vs. laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: a retrospective comparison
      of perioperative course and postoperative outcome after 1 year.
AB  - Safety is of utmost importance in live donor nephrectomies. In this study, we
      describe our initial experience with robot-assisted laparoscopic donor
      nephrectomy (RDN) in comparison with the standard laparoscopic donor nephrectomy
      (LDN). We retrospectively reviewed 95 patients who either underwent RDN or LDN
      performed by a single surgeon from 2011 to 2016 at a tertiary institution. Donor
      perioperative course and postoperative outcome along with recipient outcomes were
      compared. Of the 95 cases, 73 were classified as LDN and 22 were classified as
      RDN. There were no significant differences between the two groups in age, sex,
      BMI, race, and ASA status. Operative times (p < 0.001) were longer in the RDN
      group, but eventually approached LDN times. Warm ischemia (p = 0.002) and
      extraction times (p = 0.05) were also longer in the RDN cohort. The donor length
      of hospital stay, complication rates, and postoperative change in eGFR from
      baseline were similar in both cohorts up to 1 year. Recipient outcomes, including
      delayed graft function, graft failure, and renal function up to 1 year, were also
      comparable. In this study, we compared the longest postoperative course so far in
      both donors and recipients between RDN and LDN. Up to 1 year, RDN does not
      negatively impact outcomes. Proficiency with RDN also quickly improved to match
      LDN, making it a suitable procedure for newer surgeons.

PMID- 28861704
TI  - Multimodal image registration based on binary gradient angle descriptor.
AB  - PURPOSE: Multimodal image registration plays an important role in image-guided
      interventions/therapy and atlas building, and it is still a challenging task due
      to the complex intensity variations in different modalities. METHODS: The paper
      addresses the problem and proposes a simple, compact, fast and generally
      applicable modality-independent binary gradient angle descriptor (BGA) based on
      the rationale of gradient orientation alignment. The BGA can be easily calculated
      at each voxel by coding the quadrant in which a local gradient vector falls, and
      it has an extremely low computational complexity, requiring only three
      convolutions, two multiplication operations and two comparison operations.
      Meanwhile, the binarized encoding of the gradient orientation makes the BGA more
      resistant to image degradations compared with conventional gradient orientation
      methods. The BGA can extract similar feature descriptors for different modalities
      and enable the use of simple similarity measures, which makes it applicable
      within a wide range of optimization frameworks. RESULTS: The results for pairwise
      multimodal and monomodal registrations between various images (T1, T2, PD, T1c,
      Flair) consistently show that the BGA significantly outperforms localized mutual
      information. The experimental results also confirm that the BGA can be a reliable
      alternative to the sum of absolute difference in monomodal image registration.
      The BGA can also achieve an accuracy of [Formula: see text], similar to that of
      the SSC, for the deformable registration of inhale and exhale CT scans.
      Specifically, for the highly challenging deformable registration of preoperative
      MRI and 3D intraoperative ultrasound images, the BGA achieves a similar
      registration accuracy of [Formula: see text] compared with state-of-the-art
      approaches, with a computation time of 18.3 s per case. CONCLUSIONS: The BGA
      improves the registration performance in terms of both accuracy and time
      efficiency. With further acceleration, the framework has the potential for
      application in time-sensitive clinical environments, such as for preoperative MRI
      and intraoperative US image registration for image-guided intervention.

PMID- 28861705
TI  - Multistep translation and cultural adaptation of the Penn acoustic neuroma
      quality-of-life scale for German-speaking patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Monitoring the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for patients
      with vestibular schwannoma (VS) has garnered increasing interest. In German
      speaking countries, there is no disease-specific questionnaire available similar
      to the "Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-of-life Scale" (PANQOL). METHOD: We
      translated the PANQOL for German-speaking patients based on a multistep protocol
      that included not only a forward-backward translation but also linguistic and
      sociocultural adaptations. The process consists of translation, synthesis, back
      translation, review by an expert committee, administration of the prefinal
      version to our patients, submission and appraisal of all written documents by our
      research team. The required multidisciplinary team for translation comprised head
      and neck surgeons, language professionals (German and English), a professional
      translator, and bilingual participants. A total of 123 patients with VS underwent
      microsurgical procedures via different approaches at our clinic between January
      2007 and January 2017. Among these, 72 patients who underwent the
      translabyrinthine approach participated in the testing of the German-translated
      PANQOL. RESULT: The first German version of the PANQOL questionnaire was created
      by a multistep translation process. The responses indicate that the questionnaire
      is simple to administer and applicable to our patients. CONCLUSION: The use of a
      multistep process to translate quality-of-life questionnaires is complex and time
      consuming. However, this process was performed properly and resulted in a version
      of the PANQOL for assessing the quality of life of German-speaking patients with
      VS.

PMID- 28861706
TI  - Xerostomia Quality of Life Scale (XeQoLS) questionnaire: validation of Italian
      version in head and neck cancer patients.
AB  - AIM: To translate the Xerostomia Quality-of-Life Scale (XeQoLS) into Italian
      language (XeQoLS-IT). Xerostomia is the most relevant acute and late toxicity in
      patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy (RT). Patient
      reported outcome (PRO) instruments are subjective report on patient perception of
      health status. The XeQoLS consists of 15 items and measures the impact of
      salivary gland dysfunction and xerostomia on the four major domains of oral
      health-related QoL. METHODS: The XeQoLS-IT was created through a linguistic
      validation multi-step process: forward translation (TF), backward translation
      (TB) and administration of the questionnaire to 35 Italian patients with head and
      neck cancer. Translation was independently carried out by two radiation
      oncologists who were Italian native speakers. The two versions were compared and
      adapted to obtain a reconciled version, version 1 (V1). V1 was translated back
      into English by an Italian pro skilled in teaching English. After review of
      discrepancies and choice of the most appropriate wording for clarity and
      similarity to the original, version 2 (V2) was reached by consensus. To evaluate
      version 2, patients completed the XeQoLS-IT questionnaire and also underwent a
      cognitive debriefing. RESULTS: The questionnaire was considered simple by the
      patients. The clarity of the instructions and the easiness to answer questions
      had a mean value of 4.5 (+/- 0.71) on a scale from 1 to 5. CONCLUSION: A valid
      multi-step process led to the creation of the final version of the XeQoLS-IT, a
      suitable instrument for the perception of xerostomia in patients treated with RT.

PMID- 28861708
TI  - Breast cancer cell nuclei classification in histopathology images using deep
      neural networks.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cell nuclei classification in breast cancer histopathology images plays
      an important role in effective diagnose since breast cancer can often be
      characterized by its expression in cell nuclei. However, due to the small and
      variant sizes of cell nuclei, and heavy noise in histopathology images,
      traditional machine learning methods cannot achieve desirable recognition
      accuracy. To address this challenge, this paper aims to present a novel deep
      neural network which performs representation learning and cell nuclei recognition
      in an end-to-end manner. METHODS: The proposed model hierarchically maps raw
      medical images into a latent space in which robustness is achieved by employing a
      stacked denoising autoencoder. A supervised classifier is further developed to
      improve the discrimination of the model by maximizing inter-subject separability
      in the latent space. The proposed method involves a cascade model which jointly
      learns a set of nonlinear mappings and a classifier from the given raw medical
      images. Such an on-the-shelf learning strategy makes obtaining discriminative
      features possible, thus leading to better recognition performance. RESULTS:
      Extensive experiments with benign and malignant breast cancer datasets are
      conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Better performance
      was obtained when compared with other feature extraction methods, and higher
      recognition rate was achieved when compared with other seven classification
      methods. CONCLUSIONS: We propose an end-to-end DNN model for cell nuclei and non
      nuclei classification of histopathology images. It demonstrates that the proposed
      method can achieve promising performance in cell nuclei classification, and the
      proposed method is suitable for the cell nuclei classification task.

PMID- 28861709
TI  - A nociceptive stress model of adolescent physical abuse induces contextual fear
      and cingulate nociceptive neuroplasticities.
AB  - Adolescent physical abuse impairs emotional development and evokes cingulate
      pathologies, but its neuronal and circuit substrates are unknown. Conditioning
      adolescent rabbits with noxious colorectal distension for only 2 h over 3 weeks
      simulated the human child abuse in amplitude, frequency, and duration. Thermal
      withdrawal thresholds were unchanged suggesting that sensitized spinal mechanisms
      may not be operable. Unchanged weight, stools, colorectal histology, and no
      evidence of abdominal pain argue against tissue injury or irritable bowel
      syndrome. Contextual fear was amplified as they avoided the site of their abuse.
      Conditioning impacted anterior cingulate and anterior midcingulate (ACC, aMCC)
      neuron excitability: (1) more neurons responded to cutaneous and visceral (VNox)
      noxious stimuli than controls engaging latent nociception (present but not
      manifest in controls). (2) Rear paw stimulation increased responses over forepaws
      with shorter onsets and longer durations, while forepaw responses were of higher
      amplitude. (3) There were more VNox responses with two excitatory phases and
      longer durations. (4) Some had unique three-phase excitatory responses. (5) Long
      duration VNox stimuli did not inhibit neurons as in controls, suggesting the
      release of an inhibitory circuit. (6) aMCC changes in cutaneous but not visceral
      nociception confirmed its role in cutaneous nociception. For the first time, we
      report neuroplasticities that may be evoked by adolescent physical abuse and
      reflect psychogenic pain: i.e., no ongoing peripheral pain and altered ACC
      nociception. These limbic responses may be a cognitive trace of abuse and may
      shed light on impaired human emotional development and sexual function.

PMID- 28861707
TI  - The Impact of a Required Longitudinal Stress Management and Resilience Training
      Course for First-Year Medical Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although psychological distress is common among medical students,
      little remains known about effective interventions. One promising individual
      focused approach is mindfulness-based stress management interventions; however,
      studies to date have relied on volunteers. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a
      required longitudinal stress management and resilience course improves well-being
      among first-year medical students. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental study.
      PARTICIPANTS: Two cohorts of medical students who participated in a required
      stress management and resilience course and completed pre and post
      questionnaires. MAIN MEASURES: Validated instruments were used to examine the
      effects on burnout, quality of life (QOL), stress, resilience, happiness, and
      empathy. Paired analysis was conducted to explore changes from baseline. KEY
      RESULTS: On paired analysis of individual students, mean mental QOL and happiness
      declined (mental QOL: -5.63 [P < 0.001] and -5.15 [P = 0.015] and happiness: 
      0.31 [P = 0.02] and -0.4 [P = 0.01], cohorts 1 and 2, respectively) over the
      course of the year. Similarly, stress scores increased by 4.22 (P < 0.0001) and
      3.62 (P = 0.03) in cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. Cognitive and emotive empathy
      declined in both cohorts but was only statistically significant for cohort 1 (
      1.64 and -2.07, P < 0.01). No statistically significant differences in burnout or
      resilience were seen. CONCLUSIONS: The required longitudinal mindfulness-based
      stress management course tested in first-year medical students did not lead to
      measurable improvements in medical student well-being or empathy. These findings
      contrast with those of studies using volunteer medical students or physicians,
      which suggested a reduction in burnout and stress using a similar curriculum.
      Medical schools should consider offering a variety of effective options so that
      students can select activities they want to engage in.

PMID- 28861710
TI  - Healing of root and surrounding periodontium after root damage with miniscrew
      implants: a histomorphologic study in dogs.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the detailed
      healing process of the roots and surrounding periodontium [cementum, periodontal
      ligament (PDL), and bone] at different time points after intentional root damage
      with miniscrew implants (MSIs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: After cone-beam computed
      tomography examination and measurement, a total of 78 premolar and molar roots
      from five beagle dogs were intentionally damaged by implanting miniscrews in the
      interradicular region. MSIs were immediately removed, and the histological
      morphology was observed at days 0 and 3 and at weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12
      after root injury using haematoxylin and eosin and fluorescence stainings
      (fluorescence staining was performed at days 28 and 56). RESULTS: An early new
      attachment of PDL adhering on to the damaged root surface was found at week 2
      after root injury. Tissue differentiation of newly formed bone tissue, PDL, and
      cementum began at week 3. Moreover, the newly formed cementum and bone were
      constantly forming and mineralising at weeks 4, 6, 8, and 12, and the width of
      PDL gradually narrowed until close to the normal width at week 12. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study demonstrated the complete healing process of the roots and surrounding
      periodontium after root damage with MSIs in dogs when the damage was limited to
      the cementum or dentin. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The findings of this study may help
      provide a better understanding of the detailed healing process in roots and PDLs
      damaged by MSIs.

PMID- 28861711
TI  - Variations in Physicochemical Properties and Bioconversion Efficiency of Ulva
      lactuca Polysaccharides After Different Biomass Pretreatment Techniques.
AB  - Green macroalgae are an abundant and undervalued biomass with a specific cell
      wall structure. In this context, different pretreatments, namely ethanol
      organosolv (Org), alkaline, liquid hot water (LHW), and ionic liquid (IL)
      pretreatments, were applied to the green macroalgae Ulva lactuca biomass and then
      evaluated. Their effects on chemical composition, biomass crystallinity,
      enzymatic digestibility, and theoretical ethanol potential were studied. The
      chemical composition analysis showed that the Org and LHW pretreatments allowed
      the highest glucan recovery (80.8 +/- 3.6 and 62.9 +/- 4.4 g/100 g DM,
      respectively) with ulvan (80.0 and 99.1%) and hemicellulose (55.0 and 42.3%)
      removal. These findings were in agreement with both thermogravimetric analysis
      and scanning electron microscopy results that confirm significant structural
      changes of the pretreated biomasses. It was found that the employed pretreatments
      did not significantly affect the cellulose crystallinity; however, they both
      increased the whole crystallinity and the enzymatic digestibility. This later
      reached 97.5% in the case of LHW pretreatment. Our results showed high efficiency
      saccharification of Ulva lactuca biomass that will constitute the key step of the
      implementation of a biorefinery process.

PMID- 28861712
TI  - Robot-assisted laparoscopic extravascular stent for nutcracker syndrome.
AB  - Minimally invasive treatment options are a safe and feasible alternative for
      treatment of nutcracker syndrome. Endovascular stenting has shown promising long
      term resolution of symptoms but can be complicated by stent migration or
      thrombosis. Laparoscopic extravascular stent placement has shown promising
      results with the potential to avoid these complications. We report the first case
      of extravascular stent placement using the robotic approach for the treatment of
      nutcracker syndrome.

PMID- 28861713
TI  - LncRNA ZEB1-AS1 contributes to STAT3 activation by associating with IL-11 in B
      lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of lncRNA ZEB1-AS1 in B-lineage acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). RESULTS: ZEB1-AS1 levels were aberrantly up
      regulated in B-ALL. All correlated with STAT3 activation and IL-11 production.
      Moreover, a high level of ZEB1-AS1 predicted poor prognosis of B-ALL patients.
      Mechanistically, ZEB1-AS1 could bind to IL-11 and promote IL-11 stability. Down
      regulation of ZEB1-AS1 decreased IL-11 production of human bone marrow stromal
      cells (BMSCs), which led to suppressed proliferation and inhibited IL-11/STAT3
      pathway in BALL-1 cells. CONCLUSIONS: ZEB1-AS1 promotes the activation of IL
      11/STAT3 signaling pathway by associating with IL-11 in B-ALL.

PMID- 28861716
TI  - Fish Oil Finishing Diet Maintains Optimal n-3 Long-Chain Fatty Acid Content in
      European Whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus).
AB  - This study examined the effect of substituting vegetable oil for fish oil in
      feed, with subsequent re-introduction of fish oil-rich feed (finishing feeding)
      in late stages of growth, on the fatty acids of cultivated European whitefish
      (Coregonus lavaretus). Restorative finishing feeding with fish oil-rich feed for
      15 and 25 weeks was sufficient to change the total content of nutritionally
      valuable long-chain n-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and
      docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3), to correspond to that of fish fed the fish oil
      rich feed throughout their lifespan. Under natural conditions, 15 and 25 weeks
      correspond to weight gains of 75% and 100% (i.e. doubling), respectively. Also,
      the fatty acid profile of the fish was restored after finishing periods of 15 and
      25 weeks. Limiting the use of fish oil by lowering the overall fat content of the
      feed (no vegetable oil added) resulted in a decrease in the long-chain n-3 fatty
      acids. Based on the results, after receiving a vegetable oil-rich diet,
      restorative fish oil-rich feeding in the last stages of growth in European
      whitefish is nutritionally justified in order to balance nutritional gain for
      consumers with sustainable use of finite marine oils. The results encourage
      commercial efforts to further utilize and optimize finishing feeding practices.

PMID- 28861715
TI  - The neuroprotective transcription factor ATF5 is decreased and sequestered into
      polyglutamine inclusions in Huntington's disease.
AB  - Activating transcription factor-5 (ATF5) is a stress-response transcription
      factor induced upon different cell stressors like fasting, amino-acid limitation,
      cadmium or arsenite. ATF5 is also induced, and promotes transcription of anti
      apoptotic target genes like MCL1, during the unfolded protein response (UPR)
      triggered by endoplasmic reticulum stress. In the brain, high ATF5 levels are
      found in gliomas and also in neural progenitor cells, which need to decrease
      their ATF5 levels for differentiation into mature neurons or glia. This initially
      led to believe that ATF5 is not expressed in adult neurons. More recently, we
      reported basal neuronal ATF5 expression in adult mouse brain and its
      neuroprotective induction during UPR in a mouse model of status epilepticus. Here
      we aimed to explore whether ATF5 is also expressed by neurons in human brain both
      in basal conditions and in Huntington's disease (HD), where UPR has been
      described to be partially impaired due to defective ATF6 processing. Apart from
      confirming that ATF5 is present in human adult neurons, here we report
      accumulation of ATF5 within the characteristic polyglutamine-containing neuronal
      nuclear inclusions in brains of HD patients and mice. This correlates with
      decreased levels of soluble ATF5 and of its antiapoptotic target MCL1. We then
      confirmed the deleterious effect of ATF5 deficiency in a Caenorhabditis elegans
      model of polyglutamine-induced toxicity. Finally, ATF5 overexpression attenuated
      polyglutamine-induced apoptosis in a cell model of HD. These results reflect that
      decreased ATF5 in HD-probably secondary to sequestration into inclusions-renders
      neurons more vulnerable to mutant huntingtin-induced apoptosis and that ATF5
      increasing interventions might have therapeutic potential for HD.

PMID- 28861714
TI  - The immune response to secondary necrotic cells.
AB  - When apoptotic cells are not cleared in an efficient and timely manner, they
      progress to secondary necrosis and lose their membrane integrity. This results in
      a leakage of immunostimulatory, danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs),
      similar to accidental (or primary) necrosis. However, primary necrosis is a
      sudden event with an inadvertent release of almost unmodified DAMPs. Secondary
      necrotic cells, in contrast, have gone through various modifications during the
      process of apoptosis. Recent research revealed that the molecules released from
      the cytoplasm or exposed on the cell surface differ between primary necrosis,
      secondary necrosis, and regulated necrosis such as necroptosis. This review gives
      an overview of these differences and focusses their effects on the immune
      response. The implications to human physiology and diseases are manifold and will
      be discussed in the context of cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and
      autoimmunity.

PMID- 28861717
TI  - Estimates of Heritability for Growth and Shell Color Traits and Their Genetic
      Correlations in the Black Shell Strain of Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas.
AB  - The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas has been introduced widely and massively and
      became an economically important aquaculture species on a global scale. We
      estimated heritabilities of growth and shell color traits and their genetic
      correlations in black shell strain of C. gigas. Analyses were performed on 22
      full-sib families in a nested mating design including 410 individuals at harvest
      (24 months of age). The parentage assignment was inferred based on four panels of
      multiplex PCR markers including 10 microsatellite loci and 94.9% of the offspring
      were unambiguously assigned to single parent pairs. The Spearman correlation test
      (r = - 0.992, P < 0.001) demonstrated the high consistency of the shell
      pigmentation (SP) and L* and their same efficacy in shell color measurements. The
      narrow-sense heritability estimated under the animal model analysis was 0.18 +/-
      0.12 for shell height, 0.25 +/- 0.16 for shell length, 0.10 +/- 0.09 for shell
      width, 0.42 +/- 0.20 for total weight, 0.32 +/- 0.18 for shell weight, and 0.68
      +/- 0.16 for L*, 0.69 +/- 0.16 for shell pigmentation, respectively. The
      considerable additive genetic variation in growth and shell color traits will
      make it feasible to produce genetic improvements for these traits in selective
      breeding program. High genetic and phenotypic correlations were found among
      growth traits and among shell color traits. To optimize a selection strategy for
      both fast growth and pure dark shell strain of C. gigas, it is proposed to take
      both total weight and black shell as joint objective traits in selective breeding
      program. Our study offers an important reference in the process of selective
      breeding in black shell color stain of C. gigas and will facilitate to develop
      favorable breeding strategies of genetic improvements for this economically
      important strain.

PMID- 28861719
TI  - Lanthanum exerts acute toxicity and histopathological changes in gill and liver
      tissue of rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus).
AB  - We evaluated the acute toxicity effects of lanthanum (La(III)) on gill and liver
      of rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus). The median lethal concentration of La (III)
      at 96 h was 1.92 mg L-1. Rare minnow were reared in freshwater and exposed to
      0.04, 0.08, 0.16, 0.32 and 0.80 mg L-1 La (III) for 21 d. Gill and liver samples
      were analyzed by light microscopy. The main histopathological changes induced by
      La (III) in gills were epithelial lifting, filamentary epithelial
      proliferation,edema, lamellar fusion, desquamation, and necrosis.
      Histopathological changes induced by La (III) in the liver included dilation of
      sinusoids, focal congestion, pyknotic nuclei, karyohexis and karyolysis, vacuolar
      degeneration, and numerous necrosis areas. Hypsometric analysis indicated
      significant changes in the measures of gill dimensions (average length, width,
      area), suggesting metabolic disturbance (gas exchange) upon La (III) exposure.
      The result showed that La (III) severely affects fish gill and liver.

PMID- 28861718
TI  - Repeated Forced Swim Exacerbates Methamphetamine-Induced Neurotoxicity:
      Neuroprotective Effects of Nanowired Delivery of 5-HT3-Receptor Antagonist
      Ondansetron.
AB  - The possibility that stress associated with chronic forced swim (FS) may
      exacerbate methamphetamine (METH) neurotoxicity was examined in a rat model. Rats
      were subjected to FS in a pool (30  degrees C) for 15 min daily for 8 days.
      Control rats were kept at room temperature. METH was administered (9 mg/kg, s.c.)
      in both control and FS rats and allowed to survive 4 h after the drug injection.
      METH in FS rats exacerbated BBB breakdown to Evans blue albumin (EBA) by 150 to
      220% and [131]-Iodine by 250 to 380% as compared to naive rats after METH. The
      METH-induced BBB leakage was most pronounced in the cerebral cortex followed by
      the hippocampus, cerebellum, thalamus, and hypothalamus in both FS and naive
      rats. The regional BBB changes were associated with a reduction in the local
      cerebral blood flow (CBF). Brain edema was also higher by 2 to 4% in FS rats
      after METH than in naive animals. Neuronal and glial cell injuries were
      aggravated by threefold to fivefold after METH in FS than the control group.
      Pretreatment with ondansetron (1 mg/kg, i.p.) 30 min before METH injection in
      naive rats reduced the brain pathology and improved the CBF. However, TiO2
      nanowired delivery of ondansetron (1 mg/kg, i.p.) was needed to reduce METH
      induced brain damage, BBB leakage, reduction in CBF, and edema formation in FS.
      Taken together, these observations are the first to show that METH exacerbates
      BBB breakdown leading to neurotoxicity in FS animals. This effect of METH-induced
      BBB breakdown and brain pathology in naive and FS rats is attenuated by
      ondansetron treatment indicating an involvement of 5-HT3 receptors, not reported
      earlier.

PMID- 28861720
TI  - Accurate Identification of Fatty Liver Disease in Data Warehouse Utilizing
      Natural Language Processing.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Natural language processing is a powerful technique of machine
      learning capable of maximizing data extraction from complex electronic medical
      records. METHODS: We utilized this technique to develop algorithms capable of
      "reading" full-text radiology reports to accurately identify the presence of
      fatty liver disease. Abdominal ultrasound, computerized tomography, and magnetic
      resonance imaging reports were retrieved from the Veterans Affairs Corporate Data
      Warehouse from a random national sample of 652 patients. Radiographic fatty liver
      disease was determined by manual review by two physicians and verified with an
      expert radiologist. A split validation method was utilized for algorithm
      development. RESULTS: For all three imaging modalities, the algorithms could
      identify fatty liver disease with >90% recall and precision, with F-measures
      >90%. DISCUSSION: These algorithms could be used to rapidly screen patient
      records to establish a large cohort to facilitate epidemiological and clinical
      studies and examine the clinic course and outcomes of patients with radiographic
      hepatic steatosis.

PMID- 28861722
TI  - Preoperative Assessment for Ambulatory Surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Ambulatory surgery has grown in recent decades in volume and
      represents a significant number of anesthetics delivered throughout the USA.
      Preoperative anesthetic assessment in the ambulatory setting has become important
      because patients with numerous complex comorbidities are now commonplace in this
      arena. Disease states involving the lungs, the heart, the kidneys, and
      subpopulations including those who are obese and the elderly commonly receive
      anesthetics in an ambulatory setting. RECENT FINDINGS: This review presents key
      aspects of current thinking with regard to preoperative assessment and
      considerations for different critical disease states and subpopulations that are
      now being managed under ambulatory surgery. Same day surgery centers require
      patient safety, and expectations are high for patient satisfaction. Advancements
      in surgical and anesthetic technique have allowed for more complex patients to
      partake in ambulatory surgery. Anesthesiologists must be familiar with
      guidelines, state-of-the-art pain management, and standards of preoperative
      patient evaluation to accurately stratify patient risk and to advocate for
      patient safety.

PMID- 28861721
TI  - Influence of Parasitic Worm Infections on Allergy Diagnosis in Sub-Saharan
      Africa.
AB  - Epidemiological studies from Sub-Saharan Africa indicate that allergies are on
      the rise in this region especially in urban compared to rural areas. This
      increase has been linked to improved hygiene, lifestyle changes, and lower
      exposure to pathogens in childhood. Reduced exposure to parasitic worm (helminth)
      infections and allergy outcomes has been the focus of a number of population
      studies over the years. Paradoxically, there are parallels in the immune
      responses to helminths and to allergies. Both conditions are associated with
      elevated levels of immunoglobulin E, high numbers of T helper 2 cells,
      eosinophils, and mast cells. These immune parallels have meant that the diagnosis
      of allergies in parts of the world where helminths are endemic can be hampered.
      The aim of this review is to examine observations from population studies
      conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa that demonstrate how helminth infections
      influence the parameters used to diagnose allergy outcomes in this region. We
      explore specifically how helminth infections hinder the in vitro diagnosis of
      allergic sensitization, influence the clinical manifestations of allergy, and
      also the effect of anthelmintic treatment on allergy outcomes. Advancing our
      understanding of how helminths influence allergy diagnosis is imperative for the
      development of improved tools to assess, diagnose, and treat allergic disorders
      in both helminth-endemic and non-endemic countries worldwide.

PMID- 28861723
TI  - Health risk assessment of heavy metal variability in sachet water sold in Ado-Odo
      Ota, South-Western Nigeria.
AB  - The sales of sachet water (SW), also known as "pure water" (PW), in Nigeria is a
      lucrative business. It serves many people, especially low-income earners, by
      providing a more affordable access to safe drinking water when compared with
      table water. However, some of the producers of SW do not effectively treat raw
      water before packaging them for sale. This study investigates the presence and
      concentrations of heavy metals, such as chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn),
      copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), and zinc (Zn) in some samples of SW sold within Ota,
      Ogun State, Nigeria. Samples of SW from nine different producers were purchased
      for four consecutive weeks and analyzed to determine the concentrations of these
      heavy metals in them. Furthermore, health risk indicators, such as chronic daily
      intake (CDI) and health risk indices (HRI) for children and adults, were
      calculated separately. The metal concentrations were compared with allowable
      limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO), Nigerian Industrial Standard
      (NIS), and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). High
      concentrations of Cr, Fe, and Al were found in all the nine samples and exceeded
      the maximum allowable limits (MAL) of all the standards considered. However, the
      concentrations of Zn, Mn, and Cu were within permissible limits. The HRIs of
      heavy metals were in the order of Cu > Fe > Zn > Mn > Al > Cr, but since the
      standard limits set for some metals were exceeded, proper and effective treatment
      is required to safeguard the health of consumers.

PMID- 28861724
TI  - Role of the Hippocampus in Distinct Memory Traces: Timing of Match and Mismatch
      Enhancement Revealed by Intracranial Recording.
AB  - A previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study reported evidence for
      parallel memory traces in the hippocampus: a controlled match signal detecting
      matches to internally-generated goal states and an automatic mismatch signal
      identifying unpredicted perceptual novelty. However, the timing information in
      this process is unknown. In the current study, facilitated by the high spatial
      and temporal resolution of intracranial recording from human patients, we
      confirmed that the left posterior hippocampus played an important role in the
      goal match enhancement effect, in which combinations of object identity and
      location were involved. We also found that this effect happened within 520 ms to
      735 ms after the probe onset, ~150 ms later than the perceptual mismatch
      enhancement found bilaterally in both the anterior and posterior hippocampus.
      More specifically, the latency of the perceptual mismatch enhancement effect of
      the right hippocampus was positively correlated with the performance accuracy.
      These results suggested that the hippocampus is crucial in working memory if
      features binding with location are involved in the task and the goal match
      enhancement effect happens after perceptual mismatch enhancement, implying the
      dissociation of different components of working memory at the hippocampus.
      Moreover, single trial decoding results suggested that the intracranial field
      potential response in the right hippocampus can classify the match or switch
      task. This is consistent with the findings that the right hippocampal activity
      observed during the simulation of the future events may reflect the encoding of
      the simulation into memory.

PMID- 28861725
TI  - Proposal for the creation of a national strategy for precision medicine in
      cancer: a position statement of SEOM, SEAP, and SEFH.
AB  - Precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention
      that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and
      lifestyle for each person. Precision medicine is transforming clinical and
      biomedical research, as well as health care itself from a conceptual, as well as
      a methodological viewpoint, providing extraordinary opportunities to improve
      public health and lower the costs of the healthcare system. However, the
      implementation of precision medicine poses ethical-legal, regulatory,
      organizational, and knowledge-related challenges. Without a national strategy,
      precision medicine, which will be implemented one way or another, could take
      place without the appropriate planning that can guarantee technical quality,
      equal access of all citizens to the best practices, violating the rights of
      patients and professionals, and jeopardizing the solvency of the healthcare
      system. With this paper from the Spanish Societies of Medical Oncology,
      Pathology, and Hospital Pharmacy, we highlight the need to institute a consensual
      national strategy for the development of precision medicine in our country,
      review the national and international context, comment on the opportunities and
      challenges for implementing precision medicine, and outline the objectives of a
      national strategy on precision medicine in cancer.

PMID- 28861726
TI  - A Day at the Office: What if "Later" Never Comes? Four Tips for Volunteering
      Abroad Now.

PMID- 28861727
TI  - Managing Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Which Drug for Which Patient?
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive fibrotic lung disease with
      high mortality. Two novel antifibrotic agents, pirfenidone and nintedanib, have
      received licences for use in IPF in recent years. Phase III, multinational,
      randomised control trials have provided evidence that both drugs reduce decline
      in forced vital capacity (FVC) over time, while further post hoc studies have
      suggested that both pirfenidone and nintedanib can be efficacious, regardless of
      age and severity of baseline lung function. Both therapeutic agents have
      manageable side effect profiles. In the absence of head-to-head data, decisions
      regarding which agent to choose when starting treatment for IPF should take into
      consideration joint decision making between patients and clinicians based on
      accurate information in the decision-making process. Questions remain as to the
      role of combination antifibrotic therapy as a future treatment option.

PMID- 28861728
TI  - Off-clamp robot-assisted partial nephrectomy does not benefit short-term renal
      function: a matched cohort analysis.
AB  - In the interest of renal functional preservation, partial nephrectomy has
      supplanted radical nephrectomy as the preferred treatment for T1 renal masses.
      This procedure usually involves the induction of renal warm ischemia by clamping
      the hilar vessels prior to tumor excision. Performing robot-assisted partial
      nephrectomy (RAPN) "off-clamp" can theoretically prevent renal functional loss
      associated with warm ischemia. We describe our institutional experience and
      compare perioperative and renal functional outcomes using a propensity score
      matched cohort. We conducted a retrospective comparison from a prospectively
      maintained database of all patients who underwent RAPN from 2009 to 2015. Of
      those patients, 143 underwent off-clamp RAPN. Fifty off-clamp RAPN patients were
      propensity score matched with fifty clamped RAPN patients based on renal
      function, tumor size, and R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry score. The cohorts were compared
      across demographics, operative information, perioperative outcomes, and renal
      functional outcomes. For all off-clamp RAPN patients, mean nephrometry score was
      7.1, mean estimated blood loss (EBL) was 236.9 mL, perioperative complication
      rate was 7.7%, and mean decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)
      was 7.1% at a median follow-up of 9.2 months. In the propensity score matched
      cohorts, off-clamp RAPN resulted in a shorter mean operative time (172.0 versus
      196.0 min, p = 0.025) and a lower mean EBL (179.7 versus 283.2 mL, p = 0.046). A
      lower complication rate of 6.0% in the off-clamp group compared with 20.0% in the
      clamped group approached significance (p = 0.071). Mean preoperative eGFR was
      similar in both cohorts. Importantly, there was no significant difference in
      decrease in eGFR between the clamped cohort (9.8%) and off-clamp cohort (11.9%)
      at a median follow-up of 9.0 months (p = 0.620). Off-clamp RAPN did not result in
      improved renal functional preservation in our experience. Surprisingly, the off
      clamp cohort experienced lower intraoperative blood loss, shorter operative
      times, and fewer complications.

PMID- 28861729
TI  - A preliminary randomized clinical trial comparing diode laser and scalpel
      periosteal incision during implant surgery: impact on postoperative morbidity and
      implant survival.
AB  - The aim of this preliminary randomized clinical trial was to compare: (1) post
      operative morbidity after application of laser or scalpel incision for flap
      advancement during implant surgery and bone grafting and (2) implant survival
      rate following flap advancement with laser or scalpel incision after 6 months of
      loading. Eighteen patients who were scheduled for dental implant placement and
      simultaneous bone grafting were randomly assigned to test or control groups.
      Diode laser (810 nm, 2 W, pulse interval 200 MUs; pulse length 100 MUs, 400-MUm
      initiated fiber tip), or scalpel (control) was used to sever the periosteum to
      create a tension-free flap. Visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score, rate of
      nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) consumption, intensity of swelling, and
      ecchymosis were measured for the six postsurgical days. Six months after loading,
      implant survival was assessed. VAS pain score (during the first four
      postoperative days), rate of NSAID consumption (during the first three
      postoperative days), and intensity of swelling (during the first five
      postoperative days) were significantly lower in the test group compared to the
      control group (All P values < 0.05). One patient in the control group experienced
      ecchymosis. All implants were successful in function. Application of laser for
      performing periosteal releasing incision reduced the incidence and severity of
      postoperative morbidity of the patients undergone implant surgery in conjunction
      with bone augmentation procedure. We did not find any detrimental effect of laser
      incision on the implant survival within 6 months of loading.

PMID- 28861730
TI  - Do Male Patients Benefit from Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding More than
      Female Patients? A Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical trials in the field of bariatrics, and specifically
      laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB), have frequently been gender
      imbalanced, with males representing only 20% of examinees. Long-term gender
      oriented results, and specifically quality of life (QOL) parameters, have not
      been addressed sufficiently. The aim of our study was to examine the long-term
      gender association with outcome of LAGB including the impact on QOL. METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent LAGB between 2006 and 2014
      by a single surgeon was conducted. Data were collected from the hospital registry
      and a telephone interview that included a standardized questionnaire. Outcomes
      including BMI reduction, evolution of comorbidities, complications, reoperations,
      and QOL were compared according to the Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome
      System (BAROS). RESULTS: Included were 114 males and 127 females, with a mean age
      of 38.2 years at surgery, and an average post-surgery follow-up of 6.5 years.
      Similar BMI reduction (p = 0.68) and perioperative complication rates (p = 0.99)
      were observed. Males had a greater improvement in comorbidities (p < 0.001), less
      band slippage (p = 0.006), underwent fewer reoperations (p = 0.02), and reported
      higher QOL scores (p = 0.02) than females. The total BAROS score was
      significantly higher for males than females (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: LAGB
      surgery results in better outcomes for male than female patients as measured by
      the BAROS, despite a similar BMI reduction. Gender-specific outcomes should be
      taken into consideration in optimizing patient selection and preoperative patient
      counseling.

PMID- 28861731
TI  - Adaptation of Intestinal and Bile Acid Physiology Accompany the Metabolic
      Benefits Following Ileal Interposition in the Rat.
AB  - PURPOSE: Ileal interposition recapitulates many of the metabolic improvements
      similar to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. We aimed to determine whether the metabolic
      improvements seen following ileal interposition were conferred solely by the
      interposed segment by examining changes in neighboring intestinal segments as
      well as the composition of the bile acid pool. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult male
      rats were treated with either sham or ileal interposition surgeries. Glucose
      tolerance tests, body composition analysis, polymer chain reaction, enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay, and mass spectrometry were done after the surgeries.
      RESULTS: This study showed that ileal interposition improved glucose tolerance
      and enhanced both fasting and glucose-stimulated GLP-1 secretion in diabetic
      rats. Total bile acid pool was similar between groups but the composition favored
      glycine-conjugation in rats with ileal interposition. Insulin secretion was
      highly correlated with the 12-alpha-hydroxylase index of activity. The interposed
      ileum exhibited an increase in mRNA for preproglucagon and peptide YY; however,
      the bile acid transporter, apical sodium bile acid transporter, was dramatically
      reduced compared to sham rats. The interposed segment becomes jejunized in its
      new location as indicated by an increase in Glut2 and Pepck mRNA, genes
      predominantly synthesized within the jejunum. CONCLUSION: Ileal relocation alone
      can significantly alter the bile acid pool to favor a more insulin-sensitive
      metabolism in association with intestinal wide alterations in mRNA for a variety
      of genes. Ileal interposition may confer metabolic improvement via both the
      interposed segment and the associated intestinal changes in all segments of the
      intestine, including the colon.

PMID- 28861732
TI  - Autism Spectrum Disorders and Low Mental Age: Diagnostic Stability and
      Developmental Outcomes in Early Childhood.
AB  - Some children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) exhibit low mental age (Low
      MA; i.e., cognitive functioning below 12 months). We examined diagnosis, symptom
      severity, and development in children with ASD-low MA (n = 25), autistic disorder
      (n = 111), and PDD-NOS (n = 82) at ages two and four. We predicted that some ASD
      low MA children would demonstrate just intellectual impairment and not autism
      symptoms on follow-up, with social deficits at age two attributable to global
      delays. Instead, most ASD-low MA children (96%) had an ASD at follow-up, compared
      to children initially diagnosed with autistic disorder (86.5%) or PDD-NOS
      (73.2%). They showed the least developmental progress and highest symptom
      severity. Results support diagnosing ASDs in children functioning below a 12
      month level.

PMID- 28861733
TI  - Patterns of uveitis in children at the apex institute for eye care in India:
      analysis and review of literature.
AB  - AIM: To study patterns of uveitis in Indian children and compare with data sets
      published earlier in the literature. METHODS: Consecutive patients below 16 years
      of age presenting to the uvea clinic of a tertiary eye care center were included
      prospectively through the period of July 2009-August 2013. Children with retinal
      vasculitis, exogenous endophthalmitis and masquerade syndromes were excluded from
      analysis. Uveitis was classified as per the nomenclature system adopted by the
      International Uveitis Study Group. Hemogram, Mantoux test and chest X-ray were
      done for each patient, along with tailored investigations and pediatric review as
      per clinical profile. Clinical pattern and etiology were the main outcome
      measures. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-four children were analyzed. Anterior
      uveitis (40%) was the commonest pattern followed by intermediate uveitis (25%),
      panuveitis (18%) and posterior uveitis (17%). Bilateral disease was present in
      54%, 15% had infectious uveitis, 10% had granulomatous uveitis and 54% had
      idiopathic uveitis. Complications were present in half of the patients. Juvenile
      idiopathic arthritis (22), followed by toxoplasmosis (10) and tuberculosis (5),
      was the commonest etiology. Intermediate uveitis, non-granulomatous inflammation
      and older onset of disease had the high odds ratio of having idiopathic disease.
      CONCLUSION: Patterns of pediatric uveitis can vary between regions from even
      within the same geopolitical region. Anterior uveitis is commonest, and juvenile
      idiopathic arthritis and toxoplasmosis are the most frequent etiologies.
      Diagnosis of pediatric ocular tuberculosis is more difficult than in adults and
      needs better and well-defined criteria.

PMID- 28861734
TI  - Inhibitory effects of sesamin on human osteoclastogenesis.
AB  - The promotional nature of sesamin on human osteoblast differentiation has been
      proven. Here, the effect of sesamin on human osteoclasts was investigated in
      terms of differentiation and function in M-CSF and RANKL induced human PBMCs.
      Sesamin treatment significantly decreased the number of differentiated
      osteoclasts observed by TRAP staining; however, sesamin inhibition did not result
      from the alteration of precursor cell proliferation. Sesamin did not decrease
      NFATc1 gene expression, which opposed the decreasing trend of CathK and TRAP
      expression. DC-STAMP, but not Atp6v0d2, also significantly decreased in the
      presence of 14 uM sesamin. Expressions of CCR2b and CCR4 as chemokine receptors
      were significantly down-regulated. Sesamin might mediate the inhibition of human
      osteoclast differentiation, the recruitment of precursor cells and F-actin
      formation. Decrease in the area of the resorption pits and the collagen released
      from the bone slices under sesamin treatment emphasized the inhibitory effects on
      both the differentiation and function of osteoclasts. Sesamin is a promising
      phytochemical agent inhibiting osteoclast differentiation and function.

PMID- 28861735
TI  - Dementia, identity and the role of friends.
AB  - Ronald Dworkin (1993) introduced the example of Margo, who was so severely
      demented that she could not recognise any family or friends, and could not
      remember anything of her life. At the same time, however, she seemed full of
      childish delight. Dworkin also imagines that, before her dementia, Margo signed
      an advance refusal of life-saving treatment. Now severely demented, she develops
      pneumonia, easy to treat, but lethal if untreated. Dworkin argues that the
      advance refusal ought to be heeded and Margo be allowed to die of that pneumonia,
      on the basis that the prior refusal expresses her true wishes (her 'critical
      interests'). In this paper I want to challenge Dworkin's understanding of
      identity and his conclusion about advance refusals, and I develop my argument in
      two directions. First, I argue that the demented Margo is not some 'lesser'
      version of the 'true' Margo, but instead that the present Margo's wishes should
      take precedence over those of the past Margo, on the grounds that all of us are
      entitled to change our minds. Second, I argue for a stronger role for friends and
      family members in sustaining the demented Margo's identity through her years of
      decline. Based on this, I argue for a presumption against the advance refusal,
      but I allow that in extreme cases (which I describe), a friend might have the
      authority to demand that it be heeded.

PMID- 28861736
TI  - Identification and fine mapping of a new gene, BPH31 conferring resistance to
      brown planthopper biotype 4 of India to improve rice, Oryza sativa L.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food for more than 3.5 billion
      people, mainly in Asia. Brown planthopper (BPH) is one of the most destructive
      insect pests of rice that limits rice production. Host-plant resistance is one of
      the most efficient ways to overcome BPH damage to the rice crop. RESULTS: BPH
      bioassay studies from 2009 to 2015 conducted in India and at the International
      Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, revealed that the cultivar CR2711-76
      developed at the National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack, India, showed
      stable and broad-spectrum resistance to several BPH populations of the
      Philippines and BPH biotype 4 of India. Genetic analysis and fine mapping
      confirmed the presence of a single dominant gene, BPH31, in CR2711-76 conferring
      BPH resistance. The BPH31 gene was located on the long arm of chromosome 3 within
      an interval of 475 kb between the markers PA26 and RM2334. Bioassay analysis of
      the BPH31 gene in CR2711-76 was carried out against BPH populations of the
      Philippines. The results from bioassay revealed that CR2711-76 possesses three
      different mechanisms of resistance: antibiosis, antixenosis, and tolerance. The
      effectiveness of flanking markers was tested in a segregating population and the
      InDel type markers PA26 and RM2334 showed high co-segregation with the resistance
      phenotype. Foreground and background analysis by tightly linked markers as well
      as using the Infinium 6 K SNP chip respectively were applied for transferring the
      BPH31 gene into an indica variety, Jaya. The improved BPH31-derived Jaya lines
      showed strong resistance to BPH biotypes of India and the Philippines.
      CONCLUSION: The new BPH31 gene can be used in BPH resistance breeding programs on
      the Indian subcontinent. The tightly linked DNA markers identified in the study
      have proved their effectiveness and can be utilized in BPH resistance breeding in
      rice.

PMID- 28861738
TI  - A surgical case of radiotherapy induced esophageal perforation accompanying
      pyogenic spondylodiscitis: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stereotactic body radiotherapy has been a treatment choice for lung
      cancer, especially in medically inoperable patients. However, the acute and late
      toxicity to adjacent organs have been reported as an uncommon but severe adverse
      effect. CASE PRESENTATION: A 65-year-old male was presented with his back pain
      and pyrexia. He had been followed up for non-small-cell lung cancer, which was
      treated by the stereotactic body radiotherapy 4 years prior to the current visit.
      The endoscopy revealed an esophageal perforation on its left side in the upper
      thoracic locus. Because of his poor lung function, he was managed by the
      conservative treatment. After 3 months, his back pain recurred with developing
      paraplegia in the lower extremities. The MRI revealed an abscess formation at the
      posterior side of the upper thoracic esophagus which destroyed the vertebral body
      and compressed the spinal cord. Laminectomy and two-stage operation-the first
      stage, nontransthoracic esophagectomy, cervical and transhiatal approach using
      mediastinoscope and laparoscope, and the second stage, esophageal reconstruction
      were performed. CONCLUSION: This complex disease status was successfully managed
      by the orthopedic surgery followed by a two-stage esophagectomy without
      transthoracic approach.

PMID- 28861739
TI  - Acculturation and a Potential Relationship with Oral Health Outcomes Among Somali
      Refugees in Massachusetts.
AB  - This paper explores the relationship between acculturation and oral health in a
      study of Somali refugees. This cross-sectional survey included structured surveys
      and dental examinations of a convenience sample of 439 Somali adults living in
      Massachusetts. Associations between an acculturation scale and: (1) lifetime
      history of caries and (2) access to oral health services were calculated. In
      bivariate analyses, many individual questions in the scale were associated with
      outcomes. In multivariate analysis, speaking English (OR 0.5, CI 0.28-0.84) was
      associated with better access to, and utilization of, dental health services
      while reading American books and newspapers in English was associated with
      increased lifetime history of dental disease (OR 2.6, CI 1.1-6.0). As specific
      elements of acculturation have different relationships with oral health among
      Somali refugees, a summary acculturation scale may have limited utility. Ongoing
      efforts to remove language barriers may improve oral health.

PMID- 28861740
TI  - Gut microbiota and physiologic bowel 18F-FDG uptake.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We investigated the association between physiologic bowel FDG uptake
      and gut microbiota. FDG uptake in the normal large and small intestine is widely
      variable both in distribution and intensity. The etiology of physiologic bowel
      18F-FDG activity remains unknown. RESULTS: We included 63 healthy male subjects.
      After overnight fasting, blood samples and 18F-FDG PET/CT scans were taken. Fecal
      samples were collected, and gut microbiota were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene
      pyrosequencing. The physiologic bowel FDG uptake was classified into three groups
      by visual assessment and measured using the maximum and mean standardized uptake
      value. We used the total bowel to liver uptake ratio (TBRmax and TBRmean). There
      was no significant difference in age, BMI, or lipid profiles between groups. To
      identify specific microbial taxa associated with the bowel FDG uptake while
      accounting for age and BMI, we performed a generalized linear model. At the genus
      level, the group with focal or intense FDG uptake in the intestine was associated
      with low abundance of unclassified Clostridiales. The group with intestinal FDG
      uptake lower than the liver was associated with high abundance of Klebsiella.
      TBRmax and TBRmean were negatively associated with abundance of unclassified
      Enterobacteriaceae. CONCLUSION: We cautiously speculate that physiologic bowel
      FDG activity might be caused by an increase in intestinal permeability and may
      reflect an impaired barrier function in the intestine.

PMID- 28861741
TI  - Probiotics and the Gut Immune System: Indirect Regulation.
AB  - The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) represents the largest interface between the
      human organism and the external environment. In the lumen and upper part of the
      mucus layer, this organ hosts an enormous number of microorganisms whose
      composition affects the functions of the epithelial barrier and the gut immune
      system. Consequentially, the microorganisms in the GIT influence the health
      status of the organism. Probiotics are living microorganisms which, in specific
      conditions, confer a health benefit to the host. Among others, probiotics have
      immunomodulatory properties that usually act directly by (a) increasing the
      activity of macrophages or natural killer cells, (b) modulating the secretion of
      immunoglobulins or cytokines, or indirectly by (c) enhancing the gut epithelial
      barrier, (d) altering the mucus secretion, and (e) competitive exclusion of other
      (pathogenic) bacteria. This review focuses on specific bacteria strains with
      indirect immunomodulatory properties. Particularly, we describe here the
      mechanisms through which specific probiotics enhance the gut epithelial barrier
      and modulate mucus production. Moreover, we describe the antimicrobial properties
      of specific bacteria strains. Recent data suggest that multiple pathologies are
      associated with an unbalanced gut microflora (dysbiosis). Although the cause
      effect relationship between pathology and gut microflora is not yet well
      established, consumption of specific probiotics may represent a powerful tool to
      re-establish gut homeostasis and promote gut health.

PMID- 28861742
TI  - Current situation in gynecological oncology training in Spain: where we are and
      where we want to go.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is important to know what a young gynecologic oncologist perceives
      as a need to achieve a good training in gynecologic oncology. OBJECTIVE: This
      study aims to evaluate the level of training in gynecologic oncology in Spain.
      METHODS: A Web-based anonymous questionnaire was sent via e-mail to Spanish
      trainees listed in European Network of Young Gynecological Oncology (ENYGO). The
      survey was developed in four sections: (1) general training in gynecologic
      oncology, (2) distribution of current clinical activity, (3) surgical training,
      and (4) perspective future gynecologic oncology. It contained 51 questions, with
      multiple-choice answers that had to be answered by the ENYGO members. RESULTS:
      The questionnaire was sent to 64 people listed in the ENYGO database. Of these,
      37 members responded (response rate of 58%). Overall, more training in surgery is
      necessary, to perform radical oncological surgeries. It is claimed a sub
      specialty recognition, to ensure an equalitarian and homogeneous training.

PMID- 28861743
TI  - Feasibility and safety of exercise stress testing using an anti-gravity treadmill
      with Tc-99m tetrofosmin single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)
      myocardial perfusion imaging: A pilot non-randomized controlled study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise is the AHA/ACC guideline-recommended stress modality for
      myocardial perfusion imaging, but many patients are unable to exercise to target
      heart rate on a conventional treadmill. We examined the feasibility and safety of
      stress imaging using an anti-gravity treadmill in patients with perceived poor
      exercise capacity. METHODS AND RESULTS: 49 patients were recruited for stress
      testing by anti-gravity treadmill (n = 29) or to a regadenoson control group (n =
      20). Seventeen anti-gravity test patients (59%) reached target heart rate
      obviating the need for a pharmacologic stress agent. Adverse effects of the anti
      gravity treadmill were limited to minor muscle aches in 5 subjects. Stress
      myocardial perfusion image quality judged by 3 blinded readers on a 5-point scale
      was comparable for the anti-gravity treadmill (4.30 +/- SD 0.87) vs pharmacologic
      stress (4.28 +/- SD 0.66). CONCLUSION: Stress testing using an anti-gravity
      treadmill is feasible and may help some patients safely achieve target heart
      rate.

PMID- 28861737
TI  - Chronic MPTP administration regimen in monkeys: a model of dopaminergic and non
      dopaminergic cell loss in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder clinically
      characterized by cardinal motor deficits including bradykinesia, tremor, rigidity
      and postural instability. Over the past decades, it has become clear that PD
      symptoms extend far beyond motor signs to include cognitive, autonomic and
      psychiatric impairments, most likely resulting from cortical and subcortical
      lesions of non-dopaminergic systems. In addition to nigrostriatal dopaminergic
      degeneration, pathological examination of PD brains, indeed, reveals widespread
      distribution of intracytoplasmic inclusions (Lewy bodies) and death of non
      dopaminergic neurons in the brainstem and thalamus. For that past three decades,
      the MPTP-treated monkey has been recognized as the gold standard PD model because
      it displays some of the key behavioral and pathophysiological changes seen in PD
      patients. However, a common criticism raised by some authors about this model,
      and other neurotoxin-based models of PD, is the lack of neuronal loss beyond the
      nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. In this review, we argue that this assumption
      is largely incorrect and solely based on data from monkeys intoxicated with acute
      administration of MPTP. Work achieved in our laboratory and others strongly
      suggest that long-term chronic administration of MPTP leads to brain pathology
      beyond the dopaminergic system that displays close similarities to that seen in
      PD patients. This review critically examines these data and suggests that the
      chronically MPTP-treated nonhuman primate model may be suitable to study the
      pathophysiology and therapeutics of some non-motor features of PD.

PMID- 28861744
TI  - Bond durability of universal adhesive to bovine enamel using self-etch mode.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the enamel bond durability
      of universal adhesives in the self-etch mode under 2-year water storage and
      thermal cycling conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three commercially available
      universal adhesives and a gold standard two-step self-etch adhesive were used.
      Ten specimens of bovine enamel were prepared per test group, and shear bond
      strength (SBS) was measured to determine the bonding durability after thermal
      cycling (TC) or long-term water storage (WS). The bonded specimens were divided
      into three groups: (1) specimens subjected to TC, where the bonded specimens were
      stored in 37  degrees C distilled water for 24 h before being subjected to 3000,
      10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 TC; (2) specimens stored in 37  degrees C distilled
      water for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 year; and (3) specimens stored in 37 
      degrees C distilled water for 24 h, serving as a baseline. RESULTS: The two-step
      self-etch adhesive showed significantly higher SBS than the universal adhesives
      tested, regardless of the type of degradation method. All universal adhesives
      showed no significant enamel SBS reductions in TC and WS, when compared to
      baseline and the other degradation conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the bond
      strengths obtained with the two-step self-etch adhesive, significantly lower bond
      strengths were obtained with universal adhesives. However, the enamel bond
      durability of universal adhesives was relatively stable under both degradation
      conditions tested. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The present data indicate that the enamel
      bond durability of universal adhesives in the self-etch mode might be sufficient
      for clinical use.

PMID- 28861745
TI  - Promising Practices for Making Recreation Programming Matter for People who
      Experience Mental Illness.
AB  - There is merit in understanding how recreation-oriented programs for adults
      living with mental illness address barriers to participation and how programming
      is structured to create safe and inclusive environments, resulting in programming
      that amplifies the benefits of recreation for mental well-being. Following an
      environmental scan of programs targeting adults living with mental illness in
      Canada, ten coordinators in community mental health settings were interviewed.
      Four themes were constructed to reflect characteristics deemed to be 'promising
      practices' related to recreation-oriented programming: (a) barriers and solutions
      to individual participation, (b) characteristics of welcoming and supportive
      environments,

PMID- 28861746
TI  - Trigemino-gustatory interactions: a randomized controlled clinical trial
      assessing the effects of selective anesthesia of dental afferents on taste
      thresholds.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at analyzing the effect of the temporary removal of
      trigeminal dental afferents on electrogustometric thresholds (EGMt). MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: EGMt were measured in 300 healthy subjects randomized in three groups,
      in nine loci on the right and left side (RS, LS) of the tongue surface before and
      after anesthesia. Group IAN (n = 56 RS, n = 44 LS) received intraosseous local
      anesthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN). Group MdN received mandibular
      nerve (MdN) block targeting IAN before its entrance into the mandibular foramen
      (n = 60, RS, and n = 40, LS); group MxN receiving maxillary nerve (MxN)
      anesthesia (n = 56 RS and n = 44 LS) was the control group. Differences between
      mean EGMt were analyzed with the Wilcoxon test; correlation between type of
      anesthesia and EGMt was performed with Spearman's rho, all with a level of
      significance set at p <= 0.05. RESULTS: Significant EGMt (MUA) differences before
      and after anesthesia were found in all loci with MdN and IAN on the ipsilateral
      side (p < 0.05), but not with MxN. Anesthesia of the MdN was positively
      correlated with the increase in EGMt (p < 0.001). Selective anesthesia of IAN was
      positively correlated only with the increase in EGMt measured at posterior and
      dorsal loci of the tongue surface (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The increase in EGMt
      following IAN anesthesia suggests a participation of dental afferents in taste
      perception. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Extraction of teeth may impair food intake not
      only due to impaired masticatory ability but also to alteration of neurological
      trigemino-gustatory interactions. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      PACTR201602001452260.

PMID- 28861747
TI  - Correspondence regarding: Post-traumatic headache: the use of the sport
      concussion assessment tool (SCAT-3) as a predictor of post-concussion recovery.
AB  - This article consists of a Letter to the Editor regarding Post-traumatic
      headache: the use of the sport concussion assessment tool (SCAT-3) as a predictor
      of post-concussion recovery, recently published in The Journal of Headache and
      Pain, along with a response from the original authors.

PMID- 28861748
TI  - Physiological and molecular responses of seedlings of an upland rice ('Tung Lu
      3') to total submergence compared to those of a submergence-tolerant lowland rice
      ('FR13A').
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the responses of rice to environmental stresses such as
      unscheduled submergence is of pressing important owing to increasing severity of
      weather thought to arise from global climate change. When rice is completely
      submerged, different types adopt either a quiescence survival strategy (i.e.,
      minimal shoot elongation) or an escape strategy (i.e., enhanced shoot
      elongation). Each strategy can prolong survival depending on the circumstances.
      While submergence responses have been studied in rice typical of lowland and
      flood-prone areas, few studies have explored the physiological and molecular
      properties of upland rice under submergence. Here, we use seedlings of the upland
      rice 'Tung Lu 3' ('TL3') to analyze physiological and molecular responses to
      submergence. We compare them with those of 'FR13A', a lowland rice that tolerates
      submergence by adopting the quiescence strategy. RESULTS: Plant height and
      distance between leaf sheaths, increased rapidly in 'TL3' under submergence.
      Although this indicated a strong escape strategy the seedlings remained totally
      underwater for the duration of the experiments. In contrast, 'FR13A' elongated
      much less. Consequently, after 4 days complete submergence followed by drainage,
      'TL3' lodged much more severely than 'FR13A'. After 10 d complete submergence,
      55% of 'TL3' seedlings survived compared to 100% in 'FR13A'. Chlorophyll a, b and
      total chlorophyll concentrations of the 2nd oldest leaves of 'TL3' were also
      significantly above those of 'FR13A' (but were lower than 'FR13A' in the 3rd
      oldest leaves) and less hydrogen peroxide accumulated in 'TL3'. Peroxidase
      activity in submerged 'TL3' was also greater than in 'FR13A' 1 day after
      submergence. Quantitative RT-PCR showed increased expression of sucrose synthase
      1 and alcohol dehydrogenases 1 after 2 days complete submergence with
      significantly higher levels in 'TL3' compared to 'FR13A'. Expression was also
      higher in 'TL3' under non-submerged conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The upland rice line
      'TL3' gave a stronger elongation response than 'FR13A' to complete submergence.
      This escape strategy is widely considered to prejudice survival when the plant
      remains totally submerged. However, contrary to expectations, 'TL3' survival
      rates were substantial although below those for 'FR13A' while physiological,
      biochemical and molecular parameters linked to adaptation differed in detail but
      appeared to be broadly comparable. These findings highlight that submergence
      tolerance is determine not only by the adoption of quiescence or escape
      strategies but maybe by metabolic and physiological properties unrelated to the
      underwater elongation rate.

PMID- 28861749
TI  - Taking the hassle out of wellness: Do peers and health matter?
AB  - Despite substantial financial incentives provided by the Affordable Care Act and
      employers, employee enrollment in wellness programs is low. This paper studies
      enrollment in a wellness program offered along an employer-provided health
      insurance plan. Two factors are considered in the choice of health plan with
      wellness: the effect of peer choices and family health on plan choice. Using
      exclusively obtained data of health insurance plan choice and utilization, this
      paper compares similar plans and focuses on a subsample of new employees. Result
      show that peers affect own choice of health insurance: a 10 percentage point rise
      in the share of colleagues enrolled in Aetna Wellness increases the probability
      of own enrollment in the plan by up to 3.9 percentage points. This result
      suggests that lack of experience with a wellness program are key to employee
      reluctance to enroll. Health effect on probability of enrollment in Aetna
      Wellness ranges from a 3 percentage point decline to a 3 percentage point rise
      depending on the measure, suggesting that while wellness programs appeal to low-
      to medium-intensity users of medical services, they do not appeal to individuals
      with more severe medical conditions which might benefit most from better
      coordinated medical care.

PMID- 28861750
TI  - Isolation, purification and characterization of a pH tolerant and temperature
      stable proteinaceous protease inhibitor from marine Pseudomonas mendocina.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: An extracellular protease inhibitor (BTPI-301) of trypsin was
      purified and characterized from an isolate of Pseudomonas mendocina. RESULTS:
      BTPI-301was purified to homogeneity by (NH4)2SO4, precipitation, DEAE Sepharose
      and CNBr-activated Sepharose chromatography. Homogeneity was proved by native
      PAGE and SDS-PAGE. The intact molecular mass was 11567 Da by MALDI-TOF analysis.
      BTPI-301was a competitive inhibitor with a Ki of 3.5 * 10-10 M. It was stable and
      active at pH 4-12 and also at 4-90  degrees C for 1 h. Peptide mass
      fingerprinting by MALDI revealed that the BTPI-301 is a new inhibitor not
      reported so far with protease inhibitory activity. The pI of the inhibitor was
      3.8. The stoichiometry of trypsin-BTPI-301 interaction is 1:1. The inhibitor was
      specific towards trypsin. CONCLUSION: A pH tolerant and thermostable protease
      inhibitor BTPI-301 active against trypsin was purified and characterized from P.
      mendocina that could be developed and used as biopreservative as well as
      biocontrol agent.

PMID- 28861751
TI  - Bias and ignorance in demographic perception.
AB  - When it comes to knowledge of demographic facts, misinformation appears to be the
      norm. Americans massively overestimate the proportions of their fellow citizens
      who are immigrants, Muslim, LGBTQ, and Latino, but underestimate those who are
      White or Christian. Previous explanations of these estimation errors have invoked
      topic-specific mechanisms such as xenophobia or media bias. We reconsidered this
      pattern of errors in the light of more than 30 years of research on the
      psychological processes involved in proportion estimation and decision-making
      under uncertainty. In two publicly available datasets featuring demographic
      estimates from 14 countries, we found that proportion estimates of national
      demographics correspond closely to what is found in laboratory studies of
      quantitative estimates more generally. Biases in demographic estimation,
      therefore, are part of a very general pattern of human psychology-independent of
      the particular topic or demographic under consideration-that explains most of the
      error in estimates of the size of politically salient populations. By situating
      demographic estimates within a broader understanding of general quantity
      estimation, these results demand reevaluation of both topic-specific
      misinformation about demographic facts and topic-specific explanations of
      demographic ignorance, such as media bias and xenophobia.

PMID- 28861752
TI  - Ground reaction forces during walking with different load and slope combinations
      in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treadmill animal models are commonly used to study effects of
      exercise on bone. Since mechanical loading induces bone strain, resulting in bone
      formation, exercise that induces higher strains is likely to cause more bone
      formation. Our aim was to investigate the effect of slope and additional load on
      limb bone strain. METHODS: Horizontal and vertical ground reaction forces on left
      fore-limb (FL) and hind-limb (HL) of twenty 23-week old female Wistar rats
      (weight 279 +/- 26 g) were measured for six combinations of SLOPE (-10 degrees ,
      0 degrees , +10 degrees ) and LOAD (0 to 23% of body mass). Peak force (Fmax),
      rate of force rise (RC), stance time (Tstance) and impulse (Fint) on FLs and HLs
      were analyzed. RESULTS: For the FL, peak ground reaction forces and rate of force
      rise were highest when walking downward -10 degrees  with load (Fmax = 2.09+/
      0.05 N, FLRC = 34+/-2 N/s) For the HL, ground reaction forces and rate of force
      rise were highest when walking upward +10 degrees , without load (Fmax = 2.20+/
      0.05 N, HLRC = 34+/-1 N/s). Load increased stance time. Without additional load,
      estimates for the highest FL loading (slope is -10 degrees ) were larger than for
      the highest HL loading (slope is +10 degrees ) relative to level walking.
      CONCLUSIONS: Thus, walking downward has a higher impact on FL bones, while
      walking upward is a more optimal HL exercise. Additional load may have a small
      effect on FL loading.

PMID- 28861755
TI  - Clarithromycin decreases rhinovirus replication and cytokine production in nasal
      epithelial cells from subjects with bronchial asthma: effects on IL-6, IL-8 and
      IL-33.
AB  - Rhinoviral infection is associated with an increased risk of asthma attacks. The
      macrolide clarithromycin decreases cytokine production in nasopharyngeal
      aspirates from patients with wheezing, but the effects of macrolides on cytokine
      production in nasal epithelial cells obtained from asthmatic subjects remain
      unclear. Here, human nasal epithelial cells were infected with type-14 rhinovirus
      (RV14), a major RV group. Titers and RNA of RV14 and cytokine concentrations,
      including IL-1beta and IL-6, were higher in the supernatants of the cells
      obtained from subjects with bronchial asthma (asthmatic group) than in those from
      the non-asthmatic group. Pretreatment with clarithromycin decreased RV14 titers,
      viral RNA and cytokine concentrations, and susceptibility to RV14 infection.
      Pretreatment with clarithromycin also decreased IL-33 production, which was
      detected after infection. Pretreatment with clarithromycin decreased the
      expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1, the receptor for RV14, after
      infection, the number and fluorescence intensity of the acidic endosomes through
      which RV RNA enters the cytoplasm, and the activation of nuclear factor kappa-B
      proteins in nuclear extracts. These findings suggested that RV replication and
      cytokine production may be enhanced in nasal epithelial cells obtained from
      subjects with bronchial asthma and may be modulated by clarithromycin.

PMID- 28861753
TI  - Healthy lifestyle impact on breast cancer-specific and all-cause mortality.
AB  - PURPOSE: While several studies have evaluated the association of combined
      lifestyle factors on breast cancer-specific mortality, few have included Hispanic
      women. We constructed a "healthy behavior index" (HBI) and evaluated its
      associations with mortality in non-Hispanic White (NHW) and Hispanic women
      diagnosed with breast cancer from the southwestern U.S. METHODS: Diet and
      lifestyle questionnaires were analyzed for 837 women diagnosed with invasive
      breast cancer (1999-2004) in New Mexico as part of the 4-Corners Women's Health
      Study. An HBI score ranging from 0 to 12 was based on dietary pattern, physical
      activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and body size and shape, with increasing
      scores representing less healthy characteristics. Hazard ratios for mortality
      over 14 years of follow-up were estimated for HBI quartiles using Cox
      proportional hazards models adjusting for education and stratified by ethnicity
      and stage at diagnosis. RESULTS: A significant increasing trend was observed
      across HBI quartiles among all women, NHW women, and those diagnosed with
      localized or regional/distant stage of disease for all-cause (AC) mortality (p
      trend = 0.006, 0.002, 0.03, respectively). AC mortality was increased >2-fold for
      all women and NHW women in HBI Q4 versus Q1 (HR = 2.18, 2.65, respectively). The
      association was stronger in women with regional/distant than localized stage of
      disease (HR = 2.62, 1.94, respectively). Associations for Hispanics or breast
      cancer-specific mortality were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      indicate the associations between the HBI and AC mortality, which appear to
      differ by ethnicity and stage at diagnosis. Interventions for breast cancer
      survivors should address the combination of lifestyle factors on prognosis.

PMID- 28861754
TI  - Estrogen Receptor beta Mediated Neuroprotective Efficacy of Cicer microphyllum
      Seed Extract in Global Hypoxia.
AB  - Hypoxia induced oxidative stress and neurodegeneration in the hippocampus has
      been implicated for memory impairment in conditions like stroke, ischemia and
      hypobaric hypoxia. The present study, aimed at investigating the potential of
      ethanolic extract of Cicer microphyllum seeds (CSE) for amelioration of global
      hypoxia induced neurodegeneration in CA1 region of hippocampus. CSE
      supplementation considerably reduced neurodegeneration and dendritic atrophy in
      CA1 neurons along with improvement of memory in hypoxic rats. This effect of CSE
      was partly attributed to its antioxidant activity resulting in reduction of lipid
      peroxidation, protein oxidation and DNA damage during exposure to chronic
      hypoxia. CSE also promoted dendritic arborization through activation of estrogen
      receptor beta (ERbeta) and phosphorylation of extracellular signal regulated
      kinase (ERK1/2) which was independent of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
      mediated signalling mechanisms. Extra nuclear activation of ERK1/2 by ERbeta
      resulted in phosphorylation of cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB)
      leading to increased expression of PSD-95.These molecular alterations translated
      to behavioural changes in CSE administered hypoxic animals that performed better
      in Morris Water Maze Task as compared to vehicle treated hypoxic animals.
      Toxicological studies show NOEAL > 2000 mg/kg b.w. for oral administration of CSE
      indicating its safety for consumption. Our findings not only suggest the
      neuroprotective potential of CSE in hypoxia but also provide evidence for
      involvement of estrogen receptor and pCREB mediated nootropic effect of the
      extract.

PMID- 28861756
TI  - Management of Supraventricular Tachycardia in Infants.
AB  - Supraventricular tachycardia is the most common tachyarrhythmia encountered in
      infants. In older children and adults, definitive treatment of the
      supraventricular tachycardia substrate with catheter ablation is a common
      approach to management. However, in infants, the risks of catheter ablation are
      significantly higher, and the patients often outgrow the potential to experience
      episodes. Therefore, antiarrhythmic medications are often utilized to minimize
      the likelihood of experiencing episodes. This article reviews the common
      arrhythmia mechanisms encountered in infants and the medications used to treat
      these patients.

PMID- 28861758
TI  - Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis for ambulatory cancer patients, can we do
      better?
AB  - Patients with cancer are at a much higher risk of thromboembolic events. Such
      events are occasionally associated with significant complications that can
      negatively affect patients' quality of life. Thromboprophylaxis is widely
      practiced, but much of the emphasis is given for those admitted with acute
      medical illnesses or following major surgical procedures. However, a significant
      percentage of thrombotic events encountered in routine clinical practice are
      among ambulatory patients where current guidelines do not recommend routine
      thromboprophylaxis.

PMID- 28861757
TI  - Histamine H3 Inverse Agonist BF 2649 or Antagonist with Partial H4 Agonist
      Activity Clobenpropit Reduces Amyloid Beta Peptide-Induced Brain Pathology in
      Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the leading causes for disability and death
      affecting millions of people worldwide. Thus, novel therapeutic strategies are
      needed to reduce brain pathology associated with AD. In view of increasing
      awareness regarding involvement of histaminergic pathways in AD, we explored the
      role of one H3 receptor inverse agonist BF 2649 and one selective H3 receptor
      antagonist with partial H4 agonist activity in amyloid beta peptide (AbetaP)
      infusion-induced brain pathology in a rat model. AD-like pathology was produced
      by administering AbetaP (1-40) intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) in the left
      lateral ventricle (250 ng/10 MUl, once daily) for 4 weeks. Control rats received
      saline. In separate group of rats, either BF 2649 (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or clobenpropit
      (1 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered once daily for 1 week after 3 weeks of AbetaP
      administration. After 30 days, blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown, edema
      formation, neuronal, glial injuries, and AbetaP deposits were examined in the
      brain. A significant reduction in AbetaP deposits along with marked reduction in
      neuronal or glial reactions was seen in the drug-treated group. The BBB breakdown
      to Evans blue albumin and radioiodine in the cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus,
      and cerebellum was also significantly reduced in these drug-treated groups.
      Clobenpropit showed superior effects than the BF2649 in reducing brain pathology
      in AD. Taken together, our observations are the first to show that blockade of H3
      and stimulation of H4 receptors are beneficial for the treatment of AD pathology,
      not reported earlier.

PMID- 28861760
TI  - Non-small cell lung cancer: miR-30d suppresses tumor invasion and migration by
      directly targeting NFIB.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role and the molecular mechanism of miR-30d in non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). RESULTS: qRT-PCR was used to detect miR-30d
      expression in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. miR-30d was frequently down-regulated
      in NSCLC and its expression was associated with clinicopathological features of
      NSCLCC patients. Over-expression of miR-30d notably inhibited cell migration and
      invasion in NSCLC cell lines. miR-30d could negatively regulate Nuclear factor I
      B (NFIB) by directly targeting its 3'-UTR, which was confirmed by luciferase
      assay. NFIB also reversed miR-30d-mediated suppression on the migration and
      invasion in NSCLC cell lines. CONCLUSION: miR-30d suppressed cell migration and
      invasion by directly targeting NFIB in NSCLC, and NFIB could partially abrogated
      the inhibition of biological functions by miR-30d.

PMID- 28861759
TI  - Diffusion, outcomes and implementation of minimally invasive liver surgery: a
      snapshot from the I Go MILS (Italian Group of Minimally Invasive Liver Surgery)
      Registry.
AB  - The Italian Group of MILS (I Go MILS) prospective registry was established in
      2014 with the goals to create a hub for data and projects on a national basis and
      to promote the diffusion and implementation of MILS programs on a national scale.
      The primary endpoint of the present study is to give a snapshot of the real
      diffusion and outcomes of MILS in Italy, while analyzing the role of the registry
      in the implementation of MILS programs nationwide. The I Go MILS Registry is a
      prospective and intention-to-treat registry opened to any Italian center
      performing MILS, without restriction criteria based on number of procedures. The
      Registry is developed through the eClinical, an electronic platform for the
      management of clinical trials and is based on 34 clinical variables, regarding
      indication, intra- and postoperative course. Clinical outcomes and data regarding
      implementation of MILS activity have been analyzed for the aim of the study.
      Between November 2014 and June 2017, data from 1678 MILS performed in 48 centers
      have been collected (mean number of procedures per center 35, range 1-302). 22%
      of procedures were performed for benign and 78% for malignant disease (HCC
      constituted the 49.1% and CRLM the 31.2% of malignant tumors). Major liver
      resections (>3 liver segments), including right and left hepatectomies,
      trisectionectomies and ALPPS procedures were 10% of the series. Mean blood loss
      was 200 +/- 230 mL Morbidity rate was 20.5% and mortality was 0.3%. 10.4% of
      cases were converted to open approach. Median length of stay was 5 days.
      MILS/total resections ratio in 13 experienced centers increased from 14 to 30%
      after Registry establishment. MILS programs are well established in Italy, with
      progressive increase both in the number of cases and in the numerosity of
      centers. The I Go MILS Registry is playing a crucial role in monitoring the
      development of MILS in the real world on a national basis while giving a
      significant contribution to the implementation of MILS programs.

PMID- 28861761
TI  - Tobacco smoking and breast cancer: a life course approach.

PMID- 28861762
TI  - Stillness (in 5 minutes).

PMID- 28861763
TI  - Prediction of vulnerability to bipolar disorder using multivariate neurocognitive
      patterns: a pilot study.
AB  - Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common disorder with high reoccurrence rate in general
      population. It is critical to have objective biomarkers to identify BD patients
      at an individual level. Neurocognitive signatures including affective Go/No-go
      task and Cambridge Gambling task showed the potential to distinguish BD patients
      from health controls as well as identify individual siblings of BD patients.
      Moreover, these neurocognitive signatures showed the ability to be replicated at
      two independent cohorts which indicates the possibility for generalization.
      Future studies will examine the possibility of combining neurocognitive data with
      other biological data to develop more accurate signatures.

PMID- 28861764
TI  - Oil refinery wastewater treatment in the Niger Delta, Nigeria: current practices,
      challenges, and recommendations.
AB  - The extensive oil exploration has led to a series of environmental issues in the
      Niger Delta, Nigeria, over the years. Aside from oil spill, insufficient
      wastewater treatment of oil refineries and the discharged effluents become
      another potential source of pollution that has not received enough attention from
      the government and the public. Through reviewing the current oil refinery
      wastewater treatment processes and the discharge standards of wastewater
      effluents in Nigeria, we aimed to raise the awareness of the shortcomings of the
      current wastewater treatment technology and to discuss the consequences of
      insufficient treatment to the environment. This article further discussed the use
      of nanotechnology as a potential upgrade to the conventional treatment
      technologies as it has shown its capacity of removing persistent organic
      pollutants (POPs) or converting hazardous components to environmentally friendly
      derivatives. It should also prove beneficial to the key stakeholders involved in
      the exploration of crude oil in the region to consider optimization of oil
      refinery wastewater treatment processes through integration of emerging
      technologies.

PMID- 28861766
TI  - In Vitro Probiotic Properties of Lactobacillus salivarius MG242 Isolated from
      Human Vagina.
AB  - Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a very common infection worldwide that is
      mainly caused by Candida albicans. In a previous study, we showed that
      Lactobacillus salivarius MG242 has anti-Gardnerella vaginalis activity. In this
      study, we investigated the potential of using L. salivarius MG242 for biocontrol
      of C. albicans. In line with the results from a spot overlay assay, MG242
      inhibited the growth of C. albicans by 99.99 +/- 0.01% in co-culture, suggesting
      that L. salivarius MG242 has the potential to be developed into a probiotic
      formula to treat or prevent VVC. Accelerated storage tests using dehydrated live
      cell powder at 50, 60, and 70  degrees C were performed, and the results showed
      that immobilization with 10% skim milk effectively increased the thermal
      resistance of entrapped microorganisms, resulting in sevenfold longer shelf-life
      than the control (in PBS). Lower storage temperatures also increased the shelf
      life up to 8.31 months.

PMID- 28861765
TI  - Multifunctional decoration of alpha-tocopheryl succinate-based NP for cancer
      treatment: effect of TPP and LTVSPWY peptide.
AB  - Active targeting not only of a specific cell but also a specific organelle
      maximizes the therapeutic activity minimizing adverse side effects in healthy
      tissues. The present work describes the synthesis, characterization, and in vitro
      biological activity of active targeting nanoparticles (NP) for cancer therapy
      based on alpha-tocopheryl succinate (alpha-TOS), a well-known mitocan, that
      selectively induces apoptosis of cancer cells and proliferalting endothelial
      cells. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) targeting peptide LTVSPWY
      (PEP) and triphenylphosphonium lipophilic cation (TPP) were conjugated to a
      previously optimized RAFT block copolymer that formed self-assembled NP of
      appropriate size for this application and low polydispersity by self-organized
      precipitation method. PEP and TPP were included in order to target not only HER2
      positive cancer cells, but also the mitochondria of these cancer cells,
      respectively. The in vitro experiments demonstrated the faster incorporation of
      the active-targeting NP and the higher accumulation of TPP-bearing NP in the
      mitochondria of MDA-MB-453 HER2 positive cancer cells compared to non-decorated
      NP. Moreover, the encapsulation of additional alpha-TOS in the hydrophobic core
      of the NP was achieved with high efficiencies. The loaded NP presented higher
      cytotoxicity than unloaded NP but preserved their selectivity against cancer
      cells in a range of tested concentrations.

PMID- 28861767
TI  - Placental growth factor signaling regulates isoform splicing of vascular
      endothelial growth factor A in the control of lung cancer cell metastasis.
AB  - Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family members play critical and
      complex roles in the regulation of cancer vascularization and metastasis. The
      exact molecular control of lung cancer metastasis by VEGF family members is not
      completely understood. Here, we showed that specimens from non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC) contained significantly higher levels of placental growth factor
      (PlGF) than paired non-cancer tissue (p < 0.05, N = 25). Moreover, higher levels
      of PlGF were detected in NSCLC specimens from the patients who had distal
      metastases than those who had not. High-PlGF levels appeared to be associated
      with poor patient survival. In vitro, PlGF dose-dependently increased the ratio
      of pro-angiogenic VEGF isoform (VEGF165) versus anti-angiogenic VEGF isoform
      (VEGF165b), seemingly through induction of expression of splicing regulatory
      factor SRp40, resulting in the enhancement of the cancer cell metastatic
      potential. Higher levels of SRp40 were detected in NSCLC specimens, compared to
      paired non-cancer tissue (p < 0.05, N = 25). Finally, a strong correlation was
      detected between the levels of PlGF and SRp40 in NSCLC specimens (r = 0.83, p <
      0.0001, N = 25). Together, these data suggest that PlGF may increase NSCLC
      metastasis through SRp40-mediated mRNA splicing of VEGF.

PMID- 28861768
TI  - Capsaicin Protects Against Oxidative Insults and Alleviates Behavioral Deficits
      in Rats with 6-OHDA-Induced Parkinson's Disease via Activation of TRPV1.
AB  - Increasing evidence suggests that capsaicin may play a role in modulating
      neuronal function and controlling motor behavior. However, the underlying
      mechanism is still unclear and the activation of transient receptor potential
      vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) might be involved in. This study investigated the potential
      neuroprotective role of capsaicin in a rat model of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)
      induced Parkinson's disease (PD). Capsaicin was treated intraperitoneally for the
      6-OHDA induced PD rats and the locomotor activity and abnormal involuntary
      movements were found alleviated. Besides, brain oxidative stress (lipid
      peroxidation, superoxide dismutase and catalase) was also assessed, and oxidative
      insults were investigated relieved. Both the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase
      and TRPV1 were increased in the striatal and substantia nigra areas of 6-OHDA
      induced rats after the treatment of capsaicin by the semi-quantitative analysis
      of Western Blot. And the immunostaining of substantia nigra further suggested
      that capsaicin might protect against dopaminergic neuronal loss. Our results
      showed that TRPV1 might be a novel therapeutic target for PD.

PMID- 28861769
TI  - Erratum to: Obstetric antiphospholipid syndrome and long term arterial thrombosis
      risk.

PMID- 28861770
TI  - Economic Considerations in the Use of Novel Targeted Therapies for Lung Cancer:
      Review of Current Literature.
AB  - Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death and economic burden
      worldwide. Despite the heavy toll of lung cancer, multiple new advances have
      improved patient outcomes, largely through precision medicine and targeted
      therapy. The associated rising economic burden however may impact the uptake of
      novel therapeutic agents in lung cancer, thereby limiting patient access. This
      article identifies and reviews economic evaluations of targeted agents in lung
      cancer in the era of precision medicine. Articles evaluating biomarker-directed
      test-and-treat strategies are also reviewed to evaluate the cost impact of novel
      therapeutic agents at a population level. The Quality of Health Economic Studies
      instrument is applied to assess the quality of included studies. Forty-six
      studies are reviewed and encompass studies of epidermal growth factor receptor
      inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors,
      vascular endothelial growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor
      receptor inhibitors and immunotherapy (programmed death-1 inhibitors). Key
      factors influencing results of economic analyses include comparators chosen,
      perspective used, magnitude of clinical benefit, utility weighting of outcomes
      and drug acquisition costs. Biomarker-driven decision making should be integrated
      into cost evaluations given the important role of molecular testing for
      individualising treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer. We conclude that
      despite major clinical advances in lung cancer therapeutics, cost remains an
      important consideration in the adoption of novel therapies.

PMID- 28861771
TI  - Recombinant rabies virus expressing IL-15 enhances immunogenicity through
      promoting the activation of dendritic cells in mice.
AB  - Rabies remains a public health threat that kills approximately 59,000 people
      worldwide each year, most of which are from the developing countries of Africa
      and Asia where dog rabies are endemic. Therefore, developing an affordable and
      efficacious vaccine is crucial for rabies control in these countries. Interleukin
      (IL)-15, an immunoregulatory cytokine, is a pluripotent molecule with therapeutic
      potential, which targets many cell types and links the innate and adaptive immune
      system. In this study, IL-15 gene was cloned and inserted into the genome of a
      recombinant rabies virus (RABV) strain LBNSE (designated as LBNSE-IL15), and the
      effect of over-expression of IL-15 on the immunogenicity of RABV was
      investigated. It was found that mice vaccinated with LBNSE-IL15 could induce
      significantly higher level of virus-neutralizing antibody (VNA) than those
      immunized with LBNSE, resulting in the higher protection after challenge. Further
      investigation was performed to find out the possible role of IL-15 plays in the
      process of antibody induction, and it was found that LBNSE-IL15 could enhance the
      maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) in immunized mice. Furthermore, the mice
      immunized with LBNSE-IL15 could promote the TFH cells differentiation and the
      generation of germinal center B cells and plasma cells. Together, these data
      indicated that IL-15 could be a potential adjuvant in enhancing the
      immunogenicity of RABV, contributing to the development of more-efficacious
      rabies vaccines.

PMID- 28861772
TI  - Oral Health May Affect the Performance of mRNA-Based Saliva Biomarkers for Oral
      Squamous Cell Cancer.
AB  - Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has a dismal 50% five-year survival rate,
      emphasizing the need to develop reliable and sensitive tools for early diagnosis.
      In this study we evaluated the performance of 7 previously identified, potential
      mRNA biomarkers of OSCC in saliva samples of Hungarian patients. Expression of
      the putative OSCC biomarkers (DUSP1, OAZ1, H3F3A, IL1B, IL8, SAT and S100P), 2
      biomarkers of inflammation (IL6 and TNFalpha) and 8 putative normalizing genes
      was quantified from each sample using real-time quantitative PCR. In contrast
      with previous studies, the expression pattern of the 7 mRNA biomarkers was
      similar between OSCC patients and age-matched control patients in the Hungarian
      patient population. On the other hand, 5 of the 7 mRNA biomarkers were present at
      significantly higher levels in saliva samples of OSCC patients when compared to
      young control patients. The best biomarker combination could distinguish only the
      OSCC vs. young control patients, but not the OSCC vs. age-matched control
      patients. In conclusion, the significant differences between our results and
      previous studies, and the clinical characteristics of the patients suggest that
      inflammatory processes in the oral cavity may affect the performance of the 7
      putative salivary mRNA biomarkers. Lastly, since IL6 mRNA was quantifiable in the
      majority of OSCC cases, but only in a few control samples, salivary IL6 mRNA may
      be utilized as part of a biomarker combination to detect OSCC.

PMID- 28861773
TI  - Biodegradation of pulp and paper mill effluent by co-culturing ascomycetous fungi
      in repeated batch process.
AB  - The competence of novel fungal consortium, consisting of Nigrospora sp. LDF00204
      (accession no. KP732542) and Curvularia lunata LDF21 (accession no. KU664593),
      was investigated for the treatment of pulp and paper mill effluent. Fungal
      consortium exhibited enhanced biomass production under optimized medium
      conditions, i.e., glucose as carbon (C), sodium nitrate as nitrogen (N), C/N
      1.5:0.5, pH 5, temperature 30  degrees C, and agitation 140 rpm, and
      significantly reduced biochemical oxygen demand (85.6%), chemical oxygen demand
      (80%), color (82.3%), and lignin concentration (76.1%) under catalytic enzyme
      activity; however, unutilized ligninolytic enzymes, such as laccase (Lac),
      manganese peroxidase (MnP), and lignin peroxidase (LiP), were observed to be
      13.5, 11.4, and 9.4 U/ml after the third cycle of effluent treatment in repeated
      batch process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of fungal consortium revealed
      their compatibility through intermingled hyphae and spores, while the FTIR
      spectra confirmed the alteration of functional groups ensuring structural changes
      during the effluent treatment. Gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC-MS)
      analysis showed the reduction of complex compounds and development of numerous
      low-molecular-weight metabolites, such as 1-3-dimethyl benzene, 2-chloro-3-methyl
      butane, pentadecanoic acid, and 1-2-benzene dicarboxylic acid, during the
      treatment, demonstrating the massive potential of the novel fungal consortium to
      degrade recalcitrant industrial pollutants.

PMID- 28861775
TI  - Elastic and dielectric properties of ferroelectric nanoparticles/bent-core
      nematic liquid crystal blend.
AB  - Bent-core liquid crystals present the first evidence of forming polar
      superstructures from achiral molecules. The nematic phase is the newest member of
      the bent-core family and turns out to be extremely interesting owing to its
      distinct features compared to its calamitic counterpart. Here the investigation
      of one achiral unsymmetrical 2-methyl-3-amino-benzoic acid (2,6-substituted
      toluene)-derived four-ring bent-core nematic (BCN) liquid crystals (11-2M-F) is
      presented after nanodispersion. Ferroelectric nanoparticles significantly affect
      the phase transition temperature, threshold voltage, dielectric permittivity,
      elastic constants and splay viscosity of the pristine BCN. In most bent-core
      nematic liquid crystals the bent elastic constant (K33) is usually lower than the
      splay elastic constant (K11) owing to the presence of short-range smectic-C-like
      correlations in the nematic phase. Thus the elastic anisotropy ([Formula: see
      text]) is usually negative in bent-core nematics unlike in rod-like nematic
      liquid crystals where K33 is always greater than K11. Here we report a short-core
      bent-shaped nematic liquid crystal whose negative elastic anisotropy was turned
      to positive by minute addition of ferroelectric nanoparticles.

PMID- 28861774
TI  - Doxycycline Used for Control of Transgene Expression has its Own Effects on
      Behaviors and Bcl-xL in the Rat Hippocampus.
AB  - Doxycycline (Dox)-inducible transgenic approach is used to examine the neural
      mechanisms of anxiety and depression; however, its own effects on related
      behaviors are not clear. To address this, in the present study, we tested the
      anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in rats treated with Dox in drinking water
      (2 mg/ml) in the elevated plus-maze (EPM; on day 5) and forced swim (FST; on day
      8) tests, respectively. In addition, the levels of mRNAs and proteins of brain
      derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-xL in the
      hippocampus (HIPP) and frontal cortex (FC) were also analyzed. Consumption of Dox
      for 4 days induced an anxiogenic-like phenotype that was manifested by the
      decreased percentages of open arm entries and time spent on the open arms of the
      EPM. After Dox for 7 days, animals demonstrated more active behavior in the FST
      than control rats as evidenced by the increase in climbing time. When assessed
      after the FST, expression of Bcl-xL was increased in the hippocampus of Dox
      treated animals. Furthermore, hippocampal Bcl-xL content correlated positively
      with the duration of climbing in the test. This study is the first to find that
      Dox in treatment regime used to control transgene expression can affect anxiety-
      and depression-like behaviors in rats. Dox-induced increase in Bcl-xL expression
      in the hippocampus may be involved in the moderate activation of FST behavior.

PMID- 28861776
TI  - Gamma irradiation-induced decomposition of sulfamethoxazole in aqueous solution:
      the influence of additives, biological inhibitory, and degradation mechanisms.
AB  - Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) was decomposed by using gamma irradiation in the presence
      of different additives such as NO3-, NO2-, Cr(VI), 2-propanol, and tert-butanol.
      The results demonstrated that NO3-, NO2-, 2-propanol, and tert-butanol inhibited
      SMX radiolytic removal. However, there existed a synergetic effect for radiolytic
      removal of the mixture containing SMX and Cr(VI). At an absorbed dose of 150 Gy,
      the removal percentages of SMX and Cr(VI) in the mixture were 73.5 and 84.6%,
      respectively, which was higher than the removal percentages of 70.6 and 4.1% for
      the single component of SMX and Cr(VI). This provides us an insight into treating
      the combined pollution in micro-polluted water. The SMX radiolytic removal
      followed a pseudo first-order reaction kinetic model, and the rate constant
      ratios of .OH, eaq-, and H. towards SMX radiolysis were 10.4:1:2.9. In addition,
      24-h bio-inhibitory to the macroalgae of SMX solution during gamma irradiation
      reached the maximum of 0.85 at an adsorbed dose of 100 Gy, then gradually
      decreased with the increasing adsorbed dose. Based on LC-MS analysis and quantum
      chemical calculation, the degradation intermediates were determined and concluded
      that SMX radiolytic removal was mainly via .OH radical attack and direct
      decomposition of SMX molecule by gamma ray.

PMID- 28861777
TI  - Benign esophageal schwannoma: a brief overview and our experience with this rare
      tumor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benign esophageal tumors are uncommon, comprising approximately 2% of
      esophageal tumors. Esophageal schwannomas constitute an even rarer entity, with
      few cases reported in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a 66-year-old
      male who was referred for dysphagia. A computed tomography scan showed a well
      demarcated, enhancing, and homogenous esophageal tumor measuring 50 mm. The tumor
      was hypermetabolic on positron emission tomography, and an endoscopic ultrasound
      guided fine needle aspiration demonstrated the presence of benign spindle cells.
      We performed an uncomplicated, simple, tumor enucleation through a cervical
      approach. Histology revealed spindle-shaped cells in a fasciculated, disarrayed
      pattern. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated positive staining for S-100 protein
      and negative staining for KIT, CD34, desmin, and alpha-smooth muscle actin. These
      findings were consistent with a benign esophageal schwannoma. CONCLUSIONS: We
      report our experience with esophageal schwannoma, a rare but benign diagnosis of
      the esophagus.

PMID- 28861778
TI  - Purification and Fibrillation of Full-Length Recombinant PrP.
AB  - Misfolding and aggregation of prion protein are related to several
      neurodegenerative diseases in humans such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, fatal
      familial insomnia, and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease. A growing number
      of applications in the prion field including assays for detection of PrPSc and
      methods for production of PrPSc de novo require recombinant prion protein (PrP)
      of high purity and quality. Here, we report an experimental procedure for
      expression and purification of full-length mammalian prion protein. This protocol
      has been proved to yield PrP of extremely high purity that lacks PrP adducts,
      oxidative modifications, or truncation, which is typically generated as a result
      of spontaneous oxidation or degradation. We also describe methods for preparation
      of amyloid fibrils from recombinant PrP in vitro. Recombinant PrP fibrils can be
      used as a noninfectious synthetic surrogate of PrPSc for development of prion
      diagnostics including generation of PrPSc-specific antibody.

PMID- 28861779
TI  - Method for Folding of Recombinant Prion Protein to Soluble beta-Sheet Secondary
      Structure.
AB  - A key event in the pathogenesis of prion diseases is the change in structure of
      the normal cellular form of the prion protein from a predominantly alpha-helix
      form to the beta-sheet-rich prion protein found in disease-associated tissue. To
      allow more detailed structural research into PrP misfolding, it is necessary to
      have techniques which enable enrichment of the beta-sheet content in recombinant
      PrP.This method describes the procedure for inducing beta-folding of recombinant
      PrP to resemble a disease-associated structure and ultimately produce soluble
      beta-folded recombinant PrP.

PMID- 28861780
TI  - Analysis of Prion Protein Conformation Using Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy.
AB  - According to the protein-only hypothesis of prion propagation, the pathogenesis
      of prion disease is due to the misfolding of cellular PrP (PrPC) which gives rise
      to disease-associated PrPSc. This misfolding results in the predominantly alpha
      helix secondary structure of PrP becoming increasingly beta-sheet. Prion protein
      researchers often employ circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to rapidly analyze
      and identify the degree of alpha-helix and beta-sheet content in their
      recombinant protein and peptide samples. CD is a nondestructive method of
      determining protein secondary structure and can be used to monitor the protein
      structural changes in various environments, e.g., pH and temperature. CD can also
      be used to investigate kinetic and thermodynamic characteristics of proteins and
      peptides.

PMID- 28861781
TI  - Analysis of Prion Protein Structure Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
      Spectroscopy.
AB  - Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful experimental tool for
      obtaining information on three-dimensional (3D) structures of proteins at atomic
      resolution. In inherited forms of prion diseases, misfolding of cellular prion
      protein, PrPC, into its pathological form, PrPSc, is caused by mutations in the
      human prion protein gene (PRNP). Understanding of the earliest stages of the
      conformational changes leading to spontaneous generation of prions in inherited
      forms of prion diseases may benefit from detailed structural analysis of
      different human (Hu) PrP variants. Here, we describe the protocol for structure
      determination of HuPrP variants by NMR spectroscopy in solution that consists of
      preparation of NMR samples, acquisition of NMR data, NMR resonance assignments,
      and structure calculation.

PMID- 28861782
TI  - Immunodetection of PrPSc Using Western Immunoblotting Techniques.
AB  - Western immunoblotting is a workhorse technique used in the prion field to
      analyze disease-associated forms of the prion protein, termed PrPSc. The
      biochemical stability of PrPSc aggregates combined with the increased resistance
      of prion infectivity to inactivation by various treatments that inactivate most
      other pathogens complicates the use of Western immunoblotting as a means to
      characterize PrPSc samples. In this chapter, we describe a method for Western
      immunoblot analysis of PrPSc with an emphasis on precautions to address the
      biochemical and biosafety considerations associated with this procedure.

PMID- 28861784
TI  - Cell Biology Approaches to Studying Prion Diseases.
AB  - During the course of prion infection, the normally soluble and protease-sensitive
      mammalian prion protein (PrPC) is refolded into an insoluble, partially protease
      resistant, and infectious form called PrPSc. The conformational conversion of
      PrPC to PrPSc is a critical event during prion infection and is essential for the
      production of prion infectivity. This chapter briefly summarizes the ways in
      which cell biological approaches have enhanced our understanding of how PrP
      contributes to different aspects of prion pathogenesis.

PMID- 28861783
TI  - Analysis of miRNA Signatures in Neurodegenerative Prion Disease.
AB  - Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are disorders of the
      central nervous system that affect both humans and animals. The underlying cause
      of prion diseases is the formation and propagation of the infectious prion
      protein. Prion diseases are difficult to diagnose and treat due to a prolonged
      asymptomatic incubation period prior to the onset of clinical symptoms. MicroRNAs
      (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNA species and have been identified as potential
      biomarkers that also function to regulate disease-specific pathways and proteins
      in several neurodegenerative disorders, including prion diseases. Here we
      describe the quantitative analysis of miRNA isolated from neuronal cells infected
      with a strain of mouse-adapted human prions. These methods can also be adapted to
      the discovery of miRNA biomarkers in extracellular vesicles, tissue, and
      noninvasive biological fluids.

PMID- 28861785
TI  - Expression of Heterologous PrP and Prion Propagation in RK13 Cells.
AB  - Cultured cells are valuable models to study prion infections at the cellular
      level. Unfortunately, the vast majority of cell lines are resistant to the
      propagation of prion agents. The rabbit epithelial RK13 cell line is among the
      few cell lines permissive to prion infection. When genetically engineered to
      express heterologous PrP proteins, RK13 cells become permissive to several
      strains of prions from various animal species. Here, we describe the generation
      of stable RK13 cell clones expressing a heterologous PrP protein in an inducible
      manner, the establishment and maintenance of chronically infected cultures, and
      the selection of cell clones suitable for cell-based titration of prions.

PMID- 28861786
TI  - Generation of Infectious Prions and Detection with the Prion-Infected Cell Assay.
AB  - Cell lines propagating prions are an efficient and useful means for studying the
      cellular and molecular mechanisms implicated in prion disease. Utilization of
      cell-based models has led to the finding that PrPC and PrPSc are released from
      cells in association with extracellular vesicles known as exosomes. Exosomes have
      been shown to act as vehicles for infectivity, transferring infectivity between
      cell lines and providing a mechanism for prion spread between tissues. Here, we
      describe the methods for generating a prion-propagating cell line with prion
      infected brain homogenate, cell lysate, conditioned media, and exosomes and also
      detection of protease-resistant PrP with the prion-infected cell assay.

PMID- 28861787
TI  - Analysis of Cellular Prion Protein Endoproteolytic Processing.
AB  - Like numerous proteins of various structural and functional classes, the
      glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored cellular prion protein (PrPC) has
      been recognized to undergo endoproteolytic processing for decades, a phenomenon
      observed in various cultured cell lines, as well as human and several animal
      tissue extracts. Despite this, the physiological significance of PrPC proteolytic
      cleavage has not yet been entirely elucidated. Experimental evidence suggests
      independent normal biological functions of the full-length and truncated PrPC
      species, as well as probable links of endoproteolysis to prion disease
      transmission susceptibility, pathogenesis, and toxicity. The accurate
      characterization of constitutive PrPC processing, through the method outlined in
      this chapter, is therefore an important tool in order to investigate the
      biological relevance of the alternative cleavage events.

PMID- 28861788
TI  - Cellular Analysis of Adult Neural Stem Cells for Investigating Prion Biology.
AB  - Traditional primary and secondary cell cultures have been used for the
      investigation of prion biology and disease for many years. While both types of
      cultures produce highly valid and immensely valuable results, they also have
      their limitations; traditional cell lines are often derived from cancers,
      therefore subject to numerous DNA changes, and primary cultures are labor
      intensive and expensive to produce requiring sacrifice of many animals. Neural
      stem cell (NSC) cultures are a relatively new technology to be used for the study
      of prion biology and disease. While NSCs are subject to their own limitations
      they are generally cultured ex vivo in environments that artificially force their
      growth-they also have their own unique advantages. NSCs retain the ability for
      self-renewal and can therefore be propagated in culture similarly to secondary
      cultures without genetic manipulation. In addition, NSCs are multipotent; they
      can be induced to differentiate into mature cells of central nervous system (CNS)
      linage. The combination of self-renewal and multipotency allows NSCs to be used
      as a primary cell line over multiple generations saving time, costs, and animal
      harvests, thus providing a valuable addition to the existing cell culture
      repertoire used for investigation of prion biology and disease. Furthermore, NSC
      cultures can be generated from mice of any genotype, either by embryonic harvest
      or harvest from adult brain, allowing gene expression to be studied without
      further genetic manipulation. This chapter describes a standard method of
      culturing adult NSCs and assays for monitoring NSC growth, migration, and
      differentiation and revisits basic reactive oxygen species detection in the
      context of NSC cultures.

PMID- 28861789
TI  - Neurotoxicity of Prion Peptides on Cultured Cerebellar Neurons.
AB  - Prion neurotoxicity has been modeled in vitro using synthetic peptides derived
      from the PrPC sequence. The major region of neurotoxicity has been localized to
      the hydrophobic domain located in the middle of the PrP protein. Neurotoxicity
      assays are typically performed on cultured mouse cerebellar neurons derived from
      neonatal pups, and cell viability can be monitored by assays including MTT or
      MTS, cell death by LDH release, or apoptosis by caspase cleavage assays. These
      neurotoxicity studies have been useful in identifying cofactors, such as PrPC and
      metals, as modulators of PrP peptide-mediated neurotoxicity. Given the biosafety
      issues associated with handling and purifying infectious prions, the use of
      synthetic peptides, which display a dependence upon PrPC expression for toxicity,
      as per the PrPSc agent for infectivity, supports the relevance of using these
      synthetic peptides for understanding PrP-mediated neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28861790
TI  - Methods of Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification.
AB  - Protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) amplifies infectious prions in
      vitro. Over the past decade, PMCA has become an essential tool in prion research.
      The current chapter describes in detail the PMCA format with beads (PMCAb) and
      several methods that rely on PMCAb for assessing strain-specific prion
      amplification rates, for selective amplification of subtypes of PrPSc from a
      mixture, and a PMCAb approach that can replace animal titration of scrapie
      material. Development of PMCAb-based methodology is important for addressing a
      number of research topics including prion strain evolution, selection and
      adaptation, strain-typing, prion detection, and biochemical requirements for
      prion replication.

PMID- 28861791
TI  - RT-QuIC Assays for Prion Disease Detection and Diagnostics.
AB  - In coping with prion diseases, it is important to have tests that are practical
      enough for routine applications in medicine, agriculture, wildlife biology, and
      research, yet sensitive enough to detect minimal amounts of infectivity. Real
      time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assays have evolved to the point where
      they fulfill these criteria in applications to various human and animal prion
      diseases. For example, RT-QuIC assays of cerebrospinal fluid and nasal brushings
      allow for highly sensitive (77-97%) and specific (99-100%) identification of
      human sCJD patients. Recent improvements have markedly enhanced sensitivity and
      reduced the assay time required for many samples to a matter of hours rather than
      days. By combining analyses of cerebrospinal fluid and nasal brushings,
      diagnostic sensitivities and specificities of nearly 100% can be achieved.  RT
      QuIC assays are based on prion-seeded amyloid fibril formation by recombinant
      prion protein (rPrPSen) in multiwell plates using a Thioflavin T fluorescence
      readout. Here we describe our current RT-QuIC methodologies as well as technical
      considerations in executing, troubleshooting, and adapting the assay to new
      strains of prions and sample types.

PMID- 28861792
TI  - A Quick Method to Evaluate the Effect of the Amino Acid Sequence in the
      Misfolding Proneness of the Prion Protein.
AB  - Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of
      neurodegenerative diseases where the misfolding of the prion protein (PrP) is a
      crucial event. Based on studies in TSE-affected humans and the generation of
      transgenic mouse models overexpressing different mutated versions of the PrP, we
      conclude that both wild-type and mutated PrPs exhibit differential propensity to
      misfold in vivo. Here, we describe a new method in vitro to assess and quantify
      the PrP misfolding phenomenon in order to better understand the molecular
      mechanisms involved in this process.

PMID- 28861794
TI  - In Vivo-Near Infrared Imaging of Neurodegeneration.
AB  - In vivo near-infrared (NIR) imaging of molecular processes at the preclinical
      stage promises to provide more valuable mechanistic information about
      pathological pathways involved in neurodegeneration. NIR imaging has the
      potential to improve in vivo therapeutic screening protocols by enabling
      noninvasive monitoring of presymptomatic responses to treatment. We have
      developed new NIR fluorescent contrast agents conjugated to markers of cell
      death, and using these agents we have identified molecular pathways associated
      with prion-induced neurodegeneration and determined the optimal window for
      meaningful therapeutic intervention in prion disease. This chapter provides a
      description of the synthesis and purification of our NIR cell Death (NIRD)
      contrast agent and the application of in vivo NIRD (iNIRD) imaging to a prion
      model of neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28861795
TI  - Strain Typing of Prion Diseases Using In Vivo Mouse Models.
AB  - Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) or prion diseases exhibit strain
      variation, a phenomenon that has been studied extensively in mouse bioassays.
      Despite the introduction of many rapid in vitro systems, bioassays remain a key
      tool in defining prion strains and their ability to transmit disease in vivo.
      Prion strains can be characterized by a range of phenotypic characteristics such
      as incubation period, vacuolar pathology, and distribution of the abnormal form
      of PrP following experimental transmission of the agent into a panel of mice
      (transgenic or wild type). Interpretation of these characteristics requires
      considerable experience and an understanding of the procedures used to define
      them. This chapter reviews the techniques used in strain typing of prion diseases
      from inoculum preparation and pathological studies to data interpretation
      alongside an extensive troubleshooting guide.

PMID- 28861796
TI  - Preparation and Immunostaining of the Myenteric Plexus of Prion-Infected Mice.
AB  - Intracerebral inoculation of mice with the M1000 strain of mouse-adapted human
      prions results in the consistent accumulation of PrPSc in the ileum of the
      gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of mice with clinical signs of prion disease. The
      accumulation of PrPSc in the ileum is accompanied by caspase activation and loss
      of immunoreactivity in subpopulations of neurons in the enteric nervous system.
      This suggests that like neurons in the central nervous system, cells in the
      enteric nervous system are also susceptible to prion-induced toxicity. In this
      chapter we describe the immunostaining of cells in myenteric plexus preparations
      of whole mounts prepared from the gastrointestinal tract of prion-infected mice.

PMID- 28861797
TI  - Cell Culture Methods for Screening of Prion Therapeutics.
AB  - It is currently difficult to predict the number of asymptomatic prion carriers
      who will potentially go on to develop a prion disease or who will unknowingly
      transmit the prion agent to another individual. As prion therapeutic clinical
      trials have lacked success, there is a continuous need for novel therapeutics
      that have the potential to prevent, as for inherited prion disorders; slow, as
      for all prion disorders; and ultimately stop disease progression. Prion-infected
      cell models provide an ideal tool to search for new treatment avenues. This
      chapter describes the use of prion cell culture systems in the identification of
      prion therapeutics. It also deals with the methods required to validate the
      potential of an antiprion agent through cell viability and impact on cell growth
      rate.

PMID- 28861793
TI  - Insights into Mechanisms of Transmission and Pathogenesis from Transgenic Mouse
      Models of Prion Diseases.
AB  - Prions represent a new paradigm of protein-mediated information transfer. In the
      case of mammals, prions are the cause of fatal, transmissible neurodegenerative
      diseases, sometimes referred to as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
      (TSEs), which frequently occur as epidemics. An increasing body of evidence
      indicates that the canonical mechanism of conformational corruption of cellular
      prion protein (PrPC) by the pathogenic isoform (PrPSc) that is the basis of prion
      formation in TSEs is common to a spectrum of proteins associated with various
      additional human neurodegenerative disorders, including the more common
      Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The peerless infectious properties of TSE
      prions, and the unparalleled tools for their study, therefore enable elucidation
      of mechanisms of template-mediated conformational propagation that are generally
      applicable to these related disease states. Many unresolved issues remain
      including the exact molecular nature of the prion, the detailed cellular and
      molecular mechanisms of prion propagation, and the means by which prion diseases
      can be both genetic and infectious. In addition, we know little about the
      mechanism by which neurons degenerate during prion diseases. Tied to this, the
      physiological role of the normal form of the prion protein remains unclear and it
      is uncertain whether or not loss of this function contributes to prion
      pathogenesis. The factors governing the transmission of prions between species
      remain unclear, in particular the means by which prion strains and PrP primary
      structure interact to affect interspecies prion transmission. Despite all these
      unknowns, advances in our understanding of prions have occurred because of their
      transmissibility to experimental animals, and the development of transgenic (Tg)
      mouse models has done much to further our understanding about various aspects of
      prion biology. In this review, we will focus on advances in our understanding of
      prion biology that occurred in the past 8 years since our last review of this
      topic.

PMID- 28861798
TI  - Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion for Diagnosis of Prion Disease.
AB  - Sporadic human prion diseases are defined on the basis of clinical features, with
      periodic sharp discharge (PSD) on electroencephalograms (EEG), a positive 14-3-3
      protein assay of CSF samples, and abnormal signals on cerebral cortex on
      diffusion-weighted (DWI) MR images. It is essential to detect the abnormal prion
      protein in neuropathological or immunochemical detection of brain tissues when we
      diagnose definite cases for human prion disease. We performed definite diagnosis
      of sporadic human prion disease in alive patients. Recently, testing of CSF with
      a new in vitro abnormal prion protein amplification technology, designated real
      time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QUIC), has shown considerable promise as a
      highly specific diagnostic test for human prion disease.

PMID- 28861799
TI  - Methods for Molecular Diagnosis of Human Prion Disease.
AB  - Human prion diseases are associated with a range of clinical presentations, and
      they are classified by both clinicopathological syndrome and etiology, with
      subclassification according to molecular criteria. Here, we describe updated
      procedures that are currently used within the MRC Prion Unit at UCL to determine
      a molecular diagnosis of human prion disease. Sequencing of the PRNP open reading
      frame to establish the presence of pathogenic mutations is described, together
      with detailed methods for immunoblot or immunohistochemical determination of the
      presence of abnormal prion protein in the brain or peripheral tissues.

PMID- 28861800
TI  - Molecular Subtyping of PrPres in Human Sporadic CJD Brain Tissue.
AB  - Across the spectrum of sporadic human prion diseases (also known as transmissible
      spongiform encephalopathies: TSE), there is considerable phenotypic diversity.
      Cumulative scientific evidence supports that prions, the infectious agents of
      prion diseases, are constituted predominantly, if not exclusively, by misfolded,
      typically protease-resistant, disease-associated isoforms of the prion protein
      (PrPres). Consequently, tissue deposition of PrPres is considered a hallmark of
      prion disease pathology, and this can be visualized by Western blotting after
      tissue homogenization and treatment with proteinases, particularly proteinase K
      (PK). Indeed, Western blot profiles of PrPres are utilized as one marker of
      different prion strains, with such strains thought to contribute to at least part
      of the phenotypic variation observed in sporadic human prion disease. Typically,
      Western blotting of PrPres demonstrates three bands of different electrophoretic
      mobility, depicting the di-glycosylated, mono-glycosylated and unglycosylated
      species although further subclassification and the delineation of novel sporadic
      disease subtypes, such as variably protease-sensitive prionopathy, has
      contributed greater complexity. Nevertheless, it is the mobility of the
      unglycosylated PrPres band, the relative abundance of the two glycosylated bands
      or overall profile of the banding post-PK, in combination with the prion protein
      gene (PRNP) codon 129 genotype that allows the categorisation of molecular
      subtypes of sporadic human prion disease. These subtypes appear to correlate with
      distinct clinico-pathological profiles of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

PMID- 28861801
TI  - Intercellular Prion-Like Conversion and Transmission of Cu/Zn Superoxide
      Dismutase (SOD1) in Cell Culture.
AB  - The prion hypothesis has extended to the fatal motor neuron disease, amyotrophic
      lateral sclerosis (ALS), as a means to explain the spatiotemporal spread of
      pathology from one or more focal points through the neuroaxis. About 20% of
      inheritable cases of ALS are due to mutation in the gene encoding the Cu/Zn
      superoxide dismutase (SOD1), causing the protein to misfold and form neurotoxic
      aggregates. Mutant SOD1 has been shown to impart its misfold onto natively folded
      wild-type SOD1 in living cells. Furthermore, misfolded wild-type SOD1 can itself
      induce further rounds of propagated SOD1 misfolding. Finally, this prion-like
      mechanism of propagated SOD1 misfolding can be transmitted from cell to cell in
      human cell culture. Here, we describe a protocol for the induction of wild-type
      SOD1 misfolding inside living cells and its subsequent transmission from cell to
      cell in a prion-like fashion.

PMID- 28861802
TI  - Distinct Recurrence Risk Factors for Intrahepatic Metastasis and Multicenter
      Occurrence After Surgery in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: What Is More
      Is About Different Therapeutic Strategies.

PMID- 28861803
TI  - Electro-acupuncture treatment for internet addiction: Evidence of normalization
      of impulse control disorder in adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To observe the impacts of electro-acupuncture (EA) and psychological
      intervention (PI) on impulsive behavior among internet addiction (IA)
      adolescents. METHODS: Thirty-two IA adolescents were allocated to either EA (16
      cases) or PI (16 cases) group by a randomized digital table. Subjects in the EA
      group received EA treatment and subjects in the PI group received cognition and
      behavior therapy. All adolescents underwent 45-d intervention. Sixteen healthy
      volunteers were recruited into a control group. Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS
      11) scores, Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) as well as the ratio of brain N
      acetyl aspartate (NAA) to creatine (NAA/Cr) and choline (Cho) to creatine
      (Cho/Cr) were recorded by magnetic resonance spectroscopy before and after
      intervention respectively. RESULTS: The IAT scores and BIS-11 total scores in
      both EA and PI group were remarkably decreased after treatment (P<0.05), while EA
      group showed more significant decrease in certain BIS-11 sub-factors (P<0.05).
      Both NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr were significantly improved in EA group after treatment
      (P<0.05); however, there were no significant changes of NAA/Cr or Cho/Cr in PI
      group after treatment (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both EA and PI had significantly
      positive effect on IA adolescents, especially in the aspects of psychological
      experiences and behavioral expressions, EA might have an advantage over PI in
      terms of impulsivity control and brain neuron protection. The mechanism
      underlying this advantage might be related to the increased NAA and Cho levels in
      prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices.

PMID- 28861805
TI  - Recurrent coronary restenosis treated with Chinese medicine: A case report.

PMID- 28861804
TI  - Therapeutic Benefits of Natural Ingredients for Atopic Dermatitis.
AB  - Although a variety of regimens are available for the treatment of atopic
      dermatitis (AD), severe adverse reactions and unpopular costs often limit their
      usage. In contrast, certain inexpensive, naturally-occurring ingredients are
      proven effective for AD with fewer side effects. The beneficial effects of these
      ingredients can be attributed to inhibition of cytokine and chemokine expression,
      IgE production, inflammatory cell infiltration, histamine release, and/or the
      enhancement of epidermal permeability barrier function. Since herbal medicines
      are widely available, inexpensive and generally safe, they could be valuable
      alternatives for the treatment of AD, particularly for those patients who are not
      suitable for the utilization of immune modulators. In this review, we summarize
      the therapeutic benefits of natural ingredients for the treatment of AD and the
      mechanisms of their actions.

PMID- 28861806
TI  - Rutaecarpine Inhibits Intimal Hyperplasia in A Balloon-Injured Rat Artery Model.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and potential mechanisms of rutaecarpine
      (Rut) in a rat artery balloon-injury model. METHODS: The intimal hyperplasia
      model was established by rubbing the endothelia with a balloon catheter in the
      common carotid artery (CCA) of rats. Fifty rats were randomly divided into five
      groups, ie. sham, model, Rut (25, 50 and 75 mg/kg) with 10 rats of each group.
      The rats were treated with or without Rut (25, 50, 75 mg/kg) by intragastric
      administration for 14 consecutive days following injury. The morphological
      changes of the intima were evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin staining. The
      expressions of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and smooth muscle (SM)
      alpha-actin in the ateries were assayed by immunohistochemical staining. The mRNA
      expressions of c-myc, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2), MAPK
      phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were
      determined by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The
      protein expressions of MKP-1 and phosphorylated ERK2 (p-ERK2) were examined by
      Western blotting. The plasma contents of nitric oxide (NO) and cyclic guanosine
      3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) were also determined. RESULTS: Compared with the model
      group, Rut treatment significantly decreased intimal thickening and ameliorated
      endothelial injury (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The positive expression rate of PCNA was
      decreased, while the expression rate of SM alpha-actin obviously increased in the
      vascular wall after Rut (50 and 75 mg/kg) administration (P<0.05 or P<0.01).
      Furthermore, the mRNA expressions of c-myc, ERK2 and PCNA were downregulated
      while the expressions of eNOS and MKP-1 were upregulated (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The
      protein expressions of MKP-1 and the phosphorylation of ERK2 were upregulated and
      downregulated after Rut (50 and 75 mg/kg) administration (P<0.05 or P<0.01),
      respectively. In addition, Rut dramatically reversed balloon injury-induced
      decrease of NO and cGMP in the plasma (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Rut could
      inhibit the balloon injury-induced carotid intimal hyperplasia in rats, possibly
      mediated by promotion of NO production and inhibiting ERK2 signal transduction
      pathways.

PMID- 28861807
TI  - Oral Secretions Affect HIPVs Induced by Generalist (Mythimna loreyi) and
      Specialist (Parnara guttata) Herbivores in Rice.
AB  - Plants synthesize variable mixtures of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs)
      as part of their evolutionary conserved defense. To elucidate the impact of
      chewing herbivores with different level of adaptation on HIPV profiles in rice,
      we measured HIPVs released from rice seedlings challenged by either the
      generalist herbivore Mythimna loreyi (MYL) or the specialist Parnara guttata
      (PAG). Both herbivores markedly elicited the emission of HIPVs, mainly on the
      second and third days after attack compared to control plants. In addition, side
      by-side HIPV comparisons using MYL and PAG caterpillars revealed that generalist
      feeding induced comparably more HIPVs relative to specialist, particularly on day
      two as highlighted by multivariate analysis (PLS-DA) of emitted HIPVs, and
      further confirmed in mimicked herbivory experiments. Here, mechanically wounded
      plants treated with water (WW) released more VOCs than untreated controls, and on
      top of this, oral secretions (OS) from both herbivores showed differential
      effects on volatile emissions from the wounded plants. Similar to actual
      herbivory, MYL OS promoted higher amounts of HIPVs relative to PAG OS, thus
      supporting disparate induction of rice indirect defenses in response to
      generalist and specialist herbivores, which could be due to the differential
      composition of their OS. (196 words).

PMID- 28861808
TI  - A Review of Thoracic and Mediastinal Cytoreductive Techniques in Advanced Ovarian
      Cancer: Extending the Boundaries.
AB  - The aim of this study was to review the surgical and clinical outcomes of
      intrathoracic and mediastinal surgical cytoreduction in stage IV epithelial
      ovarian cancer (EOC). Relevant articles were identified from MEDLINE and EMBASE.
      Only analyses or reports that described actual intrathoracic cytoreduction via
      pleurectomy and/or resection of cardiophrenic/mediastinal lymph nodes were
      included. Imaging articles that merely described thoracic tumor patterns were
      excluded. A total of nine studies were identified, the oldest originating in
      2007. Procedures described were transdiaphragmatic resection of cardiophrenic
      lymph nodes and pleural disease (n = 5) and video-assisted thoracoscopic and
      mediastinal tumorectomies including pleurectomy (n = 4). The number of operated
      patients ranged between 1 and 30 with complete cytoreduction rates ranging
      between 68 and 100%. No surgical deaths directly related to the thoracic
      cytoreduction were reported and only one patient (1/30) experienced a
      postoperative complication in terms of a pneumothorax. None of the studies
      presented a direct comparison of survival to patients with thoracic disease who
      did not undergo thoracic cytoreduction, and therefore the survival benefit of
      thoracic cytoreduction could not be quantified. In conclusion, thoracic
      cytoreduction in advanced EOC seems feasible and with acceptable morbidity while
      offering a better understanding of the extent of disease and hence allowing the
      tailoring of intraabdominal resections. Nevertheless, its direct impact on
      patients' survival by a potential overruling of a more adverse tumor biology
      remains to be established in larger-scale prospective and ideally randomized
      trials.

PMID- 28861809
TI  - Negative Impact of Skeletal Muscle Wasting After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
      Followed by Surgery on Survival for Patients with Thoracic Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skeletal muscle wasting during curative treatment is an important
      issue faced by esophageal cancer patients. However, it has not been clarified
      whether skeletal muscle change during neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by
      surgery adversely affects prognosis. This study aimed to determine the relation
      between skeletal muscle change and survival for patients with advanced esophageal
      cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery. METHODS: This
      study retrospectively analyzed 66 patients with thoracic esophageal cancer who
      had undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by esophagectomy. The study
      investigated the correlation between the change in the total muscle cross
      sectional area at the third lumbar vertebra before and 4 months after surgery as
      well as the postoperative recurrence and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Of the
      66 patients, 39 (59%) showed a skeletal muscle decrease from baseline to 4 months
      after esophagectomy. The change in the skeletal muscle index from baseline to 4
      months after surgery was -1.2 cm2/m2. Multivariable analysis showed that
      nonsquamous cell carcinoma subtype (hazard ratio [HR] 2.57; p = 0.029),
      pathologic stage (HR 5.73; p < 0.01), and skeletal muscle wasting (HR per 1 unit
      decrease in skeletal muscle index, 1.16; p = 0.015) were the independent
      prognostic factors associated with worse OS. Additionally, pathologic stage (HR
      6.03; p < 0.01) and skeletal muscle wasting (HR per 1 unit decrease in skeletal
      muscle index, 1.11; p = 0.048) also were found to be independent prognostic
      factors associated with worse recurrence-free survival. CONCLUSIONS: The study
      findings suggest that skeletal muscle wasting from baseline has a negative impact
      on cancer recurrence and survival.

PMID- 28861810
TI  - Profiling methyl jasmonate-responsive transcriptome for understanding induced
      systemic resistance in whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis).
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: RNA-seq analysis on whitebark pine needles demonstrated that methyl
      jasmonate (MeJA)-triggered transcriptome re-programming substantially overlapped
      with defense responses against insects and fungal pathogens in Pinus species,
      increasing current knowledge regarding induced systemic resistance (ISR) to
      pathogens and pests in whitebark pine. Many whitebark pine populations are in
      steep decline due to high susceptibility to mountain pine beetle and the non
      native white pine blister rust (WPBR). Resistance, including induced systemic
      resistance (ISR), is not well characterized in whitebark pine, narrowing the
      current options for increasing the success of restoration and breeding programs.
      Exogenous jasmonates are known to trigger ISR by activating the plant's immune
      system through regulation of gene expression to produce chemical defense
      compounds. This study reports profiles of whitebark pine needle transcriptomes,
      following methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment using RNA-seq. A MeJA-responsive
      transcriptome was de novo assembled and transcriptome profiling identified a set
      of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), revealing 1422 up- and 999 down
      regulated transcripts with at least twofold change (FDR corrected p < 0.05) in
      needle tissues in response to MeJA application. GO analysis revealed that these
      DEGs have putative functions in plant defense signalling, transcription
      regulation, biosyntheses of secondary metabolites, and other biological
      processes. Lineage-specific expression of defense-related genes was characterized
      through comparison with MeJA signalling in model plants. In particular, MeJA
      triggered transcriptome re-programming substantially overlapped with defense
      responses against WPBR and insects in related Pinus species, suggesting that MeJA
      may be used to improve whitebark pine resistance to pathogens/pests. Our study
      provides new insights into molecular mechanisms and metabolic pathways involved
      in whitebark pine ISR. DEGs identified in this study can be used as candidates to
      facilitate identification of genomic variation contributing to host resistance
      and aid in breeding selection of elite genotypes with better adaptive fitness to
      environmental stressors in this endangered tree species.

PMID- 28861812
TI  - Review of Ordering Don't Resuscitate in Iranian Dying Patients.
AB  - Making decision on not to resuscitate is a confusing, conflicting and complex
      issue and depends on each country's culture and customs. Therefore, each country
      needs to take action in accordance with its cultural, ethical, religious and
      legal contexts to develop guidelines in this regard. Since the majority of Iran's
      people are Muslims, and in Islam, the human life is considered sacred, based on
      the values of the community, an Iranian Islamic agenda needs to be developed not
      taking measures about resuscitation of dying patients. It is necessary to develop
      an Iranian Islamic guidelines package in order to don't resuscitate in dying
      patients.

PMID- 28861811
TI  - Differential Effects of Antiretroviral Drugs on Neurons In Vitro: Roles for
      Oxidative Stress and Integrated Stress Response.
AB  - Mounting evidence suggests that antiretroviral drugs may contribute to the
      persistence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), which impact 30%
      50% of HIV-infected patients in the post-antiretroviral era. We previously
      reported that two first generation HIV protease inhibitors, ritonavir and
      saquinavir, induced oxidative stress, with subsequent neuronal death in vitro,
      which was reversed by augmentation of the endogenous antioxidant response by
      monomethyl fumarate. We herein determined whether two newer-generation PIs,
      darunavir and lopinavir, were deleterious to neurons in vitro. Further, we
      expanded our assessment to include three integrase strand transfer inhibitors,
      raltegravir, dolutegravir, and elvitegravir. We found that only lopinavir and
      elvitegravir were neurotoxic to primary rat neuroglial cultures as determined by
      the loss of microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2). Intriguingly, lopinavir but
      not elvitegravir led to oxidative stress and induced the endogenous antioxidant
      response (EAR). Furthermore, neurotoxicity of lopinavir was blocked by
      pharmacological augmentation of the endogenous antioxidant heme oxygenase-1 (HO
      1), expanding our previous finding that protease inhibitor-induced neurotoxicity
      was mediated by oxidative stress. Conversely, elvitegravir but not lopinavir led
      to increased eIF2alpha phosphorylation, indicating the activation of a common
      adaptive pathway termed the integrated stress response (ISR), and elvitegravir
      mediated neurotoxicity was partially alleviated by the ISR inhibitor trans-ISRIB,
      suggesting ISR as a promoter of elvitegravir-associated neurotoxicity. Overall,
      we found that neurotoxicity was induced only by a subset of protease inhibitors
      and integrase strand transfer inhibitors, providing evidence for class- and drug
      specific neurotoxic effects of antiretroviral drugs. Future in vivo studies will
      be critical to confirm the neurotoxicity profiles of these drugs for
      incorporation of these findings into patient management. The EAR and ISR pathways
      are potential access points for the development of adjunctive therapies to
      complement antiretroviral therapies and limit their contribution to HAND
      persistence.

PMID- 28861813
TI  - An Overview of Protein Secretion in Yeast and Animal Cells.
AB  - Protein secretion mediated by the secretory transport pathway is an important
      cellular process in eukaryotic cells. In the conventional secretory transport
      pathway, newly synthesized proteins pass through several endomembrane
      compartments en route to their specific destinations. Transport of secretory
      proteins between different compartments is shuttled by small, membrane-enclosed
      vesicles. To ensure the fidelity of transport, eukaryotic cells employ elaborate
      molecular machineries to accurately sort newly synthesized proteins into specific
      transport vesicles and precisely deliver these transport vesicles to distinct
      acceptor compartments. In this review, we summarize the molecular machineries
      that regulate each step of vesicular transport in the secretory transport pathway
      in yeast and animal cells.

PMID- 28861814
TI  - An Overview of Protein Secretion in Plant Cells.
AB  - The delivery of proteins to the apoplast or protein secretion is an essential
      process in plant cells. Proteins are secreted to perform various biological
      functions such as cell wall modification and defense response. Conserved from
      yeast to mammals, both conventional and unconventional protein secretion pathways
      have been demonstrated in plants. In the conventional protein secretion pathway,
      secretory proteins with an N-terminal signal peptide are transported to the
      extracellular region via the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi apparatus and the
      subsequent endomembrane system. By contrast, multiple unconventional protein
      secretion pathways are proposed to mediate the secretion of the leaderless
      secretory proteins. In this review, we summarize the recent findings and provide
      a comprehensive overview of protein secretion pathways in plant cells.

PMID- 28861815
TI  - Bioinformatics Analysis of Protein Secretion in Plants.
AB  - In sessile plants, the dynamic protein secretion pathways orchestrate the
      cellular responses to internal signals and external environmental changes in
      almost every aspect of plant developmental events. The cohort of plant proteins,
      secreted from the plant cells into the extracellular matrix, has been annotated
      as plant secretome. Therefore, the identification and characterization of
      secreted proteins will discover novel secretory potentials and establish the
      functional connection between cellular protein secretion and plant physiological
      phenomena. Noteworthy, an increasing number of bioinformatics databases and tools
      have been developed for computational predictions on either secreted proteins or
      secretory pathways. This chapter summarizes current accessible databases and
      tools for protein secretion analysis in Arabidopsis thaliana and higher plants,
      and provides feasible methodologies for bioinformatics analysis of secretome
      studies for the plant research community.

PMID- 28861816
TI  - Proteomic Analysis of Secreted Proteins from Cell Microenvironment.
AB  - Cell microenvironment consists of various types of cells which communicate with
      each other by vast number of secreted proteins. An unbiased profiling of these
      secreted proteins on a global scale is often critical for understanding the
      intercellular signaling in an autocrine or paracrine manner. Mass spectrometry
      based proteomics has become one of the most popular technology for
      characterization of the secreted proteins. In this chapter, we discuss the
      standard workflow for secreted proteins characterization, including harvesting
      secreted proteins from conditioned media, digesting the obtained proteins, liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, and downstream data analysis.

PMID- 28861817
TI  - Using Homology Modeling to Understand the Structural Basis of Specific
      Interaction of a Plant-Specific AtSar1a-AtSec23a Pair Involved in Protein ER
      Export.
AB  - Homology modeling allows the prediction of a protein structure based on sequence
      similarity to a known structure of homologous proteins. In this chapter, we use a
      plant-specific AtSar1a-Atsec23a pair of proteins as a case study to illustrate
      how to use homology modeling to understand the specificity of the pairwise
      interaction between AtSar1a and AtSec23a. The detailed procedures described here
      are also useful in structure prediction of other protein complexes.

PMID- 28861818
TI  - Analysis of Golgi-Mediated Protein Traffic in Plant Cells.
AB  - In plant secretory pathways, the Golgi apparatus serves as the major sorting hub
      to receive de novo synthesized protein from the endoplasmic reticulum for further
      sorting to post-Golgi compartments or for residence in the cisternae of Golgi
      stacks. Meanwhile, Golgi functions as a pivotal biochemical factory to make
      modifications of N-glycans and to produce mature glycoproteins. Fluorescent tag
      based confocal microscopy in combination with the brefeldin A drug or the genetic
      tools to disturb Golgi function have been shown as powerful approaches to analyze
      Golgi-mediated protein traffic in transiently expressed plant protoplasts or in
      stably expressed transgenic plants. Various endoglycosidases like Endo H and
      PNGase F have been widely used to monitor Golgi-mediated glycosylation of
      secretory proteins. Here, using fluorescently tagged Golgi-resident proteins and
      known glycosylated proteins as examples, we describe detailed protocols to
      analyze Golgi-mediated protein traffic and glycosylation in transiently expressed
      protoplasts derived from Arabidopsis suspension culture cells and in stably
      expressed transgenic plants.

PMID- 28861819
TI  - Analysis of Membrane Protein Topology in the Plant Secretory Pathway.
AB  - Topology of membrane proteins provides important information for the
      understanding of protein function and intermolecular associations. Integrate
      membrane proteins are generally transported from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to
      Golgi and downstream compartments in the plant secretory pathway. Here, we
      describe a simple method to study membrane protein topology along the plant
      secretory pathway by transiently coexpressing a fluorescent protein (XFP)-tagged
      membrane protein and an ER export inhibitor protein, ARF1 (T31N), in tobacco BY-2
      protoplast. By fractionation, microsome isolation, and trypsin digestion,
      membrane protein topology could be easily detected by either direct confocal
      microscopy imaging or western-blot analysis using specific XFP antibodies. A
      similar strategy in determining membrane protein topology could be widely adopted
      and applied to protein analysis in a broad range of eukaryotic systems, including
      yeast cells and mammalian cells.

PMID- 28861820
TI  - Semiautomatic Segmentation of Plant Golgi Stacks in Electron Tomograms Using
      3dmod.
AB  - Electron tomography is a powerful tool for visualizing subcellular organelles.
      With the advances in cryo-fixation techniques, it is now possible to reconstruct
      complex structures in cells preserved close to their native states in three
      dimension (3D) using electron tomography. In order to better visualize these
      objects, 3D models are made from outlines of organelles in individual tomographic
      slices, which can be used to display morphological features and quantify
      structural parameters. While outlines of simple organelles can be drawn by hand
      fairly quickly, it is possible to accelerate 3D modeling of more complex
      organelles by means of semiautomatic segmentation. In this chapter, we use the
      example of reconstructing Golgi cisternae of a plant cell into 3D models using
      the semiautomatic protocol.

PMID- 28861821
TI  - 3D Printing of Plant Golgi Stacks from Their Electron Tomographic Models.
AB  - Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an effective tool for preparing tangible 3D
      models from computer visualizations to assist in scientific research and
      education. With the recent popularization of 3D printing processes, it is now
      possible for individual laboratories to convert their scientific data into a
      physical form suitable for presentation or teaching purposes. Electron tomography
      is an electron microscopy method by which 3D structures of subcellular organelles
      or macromolecular complexes are determined at nanometer-level resolutions.
      Electron tomography analyses have revealed the convoluted membrane architectures
      of Golgi stacks, chloroplasts, and mitochondria. But the intricacy of their 3D
      organizations is difficult to grasp from tomographic models illustrated on
      computer screens. Despite the rapid development of 3D printing technologies,
      production of organelle models based on experimental data with 3D printing has
      rarely been documented. In this chapter, we present a simple guide to creating 3D
      prints of electron tomographic models of plant Golgi stacks using the two most
      accessible 3D printing technologies.

PMID- 28861822
TI  - Transient Expression of Chimeric Fluorescent Reporter Proteins in Pollen Tubes to
      Study Protein Polar Secretion and Dynamics.
AB  - Transient expression of chimeric fluorescent reporter proteins by biolistic
      bombardment is a quick and useful procedure for studying subcellular protein
      localization and dynamics in plants. It is especially beneficial in specific
      plant cells which are not suitable for protoplast-based and Agrobacterium
      mediated protein transient expression. Polar protein secretion and vesicular
      trafficking play essential functions for cell polarization and tip growth. The
      growing pollen tube is regarded as an ideal model plant cell system to study the
      machinery and regulation of polar protein trafficking and targeting. A large
      amount of newly synthesized proteins are packed and polarly transported to the
      apical region to support the rapid and highly polarized tip growth. Here, we
      described a detailed step-by-step protocol for the transient expression of
      chimeric fluorescent reporter proteins in growing Arabidopsis and tobacco pollen
      tubes to study polar transportation logistics and mechanisms. In addition, we
      have optimized the Arabidopsis and tobacco in vitro pollen germination medium and
      the conditions to maximize the efficiency of protein expression. As a proof of
      concept, we have used this protocol to express actin microfilament and late
      endosomal fluorescent markers in Arabidopsis and tobacco pollen tubes.

PMID- 28861823
TI  - Analysis of Actin-Based Intracellular Trafficking in Pollen Tubes.
AB  - Underlying rapid and directional pollen tube growth is the active intracellular
      trafficking system that carries materials necessary for cell wall synthesis and
      membrane expansion to the expanding point of the pollen tube. The actin
      cytoskeleton has been shown to control various intracellular trafficking events
      in the pollen tube, but the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain
      poorly understood. To better understand how the actin cytoskeleton is involved in
      the regulation of intracellular trafficking events, we need to establish assays
      to visualize and quantify the distribution and dynamics of organelles, vesicles,
      or secreted proteins. In this chapter, we introduce methods regarding the
      visualization and quantification of the distribution and dynamics of organelles
      or vesicles in pollen tubes.

PMID- 28861824
TI  - Analysis of Phragmoplast Kinetics During Plant Cytokinesis.
AB  - In plants, the partitioning of daughter cells during cytokinesis is achieved via
      physical insertion of a membranous cell plate within the dividing parent cell. It
      is a cellular process of extensive protein secretion and membrane trafficking
      toward the plane of cell division and the cytoskeleton is an important
      facilitator of this process. A specialized cytoskeletal array termed phragmoplast
      expands centrifugally throughout cytokinesis and directs, mostly Golgi-derived
      vesicles that ultimately fuse to form the developing cell plate. The function of
      the phragmoplast in guiding cell plate synthesis has strongly motivated many
      scientists to monitor its dynamic behavior. In this chapter, we present an
      overview of basic principles and methods concerning the live imaging of
      cytokinetic plant cells using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and the
      analysis of phragmoplast expansion.

PMID- 28861825
TI  - Immunofluorescence Analysis of Membrane-Associated Proteins for Clathrin-Mediated
      Endocytosis in Plant Root Cells.
AB  - The root is an ideal model system for studying subcellular localization and
      dynamic trafficking of important membrane-associated proteins in plants.
      Immunofluorescence analysis is necessary to reveal subcellular localization and
      intracellular trafficking of endogenous proteins as epitope tags or fluorescent
      proteins may cause mislocation of fusion proteins. Here, we describe a rapid and
      reliable immunodetection protocol for whole-mount in situ localization of
      membrane-associated proteins involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) in
      Arabidopsis root cells. The whole procedure includes five basic steps: tissue
      fixation, tissue permeation, blocking, primary antibody incubation, and secondary
      antibody incubation.

PMID- 28861826
TI  - In Vivo Interaction Studies by Measuring Forster Resonance Energy Transfer
      Through Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FRET/FLIM).
AB  - Combinations of multiple fluorescent fusion proteins are commonly generated and
      used for colocalization studies in live cell imaging but also biochemical
      analysis of protein-protein interactions by co-immunoprecipitation in vitro.
      Advanced microscopy techniques like Forster resonance energy transfer through
      fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FRET/FLIM) nowadays enable the
      combination of both approaches. This opens up the possibility to perform a
      location-specific protein-protein interaction analysis in vivo. To this end, the
      nonradiant energy transfer from a donor to an acceptor fluorophore (FRET) is
      harnessed to test for close proximity as an indicator for interaction, while the
      spectromicroscopical measurement of the fluorescence lifetime by FLIM serves as a
      readout.Here, we describe FRET/FLIM measurements performed with a Leica TCS
      SP8/PicoHarp 300 combination to demonstrate the interaction between a RFP-tagged
      GFP-nanobody and its epitope, GFP, in the cytoplasm of tobacco mesophyll
      protoplasts.

PMID- 28861827
TI  - Analysis of Nanobody-Epitope Interactions in Living Cells via Quantitative
      Protein Transport Assays.
AB  - Over the past few decades, quantitative protein transport analyses have been used
      to elucidate the sorting and transport of proteins in the endomembrane system of
      plants. Here, we have applied our knowledge about transport routes and the
      corresponding sorting signals to establish an in vivo system for testing specific
      interactions between soluble proteins.Here, we describe the use of quantitative
      protein transport assays in tobacco mesophyll protoplasts to test for
      interactions occurring between a GFP-binding nanobody and its GFP epitope. For
      this, we use a secreted GFP-tagged alpha-amylase as a reporter together with a
      vacuolar-targeted RFP-tagged nanobody. The interaction between these proteins is
      then revealed by a transport alteration of the secretory reporter due to the
      interaction-triggered attachment of the vacuolar sorting signal.

PMID- 28861828
TI  - A Secretion System for Cargo Protein Identification of Vacuolar Sorting
      Receptors.
AB  - Vacuolar sorting receptors (VSRs) are type I integral membrane family proteins in
      plant cells that can sort cargo proteins at the late Golgi or trans-Golgi network
      (TGN) for vacuolar transport via the prevacuolar compartment (PVC). However,
      little is known about VSR cargo proteins in plants. Here, we describe a new
      method for the identification of VSR cargos, which is based on the premise that
      the expressed N-terminus of VSRs will be secreted into the culture media along
      with their corresponding cargo proteins. The protocol described here should be
      applicable to all VSRs and should be also useful for other receptor cargo
      identification and protein-protein interaction in vivo.

PMID- 28861829
TI  - Identifying Novel Regulators of Vacuolar Trafficking by Combining Fluorescence
      Imaging-Based Forward Genetic Screening and In Vitro Pollen Germination.
AB  - Subcellular targeting of vacuolar proteins depends on cellular machinery
      regulating vesicular trafficking. Plant-specific vacuolar trafficking routes have
      been reported. However, regulators mediating these processes are obscure. By
      combining a fluorescence imaging-based forward genetic approach and in vitro
      pollen germination system, we show an efficient protocol of identifying
      regulators of plant-specific vacuolar trafficking routes.

PMID- 28861830
TI  - Measuring Plant Protein Secretion.
AB  - Fluorescent protein fusions are widely used for visualizing the subcellular
      localization and mobility of intercellular proteins. There is now a variety of
      colors, expression vectors, and photoactivated molecules to choose from, each
      with their own strengths and limitations. In this chapter, the methodologies for
      expressing and quantifying protein secretion with fluorescent protein fusion
      constructs using two separate protocols-one in which the retention of a
      transiently expressed fluorescent marker is measured in seedling roots to
      quantify a block in secretion, and one in which the secretion of a fluorescent
      marker into the space of the apoplast is measured to quantify secretion in plant
      leaves-are described. In the first protocol, seedling roots are transiently
      transformed with multicistronic constructs; and in the second protocol, markers
      can be stably expressed and controlled under an inducible promoter in mature
      plants. Both methods provide tools for quantifying protein secretion and
      visualizing defects in secretion pathways in Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28861831
TI  - Transient Secretory Enzyme Expression in Leaf Protoplasts to Characterize SNARE
      Functional Classes in Conventional and Unconventional Secretion.
AB  - Despite a long case history, the use of protoplasts in cell biology research
      still divides scientists but their weaknesses can be exploited as strengths.
      Transient expression in protoplasts can saturate protein-protein interactions
      very efficiently, inhibiting the process of interest more efficiently than other
      approaches at gene expression level. The method described here consists of an
      assay providing a functional characterization of SNARE proteins in a
      heterogeneous population of cells, by the comparison of native and dominant
      negative mutant forms. In particular, it allows for discriminating between t
      SNARE and i-SNARE functional classes.

PMID- 28861833
TI  - Analysis of Exocyst-Positive Organelle (EXPO)-Mediated Unconventional Protein
      Secretion (UPS) in Plant Cells.
AB  - Unconventional protein secretion (UPS) together with conventional protein
      secretion (CPS) is responsible for protein secretion in plants. We have
      previously identified a novel UPS pathway in plants, which is mediated by exocyst
      positive organelle-EXPO. Here, we describe detailed protocols to study UPS in
      plants by using Arabidopsis protoplasts or transgenic suspension cells,
      expressing the EXPO marker Exo70E2-XFP, as materials. Via drug and osmotic
      treatment plus secretion assay, we illustrate several major methods to analyze
      EXPO-mediated UPS in plant cells, which also supplys mining tools for similar
      study.

PMID- 28861832
TI  - The Organelle pH Estimate and Measurement in Plant Secretory Pathway.
AB  - The maintenance of pH in the intracellular compartments is essential for the
      viability of cells. Several genetically encoded fluorescent pH sensors have been
      developed for noninvasive in vivo analysis. Here, we describe the methods using
      PEpHluorin (plant-solubility-modified ecliptic pHluorin) and PRpHluorin (plant
      solubility-modified ratiometric pHluorin) as pH sensors for in vivo visualization
      and quantification organelle pH of in plant secretory pathway.

PMID- 28861834
TI  - Isolation of the Plant Exocyst Complex.
AB  - The exocyst, conserved from yeast to plants to mammals, is a hetero-octameric
      complex that mediates tethering of secretory vesicles to designated sites on the
      plasma membrane during polarized exocytosis. Because structural studies of the
      intact exocyst complex have been greatly limited by the low yields of purified
      proteins, many aspects of the exocyst functions remain poorly understood. Here,
      we present the protocols for the isolation and purification of the recombinant
      and the native plant exocyst complex. Given the known diversification of the
      exocyst subunits in plants, our protocols will likely open the possibility of
      unraveling the functional significance of these subunits in the context of the
      fully assembled exocyst complex.

PMID- 28861835
TI  - Using Microscopy Tools to Visualize Autophagosomal Structures in Plant Cells.
AB  - Macroautophagy (hereafter as autophagy), is a metabolic process for sequestration
      of cytoplasmic cargos into a double membrane structure named as autophagosome. In
      plants, autophagy is required for nutrition mobilization/recycling and clearance
      of protein aggregates or damaged organelles during starvation or other
      unfavorable conditions, as well as for plant immunity during pathogen infection.
      Multiple experimental approaches have been developed to elucidate the autophagic
      activity. To facilitate further investigations on the potential involvement of
      autophagy in protein secretion process in plant cells, here we describe detailed
      protocols to measure the autophagic activity in model plant Arabidopsis. Using
      the autophagosome marker ATG8 and a novel autophagic regulator SH3P2 as examples,
      we illustrate the major cell biology tools and methods using microscopy to
      analyze the autophagosomal structures in plant cells, including BTH-induced
      autophagic response, transient expression and colocalization analysis, as well as
      immuno-EM labeling.

PMID- 28861836
TI  - Analysis of Plant Autophagy.
AB  - Autophagy is an intercellular degradation/recycling system by which cytoplasmic
      components are sequestered in autophagic vesicles (autophagosomes) and delivered
      to the vacuole for breakdown. During the last decade, plant studies have revealed
      that autophagy is employed as a major route to recycle nutrients needed for plant
      growth and development, and to combat with a wide range of biotic and abiotic
      stresses. Another important outcome of these studies was the development and
      optimization of methods and techniques for monitoring autophagy activity in
      plants. In this chapter, methods frequently used in plant autophagy study, from
      physiological to biochemical and microscopical analyses, are discussed.

PMID- 28861837
TI  - Cardiovascular Effects of the MEK Inhibitor, Trametinib: A Case Report,
      Literature Review, and Consideration of Mechanism.
AB  - The MEK inhibitor trametinib was approved in 2013 for the treatment of
      unresectable or metastatic melanoma with a BRAF V600E mutation, the most common
      pathogenic mutation in melanoma. Trametinib blocks activation of ERK1/2,
      inhibiting cell proliferation in melanoma. ERK1/2 also protects against multiple
      types of cardiac insult in mouse models. Trametinib improves survival in melanoma
      patients, but evidence of unanticipated cardiotoxicity is emerging. Here we
      describe the case of a patient with metastatic melanoma who developed acute
      systolic heart failure after trametinib treatment and present the results of the
      literature review prompted by this case. A patient with no cardiac history
      presented with a 6.5-mm skin lesion and was found to have metastatic BRAF V600E
      melanoma. Combination treatment with trametinib and the BRAF inhibitor,
      dabrafenib, was initiated. The patient's pre-treatment ejection fraction was 55
      60%. His EF declined after 13 days and that was 40% 1 month after treatment. Two
      months after initiating trametinib, he developed dyspnea and fatigue. We
      conducted a chart review in the electronic medical record. We conducted a PubMed
      search using trametinib/adverse effects AND ("heart failure" OR "left ventricular
      dysfunction" OR hypertension OR cardiotoxicity OR mortality). We also queried the
      FDA Adverse Events Reporting System for reports of cardiomyopathy, ejection
      fraction decrease, and left ventricular dysfunction associated with trametinib
      between January 1, 2013, and July 20, 2017. The literature search retrieved 19
      articles, including clinical trials and case reports. Early clinical experience
      with the MEK inhibitor trametinib suggests that its clinical efficacy may be
      compromised by cardiotoxicity. Further studies in humans and animals are required
      to determine the extent of this adverse effect, as well as its underlying
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28861838
TI  - Metal concentrations in American oyster Crassotrea virginica and adjacent
      sediments from harvestable and non-harvestable sites in the Southeastern USA.
AB  - Human population growth in coastal areas continues to threaten estuarine
      ecosystems and resources. Populations of Crassostrea virginica have declined
      across the USA due to water quality degradation, disease pressure, alteration of
      habitat, and other changes related to anthropogenic impacts. Metals that may be
      present in estuarine habitats can bioaccumulate in oysters, with potential
      consequences to the health of oysters and humans consumers. This study (1)
      evaluated the occurrence and relationships of metal concentrations in oyster
      tissue versus estuarine sediments, (2) examined oyster tissue concentrations in
      relation to state water quality designations, and (3) evaluated the potential
      risk for humans from oyster consumption related to metal concentrations from
      harvestable waters. Results indicated metal concentrations in sediments and
      oysters along coastal South Carolina remain low compared to other areas and that
      concentrations in oyster tissue and adjacent sediments were not highly correlated
      with each other. However, high concentrations of some metals occurred in oysters
      sampled from areas designated as Approved for Harvesting. This is important
      because most harvest area designation systems rely on regular bacterial
      monitoring when evaluating the safety of consumption. Others safety measurements
      may be necessary as part of routine monitoring.

PMID- 28861839
TI  - Factors controlling groundwater quality in the Yeonjegu District of Busan City,
      Korea, using the hydrogeochemical processes and fuzzy GIS.
AB  - The hydrogeochemical processes and fuzzy GIS techniques were used to evaluate the
      groundwater quality in the Yeonjegu district of Busan Metropolitan City, Korea.
      The highest concentrations of major ions were mainly related to the local
      geology. The seawater intrusion into the river water and municipal contaminants
      were secondary contamination sources of groundwater in the study area. Factor
      analysis represented the contamination sources of the mineral dissolution of the
      host rocks and domestic influences. The Gibbs plot exhibited that the major ions
      were derived from the rock weathering condition. Piper's trilinear diagram showed
      that the groundwater quality was classified into five types of CaHCO3, NaHCO3,
      NaCl, CaCl2, and CaSO4 types in that order. The ionic relationship and the
      saturation mineral index of the ions indicated that the evaporation, dissolution,
      and precipitation processes controlled the groundwater chemistry. The fuzzy GIS
      map showed that highly contaminated groundwater occurred in the northeastern and
      the central parts and that the groundwater of medium quality appeared in most
      parts of the study area. It suggested that the groundwater quality of the study
      area was influenced by local geology, seawater intrusion, and municipal
      contaminants. This research clearly demonstrated that the geochemical analyses
      and fuzzy GIS method were very useful to identify the contaminant sources and the
      location of good groundwater quality.

PMID- 28861840
TI  - Author response to: Stereotactic accuracy must be as high as possible in
      stereoelectroencephalography procedures.

PMID- 28861841
TI  - The first serological evidence for Rift Valley fever infection in the camel,
      goitered gazelle and Anatolian water buffaloes in Turkey.
AB  - Rift valley fever (RVF), a vector-borne zoonotic disease, is caused by a
      phlebovirus (family Bunyaviridae). The virus was initially characterized
      approximately 80 years ago in Kenya and disseminated to many countries in the
      continental Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The infection has not been reported
      in Turkey. In this study, blood serum samples collected from camel (Camelus
      dromedairus), goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa subgutturosa), and buffaloes
      (Bubalus bubalis linneaus) from 2000 to 2006 were investigated for RVF using C
      ELISA. Camel samples (n = 72) were obtained from private small enterprises in
      Aydin province in theAegean region. Gazella samples (82) were taken from the
      biggest captive gazelle herd in Sanliurfa province in the southeast Anatolia.
      Buffalo samples were collected mostly from small private family type farms in
      Afyon (168), Amasya (80), Samsun (69), Ankara (35), Sivas (21), Tokat (19), Konya
      (10), and Elazig (8) provinces in the central, north, west, and east Anatolia.
      All of the gazella samples were negative; whereas, one of the 71 camel samples
      (1.3%) was positive for RVF-specific antibodies. Buffalos from Sivas, Tokat,
      Konya, and Elazig provinces were negative. However, 35 of the 410 samples (8.5%)
      from rural areas in the following four provinces were positive: Amasya (12/80,
      15%), Ankara (5/35, 14.2%), Samsun (8/69, 11.5%), and Afyon (10/168, 5.9%). To
      our knowledge, this is the first report of presence of RVF infection in Turkey.

PMID- 28861843
TI  - Brain motor functional changes after somatosensory discrimination training.
AB  - Somatosensory discrimination training may modulate cognitive processes, such as
      movement planning and monitoring, which can be useful during active movements.
      The aim of the study was to assess the effect of somatosensory discrimination
      training on brain functional activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging
      (fMRI) during motor and sensory tasks in healthy subjects. Thirty-nine healthy
      young subjects were randomized into two groups: the experimental group underwent
      somatosensory discrimination training consisting of shape, surface and two-point
      distance discrimination; and the control group performed a simple object
      manipulation. At baseline and after 2 weeks of training, subjects underwent
      sensorimotor evaluations and fMRI tasks consisting of right-hand tactile
      stimulation, manipulation of a simple object, and complex right-hand motor
      sequence execution. Right-hand dexterity improved in both groups, but only the
      experimental group showed improvements in all manual dexterity tests. After
      training, the experimental group showed: decreased activation of the ipsilateral
      sensorimotor areas during the tactile stimulation task; increased activation of
      the contralateral postcentral gyrus and thalamus bilaterally during the
      manipulation task; and a reduced recruitment of the ipsilateral pre/postcentral
      gyri and an increased activation of the basal ganglia and cerebellum
      contralaterally during the complex right-hand motor task. In healthy subjects,
      sensory discrimination training was associated with lateralization of brain
      activity in sensorimotor areas during sensory and motor tasks. Further studies
      are needed to investigate the usefulness of this training in motor rehabilitation
      of patients with focal lesions in the central nervous system.

PMID- 28861845
TI  - Face-to-face vs. online peer support groups for prostate cancer: A cross
      sectional comparison study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As social media are evolving rapidly online support groups (OSG) are
      becoming increasingly important for patients. Therefore, the aim of our study was
      to compare the users of traditional face-to-face support groups and OSG. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional comparison study of all regional face
      to-face support groups and the largest OSG in Germany. By applying validated
      instruments, the survey covered sociodemographic and disease-related information,
      decision-making habits, psychological aspects, and quality of life. RESULTS: We
      analyzed the complete data of 955 patients visiting face-to-face support groups
      and 686 patients using OSG. Patients using OSG were 6 years younger (65.3 vs.
      71.5 years; p < 0.001), had higher education levels (47 vs. 21%; p < 0.001), and
      had higher income. Patients using OSG reported a higher share of metastatic
      disease (17 vs. 12%; p < 0.001). Patients using OSG reported greater distress.
      There were no significant differences in anxiety, depression, and global quality
      of life. In the face-to-face support groups, patient ratings were better for
      exchanging information, gaining recognition, and caring for others. Patients
      using OSG demanded a more active role in the treatment decision-making process
      (58 vs. 33%; p < 0.001) and changed their initial treatment decision more
      frequently (29 vs. 25%; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Both modalities of peer support
      received very positive ratings by their users and have significant impact on
      treatment decision-making. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Older patients
      might benefit more from the continuous social support in face-to-face support
      groups. OSG offer low-threshold advice for acute problems to younger and better
      educated patients with high distress. TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.germanctr.de ,
      number DRKS00005086.

PMID- 28861844
TI  - Physical activity and advanced cancer: the views of oncology and palliative care
      physicians in Ireland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity (PA) levels play an important role in maintaining
      the quality of life and enhancing the physical function of advanced cancer
      patients. A brief exercise prompt by physicians can increase PA levels of
      patients diagnosed with cancer. AIMS: This study explores the views of Irish
      oncology and palliative care physicians towards PA for patients with advanced
      cancer. METHODS: A web-based survey with closed- and open-ended questions was
      used to explore physicians' views. The survey presented a Likert-style
      questionnaire and open text responses to two patient case studies. Quantitative
      data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data were
      analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: Forty participants completed the study,
      a response rate of 41%. Responding physicians acknowledged the importance of
      physical activity for patients with advanced cancer. Twenty-six physicians (67%)
      agreed that patients look to them for PA recommendations and 30 physicians (77%)
      indicated a need for more information on providing PA recommendations. Case study
      responses highlighted concerns relating to PA prescription for patients with bone
      metastases including the aggravation of symptom control and increased fracture
      risk. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study identify a need for physician
      education on providing PA recommendations for patients with advanced cancer.
      Concerns over the prescription of PA to patients with bone metastases highlight
      the need to disseminate the evidence on the benefits of PA for patients with
      metastatic cancer to healthcare professionals.

PMID- 28861846
TI  - Generalizing from Case Studies: A Commentary.
AB  - This commentary responds to the articles assembled for the thematic issue Self
      identity on the move: methodological elaborations (IPBS, 51 (2), June 2017). The
      issue points in two directions. Firstly, the articles investigate the way
      individual self-identity develops in changing social and cultural environments,
      specifically in the contexts of family, youth and migration. Secondly, the
      special issue is also interested in methodological elaboration, more specifically
      the question of how one can generalize from individual case studies, especially
      when looking at complex, multiscale, semiotic processes. This commentary
      particularly addresses the second point and uses the various cases in this issue
      (i) to better understand something of the larger intellectual debate around the
      question of 'generalizing from case studies', and (ii) to reflect on writing as a
      tool for indexing generalization. The commentary highlights five textual moves
      the authors use to make their findings relevant beyond the specifics of the local
      study.

PMID- 28861842
TI  - Myeloma and Bone Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Bone disease is a defining characteristic of multiple myeloma
      (MM) and the major cause of morbidity. It manifests as lytic lesions or
      osteopenia and is often associated with severe pain, pathological fracture,
      spinal cord compression, vertebral collapse, and hypercalcemia. Here, we have
      reviewed recent data on understanding its biology and treatment. RECENT FINDINGS:
      The imbalance between bone regeneration and bone resorption underlies the
      pathogenesis of osteolytic bone disease. Increased osteoclast proliferation and
      activity accompanied by inhibition of bone-forming osteoblasts leads to
      progressive bone loss and lytic lesions. Although tremendous progress has been
      made, MM remains an incurable disease. Novel agents targeting bone disease are
      under investigation with the goal of not only preventing bone loss and improving
      bone quality but also harnessing MM tumor growth. Current data illustrate that
      the interactions between MM cells and the tumor-bone microenvironment contribute
      to the bone disease and continued MM progression. A better understanding of this
      microenvironment is critical for novel therapeutic treatments of both MM and
      associated bone disease.

PMID- 28861847
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetics of Mycophenolic Acid: An Update.
AB  - The most recent comprehensive reviews on the population pharmacokinetics of
      mycophenolic acid (MPA) were published in 2014. Since then, several population
      pharmacokinetic studies on MPA have been published. The majority of literature is
      still focused on the kidney transplant population, although studies have also
      been conducted in liver and lung transplantation, autoimmune diseases, and
      hematopoietic stem cell transplant. While the majority of the model building is
      still based on parametric non-linear mixed-effects modeling, recent studies
      suggest the suitability of other methodologies. Additionally, instead of just
      focusing on pharmacokinetic modeling, a trend toward describing the relationships
      between pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters is observed. Given the
      importance of enterohepatic recirculation (EHR) in the pharmacokinetics of MPA,
      more authors have attempted to characterize this process in their models.
      Overall, the recent models have become more sophisticated and incorporate EHR,
      pharmacodynamic relationships, and metabolites while maintaining many of the
      population values and covariates identified previously. However, the number of
      MPA population pharmacokinetic models describing the enteric-coated formulation
      of MPA (EC-MPA) is still limited. Given the increasing use of EC-MPA, more
      studies are needed to fill this literature gap. In addition, few studies are yet
      available characterizing free MPA concentration or MPA metabolites. Given the
      extensive protein binding, low to intermediate extraction, and intrinsic
      clearance characteristics of MPA in humans, including these variables would
      improve the population structural models.

PMID- 28861848
TI  - Update of HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathies.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: HIV-sensory neuropathy (HIV-SN) remains a common complication
      of HIV infection and may be associated with significant morbidity due to
      neuropathic pain. The overall purpose of this review is to discuss trends in the
      changing epidemiology in HIV-SN, new data regarding the pathophysiology of the
      condition, and discuss approaches to management. RECENT FINDINGS: While HIV-SN
      has been historically considered the most common neurological complication of HIV
      infection, improved accessibility to effective combination antiretroviral therapy
      (cART), use of less neurotoxic antiretroviral medication regimens, and trends
      towards earlier introduction of treatment have impacted the condition: overall
      incident HIV-SN is likely decreased compared to prior rates and patients
      afflicted by HIV-SN may more frequently have asymptomatic or subclinical disease.
      Traditional predictors of HIV-SN have also changed, as traditional indices of
      severe immune deficiency such as low CD4 count and high viral load no longer
      predict HIV-SN. Emerging evidence supports the contention that both peripheral
      and central mechanisms underlying the generation as well as persistence of
      neuropathic pain in HIV-SN exist. It is important to recognize that even mild
      neuropathic pain in this clinical population is associated with meaningful
      impairment in quality of life and function, which emphasizes the clinical
      importance of recognizing and treating the condition. The general approach to
      management of neuropathic pain in HIV-SN is the introduction of symptomatic
      analgesic therapy. There exist, however, few evidence-based analgesic options for
      HIV-SN based on available clinical data. Symptomatic treatment trials are
      increasingly recognized to have been potentially confounded by more robust
      placebo response than that observed in other neuropathic pain conditions. In the
      authors' experience, use of analgesic therapies with proven efficacy in other
      neuropathic pain conditions is appropriate, bearing in consideration potential
      pharmacokinetic interactions with the cART regimen. Combination analgesic
      regimens may also achieve meaningful analgesic responses, particularly when drugs
      with differing mechanisms of action are utilized. It is paramount that the
      patient is appropriately counseled regarding expectations and the anticipated
      benefit of analgesic therapy, as pain relief is often incomplete but clinically
      meaningful improvement in pain and function can be achieved.

PMID- 28861850
TI  - Novel simulator for robotic surgery.
AB  - Surgical simulation avoids practicing skills in patients, allowing trainees to
      learn in a safe, controlled, and standardized environment. Current robotic
      surgical simulators available include virtual reality simulators, human cadavers,
      and live animals. The use of cadavers has the highest possible fidelity available
      to practice entire operations. Nevertheless, their cost, availability, tissue
      compliance, and infection risk outweigh the advantages of cadaver models.
      Drawbacks of using live animals include anatomical differences with humans, high
      costs due to their housing and handling requirements, and ethical concerns. We
      designed a novel robotic surgical simulator based on porcine perfused tissue
      blocks that allows the simulation of entire surgical procedures. Our simulation
      allows trainees to increase familiarity with the robotic console and its
      controls, as well as with the docking process. It provides an opportunity to
      learn not only universal skills needed in robotic surgery, such as camera and
      instrument targeting, but also to perform complete surgical procedures such as an
      antireflux procedure. The adoption of robotic simulation curricula with realistic
      models will decrease overall operative time while increasing resident
      participation.

PMID- 28861849
TI  - Internal Carotid Artery Occlusion: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Acute internal carotid artery occlusion (ICAO) is associated
      with large infarcts and poor clinical outcomes and contributes to morbidity and
      mortality worldwide. In this review, we discuss various etiologies and
      pathophysiology of clinical presentations of ICAO, different radiographic
      patterns, and management of patients with ICAO. RECENT FINDINGS: Recanalization
      rates remain suboptimal with systemic thrombolysis amongst patients with acute
      ICAO. Recent success of endovascular therapy for vessel occlusion in anterior
      circulation has expanded the horizons; however, few patients with cervical
      dissections and ICAO were included in these landmark trials. Acute ICAO responds
      poorly to intravenous thrombolysis and portends worse clinical outcomes.
      Extracranial and intracranial ICAOs have varied clinical course and imaging
      patterns, with discrete cervical ICAO usually associated with better clinical
      outcomes while tandem occlusions predispose poor outcomes. Diagnostic catheter
      based angiogram is often required since appearances of ICAO using non-invasive
      neuroimaging modalities are often deceiving. Repeated vascular imaging in acute
      to subacute phase to determine recanalization of ICAO is critical for secondary
      prevention. Recent success of endovascular procedures will continue to expand the
      horizons to improve the management of ICAO.

PMID- 28861851
TI  - A comparison between two double-button endoscopically assisted surgical
      techniques for the treatment acute acromioclavicular dislocations.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare clinical and radiological outcomes between two endoscopically
      assisted double-button techniques in high-grade acute acromioclavicular
      separations. METHODS: A retrospective single-center study was conducted in
      patients with acute acromioclavicular joint dislocation Rockwood types III and V,
      from 2009 to 2014. All were treated endoscopically, with a 1-year minimum follow
      up. Two consecutive series were conducted; the first (TR group) received the
      TightRope(r) system, whereas last series (DB group) was treated with the Dog
      Bone(r) button technology (Arthrex, Naples, FL, USA). Primary endpoints were last
      follow-up values of Constant score (CS) and Quick-DASH (QD) score. Moreover, the
      posttraumatic displacement and its evolution were assessed on bilateral Zanca
      radiographs. A displacement of 5 mm or greater the day after surgery was
      considered as a lack of reduction; the same difference on last follow-up X-rays
      was considered as a loss of reduction. RESULTS: Forty patients were reviewed: 22
      in the TR group and 18 in the DB group. After a mean follow-up of 27.7 +/- 8.3
      months, CS and QD averaged, respectively, 94.3 +/- 4.4 and 2.0 +/- 2.6 in the TR
      series, whereas they averaged, respectively, 95 +/- 6.1 and 3.4 +/- 3.3 in the DB
      series after a mean follow-up of 24.1 +/- 5 months (PCS = 0.16, PQDS = 0.08).
      Lack of reduction and loss of reduction rates were significantly higher in the DB
      group, with P = 0.0005 and P < 0.0001, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Both techniques
      provided good to excellent functional outcomes. However, considering inferior
      radiological results using the Dog Bone(r) device, we would prefer the
      TightRope(r) device in acute acromioclavicular dislocations. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      IV: Therapeutic study-cases series.

PMID- 28861852
TI  - Antithrombin deficiency and decreased protein C activity in a young man with
      venous thromboembolism: a case report.
AB  - Antithrombin and protein C are two crucial members in the anticoagulant system
      and play important roles in hemostasis. Mutations in SERPINC1 and PROC lead to
      deficiency or dysfunction of the two proteins, which could result in venous
      thromboembolism (VTE). Here, we report a Chinese 22-year-old young man who
      developed recurrent and serious VTE in cerebral veins, visceral veins, and deep
      veins of the lower extremity. Laboratory tests and direct sequencing of PROC and
      SERPINC1 were conducted for the patient and his family members. Coagulation tests
      revealed that the patient presented type I antithrombin deficiency combined with
      decreased protein C activity resulting from a small insertion mutation
      c.848_849insGATGT in SERPINC1 and a short deletion variant c.572_574delAGA in
      PROC. This combination of the two mutations was absent in 400 healthy subjects
      each from southern and northern China. Then, we summarized all the mutations of
      the SERPINC1 and PROC gene reported in the Chinese Han population. This study
      demonstrates that the combination of antithrombin deficiency and decreased
      protein C activity can result in severe VTE and that the coexistence of different
      genetic factors may increase the risk of VTE.

PMID- 28861853
TI  - CORR Insights(r): How Long Does Antimycobacterial Antibiotic-loaded Bone Cement
      Have In Vitro Activity for Musculoskeletal Tuberculosis?

PMID- 28861854
TI  - Characteristics of tropical human-modified forests after 20 years of natural
      regeneration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abandoned human-modified forests are refuges for remnant
      biodiversity. However, there are very few studies on the biodiversity and
      regeneration of native species in human-modified forests which are rich in exotic
      trees. Our research aim is to evaluate the regeneration status and biodiversity
      of two adjacent human-modified forests. The two forests have distinct overstorey
      exotic species richness prior to abandonment: one is an exotic tree plantation
      low in species richness, and the other is an exotic arboretum high in species
      richness. The original management practices of the two forests have been
      neglected for more than 20 years. A primary forest was selected as a reference
      forest to compare their diversity and regeneration status. We asked: (1) Is there
      a structural difference among the three forests? (2) What are the proportions of
      native saplings in the human-modified forests? (3) Are the introduced exotic
      species able to naturalize? RESULTS: We recorded 1316 individuals from 88
      species, belonging to 69 genera and 34 families in the three forests [each
      sampled 16 quadrats (10 m * 5 m)]. Both human-modified forests were similar in
      their height structure, diameter structure, and sapling density, but differed in
      species diversity (characterized by rarefaction curves) and floristic composition
      (indicated by a quantitative similarity index). In the arboretum, only 50% of the
      sapling individuals were native. Surprisingly, when sampling efforts were
      standardized, the arboretum had higher native sapling species richness than the
      exotic species-poor plantation. Moreover, both human-modified forests had
      conserved a few rare and endemic species. Nevertheless, some exotic species in
      the arboretum had escaped to the nearby plantation. CONCLUSIONS: After 20 years
      of abandonment, the two human-modified forests had converged in structure, but
      not in diversity patterns of native saplings. This could be due to that the
      diversity of exotic overstorey composition can influence the natural regeneration
      of understorey plants. Our study also raised concerns about conserving native
      species and managing naturalized exotic species in these human-modified forests.

PMID- 28861855
TI  - Provider-controlled virtual reality experience may adjust for cognitive load
      during vascular access in pediatric patients.

PMID- 28861857
TI  - 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignment of human guanylate kinase.
AB  - Human guanylate kinase (hGMPK) is a critical enzyme that, in addition to
      phosphorylating its physiological substrate (d)GMP, catalyzes the second
      phosphorylation step in the conversion of anti-viral and anti-cancer nucleoside
      analogs to their corresponding active nucleoside analog triphosphates. Until now,
      a high-resolution structure of hGMPK is unavailable and thus, we studied free
      hGMPK by NMR and assigned the chemical shift resonances of backbone and side
      chain 1H, 13C, and 15N nuclei as a first step towards the enzyme's structural and
      mechanistic analysis with atomic resolution.

PMID- 28861856
TI  - Role of sentinel node in differentiated thyroid cancer: a prospective study
      comparing patent blue injection technique, lymphoscintigraphy and the combined
      technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility and
      reproducibility of the sentinel lymph node (SLNs) biopsy in differentiated
      thyroid cancer using patent blue injection, lymphoscintigraphy and the combined
      techniques. METHODS: Between January 2011 and January 2013, 82 consecutive
      patients were enrolled in our prospective multicentre study. Inclusion criteria
      were 18 years of age, preoperative diagnosis of differentiated thyroid carcinoma,
      no evidence of lymph node enlargement and multifocal neoplasm. To investigate the
      benefits of each procedure, all patients underwent total thyroidectomy plus
      central compartment lymphadenectomy, and in all cases, the SLN was identified via
      one of three techniques using the same protocol. RESULTS: Lymphoscintigraphy was
      used in five patients, patent blue injection was used in 40 patients, and a
      combined technique was used in 40 patients to identify sentinel lymph nodes
      (SLN). SLNs were identified in 61 cases. In the patent blue injection technique,
      the sensitivity, specificity and false negative rates were 88.9, 94.4 and 3.8%,
      respectively. In the lymphoscintigraphy technique, the percentages of sensitivity
      and specificity were 100%, and the percentage false negative was 0%. For the
      combined techniques, the corresponding values were, respectively, 69.2, 90, and
      17.4%. Metastases were detected in nine cases of lateral-cervical nodes,
      ipsilateral tumour metastases were observed in eight cases, and contralateral
      tumour metastasis was observed in one case. CONCLUSION: Additional well-designed
      randomized studies are needed to validate and further optimize the SLN biopsy in
      patients with differentiated thyroid cancer.

PMID- 28861859
TI  - Sodium hydroxide as a sclerosing agent in patients with neoplastic pleural
      effusion non-candidates for VATS: results of a minimally invasive protocol.
AB  - Symptomatic neoplastic pleural effusion (SNPE) is a significant cause of
      morbidity in patients with advanced neoplastic disease. These patients often
      present a deteriorated general condition which prevents them from undergoing
      pleurodesis with video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). We developed a minimally
      invasive therapeutic protocol specially designed for this population, achieved by
      combining chemical pleurodesis with placement of small-bore pleural catheters
      (PC), which resulted in early hospital discharge, low morbimortality and good
      therapeutic results. This study reports the safety and efficacy of administration
      of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) through PC in 60 patients diagnosed with SNPE who were
      admitted to Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires between January 2012 and December
      2015. Successful pleurodesis was achieved in 96% of procedures. Recurrence
      occurred in 25% of patients during follow-up, with recurrence occurring earlier
      than 30 days after pleurodesis in 8% of patients. There were no reports of major
      morbidity or associated mortality. In total, 44% of patients were discharged
      within 48 h of pleurodesis. Administration of NaOH through a small-bore PC
      represents an effective and safe method of pleurodesis in patients who are not
      candidates for talc pleurodesis by VATS.

PMID- 28861860
TI  - Interaction of Lead with Calcium, Iron, and Zinc in the Biological Samples of
      Malnourished Children.
AB  - Interaction between toxic and essential elements is of particular interest,
      because the deficiency of essential element can dramatically increase the
      absorption rate of toxic metals inside the body. This study was conducted to
      evaluate the possible correlation of lead (Pb) with calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), and
      zinc (Zn) in biological samples (whole blood and scalp hair) of malnourished
      children (MNC). For comparative purposes, age-matched, well-nourished children
      (WNC) were selected. The concentrations of understudy elements were analyzed by
      atomic absorption spectrophotometry after microwave acid digestion. The accuracy
      of the methodology, as well as its its validity and efficiency, was checked
      through certified reference material of whole blood and scalp hair. The result
      indicates that the MNC have a twofold higher level of Pb, while the levels of
      essential elements (Ca, Fe, and Zn) were onefold to twofold lower as compared to
      the WNC (p < 0.05). Significant negative correlations of Pb with Ca, Fe, and Zn
      were found in the studied malnourished population at p < 0.05. Further research
      studies are required to elucidate the role of these metals and the mechanism of
      interaction inside the body.

PMID- 28861861
TI  - GATE Monte Carlo simulation of dose distribution using MapReduce in a cloud
      computing environment.
AB  - The GATE Monte Carlo simulation platform has good application prospects of
      treatment planning and quality assurance. However, accurate dose calculation
      using GATE is time consuming. The purpose of this study is to implement a novel
      cloud computing method for accurate GATE Monte Carlo simulation of dose
      distribution using MapReduce. An Amazon Machine Image installed with Hadoop and
      GATE is created to set up Hadoop clusters on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
      Macros, the input files for GATE, are split into a number of self-contained sub
      macros. Through Hadoop Streaming, the sub-macros are executed by GATE in Map
      tasks and the sub-results are aggregated into final outputs in Reduce tasks. As
      an evaluation, GATE simulations were performed in a cubical water phantom for X
      ray photons of 6 and 18 MeV. The parallel simulation on the cloud computing
      platform is as accurate as the single-threaded simulation on a local server and
      the simulation correctness is not affected by the failure of some worker nodes.
      The cloud-based simulation time is approximately inversely proportional to the
      number of worker nodes. For the simulation of 10 million photons on a cluster
      with 64 worker nodes, time decreases of 41* and 32* were achieved compared to the
      single worker node case and the single-threaded case, respectively. The test of
      Hadoop's fault tolerance showed that the simulation correctness was not affected
      by the failure of some worker nodes. The results verify that the proposed method
      provides a feasible cloud computing solution for GATE.

PMID- 28861864
TI  - 13 Body Parts.

PMID- 28861862
TI  - Phase I dose-finding study of eribulin and capecitabine for metastatic breast
      cancer: JBCRG-18 cape study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eribulin is a nontaxane microtubule inhibitor with activity in
      patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We conducted a phase I dose-finding
      study of eribulin and capecitabine in patients with MBC pretreated with
      anthracycline and taxane. METHODS: Women with MBC aged <=70 years were enrolled.
      A 3 + 3 dose escalation design was used: level 0 dosing, eribulin (1.4 mg/m2
      intravenously on days 1 and 8) plus capecitabine [825 mg/m2 orally twice daily
      (BID)]; 2-weeks-on, 1-week-off in a 21-day cycle. If there were no dose-limiting
      toxicities (DLTs), level 1 capecitabine dose was 1000 mg/m2 BID. The primary
      objective was to determine maximum tolerated dose, DLTs, and recommended dose
      (RD). Secondary objectives included pharmacokinetics, safety, and best overall
      response rate. RESULTS: Nine women with MBC were enrolled; six at level 0, three
      at level 1. One patient had grade 4 DLTs at level 0 (serum creatinine 7.65 mg/dL
      and uric acid 13.4 mg/dL), considered associated with study drugs. Level 1 dosing
      was taken as the RD. Neutropenia was the most common >=grade 3 toxicity.
      Pharmacokinetic parameters of eribulin were not influenced by co-administration
      of capecitabine. Of three patients in level 1, one achieved partial response and
      one had prolonged stable disease. CONCLUSION: Eribulin with capecitabine in the
      level 1 dosing schedule was associated with manageable toxicities and promising
      clinical activity. This combination is recommended for phase II investigation.

PMID- 28861863
TI  - Protective ventilation reduces Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth in lung tissue in a
      porcine pneumonia model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mechanical ventilation with positive end expiratory pressure and low
      tidal volume, i.e. protective ventilation, is recommended in patients with acute
      respiratory distress syndrome. However, the effect of protective ventilation on
      bacterial growth during early pneumonia in non-injured lungs is not extensively
      studied. The main objectives were to compare two different ventilator settings on
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth in lung tissue and the development of lung injury.
      METHODS: A porcine model of severe pneumonia was used. The protective group (n =
      10) had an end expiratory pressure of 10 cm H2O and a tidal volume of 6 ml x kg
      1. The control group (n = 10) had an end expiratory pressure of 5 cm H2O and a
      tidal volume of 10 ml x kg-1. 1011 colony forming units of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      were inoculated intra-tracheally at baseline, after which the experiment
      continued for 6 h. Two animals from each group received only saline, and served
      as sham animals. Lung tissue samples from each animal were used for bacterial
      cultures and wet-to-dry weight ratio measurements. RESULTS: The protective group
      displayed lower numbers of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (p < 0.05) in the lung tissue,
      and a lower wet-to-dry ratio (p < 0.01) than the control group. The control group
      deteriorated in arterial oxygen tension/inspired oxygen fraction, whereas the
      protective group was unchanged (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In early phase pneumonia,
      protective ventilation with lower tidal volume and higher end expiratory pressure
      has the potential to reduce the pulmonary bacterial burden and the development of
      lung injury.

PMID- 28861865
TI  - Even low doses of dexmedetomidine produced obstructive apnea during spinal
      anesthesia.

PMID- 28861866
TI  - Erratum to: Obesity in International Migrant Populations.

PMID- 28861867
TI  - Urine glucose levels are disordered before blood glucose level increase was
      observed in Zucker diabetic fatty rats.
AB  - Many patients with diabetes are not diagnosed at all or are diagnosed too late to
      be effectively treated, resulting in nonspecific symptoms and a long period of
      incubation of the disease. Pre-diabetes is an early warning signal of diabetes,
      and the change of urine glucose in this period has been ignored even though urine
      has long been related with diabetes. In this study, Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF)
      rats were used to test if there were changes in urine glucose before blood
      glucose increases. Six 8-week-old male ZDF rats (fa/fa) and Zucker lean (ZL) rats
      (fa/+) were fed with Purina 5008 high-fat diet and tested for fasting blood
      glucose and urine glucose. After 12 weeks of feeding, the urine glucose values of
      the ZL rats were normal (0-10 mmol L-1), but the values of the ZDF model rats
      increased 10 weeks before their blood glucose levels elevated. The urine glucose
      values of the ZDF model rats showed a state of disorder that was frequently
      elevated (>10 mmol L-1) and occasionally normal (0-10 mmol L-1). This finding may
      provide an easy early screening for diabetes by long-term monitoring of urine
      glucose levels: pre-diabetes may be revealed by frequently disordered urine
      glucose levels over a period.

PMID- 28861868
TI  - Photoperiodic refractoriness in energy balance: a specific pattern in Mongolian
      gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus).

PMID- 28861869
TI  - A comparative study of distant hybridization in plants and animals.
AB  - Distant hybridization refers to crosses between two different species, genera, or
      higher-ranking taxa, which can break species limits, increase genetic variation,
      and combine the biological characteristics of existing species. It is an
      important way of creating genetic variation, fertile strains, and excellent
      characteristics in new strains and populations. Combining analyses and summaries
      from many inter-related documents in plants and animals, both domestic and
      international, including examples and long-standing research on distant
      hybridization in fish from our laboratory, we summarize and compare the
      similarities and differences in plant and animal distant hybridization. In
      addition, we analyze and review the biological characteristics of their different
      ploidy progenies and the possible causes of disparity in survival rates.
      Mechanisms of sterility in animal and plant distant hybrids are also discussed,
      and research methods for the study of biological characteristics of hybrids,
      including morphology, cytology, and molecular cytogenetics are presented. This
      paper aims to provide comprehensive research materials and to systematically
      compare the general and specific characteristics of plant and animal hybrids with
      regards to reproduction, genetics, growth traits, and other biological
      characteristics. It is hoped that this paper will have great theoretical and
      practical significance for the study of genetic breeding and biological evolution
      of plant and animal distant hybridization.

PMID- 28861871
TI  - Combinatorial Therapies in Melanoma: MAPK Inhibitors and Beyond.
AB  - Melanoma is the most aggressive of the skin cancers, with historically high rates
      of morbidity and mortality due to its resistance to traditional cytotoxic
      therapies. Recently, however, breakthroughs in new therapies have dramatically
      changed clinical outcomes of this disease. These advances emerged from an
      improved understanding of tumor oncogenesis and the interacting tumor
      microenvironment. Small molecules that target the oncogenic mitogen-activated
      protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, specifically the tyrosine kinase BRAF and its
      downstream signaling partner MEK, have demonstrated an improved overall survival
      and progression-free survival for BRAF-mutant melanoma. Additionally,
      manipulation of tumor immune surveillance by inhibitors of the immune suppressive
      programmed cell death 1 receptor (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated
      antigen 4 (CTLA-4) pathways have recently demonstrated durable responses in
      various cancers by promoting an anti-tumor immune response. Application of these
      targeted and immune-modulatory therapies has shown promising outcomes in
      melanoma. Combinations of these therapies may hold promise to enhance responses
      further. In this review, we will discuss the current targeted therapies and
      immunotherapies, and review the results of combination studies and speculate on
      future treatment paradigms.

PMID- 28861872
TI  - Intermale aggression in mice, selected for the cognitive trait.
AB  - The data are presented on intermale aggression in mice which were selected for
      high scores of cognitive trait (the ability for extrapolation of movement
      direction) in comparison to the data of control mice performance. The changes in
      aggression level in the course of selection are presumably connected with anxiety
      level which also changed during selection generations.

PMID- 28861873
TI  - Role of the pregnancy-specific glycoprotein in regulation of the cytokine and
      chemokine profiles of intact mononuclear cells.
AB  - The effect of human pregnancy-specific glycoprotein (PSG) on the cytokine and
      chemokine production in vitro by intact mononuclear cells was studied by the
      method of flow fluorimetry. PSG inhibited production of the proinflammatory
      cytokines IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, IFN-gamma, and TNF-alpha and chemokines CCL3/MIP
      1alpha, CCL4/MIP-1beta, CCL2/MCP-1; at the same time, PSG stimulated IL-12(p70)
      production. Simultaneously with increasing the VEGF level, PSG inhibited
      production of IL-9, IL-13, G-CSF, and GM-CSF. The PSG effect discovered can be
      interpreted as a contribution into the immune tolerance formation during
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28861870
TI  - Dopamine Agonists and Impulse Control Disorders: A Complex Association.
AB  - Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are a well-known adverse effect of dopamine
      agonists (DAAs). This critical review aims to summarize data on the prevalence
      and factors associated with the development of an ICD simultaneous to DAA use. A
      search of two electronic databases was completed from inception to July 2017. The
      search terms were medical subject headings (MeSH) terms including "dopamine
      agonists" AND "disruptive disorders", "impulse control disorders", or "conduct
      disorders". Articles had to fulfill the following criteria to be included: (i)
      the target problem was an ICD; (ii) the medication was a dopaminergic drug; and
      (iii) the article was an original article. Of the potential 584 articles, 90 met
      the criteria for inclusion. DAAs were used in Parkinson's disease (PD), restless
      legs syndrome (RLS) or prolactinoma. The prevalence of ICDs ranged from 2.6 to
      34.8% in PD patients, reaching higher rates in specific PD populations; a lower
      prevalence was found in RLS patients. We found only two studies about
      prolactinoma. The most robust findings relative to the factors associated with
      the development of an ICD included the type of DAA, the dosage, male gender, a
      younger age, a history of psychiatric symptoms, an earlier onset of disease, a
      longer disease duration, and motor complications in PD. This review suggests that
      DAA use is associated with an increased risk in the occurrence of an ICD, under
      the combined influence of various factors. Guidelines to help prevent and to
      treat ICDs when required do exist, although further studies are required to
      better identify patients with a predisposition.

PMID- 28861874
TI  - Cytokine production by the tumor from patients with breast cancer in different
      age groups.
AB  - Dependence of cytokine pattern in the tumor supernatant obtained after
      cultivation of biopsy samples-on the patients' age was evaluated among patients
      with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. An increase in VEGF and IL-6
      production in a group of younger patients was observed. An increase only in
      interferon gamma concentration was revealed in the supernatants of the tumor
      after addition of polyclonal activators to the culture medium. This result
      indicates likely secretion of interferon gamma in younger patients. The relation
      among the production of angiogenic factors by tumor cells, age of the patients,
      and presence or absence of lymph node metastases shows that in such studies,
      patients have to be stratified by age.

PMID- 28861875
TI  - Age-related adaptive responses of mitochondria of the retinal pigment epithelium
      to the everyday blue LED lighting.
AB  - The effect of everyday blue light (lambda = 440-460 nm) on mitochondria of the
      retinal pigment epithelium of different age groups of Japanese quail was studied
      using electron microscopy, morphometric methods, and biochemical analysis. We
      have found a significant increase in the number of mitochondria, including those
      modified, mainly in young birds. In addition, cell metabolic activity increased
      in response to blue lighting. These changes are assumed to reflect an adaptive
      response of mitochondria aimed at neutralizing the phototoxic effect of blue
      light caused by accumulation of lipofuscin granules.

PMID- 28861876
TI  - Isolation of primary osteoblast cell lines from adult rat and rat embryos and
      their use as models for in vitro biocompatibility tests of nanostructured
      titanium-based implants.
AB  - Methods for obtaining osteoblast cultures from the calvaria of adult Wistar rats
      and 12-day-old embryos of these rats have been adapted for studying the
      biocompatibility and ossointegration of titanium-based implants. The osteoblast
      morphology and their differentiation into osteocytes on a titanium matrix with
      specially treated surface have been studied. It has been confirmed that two
      cultures of diploid rat cells obtained in the study can serve as efficient models
      for preclinical in vitro testing of nanostructured titanium implants for
      biocompatibility and osseointegration.

PMID- 28861877
TI  - New data on the effect of ionizing radiation on the growth of the aquatic plant
      Elodea canadensis in the laboratory.
AB  - Toxicological experiments with radioactive bottom sediments and extrinsic gamma
      irradiation have demonstrated that the growth of common elodea roots is
      suppressed by irradiation at doses several times lower than the established
      threshold dose. The effect of gamma-irradiation on the growth of elodea stems has
      not been observed at any dose used. The data obtained show that elodea could be
      recommended for use as an indicator of biological effects of radiation in the
      range of low radiation doses.

PMID- 28861878
TI  - Regulation of the peritoneal macrophage functional activity by the MP-5 and MP-6
      myelopeptides under stress.
AB  - In mice, two-hour immobilization stress inhibited zymosan-induced production by
      macrophages of the oxygen radicals and cytokine IL-1beta. After myelopeptides MP
      5 and MP-6 were administered into mice, the stress-induced inhibition of the
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and IL-1beta was abrogated. MP-5 peptide stimulated
      spontaneous ROS production by macrophages and reduced IL-10 production under
      stress. Thus, under in vivo conditions and under stress, the effect of MP-5 and
      MP-6 myelopeptides modulates the peritoneal macrophage activity.

PMID- 28861879
TI  - Comparative analysis of the nervous system structure of polymorphic zooids in
      marine bryozoans.
AB  - The nervous system structure was compared for the first time in avicularia and
      vibracula in seven species of the cheilostome bryozoans from six families by
      immunohistochemical methods and confocal scanning microscopy. Regardless of
      significant differences in heterozooid shape, size, and position in a colony,
      their muscular and nervous systems have a common structure, which suggests their
      parallel evolution.

PMID- 28861880
TI  - Unconsidered sporadic sources of carbon dioxide emission from soils in taiga
      forests.
AB  - Long-term monitoring in the Russian taiga zone has shown that all known extreme
      destructive effects resulting in the weakening and death of tree stands
      (windfalls, pest attacks, drought events, etc.) can be sporadic, but significant
      sources of CO2 soil emission. Among them are (i) a recently found effect of the
      multiyear CO2 emission from soil at the bottom of deadwood of spruce trees that
      died due to climate warming and subsequent pest outbreaks, (ii) increased soil
      CO2 emissions due to to the fall of tree trunks during massive windfalls, and
      (iii) pulse CO2 emission as a result of the so-called Birch effect after drought
      events in the taiga zone. According to the modeling, while depending on the
      spatial and temporal scales of their manifestation, the impact of these sporadic
      effects on the regional and global soil respiration fluxes could be significant
      and should be taken into consideration. This is due to continuing Climate Change,
      and further increase of local, regional and Global human impacts on the
      atmospheric greenhouse gases balance, and land use, as well.

PMID- 28861881
TI  - Inactivation of proteolytic enzymes by cestodes.
AB  - Inhibitor activity of cestodes from intestines of different hosts (sea birds,
      salt-water fish, and freshwater fish) was investigated. Alcataenia larina,
      Arctotaenia tetrabothrioides, Tetrabothrius erostris, T. minor, Wardium cirrosa,
      Bothriocephalus scorpii, Eubothrium rugosum, and Triaenophorus nodulosus were
      able to inhibit the activity of the commercial trypsin and activity of proteinase
      homogenates of the intestinal mucosa of the hosts. It was suggested that the
      inhibitor produced by the cestodes is specific for trypsin and protects them from
      the digestive enzymes of the host.

PMID- 28861882
TI  - Sucrose-enriched diet during maturation increases ethanol preference in rats.
AB  - In the present study we used a diet enriched with 10% sucrose, which was consumed
      by adolescent animals of the experimental group for one month. We found that
      consumption of sweet food during sexual maturation affected alcohol preference,
      anxiety, and locomotor and exploratory activity in the adult rats. Our data show
      that easily available tasty food during adolescence probably impairs the reward
      system and serves as a trigger of future alcohol preference.

PMID- 28861883
TI  - Nervous system and musculature of the parasitic turbellarian Notentera ivanovi
      (Plathelminthes, Fecampiida).
AB  - The article reports the first description of the architecture of the musculature
      and cholinergic nervous system of the parasitic turbellarian Notentera ivanovi
      from the White Sea using histochemistry and confocal scanning laser microscopy.
      It has been demonstrated that the body wall is composed of layers of circular and
      longitudinal muscles between which there are diagonal muscles described here for
      the first time. The nervous system is of the regular closely spaced orthogon type
      with pronounced radiality. In order to make it clear whether the orthogon of this
      type is a phylogenetic characteristic of this group of worms or its shape is
      associated with the flat rounded body, the study of other representatives of the
      Fecampiida group is required.

PMID- 28861884
TI  - Cross-cultural Differences in Mental Health, Quality of Life, Empathy, and
      Burnout between US and Brazilian Medical Students.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare mental health, quality of life, empathy,
      and burnout in medical students from a medical institution in the USA and another
      one in Brazil. METHODS: This cross-cultural study included students enrolled in
      the first and second years of their undergraduate medical training. We evaluated
      depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS 21), empathy, openness to spirituality, and
      wellness (ESWIM), burnout (Oldenburg), and quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref) and
      compared them between schools. RESULTS: A total of 138 Brazilian and 73 US
      medical students were included. The comparison between all US medical students
      and all Brazilian medical students revealed that Brazilians reported more
      depression and stress and US students reported greater wellness, less exhaustion,
      and greater environmental quality of life. In order to address a possible
      response bias favoring respondents with better mental health, we also compared
      all US medical students with the 50% of Brazilian medical students who reported
      better mental health. In this comparison, we found Brazilian medical students had
      higher physical quality of life and US students again reported greater
      environmental quality of life. Cultural, social, infrastructural, and curricular
      differences were compared between institutions. Some noted differences were that
      students at the US institution were older and were exposed to smaller class
      sizes, earlier patient encounters, problem-based learning, and psychological
      support. CONCLUSION: We found important differences between Brazilian and US
      medical students, particularly in mental health and wellness. These findings
      could be explained by a complex interaction between several factors, highlighting
      the importance of considering cultural and school-level influences on well-being.

PMID- 28861885
TI  - Erratum to: Clinical Impact of the 2016 Update to the WHO Lymphoma
      Classification.

PMID- 28861886
TI  - Insights of Chinese medicine on ventricular remodeling: Multiple-targets,
      individualized-treatment.
AB  - Ventricular remodeling (VR) can be induced by myocardial injury, leading to
      progressive cardiac dysfunction and heart failure, and is associated with high
      morbidity and mortality. Despite being studied for more than 3 decades, current
      therapeutic strategies still remain unsatisfactory in effificacy, expensive, and
      with side effects and drug resistances. Chinese medicine (CM) has been used to
      treat heart diseases for thousands of years. This article reviews the published
      studies on the mechanisms and therapeutic applications of CM in VR. The major
      aspects include: mechanistic studies of VR, molecular biology and myocardial
      functional studies of CM therapies on VR, and mechanism of CM therapies on VR.

PMID- 28861887
TI  - Combination of quercetin, cinnamaldehyde and hirudin protects rat dorsal root
      ganglion neurons against high glucose-induced injury through Nrf-2/HO-1
      activation and NF-kappaB inhibition.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of the combination of quercetin (Q),
      cinnamaldehyde (C) and hirudin (H), a Chinese medicine formula on high glucose
      (HG)-induced apoptosis of cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. METHODS:
      DRG neurons exposed to HG (45 mmol/L) for 24 h were employed as an in vitro model
      of diabetic neuropathy. Cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and
      apoptosis were determined. The expression of nuclear factor of Kappa B (NF
      kappaB), inhibitory kappa Balpha(IkappaBalpha), phosphorylated IkappaBalpha and
      Nf-E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) were examined using reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot assay. The expression of
      hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha)
      and caspase-3 were also examined by RT-PCR and Western blot assay. RESULTS: HG
      treatment markedly increased DRG neuron apoptosis via increasing intracellular
      ROS level and activating the NF-kappaB signaling pathway (P<0.05). Co-treatment
      with Q, C, H and their combination decreased HG-induced caspase-3 activation and
      apoptosis (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The expressions of NF-kappaB, IL-6 and TNF-alpha
      were down-regulated, and Nrf2/HO-1 expression was up-regulated (P<0.05 or
      P<0.01). QCH has better effect in scavenging ROS, activating Nrf-2/HO-1, and down
      regulating the NF-kappaB pathway than other treatment group. CONCLUSIONS: DRG
      neurons' apoptosis was increased in diabetic conditions, which was reduced by QCH
      formula treatment. The possible reason could be activating Nrf-2/HO-1 pathway,
      scavenging ROS, and inhibition of NF-kappaB activation. The effect of QCH
      combination was better than each monomer or the combination of the two monomers.

PMID- 28861888
TI  - Effect of Qingfei Mixture () on pediatric mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia with
      phlegm heat obstructing Fei (Lung) syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect and mechanism of Qingfei Mixture (), a Chinese
      medicine, in treating mycoplasma pneumonia (MP) in MP patients and rat model
      METHODS: A total of 46 MP children with phlegm heat obstructing Fei (Lung)
      syndrome were randomly assigned to two groups by the method of random number
      table, with 23 children in each group. The control group was treated with
      intravenous infusion of azithromycin; the treatment group received intravenous
      infusion of azithromycin and oral administration of Qingfei Mixture. The
      treatment course was 7 days. Major symptoms and minor symptoms were observed and
      scored before and after treatments. A rat model of MP was also established. A
      total of 120 wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: a normal group,
      infection group, Qingfei Mixture treatment group, azithromycin treatment group,
      and Qingfei Mixture + azithromycin treatment group. Each group contained 24 rats,
      from which every 6 were euthanatized 1, 3, 7 and 14 days after infection. MP DNA
      in pulmonary tissue homogenates was detected using real-time fluorescence
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Pathology was assessed after hematoxylin
      (HE) staining and lung tissue pathology scores were determined in pulmonary
      tissue. Transmission electron microscopic detection and electronic image analysis
      were performed on lung tissue 3 days after infection. Interleukin (IL)-17 was
      detected in serum using enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) 7 days after
      infection. RESULTS: In the clinical study, both control and the treatment group
      showed improved results on removing symptoms of phlegm heat syndrome compared to
      the control group (P<0.05). In animal experiments, On the 7th day after MP
      infection, as detected by electron microscopy, the pulmonary capillary basement
      membranes of the azithromycin + Qingfei Mixture treatment group were much thinner
      than those of the azithromycin or Qingfei mixture treatment groups (P<0.05). The
      level of serum IL-17 in the azithromycin + Qingfei Mixture treatment group was
      lower than that in the azithromycin or Qingfei Mixture groups (P<0.01).
      CONCLUSION: Both Qingfei Mixture and azithromycin have therapeutic effects on
      mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia, but the combination of both agents had the
      greatest effect.

PMID- 28861889
TI  - Red yeast rice prevents atherosclerosis through regulating inflammatory signaling
      pathways.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of red yeast rice (RYR) on blood lipid levels,
      aortic atherosclerosis (AS), and plaque stability in apolipoprotein E gene
      knockout (ApoE-/-) mice. METHODS: Twenty-four ApoE-/- mice were fed with a high
      fat diet starting from 6 weeks of age. Mice were randomized into three groups (n
      = 8 in each group): model group (ApoE-/- group), RYR group (ApoE-/- + RYR group),
      and simvastatin group (ApoE-/- + simvastatin group). Eight 6-week-old C57BL/6
      mice were assigned as the control group and fed with a basic diet. After 36
      weeks, plasma lipids and inflflammatory factors were measured. Aortic
      atherosclerotic lesions by microscope, scanning electron microscope and
      transmission electron microscope were observed. Plasma levels of interleukin-6
      (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were measured with enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay. The level of high sensitivity C-reaction protein (Hs
      CRP) was detected by the scattering immunoturbidimetric assay. Protein expression
      of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) in
      aorta were tested by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Compared with the model
      group, treatment with RYR significantly decreased the levels of total
      cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, lipoprotein (a),
      and apolipoprotein B100 in ApoE-/- mice (P<0.01). Compared with the model group,
      treatment with RYR decreased the levels of Hs-CRP, IL-6, and TNF-alpha (P<0.01).
      RYR also reduced the protein levels of NF-kappaB and MMP-9 of the aorta.
      CONCLUSIONS: RYR has the anti-atherosclerotic and stabilizing unstable plaque
      effects. The mechanism might be related to the inflflammatory signaling pathways.

PMID- 28861890
TI  - High-grade renal cell carcinoma with emperipolesis: Clinicopathological,
      immunohistochemical and molecular-genetic analysis of 14 cases.
AB  - Emperipolesis has recently been described as a constant feature of "biphasic
      squamoid" papillary renal cell carcinoma (BPRCC). We also noticed this in some
      high-grade (HG) RCC, which promoted the present study to estimate the incidence
      of emperipolesis in RCCs and to describe them in further detail. 14 cases of
      HGRCC showing emperipolesis were retrieved from our registry. Microscopic
      examination of filed slides was supplemented with immunohistochemical and
      molecular-genetic analyses using paraffin embedded tissue. 12 of 14 patients were
      males with a mean age of 58.6 years (range 41-72 years). Tumor size ranged from 6
      16.5 cm (mean of 8.8 cm). Follow up data were available for 8/14 patients (range
      0.5-10 years). Metastases were documented in 6 cases. All tumors showed solid
      alveolar growth patterns with focal pseudopapillary features, and were composed
      of large cells with bizarre nuclei and eosinophilic rhabdoid-like cytoplasm.
      Emperipolesis was a constant and prominent feature in large bizarre cells. All
      cases were positive for OSCAR, CANH 9, vimentin, cyclin D1, INI-1, and myoD1,
      while negative for melanocytic markers, CK 7, myoglobin, cathepsin K, and TFE3.
      VHL gene abnormalities were found in 6/9 analyzable cases, of which 2
      demonstrated polysomy of chromosomes 7, 17. Emperipolesis is a rare
      histomorphologic feature which can be seen not only in BPRCCs but also in
      highgrade CCRCCs. All RCC cases with prominent emperipolesis fulfilled both
      morphologic and immunohistochemical diagnostic criteria of high-grade CCRCC. The
      majority of patients with available follow up information developed metastases.

PMID- 28861891
TI  - Improving power of association tests using multiple sets of imputed genotypes
      from distributed reference panels.
AB  - The accuracy of genotype imputation depends upon two factors: the sample size of
      the reference panel and the genetic similarity between the reference panel and
      the target samples. When multiple reference panels are not consented to combine
      together, it is unclear how to combine the imputation results to optimize the
      power of genetic association studies. We compared the accuracy of 9,265 Norwegian
      genomes imputed from three reference panels-1000 Genomes phase 3 (1000G),
      Haplotype Reference Consortium (HRC), and a reference panel containing 2,201
      Norwegian participants from the population-based Nord Trondelag Health Study
      (HUNT) from low-pass genome sequencing. We observed that the population-matched
      reference panel allowed for imputation of more population-specific variants with
      lower frequency (minor allele frequency (MAF) between 0.05% and 0.5%). The
      overall imputation accuracy from the population-specific panel was substantially
      higher than 1000G and was comparable with HRC, despite HRC being 15-fold larger.
      These results recapitulate the value of population-specific reference panels for
      genotype imputation. We also evaluated different strategies to utilize multiple
      sets of imputed genotypes to increase the power of association studies. We
      observed that testing association for all variants imputed from any panel results
      in higher power to detect association than the alternative strategy of including
      only one version of each genetic variant, selected for having the highest
      imputation quality metric. This was particularly true for lower frequency
      variants (MAF < 1%), even after adjusting for the additional multiple testing
      burden.

PMID- 28861892
TI  - Sociodemographic, clinical, and functional long-term outcomes in adolescents and
      young adults with mental disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine unfavorable sociodemographic, clinical, and functional long
      term outcomes for a range of adolescent mental disorders. METHODS: A total number
      of 2210 adolescents and young adults (14-24 years at baseline, T0) from a
      representative community sample were prospectively followed up (T1-T3) over 10
      years. DSM-IV mental disorders, sociodemographic, clinical, and functional
      outcomes were assessed using the DIA-X/M-CIDI and its embedded assessment
      modules. RESULTS: In (multinomial) logistic regressions adjusted for sex, age,
      other baseline disorders and sociodemographics, baseline anxiety, affective,
      substance use, somatoform and eating disorders (lifetime) predicted various
      unfavorable sociodemographic, clinical, and functional outcomes at T3.
      Particularly, strong associations were found between baseline disorders and
      adverse clinical outcomes at T3 (12-month diagnosis of the same/other
      disorder(s), drug use, suicide attempts, and help-seeking due to psychological
      problems). While substance use disorders were primarily associated with
      unfavorable sociodemographic and educational outcomes, anxiety and eating
      disorders were associated with unfavorable interpersonal outcomes, affective
      disorders with pregnancy-/childbirth-related complications and financial issues,
      and somatoform disorders with unfavorable educational/occupational and
      interpersonal outcomes. The risk of unfavorable outcomes increased with clinical
      severity, especially a higher number of baseline diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings emphasize the importance of effective treatment of mental disorders to
      prevent unfavorable long-term outcomes in various life domains.

PMID- 28861893
TI  - Glitazone use associated with reduced risk of Parkinson's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether antidiabetic glitazone drugs protect against Parkinson's
      disease remains controversial. Although a single clinical trial showed no
      evidence of disease modulation, retrospective studies suggest that a disease
      preventing effect may be plausible. The objective of this study was to examine if
      the use of glitazone drugs is associated with a lower incidence of PD among
      diabetic patients. METHODS: We compared the incidence of PD between individuals
      with diabetes who used glitazones, with or without metformin, and individuals
      using only metformin in the Norwegian Prescription Database. This database
      contains all prescription drugs dispensed for the entire Norwegian population. We
      identified 94,349 metformin users and 8396 glitazone users during a 10-year
      period and compared the incidence of PD in the 2 groups using Cox regression
      survival analysis, with glitazone exposure as a time-dependent covariate.
      RESULTS: Glitazone use was associated with a significantly lower incidence of PD
      compared with metformin-only use (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval,
      0.55-0.94; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The use of glitazones is associated with a
      decreased risk of incident PD in populations with diabetes. Further studies are
      warranted to confirm and understand the role of glitazones in neurodegeneration.
      (c) 2017 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on
      behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28861895
TI  - Temperature-shuffled parallel cascade selection molecular dynamics accelerates
      the structural transitions of proteins.
AB  - Parallel cascade selection molecular dynamics (PaCS-MD) is an enhanced
      conformational sampling method for searching structural transition pathways from
      a given reactant to a product. Recently, a temperature-aided PaCS-MD (Vinod et
      al., Eur. Biophys. J. 2016, 45, 463) has been proposed as its extension, in which
      the temperatures were introduced as additional parameters in conformational
      resampling, whereas the temperature is fixed in the original PaCS-MD. In the
      present study, temperature-shuffled PaCS-MD is proposed as a further extension of
      temperature-aided PaCS-MD in which the temperatures are shuffled among different
      replicas at the beginning of each cycle of conformational resampling. To evaluate
      their conformational sampling efficiencies, the original, temperature-aided, and
      temperature-shuffled PaCS-MD were applied to a protein-folding process of Trp
      cage, and their minimum computational costs to identify the native state were
      addressed. Through the evaluation, it was confirmed that temperature-shuffled
      PaCS-MD remarkably accelerated the protein-folding process of Trp-cage compared
      with the other methods. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28861894
TI  - Sex differences in the glutamate signaling pathway in juvenile rats.
AB  - Females have been found to be at lower risk for the development of
      neurodevelopmental disorders than males. The greater neuroprotection in females
      is mostly due to female sex hormones. Estrogen is hypothesized to provide
      neuroprotection by suppressing the neuro-excitotoxicity induced by glutamate
      (Glu). This study was conducted to understand the effect of sex in modulating Glu
      signaling in juvenile rats. Brain tissue homogenate of 15 Wistar albino rats (9
      males, 6 females) weighing 60 to 80 g and aged approximately 28 days was used.
      Biochemical parameters related to Glu signaling, such as the absolute and
      relative concentrations of Glu, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), and glutamine, as
      well as glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1), glutamine synthetase (GS), glutaminase
      (GLN), and glutamate decarboxylase-67 (GAD-67), were measured by ELISA. The data
      obtained demonstrated that compared with the levels in males, female rats
      exhibited significantly lower levels of Glu (p = .001) and GLN/GS (p = .021). The
      Glu/GABA and Glu/GLT1 ratios as well as the levels of GAD-67 were also lower in
      female rats, although the difference was not significant. The GLN/GAD-67 ratio (p
      = .027) and levels of GS (p = .019) were significantly higher in female rats than
      in males. Multiple regression analysis confirmed the role of GLN/GS, together
      with the much higher affinity of GLT1 to Glu, in avoiding excitotoxicity in
      females. In conclusion, there was a significant difference in Glu signaling
      between female and male rats. The females exhibited a lower susceptibility to
      develop Glu-induced excitotoxicity, an etiological mechanism for multiple
      neurodevelopmental disorders.

PMID- 28861896
TI  - Sleep difficulties and academic performance in Norwegian higher education
      students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleep difficulties are common among university students and may
      detrimentally affect academic outcomes. Despite this, remarkably little
      information is currently available during this critical developmental period of
      early adulthood, and thus, the direct effect on measurable domains of academic
      ability and proficiency is equivocal. AIMS: To evaluate the associations between
      difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS) and subjective and objective
      academic performance in a large sample of university students. SAMPLE: A total of
      12,915 students who participated in large student survey in Norway from 24
      February 2014 to 27 March 2014. DIMS was assessed by the Hopkins Symptoms
      Checklist (HSCL-25), and academic outcomes included failed examinations, delayed
      study progress, and school-related self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale).
      RESULTS: Difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep was independently
      associated with increased odds for poor school performance for all academic
      outcomes. Reporting 'extreme' DIMS was associated with increased odds of
      reporting delayed study progress (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.25, 95% CI 1.01
      1.57, p < .05), increased odds for having failed several examinations (adjusted
      OR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.56-2.34, p < .001), and being in the lowest self-efficacy
      quartile (adjusted OR = 4.94, 95% CI: 4.04-6.03, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Self
      reported sleep difficulties are associated with poorer objective markers of
      academic outcomes as well as poorer self-rated academic proficiency among higher
      education students. Amelioration of sleep difficulties may improve overall
      academic performance and health outcomes in affected students.

PMID- 28861897
TI  - Beyond mean allelic effects: A locus at the major color gene MC1R associates also
      with differing levels of phenotypic and genetic (co)variance for coloration in
      barn owls.
AB  - The mean phenotypic effects of a discovered variant help to predict major aspects
      of the evolution and inheritance of a phenotype. However, differences in the
      phenotypic variance associated to distinct genotypes are often overlooked despite
      being suggestive of processes that largely influence phenotypic evolution, such
      as interactions between the genotypes with the environment or the genetic
      background. We present empirical evidence for a mutation at the melanocortin-1
      receptor gene, a major vertebrate coloration gene, affecting phenotypic variance
      in the barn owl, Tyto alba. The white MC1R allele, which associates with whiter
      plumage coloration, also associates with a pronounced phenotypic and additive
      genetic variance for distinct color traits. Contrarily, the rufous allele,
      associated with a rufous coloration, relates to a lower phenotypic and additive
      genetic variance, suggesting that this allele may be epistatic over other color
      loci. Variance differences between genotypes entailed differences in the strength
      of phenotypic and genetic associations between color traits, suggesting that
      differences in variance also alter the level of integration between traits. This
      study highlights that addressing variance differences of genotypes in wild
      populations provides interesting new insights into the evolutionary mechanisms
      and the genetic architecture underlying the phenotype.

PMID- 28861899
TI  - Modified method for applying Mohs' paste.

PMID- 28861898
TI  - Irrigated-tip catheters for radiofrequency ablation of right-sided accessory
      pathways in adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Catheter ablation of right-sided accessory pathways (APs) has lower
      success and higher recurrence rates compared to left-sided substrates. Irrigated
      tip catheter (ITC) ablation might offer an advantage in this setting but data
      about its use in patients below 18 years are scarce. The aim of this study was to
      compare an ITC approach to conventional catheter ablation. METHODS: A
      retrospective analysis of all patients <18 years undergoing radiofrequency
      ablation (RFA) for right-sided APs from 2004 to 2014 at our institution was
      performed. Patients either underwent an ITC approach in combination with 3-D
      mapping (Group 1; n  =  53) or a conventional non-ITC approach (Group 2; n  = 
      52). Study endpoints were acute procedural success, safety, and recurrence rate.
      A total of 105 mostly adolescent patients (56.2% male; median age 14 years) with
      107 right-sided APs were included. RESULTS: The prevailing anatomic AP locations
      were right posteroseptal (44.9%), right anterior/anterolateral (24.3%), and right
      lateral (13.1%). Acute success (94.3% vs 94.2%) did not differ between the
      groups. One major complication (pericardial effusion) occurred in the non-ITC
      group. Overall, freedom from AP recurrence was 94% at 4 years in the ITC group,
      and 81% at 4 years in the non-ITC group (P  =  0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The use of
      ITCs in combination with 3-D mapping system for ablation of right-sided APs in
      adolescents has a high acute success rate, is safe, and associated with a
      significantly reduced recurrence rate compared to a non-ITC/conventional
      approach. It might be considered as alternative approach in this age group.

PMID- 28861900
TI  - Does persisting fear sustain catatonia?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychological substrate of catatonia. METHOD: Reviewing
      the historical descriptions and explanations of catatonic behaviours by
      clinicians from its delineation in the 19th century to the present. RESULTS:
      Patients with catatonia are often haunted by fears and terrors; this has not been
      widely appreciated, and certainly was lost from view in the days when catatonia
      was considered a subtype of schizophrenia. The report contributes to resolving a
      major question in catatonia: is the mind in stupor inactive, as the blank state
      that we picture in anesthetized patients, or is the mind active, so preoccupied
      as to exclude all other influences. THE MAIN FINDING: Persistent fear occupies
      the mind of catatonic patients. CONCLUSION: The signs of catatonia are
      adaptations to persistent fear, akin to tonic immobilization. The relief afforded
      by sedation supports this interpretation.

PMID- 28861901
TI  - eHealth literacy: How to choose quality Internet electrophysiology patient
      resources.

PMID- 28861902
TI  - Age effects in eating disorder baseline risk factors and prevention intervention
      effects.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Examine the impact of age on baseline eating disorder symptoms/risk
      factors and on the effects of completing three variants of an eating disorder
      prevention program. METHOD: Six hundred and eighty women (60% White) were
      randomized to clinician-led Body Project groups, peer-led Body Project groups, an
      Internet-based version of the Body Project (eBodyProject), or educational video
      control condition. Participants, who were on average 22.2 years old (SD = 7.1,
      range 17-64, median = 19), were assessed at pretest, posttest, and 6-month follow
      up. RESULTS: Two of the seven baseline variables were significantly associated
      with age, indicating that older age was associated with lower reported dieting (r
      = -.12) and better psychosocial functioning (r = -.13). Interactions indicated
      that age moderated the intervention effects, such that group-based programs were
      superior to the Internet-delivered version in terms of eating disorder symptom
      reductions for women up to age 20, whereas the Internet-delivered program was
      superior to group-based interventions, particularly in terms of BMI reduction,
      for women over approximately age 25. None of the four tests examining whether age
      moderated the effects of delivering Body Project groups by mental health
      clinicians versus undergraduate peer educators were significant. DISCUSSION:
      Results suggest that group-based versions of the Body Project should be
      implemented with young women up to the age of 20, as they produce larger eating
      disorder symptom reductions, whereas the Internet version of the Body Project
      should be implemented with women aged 25 or older, as it produces superior weight
      loss/gain prevention effects.

PMID- 28861903
TI  - Patterns and biases of climate change threats in the IUCN Red List.
AB  - International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments rely
      on published data and expert inputs, and biases can be introduced where
      underlying definitions and concepts are ambiguous. Consideration of climate
      change threat is no exception, and recently numerous approaches to assessing the
      threat of climate change to species have been developed. We explored IUCN Red
      List assessments of amphibians and birds to determine whether species listed as
      threatened by climate change display distinct patterns in terms of habitat
      occupied and additional nonclimatic threats faced. We compared IUCN Red List data
      with a published data set of species' biological and ecological traits believed
      to infer high vulnerability to climate change and determined whether
      distributions of climate change-threatened species on the IUCN Red List concur
      with those of climate change-threatened species identified with the trait-based
      approach and whether species possessing these traits are more likely to have
      climate change listed as a threat on the IUCN Red List. Species in some
      ecosystems (e.g., grassland, shrubland) and subject to particular threats (e.g.,
      invasive species) were more likely to have climate change as a listed threat.
      Geographical patterns of climate change-threatened amphibians and birds on the
      IUCN Red List were incongruent with patterns of global species richness and
      patterns identified using trait-based approaches. Certain traits were linked to
      increases or decreases in the likelihood of a species being threatened by climate
      change. Broad temperature tolerance of a species was consistently related to an
      increased likelihood of climate change threat, indicating counterintuitive
      relationships in IUCN assessments. To improve the robustness of species
      assessments of the vulnerability or extinction risk associated with climate
      change, we suggest IUCN adopt a more cohesive approach whereby specific traits
      highlighted by our results are considered in Red List assessments. To achieve
      this and to strengthen the climate change-vulnerability assessments approach, it
      is necessary to identify and implement logical avenues for further research into
      traits that make species vulnerable to climate change (including population-level
      threats).

PMID- 28861904
TI  - Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making.
AB  - Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social
      objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for
      trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often
      considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself.
      Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often
      highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes
      equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical
      deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of
      equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead
      to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We
      promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity
      in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where
      multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate
      ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we
      encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision
      making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We
      recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be
      made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity
      objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives
      dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed
      during policy implementation.

PMID- 28861906
TI  - Aquatic exposures of chemical mixtures in urban environments: Approaches to
      impact assessment.
AB  - Urban regions of the world are expanding rapidly, placing additional stress on
      water resources. Urban water bodies serve many purposes, from washing and sources
      of drinking water to transport and conduits for storm drainage and effluent
      discharge. These water bodies receive chemical emissions arising from either
      single or multiple point sources, diffuse sources which can be continuous,
      intermittent, or seasonal. Thus, aquatic organisms in these water bodies are
      exposed to temporally and compositionally variable mixtures. We have delineated
      source-specific signatures of these mixtures for diffuse urban runoff and urban
      point source exposure scenarios to support risk assessment and management of
      these mixtures. The first step in a tiered approach to assessing chemical
      exposure has been developed based on the event mean concentration concept, with
      chemical concentrations in runoff defined by volumes of water leaving each
      surface and the chemical exposure mixture profiles for different urban scenarios.
      Although generalizations can be made about the chemical composition of urban
      sources and event mean exposure predictions for initial prioritization, such
      modeling needs to be complemented with biological monitoring data. It is highly
      unlikely that the current paradigm of routine regulatory chemical monitoring
      alone will provide a realistic appraisal of urban aquatic chemical mixture
      exposures. Future consideration is also needed of the role of nonchemical
      stressors in such highly modified urban water bodies. Environ Toxicol Chem
      2018;37:703-714. (c) 2017 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
      published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.

PMID- 28861907
TI  - Teacher spatial skills are linked to differences in geometry instruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spatial skills have been linked to better performance in mathematics.
      AIM: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher
      spatial skills and their instruction, including teacher content and pedagogical
      knowledge, use of pictorial representations, and use of gestures during geometry
      instruction. SAMPLE: Fifty-six middle school teachers participated in the study.
      METHODS: The teachers were administered spatial measures of mental rotations and
      spatial visualization. Next, a single geometry class was videotaped. RESULT:
      Correlational analyses revealed that spatial skills significantly correlate with
      teacher's use of representational gestures and content and pedagogical knowledge
      during instruction of geometry. Spatial skills did not independently correlate
      with the use of pointing gestures or the use of pictorial representations.
      However, an interaction term between spatial skills and content and pedagogical
      knowledge did correlate significantly with the use of pictorial representations.
      Teacher experience as measured by the number of years of teaching and highest
      degree did not appear to affect the relationships among the variables with the
      exception of the relationship between spatial skills and teacher content and
      pedagogical knowledge. CONCLUSION: Teachers with better spatial skills are also
      likely to use representational gestures and to show better content and
      pedagogical knowledge during instruction. Spatial skills predict pictorial
      representation use only as a function of content and pedagogical knowledge.

PMID- 28861905
TI  - Treatable inherited rare movement disorders.
AB  - There are many rare movement disorders, and new ones are described every year.
      Because they are not well recognized, they often go undiagnosed for long periods
      of time. However, early diagnosis is becoming increasingly important. Rapid
      advances in our understanding of the biological mechanisms responsible for many
      rare disorders have enabled the development of specific treatments for some of
      them. Well-known historical examples include Wilson disease and dopa-responsive
      dystonia, for which specific and highly effective treatments have life-altering
      effects. In recent years, similarly specific and effective treatments have been
      developed for more than 30 rare inherited movement disorders. These treatments
      include specific medications, dietary changes, avoidance or management of certain
      triggers, enzyme replacement therapy, and others. This list of treatable rare
      movement disorders is likely to grow during the next few years because a number
      of additional promising treatments are actively being developed or evaluated in
      clinical trials. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28861908
TI  - Issues in vaccinology: Present challenges and future directions.
AB  - Vaccination is a principal and highly cost-effective means of controlling
      infectious diseases, providing direct protection against pathogens by conferring
      long-lasting immunological memory and inducing population-level herd immunity.
      Despite rapid ongoing progress in vaccinology, there remain many obstacles to the
      development and deployment of novel or improved vaccines; these include the
      underlying science of how to induce and sustain appropriate protective immune
      responses as well as bureaucratic, logistic and socio-political hurdles. The
      failure to distribute and administer existing vaccines to at-risk communities
      continues to account for a large proportion of infant mortality worldwide: almost
      20 million children do not have access to basic vaccines and several million
      still die each year as a result. While emerging epidemic or pandemic diseases
      pose a significant threat to global health and prosperity, there are many
      infectious diseases which provide a continuous or cyclical burden on healthcare
      systems which also need to be addressed. Gaps in knowledge of the human immune
      system stand in the way of developing technologies to overcome individual and
      pathogenic variation. The challenges in tackling infectious disease and
      directions that the field of preventive medicine may take to improve the current
      picture of global health are the focus of this review.

PMID- 28861909
TI  - Major trauma and the need for massive transfusion.

PMID- 28861910
TI  - Vertebral Fracture Risk in Diabetic Elderly Men: The MrOS Study.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is associated with a significant increase in risk of
      nonvertebral fractures, but information on risk of vertebral fractures (VFs) in
      subjects with T2DM, particularly among men, is lacking. Furthermore, it is not
      known whether spine bone mineral density (BMD) can predict the risk of VF in
      T2DM. We sought to examine the effect of diabetes status on prevalent and
      incident vertebral fracture, and to estimate the effect of lumbar spine BMD
      (areal and volumetric) as a risk factor for prevalent and incident morphometric
      vertebral fracture in T2DM (n = 875) and nondiabetic men (n = 4679). We used data
      from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study, which enrolled men aged >=65
      years. Lumbar spine areal BMD (aBMD) was measured with dual-energy X-ray
      absorptiometry (DXA), and volumetric BMD (vBMD) by quantitative computed
      tomography (QCT). Prevalence (7.0% versus 7.7%) and incidence (4.4% versus 4.5%)
      of VFs were not higher in T2DM versus nondiabetic men. The risk of prevalent (OR,
      1.05; 95% CI, 0.78 to 1.40) or incident vertebral-fracture (OR, 1.28; 95% CI,
      0.81 to 2.00) was not higher in T2DM versus nondiabetic men in models adjusted
      for age, clinic site, race, BMI, and aBMD. Higher spine aBMD was associated with
      lower risk of prevalent VF in T2DM (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.63) and
      nondiabetic men (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.5 to 0.88) (p for interaction = 0.24) and of
      incident VF in T2DM (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.41 to 0.60) and nondiabetic men (OR,
      0.54; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.88) (p for interaction = 0.77). Results were similar for
      vBMD. In conclusion, T2DM was not associated with higher prevalent or incident VF
      in older men, even after adjustment for BMI and BMD. Higher spine aBMD and vBMD
      are associated with lower prevalence and incidence of VF in T2DM as well as
      nondiabetic men. (c) 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28861911
TI  - Automated and efficient quantum chemical determination and energetic ranking of
      molecular protonation sites.
AB  - We present an automated quantum chemical protocol for the determination of
      preferred protonation sites in organic and organometallic molecules containing up
      to a few hundred atoms. It is based on the Foster-Boys orbital localization
      method, whereby we automatically identify lone pairs and pi orbitals as possible
      protonation sites. The method becomes efficient in conjunction with the robust
      and fast GFN-xTB semiempirical method proposed recently (Grimme et al., J. Chem.
      Theory Comput. 2017, 13, 1989). The protonated isomers that are found within a
      few seconds to minutes of computational wall-time on a standard desktop computer
      are then energetically refined using density functional theory (DFT), where we
      use a high-level double-hybrid reference method to benchmark GFN-xTB and low-cost
      DFT approaches. The proposed DFT/GFN-xTB/LMO composite protocol is generally
      applicable to almost arbitrary molecules including transition metal complexes.
      Importantly it is found that even in electronically complicated cases, the GFN
      xTB optimized protomer structures are reasonable and can safely be used in single
      point DFT calculations. Corrections from energy to free energy mostly have a
      small effect on computed protomer populations. The resulting protomer equilibrium
      is valuable, for example, in the context of electrospray ionization mass
      spectrometry where it may help identify the ionized species and assist the
      interpretation of the experiment. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28861912
TI  - Diagnosis checking of statistical analysis in RCTs indexed in PubMed.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Statistical analysis is essential for reporting of the results of
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as well as evaluating their effectiveness.
      However, the validity of a statistical analysis also depends on whether the
      assumptions of that analysis are valid. OBJECTIVE: To review all RCTs published
      in journals indexed in PubMed during December 2014 to provide a complete picture
      of how RCTs handle assumptions of statistical analysis. METHODS: We reviewed all
      RCTs published in December 2014 that appeared in journals indexed in PubMed using
      the Cochrane highly sensitive search strategy. The 2014 impact factors of the
      journals were used as proxies for their quality. The type of statistical analysis
      used and whether the assumptions of the analysis were tested were reviewed.
      RESULTS: In total, 451 papers were included. Of the 278 papers that reported a
      crude analysis for the primary outcomes, 31 (27.2%) reported whether the outcome
      was normally distributed. Of the 172 papers that reported an adjusted analysis
      for the primary outcomes, diagnosis checking was rarely conducted, with only 20%,
      8.6% and 7% checked for generalized linear model, Cox proportional hazard model
      and multilevel model, respectively. Study characteristics (study type, drug
      trial, funding sources, journal type and endorsement of CONSORT guidelines) were
      not associated with the reporting of diagnosis checking. CONCLUSION: The
      diagnosis of statistical analyses in RCTs published in PubMed-indexed journals
      was usually absent. Journals should provide guidelines about the reporting of a
      diagnosis of assumptions.

PMID- 28861914
TI  - A novel MAs(III)-selective ArsR transcriptional repressor.
AB  - Microbial expression of genes for resistance to heavy metals and metalloids is
      usually transcriptionally regulated by the toxic ions themselves. Arsenic is a
      ubiquitous, naturally occurring toxic metalloid widely distributed in soil and
      groundwater. Microbes biotransform both arsenate (As(V)) and arsenite (As(III))
      into more toxic methylated metabolites methylarsenite (MAs(III)) and
      dimethylarsenite (DMAs(III)). Environmental arsenic is sensed by members of the
      ArsR/SmtB family. The arsR gene is autoregulated and is typically part of an
      operon that contains other ars genes involved in arsenic detoxification. To date
      every identified ArsR is regulated by inorganic As(III). Here we described a
      novel ArsR from Shewanella putrefaciens selective for MAs(III). SpArsR orthologs
      control expression of two MAs(III) resistance genes, arsP that encodes the ArsP
      MAs(III) efflux permease, and arsH encoding the ArsH MAs(III) oxidase. SpArsR has
      two conserved cysteine residues, Cys101 and Cys102. Mutation of either resulted
      in loss of MAs(III) binding, indicating that they form an MAs(III) binding site.
      SpArsR can be converted into an As(III)-responsive repressor by introduction of
      an additional cysteine that allows for three-coordinate As(III) binding. Our
      results indicate that SpArsR evolved selectivity for MAs(III) over As(III) in
      order to control expression of genes for MAs(III) detoxification.

PMID- 28861913
TI  - Identification and functional analysis of CORIN variants in hypertensive
      patients.
AB  - Corin is a serine protease that activates atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP). CORIN
      gene variants have been reported in patients with hypertension. To date, however,
      the prevalence of CORIN variants in hypertensive patients remains unknown. To
      understand the prevalence and functional significance of CORIN variants in
      hypertension, we sequenced CORIN exons in 300 normal and 401 hypertensive
      individuals in a Chinese population and identified nine nonsynonymous variants,
      of which eight were not characterized previously. Among them, variants c.131A > G
      (p.Tyr13Cys), c.376G > T (p.Asp95Tyr), c.1094T > G (p.Leu334Trp), and c.1667G > A
      (p.Arg525His) occurred similarly in both normal and hypertensive individuals.
      Variants c1139G > A (p.Arg349His), c.2689C > T (p.Pro866Ser), and c.2864C > T
      (p.Thr924Met) were found once each in hypertensive individuals. Variant c.1683G >
      T (p.Arg530Ser) occurred preferentially in hypertensive individuals [10/401
      (2.5%) vs. 1/300 (0.3%) in normal individuals; P = 0.023], which was confirmed in
      another independent cohort [9/368 (2.44%) in hypertensive and 2/377 (0.53%) in
      normal individuals; P = 0.033]. In biochemical and cell-based functional studies,
      variants p.Arg530Ser and p.Thr924Met, but not p.Tyr13Cys, p.Asp95Tyr,
      p.Leu334Trp, p.Arg349His, p.Arg525His, and p.Pro866Ser, exhibited reduced pro-ANP
      processing activity, which was caused by endoplasmic reticulum retention and poor
      zymogen activation, respectively. These results indicate that genetic variants
      impairing corin function are not uncommon in general populations and that such
      variants may be an important contributing factor in hypertension.

PMID- 28861915
TI  - Patients Visiting Multiple Emergency Departments: Patterns, Costs, and Risk
      Factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We sought to characterize the population of patients seeking care at
      multiple emergency departments (EDs) and to quantify the proportion of all ED
      visits and costs accounted for by these patients. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective, cohort study of deidentified insurance claims for privately
      insured patients with one of more ED visits between 2010 and 2016. We measured
      the number of EDs visited by each patient and determined the overall proportion
      of all ED visits and ED costs accounted for by patients who visit multiple EDs.
      We identified factors associated with visiting multiple EDs. RESULTS: A total of
      8,651,716 patients made 16,390,676 ED visits over the study period, accounting
      for $26,102,831,740 in ED costs. A significant minority (20.5%) of patients
      visited more than one ED over the study period. However, these patients accounted
      for a disproportionate amount of all ED visits (41.4%) and all ED costs (39.2%).
      A small proportion (0.4%) of patients visited five or more EDs but accounted for
      2.8% of ED visits and costs. Among patients with two ED visits within 30 days,
      32% were to different EDs. Having at least one ED visit for mental health or
      substance abuse-related diagnosis was associated with increased odds of visiting
      multiple EDs. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial minority of patients visit multiple EDs,
      but account for a disproportionate burden of overall ED utilization and costs.
      Future work should evaluate the impact of visiting multiple EDs on care
      utilization and outcomes and explore systems for improving access to patient
      records across care centers.

PMID- 28861916
TI  - Risking existence: The experience and handling of depression.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To gain insight into how people suffering from depression
      experience and manage life. BACKGROUND: Depression is the leading cause of
      incapacitation and constitutes the second largest healthcare burden worldwide,
      causing considerable discomfort for depression sufferers and their significant
      others. Depression must be understood against the backdrop of a person's context
      as well as biological, psychological and social factors. While various studies
      have been conducted on the process of depression, only a few studies have
      examined its existential aspects. DESIGN: A classical grounded theory methodology
      employing open and selective coding was used to identify the participants' main
      concern and the strategies they used to handle it. METHOD: Data were collected in
      2015-2016 during 18 in-depth interviews with people with current or former
      moderate depression. The data were analysed through constant comparisons until
      the grounded theory emerged. RESULTS/FINDINGS: The main concern of the
      participants was Longing for belonging, and they handled their depression through
      a process named Risking existence. The process comprised four phases: (i)
      Ungraspable processing; (ii) Giving clues; (iii) Daring dependence; and (iv)
      Courage to be. The process of risking existence was accompanied from beginning to
      end by three essentials: to hope, to endure and shame. CONCLUSION: Working in
      mental health care involves encountering the pain, suffering and despair that
      humans endure. This challenges nurses to go beyond the symptoms and to listen for
      their meaning to each individual person. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The
      grounded theory of risking existence provides a model by which nurses can orient
      themselves when working with people who are depressed. Each phase describes
      different strategies that patients use that can help the nurse recognise what is
      going on, thus enabling him or her to understand and guide his or her patients.

PMID- 28861917
TI  - Feto- and utero-placental vascular adaptations to chronic maternal hypoxia in the
      mouse.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Chronic fetal hypoxia is one of the most common complications of
      pregnancy and is known to cause fetal growth restriction. The structural
      adaptations of the placental vasculature responsible for growth restriction with
      chronic hypoxia are not well elucidated. Using a mouse model of chronic maternal
      hypoxia in combination with micro-computed tomography and scanning electron
      microscopy, we found several placental adaptations that were beneficial to fetal
      growth including capillary expansion, thinning of the interhaemal membrane and
      increased radial artery diameters, resulting in a large drop in total utero
      placental vascular resistance. One of the mechanisms used to achieve the rapid
      increase in capillaries was intussusceptive angiogenesis, a strategy used in
      human placental development to form terminal gas-exchanging villi. These results
      contribute to our understanding of the structural mechanisms of the placental
      vasculature responsible for fetal growth restriction and provide a baseline for
      understanding adaptive physiological responses of the placenta to chronic
      hypoxia. ABSTRACT: The fetus and the placenta in eutherian mammals have a unique
      set of compensatory mechanisms to respond to several pregnancy complications
      including chronic maternal hypoxia. This study examined the structural
      adaptations of the feto- and utero-placental vasculature in an experimental mouse
      model of chronic maternal hypoxia (11% O2 from embryonic day (E) 14.5-E17.5).
      While placental weights were unaffected by exposure to chronic hypoxia, using
      micro-computed tomography, we found a 44% decrease in the absolute feto-placental
      arterial vascular volume and a 30% decrease in total vessel segments in the
      chronic hypoxia group compared to control group. Scanning electron microscopy
      imaging showed significant expansion of the capillary network; consequently, the
      interhaemal membrane was 11% thinner to facilitate maternal-fetal exchange in the
      chronic hypoxia placentas. One of the mechanisms for the rapid capillary
      expansion was intussusceptive angiogenesis. Analysis of the utero-placental
      arterial tree showed significant increases (24%) in the diameter of the radial
      arteries, resulting in a decrease in the total utero-placental resistance by 2.6
      fold in the mice exposed to chronic maternal hypoxia. Together these adaptations
      acted to preserve placental weight whereas fetal weight was decreased.

PMID- 28861919
TI  - Newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency: Evaluation of a
      commercial T-cell receptor excision circle-based method in Victorian dried blood
      spots.
AB  - AIM: Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is the most severe form of primary
      immunodeficiency and is fatal in infancy if untreated. As early diagnosis is
      associated with improved outcomes, SCID is an ideal condition to consider for
      inclusion in a newborn screening (NBS) programme in Australia. In this
      feasibility study, we evaluated the EnLite Neonatal TREC kit for detection of T
      cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) from NBS dried blood spots for the
      identification of known SCID patients in Victoria. METHODS: TREC copies/MUL were
      measured retrospectively in 14 children diagnosed with SCID or complete DiGeorge
      syndrome (CDGS) from 2005 to 2015 at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. In
      addition, TREC copies/MUL were measured for 501 prospective de-identified NBS
      cards. RESULTS: Of 14 known SCID or CDGS samples, 11 were correctly identified as
      presumptive positive samples with low or undetectable TREC on duplicate testing.
      The remaining three samples also had low or undetectable TREC on duplicate
      testing but were considered invalid due to insufficient beta-actin DNA
      amplification. Of the 501 prospective NBS samples, none were identified as
      presumptive positive samples on duplicate testing. CONCLUSIONS: The EnLite
      Neonatal TREC kit correctly identified known SCID or CDGS patients as presumptive
      positive samples, and initial cut-offs for TREC and beta-actin in the Victorian
      NBS population were determined. A larger pilot study is required to confirm these
      proposed cut-offs and to evaluate the cost and implementation of this screening
      programme in Victoria, Australia. Overall, this study provides preliminary data
      to support the introduction of this assay to the NBS programme in Victoria.

PMID- 28861918
TI  - Multitarget-Directed Ligands Combining Cholinesterase and Monoamine Oxidase
      Inhibition with Histamine H3 R Antagonism for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
AB  - The therapy of complex neurodegenerative diseases requires the development of
      multitarget-directed drugs (MTDs). Novel indole derivatives with inhibitory
      activity towards acetyl/butyrylcholinesterases and monoamine oxidases A/B as well
      as the histamine H3 receptor (H3R) were obtained by optimization of the
      neuroprotectant ASS234 by incorporating generally accepted H3R pharmacophore
      motifs. These small-molecule hits demonstrated balanced activities at the
      targets, mostly in the nanomolar concentration range. Additional in vitro studies
      showed antioxidative neuroprotective effects as well as the ability to penetrate
      the blood-brain barrier. With this promising in vitro profile, contilisant (at 1
      mg kg-1 i.p.) also significantly improved lipopolysaccharide-induced cognitive
      deficits.

PMID- 28861920
TI  - Higher-than-expected population prevalence of potentially pathogenic germline
      TP53 variants in individuals unselected for cancer history.
AB  - Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is an autosomal-dominant cancer predisposition
      disorder associated with pathogenic germline variants in TP53, with a high
      penetrance over an individual's lifetime. The actual population prevalence of
      pathogenic germline TP53 mutations is still unclear, most likely due to biased
      selection of cancer affected families. The aim of this study was to estimate the
      population prevalence of potentially pathogenic TP53 exonic variants in three
      sequencing databases, totaling 63,983 unrelated individuals. Potential
      pathogenicity was defined using an original algorithm combining bioinformatic
      prediction tools, suggested clinical significance, and functional data. We
      identified 34 different potentially pathogenic TP53 variants in 131 out of 63,983
      individuals (0.2%). Twenty-eight (82%) of these variants fell within the DNA
      binding domain of TP53, with an enrichment for specific variants that were not
      previously identified as LFS mutation hotspots, such as the p.R290H and p.N235S
      variants. Our findings reveal that the population prevalence of potentially
      pathogenic TP53 variants may be up to 10 times higher than previously estimated
      from family-based studies. These results point to the need for further studies
      aimed at evaluating cancer penetrance modifiers as well as the risk associated
      between cancer and rare TP53 variants.

PMID- 28861921
TI  - The Functional Response of Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Electron-Beam Patterned
      Elastomeric Surfaces Presenting Micrometer to Nanoscale Heterogeneous Rigidity.
AB  - Cells directly probe and respond to the physicomechanical properties of their
      extracellular environment, a dynamic process which has been shown to play a key
      role in regulating both cellular adhesive processes and differential cellular
      function. Recent studies indicate that stem cells show lineage-specific
      differentiation when cultured on substrates approximating the stiffness profiles
      of specific tissues. Although tissues are associated with a range of Young's
      modulus values for bulk rigidity, at the subcellular level, tissues are comprised
      of heterogeneous distributions of rigidity. Lithographic processes have been
      widely explored in cell biology for the generation of analytical substrates to
      probe cellular physicomechanical responses. In this work, it is shown for the
      first time that that direct-write e-beam exposure can significantly alter the
      rigidity of elastomeric poly(dimethylsiloxane) substrates and a new class of 2D
      elastomeric substrates with controlled patterned rigidity ranging from the
      micrometer to the nanoscale is described. The mechanoresponse of human
      mesenchymal stem cells to e-beam patterned substrates was subsequently probed in
      vitro and significant modulation of focal adhesion formation and osteochondral
      lineage commitment was observed as a function of both feature diameter and
      rigidity, establishing the groundwork for a new generation of biomimetic material
      interfaces.

PMID- 28861922
TI  - Site-specific accumulation and dynamic change of flavonoids in Apocyni Veneti
      Folium.
AB  - Site-specific accumulation of flavonoids in Apocyni Veneti Folium was determined
      by laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) and the localization of catechins
      also was observed via vanillin-HCl staining under the conventional optical
      microscope. The contents of five flavonoids in Apocyni Veneti Folium from
      different harvest times and growth parts were measured using HPLC method. LSCM
      observation showed that flavonoids are accumulated in cuticle of epidermal cells
      and vessel walls, especially in protoplasts and nucleolus of the collenchyma
      cells and the epidermal cells. Catechins are localized in the palisade parenchyma
      cells and vessel walls, particularly in the laticifers found in the phloem. On
      the basis of the difference of the maximal emission wavelength between quercetin
      and kaempferol derivatives which have fluorescence behavior by appropriate
      treatment, kaempferol and its derivatives are localized exclusively in the
      cuticle. Results showed that the content of astragalin in Apocyni Veneti Folium
      from different parts revealed the decreasing trend, while hyperin and
      isoquercitrin were higher in June and July analyzed by HPLC. In summary, the site
      specific accumulation of flavonoids in Apocyni Veneti Folium can be determined by
      LSCM and vanillin-HCl staining. The contents of flavonoids in Apocyni Veneti
      Folium are correlated with harvest times and growth parts.

PMID- 28861923
TI  - Unravelling hypothyroidism in AL amyloidosis: Authors' reply.

PMID- 28861924
TI  - Highly Concentrated, Ultrathin Nickel Hydroxide Nanosheet Ink for Wearable Energy
      Storage Devices.
AB  - Solution-based techniques are considered as a promising strategy for scalable
      fabrication of flexible electronics owing to their low-cost and high processing
      speed. The key to the success of these techniques is dominated by the ink
      formulation of active nanomaterials. This work successfully prepares a highly
      concentrated two dimensional (2D) crystal ink comprised of ultrathin nickel
      hydroxide (Ni(OH)2 ) nanosheets with an average lateral size of 34 nm. The
      maximum concentration of Ni(OH)2 nanosheets in water without adding any additives
      reaches as high as 50 mg mL-1 , which can be printed on arbitrary substrates to
      form Ni(OH)2 thin films. As a proof-of-concept application, Ni(OH)2 nanosheet ink
      is coated on commercialized carbon fiber yarns to fabricate wearable energy
      storage devices. The thus-fabricated hybrid supercapacitors exhibit excellent
      flexibility with a capacitance retention of 96% after 5000 bending-unbending
      cycles, and good weavability with a high volumetric capacitance of 36.3 F cm-3 at
      a current density of 0.4 A cm-3 , and an energy density of 11.3 mWh cm-3 at a
      power density of 0.3 W cm-3 . As a demonstration of practical application, a red
      light emitting diode can be lighted up by three hybrid devices connected in
      series.

PMID- 28861925
TI  - Standard and reduced doses of dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban for stroke
      prevention in atrial fibrillation: a nationwide cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Comparative data of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants
      (NOAC) are lacking in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). OBJECTIVE: We
      compared effectiveness and safety of standard and reduced dose NOAC in AF
      patients. METHODS: Using Danish nationwide registries, we included all oral
      anticoagulant-naive AF patients who initiated NOAC treatment (2012-2016). Outcome
      specific and mortality-specific multiple Cox regressions were combined to compute
      average treatment effects as 1-year standardized differences in stroke and
      bleeding risks (g-formula). RESULTS: Amongst 31 522 AF patients, the distribution
      of NOAC/dose was as follows: dabigatran standard dose (22.4%), dabigatran-reduced
      dose (14.0%), rivaroxaban standard dose (21.8%), rivaroxaban reduced dose (6.7%),
      apixaban standard dose (22.9%), and apixaban reduced dose (12.2%). The 1-year
      standardized absolute risks of stroke/thromboembolism were 1.73-1.98% and 2.51
      2.78% with standard and reduced NOAC dose, respectively, without statistically
      significant differences between NOACs for given dose level. Comparing standard
      doses, the 1-year standardized absolute risk (95% CI) for major bleeding was for
      rivaroxaban 2.78% (2.42-3.17%); corresponding absolute risk differences (95% CI)
      were for dabigatran -0.93% (-1.45% to -0.38%) and apixaban, -0.54% (-0.99% to 
      0.05%). The results for major bleeding were similar for reduced NOAC dose. The 1
      year standardized absolute risk (95% CI) for intracranial bleeding was for
      standard dose dabigatran 0.19% (0.22-0.50%); corresponding absolute risk
      differences (95% CI) were for rivaroxaban 0.23% (0.06-0.41%) and apixaban, 0.18%
      (0.01-0.34%). CONCLUSIONS: Standard and reduced dose NOACs, respectively, showed
      no significant risk difference for associated stroke/thromboembolism. Rivaroxaban
      was associated with higher bleeding risk compared with dabigatran and apixaban
      and dabigatran was associated with lower intracranial bleeding risk compared with
      rivaroxaban and apixaban.

PMID- 28861926
TI  - Bis(aryl) Tetrasulfides as Cathode Materials for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries.
AB  - An organotetrasulfide consists of a linear chain of four sulfur atoms that could
      accept up to 6 e- in reduction reactions, thus providing a promising high
      capacity electrode material. Herein, we study three bis(aryl) tetrasulfides as
      cathode materials in lithium batteries. Each tetrasulfide exhibits two major
      voltage regions in the discharge. The high voltage slope region is governed by
      the formation of persulfides and thiolates, and the low voltage plateau region is
      due to the formation of Li2 S2 /Li2 S. Based on theoretical calculations and
      spectroscopic analysis, three reduction reaction processes are revealed, and the
      discharge products are identified. Lithium half cells with tetrasulfide
      catholytes deliver high specific capacities over 200 cycles. The effects of the
      functional groups on the electrochemical characteristics of tetrasulfides are
      investigated, which provides guidance for developing optimum aryl polysulfides as
      cathode materials for high energy lithium batteries.

PMID- 28861927
TI  - Half-Metallic Behavior in 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Nanosheets by Dual
      Native-Defects Engineering.
AB  - Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been regarded as one
      of the best nonartificial low-dimensional building blocks for developing
      spintronic nanodevices. However, the lack of spin polarization in the vicinity of
      the Fermi surface and local magnetic moment in pristine TMDs has greatly hampered
      the exploitation of magnetotransport properties. Herein, a half-metallic
      structure of TMDs is successfully developed by a simple chemical defect
      engineering strategy. Dual native defects decorate titanium diselenides with the
      coexistence of metal-Ti-atom incorporation and Se-anion defects, resulting in a
      high-spin-polarized current and local magnetic moment of 2D Ti-based TMDs toward
      half-metallic room-temperature ferromagnetism character. Arising from spin
      polarization transport, the as-obtained T-TiSe1.8 nanosheets exhibit a large
      negative magnetoresistance phenomenon with a value of -40% (5T, 10 K),
      representing one of the highest negative magnetoresistance effects among TMDs. It
      is anticipated that this dual regulation strategy will be a powerful tool for
      optimizing the intrinsic physical properties of TMD systems.

PMID- 28861928
TI  - Octahedral [Pd6 L8 ]12+ Metallosupramolecular Cages: Synthesis, Structures and
      Guest-Encapsulation Studies.
AB  - Four planar tripyridyl ligands (Ltripy ), 1,3,5-tris(pyridin-3-ylethynyl)benzene
      1 a, 1,3,5-tris[4-(3-pyridyl)phenyl]benzene 2 a, and the hexyloxy chain
      functionalized derivatives 1,3,5-tris[(3-hexyloxy-5-pyridyl)ethynyl]benzene 1 b,
      and 1,3,5-tris[4-(3-hexyloxy-5-pyridyl)phenyl]benzene 2 b, were synthesized and
      used to generate a family of [Pd6 (Ltripy )8 ](BF4 )12 octahedral cages (Ltripy
      =1 a, b or 2 a, b). The ligands and cages were characterized using a combination
      of 1 H, 13 C, and DOSY nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, high
      resolution electrospray mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS), infrared (IR)
      spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and in three cases, X-ray crystallography. The
      molecular recognition properties of the cages with neutral and anionic guests
      were examined, in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), using NMR spectroscopy, mass
      spectrometry and molecular modeling. No binding was observed with simple
      aliphatic and aromatic guest molecules. However, anionic sulfonates were found to
      interact with the octahedral cages and the binding interaction was size
      selective. The smaller [Pd6 (1 a, b)8 ]12+ cages were able to interact with three
      p-toluenesulfonate guest molecules while the larger [Pd6 (2 a, b)8 ]12+ systems
      could host four of the anionic guest molecules. To probe the importance of the
      hydrophobic effect, a mixed water-DMSO (1:1) solvent system was used to reexamine
      the binding of the neutral organic guests adamantane, anthracene, pyrene and 1,8
      naphthalimide within the cages. In this solvent system all the guests except
      adamantane were observed to bind within the cavities of the cages. NMR
      spectroscopy and molecular modeling indicated that the cages bind multiple copies
      of the individual guests (between 3-6 guest molecules per cage).

PMID- 28861929
TI  - Myelin content changes in probable Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive
      impairment: Associations with age and severity of neuropsychiatric impairment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Existing indices of white matter integrity such as fractional
      anisotropy and magnetization transfer ratio may not provide optimal specificity
      to myelin content. In contrast, myelin water fraction (MWF) derived from the
      multiecho T2 relaxation time technique may serve as a more direct measure of
      myelin content. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: The goal of the present study was to identify
      markers of regional demyelination in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease
      (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in relation to age and severity of
      neuropsychiatric impairment. POPULATION: The sample included patients diagnosed
      with probable AD (n = 25) or MCI (n = 43), and cognitively intact elderly
      controls (n = 33). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE ASSESSMENT: Long T2 , short T2 , and
      MWF values were measured with a 1.5T scanner in periventricular and deep normal
      appearing white matter (NAWM), serving as indices of intra/extracellular water
      content and myelin content. A comprehensive neuropsychological and
      neuropsychiatric assessment was administered to all participants. STATISTICAL
      TESTS, RESULTS: AD patients displayed higher age-adjusted long and short T2
      values and reduced MWF values in left temporal/parietal and bilateral
      periventricular NAWM than controls and MCI patients (P < 0.004; one-way analysis
      of covariance [ANCOVA] tests). Short T2 /MWF values in temporal, frontal, and
      periventricular NAWM of controls and/or MCI patients were significantly
      associated with episodic and semantic memory performance and depressive
      symptomatology (P < 0.004; partial correlation indices). The impact of age on
      memory performance was significantly (P < 0.01; mediated linear regression
      analyses) mediated by age-related changes in short T2 and MWF values in these
      regions. DATA CONCLUSION: Age-related demyelination is associated with memory
      impairment (especially in prodromal dementia states) and symptoms of depression
      in an anatomically specific manner. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1 Technical Efficacy:
      Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:1359-1372.

PMID- 28861930
TI  - Electrical pulse stimulation: an in vitro exercise model for the induction of
      human skeletal muscle cell hypertrophy. A proof-of-concept study.
AB  - NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? Is electrical pulse
      stimulation (EPS) an in vitro exercise model able to elicit the hypertrophy of
      human muscle cells? What is the main finding and its importance? The addition of
      a restitution period of 8 h after EPS induces the enlargement of human muscle
      cells, a major physiological end-point to resistance exercise. This is supported
      by downregulation of myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle mass, and
      increased phosphorylated mTOR and 4E-BP1, key factors in the growth cascade. This
      proof-of-concept study provides a model of physiologically mediated muscle
      growth, which will be the basis for future studies aiming to depict molecular
      events governing the hypertrophy of human muscle cells. Electrical pulse
      stimulation (EPS) of muscle cells has previously been used as an in vitro
      exercise model. The present study aimed to establish an EPS protocol promoting
      the hypertrophy of human muscle cells, which represents a major physiological end
      point to resistance exercise in humans. We hypothesized that adding a resting
      period after EPS would be crucial for the occurrence of the morphological change.
      Myoblasts obtained from human muscle biopsies (n = 5) were differentiated into
      multinucleated myotubes and exposed to 8 h of EPS consisting of 2 ms pulses at 12
      V, with a frequency of 1 Hz. Myotube size was assessed using immunohistochemistry
      immediately, 4 and 8 h after completed EPS. Gene expression and phosphorylation
      status of selected markers of hypertrophy were assessed using RT-PCR and Western
      blotting, respectively. Release of the myokine interleukin-6 in culture medium
      was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We demonstrated a
      significant increase (31 +/- 14%; P = 0.03) in the size of myotubes when EPS was
      followed by an 8 h resting period, but not immediately or 4 h after completion of
      EPS. The response was supported by downregulation (P = 0.04) of the gene
      expression of myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle mass, and an increase in
      phosphorylated mTOR (P = 0.03) and 4E-BP1 (P = 0.01), which are important factors
      in the cellular growth signalling cascade. The present work demonstrates that EPS
      is an in vitro exercise model promoting the hypertrophy of human muscle cells,
      recapitulating a major physiological end-point to resistance exercise in human
      skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28861931
TI  - The ubiquitin ligase TRIM25 inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma progression by
      targeting metastasis associated 1 protein.
AB  - Metastasis associated 1 protein (MTA1) is one of the prime facilitators of
      metastatic progression in all solid tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC). However, the underlying regulatory mechanism of MTA1 expression in HCC is
      not clear. In this study, we evaluated MTA1 transcript and protein expression in
      HCC and normal hepatic cell lines. The results revealed that MTA1 protein
      expression had a significantly increase in HCC cell line, HuH6, compared with
      that in normal hepatic cell line, THLE-2. Determination of protein half-life
      using cycloheximide (CHX) treatment did not reveal any statistically significant
      difference in protein turn-over rates between THLE-2 (3.3 +/- 0.25 h) and HuH6
      (3.6 +/- 0.15 h) cell lines. MTA1 protein level was stabilized in THLE-2 cells
      after treatment with MG-132 to levels similar to those observed in HuH6 cells.
      Mass spectrometric analysis of FLAG immunoprecipitates of FLAG-MTA1 transfected
      THLE-2 cells after MG-132 treated revealed candidate ubiquitin ligases that were
      interacting with MTA1. RNAi-mediated silencing of each prospective ubiquitin
      ligase in THLE-2 cells indicated that knockdown of TRIM25 resulted in
      stabilization of MTA1 protein, indicating TRIM25 as a putative E3 ligase for
      MTA1. Coimmunoprecipitation of FLAG-tagged MTA1, but not IgG, in MG-132 treated
      and untreated THLE-2 cells cotransfected with either FLAG-MTA1 or Myc-TRIM25
      revealed robust polyubiquitinated MTA1, confirming that the TRIM25 is the
      ubiquitin ligase for MTA1 degradation. Overexpression of TRIM25 in HuH6 and RNAi
      mediated silencing of TRIM25 in THLE-2 cells inhibited and increased the cell
      migration and invasion, respectively. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas data
      for assessment of TRIM25 transcript level and MTA1 protein expression in 25 HCC
      patients confirmed an inverse correlation between the expression of TRIM25 and
      MTA1. Cumulatively, our data reveal a novel mechanism of post-translational to
      regulate MTA1 expression in normal hepatic cells, which is repressed in HCC. (c)
      2017 IUBMB Life, 69(10):795-801, 2017.

PMID- 28861932
TI  - Ion Mobility-Enhanced Data-Independent Acquisitions Enable a Deep Proteomic
      Landscape of Oligodendrocytes.
AB  - Oligodendrocytes are a type of neuroglia that provide trophic support and
      insulation to axons in the central nervous system. The genesis and maturation of
      oligodendrocytes are essential processes for myelination and the course of CNS
      development. Using ion mobility-enhanced, data-independent acquisitions and 2D
      nanoUPLC fractionation operating at nanoscale flow rates, we established a
      comprehensive data set of proteins expressed by the human oligodendroglia cell
      line MO3.13. The final dataset incorporating all fractions comprised 223 531
      identified peptides assigned to 10 390 protein hits, an improvement of 4.5 times
      on identified proteins described previously by our group using the same cell
      line. Identified proteins play pivotal roles in many biological processes such as
      cell growth and development and energy metabolism, providing a rich resource for
      future studies on oligodendrocyte development, myelination, axonal support, and
      the regulation of such process. Our results can help further studies that use
      MO3.13 cells as a tool of investigation, not only in relation to oligodendrocyte
      maturation, but also to diseases that have oligodendrocytes as key players. All
      MS data have been deposited in the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD004696.

PMID- 28861934
TI  - Indirect MRI of 17 o-labeled water using steady-state sequences: Signal
      simulation and preclinical experiment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have been reported for T2 -weighted indirect 17 O
      imaging. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: To evaluate the feasibility of steady-state
      sequences for indirect 17 O brain imaging. STUDY TYPE: Signal simulation, phantom
      measurements, and prospective animal experiments were performed in accordance
      with the institutional guidelines for animal experiments.
      POPULATION/SUBJECTS/PHANTOM/SPECIMEN/ANIMAL MODEL: Signal simulations of balanced
      steady-state free precession (bSSFP) were performed for concentrations of 17 O
      ranging from 0.037-1.600%. Phantom measurements with concentrations of 17 O water
      ranging from 0.037-1.566% were also conducted. Six healthy beagle dogs were
      scanned with intravenous administration of 20% 17 O-labeled water (1 mL/kg).
      FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Dynamic 3D-bSSFP scans were performed at 3T MRI. 17 O
      labeled water was injected 60 seconds after the scan start, and the total scan
      duration was 5 minutes. ASSESSMENT: Based on the result of signal simulation and
      phantom measurement, signal changes in the beagle dogs were measured and
      converted into 17 O concentrations. STATISTICAL TESTS: The 17 O concentrations
      were averaged for every 15 seconds, and compared to the baseline (30-45 sec) with
      Dunnett's multiple comparison tests. RESULTS: Signal simulation revealed that the
      relationships between 17 O concentration and the natural logarithm of relative
      signals were linear. The intraclass correlation coefficient between relative
      signals in phantom measurement and signal simulations was 0.974. In the animal
      experiments, significant increases in 17 O concentration (P < 0.05) were observed
      60 seconds after the injection of 17 O. At the end of scanning, mean respective
      17 O concentrations of 0.084 +/- 0.026%, 0.117 +/- 0.038, 0.082 +/- 0.037%, and
      0.049 +/- 0.004% were noted for the cerebral cortex, cerebellar cortex, cerebral
      white matter, and ventricle. DATA CONCLUSION: Dynamic steady-state sequences were
      feasible for indirect 17 O imaging, and absolute quantification was possible.
      This method can be applied for the measurement of permeability and blood flow in
      the brain, and for kinetic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2
      Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:1373-1379.

PMID- 28861935
TI  - Children with autism spectrum disorder who improve with fever: Insights from the
      Simons Simplex Collection.
AB  - : Literature indicates that some children with ASD may show behavioral
      improvements during fever; however, little is known about the behavioral profiles
      of these children. This study aims to (a) investigate the subset of children who
      show parent-reported behavioral improvements associated with fever and (b)
      compare the demographic, behavioral, and genetic characteristics of this subset
      of children to children whose parents report no change during fever. Parents of
      2,152 children from the Simons Simplex Collection provided information about
      whether and in which areas their child improved during fever. Children were
      randomly assigned into discovery or replication samples. In discovery analyses,
      children who reportedly improved with fever (Improve Group) were compared to
      those who reportedly did not improve (No Improve Group) on demographics, medical
      history, ASD symptoms, adaptive skills, and presence of de novo ASD-associated
      mutations. Significant and marginal results from discovery analyses were tested
      in the replication sample. Parent reports of 17% of children indicated
      improvements during fever across a range of domains. Discovery and replication
      analyses revealed that the Improve Group had significantly lower non-verbal
      cognitive skills (NVIQ) and language levels and more repetitive behaviors. Groups
      did not differ on demographic variables, parent-report of current ASD symptoms or
      the presence of de novo mutations. Understanding the profiles of children who
      improve during episodes of fever may provide insights into innovative treatments
      for ASD. Autism Res 2018, 11: 175-184. (c) 2017 International Society for Autism
      Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This study explored
      characteristics of children with ASD who are reported to improve during fever.
      Parents of 17% of children with ASD report improvements across a range of domains
      during fever including cognition, communication, repetitive behaviors, social
      interaction, and behavior. Children who are reported to improve during fever have
      significantly lower non-verbal cognitive skills and language levels and more
      repetitive behaviors. Understanding the profiles of children who improve during
      episodes of fever may provide insights into new treatments for ASD.

PMID- 28861933
TI  - Desmosterol accumulation in users of amiodarone.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amiodarone is an effective and widely used antiarrhythmic drug with
      many possible adverse effects including hypercholesterolaemia and hepatotoxicity.
      OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to evaluate how long-term amiodarone treatment affects
      cholesterol metabolism. METHODS: The study population consisted of 56 cardiac
      patients, of whom 20 were on amiodarone (amiodarone + group) and 36 did not use
      the drug (amiodarone - group). We also studied a control group of 124 individuals
      selected randomly from the population. Cholesterol metabolism was evaluated by
      analysis of serum noncholesterol sterols by gas-liquid chromatography and gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Comparisons of serum lipids and
      noncholesterol sterols across the three groups showed increased serum
      triglyceride in users of amiodarone but no statistically significant group
      differences in total, LDL or HDL cholesterol or serum proprotein convertase
      subtilisin/kexin type 9 concentrations. Nor did the groups differ in the ratios
      of cholestanol or plant sterols to cholesterol in serum, suggesting that
      cholesterol absorption was unaltered. However, all users of amiodarone had very
      markedly elevated serum desmosterol concentrations: the desmosterol-to
      cholesterol ratio (102 * MUmol mmol-1 ) averaged 1030.7 +/- 115.7 (mean +/- SE)
      in the amiodarone + group versus 82.7 +/- 3.4 and 75.9 +/- 1.4 in the amiodarone 
      and the population control groups (P < 0.001), respectively. CONCLUSION: Use of
      amiodarone was associated with on average 12-fold serum desmosterol
      concentrations compared with the control groups. This observation is fully novel
      and suggests that amiodarone interferes with the conversion of desmosterol to
      cholesterol in the cholesterol synthesis pathway. Whether accumulation of
      desmosterol plays a role in amiodarone-induced hepatotoxicity deserves to be
      studied in the future.

PMID- 28861936
TI  - Pivotal response treatment for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder:
      Defining a predictor profile.
AB  - : Behavioral characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who
      respond positively to Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) have been described
      previously, based on single-subject design research. The present study examined
      several such characteristics, as well as positive affect, as predictors of
      expressive language (EL) gains in a representative sample of preschoolers with
      ASD (n = 57) enrolled in a PRT-based community early intervention program.
      Children's cognitive ability, positive affect, and levels of appropriate toy
      contact measured at the start of intervention each contributed significantly to
      the prediction of EL outcomes. Together these variables accounted for 40% of the
      total outcome variance. In addition, a profile of increased EL ability, positive
      affect and appropriate toy contact, and decreased social avoidance and
      stereotyped and repetitive vocalizations was associated with greater gains during
      intervention. Results are discussed in relation to their implications for
      understanding both the variable treatment response documented in children with
      ASD and how to tailor treatment to optimize individual benefit. Autism Res 2018,
      11: 153-165. (c) 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: The study examined behavior of 57 preschoolers who
      made the greatest and least gains from 1 year of a community Pivotal Response
      Treatment program. Using pre-treatment videos, we saw that children who made the
      most progress showed more language, positive affect, and appropriate interactions
      with toys, also less avoidance of people and fewer repetitive vocalizations.
      Behavior profiles can be used to match treatment to individual children's needs.

PMID- 28861937
TI  - Engineered Fluorine Metabolism and Fluoropolymer Production in Living Cells.
AB  - Fluorine has become an important element for the design of synthetic molecules
      for use in medicine, agriculture, and materials. Despite the many advantages
      provided by fluorine for tuning key molecular properties, it is rarely found in
      natural metabolism. We seek to expand the molecular space available for discovery
      through the development of new biosynthetic strategies that cross synthetic with
      natural compounds. Towards this goal, we engineered a microbial host for
      organofluorine metabolism and show that we can achieve the production of the
      fluorinated diketide 2-fluoro-3-hydroxybutyrate at approximately 50 % yield. This
      fluorinated diketide can be used as a monomer in vivo to produce fluorinated
      poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) bioplastics with fluorine substitutions ranging from
      around 5-15 %. This system provides a platform to produce mm flux through the key
      fluoromalonyl coenzyme A (CoA) building block, thereby offering the potential to
      generate a broad range of fluorinated small-molecule targets in living cells.

PMID- 28861938
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of a new algorithm to detect atrial fibrillation in a home
      blood pressure monitor.
AB  - The authors evaluated a new algorithm for detecting atrial fibrillation (AF)
      using a home blood pressure monitor. Three serial blood pressure values were
      measured by the monitor in 16 patients with AF and 20 patients with sinus rhythm.
      The authors defined "monitor AF in irregular pulse peak (IPP) 25" as follows: (1)
      IPP: |interval of pulse peak - the average of the interval of the pulse peak| >=
      the average of the interval of the pulse peak *25%; (2) irregular heart beat:
      beats of IPP >= total pulse *20%; and (3) monitor AF: two or more irregular heart
      beats of the three blood pressure measurements. Cutoff IPP values were set at 20%
      (IPP20) and 15% (IPP15). The monitor's AF specificity was 1.0 in IPP25, IPP20,
      and IPP15, and its sensitivity was 0.88 in IPP25, 0.94 in IPP20, and 1.0 in
      IPP15. The new algorithm had high diagnostic accuracy for detecting AF and a low
      false-positive rate.

PMID- 28861939
TI  - Boosting the Catalytic Performance of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Steroid
      Transformations by Confinement within a Mesoporous Scaffold.
AB  - Solid-state crystallization achieves selective confinement of metal-organic
      framework (MOF) nanocrystals within mesoporous materials, thereby rendering
      active sites more accessible compared to the bulk-MOF and enhancing the chemical
      and mechanical stability of MOF nanocrystals. (Zr)UiO-66(NH2 )/SiO2 hybrid
      materials were tested as efficient and reusable heterogeneous catalysts for the
      synthesis of steroid derivatives, outperforming the bulk (Zr)UiO-66(NH2 ) MOF. A
      clear correlation between the catalytic activity of the dispersed Zr sites
      present in the confined MOF, and the loading of the mesoporous SiO2 , is
      demonstrated for steroid transformations.

PMID- 28861940
TI  - Mapping the Spatial Proteome of Metastatic Cells in Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second deadliest cancer worldwide. Here, we aimed
      to study metastasis mechanisms using spatial proteomics in the KM12 cell model.
      Cells were SILAC-labeled and fractionated into five subcellular fractions
      corresponding to: cytoplasm, plasma, mitochondria and ER/golgi membranes,
      nuclear, chromatin-bound and cytoskeletal proteins and analyzed with high
      resolution mass spectrometry. We provide localization data of 4863 quantified
      proteins in the different subcellular fractions. A total of 1318 proteins with at
      least 1.5-fold change were deregulated in highly metastatic KM12SM cells respect
      to KM12C cells. The protein network organization, protein complexes and
      functional pathways associated to CRC metastasis was revealed with spatial
      resolution. Although 92% of the differentially expressed proteins showed the same
      deregulation in all subcellular compartments, a subset of 117 proteins (8%)
      showed opposite changes in different subcellular localizations. The chaperonin
      CCT, the Eif2 and Eif3 initiation of translation and the oxidative
      phosphorylation complexes together with an important number of guanine nucleotide
      binding proteins, were deregulated in abundance and localization within the
      metastatic cells. Particularly relevant was the relationship of deregulated
      protein complexes with exosome secretion. The knowledge of the spatial proteome
      alterations at subcellular level contributes to clarify the molecular mechanisms
      underlying colorectal cancer metastasis and to identify potential targets of
      therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28861941
TI  - Early follow-up of lung disease in infants with cystic fibrosis using the raised
      volume rapid thoracic compression technique and computed tomography during quiet
      breathing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among the different techniques used to monitor lung disease
      progression in infants with CF diagnosed by Newborn screening (NBS), raised
      volume-rapid thoracic compression (RVRTC) remains a promising tool. However, the
      need of sedation and positive pressure ventilation considerably limits its
      clinical use. We recently described a semi-quantitative method to evaluate air
      trapping by chest tomography during quite breathing without sedation (CTqb
      score). This parameter is the radiological sign of airway obstruction and could
      be also used for lung disease follow-up in infants with CF. However, its
      discriminative power compared with RVRTC and correlation with lung function
      parameters are not known. OBJECTIVES: To compare the discriminative powers of the
      CTqb score and RVRTC parameters and to determine their correlation during the
      first year of life of infants with CF. METHODS: In this multicenter longitudinal
      study, infants with CF diagnosed by NBS underwent RVRTC and CT during quite
      breathing at 10 +/- 4 weeks (n = 30) and then at 13 +/- 1 months of age (n = 28).
      RESULTS: All RVRTC parameters and the CTqb score remained stable between
      evaluations. The CTqb score showed a higher discriminative power than forced
      expiratory volume in 0.5 s (FEV0.5 ; the main RVRTC parameter) at both visits
      (66% and 50% of abnormal values vs 30% and 28%, respectively). No correlation was
      found between CTqb score and, the different RVRTC parameters or the
      plethysmographic functional residual capacity, indicating that they evaluate
      different aspect of CF lung disease.

PMID- 28861942
TI  - Cobalt Phosphide Coupled with Heteroatom-Doped Nanocarbon Hybrid Electroctalysts
      for Efficient, Long-Life Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries.
AB  - Metal phosphides and heteroatom-doped carbons have been regarded as promising
      candidates as bifunctional catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and
      oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, both have suffered from stability
      issues during repeated ORR and OER operations in zinc-air batteries (ZABs).
      Herein, this study reports a versatile cobalt-based hybrid catalyst with a 1D
      structure by integrating the metal-organic framework-derived conversion approach
      and an in situ crosslinking method. Among them, the 1D hybrid catalyst composed
      of ultrasmall cobalt phosphide nanoparticles supported by nitrogen-, sulfur-,
      phosphorus-doped carbon matrix shows remarkable bifunctional activity close to
      that of the benchmark precious-metal catalysts along with an excellent durability
      in the full potential range covering both the OER and ORR. The overall
      overpotential of the rechargeable ZABs can be greatly reduced with this
      bifunctional hybrid catalyst as an air-electrode, and the cycling stability
      outperforms the commercial Pt/C catalyst. It is revealed that the cobalt
      phosphide nanoparticles are in situ converted to cobalt oxide under the
      accelerated conditions during OER (and/or ORR) of the ZABs and reduces the anodic
      current applied to the carbon. This contributes to the stability of the carbon
      material and in maintaining the high initial catalytic properties of the hybrid
      catalyst.

PMID- 28861944
TI  - A novel application of cultural consensus models to evaluate conservation
      education programs.
AB  - Conservation professionals recognize the need to evaluate education initiatives
      with a flexible approach that is culturally appropriate. Cultural-consensus
      theory (CCT) provides a framework for measuring the extent to which beliefs are
      communally held and has long been applied by social scientists. In a conservation
      education context, we applied CCT and used free lists (i.e., a list of items on a
      topic stated in order of cultural importance) and domain analysis (analysis of
      how free lists go together within a cultural group) to evaluate a conservation
      education program in which we used a children's picture book to increase
      knowledge about and empathy for a critically endangered mammal, the Javan slow
      loris (Nycticebus javanicus). We extracted free lists of keywords generated by
      students (n = 580 in 18 schools) from essays they wrote before and after the
      education program. In 2 classroom sessions conducted approximately 18 weeks
      apart, we asked students to write an essay about their knowledge of the target
      species and then presented a book and several activities about slow loris
      ecology. Prior to the second session, we asked students to write a second essay.
      We generated free lists from both essays, quantified salience of terms used, and
      conducted minimal residuals factor analysis to determine presence of cultural
      domains surrounding slow lorises in each session. Students increased their use of
      words accurately associated with slow loris ecology and conservation from 43% in
      initial essays to 76% in final essays. Domain coherence increased from 22% to 47%
      across schools. Fifteen factors contributed to the domain slow loris. Between the
      first and second essays, factors that showed the greatest change were feeding
      ecology and slow loris as a forest protector, which increased 7-fold, and the
      humancentric factor, which decreased 5-fold. As demonstrated by knowledge
      retention and creation of unique stories and conservation opinions, children
      achieved all six levels of Bloom's taxonomy of learning domains. Free from the
      constraints of questionnaires and surveys, CCT methods provide a promising avenue
      to evaluate conservation education programs.

PMID- 28861943
TI  - Surface-Engineering of Red Blood Cells as Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells
      Promising for Cancer Immunotherapy.
AB  - The development of artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPCs) to mimic the
      functions of APCs such as dendritic cells (DCs) to stimulate T cells and induce
      antitumor immune responses has attracted substantial interests in cancer
      immunotherapy. In this work, a unique red blood cell (RBC)-based aAPC system is
      designed by engineering antigen peptide-loaded major histocompatibility complex-I
      and CD28 activation antibody on RBC surface, which are further tethered with
      interleukin-2 (IL2) as a proliferation and differentiation signal. Such RBC-based
      aAPC-IL2 (R-aAPC-IL2) can not only provide a flexible cell surface with
      appropriate biophysical parameters, but also mimic the cytokine paracrine
      delivery. Similar to the functions of matured DCs, the R-aAPC-IL2 cells can
      facilitate the proliferation of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells and increase the
      secretion of inflammatory cytokines. As a proof-of-concept, we treated
      splenocytes from C57 mice with R-aAPC-IL2 and discovered those splenocytes
      induced significant cancer-cell-specific lysis, implying that the R-aAPC-IL2 were
      able to re-educate T cells and induce adoptive immune response. This work thus
      presents a novel RBC-based aAPC system which can mimic the functions of antigen
      presenting DCs to activate T cells, promising for applications in adoptive T cell
      transfer or even in direct activation of circulating T cells for cancer
      immunotherapy.

PMID- 28861945
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed Intermolecular Heck-Like Coupling of Cyclobutanone Oximes
      Initiated by Selective C-C Bond Cleavage.
AB  - The first example of intermolecular olefination of cyclobutanone oximes with
      alkenes via selective C-C bond cleavage leading to the synthesis of nitriles in
      the presence of a cheap copper catalyst is reported. The procedure is
      distinguished by mild and safe reaction conditions that avoid ligand, oxidant,
      base, or toxic cyanide salt. A wide scope of cyclobutanones and olefin coupling
      components can be used without compromising efficiency and scalability. The
      alternative visible-light-driven photoredox process for this coupling reaction
      was also uncovered.

PMID- 28861946
TI  - Ultrathin Colloidal Quantum Dot Films for Optical Amplification: The Role of
      Modal Confinement and Heat Dissipation.
AB  - We demonstrate optical pumping lasers based on colloidal quantum dots, with a
      very thin geometry consisting of a ~20 nm thick film. Obstacles in ultrasmall
      laser devices come from the limitation of gain materials and the size of cavities
      for lasing modes, which requires a minimum thickness of the gain media (typically
      greater than 50-100 nm). Here we introduce dielectric waveguide structures with a
      high refractive index, in order to reduce the thickness of quantum dot gain media
      as well as their threshold energy (~39 % compared to the original gain medium).
      Finite-difference time-domain simulations show that the modal confinement factor
      of thinner quantum dot films can be improved by the presence of an adjacent
      waveguide layer. We also discuss the possible role of dielectric waveguide layers
      for efficient heat dissipation during optical pumping. Integrating an extremely
      thin colloidal quantum dot gain medium into optical waveguides is a promising
      platform for downscaling on-chip photonic integrated devices, as well as
      investigating extreme interactions between light and matter such as surface
      plasmon-photon coupling.

PMID- 28861947
TI  - Intravenous lobular capillary haemangioma (pyogenic granuloma): A case report and
      a review of imaging findings as reported in the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Intravenous lobular capillary haemangioma (IVLCH) is a rare benign
      lesion with minimal published reports containing a description of its appearance
      at medical imaging. We present the ultrasound and MRI images of a histologically
      proven IVLCH and provide the first review of the imaging findings reported in the
      literature. METHODS: The imaging findings of a case of IVLCH are presented. A
      PubMed search of English language articles was performed from 1966 to October
      2016, and all relevant papers were reviewed. Imaging findings from those papers
      are summarised. RESULTS: Key features on ultrasound are of a well-defined,
      usually hypoechoic, mass which is highly vascular. The host vein is usually
      apparent. MRI imaging usually shows T1 signal isointense to muscle and variable
      T2 signal, either isointense or of high signal relative to the vein. The lesions
      enhance with gadolinium. CONCLUSION: Intravenous lobular capillary haemangioma
      has distinctive ultrasound but less consistent MRI features although radiological
      diagnosis should usually be possible. Review of reported cases shows that a
      previously described gender bias is incorrect.

PMID- 28861948
TI  - Corrigendum for: Pregnancy-related Listeriosis.

PMID- 28861949
TI  - Corrigendum for: Congenital Lung Agenesis: Incidence and Outcome in the North of
      England.

PMID- 28861950
TI  - Coherent synthesis of genomic associations with phenotypes and home environments.
AB  - Local adaptation is often studied via (i) multiple common garden experiments
      comparing performance of genotypes in different environments and (ii) sequencing
      genotypes from multiple locations and characterizing geographic patterns in
      allele frequency. Both approaches aim to characterize the same pattern (local
      adaptation), yet the complementary information from each has not yet been
      coherently integrated. Here, we develop a genome-wide association model of
      genotype interactions with continuous environmental gradients (G * E), that is
      reaction norms. We present an approach to impute relative fitness, allowing us to
      coherently synthesize evidence from common garden and genome-environment
      associations. Our approach identifies loci exhibiting environmental clines where
      alleles are associated with higher fitness in home environments. Simulations show
      our approach can increase power to detect loci causing local adaptation. In a
      case study on Arabidopsis thaliana, most identified SNPs exhibited home allele
      advantage and fitness trade-offs along climate gradients, suggesting selective
      gradients can maintain allelic clines. SNPs exhibiting G * E associations with
      fitness were enriched in genic regions, putative partial selective sweeps and
      associations with an adaptive phenotype (flowering time plasticity). We discuss
      extensions for situations where only adaptive phenotypes other than fitness are
      available. Many types of data may point towards the loci underlying G * E and
      local adaptation; coherent models of diverse data provide a principled basis for
      synthesis.

PMID- 28861951
TI  - Encapsulation of Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Peptides into Hollow Mesoporous
      Silica Nanoparticles for Enhancement of Antitumor Immune Response.
AB  - Codelivery of combinational antigenic peptides and adjuvant to antigen presenting
      cells is expected to amplify tumor specific T lymphocytes immune responses while
      minimizing the possibility of tumor escaping and reducing immune tolerance to
      single antigenic peptide. However, the varied hydrophobicities of these
      multivariant derived short antigenic peptides limit their codelivery efficiency
      in conventional delivery systems. Here, a facile yet effective route is presented
      to generate monodisperse and stable hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles
      (HMSNs) for codelivering of HGP10025-33 and TRP2180-188 , two melanoma-derived
      peptides with varied hydrophobicities. The HMSNs with large pore size can improve
      the encapsulation efficiency of both HGP100 and TRP2 after ?NH2 modification on
      the inner hollow core and ?COOH modification in the porous channels. HGP100 and
      TRP2 loaded HMSNs (HT@HMSNs) are further enveloped within monophosphoryl lipid A
      adjuvant entrapped lipid bilayer (HTM@HMLBs), for improved
      stability/biocompatibility and codelivery efficiency of multiple peptides,
      adjuvant, and enhanced antitumor immune responses. HTM@HMLBs increase uptake by
      dendritic cells (DCs) and stimulate DCs maturation efficiently, which further
      induce the activation of both tumor specific CD8+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes.
      Moreover, HTM@HMLBs can significantly inhibit tumor growth and lung metastasis in
      murine melanoma models with good safety profiles. HMSNs enveloped with lipid
      bilayers (HMLBs) are believed to be a promising platform for codelivery of
      multiple peptides, adjuvant, and enhancement of antitumor efficacy of
      conventional vaccinations.

PMID- 28861952
TI  - Use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors in older patients with type 2
      diabetes mellitus.
AB  - AIM: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are antidiabetic agents
      that act on the proximal renal tubules to lower blood glucose levels by
      inhibiting glucose reabsorption and promoting urinary glucose excretion. The
      present study assessed the long-term use of SGLT2 inhibitors in older patients
      with diabetes. METHODS: A total of 117 older patients with type 2 diabetes who
      were given SGLT2 inhibitors were enrolled from April 2014 to March 2016. RESULTS:
      The mean age of the patients was 73.7 +/- 10.0 years. During the follow-up period
      (mean 289.3 days), there was no event associated with oral administration of
      SGLT2 inhibitors. These drugs significantly lowered fasting blood glucose and
      glycosylated hemoglobin levels at 6 months, and did not affect the creatinine
      level, blood urea nitrogen/creatinine ratio or estimated glomerular filtration
      rate during treatment. Although the treatment significantly increased hemoglobin
      and hematocrit levels, it did not affect the ultrasonographically determined
      diameter of the inferior vena cava, and no signs of intravascular collapse were
      observed. Changes in brain natriuretic peptide levels during the follow-up period
      were assessed in 78 patients with a brain natriuretic peptide level exceeding the
      normal upper limit before treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors. The brain natriuretic
      peptide levels significantly decreased after 6 months of treatment. CONCLUSIONS:
      In older Japanese patients with diabetes, treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors for 6
      months exerted a favorable hypoglycemic effect, while no sign of dehydration was
      observed. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 108-114.

PMID- 28861953
TI  - FEN1 promotes tumor progression and confers cisplatin resistance in non-small
      cell lung cancer.

PMID- 28861954
TI  - Accurate viscosity measurements of flowing aqueous glucose solutions with
      suspended scatterers using a dynamic light scattering approach with optical
      coherence tomography.
AB  - The viscosity of turbid colloidal glucose solutions has been accurately
      determined from spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) M-mode
      measurements and our recently developed OCT dynamic light scattering model.
      Results for various glucose concentrations, flow speeds, and flow angles are
      reported. The relative "combined standard uncertainty" uc(eta) on the viscosity
      measurements was +/-1% for the no-flow case and +/-5% for the flow cases, a
      significant improvement in measurement robustness over previously published
      reports. The available literature data for the viscosity of pure water and our
      measurements differ by 1% (stagnant case) and 1.5% (flow cases), demonstrating
      good accuracy; similar agreement is seen across the measured glucose
      concentration range when compared to interpolated literature values. The
      developed technique may contribute toward eventual noninvasive glucose
      measurements in medicine.

PMID- 28861955
TI  - Evaluating biomechanical properties of murine embryos using Brillouin microscopy
      and optical coherence tomography.
AB  - Embryogenesis is regulated by numerous changes in mechanical properties of the
      cellular microenvironment. Thus, studying embryonic mechanophysiology can provide
      a more thorough perspective of embryonic development, potentially improving early
      detection of congenital abnormalities as well as evaluating and developing
      therapeutic interventions. A number of methods and techniques have been used to
      study cellular biomechanical properties during embryogenesis. While some of these
      techniques are invasive or involve the use of external agents, others are
      compromised in terms of spatial and temporal resolutions. We propose the use of
      Brillouin microscopy in combination with optical coherence tomography (OCT) to
      measure stiffness as well as structural changes in a developing embryo. While
      Brillouin microscopy assesses the changes in stiffness among different organs of
      the embryo, OCT provides the necessary structural guidance.

PMID- 28861956
TI  - [Discussion on present situation of study on pesticide residues in Chinese herbal
      medicines].
AB  - Pesticide residues in traditional Chinese medicine has attracted widespread
      attention at home and abroad. This paper analyzed the pollution present situation
      and existing problems of pesticide residue for Chinese herbal medicines,
      explicited the analytical methods of pesticide residues in Chinese herbal
      medicines. Meanwhile, the commonly used pesticide residue degradation and
      application in Chinese herbal medicines were discussed. Moreover, on the basis of
      analysis of pesticide residue standards, this paper proposed the necessity and
      urgency of the limit standard of pesticide residues in Chinese herbal medicines,
      and provided a scientific references for deepening research and developing safe,
      green medicines.

PMID- 28861957
TI  - [Current researches and prospects of seedling propagation and cultivation modes
      of Jinxianlian].
AB  - In the wake of on-the-spot investigation into Chinese major production bases in
      Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Guangxi and Yunnan provinces, and based on
      relevant literature, the paper systematically elaborates the current researches
      of botanical origin, major cultivation type, seedling propagation technique as
      well as cultivation mode of Jinxianlian. The way of seedling breeding mainly
      includes aseptic seed culture, in vitro propagation, artificial seed and
      bioreactor propagation, etc. And the planting model mainly includes protected
      cultivation modes, bionic wild cultivation modes and pot cultivation modes, etc.
      Further discussions have also been conducted to tackle significant problems
      existing in the production process of Jinxianlian, based on personal studies of
      the authors. It has made considerable contributions for the betterment of
      Jinxianlian's development and improvement.

PMID- 28861958
TI  - [Research progress of structures and pharmacological activities of phthalides
      from Angelica sinensis].
AB  - Angelica sinensis(Umbelliferae)is a worldwide-known medicinal plant and also a
      famous traditional Chinese medicinal herb. It is recorded to possess the efficacy
      of enriching the blood and invigorating the circulation of blood of the
      individual.Danggui was extensively applied to the treatment of gynecological
      disorders. Modern researches indicate that phthalides are main chemical
      components related to the bioactivities of A.sinensis, such as anti-tumor,
      analgesic and neuroprotective effect.The advances in studies on the structures
      and pharmacological activities of phthalides from A.sinensis are reviewed to
      provide references for further researches and utilization of their medicinal
      value.

PMID- 28861959
TI  - [Quality evaluation method for Chinese medicine based on color grading].
AB  - Traditional identification method is an effective approach to evaluate the
      quality for Chinese herbal medicine (CHM). Color is one of the important
      indicators for quality evaluation due to high correlation with quality.
      Therefore, a new theory of quality control for CHM based on color grading was
      discussed in this article. The scientific nature of this theory was illustrated
      by investigating the relation between CHM color, medicinal properties and active
      compound contents. The effect of origins, collecting time, processing, and
      storage on the CHM color was also analyzed. To overcome the drawback of the
      traditional identification method, the novel objective color evaluation methods
      such as spectrocolorimeter and machine vision technology were reviewed, including
      the application, advantages and disadvantages in Chinese medicine field, and the
      significance of color sense digitalization was illustrated finally.

PMID- 28861960
TI  - [Recent advances in anti-aging study of 2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-beta-D
      glucopyranoside--a main component of Polygonum multiflorum].
AB  - Aging is an inevitable process of life caused by a combination of organs and
      tissues events which manifests as loss of structure and function. It is
      accompanied with organ hypofunction, decline in defense against stress and energy
      metabolism, and lots of age-related diseases. Therefore, it is critical to
      understand the mechanism of aging, as well as to discover new drugs to slow
      aging. Polygonum multiflorum has long been recognized in traditional Chinese
      medicine as anti-aging medicine. Interestingly, its extract has been shown to
      prolong lifespan in drosophila and elegans. Tetrahydroxystilbene glucoside (TSG),
      the main ingredient of P. multiflorum, shares a strong structural similarity with
      resveratrol, a well-known anti-aging natural product. This review summarized up
      to-date literature reports and our laboratory findings on the mechanism of TSG
      anti-aging efficiency and function against age-related disease. It could provide
      reference for searching for anti-aging tradition Chinese medicine.

PMID- 28861961
TI  - [Resource investigation of wild Codonopsis pilosula in Tanchang county of Gansu].
AB  - Tanchang county is the distribution of wild medicinal plant resource-rich region,
      in order to ascertain Tanchang county Codonopsis pilosula wild resources and
      reserves of the status quo, according to the fourth national Chinese medicine
      resources survey technology solutions, using sets of plots and investigating
      combined route survey method, the county wild C. pilosula var. modesta and C.
      pilosula resources were investigated by a comprehensive survey designed to reveal
      the distribution of the county's wildlife resources and herbs C. pilosula
      reserves. The results showed that in Tanchang county seven ecological zones 53
      plots, wild C. pilosula distributed in there were 6 ecological zones 11 plots,
      accounting for 85.71% of the survey area, wild C. pilosula var. modesta was found
      only in an ecoregions plots, overlapping with C. pilosula region, accounting for
      14.29% of the survey area. C. pilosula herbs reserves were calculated as about
      461.85 t, economic capacity of 254.02 t, annual amount of acceptance 25.40 t. C.
      pilosula var. modesta herbs reserves were calculated as 67.75 t, economic
      capacity of 36.16 t, acceptance annual amount 3.62 t. The total ash C. pilosula
      was 3.25%, alcohol-soluble extract was 63.86%, while the C. pilosula var. modesta
      total ash was 3.69%, alcohol-soluble extract was 68.32%. C. pilosula is suitable
      for broad range, but wild resource is scarce, C. pilosula var. modesta is
      suitable for relatively narrow scope, and wild resource is scarce, it is
      recommended to strengthen the protection of wild resources and the rational
      development and utilization.

PMID- 28861962
TI  - [Construction and expression of prokaryotic vector of AsJAZ1 gene from Aquilaria
      sinensis].
AB  - The full-length coding sequence (cds) of jasmonate-zim-domain protein (AsJAZ1)
      gene was cloned from Aquilaria sinensis, the prokaryotic vector was constructed
      and the recombinant proteins expression was induced to provide the basic material
      for interactive proteins screen and gene function research. In this study, with
      the total RNA isolated from A. sinensis leave as template, the full-length cds of
      AsJAZ1 gene was amplified using RT-PCR method and subcloned into pET-28a vector.
      The recombinant plasmid identified by restriction enzyme digestion and nucleotide
      sequencing was transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3). Inducing with 0.5 mmol*L-1
      IPTG at 37 C for 4 hours, a fusion protein about 39 kDa was maximumly obtained.
      AsJAZ1 fusion protein had been expressed successfully mainly in the form of
      inclusion bodies and only a very small amount was secreted into the cytoplasm in
      the supernatant.

PMID- 28861963
TI  - [Effect of exogenous brassinolide on morphological characters and contents of
      seven chemical constituents of Glycyrrhiza uralensis].
AB  - The transplants of the two-year-old Glycyrrhiza uralensis were subjected to four
      concentration of brassinolide (BR 0.1, 0.4, 0.7, 1.0 mg*L-1) in July. The
      morphological characters ( plant height, stem diameter, nodes number, internode
      length and root length , root thick, root fresh weight and root dry weight ) were
      measured and seven kinds of chemical constituents (glycyrrhizic acid, liquiritin,
      isoliquiritin, liquiritigenin, isoliquiritigenin, liquiritin apioside,
      isoliquiritin apioside) were determined by HPLC with the aim of increasing sinter
      output and improving quality of G. uralensis. Then the long-term dynamic changes
      of these morphological characters and chemical compositions' content were
      analyzed. The results showed that morphological characters of plant height, stem
      diameter, root length , root thick, root fresh weight and root dry weight
      increased remarkably with the 0.7 mg*L-1 BR stimulating 2 months later,the
      increase rates were: 15.09%,6.15%,16.52%,8.46%,21.90%,29.41%, respectively. The
      content of glycyrrhizic acid, liquiritin, isoliquiritin, liquiritigenin,
      liquiritin apioside, isoliquiritin apioside were increased
      20.16%,45.31%,53.56%,27.66%,23.54%,8.46% with the 0.7 mg*L-1 BR stimulating 2
      months later. The best effects were achieved in 2 months after brassinolide
      stimulating. The conclusions prove that morphological characters and the main
      chemical constituents accumulation of G. uralensis could be effected by exogenous
      BR stimulation in certain case.

PMID- 28861964
TI  - [Variation and correlation analysis on phenotypic traits of Scutellaria
      baicalensis from different strains].
AB  - To research the differences and correlation between Scutellaria baicalensis about
      phenotypic traits of different strains, 10 aboveground traits and 6 root traits
      of S. baicalensis in two-year-transplanted plants from 14 different strains were
      compared respectively, and the SPSS 17.0 statistical software was used for data
      analysis. It showed that phenotypic traits variation of different S. baicalensis
      strains was rich and the F value ranged from 3.169 to 71.58. The difference was
      significant between each other and germplasm 15 performs the most outstanding
      characters. Correlation analysis showed that there existed a significant
      correlation between the characters except for lateral root number, root diameter
      and length. The correlation coefficient between the fresh weight of root and the
      reed head diameter was up to 0.877. Principal component analysis showed that the
      average of overall yield per plant and root diameter could be used as the
      comprehensive reference index for germplasm evaluation. The differences and
      correlations in phenotypic traits of different S. baicalensis strains, provide
      theoretical basis for distinguishing germplasm and breeding good varieties of S.
      baicalensis.

PMID- 28861965
TI  - [Authentication of Cuscutae Semen, Raphani Semen and their adulterants by rapid
      PCR].
AB  - To establish an accurate, rapid and efficient method for authenticating Cuscutae
      Semen and Raphani Semen by using rapid PCR amplification. The samples of Cuscutae
      Semen, Raphani Semen and their adulterants were collected. The total DNA of the
      samples has been extracted, and ITS sequence from Cuscutae Semen, Raphani Semen
      and their adulterants was amplified by PCR and sequenced directionally. These
      sequences were aligned by using Clustal W. Specific primers were designed and
      amplified by two-steps PCR amplification method. The rapid PCR methods for
      authenticating Cuscutae Semen and Raphani Semen were established by optimizing
      the denatured and annealing temperature, cycle numbers, and etc. When 100 * SYBR
      Green I was added in the PCR product, strong green fluorescence was visualized
      under 365 nm UV lamp whereas adulterants showed no florescence. The results
      indicated that the rapid PCR method can identify Cuscutae Semen and Raphani Semen
      rapidly. This study provides the technical support for authentication of Chinese
      medicinal materials.

PMID- 28861966
TI  - [Intestinal toxicity of n-BuOH fraction from Phytolacca Radix before and after
      being processed with vinegar].
AB  - To research the intestinal toxicity of n-BuOH fraction in Phytolacca Radix before
      and after being processed with vinegar. Toxic n-BuOH fractions were separated
      from Phytolacca Radix. In the animal model, the level of intestinal edema, water
      content of intestine and stool, IC50 values of HT-29 and IEC-6 were detected with
      MTT method to compare the changes in toxicity of n-BuOH fractions from Phytolacca
      Radix before and after being processed with vinegar. n-BuOH fractions of
      Phytolacca Radix could cause intestinal edema in mice, increase the edema of
      duodenum, jejunum and the water content in stool, inhibit the proliferation of HT
      29 cells and IEC-6 cells, indicating its intestinal toxicity, with HT-29 IC50 at
      14.59 mg*L-1 and IEC-6 IC50 at 43.77 mg*L-1. After being processed with vinegar,
      the level of intestinal edema, edema of duodenum and jejunum and the water
      content in stool and inhibition ratio of cells line were reduced, with HT-29 IC50
      at 58.51 mg*L-1 and IEC-6 IC50 at 84.37 mg*L-1. After being processed with
      vinegar, the toxicity of n-BuOH fractions from Phytolacca Radix decreased
      obviously.

PMID- 28861967
TI  - [Response surface optimization of purification process for pigment from Coreopsis
      tinctoria by macroporous resins].
AB  - To optimize the purification process of pigments from Coreopsis tinctoria with
      macroporous resins by establishing second regression model with response surface
      methodology. The experiment showed that XDA-7 resin had the best purification
      effect for pigments from C. tinctoria. The optimal absorption conditions for
      pigments from C. tinctoria were determined as follows: concentration of pigments
      solution 2.7 g*L-1, flow rate 6 mL*min-1, pH 6. Under these conditions, the
      absorption rate of pigments was up to 94.16%. Optimal desorption conditions were
      as follows: ethanol concentration 64%, flow rate 5 mL*min-1, elution dosage 4 BV.
      Under these conditions, pigment desorption rate was as high as 98.72%.

PMID- 28861968
TI  - [Extraction and purification process of total fatty acid in Brassica campestris
      pollen].
AB  - This study was aimed to optimize the extraction (CO2 supercritical extraction)
      process and purification (ethanol washing and decontaminating) process of total
      fatty acid in Brassica campestris pollen. With the extraction yield of total
      fatty acid as index, CO2 supercritical extraction of total fatty acid in B.
      campestris polle was optimized by central composite design-response surface
      methodology. Ethanol washing and decontaminating was done for the extract through
      orthogonal design with content of total fatty acid (linolenic acid amide,
      linolenic acid glyceride, linolenic acid and palmitic acid) as the indexes. The
      optimum parameters of CO2 supercritical extraction technology were as follows:
      extraction pressure of 35 MPa, extraction temperature of 60 Cand extraction time
      of 3 h. When extract of supercritical fluid was purified by 50 times of 80%
      ethanol for 1.5 h, the content of total fatty acid can reach 60%. In addition,
      this process was stable and steady, provided reliable basis for production.

PMID- 28861969
TI  - [Chemical constituents of Chinese red ginseng].
AB  - The chemical constituents of the Chinese red ginseng were systematically
      investigated by using various column chromatographic methods including D-101
      macroporous adsorptive resins and open silica gel column chromatographies as well
      as high-performance liquid chromatography.Their chemical structures were
      identified by physico-chemical properties and spectral analyses.Fifty-two
      compounds were isolated from Chinese red ginseng decoction and identified as
      20(S)-ginsenoside Rh1 (1), 20(R)-ginsenoside Rh1 (2), ginsenoside Rg6 (3), 20(22)
      E-ginsenoside F4 (4), ginsenoside Rk3 (5), 20(22) E-ginsenoside Rh4 (6),
      ginsenoside Rg1 (7), 20(S)-ginsenoside Rf-1a(8), 20(S)-ginsenoside Rf(9), 20(R)
      ginsenoside Rf(10),20(S)-notoginsenoside R2 (11),20(R)-notoginsenoside R2 (12),
      20(S)-ginsenoside Rg2 (13), 20(R)-ginsenoside Rg2 (14), ginsenoside Rs2
      (15),ginsenoside Rs1 (16),ginsenoside Rd(17),notoginsenoside R1 (18),ginsenoside
      Re2 (19), ginsenoside Re(20), 20-gluco-ginsenoside Rf(21),quinquenoside-R1
      (22),ginsenoside Ro methyl ester(23),ginsenoside Ro(24),ginsenoside Rb1
      (25),ginsenoside Rc(26),ginsenoside Rb2 (27),ginsenoside Ra2 (28),ginsenoside Ra3
      (29),ginsenoside Rb3 (30),20(22)Z-ginsenoside Rh4 (31),chikusetsusaponin IVa
      butyl ester(32), 20(22)Z-ginsenoside Rs4 (33),ginsenoside Rs5 (34),20(22)E
      ginsenoside Rs4 (35),zingibroside R1-6'-butyl ester(36), chikusetsusaponin IVa
      methyl ester(37),20(S)-ginsenoside Rs3 (38),20(R)-ginsenoside Rs3
      (39),zingibroside R1-6'-methyl ester(40),ginsenoside Rz1 (41),ginsenoside Rk1
      (42),ginsenoside Rg5 (43),23-O-methylginsenoside-Rg1 1 (44),12beta,25
      dihydroxydammar-20(22)E-ene-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1->2)-O-beta-D
      glucopyranoside(45), 20(22)Z-ginsenoside F4 (46),3beta,12beta-dihydroxydammar
      20(22)E,24-diene-6-O-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1->2)-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside(47),
      20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 (48),20(R)-ginsenoside Rg3 (49),20(22)E-ginsenoside Rg9
      (50),ginsenoside-Ro-6'-butyl ester(51), and polyacetyleneginsenoside Ro(52).
      Compounds 8, 12, 31-33, 36, 37, 44, 45, 47 and 51 were isolated from the P.
      ginseng, and compounds 19, 23 and 46 were isolated from Chinese red ginseng for
      the first time.

PMID- 28861970
TI  - [Simultaneous determination of 4 diterpenoids in Rabdosia japonica
      var.glaucocalyx by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS and cluster analysis].
AB  - A quick HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method was established for simultaneous determination of
      four major diterpenoids in Rabdosia japonica var.glaucocalyx, including
      glaucocalyxin A, oridonin, hebeirubesensin and enmenol. Analysis was performed on
      an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18(4.6 mm*250 mm, 5 MUm ) column eluted in a gradient
      program with methanol and water. The flow rate was 0.8 mL*min-1. Multiple
      reaction monitoring (MRM) scanning mode was performed in negative ion switching
      mode to apply for the quantitative determination. The calibration curves for the
      above four compounds were linear in corresponding injection amount. The average
      recoveries of the compounds ranged from 92.40% to 105.9%, with RSDs of 1.7%-6.5%.
      The method is simple, rapid, accurate with good repeatability, which can provide
      a reference for overcalling evaluation the quality of R. japonica
      var.glaucocalyx. The result of cluster analysis- showed that the quality of R.
      japonica glaucocalyx var. greatly varied between areas and parts.

PMID- 28861971
TI  - [Study on composition of essential oils in three different origins' Curcumae
      Rhizoma by AMDIS and retention index].
AB  - To compare the differences of essential oils extracted from Curcumae Rhizoma with
      different origins. The TIC of the essential oils of Curcumae Rhizoma from three
      different origins recorded by CP(2010) , were investigated by GC-MS combined with
      automated mass spectral deconvolution and identification system(AMDIS),steps as
      follow: firstly, overlapped peaks were resolved by AMDIS,secondly, NIST11.L
      standard MS spectral database combined with retention index were used to assist
      qualitative analysis, thirdly, the peak area of each split peak were determined
      by choosing the characteristic fragment ion peak, finally, the relative
      percentage contents of each compounds were determined through peak area
      normalization method. The results showed that the components of the essential
      oils of Curcumae Rhizoma from three origins were different from each other at
      various degree. In conclusion, the types and content of essential oils could be
      an indicator to evaluate the quality of Curcumae Rhizoma from different origins
      and its geoherbalism.

PMID- 28861972
TI  - [Discovery of potential ATP-sensitive potassium channel openers with potential
      hypotensive activity from Chinese herbs based on molecular simulation].
AB  - In this research, a combined method of ligand-based pharmacophore (LBP),
      structure-based pharmacophore (SBP), and molecular docking was applied for
      virtual screening potential ATP-sensitive potassium channel (KATP) openers from
      Chinese herbs. LBP models were generated by 3D-QSAR pharmacophore(hypogen)
      program, based on the training set composed of 48 KATP agonists. The best LBP
      model consisted of one hydrogen-bond acceptor, one hydrogen-bond donor, one
      hydrophobic feature, one aromatic ring and five excluded volumes. Besides, the
      correlation coefficient of training set and test set, N, and CAI value of the
      model were 0.876 4, 0.705 8, 3.304, and 2.616 respectively. Meanwhile, SBP models
      were also generated based on a 3D structure of KATP (PMID: PM0079770). The best
      SBP model consisted of six hydrogen-bond acceptors, eight hydrogen-bond donors,
      seven hydrophobic features and eighteen excluded volumes. The corresponding N and
      CAI value were 2.200 and 2.017. Then, the best LBP model and SBP model were
      applied to identify potential KATP openers from Traditional Chinese Medicine
      Database(TCMD), respectively. 349 hits were obtained after analyzed by drug
      likeness rules. Moreover, 12 compounds with high docking scores were reserved
      after molecular docking evaluation. Interestingly, part of the results had been
      verified as hypotensive active ingredients by literatures. Therefore, this study
      uncovers a specific target effect contained in TCMD, and provides candidates for
      new KATP openers' research.

PMID- 28861973
TI  - [Prescription of Jingdan Yimin for treatment of metabolic syndrome].
AB  - Based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, modern methods for drug
      investigation such as molecular targets in vitro and effects in vivo were used to
      study the prescription of Jingdan Yimin(JD), including selection of raw
      materials, composition, proportion, and effective dose of the compounds for
      treatment of metabolic syndrome. The IRF mice models, characterized by insulin
      resistance and hypercholesterolemia, were induced by high fat diet. The insulin
      sensitivity was estimated with insulin tolerance test(ITT) and glucose tolerance
      test(GTT); the levels of blood glucose and total cholesterol(TC), and the
      activities of alpha-glucosidase, protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B(PTP1B), and
      fructose phosphate amide transferase(GFAT)were measured with biochemical methods,
      respectively. The sample H13(h) extracted from Rhodiola crenulata, Y12(y) from
      Cordyceps militaris, and D(d) from Rheum palmatum were selected according to the
      inhibition activity on both PTP1B and alpha-glucosidase in vitro, regulation on
      hypercholesterolemia in IRF mice, and effects on GFAT activity, respectively;
      their synergistic effects on the treatment of metabolic syndrome were determined
      in IRF mice; composition proportion of h?y?d was measured in accordance with the
      results of L8(27) orthogonal experiments targeting on the inhibition of both
      PTP1B and alpha-glucosidase; finally, the effective dose was assessed based on
      the effects on IGT and hypercholesterolemia, respectively, in IRF mice. In
      conclusion, the prescription JD is composed by R. crenulata, C. militaris, and R.
      palmatum with the rate of 20?1?1, and its effective oral dose is 200 mg*kg-1 for
      treatment of metabolic syndrome; its main mechanism is to inhibit the targets
      PTP1B and alpha-glucosidase. Monarch drug, R. crenulata, can clear away the lung
      heat, tonify Qi, resolve stasis and nourish the heart. Adjuvant drug, C.
      militaris, can tonify the lung Qi and the kidney essence, strengthen waist and
      knee, accompanied with R. crenulata to enhance the function of invigorating lung
      and kidney. Assistant drug, rhubarb, can clear heat, detoxify, and remove blood
      stasis. These three herbs are compatible to show the effects of tonifying Qi,
      nourishing essence, clearing heat, reducing phlegm and resolving masses for the
      treatment of metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28861974
TI  - [Effect of schisantherin A inhibit liver sinusoid endothelial cell function and
      action against liver fibrosis relating to angiogenesis].
AB  - To investigate the effect of schisantherin A on liver sinusoid endothelial cell
      function and angiogenesis. Different dosages (0-40 MUmol*L-1) of schisantherin A
      were incubated 24 h with SK-HEP-1 cells, and the toxicity of SK-HEP-1 cells was
      assayed by MTT method. The proliferation of SK-HEP-1 cells were induced by the
      vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), with receptor tyrosine kinase
      inhibitor sorafenib as the control, at the same time, set up the control group,
      2, 20 MUmol*L-1 schisantherin A were incubated with SK-HEP-1 cells, cell
      proliferation was analyzed by EdU DNA cell proliferation kit. Fluorescence probe
      method was used to assay the intracellular NO levels and NOS activity. Tube
      formation was observed using cell migration and a matrigel tube formation assay.
      Rat aortic ring assay was performed to observe the sprouting vessels from aortic
      ring. The fluorescence vessels, the number of functional blood vessels, and
      intersegmental vessel changes of transgenic zebrafish were also observed.
      Compared with control group, the proliferation of SK-HEP-1 cells induced by VEGF
      increased and and the level of NO and NOS activity induced; compared with model
      group, 2, 20 MUmol*L-1 schisantherin A and sorafenib inhibited the proliferation
      of SK-Hep-1 cells induced by VEGF, and reduced the level of NO and NOS activity.
      At the dosage of 20 MUmol*L-1, schisantherin A attenuated the migration and tube
      formation of SK-HEP-1 cells induced by VEGF, and also inhibition the formation of
      rat aortic rings and intersegmental vessel changes of transgenic zebrafish, and
      significantly reduce the number of vessels in zebrafish. Schisantherin A has
      potential effects on function of endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis.

PMID- 28861975
TI  - [Quantitative determination of seven major absorbed volatile constituents in mice
      brain, liver and blood after intragastric administration of Asari Radix et
      Rhizoma suspension by headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography
      mass spectrometry].
AB  - A headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
      method(HS-SPME-GC-MS) was adopted for the quantitative study of 4-allylanisole,
      methyl eugenol, 2,3,5-trimethoxytoluene, 3,4,5-trimethoxytoluene, sarisan, 3,5
      dimethoxytoluene and safrole in mice brain, liver tissues and blood after
      intragastric administration of Asari Radix et Rhizoma. A VF-WAXms (30 m*0.25 mm,
      0.25 MUm film thickness) capillary column and SPME fiber coated with 65 MUm
      polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB) were used. The calibration curves
      of seven volatile constituents were established to validate the method's
      stability (RSD<15%), repeatability (RSD<9.5%), accuracy (RSD<22%), relative
      recovery (87.0%-108%) and extraction recovery (74.9%-102%). The validated HS-SPME
      GC-MS assay was applied to determine the concentrations of seven constituents in
      liver, brain and blood. The detected contents were 0.22,0.14 MUg*g-1,0.25 mg*L-1
      (4-allylanisole), 1.1, 0.39 MUg*g-1, 0.69 mg*L-1 (methyl eugenol), 0.45, 0.13
      MUg*g-1, 0.54 mg*L-1 (2,3,5-trimethoxytoluene), 0.51, 0.15 MUg*g-1, 0.45 mg*L-1
      (3,4,5-trimethoxytoluene), 0.48, 0.039 MUg*g-1, 0.69 mg*L -1 (sarisan), 2.2, 1.2
      MUg*g-1, 1.5 mg*L-1 (3,5-dimethoxytoluene) and 1.3, 0.67 MUg*g-1, 1.1 mg*L-1
      (safrole) respectively. This HS-SPME-GC-MS method is rapid and convenient, with a
      small sample size, and applicable for the analysis and determination of volatile
      constituents in traditional Chinese medicines, which provides scientific data for
      further studies on effective substances and toxic substances in Asari Radix et
      Rhizoma.

PMID- 28861976
TI  - [Effects of different penetration enhancers on pharmacokinetics of active
      components in Xiangfu Siwu transdermal patches].
AB  - To study the effect of different penetration enhancers on the pharmacokinetic
      characters of six active components in Xiangfu Siwu transdermal patch (XBW) and
      optimize the best penetration enhancers. During the experiment, the patches
      containing different penetration enhancers were stuck on the rat's skin, and then
      the blood samples were acquired at different time points. Six active components
      in plasma were determined by UPLC-MS/MS. The main pharmacokinetic parameters were
      calculated with DAS software package. The total factor scores (F) of the plasma
      concentrations of six components at every time point in different groups were
      calculated using principle component analysis, and the areas under F versus time
      curves (AUCF-t) were employed to be the indexes for selecting penetration
      enhancers. The results demonstrated that compared with the control group, the
      AUCF-t from other groups increased prominently and furthermore, 5% menthol
      manifested the best effect. In this research, 5% menthol could remarkably promote
      the percutaneous penetration effect of the six active compounds in XBW, and it
      could provide a scientific basis for the preparation research of XBW.

PMID- 28861977
TI  - [Effect of salvianolic acid B on nasal absorption in rats in situ].
AB  - This experiment focused on the effect of salvianolic acid B's nasal absorption
      characteristics in rats. In the study, HPLC determination of salvianolic acid
      B(SalB) in perfusion liquid was established to examine the SalB nasal irritation
      in different pH buffers and stability in nasal perfusion solution, and
      systematically study in vivo nasal absorption characteristics of SalB. Improved
      rats were adopted to establish the in situ nasal perfusion model to measure the
      release of total protein and lactate dehydrogenase in perfusion fluid,
      quantitatively evaluate the nasal irritation and the stability in perfusion
      liquid of pH 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 SalB phosphate buffer, compare the absorption of SalB
      in pH 5.0 buffer solution with low, medium and high concentrations (200, 400, 800
      mg*L-1). According to the results, nasal irritation: pH 4.0>pH 5.0>pH 6.0, RSD of
      pH 6.0 SalB buffer solution within 24 h was 3.1%, stability was poor. PH 5.0 SalB
      buffer solution had a smaller irritation and good stability. According to the
      nose perfusion test in rats, the nasal absorption of SalB fitted the first-order
      process and could be considered as passive absorption based on concentration
      gradient. SalB buffer solution of pH 5.0 had also a small nasal irritation and
      good stability, with a good absorption in rat nasal perfusion test, which
      therefore had a certain significance for the development of SalB nasal
      formulation.

PMID- 28861978
TI  - [In vitro and In vivo effects of six Coptidis alkaloids on liver microsomes UGTs
      and UGT1A1 activities in rats and mice].
AB  - In the present study, the effects of six Coptidis alkaloids (berberine,
      epiberberine, coptisine, jatrorrhizine, palmatine and magnoflorine) on liver
      microsomes UGTs and UGT1A1 activities in rats and mice were investigated in vitro
      and in vivo to study the mechanism of metabolic drug-drug interactions of
      Coptidis Rhizoma with other drugs. In vitro rat and mice liver microsomal
      incubation systems combined with UDPGA were applied, as well as mice liver
      microsomes after administration of six Coptidis alkaloids. 4-Nitrophenol and beta
      estradiol were selected as substrates to determine activities of UGTs and UGT1A1
      by UV and HPLC, respectively. According to the in vitro rat study, berberine,
      epiberberine, coptisine and jatrorrhizine significantly inhibited rat liver
      microsome UGTs activity, particularly epiberberine showed the strongest
      inhibition. UGT1A1 activity was lowly inhibited by jatrorrhizine, with IC50 at
      about 227 MUmol*L-1, whereas coptisine and magnoflorine significantly activated
      UGT1A1. According to the in vitro mice study, berberine, coptisine, jatrorrhizine
      and palmatine significantly inhibited mice liver microsome UGTs activity, and the
      six alkaloids all significantly activated UGT1A1. According to the in vivo mice
      study, UGTs activity was significantly activated only in berberine group, while
      UGT1A1 activity was significantly activated only in jatrorrhizine group. In
      conclusion, the effects of Coptidis alkaloids on UGT activity showed significant
      differences in species and between in vitro and in vivo. Meanwhile, the changes
      in structures of Coptidis alkaloids also have a big impact on UGT activity, which
      may be one of the causes for the drug-drug interactions between Coptidis Rhizoma
      and other drugs.

PMID- 28861979
TI  - [Analysis on traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions treating cancer-related
      anorexia syndrome based on grey system theory combined with multivariate analysis
      method and discovery of new prescriptions].
AB  - Cancer-related anorexia syndrome (CACS) is one of the main causes for death at
      present as well as a syndrome seriously harming patients' quality of life,
      treatment effect and survival time. In current clinical researches, there are
      fewer reports about empirical traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) prescriptions and
      patent prescriptions treating CACS, and prescription rules are rarely analyzed in
      a systematic manner. As the hidden rules are not excavated, it is hard to have an
      innovative discovery and knowledge of clinical medication. In this paper, the
      grey screening method combined with the multivariate statistical method was used
      to build the "CACS prescriptions database". Based on the database, totally 359
      prescriptions were selected, the frequency of herbs in prescription was
      determined, and commonly combined drugs were evolved into 4 new prescriptions for
      different syndromes. Prescriptions of TCM in treatment of CACS gave priority to
      benefiting qi for strengthening spleen, also laid emphasis on replenishing kidney
      essence, dispersing stagnated liver-qi and dispersing lung-qi. Moreover,
      interdependence and mutual promotion of yin and yang should be taken into account
      to reflect TCM's holism and theory for treatment based on syndrome
      differentiation. The grey screening method, as a valuable traditional Chinese
      medicine research-supporting method, can be used to subjectively and objectively
      analyze prescription rules; and the new prescriptions can provide reference for
      the clinical use of TCM for treating CACS and the drug development.

PMID- 28861980
TI  - [Effects of Gushen Antai pills combined with progestin on serum beta-HCG, P, E2
      and CA125 in patients with threatened abortion].
AB  - To investigate the clinical effect of Gushen Antai pills and progesterone in the
      treatment of threatened abortion, in order to provide references for early
      clinical intervention with threatened abortion. The 112 cases of patients with
      threatened abortion were randomly divided into the control group and the
      observation group. 56 cases in each group. Patients in the control group was
      injected with progesterone, the observation group was treated with Gushen Antai
      pills in addition to the therapy of the control group. Both groups were treated
      by drugs for two weeks. Their venous bloods (5 mL) were collected before
      treatment and in 1, 2 weeks after treatment to determine serum levels of beta
      HCG, P, E2 and CA125. The differences between the two groups after treatment were
      compared. The total effective rate of the control group and the observation group
      were 79% and 91.9% respectively, with a statistically significant difference
      between the two groups (P<0.05). Two weeks after the treatment, the serum levels
      of P and E2 in the observation group were significantly higher than before
      treatment, but the serum CA125 levels decreased significantly after treatment
      (P<0.05). These indicators showed statistically significant difference compared
      with that of the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the serum beta-HCG
      levels of the two groups were significantly higher than before treatment
      (P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference between the two
      groups. Gushen Antai pills and progesterone had a better clinical curative effect
      in treatment threatened abortion, which could significantly raise serum beta-HCG,
      P and E2, reduce serum CA125 and increase the tocolysis efficiency, and so it was
      worth promoted in clinic.

PMID- 28861981
TI  - [Meta-analysis on efficacy and safety of Brucea javanica oil emulsion injection
      combined with chemotherapy for patients with advanced gastric carcinoma].
AB  - Eligible studies were searched in Cochrane library, Pubmed, Medline, CBM, CNKI
      and VIP databases from establishment to June 2014. Two researchers independently
      identified 7 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and extracted data of Brucea
      javanica oil emulsion injection combined with chemotherapy. Based on the
      published studies, the researchers analyzed them by RevMan 5.2 software and
      investigated the efficacy and safety of Brucea javanica oil emulsion injection
      combined with chemotherapy for patients with advanced gastric cancer by Meta
      analysis. Meta analysis showed that, compared with the simple chemotherapy,
      Brucea javanica oil emulsion injection combined with chemotherapy could increase
      objective response rate by 43%(RR=1.43, P<0.001). In addition, the incidence of
      neutropenia (RR=0.56, P<0.001), thrombocytopenia (RR=0.64, P=0.02), nausea, vomit
      (RR=0.66, P=0.002) decreased in these patients. However, the quality of life was
      not improved significantly in gastric carcinoma patients with combined therapy
      (RR=1.36, P=0.07). The paper suggested Brucea javanica oil emulsion injection
      combined with chemotherapy could increase efficacy and safety, which might be a
      promising therapy for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

PMID- 28861982
TI  - [Investigation of potential toxic factors for fleece-flower root: from
      perspective of processing methods evolution].
AB  - In recent years, the rapid growth of reports on fleece-flower root-caused liver
      damages has drawn wide attention of both at home and abroad, however, there were
      rare literature on toxicology of fleece-flower root in ancient Chinese medicine.
      But why there are so many reports on toxicology of fleece-flower root now
      compared with the ancient literature? As a typical tonic medicine, the clinical
      utility of fleece-flower root was largely limited by its standardization and
      reliability of processing methods in ancient Chinese medicine. The ancient
      processing methods of fleece-flower root emphasized nine times of steaming and
      nine times of drying, while the modern processes have been simplified into one
      time of steaming. Whether the differences between ancient and modern processing
      methods are the potential cause of the increased events of fleece-flower root
      caused liver damages. We will make deep analysis and provide new clues and
      perspectives for the research on its toxicity. This article, therefore, would
      discuss the affecting factors and key problems in toxicity attenuation of fleece
      flower root on the basis of sorting out the processing methods of fleece-flower
      root in ancient medical books and modern standards, in order to provide the
      reference for establishing specification for toxicity attenuation of fleece
      flower root.

PMID- 28861983
TI  - [Reduction of ADRs of essential traditional Chinese medicines].
AB  - The essential traditional Chinese medicines (ETCM) are the characteristics of our
      National Essential Medicine List (NEML) and we should give full play to its
      unique advantage. The essential medicines of ETCM are specific, but also have
      dual characters, namely efficacy and ADRs. Although ADRs cannot be avoided, we
      can make efforts to control some conditions to minimize the possibility of ADRs.
      It is significant to give suggestions to reduce ADRs of ETCM under the ETCM
      system by analyzing the possibility of ADRs during ETCM selection, production
      distribution and use. This research focuses on ETCM, and the conclusion is also
      applicable to common traditional Chinese medicines.

PMID- 28861984
TI  - [Impact of "imprinting templates" characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine
      injection supramolecules on (anaphylactoid) hypersensibility].
AB  - The (anaphylactoid) hypersensibility mechanism of "imprinting templates"
      characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) injection supramolecules
      was clarified to lay the foundation to build safety evaluation method. Based on
      the previous publication on special impact of Chinese medicine theories on
      supramolcular chemistry, combined with the natural origination of (anaphylactoid)
      hypersensitized special rules as well as the sensitization phenomenon of cordate
      houttuynia injection, the impact of the structure characteristics of "imprinting
      templates" in TCM injection supramolecules on its (anaphylactoid)
      hypersensibility was clarified. In Chinese medicine injections, the
      supramolecular structures can independently be generated, showing overall
      apparent (anaphylactoid) hypersensibility nature, and their structure
      characteristics were dependent on the strength. In addition, (anaphylactoid)
      hypersensitive critical supramolecular structure was present. When it was
      administrated by "injection", it's structure was not easy to be destroyed, often
      showing apparent immunogenicity, whereas if it was administrated by "oral", the
      structure would be destroyed by the gastrointestinal tract, showing weaker or no
      apparent immunogenicity. Therefore, there are differences in (anaphylactoid)
      hypersensibility between "injection" and "oral" administration of TCM. TCM
      injections would produce the supramolecules between "molecular society" by
      independent reaction of supramolecular "imprinting template" (chemical
      determinants), showing apparent immune process of recognition, copying, and
      storage. Single molecule is a special example for this. The screening of
      anaphylactoid (sensitinogen) includes the single ingredients and their forming
      supramolecules for TCM injection. This is the unique feature for safety
      evaluation of Chinese medicine injection.

PMID- 28861985
TI  - [Construction and practice on rational medication model of Chinese patent
      medicine for orthopedics based on "symdrome-dosage-toxicity differentiation"
      theory].
AB  - Chinese patent medicines for orthopedics are among the hotspot and difficulty in
      the rational medication of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), because they
      mostly contain toxic medicinal herbs and oriented to special patients. According
      to the hospital pharmacy practices and the therapeutic theories of TCM, this
      paper focused on a novel model of rational drug use of Chinese patent medicine
      for orthopedics based on the principles of "syndrome-dosage-toxicity
      differentiation". We also proposed relevant specifications for guiding their
      clinical use. Firstly, we proposed a list of the primary clinical application
      characteristics for rational drug use of orthopedic TCMs, including the syndromes
      of patient, the dosage of medicine and the toxic ingredients in medicine.
      Secondly, a database was established for recording the package inserts of all of
      the 81 orthopedic patent medicines in our hospital, and 2 000 retrospective
      recipes were analyzed for looking for the high-frequency medicines and common
      irrational factors. Then clinical case reports involving the adverse reactions
      and side effects of related drugs were searched from CNKI, VIP and WanFang
      databases. Then the key information for rational application of each medicine was
      extracted from these resources and some survey questionnaires. Finally, we
      established a guide named instructions for clinical use of orthopedic Chinese
      patient medicines (ICUOCPM) after the discusstion with experts. According to the
      effect after the practice in hospital for 2 months, the proposed principles of
      "syndrome-dosage-toxicity differentiation" in this paper were believed to be the
      core elements and the most important clinical monitoring points in TCM for
      orthopedic patents. It would provide innovative ideas, theoretical guarantee and
      data support for the development of TCM clinical pharmacy.

PMID- 28861986
TI  - Global leprosy update, 2016: accelerating reduction of disease burden.

PMID- 28861987
TI  - Eulogy for Kristian Fauchald (1 July 1935 - 4 April 2015).

PMID- 28861988
TI  - [Role of mammals on seed dispersal and predation processes of Mauritia flexuosa
      (Arecaceae)in the Colombian Amazon].
AB  - Mammals and palms are important elements of fauna and flora in the Neotropics,and
      their interactions, such as fruit consumption and seed dispersal, are one of the
      most important ecologicalrelationships in these ecosystems. The main objective of
      this study was to identify the relative importance ofmammals in the dispersal and
      predation of Mauritia flexuosa palm fruits. We installed camera-traps in front
      ofpalm fallen seeds and clusters with fruits. A catalog of species was prepared
      with the recorded videos and theforaging behaviors exhibited were classified and
      identified. In addition, two exclusion treatments with three repetitions each
      were used. In the semi-open treatment, a plot was fenced with metal mesh leaving
      four open-ings in order to allow access only to small and medium sized mammals,
      while in the open treatment, the small, medium and large sized mammals had free
      access. In both cases, seed removal was evaluated. We recorded atotal of 19
      species of mammals, nine of which fed on palm fruits and the other five were seed
      dispersers. Wereported for the first time the consumption of Mauritia flexuosa
      fruits by Atelocynus microtis. The specieswith the highest relative importance
      was Dasyprocta fuliginosa, which showed the highest percentage of seeddispersal
      (63.5%) compared to the other species. Tayassu peccary was identified as an in
      situ consumer, eating45.3% of seeds without dispersing them. The number of seeds
      consumed in situ in the open treatment showedsignificant differences regarding
      the semi-open treatment, suggesting greater involvement of large mammals in this
      process. In conclusion, the fruits of M. flexuosa are an important food source
      for the local mammal com-munity. Additionally, the consumption of seeds under the
      canopy of the mother palm is proportionally greater than their dispersion.
      Generally, the pressure of frugivorous species over seeds may determine the
      reproductivestrategies of plants. However, research on effective dispersion,
      dispersal distances and demographic impactshould be conducted to determine the
      specific role of medium and large sized mammals in the ecology of thispalm.

PMID- 28861989
TI  - Biogeography and areas of endemism of Prepops Reuter (Heteroptera: Miridae).
AB  - The Miridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are one of the most species rich families of
      insects, with about11 100 described species. Mirinae is the largest subfamily and
      its endemism becomes evident at the tribal leveland below. Mirines of the tribe
      Restheniini are found throughout America, with most of the diversity confined to
      the Neotropics. Prepops Reuter is the largest genus in Restheniini with 198
      described species and its geographi-cal range is similar to that of the tribe.
      The study of the distribution and areas of endemism in Miridae are scarce and non
      existent for Prepops. We analyzed all the geographic records of Prepops (707
      records for 181 species) inorder to identify diversity patterns and areas of
      endemism, using network analysis. Locality data were assignedusing museum
      specimens and geographic records in the literature. Additionally we used spatial
      data to proposehabitat preferences and geoclimatic variables important for each
      group of co-occurring species. The results indicate high species richness in
      subtropical regions, while the tropical belt and high latitudes appear impover
      ished. The Neotropical region contains 86% of the species, and the Nearctic about
      11 % (but with larger species  ranges); the Andean region is sparingly
      represented. Twenty-three areas of endemism (and two diads), formed by 2 or more
      endemic species, are distributed in the Nearctic (3), Mexican Transition Zone and
      Caribbean sub-region (5), South American Transition Zone and Amazonian, Chacoan
      and Paranaense subregions (15). Overlap between some of the areas indicates
      regions with high species richness and complex history. The lack of records from
      the Andean region (except for P. nigrus in Southern Patagonia) and dominance of
      strictly Neotropical spe-cies (86 %) supports the hypothesis of a Neotropical
      origin for the tribe Restheniini. The general arrangement of the units of co
      occurrence of Prepops species shows a close correlation with known biogeographic
      regions andsubregions. Broad physiographic characteristics most commonly
      associated with Prepops geographical recordsare, in order of importance: broad
      leaf forests (wet and dry), grasslands and xeric habitats.

PMID- 28861990
TI  - Changes in body size spectra of benthic caridean shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) and
      snails (Gastropoda)as response to seasonal variability
AB  - Ecologists have been largely interested in the description and understanding of
      the power scalingrelationships between body size and abundance of organisms. Many
      studies have focused on estimating theexponents of these functions across
      taxonomic groups and spatial scales, to draw inferences about the
      processesunderlying this pattern. The exponents of these functions usually
      approximate -3/4 at geographical scales, butthey deviate from this value when
      smaller spatial extensions are considered. This has led to propose that bodysize
      abundance relationships at small spatial scales may reflect the impact of
      environmental changes. Thisstudy tests this hypothesis by examining body size
      spectra of benthic shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) and snails (Gastropoda) in the
      Tamiahua lagoon, a brackish body water located in the Eastern coast of Mexico. We
      mea-sured water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, water
      temperature, sediment organic matter and chemical oxygen demand) and sampled
      benthic macrofauna during three different climatic conditions of theyear (cold,
      dry and rainy season). Given the small size of most individuals in the benthic
      macrofaunal samples,we used body volume, instead of weight, to estimate their
      body size. Body size-abundance relationships of bothtaxonomic groups were
      described by tabulating data from each season into base-2 logarithmic body size
      bins.In both taxonomic groups, observed frequencies per body size class in each
      season were standardized to yielddensities (i.e., individuals/m(3)). Nonlinear
      regression analyses were separately performed for each taxonomicgroup at each
      season to assess whether body size spectra followed power scaling functions.
      Additionally, foreach taxonomic group, multiple regression analyses were used to
      determine whether these relationships variedamong seasons. Our results indicated
      that, while body size-abundance relationships in both taxonomic groupsfollowed
      power functions, the parameters defining the shape of these relationships varied
      among seasons. Thesevariations in the parameters of the body size-abundance
      relationships seems to be related to changes in theabundance of individuals
      within the different body size classes, which seems to follow the seasonal
      changes that occur in the environmental conditions of the lagoon. Thus, we
      propose that these body size-abundance relation-ships are influenced by the
      frequency and intensity of environmental changes affecting this ecosystem.

PMID- 28861991
TI  - Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed Oxadiazole-Directed Alkenyl C-H Activation for Synthetic
      Access to 2-Acylamino and 2-Amino Pyridines.
AB  - We report herein a Rh(III)-catalyzed alkenyl C-H activation protocol for the
      coupling of oxadiazoles with alkynes and synthesis of 2-acylamino and 2-amino
      pyridines, an important heterocyclic scaffold for various naturals products and
      synthetic pharmaceuticals bearing a readily reacting functional group. The
      selective protection/deprotection of amino groups through simple solvent
      switching, good functional group compatibility, superior product yield, and high
      regioselectivity are some of the notable synthetic features witnessed in this
      reaction protocol.

PMID- 28861992
TI  - Flow Injection Photochemical Vapor Generation Coupled with Miniaturized Solution
      Cathode Glow Discharge Atomic Emission Spectrometry for Determination and
      Speciation Analysis of Mercury.
AB  - A novel, compact, and green method was developed for the determination and
      speciation analysis of mercury, based on flow injection photochemical vapor
      generation (PVG) coupled with miniaturized solution cathode glow discharge-atomic
      emission spectroscopy (SCGD-AES). The SCGD was generated between a miniature
      hollow titanium tube and a solution emerging from a glass capillary. Cold mercury
      vapor (Hg(0)) was generated by PVG and subsequently delivered to the SCGD for
      excitation, and finally the emission signals were recorded by a miniaturized
      spectrograph. The detection limits (DLs) of Hg(II) and methylmercury (MeHg) were
      both determined to be 0.2 MUg L-1. Moreover, mercury speciation analysis could
      also be performed by using different wavelengths and powers from the UV lamp and
      irradiation times. Both Hg(II) and MeHg can be converted to Hg(0) for the
      determination of total mercury (T-Hg) with 8 W/254 nm UV lamp and 60 s
      irradiation time; while only Hg(II) can be reduced to Hg(0) and determined
      selectively with 4 W/365 nm UV lamp and 20 s irradiation time. Then, the
      concentration of MeHg can be calculated by subtracting the Hg(II) from the T-Hg.
      Because of its similar sensitivity and DL at 8 W/254 nm, the simpler and less
      toxic Hg(II) was used successfully as a primary standard for the quantification
      of T-Hg. The novel PVG-SCGD-AES system provides not only a 365-fold improvement
      in the DL for Hg(II) but also a nonchromatographic method for the speciation
      analysis of mercury. After validating its accuracy, this method was successfully
      used for mercury speciation analysis of water and biological samples.

PMID- 28861993
TI  - Fabrication of Stable and Luminescent Copper Nanocluster-Based AIE Particles and
      Their Application in beta-Galactosidase Activity Assay.
AB  - Thiolated copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) with aggregation-induced emission
      characteristic are becoming a novel luminescent material, but it is still a
      challenging task to retain its bright luminescence in a neutral solution. In this
      work, we report a new copper nanocluster with aggregation-induced emission (AIE)
      enhancement property using a hydrophobic molecule as the protecting ligand, and
      brightly luminescent AIE particles of copper nanocluster were prepared via
      hydrophobic interaction. These CuNCs AIE particles possess uniform rod-like
      shapes, with sizes in hundreds of nanometer, and an intense luminescence; more
      importantly, its luminescence remains stable in neutral and alkaline solutions.
      It is found that 4-nitrophenol is able to effectively quench the luminescence of
      CuNC AIE particles through strong hydrophobic interaction and electron transfer
      between them. This strong quenching effect was adopted to develop a luminescent
      assay for beta-galactosidase at physiological condition. This work presents a
      demonstration of preparing CuNC AIE particles with bright luminescence at neutral
      condition and gives an example of the use of AIE particles in monitoring the
      enzyme activity.

PMID- 28861994
TI  - On-Demand Drug Release from Dual-Targeting Small Nanoparticles Triggered by High
      Intensity Focused Ultrasound Enhanced Glioblastoma-Targeting Therapy.
AB  - Glioblastoma is one of the most challenging and intractable tumors with the
      difficult treatment and poor prognosis. Unsatisfactory traditional systemic
      chemotherapies for glioblastoma are mainly attributed to the insufficient and
      nonspecific drug delivery into the brain tumors as well as the incomplete drug
      release at the tumor sites. Inspired by the facts that angiopep-2 peptide is an
      acknowledged dual-targeting moiety for brain tumor-targeting delivery and high
      intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is an ideal trigger for drug release with an
      ultrahigh energy and millimeter-sized focus ability, in the present study, a
      novel HIFU-responsive angiopep-2-modified small poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)
      (PLGA) hybrid nanoparticle (NP) drug delivery system holding
      doxorubicin/perfluorooctyl bromide (ANP-D/P) was designed to increase the
      intratumoral drug accumulation, further trigger on-demand drug release at the
      glioblastoma sites, and enhance glioblastoma therapy. It was shown that the ANP
      D/P was stable and had a small size of 41 nm. The angiopep-2 modification endowed
      the ANP-D/P with improved blood-brain barrier transportation and specific
      accumulation in glioblastoma tissues by 17 folds and 13.4 folds compared with
      unmodified NPs, respectively. Under HIFU irradiation, the ANP-D/P could release
      47% of the drug within 2 min and induce the apoptosis of most tumor cells. HIFU
      triggered instantaneous drug release at the glioblastoma sites eventually enabled
      the ANP-D/P to achieve the strongest antiglioblastoma efficacy with the longest
      median survival time (56 days) of glioblastoma-bearing mice and the minimum
      vestiges of tumor cells in the pathological slices among all groups. In
      conclusion, the HIFU-responsive ANP-D/P in this study provided a new way for
      glioblastoma therapy with a great potential for clinical applications.

PMID- 28861995
TI  - Chemo-, Regio-, and Stereoselective N-Alkenylation of Pyrazoles/Benzpyrazoles
      Using Activated and Unactivated Alkynes.
AB  - Transition-metal-free chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective synthesis of (Z) and
      (E) styryl pyrazoles and benzpyrazoles by the addition of N-heterocycles onto
      functionalized terminal and internal alkynes using a super basic solution of
      KOH/DMSO has been described. The stereochemical outcome of the reaction was
      governed by time and quantity of the base. The reaction of pyrazoles and
      benzpyrazoles onto alkynes takes place chemoselectively without affecting the
      free -NH2 group of pyrazoles and -OH group of alkynes. The designed protocol was
      well implemented on alkynes bearing long alkyl chain, an alicyclic ring, hydroxy,
      ether, and ester functionality, which offer the N-alkenylated products in good
      yields. This developed methodology also provides easy access for the synthesis of
      bis-vinylated heterocycles. The presence of free -NH2, -OH, -COOR, and halo group
      in styryl pyrazoles, could be further utilized for synthetic elaboration, which
      is advantageous for biological evaluation. For the first time, we have disclosed
      the base-mediated conversion of (Z)-styryl pyrazoles to (E)-styryl pyrazoles in
      KOH/DMSO system. The cis-trans isomerization was supported by the control
      experiments and deuterium labeling studies.

PMID- 28861996
TI  - Transition-Metal-Free [3+2] Cycloaddition of Dehydroaminophosphonates and N
      Tosylhydrazones: Access to Aminocyclopropanephosphonates with Adjacent Quaternary
      Tetrasubstituted Carbon Centers.
AB  - A novel one-step strategy for the synthesis of aminocyclopropanephosphonates
      containing adjacent quaternary-tetrasubstituted carbon centers under transition
      metal-free catalysis via [3+2] cycloaddition process has been developed. A series
      of aminocyclopropanephosphonates with adjacent quaternary-tetrasubstituted carbon
      centers including spirocyclopropyl adducts were obtained in moderate to excellent
      yields under mild reaction conditions. This protocol would find the potential
      applications in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry.

PMID- 28861997
TI  - Profiling B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Cleavage Peptidoforms in Human Plasma by
      Capillary Electrophoresis with Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) is a biologically active circulating hormone.
      Plasma concentrations of BNP are routinely used in the diagnosis of heart
      failure, and the intravenous infusion of recombinant BNP can be used for heart
      failure treatment. Like many bioactive polypeptides, multiple plasma enzymes are
      known to cleave circulating BNP, and as part of the CVD-B/D-HPP mandate, we
      sought to develop a technique capable of profiling these catabolic processes in
      plasma. We used a neutral-coated capillary electrophoresis-electrospray
      ionization (CESI) separation system coupled with high-resolution mass
      spectrometry to profile the proteolysis of exogenous recombinant BNP1-32 in
      plasma. Our method utilizes electrokinetic injection of minimally processed
      plasma samples to simultaneously monitor the dynamic generation and breakdown of
      at least five BNP peptidoforms in plasma. By integrating multisegment injection,
      our method can produce a multipoint BNP proteolytic profile for one sample within
      an hour. We envision applying this method to assess the potential relation
      between plasma-based BNP proteolysis and heart failure as well as a means of
      monitoring BNP bioavailability after therapeutic infusion.

PMID- 28861999
TI  - Self-Etching of Metal-Organic Framework Templates during Polydopamine Coating:
      Nonspherical Polydopamine Capsules and Potential Intracellular Trafficking of
      Metal Ions.
AB  - Traditionally, containers made from steel or other metals are not good for making
      tea, probably due to the fact that polyphenol components in tea can chelate with
      metal ions. A similar reason might stand behind the observations as reported
      herein. During the coating of well-defined metal-organic framework (MOF)
      crystalline particles with polydopamine (PDA) via pH-induced self-polymerization
      of dopamine, we found that MOF templates automatically etch off during the
      coating, giving rise to nonspherical PDA capsules that inherit the morphologies
      of the templates. Such self-etching of MOF templates is ascribed to the chelation
      of the metal nodes of the MOFs by the catechol moieties in the PDA layer. In
      addition, the self-etching of the zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) with a
      truncated cubic shape probably follows a crystalline facet-dependent fashion,
      resulting in intermediate yolk-shell structures with ZIF-8 cargos of various
      shapes inside a highly biocompatible PDA shell. Incubation of such intermediate
      hybrid particles with the cancerous HeLa cell line leads to pronounced
      cytotoxicity, which is tentatively connected with the cellular internalization of
      the ZIF@PDA nanoparticles because of the cell affinity of the PDA layer.
      Subsequently, the continuous release of Zn2+ by the self-etching of the
      encapsulated ZIF-8 inside the cell increases intracellular Zn2+ to a harmful
      level. Therefore, intracellular delivery of metal ions is probably realized,
      which might offer a novel way for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28861998
TI  - Comparative Proteomics Enables Identification of Nonannotated Cold Shock Proteins
      in E. coli.
AB  - Recent advances in mass spectrometry-based proteomics have revealed translation
      of previously nonannotated microproteins from thousands of small open reading
      frames (smORFs) in prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes. Facile methods to
      determine cellular functions of these newly discovered microproteins are now
      needed. Here, we couple semiquantitative comparative proteomics with whole-genome
      database searching to identify two nonannotated, homologous cold shock-regulated
      microproteins in Escherichia coli K12 substr. MG1655, as well as two additional
      constitutively expressed microproteins. We apply molecular genetic approaches to
      confirm expression of these cold shock proteins (YmcF and YnfQ) at reduced
      temperatures and identify the noncanonical ATT start codons that initiate their
      translation. These proteins are conserved in related Gram-negative bacteria and
      are predicted to be structured, which, in combination with their cold shock
      upregulation, suggests that they are likely to have biological roles in the cell.
      These results reveal that previously unknown factors are involved in the response
      of E. coli to lowered temperatures and suggest that further nonannotated, stress
      regulated E. coli microproteins may remain to be found. More broadly, comparative
      proteomics may enable discovery of regulated, and therefore potentially
      functional, products of smORF translation across many different organisms and
      conditions.

PMID- 28862000
TI  - Quantitative Proteomics for the Comprehensive Analysis of Stress Responses of
      Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei F19.
AB  - Lactic acid bacteria are broadly employed as starter cultures in the manufacture
      of foods. Upon technological preparation, they are confronted with drying stress
      that amalgamates numerous stress conditions resulting in losses of fitness and
      survival. To better understand and differentiate physiological stress responses,
      discover general and specific markers for the investigated stress conditions, and
      predict optimal preconditioning for starter cultures, we performed a
      comprehensive genomic and quantitative proteomic analysis of a commonly used
      model system, Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei TMW 1.1434 (isogenic with
      F19) under 11 typical stress conditions, including among others oxidative,
      osmotic, pH, and pressure stress. We identified and quantified >1900 proteins in
      triplicate analyses, representing 65% of all genes encoded in the genome. The
      identified genes were thoroughly annotated in terms of subcellular localization
      prediction and biological functions, suggesting unbiased and comprehensive
      proteome coverage. In total, 427 proteins were significantly differentially
      expressed in at least one condition. Most notably, our analysis suggests that
      optimal preconditioning toward drying was predicted to be alkaline and high
      pressure stress preconditioning. Taken together, we believe the presented
      strategy may serve as a prototypic example for the analysis and utility of
      employing quantitative-mass-spectrometry-based proteomics to study bacterial
      physiology.

PMID- 28862001
TI  - Wearable Sweatband Sensor Platform Based on Gold Nanodendrite Array as Efficient
      Solid Contact of Ion-Selective Electrode.
AB  - As chemical sensors are in great demand for portable and wearable analytical
      applications, it is highly desirable to develop an all-solid-state ion-selective
      electrode (ISE) and reference electrode (RE) platform with simplicity and
      stability. Here we propose a wearable sensor platform with a new type of all
      solid-state ISE based on a gold nanodendrite (AuND) array electrode as the solid
      contact and a poly(vinyl acetate)/inorganic salt (PVA/KCl) membrane-coated all
      solid-state RE. A simple and controllable method was developed to fabricate the
      AuNDs on a microwell array patterned chip by one-step electrodeposition without
      additional processing. For the first time, the AuND electrodes with different
      real surface area and double layer capacitance were developed as solid contact of
      the Na+-ISE to investigate the relationship between performance of the ISE and
      surface area. As-prepared AuND-ISE with larger surface area (~7.23 cm2) exhibited
      enhanced potential stability compared to those with smaller surface area (~1.85
      cm2) and to bare Au ISE. Important as the ISE, the PVA/KCl membrane-coated
      Ag/AgCl RE exhibited highly stable potential even after 3 months' storage.
      Finally, a wearable sweatband sensor platform was developed for efficient sweat
      collection and real-time analysis of sweat sodium during indoor exercise. This
      all-solid-state ISE and RE integrated sensor platform provided a very simple and
      reliable way to construct diverse portable and wearable devices for healthcare,
      sports, clinical diagnosis, and environmental analysis applications.

PMID- 28862002
TI  - Visible-Light Mediated Oxidative C-H/N-H Cross-Coupling between Tetrahydrofuran
      and Azoles Using Air.
AB  - Tetrahydrofuran is a privileged structural moiety in many important organic
      compounds. In this work, we have developed a simple and mild catalytic oxidative
      amination of tetrahydrofuran mediated by visible-light catalysis. The C(sp3)-H
      bond of tetrahydrofuran was activated using molecular oxygen as a benign oxidant.
      Besides, a variety of azoles could be tolerated, providing a green route for N
      substituted azoles.

PMID- 28862003
TI  - Light-Regulated Electrochemical Sensor Array for Efficiently Discriminating
      Hazardous Gases.
AB  - Inadequate detection limit and unsatisfactory discrimination features remain the
      challenging issues for the widely applied electrochemical gas sensors. Quite
      recently, we confirmed that light-regulated electrochemical reaction
      significantly enhanced the electrocatalytic activity, and thereby can potentially
      extend the detection limit to the parts per billion (ppb) level. Nevertheless,
      impact of the light-regulated electrochemical reaction on response selectivity
      has been discussed less. Herein, we systematically report on the effect of
      illumination on discrimination features via design and fabrication of a light
      regulated electrochemical sensor array. Upon illumination (light on), response
      signal to the examined gases (C3H6, NO, and CO) is selectively enhanced,
      resulting in the sensor array demonstrating disparate response patterns when
      compared with that of the sensor array operated at light off. Through processing
      all the response patterns derived from both light on and light off with a pattern
      recognition algorithm, a satisfactory discrimination feature is observed. In
      contrast, apparent mutual interference between NO and CO is found when the sensor
      array is solely operated without illumination. The impact mechanism of the
      illumination is studied and it is deduced that the effect of the illumination on
      the discriminating features can be mainly attributed to the competition of
      electrocatalytic activity and gas-phase reactivity. If the enhanced
      electrocatalytic activity (to specific gas) dominates the whole sensing progress,
      enhancements in the corresponding response signal would be observed upon
      illumination. Otherwise, illumination gives a negligible impact. Hence, the
      response signal to part of the examined gases is selectively enhanced by
      illumination. Conclusively, light-regulated electrochemical reaction would
      provide an efficient approach to designing future smart sensing devices.

PMID- 28862005
TI  - [Newborn hearing screening - importance, current state in the Czech Republic].
AB  - The importance of early detection of hearing impairment in newborns and children
      and the early rehabilitation of hearing disorder with hearing aid or cochlear
      implant was demonstrated in a number of papers. As a result, newborn hearing
      screening was introduced in many countries around the world. The incidence of
      congenital hearing impairment has been underestimated for a long time,
      empirically determined incidence was 1:1000 neonates. Thanks to newborn hearing
      screening was revealed that incidence of congenital hearing impairment is 3 times
      higher. One out of 300 newborns has profound hearing loss (deafness) and 1 in 300
      newborns has mild to moderate hearing loss. Moreover, in 1 out of 300 children
      hearing impairment would develop before the age of 18. In the Czech Republic, the
      screening of all newborns is still systematical and multilevel conducted in only
      three regions (Moravskoslezsky, Kralovehradecky, Pardubicky). In these regions,
      statistics as well as assessments of individual stages of screening are carried
      out. In other regions, records of the number of screened children, number of
      rescreened children and detailed statistics of hearing impairment is missing. The
      authors summarize the basic information about the importance of screening, the
      history of screening and its organization. Provided information is based on
      experience with the gradual introduction of screening over recent years in the
      regions in which they work. Newborn hearing screening should be organized in
      several stages (1 - screening at maternity hospitals, 2 - rescreening on
      collaborating otolaryngology/phoniatric workplaces and 3 - detailed hearing
      examination in centers in children whose screening was negative). The authors
      focus on problems related to the organization of screening and offer practical
      advice (e.g. implementation of screening coordinators). They consider it is
      essential to have statistical evidence of examination at all levels. Introducing
      of newborn hearing screening is not a short-term task but a long-term (many
      years) challenge.

PMID- 28862004
TI  - Single Molecule Trapping and Sensing Using Dual Nanopores Separated by a
      Zeptoliter Nanobridge.
AB  - There is a growing realization, especially within the diagnostic and therapeutic
      community, that the amount of information enclosed in a single molecule can not
      only enable a better understanding of biophysical pathways, but also offer
      exceptional value for early stage biomarker detection of disease onset. To this
      end, numerous single molecule strategies have been proposed, and in terms of
      label-free routes, nanopore sensing has emerged as one of the most promising
      methods. However, being able to finely control molecular transport in terms of
      transport rate, resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is essential to take
      full advantage of the technology benefits. Here we propose a novel solution to
      these challenges based on a method that allows biomolecules to be individually
      confined into a zeptoliter nanoscale droplet bridging two adjacent nanopores
      (nanobridge) with a 20 nm separation. Molecules that undergo confinement in the
      nanobridge are slowed down by up to 3 orders of magnitude compared to
      conventional nanopores. This leads to a dramatic improvement in the SNR,
      resolution, sensitivity, and limit of detection. The strategy implemented is
      universal and as highlighted in this manuscript can be used for the detection of
      dsDNA, RNA, ssDNA, and proteins.

PMID- 28862006
TI  - [30 years of the cochlear implantations in the Czech Republic].
AB  - Cochlear implant is the unique sensory neuroprosthesis and still the only one
      used in clinical praxis. The function of the inner ear is replaced with direct
      electrical stimulation of the cochlear nerve. It is 30 years since the first
      cochlear implantation has been performed with the Czech single-channel cochlear
      neuroprosthesis. There are more than one thousand users of cochlear implants in
      the Czech Republic nowadays. Cochlear implants have become a standard of care of
      patients with severe hearing loss. It allows user inclusion to the society with
      only a minimum of obstacles.Key words: cochlear implant, history,
      neuroprosthesis, severe hearing loss.

PMID- 28862007
TI  - [Speech intelligibility in noise at presbycusis].
AB  - Evaluation of speech recognition is possible by presenting testing material in
      sentence form with presence of competitive noise. We developed new test of
      sentence intelligibility in noise in the Czech language. This article
      demonstrates results of the influence of the babble noise on sentence
      intelligibility in hearing impaired listeners with presbycusis. The time
      characteristics of babble noise are similar to human voice. That is the reason
      why this noise masking is more enhanced at the central hearing level than any
      other noise masking. A group of 423 persons was divided into younger group (age
      from 40 to 65 years, N = 191, mean age 55.8 years.) and older group (age from 66
      to 85 years, N = 232, mean age 75.4 years). For these two age groups, we compared
      the test performance in the subgroups stratified by the speech audiometry in
      silence. We demonstrate a statistically significant worse understanding of
      sentences in the older group against the younger group listening to sentences at
      level 65 dB SPL in competitive noise at level 65 dB SPL (p = 0.05). The
      development of the sentence intelligibility in noise test increased the
      possibilities of audiological examination by another test, which was up to now
      missing in the Czech language.

PMID- 28862008
TI  - [Olfactory function in patients undergoing FESS for chronic rhinosinusitis].
AB  - Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) often suffer from loss of olfactory
      function. Rhinosinusitis can be treated either by medical therapy or surgically
      (FESS). Postoperative outcome in terms of improving sense of smell has been
      controversial so far. The aim of our study was to determine the patients who
      would have better postoperative outcomes in terms of improving olfactory
      function. We collected data of patients undergoing FESS for chronic
      rhinosinusitis (either with or without nasal polyps) at our department during the
      years 2012-2015. These patients had their olfactory function examined with
      Odorized markers test (OMT) up to 24 hours before surgery. After that we chose
      the best result in OMT found out in visits from 4 weeks to 4 months after
      surgery. We were comparing individual risk factors out of the patients'
      anamnesis, CT scan and physical examination. 51 patients were enrolled in this
      study. 25 % of patients showed improvement of their olfactory function, no change
      was recorded in 55 % of patients and 20 % of patients showed deterioration of
      olfaction. Before surgery we found out statistically significant difference in
      results of OMT between the patients with and without nasal polyps and with and
      without asthma (p = 0,0016, resp. p = 0,04). After surgery the difference was no
      longer statistically significant (p = 0,17, resp. p = 0,12). Correlation with age
      and Lund-Mackay score showed changes after surgery. No statistically significant
      difference in results of OMT was found out before and after surgery in other
      observed risk factors (oral corticosteroids before surgery, smoking, revision
      surgery and middle turbinate resection). Changes in olfactory function in
      patients with chronic rhinosinusitis after surgery are hard to predict. Our
      results show that nasal polyps, asthma, lower age and higher Lund-Mackay score
      are factors which predict better postoperative outcome.

PMID- 28862009
TI  - [Endoscopic optical imaging methods in the diagnostics of the laryngeal cancer].
AB  - Endoscopic optical imaging methods for the detection of mucosal lesions in the
      ENT area have been developed for better and earlier detection of these changes.
      They can be divided into horizontal methods group - showing the surface of the
      mucous membrane (autofluorescence, photodynamic diagnosis, Narrow Band Imaging,
      magnifying and contact endoscopy) and vertical methods group - visualizing
      different layers of the mucosa (optical coherence tomography and confocal
      endomicroscopy). Some of them are routinely used in practice, others are used in
      experimental mode and their introduction into practice may be a matter of the
      near future. The authors present a comprehensive overview of available endoscopic
      optical imaging methods.

PMID- 28862010
TI  - [Sleep-related breathing disorders in children and adults from the aspect of the
      otorhinolaryngology].
AB  - Sleep medicine is multidisciplinary branch with significant role of the
      otorhinolaryngologist especially in the area of sleep related breathing
      disorders. Snoring and sleep apnea are topics that have recently become more
      popular in lay as well as in professionals. The authors present a basic overview
      of pathophysiology, correct diagnosis and therapy in adult and pediatric
      patients. Although the awareness of sleep medicine improves, we still encounter
      incorrect procedures that can harm the patient. The physician who deals with
      sleep disturbances should have at least basic education in somnology.

PMID- 28862011
TI  - [Sore throat treatment].
AB  - The article deals with sore throat, gives definition of acute and chronic pain
      and describes their causes. Further describes possibilities of diagnosis with
      regard to differential diagnosis. Special attention is focused on differentiation
      between viral and streptococcal infection. Accented is the necessity of causal
      treatment and possibilities of supportive local treatment.Key words: sore throat,
      sore throat causes, sore throat diagnosis, causal treatment, local supportive
      treatment.

PMID- 28862012
TI  - [American healthcare system and the uncertain future of the Obamas reform].
AB  - The United States differs from other developed countries in health care system
      which does not guarantee health care for the entire population. The right to
      health care is not considered a part of the basic human rights. There is much
      more emphasis on individual responsibility in insurance of health services that
      are essentially commercial in nature. The aim of this article is to inform on US
      health system and the measures underlying the recently introduced health reform,
      whose future development cannot be predicted at present.

PMID- 28862013
TI  - Influence of Direct Oral Anticoagulants on Anti-Factor Xa Measurements Utilized
      for Monitoring Heparin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unanticipated drug-laboratory interactions may occur between direct
      oral anticoagulants (DOACs) and anti-factor Xa (AXA) levels used to monitor
      parenteral heparin infusions. Characterization of the extent and duration of DOAC
      effect on AXA levels may reduce complications with transition to heparin
      infusions. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of oral factor Xa inhibitors on AXA
      levels with and without concurrent heparin. METHODS: This retrospective
      descriptive study was approved by institutional review board waiver and included
      patients with AXA levels drawn on a heparin calibrated assay who had received a
      factor Xa inhibitor. Participants were divided on the basis of whether AXA levels
      were drawn with concurrent parenteral heparin. If transitioned to heparin, number
      of AXA draws required until AXA level was within therapeutic range was recorded.
      RESULTS: A total of 50 patients (60% rivaroxaban, 40% apixaban) met inclusion
      criteria. When AXA levels were drawn within 12 hours of apixaban without
      concurrent heparin (n = 7), 71% were greater than 1 IU/mL, and 29% were below
      suggested trough levels (0.7-1.1 IU/mL). For AXA levels drawn within 24 hours of
      rivaroxaban without concurrent heparin (n = 11), 55% were greater than 1 IU/mL,
      9% were within suggested trough (0.6-1 IU/mL), and 36% were below 0.6 IU/mL. In
      patients (n = 28) who were initiated on heparin infusion prior to AXA monitoring,
      administration of the DOAC within the prior 72 hours resulted in supratherapeutic
      initial AXA levels 69% of the time. CONCLUSION: DOACs may cause elevations in
      heparin-calibrated AXA assays; this creates problematic challenges in using the
      AXA level to optimize heparin management.

PMID- 28862014
TI  - Persistent physical activity translating to persistent reduction in mortality.

PMID- 28862015
TI  - Why various wines reduce the risks of heart diseases.

PMID- 28862016
TI  - Health promotion in children and adolescents - a global challenge.

PMID- 28862017
TI  - Health status, food insecurity, and time allocation patterns of patients with
      AIDS receiving antiretroviral treatment in South Africa.
AB  - For patients with AIDS receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) in South Africa
      via public clinics, improvements in nutritional status and economic productivity
      are likely to depend on adherence to drug regimen and quality of diet reflected
      in protein and micronutrient intakes. This study randomized 643 patients
      receiving ART from public clinics in the Free State Province into a Control
      group, a treatment group receiving adherence support, and a treatment group
      receiving adherence support and a nutritious food supplement. The data on food
      insecurity levels and time spent on various activities were analyzed for
      assessing the impact of the intervention programs. The main results were, first,
      changes between survey rounds 1 and 3 were significant at the 5% level for
      outcomes such as food insecurity levels and CD4 cell counts. Moreover, there was
      a significant reduction in food insecurity levels of patients with BMI less than
      25 who received the nutritious food supplement. Second, the estimated parameters
      from models for patients' food insecurity levels showed that household incomes
      were significantly associated with lower food insecurity levels. Third, patients'
      BMI was a significant predictor of time spent on sedentary, moderate and overall
      activity levels, and it was important to separately evaluate the effects of BMI
      for under-weight and over-weight patients. Overall, the results indicated the
      need for reducing food insecurity levels, and for designing different
      interventions for under-weight and over-weight patients with AIDS for enhancing
      their labor productivity.

PMID- 28862018
TI  - Quantitative Micro-Raman Spectroscopy for Partial Pressure Measurement in Small
      Volumes.
AB  - We demonstrate the quantitative capabilities of Raman confocal microscopy as a
      nondestructive method to measure the partial pressure of molecular gases in mm3
      range sealed volume having an optical access. Thanks to a calibration procedure,
      we apply this technique for the characterization of the absolute nitrogen partial
      pressure inside buffered micro electromechanical system (MEMS) atomic vapor cells
      developed for atomic clocks. Our results are compared with measurements obtained
      by rubidium hyperfine frequency spectroscopy and a good agreement is demonstrated
      between the two methods, with a three-sigma detection limit below 10 mbar for a 1
      h integration time, using a 33 mW 532 nm excitation laser. These results prove
      the potential of confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy as a simple and nondestructive
      method for small-scale pressure measurements.

PMID- 28862020
TI  - Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors reduce mortality compared to angiotensin
      receptor blockers: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Background There are few reviews comparing the long-term outcomes of the use of
      angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers in a
      hypertensive population because both are effective in reducing blood pressure.
      None of them compared angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II
      receptor blockers with a placebo group in patients with essential hypertension,
      because few studies exist with this design. Methods A systematic search of
      PUBMED, LILACS, SCIELO, ICTRP, Cochrane, EMBASE and ClinicalTrials.gov from 1
      January 2000 until 31 December 2015 selected prospective studies that reported an
      association between the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or
      angiotensin II receptor blockers in the following cardiovascular outcomes: heart
      failure/hospitalisation, stroke, acute myocardial infarction, total
      cardiovascular deaths, total deaths and total outcomes. Summary odds ratios (ORs)
      and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined by using a fixed-effects model.
      Results Seventeen studies ( n = 73,761) were included of which 12 studies were
      randomly assigned to angiotensin II receptor blocker therapy ( n = 24,697) and
      five to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors ( n = 12,170). Angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors proved to be significant in reducing total deaths
      (OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.78-0.93) and cardiovascular deaths (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69
      0.87). Angiotensin II receptor blocker therapy did not show a reduction in total
      deaths (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.96-1.09) or cardiovascular deaths (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.86
      1.06). For acute myocardial infarction, stroke and heart failure/hospitalisation,
      the reductions were significant for both classes. Conclusion Angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin II receptor blocker use is similar in
      preventing major cardiovascular outcomes regarding acute myocardial infarction,
      stroke and heart failure/hospitalisation. However, the use of angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors is more effective in reducing total deaths and
      cardiovascular deaths than angiotensin II receptor blockers.

PMID- 28862021
TI  - Data Processing Algorithm for Diagnostics of Combustion Using Diode Laser
      Absorption Spectrometry.
AB  - A new algorithm for the evaluation of the integral line intensity for inferring
      the correct value for the temperature of a hot zone in the diagnostic of
      combustion by absorption spectroscopy with diode lasers is proposed. The
      algorithm is based not on the fitting of the baseline (BL) but on the expansion
      of the experimental and simulated spectra in a series of orthogonal polynomials,
      subtracting of the first three components of the expansion from both the
      experimental and simulated spectra, and fitting the spectra thus modified. The
      algorithm is tested in the numerical experiment by the simulation of the
      absorption spectra using a spectroscopic database, the addition of white noise,
      and the parabolic BL. Such constructed absorption spectra are treated as
      experimental in further calculations. The theoretical absorption spectra were
      simulated with the parameters (temperature, total pressure, concentration of
      water vapor) close to the parameters used for simulation of the experimental
      data. Then, spectra were expanded in the series of orthogonal polynomials and
      first components were subtracted from both spectra. The value of the correct
      integral line intensities and hence the correct temperature evaluation were
      obtained by fitting of the thus modified experimental and simulated spectra. The
      dependence of the mean and standard deviation of the evaluation of the integral
      line intensity on the linewidth and the number of subtracted components (first
      two or three) were examined. The proposed algorithm provides a correct estimation
      of temperature with standard deviation better than 60 K (for T = 1000 K) for the
      line half-width up to 0.6 cm-1. The proposed algorithm allows for obtaining the
      parameters of a hot zone without the fitting of usually unknown BL.

PMID- 28862022
TI  - Is CHA2DS2-VASc Score Related to Inflammation in Patients With In-Stent
      Restenosis?

PMID- 28862023
TI  - What is the most suitable MR signal index for quantitative evaluation of
      placental function using Half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo
      compared with T2-relaxation time?
AB  - Background Half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE) imaging
      is now widely used for placental and fetal imaging because of its rapidity and
      low sensitivity to fetal movement. If placental dysfunction is also predicted by
      quantitative value obtained from HASTE image, then it might be beneficial for
      evaluating placental wellbeing. Purpose To ascertain the most suitable magnetic
      resonance (MR) signal indexes reflecting placental function using HASTE imaging.
      Material and Methods This retrospective study included 37 consequent patients who
      had given informed consent to MR imaging (MRI) examinations. All had undergone
      MRI examinations between February 2014 and June 2015. First, the correlation
      between T2-relaxation time of normal placenta and gestational age (GA) was
      examined. Second, correlation between signal intensity ratios (SIRs) using HASTE
      imaging and placental T2-relaxation time were assessed. The SIRs were calculated
      using placental signal intensity (SI) relative to the SI of the amniotic fluid,
      fetal ocular globes, gastric fluid, bladder, maternal psoas major muscles, and
      abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue. Results Among the 37 patients, the
      correlation between T2-relaxation time of the 25 normal placentas and GA showed a
      moderately strong correlation (Spearman rho = -0.447, P = 0.0250). The most
      significant correlation with placental T2-relaxation time was observed with the
      placental SIR relative to the maternal psoas major muscles (SIRpl./psoas muscle)
      (Spearman rho = -0.531, P = 0.0007). Conclusion This study revealed that
      SIRpl./psoas muscle showed the best correlation to placental T2-relaxation time.
      Results show that SIRpl./psoas muscle might be optimal as a clinically available
      quantitative index of placental function.

PMID- 28862024
TI  - Differentiation of grade II and III oligodendrogliomas from grade II and III
      astrocytomas: a histogram analysis of perfusion parameters derived from dynamic
      contrast-enhanced (DCE) and dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI.
AB  - Background Since oligodendroglial tumors are sensitive to chemotherapy and have a
      better prognosis, the differentiation of oligodendroglial tumors (OT) from
      astrocytic tumors (AT) is important. Purpose To investigate the perfusion and
      permeability parameters that differentiate grade II and III OT from AT, using
      dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) and dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC)
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Material and Methods We retrospectively
      reviewed the DCE and DSC MRIs of 39 patients with OT (OTs, n = 19; grade II, n =
      12 and grade III, n = 7) and AT (ATs, n = 20; grade II, n = 7 and grade III, n =
      13). Glioblastomas were not included. Various histogram parameters of relative
      cerebral blood volume, volume transfer constant (Ktrans), flux rate constant
      (Kep), plasma volume fraction (Vp), and extravascular extracellular volume
      fraction (Ve) from DSC and DCE MRI, were compared between the two groups.
      Univariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to distinguish OT
      from AT. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed.
      Results On the results of DCE MRI, most of the histogram parameters of Ktrans,
      Kep, and Ve showed tendencies toward higher values in OT than AT. Multivariable
      logistic regression revealed that the 50th Kep and 95th Ktrans were the most
      significant parameters predictive of OT, with an odds ratio of 3.7 and 2.5,
      respectively ( P = 0.004 and 0.03). The area under the curve from the ROC curve
      analysis for the 50th Kep and the 95th Ktrans were 0.81 and 0.80, respectively.
      Conclusion The DCE MRI-derived parameters of Ktrans and Kep could facilitate
      differentiation of OT from AT.

PMID- 28862025
TI  - Freehand 3T MR-guided vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VAB): a five-year
      experience.
AB  - Background Magnetic resonance (MR) permits the detection of some malignant
      lesions that cannot be identified with mammography or ultrasonography. The
      characterization of these MR-only detectable lesions often requires a biopsy.
      Purpose To evaluate the technique, the feasibility and the accuracy of freehand
      3T MR-guided VAB for the characterization of suspicious, MR-only detectable
      lesions and to compare VAB results with surgical pathology and follow-up imaging
      results. Material and Methods During 2010-2015, 118 women who were referred for
      MR-guided VAB were retrospectively reviewed. All BI-RADS MR 4 and 5 lesions and
      some BI-RADS MR 3 lesions (according to clinical context and patient anxiety)
      were scheduled to undergo biopsy. Results A total of 123 suspicious lesions were
      retrospectively selected. Technical failures occurred in only two cases (1.6%)
      due to the location of the lesions. Histopathological results revealed 59 benign
      lesions (48%), 27 high-risk lesions (22%), and 35 malignant lesions (28.4%).
      Surgical pathology results led to the reclassification of eight B3 lesions: one
      proved to be a ductal carcinoma in situ, while seven presented with invasive
      features. B3 underestimation also occurred in 29% of the cases. MR follow-up was
      achieved for all the benign lesions and no false-negative cases were observed. No
      complications, 3T-related artefacts, or difficulties were observed. Conclusion
      Freehand 3T MR-guided VAB was found to be a valid, safe, fast, and inexpensive
      alternative to surgical histology.

PMID- 28862026
TI  - The Challenges of Collecting and Using Patient Care Data From Diverse Care
      Systems: Lessons From COMPASS.
AB  - The ability to aggregate clinical data across multiple diverse organizations and
      to use it for performance measurement, quality improvement, evaluation, and
      research is rapidly becoming a national necessity, but there are few examples of
      how to do that. This article uses lessons from a national effort to implement the
      collaborative care management model for patients with both depression and
      diabetes or heart disease across 8 partner organizations, 18 medical groups, and
      more than 170 clinics in 8 states to identify the challenges and provide
      experience-based recommendations for those tasks. The challenges are divided into
      those needed for (1) collecting similar data, (2) aggregating those data across
      care systems, and (3) using the data to both improve and evaluate care. Start
      with agreement on goals, methods, transparency, and a data system integrated into
      the electronic medical record while promptly addressing all the legal,
      regulatory, and human subject requirements.

PMID- 28862027
TI  - The Experience of Management of High-Alert Medications.

PMID- 28862030
TI  - Eliminating Critical Incident Tracking Network Patient Safety Events at a
      Veterans Affairs Institution Through Crew Resource Management Training.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determine whether rates of Critical Incident
      Tracking Network (CITN) patient safety adverse events change after implementation
      of crew resource management (CRM) training at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital.
      CRM training was conducted for all surgical staff at a VA hospital. Compliance
      with briefing and debriefing checklists was assessed for all operating room
      procedures. Tracking of adverse patient safety events utilizing the VA CITN
      events was performed. There was 100% adherence to performance of briefings and
      debriefings after initiation of CRM training. There were 3 CITN events in the
      year prior to implementation of CRM training; following CRM training, there have
      been zero CITN events. Following CRM training, CITN events were eliminated, and
      this has been sustained for 2.5 years. This is the first study to demonstrate the
      impact of CRM training on CITN events, specifically, in a VA medical center.

PMID- 28862031
TI  - Benefits of lifelong exercise training on left ventricular function after
      myocardial infarction.
AB  - Background Endurance exercise training induces cardio-protective effects, but
      athletes are not exempted from a myocardial infarction. Evidence from animal
      studies suggests that exercise training attenuates pathological left ventricular
      remodelling following myocardial infarction. We tested the hypothesis that
      lifelong exercise training is related to attenuated pathological left ventricular
      remodelling after myocardial infarction as evidenced by better left ventricular
      systolic function in veteran athletes compared to sedentary peers. Design This
      was a cross-sectional study. Methods Sixty-five males (60 +/- 6 years) were
      included and allocated to four groups based on lifelong exercise training
      volumes: (a) athletes ( n = 18), (b) post-myocardial infarction athletes
      (athletes + myocardial infarction, n = 20), (c) sedentary controls ( n = 13), and
      (d) post-myocardial infarction controls (sedentary controls + myocardial
      infarction, n = 14). Athletes were lifelong (>=20 years) highly physically active
      (>=30 metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-h/week), whereas sedentary controls did
      not meet the exercise guidelines (<10 MET-h/week) for the past 20 years. left
      ventricular systolic function, diastolic function and wall strain were measured
      using echocardiography. Results Cardiac enzyme markers (creatine-kinase,
      creatinine, aspartate transaminase and lactate dehydrogenase) following
      myocardial infarction and infarct location did not differ between athletes +
      myocardial infarction and sedentary controls + myocardial infarction. Left
      ventricular ejection fraction was significantly higher in athletes (61% +/- 4),
      athletes + myocardial infarction (58% +/- 4) and sedentary controls (57% +/- 6)
      compared to sedentary controls + myocardial infarction (51% +/- 7; p < 0.01).
      Left ventricular circumferential strain was superior in athletes (-19% (-21% to 
      17%), athletes + myocardial infarction (-16% (-20% to -12%)), and sedentary
      controls (-15% (-18% to -14%) compared to sedentary controls + myocardial
      infarction (-13% (-15% to -8%), p < 0.01). Diastolic function parameters did not
      differ across groups. Conclusion These findings suggest that lifelong exercise
      training may preserve left ventricular systolic function and possibly attenuates
      or minimises the deleterious effects of pathological post-myocardial infarction
      left ventricular remodelling in veteran athletes.

PMID- 28862032
TI  - Heparin pre-treatment in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
      and the risk of intracoronary thrombus and total vessel occlusion. Insights from
      the TASTE trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pre-treatment with unfractionated heparin is common in ST-segment
      elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) protocols, but the effect on
      intracoronary thrombus burden is unknown. We studied the effect of heparin pre
      treatment on intracoronary thrombus burden and Thrombolysis in Myocardial
      Infarction (TIMI) flow prior to percutaneous coronary intervention in patients
      with STEMI. METHODS: The Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction in Scandinavia (TASTE) trial angiographically assessed intracoronary
      thrombus burden and TIMI flow, prior to percutaneous coronary intervention, in
      patients with STEMI. In this observational sub-study, patients pre-treated with
      heparin were compared with patients not pre-treated with heparin. Primary end
      points were a visible intracoronary thrombus and total vessel occlusion prior to
      percutaneous coronary intervention. Secondary end points were in-hospital
      bleeding, in-hospital stroke and 30-day all-cause mortality. RESULTS: Heparin pre
      treatment was administered in 2898 out of 7144 patients (41.0%). Patients pre
      treated with heparin less often presented with an intracoronary thrombus (61.3%
      vs. 66.0%, p<0.001) and total vessel occlusion (62.9% vs. 71.6%, p<0.001). After
      adjustments, heparin pre-treatment was independently associated with a reduced
      risk of intracoronary thrombus (odds ratio (OR) 0.73, 95% confidence interval
      (CI)=0.65-0.83) and total vessel occlusion (OR 0.64, 95% CI=0.56-0.73), prior to
      percutaneous coronary intervention. There were no significant differences in
      secondary end points of in-hospital bleeding (OR 0.84, 95% CI=0.55-1.27), in
      hospital stroke (OR 1.17, 95% CI=0.48-2.82) or 30-day all-cause mortality (hazard
      ratio 0.88, 95% CI=0.60-1.30). CONCLUSIONS: Heparin pre-treatment was
      independently associated with a lower risk of intracoronary thrombus and total
      vessel occlusion before percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with
      STEMI, without evident safety concerns, in this large multi-centre observational
      study.

PMID- 28862033
TI  - Random Forest-Based Evaluation of Raman Spectroscopy for Dengue Fever Analysis.
AB  - This work presents the evaluation of Raman spectroscopy using random forest (RF)
      for the analysis of dengue fever in the infected human sera. A total of 100
      dengue suspected blood samples, collected from Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi,
      Pakistan, have been used in this study. Out of these samples, 45 were dengue
      positive based on immunoglobulin M (IgM) capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA) tests. For highlighting the spectral differences between normal and
      infected samples, an effective machine learning system is developed that
      automatically learns the pattern of the shift in spectrum for the dengue compared
      to normal cases and thus is able to predict the unknown class based on the known
      example. In this connection, dimensionality reduction has been performed with the
      principal component analysis (PCA), while RF is used for automatic classification
      of dengue samples. For the determination of diagnostic capabilities of Raman
      spectroscopy based on RF, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy have been
      calculated in comparison to normally performed IgM capture ELISA. According to
      the experiment, accuracy of 91%, sensitivity of 91%, and specificity of 91% were
      achieved for the proposed RF-based model.

PMID- 28862035
TI  - The Effect of Moderate Temperatures on Latent Fingerprint Chemistry.
AB  - The effect of moderate temperatures (25-75 C) on latent fingerprints over a five
      hour period was examined using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)
      microspectroscopy. The aim of the study was to detect changes in IR spectra due
      to any changes in fingerprint chemistry; these results were then compared to pure
      compounds found in sebum that was subjected to 75 C for 5 h. Latent fingerprints
      deposited on CaF2 microscope slides and placed on a Peltier pump heating stage
      showed that higher temperatures significantly reduced the quantity of sebaceous
      compounds after 5 h, whereas temperatures below 45 C had little effect on the
      quantity of these compounds over the same time period. Fourier transform infrared
      microspectroscopy allowed for the real-time detection of changes to the IR
      spectra and demonstrated an increase in the OH stretch band (3250 cm-1) over 5 h
      at all temperatures investigated, suggesting various oxidation processes were
      taking place. Pure samples analyzed included squalene, fatty acids, wax esters,
      and mixed triglycerides. Unsaturated lipids showed a similar increase in the OH
      stretch band to the latent fingerprints whereas saturated compounds showed no
      change over time. This information is required to better understand the effect of
      moderate temperatures on latent fingerprints and how these temperatures could
      affect aged print composition.

PMID- 28862036
TI  - Origin of Analyte-Induced Porous Silicon Photoluminescence Quenching.
AB  - We report on gaseous analyte-induced photoluminescence (PL) quenching of porous
      silicon, as-prepared (ap-pSi) and oxidized (ox-pSi). By using steady-state and
      emission wavelength-dependent time-resolved intensity luminescence measurements
      in concert with a global analysis scheme, we find that the analyte-induced
      quenching is best described by a three-component static quenching model. In the
      model, there are blue, green, and red emitters (associated with the
      nanocrystallite core and surface trap states) that each exhibit unique analyte
      emitter association constants and these association constants are a consequence
      of differences in the pSi surface chemistries.

PMID- 28862037
TI  - The Relationship Between Osteomyelitis Complication and Drug-Resistant Infection
      Risk in Diabetic Foot Ulcer: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between osteomyelitis
      complications and drug-resistant infection risk in diabetic foot ulcer. Searches
      of MEDLINE and ISI databases were performed for the studies. Odds ratios (ORs)
      for drug-resistant infection incidence were calculated for diabetic foot ulcer
      patients with or without osteomyelitis complications. Eleven studies (12 cohorts)
      with 1526 patients were included in this study. Meta-analysis showed that the
      summary OR was 3.343 (95% CI = 2.355-4.745; Z = 6.75, P < .00001) when compared
      with osteomyelitis group and without osteomyelitis group. Significant publication
      bias was found. Sensitivity analysis by only pooled the adjusted ORs showed that
      the result was robust (the summary OR = 4.081, 95% CI = 2.471-6.739). Subgroup
      analysis by drug-resistant type showed that the summary OR was 4.391 (95% CI =
      2.287-8.394) for methicillin-resistant infection subgroup, and 2.693 (95% CI =
      1.882-3.851) for multidrug-resistant infection subgroup. The meta-regression
      showed that drug-resistant incidence ( t = -0.90, P = .389) and published year (
      t = -0.11, P = .913) were not related with the OR changes. In conclusion, our
      meta-analysis indicates that osteomyelitis complications are related with drug
      resistant infection risk in diabetic foot ulcer. We suggest bone culture-based
      narrow-spectrum antibiotic therapy for osteomyelitis for prevention drug
      resistant infection in diabetic foot ulcer.

PMID- 28862038
TI  - Novel methods of self-poisoning: repeated cardenolide poisoning after accessing
      Cerbera odollam seeds via the internet.

PMID- 28862039
TI  - Application of the American society of clinical oncology frameworks to compare
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors used in first line treatment of metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma: had we solved the mystery?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The approval of multiple biological therapies as a first line
      treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) in the last decade have made
      the selection of the best treatment between these drugs, especially tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors (TKIs), a great challenge to oncologists and patients. The four
      TKIs recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines in this
      setting have a relatively similar mechanism of action and analogical adverse
      events. Areas covered: In this article, the two published American Society of
      Clinical Oncology frameworks are applied to calculate the net health benefits of
      the four TKIs used as the first line in mRCC and this was balanced against their
      monthly cost. The available clinical data that is present for each drug has been
      displayed and compared to the use of the ASCO frameworks. Expert commentary:
      There is an urgent need to develop a comprehensive model incorporating all
      relevant aspects of each drug together. Oncologists should consider all data
      available for the drugs in order to give the patients an informed opportunity to
      select the best drug fitting for them.

PMID- 28862040
TI  - Lymphoplasmacyte-Rich Meningioma With Atypical Angiomatous Feature and an
      Increased Deposition of IgG4-Positive Plasma Cells: An Unusual Case Report.
AB  - Lymphoplasmacyte-rich meningioma (LPRM) is an extremely rare variant of
      meningioma, and a small percentage of LPRM may be associated with IgG4-related
      disease. To date, the coexistence of 2 rare meningioma variants consisting of
      LPRM and angiomatous meningioma within one neoplasm has not been reported in the
      literature. A 56-year-old woman presented with episodes of frequent and severe
      epistaxis that began 4 months ago. Initial magnetic resonance imaging showed
      localized, heterogeneous, and intermediate to high signal lesion at the odontoid
      process and clivus. In subsequent magnetic resonance images, the mass grew to the
      posterior nasopharyngeal wall, and compression to the medulla, and a suspicious
      enhancement of both distal vertebral arteries became evident even though there
      was 3 times of partial resection over 17 years. The tumor showed regional and
      temporal heterogeneity, and atypical features such as mitoses and a high
      proliferative index were also identified in the area of angiomatous meningioma in
      addition to LPRM with an increased deposition of IgG4-positive plasma cells
      within the neoplasm.

PMID- 28862041
TI  - The use of free non-dementia-specific Apps on iPad to conduct group communication
      exercises for individuals with Alzheimer's disease (Innovative Practice).
AB  - This study examined the use of various iPad Apps to conduct group cognitive
      exercises for clients with mild or early stage dementia of Alzheimer's type. A
      list of free non-dementia-specific Apps suitable for group sessions was compiled.
      The procedures in choosing these Apps and determining the most successful ones
      for group exercises were discussed. Based on participants' and professionals'
      responses to the use of these Apps, the results would render practitioners useful
      guidelines in replicating and running technology-based training for individuals
      with dementia.

PMID- 28862042
TI  - The Component Timed-Up-and-Go test: the utility and psychometric properties of
      using a mobile application to determine prosthetic mobility in people with lower
      limb amputations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Using a custom mobile application to evaluate the reliability and
      validity of the Component Timed-Up-and-Go test to assess prosthetic mobility in
      people with lower limb amputation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional design. SETTING:
      National conference for people with limb loss. SUBJECTS: A total of 118 people
      with non-vascular cause of lower limb amputation participated. Subjects had a
      mean age of 48 (+/-13.7) years and were an average of 10 years post amputation.
      Of them, 54% ( n = 64) of subjects were male. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN MEASURE:
      The Component Timed-Up-and-Go was administered using a mobile iPad application,
      generating a total time to complete the test and five component times capturing
      each subtask (sit to stand transitions, linear gait, turning) of the standard
      timed-up-and-go test. The outcome underwent test-retest reliability using
      intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and convergent validity analyses
      through correlation with self-report measures of balance and mobility. RESULTS:
      The Component Timed-Up-and-Go exhibited excellent test-retest reliability with
      ICCs ranging from .98 to .86 for total and component times. Evidence of
      discriminative validity resulted from significant differences in mean total times
      between people with transtibial (10.1 (SD: +/-2.3)) and transfemoral (12.76 (SD:
      +/-5.1) amputation, as well as significant differences in all five component
      times ( P < .05). Convergent validity of the Component Timed-Up-and-Go was
      demonstrated through moderate correlations with the PLUS-M ( rs = -.56).
      CONCLUSION: The Component Timed-Up-and-Go is a reliable and valid clinical tool
      for detailed assessment of prosthetic mobility in people with non-vascular lower
      limb amputation. The iPad application provided a means to easily record data,
      contributing to clinical utility.

PMID- 28862043
TI  - Study of the Safety of Extracorporeal Cardiac Shock Wave Therapy: Observation of
      the Ultrastructures in Myocardial Cells by Transmission Electron Microscopy.
AB  - Extracorporeal cardiac shock wave therapy (CSWT) has been used to treat patients
      with severe coronary heart disease and cardiac failure with good results;
      however, the safety of this treatment is still controversial. Its safety in
      clinical setting and on microstructures has been confirmed, but the influence of
      shock wave on the ultrastructures of myocardial cells is not clear. In this
      study, 12 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control (NC) and CSWT
      therapy (NC+SW) groups. The heart rate, blood pressure, serum troponin I (TNI),
      and cardiac ultrasound were evaluated, and the myocardial inflammatory responses
      and fibrosis changes were compared. The samples were observed by transmission
      electron microscopy to evaluate the changes in myocardial tissue ultrastructure.
      The CSWT had no significant influence on rat hemodynamics indices and serum TNI,
      did not affect left ventricular function, and did not cause myocardial
      inflammatory response and fibrosis changes. The scores of myocardial
      ultrastructure damage in the NC and NC+SW groups were 1.39 +/- 0.982 and 2.42 +/-
      1.009, respectively ( P = .103). The CSWT did not cause significant additional
      damage to myocardial ultrastructures. The safety of CWST has been preliminarily
      proved at the clinical, microstructure, and ultrastructure levels, but its long
      term safety needs further exploration.

PMID- 28862044
TI  - Acute lamotrigine overdose: a systematic review of published adult and pediatric
      cases.
AB  - CONTEXT: Lamotrigine is a broad-spectrum anticonvulsant commonly used to treat
      seizure and bipolar mood disorders. Evidence from case series and retrospective
      studies indicate that lamotrigine overdose is usually benign. However, there are
      reported cases of cardiac arrest and mortality following lamotrigine overdose. We
      undertook a systematic review of the literature on lamotrigine overdoses to
      better understand the clinical severity, the relevance of serum concentrations,
      and therapeutic interventions for overdose. OBJECTIVES: To characterize
      manifestations of acute lamotrigine overdose, determine if serum concentrations
      predict poisoning severity, and evaluate the effectiveness of overdose management
      interventions. METHODS: We performed a literature search across eight databases,
      including Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, from database inception to
      April 2014. Major bibliographic databases were updated on 31 May 2017. Articles
      were eligible if they described acute or acute on chronic lamotrigine overdose.
      At least one serum lamotrigine concentration had to be reported for inclusion.
      Reports on chronic poisoning, studies describing adverse effects of therapeutic
      use, and animal studies were excluded. RESULTS: We retrieved 6238 records; 48 (51
      cases) met the inclusion criteria. Cases primarily involved adults (70.6%).
      Potentially life-threatening symptoms of overdose included seizures (55%),
      Glasgow Coma Scale <=8 (20%), hypotension (12%), and wide complex tachycardia
      (WCT) and cardiac arrest (6%). Among the 25 cases exposed to lamotrigine alone
      (13 adult; 12 pediatric), 2 adult fatalities occurred (4 g and 7.5 g ingested)
      and 8 pediatric cases experienced seizures (all children <=3.5-years-old, 75%
      without an underlying seizure disorder, >= 525 mg ingested). The lowest seizure
      associated serum concentration was 3.8 mg/L and 25.6 mg/L for pediatric and adult
      patients, respectively, suggesting children may be more susceptible to CNS
      toxicity. Cardiovascular toxicities occurred primarily in adult patients
      (threshold >25 mg/L). Overdose interventions included benzodiazepines (53%),
      propofol or barbiturates (14%), NaHCO3 (20%), lipid therapy (12%), and
      extracorporeal elimination (10%). NaHCO3 yielded no response in four of nine
      cases with conduction delays; however, two of the four cases subsequently
      responded with lipid therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Most cases reporting lamotrigine
      exposures observed mild or no toxicity; however, large exposures were associated
      with severe CNS depression, seizures, cardiac conduction delays, wide complex
      tachycardia, and death. In adults with a serum concentration >25 mg/L, severe
      toxicity may occur. In patients <=3.5 years of age, ingestions of >=525 mg may
      produce severe CNS depression and seizures.

PMID- 28862045
TI  - Developing a case mix classification for child and adolescent mental health
      services: the influence of presenting problems, complexity factors and service
      providers on number of appointments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Case-mix classification is a focus of international attention in
      considering how best to manage and fund services, by providing a basis for fairer
      comparison of resource utilization. Yet there is little evidence of the best ways
      to establish case mix for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
      AIM: To develop a case mix classification for CAMHS that is clinically meaningful
      and predictive of number of appointments attended and to investigate the
      influence of presenting problems, context and complexity factors and provider
      variation. METHOD: We analysed 4573 completed episodes of outpatient care from 11
      English CAMHS. Cluster analysis, regression trees and a conceptual classification
      based on clinical best practice guidelines were compared regarding their ability
      to predict number of appointments, using mixed effects negative binomial
      regression. RESULTS: The conceptual classification is clinically meaningful and
      did as well as data-driven classifications in accounting for number of
      appointments. There was little evidence for effects of complexity or context
      factors, with the possible exception of school attendance problems. Substantial
      variation in resource provision between providers was not explained well by case
      mix. CONCLUSION: The conceptually-derived classification merits further testing
      and development in the context of collaborative decision making.

PMID- 28862046
TI  - Glucose metabolism and metabolic flexibility in cultured skeletal muscle cells is
      related to exercise status in young male subjects.
AB  - We hypothesised that skeletal muscles of healthy young people have a large
      variation in oxidative capacity and fibre-type composition, and aimed therefore
      to investigate glucose metabolism in biopsies and myotubes isolated from musculus
      vastus lateralis from healthy males with varying degrees of maximal oxygen
      uptake. Trained and intermediary trained subjects showed higher carbohydrate
      oxidation in vivo. Fibre-type distribution in biopsies and myotubes did not
      differ between groups. There was no correlation between fibre-type I expression
      in biopsies and myotubes. Myotubes from trained had higher deoxyglucose
      accumulation and fractional glucose oxidation (glucose oxidation relative to
      glucose uptake), and were also more sensitive to the suppressive action of
      acutely added oleic acid to the cells. Despite lack of correlation of fibre types
      between skeletal muscle biopsies and cultured cells, myotubes from trained
      subjects retained some of their phenotypes in vitro with respect to enhanced
      glucose metabolism and metabolic flexibility.

PMID- 28862047
TI  - New surgical approaches for clinically high-risk or metastatic prostate cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A considerable number of individuals with prostate cancer (PCa)
      still harbor locally-advanced and metastatic disease. Although such men were
      initially not considered eligible for local treatment, the role of radical
      prostatectomy (RP) has been recently reassessed. Areas covered: This review
      analyses currently published evidences regarding new surgical approaches for
      clinically high-risk PCa individuals, as well as the role of cytoreductive
      surgery in the metastatic setting. The role of robot-assisted radical
      prostatectomy (RARP) and extended pelvic lymph node dissection will be evaluated
      with regards to perioperative, oncologic, as well as functional outcomes. Expert
      commentary: RARP is a feasible approach in PCa patients regardless of the
      presence of high-risk disease features and can achieve optimal short-term
      oncologic outcomes and acceptable short/intermediate-term functional outcomes,
      that are comparable to those reported for open RP. Extended pelvic lymph node
      dissection can be performed in this setting and should be recommended for all
      high-risk PCa patients. The overall rate of complications in contemporary men
      treated with RARP for high-risk disease is not negligible. Cytoreduction in the
      oligo-metastatic setting is feasible and relatively safe, although evidence is
      scarce to recommend its widespread adoption. In consequence, longer follow-up
      data and, ideally, randomized controlled trials are needed.

PMID- 28862048
TI  - A Precious Diagnostic "Pearl": The Necklace Pattern in Germ Cell Tumors of the
      Testis.
AB  - Diffuse embryoma is a rare pattern of nonseminomatous germ cell tumor of the
      testis originally described in 1983. We report a case with this predominant
      pattern in an 18-year-old male with a painless palpable testicular mass. Although
      it is relatively common to see a diffuse embryoma pattern focally in mixed
      nonseminomatous germ cell tumors of the testis, it is rarely the predominant
      pattern and can represent a diagnostic pitfall on routine hematoxylin and eosin
      stain. We emphasize the importance of recognizing the individual components
      within the diffuse embryoma pattern, review the literature, and briefly discuss
      the ancillary immunohistochemical stains that may be utilized to help support the
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28862049
TI  - Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma, Intra-alveolar Variant: A Rare Entity Mimicking
      Desquamative Interstitial Pneumonia.
AB  - Exclusive discohesive tumor cells within intra-alveolar spaces is a rare pattern
      of involvement of primary and metastatic lung tumors. In the absence of a tumoral
      mass, this pattern closely mimics desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP)
      clinically, radiologically, and histologically. However, a secondary DIP pattern
      may be seen adjacent to a tumor mass not infrequently. Here, we describe a case
      of a 64-year-old woman status post bilateral lung transplantation, who was
      radiologically thought to have an interstitial lung disease. The autopsy lung
      specimen revealed extensive involvement by intra-alveolar adenocarcinoma, with a
      cytomorphology mimicking alveolar macrophages as seen in DIP in the absence of a
      tumoral mass. The presence of subtle clustering with signet ring cell features
      and rare micropapillae were an important clue to the diagnosis. The tumor cells
      were positive for CK7, napsin-A, and TTF-1, and negative for CD68. This case
      represents an unusual variant of pulmonary adenocarcinoma with a pure intra
      alveolar pattern of involvement, mimicking DIP. To the best of our knowledge,
      excluding biopsy specimens, only one similar case has been reported in the
      literature and none in the posttransplant setting.

PMID- 28862050
TI  - Synthetic cannabinoid "Black Mamba" infidelity in patients presenting for
      emergency stabilization in Colorado: a P SCAN Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) has increased over the last
      decade. During this period, variability of both clinical presentations and
      chemical compositions of these compounds has increased. Synthetic cannabinoids
      (SCs) are the most commonly used NPS and there are more than 100 documented
      unique molecules in this class. "Black Mamba", often associated to ADB-FUBINACA,
      is the most commonly used SC in Colorado. It has been linked to kidney injury,
      myocardial toxicity, seizures, and death. OBJECTIVES: We aim to identify the
      chemical constituents and quantification of eight cases of reported "Black Mamba"
      use in order to further understand the clinical variability in patients
      presenting for emergency stabilization. METHODS: We report data from eight cases
      of reported "Black Mamba" use prospectively captured through the Colorado site of
      the Psychoactive Surveilance Consortium and Analysis Network (P SCAN). P SCAN is
      a geographically representative group of academic hospitals that capture clinical
      presentation, outcome, and biologic samples from patients that present for
      emergency stabilization following NPS use. Serum and urine samples were analyzed
      and quantified by liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry after a qualitative screen for over 600 unique NPS compounds.
      RESULTS: In the reported eight cases, the median age was 28 years old. There were
      four male and four females. Four patients had agitation/delirium and four
      patients had chest pain. Normal saline, benzodiazepines and ondansetron were the
      common treatment provided in the emergency department (ED). Two patients were
      discharged from the ED and six patients being admitted for emergency observation
      with a median length of stay (LOS) of six hours. No deaths were reported.
      Confirmatory testing revealed that only five patients (62.5%) had SCs found in
      blood or urine samples. Cocaine, NRG-3, 3-methoxyphencyclidine hydrochloride (MeO
      PCP), and methamfetamine were identified in other presentations. CONCLUSIONS: The
      wide range of clinical presentations from "Black Mamba" use may be explained by
      the wide variability of chemical constituents found by laboratory analysis.

PMID- 28862051
TI  - The projected public health and economic impact of vitamin D fortified dairy
      products for fracture prevention in France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of research that projects the public health and
      economic impact of healthcare interventions in the future. In this study, we
      aimed to estimate the public health and economic impact of vitamin D fortified
      dairy products for the years 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050 and 2060. METHODS: We used a
      previously validated Markov microsimulation model that was designed to assess the
      public health and economic impact of dairy products for fracture prevention in
      the French general population aged over 60 years in the year 2015. RESULTS: The
      expected benefit (in terms of fractures prevented) of the recommended intake of
      dairy products compared to the absence of appropriate intake is expected to
      increase by 63% in 2040 and by 85% in 2060. The cost per quality-adjusted life
      years gained of the appropriate intake of dairy products is expected to decrease
      from ?58,244 in 2015 to ?42,616 in 2060. CONCLUSION: The potential public health
      and economic benefits of vitamin D fortified dairy products is expected to
      substantially increase in the future, especially in the population aged over 80
      years. Decision makers should be aware of the current and future potential
      benefits of dairy products to protect bone fractures.

PMID- 28862052
TI  - Proteomic analysis of mitochondria: biological and clinical progresses in cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mitochondria play important roles in regulating multiple biological
      processes and signalling pathways in eukaryotic cells, and mitochondrial
      dysfunction may result in a wide range of serious diseases, including cancer.
      With improvements in the identification of mitochondrial proteins, mitochondrial
      proteomics has made great achievements. In particular, this approach has been
      widely used to compare tumour cells at different stages of malignancy. Therefore,
      there is an urgent need to identify and characterize the function of
      mitochondrial proteins in cancer progression and to determine the involved
      mechanisms. Areas covered: We provide an overview of recent progress related to
      mitochondrial proteomics in cancer and the application of comparative
      mitochondrial proteomics in various biological processes, including apoptosis,
      necroptosis, autophagy and metastasis, as well as clinical progress in cancer.
      Proteomics-related reports were found using PubMed and Google Scholar databases.
      Expert commentary: Understanding both post-translational modification and post
      translational processing is important in the comprehensive characterization of
      protein function. The application of comparative mitochondrial proteomics to
      investigate clinical samples and cancer cells will contribute to our
      understanding of the molecular interplay of mitochondrial proteins in the
      development of cancer. This approach will mine more biomarkers for diagnosis and
      prognosis and improve therapeutic outcomes among cancer patients.

PMID- 28862053
TI  - Turning the spotlight on lasers.

PMID- 28862054
TI  - Lysosomal targeting strategies for design and delivery of bioactive for
      therapeutic interventions.
AB  - Lysosomes are of particular interest for the design and delivery of pH-dependent
      pro-drugs, enhancing selectivity and developing strategies to inhibit drug
      degradation inside the cells. There is great potential to bring intracellular
      drug delivery and distribution using nanotherapeutic approaches to target
      lysosomes for therapeutic interventions. Lysosomal targeting strategies involve
      two contrasting facets. One aspect is to directly target therapeutics to the
      lysosome through receptor-mediated endocytosis and the other facet involves
      strategies, which ensure escape from the lysosome in order to prevent their
      degradation, so that therapeutics may remain intact and available in the cytosol
      for their further action. It provides a unique opportunity to explore novel
      treatment strategies and design future drugs for the effective treatment of
      lysosome-related diseases especially lysosomal storage disorders (LSD), cancer,
      inflammatory, neurodegenerative conditions (Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and
      Huntington's diseases) and autoimmune diseases. In this review, we illustrate the
      fundamentals of membrane trafficking, subcellular organisation, strategies to
      target lysosomes and its implications for the advance design of efficient drug
      delivery vectors for safe and effective therapies.

PMID- 28862055
TI  - Elastotic Lesions of Intestinal Subserosal Fat: Report of Two Cases.
AB  - We report 2 unusual elastotic lesions of intestinal subserosal fat. The first
      arose in the small bowel subserosa of a 64-year-old woman with volvulus. It was
      undetected macroscopically and consisted of a relatively circumscribed focus of
      elastosis, with essentially no evidence of fibrosis or blood vessel walls within.
      The second arose in the subserosa of the sigmoid colon in a 46-year-old woman
      with recurrent diverticulitis. It was also undetected macroscopically and
      consisted of a well-circumscribed nodule of elastic fibers surrounding prominent
      veins and arteries. Both patients had unremarkable postoperative courses. These
      lesions likely represent localized response to injury and are probably
      underrecognized.

PMID- 28862056
TI  - The Use of Engineered Bilayered Skin (MyDermTM) in the Management of Massive Skin
      Defect in Grade III Gustilo-Anderson Open Fracture.
AB  - Open fracture Gustilo-Anderson grade IIIC is associated with higher risk of
      infection and problems with soft tissue coverage. Various methods have been used
      for soft tissue coverage in open fractures with large skin defect. We report a
      case of a patient who had grade IIIC open fracture of the tibia with posterior
      tibial artery injury. The patient underwent external fixation and reduction.
      Because of potential compartment syndrome after vascular repair, fasciotomy of
      the posterior compartment was performed. This wound, however, became infected and
      because of further debridement, gave rise to a large skin defect. A tissue
      engineered skin construct, MyDermTM was employed to cover this large defect.
      Complete wound closure was achieved 35 days postimplantation. The patient then
      underwent plating of the tibia for nonunion with no adverse effect to the grafted
      site. The tibia eventually healed 5 months postplating, and the cosmetic
      appearance of the newly formed skin was satisfactory.

PMID- 28862057
TI  - Biological characteristics of Edgeworthia tomentosa (Thunb.) Nakai flowers and
      antimicrobial properties of their essential oils.
AB  - Edgeworthia tomentosa (Thunb.) Nakai belongs to Thymelaeaceae family, its
      alabastrum is used as the traditional Chinese medicine 'Buddleja Officinalis
      Maxim'. The present study was to elucidate the ultrastructure characteristics of
      the flower, the phytochemical composition of the aroma essential oils (EOs) and
      the relevant antimicrobial properties. There were exclusive characters of calyx,
      ovule, anther and pollen grain of the flowers under scanning electron microscopy.
      A total of 40 phytochemical components representing 98% of the EOs were
      successfully identified: monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes were the dominant
      terpenoids according to Kovats retention index and MS database. EOs exhibited a
      broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative
      bacteria, the best bacteriostatic effect was against Diplococcus pneumonia with
      MIC and MBC values ranging between 7.8 and 62.5 and 26.0-71.0 MUg/mL,
      respectively. These results demonstrate that the surface microscopic
      morphological characteristics of Edgeworthia chrysantha Lindl. flowers, are full
      scale chemical composition and antimicrobial properties of the EOs.

PMID- 28862058
TI  - A new cyclic dipeptide from cultures of Coprinus plicatilis.
AB  - Three cyclic dipeptides (1-3), including one new compound (1) were isolated from
      cultures of the basidiomycetes Coprinus plicatilis. Their structures were
      elucidated by spectroscopic methods, including extensive 2D NMR techniques. At
      the same time, all compounds were tested for their cytotoxicities against five
      human cancer cell lines.

PMID- 28862059
TI  - Monitoring a municipal wastewater treatment process using a trend analysis.
AB  - New monitoring methods are required to enhance the operation of a wastewater
      treatment process and to meet the constantly tightening regulations for the
      effluent discharges. An on-line optical monitoring device, that analyses the
      morphological parameters of the flocs, has been shown to be a potential tool for
      assessing the wastewater quality and the state of the activated sludge process.
      In this paper, the earlier presented trend analysis method is applied to the
      operating conditions, the treatment results and the optical monitoring variables
      of a full-scale biological wastewater treatment process. The trend episodes and
      the deviation indices resulted from the trend analysis provide warning of the
      changes in the monitored variables and the received information can be used as
      assistance in the treatment process operation and avoiding harmful environmental
      risks.

PMID- 28862060
TI  - Best-worst scaling to assess the most important barriers and facilitators for the
      use of health technology assessment in Austria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is increasingly used to
      support evidence-based decision-making in health care, several barriers and
      facilitators for the use of HTA have been identified. This best-worst scaling
      (BWS) study aims to assess the relative importance of selected barriers and
      facilitators of the uptake of HTA studies in Austria. METHODS: A BWS object case
      survey was conducted among 37 experts in Austria to assess the relative
      importance of HTA barriers and facilitators. Hierarchical Bayes estimation was
      applied, with the best-worst count analysis as sensitivity analysis. Subgroup
      analyses were also performed on professional role and HTA experience. RESULTS:
      The most important barriers were 'lack of transparency in the decision-making
      process', 'fragmentation', 'absence of appropriate incentives', 'no explicit
      framework for decision-making process', and 'insufficient legal support'. The
      most important facilitators were 'transparency in the decision-making process',
      'availability of relevant HTA research for policy makers', 'availability of
      explicit framework for decision-making process', 'sufficient legal support', and
      'appropriate incentives'. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that HTA barriers and
      facilitators related to the context of decision makers, especially 'policy
      characteristics' and 'organization and resources' are the most important in
      Austria. A transparent and participatory decision-making process could improve
      the adoption of HTA evidence.

PMID- 28862061
TI  - Pulmonary Metastasis of Undifferentiated Uterine Sarcoma Forming Fluid-Containing
      Cyst.
AB  - Undifferentiated uterine sarcoma (UUS) is a high-grade sarcoma with no specific
      differentiation; however, it exhibits variable positivity for CD10 as an
      immunohistochemical marker of endometrial stroma, suggesting immunohistochemical
      differentiation into endometrial stroma. It has been reported that some low-grade
      endometrial stromal sarcoma pulmonary metastatic foci show cystic changes;
      however, whether pulmonary metastatic UUS foci are solid or cystic remains
      undescribed. A 63-year-old woman underwent a hysterectomy. The subsequent
      pathologic diagnosis was UUS. After the operation, she was treated with
      chemotherapy; however, pulmonary solitary shadow was radiologically detected.
      Eight months after the gynecologic operation, her pulmonary lesion was surgically
      resected. Pathologically, the lesion consisted of a cyst containing serous fluid
      with thick whitish wall composed of tumor cells, which led to the diagnosis of
      metastatsis of UUS. The cyst seemed to be formed via secondary degeneration. She
      remains healthy without recurrence 28 months after her first visit to our
      hospital.

PMID- 28862062
TI  - Methyl-cellulose powder for prevention and management of nasal symptoms.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: HPMC-p, an inert micronized powder form of hydroxy-propyl-methyl
      cellulose, when insufflated nasally, provides a natural barrier against pollen
      allergens and noxious agents. This overview assesses the efficacy and safety of
      this patented powder product and delivery system without an analogue among the
      cellulose derivatives. Areas covered: Twenty-six studies with HPMC-p were
      critically appraised to obtain an updated characteristic of the product. Most
      studies assessed the efficacy of HPMC-p as a nasal barrier enforcing measure: one
      experimental setup evaluated its ability to prevent or delay the diffusion of
      allergen through it, two clinical studies used allergen provocation tests, and
      the remaining relied on clinical criteria in open real world or placebo
      controlled designs. Two studies checked if HPMC-p could enhance the efficacy of
      drugs applied nasally to treat local symptoms. The studies, using either nasal
      allergen challenge or natural exposure of patients to environmental allergen,
      support the hypothesis that HPMC-p possesses barrier enforcing properties. Also,
      acute and clinical experiments indicated that intra-nasal application of HPMC-p
      following local relief medications enhances their ability to suppress symptoms
      and reduces their long-term use. Expert commentary: Nasal insufflation of HPMC-p
      provides a mucosal barrier, reducing the nasal symptoms and enhancing the effects
      of local relief medications.

PMID- 28862063
TI  - The safety of edoxaban for treating atrial fibrillation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Atrial Fibrillation (AF) has a worldwide increasing incidence and
      prevalence, putting patients at risk for atrial thrombus formation and
      consecutive thromboembolic events. Morbidity and mortality have become a
      significant global public health care burden. Thus, there is increasing need for
      safe and effective medical prophylaxis of thromboembolic events. Edoxaban is the
      fourth approved non-vitamin K oral anticoagulant (NOAC) that has been introduced
      into the market for the prophylaxis of stroke or systemic embolism in non
      valvular AF patients after dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban. The pivotal
      phase III clinical trial evaluating safety and efficacy of edoxaban included more
      than 21,000 patients. Areas covered: The aim of this expert opinion drug safety
      review is to introduce edoxaban as a compound, to discuss its development, and
      its pharmacologic properties. Furthermore, efficacy and safety data of edoxaban -
      with emphasis on a comparison to oral anticoagulation with warfarin and the other
      currently available NOACs - are discussed. Ongoing studies that further evaluate
      edoxaban in special patient populations and disease entities are summarized.
      Expert opinion: Concerning safety and efficacy, medical compliance, adherence and
      concomitant diseases like renal impairment are of utmost importance in daily
      clinical practice, why in the expert opinion part of this review emphasis is put
      on that issue.

PMID- 28862064
TI  - Time and change in health care.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the dimensions of temporality
      that are rarely considered in the literature on leading change.
      Design/methodology/approach The analysis is informed by Adams' (1995) social
      theory of time encompassing temporality, timing and tempo. This will illustrate
      the complexities of time as they relate to the individual, teams and
      organisation. Findings This paper demonstrates the multidimensional nature of
      time: temporality, timing and tempo, and how each of these can contribute to our
      understanding of the temporal nature and complexity of change within the health
      system. A framework to inform much-needed research in the area of time and change
      is presented. Practical implications Challenging assumptions that there is only
      one common time, that is clock time, can provide opportunities for further
      discussion and understanding of how various people view time and the influence
      this has on leading and participating in change in health care. Originality/value
      There is limited literature on the temporal dimensions of change at an
      organisational, team and individual level. The perspective offered in this paper
      presents the multidimensional nature of time and the influence this has on
      understanding the temporal nature of change and critically identifies some key
      areas for future research.

PMID- 28862065
TI  - Adiposity, but not Obesity, Is Associated With Arterial Stiffness in Young
      Nulliparous Women.
AB  - Subclinical vascular dysfunction is increasingly recognized as an independent
      risk factor for cardiovascular events and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The
      evidence linking indices of obesity and vascular dysfunction is mixed. As an
      example, some data suggest that adiposity may be a better predictor of
      endothelial dysfunction than body mass index (BMI). The aim of the current study
      is to compare the association of obesity, as evaluated by BMI, and a direct
      measure of body fat to biophysical parameters of vascular function including flow
      mediated vasodilation and pulse wave velocity (PWV) in healthy nulliparous
      reproductive-age women. This is a secondary analysis of data collected as a
      prospective study of prepregnancy physiology in healthy, nulliparous women. Body
      mass index was calculated as weight (kg)/height (m2). Total and android body fat
      were calculated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Brachial PWV and flow
      mediated vasodilation were assessed ultrasonographically. Seventy-nine women were
      evaluated. Mean BMI was 24.4 (5.4) kg/m2, and 15% of women were obese (BMI >= 30
      kg/m2). In contrast, 39% were considered to have excess adiposity, with >=39%
      android body fat. Brachial PWV was associated with increased adiposity, but not
      obesity. We found no differences in flow-mediated dilation associated with either
      BMI or body fat. Adiposity may be superior to BMI in identifying women with
      vascular dysfunction at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome and
      cardiovascular disease. Proper identification may allow implementation of
      prevention strategies to improve perinatal outcomes and maternal health.

PMID- 28862066
TI  - Solitary Neurofibroma of the Breast, and "The Man From Istanbul" Syndrome.

PMID- 28862067
TI  - Pushing the envelope: a treat and repair strategy for patients with advanced
      pulmonary hypertension associated with congenital heart disease.
AB  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a frequent complication of congenital
      heart disease as a consequence of altered pulmonary hemodynamics with increased
      pulmonary blood flow and pressure. The development of pulmonary vascular disease
      (PVD) in this patient population is an important concern in determining operative
      strategy. Early, definitive surgical repair, when possible, is the best therapy
      to prevent and treat PVD. However, this is not possible in some patients because
      they either presented late, after the development of PVD, or they have complex
      lesions not amenable to one-step surgical correction, including patients with
      single ventricle physiology, who have a continuing risk of developing PVD. These
      patients represent an important, high-risk subgroup and many have been considered
      inoperable. We present a case series of two patients with complex congenital
      heart disease and advanced PVD who successfully underwent a treat and repair
      strategy with aggressive PAH therapies before surgical correction. Both patients
      had normalization of pulmonary vascular resistance prior to surgical correction.
      Caution is warranted in applying this strategy broadly and long-term follow-up
      for these patients is crucial. However, this treat and repair strategy may allow
      for favorable outcomes among some patients who previously had no therapeutic
      options.

PMID- 28862068
TI  - Novel transparent collagen film patch derived from duck's feet for tympanic
      membrane perforation.
AB  - To increase healing rate of tympanic membrane (TM) perforations, patching
      procedure has been commonly conducted. Biocompatible, biodegradable patching
      materials which is not limited across cultures is needed. The authors evaluated
      the effectiveness of novel transparent duck's feet collagen film (DCF) patch in
      acute traumatic TM perforation. This procedure was compared with spontaneous
      healing and paper patching. Cell proliferation features were observed in paper
      and DCF patches. Forty-eight TMs of 24 rats were used for animal experiment,
      perforations were made on each TMs, and divided into three groups according to
      treatment modality. Sixteen were spontaneously healed, 16 were paper patched and
      16 were DCF patched. The gross and histological healing results were analyzed.
      Both paper and DCF patch showed no cytotoxicity, but cell proliferations were
      more active in DCF than paper in early stage. In animal study, the healing of TM
      perforations were completed within 14 days in all three groups, but found to be
      faster in DCF patch group than paper patch or spontaneous healing group. The DCF
      patches were transparent and size of DCF patches were gradually decreased, so
      there were no need to remove the DCF patches to check the wound status or after
      the completion of healing. According to this result, authors concluded that DCF
      patch is transparent, biocompatible and biodegradable material, and can induce
      fast healing in acute traumatic TM perforations.

PMID- 28862069
TI  - Patient-related risk factors for requiring surgical intervention following a
      failed injection for the treatment of medial and lateral epicondylitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To identify risk factors for failure of a therapeutic injection
      leading to operative management of both medial and lateral epicondylitis.
      METHODS: A national database was used to query Medicare Standard Analytic Files
      from 2005-2012 for patients treated with therapeutic injections for medial or
      lateral epicondylitis using CPT codes for injections associated with
      corresponding ICD-9 diagnostic codes (726.31 and 726.32, respectively). Those who
      subsequently underwent surgical treatment following injection were identified. A
      multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis was utilized to evaluate
      patient-related risk factors for requiring surgery within 2 years after
      therapeutic injection. RESULTS: 1,837 patients received therapeutic injections
      for medial epicondylitis. 52 (2.8%) required ipsilateral surgery at a mean of 429
      +/- 28 days post-injection. Risk factors for requiring surgical intervention
      included age <65, obesity, and morbid obesity. 6,561 patients received
      therapeutic injections for lateral epicondylitis. 201 (3.1%) required subsequent
      surgery at a mean of 383 +/- 128 days' post-injection. Risk factors included age
      <65, tobacco use, diabetes mellitus and peripheral vascular disease. CONCLUSION:
      The incidence of surgical intervention following a failed therapeutic injection
      for medial or lateral epicondylitis is low (~3%). Risk factors for failing a
      therapeutic injection include age <65 years and obesity (BMI > 30) for medial
      epicondylitis and age <65 years, smoking, diabetes mellitus and peripheral
      vascular disease for lateral epicondylitis. Patients with these identified risk
      factors presenting with medial or lateral epicondylitis should be cautioned that
      they carry a higher risk of subsequent surgical treatment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Therapeutic, III.

PMID- 28862070
TI  - Comparative study on turbulence models simulating inorganic particle removal in a
      Pista grit chamber.
AB  - Numerical simulations and experimental validations were conducted to determine
      grit removal efficiency and separation processes for inorganic suspended solids
      (ISS) with different particle sizes in a vortex-type grit chamber (Pista). The
      Euler-Lagrange method was used to simulate solid-liquid two-phase flow; the
      Unsteady Discrete Model was used to simulate the solid phase; and the
      Renormalization Group k-epsilon (RNG k-epsilon), Realizable k-epsilon (Real k
      epsilon), and Shear Stress Transmission k-omega (SST k-omega) models were used to
      simulate the liquid phase. Results of the RNG k-epsilon model agreed well with
      the experimental results for particles with d <= 200 um, with an average error of
      7.10% (d < 100 um) and 6.78% (100 um <= d <= 200 um). When particle size exceeded
      200 um, the Real k-epsilon model had the minimum average error (4.16%). Bed load
      transport and suspended load transport of the different size ISS particles
      presented in the grit chamber were important factors influencing grit removal
      efficiency. Pressure gradient and turbulence intensity distributions simulated by
      the three turbulence models were significantly different. Particles with diverse
      sizes reacted distinctly to the disturbance effect caused by pressure difference,
      which impacted on the accuracy and reliability of simulation results.

PMID- 28862071
TI  - Work environment investments: outcomes from three cases.
AB  - Work environment investments are important in order to create a healthy and safe
      workplace. This article presents findings from a seven-step interventions process
      aimed at examining and following-up work environment investments in small and
      medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on air contaminants.
      Three different cases were analyzed and included in the study: (a) an educational
      center for welding; (b) a paint station in furniture manufacturing; (c) a joinery
      in furniture manufacturing. The results show that the work environment
      investments were highly appreciated by the employees and managers, but at the
      same time the investment could be optimized through markedly decreased exposure
      levels for the worker. Factors such as follow-ups of the investment, education
      and training in how to use the equipment, worker involvement in the process and
      leadership engagement are important in order to optimize work environment
      investments.

PMID- 28862072
TI  - Intranasal delivery of tapentadol hydrochloride-loaded chitosan nanoparticles:
      formulation, characterisation and its in vivo evaluation.
AB  - The aim of the present investigation was to formulate tapentadol hydrochloride
      loaded chitosan nanoparticles (CS-NPs) for nose to brain delivery. Chitosan
      nanoparticles were prepared using ionotropic gelation technique. Optimisation of
      the formulation and process parameters was done using Box-Behnken Design. The
      entrapment efficiency, drug loading, Z-average size and zeta potential of the
      optimised batch were 63.49 +/- 1.61%, 17.25 +/- 1.38%w/w, 201.2 +/- 1.5 nm and
      +49.3 mV, respectively. In-vitro release study showed 84.04 +/- 1.53% drug
      release after 28 h, while ex vivo studies indicated higher permeation of CS-NPs
      through nasal mucosa. The nanoparticles exhibited good mucoadhesiveness,
      haemocompatibility and safety as evidenced by histopathology. The results of the
      pharmacodynamic study revealed prolongation of the analgesic activity. The
      intranasal instillation of CS-NPs resulted in the higher concentrations in brain
      compared to the drug solution and intravenous administration of CS-NPs. In a
      nutshell, intranasal administration of tapentadol hydrochloride-loaded CS-NPs is
      a promising approach for effective pain management.

PMID- 28862073
TI  - Mental health risks and stressors faced by urban refugees: Perceived impacts of
      war and community adversities among Somali refugees in Nairobi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a gap in understanding of refugee mental health risks unique
      to urban areas of low-income countries. MATERIAL: A qualitative rapid appraisal
      using focus group interviews with community stakeholders explored main stressors
      pervasive by Somali refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. DISCUSSION: This study identified
      the intersection of war trauma and daily stressors that affect both functional
      and structural challenges and risk of mental health issues among Somali urban
      refugees. CONCLUSION: Findings underscore the importance of understanding mental
      health in the broader context of community adversities, suggesting development of
      contextually informed interventions responsive to complex needs of urban
      refugees.

PMID- 28862074
TI  - The regulatory effects of L. plantarum peptidoglycan microspheres on innate and
      humoral immunity in mouse.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of Lactobacillus Plantarum cell wall
      peptidoglycan (LPG) microspheres on mouse intestinal flora changes, peptidoglycan
      recognitions protein (PGRP) and cytokines expression levels. METHOD: Plate
      counting was used for enumeration of the intestinal flora. Real-time PCR was used
      for quantification PGRP in different tissues. Cytokines content were determined
      by ELISA kits. RESULT: The mouse administered orally with LPG microspheres showed
      significantly higher number of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in caecum
      contents (p < 0.01). The amount of PGRP expression in different organs was
      highest in LPG microspheres-treated group. IL-4, 12, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha
      contents in serum from LPG microspheres-treated mouse were significantly higher
      than those in normal saline-treated group (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      shows that the LPG microspheres can regulate intestinal flora imbalance and
      improve systemic immunity, improve both Th1 and Th2 immune response, which
      provide some basis for the use of LPG as potential adjuvants.

PMID- 28862075
TI  - Shedding light on designing potential meprin beta inhibitors through ligand-based
      robust validated computational approaches: A proposal to chemists!
AB  - Human meprin (EC 3.4.24.18) is a member of the metzincin superfamily. It
      correlates with matrix metalloproteinases and ADAMs (a disintegrin and
      metalloproteinase). Overexpression of meprin beta is implicated in fibrosis,
      inflammatory diseases and cancers. However, selective meprin beta inhibition is
      crucial to reduce cancer metastasis and adverse effects in inflammation. It also
      plays critical roles in modulating several interleukins and growth factors.
      Moreover, meprin beta cleaves amyloid precursor protein, thought to be involved
      in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, meprin beta inhibitors are
      considered to be emerging therapeutics with paramount importance in the treatment
      of kidney failure, fibrosis, inflammatory bowel diseases and cancer. Despite its
      crucial implication in several diseases, no meprin beta inhibitors are available
      as drug candidates till date. Therefore, it is an urgent need to identify new
      potential meprin beta inhibitors as prospective therapeutics. In this article, a
      series of meprin beta inhibitors has been analysed through multiple molecular
      modelling studies as the first initiative to get an idea about their structural,
      physicochemical and pharmacophoric requirements for higher activity. All in
      silico approaches performed here are statistically validated and subsequently
      adjudicated each other. Compounds with p-carboxylic acid substituted
      arylsulphonamide moiety attached with m-carboxylic acid substituted benzyl group
      along with a methylene hydroxamate function may be crucial for imparting
      potential meprin beta inhibition. Depending on the results obtained, 14 molecules
      have been proposed by QSAR model that predicted a minimum of 4-fold higher
      activity compared to these compounds of the current study.

PMID- 28862076
TI  - Timing the Microbes: The Circadian Rhythm of the Gut Microbiome.
AB  - The mammalian circadian clock system, which includes the master clock and
      peripheral clocks, times different biological processes in reaction to external
      cues, such as the light-dark cycle. However, the chronobiology of prokaryotic
      cells is less well understood, except for in cyanobacteria. The recent blooming
      of gut microbiome research has revealed a critical role for the trillions of
      microbes residing in the vertebrate gut in determining both health and disease in
      the host. The question of whether the gut microbiome exhibits circadian
      oscillation and how it synchronizes with the host circadian clock has attracted
      considerable interest. In this review, we discuss the time-of-day-dependent
      compositional and functional structure within the gut microbial community, how it
      is regulated by the host, and how it reciprocally influences the host circadian
      clock.

PMID- 28862077
TI  - Disinfection of Mycobacterium avium subspecies hominissuis in drinking tap water
      using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.
AB  - Nontuberculous mycobacteria are resistant to conventional water treatments, and
      are opportunistic human pathogen, particularly in hospitalized patients. The aim
      of this investigation was to assess the effectiveness of an ultraviolet UV-C lamp
      treatment against Mycobacterium avium subspecies hominissuis in drinking tap
      water. Ultraviolet treatments (0-192 mJ/cm2) were performed using UV lamp
      immerged onto cylindrical glass tubes containing artificially contaminated water.
      The results showed that susceptibility to UV varied considerably according to the
      strains and the diameter of the tube. With a dose of 32 mJ/cm2, a significant
      inactivation (p < .05) of 3 log (99.9%) or more was obtained in only 5 of the 14
      strains. To obtain a complete inactivation of all strains an irradiation of 192
      mJ/cm2 was needed, a dose that is much higher than the limits recommended by the
      international standards for UV disinfection of drinking water. In conclusion, it
      may be difficult to standardize a UV dose for the elimination of waterborne
      mycobacteria.

PMID- 28862078
TI  - Emotion regulation choice: the role of environmental affordances.
AB  - Which emotion regulation strategy one uses in a given context can have profound
      affective, cognitive, and social consequences. It is therefore important to
      understand the determinants of emotion regulation choice. Many prior studies have
      examined person-specific, internal determinants of emotion regulation choice.
      Recently, it has become clear that external variables that are properties of the
      stimulus can also influence emotion regulation choice. In the present research,
      we consider whether reappraisal affordances, defined as the opportunities for re
      interpretation of a stimulus that are inherent in that stimulus, can shape
      individuals' emotion regulation choices. We show that reappraisal affordances
      have stability across people and across time (Study 1), and are confounded with
      emotional intensity for a standardised set of picture stimuli (Study 2). Since
      emotional intensity has been shown to drive emotion regulation choice, we
      construct a context in which emotional intensity is separable from reappraisal
      affordances (Study 3) and use this context to show that reappraisal affordances
      powerfully influence emotion regulation choice even when emotional intensity and
      discrete emotions are taken into account (Study 4).

PMID- 28862079
TI  - Sense of community, organizational commitment and quality of services.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how factors associated with a
      sense of community in the workplace are connected with organizational commitment
      and the quality of services among frontline managers and middle managers in
      social and health care services in Finland. Design/methodology/approach A
      questionnaire designed specifically for this research was sent to 241 lower-level
      and middle-level managers in social and health care services in central Finland.
      A total of 136 managers completed the questionnaire (response rate 56 per cent).
      The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor
      analysis, Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient and multiple linear
      regression analyses. Findings The study showed that feeling a sense of belonging,
      mutual trust and appreciation, and open interaction among colleagues were
      connected to organizational commitment for frontline managers and middle managers
      in social and health care services in Finland. Correspondingly, an open flow of
      information in the organization, job meaningfulness and appreciation received
      from managers' superiors were connected to the quality of services.
      Originality/value This study provides information on the factors that influence
      social and health care managers' organizational commitment and on items connected
      to their experience of the quality of services.

PMID- 28862080
TI  - Evaluation of brain-targeted chitosan nanoparticles through blood-brain barrier
      cerebral microvessel endothelial cells.
AB  - The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the major problem for the treatment of central
      nervous system diseases. A previous study from our group showed that the brain
      targeted chitosan nanoparticles-loaded with large peptide moieties can rapidly
      cross the barrier and provide neuroprotection. The present study aims to
      determine the efficacy of the brain-targeted chitosan nanoparticles' uptake by
      the human BBB cerebral microvessel endothelial cells (hCMECs) and to investigate
      the underlying mechanisms for enhanced cellular entry. Fluorescently labelled
      nanoparticles either conjugated with antibodies recognising human transferrin
      receptor (anti-TfR mAb) or not were prepared, characterised and their interaction
      with cerebral endothelial cells was evaluated. The antibody decoration of
      chitosan nanoparticles significantly increased their entry into hCMEC/D3 cell
      line. Inhibition of cellular uptake by chlorpromazine indicated that the anti-TfR
      mAb-conjugated nanoparticles were preferentially cell internalised through
      receptor-mediated endocytosis pathway. Alternatively, as primarily observed with
      control chitosan nanoparticles, aggregation of nanoparticles may also have
      induced macropinocytosis.

PMID- 28862081
TI  - A Matter of Mushroom.

PMID- 28862082
TI  - Intergenerational Similarity of Religiosity Over the Family Life Course.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Research consistently shows that parents influence children's
      religiosity. However, few studies acknowledge that there is within-group
      variation in the intergenerational transmission of religiosity. In this article,
      we examine whether and how congruence in religiosity between generations changes
      over the family life course and identifies unique parent-child trajectory
      classes. METHOD: We used eight waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of
      Generations, including 1,084 parent-child dyads beginning in 1971 when the
      children were adolescents and young adults, followed up to 2005. Growth mixture
      models (GMM) were tested. RESULTS: GMM revealed four temporal patterns: stable
      similar, child weakens, child strengthens, and child returns. Results showed that
      children who were married were more likely to be members of the child-returns
      class than members of the stable-similar class. DISCUSSION: Results are discussed
      in terms of the utility of the separation-individuation process and the life
      course framework for understanding intergenerational differences and their
      stability over time.

PMID- 28862083
TI  - Detection of Salmonella spp. in veterinary samples by combining selective
      enrichment and real-time PCR.
AB  - Rapid screening for enteric bacterial pathogens in clinical environments is
      essential for biosecurity. Salmonella found in veterinary hospitals, particularly
      Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin, can pose unique challenges for culture and
      testing because of its poor growth. Multiple Salmonella serovars including Dublin
      are emerging threats to public health given increasing prevalence and
      antimicrobial resistance. We adapted an automated food testing method to
      veterinary samples and evaluated the performance of the method in a variety of
      matrices including environmental samples ( n = 81), tissues ( n = 52), feces ( n
      = 148), and feed ( n = 29). A commercial kit was chosen as the basis for this
      approach in view of extensive performance characterizations published by multiple
      independent organizations. A workflow was established for efficiently and
      accurately testing veterinary matrices and environmental samples by use of real
      time PCR after selective enrichment in Rappaport-Vassiliadis soya (RVS) medium.
      Using this method, the detection limit for S. Dublin improved by 100-fold over
      subculture on selective agars (eosin-methylene blue, brilliant green, and xylose
      lysine-deoxycholate). Overall, the procedure was effective in detecting
      Salmonella spp. and provided next-day results.

PMID- 28862084
TI  - Diagnostic Overshadowing of the Psychiatric Population in the Emergency
      Department: Physiological Factors Identified for an Early Warning System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many people with mental disorders in the United States remain either
      medically untreated or inadequately treated, which is often attributed to
      diagnostic overshadowing, a common occurrence across the nation in emergency
      departments. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research is to create a tool that
      supports accurate assessment and distinguishing behavioral symptoms between
      psychiatric illness and coexisting medical conditions in the emergency
      department, thus leading to appropriate care and placement. DESIGN: Retrospective
      cohort design of 133 psychiatric admissions were reviewed between the years 2011
      and 2015. RESULTS: Logistic regression retained three factors: age greater than
      70 years (odds ratio [OR] = 6.575, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.58-16.76),
      abnormal heart rate (OR = 8.48, 95% CI = 3.39-28.42), and abnormal temperature
      (OR = 9.82, 95% CI = 3.91-18.40). The three factors were then placed into a
      screening tool. The presence of each factor equaled 1 point. If the total score
      was greater than 2, the sensitivity of the tool was 68.7% and the specificity of
      the tool was 85.8%. CONCLUSIONS: Coexisting medical conditions in the psychiatric
      population may present as behavioral symptoms; however, the use of a tool that
      focuses assessment toward medical factors such as abnormal heart rate, abnormal
      temperature, and advanced age can direct further investigation of behavioral
      symptoms.

PMID- 28862085
TI  - Value-based healthcare as a trigger for improvement initiatives.
AB  - Purpose This study explores four pilot teams' experiences of improvements
      resulting from the implementation of value-based healthcare (VBHC) at a Swedish
      University Hospital. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of
      VBHC when used as a management strategy to improve patients' health outcomes.
      Design/methodology/approach An exploratory design was used and qualitative
      interviews were undertaken with 20 team members three times each, during a period
      of two years. The content of the interviews was qualitatively analysed. Findings
      VBHC worked as a trigger for initiating improvements related to processes,
      measurements and patients' health outcomes. An example of improvements related to
      patients' health outcomes was solving the problem of patients' nausea.
      Improvement related to processes was developing care planning and increasing the
      number of contact nurses. Improvement related to measurements was increasing
      coverage ratio in the National Quality Registers used, and the development of a
      new coding system for measurements. VBHC contributed a structure for measurement
      and for identification of the need for improvements, but this structure on its
      own was not enough. To implement and sustain improvements, it is important to
      establish awareness of the need for improvements and to motivate changes not just
      among managers and clinical leaders directly involved in VBHC projects but also
      engage all other staff providing care. Originality/value This study shows that
      although the VBHC management strategy may serve as an initiator for improvements,
      it is not enough for the sustainable implementation of improvement initiatives.
      Regardless of strategy, managers and clinical leaders need to develop increased
      competence in change management.

PMID- 28862086
TI  - Activating attachment representations impact how we retrieve autobiographical
      memories.
AB  - Although much research indicates that proximity to attachment figures confers
      many psychological benefits, there is little evidence pertaining to how
      attachment activation may impact autobiographical memory retrieval. Following a
      negative mood induction to elicit overgeneral autobiographical retrieval,
      participants (N = 70) were administered an induction in which they imagined a
      person who is a strong attachment figure or an acquaintance. Participants then
      completed an autobiographical memory task to retrieve memories in response to
      neutral and negative cue words. Attachment priming resulted in less distress,
      increased retrieval of specific memories, and reduced retrieval of categoric
      memories. These findings indicate that activation of mental representations of
      attachment figures can impact on the specificity of autobiographical memory
      retrieval, and extends prevailing models of autobiographical memory by
      integrating them with attachment theory.

PMID- 28862087
TI  - Workplace Violence: Not Part of the Job.

PMID- 28862088
TI  - Advancing Situation Awareness Research.

PMID- 28862091
TI  - A Feasible and Effective Model for Personal Electronic Usage in Inpatient
      Psychiatry.

PMID- 28862089
TI  - Assessment of DNA damage in blood lymphocytes of bakery workers by comet assay.
AB  - The comet assay is widely used in screening and identification of genotoxic
      effects of different substances on people in either their working or living
      environment. Exposure to fuel smoke leads to DNA damage and ultimately different
      types of cancer. Using a comet assay, the present study aimed to assess
      peripheral blood lymphocyte DNA damage in people working in bakeries using
      natural gas, kerosene, diesel, or firewood for fuel compared to those in the
      control group. The subjects of this study were 55 people in total who were
      divided into four experimental groups, each of which comprised of 11 members
      (based on the type of fuel used), and one control group comprised of 11 members.
      Using CometScore, the subjects' peripheral blood lymphocytes were examined for
      DNA damage. All bakers, that is, experimental subjects, showed significantly
      greater peripheral blood lymphocyte DNA damage compared to the individuals in the
      control group. There was greater peripheral blood lymphocyte DNA damage in bakers
      who had been using firewood for fuel compared to those using other types of fuel
      to such an extent that tail moments (um) for firewood-burning bakers was 4.40 +/-
      1.98 versus 1.35 +/- 0.84 for natural gas, 1.85 +/- 1.33 for diesel, and 2.19 +/-
      2.20 for kerosene. The results indicated that burning firewood is the greatest
      inducer of peripheral blood lymphocytes DNA damage in bakers. Nonetheless, there
      was no significant difference in peripheral blood lymphocyte DNA damage among
      diesel and kerosene burning bakers.

PMID- 28862092
TI  - Flexible Assertive Community Treatment.

PMID- 28862090
TI  - Barriers in Case Managers' Roles: A Qualitative Systematic Review.
AB  - The challenges faced by case managers when implementing case management have
      received little focus. Several qualitative studies have been published that may
      be able to shed light on those challenges. This study is a systematic review of
      qualitative literature to identify barriers case managers have when implementing
      case management. Five electronic bibliographic databases were systematically
      searched, and 10 qualitative studies were identified for inclusion in the review
      which were published from 2007 to 2016. Through thematic synthesis of findings,
      five themes were identified as barriers to case management implementation:
      unclear scope of practice, diverse and complex case management activities,
      insufficient training, poor collaboration with other health-care providers, and
      client relationship challenges. This review study suggested that standardized
      evidence-based practical protocols and certification programs may help overcome
      case managers' barriers and improve case management practices. Health
      policymakers, case management associations, and health-care management
      researchers should develop educational and practical supports for case managers.

PMID- 28862093
TI  - Mental Disorders as a Basis for Physician-Assisted Death.

PMID- 28862094
TI  - Performance Measures: From Proliferation to Implementation.

PMID- 28862096
TI  - Suggesting a Medical-Psychiatric Cohort for ACT Treatment: In Reply.

PMID- 28862095
TI  - Suggesting a Medical-Psychiatric Cohort for ACT Treatment.

PMID- 28862097
TI  - Mental Disorders as a Basis for Physician-Assisted Death: In Reply.

PMID- 28862098
TI  - Yoga in the Yard.

PMID- 28862099
TI  - Association of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes and their HLA
      ligands with susceptibility to Behcet's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Behcet's disease (BD) is a systemic inflammatory disorder with
      remissions and exacerbations. It is thought that defects in the natural killer
      (NK) cell repertoire may be involved in BD through killer cell immunoglobulin
      like receptors (KIRs). This study aimed to evaluate KIR and HLA genes, their
      interactions in BD patients, and their associations with clinical manifestations.
      METHOD: The presence or absence of KIR and HLA alleles and genotypes was analysed
      by polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primer on genomic DNA of 397 BD
      patients and 300 healthy controls. RESULTS: None of the KIR genes showed
      significant effects on BD susceptibility. HLA-C1Asn80 showed a protective effect
      against BD, whereas HLA-C2Lys80, HLA-B-Bw4Ile80, HLA-B5, and HLA-B51 were
      associated with a susceptibility risk for BD. In the combination of KIR and HLA
      genes, the frequencies of HLA genotypes no. 2, 3, 5, and 8, and inhibitory KIR
      no. 4 were significantly higher in patients than in controls. The frequencies of
      KIR genotype no. 3 and HLA genotypes no. 1, 4, 6, 7, and 9 were significantly
      lower in patients than in controls. There were many associations between KIR and
      HLA genes with clinical features of BD. CONCLUSION: Differences in the frequency
      of HLA genes, KIR-HLA interactions, and genotypes between BD and healthy controls
      and their associations with clinical manifestations indicate that NK cells are
      involved in BD pathogenesis. The observed differences indicated an NK cell
      activity imbalance in BD patients, and suggest a role of the KIR-HLA repertoire
      in the development of BD.

PMID- 28862100
TI  - Arthroscopy-assisted versus standard intramedullary nail fixation in diaphyseal
      fractures of the humerus.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess applicability of arthroscopic
      technique in intramedullary nail fixation of humerus shaft fractures and to
      compare with conventional nailing in terms of its effects on perioperative and
      postoperative intra-articular complication rates as well as on clinical and
      functional outcomes. METHODS: This prospective randomized controlled clinical
      trial included 40 patients (12 females and 28 males) indicated for surgery
      between either undergo arthroscopy-assisted (Arthroscopy-assisted intramedullary
      nailing [AIMN]; n = 20) or conventional (Intramedullary nailing [IMN]; n = 20)
      anterograde intramedullary nailing. Two groups were compared in terms of mean
      number of fluoroscopic shootings until the guide wire was inserted, time for
      union, length of hospital stay, and complication rates. Shoulder functions were
      assessed by Constant and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score.
      RESULTS: Groups did not significantly differ in terms of age, gender, and
      mechanism of injury, length of hospital stay, union rate, and mean union time ( p
      > 0.05). Mean ASES and Constant scores were found to be statistically
      significantly higher in AIMN group than that in IMN group ( p = 0.000 and p =
      0.002, respectively). Mean number of fluoroscopic shootings until the guide wire
      was inserted was 2.15 in AIMN group, which was significantly lower compared to
      4.2 of IMN group ( p = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Arthroscopy-assisted technique may be
      an applicable and safe method owing to its cosmetic advantages and more
      satisfactory postoperative shoulder functions subsequent to less injury to
      deltoid, rotator cuff, and other soft tissue, as compared to conventional
      anterograde approach.

PMID- 28862101
TI  - Efficient use of a limited resource femoral head allograft: A comparison of
      allograft preparation methods.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to compare the yield and compressed volume
      of femoral head allograft prepared by either hand morselization or a bone mill.
      METHODS: Twenty human femoral head allografts were donated from a bone bank and
      morselized by two different methods. The heads were divided in half and split
      into two sample groups. One group underwent hand morselization with large bone
      nibblers, while the other was prepared using a bone mill. The volume of graft
      produced was measured. Ten-gram aliquots of each sample then underwent 30
      impactions in a contained cavity, with the volume of graft compression measured.
      RESULTS: Bone milling yielded approximately 31% more usable graft than hand
      morselization (81% to 50%; p = 0.0001). There was no difference between the
      compressed volume of graft prepared by either method ( p = 0.14). CONCLUSION:
      This study demonstrates the efficacy of preparation of allograft with a bone mill
      and assists the clinician in determining the yield of graft by the weight of
      femoral head, thereby potentially minimizing excessive ordering and wastage.

PMID- 28862102
TI  - Shoulder motion assistance using a single-joint Hybrid Assistive Limb(r) robot:
      Evaluation of its safety and validity in healthy adults.
AB  - PURPOSES: To evaluate the feasibility of using the single-joint Hybrid Assistive
      Limb(r) robot (HAL) to assist with shoulder flexion-extension in healthy adults,
      and to assess the capacity of the HAL to analyze the bioelectrical signals of
      muscle activity for shoulder flexion-extension. METHODS: This cross-sectional
      feasibility study included six healthy adult men with no impairment in shoulder
      motion. The single-joint HAL was fixed to a custom-designed platform and upper
      arm attachment, and aligned 3 cm below the acromion process. Vital signs,
      shoulder fatigue, and shoulder pain were evaluated before and after the shoulder
      elevation exercise performed with and without the HAL. Activity of selected
      muscles of the shoulder was recorded using a wireless superficial
      electromyography device. Shoulder movement was captured using a three-dimensional
      motion analysis system. RESULTS: The HAL supported smooth flexion-extension of
      the arm at the shoulder joint, with no negative effects on vital signs, shoulder
      fatigue, and shoulder pain. The HAL decreased muscle activity levels, with a 55%
      decrease in trapezius muscle activity. The upward rotation angle of the scapula
      was significantly lower with the HAL at 120 degrees  of shoulder flexion.
      CONCLUSION: The single-joint HAL provided safe and effective assistance to
      scapular plane shoulder flexion-extension among healthy adults.

PMID- 28862103
TI  - View-Dependent Prosopometamorphopsia after Stroke.

PMID- 28862104
TI  - Regulatory Framework for Conducting Clinical Research in Canada.
AB  - Research in human subjects is at the core of achieving improvements in health
      outcomes. For clinical trials, in addition to the peer review of the results
      before publication, it is equally important to consider whether the trial will be
      conducted in a manner that generates data of the highest quality and provides a
      measure of safety for the participating subjects. In Canada, there is no
      definitive legislation that governs the conduct of research involving human
      subjects, but a network of regulations at different levels does provide a
      framework for both principal investigators and sponsors. In this paper, we
      provide an overview of the federal, provincial and institutional legislation,
      guidelines and policies that will inform readers about the requirements for
      clinical trial research. This includes a review of the role of the Food and Drug
      Regulations under the Food and Drugs Act and the Tri-Council Policy Statement
      (TCPS2), an overview of provincial legislation across the country, and a focus on
      selected policies from institutional research ethics boards and public health
      agencies. Many researchers may find navigation through regulations frustrating,
      and there is a paucity of information that explains the interrelationship between
      the different regulatory agencies in Canada. Better understanding the process, we
      feel, will facilitate investigators interested in clinical trials and also
      enhance the long-term health of Canadians.

PMID- 28862105
TI  - Prevalence of Convergence Insufficiency-Type Symptomatology in Parkinson's
      Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) often present with visual
      symptoms (e.g., difficulty in reading, double vision) that can also be found in
      convergence insufficiency (CI). Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of
      CI-type visual symptomatology in individuals with PD, in comparison with
      controls. METHODS: Participants >=50 years with (n=300) and without (n=300) PD
      were recruited. They were administered the Convergence Insufficiency Symptom
      Survey (CISS-15) over the phone. A score of >=21 on the CISS-15, considered
      positive for CI-type symptomatology, served as the cutoff. Data from individuals
      (n=87 with, n=94 without PD) who were approached but who reported having a known
      oculovisual condition were analysed separately. Student's t test and chi-square
      at the 0.05 level were employed for statistical significance. RESULTS: A total of
      29.3% of participants with versus 7.3% without PD presented with a score of >=21
      on the CISS-15 (p=0.001). Of the participants having a known oculovisual
      condition, 39.1% with versus 19.1% without PD presented with a score of >=21 on
      the CISS-15 (p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of CI-type visual symptoms is
      higher in individuals with versus without PD whether or not they have a
      coexisting oculovisual condition. These results suggest that PD per se places
      individuals with the disease at greater risk of visual symptomatology. These
      results further underline the importance of providing regular eye exams for
      individuals with PD.

PMID- 28862106
TI  - Efficacy of Vagal Nerve Stimulation for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: Is it the
      Stimulation or Medication?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy has been widely recognized as
      an alternative for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, although
      modification of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during VNS treatment could explain the
      improvement in patients. METHODS: We retrospectively assessed the efficacy of VNS
      in 30 adult patients with epilepsy treated with >6 months of follow-up. The
      criteria for implantation were the following: (1) not a candidate for resective
      epilepsy surgery, (2) drug-resistant epilepsy, (3) impairment of quality of life,
      (4) no other option of treatment, and (5) patients with idiopathic generalized
      epilepsy who fail to be controlled with appropriate AEDs. We assessed
      sociodemographics, seizure etiology, seizure classification, and AEDs used during
      treatment with VNS. We assessed adverse effects and efficacy. Responder rate was
      defined as >50% seizure improvement from baseline. RESULTS: Thirty patients
      (females, 18; males, 12; age, 35.1+/-13.3 years) were included. After 6, 12, 24,
      and 36 months of follow-up, the response rates were: 13/30 (43%), 13/27 (48%),
      9/22 (41%), and 8/16 (50%), respectively; none was seizure free. Fifty-seven
      percent, 33%, 59%, and 81% of patients had changes of medication type or dose at
      6, 12, 24, and 36 months respectively. In the majority of patients, the change of
      medication consisted of an increase in the dose of AEDs. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      shows that VNS is an effective therapy, although significant changes in
      medications were done along with the therapy; therefore, the real effect of VNS
      could be controversial.

PMID- 28862107
TI  - Collateral Scoring on CT Angiogram Must Evaluate Phase and Regional Pattern.
AB  - PURPOSE: We measured anterior cerebral artery (ACA)-middle cerebral artery (MCA)
      and posterior cerebral artery (PCA)-MCA pial filling on single-phase computed
      tomography angiograms (sCTAs) in acute ischemic stroke and correlate with the CTA
      based Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and digital subtraction angiography
      (DSA)-based American Society of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology
      (ASITN) score. METHODS: Patients with acute stroke and M1 MCA+/-intracranial
      internal carotid artery occlusion on baseline CTA were included. Baseline sCTA
      was assessed for phase of image acquisition. An evaluator assessed collaterals
      using the Calgary Collateral (CC) Score (measures pial arterial filling in ACA
      MCA and PCA-MCA regions separately), the CTA-based MGH score, and on DSA using
      the ASITN score. Infarct volumes were measured on 24- to 48-hour magnetic
      resonance imaging/ computed tomography. RESULTS: Of 106 patients, baseline sCTA
      was acquired in early arterial phase in 9.9%, peak arterial in 50.7%, equilibrium
      in 32.4%, early venous in 5.6%, and late venous in 1.4%. Variance in ACA-MCA
      collaterals explained only 32% of variance in PCA-MCA collaterals on the CC score
      (Spearman's correlation coefficient rho [rho]=0.56). Correlation between ACA-MCA
      collaterals and the MGH score was strong (rho=0.8); correlation between PCA-MCA
      collaterals and this score was modest (rho=0.54). Correlation between ACA-MCA
      collaterals and the ASITN score was modest (n=53, rho=0.43); and correlation
      between PCA-MCA collaterals and ASITN score was poor (rho=0.33). Of the CTA-based
      scores, the CC Score (Akaike [AIC] 1022) was better at predicting follow-up
      infarct volumes than was the MGH score (AIC 1029). CONCLUSION: Collateral
      assessments in acute ischemic stroke are best done using CTA with temporal
      resolution and by assessing regional variability. ACA-MCA and MCA-PCA collaterals
      should be evaluated separately.

PMID- 28862108
TI  - Review of the Incidence of Traumatic Brain Injury.

PMID- 28862109
TI  - Video Head Impulse Test for Early Diagnosis of Vestibular Neuritis Among Acute
      Vertigo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study assesses the value of the video head impulse test (vHIT)
      for early diagnosis of vestibular neuritis (VN) among acute vertigo. METHODS:
      Thirty-three cases of vestibular neuritis (VN), 96 patients with other acute
      vertigo (AV), and 50 cases of normal controls used vHIT to quantitatively test a
      pair of horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflection (VOR) gains, two pairs of vertical
      VOR gains, and the corresponding three pairs of VOR gain asymmetry. The
      peculiarity of VOR gains in VN and the differences between VN and other AV,
      normal controls by vHIT, were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: There were
      statistically significant differences in the three pairs of VOR gains asymmetry
      between VN and other AV, and normal controls (P<0.01). The sensitivity was 87.9%
      and specificity was 94.3% in differentiating VN from normal and other acute
      vertigo by vHIT. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows vHIT has advantages in the
      diagnosis of VN in acute vertigo with good sensitivity and specificity and
      indicates a widespread clinical application.

PMID- 28862110
TI  - Severe Cerebral Vasospasm and Infarction After Minor Head Trauma.

PMID- 28862111
TI  - How Can We Improve Education of Breast Surgeons Across Europe?
AB  - : The proposed global curriculum developed by the American Society of Surgical
      Oncology (SSO) and the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO) and the
      textbook: provides a state-of- the- art of breast cancer surgery, complements the
      syllabus and curriculum of the Union Europeenne des Medecins Specialistes (UEMS)
      examination in breast surgery/ European Board of Surgery Qualification in Breast
      Surgery (EBSQinBS) administered by ESSO (1) Knowledge and understanding of the
      principles of breast cancer incidence, aetiology, risk factors, genetics,
      premalignant and high-risk lesions, pathology, prognostic and predictive factors,
      risk prediction models, screening, diagnosis and imaging, breast cancer,
      oncoplastic, reconstructive breast surgery, axillary surgery and future
      perspective for this, radiation therapy, neoadjuvant and adjuvant systemic
      treatment- endocrine-, immuno- and chemotherapy, side effects and toxicities of
      treatment, locoregional recurrence, follow-up, locally advanced breast cancer,
      metastatic breast cancer, breast cancer in young and elderly patients, survivor
      issues, lymphedema, palliative care, chroni pain, body image and sexuality,
      fertility issues, cognitive functions, etc.) (1) ESSO fellowships: for instance
      BSSO (Brazilian Society of Surgical Oncology)-ESSO fellowship, ESSO members are
      being offered the opportunity by the BSSO to apply for a visiting observership in
      Brazil; ESSO fellowship in Breast Surgery- the fellowship provides further
      specialised training in the multi-modality clinical care specific to the breast
      cancer patient and a deeper training in breast cancer research; training
      fellowships- to allow young surgeons to visit a specialist breast unit in Europe,
      to help them to expand their experience and learn new techniques; congress
      fellowships- for each ESSO congress the ESSO Scientific Committee awards a number
      of fellowship grantsto participants from low-income countries to attend the
      congress; EYSAC (ESSO Young Surgeons and Alumni Club) research fellowship; SSO/
      ESSO fellowshipthrough its partnership with ESSO, SSO provides a grant to attend
      the SSO Annual Symposium; Reciprocal International Exchange Programmes with
      Japan, Latin America and North America (2). ESSO courses and masterclasses:
      expanded portfolio of courses, in- and outside Europe, basic and advanced,
      international faculty, multidisciplinary approach, learning methods: hands-on
      with human cadavers, workshops in small groups, live and case demonstrations,
      interactive sessions, 3D videos (for instance in 2017 ESSO course on ultrasound
      of breast in Barcelona, advanced course on oncoplastic surgery in Barcelona,
      advanced course on breast cancer surgery in Naples) (2). Trials: Interantional
      Nipple- Sparing Mastectomy Registry (INSPIRE), EURECCA (European Cancer Audit)
      project. The aim of INSPIRE is to provide pooled evidence derived from a
      prospective collaborative high-quality registry between international centers,
      oncological safety, patient- reported outcome measures, launched in March, 2016,
      European Breast Cancer Conference EBCC 10, Amsterdam (2). EXAMINATION: European
      Board of Surgery Qualification in Breast Surgery (EBSQ in BS): phase 1
      eligibility assessment (CV, logbook, references); phase 2- test; phase 3- oral
      examination with 2 clinical cases and 1 critical review of academic paper. The
      applicant must hold a current license to practice as a surgeon (general or
      plastic or gynaecologist), demonstrate work for one year in a breast surgery unit
      with at least 150 new primary breast cancer cases per year, attended at least one
      national/ international training course in breast surgery and has attended at
      least one well recognized international congress. The applicant should present a
      signed log book for breast surgery with application; published either one paper
      or book chapter on breast disease Conclusions 1. The need for certified breast
      units: Standardised techniques by specialist breast surgeons across Europe should
      be the aim. 2. No man'?s land. Across Europe oncoplastic reconstruction is
      performed by specialist breast, general or plastic surgeons, sometimes in
      collaboration with each other. There may be dispute as who should or should not
      be involved. This needs to be addressed. 3. Oncoplastic reconstruction technique
      expansion. Significant expansion in number, variety and complexity of available
      techniques is a fact. A good example would be a 6-fold increase together with a
      low rate of complications in some Eastern European countries over the last decade
      4. CME. European breast surgeons want to improve their skills, as evidenced by
      fully or overbooked ESSO-endorsed breast surgery courses and other high quality
      workshops. Applications for the European Examination in Breast Surgery (EBSQBS)
      continue to increase.

PMID- 28862112
TI  - Indications of the Magnetic Resonance Method in Breast Pathology.
AB  - The high incidence of breast cancer is a known fact. The 5-year survival rate for
      women with correctly treated breast cancer is 90% around the world, and 50% in
      Romania, respectively. Correct diagnostic evaluation of the breasts allows for a
      competent therapeutic management. The primary diagnosis of breast cancer includes
      clinical examination of the breasts, breast ultrasound and mammography. Magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) examination is not a first line type of investigation,
      but targeted to selected patient groups. MRI exam is indicated in: screening of
      breast cancer in women at high risk for breast cancer, in cases with equivocal
      diagnosis or with contradictory diagnoses at mammography-ultrasound examinations,
      and in patients with mammographically dense breasts. Mammary MRI exam is the best
      imaging method in assessing the real dimensions of the initial tumour, in the
      detection of multifocal and multicentric lesions and of nodular axillary post
      lumpectomy lesions. Also, MRI exam is recommended for preoperative breast cancer
      staging, for assessment of the breast operated on, and for evaluating
      chemotherapy. Preoperative MRI assessment of the breast reduces the number of
      surgical interventions required to obtain surgical negative resection margins,
      decreases breast cancer recurrence rates, and increases long-term life expectancy
      (survival). MRI is a potential method for monitoring early responses during
      neoadjuvant therapy, identifying chemoresistant tumours, and allowing guided re
      excision, as well as identifying residual tumours after completion of the
      neoadjuvant therapy course. The exam is very useful in diagnosing mammary
      pathology in men and is recommended prior to augmentation or reconstructive
      breast surgery, to appreciate the integrity of the breast implant.

PMID- 28862113
TI  - Immediate Versus Delayed Breast Reconstruction for Postmastectomy Patients.
      Controversies and Solutions.
AB  - When considering breast reconstruction, two main decisions have to be made:
      optimal timing and appropriate reconstruction technique,that would best suit each
      patient, while also taking into consideration the complications and risks that
      these decisions might lead to. By careful patient selection and individualized
      breast reconstruction approach, the risks and complications of the procedure can
      be minimized, while attaining successful aesthetic outcomes and high patient
      satisfaction. Breast reconstruction can be performed in three different settings:
      immediate reconstruction - at the time of mastectomy; delayed reconstruction "
      after the completion of the adjuvant treatment and in a delayed-immediate setting
      that uses both previous methods" includes tissue expansion at the time of
      mastectomy and definitive reconstruction performed after completion of the
      adjuvant treatment. The strategies perfected for decades in breast reconstructive
      surgery have now made breast reconstruction more possible than ever, thus
      offering patients the chance to recover after a mastectomy procedure with a new
      reconstructed breast. Although, the choice of breast reconstruction is not
      adressed by all breast cancer patients, rates are gradually expanding while new
      and improved techniques are rapidly developing.

PMID- 28862114
TI  - Immediate-DElayed AutoLogous (IDEAL) Breast Reconstruction with the DIEP Flap.
AB  - : Background: The most common cancer worldwide in women is breast cancer. The
      increasing number of cases each year, requires a novel curative approach that can
      combine oncological treatments and breast reconstruction yielding a pleasing and
      aesthetic breast that is a definitive and long lasting solution. Thus, the
      Immediate-DElayed AutoLogous (IDEAL) breast reconstruction principle was created
      to hold up to the standards of the needs of contemporary women. METHOD: The IDEAL
      protocol for breast reconstruction was developed in our department in cooperation
      with our breast surgery unit and describes a two-stage approach that implicates
      neoadjuvant radio-/ chemotherapy treatment regimes and tumor staging before the
      mastectomy in order to avoid post-mastectomy radiation. In a second step the
      breast is then reconstructed with autologous tissue for optimal and natural
      results. CONCLUSION: More and more patients decide to undergo breast
      reconstruction after breast cancer. The IDEAL concept offers a life-long and safe
      solution with a low rate of late complications.

PMID- 28862115
TI  - New Language and Old Problems in Breast Cancer Radiotherapy.
AB  - New developments in breast cancer radiotherapy make possible new standards in
      treatment recommandations based on international guidelines. Developments in
      radiotherapy irradiation techniques from 2D to 3D-Conformal RT and to IMRT
      (Intensity Modulated Arc Therapy) make possible to reduce the usual side effects
      on the organs at risk as: skin, lung, miocard, bone, esophagus and brahial
      plexus. Dispite of all these progresses acute and late side effects are present.
      Side effects are as old as the radiotherapy was used. New solutions are available
      now by improving irradiation techniques. New techniques as sentinel node
      procedure (SNP) or partial breast irradiation (PBRT) and immediate breast
      reconstruction with silicon implants (IBRIS) make necessary new considerations
      regarding the target volume delineations. A new language for definition of gross
      tumor volume (GTV), clinical target volume (CTV) based on the new diagnostic
      methods as PET/CT,nonaparticle MRI will have real impact on target delineation
      and irradiation techniques. "The new common language in breast cancer therapy"
      would be the first step to improve the endresults and finally the quality of life
      of the patients.

PMID- 28862116
TI  - Radiation Therapy Following Breast Conserving Surgery for Ductal Carcinoma in
      situ: Yes or No?
AB  - Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-invasive precursor to breast cancerand
      represents a heterogenous group of lesions with different malignant potential.
      Despite several randomized trials, there is still controversy regarding the
      optimal local treatment for DCIS patients. The addition of radiotherapy after
      breast conserving surgery approximately halves the local recurrence risk but has
      no impact on long-term survival. Clinical studies failed to identify a low risk
      subgroup of DCIS patients treated with breast conserving surgery in whom
      radiotherapy can be safely omitted. Results of clinical trials of breast
      conserving surgery radiotherapy are summarized. Treatment decision making in low
      risk DCIS and current tendencies in the radiotherapy for DCIS are other issues
      addressed in this paper.

PMID- 28862117
TI  - Hormone Therapy in Breast Cancer.
AB  - Hormonal therapy is mandatory for all patients with hormonereceptor- positive
      breast neoplasms. It is active both in adjuvant and metastatic disease. The only
      active adjuvant hormonal therapy in pre- and postmenopause is Tamoxifen. The
      adjuvant treatment duration influences disease-free survival, the risk of a
      contralateral breast cancer apparition and overall survival. The aromatase
      inhibitors: Anastrozol, Letrozol, Exemestan are only used in postmenopause.
      Fulvestrant is used in recurrent disease after or during treatment with
      Tamoxifen. LHRH analogues are used in premenopausal patients in adjuvantcy and
      sometimes in case of recurrences. Around 50% of hormonereceptor- positive breast
      neoplasms are or become resistant to hormone therapy. Some molecules involved in
      some tumour cellular growth pathways reverse the resistance to hormone therapy
      (Palbociclib, Everolimus).

PMID- 28862118
TI  - Review on Practical Approach in Multiple Breast Carcinomas: Does Each Focus
      Matter?
AB  - Breast carcinoma is the most frequent form of cancer encountered in women
      worldwide. In the routine practice, most of breast carcinomas are diagnosed as
      unifocal, however, a variable proportion is represented by multiple tumor foci.
      Since data regarding the incidence, definition, morphological and molecular
      profile, treatment and prognosis of multiple breast carcinomas are currently
      contradictory we are presenting a practical approach for pathologists dealing
      with such a lesion, which may display morphological and molecular heterogeneity
      among multiple foci with an impact on management and prognosis. Multiple tumor
      foci should be reported separately and taken into account when establishing the
      treatment.

PMID- 28862119
TI  - Management of Breast Cancer Locoregional Recurrence.
AB  - Breast cancer recurrence represents a challenge for clinicians because the
      management is not standardized and usually requires a multidisciplinary approach.
      This is the key for a good long term disease control and for a management with
      curative intent. The local recurrence in breast cancer appears after breast
      conserving treatment (BCT) or after mastectomy, and the regional recurrence
      involves the ipsilateral axillary, internal mammary or supraclavicular lymph
      nodes. Local recurrence prognosis after BCT seems to be better than after
      mastectomy regarding distant metastases occurrence and overall survival.
      Prognosis of axillary recurrence is better than prognosis of supraclavicular and
      internal mammary recurrence. Locoregional recurrence in breast cancer represents
      rather a marker for the appearance of distant metastases than a determinant
      factor for them. Management options for locoregional recurrence of cancer require
      multidisciplinary input decision making and for this reason the multidisciplinary
      tumor-board (MTD) is very important. Each patient should receive the best
      individualized oncologic treatment.

PMID- 28862120
TI  - Does the Surgical Management of the Intercostobrachial Nerve Influence the
      Postoperatory Paresthesia of the Upper Limb and Life Quality in Breast Cancer
      Patients?
AB  - : The aim of our study was to evaluate the extent to which the preservation or
      the section of the intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN) influences the development of
      postoperatoryparesthesia and to assess whether the development of paresthesiamay
      change the patient's life quality after surgical treatment for breast carcinoma.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a nonrandomized retrospective study including
      100 patients who underwent axillary lymph node dissection for infiltrating breast
      carcinoma associated with axillary lymph node metastases. Using a questionnaire
      we studied the patients general life quality in the postoperative period. For the
      statistical analysis we used GraphPad Prism, Fisher'?s exact test and Chi square
      test. Results: 100 patients were included in our study with a mean age of 59.7
      years. In 50 cases, the ICBN was preserved (Group 1),while in the remaining 50
      cases the ICBN was sectioned during surgery (Group 2). Significantly more
      patients from Group 2 complained about postoperative paresthesia (p=0.026). In
      our series, the management of the ICBN cannot be significantly correlated with
      the impairment of the patients daily activities (p=0.2), sleeping cycle (p=0.2),
      and general life quality after surgery (p=0.67). We can conclude that the
      management of ICBN has a great influence on the development of postoperative
      paresthesia. Although the paresthesia does not have a negative effect on the
      patient'?s life quality in the postoperative period, in our opinion it is
      important to preserve the ICBN in order to prevent postoperative paresthesia.

PMID- 28862121
TI  - Elucidation of a Conserved Proteomic Pattern of Breast Cancer Tissue and
      Metastatic Axillary Lymph Node.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer is one of the most devastating cancer types affecting
      women. For critical decision making regarding the fate of cancerous breast
      tissue, the assessment of axillary lymph node (ALN) involvement is required.
      However, such ALN involvement is difficult to predict without surgical
      intervention. Therefore, an easy predictive test using protein markers may be a
      desirable approach. In this study, we performed a whole proteome analysis to
      reveal the presence of a putative biomarker panel using primary breast tumor
      tissue. Materials and Methods: Proteins were extracted from tumor tissues and
      were subjected to two dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis. The resulting gel
      images were used for inter-gel spot comparisons using PDQuest Advance software.
      The paterns thus obtained were used for differentiating invasive tumor types from
      non-invasive ones. Results: The analysis of 2D gel images revealed the presence
      of 24 conserved protein spots whose intensities were moderately regulated high on
      the gels. Those protein spots were used to create a conserved 2D pattern spanning
      a pH range of 4 to 8. CONCLUSION: Protein spots generating a preserved model
      among pattern between primary breast cancer and its axillary lymph node indicated
      that a robust and highly reliable proteomic approach, e.g., 2DE may be used to
      differentiate metastatic forms of breast cancer from non-metastatic ones.

PMID- 28862122
TI  - Improvement of Breast Cancer Patient Pathway Using EUSOMA Standards and European
      Guidelines.
AB  - Queues in hospitals are directly affecting the quality of human life, which
      should have priority compared to other types of queues. The aim of this paper is
      to design a future value stream map of the system and patient pathway in terms of
      quality improvement in order to decrease the non-value added activities for
      breast cancer patients, doctors and nurses for a radiology unit in a Training and
      Research University Hospital based in Kocaeli, Turkey. Nowadays, the increased
      demand versus insufficient sources affect healthcare services due to poor quality
      with long queues during the diagnosis and treatment processes. For this paper,
      data were collected from personal observations, information technologies units
      and authorized employees. Moreover, data tracking and keeping systems are too
      poor for revealing the current situation. This paper provides an example of a
      current and future value stream map showing step by step where the bottlenecks
      are and how it can be improved and what specific benefits it will bring to the
      healthcare system. In consideration of all these outcomes, it is highly suggested
      that the hospital apply European Guidelines for quality assurance in breast
      cancer screening and diagnosis together with the mentioned above improvement
      suggestions using lean applications.

PMID- 28862123
TI  - Results of 1-year Diet and Exercise Interventions for ER+/PR+/-/HER2- Breast
      Cancer Patients Correlated with Treatment Type.
AB  - PURPOSE: Many breast cancer patients gain weight during chemotherapy and
      antiestrogenic treatment increasing recurrence, oncologic specific and all-cause
      mortality risks. Patients and Methods: 165 ER+/PR+/-/HER2- breast cancer patients
      under antiestrogenic treatment were randomly assigned to follow an at-home diet
      based on food naturally high in proteins, calcium, probiotics and prebiotics (D),
      or this diet and 4' isometric exercises (D+Ex) for 1 year. We measured weight
      (W), body (BF) and visceral fat (VF) using a multi-frequency bioelectrical
      impedance scale on the 6th and 12th month and we correlated results with
      chemotherapy, surgery and antiestrogenic medication type. Results were analysed
      using the Friedman Test, then with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests if Friedman Test
      was significant. Results: Overall, the patients 1-year results show that both
      D+Ex and D patients obtained statistically significant weight loss and fat loss.
      D patients lost 3.3 kg, 3.2% BF and 1% visceral fat. D+Ex patients lost 6.5 kg,
      3.3% BF and 2% visceral fat. D+Ex patients obtained statistically significance
      for W, BF and VF regardless of chemotherapy, surgery or antiestrogenic treatment
      type. D patients with mastectomy or with aromatase inhibitors lost W, BF and VF.
      D patients with conservatory surgery, adjuvant or both neoadjuvant and adjuvant
      chemotherapy and those on Tamoxifen only lost W. D patients with neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy also lost VF. CONCLUSION: This diet is effective for ER+/PR+/-/HER2-
      breast cancer patients on antiestrogenic medication. Adding at least a minimal
      exercise protocol improves patients chances of counteracting sarcopenic obesity.

PMID- 28862124
TI  - 3D Ultrasound and Virtual Touch(r) in Breast Tumors - Two Clinical Cases.
AB  - Visualization of infraclinical malignant lesions using 3D breast ultrasound, and
      differentiation of benign and malignant lesions using ARFI Virtual Touch(r)
      technology in two patients. 3D ultrasound is useful in early detection of
      architectural distortions, even in the soft tissue of the breast, and Virtual
      Touch(r) ARFI differentiates more accurately malignant vs. benign lesions,
      allowing the patient to be regraded in the BiRADS score (increasing or decreasing
      the BiRADS score, depending on the situation).

PMID- 28862125
TI  - Solitary Adrenal Metastases from Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.
AB  - The usual neoplastic dissease involving suprarenal glands are adrenal metastaes.
      The majority of suprarenal metastatic disease arise from lung cancer, followed by
      the stomach and colon cancer, oesophagus, the liver/bile ducts cancer and renal
      cell carcinoma. Invasive mammary carcinoma usually spreads to the bones, lungs,
      lymph nodes, liver and the brain. Adrenal gland metastases from invasive no
      special type carcinoma represents an extremly low rate number of cases. We
      discuss about a 66 year old patient who presented with a solitary adrenal
      metastases from triple negative breast invasive carcinoma. The patient underwent
      total left adrenalectomy in June 2016. No further adjuvants therapies were
      performed. At the time of writing the patient is in good condition, without any
      evidence of recurrence. The role of surgical and adjuvant therapy in treating
      adrenal metastases after breast cancer in survival rate will be determined in
      future studies.

PMID- 28862126
TI  - Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma in a Male Breast - A Rare Case Report.
AB  - Primary breast diffuse large B cell lymphoma (PBL) in male patients represents a
      rare clinical phenomenon and can imitate a breast carcinoma in its clinical
      presentation, so, therefore, the initial treatment for most patients remains
      surgery. Prompt diagnosis associating subsequent treatment combining chemotherapy
      and radiotherapy are of the utmost importance. We herein report a 56 years old
      male patient diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma, after clinically
      presenting with a visible tumor in the left breast and showing no axillary
      lymphadenopathy. Following clinical diagnosis we performed a breast biopsy with
      subsequent immunohistochemistry testing. The results showed that the malignant
      cells stained positive for CD 20, CD 10, and negative for BCL 2, myc and BCL 6,
      ER/PR with a high proliferation index (Ki 67 90%). The immunohistochemical tests
      were suggestive for primary large B cell lymphoma of the breast, germinal center
      type. The patient was submitted to three cycles of R-CHOP (cyclophosphamide,
      adryamicin, vincristine and prednisolone) and rituximab chemotherapy. Primary
      diffuse large B cell lymphoma is an extremely unique disease that involves a
      rather difficult differential diagnosis with a breast carcinoma. A strong index
      of clinical suspicion is necessary with early diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28862127
TI  - Breast Recurrent Hydatid Cyst Disease.
AB  - : Introduction: Hydatid cyst is a zoonotic disease seen in endemic areas. It is
      an important health problem in our country and especially in our Eastern and
      South-eastern Anatolia Region. Involvement of isolated breast tissue is very rare
      in hydatid cystdisease. As far as we know, isolated recurrent breast cyst
      hydatidosis has not been found in the literature. CASE REPORT: We aimed to
      present the case of a patient who was diagnosed with recurrent isolated cyst
      hydatid in the same breast, operated on because of hydatid cyst in the right
      breast 9 years ago. CONCLUSION: A hydatid cyst should be considered, particularly
      in endemic regions, in the differential diagnosis of cystic masses of the breast.
      If the patient has previously undergone surgery for breast cyst hydatid disease,
      recurrent cyst hydatid disease should be considered at the differential
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28862128
TI  - Breast Cancer Surgery in Images.
AB  - As a picture speaks more than a thousand words, we tried to reflect, at least in
      part, on our surgical day-to-day practice on the 2nd Oncological Surgery
      Department of "Prof. Dr. Al. Trestioreanu" Bucharest Institute of Oncology in the
      field of breast cancer. And how could we not talk about imaging in breast cancer,
      when one of the reasons for low breast cancer mortality at present is early
      detection, which is performed through imaging investigations. Mammographic
      screening is recognized as a success in this area (Fig. 1), but moreover, mammary
      ultrasound, a newer addition to this domain, also allows the detection of
      infraclinical cancers (Fig. 2). The localization of these infraclinical lesions
      can be obtained preoperatively by mammographic technique using a harpoon (Fig.
      3). Under ultrasound guidance we can not only puncture cysts (Fig. 4), but also
      perform mammary biopsies for suspicious lesions.

PMID- 28862130
TI  - Unusual association of ADPKD and bullous emphysema: a case report and literature
      review.

PMID- 28862129
TI  - Duration of intravenous antibiotic therapy for children with acute osteomyelitis
      or septic arthritis: a feasibility study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is little current consensus regarding the route or duration of
      antibiotic treatment for acute osteomyelitis (OM) and septic arthritis (SA) in
      children. OBJECTIVE: To assess the overall feasibility and inform the design of a
      future randomised controlled trial (RCT) to reduce the duration of intravenous
      (i.v.) antibiotic use in paediatric OM and SA. DESIGN: (1) A prospective service
      evaluation (cohort study) to determine the current disease spectrum and UK
      clinical practice in paediatric OM/SA; (2) a prospective cohort substudy to
      assess the use of targeted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in diagnosing
      paediatric OM/SA; (3) a qualitative study to explore families' views and
      experiences of OM/SA; and (4) the development of a core outcome set via a
      systematic review of literature, Delphi clinician survey and stakeholder
      consensus meeting. SETTING: Forty-four UK secondary and tertiary UK centres
      (service evaluation). PARTICIPANTS: Children with OM/SA. INTERVENTIONS: PCR
      diagnostics were compared with culture as standard of care. Semistructured
      interviews were used in the qualitative study. RESULTS: Data were obtained on 313
      cases of OM/SA, of which 218 (61.2%) were defined as simple disease and 95
      (26.7%) were defined as complex disease. The epidemiology of paediatric OM/SA in
      this study was consistent with existing European data. Children who met oral
      switch criteria less than 7 days from starting i.v. antibiotics were less likely
      to experience treatment failure (9.6%) than children who met oral switch criteria
      after 7 days of i.v. therapy (16.1% when switch was between 1 and 2 weeks; 18.2%
      when switch was > 2 weeks). In 24 out of 32 simple cases (75%) and 8 out of 12
      complex cases (67%) in which the targeted PCR was used, a pathogen was detected.
      The qualitative study demonstrated the importance to parents and children of
      consideration of short- and long-term outcomes meaningful to families themselves.
      The consensus meeting agreed on the following outcomes: rehospitalisation or
      recurrence of symptoms while on oral antibiotics, recurrence of infection,
      disability at follow-up, symptom free at 1 year, limb shortening or deformity,
      chronic OM or arthritis, amputation or fasciotomy, death, need for paediatric
      intensive care, and line infection. Oral switch criteria were identified,
      including resolution of fever for >= 48 hours, tolerating oral food and
      medicines, and pain improvement. LIMITATIONS: Data were collected in a 6-month
      period, which might not have been representative, and follow-up data for long
      term complications are limited. CONCLUSIONS: A future RCT would need to recruit
      from all tertiary and most secondary UK hospitals. Clinicians have implemented
      early oral switch for selected patients with simple disease without formal
      clinical trial evidence of safety. However, the current criteria by which
      decisions to make the oral switch are made are not clearly established or
      evidence based. FUTURE WORK: A RCT in simple OM and SA comparing shorter- or
      longer-course i.v. therapy is feasible in children randomised after oral switch
      criteria are met after 7 days of i.v. therapy, excluding children meeting oral
      switch criteria in the first week of i.v. therapy. This study design meets
      clinician preferences and addresses parental concerns not to randomise prior to
      oral switch criteria being met. FUNDING: The National Institute for Health
      Research Health Technology Assessment programme.

PMID- 28862131
TI  - Three cases of type-1 complex regional pain syndrome after elective total hip
      replacement.
AB  - Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) constitutes an atypical cause of pain after
      orthopaedic procedures. To our knowledge, there is a paucity of literature
      reporting this syndrome after total hip arthroplasty (THR), since only two case
      reports have been published. We thenceforth describe the clinical outcome of
      three cases of type-1 CRPS developed after elective THR, two of them initially
      diagnosed with secondary osteoarthritis whereas the remaining one presented a
      sequel of a failed osteosynthesis that required conversion to THR. Remission of
      disease was found at an average seven months (range: 4-9). Medical treatment
      involved a combined therapy of pain management, bisphosphonates and intense
      physical therapy. One patient was additionally treated with a corticosteroid
      blockade of his right sympathetic lumbar ganglia. None of the patients required
      surgical treatment. At final follow-up, physical examinations and imaging were
      negative for disease.

PMID- 28862133
TI  - Treatment patterns and outcomes for patients with locally advanced basal cell
      carcinoma before availability of Hedgehog pathway inhibitors: a retrospective
      chart review.
AB  - : Understanding the molecular basis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) has led to
      development of Hedgehog pathway inhibitors (HPIs) for patients with advanced
      forms of BCC (aBCC). A practical definition of aBCC as a distinct disease entity
      is unavailable, and epidemiological information is limited. To conduct the RONNIE
      study to describe characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes of patients
      with aBCC during the period preceding HPI introduction, as well as results from
      patients with locally advanced BCC (laBCC). A retrospective chart review was
      conducted using data from adult patients with a new diagnosis of laBCC between
      1st January 2005 and 31st December 2010. The study period was 1st January 2005 to
      31st December 2011 to allow for inclusion of at least 12 months of follow-up
      information for all patients. RESULTS: Treatment data were available for 106/117
      patients. Radiation and excisional surgery were the most common first-line
      treatment options (43.4% and 23.5% of patients, respectively). Patients typically
      received multiple subsequent treatments; no apparent trend or pattern was
      observed. Complete visual response, partial visual response, and stable disease
      were obtained in 51.9%, 25.9%, and 11.1% of patients, respectively, after first
      line surgery, and in 53.7%, 22.0%, and 9.8%, respectively, after first-line
      radiation. Median progression-free survival after first-line treatment was 32.1
      months. Median overall survival was 78.8 months. These data represent a baseline
      for laBCC before HPIs became part of the treatment algorithm. The observed
      heterogeneity of treatment patterns highlights the lack of an established
      standard treatment for laBCC before HPIs were available.

PMID- 28862132
TI  - The complex relationship of exposure to new Plasmodium infections and incidence
      of clinical malaria in Papua New Guinea.
AB  - : The molecular force of blood-stage infection (molFOB) is a quantitative
      surrogate metric for malaria transmission at population level and for exposure at
      individual level. Relationships between molFOB, parasite prevalence and clinical
      incidence were assessed in a treatment-to-reinfection cohort, where P.vivax (Pv)
      hypnozoites were eliminated in half the children by primaquine (PQ). Discounting
      relapses, children acquired equal numbers of new P. falciparum (Pf) and Pv blood
      stage infections/year (Pf-molFOB = 0-18, Pv-molFOB = 0-23) resulting in
      comparable spatial and temporal patterns in incidence and prevalence of
      infections. Including relapses, Pv-molFOB increased >3 fold (relative to PQ
      treated children) showing greater heterogeneity at individual (Pv-molFOB = 0-36)
      and village levels. Pf- and Pv-molFOB were strongly associated with clinical
      episode risk. Yearly Pf clinical incidence rate (IR = 0.28) was higher than for
      Pv (IR = 0.12) despite lower Pf-molFOB. These relationships between molFOB,
      clinical incidence and parasite prevalence reveal a comparable decline in Pf and
      Pv transmission that is normally hidden by the high burden of Pv relapses.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02143934.

PMID- 28862134
TI  - Adult female acne treated with spironolactone: a retrospective data review of 70
      cases.
AB  - The prevalence of acne in the adult population is increasing, particularly in
      women. Spironolactone regulates sebaceous gland activity by blocking androgen
      receptor. To evaluate retrospectively the efficacy of spironolactone in women
      with acne. Data from 70 women of at least 20 years, treated for their acne
      between 2010 and 2015 with low-dose spironolactone (<=150 mg/day), were analysed.
      Remission was defined by the number of retentional lesions inferior or equal to
      five and inflammatory lesions inferior or equal to two on the face. Variables
      influencing the response were studied using the Cox model. The mean age was 31.3
      years; 39 (56%) women had prior courses of isotretinoin and 53 (76%) had an oral
      contraception prior to treatment. Remission data from a median treatment period
      of six months (95% CI: 4-9) were obtained from 47 (71%) women. Markers for a
      positive response to spironolactone were a high number of inflammatory lesions at
      inclusion (OR: 1.08; 95% CI: 1.03-1.13; p = 0.001) and relapse with previous
      isotretinoin (OR: 2.46; 95% CI: 1.09-5.54; p = 0.03). The marker for a negative
      response was an association with oral contraceptives containing first or second
      generation progestin (OR: 2.77; 95% CI: 1.35-5.71; p = 0.005). This retrospective
      data analysis confirms that the use of low doses of spironolactone is a valuable
      alternative in women with acne in whom oral isotretinoin has failed. Moreover,
      the analysis shows that first and second-generation oral contraceptives decrease
      the efficacy of spironolactone, confirming the interest of using two third or
      fourth-generation oral contraceptives.

PMID- 28862136
TI  - Serum anti-oxidative reserves during cellulitis: a pilot study.

PMID- 28862137
TI  - Editorial: What's new this month?

PMID- 28862138
TI  - Dermpath & Clinic: Giant trichoblastoma of the leg.

PMID- 28862139
TI  - And next... Adnexa: Subungual lipoma.

PMID- 28862140
TI  - sQuiz your knowledge: Chronic ulceration of the palm.

PMID- 28862141
TI  - sQuiz your knowledge: Extensive facial scarring: an unusual presentation in a
      neuropsychiatric patient.

PMID- 28862142
TI  - Cancer screening for older people: to screen or not to screen.
AB  - In this scoping review, the evidence of the benefits of screening older people
      for the five most common types of cancer in Hong Kong, namely colorectal, lung,
      breast, liver, and prostate cancers, is discussed. Although cancer treatments can
      be extensive and a good prognosis is less likely if cancer is diagnosed at a late
      stage, screening programmes for older people in primary care remain a matter of
      contention. The general recommendation for the screening of older people is to
      adopt an individualised approach that takes account of not only age but also co
      morbidity, life expectancy, harms and benefits, and patient's preference.

PMID- 28862144
TI  - Beating 'Guangdong cancer': a review and update on nasopharyngeal cancer.
AB  - Once endemic in southern China, nasopharyngeal cancer is becoming less prevalent
      in Hong Kong. This is probably due to a better understanding of the risk factors
      associated with the disease, its genomic landscape, advances in radiotherapy
      technology, and development of effective systemic agents. More specifically, the
      close relationship between Epstein-Barr virus and nasopharyngeal cancer opens up
      the possibility of using Epstein-Barr virus DNA as a biomarker for early
      detection and monitoring of the disease. On the other hand, the looming genomic
      data for nasopharyngeal cancer aid in the development of powerful biomarkers and
      promising targeted therapy. Clinical use of a combination of radiotherapy and
      chemotherapy continues to increase, while the development of immunotherapy, such
      as checkpoint inhibitors, offers hope in improving treatment outcome.

PMID- 28862143
TI  - Immunoglobulin G4-related disease in Hong Kong: clinical features, treatment
      practices, and its association with multisystem disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Immunoglobulin G4-related disease remains an under-recognised and
      evolving disease. Local data are sparse and previous publications have been
      limited to individual case reports or case series only. We conducted this study
      to review the clinical features, treatment practices, and factors associated with
      multisystem involvement in Hong Kong. We described the clinical features and
      treatment modalities of the largest cohort of immunoglobulin G4-related disease
      in our locality thus far. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated all patients with
      immunoglobulin G4-related disease between January 2003 and December 2015 in Queen
      Mary Hospital and combined this with patient data extracted from previous local
      publications. We analysed the clinical features, treatment practices, and factors
      associated with the number of organ systems involved. RESULTS: A total of 104
      patients (55 from Queen Mary Hospital and 49 from literature review) were
      identified. Patients were predominantly older men (mean [standard deviation] age,
      61.9 [12.7] years; male-to-female ratio=3:1) and 94.4% had elevated pre-treatment
      serum immunoglobulin G4 levels. Hepatobiliary and pancreatic system (40.4%),
      salivary gland (33.7%), lymph node (29.8%), and eye (19.2%) were the most common
      organ systems involved. Lymphadenopathy was associated with glucocorticoid use
      (odds ratio=2.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-6.54; P=0.034). Pre-treatment
      serum immunoglobulin G4 levels correlated with the number of organ systems
      involved (beta=0.347; P=0.004) and, specifically, more associated with patients
      having salivary gland involvement than those without (mean, 1109 mg/dL vs 599
      mg/dL; P=0.012). CONCLUSION: We identified pre-treatment serum immunoglobulin G4
      to be associated with multisystem disease, especially with salivary gland
      involvement, highlighting its potential for disease prognostication and
      monitoring. Increased physician awareness and multidisciplinary efforts are
      required for early diagnosis and optimal management of this masquerading disease.

PMID- 28862145
TI  - Expanded newborn metabolic screening programme in Hong Kong: a three-year
      journey.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: No universal expanded newborn screening service for inborn errors
      of metabolism is available in Hong Kong despite its long history in developed
      western countries and rapid development in neighbouring Asian countries. To
      increase the local awareness and preparedness, the Centre of Inborn Errors of
      Metabolism of the Chinese University of Hong Kong started a private inborn errors
      of metabolism screening programme in July 2013. This study aimed to describe the
      results and implementation of this screening programme. METHODS: We retrieved the
      demographics of the screened newborns and the screening results from July 2013 to
      July 2016. These data were used to calculate quality metrics such as call-back
      rate and false-positive rate. Clinical details of true-positive and false
      negative cases and their outcomes were described. Finally, the call-back
      logistics for newborns with positive screening results were reviewed. RESULTS:
      During the study period, 30 448 newborns referred from 13 private and public
      units were screened. Of the samples, 98.3% were collected within 7 days of life.
      The overall call-back rate was 0.128% (39/30 448) and the false-positive rate was
      0.105% (32/30 448). Six neonates were confirmed to have inborn errors of
      metabolism, including two cases of medium-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase
      deficiency, one case of carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase deficiency, and three
      milder conditions. One case of maternal carnitine uptake defect was diagnosed.
      All patients remained asymptomatic at their last follow-up. CONCLUSION: The
      Centre of Inborn Errors of Metabolism has established a comprehensive expanded
      newborn screening programme for selected inborn errors of metabolism. It sets a
      standard against which the performance of other private newborn screening tests
      can be compared. Our experience can also serve as a reference for policymakers
      when they contemplate establishing a government-funded universal expanded newborn
      screening programme in the future.

PMID- 28862146
TI  - Analytic approach to magneto-strain tuning of electronic transport through a
      graphene nanobubble: perspectives for a strain sensor.
AB  - We consider the scattering of Dirac particles in graphene due to the
      superposition of an external magnetic field and mechanical strain. As a model for
      a graphene nanobubble, we find exact analytical solutions for single-particle
      states inside and outside a circular region submitted to the fields. Finally, we
      obtain analytical expressions for the scattering cross-section, as well as for
      the Landauer current through the circular region. Our results provide a fully
      analytical treatment for electronic transport through a graphene nanobubble,
      showing that a combination of a physical magnetic field and strain leads to
      valley polarization and filtering of the electronic current. Moreover, our
      analytical model provides an explicit metrology principle to measure strain by
      performing conductance experiments under a controlled magnetic field imposed over
      the sample.

PMID- 28862147
TI  - Experimental investigation of biomimetic self-pumping and self-adaptive
      transpiration cooling.
AB  - Transpiration cooling is an effective way to protect high heat flux walls.
      However, the pumps for the transpiration cooling system make the system more
      complex and increase the load, which is a huge challenge for practical
      applications. A biomimetic self-pumping transpiration cooling system was
      developed inspired by the process of trees transpiration that has no pumps. An
      experimental investigation showed that the water coolant automatically flowed
      from the water tank to the hot surface with a height difference of 80 mm without
      any pumps. A self-adaptive transpiration cooling system was then developed based
      on this mechanism. The system effectively cooled the hot surface with the surface
      temperature kept to about 373 K when the heating flame temperature was 1639 K and
      the heat flux was about 0.42 MW m-2. The cooling efficiency reached 94.5%. The
      coolant mass flow rate adaptively increased with increasing flame heat flux from
      0.24 MW m-2 to 0.42 MW m-2 while the cooled surface temperature stayed around 373
      K. Schlieren pictures showed a protective steam layer on the hot surface which
      blocked the flame heat flux to the hot surface. The protective steam layer
      thickness also increased with increasing heat flux.

PMID- 28862148
TI  - Frequency upconversion and fluorescence intensity ratio method in Yb3+-ion
      sensitized Gd2O3:Er3+-Eu3+ phosphors for display and temperature sensing.
AB  - Near infrared (NIR) to visible frequency upconversion emission studies in Er3+
      Eu3+/Er3+-Eu3+-Yb3+ co-doped/tri-doped Gd2O3 phosphors prepared by the co
      precipitation technique have been explored under 980 nm laser diode radiation.
      The developed phosphors were characterized with the help of XRD, FE-SEM and FTIR
      analysis. No upconversion (UC) emission was found in the Eu3+-doped Gd2O3
      phosphor. UC emission from Eu3+ ions along with Er3+ ions was observed in Er3+
      Eu3+ and Er3+-Eu3+-Yb3+ co-doped/tri-doped phosphors. The UC emission arising
      from the Er3+ and Eu3+ ions was enhanced several times due to the incorporation
      of Yb3+ ions. The processes involved in the UC emission were obtained on the
      basis of the effect of energy transfer/sensitization through the Yb3+ -> Er3+ ->
      Eu3+ process. The red/green intensity ratio was improved from 0.16 to 1.50 and
      1.01 to 1.50 for Er3+-Eu3+-Yb3+ tri-doped phosphors as compared to the Er3+-doped
      and Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped phosphors, respectively, at a fixed pump power density. A
      UC fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR)-based temperature sensing study was
      performed in the prepared Er3+-Eu3+-Yb3+ tri-doped Gd2O3 phosphors for green
      upconversion emission bands in the 300 K-443 K temperature range. A maximum
      sensor sensitivity of about ~0.0043 K-1 at 300 K was achieved for the synthesized
      tri-doped phosphors upon excitation with a 980 nm laser diode. The colour
      coordinates lying in the green-yellow region are invariant, with variation in
      pump power density and temperature. The observed results support the utility of
      the prepared tri-doped phosphors in optical temperature sensing, display devices
      and NIR to visible upconverters.

PMID- 28862149
TI  - Electrical and thermoelectric transport properties of two-dimensional fermionic
      systems with <i>k</i>-cubic spin-orbit coupling.
AB  - We investigate effect of <i>k</i>-cubic spin-orbit interaction on electrical and
      thermoelectric transport properties of two-dimensional fermionic systems. We
      obtain exact analytical expressions of the inverse relaxation time (IRT) and the
      Drude conductivity for long-range Coulomb and short-range delta scattering
      potentials. The IRT reveals that the scattering is completely suppressed along
      the three directions theta = (2n+1)pi/3 with n=1,2,3. We also obtain analytical
      results of the thermopower and thermal conductivity at low temperature. The
      thermoelectric transport coefficients obey the Wiedemann-Franz law, even in the
      presence of <i>k</i>-cubic Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI) at low
      temperature. In the presence of quantizing magnetic field, the signature of the
      RSOI is revealed through the appearance of the beating pattern in the Shubnikov
      de Haas (SdH) oscillations of thermopower and thermal conductivity in low
      magnetic field regime. The empirical formulae for the SdH oscillation frequencies
      accurately describe the locations of the beating nodes. The beating pattern in
      magnetothermoelectric measurement can be used to extract the spin-orbit coupling
      constant.

PMID- 28862150
TI  - Sonogashira cross-coupling over Au(1 1 1): from UHV to ambient pressure.
AB  - We have studied the reaction of phenylacetylene (PA) with chloro-, bromo-, and
      iodobenzene on the Au(1 1 1) surface as a model system for the gold-catalysed
      Sonogashira cross-coupling. Both ultrahigh vacuum-based and ambient pressure x
      ray photoelectron spectroscopy show that iodo- and chlorobenzene (IB and CB)
      undergo the cross-coupling reaction towards diphenylacetylene. Bromobenzene (BB),
      in contrast, does not react in the UHV experiments. Further, at ambient pressure
      signs are found for poisoning of the Au(1 1 1) surface by a carbon species formed
      in the reaction. The understanding obtained in the reaction experiments are based
      on a thorough investigation of the adsorption of PA, IB, CB, and BB on the Au(1 1
      1) surface by soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy and temperature-dependent x-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy. In particular, the experiments provide the
      orientation of the intact adsorbates with respect to the surfaces at liquid
      nitrogen temperature. Dissociation in the temperature regime between  -80 and  
      15  degrees C is observed for iodo- and chlorobenzene, but not for BB, in
      agreement with that only IB and CB, but not BB, react with PA to form
      diphenylacetylene. The difference is tentatively attributed to a difference in
      surface orientation of the different halobenzenes.

PMID- 28862151
TI  - Relaxation dynamics of a driven two-level system coupled to a Bose-Einstein
      condensate: application to quantum dot-dipolar exciton gas hybrid systems.
AB  - We develop a microscopic theory for the relaxation dynamics of an optically
      pumped two-level system (TLS) coupled to a bath of weakly interacting Bose gas.
      Using Keldysh formalism and diagrammatic perturbation theory, expressions for the
      relaxation times of the TLS Rabi oscillations are derived when the boson bath is
      in the normal state and the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) state. We apply our
      general theory to consider an irradiated quantum dot coupled with a boson bath
      consisting of a two-dimensional dipolar exciton gas. When the bath is in the BEC
      regime, relaxation of the Rabi oscillations is due to both condensate and non
      condensate fractions of the bath bosons for weak TLS-light coupling and pre
      dominantly due to the non-condensate fraction for strong TLS-light coupling. Our
      theory also shows that a phase transition of the bath from the normal to the BEC
      state strongly influences the relaxation rate of the TLS Rabi oscillations. The
      TLS relaxation rate is approximately independent of the pump field frequency and
      monotonically dependent on the field strength when the bath is in the low
      temperature regime of the normal phase. Phase transition of the dipolar exciton
      gas leads to a non-monotonic dependence of the TLS relaxation rate on both the
      pump field frequency and field strength, providing a characteristic signature for
      the detection of BEC phase transition of the coupled dipolar exciton gas.

PMID- 28862152
TI  - Tumour control in ion beam radiotherapy with different ions in the presence of
      hypoxia: an oxygen enhancement ratio model based on the microdosimetric kinetic
      model.
AB  - Few attempts have been made to include the oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) in
      treatment planning for ion beam therapy, and systematic studies to evaluate the
      impact of hypoxia in treatment with the beam of different ion species are sorely
      needed. The radiobiological models used to quantify the OER in such studies are
      mainly based on the dose-averaged LET estimates, and do not explicitly
      distinguish between the ion species and fractionation schemes. In this study, a
      new type of OER modelling, based on the microdosimetric kinetic model, taking
      into account the specificity of the different ions, LET spectra, tissues and
      fractionation schemes, has been developed. The model has been benchmarked with
      published in vitro data, HSG, V79 and CHO cells in aerobic and hypoxic
      conditions, for different ion irradiation. The model has been included in the
      simulation of treatments for a clinical case (brain tumour) using proton,
      lithium, helium, carbon and oxygen ion beams. A study of the tumour control
      probability (TCP) as a function of oxygen partial pressure, dose per fraction and
      primary ion type has been performed. The modelled OER depends on both the LET and
      ion type, also showing a decrease for an increased dose per fraction with a slope
      that depends on the LET and ion type, in good agreement with the experimental
      data. In the investigated clinical case, a significant increase in TCP has been
      found upon increasing the ion charge. Higher OER variations as a function of dose
      per fraction have also been found for low-LET ions (up to 15% varying from 2 to 8
      Gy(RBE) for protons). This model could be exploited in the identification of
      treatment condition optimality in the presence of hypoxia, including
      fractionation and primary particle selection.

PMID- 28862153
TI  - Zirconia based Ho3+-Yb3+ codoped upconverting nanophosphors for green light
      emitting devices applications.
AB  - Photoluminescence study of the Ho3+-Yb3+ codoped ZrO, AlZrO and YZrO
      nanophosphors, synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method, upon excitation
      at 450 and 980 nm radiations have been performed. An improvement of about ~4.5
      times in the downconversion emission intensity of green band corresponding to the
      5F4, 5S2 -> 5I8 transition for codoped YZrO nanophosphors compared to ZrO codoped
      nanophosphors has been observed. On varying the pump power density upon 980 nm
      excitation the colour tunability in the codoped YZrO nanophosphors has been
      observed. UC emission intensity of the green band arising from the Ho3+ ion in
      the codoped YZrO nanophosphors is enhanced about ~22 times compared to that of
      the codoped ZrO nanophosphors. The absorption and UC emission study for the
      codoped YZrO nanophosphors dispersed in different biologically compatible
      solvents viz. water, methanol, ethanol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has been
      performed. The green UC emission intensity of about ~1.3 and ~1.7 times for the
      efficient codoped YZrO nanophosphors dispersed in methanol compared to that
      dispersed in water and DMSO respectively has been observed. The absorption
      spectra of an efficient upconverting YZrO nanophosphors dispersed in methanol
      exhibit no change with the passage of time.

PMID- 28862154
TI  - Stalk-length-dependence of the contractility of Vorticella convallaria.
AB  - Vorticella convallaria is a sessile protozoan of which the spasmoneme contracts
      on a millisecond timescale. Because this contraction is induced and powered by
      the binding of calcium ions (Ca2+), the spasmoneme showcases Ca2+-powered
      cellular motility. Because the isometric tension of V. convallaria increases
      linearly with its stalk length, it is hypothesized that the contractility of V.
      convallaria during unhindered contraction depends on the stalk length. In this
      study, the contractile force and energetics of V. convallaria cells of different
      stalk lengths were evaluated using a fluid dynamic drag model which accounts for
      the unsteadiness and finite Reynolds number of the water flow caused by
      contracting V. convallaria and the wall effect of the no-slip substrate. It was
      found that the contraction displacement, peak contraction speed, peak contractile
      force, total mechanical work, and peak power depended on the stalk length. The
      observed stalk-length-dependencies were simulated using a damped spring model,
      and the model estimated that the average spring constant of the contracting stalk
      was 1.34 nN um-1. These observed length-dependencies of Vorticella's key
      contractility parameters reflect the biophysical mechanism of the spasmonemal
      contraction, and thus they should be considered in developing a theoretical model
      of the Vorticella spasmoneme.

PMID- 28862155
TI  - Osteogenesis effects of strontium-substituted hydroxyapatite coatings on true
      bone ceramic surfaces in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - To develop bioactive bone graft materials that can induce rapid bone
      regeneration, a novel biomaterial was synthesized by coating true bone ceramic
      (TBC) substrates with strontium-substituted nano-hydroxyapatites (SrHA) (Sr
      concentrations of 0%, 10%, 40%, 100%) through a sol-gel dip-coating approach. All
      coated TBC scaffolds retained the inherent natural trabecular structure,
      porosity, compressive strength and simultaneously possessed a
      micro/nanotopography SrHA layer on the substrate surface. The dimension of the
      deposited crystal increased and the density of the deposited apatite particles
      became sparse with increasing Sr content, but a unique HA crystalline phase was
      observed under all conditions. The modified TBC scaffolds significantly enhanced
      the adhesion, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1
      osteoblasts in vitro. Particularly, the Sr10-TBC group (10 mol% Sr2+ in apatite
      coating) revealed the highest osteogenic efficacy over the other groups. Three
      dimensional CT imaging and histological evaluations on a bilateral critical-sized
      rabbit radial defect model for 12 weeks showed significant bone formation in the
      Sr10-TBC implants. The new bone area ratios of the Sr10-TBC group were
      significantly higher than that of the TBC group. Additionally, Sr10-TBC implants
      showed faster degradability compared with raw TBC implants during the 12 weeks of
      implantation. The results indicate that TBC modification with 10% SrHA coating
      stimulated osteogenesis and could be a promising biomaterial for future bone
      defect regeneration.

PMID- 28862156
TI  - Manipulation of native point defect behavior in rutile TiO2 via surfaces and
      extended defects.
AB  - Semiconductor surfaces offer efficient pathways for exchanging native point
      defects with the underlying bulk. For rutile TiO2(1 1 0), isotopic self-diffusion
      studies of oxygen have suggested that the surface may act as a source for Oi
      while simultaneously acting as a sink for titanium interstitials Tii. Through
      self-diffusion measurements with labeled Ti as well as O, the present work
      develops a more complete picture of the diffusion-reaction network involving Oi
      and Tii, complete with the surface acting as a source for whichever elements are
      available from the gas phase and a sink for elements that are not. The picture
      points to the importance of extended defects such as platelets and
      crystallographic shear planes as reservoirs of Oi and Tii, acting as net sources
      or sinks of these species depending upon specific conditions. The results
      exemplify the combined roles of surfaces and extended defects in regulating point
      defect behavior even in macroscopic metal oxide crystals, and point to specific
      strategies for manipulating that behavior intentionally.

PMID- 28862157
TI  - Modelling the collective response of heterogeneous cell populations to stationary
      gradients and chemical signal relay.
AB  - The directed motion of cell aggregates toward a chemical source occurs in many
      relevant biological processes. Understanding the mechanisms that control this
      complex behavior is of great relevance for our understanding of developmental
      biological processes and many diseases. In this paper, we consider a self
      propelled particle model for the movement of heterogeneous subpopulations of
      chemically interacting cells towards an imposed stable chemical gradient. Our
      simulations show explicitly how self-organisation of cell populations (which
      could lead to engulfment or complete cell segregation) can arise from the
      heterogeneity of chemotactic responses alone. This new result complements current
      theoretical and experimental studies that emphasise the role of differential cell
      cell adhesion on self-organisation and spatial structure of cellular aggregates.
      We also investigate how the speed of individual cell aggregations increases with
      the chemotactic sensitivity of the cells, and decreases with the number of cells
      inside the aggregates.

PMID- 28862158
TI  - Facile modification of electrospun fibrous structures with antifouling
      zwitterionic hydrogels.
AB  - Electrospinning technology can easily produce different shaped fibrous
      structures, making them highly valuable to various biomedical applications.
      However, surface contamination of biomolecules, cells, or blood has emerged as a
      significant challenge to the success of electrospun devices, especially
      artificial blood vessels, catheters and wound dressings etc. Many efforts have
      been made to resist the surface non-specific biomolecules or cells adsorption,
      but most of them require complex pre-treatment processes, hard-to-remove metal
      catalysts or rigorous reaction conditions. In addition, the stability of
      antifouling coatings, especially in complex conditions, is still a major concern.
      In this work, inspired by the interpenetrating polymer network and reinforced
      concrete structure, an efficient and facile strategy for modifying hydrophobic
      electrospun meshes and tubes with antifouling zwitterionic hydrogels has been
      introduced. The resulting products could efficiently resist the adhesion of
      proteins, cells, or even fresh whole blood. Meanwhile, they could maintain the
      shapes and mechanical strength of the original electrospun structures.
      Furthermore, the hydrogel structures could retain stable in a physiological
      condition for at least 3 months. This paper provided a general antifouling and
      hydrophilicity surface modification strategy for various fibrous structures, and
      could be of great value for many biomedical applications where antifouling
      properties are critical.

PMID- 28862160
TI  - Construction of MoS2/Si nanowire array heterojunction for ultrahigh-sensitivity
      gas sensor.
AB  - Few-layer MoS2 thin films were synthesized by a two-step thermal decomposition
      process. In addition, MoS2/Si nanowire array (SiNWA) heterojunctions exhibiting
      excellent gas sensing properties were constructed and investigated. Further
      analysis reveals that such MoS2/SiNWA heterojunction devices are highly sensitive
      to nitric oxide (NO) gas under reverse voltages at room temperature (RT). The gas
      sensor demonstrated a minimum detection limit of 10 ppb, which represents the
      lowest value obtained for MoS2-based sensors, as well as an ultrahigh response of
      3518% (50 ppm NO, ~50% RH), with good repeatability and selectivity of the
      MoS2/SiNWA heterojunction. The sensing mechanisms were also discussed. The
      performance of the MoS2/SiNWA heterojunction gas sensors is superior to previous
      results, revealing that they have great potential in applications relating to
      highly sensitive gas sensors.

PMID- 28862161
TI  - Epitaxial strain driven crossover from Drude to Drude-Smith terahertz
      conductivity dynamics in LaNiO3 thin films.
AB  - We investigate the hetero-epitaxial strain driven low-energy charge dynamics in
      compressive and tensile strained LaNiO3 thin films employing terahertz (THz) time
      domain spectroscopy. The complex THz conductivity exhibits a crossover from Drude
      type metallic behavior for the compressive film to a Drude-Smith type disordered
      behavior for the tensile film. This demonstration of strain driven crossover in
      THz conductivity dynamics, while the two films have qualitatively similar dc
      conductivities, (i) brings out the potential of THz technology in distinguishing
      between similar dc electronic phases and (ii) suggests that LaNiO3 under
      compressive strain is a better candidate for applications as electrodes in oxides
      electronics.

PMID- 28862162
TI  - Philip Coppens (1930-2017).

PMID- 28862163
TI  - Davide Viterbo (1939-2017).

PMID- 28862164
TI  - Close-packed structure dynamics with finite-range interaction: computational
      mechanics with individual layer interaction.
AB  - This is the second contribution in a series of papers dealing with dynamical
      models in equilibrium theories of polytypism. A Hamiltonian introduced by Ahmad &
      Khan [Phys. Status Solidi B (2000), 218, 425-430] avoids the unphysical
      assignment of interaction terms to fictitious entities given by spins in the Hagg
      coding of the stacking arrangement. In this paper an analysis of polytype
      generation and disorder in close-packed structures is made for such a
      Hamiltonian. Results are compared with a previous analysis using the Ising model.
      Computational mechanics is the framework under which the analysis is performed.
      The competing effects of disorder and structure, as given by entropy density and
      excess entropy, respectively, are discussed. It is argued that the Ahmad & Khan
      model is simpler and predicts a larger set of polytypes than previous treatments.

PMID- 28862165
TI  - Mathematical aspects of molecular replacement. IV. Measure-theoretic
      decompositions of motion spaces.
AB  - In molecular-replacement (MR) searches, spaces of motions are explored for
      determining the appropriate placement of rigid-body models of macromolecules in
      crystallographic asymmetric units. The properties of the space of non-redundant
      motions in an MR search, called a 'motion space', are the subject of this series
      of papers. This paper, the fourth in the series, builds on the others by showing
      that when the space group of a macromolecular crystal can be decomposed into a
      product of two space subgroups that share only the lattice translation group, the
      decomposition of the group provides different decompositions of the corresponding
      motion spaces. Then an MR search can be implemented by trading off between
      regions of the translation and rotation subspaces. The results of this paper
      constrain the allowable shapes and sizes of these subspaces. Special choices
      result when the space group is decomposed into a product of a normal Bieberbach
      subgroup and a symmorphic subgroup (which is a common occurrence in the space
      groups encountered in protein crystallography). Examples of Sohncke space groups
      are used to illustrate the general theory in the three-dimensional case (which is
      the relevant case for MR), but the general theory in this paper applies to any
      dimension.

PMID- 28862166
TI  - The wavevector substar group in reciprocal space and its representation.
AB  - A new concept of the wavevector substar group is established which, in the study
      of translational symmetry breaking of a crystal, only considers the particular
      arms of the wavevector star taking part in the phase transition; this is in
      contrast with the traditional Landau theory which considers all of the arms of
      the wavevector star. It is shown that this new concept can be used effectively to
      investigate the interesting physical properties of crystals associated with
      translational symmetry breaking. It is shown that studies on complicated phase
      transitions related to reducible representations, such as those in perovskite
      KMnF3 multiferroics and the high-temperature superconductor La2/3Mg1/2W1/2O3
      (La4Mg3W3O18), are much simplified by the new concept. The theory of the
      wavevector substar group and its representation is a powerful mathematical tool
      for the study of various symmetry-breaking phenomena in solid-state crystals.

PMID- 28862167
TI  - Real-time detection and resolution of atom bumping in crystallographic models.
AB  - A basic principle in crystal structure determination is that there should be
      proper distances between adjacent atoms. Therefore, detection of atom bumping is
      of fundamental significance in structure determination, especially in the direct
      space method where crystallographic models are just randomly generated. Presented
      in this article is an algorithm that detects atom bonding in a unit cell based on
      the sweep and prune algorithm of axis-aligned bounding boxes and running in the
      O(n log n) time bound, where n is the total number of atoms in the unit cell.
      This algorithm only needs the positions of individual atoms in the unit cell and
      does not require any prior knowledge of existing bonds, and is thus suitable for
      modelling of inorganic crystals where the bonding relations are often unknown a
      priori. With this algorithm, computation routines requiring bonding information,
      e.g. anti-bumping and computation of coordination numbers and valences, can be
      performed efficiently. As an example application, an evaluation function for atom
      bumping is proposed, which can be used for real-time elimination of
      crystallographic models with unreasonably short bonds during the procedure of
      global optimization in the direct-space method.

PMID- 28862168
TI  - Accelerated scattering of convex polyhedra.
AB  - The formulas for the minimum (minn) and maximum (maxn) names in the classes of
      convex n-acra (i.e. n-vertex polyhedra) are found for any n. The asymptotic
      behaviour (as n -> infinity) for maxn+1/maxn, minn+1/minn, minn+1/maxn and
      maxn/minn is established. They characterize in detail the accelerated scattering
      of [minn, maxn] ranges on a real line.

PMID- 28862169
TI  - Three-dimensional Intralunate Arteries Visualization with Red Lead (Pb3O4)
      Angiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The etiology of Kienbock's disease is controversial, and the blood
      supply is a possible pathogenic factor. The red lead (Pb3O4) angiography with
      micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) of lunate to investigate intralunate
      arteries has rarely been reported. This study aimed to investigate a new,
      reasonable, and simplified technique to study the intraosseous arterial pattern
      of normal lunates. METHODS: This study investigated the intraosseous arterial
      pattern of six normal cadaveric lunates through Pb3O4injection and three
      dimensional reconstruction with micro-CT. The intraosseous arteries of all
      specimens were clearly enhanced. The data of enhanced arteries and nutrient
      foramina were shown as median (Q1, Q3) and analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank
      test. RESULTS: The mean number of total nutrient foramina was 2.00 (1.75, 2.00)
      on the palmar side and 3.50 (2.50, 4.25) on the dorsal side. The number with
      enhanced arteries on the palmar side was 1.00 (0.75, 2.00) and on the dorsal side
      was 3.50 (1.75, 4.00). There were no significant differences between the number
      of nutrient foramina on the palmar and dorsal sides of the lunates, no matter the
      total number or enhanced arteries. The intraosseous arterial pattern in normal
      lunates can be classified into three types: the dominate stems from the palmar
      side, from the dorsal side, and from both sides with anastomosis. CONCLUSIONS:
      The Pb3O4angiography with micro-CT is a simplified, quicker, and reliable method
      to study intraosseous arteries.

PMID- 28862170
TI  - Lumbar Scoliosis Induction in Juvenile Dogs by Three-dimensional Modulation of
      Spinal Growth Using Nickel-Titanium Coil Springs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current treatments for scoliosis have some defects and complications.
      To study spinal deformities and test novel scoliosis treatments, many animal
      models of scoliosis have been developed. These models applied a single load to
      the spine and could not precisely modulate the spinal growth in different
      dimensions. In this study, we applied posterior tethering in various directions
      with the application of nickel-titanium (NT) coil springs in dog's spine to
      modulate spinal growth in the coronal, sagittal, and transverse planes and create
      a scoliosis model possess curves that mimic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS)
      three dimensionally. METHODS: Scoliosis was surgically induced in eight 8-week
      old female dogs (weight: 1.95-2.30 kg) using bone screws and NT coil springs. The
      deformity was induced through the placement of posterior NT coil springs that
      tethered the spine by bone screw fixation. All dogs were monitored with serial
      radiographs to document changes in deformities. RESULTS: All experimental animals
      developed scoliotic curves convex to the left in the lumbar segment. The mean
      coronal Cobb angle was 18.0 degrees  immediately postoperatively and 54.5 degrees
      at 22 weeks. The mean lordosis increased from 6.2 degrees  postoperatively to
      35.0 degrees  at final follow-up. Apical axial rotation increased from 4.5
      degrees  postoperatively to 31.2 degrees  at 22 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: With the
      application of NT springs in dogs that allowed posterior tethering in various
      directions, lumbar spinal deformity was achieved in three planes: coronal,
      sagittal, and transverse planes. Notably, the lumbar spine in surgically treated
      dogs developed lordoscoliosis with obvious rotation and the curves mimic AIS
      three dimensionally well. This method allows lumbar scoliosis to develop without
      deep dissection of muscle and maintains the essential anatomical elements along
      the spinal curve. Moreover, the spinal growth modulation technique could yield
      information that would provide a basis for developing novel early-stage
      treatments for children with scoliosis.

PMID- 28862171
TI  - Depression: Why to talk?

PMID- 28862172
TI  - Do we need better hepatitis B vaccines?

PMID- 28862173
TI  - When treating rheumatoid arthritis be vigilant for influenza (& pneumonia): Don't
      ignore, don't neglect.

PMID- 28862174
TI  - Genital tuberculosis in females.
AB  - The morbidity and mortality due to tuberculosis (TB) is high worldwide, and the
      burden of disease among women is significant, especially in developing countries.
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli reach the genital tract primarily by
      haematogenous spread and dissemination from foci outside the genitalia with lungs
      as the common primary focus. Genital TB in females is a chronic disease with low
      grade symptoms. The fallopian tubes are affected in almost all cases of genital
      TB, and along with endometrial involvement, it causes infertility in patients.
      Many women present with atypical symptoms which mimic other gynaecological
      conditions. A combination of investigations is needed to establish the diagnosis
      of female genital TB (FGTB). Multidrug anti-TB treatment is the mainstay of
      management and surgery may be required in advanced cases. Conception rates are
      low among infertile women with genital TB even after multidrug therapy for TB,
      and the risk of complications such as ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage is high.
      More research is needed on the changing trends in the prevalence and on the
      appropriate methods for diagnosis of FGTB.

PMID- 28862175
TI  - Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase A1298C genetic variant& risk of
      schizophrenia: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is an
      important enzyme of folate metabolism, whose role in schizophrenia is debatable.
      Numerous case-control studies have investigated the association of MTHFR A1298C
      polymorphism with schizophrenia, but results are controversial. The aim of the
      present study was to find the association between MTHFR A1298C gene polymorphism
      and schizophrenia. METHODS: PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct and Springer
      link databases were searched for case-control association studies in which MTHFR
      A1298C polymorphism was investigated as a risk factor for schizophrenia. In all,
      19 studies with 4049 cases and 5488 controls were included in this meta-analysis.
      Odds ratios (ORs) with 95 per cent confidence intervals (CIs) were used as an
      association measure. RESULTS: The results of meta-analysis reported a significant
      association between A1298C polymorphism and schizophrenia risk in overall
      comparisons in all genetic models (C vs. A: OR=1.13, 95% CI=1.01-1.27, P=0.02; CC
      vs. AA: OR=1.20, 95% CI=1.03-1.39, P=0.02; AC vs. AA: OR=1.13, 95% CI=1.03-1.23,
      P=0.009; AC+CC vs. AA: OR=1.14, 95% CI=1.02-1.24, P=0.002; CC vs. AA+AC: OR=1.17,
      95% CI=1.01-1.35, P=0.04). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: MTHFR A1298C
      polymorphism was found to be a risk factor for schizophrenia and might have
      played a significant role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28862176
TI  - Index-TB guidelines: Guidelines on extrapulmonary tuberculosis for India.
AB  - Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is frequently a diagnostic and therapeutic
      challenge. It is a common opportunistic infection in people living with HIV/AIDS
      and other immunocompromised states such as diabetes mellitus and malnutrition.
      There is a paucity of data from clinical trials in EPTB and most of the
      information regarding diagnosis and management is extrapolated from pulmonary TB.
      Further, there are no formal national or international guidelines on EPTB. To
      address these concerns, Indian EPTB guidelines were developed under the auspices
      of Central TB Division and Directorate of Health Services, Ministry of Health and
      Family Welfare, Government of India. The objective was to provide guidance on
      uniform, evidence-informed practices for suspecting, diagnosing and managing EPTB
      at all levels of healthcare delivery. The guidelines describe agreed principles
      relevant to 10 key areas of EPTB which are complementary to the existing country
      standards of TB care and technical operational guidelines for pulmonary TB. These
      guidelines provide recommendations on three priority areas for EPTB: (i) use of
      Xpert MTB/RIF in diagnosis, (ii) use of adjunct corticosteroids in treatment, and
      (iii) duration of treatment. The guidelines were developed using the Grading of
      Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria, which
      were evidence based, and due consideration was given to various healthcare
      settings across India. Further, for those forms of EPTB in which evidence
      regarding best practice was lacking, clinical practice points were developed by
      consensus on accumulated knowledge and experience of specialists who participated
      in the working groups. This would also reflect the needs of healthcare providers
      and develop a platform for future research.

PMID- 28862177
TI  - Effect of disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy on immune response to
      trivalent influenza vaccine in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases may be at an
      increased risk of infection due to disease and use of disease-modifying
      antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy. The present study was done to evaluate the
      immune response to influenza vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA). METHODS: Fifty one RA patients on stable methotrexate (MTX) therapy (>=15
      mg/wk), 51 newly diagnosed DMARD-naive RA patients and 45 healthy controls
      received a single dose of inactivated seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine. Blood
      samples were collected just prior to and four weeks after vaccination. Pre- and
      post-vaccination antibody titres against the three virus strains were measured by
      hemagglutination inhibition assay. The impact of age, gender, DMARD treatment and
      pre-vaccination seroprotection on response to the vaccine was assessed by binary
      logistic regression analysis for each of the virus strains. RESULTS: Pre
      vaccination antibody titres were found to be high in the three study groups for
      all influenza strains, except for Yamagata strain, the titres for which were low
      in healthy controls. Trivalent influenza vaccination was found to be safe and
      stimulated a good antibody response in all study groups. On regression analysis,
      there was no association of age, gender or MTX therapy with vaccine response,
      except for Yamagata strain where healthy controls had higher positive immune
      response (P=0.008; odds ratio - 3.37, 95% confidence interval: 1.36-8.32).
      INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that influenza vaccination
      was safe in RA patients with no detrimental effect on disease activity. MTX
      therapy at a dose >=15 mg/wk did not affect the vaccine response. Presence of
      high pre-vaccination seroprotective antibody levels in the study population
      indicates the need for re-examination of recommended annual influenza vaccination
      in such subgroups of population.

PMID- 28862178
TI  - Spectrum of prenatally detected central nervous system malformations: Neural tube
      defects continue to be the leading foetal malformation.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Prenatal diagnosis of malformations is an important
      method of prevention and control of congenital anomalies with poor prognosis.
      Central nervous system (CNS) malformations amongst these are the most common. The
      information about the prevalence and spectrum of prenatally detected
      malformations is crucial for genetic counselling and policymaking for population
      based preventive programmes. The objective of this study was to study the
      spectrum of prenatally detected CNS malformations and their association with
      chromosomal abnormalities and autopsy findings. METHODS: This retrospective study
      was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in north India from January 2007 to
      December 2013. The details of cases with prenatally detected CNS malformations
      were collected and were related with the foetal chromosomal analysis and autopsy
      findings. RESULTS: Amongst 6044 prenatal ultrasonographic examinations performed;
      768 (12.7%) had structural malformations and 243 (31.6%) had CNS malformations.
      Neural tube defects (NTDs) accounted for 52.3 per cent of CNS malformations and
      16.5 per cent of all malformations. The other major groups of prenatally detected
      CNS malformations were ventriculomegaly and midline anomalies. Chromosomal
      abnormalities were detected in 8.2 per cent of the 73 cases studied. Foetal
      autopsy findings were available for 48 foetuses. Foetal autopsy identified
      additional findings in eight foetuses and the aetiological diagnosis changed in
      two of them (4.2%). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Amongst prenatally detected
      malformations, CNS malformations were common. NTD, which largely is a preventable
      anomaly, continued to be the most common group. Moreover, 60 per cent of
      malformations were diagnosed after 20 weeks, posing legal issues. Chromosomal
      analysis and foetal autopsy are essential for genetic counselling based on
      aetiological diagnosis.

PMID- 28862179
TI  - Influence of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reconstruction
      algorithm on diagnostic accuracy of parathyroid scintigraphy: Comparison of
      iterative reconstruction with filtered backprojection.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Preoperative localization of parathyroid lesions is
      essential for improving the results in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism.
      The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the value of technetium
      99m (Tc-99m) methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) single photon emission computed
      tomography (SPECT) and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of iterative
      reconstruction (IR) and filtered backprojection (FBP) reconstruction algorithms
      about localization of parathyroid lesions. METHODS: Forty four patients with
      primary hyperparathyroidism, in whom histopathological correlation could be
      performed, were included in the study. Dual-phase Tc-99m parathyroid scintigraphy
      was performed 20 and 120 min after injection of 740 MBq Tc-99m MIBI in all
      patients. Tomographic images were acquired 120 min after the administration of
      radiopharmaceutical. The SPECT data were evaluated using an IR as well as a FBP
      algorithm. In 23 of 44 patients, SPECT acquisitions were performed in 64*64
      matrix; in the remaining 21 patients, tomographic data were collected in 128*128
      matrix. The imaging results were compared with pathological findings and
      sensitivities of both reconstruction algorithms, and planar views were
      calculated. RESULTS: Using planar MIBI scans, abnormal parathyroid glands were
      correctly localized in 75 per cent of the cases. Sensitivity increased to 77 per
      cent using SPECT with FBP and to 84 per cent with IR. When the sensitivities were
      calculated according to the acquisition matrix, these were 95 per cent (20/21)
      and 85 per cent (18/21) for IR and FBP, respectively in patients in whom 128*128
      matrix was used. The sensitivities were lower in patients who were imaged with
      64*64 matrix; these were calculated as 74 per cent (17/23) and 70 per cent
      (16/23) with IR and FBP, respectively. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      showed that compared to planar scintigraphy, Tc-99m MIBI SPECT was more sensitive
      diagnostic modality in the detection of abnormal parathyroid tissues. Image
      quality and sensitivity may be improved further when larger matrices with IR are
      used instead of FBP algorithm.

PMID- 28862180
TI  - Red cell alloimmunization & role of advanced immunohaematological support in
      liver transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Transfusion support forms an integral part of liver
      transplantation programme. Advanced immunohaematology services are required to
      deal with complex serological problems that can complicate transfusion therapy in
      these patients. Here, we report on red cell alloimmunization and presence of
      alloimmunization in donors and patients undergoing liver transplantation in a
      tertiary care hospital in north India. METHODS: Records of 1433 liver transplants
      performed from January 2009 to March 2015 were retrieved and reviewed. Antibody
      screening was performed both for liver donors, and recipients and antibody
      identification was performed for the screen-positive patients. RESULTS: Of the
      1433 liver recipients, 32 (2.3%) developed antibodies. Seventeen patients had one
      or more alloantibodies, five had autoantibodies with an underlying alloantibody
      and 10 had only autoantibodies in their plasma. The overall alloimmunization rate
      was 1.5 per cent with 25 alloantibodies identified in 22 patients. Anti-E was the
      most common specificity identified. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The presence of
      alloantibodies can complicate transfusion therapy in patients undergoing liver
      transplantation, who are already at a high risk of being heavily transfused owing
      to the nature of surgery and the haemostatic dysfunction from chronic liver
      disease. Therefore, screening for irregular red cell alloantibodies combined with
      a rational blood transfusion policy may be essential for these patients.

PMID- 28862182
TI  - Does endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy through clipping procedure have early
      effects on electrocardiographic parameters?
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Hyperhidrosis is a pathologic condition of excessive
      sweating in amounts greater than physiologic needs. Endoscopic thoracic
      sympathectomy (ETS) is a globally accepted treatment modality for primary palmar
      and axillary hyperhidrosis. ETS also has distinctive effects on the heart,
      circulatory and respiratory systems. In this study early effects of ETS on
      electrocardiographic (ECG) parameters of hyperhidrosis patients were evaluated.
      METHODS: Twelve-lead ECGs were performed on 72 patients who were free from
      cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological and pulmonary diseases and underwent
      planned ETS because of hyperhidrosis, before and after the procedure within the
      first 24 h. Heart rate (HR), PR, QT, corrected QT (QTc), QTc/Tpeak-Tend (TpTe)
      intervals, P-wave and QTc/TpTe dispersions were compared by ECG. RESULTS: A total
      of 72 patients (24.1+/-6.0 yr, 17 female) were included in the study. The pre
      operative HR of patients was significantly higher than post-operative HR of
      patients (73.8+/-12.8 vs. 68.1+/-12.6 beats/ min; P<0.001). The QTc dispersion
      (QTcd) durations of pre-operative patients were significantly longer than those
      of post-operative patients (51.5+/-6.3 vs. 44.9+/-5.6 msec; P<0.01). The TpTe
      dispersion value of pre-operative patients was significantly (P<0.001) higher
      than that of post-operative patients. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      showed that ETS through clipping procedure had positive effects on the mechanisms
      of arrhythmia by reducing HR, QTcd, TpTe and TpTe dispersion parameters of ECG in
      early periods in hyperhidrosis patients.

PMID- 28862181
TI  - Identification of a novel homozygous mutation in transmembrane channel like 1
      (TMC1) gene, one of the second-tier hearing loss genes after GJB2 in India.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Hearing impairment is a common and heterogeneous sensory
      disorder in humans. Among about 90 genes, which are known to be associated with
      hearing impairment, mutations in the GJB2 (gap junction protein beta 2) gene are
      the most prevalent in individuals with hereditary hearing loss. Contribution of
      the other deafness-causing genes is relatively poorly understood. Here, we
      present our findings on two families with transmembrane channel like 1 (TMC1)
      gene variants of the 47 families with nonsyndromic hearing loss (NSHL) studied.
      METHODS: Forty seven families including 26 consanguineous families with at least
      two hearing impaired children and one normal hearing child and 21 non
      consanguineous families having at least three hearing impaired children and one
      normal hearing child were enrolled for this study. Genetic linkage studies were
      carried out in 41 families that were GJB2 (Connexin 26) negative. Seven
      polymorphic short tandem repeat markers at the DFNB7/11 locus were studied
      employing fluorescently labelled markers. RESULTS: A novel homozygous missense
      mutation c.1283C>A (p.Ala428Asp) was identified co-segregating with hearing loss.
      This change results in substitution of a highly conserved polar alanine to a
      charged aspartic acid and is predicted to be deleterious. In addition, a
      previously reported nonsense mutation, p.R34X in TMC1, was found. INTERPRETATION
      & CONCLUSIONS: While mutations in TMC1 are not as common a cause of NSHL as those
      in GJB2, TMC1 should be considered for diagnostic investigations in cases of NSHL
      in GJB2-negative families.

PMID- 28862183
TI  - Acute effects on cardiovascular oscillations during controlled slow yogic
      breathing.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Breathing exercises are believed to modulate the
      cardiovascular oscillations in the body. To assess the validity of the assumption
      and understand the underlying mechanism, the key autonomic regulatory parameters
      such as heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure variability (BPV) and
      baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) were recorded during controlled slow yogic
      breathing. Alternate nostril breathing (ANB) was selected as the yogic manoeuvre.
      METHODS: Twelve healthy volunteers (age 30+/-3.8 yr) participated in the study.
      ANB was performed at a breathing frequency of 5 breaths per minute (bpm). In each
      participant, the electrocardiogram, respiratory movements, beat-to-beat BP and
      end-tidal carbon dioxide were recorded for five minutes each: before, during and
      after ANB. The records were analyzed for HRV, BPV and BRS. RESULTS: During ANB,
      HRV analysis showed significant increase in the standard deviation of all NN
      intervals, low-frequency (LF) component, LF/HF (low frequency/high frequency)
      ratio and significant decrease in the HF component. BPV analysis showed a
      significant increase in total power in systolic BPV (SBPV), diastolic BPV (DBPV)
      and mean BPV. BRS analysis showed a significant increase in the total number of
      sequences in SBPV and DBPV and significant augmentation of alpha-LF and reduction
      in alpha-HF. The power spectrum showed a dominant peak in HRV at 0.08 Hz (LF
      component) similar to the respiratory frequency. The acute short-term change in
      circulatory control system declined immediately after the cessation of slow yogic
      breathing (ANB) and remained elevated in post-ANB stage as compared to the pre
      ANB. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Significant increase in cardiovascular
      oscillations and baroreflex recruitments during-ANB suggested a dynamic
      interaction between respiratory and cardiovascular system. Enhanced phasic
      relationship with some delay indicated the complexity of the system. It indicated
      that respiratory and cardiovascular oscillations were coupled through multiple
      regulatory mechanisms, such as mechanical coupling, baroreflex and central
      cardiovascular control.

PMID- 28862184
TI  - Ocular distribution of antioxidant enzyme paraoxonase & its alteration in
      cataractous lens & diabetic retina.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The enzyme paraoxonase (PON), an antioxidant enzyme that
      has both arylesterase and thiolactonase activity, is well studied in
      cardiovascular diseases. Although a few studies have shown altered PON activity
      in ocular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic
      retinopathy, but the tissue-wise expression of PON in its three gene forms has
      not been studied. This study was conducted to see the ocular distribution of PON
      for any altered expression in ocular pathologies such as in cataract and diabetes
      mellitus. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) of the ocular tissues was done for
      localizing all three forms of the PON in the human donor eyeballs. The PON
      arylesterase (PON-AREase) and thiolactonase (PON-HCTLase) activities were
      determined by spectrophotometry in kinetic mode, and the mRNA expression of the
      PON genes (PON1-3) was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain
      reaction. RESULTS: IHC showed the presence of both PON1 and 2 in all the ocular
      tissues and PON3 was seen only in retina. The mRNA expression analysis showed
      that PON2 and PON3 were present in all the tissues, whereas PON1 was seen only in
      ciliary and retina. Both the PON-AREase and PON-HCTLase activities were detected
      in all ocular tissues and was in the order of lens>retina>choroid>ciliary
      body>iris. The expression and activity were studied in cataractous lens and in
      diabetic retina of the donor eyes. A significant decrease in PON-AREase activity
      was seen in cataractous lens (P<0.05) but not in diabetic retina, and there was
      an increase in PON- HCTLase activity (P<0.05) only in diabetic retina.
      Bioinformatic studies and in vitro experiments indicated that advanced glycation
      end products (AGE) such as carboxymethyl -lysine might decrease the PON- AREase
      activity of the PON. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Distribution of PON enzyme and
      its activity in ocular tissues is reported here. The study revealed maximal PON
      activity in lens and retina, which are prone to higher oxidative stress.
      Differential activities of PON were observed in the lens and retinal tissues from
      cataractous and diabetic patients, respectively.

PMID- 28862185
TI  - Health-related quality of life in Indian children: A community-based cross
      sectional survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: There are limited data on health-related quality of life
      (HRQOL) related to Indian children. The objective of this study was to construct
      a generic HRQOL reference for children aged 2-18 yr from a community setting.
      METHODS: The study was a community-based cross-sectional survey. A total of 719
      children/adolescents in the age group of 2-18 yr were enrolled using stratified
      random cluster sampling. A total of 40 clusters (cluster size 18) were selected
      for the study. The data contained child self-report and parent proxy report from
      healthy children and their parents/caretakers. The Pediatric Quality of Life
      Inventory 4.0 (PedsQL4.0) Generic Core Scale was used to collect HRQOL data.
      Questionnaires were self-administered for parents and children aged 8-18 yr. In
      the age group of five to seven years, parents assisted the children in filling
      questionnaires. RESULTS: The mean HRQOL total scores from child self-report and
      parent proxy report were 87.50+/-11.10 and 90.10+/-9.50 respectively, for
      children aged 2-18 yr. Social functioning had the highest scores and emotional
      functioning had the lowest scores for the entire sample and subgroups. The mean
      values for HRQOL in the current study were significantly different from the
      reference study for both child (87.39 vs. 83.91, P<0.001) and parent proxy
      reports (90.03 vs. 82.29, P<0.001) when compared between children aged 2-16 yr.
      INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The study provided reference values for HRQOL in
      healthy children and adolescents from Kerala, India, that appeared to be
      different from existing international reference. Similar studies need to be done
      in different parts of India to generate a country-specific HRQOL reference for
      Indian children.

PMID- 28862186
TI  - Food significantly reduces plasma concentrations of first-line anti-tuberculosis
      drugs.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Concomitant feeding and anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug
      administration are likely to reduce nausea and enhance compliance to treatment.
      However, food could lower plasma drug concentrations. This study was undertaken
      to examine the effect of food on two-hour plasma concentrations of rifampicin
      (RMP), isoniazid (INH) and pyrazinamide (PZA), and pharmacokinetics of these
      drugs in adult TB patients. METHODS: Newly diagnosed adult TB patients were
      recruited from the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)
      treatment centres in Chennai Corporation, Chennai, India. Two-hour post-dosing
      plasma concentrations were determined in 25 patients, and a semi-intensive
      pharmacokinetic study was undertaken in six patients. RMP, INH and PZA
      concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography.
      RESULTS: The geometric mean two-hour concentrations with food and under fasting
      conditions were 2.2 and 5.5 MUg/ml for RMP (P<0.001), 3.9 and 11.3 MUg/ml for INH
      (P<0.001), and 18.0 and 28.2 MUg/ml for PZA (P<0.001), respectively. Drug
      administration with food caused the plasma concentration to decrease by 50, 45
      and 34 per cent for RMP, INH and PZA, respectively. Significant decreases in peak
      concentrations and exposures of drugs and delay in time to attain peak
      concentrations of drugs when taken with food were also observed. INTERPRETATION &
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that food lowered anti-TB drug concentrations
      significantly and delayed absorption. Patients may be explained the beneficial
      effects of taking anti-TB drugs in a fasting state and advised to do so. There is
      a need for more research on optimization of dosing to maximize efficacy and
      safety of currently used drugs.

PMID- 28862187
TI  - Seroprevalence of transplacentally acquired measles antibodies in HIV-exposed
      versus HIV-unexposed infants at six months of age.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Measles infection is reported to be more severe,
      prolonged and associated with a higher complication rate in children with HIV
      infection. Reports indicate that infants born to HIV-infected women [HIV exposed
      infants (HEI)] may be more vulnerable to measles. The World Health Organization
      recommends measles vaccination starting at six months of age in these infants who
      may be HIV-infected themselves. However, in India, they are given measles
      vaccination at nine months of age like all other infants. In this study, the
      seroprevalence of transplacentally acquired measles antibodies was compared in
      HEI and unexposed infants (HUnI) at six months of age and the proportion of HEI
      undergoing seroconversion after immunization with measles vaccine was assessed.
      METHODS: In this prospective longitudinal study, measles IgG antibodies were
      estimated in serum of 49 HEI and 50 HUnI aged 6-7 months. Measles vaccine was
      then administered to HEI. Assessment for measles IgG antibodies was repeated 8-12
      wk post-immunization. RESULTS: Measles IgG antibodies were detected in two of 49
      (4.1%) HEI and 16 of 50 (32%) HUnI. HEI were 11 times more likely to lack measles
      antibodies as compared to HUnI (odds ratio=11.05, 95% confidence interval=2.989
      40.908). Post-vaccination, seroprevalence of measles antibodies increased to 38.5
      per cent (PInterpretation & conclusions: Most HEI lacked measles antibodies at
      six months age and were, therefore, more vulnerable to measles than HUnI.
      Seroconversion in response to a single dose of measles vaccine administered at
      six months age was low in these infants, signifying the need of additional
      dose(s) of measles/measles-containing vaccine.

PMID- 28862188
TI  - Interferon-gamma-inducible protein-10 in chronic hepatitis C: Correlations with
      insulin resistance, histological features & sustained virological response.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: One of the multiple factors contributing to virological
      response in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is interferon-gamma-inducible protein-10
      (IP-10). Its level reflects the status of interferon-stimulated genes, which in
      turn is associated with virological response to antiviral therapy. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the role of serum IP-10 levels on sustained
      virological response (SVR) and the association of this parameter with insulin
      resistance (IR) and liver histology. METHODS: Two hundred and three consecutive
      biopsy proven CHC patients were included in the study. Serum levels of IP-10 were
      determined using ELISA method. IR was evaluated by homeostasis model assessment
      IR (HOMA-IR). Histological features were assessed invasively by liver biopsy and
      noninvasively using FibroTest, ActiTest and SteatoTest. Predictive factors for
      SVR and their interrelations were assessed. RESULTS: A cut-off value for IP-10 of
      392 pg/ml was obtained to discriminate between responders and non-responders. SVR
      was obtained in 107 patients (52.70%). Area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve for SVR was 0.875 with a sensitivity of 91.6 per cent,
      specificity 74.7 per cent, positive predictive value 80.3 per cent and negative
      predictive value 88.7 per cent. Higher values of IP-10 were associated with
      increasing stages of fibrosis (P<0.01) and higher grades of inflammation (P=0.02,
      P=0.07) assessed morphologically and noninvasively through FibroTest and
      ActiTest. Significant steatosis and IR were also associated with increased levels
      of IP-10 (P=0.01 and P=0.02). In multivariate analysis, IP-10 levels and fibrosis
      stages were independently associated with SVR. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings showed that the assessment of serum IP-10 level could be a predictive
      factor for SVR and it was associated with fibrosis, necroinflammatory activity,
      significant steatosis and IR in patients with chronic HCV infection.

PMID- 28862189
TI  - Typical & atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in diarrhoea & their role as
      carrier in children under five.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Multidrug-resistant enteropathogenic Escherichia coli
      (EPEC) is responsible for a large number of cases of infantile diarrhoea in
      developing countries, causing failure in treatment with consequent health burden
      and resulting in a large number of deaths every year. This study was undertaken
      to determine the proportion of typical and atypical EPEC in under five children
      with diarrhoea and controls, their function as a carriage and to identify
      virulent genes associated with them. METHODS: During the study period, 120 stool
      samples including 80 from controls children were collected and analyzed for the
      presence of EPEC using standard bacteriological methods. Isolates were subjected
      to antimicrobial testing by disc diffusion method. Isolates confirmed as E. coli
      by phenotypic method were further tested for the presence of attaching and
      effacing (eae) and bundle-forming pilus (bfpA) genes by real-time SYBR Green
      based polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: All isolates were tested for the
      presence of EPEC. The frequency of typical EPEC was 20 and 16.25 per cent whereas
      the frequency of atypical EPEC strains was 5 and 23.75 per cent in patients and
      controls, respectively (PbfpA was seen in 45 and 18.75 per cent isolates of
      diarrhoeal patients and controls, respectively. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results showed that typical EPEC was a common cause of diarrhoea, but at the same
      time, atypical EPEC was emerging as colonizers in the intestine of children with
      and without diarrhoea in and around Delhi. Children can be considered
      asymptomatic carriers of these pathogens and can transmit them to other
      susceptible children. Adequate steps need to be taken to stop these strains from
      developing and spreading further.

PMID- 28862190
TI  - Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus in donors & opportunistic viral infections in
      liver transplant recipients.
AB  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Opportunistic virus infections are common in liver
      transplant (LT) recipients. There is a risk of developing infection with
      cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes-related viruses such as herpes simplex virus-1
      and 2 (HSV-1 & 2), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Varicella Zoster virus (VZV),
      reactivation of infection and recurrent infection. This study was conducted to
      determine CMV seropositivity in donors and its influence on LT recipients and
      seropositivity of CMV, HSV-1 and 2, EB viral capsid antigen (EBVCA) and VZV in LT
      recipients and their reactivation. METHODS: Pre-transplant data for IgG and IgM
      for CMV (and donor), HSV-1 and -2, EB viral capsid antigen (VCA) and VZV were
      available for 153 recipients. All recipients were on ganciclovir or
      valganciclovir prophylaxis for three months after LT. For reactivation rates,
      findings of post-transplant CMV quantitative reverse transcription polymerase
      chain reaction (CMV qRT-PCR) assay were associated with pre-transplant
      serological profile. RESULTS: Of the 153 LT recipients, 131 were men (85.6%). The
      median age of LT was 46 yr (range 9 months-71 yr). Overall exposure to CMV was
      71.8 per cent followed by EB VCA (61.4%) and VZV (49.6%). Susceptibility to both
      HSV-1 and -2 was high across all decades (P<0.001). Seropositivity of CMV in
      donor was 90.9 per cent (100 out of 110). Post-transplant CMV qRT- PCR was
      positive in 17 (26.6%; 3 in recipient negative) of 64 samples tested. qRT-PCR
      assay was positive in one out of four (25%) tested for HSV-1 and nine out of 19
      (47.4%) tested for EBV. Two recipients tested for HSV-2 and one for VZV were
      negative. There were three deaths in recipients (D+ R+) who were also positive
      for CMV qRT PCR. There was one death due to HSV-1 pneumonia. One patient with EBV
      reactivation developed post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder two years
      after transplant. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Transplant recipient were at
      highest risk of acquiring HSV-1 and -2 more so for HSV-2. CMV exposure in
      transplant recipients and donors were very high and at greatest risk for
      recipient reactivation rate. Despite this, death related to CMV reactivation was
      low.

PMID- 28862191
TI  - Heterologous expression of porcine elongase 6 (ELOVL6) gene in a human cell line.

PMID- 28862192
TI  - Underutilization of antenatal services among tribal women.

PMID- 28862193
TI  - Authors' Response.

PMID- 28862194
TI  - Choice of criterion used in the receiver operating characteristic analysis.

PMID- 28862195
TI  - Authors' Response.

PMID- 28862196
TI  - Freely moving right ventricular thrombus in a patient with acute pulmonary
      embolism.

PMID- 28862197
TI  - Prospects of cytological cervical cancer screening in India: Exploring adjuvant
      approaches.

PMID- 28862198
TI  - Physical activity influences the immune system of breast cancer patients.
AB  - It has been suggested that physical activity in breast cancer patients can not
      only improve quality of life. Influences on physical and psychological levels
      have been evaluated, but effects on the immune system of breast cancer patients
      are hardly known. A PubMed search identified relevant trials and meta-analyses
      from 1970 to 2013. This review summarizes the results of international studies
      and the current discussion of effects of physical activity on the immune system
      of breast cancer patients. Highlighted are effects of physical activity on the
      immune system. Seven original articles and 14 reviews included in this review.
      Two original and the review articles includes other tumor entities besides breast
      cancer.Evaluated methods such as dose-response relationships for exercise in
      oncology, hardly exist. Increased immunological anti-cancer activity due to
      physical activity is probably mediated via an increase in number and cytotoxicity
      of monocytes and natural killer cells and cytokines.

PMID- 28862199
TI  - An update on studies on etiological factors, disease progression, and malignant
      transformation in oral submucous fibrosis.
AB  - Worldwide estimates of oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) show a confinement to
      Indians and Southeast Asians. In India, the prevalence of OSMF has increased over
      the past four decades from 0.03% to 6.42%. The condition is well recognized for
      its malignant potential rate of 7-30%. The condition has a multifactorial
      etiology and may remain either stationary or become severe, leaving an individual
      physically challenged both physically and psychologically. Hence, the study aims
      at reviewing studies done on various etiological factors leading to its onset.
      Their analysis may serve as an adjunct in defining the broad spectrum of the
      causation of this potentially malignant disorder.

PMID- 28862200
TI  - Lactate - A new frontier in the immunology and therapy of prostate cancer.
AB  - Prostate cancer, one of the most common male malignancies with an increasing
      incidence in the recent years, requires the development of new methods of
      treatment. One of the most debated subjects is the tumor-associated macrophages
      (TAM). Although, the pathophysiological mechanisms are still a subject of intense
      research, TAM acts as procarcinogenic factors. It was also demonstrated that
      hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF1) induces the expression of TAM genes involved in
      prostate carcinogenesis. Furthermore, it should be noted that the stromal
      extracellular lactate, the result of tumoral glycolysis process is one of the
      HIF1 activators. In addition, lactate inhibits the differentiation of monocytes
      and dendritic cells and also induces the inactivation of the cytotoxic T
      lymphocytes. Through an analysis of recent studies, we conclude that lactate is a
      vital component of several ways of modulating the immune response at the stromal
      prostatic adenocarcinoma including TAM activation and cytotoxic T lymphocytes
      immunosuppression. Our review focuses on the impact of lactate on prostatic
      adenocarcinoma progression in terms of its immunology, and how this influences
      the therapy of this condition and the clinical outcome.

PMID- 28862201
TI  - Spindle cell lesions: A review on immunohistochemical markers.
AB  - The intriguing array of spindle cell lesions occurring, especially in the head
      and neck region, poses a critical diagnostic challenge not only to the
      histopathologist but also ultimately to the clinicians for planning an
      appropriate treatment protocol. Overlapping spectrum of clinico-radiographic and
      microscopic features further compounds this problem. In such situations, the aid
      of ancillary techniques such as immunohistochemistry (IHC) is sought to clinch
      the diagnosis. This study aims to review the spindle cell neoplasms of the oral
      cavity with emphasis on IHC.

PMID- 28862202
TI  - Optical computed tomography in PRESAGE(r) three-dimensional dosimetry: Challenges
      and prospective.
AB  - With the advent of new complex but precise radiotherapy techniques, the demands
      for an accurate, feasible three-dimensional (3D) dosimetry system have been
      increased. A 3D dosimeter system generally should not only have accurate and
      precise results but should also feasible, inexpensive, and time consuming.
      Recently, one of the new candidates for 3D dosimetry is optical computed
      tomography (CT) with a radiochromic dosimeter such as PRESAGE(r). Several
      generations of optical CT have been developed since the 90s. At the same time, a
      large attempt has been also done to introduce the robust dosimeters that
      compatible with optical CT scanners. In 2004, PRESAGE(r) dosimeter as a new
      radiochromic solid plastic dosimeters was introduced. In this decade, a large
      number of efforts have been carried out to enhance optical scanning methods. This
      article attempts to review and reflect on the results of these investigations.

PMID- 28862203
TI  - Utility of cell block to detect malignancy in fluid cytology: Adjunct or
      necessity?
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: Cell block (CB) technique when supplemented with conventional
      smear, provides increased cellularity, preservation of architectural pattern with
      excellent morphology, and a clear background. We compare the utility of CB
      technique compared to conventional smear in detection of malignancy in serous
      effusions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An institution-based observational and
      analytical study was carried out over 1 year on 50 patients with effusions. The
      residual amount of centrifuged deposit after preparation of conventional smear
      was mixed with 10% alcohol-formalin solution, and CBs were prepared. Calretinin
      and cytokeratin 5 were used for reactive mesothelial cells and Wilms tumor 1,
      thyroid transcription factor 1, CDX2, and estrogen receptor were used to confirm
      the adenocarcinoma cells. RESULTS: Maximum patients belonged to the age group of
      61-70 years. Male:female ratio 1:1.17. Most common cause of malignant peritoneal
      effusion was due to ovarian malignancies in females and adenocarcinoma of stomach
      in males while, in case of pleural effusion, it was breast carcinoma in females
      and lung carcinoma in males. Thirteen suspicious cases were subjected to
      immunohistochemistry (IHC). In 70% cases, CB findings were consistent with the
      findings of conventional smears. In 20% cases, the conventional smears were
      suspicious for malignancy, and malignancy was confirmed by CB technique, whereas
      in 10% cases, both smears and CB were suspicious for malignancy and the original
      nature of the lesion was confirmed by the IHC. Sensitivity and specificity of CB
      compared to conventional smear were 88.88% and 86.98%, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      CB produced significantly better results (P = 0.0271) while detecting malignant
      lesions and reducing suspicious results (P = 0.0226).

PMID- 28862204
TI  - Epidemiological profile of head and neck cancer patients in Western Uttar Pradesh
      and analysis of distributions of risk factors in relation to site of tumor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Head and neck cancers (HNCs) are a major form of cancers in India.
      The spectrum varies from place to place within the country because of significant
      diversified risk factors. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: To study, epidemiology and risk
      factors of HNC patients from Western Uttar Pradesh and to find out the
      correlation between risk factors and different anatomical regions involved.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients with histologically confirmed diagnoses of
      HNC between January 2011 and December 2013 were selected from hospital records.
      Data regarding age, gender, addiction habits, site of tumor, and other details
      were obtained from their clinical records, and statistical analysis was done.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: HNC accounts for 21.2% of total body malignancy and 47%
      of all malignancies in males and 2.5% in females. Squamous cell carcinoma was the
      most common histological type (97%). Maximum incidence of HNC (>60%) was in 40-60
      year of age. Male:female ratio was 16:1. Oral cancers were most common HNC in
      patients below 40 year age group, whereas carcinoma oropharynx and larynx were
      more common in patients above 40 year age group. Tobacco smoking was a most
      prevalent risk factor for carcinoma oropharynx, larynx, and hypopharynx. Tobacco
      chewing was a most prevalent risk factor in females, young males, and carcinoma
      buccal mucosa patients. Habit of tobacco consumption in HNC patients was much
      higher than their normal counterpart. Alcohols drinking alone was observed in <1%
      patient as a risk factor. In oral tongue cancer, smoking and tobacco chewing were
      equally prevalent. Habit of tobacco chewing and alcohol were significantly higher
      in carcinoma buccal mucosa than other HNC suggesting synergistic effect specific
      to this site.

PMID- 28862206
TI  - Lysosomal storage disorders: Morphologic appraisal in Indian population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) comprise a group of at least 50
      distinct genetic diseases, each one resulting from the deficiency of a particular
      lysosomal enzyme involved in metabolism. We attempt to study and further
      subclassify pediatric LSDs into Gaucher's and non-Gaucher's category based on the
      morphologic variables seen in the bone marrow aspiration smears and trephine
      biopsy sections. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pediatric (<12 years age) cases of LSDs
      diagnosed by bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy specimens, in the last 12
      years period, were retrieved. The archival material and the relevant clinical as
      well as hematologic parameters were reviewed. RESULTS: From January 1997 to
      December 2008, 55 cases were diagnosed as LSDs. Based on bone marrow morphology,
      56% (n = 31) cases were diagnosed as non-Gaucher's and the remaining 44% (n = 24)
      cases as Gaucher's disease, the ratio being 1.29:1. Anemia and thrombocytopenia
      were more commonly observed in Gaucher's disease (91.67 and 62.5%) as compared to
      non-Gaucher's group (74.19 and 19.35%). Neurologic symptoms and signs were more
      frequently present in non-Gaucher's cases (45.16%) as compared to Gaucher's group
      (29.17%). CONCLUSION: LSDs can be classified into Gaucher's and non-Gaucher's
      subtypes based on the characteristic cytomorphology of the storage cells in
      Giemsa-stained bone marrow aspiration smears and on hematoxylin and eosin-stained
      trephine biopsy sections. This approach would be fairly adequate for therapeutic
      and prognostic purposes in resource.constrained settings, where enzyme studies
      and mutational analysis may not be easily available.

PMID- 28862205
TI  - Mathematical formulation of 125I seed dosimetry parameters and heterogeneity
      correction in lung permanent implant brachytherapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Precise determination of dose distribution around low-energy
      brachytherapy sources as well as considering tissue heterogeneity is crucial for
      optimized treatment planning. This study is aimed at determination and
      mathematically formulation of American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task
      Group No. 43 (AAPM TG-43) dosimetry parameters of 125I seed (model 6711) and
      calculation of dose difference caused by neglecting lung heterogeneity in
      permanent implant brachytherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using MCNPX 2.6.0 code,
      125I seed (model 6711) was simulated in a cubic water environment, and its
      dosimetry parameters mentioned in AAPM TG-43 protocol were obtained. After
      benchmarking of parameters and comparison with prior studies, mathematical
      equations were fitted to the data, and a specific set of 125I seeds was simulated
      on a plane in simulated lung and water environments. Appropriate photon histories
      were considered to achieve data with maximum accuracy (max error 1%). In the end,
      isodose curves, profiles, depth dose, and dose difference between lung and water
      environments were obtained. RESULTS: For 125I seed (model 6711), radial dose
      function and anisotropy functions were obtained precisely with R2 > 0.99, all in
      good agreement with previous studies and protocol. In addition, percentage dose
      difference between inhomogeneous lung and homogenous water environments in a 5 cm
      distance was calculated and presented as D (r) function with R2 > 0.99.
      CONCLUSIONS: Considering practical difficulties in dose calculations, 125I seed
      dosimetry parameters and lung heterogeneity corrections can be obtained precisely
      by MCNPX. Equations presented in this study are recommended to be considered in
      future studies based on lung permanent implantation.

PMID- 28862207
TI  - Effectiveness of intraperitoneal or intrapleural administration of triamcinolone
      acetonide for the control of malignant ascites and pleural effusion (Kansai
      Clinical Oncology Group-G1102 study).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We conducted a retrospective multi-institutional study to evaluate
      the efficacy and toxicity of intraperitoneal or intrapleural triamcinolone
      acetonide (TA), a slowly metabolized corticosteroid administration for the
      management of malignant ascites or pleural effusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      medical records of patients with gynecologic cancer who were treated with
      paracentesis or thoracocentesis followed by administration of 400 mg of TA
      between 2005 and 2014 were reviewed. RESULTS: The median age of the 74 eligible
      patients was 59 years. An Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 3
      4 was present in 53 patients (73%), and 52 patients (70%) had ovarian cancer.
      Paracentesis followed by TA administration was performed in 65 patients (88%),
      and 37 patients (50%) were treated in a palliative setting. Chemotherapy or
      surgery after TA administration was performed in 37 patients (50%) in an
      aggressive setting, of which 14 patients (19%) were treated at the primary phase
      and 23 patients (31%) were treated at recurrent phase. The time interval of
      serial drainage was prolonged in 15 of 19 assessable patients, resulting in a
      response rate of 79% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 54-94%). Median overall
      survival after TA therapy in a palliative setting was 36 days (95% CI: 19-58
      days). After TA therapy in a palliative setting, one patient complained of mild
      abdominal pain, two patients with advanced peritonitis carcinomatosis experienced
      bowel perforation, and three patients died within 7 days owing to disease
      progression. CONCLUSIONS: Intraperitoneal and intrapleural TA administration were
      feasible and effective in symptomatic control of ascites and pleural effusion.

PMID- 28862208
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration cytology of thyroid gland lesions:
      A study of 200 cases in Himalayan belt.
AB  - AIMS: The study is undertaken to correlate the fine-needle aspiration cytology
      (FNAC) findings with histopathology in a spectrum of thyroid lesions and to find
      the diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) so that unnecessary
      thyroidectomies can be avoided in benign lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      study was carried out over the period of 1-year (May 1, 2012-April, 30 2013). FNA
      specimens obtained from 200 patients were analyzed. Of these, only 40 patients
      underwent surgery and their thyroid specimens were subjected to histopathological
      examination. RESULTS: The age of the patients ranged from 9 to 82 years with mean
      age being 43 years. There was female preponderance, with male to female ratio
      being 1:7. On cytology out of 200 cases, 148 (74%) were benign, 25 (12.5%) were
      malignant, 16 (8%) were indeterminate, and 11 (5.5%) were nondiagnostic. Only 40
      patients underwent surgery. On histopathology, 21 (52.5%) cases were benign and
      19 (47.5%) were malignant. The statistical analysis of cytohistological
      correlation for both benign and malignant lesions revealed sensitivity,
      specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of 84%, 100% and 90%, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: FNAC is a minimally invasive, highly accurate and cost-effective
      procedure for the assessment of patients with thyroid lesions and has high 
      sensitivity and specificity. It acts as a good screening test and avoids
      unnecessary thyroidectomies.

PMID- 28862209
TI  - Accelerator driven neutron source design via beryllium target and 208Pb moderator
      for boron neutron capture therapy in alternative treatment strategy by Monte
      Carlo method.
AB  - AIMS: The reactor has increased its area of application into medicine especially
      boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT); however, accelerator-driven neutron sources
      can be used for therapy purposes. The present study aimed to discuss an
      alternative method in BNCT functions by a small cyclotron with low current
      protons based on Karaj cyclotron in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An epithermal
      neutron spectrum generator was simulated with 30 MeV proton energy for BNCT
      purposes. A low current of 300 MUA of the proton beam in spallation target
      concept via 9Be target was accomplished to model neutron spectrum using 208Pb
      moderator around the target. The graphite reflector and dual layer collimator
      were planned to prevent and collimate the neutrons produced from proton
      interactions. Neutron yield per proton, energy distribution, flux, and dose
      components in the simulated head phantom were estimated by MCNPX code. RESULTS:
      The neutron beam quality was investigated by diverse filters thicknesses. The
      maximum epithermal flux transpired using Fluental, Fe, Li, and Bi filters with
      thicknesses of 7.4, 3, 0.5, and 4 cm, respectively; as well as the epithermal to
      thermal neutron flux ratio was 161. Results demonstrated that the induced
      neutrons from a low energy and low current proton may be effective in tumor
      therapy using 208Pb moderator with average lethargy and also graphite reflector
      with low absorption cross section to keep the generated neutrons. CONCLUSIONS:
      Combination of spallation-based BNCT and proton therapy can be especially
      effective, if a high beam intensity cyclotron becomes available.

PMID- 28862210
TI  - Pulmonary toxicity following bleomycin use: A single-center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bleomycin-induced pulmonary (BIP) toxicity is a notorious entity and
      cropped up in roughly 10% of cases. The aim of the study is to evaluate BIP at
      our tertiary care cancer center. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective,
      analytical study conducted at a tertiary care center from January 1998 to
      December 2012. Records of all the patients who were offered bleomycin
      chemotherapy as an integral part of adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and
      dacarbazine or bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin regimen in Hodgkin disease
      (HD) or germ cell tumor (GCT) were studied for the study inclusion criteria.
      Twenty-two patients treated with bleomycin who had respiratory symptoms and/or
      abnormal high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) findings, suggestive of
      bleomycin-induced lung injury were included in this study. Results and
      Statistical Analysis: A total of 22 patients met the inclusion criteria for the
      study cohort. Of 22 patients, 8 were of HD and 14 were of GCT (nonseminomatous
      GCT [NSGCT] = 10 and seminomatous GCT = 4). Of 22 patients, 14 had symptoms of
      nonproductive cough, dyspnea and showed HRCT findings of ground glass opacities,
      diffuse alveolar damage, extensive reticular markings, traction bronchiectasis,
      and/or nodular densities. Two patients had fever and pleuritic pain. Eight
      patients were asymptomatic. Symptomatic patients were treated with prednisone at
      the dose of 0.75-1 mg/kg 4-8 weeks then gradually tapered. Four patients required
      noninvasive ventilatory support and managed with oxygen, nebulization, and
      antibiotics. Two patients required mechanical ventilatory support (HD = 1 and
      NSGCT = 1) and developed multiorgan failure subsequently succumbed to death.
      CONCLUSION: BIP is noteworthy lung toxicity as subsequent mortality ranges from
      10% to 20% and shrinks survival rate in patients with highly curable malignant
      conditions. Physicians should be vigilant concerning this impending side effect.

PMID- 28862211
TI  - Diosmin reduces cell viability of A431 skin cancer cells through apoptotic
      induction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Aim of the present study was to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic
      potential of the diosmin in A431 skin cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      cytotoxic (anti-cell proliferative) potential of diosmin in A431 cells was
      assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)
      assay (cell viability), dual staining (apoptotic induction), dichloro-dihydro
      fluorescein diacetate assay (reactive oxygen species [ROS] generation), DNA
      fragmentation study, Western blotting analysis (apoptotic markers expression) and
      flow cytometry (cell cycle arrest). RESULTS: Diosmin reduced the cell viability
      of A431 cells in a dose-dependent fashion and the inhibitory concentration 50%
      value was attained at 45 MUg/ml using MTT assay. Diosmin at a concentration of 45
      MUg/ml generated excessive ROS in A431 cells, as compared to untreated cells.
      Diosmin treated A431 cells also revealed multiple DNA fragments than the
      untreated cells. Diosmin upregulated the expression of p53, caspases 3 and 9 and
      downregulated the expression of Bcl-2, matrix metalloproteinases-2 and 9 in A431
      cells. CONCLUSION: The cytotoxic or anti-cell proliferative potential of diosmin
      is due to its ROS-mediated apoptotic induction potential, as well as due to its
      role in the inhibition of invasion in the A431 cells.

PMID- 28862212
TI  - Target genes prediction and functional analysis of microRNAs differentially
      expressed in gastric cancer stem cells MKN-45.
AB  - CONTEXT: Since mechanisms of microRNAs (miRNAs) in gastric cancer stem cells
      (CSCs) and their signaling pathways remain unknown, our aim was to predict the
      miRNA target genes that differentially expressed in gastric CSCs. SUBJECTS AND
      METHODS: Using miRanda, PicTar, and TargetScan algorithm, target genes of miRNAs
      differentially expressed in gastric CSCs versus parental cells were predicted.
      Afterward, signaling pathways and biological functions of miRNAs in gastric CSCs
      were analyzed by the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated
      Discovery (DAVID) database and DIANA tools. RESULTS: Gene ontology (GO) tool
      indicated that most of miRNA target genes involved in regulation of cell cycle,
      apoptosis, cell migration, vasculogenesis, angiogenesis, etc. Some of miRNA
      target genes are connected to pivotal signaling pathways of the "stem cell
      genes," such as Notch, Wnt/beta-catenin. CONCLUSIONS: Bioinformatics analysis
      such as DAVID database, GO biological process, GO molecular function, Kyoto
      encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathways, BioCarta pathway, Panther pathway,
      and Reactome pathway revealed that target genes of differentially expressed
      miRNAs in gastric CSCs were connected to pivotal biological pathways that
      involved in cell cycle regulation, stemness properties, and differentiation.

PMID- 28862213
TI  - Profile of eyelid malignancy in a Tertiary Health Care Center in North India.
AB  - CONTEXT: The eyelids are affected by wide spectrum of benign and malignant
      lesions. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common malignancy encountered
      while other malignant lesions such as sebaceous cell carcinoma and squamous cell
      carcinoma are rare. Data regarding geographical variation in trends of malignant
      eyelid tumors are presented in the current study. SETTINGS AND DESIGN:
      Prospective, longitudinal, observational study was conducted from December 2011
      to October 2013. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Patients with mass or growth involving
      eyelid managed by surgical intervention were selected for the study. Excised
      tissue masses were sent for histopathological examination. RESULTS: Fifty-two
      cases of extraocular tumors were operated during the study period, out of which
      25 cases (48%) were of eyelids. Sixteen cases (64%) were benign, and remaining 9
      cases (36%) were malignant eyelid neoplasms. Benign lesions exhibited female
      preponderance with male:female ratio of 1:2.25. No significant difference was
      noted in cases of malignant lesions with male:female ratio of 1:1.25. Most common
      benign tumor observed was sebaceous cyst. Sebaceous gland carcinoma (4 cases) was
      the most common malignant neoplasm followed by squamous cell carcinoma (2 cases)
      and BCC, orbital melanoma, and adenocarcinoma (1 case each). CONCLUSIONS:
      Sebaceous gland carcinoma is more common in North India as compared to BCC and
      squamous cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28862214
TI  - Respiratory cancer database: An open access database of respiratory cancer gene
      and miRNA.
AB  - AIMS: Respiratory cancer database (RespCanDB) is a genomic and proteomic database
      of cancer of respiratory organ. It also includes the information of medicinal
      plants used for the treatment of various respiratory cancers with structure of
      its active constituents as well as pharmacological and chemical information of
      drug associated with various respiratory cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data in
      RespCanDB has been manually collected from published research article and from
      other databases. Data has been integrated using MySQL an object-relational
      database management system. MySQL manages all data in the back-end and provides
      commands to retrieve and store the data into the database. The web interface of
      database has been built in ASP. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: RespCanDB is expected to
      contribute to the understanding of scientific community regarding respiratory
      cancer biology as well as developments of new way of diagnosing and treating
      respiratory cancer. Currently, the database consist the oncogenomic information
      of lung cancer, laryngeal cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer. Data for other
      cancers, such as oral and tracheal cancers, will be added in the near future. The
      URL of RespCanDB is http://ridb.subdic-bioinformatics-nitrr.in/.

PMID- 28862215
TI  - Small field depth dose profile of 6 MV photon beam in a simple air-water
      heterogeneity combination: A comparison between anisotropic analytical algorithm
      dose estimation with thermoluminescent dosimeter dose measurement.
AB  - AIM OF STUDY: To establish trends of estimation error of dose calculation by
      anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA) with respect to dose measured by
      thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) in air-water heterogeneity for small field
      size photon. MATERIALS AND METHODS: TLDs were irradiated along the central axis
      of the photon beam in four different solid water phantom geometries using three
      small field size single beams. The depth dose profiles were estimated using AAA
      calculation model for each field sizes. The estimated and measured depth dose
      profiles were compared. RESULTS: The over estimation (OE) within air cavity were
      dependent on field size (f) and distance (x) from solid water-air interface and
      formulated as OE = - (0.63 f + 9.40) x2+ (-2.73 f + 58.11) x + (0.06 f2 - 1.42 f
      + 15.67). In postcavity adjacent point and distal points from the interface have
      dependence on field size (f) and equations are OE = 0.42 f2 - 8.17 f + 71.63, OE
      = 0.84 f2 - 1.56 f + 17.57, respectively. CONCLUSION: The trend of estimation
      error of AAA dose calculation algorithm with respect to measured value have been
      formulated throughout the radiation path length along the central axis of 6 MV
      photon beam in air-water heterogeneity combination for small field size photon
      beam generated from a 6 MV linear accelerator.

PMID- 28862216
TI  - A study to evaluate resource draining "no shows".
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Waiting lists are problems that plague all government radiation
      therapy centers across the country, leading to disease progression, and reduced
      treatment efficacy. No shows for appointments create artificial access issues,
      reduce revenues, waste staff time, and negatively affect patient care.
      METHODOLOGY: A Retrospective analysis of 180 patients, who were given an
      appointment and were to be started for radiation therapy at the Department of
      Radiation Therapy and Oncology, at our institute from May 1, 2013 to July 31,
      2013, was done. Patients were divided into two Groups; Group A (n = 104, 57.8%)
      that complied for treatment and Group B (n = 76, 42.2%) that did not comply for
      treatment on the scheduled date. The Group B ("no shows") patients were contacted
      telephonically and were evaluated for the primary reasons for their failure to
      comply for treatment through a preformed questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean age,
      gender distribution and patient's habitat in both the groups were comparable. On
      Group B analysis, the average waiting period for the appointment was 74 days;
      31.4% had died within an average of 31 days; 37.1% said they were better; 10%
      said their condition was the same; 18.6% said their disease had progressed.
      Patients were also evaluated for various factors responsible for their not
      reporting for treatment at the institute. CONCLUSION: Better communication and
      constant reminders between patients and the departmental staff can go a long way
      in helping to curb the problem of no shows and mitigate the artificial access
      issues. This would lead to better patient care and better resource utilization.

PMID- 28862217
TI  - Evaluation of the accuracy of various dose calculation algorithms of a commercial
      treatment planning system in the presence of hip prosthesis and comparison with
      Monte Carlo.
AB  - PURPOSE: High atomic number elements are commonly used in a hip prosthesis which
      can cause uncertainty in accurate dose calculations in radiation therapy. The aim
      of this study is to assess the accuracy of the three various algorithms of
      ISOgray treatment planning system in the presence of hip prosthesis by Monte
      Carlo (MC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A MC model of Siemens PRIMUS linear
      accelerator has been built and verified by the measured data of the different
      algorithms of ISOgray treatment planning systems (TPS) in 6 and 15 MV photon beam
      energies. Two types of hip prosthesis have been used: stainless steel and
      titanium. The accuracy of mentioned dose calculation algorithms in the presence
      of hip prosthesis was evaluated. RESULTS: There were 24.78%, 27.68%, and 27.72%
      errors in fast Fourier transform (FFT) Convolution, collapsed cone (CC), and
      superposition in 6 MV photon beam and 26.45%, 30.45%, and 28.63% in 15 MV photon
      beam for titanium type, respectively. However, there were 32.84%, 35.89%, and
      35.57% in 6 MV photon beam and 38.81%, 47.31%, and 39.91% errors in 15 MV photon
      beam in steel type, respectively. In addition, the ISOgray TPS algorithms are not
      able to predict the dose enhancement and reduction at the proximal and distal
      prosthesis interfaces, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Hip prosthesis creates a
      considerable disturbance in dose distribution which cannot be predicted
      accurately by the FFT convolution, CC, and superposition algorithms. It is
      recommended to use of MC-based TPS for the treatment fields including the hip
      prosthesis.

PMID- 28862218
TI  - Docetaxel plus cisplatin plus fluorouracil versus carboplatin plus fluorouracil
      cetuximab in first-line setting in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and
      neck squamous cell cancer who did not previously receive neoadjuvant or adjuvant
      chemotherapy, which is standard?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prognosis of recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell
      cancer (HNSCC) is very poor. In the present retrospective study, we compared the
      impact of docetaxel plus cisplatin plus fluorouracil (TCF), and cisplatin plus
      fluorouracil plus cetuximab (CF-Ctx) regimens on the prognosis of patients with
      recurrent or metastatic HNSCC in first-line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 70
      patients were evaluated as two groups, according to treatment protocol: TCF (n:
      47) and CF-Ctx (n: 23). The groups were compared regarding survival. RESULTS: The
      median progression-free survival was 7.3 and 8.3 months, TCF and CF-Ctx groups,
      respectively, (P = 0.280). The median overall survival (OS) was 15.6 and 9.3
      months for TCF and CF-Ctx groups, respectively, (P = 0.029). The dose reduction
      and using of granulocyte colony stimulating factor were significantly higher in
      TCF group (P = 0.048 and P = 0.018, respectively). CONCLUSION: In first-line
      setting, TCF regimen is superior to CF-Ctx regimen in terms of OS in patients
      with recurrent or metastatic HNSCC, who did not previously receive neoadjuvant or
      adjuvant chemotherapy.

PMID- 28862219
TI  - Assessment of nutritional status using abridged scored patient-generated
      subjective global assessment in cancer patient.
AB  - CONTEXT: Malnutrition is a common problem among cancer patients, usually occurs
      due to poor appetite, low food intake, and changes in body metabolism. AIMS: The
      aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in patients
      receiving chemotherapy on an outpatient basis. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This cross
      sectional study conducted on 300 cancer patients referred to hospital. SUBJECTS
      AND METHODS: The prevalence of malnutrition among patients was assessed using the
      abridged scored patient-generated subjective global assessment (abPG-SGA)
      standard questionnaire. Moreover, patient's weight and 24 h dietary recall were
      measured. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Descriptive statistics were used to present
      characteristics of patients and dietary recalls. For revealing the correlation,
      Spearman correlation was used. RESULTS: The average abPG-SGA score was 7.6
      (standard deviation [SD] = 5.4) and 60.7% of patients were malnourished and
      required nutritional intervention. Patients mean age and mean duration of illness
      were 54.2 (SD = 14.7(years, 25 months, respectively. The most common complaint of
      patients included fatigue (51.3%), anorexia (43.3%), and dry mouth (41%).
      Reduction in food intake in past month was reported by 41.7% of patients.
      CONCLUSION: According to the high prevalence of cancers and increasing growth of
      them in recent years with regard to outpatient treatment development for cancer
      patients, using the abPG-SGA standard questionnaire by nutritionist or nurses can
      be effective to detect malnourished patients and reduce complications caused by
      disease.

PMID- 28862220
TI  - The impact of patient positioning and use of belly board on small bowel toxicity
      in patients receiving pelvic radiotherapy for gynecological malignancies.
AB  - AIM: To determine the efficacy of belly board device in patients receiving
      postoperative radiation for gynecological malignancies in terms of setup error
      and acute small bowel toxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients requiring
      postoperative radiation for gynecological malignancies were prospectively
      randomized to either treatment with supine position (supine arm) or prone
      position using belly board (prone arm). Each patient underwent computed
      tomography simulation in the assigned treatment position, and a three-dimensional
      conformal radiation was planned. Weekly two to three treatment sessions were
      verified using portal imaging and setup errors were noted. All patients were
      reviewed weekly to assess for symptoms and toxicity using a structured format.
      The systematic and random errors were calculated along the three axes. RESULTS:
      Twenty-four patients were randomized and 22 patients were available for the final
      analysis. The systematic error in supine arm versus prone arm was 3.9 versus 3.5
      mm, 2.1 versus 4.8 mm and 3.1 versus 3.1 mm along lateral, antero-posterior (AP)
      and cranio-caudal (CC) direction. The random error in supine arm versus prone arm
      was 5 versus 3.9 mm, 2.9 mm versus 4.4 mm and 4.3 versus 3.4 mm along lateral, AP
      and CC direction. The calculated planning target volume margin for supine arm was
      1.3, 0.7, and 1.0 cm and margin for prone arm was 1.1, 1.5, and 1.0 cm along
      lateral, AP, and CC direction, respectively. One patient in supine arm developed
      Grade 3 toxicity. CONCLUSION: The systematic error and random error is more along
      AP direction for prone position. The acute small bowel toxicity was less using
      belly board.

PMID- 28862221
TI  - Pelvic radiotherapy does not deteriorate the quality of life of women with
      gynecologic cancers in long-term follow-up: A 2 years prospective single-center
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the emotional, sexual and health-related quality of life
      (HRQoL) concerns of the women with gynecologic malignancy treated with curative
      radiotherapy (RT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A 100 women with diagnosis of
      gynecologic malignancy were prospectively enrolled. HRQoL at baseline, at the end
      of RT and during follow-up was assessed using European Organization for Research
      and Treatment of Cancer QoL Questionnaire-C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30), EORTC QLQ-cervical
      cancer module 24, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. RESULTS: The
      appetite loss, diarrhea, fatigue, dyspnea, insomnia, nausea and vomiting, pain
      scores, and sexual activity and sexual enjoyment scores were deteriorated after
      RT (P = 0.02 for pain scores and P < 0.001 for all other). Body image scores were
      higher in patients with endometrial cancer (P < 0.01). The emotional function,
      nausea and vomiting, body image and symptom experience scores were higher in
      patients who underwent chemotherapy (P = 0.04 and P = 0.01). All the complaints
      of patients improved during follow-up period. The global health status scores and
      the level of depression deteriorated in patients with locoregional recurrent
      disease and distant metastasis. The anxiety (P = 0.001) and depression (P =
      0.007) levels were higher in basal and after-RT visits but then decreased through
      the subsequent follow-up visits. CONCLUSION: Although pelvic RT deteriorated
      HRQoL in patients with gynecologic malignancy, HRQoL improved during the follow
      up period. The progressive disease had a negative impact on HRQoL.

PMID- 28862222
TI  - Efficiency of combined blocking of aerobic and glycolytic metabolism pathways in
      treatment of N1-S1 hepatocellular carcinoma in a rat model.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of this study was to determine whether the addition of
      bumetanide (BU), a glycolytic metabolism pathway inhibitor, to arterial
      embolization improves tumor necrosis of N1-S1 hepatocellular carcinoma in a rat
      model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: N1-S1 tumors were surgically implanted in the liver
      of 14 Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were divided into three groups: In control
      group (n = 5), 1 ml of normal saline was injected intra-arterially. The tumor in
      the transarterial embolization group (TAE, n = 4) was embolized using 10 mg of 50
      150 MU polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles and embolization plus BU group (TAE +
      BU, n = 5) were embolized with 10 mg of PVA plus 0.04 mg/kg of BU. Tumor volume
      was measured using two-dimensional ultrasound before intervention and twice a
      week afterward. Relative tumor volume after the intervention was calculated as
      the percentage of preinterventional tumor volume. After 4 weeks of observation,
      the rats were sacrificed for histopathological evaluation. RESULTS: No
      statistically significant difference was detected in the preintervention tumor
      sizes between the three groups (P > 0.05). In the control group, the relative
      tumor volume increased to 142.5% larger than baseline measurements. In the TAE
      group, the tumor volume decreased by 18.2 +/- 12.2%. The tumor volume in the TAE
      + BU group decrease by 90.4 +/- 10.2%, which was 72.2% more than in TAE only
      group (P < 0.0001). Histopathological evaluation demonstrated no residual tumor
      in the TAE + BU group. CONCLUSION: Tumor necrosis significantly increased in N1
      S1 tumor that received BU at the time of TAE when compared to TAE alone.

PMID- 28862223
TI  - Effect of various dental restorations on dose distribution of 6 MV photon beam.
AB  - AIM: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of various dental
      restoration materials on dose distribution in radiotherapy of head and neck
      cancer with 6 MV photon beam of a medical linac. SETTING AND DESIGN: The dental
      restorations include tooth, tooth with amalgam, tooth with Ni-Cr alloy, and tooth
      with Ceramco. Dose perturbation due to the dental restorations on 6 MV beam of
      Siemens Primus linac was calculated by MCNPX Monte Carlo code. These dental
      materials were separately simulated in a cubic water phantom. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Photon percentage dose change in the presence of tooth, tooth with
      amalgam, tooth with Ni-Cr alloy, and tooth with Ceramco was calculated at various
      depths on the central axis of the beam relative to the dose in water. In another
      evaluation, the absolute dose (cGy) for water, tooth, tooth with amalgam, tooth
      with Ni-Cr alloy, and tooth with Ceramco was obtained by calculating 100 cGy dose
      at 0.75 cm depth in the water phantom. RESULTS: Based on the calculations
      performed, maximum percentage dose change due to backscattering was 11%, 8%, 6%,
      and 4% for amalgam, Ni-Cr alloy, Ceramco and tooth at depth of 0.75 cm,
      respectively. The maximum dose perturbation by amalgam is due to its higher mass
      density and atomic number. CONCLUSION: Ignoring the effect of dental restoration
      compositions on dose distribution causes discrepancy in clinical treatment
      planning system calculations.

PMID- 28862224
TI  - Honey bee venom combined with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3as a highly efficient
      inducer of differentiation in human acute myeloid leukemia cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Most cancer cells exhibit a defect in their capacity to mature into
      nonreplicating adult cells and existing in a highly proliferating state.
      Differentiation therapy by agents such as 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3(1,25-(OH)2
      VD3) represents a useful approach for the treatment of cancer including acute
      myeloid leukemia. Human myeloid leukemia cell lines are induced to terminal
      differentiation into monocyte lineage by 1,25-(OH)2 VD3. However, usage of these
      findings in the clinical trials is limited by calcemic effects of 1,25-(OH)2 VD3.
      Attempts to overcome this problem have focused on a combination of low
      concentrations 1,25-(OH)2 VD3 with other compounds to induce differentiation of
      HL-60 cells. In this study, the effect of honey bee venom (BV) and 1,25-(OH)2
      VD3, individually and in combination, on proliferation and differentiation of
      human myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells were assayed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this
      in vitro study, toxic and nontoxic concentrations of BV and 1,25-(OH)2 VD3 were
      tested using Trypan blue stained cell counting and (3[4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]
      2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. In addition, differentiation of cells was
      assayed using a Wright-Giemsa staining and nitroblue tetrazolium reduction test.
      Data were analyzed by a one-way analysis of the variance test using SPSS
      software. RESULTS: Our findings showed that both the BV and 1,25-(OH)2 VD3, in a
      dose and time-dependent manner, caused cell death at high concentrations and
      inhibited cell proliferation at lower concentrations. About 5 nM of 1,25-(OH)2
      VD3 induced differentiation of HL-60 cells to monocytes after 72 h. 2.5 MUg/ml of
      BV suppressed proliferation of HL-60 cells but had not any effects on their
      differentiation, whereas in combination with 5 nM of 1,25-(OH)2 VD3, it enhanced
      antiproliferative and differentiation potency of 1,25-(OH)2 VD3. CONCLUSIONS:
      These results indicate that BV potentiates the 1,25-(OH)2 VD3-induced HL-60 cell
      differentiation into monocytes.

PMID- 28862225
TI  - Estimation of serum ferritin level in potentially malignant disorders, oral
      squamous cell carcinoma, and treated cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Serum ferritin is the best indicator of iron stores in the body.
      The level of serum ferritin was found to be elevated in number of malignancies.
      Serum ferritin is also been established as prognostic marker for malignant
      lymphoma, cervical cancer, breast cancer, etc. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      this study is to evaluate the level of serum ferritin in patients with
      pretreatment and posttreatment of squamous cell carcinoma and to determine the
      significance of serum ferritin as prognostic marker for oral squamous cell
      carcinoma (OSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Blood samples of 15 normal, thirty
      potentially malignant lesions, and thirty patients of squamous cell carcinoma
      were taken and analyzed for serum ferritin using ELISA. Of thirty patients, 15
      patients were followed up till 6 months after their treatment and serum ferritin
      was again determined. RESULTS: The average serum ferritin of 30 potentially
      malignant disorders was 62.70 ng/ml, and thirty patients with squamous cell
      carcinoma were found to be 162.47 ng/dl. After 6 months of the treatment, the
      mean fall in serum ferritin with nonrecurrence patients was 84 ng/dl and increase
      in the serum ferritin in recurrence cases was 13.4 ng/dl. CONCLUSION: Determining
      serum ferritin is a convenient and nonexpensive method to determine the outcome
      of the treatment of the cases with OSCC. Its potential as prognostic marker could
      not be overlooked.

PMID- 28862226
TI  - Serum metabolomics in oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - CONTEXT: Metabolomics is a core discipline of system biology focusing on the
      study of low molecular weight compounds in biological system. Analysis of human
      metabolome, which is composed of diverse group of metabolites, can aid in
      diagnosis and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). AIM: The aim of
      the present study is to analyze and identify serum metabolites in oral
      leukoplakia and OSCC as a potential diagnostic biomarker and a predictor for
      malignant transformation of oral leukoplakia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Serum
      metabolomic profile of patients diagnosed with oral leukoplakia (n = 21) and OSCC
      (n = 22) was compared with normal controls (n = 18) using quadrupole time of
      flight-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. MassHunter profile software was
      used for metabolite identification, and statistical analysis to assess the
      variation of the metabolites was performed using Mass Profiler Professional
      software. Statistical significance between the three groups was expressed using
      ANOVA (P < 0.05), and intergroup comparison was done using Student's t-test (P <
      0.05). RESULTS: Significant upregulation of estradiol-17-beta-3-sulfate, L
      carnitine, 5-methylthioadenosine (MTA), 8-hydroxyadenine, 2-methylcitric acid,
      putrescine, and estrone-3-sulfate was seen in oral leukoplakia and OSCC than in
      normal controls. Furthermore, significant upregulation of 5,6-dihydrouridine, 4
      hydroxypenbutolol glucuronide, 8-hydroxyadenine, and putrescine was evident in
      OSCC group than in oral leukoplakia. CONCLUSION: Upregulation of L-carnitine,
      lysine, 2-methylcitric acid, putrescine; 8-hydroxyadenine; 17-estradiol; 5,6
      dihydrouridine; and MTA suggests their diagnostic potential in oral leukoplakia
      and OSCC. Further, a significant upregulation of putrescine, 8-hydroxyadenine,
      and 5,6-dihydrouridine in OSCC than in oral leukoplakia indicates their potential
      role in predicting the malignant transformation of oral leukoplakia.

PMID- 28862227
TI  - Tumor size distribution of invasive breast cancers and the sensitivity of
      screening methods in the Canadian National Breast Screening Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study set out to explore if breast cancers of different sizes
      are detected with varying sensitivity. In addition, we attempt to determine the
      effect of tumor size on screening detectability. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data
      arising from the Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS) was used to
      perform all analyses. The CNBSS consists of two randomized controlled trials,
      which includes data on detection methods, age, and allocation groups. We
      stratified tumor size by 5 mm; age into 40-49 and 50-59 years age groups; and
      cancer detection or presentation methods into mammography only, physical breast
      examination only, both mammography and physical breast examination, interval
      cancers, and incident cancers. RESULTS: This study revealed that a difference in
      tumor size exists for age (smaller tumor sizes are found in older women) and
      breast cancer detection or presentation modes. More specifically, breast cancers
      detected by mammography screening are statistically smaller than those detected
      by physical breast examination or those presenting as incident or interval
      cancers. This study also found that tumor size affects screening detectability
      for women in their 50's but not in their forties. That is, a statistically
      significant difference between mammography screening alone and physical
      examination alone was observed for women between the ages of 50-59 for tumor
      sizes up to 20 mm, including prevalent cases, and up to 15 mm when prevalent
      cases were excluded. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that smaller
      breast cancers are more likely to be detected among women in their 50s.

PMID- 28862228
TI  - A study of the distribution of B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 in odontogenic cyst and
      tumors: Histochemical study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The odontogenic keratocyst is known for its aggressiveness, high
      recurrence rate, and transformation of keratinized epithelia to nonkeratinized
      squamous epithelium for which inflammation has been suggested to be responsible.
      B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 (Bcl-2) an anti-apoptotic protein, prolongs the life
      span of epithelial cells and allows proliferation, differentiation, and
      morphogenesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study was carried out comprising of 90
      cases; (30 ameloblastoma, 30 keratocystic odontogenic tumor (KCOT), and 30
      radicular cyst). Bcl-2 expression was determined with respect to localization,
      area (percentage) and intensity of stained cells in epithelium, and connective
      tissue stroma by counting the endothelial, round, and fusiform cells. RESULTS: In
      epithelium bcl-2 expression in KCOTs was higher followed by ameloblastoma and
      lowest in the radicular cyst. Whereas, in connective tissue stroma bcl-2
      expression was higher in KCOT and radicular cyst than ameloblastoma cases. Solid
      variants showed statistically higher expression as compared to the unicystic
      variants of ameloblastoma (P = 0.009, 0.033, 0.011, and 0.041). CONCLUSION: High
      expression of bcl-2 in KCOT supports the general agreement that some features of
      KCOT are those of a neoplasia. The bcl-2 expression in connective tissue cells
      suggests that these cells may also be important as epithelial cells in the
      biological behavior odontogenic keratocyst.

PMID- 28862229
TI  - Prevalence of tobacco in Darbhanga district: A hospital-based cross-sectional
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chewing tobacco, smoking, and consumption of alcoholic beverages
      have become common social habits in India. No study has been conducted so far in
      this part of Bihar regarding the prevalence of tobacco. The aim of this study was
      to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use, its influences, triggers, and
      associated oral lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A hospital-based cross-sectional
      study was conducted. Patients who consume tobacco in any form were selected and
      were interviewed through a pretested structured questionnaire in relation to
      their tobacco habits, its influences, and triggers. In addition, clinical
      examination was carried out to check for any tobacco-related oral lesions.
      RESULTS: The overall prevalence of tobacco use was 16.69%, out of which 14.48%
      were males and 2.21% were females. The most affected age group was from 19 to 50
      years. 13.45% were below 18 years of age. 43.40% males and 77.42% females having
      the tobacco habit were illiterates. The majority of individuals were addicted due
      to peer pressure and friends, some acquired it, due to loneliness, stress, and
      for adapting themselves in the work place. Females frequently used smokeless for
      cleaning teeth. The most common oral mucosal lesion in both males (53.26%) and
      females (18.55%) was tobacco hyperkeratosis. CONCLUSION: The present study
      reflects the high prevalence rates of tobacco use among various sections of
      society. Apart from mass against tobacco products, authorities should focus on
      strict enforcement of law and promote research for creating new and harmless
      replacement products.

PMID- 28862230
TI  - Intratumoral granulomatous reaction in recurrent pituitary adenoma: A unique
      presentation.
AB  - Pituitary adenoma is one of the most common intracranial neoplasms, usually
      presenting with endocrinopathies or visual field defects. Granulomatous
      hypophysitis, one of the subtypes of primary hypophysitis, is a rare neurological
      entity presenting as a sellar lesion with mass effect symptoms and
      endocrinological dysfunction. Majority of cases of primary hypophysitis are
      misdiagnosed as pituitary adenomas preoperatively, and histopathology is required
      for a definitive diagnosis. Granulomatous hypophysitis can be primary/idiopathic
      or secondary to a variety of causes such as infection, foreign body reactions,
      and systemic inflammatory conditions. The presence of tumoral microgranulomas in
      pituitary adenoma is exceedingly rare, having been documented only twice
      previously. We present a unique case of recurrent pituitary macroadenoma in a 59
      year-old woman with histopathological features of idiopathic intratumoral
      noncaseating granulomatous inflammation. The presence of a granulomatous response
      in the absence of a systemic infectious or inflammatory disorder is suggestive of
      a local tumoral response to an as-yet unidentified antigen.

PMID- 28862231
TI  - Neurofibromatosis and breast cancer: Do we need to revise the mammographic
      screening schedule in patients of neurofibromatosis?
AB  - Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1) is a neurocutaneous syndrome with autosomal
      dominant mode of inheritance and has a high propensity to develop benign and
      malignant nervous system tumors. Although uncommon, case reports describing the
      association of NF-1 and breast cancer are available in the literature. We
      illustrate one such case of NF-1, with no family history of the disorder and
      presenting with multifocal invasive carcinoma of the right breast, in an attempt
      to describe the association between these two entities. We also attempt to
      extensively review the current literature on the subject. Since patients with NF
      1 are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer, we recommend strict
      adherence to careful clinical breast examination and annual screening
      mammographic examination starting at 40 years of age in all patients of NF-1.

PMID- 28862232
TI  - Giant cell tumour of distal ulna.
AB  - Giant cell tumor (GCT) of distal end epiphysis ulna is a rare presentation, and
      only few cases are reported in the scientific literature. We report a case of GCT
      of distal end epiphysis ulna treated at our Tertiary Care Hospital, Mumbai.

PMID- 28862233
TI  - Radiation treatment for chemotherapy-resistant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the left
      thigh.
AB  - Extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) arising in soft tissue is rare. This
      study describes a rare case of chemo-resistant large B-cell NHL of skeletal
      muscle, characterized by voluminous swelling in the thigh which responded well to
      radiotherapy. In this patient, recurrent NHL showed refractoriness to various
      chemotherapy regimens and was treated with radiation therapy repeatedly with
      excellent local response and no evidence of disease for 18 months. Most of the
      published literature describes surgery or chemotherapy as treatment for NHL soft
      tissue. This is the first case report describing the durable response with
      radiation without in-field recurrence in chemo-resistant large B-cell NHL
      skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28862234
TI  - Metaplastic breast carcinoma presenting as benign breast lump.
AB  - A 38-year-old female presented with the left breast lump for 6 months. Physical
      examination revealed 11 cm * 7 cm mobile lump in the left breast without any
      axillary or supraclavicular lymphadenopathy. Mammographically it appeared as
      benign breast lump (breast imaging reporting and Data System-II). Fine needle
      aspiration cytology and Tru-cut biopsy were not able to differentiate between
      benign or malignant nature of this breast lump. For better characterization of
      this lesion, lumpectomy was performed, which revealed malignant tumor with
      squamous differentiation along with areas of ductal carcinoma in situ and the
      inferior margin was not free. For proper locoregional control, left modified
      radical mastectomy was performed. Postoperative period was uneventful. Final
      biopsy report of the mastectomy specimen was negative for any residual tumor, and
      axillary lymph nodes were not involved.

PMID- 28862235
TI  - Forgotten dimension of cancer caregivers and patients: Psychosocial perspective.

PMID- 28862236
TI  - Comment on: Survey of cervical cancer survivors regarding quality of life and
      sexual function.

PMID- 28862237
TI  - Metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary presenting with cervical
      lymphadenopathy: A diagnostic challenge.

PMID- 28862238
TI  - Erratum: Oral cryotherapy for preventing chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis: An
      effective but yet neglected strategy.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.4103/0973-1482.188301.].

PMID- 28862240
TI  - Acute myocardial infarction in yellow oleander poisoning.
AB  - Self-harm by consuming yellow oleander seeds has become more frequent in South
      Asian countries, especially Sri Lanka and in southern parts of India. Yellow
      oleander poisoning usually presents with gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and
      neurological manifestations as well as electrolyte abnormalities. Cardiac effects
      can manifest as nearly any type of dysrhythmia and sudden death with very few
      premonitory signs. To our knowledge yellow oleander poisoning related acute
      myocardial infarction has not yet been reported. We report a 37-year-old man with
      yellow oleander poisoning who had normal sinus rhythm at presentation but within
      few hours developed acute ST-segment myocardial infarction.

PMID- 28862239
TI  - Insomnia and risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - AIM: This sudy aims to investigate the association between insomnia or excessive
      daytime sleepiness (EDS) and risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
      METHODS: We searched published studies indexed in MEDLINE and EMBASE database
      from inception to December 2015. Studies that reported odds ratios (ORs), risk
      ratios, hazard ratios or standardized incidence ratio with 95% confidence
      intervals (CI) comparing the risk of NAFLD among participants who had insomnia or
      EDS versus those without insomnia or EDS were included. Pooled ORs and 95% CI
      were calculated using a random-effect, generic inverse variance method of
      DerSimonian and Laird. Cochran's Q test and I2 statistic were used to determine
      the between-study heterogeneity. RESULTS: Our search strategy yielded 2117
      potentially relevant articles (781 articles from MEDLINE and 1336 articles from
      EMBASE). After comprehensive review, seven studies (three cross-sectional studies
      and four case-control studies) were found to be eligible and were included in the
      meta-analysis. The risk of NAFLD in participants who had insomnia was
      significantly higher with the pooled OR of 1.13 (95% CI, 1.00-1.27). The
      statistical heterogeneity was moderate with an I2 of 62%. Elevated risk of NAFLD
      was also observed among participants with EDS even though the 95% CI was wider
      and did not reach statistical significance (pooled OR 2.21; 95% CI, 0.84-5.82).
      The statistical heterogeneity was moderate with an I2 of 62%. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study demonstrated an increased risk of NAFLD among participants who had insomnia
      or EDS. Whether this association is causal needs further investigations.

PMID- 28862241
TI  - Is rule of halves still an occurrence in South India: Findings from community
      based survey in a selected urban area of Puducherry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of the present study was to assess the applicability of
      the rule of halves in an urban population of Puducherry, South India. We also
      aimed to find the correlates associated with undiagnosed hypertension to
      facilitate targeted screening. METHODOLOGY: We derive our observation from a
      community-based cross-sectional study conducted using the World Health
      Organization STEPwise approach to surveillance in urban slum of Puducherry during
      2014-15. Blood pressure (BP) was measured for all the study subjects (n = 2399),
      and the subjects were classified as hypertensive using Joint National Committee 8
      criteria, systolic BP (SBP) >=140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP (DBP) >=90 mmHg
      and/or known hypertensives and/or treatment with antihypertensive drugs.
      Controlled hypertension was defined as SBP <140 mmHg and DBP <90 mmHg. RESULTS:
      Of 2399, 799 (33.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 31.4%-35.2%) adults were found
      to have raised BP by any means (known and unknown hypertensives). Of the 799, 367
      (15.3%; 95%CI: 13.9%-16.8%) of study participants were known hypertensives. Of
      the known hypertensives, 74.7% (274/367) were put on treatment (drugs and or
      lifestyle modification), and 80% (218/274) were on regular treatment. Higher
      proportions of men were found to have undiagnosed hypertension compared to women
      (26.1 vs. 19.8%, P < 0.001). Similarly, adult from below poverty line (23.8 vs.
      20%, P < 0.001), unskilled laborer (26.6 vs. 20%, P < 0.001), and literacy less
      than middle school (12.3 vs. 23%, P < 0.001) had more undiagnosed hypertension.
      CONCLUSION: In the selected urban area of Puducherry around one-third of the
      adult populations are having hypertension, including the 54% of undiagnosed
      hypertension. Adults from the vulnerable subgroups such as lower level of
      literacy, below poverty line, and unskilled work are found to have higher
      proportions of undiagnosed hypertension.

PMID- 28862242
TI  - Unusual presentation of chondroblastoma mimicking Trevor's disease.

PMID- 28862243
TI  - Association of anti-CLIC2 and anti-HMGB1 autoantibodies with higher disease
      activity in systemic lupus erythematosus patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease
      characterized by numerous autoantibodies. In this study, we investigated the
      presence of anti-chloride intracellular channel 2 (anti-CLIC2) and anti-high
      mobility group box 1 (anti-HMGB1) autoantibodies in SLE patients (n = 43) versus
      healthy controls ([HCs] n = 43), and their association with serological
      parameters (antinuclear antibody [ANA], anti-double-stranded DNA [anti-dsDNA],
      and C-reactive protein [CRP]) and disease activity using Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) score (active or inactive).
      SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Case-control study at Rheumatology Clinic of Universiti
      Sains Malaysia Hospital. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The sera of SLE patients and HCs
      were tested for the presence of anti-CLIC2 and anti-HMGB1 autoantibodies using
      human recombinant proteins and ELISA methodologies. Other serological parameters
      were evaluated according to routine procedures, and patients' demographic and
      clinical data were obtained. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Mann-Whitney U-test, Chi
      square test, Fisher's exact test, and receiver operating characteristic analysis.
      RESULTS: Anti-CLIC2 autoantibody levels were significantly higher in SLE patients
      compared to HCs (P = 0.0035), whereas anti-HMGB1 autoantibody levels were not
      significantly elevated (P = 0.7702). Anti-CLIC2 and anti-HMGB1 autoantibody
      levels were not associated with ANA pattern, anti-dsDNA, and CRP. Interestingly,
      SLEDAI score (>=6) was associated with anti-CLIC2 (P = 0.0046) and with anti
      HMGB1 (P = 0.0091) autoantibody levels. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the
      potential of using anti-CLIC2 autoantibodies as a novel biomarker for SLE
      patients. Both anti-CLIC2 and anti-HMGB1 autoantibody levels demonstrated
      potential in monitoring SLE disease activity.

PMID- 28862244
TI  - Isolated left-sided pulmonary artery agenesis with left lung hypoplasia: A report
      of two cases.
AB  - Unilateral absence of pulmonary artery or pulmonary artery agenesis (UAPA) is a
      rare congenital malformation that can present as an isolated lesion or in
      association with other cardiac anomalies. Though congenital, presentation in
      adults are also reported. Most common presentation in adults is of exercise
      intolerance. The developing lung on the affected side is hypoplastic. Diagnosis
      of UAPA is established by imaging methods like CT and MRI . There is no specific
      treatment for this condition. Treatment depends on patients symptomatology,
      presence of pulmonary hypertension and collateral circulation. Presence of
      pulmonary hypertension carries a bad prognosis. We present two adult patients
      with isolated left sided unilateral pulmonary artery agenesis with ipsilateral
      lung hypoplasia. The diagnosis was confirmed by CT chest and perfusion scan.

PMID- 28862245
TI  - Novel use of levodopa in human immunodeficiency virus encephalopathy-mediated
      parkinsonism in an adult.
AB  - We report a case of a 36-year-old man with a medical history of human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who presented with hypomimia, hypophonia,
      bradykinesia, rigidity, and freezing of gait. His clinical presentation and
      magnetic resonance imaging were consistent with HIV encephalopathy with
      involvement of the bilateral basal ganglia and diffuse leukoencephalopathy. We
      initiated a trial of carbidopa-levodopa. The dose was escalated to 1050 mg
      levodopa daily. Amantadine was also started. The patient was closely monitored
      for behavioral, neurological, or systemic side effects. He tolerated therapy well
      without adverse effects. The patient's neurological status significantly improved
      with levodopa, including hypomimia, hypophonia, bradykinesia, and fluidity of
      gait. This case demonstrates that carbidopa-levodopa can be safely utilized to
      manage parkinsonism in an adult patient with HIV encephalopathy.

PMID- 28862246
TI  - Hypereosinophilia: A rare presentation of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) presenting as peripheral blood
      hypereosinophilia is very rare and the incidence is <1%. The characteristic
      feature of patients with ALL and hypereosinophilia is the absence of blasts in
      peripheral blood, and this might lead to misdiagnosis of ALL. It is important for
      clinicians and pathologists to be aware of this uncommon initial presentation of
      ALL to avoid delay in diagnosis. We report a 37-year-old man who presented with
      fever and respiratory symptoms and was found to have hypereosinophilia in
      peripheral blood. His bone marrow and lymph node biopsies were diagnostic of ALL.

PMID- 28862247
TI  - Ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone syndrome in a case of duodenal neuroendocrine
      tumor presenting with liver metastasis.
AB  - Ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) syndrome is an uncommon disorder and
      comprises about 15% of all patients with Cushing's syndrome (CS). Duodenal
      carcinoids are rare, indolent tumors usually associated with a benign
      progression. We hereby report a rare case of CS resulting from ectopic ACTH
      secretion from a duodenal neuroendocrine tumor (NET) presenting with liver
      metastasis. A 37-year-old female presented with abdominal discomfort and
      dyspepsia of 1-month duration. Ultrasound abdomen suggested a well-defined
      hypoechoic lesion in the left lobe of the liver, suggestive of neoplasia. On
      clinical examination, she had Cushingoid features and persistent hypokalemia.
      Midnight ACTH and cortisol levels were grossly elevated at 1027 pg/ml (n < 46
      pg/ml) and 87.56 MUg/dl (n < 7.5 MUg/ml), respectively. Both overnight and high
      dose dexamethasone suppression test confirmed nonsuppressed cortisol levels -
      86.04 and 84.42 MUg/dl (n < 1.8 MUg/ml), respectively. Magnetic resonance imaging
      brain showed a structurally normal pituitary gland. Computed tomography scan of
      the abdomen revealed hepatic lesion with bilateral adrenal enlargement. A
      diagnosis of ectopic ACTH-dependent CS was made. Intraoperatively, a duodenal
      lesion of 0.5 cm * 0.5 cm was identified alongside an 8 cm * 6 cm exophytic
      lesion in segment IV of the liver. Frozen section of the duodenal lesion was
      positive for NET. She underwent a Whipple's surgery, cholecystectomy, and left
      hepatic lobectomy. Postoperatively, she showed clinical and biochemical
      remission. Herewith, we report the third case of duodenal carcinoid tumor
      presenting as ectopic ACTH syndrome and the first with liver metastasis.

PMID- 28862248
TI  - The Allan Burns mummies: A history and future prospect of an anatomical
      collection.
AB  - Acquiring adequate resources for anatomy education has represented a challenge
      throughout the discipline's long history. A significant number of collections
      housed in anatomy departments contain human tissue of unknown provenance with
      some obtained in morally dubious ways. This paper outlines the history and future
      prospects of one such anatomical assemblage - the Burns Anatomical Collection,
      currently housed at the University of Maryland (UM). The collection originally
      contained more than 1000 anatomically prepared mummified human remains. They were
      produced by the renowned Scottish anatomist Allan Burns in Glasgow in the late
      eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The prepared cadavers became a
      commodity and after Burns' death, were acquired by his pupil Granville Pattison,
      who later sold them to the UM. While the origin of these human remains is
      unknown, historical data suggests that most of the cadavers for the collection
      were obtained through grave robbing. While intensely used in anatomy teaching in
      the nineteenth century, specimens from the collection should now be treated
      primarily as historical artifacts, appropriate only for teaching medical history
      and ethics. Other perspectives may include repatriating and reburying the human
      remains and providing a memorial service. Most importantly, this collection and
      others similar to it should initiate dialog and reflection on the ethical aspects
      of the past and present medical practice.

PMID- 28862249
TI  - Mechanisms of Action of MicroRNAs in Infantile Hemangioma Tissue and Vascular
      Endothelial Cells in Different Periods.

PMID- 28862251
TI  - Prefrontal Cortex Deep Brain Stimulation Improves Fear and Anxiety-Like Behavior
      and Reduces Basolateral Amygdala Activity in a Preclinical Model of Posttraumatic
      Stress Disorder.
AB  - Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is being investigated for a number of psychiatric
      indications, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Preclinical studies
      continue to be a cornerstone for the development of new DBS applications. We
      investigate whether DBS delivered to the infralimbic cortex (IL), a region
      involved in mechanisms of stress resiliency, may counter behavioral abnormalities
      in rats that present persistent extinction deficits and long-term anxiety after
      exposure to fear conditioning. Rats undergoing fear conditioning/extinction were
      segregated into weak and strong extinction groups (WE >70% or SE <30% of freezing
      during extinction). Following 2 weeks of DBS, animals were exposed to novel
      recall sessions and tested in the open field, novelty-suppressed feeding, and
      elevated plus maze. zif268 expression was measured in structures involved in
      mechanisms of fear and stress. In vivo electrophysiology was used to record
      activity from the basolateral amygdala (BLA). We found that DBS improved
      extinction deficits and anxiety-like behavior in WE animals, having no
      significant effects in SE rats. No major differences in absolute zif268 levels
      were recorded across groups. However, correlation between zif268 expression in
      the IL and BLA was disrupted in WE animals, a deficit that was countered by DBS
      treatment. Electrophysiology experiments have shown that DBS reduced BLA firing
      of both putative principal cells and interneurons in WE rats, with no significant
      differences being detected between SE and SE DBS animals. In summary, IL DBS
      mitigated fear, partially improved anxiety-like behavior, reversed neurocircuitry
      abnormalities, and reduced BLA cell firing in a preclinical model of PTSD.

PMID- 28862253
TI  - Risk of intraocular hemorrhage with oral anticoagulants in ocular surgery.

PMID- 28862250
TI  - CB1 Receptor Signaling in the Brain: Extracting Specificity from Ubiquity.
AB  - Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are amongst the most ubiquitous signaling molecules in
      the nervous system. Over the past few decades, observations based on a large
      volume of work, first examining the pharmacological effects of exogenous
      cannabinoids, and then the physiological functions of eCBs, have directly
      challenged long-held and dogmatic views about communication, plasticity and
      behavior in the central nervous system (CNS). The eCBs and their cognate
      cannabinoid receptors exhibit a number of unique properties that distinguish them
      from the widely studied classical amino-acid transmitters, neuropeptides, and
      catecholamines. Although we now have a loose set of mechanistic rules based on
      experimental findings, new studies continue to reveal that our understanding of
      the eCB system (ECS) is continuously evolving and challenging long-held
      conventions. Here we will briefly summarize findings on the current canonical
      view of the 'ECS' and will address novel aspects that reveal how a nearly
      ubiquitous system can determine highly specific functions in the brain. In
      particular, we will focus on findings that push for an expansion of our ideas
      around long-held beliefs about eCB signaling that, while clearly true, may be
      contributing to an oversimplified perspective on how cannabinoid signaling at the
      microscopic level impacts behavior at the macroscopic level.

PMID- 28862252
TI  - Genome-wide identification of histone H2A and histone variant H2A.Z-interacting
      proteins by bPPI-seq.
AB  - H2A is a nucleosome core subunit involved in organizing DNA into a chromatin
      structure that is often inaccessible to regulatory enzymes. Replacement of H2A by
      its variant H2A.Z renders chromatin accessible at enhancers and promoters.
      However, it remains unclear how H2A.Z functions so differently from canonical
      H2A. Here we report the genome-wide identification of proteins that directly
      interact with H2A and H2A.Z in vivo using a novel strategy, bPPI-seq. We show
      that bPPI-seq is a sensitive and robust technique to identify protein-protein
      interactions in vivo. Our data indicate that H2A.Z-interacting proteins and H2A
      interacting proteins participate in distinct biological processes. In contrast to
      H2A-interacting proteins, the H2A.Z-interacting proteins are involved in
      transcriptional regulation. We found that the transcription factor Osr1 interacts
      with H2A.Z both in vitro and in vivo. It also mediates H2A.Z incorporation to a
      large number of target sites and regulates gene expression. Our data indicate
      that bPPI-seq can be widely applied to identify genome-wide interacting proteins
      under physiological conditions.

PMID- 28862254
TI  - One-year result of XEN45 implant for glaucoma: efficacy, safety, and
      postoperative management.
AB  - PurposeTo report the efficacy, safety profile, and postoperative management of
      XEN45 implant at 12-month follow-up.Patients and methodsThis was a retrospective,
      non-randomised interventional case series involving patients who underwent XEN45
      implantation by a single, experienced glaucoma specialist in a tertiary centre.
      Primary outcome measures were the intraocular pressure (IOP) and the number of
      medications at 1-year follow-up visit. Two IOP criteria were chosen to measure
      success: IOP <=21 mm Hg and >=20% reduction from baseline (criteria one); and IOP
      <=15 mm Hg and >=30% reduction from baseline (criteria two).ResultsAll 39 eyes
      completed 1-year follow-up. The mean preoperative IOP was 24.9+/-7.8 mm Hg on
      three drops, which reduced to 14.5+/-3.4 mm Hg at month 12 (P<0.005) on 0.7 drops
      (P<0.005). On the basis of criteria one, the cumulative probability of success at
      1 year was 87.0% without medication and 92.0% with medication. On the basis of
      criteria two, cumulative probability of success was 62.0% without medication and
      64.0% with medication. Bleb intervention with a median of 2 (range 1-4) was
      required for 51.3% of eyes. Implant was obstructed by iris tissue in three eyes
      (7.7%); one eye (2.6%) developed hyphaema; eight eyes (20.5%) had numerical
      hypotony (IOP<=5 mm Hg) at day 1, of which all spontaneously resolved by week 4
      apart from one eye.ConclusionsThe XEN45 implant proved to be an effective
      treatment with a good safety profile at 1-year follow-up period. The high rate of
      postoperative bleb intervention does not make XEN45 a 'fit-and-forget' procedure
      and therefore the procedure should ideally be performed by surgeons experienced
      in bleb management.

PMID- 28862255
TI  - Response to: 'Unmet needs of cataract blind children in special schools in
      Southeast Nigeria'.

PMID- 28862256
TI  - Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in paediatric patients after pars plana
      vitrectomy and sutured scleral-fixated intraocular lenses.
AB  - PurposeTo report the incidence rate, management, and surgical outcomes of
      rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in children who underwent pars plana
      vitrectomy (PPV) with sutured scleral-fixated intraocular lens implantation
      (SSFIOL).Patients and methodsOf the 279 eyes of 230 children who underwent PPV
      with SSFIOL at a tertiary eye care centre, 16 eyes of 15 children developed RRD.
      Retrospective analysis of the surgical details of RRD, the structural and
      functional outcomes was done.ResultsOf the 279 eyes of 230 children who underwent
      PPV with SSFIOL, RRD was seen in 5.7% of the eyes. Average age was 10.7 years
      (range 4-15 years). Indication for SSFIOL implantation was congenital subluxation
      of lens (8 eyes) and traumatic aphakia or lens subluxation (4 eyes each). PPV was
      done in 15 of the 16 eyes, and 1 patient underwent scleral buckling. Retina was
      attached at the last follow-up visit in 87.5% of the eyes with median number of
      surgeries being 1. BCVA at the time of retinal detachment, multiple surgeries,
      and PVR at presentation were associated with poor visual
      outcome.ConclusionSurgery for SSFIOL in our series of paediatric eyes was
      complicated by vision-threatening RRD in 5.7% of cases. Surgical outcome in eyes
      with RRD without PVR was better (100%) than that in those, where PVR had already
      set in (75%). Need for regular follow-up and self-monitoring of vision should be
      emphasized and discussed with the parents before surgical intervention.

PMID- 28862257
TI  - Outcomes of lower eyelid retractor recession and lateral horn lysis in lower
      eyelid elevation for facial nerve palsy.
AB  - PurposeTo report outcomes and complications of lower eyelid retractor recession
      and lateral horn lysis (RR) for lower eyelid elevation in patients with facial
      nerve palsy (FNP).Patients and methodsRetrospective review. Patients with FNP
      undergoing RR alone (group 1) or with adjunctive procedures (canthal suspension
      group 2, tarsorrhaphy-group 3, and full-thickness skin graft-group 4) during a 5
      year period were included. Patient demographics, lagophthalmos, occurrence of
      eyelid malpositions, recurrent retraction, and repeat procedures were noted from
      medical records. Measures of lower eyelid height (LEH) and lid lag on downgaze
      were obtained from standard photographs.ResultsForty-two patients (23 females,
      mean age was 59 years) were included. Mean follow-up was 24 months (range 6-77).
      Median improvement in LEH following surgery was significant in Group 1 (0.90 mm,
      IQR: 0.37-0.91, P=0.20) and in Group 2 (0.51 mm, IQR: 0.30-1.37, P<0.001),
      respectively. Median improvement in blink lagophthalmos was 3.00 mm (IQR: 3.00
      3.50, P=0.02) in Group 1 and 3.50 mm (IQR: 1.75-5.00, P<0.001) in Group 2. Median
      improvement in lagophthalmos on gentle eye closure was 2.00 mm (IQR: 1.50-3.00,
      P=0.02) in Group 1 and 1.00 mm (IQR: 0-2.13, P=0.006) in Group 2. No new cases of
      ectropion were noted. 23.5% of patients required a repeat RR at a mean interval
      of 20 (range 1-70) months and a further 9.8% required a third procedure at a mean
      interval of 21 (range 18-29) months.ConclusionRR improves lower eyelid retraction
      and lagophthalmos in FNP either alone or when combined as an adjunctive
      procedure. It does not aggravate paralytic ectropion although repeated retractor
      recessions may be required to improve retraction.

PMID- 28862258
TI  - Unmet needs of cataract blind children in special schools in Southeast Nigeria.

PMID- 28862259
TI  - Lateral canthotomy orbitotomy: a rapid approach to the orbit.
AB  - PurposeThe lateral compartment of the orbit can readily be accessed through a
      horizontal lateral canthotomy without the need to swing the lid or remove bone.
      In this paper the technique, accessible orbital territory, and duration of
      surgery are presented.Patients and methodsRetrospective, non-interventional
      descriptive case series for patients who underwent a lateral canthotomy to access
      pathology within the lateral orbit.ResultsA series of 18 patients are included,
      all presenting with pathology lateral to, or within, the optic nerve. Pathologies
      included amyloidosis (1), lymphoma (4), metastatic adenocarcinoma within the
      optic nerve (1), idiopathic lateral rectus muscle mysositis (4), meningothelial
      meningioma of the optic nerve (1), intraconal orbital meningioma (1), reactive
      lymphoid hyperplasia (1), optic nerve glioma (3), optic nerve meningioma (1), and
      cavernous haemangioma (1). The median surgical time was 36 min (range 23-75 min).
      No patient required detachment of the lower lid, the technique leaving both upper
      and lower 'arms' of the lateral canthal tendon attached to Whitnall's
      tubercle.ConclusionsThe lateral canthotomy approach orbitotomy is a rapid, safe,
      and minimally disruptive approach for accessing pathology in the lateral orbit
      and optic nerve. The lateral canthal tendon is split along the horizontal raphe
      without detachment of either limb from Whitnall's tubercle, no bone is removed,
      and the post-operative recovery is rapid with minimal associated inflammation or
      chemosis. This approach is also flexible, permitting the clinician to increase
      exposure to the orbit peroperatively by swinging the lower lid if required.

PMID- 28862260
TI  - A paracentesis to save time and money with re-bubbling after descemets membrane
      endothelial keratoplasty.

PMID- 28862261
TI  - Molecular testing for the clinical diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma.
AB  - Fibrolamellar carcinoma has a distinctive morphology and immunophenotype,
      including cytokeratin 7 and CD68 co-expression. Despite the distinct findings,
      accurate diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma continues to be a challenge.
      Recently, fibrolamellar carcinomas were found to harbor a characteristic somatic
      gene fusion, DNAJB1-PRKACA. A break-apart fluorescence in situ hybridization
      (FISH) assay was designed to detect this fusion event and to examine its
      diagnostic performance in a large, multicenter, multinational study. Cases
      initially classified as fibrolamellar carcinoma based on histological features
      were reviewed from 124 patients. Upon central review, 104 of the 124 cases were
      classified histologically as typical of fibrolamellar carcinoma, 12 cases as
      'possible fibrolamellar carcinoma' and 8 cases as 'unlikely to be fibrolamellar
      carcinoma'. PRKACA FISH was positive for rearrangement in 102 of 103 (99%)
      typical fibrolamellar carcinomas, 9 of 12 'possible fibrolamellar carcinomas' and
      0 of 8 cases 'unlikely to be fibrolamellar carcinomas'. Within the
      morphologically typical group of fibrolamellar carcinomas, two tumors with
      unusual FISH patterns were also identified. Both cases had the fusion gene DNAJB1
      PRKACA, but one also had amplification of the fusion gene and one had
      heterozygous deletion of the normal PRKACA locus. In addition, 88 conventional
      hepatocellular carcinomas were evaluated with PRKACA FISH and all were negative.
      These findings demonstrate that FISH for the PRKACA rearrangement is a clinically
      useful tool to confirm the diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma, with high
      sensitivity and specificity. A diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma is more
      accurate when based on morphology plus confirmatory testing than when based on
      morphology alone.

PMID- 28862262
TI  - Centrilobular ductular reaction correlates with fibrosis stage and fibrosis
      progression in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
AB  - There is increasing interest in the role of ductular reaction as part of the
      pathogenesis and characteristic histology of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
      However, earlier studies did not separately assess the contribution of periportal
      and centrilobular zone ductular reaction over the spectrum of non-alcoholic
      steatohepatitis, and their clinical significance remains unclear. We herein
      analyzed the character of ductular reaction in each hepatic zone in non-alcoholic
      steatohepatitis biopsies and for the first time evaluated the prognostic value of
      ductular reaction in baseline biopsies as a predictor of progression of fibrosis
      in subsequent biopsies. A total of 90 non-alcoholic steatohepatitis liver
      biopsies were included in the cohort. The relationships among ductular reaction,
      grade, stage, and other common histopathologic findings in non-alcoholic
      steatohepatitis were analyzed in a cross-sectional manner. Among these patients,
      a total of 47 patients underwent sequential liver biopsies in the absence of
      effective treatment. The frequency of ductular reaction and the other
      histopathologic parameters in the initial biopsies were analyzed as predictors of
      progression of fibrosis in the second biopsies in a longitudinal analysis.
      Centrilobular ductular reaction was identified in 90% of patients and 38% of
      centrilobular zones. The prevalence of centrilobular ductular reaction increased
      as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis grade increased (P=0.0002) and also as stage of
      fibrosis increased (P<0.0001) in the cross-sectional study. In the longitudinal
      study, the frequency of centrilobular ductular reaction in the initial biopsies
      was significantly higher in the group of progressors and correlated with the rate
      of fibrosis progression (P=0.02). Centrilobular ductular reaction is common in
      non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and its presence correlates significantly with
      increasing necroinflammatory activity and fibrosis stage. Development of
      centrilobular ductular reaction appears to predict progression of fibrosis in
      subsequent biopsies.

PMID- 28862263
TI  - Neurofibromin C terminus-specific antibody (clone NFC) is a valuable tool for the
      identification of NF1-inactivated GISTs.
AB  - An increasing body of evidence supports the involvement of NF1 mutations,
      constitutional or somatic, in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal stromal tumors
      (GISTs). Due to the large size of the NF1 locus, the existence of multiple
      pseudogenes and the wide spectrum of mechanisms of gene inactivation, the
      analysis of NF1 gene status is still challenging for most laboratories. Here we
      sought to assess the efficacy of a recently developed neurofibromin-specific
      antibody (NFC) in detecting NF1-inactivated GISTs. NFC reactivity was analyzed in
      a series of 98 GISTs. Of these, 29 were 'NF1-associated' (17 with ascertained NF1
      mutations and 12 arising in the context of clinically diagnosed Neurofibromatosis
      type 1 syndrome and thus considered bona fine NF1 inactivated); 38 were 'NF1
      unrelated' (either wild-type or carrying non-pathogenic variants of NF1). Thirty
      one additional GISTs with no available information on NF1 gene status or with NF1
      gene variants of uncertain pathogenic significance were also included in the
      analysis. Cases were scored as NFC negative when, in the presence of NFC positive
      internal controls, no cytoplasmic staining was detected in the neoplastic cells.
      NFC immunoreactivity was lost in 24/29 (83%) NF1-associated GISTs as opposed to
      only 2/38 (5%) NF1-unrelated GISTs (P=3e-11). NFC staining loss significantly
      correlated (P=0.007) with the presence of biallelic NF1 inactivation, due
      essentially to large deletions or truncating mutations. NFC reactivity was
      instead retained in two cases in which the NF1 alteration was heterozygous and in
      one case where the pathogenic NF1 variant, although homo/hemizygous, was a
      missense mutation predicted not to affect neurofibromin half-life. Overall this
      study provides evidence that NFC is a valuable tool for identifying NF1
      inactivated GISTs, thus serving as a surrogate for molecular analysis.

PMID- 28862264
TI  - SOX2-silenced squamous cell carcinoma: a highly malignant form of esophageal
      cancer with SOX2 promoter hypermethylation.
AB  - This study originally aimed to investigate whether the overexpression of SOX2 is
      associated with the poor prognosis of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of
      the esophagus. However, we unexpectedly found that esophageal squamous cell
      carcinomas completely lacking SOX2 expression showed distinct pathologic features
      and highly aggressive clinical courses. The study cohort consisted of 113
      consecutive patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent
      surgical resection without neoadjuvant therapy. Immunostaining on tissue
      microarrays and whole sections revealed that 8/113 (7%) cases were entirely
      negative for this transcriptional factor. SOX2-negative cancers were
      histologically less differentiated (P=0.002) and showed higher pT and pStages
      (P=0.003 and 0.007, respectively) than SOX2-positive cases. A remarkable finding
      was widespread lymphatic infiltration distant from the primary invasive focus,
      which was observed in 4 SOX2-negative cancers (50%), but none of the SOX2
      positive cases. All separate dysplastic lesions observed in SOX2-negative cases
      were also SOX2-negative. The negative expression of SOX2 appeared to be an
      independent poor prognostic factor (OR=7.05, 95% CI=1.27-39.0). No mutations were
      identified in the coding or non-coding regions of SOX2. Fluorescent in situ
      hybridization did not show any copy-number variations in this gene. Since the
      SOX2 promoter contains an extensive CpG island, SOX2-negative cases underwent
      methylation-specific PCR, which disclosed promoter hypermethylation in all cases.
      In conclusion, SOX2-silenced squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus appear to
      be a minor, but distinct form of malignancy characterized by extensive lymphatic
      invasion, a poor prognosis, and potential association with multiple SOX2-negative
      neoplastic lesions. The hypermethylation of the promoter region is seemingly a
      critical epigenetic event leading to SOX2 silencing.

PMID- 28862265
TI  - Anaplastic sarcomas of the kidney are characterized by DICER1 mutations.
AB  - Anaplastic sarcoma of the kidney is a rare tumor (<=25 reported cases)
      characterized by the presence of cysts, and solid areas composed of bundles of
      undifferentiated spindle cells, showing marked cellular anaplasia (usually
      accompanied by TP53 overexpression). These tumors often feature prominent areas
      of cartilage or chondroid material. Germline mutations in DICER1, encoding the
      microRNA (miRNA) processor DICER1, cause an eponymous syndrome. Recent reports
      suggest that anaplastic sarcoma of the kidney should be included in DICER1
      syndrome as germline DICER1 mutations are associated with the occurrence of such
      tumors. Therefore, we sought to determine the following: (1) what proportion of
      anaplastic sarcoma of the kidney have DICER1 mutations; (2) whether the
      identified mutations affect both alleles of DICER1 (ie, are biallelic); (3)
      whether somatic missense mutations in the DICER1 RNase IIIb domain impact miRNA
      generation; and (4) whether TP53 alteration always occurs in these tumors. DICER1
      mutations were evaluated by Sanger sequencing and next-generation sequencing in
      nine tumor/normal pairs. Impact of DICER1 mutations on miRNA generation was
      evaluated via an in vitro DICER1 cleavage assay. TP53 status was assessed by
      immunohistochemistry and next-generation sequencing. Eight of the nine cases had
      at least one RNase IIIb DICER1 mutation that impacted the generation of miRNAs.
      There were six tumors with truncating DICER1 mutations and in four of them, the
      mutation found in the tumor was also detected in adjacent normal tissue, and
      therefore was likely to be either mosaic or germline in origin. Analysis of
      mutation phase revealed that two of three tumors had biallelic DICER1 mutations.
      Six of nine anaplastic sarcomas of the kidney had aberrant TP53
      immunohistochemisty with damaging TP53 mutations identified in three cases. Taken
      together, these data suggest that the great majority of anaplastic sarcomas of
      the kidney have DICER1 mutations and confirm that these tumors are part of the
      DICER1 syndrome.

PMID- 28862267
TI  - Diabetes: Risk of T2DM in children - influence of sleep duration.

PMID- 28862268
TI  - Diabetes: Peripheral Abeta linked to pathogenesis of T2DM.

PMID- 28862270
TI  - Multiple sclerosis: Microstructural pathology imaged in MS.

PMID- 28862269
TI  - Obesity: Obesity and cardiometabolic disease - more than meets the eye.

PMID- 28862266
TI  - Genomic and epigenomic mechanisms of glucocorticoids in the brain.
AB  - Following the discovery of glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus and other
      brain regions, research has focused on understanding the effects of
      glucocorticoids in the brain and their role in regulating emotion and cognition.
      Glucocorticoids are essential for adaptation to stressors (allostasis) and in
      maladaptation resulting from allostatic load and overload. Allostatic overload,
      which can occur during chronic stress, can reshape the hypothalamic-pituitary
      adrenal axis through epigenetic modification of genes in the hippocampus,
      hypothalamus and other stress-responsive brain regions. Glucocorticoids exert
      their effects on the brain through genomic mechanisms that involve both
      glucocorticoid receptors and mineralocorticoid receptors directly binding to DNA,
      as well as by non-genomic mechanisms. Furthermore, glucocorticoids synergize both
      genomically and non-genomically with neurotransmitters, neurotrophic factors, sex
      hormones and other stress mediators to shape an organism's present and future
      responses to a stressful environment. Here, we discuss the mechanisms of
      glucocorticoid action in the brain and review how glucocorticoids interact with
      stress mediators in the context of allostasis, allostatic load and stress-induced
      neuroplasticity.

PMID- 28862271
TI  - Precision medicine: a matter of regulation or collaboration?

PMID- 28862272
TI  - Impact of uterus transplant on fetuses and resulting children: a response to Daar
      and Klipstein.

PMID- 28862273
TI  - Controlling the supramolecular assembly of nucleosomes asymmetrically modified on
      H4.
AB  - In stem cells, H4 proteins carrying different modifications coexist within single
      nucleosomes. For functional studies, we report the synthesis of such asymmetric
      nucleosomes. Asymmetry is achieved by transiently crosslinking H4 by a traceless,
      protease-removable tag introduced via an isopeptide linkage. These nucleosomes
      are used to study Set8 activity, a key methyltransferase.

PMID- 28862274
TI  - High-purity capture and release of circulating exosomes using an exosome-specific
      dual-patterned immunofiltration (ExoDIF) device.
AB  - We present a microfluidic device for the capture and release of circulating
      exosomes from human blood. The exosome-specific dual-patterned immunofiltration
      (ExoDIF) device is composed of two distinct immuno-patterned layers, and is
      capable of enhancing the chance of binding between the antibody and exosomes by
      generating mechanical whirling, thus achieving high-throughput exosome isolation
      with high specificity. Moreover, follow-up recovery after the immuno-affinity
      based isolation, via cleavage of a linker, enables further downstream analysis.
      We verified the performance of the present device using MCF-7 secreted exosomes
      and found that both the concentration and proportion of exosome-sized vesicles
      were higher than in the samples obtained from the conventional exosome isolation
      kit. We then isolated exosomes from the human blood samples with our device to
      compare the exosome level between cancer patients and healthy donors. Cancer
      patients show a significantly higher exosome level with higher selectivity when
      validating the exosome-sized vesicles using both electron microscopy and
      nanoparticle tracking analysis. The captured exosomes from cancer patients also
      express abundant cancer-associated antigens, the epithelial cell adhesion
      molecule (EpCAM) on their surface. Our simple and rapid exosome recovery
      technique has huge potential to elucidate the function of exosomes in cancer
      patients and can thus be applied for various exosome-based cancer research
      studies.

PMID- 28862275
TI  - Facile cyclometallation of a mesitylsilylene: synthesis and preliminary catalytic
      activity of iridium(iii) and iridium(v) iridasilacyclopentenes.
AB  - Reactions of the mesityl-amidinato-silylene Si(tBu2bzam)Mes (1; tBu2bzam = N,N'
      bis(tert-butyl)benzamidinato; Mes = mesityl) with three different iridium
      precursors led, at room temperature, to two iridium(iii) and one iridium(v)
      complexes featuring one (IrIII) or two (IrV) cyclometallated silylene ligands.
      The iridium(iii) complexes are active catalyst precursors for H/D exchange and
      dehydrogenative borylation of arene C-H bonds.

PMID- 28862276
TI  - A new insight into the thermodynamical criterion for the preparation of
      semiconductor and metal nanocrystals using a polymerized complexing method.
AB  - This work reports the intrinsic thermodynamical criterion for the preparation of
      metal and semiconductor nanocrystals using a polymerized complexing method. The
      basic principle of this method is the formation of a polymerized complexing
      structure between mono-, binary-, or ternary-metallic ions and bonding agents in
      aqueous or ethylene glycol solutions by evaporation of the solvents. Heat
      treatment of the complexing structure under N2 atmosphere produces H2 and CH4
      gases, which can reduce the oxide crystalline nuclei to semiconductor and
      metallic nanocrystals. Experimental results show that Te, CdTe, Ag2Te, CuTe,
      NiTe1.5, CoTe1.5, Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, Bi-Sb, In2Te3, Ni2.9SnTe2, CuGaTe2, and CuInS2
      semiconductors and Bi, Sb, Ag, Cu, and Ni metallic nanocrystals can be prepared
      by this method. Transmission electron microscopy observations show that the
      obtained Bi, Ag2Te, Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, CdTe, and NiTe1.5 nanocrystals have grain
      sizes in the nanometer range. The types of metallic and semiconductor phase that
      can be obtained by this method are explained by the thermodynamical criterion
      based on calculations of the Gibbs free energy and electrode potential. It is
      proposed that the crystalline phase of the final product is controlled by the
      change of the Gibbs free energies of the reactions of the metal oxide with
      reducing gases and the metal oxide redox electrode potentials, not the metal
      redox standard electrode potentials and electronegativities of the elements.
      Furthermore, a prediction is presented for the preparation of other kinds of
      binary and ternary compound based on the thermodynamical criterion. Our results
      provide new insight into facile and green preparation of semiconductor and metal
      nanocrystals.

PMID- 28862277
TI  - Graphene oxide as a catalyst for the diastereoselective transfer hydrogenation in
      the synthesis of prostaglandin derivatives.
AB  - Modification of GO by organic molecules changes its catalytic activity in the
      hydrogen transfer from i-propanol to enones, affecting the selectivity to allyl
      alcohol and diastereoselectivity to the resulting stereoisomers. It is noteworthy
      the system does not contain metals and is recyclable.

PMID- 28862278
TI  - Correction: Rapid determination of the tumour stroma ratio in squamous cell
      carcinomas with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS): a
      proof-of-concept demonstration.
AB  - Correction for 'Rapid determination of the tumour stroma ratio in squamous cell
      carcinomas with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS): a
      proof-of-concept demonstration' by Michael Woolman et al., Analyst, 2017, 142,
      3250-3260.

PMID- 28862279
TI  - Synthesis of 4-benzylpyridines via Pd-catalyzed CH3-arylation of 4-picoline.
AB  - A highly efficient synthesis of 4-benzylpyridines was developed via Pd-catalyzed
      C(sp3)-H arylation between 4-picoline and aryl halides. It was found that the
      best yields were achieved with a simple Pd(PPh3)4 catalyst and Cs2CO3 as the
      base. Compared with the known methods, our reaction does not require the use of a
      strong organometallic reagent as the base.

PMID- 28862280
TI  - The templation effect as a driving force for the self-assembly of hydrogen-bonded
      peptidic capsules in competitive media.
AB  - Peptide-based cavitands (resorcin[4]arenes substituted with histidine and
      glutamine hydrazides) exist as monomeric species in polar solvents (DMSO and
      methanol). Upon complexation of fullerenes, the cavitands wrap around the
      hydrophobic guests forming dimeric capsular shells (as evidenced by DOSY). The
      self-assembly of the cavitands is based on the formation of beta-sheet-like
      binding motifs around the hydrophobic core. In a polar environment, these
      hydrogen bonded structures are kinetically stable and highly ordered as
      manifested by a 100-fold increase of intensity of circular dichroism bands, as
      well as a separate set of signals and substantial differences in chemical shifts
      in NMR spectra. This behavior resembles a protein folding process at the molten
      globule stage with non-specific hydrophobic interactions creating a protective
      and favourable local environment for the formation of secondary structures of
      proteins.

PMID- 28862281
TI  - The role of the secondary structure of helical poly(phenylacetylene)s in the
      formation of nanoparticles from polymer-metal complexes (HPMCs).
AB  - The great importance of the secondary structure (compressed/stretched) of helical
      poly(phenylacetylene)s (PPAs) in the formation of nanostructures (nanospheres and
      nanotoroids) by complexation with metal ions of diverse valences is demonstrated.
      PPAs bearing the same chelating units [anilide of (R)-methoxyphenylacetic acid]
      but displaying different helical scaffolds show great differences in their
      nanostructuration due to the different secondary structures of their helices
      despite the analogous ways in which their mono- and divalent metal ions form
      complexes. This key 3-D structural feature has not been taken into account
      previously when studying the nanostructuration of helical polymer-metal complexes
      (HPMCs).

PMID- 28862282
TI  - Hybrid mesoporous silica nanocarriers with thermovalve-regulated controlled
      release.
AB  - Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are excellent nanocarriers, featuring very
      high cargo capacity due to their large surface area and pore volume. The particle
      and pore dimensions can be accurately tuned, and both the internal and external
      surfaces allow versatile functionalization. We developed hybrid MSNs with
      diameters around 140 nm, with the external surface selectively modified with a
      temperature-responsive biocompatible copolymer to control cargo release. The
      nanoparticles feature either a polymer brush or a gel-like responsive shell,
      produced by grafting from RAFT polymerization of PEG-acrylate macromonomers. The
      hybrid nanoparticles have fluorescent molecules incorporated into the inorganic
      network providing excellent optical properties for traceability and imaging. The
      cargo release profiles are explained by a temperature-controlled "pumping"
      mechanism: at low temperature (ca. 20  degrees C) the polymer shell is
      hydrophilic and expanded, opposing cargo diffusion out of the shell and retaining
      the molecules released from the mesopores; above room temperature (ca. 40-50 
      degrees C) the polymer network becomes more hydrophobic and collapses onto the
      silica surface, releasing the cargo by a sponge-like squeezing effect. The
      release kinetics depends on the polymer shell type, with better results obtained
      for the gel-coated nanoparticles. Our proof-of-concept system shows that by
      modulating the temperature, it is possible to achieve a pumping regime that
      increases the release rate in a controlled way.

PMID- 28862283
TI  - Controlling the photochemical reaction of an azastilbene derivative in water
      using a water-soluble pillar[6]arene.
AB  - Photochemistry plays an important role in our lives. It has also been a common
      tool in the laboratory to construct complicated systems from small molecules.
      Supramolecular chemistry provides an opportunity to solve some of the problems in
      controlling photochemical reactions via non-covalent interactions. By using
      confining media and weak interactions between the medium and the reactant
      molecule, the excited state behavior of molecules has been successfully
      manipulated. Pillararenes, a new class of macrocyclic hosts, have rarely been
      used in the field of photochemical investigations, such as the controlling of
      photo-induced reactions. Herein, we explore a synthetic macrocyclic host, a water
      soluble pillar[6]arene, as a controlling tool to manipulate the photo-induced
      reactions (hydration) in water. A host-guest system in water based on a water
      soluble pillar[6]arene and an azastilbene derivative, (E)-4,4'-dimethyl-4,4'
      diazoniastilbene diiodide, has been constructed. Then this water-soluble
      pillar[6]arene was successfully employed to control the photohydration of the
      azastilbene derivative in water as a "protective agent".

PMID- 28862284
TI  - Detection of atrial fibrillation in patients with embolic stroke of undetermined
      source by prolonged monitoring with implantable loop recorders.
AB  - Recently, the clinical entity embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS) has
      been defined for patients with ischemic strokes, where neither a cardioembolic
      nor a non-cardiac source can be detected. These patients may suffer from
      asymptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF), terminating spontaneously and thus eluding
      detection. Implantable loop recorders (ILR) with automatic AF detection
      algorithms can detect short-lasting, subclinical AF. The aim of this study was to
      prospectively assess and predict AF detection in patients with ESUS using ILR
      with daily remote interrogation. Patients with acute ESUS received an ILR, were
      seen every 6 months and additionally interrogated their ILR daily using remote
      monitoring. The incidence of AF detection was assessed and parameters which might
      predict AF detection (clinical and from magnetic resonance tomography) were
      analysed. ILR implantation was performed in 123 patients on average 20 days after
      stroke. During a mean follow-up of 12.7+/-5.5 months, AF was documented and
      manually confirmed in 29 of 123 patients (23.6 %). First AF detection occurred on
      average after 3.6+/-3.4 months of monitoring. Patients with AF were on average
      older, had a higher CHA2DS2-VASc score and more often cerebral microangiopathy.
      In conclusion, AF can be documented in approximately 25 % of patients with the
      diagnosis of ESUS after careful work-up within a year of monitoring by an ILR and
      daily remote interrogation. This had important therapeutic consequences
      (initiation of anticoagulation for secondary stroke prevention) in these
      patients.

PMID- 28862285
TI  - Accumulating data on rivaroxaban for venous thromboembolism in clinical practice.

PMID- 28862286
TI  - Electrospun Nanofibrous Polyacrylonitrile/calixarene Mats: an Excellent Adsorbent
      for the Removal of Chromate Ions from Aqueous Solutions.
AB  - Herein, calixarene molecules containing piperidine units at lower rim or upper
      rim of calix skeleton was turned into a water resistant composite nanofiber
      adsorbent using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymeric support via electrospinning
      process. The PAN based calixarene nanofibrous adsorbents showed an excellent
      adsorption capacity toward the toxic chromate anions in aqueous solution.
      Furthermore, this new nanofiber mats would be promising filter materials for
      drinking water purification.

PMID- 28862287
TI  - Use of Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Immunoaffinity Chromatography to
      Identify Disease Induced Changes in Human Blood Plasma Proteome.
AB  - Differential scanning calorimetry provides unique signatures of blood plasma
      samples. Plasma samples from diseased individuals yield specific thermograms,
      which differ from each other and from plasma samples of healthy individuals.
      Thermograms from individuals suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia,
      multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia were measured with DSC. To obtain
      additional information about thermal behaviour of plasma proteins immunoaffinity
      chromatography was introduced. An immunoextraction of HSA using a chromatographic
      column with immobilized anti-HSA was carried out in order to enrich less abundant
      plasma proteins, which could provide a further insight into disease development.
      Efficiency of HSA depletion and protein composition of fractionated plasma was
      validated by SDS-PAGE.

PMID- 28862288
TI  - Preliminary Evaluation of Animal Bone Char as Potential Metal Stabilization Agent
      in Metal Contaminated Soil.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of animal bone char
      (ABC) addition on metal mobility in mine tailings. The mobility of metals after
      addition of ABC to tailings at four different application rates (0.6 g, 1.2 g,
      1.8 g and 3.6 g ABC per 100 g of tailings) was evaluated by Toxicity
      Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) one step extraction. The obtained
      results indicated that the mobility of Pb, Cr and Cd gradually decreased with
      increasing quantity of added ABC. According to the TCLP, mobile concentrations of
      Pb in tailings exceeded threshold values for almost eight times. After ABC
      addition, Pb TCLP-extractable concentrations decreased from 39 mg L-1 in tailings
      to lower than the TCLP limit values of 5 mg L-1 at all ABC application rates,
      except in mixtures with the lowest addition of ABC. We concluded that ABC could
      be a successful metal stabilization agent for multi-metal contaminated soil,
      although attention should be paid at highly As contaminated soil.

PMID- 28862289
TI  - Lipid Droplet Formation in HeLa Cervical Cancer Cells Depends on Cell Density and
      the Concentration of Exogenous Unsaturated Fatty Acids.
AB  - Cytosolic lipid droplets (LDs) store excess fatty acids (FAs) in the form of
      neutral lipids and prevent starvation-induced cancer cell death. Here we studied
      the ability of mono- and polyunsaturated FAs to affect LD formation and survival
      in HeLa cervical cancer cells. We found that the LD content in HeLa cells
      increases with cell density, but it decreases in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.
      Exogenously-added unsaturated FAs, including oleic (OA), linoleic (LA),
      arachidonic (AA), eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) displayed
      a similar ability to alter LD formation in HeLa cells. There was a dual,
      concentration-dependent effect on neutral lipid accumulation: low micromolar
      concentrations of LA, AA and DHA reduced, while all FAs induced LD formation at
      higher concentrations. In serum starved He-La cells, OA stimulated LD formation,
      but, contrary to expectations, it promoted cell death. Our results reveal a link
      between cell population density and LD formation in HeLa cells and show that
      unsaturated FAs may both suppress or stimulate LD formation. This dynamic
      regulation of LD content must be accounted for when studying the effects of
      lipids and lipid metabolism-targeting drugs on LD metabolism in HeLa cells.

PMID- 28862290
TI  - Cold Plasma and Acid Treatment Modification Effects on Phonolite.
AB  - A sample of phonolite was treated by cold plasma and hydrochloric acid diluted in
      water to study the change of its structure and acid properties. The phonolite and
      treated samples were analysed by XRD, elemental analysis XRF, specific surface
      area BET, TPD-NH3 and FT-IR spectroscopy. They were also tested in the adsorption
      of Ca, K, Mg, P and Na impurities present in waste cooking oil. Plasma treated
      sample presented almost the same structure with some surface differences respect
      to the original phonolite. However, acid treated sample presented bigger total
      surface compared to the other samples, different structure, composition and acid
      properties.

PMID- 28862291
TI  - Trans-Activation Response Element RNA is Detectable in the Plasma of a Subset of
      Aviremic HIV-1-Infected Patients.
AB  - Determining the HIV-1 reservoir size in infected individuals is of great
      importance for improvement of their treatment. Plasma trans-activation response
      element (TAR) RNA has been suggested as one of the possible biomarkers. TAR RNA
      is produced during non-processive transcription in HIV-1 productively infected
      and latent T cells. Here, plasma samples and paired exosome samples of 55
      subjects from the observational SCOPE cohort were analysed for the presence of
      TAR RNA. First, a PCR-based assay was optimized, which provided 100% specificity
      and 100% sensitivity in differentiating HIV-1 infected non-controllers from
      uninfected individuals. Next, TAR RNA was detected in the plasma of 63% of
      aviremic HIV-1-infected patients, who were either treated with antiretroviral
      therapy or were elite controllers. Although TAR RNA levels did not correlate with
      patient gender, age, CD4 levels, CD8 levels, they tended to correlate with
      CD4/CD8 ratio (P = 0.047). This study is the first to investigate plasma TAR RNA
      in a relatively large cohort of HIV-1-infected patients. We additionally show
      that the TAR RNA molecules in the plasma of aviremic patients are not limited to
      exosomes.

PMID- 28862293
TI  - Bismuth(III) Complexes with Bis(dimethylphenyl) Dithiophosphates: Synthesis,
      Characterization and Crystal Structure of [{(3,5-CH3)2C6H3O}2PS2]3Bi.
AB  - This work presents four complexes with general formula [(ArO)2PS23Bi] (1-4),
      where Ar = 2,4-(CH3)2C6H3, 2,5-(CH3)2C6H3, 3,4-(CH3)2C6H3 and 3,5-(CH3)2C6H3,
      respectively. Reaction of [(ArO)2PS2Na] with Bi(NO3)3 . 5H2O in toluene in 3:1
      molar stoichiometry afforded the complexes [(ArO)2PS23Bi]. These newly
      synthesized complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and
      multinuclear NMR (1H, 13C and 31P) NMR. The crystal structure of [(3,5
      CH3)2C6H3O2PS2]3Bi (4) has been determined by X-ray crystallography. The compound
      crystallizes in monoclinic P21/c space group and Bi(III) centre is surrounded by
      six sulfur atoms from three symmetrically chelating bidentate diphenyl
      dithiophosphate ligands in a distorted octahedron environment. Screening these
      complexes for their antifungal activity against Pencillium chrysogenum gave
      positive results.

PMID- 28862292
TI  - Chemometric Characterization of Slovenian Red Wines.
AB  - Total phenolic (TPC), flavonoid (TFC) and tannin (TTC) contents, total SO2, total
      acids, pH, and reducing sugars were measured in twenty five Slovenian red wines
      from three key wine producing regions, Podravje, Posavje and Primorska. The
      results were chemometrically analysed and the wines were classified according to
      wine growing region and vine variety. Principal component analysis proved that
      TPC, TFC and TTC contents were primarily responsible for variation in the wines.
      Additionally, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed and resulted in
      the satisfactory classification of samples by both vine variety and region.

PMID- 28862294
TI  - Design, Preparation and Characterization of MoO3H-functionalized Fe3O4@SiO2
      Magnetic Nanocatalyst and Application for the One-pot Multicomponent Reactions.
AB  - Molybdic acid-functionalized silica-based Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2-MoO3H)
      are found to be a powerful and magnetically recyclable nanocatalyst. The
      morphology and structure of this nanocatalyst were investigated by Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
      (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron
      microscopy (FE-SEM), thermo gravimetric analyses (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD)
      and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The high catalytic activity
      of this catalyst was investigated in the synthesis of pyrano[2,3-c]chromenes,
      representing potent biologically active compounds. The catalyst can be readily
      separated by applying an external magnet device and recycled up to 8 times
      without significant decrease in its catalytic activity, which makes it highly
      beneficial to address the industrial needs and environmental concerns. Fe3O4@SiO2
      MoO3H has many advantages, such as low cost, low toxicity, ease of preparation,
      good stability, high reusability and operational simplicity.

PMID- 28862295
TI  - Synthesis of Some Substituted 6-Phenyl Purine Analogues and Their Biological
      Evaluation as Cytotoxic Agents.
AB  - A series of 6-(4-substituted phenyl)-9-(tetrahydropyran-2-yl)purines 3-9, 6-(4
      substituted phenyl)purines 10-16, 9-((4-substituted phenyl)sulfonyl)-6-(4
      substituted phenyl)purines 17-32 were prepared and screened initially for their
      in vitro anticancer activity against selected human cancer cells (liver Huh7,
      colon HCT116, breast MCF7). 6-(4-Phenoxyphenyl) purine analogues 9, 16, 30-32,
      had potent cytotoxic activities. The most active purine derivatives 5-9, 14, 16,
      18, 28-32 were further screened for their cytotoxic activity in hepatocellular
      cancer cells. 6-(4-Phenoxyphenyl)-9-(tetrahydropyran-2-yl)-9H-purine (9) had
      better cytotoxic activity (IC50 5.4 MUM) than the well-known nucleobase analogue
      5-FU and known nucleoside drug fludarabine on Huh7 cells. The structure-activity
      relationship studies reported that the substitution at C-6 positions in purine
      nucleus with the 4-phenoxyphenyl group is responsible for the anti-cancer
      activity.

PMID- 28862296
TI  - Disintegrins from the Venom of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes Efficiently Inhibit
      Migration of Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - Integrins are plasma membrane proteins, whose dysfunction frequently results in
      cancer pathology, and therefore they represent important targets of anti-tumour
      therapy. Snake venoms are a rich source of disintegrins (Dis), proteins that
      specifically bind integrins and thus interfere with their functions. In an
      attempt to discover new molecules for treatment of breast cancer, the major type
      of cancer in women, we isolated a dimeric Dis (Vaa-Dis) from the venom of the
      nosehorned viper. By cell viability testing we demonstrated that 50 nM and higher
      concentrations of Vaa-Dis were toxic to highly invasive human breast
      adenocarcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231. Wound-healing assay revealed that already at
      one order of magnitude lower concentrations Vaa-Dis efficiently inhibited MDA-MB
      231 cell migration. This exposed a promising anti-metastatic potential of Vaa-Dis
      and a good perspective of these natural snake venom proteins for further research
      and development towards the application in breast cancer treatment.

PMID- 28862297
TI  - Synthesis, Antimicrobial Activity and in silico Studies on Thymol Esters.
AB  - Derivatisation of parent structure in terpenoids often results in enhancement of
      biological activity of newly obtained compounds. Thymol, a naturally occurring
      phenol biosynthesized through the terpene pathway, is a well known biocide with
      strong antimicrobial attributes and diverse therapeutic activities. We have aimed
      our study on a single modification of phenolic functionality in thymol in order
      to obtain a small focused library of twenty thymyl esters, ten of which were new
      compounds. All compounds were involved in in vitro antimicrobial testing. Another
      important aspect of current study was implementation of in silico calculation of
      physico-chemical, pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties, which could be
      helpful by giving an additional guidance in further research.

PMID- 28862298
TI  - Effectiveness of Student Learning during Experimental Work in Primary School.
AB  - The aim of the research was to optimize the effectiveness of student learning
      based on experimental work in chemistry classes in Slovenian primary schools. To
      obtain evidence about how experimental work is implemented during regular
      chemistry classes, experimental work was videotaped during 19 units of chemistry
      lessons at 12 Slovenian primary schools from the pool of randomly selected
      schools. Altogether 332 eight-grade students were involved in the investigation,
      with an average age of 14.2 years. Students were videotaped during chemistry
      lessons, and their worksheets were collected afterward. The 12 chemistry
      teachers, who conducted lessons in these schools, were interviewed before the
      lessons; their teaching plans were also collected. The collected data was
      analyzed using qualitative methods. The results indicate that many teachers in
      Slovenian primary schools are not fully aware of the potential of experimental
      work integrated into chemistry lessons for the development of students'
      experimental competence. Further research of the value of different kinds of
      training to support teachers for the use of experimental work in chemistry
      teaching is needed.

PMID- 28862299
TI  - N,N,N',N'-Tetrabutyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxamide as Very Effective
      Extraction Agent for Trivalent Europium and Americium.
AB  - Solvent extraction of microamounts of Eu3+ and Am3+ from water into nitrobenzene
      by means of a mixture of hydrogen dicarbollylcobaltate (H+B-) and N,N,N',N'
      tetrabutyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxamide (L) was studied. The equilibrium
      data were explained assuming that the species HL+, H2L2+, HL+2, ML3+2, and ML3+3
      (M3+ = Eu3+, Am3+; L = N,N,N',N'-tetrabutyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9
      dicarboxamide) are extracted into the nitrobenzene phase. Extraction and
      stability constants of the cationic complex species in nitrobenzene saturated
      with water were determined and discussed. From the experimental results it is
      evident that this effective N,N,N',N'-tetrabutyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9
      dicarboxamide receptor for the Eu3+ and Am3+ cations could be considered as a
      potential extraction agent for nuclear waste treatment.

PMID- 28862300
TI  - Interaction of PER2 with the Constitutive Androstane Receptor Possibly Links
      Circadian Rhythms to Metabolism.
AB  - Period 2 (PER2) is an important factor in daily oscillations called circadian
      rhythms, which are emerging as one of the most important regulatory networks,
      responsible for homeostasis and transcriptional regulation of a number of genes.
      Our work shows that PER2 could act as a co-activator of the constitutive
      androstane receptor (CAR), a key nuclear receptor (NR) that regulates the
      metabolism of endobiotics and xenobiotics. Bioinformatic analysis shows that PER2
      and CAR possess structural elements that could enable them to interact which was
      confirmed experimentally by CoIP experiment. Co-transfection of mouse
      hepatocarcinoma cells with plasmids overexpressing Per2 and Car increases
      expression of Bmal1, a potential CAR target gene, more than transfections with
      Car only. This is the first report indicating the interaction of PER2 and CAR.

PMID- 28862301
TI  - Synthesis and Properties of two CuI Complexes Involving Tetrathia-fulvalene-Fused
      Phenanthroline Ligand.
AB  - Two CuI complexes based on the pi-conjugated tetrathiafulvalene-annulated
      phenanthroline ligands (TTF-Phen, L1 and L2), [CuI(Xantphos)(L1)]BF4 (1, Xantphos
      = 9,9-dimethyl-4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)xanthene) and [CuI(Binap)(L2)]BF4 (2,
      Binap = 2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1'-binaphthyl), have been synthesized. They
      have been fully characterized, and their photophysical and electrochemical
      properties are reported together with those of L1 and L2 for comparison. Both CuI
      complexes show metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) absorption bands, whereas
      the 3MLCT luminescence is strongly quenched.

PMID- 28862302
TI  - Magnetite-Containing Sulfonated Polyacrylamide as a Nanocatalyst for the
      Preparation of Biscoumarins.
AB  - Magnetite-containing sulfonated polyacrylamide was easily prepared through
      polymerization of the corresponding monomers followed by the reaction with Fe3O4
      nanoparticles. The characterization of the obtained catalyst was performed by
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis
      (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS),
      X-ray diffraction (XRD), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The acidic SO3H
      moiety was found to be 1.1 mmol per gram of the obtained polymer. The catalytic
      activity of the polymer was examined for the synthesis of biscoumarin derivatives
      by two-component one-pot domino Knoevenagel-type condensation/Michael reaction
      between aldehydes and 4-hydroxycoumarin. Biscoumarins were obtained in high to
      excellent yields in short time. The work-up procedure of this reaction was very
      simple. The catalyst is stable (as a bench top catalyst) with easy-handling and
      it can be used again.

PMID- 28862303
TI  - Adsorption of Cr(III) from Aqueous Solution using Borax Sludge.
AB  - Borax sludge is the waste produced by a trommel sieve in the borax production
      process and is used as an adsorbent for Cr(III) removal. The effects of various
      parameters, including pH, initial Cr(III) concentration and contact time were
      investigated for batch adsorption of Cr(III). The experimental results obtained
      were applied to different adsorption isotherms and kinetic models. The results
      indicated that the Temkin isotherm (R2 = 0.9749) was most suitable to explain the
      adsorption characteristics of borax sludge, and the removal of Cr(III) was
      achieved by a physisorption process. The overall kinetic data fitted the pseudo
      second order rate model (R2 = 0.9990). According to thermodynamic studies, which
      were carried out at different temperatures, changes in enthalpy (DeltaH) and
      entropy (DeltaS) values for Cr(III) adsorption by borax sludge were determined to
      be 69.395 kJ/mol and 0.276 kJ/mol K, respectively. The study implied that borax
      sludge could be used as an alternative adsorbent in the adsorption of Cr(III)
      from aqueous solutions.

PMID- 28862304
TI  - Surface Modification of Alumina Nanoparticles: A Dispersion Study in Organic
      Media.
AB  - The alumina nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized from reaction between alum
      with ammonia and then calcined the precipitate at 1200  degrees C for 4 h. Its
      surface was modified by oleic acid (OA) and trimethoxyvinylsilane (TMVS) in o
      xylene at 50  degrees C. The alumina NPs and its modified were characterized by
      XRD, FT-IR, SEM, EDX and TGA. The TGA analysis indicated that the grafting amount
      of OA and TMVS were 10.5 and 8.0% respectively. The dispersion of modified NPs
      was determined in monomers such as methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl acrylate
      (BuA) and styrene (St) and in solvents such as ethanol, hexane and acetone. The
      experimental results showed that the highest dispersion was happened NPs modified
      by oleic acid in n-hexane, while the highest dispersion was observed NPs modified
      by TMVS in acetone. The results indicate that NPs modified by oleic acid formed a
      stable dispersion in MMA and BuA. The highest amount of dispersion happened NPs
      modified by oleic acid in MMA and BuA in initial weight of 5 and 2.5%
      respectively, while stable dispersion is formed in styrene when TMVS is used as
      modifier. The highest amount of dispersion was happened NPs modified by TMVS in
      styrene in initial weight of 2.5%.

PMID- 28862305
TI  - In vitro assessment of potential bladder papillary neoplasm treatment with
      functionalized polyethyleneimine coated magnetic nanoparticles.
AB  - Normal porcine urothelial cells have been shown to have a much lower rate of
      endocytosis than urothelial papillary neoplasm cells. This could be used as a
      mechanism for selective delivery of toxic compounds, such as polyethyleneimine
      coated nanoparticles (NPs). However, these NPs induce nonselective toxicity
      through direct membrane disruption. This toxicity can be reduced by
      functionalization of NPs with L-glutathione reduced or bovine serum albumin by
      reducing their surface charge. Functionalization was confirmed with Fourier
      Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering and zeta potential
      measurements. Viability assays showed that bovine serum albumin coating reduced
      NPs cytotoxicity immediately after 3 h exposure and that such NPs were more toxic
      to urothelial papillary neoplasm cells compared to normal porcine urothelial
      cells at 50 MUg/ml NPs concentration. However, 24 h after exposure, bovine serum
      albumin functionalized NPs had similar effect on viability of both cell lines.
      NPs showed some selective toxicity towards urothelial papillary neoplasm cells
      compared to normal cells after 3 h, however this was not confirmed after 24 h.

PMID- 28862307
TI  - Synthesis of Hetero- and Homo-multinuclear Complexes with a Tetracyanonickelate
      Anion: Structural Characterization [Cu(bcen)Ni(CN)4]2.
AB  - Two new complexes [Cu(bcen)Ni(CN)4]2 (1) and [Ni(bcen)Ni(CN)4] (2) where bcen is
      4,7-diazadecanediamide, were synthesized by reaction of equimolar amounts of
      M(NO3)2 (M = Cu and Ni), bcen ligand and K2[Ni(CN)4]. Single-crystal X-ray
      diffraction analysis of compound 1, shows that the bcen ligand acts as a
      tridentate chelate, coordinating to the Cu(II) ion via the two nitrogen atoms of
      the amine groups and one oxygen atom of one amide group, and the other amide unit
      is left uncoordinated. The coordination geometry around the Cu(II) ions is five
      coordinate with a distorted square pyramid geometry, comprising two nitrogen
      atoms and one oxygen atom belonging to the bcen ligand and two nitrogen atoms of
      the cyano groups of two Ni(CN)4 2- units. The distance between the copper ion and
      the amide oxygen of the dangling arm of an adjacent tetranuclear species is
      within the expected range for an axial Cu-O bond, and hence suggests that the
      amide oxygen of an adjacent tetranuclear complex may weakly coordinate to the
      copper ion in an axial position. These contacts link the tetranuclear species
      into infinite chain polymers.

PMID- 28862306
TI  - Novel HPLC-UV Method for Simultaneous Determination of Fat-soluble Vitamins and
      Coenzyme Q10 in Medicines and Supplements.
AB  - A precise, accurate and rapid HPLC-UV method for simultaneous determination of
      fat-soluble vitamins (vitamin D3, E-acetate, K1, beta-carotene, A-palmitate) and
      coenzyme Q10 was developed and validated according to ICH guidelines. Optimal
      chromatographic separation of the analytes in minimal analysis time (8 min) was
      achieved on a Luna C18 150 * 4.6 mm column using a mixture of acetonitrile,
      tetrahydrofuran and water (50:45:5, v/v/v). The described reversed phase HPLC
      method is the first published for quantification of these five fat-soluble
      vitamins and coenzyme Q10 within a single chromatographic run. The method was
      further applied for quantification of the analytes in selected liquid and solid
      dosage forms, registered as nutritional supplements and prescription medicines,
      which confirmed its suitability for routine analysis.

PMID- 28862308
TI  - Synthesis, X-ray Structural Characterization, and DFT Calculations of Binuclear
      Mixed-ligand Copper(II) Complexes Containing Diamine, Acetate and Methacrylate
      Ligands.
AB  - The dinuclear Cu(II) complexes [Cu(en)(MAA)(MU-CH3COO)]2 (1) and [Cu(pn)(MAA)(MU
      CH3COO)]2 (2) where MAA, en and pn are methacrylate, ethylendiamine and 1,3
      propylendiamine, respectively, have been synthesized and characterized by
      elemental analysis, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The structures of the
      complexes have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. In
      the dinuclear complexes 1 and 2 the two copper centers are five-coordinated and
      exhibit distorted square pyramidal geometries. The theoretical geometries of the
      studied compounds have been calculated by means of density functional theory
      (DFT) at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p)/LanL2DZ level considering effective core
      potential (ECP).

PMID- 28862309
TI  - Ionic Liquid-Assisted Liquid-Liquid Microextraction based on the Solidification
      of Floating Organic Droplet in Sample Preparation for Simultaneous Determination
      of Herbicide Residues in Fruits.
AB  - An ionic liquid-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction based on the
      solidification of floating organic droplet (ILSFODLLME) was investigated for
      analysis of four herbicide residues (i.e. simazine, atrazine, propazine, and
      linuron) by high performance liquid chromatography. For ILSFOD-LLME, the optimal
      extraction conditions were 5% w/v Na2SO4, 30 MUL [C4MIM][PF6]RTIL, 100 MUL of 1
      octanol, ultrasonication time 30 s and centrifugation at 5000 rpm for 5 min.
      Under the optimal conditions, linearity was obtained within the range of 0.1-1000
      MUg kg-1, with the correlation coefficients greater than 0.999. The high
      enrichment factors of the target analytes were in the range of 64.5-139.9 and low
      limit of detection could be obtained. A modified QuEChERS was applied for fruit
      sample preparation before analysis. Matrix effects were also investigated using
      matrix matched standards for construction of the calibration graph. The proposed
      method has been successfully applied for extraction and preconcentration of
      herbicide residues in fruit samples, and good recoveries in the range of 87.32%
      to 99.93% were obtained.

PMID- 28862310
TI  - Modelling the Correlation Between Molecular Electrostatic Potential and pKa on
      Sets of Carboxylic Acids, Phenols and Anilines.
AB  - Calculations of molecular electrostatic potential were correlated with
      experimental pKa values for different sets of acidic molecules (carboxylic acids,
      phenols, and anilines) to obtain linear relationships of variable quality. A
      single tri-parameter model function was constructed to describe the pKa
      dependence on MEP maxima together with two automatically generated molecular
      descriptors, namely the counts of carboxylic acid and amine functional groups.

PMID- 28862311
TI  - A Dansyl-Rhodamine Based Fluorescent Probe for Detection of Hg2+ and Cu2.
AB  - A novel fluorescent probe based on dansyl-appended rhodamine B was developed. The
      probe can selectively recognize and sense Hg2+ and Cu2+ from other common metal
      ions by showing unique fluorescence and absorption characteristics. In MeCN/HEPES
      buffer solution, the probe gives a ratiometric fluorescent response to Hg2+,
      which was ascribed to the fluorescence resonance energy transfer from dansyl
      moiety to the ring-opened rhodamine B moiety, while the presence of Cu2+ causes
      fluorescence quenching. Beside the fluorescence change, the presence of Cu2+ and
      Hg2+ can induce intensive absorption at about 555 nm, which resulted in a color
      change from colorless to pink.

PMID- 28862312
TI  - Synthesis of 2,4,5-Trisubstituted Phenanthroimidazole Derivatives using SBA-Pr
      SO3H as a Nanocatalyst.
AB  - An efficient one-pot approach for the preparation of 2,4,5-trisubstituted
      phenanthroimidazole derivatives is described. The three-component reaction
      between 9,10-phenanthraquinone, benzaldehyde derivatives, and ammonium acetate
      proceeds in the presence of SBA-Pr-SO3H as a nanoporous solid acid catalyst in
      short reaction times and good to excellent yields.

PMID- 28862313
TI  - Measurement properties of maximal cardiopulmonary exercise tests protocols in
      persons after stroke: A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and critically appraise the literature on
      measurement properties of cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols for measuring
      aerobic capacity, VO2max, in persons after stroke. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Embase
      and Cinahl were searched from inception up to 15 June 2016. A total of 9 studies
      were identified reporting on 9 different cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols.
      STUDY SELECTION: VO2max measured with cardiopulmonary exercise test and open
      spirometry was the construct of interest. The target population was adult persons
      after stroke. We included all studies that evaluated reliability, measurement
      error, criterion validity, content validity, hypothesis testing and/or
      responsiveness of cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols. DATA EXTRACTION: Two
      researchers independently screened the literature, assessed methodological
      quality using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health
      Measurement INstruments checklist and extracted data on measurement properties of
      cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols. DATA SYNTHESIS: Most studies reported on
      only one measurement property. Best-evidence synthesis was derived taking into
      account the methodological quality of the studies, the results and the
      consistency of the results. CONCLUSION: No judgement could be made on which
      protocol is "best" for measuring VO2max in persons after stroke due to lack of
      high-quality studies on the measurement properties of the cardiopulmonary
      exercise test.

PMID- 28862314
TI  - Working capacity after a subarachnoid haemorrhage: A six-year follow-up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Subarachnoid haemorrhage can lead to long-term disabilities. It is a
      major health issue for the patient and can affect work capacity. The aim of this
      study was to investigate working capacity after subarachnoid haemorrhage from a
      long-term perspective, using data from national sick leave records. In addition,
      factors associated with working capacity were analysed. DESIGN: A retrospective
      cohort study. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS: A consecutive total sample of 38 working-age
      participants with first-ever subarachnoid haemorrhage was included. Working
      capacity of the 30 participants not on early retirement prior to the subarachnoid
      haemorrhage was analysed. METHODS: Working capacity was defined as no longer
      being registered on sick leave or early retirement in the Social Insurance Agency
      and not being age retired or deceased. RESULTS: Regain of working capacity
      continued until 2.5 years post-subarachnoid haemorrhage and 73% of the
      participants were deemed to have working capacity. Functional independence at
      discharge from hospital, and higher responsiveness at admittance were the main
      factors associated with an earlier regain of working capacity. CONCLUSION: Nearly
      three-quarters of subjects were deemed to have working capacity within 2.5 years
      post-subarachnoid haemorrhage with a non-self-reported outcome. This information
      will help to individualize rehabilitation for affected persons.

PMID- 28862315
TI  - Effectiveness of postoperative home-exercise compared with usual care on
      kinesiophobia and physical activity in spondylolisthesis: A randomized controlled
      trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the effectiveness of a 12-month exercise therapy on
      kinesiophobia and physical activity in patients with spondylolisthesis after
      lumbar spine fusion. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS: Patients (n =
      98) with spondylolisthesis who had undergone lumbar spine fusion. METHODS: All
      patients (mean age 59 years) had received lumbar spine fusion surgery and
      identical postoperative instructions. Three months postoperatively, they were
      randomized into an exercise group (n = 48) or usual care group (n = 50). The
      exercise group received 12-month progressive home-based training with regular
      booster sessions, and the usual care group a single session of physiotherapy
      instruction. Kinesiophobia was assessed with the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia
      (TSK) and physical activity by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire
      (IPAQ) preoperatively, 3 months after lumbar spine fusion, and at the end of the
      12-month intervention. RESULTS: Before the intervention, the median (first
      quartile; third quartile) of TSK was 32.5 (29.0; 37.0) in the exercise group and
      30.0 (25.8; 36.0) in the usual care group, changing to 30.0 (25; 36) in the
      exercise group and to 30.5 (24; 36.3) in the usual care group (between-group p =
      0.17). IPAQ metabolic equivalent minutes per week increased from 1,863 (1,040;
      3,042) to 3,190 (1,634; 6,485) in the exercise group and from 2,569 (1,501;
      4,075) to 3,590 (1,634; 6,484) in the usual care group (between-group p = 0.92).
      CONCLUSION: Progressive 12-month home-exercise starting 3 months postoperatively
      was not superior to usual care in decreasing kinesiophobia or increasing physical
      activity in spondylolisthesis.

PMID- 28862316
TI  - Reliability and concurrent validity of standardized walking obstacle course test
      in people with stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate: (i) the intra-rater, inter-rater and test-retest
      reliabilities of completion times and step counts on the Standardized Walking
      Obstacle Course test (SWOC); (ii) correlations between SWOC scores and stroke
      specific impairments; (iii) the cut-off SWOC completion times and step counts for
      distinguishing differences in obstacle negotiation ability in people with chronic
      stroke and healthy older adults. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING:
      University-based rehabilitation centre. SUBJECTS: Twenty-nine people with stroke
      and 30 healthy older adults. METHODS: SWOC completion times and step counts were
      measured under 3 conditions: (i) normal walking; (ii) walking with a tray; and
      (iii) walking with dark-glasses. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment of lower extremity,
      the Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test, the Berg Balance Scale, the Timed Up and Go
      Test (TUG), and the Community Integration Measure questionnaire, were also
      administered. RESULTS: SWOC completion times and step counts showed very
      satisfactory to excellent reliabilities (intraclass correlation coefficient; ICC
      = 0.851-0.993). TUG times correlated significantly with SWOC completion times and
      step counts under the 3 conditions (r = 0.586-0.815, p < 0.001). SWOC completion
      times of 14.73-16.00 s and step counts of 23.06-24.13, depending on different
      walking conditions, were able to discriminate between stroke survivors and
      healthy older adults. CONCLUSION: The SWOC is a reliable clinical tool for
      assessing obstacle negotiation ability in people with stroke.

PMID- 28862317
TI  - Is prolongation of corrected QT interval associated with seizures induced by
      electroconvulsive therapy reduced by atropine sulfate?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electrocardiogram abnormalities have been reported during
      electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). A corrected QT interval (QTc) prolongation
      indicates delayed ventricular repolarization, which can trigger ventricular
      arrhythmias such as torsade de pointes (TdP). We examined the QTc changes during
      generalized tonic-clonic seizures induced by ECT, and the effects of atropine
      sulfate on these QTc changes. METHODS: We analyzed heart rate, QT interval, and
      QTc in 32 patients with depression who underwent ECT (25 women, 67.4 +/- 8.7
      years of age). The QTc from -30 to 0 seconds prestimulation was used as baseline,
      which was compared with QTc at 20-30 seconds and 140-150 seconds poststimulus
      onset. RESULTS: QTc was significantly prolonged at 20-30 seconds poststimulus,
      then significantly decreased at 140-150 seconds poststimulus, compared with
      baseline. QTc prolongation induced by ECT was significantly decreased by atropine
      sulfate. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the risk of TdP may be enhanced by
      ECT. Further, the risk of cardiac ventricular arrhythmias, including TdP, may be
      reduced by administration of atropine sulfate.

PMID- 28862318
TI  - Case of bullous pemphigoid accompanied by collagenous gastroenteritis.

PMID- 28862320
TI  - Case of toxic shock syndrome triggered by negative-pressure wound therapy.

PMID- 28862321
TI  - Expression of HLA-DRA and CD74 mRNA in whole blood during the course of
      complicated and uncomplicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.
AB  - To improve management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB), better
      understanding of host-pathogen interactions is needed. In vitro studies have
      shown that S. aureus bacteria induce dose-dependent immunosuppression that is
      evidenced by reduced expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class
      II on antigen presenting cells. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine
      whether expression of the MHC class II-related genes HLA-DRA and CD74 is more
      greatly reduced in complicated SAB, with its probable higher loads of S. aureus,
      than in uncomplicated SAB. Adult patients with SAB were prospectively included
      and blood samples taken on the day of confirmation of SAB (Day 1) and on Days 2,
      3, 5 and 7. HLA-DRA and CD74 mRNA expression was determined by quantitative
      reverse transcription PCR. Sepsis was defined according to the Sepsis-3
      classification and SAB was categorized as complicated in patients with deep
      seated infection and/or hematogenous seeding. Twenty patients with SAB were
      enrolled and samples obtained on all assessment days. HLA-DRA and CD74 expression
      did not differ significantly between patients with SAB and sepsis (n = 13) and
      those without sepsis (n = 7) on any assessment day. However, patients with
      complicated SAB (n = 14) had significantly weaker HLA-DRA expression on all five
      assessment days than patients with uncomplicated SAB (n = 6). Additionally, they
      tended to have weaker CD74 expressions. Neutrophil, monocyte and leukocyte counts
      did not differ significantly between complicated and uncomplicated SAB. In
      conclusion, patients with complicated SAB show weaker HLA-DRA expression than
      those with uncomplicated SAB during the first week of bacteremia.

PMID- 28862322
TI  - Squamous cell carcinoma of neck metastasized to the lung and cervical lymph
      nodes, successfully treated with systemic docetaxel and local radiation therapy
      to the neck in a renal transplant patient.

PMID- 28862323
TI  - A comparative study of quality and safety of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) fillets
      during cold storage, as affected by different thawing methods of pre-rigor frozen
      headed and gutted fish.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The catch of marine whitefish is typically seasonal, whereas the land
      based processing industry has a need for all-year stable supply of raw materials.
      This challenge can be met by applying fish frozen at sea. When using frozen fish,
      the methods employed for thawing may influence the safety and quality of the
      final product. This study aimed to investigate the applicability of novel thawing
      strategies in order to provide an all-year supply of high-quality and safe cod
      products. RESULTS: Comparative investigations of quality and safety factors after
      thawing in water, with and without air circulation, and contact thawing were
      performed. The parameters included water-holding capacity, thawing loss, drip
      loss, cooking yield, sensory evaluation and microbiological analyses (including
      total volatile bases nitrogen). Water thawing with air circulation provided
      faster thawing than water thawing without air circulation and contact thawing.
      For all three methods, the quality of the thawed fish was acceptable and the
      shelf life of the fillets during chilled storage was between 10 and 14 days post
      filleting. CONCLUSION: The results show that controlled freezing of cod, followed
      by appropriate thawing, may provide the processing industry with an all-year
      delivery of raw materials, without compromising quality and safety of the final
      product. (c) 2017 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture
      published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28862324
TI  - Do sleep problems mediate the link between adverse childhood experiences and
      delinquency in preadolescent children in foster care?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with multiple
      mental and physical health problems. Yet, mechanisms by which ACEs confer risk
      for specific problems are largely unknown. Children in foster care typically have
      multiple ACEs and high rates of negative sequelae, including delinquent
      behaviors. Mechanisms explaining this link have not been explored in this
      population. Impaired sleep has been identified as a potential mechanism by which
      ACEs lead to delinquency in adolescents, because inadequate sleep may lead to
      poor executive function and cognitive control - known risk factors for
      delinquency. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 516 maltreated children in
      foster care, ages 9-11 years, and their caregivers regarding child exposure to
      ACEs, sleep problems, engagement in delinquent acts, symptoms of posttraumatic
      stress disorder, and current psychotropic medication use. ACEs data were also
      obtained from child welfare case records. RESULTS: After controlling for age,
      gender, race/ethnicity, placement type (residential, kin, foster), length of time
      in placement, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and current psychotropic medication
      use, sleep partially mediated the association between ACEs and delinquency.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although delinquency is likely multiply determined in this
      population, improving sleep may be one important strategy to reduce delinquency.

PMID- 28862325
TI  - Platelet-rich fibrin/aspirin complex promotes alveolar bone regeneration in
      periodontal defect in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The efficacy and outcomes of aspirin in local defects
      and the use of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) in periodontal defects were
      investigated. Whether the PRF/aspirin complex is a suitable scaffold and delivery
      system to carry sustained-release aspirin/salicylic acid to promote periodontal
      bone regeneration was determined. MATERIAL AND METHODS: PRF and PRF/aspirin
      complex were prepared. The concentrations of aspirin/salicylic acid released from
      the PRF/aspirin complex were calculated at 37 degrees C. Periodontal ligament
      mesenchymal cells were cultured on six-well plates with PRF or PRF/aspirin
      complex gel to analyze proliferation and migration. The alveolar bone between the
      inferior buccal mesial root and anterior buccal distal root of the first
      maxillary molar was removed in 15 rats randomly divided into three groups: no
      treatment, PRF or PRF/aspirin complex. Twelve weeks post-transplantation, 2D/3D
      micro-computed tomography and histomorphometric technique were used for
      quantitative analyses. RESULTS: The PRF/aspirin complex provided a sustained
      release aspirin/salicylic acid. Peak concentrations occurred 4 hours after
      transplantation and were sustained to 48 hours at 37 degrees C; the total
      concentration of released aspirin/salicylic acid was 83.5 mg/mL, respectively.
      The sustained-release promoted the proliferation and migration of periodontal
      ligament mesenchymal cells. Micro-computed tomography and histological data
      showed that both the PRF and PRF/aspirin complex enhanced periodontal bone
      formation (P<.05). Moreover, the new bone formation was two times greater in the
      PRF/aspirin complex group than the PRF group. CONCLUSION: Aspirin/salicylic acid
      could be sustained-released from PRF/aspirin complex, which could inhibit
      inflammation and improve the function of mesenchymal cells. The data might
      provide a new safe and easy clinical therapeutic strategy to promote periodontal
      bone reparation.

PMID- 28862326
TI  - Physicochemical characterization of actomyosin-paramyosin from giant squid mantle
      (Dosidicus gigas).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The giant squid (Dosidicus gigas) has been proposed as raw material
      to obtain myofibrillar protein concentrates. However, it has been observed that
      colloidal systems formed from squid proteins have limited stability. Therefore,
      the isolation and characterization of the actomyosin-paramyosin isolated (API)
      complex were performed, because they are the main proteins to which functionality
      has been attributed. RESULTS: Densitogram analysis revealed 45% of actin, 38% of
      myosin and 17% of paramyosin. The amino acid profile indicates a higher
      proportion of acidic amino acids, which gives a higher negative charge; this was
      supported by the zeta potential. Total sulfhydryl (TSH) content was lower
      compared with proteins of other aquatic species. CONCLUSION: The higher
      percentage of actin in relation to myosin, the presence of paramyosin, as well as
      the low content of sulfhydryl groups, could comprise the main causes of the low
      technological functional property of proteins from D. gigas mantle. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28862327
TI  - Chemical composition, water vapor permeability, and mechanical properties of yuba
      film influenced by soymilk depth and concentration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Yuba is a soy protein-lipid film formed during heating of soymilk.
      This study described yuba as an edible film by analyzing its chemical
      composition, water vapor permeability (WVP), and mechanical properties. Three
      yuba films were prepared by using different concentrations and depths of soymilk:
      HS (86 g kg-1 and 2.3 cm), LS (70 g kg-1 and 2.3 cm), and LD (70 g kg-1 and 3.0
      cm). RESULTS: As yuba was successively skimmed, the protein, lipid, and ?SH
      content decreased, but carbohydrate and ?S?S? content increased. Though both the
      initial concentration and the depth of soymilk affect the properties of the
      films, the depth of soymilk influences WVP and tensile strength (TS) more. The
      WVP of the HS and LS changed the least (13-17 g mm kPa-1 m-2 day1 ), while that
      of the LD changed the most (13-35 g mm kPa-1 m-2 day-1 ). There were no
      differences (P > 0.05) in the TS between the HS and LS. LD had the greatest
      decrease of TS and the lowest TS among the groups. The earlier the yuba films
      were collected, the greater the elongation of the films was: 129% (HS), 113%
      (LS), and 155% (LD). CONCLUSION: The initial concentration and the depth of
      soymilk changed the chemical composition and structure of the yuba films. The LS
      yuba produced more uniform edible films with good mechanical properties. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28862328
TI  - An allosteric gating model recapitulates the biophysical properties of IK,L
      expressed in mouse vestibular type I hair cells.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Vestibular type I and type II hair cells and their afferent fibres
      send information to the brain regarding the position and movement of the head.
      The characteristic feature of type I hair cells is the expression of a low
      voltage-activated outward rectifying K+ current, IK,L , whose biophysical
      properties and molecular identity are still largely unknown. In vitro, the
      afferent nerve calyx surrounding type I hair cells causes unstable intercellular
      K+ concentrations, altering the biophysical properties of IK,L . We found that in
      the absence of the calyx, IK,L in type I hair cells exhibited unique biophysical
      activation properties, which were faithfully reproduced by an allosteric channel
      gating scheme. These results form the basis for a molecular and pharmacological
      identification of IK,L . ABSTRACT: Type I and type II hair cells are the sensory
      receptors of the mammalian vestibular epithelia. Type I hair cells are
      characterized by their basolateral membrane being enveloped in a single large
      afferent nerve terminal, named the calyx, and by the expression of a low-voltage
      activated outward rectifying K+ current, IK,L . The biophysical properties and
      molecular profile of IK,L are still largely unknown. By using the patch-clamp
      whole-cell technique, we examined the voltage- and time-dependent properties of
      IK,L in type I hair cells of the mouse semicircular canal. We found that the
      biophysical properties of IK,L were affected by an unstable K+ equilibrium
      potential (Veq K+ ). Both the outward and inward K+ currents shifted Veq K+
      consistent with K+ accumulation or depletion, respectively, in the extracellular
      space, which we attributed to a residual calyx attached to the basolateral
      membrane of the hair cells. We therefore optimized the hair cell dissociation
      protocol in order to isolate mature type I hair cells without their calyx. In
      these cells, the uncontaminated IK,L showed a half-activation at -79.6 mV and a
      steep voltage dependence (2.8 mV). IK,L also showed complex activation and
      deactivation kinetics, which we faithfully reproduced by an allosteric channel
      gating scheme where the channel is able to open from all (five) closed states.
      The 'early' open states substantially contribute to IK,L activation at negative
      voltages. This study provides the first complete description of the 'native'
      biophysical properties of IK,L in adult mouse vestibular type I hair cells.

PMID- 28862329
TI  - Virgin coconut oil reverses hepatic steatosis by restoring redox homeostasis and
      lipid metabolism in male Wistar rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatosteatosis, a form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),
      is being increasingly recognized as a major health burden worldwide. Insulin
      resistance, dyslipidemia and imbalances in adipokine/cytokine interplay are
      reported to be involved in the onset and progression of this disease. Use of
      dietary nutraceuticals in prevention and treatment of NAFLD is emerging. Virgin
      coconut oil (VCO), a fermented product of fresh coconut kernel, has been shown to
      impede the development of hepatosteatosis in rats. This study analyzes the
      potential of VCO to reverse the already developed hepatosteatosis condition.
      RESULTS: Hyperglycemia, reduced glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia, and hepatic
      macrovesicles in high-fructose-diet-fed rats (4 weeks) confirmed the development
      of hepatosteatosis. Natural reversion in these parameters was observed upon
      shifting to normal diet in untreated control animals. Administration of VCO,
      however, increased this natural reversion by improving high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol level (53.5%) and reducing hepatic and serum triacylglycerols (78.0
      and 51.7%). Increased hepatic glutathione level (P < 0.01), antioxidant enzyme
      activities (P < 0.05) and reduced lipid peroxidation were also noticed in these
      animals. These observations were in concordance with reduced liver enzyme
      activities (P < 0.01) and restoration of altered hepatic architecture.
      CONCLUSION: The study indicates that VCO can be used as a nutraceutical against
      hepatosteatosis. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28862319
TI  - Breakthroughs in modern cancer therapy and elusive cardiotoxicity: Critical
      research-practice gaps, challenges, and insights.
AB  - To date, five cancer treatment modalities have been defined. The three
      traditional modalities of cancer treatment are surgery, radiotherapy, and
      conventional chemotherapy, and the two modern modalities include molecularly
      targeted therapy (the fourth modality) and immunotherapy (the fifth modality).
      The cardiotoxicity associated with conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy is
      well known. Similar adverse cardiac events are resurging with the fourth
      modality. Aside from the conventional and newer targeted agents, even the most
      newly developed, immune-based therapeutic modalities of anticancer treatment (the
      fifth modality), e.g., immune checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor
      (CAR) T-cell therapy, have unfortunately led to potentially lethal cardiotoxicity
      in patients. Cardiac complications represent unresolved and potentially life
      threatening conditions in cancer survivors, while effective clinical management
      remains quite challenging. As a consequence, morbidity and mortality related to
      cardiac complications now threaten to offset some favorable benefits of modern
      cancer treatments in cancer-related survival, regardless of the oncologic
      prognosis. This review focuses on identifying critical research-practice gaps,
      addressing real-world challenges and pinpointing real-time insights in general
      terms under the context of clinical cardiotoxicity induced by the fourth and
      fifth modalities of cancer treatment. The information ranges from basic science
      to clinical management in the field of cardio-oncology and crosses the interface
      between oncology and onco-pharmacology. The complexity of the ongoing clinical
      problem is addressed at different levels. A better understanding of these
      research-practice gaps may advance research initiatives on the development of
      mechanism-based diagnoses and treatments for the effective clinical management of
      cardiotoxicity.

PMID- 28862330
TI  - Defining the neural fulcrum for chronic vagus nerve stimulation: implications for
      integrated cardiac control.
AB  - KEY POINTS: The evoked cardiac response to bipolar cervical vagus nerve
      stimulation (VNS) reflects a dynamic interaction between afferent mediated
      decreases in central parasympathetic drive and suppressive effects evoked by
      direct stimulation of parasympathetic efferent axons to the heart. The neural
      fulcrum is defined as the operating point, based on frequency-amplitude-pulse
      width, where a null heart rate response is reproducibly evoked during the on
      phase of VNS. Cardiac control, based on the principal of the neural fulcrum, can
      be elicited from either vagus. Beta-receptor blockade does not alter the
      tachycardia phase to low intensity VNS, but can increase the bradycardia to
      higher intensity VNS. While muscarinic cholinergic blockade prevented the VNS
      induced bradycardia, clinically relevant doses of ACE inhibitors, beta-blockade
      and the funny channel blocker ivabradine did not alter the VNS chronotropic
      response. While there are qualitative differences in VNS heart control between
      awake and anaesthetized states, the physiological expression of the neural
      fulcrum is maintained. ABSTRACT: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an emerging
      therapy for treatment of chronic heart failure and remains a standard of therapy
      in patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy. The objective of this work was to
      characterize heart rate (HR) responses (HRRs) during the active phase of chronic
      VNS over a wide range of stimulation parameters in order to define optimal
      protocols for bidirectional bioelectronic control of the heart. In normal
      canines, bipolar electrodes were chronically implanted on the cervical
      vagosympathetic trunk bilaterally with anode cephalad to cathode (n = 8,
      'cardiac' configuration) or with electrode positions reversed (n = 8, 'epilepsy'
      configuration). In awake state, HRRs were determined for each combination of
      pulse frequency (2-20 Hz), intensity (0-3.5 mA) and pulse widths (130-750 MUs)
      over 14 months. At low intensities and higher frequency VNS, HR increased during
      the VNS active phase owing to afferent modulation of parasympathetic central
      drive. When functional effects of afferent and efferent fibre activation were
      balanced, a null HRR was evoked (defined as 'neural fulcrum') during which HRR ~
      0. As intensity increased further, HR was reduced during the active phase of VNS.
      While qualitatively similar, VNS delivered in the epilepsy configuration resulted
      in more pronounced HR acceleration and reduced HR deceleration during VNS. At
      termination, under anaesthesia, transection of the vagi rostral to the
      stimulation site eliminated the augmenting response to VNS and enhanced the
      parasympathetic efferent-mediated suppressing effect on electrical and mechanical
      function of the heart. In conclusion, VNS activates central then peripheral
      aspects of the cardiac nervous system. VNS control over cardiac function is
      maintained during chronic therapy.

PMID- 28862332
TI  - Response to Dr. Serkan Cay comment on "Various approaches to reach the
      pericardial space for arrhythmia mapping and ablation".

PMID- 28862331
TI  - Selection and use of indigenous mixed starter cultures for mustard leaves
      fermentation and the improvement of cuocai characteristics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To improve the characteristics and safety of traditional cuocai, the
      selection and use of mixed starter cultures is important. This study aimed to
      isolate the main indigenous lactic acid bacteria (LABs) and yeast species from
      spontaneous fermented mustard leaves, and they were used as starter cultures to
      ferment mustard leaves. RESULTS: Five predominant LABs, namely Q-1 (Enterococcus
      faecalis), G-1 (Lactobacillus plantarum), G-3 (Lactobacillus pentosus), and G-2
      and G-4 (Lactobacillus buchneri) strains, and the two yeast strains J-1
      (Issatchenkia orientalis) and J-2 (Issatchenkia occidentalis) were isolated from
      cuocai. From the results, Lb. plantarum and I. orientalis strains exhibited
      strong growth ability, fast acidification, and potent low-pH tolerance.
      Therefore, they were chosen as the mixed starter cultures to ferment mustard
      leaves. During the process of culture-dependent fermented mustard leaves, the
      changes of acidity, total crude protein, and total sugar were similar to those of
      culture-independent fermented mustard leaves, while the nitrite content of
      culture-dependent fermented mustard leaves was significantly lower than that of
      culture-independent fermented cuocai. According to gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry analysis, the main volatile flavor compounds of fermented mustard
      leaves were alcohols, aldehydes, esters, and sulfides. There was no significant
      difference of volatile flavor compounds between the processes of culture
      dependent and culture-independent fermentations. CONCLUSION: Therefore, it was
      suggested that Lb. plantarum and I. orientalis strains could be used to ferment
      cuocai instead of the traditional ferment method to control the quality and shelf
      safety of cuocai. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28862333
TI  - The effect of ultrasound on the alkali extraction of proteins from eggshell
      membranes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eggshell contains two layers formed by a dense network of fibrous
      proteins. These proteins are highly insoluble in a broad variety of solvents, but
      their composition makes them suitable for a broad range of applications. In this
      study, in order to extract and solubilise these proteins, the eggshell membranes
      were treated in an alkali solution. A Box-Behnken design was employed to
      determine the influence of the treatment variables on the amount of protein
      solubilised. Furthermore, the effect of ultrasound on the protein recovery yield
      was also evaluated and compared with the unmodified process. RESULTS: A
      solubilised protein yield close to 100% of the total eggshell membrane protein
      was obtained. The optimal conditions could be set at 70  degrees C in a 1.0 mol L
      1 NaOH solution for 60 min. However, when ultrasound was applied, it was possible
      to decrease the time of reaction by half. In the two processes, the temperature
      was found to be the most important independent variable evaluated. Finally, the
      antioxidant properties of the proteins obtained in each case were similar.
      CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound favours the detachment of big clumps of proteins from the
      eggshell membrane, facilitating the solubilisation of its compounds. The
      ultrasound had no effect on the protein properties tested in this study. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28862334
TI  - SKUP3 : 6 and 24 months follow-up of changes in respiration and sleepiness after
      modified UPPP.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Our previous randomized controlled trial of patients with obstructive
      sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) showed that modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty
      (UPPP), including tonsillectomy, significantly improved nocturnal respiration,
      daytime sleepiness, and quality of life in the intervention group compared to
      controls who had delayed surgery after 6 months. This is the continuous report
      with the 6- and 24-month postoperative results. STUDY DESIGN: Single-center
      prospective cohort study. METHODS: Sixty-five patients with apnea-hypopnea index
      (AHI) >= 15, body mass index (BMI) < 36, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) >= 8, and
      Friedman stage I or II underwent UPPP after failing nonsurgical treatment. The
      results from polysomnography and ESS at 6 and 24 months were compared to
      baseline. RESULTS: Eight percent and 20% dropped out from the 6- and 24-month
      follow-ups, respectively. The AHI value decreased significantly from mean
      (standard deviation) 52.9 (20.5) at baseline to 23.6 (20.2) after 6 months, and
      to 24.1 (20.9) after 24 months (P < 0.001). Patients with tonsil size 2, and 3 to
      4, had significant reductions in the AHI after both follow-ups. The median ESS
      score decreased significantly from 13 (range 8-21) to 6.5 (1-18) after 6 months,
      and to 5 (2-17) after 24 months (P < 0.001). The BMI remained unchanged. There
      were significant modest correlations for the reductions in AHI and ESS after 24
      months. CONCLUSION: Modified UPPP was effective in improving nocturnal
      respiration and daytime sleepiness in OSAS patients at both 6- and 24-month
      follow-up. Patients with tonsil size 2, and 3 to 4, benefitted similarly from
      surgery with improved respiration. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2b. Laryngoscope, 128:1238
      1244, 2018.

PMID- 28862335
TI  - Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health care-associated infection is a major cause of morbidity and
      mortality. Hand hygiene is regarded as an effective preventive measure. This is
      an update of a previously published review. OBJECTIVES: To assess the short- and
      long-term success of strategies to improve compliance to recommendations for hand
      hygiene, and to determine whether an increase in hand hygiene compliance can
      reduce rates of health care-associated infection. SEARCH METHODS: We conducted
      electronic searches of the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed,
      Embase, and CINAHL. We conducted the searches from November 2009 to October 2016.
      SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised trials, non-randomised trials,
      controlled before-after studies, and interrupted time series analyses (ITS) that
      evaluated any intervention to improve compliance with hand hygiene using soap and
      water or alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR), or both. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:
      Two review authors independently screened citations for inclusion, extracted
      data, and assessed risks of bias for each included study. Meta-analysis was not
      possible, as there was substantial heterogeneity across studies. We assessed the
      certainty of evidence using the GRADE approach and present the results
      narratively in a 'Summary of findings' table. MAIN RESULTS: This review includes
      26 studies: 14 randomised trials, two non-randomised trials and 10 ITS studies.
      Most studies were conducted in hospitals or long-term care facilities in
      different countries, and collected data from a variety of healthcare workers.
      Fourteen studies assessed the success of different combinations of strategies
      recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve hand hygiene
      compliance. Strategies consisted of the following: increasing the availability of
      ABHR, different types of education for staff, reminders (written and verbal),
      different types of performance feedback, administrative support, and staff
      involvement. Six studies assessed different types of performance feedback, two
      studies evaluated education, three studies evaluated cues such as signs or scent,
      and one study assessed placement of ABHR. Observed hand hygiene compliance was
      measured in all but three studies which reported product usage. Eight studies
      also reported either infection or colonisation rates. All studies had two or more
      sources of high or unclear risks of bias, most often associated with blinding or
      independence of the intervention.Multimodal interventions that include some but
      not all strategies recommended in the WHO guidelines may slightly improve hand
      hygiene compliance (five studies; 56 centres) and may slightly reduce infection
      rates (three studies; 34 centres), low certainty of evidence for both
      outcomes.Multimodal interventions that include all strategies recommended in the
      WHO guidelines may slightly reduce colonisation rates (one study; 167 centres;
      low certainty of evidence). It is unclear whether the intervention improves hand
      hygiene compliance (five studies; 184 centres) or reduces infection (two studies;
      16 centres) because the certainty of this evidence is very low.Multimodal
      interventions that contain all strategies recommended in the WHO guidelines plus
      additional strategies may slightly improve hand hygiene compliance (six studies;
      15 centres; low certainty of evidence). It is unclear whether this intervention
      reduces infection rates (one study; one centre; very low certainty of
      evidence).Performance feedback may improve hand hygiene compliance (six studies;
      21 centres; low certainty of evidence). This intervention probably slightly
      reduces infection (one study; one centre) and colonisation rates (one study; one
      centre) based on moderate certainty of evidence.Education may improve hand
      hygiene compliance (two studies; two centres), low certainty of evidence.Cues
      such as signs or scent may slightly improve hand hygiene compliance (three
      studies; three centres), low certainty of evidence.Placement of ABHR close to
      point of use probably slightly improves hand hygiene compliance (one study; one
      centre), moderate certainty of evidence. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: With the
      identified variability in certainty of evidence, interventions, and methods,
      there remains an urgent need to undertake methodologically robust research to
      explore the effectiveness of multimodal versus simpler interventions to increase
      hand hygiene compliance, and to identify which components of multimodal
      interventions or combinations of strategies are most effective in a particular
      context.

PMID- 28862336
TI  - Editorial: Emerging Principles of Practice in Couple and Family therapy.

PMID- 28862337
TI  - Case of neutrophilic dermatosis as erythema nodosum migrans-like eruption with
      pustulosis in a patient with Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28862338
TI  - Automated Tracking of Cell Migration with Rapid Data Analysis.
AB  - Cell migration is essential for many biological processes including development,
      wound healing, and metastasis. However, studying cell migration often requires
      the time-consuming and labor-intensive task of manually tracking cells. To
      accelerate the task of obtaining coordinate positions of migrating cells, we have
      developed a graphical user interface (GUI) capable of automating the tracking of
      fluorescently labeled nuclei. This GUI provides an intuitive user interface that
      makes automated tracking accessible to researchers with no image-processing
      experience or familiarity with particle-tracking approaches. Using this GUI,
      users can interactively determine a minimum of four parameters to identify
      fluorescently labeled cells and automate acquisition of cell trajectories.
      Additional features allow for batch processing of numerous time-lapse images,
      curation of unwanted tracks, and subsequent statistical analysis of tracked
      cells. Statistical outputs allow users to evaluate migratory phenotypes,
      including cell speed, distance, displacement, and persistence, as well as
      measures of directional movement, such as forward migration index (FMI) and
      angular displacement. (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28862339
TI  - Determination of Membrane Protein Distribution on the Nuclear Envelope by Single
      Point Single-Molecule FRAP.
AB  - Nuclear envelope transmembrane proteins (NETs) are synthesized on the endoplasmic
      reticulum and then transported from the outer nuclear membrane (ONM) to the inner
      nuclear membrane (INM) in eukaryotic cells. The abnormal distribution of NETs has
      been associated with many human diseases. However, quantitative determination of
      the spatial distribution and translocation dynamics of NETs on the ONM and INM is
      still very limited in currently existing approaches. Here we demonstrate a single
      point single-molecule fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP)
      microscopy technique that enables quick determination of distribution and
      translocation rates for NETs in vivo. (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28862340
TI  - In Vitro Reconstitution of the Endoplasmic Reticulum.
AB  - Reconstitution of cellular organelles in vitro offers the possibility to perform
      quantitative and qualitative experiments in a controlled environment that cannot
      be done with the same accuracy in living cells. Following a previous report, the
      subsequent list of protocols describes how to reconstitute and quantify a tubular
      ER network in vitro based on purified microsomes from culture cells and cytosol
      from Xenopus laevis egg extracts. Biological material preparation and
      reconstitution assays require mostly basic laboratory instrumentation and
      chemicals, and can be executed without any specific training, making them
      appealing to a wide range of laboratories. Moreover, to promote conditions that
      are markedly more reflective of in vivo environments, this method describes for
      the first time in the literature, the purification of microsomes from HeLa cells
      in some detail. Basic Protocol 1 in this article describes the reconstitution
      process on different substrates including the associated fluorescence imaging
      process. Purification of ER microsomes and cytosol, both of which are needed for
      this approach, are described in detail in Support Protocols 1 and 2,
      respectively. Coating of surfaces with polyacrylamide gels is described in
      Support Protocol 3. Basic Protocol 2 outlines how to segment and skeletonize
      fluorescence images of ER networks, and how to quantify segment lengths between
      the network's branching points. The described quantitative evaluation provides a
      meaningful approach to analyze the topology and geometry of organelle structures.
      (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28862341
TI  - Centrifugation-Free Magnetic Isolation of Functional Mitochondria Using
      Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles.
AB  - Subcellular fractionation techniques are essential for cell biology and drug
      development studies. The emergence of organelle-targeted nanoparticle (NP)
      platforms necessitates the isolation of target organelles to study drug delivery
      and activity. Mitochondria-targeted NPs have attracted the attention of
      researchers around the globe, since mitochondrial dysfunctions can cause a wide
      range of diseases. Conventional mitochondria isolation methods involve high-speed
      centrifugation. The problem with high-speed centrifugation-based isolation of NP
      loaded mitochondria is that NPs can pellet even if they are not bound to
      mitochondria. We report development of a mitochondria-targeted paramagnetic iron
      oxide nanoparticle, Mito-magneto, that enables isolation of mitochondria under
      the influence of a magnetic field. Isolation of mitochondria using Mito-magneto
      eliminates artifacts typically associated with centrifugation-based isolation of
      NP-loaded mitochondria, thus producing intact, pure, and respiration-active
      mitochondria. (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28862342
TI  - Lectin-Array Blotting.
AB  - Aberrant protein glycosylation is a hallmark of cancer, infectious diseases, and
      autoimmune or neurodegenerative disorders. Unlocking the potential of glycans as
      disease markers will require rapid and unbiased glycoproteomics methods for
      glycan biomarker discovery. The present method is a facile and rapid protocol for
      qualitative analysis of protein glycosylation in complex biological mixtures.
      While traditional lectin arrays only provide an average signal for the glycans in
      the mixture, which is usually dominated by the most abundant proteins, our method
      provides individual lectin binding profiles for all proteins separated in the gel
      electrophoresis step. Proteins do not have to be excised from the gel for
      subsequent analysis via the lectin array but are transferred by contact diffusion
      from the gel to a glass slide presenting multiple copies of printed lectin
      arrays. Fluorescently marked glycoproteins are trapped by the printed lectins via
      specific carbohydrate-lectin interactions and after a washing step their binding
      profile with up to 20 lectin probes is analyzed with a fluorescent scanner. The
      method produces the equivalent of 20 lectin blots in a single experiment, giving
      detailed insight into the binding epitopes present in the fractionated proteins.
      (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28862343
TI  - Cellular Detection of G-Quadruplexes by Optical Imaging Methods.
AB  - G-quadruplexes (G4s) are higher-order nucleic acid structures that fold from
      guanine (G)-rich DNA and RNA strands. This field of research gains traction as a
      major chemical biology area since it aims at uncovering many key cellular
      mechanisms in which quadruplexes are involved. The wealth of knowledge acquired
      over the past three decades strongly supports pivotal roles of G4 in the
      regulation of gene expression at both transcriptional (DNA quadruplexes) and
      translational levels (RNA quadruplexes). Recent biochemical discoveries uncovered
      myriad of additional G4 actions: from chromosomal stability to the firing of
      replication origins, from telomere homeostasis to functional dysregulations
      underlying genetic diseases (including cancers and neurodegeneration). Here, we
      listed a repertoire of protocols that we have developed over the past years to
      visualize quadruplexes in cells. These achievements were made possible thanks to
      the discovery of a novel family of versatile quadruplex-selective fluorophores,
      the twice-as-smart quadruplex ligands named TASQ (for template-assembled
      synthetic G-quartet). The versatility of this probe allows for multiple imaging
      techniques in both fixed and live cells, including the use of the multiphoton
      microscopy, confocal microscopy, and real-time fluorescent image collection. (c)
      2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28862344
TI  - Proximal nail plate destruction in subungual melanoma could be a possible
      predictor of invasiveness thicker than 1.25 mm.
AB  - Various patterns of nail plate destruction are common features in subungual
      melanoma (SUM), but there has been no reports regarding their clinical
      significance according to the pattern of nail plate destruction in terms of tumor
      thickness. We tried to find a relationship between dermal invasion of SUM and
      proximal nail plate destruction (PNPD). Clinical information of patients with SUM
      was reviewed retrospectively from seven dermatology training hospitals in Korea.
      The PNPD was defined as a visible loss of full thickness of nail plate touching
      the eponychium at the most proximal part of it. We evaluated whether there are
      correlations between patients' age, sex, location of SUM, Breslow thickness (BT)
      and the presence of PNPD. Among 93 patients with SUM, 36 (38.7%) showed PNPD. Sex
      and BT showed significant correlations with the presence of PNPD in univariate
      analysis (P < 0.05). BT, age and sex showed significant correlations with the
      presence of PNPD in multivariate analysis (P < 0.05). Among them, BT showed the
      strongest correlation with the presence of PNPD (area under the curve, 0.722) and
      the cut-off value was 1.25 mm. In conclusion, we suggest that PNPD in SUM could
      be a possible predictor of invasiveness of more than 1.25 mm BT.

PMID- 28862346
TI  - Dual-Pore Carbon Shells for Efficient Removal of Humic Acid from Water.
AB  - A template-mediated process for the preparation of mesoporous carbon shells with
      high surface area, dual-pore structure, and excellent performance in the
      adsorption of humic acid is reported. Their synthesis involves templating
      phenolic resin against wrinkled silica nanospheres, subsequent carbonization
      under Ar atmosphere, and final release of dual-pore mesoporous carbon shells by
      etching the silica templates. An additional silica layer was used to protect the
      phenolic resin from aggregation during carbonization, and its subsequent removal
      gives the carbon shells a hydrophilic surface, which significantly improves their
      dispersity in aqueous media. When used as adsorbents for humic acid removal, the
      as-prepared dual-pore mesoporous carbon shells show superior adsorption
      performance to activated carbon.

PMID- 28862345
TI  - Subgroups in language trajectories from 4 to 11 years: the nature and predictors
      of stable, improving and decreasing language trajectory groups.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the nature, range and prevalence of different
      subgroups in language trajectories extant in a population from 4 to 11 years.
      This hinders strategic targeting and design of interventions, particularly
      targeting those whose difficulties will likely persist. METHODS: Children's
      language abilities from 4 to 11 years were investigated in a specialist language
      longitudinal community cohort (N = 1,910). Longitudinal trajectory latent class
      modelling was used to characterise trajectories and identify subgroups.
      Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify predictors associated with
      the language trajectories children followed. RESULTS: Three language trajectory
      groups were identified: 'stable' (94% of participants), 'low-decreasing' (4%) and
      'low-improving' (2%). A range of child and family factors were identified that
      were associated with following either the low-improving or low-increasing
      language trajectory; many of them shared. The low-improving group was associated
      with mostly environmental risks: non-English-speaking background, social
      disadvantage and few children's books in the home. The low-decreasing group was
      associated with mainly biological risks: low birth weight, socioemotional
      problems, lower family literacy and learning disability. CONCLUSIONS: By 4 years,
      services can be confident that most children with low language will remain low to
      11 years. Using rigid cut-points in language ability to target interventions is
      not recommended due to continued individual variability in language development.
      Service delivery models should incorporate monitoring over time, targeting
      according to language abilities and associated risks and delivery of a continuum
      of interventions across the continuum of need.

PMID- 28862347
TI  - Effects of Hydroxyethyl Starch 130/0.4 on Serum Creatinine Concentration and
      Development of Acute Kidney Injury in Nonazotemic Cats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hydroxyethyl-starch (HES) solutions might have renal adverse effects
      in humans and dogs. OBJECTIVE: To determine if administration of 6% HES-130/0.4
      is associated with an increase in serum creatinine concentration and development
      of acute kidney injury (AKI) in nonazotemic cats. ANIMALS: A total of 62
      critically ill cats; 26 HES exposed and 36 unexposed. METHODS: Retrospective
      cohort study (2012-2015). Serum creatinine concentrations were recorded and
      changes in serum creatinine concentrations before exposure (baseline) and 2-10
      and 11-90 days, respectively, were determined. Development of AKI was defined as
      a > 150% increase or >26 MUmol/L increase in serum creatinine concentration from
      baseline. Risk factors, such as HES administration, cumulative volume of HES
      (mL/kg) and number of days of HES administration leading to development of AKI,
      and change in serum creatinine were analyzed. RESULTS: Cats in the HES cohort
      received a mean volume of 98.5 +/- 76.2 mL/kg (range, 8-278 mL/kg) HES over a
      median of 4 (range, 1-11) days, resulting in a median dose of 20.1 (range, 8
      40.5) mL/kg per day. Short-term %change in serum creatinine concentration (P =
      0.40) and development of AKI (P = 0.32) were not significantly different between
      cohorts. Multivariable logistic regression did not identify HES dose in mL/kg (P
      = 0.33) and number of days of HES application (P = 0.49) as a risk factor for
      development of AKI. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Hydroxyethyl-starch
      administration to critically ill nonazotemic cats seems to be safe. A larger
      prospective study is required to determine the effect of HES administration at
      higher dosages and for prolonged time periods.

PMID- 28862348
TI  - Immunophenotype of Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes in Dogs with Inflammatory Bowel
      Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is common in dogs. Despite the known
      importance of intestinal lymphocytes in its pathogenesis, little is known about
      the role of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) in IBD. OBJECTIVES: The aims of
      this study were (1) comparison of PBLs analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM) in IBD
      dogs and healthy controls and (2) comparison of PBLs in IBD dogs at the time of
      diagnosis and in dogs in clinical remission. ANIMALS: Whole blood samples of 19
      IBD dogs at the time of diagnosis and blood samples of 6 dogs in clinical
      remission were collected. Ten healthy dogs served as controls. METHODS: In this
      prospective observational study, PBLs were analyzed with multicolor FCM by
      staining with a panel of anticanine and cross-reactive monoclonal antibodies
      against T- and B-cell differentiation antigens, including CD45, CD3, CD4,
      CD8alpha, CD8beta, TCRalphabeta, TCRgammadelta, CD79alphacy, and CD21. RESULTS:
      The IBD patients' PBLs had significantly decreased percentages of TCRgammadelta+
      T lymphocytes (median: healthy dogs, 3.32; IBD dogs, 0.97; P = 0.03) and CD21+ B
      cells (median: healthy dogs, 27.61; IBD dogs, 17.26; P = 0.04). There were no
      significant differences in PBLs between pretreatment and follow-up samples.
      CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The differences between PBLs in healthy and
      IBD dogs analyzed by FCM indicate an imbalance of lymphocytes with different
      immunologic functions and emphasize the potential value of this technique in a
      larger cohort of dogs. The PBLs did not differ between IBD dogs before treatment
      and clinically well-controlled dogs after treatment.

PMID- 28862349
TI  - Z-spectrum appearance and interpretation in the presence of fat: Influence of
      acquisition parameters.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI is increasingly
      evolving from brain to body applications. One of the known problems in the body
      imaging is the presence of strong lipid signals. Although their influence on the
      CEST effect is acknowledged, there was no study that focuses on the interplay
      among echo time, fat fraction, and Z-spectrum. This study strives to address
      these points, with the emphasis on the application in the breast. METHODS: Z
      spectra were simulated in phase and out of phase of the main fat peak at -3.4
      ppm, with the fat fraction varying from 0 to 100%. The magnetization transfer
      ratio asymmetry in two ranges, centering at the exchanging pool and at 3.5 ppm
      approximately opposite the nonexchanging fat pool, were calculated and were
      plotted against fat fraction. The results were verified in phantoms and in vivo.
      RESULTS: The results demonstrate the combined influence of fat fraction and echo
      time on the Z-spectrum for gradient echo based CEST acquisitions. The influence
      is straightforward in the in-phase images, but it is more complicated in the out
      of-phase images, potentially leading to erroneous CEST contrast. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study provides a basis for understanding the origin and appearance of lipid
      artifacts in CEST imaging, and lays the foundation for their efficient removal.
      Magn Reson Med 79:2731-2737, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic
      Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28862350
TI  - Reconstruction by calibration over tensors for multi-coil multi-acquisition
      balanced SSFP imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a rapid imaging framework for balanced steady-state free
      precession (bSSFP) that jointly reconstructs undersampled data (by a factor of R)
      across multiple coils (D) and multiple acquisitions (N). To devise a multi
      acquisition coil compression technique for improved computational efficiency.
      METHODS: The bSSFP image for a given coil and acquisition is modeled to be
      modulated by a coil sensitivity and a bSSFP profile. The proposed reconstruction
      by calibration over tensors (ReCat) recovers missing data by tensor interpolation
      over the coil and acquisition dimensions. Coil compression is achieved using a
      new method based on multilinear singular value decomposition (MLCC). ReCat is
      compared with iterative self-consistent parallel imaging (SPIRiT) and profile
      encoding (PE-SSFP) reconstructions. RESULTS: Compared to parallel imaging or
      profile-encoding methods, ReCat attains sensitive depiction of high-spatial
      frequency information even at higher R. In the brain, ReCat improves peak SNR
      (PSNR) by 1.1 +/- 1.0 dB over SPIRiT and by 0.9 +/- 0.3 dB over PE-SSFP (mean +/-
      SD across subjects; average for N = 2-8, R = 8-16). Furthermore, reconstructions
      based on MLCC achieve 0.8 +/- 0.6 dB higher PSNR compared to those based on
      geometric coil compression (GCC) (average for N = 2-8, R = 4-16). CONCLUSION:
      ReCat is a promising acceleration framework for banding-artifact-free bSSFP
      imaging with high image quality; and MLCC offers improved computational
      efficiency for tensor-based reconstructions. Magn Reson Med 79:2542-2554, 2018.
      (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28862351
TI  - Chemical shift encoding (CSE) for sensitive fluorine-19 MRI of perfluorocarbons
      with complex spectra.
AB  - PURPOSE: To implement a fluorine-19 (19 F) chemical shift encoding (CSE) approach
      for the sensitive imaging of molecules with multi-resonance spectra to remove
      their chemical shift displacement (CSD) artifacts, and to characterize its
      sensitivity versus established pulse sequences. METHODS: The feasibility of CSE
      spoiled gradient echo (GRE) and balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) was
      first demonstrated in a phantom study. The dependence of the sensitivity of CSE
      bSSFP on several pulse sequence parameters was then established, after which the
      occurrence of out-of-plane excitation was assessed for 2D and 3D techniques.
      Next, the sensitivity (in mm-3 s-0.5 ) of both CSE techniques was compared to
      bSSFP ultrashort echo time (bSSFP-UTE) imaging and multi-chemical-shift-selective
      turbo spin echo (MCSS-TSE) in a second phantom study. Finally, the sensitivity of
      the CSE-bSSFP, bSSFP-UTE, and MCSS-TSE pulse sequences was compared in a
      preliminary in vivo mouse study. RESULTS: Both CSE approaches were successfully
      implemented and resulted in negligible residual CSD artifacts, while large-volume
      3D acquisitions should be considered to reduce problems related to out-of-plane
      excitation. CSE-bSSFP was shown to have a higher sensitivity than the bSSFP-UTE
      and MCSS-TSE pulse sequences (15.8 +/- 1.3 vs. 11.7 +/- 1.0 vs. 13.3 +/- 0.9 mm-3
      s-0.5 , respectively, P < 0.001), whereas CSE-GRE technique had a lower
      sensitivity (4.8 +/- 1.1 mm-3 s-0.5 ). CONCLUSION: CSE 19 F MR imaging enables
      the unambiguous visualization of compounds with complex spectra, and provides
      high sensitivity both in vitro and in vivo. Magn Reson Med 79:2724-2730, 2018.
      (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28862352
TI  - Geometric distortion correction in prostate diffusion-weighted MRI and its effect
      on quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of correction for B0 inhomogeneity-induced
      geometric distortion in echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging on quantitative
      apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) analysis in multiparametric prostate MRI.
      METHODS: Geometric distortion correction was performed in echo-planar diffusion
      weighted images (b = 0, 50, 400, 800 s/mm2 ) of 28 patients, using two b0 scans
      with opposing phase-encoding polarities. Histology-matched tumor and healthy
      tissue volumes of interest delineated on T2 -weighted images were mapped to the
      nondistortion-corrected and distortion-corrected data sets by resampling with and
      without spatial coregistration. The ADC values were calculated on the volume and
      voxel level. The effect of distortion correction on ADC quantification and tissue
      classification was evaluated using linear-mixed models and logistic regression,
      respectively. RESULTS: Without coregistration, the absolute differences in tumor
      ADC (range: 0.0002-0.189 mm2 /s*10-3 (volume level); 0.014-0.493 mm2 /s*10-3
      (voxel level)) between the nondistortion-corrected and distortion-corrected were
      significantly associated (P < 0.05) with distortion distance (mean: 1.4 +/- 1.3
      mm; range: 0.3-5.3 mm). No significant associations were found upon
      coregistration; however, in patients with high rectal gas residue, distortion
      correction resulted in improved spatial representation and significantly better
      classification of healthy versus tumor voxels (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Geometric
      distortion correction in DWI could improve quantitative ADC analysis in
      multiparametric prostate MRI. Magn Reson Med 79:2524-2532, 2018. (c) 2017
      International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28862353
TI  - The effect of CCR5Delta32 on the risk of grade 3-4 acute graft-versus-host
      disease after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Many studies have showed that CCR5 was involved in the pathological
      process of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). However, the relationship
      between CCR5Delta32, a frameshift mutation, and grade 3-4 acute GVHD risk has not
      been well established. We performed a meta-analysis to explore the effects of
      CCR5 gene polymorphisms on grade 3-4 aGVHD. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Web of
      Science, and Cochrane Library were searched to collect relevant articles. Studies
      about association between CCR5 genotype in recipients or donors of allo-HSCT and
      aGVHD risk were included. All pooled analyses were based on fixed effects models.
      The effects were assessed from odd ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals
      (CIs). RESULTS: A total of three studies comprising 937 recipients and 914 donors
      of allo-HSCT met the inclusion criteria. Compared with the wild-type CCR5
      homozygotes, the pooled odd ratios (ORs) for CCR5Delta32 mutation (both
      homozygous and heterozygous) was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.40-1.26; P = .24) for donors,
      and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.35-1.81; P = .58) for recipients. No relationship was found
      between the presence of the CCR5Delta32 mutation and grade 3-4 aGVHD. Larger
      clinical investigations and retrospective studies are needed to explore the
      association of CCR5 gene polymorphisms with aGVHD risk as well as the outcome of
      HSCT.

PMID- 28862354
TI  - Feline Differential Leukocyte Count with ProCyte Dx: Frequency and Severity of a
      Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Error and How to Avoid It.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Erroneous neutrophil and lymphocyte counts from analysis of feline
      blood samples were transferred directly into the hospital information system from
      the ProCyte Dx hematology instrument in our after-hours laboratory. Errors
      usually were not detected by the users. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To quantify the
      frequency and severity of errors associated with the ProCyte Dx analyzer and to
      identify methods to avoid the errors. ANIMALS: One-hundred six EDTA blood samples
      routinely submitted from feline hospital patients were analyzed. METHODS: ProCyte
      differential leukocyte counts were compared to 2 reference methods: Advia 2120
      hematology instrument and manual enumeration. Limits for unacceptable deviation
      from the reference methods were defined as 18 for % lymphocytes and 23 for %
      neutrophils. RESULTS: Fourteen of 106 samples had unacceptable errors for both
      lymphocytes and neutrophils compared to both reference methods. Median %
      lymphocytes in those 14 samples were 11.2, 15.0, and 53.0% for Advia, manual, and
      ProCyte, respectively. Median % neutrophils were 85.4, 81.5, and 34.2% for Advia,
      manual, and ProCyte, respectively. All errors were avoided by rejecting automated
      ProCyte differential leukocyte results whenever the dot plot appeared clearly
      incorrect, but only 9 of these 14 samples had a ProCyte WBC distribution error
      flag. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Results reported by ProCyte had
      markedly falsely increased lymphocyte and decreased neutrophil counts in 13% of
      feline patient samples. Users must reject automated differential leukocyte count
      results when the WBC dot plot appears overtly incorrect. Rejection based only on
      ProCyte WBC error flag was insufficient.

PMID- 28862355
TI  - Time- and concentration-dependent genomic responses of the rat airway to inhaled
      nickel sulfate.
AB  - While insoluble nickel subsulfide (Ni3 S2 ) was carcinogenic in the lung in a 2
      year rat bioassay, soluble nickel sulfate hexahydrate (NiSO4* 6H2 O) was not. To
      investigate whether differences in the cellular responses to these two nickel
      compounds could underlie their differential activities, we conducted parallel
      studies to determine the gene expression changes in micro-dissected lung distal
      airway cells from Fischer 344 rats following inhalation of the two compounds for
      one and four weeks (6 hr per day, 5 days per week). The results of the Ni3 S2
      study have been reported previously; this paper reports the results for NiSO4 and
      provides a comparative analysis. The cellular responses to NiSO4 were highly
      similar to those previously reported for Ni3 S2 , and a set of genes was
      identified whose expression could be used as biomarkers for comparing cellular
      nickel effects from in vitro or in vivo studies with soluble NiSO4 and
      particulate Ni3 S2 . Evaluation of the genomic concentration-responses for the
      two compounds suggests that the highest inhaled concentration in the tumor
      bioassay for NiSO4 , which was limited by toxicity, may not have achieved the Ni
      concentrations at which tumors were observed in the Ni3 S2 bioassay. However,
      several key differences in the immune responses to NiSO4 and Ni3 S2 were
      identified that may result from the differential intracellular disposition of Ni
      from NiSO4 entering the cell as an ion rather than as a slowly soluble Ni3 S2
      particle. These differences may also contribute to the observation of tumors in
      the bioassay for Ni3 S2 but not NiSO4 . Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:607-618, 2017.
      (c) 2017 The Authors Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis published by Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Environmental Mutagen Society.

PMID- 28862356
TI  - Health survey and assessment of the polymorphisms BRCA1/P871L, BRCA1/Q356R, and
      BRCA2/N372H in female gas station workers in Rio de Janeiro.
AB  - Gas station workers are exposed to chemicals known to be carcinogenic, especially
      benzene. The objective was to analyze the health problems of female gas station
      workers by means of sociodemographic and clinical questionnaires, and
      laboratorial exams. We performed the genotyping of the polymorphisms BRCA1/P871L
      and BRCA1/Q356R by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length
      Polymorphism, and of variant allele BRCA2/N372H through direct sequencing. The
      female workers showed a higher concentration of monocytes (P = 0.039); a greater
      number of spontaneous abortions (P = 0.025, OR = 4.977, 95% CI = 1.135-30.669);
      higher tobacco consumption (P = 0.013); and higher alcohol consumption (P =
      0.05). The statistical analysis of the polymorphisms associated with the
      variables monocyte concentration and miscarriage number did not reveal a
      significant relationship, and smoking and spontaneous abortion were not
      statistically associated either. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:730-734, 2017. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28862357
TI  - High early post-operative complication rate after elective aseptic orthopedic
      implant removal of upper and lower limb.
AB  - The necessity of orthopedic implant removal is under intense discussion and even
      if it is performed as an elective procedure, the risk of complications is
      present. Aim of the study was to identify parameters responsible for an increased
      risk of early post-operative complications after elective aseptic orthopedic
      implant removal. We reviewed 1,545 cases of aseptic and elective orthopedic
      implant removal between 2009 and 2011. The patients demographic data, time and
      duration of operation, patients comorbidities, and presence of complications in
      the first 4 weeks after implant removal were evaluated. Patients with signs of
      infection at the time of the surgical procedure were excluded from this study.
      579 women and 966 men who underwent elective aseptic orthopedic implant removal
      were identified. Mean age at implant removal was 42 years and mean duration of
      the surgical procedure was 37 min. In this cohort, 70 patients (4.5%) underwent
      elective aseptic implant removal after 6pm. 52 patients (3.37%) operated on
      during daytime suffered from complications post-operatively and five patients
      (0.3%) who were operated on during the night experienced complications. The
      parameters age, sex, BMI, and surgeon showed no statistically significant
      differences for the risk of post-operative complications. Patients' comorbidities
      such as diabetes seem to have influence but were not statistically significant
      either. Patients with revision surgery since their first operation, nocturnal
      surgery and longer duration of the procedure showed a statistically significant
      higher risk for complications, especially in the lower leg. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic
      Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1035-1039,
      2018.

PMID- 28862358
TI  - Anti-apoptosis endothelial cell-secreted microRNA-195-5p promotes pulmonary
      arterial smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration in pulmonary arterial
      hypertension.
AB  - In the pathological mechanism of pulmonary arterial hypertension, the role of
      apoptosis-resistant pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PVECs/AR) has been
      emphasized on the pulmonary vascular remodeling. In the present study, we
      investigated whether PVECs/AR can promote the proliferation and migration of
      pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs), and to study the role of miR-195
      5p in the crosstalk between these two types of cells. We confirmed that PVECs/AR
      can promote the proliferation and migration of PASMCs in a co-culture system of
      AR/PVECs and PASMCs. Additionally, after exposure to hypoxia for 12 or 24 h,
      AR/PVECs had a higher mature miR-195-5p level than PVECs (P < 0.05, 12 and 24 h).
      Luciferase reporter assays were used to validate indications of the existence of
      an HRE in the miR-195-5p promoter. Knocking down Smad7 can reverse the inhibition
      of Lv-S195 on TGF-beta1-induced PASMCs remodeling. TGF-beta1 promoted cell growth
      in PASMCs, and the supernatant of PVECs/AP infected with Lv-S195 inhibited TGF
      beta1 enhanced proliferation in PASMCs, which was also blocked by Lv-shRNA-Smad7.
      The result of this experiment confirmed the specificity of the HIF-1a/miR
      195/Smad7 pathway. Our data indicate the possible function of PVECs/AR in the
      process of pulmonary vascular remodeling. MiRNA-195-5p played a role as an
      interacting paracrine factor between PVECs/AR and PASMC, which seemed to function
      through the HIF-1a/miRNA-195-5p/Smad7 pathway.

PMID- 28862359
TI  - Novel A178P mutation in SLC16A2 in a patient with Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome.

PMID- 28862360
TI  - Mechanically stimulated biomarkers signal cartilage changes over 5 years
      consistent with disease progression in medial knee osteoarthritis patients.
AB  - Using serum biomarkers to assess osteoarthritis (OA) disease state and risks of
      progression remain challenging. This study tested the hypothesis that changes to
      serum biomarkers in response to a mechanical stimulus in patients with medial
      knee OA signal cartilage thickness changes 5 years later. Specifically, serum
      concentrations of a collagen degradation marker (C1,2C) and a chondroitin sulfate
      synthesis marker (CS846) were measured 0.5 and 5.5 hours after a 30-min walk in
      16 patients. Regional cartilage thickness changes measured from magnetic
      resonance images obtained at study entry and at 5-year follow-up were tested for
      correlations with baseline biomarker changes after mechanical stimulus, and for
      differences between groups stratified based on whether biomarker levels increased
      or decreased. Results showed that an increase in the degradation biomarker C1,2C
      correlated with cartilage thinning of the lateral tibia (R = -0.63, p = 0.009),
      whereas an increase in the synthesis marker CS846 correlated with cartilage
      thickening of the lateral femur (R = 0.76, p = 0.001). Changes in C1,2C and CS846
      were correlated (R2  = 0.28, p = 0.037). Subjects with increased C1,2C had
      greater (p = 0.05) medial tibial cartilage thinning than those with decreased
      C1,2C. In conclusion, the mechanical stimulus appeared to metabolically link the
      biomarker responses where biomarker increases signaled more active OA disease
      states. The findings of medial cartilage thinning for patients with increases in
      the degradation marker and correlation of cartilage thickening in the less
      involved lateral femur with increases in the synthetic marker were consistent
      with progression of medial compartment OA. Thus, the mechanical stimulus
      facilitated assessing OA disease states using serum biomarkers. (c) 2017
      Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res
      36:891-897, 2018.

PMID- 28862361
TI  - Accumulation of advanced-glycation end products (AGEs) accelerates arthrogenic
      joint contracture in immobilized rat knee.
AB  - Joint mobility decreases in the elderly and in diabetics, this process is thought
      to be caused by accumulation of advanced-glycation end products (AGEs). Here, we
      aimed to elucidate the role of AGEs in joint contracture formation in rat knees.
      Rats were injected with ribose or saline into the knees twice weekly for 8 weeks.
      Pentosidine (AGE) levels were measured in the knee-joint tissues. After serial
      injections, rats were subjected to unilateral knee-joint immobilization in a
      flexion position for various periods. At day 21, the passive knee ranges of
      motions (ROMs) were measured. Knee joint histopathology were assessed, and the
      expression of fibrotic genes in the posterior joint capsules was examined using
      real-time PCR. Ribose injection induced a 7.0-fold increase in pentosidine levels
      relative to saline injection. Joint immobilization resulted in equal myogenic ROM
      restriction in both groups. Arthrogenic ROM restriction was greater with ribose
      injection in the immobilized joints (p < 0.05), but was not affected in
      nonimmobilized joints. Type-I (COL1A1) and type-III (COL3A1) collagen gene
      expression increased significantly in immobilized joints relative to
      nonimmobilized joints in the ribose group, but was not affected in the saline
      group. Ribose injection increased COL1A1 expression slightly and COL3A1
      expression significantly in immobilized joints. Histologically, inflammatory
      changes appeared at day 3 of immobilization and peaked at day 7. These responses
      trended to be more severe and prolonged in the ribose group than in the saline
      group. Our data provide evidence for a causal relationship between AGEs and joint
      contracture formation following immobilization. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research
      Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:854-863, 2018.

PMID- 28862362
TI  - Controlling the object phase for g-factor reduction in phase-Constrained parallel
      MRI using spatially selective RF pulses.
AB  - PURPOSE: Parallel imaging generally entails a reduction in the signal-to-noise
      ratio of the final image. Phase-constrained methods aim to improve reconstruction
      quality by using symmetry properties of k-space. Noise amplification in phase
      constrained reconstruction depends heavily on the object background phase. The
      purpose of this work is to present a new approach of using tailored
      radiofrequency pulses to optimize the object phase distribution in order to
      maximize the benefit of phase-constrained reconstruction, and to minimize the
      noise amplification. METHODS: Intrinsic object phase and coil sensitivity
      profiles are measured in a prescan. Optimal phase distribution is computed to
      maximize signal-to-noise ratio in the given setup. Tailored radiofrequency pulses
      are designed to introduce the optimal phase map in the following accelerated
      acquisitions, subsequently reconstructed by phase-constrained methods. The
      potential of the method is demonstrated in vivo with in-plane accelerated (8x)
      and simultaneous multislice (3x) acquisitions. RESULTS: Mean g-factors are
      reduced by up to a factor of 2 compared with conventional techniques when an
      appropriate phase-constrained reconstruction is applied to phase-optimized
      acquisitions, enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio of the final images and the
      visibility of small details. CONCLUSIONS: Combining phase-constrained
      reconstruction and phase optimization by tailored radiofrequency pulses can
      provide notable improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio and reconstruction
      quality of accelerated MRI. Magn Reson Med 79:2113-2125, 2018. (c) 2017
      International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28862363
TI  - Selective Utilization of the Methoxy Group in Lignin to Produce Acetic Acid.
AB  - Selective transformation of lignin into a valuable chemical is of great
      importance and challenge owing to its complex structure. Herein, we propose a
      strategy for the transformation of methoxy group (-OCH3 ) which is abundant in
      lignin into pure highly valuable chemicals. As an example to apply this strategy,
      a route to produce acetic acid with high selectivity by conversion of methoxy
      group of lignin was developed. It was demonstrated that the methoxy group in
      lignin could react with CO and water to generate acetic acid over RhCl3 in the
      presence of a promoter. The conversions of methoxy group in the kraft lignin and
      organosolv lignin reached 87.5 % and 80.4 %, respectively, and no by-product was
      generated. This work opens the way to produce pure chemicals using lignin as the
      feedstock.

PMID- 28862364
TI  - Gold Catalysis for Heterocyclic Chemistry: A Representative Case Study on Pyrone
      Natural Products.
AB  - 2-Pyrones and 4-pyrones are common structural motifs in bioactive natural
      products. However, traditional methods for their synthesis, which try to emulate
      the biosynthetic pathway of cyclization of a 1,3,5-tricarbonyl precursor, are
      often harsh and, therefore, not particularly suitable for applications to
      polyfunctionalized and/or sensitive target compounds. pi-Acid catalysis, in
      contrast, has proved to be better for a systematic exploration of the pyrone
      estate. To this end, alkynes are used as stable ketone surrogates, which can be
      activated under exceedingly mild conditions due to the pronounced carbophilicity
      of [LAu]+ fragments (L=two electron donor ligand); attack of a tethered ester
      carbonyl group onto the transient alkyne-gold complex then forges the pyrone ring
      in a fully regiocontrolled manner.

PMID- 28862365
TI  - Further Insight into Crystal Structures of Escherichia coli IspH/LytB in Complex
      with Two Potent Inhibitors of the MEP Pathway: A Starting Point for Rational
      Design of New Antimicrobials.
AB  - IspH, also called LytB, a protein involved in the biosynthesis of isoprenoids
      through the methylerythritol phosphate pathway, is an attractive target for the
      development of new antimicrobial drugs. Here, we report crystal structures of
      Escherichia coli IspH in complex with the two most potent inhibitors: (E)-4
      mercapto-3-methylbut-2-en-1-yl diphosphate (TMBPP) and (E)-4-amino-3-methylbut-2
      en-1-yl diphosphate (AMBPP) at 1.95 and 1.7 A resolution, respectively. The
      structure of the E. coli IspH:TMBPP complex exhibited two conformers of the
      inhibitor. This unexpected feature was exploited to design and evolve new
      antimicrobial candidates in silico.

PMID- 28862366
TI  - Redirecting Killer T Cells through Incorporation of Azido Sugars for Tethering
      Ligands.
AB  - The genetic expression of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) on the surfaces of T
      cells enables the redirection of T cell specificity. To enhance the versatility
      of T cells as tumor-specific killers, we developed a nongenetic approach by which
      azide-containing sialic acids were metabolically incorporated into T cells to
      modify cellular sialyl glycans. After successful display of these moieties on the
      T cells, small-molecule ligands such as RGD and folate (as proof-of-concept,
      rather than supersized antibodies) were clicked orthogonally, leading to highly
      selective time- and dose-dependent cytotoxicity to integrin alphav beta3 - and
      folate-receptor-positive cells, respectively. This chemical approach provides a
      facile platform for rational design of tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells for
      targeted immunotherapy.

PMID- 28862367
TI  - Auxiliary-Directed C(sp3 )-H Arylation by Synergistic Photoredox and Palladium
      Catalysis.
AB  - Herein we describe the auxiliary-directed arylation of unactivated C(sp3 )-H
      bonds with aryldiazonium salts, which proceeds under synergistic photoredox and
      palladium catalysis. The site-selective arylation of aliphatic amides with alpha
      quaternary centres is achieved with high selectivity for beta-methyl C(sp3 )-H
      bonds. This operationally simple method is compatible with carbocyclic amides, a
      range of aryldiazonium salts and proceeds at ambient conditions.

PMID- 28862368
TI  - Convergent Evolution of Ergothioneine Biosynthesis in Cyanobacteria.
AB  - Biosynthesis of N-alpha-trimethyl-2-thiohistidine (ergothioneine) is a frequent
      trait in cyanobacteria. This sulfur compound may provide essential relief from
      oxidative stress related to oxygenic photosynthesis. The central steps in
      ergothioneine biosynthesis are catalyzed by a histidine methyltransferase and an
      iron-dependent sulfoxide synthase. In this report, we present evidence that some
      cyanobacteria recruited and adapted a sulfoxide synthase from a different
      biosynthetic pathway to make ergothioneine. The discovery of a second origin of
      ergothioneine production underscores the physiological importance of this
      metabolite and highlights the evolutionary malleability of the thiohistidine
      biosynthetic machinery.

PMID- 28862369
TI  - Consideration of the haplotype diversity at nonallelic homologous recombination
      hotspots improves the precision of rearrangement breakpoint identification.
AB  - Precise characterization of nonallelic homologous recombination (NAHR)
      breakpoints is key to identifying those features that influence NAHR frequency.
      Until now, analysis of NAHR-mediated rearrangements has generally been performed
      by comparison of the breakpoint-spanning sequences with the human genome
      reference sequence. We show here that the haplotype diversity of NAHR hotspots
      may interfere with breakpoint-mapping. We studied the transmitting parents of
      individuals with germline type-1 NF1 deletions mediated by NAHR within the
      paralogous recombination site 1 (PRS1) or paralogous recombination site 2 (PRS2)
      hotspots. Several parental wild-type PRS1 and PRS2 haplotypes were identified
      that exhibited considerable sequence differences with respect to the reference
      sequence, which also affected the number of predicted PRDM9-binding sites.
      Sequence comparisons between the parental wild-type PRS1 or PRS2 haplotypes and
      the deletion breakpoint-spanning sequences from the patients (method #2) turned
      out to be an accurate means to assign NF1 deletion breakpoints and proved
      superior to crude reference sequence comparisons that neglect to consider
      haplotype diversity (method #1). The mean length of the deletion breakpoint
      regions assigned by method #2 was 269-bp in contrast to 502-bp by method #1. Our
      findings imply that paralog-specific haplotype diversity of NAHR hotspots (such
      as PRS2) and population-specific haplotype diversity must be taken into account
      in order to accurately ascertain NAHR-mediated rearrangement breakpoints.

PMID- 28862370
TI  - Atmosphere-Controlled Chemoselectivity: Rhodium-Catalyzed Alkylation and
      Olefination of Alkylnitriles with Alcohols.
AB  - The chemoselective alkylation and olefination of alkylnitriles with alcohols have
      been developed by simply controlling the reaction atmosphere. A binuclear rhodium
      complex catalyzes the alkylation reaction under argon through a hydrogen
      borrowing pathway and the olefination reaction under oxygen through aerobic
      dehydrogenation. Broad substrate scope is demonstrated, permitting the synthesis
      of some important organic building blocks. Mechanistic studies suggest that the
      alkylation product may be formed through conjugate reduction of an alkene
      intermediate by a rhodium hydride, whereas the formation of olefin product may be
      due to the oxidation of the rhodium hydride complex with molecular oxygen.

PMID- 28862371
TI  - Amine-Mediated Enzymatic Carboxylation of Phenols Using CO2 as Substrate
      Increases Equilibrium Conversions and Reaction Rates.
AB  - A variety of strategies is applied to alleviate thermodynamic and kinetic
      limitations in biocatalytic carboxylation of metabolites in vivo. A key feature
      to consider in enzymatic carboxylations is the nature of the cosubstrate: CO2 or
      its hydrated form, bicarbonate. The substrate binding and activation mechanism
      determine what the actual carboxylation agent is. Dihydroxybenzoic acid
      (de)carboxylases catalyze the reversible regio-selective ortho-(de)carboxylation
      of phenolics. These enzymes have attracted considerable attention in the last 10
      years due to their potential in substituting harsh conditions typical of chemical
      carboxylations (100-200  degrees C, 5-100 bar) with, ideally, greener ones (20-40
      degrees C, 1 bar). They are reported to use bicarbonate as substrate, needed in
      large excess to overcome thermodynamic and kinetic limitations. Therefore, CO2
      can be used as substrate by these enzymes only if it is converted into
      bicarbonate in situ. In this contribution, we report the simultaneous amine
      mediated conversion of CO2 into bicarbonate and the ortho-carboxylation of
      different phenolic molecules catalyzed by 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid
      (de)carboxylase from Aspergillus oryzae. Our results show that under the newly
      developed conditions a significant thermodynamic (up to twofold increase in
      conversion) and kinetic improvement (up to approx. fivefold increase in rate) of
      the biocatalytic carboxylation of catechol is achieved.

PMID- 28862372
TI  - Correlation of CD4 count with cariogenic oral flora indicators and dental caries
      in HIV-seropositive children undergoing antiretroviral therapy in Mangaluru,
      South India.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the present study was to compare the association of CD4 count
      with cariogenic oral flora indicators and dental caries in HIV-seropositive
      children receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). METHODS: A descriptive study was
      conducted among HIV-seropositive children receiving ART at Snehasadan Camillian
      Care and Support Center HIV/AIDS in Mangaluru, India. Demographic details and r
      recent CD4 counts were recorded. For dental caries, the Decayed, Missing, Filled
      Teeth (DMFT)/decayed, missing, filled/decayed, extracted, filled index was used.
      Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Spearman's correlation was used to
      correlate CD4 count with dental caries and cariogenic oral flora indicators
      (mutans streptococci and lactobacilli). RESULTS: The study population comprised
      35 patients. Dental caries prevalence was 54.1% in deciduous teeth and 41.2% in
      permanent teeth. Age and DMFT showed a significant, positive correlation; age and
      dmft showed a negative correlation (P < .05). A weak, negative correlation was
      found between age and Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), and also CD4 count; S.
      mutans and CD4 count and dmft were not found to be statistically significant (P <
      .05). CONCLUSION: No statistically-significant correlation was found between CD4
      count and cariogenic oral flora indicators in HIV-positive patients. The presence
      of a minimum number of restored teeth compared to decayed teeth suggests a lack
      of dental care being given to HIV-positive patients.

PMID- 28862373
TI  - Sociodemographic profile and oral health status of thalassemic patients attending
      the National Thalassaemia Centre, Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate the sociodemographic profile
      and oral health status (Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth [DMFT] and periodontal
      health) of thalassemic patients compared to healthy individuals. METHODS: The
      data were collected by means of an interviewer-administered, pretested, and
      validated questionnaire, followed by oral examination. Patients attending the
      outpatient department, who were age and sex matched, but without any diagnosed or
      suspected long-term illnesses, were considered for the control group. Both groups
      were compared in terms of facial profile, skeletal pattern, facial angles, DMFT,
      and periodontal health (plaque index, bleeding on probing, and probing pocket
      depth). RESULTS: The association of convex facial profile and class II skeletal
      pattern with Thalassemic status was statistically significant when compared to
      healthy individuals. Decayed, missing, and filled teeth in the permanent and
      deciduous dentition, plaque index, and probing pocket depths of the control group
      were significantly higher compared with the thalassemic group. Surprisingly,
      67.8% of thalassemic patients did not show bleeding on probing. CONCLUSION:
      Families of the thalassemic patients attending the National Thalassaemia Centre
      are from a low socioeconomic background. Their DMFT and periodontal health are
      significantly better than those of healthy individuals.

PMID- 28862374
TI  - Controlled Synthesis of 3D Flower-like Ni2 P Composed of Mesoporous Nanoplates
      for Overall Water Splitting.
AB  - Developing efficient non-noble metal and earth-abundant electrocatalysts with
      tunable microstructures for overall water splitting is critical to promote clean
      energy technologies for a hydrogen economy. Herein, novel three-dimensional (3D)
      flower-like Ni2 P composed of mesoporous nanoplates with controllable morphology
      and high surface area was prepared by a hydrothermal method and low-temperature
      phosphidation as efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction
      (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Compared with the urchin-like Nix Py ,
      the 3D flower-like Ni2 P with a diameter of 5 MUm presented an efficient and
      stable catalytic performance in 0.5 m H2 SO4 , with a small Tafel slope of 79 mV
      dec-1 and an overpotential of about 240 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2
      with a mass loading density of 0.283 mg cm-2 . In addition, the catalyst also
      exhibited a remarkable performance for the OER in 1.0 m KOH electrolyte, with an
      overpotential of 320 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and a small
      Tafel slope of 72 mV dec-1 . The excellent catalytic performance of the as
      prepared Ni2 P may be ascribed to its novel 3D morphology with unique mesoporous
      structure.

PMID- 28862375
TI  - Analysis of IN.PACT DEEP trial on the association between changes in perfusion
      from pre- to postrevascularization and clinical outcomes in critical limb
      ischemia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To quantify changes in ankle and toe pressure from pre- to post
      endovascular revascularization for critical limb ischemia (CLI) and examine their
      association with major adverse limb events (MALE). BACKGROUND: Despite societal
      guidelines recommendation of routine hemodynamic surveillance following
      revascularization, little is known about hemodynamic assessment in CLI. METHODS:
      Among the 358 patients with CLI from the international multicenter IN.PACT DEEP
      trial, ankle and toe pressures measurements were available at both baseline and
      after intervention in 270 and 44 patients, respectively. The change in ankle and
      toe pressures in response to endovascular revascularization and its association
      with 1-year MALE (target limb revascularization, amputation, or death) were
      examined using Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariable Cox proportional hazard
      analyses. Corresponding optimal cutoff points were also identified. RESULTS: The
      mean increase in ankle and toe pressures following revascularization was 33 and
      13 mmHg, respectively. Patients with an improvement of ankle pressure >73 mmHg or
      toe pressure >1 mmHg had similarly the lowest incidence of MALE (23%), while the
      highest rate of MALE (50%) was found in those whose toe pressure failed to
      improve by at least 1 mmHg following intervention. In addition, an increase in
      ankle pressure >73 mmHg was numerically protective against MALE, and more
      importantly, an increase in toe pressure of >1 mmHg provided statistically
      significant protection from MALE (adjusted HR = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.04-0.57, P =
      0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in toe pressure post revascularization are
      incremental and rarely normalize. Toe pressure, compared to ankle pressure, is
      more useful in CLI and predicts future MALE.

PMID- 28862376
TI  - Rationale and design of a global registry to evaluate real-world clinical
      outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation and high risk of stroke treated
      with left atrial appendage occlusion using the AMPLATZER amulet device
      Perspective of available/ongoing registries of catheter-based LAA occlusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the rationale and design of a global prospective registry
      on catheter-based left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion using the second
      generation AMPLATZER Amulet LAA occlusion device and to provide a comprehensive
      perspective on available/ongoing registries for catheter-based LAA occlusion.
      BACKGROUND: Given the increasing clinical application of catheter-based LAA
      occlusion, there is an important need for prospective real-world clinical data
      regarding this cardiac intervention. METHODS: The Global Amplatzer Amulet LAA
      registry aims to provide prospective real-world data from an all-comer population
      of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients undergoing catheter-based LAA occlusion for
      stroke prevention. This observational, prospective, multicenter registry will
      provide peri-procedural and long-term clinical outcome data for catheter-based
      LAA occlusion using a second generation LAA occlusion device. The global registry
      will enroll 1,000 patients at up to 75 institutions. Patients will be followed
      for 2 years after implantation. Primary endpoints will report procedural and long
      term data on ischemic stroke, systemic embolism, cardiovascular death and major
      bleeding. The study will involve independent event adjudication and
      echocardiographic core laboratory evaluation. Long-term follow-up data are
      expected in 2018. RESULTS: The Global Amplatzer Amulet LAA registry will collect
      safety and efficacy information on catheter-based LAA occlusion. Characteristics
      of available and ongoing catheter-based LAA occlusion registries are described.
      CONCLUSIONS: There is an important need for prospective real-world clinical data
      of catheter-based LAA occlusion given the increasing application of this
      intervention. The present global real-world registry will expand our knowledge on
      peri-procedural and long-term outcome of catheter-based LAA occlusion using a
      second generation occlusion device.

PMID- 28862377
TI  - Biosynthesis of 2-Hydroxyacid-Containing Polyhydroxyalkanoates by Employing
      butyryl-CoA Transferases in Metabolically Engineered Escherichia coli.
AB  - The authors previously reported the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)
      containing 2-hydroxyacid monomers by expressing evolved Pseudomonas sp. 6-19 PHA
      synthase and Clostridium propionicum propionyl-CoA transferase in engineered
      microorganisms. Here, the authors examined four butyryl-CoA transferases from
      Roseburia sp., Eubacterium hallii, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Anaerostipes
      caccae as potential CoA-transferases to support synthesis of polymers having 2HA
      monomer. In vitro activity analyses of the four butyryl-CoA transferases
      suggested that each butyryl-CoA transferase has different activities towards 2
      hydroxybutyrate (2HB), 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB), and lactate (LA). When
      Escherichia coli XL1-Blue expressing Pseudomonas sp. 6-19 PhaC1437 along with one
      butyryl-CoA transferase is cultured in chemically defined MR medium containing 20
      g L-1 of glucose, 2 g L-1 of sodium 3-hydroxybutyrate, and various concentrations
      of sodium 2-hydroxybutyrate, PHAs consisting of 3HB, 2HB, and LA are produced.
      The monomer composition of PHAs agreed well with the substrate specificities of
      butyryl-CoA transferases from E. hallii, F. prausnitzii, and A. caccae, but not
      Roseburia sp. When E. coli XL1-Blue expressing PhaC1437 and E. hallii butyryl-CoA
      transferase is cultured in MR medium containing 20 g L-1 of glucose and 2 g L-1
      of sodium 2-hydroxybutyrate, P(65.7 mol% 2HB-co-34.3 mol% LA) is produced with
      the highest PHA content of 30 wt%. Butyryl-CoA transferases also supported the
      production of P(3HB-co-2HB-co-LA) from glucose as the sole carbon source in E.
      coli XL1-Blue strains when one of these bct genes is expressed with phaC1437,
      cimA3.7, leuBCD, panE, and phaAB genes. Butyryl-CoA transferases characterized in
      this study can be used for engineering of microorganisms that produce PHAs
      containing novel 2-hydroxyacid monomers.

PMID- 28862378
TI  - Why are we not prescribing more valaciclovir for herpes infections of the eye? Is
      it time for a change of practice in New Zealand?

PMID- 28862379
TI  - Recent Developments in Lanthanide Single-Molecule Magnets.
AB  - Single-molecule magnets (SMMs) exhibiting slow relaxation of magnetization of
      purely molecular origin are highly attractive owing to their potential
      applications in spintronic devices, high-density information storage, and quantum
      computing. In particular, lanthanide SMMs have been playing a major role in the
      advancement of this field because of the large intrinsic magnetic anisotropy of
      lanthanide metal ions. Herein, some recent breakthroughs that are changing the
      perspective of the field are highlighted, with special emphasis on synthetic
      strategies towards the design of high-performance SMMs.

PMID- 28862381
TI  - A systematic review of reported cases of combined transcatheter aortic and mitral
      valve interventions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To summarize the published data of combined transcatheter aortic and
      mitral valve intervention (CTAMVI). BACKGROUND: CTAMVI, a combination of either
      transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve-in
      valve (TAViV) and transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR), transcatheter
      mitral valve-in-valve/valve-in-ring (TMViV/ViR), or percutaneous mitral valve
      repair (PMVR) is an attractive alternative in high-surgical risk patients with
      combined aortic and mitral valve disease. However, its procedural details and
      clinical outcomes have not been well described. METHODS: We performed a
      systematic review of all the published articles from PUBMED and EMBASE. RESULTS:
      A total of 37 studies with 60 patients were included. The indication for CTAMVI
      was high or inoperable surgical risk and symptomatic severe aortic stenosis (92%)
      or severe aortic regurgitation (8%) combined with moderate to severe/severe
      mitral stenosis (30%) or moderate/severe mitral regurgitation (65%) or both (5%).
      In majority of the cases, aortic valve intervention was performed prior to the
      mitral valve. Mortality rate were 25% for TAVR + TMVR (range 42 days to 10
      months), 17% for TAVR + TMViV/ViR (range 13 days to 6 months), 0% for TAViV +
      TMViV/ViR (range 6-365 days), and 15% for TAVR/ViV + PMVR (range 17 days to 419
      days). Significant (more than moderate) paravalvular regurgitation post-procedure
      was rare. CONCLUSIONS: CTAMVI appears to confer reasonable clinical outcome.
      Further large study is warranted to clarify the optimal strategy, procedural
      details and clinical outcomes in the future.

PMID- 28862380
TI  - Fetal Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells Enhance Humanization and
      Bone Formation of BMP7 Loaded Scaffolds.
AB  - Tissue engineered constructs built with human cells capable of generating a bone
      like organ within the mouse have attracted considerable interest over the past
      decade. Here, we aimed to compare the utility of human mesenchymal stem/stromal
      cells (MSC) isolated from fetal term placenta (fPL-MSC) and fetal first trimester
      bone marrow (fBM-MSC) in a polycaprolactone scaffold/BMP7-based model in nude
      mice. Furthermore, fPL-MSC were co-seeded with fetal placenta-derived endothelial
      colony forming cells (ECFC) to assess the impact of ECFC on fPL-MSC osteogenesis.
      X-ray radiography and micro computed tomography analyses showed enhanced bone
      formation in all BMP7 groups; however there was no difference after 2 months in
      bone formation between scaffolds seeded with fPL-MSC alone or combination of ECFC
      and fPL-MSC. Of interest, fBM-MSC showed the highest level of bone formation.
      Additionally, endochondral ossification contributed in generation of bone in fBM
      MSC. Histological analysis showed the primary role of BMP in generation of
      cortical and trabecular bone, and the recruitment of hematopoietic cells to the
      scaffolds. Current in vivo engineered bone organs can potentially be used for
      drug screening or as models to study bone tissue development in combination with
      haematopoiesis.

PMID- 28862382
TI  - Tunable SERS Platforms from Small Nanoparticle 3D Superlattices: A Comparison
      between Gold, Silver, and Copper.
AB  - Herein we present new substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).
      The synthesis of colloidal nanoparticles through an organometallic route allowed
      us to obtain gold, silver, or copper nanoparticles with well-controlled shapes
      and sizes (5-12 nm in diameter). The organization of these nanoparticles into
      large-scale 3D superlattices produces a very large number of "hot spots" at the
      origin of the signal enhancement. Each superlattice was studied individually to
      correlate its optical and SERS properties to the thickness, the nanoparticle
      sizes, and the interparticle distance. This experimental and theoretical study
      provides insights for the optimization and tuning of the SERS activity. Indeed,
      significant SERS amplification could be observed regardless of the nature of the
      metal. In addition, the SERS signal was homogeneous at the surface of the
      superlattices, which opens the route for a new approach in analytical SERS
      detection.

PMID- 28862383
TI  - Serum Aspergillus fumigatus-specific IgG antibody decreases after antifungal
      treatment in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis patients.

PMID- 28862384
TI  - Atrial septostomy with a predefined diameter using a novel occlutech atrial flow
      regulator improves symptoms and cardiac index in patients with severe pulmonary
      arterial hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A novel Occlutech atrial flow regulator (AFR) implantation gives an
      atrial septal predefined predictable fenestration. BACKGROUND: Atrial septostomy
      relieves syncope in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by improving left heart
      filling, cardiac output and systemic oxygen transport despite hypoxia. Symptoms
      recur when small fenestrations close spontaneously. METHODS: AFR was implanted
      after informed consent in patients with severe PAH presenting with syncope and
      right heart failure. Symptoms, hemodynamics, echocardiographic parameters, brain
      natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels and device patency were serially documented.
      RESULTS: Twelve patients aged 28.3 +/- 8.5 years with severe PAH underwent AFR
      implantation. All procedures were successful without any major complications. All
      patients had relief of syncope and 6-min walk distance improved significantly
      from 377.3 +/- 33.2 to 423 +/- 31.32 m. The cardiac index (2.36 +/- 0.52 to 2.89
      +/- 0.56 L/min/m2 ) and systemic oxygen transport (367.5 +/- 75.5 to 428.0 +/-
      67.1 ml/min/m2 ) also showed a significant improvement. Inferior caval vein
      congestion and pericardial effusion reduced due to improvement in heart failure,
      but other echocardiographic parameters of right ventricular function did not show
      significant change. The reduction in BNP levels too did not reach statistical
      significance. The device was patent in all patients at a median follow-up of 189
      days (range 10-296 days) resulting in a significant reduction of oxygen
      saturations from 98 +/- 0.18 to 85.26 +/- 2.86% after exercise. CONCLUSIONS: AFR
      implantation was feasible and safe in all patients with PAH. There was a
      significant improvement of symptoms, six-minute walk distance, cardiac index and
      systemic oxygen transport. The device maintained patency in short-term follow-up
      and the resultant hypoxia was tolerated well.

PMID- 28862385
TI  - Tailoring stents to fit the anatomy of unique vascular stenoses in congenital
      heart disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unique and small anatomical features often preclude the use of
      available vascular stents in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease
      (CHD). OBJECTIVES: To report our experience and outcomes tailoring stents to fit
      unique anatomy, particularly in small children and infants with CHD. METHODS:
      Stent tailoring techniques included trimming, folding, and flaring. Patients
      receiving a tailored stent November 2002 to February 2015 were included in a
      retrospective analysis. RESULTS: Forty-one tailored stents were implanted in 30
      patients with median age and weight of 0.8 years (6 days to 17 years) and 8.1 kg
      (2.9-47.9 kg). Thirty stents were placed intraoperatively and 11 percutaneously.
      Sites included branch pulmonary arteries (BPA; n = 32), pulmonary veins (n = 6),
      SVC (n = 1), and the ventricular septum (n = 2). Twenty-three (56%) stents were
      trimmed with or without folding to avoid jailing of side branches, 16 (39%)
      stents were folded or flared with or without trimming to avoid excessive proximal
      protrusion, and two (5%) stents were folded back at both ends for implantation in
      ventricular septal defects. Final stent lengths were 6-15 mm. Minimal vessel
      diameters increased from 2.8 +/- 1.4 mm to 6.7 +/- 2.6 mm (P < 0.001).
      Complications included two intraoperative BPA tears, three pinhole balloon leaks,
      two intraoperative stent dislodgements, one transient heart block, and one lung
      reperfusion injury. Follow-up catheterization included 36 re-dilations and
      implantation of four additional stents over a median of 4.1 years. In-stent
      restenosis was the indication in 25 (69.4%) re-interventions. CONCLUSION:
      Tailored stents can be safely implanted to fit unique anatomy in small patients.
      Re-interventions can effectively treat restenosis and accommodate ongoing vessel
      growth.

PMID- 28862386
TI  - Use of antidepressive agents as a possibility in the management of periodontal
      diseases: A systematic review of experimental studies.
AB  - Antidepressant agents have anti-inflammatory functions that could be interesting
      as adjuvants in periodontal therapy. The aim of the present study was to analyze
      the effect of antidepressive drugs in the management of periodontal disease. The
      MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, LILACS, and SciELO databases were searched. To be
      included, the studies had to be experimental studies; randomized, controlled;
      double-blinded; or blinded studies. A total of 565 articles were initially
      searched, of which five were selected for the systematic review. All studies used
      rats, and three different drugs were evaluated: tianeptine, venlafaxine, and
      fluoxetine. Two of these studies evaluated the effect of antidepressive agents in
      rats submitted to both ligature-induced periodontitis and depression models,
      showing that depressive rats had greater alveolar bone loss (ABL). Only the
      venlafaxine study was not able to find any significant ABL reduction in the group
      that used this antidepressive drug. The other four studies showed statistically
      significant differences, favoring the group with the antidepressant agent.
      Treatments that are able to modulate the brain-neuroendocrine-immune system could
      be used as an adjuvant to periodontal disease management. However, studies on
      humans and animals are scarce, limiting the conclusion of a positive effect in
      the present systematic review.

PMID- 28862387
TI  - Symptom evaluation during the methacholine test: Does it add to the
      interpretation of the test results based on the PC20FEV1?
AB  - PURPOSE: Conventionally, symptoms occurring during the methacholine test are not
      taken into account when interpreting the test results. We examined whether the
      evaluation of methacholine-induced symptoms (MIS) added to the test
      interpretation based on the PC20FEV1 by assessing their prevalence, their
      similarity with symptoms justifying referral and their relationship with airway
      responsiveness. METHODS: Eighty-two patients with suspected asthma completed a
      questionnaire of symptoms and underwent bronchial challenge with methacholine.
      Based on MIS and airway responsiveness (responders = PC20FEV1 < 8 mg/mL),
      subjects were classified as asymptomatic non-responders (ANRs), asymptomatic
      responders (ARs), symptomatic non-responders (SNRs) and symptomatic responders
      (SRs). Airway responsiveness for all subjects, including non-responders (ie, fall
      in FEV1 < 20%), was assessed by the methacholine concentration response-slope
      (MCRS) obtained using all points of the curve. RESULTS: ARs (n = 6) were poor
      perceivers of bronchoconstriction. SNRs (n = 16) did not differ from SRs (n = 34)
      in any clinical parameter, including the proportion of subjects (~80%) whose
      methacholine test reproduced symptoms justifying referral. In turn, SNRs differed
      significantly from ANRs (n = 26) by having lower baseline FEV1 (P = .005), more
      physician-diagnosed asthma (P < .001), more use of respiratory medication (P =
      .032), and relatively greater responsiveness as manifested by a steeper MCRS (P <
      .001). CONCLUSIONS: The occurrence of asthma-like symptoms during the
      methacholine test was associated with milder airway hyperresponsiveness that
      would go unnoticed by the PC20FEV1. This finding suggests that SNRs should not be
      merely classified as having normal responsiveness, as currently recommended, but
      further assessed for airway inflammation. Our results helped planning a
      longitudinal study to investigate the prognostic validity of this approach.

PMID- 28862388
TI  - Visible-light Homogeneous Photocatalytic Conversion of CO2 into CO in Aqueous
      Solutions with an Iron Catalyst.
AB  - An iron-substituted tetraphenyl porphyrin bearing positively charged
      trimethylammonio groups at the para position of each phenyl ring catalyzes the
      photoinduced conversion of CO2 . This complex is water soluble and acts as a
      molecular catalyst to selectively reduce CO2 into CO under visible-light
      irradiation in aqueous solutions (acetonitrile/water=1:9 v/v) with the assistance
      of purpurin, a simple organic photosensitizer. CO is produced with a catalytic
      selectivity of 95 % and turnover number up to 120, illustrating the possibility
      of photocatalyzing the reduction of CO2 in aqueous solution by using visible
      light, a simple organic sensitizer coupled to an amine as a sacrificial electron
      donor, and an earth-abundant metal-based molecular catalyst.

PMID- 28862389
TI  - The role of high expectations of self and social desirability in emotional
      processing in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome: A qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Although high levels of distress are associated with the onset and
      severity of Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), it is unclear how this relates to
      emotional processing, particularly in relation to maintenance of symptoms and
      treatment outcome. This qualitative study embedded within a randomized controlled
      trial aimed to explore how individuals with refractory IBS experience, express,
      and manage their emotions after either therapist-delivered cognitive behavioural
      therapy (TCBT) or Web-based CBT (WBCBT) compared to treatment as usual (TAU).
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional qualitative study. METHODS: Fifty-two semi-structured
      interviews were conducted at post-treatment with 17 TCBT, 17 WBCBT, and 18 TAU
      participants. The transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis
      with grounded theory elements. NVivo 11 was used to compare themes across groups.
      RESULTS: Across all groups, high expectations of self was a recurring reason for
      how participants experienced and expressed their emotions. Three themes with
      subthemes captured how high expectations related to specific aspects of emotional
      processing: perceived causes of emotions, strategies for coping with emotions
      (bottling up, avoiding emotions, and active coping strategies), and the perceived
      interplay between emotions and IBS symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Patients recognized
      that their IBS symptoms both triggered and were triggered by negative emotions.
      However, there was a tendency to bottle up or avoid negative emotions for reasons
      of social desirability regardless of whether patients had CBT for IBS or not.
      Future psychological interventions in IBS may benefit from addressing negative
      beliefs about expressing emotions, promoting assertive emotional expression, and
      encouraging the experience of positive emotions. Statement of contribution What
      is already known on this subject? High levels of distress are consistently
      associated with both the onset and maintenance of IBS symptoms. Little is known
      about how this relates to the concept of emotional processing. Preliminary
      findings suggest a positive correlation between poor emotional processing and
      IBS. However, further studies need to confirm its role in relation to aetiology,
      maintenance of symptoms, and response to treatment. What does this study add?
      High expectations of self and social desirability seem to be important aspects
      shaping the way individuals with IBS experience, express, and manage their
      emotions. Emotional avoidance and bottling up were reported as key strategies to
      cope with negative emotions. The study revealed that bottling up is not perceived
      as an all-or-nothing strategy but can be applied selectively depending on the
      context. Psychological interventions in IBS may benefit from addressing not only
      illness-related causes of negative emotions but also personal and social triggers
      of distress.

PMID- 28862390
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28862391
TI  - Dental extractions for preradiation dental clearance and incidence of
      osteoradionecrosis in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with
      intensity-modulated radiotherapy.
AB  - AIM: The aims of the present retrospective study were to evaluate the outcomes of
      dental extractions in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who had undergone dental
      clearance pre- and post-radiotherapy (RT) with intensity-modulated RT, and to
      report on the incidence and timing of osteoradionecrosis (ORN) in these patients.
      METHODS: A total of 231 patients were seen pre-, mid-, and postradiation therapy.
      Information on patient demographics, smoking history, staging, treatment
      modalities, dental extraction indications, and number and site of dental
      extractions was gathered. Wilcoxon two-sample tests and Fisher's exact test were
      used to test the association between groups for patient variables. RESULTS: The
      mean number of teeth removed was 4.1 teeth per patient. A total of 334 (35.2%)
      teeth were removed for periodontal reasons, 322 (34.03%) were removed
      prophylactically, and the remaining teeth were removed because of deep caries,
      retained roots, partial impaction, endodontic lesions, and prosthodontic reasons.
      Patients had an average of 19.6 teeth remaining after dental clearance, and only
      97 (42%) required prosthetic intervention. The statistical analysis showed that
      there was no correlation between dental extractions pre- or post-RT and the
      development of ORN. CONCLUSIONS: No specific parameter was directly associated
      with dental extractions, although smoking and increased number of teeth removed
      preradiation seemed to be prevalent in patients who developed ORN.

PMID- 28862392
TI  - Minimizing exposure to radiation in invasive cardiology using modern dose
      reduction technology: Evaluation of the real-life effects.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to measure the reduction in the estimated dose of radiation
      received by patients that can be achieved using dose-reduction technology
      (ClarityIQ, Philips Healthcare, The Netherlands), among all patients undergoing
      invasive cardiology procedures. BACKGROUND: Medical procedures remain the primary
      source of exposure to ionizing radiation in the general population. METHODS: The
      study population comprised all patients (without exclusion criteria) undergoing
      invasive coronary procedures over a 1-year study period in a large referral
      centre equipped with two catheterization laboratories (cathlabs). Both cathlabs
      (A and B) were equipped with the Allura Xper FD10 imaging system (Philips
      Healthcare, The Netherlands), but only Cathlab B was equipped with ClarityIQ
      technology. The primary endpoint was the estimated total dose of radiation
      received by the patient, as assessed by Air Kerma (AK) and dose area product
      (DAP). RESULTS: In total, 2095 invasive coronary procedures were analyzed. The
      patients who underwent procedures in Cathlab B received an average estimated dose
      that was 23% (AK) and 43% (DAP) lower than the dose received by patients
      undergoing procedures in Cathlab A (P < .0001). The reduction remained
      significant by multivariate analysis after adjustment for total X-ray time, body
      mass index, arterial approach, PCI of at least one lesion, sex, and patient age.
      CONCLUSION: In our study, the ClarityIQ technology reduced the estimated
      radiation dose received by patients by 23-43%, according to the method of
      measurement.

PMID- 28862393
TI  - Microheterogeneity of Recombinant Antibodies: Analytics and Functional Impact.
AB  - Antibodies are typical examples of biopharmaceuticals which are composed of
      numerous, almost infinite numbers of potential molecular entities called variants
      or isoforms, which constitute the microheterogeneity of these molecules. These
      variants are generated during biosynthesis by so-called posttranslational
      modification, during purification or upon storage. The variants differ in
      biological properties such as pharmacodynamic properties, for example, Antibody
      Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity, complement activation, and pharmacokinetic
      properties, for example, serum half-life and safety. Recent progress in
      analytical technologies such as various modes of liquid chromatography and mass
      spectrometry has helped to elucidate the structure of a lot of these variants and
      their biological properties. In this review the most important modifications
      (glycosylation, terminal modifications, amino acid side chain modifications,
      glycation, disulfide bond variants and aggregation) are reviewed and an attempt
      is made to give an overview on the biological properties, for which the reports
      are often contradictory. Even though there is a deep understanding of cellular
      and molecular mechanism of antibody modification and their consequences, the
      clinical proof of the effects observed in vitro and in vivo is still not fully
      rendered. For some modifications such as core-fucosylation of the N-glycan and
      aggregation the effects are clear and should be monitored, but with others such
      as C-terminal lysine clipping the reports are contradictory. As a consequence it
      seems too early to tell if any modification can be safely ignored.

PMID- 28862394
TI  - Efficacy and safety of a calcium sensitizer, levosimendan, in patients with right
      heart failure due to pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite using vasoactive and pulmonary hypertension (PH) specific
      therapies, the in-hospital mortality of severe PH with right heart failure (RHF)
      is high. We conducted a prospective analysis evaluating the efficacy and safety
      of levosimendan in PH patients with severe acute RHF. METHODS: Forty-five PH
      patients hospitalized between January 2016 and November 2016 were recruited into
      a single arm, prospective, open-label study. Levosimendan was administered at the
      rate of .05-0.1 MUg/kg/min, up to a total dose of 12.5 mg. The primary endpoints
      were changes of World Health Organization Function Class (WHO-FC) and Borg
      dyspnoea scores. Secondary endpoints included changes in 6-min walk distance (6
      MWD), biochemical markers and right heart structure and function together with
      adverse events on day 7 and incidence of major cardiovascular events (death or
      readmission due to RHF) on day 30. RESULTS: Forty-five PH patients were enrolled.
      On the 7th day after levosimendan infusion, seven out of 13 PH patients with WHO
      FC IV improved by one class (P = .008). Borg dyspnoea scores, 6-MWD and NT-proBNP
      improved significantly (P < .001). Compared with baseline, the right atrial
      transverse dimension, end-systolic eccentricity index and tricuspid annular plane
      systolic excursion improved significantly (58.8 +/- 13.1 mm vs 53.7 +/- 12.4 mm;
      1.50 +/- 0.27 vs 1.38 +/- 0.23; 15.0 (13.0, 16.0) mm vs 15.8 (14.0, 17.4) mm, P <
      .005, respectively). One patient occurred sudden death after discharge during
      follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous levosimendan can effectively improve severe
      RHF of PH patients in hospital and well tolerated.

PMID- 28862396
TI  - Association between lung function, physical activity level and postural
      evaluation variables in adult patients with cystic fibrosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: With the evolution of the cystic fibrosis (CF) disease, the decline
      of lung function associated with metabolic disorders and malnutrition, causes
      alterations in respiratory mechanics, musculoskeletal disorders and thoracic
      deformities, bringing injury to the individual's quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To
      verify the association between lung function, physical activity level and
      postural evaluation variables in adults with CF. METHODS: All patients underwent
      clinical evaluation and spirometry. The International Physical Activity
      Questionnaire (IPAQ) and an accelerometer were used to verify the physical
      activity level (PA). Photogrammetry was used with the aid of the Software of
      postural evaluation (SAPO) and, for complementary comparisons, the 6-minute walk
      test (6MWT) was used. RESULTS: Twenty-eight adult subjects with CF, mean age of
      25.1 +/- 6.3 years and mean expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1 ) of 47.1
      +/- 20.9% of the predicted group participated in the study. The FEV1 correlated
      with the parameters obtained by the accelerometer (r = 0.723, P = .000), postural
      evaluation (r = -0.483, P = .005) and 6MWT (r = 0.439, P = .019), but there was
      no correlation with the data obtained by IPAQ (r = -0.282; P = .073). The time in
      which each individual remained in moderate to vigorous physical activity
      correlated with parameters of postural evaluation (thoracic kyphosis r = -0.484,
      P = .031, cervical lordosis r = 0.531, P = .016), 6MWT (r = 0.564; P = .010) and
      with the total METS obtained by IPAQ (r = 0.451, P = .046). CONCLUSIONS: Lung
      function in patients with CF disease is associated with higher thoracic kyphosis,
      shorter time in moderate and vigorous PA, and shorter distance covered in 6MWT.
      The accelerometer has been shown to be the best instrument for assessing PA in
      this public.

PMID- 28862395
TI  - Phelan-McDermid syndrome data network: Integrating patient reported outcomes with
      clinical notes and curated genetic reports.
AB  - The heterogeneity of patient phenotype data are an impediment to the research
      into the origins and progression of neuropsychiatric disorders. This difficulty
      is compounded in the case of rare disorders such as Phelan-McDermid Syndrome
      (PMS) by the paucity of patient clinical data. PMS is a rare syndromic genetic
      cause of autism and intellectual deficiency. In this paper, we describe the
      Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Data Network (PMS_DN), a platform that facilitates
      research into phenotype-genotype correlation and progression of PMS by: a)
      integrating knowledge of patient phenotypes extracted from Patient Reported
      Outcomes (PRO) data and clinical notes-two heterogeneous, underutilized sources
      of knowledge about patient phenotypes-with curated genetic information from the
      same patient cohort and b) making this integrated knowledge, along with a suite
      of statistical tools, available free of charge to authorized investigators on a
      Web portal https://pmsdn.hms.harvard.edu. PMS_DN is a Patient Centric Outcomes
      Research Initiative (PCORI) where patients and their families are involved in all
      aspects of the management of patient data in driving research into PMS. To foster
      collaborative research, PMS_DN also makes patient aggregates from this knowledge
      available to authorized investigators using distributed research networks such as
      the PCORnet PopMedNet. PMS_DN is hosted on a scalable cloud based environment and
      complies with all patient data privacy regulations. As of October 31, 2016,
      PMS_DN integrates high-quality knowledge extracted from the clinical notes of 112
      patients and curated genetic reports of 176 patients with preprocessed PRO data
      from 415 patients.

PMID- 28862398
TI  - JCD Editorial - September, 2017.

PMID- 28862397
TI  - EMPIRE Registry, Czech Part: Impact of demographics, pulmonary function and HRCT
      on survival and clinical course in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prognostic factors of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) currently
      recognized include changes in vital capacity and radiologic findings. However,
      most of the prognostic studies in IPF are based on clinical studies with
      preselected IPF populations. Therefore, we decided to analyze the factors
      influencing IPF prognosis based on the real-practice data from our IPF registry.
      METHODS: Data of 514 subjects consecutively entered since 2012 into Czech EMPIRE
      IPF registry were analyzed. RESULTS: Median age of our patient cohort was 67
      years (50-82). Median overall survival (OS) of the cohort was 63.1 months. The
      clinical course of IPF according to FVC (forced vital capacity) changes was
      stabilized in 32.8% of patients (29.7% according to DLCO [diffuse lung capacity]
      changes), slowly progressive in 39.5% (45%), rapidly progressive in 23.5%
      (20.7%); and 1.7% patients had at least one acute exacerbation during follow-up.
      Deterioration in FVC of >=10% at month 12 and in DLCO of >=15% at months 12, 18,
      and 24 influenced the OS significantly. The fast progressors defined by the DLCO
      decline rate had higher risk of death compared to those defined by the FVC change
      over time. In multivariate analysis, age >=70 years, interstitial HRCT scores
      >=3, and change in DLCO of >=15% at month 12 were confirmed as factors negatively
      influencing OS. CONCLUSIONS: DLCO changes over time were shown as a better
      predictor of mortality compared with FVC changes in our study. In our opinion it
      is necessary to implement the DLCO analysis into clinical trials and routine
      practice.

PMID- 28862399
TI  - The Bex-Nikaidoh operation for dextro-transposition of the great arteries with a
      ventricular septal defect and pulmonary stenosis using an 'oversized' conduit.
AB  - We report a case of a 4-month-old infant with dextro (d)-transposition of the
      great arteries, ventricular septal defect (VSD) and left ventricular outflow
      tract obstruction previously palliated with a systemic-to-pulmonary shunt. He
      underwent repair by aortic root translocation with an arterial switch procedure
      and coronary artery reimplantation (modified Bex-Nikaidoh operation). This case
      demonstrates that aortic translocation results in a more normal anatomic repair
      compared with the Rastelli operation. As shown, it is always possible to place an
      oversized conduit (homograft) and there is no risk of sternal compression of the
      conduit. This is especially important for children under 1 year, when there are
      contraindications for the Rastelli operation. Placement of oversized pulmonary
      ventricle-pulmonary artery conduits is performed to decrease conduit failure in
      the future. The postoperative course was uneventful. At 6 months, he was
      asymptomatic with tomographic images and echocardiography showing no residual
      lesions.

PMID- 28862400
TI  - Carotid artery cannulation in aortic surgery.
AB  - The common carotid artery is not widely used for arterial return in
      cardiovascular surgery with the use of extracorporeal circulation; however, in
      our opinion, it is an artery that most ideally fits several criteria for
      cannulation use. It is easy and very fast to access, even in obese patients, and
      it is large and strong enough to provide a sufficient arterial return. Moreover,
      the risk of local injuries and wound infection is extremely low, and finally, the
      use of the common carotid artery for cannulation is very advantageous for
      cerebral perfusion in many pathologies of the aortic arch and its branches.

PMID- 28862401
TI  - Aspergillus and Penicillium (Eurotiales: Trichocomaceae) in soils of the
      Brazilian tropical dry forest: diversity in an area of environmental
      preservation.
AB  - Soil is a complex biological system that plays a key role for plants and animals,
      especially in dry forests such as the Caatinga. Fungi from soils, such as
      Aspergillus and Penicillium, can be used as bioindica-tors for biodiversity
      conservation. The aim of this study was to isolate and identify species of
      Aspergillus and Penicillium in soil, from the municipalities of Tupanatinga and
      Ibimirim, with dry forests, in the CatimbauNational Park. Five collections were
      performed in each area during the drought season of 2012, totaling 25soil samples
      per area. Fungi were isolated by suspending soil samples in sterile distilled
      water and plating onSabouraud Agar media plus Chloramphenicol and Rose Bengal,
      and Glycerol Dicloran Agar. Isolates wereidentified by morphological taxonomy in
      the Culture Collection Laboratory and confirmed by sequencing ofthe Internal
      Transcribed Spacer of rDNA. A total of 42 species were identified, of which 22
      belong to the genusAspergillus and 20 to Penicillium. Penicillium isolates showed
      uniform distribution from the collecting area inTupanatinga, and the evenness
      indices found were 0.92 and 0.88 in Tupanatinga and Ibimirim, respectively.Among
      isolates of Aspergillus evenness, the value found in Tupanatinga (0.85) was very
      close to that found in Ibimirim (0.86). High diversity and low dominance of fungi
      in soil samples was observed. These results con-tributed to the estimation of
      fungal diversity in dry environments of the Caatinga, where diversity is
      decreasing in soils that have undergone disturbance.

PMID- 28862402
TI  - Reproductive system, mating behavior and basic ecology of an extremely rare
      tropical snail: Drymaeus tripictus(Stylommatophora: Bulimulidae)
AB  - Very little is known about the ecology and biology of Drymaeus tripictus, an
      extremely rare andendemic land snail species from Costa Rican highlands. I
      studied the ecology and reproductive biology of D. tripictusfrom April 2009
      through June 2010 in an old forest, a young forest and a Cupressus lusitanica
      plantationin central Costa Rica. Every three months I visited each habitat and
      collected specimens in 20 random samplingplots (3x3 m2 each). I observed the
      snail's activity and microhabitat preference in the field, and in the laboratoryI
      recorded high definition videos of its mating behavior and analyzed reproductive
      morphology with lightmicroscopy. The snail is more abundant in the old forest
      (0.017 ind./m(2)) and prefers leaves with little epiphyllouscover (0-25 % cover,
      chi-square test, p <0.0001). During the dry season the snails become active
      between 20:00pm and 8:00 am (chi-square = 22.65, df=3, p < 0.0001); they are
      inactive mainly during the afternoon (11:00 amto 16:59 pm). I found active
      individuals mostly on the upper side of leaves, where they feed (Chi-square
      =6.76,df=1, p = 0.0093). Mating is unilateral, by shell mounting, with cryptic
      phallus intromission and without roleswitching or multiple mating. Its
      reproductive system is morphologically similar to that of Drymaeus
      costaricensis.Mating behavior is as expected for snails with high-spired shells,
      except for the lack of role switching.The density of D. tripictus is low even
      when compared with other endangered bulimulids.

PMID- 28862403
TI  - Population structure and reproductive biology of Astyanax
      gymnodontus(Characiformes: Characidae), a poorly known endemic fish of the Iguacu
      River basin, Brazil.
AB  - Success in fish breeding depends on reproduction intensity, periodicity and the
      place where it occurs.Information about fish species reproduction is important to
      assist managers, and to determine conservation andmanagement strategies. The fish
      assemblage of the Iguacu River basin is already known for its high endemism,and
      despite this privilege, the large number of dams built along it, threat this
      particular biodiversity. Astyanaxgymnodontus is an endemic fish species and
      studies on its population structure and reproductive biology areimportant, since
      they represent the first step for further community studies. Our objective was to
      evaluate someaspects of the population structure and reproductive biology of A.
      gymnodontus in the influence area of SaltoSantiago dam, Iguacu River, Parana
      State, Brazil. Sampling was made monthly from July 2003 to June 2005,
      andbimonthly from July 2005 to March 2013, at five sites in the influence area of
      Salto Santiago dam. Fishes werecollected using 10 m length gillnets with meshes
      ranging from 2.5 to 6.0 cm between non-adjacent knots andtrammel nets with inner
      meshes of 6.0 cm between non-adjacent knots. Nets were arranged on surface,
      bottomand margins of each site, exposed for 24 h. Additional drags on littoral
      areas were performed from January toMarch and October to December from 2009 to
      2011, with 50.0 m nets, 0.5 cm mesh size, for juveniles capture.We captured and
      analyzed 21 932 individuals, being 9 249 females and 12 683 males, representing
      42.2 % and57.8 %, respectively. The average body length was 8.8 cm for females
      and 8.3 cm for males. The average weightwas 18.8 g for females and 16.0 g for
      males. Sex ratio calculated for the entire period was 1.8 males/female.Males were
      more abundant than females in 73.2 % of samples and significant differences were
      observed in 35.3% of samples. The estimated length at first maturity (SL(50)) was
      6.4 cm for females and 6.2 cm for males. We suggestthat sexual differences in
      body length and weight, and sex ratio occurred as a result of sexual differences
      inenergy allocation. Females spend more energy on body growth, which means more
      eggs production and higherfecundity. As an integrated response, males spend more
      energy on sperm production, in competition with othermales, leading to a smaller
      body size. Differences in estimated SL(50) might be an indicator of this sexual
      differencein energy allocation. The reproduction period was from September to
      February, with greater intensity at thebeginning of this period, and the sites of
      highest reproductive intensity were those immediate downstream fromdams, and
      therefore with more riverine characteristics.

PMID- 28862404
TI  - Coral communities condition in varying wave exposure: the gulf of Cazones, Cuba.
AB  - Wave exposure can influence community structure and distribution of shallow coral
      reefs, by affectingorganisms both directly and indirectly. To assess the current
      stony coral community condition under differentdegrees of wave exposure at a
      marine protected area of the Gulf of Cazones (SW Cuba), two expeditions
      werecarried out in May 2010 and June 2012. Four sampling sites were sampled at
      reef crests (1.5 m deep), and twelveat fore-reefs, at 10, 15 and 20 m deep in
      four geographic locations. Live coral cover, species richness and
      composition,colony density, and maximum diameter were assessed using the AGRRA
      2001 methodology. Multivariateand non-parametric statistics were applied to
      compare sites. The coral community structure within reef crestswas not
      homogenous. The observed variability of indicators apparently was determined by
      great coral mortalityevents resulting from natural disturbances that occurred in
      the past (hurricanes, bleaching and diseases). Forereefcoral communities
      displayed better condition and lower coral mortality than reef crests. Species
      richnessand coral composition varied, while multivariate and statistical methods
      did not reveal site grouping with regardto wave exposure. The remaining
      biological condition indicators were similar among sites, except in the
      mostexposed one, where coral cover and coral size were slightly lower. Wave
      exposure in the gulf of Cazones seemednot to have a significant influence on
      differences in condition and structure of the assessed coral communities.

PMID- 28862405
TI  - Can anthropic fires affect epigaeic and hypogaeic Cerrado ant (Hymenoptera:
      Formicidae) communities in the same way?
AB  - Fire occurrences are a common perturbation in Cerrado ecosystems, and may
      differently impact thelocal biodiversity. Arthropods are one of the taxa affected
      by fires, and among them, ants are known as goodbioindicators. We aimed to
      evaluate the effect of anthropic fires on epigaeic and hypogaeic ant
      communities(species richness and composition) in Cerrado areas with different
      post-fire event recovery periods. We conductedthe study in four Cerrado areas
      during two weeks of 2012 dry season: one unburned and three at differentpost-fire
      times (one month, one and two years). We sampled ants with pitfall traps in
      epigaeic and hypogaeicmicrohabitats. We collected 71 ant morpho-species from 25
      genera. In the epigaeic microhabitat we sampled56 morpho-species and 42 in the
      hypogaeic microhabitat. The area with the shortest recovery time presentedlower
      epigaeic ant species richness (4.3 +/- 2.00) in comparison to the other areas
      (8.1 +/- 2.68 species on oneyear area; 10.3 +/- 2.66 species on two years area;
      10.4 +/- 2.31 species on control area), but recovery time did notaffect hypogaeic
      ant species richness. Regarding ant species composition, fire did not directly
      affect hypogaeicant species, which remained the same even one month after fire
      event. However, two years were not enough toreestablish ant species composition
      in both microhabitats in relation to our control group samples. Our studyis the
      first to assess anthropic fire effects upon epigaeic and hypogaeic ants
      communities; highlighting theimportance of evaluating different microhabitats, to
      more accurately detect the effects of anthropic disturbancesin biological
      communities. We concluded that ant communities are just partially affected by
      fire occurrences,and epigaeic assemblages are the most affected ones in
      comparison to hypogaeic ants. Furthermore the studyprovides knowledge to aid in
      the creation of vegetation management programs that allow Cerrado conservation.

PMID- 28862406
TI  - Effect of NaCl + Chitosan 3% vs. NaCl on high blood pressure parameters of
      healthy volunteers with prehypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because of the impressive increase in the risk of cardiovascular
      complications associated with levels of BP previously considered to be normal,
      the JNC 7 report has introduced a new classification that includes the term
      "prehypertension" for those with blood pressures (BPs) ranging from 120-139 mmHg
      systolic and/or 80-89 mmHg diastolic. In the framework of a salt reduction as
      recommended by health authorities, this trial evaluates if the use of
      Symbiosal(r) reduces more prehypertension than standard table marine salt (NaCl).
      METHODS: Study design: monocenter, randomized, double blind, controlled trial
      comparing the marine salt NaCl + Chitosan 3% according a specific patent
      Symbiosal and the standard table marine salt NaCl. The study has been conducted
      in 2 parallel arms design: every subject received, according to the randomization
      Symbiosal or NaCl. STUDY OBJECTIVES: The main objective of this clinical trial
      was to demonstrate a higher reduction of systolic BP (SBP) with Symbiosal than
      with NaCl in the framework of a table salt reduction to a maximum of 3 g per day
      in prehypertensive patients RESULTS: Twenty-two subjects were included in the
      Symbiosal group and 19 in the NaCl group according randomization. The two groups
      have the same salt consumption: a daily intake of respectively 2.2+/-1.1 g/day
      vs. 2.5+/-1.2 g/day (P=0.3621). The SBP was measured by the investigators at D0
      and D56. It significantly (P<0.0001) decreased more in the Symbiosal group from
      133.8+/-5.7 mmHg to 126.1+/-6.5 mmHg which correspond to a reduction of 7.7+/-5.9
      mmHg while it slightly increased in the group NaCl from 136.6+/-10.3 mmHg to
      140.4+/-8.3 mmHg which corresponds to an increase of 3.7+/-6 mmHg (main
      criteria). The proportion of subjects whose SBP was under 130 mmHg strongly and
      significantly more important in the Symbiosal group =77.3% vs. 10.5% in the NaCl
      group (P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This controlled randomized double-blind trial
      comparing Symbiosal to standard salt in the framework of a salt reduction
      demonstrate the efficiency of Symbiosal to prevent hypertension by controlling
      the BP rising in subject presenting prehypertensive status which is the target
      population of that food supplement.

PMID- 28862407
TI  - A handbook for the clinical cardiologist about CRT/ICD. A practical guide about
      how to survive during an on call shift.
AB  - Cardiac resynchronization therapies (CRTs) have been demonstrated to improve the
      clinical management and prognosis of selected patients with heart failure. CRT
      devices include both CRT pacemakers (CRT-P) and CRT defibrillators (CRT-D), with
      the latter being used to treat life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. A
      significant advantage of CRTs is the ability to monitor several vital parameters
      which, thanks to advanced technology, may be remotely assessed. Personalized
      programming options allow patients to receive the maximum benefit from these
      treatments. In this review we report the main diagnostic and therapeutic
      algorithms used in clinical practice.

PMID- 28862408
TI  - Benefits of electroanatomic ablation of conventional cardiac arrhytmias: from
      fluoroscopy to zero X-ray mapping.
AB  - Electrophysiology procedures are traditionally performed under fluoroscopic
      guidance. Nowadays a growing interest in the radiation risk associated to these
      procedures has been cultivated, since radiation exposure has non-negligible
      stochastic and deterministic effects on health. A correlation between radiation
      exposure and lifetime malignancy effect is difficult to establish and the
      threshold of a completely safe exposure dose is unknown. Thus,
      electrophisiologists have become aware of the use of fluoroscopy and they have
      tried to use all the complementary imaging technologies available in order to
      reduce the radiological exposure. This review is aimed at evaluating the
      radiation exposure risk, both for the patients and the operators. We describe
      electroanatomical mapping systems and technologies, which allow the reduction of
      radiation exposure. We review the main literature based on different catheter
      ablation procedures with the use of the abovementioned technologies, specifically
      focusing on feasibility, safety, and radiation exposure. Finally, we highlight
      the necessity of increasing the radiological risk awareness among operators and
      cardiological scientific societies.

PMID- 28862409
TI  - [The tolerance of ten diatom species (Bacillariophyceae) to water's physico
      chemical factors inthe Sarapiqui River, Costa Rica].
AB  - Benthic diatoms are the periphyton component most studied in Costa Ricanrivers,
      yet there is still much to be known about their ecology. This study aims to
      contribute to this knowledge.Periphyton samples from six locations along the
      middle reach of Sarapiqui river and some of its tributarieswere taken and
      analyzed from 2010 to 2012. A total count of 400 frustules was performed in each
      sample toobtain relative abundances of each species. Ten species, which were
      easily recognized at the light microscope,were analyzed here: Achnanthidium
      exiguum, Coconneis placentula, Cymbella tumida, Luticola goeppertiana,Luticola
      ventricosa, Navicula symmetrica, Nitzchia clausii, Nupela praecipua, Reimeria
      sinuata and Synedragoulardi. Their abundance was related to physico chemical data
      at each site for every sampling date (dissolvedoxygen, temperature, conductivity,
      total suspended solids, turbidity, pH and alkalinity) with a canonical
      correspondenceanalysis (CCA) that allowed distinguishing three sectors along the
      river according to altitude.These sectors differed by substrate, riparian
      vegetation cover, and physic-chemical parameters, all of whichresulted in
      differences in diatom species composition among them. Optimum values and
      tolerances form eachenvironmental parameter were calculated for each species. Our
      results showed that A. exiguum, R. sinuata, L.ventricosa and C. tumida, were
      dominant in clean and well oxygenated waters with low temperatures. The speciesN.
      praecipua, S. goulardi, C. placentula, L. goeppertiana, N. clausii and N.
      symmetrica inhabited warmwaters with high turbidity and low oxygen. The species
      A. exiguum, R. sinuata were dominant in sites with lowalkalinity and
      conductivity, whereas species like N. symmetrica, C. tumida and L. ventricosa
      showed a positiverelationship with conductivity and pH. The studied species
      showed good characteristics of their value as waterquality indicators, yet due to
      different interpretations by several authors, it is necessary to perform further
      studiesat more river basins in the country.

PMID- 28862410
TI  - [Temperature and daily emergence of seven genera of Ephemeroptera (Insecta) in a
      cloud forest stream of tropical Andes].
AB  - Daily emergence of mayflies in Neotropical rivers and their causes have been
      poorly studied. In temperate zones, this process is better known and attributed
      to several factors. In this work, we studied the daily emergence of subimagines
      of several Ephemeroptera genera in La Picon River of a Venezuelan Andean cloud
      forest and its relation with changes of environmental temperature. Four emergence
      traps were placed along a reach of 50 m of the stream, each one was examined each
      two hours in a 24 hr cycle to capture the newly emerged subimagos. This procedure
      was repeated for eight dates between November-2007 and February-2008 for a total
      of 32 observations in each sampling hour. The subimagos were reared to adults and
      identified to genus. The relative density of emergence per trap was calculated
      for each genus and sampling hour. Water and air temperature were measured each
      hour during the daily cycle of observation, and the averages of temperature and
      hour-degrees of air and water were calculated for each hour from the eight dates
      studied. Seven genera were identified: Leptohyphes Eaton, 1882 and Haplohyphes
      Allen 1966 (Leptophlebiidae); Prebaetodes Lugo-Ortiz and McCafferty, 1996,
      Andesiops Lugo-Ortiz and McCafferty, 1999, Baetodes Needham and Murphy, 1924 and
      Americabaetis Kluge, 1992 (Baetidae); and Thraulodes Ulmer, 1920
      (Leptophlebiidae); being the more abundant Leptohyphes (38.4 %) and Thraulodes
      (20.5 %). The emergence occurred between 11:00 am and 23:00 pm showing the
      following: a) an emergence initiated during daylight hours by organisms of
      Leptohyphes, Prebaetodes and Haplohyphes; b) a nocturnal emergence, in
      Thraulodes, Andesiops, Baetodes and Americabaetis; and c) two peaks: one diurnal
      produced by Leptohyphes and other nocturnal with predominance of Thraulodes.
      These results are the first records on the diurnal daily emergence in Andesiops,
      Prebaetodes, Americabaetis, Haplohyphes, and Leptohyphes, as well as the
      nocturnal emergence in Thraulodes. It was evidenced that Leptohyphes, with small
      nymphs (average head width = 1.05 mm) needed to accumulate less hour-degrees to
      initiate the emergence than those required by Thraulodes whose nymphs are larger
      (average head width = 2.01 mm). This disparity in the emergence energy
      requirements must be consequence of differences between the sizes of mature
      nymphs of both genera; facts which rely on the constancy of sizes shown by these
      taxa along an altitudinal-thermal gradient and the little daily and seasonal
      variability of water temperature in La Picon River. In the daily lapse when the
      emergence occurred, the air and water average temperatures were higher than those
      registered in the no-emergence lapse; therefore; it is suggested that during the
      daily lapse, when this process occurs, the environment is thermally favorable for
      the emergence of subimagos and their survival out of water.

PMID- 28862411
TI  - [Biological parameters of Pseudocurimata boulengeri (Characiformes: Curimatidae)
      inhabiting the Chongon dam, Ecuador].
AB  - Pseudocurimata boulengeri is an endemic species of Ecuador, which sustains a
      large group of fisher families. The biological data of this species correspond to
      reports from lotic systems of Los Rios province; nevertheless, their trend in a
      lentic system is not yet known. This paper describes the sex ratio, length-weight
      relationship, gonad development, spawning season and size at reproductive
      maturity of P. boulengeri, inhabiting the lentic system of Chongon dam, Ecuador.
      Fish were caught between 2003 and 2009 using gill nets (2.5"). The total length
      (Lt) of caught specimens ranged from 10.5 to 35.5 cm, spawning occurred between
      the months of October and March, and size at first maturity for females was
      estimated at 17.9 cm (Lt) and 20.0 cm (Lt) for males. Between May and October
      male and female ratios were as expected (1:1), whereas for May, November and
      April, females ratios were higher than males, situation that coincided with the
      spawning season. The limnetic conditions and high production characteristics of
      Chongon dam, have promoted the availability of a great amount of food for this
      species, which may have allowed P. boulengeri to have a more extended
      reproductive season in this favorable environment.

PMID- 28862412
TI  - [Bibliometry of collaboration and impact of the Revista de Biologia Tropical (Web
      of Science 2003-2012)].
AB  - The activity analysis of a scientific journal is relevant to know the evolution
      of its characteristics over time. In this paper, results of a bibliometric study
      of the Revista de Biologia Tropical/International Journal of Tropical Biology and
      Conservation (Costa Rica) are presented. The goal of this study was to describe
      the main characteristics of its scientific production, and analyze its level of
      collaboration and its impact between the years 2003-2012. Data was derived from
      the Web of Science (Thomson-Reuters), and the relationship among authors and
      coauthors, institutions and countries, and their links with the citations
      received were analyzed for that period. Descriptive statistics about production
      (number of documents per year, institution and country), collaboration
      (authorship index, collaboration among institutions and countries) and impact
      (IF, position in JCR and number of citations received) were collected. Results
      showed that the journal has published 1 473 papers in this period, in similar
      proportions English and Spanish. Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Colombia are
      the most common countries of origin, with the Universidad of Costa Rica,
      Universidad Autonoma de Mexico and the University of Puerto Rico as the most
      common leader institutions. Collaboration between authors, institutions and
      countries has shown an increasing trend over the last decade. The co-author index
      was 3.07 per document, 63 % of publications included 2 or more institutions, and
      22 % of the papers were product of international collaboration. The most common
      collaboration link was between Costa Rica and the United States of America. The
      impact factor has been oscillating during this last decade, reaching a maximum in
      2012 (IF JCR = 0.553). Besides, 10 % of the most cited papers concentrated half
      of the citations received by the journal, and have a very high number of
      citations, compared with the journal mean. The main countries that cite the
      journal were USA, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Costa Rica. Data showed an
      increasing collaboration between authors, institutions and countries, and a
      direct relationship between the increase of this collaboration and the received
      impact.

PMID- 28862413
TI  - [Which factors determine the altitudinal distribution of tropical Andean riverine
      fishes]?
AB  - Altitudinal gradients represent an appropriate system to assess whether there is
      a relationship between richness patterns, environmental variables, and the
      ecological processes that determine the species type and number inhabiting a
      given area. In mountain streams freshwater fishes, the most prevalent
      relationship is a monotonic decrease in species richness with elevation. The
      objective of this study was to evaluate four hypotheses that can explain the
      negative relationship between local fish species richness and altitude, 1) the
      hypothesis of decreasing energy availability, 2) the hypothesis of increasing
      climate severity, 3) the hypothesis of habitat diversity, and 4) the hypothesis
      of isolation by physical severity of the environment. Fish and macro
      invertebrates were collected following standard methods from 83 sites (between
      200-4 000 meters) of two river basins in the Bolivian Amazon. The first
      hypothesis was tested by analyzing relationships between the density of macro
      invertebrates, the richness of invertivorous fish species and altitude; while the
      second and third hypotheses were assessed by a multiple regression analysis (GLM)
      between fish species richness and several local and regional factors. Besides,
      assemblage dissimilarity between sites along the altitudinal gradient was
      analyzed using betasim and betaness indices. Fish richness decreases linearly
      with increasing altitude. The density of macro-invertebrates tends to increase at
      higher altitudes, contrary to invertivorous fish species richness, suggesting
      that energy availability is not a limiting factor for fish species colonization.
      The GLM explained 86 % of the variation in fish species richness, with a
      significant contribution of water temperature, maximum slope in the river
      mainstem, and stream width. There is a higher species turnover (betasim) between
      sites at low elevation. Inversely, betaness shows higher values in the upper
      parts, corresponding to change in assemblages mainly due to species loss. Taken
      together, these results suggest that climatic and physical severities create
      strong barriers to colonization, further explaining the decrease in fish richness
      along the altitudinal gradient.

PMID- 28862414
TI  - Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome: recent advances in diagnostic criteria and
      prognostic significance.
AB  - The term asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome
      (ACOS) has been proposed for individuals with features of both asthma and COPD.
      Several attempts have been done to define ACOS on the basis of medical history,
      symptoms, and functional findings. The main diagnostic criteria include airflow
      obstruction with a strong although incomplete reversibility to bronchodilation
      tests, a significant exposure to cigarette or biomass smoke, and a history of
      atopy or asthma. Additional diagnostic elements include eosinophilic airway and
      systemic inflammation, a good response to corticosteroid treatment, and a high
      concentration of exhaled nitric oxide. ACOS should be distinguished from asthma
      with not fully reversible bronchial obstruction due to airway remodeling, thus
      the lack of smoking exposure should exclude the diagnosis of ACOS. In patients
      without a documented history of asthma before 40 years of age, an increase in
      FEV1 after bronchodilator >400 mL should be required to diagnose ACOS. ACOS has
      been found to be associated with impaired physical performance, functional
      ability, and health-related quality of life. The prevalence of ACOS increases
      with aging, then it is relatively stable in elderly individuals (>65 years). Long
      term mortality of subjects with ACOS is similar to COPD, and worse than asthma
      and healthy controls. Future research is still needed to improve the
      understanding and management of ACOS.

PMID- 28862415
TI  - Exploring adjuvant epidermal growth factor receptor inhibition in non-small cell
      lung cancer.
AB  - Lung cancer is among the most important causes of death worldwide. Despite the
      relevant progresses in the personalized approach to lung cancer, patients'
      survival is still poor. Only a minor fraction of patients can be addressed to
      surgery for radical tumor removal. Adjuvant chemotherapy is currently recommended
      for resected stages II and III patients although it is known that it can modestly
      contribute to survival prolongation. A better identification of molecular
      markers, predictive of adjuvant chemo response is now mandatory, in order to
      reduce useless toxicities and identify those patients who could really benefit.
      Here we present and analyze a recent paper by Huang et al. aimed at evaluating
      the prognostic role of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation in
      adjuvant setting in order to determine whether the administration of EGFR
      tyrosine-kinase inhibitors could improve the outcomes of patients affected by
      NSCLC undergoing complete resection. Moreover we provide an exhaustive literature
      revision that could be helpful for a proper management of that small cohort of
      EGFR-mutated resected NSCLC.

PMID- 28862416
TI  - Role and challenges of severe asthma services: insights from the UK registry.
AB  - Severe bronchial asthma affects at least 5% of the asthmatic population and
      remains a clinical challenge. Data from the UK National Registry for Severe
      Asthma suggest that dedicated centers may improve asthma control, quality of
      life, reduce healthcare use and oral steroid burden. A multidisciplinary approach
      through complete lung function evaluation, optimization of adherence to treatment
      and immunological characterization are key issues to improve patients' care. In
      this paper, we provide an overview of the challenges of managing patients with
      severe asthma and the role of dedicated services.

PMID- 28862417
TI  - Two-year temporal response of benthic macrofauna and sediments to hypoxia in a
      tropical semi-enclosed bay (Cienfuegos, Cuba).
AB  - Hypoxia is the depletion of dissolved oxygen below 2 mg O(2)/L. Relatively few
      studies on hypoxia and its effects on benthic macrofauna have been done in
      tropical marine ecosystems. This study describes the temporal response of the
      water column, sediments and macrofauna to seasonal hypoxia in a semi-enclosed bay
      (Cienfuegos, Caribbean Sea). The Calisito site was sampled monthly from June 2010
      until February 2012, yielding 21 sampling times. At each sampling event water and
      sediment samples were collected for measuring the abiotic variables (temperature,
      salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, redox potential discontinuity, silt/clay
      and organic matter content) and macrofauna (abundance and species richness).
      Temperature and surface salinity followed a typical temporal pattern during the
      summer/rainy and the winter/dry periods. Salinity stratification occurred in the
      rainy period, lasting three months in 2010 and six months in 2011. The bottom
      water dissolved oxygen indicated hypoxic and anoxic events during the wet periods
      of 2010 and 2011 associated with salinity stratification, low hydrodynamics and
      oxidation of the accumulated organic matter. Over the study period, 817
      individuals were collected and identified. Polychaetes were the dominant group in
      terms of abundance (57 % of total) followed by mollusks (41%). Hypoxia (and
      occasionally anoxia) caused strong deleterious effects on the abundance and
      species richness of macrofaunal communities in the study site. The most abundant
      polychaetes were opportunistic species with high tolerance to hypoxic conditions:
      Prionospio steenstrupi, Polydora sp.and Paraprionospio pinnata. Most of them
      colonized relatively fast once hypoxia ended. Persistent species such as Caecum
      pulchellum and Parvanachis obesa were present during hypoxia with fluctuating
      densities and apparently recover to higher abundances when normoxic conditions
      are re-established. Macoma tenta and Tellina consobrina colonized approximately 1
      2 months later than the first polychaete peak during normoxia. Probably, the
      deleterious effects of hypoxia on the macrofauna were intensified by negative
      interspecific relationships such as competition by suitable space and predation.
      The recolonization of macrofauna depended possibly on local transport by currents
      within the bay because the connection with the Caribbean Sea is relatively
      limited. In summary, seasonal hypoxia in Cienfuegos Bay influences the water and
      sediment geochemistry and reduces both the abundance and diversity of macrofauna.

PMID- 28862418
TI  - Morphological distinction between estuarine polychaetes: Laeonereis culveri and
      L. nota (Phyllodocida: Nereididae).
AB  - The family Nereididae includes more than 500 polychaete species described
      worldwide, and includes species common in many benthic environments, but some
      other species may tolerate freshwater or can even thrive in humid substrates in
      tropical forests. In estuarine environments, nereidid polychaetes can be abundant
      and relevant as a food source for resident or migratory birds. Laeonereis culveri
      (Webster, 1879) is a common estuarine species found in tropical and subtropical
      Atlantic American shores and was described from New Jersey; its median and
      posterior parapodia have upper notopodial ligules usually longer than the lower
      ones, and the latter are parallel to the notaciculae throughout the body. L.
      culveri distribution is from Connecticut to central Argentina; however, this wide
      distribution might be due to the inclusion of several other species as junior
      synonyms, despite that some morphological differences were found between them.
      One of such species is L. nota (Treadwell, 1941), that was described from Texas;
      its parapodia have notopodial ligules of about the same size, and the lower ones
      are oblique to the notaciculae. In order to clarify the differences between these
      two species, and to define which inhabits the Northwestern Caribbean region,
      topotype materials from these two species and specimens from Chetumal Bay were
      collected, and their morphological features were compared. Our results indicated
      that L. culveri and L. nota are different species and that the latter is found in
      Chetumal Bay. On the basis of mature specimens, L. culveri is hereby restricted
      to the Northern Gulf of Mexico and Northwestern Atlantic Ocean, and L. nota are
      reinstated and its distribution extends from Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico to
      Chetumal Bay, in the Northwestern Caribbean Sea. A key to identify all species in
      Laeonereis Hartman (1945) is also included.

PMID- 28862419
TI  - Occurrence and toxicity of Microcystis aeruginosa (Cyanobacteria) in the Parana
      River, downstream of the Yacyreta dam (Argentina).
AB  - Cyanobacteria constitute the main toxin producers in inland water ecosystems and
      have extensiveglobal distribution. The presence of hepatotoxins in aquatic
      environments is hazardous to human and animalhealth; even though the presence and
      identification of hepatotoxic microcystins in rivers and reservoirs of theworld
      have been confirmed by several studies in the last few years. Herein, we studied
      the abundance and toxicityof Microcystis aeruginosa in the Argentine section of
      the Parana River at the beginning of the Middle Parana(Corrientes Hydrometer),
      near Corrientes city (27o28' S - 58o51' W) and approximately 220 km downstream
      ofthe Yacyreta dam (High Parana). The Parana River basin, with a drainage area of
      3.1 x 10(6) km(2) and 3 965 km inlength, is the second largest catchment of South
      America, after that of the Amazon. The Parana River is the mainsource of drinking
      water supply for the Northeastern Argentine region. Phytoplankton samples were
      collectedand environmental variables were measured in a monthly basis
      (exceptionally fortnightly), from March 2004 toJune 2008. Fifty-eight samples
      were analyzed for phytoplankton density and biomass. Five samples were usedfor
      toxicity testing; the latter were obtained during the cyanobacteria blooms from
      2005 to 2008. Phytoplanktoncounts were performed with an inverted microscope, and
      biomass was expressed as biovolume. Bioassays withmice and high-performance
      liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis were performed to evaluate the presenceof
      cyanotoxins. Phytoplankton mainly consisted of Cryptophyta, Chlorophyta and
      Bacillariophyta. Microcystisaeruginosa was identified during the warmer months
      each year (November to March). Density varied between189 and 25 027 cells/mL (1
      10 colonies/mL) and biomass from 0.34 to 44 mm(3)/L. Taking into account
      thenumber of cells, the highest abundance occurred in April 2004 (25 027
      cells/mL), coinciding with the largestbiovolume (44 mm(3)/L). All mice subjected
      to intraperitoneal injections with samples obtained during bloomepisodes showed
      positive results for the presence of hepatotoxins. Three microcystins variants:
      LR, RR and[D-Leu(1)] Mcyst-LR were detected by analysis with semi-preparative
      high-performance liquid chromatographywith diode array detector system (HPLC
      PDA). This constitutes the first report of microcystins recorded duringM.
      aeruginosa blooms in the Argentine stretch of the Parana River at the beginning
      of the Middle Parana(Corrientes Hydrometer), approximately 220 km downstream of
      the Yacyreta dam (High Parana).

PMID- 28862420
TI  - Effects of different forms of nitrogen on rhizosphere microbial community
      structure of Eichhornia crassipes (Pontederiaceae).
AB  - Rhizosphere microbial communities are important for phytoremediation, plant
      nutrition, health and metabolism. Many factors, including plant species, pH and
      nutritional factors influence rhizosphere micro-biology. In this study, we
      analysed the effects of different forms of nitrogen on the structures of
      rhizosphere microbial communities of E. crassipes. Using a conventional culture
      method with special media, bacteria, acti-nobacteria and molds were cultured. We
      found that the numbers of bacteria were largely similar across the three culture
      conditions, while the numbers of actinobacteria and molds from the rhizosphere of
      E. crassipes culturedin NH4Cl solution were two orders of magnitude higher than
      those from the rhizospheres of plants cultured indistilled water and KNO3
      solution. Using a culture-independent method of polymerase chain reaction
      denaturinggradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) of 16S rDNA, we found that the
      form of nitrogen could influence thecomponents of the rhizosphere microbial
      community. Pseudoxanthomonas, Enterobacter and Citrobacter werepresent in all of
      the samples cultured under the three different experimental conditions. The genus
      Reyranellawas found only in samples cultured in KNO(3) solution; Acinetobacter
      and Streptomyces were unique to samplescultured in NH(4)Cl solution, and
      Pseudomonas, Pseudacidovorax and Methylosinus were found only in samplescultured
      in distilled water. Pseudoxanthomonas and Acidovorax were the dominant genera in
      the rhizospheremicrobial community of E. crassipes cultured in KNO(3) solution,
      while Novosphingobium was the dominantgenus in the sample cultured in a nitrogen
      deficient medium. Our results provide a theoretical foundation forusing E.
      crassipes as a phytoremediation plant and controlling the widespread distribution
      of E. crassipes aroundthe world using principles of nutrient metabolism.

PMID- 28862421
TI  - [Relative abundance of the gray fox Urocyon cinereoargenteus (Carnivora: Canidae)
      in Veracruz central area, Mexico].
AB  - The gray fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, is a medium-size canid widely distributed
      in Mexico. Most studies on this species focus on habitat use, home range, diet,
      intraguild competence, and lanscape distribution between urban and rural sites.
      In central Veracruz, gray foxes are present in fragments of cloud forest and in
      shaded coffee plantations; nevertheless, its abundance has not yet been compared
      among other vegetation types found in the area, such as sugarcane plantations. In
      this study we described gray foxes abundance variations using 500 m transects,
      among sugarcane plantations, shaded coffee plantations, and cloud forest
      fragments throughout eight months, by scat counting in three sites of each cover
      type. We reported the relative abundance index for each cover type and each
      month, and evaluated its relationship with four landscape features: (a) shade
      percent, (b) trail density, (c) human population density, and (d) habitat
      juxtaposition, in influence areas of 450 ha around sampling sites. Abundance
      comparison among cover types showed lower abundances in cloud forest fragments
      and higher abundances in coffee and sugarcane plantations. No significant
      differences were found throughout months (p = 0.476). We proposed that higher
      abundances in plantations may be related to the presence of rodent plagues and
      fruit trees which offer food resources to gray foxes. The evaluation of landscape
      features showed that only medium-impact trail density and human population
      density were positively correlated with gray fox abundance; fact that
      demonstrates that this canid can coexist with humans in rural sites. We highlight
      the gray fox capacity to take advantage of heterogeneous landscapes.

PMID- 28862422
TI  - Elaboration on the Distribution of Hydrophobic Segments in the Chains of
      Amphiphilic Cationic Polymers for Small Interfering RNA Delivery.
AB  - Hydrophobization of cationic polymers, as an efficient strategy, had been widely
      developed in the structure of cationic polymer micelles to improve the delivery
      efficiency of nucleic acids. However, the distribution of hydrophobic segments in
      the polymer chains is rarely considered. Here, we have elaborated three types of
      hydrophobized polyethylene glycol (PEG)-blocked cationic polymers with different
      distributions of the hydrophobic segments in the polymer chains PEG-PAM-PDP (E-A
      D), PEG-PDP-PAM (E-D-A), and PEG-P(AM/DP) (E-(A/D)), which were synthesized by
      reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization of methoxy PEG,
      cationic monomer aminoethyl methacrylate, and pH-sensitive hydrophobic monomer 2
      diisopropylaminoethyl methacrylate, respectively. In aqueous solution, all of the
      three copolymers, E-A-D, E-D-A, and E-(A/D), were able to spontaneously form
      nanosized micelles (100-150 nm) (ME-A-D, ME-D-A, and ME-(A/D)) and well
      incorporated small interfering RNA (siRNA) into complex micelles (CMs). The
      effect of distributions of the hydrophobic segments on siRNA delivery had been
      evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Compared with ME-D-A and ME-(A/D), ME-A-D showed
      the best siRNA binding capacity to form stable ME-A-D/siRNA CMs less than 100 nm,
      mediated the best gene-silencing efficiency and inhibition effect of tumor cell
      growth in vitro, and showed better liver gene-silencing effect in vivo. In the
      case of ME-(A/D) with a random distribution of cationic and hydrophobic segments,
      a gene-silencing efficiency higher than Lipo2000 but lesser than ME-A-D and ME-D
      A was obtained. As the mole ratio of positive and negative charges increased, ME
      D-A/siRNA and ME-A-D/siRNA showed similar performances in size, zeta potential,
      cell uptake, and gene silencing, but ME-(A/D)/siRNA showed reversed performances.
      In addition, ME-A-D as the best siRNA carrier was evaluated in the tumor tissue
      in the xenograft murine model and showed good anticancer capacity. Obviously, the
      distribution of the hydrophobic segments in the amphiphilic cationic polymer
      chains should be seriously considered in the design of siRNA vectors.

PMID- 28862423
TI  - Why I'm Not a Cognitive Psychologist... or a Behaviorist... or a Biologist.
AB  - "Science" is under increasing amounts of scrutiny. Concerns about
      reproducibility, reduced institutional support, and intensified competition has
      been highlighted in recent years, but segregated science endangers scientific
      discovery above all. Segregated science can be interdisciplinary (biology vs
      psychology) or intradisciplinary (behaviorism vs cognitive psychology). The
      advancement of science and public knowledge depends on the unification of all
      disciplines to better understand the phenomena scientists study. We suggest that
      engendering collaborations across scientific disciplines produces better-designed
      research and appropriate interpretations, and increases career-long success. I am
      not a cognitive psychologist, behaviorist, or biologist because I am a
      neuroscientist.

PMID- 28862424
TI  - Injectable Macroporous Ferrogel Microbeads with a High Structural Stability for
      Magnetically Actuated Drug Delivery.
AB  - Macroporous hydrogels are an attractive material platform that can provide
      shortened interfacial diffusion pathways and high biomacromolecule loading.
      Recently, macroporous ferrogels have shown high potential for use in the on
      demand delivery of bioactive molecules, resulting from their reversible and large
      volumetric deformation upon magnetic stimulation. However, these macroporous
      ferrogels require surgical placement in the body due to their large size; an
      injectable form of macroporous ferrogels has not yet been reported. In this
      study, injectable macroporous ferrogel microbeads loaded with iron oxide
      nanoparticles have been prepared on the basis of alginate microbeads for on
      demand drug release. A simple solvent exchange and subsequent covalent cross
      linking of the alginate chains in hydrogel microbeads induced a high polymer
      density on the hydrogel network and led to enhanced mechanical properties even
      after the generation of macropores in the microbeads. The macroporous ferrogel
      microbeads exhibited good mechanical stability and were stable during needle
      injection. The increased loading of large biomolecules due to the macroporosity
      of the microbeads and their large reversible volumetric deformation response to
      the external magnetic field enabled their potential for use in the on-demand
      delivery of drugs of assorted sizes by magnetic actuation. As a result of their
      structural stability, injectable size, and ability for on-demand drug delivery,
      ferrogel microbeads have promising potential for application in many biomedical
      fields.

PMID- 28862426
TI  - Digitally Controlled Procedure for Assembling Fully Drawn Paper-Based
      Electroanalytical Platforms.
AB  - A simple, reliable, and low-cost fabrication method is proposed here for
      assembling paper-based electrochemical devices (PEDs) using a commercial desktop
      digitally controlled plotter/cutter, together with ordinary writing tools.
      Permanent markers (tips of 1 mm) were used to create effective hydrophobic
      barriers on paper, while micromechanical pencils (mounting 4B graphite leads, 0.5
      mm in diameter) were adopted for automatically drawn precise reference, counter,
      and working carbon electrodes. Fabrication parameters, such as writing pressure
      and speed, were first optimized, and the electrochemical performance of these
      devices was then evaluated by using potassium hexacyanoferrate(II) as redox
      probe. The good interdevice reproducibility (4.8%) displayed by the relevant
      voltammetric responses confirmed that this strategy can be profitably adopted to
      easily assemble paper-based electrochemical devices in a highly flexible manner.
      The simplicity of the instrumentation used and the low cost of each single device
      (about $0.04), together with the speed of fabrication (about 2 min), are other
      important features of the proposed strategy. Finally, to confirm the
      effectiveness of this prototyping method for the analysis of real samples and
      rapid controls, PEDs assembled by this simple approach were successfully
      exploited for the analysis of vitamin B6 in food supplements.

PMID- 28862425
TI  - BTN3A1 Discriminates gammadelta T Cell Phosphoantigens from Nonantigenic Small
      Molecules via a Conformational Sensor in Its B30.2 Domain.
AB  - Human Vgamma9/Vdelta2 T-cells detect tumor cells and microbial infections by
      recognizing small phosphorylated prenyl metabolites termed phosphoantigens (P
      Ag). The type-1 transmembrane protein Butyrophilin 3A1 (BTN3A1) is critical to
      the P-Ag-mediated activation of Vgamma9/Vdelta2 T-cells; however, the molecular
      mechanisms involved in BTN3A1-mediated metabolite sensing are unclear, including
      how P-Ag's are discriminated from nonantigenic small molecules. Here, we utilized
      NMR and X-ray crystallography to probe P-Ag sensing by BTN3A1. Whereas the BTN3A1
      immunoglobulin variable domain failed to bind P-Ag, the intracellular B30.2
      domain bound a range of negatively charged small molecules, including P-Ag, in a
      positively charged surface pocket. However, NMR chemical shift perturbations
      indicated BTN3A1 discriminated P-Ag from nonantigenic small molecules by their
      ability to induce a specific conformational change in the B30.2 domain that
      propagated from the P-Ag binding site to distal parts of the domain. These
      results suggest BTN3A1 selectively detects P-Ag intracellularly via a
      conformational antigenic sensor in its B30.2 domain and have implications for
      rational design of antigens for Vgamma9/Vdelta2-based T-cell immunotherapies.

PMID- 28862427
TI  - Clay, Water, and Salt: Controls on the Permeability of Fine-Grained Sedimentary
      Rocks.
AB  - The ability to predict the permeability of fine-grained soils, sediments, and
      sedimentary rocks is a fundamental challenge in the geosciences with potentially
      transformative implications in subsurface hydrology. In particular, fine-grained
      sedimentary rocks (shale, mudstone) constitute about two-thirds of the
      sedimentary rock mass and play important roles in three energy technologies:
      petroleum geology, geologic carbon sequestration, and radioactive waste
      management. The problem is a challenging one that requires understanding the
      properties of complex natural porous media on several length scales. One inherent
      length scale, referred to hereafter as the mesoscale, is associated with the
      assemblages of large grains of quartz, feldspar, and carbonates over distances of
      tens of micrometers. Its importance is highlighted by the existence of a
      threshold in the core scale mechanical properties and regional scale energy uses
      of shale formations at a clay content Xclay ~ 1/3, as predicted by an ideal
      packing model where a fine-grained clay matrix fills the gaps between the larger
      grains. A second important length scale, referred to hereafter as the nanoscale,
      is associated with the aggregation and swelling of clay particles (in particular,
      smectite clay minerals) over distances of tens of nanometers. Mesoscale phenomena
      that influence permeability are primarily mechanical and include, for example,
      the ability of contacts between large grains to prevent the compaction of the
      clay matrix. Nanoscale phenomena that influence permeability tend to be
      chemomechanical in nature, because they involve strong impacts of aqueous
      chemistry on clay swelling. The second length scale remains much less well
      characterized than the first, because of the inherent challenges associated with
      the study of strongly coupled nanoscale phenomena. Advanced models of the
      nanoscale properties of fine-grained media rely predominantly on the Derjaguin
      Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, a mean field theory of colloidal
      interactions that accurately predicts clay swelling in a narrow range of
      conditions (low salinity, low compaction, Na+ counterion). An important feature
      of clay swelling that is not predicted by these models is the coexistence, in
      most conditions of aqueous chemistry and dry bulk density, of two types of pores
      between parallel smectite particles: mesopores with a pore width of >3 nm that
      are controlled by long-range interactions (the osmotic swelling regime) and
      nanopores with a pore width <1 nm that are controlled by short-range interactions
      (the crystalline swelling regime). Nanogeochemical characterization and
      simulation techniques, including coarse-grained and all-atom molecular dynamics
      simulations, hold significant promise for the development of advanced
      constitutive relations that predict this coexistence and its dependence on
      aqueous chemistry.

PMID- 28862428
TI  - Nanowire Morphology of Mono- and Bidoped alpha-MnO2 Catalysts for Remarkable
      Enhancement in Soot Oxidation.
AB  - In the present work, nanowire morphologies of alpha-MnO2, cobalt monodoped alpha
      MnO2, Cu and Co bidoped alpha-MnO2, and Ni and Co bidoped alpha-MnO2 samples were
      prepared by a facile hydrothermal synthesis. The structural, morphological,
      surface, and redox properties of all the as-prepared samples were investigated by
      various characterization techniques, namely, scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      transmission and high resolution electron microscopy (TEM and HR-TEM), powder X
      ray diffraction (XRD), N2 sorption surface area measurements, X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy (XPS), hydrogen-temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), and
      oxygen-temperature-programmed desorption (O2-TPD). The soot oxidation performance
      was found to be significantly improved via metal mono- and bidoping. In
      particular, Cu and Co bidoped alpha-MnO2 nanowires showed a remarkable
      improvement in soot oxidation performance, with its T50 (50% soot conversion)
      values of 279 and 431  degrees C under tight and loose contact conditions,
      respectively. The soot combustion activation energy for the Cu and Co bidoped
      MnO2 nanowires is 121 kJ/mol. The increased oxygen vacancies, greater number of
      active sites, facile redox behavior, and strong synergistic interaction were the
      key factors for the excellent catalytic activity. The longevity of Cu and Co
      bidoped alpha-MnO2 nanowires was analyzed, and it was found that the Cu/Co
      bidoped alpha-MnO2 nanowires were highly stable after five successive cycles and
      showed an insignificant decrease in soot oxidation activity. Furthermore, the HR
      TEM analysis of a spent catalyst after five cycles indicated that the (310)
      crystal plane of alpha-MnO2 interacts with the soot particles; therefore, we can
      assume that more-reactive exposed surfaces positively affect the reaction of soot
      oxidation. Thus, the Cu and Co bidoped alpha-MnO2 nanowires provide promise as a
      highly effective alternative to precious metal based automotive catalysts.

PMID- 28862429
TI  - Electrostatic Self-Assembly of Sandwich-Like CoAl-LDH/Polypyrrole/Graphene
      Nanocomposites with Enhanced Capacitive Performance.
AB  - A novel sandwich-like composite with ultrathin CoAl-layered double hydroxide
      (LDH) nanoplates electrostatically assembled on both sides of two-dimensional
      polypyrrole/graphene (PG) substrate has been successfully fabricated using facile
      hydrothermal techniques. The PG not only serves as an excellent conductive and
      structural scaffold to enhance the transmission of electrons and prevent
      aggregation of CoAl-LDH nanoplates but also contributes to the enhancement of the
      specific capacitance. Owing to the homogeneous dispersion of CoAl-LDH nanoplates
      and its intimate interaction with PG substrate, the resulting CoAl-LDH/PG
      nanocomposite material exhibits excellent capacitive performance, for example,
      enhanced gravimetric specific capacitance (864 F g-1 at 1 A g-1 ), high rate
      performance (75% retention at 20 A g-1), and excellent cycle life (almost no
      degradation in supercapacitor performance after 5000 cycles) in aqueous KOH
      solution. Furthermore, the assembled asymmetric capacitor is able to deliver a
      superhigh energy density of 46.8 Wh kg-1 at 1.2 kW kg-1 and maintain 90.1% of its
      initial capacitance after 10 000 cycles. These results indicate a rational
      assembly strategy toward a high-performance pseudocapacitive electrode material
      with excellent rate performance, high specific capacitance, and outstanding cycle
      stability.

PMID- 28862430
TI  - Conformation Manipulation and Motion of a Double Paddle Molecule on an Au(111)
      Surface.
AB  - The molecular conformation of a bisbinaphthyldurene (BBD) molecule is manipulated
      using a low-temperature ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope (LT-UHV
      STM) on an Au(111) surface. BBD has two binaphthyl groups at both ends connected
      to a central durene leading to anti/syn/flat conformers. In solution, dynamic
      nuclear magnetic resonance indicated the fast interexchange between the anti and
      syn conformers as confirmed by density functional theory calculations. After
      deposition in a submonolayer on an Au(111) surface, only the syn conformers were
      observed forming small islands of self-assembled syn dimers. The syn dimers can
      be separated into syn monomers by STM molecular manipulations. A flat conformer
      can also be prepared by using a peculiar mechanical unfolding of a syn monomer by
      STM manipulations. The experimental STM dI/dV and theoretical elastic scattering
      quantum chemistry maps of the low-lying tunneling resonances confirmed the flat
      conformer BBD molecule STM production. The key BBD electronic states for a step
      by-step STM inelastic excitation lateral motion on the Au(111) are presented
      requiring no mechanical interactions between the STM tip apex and the BBD. On the
      BBD molecular board, selected STM tip apex positions for this inelastic tunneling
      excitation enable the flat BBD to move controllably on Au(111) by a step of 0.29
      nm per bias voltage ramp.

PMID- 28862432
TI  - Engineered Fabrication of Hierarchical Frameworks with Tuned Pore Structure and
      N,O-Co-Doping for High-Performance Supercapacitors.
AB  - A series of multiheteroatom porous carbon frameworks (MPCFs) is prepared
      successfully from the trimerization of cyano groups of our designed and
      synthesized 4,4'-(4-oxophthalazine-1,3(4H)-diyl)dibenzonitrile monomers and
      subsequent ionothermal synthesis. Benefiting from the molecular engineering
      strategy, the obtained MPCFs framework show a homogeneous distribution of
      nitrogen and oxygen heteroatoms at the atomic level, confirmed by the
      transmission electron microscopy mapping intuitively, thereby ensuring the
      stability of electrical properties. The supercapacitor with the obtained
      MPCFs@700 as the electrode exhibits a high energy density of 65 Wh kg-1 at 0.1 A
      g-1, with excellent long cycle life and cycle stability (98% capacitance
      retention for 10 000 cycles in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate).
      Another two electrolyte systems employed also demonstrate the delightful results,
      showing a 112% capacitance retention for 30 000 cycles in 1 M H2SO4 and a 95%
      capacitance retention for 30 000 cycles in tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate
      in an acetonitrile solution. Moreover, the successful preparation of MPCFs
      provides new insights into the fabrication of electrode materials intrinsically
      containing nitrogen and oxygen in the frameworks for readily available components
      through a facile routine.

PMID- 28862431
TI  - The Medicinal Chemistry of Natural and Semisynthetic Compounds against
      Parkinson's and Huntington's Diseases.
AB  - Among the diseases affecting the central nervous system (CNS), neurodegenerations
      attract the interest of both the clinician and the medicinal chemist. The
      increasing average age of population, the growing number of patients, and the
      lack of long-term effective remedies push ahead the quest for novel tools against
      this class of pathologies. We present a review on the state of the art of the
      molecules (or combination of molecules) of natural origin that are currently
      under study against two well-defined pathologies: Parkinson's disease (PD) and
      Huntington's disease (HD). Nowadays, very few tools are available for preventing
      or counteracting the progression of such diseases. Two major parameters were
      considered for the preparation of this review: particular attention was reserved
      to these research works presenting well-defined molecular mechanisms for the
      studied compounds, and where available, papers reporting in vivo data were
      preferred. A literature search for peer-reviewed articles using PubMed, Scopus,
      and Reaxys databases was performed, exploiting different keywords and logical
      operators: 91 papers were considered (preferentially published after 2015). The
      review presents a brief overview on the etiology of the studied
      neurodegenerations and the current treatments, followed by a detailed discussion
      of the natural and semisynthetic compounds dividing them in different paragraphs
      considering their several mechanisms of action.

PMID- 28862433
TI  - Role of Ligand Protonation in Dihydrogen Evolution from a
      Pentamethylcyclopentadienyl Rhodium Catalyst.
AB  - Recent work has shown that Cp*Rh(bpy) [Cp* = pentamethylcyclopentadienyl, bpy =
      2,2'- bipyridine] undergoes endo protonation at the [Cp*] ligand in the presence
      of weak acid (Et3NH+; pKa = 18.8 in MeCN). Upon exposure to stronger acid (e.g.,
      DMFH+; pKa = 6.1), hydrogen is evolved with unity yield. Here, we study the
      mechanisms by which this catalyst evolves dihydrogen using density functional
      theory (M06) with polarizable continuum solvation. The calculations show that the
      complex can be protonated by weak acid first at the metal center with a barrier
      of 3.2 kcal/mol; this proton then migrates to the ring to form the detected
      intermediate, a rhodium(I) compound bearing endo eta4-Cp*H. Stronger acid is
      required to evolve hydrogen, which calculations show happens via a concerted
      mechanism. The acid approaches and protonates the metal, while the second proton
      simultaneously migrates from the ring with a barrier of ~12 kcal/mol. Under
      strongly acidic conditions, we find that hydrogen evolution can proceed through a
      traditional metal-hydride species; protonation of the initial hydride to form an
      H-H bond occurs before migration of the hydride (in the form of a proton) to the
      [Cp*] ring (i.e., H-H bond formation is faster than hydride-proton
      tautomerization). This work demonstrates the role of acid strength in accessing
      different mechanisms of hydrogen evolution. Calculations also predict that
      modification of the bpy ligand by a variety of functional groups does not affect
      the preference for [Cp*] protonation, although the driving force for protonation
      changes. However, we predict that exchange of bpy for a bidentate phosphine
      ligand will stabilize a rhodium(III) hydride, reversing the preference for bound
      [Cp*H] found in all computed bpy derivatives and offering an appealing
      alternative ligand platform for future experimental and computational mechanistic
      studies of H2 evolution.

PMID- 28862434
TI  - Iron-Catalyzed Asymmetric Haloazidation of alpha,beta-Unsaturated Ketones:
      Construction of Organic Azides with Two Vicinal Stereocenters.
AB  - Organic azides play important roles in synthetic chemistry, chemical biology,
      drug discovery, and material science. Azido-functionalization of alkenes is one
      of the most efficient procedures for rapid introduction of azide group into
      organic compounds. But only a few examples have been documented in the catalytic
      asymmetric version of the azidation of alkenes. Herein, we report an
      unprecedented highly diastereo- and enantioselective bromoazidation of alpha,beta
      unsaturated ketones catalyzed by chiral N,N'-dioxide/Fe(OTf)2 complexes. An array
      of aryl, heteroaryl, and alkyl substituted alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones were
      transformed to the corresponding alpha-bromo-beta-azido ketones in high yields
      with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities. The catalytic system was also
      applicable for chloroazidation and iodoazidation of chalcone. Kinetic studies and
      some control experiments suggested that the reaction might proceed via a 1,4
      addition/halogenation pathway.

PMID- 28862435
TI  - A Luminescent 3d-4f-4d MOF Nanoprobe as a Diagnosis Platform for Human
      Occupational Exposure to Vinyl Chloride Carcinogen.
AB  - A luminescent nanoprobe based on a lanthanide-transition heterometallic metal
      organic framework (MOF) is first designed for specific detection of urinary
      thiodiglycolic acid (TDGA) which is the biomarker of carcinogenic vinyl chloride
      monomer (VCM) and represents the internal dose of human exposure to VCM. The
      nanoprobe demonstrates high selectivity to TDGA with about 27.5-fold luminescence
      enhancement. It also displays excellent sensitivity with a detection limit as low
      as 89 ng.mL-1 and fast response to TDGA within 4 min, while refraining from the
      interference of other coexisting species in urine. Such good sensing performance
      enables the nanoprobe to practically monitor TDGA levels in human urine.
      Moreover, a portable urine dipstick based on the sensor is developed to
      conveniently evaluate individuals' intoxication degree of VCM. This fast,
      sensitive, and selective nanoprobe has promising potential to be a useful tool
      for point-of-care diagnosis of disease associated with VCM exposure.

PMID- 28862436
TI  - Induced-Dipole-Directed, Cooperative Self-Assembly of a Benzotrithiophene.
AB  - A benzotrithiophene derivative possessing phenylisoxazoles self-assembled to form
      stacks. The molecule isodesmically self-assembled in chloroform, whereas it self
      assembled in a cooperative fashion in decalin and in methylcyclohexane.
      Thermodynamic studies based on isodesmic, van der Schoot, and Goldstein-Stryer
      mathematical models revealed that the self-assembly processes are enthalpically
      driven and entropically opposed. An enthalpy-entropy compensation plot indicates
      that the assembly processes in chloroform, decalin, and methylcyclohexane are
      closely related. The enthalpic gains in less-polar solvents are greater than
      those in more-polar solvents, resulting in the formation of large assemblies in
      decalin and in methylcyclohexane. The formation of large assemblies leads to
      cooperative assemblies. The elongation process is enthalpically more favored than
      the nucleation process, which drives the cooperativity of the self-assembly. DFT
      calculations suggested that a hexameric assembly is more stable than tetrameric
      or dimeric assemblies. Cooperative self-assemblies based on intermolecular
      interactions other than hydrogen bonding have rarely been reported. It is
      demonstrated herein that van der Waals interactions, including induced dipole
      dipole interactions, can drive the cooperative assembly of planar pi-conjugated
      molecules.

PMID- 28862437
TI  - Form Follows Function: Nanoparticle Shape and Its Implications for Nanomedicine.
AB  - This review is a comprehensive description of the past decade of research into
      understanding how the geometry and size of nanoparticles affect their interaction
      with biological systems: from single cells to whole organisms. Recently, there
      has been a great deal of effort to use both the shape and the size of
      nanoparticles to target specific cellular uptake mechanisms, biodistribution
      patterns, and pharmacokinetics. While the successes of spherical lipid-based
      nanoparticles have heralded marked changes in chemotherapy worldwide, the history
      of asbestos-induced lung disease casts a long shadow over fibrous materials to
      date. The impact of particle morphology is known to be intertwined with many
      physicochemical parameters, namely, size, elasticity, surface chemistry, and
      biopersistence. In this review, we first highlight some of the morphologies
      observed in nature as well as shapes available to us through synthetic
      strategies. Following this we discuss attempts to understand the cellular uptake
      of nanoparticles through various theoretical models before comparing this with
      observations from in vitro and in vivo experiments. In addition, we consider the
      impact of nanoparticle shape at different size regimes on targeting,
      cytotoxicity, and cellular mechanics.

PMID- 28862438
TI  - Correction to Piperazin-1-ylpyridazine Derivatives Are a Novel Class of Human
      dCTP Pyrophosphatase 1 Inhibitors.

PMID- 28862439
TI  - Thermal and Structural Aspects of the Hydride-Conducting Oxyhydride La2LiHO3
      Obtained via a Halide Flux Method.
AB  - Oxyhydrides, in which oxide and hydride anions share the same anionic lattice,
      are relatively rare compounds. La2LiHO3 belongs to this family. We report the
      synthesis of La2LiHO3 by means of an alkali halide flux method, which allows the
      production of larger quantities of material relative to the usually adopted
      synthesis routes. Powder X-ray and neutron diffraction studies show that La2LiHO3
      adopts an n = 1 Ruddlesden-Popper (RP)-type structure with an orthorhombic
      distortion (Immm) due to hydride and oxide anion ordering. No sign of
      polymorphism is observed. La2LiHO3 is seen to decompose in an oxygen atmosphere
      at ~450  degrees C into La2LiO3.5. We show that the high mobility of hydride
      anions close to the decomposition temperature is likely the main factor in
      inducing the oxidation. The crystal structure of La2LiO3.5 is also determined and
      takes an n = 1 RP-type structure with an orthorhombic distortion (Fmmm). This
      newly reported large-scale synthesis approach, combined with the proven high
      thermal stability, is a key factor for potential practical applications of this
      oxyhydride in real devices.

PMID- 28862440
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Key Aroma-Active Compounds in Raw and Cooked Red Mullet
      (Mullus barbatus) by Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis.
AB  - Raw red mullet (Mullus barbatus) and its cooked samples, obtained from steam and
      oven cooking, were subjected to aroma and key odorant analysis for the first time
      using GC-MS-O. The extraction of the aroma compounds was carried out by the
      direct solvent extraction-solvent assisted flavor evaporation (DSE-SAFE) method.
      Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine the relations between
      cooking processes and fish aroma compounds. By applying the aroma extract
      dilution analysis (AEDA), 8 and 13 aroma-active compounds were detected in raw
      and cooked fish samples, respectively. The most prominent differences between raw
      and cooked fish samples were as follows: 3-hydroxybutan-2-one, 2,3-octadienone,
      (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal, linalool, gamma-butyrolactone, 1-methylpyrrolidin-2-one,
      2H-furan-5-one and pyrrolidin-2-one were only detected in cooked samples while
      hexanal and 2-phenoxyethanol in only raw fish samples. GC-MS-O results clearly
      indicated that cooking process results in the development of characteristics and
      pleasant aroma of red mullet samples due to the lipid oxidation. The most
      dominant aroma-active compound in the cooked fish samples was the 1-octen-3-ol
      which is responsible for the mushroom-like odor.

PMID- 28862441
TI  - Reaction of Ynamides with Iminoiodinane-Derived Nitrenes: Formation of Oxazolones
      and Polyfunctionalized Oxazolidinones.
AB  - This article describes the reaction of ynamides with metallanitrenes generated in
      the presence of an iodine(III) oxidant. N-(Boc)-Ynamides are converted to
      oxazolones via a cyclization reaction. The reaction is mediated by a catalytic
      dirhodium-bound nitrene species that first behaves as a Lewis acid. The
      oxazolones can be converted in a one pot manner to functionalized oxazolidinones
      following a regio- and stereoselective oxyamination reaction with the same
      nitrene reagent generated in stoichiometric amounts.

PMID- 28862442
TI  - meso-Tetraphenylporphyrin Iron Chloride Catalyzed Selective Oxidative Cross
      Coupling of Phenols.
AB  - A novel catalytic system for oxidative cross-coupling of readily oxidized phenols
      with poor nucleophilic phenolic partners based on an iron meso
      tetraphenylporphyrin chloride (Fe[TPP]Cl) complex in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropan
      2-ol (HFIP) was developed. The unique chemoselectivity of this reaction is
      attributed to the coupling between a liberated phenoxyl radical with an iron
      ligated phenolic coupling partner. The conditions are scalable for preparing a
      long list of unsymmetrical biphenols assembled from a less reactive phenolic unit
      substituted with alkyl or halide groups.

PMID- 28862443
TI  - Open-Framework Manganese(II) and Cobalt(II) Borophosphates with Helical Chains:
      Structures, Magnetic, and Luminescent Properties.
AB  - Two borophosphates, (NH4)1-2xM1+x(H2O)2(BP2O8).yH2O with M = Mn (I) and Co (II),
      synthesized hydrothermally crystallize in enantiomorphous space groups P6522 and
      P6122 with a = 9.6559(3) and 9.501(3) A, c = 15.7939(6) and 15.582(4) A, and V =
      1275.3(1) and 1218.2(8) A3 for I and II, respectively. Both compounds feature
      helical chains composed of vertex-sharing tetrahedral PO4 and BO4 groups that are
      connected through O atoms to transition-metal cations, Mn2+ and Co2+,
      respectively. For the two crystallographically distinct transition-metal cation
      sites present in the structure, this results in octahedral coordination with
      different degrees of distortion from the ideal symmetry. The crystal-field
      parameters, calculated from the corresponding absorption spectra, indicate that
      Mn2+ and Co2+ ions are located in a weak octahedral-like crystal field and
      suggest that the Co-ligand interactions are more covalent than the Mn-ligand
      ones. Luminescence measurements at room temperature reveal an orange emission
      that red-shifts upon lowering of the temperature to 77 K for I, while II is not
      luminescent. The luminescence lifetimes of I are 33.4 MUs at room temperature and
      1.87 ms at 77 K. Both compounds are Curie-Weiss paramagnets with negative Weiss
      constants and effective magnetic moments expected for noninteracting Mn2+ and
      Co2+ cations but no clear long-range magnetic order above 2 K.

PMID- 28862444
TI  - Manual and Flow-Injection Detection/Quantification of Polyquaterniums via Fully
      Reversible Polyion-Sensitive Polymeric Membrane-Based Ion-Selective Electrodes.
AB  - The detection of four different polyquaterniums (PQs) using a fully reversible
      potentiometric polyion sensor in three different detection modes is described.
      The polyion sensing "pulstrodes" serve as the detector for direct dose-response
      experiments, beaker titrations, and in a flow-injection analysis (FIA) system.
      Direct polycation response toward PQ-2, PQ-6, PQ-10, and poly(2
      methacryloxyethyltrimethylammonium) chloride (PMETAC) yields characteristic
      information about each PQ species (e.g., relative charge densities, etc.) via
      syringe pump addition of each PQ species to a background electrolyte solution.
      Quantitative titrations are performed using a syringe pump to deliver heparin as
      the polyanion titrant to quantify all four PQs at MUg/mL levels. Both the direct
      and indirect methods incorporate the use of a three-electrode system including
      counter, double junction reference, and working electrodes. The working electrode
      possesses a plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane containing the
      neutral lipophilic salt of dinonylnaphthalenesulfonate (DNNS-)
      tridodecylmethylammonium (TDMA+). Further, the titration method is shown to be
      useful to quantify PQ-6 levels in recreational swimming pool water collected in
      Ann Arbor, MI. Finally, a FIA system equipped with a pulstrode detector is used
      to demonstrate the ability to potentially quantify PQ levels via a more
      streamlined and semiautomated testing platform.

PMID- 28862445
TI  - "Cationic" Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling with Acutely Base-Sensitive Boronic Acids.
AB  - Fast, base-promoted protodeboronation of polyfluoroaryl and heteroaryl boronic
      acids complicates their use in Suzuki-Miyaura coupling (SMC) because a base is
      generally required for catalysis. We report a "cationic" SMC method using a PAd3
      Pd catalyst that proceeds at rt in the absence of a base or metal mediator. A
      wide range of sensitive boronic acids, particularly polyfluoroaryl substrates
      that are poorly compatible with classic SMC conditions, undergo clean coupling.
      Stoichiometric experiments implicate the intermediacy of organopalladium cations,
      which supports a long-postulated cationic pathway for transmetalation in SMC.

PMID- 28862446
TI  - From Vegetable Waste to New Agents for Potential Health Applications: Antioxidant
      Properties and Effects of Extracts, Fractions and Pinocembrin from Glycyrrhiza
      glabra L. Aerial Parts on Viability of Five Human Cancer Cell Lines.
AB  - Glycyrrhiza glabra cultivation and harvesting produces substantial quantities of
      aerial parts as waste. With the aim to prospect an innovative valorization of
      these byproducts, the aerial parts were harvested in May and October and analyzed
      for their chemical profile, antioxidant properties, and effects on viability of
      five cancer cell lines. Pinocembrin was the main constituent. A significant
      protection of lipid peroxidation was observed with the May total extract (IC50 of
      4.2 +/- 0.4 MUg/mL at 30 min of incubation). The effects on viability of HeLa,
      MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, Caco-2, and PC3 human cancer cells were investigated. All
      samples shown a remarkable activity with IC50 values below 25 MUg/mL. Samples
      from plants harvested in May exhibited greater activity than those harvested in
      October. MCF-7 and HeLa were the most sensitive cells with IC50 in the range 2.73
      3.01 and 3.28-5.53 MUg/mL, respectively. G. glabra aerial parts represent a good
      source of valuable products.

PMID- 28862447
TI  - Comparison of Translocation and Transformation from Soil to Rice and Metabolism
      in Rats for Four Arsenic Species.
AB  - Arsenic (As) is ubiquitously present in the environment. The toxicity of As is
      related to its forms. This study was designed to compare the translocation and
      transformation of four As species from soil to rice, and metabolism in rats for
      four arsenic species. A set of 26550 data was obtained from pot experiments of
      rice plants grown in soil fortified with four As species, and 4050 data were
      obtained from rat experiments in which 81 rats were administered with the four As
      species. The total As in grain from the methyl arsenate fortified soil was 6.1,
      4.9, and 5.2 times that from As(III), As(V), and dimethyl arsenate fortified
      soil, respectively. The total As in husk was 1.2-7.8 times greater than that in
      grain. After oral administration of each As species to rats, 83-96% was
      accumulatively excreted via feces and urine, while 0.1-16% was detected in blood.
      The translocation, transformation, and metabolism of different forms of arsenic
      vary greatly.

PMID- 28862448
TI  - Photoinduced Nickel-Catalyzed Chemo- and Regioselective Hydroalkylation of
      Internal Alkynes with Ether and Amide alpha-Hetero C(sp3)-H Bonds.
AB  - A direct hydroalkylation of disubstituted alkynes with unfunctionalized ethers
      and amides was achieved in an atom-efficient and additive-free manner through the
      synergistic combination of photoredox and nickel catalysis. The protocol was
      effective with a wide range of internal alkynes, providing products in a highly
      selective fashion. Notably, the observed regioselectivity is complementary to
      conventional radical addition processes. Mechanistic investigations suggest that
      the photoexcited iridium catalyst facilitated the nickel activation via single
      electron transfer.

PMID- 28862449
TI  - Structures of a DNA Polymerase Inserting Therapeutic Nucleotide Analogues.
AB  - Members of the nucleoside analogue class of cancer therapeutics compete with
      canonical nucleotides to disrupt numerous cellular processes, including
      nucleotide homeostasis, DNA and RNA synthesis, and nucleotide metabolism.
      Nucleoside analogues are triphosphorylated and subsequently inserted into genomic
      DNA, contributing to the efficacy of therapeutic nucleosides in multiple ways. In
      some cases, the altered base acts as a mutagen, altering the DNA sequence to
      promote cellular death; in others, insertion of the altered nucleotide triggers
      DNA repair pathways, which produce lethal levels of cytotoxic intermediates such
      as single and double stranded DNA breaks. As a prerequisite to many of these
      biological outcomes, the modified nucleotide must be accommodated in the DNA
      polymerase active site during nucleotide insertion. Currently, the molecular
      contacts that mediate DNA polymerase insertion of modified nucleotides remain
      unknown for multiple therapeutic compounds, despite decades of clinical use. To
      determine how modified bases are inserted into duplex DNA, we used mammalian DNA
      polymerase beta (pol beta) to visualize the structural conformations of four
      therapeutically relevant modified nucleotides, 6-thio-2'-deoxyguanosine-5'
      triphosphate (6-TdGTP), 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine-5'-triphosphate (5-FdUTP), 5
      formyl-deoxycytosine-5'-triphosphate (5-FodCTP), and 5-formyl-deoxyuridine-5'
      triphosphate (5-FodUTP). Together, the structures reveal a pattern in which the
      modified nucleotides utilize Watson-Crick base pairing interactions similar to
      that of unmodified nucleotides. The nucleotide modifications were consistently
      positioned in the major groove of duplex DNA, accommodated by an open cavity in
      pol beta. These results provide novel information for the rational design of new
      therapeutic nucleoside analogues and a greater understanding of how modified
      nucleotides are tolerated by polymerases.

PMID- 28862450
TI  - A One-Pot Construction of Halogenated Trifluoromethylated Pyrroles through NXS (X
      = Br, I) Triggered Cascade.
AB  - An easy two-step, one-pot synthesis of halogenated trifluoromethylated pyrroles
      is realized by sequential intermolecular hydroamination reaction of 2
      trifluoromethyl-1,3-enynes with aliphatic primary amines under mild reaction
      conditions, and NXS mediated oxidative cyclization of the hydroamination product.
      The salient features of this method include mild conditions, readily available
      starting materials, general substrate scope, high efficiency and synthetic
      utility of the products.

PMID- 28862451
TI  - Cation Effect on Hot Carrier Cooling in Halide Perovskite Materials.
AB  - Organic-inorganic lead-halide perovskites have received a revival of interest in
      the past few years as a promising class of materials for photovoltaic
      applications. Despite recent extensive research, the role of cations in defining
      the high photovoltaic performance of these materials is not fully understood.
      Here, we conduct nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations to study and compare
      nonradiative hot carrier relaxation in three lead-halide perovskite materials:
      CH3NH3PbI3, HC(NH2)2PbI3, and CsPbI3. It is found that the relaxation of hot
      carriers to the band edges occurs on the ultrafast time scale and displays a
      strong quantitative dependence on the nature of the cations. The obtained results
      are explained in terms of electron-phonon couplings, which are strongly affected
      by the atomic displacements in the Pb-I framework triggered by the cation
      dynamics.

PMID- 28862452
TI  - Phototriggered Dehydration Condensation Using an Aminocyclopropenone.
AB  - A phototriggered dehydration condensation using an aminocyclopropenone has been
      developed. The UV irradiation of an aminocyclopropenone generated a highly
      reactive ynamine in situ and the dehydration condensation of a carboxylic acid
      and an amine coexisting in the reaction solution smoothly proceeded to afford an
      amide. This reaction is completely controllable by the ON/OFF states of a UV
      lamp.

PMID- 28862453
TI  - Aziridination of Cyclic Nitrones Targeting Constrained Iminosugars.
AB  - Rare C-7-substituted aziridinyl iminosugars can be synthesized through a short
      reaction sequence involving 1,3-cycloaddition of cyclic nitrones with alkynes and
      a Baldwin rearrangement of isoxazolines into bicyclic 2-acylaziridines. The
      method is efficient and completely diastereoselective, producing stable
      aziridinyl iminosugars in high yields.

PMID- 28862454
TI  - Unusual Electronic Structure of the Donor-Acceptor Cocrystal Formed by
      Dithieno[3,2-a:2',3'-c]phenazine and 7,7,8,8-Tetracyanoquinodimethane.
AB  - Mixed cocrystals derived from electron-rich donor (D) and electron-deficient
      acceptor (A) molecules showcase electronic, optical, and magnetic properties of
      interest for a wide range of applications. We explore the structural and
      electronic properties of a cocrystal synthesized from dithieno[3,2-a:2',3'
      c]phenazine (DTPhz) and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ), which has a
      mixed-stack packing arrangement of the (pi-electronic) face-to-face stacks in a
      2:1 D:A stoichiometry. Density functional theory investigations reveal that the
      primary electronic characteristics of the cocrystal are not determined by
      electronic interactions along the face-to-face stacks, but rather they are
      characterized by stronger electronic interactions orthogonal to these stacks that
      follow the edge-to-edge donor-donor or acceptor-acceptor contacts. These
      distinctive electronic characteristics portend semiconducting properties that are
      unusual for semiconducting mixed cocrystals and suggest further potential to
      design organic semiconductors with orthogonal transport characteristics for
      different charge carriers.

PMID- 28862455
TI  - Nickel-Mediated Asymmetric Allylic Alkylation between Nitroallylic Acetates and
      Acyl Imidazoles.
AB  - A nickel-mediated asymmetric allylic alkylation reaction between imidazole
      modified ketones and nitroallylic acetates is presented. This reaction is
      catalyzed by a simple chiral diamine-nickel catalyst under mild conditions and
      leads to a series of novel enantioenriched alpha-allylic adducts in moderate to
      good yields with excellent enantioselectivities. Furthermore, transformation of
      the allylic adducts could smoothly lead to chiral gamma-nitro-esters containing
      three continuous stereocenters in good yields.

PMID- 28862456
TI  - Controlling Protein Orientation in Vacuum Using Electric Fields.
AB  - Single-particle imaging using X-ray free-electron lasers is an emerging technique
      that could provide high-resolution structures of macromolecules in the gas phase.
      One of the largest difficulties in realizing this goal is the unknown orientation
      of the individual sample molecules at the time of exposure. Preorientation of the
      molecules has been identified as a possible solution to this problem. Using
      molecular dynamics simulations, we identify a range of electric field strengths
      where proteins become oriented without losing their structure. For a number of
      experimentally relevant cases we show that structure determination is possible
      only when orientation information is included in the orientation-recovery
      process. We conclude that nondestructive field orientation of intact proteins is
      feasible and that it enables a range of new structural investigations with single
      particle imaging.

PMID- 28862457
TI  - Reaction Paths and Chemical Activation Reactions of 2-Methyl-5-Furanyl Radical
      with 3O2.
AB  - Interest in high-energy substituted furans has been increasing due to their
      occurrence in biofuel production and their versatility in conversion to other
      useful products. Methylfurans are the simplest substituted furans and
      understanding their reaction pathways, thermochemical properties, including
      intermediate species stability, and chemical kinetics would aid in the study of
      larger furans. Furan ring C-H bonds have been shown to be extremely strong,
      approximately 120 kcal mol-1, due in part to the placement of the oxygen atom and
      aromatic-like resonance, both within the ring. The thermochemistry and kinetics
      of the oxidation of 2-methyfuran radical at position 5 of the furan ring, 2
      methyl-5-furanyl radical (2MF5j), is analyzed. The resulting chemically activated
      species, 2MF5OOj radical, has a well depth of 51 kcal mol-1 below the 2MF5j + O2
      reactants; this is 4-5 kcal mol-1 deeper than that of phenyl and vinyl radical
      plus O2, with both of these reactions known to undergo chain branching.
      Important, low-energy reaction pathways include chain branching dissociations,
      intramolecular abstractions, group transfers, and radical oxygen additions.
      Enthalpies of formation, entropies, and heat capacities for the stable molecules,
      radicals, and transition-state species are analyzed using computational methods.
      Calculated DeltaH degrees f 298 values were determined using an isodesmic work
      reaction from the CBS-QB3 composite method. Elementary rate parameters are from
      saddle point transition-state structures and compared to variational transition
      state analysis for the barrierless reactions. Temperature- and pressure-dependent
      rate constants which are calculated using QRRK and master equation analysis is
      used for falloff and stabilization.

PMID- 28862458
TI  - Fluorescent Phase-Pure Zero-Dimensional Perovskite-Related Cs4PbBr6 Microdisks:
      Synthesis and Single-Particle Imaging Study.
AB  - Quantum-confined perovskites are a new class of promising materials in
      optoelectronic applications. In this context, a zero-dimensional perovskite
      related substance, Cs4PbBr6, having high exciton binding energy can be an
      important candidate, but its photoluminescence (PL) is a topic of recent debate.
      Herein, we report an ambient condition controlled synthesis of Cs4PbBr6
      microdisks of different shapes and dimensions which exhibit fairly strong green
      PL (quantum yield up to 38%, band gap ~2.43 eV) in the solid state. Using
      confocal fluorescence microscopy imaging of the single particles, we show that
      the fluorescence of Cs4PbBr6 microdisks is inherent to these particles.
      Fluorescence intensity and lifetime imaging of the microdisks reveals significant
      spatial heterogeneity with a bright central area and somewhat dimmer edges. This
      intensity and lifetime distribution is attributed to enhanced trap-mediated
      nonradiative deactivation at the edges compared to the central region of the
      microdisks. Our results, which unambiguously establish the PL of these Cs4PbBr6
      and suggest its possible origin, brighten the potential of these materials in
      photon-emitting applications.

PMID- 28862459
TI  - Adsorption of CO on the Fe3O4(001) Surface.
AB  - The interaction of CO with the Fe3O4(001)-(?2 * ?2)R45 degrees  surface was
      studied using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), scanning tunneling
      microscopy (STM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the latter both
      under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions and in CO pressures up to 1 mbar. In
      general, the CO-Fe3O4 interaction is found to be weak. The strongest adsorption
      occurs at surface defects, leading to small TPD peaks at 115, 130, and 190 K.
      Desorption from the regular surface occurs in two distinct regimes. For coverages
      up to two CO molecules per (?2 * ?2)R45 degrees  unit cell, the desorption
      maximum shows a large shift with increasing coverage, from initially 105 to 70 K.
      For coverages between 2 and 4 molecules per (?2 * ?2)R45 degrees  unit cell, a
      much sharper desorption feature emerges at ~65 K. Thermodynamic analysis of the
      TPD data suggests a phase transition from a dilute 2D gas into an ordered
      overlayer with CO molecules bound to surface Fe3+ sites. XPS data acquired at 45
      K in UHV are consistent with physisorption. Some carbon-containing species are
      observed in the near-ambient-pressure XPS experiments at room temperature but are
      attributed to contamination and/or reaction with CO with water from the residual
      gas. No evidence was found for surface reduction or carburization by CO
      molecules.

PMID- 28862460
TI  - Electrophilic Cyclization and Intermolecular Acetalation of 2-(4-Hydroxybut-1-yn
      1-yl)benzaldehydes: Synthesis of Diiodinated
      Diepoxydibenzo[c,k][1,9]dioxacyclohexadecines.
AB  - An expedient strategy for the preparation of diiodinated
      diepoxydibenzo[c,k][1,9]dioxacyclohexadecines from readily available 2-(4
      hydroxybut-1-yn-1-yl)benzaldehydes through electrophile-triggered tandem
      cyclization/intermolecular acetalation sequence has been presented. The
      electrophilic macrocyclization can be performed under mild conditions and in up
      to gram quantities. Moreover, palladium-catalyzed coupling and reduction
      reactions of the resulting iodides could efficiently afford oxa-macrocycles.

PMID- 28862461
TI  - Effects of an Extreme Flood on Trace Elements in River Water-From Urban Stream to
      Major River Basin.
AB  - Major floods adversely affect water quality through surface runoff, groundwater
      discharge, and damage to municipal water infrastructure. Despite their
      importance, it can be difficult to assess the effects of floods on streamwater
      chemistry because of challenges collecting samples and the absence of baseline
      data. This study documents water quality during the September 2013 extreme flood
      in the South Platte River, Colorado, USA. Weekly time-series water samples were
      collected from 3 urban source waters (municipal tap water, streamwater, and
      wastewater treatment facility effluent) under normal-flow and flood conditions.
      In addition, water samples were collected during the flood at 5 locations along
      the South Platte River and from 7 tributaries along the Colorado Front Range.
      Samples were analyzed for 54 major and trace elements. Specific chemical tracers,
      representing different natural and anthropogenic sources and geochemical
      behaviors, were used to compare streamwater composition before and during the
      flood. The results differentiate hydrological processes that affected water
      quality: (1) in the upper watershed, runoff diluted most dissolved constituents,
      (2) in the urban corridor and lower watershed, runoff mobilized soluble
      constituents accumulated on the landscape and contributed to stream loading, and
      (3) flood-induced groundwater discharge mobilized soluble constituents stored in
      the vadose zone.

PMID- 28862462
TI  - Growth Behavior of Pristine and Potassium Doped Coronene Thin Films on Substrates
      with Tuned Coupling Strength.
AB  - The growth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecular coronene film on
      various substrates and the subsequent doping of potassium under ultrahigh vacuum
      (UHV) conditions have been systematically investigated by low-temperature
      scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS). The crystalline
      structures and molecular orientations of coronene thin films are both thickness
      dependent and substrate-sensitive due to the competition between molecule
      substrate interaction and intermolecular interaction. In mono- or bilayer films,
      coronene molecules are flat-lying on the surface with hexagonal lattice, whereas
      in multilayer films, the topmost molecules are in a standing-up but tilted
      configuration with rectangular lattice. In particular, a 2 * 1 superstructure
      with respect to that of bulk coronene is formed on thick KCl film. Furthermore,
      we have studied the potassium doped coronene monolayer and multilayer on Ag(100)
      and KCl/Ag(100) surface. For K-doped coronene monolayer, at certain doping ratio
      x = 3, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of coronene film moves to
      the Fermi level, and a splitting of the LUMO state is observed. Increased
      potassium doping would result in a filled LUMO state below the Fermi level. By
      contrast, no well-ordered structures are obtained in the K-doped coronene
      multilayers which are vulnerable to rather moderate annealing processes owing to
      their relatively weak bonding with the supporting substrates, implying a big
      challenge of growth of PAH thick films in vacuum. The differences in the crystal
      structures of coronene thin films compared with that in bulk crystals might shed
      insight on the controversies in the experimental results on the electronic
      properties of alkali-metal-doped PAHs.

PMID- 28862463
TI  - Digital Photographic Procedure for Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Tooth Shade
      Analysis.
AB  - Current commercially available restorative materials vary in their esthetic
      properties, depending on brand and shade. Variations are related not only to
      basic color parameters such as hue, chroma, and value, but also to other
      important properties that affect the overall esthetic restorative outcome, such
      as opalescence, fluorescence, translucency, and metamerism. Fluorescence and
      bluish opalescence, though associated with the ingredients and chemical
      composition of the material, may be controlled and refined by a proper layering
      technique if that pretreatment analysis has been performed with the aid of
      appropriate photographic techniques. Digital cameras and dental photography have
      long been imperative tools for clinicians in their daily practice. Traditionally,
      digital photography has been used for recordkeeping, documentation, presentation,
      and informing patients of their oral status before and after treatment. Today,
      evolved techniques facilitate clinicians' ability to compare the esthetic
      properties of restorative materials with those of natural teeth for delivery of
      natural-looking restorations. Moreover, documentation obtained before and after
      restoration may be used for more comprehensive information for the patient.

PMID- 28862464
TI  - Use of CBCT Imaging, Open-Source Modeling Software, and Desktop Stereolithography
      3D Printing to Duplicate a Removable Dental Prosthesis-A Proof of Concept.
AB  - This article describes an alternative computer-aided design/computer-aided
      manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technique that uses cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)
      imaging, open-source 3-dimensional (3D) modeling software, and a desktop
      stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer to duplicate an existing complete removable
      dental prosthesis (CRDP). Intended to offer a proof of concept, this proposed
      technique provides dental clinicians who have access to a CBCT imaging unit and a
      desktop SLA 3D printer an option to manufacture a duplicated prosthesis in
      office. The 3D model of the CRDP can be preserved indefinitely, and the CAD/CAM
      process makes it possible to manufacture the CRDP multiple times with ease, when
      necessary. Different materials can be selected for the SLA 3D printer, and the
      duplicated prosthesis could be used for a variety of clinical and laboratory
      indications, such as a custom tray, a trial prosthesis, a reference record for a
      definitive prosthesis in laboratory procedures, or a radiographic template.
      Clinicians should select and use 3D software, printers, and materials with proper
      biocompatibility and classification and clearance from respective medical device
      regulatory bodies (such as US Food & Drug Administration) in different intended
      applications.

PMID- 28862465
TI  - Lateral Access Pouch Technique to Treat Implants With Gingival Recession.
AB  - Connective tissue grafting is a means of developing stable and natural-looking
      soft-tissue architecture. The use of a subepithelial connective tissue graft
      (SCTG) has been successful in achieving root coverage and augmenting tissue
      thickness. Tunnel techniques enable root coverage with results that appear
      natural. These techniques can be applied to the treatment of dental implants with
      gingival recession. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of a
      SCTG and a lateral access pouch in the treatment of multiple gingival recession
      defects affecting adjacent implants.

PMID- 28862466
TI  - Evaluating the Clinical Efficacy of Tooth Powder on Plaque-Induced Gingivitis: A
      Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - Toothpastes and tooth powders are common oral care products used to control
      plaque and other deposits from tooth surfaces, thereby reducing gingivitis. This
      study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of tooth powder in controlling
      dental plaque and gingivitis. A double-blind, parallel-arm, randomized controlled
      trial was conducted on 154 participants, aged 33 to 40 years, having at least 20
      teeth with a full-mouth gingival index (GI) score >= 1.04 and fulfilling other
      inclusion/exclusion criteria. The plaque index (PI) and GI scores were used as
      measures of oral hygiene. Outcome variables of gingivitis and dental plaque were
      evaluated in test and control groups randomized with 1:1 ratio at 4, 12, and 24
      weeks of follow-up. Repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA), t test, and
      paired t test were used for statistical analysis with a significance level of <=
      0.050. One hundred and thirty-seven (N = 137) participants completed the study.
      Demographic and oral clinical parameters showed no statistical difference between
      the test group and the control group at baseline. A statistically significant
      difference (P <= .033) between the test group and the control group was observed
      for dental PI and GI scores at follow-up examinations. The repeated measure ANOVA
      also revealed a significant group interaction (P <= .01) for a reduction in
      outcome variables. From the current study, it may be concluded that tooth powder
      has been shown to be statistically superior to toothpastes in controlling dental
      plaque and gingivitis.

PMID- 28862468
TI  - Palliative Care Dentistry: Focusing on Quality of Life.
AB  - Palliative care dentistry is the management of patients with progressive, far
      advanced disease for whom the oral cavity has been compromised either by disease
      or by treatment. The focus of care is on the immediate quality of life.
      Typically, the palliative care team neglects to include a dentist despite many
      patients under its care, including those with cancer, exhibiting oral problems
      such as xerostomia, candidiasis, mucositis, and loss of masticatory function.
      This article will discuss the oral care of patients with terminal illnesses, many
      of whom have oral maladies that negatively impact quality of life. Treatment
      options for these patients will be outlined.

PMID- 28862467
TI  - Clinical, Imaging, and Laboratory Findings in Sjogren's Syndrome.
AB  - Sjogren's syndrome (SS) is a rare condition characterized by structural damage
      and secretory dysfunction of the lacrimal and salivary glands that leads to
      dryness, particularly xerophthalmia (eyes) and xerostomia (mouth). No cure is
      known; however, the effects of the disease are manageable and symptoms may be
      reduced. Although the salivary damage is irreversible, the dental decay and oral
      infections may be prevented, which highlights the importance that the clinician
      plays in the diagnosis and management of SS. The cardinal features of this
      disease are summarized through the case report of primary SS in a 23-year-old
      woman who received an early diagnosis based on clinical features, laboratory
      investigations, lower lip biopsy, and imaging findings.

PMID- 28862469
TI  - Clinical Applications of an Atraumatic Osteotome.
AB  - Osteotomes have long been used in the formation of osteotomies for the placement
      of dental implants. Their ability to manipulate and compress existing bone
      without generating heat makes them particularly useful for expanding narrow
      ridges, elevating delicate sinus membrane, and increasing relative bone density
      around the osteotomy. Common concerns with these devices include the traumatic
      force communicated to the patient during use and difficulty controlling force
      vectors. A new type of osteotome has been developed that is designed to enable
      the clinician to eliminate the concerns found with traditional osteotomes yet it
      preserves the best qualities and functionality of this class of device. This
      article will present several case reports that illustrate the usefulness of this
      instrumentation in clinical settings.

PMID- 28862470
TI  - Treatment Considerations for a Full-Mouth Reconstruction of a Transgender
      Patient.
AB  - A transgender patient presenting as a female sought dental care with her primary
      concern being a desire to change the appearance of her teeth. Open initial
      communication regarding the patient's gender status helped enable the clinician
      to gain a more thorough understanding of how medications taken by the patient
      could affect dental treatment. In this case, estradiol taken in constant doses
      impeded necessary orthodontic movement of the teeth, and the dosing, therefore,
      was modified to enhance treatment. The case report describes a full-mouth
      reconstruction for the transgender patient.

PMID- 28862471
TI  - Ten Myths of Guided Implant Surgery.
AB  - Since their introduction, guided dental implant planning and surgery procedures,
      like most new techniques in medicine and dentistry, have undergone many
      modifications and advances. While some practitioners were early adopters, most
      dental surgeons have been cautious regarding this methodology. Despite more than
      a decade of literature, podium presentations, advances in instrumentation and
      technique, and successful cases, questions remain within the dental surgical
      community. This article attempts to address some of these by outlining common but
      erroneous beliefs about this technology and procedure.

PMID- 28862472
TI  - Bone Grafting Opportunities, Options in Implant Dentistry.

PMID- 28862473
TI  - From phytoremediation of soil contaminants to phytomanagement of ecosystem
      services in metal contaminated sites.
AB  - Since the emergence of phytoremediation, much research has focused on its
      development for (i) the removal of metals from soil and/or (ii) the reduction of
      metal bioavailability, mobility, and ecotoxicity in soil. Here, we review the
      lights and shades of the two main strategies (i.e., phytoextraction and
      phytostabilization) currently used for the phytoremediation of metal contaminated
      soils, irrespective of the level of such contamination. Both strategies face
      limitations to become successful at commercial scale and, then, often generate
      skepticism regarding their usefulness. Recent innovative approaches and paradigms
      are gradually establishing these phytoremediation strategies as suitable options
      for the management of metal contaminated soils. The combination of these
      phytotechnologies with a sustainable and profitable site use (a strategy called
      phytomanagement) grants value to the many benefits that can be obtained during
      the phytoremediation of metal contaminated sites, such as, for instance, the
      restoration of important ecosystem services, e.g. nutrient cycling, carbon
      storage, water flow regulation, erosion control, water purification, fertility
      maintenance, etc.

PMID- 28862474
TI  - Tympanic membrane temperature decreases during head up tilt: relation to frontal
      lobe oxygenation and middle cerebral artery mean blood flow velocity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Changes in blood flow influence temperature of surrounding tissues.
      Since the internal carotid artery (ICA) and internal jugular vein (IJV) neighbor
      the tympanic membrane, changes in their blood flow most likely determine changes
      in tympanic membrane temperature (TMT). We sought to evaluate the relationship
      between changes during a head-up tilt (HUT) induced reduction in cerebral blood
      flow (CBF) and TMT. METHODS: Ten male subjects (age 19-28 years) underwent 50
      degrees  HUT until presyncope. A non-contact infrared sensor in the ear canal
      targeted the tympanic membrane. Changes in CBF were monitored by transcranial
      Doppler which determined the mean blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral
      artery (MCA Vmean) and by near infrared spectroscopy assessed frontal lobe
      oxygenation (ScO2), while skin blood flow (SkBF) was evaluated by laser Doppler
      flowmetry. RESULTS: During HUT, TMT decreased by 0.6  degrees C (median; range
      0.2 to 1.6  degrees C) related to a decrease in MCA Vmean (51.0 +/- 6.7 to 34.3
      +/- 5.8 cm/sec (mean +/- SD); r = 0.518, p = .002) and ScO2 (78.6 +/- 5.4% to
      69.0 +/- 5.7%; r = 0.352, p = .043), but not to SkBF (120 +/- 78 to 69 +/- 37 PU;
      r = 0.245, p = .142). CONCLUSION: During an orthostatic challenge TMT decreases
      and the decrease is related to a reduction in CBF as indicated by MCA Vmean and
      ScO2, but not to SkBF. We consider TMT holds potential for non-invasive
      assessment of changes in cerebral perfusion.

PMID- 28862475
TI  - A survey of Canadian interprofessional student-run free clinics.
AB  - Student-run free clinics (SRFCs) have existed in Canada since 1971, providing
      interprofessional healthcare to underserved populations. SRFCs are seen as
      vehicles for socially accountable health professional education. Literature on
      how Canadian SRFC function is lacking. Web-based surveys were sent to student
      leaders from Canadian SRFCs regarding their 2014 activities. All six fully
      functioning SRFCs responded reporting on the following: services provided,
      professions involved, governing structure, funding sources, clients seen, types
      of care sought, students and preceptors involved, as well as perceived strengths,
      weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In 2014, 2,159 clients were provided
      clinical care at Canadian SRFCs. The most common reasons for visiting included
      pain and infection. Strengths identified include autonomy, ability to adapt to
      client needs, serving the underserved, and real-world interprofessional teamwork.
      Weaknesses reported include high student and preceptor turnover. Threats include
      securing funding and liability coverage. Since there is little literature on
      Canadian SRFCs, we compared our results with United States (US) based SRFCs.
      Canadian SRFCs share core values with US-based SRFCs and report similar strengths
      and challenges. However, Canadian SRFCs differ in scope and appear to provide
      care for more acute concerns. Data from studies of US-based SRFCs may not be
      immediately applicable to Canadian SRFCs. Studies evaluating Canadian SRFCs are
      needed.

PMID- 28862476
TI  - Olaratumab for the treatment of advanced soft tissue sarcoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Olaratumab, a human monoclonal antibody against platelet derived
      growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFR- alpha), is the first drug that in
      combination with doxorubicin for the treatment of patients with
      advanced/metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (STS) that has showed an improved overall
      survival compared to doxorubicin alone. These initial results are exciting and
      have the potential to change the landscape of treatment for patients with STS.
      Areas covered: This article reviews the development of olaratumab for oncology
      use by reviewing articles in PubMed for 'platelet derived growth factor' and
      'receptor' and 'soft tissue sarcoma'. We provide an overview of the published
      studies to date for olaratumab and specifically the use in soft tissue sarcoma.
      Expert commentary: Olaratumab is a well-tolerated drug that, when combined with
      doxorubicin, has shown an improved overall survival compared to doxorubicin alone
      and the phase III confirmatory study is eagerly awaited.

PMID- 28862477
TI  - New national curricula guidelines that support the use of interprofessional
      education in the Brazilian context: An analysis of key documents.
AB  - The National Curricular Guidelines (NCGs) are important documents for
      understanding the history of academic health professions education in Brazil. Key
      policies within the NCGs have helped to reorient health professions education and
      have stimulated curricular changes, including active learning methodologies and
      more integrated teaching-service environments, and, more recently, have
      introduced interprofessional education (IPE) in both undergraduate and
      postgraduate sectors. This article presents the findings of a study that examined
      the NCGs for nursing, dentistry, and medicine courses as juridical foundations
      for adopting strategies that promote IPE across higher education institutions in
      Brazil. We employed a comparative and exploratory documentary analysis to
      understand the role of IPE and collaborative practices in NCGs for the three
      largest professions in Brazil. Following a thematic analysis of these texts, four
      key themes emerged: faculty development; competencies for teamwork; curricular
      structure; and learning metrics. Key findings related to each of these themes are
      presented and discussed in relation to the wider interprofessional literature.
      The article goes on to argue that the statements contained in the NCGs about
      adoption of IPE and collaborative practices will have an important influence in
      shaping the future of health professions education in Brazil.

PMID- 28862478
TI  - Pyoderma gangrenosum affecting the eye, orbit, and adnexa. A review.
AB  - While pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) most commonly affects the skin it can also
      involve other organs. It rarely affects the eye, orbit, or adnexa. Its early
      recognition and proper management with prompt initiation of immunosuppressive
      therapy are essential for the preservation of the eye and, in turn, vision, in
      these cases. Here, we review the limited literature already published regarding
      ocular involvement in PG.

PMID- 28862479
TI  - Cost-effectiveness analysis of dabigatran versus rivaroxaban for stroke
      prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation using real-world
      evidence in elderly US Medicare beneficiaries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Dabigatran and rivaroxaban have been approved by the US FDA to reduce
      the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation
      (NVAF) patients. Newly published real-world evidence based on the US population
      found that elderly Medicare patients with NVAF treated with rivaroxaban
      experienced statistically significant increases in intracranial hemorrhage (ICH)
      and major extracranial bleeding, and statistically nonsignificant decreases in
      thromboembolic stroke and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) compared with
      dabigatran. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of dabigatran vs.
      rivaroxaban for the treatment of US Medicare NVAF patients. METHODS: A previously
      published Markov model was adapted to compare dabigatran and rivaroxaban. The
      model considered thromboembolic stroke, bleeding events, and AMI based on the
      published real-world event risks. Model outputs included clinical event rates,
      costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness
      ratios (ICERs). RESULTS: Dabigatran patients experienced fewer ICH and major
      extracranial bleeding events than rivaroxaban patients, but more stroke and AMI
      events. Dabigatran was found to yield lower costs and higher QALYs than
      rivaroxaban, with incremental costs of -$3534 and incremental QALYs of 0.004.
      Results remained consistent in sensitivity analyses, with a positive net monetary
      benefit (willingness-to-pay thresholds of $50,000 and $100,000 per QALY) for
      dabigatran over rivaroxaban for all model inputs tested. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      study using US Medicare real-world data, dabigatran was found to dominate
      rivaroxaban. The analyses were limited by the short follow-up period of the real
      world data and results may not be generalizable to other patient populations.

PMID- 28862480
TI  - National Characteristics of Emergency Medical Services Responses for Older Adults
      in the United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Older adults, those aged 65 and older, frequently require emergency
      care. However, only limited national data describe the Emergency Medical Services
      (EMS) care provided to older adults. We sought to determine the characteristics
      of EMS care provided to older adults in the United States. METHODS: We used data
      from the 2014 National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS),
      encompassing EMS response data from 46 States and territories. We excluded EMS
      responses for children <18 years, interfacility transports, intercepts, non
      emergency medical transports, and standby responses. We defined older adults as
      age >=65 years. We compared patient demographics (age, sex, race, primary payer),
      response characteristics (dispatch time, location type, time intervals), and
      clinical course (clinical impression, injury, procedures, medications) between
      older and younger adult EMS emergency 9-1-1 responses. RESULTS: During the study
      period there were 20,212,245 EMS emergency responses. Among the 16,116,219 adult
      EMS responses, there were 6,569,064 (40.76%) older and 9,547,155 (59.24%) younger
      adults. Older EMS patients were more likely to be white and the EMS incident to
      be located in healthcare facilities (clinic, hospital, nursing home). Compared
      with younger patients, older EMS patients were more likely to present with
      syncope (5.68% vs. 3.40%; OR 1.71; CI: 1.71-1.72), cardiac arrest/rhythm
      disturbance (3.27% vs. 1.69%; OR 1.97; CI: 1.96-1.98), stroke (2.18% vs. 0.74%;
      OR 2.99; CI: 2.96-3.02) and shock (0.77% vs. 0.38%; OR 2.02; CI: 2.00-2.04).
      Common EMS interventions performed on older persons included intravenous access
      (32.02%), 12-lead ECG (14.37%), CPR (0.87%), and intubation (2.00%). The most
      common EMS drugs administered to older persons included epinephrine, atropine,
      furosemide, amiodarone, and albuterol or ipratropium. CONCLUSION: One of every
      three U.S. EMS emergency responses involves older adults. EMS personnel must be
      prepared to care for the older patient.

PMID- 28862481
TI  - Utilization of the Impella for hemodynamic support during percutaneous
      intervention and cardiogenic shock: an insight.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Impella is a catheter-based micro-axial flow pump placed across the
      aortic valve, and it is currently the only percutaneous left ventricular assist
      device approved for high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention and cardiogenic
      shock. Areas Covered: Even though several studies have repeatedly demonstrated
      the excellent hemodynamic profile of Impella in high-risk settings, it remains
      underutilized. Here we aim to provide an up-to-date summary of the available
      literature on Impellas use in High risk settings as well as the practical aspects
      of its usage. Expert Commentary: Percutaneous coronary interventions in high rsk
      settings have always been challenging for a physician. Impella 2.5 and CP, have
      been proven safe, cost effective and feasible in High Risk Percutaneous coronary
      Interventions with an excellent hemodynamic profile.

PMID- 28862482
TI  - Pseudoprogression after glioma therapy: an update.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Initial diagnostics and follow-up of gliomas is usually based on
      contrast-enhanced MRI. However, the capacity of standard MRI to differentiate
      neoplastic tissue from posttherapeutic effects such as pseudoprogression is
      limited. Advanced neuroimaging methods may provide relevant additional
      information, which allow for a more accurate diagnosis especially in clinically
      equivocal situations. This review article focuses predominantly on PET using
      radiolabeled amino acids and advanced MRI techniques such as perfusion-weighted
      imaging (PWI) and summarizes the efforts of these methods regarding the
      identification of pseudoprogression after glioma therapy. Areas covered: The
      current literature on pseudoprogression in the field of brain tumors, with a
      focus on gliomas is summarized. A literature search was performed using the terms
      'pseudoprogression', 'temozolomide', 'glioblastoma', 'PET', 'PWI',
      'radiochemotherapy', and derivations thereof. Expert commentary: The present
      literature provides strong evidence that PWI MRI and amino acid PET can be of
      great value by providing valuable additional diagnostic information in order to
      overcome the diagnostic challenge of pseudoprogression. Despite various obstacles
      such as the still limited availability of amino acid PET and the lack of
      standardization of PWI, the diagnostic improvement probably results in relevant
      benefits for brain tumor patients and justifies a more widespread use of these
      diagnostic tools.

PMID- 28862484
TI  - A population-based study of prognosis and survival in patients with second
      primary thyroid cancer after Hodgkin lymphoma.
AB  - Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) survivors are at increased risk of thyroid cancer (TC). We
      sought to determine whether increased risks of high-risk pathology or mortality
      are seen with thyroid cancer after HL (HL-TC) compared with first primary thyroid
      cancer (TC-1). From the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)
      registry, we compared patient and tumor characteristics as well as survival
      outcomes between HL-TC and TC-1 and fit a multivariable Cox model to assess for a
      possible association between HL history and overall survival after TC. Among
      139,297 TC-1 and 174 HL-TC patients, history of HL was not associated with
      anaplastic or sarcoma TC. Multivariable analyzes showed that history of HL was
      not associated with a difference in risk of death after TC (hazard ratio: 0.96,
      95% confidence interval: (0.81, 1.13), p = .61). Despite a significantly
      increased risk of TC among HL survivors, prior HL is not associated with more
      aggressive pathologic subtypes or worse prognosis.

PMID- 28862483
TI  - PrEP Chicago: A randomized controlled peer change agent intervention to promote
      the adoption of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention among young Black men
      who have sex with men.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Advances in biomedical prevention strategies such as pre
      exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) represent a new opportunity for reducing HIV
      incidence among young Black men who have sex with men, for whom the number of new
      HIV infections continues to rise. However, studies have documented low rates of
      PrEP uptake in this community. Research suggests that the peer networks of young
      Black men who have sex with men play important roles in their sexual health
      decisions. PrEP Chicago is a randomized controlled trial network intervention
      designed to increase PrEP uptake among young Black men who have sex with men
      living in Chicago. The aims of this study are twofold. Aim 1 is to estimate the
      effectiveness of a peer change agent intervention for (1) increasing the number
      of referrals made to a PrEP information line, (2) increasing the rate of PrEP
      adoption among non-participant peers, and (3) increasing PrEP knowledge,
      attitudes, and intentions among participants. Aim 2 is to determine the
      individual and network variables that explain peer change agent effectiveness.
      METHODS: PrEP Chicago is a social network intervention that utilizes the
      influence of peer change agents to link young Black men who have sex with men in
      Chicago to PrEP. Young Black men who have sex with men were recruited using
      respondent-driven sampling. Once screened for eligibility, participants were
      randomly assigned to either one of two treatment sequences: (1) intervention
      treatment in Year 1 followed by a minimal contact attention control in Year 2 or
      (2) the minimal contact attention control in Year 1 followed by treatment in Year
      2. The treatment consists of a PrEP/peer change agent training workshop followed
      by booster calls for 12 months. The attention control consists of a sex diary
      activity designed to help participants assess sexual risk. Psychosocial, sexual
      health, and network data are collected from all participants at baseline and at
      12- and 24-month follow-ups. RESULTS: In total, 423 participants aged 18-35 have
      been enrolled (more than 100% target enrollment) and have completed baseline data
      collection. A majority of participants in both intervention and control groups
      reported having heard of PrEP before enrolling in the study, yet also reported
      having had no current or prior experience taking PrEP. Statistical analyses await
      completion of Year 1 of the trial in March 2018. CONCLUSION: PrEP Chicago
      addresses a gap in HIV prevention research and intervention design by utilizing
      the existing social networks among young Black men who have sex with men as
      mechanisms for information diffusion, behavioral influence, social support, and
      empowerment. Therefore, interventions that leverage peer influence processes to
      facilitate PrEP uptake are promising strategies to improve sexual health
      engagement and overcome disparities in outcomes among this at-risk population.

PMID- 28862485
TI  - High expression of Parkin predicts easier recurrence of patients with adjuvant
      transarterial chemoembolization.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the clinical significance of E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin in
      patients with adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization after curative resection
      of hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS: Parkin expression of hepatocellular
      carcinomas was detected and its correlation with clinicopathological factors was
      analyzed with chi2 test. The significance of Parkin in prognosis and recurrence
      was analyzed with log-rank test and the Cox-regression model. RESULTS: High
      expression of Parkin could result in lower recurrence-free survival rate instead
      of overall survival rate. Larger tumor size, positive tumor recurrence, advanced
      T, N, M and TNM stage were significantly associated with poorer prognosis. Larger
      tumor size, advanced T and TNM stage could lead to higher recurrence. CONCLUSION:
      High Parkin expression could predict easier recurrence to patients with adjuvant
      transarterial chemoembolization.

PMID- 28862486
TI  - Student experiences of interprofessional simulation: Findings from a qualitative
      study.
AB  - Interprofessional simulation provides healthcare profession students an
      opportunity to collaborate in a team. The purpose of this study was to examine
      student perspectives of an interprofessional simulation experience within the
      fields of nursing, physical therapy, nutrition, and social work. An exploratory
      case study design was employed, using open-ended interview questions post
      simulation to generate information about the student's perceptions of the
      experience. Based on the content analysis of reflection articles submitted by 100
      students across professions, three themes emerged from the data: increased
      understanding of the role of other professionals, increased sense of confidence
      and ability to improve patient outcomes, and increased appreciation for inter
      professional simulation as a valuable learning experience. Participants felt a
      sense of comfort in working as a team, which in turn fostered confidence in their
      own role. This is an important finding, as confidence in one's own role in
      conjunction with increased willingness to work in a team is a powerful force for
      changing the ways in which professions interact with one another.
      Interprofessional simulation is a teaching strategy that shows great promise for
      promoting teamwork among the healthcare professions.

PMID- 28862487
TI  - Association between high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels with abdominal
      aortic aneurysms: fact or fiction?

PMID- 28862488
TI  - Some lectin binding properties of the tongue of the mole rat, Nannospalax
      xanthodon.
AB  - We investigated carbohydrate residues on the epithelial surface, in the
      epithelial cells and in gland cells of the tongue of the mole rat using
      histochemical methods. We used horseradish peroxidase-conjugated lectins from
      Helix pomatia (HPA), Arachishypogaea (PNA), Ulexeuropaeus (UEA I),
      Canavaliaensiformis (Con A). The most intense reactivity was observed in the
      keratin layer with HPA, UEA I and Con A, and in the epithelial cells with UEA I
      and Con A. In the glands, we found strong reactivity in serous cells with HPA and
      Con A, and in mucous cells with HPA and UEA I. PNA did not bind to epithelial or
      gland cells. Consequently, GlcNAc, fucose and alpha-D-mannose terminal
      glycoconjugates are distributed widely; GalNAc terminal glycoconjugates appeared
      in small amounts.

PMID- 28862489
TI  - Subcellular distribution, chemical forms and thiol synthesis involved in cadmium
      tolerance and detoxification in Siegesbeckia orientalis L.
AB  - Siegesbeckia orientalis L. is a promising species for cadmium (Cd)
      phytoextraction with large biomass and fast growth rate, while little information
      about their intracellular mechanisms involved in Cd tolerance and detoxification
      has been explored. A soil pot experiment with total target Cd concentrations of
      0, 10, 50, 100, and 150 mg kg-1 were designed to investigate the subcellular
      distribution, chemical forms and thiol synthesis characteristics of Cd in S.
      orientalis. More than 90% of Cd was bound to the soluble fractions (48.4-76.5%)
      and cell walls (19.9-46.3%). Increasing soil Cd concentrations enhanced Cd
      sequestration into the cell walls. Most of the Cd (69.8-82.7%) in the plant organ
      was mainly in the forms of pectate and protein integrated Cd and undissolved Cd
      phosphate, while a minor portion (6.8-20.9%) was in the forms of the inorganic Cd
      and the water soluble Cd. Nonprotein thiols and phytochelatins significantly
      increased with increasing soil Cd treatment levels, while glutathione
      concentrations had no obvious change trends. Therefore, intracellular
      detoxification mechanisms of Cd in S. orientalis mainly rely on formation of less
      toxic Cd chemical forms, store of a large amount of Cd in cell wall and synthesis
      of thiol compounds.

PMID- 28862490
TI  - Phytoextraction potential of water fern (Azolla pinnata) in the removal of a
      hazardous dye, methyl violet 2B: Artificial neural network modelling.
AB  - This study investigated the potential of Azolla pinnata (AP) in the removal of
      toxic methyl violet 2B (MV) dye wastewater using the phytoextraction approach
      with the inclusion of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modelling. Parameters
      examined included the effects of dye concentration, pH and plant dosage. The
      highest removal efficiency was 93% which was achieved at a plant dosage of 0.8 g
      (dye volume = 200 mL, initial pH = 6.0, initial dye concentration = 10 mg L-1). A
      significant decrease in relative frond number (RFN), a growth rate estimator,
      observed at a dye concentration of 20 mg L-1 MV indicated some toxicity, which
      coincided with the plant pigments studies where the chlorophyll a content was
      lower than the control. There were little differences in the plant pigment
      contents between the control and those in the presence of dye (5 to 15 mg L-1)
      indicating the tolerance of AP to MV at lower concentrations. A three-layer ANN
      model was optimized (6 neurons in the hidden layer) and successfully predicted
      the phytoextraction of MV (R = 0.9989, RMSE = 0.0098). In conclusion, AP proved
      to be a suitable plant that could be used for the phytoextraction of MV while the
      ANN modelling has shown to be a reliable method for the modelling of
      phytoextraction of MV using AP.

PMID- 28862491
TI  - Eye-gaze control technology for children, adolescents and adults with cerebral
      palsy with significant physical disability: Findings from a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary objective of this systematic review was to examine the
      effectiveness of eye-gaze control technology for facilitating communication
      across different social contexts for people with cerebral palsy and significant
      physical disability. METHODS: Systematic review. RESULTS: The search identified
      756 potentially eligible articles, of which two, low level articles were
      eligible. One study reported positive results for achieving communication goals
      for children with cerebral palsy. The second concluded that eye-gaze control
      technology resulted in greater quality of life and less depression for adults
      with late stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis when compared to non-users.
      DISCUSSION: Research regarding the effectiveness of eye-gaze control technology
      used to access a laptop, tablet or computer on communication outcomes,
      participation, quality of life and self-esteem in children, adolescents and
      adults with cerebral palsy and significant physical disability is sparse. A
      scoping review to fully identify issues to inform clinical practice and future
      research is required.

PMID- 28862492
TI  - Three-dimensional positional assessment of glenoid fossae and mandibular condyles
      in patients with Class II subdivision malocclusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To test the null hypotheses that the positions of the glenoid fossae
      and mandibular condyles are identical on the Class I and Class II sides of
      patients with Class II subdivision malocclusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective three-dimensional (3D) assessments of the positions of the glenoid
      fossae and mandibular condyles were made in patients with Class II malocclusion.
      Relative to a fiducial reference at the anterior cranial base, distances from the
      glenoid fossae and condyles were calculated in pretreatment cone beam computed
      tomographic scans of 82 patients: 41 with Class II and 41 with Class II
      subdivision malocclusions. The 3D distances from glenoid fossae to sella turcica
      in the X (right-left), Y (anterior-posterior), Z (inferior-superior) projections
      were calculated. RESULTS: Patients with Class II malocclusion displayed a
      symmetric position of the glenoid fossae and condyles with no statistically
      significant differences between sides (P > .05), whereas patients with Class II
      subdivision showed asymmetry in the distance between the glenoid fossae and
      anterior cranial base or sella turcica (P < .05), with distally and laterally
      positioned glenoid fossae on the Class II side. (P < .05). Male patients had
      greater distances between glenoid fossae and anterior cranial fossae (P < .05).
      The condylar position relative to the glenoid fossae did not differ between the
      two malocclusion groups nor between males and females (P > .05). CONCLUSIONS: The
      null hypotheses were rejected. Patients with Class II subdivision malocclusion
      displayed asymmetrically positioned right- and left-side glenoid fossae, with a
      distally and laterally positioned Class II side, although the condyles were
      symmetrically positioned within the glenoid fossae.

PMID- 28862494
TI  - Going with the Flow: Saddle Pulmonary Embolism Complicated by Severe Hypoxemia
      without Shock.

PMID- 28862496
TI  - Tracheobronchomalacia in Neonates: The "New Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia" Is Not
      Just about the Alveoli.

PMID- 28862493
TI  - An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report: Presentations and
      Discussion of the Sixth Jack Pepys Workshop on Asthma in the Workplace.
AB  - The Sixth Jack Pepys Workshop on Asthma in the Workplace focused on six key
      themes regarding the recognition and assessment of work-related asthma and airway
      diseases: (1) cleaning agents and disinfectants (including in swimming pools) as
      irritants and sensitizers: how to evaluate types of bronchial reactions and
      reduce risks; (2) population-based studies of occupational obstructive diseases:
      use of databanks, advantages and pitfalls, what strategies to deal with biases
      and confounding?; (3) damp environments, dilapidated buildings, recycling
      processes, and molds, an increasing problem: mechanisms, how to assess causality
      and diagnosis; (4) diagnosis of occupational asthma and rhinitis: how useful are
      recombinant allergens (component-resolved diagnosis), metabolomics, and other new
      tests?; (5) how does exposure to gas, dust, and fumes enhance sensitization and
      asthma?; and (6) how to determine probability of occupational causality in
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: epidemiological and clinical,
      confirmation, and compensation aspects. A summary of the presentations and
      discussion is provided in this proceedings document. Increased knowledge has been
      gained in each topic over the past few years, but there remain aspects of
      controversy and uncertainty requiring further research.

PMID- 28862495
TI  - Fluid Management in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Do We Have All the
      FACTTs to Determine the Effect of Race?

PMID- 28862497
TI  - Another Brick in the Wall: Lung Clearance Index and Lower Airways Pathology in
      Preschool Cystic Fibrosis.

PMID- 28862498
TI  - Shedding Light on Incidental Findings on Low-Dose Lung Cancer Screening Chest
      Computed Tomography.

PMID- 28862499
TI  - Suspect the Unexpected: A 45-Year-Old Man with Fevers, Rash, and Multiorgan
      Failure.

PMID- 28862500
TI  - Satori: Awakening to Outcomes That Matter: The Impact of Social Support in
      Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

PMID- 28862501
TI  - Clarity on Endpoints for Clinical Trials in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

PMID- 28862502
TI  - A 53-Year-Old Woman with Severe Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

PMID- 28862503
TI  - Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Structural Remodeling.

PMID- 28862504
TI  - Breaking Steroid Resistance: Effect of Vitamin D on IL-23.

PMID- 28862506
TI  - Aiding and Abetting the Enemy: Nicotine Impairs the Macrophage Defense against
      Mtb.

PMID- 28862507
TI  - A "GLI-tch" in Alveolar Myofibroblast Differentiation.

PMID- 28862508
TI  - Vulnerability and Genetic Susceptibility to Cigarette Smoke-Induced Emphysema in
      Mice.

PMID- 28862509
TI  - Partially Assisted Ventilation-induced Lung Injury in Early Acute Respiratory
      Distress Syndrome. When Real Life Is Different from Classical Physiology.

PMID- 28862510
TI  - Autophagy Traps Neutrophils into a Protective Alliance during Sepsis.

PMID- 28862511
TI  - What Is Menthol?

PMID- 28862512
TI  - EDITORIAL.

PMID- 28862513
TI  - Relationship between glucocorticoid dose and adverse events in systemic lupus
      erythematosus: data from a randomized clinical trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim was to obtain a better understanding of the relationship
      between exposure to glucocorticoids (GCs) and adverse events (AEs) reported in a
      randomized controlled trial (RCT) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients.
      METHOD: We used data from the BLISS-76 trial on belimumab. The data were accessed
      through an agreement under the SHARE mechanism. AEs were grouped according to
      medical relevance, i.e. based on similarity of symptoms and pathophysiology. We
      studied the relationship between AEs and exposure to GCs at baseline and at any
      time-point, and compared the frequencies of each AE and groups of AEs between
      tertiles of cumulative GC dose. RESULTS: In total, 991 AEs were reported in the
      819 patients of the trial. The frequencies of anaemia, pyrexia, oral herpes, and
      malaise were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in patients who were on GCs at
      baseline than in those who were not. The frequencies of several other AEs,
      including nausea, seasonal allergy, bacterial sinusitis, and viral upper
      respiratory infection, were significantly higher in patients without GCs. For
      cumulative GCs, tachycardia and proteinuria were significantly more frequent in
      the highest tertile than in the lowest tertile, but other AEs and groups of AEs
      were significantly more frequent in the lowest tertile. CONCLUSION: This study
      highlights the feasibility of post-hoc analyses of RCTs using the SHARE mechanism
      and demonstrates the association of GCs with various AEs. Contrary to
      expectations, there were also associations between lower cumulative GC dose and
      several other AEs.

PMID- 28862514
TI  - Characteristics of organic acid profiles in 16 species of wild growing edible
      mushrooms.
AB  - The aim of study was to determine 9 organic acids in nine aboveground and seven
      wood-growing wild edible mushroom species originated from an area under the
      direct influence of a busy trunk road in Poland. The organic acids in the
      extracts of samples were identified by reversed-phase column liquid
      chromatography (RPLC). The presented results show that all the mushroom species
      were characterized by high variation in the profile and content of the analyzed
      acids. Each of mushroom species contained oxalic acid, the profiles of the other
      acids strictly depended on mushroom species. Among aboveground species, the
      highest total content of organic acids was found in Lepista gilva (267.5 +/- 26.6
      mg g-1 dry weight (DW)), while Laccaria amethystina was characterized by the
      lowest content (37.7 +/- 6.5 mg g-1 DW). Within wood-growing species, the highest
      content of organic acids was determined in Flammulina velutipes (171.9 +/- 26.7
      mg g-1 DW), whereas the lowest content (34.2 +/- 2.9 mg g-1 DW) of the studied
      acids was observed in Grifola frondosa.

PMID- 28862515
TI  - Study of the factors at admission predicting the outcome in patients with
      attempted suicidal hanging.
AB  - Our study sought to identify factors at presentation which can predict the
      outcome after an attempted hanging. A retrospective analysis of patients over a
      12-year period was carried out. A poor outcome was found in 17.8% and this could
      be predicted by the presence of myoclonus, a Glasgow coma motor score of <=3 or
      an abnormal chest radiograph.

PMID- 28862516
TI  - Breast enlargement in newborns: a folkloric-medical dilemma.

PMID- 28862517
TI  - Letter to the Editor. Ventriculoperitoneal shunts after abdominal surgery.

PMID- 28862518
TI  - Optimal stimulation parameters for intraoperative bulbocavernosus reflex in
      infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to establish optimal electric stimulation
      parameters for intraoperatively monitoring the bulbocavernosus reflexes (BCRs) in
      infants. METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all
      infants (age < 24 months) who had undergone an untethering operation for tethered
      cord syndrome between May 2013 and February 2014 at a single institution and
      whose baseline BCR had been elicited during surgery. Using different combinations
      of stimulation parameters-number of stimulation pulses: 4 or 8 pulses, interpulse
      interval: 1, 2, or 5 msec, and polarity of stimulation: biphasic or monophasic
      the authors compared the relative mean amplitude of 10 BCR responses (rmaBCRs) to
      each combination of parameters. RESULTS The rmaBCRs were larger with the 8-pulse
      stimulations than with the 4-pulse stimulations (p < 0.0001). There was a
      tendency, though not statistically significant, for larger rmaBCRs to be obtained
      with the longer interpulse interval in the 8-pulse stimulation (p = 0.1289). The
      biphasic stimulation produced larger rmaBCRs than the monophasic stimulation (p =
      0.0005). CONCLUSIONS Biphasic 8-pulse stimulations with 5-msec or 2-msec
      intervals yield the largest BCR responses. Considering that an 8-pulse
      stimulation with 5-msec intervals may overlap the onset of the BCR, a biphasic 8
      pulse stimulation with 2-msec intervals is recommended as the optimal stimulation
      paradigm to monitor intraoperative BCRs in infants.

PMID- 28862519
TI  - Novel insights into symptomatology of moyamoya disease in pediatric patients:
      survey of symptoms suggestive of orthostatic intolerance.
AB  - OBJECTIVE A specific population of young patients with moyamoya disease (MMD)
      persistently experience physical symptoms not attributable to focal ischemia.
      These symptoms, highly suggestive of orthostatic intolerance (also termed
      "orthostatic dysregulation"), were investigated and reported as potential
      determinants of quality of life in young MMD patients. METHODS Forty-six patients
      (6-30 years of age) were selected from a group of 122 patients who were diagnosed
      with MMD before 18 years of age. The authors administered a structured
      questionnaire consisting of 11 items based on screening checklists published in
      the Japanese clinical guidelines for juvenile orthostatic dysregulation in young
      patients. The results were tabulated, and correlations with clinical data were
      explored. RESULTS Thirty-seven (80%) patients (mean age 15.9 years) responded to
      the questionnaire. Frequent headache, vertigo/dizziness on standing, fatigue,
      difficulty with getting out of bed, and motion sickness were the top 5 symptoms,
      resulting in 57% of patients being unable to attend school. Forty-three percent
      of the patients demonstrated multiple symptoms suggestive of orthostatic
      intolerance, even as long as 5 years after revascularization surgery. The number
      of symptoms was inversely associated with the number of years after surgery (p =
      0.028). The number of symptoms was not associated with a history of surgery,
      clinical presentations, vascular involvement, cerebral perfusion, brain lesions,
      or history of transient ischemic attacks. CONCLUSIONS The present study provided
      novel insight into the symptomatology of young patients with MMD. Failure to
      notice nonfocal physical symptoms can significantly impair quality of life in
      young patients with MMD even years after successful revascularization surgery.
      These symptoms may serve as independent clinical markers used to assess disease
      outcome, although the underlying mechanisms of this disease are, as of yet,
      unclear.

PMID- 28862520
TI  - Non-communicable disease prevention in Nepal: systemic challenges and future
      directions.
AB  - Developing countries such as Nepal are experiencing a double burden of
      communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) resulting in social and
      economic losses. In Nepal, more than half of the disease burden is due to NCDs.
      The major NCDs in Nepal are cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory
      diseases and diabetes. Behavioural factors such as tobacco use, alcohol
      consumption, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet are driving the epidemic of
      NCDs, which are further influenced by social, economic and environmental
      determinants. The health system of Nepal has not been able to address the ever
      increasing burden of NCDs. With the formulation of the Multisectoral Action Plan
      for Prevention and Control of NCDs 2014-2020, there has been some hope for
      tackling the NCDs and their social determinants in Nepal through a primary
      prevention approach. This paper discusses the systemic challenges and recommends
      two key actions for the prevention and control of NCDs in Nepal.

PMID- 28862521
TI  - Repeated faecal occult blood testing is associated with decreased advanced
      colorectal cancer risk: A population-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between repeated faecal occult blood
      testing and advanced colorectal cancer risk at population level in Canada.
      METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of all Ontario residents aged 56-74
      diagnosed with colorectal cancer from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2010, identified
      using health administrative data. The primary outcome was stage IV colorectal
      cancer, and primary exposure was faecal occult blood testing use within five
      years prior to colorectal cancer diagnosis. Patients were categorized into four
      mutually exclusive groups based on their exposure to faecal occult blood testing
      in the five years prior to colorectal cancer diagnosis: none, pre-diagnostic,
      repeated, and sporadic. Logistic regression was utilized to adjust for
      confounders. RESULTS: Of 7753 patients (median age 66, interquartile range 61-70,
      62% male) identified, 1694 (22%) presented with stage I, 2056 (27%) with stage
      II, 2428 (31%) with stage III, and 1575 (20%) with stage IV colorectal cancer.
      There were 4092 (53%) with no record of prior faecal occult blood testing, 1485
      (19%) classified as pre-diagnostic, 1693 (22%) as sporadic, and 483 (6%) as
      repeated faecal occult blood testing. After adjusting for confounders, patients
      who had repeated faecal occult blood testing were significantly less likely to
      present with stage IV colorectal cancer at diagnosis (Odds ratio 0.46, 95%
      Confidence Interval 0.34-0.62) than those with no prior faecal occult blood
      testing. CONCLUSIONS: Repeated faecal occult blood testing is associated with a
      decreased risk of advanced colorectal cancer. Our findings support the use of
      organized screening programmes that employ repeated faecal occult blood testing
      to improve colorectal cancer outcomes at population level.

PMID- 28862522
TI  - The social context of hormone and silicone injection among Puerto Rican
      transwomen.
AB  - This paper draws on ethnographic, qualitative and survey data with transwomen in
      Puerto Rico to examine the social and political-economic context of lay injection
      with hormone and silicone - common practices within this community. We describe
      specific practices of hormone and silicone injection, the actors that govern
      them, the market for the sale and distribution of syringes and the networks of
      lay specialists who provide services to a population that is neglected by and
      largely excluded from biomedical settings. Our data derive from ethnographic
      observations, sociodemographic questionnaires, surveys and semi-structured
      interviews conducted with a diverse group of transwomen in metropolitan San Juan,
      Puerto Rico. Our analysis focuses on four overlapping social domains or processes
      that shape the practices of lay silicone and hormone injection among transwomen:
      (1) the circulation of gender transitioning technologies within local and global
      markets; (2) the tension between the social exclusion of transwomen and their
      resilient sub-cultural responses; (3) the cultural meanings that shape
      transwomen's attitudes about injection; and (4) the perceived consequences of
      injection. We conclude with a discussion of the kinds of intervention and policy
      changes that would respond to the factors that most endanger transwomen's health.

PMID- 28862523
TI  - L- and T-type calcium channel blockers protect against the inhibitory effects of
      mipafox on neurite outgrowth and plasticity-related proteins in SH-SY5Y cells.
AB  - Some organophosphorus compounds (OP), including the pesticide mipafox, produce
      late onset distal axonal degeneration, known as organophosphorus-induced delayed
      neuropathy (OPIDN). The underlying mechanism involves irreversible inhibition of
      neuropathy target esterase (NTE) activity, elevated intracellular calcium levels,
      increased activity of calcium-activated proteases and impaired neuritogenesis.
      Voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC) appear to play a role in several neurologic
      disorders, including OPIDN. Therefore, this study aimed to examine and compare
      the neuroprotective effects of T-type (amiloride) and L-type (nimodipine) VGCC
      blockers induced by the inhibitory actions of mipafox on neurite outgrowth and
      axonal proteins of retinoic-acid-stimulated SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells, a
      neuronal model widely employed to determine the neurotoxicity attributed to OP.
      Both nimodipine and amiloride significantly blocked augmentation of intracellular
      calcium levels and activity of calpains, as well as decreased neurite length,
      number of differentiated cells, and lowered concentrations of growth-associated
      protein 43 (GAP-43) and synapsin induced by mipafox. Only nimodipine inhibited
      reduction of synaptophysin levels produced by mipafox. These findings demonstrate
      a role for calcium and VGCC in the impairment of neuronal plasticity mediated by
      mipafox. Data also demonstrated the neuroprotective potential of T-type and L
      type VGCC blockers to inhibit OP-mediated actions, which may be beneficial to
      counteract cases of pesticide poisoning.

PMID- 28862524
TI  - Effect of anaesthetic and choice of neuromuscular blocker on vagal control of
      heart rate under laboratory animal experimental conditions.
AB  - Neuromuscular-blocking agents are commonly used in laboratory animal research
      settings. Due to actions of cholinergic receptors at locations other than the
      motor end-plate, these agents have a strong propensity to modulate autonomic
      outflow and may therefore not be desirable in studies examining autonomic
      function. This study aimed to compare the effect of two non-depolarizing
      neuromuscular-blocking agents, pancuronium and cisatracurium, on blood pressure,
      heart rate and non-invasive indices of autonomic function (heart rate
      variability, systolic blood pressure variability and baroreflex sensitivity)
      under two different types of anaesthesia in Lewis rats. Pancuronium produced a
      profound vagolytic response characterized by tachycardia, reduction in heart rate
      variability and baroreflex sensitivity under urethane anaesthesia, and with
      minimal effect under isoflurane anaesthesia. Conversely, cisatracurium produced
      no evidence of vagolytic action under either urethane or isoflurane anaesthesia.
      Therefore, for studies interested in examining autonomic function, particularly
      baroreflex or vagal function, neuromuscular blockade would be best achieved using
      cisatracurium.

PMID- 28862526
TI  - Time-dependent ROC analysis for censored biomarker data due to limit of
      detection.
AB  - Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a well-established analysis
      method to evaluate biomarker's discrimination accuracy for binary outcomes. When
      the endpoint of interest is time to event outcome such as time to cancer
      recurrence, a biomarker's time-varying discriminatory performance is often
      assessed by time-dependent ROC analysis. In practice, biomarkers are often
      imprecisely measured due to the limitation of assay sensitivity. The values below
      the limit of detection are not detectable. Ignorance of such data characteristic
      may lead to inaccurate estimation of marker's potential discriminatory power. The
      objective of this article is to extend time-dependent ROC method to censored
      biomarker data by using parameter estimates from the Cox regression model that
      accommodates censored biomarker measurements. In the simulation study, the
      proposed methods are shown to outperform the simple substitution method that has
      been conventionally adopted for handling censored data. Application data are also
      given to illustrate our methods.

PMID- 28862527
TI  - Agency, lapse in condom use and relationship intimacy among female sex workers in
      Jamaica.
AB  - This paper explores barriers to consistent condom use among female sex workers in
      Jamaica in a qualitative study using grounded theory. Multiple perspectives were
      sought through 44 in-depth interviews conducted with female sex workers, clients,
      the partners of sex workers and facilitators of sex work. Poverty and lack of
      education or skills, severely limited support systems as well as childhood abuse
      served to push the majority of participants into sex work and created
      vulnerability to HIV and other STIs. Despite these constraints, women found ways
      to exercise agency, ensure condom use, adopt protective measures and gain
      economic advantage in various aspects of the Jamaican sex trade. Perceived
      relationship intimacy between sex workers and their clients and/or their main
      partners emerged as the main factor contributing to reduced risk perception and
      inconsistent condom use. Relationship intimacy, with associated trust and
      affirmation of self, is the most important factor influencing sexual decision
      making with respect to lapse in condom use among female sex workers in Jamaica.
      Study findings provide important insights that can enhance individual
      psychosocial, interpersonal and community-based interventions as well as inform
      environmental, structural and policy interventions to reduce risk and
      vulnerability among female sex workers.

PMID- 28862528
TI  - Infectious complications in HIV-infected kidney transplant recipients.
AB  - Renal transplantation is now a viable alternative for dialysis in HIV-infected
      patients who achieve good immunovirological control with current antiretroviral
      therapy regimens available. However, there are few studies that analyze the
      incidence of post-transplant infections in this population. In this study, a
      retrospective analysis of data files of 24 HIV-infected kidney transplant (KT)
      recipients was undertaken, matched to 21 non-infected controls. All patients
      received induction with anti-interleukin-2 antibodies and were followed in the
      Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, France. The rate of incidence of post
      transplant infections was 23.58 and 26.98/100 patient-years, in HIV-infected and
      HIV-negative groups (relative risk [RR]: 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.58
      1.39; p = 0.63). In HIV-infected KT recipients, bacterial infections were the
      most frequent (67.7%), followed by viral (14.7%) and fungal and parasitic
      infections (8.8%). Similar trends were seen in the control group. Incidence of
      opportunistic infections was similar in HIV-infected KT recipients and controls
      (38.2 vs. 26.5%; p = 0.44). There were three post-transplant HIV reactivations in
      two patients, secondary to poor adherence to medication. HIV status did not
      influence survival, but infections increased the risk of unfavorable outcome.
      Incidence of post-transplant infections was similar in HIV-infected KT recipients
      and controls. Infections, but not HIV status, had adverse effects on patient and
      graft survival.

PMID- 28862529
TI  - An algorithmic approach to rehabilitation following arthroscopic surgery for
      arthrofibrosis of the knee.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Loss of knee range of motion (ROM) has been reported as
      the most common complication following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction
      (ACLR). Arthrofibrosis of the knee, or specifically Cyclops syndrome, has been
      described as the formation of a scar tissue nodule adjacent to the tibial tunnel
      of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) graft. This lesion often results in loss
      of knee extension ROM, pain, and impaired function. CASE DESCRIPTIONS: Three
      consecutive patients were referred to physical therapy following arthroscopic
      knee surgery for lysis of adhesions of a Cyclops lesion from a previous ACLR.
      Arthroscopic debridement was performed between 3 and 12 months post ACLR. An
      algorithmic progression of extension ROM was the initial focus of physical
      therapy, which then advanced to strengthening, neuromuscular reeducation, and
      sport specific training. OUTCOME: Following knee surgery for debridement of the
      Cyclops lesion, mean knee joint ROM at the initial physical therapy evaluation
      was 7.0 degrees  +/- 8.6 degrees  to 118.3 degrees  +/- 7.6 degrees  that
      progressed to -1.0 degrees  +/- 1.7 degrees  to 127 degrees  +/- 2.6 degrees  at
      discharge. Mean numeric pain rating improved from 3.0 +/- 1.0 at the evaluation
      to 0.7 +/- 1.1 at discharge. Mean Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS)
      improved from 56.3 +/- 13.6 to 77.0 +/- 4.3 at discharge. DISCUSSION:
      Arthroscopic debridement of knee joint arthrofibrosis after ACLR in conjunction
      with a postoperative physical therapy algorithmic approach to maximizing knee
      joint extension ROM can be beneficial in gaining symmetrical knee extension range
      of motion and improved function. Further studies may help to understand the
      optimal mode, frequency, and duration of stretching to achieve full symmetrical
      knee extension in this population.

PMID- 28862531
TI  - Unisensory and multisensory Self-referential stimulation of the lower limb: An
      exploratory fMRI study on healthy subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The holistic view of the person is the essence of the physiotherapy.
      Knowledge of approaches that develop the whole person promotes better patient
      outcomes. Multisensory Self-referential stimulation, more than a unisensory one,
      seems to produce a holistic experience of the Self ("Core-Self"). OBJECTIVES: (1)
      To analyze the somatotopic brain activation during unisensory and multisensorial
      Self-referential stimulus; and (2) to understand if the areas activated by
      multisensorial Self-referential stimulation are the ones responsible for the
      "Core-Self." METHODS: An exploratory functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      study was performed with 10 healthy subjects, under the stimulation of the lower
      limbs with three Self-referential stimuli: unisensory auditory-verbal, unisensory
      tactile-manual, and multisensory, applying the unisensory stimuli simultaneously.
      RESULTS: Unisensory stimulation elicits bilateral activations of the
      temporoparietal junction (TPJ), of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), of the
      primary motor cortex (BA4), of the premotor cortex (BA6) and of BA44;
      multisensory stimulation also elicits activity in TPJ, BA4, and BA6, and when
      compared with unisensory stimuli, activations were found in: (1) Cortical and
      subcortical midline structures-BA7 (precuneus), BA9 (medial prefrontal cortex),
      BA30 (posterior cingulated), superior colliculum and posterior cerebellum; and
      (2) Posterior lateral cortex-TPJ, posterior BA13 (insula), BA19, and BA37.
      Bilateral TPJ is the one that showed the biggest activation volume. CONCLUSION:
      This specific multisensory stimulation produces a brain activation map in regions
      that are responsible for multisensory Self-processing and may represent the Core
      Self. We recommend the use of this specific multisensory stimulation as a
      physiotherapy intervention strategy that might promote the Self-reorganization.

PMID- 28862530
TI  - Exercise training-induced modification of the gut microbiota persists after
      microbiota colonization and attenuates the response to chemically-induced colitis
      in gnotobiotic mice.
AB  - Exercise reduces the risk of inflammatory disease by modulating a variety of
      tissue and cell types, including those within the gastrointestinal tract. Recent
      data indicates that exercise can also alter the gut microbiota, but little is
      known as to whether these changes affect host function. Here, we use a germ-free
      (GF) animal model to test whether exercise-induced modifications in the gut
      microbiota can directly affect host responses to microbiota colonization and
      chemically-induced colitis. Donor mice (n = 19) received access to a running
      wheel (n = 10) or remained without access (n = 9) for a period of six weeks.
      After euthanasia, cecal contents were pooled by activity treatment and
      transplanted into two separate cohorts of GF mice. Two experiments were then
      conducted. First, mice were euthanized five weeks after the microbiota transplant
      and tissues were collected for analysis. A second cohort of GF mice were
      colonized by donor microbiotas for four weeks before dextran-sodium-sulfate was
      administered to induce acute colitis, after which mice were euthanized for tissue
      analysis. We observed that microbial transplants from donor (exercised or
      control) mice led to differences in microbiota beta-diversity, metabolite
      profiles, colon inflammation, and body mass in recipient mice five weeks after
      colonization. We also demonstrate that colonization of mice with a gut microbiota
      from exercise-trained mice led to an attenuated response to chemical colitis,
      evidenced by reduced colon shortening, attenuated mucus depletion and augmented
      expression of cytokines involved in tissue regeneration. Exercise-induced
      modifications in the gut microbiota can mediate host-microbial interactions with
      potentially beneficial outcomes for the host.

PMID- 28862533
TI  - Improvements in cardiometabolic risk markers, aerobic fitness, and functional
      performance following a physical therapy weight loss program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to determine the efficacy of a
      current physical therapy and weight loss program model on exercise performance,
      physical function, and cardiometabolic risk factors in obese patients. DESIGN:
      Retrospective pre-post design. SUBJECTS: A total of 192 patients who previously
      underwent testing of anthropometric measurements, cardiovascular biomarkers, and
      lower extremity function scale (LEFS) were included. RESULTS: There was a
      significant reduction in body weight [5.91 +/- 3.47 (95% CI, 5.4 to 6.4) kg; p <
      0.001; n = 187] and waist circumference [7.1 +/- 5 (95% CI, 6.3 to 7.9) cm; p <
      0.001; n = 187]. Submaximal exercise capacity (VO2ex) increased by [5.29 +/- 4.74
      (95% CI, 4.38 to 6.19) ml/kg/min; p < 0.001; n = 107], and lower extremity
      functional scale (LEFS) improved by [9 +/- 11 (95% CI, 7 to 12) scale points; p <
      0.001; n = 75]. Both systolic (pre SBP: 125.7 +/- 15 vs. post SBP: 118.4 +/- 12
      mmHg; p < 0.001; n = 150) and diastolic (pre DBP: 78.5 +/- 10 vs. post DBP: 74 +/
      8.5 mmHg; p < 0.001; n = 150) blood pressures as well as fasting blood glucose
      (pre FBG: 112.8 +/- 37 vs. post FBG: 99 +/- 18 mg/dL; p < 0.001; n = 132) were
      significantly reduced. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates the importance and
      significance of weight loss in improving physical function and cardiometabolic
      risk profiles across a cohort of outpatient physical therapy patients. Our study
      also suggests that weight loss can be achieved in a comprehensive exercise
      intensive physical therapy program for obese patients.

PMID- 28862534
TI  - A Novel Model for Teaching Primary Care in a Community Practice Setting: Tufts at
      Tech Community Veterinary Clinic.
AB  - Providing veterinary students with opportunities to develop clinical skills in a
      realistic, hands-on environment remains a challenge for veterinary education. We
      have developed a novel approach to teaching clinical medicine to fourth-year
      veterinary students and technical high school students via development of a
      primary care clinic embedded within a technical high school. The primary care
      clinic targets an underserved area of the community, which includes many of the
      participating high school students. Support from the veterinary community for the
      project has been strong as a result of communication, the opportunity for
      veterinarians to volunteer in the clinic, and the careful targeting of services.
      Benefits to veterinary students include the opportunity to build clinical
      competencies and confidence, as well as the exposure to a diverse client
      population. The financial model of the clinic is described and initial data on
      outcomes for case load, clinic income, veterinary student evaluations, and high
      school students' success in passing the veterinary assisting examination are
      reported. This clinical model, involving a partnership between a veterinary
      school and a technical high school, may be adoptable to other clinical teaching
      situations.

PMID- 28862535
TI  - Discipline-Specific Compared to Generic Training of Teachers in Higher Education.
AB  - A recurrent theme arising in the higher education sector is the suitability and
      effectiveness of generic versus discipline-specific training of university
      teachers, who are often recruited based on their disciplinary specialties to
      become teachers in higher education. We compared two groups of participants who
      had undergone training using a generic post-graduate certificate in higher
      education (PGCertGeneric) versus a discipline-specific course in veterinary
      education (PGCertVetEd). The study was conducted using a survey that allowed
      comparison of participants who completed PGCertGeneric (n=21) with PGCertVetEd
      (n=22). Results indicated that participants from both PGCertGeneric and
      PGCertVetEd considered teaching to be satisfying and important to their careers,
      valued the teaching observation component of the course, and identified similar
      training needs. However, the participants of the PGCertVetEd felt that the course
      made them better teachers, valued the relevance of the components taught,
      understood course design better, were encouraged to do further courses/reading in
      teaching and learning, changed their teaching as a result of the course, and were
      less stressed about teaching as compared to the PGCertGeneric participants
      (p<.05). It is likely that the PGCertVetEd, which was designed and developed by
      veterinarians with a wider understanding of the veterinary sector, helped the
      participants perceive the training course as suited to their needs.

PMID- 28862536
TI  - Investigation of a Brazilian tannery effluent by means of zebra fish (Danio
      rerio) embryo acute toxicity (FET) test.
AB  - Tannery effluents consist of a complex chemical composition not only limited to
      primary pollutants, which also require biological detection as these compounds
      may produce adverse effects. The fish embryo toxicity (FET) test with Danio rerio
      is an alternative method in hazard and risk assessment for determination of
      chemical-mediated effects. The aim of this investigation was to use the FET test
      to detect compounds and consequent effects in Brazilian tannery effluents.
      Samples were collected from the inlet and outlet of the effluent treatment plant
      at a tannery located in Restinga, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The toxicological effects
      were assessed using FET assay for a period of 144 hr using indices such as (1)
      coagulation of fertilized eggs, (2) lack of detachment of tail-bud from yolk sac,
      (3) absence of spontaneous movement, (4) yolk sack edema, (5) malformation of the
      tail, (6) scoliosis, and (7) deformation of swim bladder in the embryos. Data
      showed that effluent treatment plant exposure produced acute toxicity in D. rerio
      embryos as evidenced by coagulation of fertilized eggs in up to 5% of all diluted
      samples 24 hr post fertilization for inlet effluent samples compared to 100%
      coagulation for outlet samples. Results demonstrated that these effects may not
      be attributed to metals, but to other non-detected components, such as dyes,
      pigments, biocides, carriers, surfactants, or other organic compounds that might
      be present in these complex mixtures. The use of D. rerio embryos was found to be
      useful as an additional tool for ecotoxicity testing to assess the potential
      environmental acute toxicity influence of tannery effluents.

PMID- 28862537
TI  - Signaling through reactive oxygen and nitrogen species is differentially
      modulated in sunflower seedling root and cotyledon in response to various nitric
      oxide donors and scavengers<sup/>.
AB  - Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), diethylenetriamine NONOate (DETA), S-nitroso-n-acetyl
      D,L- penicillamine (SNAP), and 4-(p-methoxyphenyl)-1,3,2- Oxathiazolylium-5-olate
      (CAY) exhibit differential NO releasing ability in aqueous solution and
      hemoglobin is a more efficient NO quencher than cPTIO in solution. DETA releases
      16% more NO compared with SNP in solution. Various NO donors (SNP, DETA, SNAP,
      and CAY) also bring about a differential but concentration-dependent increase in
      endogenous NO in seedling cotyledons and roots. Two-day old, dark-grown seedling
      roots exhibit 95%, 77%, 59% and 45% increase in NO content in presence of each of
      500 uM of DETA, SNAP, CAY and SNP, respectively, relative to control. NO
      accumulation in the tissue system as a response to NO donors is reflected in
      terms of corresponding peroxynitrite accumulation. Release of cyanide and free
      iron as byproducts of SNP dissociation in solution limits its usefulness as an NO
      donor. SNP leads to profuse ROS generation in sunflower seedling roots. Light is
      not a pre-requisite for NO generation from SNP. Present work also demonstrates
      the usefulness of hemoglobin over cPTIO as NO scavenger. Hemoglobin brings about
      increasing NO quenching with its increasing concentration from 2.5 to 10 uM.
      Greater sensitivity of the root system to the NO donor/scavenger treatments is
      evident, it being in direct contact with the molecules in the incubation/ growth
      medium. This differential effect does not seem to be significantly transmitted to
      the cotyledons (long-distance signaling).

PMID- 28862538
TI  - Postoperative continuous catheter-infused local anesthetic reduces pain scores
      and narcotic use after lower extremity revascularization.
AB  - Objective Postoperative pain following lower extremity revascularization
      procedures is traditionally controlled with narcotic administration. However,
      this may not adequately control the pain and puts the patient at risk for
      complications from opiate use. Here we report an alternative strategy for pain
      management using a continuous catheter-infused local anesthetic into the
      operative limb. Design Retrospective case-control study. Methods Patients
      undergoing lower extremity revascularization procedures using continuous catheter
      infused local anesthetic were compared to similar patients undergoing similar
      procedures during the same time period who did not receive continuous catheter
      infused local anesthetic. Records were reviewed for pain scores, narcotics
      consumption, length of stay, need for postoperative chest X-ray, supplemental
      oxygen use, wound complications, and 30-day readmission. Results There were 153
      patients (mean age 69.5 years) from September 2011 to December 2014 who underwent
      common femoral artery procedures, femoral-popliteal bypass, femoral-tibial
      bypass, popliteal aneurysm repair, popliteal to pedal bypass, popliteal artery
      thrombo-embolectomy, sapheno-popliteal venous bypass, or ilio-femoral bypass.
      There were no significant differences between the continuous catheter-infused
      local anesthetic ( n=57) and control ( n=96) groups regarding age, body mass
      index, cardiac history, diabetes, hypertension, and procedures performed. The
      continuous catheter-infused local anesthetic group showed better cumulative
      average pain scores, better high pain scores on postoperative days 1-3, and
      better average pain scores on postoperative days 2-3 ( P<0.03). The continuous
      catheter-infused local anesthetic group had lower median narcotics consumption on
      postoperative days 1-2 ( P=0.02). No differences were found in postoperative
      length of stay, urinary catheter use, number of postoperative chest X-rays,
      oxygen use, mobilization, or fever. Wound complications occurred in 8.8% of the
      continuous catheter-infused local anesthetic group and in 11.5% of controls
      (P=0.79). Readmission rates were 23% (continuous catheter-infused local
      anesthetic) and 21% (controls; P=0.84). Conclusion Postoperative continuous
      catheter-infused local anesthetic reduces pain scores and pain medication use
      compared to standard opiate therapy in these patients, without increasing wound
      complication or readmission rates. Continuous catheter-infused local anesthetic
      appeared to have no effect on the incidence of pulmonary complications,
      mobilization, or fever.

PMID- 28862539
TI  - Lead (Pb) exposure induces disturbances in epigenetic status in workers exposed
      to this metal.
AB  - Previous studies showed that lead (Pb) exposure may modulate gene expression by
      changes in the epigenetic status. However, little is known about the impact of Pb
      exposure and alterations on DNA methylation patterns in humans exposed to this
      metal. The aim of this study was to assess the consequences of exposure to Pb on
      DNA global methylation, in order to gain a better understanding of the
      interactions between Pb exposure and epigenetic effects. The study included 100
      male workers employed in automotive battery factories from Parana State, Brazil.
      Concentrations of Pb in blood (B-Pb) and plasma (P-Pb) were determined by ICP-MS,
      the percentage (%) of global DNA methylation was determined by quantification of
      5-methylcytosine using indirect ELISA, and sociodemographic data collected by
      questionnaire by trained interviewers. The mean age was 37 +/- 10 (18-67 years);
      18% of participants were smokers, while 32% reported consumption of alcoholic
      beverages. The B-Pb and P-Pb levels were 20 +/- 11 and 0.56 +/- 0.64 ug/dl,
      respectively; % global DNA methylation was 2.8 +/- 1.1% (ranging from 1.1 to
      6.5%). B-Pb and P-Pb concentrations were significantly correlated. Furthermore, a
      marked association was noted between Pb biomarkers and DNA global methylation.
      Taken together, our data demonstrated that Pb exposure induced alterations on DNA
      global methylation in workers who were exposed to the metal and consequently may
      result in disturbances in the regulation of gene expression, leading to
      potentially several health adverse effect outcomes.

PMID- 28862540
TI  - Characterizing cytotoxic and estrogenic activity of Arctic char tissue extracts
      in primary Arctic char hepatocytes.
AB  - Contaminants from various anthropogenic activities are detected in the Arctic due
      to long-range atmospheric transport, ocean currents, and living organisms such as
      migrating fish or seabirds. Although levels of persistent organic pollutants
      (POPs) in Arctic fish are generally low, local hot spots of contamination were
      found in freshwater systems such as Lake Ellasjoen at Bjornoya (Bear Island,
      Norway). Higher concentrations of organic halogenated compounds (OHC), and higher
      levels of cytochrome P450 and DNA-double strand breaks were reported in Arctic
      char (Salvelinus alpinus) from this lake compared to fish from other lakes on
      Bjornoya. Although several of the measured contaminants are potential endocrine
      disrupters, few studies have investigated potential endocrine disruptive effects
      of the contaminant cocktail in this fish population. The aim of this study was to
      compare acutely toxic and estrogenic potency of the cocktail of pollutants as
      evidenced by cytotoxic and/or estrogenic effects in vitro using extracts of
      Arctic char livers from contaminated Lake Ellasjoen with those from less
      contaminated Lake Laksvatn at Bjornoya. This was performed by in situ sampling
      and contaminant extraction from liver tissue, followed by chemical analysis and
      in vitro testing of the following contaminated tissue extracts: F1-nonpolar OHC,
      F2-polar pesticides and metabolites of OHC, and F3-polar OHC. Contaminant levels
      were highest in extracts from Ellasjoen fish. The F2 and F3 extracts from Lake
      Laksvatn and Lake Ellasjoen fish reduced in vitro cell viability at a
      concentration ratio of 0.03-1 relative to tissue concentration in Arctic char.
      Only the F3 liver extract from Ellasjoen fish increased in vitro vitellogenin
      protein expression. Although compounds such as estrogenic OH-PCBs were quantified
      in Ellasjoen F3 extracts, it remains to be determined which compounds were
      inducing estrogenic effects.

PMID- 28862542
TI  - Letter to the Editor. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy
      for Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28862541
TI  - Anatomy and white matter connections of the orbitofrontal gyrus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is understood to have a role in outcome
      evaluation and risk assessment and is commonly involved with infiltrative tumors.
      A detailed understanding of the exact location and nature of associated white
      matter tracts could significantly improve postoperative morbidity related to
      declining capacity. Through diffusion tensor imaging-based fiber tracking
      validated by gross anatomical dissection as ground truth, the authors have
      characterized these connections based on relationships to other well-known
      structures. METHODS Diffusion imaging from the Human Connectome Project for 10
      healthy adult controls was used for tractography analysis. The OFC was evaluated
      as a whole based on connectivity with other regions. All OFC tracts were mapped
      in both hemispheres, and a lateralization index was calculated with resultant
      tract volumes. Ten postmortem dissections were then performed using a modified
      Klingler technique to demonstrate the location of major tracts. RESULTS The
      authors identified 3 major connections of the OFC: a bundle to the thalamus and
      anterior cingulate gyrus, passing inferior to the caudate and medial to the
      vertical fibers of the thalamic projections; a bundle to the brainstem, traveling
      lateral to the caudate and medial to the internal capsule; and radiations to the
      parietal and occipital lobes traveling with the inferior fronto-occipital
      fasciculus. CONCLUSIONS The OFC is an important center for processing visual,
      spatial, and emotional information. Subtle differences in executive functioning
      following surgery for frontal lobe tumors may be better understood in the context
      of the fiber-bundle anatomy highlighted by this study.

PMID- 28862544
TI  - Letter to the Editor. Infraorbital nerve as a surgical landmark.

PMID- 28862543
TI  - Delayed facial palsy after microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm:
      friend or foe?
AB  - OBJECTIVE The authors investigated the incidence, clinical course, and
      predisposing factors associated with delayed facial palsy (DFP) following
      microvascular decompression (MVD). METHODS The authors reviewed the records of
      310 patients (311 cases) who were followed after MVD for hemifacial spasm (HFS).
      Of these patients, 45 (14.5%) developed DFP after MVD. The clinical
      characteristics and predisposing factors of the patients with HFS were
      investigated to identify prognostic factors that predicted the development of DFP
      after MVD. Log-rank tests were used to compare times to symptom disappearance,
      and a logistic regression analysis was performed to compare clinical
      characteristics between patients who developed DFP and those who did not. RESULTS
      HFS was completely resolved immediately after MVD in 158 cases (50.8%), and HFS
      eventually disappeared in 289 (92.9%) of the cases. Of the 45 patients with DFP,
      17 were men and 28 were women. DFP occurred between postoperative Days 1 and 44
      (mean 9.67 days). Finally, 44 patients (97.8%) completely recovered. The average
      time to recovery was 3.9 months (range 1-24 months). Patients who had experienced
      an immediate disappearance of HFS experienced a significantly higher occurrence
      of DFP than those who did not (odds ratio 0.383, 95% confidence interval 0.183
      0.802; p = 0.011). In addition, preoperative botulinum neurotoxin injections
      negatively influenced the occurrence of DFP (p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS In this
      study, the incidence rate of DFP was slightly higher than previously reported
      values. Moreover, DFP can occur even when spasms disappear immediately after MVD,
      but the patients with DFP can fully recover within weeks.

PMID- 28862545
TI  - Sex differences in delayed cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE In this study the authors sought to investigate the sex differences in
      the risk of delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI), delayed cerebral infarction, and the
      role of hormonal status. METHODS Ten studies included in the SAHIT (SAH
      International Trialists) repository were analyzed using a fitting logistic
      regression model. Heterogeneity between the studies was tested using I2
      statistics, and the results were pooled using a random-effects model.
      Multivariable analysis was adjusted for the effects of neurological status and
      fixed effect of study. An additional model was examined in which women and men
      were split into groups according to an age cut point of 55 years, as a surrogate
      to define hormonal status. RESULTS A pooled cohort of 6713 patients was analyzed.
      The risk of DCI was statistically significantly higher in women than in men (OR
      1.29, 95% CI 1.12-1.48); no difference was found with respect to cerebral
      infarction (OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.98-1.40). No difference was found in the risk of
      DCI when comparing women <= 55 and > 55 years (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.74-1.02; p =
      0.08) or when comparing men <= 55 and > 55 years (p = 0.38). Independent
      predictors of DCI were World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) grade,
      Fisher grade, age, and sex. Independent predictors of infarction included WFNS
      grade, Fisher grade, and aneurysm size. CONCLUSIONS Female sex is associated with
      a higher risk of DCI. Sex differences may play a role in the pathogenesis of DCI
      but are not associated with menopausal status. The predictors of DCI and cerebral
      infarction were identified in a very large cohort and reflect experience from
      multiple institutions.

PMID- 28862546
TI  - Angioarchitecture of arteriovenous fistulas at the craniocervical junction: a
      multicenter cohort study of 54 patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The aim of this retrospective multicenter cohort study was to assess
      the details of the angioarchitecture of arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) at the
      craniocervical junction (CCJ) and to determine the associations between the
      angiographic characteristics and the clinical presentations and outcomes. METHODS
      The authors analyzed angiographic and clinical data for patients with CCJ AVFs
      from 20 participating centers that are members of the Japanese Society for
      Neuroendovascular Therapy (JSNET). Angiographic findings (feeding artery,
      location of AV shunt, draining vein) and patient data (age, sex, presentation,
      treatment modality, outcome) were tabulated and stratified based on the
      angiographic types of the lesions, as diagnosed by a member of the CCJ AVF study
      group, which consisted of a panel of 6 neurointerventionalists and 1 spine
      neurosurgeon. RESULTS The study included 54 patients (median age 65 years,
      interquartile range 61-75 years) with a total of 59 lesions. Five angiographic
      types were found among the 59 lesions: Type 1, dural AVF (22 [37%] of 59); Type
      2, radicular AVF (17 [29%] of 59); Type 3, epidural AVF (EDAVF) with pial feeders
      (8 [14%] of 59); Type 4, EDAVF (6 [10%] of 59); and Type 5, perimedullary AVF (6
      [10%] of 59). In almost all lesions (98%), AV shunts were fed by
      radiculomeningeal arteries from the vertebral artery that drained into intradural
      or epidural veins through AV shunts on the dura mater, on the spinal nerves, in
      the epidural space, or on the spinal cord. In more than half of the lesions
      (63%), the AV shunts were also fed by a spinal pial artery from the anterior
      spinal artery (ASA) and/or the lateral spinal artery. The data also showed that
      the angiographic characteristics associated with hemorrhagic presentations-the
      most common presentation of the lesions (73%)-were the inclusion of the ASA as a
      feeder, the presence of aneurysmal dilatation on the feeder, and CCJ AVF Type 2
      (radicular AVF). Treatment outcomes differed among the angiographic types of the
      lesions. CONCLUSIONS Craniocervical junction AVFs commonly present with
      hemorrhage and are frequently fed by both radiculomeningeal and spinal pial
      arteries. The AV shunt develops along the C-1 or C-2 nerve roots and can be
      located on the spinal cord, on the spinal nerves, and/or on the inner or outer
      surface of the dura mater.

PMID- 28862548
TI  - Reoperation for growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas: report on an
      endonasal endoscopic series with a systematic review and meta-analysis of the
      literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Surgery is generally the first-line therapy for acromegaly. For
      patients with residual or recurrent tumors, several treatment options exist,
      including repeat surgery, medical therapy, and radiation. Reoperation for
      recurrent acromegaly has been associated with poor results, with hormonal control
      usually achieved in fewer than 50% of cases. Extended endonasal endoscopic
      approaches (EEAs) may potentially improve the results of reoperation for
      acromegaly by providing increased visibility and maneuverability in parasellar
      areas. METHODS A database of all patients treated in the authors' center between
      July 2004 and February 2016 was reviewed. Cases involving patients with
      acromegaly secondary to growth hormone (GH)-secreting adenomas who underwent EEA
      were selected for chart review and divided into 2 groups: first-time surgery and
      reoperation. Disease control was defined by 2010 guidelines. Clinical and
      radiological characteristics and outcome data were extracted. A systematic review
      was done through a MEDLINE database search (2000-2016) to identify studies on the
      surgical treatment of acromegaly. Using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, the included studies were
      reviewed for surgical approach, tumor size, cavernous sinus invasion, disease
      control, and complications. Cases were divided into reoperation or first-time
      surgery for comparative analysis. RESULTS A total of 44 patients from the
      authors' institution were included in this study. Of these patients, 2 underwent
      both first-time surgery and reoperation during the study period and were
      therefore included in both groups. Thus data from 46 surgical cases were analyzed
      (35 first-time operations and 11 reoperations). The mean length of follow-up was
      70 months (range 6-150 months). The mean size of the reoperated tumors was 14.8
      +/- 10.0 mm (5 micro- and 6 macroadenomas). The patients' mean age at the time of
      surgery was younger in the reoperation group than in the first-time surgery group
      (34.3 +/- 12.8 years vs 49.1 +/- 15.7 years, p = 0.007) and the mean preoperative
      GH level was also lower (7.7 +/- 13.1 MUg/L vs 25.6 +/- 36.8 MUg/L, p = 0.04).
      There was no statistically significant difference in disease control rates
      between the reoperation (7 [63.6%] of 11) and first-time surgery (25 [71.4%] of
      33) groups (p = 0.71). Univariate analysis showed that older age, smaller tumor
      size, lower preoperative GH level, lower preoperative IGF-I level, and absence of
      cavernous sinus invasion were associated with higher chances of disease control
      in the first-time surgery group, whereas only absence of cavernous sinus invasion
      was associated with disease control in the reoperation group (p = 0.01). There
      was 1 case (9%) of transient diabetes insipidus and hypogonadism and 1 (9%)
      postoperative nasal infection after reoperation. The systematic review retrieved
      29 papers with 161 reoperation and 2189 first-time surgery cases. Overall disease
      control for reoperation was 46.8% (95% CI 20%-74%) versus 56.4% (95% CI 49%-63%)
      for first-time operation. Reoperation and first-time surgery had similar control
      rates for microadenomas (73.6% [95% CI 32%-98%] vs 77.6% [95% CI 68%-85%]);
      however, reoperation was associated with substantially lower control rates for
      macroadenomas (27.5% [95% CI 5%-57%] vs 54.3% [95% CI 45%-62%]) and tumors
      invading the cavernous sinus (14.7% [95% CI 4%-29%] vs 38.5% [95% CI 27%-50%]).
      CONCLUSIONS Reoperative EEA for acromegaly had results similar to those for first
      time surgery and rates of control for macroadenomas that were better than
      historical rates. Cavernous sinus invasion continues to be a negative prognostic
      indicator for disease control; however, results with EEA show improvement
      compared with results reported in the prior literature.

PMID- 28862547
TI  - The Treatment of Brain AVMs Study (TOBAS): an all-inclusive framework to
      integrate clinical care and research.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The management of brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) remains
      controversial. The Treatment of Brain AVMs Study (TOBAS) was designed to manage
      patients with bAVMs within a clinical research framework. The objective of this
      study was to study trial feasibility, recruitment rates, patient allocation to
      the various management groups, and compliance with treatment allocation. METHODS
      TOBAS combines two randomized care trials (RCTs) and a registry. Designed to be
      all-inclusive, the study offers randomized allocation of interventional versus
      conservative management to patients eligible for both options (first RCT), a
      second RCT testing the role of preembolization as an adjunct to surgery or
      radiotherapy, and a registry of patients managed using clinical judgment alone.
      The primary outcome of the first RCT is death from any cause or disabling stroke
      (modified Rankin Scale score > 2) at 10 years. A pilot phase was initiated at one
      center to test study feasibility, record the number and characteristics of
      patients enrolled in the RCTs, and estimate the frequency of crossovers. RESULTS
      All patients discussed at the multidisciplinary bAVM committee between June 2014
      and June 2016 (n = 107) were recruited into the study; 46 in the randomized
      trials (23 in the first RCT with 21 unruptured bAVMs, 40 in the second RCT with
      17 unruptured bAVMs, and 17 in both RCTs), and 61 patients in the registry. Three
      patients crossed over from surgery to observation (first RCT). CONCLUSIONS
      Clinical research was successfully integrated with normal practice using TOBAS.
      Recruitment rates in a single center are encouraging. Whether the trial will
      provide meaningful results depends on the recruitment of a sufficient number of
      participating centers. Clinical trial registration no.: NCT02098252
      (clinicaltrials.gov).

PMID- 28862549
TI  - Outcomes of stereotactic radiosurgery for foramen magnum meningiomas: an
      international multicenter study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Meningiomas are the most common benign extramedullary lesions of the
      foramen magnum; however, their optimal management remains undefined. Given their
      location, foramen magnum meningiomas (FMMs) can cause significant morbidity, and
      complete microsurgical removal can be challenging. Anterior and anterolateral
      FMMs carry greater risks with surgery, but they comprise the majority of these
      lesions. As an alternative to resection, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has been
      used to treat FMMs in small case series. To more clearly define the outcomes of
      SRS and to delineate a rational management paradigm for these lesions, the
      authors analyzed the safety and efficacy of SRS for FMM in an international
      multicenter trial. METHODS Seven medical centers participating in the
      International Gamma Knife Research Foundation (IGKRF) provided data for this
      retrospective cohort study. Patients who were treated with Gamma Knife
      radiosurgery and whose clinical and radiological follow-up was longer than 6
      months were eligible for study inclusion. Data from pre- and post-SRS
      radiological and clinical evaluations were analyzed. Stereotactic radiosurgery
      treatment variables were recorded. RESULTS Fifty-seven patients (39 females and
      18 males, with a median age of 64 years) met the study inclusion criteria. Thirty
      two percent had undergone prior microsurgical resection. Patients most frequently
      presented with cranial neuropathy (39%), headache (35%), numbness (32%), and
      ataxia (30%). Median pre-SRS tumor volume was 2.9 cm3. Median SRS margin dose was
      12.5 Gy (range 10-16 Gy). At the last follow-up after SRS, 49% of tumors were
      stable, 44% had regressed, and 7% had progressed. Progression-free survival rates
      at 5 and 10 years were each 92%. A greater margin dose was associated with a
      significantly increased likelihood of tumor regression, with 53% of tumors
      treated with > 12 Gy regressing. Fifty-two percent of symptomatic patients noted
      some clinical improvement. Adverse radiation effects were limited to hearing loss
      and numbness in 1 patient (2%). CONCLUSIONS Stereotactic radiosurgery for FMM
      frequently results in tumor control or tumor regression, as well as symptom
      improvement. Margin doses > 12 Gy were associated with increased rates of tumor
      regression. Stereotactic radiosurgery was generally safe and well tolerated.
      Given its risk-benefit profile, SRS may be particularly useful in the management
      of small- to moderate-volume anterior and anterolateral FMMs.

PMID- 28862550
TI  - Voxel-based lesion mapping of meningioma: a comprehensive lesion location mapping
      of 260 lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE In the present study the authors aimed to determine preferred locations
      of meningiomas by avoiding descriptive analysis and instead using voxel-based
      lesion mapping and 3D image-rendering techniques. METHODS Magnetic resonance
      images obtained in 248 treatment-naive meningioma patients with 260 lesions were
      retrospectively and consecutively collected. All images were registered to a 1-mm
      isotropic, high-resolution, T1-weighted brain atlas provided by the Montreal
      Neurological Institute (the MNI152), and a lesion frequency map was created,
      followed by 3D volume rendering to visualize the preferred locations of
      meningiomas in 3D. RESULTS The 3D lesion frequency map clearly showed that skull
      base structures such as parasellar, sphenoid wing, and petroclival regions were
      commonly affected by the tumor. The middle one-third of the superior sagittal
      sinus was most commonly affected in parasagittal tumors. Substantial lesion
      accumulation was observed around the leptomeninges covering the central sulcus
      and the sylvian fissure, with very few lesions observed at the frontal, parietal,
      and occipital convexities. CONCLUSIONS Using an objective visualization method,
      meningiomas were shown to be located around the middle third of the superior
      sagittal sinus, the perisylvian convexity, and the skull base. These
      observations, which are in line with previous descriptive analyses, justify
      further use of voxel-based lesion mapping techniques to help understand the
      biological nature of this disease.

PMID- 28862551
TI  - Isolated abducens nerve palsy associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage: a
      localizing sign of ruptured posterior inferior cerebellar artery aneurysms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Compressive cranial nerve syndromes can be useful bedside clues to the
      diagnosis of an enlarging intracranial aneurysm and can also guide subsequent
      evaluation, as with an acute oculomotor nerve (cranial nerve [CN] III) palsy that
      is presumed to be a posterior communicating artery aneurysm and a surgical
      emergency until proven otherwise. The CN VI has a short cisternal segment from
      the pontomedullary sulcus to Dorello's canal, remote from most PICA aneurysms but
      in the hemodynamic pathway of a rupturing PICA aneurysm that projects toward
      Dorello's canal. The authors describe a cranial nerve syndrome for posterior
      inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) aneurysms that associates subarachnoid
      hemorrhage (SAH) and an isolated abducens nerve (CN VI) palsy. METHODS Clinical
      and radiological data from 106 surgical patients with PICA aneurysms (66 ruptured
      and 40 unruptured) were retrospectively reviewed. Data from a group of 174
      patients with other aneurysmal SAH (aSAH) were analyzed in a similar manner to
      control for nonspecific effects of SAH. Univariate statistical analysis compared
      incidence and risk factors associated with CN VI palsy in subarachnoid
      hemorrhage. RESULTS Overall, 13 (4.6%) of 280 patients had CN VI palsy at
      presentation, and all of them had ruptured aneurysms (representing 13 [5.4%] of
      the 240 cases of ruptured aneurysms). CN VI palsies were observed in 12 patients
      with ruptured PICA aneurysms (12/66 [18.1%]) and 1 patient with other aSAH (1/174
      [0.1%], p < 0.0001). PICA aneurysm location in ruptured aneurysms was an
      independent predictor for CN VI palsy on multivariate analysis (p = 0.001). PICA
      aneurysm size was not significantly different in patients with or without CN VI
      palsy (average size 4.4 mm and 5.2 mm, respectively). Within the PICA aneurysm
      cohort, modified Fisher grade (p = 0.011) and presence of a thick cisternal SAH
      (modified Fisher Grades 3 and 4) (p = 0.003) were predictors of CN VI palsy. In
      all patients with ruptured PICA aneurysms and CN VI palsy, dome projection and
      presumed direction of rupture were directed toward the ipsilateral and/or
      contralateral Dorello's canal, in agreement with laterality of the CN palsy. In
      patients with bilateral CN VI palsies, a medial projection with extensive
      subarachnoid blood was observed near bilateral canals. CONCLUSIONS This study
      establishes a localizing connection between an isolated CN VI palsy, SAH, and an
      underlying ruptured PICA aneurysm. CN VI palsy is an important clinical sign in
      aSAH and when present on initial clinical presentation may be assumed to be due
      to ruptured PICA aneurysms until proven otherwise. The deficit may be
      ipsilateral, contralateral, or bilateral and is determined by the direction of
      the aneurysm dome projection and extent of subarachnoid bleeding toward Dorello's
      canal, rather than by direct compression.

PMID- 28862552
TI  - Cavernous sinus compartments from the endoscopic endonasal approach: anatomical
      considerations and surgical relevance to adenoma surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Tumors with cavernous sinus (CS) invasion represent a neurosurgical
      challenge. Increasing application of the endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA)
      requires a thorough understanding of the CS anatomy from an endonasal
      perspective. In this study, the authors aimed to develop a surgical anatomy-based
      classification of the CS and establish its utility for preoperative surgical
      planning and intraoperative guidance in adenoma surgery. METHODS Twenty-five
      colored silicon-injected human head specimens were used for endonasal and
      transcranial dissections of the CS. Pre- and postoperative MRI studies of 98
      patients with pituitary adenoma with intraoperatively confirmed CS invasion were
      analyzed. RESULTS Four CS compartments are described based on their spatial
      relationship with the cavernous ICA: superior, posterior, inferior, and lateral.
      Each compartment has distinct boundaries and dural and neurovascular
      relationships: the superior compartment relates to the interclinoidal ligament
      and oculomotor nerve, the posterior compartment bears the gulfar segment of the
      abducens nerve and inferior hypophyseal artery, the inferior compartment contains
      the sympathetic nerve and distal cavernous abducens nerve, and the lateral
      compartment includes all cavernous cranial nerves and the inferolateral arterial
      trunk. Twenty-nine patients had a single compartment invaded, and 69 had multiple
      compartments involved. The most commonly invaded compartment was the superior (79
      patients), followed by the posterior (n = 64), inferior (n = 45), and lateral (n
      = 23) compartments. Residual tumor rates by compartment were 79% in lateral, 17%
      in posterior, 14% in superior, and 11% in inferior. CONCLUSIONS The anatomy-based
      classification presented here complements current imaging-based classifications
      and may help to identify involved compartments both preoperatively and
      intraoperatively.

PMID- 28862553
TI  - Transorbital endoscopic eyelid approach for resection of sphenoorbital
      meningiomas with predominant hyperostosis: report of 2 cases.
AB  - Sphenoorbital meningiomas (SOMs) are slow-growing tumors that originate from the
      sphenoidal wing and are associated with visual deterioration, extrinsic ocular
      movement disorders, and proptosis caused by hyperostosis of the lateral wall of
      the orbit. In some cases, the intracranial component is quite small or "en
      plaque," and the majority of the symptoms arise from adjacent hyperostosis.
      Craniotomy has traditionally been the standard of care, but new minimally
      invasive multiportal endoscopic approaches offer an alternative. In the current
      study, the authors to present their experience with the transorbital endoscopic
      eyelid approach for the treatment of 2 patients with SOMs and sphenoid wing
      hyperostosis. Clinical and radiological data for patients with SOMs who underwent
      a transorbital endoscopic eyelid approach were retrospectively reviewed. Surgical
      technique and clinical and radiographic outcomes were analyzed. The authors
      report the cases of 2 patients with SOMs and proptosis due to sphenoid wing
      hyperostosis. One patient underwent prior craniotomy to debulk the intracranial
      portion of the tumor, and the other had a minimal intracranial component. Both
      patients were discharged 2 days after surgery. MR images and CT scans
      demonstrated a large debulking of the hyperostotic bone. Postoperative
      measurement of the proptosis with the aid of an exophthalmometer demonstrated
      significant reduction of the proptosis in one of the cases. Persistence of
      intraconal tumor in the orbital apex limited the efficacy of the procedure in the
      other case. A review of the literature revealed 1 publication with 3 reports of
      the transorbital eyelid approach for SOMs. No measure of relief of proptosis
      after this surgery had been previously reported. The transorbital endoscopic
      approach, combined with endonasal decompression of the medial orbit, may be a
      useful minimally invasive alternative to craniotomy in a subset of SOMs with a
      predominantly hyperostotic orbital wall and minimal intracranial bulky or merely
      en plaque disease. In these cases, relief of proptosis and optic nerve
      compression are the primary goals of surgery, rather than gross-total resection,
      which may have high morbidity or be unachievable. In cases with significant
      residual intraconal tumor, orbital bone removal alone may not be sufficient to
      reduce proptosis.

PMID- 28862554
TI  - Peculiar Archaea Found in Japanese Paddy Soils?.
AB  - Archaeal 16S rDNA clones retrieved from paddy soil DNA were sequenced. Among 100
      clones, 88 clones were assigned to methanogens and nine clones were assigned to
      crenarchaeota. However, three of the nine clones were phylogenetically far from
      the cultured crenarchaeota and closely related to marine planktonic archaea. The
      other three clones showed extremely novel 16S rDNA sequences and were
      phylogenetically far from both Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota. This paper
      reports the ubiquitous presence of crenarchaeotal and extremely novel clones in
      paddy soils.

PMID- 28862555
TI  - New Dihydroquinolinone Toxic to Artemia salina Produced by Penicillium sp. NTC
      47.
AB  - Penicillium sp. NTC-47, which had been isolated from a soil sample, produced
      novel dihydroquinolinones when cultured with okara (the insoluble residue of
      whole soybean). These metabolites, 1 and 2, were crystalline products with
      molecular formulas of C17H17NO5 and C17H17NO4, respectively. The structure of 1
      was established to be 3-methoxy-4,5-dihydroxy-4-(4'-methoxyphenyl)-quinolinone by
      spectroscopic evidence and by an X-ray crystal-lographic analysis. Spectral data
      indicated the structure of 2 to be 5-deoxy-l. Compound 1 demonstrated toxicity
      against brine shrimp with an LC50 value of 20MUg/ml, but 2 exhibited no activity
      at a dose of 100 MUg/ml.

PMID- 28862556
TI  - Action of a Thermostable Trehalose Synthase from Thermus aquaticus on Sucrose.
AB  - A thermostable trehalose synthase from Thermus aquaticus ATCC 33923, which
      catalyzes the interconversion between maltose and trehalose by intramolecular
      transglucosylation, converted sucrose into trehalulose (1-O-alpha-d
      glucopyranosyl-d-fructose). The trehalulose-forming activity of the enzyme was
      very low compared with that of maltose and trehalose. Kinetic studies showed that
      sucrose competitively inhibited the interconversion activity between maltose and
      trehalose. Consequently, these three substrates, maltose, trehalose, and sucrose,
      are thought to bind the same active site of trehalose synthase.

PMID- 28862557
TI  - Occurrence of Cobalamin Coenzymes in the Photosynthetic Green Alga, Chlorella
      vulgaris.
AB  - To analyze cobalamin metabolism in photosynthetic green algae, the effects of
      cobalamin on growth of Chlorella vulgaris C-30 were studied and the algal
      cobalamin contents were assayed. Cobalamin significantly stimulated growth of the
      Chlorella cells, but biologically inactive cobalamin analogues did not. Chlorella
      grown in a cobalamin-free medium (control) contained cobalamin coenzymes, 5'
      deoxyadenosylcobalamin (7.95 +/- 0.31 ng/g wet weight) and methylcobalamin (2.72
      +/- 0.45 ng/g wet weight), of which the levels were increased significantly in
      cobalamin-supplemented cells. These results indicate that the alga has ability to
      take up exogenous cobalamin and synthesize the coenzyme forms.

PMID- 28862558
TI  - Protoplast Formation from Schizophyllum commune by a Culture Filtrate of Bacillus
      circulans KA-304 Grown on a Cell-wall Preparation of S. commune as a Carbon
      Source.
AB  - From microorganisms growing on a cell-wall preparation (CWP) of Schizophyllum
      commune as a carbon source, Bacillus circulans KA-304 was isolated on the bases
      of activities in culture filtrate to decrease turbidity of the CWP-suspension and
      to form protoplasts from S. commune. The culture filtrate was also active in
      hydrolyzing p-nitrophenyl (p-NP)-alpha-d-glucoside, p-NP-beta-d-glucoside, and p
      NuRho-beta-d-Nu-acetylglucosaminide. The protoplast-forming and the p-NP
      glycoside-hydrolyzing activities were increased by the addition of CWP of S.
      commune to the culture medium, and this was not observed for other bacteria
      tested (15 genera, 80 species). B. circulans KA-304 was shown on gel filtration
      to produce at least two enzyme species for hydrolyzing both p-NP-alpha-d
      glucoside and p-NP-alpha-d-glucoside. The protoplast-forming activity was
      retained for at least 6 months at 5 degrees C as an ammonium sulfate (90%
      saturation) precipitate or at -20 degrees C as a freeze-dried preparation (KA
      preparation). The activity was stable at pH 6.5-7.0, and remained after 10 min of
      treatment at 40 degrees C. Protoplast formation proceeded optimally at pH 6.5
      with 50 mm potassium phosphate buffer and 0.5 m mannitol as an osmotic
      stabilizer. B. circulans KA-304 seems to be a suitable strain producing enzyme(s)
      to prepare protoplasts from S. commune.

PMID- 28862559
TI  - Preparation of Glutaraldehyde Cross-linked Complex from Support.
AB  - A glutaraldehyde (GA) spacer complex on enzyme immobilization was cleaved from
      the support introduced Nalpha-9-fluorenylmethyl-oxycarbonylglycine. By the 1H-NMR
      spectroscopic measurement of the desired complex, glycine-GA-phenethylamine
      (GGP), GA was thought to be involved in enzyme immobilization as a heteropolymer
      with the molecular weight range of about 600 to 1300.

PMID- 28862560
TI  - In Vitro and in Vivo Anti-platelet Effects of Enzymatic Hydrolysates of Collagen
      and Collagen-related Peptides.
AB  - Collagen-related peptides, Gly-Pro-Arg and its analogues, were examined for their
      inhibitory effects on platelet aggregation induced by the addition of ADP. Human
      platelet aggregation was suppressed by more than 50% with each of Gly-Pro-Arg and
      such Gly-Pro-Arg-containing peptides as Gly-Pro-Arg-Gly, Gly-Pro-Arg-Gly-Pro, Gly
      Pro-Arg-Pro-Pro, and Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro-Pro-Pro at a concentration of 0.3 mm. The
      inhibitory effects of these peptides were about 10 times higher in human PRP than
      in rat PRP. Other Gly-Pro-Arg analogues such as Sar-Pro-Arg, Gly-Pro-Lys, Gly-Ala
      Arg, and Ala-Gly-Pro-Arg had no inhibitory effect at a concentration from 0.1 to
      0.8 mm even in human PRP. Intravenous and oral administrations of Gly-Pro-Arg and
      enzymatic hydrolysates of collagen suppressed the decrease in platelet count for
      endotoxin-induced DIC in rats. Collagen itself has been regarded as a potent
      inducer of platelet aggregation, but these findings suggest that collagen-related
      peptides and enzymatic hydrolysates of collagen prevent platelet aggregation.

PMID- 28862561
TI  - Expression of Gene Encoding Endo-1,4-beta-glucanase in Suspension-cultured Poplar
      (Poplus alba L.) Cells?.
AB  - The level of mRNA for endo-1,4-beta-glucanase was increased before the
      exponential phase of growth and decreased rapidly during the exponential phase in
      suspension-cultured poplar cells. The level of mRNA was increased for a short
      period after the addition of either 2,4-D or sucrose to the culture medium at the
      stationary phase. The level was increased to the maximal level when both 2,4-D
      and sucrose were provided together, but one did not increase the effect of the
      other. These findings suggest that expression of gene encoding poplar endo-1,4
      beta-glucanase is controlled during cell growth by independent systems activated
      by auxin and sucrose.

PMID- 28862562
TI  - Synthesis of 24a-Substituted Milbemycin A4 Derivatives and Their Acaricidal
      Activity against Tetranychus uvticae.
AB  - A series of 24a-substituted milbemycin A4 derivatives were synthesized from 24a
      hydroxymilbemycin A4, which had been obtained by the microbial oxidation of
      milbemycin A4. The acaricidal activity of each synthesized derivative against
      Tetranychus urticae was tested and some of the derivatives showed higher activity
      than parent milbemycin A4. Among them, 24a-methylmilbemycin A4 (22) was the most
      active derivative, with 100% mortality of the mite at a concentration of 1 ppm
      and 50% mortality at a concentration of 0.1 ppm.

PMID- 28862563
TI  - Inhibition of Glucan Synthesis by Flavipin-crosslinked Casein Polymers.
AB  - Mutastein, a casein polymer that inhibits insoluble glucan synthesis by
      Streptococcus sobrinus, was produced when Aspergillus terreus was grown in a
      medium containing alpha-casein. In these experiments, it was shown that flavipin
      (3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-methyl-o-phthalaldehyde) isolated from cultures of A. terreus
      caused polymerization of alpha-casein. Like mutastein, the polymerization
      products were active in inhibiting insoluble glucan synthesis by S. sobrinus.

PMID- 28862564
TI  - Occurrence of Free N-Glycans in Pea (Pisum sativum, L) Seedlings?.
AB  - Free N-glycans have been found in pea seedlings. These free N-glycans were
      coupled with 2-aminopyridine and purified by gel filtration, Con Alpha-Sepharose
      affinity chromatography, and size fractionation HPLC. These structures of
      pyridylaminated free N-glycans were analyzed by exomannosidase digestions and ion
      spray tandem mass spectrometry. The structural analyses showed that the several
      oligomannose-type sugar chains having one GlcNAc residue at the reducing-end side
      occur in the seedlings, suggesting the endo-beta-N-acetylgIucosaminidase PS [Y.
      Kimura et al., Biosci. Biotech. Biochem., 60, 228-232 (1996)] should be involved
      in the release of oligomannose-type N-glycans from the storage glycoproteins [Y.
      Kimura et al., Biosci. Biotech. Biochem., 60, 1841-1850 (1996)] during the
      germination of pea seeds.

PMID- 28862566
TI  - Grandinal, a New Phloroglucinol Dimer from Eucalyptus grandis.
AB  - Grandinal, a new dimeric phloroglucinol compound, was isolated from Eucalyptus
      grandis and characterized by spectral techniques. Tautomeric structures 1, 2, and
      3 were assigned to grandinal. Biogenetically, 1 is proposed to be formed from
      intermediates derived from grandinol and jensenone.

PMID- 28862565
TI  - Enzymatic Synthesis of Mannosyl-cyclodextrin by alpha-Mannosidase from Jack Bean.
AB  - Mannosylated derivatives of cyclodextrins (CDs), mannosyl-alpha, beta, and
      gammaCD were synthesized from a mixture of mannose and alpha, beta, and gammaCD
      by the reverse action of alpha-mannosidase from jack bean, respectively. Their
      structures were analyzed by FAB-MS and 13C-NMR spectroscopies, and they were
      identified as 6-O-alpha-d-mannosyl-alpha, beta, and gammaCD. The optimum
      conditions for the production of 6-O-alpha-d-mannosyl-alphaCD by alpha
      mannosidase were examined. Optimum pH and temperature were pH 4.5 and 60 degrees
      C, respectively. Yield of mannosyl-alphaCD increased with increasing mannose
      concentration and reached more than 35% (mol/mol) at the concentration of 2 m
      mannose and 0.4 m alphaCD.

PMID- 28862567
TI  - Incorporation of Farnesyl Pyrophosphate Derivertives into Abscisic Acid and Its
      Biosynthetic Intermediates in Cevcospova cruenta.
AB  - To investigate the transformation from (2E,6E)-farnesyl pyrophosphate to (2Z,4E)
      gamma-ionylideneethanol in the abscisic acid-producing fungi, Cercospora cruenta,
      plausible [2-14C]-C15 intermediates were prepared and fed. Substrates such as
      (2E,6E)-farnesyl pyrophosphate, (2Z,4E)-gamma-ionylideneethanol and its
      pyrophosphate were incorporated into ABA and its known biosynthetic precursors.
      It is suggested that (2E,6E>farnesyl pyrophosphate is converted to (2Z,4E)-gamma
      ionylideneethanol in four consecutive steps: dehydrogenation, isomerization,
      cyclization and hydrolysis.

PMID- 28862569
TI  - Isolation and Partial Amino Add Sequence of Bacteriocins Produced by
      Lactobacillus acidophilus.
AB  - Bacteriocins produced by Lactobacillus acidophilus JCM 1023, JCM 1028, JCM 1021,
      JCM 1229, and JCM 5342 were active against closely related lactobacilli. These
      bacteriocins were purified and partial sequenced. Bacteriocin activities of L.
      acidophilus JCM 1023 and JCM 1028 were associated with two components. On the
      basis of N-terminal amino acid sequencing and the molecular masses, it is
      interpreted that these two-component bacteriocins are identical to acidocin
      J1132, a bacteriocin from L. acidophilus JCM 1132 [Tahara et al., Appl. Environ.
      Microbiol., 62, 892-897 (1996)]. Other bacteriocins were single-peptide
      bacteriocins.

PMID- 28862568
TI  - Effects of Ethylene and Gibberellins on the Elongation of Rice Seedlings (Oryza
      sativa L.).
AB  - Three-day-old rice seedlings treated with ethylene showed elongation of the 2nd
      and 3rd leaves. This ethylene-stimulated elongation was not observed in the
      presence of uniconazole-P or prohexadione, both gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis
      inhibitors, suggesting that GA was involved in the response. An analysis of
      endogenous GAs by GC-MS revealed that the GA1 level was reduced in the 3rd leaf
      in response to ethylene. Dose-response experiments showed that the responsiveness
      to GA1 was enhanced by ethylene. Feeding experiments of 14C-GA1 with ethylene
      treated seedlings showed that ethylene may increase the conversion of GA1 to GA8.
      These results suggest that, in young seedlings of rice, ethylene stimulates leaf
      elongation by increasing the responsiveness to GA1 and the turnover of GA1.

PMID- 28862570
TI  - Absolute Configurations of Some Hydroxy-fatty Acids Produced by the Insect Genus
      Laccifer.
AB  - The absolute configurations of some hydroxy-fatty acids were examined by the
      modified Mosher's method proposed by Ohtani et al. The absolute configurations of
      the major components were determined from NMR data of their MUTauRhoAlpha esters
      and 2-NuMUAlpha esters. The application of Mosher's method for the anti-glycol is
      discussed.

PMID- 28862571
TI  - Utility of intraoperative rotational thromboelastometry in thoracolumbar
      deformity surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Blood loss during surgery for thoracolumbar scoliosis often requires
      blood product transfusion. Rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) has enabled the
      more targeted treatment of coagulopathy, but its use in deformity surgery has
      received limited study. The authors investigated whether the use of ROTEM reduces
      transfusion requirements in this case-control study of thoracolumbar deformity
      surgery. METHODS Data were prospectively collected on all patients who received
      ROTEM-guided blood product management during long-segment (>= 7 levels) posterior
      thoracolumbar fusion procedures at a single institution from April 2015 to
      February 2016. Patients were matched with a group of historical controls who did
      not receive ROTEM-guided therapy according to age, fusion segments, number of
      osteotomies, and number of interbody fusion levels. Demographic, intraoperative,
      and postoperative transfusion requirements were collected on all patients.
      Univariate analysis of ROTEM status and multiple linear regression analysis of
      the factors associated with total in-hospital transfusion volume were performed,
      with p < 0.05 considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS Fifteen
      patients who received ROTEM-guided therapy were identified and matched with 15
      non-ROTEM controls. The mean number of fusion levels was 11 among all patients,
      with no significant differences between groups in terms of fusion levels,
      osteotomy levels, interbody fusion levels, or other demographic factors. Patients
      in the non-ROTEM group required significantly more total blood products during
      their hospitalization than patients in the ROTEM group (8.5 +/- 4.2 units vs 3.71
      +/- 2.8 units; p = 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the
      use of ROTEM (p = 0.016) and a lower number of fused levels (p = 0.022) were
      associated with lower in-hospital transfusion volumes. CONCLUSIONS ROTEM use
      during thoracolumbar deformity correction is associated with lower transfusion
      requirements. Further investigation will better define the role of ROTEM in
      transfusion during deformity surgery.

PMID- 28862572
TI  - Laminoplasty versus laminectomy with posterior spinal fusion for multilevel
      cervical spondylotic myelopathy: influence of cervical alignment on outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Cervical curvature is an important factor when deciding between
      laminoplasty and laminectomy with posterior spinal fusion (LPSF) for cervical
      spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). This study compares outcomes following laminoplasty
      and LPSF in patients with matched postoperative cervical lordosis. METHODS Adults
      undergoing laminoplasty or LPSF for cervical CSM from 2011 to 2014 were
      identified. Matched cohorts were obtained by excluding LPSF patients with
      postoperative cervical Cobb angles outside the range of laminoplasty patients.
      Clinical outcomes and radiographic results were compared. A subgroup analysis of
      patients with and without preoperative pain was performed, and the effects of
      cervical curvature on pain outcomes were examined. RESULTS A total of 145
      patients were included: 101 who underwent laminoplasty and 44 who underwent LPSF.
      Preoperative Nurick scale score, pain incidence, and visual analog scale (VAS)
      neck pain scores were similar between the two groups. Patients who underwent LPSF
      had significantly less preoperative cervical lordosis (5.8 degrees  vs 10.9
      degrees , p = 0.018). Preoperative and postoperative C2-7 sagittal vertical axis
      (SVA) and T-1 slope were similar between the two groups. Laminoplasty cases were
      associated with less blood loss (196.6 vs 325.0 ml, p < 0.001) and trended toward
      shorter hospital stays (3.5 vs 4.3 days, p = 0.054). The perioperative
      complication rate was 8.3%; there was no significant difference between the
      groups. LPSF was associated with a higher long-term complication rate (11.6% vs
      2.2%, p = 0.036), with pseudarthrosis accounting for 3 of 5 complications in the
      LPSF group. Follow-up cervical Cobb angle was similar between the groups (8.8
      degrees  vs 7.1 degrees , p = 0.454). At final follow-up, LPSF had a
      significantly lower mean Nurick score (0.9 vs 1.4, p = 0.014). Among patients
      with preoperative neck pain, pain incidence (36.4% vs 31.3%, p = 0.629) and VAS
      neck pain (2.1 vs 1.8, p = 0.731) were similar between the groups. Similarly, in
      patients without preoperative pain, there was no significant difference in pain
      incidence (19.4% vs 18.2%, p = 0.926) and VAS neck pain (1.0 vs 1.1, p = 0.908).
      For laminoplasty, there was a significant trend for lower pain incidence (p =
      0.010) and VAS neck pain (p = 0.004) with greater cervical lordosis, especially
      when greater than 20 degrees  (p = 0.011 and p = 0.018). Mean follow-up was 17.3
      months. CONCLUSIONS For patients with CSM, LPSF was associated with slightly
      greater blood loss and a higher long-term complication rate, but offered greater
      neurological improvement than laminoplasty. In cohorts of matched follow-up
      cervical sagittal alignment, pain outcomes were similar between laminoplasty and
      LPSF patients. However, among laminoplasty patients, greater cervical lordosis
      was associated with better pain outcomes, especially for lordosis greater than 20
      degrees . Cervical curvature (lordosis) should be considered as an important
      factor in pain outcomes following posterior decompression for multilevel CSM.

PMID- 28862573
TI  - The sagittal spinal profile type: a principal precondition for surgical decision
      making in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Microsurgical decompression (MD) in patients with lumbar spinal
      stenosis (LSS) shows good clinical results. Nevertheless, 30%-40% of patients do
      not have a significant benefit after surgery-probably due to different anatomical
      preconditions. The sagittal profile types (SPTs 1-4) defined by Roussouly based
      on different spinopelvic parameters have been shown to influence spinal
      degeneration and surgical results. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      influence of the SPT on the clinical outcome in patients with LSS who were
      treated with MD. METHODS The authors retrospectively investigated 100 patients
      with LSS who received MD. The patients were subdivided into 4 groups depending on
      their SPT, which was determined from preoperative lateral spinal radiographs. The
      authors analyzed pre- and postoperative outcome scales, including the visual
      analog scale (VAS), walking distance, Oswestry Disability Index, Roland-Morris
      Disability Questionnaire, Odom's criteria, and the 36-Item Short Form Health
      Survey score. RESULTS Patients with SPT 1 showed a significantly worse clinical
      outcome concerning their postoperative back pain (VASback-SPT 1 = 5.4 +/- 2.8;
      VASback-SPT 2 = 2.6 +/- 1.9; VASback-SPT 3 = 2.9 +/- 2.6; VASback-SPT 4 = 1.5 +/-
      2.5) and back pain-related disability. Only 43% were satisfied with their
      surgical results, compared with 70%-80% in the other groups. CONCLUSIONS A small
      pelvic incidence with reduced compensation mechanisms, a distinct lordosis in the
      lower lumbar spine with a high load on dorsal structures, and a long
      thoracolumbar kyphosis with a high axial load might lead to worse back pain after
      MD. Therefore, the indication for MD should be provided carefully, fusion can be
      considered, and other possible reasons for back pain should be thoroughly
      evaluated and treated.

PMID- 28862575
TI  - Proceedings of the Experimental Psychology Society 2017.

PMID- 28862574
TI  - Steady-state pharmacokinetics of hydroxychloroquine in patients with cutaneous
      lupus erythematosus.
AB  - Background Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a 4-aminoquinolone antimalarial, is regarded
      as the oral therapy of choice for cutaneous and systemic lupus erythematosus
      (SLE). It is also licensed for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Studies of HCQ-treated
      patients with SLE or RA have demonstrated a positive correlation between whole
      blood HCQ levels and clinical response. Such studies have involved measuring
      whole-blood concentrations at any given time point after HCQ ingestion assuming
      that steady-state concentrations would undergo limited fluctuation over a daily
      interval because HCQ has a long half-life. This approach might not sufficiently
      take into account the potential intra-patient variation in HCQ blood levels that
      can occur over a 24-hour period. Such variation, if significant, could affect the
      credibility of any concentration-response relationship provided from these
      previous studies. Objectives The objectives of this report are to: (a)
      investigate the intra-patient variation in HCQ whole-blood levels and (b) suggest
      an optimum time for sampling patients for future studies. Methods Six patients
      were recruited with cutaneous lupus erythematosus who had each been on HCQ 200 mg
      twice daily for at least six months, so that they were at steady-state. Each
      patient was fasted overnight and had standardized meals and dosing schedule.
      Whole blood was sampled at seven time points over 24 hours. Whole-blood HCQ
      levels were measured with high-performance liquid chromatography using gradient
      elution, fluorimetric detection and chloroquine as an internal standard. The
      assay had a mean inter- and intra-day coefficient of variation of 10% and 5%
      respectively and a limit of detection of 5ng/ml. Results HCQ levels appeared to
      follow a biphasic pattern over the sampling period. Maximum levels were noted a
      median of four hours (range 2-6) after ingestion. Median intra-patient variation
      between trough and peak levels, 'Cmax' ((peak - trough)/trough * 100%), was 27%
      (range 8-150%). Conclusions This study demonstrated that whole-blood HCQ levels
      vary 27% (median, range 8-150%) within an individual over a 12-hour period. Drug
      levels might differ between individuals because of multiple factors, including
      variable adherence to medication. Measuring HCQ levels for assessment of drug
      adherence could be valuable in the 'real-world' clinical setting. This could be
      assessed by taking a blood sample at any time following HCQ ingestion. If
      patients were found to have very low or undetectable levels of HCQ, non-adherence
      to HCQ should be suspected.

PMID- 28862578
TI  - Missed opportunity.

PMID- 28862577
TI  - Website design for the dental practice.

PMID- 28862579
TI  - Addressing the emerging public health crisis of narcotic overdose.

PMID- 28862580
TI  - Drug shortages: how do we run out of salt water?

PMID- 28862581
TI  - "I didn't sign up for this!"

PMID- 28862582
TI  - Gingival mass and Blue lesion of palate.

PMID- 28862583
TI  - Dentin desensitizing agents: too many options.
AB  - As the number of dentin desensitizing products has grown, it has become more
      difficult for the dental clinician to make the correct choice. This literature
      review seeks to clearly explain the different modes of action of current
      desensitizing agents, including the clinical trial outcomes of different
      materials and products in the market. A better understanding of the prevalence,
      pain physiology, diagnosis, and different methods of management of dentinal
      hypersensitivity is imperative for proper pain management.

PMID- 28862584
TI  - A root volume study of the adult dentition for ridge preservation purposes.
AB  - Ridge preservation has become a common practice to preserve the remaining
      alveolar bone volume after tooth extraction. The most common volume of graft
      material in commercially available vials is between 0.50 and 1.00 mL. The
      clinician must estimate how much grafting material is needed after extracting a
      tooth. The aim of this study is to provide the clinician with a volumetric guide
      for selection of graft material for ridge preservation after tooth extraction.
      Fifteen sets of permanent teeth, each representing a full adult dentition
      excluding the third molars, were selected at random from a collection of
      extracted teeth. Teeth were submerged in a polyvinyl siloxane impression material
      to record the negative impression of the root. Water was then used to fill this
      space and measure the root volume. For the majority of the teeth, 0.50 mL of
      graft material was adequate for grafting the socket. A volume greater than 0.50
      mL was required to preserve the maxillary and mandibular first molars.
      Overestimation or underestimation of the amount of grafting material necessary
      postextraction may result in unnecessary expense.

PMID- 28862585
TI  - Oral health considerations in anorexia and bulimia nervosa. 2. Multidisciplinary
      management and personalized dental care.
AB  - This article outlines a comprehensive, multidisciplinary strategy for treatment
      of patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa. In this approach, primary medical
      intervention and emergency dental care are followed by the staging of treatment
      phases that integrate medical care, psychotherapy, nutritional counseling, and
      dental management, which may encompass various treatment options for repair of
      damaged dentition. Emphasis is placed on prevention of further tissue damage
      during all phases of management and following completion of the treatment course.

PMID- 28862586
TI  - Success rates of Hall technique crowns in primary molars: a retrospective pilot
      study.
AB  - The purpose of this retrospective observational study was to assess success
      rates, both clinical and radiographic, of stainless steel crowns (SSCs) placed on
      primary molars using the Hall technique. A retrospective analysis was performed
      on recorded data of patients with any primary molar treated with an SSC that was
      placed using the Hall technique at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry
      during 2011-2015. The primary outcome measure was the success or failure of the
      SSCs placed with the Hall technique. These outcomes were categorized as either
      clinical and radiographic success or failure. Clinical failure was defined as the
      need for pulp therapy or extraction following crown placement. Radiographic
      failure was defined as the presence of any pathological condition-including
      external or internal root resorption, bifurcation radiolucency, widened
      periodontal ligament, or ectopic eruption of permanent first molar adjacent to
      the Hall crown-following crown placement. Records indicated that 100 boys
      received a total of 179 crowns (61.1% of all Hall crowns placed), and 64 girls
      received 114 crowns. The mean age of the patients was 5.1 years (SD, 2.4 years).
      Of 293 SSCs included in the study, 180 received at least 1 follow-up examination
      after a mean of 9.9 months (SD, 6.5 months). At the first follow-up visit, 178
      (98.9%) of 180 SSCs placed using the Hall technique were clinically successful.
      Of 87 crowns with radiographs available, 85 (97.7%) were radiographically
      successful. At the second follow-up visit (after a mean of 20.1 months), 74 of 76
      (97.4%) were rated as clinically successful, and 37 of 39 (94.9%) were
      radiographically successful. Results of this study provide evidence of high
      clinical and radiographic success rates for SSCs placed on primary molars with
      the Hall technique.

PMID- 28862587
TI  - Modified PEEK as an alternative crown framework material for weak abutment teeth:
      a case report.
AB  - This case report describes the fabrication of 3 single crowns for a patient with
      weakened abutment teeth. The patient exhibited nocturnal bruxism and clenching
      but refused to use an occlusal appliance. The abutment teeth were endodontically
      treated and presented with loss of tooth structure and thin axial walls. The
      patient was seeking a metal-free restoration, and all-ceramic restorations were
      contraindicated because of the potential for abrasion of the opposing teeth and
      direct force transmission to the weak abutment teeth. The restoration of choice
      was a modified polyetheretherketone (PEEK) framework material veneered with an
      indirect light-cured composite resin. This approach offered characteristics such
      as biocompatibility, protection of opposing teeth, a cushioning effect, abrasion
      resistance almost equal to that of dentin, ease of intraoral repair in case of
      chipping, and a high level of comfort. The use of PEEK frameworks veneered with
      indirect light-cured composite resin could be a viable alternative for the
      treatment of weakened abutment teeth in patients with parafunctional habits.

PMID- 28862588
TI  - Phantom bite: a real or a phantom diagnosis? A case report.
AB  - This case report describes computer-guided occlusal therapy in a patient who met
      the unified diagnostic criteria for phantom bite. After a review of the patient's
      medical history, along with a diagnostic work-up that included cone beam computed
      tomography, temporomandibular joint vibration analysis, and digital occlusal
      analysis, problematic dental components were discovered (including prolonged
      disclusion time and imbalanced bite force). A digital occlusal analyzer evaluated
      the patient's occlusion and systematically guided the necessary changes. After
      reduction of the disclusion time and correction of the occlusal force imbalance,
      the patient reported significant improvement in comfort. The results suggest that
      phantom bite could be an abnormal occlusal condition and not a psychological or
      neurologic somatoform disorder.

PMID- 28862589
TI  - Review of techniques for the intact removal of a permanently cemented
      restoration.
AB  - The safest and least traumatic means of removing a cemented restoration is to cut
      a slot and pry the crown or retainer loose, sacrificing the restoration. However,
      various techniques and instruments for intact removal of permanently cemented
      cast restorations have been described in the literature. This literature review
      explores conservative and semiconservative techniques that are useful for
      preserving permanently cemented restorations during removal. Richwil resin,
      ultrasonic energy, and crown tractors can be considered preferred methods for
      removal of temporarily cemented restorations. Patients should be informed
      regarding the risks and benefits before removal of a cemented restoration.

PMID- 28862590
TI  - The compression dome concept: the restorative implications.
AB  - Evidence now supports the concept that the enamel on a tooth acts like a
      compression dome, much like the dome of a cathedral. With an overlying enamel
      compression dome, the underlying dentin is protected from damaging tensile
      forces. Disruption of a compression system leads to significant shifts in load
      pathways. The clinical restorative implications are significant and far-reaching.
      Cutting the wrong areas of a tooth exposes the underlying dentin to tensile
      forces that exceed natural design parameters. These forces lead to crack
      propagation, causing flexural pain and eventual fracture and loss of tooth
      structure. Improved understanding of the microanatomy of tooth structure and
      where it is safe to cut teeth has led to a revolution in dentistry that is known
      by several names, including microdentistry, minimally invasive dentistry,
      biomimetic dentistry, and bioemulation dentistry. These treatment concepts have
      developed due to a coalescence of principles of tooth microanatomy, material
      science, adhesive dentistry, and reinforcing techniques that, when applied
      together, will allow dentists to repair a compromised compression dome so that it
      more closely replicates the structure of the healthy tooth.

PMID- 28862591
TI  - Double mesiodens: a review and report of 2 cases.
AB  - Mesiodentes are the most frequently encountered supernumerary teeth. Recently,
      reports of double mesiodens have increased, which may be due to the availability
      of better diagnostic methods. This article discusses 2 cases of double mesiodens
      with varying clinical presentations. In addition, the literature related to the
      etiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of mesiodentes is
      reviewed.

PMID- 28862592
TI  - What every dentist should know about statins.
AB  - Statins are well known for their ability to combat cardiovascular disease. There
      is new evidence that statins can influence a variety of cellular pathways,
      suggesting that their benefits may extend beyond lowering cholesterol. This
      review will explore potential new therapeutic roles for statins in medical and
      dental settings.

PMID- 28862593
TI  - Prosthetic rehabilitation in a pediatric patient with hypohidrotic ectodermal
      dysplasia: a case report.
AB  - Hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED) is a rare ectodermal disease with a
      systemic expression. Oral abnormalities are common and may include hypodontia and
      shape irregularities in the primary and permanent dentitions. Rehabilitation of
      the dental arches in pediatric patients with HED is a challenge because HED is a
      multifactorial disease that demands a complicated treatment approach and most
      dentists have limited experience or training in the necessary treatment. In
      addition, pediatric patients often lack the patience or ability to cooperate with
      complex prosthetic treatment. This case report describes a simplified technique
      used to fabricate complete dentures for a 4-year-old HED patient in 4 sessions.

PMID- 28862594
TI  - Use of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy for treatment of deep caries in the
      primary dentition: a step-by-step technique report.
AB  - Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is increasingly used in dentistry to
      treat a number of diseases. The procedure involves the activation of a
      photosensitizer by a visible light source to induce chemical reactions that
      create cytotoxic reactive oxygen species, cause oxidative stress, and result in
      inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms. The use of aPDT has been proven to
      reduce microorganisms present in dentin and therefore may be effective for
      treatment of deep caries. This case report describes the use of aPDT as an
      adjuvant therapy in the treatment of deep caries in the primary molar of a 7-year
      old boy. The case also highlights the preservation of pulpal vitality-in
      accordance with the concepts of minimal intervention-as well as the reduction of
      chair time achieved by resolving the case in a single session, a factor that is
      important for the treatment of children.

PMID- 28862595
TI  - Effect of bleaching on color stability and roughness of composite resins aged in
      staining beverage.
AB  - Composite resin properties can be affected by contact with gel during bleaching
      procedures; however, there is no consensus about the effect of this contact on
      resin susceptibility to color change. This study aimed to evaluate staining
      susceptibility and surface roughness changes in 2 composite resins (Filtek Z250
      XT and Filtek Z350 XT) after application of bleaching peroxides and storage in
      different media. Forty-two disc-shaped specimens of each composite were made,
      polished, and divided into 3 groups according to treatment type (35% hydrogen
      peroxide, 16% carbamide peroxide, or deionized water as a control group). These
      groups were subdivided into 2 groups according to immersion media (n = 7):
      deionized water or red wine. Color and average roughness (Ra) measurements were
      taken 24 hours after specimen preparation (T0), immediately after bleaching
      procedures (T1), and immediately after aging (staining; T2). Statistical analyses
      were performed using 2-way analyses of variance for repeated measurements and the
      Tukey test (P < 0.05). Bleaching resulted in minimal color change (DeltaE* < 1)
      in all groups. Filtek Z350 XT specimens presented greater mean values of color
      change. The Ra values did not increase significantly after bleaching procedures
      or aging (staining) in all groups. Thus, bleaching agents did not significantly
      change the color or roughness of the composite resins used in this study.

PMID- 28862596
TI  - Noninvasive approach to esthetic rehabilitation of conoid anterior teeth.
AB  - Several factors, including anomalies of shape, color, or size, or positioning of
      the teeth, may interfere with smile esthetics. A 26-year-old woman was
      dissatisfied with the esthetics of her maxillary lateral incisors, which had
      defective composite resin restorations with alterations of color and shape. The
      aim of this article is to present a step-by-step description of the technique
      used to fabricate esthetic restorations for the conoid maxillary lateral incisors
      with a minimum of dental preparation. The successful outcome demonstrates the
      importance of correct planning for successful restorations.

PMID- 28862597
TI  - Influence of custom adaptation on the characteristics of fiber posts.
AB  - In this in vitro study, 3 experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of
      customizing the apical portion on the characteristics of fiber posts. In the
      first experiment, 4 fiber posts were submitted to different custom adaptations
      (no customization, industrial shaping tool, diamond bur, or paper disc) and were
      observed with a scanning electron microscope to evaluate the micromorphologic
      changes. In the second experiment, 60 posts of different sizes were divided into
      6 groups (n = 10): 0 (No. 0.5), 1 (No. 1), 2 (No. 2), 3 (No. 3), 4 (No. 4), and 5
      (paper disc-remodeled No. 4). The posts were submitted to a 3-point bending test.
      In the third experiment, the crowns of 20 extracted, healthy permanent human
      canines were removed, and the teeth were endodontically treated, embedded in
      acrylic resin, and divided into 2 groups (n = 10): I (control), No. 4 posts
      cemented into post spaces prepared with a No. 4 drill; and II (test), remodeled
      No. 4 posts cemented into root spaces prepared with No. 2 and 4 drills. The posts
      were cemented with self-adhesive dual resin cement, and the specimens received
      direct resin crowns. Fracture strength was measured with a universal testing
      machine at 45 degrees until fracture. Results were submitted to analysis of
      variance (P <= 0.05). Customization of fiber posts with diamond burs or paper
      discs produced acceptable micromorphologic changes. Custom adaptation of fiber
      posts reduced their flexural strength, which remained at acceptable values. Teeth
      restored with customized fiber posts had greater fracture strength than those
      restored with intact posts. The results of this study indicated that post
      remodeling is a safe means to facilitate adaptation to root walls and preserve
      tooth structure.

PMID- 28862598
TI  - [Correction of the oxidant-antioxidant balance in lungs during hyperoxia by
      liposomal alpha-tocopherol and retinoids in the experiment].
AB  - The influence of inhaled liposomes, containing dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine
      and a-tocopherol, and liposomes containing dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine,
      retinol and retinoic acid, on parameters of the oxidantantioxidant system in
      lungs of newborn guinea pigs exposed to hyperoxia during 3 and 14 days has been
      studied. Administration of both types of liposomes under conditions of prolonged
      hyperoxia (14 days) results in normalization of glutathione peroxidase activity
      and prevents elevation of the levels of lipid and protein peroxidation products
      in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Unlike liposomes with a-tocopherol,
      administration of liposomes containing retinoids did not cause the normalizing
      effect on the content of nonprotein SH-compounds in the bronchoalveolar fluid and
      contributed to significant reduction of the a-tocopherol level in lung tissues.

PMID- 28862600
TI  - [Differences in adrenal steroid hormones production in pubertal rats exposed to
      low doses of endocrine disruptor DDT during prenatal and postnatal development].
AB  - Production of adrenal steroid hormones in pubertal male Wistar rats exposed to
      low doses of DDT during both prenatal and postnatal and only postnatal
      development was evaluated. Altered production of all types of steroid hormones
      and serum steroid profile with opposite changes in rats exposed prenatally and
      postnatally, and only postnatally was found. The study showed that daily exposure
      to low doses of DDT enhanced conversion of progesterone to 17OH-progesterone and
      did not exert selective antiandrogenic or proestrogenic action unlike effect of
      toxic and subtoxic doses. Impaired morphogenesis of the adrenal cortex and
      circulatory disorders in zona glomerulosa contributed to reduced aldosterone and
      sex steroid hormones production.

PMID- 28862599
TI  - [Induction of apoptotic endonuclease EndoG with DNA-damaging agents initiates
      alternative splicing of telomerase catalytic subunit hTERT and inhibition of
      telomerase activity hTERT in human CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes].
AB  - Activity of telomerase catalytic subunit hTERT (human Telomerase Reverse
      Transcriptase) can be regulated by alternative splicing of its mRNA. At present
      time exact mechanism of hTERT splicing is not fully understood. Apoptotic
      endonuclease EndoG is known to participate this process. EndoG expression is
      induced by DNA damages. The aim of this work was to investigate the ability of
      DNA-damaging agents with different mechanism of action to induce EndoG expression
      and inhibit telomerase activity due to the activation of hTERT alternative
      splicing in normal activated human CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes. All investigated
      DNA-damaging agents were able to induce EndoG expression. Cisplatin, a
      therapeutic compound, producing DNA cross-links induced the highest level of DNA
      damages and EndoG expression. Incubation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells with cisplatin
      caused the changes in proportion of hTERT splice variants and inhibition of
      telomerase activity.

PMID- 28862601
TI  - [Comparative analysis of expression of genes encoding enzymes of catecholamine
      catabolism and renalase in tissues of normotensive and hypertensive rats].
AB  - Comparative analysis of expression of genes encoding enzymes of catecholamine
      catabolism (monoaminbe oxidases A and B (MAO A and MAO B) and catechol-O-methyl
      transferase (COMT)) and renalase has been carried out in tissues of normotensive
      Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Among
      investigated tissues the highest level of mRNA of genes encoding key enzymes of
      catecholamine catabolism (MAO A, MAO B, COMT) was found in the heart of WKY rats.
      In SHR the mRNA levels of these genes were lower (p<0.05-0.01), however, no
      similar changes were observed in the tissues studied in dependence of
      hypertension. The relative mRNA levels of the studied genes normalized versus
      actin mRNA significantly varied. In heart and kidney the relative level of COMT
      mRNA significantly exceeded the relative levels of both MAO A mRNA and MAO B
      mRNA. In the brain differences in mRNAs of MAOA, MAOB, and COMT were less
      pronounced. However, in all examined tissue the renalase mRNA level was much (at
      least 10-20-fold) lower than any other mRNA studied. Taking into consideration
      known correlations between mRNAs and corresponding protein products reported in
      the literature for many genes these results suggest that in the case of any
      catalytic scenarios proposed or even proved for renalase this protein cannot
      contribute to catecholamine degradation. It is also unlikely that the products of
      renalase reaction, b-NAD(P)+ and hydrogen peroxide, can exhibit a hypotensive
      effect due to low expression of the renalase encoding gene.

PMID- 28862602
TI  - [The effect of neurotoxin MPTP administration to mice on the proteomic profile of
      brain isatin-binding proteins].
AB  - Isatin (indole-2,3-dione) is an endogenous indole found in the mammalian brain,
      peripheral organs and body fluids. It acts as a neuroprotector, which decreases
      manifestation of locomotor impairments in animal models of Parkinson's disease. A
      wide range of biological activity of isatin is associated with interaction of
      this regulator with numerous isatin-binding proteins. The aim of this study was
      to investigate the profile of brain isatin-binding proteins in mice with MPTP
      induced Parkinsonism (90 min and seven days after administration of this
      neurotoxin). A single dose administration of MPTP (30 mg/kg, ip.) was accompanied
      by locomotor impairments in the open field test 90 min after administration;
      seven days after MPTP administration locomotor activity of mice significantly
      improved but did not reach the control level. Five independent experiments on
      proteomic profiling of isatin-binding proteins resulted in confident
      identification of 96+/-12 proteins. Development of MPTP-induced locomotor
      impairments was accompanied by a significant decrease in the number of isatin
      binding proteins (63+/-6; n=5; p<0.01). Seven days after MPTP administration the
      total number of identified proteins increased and reached the control level
      (132+/-34; n=4). The profiles of isatin-binding proteins were rather specific for
      each group of mice: in the control group these proteins (which were not found in
      both groups of MPTP-treated mice) represented more than 70% of total proteins. In
      the case of MPTP treated mice this parameter was 60% (90 min after MPTP
      administration) and >82% (seven days after MPTP administration). The major
      changes were found in the groups of isatin-binding proteins involved into
      cytoskeleton formation and exocytosis, regulation of gene expression, cell
      division and differentiation and also proteins involved in signal transduction.

PMID- 28862603
TI  - [The activity of redox-regulatory systems in the primary and recurrence tumors in
      vulvar cancer].
AB  - The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase
      (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione transferase (GST), the content of
      reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were investigated in the
      samples of the tumor, peritumoral zone and healthy tissue, taken at the line of
      resection, were obtained from 14 patients with primary squamous cell carcinoma of
      the vulva, and 13 patients with local recurrence appeared in the period from 3
      months to 7 years. by conventional spectrophotometric methods. The content of GSH
      and the activity of SOD, GPx, GR, GST were significantly increased, while MDA was
      decreased in the tissue of the primary carcinoma of the vulva in compared with
      the healthy tissue. Differences in the functioning of the investigated system of
      enzymes in the peritumoral zone were also revealed in the primary and recurrent
      tumoral process. Similar but much less pronounced changes were also observed in
      the recurrent tumor. It is suggested that such dynamics of activity of the
      studied system with the progression of cancer process can be the result of
      adaptation to changes in the local biochemical status of healthy (nonmalignant)
      tissue of the organ carrying the tumor and reflect the metabolic features of the
      recurrent tumor.

PMID- 28862604
TI  - [High resolution respirometry in diagnostic of mitochondrial disorders caused by
      mitochondrial complex I deficiency].
AB  - Complex I (CI) deficiency is one of the most common defects in the OXPHOS system;
      it represents more than 30% cases of mitochondrial diseases. The group is
      characterized by clinical and genetic heterogeneity and comprise several
      nosological forms. The most prevalent phenotypes for CI are LHON and Leigh
      syndrome. In this study we have analyzed skin fibroblasts from 11 patients with
      mutations in mtDNA, which cause LHON or Leigh-like phenotypes: m.11778 G>A (n=3),
      m.3460 A>G (n=2), m.3635 G>A (n=1), m.3308 T>G (n=2), m.3472 T>C (n=1) and 2
      patients with earlier unknown substitutions m.3945 C>A and m.14441T>C. High
      resolution respirometry (HRR) on the Oxygraph-2k instrument ("Oroboros corp.",
      Austria) was performed for complex analysis of the mitochondrial respiratory
      function in intact and permeabilized fibroblasts of patients and healthy
      controls. Flux control rations in intact cells R/E, (R-L)/E (p<0.05) were raised
      compared to the control. Rates of R, E, L normalized on the CS were statistically
      varied between patients and controls. In permeabilized fibroblasts we observed
      differences in CII/E, Rot/E, R/CII, CI/CII (p<0.05) between groups. These data
      highlight the dysfunction of the OXPHOS system and particularly CI. Increased
      citrate synthase level and decreased CI/CII ratio indicate compensatory metabolic
      response to respiratory chain dysfunction. Our results show applicability of HRR
      in revealing the biochemical abnormalities of complex I in fibroblasts of
      patients with LHON and Leigh-like syndrome. We also suggest HRR to be a useful
      method for inspection of other mutations causing complex I deficiency.

PMID- 28862605
TI  - [Influence of cultivation conditions on the proteomic profile of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis H37RV].
AB  - Comparative proteomic profiling of M. tuberculosis H37Rv strains cultured on two
      different nutrient media, Levenstein-Jensen and Middlebrook 7H11, was performed
      using a label-free LC-MS/MS approach. It was shown that results obtained from two
      media possessed high convergence. The only difference was observed in the
      representation of fumarate reductase FrdB, its abundance was higher in the
      mycobacterial cells cultured on Levenstein-Jensen medium. The correlation
      analysis of biological repeats revealed the high convergence of the results
      obtained from Middlebrook 7H11 medium. Thus, we can conclude that the use of the
      Middlebrook 7H11 medium is most appropriate in the scientific laboratory.

PMID- 28862606
TI  - [Use of de novo sequencing for proteins identification].
AB  - Three de novo sequencing programs (Novor, PEAKS and PepNovo+) have been used for
      identification of 48 individual human proteins constituting the Universal
      Proteomics Standard Set 2 (UPS2) ("Sigma-Aldrich", USA). Experimental data have
      been obtained by tandem mass spectrometry. The MS/MS was performed using pure
      UPS2 and UPS2 mixtures with E. coli extract and human plasma samples. Protein
      detection was based on identification of at least two peptides of 9 residues in
      length or one peptide containing at least 13 residues. Using these criteria 13
      (Novor), 20 (PEAKS) and 11 (PepNovo+) proteins were detected in pure UPS2 sample.
      Protein identifications in mixed samples were comparable or worse. Better results
      (by ~20%) were obtained using prediction included high quality identified
      fragment (TAG) containing at least 7 residues and unidentified additional masses
      at N- and C-termini (PepNovo+). The latter approach confidently recognized mass
      spectrometric artefacts (and probably PTM). Atypical mass changes missed in
      UNIMOD DB were found (PepNovo+) to be statistically significant at the C-terminus
      (+23.02, +26.04 and +27.03). Using peptides containing these modifications and
      milder detection threshold 41 of 48 UPS2 proteins were identified.

PMID- 28862607
TI  - [Protective action of fish muscle extracts against cellular senescence induced by
      oxidative stress].
AB  - Muscle extracts of some fish species, i.e. pike (Esox lucius), sterlet (Acipenser
      ruthenus), pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and, to a lesser extent, perch
      (Perca fluviatilis) and Russian sturgeon, (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) prevent the
      development of premature senescence of the human embryonic fibroblasts induced by
      the sublethal concentration of H2O2. Muscle extracts of other fish species
      tested, i.e. coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and zander (Sander lucioperca),
      have not demonstrated this feature. Cell proliferation increased after the action
      of the senescence-inhibiting muscle extracts. Possible mechanisms of the action
      of nature biologically active compounds that interfere with the development of
      stress-induced cell senescence are discussed.

PMID- 28862609
TI  - Gutzwiller variational approach to the two-impurity Anderson model for a metallic
      host at particle-hole symmetry.
AB  - We study Gutzwiller-correlated wave functions as variational ground states for
      the two-impurity Anderson model (TIAM) at particle-hole symmetry as a function of
      the impurity separation [Formula: see text]. Our variational state is obtained by
      applying the Gutzwiller many-particle correlator to a single-particle product
      state. We determine the optimal single-particle product state fully variationally
      from an effective non-interacting TIAM that contains a direct electron transfer
      between the impurities as variational degree of freedom. For a large Hubbard
      interaction U between the electrons on the impurities, the impurity spins
      experience a Heisenberg coupling proportional to [Formula: see text] where V
      parameterizes the strength of the on-site hybridization. For small Hubbard
      interactions we observe weakly coupled impurities. In general, for a three
      dimensional simple cubic lattice we find discontinuous quantum phase transitions
      that separate weakly interacting impurities for small interactions from singlet
      pairs for large interactions.

PMID- 28862608
TI  - [Quaternary structures of human cytoplasmic and nuclear PCNA are the same].
AB  - Properties and mechanisms of PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) functions
      have been investigated for a long time and are studied in great detail. As
      follows from its name, most known PCNA functions (DNA replication, DNA repair,
      DNA recombination and others) are connected with cell proliferation and
      localization of this protein in nuclei. In addition, there is good reason to
      believe that PCNA also performs some functions in the cytoplasm. However, the
      possible role and mechanisms of PCNA action in the cytoplasm require careful
      study and clarification. Interestingly, such cells as neutrophils differ in that
      they are non-dividing on one hand and on the other hand contain a rather large
      amount of PCNA, which is localized only in the cytoplasm, that is, they are an
      ideal model for the study of cytoplasmic PCNA. Using cross-linkages with
      formaldehyde, we showed that this cytoplasmic PCNA is cross-linked in a similar
      way, that is, organized in the same way as the nuclear PCNA that is present in
      the proliferating cells. Previously, we showed that PCNA in such cells is
      organized into a dynamic complex of double trimer on the basis of the back-to
      back principle (Naryzhny S.N. et al. (2005) J. Biol. Chem., 280, 13888).
      Apparently, such organization of this hub-protein allows it to better coordinate
      the processes taking place in the cytoplasm as well.

PMID- 28862610
TI  - Seventy years of publications.

PMID- 28862611
TI  - Phase-merging enhanced harmonic generation free-electron laser with a normal
      modulator.
AB  - A phase-merging enhanced harmonic generation free-electron laser (FEL) was
      proposed to increase the harmonic conversion efficiency of seeded FELs and
      promote the radiation wavelength towards the X-ray spectral region. However, this
      requires a specially designed transverse gradient undulator (TGU) as the
      modulator to couple the transverse and longitudinal phase space of the electron
      beam. In this paper, the generation of the phase-merging effect is explored using
      the natural field gradient of a normal planar undulator. In this method, a
      vertical dispersion on the electron beam is introduced and then the dispersed
      beam travels through a normal modulator in a vertical off-axis orbit where the
      vertical field gradient is selected properly in terms of the vertical dispersion
      strength and modulation amplitude. The phase-merging effect will be generated
      after passing through the dispersive chicane. Theoretical analysis and numerical
      simulations for a seeded soft X-ray FEL based on parameters of the Shanghai Soft
      X-ray FEL project are presented. Compared with a TGU modulator, using the natural
      gradient of a normal planar modulator has the distinct advantage that the
      gradient can be conveniently tuned in quite a large range by adjusting the beam
      orbit offset.

PMID- 28862612
TI  - Electron-bunch lengthening on higher-harmonic oscillations in storage-ring free
      electron lasers.
AB  - The influence of higher-harmonic free-electron laser (FEL) oscillations on an
      electron beam have been studied by measuring its bunch length at the NIJI-IV
      storage ring. The bunch length and the lifetime of the electron beam were
      measured, and were observed to have become longer owing to harmonic lasing, which
      is in accord with the increase of the FEL gain. It was demonstrated that the
      saturated FEL power could be described by the theory of bunch heating, even for
      the harmonic lasing. Cavity-length detuning curves were measured for the harmonic
      lasing, and it was found that the width of the detuning curve was proportional to
      a parameter that depended on the bunch length. These experimental results will be
      useful for developing compact resonator-type FELs by using higher harmonics in
      the extreme-ultraviolet and the X-ray regions.

PMID- 28862613
TI  - Refurbishment of a used in-vacuum undulator from the National Synchrotron Light
      Source for the National Synchrotron Light Source-II ring.
AB  - The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) ceased operation in September 2014
      and was succeeded by NSLS-II. There were four in-vacuum undulators (IVUs) in
      operation at NSLS. The most recently constructed IVU for NSLS was the mini-gap
      undulator (MGU-X25, to be renamed IVU18 for NSLS-II), which was constructed in
      2006. This device was selected to be reused for the New York Structural Biology
      Consortium Microdiffraction beamline at NSLS-II. At the time of construction,
      IVU18 was a state-of-the-art undulator designed to be operated as a cryogenic
      permanent-magnet undulator. Due to the more stringent field quality and impedance
      requirements of the NSLS-II ring, the transition region was redesigned. The
      control system was also updated to NSLS-II specifications. This paper reports the
      details of the IVU18 refurbishment activities including additional magnetic
      measurement and tuning.

PMID- 28862614
TI  - Simulated sample heating from a nanofocused X-ray beam.
AB  - Recent developments in synchrotron brilliance and X-ray optics are pushing the
      flux density in nanofocusing experiments to unprecedented levels, which increases
      the risk of different types of radiation damage. The effect of X-ray induced
      sample heating has been investigated using time-resolved and steady-state three
      dimensional finite-element modelling of representative nanostructures.
      Simulations of a semiconductor nanowire indicate that the heat generated by X-ray
      absorption is efficiently transported within the nanowire, and that the
      temperature becomes homogeneous after about 5 ns. The most important channel for
      heat loss is conduction to the substrate, where the heat transfer coefficient and
      the interfacial area are limiting the heat transport. While convective heat
      transfer to air is significant, the thermal radiation is negligible. The steady
      state average temperature in the nanowire is 8 K above room temperature at the
      reference parameters. In the absence of heat transfer to the substrate, the
      temperature increase at the same flux reaches 55 K in air and far beyond the
      melting temperature in vacuum. Reducing the size of the X-ray focus at constant
      flux only increases the maximum temperature marginally. These results suggest
      that the key strategy for reducing the X-ray induced heating is to improve the
      heat transfer to the surrounding.

PMID- 28862615
TI  - Observation of an optical vortex beam from a helical undulator in the XUV region.
AB  - The observation of an optical vortex beam at 60 nm wavelength, produced as the
      second-harmonic radiation from a helical undulator, is reported. The helical
      wavefront of the optical vortex beam was verified by measuring the interference
      pattern between the vortex beam from a helical undulator and a normal beam from
      another undulator. Although the interference patterns were slightly blurred owing
      to the relatively large electron beam emittance, it was possible to observe the
      interference features thanks to the helical wavefront of the vortex beam. The
      experimental results were well reproduced by simulation.

PMID- 28862616
TI  - Estimating the absolute flux distribution for a synchrotron X-ray beam using
      ionization-chamber measurements with various filters.
AB  - It is shown that an extensive set of accurate ionization-chamber measurements
      with a primary polychromatic synchrotron X-ray beam transmitted through various
      filter combinations/thicknesses can be used to quite effectively estimate the
      absolute flux distribution. The basic technique is simple but the 'inversion' of
      the raw data to extract the flux distribution is a fundamentally ill-posed
      problem. It is demonstrated, using data collected at the Imaging and Medical
      Beamline (IMBL) of the Australian Synchrotron, that the absolute flux can be
      quickly and reliably estimated if a suitable choice of filters is made. Results
      are presented as a function of the magnetic field (from 1.40 to 4.00 T) of the
      superconducting multi-pole wiggler insertion device installed at IMBL. A non
      linear least-squares refinement of the data is used to estimate the incident flux
      distribution and then comparison is made with calculations from the programs
      SPECTRA, XOP and spec.exe. The technique described is important not only in
      estimating flux itself but also for a variety of other, derived, X-ray properties
      such as beam quality, power density and absorbed-dose rate. The applicability of
      the technique with a monochromatic X-ray beam for which there is significant
      harmonic contamination is also demonstrated. Whilst absolute results can also be
      derived in this monochromatic beam case, relative (integrated) flux values are
      sufficient for our primary aim of establishing reliable determinations of the
      percentages of the various harmonic components.

PMID- 28862617
TI  - Mutual optical intensity propagation through non-ideal mirrors.
AB  - The mutual optical intensity (MOI) model is extended to include the propagation
      of partially coherent radiation through non-ideal mirrors. The propagation of the
      MOI from the incident to the exit plane of the mirror is realised by local ray
      tracing. The effects of figure errors can be expressed as phase shifts obtained
      by either the phase projection approach or the direct path length method. Using
      the MOI model, the effects of figure errors are studied for diffraction-limited
      cases using elliptical cylinder mirrors. Figure errors with low spatial
      frequencies can vary the intensity distribution, redistribute the local coherence
      function and distort the wavefront, but have no effect on the global degree of
      coherence. The MOI model is benchmarked against HYBRID and the multi-electron
      Synchrotron Radiation Workshop (SRW) code. The results show that the MOI model
      gives accurate results under different coherence conditions of the beam. Other
      than intensity profiles, the MOI model can also provide the wavefront and the
      local coherence function at any location along the beamline. The capability of
      tuning the trade-off between accuracy and efficiency makes the MOI model an ideal
      tool for beamline design and optimization.

PMID- 28862618
TI  - The EIGER detector for low-energy electron microscopy and photoemission electron
      microscopy.
AB  - EIGER is a single-photon-counting hybrid pixel detector developed at the Paul
      Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. It is designed for applications at synchrotron
      light sources with photon energies above 5 keV. Features of EIGER include a small
      pixel size (75 um * 75 um), a high frame rate (up to 23 kHz), a small dead-time
      between frames (down to 3 us) and a dynamic range up to 32-bit. In this article,
      the use of EIGER as a detector for electrons in low-energy electron microscopy
      (LEEM) and photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) is reported. It is
      demonstrated that, with only a minimal modification to the sensitive part of the
      detector, EIGER is able to detect electrons emitted or reflected by the sample
      and accelerated to 8-20 keV. The imaging capabilities are shown to be superior to
      the standard microchannel plate detector for these types of applications. This is
      due to the much higher signal-to-noise ratio, better homogeneity and improved
      dynamic range. In addition, the operation of the EIGER detector is not affected
      by radiation damage from electrons in the present energy range and guarantees
      more stable performance over time. To benchmark the detector capabilities, LEEM
      experiments are performed on selected surfaces and the magnetic and electronic
      properties of individual iron nanoparticles with sizes ranging from 8 to 22 nm
      are detected using the PEEM endstation at the Surface/Interface Microscopy (SIM)
      beamline of the Swiss Light Source.

PMID- 28862619
TI  - Temperature-dependent thermal properties of Ru/C multilayers.
AB  - Multilayers made of Ru/C are the most promising candidates when working in the
      energy region 8-20 keV. The stability of its thermal properties, including
      thermal expansion and thermal conduction, needs to be considered for
      monochromator or focusing components. Ru/C multilayers with periodic thicknesses
      of 3, 4 and 5 nm were investigated in situ by grazing-incidence X-ray
      reflectometry and diffuse scattering in order to study their thermal expansion
      characteristics as a function of annealing temperature up to 400 degrees C. The
      thermal conductivity of multilayers with the same structure was also measured by
      the transient hot-wire method and compared with bulk values.

PMID- 28862620
TI  - Characterization of individual stacking faults in a wurtzite GaAs nanowire by
      nanobeam X-ray diffraction.
AB  - Coherent X-ray diffraction was used to measure the type, quantity and the
      relative distances between stacking faults along the growth direction of two
      individual wurtzite GaAs nanowires grown by metalorganic vapour epitaxy. The
      presented approach is based on the general property of the Patterson function,
      which is the autocorrelation of the electron density as well as the Fourier
      transformation of the diffracted intensity distribution of an object. Partial
      Patterson functions were extracted from the diffracted intensity measured along
      the [000?bar{1}] direction in the vicinity of the wurtzite 00?bar{1}?bar{5} Bragg
      peak. The maxima of the Patterson function encode both the distances between the
      fault planes and the type of the fault planes with the sensitivity of a single
      atomic bilayer. The positions of the fault planes are deduced from the positions
      and shapes of the maxima of the Patterson function and they are in excellent
      agreement with the positions found with transmission electron microscopy of the
      same nanowire.

PMID- 28862621
TI  - Flyscan opportunities in medicine: the case of quantum rattle based on gold
      quantum dots.
AB  - The new rapid scan method, Flyscan mode, implemented on the DiffAbs beamline at
      Synchrotron SOLEIL, allows fast micro-X-ray fluorescence data acquisition. It
      paves the way for applications in the biomedical field where a large amount of
      data is needed to generate meaningful information for the clinician. This study
      presents a complete set of data acquired after injection of gold-cluster-enriched
      mesoporous silica nanospheres, used as potential theranostic vectors, into rats.
      While classical X-ray fluorescence investigations (using step-by-step
      acquisitions) are based on a limited number of samples (approximately one per day
      at the DiffAbs beamline), the Flyscan mode has enabled gathering information on
      the interaction of nanometer-scale vectors in different organs such as liver,
      spleen and kidney at the micrometer scale, for five rats, in only a single five
      day synchrotron shift. Moreover, numerous X-ray absorption near-edge structure
      spectra, which are beam-time-consuming taking into account the low concentration
      of these theranostic vectors, were collected.

PMID- 28862622
TI  - Confocal depth-resolved fluorescence micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy for the
      study of cultural heritage materials: a new mobile endstation at the Beijing
      Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
AB  - A confocal fluorescence endstation for depth-resolved micro-X-ray absorption
      spectroscopy is described. A polycapillary half-lens defines the incident beam
      path and a second polycapillary half-lens at 90 degrees  defines the probe sample
      volume. An automatic alignment program based on an evolutionary algorithm is
      employed to make the alignment procedure efficient. This depth-resolved system
      was examined on a general X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) beamline at the
      Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Sacrificial red glaze (AD 1368-1644)
      china was studied to show the capability of the instrument. As a mobile
      endstation to be applied on multiple beamlines, the confocal system can improve
      the function and flexibility of general XAS beamlines, and extend their
      capabilities to a wider user community.

PMID- 28862623
TI  - In operando quantitation of Li concentration for a commercial Li-ion rechargeable
      battery using high-energy X-ray Compton scattering.
AB  - Compton scattering is one of the most promising probes for quantitating Li under
      in operando conditions, since high-energy X-rays, which have high penetration
      power, are used as the incident beam and the Compton-scattered energy spectrum
      has specific line-shapes for each element. An in operando quantitation method to
      determine the Li composition in electrodes has been developed by using line-shape
      (S-parameter) analysis of the Compton-scattered energy spectrum. In this study, S
      parameter analysis has been applied to a commercial coin cell Li-ion rechargeable
      battery and the variation of the S-parameters during the charge/discharge cycle
      at the positive and negative electrodes has been obtained. By using calibration
      curves for Li composition in the electrodes, the change in Li composition of the
      positive and negative electrodes has been determined using the S-parameters
      simultaneously.

PMID- 28862624
TI  - Local structure around In atoms in coherently grown m-plane InGaN film.
AB  - The local structure around In atoms in an m-plane In0.06Ga0.94N film coherently
      grown on a freestanding m-plane GaN substrate was investigated by polarization
      dependent X-ray absorption fine-structure. A step-by-step fitting procedure was
      proposed for the m-plane wurtzite structure. The interatomic distance for the
      first nearest neighbour In-N atomic pairs was almost isotropic. For the second
      nearest In-Ga pairs, the interatomic distances along the m- and a-axes were
      longer and shorter, respectively, than that in strain-free virtual crystals as
      expected for the m-plane compressive strain. In contrast, the In-Ga interatomic
      distance in the c-direction was elongated in spite of the compressive strain,
      which was explained in terms of the anisotropic atomic structure on the m-plane.
      The local strain in the m-plane film was more relaxed than that in coherently
      grown c-plane single quantum wells. A few In atoms were atomically localized in
      all directions, and thus localized excitonic emission is expected as in the case
      of c-plane InGaN.

PMID- 28862625
TI  - Investigation of nanoparticulate silicon as printed layers using scanning
      electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption
      spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
AB  - The presence of native oxide on the surface of silicon nanoparticles is known to
      inhibit charge transport on the surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
      studies reveal that the particles in the printed silicon network have a wide
      range of sizes and shapes. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy
      reveals that the particle surfaces have mainly the (111)- and (100)-oriented
      planes which stabilizes against further oxidation of the particles. X-ray
      absorption spectroscopy (XANES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
      measurements at the O 1s-edge have been utilized to study the oxidation and local
      atomic structure of printed layers of silicon nanoparticles which were milled for
      different times. XANES results reveal the presence of the +4 (SiO2) oxidation
      state which tends towards the +2 (SiO) state for higher milling times. Si 2p XPS
      results indicate that the surfaces of the silicon nanoparticles in the printed
      layers are only partially oxidized and that all three sub-oxide, +1 (Si2O), +2
      (SiO) and +3 (Si2O3), states are present. The analysis of the change in the sub
      oxide peaks of the silicon nanoparticles shows the dominance of the +4 state only
      for lower milling times.

PMID- 28862626
TI  - A protocol for searching the most probable phase-retrieved maps in coherent X-ray
      diffraction imaging by exploiting the relationship between convergence of the
      retrieved phase and success of calculation.
AB  - Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (CXDI) is a technique for visualizing the
      structures of non-crystalline particles with size in the submicrometer to
      micrometer range in material sciences and biology. In the structural analysis of
      CXDI, the electron density map of a specimen particle projected along the
      direction of the incident X-rays can be reconstructed only from the diffraction
      pattern by using phase-retrieval (PR) algorithms. However, in practice, the
      reconstruction, relying entirely on the computational procedure, sometimes fails
      because diffraction patterns miss the data in small-angle regions owing to the
      beam stop and saturation of the detector pixels, and are modified by Poisson
      noise in X-ray detection. To date, X-ray free-electron lasers have allowed us to
      collect a large number of diffraction patterns within a short period of time.
      Therefore, the reconstruction of correct electron density maps is the bottleneck
      for efficiently conducting structure analyses of non-crystalline particles. To
      automatically address the correctness of retrieved electron density maps, a data
      analysis protocol to extract the most probable electron density maps from a set
      of maps retrieved from 1000 different random seeds for a single diffraction
      pattern is proposed. Through monitoring the variations of the phase values during
      PR calculations, the tendency for the PR calculations to succeed when the
      retrieved phase sets converged on a certain value was found. On the other hand,
      if the phase set was in persistent variation, the PR calculation tended to fail
      to yield the correct electron density map. To quantify this tendency, here a
      figure of merit for the variation of the phase values during PR calculation is
      introduced. In addition, a PR protocol to evaluate the similarity between a map
      of the highest figure of merit and other independently reconstructed maps is
      proposed. The protocol is implemented and practically examined in the structure
      analyses for diffraction patterns from aggregates of gold colloidal particles.
      Furthermore, the feasibility of the protocol in the structure analysis of
      organelles from biological cells is examined.

PMID- 28862627
TI  - Analysis of the microvascular morphology and hemodynamics of breast cancer in
      mice using SPring-8 synchrotron radiation microangiography.
AB  - Tumor vasculature is characterized by morphological and functional abnormalities.
      However, analysis of the dynamics in blood flow is still challenging because of
      limited spatial and temporal resolution. Synchrotron radiation (SR)
      microangiography above the K-edge of the iodine contrast agent can provide high
      contrast imaging of microvessels in time orders of milliseconds. In this study,
      mice bearing the human breast cancer cell lines MDAMB231 and NOTCH4
      overexpression in MDAMB231 (MDAMB231NOTCH4+) and normal mice were assessed using
      SR microangiography. NOTCH is transmembrane protein that has crucial roles for
      vasculogenesis, angiogenesis and tumorigenesis, and NOTCH4 is considered to be a
      cause of high-flow arteriovenous shunting. A subgroup of mice received
      intravenous eribulin treatment, which is known to improve intratumor core
      circulation (MDAMB231_eribulin). Microvessel branches from approximately 200 um
      to less than 20 um in diameter were observed within the same visual field. The
      mean transition time (MTT) was measured as a dynamic parameter and quantitative
      analysis was performed. MTT in MDAMB231 was longer than that in normal tissue,
      and MDAMB231NOTCH4+ showed shorter MTT [5.0 +/- 1.4 s, 3.6 +/- 1.0 s and 3.6 +/-
      1.1 s (mean +/- standard deviation), respectively]. After treatment, average MTT
      was correlated to tumor volume (r = 0.999) in MDAMB231_eribulin, while in
      contrast there was no correlation in MDAMB231 (r = -0.026). These changes in MTT
      profile are considered to be driven by the modulation of intratumoral circulation
      dynamics. These results demonstrate that a SR microangiography approach enables
      quantitative analysis of morphological and dynamic characteristics of tumor
      vasculature in vivo. Further studies will reveal new findings concerning vessel
      function in tumors.

PMID- 28862628
TI  - Micro-beam Laue alignment of multi-reflection Bragg coherent diffraction imaging
      measurements.
AB  - Multi-reflection Bragg coherent diffraction imaging has the potential to allow
      three-dimensional (3D) resolved measurements of the full lattice strain tensor in
      specific micro-crystals. Until now such measurements were hampered by the need
      for laborious, time-intensive alignment procedures. Here a different approach is
      demonstrated, using micro-beam Laue X-ray diffraction to first determine the
      lattice orientation of the micro-crystal. This information is then used to
      rapidly align coherent diffraction measurements of three or more reflections from
      the crystal. Based on these, 3D strain and stress fields in the crystal are
      successfully determined. This approach is demonstrated on a focused ion beam
      milled micro-crystal from which six reflections could be measured. Since
      information from more than three independent reflections is available, the
      reliability of the phases retrieved from the coherent diffraction data can be
      assessed. Our results show that rapid, reliable 3D coherent diffraction
      measurements of the full lattice strain tensor in specific micro-crystals are now
      feasible and can be successfully carried out even in heavily distorted samples.

PMID- 28862629
TI  - Characterization of enamel caries lesions in rat molars using synchrotron X-ray
      microtomography.
AB  - Dental caries is a ubiquitous infectious disease with a nearly 100% lifetime
      prevalence. Rodent caries models are widely used to investigate the etiology,
      progression and potential prevention or treatment of the disease. To explore the
      suitability of these models for deeper investigations of intact surface zones
      during enamel caries, the structures of early-stage carious lesions in rats were
      characterized and compared with previous reports on white spot enamel lesions in
      humans. Synchrotron X-ray microcomputed tomography non-destructively mapped
      demineralization in carious rat molar specimens across a range of caries
      severity, identifying 52 lesions across the 30 teeth imaged. Of these lesions, 13
      were shown to have intact surface zones. Depth profiles of fractional mineral
      density were qualitatively similar to lesions in human teeth. However, the
      thickness of the surface zone in the rat model ranges from 10 to 58 um, and is
      therefore significantly thinner than in human enamel. These results indicate that
      a fraction of lesions in rat caries possess an intact surface zone and are
      qualitatively similar to human lesions at the micrometer scale. This suggests
      that rat caries models may be a suitable analog through which to investigate the
      structure of surface zone enamel and its role during dental caries.

PMID- 28862630
TI  - Insight into 3D micro-CT data: exploring segmentation algorithms through
      performance metrics.
AB  - Three-dimensional (3D) micro-tomography (u-CT) has proven to be an important
      imaging modality in industry and scientific domains. Understanding the properties
      of material structure and behavior has produced many scientific advances. An
      important component of the 3D u-CT pipeline is image partitioning (or image
      segmentation), a step that is used to separate various phases or components in an
      image. Image partitioning schemes require specific rules for different scientific
      fields, but a common strategy consists of devising metrics to quantify
      performance and accuracy. The present article proposes a set of protocols to
      systematically analyze and compare the results of unsupervised classification
      methods used for segmentation of synchrotron-based data. The proposed dataflow
      for Materials Segmentation and Metrics (MSM) provides 3D micro-tomography image
      segmentation algorithms, such as statistical region merging (SRM), k-means
      algorithm and parallel Markov random field (PMRF), while offering different
      metrics to evaluate segmentation quality, confidence and conformity with
      standards. Both experimental and synthetic data are assessed, illustrating
      quantitative results through the MSM dashboard, which can return sample
      information such as media porosity and permeability. The main contributions of
      this work are: (i) to deliver tools to improve material design and quality
      control; (ii) to provide datasets for benchmarking and reproducibility; (iii) to
      yield good practices in the absence of standards or ground-truth for ceramic
      composite analysis.

PMID- 28862631
TI  - Strategies for high-throughput focused-beam ptychography.
AB  - X-ray ptychography is being utilized for a wide range of imaging experiments with
      a resolution beyond the limit of the X-ray optics used. Introducing a parameter
      for the ptychographic resolution gain Gp (the ratio of the beam size over the
      achieved pixel size in the reconstructed image), strategies for data sampling and
      for increasing imaging throughput when the specimen is at the focus of an X-ray
      beam are considered. The tradeoffs between large and small illumination spots are
      examined.

PMID- 28862632
TI  - Non-uniform nanosecond gate-delay of hybrid pixel detectors.
AB  - A simple experiment to characterize the gating properties of X-ray area detectors
      using pulsed X-ray sources is presented. For a number of time-resolved
      experiments the gating uniformity of area detectors is important. Relative gating
      delays between individual modules and readout chips of PILATUS2 series area X-ray
      detectors have been observed. For three modules of a PILATUS 300K-W unit the
      maximum gating offset between the modules is found to be as large as 30 ns. On
      average, the first photosensor module is found to be triggered 15 ns and 30 ns
      later than the second and the third modules, respectively.

PMID- 28862633
TI  - Nanosecond pump-probe device for time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography
      developed at SACLA.
AB  - X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have opened new opportunities for time
      resolved X-ray crystallography. Here a nanosecond optical-pump XFEL-probe device
      developed for time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) studies
      of photo-induced reactions in proteins at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free
      electron LAser (SACLA) is reported. The optical-fiber-based system is a good
      choice for a quick setup in a limited beam time and allows pump illumination from
      two directions to achieve high excitation efficiency of protein microcrystals.
      Two types of injectors are used: one for extruding highly viscous samples such as
      lipidic cubic phase (LCP) and the other for pulsed liquid droplets. Under
      standard sample flow conditions from the viscous-sample injector, delay times
      from nanoseconds to tens of milliseconds are accessible, typical time scales
      required to study large protein conformational changes. A first demonstration of
      a TR-SFX experiment on bacteriorhodopsin in bicelle using a setup with a droplet
      type injector is also presented.

PMID- 28862634
TI  - Artifact reduction in the CSPAD detectors used for LCLS experiments.
AB  - The existence of noise and column-wise artifacts in the CSPAD-140K detector and
      in a module of the CSPAD-2.3M large camera, respectively, is reported for the
      L730 and L867 experiments performed at the CXI Instrument at the Linac Coherent
      Light Source (LCLS), in low-flux and low signal-to-noise ratio regime. Possible
      remedies are discussed and an additional step in the preprocessing of data is
      introduced, which consists of performing a median subtraction along the columns
      of the detector modules. Thus, we reduce the overall variation in the photon
      count distribution, lowering the mean false-positive photon detection rate by
      about 4% (from 5.57 * 10-5 to 5.32 * 10-5 photon counts pixel-1 frame-1 in L867,
      cxi86715) and 7% (from 1.70 * 10-3 to 1.58 * 10-3 photon counts pixel-1 frame-1
      in L730, cxi73013), and the standard deviation in false-positive photon count per
      shot by 15% and 35%, while not making our average photon detection threshold more
      stringent. Such improvements in detector noise reduction and artifact removal
      constitute a step forward in the development of flash X-ray imaging techniques
      for high-resolution, low-signal and in serial nano-crystallography experiments at
      X-ray free-electron laser facilities.

PMID- 28862635
TI  - Atomic pair distribution function at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory:
      application to the Pb1-xLaxZr0.40Ti0.60O3 ferroelectric system.
AB  - This work reports the setting up of the X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy
      beamline at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory for performing total
      scattering experiments to be analyzed by atomic pair distribution function (PDF)
      studies. The results of a PDF refinement for Al2O3 standard are presented and
      compared with data acquired at a beamline of the Advanced Photon Source, where it
      is common to perform this type of experiment. A preliminary characterization of
      the Pb1-xLaxZr0.40Ti0.60O3 ferroelectric system, with x = 0.11, 0.12 and 0.15, is
      also shown.

PMID- 28862636
TI  - WIFIP: a web-based user interface for automated synchrotron beamlines.
AB  - The beamline control software, through the associated graphical user interface
      (GUI), is the user access point to the experiment, interacting with synchrotron
      beamline components and providing automated routines. FIP, the French beamline
      for the Investigation of Proteins, is a highly automatized macromolecular
      crystallography (MX) beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. On
      such a beamline, a significant number of users choose to control their experiment
      remotely. This is often performed with a limited bandwidth and from a large
      choice of computers and operating systems. Furthermore, this has to be possible
      in a rapidly evolving experimental environment, where new developments have to be
      easily integrated. To face these challenges, a light, platform-independent,
      control software and associated GUI are required. Here, WIFIP, a web-based user
      interface developed at FIP, is described. Further than being the present FIP
      control interface, WIFIP is also a proof of concept for future MX control
      software.

PMID- 28862637
TI  - In situ beamline analysis and correction of active optics. Erratum.
AB  - A correction to one of the equations in the paper by Sutter et al. (2012). [J.
      Synchrotron Rad. 19, 960-968] is made.

PMID- 28862639
TI  - Oligodendroglia: metabolic supporters of neurons.
AB  - Oligodendrocytes are glial cells that populate the entire CNS after they have
      differentiated from oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. From birth onward,
      oligodendrocytes initiate wrapping of neuronal axons with a multilamellar lipid
      structure called myelin. Apart from their well-established function in action
      potential propagation, more recent data indicate that oligodendrocytes are
      essential for providing metabolic support to neurons. Oligodendrocytes transfer
      energy metabolites to neurons through cytoplasmic "myelinic" channels and
      monocarboxylate transporters, which allow for the fast delivery of short-carbon
      chain energy metabolites like pyruvate and lactate to neurons. These substrates
      are metabolized and contribute to ATP synthesis in neurons. This Review will
      discuss our current understanding of this metabolic supportive function of
      oligodendrocytes and its potential impact in human neurodegenerative disease and
      related animal models.

PMID- 28862638
TI  - Microglia in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Microglia are brain-resident myeloid cells that mediate key functions to support
      the CNS. Microglia express a wide range of receptors that act as molecular
      sensors, which recognize exogenous or endogenous CNS insults and initiate an
      immune response. In addition to their classical immune cell function, microglia
      act as guardians of the brain by promoting phagocytic clearance and providing
      trophic support to ensure tissue repair and maintain cerebral homeostasis.
      Conditions associated with loss of homeostasis or tissue changes induce several
      dynamic microglial processes, including changes of cellular morphology, surface
      phenotype, secretory mediators, and proliferative responses (referred to as an
      "activated state"). Activated microglia represent a common pathological feature
      of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      Cumulative evidence suggests that microglial inflammatory activity in AD is
      increased while microglial-mediated clearance mechanisms are compromised.
      Microglia are perpetually engaged in a mutual interaction with the surrounding
      environment in CNS; thus, diverse microglial reactions at different disease
      stages may open new avenues for therapeutic intervention and modification of
      inflammatory activities. In this Review, the role of microglia in the
      pathogenesis of AD and the modulation of microglia activity as a therapeutic
      modality will be discussed.

PMID- 28862641
TI  - The U2AF1S34F mutation induces lineage-specific splicing alterations in
      myelodysplastic syndromes.

PMID- 28862642
TI  - Isolated polycystic liver disease genes define effectors of polycystin-1
      function.
AB  - Dominantly inherited isolated polycystic liver disease (PCLD) consists of liver
      cysts that are radiologically and pathologically identical to those seen in
      autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, but without clinically relevant
      kidney cysts. The causative genes are known for fewer than 40% of PCLD index
      cases. Here, we have used whole exome sequencing in a discovery cohort of 102
      unrelated patients who were excluded for mutations in the 2 most common PCLD
      genes, PRKCSH and SEC63, to identify heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in 3
      additional genes, ALG8, GANAB, and SEC61B. Similarly to PRKCSH and SEC63, these
      genes encode proteins that are integral to the protein biogenesis pathway in the
      endoplasmic reticulum. We inactivated these candidate genes in cell line models
      to show that loss of function of each results in defective maturation and
      trafficking of polycystin-1, the central determinant of cyst pathogenesis.
      Despite acting in a common pathway, each PCLD gene product demonstrated distinct
      effects on polycystin-1 biogenesis. We also found enrichment on a genome-wide
      basis of heterozygous mutations in the autosomal recessive polycystic kidney
      disease gene PKHD1, indicating that adult PKHD1 carriers can present with
      clinical PCLD. These findings define genetic and biochemical modulators of
      polycystin-1 function and provide a more complete definition of the spectrum of
      dominant human polycystic diseases.

PMID- 28862640
TI  - Understanding the functions and relationships of the glymphatic system and
      meningeal lymphatics.
AB  - Recent discoveries of the glymphatic system and of meningeal lymphatic vessels
      have generated a lot of excitement, along with some degree of skepticism. Here,
      we summarize the state of the field and point out the gaps of knowledge that
      should be filled through further research. We discuss the glymphatic system as a
      system that allows CNS perfusion by the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and
      interstitial fluid (ISF). We also describe the recently characterized meningeal
      lymphatic vessels and their role in drainage of the brain ISF, CSF, CNS-derived
      molecules, and immune cells from the CNS and meninges to the peripheral (CNS
      draining) lymph nodes. We speculate on the relationship between the two systems
      and their malfunction that may underlie some neurological diseases. Although much
      remains to be investigated, these new discoveries have changed our understanding
      of mechanisms underlying CNS immune privilege and CNS drainage. Future studies
      should explore the communications between the glymphatic system and meningeal
      lymphatics in CNS disorders and develop new therapeutic modalities targeting
      these systems.

PMID- 28862643
TI  - A therapeutic T cell receptor mimic antibody targets tumor-associated PRAME
      peptide/HLA-I antigens.

PMID- 28862644
TI  - Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
      (MPM).
AB  - Cancer immunotherapy has now become a recognized approach to treating cancers. In
      addition to checkpoint blockade, adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) using chimeric
      antigen receptors (CARs) has shown impressive clinical outcomes in leukemias and
      is now being explored in solid tumors. CARs are engineered receptors, stably or
      transiently transduced into T cells, that aim to enhance T cell effector function
      by recognizing and binding to a specific tumor-associated antigen. In this
      review, we provide a summary of CAR T cell preclinical studies and clinical
      trials for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), a rare, locally invasive pleural
      cancer with poor prognosis. We list other attractive potential targets for CAR T
      cell therapy for MPM, and discuss augmentation strategies of CAR T cell therapy
      with other forms of immunotherapy in this disease.

PMID- 28862645
TI  - A Sub-30 mpH Resolution Thin Film Transistor-Based Nanoribbon Biosensing
      Platform.
AB  - We present a complete biosensing system that comprises a Thin Film Transistor
      (TFT)-based nanoribbon biosensor and a low noise, high-performance
      bioinstrumentation platform, capable of detecting sub-30 mpH unit changes,
      validated by an enzymatic biochemical reaction. The nanoribbon biosensor was
      fabricated top-down with an ultra-thin (15 nm) polysilicon semiconducting channel
      that offers excellent sensitivity to surface potential changes. The sensor is
      coupled to an integrated circuit (IC), which combines dual switched-capacitor
      integrators with high precision analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Throughout
      this work, we employed both conventional pH buffer measurements as well as urea
      urease enzymatic reactions for benchmarking the overall performance of the
      system. The measured results from the urea-urease reaction demonstrate that the
      system can detect urea in concentrations as low as 25 MUM, which translates to a
      change of 27 mpH, according to our initial pH characterisation measurements. The
      attained accuracy and resolution of our system as well as its low-cost
      manufacturability, high processing speed and portability make it a competitive
      solution for applications requiring rapid and accurate results at remote
      locations; a necessity for Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic platforms.

PMID- 28862646
TI  - Locomotion Inhibition of Cimex lectularius L. Following Topical, Sublethal Dose
      Application of the Chitin Synthesis Inhibitor Lufenuron.
AB  - To date, few studies have evaluated chitin synthesis inhibitors against bed bugs,
      although they would provide an alternative mode of action to circumvent
      insecticide resistance. Acute and sublethal effects of lufenuron were evaluated
      against two strains of the common bed bug. Combined acute and sublethal effects
      were used to calculate effective doses. The dose that was effective against 50%
      of Harlan strain bed bugs was 0.0081% (w/v), and was much higher against
      Bradenton strain bed bugs (1.11% w/v). Sublethal doses were chosen to determine
      the effect that leg abnormalities had on pulling force. Both Harlan and Bradenton
      strain bed bugs had significantly lower locomotion ability (p < 0.0001) following
      topical application of lufenuron. The observed sublethal effects that limit
      locomotion could prevent bed bugs from moving within a domicile and taking a
      blood meal, subsequently reducing a bed bug population over time.

PMID- 28862647
TI  - Bio-Corrosion of Magnesium Alloys for Orthopaedic Applications.
AB  - Three Mg alloys, Mg-1.34% Ca-3% Zn (MCZ), Mg-1.34% Ca-3% Zn-0.2% Sr (MCZS), and
      Mg-2% Sr (MS), were examined to understand their bio-corrosion behavior.
      Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization scans were performed
      after 6 days of immersion in cell culture medium, and ion release and changes in
      media pH were tracked over a 28 day time period. Scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM) of alloy microstructure was performed to help interpret the results of the
      electrochemical testing. Results indicate that corrosion resistance of the alloys
      is as follows: MCZ > MCZS > MS.

PMID- 28862648
TI  - Bioactive Steroids with Methyl Ester Group in the Side Chain from a Reef Soft
      Coral Sinularia brassica Cultured in a Tank.
AB  - A continuing chemical investigation of the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract of a
      reef soft coral Sinularia brassica, which was cultured in a tank, afforded four
      new steroids with methyl ester groups, sinubrasones A-D (1-4) for the first time.
      In particular, 1 possesses a beta-D-xylopyranose. The structures of the new
      compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analyses. The
      cytotoxicities of compounds 1-4 against the proliferation of a limited panel of
      cancer cell lines were assayed. The anti-inflammatory activities of these new
      compounds 1-4 were also evaluated by measuring their ability to suppress
      superoxide anion generation and elastase release in N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl
      phenylalanine/cytochalasin B (fMLP/CB)-induced human neutrophils. Compounds 2 and
      3 were shown to exhibit significant cytotoxicity, and compounds 3 and 4 were also
      found to display attracting anti-inflammatory activities.

PMID- 28862650
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of Jaspine B and Enhancement of Intestinal Absorption of Jaspine
      B in the Presence of Bile Acid in Rats.
AB  - We aimed to investigate the pharmacokinetics and the underlying mechanisms of the
      intestinal absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of Jaspine B in
      rats. The oral bioavailability of Jaspine B was 6.2%, but it decreased to 1.6% in
      bile-depleted rats and increased to 41.2% (normal) and 23.5% (bile-depleted) with
      taurocholate supplementation (60 mg/kg). Consistent with the increased absorption
      in the presence of bile salts, rat intestinal permeability of Jaspine B also
      increased in the presence of 10 mM taurocholate or 20% bile. Further studies
      demonstrated that the enhanced intestinal permeability with bile salts was due to
      increased lipophilicity and decreased membrane integrity. Jaspine B was
      designated as a highly tissue-distributed compound, because it showed large
      tissue to plasma ratios in the brain, kidney, heart, and spleen. Moreover, the
      recovery of Jaspine B from the feces and urine after an intravenous
      administration was about 6.3%, suggesting a substantial metabolism of Jaspine B.
      Consistent with this observation, 80% of the administered Jaspine B was degraded
      after 1 h incubation with rat liver microsomes. In conclusion, the facilitated
      intestinal permeability in the presence of bile salts could significantly
      increase the bioavailability of Jaspine B and could lead to the development of
      oral formulations of Jaspine B with bile salts. Moreover, the highly distributed
      features of Jaspine B in the brain, kidney, heart, and spleen should be carefully
      considered in the therapeutic effect and toxicity of this compound.

PMID- 28862651
TI  - 3D Microstructure Inhibits Mesenchymal Stem Cells Homing to the Site of Liver
      Cancer Cells on a Microchip.
AB  - The cell microenvironment consists of multiple types of biophysical and
      biochemical factors, and represents a complex integrated system that is variable
      in both time and space. Studies show that changes in biochemical and biophysical
      factors in cell microenvironments result in significant changes in cellular forms
      and functions, especially for stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are
      derived from adult stem cells of the mesoderm and play an important role in
      tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and even cancer therapy. Furthermore,
      it is found that MSCs can interact with multiple types of tumor cells. The
      interaction is reflected as two totally different aspects. The negative aspect is
      that MSCs manifest as tumor-associated fibroblasts and could induce migration of
      cancer cells and promote tumor formation. On the other hand, MSCs can home to
      sites of the tumor microenvironment, directionally migrate toward tumor cells and
      cause tumor cell apoptosis. In this study, we designed and made a simple
      microfluidic chip for cell co-culture, and studied stem cell homing behavior in
      the interaction between MSCs and liver cancer cells. Moreover, by etching a three
      dimensional microstructure on the base and adding transforming growth factor-beta
      (TGF-beta) in the co-culture environment, we studied the impact of biophysical
      and biochemical factors on stem cell homing behavior, and the causes of such
      impact.

PMID- 28862652
TI  - The Effect of Concentration Factor on Membrane Fouling.
AB  - Bench-scale systems are often used to evaluate pretreatment methods and
      operational conditions that can be applied in full-scale ultrafiltration (UF)
      systems. However, the membrane packing density is substantially different in
      bench and full-scale systems. Differences in concentration factor (CF) at the
      solution-membrane interface as a result of packing density may impact the mass
      transfer and fouling rate and the applicability of bench-scale systems. The
      present study compared membrane resistance when considering raw water (CF = 1)
      and reject water (also commonly referred to as concentrate water) (CF > 1) as
      feed in UF systems operated in deposition (dead-end) mode. A positive
      relationship was observed between the concentration of the organic matter in the
      solution being filtered and resistance. Bench-scale trials conducted with CF = 1
      water were more representative of full-scale operation than trials conducted with
      elevated CFs when considering membrane resistance and permeate quality. As such,
      the results of this study indicate that the use of the same feed water as used at
      full-scale (CF = 1) is appropriate to evaluate fouling in UF systems operated in
      deposition mode.

PMID- 28862649
TI  - Immune Evasion Strategies during Chronic Hepatitis B and C Virus Infection.
AB  - Both hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are a major
      global healthcare problem with more than 240 million and 70 million infected,
      respectively. Both viruses persist within the liver and result in progressive
      liver disease, resulting in liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular
      carcinoma. Strikingly, this pathogenesis is largely driven by immune responses,
      unable to clear an established infection, rather than by the viral pathogens
      themselves. Even though disease progression is very similar in both infections,
      HBV and HCV have evolved distinct mechanisms, by which they ensure persistence
      within the host. Whereas HCV utilizes a cloak-and-dagger approach, disguising
      itself as a lipid-like particle and immediately crippling essential pattern
      recognition pathways, HBV has long been considered a "stealth" virus, due to the
      complete absence of innate immune responses during infection. Recent developments
      and access to improved model systems, however, revealed that even though it is
      among the smallest human-tropic viruses, HBV may, in addition to evading host
      responses, employ subtle immune evasion mechanisms directed at ensuring viral
      persistence in the absence of host responses. In this review, we compare the
      different strategies of both viruses to ensure viral persistence by actively
      interfering with viral recognition and innate immune responses.

PMID- 28862653
TI  - The Starvation Symptom Inventory: Development and Psychometric Properties.
AB  - Background: Starvation symptoms are common in patients with anorexia nervosa, and
      according to the transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural theory for eating
      disorders, they contribute to maintaining the eating disorder psychopathology.
      The aim of this study was therefore to describe the design and validation of the
      Starvation Symptoms Inventory (SSI); a self-report questionnaire that examines
      the symptoms of starvation in underweight patients with eating disorders.
      Methods: 150 female patients with anorexia nervosa were recruited, as well as 341
      healthy control subjects, 30 not-underweight patients with an eating disorder,
      and 15 patients with bipolar depressive episodes. The 150 patients completed the
      Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory. All
      participants rated their starvation symptoms on a continuous Likert-type scale (0
      6), and reported the number of days in which they had experienced them in the
      previous 28 days. Results: Principal component analysis identified a single
      factor, 15-item scale, which demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha =
      0.91) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.90). The SSI global score was
      significantly correlated with eating disorder and general psychopathology,
      demonstrating good convergent validity. SSI scores were significantly higher in
      the anorexia nervosa sample than in the healthy control, not-underweight eating
      disorder and bipolar depressive episode samples. Conclusions: These findings
      suggest that the SSI is a valid self-report questionnaire that may provide
      important clinical information regarding symptoms of starvation in patients with
      anorexia nervosa.

PMID- 28862655
TI  - Characterization and Discrimination of Gram-Positive Bacteria Using Raman
      Spectroscopy with the Aid of Principal Component Analysis.
AB  - Raman scattering and its particular effect, surface-enhanced Raman scattering
      (SERS), are whole-organism fingerprinting spectroscopic techniques that gain more
      and more popularity in bacterial detection. In this work, two relevant Gram
      positive bacteria species, Lactobacillus casei (L. casei) and Listeria
      monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) were characterized based on their Raman and SERS
      spectral fingerprints. The SERS spectra were used to identify the biochemical
      structures of the bacterial cell wall. Two synthesis methods of the SERS-active
      nanomaterials were used and the recorded spectra were analyzed. L. casei and L.
      monocytogenes were successfully discriminated by applying Principal Component
      Analysis (PCA) to their specific spectral data.

PMID- 28862657
TI  - Personalized Computational Models as Biomarkers.
AB  - Biomarkers are cornerstones of clinical medicine, and personalized medicine, in
      particular, is highly dependent on reliable and highly accurate biomarkers for
      individualized diagnosis and treatment choice. Modern omics technologies, such as
      genome sequencing, allow molecular profiling of individual patients with
      unprecedented resolution, but biomarkers based on these technologies often lack
      the dynamic element to follow the progression of a disease or response to
      therapy. Here, we discuss computational models as a new conceptual approach to
      biomarker discovery and design. Being able to integrate a large amount of
      information, including dynamic information, computational models can simulate
      disease evolution and response to therapy with high sensitivity and specificity.
      By populating these models with personal data, they can be highly individualized
      and will provide a powerful new tool in the armory of personalized medicine.

PMID- 28862654
TI  - Antioxidant Therapeutic Strategies for Cardiovascular Conditions Associated with
      Oxidative Stress.
AB  - Oxidative stress (OS) refers to the imbalance between the generation of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) and the ability to scavenge these ROS by endogenous
      antioxidant systems, where ROS overwhelms the antioxidant capacity. Excessive
      presence of ROS results in irreversible damage to cell membranes, DNA, and other
      cellular structures by oxidizing lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Oxidative
      stress plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases
      related to hypoxia, cardiotoxicity and ischemia-reperfusion. Here, we describe
      the participation of OS in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular conditions such
      as myocardial infarction, anthracycline cardiotoxicity and congenital heart
      disease. This review focuses on the different clinical events where redox factors
      and OS are related to cardiovascular pathophysiology, giving to support for novel
      pharmacological therapies such as omega 3 fatty acids, non-selective betablockers
      and microRNAs.

PMID- 28862656
TI  - Bromopropane Compounds Increase the Stemness of Colorectal Cancer Cells.
AB  - Bromopropane (BP) compounds, including 1-bromopropane, 2-bromopropane, and 1,2
      dibromopropane, are used in industry for various purposes, and their deleterious
      effects on human health are becoming known. In this study, we examined the
      effects of BP compounds on the stemness of colorectal cancer cells. At low, non
      cytotoxic concentrations, BP compounds significantly increased spheroid formation
      in CSC221, DLD1, Caco2, and HT29 cells. In addition, the levels of cancer stem
      cell markers, such as aldehyde dehydrogenase-1, cluster of differentiation 133
      (CD133), CD44, Lgr5, Musashi-1, Ephrin receptor, and Bmi-1 increased after
      exposure to BP compounds. BP compounds increased the transcriptional activity of
      the TOPflash and glioma-associated oncogene homolog zinc finger protein (Gli)
      promoters in reporter assays and increased the expression of Gli-1, Gli-2,
      Smoothened (SMO), and beta-catenin by RT-PCR. These results demonstrate for the
      first time that BP compounds have the potential to promote cancer stemness.

PMID- 28862658
TI  - Multi-Mode GF-3 Satellite Image Geometric Accuracy Verification Using the RPC
      Model.
AB  - The GaoFen-3 (GF-3) satellite is the first C-band multi-polarization synthetic
      aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite with a resolution up to 1 m in China. It
      is also the only SAR satellite of the High-Resolution Earth Observation System
      designed for civilian use. There are 12 different imaging models to meet the
      needs of different industry users. However, to use SAR satellite images for
      related applications, they must possess high geometric accuracy. In order to
      verify the geometric accuracy achieved by the different modes of GF-3 images, we
      analyze the SAR geometric error source and perform geometric correction tests
      based on the RPC model with and without ground control points (GCPs) for five
      imaging modes. These include the spotlight (SL), ultra-fine strip (UFS), Fine
      Strip I (FSI), Full polarized Strip I (QPSI), and standard strip (SS) modes.
      Experimental results show that the check point residuals are large and consistent
      without GCPs, but the root mean square error of the independent checkpoints for
      the case of four corner control points is better than 1.5 pixels, achieving a
      similar level of geometric positioning accuracy to that of international
      satellites. We conclude that the GF-3 satellite can be used for high-accuracy
      geometric processing and related industry applications.

PMID- 28862660
TI  - Dynamic Response of Graphitic Flakes in Nematic Liquid Crystals: Confinement and
      Host Effect.
AB  - Electric field-induced reorientation of suspended graphitic (GP) flakes and its
      relaxation back to the original state in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) host are
      of interest not only in academia, but also in industrial applications, such as
      polarizer-free and optical film-free displays, and electro-optic light
      modulators. As the phenomenon has been demonstrated by thorough observation, the
      detailed study of the physical properties of the host NLC (the magnitude of
      dielectric anisotropy, elastic constants, and rotational viscosity), the size of
      the GP flakes, and cell thickness, are urgently required to be explored and
      investigated. Here, we demonstrate that the response time of GP flakes
      reorientation associated with an NLC host can be effectively enhanced by
      controlling the physical properties. In a vertical field-on state, higher
      dielectric anisotropy and higher elasticity of NLC give rise to quicker
      reorientation of the GP flakes (switching from planar to vertical alignment) due
      to the field-induced coupling effect of interfacial Maxwell-Wagner polarization
      and NLC reorientation. In a field off-state, lower rotational viscosity of NLC
      and lower cell thickness can help to reduce the decay time of GP flakes
      reoriented from vertical to planar alignment. This is mainly attributed to strong
      coupling between GP flakes and NLC originating from the strong pi-pi interaction
      between benzene rings in the honeycomb-like graphene structure and in NLC
      molecules. The high-uniformity of reoriented GP flakes exhibits a possibility of
      new light modulation with a relatively faster response time in the switching
      process and, thus, it can show potential application in field-induced memory and
      modulation devices.

PMID- 28862659
TI  - Fever in Children: Pearls and Pitfalls.
AB  - Fever in children is a common concern for parents and one of the most frequent
      presenting complaints in emergency department visits, often involving non
      pediatric emergency physicians. Although the incidence of serious infections has
      decreased after the introduction of conjugate vaccines, fever remains a major
      cause of laboratory investigation and hospital admissions. Furthermore,
      antipyretics are the most common medications administered to children. We review
      the epidemiology and measurement of fever, the meaning of fever and associated
      clinical signs in children of different ages and under special conditions,
      including fever in children with cognitive impairment, recurrent fevers, and
      fever of unknown origin. While the majority of febrile children have mild, self
      resolving viral illness, a minority may be at risk of life-threatening
      infections. Clinical assessment differs markedly from adult patients. Hands-off
      evaluation is paramount for a correct evaluation of breathing, circulation and
      level of interaction. Laboratory markers and clinical prediction rules provide
      limited help in identifying children at risk for serious infections; however,
      clinical examination, prudent utilization of laboratory tests, and post-discharge
      guidance ("safety netting") remain the cornerstone of safe management of febrile
      children.

PMID- 28862661
TI  - The Effect of Taichi Practice on Attenuating Bone Mineral Density Loss: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of practicing
      Taichi on attenuating bone mineral density (BMD) loss. Methods: Both electronic
      and manual searches were performed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
      examining Taichi for bone health. Two review authors independently performed
      study selection and data extraction according to inclusion criteria. A third
      party (Lin Luo) emerged to discuss with the two review authors and resolve a
      disagreement. Results: Twenty RCTs were found to meet the inclusion criteria and
      used for meta-analysis with a total effective sample of 1604. The aggregated
      results from this systematic review have shown significant benefits in favour of
      Taichi on BMD at lumbar spine (Standard Mean Difference, SMD) = 0.29; 95% CI 0.15
      to 0.43; p < 0.0001), femur neck (SMD = 0.56; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.75; p < 0.00001),
      femur trochanter (SMD = 0.04; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.07; p = 0.007), total hip BMD (SMD
      = 0.46; 95% CI 0.16 to 0.76; p = 0.003). Conclusions: The aggregated results from
      this systematic review suggests that Taichi is effective on attenuating BMD loss
      at the regions of lumbar spine and proximal femur neck in special populations
      (e.g., older adults, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, people with
      osteoarthritis, and cancer survivors). Researchers should further examine the
      effect of Taichi on the proximal femur trochanter and total hip so that a more
      definitive claim can be made regarding the beneficial effects for attenuating BMD
      loss in these musculoskeletal regions.

PMID- 28862662
TI  - SNORAP: A Device for the Correction of Impaired Sleep Health by Using Tactile
      Stimulation for Individuals with Mild and Moderate Sleep Disordered Breathing.
AB  - Sleep physiology and sleep hygiene play significant roles in maintaining the
      daily lives of individuals given that sleep is an important physiological need to
      protect the functions of the human brain. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is an
      important disease that disturbs this need. Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
      Syndrome (OSAS) are clinical conditions that affect all body organs and systems
      that intermittently, repeatedly, with at least 10 s or more breathing stops that
      decrease throughout the night and disturb sleep integrity. The aim of this study
      was to produce a new device for the treatment of patients especially with
      position and rapid eye movement (REM)-dependent mild and moderate OSAS. For this
      purpose, the main components of the device (the microphone (snore sensor), the
      heart rate sensor, and the vibration motor, which we named SNORAP) were applied
      to five volunteer patients (male, mean age: 33.2, body mass index mean: 29.3).
      After receiving the sound in real time with the microphone, the snoring sound was
      detected by using the Audio Fingerprint method with a success rate of 98.9%.
      According to the results obtained, the severity and the number of the snoring of
      the patients using SNORAP were found to be significantly lower than in the
      experimental conditions in the apnea hypopnea index (AHI), apnea index, hypopnea
      index, in supine position's AHI, and REM position's AHI before using SNORAP
      (Paired Sample Test, p < 0.05). REM sleep duration and nocturnal oxygen
      saturation were significantly higher when compared to the group not using the
      SNORAP (Paired Sample Test, p < 0.05).

PMID- 28862663
TI  - Novelty Detection Classifiers in Weed Mapping: Silybum marianum Detection on UAV
      Multispectral Images.
AB  - In the present study, the detection and mapping of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.
      weed using novelty detection classifiers is reported. A multispectral camera
      (green-red-NIR) on board a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was employed
      for obtaining high-resolution images. Four novelty detection classifiers were
      used to identify S. marianum between other vegetation in a field. The classifiers
      were One Class Support Vector Machine (OC-SVM), One Class Self-Organizing Maps
      (OC-SOM), Autoencoders and One Class Principal Component Analysis (OC-PCA). As
      input features to the novelty detection classifiers, the three spectral bands and
      texture were used. The S. marianum identification accuracy using OC-SVM reached
      an overall accuracy of 96%. The results show the feasibility of effective S.
      marianum mapping by means of novelty detection classifiers acting on
      multispectral UAV imagery.

PMID- 28862665
TI  - Wearable Devices for Classification of Inadequate Posture at Work Using Neural
      Networks.
AB  - Inadequate postures adopted by an operator at work are among the most important
      risk factors in Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Although several
      studies have focused on inadequate posture, there is limited information on its
      identification in a work context. The aim of this study is to automatically
      differentiate between adequate and inadequate postures using two wearable devices
      (helmet and instrumented insole) with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and
      force sensors. From the force sensors located inside the insole, the center of
      pressure (COP) is computed since it is considered an important parameter in the
      analysis of posture. In a first step, a set of 60 features is computed with a
      direct approach, and later reduced to eight via a hybrid feature selection. A
      neural network is then employed to classify the current posture of a worker,
      yielding a recognition rate of 90%. In a second step, an innovative graphic
      approach is proposed to extract three additional features for the classification.
      This approach represents the main contribution of this study. Combining both
      approaches improves the recognition rate to 95%. Our results suggest that neural
      network could be applied successfully for the classification of adequate and
      inadequate posture.

PMID- 28862666
TI  - Detection of Interfacial Debonding in a Rubber-Steel-Layered Structure Using
      Active Sensing Enabled by Embedded Piezoceramic Transducers.
AB  - Rubber-steel-layered structures are used in many engineering applications.
      Laminated rubber-steel bearing, as a type of seismic isolation device, is one of
      the most important applications of the rubber-steel-layered structures.
      Interfacial debonding in rubber-steel-layered structures is a typical failure
      mode, which can severely reduce their load-bearing capacity. In this paper, the
      authors developed a simple but effective active sensing approach using embedded
      piezoceramic transducers to provide an in-situ detection of the interfacial
      debonding between the rubber layers and steel plates. A sandwiched rubber-steel
      layered specimen, consisting of one rubber layer and two steel plates, was
      fabricated as the test specimen. A novel installation technique, which allows the
      piezoceramic transducers to be fully embedded into the steel plates without
      changing the geometry and the surface conditions of the plates, was also
      developed in this research. The active sensing approach, in which designed stress
      waves can propagate between a pair of the embedded piezoceramic transducers (one
      as an actuator and the other one as a sensor), was employed to detect the steel
      rubber debonding. When the rubber-steel debonding occurs, the debonded interfaces
      will attenuate the propagating stress wave, so that the amplitude of the received
      signal will decrease. The rubber-steel debonding was generated by pulling the two
      steel plates in opposite directions in a material-testing machine. The changes of
      the received signal before and after the debonding were characterized in a time
      domain and further quantified by using a wavelet packet-based energy index.
      Experiments on the healthy rubber-steel-layered specimen reveal that the
      piezoceramic-induced stress wave can propagate through the rubber layer. The
      destructive test on the specimen demonstrates that the piezoceramic-based active
      sensing approach can effectively detect the rubber-steel debonding failure in
      real time. The active sensing approach is often used in structures with "hard"
      materials, such as steel, concrete, and carbon fiber composites. This research
      lays a foundation for extending the active sensing approach to damage detection
      of structures involving "soft" materials, such as rubber.

PMID- 28862664
TI  - Brassica-Derived Plant Bioactives as Modulators of Chemopreventive and
      Inflammatory Signaling Pathways.
AB  - A high consumption of vegetables belonging to the Brassicaceae family has been
      related to a lower incidence of chronic diseases including different kinds of
      cancer. These beneficial effects of, e.g., broccoli, cabbage or rocket (arugula)
      intake have been mainly dedicated to the sulfur-containing glucosinolates (GLSs)
      secondary plant compounds nearly exclusively present in Brassicaceae-and in
      particular to their bioactive breakdown products including isothiocyanates
      (ITCs). Overall, the current literature indicate that selected Brassica-derived
      ITCs exhibit health-promoting effects in vitro, as well as in laboratory mice in
      vivo. Some studies suggest anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory properties for
      ITCs which may be communicated through an activation of the redox-sensitive
      transcription factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) that
      controls the expression of antioxidant and phase II enzymes. Furthermore, it has
      been shown that ITCs are able to significantly ameliorate a severe inflammatory
      phenotype in colitic mice in vivo. As there are studies available suggesting an
      epigenetic mode of action for Brassica-derived phytochemicals, the conduction of
      further studies would be recommendable to investigate if the beneficial effects
      of these compounds also persist during an irregular consumption pattern.

PMID- 28862667
TI  - Epigenetic Alterations in Human Papillomavirus-Associated Cancers.
AB  - Approximately 15-20% of human cancers are caused by viruses, including human
      papillomaviruses (HPVs). Viruses are obligatory intracellular parasites and
      encode proteins that reprogram the regulatory networks governing host cellular
      signaling pathways that control recognition by the immune system, proliferation,
      differentiation, genomic integrity, and cell death. Given that key proteins in
      these regulatory networks are also subject to mutation in non-virally associated
      diseases and cancers, the study of oncogenic viruses has also been instrumental
      to the discovery and analysis of many fundamental cellular processes, including
      messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing, transcriptional enhancers, oncogenes and tumor
      suppressors, signal transduction, immune regulation, and cell cycle control. More
      recently, tumor viruses, in particular HPV, have proven themselves invaluable in
      the study of the cancer epigenome. Epigenetic silencing or de-silencing of genes
      can have cellular consequences that are akin to genetic mutations, i.e., the loss
      and gain of expression of genes that are not usually expressed in a certain cell
      type and/or genes that have tumor suppressive or oncogenic activities,
      respectively. Unlike genetic mutations, the reversible nature of epigenetic
      modifications affords an opportunity of epigenetic therapy for cancer. This
      review summarizes the current knowledge on epigenetic regulation in HPV-infected
      cells with a focus on those elements with relevance to carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28862668
TI  - Origin and Formation Mechanism Investigation of Compound Precipitation from the
      Traditional Chinese Prescription Huang-Lian-Jie-Du-Tang by Isothermal Titration
      Calorimetry.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that compounds in the form of precipitate (CFP) from
      Huang-Lian-Jie-Du-Tang (HLJDT) were stable, and the CFP content reached 2.63% of
      the whole decoction and had good neuroprotective effects. However, there has been
      no research on their specific source. In this study, it was found that HLJDT CFP
      mainly came from the reaction of Scutellaria baicalensis and Coptis chinensis by
      studying the separated prescription components (accounting for 81.33% of HLJDT
      CFP). Unlike previous studies on HLJDT CFP, in this research the chemical
      composition of Scutellaria baicalensis-Coptis chinensis (SB-CC) CFP was
      identified by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-MSn), which further proved that the main source of HLJDT CFP
      was Scutellaria baicalensis-Coptis chinensis CFP compared with previous HLJDT CFP
      studies. To explain the reaction mechanism between the decoctions of Scutellaria
      baicalensis and Coptis chinensis, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was used
      to analyze their binding heat and the thermodynamic parameters (DeltaH, DeltaS,
      DeltaG, n, Ka) of the reaction between baicalin and berberine, which are the main
      components of Scutellaria baicalensis and Coptis chinensis, respectively. The
      results showed that the reaction between decoctions of Scutellaria baicalensis
      and Coptis chinensis was exothermic and the reaction between baicalin and
      berberine was a spontaneous and enthalpy-driven chemical reaction, the binding
      ratio being 1:1. In addition, HLJDT CFP (EC50 = 14.71 +/- 0.91 ug/mL) and SB-CC
      CFP (EC50 = 6.11 +/- 0.12 ug/mL) showed similar protective activities on PC12
      cells injured by cobalt chloride (CoCl2). This study provided a new angle to
      research on the main chemical components and therapeutic values of CFP in
      Traditional Chinese Medicine compounds.

PMID- 28862670
TI  - Catalytic Behavior of Chromium Oxide Supported on Nanocasting-Prepared Mesoporous
      Alumina in Dehydrogenation of Propane.
AB  - Mesoporous alumina with narrow pore size distribution centered in the range of
      4.4-5.0 nm and with a specific surface area as high as 270 m2.g-1 was prepared
      via the nanocasting approach using a CMK-3 carbon replica as a hard template.
      Based on this support, a series of catalysts containing 1, 5, 10, 20 and 30 wt %
      of chromium was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation, characterized, and
      studied in the dehydrogenation of propane to propene (PDH). Cr species in three
      oxidation states-Cr(III), Cr(V) and Cr(VI)-were found on the oxidized surface of
      the catalysts. The concentration of these species varied with the total Cr
      loading. Temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance
      spectroscopy (UV-Vis-DRS) studies revealed that Cr(VI) species dominated at the
      lowest Cr content. An increase in the Cr loading resulted in an appearance of an
      increasing amount of Cr(III) oxide. UV-Vis-DRS measurements performed in situ
      during the PDH process showed that at the beginning of the catalytic test Cr(VI)
      species were reduced to Cr(III) redox species. A crucial role of the redox
      species in the PDH process over the catalysts with the low Cr content was
      confirmed. The stability test for the catalyst containing 20 wt % of Cr showed
      that this sample exhibited the reproducible catalytic performance after the first
      four regeneration-dehydrogenation cycles. Moreover, this catalyst had higher
      resistance on deactivation during the PDH process as compared to the reference
      catalyst with the same Cr loading, but was supported on commercially available
      alumina.

PMID- 28862669
TI  - Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Recreational
      Waters and Beach Sand in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
AB  - Background: Resistance of Staphylococcus aureus to commonly used antibiotics is
      linked to their ability to acquire and disseminate antimicrobial-resistant
      determinants in nature, and the marine environment may serve as a reservoir for
      antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This study determined the antibiotic sensitivity
      profile of S.aureus isolated from selected beach water and intertidal beach sand
      in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Methods: Two hundred and forty-nine
      beach sand and water samples were obtained from 10 beaches from April 2015 to
      April 2016. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the samples using standard
      microbiological methods and subjected to susceptibility testing to 15
      antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was detected by
      susceptibility to oxacillin and growth on Brilliance MRSA II agar. Antibiotic
      resistance genes including mecA, femA rpoB, blaZ, ermB, ermA, ermC, vanA, vanB,
      tetK and tetM were screened. Results: Thirty isolates (12.3%) were positive for
      S. aureus by PCR with over 50% showing phenotypic resistance to methicillin.
      Resistance of S. aureus to antibiotics varied considerably with the highest
      resistance recorded to ampicillin and penicillin (96.7%), rifampicin and
      clindamycin (80%), oxacillin (73.3%) and erythromycin (70%). S.aureus revealed
      varying susceptibility to imipenem (96.7%), levofloxacin (86.7%), chloramphenicol
      (83.3%), cefoxitin (76.7%), ciprofloxacin (66.7%), gentamycin (63.3%),
      tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (56.7%), and vancomycin and
      doxycycline (50%). All 30 (100%) S. aureus isolates showed multiple antibiotic
      resistant patterns (resistant to three or more antibiotics). The mecA, femA,
      rpoB, blaZ, ermB and tetM genes were detected in 5 (22.7%), 16 (53.3%), 11
      (45.8%), 16 (55.2%), 15 (71.4%), and 8 (72.7%) isolates respectively;
      Conclusions: Results from this study indicate that beach water and sand from the
      Eastern Cape Province of South Africa may be potential reservoirs of antibiotic
      resistant S. aureus which could be transmitted to exposed humans and animals.

PMID- 28862671
TI  - Delay Discounting as an Index of Sustainable Behavior: Devaluation of Future Air
      Quality and Implications for Public Health.
AB  - Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health
      concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes)
      of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term,
      sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private
      car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been
      shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and
      therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought
      to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or
      environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We
      examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and
      monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and
      self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature
      relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the
      time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay
      discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper
      discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health
      outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in
      discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory
      health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more
      steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and
      nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another,
      but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need
      for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that
      might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our
      understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay
      discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public
      health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that
      reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air.

PMID- 28862672
TI  - Stress and Depressive Symptoms in Cancer Survivors and Their Family Members:
      Korea Community Health Survey, 2012.
AB  - This study examined the prevalence of perceived stress and depressive symptoms in
      cancer survivors and their family members compared with subjects without cancer
      and without family members with cancer. The subjects of this cross-sectional
      study were adults >=19 years old who participated in the 2012 Korea Community
      Health Survey. Stress and depressive symptoms in cancer survivors and their
      family members were assessed and compared to symptoms in control groups by chi
      square tests and multiple logistic regression analyses. Of the 6783 cancer
      survivors, 26.9% and 8.7% reported having stress and depressive symptoms,
      respectively, and 27.7% and 5.9% of family members of cancer survivors reported
      having stress and depressive symptoms, respectively. Cancer survivors showed
      higher adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for stress (aOR = 1.26, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) = 1.16-1.37) and depressive symptoms (aOR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.57-2.11) than
      subjects without cancer history. Family members of cancer survivors showed a
      higher OR for stress and depressive symptoms than subjects without a family
      member who survived cancer. Cancer survivors and family members of cancer
      survivors had more stress and depressive symptoms than controls. Careful
      management for cancer patients and their family members should include screening
      for stress and depression to improve mental health associated with cancer
      survivorship.

PMID- 28862673
TI  - IGF-1 Attenuates Hypoxia-Induced Atrophy but Inhibits Myoglobin Expression in
      C2C12 Skeletal Muscle Myotubes.
AB  - Chronic hypoxia is associated with muscle wasting and decreased oxidative
      capacity. By contrast, training under hypoxia may enhance hypertrophy and
      increase oxidative capacity as well as oxygen transport to the mitochondria, by
      increasing myoglobin (Mb) expression. The latter may be a feasible strategy to
      prevent atrophy under hypoxia and enhance an eventual hypertrophic response to
      anabolic stimulation. Mb expression may be further enhanced by lipid
      supplementation. We investigated individual and combined effects of hypoxia,
      insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and lipids, in mouse skeletal muscle C2C12
      myotubes. Differentiated C2C12 myotubes were cultured for 24 h under 20%, 5% and
      2% oxygen with or without IGF-1 and/or lipid treatment. In culture under 20%
      oxygen, IGF-1 induced 51% hypertrophy. Hypertrophy was only 32% under 5% and
      abrogated under 2% oxygen. This was not explained by changes in expression of
      genes involved in contractile protein synthesis or degradation, suggesting a
      reduced rate of translation rather than of transcription. Myoglobin mRNA
      expression increased by 75% under 5% O2 but decreased by 50% upon IGF-1 treatment
      under 20% O2, compared to control. Inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin
      (mTOR) activation using rapamycin restored Mb mRNA expression to control levels.
      Lipid supplementation had no effect on Mb gene expression. Thus, IGF-1-induced
      anabolic signaling can be a strategy to improve muscle size under mild hypoxia,
      but lowers Mb gene expression.

PMID- 28862674
TI  - Biological and Chemical Diversity of Bacteria Associated with a Marine Flatworm.
AB  - The aim of this research is to explore the biological and chemical diversity of
      bacteria associated with a marine flatworm Paraplanocera sp., and to discover the
      bioactive metabolites from culturable strains. A total of 141 strains of bacteria
      including 45 strains of actinomycetes and 96 strains of other bacteria were
      isolated, identified and fermented on a small scale. Bioactive screening
      (antibacterial and cytotoxic activities) and chemical screening (ultra
      performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS)) yielded several
      target bacterial strains. Among these strains, the ethyl acetate (EA) crude
      extract of Streptomyces sp. XY-FW47 fermentation broth showed strong
      antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      ATCC43300 (MRSA ATCC43300) and potent cytotoxic effects on HeLa cells. The UPLC
      MS spectral analysis of the crude extract indicated that the strain XY-FW47 could
      produce a series of geldanamycins (GMs). One new geldanamycin (GM) analog, 4,5
      dihydro-17-O-demethylgeldanamycin (1), and three known GMs (2-4) were obtained.
      All of these compounds were tested for antibacterial, cytotoxic, and antifungal
      activities, yet only GM (3) showed potent cytotoxic (HeLa cells, EC50 = 1.12
      MUg/mL) and antifungal (Setosphaeria turcica MIC = 2.40 MUg/mL) activities. Their
      structure-activity relationship (SAR) was also preliminarily discussed in this
      study.

PMID- 28862675
TI  - Prediction-Based Energy Saving Mechanism in 3GPP NB-IoT Networks.
AB  - The current expansion of the Internet of things (IoT) demands improved
      communication platforms that support a wide area with low energy consumption. The
      3rd Generation Partnership Project introduced narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) as IoT
      communication solutions. NB-IoT devices should be available for over 10 years
      without requiring a battery replacement. Thus, a low energy consumption is
      essential for the successful deployment of this technology. Given that a high
      amount of energy is consumed for radio transmission by the power amplifier,
      reducing the uplink transmission time is key to ensure a long lifespan of an IoT
      device. In this paper, we propose a prediction-based energy saving mechanism
      (PBESM) that is focused on enhanced uplink transmission. The mechanism consists
      of two parts: first, the network architecture that predicts the uplink packet
      occurrence through a deep packet inspection; second, an algorithm that predicts
      the processing delay and pre-assigns radio resources to enhance the scheduling
      request procedure. In this way, our mechanism reduces the number of random
      accesses and the energy consumed by radio transmission. Simulation results showed
      that the energy consumption using the proposed PBESM is reduced by up to 34% in
      comparison with that in the conventional NB-IoT method.

PMID- 28862676
TI  - Problems in Classifying Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): One or Multiple
      Syndromes?
AB  - As the conceptual, methodological, and technological advances applied to
      dementias have evolved the construct of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), one
      problem encountered has been its classification into subtypes. Here, we aim to
      revise the concept of MCI and its subtypes, addressing the problems of
      classification not only from the psychometric point of view or by using
      alternative methods, such as latent class analysis, but also considering the
      absence of normative data. In addition to the well-known influence of certain
      factors on cognitive function, such as educational level and cultural traits,
      recent studies highlight the relevance of other factors that may significantly
      affect the genesis and evolution of MCI: subjective memory complaints,
      loneliness, social isolation, etc. The present work will contemplate the most
      relevant attempts to clarify the issue of MCI categorization and classification,
      combining our own data with that from recent studies which suggest the role of
      relevant psychosocial factors in MCI.

PMID- 28862677
TI  - Simulation of Food Folate Digestion and Bioavailability of an Oxidation Product
      of 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate.
AB  - Generating bioavailability data from in vivo studies is time-consuming and
      expensive. In vitro simulation can help to investigate factors influencing
      bioavailability or facilitate quantifying the impact of such factors. For
      folates, an efficient deconjugation of polyglutamates to the corresponding
      monoglutamates is crucial for bioavailability and highly dependent on the food
      matrix. Therefore, the bioaccessibility of folates of different foodstuffs was
      examined using a simulated digestion model with respect to folate stability and
      the efficiency of deconjugation. For realistic simulated deconjugation, porcine
      brush border membrane was used during the phase of the simulated digestion in the
      small intestine. For a better understanding of folate behaviour during digestion,
      single folate monoglutamates were also investigated with this in vitro digestion
      model. The results for bioaccessibility were compared with data from a human
      bioavailability study. They support the idea that both stability and
      deconjugation have an influence on bioaccessibility and thus on bioavailability.
      Tetrahydrofolate is probably lost completely or at least to a high extent and the
      stability of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate depends on the food matrix. Additionally, 5
      methyltetrahydrofolate can be oxidised to a pyrazino-s-triazine (MeFox), whose
      absorption in the human intestinal tract was shown tentatively.

PMID- 28862679
TI  - Research on the Mechanism of In-Plane Vibration on Friction Reduction.
AB  - A modified model for predicting the friction force between drill-string and
      borehole wall under in-plane vibrations was developed. It was found that the
      frictional coefficient in sliding direction decreased significantly after
      applying in-plane vibration on the bottom specimen. The friction reduction is due
      to the direction change of friction force, elastic deformation of surface
      asperities and the change of frictional coefficient. Normal load, surface
      topography, vibration direction, velocity ratio and interfacial shear factor are
      the main influence factors of friction force in sliding direction. Lower driving
      force can be realized for a pair of determinate rubbing surfaces under constant
      normal load by setting the driving direction along the minimum arithmetic average
      attack angle direction, and applying intense longitudinal vibration on the
      rubbing pair. The modified model can significantly improve the accuracy in
      predicting frictional coefficient under vibrating conditions, especially under
      the condition of lower velocity ratio. The results provide a theoretical gist for
      friction reduction technology by vibrating drill-string, and provide a reference
      for determination of frictional coefficient during petroleum drilling process,
      which has great significance for realizing digitized and intelligent drilling.

PMID- 28862680
TI  - The Effect of Precipitate Evolution on Austenite Grain Growth in RAFM Steel.
AB  - To study the effects of various types of precipitates and precipitate evolution
      behavior on austenite (size and phase fraction) in reduced activation
      ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steel, RAFM steel was heated to various austenitizing
      temperatures. The microstructures of specimens were observed using optical
      microscopy (OM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicate
      that the M23C6 and MX precipitates gradually coarsen and dissolve into the matrix
      as the austenitizing temperatures increase. The M23C6 precipitates dissolve
      completely at 1100  degrees C, while the MX precipitates dissolve completely at
      1200  degrees C. The evolution of two types of precipitate has a significant
      effect on the size of austenite. Based on the Zener pinning model, the effect of
      precipitate evolution on austenite grain size is quantified. It was found that
      the coarsening and dissolution of M23C6 and MX precipitates leads to a decrease
      in pinning pressure on grain boundaries, facilitating the rapid growth of
      austenite grains. The austenite phase fraction is also affected by the coarsening
      and dissolution of precipitates.

PMID- 28862678
TI  - Rosemary Extract as a Potential Anti-Hyperglycemic Agent: Current Evidence and
      Future Perspectives.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a disease on the rise and with huge economic
      burden to health care systems around the globe, results from defects in insulin
      action (termed insulin resistance) combined with impaired insulin secretion.
      Current methods of prevention and treatments for insulin resistance and T2DM are
      lacking in number and efficacy and, therefore, there is a need for new
      preventative measures and targeted therapies. In recent years, chemicals found in
      plants/herbs have attracted attention for their use as functional foods or
      nutraceuticals for preventing and treating insulin resistance and T2DM. Rosemary
      is an evergreen shrub indigenous to the Mediterranean region and South America,
      which contains various polyphenols. Rosemary extract and its polyphenolic
      constituents have been reported to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
      anticancer, and anti-hyperglycemic properties. The current review summarizes the
      existing in vitro and in vivo studies examining the anti-diabetic effects of
      rosemary extract and its polyphenolic components and highlights the known
      mechanism of action.

PMID- 28862681
TI  - Comparison of Efficiency of BG-Sentinel Traps Baited with Mice, Mouse-Litter, and
      CO2 Lures for Field Sampling of Male and Female Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes.
AB  - Determining the abundance and distribution of male mosquitoes in the wild and
      establishing species seasonality in candidate pilot sites is of particular
      interest with respect to the use of the sterile-male technique. With the
      knowledge that using mice as bait in BG-Sentinel traps effectively enhances Aedes
      albopictus male and female trapping success, the present study was designed to
      determine whether attractants derived from mouse odour blend could be a viable
      substitute for live mice to lure Ae. albopictus mosquitoes into traps. The
      effects of baiting BG-Sentinel traps with mice, carbon dioxide (CO2), and
      attractants derived from litter mouse odours (mouse litter (ML)) and a mouse
      odour blend (MOB) on the efficiency of trapping Ae. albopictus males and females
      were tested using a Latin square design. The BG-Sentinel trap baited with CO2 +
      ML caught a significantly larger number of mosquitoes compared to traps baited
      with mice only. The BG-Sentinel traps containing only CO2 or CO2 + MOB, however,
      did not catch significantly more mosquitoes compared to the other traps. The
      proportions of males caught in the BG-Sentinel traps did not differ significantly
      between the respective attractants. The results from this study confirm that CO2
      bait is efficient to provide a reliable estimation method for Ae. albopictus
      adult male abundance in the wild, and suggest that mouse litter baits in
      combination with CO2 could be used to enhance Aedes trapping success in BG
      Sentinel traps.

PMID- 28862682
TI  - Public Health Services Utilization and Its Determinants among Internal Migrants
      in China: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey.
AB  - There have been obstacles for internal migrants in China in accessing local
      public health services for some time. This study aimed to estimate the
      utilization of local public health services and its determinants among internal
      migrants. Data were from the 2014 and 2015 nationally representative cross
      sectional survey of internal migrants in China. Multivariate logistic regressions
      were used to estimate the relationship between socioeconomic, migration, and
      demographic characteristics and public health services utilization. Our results
      showed that internal migrants in more developed eastern regions used less public
      health services. Those with higher socioeconomic status were more likely to use
      public health services. The years of living in the city of residence were
      positively associated with the utilization of public health services. Compared to
      migration within the city, migration across provinces significantly reduced the
      probability of using health records (OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.86-0.90), health
      education (OR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-1.00), and health education on non
      communicable diseases (OR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.89-0.95) or through the Internet (OR
      = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99). This study concludes that public health services
      coverage for internal migrants has seen great improvement due to government
      subsidies. Internal migrants with lower socioeconomic status and across provinces
      need to be targeted. More attention should be given to the local government in
      the developed eastern regions in order to narrow the regional gaps.

PMID- 28862684
TI  - Position Fingerprint-Based Beam Selection in Millimeter Wave Heterogeneous
      Networks.
AB  - The traditional beam selection algorithms determine the optimal beam direction by
      feeding back the perfect channel state information (CSI) in a millimeter wave
      (mmWave) massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system. Popular beam
      selection algorithms mostly focus on the methods of feedback and exhaustive
      search. In order to reduce the extra computational complexity coming from the
      redundant feedback and exhaustive search, a position fingerprint (PFP)-based
      mmWave multi-cell beam selection scheme is proposed in this paper. In the
      proposed scheme, the best beam identity (ID) and the strongest interference beam
      IDs from adjacent cells of each fingerprint spot are stored in a fingerprint
      database (FPDB), then the optimal beam and the strongest interference beams can
      be determined by matching the current PFP of the user equipment (UE) with the PFP
      in the FPDB instead of exhaustive search, and the orthogonal codes are also
      allocated to the optimal beam and the strongest interference beams. Simulation
      results show that the proposed PFP-based beam selection scheme can reduce the
      computational complexity and inter-cell interference and produce less feedback,
      and the system sum-rate for the mmWave heterogeneous networks is also improved.

PMID- 28862683
TI  - Mechanochemical Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Isoniazid
      Derivatives with Potent Antitubercular Activity.
AB  - A series of isoniazid derivatives bearing a phenolic or heteroaromatic coupled
      frame were obtained by mechanochemical means. Their pH stability and their
      structural (conformer/isomer) analysis were checked. The activity of prepared
      derivatives against Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell growth was evaluated. Some
      compounds such as phenolic hydrazine 1a and almost all heteroaromatic ones,
      especially 2, 5 and 7, are more active than isoniazid, and their activity against
      some M. tuberculosis MDR clinical isolates was determined. Compounds 1a and 7
      present a selectivity index >1400 evaluated on MRC5 human fibroblast cells. The
      mechanism of action of selected hydrazones was demonstrated to block mycolic acid
      synthesis due to InhA inhibition inside the mycobacterial cell.

PMID- 28862685
TI  - Alumina Concentration Detection Based on the Kernel Extreme Learning Machine.
AB  - The concentration of alumina in the electrolyte is of great significance during
      the production of aluminum. The amount of the alumina concentration may lead to
      unbalanced material distribution and low production efficiency and affect the
      stability of the aluminum reduction cell and current efficiency. The existing
      methods cannot meet the needs for online measurement because industrial aluminum
      electrolysis has the characteristics of high temperature, strong magnetic field,
      coupled parameters, and high nonlinearity. Currently, there are no sensors or
      equipment that can detect the alumina concentration on line. Most companies
      acquire the alumina concentration from the electrolyte samples which are analyzed
      through an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. To solve the problem, the paper
      proposes a soft sensing model based on a kernel extreme learning machine
      algorithm that takes the kernel function into the extreme learning machine. K
      fold cross validation is used to estimate the generalization error. The proposed
      soft sensing algorithm can detect alumina concentration by the electrical signals
      such as voltages and currents of the anode rods. The predicted results show that
      the proposed approach can give more accurate estimations of alumina concentration
      with faster learning speed compared with the other methods such as the basic ELM,
      BP, and SVM.

PMID- 28862686
TI  - Identification of Polar Constituents in the Decoction of Juglans mandshurica and
      in the Medicated Egg Prepared with the Decoction by HPLC-Q-TOF MS2.
AB  - As a folk medicinal plant, Juglans mandshurica has been used for the treatment of
      cancer in China and Korea. Traditionally, J. mandshurica is decocted together
      with chicken eggs. Both the decoction and medicated eggs possess anti-tumor
      properties. Clarifying the constituents of the decoction and absorbed by the
      medicated eggs is essential for the investigation of the active principles of J.
      mandshurica. Herein, the medicated eggs were prepared by decocting raw chicken
      eggs, having unbroken shells, with the decoction of J. mandshurica. A systematic
      investigation of the chemical profile of the J. mandshurica decoction and the
      medicated egg extraction was conducted by HPLC-Q-TOF-MS2. In total, 93 peaks,
      including 45 tannins, 14 naphthalene derivatives, 17 organic acids, 3
      diarylheptanoids, 4 lignans, 3 anthraquinones, 1 flavonoid glycoside, 3 amino
      acids, and 3 nitrogenous compounds, were tentatively identified in the decoction.
      In the medicated egg extraction, 44 peaks including 11 organic acids, 3 amino
      acids, 3 nitrogenous compounds, 8 naphthalene derivatives, 3 diarylheptanoids, 15
      tannins, and 1 lignan were tentatively identified. The chemical profile presented
      provided a detailed overview of the polar chemical constituents in J. mandshurica
      and useful information for the research of bioactive compounds of this plant.

PMID- 28862687
TI  - Changes in Tannin Composition of Syrah Grape Skins and Seeds during Fruit
      Ripening under Contrasting Water Conditions.
AB  - Tannin accumulation and composition were determined in skins and seeds isolated
      from Vitis vinifera cv. Syrah grapes submitted to contrasting water regimes under
      semiarid climatic conditions. Three irrigation treatments were conducted,
      starting at berry set through harvest of two growing seasons, 2011 and 2012:
      irrigation at 100% of crop evapotranspiration ETc (FI), irrigation at 50% of ETc
      (DI) and non-irrigated (NI). Seed total tannins did not vary with maturity but
      those of skins underwent a progressive decline (especially in 2011), expressed
      both on a fresh weight and on a per berry basis. Skin total tannin concentration
      and content per berry were increased under NI and DI conditions, mainly in 2012.
      In contrast, seed total tannins (in 2012) and flavan-3-ol monomers and tannin
      oligomers (both years) were higher in the fully irrigated vines (FI). Skin
      polymer size increased during ripening, NI and DI skins showing higher mean
      degree of polymerization (mDP) compared to FI at harvest. NI was also associated
      with a lower percentage of galloylation (%G) in skin oligomeric fraction (in
      2012) and a lower percentage of prodelphinidins in the skin polymeric fraction
      (both years) at harvest. The mDP and %G of seed extracts did not vary during
      ripening and were higher in NI but only in 2012. According to the results,
      management of vine water status was shown to influence tannin amount and
      composition of Syrah grapes grown under semiarid conditions.

PMID- 28862688
TI  - Constituents of the Fruits of Citrus medica L. var. sarcodactylis and the Effect
      of 6,7-Dimethoxy-coumarin on Superoxide Anion Formation and Elastase Release.
AB  - Investigation of the chemical constituents from the fruits of Citrus medica L.
      var. sarcodactylis Swingle has led to the characterization of a new sesquiterpene
      1 along with thirty-two known compounds. The structure of 1 was established on
      the basis of 2D NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric analyses, and the known
      compounds were identified by comparison of their physical and spectroscopic data
      with those reported in the literature. In addition, most of the isolated
      compounds were evaluated for the activity assayed by the in vitro inhibition of
      superoxide anion generation and elastase release by human neutrophils. The
      results showed that only 6,7-dimethoxycoumarin (5) exhibited significant
      inhibition of superoxide anion generation, with IC50 value of 3.8 +/- 1.4 MUM.

PMID- 28862689
TI  - The Efficacy of Electron Beam Irradiated Bacterial Cellulose Membranes as
      Compared with Collagen Membranes on Guided Bone Regeneration in Peri-Implant Bone
      Defects.
AB  - Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a natural polysaccharide produced by some bacteria,
      and consists of a linear polymer linked by beta-(1,4) glycosidic bonds. BC has
      been developed as a material for tissue regeneration purposes. This study was
      conducted to evaluate the efficacy of resorbable electron beam irradiated BC
      membranes (EI-BCMs) for guided bone regeneration (GBR). The electron beam
      irradiation (EI) was introduced to control the biodegradability of BC for dental
      applications. EI-BCMs had higher porosity than collagen membranes (CMs), and had
      similar wet tensile strengths to CMs. NIH3T3 cell adhesion and proliferation on
      EI-BCMs were not significantly different from those on CMs (p > 0.05). Micro
      computed tomography (MUCT) and histometric analysis in peri-implant dehiscence
      defects of beagle dogs showed that EI-BCMs were non-significantly different from
      CMs in terms of new bone area (NBA; %), remaining bone substitute volume (RBA; %)
      and bone-to-implant contact (BIC; %) (p > 0.05). These results suggest resorbable
      EI-BCMs can be used as an alternative biomaterial for bone tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28862691
TI  - Peg-in-Hole Assembly Based on Two-phase Scheme and F/T Sensor for Dual-arm Robot.
AB  - This paper focuses on peg-in-hole assembly based on a two-phase scheme and
      force/torque sensor (F/T sensor) for a compliant dual-arm robot, the Baxter
      robot. The coordinated operations of human beings in assembly applications are
      applied to the behaviors of the robot. A two-phase assembly scheme is proposed to
      overcome the inaccurate positioning of the compliant dual-arm robot. The position
      and orientation of assembly pieces are adjusted respectively in an active
      compliant manner according to the forces and torques derived by a six degrees-of
      freedom (6-DOF) F/T sensor. Experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness
      and efficiency of the proposed assembly scheme. The performances of the dual-arm
      robot are consistent with those of human beings in the peg-in-hole assembly
      process. The peg and hole with 0.5 mm clearance for round pieces and square
      pieces can be assembled successfully.

PMID- 28862690
TI  - Variations in the Rate of Infestations of Dogs with Zoonotic Nematodes and the
      Contamination of Soil in Different Environments.
AB  - Companion animals are an important aspect in human life. However, they may also
      be considered a source of pathogens. An example of zoonotic parasitoses is
      toxocarosis or cutaneous larva migrans (CLM). The aim of the study was to detect
      zoonotic nematodes of dogs living in different areas and the intensity of
      contamination in parasite polluted environments that are hazardous to human
      health. The fecal samples were examined using standard flotation and decantation
      methods as well as McMaster's quantitative technique. The soil samples in urban
      and rural areas were examined using a modified flotation method as described by
      Quinn et al. Statistical analyses were performed by IBM SPSS Statistics Version
      23. The overall prevalence of parasites in dogs was 38%, 17.02% and 56.60% from
      urban and rural areas, respectively. The percentage values of nematodes important
      for human health (Toxocaracanis, Ancylostomatidae, Trichurisvulpis) remained at
      the same level (16%). The infected dogs were dominated by a single parasite
      species, the main was T.canis (28.95%). In total, 54.30% of the soil samples were
      contaminated with parasite eggs. The contamination of urban and rural sandpits
      was 40% and 60%, respectively. The molecular examinations of soil samples using
      LAMP (loop-mediated isothermal amplification) confirmed the presence of nematode
      eggs of the species T.canis in all samples previously classified as positive.

PMID- 28862692
TI  - Characteristics and Outcomes of Dogs Admitted into Queensland RSPCA Shelters.
AB  - Over 200,000 stray and surrendered dogs are admitted to shelters and municipal
      facilities in Australia each year, and approximately 20% are euthanized.
      Contemporary, comprehensive data on the characteristics and outcomes of dogs
      entering shelters are required to reduce shelter admissions and euthanasia.
      However, there are currently limited up-to-date data published on dog admission
      into shelters. A retrospective single cohort study was conducted to describe the
      characteristics and outcomes of the dog population entering Royal Society for
      Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Queensland (RSPCA-QLD) shelters in 2014 (n =
      11,967). The majority of dog admissions were strays from the public (24%) or from
      municipal councils (34%). Just over a quarter of admissions were puppies, 18% of
      adults (>6 months) were desexed, and the majority of admissions were crossbred
      dogs (92%). The majority of owner surrenders (86%) were due to human-related
      reasons. Most dogs were reclaimed (32%) or adopted (43%) and aggression was the
      most common reason for euthanasia of adult dogs (45%). Low-cost or free desexing
      and identification programs targeted to areas and breeds contributing to high
      intake, and increased support services for owners at risk of surrendering their
      dog, should be trialed to determine their cost effectiveness in reducing shelter
      admissions and euthanasia.

PMID- 28862694
TI  - An Assessment of the Food and Nutrition Security Status of Weaned 7-12 Months Old
      Children in Rural and Peri-Urban Communities of Gauteng and Limpopo Provinces,
      South Africa.
AB  - This study assessed the food and nutrition security status of children receiving
      complementary food in rural and peri-urban communities. A group of 106 mothers
      from Lebowakgomo village and Hammanskraal Township, respectively, participated in
      the survey. Additionally, six focus group discussions were conducted per study
      area to assess the mothers' perceptions about children's food access. The
      Children's Food Insecurity Access Scale (CFIAS) was used to assess the food
      security status (access) of the children. The Individual Dietary Diversity Score
      (IDDS) together with the unquantified food consumption frequency survey were used
      as a proxy measure of the nutritional quality of the children's diets. The age
      and weight of the children obtained from the children's clinic health cards were
      used to calculate Weight-for-Age Z scores (WAZ) in order to determine the
      prevalence of underweight children. The findings showed that a large percentage
      of children were severely food-insecure, 87% and 78%, in rural and peri-urban
      areas, respectively. Additionally, Lebowakgomo children (23.6%) and Hammanskraal
      children (17.9%) were severely underweight. Overall, children's diets in both
      study areas was characterized by nutrient-deficient complementary foods. Cheaper
      foods with a longer stomach-filling effect such as white maize meal and sugar
      were the most commonly purchased and used. Hence, the children consumed very
      limited amounts of foods rich in proteins, minerals, and vitamins, which
      significantly increased the risk of their being malnourished.

PMID- 28862695
TI  - Quantifying the Performance of P-Type Transparent Conducting Oxides by
      Experimental Methods.
AB  - Screening for potential new materials with experimental and theoretical methods
      has led to the discovery of many promising candidate materials for p-type
      transparent conducting oxides. It is difficult to reliably assess a good p-type
      transparent conducting oxide (TCO) from limited information available at an early
      experimental stage. In this paper we discuss the influence of sample thickness on
      simple transmission measurements and how the sample thickness can skew the
      commonly used figure of merit of TCOs and their estimated band gap. We discuss
      this using copper-deficient CuCrO 2 as an example, as it was already shown to be
      a good p-type TCO grown at low temperatures. We outline a modified figure of
      merit reducing thickness-dependent errors, as well as how modern ab initio
      screening methods can be used to augment experimental methods to assess new
      materials for potential applications as p-type TCOs, p-channel transparent thin
      film transistors, and selective contacts in solar cells.

PMID- 28862693
TI  - Pro-Inflammatory Versus Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Dendrimers: The Two Faces of
      Immuno-Modulatory Nanoparticles.
AB  - Dendrimers are soft matter, hyperbranched, and multivalent nanoparticles whose
      synthesis theoretically affords monodisperse compounds. They are built from a
      core on which one or several successive series of branches are engrafted in an
      arborescent way. At the end of the synthesis, the tunable addition of surface
      groups gives birth to multivalent nano-objects which are generally intended for a
      specific use. For these reasons, dendrimers have received a lot of attention from
      biomedical researchers. In particular, some of us have demonstrated that
      dendrimers can be intrinsically drug-candidate for the treatment of inflammatory
      disorders, amongst others, using relevant preclinical animal models. These anti
      inflammatory dendrimers are innovative in the pharmaceutical field. More
      recently, it has appeared that some dendrimers (even among those which have been
      described as anti-inflammatory) can promote inflammatory responses in non
      diseased animals. The main corpus of this concise review is focused on the
      reports which describe anti-inflammatory properties of dendrimers in vivo,
      following which we review the few recent articles that show pro-inflammatory
      effects of our favorite molecules, to finally discuss this duality in immuno
      modulation which has to be taken into account for the preclinical and clinical
      developments of dendrimers.

PMID- 28862696
TI  - Zeamide, a Glycosylinositol Phosphorylceramide with the Novel Core Arap(1beta
      >6)Ins Motif from the Marine Sponge Svenzea zeai.
AB  - Glycosylinositol phosphorylceramides (GIPCs) show a great structural diversity,
      but all share a small number of core structures, with a glucosamine, a mannose,
      or a glucuronic acid as the first sugar linked to the inositol. The Caribbean
      sponge Svenzea zeai was shown to consistently contain zeamide (1), the first
      example of a new class of GIPCs, in which the inositol is glycosylated by a d
      arabinose. The structure of zeamide was determined by spectroscopic analysis
      (NMR, MS, ECD) and microscale chemical degradation. The 6-O-beta-d
      arabinopyranosyl-myo-inositol (d-Arap(1beta->6)Ins) core motif of zeamide is
      unprecedented not only among GIPCs, but also in any natural glycoconjugate.

PMID- 28862697
TI  - Identification of a Group's Physiological Synchronization with Earth's Magnetic
      Field.
AB  - A new analysis technique for the evaluation of the degree of synchronization
      between the physiological state of a group of people and changes in the Earth's
      magnetic field based on their cardiac inter-beat intervals was developed and
      validated. The new analysis method was then used to identify clusters of similar
      synchronization patterns in a group of 20 individuals over a two-week period. The
      algorithm for the identification of slow wave dynamics for every person was
      constructed in order to determine meaningful interrelationships between the
      participants and the local magnetic field data. The results support the
      hypothesis that the slow wave rhythms in heart rate variability can synchronize
      with changes in local magnetic field data, and that the degree of synchronization
      is affected by the quality of interpersonal relationships.

PMID- 28862698
TI  - Prognostic implications of abnormalities of chromosome 13 and the presence of
      multiple cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.
AB  - Fluorescence in situ hybridization evaluation is essential for initial risk
      stratification in multiple myeloma. While the presence of specific cytogenetic
      high-risk abnormalities (HRA) is known to confer a poor prognosis, less is known
      about the cumulative effect of multiple HRA. We studied 1181 patients with newly
      diagnosed multiple myeloma who received novel agents as first-line therapy. High
      risk abnormalities were defined as t(4;14), t(14;16), t(14;20) and del(17p).
      There were 884 patients (75%) without any HRA and 297 patients (25%) with HRA,
      including 262 (22%) with one HRA and 35 (3%) with two HRA. The presence of one
      HRA (versus zero, hazard ratio (HR) 1.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32-2.05,
      p<0.001) and the presence of two HRA (versus zero, HR 3.15, 95% CI 2.00-4.96,
      p<0.001) were of prognostic significance after adjusting for other prognostic
      factors. Abnormalities of chromosome 13 were of prognostic significance
      independent of the established HRA: Monosomy 13 (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.04-1.56,
      P=0.022) and del(13q) (HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.28-0.81, P=0.006) with opposite effects.
      Patients with HRA experienced worse overall survival suggesting a cumulative
      adverse effect of multiple HRA. Abnormalities of chromosome 13 were of prognostic
      significance after adjusting for other prognostic factors.

PMID- 28862699
TI  - CXorf48 is a potential therapeutic target for achieving treatment-free remission
      in CML patients.
AB  - Although the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has improved
      overall survival of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), about half of
      the patients eventually relapse after cessation of TKIs. In contrast, the
      remainder of the patients maintain molecular remission without TKIs, indicating
      that the patients' immune system could control proliferation of TKI-resistant
      leukemic stem cells (LSCs). However, the precise mechanism of immunity against
      CML-LSCs is not fully understood. We have identified a novel immune target,
      CXorf48, expressed in LSCs of CML patients. Cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) induced by
      the epitope peptide derived from CXorf48 recognized CD34+CD38- cells obtained
      from the bone marrow of CML patients. We detected CXorf48-specific CTLs in the
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells from CML patients who have discontinued
      imatinib after maintaining complete molecular remission for more than 2 years.
      Significantly, the relapse rate of CXorf48-specific CTL-negative patients was
      63.6%, compared to 0% in CXorf48-specific CTL-positive patients. These results
      indicate that CXorf48 could be a promising therapeutic target of LSCs for
      immunotherapy to obtain durable treatment-free remission in CML patients.

PMID- 28862700
TI  - Differences in genomic patterns and clinical outcomes between African-American
      and White patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.

PMID- 28862701
TI  - Deletion of Nedd4-2 results in progressive kidney disease in mice.
AB  - NEDD4-2 (NEDD4L), a ubiquitin protein ligase of the Nedd4 family, is a key
      regulator of cell surface expression and activity of the amiloride-sensitive
      epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC). While hypomorphic alleles of Nedd4-2 in mice show
      salt-sensitive hypertension, complete knockout results in pulmonary distress and
      perinatal lethality due to increased cell surface levels of ENaC. We now show
      that Nedd4-2 deficiency in mice also results in an unexpected progressive kidney
      injury phenotype associated with elevated ENaC and Na+Cl- cotransporter
      expression, increased Na+ reabsorption, hypertension and markedly reduced levels
      of aldosterone. The observed nephropathy is characterized by fibrosis, tubule
      epithelial cell apoptosis, dilated/cystic tubules, elevated expression of kidney
      injury markers and immune cell infiltration, characteristics reminiscent of human
      chronic kidney disease. Importantly, we demonstrate that the extent of kidney
      injury can be partially therapeutically ameliorated in mice with nephron-specific
      deletions of Nedd4-2 by blocking ENaC with amiloride. These results suggest that
      increased Na+ reabsorption via ENaC causes kidney injury and establish a novel
      role of NEDD4-2 in preventing Na+-induced nephropathy. Contrary to some recent
      reports, our data also indicate that ENaC is the primary in vivo target of NEDD4
      2 and that Nedd4-2 deletion is associated with hypertension on a normal Na+ diet.
      These findings provide further insight into the critical function of NEDD4-2 in
      renal pathophysiology.

PMID- 28862702
TI  - The emerging role of RNAs in DNA damage repair.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/cdd.2017.16.

PMID- 28862704
TI  - Sustained deep molecular responses in patients switched to nilotinib due to
      persistent BCR-ABL1 on imatinib: final ENESTcmr randomized trial results.

PMID- 28862706
TI  - Covalent self-assembly of the specific RSSR isomer of 14-membered
      tetrakisphosphine.
AB  - The first representative of the specific RSSR isomer of 14-membered
      tetrakisphosphine has been obtained instead of the RRRR/SSSS isomer predicted
      according to the empirical rule formulated recently. The geometry of the obtained
      14-P4N2 is preorganized for the dicopper complex formation with the unique
      coordination mode in the row of P4N2 corands.

PMID- 28862703
TI  - Fine-tuning and autoregulation of the intestinal determinant and tumor suppressor
      homeobox gene CDX2 by alternative splicing.
AB  - On the basis of phylogenetic analyses, we uncovered a variant of the CDX2
      homeobox gene, a major regulator of the development and homeostasis of the gut
      epithelium, also involved in cancer. This variant, miniCDX2, is generated by
      alternative splicing coupled to alternative translation initiation, and contains
      the DNA-binding homeodomain but is devoid of transactivation domain. It is
      predominantly expressed in crypt cells, whereas the CDX2 protein is present in
      crypt cells but also in differentiated villous cells. Functional studies revealed
      a dominant-negative effect exerted by miniCDX2 on the transcriptional activity of
      CDX2, and conversely similar effects regarding several transcription-independent
      functions of CDX2. In addition, a regulatory role played by the CDX2 and miniCDX2
      homeoproteins on their pre-mRNA splicing is displayed, through interactions with
      splicing factors. Overexpression of miniCDX2 in the duodenal Brunner glands leads
      to the expansion of the territory of these glands and ultimately to brunneroma.
      As a whole, this study characterized a new and original variant of the CDX2
      homeobox gene. The production of this variant represents not only a novel level
      of regulation of this gene, but also a novel way to fine-tune its biological
      activity through the versatile functions exerted by the truncated variant
      compared to the full-length homeoprotein. This study highlights the relevance of
      generating protein diversity through alternative splicing in the gut and its
      diseases.

PMID- 28862705
TI  - Membrane and genomic DNA dual-targeting of citrus flavonoid naringenin against
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - The antimicrobial mechanism of naringenin, one of the citrus antibacterial
      flavonoids against food-borne Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, was investigated
      in this study. Analysis of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and
      fluorescence showed that relatively low concentrations of naringenin caused
      perturbations in the membrane fatty acid composition and the conformation of
      membrane proteins through changing the microenvironment of phenylalanine,
      tyrosine, and tryptophan residues. Exposure of naringenin at higher levels
      significantly increased membrane permeability and changed the morphology of S.
      aureus cells. The genomic DNA-binding of naringenin was also quantitatively
      monitored using UV-vis spectra in combination with multivariate curve resolution
      alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) analysis, and the concentration and pure
      spectra profiles for the three reaction species (DNA, naringenin, and DNA
      naringenin) were obtained. Moreover, the thermal behavior of DNA and docking
      studies revealed that naringenin preferentially bound to the A-T base pair
      regions of genomic DNA via groove binding, and atomic force microscopy and
      circular dichroism showed that naringenin induced mild secondary structure and
      obvious morphological variations of this biomacromolecule. These results
      suggested that naringenin exerting its antibacterial effects might be connected
      with disruption of the cytoplasmic membrane and DNA targeting effects in
      Staphylococcus aureus.

PMID- 28862708
TI  - Non-planar PDMS microfluidic channels and actuators: a review.
AB  - This review examines the state of the art for manufacturing non-planar miniature
      channels and actuators from PDMS, where non-planar structures are defined here as
      those beyond simple extrusions of 2D designs, either with rounded or variable
      cross sections or with an emergence of the channel trajectory out-of-plane. The
      motivation for 3D PDMS structures and advances in their fabrication are
      described, focusing on geometries that were previously unachievable through
      conventional microfabrication. The motivation for non-planar microfluidic
      channels and actuators is first discussed and the existing literature is grouped
      into general fabrication themes and described. The structures are organized by
      their method of fabrication and evaluated based on their relevant properties,
      including the capability of producing structures with complex geometry,
      automation of the fabrication process, and minimum feature size. Additional
      properties are included for work in the more recently emerging field of non
      planar PDMS actuators, where the feature size, actuation stroke, and actuation
      method are the key parameters of interest. In particular, this review considers
      the impact from recent advances in additive manufacturing, which now allow
      creation of truly arbitrary 3D structures down to ~100 MUm size scales.

PMID- 28862707
TI  - Synthesis and in vivo anticancer evaluation of poly(organo)phosphazene-based
      metallodrug conjugates.
AB  - Within this work we aimed to improve the pharmacodynamics and toxicity profile of
      organoruthenium and -rhodium complexes which had previously been found to be
      highly potent in vitro but showed unselective activity in vivo. Different
      organometallic complexes were attached to a degradable poly(organo)phosphazene
      macromolecule, prepared via controlled polymerization techniques. The conjugation
      to hydrophilic polymers was designed to increase the aqueous solubility of the
      typically poorly soluble metal-based half-sandwich compounds with the aim of a
      controlled, pH-triggered release of the active metallodrug. The synthesized
      conjugates and their characteristics have been thoroughly studied by means of 31P
      NMR and UV-Vis spectroscopy, ICP-MS analyses and SEC coupled to ICP-MS. In order
      to assess their potential as possible anticancer drug candidates, the complexes,
      as well as their respective macromolecular prodrug formulations were tested
      against three different cancer cell lines in cell culture. Subsequently, the
      anticancer activity and organ distribution of the poly(organo)phosphazene drug
      conjugates were explored in vivo in mice bearing CT-26 colon carcinoma. Our
      investigations revealed a beneficial influence of this macromolecular prodrug by
      a significant reduction of adverse effects compared to the free metallodrugs.

PMID- 28862709
TI  - Different effects of aging and gender on the temporal resolution in attentional
      tracking.
AB  - The current study examined the role of temporal resolution of attention in the
      decline in multiple object tracking abilities with healthy aging. The temporal
      resolution of attention is known to limit attentional tracking of one and
      multiple targets (Holcombe & Chen, 2013). Here, we examined whether aging is
      associated with a lower temporal resolution of attention when tracking one
      target, the efficiency of splitting attention across multiple targets, or both.
      Stimuli comprised three concentric rings containing five or 10 equally spaced
      dots. While maintaining central fixation, younger and older participants tracked
      a target dot on one, two, or three rings while the rings rotated around fixation
      in random directions for 5 s. Rotational speed was varied to estimate speed or
      temporal frequency thresholds in six conditions. Results showed that younger and
      older participants had similar temporal frequency thresholds for tracking one
      target, but the addition of one and two more targets reduced thresholds more in
      the older group compared to the younger group. Gender also affected performance,
      with men having higher temporal frequency thresholds than women, independently of
      the number of targets. These findings indicate that the temporal resolution of
      attention for a single target depends on gender but is not affected by aging,
      whereas aging specifically affects the efficiency of dividing attention across
      multiple targets.

PMID- 28862710
TI  - Letter and symbol identification: No evidence for letter-specific crowding
      mechanisms.
AB  - It has been proposed that letters, as opposed to symbols, trigger specialized
      crowding processes, boosting identification of the first and last letters of
      words. This hypothesis is based on evidence that single-letter accuracy as a
      function of within-string position has a W shape (the classic serial position
      function [SPF] in psycholinguistics) whereas an inverted V shape is obtained when
      measured with symbols. Our main goal was to test the robustness of the latter
      result. Our hypothesis was that any letter/symbol difference might result from
      short-term visual memory processes (due to the partial report [PR] procedures
      used in SPF studies) rather than from crowding. We therefore removed the
      involvement of short-term memory by precueing target-item position and compared
      SPFs with precueing and postcueing. Perimetric complexity was stringently matched
      between letters and symbols. In postcueing conditions similar to previous
      studies, we did not reproduce the inverted V shape for symbols: Clear-cut W
      shapes were observed with an overall smaller accuracy for symbols compared to
      letters. This letter/symbol difference was dramatically reduced in precueing
      conditions in keeping with our prediction. Our results are not consistent with
      the claim that letter strings trigger specialized crowding processes. We argue
      that PR procedures are not fit to isolate crowding processes.

PMID- 28862711
TI  - Influence of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on spasticity, balance,
      and walking speed in stroke patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of transcutaneous electrical nerve
      stimulation in patients with stroke through a systematic review and meta
      analysis. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, EBSCO, and Cochrane Library
      databases were searched systematically. Randomized controlled trials assessing
      the effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation vs placebo
      transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on stroke were included. Two
      investigators independently searched articles, extracted data, and assessed the
      quality of included studies. The primary outcome was modified Ashworth scale
      (MAS). Meta-analysis was performed using the random-effect model. RESULTS: Seven
      randomized controlled trials were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with
      placebo transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, transcutaneous electrical
      nerve stimulation supplementation significantly reduced MAS (standard mean
      difference (SMD) = -0.71; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = -1.11 to -0.30; p =
      0.0006), improved static balance with open eyes (SMD = -1.26; 95% CI = -1.83 to 
      0.69; p<0.0001) and closed eyes (SMD = -1.74; 95% CI = -2.36 to -1.12; p <
      0.00001), and increased walking speed (SMD = 0.44; 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.84; p =
      0.03), but did not improve results on the Timed Up and Go Test (SMD = -0.60; 95%
      CI=-1.22 to 0.03; p = 0.06). CONCLUSION: Transcutaneous electrical nerve
      stimulation is associated with significantly reduced spasticity, increased static
      balance and walking speed, but has no influence on dynamic balance.

PMID- 28862712
TI  - Enhanced liver fibrosis test as a reliable tool for assessing fibrosis in
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in a clinical setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver fibrosis is the main determinant and predictor of the clinical
      course of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). To date, a liver biopsy is
      still considered the gold standard for staging fibrosis. The aim of this study
      was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of the commercial enhanced liver
      fibrosis (ELF) test manufacturer's cutoff value (>=9.8) in identifying severe
      fibrosis for adult patients with histologically confirmed NAFLD. METHODS: We
      tested the ELF test in a clinical practice, prospective cohort of 82 consecutive
      patients who consecutively underwent percutaneous liver biopsy. RESULTS: All
      stages of liver fibrosis were represented in our cohort, and severe fibrosis was
      present in 15 of 82 patients (18.3%). The stage of fibrosis was significantly
      associated with ELF score (Spearman's rho = 0.483, p<0.001). The commercial ELF
      test manufacturer's cutoff identified severe fibrosis with good sensitivity
      (86.7%; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.69-1.04) and high specificity (92.5%;
      95% CI, 0.86-0.99), with a positive predictive value of 72% and negative
      predictive value of 97%. CONCLUSIONS: Our data could support the use of the ELF
      test in clinical practice.

PMID- 28862713
TI  - Meta-analysis of microRNAs as potential biomarkers for detecting esophageal
      carcinoma in Asian populations.
AB  - BACKGROUND:: An Increasing number of studies in the literature have shown that
      microRNAs (miRNAs) can be used as early diagnostic markers for esophageal
      carcinoma (EC), but their conclusions remain controversial. Hence, we performed
      this meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of using miRNAs in EC and
      to provide an experimental basis for early diagnosis of the disease. METHODS::
      This meta-analysis included 39 Asian studies from 18 articles, which covered
      3,708 EC patients and 2,689 healthy controls. We used a bivariate random-effects
      model, the chi-square test and the I2 test to assess sensitivity and
      heterogeneity. RESULTS:: Pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood
      ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of miRNAs for
      diagnosis of EC in Asians reached 0.798, 0.785, 3.705, 0.257 and 14.391,
      respectively. Additionally, the area under the summary receiver operating
      characteristic curve was 0.86. Subgroup analysis based on research country (China
      vs. Japan), sample types (plasma vs. serum) and miRNAs (single vs. multiple;
      singly reported miRNAs vs. repeatedly reported miRNAs) showed no significant
      difference in accuracy of diagnosis for each subgroup. CONCLUSIONS:: MiRNAs can
      distinguish EC patients from healthy controls. Blood-based miRNAs have better
      diagnostic value in detecting EC than saliva-based miRNAs, whereas both serum and
      plasma are recommended for clinical specimens for miRNA detection.

PMID- 28862714
TI  - Serum albumin levels in relation to tumor parameters in hepatocellular carcinoma
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serum albumin levels have been shown to have prognostic significance
      in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as part of an inflammatory index. The aim of
      this study was to examine the possible relationship of serum albumin levels to
      parameters of HCC aggressiveness. METHODS: A large HCC patient cohort was
      retrospectively examined, and the possible relationships of albumin levels to
      tumor diameter, multifocality, portal vein thrombosis (PVT) and alpha-fetoprotein
      levels were examined. RESULTS: HCC patients with lower serum albumin levels had
      significantly larger maximum tumor diameters, greater prevalence of PVT,
      increased tumor multifocality and higher alpha-fetoprotein levels, than HCC
      patients with higher albumin levels. A correlation was found between levels of
      these tumor parameters and serum albumin levels. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      indicate that low serum albumin levels correlate with increased parameter
      measures of HCC aggressiveness, in addition to their role as a monitor of
      systemic inflammation. Decreased serum albumin might have a role in HCC
      aggressiveness.

PMID- 28862715
TI  - Prognostic role of EZH2 in gliomas: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to elucidate the clinicopathological
      significance of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) expression in gliomas,
      including its incidence and prognostic role. In addition, we investigated the
      concordance between immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction for
      determining the presence or absence of EZH2 in these tumors. METHODS: The current
      meta-analysis included 1,049 gliomas with various WHO tumor grades from 12
      eligible studies, which were analyzed for positivity of EZH2 and correlation
      between EZH2 expression and prognosis. Subgroup analyses were performed based on
      detection methods and WHO tumor grades. RESULTS: We found the estimated positive
      rate of EZH2 in gliomas to be 0.663 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.549
      0.761). There was no difference between immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain
      reaction in determination of EZH2 positivity (0.706, 95% CI, 0.539-0.831 vs.
      0.673, 95% CI, 0.472-0.825). The positive rate of EZH2 increased by increasing
      WHO tumor grade. EZH2 expression was significantly correlated with worse overall
      and progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.436, 95% CI, 1.350-4.393,
      and HR = 4.071, 95% CI, 1.325-12.508, respectively). The overall concordance rate
      between immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction was 0.885 (95% CI,
      0.300-0.993). CONCLUSIONS: EZH2 positivity was significantly correlated with WHO
      tumor grade and worse prognosis in gliomas.

PMID- 28862716
TI  - Role of PSA response as a marker for efficacy of patients with castration
      resistant prostate cancer treated with novel hormonal therapies.

PMID- 28862717
TI  - An original valveless artificial heart providing pulsatile flow tested in mock
      circulatory loops.
AB  - PURPOSE: We present the test bench results of a valveless total artificial heart
      that is potentially compatible with the pediatric population. METHODS: The
      RollingHeart is a valveless volumetric pump generating pulsatile flow. It
      consists of a single spherical cavity divided into 4 chambers by 2 rotating
      disks. The combined rotations of both disks produce changes in the volumes of the
      4 cavities (suction and ejection). The blood enters/exits the spherical cavity
      through 4 openings that are symmetrical to the fixed rotation axis of the first
      disk.Mock circulatory system: The device pumps a 37% glycerin solution through 2
      parallel circuits, simulating the pulmonary and systemic circulations. Flow rates
      are acquired with a magnetic inductive flowmeter, while pressure sensors collect
      pressure in the left and right outflow and inflow tracts.In vitro test protocol:
      The pump is run at speeds ranging from 20 to 180 ejections per minute. The
      waveform of the pressure generated at the inflow and outflow of the 4 chambers
      and the flow rate in the systemic circulation are measured. RESULTS: At an
      ejection rate of 178 min-1, the RollingHeart pumps 5.3 L/min for a systemic
      maximal pressure gradient of 174 mmHg and a pulmonary maximal pressure gradient
      of 75 mmHg. The power input was 14 W, corresponding to an efficiency of 21%.
      CONCLUSIONS: The RollingHeart represents a new approach in the domain of total
      artificial heart. This preliminary study endorses the feasibility of a single
      valveless device acting as a total artificial heart.

PMID- 28862719
TI  - Kinematic analysis of new and used reciprocating endodontic motors in 2 different
      modes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The actual reciprocating angles of endodontic motors might differ from
      the manufacturers' set values. This study analyzed the effect of clinical usage
      on the kinematics of reciprocating endodontic motors with 2 different reciprocal
      modes. METHODS: 1 new and 3 used reciprocating endodontic motors (X-Smart Plus,
      Dentsply Maillefer) with 2 different reciprocating modes, WaveOne mode (W-mode)
      or Reciproc mode (R-mode), were analyzed. An angle measurement disc was inserted
      into a contra-angle. Reciprocating motions were recorded with a high-speed camera
      at 1,200 fps and analyzed on a computer. The following kinematic parameters were
      calculated: duration of each reciprocating motion, engaging and disengaging
      angles, cycle rotational speeds, engaging and disengaging rotational speeds, net
      cycle angle, total cycle angle, and number of cycles to complete full rotation.
      One-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test followed by multiple comparison tests were
      used for statistical analysis (p = 0.05). RESULTS: In W-mode, the actual engaging
      angles of all used and new motors were different from the manufacturer's set
      values (p<0.0001), whereas there was no difference between actual engaging angles
      among the motors (p>0.05). In R-mode, the actual engaging angles of all used and
      new motors were similar to the manufacturers' set values (p>0.05). There was no
      difference between the actual engaging angles among motors (p>0.05). Both the W
      mode and R-mode showed statistically different values of actual disengaging
      angles for all used and new motors when compared with the manufacturers' set
      value (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed that the actual kinematics of
      reciprocating endodontic motors differ from the manufacturers' set values. Some
      kinematic parameters were influenced by the clinical usage of the motors.

PMID- 28862718
TI  - Clinical impact of regional citrate anticoagulation in continuous renal
      replacement therapy in critically ill patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) is being used increasingly in
      continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) as a safer alternative to heparin.
      However, complex metabolic control to avoid side effects have generated
      discrepancies about its introduction into everyday practice. We aimed to compare
      both anticoagulation techniques in terms of efficacy, safety and feasibility.
      METHODS: Observational retrospective study performed in 3 specialized ICUs in
      patients receiving CVVHDF with RCA between January 2013 and May 2016. Heparin
      treated patients matched by age, sex and disease severity treated in the
      preceding year were selected as historic controls. Filter lifetime, number of
      filters used, haemorrhagic complications and metabolic complications were
      recorded. RESULTS: 54 patients (27 treated with RCA and 27 with heparin) were
      included in the study. Filter lifetimes in the first 72 hours were 55.1 +/- 21.8
      hours in the RCA group compared to 38.8 +/- 24.8 hours in the heparin group, (p =
      0.004). In addition, the number of filters used in the first 72 hours was
      significantly higher in the heparin group (2.4 +/- 1.3 vs. 1.5 +/- 0.7; p =
      0.004). There was a trend toward a lower incidence of bleeding in the RCA group,
      with a significantly lower red blood cell transfusion rate (p = 0.027) in the
      citrate group. No clinically significant metabolic disturbances were observed in
      the RCA group. Regarding outcomes, there were no significant differences between
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the implementation of CVVHDF with
      RCA using concentrated citrate solutions prolongs filter lifetime, achieves a
      longer effective hemodiafiltration time and is a safe and feasible method.

PMID- 28862720
TI  - Effect of the different implant protocols on peri-implant bone: a 6-month
      prospective study in beagle dogs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of different implant placement and loading
      protocols on the marginal bone loss (MBL) in beagles by intraoral radiography.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: 61 dental implants were inserted on 9 beagle dogs at
      bilateral lower posteriors according to 8 different protocols: immediate implant
      placement and immediate loading for 3 months (IIP + IL3) or 6 months (IIP + IL6)
      and unloading (IIP + UL), immediate implant placement and delayed loading for 3
      months (IIP + DL3) or 6 months (IIP + DL6), delayed implant placement and
      immediate loading for 3 months (DIP + IL3) or delayed loading for 3 months (DIP +
      DL3) and unloading (DIP + UL). Intraoral radiography was performed to analyze the
      MBL during each surgery, before and after the implant placement and at 3-month
      intervals after the procedure. RESULTS: In total, 57 samples were included. There
      was less MBL (p<0.05) in the IIP + IL3 group (1.22 +/- 0.63 mm) compared to the
      DIP + IL3 group (1.89 +/- 0.9 mm). The longer the loading time, the more bone
      loss appeared in the IIP + IL group; however, the results were reversed in the
      IIP + DL group. The MBL during the latter 3-month period was dramatically
      decreased compared to the former 3-month period in the IIP + DL3 group (p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: The IIP + IL group seems superior to the DL protocol and the MBL
      changed significantly during the first three months and thereafter became stable.

PMID- 28862721
TI  - In vitro benchmark of cytokine removal by dialyzers with various permeability
      profiles.
AB  - PURPOSE: Removal of cytokines is relevant for dialysis patients as they are
      suspected to promote cardiovascular complications. The objective of this study
      was to benchmark membranes with different permeability profiles under
      standardized in vitro test conditions using miniaturized devices with respect to
      their ability to remove cytokines from human serum and to lower cell activating
      potential. METHODS: In vitro dialysis was used to dialyze cytokine enriched serum
      in 3 independent experiments per tested membrane. IL-6 in the serum and dialysate
      was measured at defined times by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. IL-8, IL
      1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha in dialysate were measured by immunoassay. Dialysate
      samples were subjected to cultured tubular epithelial cells or human fibroblasts
      to study cell activation via IL-6 generation. Dialysate samples were added to
      human whole blood with subsequent analysis of granulocyte and monocyte activation
      by detection of CD11b. RESULTS: IL-6 decreased in serum and increased in
      dialysate during in vitro dialysis. IL-8, IL-1beta, and TNF-alpha were identified
      in dialysate. Dialysate added to cell cultures increased IL-6 concentration in
      culture medium or increased expression of CD11b. High cut-off membranes showed
      the strongest transfer of cytokines, albumin and total proteins from serum to
      dialysate and led to strongest cell activation. This effect was lower for medium
      cut-off membranes and lowest for conventional high-flux membranes. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study demonstrated an in vitro test by which membranes were benchmarked with
      respect to cytokine and cell activation removal capacity. Cell activation levels
      could be influenced by the choice of membrane by altering cytokine concentration
      levels.

PMID- 28862723
TI  - Experimental investigation on the mechanical behavior of polyurethane PICCs after
      long-term conservation in in vivo-like conditions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In a previous paper, the authors investigated the mechanical
      behavior of several commercial polyurethane peripherally inserted central venous
      catheters (PICCs) in their 'brand new' condition. The present study represents a
      second step of the research activity and aims to investigate possible
      modifications of the PICC mechanical response, induced by long-term conservation
      in in vivo-like conditions, particularly when used to introduce oncologic drugs.
      METHODS: Eight 5 Fr single-lumen catheters from as many different vendors, were
      examined. Several specimens were cut from each of them and kept in a bath at 37
      degrees C for 1, 2, 3 and 6 months. Two fluids were used to simulate in vivo-like
      conditions, i.e. ethanol and Ringer-lactate solutions, the first being chosen in
      order to reproduce a typical chemical environment of oncologic drugs. The test
      plan included swelling analyses, uniaxial tensile tests and dynamic mechanical
      thermal analysis (DMTA). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: All tested samples were
      chemically and mechanically stable in the studied conditions, as no significant
      weight variation was observed even after six months of immersion in ethanol
      solution. Uniaxial tensile tests confirmed such a response. For each PICC, very
      similar curves were obtained from samples tested after different immersion
      durations in the two fluid solutions, particularly for strains lower than 10%.

PMID- 28862724
TI  - Abstracts from the American Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology
      13th Annual Scientific Meeting.
AB  - Abstracts from the American Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology
      13th Annual Scientific Meeting, 10-12 February 2017, New Orleans, USA.

PMID- 28862722
TI  - Associations of physical activity energy expenditure with nutritional
      inflammatory markers in hemodialysis patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sedentariness, high inflammation status and malnutrition are highly
      prevalent in end-stage kidney disease patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD).
      This study investigated associations of weekly physical activity energy
      expenditure (PAEE) with clinical and anthropometric markers of nutrition and
      inflammation. METHODS: The analysis was performed using baseline cross-sectional
      data of 640 patients enrolled in the prospective cohort "The Prospective Study of
      the Prognosis of Patients Treated Chronically by Hemodialysis" (PROHEMO)
      developed in Salvador, BA, Brazil. The long version of the International Physical
      Activity Questionnaire was used to determine a summary measure of PAEE, the
      metabolic equivalent of task (MET), taking into account physical activities
      related to occupation, recreation, travel, sports, and housework. PAEE was the
      predictor variable. To assess associations of PAEE with outcomes, the sex-age
      specific median MET was used. The malnutrition-inflammation score (MIS) with
      range of 0 to 30 (higher is worse), conicity index as indicator of abdominal
      adiposity and C-reactive protein (CRP) were the nutritional-inflammatory
      outcomes. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 48.9 +/- 13.8 y, 60.3% were
      males, 16.7% diabetic, 88.1% nonwhite. In multivariable logistic regression
      models with adjustments for sociodemographic variables and comorbidities, PAEE
      <=median was associated with MIS >=6 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.57; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] = 1.08, 2.29), conicity index >=1.3 (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.03,
      2.23) and CRP >1.30 mg/dL (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.08, 2.84). CONCLUSIONS: Greater
      physical activity assessed by PAEE was associated with indicators of better
      nutritional and inflammation status. These results indicate opportunities for
      improving outcomes in MHD patients by counseling and treatment intervention.

PMID- 28862725
TI  - Longitudinal dialysis adequacy and clinical performance of the VectorFlow
      hemodialysis catheter: a prospective study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report clinical performance and longitudinal assessment of
      hemodialysis adequacy with the Arrow-Clark VectorFlow catheter, a symmetrical-tip
      device with a distal lumen configuration designed to reduce platelet shear stress
      and catheter thrombosis. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We prospectively enrolled
      patients who required de novo placement of a chronic tunneled catheter for
      hemodialysis or exchange of a dysfunctional catheter as part of an Institutional
      Review Board (IRB)-approved protocol. Catheter patency, Kt/V, mean blood-flow
      (Qb), and pump pressures were obtained at baseline and at monthly intervals to 90
      days. RESULTS: Forty-six subjects were enrolled into the study. During the 90-day
      observation period, maximum blood-flow rate averaged 355-398 mL/minute; mean Qb
      averaged 333-392 mL/minute. Mean Kt/V values were consistently >=1.5. Dwell-time
      was 15-114 days, for a total of 2997 catheter days (mean 71.4 days). Excluding
      patients who died during the study and those receiving surgical access, overall
      intervention-free catheter patency rate was 94.9%, 92.2% and 88.8% at days 30,
      60, 90, respectively. There were no acute complications. During the follow-up
      period, three patients developed complications (6.5%). Two catheter infections
      occurred (0.7/1000 catheter days) and one catheter malfunctioned; a rate of 1.0/
      1000 catheter days for all complications. CONCLUSIONS: The VectorFlow catheter
      produced safe, effective hemodialysis with Kt/V >=1.5. A single catheter
      occlusion occurred and a low rate of infection was seen. Results support the
      hypothesis that the VectorFlow design reduces thrombogenic risk during clinical
      performance.

PMID- 28862726
TI  - The therapeutic approach to different forms of cystitis: impact on public health.
AB  - Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, recurrent urinary tract infections
      and other forms of cystitis significantly impact the quality of life of patients
      with chronic bladder disorders and impose a considerable economic burden on
      health systems. Effective management is essential to provide symptom relief and
      to reduce the negative impact of chronic bladder disorders. Identifying the
      appropriate pharmacological or non-pharmacological approach is essential, and
      there is a growing evidence base for the use of intravesical hyaluronic acid and
      chondroitin sulfate in several bladder conditions, including recurrent urinary
      tract infections.

PMID- 28862727
TI  - Bladder pain: the patient perspective.
AB  - Patients with chronic pain, discomfort and other urinary symptoms related to
      bladder pain syndrome or urinary tract infections may experience severely
      diminished quality of life and psychological and social problems, including
      depression, anxiety, and a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. These patients
      require empathy, understanding and practical support to allow them to cope with
      their chronic bladder disorder.

PMID- 28862728
TI  - Value of triphasic MDCT in the differentiation of small renal cell carcinoma and
      oncocytoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although differentiation between benign and malignant small renal
      tumors (<=4 cm) is still difficult, it is a demand for decision making and
      determining the treatment strategy. Our aim is to evaluate the role of
      multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT) in the differentiation of small
      renal clear cell carcinoma (RCC) and renal oncocytoma (RO). METHODS: We reviewed
      triphasic computed tomographic (CT) scans performed in 43 patients diagnosed with
      RCC (n = 23) and RO (n = 21). After an unenhanced CT phase of the upper abdomen,
      triple-phase acquisition included a cortico-medullary phase (CMP), a
      nephrographic phase (NP), and a pyelographic phase (PP), and lesions were
      evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. RESULTS: RCCs were hypervascular
      in 13 cases and hypovascular in 10 cases, while ROs were hypervascular in nine
      cases and hypovascular in 12 cases. Mean attenuation values (MAVs) for
      hypervascular RCCs and hypervascular ROs on unenhanced examination were 34.0 +/-
      7.1 and 31.3 +/- 8.1 HU, respectively. Enhancement in CMP was 173.1 +/- 45.2 HU
      for RCCs and 151.1 +/- 36.0 HU for ROs and a gradual wash-out in NP (148.8 +/-
      34.3 and 137.1 +/- 33.9 HU for RCCs and ROs, respectively) and in PP (98.2 +/-
      36.0 HU for RCCs and 79.4 +/- 21.5 HU for ROs) was observed. MAV for hypovascular
      RCCs and hypovascular ROs on unenhanced examination were 32.4 +/- 12.0 and 28.9
      +/- 8.0 HU, respectively. Both hypovascular RCCs and ROs showed a statistically
      significant difference in each post contrastographic phase. CONCLUSIONS: Absolute
      attenuation and the quantitative amount of the enhancement were not strong
      predictors for RO and RCC differentiation.

PMID- 28862729
TI  - ls clinical practice aligned with the latest scientific evidence on GAG therapy?
AB  - The role of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) as key components of the protective bladder
      barrier is well accepted. Replenishment of the GAG layer could restore the normal
      protective barrier function of the damaged bladder urothelium and re-establish
      normal permeability. A number of bladder diseases, including interstitial
      cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, recurrent urinary tract infections, radiation
      cystitis, and other forms of cystitis may benefit from GAG therapy.

PMID- 28862730
TI  - Intravesical glycosaminoglycan therapy - overall conclusions.

PMID- 28862731
TI  - Cystitis and pelvic pain management: guidelines versus real-world practice.
AB  - Clinical practice guidelines for the management of bladder pain syndrome/chronic
      pelvic pain aim to help guide clinicians in diagnosing and treating patients they
      see on a day-to-day basis in the clinic. However, the approaches suggested by
      current clinical guidelines may not always align with the practicalities of
      routine clinical practice, where patient expectations must also be taken into
      consideration.

PMID- 28862732
TI  - Preparation, bioactivity and mechanism of nano-hydroxyapatite/sodium
      alginate/chitosan bone repair material.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As the major inorganic component of natural bone, nano-hydroxyapatite
      (n-HA) on its own is limited in its use in bone repair, due to its brittleness.
      Chitosan (CS) and sodium alginate (SAL) are used to reduce its brittleness and
      tendency to degradation. However, the compressive strength of the composite is
      still low, and its biological performance needs further study. METHODS: Nano
      hydroxyapatite/sodium alginate/chitosan (n-HA/SAL/CS) composite was prepared via
      an in situ synthesis method. Further, we prepared the n-HA/SAL/CS self-setting
      bone repair material by mixing n-HA/SAL/CS powder with a curing liquid (20 wt.%
      citric acid). In addition, the in vitro bioactivity and cell cytotoxicity were
      also explored. RESULTS: Transmission electron microscopy photos revealed that the
      n-HA crystals were uniformly distributed throughout the polymer matrix. Infrared
      IR spectroscopy indicated that the HA interacted with the COO- of SAL and NH2- of
      CS. The compressive strength of the n-HA/SAL/CS bone cement was 34.3 MPa and
      matched the demands of weight-bearing bones. Soaking in vitro in simulated body
      fluid demonstrated that the composite material had reasonably good bioactivity,
      while cytotoxicity tests indicated that the n-HA/SAL/CS cement could promote cell
      proliferation and was biocompatible. CONCLUSIONS: Compressive strength of n
      HA/SAL/CS can satisfy the needs of cancellous bone, and in vitro bioactivity and
      cytotoxicity tests results indicated that the n-HA/SAL/CS composite could act as
      an optimal bone repair material.

PMID- 28862733
TI  - Load-bearing capacity and fracture behavior of glass fiber-reinforced composite
      cranioplasty implants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glass fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) have been adapted for
      routine clinical use in various dental restorations and are presently also used
      in cranial implants. The aim of this study was to measure the load-bearing
      capacity and failure type of glass FRC implants during static loading with and
      without interconnective bars and with different fixation modes. METHODS: Load
      bearing capacities of 2 types of FRC implants with 4 different fixation modes
      were experimentally tested. The sandwich-like FRC implants were made of 2 sheets
      of woven FRC fabric, which consisted of silanized, woven E-glass fiber fabrics
      impregnated in BisGMA-TEGDMA monomer resin matrix. The space between the outer
      and inner surfaces was filled with glass particles. All FRC implants were tested
      up to a 10-mm deflection with load-bearing capacity determined at 6-mm
      deflection. The experimental groups were compared using nonparametric Kruskal
      Wallis analysis with Steel-Dwass post hoc test. RESULTS: FRC implants underwent
      elastic and plastic deformation until 6-mm deflection. The loading test did not
      demonstrate any protrusions of glass fibers or cut fiber even at 10-mm
      deflection. An elastic and plastic deformation of the implant occurred until the
      FRC sheets were separated from each other. In the cases of the free-standing
      setup (no fixation) and the fixation with 6 screws, the FRC implants with 2
      interconnective bars showed a significantly higher load-bearing capacity compared
      with the implant without interconnective bars. CONCLUSIONS: FRC implants used in
      this study showed a load-bearing capacity which may provide protection for the
      brain after cranial bone defect reconstruction.

PMID- 28862734
TI  - Utility of Bruch membrane opening-based optic nerve head parameters in myopic
      subjects.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate whether the new rim analysis software with spectral-domain
      optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) shows advantages over the retinal nerve
      fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in patients with moderate myopia. METHODS: In this
      prospective cross-sectional study, we studied 65 healthy subjects, 37 with
      spherical refractive errors in the range of -3 to -6 D (moderate, G1) and 28 with
      less than -3 D (low/non-myopic, G0). All patients were examined with Heidelberg
      Spectralis SD-OCT, including Glaucoma Premium Module Edition (GPME) software.
      With GPME, we analyzed the neuroretinal rim (Bruch membrane opening-minimum rim
      width [BMO-MRW]) and RNFL. RESULTS: The average age of subjects was 30.2 +/- 9.3
      years for G0 and 29.9 +/- 7.1 years for G1 (p = 0.903). Mean sphere was -0.5 +/-
      0.3 D (-1.25 to 0 D) G0 and -3.9 +/- 0.3 D (-6.00 to -3 D) G1 (p<0.001). The RNFL
      thickness comparison between G0 and G1 showed a significantly lower thickness in
      G1 (p = 0.018). The BMO-MRW measurements were similar in both groups (p = 0.331).
      With the BMO-MRW examination, the number of sectors classified as pathologic per
      subject in G1 were significantly lower compared to RNFL analysis (p = 0.023).
      CONCLUSIONS: Ring analysis based on BMO-MRW measurements shows a lower rate of
      false-positives compared to RNFL thickness when studying healthy moderate myopic
      eyes and it would be advisable to take this into consideration when analyzing
      these patients.

PMID- 28862735
TI  - Author's Reply to Comments to: Real-World Outcomes of Anti-VEGF Treatment for
      Retinal Vein Occlusion in Portugal.

PMID- 28862736
TI  - Long-term results of pars plana vitrectomy as an anti-inflammatory therapy of
      pediatric intermediate uveitis resistant to standard medical treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) as an anti
      inflammatory therapy in pediatric recurrent intermediate uveitis. METHODS: A
      retrospective study evaluated the long-term results of PPV indicated for
      intermediate uveitis with a mean observation period of 10.3 years (range 7-15.6
      years) in 6 children (mean age 8 years, range 6-12 years). Pars plana vitrectomy
      was performed on 10 eyes in the standard manner and was initiated by vitreous
      sampling for laboratory examination. Data recorded were perioperative or
      postoperative vitrectomy complications, anatomic and functional results of PPV,
      and preoperative and postoperative best-corrected Snellen visual acuity. RESULTS:
      No perioperative or postoperative complications were observed. Bacteriologic,
      virologic, mycotic, and cytologic analysis of the vitreous was negative in all
      tested children. Five eyes were subsequently operated on for posterior
      subcapsular cataracts. An average preoperative visual acuity of 0.32 improved to
      an average postoperative visual acuity of 0.8. CONCLUSIONS: In the case of
      systemic immunosuppressive treatment failure in pediatric uveitis, particularly
      in eyes with cystoid macular edema, we recommend PPV relatively early.

PMID- 28862737
TI  - Primary bone lymphoma of the talus: a challenging diagnosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Diagnostic challenges are common in clinical practice and diagnostic or
      classification criteria for musculoskeletal conditions cannot overshadow clinical
      skills. METHODS: We present the case of a young man who complained of prolonged
      articular pain and mild swelling of the right ankle in the absence of other
      remarkable data. Apparently fulfilling the Budapest diagnostic criteria for
      complex regional pain syndrome, the patient was treated accordingly, but the pain
      increased over time. Then the patient underwent an additional diagnostic workup
      including synovial and bone biopsies in 2 separate occasions with the second one
      demonstrating diffuse lymphoid infiltrate compatible with lymphoma. RESULTS: The
      conclusive diagnosis of primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the talus was
      made and adequate treatment initiated. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic difficulties
      as well as the importance of a multidisciplinary approach for complex cases are
      highlighted in this report.

PMID- 28862738
TI  - Doppler-based fetal heart rate analysis markers for the detection of early
      intrauterine growth restriction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: One indicator for fetal risk of mortality is intrauterine growth
      restriction (IUGR). Whether markers reflecting the impact of growth restriction
      on the cardiovascular system, computed from a Doppler-derived heart rate signal,
      would be suitable for its detection antenatally was studied. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We used a cardiotocography archive of 1163 IUGR cases and 1163 healthy
      controls, matched for gestation and gender. We assessed the discriminative power
      of short-term variability and long-term variability of the fetal heart rate,
      computed over episodes of high and low variation aiming to separate growth
      restricted fetuses from controls. Metrics characterizing the sleep state
      distribution within a trace were also considered for inclusion into an IUGR
      detection model. RESULTS: Significant differences in the risk markers comparing
      growth-restricted with healthy fetuses were found. When used in a logistic
      regression classifier, their performance for identifying IUGR was considerably
      superior before 34 weeks of gestation. Long-term variability in active sleep was
      superior to short-term variability [area under the receiver operator curve (AUC)
      of 72% compared with 71%]. Most predictive was the number of minutes in high
      variation per hour (AUC of 75%). A multivariate IUGR prediction model improved
      the AUC to 76%. CONCLUSION: We suggest that heart rate variability markers
      together with surrogate information on sleep states can contribute to the
      detection of early-onset IUGR.

PMID- 28862739
TI  - Functional role of Lys residues of Psb31 in electrostatic interactions with
      diatom photosystem II.
AB  - We recently revealed that positively charged amino acids of Psb31, an extrinsic
      subunit found in diatom photosystem II (PSII), are involved in electrostatic
      interactions with PSII intrinsic subunits. However, the molecular interactions of
      Psb31 with PSII remain unclear. Here, we report the functional contribution of
      Lys residues in the binding of Psb31 to PSII using site-directed mutants of
      Psb31. Each of the K33A, K39A, K54A, K56A, K57A, and K69A mutants exhibits
      decreased binding affinities to PSII concomitantly with decreases in the O2
      evolution activity. Conversely, each of the K24A, K76A, K80A, and K117A mutants
      functionally binds to PSII in a manner similar to wild-type Psb31. These results
      provide evidence that some Lys residues of Psb31 are responsible for
      electrostatic interactions with PSII.

PMID- 28862740
TI  - Dynamics of M1 macrophages in oral mucosal lesions during the development of
      acute graft-versus-host disease in rats.
AB  - The role of macrophage infiltrates in oral mucosal acute graft-versus-host
      disease (AGVHD) remains unclear, although clinical studies suggest that
      macrophage infiltration correlates directly with the severity of AGVHD. In this
      study, we investigated the role of M1 macrophage infiltration in the oral mucosa
      of rats with AGVHD. Lewis rat spleen cells were injected into (Lewis * Brown
      Norway) F1 rats to induce systemic GVHD. Tongue samples were evaluated using
      histology, immunohistochemistry, dual immunofluorescence, real-time reverse
      transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Transwell migration assays and Stamper
      Woodruff binding assays. At the onset of oral mucosal AGVHD, dual
      immunofluorescence and migration assays revealed that M1 macrophages had
      accumulated in the basement membrane (BM) region via the laminin/CD29 beta1
      integrin pathway. Macrophage-secreted matrix metalloproteinase-2 was related to
      BM degradation. The adhesion of macrophages to the oral epithelium could be
      inhibited by pretreating macrophages with a CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2)
      antibody and/or pretreating lesion sections with monocyte chemoattractant protein
      1 (MCP-1) antibody. Our data show that the migration and adhesion of M1
      macrophages are associated with oral mucosal AGVHD, which is mediated in part by
      both laminin/CD29 beta 1 intern and MCP-1/CCR2 pathways. Therefore, our study
      provides additional support for the contribution of macrophage infiltrate to the
      development of oral mucosal AGVHD.

PMID- 28862742
TI  - Transcription factor retention on mitotic chromosomes: regulatory mechanisms and
      impact on cell fate decisions.
AB  - During mitosis, gene transcription stops, and the bulk of DNA-binding proteins
      are excluded from condensed chromosomes. While most gene-specific transcription
      factors are largely evicted from mitotic chromosomes, a subset remains bound to
      specific and non-specific DNA sites. Here, we review the current knowledge on the
      mechanisms leading to the retention of a subset of transcription factors on
      mitotic chromosomes and discuss the implications in gene expression regulation
      and their potential as an epigenetic mechanism controlling stem cell self-renewal
      and differentiation.

PMID- 28862743
TI  - Negative pressure therapy versus passive open abdominal drainage for the
      treatment of septic peritonitis in dogs: A randomized, prospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare passive open abdominal drainage (POAD) and negative
      pressure abdominal drainage (NPAD) using the ABTheraTM system in the treatment of
      septic peritonitis. STUDY DESIGN: Randomized prospective clinical trial. ANIMALS:
      Dogs (n = 16) with septic peritonitis. METHODS: Dogs with septic peritonitis were
      randomly assigned to one of two treatment protocols: NPAD versus POAD. Anesthesia
      time, operating time, duration of drainage, costs, survival, and complications
      were compared between techniques. Hematological and biochemical parameters in
      blood and abdominal fluid, and histopathological findings of omentum and
      abdominal wall tissue samples were compared between NPAD and POAD at time of
      initial surgery and at time of closure. RESULTS: Overall survival was 81%.
      Treatment costs, anesthesia and operating time, drainage time, survival, and
      postoperative complications were similar between techniques. Loss of total plasma
      protein and decreased inflammation-related factors in abdominal fluid at time of
      closure were noted in all patients. Neutrophilic inflammation was greater in
      abdominal wall samples after NPAD. POAD patients showed discomfort during bandage
      changes and had frequent leakage of abdominal fluid outside of the bandage.
      CONCLUSION: NPAD is an effective alternative to POAD for treatment of septic
      peritonitis, based on costs and survival. NPAD resulted in less abdominal fluid
      leakage, and evidence of superior healing on histological evaluation of abdominal
      tissues.

PMID- 28862741
TI  - Radial glia in the ventral telencephalon.
AB  - The ventral telencephalon is the developmental origin of the basal ganglia and
      the source of neuronal and glial cells that integrate into developing circuits in
      other areas of the brain. Radial glia in the embryonic subpallium give rise to an
      enormous diversity of mature cell types, either directly or through other transit
      amplifying progenitors. Here, we review current knowledge about these subpallial
      neural stem cells and their progeny, focusing on the period of neurogenesis. We
      describe their cell biological features and the extrinsic and intrinsic molecular
      codes that guide their fate specification in defined temporal and spatial
      sequences. We also discuss the role of clonal lineage in the organization and
      specification of mature neurons.

PMID- 28862745
TI  - Diagnostic exome sequencing in early-onset Parkinson's disease confirms VPS13C as
      a rare cause of autosomal-recessive Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder and new putative
      disease genes are discovered constantly. Therefore, whole-exome sequencing could
      be an efficient approach to genetic testing in PD. To evaluate its performance in
      early-onset sporadic PD, we performed diagnostic exome sequencing in 80
      individuals with manifestation of PD symptoms at age 40 or earlier and a negative
      family history of PD. Variants in validated and candidate disease genes and risk
      factors for PD and atypical Parkinson syndromes were annotated, followed by
      further analysis for selected variants. We detected pathogenic variants in
      Mendelian genes in 6.25% of cases and high-impact risk factor variants in GBA in
      5% of cases, resulting in overall maximum diagnostic yield of 11.25%. One
      individual was compound heterozygous for variants affecting canonical splice
      sites in VPS13C, confirming the causal role of protein-truncating variants in
      this gene linked to autosomal-recessive early-onset PD. Despite the low
      diagnostic yield of exome sequencing in sporadic early-onset PD, the confirmation
      of the recently discovered VPS13C gene highlights its advantage over using
      predefined gene panels.

PMID- 28862746
TI  - Extended specificity studies of mRNA assays used to infer human organ tissues and
      body fluids.
AB  - Messenger RNA (mRNA) profiling is a technique increasingly applied for the
      forensic identification of body fluids and skin. More recently, an mRNA-based
      organ typing assay was developed which allows for the inference of brain, lung,
      liver, skeletal muscle, heart, kidney, and skin tissue. When applying this organ
      typing system in forensic casework for the presence of animal, rather than human,
      tissue is an alternative scenario to be proposed, for instance that bullets carry
      cell material from a hunting event. Even though mRNA profiling systems are
      commonly in silico designed to be primate specific, physical testing against
      other animal species is generally limited. In this study, human specificity of
      the organ tissue inferring system was assessed against organ tissue RNAs of
      various animals. Results confirm human specificity of the system, especially when
      utilizing interpretation rules considering multiple markers per cell type.
      Besides, we cross-tested our organ and body fluid mRNA assays against the target
      types covered by the other assay. Marker expression in the nontarget organ
      tissues and body fluids was observed to a limited extent, which emphasizes the
      importance of involving the case-specific context of the forensic samples in
      deciding which mRNA profiling assay to use and when for interpreting results.

PMID- 28862744
TI  - Increased metabolite production by deletion of an HDA1-type histone deacetylase
      in the phytopathogenic fungi, Magnaporthe oryzae (Pyricularia oryzae) and
      Fusarium asiaticum.
AB  - : Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play an important role in the regulation of
      chromatin structure and gene expression. We found that dark pigmentation of
      Magnaporthe oryzae (anamorph Pyricularia oryzae) DeltaMohda1, a mutant strain in
      which an orthologue of the yeast HDA1 was disrupted by double cross-over
      homologous recombination, was significantly stimulated in liquid culture.
      Analysis of metabolites in a DeltaMohda1 mutant culture revealed that the
      accumulation of shunt products of the 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene melanin and
      ergosterol pathways were significantly enhanced compared to the wild-type strain.
      Northern blot analysis of the DeltaMohda1 mutant revealed transcriptional
      activation of three melanin genes that are dispersed throughout the genome of M.
      oryzae. The effect of deletion of the yeast HDA1 orthologue was also observed in
      Fusarium asiaticum from the Fusarium graminearum species complex; the HDF2
      deletion mutant produced increased levels of nivalenol-type trichothecenes. These
      results suggest that histone modification via HDA1-type HDAC regulates the
      production of natural products in filamentous fungi. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF
      THE STUDY: Natural products of fungi have significant impacts on human welfare,
      in both detrimental and beneficial ways. Although HDA1-type histone deacetylase
      is not essential for vegetative growth, deletion of the gene affects the
      expression of clustered secondary metabolite genes in some fungi. Here, we report
      that such phenomena are also observed in physically unlinked genes required for
      melanin biosynthesis in the rice blast fungus. In addition, production of
      Fusarium trichothecenes, previously reported to be unaffected by HDA1 deletion,
      was significantly upregulated in another Fusarium species. Thus, the HDA1
      inactivation strategy may be regarded as a general approach for overproduction
      and/or discovery of fungal metabolites.

PMID- 28862748
TI  - Inflammasome-mediated inflammation and fibrosis: It is more than just the IL
      1beta.

PMID- 28862747
TI  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae vineyard strains have different nitrogen requirements
      that affect their fermentation performances.
AB  - : In this work the fermentation performances of seven vineyard strains, together
      with the industrial strain EC1118, have been investigated at three differing
      yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) concentrations (300 mg N l-1 , 150 mg N l-1 and
      70 mg N l-1 ) in synthetic musts. The results indicated that the response to
      different nitrogen levels is strain dependent. Most of the strains showed a
      dramatic decrease of the fermentation at 70 mg N l-1 but no significant
      differences in CO2 production were found when fermentations at 300 mg N l-1 and
      150 mg N l-1 were compared. Only one among the vineyard strains showed a decrease
      of the fermentation when 150 mg N l-1 were present in the must. These results
      contribute to shed light on strain nitrogen requirements and offer new
      perspectives to manage the fermentation process during winemaking. SIGNIFICANCE
      AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Selected vineyard Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains can
      improve the quality and the complexity of local wines. Wine quality is also
      influenced by nitrogen availability that modulates yeast fermentation activity.
      In this work, yeast nitrogen assimilation was evaluated to clarify the nitrogen
      requirements of vineyard strains. Most of the strains needed high nitrogen levels
      to express the best fermentation performances. The results obtained indicate the
      critical nitrogen levels. When the nitrogen concentration was above the critical
      level, the fermentation process increased, but if the level of nitrogen was
      further increased no effect on the fermentation was found.

PMID- 28862749
TI  - Characterization of a polypeptide-binding site in the DEAD Motor of the SecA
      ATPase.
AB  - We coupled peptides from a CNBr digest of signal-sequenceless maltose-binding
      protein (MBP) to a surface plasmon resonance chip. SecA-N95, SecA-N68, and SecA
      DM (which consists of only the DEAD Motor domains NBD1 and NBD2) bound to the
      immobilized peptides; ADP weakened the binding. SecA-DM, which lacks the
      'preprotein cross-linking domain' (PPXD), displayed the most extensive binding,
      while an MBP-PPXD chimera showed no binding, demonstrating that the PPXD does not
      contribute to the binding. We characterized the sequence specificity using
      oriented peptide libraries; these results enabled synthesis of a 20-residue
      peptide that was used to recapitulate the results obtained with MBP-derived
      peptides. This study shows that there is a promiscuous and nucleotide-modulated
      peptide-binding site in the DEAD Motor domains of SecA.

PMID- 28862750
TI  - Erratum: Meta-Analysis Reveals Significant Association of the 3'-UTR VNTR in
      SLC6A3 With Alcohol Dependence.

PMID- 28862752
TI  - Thyroid-stimulating hormone and risk of sudden cardiac death, total mortality and
      cardiovascular morbidity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous data on the association of thyroid function with total
      mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes and sudden cardiac death (SCD)
      are conflicting or limited. We investigated associations of thyroid-stimulating
      hormone (TSH) with these outcomes in a nationwide population-based prospective
      cohort study. METHODS: We examined 5211 participants representative of the
      Finnish population aged >=30 years in 2000-2001 and followed them for a median of
      13.2 years. Using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for
      baseline age, gender, smoking, diabetes, systolic blood pressure and total and
      high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, we assessed the associations of continuous
      baseline TSH and TSH categories (low [<0.4 mU/L], reference range [0.4-3.4 mU/L]
      and high [>3.4 mU/L]) with incident total mortality, SCD, coronary heart disease
      events, stroke, CVD, major adverse cardiac events and atrial fibrillation.
      RESULTS: High TSH at baseline was related to a greater risk of total mortality
      (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.02-1.76) and SCD (HR 2.28, 95% CI 1.13-4.60) compared with TSH
      within the reference range. High TSH was not associated with the other outcomes
      (P >= .51), whereas low TSH was not associated with any of the outcomes (P >=
      .09). TSH at baseline over the full range did not have a linear relation with any
      of the outcomes (P >= .17). TSH showed a U-shaped association with total
      mortality after a restricted cubic spline transformation (P = .01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Thyroid function abnormalities could be linked with higher risks of total
      mortality and SCD. Large-scale randomized studies are needed for evidence-based
      recommendations regarding treatment of mild thyroid failure.

PMID- 28862753
TI  - Geometrical characterization of fluorescently labelled surfaces from noisy 3D
      microscopy data.
AB  - Modern fluorescence microscopy enables fast 3D imaging of biological and inert
      systems alike. In many studies, it is important to detect the surface of objects
      and quantitatively characterize its local geometry, including its mean curvature.
      We present a fully automated algorithm to determine the location and curvatures
      of an object from 3D fluorescence images, such as those obtained using confocal
      or light-sheet microscopy. The algorithm aims at reconstructing surface labelled
      objects with spherical topology and mild deformations from the spherical geometry
      with high accuracy, rather than reconstructing arbitrarily deformed objects with
      lower fidelity. Using both synthetic data with known geometrical characteristics
      and experimental data of spherical objects, we characterize the algorithm's
      accuracy over the range of conditions and parameters typically encountered in 3D
      fluorescence imaging. We show that the algorithm can detect the location of the
      surface and obtain a map of local mean curvatures with relative errors typically
      below 2% and 20%, respectively, even in the presence of substantial levels of
      noise. Finally, we apply this algorithm to analyse the shape and curvature map of
      fluorescently labelled oil droplets embedded within multicellular aggregates and
      deformed by cellular forces.

PMID- 28862754
TI  - Single particle raster image analysis of diffusion for particle mixtures.
AB  - Recently we complemented the raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) method
      of analysing raster images via estimation of the image correlation function with
      the method single particle raster image analysis (SPRIA). In SPRIA, individual
      particles are identified and the diffusion coefficient of each particle is
      estimated by a maximum likelihood method. In this paper, we extend the SPRIA
      method to analyse mixtures of particles with a finite set of diffusion
      coefficients in a homogeneous medium. In examples with simulated and experimental
      data with two and three different diffusion coefficients, we show that SPRIA
      gives accurate estimates of the diffusion coefficients and their proportions. A
      simple technique for finding the number of different diffusion coefficients is
      also suggested. Further, we study the use of RICS for mixtures with two different
      diffusion coefficents and investigate, by plotting level curves of the
      correlation function, how large the quotient between diffusion coefficients needs
      to be in order to allow discrimination between models with one and two diffusion
      coefficients. We also describe a minor correction (compared to published papers)
      of the RICS autocorrelation function.

PMID- 28862755
TI  - Surface relaxation of strained Ga(P,As)/GaP heterostructures investigated by
      HAADF STEM.
AB  - The surfaces of thin transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens of strained
      heterostructures can relax. The resulting bending of the lattice planes
      significantly influences high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) measurements. We
      investigate the impact by evaluating the intensities measured at the atomic
      columns as well as their positions in high-resolution HAADF images. In addition,
      the consequences in the diffraction plane will be addressed by simulated position
      averaged convergent beam electron diffraction (PACBED) patterns. The experimental
      column intensities and positions acquired from a strained Ga(P,As) quantum well
      (QW) embedded in a in a GaP matrix agree very well with frozen phonon contrast
      simulations, if the surface relaxation is taken into account by finite element
      relaxation. Neglecting the surface relaxation the As content of the QW can be
      significantly underestimated. Taking the effects into account correctly, we find
      that the lower interface of the investigated Ga(P,As) QW is atomically abrupt
      whereas the upper one is smeared out.

PMID- 28862756
TI  - hSnd2 protein represents an alternative targeting factor to the endoplasmic
      reticulum in human cells.
AB  - Recently, understanding of protein targeting to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      was expanded by the discovery of multiple pathways that function in parallel to
      the signal recognition particle (SRP). Guided entry of tail-anchored proteins and
      SRP independent (SND) are two such targeting pathways described in yeast. So far,
      no human SND component is functionally characterized. Here, we report hSnd2 as
      the first constituent of the human SND pathway able to support substrate-specific
      protein targeting to the ER. Similar to its yeast counterpart, hSnd2 is assumed
      to function as a membrane-bound receptor preferentially targeting precursors
      carrying C-terminal transmembrane domains. Our genetic and physical interaction
      studies show that hSnd2 is part of a complex network of targeting and
      translocation that is dynamically regulated.

PMID- 28862758
TI  - Fremanezumab as Add-On Treatment for Patients Treated With Other Migraine
      Preventive Medicines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fremanezumab (formerly TEV-48125) is a monoclonal antibody directed
      against calcitonin-gene-related peptide (CGRP), a validated target for migraine
      preventive therapy. In two previous phase 2 studies, fremanezumab administered
      once every 28 days for 12 weeks was found to be effective and safe as a
      preventive treatment for patients suffering from episodic migraine (EM) and
      chronic migraine (CM). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of
      fremanezumab as an add-on preventive therapy in individuals with EM and CM who
      are on stable doses of preventive migraine medications. METHODS: Two randomized
      placebo-controlled studies tested once-monthly subcutaneous injections of various
      dosing regimens of fremanezumab versus placebo in EM and CM. Headache information
      was captured daily using an electronic headache diary. For these post hoc
      analyses, data were pooled from patients who were on stable preventive
      medications and taking fremanezumab doses of 225 mg or 675/225 mg, or placebo.
      RESULTS: The sample consisted of 133 patients, (67 fremanezumab and 66 placebo).
      Total reduction in migraine days for the duration of the study was 12.4 for
      fremanezumab and 7.4 for placebo (P = .0321). There were also decreases in
      moderate/severe headache days (12.5 vs 7.1, P = .0058), and days using acute
      medication for headaches relative to placebo (11.6 vs 7.5, P = .0414). Treatment
      emergent adverse events were generally mild and transient, and no serious adverse
      events were considered to be treatment-related by the site investigators.
      CONCLUSIONS: The findings from these post hoc analyses suggest that fremanezumab
      is a safe and effective add-on treatment for migraine patients being
      concomitantly treated with other migraine preventive medications. Trials are
      registered at Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02025556 and NCT02021773.

PMID- 28862757
TI  - The CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF)-forkhead box protein M1 axis regulates tumour
      growth and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is a DNA-binding protein that interacts with a large
      number of highly divergent target sequences throughout the genome. It is
      implicated in a variety of functions, including chromatin organization and
      transcriptional control. The functional role of CTCF in tumour pathogenesis
      remains elusive. We showed that CTCF is frequently upregulated in a subset of
      primary hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) as compared with non-tumoural liver.
      Overexpression of CTCF was associated with shorter disease-free survival of
      patients. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated suppression of CTCF inhibited cell
      proliferation, motility and invasiveness in HCC cell lines; these effects were
      correlated with prominent reductions in the expression of telomerase reverse
      transcriptase (TERT), the shelterin complex member telomerase repeat-binding
      factor 1, and forkhead box protein M1 (FOXM1). In contrast, upregulation of CTCF
      was positively correlated with FOXM1 and TERT expression in clinical HCC
      biopsies. Depletion of CTCF resulted in reduced motility and invasiveness in HCC
      cells that could be reversed by ectopic expression of FOXM1, suggesting that
      FOXM1 is one of the important downstream effectors of CTCF in HCC. Reporter gene
      analysis suggested that depletion of CTCF is associated with reduced FOXM1 and
      TERT promoter activity. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR) analysis further revealed occupancy of the FOXM1 promoter by CTCF
      in vivo. Importantly, depletion of CTCF by shRNA significantly inhibited tumour
      progression and metastasis in HCC mouse models. Our work uncovered a novel
      functional role of CTCF in HCC pathogenesis, which suggests that targeting CTCF
      could be further explored as a potential therapeutic strategy for HCC. (c) 2017
      The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on
      behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

PMID- 28862759
TI  - [Potential distribution and geographic characteristics of wild populations of
      Vanilla planifolia (Orchidaceae) Oaxaca, Mexico].
AB  - Wild specimens of Vanilla planifolia represent a vital part of this resource
      primary gene pool, and some plants have only been reported in Oaxaca, Mexico. For
      this reason, we studied its geographical distribution within the state, to locate
      and describe the ecological characteristics of the areas where they have been
      found, in order to identify potential areas of establishment. The method
      comprised four stages: 1) the creation of a database with herbarium records, 2)
      the construction of the potential distribution based on historical herbarium
      records for the species, using the model of maximum entropy (MaxEnt) and 22
      bioclimatic variables as predictors; 3) an in situ systematic search of
      individuals, based on herbarium records and areas of potential distribution in 24
      municipalities, to determine the habitat current situation and distribution; 4)
      the description of the environmental factors of potential ecological niches
      generated by MaxEnt. A review of herbarium collections revealed a total of 18
      records of V. planifolia between 1939 and 1998. The systematic search located 28
      plants distributed in 12 sites in 95 364 Km(2). The most important variables that
      determined the model of vanilla potential distribution were: precipitation in the
      rainy season (61.9 %), soil moisture regime (23.4 %) and precipitation during the
      four months of highest rainfall (8.1 %). The species potential habitat was found
      to be distributed in four zones: wet tropics of the Gulf of Mexico, humid
      temperate, humid tropical, and humid temperate in the Pacific. Precipitation
      oscillated within the annual ranges of 2 500 to 4 000 mm, with summer rains, and
      winter precipitation as 5 to 10 % of the total. The moisture regime and
      predominating climate were udic type I (330 to 365 days of moisture) and hot
      humid (Am/A(C) m). The plants were located at altitudes of 200 to 1 190 masl, on
      rough hillsides that generally make up the foothills of mountain systems, with
      altitudes of 1 300 to 2 500 masl. In natural conditions, distribution of the
      species is not limited to high evergreen forests, since it was also found in
      mountain mesophyll and tropical evergreen forests. The location of new specimens
      of V. planifolia in its wild condition reduces the potential distribution area by
      66 %. This area is fragmented into three geographically separated areas. Habitat
      reduction was due to the increased number of located plants that define the
      environmental conditions into a more accurate level. Conservation actions can
      thus be designed and implemented, focusing on more specific areas within the
      state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

PMID- 28862761
TI  - Effects of pulse duration on muscle fatigue during electrical stimulation
      inducing moderate-level contraction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is used to prevent
      muscle atrophy. However, the effect of pulse duration modulation for reducing
      muscle fatigue and pain is unknown. METHODS: Two 2-minute stimulation protocols
      were applied to the knee extensors of 10 healthy individuals. In 1 session, a
      long pulse duration (1,000 MUs) and a low current amplitude (LL), set to evoke
      25% maximal voluntary contraction at 30 Hz, were applied. The other session was
      identical except that a short pulse duration (200 MUs) and a high current
      amplitude (SH) were used. RESULTS: Muscle fatigue was lower for LL than for SH (P
      < 0.01). Force recovery rate was higher for LL than for SH (P < 0.05). Pain
      scores were also lower for LL than for SH (P < 0.05). DISCUSSION: The use of 1-ms
      pulse durations reduces fatigue and pain during NMES for moderate-level
      contractions compared with 200-MUs durations. Muscle Nerve 57: 642-649, 2018.

PMID- 28862760
TI  - Recent developments of c-Met as a therapeutic target in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Aberrant c-Met activity has been implicated in the development of hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC), suggesting that c-Met inhibition may have therapeutic potential.
      However, clinical trials of nonselective kinase inhibitors with c-Met activity
      (tivantinib, cabozantinib, foretinib, and golvatinib) in patients with HCC have
      failed so far to demonstrate significant efficacy. This lack of observed efficacy
      is likely due to several factors, including trial design, lack of patient
      selection according to tumor c-Met status, and the prevalent off-target activity
      of these agents, which may indicate that c-Met inhibition is incomplete. In
      contrast, selective c-Met inhibitors (tepotinib, capmatinib) can be dosed at a
      level predicted to achieve complete inhibition of tumor c-Met activity. Moreover,
      results from early trials can be used to optimize the design of clinical trials
      of these agents. Preliminary results suggest that selective c-Met inhibitors have
      antitumor activity in HCC, with acceptable safety and tolerability in patients
      with Child-Pugh A liver function. Ongoing trials have been designed to assess the
      efficacy and safety of selective c-Met inhibition compared with standard therapy
      in patients with HCC that were selected based on tumor c-Met status. Thus, c-Met
      inhibition continues to be an active area of research in HCC, with well-designed
      trials in progress to investigate the benefit of selective c-Met inhibitors.
      (Hepatology 2018;67:1132-1149).

PMID- 28862762
TI  - Quadricuspid aortic valve infective endocarditis.
AB  - Infective endocarditis complicating a quadricuspid aortic valve (QAV) is rare.
      Previous reports highlight the increased risk for complications, including
      progressive aortic regurgitation, decompensated heart failure, and valve
      perforation. Thus, cardiologists must be able to quickly identify QAVs to guide
      rapid evaluation and treatment. We report a case of infective endocarditis in a
      QAV identified on echocardiography and effectively managed with medical therapy
      alone without complications over an 8-year follow-up period. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 46:145-148, 2018.

PMID- 28862763
TI  - Technical quality of root canal treatment performed by undergraduate students
      using hand instrumentation: a meta-analysis.
AB  - The technical quality of root canal treatment (RCT) may impact on the outcome.
      The quality of education received during undergraduate school may be linked to
      the quality of treatment provided in general dental practice. In this context,
      the aim of this systematic review was to answer the following focused questions:
      (i) What is the frequency of acceptable technical quality of root fillings,
      assessed radiographically, performed by undergraduate students? (ii) What are the
      most common errors assessed radiographically and reported in these treatments?
      For this purpose, articles that evaluated the quality of root fillings performed
      by undergraduate students were selected. Data were collected based on
      predetermined criteria. The key features from the included studies were
      extracted. GRADE-tool assessed the quality of the evidence. MAStARI evaluated the
      methodological quality, and a meta-analysis on all studies was conducted. At the
      end of the screening, 24 articles were identified. Overall frequency of
      acceptable technical quality of root fillings was 48%. From this total, 52%
      related to anterior teeth, 49% to premolars and 26% to molars. The main
      procedural errors reported were ledge formation, furcation perforation, apical
      transportation and apical perforation. The heterogeneity amongst the studies was
      high (84-99%). Five studies had a high risk of bias, eight had a moderate risk,
      and 11 had low risk. The overall quality of evidence identified was very low. The
      conclusion was that technical quality of root fillings performed by undergraduate
      students is low, which may reveal that endodontic education has limited
      achievement at undergraduate level. A plan to improve the quality of root
      fillings, and by extrapolation the overall quality of root canal treatment,
      should be discussed by the staff responsible for endodontic education and
      training.

PMID- 28862764
TI  - Testing a linear time invariant model for skin conductance responses by
      intraneural recording and stimulation.
AB  - Skin conductance responses (SCR) are increasingly analyzed with model-based
      approaches that assume a linear and time-invariant (LTI) mapping from sudomotor
      nerve (SN) activity to observed SCR. These LTI assumptions have previously been
      validated indirectly, by quantifying how much variance in SCR elicited by sensory
      stimulation is explained under an LTI model. This approach, however, collapses
      sources of variability in the nervous and effector organ systems. Here, we
      directly focus on the SN/SCR mapping by harnessing two invasive methods. In an
      intraneural recording experiment, we simultaneously track SN activity and SCR.
      This allows assessing the SN/SCR relationship but possibly suffers from
      interfering activity of non-SN sympathetic fibers. In an intraneural stimulation
      experiment under regional anesthesia, such influences are removed. In this
      stimulation experiment, about 95% of SCR variance is explained under LTI
      assumptions when stimulation frequency is below 0.6 Hz. At higher frequencies,
      nonlinearities occur. In the intraneural recording experiment, explained SCR
      variance is lower, possibly indicating interference from non-SN fibers, but
      higher than in our previous indirect tests. We conclude that LTI systems may not
      only be a useful approximation but in fact a rather accurate description of
      biophysical reality in the SN/SCR system, under conditions of low baseline
      activity and sporadic external stimuli. Intraneural stimulation under regional
      anesthesia is the most sensitive method to address this question.

PMID- 28862765
TI  - An FMEA evaluation of intensity modulated radiation therapy dose delivery
      failures at tolerance criteria levels.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this work was to assess both the perception of failure
      modes in Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) when the linac is operated
      at the edge of tolerances given in AAPM TG-40 (Kutcher et al.) and TG-142 (Klein
      et al.) as well as the application of FMEA to this specific section of the IMRT
      process. METHODS: An online survey was distributed to approximately 2000
      physicists worldwide that participate in quality services provided by the Imaging
      and Radiation Oncology Core - Houston (IROC-H). The survey briefly described
      eleven different failure modes covered by basic quality assurance in step-and
      shoot IMRT at or near TG-40 (Kutcher et al.) and TG-142 (Klein et al.) tolerance
      criteria levels. Respondents were asked to estimate the worst case scenario
      percent dose error that could be caused by each of these failure modes in a head
      and neck patient as well as the FMEA scores: Occurrence, Detectability, and
      Severity. Risk probability number (RPN) scores were calculated as the product of
      these scores. Demographic data were also collected. RESULTS: A total of 181
      individual and three group responses were submitted. 84% were from North America.
      Most (76%) individual respondents performed at least 80% clinical work and 92%
      were nationally certified. Respondent medical physics experience ranged from 2.5
      to 45 yr (average 18 yr). A total of 52% of individual respondents were at least
      somewhat familiar with FMEA, while 17% were not familiar. Several IMRT
      techniques, treatment planning systems, and linear accelerator manufacturers were
      represented. All failure modes received widely varying scores ranging from 1 to
      10 for occurrence, at least 1-9 for detectability, and at least 1-7 for severity.
      Ranking failure modes by RPN scores also resulted in large variability, with each
      failure mode being ranked both most risky (1st) and least risky (11th) by
      different respondents. On average MLC modeling had the highest RPN scores.
      Individual estimated percent dose errors and severity scores positively
      correlated (P < 0.01) for each FM as expected. No universal correlations were
      found between the demographic information collected and scoring, percent dose
      errors or ranking. CONCLUSIONS: Failure modes investigated overall were evaluated
      as low to medium risk, with average RPNs less than 110. The ranking of 11 failure
      modes was not agreed upon by the community. Large variability in FMEA scoring may
      be caused by individual interpretation and/or experience, reflecting the
      subjective nature of the FMEA tool.

PMID- 28862767
TI  - Modification of growth anisotropy and cortical microtubule dynamics in
      Arabidopsis hypocotyls grown under microgravity conditions in space.
AB  - We carried out a space experiment, denoted as Aniso Tubule, to examine the
      effects of microgravity on the growth anisotropy and cortical microtubule
      dynamics in Arabidopsis hypocotyls, using lines in which microtubules are
      visualized by labeling tubulin or microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) with
      green fluorescent protein (GFP). In all lines, GFP-tubulin6 (TUB6)-, basic
      proline-rich protein1 (BPP1)-GFP- and spira1-like3 (SP1L3)-GFP-expressing using a
      constitutive promoter, and spiral2 (SPR2)-GFP- and GFP-65 kDa MAP-1 (MAP65-1)
      expressing using a native promoter, the length of hypocotyls grown under
      microgravity conditions in space was longer than that grown at 1 g conditions on
      the ground. In contrast, the diameter of hypocotyls grown under microgravity
      conditions was smaller than that of the hypocotyls grown at 1 g. The percentage
      of cells with transverse microtubules was increased under microgravity
      conditions, irrespective of the lines. Also, the average angle of the
      microtubules with respect to the transverse cell axis was decreased in hypocotyls
      grown under microgravity conditions. When GFP fluorescence was quantified in
      hypocotyls of GFP-MAP65-1 and SPR2-GFP lines, microgravity increased the levels
      of MAP65-1, which appears to be involved in the maintenance of transverse
      microtubule orientation. However, the levels of SPR2 under microgravity
      conditions were comparable to those at 1 g. These results suggest that the
      microgravity-induced increase in the levels of MAP65-1 is involved in increase in
      the transverse microtubules, which may lead to modification of growth anisotropy,
      thereby developing longer and thinner hypocotyls under microgravity conditions in
      space.

PMID- 28862766
TI  - Genomic profiles of lung cancer associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - Little is known about the pathogenesis or molecular profiles of idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis-associated lung cancer (IPF-LC). This study was performed to
      investigate the genomic profiles of IPF-LC and to explore the possibility of
      defining potential therapeutic targets in IPF-LC. We assessed genomic profiles of
      IPF-LC by using targeted exome sequencing (OncoPanel version 2) in 35 matched
      tumour/normal pairs surgically resected between 2004 and 2014. Germline and
      somatic variant calling was performed with GATK HaplotypeCaller and MuTect with
      GATK SomaticIndelocator, respectively. Copy number analysis was conducted with
      CNVkit, with focal events determined by Genomic Identification of Significant
      Targets in Cancer 2.0, and pathway analysis (KEGG) with DAVID. Germline mutations
      in TERT (rs2736100, n = 33) and CDKN1A (rs2395655, n = 27) associated with
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis risk were detected in most samples. A total of 410
      somatic mutations were identified, with an average of 11.7 per tumour, including
      69 synonymous, 177 missense, 17 nonsense, 1 nonstop and 11 splice-site mutations,
      and 135 small coding indels. Spectra of the somatic mutations revealed
      predominant C > T transitions despite an extensive smoking history in most
      patients, suggesting a potential association between APOBEC-related mutagenesis
      and the development of IPF-LC. TP53 (22/35, 62.9%) and BRAF (6/35, 17.1%) were
      found to be significantly mutated in IPF-LC. Recurrent focal amplifications in
      three chromosomal loci (3q26.33, 7q31.2, and 12q14.3) and 9p21.3 deletion were
      identified, and genes associated with the JAK-STAT signalling pathway were
      significantly amplified in IPF-LC (P = 0.012). This study demonstrates that IPF
      LC is genetically characterized by the presence of somatic mutations reflecting a
      variety of environmental exposures on the background of specific germline
      mutations, and is associated with potentially targetable alterations such as BRAF
      mutations. Copyright (c) 2017 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
      Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28862769
TI  - Histamine and Migraine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Histamine is an ancient "tissue amine" preceding multicellular
      organisms. In the central nervous system (CNS), its fibers originate solely from
      the tuberomammillary nucleus and travel throughout the brain. It is mainly
      responsible for wakefulness, energy homeostasis, and memory consolidation.
      Recently, several studies suggest a potential role of histamine in migraine
      pathogenesis and management. METHODS: Narrative review of current literature
      regarding histamine and migraine. RESULTS: Histamine plays a crucial role in
      migraine pathogenesis: sustaining the neurogenic inflammation pathway.
      Interaction between mast cells (MC) and calcitonin-gene related protein (CGRP)
      results in sensitization of trigeminal afferents and trigeminal ganglia (TG).
      Histamine binds with differing affinities to four different histaminergic G
      protein coupled receptors, activating protein kinases, or triggering calcium
      release with subsequent mode of actions. Histamine 1 receptor (H1 R) and
      histamine 2 receptor (H2 R) antagonists are frequently used for the treatment of
      allergy and gastric acid secretion, respectively, but their antagonism is
      probably ineffective for migraine. Histamine 3 receptor (H3 R) and histamine 4
      receptor (H4 R) have a threefold higher affinity than H1 R/H2 R for histamine and
      are found almost exclusively on neurons and immune tissues, respectively. H3 R
      acts as an autoreceptor or as a heteroreceptor, lowering the release of histamine
      and other neurotransmitters. This is a potential target for anti-nociception and
      anti-neurogenic inflammation. To date, several small clinical trials using low
      dose histamine or Nalpha -methylhistamine have demonstrated migraine prophylactic
      efficacy, probably via H3 R or other undetermined pathways. CONCLUSION: The
      histamine system interacts with multiple regions in the CNS and may
      hypothetically modulate the migraine response. Low dose histamine may be a
      promising option for migraine prevention.

PMID- 28862768
TI  - Airway remodelling and inflammation in asthma are dependent on the extracellular
      matrix protein fibulin-1c.
AB  - Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. It is characterized by
      allergic airway inflammation, airway remodelling, and airway hyperresponsiveness
      (AHR). Asthma patients, in particular those with chronic or severe asthma, have
      airway remodelling that is associated with the accumulation of extracellular
      matrix (ECM) proteins, such as collagens. Fibulin-1 (Fbln1) is an important ECM
      protein that stabilizes collagen and other ECM proteins. The level of Fbln1c, one
      of the four Fbln1 variants, which predominates in both humans and mice, is
      increased in the serum and airways fluids in asthma but its function is unclear.
      We show that the level of Fbln1c was increased in the lungs of mice with house
      dust mite (HDM)-induced chronic allergic airway disease (AAD). Genetic deletion
      of Fbln1c and therapeutic inhibition of Fbln1c in mice with chronic AAD reduced
      airway collagen deposition, and protected against AHR. Fbln1c-deficient (Fbln1c-/
      ) mice had reduced mucin (MUC) 5 AC levels, but not MUC5B levels, in the airways
      as compared with wild-type (WT) mice. Fbln1c interacted with fibronectin and
      periostin that was linked to collagen deposition around the small airways. Fbln1c
      /- mice with AAD also had reduced numbers of alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive
      cells around the airways and reduced airway contractility as compared with WT
      mice. After HDM challenge, these mice also had fewer airway inflammatory cells,
      reduced interleukin (IL)-5, IL-13, IL-33, tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and CXCL1
      levels in the lungs, and reduced IL-5, IL-33 and TNF levels in lung-draining
      lymph nodes. Therapeutic targeting of Fbln1c reduced the numbers of GATA3
      positive Th2 cells in the lymph nodes and lungs after chronic HDM challenge.
      Treatment also reduced the secretion of IL-5 and IL-13 from co-cultured dendritic
      cells and T cells restimulated with HDM extract. Human epithelial cells cultured
      with Fbln1c peptide produced more CXCL1 mRNA than medium-treated controls. Our
      data show that Fbln1c may be a therapeutic target in chronic asthma. Copyright
      (c) 2017 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John
      Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28862772
TI  - Parallel ridge dermoscopic pattern in plantar atypical Spitz nevus.

PMID- 28862770
TI  - Glucosamine oral administration as an adjunct to hyaluronic acid injection in
      treating temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic effect of oral glucosamine (GS) as an
      adjunct to hyaluronic acid (HA) injection on patients with temporomandibular
      joint osteoarthritis (TMJ OA). METHODS: In this clinical trial, 136 participants,
      diagnosed as TMJ OA clinically and radiographically, were enrolled and randomized
      into two groups (group GS + HA: oral GS + HA injection; group placebo + HA: oral
      placebo + HA injection). Pain, maximum interincisal mouth opening (MMO), the
      levels of IL-1beta, IL-6, and TGF-beta in TMJ synovial were defined as the
      outcome measurements and conducted before operation, and at 1-month and 1-year
      follow-up. RESULTS: In both groups, pain scores were decreased and MMOs were
      increased at 1-month and 1-year follow-up, the changes at 1-year follow-up showed
      statistically significant intergroup differences. At 1-month follow-up, only IL-6
      concentration was lower in group GS + HA than that in group placebo + HA. One
      year later, TGF-beta concentration was higher and IL-6 and IL-1beta
      concentrations were lower in group GS + HA than those in group placebo + HA.
      CONCLUSIONS: Both strategies alleviated symptoms in short term, but the patients
      treated with GS benefited more than those with placebo in long term, which may be
      due to the suppression of IL-1beta and IL-6 and the stimulation of TGF-beta.

PMID- 28862771
TI  - Oral melanoma and other pigmentations: when to biopsy?
AB  - Oral pigmentations (OPs) are often neglected, although a meticulous examination
      of the oral cavity is important not only in the diagnosis of oral melanoma, but
      also for the detection of important clinical findings that may indicate the
      presence of a systemic disease. OPs may be classified into two major groups on
      the basis of their clinical appearance: focal and diffuse pigmentations, even
      though this distinction may not appear so limpid in some cases. The former
      include amalgam tattoo, melanocytic nevi, melanoacanthoma and melanosis, while
      the latter include physiological/racial pigmentations, smoker's melanosis, drug
      induced hyperpigmentations, postinflammatory hyperpigmentations and OPs
      associated with systemic diseases. We will discuss the most frequent OPs and the
      differential diagnosis with oral mucosal melanoma (OMM), underlining the most
      frequent lesions that need to undergo a bioptic examination and lesions that
      could be proposed for a sequential follow-up.

PMID- 28862773
TI  - Trends in outcomes of very preterm infants in Romania: A tale of three cities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although survival of preterm infants has improved, prematurity
      remains the second most frequent cause of death before 5 years of age in Romania.
      Data on the changing mortality of Romanian preterm infants born before 29 weeks
      of gestation have not been available. METHODS: Outcomes of infants of gestational
      age 25-28 weeks born in 2007-2010 (n = 247) were compared with those born in 2011
      2014 (n = 235). Data were analyzed from three tertiary neonatal intensive care
      centers. Mortality rates and major morbidities were compared between these two
      epochs. RESULTS: Infants in the later epoch were more likely to have been born by
      cesarean section and had higher 1 and 5 min Apgar scores. Mortality rate
      decreased significantly with increasing gestational age at birth. Between the two
      epochs, the in-hospital mortality rate decreased from 65.6% to 29.4% (P < 0.001);
      death in the first 48 h decreased from 30.0% to 8.5% (P < 0.001); and prevalence
      of severe intraventricular hemorrhage decreased from 52.2% to 11.9% (P < 0.001).
      There were significant increases in the rates of necrotizing enterocolitis and
      bronchopulmonary dysplasia among survivors but no change in the rate of
      retinopathy of prematurity. The rate of antenatal corticosteroid use did not
      change and was only 47% in the more recent epoch (2011-2014). CONCLUSIONS:
      Overall mortality is decreasing, and infants admitted in the later epoch had
      substantially different rates of mortality and several serious morbidities. The
      low rate of antenatal corticosteroid use provides an opportunity for further
      reductions in mortality and morbidity among very preterm infants born in Romania.

PMID- 28862774
TI  - Deinococcus radiodurans DR1088 is a novel RecF-interacting protein that
      stimulates single-stranded DNA annealing.
AB  - RecF, together with the recombination mediators RecO and RecR, is required in the
      RecFOR homologous recombination repair pathway in bacteria. In this study, a recF
      dr1088 operon, which is highly conserved in the Deinococcus-Thermus phylum, was
      identified in Deinococcus radiodurans. Interaction between DRRecF and DR1088 was
      confirmed by yeast two-hybrid and pull-down assays. DR1088 exhibited some RecO
      like biochemical properties including single/double-stranded DNA binding
      activity, ssDNA binding protein (SSB) replacement ability and ssDNA (with or
      without SSB) annealing activity. However, unlike other recombination proteins,
      dr1088 is essential for cell viability. These results indicate that DR1088 might
      play a role in DNA replication and DNA repair processes.

PMID- 28862775
TI  - Implicit Association with Suicide as Measured by the Suicide Affect
      Misattribution Procedure (S-AMP) Predicts Suicide Ideation.
AB  - The identification of indirect markers of suicide that do not rely on explicit
      self-report of suicide ideation is vital, as research indicates that a
      significant number of individuals who die by suicide do not discuss or explicitly
      deny thoughts of suicide with a provider in their last health care interaction.
      The current study tests whether a new measure of implicit association with
      suicide, a modified version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP),
      predicts suicide ideation in participants oversampled for the experience of
      suicide ideation. Results indicated that implicit associations with suicide
      related images were positively correlated with levels of suicide ideation and
      predicted suicide ideation when entered as a simultaneous predictor with symptoms
      of depression, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness. Implicit
      associations with positive and negative images were unrelated to thoughts of
      suicide. The modified version of the AMP may be a particularly useful indirect
      measure of suicide ideation that can be easily included in suicide risk
      assessment paradigms in clinical practice and research studies.

PMID- 28862776
TI  - Catalytic Enantioselective Synthesis of Highly Functionalized Difluoromethylated
      Cyclopropanes.
AB  - The first catalytic asymmetric synthesis of highly functionalized
      difluoromethylated cyclopropanes is described. The method, based on a rhodium
      catalyzed cyclopropanation of difluoromethylated olefins, gives access to a broad
      range of cyclopropanes bearing ester, ketone, or nitro functional groups. By
      using Rh2 ((S)-BTPCP)4 as a catalyst, the corresponding products were obtained in
      high yields and high diastereo- and enantioselectivities (up 20:1 d.r. and 99 %
      ee). This methodology allowed preparation of enantioenriched
      difluoromethylcyclopropanes for the first time.

PMID- 28862777
TI  - Reduced Oxygenated g-C3 N4 with Abundant Nitrogen Vacancies for Visible-Light
      Photocatalytic Applications.
AB  - A novel g-C3 N4 photocatalyst (RCNO) with abundant nitrogen vacancies and oxygen
      containing electron-withdrawing groups was prepared. Oxygen was gradually
      introduced into the g-C3 N4 structure by a hydrothermal hydrolysis/condensation
      process, and nitrogen vacancies were produced with H2 reduction. The presence of
      nitrogen vacancies reduced the conduction band energy of g-C3 N4 from -0.75 to 
      0.5 eV and introduced plenty of defect levels in the band gap (just below the
      conductive band with a width of 0.45 eV). The oxygenation of g-C3 N4 induced the
      formation of oxygen-containing functional groups, such as C=O and C-O, as well as
      effectively enhancing the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers and
      reducing the valence band energy from 2.05 to 2.30 eV. Therefore, the
      photocatalytic activity and photocurrent responses of RCNO were about nine and
      eight times higher than that of g-C3 N4 , respectively.

PMID- 28862778
TI  - Evidence of genomic adaptation to climate in Eucalyptus microcarpa: Implications
      for adaptive potential to projected climate change.
AB  - Understanding whether populations can adapt in situ or whether interventions are
      required is of key importance for biodiversity management under climate change.
      Landscape genomics is becoming an increasingly important and powerful tool for
      rapid assessments of climate adaptation, especially in long-lived species such as
      trees. We investigated climate adaptation in Eucalyptus microcarpa using the
      DArTseq genomic approach. A combination of FST outlier and environmental
      association analyses were performed using >4200 genomewide single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) from 26 populations spanning climate gradients in
      southeastern Australia. Eighty-one SNPs were identified as putatively adaptive,
      based on significance in FST outlier tests and significant associations with one
      or more climate variables related to temperature (70/81), aridity (37/81) or
      precipitation (35/81). Adaptive SNPs were located on all 11 chromosomes, with no
      particular region associated with individual climate variables. Climate
      adaptation appeared to be characterized by subtle shifts in allele frequencies,
      with no consistent fixed differences identified. Based on these associations, we
      predict adaptation under projected changes in climate will include a suite of
      shifts in allele frequencies. Whether this can occur sufficiently rapidly through
      natural selection within populations, or would benefit from assisted gene
      migration, requires further evaluation. In some populations, the absence or
      predicted increases to near fixation of particular adaptive alleles hint at
      potential limits to adaptive capacity. Together, these results reinforce the
      importance of standing genetic variation at the geographic level for maintaining
      species' evolutionary potential.

PMID- 28862779
TI  - Gaps in physician knowledge are associated with under-referral for evidence-based
      implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy: How can we improve care?

PMID- 28862780
TI  - Re: Are electromagnetic fields in incubators a risk factor for autism?

PMID- 28862781
TI  - Effects of lateral olfactory tract stimulation on Fos immunoreactivity in
      vasopressin neurones of the rat piriform cortex.
AB  - In the main olfactory system, odours are registered at the main olfactory
      epithelium and are then processed at the main olfactory bulb (MOB) and,
      subsequently, by the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON), the piriform cortex (PC)
      and the cortical amygdala. Previously, we reported populations of vasopressin
      neurones in different areas of the rat olfactory system, including the MOB,
      accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) and the AON and showed that these are involved in
      the coding of social odour information. Utilising immunohistochemistry and a
      transgenic rat in which an enhanced green fluorescent protein reporter gene is
      expressed in vasopressin neurones (eGFP-vasopressin), we now show a population of
      vasopressin neurones in the PC. The vasopressin neurones are predominantly
      located in the layer II of the PC and the majority co-express the excitatory
      transmitter glutamate. Furthermore, there is no sex difference in the number of
      neurones expressing vasopressin. Electrical stimulation of the lateral olfactory
      tract leads to a significant increase in the number of Fos-positive nuclei in the
      PC, MOB, AOB, dorsal AON and supraoptic nucleus (SON). However, there was only a
      significant increase in Fos expression in vasopressin cells of the PC and SON.
      Thus, functionally distinct populations of vasopressin cells are implicated in
      olfactory processing at multiple stages of the olfactory pathway.

PMID- 28862782
TI  - Mycorrhizal fungi enhance plant nutrient acquisition and modulate nitrogen loss
      with variable water regimes.
AB  - Climate change will alter both the amount and pattern of precipitation and soil
      water availability, which will directly affect plant growth and nutrient
      acquisition, and potentially, ecosystem functions like nutrient cycling and
      losses as well. Given their role in facilitating plant nutrient acquisition and
      water stress resistance, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi may modulate the
      effects of changing water availability on plants and ecosystem functions. The
      well-characterized mycorrhizal tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotype 76R
      (referred to as MYC+) and the mutant mycorrhiza-defective tomato genotype rmc
      were grown in microcosms in a glasshouse experiment manipulating both the pattern
      and amount of water supply in unsterilized field soil. Following 4 weeks of
      differing water regimes, we tested how AM fungi affected plant productivity and
      nutrient acquisition, short-term interception of a 15NH4+ pulse, and inorganic
      nitrogen (N) leaching from microcosms. AM fungi enhanced plant nutrient
      acquisition with both lower and more variable water availability, for instance
      increasing plant P uptake more with a pulsed water supply compared to a regular
      supply and increasing shoot N concentration more when lower water amounts were
      applied. Although uptake of the short-term 15NH4+ pulse was higher in rmc plants,
      possibly due to higher N demand, AM fungi subtly modulated NO3- leaching,
      decreasing losses by 54% at low and high water levels in the regular water
      regime, with small absolute amounts of NO3- leached (<1 kg N/ha). Since this
      study shows that AM fungi will likely be an important moderator of plant and
      ecosystem responses to adverse effects of more variable precipitation, management
      strategies that bolster AM fungal communities may in turn create systems that are
      more resilient to these changes.

PMID- 28862783
TI  - A novel red pigment from marine Arthrobacter sp. G20 with specific anticancer
      activity.
AB  - AIMS: Bacterial pigments are promising compounds in the prevention and treatment
      of various cancers. In the current study, the antioxidant, cytotoxic and
      antimicrobial effects of a red pigment obtained from a marine bacterial strain
      were investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS: Optimization of the pigment production by
      the marine strain was conducted using the one-factor-at-a-time approach. Chemical
      identification of the pigment was achieved by UV-visible, FTIR and HPLC analyses.
      The biological activities of the pigment were evaluated by DPPH, MTT and
      microbroth dilution assays. The strain was identified as Arthrobacter, and its
      pigment was related to carotenoids. The EC50 antioxidant activity of the pigment
      was evaluated as 4.5 mg ml-1 . It showed moderate anticancer effects on an
      oesophageal cancer cell line, KYSE30, while no inhibition was observed on normal
      HDF (human dermal fibroblasts) cells. The pigment had no antibacterial effects on
      the four tested strains. CONCLUSION: The antitumour activity of a carotenoid
      related pigment from Arthrobacter sp. was reported for the first time.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Marine environments are interesting sources
      for the identification of novel bioproducts. The identification of carotenoid
      pigments from marine bacteria with remarkable antioxidant and anticancer
      activities would result in better insights into the potential pharmaceutical
      applications of carotenoids and marine environments.

PMID- 28862784
TI  - "Isolated" DyO+ Embedded in a Ceramic Apatite Matrix Featuring Single-Molecule
      Magnet Behavior with a High Energy Barrier for Magnetization Relaxation.
AB  - Meeting the challenges of Moore's Law, predicting ambitious miniaturization rates
      of integrated circuits, requires to go beyond the traditional top-down
      approaches, and to employ synthetic chemistry methods, to use bottom-up
      techniques. During the recent decades, it has been shown that open-shell
      coordination compounds may exhibit intramolecular spontaneous magnetization, thus
      offering promising prospects for storage and processing of digital information.
      Against this background we regarded it rewarding to implement similar magnetic
      centers into a ceramic material, which would provide better long-term mechanical
      and chemical durability. Here we present new robust inorganic compounds
      containing separate DyO+ ions in an apatite matrix, which behave like single
      molecule magnets. The materials exhibit a blocking temperature of 11 K and an
      energy barrier for spin reversal of a thousand inverse centimeters which is among
      the highest values ever achieved.

PMID- 28862785
TI  - History rather than hybridization determines population structure and adaptation
      in Populus balsamifera.
AB  - Hybridization between species is known to greatly affect their genetic diversity
      and, therefore, their evolution. Also, within species, there may be genetic
      clusters between which gene flow is limited, which may impact natural selection.
      However, few studies have looked simultaneously at the influence of among-species
      and within-species gene flow. Here, we study the influence of hybridization
      between Populus balsamifera and Populus trichocarpa on population structure and
      adaptation in P. balsamifera. We did this by sampling a total of 1517 individuals
      from across the ranges of these two species, and by genotyping them using a
      combination of 93 nuclear and 17 cpDNA SNPs. We found that hybridization is
      mostly limited to the contact zone where the species' distributions overlap.
      Within P. balsamifera, we found multiple levels of population structure.
      Interestingly, the border between the Eastern and Central clusters is very sharp,
      whereas the border between the Central and Western clusters is diffuse. Outlier
      analysis revealed that three loci associated with the sharp border were also
      associated with climate. We hypothesize that the observed clusters derive from
      three refugia during the Pleistocene ice ages. Between the Central and Western
      clusters, post-glacial long-distance gene flow has led to the diffusion of their
      border. In the Eastern cluster, we hypothesize that endogenous genomic barriers
      have developed, leading to the sharp border and a spurious climate association.
      We conclude that the large-scale genetic structure of P. balsamifera is mostly
      shaped by historical factors and the influence of interspecific hybridization is
      limited.

PMID- 28862786
TI  - Characterization of fungal communities of developmental stages in table grape
      grown in the northern region of South Africa.
AB  - AIMS: To determine fungal communities that characterize table grapes during berry
      development. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two agro-ecologically different table grape
      commercial farms (site A and B) were used in this study. Samples were collected
      at full bloom, pea size and mature stages, from three positions (inside centre,
      eastern and western peripheral ends) per site. Total DNA extraction, Illumina
      sequencing and analysis of 18 pooled samples for fungal diversity targeting ITS1
      2 generated a total of 2 035 933 high-quality sequences. The phylum Ascomycota
      (77.0%) and Basidiomycota (23.0%) were the most dominant, while the genera,
      Alternaria (33.1%) and Cladosporium (24.2%) were the overall dominant postharvest
      decay causing fungi throughout the developmental stages. Inside centre of site A
      were more diverse at full bloom (3.82) than those at the peripheral ends (<3.8),
      while at site B, the peripheral ends showed better diversity, particularly the
      eastern part at both full bloom (3.3) and pea size (3.7). CONCLUSION: Fungal
      population diversity varies with different phenological table grape growth stages
      and is further influenced by site and vine position within a specific vineyard.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The information on fungal diversity and
      succession in table grapes during preharvest growth stages is critical in the
      development of a more targeted control strategy, to improve postharvest quality
      of table grapes.

PMID- 28862787
TI  - Panoramic atrial mapping with basket catheters: A quantitative analysis to
      optimize practice, patient selection, and catheter choice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Panoramic mapping with basket catheters has been used to map atrial
      fibrillation (AF). However, the limited tissue contact and coverage achieved has
      raised concerns. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients undergoing catheter ablation for
      atrial tachycardia (AT) and persistent AF were recruited. Unipolar signals were
      recorded with the Constellation or FIRMap catheters. The proportion and
      distribution of anatomical coverage by the catheters was determined and tissue
      contact achieved measured. The impact of catheter position, left atrium (LA)
      size, and bipolar voltage were evaluated. Forty patients were recruited (20
      Constellation and 20 FIRMap). The LA coverage achieved with the FIRMap catheter
      compared to the Constellation catheter was greater (76.9 +/- 12.9% vs. 50.8 +/-
      10.3%; P < 0.001), with better septal coverage (66.8 +/- 20.9% vs. 15.5 +/-
      12.0%; P < 0.001). A greater number of electrodes recorded peak-to-peak
      electrogram amplitude of >=0.5 mV (84.2% vs. 62.8%; P < 0.001). Positioning the
      catheter tip at or posterior to LA appendage ridge gave better coverage than a
      more anterior position (P = 0.001). Increasing LA area correlated inversely with
      coverage (P < 0.001) and contact (P = 0.002) despite patient-specific basket
      catheter sizing. An LA area of >30 cm2 and mean bipolar voltage of <0.3 mV was
      associated with reduction in coverage and contact (both P < 0.001). There was a
      significant difference in AT/AF freedom during follow-up in the FIRMap versus
      Constellation group (13/13 vs. 8/12; P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The FIRMap is
      superior to the Constellation catheter in terms of LA coverage and contact.
      Optimizing catheter position and appropriate patient selection based on no more
      than moderately dilated or scarred atria will also facilitate mapping with basket
      catheters.

PMID- 28862789
TI  - Creating a Strain Relief Loop during S1 Transforaminal Lead Placement for Dorsal
      Root Ganglion Stimulation for Foot Pain: A Technical Note.
AB  - Chronic neuropathic pain is often refractory to conventional medical treatments
      and leads to significant disability and socio-economic burden. Dorsal root
      ganglion (DRG) stimulation has recently emerged as a treatment for persistent
      neuropathic pain, but creating a strain relief loop at the S1 level has thus far
      been a challenging technical component of DRG lead placement. We describe a
      refined technique for strain relief loop formation at the S1 level using a
      transforaminal approach that we employed in a 45-year-old patient with
      intractable foot pain. We successfully placed a strain relief loop in the sacral
      space in a predictable and easily reproducible manner using a transforaminal
      anchorless approach. The patient experienced a decrease in visual analog pain
      score (85%), and improvement in function during the trial period, and proceeded
      with permanent implantation. The described sacral transforaminal strain relief
      loop formation technique appears to be a more reliable and predictable technique
      of DRG lead placement in the sacrum than those previously documented.

PMID- 28862788
TI  - Factors related to diagnostic delay of oral squamous cell carcinoma in southern
      Thailand: Revisited.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of more open access to health services by
      Thailand's universal health coverage (UHC) on diagnostic delay of oral squamous
      cell carcinomas (OSCC) by comparing results with our previous study prior to the
      UHC. Reasons for delay in attending healthcare professional (HCP) consultation
      were also investigated. METHODS: A structure questionnaire was employed to
      interview 154 OSCC consecutive patients. Variables were included for Cox
      proportional regression models to conclude the hazard ratio of each delay.
      RESULTS: Regarding patient delay, those who had more than 12-year education
      showed less delay (HR 0.46, 95% CI: 0.21-1.01) while longer delay was found in
      farmers (HR 1.49, 95% CI: 1.05-2.11). Compared with the previous study, there was
      no association between herbal medication and patient delay, herbal medication and
      total delay, nor religion and total delay. Professional delay showed no
      association with any variable. Only half of the patients received initial proper
      HCP management in both studies. Patient delay was mostly (89.9%) due to
      unawareness of the lesion severity. CONCLUSIONS: Open access to the healthcare
      system had an influence on diagnostic delay. Public education and precise
      clinical acumen by HCPs in OSCC diagnosis are needed for early detection.

PMID- 28862790
TI  - Abstracts From the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Histiocyte Society Singapore
      October 3-4, 2017.

PMID- 28862791
TI  - Efficacy of the Volatile Oil from Water Celery (Helosciadium nodiflorum,
      Apiaceae) against the Filariasis Vector Culex quinquefasciatus, the Housefly
      Musca domestica, and the African Cotton Leafworm Spodoptera littoralis.
AB  - Water celery (Helosciadium nodiflorum, Apiaceae) is a common and invasive
      hydrophyte occurring in rivers and slow waters of Europe. In the past, it was
      consumed as a vegetable and spices, but currently it has mostly been abandoned.
      As a result, this plant produces an unexploited biomass occluding rivers and slow
      waters. With the aim to valorise water celery as an important biomass source for
      the development of botanical insecticides, in this work, we investigated the
      inhibitory effects of the essential oil hydrodistilled from its aerial parts
      against larvae of the filariasis vector Culex quinquefasciatus, adults of the
      housefly Musca domestica, and larvae of the African cotton leafworm Spodoptera
      littoralis. The essential oil, which was characterized by the insecticidal
      limonene (39.8%) and myristicin (35.3%), exerted important toxic effects on 3rd
      instar larvae of C. quinquefasciatus and S. littoralis and on adults of M.
      domestica, with LD50 of 50.4 MUl l-1 , 116.7 MUg larva-1 , and 45.1 (male) and
      70.1 (female) MUg adult-1 , respectively. The oil did not show any noticeable
      inhibitory activity on the acetylcholinesterase enzyme. Our findings add
      scientific evidences highlighting water celery as an important biomass source to
      be used for the control of insect pests and vectors of high economic importance.

PMID- 28862792
TI  - A novel patient-centered "intention-to-treat" metric of U.S. lung transplant
      center performance.
AB  - Despite the importance of pretransplantation outcomes, 1-year posttransplantation
      survival is typically considered the primary metric of lung transplant center
      performance in the United States. We designed a novel lung transplant center
      performance metric that incorporates both pre- and posttransplantation survival
      time. We performed an ecologic study of 12 187 lung transplant candidates listed
      at 56 U.S. lung transplant centers between 2006 and 2012. We calculated an
      "intention-to-treat" survival (ITTS) metric as the percentage of waiting list
      candidates surviving at least 1 year after transplantation. The median center
      level 1-year posttransplantation survival rate was 84.1%, and the median center
      level ITTS was 66.9% (mean absolute difference 19.6%, 95% limits of agreement 4.3
      to 35.1%). All but 10 centers had ITTS values that were significantly lower than
      1-year posttransplantation survival rates. Observed ITTS was significantly lower
      than expected ITTS for 7 centers. These data show that one third of lung
      transplant candidates do not survive 1 year after transplantation, and that 12%
      of centers have lower than expected ITTS. An "intention-to-treat" survival metric
      may provide a more realistic expectation of patient outcomes at transplant
      centers and may be of value to transplant centers and policymakers.

PMID- 28862793
TI  - Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of lytic bone lesions: An institution's experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Fine needle aspiration (FNAB) is an effective, minimally-invasive,
      inexpensive, diagnostic technique. The objective of this study was to evaluate
      the accuracy of FNAB in the diagnosis of bone lesions. METHODS: FNABs of bone
      lesions diagnosed at our institution over a 2-year period were retrospectively
      analyzed. RESULTS: 241 samples were reviewed. Patients included 121 males and 120
      females, with ages ranging from 4-95 years (mean = 66 years). Of these 241 cases,
      43.2% had FNAB and 56.8% had FNAB with core needle biopsy (CNB). The cytologic
      diagnoses were categorized as nondiagnostic, benign, atypical, suspicious, and
      positive for malignant cells. Total of 84.3% of FNABs were diagnostic. Of the
      malignant cases, 78.5% were metastases from nonosseous primary sites, 17.1% were
      lymphoproliferative lesions, and 4.4% were primary bone tumors. The most common
      site of metastasis was the pelvic bones (43.5%) followed by the vertebral column
      (38.7%). Breast (21%), lung (12.7%), and prostate (11.3%) were the most common
      identifiable primary site in metastatic cases. FNA smears and cell blocks allowed
      identification of metastatic lesions in 94.3% cases with immunohistochemistry
      (IHC). Obtaining a concomitant CNB did not result in a statistically significant
      increase in overall diagnostic yields (P = .20), ascertaining presence of
      metastatic lesion (P = .96) or ability to identify site of primary tumor in cases
      of metastasis (P = .53) compared to FNAB alone. Diagnostic accuracy was improved
      by reviewing clinical history, performing cell block, and IHC. CONCLUSIONS: FNAB
      is a reliable tool for diagnosis of bone lesions with comparable diagnostic
      sensitivity to CNB.

PMID- 28862794
TI  - Open dialogue between professionals with different opinions builds the best
      policy.

PMID- 28862795
TI  - Techniques for the analysis of pentacyclic triterpenoids in medicinal plants.
AB  - Triterpenes are a major class of chemical compounds found in natural plants and
      can be categorized into acyclic triterpenoids, monocyclic triterpenoids,
      tricyclic triterpenoids, tetracyclic triterpenoids, and pentacyclic
      triterpenoids. Among them, pentacyclic triterpenoids have gained more extensive
      attention due to their biological activities, including anti-inflammation,
      antibacterial, antioxidation, antitumor, anti-HIV, hepatoprotection, and
      immunological adjuvant properties. In this review, we summarize the extraction
      and analytical methods for pentacyclic triterpenoids, where more than 56
      triterpenes from 49 kinds of plants were involved. The analysis methods include
      gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, thin-layer
      chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray
      spectroscopy. This review provides valuable reference for the determination of
      pentacyclic triterpenoids in medicinal plants.

PMID- 28862796
TI  - Donor-derived hepatitis C transmission from NAT negative donors-Still an
      unexpected event!

PMID- 28862797
TI  - 2017 Annual Meeting American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

PMID- 28862799
TI  - Initiating therapy in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes: Combination
      therapy vs a stepwise approach.
AB  - There is clear evidence that achieving glycaemic targets reduces the risk of
      developing complications as a result of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Many patients,
      however, continue to have suboptimal glycaemic control because of issues that
      include unclear advice on how to achieve these targets as well as clinical
      inertia. The two management approaches recommended for patients newly diagnosed
      with T2D are stepwise and combination therapy, each of which has advantages and
      disadvantages. Stepwise therapy may result in good patient adherence and allow
      greater individualization of therapy, and minimization of side effects and cost,
      and so may be appropriate for patients who are closer to goal. Stepwise therapy,
      however, may also lead to frequent delays in achieving glycaemic goals and longer
      exposure to hyperglycaemia. Combination therapy, which is now emerging as an
      important therapy option, has a number of potential advantages over stepwise
      therapy, including reduction in clinical inertia and earlier and more frequent
      achievement of glycated haemoglobin goals by targeting multiple pathogenic
      mechanisms simultaneously, which may more effectively delay disease progression.
      Compared with stepwise therapy, the disadvantages of combination therapy include
      reduced patient adherence resulting from complex, multi-drug regimens, difficulty
      determining the cause of poor efficacy and/or side effects, patient refusal to
      accept disease, and higher cost. Fixed-dose and fixed-ratio combinations are
      novel therapeutic approaches which may help address several issues of treatment
      complexity and patient burden associated with combination therapy comprising
      individual drugs. The choice of which drugs to administer and the decision to use
      stepwise vs combination therapy, however, should always be made on an
      individualized basis.

PMID- 28862798
TI  - Grading effect of abnormal glucose status on arterial stiffness and a new
      threshold of 2-h post-load glucose based on a Chinese community study.
AB  - AIMS/INTRODUCTION: To investigate the relationship between various glucose
      metabolic status and arterial stiffness, and further explore the threshold of
      blood glucose indices for the risk of arterial stiffness. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The present cross-sectional study included 4,851 individuals from a Chinese
      community. Overnight fasting blood glucose and 2-h post-load glucose were
      sampled. Arterial stiffness was measured as brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity.
      The association was examined using generalized linear regression models. The
      threshold effect was explored using two piecewise linear regression models by the
      smoothing plot. RESULTS: After adjustment for covariates, isolated impaired
      fasting glucose, isolated impaired glucose tolerance, combined glucose
      intolerance and newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus were associated with a greater
      risk of arterial stiffness compared with normal glucose tolerance (B = 18.09, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 0.42-35.76, P = 0.045; B = 28.51, 95% CI: 3.40-53.62, P
      = 0.026; B = 60.70, 95% CI: 38.37-83.04, P < 0.001; B = 95.06, 95% CI: 71.88
      118.25, P < 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, there was a non-linear
      relationship between 2-h post-load glucose and arterial stiffness. A threshold
      for 2-h post-load glucose of 6.14 mmol/L was observed for the risk of arterial
      stiffness. CONCLUSIONS: Impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance,
      combined glucose intolerance and newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus were related
      to a greater risk of arterial stiffness compared with normal glucose levels. A
      threshold for 2-h post-load glucose of 6.14 mmol/L probably exists for the risk
      of arterial stiffness.

PMID- 28862800
TI  - Neurological and Neurophysiological Findings in Workers with Chronic 2,3,7,8
      Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin Intoxication 50 Years After Exposure.
AB  - : The last eight survivors of 80 workers accidentally exposed to 2,3,7,8
      tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) during production of herbicides based on
      trichlorophenoxyacetic acid in 1965-1967 in a chemical factory were followed. All
      were men, mean age 72.4 +/- 1.3 years. Their current median TCDD blood level was
      112 (46-390) pg/g lipids. Neurological examination revealed central nervous
      system impairment in all individuals and signs of polyneuropathy in 87.5%, which
      was confirmed by a nerve conduction study (NCS) in 75%. A Lanthony test
      demonstrated acquired dyschromatopsia in 87.5% of the patients, with
      deterioration of mean colour confusion index (CCI) from 1.52 +/- 0.39 in 2010 to
      1.73 +/- 0.41 in 2016. Single-photon emission computer tomography (SPECT) of the
      brain showed focal reduction of perfusion in various brain locations in all
      patients and worsening in six patients. Visual-evoked potentials (VEP) was
      abnormal in 62.6% of individuals. Most patients complained of psychological
      problems. The neuropsychological test battery showed most positive impairments in
      the Trail Making Test evaluating processing speed (average level in the range of
      mild neurocognitive impairment), which correlated with mean CCI (p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: Fifty years after exposure, blood levels of TCDD are still 10 times
      higher than the general population. NCS, VEP, Lanthony test and SPECT findings
      deteriorated from examination of these patients in 2004 and in 2010. The total of
      abnormal tests per patient in 2016 is very high. Minor differences among patients
      and their reduced count may explain why the number of impairments in 2016 does
      not correlate with TCDD blood level.

PMID- 28862801
TI  - Better glycaemic control and less hypoglycaemia with insulin glargine 300 U/mL vs
      glargine 100 U/mL: 1-year patient-level meta-analysis of the EDITION clinical
      studies in people with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: To investigate the efficacy and safety of insulin glargine 300 U/mL (Gla
      300) vs insulin glargine 100 U/mL (Gla-100) over 12 months in a patient-level
      meta-analysis, using data from the EDITION studies in people with type 2 diabetes
      (T2DM). METHODS: EDITION 1, 2 and 3 were multicentre, randomized, open-label, 2
      arm, parallel-group, treat-to-target phase IIIa studies. Similar study designs
      and endpoints enabled a meta-analysis to be conducted. RESULTS: Reductions in
      glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) were better sustained over 12 months with Gla-300
      than with Gla-100 (least squares [LS] mean difference in change from baseline: 
      0.10 % [95% confidence interval {CI} -0.18 to -0.02] or -1.09 mmol/mol [95% CI 
      2.01 to -0.20]; P = .0174). Risk of confirmed (<=3.9 mmol/L) or severe
      hypoglycaemia was 15% lower with Gla-300 vs Gla-100 at night (relative risk 0.85
      [95% CI 0.77-0.92]) and 6% lower at any time of day (relative risk 0.94 [95% CI
      0.90-0.98]). Rates of hypoglycaemia were 18% lower with Gla-300 vs Gla-100 at
      night (rate ratio 0.82 [95% CI 0.67-0.99]), but comparable at any time of day.
      HbA1c <7.0 % without nocturnal hypoglycaemia was achieved by 24% more
      participants with Gla-300 than with Gla-100 (relative risk 1.24 [95% CI 1.03
      1.50]). Severe hypoglycaemia was rare; in both treatment groups the incidence of
      events at any time of day was <=3.6%, while rates were <=0.08 events per
      participant-year. CONCLUSIONS: In a broad population of people with T2DM over 12
      months, use of Gla-300 provided more sustained glycaemic control and
      significantly lower hypoglycaemia risk at night and at any time of day compared
      with Gla-100.

PMID- 28862802
TI  - Cytological and cytomorphometric characteristics of buccal mucosa cells from
      smokeless tobacco users.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of smokeless tobacco (ST) is increasing in many communities. We
      investigated whether ST alters the cytological and cytomorphometric features of
      buccal mucosa cells. METHODS: Twenty male participants who had used Nicotiana
      rustica Linn.-containing ST (Maras powder) for at least 10 years, and 20 healthy
      male controls who did not use ST, were included in this study. After rinsing the
      mouth with water, samples were taken using a toothbrush from the buccal mucosa of
      subjects in both groups. Samples were gently spread over a glass slide. After
      applying a cytofixative spray, the Papanicolaou method was used to stain the
      slides. The presence of dysplasia, dyskeratosis, parakeratosis, hyperkeratosis,
      hypergranulosis, karyorrhexis, and pyknosis was evaluated by light microscopy, as
      were the increment amount of candida, cocco-bacillus, and Leptotrichia buccalis.
      Cytomorphometric analysis was performed and at least 20 cells with well-defined
      borders were evaluated from each slide, and the cellular diameter (CD), nuclear
      diameter (ND), and nucleus/cytoplasm (N/C) ratio of the cells were analyzed using
      a 60* objective. RESULTS: Other than the presence of dysplasia and candida, all
      measured cytological parameters were significantly higher in the ST users than in
      the non-ST users. Furthermore, CD was lower while nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio was
      higher in the ST users than in those non-ST users. CONCLUSION: Cytological
      changes associated with the use of ST, include dyskeratosis, parakeratosis,
      hyperkeratosis, hypergranulosis, karyorrhexis, pyknosis together with increase in
      the bacterial population of cocco-bacillus and L. buccalis. There were no
      significant differences in patients with dysplasia in spite of reduction of CD,
      increased nuclear size and N/C ratio.

PMID- 28862803
TI  - Patient- and Cell Type-Specific Heterogeneity of Metformin Response.
AB  - Most FDA-approved drugs are not equally effective in all patients, suggesting
      that identification of biomarkers to predict responders to a chemoprevention
      agent will be needed to stratify patients and achieve maximum benefit. The goal
      of this study was to investigate both patient-specific and cell context-specific
      heterogeneity of metformin response, using fibroblast cell lines and induced
      pluripotent stem cells differentiated into lung epithelial lineages. We performed
      cell survival analysis, transcriptome and whole exome sequencing analysis on both
      patient-derived cell lines and cancer cell lines to assess differential metformin
      response and identify response genes. We found differences in response to
      metformin treatment across a variety of cell lines and cellular contexts,
      suggesting that heterogeneity may be patient- and cell type-specific. Gene
      expression profiling and analysis of metformin-sensitive and metformin-resistant
      cells identified differentially expressed genes that may be able to stratify
      patients into metformin responders and non-responders. Sequencing analysis found
      genomic alterations that correlated with metformin response. These results
      suggest that the identification of genomic biomarkers for patients who may
      respond to metformin treatment can provide an opportunity for individualizing
      metformin chemoprevention in the clinical setting.

PMID- 28862804
TI  - People should not be banned from transplantation only because of their country of
      origin.

PMID- 28862805
TI  - Vitamin D status of gastrostomy-fed children with special needs: a cross
      sectional pilot study.
AB  - AIM: To assess the vitamin D status of gastrostomy-fed children. METHODS: Vitamin
      D status was measured in 32 children aged five to 16 years recruited from special
      schools in Manchester, UK (53 degrees  48' N). All children were receiving a
      nutritionally complete, commercially prepared enteral feed via gastrostomy, and
      had been established on this regimen for over 12 months. Serum concentrations of
      25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) were measured at the end of winter. Children with
      serum concentrations of 25OHD >50 nmol/L were considered to be sufficient, and
      those with concentrations <25 nmol/L were considered to be deficient. RESULTS:
      Approximately 83% of subjects had sufficient concentrations of serum 25OHD (>50
      nmol/L). One subject was vitamin D deficient (serum 25OHD <25 nmol/L), and four
      were vitamin D insufficient (serum 25OHD >25 nmol/L - <50 nmol/L). The median
      vitamin D derived from enteral feeds was 9.45 MUg/day; range 3.5-30; 13 children
      (41%) received less than 10 MUg of vitamin D per day from their enteral feed.
      CONCLUSION: Nutritionally complete gastrostomy feeds may be protective against
      vitamin D deficiency in the majority of children with special needs. We recommend
      that all children over 1 year of age receive 10 MUg (400 IU) of vitamin D, as
      recommended by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).

PMID- 28862806
TI  - Initial experience of a novel mapping system combined with remote magnetic
      navigation in the catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There have been advancements of sophisticated mapping systems used
      for ablation procedures over the last decade. Utilization of these novel mapping
      systems in combination with remote magnetic navigation (RMN) needs to be
      established. We investigated the new EnSite Precision mapping system (St. Jude
      Medical, Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA), which collects magnetic data for checking
      navigation field stability and is built on an open platform, allowing physicians
      to choose diagnostic and ablation catheters. We address its compatibility with
      RMN. OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical utility of a novel 3D mapping system
      (EnSite Precision mapping system) combined with RMN (Niobe ES, Stereotaxis, Inc.,
      St. Louis, MO, USA) for atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. METHODS: In this
      prospective nonrandomized study, two groups of patients were treated in our
      center for drug refractory AF. Patients were consecutively enrolled in each
      group. Group A (n = 35, 14 persistent AF [PsAF]) was treated using the novel 3D
      mapping system combined with RMN. Group B (n = 38, 16 PsAF) was treated using
      Carto(r) 3 (Biosense Webster, Inc., Diamond Bar, CA, USA) combined with RMN. In
      Group A, the left atrium (LA) was mapped with a circular magnetic catheter
      manually and was then replaced by a RMN ablation catheter. At the end of the
      procedures in Group A, the circular catheter was used for confirming field
      stability. In Group B, an ablation catheter was controlled by RMN to perform both
      LA mapping and ablation. All patients underwent pulmonary vein antrum isolation.
      Additional complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAEs) ablation was
      performed for PsAF. Procedural, ablation, and fluoroscopy times were recorded and
      complications were assessed. RESULTS: Electrophysiological end points were
      achieved in all patients. Using the novel mapping system, LA mapping time was
      fast (308 +/- 60 seconds) with detailed anatomy points (178,831 +/- 70,897)
      collected and magnetic points throughout LA. At the end of the procedures in
      Group A, the LA model was confirmed to be stable and its location was within the
      distance threshold (1 mm). Procedure time (117.9 +/- 29.6 minutes vs. 119.2 +/-
      29.7 minutes, P = 0.89), fluoroscopy time (6.1 +/- 2.4 minutes vs. 4.8 +/- 2.2
      minutes, P = 0.07), and ablation time (28.0 +/- 12.9 minutes vs. 27.9 +/- 15.8
      minutes, P = 0.98) were similar in Group A versus Group B, respectively. No
      complications occurred in either group. CONCLUSIONS: LA mapped by the novel
      system is stable and reliable. Combined with RMN, it could be effectively used
      for AF ablation without impacting overall procedural times.

PMID- 28862807
TI  - Clinical, pathological and dermoscopic characteristics of cutaneous lesions in
      LEOPARD syndrome.

PMID- 28862808
TI  - Comparative effectiveness of once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor
      agonists with regard to 6-month glycaemic control and weight outcomes in patients
      with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - A retrospective cohort study was conducted in patients with type 2 diabetes in an
      electronic medical record database to compare real-world, 6-month glycated
      haemoglobin (HbA1c) and weight outcomes for exenatide once weekly with those for
      dulaglutide and albiglutide. The study included 2465 patients: exenatide once
      weekly, n = 2133; dulaglutide, n = 201; and albiglutide, n = 131. The overall
      mean (standard deviation [s.d.]) age was 60 (11) years and 54% were men; neither
      differed among the comparison groups. The mean (s.d.) baseline HbA1c was similar
      in the exenatide once-weekly (8.3 [1.7]%) and dulaglutide groups (8.5 [1.5]%; P =
      .165), but higher in the albiglutide group (8.7 [1.7]%; P < .001). The overall
      mean (s.d.) HbA1c change was -0.5 (1.5)% (P < .001) and this did not differ among
      the comparison groups in either adjusted or unadjusted analyses. The mean (s.d.)
      weight change was -1.4 (4.7) kg for exenatide once weekly and -1.6 (3.7) kg for
      albiglutide (P = .579), but was greater for dulaglutide, at -2.7 (5.7) kg (P =
      .001). Outcomes were similar in subsets of insulin-naive patients with baseline
      HbA1c >=7.0% or >=9.0%. All agents significantly reduced HbA1c at 6 months, with
      no significant differences among agents or according to baseline HbA1c in insulin
      naive subgroups.

PMID- 28862809
TI  - Novel luciferase-opsin combinations for improved luminopsins.
AB  - Previous work has demonstrated that fusion of a luciferase to an opsin, to create
      a luminescent opsin or luminopsin, provides a genetically encoded means of
      manipulating neuronal activity via both chemogenetic and optogenetic approaches.
      Here we have expanded and refined the versatility of luminopsin tools by fusing
      an alternative luciferase variant with high light emission, Gaussia luciferase
      mutant GLucM23, to depolarizing and hyperpolarizing channelrhodopsins with
      increased light sensitivity. The combination of GLucM23 with Volvox
      channelrhodopsin-1 produced LMO4, while combining GLucM23 with the anion
      channelrhodopsin iChloC yielded iLMO4. We found efficient activation of these
      channelrhodopsins in the presence of the luciferase substrate, as indicated by
      responses measured in both single neurons and in neuronal populations of mice and
      rats, as well as by changes in male rat behavior during amphetamine-induced
      rotations. We conclude that these new luminopsins will be useful for bimodal opto
      and chemogenetic analyses of brain function.

PMID- 28862810
TI  - A follow-up study on thyroid aspirates reported as atypia of undetermined
      significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance and follicular
      neoplasm/suspicious for follicular neoplasm: A multicenter study from the Arabian
      Gulf region.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This is a multicenter study which was conducted to evaluate the follow
      up on thyroid aspirate cases with atypia of undetermined significance/follicular
      cells of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS) and follicular neoplasm or
      suspicious for follicular neoplasm (FN/SFN) using the Bethesda system for
      reporting thyroid cytology (TBSRTC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The archival
      materials of all thyroid fine-needle aspirates over a 5-year period were
      retrieved from 3 institutions in the Arabian Gulf Region. All cytology slides and
      follow-up material for cases interpreted as AUS/FLUS and FN/SFN were reviewed.
      The revised diagnoses and follow-up were recorded. Analysis of risk of malignancy
      was calculated for the 2 entities. RESULTS: A total number of 2592 thyroid fine
      needle aspirates were performed, out of which AUS/FLUS was found in 115 (4.4%)
      while FN/SFN in 39 (1.5%). Follow-up by surgery or repeat FNA was conducted on 42
      (27%) and 10 (7%) patients on these 2 categories, respectively. The risk of
      malignancy was found to be 29% and 45%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The risk of
      malignancy for AUS/FLUS and FN/SFN are 29% and 45%, respectively. This risk of
      malignancy in our study is on the higher range of that reported in the
      literature.

PMID- 28862811
TI  - Role of population genetics in guiding ecological responses to climate.
AB  - Population responses to climate were assessed using 3-7 years height growth data
      gathered for 266 populations growing in 12 common gardens established in the
      1980s as part of five disparate studies of Pinus contorta var. latifolia.
      Responses are interpreted according to three concepts: the ecological optimum,
      the climate where a population is competitively exclusive and in which,
      therefore, it occurs naturally; the physiological optimum, the climate where a
      population grows best but is most often competitively excluded; and growth
      potential, the innate capacity for growth at the physiological optimum.
      Statistical analyses identified winter cold, measured by the square root of
      negative degree-days calculated from the daily minimum temperature (MINDD01/2 ),
      as the climatic effect most closely related to population growth potential; the
      colder the winter inhabited by a population, the lower its growth potential, a
      relationship presumably molded by natural selection. By splitting the data into
      groups based on population MINDD01/2 and using a function suited to skewed normal
      distributions, regressions were developed for predicting growth from the distance
      in climate space (MINDD01/2 ) populations had been transferred from their native
      location to a planting site. The regressions were skewed, showing that the
      ecological optimum of most populations is colder than the physiological optimum
      and that the discrepancy between the two increases as the ecological optimum
      becomes colder. Response to climate change is dependent on innate growth
      potential and the discrepancy between the two optima and, therefore, is
      population-specific, developing out of genotype-environment interactions.
      Response to warming in the short-term can be either positive or negative, but
      long term responses will be negative for all populations, with the timing of the
      demise dependent on the amount of skew. The results pertain to physiological
      modeling, species distribution models, and climate-change adaptation strategies.

PMID- 28862812
TI  - Performance of individually measured vs population-based C-peptide kinetics to
      assess beta-cell function in the presence and absence of acute insulin
      resistance.
AB  - AIMS: To compare the performance of population-based kinetics with that of
      directly measured C-peptide kinetics when used to calculate beta-cell
      responsivity indices, and to study people with and without acute insulin
      resistance to ensure that population-based kinetics apply to all conditions where
      beta-cell function is measured. METHODS: Somatostatin was used to inhibit
      endogenous insulin secretion in 56 people without diabetes. Subsequently, a C
      peptide bolus was administered and the changing concentrations were used to
      calculate individual kinetic measures of C-peptide clearance. In addition, the
      participants were studied on 2 occasions in random order using an oral glucose
      tolerance test (OGTT). On one occasion, free fatty acid elevation, to cause
      insulin resistance, was achieved by infusion of Intralipid + heparin. The
      Disposition Index (DI) was then estimated by the oral minimal model using either
      population-based or individual C-peptide kinetics. RESULTS: There were marked
      differences in the exchange variables (k 12 and k 21 ) of the model describing C
      peptide kinetics, but smaller differences in the fractional clearance; that is,
      the irreversible loss from the accessible compartment (k 01 ), obtained from
      population-based estimates compared with experimental measurement. Because it is
      predominantly influenced by k 01 , DI estimated using individual kinetics
      correlated well with DI estimated using population-based kinetics. CONCLUSIONS:
      These data support the use of population-based measures of C-peptide kinetics to
      estimate beta-cell function during an OGTT.

PMID- 28862813
TI  - Polyamine is a critical determinant of Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 for GacS
      dependent bacterial cell growth and biocontrol capacity.
AB  - The Gac/Rsm network regulates, at the transcriptional level, many beneficial
      traits in biocontrol-active pseudomonads. In this study, we used Phenotype
      MicroArrays, followed by specific growth studies and mutational analysis, to
      understand how catabolism is regulated by this sensor kinase system in the
      biocontrol isolate Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6. The growth of a gacS mutant was
      decreased significantly relative to that of the wild-type on ornithine and
      arginine, and on the precursor of these amino acids, N-acetyl-l-glutamic acid.
      The gacS mutant also showed reduced production of polyamines. Expression of the
      genes encoding arginine decarboxylase (speA) and ornithine decarboxylases (speC)
      was controlled at the transcriptional level by the GacS sensor of P. chlororaphis
      O6. Polyamine production was reduced in the speC mutant, and was eliminated in
      the speAspeC mutant. The addition of exogenous polyamines to the speAspeC mutant
      restored the in vitro growth inhibition of two fungal pathogens, as well as the
      secretion of three biological control-related factors: pyrrolnitrin, protease and
      siderophore. These results extend our knowledge of the regulation by the Gac/Rsm
      network in a biocontrol pseudomonad to include polyamine synthesis. Collectively,
      our studies demonstrate that bacterial polyamines act as important regulators of
      bacterial cell growth and biocontrol potential.

PMID- 28862814
TI  - Prevalence of lipohypertrophy in insulin-treated diabetes patients: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Insulin-treated diabetes patients are at high risk for
      lipohypertrophy (LH), but this clinical problem has been overlooked by some
      medical professionals. In addition, studies differed from each other
      significantly in regard to the prevalence of LH. The present systematic review
      aimed to determine pooled prevalence levels of LH among insulin-injecting
      diabetes patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four electronic databases (PubMed,
      EMBASE, The Cochrane Library and Scopus) were searched for eligible studies from
      their inception until April 2017, and reference lists were searched manually to
      identify additional studies. Studies containing data on LH in patients with
      diabetes mellitus were included. Meta-analysis was carried out with a random
      effects model. RESULTS: A total of 26 studies with a total of 12,493 participants
      met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that the pooled prevalence of LH
      was 38% (95% confidence interval [CI] 29-46%, I2 = 99.1%). The main influence on
      LH was the type of diabetes mellitus. The pooled prevalence of LH among patients
      with type 2 diabetes mellitus was higher than patients with type 1 diabetes
      mellitus (49%, 95% CI 23-74% vs 34%, 95% CI 19-49%). The pooled prevalence of LH
      of studies involving a mixed type of diabetes mellitus was 37% (95% CI 25-48%, I2
      = 98.3%). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of LH was high in insulin-treated diabetes
      patients. It showed that diabetes nurses should screen for LH regularly in their
      patients, and teach them how to prevent LH in their daily management of diabetes
      mellitus.

PMID- 28862816
TI  - Lentinula edodes based GIS mapping, biometabolites and antiinflamatory activity
      of wild edible mushroomsfrom tropical 'sacred grove' forests of Meghalaya, India.
AB  - The biodiversity rich state of Meghalaya, India located in the realms of mega
      biodiversity hotspots, is home tonumerous species of wild edible macrofungi that
      are used extensively by the mycophillic ethnic population, asa part of their
      traditional cuisine and medicine systems. However, habitat loss, due to
      deforestation and climatechange, is destroying the natural population of these
      mushrooms, depleting their availability to the local communities.In the present
      investigation, a GIS guided habitat search, using Lentinula edodes as a
      representativespecies, was used in mapping the habitats of wild edible macrofungi
      of the study region. Sampling of around4 000 specimens per distinct morphological
      type available in the traditional markets and "sacred grove" forestsindicated
      presence of ten common genera, belonging to nine different families of wild
      edible mushrooms.Nutritional profiling of the representative species Lentinula
      edodes was carried out by evaluation of its moisture,total fat, crude protein and
      carbohydrates contents by standard methods. Similarly, bioactive components
      determinationwas performed by estimation of total phenols, flavonoids, ascorbic
      acid, beta-carotene and lycopenes.Bioactivity of the mushrooms extracts was
      studied using the DPPH radical scavenging and Human Red BloodCell (HRBC) membrane
      stabilization assays. The present investigation successfully attempted to explore
      remotesensing technologies and GIS (Geographic Information System) based system
      to predict the natural habitats ofwild edible mushrooms of Meghalaya, India which
      we believe will lead to the generation of a mushroom specificnon-wood forest
      resource mapping system in the near future. Results of nutritional profiling and
      biologicalactivity studies on the representative species of wild edible mushrooms
      from the studied region revealed that itis a rich source of essential nutrients
      and antioxidants.

PMID- 28862817
TI  - [Spatial and temporal mangrove litter production in Barra de Navidad lagoon,
      Jalisco, Mexico].
AB  - Barra de Navidad lagoon is a coastal wetland of international importance (Ramsar
      site) and it is included among the 81 Mexican mangrove priority sites. One of the
      most valued characteristics of this lagoon is the presence of mangrove forest in
      a good conservation state. The goal of our research was the measurement of
      mangrove litter production and environmental factors influencing its dynamics.
      The mangrove area was divided into seven zones and litterfall was monthly sampled
      from November 2011 to October 2012 using 0.25 m(2) square collectors made with
      mosquito mesh (1 mm) and positioned at 1.3 m above the ground. Abiotic variables
      of the interstitial water were measured simultaneously at each zone in permanent
      plots using a multi-parameter probe, YSI-556-M. Total mean value of litterfall
      production, weighted by zone surface, was 19.12 +/- 1.23 gPS/m(2).mo (2.29
      t/ha.year). This low productivity is a consequence of the region's dry climate
      and low tide range. The species Avicennia germinans and Laguncularia racemosa
      produced more than 80 % of total litterfall, while Rhizophora mangle contributed
      only 16 % and Conocarpus erectus < 4 %. A significant correlation between
      litterfall production and abiotic variables was found (e.g. salinity and
      interstitial water depth). We concluded that there are significant spatial
      variations in soil abiotic variables which are correlated with differences in
      mangrove species composition, and produce, together with the life cycles stages
      of those species, significant variations in the quantity and composition of
      litterfall. Future research will be focused on quantifying spatial variations in
      forest structure and their relationship with litterfall production.

PMID- 28862815
TI  - Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (-)-Deoxoapodine.
AB  - The first enantioselective total synthesis of (-)-deoxoapodine is described. Our
      synthesis of this hexacyclic aspidosperma alkaloid includes an efficient
      molybdenum-catalyzed enantioselective ring-closing metathesis reaction for the
      desymmetrization of an advanced intermediate that introduces the C5-quaternary
      stereocenter. After C21-oxygenation, the pentacyclic core was accessed by
      electrophilic C19-amide activation and transannular spirocyclization. A
      biogenetically inspired dehydrative C6-etherification reaction proved highly
      effective to secure the F-ring and the fourth contiguous stereocenter of (-)
      deoxoapodine with complete stereochemical control.

PMID- 28862818
TI  - Life cycles of dominant mayflies (Ephemeroptera) on a torrent of the high
      Bolivian Andes
AB  - The mayflies of the temperate and cold zones have well-synchronized life cycles,
      distinct cohorts,short emergence and flight periods. In contrast, aquatic insects
      from the tropical zones are characterized bymultivoltine life cycles, "non
      discernible cohorts" and extended flight periods throughout the year. This
      reportis the first observation of life cycle patterns made of two species of
      mayflies on a torrent in the high elevationBolivian Andes. The samples were taken
      from four sites and four periods during a hydrological season. The lifecycle of
      each species was examined using size-class frequency analysis and a monthly modal
      progression model(von Bertalanffy's model) to infer the life cycle synchrony
      type. These first observations showed a moderatelysynchronized univoltine life
      cycle for Andesiops peruvianus (Ulmer, 1920), whereas Meridialaris
      tintinnabulaPescador and Peters (1987), had an unsynchronized multivoltine life
      cycle. These results showed that the generalizationof all aquatic insects as
      unsynchronized multivoltine species in the Andean region may not be
      entirelyaccurate since there is still a need to further clarify the life cycle
      patterns of the wide variety of aquatic insectsliving in this high elevation
      tropical environment.

PMID- 28862819
TI  - [Morphoecology guild in beetles (Coleoptera: Passalidae) along an altitudinal
      gradient in oak forests of the Eastern Cordillera, Colombia].
AB  - Bess beetles are important components on tropical forest dead wood nutrient
      cycling, since they act as direct consumers and ease the consumption by another
      organism (indirect). Studies of bess beetle ecology are scarce and have focused
      on communities responses to environmental changes on alimentary resources. We
      characterized the bess beetles guild composition in an elevation gradient,
      according to their differential use of resources (microhabitat) and morphological
      traits quantification (geometric and lineal), as a potential tool to improve our
      understanding on resource use and functional ecology of beetles. Three guilds
      (underbark, sapwood-heartwood and generalists feeders), five species and 198
      familiar groups were recognized; their richness decreased as elevation increased.
      Changes in linear morphometric measures were influenced by elevation;
      morphogeometrical measures were not associated with the elevation gradient, only
      grouping at guild level were observed. Morphological markers analysis
      (morphometric) provided information to guild delimitation. Body and metatibiae
      shape contributed with the best information to guild grouping. Quantification of
      those structural markers proved the relationship between resource repartition,
      because they are involved in movement on wood galleries and wood consumption,
      this fact allowed to propose specific functional roles. The identified patterns
      have contributed on the understanding of functional processes in Passalidae
      communities and their role in ecosystem function.

PMID- 28862820
TI  - Leaf morphological strategies of seedlings and saplings of Rhizophora mangle
      (Rhizophoraceae), Laguncularia racemosa (Combretaceae) andAvicennia schaueriana
      (Acanthaceae) from Southern Brazil.
AB  - The initial phase of a plant life cycle is a short and critical period, when
      individuals are more vulnerableto environmental factors. The morphological and
      anatomical study of seedlings and saplings leaf typeenables the understanding of
      species strategies of fundamental importance in their establishment and
      survival.The objective of this study was to analyze the structure of seedlings
      and saplings leaf types of three mangrovespecies, Avicennia schaueriana,
      Laguncularia racemosa, Rhizophora mangle, to understand their early life
      adaptivestrategies to the environment. A total of 30 fully expanded cotyledons
      (A. schaueriana and L. racemosa), 30leaves of seedlings, and 30 leaves of
      saplings of each species were collected from a mangrove area in GuaratubaBay,
      Parana State, Brazil. Following standard methods, samples were prepared for
      morphological (leaf dry mass,density, thickness) and anatomical analysis
      (epidermis and sub-epidermal layers, stomata types, density of saltsecretion
      glands, palisade and spongy parenchyma thickness). To compare leaf types among
      species one-wayANOVA and Principal Component Analysis were used, while Cluster
      Analysis evaluated differences betweenthe species. We observed significant
      structural differences among species leaf types. A. schaueriana showedthe
      thickest cotyledons, while L. racemosa presented a dorsiventral structure. Higher
      values of the specific leafarea were observed for seedlings leaves of A.
      schaueriana, cotyledons of L. racemosa and saplings leaves of A.schaueriana and
      R. mangle. Leaf density was similar to cotyledons and seedlings leaves in A.
      schaueriana andL. racemosa, while R. mangle had seedlings leaves denser than
      saplings. A. schaueriana and R. mangle showedhypostomatic leaves, while L.
      racemosa amphistomatic; besides, A. chaueriana showed diacytic stomata, whileL.
      racemosa anomocytic, and R. mangle ciclocytic. Seedling leaves were thicker in R.
      mangle (535 MUm) andL. racemosa (520 MUm) than in A. schaueriana (470.3 MUm);
      while saplings leaves were thicker in L. racemosa(568.3 MUm) than in A.
      schaueriana seedlings (512.4 MUm) and R. mangle (514.6 MUm). Besides, seedlings
      leavespalisade parenchyma showed increasing thickness in L. racemosa (119.2 MUm)
      < A. schaueriana (155.5 MUm) <R. mangle (175.4 MUm); while in saplings leaves as
      follows R. mangle (128.4 MUm) < A. schaueriana (183.4 MUm)< L. racemosa (193.9
      MUm). Similarly, seedlings leaves spongy parenchyma thickness values were as
      follows A.schaueriana (182.6 MUm) = R. mangle (192.8 MUm) < L. racemosa (354.4
      MUm); while in saplings were A. schaueriana(182.6 MUm) = R. mangle (187.3 MUm) <
      L. racemosa (331.3 MUm). The analyzed traits, in different combinations,represent
      morphological adjustments of leaf types to reduce water loss, eliminate salt
      excess, increasethe absorption of light, allowing a higher efficiency on the
      maintenance of physiological processes in this initialgrowth stage.

PMID- 28862821
TI  - [Scolytidae and Platypodidae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) of two conservation
      areas in Tabasco, Mexico].
AB  - The Scolytinae and Platypodinae are group of widely distributed tropical insects
      that are capable of using a wide range of hosts. The study of diversity
      associated with conservation sites allows estimating the richness and abundance
      of species, their population dynamics as well as understanding the population
      behavior over time. The species richness and abundance of Scolytinae and
      Platypodinae was studied in the Chontalpa Ecological Reserve (REC) and the Jose
      Narciso Rovirosa Botanical Garden (JBU) in Tabasco, Mexico. Insects were captured
      with ethyl alcohol traps. A total of 7 057 specimens belonging to 46 species and
      26 genera were collected and identified; 42 species from 23 genera belong to
      Scolytinae and four species from three genera to Platypodinae. The species
      Bothrosternus foveatus (Blackman, 1943); Dendroterus luteolus (Schedl, 1951);
      Dendrocranulus guatemalensis (Hopkins, 1915); Micracis swainei (Blackman, 1920);
      Pseudothysanoes tenellus (Wood, 1971) y Ambrosiodmus obliquus (Leconte, 1878) are
      new records for the state of Tabasco. The species Corthylus papulans Eichhoff,
      1869 with 2 509 specimens (35.55); Xyleborus volvulus (Fabricius, 1775) with 1
      435 (20.33); and Xyleborus affinis Eichhoff, 1868 with 1 061 (15.03) were the
      most common species, representing 70.9 % of total. The population dynamics of
      these insects showed its highest peak during February and March with 2 728
      specimens in JBU and December with 322 in REC of year 2010.

PMID- 28862822
TI  - Histochemical differences along the intestine of Corydoras paleatus
      (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae).
AB  - The Neotropical catfish Corydoras paleatus is a facultative air-breather and the
      caudal half of theintestine is involved in gas exchange. In South America, air
      breathing fishes are found in tropical or sub-tropicalfreshwaters where the
      probability of hypoxia is high. The aim of this study was to characterize by
      traditionalhistochemical and lectinhistochemical methods the pattern of
      carbohydrate in the intestinal mucosa. Intestinesamples were taken from 25
      healthy adult specimens collected in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Samples were
      fixedby immersion in 10 % buffered formalin and routinely processed and embedded
      in paraffin wax. Subsequently,these sections were incubated in the biotinylated
      lectins battery. Labeled Streptavidin-Biotin (LSAB) system wasused for detection,
      diaminobenzidine as chromogen and haematoxylin as a contrast. To locate and
      distinguishglycoconjugates (GCs) of the globet cells, we used the following
      histochemical methods: PAS; PAS*S; KOH/PA*S; PA/Bh/KOH/PAS; KOH/PA*/Bh/PAS;
      Alcian Blue and Toluidine Blue at different pHs. Microscopically,the general
      structure of vertebrate intestine was observed and showed all the cell types
      characteristic of theintestinal epithelium. The cranial sector of catfish
      intestine is a site of digestion and absorption and its structureis similar to
      other fish groups. In contrast, enterocytes of the caudal portion are low
      cuboidal cells; and betweenthese, globet cells and capillaries are observed,
      these latter may reach the mucosal lumen. Underlying the epithelium,observed a
      well-developed lamina propria-submucosa made of connective tissue; this layer was
      highlyvascularized and did not exhibit glands. According to histochemistry, the
      diverse GCs elaborated and secretedin the intestine are associated with specific
      functions in relation to their physiological significance, with specialreference
      to their role in lubrication, buffering effect and prevention of proteolytic
      damage to the epitheliumtogether with other biological processes, such as
      osmoregulation and ion exchange. The lectinhistochemicalanalysis of the
      intestinal mucosa reveals the presence of terminal residues of glucose, mannose
      and galactose.In conclusion, this study has shown that GCs synthesized in the
      intestine of C. paleatus exhibit a high level ofhistochemical complexity and that
      the lectin binding pattern of the intestinal mucosa is characteristic of
      eachspecies and the variations are related with the multiple functions performed
      by the mucus in the digestive tract.The information generated here may be a
      relevant biological tool for comparing and analyzing the possibleglycosidic
      changes in the intestinal mucus under different conditions, such as changes in
      diet or different pathologicalstages.

PMID- 28862823
TI  - [Floral anatomy of Peristethium leptostachyum (Loranthaceae)].
AB  - Peristethium leptostachyum is a hemiparasite species of the family Loranthaceae,
      distributed in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru,Venezuela and Panama.
      Previously treated as Struthanthus leptostachyus, the species was recently
      transferredto Peristethium together with other species of Cladocolea and
      Struthanthus. The present research describes theinflorescence and floral
      morphoanatomy of Peristethium leptostachyum, detailing the structure of the
      androeciumand gynoecium and the processes of microgametogenesis and
      megagametogenesis, thus allowing comparisonwith Struthanthus and Cladocolea.
      Flowering material was collected in February and August 2012, in SantaMaria,
      Boyaca, Colombia. Histological sections were prepared and stained with astrablue
      fuchsin and floral dissectionswere performed under a stereomicroscope.
      Peristethium leptostachyum shares inflorescence characterswith Cladocolea
      (determinate inflorescence, ebracteate terminal flower), but also with
      Struthanthus (pairs oftriads along the axis, deciduous bracts and actinomorphic
      flowers). The flowers of P. leptostachyum from SantaMaria are clearly
      hermaphrodites with androecium and gynoecium fully developed. This observation
      contradictsthe description by Kuijt who reported this species to be dioecious.
      The androecium was observed to be similarto that of Struthanthus vulgaris, with a
      glandular tapetum and simultaneous microsporogenesis; in contrast,Cladocolea
      loniceroides has a periplasmodial tapetum and successive microsporogenesis. The
      gynoecium ofP. leptostachyum, like that of Cladocolea, Struthanthus and
      Phthirusa, has a unilocular ovary with a mamelonand arquesporial tissue
      isoriented towards the style, which in turn is solid and amyliferous.
      Peristethium leptostachyumis similar to Cladocolea loniceroides and differs from
      Strutanthus vulgaris in presenting multipleembryo sacs and an unlignified pelvis
      (hipostase). The presence of a solid stylar canal is proposed as a synapomorphyof
      the tribe Psittacanthinae. Given that P. leptostachyum shares characters with
      both Cladocolea andStruthanthus generic placement cannot be clearly determined on
      the basis of anatomical evidence. Phylogeneticstudies that include representative
      species of all three genera are desirable to test hypotheses of monophyly.
      Thesexual system observed here in P. leptostachyum is different from that
      reported by Kuijt and more studies areneeded to identify the factors (geographic,
      ecological, etc.) that influence this variation.

PMID- 28862824
TI  - [Size structure as evidence of population establishment of Pterois volitans
      (Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae) in the South Mexican Caribbean].
AB  - The lionfish (P. volitans) has now invaded all the Mexican Caribbean and Gulf of
      Mexico, with the potential to cause negative impacts on the reefs. In the South
      Mexican Caribbean was firstly reported in July 2009, and six years after this
      report, some control measures such as fish tournament and local marketing have
      been implemented. However, information on its biology and invasion is still
      lacking, so this study analyzed the population structure of 2 164 organisms
      collected from 2009 to 2012. An increase was observed in sizes for each year
      averaging Total length (Tl): 118 +/- 34.8, 133 +/- 56.3, 187 +/- 74.8 and 219 +/-
      72.4 mm, respectively. Lionfish establishment at the study site is shown for the
      presence of juveniles' sizes 20 mm TL up to 375 mm TL. When the back-calculation
      was obtained, we estimated that the larger fish could have recruited in early
      2006, three years before the first report was made. A continuous population
      monitoring and an ecological study, will allow us to clarify the real impact in
      the ecosystems of the region and so to propose the most effective control
      actions.

PMID- 28862825
TI  - [Geographical distribution and habitat of Trochilidae (Aves) in the state of
      Guerrero, Mexico].
AB  - The distribution and abundance of species of Trochillidae family is usually
      influenced by the flowering andphenology of plants used as a feeding source,
      mainly in primary forest, so that changes in vegetation cover couldimpact their
      populations. We analyzed and characterized the geographical distribution and
      habitat for 22 speciesof resident hummingbirds in the state of Guerrero using the
      vegetation and the land use map of INEGI Series IV(2007-2010). Distribution
      models were generated with the Genetic Algorithm for Rule Set Production
      (GARP),using historical records of scientific collections and fieldwork (2001
      2009), in combination with climatic andtopographic variables. Of the 22 modeled
      species, six are endemic to Mexico, the same number of species foundin a risk
      category. The highest concentration with regards to richness (14-20 species),
      endemism (5-6 species)and number of threatened species of hummingbirds (5-6
      species) occurred in the biotic province of SierraMadre del Sur. However, the
      potential distribution of most of the hummingbirds occurred in disturbed sitesor
      agroecosystems, as a result of changes in land-use. For Campylopterus
      hemileucurus, Lamprolaima rhamiand Heliomaster longisrostris, their potential
      distribution was highest in areas of primary vegetation. Areas ofhigh
      hummingbirds presence do not coincide with the Important Bird Areas proposed for
      bird conservation inGuerrero, considering that, despite its diversity and its
      extreme popularity, from the conservation perspectivehummingbirds have received
      relatively little attention.

PMID- 28862826
TI  - Testate Amoebae (Amebozoa: Arcellinida) in Tropical Lakes of Central Mexico.
AB  - Testate amoebae are common single-celled eukaryotic organisms in aquatic
      ecosystems. Despite theirimportant role in these ecosystems, and their potential
      as bioindicators and paleoindicators, they remain poorlystudied in Mexico. The
      major objectives of this study were to: 1) increase knowledge of testate amoebae
      inMexico's tropical lakes, and 2) create a catalog of high-quality scanning
      electron micrographs that can be usedfor future ecological and paleoenvironmental
      studies. We collected surface-sediment samples from 29 lakes,located in the
      Transmexican Volcanic Belt, one at each lake during June and October 2011, and
      March 2013.Sediments were collected with an Ekman grab and preserved in anhydrous
      ethanol. Sub-samples were observedunder a stereomicroscope and morphometric data
      for each species were recorded. Total diameter and aperturediameter were measured
      on circular tests. Irregularly shaped tests were measured for length and width of
      theaperture and for the size of the whole test. If a specimen possessed spines,
      the length of one randomly selectedspine was measured. The best-preserved
      specimen of each taxon was photographed with an optical microscopeand a scanning
      electron microscope (SEM). We found 41 taxa of testate amoebae belonging to the
      genera:Arcella, Argynnia, Centropyxis, Cucurbitella, Cyclopyxis, Cyphoderia,
      Difflugia, Euglypha, Lesquereusia,Pentagonia, Pseudodifflugia and Scutiglypha.
      Twelve species not previously reported for Mexico were recorded,along with 13
      varieties. The average number of taxa recorded in each lake was eight, and the
      highest taxonomicrichness was 18. The taxon found in the greatest number of lakes
      was Centropyxis aculeata var. aculeata.Taxonomic richness varied among lakes in
      the same region. This could reflect lake-specific differences inenvironmental
      conditions, underscoring the need for more detailed studies that include
      collection of data onphysical and chemical variables in the lakes. Our results
      highlighted the need of further studies for the distributionpatterns and ecology
      of lacustrine testate amoebae.

PMID- 28862827
TI  - [Biomass and total carbon in oak forests of Southern Colombian Andes:
      contributions to the REDD+ project-wide approach].

PMID- 28862828
TI  - Smart H2O2-Responsive Drug Delivery System Made by Halloysite Nanotubes and
      Carbohydrate Polymers.
AB  - A novel chemical hydrogel was facilely achieved by coupling 1,4
      phenylenebisdiboronic acid modified halloysite nanotubes (HNTs-BO) with
      compressible starch. The modified halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and prepared
      hydrogel were characterized by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR),
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The linkage of B-C in the
      hydrogel can be degraded into B-OH and C-OH units in the presence of H2O2 and
      result in the degradation of the chemical hydrogel. Pentoxifylline was loaded
      into the lumen of the HNTs-BO, and then gave the pentoxifylline-loaded hydrogel.
      The drug release profile shows that it was no more than 7% dissolved when using
      phosphate buffer solution (PBS) as the release medium. Notably, a complete
      release (near 90%) can be achieved with the addition of H2O2 ([H2O2] = 1 * 10-4
      M), suggesting a high H2O2 responsiveness of the as-formed hydrogel. The drug
      release results also show that the "initial burst release" can be effectively
      suppressed by loading pentoxifylline inside the lumen of the HNTs rather than
      embedding the drug in the hydrogel network. The drug-loaded hydrogel with H2O2
      responsive release behavior may open up a broader application in the field of
      biomedicine.

PMID- 28862829
TI  - Self-Supported Nickel Iron Layered Double Hydroxide-Nickel Selenide
      Electrocatalyst for Superior Water Splitting Activity.
AB  - The design of efficient, low-cost, and stable electrocatalyst systems toward
      energy conversion is highly demanding for their practical use. Large scale
      electrolytic water splitting is considered as a promising strategy for clean and
      sustainable energy production. Herein, we report a self-supported NiFe layered
      double hydroxide (LDH)-NiSe electrocatalyst by stepwise surface-redox-etching of
      Ni foam (NF) through a hydrothermal process. The as-prepared NiFe LDH-NiSe/NF
      catalyst exhibits far better performance in alkaline water oxidation, proton
      reduction, and overall water splitting compared to NiSex/NF or NiFe LDH/NF. Only
      240 mV overpotential is required to obtain a water oxidation current density of
      100 mA cm-2, whereas the same for the hydrogen evolution reaction is 276 mV in
      1.0 M KOH. The synergistic effect from NiSe and NiFe LDH leads to the evolution
      of a highly efficient catalyst system for water splitting by achieving 10 mA cm-2
      current density at only 1.53 V in a two-electrode alkaline electrolyzer. In
      addition, the designed electrode produces stable performance for a long time even
      at higher current density to demonstrate its robustness and prospective as a real
      life energy conversion system.

PMID- 28862831
TI  - Simultaneous Topography and Reaction Flux Mapping at and around Electrocatalytic
      Nanoparticles.
AB  - The characterization of electrocatalytic reactions at individual nanoparticles
      (NPs) is presently of considerable interest but very challenging. Herein, we
      demonstrate how simple-to-fabricate nanopipette probes with diameters of
      approximately 30 nm can be deployed in a scanning ion conductance microscopy
      (SICM) platform to simultaneously visualize electrochemical reactivity and
      topography with high spatial resolution at electrochemical interfaces. By
      employing a self-referencing hopping mode protocol, whereby the probe is brought
      from bulk solution to the near-surface at each pixel, and with potential-time
      control applied at the substrate, current measurements at the nanopipette can be
      made with high precision and resolution (30 nm resolution, 2600 pixels MUm-2,
      <0.3 s pixel-1) to reveal a wealth of information on the substrate
      physicochemical properties. This methodology has been applied to image the
      electrocatalytic oxidation of borohydride at ensembles of AuNPs on a carbon fiber
      support in alkaline media, whereby the depletion of hydroxide ions and release of
      water during the reaction results in a detectable change in the ionic composition
      around the NPs. Through the use of finite element method simulations, these
      observations are validated and analyzed to reveal important information on
      heterogeneities in ion flux between the top of a NP and the gap at the NP-support
      contact, diffusional overlap and competition for reactant between neighboring
      NPs, and differences in NP activity. These studies highlight key issues that
      influence the behavior of NP assemblies at the single NP level and provide a
      platform for the use of SICM as an important tool for electrocatalysis studies.

PMID- 28862830
TI  - Plasma Levels of Complement Factor I and C4b Peptides Are Associated with HIV
      Suppression.
AB  - Individuals who exhibit long-term HIV suppression and CD4 T-cell preservation
      without antiretroviral therapy are of great interest for HIV research. There is
      currently no robust method for rapid identification of these "HIV controller"
      subjects; however, HLA-B*57 (human leukocyte antigen (major histocompatibility
      complex), class I, B*57) genotype exhibits modest sensitivity for this phenotype.
      Complement C3b and C4b can influence HIV infection and replication, but studies
      have not examined their possible link to HIV controller status. We analyzed HLA
      B*57 genotype and complement levels in HIV-positive patients receiving
      suppressive antiretroviral therapy, untreated HIV controllers, and HIV-negative
      subjects to identify factors associated with HIV controller status. Our results
      revealed that the plasma levels of three C4b-derived peptides and complement
      factor I outperformed all other assayed biomarkers for HIV controller
      identification, although we could not analyze the predictive value of biomarker
      combinations with the current sample size. We believe this rapid screening
      approach may prove useful for improved identification of HIV controllers.

PMID- 28862832
TI  - Synergistically Enhanced Optical Limiting Property of Graphene Oxide Hybrid
      Materials Functionalized with Pt Complexes.
AB  - Recently, graphene-based materials have become well-known nonlinear optical
      materials for the potential application of laser protection. Two new graphene
      oxide-platinum  complex (GO-Pt) hybrid materials (GO-Pt-1, GO-Pt-2) have been
      fabricated through covalent modification and electrostatic adsorption of
      different Pt complexes with GO. The structural and photophysical properties of
      the resultant hybrid materials were studied. The nonlinear optical properties and
      optical power limiting (OPL) performance of Pt complexes, GO, and GO-Pt hybrid
      materials were investigated by using Z-scan measurements at 532 nm. At the same
      transmittance, the results illustrate that functionalization of GO makes GO-Pt
      hybrid materials possess better nonlinear optical properties and OPL performance
      than individual Pt complexes and GO due to a combination of nonlinear scattering,
      nonlinear absorption, and photoinduced electron and energy transfer between GO
      and Pt complex moieties. Furthermore, the nonlinear optics and OPL performance of
      GO-Pt-2 are better than those of GO-Pt-1, due to not only the excellent optical
      limiting of Pt-2 and more molecules per area of GO but also the way of
      combination of Pt-2 and GO.

PMID- 28862833
TI  - Recombination Suppression in PbS Quantum Dot Heterojunction Solar Cells by Energy
      Level Alignment in the Quantum Dot Active Layers.
AB  - Using spatial energy-level gradient engineering with quantum dots (QDs) of
      different sizes to increase the generated carrier collection at the junction of a
      QD heterojunction solar cell (QDHSC) is a hopeful route for improving the energy
      conversion efficiency. However, the results of current related research have
      shown that a variable band-gap structure in a QDHSC will create an appreciable
      increase, not in the illumination current density, but rather in the fill factor.
      In addition, there are a lack of studies on the mechanism of the effect of these
      graded structures on the photovoltaic performance of QDHSCs. This study presents
      the development of air atmosphere solution-processed TiO2/PbS QDs/Au QDHSCs by
      engineering the energy-level alignment (ELA) of the active layer via the use of a
      sorted order of differently sized QD layers (four QD sizes). In comparison to the
      ungraded device (without the ELA), the optimized graded architecture (containing
      the ELA) solar cells exhibited a great increase (21.4%) in short-circuit current
      density ( Jsc). As a result, a Jsc value greater than 30 mA/cm2 has been realized
      in planar, thinner absorption layer (~300 nm) PbS QDHSCs, and the open-circuit
      voltage ( Voc) and power-conversion efficiency (PCE) were also improved. Through
      characterization by the light intensity dependences of the Jsc and Voc and
      transient photovoltage decay, we find that (i) the ELA structure, serving as an
      electron-blocking layer, reduces the interfacial recombination at the PbS/anode
      interface, and (ii) the ELA structure can drive more carriers toward the
      desirable collection electrode, and the additional carriers can fill the trap
      states, reducing the trap-assisted recombination in the PbS QDHSCs. This work has
      clearly elucidated the mechanism of the recombination suppression in the graded
      QDHSCs and demonstrated the effects of ELA structure on the improvement of Jsc.
      The charge recombination mechanisms characterized in this work would be able to
      shed light on further improvements of QDHSCs, which could even benefit other
      types of solar cells.

PMID- 28862834
TI  - Though Much Is Taken, Much Abides: Finding New Antibiotics Using Old Ones.

PMID- 28862835
TI  - Improvement of Polyamide Thin Film Nanocomposite Membrane Assisted by Tannic Acid
      FeIII Functionalized Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes.
AB  - Tannic acid-FeIII functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (TA-MWNTs) were
      successfully obtained through a simple and rapid procedure by forming a stable TA
      FeIII complex coating on the MWNT surface. Hydrophilic TA-MWNTs can disperse well
      in the aqueous phase and help the formation of a polyamide (PA) thin film
      nanocomposite (TFN) membrane through interfacial polymerization. TA-MWNT
      concentration in the aqueous phase was adjusted to achieve the optimal water flux
      and salt rejection of the TFN membrane. The results reveal that, when 0.03% of TA
      MWNTs are added, the optimized water flux of the TFN membrane reaches up to 31.4
      L/m2h, 2.36 times of that of the neat PA membrane, along with a well-maintained
      Na2SO4 rejection. Furthermore, the as-prepared TFN membrane shows improved
      antifouling ability and good long-term stability. A significantly enhanced
      chlorine resistant capability of the TFN membrane is also presented, which can be
      ascribed to the radical capturing capability of phenol groups of TA as well as
      more oxidation-stable polyester bonds produced by the interaction between the
      phenol groups of TA and the acyl chloride groups of TMC. Assisted by TA-MWNTs,
      the TFN membrane is found to have prominent advantages over PA and MWNTs/PA TFN
      membranes.

PMID- 28862836
TI  - Generation of Clickable Pittsburgh Compound B for the Detection and Capture of
      beta-Amyloid in Alzheimer's Disease Brain.
AB  - The benzothiazole-aniline derivative Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB) is the
      prototypical amyloid affinity probe developed for the in vivo positron emission
      tomography (PET) detection of amyloid beta (Abeta) deposits in Alzheimer's
      disease (AD). Specific high-affinity binding sites for PiB have been found to
      vary among AD cases with comparable Abeta load, and they are virtually absent on
      human-sequence Abeta deposits in animal models, none of which develop the full
      phenotype of AD. PiB thus could be an informative probe for studying the
      pathobiology of Abeta, but little is known about the localization of PiB binding
      at the molecular or structural level. By functionalizing the 6-hydroxy position
      of PiB with a PEG3 spacer and a terminal alkyne (propargyl) moiety, we have
      developed a clickable PiB compound that was derivatized with commercially
      available azide-labeled fluorophores or affinity-tags using copper-catalyzed
      azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions, commonly referred to as "click" chemistry.
      We have determined that both the clickable PiB derivative and its fluorescently
      labeled conjugate have low nanomolar binding affinities for synthetic Abeta
      aggregates. Furthermore, the fluorescent-PiB conjugate can effectively bind Abeta
      aggregates in human AD brain homogenates and tissue sections. By covalently
      coupling PiB to magnetic beads, Abeta aggregates were also affinity-captured from
      AD brain extracts. Thus, the clickable PiB derivative described herein can be
      used to generate a wide variety of covalent conjugates, with applications
      including the fluorescence detection of Abeta, the ultrastructural localization
      of PiB binding, and the affinity capture and structural characterization of Abeta
      and other cofactors from AD brains.

PMID- 28862837
TI  - Silver Clusters in Zeolites: From Self-Assembly to Ground-Breaking Luminescent
      Properties.
AB  - Interest for functional silver clusters (Ag-CLs) has rapidly grown over years due
      to large advances in the field of nanoscale fabrication and materials science.
      The continuous development of strategies to fabricate small-scale silver
      clusters, together with their interesting physicochemical properties (molecule
      like discrete energy levels, for example), make them very attractive for a wide
      variety of applied research fields, from biotechnology and the environmental
      sciences to fundamental chemistry and physics. Apart from useful catalytic
      properties, silver clusters (Agn, n < 10) were recently shown to also exhibit
      exceptional optical properties. The optical properties and performance of Ag-CLs
      offer strong potential for their integration into appealing micro(nano)
      optoelectronic devices. To date, however, the rational design and directed
      synthesis of Ag-CLs with specific functionalities has remained elusive. The
      inability for rational design stems mainly from a lack of understanding of their
      novel atomic-scale phenomena. This is because accurately studying silver cluster
      systems at such a scale is hindered by the perturbations introduced during
      exposure to various experimental probes. For instance, silver possesses a strong
      tendency to cluster and form ever-larger Ag aggregates while probed with high
      energy electron beams and X-ray irradiation. As well, there exists a need to
      provide a stabilizing environment for which Agndelta+ clusters can persist,
      setting up a complex interacting guest-host system, as isolated silver clusters
      are confined within a suitable hosting medium. Fundamental research into
      Agndelta+ formation mechanisms and their important optical properties is
      paramount to establishing truly informed synthesis protocols. Over recent years,
      we have developed several protocols for the ship-in-a-bottle synthesis of highly
      luminescent Ag-CLs within the microporous interiors of zeolite frameworks. This
      approach has yielded materials displaying a wide variety of optical properties,
      offering a spectrum of possible applications, from nano(micro)photonic devices to
      smart luminescent labels and sensors. The versatility of the Ag-zeolite
      multicomponent system is directly related to the intrinsic and complex tunability
      of the system as a whole. There are several key zeolite parameters that confer
      properties to the clusters, namely, the framework Si/Al ratio, choice of
      counterbalancing ions, silver loading, and zeolite topology, and cannot be
      overlooked. This Account is intended to shed light on the current state-of-the
      art of luminescent Ag-CLs confined in zeolitic matrices, emphasizing the use of
      combinatorial approaches to overcome problems associated with the correct
      characterization and correlation of their structural, electronic, and
      photoluminescence properties, all to establish the important design principles
      for developing functional silver-zeolite-based materials. Additionally, examples
      of emerging applications and future perspectives for functional luminescent Ag
      zeolite materials are addressed in this Account.

PMID- 28862838
TI  - Locally Resolved Electron Emission Area and Unified View of Field Emission from
      Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Films.
AB  - In this paper, we study the effect of the actual, locally resolved, field
      emission area on electron emission characteristics of uniform planar conductive
      nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond ((N)UNCD) field emitters. High
      resolution imaging experiments were carried out in a field emission microscope
      with a specialty imaging anode screen such that electron emission micrographs
      were taken concurrently with measurements of I-V characteristics. An automated
      image processing algorithm was applied to process the extensive imaging data sets
      and calculate the emission area per image. It was routinely found that field
      emission from as-grown planar (N)UNCD films was always confined to a counted
      number of discrete emitting centers across the surface, which varied in size and
      electron emissivity. It was established that the actual field emission area
      critically depends on the applied electric field and that the field emission area
      and overall electron emissivity improve with the sp2-fraction present in the
      film, irrespective of the original substrate roughness or morphology. Most
      importantly, when as-measured I-E characteristics were normalized by the electric
      field-dependent emission area, the resulting j-E curves demonstrated a strong
      kink and departed from the Fowler-Nordheim law, finally saturating at a value on
      the order of 100 mA/cm2. This value was nearly identical for all studied films
      regardless of substrate. It was concluded that the saturation value is specific
      to the intrinsic fundamental properties of (N)UNCD.

PMID- 28862839
TI  - DI/LC-MS/MS-Based Metabolic Profiling for Identification of Early Predictive
      Serum Biomarkers of Metritis in Transition Dairy Cows.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to evaluate alterations of metabolites in the
      blood of dairy cows before, during, and after diagnosis of metritis and identify
      predictive serum metabolite biomarkers for metritis. DI/LC-MS/MS was used to
      analyze serum samples collected from both healthy and metritic cows during -8, 
      4, disease diagnosis, +4, and +8 wks relative to parturition. Results indicated
      that cows with metritis experienced altered concentrations of serum amino acids,
      glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, acylcarnitines, and biogenic amines during
      the entire experimental period. Moreover, two sets of predictive biomarker models
      and one set of diagnostic biomarker models for metritis were developed, and all
      of them showed high sensitivity and specificity (e.g., high AUC values by the ROC
      curve evaluation), which indicate that serum metabolites identified have pretty
      accurate predictive, diagnostic, and prognostic abilities for metritis in
      transition dairy cows.

PMID- 28862841
TI  - Environmental Impacts and Hotspots of Food Losses: Value Chain Analysis of Swiss
      Food Consumption.
AB  - Reducing food losses and waste is crucial to making our food system more
      efficient and sustainable. This is the first paper that quantifies the
      environmental impacts of food waste by distinguishing the various stages of the
      food value chain, 33 food categories that represent the whole food basket in
      Switzerland, and including food waste treatment. Environmental impacts are
      expressed in terms of climate change and biodiversity impacts due to water and
      land use. Climate change impacts of food waste are highest for fresh vegetables,
      due to the large amounts wasted, while the specific impact per kg is largest for
      beef. Biodiversity impacts are mainly caused by cocoa and coffee (16% of total)
      and by beef (12%). Food waste at the end of the food value chain (households and
      food services) causes almost 60% of the total climate impacts of food waste,
      because of the large quantities lost at this stage and the higher accumulated
      impacts per kg of product. The net environmental benefits from food waste
      treatment are only 5-10% of the impacts from production and supply of the wasted
      food. Thus, avoiding food waste should be a first-line priority, while optimizing
      the method of treatment is less relevant.

PMID- 28862840
TI  - Discovery of Inhibitors of Four Bromodomains by Fragment-Anchored Ligand Docking.
AB  - The high-throughput docking protocol called ALTA-VS (anchor-based library
      tailoring approach for virtual screening) was developed in 2005 for the efficient
      in silico screening of large libraries of compounds by preselection of only those
      molecules that have optimal fragments (anchors) for the protein target. Here we
      present an updated version of ALTA-VS with a broader range of potential
      applications. The evaluation of binding energy makes use of a classical force
      field with implicit solvent in the continuum dielectric approximation. In about 2
      days per protein target on a 96-core compute cluster (equipped with Xeon E3-1280
      quad core processors at 2.5 GHz), the screening of a library of nearly 77 000
      diverse molecules with the updated ALTA-VS protocol has resulted in the
      identification of 19, 3, 3, and 2 MUM inhibitors of the human bromodomains ATAD2,
      BAZ2B, BRD4(1), and CREBBP, respectively. The success ratio (i.e., number of
      actives in a competition binding assay in vitro divided by the number of
      compounds tested) ranges from 8% to 13% in dose-response measurements. The poses
      predicted by fragment-based docking for the three ligands of the BAZ2B
      bromodomain were confirmed by protein X-ray crystallography.

PMID- 28862842
TI  - Cyanine Conformational Restraint in the Far-Red Range.
AB  - Far-red cyanine fluorophores find extensive use in modern microscopy despite
      modest quantum yields. To improve the photon output of these molecules, we report
      a synthetic strategy that blocks the major deactivation pathway: excited-state
      trans-to-cis polyene rotation. In the key transformation, a protected dialdehyde
      precursor undergoes a cascade reaction to install the requisite tetracyclic ring
      system. The resulting molecules exhibit the characteristic features of
      conformational restraint, including improved fluorescence quantum yield and
      extended lifetime. Moreover, these compounds recover from hydride reduction with
      dramatically improved efficiency. These observations enable efficient single
      molecule localization microscopy in oxygenated buffer without addition of thiols.
      Enabled by modern organic synthesis, these studies provide a new class of far-red
      dyes with promising spectroscopic and chemical properties.

PMID- 28862844
TI  - Metal-Ligand Cooperative Reactivity in the (Pseudo)-Dearomatized PNx(P) Systems:
      The Influence of the Zwitterionic Form in Dearomatized Pincer Complexes.
AB  - The concept of aromaticity in pincer ligands and complexes was discussed in order
      to provide insights into their metal-ligand cooperative activities. The aromatic
      PNx(P) and dearomatized PNx(P)* pincer ligands and the corresponding transition
      metal complexes were studied with the nucleus-independent chemical shift
      (NICSzz), anisotropy of the current (induced) density (ACID), isochemical
      shielding surfaces (ICSSzz), harmonic oscillator model of aromaticity (HOMA),
      MCBO, Shannon aromaticity, and natural bond order (NBO) analyses. The study on
      the model systems showed that for the dearomatized species the decrease of the
      NICS(1)zz value comes with the larger contribution of the aromatic zwitterionic
      mesomeric form. In all examples, the incorporation of the metal center into the
      pincer ligand decreases the NICS(1)zz values. The DFT calculations support the
      dearomatized pyridine ring in PNP* or PNN* ligand indeed being nonaromatic, in
      contrast to the PN3(P)* ligand which has partial aromatic character due to the
      larger contribution of the zwitterionic resonance structure. The difference in
      aromaticity between the rings contributes to the thermodynamic balance of the
      metal ligand cooperative reactions, changing the energetics of the process when
      different dearomatized pincer ligands are used. This was further exemplified by
      aromaticity analysis of the heterolytic hydrogen cleavage reaction of ruthenium
      PNN complexes of Milstein and the PN3 of Huang, with similar geometries but
      distinctive thermodynamic preference.

PMID- 28862843
TI  - Syntheses and Properties of Gold-Organotin Sulfide Clusters.
AB  - We report that reactions of the binary organotin sulfide cluster [(R1Sn)3S4]Cl
      [A; R1 = CMe2CH2C(O)Me] with gold(I) phosphane complexes yield discrete ternary
      complexes [(R1Sn)2(AuPMe3)2S4] (1) and [(R2Sn)2(AuPMe3)2S4] [2; R2 =
      CMe2CH2C(NNH2)Me], which are related to recently published complexes
      [(R1,2Sn)2(AuPPh3)2S4] (B and C). Further, we present a binary tin sulfide
      cluster that cocrystallizes with a structure-directing salt of a gold phosphane
      complex in [Au(dppe)2][(R3Sn)4S6Cl] [3; R3 = CMe2CH2C(NNHPh)Me]. The nature of
      the product depends on the choice of the phosphane ligand as well as the addition
      of hydrazine hydrate or phenylhydrazine. Additionally, we report on the
      photophysical properties of 1, 2, B, and C, which indicate that the different
      phosphane ligands only have a slight influence on the optical responses. The
      structure, however, has a significant impact on the luminescence efficiency.

PMID- 28862845
TI  - Structural and Functional Analyses of Periplasmic 5'-Methylthioadenosine/S
      Adenosylhomocysteine Nucleosidase from Aeromonas hydrophila.
AB  - The Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila has two
      multifunctional 5'-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase (MTAN)
      enzymes, MtaN-1 and MtaN-2, that differ from those in other bacteria. These
      proteins are essential for several metabolic pathways, including biological
      methylation, polyamine biosynthesis, methionine recycling, and bacterial quorum
      sensing. To gain insight into how these two proteins function, we determined four
      high-resolution crystal structures of MtaN-1 in its apo form and in complex with
      the substrates S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine, 5'-methylthioadenosine, and 5'
      deoxyadenosine. We found that the domain structures were generally similar,
      although slight differences were evident. The crystal structure demonstrates that
      AhMtaN-1 has an extension of the binding pocket and revealed that a tryptophan in
      the active site (Trp199) may play a major role in substrate binding, unlike in
      other MTAN proteins. Mutation of the Trp199 residue completely abolished the
      enzyme activity. Trp199 was identified as an active site residue that is
      essential for catalysis. Furthermore, biochemical characterization of AhMtaN-1
      and AhMtaN-2 demonstrated that AhMtaN-1 exhibits inherent trypsin resistance that
      is higher than that of AhMtaN-2. Additionally, the thermally unfolded AhMtaN-2
      protein is capable of refolding into active forms, whereas the thermally unfolded
      AhMtaN-1 protein does not have this ability. Examining the different biochemical
      characteristics related to the functional roles of AhMtaN-1 and AhMtaN-2 would be
      interesting. Indeed, the biochemical characterization of these structural
      features would provide a structural basis for the design of new antibiotics
      against A. hydrophila.

PMID- 28862846
TI  - Degradable Adhesives for Surgery and Tissue Engineering.
AB  - This review highlights the research on degradable polymeric tissue adhesives for
      surgery and tissue engineering. Included are a comprehensive listing of specific
      uses, advantages, and disadvantages of different adhesive groups. A critical
      evaluation of challenges affecting the development of next generation materials
      is also discussed, and insights into the outlook of the field are explored.

PMID- 28862847
TI  - Detection of an Iridium-Dihydrogen Complex: A Proposed Intermediate in Ionic
      Hydrogenation.
AB  - Addition of high pressures of H2 to five-coordinate [(tBu)4(POCOP)Ir(CO)(H)]OTf
      [(tBu)4(POCOP) = kappa3-C6H3-2,6-(OP(tBu)2)2] complexes results in observation of
      two new iridium-dihydrogen complexes. If the aryl moiety of the POCOP ligand is
      substituted with an electron withdrawing protonated dimethylamino group at the
      para position, hydrogen coordination is enhanced. Five-coordinate Ir-H complexes
      generated by addition of triflic acid to (tBu)4(POCOP)Ir(CO) species show an Ir-H
      1H NMR chemical shift dependence on the number of equivalents of acid present. It
      is proposed that excess triflic acid in solution facilitates triflate
      dissociation from iridium, resulting in unsaturated five-coordinate Ir-H
      complexes. The five-coordinate iridium-hydride complexes were found to catalyze
      H/D exchange between H2 and CD3OD. The existence of the dihydrogen complexes, as
      well as isotope exchange reactions, provide evidence for proposed ionic
      hydrogenation intermediates for glycerol deoxygenation.

PMID- 28862848
TI  - Enantioselective Aldol Reactions in Water by a Proline-Derived Cryptand and
      Fixation of CO2 by Its Exocyclic Co(II) Complex.
AB  - The secondary amine donors present in the bridges of a laterally nonsymmetric oxa
      aza cryptand have been derivatized with l-proline to obtain the chiral cryptand
      L. The cryptand L efficiently catalyzed aldol reactions in water with up to 75%
      ee. On reacting with Co(II) perchlorate in the presence of KSCN, L readily formed
      the trinuclear complex {[Co3(L)2(NCS)6].(15CH3CN)(5acetone)(6H2O)} (1). The
      complex 1 in combination with the cocatalyst tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB)
      formed an efficient catalytic system in the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from
      CO2 and epoxides at room temperature and atmospheric pressure.

PMID- 28862849
TI  - Size-Dependence of Nonempirically Tuned DFT Starting Points for G0W0 Applied to
      pi-Conjugated Molecular Chains.
AB  - G0W0 calculations for predicting vertical ionization potentials (IPs) and
      electron affinities of molecules and clusters are known to show a significant
      dependence on the density functional theory (DFT) starting point. A number of
      nonempirical procedures to find an optimal starting point have been proposed,
      typically based on tuning the amount of HF exchange in the underlying hybrid
      functional specifically for the system at hand. For the case of pi-conjugated
      molecular chains, these approaches lead to a significantly different amount of HF
      exchange for different oligomer sizes. In this study, we analyze if and how
      strongly this size dependence affects the ability of nonempirical tuning
      approaches to predict accurate IPs for pi-conjugated molecular chains of
      increasing chain length. To this end, we employ three different nonempirical
      tuning procedures for the G0W0 starting point to calculate the IP of polyene
      oligomers up to 22 repeat units and compare the results to highly accurate
      coupled-cluster calculations. We find that, despite its size dependence, using an
      IP-tuned hybrid functional as a starting point for G0W0 yields excellent
      agreement with the reference data for all chain lengths.

PMID- 28862850
TI  - Lewis Acid-Mediated Site-Selective Synthesis of Oxygenated Biaryls from
      Methoxyphenols and Electron-Rich Arenes.
AB  - A rapid, efficient, and metal-free Lewis acid-mediated methodology has been
      developed for the site-selective synthesis of unsymmetrical oxygenated biaryls.
      This simple and efficient methodology furnished highly oxygenated and
      functionalized unsymmetrical biaryls in good to excellent yields by the direct
      oxidative coupling of electron-rich arenes to the alpha-position of carbonyl
      functionality of in situ generated masked benzoquinones.

PMID- 28862851
TI  - Kohn-Sham Decomposition in Real-Time Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: An
      Efficient Tool for Analyzing Plasmonic Excitations.
AB  - Electronic excitations can be efficiently analyzed in terms of the underlying
      Kohn-Sham (KS) electron-hole transitions. While such a decomposition is readily
      available in the linear-response time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT)
      approaches based on the Casida equations, a comparable analysis is less commonly
      conducted within the real-time-propagation TDDFT (RT-TDDFT). To improve this
      situation, we present here an implementation of a KS decomposition tool within
      the local-basis-set RT-TDDFT code in the free GPAW package. Our implementation is
      based on postprocessing of data that is readily available during time
      propagation, which is important for retaining the efficiency of the underlying RT
      TDDFT to large systems. After benchmarking our implementation on small benzene
      derivatives by explicitly reconstructing the Casida eigenvectors from RT-TDDFT,
      we demonstrate the performance of the method by analyzing the plasmon resonances
      of icosahedral silver nanoparticles up to Ag561. The method provides a clear
      description of the splitting of the plasmon in small nanoparticles due to
      individual single-electron transitions as well as the formation of a distinct d
      electron-screened plasmon resonance in larger nanoparticles.

PMID- 28862852
TI  - Primary Product Branching in the Photodissociation of Chloroacetaldehyde at 157
      nm.
AB  - We used crossed laser-molecular beam scattering to study the primary
      photodissociation channels of chloroacetaldehyde (CH2ClCHO) at 157 nm. In
      addition to the C-Cl bond fission primary photodissociation channel, the data
      evidence two other photodissociation channels: HCl photoelimination and C-C bond
      fission. This is the first direct evidence of the C-C bond fission channel in
      chloroacetaldehyde, and we found that it significantly competes with the C-Cl
      bond fission channel. We determined the total primary photodissociation branching
      fractions for C-Cl fission:HCl elimination:C-C fission to be 0.65:0.07:0.28. The
      branching between the primary channels suggests the presence of interesting
      excited state dynamics in chloroacetaldehyde. Some of the vinoxy radicals from C
      Cl photofission and most of the ketene cofragments formed in HCl photoelimination
      have enough internal energy to undergo secondary dissociation. While our previous
      velocity map imaging study on the photodissociation of chloroacetaldehyde at 157
      nm focused on the barrier for the unimolecular dissociation of vinoxy to H +
      ketene, this work shows that the HCl elimination channel contributed to the high
      kinetic energy portion of the m/z = 42 signal in that study.

PMID- 28862853
TI  - Guanidinium Promoted Cleavage of Phosphoric Diesters: Kinetic Investigations and
      Calculations Provide Indications on the Operating Mechanism.
AB  - The catalytic activity of the guanidinium units toward the cleavage of phosphoric
      diesters is deeply investigated both with kinetic experiments and DFT
      calculations. The first part of the investigation aims to determine how the
      structure of the substrate (phenyl or alkyl esters) is able to influence the
      guanidinium-catalyzed hydrolysis changing the mechanism from ANDN to AN+DN. In
      the cleavage of the DNA model bis(4-nitrophenyl)phospate (BNPP), experimental
      kinetic data highlight the operation of a guanidine-guanidinium catalytic dyad
      that can act both intermolecularly and intramolecularly on different molecular
      scaffolds exhibiting notable values of effective molarity. 31P NMR spectra and
      DFT investigation provide indication that the deprotonated guanidine involved in
      such a catalysis acts as a general base in the deprotonation of a water molecule
      involved in the cleavage, and not as nucleophilic unit. Moreover, DFT
      calculations were carried out to determine the guanidinium promoted activation
      energy of pseudorotation. The results indicate a remarkable drop in the
      activation energy of this process for dialkylphosphate esters explaining, in
      part, the higher sensitivity of diribonucleoside to the presence of guanidinium
      based catalysts compared to the more activated RNA model HPNP.

PMID- 28862854
TI  - Rotational Spectroscopy of the Lowest Energy Conformer of 2-Cyanobutane.
AB  - Isopropyl cyanide was recently detected in space as the first branched alkyl
      compound. Its abundance with respect to n-propyl cyanide in the Galactic center
      source Sagittarius B2(N2) is about 0.4. Astrochemical model calculations suggest
      that for the heavier homologue butyl cyanide the branched isomers dominate over
      the unbranched n-butyl cyanide and that 2-cyanobutane is the most abundant
      isomer. We have studied the rotational spectrum of 2-cyanobutane between 2 and 24
      GHz using Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy and between 36 and 402 GHz
      employing (sub)millimeter absorption spectroscopy. Transitions of the lowest
      energy conformer were identified easily. Its rotational spectrum is very rich,
      and the quantum numbers J and Ka reach values of 111 and 73, respectively. This
      wealth of data yielded rotational and centrifugal distortion parameters up to
      tenth order, diagonal and one off-diagonal 14N nuclear quadrupole coupling
      parameters, and one nuclear spin-rotation coupling parameter. We have also
      carried out quantum chemical calculations in part to facilitate the assignments.
      The molecule 2-cyanobutane was not found in the present ALMA data of Sagittarius
      B2(N2), but it may be found in the more sensitive data that have been completed
      very recently in the ALMA Cycle 4.

PMID- 28862855
TI  - Application of N-Acylbenzotriazoles in the Synthesis of 5-Substituted 2-Ethoxy
      1,3,4-oxadiazoles as Building Blocks toward 3,5-Disubstituted 1,3,4-Oxadiazol
      2(3H)-ones.
AB  - 5-Substituted-2-ethoxy-1,3,4-oxadiazoles were conveniently prepared through a one
      pot sequential N-acylation/dehydrative cyclization between ethyl carbazate and N
      acylbenzotriazoles in the presence of Ph3P-I2 as a dehydrating agent. Subsequent
      treatment with a stoichiometric amount of alkyl halides (X = Cl, Br, I) enables a
      rapid access to a variety of 3,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-oxadiazol-2(3H)-ones in good
      to excellent yields.

PMID- 28862856
TI  - Development of a TDDFT-Based Protocol with Local Hybrid Functionals for the
      Screening of Potential Singlet Fission Chromophores.
AB  - Chromophores suitable for singlet fission need to meet specific requirements
      regarding the relative energies of their S0, S1, and T1 (and T2) electronic
      states. Accurate quantum-chemical computations of the corresponding energy
      differences are thus highly desirable for materials design. Methods based on
      density functional theory (DFT) have the advantage of being applicable to larger,
      often more relevant systems compared to more sophisticated post-Hartree-Fock
      methods. However, most exchange-correlation functionals do not provide the needed
      accuracy, in particular, due to an insufficient description of the T1 state. Here
      we use a recent singlet fission chromophore test set ( Wen , J. ; Havlas , Z. ;
      Michl , J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015 , 137 , 165 - 172 ) to evaluate a wide range of
      DFT-based methods, with an emphasis on local hybrid functionals with a position
      dependent exact-exchange admixture. New reference vertical CC2/CBS benchmark
      excitation energies for the test set have been generated, which exhibit somewhat
      more uniform accuracy than the previous CASPT2-based data. These CC2 reference
      data have been used to evaluate a wide range of functionals, comparing full
      linear-response TDDFT, the Tamm-Dancoff approximation (TDA), and DeltaSCF
      calculations. Two simple two-parameter local hybrid functionals and the more
      empirical M06-2X global meta-GGA hybrid provide the overall best accuracy. Due to
      its lower empiricism and wide applicability, the Lh12ct-SsifPW92 local hybrid is
      suggested as the main ingredient of an efficient computational protocol for
      prediction of the relevant excitation energies in singlet fission chromophores.
      Full TDDFT for the S1, S2, and T2 excitations is combined with DeltaSCF for the
      T1 excitations. Making use also of some error compensation with suitable DFT
      optimized structures, even the most critical T1 excitations can be brought close
      to the target accuracy of 0.20 eV, while the other excitation energies are
      obtained even more accurately. This fully DFT-based protocol should become a
      useful tool in the field of singlet fission.

PMID- 28862857
TI  - Implementation and Application of the Frozen Density Embedding Theory with the
      Algebraic Diagrammatic Construction Scheme for the Polarization Propagator up to
      Third Order.
AB  - Implementation, benchmarking, and representative applications of the new FDE
      ADC(3) method for describing environmental effects on excited states as a
      combination of frozen density embedding (FDE) and the algebraic-diagrammatic
      construction scheme for the polarization propagator of third order (ADC(3)) are
      presented. Results of FDE-ADC(3) calculations are validated with respect to
      supersystem calculations on test systems with varying molecule-environment
      interaction strengths from dispersion up to multiple hydrogen bonds. The overall
      deviation compared to the supersystem calculations is as small as 0.029 eV for
      excitation energies, which is even smaller than the intrinsic error of ADC(3).
      The dependence of the accuracy on the choice of method and functional for the
      calculation of the environment and the nonelectrostatic part of the system
      environment interaction is evaluated. In three representative examples, the FDE
      ADC method is applied to investigate larger systems and to analyze excited state
      properties using visualization of embedded densities and orbitals.

PMID- 28862858
TI  - Analysis of the Geometrical Evolution in On-the-Fly Surface-Hopping Nonadiabatic
      Dynamics with Machine Learning Dimensionality Reduction Approaches: Classical
      Multidimensional Scaling and Isometric Feature Mapping.
AB  - On-the-fly trajectory-based nonadiabatic dynamics simulation has become an
      important approach to study ultrafast photochemical and photophysical processes
      in recent years. Because a large number of trajectories are generated from the
      dynamics simulation of polyatomic molecular systems with many degrees of freedom,
      the analysis of simulation results often suffers from the large amount of high
      dimensional data. It is very challenging but meaningful to find dominating active
      coordinates from very complicated molecular motions. Dimensionality reduction
      techniques provide ideal tools to realize this purpose. We apply two
      dimensionality reduction approaches (classical multidimensional scaling and
      isometric feature mapping) to analyze the results of the on-the-fly surface
      hopping nonadiabatic dynamics simulation. Two representative model systems,
      CH2NH2+ and the phytochromobilin chromophore model, are chosen to examine the
      performance of these dimensionality reduction approaches. The results show that
      these approaches are very promising, because they can extract the major molecular
      motion from complicated time-dependent molecular evolution without preknown
      knowledge.

PMID- 28862859
TI  - Assessment of Methodology and Chemical Group Dependences in the Calculation of
      the pKa for Several Chemical Groups.
AB  - We have investigated the dependencies of various computational methods in the
      calculation of acid dissociation constants (pKa values) of certain chemical
      groups found in protonatable amino acids based on our previous scheme [ Matsui ;
      Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2012 , 14 , 4181 - 4187 ]. By changing the quantum
      chemical (QC) method (Hartree-Fock (HF) and perturbation theory, and composite
      methods, or exchange-correlation functionals in density functional theory (DFT)),
      basis sets, solvation models, and the cavities used in the solvent models, we
      have exhaustively tested about 2,200 combinations to find the best combination
      for pKa estimation among them. Of the tested parameters, the choice of the basis
      set and cavity is the most crucial to reproduce experimental values compared to
      other factors. Concerning the basis set, the inclusion of diffuse functions is
      quite important for carboxyl, thiol, and phenol groups judging from the mean
      absolute errors (MAEs) measured from the experimental values. Of the cavity
      models, between the Pauling, Klamt, and the universal force field (UFF)
      definitions, the UFF defined cavity is the best choice, resulting in the smallest
      MAEs. Concerning the QC methods, hybrid DFTs and range-separated DFTs always
      provide better results than pure DFTs and HF. As a result, we found that LC
      piPBE/6-31+G(d) with PCM-SMD/UFF provides the best pKa estimation with a MAE
      within 0.15 pKa units.

PMID- 28862860
TI  - Electrophilic Carboxamidation of Ferrocenes with Isocyanates.
AB  - Ferrocenes undergo one-step carboxamidation by reaction with isocyanates in
      CF3SO3H solution. The chemistry is most efficient in excess superacid, and it has
      been accomplished with aryl and aliphatic isocyanates. In conversions with
      ferrocene carboxylic acids, isocyanates provide imides in good yields. A
      mechanism for this conversion is suggested involving carbamic acid anhydride
      formation and subsequent intramolecular reaction at the substituted
      cyclopentadienyl ring.

PMID- 28862861
TI  - Fluoroalkyl Amino Reagents for the Introduction of the
      Fluoro(trifluoromethoxy)methyl Group onto Arenes and Heterocycles.
AB  - Fluoroalkyl amino reagents 1a and 2a have been developed from commercially
      available trifluoromethyl trifluorovinyl ether via a hydroamination reaction with
      diethylamine or dimethylamine. These reagents can be activated by treatment with
      a Lewis acid and subsequently used as a mono- or dielectrophile for the
      introduction of the fluoro(trifluoromethoxy)methyl group, either in Vilsmeier
      type acylations of aromatic substrates or in the synthesis of fluorinated
      pyrazoles from CH-acidic substrates and of bis-fluorinated pyrazoles, all being
      important building blocks for medicinal and agricultural chemistry.

PMID- 28862862
TI  - A One-Pot Synthesis of Pyranone and Pyrrole Derivatives from beta-Chlorovinyl
      Ketones via Direct Conjugate Addition Approach.
AB  - The direct conjugate addition reactions of imino esters to beta-chlorovinyl
      ketones have been accomplished in the presence of a substoichiometric amount of
      hard base, LiHMDS. An in situ generated species from the conjugate addition
      reaction readily acted as autocatalyst to convert the imino esters to its
      corresponding enolates. By utilizing a sequence of conjugate
      addition/elimination/lactonization followed by either reduction or reaction with
      amines, the novel one-pot syntheses of highly functionalized pyranone and pyrrole
      derivatives were accomplished in good to excellent yields.

PMID- 28862863
TI  - Ethyl Cellulose Nanoparticles at the Alkane-Water Interface and the Making of
      Pickering Emulsions.
AB  - Pickering emulsions stabilized by nanoparticles have recently received great
      attention for their remarkable stability, in part a consequence of irreversible
      adsorption. In this study, we generate Pickering oil-in-water emulsions
      stabilized by ethyl cellulose (EC) nanoparticles without the addition of
      surfactants. Over a range of ionic strength and EC nanoparticle concentrations, a
      series of dynamic interfacial tension (IFT) measurements complemented by extended
      DLVO theoretical computations are conducted to quantitatively describe the
      behavior of EC nanoparticles at the interface of water with different alkanes.
      Regardless of ionic strength, there is no barrier against the adsorption of EC
      nanoparticles at the alkane-water interfaces studied and the particles tightly
      cover these interfaces with near maximal coverage (i.e., 91%). Remarkably, the
      rate of approach to maximum coverage of the alkane-water interface by EC
      nanoparticles during the later stages of adsorption is accelerated in the
      presence of salt at concentrations below the critical coagulation concentration
      (CCC), unlike the air-water interface. Above the CCC, alkane-water interfaces
      behave similar to air-water interfaces, showing decay in the adsorption flux
      which is attributed to an increase in surface blocking originating from the
      attachment of nanoparticles to nanoparticles already adsorbed at the interface.
      These findings shed light on particle-particle and particle-interface colloidal
      interactions at and near fluid-fluid interfaces, thereby improving our ability to
      use hydrophobic EC nanoparticles as emulsion stabilizers.

PMID- 28862864
TI  - Generation and Trapping of a 1-Phosphafulvene: An Illustration of the P?C/C?C
      Analogy.
AB  - 1-Phosphafulvenes can be easily generated by dissociation of dimers resulting
      from the reaction of phospholes with aldimines. As electron-rich partners, they
      act as 4pi phosphadienic systems toward alkenes and alkynes in [4 + 2]
      cycloaddition reactions. As electron-poor partners, they act either as 2pi
      systems toward conjugated dienes in [2 + 4] cycloaddition reactions via their P?C
      double bond or as 6pi systems toward phosphadienes in [6 + 4] cycloaddition
      reactions.

PMID- 28862865
TI  - gamma-Amino Butyric Acid (GABA) Synthesis Enabled by Copper-Catalyzed
      Carboamination of Alkenes.
AB  - gamma-Amino butyric acid (GABA) is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the
      mammalian central nervous system. Many GABA derivatives are used clinically to
      prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases. Copper-catalyzed carboamination of
      alkenes offers an efficient method to fashion the core structure of GABA
      derivatives from alkenes. In this reaction, acetonitrile serves as the source of
      the carbon and nitrogen functionalities used to difunctionalize alkenes.
      Experimental and density functional theory (DFT) studies were carried out to
      investigate the mechanism of the reaction, and a copper-catalyzed radical-polar
      crossover mechanism is proposed.

PMID- 28862866
TI  - Augmented Gibbs-Tolman Model for Surface Tension.
AB  - Gibbs developed the thermodynamics of a liquid-vapor system by introducing the
      idea of a "dividing surface" a hypothetical surface that separates the system
      into two homogeneous phases. The area and curvatures of a conveniently chosen
      dividing surface, the "surface of tension", are used to account for the effects
      of the smooth variation of properties across the actual transition layer between
      the phases. Tolman (1948, 1949) considered a more detailed model of the
      interfacial region and obtained expressions for surface tension (sigma) and the
      location of the surface of tension. Based on qualitative arguments, Tolman's
      model introduced a surface of tension, such that the pressure (P) increases from
      its saturation value (Psat) to a maximum value (Pmax) as the surface is
      approached from the vapor side and decreases from (Psat) to its minimum value
      (Pmin) as the surface is approached from the liquid side. Assuming an exponential
      decay of (P) away from the surface, Tolman obtained an explicit expression for
      (sigma) in terms of Psat, Pmax, Pmin, and two length scales. In the this work,
      the Gibbs-Tolman (GT) model is used along with the Lee and Kesler (1975) equation
      of state. The model is augmented to take into account the effect of the density
      gradient in the transition zone and a 4-parameter augmented model (AGT model) is
      proposed. The GT and AGT models are shown to fit the data for 152 pure liquids
      with an absolute average deviation (AAD) of 4.91% and 2.02%, respectively. The
      corresponding AAD values for 57 liquid mixtures are 4.2% and 3.0% respectively.
      Arguments are also presented to counter some of the fundamental concerns that
      have been raised about the GT approach. Although the model correlates the data
      very well, one of the length parameters turns out to be persistently negative,
      and the reason for this behavior is not clear.

PMID- 28862867
TI  - Organocatalytic Synthesis of cis-2,3-Aziridine Aldehydes by a Postreaction
      Isomerization.
AB  - An unprecedented organocatalytic cis-selective aziridination of alpha,beta
      unsaturated aldehydes is described. The strategy utilizes postreaction
      isomerization as a key step. Our study demonstrates that by a proper choice of
      structural features of reagents and the catalyst the outcome of well-established
      reactions can be altered, leading to the formation of normally inaccessible
      diastereomers. The usefulness of the developed approach has been confirmed in the
      syn-selective formal aminohydroxylation of alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes.

PMID- 28862869
TI  - Model Order Reduction Algorithm for Estimating the Absorption Spectrum.
AB  - The ab initio description of the spectral interior of the absorption spectrum
      poses both a theoretical and computational challenge for modern electronic
      structure theory. Due to the often spectrally dense character of this domain in
      the quantum propagator's eigenspectrum for medium-to-large sized systems,
      traditional approaches based on the partial diagonalization of the propagator
      often encounter oscillatory and stagnating convergence. Electronic structure
      methods which solve the molecular response problem through the solution of
      spectrally shifted linear systems, such as the complex polarization propagator,
      offer an alternative approach which is agnostic to the underlying spectral
      density or domain location. This generality comes at a seemingly high
      computational cost associated with solving a large linear system for each
      spectral shift in some discretization of the spectral domain of interest. In this
      work, we present a novel, adaptive solution to this high computational overhead
      based on model order reduction techniques via interpolation. Model order
      reduction reduces the computational complexity of mathematical models and is
      ubiquitous in the simulation of dynamical systems and control theory. The
      efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in the ab initio
      prediction of X-ray absorption spectra is demonstrated using a test set of
      challenging water clusters which are spectrally dense in the neighborhood of the
      oxygen K-edge. On the basis of a single, user defined tolerance we automatically
      determine the order of the reduced models and approximate the absorption spectrum
      up to the given tolerance. We also illustrate that, for the systems studied, the
      automatically determined model order increases logarithmically with the problem
      dimension, compared to a linear increase of the number of eigenvalues within the
      energy window. Furthermore, we observed that the computational cost of the
      proposed algorithm only scales quadratically with respect to the problem
      dimension.

PMID- 28862868
TI  - DNA Polymerase beta Cancer-Associated Variant I260M Exhibits Nonspecific
      Selectivity toward the beta-gamma Bridging Group of the Incoming dNTP.
AB  - The hydrophobic hinge region of DNA polymerase beta (pol beta) is located between
      the fingers and palm subdomains. The hydrophobicity of the hinge region is
      important for maintaining the geometry of the binding pocket and for the
      selectivity of the enzyme. Various cancer-associated pol beta variants in the
      hinge region have reduced fidelity resulting from a decreased discrimination at
      the level of dNTP binding. Specifically, I260M, a prostate cancer-associated
      variant of pol beta, has been shown to have a reduced discrimination during dNTP
      binding and also during nucleotidyl transfer. To test whether fidelity of the
      I260M variant is dependent on leaving group chemistry, we employed a toolkit
      comprising dNTP bisphosphonate analogues modified at the beta-gamma bridging
      methylene to modulate leaving group (pCXYp mimicking PPi) basicity. Construction
      of linear free energy relationship plots for the dependence of log(kpol) on
      leaving group pKa4 revealed that I260M catalyzes dNMP incorporation with a marked
      negative dependence on leaving group basicity, consistent with a chemical
      transition state, during both correct and incorrect incorporation. Additionally,
      we provide evidence that I260M fidelity is altered in the presence of some of the
      analogues, possibly resulting from a lack of coordination between the fingers and
      palm subdomains in the presence of the I260M mutation.

PMID- 28862870
TI  - General Formalism of Vibronic Hamiltonians for Tetrahedral and Octahedral
      Systems: Problems That Involve T, E States and t, e Vibrations.
AB  - We derive expansion formulas up to arbitrary order in vibrational coordinates for
      the tetrahedral and octahedral vibronic Hamiltonians that involve T and E states,
      and t and e vibrations. These states feature both Jahn-Teller (JT) and pseudo
      Jahn-Teller (pJT) effects, and the vibrations are the most JT and pJT active. We
      first derive the formulas for 92 problems of T and Td symmetries involving up to
      two vibrational modes. The formulas can be easily generalized to problems of Th,
      O, and Oh symmetries, as well as problems involving more than two vibrational
      modes. They can also be adapted to describe spin-orbit vibronic Hamiltonians of
      tetrahedral p-type problems. Overall, this work makes crucial preparations for
      future studies on vibronic coupling problems of tetrahedral and octahedral
      systems. Most importantly, a new, simple, modularized approach to construct
      vibronic Hamiltonians for a set of related problems, instead of particular
      problems one by one, is presented.

PMID- 28862871
TI  - Measuring Competing Equilibria at a Silica Surface through the Contact Angle of a
      Nonpolar Liquid.
AB  - Characterizing the composition of an oxide surface is critical to a range of
      applications in separations and reaction chemistry. For silica surfaces, among
      the key issues is the competition for occupancy of the siloxide (SiO-) sites by
      H+ and other cations. We studied the competition between H+ and Na+ for surface
      siloxide occupancy as a function of the concentrations of each cation using the
      contact angle of a droplet of CCl4 on a silica surface immersed in aqueous
      solution as the probe of surface energy. We find the dissociation constant for
      SiONa to be larger than the SiOH dissociation constant, and with knowledge of the
      surface energy for CCl4 in contact with H2O, we are able to determine the surface
      energies of the SiOH-water, SiONa-water, and CCl4-SiOX interfaces.

PMID- 28862872
TI  - Liquid Adsorption of Organic Compounds on Hematite alpha-Fe2O3 Using ReaxFF.
AB  - ReaxFF-based molecular dynamics simulations are used in this work to study the
      effect of the polarity of adsorbed molecules in the liquid phase on the structure
      and polarization of hematite (alpha-Fe2O3). We compared the adsorption of organic
      molecules with different polarities on a rigid hematite surface and on a flexible
      and polarizable surface. We show that the displacements of surface atoms and
      surface polarization in a flexible hematite model are proportional to the
      adsorbed molecule's polarity. The increase in electrostatic interactions
      resulting from charge transfer in the outermost solid atoms in a flexible
      hematite model results in better-defined adsorbed layers that are less ordered
      than those obtained assuming a rigid solid. These results suggest that care must
      be taken when parametrizing empirical transferable force fields because the
      calculated charges on a solid slab in vacuum may not be representative of a real
      system, especially when the solid is in contact with a polar liquid.

PMID- 28862873
TI  - Increased QT dispersion is associated with reduced overall survival in patients
      with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), especially acute
      exacerbations of COPD, are associated with increased cardiovascular mortality,
      including sudden cardiac death. Previous studies have reported that ECG
      abnormalities are common in stable COPD patients. However, the prognostic utility
      of ECG taken at the time of AECOPD is not known. In this study we sought to
      address this gap in knowledge pertaining to ECG parameters at time of AECOPD and
      overall survival. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients
      admitted to our institution with a primary diagnosis of AECOPD. Standard 12-lead
      ECG obtained at the time of initial presentation was evaluated. The primary
      outcome was overall survival. RESULTS: Two hundred and eleven AECOPD patients
      were considered for the study. Death had occurred in 42 (20%) patients at follow
      up. Among the different ECG parameters evaluated, the QT Dispersion (QTD) and
      corrected QT Dispersion (QTcD) were significantly associated with increased
      mortality. Receiver Operator Characteristic analysis identified QTcD >48msec had
      a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 55% in predicting death and QTcD >48msec
      was also associated with worse overall survival (months) (mean +/- SD: 26 +/- 1.0
      vs. 30 +/- 0.7, p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: QTcD >=48msec is associated with
      increased mortality. Further research is required to better understand this
      association and potentially identify reversible factors that if appropriately
      addressed, may ultimately improve the prognosis of patients with COPD.

PMID- 28862874
TI  - Tracheal Foreign Body Removal Using Flexible Bronchoscope in a Pediatric Patient.
      A Novel Approach.

PMID- 28862875
TI  - Preponderance of High-Grade Histologic Subtype in Autologous Metastases in Lung
      Adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28862876
TI  - Quantification of cotinine in dried blood spots as a biomarker of exposure to
      tobacco smoke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We present an ultra-sensitive, minimally-invasive method for
      quantifying cotinine in dried blood spot (DBS) samples as a biomarker of exposure
      to tobacco smoke that can be collected using a simple heel or finger prick to
      obtain blood samples. METHODS: Cotinine levels were measured in matched plasma
      and reconstituted DBS samples from smokers and nonsmokers to evaluate assay
      parameters. In addition, we applied this new method to finger-prick DBS samples
      that were collected from infants, children and young adults ages 1-21 to estimate
      exposure to tobacco smoke. Partitioning of cotinine across red blood cells and
      haematocrit effects were investigated. RESULTS: Cotinine levels measured in
      matched plasma and reconstituted DBS samples from smokers and nonsmokers were
      found to be highly correlated (R2=0.94), with 100% sensitivity and 94%
      specificity to differentiate reported smokers from nonsmokers. With this method,
      the LOQ is <0.25 ng/mL using a single 3.2 mm punch of a DBS, and haematocrit
      effects are negligible. CONCLUSIONS: This sensitive, high-throughput and
      minimally-invasive method for quantifying cotinine in DBS samples provides a
      simple and cost effective means for estimating exposure to tobacco smoke in
      population based studies, and has particular advantages in studies involving
      infants and children.

PMID- 28862878
TI  - Turner syndrome - growing pressure for more multidisciplinary clinics for adults
      and earlier diagnosis in children.

PMID- 28862877
TI  - Mepolizumab Attenuates Airway Eosinophil Numbers, but Not Their Functional
      Phenotype, in Asthma.
AB  - RATIONALE: Mepolizumab, an IL-5-blocking antibody, reduces exacerbations in
      patients with severe eosinophilic asthma. Mepolizumab arrests eosinophil
      maturation; however, the functional phenotype of eosinophils that persist in the
      blood and airway after administration of IL-5 neutralizing antibodies has not
      been reported. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of anti-IL-5 antibody on the
      numbers and phenotypes of allergen-induced circulating and airway eosinophils.
      METHODS: Airway inflammation was elicited in participants with mild allergic
      asthma by segmental allergen challenge before and 1 month after a single
      intravenous 750-mg dose of mepolizumab. Eosinophils were examined in blood,
      bronchoalveolar lavage, and endobronchial biopsies 48 hours after challenge.
      MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Segmental challenge without mepolizumab induced a
      rise in circulating eosinophils, bronchoalveolar lavage eosinophilia, and
      eosinophil peroxidase deposition in bronchial mucosa. IL-5 neutralization before
      allergen challenge abolished the allergen-induced rise in circulating eosinophils
      and expression of IL-3 receptors, whereas airway eosinophilia and eosinophil
      peroxidase deposition were blunted but not eliminated. Before mepolizumab
      treatment, bronchoalveolar lavage eosinophils had more surface IL-3 and
      granulocyte-monocyte colony-stimulating factor receptors, CD69, CD44, and CD23
      and decreased IL-5 and eotaxin receptors than blood eosinophils. This activation
      phenotype indicated by bronchoalveolar lavage eosinophil surface markers, as well
      as the release of eosinophil peroxidase by eosinophils in the bronchial mucosa,
      was maintained after mepolizumab. CONCLUSIONS: Mepolizumab reduced airway
      eosinophil numbers but had a limited effect on airway eosinophil activation
      markers, suggesting that these cells retain functionality. This observation may
      explain why IL-5 neutralization reduces but does not completely eradicate asthma
      exacerbations. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov
      (NCT00802438).

PMID- 28862879
TI  - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Hispanics. A 9-Year Update.

PMID- 28862880
TI  - Club cell protein (CC16) in plasma, bronchial brushes, BAL and urine following an
      inhaled allergen challenge in allergic asthmatics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Club cell protein (CC16) is a pneumoprotein secreted by epithelial
      club cells. CC16 possesses anti-inflammatory properties and is a potential
      biomarker for airway epithelial damage. We studied the effect of inhaled allergen
      on pulmonary and systemic CC16 levels. METHODS: Thirty-four subjects with
      allergic asthma underwent an inhaled allergen challenge. Bronchoscopy with
      bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and brushings was performed before and 24 h after
      the challenge. CC16 was quantified in BAL and CC16 positive cells and CC16 mRNA
      in bronchial brushings. CC16 was measured in plasma and urine before and
      repeatedly after the challenge. Thirty subjects performed a mannitol inhalation
      challenge prior to the allergen challenge. RESULTS: Compared to baseline, CC16 in
      plasma was significantly increased in all subjects 0-1 h after the allergen
      challenge, while CC16 in BAL was only increased in subjects without a late
      allergic response. Levels of CC16 in plasma and in the alveolar fraction of BAL
      correlated significantly after the challenge. There was no increase in urinary
      levels of CC16 post-challenge. Mannitol responsiveness was greater in subjects
      with lower baseline levels of CC16 in plasma. CONCLUSIONS: The increase in plasma
      CC16 following inhaled allergen supports the notion of CC16 as a biomarker of
      epithelial dysfunction.

PMID- 28862881
TI  - Deficient Immune Response to Viral Infections in Children Predicts Later Asthma
      Persistence.

PMID- 28862884
TI  - Opioid Prescribing Patterns by Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents in the United
      States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the opioid epidemic in the U.S., little data exist to guide
      postoperative opioid prescribing in Obstetrics & Gynecology (Ob/Gyn). OBJECTIVE:
      To describe Ob/Gyn resident opioid prescription patterns in the U.S. and assess
      influential factors. METHODS: An anonymous survey was emailed to Ob/Gyn residents
      in the U.S. between January-February 2015. Respondents reported the typical
      number of discharge narcotic tablets prescribed following six common procedures.
      Responses to questions addressed potential factors influencing prescription
      practices and knowledge about opioid abuse in the U.S. Residents who prescribed a
      number of discharge narcotic tablets in the top quartile were compared to those
      who never did. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with
      top quartile prescribers. RESULTS: 267 residents responded. Median number of
      discharge narcotics prescribed following cesarean section was 30 (IQR 28, 40) and
      after laparoscopic hysterectomy was 29 (IQR 20, 30). Factors associated with
      increased odds of prescribing in the top quartile included training in the West
      (aOR 3.15, 95% CI 1.05-9.45, p = 0.04) and agreeing with: "I prescribe
      postoperative narcotics to avoid getting reprimanded by attendings" (aOR 2.72,
      95% CI 1.20-6.15, p = 0.02). Factors associated with decreased odds of
      prescribing in the top quartile included training in a community-based program
      (aOR 0.33, 95% CI 0.15-0.71, p = 0.005) and agreeing with: "I am conservative
      with the number of narcotics I prescribe after surgery" (aOR 0.34, 95% CI 0.17
      0.71, p = 0.004). Conclusions/Importance: Opioid prescribing practices of Ob/Gyn
      residents are influenced by region of country, program-type, and factors related
      to hospital culture and personal insight.

PMID- 28862883
TI  - Randomized Phase II Study of R-CHOP With or Without Bortezomib in Previously
      Untreated Patients With Non-Germinal Center B-Cell-Like Diffuse Large B-Cell
      Lymphoma.
AB  - Purpose To evaluate the impact of the addition of bortezomib to rituximab,
      cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) on outcomes
      in previously untreated patients with non-germinal center B-cell-like (non-GCB)
      diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Patients and Methods After real-time
      determination of non-GCB DLBCL using the Hans immunohistochemistry algorithm, 206
      patients were randomly assigned (1:1; stratified by International Prognostic
      Index [IPI] score) to six 21-day cycles of standard R-CHOP alone or R-CHOP plus
      bortezomib 1.3 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1 and 4 (VR-CHOP). The primary end
      point, progression-free survival (PFS), was evaluated in 183 patients with
      centrally confirmed non-GCB DLBCL who received one or more doses of study drug
      (91 R-CHOP, 92 VR-CHOP). Results After a median follow-up of 34 months, with 25%
      (R-CHOP) and 18% (VR-CHOP) of patients having had PFS events, the hazard ratio
      (HR) for PFS was 0.73 (90% CI, 0.43 to 1.24) with VR-CHOP ( P = .611). Two-year
      PFS rates were 77.6% with R-CHOP and 82.0% with VR-CHOP; they were 65.1% versus
      72.4% in patients with high-intermediate/high IPI (HR, 0.67; 90% CI, 0.34 to
      1.29), and 90.0% versus 88.9% (HR, 0.85; 90% CI, 0.35 to 2.10) in patients with
      low/low-intermediate IPI. Overall response rate with R-CHOP and VR-CHOP was 98%
      and 96%, respectively. The overall survival HR was 0.75 (90% CI, 0.38 to 1.45); 2
      year survival rates were 88.4% and 93.0%, respectively. In the safety population
      (100 R-CHOP and 101 VR-CHOP patients), grade >= 3 adverse events included
      neutropenia (53% v 49%), thrombocytopenia (13% v 29%), anemia (7% v 15%),
      leukopenia (26% v 25%), and neuropathy (1% v 5%). Conclusion Outcomes for newly
      diagnosed, prospectively enrolled patients with non-GCB DLBCL were more favorable
      than expected with R-CHOP and were not significantly improved by adding
      bortezomib.

PMID- 28862882
TI  - Myeloid-derived Suppressor Cells Are Necessary for Development of Pulmonary
      Hypertension.
AB  - Pulmonary hypertension (PH) complicates the care of patients with chronic lung
      disease, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), resulting in a significant
      increase in morbidity and mortality. Disease pathogenesis is orchestrated by
      unidentified myeloid-derived cells. We used murine models of PH and pulmonary
      fibrosis to study the role of circulating myeloid cells in disease pathogenesis
      and prevention. We administered clodronate liposomes to bleomycin-treated wild
      type mice to induce pulmonary fibrosis and PH with a resulting increase in
      circulating bone marrow-derived cells. We discovered that a population of C-X-C
      motif chemokine receptor (CXCR) 2+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs),
      granulocytic subset (G-MDSC), is associated with severe PH in mice. Pulmonary
      pressures worsened despite improvement in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis.
      PH was attenuated by CXCR2 inhibition, with antagonist SB 225002, through
      decreasing G-MDSC recruitment to the lung. Molecular and cellular analysis of
      clinical patient samples confirmed a role for elevated MDSCs in IPF and IPF with
      PH. These data show that MDSCs play a key role in PH pathogenesis and that G-MDSC
      trafficking to the lung, through chemokine receptor CXCR2, increases development
      of PH in multiple murine models. Furthermore, we demonstrate pathology similar to
      the preclinical models in IPF with lung and blood samples from patients with PH,
      suggesting a potential role for CXCR2 inhibitor use in this patient population.
      These findings are significant, as there are currently no approved disease
      specific therapies for patients with PH complicating IPF.

PMID- 28862885
TI  - Educational interventions to enhance competencies for interprofessional
      collaboration among nurse and physician managers: An integrative review.
AB  - Collaborative leadership and management structures are critical to transforming
      care delivery. Both nurse and physician managers are uniquely positioned to co
      lead. However, little is known on how to prepare and support individuals for
      these co-leader arrangements. The re-design of healthcare professional education
      focuses on interprofessional collaboration, mutual learning, and a competency
      based approach. While competencies for interprofessional collaboration have been
      delineated, competencies for collaborative management practice have yet to be
      addressed. An integrative review of empirical studies on existing educational
      interventions was conducted to critically appraise and synthesise the results
      regarding collaborative competence among nurse and physician leaders. We reviewed
      how these interventions have been designed, implemented, and evaluated within
      workplace settings in order to inform our understanding of what components are
      effective or ineffective for the future development of an educational programme.
      This review reports on key characteristics of nine empirical studies and
      emphasises that: a uniprofessional approach to leadership development is
      predominant within educational programmes and that the assessment of shared
      learning experiences are not addressed; there are inconsistency in terms used to
      describe competencies by individual researchers and limitations within the
      competency frameworks used in the studies reviewed; and there is a lack of
      suitable instruments available to assess whether competencies have been achieved
      through the educational programmes. None of the studies discussed the process of
      how individuals learned specific competencies or whether learning outcome were
      achieved. Educational programmes were developed based on a perceived lack of
      leadership preparation and orientation programmes for leaders in formal
      management positions and used multiple interventions. Only two of the programmes
      involved organisational or systems level competencies. Interprofessional co
      leading requires enhanced capabilities and capacity for managers. There is a need
      for developing an in-action education intervention that addresses the unique
      learning needs of co-leader arrangements particularly among nurses and physicians
      who are new to their role.

PMID- 28862886
TI  - The future of diagnosing NASH - could a simple blood test be the key?

PMID- 28862887
TI  - The weight of networks: the role of social ties and ethnic media in mitigating
      obesity and hypertension among Latinas.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Latinos have a disproportionately high risk for obesity and
      hypertension. The current study analyzes survey data from Latin American women to
      detect differences in rates of obesity and hypertension based on their number of
      health-related social ties. Additionally, it proposes individuals' health-related
      media preference (ethnic/ mainstream) as a potential moderator. DESIGN: The
      dataset includes 364 Latinas (21-50 years old) from the greater Los Angeles
      metropolitan area, who responded to a series of sociodemographic, physiological,
      health-related, and media-related questions. RESULTS: Controlling for various
      sociodemographic and health variables, each additional health-related tie in a
      Latina's social network significantly decreased her likelihood of being obese OR
      = .79, p = .041, 95% CI [.66, .95], but did not affect hypertension. Further, the
      analysis revealed a significant interaction between media preference and health
      related social ties, such that exposure to ethnic media tended to compensate for
      the absence of social ties for the likelihood of obesity OR = .75, p = .041, 95%
      CI [.52, .97], as well as hypertension OR = .79, p = .045, 95% CI [.55, .98].
      CONCLUSION: In concurrence with the literature, increases in health-related ties
      reduced the likelihood of obesity in this population. Moreover, ethnic media
      preference may play an important role in mitigating the likelihood of obesity and
      hypertension among Latinas.

PMID- 28862888
TI  - Aquatic bird bornavirus 1 infection in a captive Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae):
      presumed natural transmission from free-ranging wild waterfowl.
AB  - An adult female emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) presented with anorexia,
      maldigestion, weight loss, and various subtle nervous deficits. After four months
      of unrewarding diagnostics, treatments, and supportive care, the emu was
      euthanized due to lack of clinical improvement and progressive weight loss. Gross
      pathology revealed a very narrow pylorus and multiple flaccid diverticula of the
      small intestines. Histopathological findings included severe lymphoplasmacytic
      encephalomyelitis and multifocal lymphocytic neuritis associated with the
      gastrointestinal tract. Immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction on the
      brain were positive for an avian bornavirus (ABV), and partial sequencing of the
      matrix gene identified aquatic bird bornavirus-1 (ABBV-1), 100% identical to
      viruses circulating in wild Canada geese (Branta canadensis). As wild geese
      frequently grazed and defaecated in the emu's outdoor exhibit, natural
      transmission of ABBV-1 from free-ranging waterfowl to the emu was presumed to
      have occurred.

PMID- 28862889
TI  - Best practice interprofessional stroke care collaboration and simulation: The
      student perspective.
AB  - Interprofessional practice (IPP) is the accepted standard of care for clients
      following a stroke. A brief, embedded and evidence-based IPP team simulation was
      designed to address stroke care knowledge and IPP competencies for students
      within limited curriculum space. Each team was required to construct a
      collaborative care plan for their patient during the simulation and submit the
      care plan for evaluation of best practice stroke care knowledge and
      implementation with evidence of interprofessional collaboration (IPC). A total of
      302 students (274 on-site, 28 by distance technology) representing four
      professions comprised of 55 teams took part in this experience. Post-simulation,
      voluntary and anonymous programme evaluations were completed using the
      standardised interprofessional collaborative competency assessment scale (ICCAS)
      and open-ended free-text responses to five questions. There was a significant
      improvement for all pre-post ratings on the ICCAS regardless of profession or
      previous interprofessional experience. Additionally, the open-ended responses
      indicated perceived changes to role clarification, communication, and teamwork.
      The combined interpretation of the programme evaluation results supports
      interprofessional team simulation as an effective and efficient learning
      experience for students regardless of previous interprofessional experience, and
      demonstrated positive changes in stroke best-practice knowledge and IPC
      competencies.

PMID- 28862890
TI  - Treating highly exuding wounds in the community setting.

PMID- 28862891
TI  - Apex Pro-care mattress: How can this advanced mattress assist in prevention of
      pressure injuries?
AB  - Avalon Nursing Home is fully aware of the potential for pressure ulcers in
      immobile residents and were keen to undertake an evaluation to ensure their
      residents have the most appropriate care possible. They selected Apex Pro-care to
      evaluate as there were concerns for residents heels in those with any arterial
      insufficiency. The Apex Pro-care mattress has a heel section where one or more of
      the bottom five cells can be deflated under the patient's heel to create a void,
      which will enable the heel to "float" so that there is no pressure in contact
      with the heel area. The mattress would reduce the cost of nursing care as
      repositioning times can be optimised according to need. The three residents who
      agreed to evaluate the mattress found it to be extremely comfortable and they
      remained free of any pressure injury.

PMID- 28862893
TI  - Woundcare4Heroes update.

PMID- 28862892
TI  - Chronic leg ulcers disrupt patients' lives: A study of leg ulcer-related life
      changes and quality of life.
AB  - Chronic leg ulcers have a profound impact on patients' physical, functional, and
      psychological status, which may result in several life changes and a significant
      decline in quality of life (QoL). We aimed to study what changed in patients'
      lives after developing a chronic leg ulcer, including QoL, patients'
      comprehension of the disease and related feelings. A cross-sectional study, using
      an anonymous questionnaire and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was
      performed. Chronic leg ulcers were life changing events, causing abandonment of
      work in almost 80% of the patients and important limitations in daily activities
      and autonomy. Familial relationships changed in more than half of the patients.
      Almost 15% hid or would like to hide their disease from others, especially
      patients with a shorter duration of disease. QoL was very or extremely affected
      in 18.2% of the participants completing the DLQI.

PMID- 28862894
TI  - A reflection on the EWMA conference 2017.

PMID- 28862895
TI  - How to prevent and avoid common mistakes in skin tear management in the home
      setting.
AB  - Skin tears are acute wounds, often mismanaged and misdiagnosed that can convert
      to chronic wounds, representing a common but relevant burden to both the
      individual and the health care system. The implementation of prevention protocols
      and training programs is essential to manage these wounds in the community.
      Managing a skin tear-related problem at home represents a challenge, due to some
      critical issues and specific conditions. A multifaceted prevention programme
      should consider the involvement of relatives, caregivers and personal care aides
      in order to promote patients' safety, to minimise the risk of trauma and to
      improve patients' outcomes following a skin injury.

PMID- 28862896
TI  - Keeping up with wound care in the community setting.

PMID- 28862897
TI  - Venous leg ulcers: An evidence review.

PMID- 28862898
TI  - Wound management should not be a pain.
AB  - Pain is a complex sensation with a variety of qualities rather than a single
      sensation varying in intensity. People find it difficult to describe their pain
      mainly because its nature and intensity vary so much, not only between
      individuals but also for a person over time. This article provides an overview of
      wound pain, its causes and assessment, with a focus on the procedure of dressing
      change itself. The wound care industry has manufactured dressings to assist in
      reducing the pain experience and it is incumbent on health care professionals to
      make the most appropriate dressing selection for the individual patient and
      wound, rather than a 'one type of dressing fits all' approach. The choice of
      primary product is important and is the aspect of focus for this discussion. This
      paper discusses the use of Flaminal (an enzyme alginogel) to assist practitioners
      in managing painful wounds.

PMID- 28862899
TI  - How to combat infection in Leg Clubs: Is sterility necessary?

PMID- 28862902
TI  - Consider the Alternative.

PMID- 28862903
TI  - Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction in the United States: Critique
      and Commentary.
AB  - In the United States, buprenorphine products (namely buprenorphine/naloxone
      combination) and methadone are the primary forms of medication-assisted treatment
      (MAT) that are authorized for addressing opioid addiction. Although treatment
      ideologies differentiate MAT programs, much of the provision in the US reflects a
      model of "high threshold, low tolerance." This model is discussed with a focus on
      structural and programmatic barriers that shape access to and retention in MAT.
      The critique continues with a discussion of multifaceted stigma that reinforces
      spoiled identities and diffuses into treatment settings. The social control
      mechanisms that are imposed in MAT are strikingly similar to those reflected in
      criminal justice settings, namely probation, parole and community corrections
      more generally. Parallels are drawn between the "addict" and the "felon" and how
      they are monitored, tracked, and controlled. These factors have major
      implications for recovery.

PMID- 28862904
TI  - Infection control when delivering intravenous therapy in the community setting.

PMID- 28862900
TI  - Physiotherapy clinical educators' perspectives on a fitness to practice
      initiative.
AB  - CONTEXT: Health practitioner registration boards require health professionals to
      evaluate and maintain "fitness to practice" (FTP). This encompasses the
      professional behavior, clinical competence, and freedom from impairment required
      for safe and effective service provision. We developed and implemented policies
      to promote student self-assessment and support of FTP that were pre-emptive and
      designed to be helpful and sought clinician feedback on this initiative. METHOD:
      An innovative student-centered FTP approach was devised with consideration of
      defensible ethico-legal practice. A survey explored clinical educators'
      perceptions of the FTP policy and the associated education and support. Closed
      and open survey questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, qualitative
      evaluation, and thematic analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-nine physiotherapy clinical
      educators from 34 sites across eight Australian health services returned surveys.
      Educators had positive perceptions of policy components, particularly
      incorporating professionalism as a hurdle requirement and the attendance and
      incident reporting policies. CONCLUSIONS: The benefits of a student-centered FTP
      approach included clarity and consistency in managing FTP issues and facilitation
      of student awareness through active engagement in maintaining their FTP. To our
      knowledge, this paper is the first to report a comprehensive approach to the
      range of FTP issues incorporating student self-declaration of issues that may
      affect desirable progression through clinical placements. The policy and program
      of education and support are likely to be generalizable to health professional
      training programs that utilize workplace training.

PMID- 28862905
TI  - Community nursing middle management: 'dealing with different people in different
      time zones on both sides'.
AB  - The overall aim of the investigation was to redress a knowledge gap by exploring
      community nursing middle managers' (CNMMs') experiences of role enactment through
      change within Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) in Scotland-now further
      evolved into Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). HSCPs play a key role
      in shifting care from the acute to the primary care/community setting. However, a
      literature review demonstrated there has been very little research into the role
      of CNMMs within the changing primary care context. This concept was considered
      important in understanding how CNMMs enacted their roles to implement service
      change. A qualitative longitudinal interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)
      ( Smith, 1996 ) study was conducted in four distinct phases, comprising the
      reflexive, foundational, recursive and expansive, from 2008-2011. Some 35 semi
      structured interviews were conducted with 26 participants. CNMMs perceived that
      their responsibilities had increased, become more complex and wider ranging.
      Maintaining an implicit connection with service users was a primary motivation
      for CNMMs. They were proud to be members of the nursing profession aligning their
      identity with their career history. A small but significant proportion resigned
      during the study and some were considering leaving the NHS. The study addresses a
      gap in literature, contributes to the understanding of NHS community nursing,
      middle management, role, change and gives a voice to CNMMs in Scotland. They are
      the lynchpins in taking change forward and maintaining quality services. Much
      more attention needs to be paid to the needs, constitution and sustenance of
      middle managers in Scottish community nursing-which has policy, practice,
      education, and research and retention implications.

PMID- 28862907
TI  - Predicting dying in palliative care.

PMID- 28862906
TI  - Criminal liability for spreading sexually transmitted infections.
AB  - Last month's article considered capacity to consent to sexual activity. This
      month's article reviews the case of a man from Nottingham who was jailed for 7
      years for infecting two former lovers with HIV and considers whether those who
      act recklessly put others at risk of infection during sexual activity should be
      held criminally liable and prosecuted for their actions.

PMID- 28862908
TI  - Vitamin D: Get it while it's hot and even when it's not.

PMID- 28862910
TI  - How to address compassion fatigue in the community nurse.

PMID- 28862909
TI  - What are community nurses experiences of assessing frailty and assisting in
      planning subsequent interventions?
AB  - With an ageing population and increasing focus on community care, this study
      aimed to explore the experiences of community nurses in assessing frailty and
      planning interventions around frailty. Six community nurses were recruited for
      face-to-face semi-structured interviews as part of this qualitative study which
      was underpinned by a competence framework ( Royal College of Nursing, 2009 ).
      Thematic analysis was used and frailty was identified as an emerging topic within
      practice. Participants discussed several aspects associated with frailty;
      however, some uncertainty around the concept of frailty and its definition was
      noted, particularly for staff who had received limited frailty training.
      Participants had a growing awareness of frailty in practice, but challenges
      including time constraints and staffing within some roles, a perception of
      limited services to support older people, and for some a lack of confidence and
      training-presented barriers to frailty assessment. The Rockwood frailty scale was
      used by participants within practice, but evidence suggested it was felt to lack
      validity within the community setting.

PMID- 28862911
TI  - Safely administering and storing vaccines in the community setting.

PMID- 28862912
TI  - Lest we forget the carers' contribution.

PMID- 28862913
TI  - Assessment and management of refractory breathlessness in interstitial lung
      disease.
AB  - Interstitial lung disease (ILD) refers to a cluster of fibroinflammatory
      conditions. There are limited treatment options and most patients have severe
      dyspnoea. The prognosis is poor. This study aims to evaluate current literature
      on the assessment and management of refractory breathlessness in ILD. Few tools
      are available to assess dyspnoea in advanced respiratory disease. Holistic
      assessment requires a combination of tools but there are few disease specific
      tools. The role of opioids is well established in the reduction of
      breathlessness, but there is insufficient evidence that benzodiazepines are
      beneficial. Non-pharmcolological breathlessness intervention services can give
      patients mastery of their disease, reduced distress due to breathlessness and
      were more cost effective. More research on holistic interventions for use in
      advanced disease needs to be done. Patient-reported outcome measures could elicit
      valuable evidence to describe the benefit of breathlessness management services
      in advanced respiratory disease.

PMID- 28862914
TI  - Oliver Sacks (1933-2015): A belated obituary.

PMID- 28862915
TI  - Introduction of Vasyl V. Tkach, Recipient of the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal for
      2017.

PMID- 28862916
TI  - Supporting female survivors of intimate partner violence with disabilities:
      Recommendations for social workers in the emergency department.
AB  - Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive problem with grave consequences.
      Women with disabilities are among the most vulnerable groups disproportionately
      affected, with higher IPV rates than either women without disabilities or men
      with disabilities. The emergency department (ED) in particular affords a gateway
      into health services for female survivors of IPV, placing ED social workers in a
      prime position to observe potential signs of IPV and connect survivors to further
      assistance. This article explores the critical role ED social workers can fill in
      addressing the needs of female survivors of IPV with disabilities. We begin by
      providing background on the characteristics of IPV among women with disabilities,
      followed by a discussion of the opportunities and challenges inherent to
      assessing and intervening with survivors. We conclude by outlining
      recommendations for working with female survivors of IPV with disabilities in
      EDs, using our previous research on the topic as a guide.

PMID- 28862917
TI  - Preparing the workforce for integrated healthcare: A systematic review.
AB  - Integrated healthcare is recommended to deliver care to individuals with co
      occurring medical and mental health conditions. This literature review was
      conducted to identify the knowledge and skills required for behavioral health
      consultants in integrated settings. A review from 1999 to 2015 identified 68
      articles. Eligible studies examined care to the U.S. adult population at the
      highest level of integration. The results provide evidence of specific knowledge
      of medical and mental health diagnoses, screening instruments, and intervention
      skills in integrated primary care, specialty medical, and specialty mental
      health. Further research is required to identify methods to develop
      knowledge/skills in the workforce.

PMID- 28862918
TI  - Pudicinae (Nematoda: Heligmonellidae) Parasitic in Endemic Chilean Rodents
      (Caviomorpha: Octodontidae and Abrocomidae): Description of a New Species and
      Emended Description of Pudica degusi (Babero and Cattan) n. comb.
AB  - We report the finding of 2 species of Pudica (Nematoda: Heligmonellidae:
      Pudicinae) in 2 rodents endemic to Chile, the common degu Octodon degus
      (Octodontidae) and the Bennett's chinchilla rat Abrocoma bennettii (Abrocomidae).
      Pudica degusi ( Babero and Cattan, 1975 ) n. comb., originally described as a
      species of Longistriata (Heligmosomidae), was found in the common degu; through
      the study of its synlophe, the species is reassigned to the Heligmonellidae:
      Pudicinae and the genus Pudica, and it is revalidated through comparison with the
      remaining species of the genus. Pudica cattani n. sp. is described from both O.
      degus and A. bennettii. It is characterized by its large body size, bursal
      pattern of type 1-3-1 on right lobe, 1-3-1 tending to 1-4 on left lobe, synlophe
      with 11 ridges including a careen, dorsal ray of the bursa dividing proximally
      and bursal rays 9 and 10 relatively short. Pudica degusi n. comb. and Pudica
      cattani n. sp. were found in the same host species but not as coparasitic in the
      same individuals. The common degu is confirmed as the sole and primary host of
      Pudica degusi n. comb. It is unlikely that it is the primary host for Pudica
      cattani n. sp., whose host affinities are less clear mainly due to the scarcity
      of data. Pudica cattani n. sp. is the first helminth reported from the Bennett's
      chinchilla rat. Both findings enlarge the host range of the Pudicinae to the
      families Octodontidae and Abrocomidae, i.e., 9 out of the 11 extant families of
      caviomorphs, thereby establishing the presence of this nematode subfamily as
      typical parasites of the Neotropical Hystricognathi.

PMID- 28862919
TI  - The Science and Practice of Self-Control.
AB  - In 2005, we discovered that self-control "outdoes" talent in predicting academic
      success during adolescence. Since then, a surfeit of longitudinal evidence has
      affirmed the importance of self-control to achieving everyday goals that conflict
      with momentary temptations. In parallel, research that has "lumped" self-control
      with other facets of Big Five conscientiousness has shown the superior predictive
      power of this broad family of individual differences for diverse life outcomes.
      Self-control can also be "split" from related traits that in certain contexts
      demonstrate superior predictive power for achievement. Most important, both the
      "lumping" and "splitting" traditions have enhanced our understanding of the
      underlying mechanisms and antecedents of self-control. Collectively, progress
      over the past decade and a half suggests a bright future for the science and
      practice of self-control.

PMID- 28862920
TI  - Social Cognitive Factors, Physical Activity, and Mobility Impairment in Adults
      with Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - Among those with multiple sclerosis (MS), mobility impairment is common and
      significantly affects independent functioning and quality of life. The purpose of
      the study was to examine the role of physical activity in mobility impairment in
      individuals with MS and explore the social cognitive factors of social support,
      outcome expectations, and self-efficacy that facilitate physical activity among
      those with the disease. A sample of 319 individuals with MS were assessed on the
      following: family and friend social support, self-efficacy, and physical and
      social outcome expectations. Self-reported physical activity, perceived
      ambulation disability, balance confidence, and fall history were also measured.
      The structural model fit the data (chi2 (29) = 24.49, p = 0.70; Root Mean Square
      Error of Approximation < 0.01; Comparative Fit Index = 1.0; Normed Fit Index =
      0.96; Goodness of Fit Index = 0.98; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual =
      0.03). The primary findings of the study revealed that physical activity was
      strongly linked to mobility impairment (path coefficient, -0.43), such that
      increasing levels of physical activity were associated with less mobility
      impairment. The most important predictors of health-promoting levels of physical
      activity were self-efficacy (path coefficient, 0.48) and social support (path
      coefficient, 0.38), with support from friends being a stronger indicator of
      social support than support from family. It may be prudent to design
      interventions aimed at increasing physical activity, especially in regard to
      helping individuals become more efficacious and building larger social networks,
      as this may serve to forestall advancing mobility impairment in those with MS.

PMID- 28862921
TI  - Sex-differences in elite-performance track and field competition from 1983 to
      2015.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to assess the veracity of the Court of Arbitration
      for Sport's assertion that sex-differences in athletic performance in elite
      standard track and field competition is of the order of 10-12%. Exponential
      curves were fitted to the data of selected track and field events of the finals
      of all IAAF World Championships and Olympic Games from 1983 to 2016. For each
      curve, the coefficient of determination R2 was calculated, in combination the
      corresponding 95% confidence intervals for the curve constants. Sex-differences
      were evaluated via differences in the fitted curves between men and women. Mean
      performances of winners, as well as overall performance means of all
      participants, were also analyzed. The calculated sex-difference was 8.2 +/- 1.0% 
      11.8 +/- 2.1% for sprints, 10.3 +/- 3.3% - 12.8 +/- 4.0% for middle and long
      distance events, 9.7 +/- 2.9% - 13.1 +/- 2.9% for relays and 14.2 +/- 2.2% - 25.0
      +/- 4.4% for jumps. This study therefore confirms that the percentage difference
      accepted by the CAS is appropriate for elite-standard track and field events.

PMID- 28862922
TI  - Adherence to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Dietary Pattern in
      Relation to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): A Case-Control Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This case-control study was designed to investigate the association
      between adherences to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet in
      patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in comparison to
      subjects without COPD. DESIGN: This is a case-control study. Usual dietary intake
      was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Lung function was
      evaluated with spirometry testing, and one of the researchers inquired about
      other respiratory symptoms, including chronic cough, sputum, and breathlessness.
      Adherence to the DASH dietary pattern was assessed according to the Fung method.
      SETTING: This study was conducted at Alzahra University Hospital of Isfahan,
      Iran, in 2015. SUBJECTS: Eight-four patients with COPD and 80 subjects without a
      history of COPD participated in study. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was
      57 years. Average smoking in the case group was about 27.5 pack-years. Spirometry
      tests including forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), forced vital
      capacity (FVC), and FEV1/FVC were significantly lower in patients with COPD (p =
      0.0001). Among COPD symptoms, cough was significantly decreased across tertiles
      of DASH score (p = 0.03). Significant differences were found for DASH score
      between patients with COPD and control subjects (19.82 + 3.63 vs 21.13 + 3.82, p
      = 0.02). Vitamin C, vitamin E, and dietary fiber intake were lower in patients
      with COPD (144.32 + 70.51 vs 166.97 + 71.88, p = 0.04, 7.49 + 3.91 vs 8.72 +
      3.21, p = 0.02 and 19.34 + 7.05 vs 22.19 + 7.87, p = 0.01, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: We observed that adherence to a DASH dietary pattern among patients
      with COPD was significantly lower compared to the control group. Cough was
      significantly decreased by increments in adherence to a DASH dietary pattern.

PMID- 28862923
TI  - Representing Color Ensembles.
AB  - Colors are rarely uniform, yet little is known about how people represent color
      distributions. We introduce a new method for studying color ensembles based on
      intertrial learning in visual search. Participants looked for an oddly colored
      diamond among diamonds with colors taken from either uniform or Gaussian color
      distributions. On test trials, the targets had various distances in feature space
      from the mean of the preceding distractor color distribution. Targets on test
      trials therefore served as probes into probabilistic representations of
      distractor colors. Test-trial response times revealed a striking similarity
      between the physical distribution of colors and their internal representations.
      The results demonstrate that the visual system represents color ensembles in a
      more detailed way than previously thought, coding not only mean and variance but,
      most surprisingly, the actual shape (uniform or Gaussian) of the distribution of
      colors in the environment.

PMID- 28862924
TI  - Sex differences in jealousy: the (lack of) influence of researcher theoretical
      perspective.
AB  - The sex difference in jealousy is an effect that has generated significant
      controversy in the academic literature (resulting in two meta-analyses that
      reached different conclusions on the presence or absence of the effect). In this
      study, we had a team of researchers from different theoretical perspectives use
      identical protocols to test whether the sex difference in jealousy would occur
      across many different samples (while testing whether mate value would moderate
      the effect). In our samples, we found the sex difference in jealousy to occur
      using both forced choice and continuous measures, this effect appeared in several
      different settings, and, we found that mate value moderated participant
      responses. The results are discussed in light of the controversy surrounding the
      presence of the effect.

PMID- 28862925
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28862926
TI  - Alirocumab Treatment and Achievement of Non-High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol
      and Apolipoprotein B Goals in Patients With Hypercholesterolemia: Pooled Results
      From 10 Phase 3 ODYSSEY Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) and
      apolipoprotein (apo) B are better predictors of atherosclerotic cardiovascular
      disease risk than low-density lipoprotein cholesterol alone. US and European
      lipid management guidelines support non-HDL-C and apoB as targets for lipid
      lowering therapy. METHODS AND RESULTS: This analysis evaluated the efficacy of
      alirocumab, a proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitor, on non-HDL
      C and apoB. Data were derived from 4983 patients enrolled in 10 randomized,
      placebo- or ezetimibe-controlled Phase 3 ODYSSEY trials. Primary end point for
      this pooled analysis was percent reduction in non-HDL-C and apoB at Week 24;
      secondary end points included the percentage of patients achieving guideline
      directed treatment goals (National Lipid Association guidelines: non-HDL-C <100
      or <130 mg/dL for patients at very high and high cardiovascular risk,
      respectively; European Society of Cardiology/European Atherosclerosis Society
      guidelines: apoB <80 mg/dL for patients at very-high cardiovascular risk). Data
      were grouped according to comparator, alirocumab starting dose, and concomitant
      statin use. Compared with controls, alirocumab produced significantly greater
      reductions in non-HDL-C and apoB at Week 24 (P<0.0001), an effect extending up to
      78 weeks. More alirocumab-treated patients achieved levels of non-HDL-C <100
      mg/dL and apoB <80 mg/dL (P<=0.0001 versus control). By Week 24, >70% of
      alirocumab-treated patients on background statin achieved non-HDL-C <100 or <130
      mg/dL, and apoB <80 mg/dL. Safety was comparable across pooled groups and in line
      with previous reports. CONCLUSIONS: Alirocumab produced significant, sustained
      reductions in non-HDL-C and apoB, allowing more patients to achieve lipid goals
      compared with placebo or ezetimibe and irrespective of maximally tolerated statin
      use.

PMID- 28862927
TI  - Inhibition of Mutant alphaB Crystallin-Induced Protein Aggregation by a Molecular
      Tweezer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compromised protein quality control causes the accumulation of
      misfolded proteins and intracellular aggregates, contributing to cardiac disease
      and heart failure. The development of therapeutics directed at proteotoxicity
      based pathology in heart disease is just beginning. The molecular tweezer CLR01
      is a broad-spectrum inhibitor of abnormal self-assembly of amyloidogenic
      proteins, including amyloid beta-protein, tau, and alpha-synuclein. This small
      molecule interferes with aggregation by binding selectively to lysine side
      chains, changing the charge distribution of aggregation-prone proteins and
      thereby disrupting aggregate formation. However, the effects of CLR01 in
      cardiomyocytes undergoing proteotoxic stress have not been explored. Here we
      assess whether CLR01 can decrease cardiac protein aggregation catalyzed by
      cardiomyocyte-specific expression of mutated alphaB-crystallin (CryABR120G).
      METHODS AND RESULTS: A proteotoxic model of desmin-related cardiomyopathy caused
      by cardiomyocyte-specific expression of CryABR120G was used to test the efficacy
      of CLR01 therapy in the heart. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were infected with
      adenovirus expressing either wild-type CryAB or CryABR120G. Subsequently, the
      cells were treated with different doses of CLR01 or a closely related but
      inactive derivative, CLR03. CLR01 decreased aggregate accumulation and attenuated
      cytotoxicity caused by CryABR120G expression in a dose-dependent manner, whereas
      CLR03 had no effect. Ubiquitin-proteasome system function was analyzed using a
      ubiquitin-proteasome system reporter protein consisting of a short degron, CL1,
      fused to the COOH-terminus of green fluorescent protein. CLR01 improved
      proteasomal function in CryABR120G cardiomyocytes but did not alter autophagic
      flux. In vivo, CLR01 administration also resulted in reduced protein aggregates
      in CryABR120G transgenic mice. CONCLUSIONS: CLR01 can inhibit CryABR120G
      aggregate formation and decrease cytotoxicity in cardiomyocytes undergoing
      proteotoxic stress, presumably through clearance of the misfolded protein via
      increased proteasomal function. CLR01 or related compounds may be therapeutically
      useful in treating the pathogenic sequelae resulting from proteotoxic heart
      disease.

PMID- 28862928
TI  - Socioeconomic Position Is Associated With Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Mid
      Childhood: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) predicts higher cardiovascular
      risk in adults. Few studies differentiate between neighborhood and family SEP or
      have repeated measures through childhood, which would inform understanding of
      potential mechanisms and the timing of interventions. We investigated whether
      neighborhood and family SEP, measured biennially from ages 0 to 1 year onward,
      was associated with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) at ages 11 to 12 years.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Data were obtained from 1477 families participating in the
      Child Health CheckPoint study, nested within the Longitudinal Study of Australian
      Children. Disadvantaged family and neighborhood SEP was cross-sectionally
      associated with thicker maximum carotid IMT in separate univariable linear
      regression models. Associations with family SEP were not attenuated in
      multivariable analyses, and associations with neighborhood SEP were attenuated
      only in models adjusted for family SEP. The difference in maximum carotid IMT
      between the highest and lowest family SEP quartile measured at ages 10 to 11
      years was 10.7 MUm (95% CI, 3.4-18.0; P=0.004), adjusted for age, sex, pubertal
      status, passive smoking exposure, body mass index, blood pressure, and arterial
      lumen diameter. In longitudinal analyses, family SEP measured as early as age 2
      to 3 years was associated with maximum carotid IMT at ages 11 to 12 years
      (difference between highest and lowest quartile: 8.5 MUm; 95% CI, 1.3-15.8;
      P=0.02). No associations were observed between SEP and mean carotid IMT.
      CONCLUSIONS: We report a robust association between lower SEP in early childhood
      and carotid IMT in mid-childhood. Further investigation of mechanisms may inform
      pediatric cardiovascular risk assessment and prevention strategies.

PMID- 28862929
TI  - Socioeconomic Status and Incidence of Hospitalization With Lower-Extremity
      Peripheral Artery Disease: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compared to coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke, the
      relationship between low socioeconomic status (SES) and peripheral artery disease
      (PAD) is less well established. We examined the association between SES and
      incidence of hospitalization with PAD and explored whether this association can
      be explained by traditional cardiovascular risk factors and healthcare access.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 12 517 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk
      in Communities (ARIC) Study (1987-1989) with no prior PAD were examined.
      Individual-level SES was assessed from household income (low <$12 000/year,
      medium $12 000 to $24 999/year, and high >=$25 000/year [double to approximate to
      values in 2016]) and educational attainment (<high school, high school, and >high
      school), and area-level SES from area deprivation index (quintiles). During a
      median follow-up of 23.6 (Interquartile range 19.6-24.5) years, 433 participants
      had a hospitalization with PAD. In Cox proportional hazards regression analysis,
      the demographically adjusted hazard ratio was 2.42 (1.81-3.23) for low household
      income, 2.08 (1.60-2.69) for low educational attainment, and 2.18 (1.35-3.53) for
      most deprived neighborhoods, compared to their high-SES counterparts. After
      adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors and heath care access, the
      associations were attenuated but remained significant, particularly for income
      and education. Results were consistent when stratified by race (P-values for
      interaction >0.2 for all SES parameters). CONCLUSIONS: Low individual- and area
      level SES are strong predictors of hospitalization with PAD, in part due to
      increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and poor access to care in
      these groups. Additional risk factors may also need to be identified and acted on
      to eliminate SES disparities in PAD hospitalization.

PMID- 28862930
TI  - Blood Pressure Response to Main Renal Artery and Combined Main Renal Artery Plus
      Branch Renal Denervation in Patients With Resistant Hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Single-electrode ablation of the main renal artery for renal
      sympathetic denervation showed mixed blood pressure (BP)-lowering effects.
      Further improvement of the technique seems crucial to optimize effectiveness of
      the procedure. Because sympathetic nerve fibers are closer to the lumen in the
      distal part of the renal artery, treatment of the distal main artery and its
      branches has been shown to reduce variability in treatment effects in preclinical
      studies and a recent randomized trial. Whether this optimized technique improves
      clinical outcomes remains uncertain. We report a 2-center experience of main
      renal artery and combined main renal artery plus branches renal denervation in
      patients with resistant hypertension using a multielectrode catheter. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: Twenty-five patients with therapy-resistant hypertension underwent renal
      sympathetic denervation with combined main renal artery and renal branch ablation
      and were compared to matched controls undergoing an ablation of the main renal
      artery only. BP change was assessed by ambulatory measurement at baseline and
      after 3 months. At baseline, BP was balanced between the groups. After 3 months,
      BP changed significantly in the combined ablation group (systolic/diastolic 24
      hour mean and daytime mean BP -8.5+/-9.8/-7.0+/-10.7 and -9.4+/-9.8/-7.1+/-13.5
      mm Hg, P<0.001/0.003 and <0.001/0.016, respectively), but not in patients with
      main artery treatment (-3.5+/-11.1/-2.0+/-7.6 and -2.8+/-10.9/-1.8+/-7.7 mm Hg,
      P=0.19/0.20 and 0.19/0.24, respectively). Systolic daytime BP was significantly
      more reduced in patients with combined ablation than in patients with main artery
      ablation (P=0.033). CONCLUSIONS: Combined ablation of the main renal artery and
      branches appears to improve BP-lowering efficacy and should be further
      investigated.

PMID- 28862932
TI  - Atrial Fibrillation in Heart Failure US Ambulatory Cardiology Practices and the
      Potential for Uptake of Catheter Ablation: An National Cardiovascular Data
      Registry (NCDR(r)) Research to Practice (R2P) Project.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure with reduced ejection
      fraction frequently coexist. The AATAC (Ablation versus Amiodarone for Treatment
      of persistent Atrial fibrillation in patients with Congestive heart failure and
      an implantable device) trial suggests that catheter ablation may benefit these
      patients. However, applicability to contemporary ambulatory cardiology practice
      is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the outpatient National Cardiovascular
      Data Registry(r) Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence Registry, we
      identified participants meeting AATAC enrollment criteria between 2013 and 2014.
      Treatment with medications and procedures was assessed at registry inclusion.
      From 164 166 patients with AF and heart failure, 8483 (7%) patients potentially
      met AATAC inclusion criteria. Eligible subjects, compared to AATAC trial
      participants, were older (mean age, 71.2+/-11.4 years) and had greater
      comorbidity (coronary artery disease 79.2%, hypertension 82.4%, and diabetes
      mellitus 31.8%). AF was predominantly paroxysmal (65.5%), rather than
      persistent/permanent (16.7%) or new onset (17.8%), whereas all patients in the
      AATAC trial had persistent AF. Commonly used atrioventricular-nodal blocking
      agents were carvedilol (71.2%), digoxin (31.9%), and metoprolol (27.1%). Rhythm
      control with anti-arrhythmic drugs was reported in 29.0% of AATAC eligible
      patients (predominantly amiodarone [24.6%]) and 9.3% had undergone catheter
      ablation. Patients who underwent ablation were more likely to be younger and have
      less comorbidities than those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: Among the contemporary
      ambulatory AF/heart failure with reduced ejection fraction population, treatment
      is predominantly rate control with few catheter ablations. Application of AATAC
      findings has the potential to markedly increase the use of catheter ablation in
      this population, although significant differences in clinical profiles might
      influence ablation outcomes in practice.

PMID- 28862931
TI  - Cardiovascular Adverse Events in Patients With Cancer Treated With Bevacizumab: A
      Meta-Analysis of More Than 20 000 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The monoclonal antibody bevacizumab effectively inhibits angiogenesis
      in several types of cancers by blocking vascular endothelial growth factor.
      However, life-threatening cardiovascular adverse effects could limit its use and
      may warrant specific follow-up strategies. METHODS AND RESULTS: We systematically
      searched MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Web of Science for randomized controlled
      trials published until November 2016 that assessed patients with cancer treated
      with or without bevacizumab in addition to standard chemotherapy. A total of 20
      050 patients with a broad range of cancer types from 22 studies were included in
      this analysis (10 394 in the bevacizumab group and 9656 in the control group).
      The risks of arterial and venous adverse events were higher in the bevacizumab
      groups (relative risk [RR], 1.37; 95% CI, 1.10-1.70 [P=0.004] and RR, 1.29; 95%
      CI, 1.12-1.47 [P<0.001], respectively), and more arterial adverse events occurred
      in patients taking high-dose bevacizumab regimens. Bevacizumab treatment was
      associated with the highest risk of cardiac and cerebral ischemia in the high
      dose bevacizumab groups (RR, 4.4; 95% CI, 1.59-12.70 [P=0.004] and RR, 6.67; 95%
      CI, 2.17-20.66 [P=0.001], respectively). In addition, the risk of bleeding and
      arterial hypertension were higher in the bevacizumab groups (RR, 2.74; 95% CI,
      2.38-3.15 [P<0.001] and RR, 4.73; 95% CI, 4.15-5.39 [P<0.00001], respectively),
      with higher values for patiens taking high-dose regimens. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment
      with bevacizumab increases the risk of arterial adverse events, particularly
      cardiac and cerebral ischemia, venous adverse events, bleeding, and arterial
      hypertension. This risk is additionally increased with high doses of bevacizumab.
      Further studies should determine the appropriate options for cardio-oncology
      management. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk. Unique
      identifier: PROSPERO(CRD42016054305).

PMID- 28862933
TI  - Quality of Care of the Initial Patient Cohort of the Diabetes Collaborative
      Registry(r).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although guidelines and performance measures exist for patients with
      diabetes mellitus, achievement of these metrics is not well known. The Diabetes
      Collaborative Registry(r) (DCR) was formed to understand the quality of diabetes
      mellitus care across the primary and specialty care continuum in the United
      States. METHODS AND RESULTS: We assessed the frequency of achievement of 7
      diabetes mellitus-related quality metrics and variability across the Diabetes
      Collaborative Registry(r) sites. Among 574 972 patients with diabetes mellitus
      from 259 US practices, median (interquartile range) achievement of the quality
      metrics across the practices was the following: (1) glycemic control: 19% (5-47);
      (2) blood pressure control: 80% (67-88); (3) angiotensin-converting enzyme
      inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers in patients with coronary artery
      disease: 62% (51-69); (4) nephropathy screening: 62% (53-71); (5) eye
      examination: 0.7% (0.0-79); (6) foot examination: 0.0% (0.0-2.3); and (7) tobacco
      screening/cessation counseling: 86% (80-94). In hierarchical, modified Poisson
      regression models, there was substantial variability in meeting these metrics
      across sites, particularly with documentation of glycemic control and eye and
      foot examinations. There was also notable variation across specialties, with
      endocrinology practices performing better on glycemic control and diabetes
      mellitus foot examinations and cardiology practices succeeding more in blood
      pressure control and use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin
      II receptor blockers. CONCLUSIONS: The Diabetes Collaborative Registry(r) was
      established to document and improve the quality of outpatient diabetes mellitus
      care. While target achievement of some metrics of cardiovascular risk
      modification was high, achievement of others was suboptimal and highly variable.
      This may be attributable to fragmentation of care, lack of ownership among
      various specialists concerning certain domains of care, incomplete documentation,
      true gaps in care, or a combination of these factors.

PMID- 28862934
TI  - Impact of Spontaneous Extracranial Bleeding Events on Health State Utility in
      Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: Results from the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of different types of extracranial bleeding events on
      health-related quality of life and health-state utility among patients with
      atrial fibrillation is not well understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: The ENGAGE AF
      TIMI 48 (Effective Anticoagulation With Factor Xa Next Generation in Atrial
      Fibrillation-Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction 48) Trial compared edoxaban
      with warfarin with respect to the prevention of stroke or systemic embolism in
      atrial fibrillation. Data from the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D-3L) questionnaire,
      prospectively collected at 3-month intervals for up to 48 months, were used to
      estimate the impact of different categories of bleeding events on health-state
      utility over 12 months following the event. Longitudinal mixed-effect models
      revealed that major gastrointestinal bleeds and major nongastrointestinal bleeds
      were associated with significant immediate decreases in utility scores (-0.029 [
      0.044 to -0.014; P<0.001] and -0.029 [-0.046 to -0.012; P=0.001], respectively).
      These effects decreased in magnitude over time, and were no longer significant
      for major nongastrointestinal bleeds at 9 months, but remained borderline
      significant for major gastrointestinal bleeds at 12 months. Clinically relevant
      nonmajor and minor bleeds were associated with smaller but measurable immediate
      impacts on utility (-0.010 [-0.016 to -0.005] and -0.016 [-0.024 to -0.008];
      P<0.001 for both), which remained relatively constant and statistically
      significant over the 12 months following the bleeding event. CONCLUSIONS: All
      categories of bleeding events were associated with negative impacts on health
      state utility in patients with atrial fibrillation. Major bleeds were associated
      with relatively large immediate decreases in utility scores that gradually
      diminished over 12 months; clinically relevant nonmajor and minor bleeds were
      associated with smaller immediate decreases in utility that persisted over 12
      months. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique
      identifier: NCT00781391.

PMID- 28862935
TI  - What Is the Relationship Between Dairy Intake and Blood Pressure in Black and
      White Children and Adolescents Enrolled in a Weight Management Program?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) clinical trials
      and other studies have demonstrated a relationship between diet and
      cardiovascular outcomes in adults, yet little is known of this relationship in
      children. Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United
      States, with similar increases in hypertension among this population. The purpose
      of our study was to examine the association between dairy intake and blood
      pressure (BP) in a cohort of children and adolescents (aged 4-17 years) enrolled
      in a weight management program. METHODS AND RESULTS: Dietary intake was assessed
      using the Block Kids 2004 food frequency questionnaire in a cross-sectional
      sample of participants enrolled in the Pediatric Metabolic Syndrome Study at the
      Children's Hospital (Charleston, SC). BP and other anthropometrics were obtained
      at baseline. Only children with complete baseline data and food frequency
      questionnaires were included in this analysis (n=117). Associations between food
      group/nutrient intake and BP were examined across race and sex using ANOVA and
      Pearson correlations. Linear regression models were controlled for body mass
      index and age. In the total sample, a significant inverse relationship was found
      between the intake of dairy and systolic BP (r=-0.24, P=0.009). The effect of
      dairy on systolic BP, however, differed by race. We observed a decrease of 11.2
      mm Hg for each serving of dairy consumed by white children, and no decrease in
      systolic BP in black children (P=0.001 for the race-dairy serving interaction).
      CONCLUSIONS: Nutrition professionals must consider nonnutrition factors
      contributing to childhood hypertension, as current dietary recommendations appear
      to have differential outcomes across races.

PMID- 28862936
TI  - Prevalence and Characteristics of Carotid Artery High-Risk Atherosclerotic
      Plaques in Chinese Patients With Cerebrovascular Symptoms: A Chinese
      Atherosclerosis Risk Evaluation II Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture is an important source of
      ischemic stroke. However, the prevalence of high-risk plaque (HRP) defined as
      plaques with luminal surface disruption, a lipid-rich necrotic core occupying
      >40% of the wall, or intraplaque hemorrhage in Chinese population remains
      unclear. This study uses carotid magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) to investigate
      HRP prevalence in carotid arteries of Chinese patients with cerebrovascular
      symptoms. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with cerebral ischemic symptoms in the
      anterior circulation within 2 weeks and carotid plaque determined by ultrasound
      were recruited and underwent CMRI. The HRP features were identified and compared
      between symptomatic and asymptomatic arteries. Receiver-operating-characteristic
      analysis was used to calculate area-under-the-curve (AUC) of stenosis and maximum
      wall thickness for discriminating presence of HRP. In 1047 recruited subjects,
      HRP detected by CMRI was nearly 1.5 times more prevalent than severe stenosis
      (>=50%) in this cohort (28% versus 19%, P<0.0001). Approximately two thirds of
      HRPs were found in arteries with <50% stenosis. The prevalence of HRP in
      symptomatic carotid arteries was significantly higher than that of the
      contralateral asymptomatic carotid arteries (23.0% versus 16.4%, P=0.001).
      Maximum wall thickness was found to be a stronger discriminator than stenosis for
      HRP (AUC: 0.93 versus 0.81, P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: There are significantly more
      high-risk carotid plaques than carotid arteries with >=50% stenosis in
      symptomatic Chinese patients. A substantial number of HRPs were found in arteries
      with lower grade stenosis and maximum wall thickness was a stronger indicator for
      HRP than luminal stenosis. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL:
      https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT02017756.

PMID- 28862937
TI  - Predictors of Intramyocardial Hemorrhage After Reperfused ST-Segment Elevation
      Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Findings from recent studies show that microvascular injury consists
      of microvascular destruction and intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH). Patients with
      ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with IMH show poorer prognoses
      than patients without IMH. Knowledge on predictors for the occurrence of IMH
      after STEMI is lacking. The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence and
      extent of IMH in patients with STEMI and its relation with periprocedural and
      clinical variables. METHODS AND RESULTS: A multicenter observational cohort study
      was performed in patients with successfully reperfused STEMI with cardiovascular
      magnetic resonance examination 5.5+/-1.8 days after percutaneous coronary
      intervention. Microvascular injury was visualized using late gadolinium
      enhancement and T2-weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging for
      microvascular obstruction and IMH, respectively. The median was used as the
      cutoff value to divide the study population with presence of IMH into mild or
      extensive IMH. Clinical and periprocedural parameters were studied in relation to
      occurrence of IMH and extensive IMH, respectively. Of the 410 patients, 54% had
      IMH. The presence of IMH was independently associated with anterior infarction
      (odds ratio, 2.96; 95% CI, 1.73-5.06 [P<0.001]) and periprocedural glycoprotein
      IIb/IIIa inhibitor treatment (odds ratio, 2.67; 95% CI, 1.49-4.80 [P<0.001]).
      Extensive IMH was independently associated with anterior infarction (odds ratio,
      3.76; 95% CI, 1.91-7.43 [P<0.001]). Presence and extent of IMH was associated
      with larger infarct size, greater extent of microvascular obstruction, larger
      left ventricular dimensions, and lower left ventricular ejection fraction (all
      P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Occurrence of IMH was associated with anterior infarction
      and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor treatment. Extensive IMH was associated with
      anterior infarction. IMH was associated with more severe infarction and worse
      short-term left ventricular function in patients with STEMI.

PMID- 28862938
TI  - Microstructural Alterations and Oligodendrocyte Dysmaturation in White Matter
      After Cardiopulmonary Bypass in a Juvenile Porcine Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Newly developed white matter (WM) injury is common after
      cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in severe/complex congenital heart disease.
      Fractional anisotropy (FA) allows measurement of macroscopic organization of WM
      pathology but has rarely been applied after CPB. The aims of our animal study
      were to define CPB-induced FA alterations and to determine correlations between
      these changes and cellular events after congenital heart disease surgery. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: Normal porcine WM development was first assessed between 3 and 7
      weeks of age: 3-week-old piglets were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 CPB-induced
      insults. FA was analyzed in 31 WM structures. WM oligodendrocytes, astrocytes,
      and microglia were assessed immunohistologically. Normal porcine WM development
      resembles human WM development in early infancy. We found region-specific WM
      vulnerability to insults associated with CPB. FA changes after CPB were also
      insult dependent. Within various WM areas, WM within the frontal cortex was
      susceptible, suggesting that FA in the frontal cortex should be a biomarker for
      WM injury after CPB. FA increases occur parallel to cellular processes of WM
      maturation during normal development; however, they are altered following
      surgery. CPB-induced oligodendrocyte dysmaturation, astrogliosis, and microglial
      expansion affect these changes. FA enabled capturing CPB-induced cellular events
      4 weeks postoperatively. Regions most resilient to CPB-induced FA reduction were
      those that maintained mature oligodendrocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing alterations
      of oligodendrocyte development in the frontal cortex can be both a metric and a
      goal to improve neurodevelopmental impairment in the congenital heart disease
      population. Studies using this model can provide important data needed to better
      interpret human imaging studies.

PMID- 28862939
TI  - Left Atrial Size and Long-Term Risk of Recurrent Stroke After Acute Ischemic
      Stroke in Patients With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among patients with ischemic stroke and atrial fibrillation, which
      ones are at high risk of recurrent stroke is unclear. This study aimed to
      determine whether left atrial size was associated with long-term risk of stroke
      recurrence in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      In this multicenter prospective cohort study, nonvalvular atrial fibrillation
      patients hospitalized for acute ischemic stroke were enrolled and followed up
      after discharge. Indexed-left atrial diameter was obtained by dividing left
      atrial diameter by body surface area. Cause-specific and subdistribution hazard
      ratios of recurrent stroke were estimated by Cox proportional hazards and Fine
      Gray models, respectively. Risk prediction was evaluated by integrated
      discrimination improvement and net reclassification improvement. In total, 1611
      patients (77.8+/-10.2 [mean+/-SD] years, 44.5% female) were included. During
      follow-up for 2.40+/-1.63 (mean+/-SD) years, 251 patients had recurrent stroke
      and 514 patients died. An increased indexed-left atrial diameter (per 1 cm/m2)
      was significantly associated with elevated risk of stroke recurrence (hazard
      ratio 1.60, 95% CI 1.30-1.98). The association was maintained when death was
      regarded as the competing risk and in 1464 patients who were treated with
      anticoagulants (hazard ratio 1.59, 95% CI 1.27-2.00). Risk prediction for
      recurrent stroke was significantly improved by adding indexed-left atrial
      diameter to the baseline model composed of the factors in the CHADS2 score or
      those in the CHA2DS2-VASc score. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that left
      atrial enlargement is associated with an increased risk of recurrent stroke in
      nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients with ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28862940
TI  - Childhood Age and Associations Between Childhood Metabolic Syndrome and Adult
      Risk for Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Carotid Intima Media
      Thickness: The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is paucity of knowledge concerning the specific age in youth
      when the associations of metabolic syndrome (MetS) begin to be operative. Thus,
      we investigated the relation of age to the associations of childhood MetS with
      adult MetS, type 2 diabetes mellitus and high carotid intima-media thickness.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Five thousand eight-hundred three participants were analyzed
      in 4 cohort studies (Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns, Bogalusa Heart Study,
      Princeton Lipid Research Study, Insulin Study). International cutoffs and
      previously used 75th percentile cutoffs were used for children to define MetS and
      its components. Mean follow-up period was 22.3 years. Logistic regression was
      used to calculate risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Childhood MetS and
      overweight were associated with over 2.4-fold risk for adult MetS from the age of
      5 years onward. Risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus was increased from the age of 8
      (risk ratio, 2.6-4.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.35-6.76 and 1.12-7.24,
      respectively) onward for the 2 childhood MetS criteria based on international cut
      off values and for childhood overweight. Risk for high carotid intima-media
      thickness was significant at ages 11 to 18 years in relation to childhood MetS or
      overweight (risk ratio, 2.44-4.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.55-3.55 and 2.55
      5.66, respectively). Continuous childhood MetS score was associated with adult
      MetS from the age of 5, with type 2 diabetes mellitus from the age of 14 and with
      high carotid intima-media thickness from the age of 11 years onward. CONCLUSIONS:
      Adult MetS was predicted by MetS in childhood beginning at age 5. However, adult
      type 2 diabetes mellitus and subclinical atherosclerosis were not predicted by
      childhood data until after age 8. Body mass index measurement alone at the same
      age points provided similar findings.

PMID- 28862941
TI  - Prognostic Value of the CHADS2 Score for Adverse Cardiovascular Events in
      Coronary Artery Disease Patients Without Atrial Fibrillation-A Multi-Center
      Observational Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The CHADS2 score has mainly been used to predict the likelihood of
      cerebrovascular accidents in patients with atrial fibrillation. However,
      increasing attention is being paid to this scoring system for risk stratification
      of patients with coronary artery disease. We investigated the value of the CHADS2
      score in predicting cardiovascular/cerebrovascular events in coronary artery
      disease patients without atrial fibrillation. METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a
      multicenter, observational cohort study. The subjects had been admitted to one of
      the participating institutions with coronary artery disease requiring
      percutaneous coronary intervention. We calculated the CHADS2 scores for 7082
      patients (mean age, 69.7 years; males, 71.9%) without clinical evidence of atrial
      fibrillation. Subjects were subdivided into low- (0-1), intermediate- (2-3), and
      high-score (4-6) groups and followed for 1 year. The end point was a composite of
      cardiovascular/cerebrovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and
      ischemic stroke at 1-year follow-up. Rates of triple-vessel/left main trunk
      disease correlated positively with CHADS2 score categories. CHADS2 scores among
      single, double, and triple-vessel/left main trunk groups were 2 (1-2), 2 (1-3),
      and 2 (2-3), respectively (P<0.001). A total of 194 patients (2.8%) had a
      cardiovascular/cerebrovascular event, and Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a
      significantly higher probability of cardiovascular/cerebrovascular events in
      proportion to a higher CHADS2 score (log-rank test, P<0.001). Multivariate Cox
      hazard analysis identified CHADS2 score (per 1 point) as an independent predictor
      of cardiovascular/cerebrovascular events (hazard ratio, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.17-1.47;
      P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This large cohort study indicated that the CHADS2 score is
      useful for the prediction of cardiovascular/cerebrovascular events in coronary
      artery disease patients without atrial fibrillation.

PMID- 28862942
TI  - Physiological Assessment of Ventricular Myocardial Voltage Using Omnipolar
      Electrograms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Characterization of myocardial health by bipolar electrograms are
      critical for ventricular tachycardia therapy. Dependence of bipolar electrograms
      on electrode orientation may reduce reliability of voltage assessment along the
      plane of arrhythmic myocardial substrate. Hence, we sought to evaluate voltage
      assessment from orientation-independent omnipolar electrograms. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We mapped the ventricular epicardium of 5 isolated hearts from each
      species-healthy rabbits, healthy pigs, and diseased humans-under paced
      conditions. We derived bipolar electrograms and voltage peak-to-peak (Vpps) along
      2 bipolar electrode orientations (horizontal and vertical). We derived omnipolar
      electrograms and Vpps using omnipolar electrogram methodology. Voltage maps were
      created for both bipoles and omnipole. Electrode orientation affects the bipolar
      voltage map with an average absolute difference between horizontal and vertical
      of 0.25+/-0.18 mV in humans. Vpps provide larger absolute values than horizontal
      and vertical bipolar Vpps by 1.6 and 1.4 mV, respectively, in humans. Bipolar
      electrograms with the largest Vpps from either along horizontal or vertical
      orientation are highly correlated with omnipolar electrograms and with Vpps
      values (0.97+/-0.08 and 0.94+/-0.08, respectively). Vpps values are more
      consistent than bipoles, in both beat-by-beat (CoV, 0.28+/-0.19 versus 0.08+/
      0.13 in human hearts) and rhythm changes (0.55+/-0.21 versus 0.40+/-0.20 in
      porcine hearts). CONCLUSIONS: Omnipoles provide physiologically relevant and
      consistent voltages that are along the maximal bipolar direction on the plane of
      the myocardium.

PMID- 28862943
TI  - Inter-Relations of Orthostatic Blood Pressure Change, Aortic Stiffness, and Brain
      Structure and Function in Young Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Relations of orthostatic change in blood pressure with brain
      structure and function have not been studied thoroughly, particularly in younger,
      healthier individuals. Elucidation of factors that contribute to early changes in
      brain integrity may lead to development of interventions that delay or prevent
      cognitive impairment. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a sample of the Framingham Heart
      Study Third Generation (N=2119; 53% women; mean age+/-SD, 47+/-8 years), we
      assessed orthostatic change in mean arterial pressure (MAP), aortic stiffness
      (carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity), neuropsychological function, and markers
      of subclinical brain injury on magnetic resonance imaging. Multivariable
      regression analyses were used to assess relations between orthostatic change in
      MAP and brain structural and neuropsychological outcomes. Greater orthostatic
      increase in MAP on standing was related to better Trails B-A performance among
      participants aged <49 years (beta+/-SE, 0.062+/-0.029; P=0.031) and among
      participants with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity <6.9 m/s (beta+/-SE,
      0.063+/-0.026; P=0.016). This relation was not significant among participants who
      were older or had stiffer aortas. Conversely, greater orthostatic increase in MAP
      was related to larger total brain volume among older participants (beta+/-SE,
      0.065+/-0.029; P=0.023) and among participants with carotid-femoral pulse wave
      velocity >=6.9 m/s (beta+/-SE, 0.078+/-0.031; P=0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Blunted
      orthostatic increase in MAP was associated with smaller brain volume among
      participants who were older or had stiffer aortas and with poorer executive
      function among persons who were younger or who had more-elastic aortas. Our
      findings suggest that the brain is sensitive to orthostatic change in MAP, with
      results dependent on age and aortic stiffness.

PMID- 28862944
TI  - Exposure to Violence and Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness in Mexican Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Violence against women has become a global public health threat. Data
      on the potential impact of exposure to violence on cardiovascular disease are
      scarce. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated the association between exposure to
      violence and subclinical cardiovascular disease in 634 disease-free women from
      the Mexican Teachers' Cohort who responded to violence-related items from the
      Life Stressor Checklist and underwent measures of carotid artery intima-media
      thickness in 2012 and 2013. We defined exposure to violence as having ever been
      exposed to physical and/or sexual violence. Intima-media thickness was log
      transformed, and subclinical carotid atherosclerosis was defined as intima-media
      thickness >=0.8 mm or plaque. We used multivariable linear and logistic
      regression models adjusted for several potential confounders. Mean age was 48.9+/
      4.3 years. Close to 40% of women reported past exposure to violence. The lifetime
      prevalence of sexual violence was 7.1%, and prevalence of physical violence was
      23.5% (7.7% reported both sexual and physical violence). Relative to women with
      no history of violence, exposure to violence was associated with higher intima
      media thickness (adjusted mean percentage difference=2.4%; 95% confidence
      interval 0.5, 4.3) and subclinical atherosclerosis (adjusted odds ratio=1.60; 95%
      confidence interval 1.10, 2.32). The association was stronger for exposure to
      physical violence, especially by mugging or physical assault by a stranger
      (adjusted mean % difference=4.6%; 95% confidence interval 1.8, 7.5, and odds
      ratio of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis=2.06; 95% confidence interval 1.22,
      3.49). CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to violence, and in particular assault by a
      stranger, was strongly associated with subclinical cardiovascular disease in
      Mexican middle-aged women.

PMID- 28862945
TI  - Effect of Multifactorial Treatment Targets and Relative Importance of Hemoglobin
      A1c, Blood Pressure, and Low-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol on Cardiovascular
      Diseases in Chinese Primary Care Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A
      Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relative effect of hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, and low
      density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) ("ABC" factors) on the prevention of
      cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus is
      poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the association of key clinical
      parameters on CVD risk using a multifactorial optimal control approach in Chinese
      primary care patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS AND RESULTS: A
      population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted on 144 271 Chinese type
      2 diabetes mellitus primary care patients, aged 18 to 79 and without prior
      clinical diagnosis of CVD in 2008-2011. Cox regressions were conducted to examine
      the association between the combinations of ABC targets (hemoglobin A1c <7%,
      blood pressure <130/90 mm Hg, and LDL-C <2.6 mmol/L) and risks of CVD (overall),
      coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. Achieving more ABC targets
      incrementally reduced the incidence of total CVD and individual disease including
      coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure, irrespective of other patient
      characteristics. Compared with suboptimal control in all ABC levels, achieving
      any 1, 2, and all 3 ABC targets reduced the relative risk of CVD by 13% to 42%,
      31% to 52%, and 55%, respectively. Among those achieving only 1 ABC target, LDL-C
      reduction was associated with the greatest CVD risk reduction (42%), followed by
      blood pressure reduction (18%), and hemoglobin A1c reduction (13%). CONCLUSIONS:
      To achieve the greatest risk reduction for the incidence of CVD, the ultimate
      goal of treatment should be to achieve target control of hemoglobin A1c, blood
      pressure, and LDL-C. If it is not possible to achieve all 3 targets, efforts
      should be prioritized on treating the LDL-C to minimize CVD risk.

PMID- 28862946
TI  - alpha1-Adrenergic Receptors Function Within Hetero-Oligomeric Complexes With
      Atypical Chemokine Receptor 3 and Chemokine (C-X-C motif) Receptor 4 in Vascular
      Smooth Muscle Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently, we provided evidence that alpha1-adrenergic receptors (ARs)
      in vascular smooth muscle are regulated by chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor
      (CXCR) 4 and atypical chemokine receptor 3 (ACKR3). While we showed that CXCR4
      controls alpha1-ARs through formation of heteromeric receptor complexes in human
      vascular smooth muscle cells (hVSMCs), the molecular basis underlying cross-talk
      between ACKR3 and alpha1-ARs is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: We show that ACKR3
      agonists inhibit inositol trisphosphate production in hVSMCs on stimulation with
      phenylephrine. In proximity ligation assays and co-immunoprecipitation
      experiments, we observed that recombinant and endogenous ACKR3 form heteromeric
      complexes with alpha1A/B/D-AR. While small interfering RNA knockdown of ACKR3 in
      hVSMCs reduced alpha1B/D-AR:ACKR3, CXCR4:ACKR3, and alpha1B/D-AR:CXCR4 complexes,
      small interfering RNA knockdown of CXCR4 reduced alpha1B/D-AR:ACKR3 heteromers.
      Phenylephrine-induced inositol trisphosphate production from hVSMCs was abolished
      after ACKR3 and CXCR4 small interfering RNA knockdown. Peptide analogs of
      transmembrane domains 2/4/7 of ACKR3 showed differential effects on
      heteromerization between ACKR3, alpha1A/B/D-AR, and CXCR4. While the
      transmembrane domain 2 peptide interfered with alpha1B/D-AR:ACKR3 and CXCR4:ACKR3
      heteromerization, it increased heteromerization between CXCR4 and alpha1A/B-AR.
      The transmembrane domain 2 peptide inhibited ACKR3 but did not affect alpha1b-AR
      in beta-arrestin recruitment assays. Furthermore, the transmembrane domain 2
      peptide inhibited phenylephrine-induced inositol trisphosphate production in
      hVSMCs and attenuated phenylephrine-induced constriction of mesenteric arteries.
      CONCLUSIONS: alpha1-ARs form hetero-oligomeric complexes with the ACKR3:CXCR4
      heteromer, which is required for alpha1B/D-AR function, and activation of ACKR3
      negatively regulates alpha1-ARs. G protein-coupled receptor hetero
      oligomerization is a dynamic process, which depends on the relative abundance of
      available receptor partners. Endogenous alpha1-ARs function within a network of
      hetero-oligomeric receptor complexes.

PMID- 28862947
TI  - Role of Volume Redistribution in the Congestion of Heart Failure.

PMID- 28862948
TI  - Improving Outcomes of Witnessed Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest After
      Implementation of International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation 2010
      Consensus: A Nationwide Prospective Observational Population-Based Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR)
      periodically updates the consensus recommendations for cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation to improve the outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
      However, little is known about the differences in outcomes of witnessed OHCA
      following the publication of the ILCOR 2010 and the ILCOR 2005 recommendations.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: We enrolled 241 990 adults who experienced witnessed OHCA
      between 2007 and 2013 from a prospective, nation-wide, population-based cohort
      database in Japan. We compared neurologically favorable 1-month survival and 1
      month survival rates post-OHCA by dividing the study period into 2 categories:
      the ILCOR 2005 period and ILCOR 2010 period. The associations between guideline
      periods and outcomes were estimated using multivariable logistic regression
      analysis and reported as adjusted odds ratio and 95% CI. Among 241 990 patients
      examined in this study, OHCA was witnessed in 44 706 patients (18%) by emergency
      medical service personnel and in 197 284 patients (82%) by citizens. Compared
      with the ILCOR 2005 period, the neurologically favorable 1-month survival rate
      improved from 4.6% to 5.2% (adjusted odds ratio, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.42-1.67;
      P<0.001), and the 1-month survival rate improved from 9.0% to 9.7% (adjusted odds
      ratio, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.27-1.42; P<0.001) in the ILCOR 2010 period. These
      improvements were also shown in patients receiving conventional versus
      compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation. CONCLUSIONS: Outcomes of
      witnessed OHCA were better in the ILCOR 2010 period than those in the ILCOR 2005
      period. Our results can provide baseline data for many future prospective
      studies.

PMID- 28862949
TI  - High Perforin-Positive Cardiac Cell Infiltration and Male Sex Predict Adverse
      Long-Term Mortality in Patients With Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors analyzed the effects of perforin-dependent infiltration
      on long-term mortality in patients with inflammatory cardiomyopathy (CMi). We
      previously demonstrated that left ventricular function deteriorates and
      progresses to substantial cardiac dysfunction in patients with perforin-positive
      cardiac cell infiltration. METHODS AND RESULTS: Between 2003 and 2013, 2389
      consecutive patients with clinically suspected CMi who underwent endomyocardial
      biopsies were enrolled. Endomyocardial biopsies were performed at first admission
      after exclusion of ischemic or valvular heart disease, and CMi was confirmed in
      1717 patients. Follow-up was up to 10.1 years (median 0.47 years; interquartile
      range, 0.03-2.56 years) and information on vital status was obtained from
      official resident data files. Multivariable statistical analysis was conducted
      for all patients with CMi regarding significant predictors of all-cause mortality
      or need for heart transplantation. Multiple Cox regression analysis revealed
      perforin above the calculated cutoff point of 2.9 cells/mm2 as a strong predictor
      of impaired survival with a hazard ratio of 1.881 (95% confidence interval, 1.177
      3.008; P=0.008), independent of left ventricular function and other myocardial
      inflammation markers (CD3, macrophage-1 antigen, leukocyte function-associated
      antigen-1, human leukocyte antigen-1, and intercellular cell adhesion molecule
      1). Unexpectedly, male sex emerged as another strong adverse predictor of
      survival in CMi (hazard ratio, 1.863; confidence interval, 1.096-3.168
      [P=0.022]). Whereas left ventricular ejection fraction course is adversely
      affected by myocardial perforin, multivariate analysis indicates that left
      ventricular ejection fraction explains only part of the observed overall
      mortality. CONCLUSIONS: High perforin-positive cardiac cell infiltration and male
      sex are independent adverse predictors of long-term mortality in CMi.
      Furthermore, exact quantification of immunohistochemically detected infiltrates
      is necessary to assess the prognosis.

PMID- 28862950
TI  - Cardiac Adaptations to High-Intensity Aerobic Training in Premenopausal and
      Recent Postmenopausal Women: The Copenhagen Women Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We examined the role of menopause on cardiac dimensions and function
      and assessed the efficacy of exercise training before and after menopause.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Two groups of healthy premenopausal (n=36, 49.4+/-0.3 years)
      and postmenopausal (n=37, 53.5+/-0.5 years) women with no history of
      cardiovascular disease and with a mean age difference between groups of only 4
      years were studied. Cardiac dimensions and systolic and diastolic function were
      determined by transthoracic echocardiography with tissue Doppler imaging and 2
      dimensional speckle tracking. Measurements were performed at baseline and after a
      12-week period of high-intensity aerobic cycle training. LV internal diastolic
      diameter and LV mass were similar in the 2 groups at baseline and increased by
      ~2% to 8% (P=0.04-0.0007) with training in both groups. Left atrial end-diastolic
      and end-systolic volumes were similar for both groups and increased by 23% to 36%
      (P=0.0006-0.0001) with training. Systolic function assessed by mean global strain
      was similar in both groups at baseline and increased by ~8% (P=0.0004) with
      training in the postmenopausal group. LV displacement increased by ~3% (P=0.04)
      in the premenopausal women only. Diastolic function assessed by E/A ratio was
      similar at baseline and increased by ~7% (P=0.01) in the premenopausal group and
      11% (P=0.0001) in the postmenopausal group with training. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that training-induced cardiac adaptations are preserved in the
      early postmenopausal phase. Furthermore, the hormonal changes associated with the
      menopausal transition do not appear to affect cardiac dimensions and function.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique
      identifier: NCT02135575.

PMID- 28862951
TI  - Serum Neprilysin and Recurrent Admissions in Patients With Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our aim was to evaluate the association between the soluble form of
      neprilysin (sNEP) levels and long-term all-cause, cardiovascular, and acute heart
      failure (AHF) recurrent admissions in an ambulatory cohort of patients with heart
      failure. sNEP has emerged as a new biomarker with promising implications for
      prognosis and therapy in patients with heart failure. Reducing the recurrent
      admission rate of heart failure patients has become an important target of public
      health planning strategies. METHODS AND RESULTS: We measured sNEP levels in 1021
      consecutive ambulatory heart failure patients. End points were the number of all
      cause, cardiovascular, and AHF hospitalizations during follow-up. We used
      covariate-adjusted incidence rate ratios to identify associations. At a median
      follow-up of 3.4 years (interquartile range: 1.8-5.7), 391 (38.3%) patients died,
      477 (46.7%) patients had 1901 all-cause admissions, 324 (31.7%) patients had 770
      cardiovascular admissions, and 218 (21.4%) patients had 488 AHF admissions. The
      medians for sNEP and amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide were 0.64 ng/mL
      (interquartile range: 0.39-1.22) and 1248 pg/mL (interquartile range: 538-2825),
      respectively. In a multivariate setting, the adjusted incidence rate ratios for
      the top (>1.22 ng/mL) versus the bottom (<=0.39 ng/mL) quartiles of sNEP were
      1.37 (95% confidence interval: 1.03-1.82), P=0.032; 1.51 (95% confidence
      interval: 1.10-2.06), P=0.010; and 1.51 (95% confidence interval: 1.05-2.16),
      P=0.026 for all-cause, cardiovascular, and AHF admissions, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Elevated sNEP levels predicted an increased risk of recurrent all
      cause, cardiovascular, and AHF admissions in ambulatory patients with heart
      failure.

PMID- 28862953
TI  - International Collaboration With Dedicated Local Implementation Improves Survival
      From Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

PMID- 28862952
TI  - Sex-Specific Associations of Oral Anticoagulant Use and Cardiovascular Outcomes
      in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sex-specific effectiveness of rivaroxaban (RIVA), dabigatran (DABI),
      and warfarin in reducing myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure (HF), and all
      cause mortality among patients with atrial fibrillation are not known. We
      assessed sex-specific associations of RIVA, DABI, or warfarin use with the risk
      of MI, HF, and all-cause mortality among patients with atrial fibrillation.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Medicare beneficiaries (men: 65 734 [44.8%], women: 81 135
      [55.2%]) with atrial fibrillation who initiated oral anticoagulants formed the
      study cohort. Inpatient admissions for MI, HF, and all-cause mortality were
      compared between the 3 drugs separately for men and women using 3-way propensity
      matched samples. In men, RIVA use was associated with a reduced risk of MI
      admissions compared with warfarin use (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval
      (CI): 0.59 [0.38-0.91]), with a trend towards reduced risk compared with DABI use
      (0.67 [0.44-1.01]). In women, there were no significant differences in the risk
      of MI admissions across all 3 anticoagulants. In both sexes, RIVA use and DABI
      use were associated with reduced risk of HF admissions (men: RIVA; 0.75 [0.63
      0.89], DABI; 0.81 [0.69-0.96]) (women: RIVA; 0.64 [0.56-0.74], DABI; 0.73 [0.63
      0.83]) and all-cause mortality (men: RIVA; 0.66 [0.53-0.81], DABI; 0.75 [0.61
      0.93]) (women: RIVA; 0.76 [0.63-0.91], DABI; 0.77 [0.64-0.93]) compared with
      warfarin use. CONCLUSIONS: RIVA use and DABI use when compared with warfarin use
      was associated with a reduced risk of HF admissions and all-cause mortality in
      both sexes. However, reduced risk of MI admissions noted with RIVA use appears to
      be limited to men.

PMID- 28862954
TI  - A Systems Biology Approach to Investigating Sex Differences in Cardiac
      Hypertrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart failure preceded by hypertrophy is a leading cause of death,
      and sex differences in hypertrophy are well known, although the basis for these
      sex differences is poorly understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study used a
      systems biology approach to investigate mechanisms underlying sex differences in
      cardiac hypertrophy. Male and female mice were treated for 2 and 3 weeks with
      angiotensin II to induce hypertrophy. Sex differences in cardiac hypertrophy were
      apparent after 3 weeks of treatment. RNA sequencing was performed on hearts, and
      sex differences in mRNA expression at baseline and following hypertrophy were
      observed, as well as within-sex differences between baseline and hypertrophy. Sex
      differences in mRNA were substantial at baseline and reduced somewhat with
      hypertrophy, as the mRNA differences induced by hypertrophy tended to overwhelm
      the sex differences. We performed an integrative analysis to identify mRNA
      networks that were differentially regulated in the 2 sexes by hypertrophy and
      obtained a network centered on PPARalpha (peroxisome proliferator-activated
      receptor alpha). Mouse experiments further showed that acute inhibition of
      PPARalpha blocked sex differences in the development of hypertrophy. CONCLUSIONS:
      The data in this study suggest that PPARalpha is involved in the sex-dimorphic
      regulation of cardiac hypertrophy.

PMID- 28862955
TI  - Sex Differences in Associations of Arterial Compliance With Coronary Artery
      Plaque and Calcification Burden.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease is a leading killer of women. Arterial
      stiffness predicts myocardial infarction, and postmenopausal women have lower
      arterial compliance (AC) than men. We hypothesized that lower AC would be
      associated with greater burden of coronary artery plaque and calcification, and
      that these associations would be stronger in women than men. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      We evaluated 3639 consecutive adults without coronary artery disease history who
      had coronary computed tomography between 2006 and 2014. Coronary artery
      calcification was calculated using the Agatston method. Plaque extent was
      assessed by the number of arterial segments with visible plaque divided by the
      number of visualized segments *100 (percent plaque score). Indexed AC was
      calculated as stroke volume index/central pulse pressure. We used step-wise
      multivariable linear regression to assess associations of log indexed AC with log
      (percent plaque score+1) and log (coronary artery calcification+1). Sex-specific
      models were performed if the interaction sex*AC was significant. Mean age was
      57+/-11 years, 53% were men, and 71% were hypertensive. Interaction term sex*AC
      was significant for both models (P=0.008 for percent plaque score and 0.022 for
      coronary artery calcification). Lower indexed AC was associated with higher
      percent plaque score and coronary artery calcification in women (beta+/-SE: 
      0.231+/-0.113, P=0.042 and -0.334+/-0.166, P=0.044, respectively), but not in men
      (beta+/-SE: -0.062+/-0.104, P=0.551 and 0.114+/-0.173, P=0.510, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Lower AC is associated with greater burden of coronary artery plaque
      and calcification in women, but not in men. Our findings highlight low AC as a
      correlate of more-advanced coronary artery disease and as a potential link to the
      worse cardiovascular outcomes in women.

PMID- 28862956
TI  - Sirtuin 3 Deficiency Accelerates Hypertensive Cardiac Remodeling by Impairing
      Angiogenesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence indicates that impaired angiogenesis may contribute
      to hypertension-induced cardiac remodeling. The nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
      dependent deacetylase Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) has the potential to modulate
      angiogenesis, but this has not been confirmed. As such, the aim of this study was
      to examine the relationship between SIRT3-mediated angiogenesis and cardiac
      remodeling. METHODS AND RESULTS: Our experiments were performed on SIRT3 knockout
      and age-matched wild-type mice infused with angiotensin II (1400 ng/kg per
      minute) or saline for 14 days. After angiotensin II infusion, SIRT3 knockout mice
      developed more severe microvascular rarefaction and functional hypoxia in cardiac
      tissues compared with wild-type mice. These events were concomitant with
      mitochondrial dysfunction and enhanced collagen I and collagen III expression,
      leading to cardiac fibrosis. Silencing SIRT3 facilitated angiotensin II-induced
      aberrant Pink/Parkin acetylation and impaired mitophagy, while excessive
      mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation limited angiogenic capacity in
      primary mouse cardiac microvascular endothelial cells. Moreover, SIRT3
      overexpression in cardiac microvascular endothelial cells enhanced Pink/Parkin
      mediated mitophagy, attenuated mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation,
      and restored vessel sprouting and tube formation. In parallel, endothelial cell
      specific SIRT3 transgenic mice showed decreased fibrosis, as well as improved
      cardiac function and microvascular network, compared with wild-type mice with
      similar stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these findings suggest that SIRT3
      could promote angiogenesis through attenuating mitochondrial dysfunction caused
      by defective mitophagy.

PMID- 28862958
TI  - Paradox of Appropriate Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Therapy: Saving
      Lives But Revealing an Increased Mortality Risk.

PMID- 28862957
TI  - Mortality Implications of Appropriate Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator
      Therapy in Secondary Prevention Patients: Contrasting Mortality in Primary
      Prevention Patients From a Prospective Population-Based Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We sought to examine the mortality impact of appropriate implantable
      cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy between patients who received ICD for
      primary versus secondary prevention purposes. METHODS AND RESULTS: From a
      prospective, population-based registry, we identified 7020 patients who underwent
      de novo ICD implantation between February 2007 and May 2012 in Ontario, Canada.
      The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. We used multivariable Cox
      proportional hazard modeling to adjust for differences in baseline
      characteristics and analyzed the mortality impact of first appropriate ICD
      therapy (shock and antitachycardia pacing [ATP]) as a time-varying covariate.
      There were 1929 (27.5%) patients who received ICDs for secondary prevention
      purposes. The median follow-up period was 5.02 years. Compared with those with
      secondary prevention ICDs, patients with primary prevention ICDs had more medical
      comorbidities, and lower ejection fraction. Patients who experienced appropriate
      ICD shock or ATP had greater risk of death compared with those who did not,
      irrespective of implant indication. In the primary prevention group, the adjusted
      hazard ratios of death for appropriate shock and ATP were 2.00 (95% CI: 1.72
      2.33) and 1.73 (95% CI: 1.52-1.97), respectively. In the secondary prevention
      group, the adjusted hazard ratios of death for appropriate ICD shock and ATP were
      1.46 (95% CI: 1.20-1.77) and 1.38 (95% CI: 1.16-1.64), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Despite having a more favorable clinical profile, occurrence of appropriate ICD
      shock or ATP in patients with secondary prevention ICDs was associated with
      similar magnitudes of mortality risk as those with primary prevention ICDs. A
      heightened degree of care is warranted for all patients who experience
      appropriate ICD shock or ATP therapy.

PMID- 28862959
TI  - Hypo-Attenuated Leaflet Thickening and Reduced Leaflet Motion in Sutureless
      Bioprosthetic Aortic Valves.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hypo-attenuated leaflet thickening (HALT) and
      reduced leaflet motion (RLM) is unknown in surgically implanted bioprostheses
      because systematic investigation of HALT and/or RLM is limited to a few catheter
      based valves. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HALT and
      RLM by cardiac computed tomography in patients who underwent surgical aortic
      valve replacement and received a Perceval sutureless aortic valve bioprosthesis.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a single-center prospective observational study
      that included 47 patients (83.5% of the total number of implantations) who
      underwent surgical aortic valve replacement with implantation of the Perceval
      sutureless bioprosthesis (LivaNova PLC, London, UK) at Karolinska University
      Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden from 2012 to 2016 and were studied by cardiac
      computed tomography. Cardiac computed tomography was performed at a median of 491
      days (range 36-1247 days) postoperatively. HALT was found in 18 (38%) patients
      and RLM in 13 (28%) patients. All patients with RLM had HALT. Among patients with
      HALT, 5 out of 18 patients (28%) were treated with anticoagulation (warfarin or
      any novel oral anticoagulant) at the time of cardiac computed tomography. Among
      patients with RLM, 3 out of 13 patients (23%) were treated with anticoagulation.
      CONCLUSIONS: HALT and RLM were prevalent in the surgically implanted Perceval
      sutureless aortic valve bioprosthesis. Both HALT and RLM were found in patients
      with ongoing anticoagulation treatment. Whether these findings are associated
      with adverse events needs further study. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL:
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02671474.

PMID- 28862960
TI  - Selection of Stent Type in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation Presenting With
      Acute Myocardial Infarction: An Analysis From the ACTION (Acute Coronary
      Treatment and Intervention Outcomes Network) Registry-Get With the Guidelines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients receiving oral anticoagulation in addition to dual
      antiplatelet therapy are known to be at high risk for bleeding events; thus, the
      selection of a drug-eluting stent (DES) versus a bare metal stent (BMS) can have
      important implications for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) presenting with
      acute myocardial infarction (MI). METHODS AND RESULTS: From the National
      Cardiovascular Data Registry ACTION (Acute Coronary Treatment and Intervention
      Outcomes Network) Registry-Get With the Guidelines, we identified 14 427 AF
      patients presenting with acute MI undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention
      from 2008 to 2014. Temporal trends and hospital variation in DES use were
      examined, as were patterns of use by stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc) and bleeding risk
      ATRIA (Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation). Among patients
      with linked Medicare data (n=2844), multivariable Cox regression modeling was
      used to compare risks for a composite outcome (all-cause mortality, readmission
      for stroke, or MI), readmission for stroke, revascularization, and major bleeding
      at 1 year. A DES was used in 8414 (58.9%) MI patients with AF, increasing from
      47.1% in 2008 to 67.9% in 2014, with wide variation among hospitals. DES
      placement was more common than BMS placement among patients at high stroke risk
      (CHA2DS2-VASc >=2) and high bleeding risk (ATRIA >=4). Although aspirin and a
      P2Y12 inhibitor were prescribed for >95% of all patients regardless of stent type
      at discharge, warfarin was prescribed less frequently among patients receiving a
      DES than a BMS (31% versus 39%, P<0.001). The composite outcome was similar
      between patients with a DES or BMS at 1 year (22% versus 26%; adjusted hazard
      ratio: 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-1.03). CONCLUSIONS: Use of DESs
      among MI patients with AF has increased over time, but substantial hospital-level
      variation was observed. Patients with AF meeting indications for anticoagulation
      are more likely to receive a DES than a BMS, even among those at high predicted
      risk of both stroke and bleeding.

PMID- 28862961
TI  - Sudden Cardiac Death in Women With Suspected Ischemic Heart Disease, Preserved
      Ejection Fraction, and No Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease: A Report From the
      Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is often the first presentation of
      ischemic heart disease; however, there is limited information on SCD among women
      with and without obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). We evaluated SCD
      incidence in the WISE (Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation) study. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: Overall, 904 women with suspected ischemic heart disease with preserved
      ejection fraction and core laboratory coronary angiography were followed for
      outcomes. In case of death, a death certificate and/or a physician or family
      narrative of the circumstances of death was obtained. A clinical events committee
      rated all deaths as cardiovascular or noncardiovascular and as SCD or non-SCD. In
      total, 96 women (11%) died over a median of 6 years (maximum: 8 years). Among 65
      cardiovascular deaths, 42% were SCD. Mortality per 1000 person-hours increased
      linearly with CAD severity (no CAD: 5.8; minimal: 15.9; obstructive: 38.6;
      P<0.0001). However, the proportion of SCD was similar across CAD severity: 40%,
      58%, and 38% for no, minimal, and obstructive CAD subgroups, respectively (P
      value not significant). In addition to traditional risk factors (age, diabetes
      mellitus, smoking), a history of depression (P=0.018) and longer corrected QT
      interval (P=0.023) were independent SCD predictors in the entire cohort.
      Corrected QT interval was an independent predictor of SCD in women without
      obstructive CAD (P=0.033). CONCLUSIONS: SCD contributes substantially to
      mortality in women with and without obstructive CAD. Corrected QT interval is the
      single independent SCD risk factor in women without obstructive CAD. In addition
      to management of traditional risk factors, these data indicate that further
      investigation should address mechanistic understanding and interventions
      targeting depression and corrected QT interval in women.

PMID- 28862962
TI  - Inspiratory Muscle Training Is Associated With Improved Inspiratory Muscle
      Strength, Resting Cardiac Output, and the Ventilatory Efficiency of Exercise in
      Patients With a Fontan Circulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with a Fontan circulation have reduced exercise capacity and
      respiratory muscle strength. Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) improves exercise
      capacity and quality of life in adults with heart failure. We assessed whether 6
      weeks of a home-based program of IMT improves inspiratory muscle strength and the
      ventilatory efficiency of exercise in adolescent patients with a Fontan
      circulation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-three adolescent participants (aged 16+/
      2 years) with a Fontan circulation underwent 6 weeks of IMT for 30 minutes daily.
      Respiratory muscle strength (maximal inspiratory pressure and expiratory
      pressure), lung function, and exercise capacity (cardiopulmonary exercise
      testing) were assessed. Fourteen of 23 participants also underwent exercise
      cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to examine the effects of IMT on cardiac
      output and systemic and pulmonary blood flow. Six weeks of IMT improved maximal
      inspiratory pressure by 36+/-24 cm H2O (61+/-46%) with no change in maximal
      expiratory pressure. Ventilatory efficiency of exercise improved after 6 weeks of
      IMT (from 34.2+/-7.8 to 32.2+/-5.6, P=0.04). In those who underwent exercise
      cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, IMT increased resting cardiac output (from
      4.2+/-1.2 to 4.5+/-1.0 L/min, P=0.03) and ejection fraction (from 50.1+/-4.3 to
      52.8+/-6.1%, P=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Six weeks of IMT is associated with improved
      inspiratory muscle strength, ventilatory efficiency of exercise, and resting
      cardiac output in young Fontan patients. IMT may be a simple beneficial addition
      to the current management of Fontan patients, potentially reducing exercise
      intolerance and long-term morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28862963
TI  - Delayed Care and Mortality Among Women and Men With Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have
      higher mortality rates than men. We investigated whether sex-related differences
      in timely access to care among STEMI patients may be a factor associated with
      excess risk of early mortality in women. METHODS AND RESULTS: We identified 6022
      STEMI patients who had information on time of symptom onset to time of hospital
      presentation at 41 hospitals participating in the ISACS-TC (International Survey
      of Acute Coronary Syndromes in Transitional Countries) registry (NCT01218776)
      from October 2010 through April 2016. Patients were stratified into time-delay
      cohorts. We estimated the 30-day risk of all-cause mortality in each cohort.
      Despite similar delays in seeking care, the overall time from symptom onset to
      hospital presentation was longer for women than men (median: 270 minutes [range:
      130-776] versus 240 minutes [range: 120-600]). After adjustment for baseline
      variables, female sex was independently associated with greater risk of 30-day
      mortality (odds ratio: 1.58; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-1.97). Sex differences
      in mortality following STEMI were no longer observed for patients having delays
      from symptom onset to hospital presentation of <=1 hour (odds ratio: 0.77; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.29-2.02). CONCLUSIONS: Sex difference in mortality
      following STEMI persists and appears to be driven by prehospital delays in
      hospital presentation. Women appear to be more vulnerable to prolonged untreated
      ischemia. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/.
      Unique identifier: NCT01218776.

PMID- 28862964
TI  - Hospital Practice of Direct-Home Discharge and 30-Day Readmission After
      Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in the Society of Thoracic
      Surgeons/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy (STS/ACC TVT)
      Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nearly 17% of patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge
      after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Selected patients are discharged to
      skilled nursing facilities, yet the association between a hospital's practice to
      discharge home versus to skilled nursing facilities, and readmission remains
      unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College
      of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy (STS/ACC TVT) Registry was used to
      evaluate readmissions among patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement (2011-2015). Hospitals were divided into quartiles (Q1-Q4) based on
      the percentage of patients discharged directly home. We assessed patient and
      hospital level characteristics and used hierarchical logistic regression to
      analyze the association of discharge disposition with 30-day readmission. Our
      cohort included 18 568 transcatheter aortic valve replacement patients at 329 US
      hospitals, of whom 69% were discharged directly home. Hospitals in the highest
      quartile of direct home discharge (Q4) compared with hospitals in the lowest (Q1)
      were more likely to use femoral access (75.2% versus 60.1%, P<0.001), had fewer
      patients receiving transfusion (26.4% versus 40.9%, P<0.001), and were more
      likely to be located in the Southern United States (48.8% versus 18.3%, P<0.001).
      Median 30-day readmission rate was 17.9%. There was no significant difference in
      30-day readmissions among quartiles (P=0.14), even after multivariable adjustment
      (odds ratio Q4 versus Q1=0.89, 95%CI 0.76-1.04; P=0.15). Factors most strongly
      associated with 30-day readmission were glomerular filtration rate, in-hospital
      stroke or transient ischemic attack, and nonfemoral access. CONCLUSIONS: There
      was no statistically significant association between hospital practice of direct
      home discharge post-transcatheter aortic valve replacement and 30-day
      readmission. Further research is needed to understand regional variations and
      optimum strategies for postdischarge care.

PMID- 28862965
TI  - Subclinical Valve Thrombosis in Sutureless Bioprosthetic Valves.

PMID- 28862966
TI  - Are Drug Eluting Stents Worth Triple Therapy?

PMID- 28862967
TI  - In Touch But Out of Time: Aggressive Hospital Discharge and Readmissions After
      Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

PMID- 28862968
TI  - Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Versus Computed Tomography Angiography-Derived
      Fractional Flow Reserve Testing in Stable Patients With Intermediate-Range
      Coronary Lesions: Influence on Downstream Diagnostic Workflows and Invasive
      Angiography Findings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data on the clinical utility of coronary computed tomography
      angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (FFRCT) are sparse. In patients with
      intermediate (40-70%) coronary stenosis determined by coronary computed
      tomography angiography, we investigated the association of replacing standard
      myocardial perfusion imaging with FFRCT testing with downstream utilization of
      invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and the diagnostic yield of ICA (rate of no
      obstructive disease, and rate of revascularization). METHODS AND RESULTS: This
      was a single-center observational study of symptomatic patients with suspected
      coronary artery disease referred to coronary computed tomography angiography
      between 2013 and 2015. Patients were divided into 3 historical groups based on
      the adjunctive functional testing approach: myocardial perfusion imaging (n=1332)
      or FFRCT "implementation" (n=800) or "clinical use" (n=1391). Propensity score
      matching was used to estimate the average period effect on outcomes. Patients in
      the FFRCT clinical use group versus the myocardial perfusion imaging group were
      older and had higher pretest probability of obstructive disease. After adjusting
      for baseline risk characteristics, there was a reduction in downstream ICA
      utilization (absolute risk difference: -4.2; 95% CI, -6.9 to -1.6; P=0.002). In
      patients referred to ICA, findings of no obstructive coronary artery disease
      decreased (-12.8%; 95% CI, -22.2 to -3.4; P=0.008) and rate of coronary
      revascularization increased (14.1%; 95% CI, 3.3-24.9; P=0.01), as did
      availability of functional information for guidance of revascularization (27.8%;
      95% CI, 11.3-44.4; P<0.001) after clinical adoption of FFRCT. CONCLUSIONS:
      Replacing adjunctive myocardial perfusion imaging with FFRCT testing for
      functional assessment of intermediate stenosis determined by coronary computed
      tomography angiography in stable coronary artery disease was associated with less
      ICA utilization, and a higher ICA diagnostic yield. The findings in this
      observational study needs confirmation in prospective, randomized trials.

PMID- 28862969
TI  - Three-dimensional Integrated Functional, Structural, and Computational Mapping to
      Define the Structural "Fingerprints" of Heart-Specific Atrial Fibrillation
      Drivers in Human Heart Ex Vivo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Structural remodeling of human atria plays a key role in sustaining
      atrial fibrillation (AF), but insufficient quantitative analysis of human atrial
      structure impedes the treatment of AF. We aimed to develop a novel 3-dimensional
      (3D) structural and computational simulation analysis tool that could reveal the
      structural contributors to human reentrant AF drivers. METHODS AND RESULTS: High
      resolution panoramic epicardial optical mapping of the coronary-perfused
      explanted intact human atria (63-year-old woman, chronic hypertension, heart
      weight 608 g) was conducted during sinus rhythm and sustained AF maintained by
      spatially stable reentrant AF drivers in the left and right atrium. The whole
      atria (107*61*85 mm3) were then imaged with contrast-enhancement MRI (9.4 T,
      180*180*360-MUm3 resolution). The entire 3D human atria were analyzed for wall
      thickness (0.4-11.7 mm), myofiber orientations, and transmural fibrosis (36.9%
      subendocardium; 14.2% midwall; 3.4% subepicardium). The 3D computational analysis
      revealed that a specific combination of wall thickness and fibrosis ranges were
      primarily present in the optically defined AF driver regions versus nondriver
      tissue. Finally, a 3D human heart-specific atrial computer model was developed by
      integrating 3D structural and functional mapping data to test AF induction,
      maintenance, and ablation strategies. This 3D model reproduced the optically
      defined reentrant AF drivers, which were uninducible when fibrosis and myofiber
      anisotropy were removed from the model. CONCLUSIONS: Our novel 3D computational
      high-resolution framework may be used to quantitatively analyze structural
      substrates, such as wall thickness, myofiber orientation, and fibrosis,
      underlying localized AF drivers, and aid the development of new patient-specific
      treatments.

PMID- 28862972
TI  - Improved Precision of Initial Chest Pain Evaluation With Fractional Flow Reserve
      Computed Tomography.

PMID- 28862970
TI  - Clinical Outcomes of Deferred Lesions With Angiographically Insignificant
      Stenosis But Low Fractional Flow Reserve.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data are limited regarding outcomes of deferred lesions in patients
      with angiographically insignificant stenosis but low fractional flow reserve
      (FFR). We investigated the natural history of angiographically insignificant
      stenosis with low FFR among patients who underwent routine 3-vessel FFR
      measurement. METHODS AND RESULTS: From December 2011 to March 2014, 1136 patients
      with 3298 vessels underwent routine 3-vessel FFR measurement (3V FFR-FRIENDS
      study, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01621438), and this study analyzed the 2
      year clinical outcomes of 1024 patients with 2124 lesions with angiographically
      insignificant stenosis (percentage of diameter stenosis <50%), in which
      revascularization was deferred. All lesions were classified according to FFR
      values, using a cutoff of 0.80 (high FFR >0.80 versus low FFR <=0.80). The
      primary end point was outcome of major adverse cardiovascular events (a composite
      of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and ischemia-driven revascularization)
      at 2 years. Mean angiographic percentage of diameter stenosis and FFR of total
      lesions were 32.5+/-10.3% and 0.91+/-0.08%, respectively. Among the total lesions
      with angiographically insignificant stenosis, 8.7% showed low FFR (185 lesions).
      The incidence of lesions with low FFR was 2.5%, 3.8%, 9.0%, and 15.1% in
      categories of percentage of diameter stenosis <20%, 20% to 30%, 30% to 40%, and
      40% to 50%, respectively. At 2-year follow-up, the low-FFR group showed a
      significantly higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events compared with
      the high FFR group (3.3% versus 1.2%, hazard ratio: 3.371; 95% CI, 1.346-8.442;
      P=0.009). In multivariable analysis, low FFR was the most powerful independent
      predictor of future MACE in deferred lesions with angiographically insignificant
      stenosis (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.617; 95% CI, 1.026-6.679; P=0.044).
      CONCLUSIONS: In deferred angiographically insignificant stenosis, lesions with
      low FFR showed significantly higher event rates than those with high FFR. FFR was
      an independent predictor of future major adverse cardiovascular events in lesions
      with angiographically insignificant stenosis. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL:
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01621438.

PMID- 28862971
TI  - Self-Reported Health and Outcomes in Patients With Stable Coronary Heart Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The major determinants and prognostic importance of self-reported
      health in patients with stable coronary heart disease are uncertain. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: The STABILITY (Stabilization of Atherosclerotic Plaque by Initiation of
      Darapladib Therapy) trial randomized 15 828 patients with stable coronary heart
      disease to treatment with darapladib or placebo. At baseline, 98% of participants
      completed a questionnaire that included the question, "Overall, how do you feel
      your general health is now?" Possible responses were excellent, very good, good,
      average, and poor. Adjudicated major adverse cardiac events, which included
      cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke, were evaluated by Cox
      regression during 3.7 years of follow-up for participants who reported excellent
      or very good health (n=2304), good health (n=6863), and average or poor health
      (n=6361), before and after adjusting for 38 covariates. Self-reported health was
      most strongly associated with geographic region, depressive symptoms, and low
      physical activity (P<0.0001 for all). Poor/average compared with very
      good/excellent self-reported health was independently associated with major
      adverse cardiac events (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.30 [95% confidence interval (CI),
      1.92-2.76]; adjusted HR: 1.83 [95% CI, 1.51-2.22]), cardiovascular mortality (HR:
      4.36 [95% CI, 3.09-6.16]; adjusted HR: 2.15 [95% CI, 1.45-3.19]), and myocardial
      infarction (HR: 1.87 [95% CI, 1.46-2.39]; adjusted HR: 1.68 [95% CI, 1.25-2.27];
      P<0.0002 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported health is strongly associated with
      geographical region, mood, and physical activity. In a global coronary heart
      disease population, self-reported health was independently associated with major
      cardiovascular events and mortality beyond what is measurable by established risk
      indicators. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov.
      Unique identifier: NCT00799903.

PMID- 28862973
TI  - Fractional Flow Reserve in Angiographically Insignificant Stenoses: Unmasking the
      Lesion or Creating Disease?

PMID- 28862974
TI  - Clostridial Collagenase for the Management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Results of
      Four Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite major treatment advances, diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) remain
      a frequent and debilitating complication of diabetes mellitus and a major cause
      of significant morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates and
      compares clinical effectiveness of clostridial collagenase ointment (CCO) with
      standard care (SC) in patients with DFUs, with the goal to define best clinical
      criteria under which to use CCO in the DFU population. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This is a pooled data analysis of 4 randomized controlled trials that compared
      clinical effectiveness of CCO to SC. A total of 174 adult patients with 1 target
      DFU each who underwent treatment with CCO (n = 88) or SC (n = 86) for 4 or 6
      weeks were evaluated. Assessments included wound area reduction, wound bed
      status, and time to closure. RESULTS: Statistically significant mean percentage
      change in wound area from baseline was numerically greater for CCO than SC at the
      end of study (EOS) following 6 or 8 weeks of treatment; these values were -56%
      and -10%, respectively, in the subgroup of plantar surface ulcers (P = .05) and
      wounds assessed as "low necrosis" (<= 25% necrotic) at baseline (-64% vs. -20%).
      When rapidly healing ulcers were excluded from the analysis, the difference in
      ulcer area reduction was even greater for CCO compared with SC at EOS (-53% vs. 
      7%; P = .05). CONCLUSIONS: Active CCO therapy was associated with a
      nonstatistically greater reduction in wound size than any of the passive or
      mechanical SC modalities at end of treatment. This was statistically significant
      when used in conjunction with sharp debridement and for slow healing ulcers,
      larger sized wounds, or plantar surface wounds.

PMID- 28862976
TI  - Sarcoidosis and Wound Healing After Cellulitis of the Lower Limb: Is Methotrexate
      Responsible for Skin Graft Failure?
AB  - The authors report the case of a 53-year-old man with diffuse cutaneous and
      mediastinal pulmonary sarcoidosis and well-controlled steroid-induced diabetes.
      He was hospitalized for cellulitis of his left leg. His standard treatment for
      sarcoidosis consisted of prednisone and methotrexate. Prednisone was stopped at
      his admission. He received antibiotics for 4 weeks to treat the cellulitis. In
      parallel, the leg wound was treated with daily silver sulfadiazine applications
      until necrosis removal, then by skin autografting. Four successive procedures
      were performed, but all failed despite lack of surgical problem or local
      infection. Methotrexate was stopped after the fourth grafting procedure failed;
      the fifth, and final, autografting procedure was successfully performed.

PMID- 28862975
TI  - G Protein-coupled Receptors and Proopiomelanocortin Expression After Light
      Emitting Diode Irradiation in Diabetic Wound Healin.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether light-emitting
      diode (LED) light at different wavelengths can improve wound healing in both
      diabetic and normal fibroblasts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Both diabetic and normal
      fibroblast cell lines were cultured and artificial wounds were created on the
      cultured cells in petri dishes as a streak line with pipette tips. Then, both
      cells were separately irradiated with 635 nm (red), 520 nm (green), and 465 nm
      (blue) LED lights at 0.67 J/cm2 for 10 minutes. Immediately after LED
      irradiation, messenger ribonucleic acid samples of each cell line were isolated
      for microarray analysis. RESULTS: The investigator found that G protein-coupled
      receptors (GPR) class A, a rhodopsin-like structure gene, were significantly
      upregulated in all treated groups by transferring the signal to
      proopiomelanocortin (POMC) genes in diabetic cells. In addition, for normal cell
      groups, the expression of other genes relevant to viral defense responses
      markedly increased. However, in diabetic cells, genes relating to acute
      inflammatory response and mitotic cell cycle were highly expressed. The
      investigator also found that diabetic cells responded significantly better to
      wound healing attempts than normal cells because inflammatory response, cell
      migration, cell proliferation, cell adhesion, and regulation of mitosis pathways
      could be instantly activated by red and green LED lights. CONCLUSIONS: These
      lights activate the expression of GPR class A gene, which receives photons and
      transfers this signal to other downstream pathways inside the cell, specifically
      to the POMC gene, which will recover the wound-healing process to the normal
      stage.

PMID- 28862977
TI  - Healing Rate of Chronic and Subacute Lower Extremity Ulcers Treated With Contact
      Ultrasound Followed by Noncontact Ultrasound Therapy: The VIP Ultrasound
      Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contact and noncontact ultrasounds are types of low-frequency
      ultrasonic treatments for wound care. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was
      to collect data in order to see if healing rates are accelerated when both forms
      of ultrasound therapies are utilized. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Viana-Pompeo
      (VIP) Ultrasound Protocol consists of high-intensity, low-frequency, contact
      ultrasound therapy followed by low-intensity, low-frequency, noncontact
      ultrasound therapy. A total of 11 subjects with a total of 24 chronic or subacute
      lower extremity wounds were enrolled in the study. Of the 11 subjects, 6 finished
      the protocol (12 wounds). All subjects started with contact ultrasound for
      debridement at a frequency of 25 kHz and at the maximum intensity the subject
      could tolerate (equipment range, 20%-100% of 1.0 W/cm2). Once the wound was
      sufficiently clean with <= 20% of necrotic tissue or adherent slough, therapy was
      switched to noncontact, low-frequency ultrasound (NLFU) for cellular stimulation
      at 40 kHz and intensities of 0.1 W/cm2 to 0.5 W/cm2. Subjects received ultrasound
      treatment 3 times weekly for the 12-week study. Progress was analyzed based on
      reductions in wound area, volume, and slough and increases in granulation and
      epithelialization. Wounds were divided into 2 groups: group A, wound duration
      between 4 and 21 weeks; and group B, wound duration >= 47 weeks. There were no
      wounds between 21 and 47 weeks. RESULTS: In group A (4 wounds), all wounds
      improved in wound area and epithelialization; 75% achieved an improvement of >
      99% before or at 12 weeks of treatment. In addition, all wounds saw a wound
      volume reduction of 93% to 100%. Granulation in group A was 100%, and by visit 10
      of 36, all wounds had 0% slough or eschar. In group B (8 wounds), 50% of wounds
      improved with a wound volume reduction of 50%; all wounds increased in
      granulation, with 50% achieving 75% to 100% granulation. Sixty-two percent of
      wounds in group B saw an increase in epithelialization, and 75% of wounds had 85%
      to 100% reduction in slough and eschar by the last visit (end of week 12). There
      was a strong positive correlation between wound age and healing time (r = 0.94).
      CONCLUSIONS: Both groups benefited from the VIP Protocol, which promoted wound
      closure or wound bed preparation for graft. The results seem to favor an earlier
      start of the protocol for best outcomes and indicate that contact and noncontact
      ultrasound therapies are not exclusionary but rather complementary.

PMID- 28862979
TI  - Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for a Giant Wound Secondary to Malignancy-induced
      Necrotizing Fasciitis: Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a life-threatening condition in which
      rapid diagnosis, debridement of nonviable tissue, and broad-spectrum antibiotics
      are critical to effective treatment. The debridement required can be extensive,
      resulting in large wounds that can sometimes be covered with split-thickness skin
      grafts (STSGs) with the help of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), or vacuum
      assisted closure, to decrease the wound size. CASE REPORT: The authors report a
      rare case of NF due to malignancy-associated bowel perforation with a giant lower
      extremity wound secondary to debridement that involved 20% of the total body
      surface area (TBSA) in a 64-year-old, previously healthy, nonsmoking man. The
      wound was surgically debrided twice and packed before NPWT was applied. Based on
      the authors' literature search, this case is 1 of the single largest wounds
      successfully managed with a STSG and NPWT. CONCLUSIONS: Rapid diagnosis of NF is
      critical to guide surgical management and administration of antibiotics. It is
      important to be mindful of the origin of certain necrotizing infections, and
      clinicians should have a greater index of suspicion for NF when assessing skin
      infections in unwell patients with concomitant bowel perforation secondary to
      gastrointestinal malignancy.

PMID- 28862980
TI  - Management of Chronic Wounds: Diagnosis, Preparation, Treatment, and Follow-up.
AB  - Management of chronic wounds remains challenging in terms of prevalence and
      complexity. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the science of
      wound healing during the past decade, sparking volumes of publications and the
      development of hundreds of dressing and therapy options. There is a need for a
      simpli ed overview of evidence-based criteria to assist in the accurate diagnosis
      and appropriate management of chronic wounds in all care settings. An expert
      panel of 11 wound healing specialists experienced in various care settings
      convened to discuss best practices and recommended guidelines for managing major
      chronic wound types. Prior to the meeting, panel members reviewed 8 preselected
      peer-reviewed articles and 1 white paper containing treatment algorithms for all
      major chronic wound types. During the meeting, each panelist presented current
      evidence-based guidelines regarding a specific chronic wound type and case
      studies to illustrate concepts in the guidelines. This publication is a result of
      the panel discussion and presents an overview of literature- and experience-
      based criteria to help guide chronic wound diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and
      follow-up. A cycle of steps is presented as a framework to guide holistic care
      for all patients with chronic wounds, including de- hisced surgical wounds,
      diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, arterial insu ciency ulcers, and
      pressure ulcers/injuries. Emphasis is placed on criteria to assist accurate
      diagnosis and dressing/therapy selection, holistic elements of patient and wound
      bed preparation, interventions to achieve patient adherence to a care plan, and
      follow-up to help prevent wound recurrence.

PMID- 28862981
TI  - Need for pharmacogenetic studies on the prevalence of MTHFR mutations in Puerto
      Ricans and Hispanics.
AB  - Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mutations have been linked to many
      diseases. Evidence has been provided to prove that we need to perform
      pharmacogenetic studies regarding the prevalence of MTHFR mutations and diseases,
      risks, and the impact on folate requirement in general, but little has been
      published about Puerto Ricans. A multi center cross-sectional retrospective
      review study or a prospective pharmacogenetic study of valid genotypes and
      phenotypes of MTHFR mutations within the different populations of Puerto Ricans
      and Hispanics are recommended, because differences within them and within the
      general population are expected.

PMID- 28862982
TI  - Effects of the genetic variants of organic cation transporters 1 and 3 on the
      pharmacokinetics of metformin in Jordanians.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human response to the antidiabetic metformin is influenced by some
      factors, such as genetic variants in the SLC22A genes. This study aimed to
      determine the frequency of main SLC22A1 and SLC22A3 genetic variants and their
      influence on metformin pharmacokinetics among healthy unrelated Arab Jordanians.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: The SLC22A1 and SLC22A3 genes were genotyped by DNA
      sequencing of exons 1, 3, 7, and 9 in the SLC22A1 gene and exons 6, 7, and 9 in
      the SLC22A3 gene. Then, a clinical pharmacokinetic study was conducted on 26
      healthy volunteers. The pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using non
      compartmental model analysis. The study was an open-label, randomized study with
      single 1000 mg metformin administration. RESULTS: Results showed that volunteers
      with SLC22A3 rs8187722 variant had higher (chi2, p<0.05) metformin Cmax and AUC
      values than the wild SLC22A3 volunteers, whereas T1/2 and Kel were not affected.
      In addition, volunteers with the heterozygote SLC22A3 rs2292334 variant had
      significantly higher (chi2, p<0.05) metformin Cmax and AUC and lower Kel values
      than the wild-type SLC22A3 genotype. CONCLUSIONS: The SLC22A3 rs8187722 and
      rs2292334 genetic variants affected metformin pharmacokinetics among a clinical
      sample of Jordanians. The findings may increase our understanding of the inter
      individual and inter-ethnic variations in metformin response.

PMID- 28862983
TI  - The association of NOV/CCN3 with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): preliminary
      evidence of a novel biomarker in OSA.
AB  - Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has a strong association with cardiovascular and
      metabolic abnormalities, although the mechanism driving this association is not
      well established. NOV/CCN3, a multifunctional extracellular matrix protein, may
      play a mechanistic and/or prognostic role in these associations. We hypothesized
      that patients with OSA, which primarily affects obese individuals, will have
      increased levels of NOV, and that NOV can serve as a biomarker in patients to
      predict OSA as well as metabolic and cardiac risk. Ten morbidly obese and 10
      healthy lean subjects underwent overnight polysomnography (PSG) and clinical
      evaluation. Blood samples were analyzed for NOV levels, adiponectin and IL-6. OSA
      was found in nine obese subjects and three lean subjects. NOV levels were
      significantly higher in the OSA vs. no OSA group (2.1 +/- 0.9 vs. 1.3 +/- 0.8, p
      < 0.03). NOV levels were significantly higher in the obese vs. lean group (2.2 +/
      0.3 vs. 1.4 +/- 0.2-fold change, p < 0.03). Among lean subjects, NOV levels were
      significantly higher in the OSA vs. no OSA group (2.1 +/- 0.9 vs. 1.0 +/- 0.4, p
      < 0.05). NOV and AHI were positively correlated (rho = 0.49, p = 0.033). IL-6 and
      adiponectin differences in obese vs. lean and OSA vs. no OSA were consistent with
      an inflammatory phenotype in obese subjects and OSA subjects. NOV is a novel
      biomarker of the presence and severity of OSA and a potential marker of future
      cardiovascular and metabolic disease in OSA patients.

PMID- 28862984
TI  - Physiological regulation and metabolic role of browning in white adipose tissue.
AB  - Great progress has been made in our understanding of the browning process in
      white adipose tissue (WAT) in rodents. The recognition that i) adult humans have
      physiologically inducible brown adipose tissue (BAT) that may facilitate
      resistance to obesity and ii) that adult human BAT molecularly and functionally
      resembles beige adipose tissue in rodents, reignited optimism that obesity and
      obesity-related diabetes type 2 can be battled by controlling the browning of
      WAT. In this review the main cellular mechanisms and molecular mediators of
      browning of WAT in different physiological states are summarized. The relevance
      of browning of WAT in metabolic health is considered primarily through a
      modulation of biological role of fat tissue in overall metabolic homeostasis.

PMID- 28862985
TI  - Critical review of beige adipocyte thermogenic activation and contribution to
      whole-body energy expenditure.
AB  - Beige (or brite, "brown in white") adipocytes are uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1)
      positive cells residing in white adipose depots that, depending on the
      conditions, behave either as classic white adipocytes, storing energy as lipids,
      or as brown adipocytes, dissipating energy from oxidative metabolism as heat
      through non-shivering thermogenesis. Because of their thermogenic potential and,
      therefore, possible usage to treat metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2
      diabetes, beige cells have attracted the attention of many scientists worldwide
      aiming to develop strategies to safely recruit and activate their thermogenic
      activity. Indeed, in recent years, a large variety of conditions, molecules
      (including nutrients) and signaling pathways were reported to promote the
      recruitment of beige adipocytes. Despite of those advances, the true contribution
      of beige adipocyte thermogenesis to whole-body energy expenditure is still not
      completely defined. Herein, we discuss some important aspects that should be
      considered when studying beige adipocyte biology and the contribution to energy
      balance and whole-body metabolism.

PMID- 28862986
TI  - Digital Biomass Accumulation Using High-Throughput Plant Phenotype Data Analysis.
AB  - Biomass is an important phenotypic trait in functional ecology and growth
      analysis. The typical methods for measuring biomass are destructive, and they
      require numerous individuals to be cultivated for repeated measurements. With the
      advent of image-based high-throughput plant phenotyping facilities, non
      destructive biomass measuring methods have attempted to overcome this problem.
      Thus, the estimation of plant biomass of individual plants from their digital
      images is becoming more important. In this paper, we propose an approach to
      biomass estimation based on image derived phenotypic traits. Several image-based
      biomass studies state that the estimation of plant biomass is only a linear
      function of the projected plant area in images. However, we modeled the plant
      volume as a function of plant area, plant compactness, and plant age to
      generalize the linear biomass model. The obtained results confirm the proposed
      model and can explain most of the observed variance during image-derived biomass
      estimation. Moreover, a small difference was observed between actual and
      estimated digital biomass, which indicates that our proposed approach can be used
      to estimate digital biomass accurately.

PMID- 28862987
TI  - MODY in Ukraine: genes, clinical phenotypes and treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) has not been previously
      studied in Ukraine. We investigated the genetic etiology in a selected cohort of
      patients with diabetes diagnosed before 18 years of age, and in their family
      members. METHODS: Genetic testing of the most prevalent MODY genes (GCK, HNF1A,
      HNF4A, HNF1B and INS) was undertaken for 36 families (39 affected individuals) by
      Sanger or targeted next generation sequencing. RESULTS: A genetic diagnosis of
      MODY was made in 15/39 affected individuals from 12/36 families (33%). HNF1A and
      HNF4A MODY were the most common subtypes, accounting for 9/15 of MODY cases.
      Eight patients with HNF1A or HNF4A MODY and inadequate glycemic control were
      successfully transferred to sulfonylureas. Median HbA1c decreased from 67
      mmol/mol (range 58-69) to 47 mmol/mol (range 43-50) (8.3% [7.5-8.5] to 6.4% [6.1
      6.7]) 3 months after transfer (p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic testing identified
      pathogenic HNF1A and HNF4A variants as the most common cause of MODY in Ukraine.
      Transfer to sulfonylureas substantially improved the glycemic control of these
      patients.

PMID- 28862988
TI  - Feto-maternal osmotic balance at term. A prospective observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We performed the present study to investigate the feto-maternal
      osmotic relationship at term with the hypothesis that, in contrast to the
      literature, maternal plasma osmolality is lower than fetal levels. In a previous
      study, we found that maternal plasma sodium at delivery was consistently lower
      than the sodium in the umbilical artery. Our aim was to corroborate these results
      with analysis of osmolality. METHODS: Blood was sampled from 30 women immediately
      before cesarean section and from the umbilical artery and vein before cord
      clamping and osmolality, sodium and albumin were analyzed. RESULTS: Maternal
      osmolality was (mean; 95% confidence interval) 287.0 (285.8-288.2) mOsmkg/kg,
      arterial cord osmolality was 289.4 (287.9-291.0) mOsm/kg and venous cord
      osmolality was 287.3 (286.0-288.5) mOsm/kg. The paired difference between
      maternal and umbilical arterial osmolality was mean (SD) -2.4 (3.3) mOsm/kg
      (P<0.001), between maternal and umbilical vein -0.3 (3.0) mOsm/kg (P=0.63) and
      between umbilical artery and vein -2.1 (2.8) mOsm/kg (P<0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Maternal osmolality was significantly lower than arterial cord osmolality
      confirming our previous results. The feto-maternal osmotic gradient favors water
      transport from the mother to the fetus and may increase the fetal risk of water
      intoxication when the mother ingests or is administered large volumes of
      electrolyte free solutions.

PMID- 28862990
TI  - Response to the Letter to the Editor, "Risk factors of uterine rupture with a
      special interest to uterine fundal pressure: methodological issues".

PMID- 28862992
TI  - Bayesian comparison of protein structures using partial Procrustes distance.
AB  - An important topic in bioinformatics is the protein structure alignment. Some
      statistical methods have been proposed for this problem, but most of them align
      two protein structures based on the global geometric information without
      considering the effect of neighbourhood in the structures. In this paper, we
      provide a Bayesian model to align protein structures, by considering the effect
      of both local and global geometric information of protein structures. Local
      geometric information is incorporated to the model through the partial Procrustes
      distance of small substructures. These substructures are composed of beta-carbon
      atoms from the side chains. Parameters are estimated using a Markov chain Monte
      Carlo (MCMC) approach. We evaluate the performance of our model through some
      simulation studies. Furthermore, we apply our model to a real dataset and assess
      the accuracy and convergence rate. Results show that our model is much more
      efficient than previous approaches.

PMID- 28862991
TI  - Confidence intervals for heritability via Haseman-Elston regression.
AB  - Heritability is the proportion of phenotypic variance in a population that is
      attributable to individual genotypes. Heritability is considered an important
      measure in both evolutionary biology and in medicine, and is routinely estimated
      and reported in genetic epidemiology studies. In population-based genome-wide
      association studies (GWAS), mixed models are used to estimate variance
      components, from which a heritability estimate is obtained. The estimated
      heritability is the proportion of the model's total variance that is due to the
      genetic relatedness matrix (kinship measured from genotypes). Current practice is
      to use bootstrapping, which is slow, or normal asymptotic approximation to
      estimate the precision of the heritability estimate; however, this approximation
      fails to hold near the boundaries of the parameter space or when the sample size
      is small. In this paper we propose to estimate variance components via a Haseman
      Elston regression, find the asymptotic distribution of the variance components
      and proportions of variance, and use them to construct confidence intervals
      (CIs). Our method is further developed to obtain unbiased variance components
      estimators and construct CIs by meta-analyzing information from multiple studies.
      We demonstrate our approach on data from the Hispanic Community Health
      Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).

PMID- 28862993
TI  - A statistical test for detecting parent-of-origin effects when parental
      information is missing.
AB  - Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic mechanism that leads to differential
      contributions of maternal and paternal alleles to offspring gene expression in a
      parent-of-origin manner. We propose a novel test for detecting the parent-of
      origin effects (POEs) in genome wide genotype data from related individuals
      (twins) when the parental origin cannot be inferred. The proposed method exploits
      a finite mixture of linear mixed models: the key idea is that in the case of POEs
      the population can be clustered in two different groups in which the reference
      allele is inherited by a different parent. A further advantage of this approach
      is the possibility to obtain an estimation of parental effect when the parental
      information is missing. We will also show that the approach is flexible enough to
      be applicable to the general scenario of independent data. The performance of the
      proposed test is evaluated through a wide simulation study. The method is finally
      applied to known imprinted genes of the MuTHER twin study data.

PMID- 28862994
TI  - FC1000: normalized gene expression changes of systematically perturbed human
      cells.
AB  - The systematic study of transcriptional responses to genetic and chemical
      perturbations in human cells is still in its early stages. The largest available
      dataset to date is the newly released L1000 compendium. With its 1.3 million gene
      expression profiles of treated human cells it offers many opportunities for
      biomedical data mining, but also data normalization challenges of new dimensions.
      We developed a novel and practical approach to obtain accurate estimates of fold
      change response profiles from L1000, based on the RUV (Remove Unwanted Variation)
      statistical framework. Extending RUV to a big data setting, we propose an
      estimation procedure, in which an underlying RUV model is tuned by feedback
      through dataset specific statistical measures, reflecting p-value distributions
      and internal gene knockdown controls. Applying these metrics - termed evaluation
      endpoints - to disjoint data splits and integrating the results to select an
      optimal normalization, the procedure reduces bias and noise in the L1000 data,
      which in turn broadens the potential of this resource for pharmacological and
      functional genomic analyses. Our pipeline and normalization results are
      distributed as an R package (nelanderlab.org/FC1000.html).

PMID- 28862996
TI  - Low-temperature thermal transport and thermopower of monolayer transition metal
      dichalcogenide semiconductors.
AB  - We study the low temperature thermal conductivity of single-layer transition
      metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). In the low temperature regime where heat is
      carried primarily through transport of electrons, thermal conductivity is linked
      to electrical conductivity through the Wiedemann-Franz law (WFL). Using a k.p
      Hamiltonian that describes the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] valley
      edges, we compute the zero-frequency electric (Drude) conductivity using the Kubo
      formula to obtain a numerical estimate for the thermal conductivity. The impurity
      scattering determined transit time of electrons which enters the Drude expression
      is evaluated within the self-consistent Born approximation. The analytic
      expressions derived show that low temperature thermal conductivity (1) is
      determined by the band gap at the valley edges in monolayer TMDCs and (2) in
      presence of disorder which can give rise to the variable range hopping regime,
      there is a distinct reduction. Additionally, we compute the Mott thermopower and
      demonstrate that under a high frequency light beam, a valley-resolved thermopower
      can be obtained. A closing summary reviews the implications of results followed
      by a brief discussion on applicability of the WFL and its breakdown in context of
      the presented calculations.

PMID- 28862995
TI  - Intracranial EEG fluctuates over months after implanting electrodes in human
      brain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Implanting subdural and penetrating electrodes in the brain causes
      acute trauma and inflammation that affect intracranial electroencephalographic
      (iEEG) recordings. This behavior and its potential impact on clinical decision
      making and algorithms for implanted devices have not been assessed in detail. In
      this study we aim to characterize the temporal and spatial variability of
      continuous, prolonged human iEEG recordings. APPROACH: Intracranial
      electroencephalography from 15 patients with drug-refractory epilepsy, each
      implanted with 16 subdural electrodes and continuously monitored for an average
      of 18 months, was included in this study. Time and spectral domain features were
      computed each day for each channel for the duration of each patient's recording.
      Metrics to capture post-implantation feature changes and inflexion points were
      computed on group and individual levels. A linear mixed model was used to
      characterize transient group-level changes in feature values post-implantation
      and independent linear models were used to describe individual variability. MAIN
      RESULTS: A significant decline in features important to seizure detection and
      prediction algorithms (mean line length, energy, and half-wave), as well as mean
      power in the Berger and high gamma bands, was observed in many patients over 100
      d following implantation. In addition, spatial variability across electrodes
      declines post-implantation following a similar timeframe. All selected features
      decreased by 14-50% in the initial 75 d of recording on the group level, and at
      least one feature demonstrated this pattern in 13 of the 15 patients. Our
      findings indicate that iEEG signal features demonstrate increased variability
      following implantation, most notably in the weeks immediately post-implant.
      SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that conclusions drawn from iEEG, both
      clinically and for research, should account for spatiotemporal signal variability
      and that properly assessing the iEEG in patients, depending upon the application,
      may require extended monitoring.

PMID- 28862997
TI  - A novel optically transparent RF shielding for fully integrated PET/MRI systems.
AB  - Preclinical imaging benefits from simultaneous acquisition of high-resolution
      anatomical and molecular data. Additionally, PET/MRI systems can provide
      functional PET and functional MRI data. To optimize PET sensitivity, we propose a
      system design that fully integrates the MRI coil into the PET system. This allows
      positioning the scintillators near the object but requires an optimized design of
      the MRI coil and PET detector. It further requires a new approach in realizing
      the radiofrequency (RF) shielding. Thus, we propose the use of an optically
      transparent RF shielding material between the PET scintillator and the light
      sensor, suppressing the interference between both systems. We evaluated two
      conductive foils (ITO, 9900) and a wire mesh. The PET performance was tested on a
      dual-layer scintillator consisting of 12  *  12 LSO matrices, shifted by half a
      pitch. The pixel size was 0.9  *  0.9 mm2; the lengths were 10.0 mm and 5.0 mm,
      respectively. For a light sensor, we used a 4  *  4 SiPM array. The RF
      attenuation was measured from 320 kHz to 420 MHz using two pick-up coils. MRI
      compatibility and shielding effect of the materials were evaluated with an MRI
      system. The average FWHM energy resolution at 511 keV of all 144 crystals of the
      layer next to the SiPM was deteriorated from 15.73  +/-  0.24% to 16.32  +/- 
      0.13%, 16.60  +/-  0.25%, and 19.16  +/-  0.21% by the ITO foil, 9900 foil, mesh
      material, respectively. The average peak-to-valley ratio of the PET detector
      changed from 5.77  +/-  0.29 to 4.50  +/-  0.39, 4.78  +/-  0.48, 3.62  +/- 
      0.16, respectively. The ITO, 9900, mesh attenuated the scintillation light by
      11.3  +/-  1.6%, 11.0  +/-  1.8%, 54.3  +/-  0.4%, respectively. To attenuate the
      RF from 20 MHz to 200 MHz, mesh performed better than copper. The results show
      that an RF shielding material that is sufficiently transparent for scintillation
      light and is MRI compatible can be obtained. This result enables the development
      of a fully integrated PET detector and MRI coil assembly.

PMID- 28862989
TI  - Fetal death: an extreme manifestation of maternal anti-fetal rejection.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the association between chronic
      placental inflammation and amniotic fluid (AF) markers of maternal anti-fetal
      rejection as well as the presence of microorganisms in the AF fluid of patients
      with fetal death. STUDY DESIGN: This cohort study included 40 patients with fetal
      death whose placentas were examined for chronic inflammatory lesions and whose AF
      chemokine ligand (CXCL)10 and interleukin (IL)-6 concentrations were determined
      by immunoassays. AF was processed for bacteria, mycoplasmas and viruses using
      cultivation and molecular microbiologic techniques (i.e. PCR-ESI/MS). RESULTS:
      (1) The most prevalent placental findings were maternal vascular underperfusion
      (63.2%, 24/38), followed by chronic inflammatory lesions (57.9%, 22/38); (2)
      chronic chorioamnionitis (18/38) was three times more frequent than villitis of
      unknown etiology (6/38); (3) an elevated AF CXCL10 concentration (above the 95th
      centile) was present in 60% of the cases, and a receiver operating
      characteristics (ROC)-derived cut-off of 2.9 ng/mL had a sensitivity of 73% and a
      specificity of 75% in the identification of chronic placental inflammatory
      lesions; (4) only five cases had microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity, and
      the presence of microorganisms did not correlate with chronic placental
      inflammation. CONCLUSION: In women with unexplained fetal death, there is an
      association between elevated AF CXCL10 and chronic placental inflammatory
      lesions. Therefore, we conclude that a subset of patients with fetal death may
      have endured a breakdown of maternal-fetal tolerance, which cannot be attributed
      to microorganisms in the amniotic cavity.

PMID- 28862998
TI  - A sequential solution for anisotropic total variation image denoising with
      interval constraints.
AB  - We show that two problems involving the anisotropic total variation (TV) and
      interval constraints on the unknown variables admit, under some conditions, a
      simple sequential solution. Problem 1 is a constrained TV penalized image
      denoising problem; problem 2 is a constrained fused lasso signal approximator.
      The sequential solution entails finding first the solution to the unconstrained
      problem, and then applying a thresholding to satisfy the constraints. If the
      interval constraints are uniform, this sequential solution solves problem 1. If
      the interval constraints furthermore contain zero, the sequential solution solves
      problem 2. Here uniform interval constraints refer to all unknowns being
      constrained to the same interval. A typical example of application is image
      denoising in x-ray CT, where the image intensities are non-negative as they
      physically represent linear attenuation coefficient in the patient body. Our
      results are simple yet seem unknown; we establish them using the Karush-Kuhn
      Tucker conditions for constrained convex optimization.

PMID- 28862999
TI  - Innovation in microbiome-based strategies for promoting metabolic health.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Update on the development of microbiome-based interventions
      and dietary supplements to combat obesity and related comorbidities, which are
      leading causes of global mortality. RECENT FINDINGS: The role of intestinal
      dysbiosis, partly resulting from unhealthy diets, in the development of obesity
      and metabolic disorders, is well documented by recent translational research.
      Human experimental trials with whole-faecal transplants are ongoing, and their
      results will be crucial as proof of concept that interventions intended to
      modulate the microbiome composition and function could be alternatives for the
      management of obesity and related comorbidities. Potential next-generation
      probiotic bacteria (Akkermansia, Bacteroides spp., Eubacterium halli) and
      microbiota-derived molecules (e.g. membrane proteins, short-chain fatty acids)
      are being evaluated in preclinical and clinical trials to promote the development
      of innovative dietary supplements. The fact that live or inactivated bacteria and
      their products can regulate pathways that increase energy expenditure, and reduce
      energy intake, and absorption and systemic inflammation make them attractive
      research targets from a nutritional and clinical perspective. SUMMARY:
      Understanding which are the beneficial bacteria and their bioactive products is
      helping us to envisage innovative microbiome-based dietary interventions to
      tackle obesity. Advances will likely result from future refinements of these
      strategies according to the individual's microbiome configuration and its
      particular response to interventions, thereby progressing towards personalized
      nutrition.

PMID- 28863000
TI  - Osteogenesis imperfecta: diagnosis and treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Here we summarize the diagnosis of osteogenesis imperfecta,
      discuss newly discovered genes involved in osteogenesis imperfecta, and review
      the management of this disease in children and adults. RECENT FINDINGS: Mutations
      in the two genes coding for collagen type I, COL1A1 and COL1A2, are the most
      common cause of osteogenesis imperfecta. In the past 10 years, defects in at
      least 17 other genes have been identified as responsible for osteogenesis
      imperfecta phenotypes, with either dominant or recessive transmission.
      Intravenous bisphosphonate infusions are the most widely used medical treatment.
      This has a marked effect on vertebra in growing children and can lead to
      vertebral reshaping after compression fractures. However, bisphosphonates are
      less effective for preventing long-bone fractures. At the moment, new therapies
      are under investigation. SUMMARY: Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment
      of osteogenesis imperfecta, more research is needed. Bisphosphonate treatment
      decreases long-bone fracture rates, but such fractures are still frequent. New
      antiresorptive and anabolic agents are being investigated but efficacy and safety
      of these drugs, especially in children, need to be better established before they
      can be used in clinical practice.

PMID- 28863001
TI  - Arytenoid neuromas are a recognized feature of SOS1 mutations causing pure
      mucosal neuroma syndrome.

PMID- 28863002
TI  - Histamine H3 receptor antagonists ameliorate attention deficit/hyperactivity
      disorder-like behavioral changes caused by neonatal habenula lesion.
AB  - A partial agonist and a full antagonist of the histamine H3 receptor have been
      suggested to have therapeutic effects on cognitive deficits in psychiatric
      disorders. We have previously shown that neonatal habenula lesion (NHL) induces
      behavioral deficits that resemble the symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD). In this study, we examined the effects of three H3 antagonists
      on ADHD-like behavioral changes caused by NHL in rats. Behavioral tests and
      administration of the H3 receptor antagonists were performed in juvenile rats
      with NHL. H3 antagonist administration to juvenile rats dose dependently improved
      NHL-induced hyperlocomotion, impulsive behavior, and attention deficit. These
      results suggest that histamine H3 antagonists may be used as alternative
      therapeutic drugs for the treatment of ADHD.

PMID- 28863004
TI  - Dexamethasone impairs encoding and expression of aversive conditioning promoted
      by pentylenetetrazole.
AB  - Behavioral and neuroendocrine responses following threatening situations promote
      the release of corticosterone, which is known to modulate trauma-related learning
      and memory process. However, it remains unknown whether the aversive learning
      generated by interoceptive fear conditioning is affected by glucocorticoid
      modulation. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the role of
      dexamethasone suppression in encoding and expression of pentylenetetrazole
      induced olfactory fear conditioning (OFC) and in contextual second-order
      conditioning promoted by the conditioned odor. Adult male Long-Evans rats were
      treated with dexamethasone 60 min before the encoding or the expression in both
      OFC and contextual second-order conditioning. Dexamethasone treatment impaired
      encoding and expression of the OFC, but failed to impair encoding and expression
      of the contextual second-order conditioning. Altogether, our results show that
      although OFC and thereafter contextual second-order conditioning may allow the
      study of traumatic memories, each order of conditioning seems to present specific
      features related to their pharmacological modulation. These findings highlight
      the importance of addressing the role of neuromodulatory systems in first-order
      and second-order conditioning to gain a better understanding of these phenomena
      and support future therapies related to traumatic memories.

PMID- 28863003
TI  - Varenicline and GZ-793A differentially decrease methamphetamine self
      administration under a multiple schedule of reinforcement in rats.
AB  - Methamphetamine is a potent psychostimulant with high abuse rates. Currently,
      there is no Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmacotherapy for
      methamphetamine addiction. Ideally, a pharmacotherapy should selectively decrease
      methamphetamine self-administration without affecting responding for other
      reinforcers. One way to test this is with the use of a multiple schedule of
      reinforcement, in which drug and food are available in alternating components
      within a session. The present study evaluated GZ-793A, a vesicular monoamine
      transporter-2 inhibitor, and varenicline, a partial agonist at alpha4beta2 and
      full agonist at alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, for their ability to
      decrease methamphetamine and food self-administration using a multiple schedule
      of reinforcement. Male Sprague-Dawley rats self-administered methamphetamine
      (0.03 mg/kg/intravenous infusion) and food pellets under a multiple schedule of
      reinforcement. GZ-793A or varenicline was administered before multiple schedule
      sessions. GZ-793A (5 and 20 mg/kg) significantly decreased methamphetamine intake
      compared with saline and did not alter food-maintained responding. In contrast,
      varenicline decreased methamphetamine intake less specifically across time. The
      results suggest that vesicular monoamine transporter-2 inhibition may be a viable
      pharmacological target for the treatment of methamphetamine-use disorders.

PMID- 28863005
TI  - HIV and contraception.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Contraception is a vital component of medical care for women
      with HIV or at high risk of acquiring HIV. Over the last several years, there has
      been emerging evidence regarding the safety and effectiveness of various
      contraceptive methods, ultimately leading to a revision in the WHO Medical
      Eligibility Criteria for contraceptive use. RECENT FINDINGS: Progestogen-only
      injectables may be associated with an increased risk of HIV acquisition and its
      use has been revised to category 2 from category 1. Etonogestrel and
      levonorgestrel levels are lower in women who concurrently use contraceptive
      implant and efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy. Multipurpose technology,
      aimed at providing antiretroviral medication and contraception, is an area of
      ongoing research but is not yet clinically available. SUMMARY: It is important
      for providers who care for women with HIV or at high risk of HIV to inquire about
      pregnancy intentions. If contraception is desired, these women should be offered
      all available methods, with counseling regarding possible risks of contraceptive
      failure or HIV acquisition.

PMID- 28863007
TI  - Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring for Prediction of Postoperative
      Neurological Improvement in a Child With Chiari Type I Malformation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although many surgical treatment strategies for Chiari malformation
      type I (CM-I) have been reported, the most appropriate surgical technique remains
      controversial. It is wholly ascribable to the complicacy of pathological
      condition in CM-I. Recently, intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring (INM) is
      becoming prevalent in spinal surgery. Indeed, motor-evoked potentials (MEPs)
      monitoring and somatosensory-evoked potentials (SSEPs) monitoring are standard
      tools to minimize the risk of neurologic injury and postoperative deficits. The
      most recent study suggested that multimodality INM can be beneficial in foramen
      magnum decompression surgery for CM-I patients for surgical positioning and
      planning. Various authors have investigated the consistency of intraoperative
      evoked potential changes that might aid the surgeon to determine the appropriate
      extent of decompression required for an individual patient. PATIENT DESCRIPTION:
      The authors report the case of a 7-year-old boy who had the signs of medullary
      and cerebellar dysfunction, clumsy hands, and ataxic gait. He underwent a surgery
      of foramen magnum decompression with tonsillectomy and duraplasty for CM-I with
      cervicomedullary compression. His intraoperative MEPs improved (indicated
      increased-amplitude and shortened-latency) both after craniotomy and durotomy,
      whereas SSEPs improved only after durotomy. Those results were correlated well
      with a functional improvement that was apparent in the immediate postoperative
      hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: The authors' data provides 1 possible
      interpretation of INM for safety aspect, but also which degree of decompression
      in each patient will require. The improvement in MEPs and SSEPs observed during
      decompression procedure may be a good indicator for the prediction of the
      clinical improvement seen postoperatively.

PMID- 28863006
TI  - Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in a Percutaneous Mouse Tail Injury Model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Intervertebral disc (IVD) degenerates progressively with age and
      after injuries. In this study, we aimed to characterize early molecular events
      underlying disc degeneration using a mouse tail IVD injury model. DESIGN: We have
      established a transcutaneous minimally invasive approach to induce mouse tail IVD
      injury under fluoroscopic guidance. Morphological and molecular changes in the
      injured IVDs are compared with the baseline features of adjacent intact levels.
      RESULTS: After needle puncture, tail IVDs exhibited time-dependent histological
      changes. The aggrecan neoepitope VDIPEN was evident from 2 days to 4 wks after
      injury. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 8 (adam8)
      is a surface protease known to cleave fibronectin in the IVD. Gene expression of
      adam8 was elevated at all time points after injury, whereas the increase of C-X-C
      motif chemokine ligand (cxcl)-1 gene expression was statistically significant at
      2 days and 2 wks after injury. Type 1 collagen gene expression decreased
      initially at day 2 but increased at 2 wks after injury, whereas no significant
      change in type 2 collagen gene expression was observed. The extracellular matrix
      gene expression pattern is consistent with fibrocartilage formation after injury.
      CONCLUSIONS: Mouse tail IVDs degenerate after needle puncture, as demonstrated by
      histological changes and aggrecan degradation. The minimally invasive tail IVD
      injury model should prove useful to investigators studying mechanisms of IVD
      degeneration and repair.

PMID- 28863008
TI  - Olfactory Dysfunction Associated With Neuro-Behcet Disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neurologic involvement associated with Behcet disease (BD) is
      defined as a different entity: Neuro-Behcet disease (NBD). Behcet disease
      presents with olfactory dysfunction. It is not known whether this is the
      consequence of mucosal involvement or neurologic involvement. OBJECTIVE: The aim
      of this study was to investigate whether olfactory dysfunction was further
      aggravated as the result of neurologic involvement. METHODS: Sixteen patients
      diagnosed with NBD and 16 healthy control patients with similar demographic
      characteristics were recruited as the healthy control group. Expanded Disability
      Status Scale (EDSS) scoring was used for quantification of neurological
      disability. All diagnoses were confirmed and categorized with magnetic resonance
      imaging studies in all patients individually: parenchymal or nonparenchymal. A
      well-established test of orthonasal olfaction developed at the CCCRC was used.
      Correlation analysis was carried out. RESULTS: The mean CCCRC score of NBD
      patients was 4.60 out of 7, and this group was diagnosed to be moderately
      hyposmic, whereas the average score of the control group was 6.5; the difference
      was significant (P < 0.0001). CCCRC scores of NBD patients were significantly
      lower compared both healthy control patients and those of BD patients reported in
      the literature. Mean EDSS score of NBD patients was 1.75 +/- 1.0 out of 10 (0-no
      neurologic disability and 10-worst neurologic disability). Magnetic resonance
      imaging of NBD patients revealed 4 nonparenchymal and 12 parenchymal patients.
      Neuro-Behcet disease patients with parenchymal involvement presented with (worse)
      EDSS scores. Mean olfactory CCCRC score of this group was 4.38 whereas the
      average olfactory score of the vascular group was 5.25 out 7. Average EDSS score
      of vascular group was 0.75, much better compared to higher average neurologic
      disability score of 2.08 for the parenchymal group. Significant correlation
      existed between the duration of NBD and both olfactory and neurologic dysfunction
      scores. CONCLUSION: Neuro-Behcet disease present with aggravated olfactory
      dysfunction compared to BD. Neurologic involvement-especially parenchymal
      involvement-seems to deteriorate the olfactory dysfunction. Duration of disease
      is correlated with this severity of dysfunction.

PMID- 28863009
TI  - Methadone and the QTc Interval: Paucity of Clinically Significant Factors in a
      Retrospective Cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Methadone is associated with prolongation of the electrocardiographic
      QTc interval. QTc prolongation may be linked to cardiac dysrhythmia and sudden
      cardiac death. The rate of these events is unknown in methadone-maintained
      patients. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study of 749 patients with opioid
      use disorder receiving methadone maintenance therapy through a single safety-net
      hospital, queried the electronic health record for electrocardiogram results,
      demographics, methadone dose, and diagnostic codes consistent with cardiac
      conduction disorder (International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision [ICD
      9] 426) and cardiac dysrhythmia (ICD-9 427). Factors associated with QTc interval
      were explored; Cox proportional-hazards regression models were used to analyze
      time to an event that may predispose to sudden cardiac death. RESULTS: One
      hundred thirty-four patients had an electrocardiogram while on methadone, 404
      while off methadone, and 211 both while on and off methadone. Mean QTc interval
      while on methadone (436 ms, SD 36) was significantly greater than while off
      methadone (423 ms, SD 33). Age and methadone dose were weakly associated with
      increased QTc interval (P < 0.01 and P < 0.0005, respectively, adjusted R =
      0.05). There were 44 ICD-9 426 and 427 events over 7064 patient-years (6.3
      events/1000 patient-yrs). Having a QTc greater than sex-specific cut-off values
      was significantly associated with time to event (hazard ratio 3.32, 95%
      confidence interval 1.25-8.81), but being on methadone was not. CONCLUSIONS:
      Methadone is associated with QTc prolongation in a nonclinically significant dose
      related manner. Cardiac events were rare and the sudden cardiac death rate was
      below that of the general population. Current recommendations for cardiac risk
      assessment in methadone-maintained patients should be reconsidered.

PMID- 28863010
TI  - Faecal microbiota transplantation: establishment of a clinical application
      framework.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is currently being
      established as a second-line treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile
      infection. FMT is further being considered for other infectious and inflammatory
      conditions. Safe and reproducible methods for donor screening, laboratory
      processing and clinical application of FMT are warranted. METHODS: Here, we
      describe the development of a complete clinical application framework for FMT.
      The framework has been developed to comply with the European Tissue Act, thus
      considering donor faeces for FMT comparable to a human tissue and not a drug.
      RESULTS: Recruitment and screening of potential faeces donors took place in the
      public blood donor setting and consisted of questionnaires, blood sampling and
      faecal sample analysis. Once approved, and following their written informed
      consent, eligible donors were invited for voluntary faecal donation. Laboratory
      processing protocols describe the initial handling, cryopreservation and thawing
      for clinical application. The clinical FMT procedures took place in a
      gastroenterological setting using a nasojejunal tube or colonoscopy, and follow
      ups were performed at 1, 8 and 26 weeks after FMT. Complete traceability of
      essential equipment, faecal samples and donor-recipient matching data will be
      maintained and secured for 30 years. CONCLUSION: A clinical FMT service should be
      consolidated by a complete documentation system that complies with the European
      Tissue Act. In this paper, we provide a description of such a framework.

PMID- 28863011
TI  - Sedation and Mobilization During Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
      for Acute Respiratory Failure: An International Survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterize sedation, analgesia, delirium, and mobilization
      practices in patients supported with venovenous extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation for severe acute respiratory failure. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      electronic survey administered January 2016 to March 2016. SETTING: Three-hundred
      ninety-four extracorporeal membrane oxygenation centers registered with the
      Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. SUBJECTS: Extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation medical directors and program coordinators. INTERVENTIONS: None.
      MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We analyzed responses from 209 respondents (53%),
      mostly from academic centers (63%); 41% respondents provide venovenous
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to adults exclusively. Following venovenous
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation initiation, 97% respondents administer
      sedative/analgesic infusions, and the sedation target was "sedated" or "very
      sedated" for 59%, "calm and cooperative" for 25%, and "unarousable" for 16%. Use
      of daily sedation interruption and a sedation/analgesia protocol was reported by
      51% and 39%, respectively. Midazolam (48%) and propofol (19%) were reported as
      the most frequently used sedatives; fentanyl (44%) and morphine (20%) the most
      frequent opioids. Use of a delirium scale was reported by 55% respondents.
      Physical therapy was reported by 84% respondents, with 41% initiating it within
      72 hours after cannulation. Mobilization goals varied from range of motion
      exercises (81%) to ambulation (22%). The most frequently perceived barriers to
      mobilization were hemodynamic instability, hypoxemia, and dependency on
      venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. CONCLUSIONS: The majority
      of respondents reported targeting moderate to deep sedation following
      cannulation, with the use of sedative and opioid infusions. There is considerable
      variability surrounding early physical therapy and mobilization goals for
      patients with acute respiratory failure supported by venovenous extracorporeal
      membrane oxygenation.

PMID- 28863012
TI  - Critical Care Organizations: Business of Critical Care and Value/Performance
      Building.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: New, value-based regulations and reimbursement structures are creating
      historic care management challenges, thinning the margins and threatening the
      viability of hospitals and health systems. The Society of Critical Care Medicine
      convened a taskforce of Academic Leaders in Critical Care Medicine on February
      22, 2016, during the 45th Critical Care Congress to develop a toolkit drawing on
      the experience of successful leaders of critical care organizations in North
      America for advancing critical care organizations (Appendix 1). The goal of this
      article was to provide a roadmap and call attention to key factors that adult
      critical care medicine leadership in both academic and nonacademic setting should
      consider when planning for value-based care. DESIGN: Relevant medical literature
      was accessed through a literature search. Material published by federal health
      agencies and other specialty organizations was also reviewed. Collaboratively and
      iteratively, taskforce members corresponded by electronic mail and held monthly
      conference calls to finalize this report. SETTING: The business and
      value/performance critical care organization building section comprised of
      leaders of critical care organizations with expertise in critical care
      administration, healthcare management, and clinical practice. MEASUREMENTS AND
      MAIN RESULTS: Two phases of critical care organizations care integration are
      described: "horizontal," within the system and regionalization of care as an
      initial phase, and "vertical," with a post-ICU and postacute care continuum as a
      succeeding phase. The tools required for the clinical and financial
      transformation are provided, including the essential prerequisites of forming a
      critical care organization; the manner in which a critical care organization can
      help manage transformational domains is considered. Lastly, how to achieve
      organizational health system support for critical care organization
      implementation is discussed. CONCLUSIONS: A critical care organization that
      incorporates functional clinical horizontal and vertical integration for ICU
      patients and survivors, aligns strategy and operations with those of the parent
      health system, and encompasses knowledge on finance and risk will be better
      positioned to succeed in the value-based world.

PMID- 28863014
TI  - Antiviral Therapy in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C-related Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma Responding to Palliative Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Advances in hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment offer high
      sustained virologic response rates with minimal side-effects. However, benefits
      of eradicating HCV in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients whose life
      expectancies are hard to be determined after palliative therapy still needs to be
      assessed. This study sought to evaluate prognostic factors for survival in HCV
      related HCC patients that responded to the palliative HCC treatment to speculate
      whether treating HCV would be beneficial in these patients. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, the medical records of 97 patients
      that showed complete or partial response to the initial HCC treatment were
      included. RESULTS: Receiving HCV treatment [hazard ratio (HR), 0.244; 95%
      confidence interval (CI), 0.075-0.788; P=0.018] increased the survival, whereas
      partial response to the initial HCC treatment (HR, 1.795; 95% CI, 1.071-3.008;
      P=0.026) and increased Child-Turcotte-Pugh score (HR, 2.017; 95% CI, 1.196-3.403;
      P=0.009) reduced the survival. From 97 patients, 16 patients were eventually
      treated for HCV. The mean time from the last HCC therapy to HCV treatment was
      16.9+/-13.9 months. The median time of follow-up after HCV treatment was 10.0
      months (range, 3 to 47 mo). Among the HCV-treated patients 3 patients had HCC
      recurred. The time to progression in HCV-treated patients were significantly
      longer than those untreated for HCV (P=0.032). CONCLUSIONS: Although treating HCV
      in HCC patient that undergo noncurative HCC treatment is still debatable, this
      study results carefully suggest that HCV-related HCC patients that responded to
      the initial HCC palliative treatment might benefit from HCV treatment.

PMID- 28863015
TI  - Heart failure in persons living with HIV infection.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To discuss presentation, pathophysiology, complications, and
      treatment of heart failure in persons living with HIV (PLWHIV) in the
      antiretroviral therapy (ART) era. RECENT FINDINGS: Since the advent of effective
      ART and improved longevity, heart failure has become more chronic and insidious
      and is often characterized by preserved ejection fraction, diastolic dysfunction,
      and left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy. The mechanism underlying heart failure in
      the setting of HIV infection remains unknown. A high burden of coronary risk
      factors is often present in PLWHIV, and clinical manifestations of coronary
      disease appear at a younger age compared with uninfected persons. Heart failure
      is more common in the year following myocardial infarction in HIV-infected
      compared with uninfected patients. Epidemiological data suggest the incidence of
      atrial fibrillation in PLWHIV is increasing, likely due to advancing age and
      increasing rates of LV hypertrophy in this population. The treatment of heart
      failure in PLWHIV is extrapolated from treatment of uninfected patients, as
      clinical trials have not been done specifically in HIV. SUMMARY: Symptoms of
      heart failure or echocardiographic evidence of cardiomyopathy increase the risk
      of death in PLWHIV. Additional studies are needed to ascertain if HIV-specific
      issues such as newer ART, chronic inflammation/immune activation, illicit drug
      use, and early initiation of ART are implicated in heart failure pathogenesis.

PMID- 28863016
TI  - Oligometastatic prostate cancer: shaping the definition with molecular imaging
      and an improved understanding of tumor biology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this review is to discuss how novel imaging
      modalities and molecular markers are shaping the definition of oligometastatic
      prostate cancer. RECENT FINDINGS: To effectively classify a patient as having
      oligometastatic prostate cancer, diagnostic tests must be sensitive enough to
      detect subtle sites of metastatic disease. Conventional imaging modalities can
      readily detect widespread polymetastatic disease but do not have the sensitivity
      necessary to reliably classify patients as oligometastatic. Molecular imaging
      using both metabolic- and molecularly-targeted radiotracers has demonstrated
      great promise in aiding in our ability to define the oligometastatic state.
      Perhaps the most promising data to date have been generated with radiotracers
      targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen. In addition, early studies are
      beginning to define biologic markers in the oligometastatic state that may be
      indicative of disease with minimal metastatic potential. SUMMARY: Recent
      developments in molecular imaging have allowed for improved detection of
      metastatic prostate cancer allowing for more accurate staging of patients with
      oligometastatic disease. Future development of biologic markers may assist in
      defining the oligometastatic state and determining prognosis.

PMID- 28863013
TI  - Cell-Free Plasma Hemoglobin and Male Gender Are Risk Factors for Acute Kidney
      Injury in Low Risk Children Undergoing Cardiopulmonary Bypass.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the relationship between the production of cell-free
      plasma hemoglobin and acute kidney injury in infants and children undergoing
      cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery. DESIGN: Prospective observational
      study. SETTING: Twelve-bed cardiac ICU in a university-affiliated children's
      hospital. PATIENTS: Children were prospectively enrolled during their
      preoperative outpatient appointment with the following criteria: greater than 1
      month to less than 18 years old, procedures requiring cardiopulmonary bypass, no
      preexisting renal dysfunction. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: Plasma and urine were collected at baseline (in a subset), the beginning
      and end of cardiopulmonary bypass, and 2 hours and 24 hours after cardiopulmonary
      bypass in 60 subjects. Levels of plasma hemoglobin increased during
      cardiopulmonary bypass and were associated (p < 0.01) with cardiopulmonary bypass
      duration (R = 0.22), depletion of haptoglobin at end and 24 hours after
      cardiopulmonary bypass (R = 0.12 and 0.15, respectively), lactate dehydrogenase
      levels at end cardiopulmonary bypass (R = 0.27), and change in creatinine (R =
      0.12). Forty-three percent of patients developed acute kidney injury. There was
      an association between plasma hemoglobin level and change in creatinine that
      varied by age (overall [R = 0.12; p < 0.01]; in age > 2 yr [R = 0.22; p < 0.01];
      and in < 2 yr [R = 0.03; p = 0.42]). Change in plasma hemoglobin and male gender
      were found to be risk factors for acute kidney injury (odds ratio, 1.02 and 3.78,
      respectively; p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Generation of plasma hemoglobin during
      cardiopulmonary bypass and male gender are associated with subsequent renal
      dysfunction in low-risk pediatric patients, especially in those older than 2
      years. Further studies are needed to determine whether specific subgroups of
      pediatric patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass would benefit from potential
      treatments for hemolysis and plasma hemoglobin-associated renal dysfunction.

PMID- 28863017
TI  - Debate position: cognition and mood are not improved in men administered
      exogenous testosterone therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the
      increasing evidence suggesting that exogenous testosterone therapy is not
      associated with improvements in cognition or mood. This article is part of a
      series, in this issue, in which authors are assigned opinion pieces on
      controversial topics pertaining to testosterone replacement. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Testosterone is increasingly being prescribed. Particularly in the setting of
      recent data suggestive of possible cardiovascular risk associated with its use; a
      clear understanding of the domains of health that improve with exogenous
      testosterone use is important. Data on endogenous and exogenous testosterone with
      cognition and mood are mixed, likely partly related to methodological differences
      of type of testosterone, patient population, and dosing. SUMMARY: Overall,
      available data are not suggestive of a clear benefit of testosterone
      supplementation in multiple domains of cognition and in mood. Supraphysiologic
      testosterone has been associated with adverse psychological outcomes, albeit not
      uniformly in studies.

PMID- 28863018
TI  - Reflecting on the PA profession's 50th anniversary.

PMID- 28863019
TI  - Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellows' Perception of Quality of Attending Supervision
      and Medical Errors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Appropriate supervision has been shown to reduce medical errors in
      anesthesiology residents and other trainees across various specialties.
      Nonetheless, supervision of pediatric anesthesiology fellows has yet to be
      evaluated. The main objective of this survey investigation was to evaluate
      supervision of pediatric anesthesiology fellows in the United States. We
      hypothesized that there was an indirect association between perceived quality of
      faculty supervision of pediatric anesthesiology fellow trainees and the frequency
      of medical errors reported. METHODS: A survey of pediatric fellows from 53
      pediatric anesthesiology fellowship programs in the United States was performed.
      The primary outcome was the frequency of self-reported errors by fellows, and the
      primary independent variable was supervision scores. Questions also assessed
      barriers for effective faculty supervision. RESULTS: One hundred seventy-six
      pediatric anesthesiology fellows were invited to participate, and 104 (59%)
      responded to the survey. Nine of 103 (9%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 4%-16%)
      respondents reported performing procedures, on >1 occasion, for which they were
      not properly trained for. Thirteen of 101 (13%, 95% CI, 7%-21%) reported making
      >1 mistake with negative consequence to patients, and 23 of 104 (22%, 95% CI, 15%
      31%) reported >1 medication error in the last year. There were no differences in
      median (interquartile range) supervision scores between fellows who reported >1
      medication error compared to those reporting <=1 errors (3.4 [3.0-3.7] vs 3.4
      [3.1-3.7]; median difference, 0; 99% CI, -0.3 to 0.3; P = .96). Similarly, there
      were no differences in those who reported >1 mistake with negative patient
      consequences, 3.3 (3.0-3.7), compared with those who did not report mistakes with
      negative patient consequences (3.4 [3.3-3.7]; median difference, 0.1; 99% CI, 
      0.2 to 0.6; P = .35). CONCLUSIONS: We detected a high rate of self-reported
      medication errors in pediatric anesthesiology fellows in the United States.
      Interestingly, fellows' perception of quality of faculty supervision was not
      associated with the frequency of reported errors. The current results with a
      narrow CI suggest the need to evaluate other potential factors that can be
      associated with the high frequency of reported errors by pediatric fellows (eg,
      fatigue, burnout). The identification of factors that lead to medical errors by
      pediatric anesthesiology fellows should be a main research priority to improve
      both trainee education and best practices of pediatric anesthesia.

PMID- 28863020
TI  - Validating the Physiologic Model HumMod as a Substitute for Clinical Trials
      Involving Acute Normovolemic Hemodilution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Blood conservation strategies and transfusion guidelines remain a
      heavily debated clinical topic. Previous investigational trials have shown that
      acute isovolemic hemodilution does not limit adequate oxygen delivery; however, a
      true critical hemoglobin level has never been investigated or defined due to
      safety concerns for human volunteers. Validated physiologic modeling may be
      useful to investigate hemodilution at critical hemoglobin levels without the
      ethical or safety hazards of clinical trials. Our hypothesis is that HumMod, an
      integrative physiological model, can replicate the cardiovascular and metabolic
      findings of previous clinical studies of acute isovolemic hemodilution and use
      coronary blood flow and coronary oxygen delivery in extreme hemodilution to
      predict a safety threshold. METHODS: By varying cardiovascular and sizing
      parameters, unique individuals were generated to simulate a population using
      HumMod, an integrative mathematical model of human physiology. Hemodilution was
      performed by simultaneously hemorrhaging 500 mL aliquots of blood while infusing
      equal volumes of hetastarch, 5% albumin balanced salt solution, or triple volumes
      of lactated Ringer's solution over 10 minutes. Five hemodilution protocols
      reported over 3 studies were directly replicated with HumMod to compare and
      validate essential cardiovascular and metabolic responses to hemodilution in
      moderately healthy, awake adults. Cardiovascular parameters, mental status,
      arterial and mixed venous oxygen content, and oxyhemoglobin saturation were
      recorded after the removal of each aliquot. The outputs of this simulation were
      considered independent variables and were stratified by hemoglobin concentration
      at the time of measurement to assess hemoglobin as an independent predictor of
      hemodynamic and metabolic behavior. RESULTS: The published reports exhibited
      discrepancies: Weiskopf saw increased heart rate and cardiac index, while Jones
      and Ickx saw no change in these variables. In HumMod, arterial pressure was
      maintained during moderate hemodilution due to decreases in peripheral resistance
      opposing increases in cardiac index. HumMod showed preserved ventilation through
      moderate hemodilution, compensated for by an increased oxygen extraction similar
      to the studies of Jones and Ickx. The simulation results qualitatively followed
      the clinical studies, but there were statistical differences. In more extreme
      hemodilution, HumMod had a lesser increase in cardiac index, which led to
      deficiencies in oxygen delivery and low venous saturation. In the simulations,
      coronary blood flow and oxygen delivery increase up to a critical hemoglobin
      threshold of 55-75 g/L in HumMod. In this range, coronary blood flow and oxygen
      delivery fell, leading to cardiac injury. The allowable amount of hemodilution
      before reaching the critical point is most closely correlated with nonmuscle mass
      (r = 0.69) and resting cardiac output (r = 0.67). CONCLUSIONS: There were
      significant statistical differences in the model population and the clinical
      populations, but overall, the model responses lay within the clinical findings.
      This suggests our model is an effective replication of hemodilution in conscious,
      healthy adults. A critical hemoglobin range of 5.5-7.5 g/L was predicted and
      found to be highly correlated with nonmuscle mass and resting cardiac output.

PMID- 28863022
TI  - Transesohageal Echocardiographic-Guided Transapical Neochord Implantation.

PMID- 28863021
TI  - The Effect of Head Position on the Cross-Sectional Area of the Subclavian Vein.
AB  - In 41 healthy volunteers, we investigated the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the
      subclavian vein (SCV) in the following head positions: neutral and 30 degrees 
      head rotation toward the contralateral or ipsilateral sides. Significant
      differences were observed in the CSA of the SCV at 3 different head positions:
      contralateral 30 degrees  versus neutral, -0.05 cm (95% confidence interval, 
      0.08 to -0.03); contralateral 30 degrees  versus ipsilateral 30 degrees , -0.15
      cm (-0.19 to -0.12); neutral versus ipsilateral 30 degrees , -0.10 cm (-0.13 to 
      0.07); all Pcorrected< .001). For SCV catheterization, 30 degrees  head rotation
      to the ipsilateral side provided significant improvements in the CSA compared
      with the other head positions.

PMID- 28863023
TI  - Evaluation of the Augmented Infant Resuscitator: A Monitoring Device for Neonatal
      Bag-Valve-Mask Resuscitation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Annually, 6 million newborns require bag-valve-mask resuscitation,
      and providing live feedback has the potential to improve the quality of
      resuscitation. The Augmented Infant Resuscitator (AIR), a real-time feedback
      device, has been designed to identify leaks, obstructions, and inappropriate
      breath rates during bag-valve-mask resuscitation. However, its function has not
      been evaluated. METHODS: The resistance of the AIR was measured by attaching it
      between a ventilator and a ventilator tester. To test the device's reliability in
      training and clinical-use settings, it was placed in-line between a ventilation
      bag or ventilator and a neonatal manikin and a clinical lung model simulator. The
      lung model simulator simulated neonates of 3 sizes (2, 4, and 6 kg). Leaks,
      obstructions, and respiratory rate alterations were introduced. RESULTS: At a
      flow of 5 L/min, the pressure drop across the AIR was only 0.38 cm H2O, and the
      device had almost no effect on ventilator breath parameters. During the manikin
      trials, it was able to detect all leaks and obstructions, correctly displaying an
      alarm 100% of the time. During the simulated clinical trials, the AIR performed
      best on the 6-kg neonatal model, followed by the 4-kg model, and finally the 2-kg
      model. Over all 3 clinical models, the prototype displayed the correct indicator
      73.5% of the time, and when doing so, took 1.6 +/- 0.9 seconds. CONCLUSIONS: The
      AIR is a promising innovation that has the potential to improve neonatal
      resuscitation. It introduces only marginal resistance and performs well on
      neonatal manikins, but its firmware should be improved before clinical use.

PMID- 28863024
TI  - Neurologic Injury With Severe Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Patients
      Undergoing Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: A Single-Center Retrospective
      Analysis.
AB  - This retrospective single-center study investigated the incidence of neurologic
      injury as determined by autopsy or cerebral imaging in 74 patients undergoing
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for acute respiratory distress
      syndrome. Seventy-three percent of patients were treated with venovenous and 27%
      with venoarterial ECMO. ECMO-associated intracerebral hemorrhage was diagnosed in
      10.8% of patients. There were no cases of ischemic stroke. Clinical
      characteristics did not differ between patients with and without neurologic
      injury. Six-month survival was 13% (Wilson confidence interval, 2%-47%) in
      patients with severe intracerebral hemorrhage compared to an overall survival
      rate of 57% (Wilson confidence interval, 45%-67%).

PMID- 28863025
TI  - Women and Leadership in Anesthesiology: Can We "Lean In" Further?

PMID- 28863026
TI  - Transfusion of Older Red Blood Cells Increases the Risk of Acute Kidney Injury
      After Orthotopic Liver Transplantation: A Propensity Score Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and serious complication of
      orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Transfusion of older red blood cells
      (RBCs) has been implicated in poor outcomes in trauma, cardiac surgery, and
      critically ill patients. However, whether transfusion of older RBCs plays any
      role in post-OLT AKI remained unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the effect of the age of transfused RBCs on post-OLT AKI. METHODS: The clinical
      data of consecutive adult patients who received donation after cardiac death and
      underwent OLT from December 2011 to December 2015 were analyzed. These patients
      were divided into 2 groups: the newer blood group, who received exclusively RBCs
      that had been stored for <14 days; and the older blood group, who received RBCs
      that had been stored for 14 days or more. The incidence of post-OLT AKI, severe
      AKI, lengths of intensive care unit and hospital stay, and in-hospital mortality
      after OLT were analyzed. RESULTS: Postoperative AKI occurred in 65.1% of patients
      in the older blood group and 40.5% of patients in the newer blood group (P <
      .01). The incidence of severe AKI after OLT was significantly higher, and the
      duration of intensive care unit stay was significantly longer, in the older blood
      group. After adjustment by the multivariable regression logistic analysis,
      transfusion of older blood was independently associated with post-OLT AKI (odds
      ratio [OR] = 2.47 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.13-5.41]; P = .024) and severe
      AKI (OR = 5.88 [95% CI, 2.06-16.80]; P = .001). After adjustment by the inverse
      probability of treatment weighting analysis, patients in the older blood group
      still had significantly higher incidences of postoperative AKI (OR = 2.13 [95%
      CI, 1.07-4.22]; P = .030) and severe AKI (OR = 3.34 [95% CI, 1.47-7.60]; P =
      .003) than those in the newer blood group. CONCLUSIONS: Transfusion of older RBCs
      significantly increased the risk of postoperative AKI in liver transplant
      recipients.

PMID- 28863028
TI  - Associations of Plasma Nitrite, L-Arginine and Asymmetric Dimethylarginine With
      Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The nitric oxide system could play an important role in the
      pathophysiology related to necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI). Accordingly,
      we investigated the association between plasma nitrite level at admission and the
      presence of septic shock in patients with NSTI. We also evaluated the association
      between nitrite, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), L-arginine, L-arginine/ADMA
      ratio, and outcome. METHODS: We analyzed plasma from 141 NSTI patients taken upon
      hospital admission. The severity of NSTI was assessed by the presence of septic
      shock, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II, Sepsis-Related Organ Failure
      Assessment (SOFA) score, use of renal replacement therapy (RRT), amputation, and
      28-day mortality. RESULTS: No difference in nitrite levels was found between
      patients with and without septic shock (median 0.82 MUmol/L [interquartile range
      (IQR) 0.41-1.21] vs. 0.87 MUmol/L (0.62-1.24), P = 0.25). ADMA level was higher
      in patients in need of RRT (0.64 MUmol/L (IQR 0.47-0.90) vs. (0.52 MUmol/L (0.34
      0.70), P = 0.028), and ADMA levels correlated positively with SAPS II (rho =
      0.32, P = 0.0002) and SOFA scores (rho = 0.22, P = 0.01). In a logistic
      regression analysis, an L-arginine/ADMA ratio below 101.59 was independently
      associated with 28-day mortality, odds ratio 6.03 (95% confidence interval, 1.41
      25.84), P = 0.016. None of the other analyses indicated differences in the NO
      system based on differences in disease severity. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with
      NSTI, we found no difference in baseline nitrite levels according to septic
      shock. High baseline ADMA level was associated with the use of RRT and patients
      with a low baseline L-arginine/ADMA ratio were at higher risk of dying within 28
      days after hospital admission.

PMID- 28863029
TI  - Requirements for trial registration and adherence to reporting guidelines in
      critical care journals: a meta-epidemiological study of journals' instructions
      for authors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the policies of critical
      care journals with regard to guideline adoption and clinical trial registration
      to understand the extent to which journals use these mechanisms to improve
      reporting practices. METHODS: The current study's sample comprised 37 critical
      care journals cataloged in the Expanded Science Citation Index of the 2015
      Journal Citation Reports and Google Scholar Metrics h5-index critical care
      subcategory. A web-based data abstraction was performed to identify which
      journals required, recommended, or made no mention of 17 different reporting
      guidelines. We also extracted whether journals required or recommended trial
      registration. Authors were blinded to one another's ratings until completion of
      the data validation. Cross tabulations and descriptive statistics were calculated
      by using STATA 13. RESULTS: Of the 37 critical care journals, 15 (15/37, 40.5%)
      did not mention a single guideline within their instructions for authors, whereas
      the remaining 22 (22/37, 59.5%) mentioned one or more guidelines. The Quality of
      Reporting of Meta-analyses statement and Standards for Reporting Qualitative
      Research were not mentioned by any journals, whereas the International Committee
      of Medical Journal Editors Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (26/37, 70.3%)
      and Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement (17/37, 45.9%) were
      mentioned most often. Of the 37 critical care journals, 21 (21/37, 56.8%) did not
      mention trial or review registration, but the remaining 16 (16/37, 43.2%)
      mentioned at least one of the two. Trial registration through ClinicalTrials.gov
      was mentioned by six (6/37, 16.2%) journals, whereas the WHO registry was
      mentioned by five (5/37, 13.5%). Sixteen (16/37, 43.2%) journals mentioned trial
      registration through a registry platform. CONCLUSION: Nearly half of the journals
      in our sample did not mention a reporting guideline, and only a small percentage
      of journals required the registration of clinical trials as a condition for
      publication. Implementing these two mechanisms may limit bias, and their adoption
      should be considered by journal editors in critical care. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      UMIN000024081.

PMID- 28863030
TI  - Persistent Super-Utilization of Acute Care Services Among Subgroups of Veterans
      Experiencing Homelessness.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute health care utilization often occurs among persons experiencing
      homelessness. However, knowing which individuals will be persistent super
      utilizers of acute care is less well understood. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the
      study was to identify those more likely to be persistent super-utilizers of acute
      care services. RESEARCH DESIGN: We conducted a latent class analysis of secondary
      data from the Veterans Health Administration Corporate Data Warehouse, and
      Homeless Operations Management and Evaluation System. The study sample included
      16,912 veterans who experienced homelessness and met super-utilizer criteria in
      any quarter between July 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. The latent class analysis
      included veterans' diagnoses and acute care utilization. RESULTS: Medical, mental
      health, and substance use morbidity rates were high. More than half of the sample
      utilized Veterans Health Administration Homeless Programs concurrently with their
      super-utilization of acute care. There were 7 subgroups of super-utilizers, which
      varied considerably on the degree to which their super-utilization persisted over
      time. Approximately a third of the sample met super-utilizer criteria for >=3
      quarters; this group was older and disproportionately male, non-Hispanic white,
      and unmarried, with lower rates of post-9/11 service and higher rates of rural
      residence and service-connected disability. They were much more likely to be
      currently homeless with more medical, mental health, and substance use morbidity.
      CONCLUSION: Only a subset of homeless veterans were persistent super-utilizers,
      suggesting the need for more targeted interventions.

PMID- 28863031
TI  - Association between Intrapartum Magnesium Administration and the Incidence of
      Maternal Fever: A Retrospective Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intrapartum maternal fever is associated with several adverse
      neonatal outcomes. Intrapartum fever can be infectious or inflammatory in
      etiology. Increases in interleukin 6 and other inflammatory markers are
      associated with maternal fever. Magnesium has been shown to attenuate interleukin
      6-mediated fever in animal models. We hypothesized that parturients exposed to
      intrapartum magnesium would have a lower incidence of fever than nonexposed
      parturients. METHODS: In this study, electronic medical record data from all
      deliveries at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago, Illinois) between 2007 and
      2014 were evaluated. The primary outcome was intrapartum fever (temperature at or
      higher than 38.0 degrees C). Factors associated with the development of maternal
      fever were evaluated using a multivariable logistic regression model. Propensity
      score matching was used to reduce potential bias from nonrandom selection of
      magnesium administration. RESULTS: Of the 58,541 women who met inclusion
      criteria, 5,924 (10.1%) developed intrapartum fever. Febrile parturients were
      more likely to be nulliparous, have used neuraxial analgesia, and have been
      delivered via cesarean section. The incidence of fever was lower in women exposed
      to magnesium (6.0%) than those who were not (10.2%). In multivariable logistic
      regression, women exposed to magnesium were less likely to develop a fever
      (adjusted odds ratio = 0.42 [95% CI, 0.31 to 0.58]). After propensity matching (N
      = 959 per group), the odds ratio of developing fever was lower in women who
      received magnesium therapy (odds ratio = 0.68 [95% CI, 0.48 to 0.98]).
      CONCLUSIONS: Magnesium may play a protective role against the development of
      intrapartum fever. Future work should further explore the association between
      magnesium dosing and the incidence of maternal fever.

PMID- 28863032
TI  - Large Intracranial Aneurysms in a 2-month-old Female: A Rare Occurrence with
      Serious Anesthetic Challenges.

PMID- 28863033
TI  - Increased blood pressure and aortic stiffness among abusers of anabolic
      androgenic steroids: potential effect of suppressed natriuretic peptides in
      plasma?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) is prevalent among
      recreational athletes and adverse effects on blood pressure (BP) and arterial
      stiffness could be substantial. Testosterone decreases natriuretic peptides which
      are key components in BP-regulation and may impair BP-homeostasis in AAS abusers.
      OBJECTIVE: To investigate BP and aortic stiffness in relation to natriuretic
      peptides among current AAS abusers, former AAS abusers and controls. METHODS: In
      this cross-sectional study, 37 current AAS abusers, 33 former AAS abusers and 30
      controls were included. All participants were men involved in recreational
      strength training. We used 24-h BP monitoring, assessed proximal aorta
      distensibility index (ADI) by MRI and obtained overnight fasting blood samples to
      measure: midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), aldosterone,
      noradrenaline and copeptin. RESULTS: Current AAS abusers exhibited higher mean
      (95% confidence interval) 24-h systolic BP than controls [132 (129; 135) versus
      124 (120; 128) mmHg, P = 0.005] and systolic hypertension was more frequent among
      current AAS abusers than controls (51 versus 17%, P = 0.009). ADI was lower among
      both current and former AAS abusers suggesting higher aortic stiffness; %
      difference (95% confidence interval) from controls: -21% (-35; -5) and -21% (-36;
      -4), P < 0.05. Plasma MR-proANP was decreased, whereas aldosterone and
      noradrenaline were increased among current AAS abusers compared with former AAS
      abusers and controls. Decreased MR-proANP was independently associated with
      increased systolic BP and reduced ADI in multivariate linear regressions.
      CONCLUSION: Current AAS abusers displayed increased 24-h systolic BP and
      decreased plasma MR-proANP. Both current and former AAS abusers exhibited higher
      aortic stiffness.

PMID- 28863034
TI  - The Effect of Signal to Noise Ratio on Cortical Auditory-Evoked Potentials
      Elicited to Speech Stimuli in Infants and Adults With Normal Hearing.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Identification and discrimination of speech sounds in noisy
      environments is challenging for adults and even more so for infants and children.
      Behavioral studies consistently report maturational differences in the influence
      that signal to noise ratio (SNR) and masker type have on speech processing;
      however, few studies have investigated the neural mechanisms underlying these
      differences at the level of the auditory cortex. In the present study, we
      investigated the effect of different SNRs on speech-evoked cortical auditory
      evoked potentials (CAEPs) in infants and adults with normal hearing. DESIGN: A
      total of 10 adults (mean age 24.1 years) and 15 infants (mean age 30.7 weeks),
      all with normal hearing, were included in the data analyses. CAEPs were evoked to
      /m/ and /t/ speech stimuli (duration: 79 ms) presented at 75 dB SPL in the sound
      field with a jittered interstimulus interval of 1000-1200 ms. Each of the stimuli
      were presented in quiet and in the presence of white noise (SNRs of 10, 15, and
      20 dB). Amplitude and latency measures were compared for P1, N1, and P2 for
      adults and for the large positivity (P) and following negativity (N: N250 and/or
      N450) for infants elicited in quiet and across SNR conditions. RESULTS: Infant P
      N responses to /t/ showed no statistically significant amplitude and latency
      effects across SNR conditions; in contrast, infant CAEPs to /m/ were greatly
      reduced in amplitude and delayed in latency. Responses were more frequently
      absent for SNRs of 20 dB or less. Adult P1-N1-P2 responses were present for all
      SNRs for /t/ and most SNRs for /m/ (two adults had no responses to /m/ for SNR
      10); significant effects of SNR were found for P1, N1, and P2 amplitude and
      latencies. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study support that SNR
      effects on CAEP amplitudes and latencies in infants cannot be generalized across
      different types of speech stimuli and cannot be predicted from adult data. These
      findings also suggest that factors other than energetic masking are contributing
      to the immaturities in the SNR effects for infants. How these CAEP findings
      relate to an infant's capacity to process speech-in-noise perceptually has yet to
      be established; however, we can be confident that the presence of CAEPs to a
      speech stimulus in noise means that the stimulus is detected at the level of the
      auditory cortex. The absence of a response should be interpreted with caution as
      further studies are needed to investigate a range of different speech stimuli and
      SNRs, in conjunction with behavioral measures, to confirm that infant CAEPs do
      indeed reflect functional auditory capacity to process speech stimuli in noise.

PMID- 28863035
TI  - Same or Different: The Overlap Between Children With Auditory Processing
      Disorders and Children With Other Developmental Disorders: A Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Children diagnosed with auditory processing disorders (APD)
      experience difficulties in auditory functioning and with memory, attention,
      language, and reading tasks. However, it is not clear whether the behavioral
      characteristics of these children are distinctive from the behavioral
      characteristics of children diagnosed with a different developmental disorder,
      such as specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, attention-deficit
      hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disorder (LD), or autism spectrum
      disorder. This study describes the performance of children diagnosed with APD,
      SLI, dyslexia, ADHD, and LD to different outcome measurements. The aim of this
      study was to determine (1) which characteristics of APD overlap with the
      characteristics of children with SLI, dyslexia, ADHD, LD, or autism spectrum
      disorder; and (2) if there are characteristics that distinguish children
      diagnosed with APD from children diagnosed with other developmental disorders.
      DESIGN: A systematic review. Six electronic databases (Pubmed, CINAHL, Eric,
      PsychINFO, Communication & Mass Media Complete, and EMBASE) were searched to find
      peer-reviewed studies from 1954 to May 2015. The authors included studies
      reporting behaviors and performance of children with (suspected) APD and children
      diagnosed with a different developmental disorder (SLI, Dyslexia, ADHD, and LD).
      Two researchers identified and screened the studies independently. Methodological
      quality of the included studies was assessed with the American Speech-Language
      Hearing Association's levels-of-evidence scheme. RESULTS: In total, 13 studies of
      which the methodological quality was moderate were included in this systematic
      review. In five studies, the performance of children diagnosed with APD was
      compared with the performance of children diagnosed with SLI: in two with
      children diagnosed with dyslexia, one with children diagnosed with ADHD, and in
      another one with children diagnosed with LD. Ten of the studies included children
      who met the criteria for more than one diagnosis. In four studies, there was a
      comparison made between the performances of children with comorbid disorders.
      There were no studies found in which the performance of children diagnosed with
      APD was compared with the performance of children diagnosed with autism spectrum
      disorder. Children diagnosed with APD broadly share the same characteristics as
      children diagnosed with other developmental disorders, with only minor
      differences between them. Differences were determined with the auditory and
      visual Duration Pattern Test, the Children's Auditory Processing Performance
      Scale questionnaire, and the subtests of the Listening in Spatialized Noise
      Sentences test, in which noise is spatially separated from target sentences.
      However, these differences are not consistent between studies and are not found
      in comparison to all groups of children with other developmental disorders.
      CONCLUSIONS: Children diagnosed with APD perform equally to children diagnosed
      with SLI, dyslexia, ADHD, and LD on tests of intelligence, memory or attention,
      and language tests. Only small differences between groups were found for sensory
      and perceptual functioning tasks (auditory and visual). In addition, children
      diagnosed with dyslexia performed poorer in reading tasks compared with children
      diagnosed with APD. The result is possibly confounded by poor quality of the
      research studies and the low quality of the used outcome measures. More research
      with higher scientific rigor is required to better understand the differences and
      similarities in children with various neurodevelopmental disorders.

PMID- 28863037
TI  - Talking to cancer survivors about dyspareunia and self-management.

PMID- 28863036
TI  - Clinical activity of eribulin in advanced desmoplastic small round-cell tumor.
AB  - Desmoplastic small round-cell tumor is a rare but highly aggressive tumor
      occurring mainly in adolescents and young adults. Prolonged progression-free
      survival has been documented in patients who have undergone aggressive
      multimodality therapy - that is, multiagent intensive chemotherapy, debulking
      surgery, and radiation therapy. Eribulin is a microtubule-dynamics inhibitor, and
      it has recently been shown to be active in liposarcomas. In preclinical models,
      eribulin activities have also been shown to occur in Ewing's sarcoma cell lines,
      rhabdomyosarcomas and osteosarcomas. In this study, we report three cases of male
      patients suffering from desmoplastic small round-cell tumor and the clinical
      response to eribulin in two of them.

PMID- 28863038
TI  - Long-Term Durability Test for the Left Ventricular Assist System EVAHEART under
      the Physiologic Pulsatile Load.
AB  - The EVAHEART Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) was designed for the long-term
      support of a patient with severe heart failure. It has an original water
      lubrication system for seal and bearing and wear on these parts was considered
      one of its critical failure modes. A durability test focusing on wear was
      designed herein. We developed a mock loop, which generates a physiologic
      pulsatile flow and is sufficiently durable for a long-term test. The pulsatile
      load and the low fluid viscosity enable the creation of a severe condition for
      the mechanical seal. A total of 18 EVAHEART blood pumps completed 2 years of
      operation under the pulsatile condition without any failure. It indicated the
      EVAHEART blood pump had a greater than 90% reliability with a 88% confidence
      level. The test was continued with six blood pumps and achieved an average of 8.6
      years, which was longer than the longest clinical use in Japan. The test result
      showed that no catastrophic, critical, marginal, or minor failures of the blood
      pump or their symptoms were observed. The seal performance was maintained after
      the test. Moreover, the surface roughness did not change, which showed any burn
      or abnormal wear occurred. The original water lubrication system equipped in
      EVAHEART LVAS prevent severe wear on the seal and the bearing, and it can be used
      in the bridge to transplant and destination therapy.

PMID- 28863039
TI  - Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for End-Stage Interstitial Lung Disease With
      Secondary Pulmonary Hypertension at Rest and Exercise: Insights From Simulation
      Modeling.
AB  - Interstitial lung disease (ILD) represents a collection of lung disorders with a
      lethal trajectory with few therapeutic options with the exception of lung
      transplantation. Various extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
      configurations have been used for bridge to transplant (BTT), yet no optimal
      configuration has been clearly demonstrated. Using a cardiopulmonary simulation,
      we assessed different ECMO configurations for patients with end-stage ILD to
      assess the physiologic deficits and help guide the development of new long-term
      pulmonary support devices. A cardiopulmonary ECMO simulation was created, and
      changes in hemodynamics and blood gases were compared for different inflow and
      outflow anatomic locations and for different sweep gas and blood pump flow rates.
      The system simulated the physiologic response of patients with severe ILD at rest
      and during exercise with central ECMO, peripheral ECMO, and with no ECMO. The
      output parameters were total cardiac output (CO), mixed venous oxygen (O2)
      saturation, arterial pH, and O2 delivery (DO2)/O2 utilization (VO2) at different
      levels of exercise. The model described the physiologic state of progressive ILD
      and showed the relative effects of using various ECMO configurations to support
      them. It elucidated the optimal device configurations and required physiologic
      pump performance and provided insight into the physiologic demands of exercise in
      ILD patients. The simulation program was able to model the pathophysiologic state
      of progressive ILD with PH and demonstrate how mechanical support devices can be
      implemented to improve cardiopulmonary function at rest and during exercise. The
      information generated from simulation can be used to optimize ECMO configuration
      selection for BTT patients and provide design guidance for new devices to better
      meet the physiologic demands of exercise associated with normal activities of
      daily living.

PMID- 28863040
TI  - Del Nido Cardioplegia for Myocardial Protection in Adult Cardiac Surgery: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Cardioplegia is an important strategy for myocardial protection during cardiac
      surgery. This meta-analysis was to compare the effects of del Nido and
      conventional cardioplegia in adult patients. Systematic searches were performed
      to identify studies using PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and the
      International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. A total of nine studies were
      included. Cardiopulmonary bypass and cross-clamp time were significantly shorter
      in the del Nido than conventional cardioplegia (mean difference [MD]: -7.52, 95%
      confidence interval [95% CI]: -14.76 to -0.29, p = 0.04; MD: -5.74, 95% CI: 
      10.14 to -1.34, p = 0.01). During the operation, cardioplegia volume and blood
      glucose level were lower in the del Nido group (MD: -522.53, 95% CI: -926.68 to 
      118.37, p = 0.01; standardized mean difference [SMD]: -1.11, 95% CI: -1.74 to 
      0.48, p = 0.0006). Ventilation time and length of intensive care unit were
      decreased significantly with del Nido cardioplegia (MD: -1.05, 95% CI: -1.79 to 
      0.31, p = 0.006; MD: -0.65, 95% CI: -0.92 to -0.38, p < 0.00001). There were no
      differences in myocardial enzyme, postoperative inotropic support, atrial
      fibrillation, hospital, and mortality between the two groups. In adult cardiac
      surgery, myocardial protection used with the del Nido or conventional
      cardioplegia solution yield similar short-term clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28863041
TI  - Decellularized Rat Lung Scaffolds Using Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate for Tissue
      Engineering.
AB  - Perfusion decellularization with detergents is effective to maintain the
      architecture and proteins of extracellular matrix (ECM) for use in the field of
      lung tissue engineering (LTE). However, it is unclear which detergent is ideal to
      produce an acellular lung scaffold. In this study, we obtained two decellularized
      rat lung scaffolds using a novel detergent sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) and
      a conventional detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Both decellularized lung
      scaffolds were assessed by histology, immunohistochemistry, scanning electron
      microscopy, DNA quantification, sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) quantification
      and western blot. Subsequently, the scaffolds were implanted subcutaneously in
      rats for 6 weeks and were evaluated via hematoxylin and eosin staining and Masson
      staining. Results indicated that SLES was effective to remove cells; moreover,
      lungs decellularized with SLES showed better preservation of sulfated GAGs, lung
      architecture, and ECM proteins than SDS. After 6 weeks, SLES scaffolds
      demonstrated a significantly greater potential for cell infiltration and blood
      vessel formation compared with SDS scaffolds. Taken together, we conclude that
      SLES is a promising detergent to produce an acellular scaffold using LTE for
      eventual transplantation.

PMID- 28863042
TI  - The Bioengineered Cardiac Left Ventricle.
AB  - Left ventricle and aortic valve underdevelopment are presentations in the
      congenital cardiac condition hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS); current
      clinical treatments involve right ventricle refunctionalization. Cardiac organoid
      models provide simplified open chambers engineered into a flow loop, to
      ameliorate ventricle-type function. Complete bioengineered ventricle development
      presents a significant advancement in cardiac organoids. This study provides the
      foundation for bioengineered complete ventricle (BECV) fabrication. Bioengineered
      trileaflet valve (BETV) molds and chitosan scaffolds were developed to emulate
      human neonate aortic valve geometry. Bioengineered complete ventricle were
      fabricated by fitting BETV into a bioengineered open ventricle (BEOV); the
      chamber was cellularized using a two-stage cellularization strategy, and BETV
      were passively seeded with rat neonatal cardiac fibroblasts and perfusion
      cultured for 3 days. Average pressure generated ranged from 0.06 to 0.12 mm Hg;
      average biopotential output was 1.02 mV. Histologic assessment displayed
      syncytial-type cardiomyocyte aggregates at the BECV chamber surface; BETV
      displayed randomly oriented, diffusely distributed cardiac fibroblasts. The
      fabrication of this novel BECV may aid in developing a functional engineered left
      ventricle for clinical application in HLHS.

PMID- 28863043
TI  - Pediatric Tandem Therapeutic Apheresis: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
AB  - The epidemiology, safety, and efficacy of pediatric multiple tandem
      extracorporeal therapies are not well understood. We conducted a retrospective
      chart review of therapeutic apheresis (TA) from January 1, 2012 to October 31,
      2015. We collected procedural/clinical demographics, American Society for
      Apheresis (ASFA) indication, complications, and mortality. One hundred eighty
      tandem TA procedures were performed in 53 patients. Median age was 9 years
      (range: 2 months to 21 years) with a median weight of 28 kg (range: 6-170.3 kg)
      with nine patients weighing < 10 kg. Forty-five percent of patients were in
      tandem with continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH), 21% cardiopulmonary
      bypass (CPB), 4% extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and 11% had multiple
      extracorporeal therapies (CVVH and ECMO). Common indications were solid organ
      transplant (50% cardiac, 13% renal) and sepsis-induced thrombocytopenia
      associated multiple organ failure (26%). Equipment (4%) and patient (4%)
      complications occurred, with rare failure (1%) and no procedure-related
      mortality. Tandem procedures are used in critically ill pediatric patients with
      higher morbidity and mortality (21%) than typical TA patients. The high
      percentage of patients outside of category I or II (83%) underscores the emerging
      nature of tandem extracorporeal therapies and need for further investigation.

PMID- 28863044
TI  - Changing Patterns of Foreigner Transplants in Korea and Overseas Organ
      Transplants Among Koreans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to estimate the numbers of foreign patients seeking
      organ transplantation (OT) in Korea and to examine the relationship between the
      trend of deceased donors in Korea and number of Korean patients seeking OT
      overseas since 2000. METHODS: Data on foreigners who received a transplant in
      Korea were obtained from the Korean Network for Organ Sharing. Data on overseas
      transplants were obtained from 42 transplant centers surveyed through transplant
      coordinators. RESULTS: A total of 336 foreigners underwent OT (kidney
      transplantation [KT], 174; liver transplantation [LT], 162) in Korea between 2006
      and 2016. The Mongolians were the most common foreigners who undergo KTs (32%),
      followed by the Chinese (18%), Americans (9%), and Emiratis (7%). Among
      foreigners undergoing LTs, the most common country of origin was Mongolia (39%),
      followed by United Arab Emirates (23%), China (13%), and the United States (6%).
      A total of 2206 Korean patients underwent overseas OT (KT, 977; LT, 1229) between
      2000 and 2016. In 97% of overseas KT cases (n = 942) and 98% (n = 1205) of
      overseas LT cases, the transplantations were performed in China. The relationship
      between the number of deceased donors in Korea and the number of overseas
      transplants after 2006 indicates a highly negative correlation. (rho = -0.988, P
      < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This analysis of trends in Korean patients seeking OT
      overseas demonstrates the importance of multilateral approaches to address organ
      trafficking. National effort to achieve self-sufficiency by increasing activities
      for organ donations is one of the fundamental solutions to transplant tourism.

PMID- 28863045
TI  - Perineal Talc Use and Ovarian Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been posited that there is an association between perineal
      talc use and the incidence of ovarian cancer. To date, this has only been
      explored in observational studies. OBJECTIVES: To perform a meta-analysis to
      evaluate the association between perineal talc use and risk of ovarian cancer.
      METHODS: Studies were identified using six electronic databases. Observational
      studies involving at least 50 cases of ovarian cancer were eligible for
      inclusion. We analyzed the association between ovarian cancer, including specific
      types, and any perineal talc use, long-term (>10 years) use, total lifetime
      applications, and use on diaphragms or sanitary napkins. A subgroup analysis was
      performed, stratifying by study design and population. RESULTS: We identified 24
      case-control (13,421 cases) and three cohort studies (890 cases, 181,860 person
      years). Any perineal talc use was associated with increased risk of ovarian
      cancer (OR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.24, 1.39). More than 3600 lifetime applications (OR
      = 1.42; 95% CI = 1.25, 1.61) were slightly more associated with ovarian cancer
      than <3600 (OR = 1.32; 95% CI = 1.15, 1.50). An association with ever use of talc
      was found in case-control studies (OR = 1.35; 95% CI = 1.27, 1.43), but not
      cohort studies (OR = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.90, 1.25). However, cohort studies found an
      association between talc use and invasive serous type ovarian cancer (OR = 1.25;
      95% CI = 1.01, 1.55). We found an increased risk of serous and endometrioid, but
      not mucinous or clear cell subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: In general, there is a
      consistent association between perineal talc use and ovarian cancer. Some
      variation in the magnitude of the effect was found when considering study design
      and ovarian cancer subtype.

PMID- 28863046
TI  - Cognitive Aging in Black and White Americans: Cognition, Cognitive Decline, and
      Incidence of Alzheimer Disease Dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: US-based studies have reported that older blacks perform worse than
      older whites on cognitive tests and have higher risk of Alzheimer disease
      dementia (AD). It is unclear whether these findings reflect differences in
      cognitive decline. METHODS: The Chicago Health and Aging Project followed
      individuals, 65+ years old (64% black, 36% white), for up to 18 years.
      Participants underwent triennial cognitive assessments; stratified randomized
      samples underwent assessments for AD. We compared black and white participants'
      cognitive performance, cognitive decline rate (N = 7,735), and AD incidence (N =
      2,144), adjusting for age and sex. RESULTS: Black participants performed worse
      than white participants on the cognitive tests; 441 participants developed AD.
      Black participants' incident AD risk was twice that of whites (RR = 1.9; 95% CI,
      1.4, 2.7), with 58 excess cases/1,000 occurring among blacks (95% CI, 28, 88).
      Among noncarriers of APOE epsilon4, blacks had 2.3 times the AD risk (95% CI,
      1.5, 3.6), but among carriers, race was not associated with risk (RR = 1.1; 95%
      CI, 0.6, 2.0; Pinteraction = 0.05). However, cognitive decline was not faster
      among blacks: the black-white difference in 5-year change in global cognitive
      score was 0.007 standard unit (95% CI, -0.034, 0.047). Years of education
      accounted for a sizable portion of racial disparities in cognitive level and AD
      risk, in analyses using a counterfactual approach. CONCLUSIONS: The higher risk
      of AD among blacks may stem from lower level of cognitive test performance
      persisting throughout the observation period rather than faster rate of late-life
      cognitive decline. Disparities in educational attainment may contribute to these
      performance disparities. See video abstract at, http://links.lww.com/EDE/B299.

PMID- 28863048
TI  - Causes and management of postrenal transplant diarrhea: an underappreciated cause
      of transplant-associated morbidity.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review highlights the current literature on both
      infectious and noninfectious diarrhea in renal transplant recipients and provides
      a diagnostic algorithm for the evaluation of posttransplant diarrhea. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Renal transplant recipients share certain predisposing characteristics
      for the development of posttransplant diarrhea, including a generalized
      immunosuppressed state and exposure to polypharmacy, most notably broad-spectrum
      antimicrobial therapy. The main causes of diarrhea after transplantation are
      infections, immunosuppressive drugs, antibiotics and other drugs. As the cause of
      posttransplant diarrhea varies greatly depending on several factors, recommending
      a single optimal diagnostic algorithm is extremely difficult. SUMMARY: Physicians
      should be familiar with common causes that result in posttransplant diarrhea. A
      directed approach to diagnosis and treatment will not only help to resolve
      diarrhea, but also prevent potentially life-threatening consequences, such as
      loss of the graft. Prospective studies are needed to better assess true
      prevalence, risk factors and complications of diarrhea by norovirus, rotavirus
      and adenovirus in kidney transplant patients.

PMID- 28863049
TI  - Nursing Roles and Substance Use Disorders.

PMID- 28863047
TI  - Aspirin Use and Mortality in Two Contemporary US Cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Daily aspirin use has been recommended for secondary prevention of
      cardiovascular disease, but its use for primary prevention remains controversial.
      METHODS: We followed 440,277 men and women from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health
      Study (ages 50-71) and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer
      Screening Trial (ages 55-74) for mortality for 13 years on average. Frequency of
      aspirin use was ascertained through self-report, and cause of death by death
      certificates. We calculated multivariate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) for mortality using Cox proportional hazards models for each
      cohort and combined by meta-analysis. RESULTS: We found a consistent U-shaped
      relationship between aspirin use and mortality in both studies, with differential
      risk patterns for cardiovascular mortality by disease history. Among individuals
      with a history of cardiovascular disease, daily aspirin use was associated with
      reduced cardiovascular mortality [HR = 0.78 (95% CI, 0.74, 0.82)]. However, among
      those without a previous history, we observed no protection for daily aspirin
      users [HR = 1.06 (1.02, 1.11)], and elevated risk of cardiovascular mortality for
      those taking aspirin twice daily or more [HR = 1.29 (1.19, 1.39)]. Elevated risk
      persisted even among participants who lived beyond 5 years of follow-up and used
      aspirin without other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs [HR = 1.31 (1.17,
      1.47)]. CONCLUSIONS: Results from these 2 large population-based US cohorts
      confirm the utility of daily aspirin use for secondary prevention of
      cardiovascular mortality; however, our data suggest that caution should be
      exercised in more frequent use, particularly among individuals without a history
      of cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28863050
TI  - Nursing Roles in the Care of Patients With Substance Use Disorders.

PMID- 28863051
TI  - Developing an Addictions Nursing Competency Framework Within a Canadian Context.
AB  - Clients with substance use disorders access care in all areas of the health care
      system, yet the Canadian nursing literature lacks content on the knowledge,
      skills, and judgment needed by nurses who work with this population. To address
      this literature gap, two Advanced Practice Nurses adapted the Canadian Centre on
      Substance Abuse's Technical Competencies for Canada's Substance Abuse Workforce
      to include nursing content and theory. This article describes the adaptation
      process and validation method used by the Advanced Practice Nurses at a large,
      Canadian urban teaching hospital and includes discussion about actual and
      potential opportunities for practical application of the adapted framework.

PMID- 28863052
TI  - Perspectives on a Home Telehealth Care Management Program for Veterans With
      Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Who Smoke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have high rates
      of smoking and low quit rates. We conducted a qualitative evaluation of an
      integrated smoking cessation randomized controlled trial (RCT) that used home
      telehealth and motivational interviewing (MI) to change smoking behaviors among
      individuals with PTSD. METHOD: Using a convenience sample sourced from the
      original RCT, intervention and control group participants were invited to
      participate in a qualitative evaluation. Semistructured interview guides were
      used to assess the effectiveness of study components, make recommendations for
      future interventions, and identify facilitators/barriers to smoking cessation. We
      analyzed these data using an inductive and deductive, team-based content analysis
      approach. RESULTS: We interviewed 32 study participants (intervention: n = 15,
      control: n = 17) who completed the original RCT within the previous 6 months.
      Respondents were highly satisfied with home telehealth and MI counseling. The
      intervention group respondents found MI counseling to be supportive,
      nonjudgmental, and informative. Control group respondents felt that they had
      received smoking cessation assistance. Respondents from both groups desired more
      information about PTSD and smoking, relied on smoking as a coping mechanism for
      PTSD, and believed that quitting was an individual choice. CONCLUSION:
      Respondents reported that home telehealth and MI were acceptable ways to provide
      smoking cessation assistance to individuals with PTSD. The support and increased
      awareness of smoking behaviors were perceived as helpful. Future investigations
      should focus on increasing support and information about stress management,
      smoking, PTSD, and the relationship between them for individuals with PTSD who
      smoke.

PMID- 28863053
TI  - Preparing Nursing Students to Work With Patients With Alcohol or Drug-Related
      Problems.
AB  - Stigma and insufficient training for addressing alcohol or drug problems in
      clinical settings are two significant barriers to earlier identification and
      access to care for patients with alcohol or drug (AOD)-related problems. Nurses
      are crucial players in this strategy, yet nurses often report poor motivation and
      insufficient training for working with AOD-affected patients. This article
      describes and reports preliminary evaluation results of an educational experience
      that integrated AOD curriculum into a community/public health nursing clinical
      practicum. The purpose of the intervention was to meet the required objectives
      for our university's community/public health nursing clinical course, improve
      students' attitudes and therapeutic commitment for working with AOD-affected
      patients, and prepare students for providing high-quality nursing care for
      individuals with AOD-related problems.

PMID- 28863054
TI  - Topics of Addiction in Turkish Nursing Programs: A Summary.
AB  - Addiction is a serious health issue. The measured rates of substance abuse in
      Turkey are lower than those in Western countries; however, recent studies show a
      significant increase in the prevalence of substance abuse and that the age of
      onset of substance abuse has decreased. There is a lack of literature about the
      topic of addiction in the undergraduate nursing programs in Turkey. Therefore,
      the aim of this current study was to examine the presence of addiction content in
      nursing education in Turkey among state and foundation universities.A
      descriptive, survey research design was used in this study. One hundred twelve
      state universities and 64 foundation universities that provide undergraduate
      education in Turkey were screened using the database of the Council of Higher
      Education. Researchers found that 89.09% of the state universities and all the
      foundation universities included the topic of addiction and/or substance
      addiction somewhere in their undergraduate nursing programs. The courses were
      primarily elective courses, and availability of the coursework varied. Given the
      impact of substance and process addictions, the authors conclude with a
      recommendation that the topic of addiction be offered as a discrete, mandatory
      course in the undergraduate nursing curricula of all universities offering
      nursing programs.

PMID- 28863055
TI  - The Last State to Grant Nurse Practitioners DEA Licensure: An Education
      Improvement Initiative on the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.
AB  - Nurse practitioners (NPs) now have prescriptive authority for controlled
      substances in all 50 states in the United States. Florida, the last state to
      grant NPs DEA licensure, has been wrought with prescription diversion practices
      for a number of years as pill mills, doctor shopping, and overprescribing
      proliferated. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) help curb drug
      diversion activity and play a key role in reducing the abuse of controlled
      substances. The primary objective of this education improvement initiative was to
      increase knowledge of actively licensed NPs in the state of Florida regarding the
      state's PDMP. The main themes included the drug abuse problem, description and
      progression of the PDMP, and how to use the Florida PDMP. Upon approval from the
      institutional review board, this education improvement initiative gauged NP
      knowledge of the PDMP and main themes before and after an educational PowerPoint
      intervention. A pretest/posttest questionnaire was administered for assessment of
      all knowledge questions. One hundred forty-five NPs with active advanced
      registered NP licenses in Florida completed both the pretest and posttest
      questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and paired t tests were used for
      statistical significance testing. Knowledge of the PDMP and the main themes of
      the education improvement initiative significantly increased (p < .001) from
      pretest to posttest results. This education improvement initiative had positive
      effects for NPs on the knowledge of the Florida PDMP and the main themes. This
      indicated that Florida NPs are able to acquire greater comprehension of the PDMP
      by an education intervention.

PMID- 28863056
TI  - Preparing Nursing and Social Work Students to Care for Patients in Acute Alcohol
      Withdrawal.
AB  - Alcohol and other drug abuse has become a national crisis with approximately 26%
      of general medical patients having alcohol-related problems. New nurses and
      social workers are often not prepared to care for patients with severe alcohol
      withdrawal symptoms because they lack experience in actual crisis situations. The
      purpose of this study was to prepare nursing and social work students to care for
      a patient undergoing an acute alcohol withdrawal process. Nine groups of 8-10
      students participated in a 2.5-hour simulation event that included an alcohol
      withdrawal seizure, team meeting, and discharge of the patient. Students
      recognized the importance of all the professional roles and how each professional
      benefits patient care. Before the simulation, students thought they were prepared
      to care for patients experiencing alcohol withdrawal; however, the crisis of an
      alcohol seizure decreased the student's ability to perform skills and communicate
      effectively. These findings suggest that new nurses and social workers may not be
      prepared to care for the acute alcohol withdrawal patient.

PMID- 28863057
TI  - Nursing Fellowship in Addiction Medicine: A Novel Program in a Canadian Setting.

PMID- 28863058
TI  - Brief Report: First World Health Organization Forum on Alcohol Drugs and
      Addictive Behaviors: Enhancing Public Health Actions Through Partnerships and
      Collaboration.

PMID- 28863059
TI  - Recovery Beyond Buprenorphine: Nurse-Led Group Therapy.
AB  - It has taken the tragedy of swelling opioid overdoses to raise addictions to
      national attention. This past year, a new law called the Comprehensive Addictions
      Recovery Act has helped to open doors for nurse practitioners and physician
      assistants to prescribe buprenorphine. Although this medication can assist those
      dependent on opioids in finding needed stability, medication-assisted treatment
      is only the beginning. Addiction and psychiatric nurses must play a larger role
      in providing various therapies that coincide with medication-assisted treatment
      to support ongoing recovery. One treatment option is group therapy, which is
      effective for individuals with substance use as well as other co-occurring
      disorders to develop needed skills to remain in recovery. The purpose of this
      review is to explore the nursing role in group therapy for substance use as well
      as encourage addictions and psychiatric nurse practitioners to offer recovery
      focused group therapy to this population.

PMID- 28863060
TI  - Socialized Risk and Privatized Profit: What Addictions Nurses Need to Know About
      the Potential Repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
AB  - The aim of this column is to provide an overview of the positive impacts of the
      Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) on improved health care
      access, quality, and outcomes for individuals with substance use disorders
      (SUDs), including opioid use disorders and opioid overdose deaths. Addictions
      nurses should be alerted to the serious, often lethal consequences that
      individuals with SUDs will experience if the ACA is repealed. Proposed
      legislation to reverse major provisions of the ACA include the American Health
      Care Act of 2017 (H. R. 1628), passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May
      4, 2017, and the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (H. R. 1628, Senate
      Amendment, June 26, 2017), which was made public just before this writing, amid
      much secrecy and lack of transparency. This column focuses on ACA-related
      Medicaid expansion and the impact that future cuts to Medicaid and other
      insurance coverage would have on individuals in need of SUD treatment. Finally,
      this column addresses the moral, ethical, and professional obligations of nurses
      and others involved in health care and health policy. Intensified advocacy
      efforts are required to ensure that recent ACA-related gains in insurance
      coverage and access to quality behavioral health treatment are not only preserved
      but also expanded. Access to health insurance coverage and health care,
      especially among vulnerable, high-risk populations, including those at elevated
      risk for opioid overdose and other SUD-related morbidity and mortality risks, is
      one of the most important social justice issues of our time.

PMID- 28863061
TI  - Nursing Roles in Addiction Care.

PMID- 28863063
TI  - Preparing Nursing Students to Work with Patients with Alcohol or Drug-Related
      Problems.

PMID- 28863062
TI  - Strategic Development of an Alternative-to-Discipline Program in Hawaii.

PMID- 28863064
TI  - Mixed Tumor, Eccrine Type: So What If it's Vulval!

PMID- 28863065
TI  - Ovarian Leydig Cells (OLC): About their Heterotopia or Eutopia.

PMID- 28863066
TI  - Inflammatory Pseudotumor Presenting as a Mesosalpingeal Mass.
AB  - We describe a case in which the clinical and pathologic features of a
      mesosalpingeal mass led to a diagnosis of inflammatory pseudotumor, an unusual
      tumor found in a rare location. The differential diagnosis is rather broad and
      includes lesions ranging from Castleman disease to an immunoglobulin G4-related
      fibrosclerosing tumor. The patient is alive and well at last follow-up.

PMID- 28863067
TI  - Cervical Carcinoma With Divergent Neuroendocrine and Gastrointestinal
      Differentiation.
AB  - Neuroendocrine carcinomas of the uterine cervix are rare tumors with aggressive
      behavior. They comprise <4% of cervical carcinomas. They may coexist with both
      adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of cervix. Signet ring carcinoma of
      cervix is a rarer entity and less than 20 cases have been described in the
      literature. We present a case of a 34-year-old female who presented with systemic
      thrombosis, splenic mass and a cervical mass which on biopsy showed divergent
      differentiation of primitive large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma with signet ring
      cells. The cervical tumor was positive for human papilloma virus 16/18 by in situ
      hybridization, confirming cervical origin of the tumor. This unusual presentation
      and morphology needs to be recognized and appropriately evaluated when patients
      present with tumors of unknown origin in metastatic sites.

PMID- 28863068
TI  - Test Characteristics of Specific p16 Clones in the Detection of High-grade
      Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions (HSIL).
AB  - p16 immunohistochemistry is recommended by the CAP-ASCCP Lower Anogenital
      Squamous Terminology (LAST) Standardization Project for human papillomavirus
      associated Lesions as an adjunct to morphologic assessment in the diagnosis of
      high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion. This study evaluates the performance
      of different p16 clones as compared with E6H4 (CINtec) in detecting high-grade
      squamous intraepithelial lesion. The 54 high-quality articles addressing the
      performance of p16 identified by work group 4 of the LAST Project were evaluated
      for: specific p16 clone, scoring method, number of cases, anatomic site, and
      histologic diagnoses. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and
      negative predictive value were calculated for each clone. Two-proportion z tests
      (pooled) were used to evaluate significance. In total, 32 of the 54 studies met
      the inclusion criteria. The most commonly used clone was E6H4 (17 studies, 3507
      cases) with smaller numbers (1-4) of studies evaluating the following: 16P04,
      JC8, 16P07, G175-405, K5334, K5336, and 7962. p16 clones 16P04 and JC8 performed
      better than E6H4 with 16P04 exhibiting statistically significant higher
      sensitivity (94% vs. 87% for E6H4), specificity (94% vs. 81%), and positive
      predictive value (96% vs. 69%) while JC8 exhibited higher specificity (91% vs.
      81%) and positive predictive value (88% vs. 69%). 16P07 performed similarly to
      E6H4 and the other 4 clones did not perform as well as E6H4. p16 clones 16P04,
      JC8, and 16P07 clones perform as well or better than the widely used p16 clone
      E6H4 (CINtec). However, further studies are indicated to determine the
      reproducibility of these findings and the impact of interlaboratory variation on
      test performance.

PMID- 28863070
TI  - Evaluation of Microscopic Changes in Fallopian Tubes of BRCA Mutation Carriers by
      Morphometric Analysis of Histologic Slides: A Preliminary Pilot Study.
AB  - Mutations in BRCA genes increase the risk of ovarian cancer, yet no method for
      early diagnosis is available. Some serous ovarian tumors are hypothesized to stem
      from cells of the fallopian tube fimbria. Using a novel method of computerized
      morphometry of the fimbrial epithelium, this study aimed to detect morphologic
      differences in noncancerous fimbriae between BRCA mutation carriers and
      noncarriers, and between healthy and serous ovarian cancer patients. Twenty-four
      fimbriae from healthy women (13 BRCA+, 11 BRCA-) and 21 fimbriae from women with
      serous ovarian cancer (10 BRCA+, 11 BRCA-), all reported as "normal" by
      hematoxylin and eosin examination, were subjected to computerized
      histomorphometric analysis. A Fast Fourier Transformation was applied to images
      of fimbrial epithelium and the Fast Fourier Transformation 2-dimensional
      frequency maps were subsequently quantified for nuclear orientation and planar
      distribution by a cooccurrence matrix analysis. Additional analysis of nuclear
      contour was applied to the fimbriae of the healthy women. Among the healthy
      women, significant differences were found in morphometric characteristics between
      the BRCA mutation carriers and noncarriers. Among the women with ovarian cancer,
      no significant differences were found between BRCA mutation carriers and
      noncarriers. Between healthy women and those with ovarian cancer, significant
      differences were detected, regardless of BRCA mutational status. A novel method,
      which combined Fast Fourier Transformation with cooccurrence matrix analysis,
      demonstrated differences in morphometric characteristics in the fimbriae between
      healthy and ovarian cancer patients, and between BRCA mutation carriers and
      noncarriers. The clinical significance of these observations should be
      investigated.

PMID- 28863069
TI  - Fibroepithelial Stromal Polyp of the Vulva: Case Report and Review of Potential
      Histologic Mimickers.
AB  - Vulvar tumors arising from submucosal connective tissue, some of which exhibit
      hormonal responsiveness, have many clinical and histologic overlapping
      characteristics. We present a case of a fibroepithelial stromal polyp arising
      from the vulva of a 22-year-old female. We review the differential diagnosis with
      an emphasis on distinguishing features of these uncommon neoplasms. Accurate
      diagnosis is essential as the extent of surgical resection and risk of local
      recurrence varies for these tumors.

PMID- 28863071
TI  - An Ovarian Adenocarcinoma With Combined Low-grade Serous and Mesonephric
      Morphologies Suggests a Mullerian Origin for Some Mesonephric Carcinomas.
AB  - Mesonephric carcinomas are rare adenocarcinomas of the female genital tract that
      occur most commonly in the uterine cervix. They are classically thought to arise
      from benign mesonephric remnants, and are rarely reported at other sites in the
      gynecologic tract. Here we present an interesting biphenotypic ovarian
      adenocarcinoma with intimately associated but distinct components of both low
      grade serous carcinoma and mesonephric-like carcinoma. A serous borderline tumor
      was present adjacent to the invasive carcinoma, and no benign mesonephric
      precursors were identified. Numerous invasive peritoneal metastases were present,
      including multiple metastases with both low-grade serous and mesonephric-like
      elements. Consistent with recent reports, foci of mesonephric-like carcinoma were
      morphologically and immunohistochemically identical to classic mesonephric
      carcinoma of the cervix. On molecular analysis, the serous borderline tumor,
      primary and metastatic low-grade serous carcinoma, and primary and metastatic
      mesonephric-like carcinoma each harbored a shared NRAS p.Q61R hotspot mutation,
      shared gains in chromosome 1q and 18p, and shared losses in chromosomes 1p, 18q,
      and 22. These shared molecular features indicate a clonal relationship between
      all morphologic elements of this ovarian adenocarcinoma, suggesting that at least
      some mesonephric carcinomas may arise from Mullerian precursors.

PMID- 28863072
TI  - YWHAE Rearrangement in a Purely Conventional Low-grade Endometrial Stromal
      Sarcoma that Transformed Over Time to High-grade Sarcoma: Importance of Molecular
      Testing.
AB  - Low and high-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESS) can be distinguished on a
      morphologic basis. Low-grade ESS is composed of oval cells that resemble normal
      proliferative-phase endometrial stroma, while the well-known high-grade ESS is
      composed of round cells growing in nests separated by delicate sinusoidal
      vasculature. Recurrent JAZF1 rearrangements have been reported to be most
      frequent in low-grade stromal sarcomas (up to 60%), while YWHAE rearrangements
      are characteristic of high-grade ESS. Herein, we report a case of a 45-yr-old
      woman with stage IA typical low-grade ESS who developed multiple abdominopelvic
      recurrences and lung metastases 15 mo after her primary tumor was resected. The
      unusual morphology (without high-grade areas) as well as the aggressive behavior
      of the tumor prompted molecular testing which showed YWHAE rearrangement in her
      abdominopelvic recurrence and her primary tumor. Five years after her primary
      tumor was resected, she developed scalp metastases with a typical morphology of a
      high-grade ESS associated with t(10;17) and died of her disease. Our case
      highlights the potential value of molecular testing in all low-grade ESS at time
      of initial diagnosis to stratify patients at higher risk for developing high
      grade ESS with the goal of offering closer follow-up for early detection and
      treatment if transformation occurs.

PMID- 28863073
TI  - Fumarate Hydratase Mutations and Alterations in Leiomyoma With Bizarre Nuclei.
AB  - Leiomyoma with bizarre nuclei (LM-BN), is a variant of uterine smooth muscle
      tumor with atypical histologic features. Although some LM-BN share several
      significant genetic alterations with leiomyosarcoma, including p16 and p53, the
      underlying tumorigenesis of LM-BN remains largely unknown. As we previously
      reported, LM-BN can be divided into 2 subtypes, type I and type II, based on
      different nuclear features. Type I LM-BN have similar histologic features as
      uterine smooth muscle tumors with fumarate hydratase (FH) alterations. In this
      study, we examined FH expression and FH mutations in 77 LM-BN (40 type I cases
      and 37 type II cases). FH expression was examined by immunohistochemistry using S
      (2-succino)-cysteine antibodies (2SC, a protein modification associated with FH
      inactivation and subsequent fumarate accumulation) and FH antibodies (FH gene
      products). Seventy-two LM-BN tumors underwent Sanger sequencing to detect FH
      mutations. We found that 51% (39/77) of LM-BN showed FH alterations detected by
      immunohistochemistry with both 2SC and FH. Mutational analysis showed that 21%
      (15/72) of LM-BN harbored FH gene mutations. Further analysis revealed that 85%
      (34/40) of those with FH alterations were type I LM-BN while 19% (7/37) were type
      II LM-BN. Our findings suggest that over half of histologically diagnosed LM-BN
      may be related to FH alterations or FH mutations and the majority of these have
      the characteristic histologic features of type I LM-BN.

PMID- 28863074
TI  - Interval Walking Training and Nutritional Intake to Increase Plasma Volume in
      Elderly.
AB  - PURPOSE: Aerobic training-induced plasma volume (PV) expansion improves
      thermoregulation, and carbohydrate (CHO) + whey protein supplementation enhanced
      the effects in older people; however, these were suggested by studies on gym
      based cycling training but not on home-based interval walking training (IWT).
      Moreover, long-term walking training effects on PV remain unknown. METHODS:
      Seventeen male and 10 female subjects (~69 yr), having performed IWT for >=24
      months before the study, were used. After pre-intervention measurement (PRE) of
      PV, plasma albumin content (Albcont), fasting glucose concentration ([Glc]f), and
      HbA1c, the subjects were randomly divided into two groups: CHO and Pro-CHO,
      either consuming CHO (22.5 g) alone or CHO (15 g) + whey protein (10 g),
      respectively, during additional 5-month IWT from May to November, 2009. After the
      additional IWT, we measured the same variables again (postintervention
      measurement). RESULTS: The baseline PV and Albcont were significantly correlated
      with the number of IWT days for the 12 months preceding PRE (r = 0.716, P < 0.001
      and r = 0.671, P < 0.001, respectively). In postintervention, PV and Albcont
      marginally decreased in CHO from the baselines (P = 0.081 and P = 0.130,
      respectively) with increased HbA1c (P < 0.001) after correction for the baseline
      [Glc]f by ANCOVA, but these values remained unchanged in Pro-CHO (both, P >
      0.74), with significant differences in the changes between groups (P = 0.020, P =
      0.041, and P = 0.018 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: PV was proportional to the
      number of IWT days for 12 months and a CHO + whey protein supplementation during
      the 5-month IWT prevented PV reduction for the period of no supplementation,
      which might be partially linked with blood glucose control mechanisms.

PMID- 28863075
TI  - Hyperthermia-induced Neural Alterations Impair Proprioception and Balance.
AB  - PURPOSE: Hyperthermia has been shown to affect both central and peripheral
      nervous systems. However, the consequences of these alterations on the
      proprioceptive mechanisms underlying human movement control remain unclear. The
      aim of this study was to investigate the effect of passive hyperthermia on
      various measures of proprioception and balance, two key components of injury
      prevention and movement efficiency. METHODS: After a familiarization session, 14
      volunteers (8 males, 6 females) completed two experimental sessions in temperate
      (CON, 24 degrees C) and hot (HOT, 44 degrees C-50 degrees C) conditions, in a
      counterbalanced order. Participants were tested for neural function (electrically
      evoked M-wave and Hoffman reflex, Soleus), active movement discrimination (five
      positions, 50 trials, dorsiflexion), dynamic balance (Star Excursion Balance
      Test, three directions), and static balance (single-leg stance). RESULTS: Both
      rectal (39.0 degrees C +/- 0.3 degrees C vs 36.9 degrees C +/- 0.6 degrees C) and
      mean skin (37.9 degrees C +/- 1.0 degrees C vs 32.0 degrees C +/- 2.7 degrees C)
      temperatures were significantly higher in HOT than CON (P < 0.05). Hyperthermia
      significantly reduced the Hoffman reflex (P < 0.05) but not the M-wave (P > 0.05)
      amplitudes, increased the mean error for active movement discrimination (0.58
      degrees +/- 0.13 degrees  vs 0.50 degrees  +/- 0.11 degrees , +17%, P < 0.05),
      decreased the average distance reached in the posteromedial direction during
      dynamic balance (88.6 +/- 7.9 cm vs 90.9 +/- 6.1 cm, P < 0.05), and increased the
      contact area of the foot (126 +/- 14 cm vs 122 +/- 13 cm, +2.7%, P < 0.05) and
      the center of pressure excursion (64 +/- 14 vs 57 +/- 9 cm, +11.1%, P < 0.10)
      during single-leg stance. CONCLUSIONS: The current study suggests that
      hyperthermia impairs the proprioception and balance parameters measured. These
      observations might be due to heat-induced alterations in efferent and afferent
      signals to and from the muscle.

PMID- 28863077
TI  - Undifferentiated Endometrial Carcinomas Show Frequent Loss of Core Switch/Sucrose
      Nonfermentable Complex Proteins.
AB  - Undifferentiated endometrial carcinoma is an aggressive type of endometrial
      carcinoma that typically presents with advanced stage disease and rapid clinical
      progression. In contrast to dedifferentiated endometrial carcinoma,
      undifferentiated carcinoma lacks a concurrent differentiated (typically low-grade
      endometrioid) carcinoma component, though the undifferentiated component of
      dedifferentiated carcinoma is similar histologically and immunophenotypically to
      pure undifferentiated carcinoma. We recently identified 3 mutually exclusive
      mechanisms of switch/sucrose nonfermentable (SWI/SNF) complex inactivation (BRG1
      inactivation, INI1 inactivation or ARID1A/ARID1B co-inactivation) that are
      associated with histologic dedifferentiation in the majority of dedifferentiated
      endometrial carcinoma. In the current study, we aimed to determine by
      immunohistochemistry whether these patterns of SWI/SNF inactivation also occur in
      undifferentiated endometrial carcinomas. Of the 34 undifferentiated carcinomas
      examined, 17 (50%) exhibited SWI/SNF complex inactivation, with 11 tumors showing
      complete loss of both ARID1A and ARID1B, 5 showing complete loss of BRG1 and 1
      showing complete loss of INI1. Ten of the remaining 17 undifferentiated
      carcinomas showed the following alterations: 5 tumors (15%) showed loss of ARID1A
      only with intact ARID1B, BRG1, and INI1 expression, 4 tumors (12%) showed mutated
      patterns of p53 staining with intact SWI/SNF protein expression, and 1 tumor (3%)
      harbored a POLE exonuclease domain mutation (P286R). SWI/SNF complex-inactivated
      tumors presented more frequently with extrauterine disease spread than those with
      intact expression (88% vs. 41%, respectively). In addition, patients with SWI/SNF
      complex-inactivated tumors had a significantly worse disease-specific survival
      (P=0.02). The findings here demonstrate frequent SWI/SNF complex inactivation in
      undifferentiated endometrial carcinomas, which has future implications regarding
      therapies that target chromatin remodelling and epigenetic control.

PMID- 28863076
TI  - Histologic Correlates of Clinical and Endoscopic Severity in Children Newly
      Diagnosed With Ulcerative Colitis.
AB  - To characterize rectal histology in an inception cohort of children newly
      diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) and to explore its relationship with
      clinical indices of disease severity. The PROTECT (Predicting Response to
      Standardized Pediatric Colitis Therapy) Study enrolled children 17 years of age
      and younger newly diagnosed with UC. Baseline rectal biopsies were evaluated for
      acute and chronic inflammation, eosinophilic inflammation (peak eosinophil count
      > 32 eosinophils/high powered field, eosinophilic cryptitis or abscesses), and
      architectural/nonarchitectural chronic changes. Correlation with clinical indices
      including Mayo endoscopy subscore and Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index
      was performed. Rectal biopsies from 369 patients (mean age, 12.9+/-3.1 y, 50%
      female) were reviewed. Cryptitis was found in 89%, crypt abscesses in 25%, and
      eosinophilic inflammation in 58%. Crypt distortion/atrophy was present in 98% of
      specimens. Higher grades of acute and chronic inflammation were associated with
      the presence of basal plasmacytosis (P<0.0001), basal lymphoid aggregates
      (P<0.0001), and surface villiform changes (P<0.0001). A severe Mayo endoscopy
      subscore was most common among those with severe acute and chronic inflammation,
      although this relationship was not linear. Severe Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis
      Activity Index scores were associated with the absence of or only mild
      eosinophilic inflammation (<32 eosinophils/high powered field) (P<0.03) and the
      presence of surface villiform changes (P<0.005). Acute and chronic inflammation,
      eosinophilic inflammation and chronic changes are common in children newly
      diagnosed with UC. The clinical and biological implication of low to absent
      eosinophilic inflammation and the presence of surface villiform changes requires
      further study.

PMID- 28863079
TI  - Medical Challenges and Advances in the American Civil War.

PMID- 28863078
TI  - The prevalence of chronic deep venous thrombosis in trauma: Implications for
      hospitals and patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is considered a preventable
      complication in trauma patients. Hospitals risk financial penalties for DVT rates
      above accepted benchmarks. These penalties do not apply to chronic DVT, which
      develops before admission. Lower-extremity duplex ultrasound (LEDUS) can detect
      characteristics of thrombus chronicity, allowing differentiation of chronic from
      acute DVT. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of chronic
      DVT in hospitalized trauma patients. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review
      of trauma patients admitted to our Level I trauma center between July 1, 2006 and
      October 31, 2016 who had a DVT on initial screening LEDUS. Our center utilizes
      screening and surveillance LEDUS for patients admitted more than 48 hours.
      Definitions for chronic and acute DVT were extracted from existing literature.
      Patients with DVT on initial LEDUS underwent review of that LEDUS to assess clot
      chronicity and were classified as having acute DVT, chronic DVT, or DVT of
      indeterminate age. Demographic data, medical history, and injury characteristics
      were collected. Patients with acute DVT and those with chronic DVT were compared.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of chronic DVT among patients with a DVT on initial LEDUS
      was 29.9%. Chronic DVT occurred in patients who were older and less severely
      injured. An above-knee component was significantly more common in chronic DVT
      (65%). Only 34 (41%) of those with chronic DVT reported a history of DVT. Among
      the patients with chronic DVT, 44 (53%) had a subsequent LEDUS, of whom 4 (9%)
      showed thrombus progression and 6 (14%) formed a new DVT. CONCLUSION: Lower
      extremity duplex ultrasound can identify chronic DVT, which represents nearly 30%
      of all DVT found on initial screening LEDUS in trauma patients. Those with
      chronic DVT should receive pharmacologic and mechanical prophylaxis because of
      the incidence of progression and new acute DVT. They should also be counseled
      regarding the possibilities of recurrence and chronic venous insufficiency. LEVEL
      OF EVIDENCE: Diagnostic study, level III.

PMID- 28863080
TI  - Loop ileostomy for Clostridium difficile infection: Know thy enemy.

PMID- 28863081
TI  - Twelve-month results of laparoscopic lavage in perforated acute diverticulitis
      Update of meta-analysis results. New evidences, which perspectives?

PMID- 28863082
TI  - Chemoprophylaxis for venous thromboembolism prevention in spine surgery patients.

PMID- 28863084
TI  - An impending tension pneumomediastinum.

PMID- 28863083
TI  - For the patient-Evolution in the management of vascular trauma.
AB  - There has been an evolution in the diagnosis and management of vascular trauma
      over the past 100 years. The primary stimulus to these changes has been the
      increased volume of patients with cervical, truncal, and peripheral vascular
      injuries during military conflicts and in civilian life. Patients with "hard"
      signs of a vascular injury are taken to surgery emergently with a few exceptions
      to be described. In contrast, patients with "soft" signs of a vascular injury
      undergo a careful physical examination including measurement of vascular index to
      determine if radiologic imaging is necessary. Computed tomography arteriography
      has become the most commonly used method of imaging, whereas duplex
      ultrasonography is used in some centers. Nonoperative management is now common
      for nonocclusive injuries diagnosed on computed tomography arteriography.
      Proximal tourniquets are commonly used to control exsanguinating hemorrhage from
      injuries to extremities, whereas balloons can be used to control hemorrhage from
      difficult to expose areas at operation. Temporary intraluminal shunts are now
      used in 3% to 9% of arterial injuries. Operative techniques of repair have been
      refined and contribute to the excellent results noted in modern trauma centers.

PMID- 28863086
TI  - Common Versus Unique Findings on Processing-Based Task Performance in Korean
      Speaking Children With Cochlear Implants.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: To better understand individual variability by examining overall
      neurocognitive underlying features in children with cochlear implants (CIs), and
      to investigate whether previous findings hold constant in Asian-language users.
      BACKGROUND: Studies have tried to explain the individual variability in children
      with CIs. However, performance on experience-dependent tasks does not seem to be
      sensitive enough to explain the underlying reason why children have language
      difficulties even after the surgical procedure. Thus, this current research has
      focused on underlying neurocognitive functions to better explain the reason for
      the wide variability in this population. METHODS: Using a separate univariate
      analysis paradigm, performance on processing-based tasks was compared between
      children with CIs and children with normal hearing. A total of 34 children
      ranging from 10 to 12 years old participated in the study. There were two
      different categories of processing-based tasks tapping processing capacity and
      processing speed. This study used nonword repetition (NWR), competing language
      processing task (CLPT), and counting span (CS) for examining processing capacity,
      while rapid naming (RAN) in color, shape, and color shape were used to
      investigate processing speed. RESULTS: Children with NH outperformed children
      with CIs on all processing-capacity tasks, except CS. Children with CIs performed
      similarly to children with NH on processing speed tasks. CONCLUSIONS: We found
      children with CIs still experienced difficulties with processing capacity. Due to
      cross-linguistic features, we also discovered some interesting findings that
      differed from previous studies. Lastly, we found processing speed was fairly
      intact in children with CIs, which is a new finding.

PMID- 28863085
TI  - Early chemoprophylaxis is associated with decreased venous thromboembolism risk
      without concomitant increase in intraspinal hematoma expansion after traumatic
      spinal cord injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: After traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), there is increased risk of
      venous thromboembolism (VTE), but chemoprophylaxis (PPX) may cause expansion of
      intraspinal hematoma (ISH). METHODS: Single-center retrospective study of adult
      trauma patients from 2012 to 2015 with SCI. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: VTE diagnosis,
      death, or discharge within 48 hours. Patients were dichotomized based on early
      (<=48 hours) heparinoid and/or aspirin PPX. Intraspinal hematoma expansion was
      diagnosed intraoperatively or by follow-up radiology. We used multivariable Cox
      proportional hazards to estimate the effect of PPX on risk of VTE and ISH
      expansion controlling for age, injury severity score (ISS), complete SCI, and
      mechanism as static covariates and operative spine procedure as a time-varying
      covariate. RESULTS: Five hundred one patients with SCI were dichotomized into
      early PPX (n = 260 [52%]) and no early PPX (n = 241 [48%]). Early PPX patients
      were less likely blunt injured (91% vs 97%) and had fewer operative spine
      interventions (65% vs 80%), but age (median, 43 vs 49 years), ISS (median 24 vs
      21), admission ISH (47% vs 44%), and VTE (5% vs 9%) were similar. Cox analysis
      found that early heparinoids was associated with reduced VTE (hazard ratio [HR],
      0.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.16-0.84) and reduced pulmonary embolism
      (PE) (HR, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.06-0.69). The estimated number needed to treat with
      heparinoids was 10 to prevent one VTE and 13 to prevent one PE at 30 days. Early
      aspirin was not associated with reduced VTE or PE. Seven patients (1%) had ISH
      expansion, of which four were on PPX at the time of expansion. Using heparinoid
      and aspirin as time-varying covariates, neither heparinoids (HR, 1.90; 95% CI,
      0.32-11.41) nor aspirin (HR, 3.67; 95% CI, 0.64-20.88) was associated with ISH
      expansion. CONCLUSION: Early heparinoid therapy was associated with decreased VTE
      and PE risk in SCI patients without concomitant increase in ISH expansion. LEVEL
      OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, level IV.

PMID- 28863087
TI  - Framework of care: communicating the structure and processes of care.
AB  - AIM: This article attempts to present a 'macro view' of the role and nature of an
      organization's Framework of Care (FrOC). This 'view' arises from a critical
      reflection on the available literature and the combined professional experience
      of the authors, who have worked in a variety of healthcare systems and settings
      in Australia, North America, United Kingdom, and the Middle East. BACKGROUND:
      FrOC can be defined as the systems and processes within an organization that
      structure the delivery of care. These systems and processes are made evident in a
      series of documents, such as the Mission and Vision statement, Policies and
      Procedures, Standards of Care, Clinical Practice Guidelines, Clinical Pathways,
      and Protocols. These frameworks can provide structure for important
      organizational activities such as clinical audits, quality management and
      clinical information system (CIS) 'decision support', thereby supporting
      clinicians in their efforts to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care. How a
      healthcare organization structures its systems and processes of care directly
      impacts the patient and caregiver experience - made evident in patient and staff
      satisfaction with the services provided. RECOMMENDATIONS: Mapping out and
      understanding an organization's FrOC is a critical first step for
      interprofessional teams attempting to implement evidence into practice and/or
      accreditation teams and expert consultants critiquing the performance of an
      organization.

PMID- 28863088
TI  - Early Death From Pediatric Severe Sepsis: Still a Problem and a Mandate for
      Future Clinical Research.

PMID- 28863089
TI  - Dexmedetomidine in the PICU: Can We Get More for Less?

PMID- 28863090
TI  - Acute Respiratory Compromise Leading to Cardiac Arrest.

PMID- 28863091
TI  - Pushing the ECMO Envelope for Children With Genetic Conditions.

PMID- 28863092
TI  - Mothers' Milk-Can We Improve the Neonatal Immunity Response With the Oldest
      Recipe in the Mammal's Cookbook?

PMID- 28863093
TI  - Does Birth at Early-Term Gestation Increase Mortality for Neonates on
      Extracorporeal Life Support After Cardiac Surgery?

PMID- 28863094
TI  - Augmented Renal Clearance in Critically Ill Pediatric Patients: Does It Impact
      the Outcome of Pharmacotherapy?

PMID- 28863095
TI  - How Can We Optimize Antibiotic Use in the PICU?

PMID- 28863096
TI  - Thomas Jefferson, Steroids, and Sepsis.

PMID- 28863097
TI  - Caring for Long Length of Stay Patients in the Neonatal ICU and PICU: How Do We
      Ensure Coherent Decisions When the Physicians Are Continuously Rotating?

PMID- 28863098
TI  - Nebulized Fluticasone for Preventing Postextubation Stridor-Is It Really
      Effective?

PMID- 28863099
TI  - The authors reply.

PMID- 28863100
TI  - High-Flow Nasal Cannula Weaning Protocol: Is It Relevant?

PMID- 28863101
TI  - The authors reply.

PMID- 28863102
TI  - The Silk Road to Modern Times: An Exchange of Education, Culture, and Knowledge
      for the Best Patient Quality of Life.

PMID- 28863103
TI  - The Excellence of Graduate Medical Education in China: the New Door to Open for
      the Future of Young Surgeons.

PMID- 28863104
TI  - Meet Dr Kilner at the Hunterian Museum.

PMID- 28863105
TI  - The Current Challenge For Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery In China, The
      Biggest Developing Country.

PMID- 28863106
TI  - Decompressive Craniectomy With Bifrontal Coronal Incision in the Management of
      Fronto-Temporal Contusion and Laceration for Early Cranioplasty.
AB  - The present study aims to explore the effectiveness of decompressive craniectomy
      with bifrontal coronal incision in the management of severe contusion and
      laceration of bilateral fronto-temporal lobes, as well as the outcomes of early
      cranioplasty. The authors performed the bifrontal decompressive craniectomy on 56
      patients with contusion and laceration of bilateral frontal and temporal lobes,
      and their follow-up treatment outcomes were tracked within 6 months using Glasgow
      Outcome Scale. The results showed that 33 patients (out of 56, 58.9%) have
      recovered, 12 patients (out of 56, 21.4%) have moderate defects, 5 patients (out
      of 56, 8.9%) have severe defects, 3 patients (out of 56, 5.3%) stayed in
      persistent vegetative status, and the remaining 3 patients (out of 56, 5.3%) have
      been dead. There was no persistent temporal hollowing. No patients required
      revision surgery with modified titanium mesh in this study. Particularly, 28
      patients have successfully accepted the early cranioplasty with bone flap or
      computer-assisted design titanium mesh, and showed good recovery. These results
      together indicated that the decompressive craniectomy with bifrontal coronal
      incision in the management of severe contusion and laceration of bilateral fronto
      temporal lobes can significantly relieve the comorbidity of intracranial
      hypertension, and improve the prognosis obviously, thus finally increasing the
      probability of successful rescue and decreasing the probability of mortality and
      disability.

PMID- 28863107
TI  - Surgical Approach to Foreign Material Within the Mandibular Canal Due to
      Iatrogenic Factors.
AB  - This clinical report describes a relatively infrequent patient with inferior
      alveolar nerve damage caused by foreign material within the mandibular canal,
      which is one of the most severe complications of endodontic therapy. Although the
      circumstance is uncommon, it can have extremely unfavorable consequences for
      patients, such as anesthesia and paresthesia. In the present case, a patient
      suffered pain and severe paresthesia in the corresponding area after routine
      endodontic therapy. Several treatments were conducted to relieve the patient's
      symptoms, ranging from medication to tooth extraction, but all were of no avail.
      Ultimately, surgical exploration and debridement were performed with assistance
      of a customized surgical template. Once the foreign material was excavated, the
      exacerbation of condition was terminated and gradually reverted. This patient
      illustrates that special attention is required when undertaking intracanal
      procedures of lower posterior teeth so as to avoid iatrogenic damage to inferior
      alveolar nerve. Even more significant, when above-mentioned condition occurs,
      prompt surgical intervention is essential for recovery of sensation. It also
      demonstrates the advantages of applying surgical template and piezosurgery in
      removal of foreign material within the mandibular canal.

PMID- 28863108
TI  - Application of Computer-Aided Design and Customized Implants in the
      Reconstruction of Pyriform Aperture Defects Secondary to Unilateral Cleft Lip and
      Palate.
AB  - PURPOSE: To design and develop customized implants with the rapid prototyping
      (RP) technique in order to reconstruct the defected pyriform aperture. METHODS: A
      3-dimensional digital model was reconstructed with the software proplan CMF based
      on the computed tomography data of the patient's skeleton. Then an individualized
      implant was designed by computer-aided design (CAD) and prepared with the RP
      technique. A total of 5 patients (3 males and 2 females) with unilateral
      secondary nasal deformities received the customized implants in this study.
      RESULTS: All the implants closely matched the surface of the defects. During the
      12- to 24-month follow-up period, all the patients reported satisfactory outcomes
      except for 1 patient where exposure of the implant was observed and had to be
      removed 3 months after the surgery. CONCLUSION: With high precision and matching
      degree, individualized implants designed by CAD and prepared with the RP
      technique can be used to overcome the limitations of ready-made materials and
      improve the accuracy of the surgical procedure in reconstructing the defected
      pyriform aperture.

PMID- 28863109
TI  - Surgical Landmark of Mandible Angle in the Identification of Cervical Spinal
      Level.
AB  - Mandible angle is considered to be a consistently palpable external landmark for
      the identification of cervical spinal level by a radiographic study. But this
      anatomical study aimed to determine the positional relationship between mandible
      angle and cervical spinal level in cadavers. In this study, the cervical spine of
      10 adult cadavers with intact head and neck structure, including 6 males and 4
      females, was dissected, and the position of mandible angle (MA) relative to the
      corresponding cervical spinal level was measured when the head was fixed in the
      flexion, anatomy position, and extension. The difference between the genders and
      the sides was analyzed. On the basis of the study of the corpse samples, the
      reference level of cervical spine was approximated to C2/3 intervertebral disc.
      The result has confirmed MA as a consistent and convenient landmark in the
      identification of cervical spinal level. Given some external landmarks do not
      consistently correspond to the exact level of the cervical spine, MA provides the
      relatively consistent reference point: C2/3 intervertebral disc. The authors hold
      that MA is a superior external landmark, which can help surgeons to localize the
      skin incision before anterior cervical spine surgery.

PMID- 28863110
TI  - Relative Location of Fundus Meatus Acustici Interni Via Porus Acusticus Internus
      in Facial Nerve Decompression.
AB  - Facial neural edema is the pathophysiological base of Bell's palsy. The middle
      cranial fossa approach is used to relieve the oppression of facial nerve at its
      most narrow course in the facial canal. In this research, the authors mainly
      discussed the internal auditory canal segment of facial nerve, completely in the
      shadow of the bony structure, which is inconvenient for transmastoid
      decompression. Therefore, the objective was to explore the definite position of
      the fundus meatus acustici interni from internal acoustic pore. Two hundred
      persons (age 22-60, 100 men and 100 women), presenting with healthy facial nerve,
      ear, and internal auditory canal, were investigated by computed tomography 3
      dimensional reconstruction. Using statistical method to analyze, the authors
      obtained the definite position of the fundus meatus acustici interni, regarding
      the internal acoustic pore as the origin of coordinates. Our data provided more
      significant information for medical workers to improve the efficiency of
      operation and to prevent complications of surgery.

PMID- 28863111
TI  - The Endoscopic Prelacrimal Recess Approach to the Pterygopalatine Fossa and
      Infratemporal Fossa.
AB  - PURPOSE: The authors studied the anatomic importance of the endoscopic
      prelacrimal recess approach (PLRA) to the pterygopalatine fossa (PPF) and
      infratemporal fossa (ITF). METHODS: Ten adult heads (20 sides) from cadavers
      fixed in formalin were dissected using the PLRA. Anatomic dissections were
      detailed and several crucial landmarks measured. RESULTS: Identification of the
      infraorbital neurovascular bundle is the crucial step for the detection of other
      branches of the maxillary artery. The distance from the base of columella to
      inferior orifice of the nasolacrimal duct, sphenopalatine foramen, pterygold
      canal, foramen rotundum, foramen ovale was (32.97 +/- 3.44), (63.93 +/- 4.52),
      (66.81 +/- 3.44), (68.13 +/- 4.43), and (85.23 +/- 6.25) mm, respectively. The
      PLRA can be used to expose the entire maxillary sinus and PPF, most parts of the
      ITF (lateral pterygoid muscle, foramen ovale, mandibular division of the
      trigeminal nerve, and its divisions), maxillary artery and its branches, and the
      superior part of the medial pterygoid muscle (upon the floor of the maxillary
      sinus). The lateral boundary can be reached to visualize the temporomandibular
      joint and vertically oriented temporalis muscle. CONCLUSION: Use of the PLRA to
      the PPF and ITF offers a clear visual field, wide range of exposure, as well as
      preservation of the integrity of nasal structures.

PMID- 28863112
TI  - Disruption of Hedgehog Signaling by Vismodegib Leads to Cleft Palate and Delayed
      Osteogenesis in Experimental Design.
AB  - The function of hedgehog signaling has previously been shown to be crucial for
      craniofacial development. In this study, we treated C57/BL6J mice with the
      hedgehog pathway inhibitor vismodegib by oral gavage to establish a stable
      vismodegib-induced cleft palate model. At E10.5 and E12.5, mice in the
      experimental group were treated with 100 mg/kg of vismodegib, whereas mice in the
      control group were treated with solvent. The treated pregnant mice were
      sacrificed on E13.5, E14.5, E15.5, and E16.5. Palatal shelf growth was evaluated
      via histological and immunohistochemical analyses as well as palatal organ
      culture. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to examine the expression of
      osteogenic proteins in the palatal tissue. A high proportion of the mice
      administered 2 doses of 100 mg/kg of vismodegib displayed a cleft palate.
      Histologic examination revealed severely retarded palatal shelf growth and
      thickened epithelium in the experimental group. Vismodegib exposure induced
      complete cleft palate, which was attributed to a reduced cell proliferation rate
      in the palatal mesenchyme along the anterior-posterior axis. Moreover, this model
      also showed delayed ossification in the region of palatine bone with
      downregulation of Indian hedgehog (Ihh) protein. Our results suggest that
      vismodegib can be used to inhibit hedgehog signaling to affect palatal
      morphogenesis. Under treatment with this exogenous inhibitor, the cell
      proliferation rate of the palatal shelves and the osteogenic potential of the
      hard palate were decreased, which likely contributed to the complete cleft
      palate.

PMID- 28863113
TI  - The Distribution of Transplanted Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Large
      Blood Vessel of Experimental Design With Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - The authors aim to track the distribution of human umbilical cord mesenchymal
      stem cells (MSCs) in large blood vessel of traumatic brain injury -rats through
      immunohistochemical method and small animal imaging system. After green
      fluorescent protein (GFP) gene was transfected into 293T cell, virus was packaged
      and MSCs were transfected. Mesenchymal stem cells containing GFP were
      transplanted into brain ventricle of rats when the infection rate reaches 95%.
      The immunohistochemical and small animal imaging system was used to detect the
      distribution of MSCs in large blood vessels of rats. Mesenchymal stem cells could
      be observed in large vessels with positive GFP expression 10 days after
      transplantation, while control groups (normal group and traumatic brain injury
      group) have negative GFP expression. The vascular endothelial growth factor in
      transplantation group was higher than that in control groups. The in vivo imaging
      showed obvious distribution of MSCs in the blood vessels of rats, while no MSCs
      could be seen in control groups. The intravascular migration and homing of MSCs
      could be seen in rats received MSCs transplantation, and new angiogenesis could
      be seen in MSCs-transplanted blood vessels.

PMID- 28863115
TI  - Treatment of Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery Adhesion on Petrous Bone During
      Microvascular Decompression Procedure for Hemifacial Spasm: Technique Note.
AB  - Hemifacial spasm is a hyperactive cranial nerve disease mainly characterized by
      unilateral facial muscles paroxysmal, involuntary, irregular and clonic
      convulsion. Standard microvascular decompression is currently the most effective
      solution. During operation, it is pivotal to conduct a sharp dissection of
      arachnoid membrane around the caudal cranial nerves and facial, auditory nerves
      for fully exposure of pontomedullary sulcus, and lateral pontine region. In this
      article, the authors demonstrate a hemifacial spasm patient who underwent
      microvascular decompression successfully in their department. But the authors
      encountered a serious barrier to the exploration of facial nerve and its
      offending vessels before decompression and found that posterior inferior
      cerebellar artery tightly adhered to petrous bone and closely attached to a
      petrosal vein on cerebellar surface at the same time. The petrosal vein was also
      seriously stuck to petrous bone. To solve this practical difficulty, the authors
      employed sharp point knife blade and microsurgical scissors boldly to separate
      posterior inferior cerebellar artery from the dura mater of petrous bone
      bidirectionally and bipolar coagulation for effective hemostasis. And then the
      authors moderately dealt with the surface adhesion of cerebellum for smooth
      exploration instead of processing the petrosal vein attached to petrous bone
      because the authors did not want to sacrifice this vein. Relative to the routine
      microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm, treatments of the adhensions
      before decompression were the key technology of this operation.

PMID- 28863116
TI  - An Aesthetic Orbicularis Oculi Myectomy Technique for Blepharospasm: Use of
      Topical 5-Fluorouracil and Fibrin Sealant.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe a modified technique of orbicularis oculi myectomy for
      refractory blepharospasm. This technique includes removal of orbicularis muscle,
      reformation of the eyelid crease and pretarsal platform using fibrin sealant
      (Tisseel), and topical 5-fluorouracil to reduce scar formation and improve
      aesthetic outcome. METHODS: Retrospective chart review of 7 patients who
      underwent bilateral orbicularis oculi myectomy with our technique from 2013 to
      2016. Outcome measures were postoperative botulinum toxin dose, frequency,
      duration between treatments, the amount of lagophthalmos, severity of dry eye,
      and patient satisfaction with aesthetic and functional outcome. RESULTS: Patients
      who underwent the aesthetic myectomy technique had significantly decreased
      botulinum toxin use with relief of symptoms postoperatively. Only 1 of 7 patients
      experienced mild dry eye symptoms postoperatively, managed with artificial tears.
      All patients were satisfied with the aesthetic and functional outcome.
      CONCLUSIONS: The aesthetic myectomy technique provides effective treatment for
      blepharospasm with good functional and aesthetic outcome.

PMID- 28863117
TI  - Rituximab Monotherapy Is Effective in Treating Orbital Necrobiotic
      Xanthogranuloma.
AB  - The authors report a case of a patient with bilateral orbital necrobiotic
      xanthogranuloma and no associated systemic paraproteinemia. Orbital biopsy showed
      strong expression of CD20-positive cells. The patient was treated with systemic
      rituximab monotherapy, with excellent clinical response and marked regression of
      the orbital lesions on imaging. At the time of writing, the patient has been
      treated with bimonthly rituximab maintenance therapy for 22 months and has stable
      clinical and imaging findings with sustained response to treatment and no
      reported side effects. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case
      of orbital necrobiotic xanthogranuloma successfully treated with rituximab
      monotherapy. They hope that this well-documented case will encourage clinicians
      to consider rituximab monotherapy as a possible treatment option, albeit one
      entailing an off-label use of this drug, for patients with necrobiotic
      xanthogranuloma of the orbit.

PMID- 28863118
TI  - Peri-Punctal Lymphangioma Treated With Bleomycin.

PMID- 28863119
TI  - Effect of Optic Nerve Disinsertion During Evisceration on Nonporous Implant
      Migration: A Comparative Case Series and a Review of Literature.
AB  - AIM: To determine whether evisceration with optic nerve disinsertion and
      nonporous implant placement increases the risk of implant migration. METHODS:
      This was a single-center, retrospective consecutive comparative interventional
      case series including patients undergoing evisceration with nonporous implant
      between January and December 2014. Patients were grouped into 2 groups: group I
      where the optic nerve was not disinserted (n = 37) and group II with optic nerve
      disinsertion (n = 50). Implant migration was assessed clinically and on patient
      photographs. Migration was subclassified as decentration that did not affect the
      prosthetic outcome and displacement that affected the prosthetic outcome. The
      secondary outcome measures were the mean implant diameter, volume of the custom
      ocular prosthesis, and implant-related complications like exposure and extrusion
      between the 2 groups. RESULTS: At a mean follow up of 12.5 months, none of the
      sockets in group I and 3 (6%) sockets in group II (p = 0.35) had evidence of
      implant decentration. There were no cases of implant displacement in both groups.
      The mean implant diameter in group I was 16.97 mm +/- 0.65 mm and in group II
      19.2 mm +/- 0.83 mm (p = 0.0001). Implant extrusion was not different between the
      2 groups. The mean custom ocular prosthesis volume in group I was 3.86 ml +/-
      0.52 ml and in group II 2.50 ml +/- 0.68 ml (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The rate
      of nonporous implant migration due to optic nerve disinsertion is not
      statistically or clinically significant in evisceration with optic nerve
      disinsertion, allowing placement of a larger implant and fabrication of a custom
      ocular prosthesis with an ideal weight.

PMID- 28863120
TI  - Assessing the Accuracy of Eyelid Measurements Utilizing the Volk Eye Check System
      and Clinical Measurements.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to validate the accuracy of marginal
      reflex distance 1 (MRD1) measurements obtained by the Volk Eye Check system, a
      modified smartphone that measures MRD1 automatically, relative to clinical and
      digital measurements. METHODS: In this prospective observational study of adults
      with normal eyelids and ptosis, MRD1 was measured clinically, digitally, and
      automatically with the Volk device. Eyes were divided into successful versus
      unsuccessful Volk trial groups; successful eyes were then subdivided into control
      and ptosis subgroups. The primary outcome measures were mean MRD1 obtained by the
      3 modalities. Secondary outcome measures included the success rate of the device
      and the prevalence of ptosis within the successful and unsuccessful groups.
      RESULTS: In the overall sample of 88 eyes, clinical and digital MRD1 were not
      significantly different. Among eyes with successful Volk trials, significant
      differences in MRD1 measured by the 3 modalities were as follows: in the
      successful group, Volk MRD1 (3.05 mm) was significantly (p < 0.01) higher than
      digital MRD1 (2.68 mm); in the ptosis subgroup, Volk MRD1 (2.47 mm) was
      significantly higher than clinical (2.05 mm; p < 0.05) and digital MRD1 (1.91 mm;
      p < 0.01). Eyes in the successful group (66% of attempted collections)
      demonstrated significantly higher MRD1 (mean difference, 1.21 mm; p < 0.01) and
      were significantly less likely to demonstrate ptosis (2.7*; p < 0.05) than those
      in the unsuccessful group. CONCLUSIONS: The Volk device measures MRD1 well in
      normal patients but overestimates MRD1 in patients with ptosis. It may be most
      appropriate in assessing patients with normal or elevated eyelid position.
      Clinical and digital MRD1 measurements were not different than each other.

PMID- 28863121
TI  - Haberland Syndrome Associated With Calvarial Exostosis.

PMID- 28863122
TI  - A novel molecular agent for glioma angiogenesis imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gliomas are rich in blood vessels and are the most primary and
      malignant type of brain tumor affecting the central nervous system. A few
      fluorine-18 (F)-labeled imaging agents can be used for imaging of tumor
      angiogenesis. In the current study, F-labeled recombinant human endostatin (rh
      endostatin) was developed and evaluated as a probe for PET imaging of tumor
      angiogenesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: F-fluorobenzoyl-endostatin (F-FB-endostatin)
      was synthesized from radiolabeling of rh-endostatin with N-succinimidyl-4-F
      fluorobenzoate produced by a facile module-assisted radiosynthesis procedure.
      Blocking studies were used to measure the relative affinities of F-FB-endostatin
      to human glioblastoma U87MG cells in tumor tissues rich with vessels. In
      addition, biodistribution, metabolic stability, and small-animal PET imaging
      studies were carried out with F-FB-endostatin using Institute of Cancer Research
      and U87MG tumor-bearing mice. RESULTS: Noninvasive small-animal PET imaging
      indicated that F-FB-endostatin showed rapid and good tumor uptake. The probe was
      rapidly cleared from the blood and most organs, resulting in excellent tumor-to
      normal tissue contrasts. Tumor uptake and rapid clearance were further confirmed
      with biodistribution studies. Metabolite assays showed that the probe was highly
      stable, making it suitable for in-vivo applications. CONCLUSION: F-FB-endostatin
      shows promising in-vivo properties. Therefore, the promising properties of F-FB
      endostatin indicate that this probe can be a powerful tool to evaluate the
      antiangiogenic therapy for gliomas and thus warrants further investigation as a
      novel PET probe for imaging of tumor angiogenesis.

PMID- 28863123
TI  - Orbital flourine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in patients
      with Graves' disease for evaluation of active inflammation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prediction and early diagnosis of orbitopathy is needed in patients
      with Graves' disease, especially when radioiodine therapy is planned. Positron
      emission tomography/computerized tomography (PET/CT) using flourine-18
      fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is an effective imaging modality in detection of
      inflammation, however, its ability to detect orbital inflammation has not been
      well studied. The aim of our study is to determine the ability of FDG PET/CT to
      detect orbital inflammation related with Graves' disease, identify active
      orbitopathy, predict the radioiodine-triggered orbitopathy, and find out the
      effects of radioiodine on orbital inflammation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total 31
      Graves' disease patients and 17 controls were included. All Graves' disease
      patients underwent cranial FDG PET/CT imaging prior therapy. Radioiodine therapy
      and post-treatment PET/CT study was applied to 21 patients. PET/CT images of all
      examinees were evaluated, measuring extraocular muscle maximum standard uptake
      value (SUVmax) and muscle thickness. RESULTS: FDG uptake was increased in the
      majority of extraocular muscles in Graves' disease patients in comparison to
      controls and this increase was found to be irrelevant from muscle thickness.
      Extraocular muscle SUVmax values did not increase in Graves' orbitopathy patients
      who received radioiodine under corticosteroid prophylaxis. SUVmax level of all
      orbital rectus muscles were increased after radioiodine therapy in nonsmokers,
      whereas no increase was detected in smokers. CONCLUSION: FDG PET/CT may be
      helpful in detection of extraocular muscle inflammation and it may show ongoing
      orbitopathy in early stages of inflammation before anatomical changes occur.

PMID- 28863124
TI  - Quantification and reduction of respiratory induced artifacts in positron
      emission tomography/computed tomography using the time-of-flight technique.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of time-of-flight
      (TOF) on quantification and reduction of respiratory artifacts. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: The National Electrical Manufacturers Association phantom was used for
      optimization of reconstruction parameters. Twenty seven patients with lesions
      located in the diaphragmatic region were evaluated. The PET images were
      retrospectively reconstructed using non-TOF (routine protocol in our department)
      and TOF algorithms with different reconstruction parameters. Maximum standardized
      uptake value, estimated maximum tumor diameter, coefficient of variation, signal
      to-noise ratio, and lesion-to-background-ratio were also evaluated. RESULTS: On
      the basis of phantom experiments, TOF algorithms with two iterations, 18 subsets,
      and 5.4 mm and 6.4 mm postsmoothing filter reduced the noise by 3.1 and 12.6% in
      phantom with 2 : 1 activity ratio, and 3.0 and 13.1% in phantom with 4 : 1
      activity ratio. The TOF algorithm with two iterations, 18 subsets, and 6.4 mm
      postsmoothing filter had the highest signal-to-noise value, and was selected as
      the optimal TOF reconstruction. Mean relative difference for signal-to-noise
      between non-TOF and optimal TOF in phantom with 2 : 1 and 4 : 1 activity ratio
      were 11.6 and 18.7%, respectively. In clinical data, the mean relative difference
      for estimated maximum tumor diameter and maximum standardized uptake value
      between routine protocol and optimal TOF algorithm were -6.3% (range: -20.4 to 
      0.6%) and 13.2% (range: 0.3-57.6%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Integration of TOF
      in reconstruction algorithm remarkably improved the white band artifact in the
      diaphragmatic region. This technique affected the quantification accuracy and
      resulted in smaller tumor size and higher standardized uptake value in tumors
      located in/near the diaphragmatic region.

PMID- 28863125
TI  - Ethical Considerations on Disclosure When Medical Error Is Discovered During
      Medicolegal Death Investigation.
AB  - In the course of fulfilling their statutory role, physicians performing
      medicolegal investigations may recognize clinical colleagues' medical errors. If
      the error is found to have led directly to the patient's death (missed diagnosis
      or incorrect diagnosis, for example), then the forensic pathologist has a
      professional responsibility to include the information in the autopsy report and
      make sure that the family is appropriately informed. When the error is
      significant but did not lead directly to the patient's demise, ethical questions
      may arise regarding the obligations of the medical examiner to disclose the error
      to the clinicians or to the family. This case depicts the discovery of medical
      error likely unrelated to the cause of death and describes one possible ethical
      approach to disclosure derived from an ethical reasoning model addressing ethical
      principles of respect for persons/autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and
      justice.

PMID- 28863126
TI  - A Histological Analysis of Visceral Organs to Evaluate the Effect of Duration of
      Heating From Refrigeration to Core Body Temperature for Ballistics
      Investigations.
AB  - Animal organs have been used in ballistics research to investigate the effects on
      human organs. Such organs are refrigerated until the investigation to minimize
      autolytic degradation and at times have been reheated to the human core body
      temperature to simulate the in situ environment. The aim of this investigation
      was to study the microstructural changes that may occur in fresh chilled visceral
      organs of the thorax and abdomen (ie, heart, lung, liver, and kidney) during the
      period of reheating to 37 degrees C. Fifty-millimeter cubes of porcine heart,
      lung, liver, and kidney were taken rapidly after slaughter, chilled overnight,
      and the next morning were reheated to core body temperature (37 degrees C).
      Histological changes occurring in the tissues during the reheating phase were
      investigated. The findings indicated that no cytoplasmic or nuclear changes
      occurred in any of the tissues during the period of reheating. Therefore,
      reheating of animal organs to the human core body temperature is not necessary,
      if the organs are refrigerated.

PMID- 28863127
TI  - Analysis of Tractor-Associated Fatalities.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Tractor is regarded as a key equipment in
      agriculture, and it is also used for transportation and transfer purposes in
      addition to its agricultural use. Accidents resulting in death in farmlands are
      frequently encountered. Tractor-related fatalities are the most common ones among
      the deaths after farm accidents. This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics
      of tractor-related deaths and to discuss the measures that could be taken to
      prevent these deaths. METHODS: In this study, 42 cases who underwent postmortem
      examination and/or autopsy because of tractor fatalities in the province of
      Elazig between January 2005 and December 2016 were examined retrospectively with
      such variables as sex, age, month and season of incident, cause of incident,
      location of incident, position of case, and injured region. RESULTS: Of the
      cases, 36 (85.7%) were male, and 6 (14.3%) were female. The youngest case was 2
      years old, and the oldest case was 83 years old; the mean age was 43.3 +/- 25.0
      years. Examining the deaths regarding the cause of incident showed that tractor
      rollover was the most common cause (42.9%). This was followed by being run over
      by the tractor (19.0%). Of the cases, 24 (57.1%) were drivers, 10 (23.8%) were
      passengers, and 8 (19.0%) were pedestrians. CONCLUSIONS: Tractor-related
      fatalities due to tractor rollover are most often seen. To reduce the deaths
      caused by this reason, drivers should have special training and technical
      support, use helmets and seatbelts in the tractor, and have a health check at
      certain intervals (especially the drivers at advanced age).

PMID- 28863128
TI  - Effects of epsilon-Polylysine on Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and Aspergillus Fumigatus
      Biofilm In Vitro.
AB  - BACKGROUND The antimicrobial mechanisms of epsilon-polylysine (EPL) against
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus fumigatus biofilm were investigated.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS We assessed the changes in electric conductivity of broth
      and total sugar concentration, as well as changes in phosphorous metabolism and
      protein expression, of the 2 organisms before and after treatment with EPL.
      RESULTS The experimental results showed that EPL has antimicrobial activity
      against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus fumigatus, but the activity was
      much stronger for the former. After treatment with EPL, the electric conductivity
      and total sugar concentration of microbial broth increased, suggesting that EPL
      damages the cell membrane structure, which increases permeability of the cell
      membrane and release of cell components. CONCLUSIONS The consumption of
      phosphorous decreased in the EPL-treated organisms, which seriously affected the
      synthesis of important cell components such as nucleic acid and phospholipid, as
      well as energy metabolism.

PMID- 28863129
TI  - Insulin-like growth factor type 1 and its relation with neuropsychiatric
      disorders.
AB  - The study of different neurotrophic factors, including insulin-like growth factor
      1 (IGF-1), has become relevant in recent years because of its role in brain
      activity and its potential therapeutic applications. This article reviews IGF-1
      in relation to neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, anxiety, depression,
      post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer's disease. An exhaustive search of
      different original articles, clinical, experimental, and review studies was
      carried out in MEDLINE/PubMed and ScienceDirect databases, selecting 80 high
      impact post-2000 publications. It is concluded that despite the many functions of
      IGF-1 in the developing nervous system as well as in the adult brain that have
      been studied, especially with animal models, their role in the human brain with
      neuropsychiatric disorders is not completely understood, yielding contradictory
      data in highly prevalent disorders such as mood disorders. However, greater
      implications are encountered with neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, its
      high potential as a therapeutic resource in difficult-to-approach
      neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism and Alzheimer's disease, is pointed
      out, but more research is needed at both basic and clinical levels, to fully
      understand its relevance in these disorders.

PMID- 28863130
TI  - Is device-modified trabeculectomy better than classic surgery for treatment of
      glaucoma?
AB  - Several techniques have emerged as complement or replacement for trabeculectomy,
      the standard surgery for glaucoma. Device-modified trabeculectomy is a recently
      developed technique whose results compared to the classical technique have not
      been fully defined. To answer this question, we used Epistemonikos, the largest
      database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening
      multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others.
      We identified eight systematic reviews including 34 studies overall. We extracted
      data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a
      meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.
      We concluded device-modified trabeculectomy probably leads to greater overall
      success rate and may decrease intraocular pressure more than classical surgery.
      In addition, this technique would probably have a better safety profile than
      standard trabeculectomy.

PMID- 28863131
TI  - Do textured breast implants decrease the rate of capsular contracture compared to
      smooth implants?
AB  - The use of breast implants for aesthetic and reconstructive purposes has become
      one of the most common procedures performed by plastic surgeons. Several breast
      implants models exist. They differ in their size, filling, shape and
      characteristic of the shell, which can be smooth or textured. Capsular
      contracture is one of the main complications of breast implants. It has been
      suggested that the use of textured implants could reduce the incidence of
      capsular contracture. To answer this question, we used Epistemonikos, the largest
      database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening
      multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others.
      We identified 15 studies overall, of which 13 were randomized trials relevant for
      the question of interest. We extracted data from the systematic reviews,
      reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a
      summary of findings table using the GRADE approach. We concluded the use of
      textured breast implants probably decreases the risk of capsular contracture,
      however, they might be associated to an increased risk of anaplastic large cell
      lymphoma.

PMID- 28863133
TI  - Spatial distribution and risk factors of Schistosoma haematobium and hookworm
      infections among schoolchildren in Kwale, Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Large-scale schistosomiasis control programs are implemented in
      regions with diverse social and economic environments. A key epidemiological
      feature of schistosomiasis is its small-scale heterogeneity. Locally profiling
      disease dynamics including risk factors associated with its transmission is
      essential for designing appropriate control programs. To determine spatial
      distribution of schistosomiasis and its drivers, we examined schoolchildren in
      Kwale, Kenya. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a cross-sectional
      study of 368 schoolchildren from six primary schools. Soil-transmitted helminths
      and Schistosoma mansoni eggs in stool were evaluated by the Kato-Katz method. We
      measured the intensity of Schistosoma haematobium infection by urine filtration.
      The geometrical mean intensity of S. haematobium was 3.1 eggs/10 ml urine (school
      range, 1.4-9.2). The hookworm geometric mean intensity was 3.2 eggs/g feces
      (school range, 0-17.4). Heterogeneity in the intensity of S. haematobium and
      hookworm infections was evident in the study area. To identify factors associated
      with the intensity of helminth infections, we utilized negative binomial
      generalized linear mixed models. The intensity of S. haematobium infection was
      associated with religion and socioeconomic status (SES), while that of hookworm
      infection was related to SES, sex, distance to river and history of anthelmintic
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Both S. haematobium and hookworm infections
      showed micro-geographical heterogeneities in this Kwale community. To confirm and
      explain our observation of high S. haematobium risk among Muslims, further
      extensive investigations are necessary. The observed small scale clustering of
      the S. haematobium and hookworm infections might imply less uniform strategies
      even at finer scale for efficient utilization of limited resources.

PMID- 28863132
TI  - A novel rapid and reproducible flow cytometric method for optimization of
      transfection efficiency in cells.
AB  - Transfection is one of the most frequently used techniques in molecular biology
      that is also applicable for gene therapy studies in humans. One of the biggest
      challenges to investigate the protein function and interaction in gene therapy
      studies is to have reliable monospecific detection reagents, particularly
      antibodies, for all human gene products. Thus, a reliable method that can
      optimize transfection efficiency based on not only expression of the target
      protein of interest but also the uptake of the nucleic acid plasmid, can be an
      important tool in molecular biology. Here, we present a simple, rapid and robust
      flow cytometric method that can be used as a tool to optimize transfection
      efficiency at the single cell level while overcoming limitations of prior
      established methods that quantify transfection efficiency. By using optimized
      ratios of transfection reagent and a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) vector directly
      labeled with a fluorochrome, this method can be used as a tool to simultaneously
      quantify cellular toxicity of different transfection reagents, the amount of
      nucleic acid plasmid that cells have taken up during transfection as well as the
      amount of the encoded expressed protein. Finally, we demonstrate that this method
      is reproducible, can be standardized and can reliably and rapidly quantify
      transfection efficiency, reducing assay costs and increasing throughput while
      increasing data robustness.

PMID- 28863135
TI  - Correction: TDRD6 mediates early steps of spliceosome maturation in primary
      spermatocytes.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006660.].

PMID- 28863134
TI  - Invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast: A special histological type compared
      with invasive ductal carcinoma.
AB  - The clinical outcomes and therapeutic strategies for infiltrating ductal
      carcinoma (IDC) and infiltrating lobular carcinoma (ILC) are not uniform. The
      primary objectives of this study were to identify the differences in the clinical
      characteristics and prognoses between ILC and IDC, and identify the high-risk
      population based on the hormone receptor status and metastasis sites. The
      Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program database was searched and
      patients diagnosed with ILC or IDC from 1990 to 2013 were identified. In
      total,796,335 patients were analyzed, including 85,048 withILC (10.7%) and
      711,287 withIDC (89.3%). The ILC group was correlatedwith older age, larger tumor
      size, later stage, lower grade, metastasis disease(M1) disease, and greater
      counts ofpositive lymph nodesandestrogen-receptor-positive (ER)/progesterone
      receptor-positive (PR) positive nodes. The overall survival showed an early
      advantage for ILC but a worse outcome after 5 years. Regarding the disease
      specific survival, the IDC cohort had advantages over the ILC group, both during
      the early years and long-term. In hormone status and metastasis site subgroup
      analyses, the ER+/PR+ subgroup had the best survival, while the ER+/PR- subgroup
      had the worst outcome, especially the ILC cohort. ILC and IDC had different
      metastasis patterns. The proportion of bone metastasis was higher in the ILC
      group (91.52%) than that in the IDC (76.04%), and the ILC group was more likely
      to have multiple metastasis sites. Survival analyses showed patients with ILC had
      a higher risk of liver metastasis (disease-specific survival[DSS]; P = 0.046),
      but had a better overall survival than the bone metastasis group (P<0.0001). We
      concluded that the long-term prognosis for ILC was poorer than that for IDC, and
      the ER+/PR- subgroup had the worst outcome. Therefore, the metastasis pattern and
      prognosis must be seriously evaluated, and a combination of endocrine therapy and
      chemotherapy should be considered.

PMID- 28863136
TI  - Differential receptive field organizations give rise to nearly identical neural
      correlations across three parallel sensory maps in weakly electric fish.
AB  - Understanding how neural populations encode sensory information thereby leading
      to perception and behavior (i.e., the neural code) remains an important problem
      in neuroscience. When investigating the neural code, one must take into account
      the fact that neural activities are not independent but are actually correlated
      with one another. Such correlations are seen ubiquitously and have a strong
      impact on neural coding. Here we investigated how differences in the antagonistic
      center-surround receptive field (RF) organization across three parallel sensory
      maps influence correlations between the activities of electrosensory pyramidal
      neurons. Using a model based on known anatomical differences in receptive field
      center size and overlap, we initially predicted large differences in correlated
      activity across the maps. However, in vivo electrophysiological recordings showed
      that, contrary to modeling predictions, electrosensory pyramidal neurons across
      all three segments displayed nearly identical correlations. To explain this
      surprising result, we incorporated the effects of RF surround in our model. By
      systematically varying both the RF surround gain and size relative to that of the
      RF center, we found that multiple RF structures gave rise to similar levels of
      correlation. In particular, incorporating known physiological differences in RF
      structure between the three maps in our model gave rise to similar levels of
      correlation. Our results show that RF center overlap alone does not determine
      correlations which has important implications for understanding how RF structure
      influences correlated neural activity.

PMID- 28863137
TI  - Cas9/gRNA targeted excision of cystic fibrosis-causing deep-intronic splicing
      mutations restores normal splicing of CFTR mRNA.
AB  - Cystic Fibrosis is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the
      CFTR gene. CRISPR mediated, template-dependent homology-directed gene editing has
      been used to correct the most common mutation, c.1521_1523delCTT / p.Phe508del
      (F508del) which affects ~70% of individuals, but the efficiency was relatively
      low. Here, we describe a high efficiency strategy for editing of three different
      rare CFTR mutations which together account for about 3% of individuals with
      Cystic Fibrosis. The mutations cause aberrant splicing of CFTR mRNA due to the
      creation of cryptic splice signals that result in the formation of pseudoexons
      containing premature stop codons c.1679+1634A>G (1811+1.6kbA>G) and c.3718
      2477C>T (3849+10kbC>T), or an out-of-frame 5' extension to an existing exon
      c.3140-26A>G (3272-26A>G). We designed pairs of Cas9 guide RNAs to create
      targeted double-stranded breaks in CFTR either side of each mutation which
      resulted in high efficiency excision of the target genomic regions via non
      homologous end-joining repair. When evaluated in a mini-gene splicing assay, we
      showed that targeted excision restored normal splicing for all three mutations.
      This approach could be used to correct aberrant splicing signals or remove
      disruptive transcription regulatory motifs caused by deep-intronic mutations in a
      range of other genetic disorders.

PMID- 28863140
TI  - Crumble analysis of the historic sympatric distribution between Dendrortyx
      macroura and D. barbatus (Aves: Galliformes).
AB  - In Mexico, the Long-tailed Wood-Partridge (Dendrortyx macroura) is distributed in
      the mountains of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Sierra Madre del Sur and Sierra
      Norte de Oaxaca; while the Bearded Wood-Partridge (D. barbatus) is distributed in
      the Sierra Madre Oriental (SMO). There is a controversial overlap in distribution
      (sympatry) between these two species (on the Cofre de Perote and Pico de Orizaba
      volcanoes, SMO and Sierra Norte de Oaxaca), based on the ambiguity and current
      lack of information regarding the distribution of these two species. In order to
      disentangle the possible presence of both species in the area of sympatry, we
      conducted a crumble analysis of the historic knowledge regarding the geographic
      distribution of both species, based on a review of scientific literature,
      database records, the specimen examination (in ornithological collections), field
      work and a reconstruction of the distribution range based on Ecological Niche
      Modeling. Our results support the presence of only one of these two species in
      the overlapping area, rejecting the existence of such an area of sympatry between
      the two species. We discuss alternative hypotheses that could explain the
      historically reported distribution pattern: 1) an error in the single existing
      historical record; 2) a possible local extinction of the species and 3) the past
      existence of interspecific competition that has since been resolved under the
      principle of competitive exclusion. We propose that the Santo Domingo River in
      northern Oaxaca and western slope of the Sierra Madre Oriental, mark the
      distribution limits between these species.

PMID- 28863139
TI  - Gut microbiome in ADHD and its relation to neural reward anticipation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microorganisms in the human intestine (i.e. the gut microbiome) have
      an increasingly recognized impact on human health, including brain functioning.
      Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder
      associated with abnormalities in dopamine neurotransmission and deficits in
      reward processing and its underlying neuro-circuitry including the ventral
      striatum. The microbiome might contribute to ADHD etiology via the gut-brain
      axis. In this pilot study, we investigated potential differences in the
      microbiome between ADHD cases and undiagnosed controls, as well as its relation
      to neural reward processing. METHODS: We used 16S rRNA marker gene sequencing
      (16S) to identify bacterial taxa and their predicted gene functions in 19 ADHD
      and 77 control participants. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
      we interrogated the effect of observed microbiome differences in neural reward
      responses in a subset of 28 participants, independent of diagnosis. RESULTS: For
      the first time, we describe gut microbial makeup of adolescents and adults
      diagnosed with ADHD. We found that the relative abundance of several bacterial
      taxa differed between cases and controls, albeit marginally significant. A
      nominal increase in the Bifidobacterium genus was observed in ADHD cases. In a
      hypothesis-driven approach, we found that the observed increase was linked to
      significantly enhanced 16S-based predicted bacterial gene functionality encoding
      cyclohexadienyl dehydratase in cases relative to controls. This enzyme is
      involved in the synthesis of phenylalanine, a precursor of dopamine. Increased
      relative abundance of this functionality was significantly associated with
      decreased ventral striatal fMRI responses during reward anticipation, independent
      of ADHD diagnosis and age. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show increases in gut
      microbiome predicted function of dopamine precursor synthesis between ADHD cases
      and controls. This increase in microbiome function relates to decreased neural
      responses to reward anticipation. Decreased neural reward anticipation
      constitutes one of the hallmarks of ADHD.

PMID- 28863138
TI  - 5C analysis of the Epidermal Differentiation Complex locus reveals distinct
      chromatin interaction networks between gene-rich and gene-poor TADs in skin
      epithelial cells.
AB  - Mammalian genomes contain several dozens of large (>0.5 Mbp) lineage-specific
      gene loci harbouring functionally related genes. However, spatial chromatin
      folding, organization of the enhancer-promoter networks and their relevance to
      Topologically Associating Domains (TADs) in these loci remain poorly understood.
      TADs are principle units of the genome folding and represents the DNA regions
      within which DNA interacts more frequently and less frequently across the TAD
      boundary. Here, we used Chromatin Conformation Capture Carbon Copy (5C)
      technology to characterize spatial chromatin interaction network in the 3.1 Mb
      Epidermal Differentiation Complex (EDC) locus harbouring 61 functionally related
      genes that show lineage-specific activation during terminal keratinocyte
      differentiation in the epidermis. 5C data validated by 3D-FISH demonstrate that
      the EDC locus is organized into several TADs showing distinct lineage-specific
      chromatin interaction networks based on their transcription activity and the gene
      rich or gene-poor status. Correlation of the 5C results with genome-wide studies
      for enhancer-specific histone modifications (H3K4me1 and H3K27ac) revealed that
      the majority of spatial chromatin interactions that involves the gene-rich TADs
      at the EDC locus in keratinocytes include both intra- and inter-TAD interaction
      networks, connecting gene promoters and enhancers. Compared to thymocytes in
      which the EDC locus is mostly transcriptionally inactive, these interactions were
      found to be keratinocyte-specific. In keratinocytes, the promoter-enhancer
      anchoring regions in the gene-rich transcriptionally active TADs are enriched for
      the binding of chromatin architectural proteins CTCF, Rad21 and chromatin
      remodeler Brg1. In contrast to gene-rich TADs, gene-poor TADs show preferential
      spatial contacts with each other, do not contain active enhancers and show
      decreased binding of CTCF, Rad21 and Brg1 in keratinocytes. Thus, spatial
      interactions between gene promoters and enhancers at the multi-TAD EDC locus in
      skin epithelial cells are cell type-specific and involve extensive contacts
      within TADs as well as between different gene-rich TADs, forming the framework
      for lineage-specific transcription.

PMID- 28863141
TI  - Assessment of tilt and decentration of crystalline lens and intraocular lens
      relative to the corneal topographic axis using anterior segment optical coherence
      tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the tilt and decentration of the crystalline lens and the
      intraocular lens (IOL) relative to the corneal topographic axis using anterior
      segment ocular coherence tomography (AS-OCT). METHODS: A sample set of 100 eyes
      from 49 subjects (41 eyes with crystalline lenses and 59 eyes with IOLs) were
      imaged using second generation AS-OCT (CASIA2, TOMEY) in June and July 2016 at
      Okayama University. Both mydriatic and non-mydriatic images were obtained, and
      the tilt and decentration of the crystalline lens and the IOL were quantified.
      The effects of pupil dilation on measurements were also assessed. RESULTS: The
      crystalline lens showed an average tilt of 5.15 degrees  towards the
      inferotemporal direction relative to the corneal topographic axis under non
      mydriatic conditions and 5.25 degrees  under mydriatic conditions. Additionally,
      an average decentration of 0.11 mm towards the temporal direction was observed
      under non-mydriatic conditions and 0.08 mm under mydriatic conditions. The
      average tilt for the IOL was 4.31 degrees  towards the inferotemporal direction
      relative to the corneal topographic axis under non-mydriatic conditions and 4.65
      degrees  in the same direction under mydriatic conditions. The average
      decentration was 0.05 mm towards the temporal direction under non-mydriatic
      conditions and 0.08 mm in the same direction under mydriatic conditions. A strong
      correlation was found between the average tilt and decentration values of the
      crystalline lens and the IOL under both non-mydriatic and mydriatic conditions
      (all Spearman correlation coefficients, r >= 0.800; all P < 0.001). CONCLUSION:
      When measured using second generation AS-OCT, both the crystalline lens and the
      IOL showed an average tilt of 4-6 degrees  toward the inferotemporal direction
      relative to the corneal topographic axis and an average decentration of less than
      0.12 mm towards the temporal direction. These results were not influenced by
      pupil dilation and they showed good repeatability.

PMID- 28863142
TI  - Assessing the accuracy of blood RNA profiles to identify patients with post
      concussion syndrome: A pilot study in a military patient population.
AB  - Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a complex, neurophysiological condition
      that can have detrimental outcomes. Yet, to date, no objective method of
      diagnosis exists. Physical damage to the blood-brain-barrier and normal waste
      clearance via the lymphatic system may enable the detection of biomarkers of mTBI
      in peripheral circulation. Here we evaluate the accuracy of whole transcriptome
      analysis of blood to predict the clinical diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome
      (PCS) in a military cohort. Sixty patients with clinically diagnosed chronic
      concussion and controls (no history of concussion) were recruited (retrospective
      study design). Male patients (46) were split into a training set comprised of 20
      long-term concussed (> 6 months and symptomatic) and 12 controls (no documented
      history of concussion). Models were validated in a testing set (control = 9,
      concussed = 5). RNA_Seq libraries were prepared from whole blood samples for
      sequencing using a SOLiD5500XL sequencer and aligned to hg19 reference genome.
      Patterns of differential exon expression were used for diagnostic modeling using
      support vector machine classification, and then validated in a second patient
      cohort. The accuracy of RNA profiles to predict the clinical diagnosis of post
      concussion syndrome patients from controls was 86% (sensitivity 80%; specificity
      89%). In addition, RNA profiles reveal duration of concussion. This pilot study
      shows the potential utility of whole transcriptome analysis to establish the
      clinical diagnosis of chronic concussion syndrome.

PMID- 28863143
TI  - Genotypic characterization directly applied to sputum improves the detection of
      Mycobacterium africanum West African 1, under-represented in positive cultures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the prevalence of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis complex (MTBc) lineages between direct genotyping (on sputum) and
      indirect genotyping (on culture), to characterize potential culture bias against
      difficult growers. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Smear-positive sputa from
      consecutive new tuberculosis patients diagnosed in Cotonou, (Benin) were
      included, before patients had started treatment. An aliquot of decontaminated
      sputum was used for direct spoligotyping, and another aliquot was cultured on
      Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) medium (90 days), for indirect spoligotyping. After DNA
      extraction, spoligotyping was done according to the standard method for all
      specimens, and patterns obtained from sputa were compared versus those from the
      derived culture isolates. From 199 patient's sputa, 146 (73.4%) yielded a
      positive culture. In total, direct spoligotyping yielded a pattern in 98.5%
      (196/199) of the specimens, versus 73.4% (146/199) for indirect spoligotyping on
      cultures. There was good agreement between sputum- and isolate derived patterns:
      94.4% (135/143) at spoligotype level and 96.5% (138/143) at (sub)lineage level.
      Two of the 8 pairs with discrepant pattern were suggestive of mixed infection in
      sputum. Ancestral lineages (Lineage 1, and M. africanum Lineages 5 and 6) were
      less likely to grow in culture (OR = 0.30, 95%CI (0.14 to 0.64), p = 0.0016);
      especially Lineage 5 (OR = 0.37 95%CI (0.17 to 0.79), p = 0.010). Among modern
      lineages, Lineage 4 was over-represented in positive-culture specimens (OR =
      3.01, 95%CI (1.4 to 6.51), p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS/ SIGNIFICANCE: Ancestral
      lineages, especially M. africanum West African 1 (Lineage 5), are less likely to
      grow in culture relative to modern lineages, especially M. tuberculosis Euro
      American (Lineage 4). Direct spoligotyping on smear positive sputum is effective
      and efficient compared to indirect spoligotyping of cultures. It allows for a
      more accurate unbiased determination of the population structure of the M.
      tuberculosis complex. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02744469.

PMID- 28863144
TI  - Latency modulation of collicular neurons induced by electric stimulation of the
      auditory cortex in Hipposideros pratti: In vivo intracellular recording.
AB  - In the auditory pathway, the inferior colliculus (IC) receives and integrates
      excitatory and inhibitory inputs from the lower auditory nuclei, contralateral
      IC, and auditory cortex (AC), and then uploads these inputs to the thalamus and
      cortex. Meanwhile, the AC modulates the sound signal processing of IC neurons,
      including their latency (i.e., first-spike latency). Excitatory and inhibitory
      corticofugal projections to the IC may shorten and prolong the latency of IC
      neurons, respectively. However, the synaptic mechanisms underlying the
      corticofugal latency modulation of IC neurons remain unclear. Thus, this study
      probed these mechanisms via in vivo intracellular recording and acoustic and
      focal electric stimulation. The AC latency modulation of IC neurons is possibly
      mediated by pre-spike depolarization duration, pre-spike hyperpolarization
      duration, and spike onset time. This study suggests an effective strategy for the
      timing sequence determination of auditory information uploaded to the thalamus
      and cortex.

PMID- 28863146
TI  - Involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex in time-based prospective memory
      task monitoring: An EEG analysis of brain sources using Independent Component and
      Measure Projection Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Time-based prospective memory (PM), remembering to do something at a
      particular moment in the future, is considered to depend upon self-initiated
      strategic monitoring, involving a retrieval mode (sustained maintenance of the
      intention) plus target checking (intermittent time checks). The present
      experiment was designed to explore what brain regions and brain activity are
      associated with these components of strategic monitoring in time-based PM tasks.
      METHOD: 24 participants were asked to reset a clock every four minutes, while
      performing a foreground ongoing word categorisation task. EEG activity was
      recorded and data were decomposed into source-resolved activity using Independent
      Component Analysis. Common brain regions across participants, associated with
      retrieval mode and target checking, were found using Measure Projection Analysis.
      RESULTS: Participants decreased their performance on the ongoing task when
      concurrently performed with the time-based PM task, reflecting an active
      retrieval mode that relied on withdrawal of limited resources from the ongoing
      task. Brain activity, with its source in or near the anterior cingulate cortex
      (ACC), showed changes associated with an active retrieval mode including greater
      negative ERP deflections, decreased theta synchronization, and increased alpha
      suppression for events locked to the ongoing task while maintaining a time-based
      intention. Activity in the ACC was also associated with time-checks and found
      consistently across participants; however, we did not find an association with
      time perception processing per se. CONCLUSION: The involvement of the ACC in both
      aspects of time-based PM monitoring may be related to different functions that
      have been attributed to it: strategic control of attention during the retrieval
      mode (distributing attentional resources between the ongoing task and the time
      based task) and anticipatory/decision making processing associated with clock
      checks.

PMID- 28863145
TI  - Associations between endothelial dysfunction and clinical and laboratory
      parameters in children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hematological changes can drive damage of endothelial cells, which
      potentially lead to an early endothelial dysfunction in patients with sickle cell
      anemia (SCA). An association may exist between endothelial dysfunction and
      several clinical manifestations of SCA. The present study aims to evaluate the
      links between changes in endothelial function and clinical and laboratory
      parameters in children and adolescents with SCA. METHODS: This study included 40
      children and adolescents with stable SCA as well as 25 healthy children; aged 6
      18 years. All study subjects were evaluated for endothelial function using
      Doppler ultrasonography. In addition, a number of laboratory assays were
      performed, including reticulocyte and leukocyte counts as well as measurement of
      circulating levels of total bilirubin, C-reactive protein (CRP), glucose,
      lipoproteins and peripheral oxyhemoglobin saturation. These parameters were also
      compared between SCA patients who were undertaking hydroxyurea (HU) and those who
      were not. RESULTS: Flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) values were found to be
      reduced in SCA patients compared with those detected in healthy controls. SCA
      individuals with lower FMD values exhibited higher number of hospital admissions
      due to vaso-occlusive events. Additional analyses revealed that patients who had
      decreased FMD values exhibited higher odds of acute chest syndrome (ACS)
      episodes. A preliminary analysis with limited number of individuals failed to
      demonstrate significant differences in FMD values between SCA individuals who
      were treated with HU and those who were not. CONCLUSIONS: Children and
      adolescents with SCA exhibit impaired endothelial function. Reductions in FMD
      values are associated with ACS. These findings underline the potential use of FMD
      as screening strategy of SCA patients with severe prognosis at early stages.

PMID- 28863147
TI  - Short-term imaging response after drug-eluting embolic trans-arterial
      chemoembolization delivered with the Surefire Infusion System(r) for the
      treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To review the initial imaging responses after drug-eluting embolic trans
      arterial chemoembolization (DEE-TACE) delivered with the Surefire Infusion System
      (r) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Single center
      retrospective evaluation of patients who underwent DEE-TACE for HCC, delivered
      with SIS. Information was gathered from available medical records. Treatment
      response rates were assessed using the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in
      Solid Tumors criteria. Assessment of adverse events was categorized per Common
      Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4.03. RESULTS: Twenty-two
      patients with 39 hepatocellular carcinoma lesions were treated with the surefire
      infusion system. Complete response was demonstrated in 32% of patients and 54% of
      lesions after a single treatment session. Overall disease response was
      demonstrated in 91% of patients and 85% of lesions after a single treatment. No
      grade 3 or higher elevations in liver function tests were demonstrated in the
      short-term. CONCLUSION: SIS delivered DEE-TACE leads to a higher than expected
      initial response in patients with HCC.

PMID- 28863148
TI  - A conceptual and computational framework for modelling and understanding the non
      equilibrium gene regulatory networks of mouse embryonic stem cells.
AB  - The capacity of pluripotent embryonic stem cells to differentiate into any cell
      type in the body makes them invaluable in the field of regenerative medicine.
      However, because of the complexity of both the core pluripotency network and the
      process of cell fate computation it is not yet possible to control the fate of
      stem cells. We present a theoretical model of stem cell fate computation that is
      based on Halley and Winkler's Branching Process Theory (BPT) and on Greaves et
      al.'s agent-based computer simulation derived from that theoretical model. BPT
      abstracts the complex production and action of a Transcription Factor (TF) into a
      single critical branching process that may dissipate, maintain, or become
      supercritical. Here we take the single TF model and extend it to multiple
      interacting TFs, and build an agent-based simulation of multiple TFs to
      investigate the dynamics of such coupled systems. We have developed the
      simulation and the theoretical model together, in an iterative manner, with the
      aim of obtaining a deeper understanding of stem cell fate computation, in order
      to influence experimental efforts, which may in turn influence the outcome of
      cellular differentiation. The model used is an example of self-organization and
      could be more widely applicable to the modelling of other complex systems. The
      simulation based on this model, though currently limited in scope in terms of the
      biology it represents, supports the utility of the Halley and Winkler branching
      process model in describing the behaviour of stem cell gene regulatory networks.
      Our simulation demonstrates three key features: (i) the existence of a critical
      value of the branching process parameter, dependent on the details of the
      cistrome in question; (ii) the ability of an active cistrome to "ignite" an
      otherwise fully dissipated cistrome, and drive it to criticality; (iii) how
      coupling cistromes together can reduce their critical branching parameter values
      needed to drive them to criticality.

PMID- 28863149
TI  - The neural correlates of biomechanical constraints in hand laterality judgment
      task performed from other person's perspective: A near-infrared spectroscopy
      study.
AB  - Previous studies, mainly using a first-person perspective (1PP), have shown that
      the judgments of the hand laterality judgment (HLJ) task are dependent on
      biomechanical constraints (BC). Specifically, differing reaction times (RT) for
      hand pictures rotated medially or laterally around the mid sagittal plane are
      attributed to the BC effect on motor imagery. In contrast, we investigated
      whether the HLJ task is also subject to BC when performed from a third-person
      perspective (3PP) as well as 1PP using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to
      measure the brain activity of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in right-handed
      participants assigned to 1PP or 3PP groups. The 1PP group judged whether a
      presented hand was their own left or right hand, and the 3PP group whether it was
      the other's left or right hand. Using their HLJ task error rates, the 1PP and 3PP
      groups were subdivided into an Error Group (EG) and No Error Group (NEG). For the
      1PP group, both EG and NEG showed a significant Hand Laterality * Orientation
      interaction for RT, indicating the BC effect on motor imagery. For the 3PP group,
      however, neither EG nor NEG showed the interaction, even though EG showed a
      significantly longer RT than NEG. These results suggest that the 3PP EG
      appropriately followed the 3PP task instruction, while the NEG might have taken
      1PP. However, the 3PP EG NIRS profile of left PFC showed a significant Hand
      Laterality * Orientation interaction, while the 1PP EG did not. More noteworthy
      is that the left PFC activation of EG showed an interaction between the 1PP and
      3PP groups when the left hand was presented. Furthermore, in the NEG, the PFC
      activation was not influenced by the BC in either the 1PP or 3PP condition. These
      results indicate that BC interferes with the HLJ task performed from the 1PP and
      3PP.

PMID- 28863150
TI  - A single Markov-type kinetic model accounting for the macroscopic currents of all
      human voltage-gated sodium channel isoforms.
AB  - Modelling ionic channels represents a fundamental step towards developing
      biologically detailed neuron models. Until recently, the voltage-gated ion
      channels have been mainly modelled according to the formalism introduced by the
      seminal works of Hodgkin and Huxley (HH). However, following the continuing
      achievements in the biophysical and molecular comprehension of these pore-forming
      transmembrane proteins, the HH formalism turned out to carry limitations and
      inconsistencies in reproducing the ion-channels electrophysiological behaviour.
      At the same time, Markov-type kinetic models have been increasingly proven to
      successfully replicate both the electrophysiological and biophysical features of
      different ion channels. However, in order to model even the finest non-conducting
      molecular conformational change, they are often equipped with a considerable
      number of states and related transitions, which make them computationally heavy
      and less suitable for implementation in conductance-based neurons and large
      networks of those. In this purely modelling study we develop a Markov-type
      kinetic model for all human voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs). The model
      framework is detailed, unifying (i.e., it accounts for all ion-channel isoforms)
      and computationally efficient (i.e. with a minimal set of states and
      transitions). The electrophysiological data to be modelled are gathered from
      previously published studies on whole-cell patch-clamp experiments in mammalian
      cell lines heterologously expressing the human VGSC subtypes (from NaV1.1 to
      NaV1.9). By adopting a minimum sequence of states, and using the same state
      diagram for all the distinct isoforms, the model ensures the lightest
      computational load when used in neuron models and neural networks of increasing
      complexity. The transitions between the states are described by original ordinary
      differential equations, which represent the rate of the state transitions as a
      function of voltage (i.e., membrane potential). The kinetic model, developed in
      the NEURON simulation environment, appears to be the simplest and most
      parsimonious way for a detailed phenomenological description of the human VGSCs
      electrophysiological behaviour.

PMID- 28863152
TI  - The Boston Marathon versus the World Marathon Majors.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare finish times across WMM races for Boston, London, Berlin,
      Chicago and New York Marathons. METHODS: Race times of the top 10 male and 10
      female finishers were analyzed from 2005 to 2014 using the high-performance mixed
      linear model procedure in the Statistical Analysis System. Venue-to-venue
      comparisons, as well as comparisons between Boston and other WMM races, with and
      without factors of temperature, humidity and altitude change were examined.
      RESULTS: Performance from 2005 to 2014 in the WMM races was found to improve at a
      rate of ~1% each 7 years. Despite its higher variability, comparison between
      Boston's estimated mean finishing time and all other venues revealed moderate
      positive differences, indicating the Boston event to be typically slower than
      other venues. CONCLUSIONS: Across the 10-year study period, performance times
      improved ~1% each 7 years for both genders for the WMM, with the Boston Marathon
      being slower on average than other WMM venues. Weather rather than course metrics
      appeared to impact performance times most.

PMID- 28863151
TI  - Perinatal outcomes after induced termination of pregnancy by methods: A
      nationwide register-based study of first births in Finland 1996-2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women with previous terminations of pregnancy (TOPs) before their
      first birth have been associated with poorer perinatal outcomes. However,
      previous studies on the perinatal outcomes by the method in previous TOPs are
      inconsistent. OBJECTIVE: To examine the perinatal outcomes of the first-time
      mothers with singleton births, by the method of previous TOP (medical and
      surgical vs no TOP, and surgical vs medical). METHOD: This is a nationwide
      register-based study including 419,879 first-time Finnish mothers with singleton
      birth during the time period 1996-2013. Mothers having their first birth were
      identified from the Medical Birth Register and linked to the Abortion Register by
      their identification numbers. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was
      performed to examine the risk for preterm birth, low birth weight, small for
      gestational age and perinatal death by the method in previous TOPs. RESULTS:
      Among the first-time mothers, 87.0% had no history of TOPs, 3.2% had a history of
      medical TOP(s), 9.2% had a history of surgical TOP(s) and 0.6% had a history of
      both (medical and surgical) TOP(s). No significant differences in perinatal
      outcomes were found among the women with surgical TOPs, compared to the women
      with no TOPs. In unadjusted analysis, increased odds for preterm birth and low
      birth weight were found when comparing women having previous surgical TOPs with
      medical TOPs. Even after the adjustment of potential confounders, odds for
      preterm birth < 37 weeks (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.04-1.36) and low birth weight <
      2500 g (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.00-1.35) remained significant. After restricting
      data to the single TOP, the results were similar; OR for both preterm birth and
      low birth weight was 1.18 (95% CIs = 1.02-1.36 and 1.01-1.38). CONCLUSION:
      Perinatal outcomes did not differ among the mothers with surgical TOPs compared
      to the mothers with no TOPs, while the outcomes were poorer after surgical TOP(s)
      than after medical TOP(s).

PMID- 28863153
TI  - Triple DMARD treatment in early rheumatoid arthritis modulates synovial T cell
      activation and plasmablast/plasma cell differentiation pathways.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate the genome-wide transcriptional
      effects of a combination of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (tDMARD;
      methotrexate, sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine) in synovial tissues obtained
      from early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. While combination DMARD strategies
      have been investigated for clinical efficacy, very little data exists on the
      potential molecular mechanism of action. We hypothesized that tDMARD would impact
      multiple biological pathways, but the specific pathways were unknown. METHODS:
      Paired synovial biopsy samples from early RA patients before and after 6 months
      of tDMARD therapy were collected by arthroscopy (n = 19). These biopsies as well
      as those from subjects with normal synovium (n = 28) were profiled by total RNA
      sequencing. RESULTS: Large differences in gene expression between RA and control
      biopsies (over 5000 genes) were identified. Despite clinical efficacy, the
      expression of a restricted set of less than 300 genes was reversed after 6 months
      of treatment. Many genes remained elevated, even in patients who achieved low
      disease activity. Interestingly, tDMARD downregulated genes included those
      involved in T cell activation and signaling and plasmablast/plasma cell
      differentiation and function. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified transcriptomic
      signatures that characterize synovial tissue from RA patients with early disease.
      Analysis after 6 months of tDMARD treatment highlight consistent alterations in
      expression of genes related to T cell activation and plasmablast/plasma cell
      differentiation. These results provide novel insight into the biology of early RA
      and the mechanism of tDMARD action and may help identify novel drug targets to
      improve rates of treatment-induced disease remission.

PMID- 28863154
TI  - The impact of HIV infection and socioeconomic factors on the incidence of
      gonorrhea: A county-level, US-wide analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported identifiable disease
      in the United States (U.S.). Importantly, more than 25% of gonorrheal infections
      demonstrate antibiotic resistance, leading the Centers for Disease Control and
      Prevention (CDC) to classify gonorrhea as an "urgent threat". METHODS: We
      examined the association of gonorrhea infection rates with the incidence of HIV
      and socioeconomic factors. A county-level multivariable model was then
      constructed. RESULTS: Multivariable analysis demonstrated that HIV incidence
      [Coefficient (Coeff): 1.26, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.86, 1.66, P<0.001]
      exhibited the most powerful independent association with the incidence of
      gonorrhea and predicted 40% of the observed variation in gonorrhea infection
      rates. Sociodemographic factors like county urban ranking (Coeff: 0.12, 95% CI:
      0.03, 0.20, P = 0.005), percentage of women (Coeff: 0.41, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.53,
      P<0.001) and percentage of individuals under the poverty line (Coeff: 0.45, 95%
      CI: 0.32, 0.57, P<0.001) exerted a secondary impact. A regression model that
      incorporated these variables predicted 56% of the observed variation in gonorrhea
      incidence (Pmodel<0.001, R2 model = 0.56). CONCLUSIONS: Gonorrhea and HIV
      infection exhibited a powerful correlation thus emphasizing the benefits of
      comprehensive screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the value
      of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV among patients visiting an STI clinic.
      Furthermore, sociodemographic factors also impacted gonorrhea incidence, thus
      suggesting another possible focus for public health initiatives.

PMID- 28863155
TI  - Electrophysiological characteristics of pressure overload-induced cardiac
      hypertrophy and its influence on ventricular arrhythmias.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the cardiac electrophysiological characteristics of cardiac
      hypertrophy and its influence on the occurrence of ventricular tachyarrhythmias.
      METHODS: Adult C57BL6 mice were randomly divided into a surgery group and a
      control group. Thoracic aortic constriction was performed on mice in the surgery
      group, and cardiac anatomical and ultrasonic evaluations were performed to
      confirm the success of the cardiac hypertrophy model 4 weeks after the operation.
      Using the Langendorff method of isolated heart perfusion, monophasic action
      potentials (MAPs) and the effective refractory period (ERP) at different parts of
      the heart (including the epi- and endo-myocardium of the left and right
      ventricles) were measured, and the induction rate of ventricular tachyarrhythmias
      was observed under programmed electrical stimulus (PES) and burst stimulus. Whole
      cell patch-clamp was used to obtain the I-V characteristics of voltage-gated
      potassium channels in cardiomyocytes of different parts of the heart (including
      the epi- and endo-myocardium of the left and right ventricles) as well as the
      channels' properties of steady-state inactivation and recovery from inactivation.
      RESULTS: The ratio of heart weight to body weight and the ratio of left
      ventricular weight to body weight in the surgery group were significantly higher
      than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Ultrasonic evaluation revealed that
      both interventricular septal diameter (IVSD) and left ventricle posterior wall
      diameter (LVPWD) in the surgery group were significantly larger than those in the
      control group (P < 0.05). Under PES and burst stimuli, the induction rates of
      arrhythmias in the surgery group significantly increased, reaching 41.2% and
      23.5%, respectively. Both the QT interval and action potential duration (APD) in
      the surgery group were significantly longer than in the control group (P<0.01),
      and the changes showed obvious spatial heterogeneity. Whole-cell patch-clamp
      recordings demonstrated that the surgery group had significantly lower potassium
      current densities (IPeak, Ito, IKur, Iss, and IK1) at different parts of the
      heart than the control group (P < 0.01), and there were significant differences
      in the half-inactivation voltage (V1/2) and the inactivation-recovery time
      constant (tau) of Ito and IKur at different parts of the heart (P < 0.01) between
      the surgery group and the control group. In addition, the surgery group had
      significantly lower densities of IPeak, Ito, and IKur in cells of the endo
      myocardium (P < 0.05), and the changes showed obvious spatial heterogeneity.
      CONCLUSION: Changes in the current density and function of potassium channels
      contributed to irregular repolarization in cardiac hypertrophy, and the spatially
      heterogeneous changes of the channels may increase the occurrence of ventricular
      arrhythmias that accompany cardiac hypertrophy.

PMID- 28863157
TI  - Evaluating the impacts of grades on vehicular speeds on interstate highways.
AB  - Grade variation on interstate highways affects the roadway geometric design,
      vehicle performance and driver behavior, thus possibly exerting an unexpected
      effect on vehicular speed. Hence, determining the internal relationship between
      grade and speed is important and useful for drivers, traffic regulators and other
      traffic participants. However, the problem with performing this research is the
      lack of large-scale gradient and speed data. Google Earth (GE) provides an
      application programming interface for extracting elevation data worldwide. The
      elevation dataset from GE can be easily converted to grade data. In addition, our
      team has collected and stored speed series data for different freeways over
      several years. Based on the above obtainable grade and speed datasets, we
      conducted research on the effect of grades on free flow speeds from two
      perspectives. First, the influence of grades on speed was analyzed from both
      quantitative and qualitative aspects. The analysis of the distributions of four
      typical types of speeds demonstrated a decreasing tendency as the speed
      increased. Steeper grades generated a more intense speed fluctuation in terms of
      the four types of speeds. Second, a model based on the Student's t-test was
      developed to evaluate the level of significant difference among speed series
      under neighboring grades. The Student's t-test demonstrated that adjacent grades
      do not significantly influence the speeds. In summary, speeds under different
      grades showed obviously different tendencies. The findings of this study can help
      transport authorities set more reasonable speed limits and improve the geometric
      design of interstates with grade variation constraints.

PMID- 28863156
TI  - Molecular characterization and epidemic history of hepatitis C virus using core
      sequences of isolates from Central Province, Saudi Arabia.
AB  - The source of HCV transmission in Saudi Arabia is unknown. This study aimed to
      determine HCV genotypes in a representative sample of chronically infected
      patients in Saudi Arabia. All HCV isolates were genotyped and subtyped by
      sequencing of the HCV core region and 54 new HCV isolates were identified. Three
      sets of primers targeting the core region were used for both amplification and
      sequencing of all isolates resulting in a 326 bp fragment. Most HCV isolates were
      genotype 4 (85%), whereas only a few isolates were recognized as genotype 1
      (15%). With the assistance of Genbank database and BLAST, subtyping results
      showed that most of genotype 4 isolates were 4d whereas most of genotype 1
      isolates were 1b. Nucleotide conservation and variation rates of HCV core
      sequences showed that 4a and 1b have the highest levels of variation.
      Phylogenetic analysis of sequences by Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Coalescent
      methods was used to explore the source of HCV transmission by investigating the
      relationship between Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East and
      Africa. Coalescent analysis showed that transmissions of HCV from Egypt to Saudi
      Arabia are estimated to have occurred in three major clusters: 4d was introduced
      into the country before 1900, the major 4a clade's MRCA was introduced between
      1900 and 1920, and the remaining lineages were introduced between 1940 and 1960
      from Egypt and Middle Africa. Results showed that no lineages seem to have
      crossed from Egypt to Saudi Arabia in the last 15 years. Finally, sequencing and
      characterization of new HCV isolates from Saudi Arabia will enrich the HCV
      database and help further studies related to treatment and management of the
      virus.

PMID- 28863158
TI  - c-FLIP and the NOXA/Mcl-1 axis participate in the synergistic effect of
      pemetrexed plus cisplatin in human choroidal melanoma cells.
AB  - Choroidal melanoma is the most common primary malignant intraocular tumor, and
      very few effective therapies are available to treat it. Our study aimed to
      understand whether pemetrexed plus cisplatin exerts a beneficial synergistic
      effect in human choroidal melanoma cells and to delineate the underlying
      molecular mechanism. To accomplish these aims, we treated choroidal melanoma
      cells with pemetrexed and cisplatin and assessed cell survival with SRB and MTT
      assays. Proteins were detected using western blotting analysis. NOXA and CHOP
      were knocked down with siRNA. We found that pemetrexed or cisplatin alone
      inhibited survival and induced apoptosis in human choroidal melanoma cells.
      Furthermore, the expression levels of c-FLIP, an anti-apoptotic protein in the
      extrinsic apoptosis pathway, and Mcl-1, an anti-apoptotic protein in the
      intrinsic apoptosis pathway, were decreased by pemetrexed or cisplatin
      respectively, while the expression of a pro-apoptotic protein in the intrinsic
      apoptosis pathway, NOXA, was up-regulated. Moreover, pemetrexed or cisplatin
      alone increased the protein expression of the endoplasmic reticulum stress
      markers IRE1alpha, Bip and CHOP. Silencing CHOP expression reduced NOXA
      expression. These findings suggest that the pemetrexed or cisplatin induced
      intrinsic apoptosis via activation of the ER stress response. Importantly,
      combining the two compounds more strongly induced apoptosis. Following the
      cotreatment, CHOP and NOXA expression increased, while c-FLIP and Mcl-1
      expression decreased, and these effects were more pronounced than when using
      either compound alone. This result suggests that pemetrexed and cisplatin
      synergistically activate ER stress response-induced apoptosis in choroidal
      melanoma cells. To summarize, the c-FLIP and NOXA/Mcl-1 axis participated in the
      synergistic effect of pemetrexed plus cisplatin in human choroidal melanoma
      cells. Intrinsic apoptosis was induced via activation of the ER stress response.
      Our study provides important mechanistic insights into potential cancer treatment
      with pemetrexed plus cisplatin and enriches our understanding of human choroidal
      melanoma.

PMID- 28863159
TI  - Building test data from real outbreaks for evaluating detection algorithms.
AB  - Benchmarking surveillance systems requires realistic simulations of disease
      outbreaks. However, obtaining these data in sufficient quantity, with a realistic
      shape and covering a sufficient range of agents, size and duration, is known to
      be very difficult. The dataset of outbreak signals generated should reflect the
      likely distribution of authentic situations faced by the surveillance system,
      including very unlikely outbreak signals. We propose and evaluate a new approach
      based on the use of historical outbreak data to simulate tailored outbreak
      signals. The method relies on a homothetic transformation of the historical
      distribution followed by resampling processes (Binomial, Inverse Transform
      Sampling Method-ITSM, Metropolis-Hasting Random Walk, Metropolis-Hasting
      Independent, Gibbs Sampler, Hybrid Gibbs Sampler). We carried out an analysis to
      identify the most important input parameters for simulation quality and to
      evaluate performance for each of the resampling algorithms. Our analysis confirms
      the influence of the type of algorithm used and simulation parameters (i.e. days,
      number of cases, outbreak shape, overall scale factor) on the results. We show
      that, regardless of the outbreaks, algorithms and metrics chosen for the
      evaluation, simulation quality decreased with the increase in the number of days
      simulated and increased with the number of cases simulated. Simulating outbreaks
      with fewer cases than days of duration (i.e. overall scale factor less than 1)
      resulted in an important loss of information during the simulation. We found that
      Gibbs sampling with a shrinkage procedure provides a good balance between
      accuracy and data dependency. If dependency is of little importance, binomial and
      ITSM methods are accurate. Given the constraint of keeping the simulation within
      a range of plausible epidemiological curves faced by the surveillance system, our
      study confirms that our approach can be used to generate a large spectrum of
      outbreak signals.

PMID- 28863160
TI  - High rates of loss to follow-up during the first year of pre-antiretroviral
      therapy for HIV patients at sites providing pre-ART care in Nigeria, 2004-2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With about 3.4 million HIV-infected persons, Nigeria has the second
      highest number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in the world. However,
      antiretroviral treatment (ART) coverage in Nigeria remains low with only 748,846
      (22%) of PLHIV on ART by the end of 2014. Retention of HIV-infected patients in
      pre-ART care is essential to ensure timely ART initiation. We assessed outcomes
      of patients enrolled in Nigeria's pre-ART program during 2004-2012. METHODS: We
      conducted a nationally representative retrospective cohort study among adults
      (>=15 years old), enrolling in pre-ART programs supported by the U.S. President's
      Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Nigeria. A total of 35 sites enrolling >=50
      patients in pre-ART were selected using probability proportional-to-size
      sampling; 2,415 eligible medical records at these sites were randomly selected
      for abstraction. Determinants of loss to follow-up (LTFU) and mortality during
      pre-ART care were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.
      RESULTS: The median age at enrollment was 32 years (interquartile range (IQR) 27
      40). A total of 1,216 (51.4%) initiated ART by the time of data abstraction.
      Among the remaining 1,199 patients, 898 (74.9%) had been LTFU, 180 (15.0%) were
      alive and in pre-ART care, 71 (5.9%) had died, 50 (4.2%) had transferred out or
      stopped care. Baseline markers of advanced disease, including weight <45 kg
      (adjusted hazard ration (AHR) = 4.23; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.51-15.58)
      and more advanced WHO disease stage, were predictive of pre-ART mortality.
      Compared with patients aged 15-24, patients aged 35-44 (AHR = 0.67; 95% CI:
      1.0.47-0.95) and age 45-54 (AHR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.48-0.91) had lower LTFU rates.
      Compared with attending facilities in North Central geopolitical zone, attending
      facility locations in South East (AHR = 0.44; 95% CI: 0.24-0.83) was protective
      against LTFU. CONCLUSIONS: About half of patients enrolling in HIV program during
      2004-2012 in Nigeria had not initiated ART by 2013. Key strategies to improve
      early ART initiation among pre-ART enrollees include implementation of the WHO
      test and treat guidelines, earlier HIV testing, and better monitoring to improve
      ART initiation rates. Further research to understand regional variations in pre
      ART outcomes is warranted.

PMID- 28863161
TI  - Diffusion weighted imaging in patients with rectal cancer: Comparison between
      Gaussian and non-Gaussian models.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of four
      diffusion models, including mono and bi-exponential both Gaussian and non
      Gaussian models, in diffusion weighted imaging of rectal cancer. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Nineteen patients with rectal adenocarcinoma underwent MRI examination
      of the rectum before chemoradiation therapy including a 7 b-value diffusion
      sequence (0, 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 s/mm2) at a 1.5T scanner. Four
      different diffusion models including mono- and bi-exponential Gaussian (MG and
      BG) and non-Gaussian (MNG and BNG) were applied on whole tumor volumes of
      interest. Two different statistical criteria were recruited to assess their
      fitting performance, including the adjusted-R2 and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE).
      To decide which model better characterizes rectal cancer, model selection was
      relied on Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) and F-ratio. RESULTS: All candidate
      models achieved a good fitting performance with the two most complex models, the
      BG and the BNG, exhibiting the best fitting performance. However, both criteria
      for model selection indicated that the MG model performed better than any other
      model. In particular, using AIC Weights and F-ratio, the pixel-based analysis
      demonstrated that tumor areas better described by the simplest MG model in an
      average area of 53% and 33%, respectively. Non-Gaussian behavior was illustrated
      in an average area of 37% according to the F-ratio, and 7% using AIC Weights.
      However, the distributions of the pixels best fitted by each of the four models
      suggest that MG failed to perform better than any other model in all patients,
      and the overall tumor area. CONCLUSION: No single diffusion model evaluated
      herein could accurately describe rectal tumours. These findings probably can be
      explained on the basis of increased tumour heterogeneity, where areas with high
      vascularity could be fitted better with bi-exponential models, and areas with
      necrosis would mostly follow mono-exponential behavior.

PMID- 28863162
TI  - Effect of continuous positive airway pressure on carotid intima-media thickness
      in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with increased carotid
      intima-media thickness (IMT), an early marker of atherosclerosis. Continuous
      positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the first-line treatment for OSA. A meta
      analysis was performed to determine whether CPAP therapy could decrease carotid
      IMT. METHODS: The PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library were
      searched before March, 2017. Weighted mean difference (WMD) was calculated to
      estimate the treatment effects of pre and post-CPAP therapy. Seven studies were
      examined and the meta-analysis was performed using STATA 12.0. RESULTS: There was
      no change of carotid IMT before and after CPAP treatment in OSA patients (WMD =
      0.052, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.002 to 0.105, z = 1.90, p = 0.057).
      Meanwhile, meta-analysis of the two RCTs showed that carotid IMT was not changed
      in CPAP group when compared with control group (WMD = 0.002 95% CI = -0.125 to
      0.129, z = 0.03, p = 0.976). Subgroup analyses indicated that carotid IMT was
      significantly decreased after CPAP use in more severe OSA patients (AHI>=50) (WMD
      = 0.073, 95% CI = 0.022 to 0.124, z = 2.80, p = 0.005) and patients with
      therapeutic duration >=6 months (WMD = 0.121, 95% CI = 0.019 to 0.223, z = 2.32,
      p = 0.021). CONCLUSIONS: CPAP had no impact on carotid IMT in OSA patients.
      However, carotid IMT was significantly decreased after CPAP treatment in more
      severe OSA patients and patients with longer CPAP usage.

PMID- 28863163
TI  - The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Aconitum coreanum and Aconitum
      carmichaelii and comparative analysis with other Aconitum species.
AB  - Aconitum species (belonging to the Ranunculaceae) are well known herbaceous
      medicinal ingredients and have great economic value in Asian countries. However,
      there are still limited genomic resources available for Aconitum species. In this
      study, we sequenced the chloroplast (cp) genomes of two Aconitum species, A.
      coreanum and A. carmichaelii, using the MiSeq platform. The two Aconitum
      chloroplast genomes were 155,880 and 157,040 bp in length, respectively, and
      exhibited LSC and SSC regions separated by a pair of inverted repeat regions.
      Both cp genomes had 38% GC content and contained 131 unique functional genes
      including 86 protein-coding genes, eight ribosomal RNA genes, and 37 transfer RNA
      genes. The gene order, content, and orientation of the two Aconitum cp genomes
      exhibited the general structure of angiosperms, and were similar to those of
      other Aconitum species. Comparison of the cp genome structure and gene order with
      that of other Aconitum species revealed general contraction and expansion of the
      inverted repeat regions and single copy boundary regions. Divergent regions were
      also identified. In phylogenetic analysis, Aconitum species positon among the
      Ranunculaceae was determined with other family cp genomes in the Ranunculales. We
      obtained a barcoding target sequence in a divergent region, ndhC-trnV, and
      successfully developed a SCAR (sequence characterized amplified region) marker
      for discrimination of A. coreanum. Our results provide useful genetic information
      and a specific barcode for discrimination of Aconitum species.

PMID- 28863164
TI  - Seasonal dynamics and spatial distribution pattern of Parapoynx crisonalis
      (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) on water chestnuts.
AB  - Parapoynx crisonalis (Walker, 1859) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is a major pest of
      aquatic vegetables and aquatic landscape plants. It has been responsible for
      causing considerable economic damage to water chestnut (Trapa natans) plants. In
      the Changsha vicinity of China, P. crisonalis has five generations a year.
      Populations of P. crisonalis were relatively low in April and began to rapidly
      rise at the beginning of May. At the end of July and early August, the population
      dropped dramatically. A rebound occurred at the end of August and early
      September, which was referred to as the second population peak. From then, until
      early November, the P. crisonalis population steadily diminished in preparation
      for overwintering. The primary factors influencing the seasonal dynamics of P.
      crisonalis were the climatic conditions, especially the temperature, and
      secondarily precipitation. Between May and October, the P. crisonalis adults were
      evenly distributed in the pond. In May and June, the eggs of P. crisonalis were
      present in an aggregate distribution, due to the effects of environmental
      heterogeneity. In July and August, however, they were found to be in a uniform
      distribution.

PMID- 28863165
TI  - Comprehensive analysis of amino acid sequence diversity at the F protein cleavage
      site of Newcastle disease virus in fusogenic activity.
AB  - Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a contagious agent of Newcastle disease in avian
      species and seriously affects the poultry industry. The cleavage site of the
      viral F protein (Fcs) is a key determinant of membrane fusion and viral
      virulence. In this study, we investigated the precise effect of variable amino
      acid sequences of the Fcs on fusogenic activity. Based on viral pathogenicity,
      the Fcs sequences of natural isolates (n = 1572) are classified into eight types
      of virulent Fcs (VFcs) with the motif "G/R/K-R-Q/R/K-R/K-R?F" and ten types of
      the avirulent Fcs (AFcs) with the motif "G/R/E-R/K/Q-Q-G/E-R?L". The VFcs is only
      found in the Class II cluster of viral classification and not in Class I. The
      AFcs exists in both Class I and II isolates. The VFc and AFc types present an
      evolutionary relationship with temporal distribution and host species. Using a
      fusion assay in vitro, VFcs-1 "RRQKR?F" and VFcs-2 "RRQRR?F" show the highest
      efficiency in triggering membrane fusion. The neutral residue Q at the P3
      position of the VFcs plays an enhancing role compared to effect of the basic
      residues R and K. A single residue K at P3 or P5 is less efficient of the
      fusogenic activity in the VFcs with all basic residues. Moreover, the cleavage
      efficiencies of F0 proteins with different types of Fcs motifs do not appear to
      affect membrane fusion. Our findings offer insight into the effect of amino acid
      variation of the Fcs on the fusion triggered by NDV.

PMID- 28863166
TI  - The novel Lyme borreliosis vaccine VLA15 shows broad protection against Borrelia
      species expressing six different OspA serotypes.
AB  - We have previously shown that the Outer surface protein A (OspA) based Lyme
      borreliosis vaccine VLA15 induces protective immunity in mice. Herein, we report
      the induction of protective immunity by VLA15 with mouse models using ticks
      infected with B. burgdorferi (OspA serotype 1), B. afzelii (OspA serotype 2) and
      B. bavariensis (OspA serotype 4) or with in vitro grown B. garinii (OspA serotype
      5 and 6) for challenge. For B. garinii (OspA serotype 3), we have developed a
      growth inhibition assay using chicken complement and functional antibodies
      targeting B. garinii (OspA serotype 3) could be demonstrated after immunization
      with VLA15. Furthermore, following three priming immunizations, a booster dose
      was administered five months later and the induction of immunological memory
      could be confirmed. Thus, the antibody titers after the booster dose were
      increased considerably compared to those after primary immunization. In addition,
      the half-lives of anti-OspA serotype specific antibodies after administration of
      the booster immunization were longer than after primary immunization. Taken
      together, we could show that VLA15 induced protection in mice against challenge
      with four different clinically relevant Borrelia species (B. burgdorferi, B.
      afzelii, B. garinii and B. bavariensis) expressing five of the six OspA serotypes
      included in the vaccine. The protection data is supported by functional assays
      showing efficacy against spirochetes expressing any of the six OspA serotypes (1
      to 6). To our knowledge, this is the first time a Lyme borreliosis vaccine has
      been able to demonstrate such broad protection in preclinical studies. These new
      data provide further promise for the clinical development of VLA15 and supports
      our efforts to provide a new Lyme borreliosis vaccine available for global use.

PMID- 28863167
TI  - The development and validation of an easy to use automatic QT-interval algorithm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate QT-interval dynamics in patients and in drug safety
      analysis, beat-to-beat QT-interval measurements are increasingly used. However,
      interobserver differences, aberrant T-wave morphologies and changes in heart axis
      might hamper accurate QT-interval measurements. OBJECTIVE: To develop and
      validate a QT-interval algorithm robust to heart axis orientation and T-wave
      morphology that can be applied on a beat-to-beat basis. METHODS: Additionally to
      standard ECG leads, the root mean square (ECGRMS), standard deviation and
      vectorcardiogram were used. QRS-onset was defined from the ECGRMS. T-wave end was
      defined per individual lead and scalar ECG using an automated tangent method. A
      median of all T-wave ends was used as the general T-wave end per beat. Supine
      standing tests of 73 patients with Long-QT syndrome (LQTS) and 54 controls were
      used because they have wide ranges of RR and QT-intervals as well as changes in T
      wave morphology and heart axis orientation. For each subject, automatically
      estimated QT-intervals in three random complexes chosen from the low, middle and
      high RR range, were compared with manually measured QT-intervals by three
      observers. RESULTS: After visual inspection of the randomly selected complexes,
      21 complexes were excluded because of evident noise, too flat T-waves or
      premature ventricular beats. Bland-Altman analyses of automatically and manually
      determined QT-intervals showed a bias of <4ms and limits of agreement of +/-25ms.
      Intra-class coefficient indicated excellent agreement (>0.9) between the
      algorithm and all observers individually as well as between the algorithm and the
      mean QT-interval of the observers. CONCLUSION: Our automated algorithm provides
      reliable beat-to-beat QT-interval assessment, robust to heart axis and T-wave
      morphology.

PMID- 28863168
TI  - A novel polyepitope vaccine elicited HIV peptide specific CD4+ T cell responses
      in HLA-A2/DRB1 transgenic mice.
AB  - Human immunodeficiency (HIV) infection is a leading global health problem that
      causes approximately one million deaths each year. Although antiretroviral
      therapy can slow down the disease progression and improve the quality of life of
      infected individuals, it cannot eradicate the virus. A successful vaccine is one
      of the most cost-effective alternatives to control the incidence and mortality of
      HIV infection. CD4+ T cells play a key role in orchestrating other forms of human
      immune responses, therefore, an HIV vaccine that includes a component capable of
      eliciting CD4+ T cell responses is highly desirable. To this end, we have
      previously designed a polypeptide vaccine comprised of multiple CD4+ T cell
      epitopes. In the current study, we tested the immunogenicity of this vaccine in
      mouse models by using IFN-gammaELISPOT and intracellular cytokine staining
      assays. We found that several epitopes in this vaccine elicited CD4+ T cell
      immune responses in both congenic mice and human HLA-A2/DRB1 transgenic mice.
      These new epitopes may be further tested for their ability to augment immune
      responses elicited by other forms of HIV vaccines.

PMID- 28863169
TI  - Effects of small-molecule amyloid modulators on a Drosophila model of Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - Alpha-synuclein (aS) amyloid formation is involved in Parkinson's disease (PD);
      therefore, small molecules that target aS and affect its aggregation are of
      interest as future drug candidates. We recently reported modified ring-fused 2
      pyridones that modulate aS amyloid formation in vitro. Here, we describe the
      effects of such molecules on behavioral parameters of a Drosophila model of PD
      (i.e., flies expressing human aS), using a new approach (implemented in a
      commercially available FlyTracker system) to quantify fly mobility. FlyTracker
      allows for automated analysis of walking and climbing locomotor behavior, as it
      collects large sequences of data over time in an unbiased manner. We found that
      the molecules per se have no toxic or kinetic effects on normal flies. Feeding aS
      expressing flies with the amyloid-promoting molecule FN075, remarkably, resulted
      in increased fly mobility at early time points; however, this effect switched to
      reduced mobility at later time points, and flies had shorter life spans than
      controls. In contrast, an amyloid inhibitor increased both fly kinetics and life
      span. In agreement with increased aS amyloid formation, the FN075-fed flies had
      less soluble aS, and in vitro aS-FN075 interactions stimulated aS amyloid
      formation. In addition to a new quantitative approach to probe mobility
      (available in FlyTracker), our results imply that aS regulates brain activity
      such that initial removal (here, by FN075-triggered assembly of aS) allows for
      increased fly mobility.

PMID- 28863170
TI  - Intuitive intellectual property law: A nationally-representative test of the
      plagiarism fallacy.
AB  - Studies with convenience samples have suggested that the lay public's conception
      of intellectual property laws, including how the laws should regulate and why
      they should exist, are largely incommensurate with the actual intended purpose of
      intellectual property laws and their history in the United States. In this paper,
      we test whether these findings generalize to a more diverse and representative
      sample. The major findings from past work were replicated in the current study.
      When presented with several potential reasons for IP protection, the lay public
      endorsed plagiarism and felt that acknowledging the original source of a creative
      work should make copying that work permissible-viewpoints strongly divergent from
      lawmakers' intent and the law itself. In addition, we replicate the finding that
      lay people know remarkably little about intellectual property laws more generally
      and report little experience as users or creators of creative works.

PMID- 28863171
TI  - Studies of wolf x coyote hybridization via artificial insemination.
AB  - Following the production of western gray wolf (Canis lupus) x western coyote
      (Canis latrans) hybrids via artificial insemination (AI), the present article
      documents that the hybrids survived in captivity for at least 4 years and
      successfully bred with each other. It further reports that backcrossing one of
      the hybrids to a male gray wolf by AI also resulted in the birth of live pups
      that have survived for at least 10 months. All male hybrids (F1 and F2) produced
      sperm by about 10 months of age, and sperm quality of the F1 males fell within
      the fertile range for domestic dogs, but sperm motility and morphology, in
      particular, were low in F2 males at 10 months but improved in samples taken at 22
      months of age. These studies are relevant to a long-standing controversy about
      the identity of the red wolf (Canis rufus), the existence of a proposed new
      species (Canis lycaon) of gray wolf, and to the role of hybridization in
      mammalian evolution.

PMID- 28863173
TI  - Portfolio optimization for seed selection in diverse weather scenarios.
AB  - The aim of this work was to develop a method for selection of optimal soybean
      varieties for the American Midwest using data analytics. We extracted the
      knowledge about 174 varieties from the dataset, which contained information about
      weather, soil, yield and regional statistical parameters. Next, we predicted the
      yield of each variety in each of 6,490 observed subregions of the Midwest.
      Furthermore, yield was predicted for all the possible weather scenarios
      approximated by 15 historical weather instances contained in the dataset. Using
      predicted yields and covariance between varieties through different weather
      scenarios, we performed portfolio optimisation. In this way, for each subregion,
      we obtained a selection of varieties, that proved superior to others in terms of
      the amount and stability of yield. According to the rules of Syngenta Crop
      Challenge, for which this research was conducted, we aggregated the results
      across all subregions and selected up to five soybean varieties that should be
      distributed across the network of seed retailers. The work presented in this
      paper was the winning solution for Syngenta Crop Challenge 2017.

PMID- 28863172
TI  - Regulation of xanthine dehydrogensase gene expression and uric acid production in
      human airway epithelial cells.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The airway epithelium is a physical and immunological barrier that
      protects the pulmonary system from inhaled environmental insults. Uric acid has
      been detected in the respiratory tract and can function as an antioxidant or
      damage associated molecular pattern. We have demonstrated that human airway
      epithelial cells are a source of uric acid. Our hypothesis is that uric acid
      production by airway epithelial cells is induced by environmental stimuli
      associated with chronic respiratory diseases. We therefore examined how airway
      epithelial cells regulate uric acid production. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Allergen
      and cigarette smoke mouse models were performed using house dust mite (HDM) and
      cigarette smoke exposure, respectively, with outcome measurements of lung uric
      acid levels. Primary human airway epithelial cells isolated from clinically
      diagnosed patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
      were grown in submerged cultures and compared to age-matched healthy controls for
      uric acid release. HBEC-6KT cells, a human airway epithelial cell line, were
      grown under submerged monolayer conditions for mechanistic and gene expression
      studies. RESULTS: HDM, but not cigarette smoke exposure, stimulated uric acid
      production in vivo and in vitro. Primary human airway epithelial cells from
      asthma, but not COPD patients, displayed elevated levels of extracellular uric
      acid in culture. In HBEC-6KT, production of uric acid was sensitive to the
      xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) inhibitor, allopurinol, and the ATP Binding Cassette
      C4 (ABCC4) inhibitor, MK-571. Lastly, the pro-inflammatory cytokine combination
      of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma elevated extracellular uric acid levels and XDH gene
      expression in HBEC-6KT cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the active
      production of uric acid from human airway epithelial cells may be intrinsically
      altered in asthma and be further induced by pro-inflammatory cytokines.

PMID- 28863174
TI  - Handgrip strength and its prognostic value for mortality in Moscow, Denmark, and
      England.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compares handgrip strength and its association with
      mortality across studies conducted in Moscow, Denmark, and England. MATERIALS:
      The data collected by the Study of Stress, Aging, and Health in Russia, the Study
      of Middle-Aged Danish Twins and the Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins, and
      the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing was utilized. RESULTS: Among the male
      participants, the age-standardized grip strength was 2 kg and 1 kg lower in
      Russia than in Denmark and in England, respectively. The age-standardized grip
      strength among the female participants was 1.9 kg and 1.6 kg lower in Russia than
      in Denmark and in England, respectively. In Moscow, a one-kilogram increase in
      grip strength was associated with a 4% (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.96, 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 0.94, 0.99) reduction in mortality among men and a 10% (HR = 0.90,
      95%CI: 0.86, 0.94) among women. Meanwhile, a one-kilogram increase in grip
      strength was associated with a 6% (HR = 0.94, 95%CI: 0.93, 0.95) and an 8% (HR =
      0.92, 95%CI: 0.90, 0.94) decrease in mortality among Danish men and women,
      respectively, and with a 2% (HR = 0.98, 95%CI: 0.97, 0.99) and a 3% (HR = 0.97,
      95%CI: 0.95, 0.98) reduction in mortality among the English men and women,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that, although absolute grip
      strength values appear to vary across the Muscovite, Danish, and English samples,
      the degree to which grip strength is predictive of mortality is comparable across
      national populations with diverse socioeconomic and health profiles and life
      expectancy levels.

PMID- 28863175
TI  - The modeling of attraction characteristics regarding passenger flow in urban rail
      transit network based on field theory.
AB  - Aimed at the complicated problems of attraction characteristics regarding
      passenger flow in urban rail transit network, the concept of the gravity field of
      passenger flow is proposed in this paper. We establish the computation methods of
      field strength and potential energy to reveal the potential attraction
      relationship among stations from the perspective of the collection and
      distribution of passenger flow and the topology of network. As for the
      computation methods of field strength, an optimum path concept is proposed to
      define betweenness centrality parameter. Regarding the computation of potential
      energy, Compound Simpson's Rule Formula is applied to get a solution to the
      function. Taking No. 10 Beijing Subway as a practical example, an analysis of
      simulation and verification is conducted, and the results shows in the following
      ways. Firstly, the bigger field strength value between two stations is, the
      stronger passenger flow attraction is, and the greater probability of the
      formation of the largest passenger flow of section is. Secondly, there is the
      greatest passenger flow volume and circulation capacity between two zones of high
      potential energy.

PMID- 28863177
TI  - Identification of sero-reactive antigens for the early diagnosis of Johne's
      disease in cattle.
AB  - Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of
      Johne's disease (JD), a chronic intestinal inflammatory disease of cattle and
      other ruminants. JD has a high herd prevalence and causes serious animal health
      problems and significant economic loss in domesticated ruminants throughout the
      world. Since serological detection of MAP infected animals during the early
      stages of infection remains challenging due to the low sensitivity of extant
      assays, we screened 180 well-characterized serum samples using a whole proteome
      microarray from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), a close relative of MAP. Based
      on extensive testing of serum and milk samples, fecal culture and qPCR for direct
      detection of MAP, the samples were previously assigned to one of 4 groups:
      negative low exposure (n = 30, NL); negative high exposure (n = 30, NH); fecal
      positive, ELISA negative (n = 60, F+E-); and fecal positive, ELISA positive (n =
      60, F+E+). Of the 740 reactive proteins, several antigens were serologically
      recognized early but not late in infection, suggesting a complex and dynamic
      evolution of the MAP humoral immune response during disease progression. Ordinal
      logistic regression models identified a subset of 47 candidate proteins with
      significantly different normalized intensity values (p<0.05), including 12 in the
      NH and 23 in F+E- groups, suggesting potential utility for the early detection of
      MAP infected animals. Next, the diagnostic utility of four MAP orthologs
      (MAP1569, MAP2942c, MAP2609, and MAP1272c) was assessed and reveal moderate to
      high diagnostic sensitivities (range 48.3% to 76.7%) and specificity (range 96.7%
      to 100%), with a combined 88.3% sensitivity and 96.7% specificity. Taken
      together, the results of our analyses have identified several candidate MAP
      proteins of potential utility for the early detection of MAP infection, as well
      individual MAP proteins that may serve as the foundation for the next generation
      of well-defined serological diagnosis of JD in cattle.

PMID- 28863178
TI  - PROTAX-Sound: A probabilistic framework for automated animal sound
      identification.
AB  - Autonomous audio recording is stimulating new field in bioacoustics, with a great
      promise for conducting cost-effective species surveys. One major current
      challenge is the lack of reliable classifiers capable of multi-species
      identification. We present PROTAX-Sound, a statistical framework to perform
      probabilistic classification of animal sounds. PROTAX-Sound is based on a
      multinomial regression model, and it can utilize as predictors any kind of sound
      features or classifications produced by other existing algorithms. PROTAX-Sound
      combines audio and image processing techniques to scan environmental audio files.
      It identifies regions of interest (a segment of the audio file that contains a
      vocalization to be classified), extracts acoustic features from them and compares
      with samples in a reference database. The output of PROTAX-Sound is the
      probabilistic classification of each vocalization, including the possibility that
      it represents species not present in the reference database. We demonstrate the
      performance of PROTAX-Sound by classifying audio from a species-rich case study
      of tropical birds. The best performing classifier achieved 68% classification
      accuracy for 200 bird species. PROTAX-Sound improves the classification power of
      current techniques by combining information from multiple classifiers in a manner
      that yields calibrated classification probabilities.

PMID- 28863176
TI  - iPSC-derived neuronal models of PANK2-associated neurodegeneration reveal
      mitochondrial dysfunction contributing to early disease.
AB  - Mutations in PANK2 lead to neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation. PANK2
      has a role in the biosynthesis of coenzyme A (CoA) from dietary vitamin B5, but
      the neuropathological mechanism and reasons for iron accumulation remain unknown.
      In this study, atypical patient-derived fibroblasts were reprogrammed into
      induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and subsequently differentiated into
      cortical neuronal cells for studying disease mechanisms in human neurons. We
      observed no changes in PANK2 expression between control and patient cells, but a
      reduction in protein levels was apparent in patient cells. CoA homeostasis and
      cellular iron handling were normal, mitochondrial function was affected;
      displaying activated NADH-related and inhibited FADH-related respiration,
      resulting in increased mitochondrial membrane potential. This led to increased
      reactive oxygen species generation and lipid peroxidation in patient-derived
      neurons. These data suggest that mitochondrial deficiency is an early feature of
      the disease process and can be explained by altered NADH/FADH substrate supply to
      oxidative phosphorylation. Intriguingly, iron chelation appeared to exacerbate
      the mitochondrial phenotype in both control and patient neuronal cells. This
      raises caution for the use iron chelation therapy in general when iron
      accumulation is absent.

PMID- 28863179
TI  - The feasibility of a heart block with an electron compensation as an alternative
      whole breast radiotherapy technique in patients with underlying cardiac or
      pulmonary disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of the heart block with electron
      compensation (HBE) technique, based on three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy
      (3D-CRT) in left-sided breast cancer patients with underlying cardiac or
      pulmonary disease. METHODS: Twenty patients with left-sided breast cancer who
      were treated with whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT) were included in this study.
      Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), 3D-CRT, and HBE treatment plans were
      generated for each patient. Based on the 3D-CRT plan, the HBE plan included a
      heart block from the medial tangential field to shield the heart and added an
      electron beam to compensate for the loss in target volume coverage. The
      dosimetric parameters for the heart and lung and the target volume between the
      three treatment types were compared. RESULTS: Of the three plans, the HBE plan
      yielded the most significant reduction in the doses received by the heart and
      lung (heart Dmean: 5.1 Gy vs. 12.9 Gy vs. 4.0 Gy and lung Dmean: 11.4 Gy vs. 13.2
      Gy vs. 10.5 Gy, for 3D-CRT, IMRT, and HBE, respectively). Target coverage with
      all three techniques was within the acceptable range (Dmean 51.0 Gy vs. 51.2 Gy
      vs. 50.6 Gy, for 3D-CRT, IMRT, and HBE, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The HBE plan
      effectively reduced the amount of radiation exposure to the heart and lung. It
      could be beneficial for patients who are vulnerable to radiation-related cardiac
      or pulmonary toxicities.

PMID- 28863180
TI  - A non-invasive specimen collection method and a novel simian foamy virus (SFV)
      DNA quantification assay in New World primates reveal aspects of tissue tropism
      and improved SFV detection.
AB  - Simian foamy viruses (SFVs) co-evolved with a wide range of Old World and New
      World primates (OWPs and NWPs, respectively) and occasionally transmit to humans.
      Previous studies of OWPs showed that the predominant site of SFV replication is
      the oral mucosa. However, very little is known about SFV viral loads (VLs) in the
      oral mucosa or blood of NWPs. NWPs have smaller body sizes, limiting collection
      of sufficient whole blood volumes to molecularly detect and quantify SFV. Our
      study evaluated the use of noninvasively collected buccal swabs to detect NWP SFV
      compared with detection in blood using a new NWP SFV quantitative PCR (qPCR)
      assay. Buccal and blood samples were collected from 107 captive NWPs in Brazil
      comprising eleven distinct genera at the Primate Center of Rio de Janeiro (n =
      58) and at Fundacao Jardim Zoologico da Cidade do Rio Janeiro (n = 49). NWP SFV
      western blot (WB) testing was performed on a subset of animals for comparison
      with PCR results. The qPCR assay was validated using distinct SFV polymerase
      sequences from seven NWP genera (Callithrix, Sapajus, Saimiri, Ateles, Alouatta,
      Cacajao and Pithecia). Assay sensitivity was 20 copies/106 cells, detectable in
      90% of replicates. SFV DNA VLs were higher in buccal swabs (5 log copies/106
      cells) compared to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (3 log copies/106
      cells). The qPCR assay was also more sensitive than nested PCR for detection of
      NWP SFV infection and identified an additional 27 SFV-infected monkeys of which
      18 (90%) were WB-positive and three that were WB-negative. We show the utility of
      using both blood and buccal swabs and our new qPCR assay for detection and
      quantification of diverse NWP SFV, which will assist a better understanding of
      the epidemiology of SFV in NWPs and any potential zoonotic infection risk for
      humans exposed to NWPs.

PMID- 28863181
TI  - BRCA1 protein expression and subcellular localization in primary breast cancer:
      Automated digital microscopy analysis of tissue microarrays.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mutations in BRCA1 are associated with familial as well as sporadic
      aggressive subtypes of breast cancer, but less is known about whether BRCA1
      expression or subcellular localization contributes to progression in population
      based settings. METHODS: We examined BRCA1 expression and subcellular
      localization in invasive breast cancer tissues from an ethnically diverse sample
      of 286 patients and 36 normal breast tissue controls. Two different methods were
      used to label breast cancer tissues for BRCA1: (1) Dual immunofluoresent staining
      with BRCA1 and cytokeratin 8/18 and (2) immunohistochemical staining using the
      previously validated MS110 mouse monoclonal antibody. Slides were visualized and
      quantified using the VECTRA Automated Multispectral Image Analysis System and
      InForm software. RESULTS: BRCA1 staining was more intense in normal than in
      invasive breast tissue for both cytoplasmic (p<0.0001) and nuclear (p<0.01)
      compartments. BRCA1 nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio was higher in breast cancer
      cells than in normal mammary epithelial cells. Reduced BRCA1 expression was
      associated with high tumor grade and negative hormone receptors (estrogen
      receptor, progesterone receptor and Her2). On the other hand, high BRCA1
      expression correlated with basal-like tumors (high CK5/6 and EGFR), and high
      nuclear androgen receptor staining. Lower nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio of BRCA1
      correlated significantly with high Ki67 labeling index (p< 0.05) and family
      history of breast cancer (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Findings of this study indicate
      that alterations in BRCA1 protein expression and subcellular localization in
      breast cancer correlate with poor prognostic markers and aggressive tumor
      features. Further large-scale studies are required to assess the potential
      relevance of BRCA1 protein expression and localization in routine classification
      of breast cancer.

PMID- 28863182
TI  - Immune response to hepatitis B vaccination in HIV-positive individuals with
      isolated antibodies against hepatitis B core antigen: Results of a prospective
      Italian study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Antibodies against hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) are
      found in 14-44% of patients with HIV infection, but it is still unclear whether
      hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination should be recommended for HIV-positive
      subjects with isolated anti-HBc (IAHBc). We examined the rate of anamnestic and
      primary responses (ARs and PRs) and associated factors in a group of HIV-infected
      patients with an IAHBc profile. METHODS: This prospective study recruited 25 HIV
      positive patients with anti-HBc alone who were vaccinated against HBV infection.
      Those without an AR (anti-hepatitis B envelope antigen [anti-HBs] levels of <10
      U/L) or who were hypo-responsiveness (anti-HBs levels of >10 but <100 U/L) four
      weeks after the first dose of vaccine underwent a full course of vaccinations.
      Their clinical and virological data, including the presence of occult hepatitis B
      infection (OBI), were evaluated in accordance with the vaccination schedule.
      RESULTS: Six of the 25 patients (24%) showed an AR, four of whom had anti-HBs
      levels of <100 U/L. Ten of 19 (52.6%) remaining patients became seroprotected
      after the third dose. OBI was detected in four of the six patients with an AR,
      two of the 10 patients with a PR, and none of the nine patients who did not
      respond. Multivariate analysis showed that an AR was associated with the presence
      of OBI (P = 0.0162), and a PR was associated with HCV antibody status. (P =
      0.0191). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that testing for anti-HBc alone may not be
      a reliable means of assessing protection from HBV infection in HIV-positive
      patients. OBI-positive patients may benefit from a single vaccine dose. Anti-HCV
      serostatus may affect PRs.

PMID- 28863183
TI  - Increased microcirculatory heterogeneity in patients with obstructive sleep
      apnea.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common form of sleep
      disordered breathing and has been associated with major cardiovascular
      comorbidities. We hypothesized that the microcirculation is impaired in patients
      with OSA and that the magnitude of impairment correlates to OSA severity.
      METHODS: Subjects were consecutive patients scheduled for routine diagnostic
      polysomnography (PSG). OSA was defined by paradoxical rib cage movements together
      with abdominal excursions and by the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) (events/hour; no
      apnea AHI<5; mild apnea 5<=AHI<15; moderate apnea 15<=AHI<30; severe apnea AHI
      >=30). Sidestream darkfield imaging was used to assess the sublingual
      microcirculation. Recordings of sublingual microcirculation (5 random sites) were
      performed before and after overnight PSG. Data are summarized as mean (+/-SD); p
      values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Thirty-three
      consecutive patients were included. OSA was diagnosed in 16 subjects (4 moderate,
      12 severe). There was no significant difference in microcirculation between
      subjects with moderate OSA and without OSA. However, compared to subjects without
      OSA, subjects with severe OSA (AHI>=30) showed a significant decrease of
      microvascular flow index (-0.07+/-0.17 vs. 0.08+/-0.14; p = 0.02) and increase of
      microvascular flow index heterogeneity (0.06+/-0.15 vs. -0.06+/-0.11; p = 0.02)
      overnight. Multiple regression analysis (adjusted for age and gender) showed both
      decrease of flow and increase of flow heterogeneity associated with AHI (b = 
      0.41; F = 1.8; p = 0.04 and b = 0.43; F = 1.9; p = 0.03, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: Acute overnight microcirculatory changes are observed in subjects
      with severe OSA characterized by decreased flow and increased flow heterogeneity.

PMID- 28863184
TI  - Insertion of the voltage-sensitive domain into circularly permuted red
      fluorescent protein as a design for genetically encoded voltage sensor.
AB  - Visualization of electrical activity in living cells represents an important
      challenge in context of basic neurophysiological studies. Here we report a new
      voltage sensitive fluorescent indicator which response could be detected by
      fluorescence monitoring in a single red channel. To the best of our knowledge,
      this is the first fluorescent protein-based voltage sensor which uses insertion
      into-circular permutant topology to provide an efficient interaction between
      sensitive and reporter domains. Its fluorescent core originates from red
      fluorescent protein (FP) FusionRed, which has optimal spectral characteristics to
      be used in whole body imaging techniques. Indicators using the same domain
      topology could become a new perspective for the FP-based voltage sensors that are
      traditionally based on Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET).

PMID- 28863185
TI  - Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay-A rapid detection tool for
      identifying red fox (Vulpes vulpes) DNA in the carcasses of harbour porpoises
      (Phocoena phocoena).
AB  - Carcasses of wild animals are often visited by different scavengers. However,
      determining which scavenger caused certain types of bite marks is particularly
      difficult and knowledge thereof is lacking. Therefore, a loop-mediated isothermal
      amplification (LAMP) assay (target sequence cytochrome b) was developed to detect
      red fox DNA in carcasses of harbour porpoises. The MSwabTM method for direct
      testing without prior DNA isolation was validated. As a detection device, the
      portable real-time fluorometer Genie(r) II was used, which yields rapid results
      and can be used in field studies without huge laboratory equipment. In addition
      to in vitro evaluation and validation, a stranded and scavenged harbour porpoise
      carcass was successfully examined for red fox DNA residues. The developed LAMP
      method is a valuable diagnostic tool for confirming presumable red fox bite
      wounds in harbour porpoises without further DNA isolation steps.

PMID- 28863186
TI  - Fusion of Taq DNA polymerase with single-stranded DNA binding-like protein of
      Nanoarchaeum equitans-Expression and characterization.
AB  - DNA polymerases are present in all organisms and are important enzymes that
      synthesise DNA molecules. They are used in various fields of science,
      predominantly as essential components for in vitro DNA syntheses, known as PCR.
      Modern diagnostics, molecular biology and genetic engineering need DNA
      polymerases which demonstrate improved performance. This study was aimed at
      obtaining a new NeqSSB-TaqS fusion DNA polymerase from the Taq DNA Stoffel domain
      and a single-stranded DNA binding-like protein of Nanoarchaeum equitans in order
      to significantly improve the properties of DNA polymerase. The DNA coding
      sequence of Taq Stoffel DNA polymerase and the nonspecific DNA-binding protein of
      Nanoarchaeum equitans (NeqSSB-like protein) were fused. A novel recombinant gene
      was obtained which was cloned into the pET-30 Ek/LIC vector and introduced into
      E. coli for expression. The recombinant enzyme was purified and its enzymatic
      properties including DNA polymerase activity, PCR amplification rate,
      thermostability, processivity and resistance to inhibitors, were tested. The
      yield of the target protein reached approximately 18 mg/l after 24 h of the IPTG
      induction. The specific activity of the polymerase was 2200 U/mg. The recombinant
      NeqSSB-TaqS exhibited a much higher extension rate (1000 bp template in 20 s),
      processivity (19 nt), thermostability (half-life 35 min at 95 degrees C) and
      higher tolerance to PCR inhibitors (0.3-1.25% of whole blood, 0.84-13.5 MUg of
      lactoferrin and 4.7-150 ng of heparin) than Taq Stoffel DNA polymerase.
      Furthermore, our studies show that NeqSSB-TaqS DNA polymerase has a high level of
      flexibility in relation to Mg2+ ions (from 1 to 5 mM) and KCl or (NH4)2SO4 salts
      (more than 60 mM and 40 mM, respectively). Using NeqSSB-TaqS DNA polymerase
      instead of the Taq DNA polymerase could be a better choice in many PCR
      applications.

PMID- 28863188
TI  - Correction: On the evolutionary origins of equity.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173636.].

PMID- 28863187
TI  - Innate activation of human primary epithelial cells broadens the host response to
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the airways.
AB  - Early events in the human airways determining whether exposure to Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis (Mtb) results in acquisition of infection are poorly understood.
      Epithelial cells are the dominant cell type in the lungs, but little is known
      about their role in tuberculosis. We hypothesised that human primary airway
      epithelial cells are part of the first line of defense against Mtb-infection and
      contribute to the protective host response in the human respiratory tract. We
      modelled these early airway-interactions with human primary bronchial epithelial
      cells (PBECs) and alveolar macrophages. By combining in vitro infection and
      transwell co-culture models with a global transcriptomic approach, we identified
      PBECs to be inert to direct Mtb-infection, yet to be potent responders within an
      Mtb-activated immune network, mediated by IL1beta and type I interferon (IFN).
      Activation of PBECs by Mtb-infected alveolar macrophages and monocytes increased
      expression of known and novel antimycobacterial peptides, defensins and S100
      family members and epithelial-myeloid interactions further shaped the
      immunological environment during Mtb-infection by promoting neutrophil influx.
      This is the first in depth analysis of the primary epithelial response to
      infection and offers new insights into their emerging role in tuberculosis
      through complementing and amplifying responses to Mtb.

PMID- 28863189
TI  - Opposing effects of in vitro differentiated macrophages sub-type on epithelial
      wound healing.
AB  - Inappropriate repair responses to pulmonary epithelial injury have been linked to
      perturbation of epithelial barrier function and airway remodelling in a number of
      respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We developed an in vitro mechanical scratch injury
      model in air-liquid interface differentiated primary human small airway
      epithelial cells that recapitulates many of the characteristics observed during
      epithelial wound injury in both human tissue and small animal models. Wound
      closure was initially associated with de-differentiation of the differentiated
      apical cells and rapid migration into the wound site, followed by proliferation
      of apical cells behind the wound edge, together with increases in FAK expression,
      fibronectin and reduction in PAI-1 which collectively facilitate cell motility
      and extracellular matrix deposition. Macrophages are intimately involved in wound
      repair so we sought to investigate the role of macrophage sub-types on this
      process in a novel primary human co-culture model. M1 macrophages promoted FAK
      expression and both M1 and M2 macrophages promoted epithelial de-differentiation.
      Interestingly, M2a macrophages inhibited both proliferation and fibronectin
      expression, possibly via the retinoic acid pathway, whereas M2b and M2c
      macrophages prevented fibronectin deposition, possibly via MMP expression.
      Collectively these data highlight the complex nature of epithelial wound closure,
      the differential impact of macrophage sub-types on this process, and the
      heterogenic and non-delineated function of these macrophages.

PMID- 28863190
TI  - Transcriptome analysis of the pectoral muscles of local chickens and commercial
      broilers using Ribo-Zero ribonucleic acid sequencing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The molecular mechanisms underlying meat quality and muscle growth
      are not clear. The meat quality and growth rates of local chickens and commercial
      broilers are very different. The Ribo-Zero RNA-Seq technology is an effective
      means of analyzing transcript groups to clarify molecular mechanisms. The aim of
      this study was to provide a reference for studies of the differences in the meat
      quality and growth of different breeds of chickens. RESULTS: Ribo-Zero RNA-Seq
      technology was used to analyze the pectoral muscle transcriptomes of Gushi
      chickens and AA broilers. Compared with AA broilers, 1649 genes with annotated
      information were significantly differentially expressed (736 upregulated and 913
      downregulated) in Gushi chickens with Q<=0.05 (Q is the P-value corrected by
      multiple assumptions test) at a fold change >=2 or <=0.5. In addition, 2540 novel
      significantly differentially expressed (SDE) genes (1405 upregulated and 1135
      downregulated) were discovered. The results showed that the main signal
      transduction pathways that differed between Gushi chickens and AA broilers were
      related to amino acid metabolism. Amino acids are important for protein
      synthesis, and they regulate key metabolic pathways to improve the growth,
      development and reproduction of organisms. CONCLUSION: This study showed that
      differentially expressed genes in the pectoral tissues of Gushi chickens and AA
      broilers were related to fat metabolism, which affects meat. Additionally, a
      large number of novel genes were found that may be involved in fat metabolism and
      thus may affect the formation of meat, which requires further study. The results
      of this study provide a reference for further studies of the molecular mechanisms
      of meat formation.

PMID- 28863191
TI  - Anti-cancer stem cell activity of a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Ambrosia
      arborescens and of a synthetic derivative.
AB  - New regimens are constantly being pursued in cancer treatment, especially in the
      context of treatment-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) that are assumed to be
      involved in cancer recurrence. Here, we investigated the anti-cancer activity of
      sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) isolated from Ambrosia arborescens and of synthetic
      derivatives in breast cancer cell lines, with a specific focus on activity
      against CSCs. The breast cancer cell lines MCF-7, JIMT-1, and HCC1937 and the
      normal-like breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A were treated with the SLs damsin
      and coronopilin, isolated from A. arborescens, and with ambrosin and dindol-01,
      synthesized using damsin. Inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) values were obtained
      from dose-response curves. Based on IC50 values, doses in the MUM range were used
      for investigating effects on cell proliferation, cell cycle phase distribution,
      cell death, micronuclei formation, and cell migration. Western blot analysis was
      used to investigate proteins involved in cell cycle regulation as well as in the
      NF-kappaB pathway since SLs have been shown to inhibit this transcription factor.
      Specific CSC effects were investigated using three CSC assays. All compounds
      inhibited cell proliferation; however, damsin and ambrosin were toxic at single
      digit micromolar ranges, while higher concentrations were required for
      coronopilin and dindol-01. Of the four cell lines, the compounds had the least
      effect on the normal-like MCF-10A cells. The inhibition of cell proliferation can
      partly be explained by downregulation of cyclin-dependent kinase 2. All compounds
      inhibited tumour necrosis factor-alpha-induced translocation of NF-kappaB from
      the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Damsin and ambrosin treatment increased the number
      of micronuclei; moreover, another sign of DNA damage was the increased level of
      p53. Treatment with damsin and ambrosin decreased the CSC subpopulation and
      inhibited cell migration. Our results suggest that these compounds should be
      further investigated to find efficient CSC-inhibiting compounds.

PMID- 28863192
TI  - E2/ER beta inhibit ISO-induced cardiac cellular hypertrophy by suppressing Ca2+
      calcineurin signaling.
AB  - Cardiovascular incidences are markedly higher in men than in pre-menstrual women.
      However, this advantage in women declines with aging and therefore can be
      correlated with the sex hormone 17beta-Estradiol (E2) which is reported to
      protect heart cells by acting though estrogen receptors (ERs). In this study we
      have determined the effect of E2/ERbeta against ISO induced cellular hypertrophy
      in H9c2 cardiomyoblast cells. The results confirm that ISO induced cardiac
      hypertrophy by elevating the levels of hypertrophy associated proteins, ANP and
      BNP and further by upregulating p-CaMKII, calcineurin, p-GATA4 and NFATc3 which
      was correlated with a significant enlargement of the H9c2 cardiomyoblast.
      However, overexpression of ERbeta and/or administration of E2 inhibited ISO
      induced hypertrophy in H9c2 cells. In addition, E2/ERbeta also inhibited ISO
      induced NFATc3 translocation, and reduced the protein level of downstream marker,
      BNP. Furthermore, by testing with the calcineurin inhibitor (CsA), it was
      confirmed that calcineurin acted as a key mediator for the anti-hypertrophic
      effect of E2/ERbeta. In cells treated with calcium blocker (BATPA), the
      inhibitory effect of E2/ERbeta on ISO-induced Ca2+ influx and hypertrophic
      effects were totally blocked suggesting that E2/ERbeta inhibited calcineurin
      activity to activate I-1 protein and suppress PP1, then induce PLB protein
      phosphorylation and activation, resulting in Ca2+ reuptake into sarcoplasmic
      reticulum through SR Ca2+ cycling modification. In conclusion, E2/ERbeta
      suppresses the Ca2+ influx and calcineurin activity induced by ISO to enhance the
      PLB protein activity and SR Ca2+ cycling.

PMID- 28863194
TI  - Correction: The Dkk3 gene encodes a vital intracellular regulator of cell
      proliferation.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181724.].

PMID- 28863193
TI  - A refined model of claudin-15 tight junction paracellular architecture by
      molecular dynamics simulations.
AB  - Tight-junctions between epithelial cells of biological barriers are specialized
      molecular structures that regulate the flux of solutes across the barrier,
      parallel to cell walls. The tight-junction backbone is made of strands of
      transmembrane proteins from the claudin family, but the molecular mechanism of
      its function is still not completely understood. Recently, the crystal structure
      of a mammalian claudin-15 was reported, displaying for the first time the
      detailed features of transmembrane and extracellular domains. Successively, a
      structural model of claudin-15-based paracellular channels has been proposed,
      suggesting a putative assembly that illustrates how claudins associate in the
      same cell (via cis interactions) and across adjacent cells (via trans
      interactions). Although very promising, the model offers only a static
      conformation, with residues missing in the most important extracellular regions
      and potential steric clashes. Here we present detailed atomic models of
      paracellular single and double pore architectures, obtained from the putative
      assembly and refined via structural modeling and all-atom molecular dynamics
      simulations in double membrane bilayer and water environment. Our results show an
      overall stable configuration of the complex with a fluctuating pore size.
      Extracellular residue loops in trans interaction are able to form stable contacts
      and regulate the size of the pore, which displays a stationary radius of 2.5-3.0
      A at the narrowest region. The side-by-side interactions of the cis configuration
      are preserved via stable hydrogen bonds, already predicted by cysteine
      crosslinking experiments. Overall, this work introduces an improved version of
      the claudin-15-based paracellular channel model that strengthens its validity and
      that can be used in further computational studies to understand the structural
      features of tight-junctions regulation.

PMID- 28863195
TI  - Risk factors for 14-day rehospitalization following trauma with new traumatic
      spinal cord injury diagnosis: A 10-year nationwide study in Taiwan.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Fourteen-day rehospitalization with new traumatic spinal cord injury
      (tSCI) diagnosis is used as an indicator for the diagnostic quality of the first
      hospitalization. In this nationwide population-based cohort study, we identified
      risk factors for this indicator. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control
      study by using the data of patients who received a first hospitalization for
      trauma between 2001 and 2011. The data were retrieved from Taiwan's National
      Health Insurance Research Database. Variables including demographic and trauma
      characteristics were compared between patients diagnosed with tSCI at the first
      hospitalization and those receiving a 14-day rehospitalization with new tSCI
      diagnosis. RESULTS: Of the 23 617 tSCI patients, 997 had 14-day rehospitalization
      with new tSCI diagnosis (incidence rate, 4.22%). The risk of 14-day
      rehospitalization with new tSCI diagnosis was significantly lower in patients
      with severe (injury severity score [ISS] = 16-24; odds ratio [OR], 0.17; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 0.13-0.21) and profound (ISS > 24; OR, 0.11; 95% CI,
      0.07-0.18) injuries. Interhospital transfer (OR, 8.20; 95% CI, 6.48-10.38) was a
      significant risk factor, along with injuries at the thoracic (OR, 1.62; 95% CI,
      1.21-2.18), lumbar (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.02-1.65), and multiple (OR, 3.23; 95% CI,
      1.86-5.61) levels. Brain (OR, 2.82), chest (OR, 2.99), and abdominal (OR, 2.74)
      injuries were also identified as risk factors. In addition, the risk was higher
      in patients treated at the orthopedic department (OR, 2.26; 95% CI, 1.78-2.87)
      and those of other surgical disciplines (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.57-2.28) than in
      those treated at the neurosurgery department. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed tSCI diagnoses
      are not uncommon, particularly among trauma patients with ISSs < 16 or those who
      are transferred from lower-level hospitals. Further validation and implementation
      of evidence-based decision rules is essential for improving the diagnostic
      quality of traumatic thoracolumbar SCI.

PMID- 28863198
TI  - Skip the antidepressant when the patient has chronic disease?
AB  - It makes sense to think that treating patients who have congestive heart failure
      and depression with an antidepressant would be effective. But common sense is not
      always supported by empiric observation or evidence.

PMID- 28863197
TI  - Complete chloroplast genome of green tide algae Ulva flexuosa (Ulvophyceae,
      Chlorophyta) with comparative analysis.
AB  - Ulva flexuosa, one kind of green tide algae, has outbroken in the Yellow Sea of
      China during the past ten years. In the present study, we sequenced the
      chloroplast genome of U. flexuosa followed by annotation and comparative
      analysis. It indicated that the chloroplast genomes had high conservation among
      Ulva spp., and high rearrangement outside them. Though U. flexuosa was closer to
      U. linza than U. fasciata in phylogenetic tree, the average Ka/Ks between U.
      flexuosa and U. linza assessed by 67 protein-coding genes was higher than those
      between U. flexuosa and other species in Ulva spp., due to the variation of psbZ,
      psbM and ycf20. Our results laid the foundation for the future studies on the
      evolution of chloroplast genomes of Ulva, as well as the molecular identification
      of U. flexuosa varieties.

PMID- 28863196
TI  - Impact of INR monitoring, reversal agent use, heparin bridging, and anticoagulant
      interruption on rebleeding and thromboembolism in acute gastrointestinal
      bleeding.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anticoagulant management of acute gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB)
      during the pre-endoscopic period has not been fully addressed in American,
      European, or Asian guidelines. This study sought to evaluate the risks of
      rebleeding and thromboembolism in anticoagulated patients with acute GIB.
      METHODS: Baseline, endoscopy, and outcome data were reviewed for 314 patients
      with acute GIB: 157 anticoagulant users and 157 age-, sex-, and important risk
      matched non-users. Data were also compared between direct oral anticoagulants
      (DOACs) and warfarin users. RESULTS: Between anticoagulant users and non-users,
      of whom 70% underwent early endoscopy, no endoscopy-related adverse events or
      significant differences were found in the rate of endoscopic therapy need,
      transfusion need, rebleeding, or thromboembolism. Rebleeding was associated with
      shock, comorbidities, low platelet count and albumin level, and low-dose aspirin
      use but not HAS-BLED score, any endoscopic results, heparin bridge, or
      international normalized ratio (INR) >= 2.5. Risks for thromboembolism were INR
      >= 2.5, difference in onset and pre-endoscopic INR, reversal agent use, and
      anticoagulant interruption but not CHA2DS2-VASc score, any endoscopic results, or
      heparin bridge. In patients without reversal agent use, heparin bridge, or
      anticoagulant interruption, there was only one rebleeding event and no
      thromboembolic events. Warfarin users had a significantly higher transfusion need
      than DOACs users. CONCLUSION: Endoscopy appears to be safe for anticoagulant
      users with acute GIB compared with non-users. Patient background factors were
      associated with rebleeding, whereas anticoagulant management factors (e.g. INR
      correction, reversal agent use, and drug interruption) were associated with
      thromboembolism. Early intervention without reversal agent use, heparin bridge,
      or anticoagulant interruption may be warranted for acute GIB.

PMID- 28863200
TI  - Autonomic dysfunction: A guide for FPs.
AB  - Impotence, bladder dysfunction, GI symptoms, and orthostatic hypotension can
      signal autonomic dysfunction. Here's what you'll see and how to respond.

PMID- 28863199
TI  - Hypertension treatment strategies for older adults.
AB  - This evidence-based review illustrates how to adjust treatment for comorbidities
      and incorporate frailty and cognitive impairment into the equation.

PMID- 28863201
TI  - Cervical artery dissection related to chiropractic manipulation: One
      institution's experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of patients
      seen at a single institution who were diagnosed with a cervical vessel dissection
      related to chiropractic neck manipulation. METHODS: We identified cases through a
      retrospective chart review of patients seen between April 2008 and March 2012 who
      had a diagnosis of cervical artery dissection following a recent chiropractic
      manipulation. Relevant imaging studies were reviewed by a board-certified
      neuroradiologist to confirm the findings of a cervical artery dissection and
      stroke. We conducted telephone interviews to ascertain the presence of residual
      symptoms in the affected patients. RESULTS: Of the 141 patients with cervical
      artery dissection, 12 had documented chiropractic neck manipulation prior to the
      onset of the symptoms that led to medical presentation. The 12 patients had a
      total of 16 cervical artery dissections. All 12 patients developed symptoms of
      acute stroke. All strokes were confirmed with magnetic resonance imaging or
      computerized tomography. We obtained follow-up information on 9 patients, 8 of
      whom had residual symptoms and one of whom died as a result of his injury.
      CONCLUSION: In this case series, 12 patients with newly diagnosed cervical artery
      dissection(s) had recent chiropractic neck manipulation. Patients who are
      considering chiropractic cervical manipulation should be informed of the
      potential risk and be advised to seek immediate medical attention should they
      develop symptoms.

PMID- 28863202
TI  - Immigrant with stomach pain, distension, nausea, and fever . Dx?
AB  - A 34-year-old Eritrean man presented to the emergency department with complaints
      of diffuse abdominal pain and distention. He had emigrated to the United States 3
      months earlier, following 5 years in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Two weeks
      earlier, the patient sought care at his primary care clinic and was diagnosed
      with post-operative urinary retention and constipation following a recent
      hemorrhoidectomy. A Foley catheter was inserted and provided a short period of
      relief. Following the visit, however, his abdominal pain worsened. He also
      experienced increasing abdominal distention, a declining appetite, and persistent
      nausea. The patient said that he was unable to urinate and had not had a bowel
      movement in 6 days. He also described fevers, drenching night sweats, chills, and
      a 4-kg weight loss over 2 months.

PMID- 28863203
TI  - PURLs: SSRIs for depression/heart failure patients? Not so fast.
AB  - This study should put to rest the practice of starting SSRIs in depressed
      patients with heart failure in an attempt to affect CVD outcomes.

PMID- 28863204
TI  - Latest recommendations for the 2017-2018 flu season.
AB  - This season's vaccine has a new H1N1 component and any vaccine, except the live
      attenuated virus formulation, is suitable for pregnant women.

PMID- 28863205
TI  - Bruises on the ears and body.
AB  - Over the course of a month, this 34-year-old woman had sought care at our
      facility--and another--on 3 separate occasions for painful bruises (visits #1 and
      #3) and deep vein thrombosis (visit #2). The bruises first appeared acutely on
      her arms, prompting her first visit to our ED and leading to a hospital stay.
      Several weeks later, the patient developed new bruise-like lesions on her
      earlobes, face, trunk, and lower extremities. In between these 2 visits, the
      patient was seen in another ED (and admitted) for right upper extremity DVT and
      was started on enoxaparin, followed by warfarin. The patient had no history of
      trauma, but did have a 7-year history of cocaine abuse. The initial bruises
      appeared one week after using cocaine from a different dealer. On her most recent
      visit, her vitals and physical examination were unremarkable, apart from the skin
      findings. Her complete blood count, complete metabolic panel, and urinalysis were
      unremarkable. On her previous admissions, the patient's urine drug test had been
      positive for cocaine. She'd also tested positive for cytoplasmic antineutrophil
      cytoplasmic antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, anti-double stranded DNA, and
      anticardiolipin IgM. WHAT IS YOUR DIAGNOSIS? HOW WOULD YOU TREAT THIS PATIENT?

PMID- 28863206
TI  - Periorbital ecchymoses and breathlessness.
AB  - A 54-year-old man presented at our facility with a 3-month history of exertional
      breathlessness and purple blotches around his eyes. Examination revealed
      bilateral periorbital and perioral ecchymosis, purpuric spots along his waist,
      and waxy papules on his eyelids. In addition, the patient had macroglossia with
      nodular infiltration and irregular indentations at the lateral margin of his
      tongue. The patient also had a raised jugular venous pressure and prominent
      atrial and ventricular waves. Further examination revealed a fourth heart sound
      over the left ventricular apex, as well as bilateral basal rales. All other
      systems were normal except for mild hepatomegaly. Routine hematologic and
      biochemical lab work was unremarkable. X-rays of the spine and skull were normal,
      but a chest x-ray showed mild cardiomegaly. An electrocardiogram showed a QS
      complex from leads V1 to V4 (a pseudo-infarction pattern). An echocardiogram
      showed biatrial enlargement, left ventricular hypertrophy with a left ventricular
      ejection fraction of 48%, a speckled pattern on the myocardium, a thickened
      interatrial septum, and mild pericardial effusion. A color Doppler revealed mild
      mitral and tricuspid regurgitation with a restrictive pattern of mitral valve
      flow. Serum protein electrophoresis was normal. WHAT IS YOUR DIAGNOSIS? HOW WOULD
      YOU TREAT THIS PATIENT?

PMID- 28863207
TI  - Does treating obstructive sleep apnea improve control of Tx-resistant
      hypertension?
AB  - Maybe. Treating obstructive sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure
      is associated with decreases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure of 3
      to 5 mm Hg in patients with treatment-resistant hypertension. The clinical
      significance of this small decrease hasn't been evaluated, however.

PMID- 28863208
TI  - Individualizing immunization for international travelers.
AB  - Take into account routine childhood vaccinations, those that are mandatory for
      specific destinations, and these highly recommended immunizations.

PMID- 28863209
TI  - D-loop haplotype diversity in Brazilian horse breeds.
AB  - The first horses were brought to Brazil by the colonizers after 1534. Over the
      centuries, these animals evolved and adapted to local environmental conditions
      usually unsuitable for exotic breeds, thereby originating locally adapted
      Brazilian breeds. The present work represents the first description of maternal
      genetic diversity in these horse breeds based on D-loop sequences. A D-Loop HSV-I
      fragment of 252 bp, from 141 horses belonging to ten Brazilian breeds / genetic
      groups (locally adapted and specialized breeds) were analysed. Thirty-five
      different haplotypes belonging to 18 haplogroups were identified with 33
      polymorphic sites. Haplotype diversity (varying from 0.20 to 0.96) and nucleotide
      diversity (varying from 0.0039 to 0.0239) was lower for locally adapted than for
      specialized breeds, with the same pattern observed for FST values. Haplogroups
      identified in Brazilian breeds are in agreement with previous findings in South
      American samples. The low variability observed mainly in locally adapted breeds,
      indicates that, to ensure conservation of these breeds, careful reproductive
      management is needed. Additional genetic characterization studies are required to
      support accurate decision-making.

PMID- 28863210
TI  - Alternatively spliced MEFV transcript lacking exon 2 and its protein isoform
      pyrin-2d implies an epigenetic regulation of the gene in inflammatory cell
      culture models.
AB  - The function of gene body DNA methylation in alternative splicing, and its
      relation to disease pathogenesis is not fully elucidated. The gene for familial
      Mediterranean fever (MEFV) encodes the pyrin protein and contains a 998 bp CpG
      island, covering the second exon, which is differentially methylated in FMF
      patients compared to healthy controls. Our further observation of increased exon
      2-spliced MEFV transcript in leukocytes of FMF patients provoked us to test the
      role of exon methylation in alternative splicing using inflammatory cell culture
      models. First, in vitro exon methylation triggered an increased level of exon 2
      exclusion using a splicing cassette in a promyelocytic leukemia cell line (HL
      60). HL-60 cells subjected to methylating and demethylating agents, as well as
      cells differentiated to neutrophil-like cells, exhibited different levels of
      spliced/unspliced transcripts. We observed increased levels of spliced
      transcripts in neutrophil-like (p = 0.0005), activated (p = 0.0034) and
      methylated cells (p < 0.0001), whereas decreased levels in demethylated cells (p
      = 0.0126) compared to control untreated HL-60 cells. We also showed that the
      protein isoform of pyrin lacking the exon 2 has an adverse subcellular
      localization in neutrophil-like cells. Therefore, it remains in the cytoplasm
      rather than the nucleus. This may point to an epigenetic involvement in an
      important inflammatory gene.

PMID- 28863211
TI  - Exome sequencing identifies a novel mutation of the GDI1 gene in a Chinese non
      syndromic X-linked intellectual disability family.
AB  - X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) has been associated with various genes.
      Diagnosis of XLID, especially for non-syndromic ones (NS-XLID), is often hampered
      by the heterogeneity of this disease. Here we report the case of a Chinese family
      in which three males suffer from intellectual disability (ID). The three patients
      shared the same phenotype: no typical clinical manifestation other than IQ score
      <= 70. For a genetic diagnosis for this family we carried out whole exome
      sequencing on the proband, and validated 16 variants of interest in the genomic
      DNA of all the family members. A missense mutation (c.710G > T), which mapped to
      exon 6 of the Rab GDP-Dissociation Inhibitor 1 (GDI1) gene, was found segregating
      with the ID phenotype, and this mutation changes the 237th position in the
      guanosine diphosphate dissociation inhibitor (GDI) protein from glycine to valine
      (p. Gly237Val). Through molecular dynamics simulations we found that this
      substitution results in a conformational change of GDI, possibly affecting the
      Rab-binding capacity of this protein. In conclusion, our study identified a novel
      GDI1 mutation that is possibly NS-XLID causative, and showed that whole exome
      sequencing provides advantages for detecting novel ID-associated variants and can
      greatly facilitate the genetic diagnosis of the disease.

PMID- 28863212
TI  - A Young Seedling Stripe2 phenotype in rice is caused by mutation of a chloroplast
      localized nucleoside diphosphate kinase 2 required for chloroplast biogenesis.
AB  - Chloroplast development and chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis in plants are
      regulated by many genes, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely
      elusive. We isolated a rice mutant named yss2 (young seedling stripe2) with a
      striated seedling phenotype beginning from leaf 2 of delayed plant growth. The
      mutant developed normal green leaves from leaf 5, but reduced tillering and
      chlorotic leaves and panicles appeared later. Chlorotic yss2 seedlings have
      decreased pigment contents and impaired chloroplast development. Genetic analysis
      showed that the mutant phenotype was due to a single recessive gene. Positional
      cloning and sequence analysis identified a single nucleotide substitution in YSS2
      gene causing an amino acid change from Gly to Asp. The YSS2 allele encodes a
      NDPK2 (nucleoside diphosphate kinase 2) protein showing high similarity to other
      types of NDPKs. Real-time RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that YSS2 transcripts
      accumulated highly in L4 sections at the early leaf development stage. Expression
      levels of genes associated with Chl biosynthesis and photosynthesis in yss2 were
      mostly decreased, but genes involved in chloroplast biogenesis were up-regulated
      compared to the wild type. The YSS2 protein was associated with punctate
      structures in the chloroplasts of rice protoplasts. Our overall data suggest that
      YSS2 has important roles in chloroplast biogenesis.

PMID- 28863213
TI  - Type 2 diabetes associated variants of KCNQ1 strongly confer the risk of
      cardiovascular disease among the Saudi Arabian population.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies have identified several loci associated with an
      increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D).
      Polymorphisms within the KCNQ1 (potassium voltage-gated channel, KQT-like
      subfamily, member 1) gene are consistently associated with T2D in a number of
      populations. The current study was undertaken to evaluate the association of 3
      polymorphisms of KCNQ1 (rs2237892, rs151290 and rs2237895) with T2D and/or CVD.
      Patients diagnosed with either T2D (320 patients), CVD (250 patients) or both (60
      patients) and 516 healthy controls were genotyped by TaqMan assay run on a real
      time PCR thermocycler. A statistically significant association was found for SNPs
      rs151290 (OR = 1.76; 95%CI = 1.02-3.05; p = 0.0435) and rs2237895 (OR = 2.49;
      95%CI = 1.72-3.61; p < 0.0001) with CVD. SNP rs151290 (OR = 7.43; 95%CI = 1.00
      55.22; p = 0.0499) showed a strong association in patients with both T2D and CVD.
      None of the SNPs showed any significant association with T2D. Haploview analysis
      showed that the ACC (rs151290, rs2237892 and rs2237895) haplotype is the most
      significant risk allele combination for CVD, while CCA is the most significant
      risk haplotype for co-morbidity with T2D. KCNQ1 polymorphism at SNPs rs151290 and
      rs2237895 is strongly associated with CVD in this population, but presented no
      association with T2D.

PMID- 28863215
TI  - Multifocal Visual Evoked Potential in Eyes With Temporal Hemianopia From Chiasmal
      Compression: Correlation With Standard Automated Perimetry and OCT Findings.
AB  - Purpose: To verify whether multifocal visual evoked potential (mfVEP) can
      differentiate eyes with temporal hemianopia due to chiasmal compression from
      healthy controls. To assess the relationship between mfVEP, standard automated
      perimetry (SAP), and Fourier domain-optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) macular
      and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness measurements.
      Methods: Twenty-seven eyes with permanent temporal visual field (VF) defects from
      chiasmal compression on SAP and 43 eyes of healthy controls were submitted to
      mfVEP and FD-OCT scanning. Multifocal visual evoked potential was elicited using
      a stimulus pattern of 60 sectors and the responses were averaged for the four
      quadrants and two hemifields. Optical coherence tomography macular measurements
      were averaged in quadrants and halves, while peripapillary RNFL thickness was
      averaged in four sectors around the disc. Visual field loss was estimated in four
      quadrants and each half of the 24-2 strategy test points. Multifocal visual
      evoked potential measurements in the two groups were compared using generalized
      estimated equations, and the correlations between mfVEP, VF, and OCT findings
      were quantified. Results: Multifocal visual evoked potential-measured temporal P1
      and N2 amplitudes were significantly smaller in patients than in controls. No
      significant difference in amplitude was observed for nasal parameters. A
      significant correlation was found between mfVEP amplitudes and temporal VF loss,
      and between mfVEP amplitudes and the corresponding OCT-measured macular and RNFL
      thickness parameters. Conclusions: Multifocal visual evoked potential amplitude
      parameters were able to differentiate eyes with temporal hemianopia from controls
      and were significantly correlated with VF and OCT findings, suggesting mfVEP is a
      useful tool for the detection of visual abnormalities in patients with chiasmal
      compression.

PMID- 28863214
TI  - Regulation of Noncoding Transcriptome in Developing Photoreceptors by Rod
      Differentiation Factor NRL.
AB  - Purpose: Transcriptome analysis by next generation sequencing allows qualitative
      and quantitative profiling of expression patterns associated with development and
      disease. However, most transcribed sequences do not encode proteins, and little
      is known about the functional relevance of noncoding (nc) transcriptome in
      neuronal subtypes. The goal of this study was to perform a comprehensive analysis
      of long noncoding (lncRNAs) and antisense (asRNAs) RNAs expressed in mouse
      retinal photoreceptors. Methods: Transcriptomic profiles were generated at six
      developmental time points from flow-sorted Nrlp-GFP (rods) and Nrlp-GFP;Nrl-/- (S
      cone like) mouse photoreceptors. Bioinformatic analysis was performed to identify
      novel noncoding transcripts and assess their regulation by rod differentiation
      factor neural retina leucine zipper (NRL). In situ hybridization (ISH) was used
      for validation and cellular localization. Results: NcRNA profiles demonstrated
      dynamic yet specific expression signature and coexpression clusters during rod
      development. In addition to currently annotated 586 lncRNAs and 454 asRNAs, we
      identified 1037 lncRNAs and 243 asRNAs by de novo assembly. Of these, 119 lncRNAs
      showed altered expression in the absence of NRL and included NRL binding sites in
      their promoter/enhancer regions. ISH studies validated the expression of 24
      lncRNAs (including 12 previously unannotated) and 4 asRNAs in photoreceptors.
      Coexpression analysis demonstrated 63 functional modules and 209 significant
      antisense-gene correlations, allowing us to predict possible role of these
      lncRNAs in rods. Conclusions: Our studies reveal coregulation of coding and
      noncoding transcripts in rod photoreceptors by NRL and establish the framework
      for deciphering the function of ncRNAs during retinal development.

PMID- 28863217
TI  - Assisted Death and the Public Good.

PMID- 28863216
TI  - Hyaluronan Rich Microenvironment in the Limbal Stem Cell Niche Regulates Limbal
      Stem Cell Differentiation.
AB  - Purpose: Limbal epithelial stem cells (LSCs), located in the basal layer of the
      corneal epithelium in the corneal limbus, are vital for maintaining the corneal
      epithelium. LSCs have a high capacity of self-renewal with increased potential
      for error-free proliferation and poor differentiation. To date, limited research
      has focused on unveiling the composition of the limbal stem cell niche, and, more
      important, on the role the specific stem cell niche may have in LSC
      differentiation and function. Our work investigates the composition of the
      extracellular matrix in the LSC niche and how it regulates LSC differentiation
      and function. Methods: Hyaluronan (HA) is naturally synthesized by hyaluronan
      synthases (HASs), and vertebrates have the following three types: HAS1, HAS2, and
      HAS3. Wild-type and HAS and TSG-6 knockout mice-HAS1-/-;HAS3-/-,
      HAS2Delta/DeltaCorEpi, TSG-6-/--were used to determine the importance of the HA
      niche in LSC differentiation and specification. Results: Our data demonstrate
      that the LSC niche is composed of a HA rich extracellular matrix. HAS1-/-;HAS3-/
      , HAS2Delta/DeltaCorEpi, and TSG-6-/- mice have delayed wound healing and
      increased inflammation after injury. Interestingly, upon insult the HAS knock-out
      mice up-regulate HA throughout the cornea through a compensatory mechanism, and
      in turn this alters LSC and epithelial cell specification. Conclusions: The LSC
      niche is composed of a specialized HA matrix that differs from that present in
      the rest of the corneal epithelium, and the disruption of this specific HA matrix
      within the LSC niche leads to compromised corneal epithelial regeneration.
      Finally, our findings suggest that HA has a major role in maintaining the LSC
      phenotype.

PMID- 28863218
TI  - Commentary on "Assisted Death and the Public Good".

PMID- 28863219
TI  - Discussing Advance Care Planning and Directives in the General Population.
AB  - The concept of end-of-life planning, along with medical and legal issues, has
      been discussed and has evolved over several years. The 1990 Patient Self
      Determination Act and individual states' Department of Health Advance Directive
      forms helped overcome past problems. Patients with terminal and chronic illness
      are now able to have their wishes recognized for their future care. Any healthy
      individual's decision during an advance care planning (ACP) discussion can be
      adversely affected by various factors; however, multiple barriers-religion,
      culture, education, and family dynamics-can influence the process. Healthcare
      professionals' reluctance to initiate the conversation may result from limited
      training during medical school and residency programs. These limitations hinder
      both the initiation and productiveness of an ACP conversation. We explored ACP
      issues to provide guidance to healthcare professionals on how best to address
      this planning process with a healthy adult.

PMID- 28863220
TI  - Commentary on "Discussing Advance Care Planning and Directives in the General
      Population".

PMID- 28863221
TI  - Resident Workshop Standardizes Patient Handoff and Improves Quality, Confidence,
      and Knowledge.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Residency programs are required to instruct residents in handoff;
      however, a handoff curriculum endorsed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate
      Medical Education does not exist. Although curricula are available, we preferred
      to use a curriculum that could be taught quickly, was easy to implement, and used
      a mnemonic that resembled current practices at our institution. We designed and
      implemented a novel handoff educational workshop intended to improve resident
      confidence and performance. METHODS: In this observational study, pediatric
      residents across postgraduate training years during winter 2014-spring 2015
      participated in two study segments: a handoff workshop with questionnaires and
      handoff observations. Co-investigators developed and led an interactive workshop
      for residents that emphasized a standardized approach using the SIGNOUT mnemonic
      (see text for definition). The effect of workshop participation on handoff
      abilities was evaluated using a validated, handoff evaluation tool administered
      before and after the workshop. Qualitative feedback was obtained from residents
      using pre- and postworkshop surveys. RESULTS: Forty-three residents participated
      in the workshop; 41 residents completed handoff observations. Improvements were
      noted in clinical judgment (P = 0.02) and organization/communication (P = 0.005).
      Pre- and postworkshop surveys demonstrated self-perceived increases in
      confidence, comfort, and knowledge (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in
      handoffs, particularly in clinical judgment and organization/communication
      domains, suggest that a more standardized handoff approach is beneficial,
      especially for postgraduate year 1 residents. The novel, interactive workshop we
      developed can be taught quickly, is easy to implement, is appropriate for all
      resident training levels, and improves resident confidence and skill. This
      workshop can be implemented by training programs across all disciplines, possibly
      leading to improved patient safety.

PMID- 28863222
TI  - Chronic Kidney Disease in Pregnancy.
AB  - With the increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) worldwide, the
      number of pregnant women with various degrees of renal dysfunction is expected to
      increase. There is a bidirectional relation between CKD and pregnancy in which
      renal dysfunction negatively affects pregnancy outcomes, and the pregnancy can
      have a deleterious impact on various aspects of kidney disease. It has been shown
      that even mild renal dysfunction can increase considerably the risk of adverse
      maternal and fetal outcomes. Moreover, data suggest that a history of recovery
      from acute kidney injury is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. In
      addition to kidney dysfunction, maternal hypertension and proteinuria predispose
      women to negative outcomes and are important factors to consider in preconception
      counseling and the process of risk stratification. In this review, we provide an
      overview of the physiologic renal changes during pregnancy as well as available
      data regarding CKD and pregnancy outcomes. We also highlight the important
      management strategies in women with certain selected renal conditions that are
      seen commonly during the childbearing years. We call for future research on
      underexplored areas such as the concept of renal functional reserve to develop a
      potential clinical tool for prognostication and risk stratification of women at
      higher risk for complications during pregnancy.

PMID- 28863223
TI  - Management of Metastatic Spinal Cord Compression.
AB  - Cancer metastasis is a key event in tumor progression associated not only with
      mortality but also significant morbidity. Metastatic disease can promote end
      organ dysfunction and even failure through mass effect compression of various
      vital organs including the spinal cord. In such cases, prompt medical attention
      is needed to restore neurological function, relieve pain, and prevent permanent
      damage. The three therapeutic approaches to managing metastatic spinal cord
      compression include corticosteroids, surgery, and radiation therapy. Although
      each may improve patients' symptoms, their combination has yielded the best
      outcome. In cancer patients with clinical suspicion of spinal cord compression,
      dexamethasone should be initiated followed by surgical decompression, when
      possible, and radiation. The latter becomes the preferred treatment in patients
      with inoperable disease.

PMID- 28863225
TI  - Commentary on "Hospital Discharge Disposition of Stroke Patients in the State of
      Tennessee".

PMID- 28863224
TI  - Hospital Discharge Disposition of Stroke Patients in Tennessee.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Early determination of hospital discharge disposition status at an
      acute admission is extremely important for stroke management and the eventual
      outcomes of patients with stroke. We investigated the hospital discharge
      disposition of patients with stroke residing in Tennessee and developed a
      predictive tool for clinical adoption. Our investigational aims were to evaluate
      the association of selected patient characteristics with hospital discharge
      disposition status and predict such status at the time of an acute stroke
      admission. METHODS: We analyzed 127,581 records of patients with stroke
      hospitalized between 2010 and 2014. Logistic regression was used to generate odds
      ratios with 95% confidence intervals to examine the factor outcome association.
      An easy-to-use clinical predictive tool was built by using integer-based risk
      scores derived from coefficients of multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS:
      Among the 127,581 records of patients with stroke, 86,114 (67.5%) indicated home
      discharge and 41,467 (32.5%) corresponded to facility discharge. All considered
      patient characteristics had significant correlations with hospital discharge
      disposition status. Patients were at greater odds of being discharged to another
      facility if they were women; older; black; patients with a subarachnoid or
      intracerebral hemorrhage; those with the comorbidities of diabetes mellitus,
      heart disease, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, arrhythmia, or depression;
      those transferred from another hospital; or patients with Medicare as the primary
      payer. A predictive tool had a discriminatory capability with area under the
      curve estimates of 0.737 and 0.724 for derivation and validation cohorts,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our investigation revealed that the hospital discharge
      disposition pattern of patients with stroke in Tennessee was associated with the
      key patient characteristics of selected demographics, clinical indicators, and
      insurance status. These analyses resulted in the development of an easy-to-use
      predictive tool for early determination of hospital discharge disposition status.

PMID- 28863226
TI  - Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura in Individuals Older than 75 Years: A Rare
      Series.

PMID- 28863227
TI  - On "Direct to Physician Journal Marketing".

PMID- 28863228
TI  - Evolutionary origin of synapses and neurons - Bridging the gap.
AB  - The evolutionary origin of synapses and neurons is an enigmatic subject that
      inspires much debate. Non-bilaterian metazoans, both with and without neurons and
      their closest relatives already contain many components of the molecular toolkits
      for synapse functions. The origin of these components and their assembly into
      ancient synaptic signaling machineries are particularly important in light of
      recent findings on the phylogeny of non-bilaterian metazoans. The evolution of
      synapses and neurons are often discussed only from a metazoan perspective leaving
      a considerable gap in our understanding. By taking an integrative approach we
      highlight the need to consider different, but extremely relevant phyla and to
      include the closest unicellular relatives of metazoans, the ichthyosporeans,
      filastereans and choanoflagellates, to fully understand the evolutionary origin
      of synapses and neurons. This approach allows for a detailed understanding of
      when and how the first pre- and postsynaptic signaling machineries evolved.

PMID- 28863229
TI  - Ambient Asbestos Fiber Concentrations and Long-Term Trends in Pleural
      Mesothelioma Incidence between Urban and Rural Areas in the United States (1973
      2012).
AB  - Over the past 40 years, measured ambient asbestos concentrations in the United
      States have been higher in urban versus rural areas. The purpose of this study
      was to determine whether variations in ambient asbestos concentrations have
      influenced pleural mesothelioma risk in females (who generally lacked historic
      occupational asbestos exposure relative to males). Male pleural mesothelioma
      incidence trends were analyzed to provide perspective for female trends. Annual
      age-adjusted incidence rates from 1973 to 2012 were obtained from the SEER 9, 13,
      and 18 databases for urban and rural locations, and standardized rate ratios were
      calculated. Female rural rates exceeded urban rates in almost half of the years
      analyzed, although the increases were not statistically significant, which is in
      line with expectations if there was no observable increased risk for urban
      locations. In contrast, male urban rates were elevated over rural rates for
      nearly all years examined and were statistically significantly elevated for 22 of
      the 40 years. Trend analyses demonstrated that trends for females remained
      relatively constant over time, whereas male urban and rural incidence increased
      into the 1980s and 1990s, followed by a decrease/leveling off. Annual female
      urban and rural incidence rates remained approximately five- to six-fold lower
      than male urban and rural incidence rates on average, consistent with the
      comparatively increased historical occupational asbestos exposure for males. The
      results suggest that differences in ambient asbestos concentrations, which have
      been reported to be 10-fold or greater across regions in the United States, have
      not influenced the risk of pleural mesothelioma.

PMID- 28863230
TI  - Dorsal and ventral parts of thalamic nucleus submedius project to different areas
      of rat orbitofrontal cortex: A single neuron-tracing study using virus vectors.
AB  - The rodent orbitofrontal cortex is involved in a variety of cognitive and
      behavioral functions that require thalamic input to be successfully expressed.
      Although the thalamic nucleus submedius (Sm) is a major source of afferents to
      the orbitofrontal cortex, thalamocortical projection from the Sm has not been
      fully elucidated. In the present study, we first divided the rat Sm into dorsal
      and ventral parts according to the distribution of vesicular glutamate
      transporter 2-immunoreactive varicosities, which were somatosensory afferents
      from the brain stem. Subsequently we investigated dendritic and axonal
      arborizations of individual dorsal and ventral Sm neurons by visualizing the
      processes with Sindbis virus vectors expressing membrane-targeted fluorescent
      proteins. The number of dendritic processes of ventral Sm neurons was greater
      than that of dorsal Sm neurons. In the cerebral cortex, all the reconstructed Sm
      neurons sent axons primarily to layers 2-5. Interestingly, dorsal Sm neurons
      formed a single axon arbor exclusively within the ventrolateral orbital area,
      whereas ventral Sm neurons made two axon arbors in the lateral orbital and
      ventral orbital areas simultaneously. The spread of each axon arbor was 500-1000
      um in diameter in the direction tangential to the cortical surface. These results
      indicate that the dorsal and ventral Sm comprise two distinct thalamocortical
      pathways. The dorsal Sm pathway relay somatosensory information to the
      ventrolateral orbital area and may be involved in emotional and aversive aspects
      of nociceptive information processing, whereas the ventral Sm pathway seems to co
      activate distant orbitofrontal cortical areas, and may link their functions under
      certain circumstances.

PMID- 28863232
TI  - Body Piercing.

PMID- 28863231
TI  - Design, Synthesis, and Pharmacological Screening of Pyridazinone Hybrids as
      Anticonvulsant Agents.
AB  - A series of new hybrid benzimidazole containing pyridazinones derivatives were
      designed and synthesized in accordance with the pharmacophoric requirements
      essential for the anticonvulsant activity. The synthesized compounds were
      evaluated for anticonvulsant activity on mice by the gold standard maximal
      electroshock (MES) and subcutaneous pentylenetetrazole (scPTZ)-induced seizure
      models. Among the compounds tested, SS-4F showed significant anticonvulsant
      activity in both the screens with ED50 values of 25.10 and 85.33 mg/kg in the MES
      and scPTZ screens, respectively. Compound SS-4F emerged as safer and effective
      anticonvulsant due to its several-fold higher protective indices. Further, the
      gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) estimation result showed a marked increase in the
      GABA level (1.7-fold) as compared to the control, which was further confirmed by
      good binding properties with the GABAA receptor.

PMID- 28863233
TI  - The promise and peril of CRISPR gene drives: Genetic variation and inbreeding may
      impede the propagation of gene drives based on the CRISPR genome editing
      technology.
AB  - Gene drives are selfish genetic elements that use a variety of mechanisms to
      ensure they are transmitted to subsequent generations at greater than expected
      frequencies. Synthetic gene drives based on the clustered regularly interspersed
      palindromic repeats (CRISPR) genome editing system have been proposed as a way to
      alter the genetic characteristics of natural populations of organisms relevant to
      the goals of public health, conservation, and agriculture. Here, we review the
      principles and potential applications of CRISPR drives, as well as means proposed
      to prevent their uncontrolled spread. We also focus on recent work suggesting
      that factors such as natural genetic variation and inbreeding may represent
      substantial impediments to the propagation of CRISPR drives.

PMID- 28863234
TI  - Biodegradable Microparticles for Simultaneous Detection of Counterfeit and
      Deteriorated Edible Products.
AB  - In an era of globalized trade relations where food and pharmaceutical products
      cross borders effortlessly, consumers face counterfeit and deteriorated products
      at elevated rates. This paper presents multifunctional, biodegradable hydrogel
      microparticles that can provide information on the authenticity and the potential
      deterioration of the tagged food or pharmaceutical formulations. These
      microparticles integrate spatially patterned authenticity code with two sensors
      the first one detects possible presence of pathogenic microbes through monitoring
      pH while the second one identifies products stored above optimal temperatures via
      optical monitoring of the microparticle degradation. Particles are synthesized
      from a biocompatible polymer and a photoinitiator, dextran modified with 2
      hydroxyethylmethacrylate and riboflavin, respectively, using a continuous, high
      throughput method stop-flow lithography. The proposed synthesis approach also
      enables crosslinking with visible light bringing about additional flexibility to
      flow lithography. Model liquid and solid food and pharmaceutical products are
      successfully labeled with microparticles and the functionality of the sensors in
      aqueous solutions is demonstrated.

PMID- 28863236
TI  - Recent Advances in Conjugated Furans.
AB  - Thiophene is one of the most ubiquitous moieties in organic conjugated materials;
      however, furan, its oxygen congener, and furan derivatives have received
      comparatively less attention. This is primarily due to the intrinsic instability
      of furan and its tendency to decompose in the presence of oxygen and light.
      Incorporating furan into conjugated systems can confer many benefits, including
      increases in conjugation, improved solubility, and better transport properties.
      In this Concept Article, advances in furan-containing conjugated materials are
      presented. The impact of furan on the properties of conjugated materials is
      discussed, recent advances in synthetic methods are overviewed, and strategies
      for improving the stability of conjugated furans are detailed.

PMID- 28863235
TI  - Therapeutic potential of alpha-lipoic acid derivative, sodium zinc histidine
      dithiooctanamide, in a mouse model of allergic rhinitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress is involved in various diseases, including
      allergies. Several studies have pointed to the preventive and therapeutic
      potential of antioxidants in allergic disorders. However, little is known about
      the immunomodulatory effects of antioxidants in type I hypersensitivity. In this
      study we aimed to explore the impact of a water-soluble antioxidant and alpha
      lipoic acid derivative, sodium zinc histidine dithiooctanamide (DHL-HisZn), on
      mast-cell- and T-cell-mediated allergic and immune responses both in vitro and in
      vivo. METHODS: The therapeutic impact of DHL-HisZn on mast-cell-mediated type I
      hypersensitivity was evaluated by a mast-cell degranulation assay using bone
      marrow-derived mast cells and by a mouse model of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced
      allergic rhinitis. The effect of DHL-HisZn on the proportion of regulatory T
      cells (Tregs) was evaluated using flow cytometry. RESULTS: During the course of
      OVA-induced allergic rhinitis in mice, serum nitrate was elevated, suggesting the
      involvement of oxidative stress in allergic responses. DHL-HisZn not only
      suppressed mast-cell degranulation but also ameliorated OVA-induced nasal
      hypersensitivity, with significant suppression of serum nitrate. DHL-HisZn
      treatment significantly suppressed OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) but
      enhanced OVA-specific IgG2a in OVA-sensitized and nasal-challenged mice.
      Furthermore, DHL-HisZn treatment suppressed interleukin-17 production in OVA
      stimulated splenocytes. Finally, we demonstrated the induction of Tregs by DHL
      HisZn in concanavalin A blasts. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that DHL
      HisZn may regulate mast-cell-, T-helper 2 (Th2)-, and Th17-mediated allergic and
      immune responses by induction of Tregs.

PMID- 28863237
TI  - A prospective analysis evaluating tissue biopsy location and its clinical
      relevance in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) has a high
      propensity for recurrence. Studies suggest that eosinophilia influences disease
      severity and surgical outcomes, but the selection of sinonasal site for measuring
      eosinophilia has not been examined. The aim of this study was to investigate how
      region-specific tissue eosinophilia affects radiographic severity, comorbidity
      prevalence, and polyp recurrence risk following sinus surgery. METHODS:
      Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) levels in uncinate tissue (UT) and nasal polyp
      (NP) homogenates from 116 CRSwNP patients were measured using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Clinical history, radiographic severity, and time to
      polyp recurrence were obtained from electronic health records. The correlations
      between baseline Lund-Mackay scores and comorbidities were compared between UT
      and NP ECP levels. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis were then performed
      to assess whether UT or NP ECP better predicted recurrence. Censoring occurred at
      4 years or at last follow-up if there was no endoscopic diagnosis of recurrent
      polyps. RESULTS: Lund-Mackay scores were significantly correlated with UT and NP
      ECP (r = 0.46 and 0.26 respectively, p < 0.05). UT but not NP ECP was
      significantly higher in patients with asthma (p < 0.01) and aspirin-exacerbated
      respiratory disease (AERD) (p < 0.05). Polyp recurrence risk was only
      significantly higher for patients with eosinophilic UT tissue (hazard ratio [HR]
      = 2.84, p = 0.025). When measured in NP, eosinophilia did not predict recurrence.
      CONCLUSION: Although ECP in NP was higher than in UT tissue, eosinophilia in UT
      tissue was a more clinically coherent biomarker of baseline radiographic
      severity, comorbid asthma and AERD, and prospective polyp recurrence risk than NP
      eosinophilia.

PMID- 28863239
TI  - Ribbon-like Foldamers for Cellular Uptake and Drug Delivery.
AB  - Different intracellular delivery systems of bioactive compounds have been
      developed, including cell-penetrating peptides. Although usually nontoxic and
      biocompatible, these vectors share some of the general drawbacks of peptides,
      notably low bioavailability and susceptibility to protease degradation, that
      limit their use. Herein, the conversion of short peptide sequences into poly
      alpha-amino-gamma-lactam foldamers that adopt a ribbon-like structure is
      investigated. This template is used to distribute critical cationic and/or
      hydrophobic groups on both sides of the backbone, leading to potent short, cell
      permeable foldamers with a low positive-charge content. The lead compound showed
      dramatically improved protease resistance and was able to efficiently deliver a
      biologically relevant cargo inside cells. This study provided a simple strategy
      to convert short peptide sequences into efficient protease-resistant cell
      penetrating foldamers.

PMID- 28863240
TI  - Mesoscopic-Functionalization of Silk Fibroin with Gold Nanoclusters Mediated by
      Keratin and Bioinspired Silk Synapse.
AB  - Silk fibroin (SF) offers great opportunities in manufacturing
      biocompatible/partially biodegradable devices with environmental benignity and
      biomedical applications. To obtain active SF devices of next generation, this
      work is to demonstrate a new functionalization strategy of the mesoscopic
      functionalization for soft materials. Unlike the atomic functionalization of
      solid materials, the meso-functionalization is to incorporate meso-dopants, i.e.,
      functional molecules or nanomaterials, quantum dots, into the mesoscopic networks
      of soft materials. In this work, wool keratin (WK) molecules were adopted as
      mediating molecules to incorporate gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), into the mesoscopic
      networks of SF. It follows from our analyses that the beta-crystallites between
      WK and SF molecules establish the binding between WK@AuNCs and the SF networks.
      The incorporated WK@AuNCs are electron rich and serve as electronically charged
      nano particles to bridge the growth of Ag filaments in bio-degradable WK@AuNCs-SF
      memristors. The meso-functionalization can greatly enhance the performance of SF
      materials and endows them with new functionalities. This can be highlighted by
      biocompatible/partly degradable WK@AuNCs functionalized SF resistive random
      access memories, having the enhanced resistive switching memory performance, and
      the unique synapse characteristics and the capability of synapse learning
      compared with neat SF devices, and of great importance in nonvolatile memory,
      analog circuits, and neuromorphic applications.

PMID- 28863241
TI  - Editorial for the discussion papers on the p-value controversy.

PMID- 28863242
TI  - Argon-Plasma Reinforced Superamphiphobic Fabrics.
AB  - A novel method for preparing durable superamphiphobic fabrics is reported, which
      involves preapplying a solution consisting of perfluoroalkyl acrylate, epoxide
      containing silane, and silica nanoparticles onto fabric and subsequent argon
      plasma treatment. The coated fabrics show superphobic to both water and oil
      fluids (surface tension >21.5 mN m-1 ). The coating is durable to withstand
      repeated laundries and multicycles of abrasion without apparently altering the
      superamphiphobicity. The coating is also very stable in boiling water, strong
      acid, and base, but has little effect on the fabric handle and air permeability.
      The argon-plasma-enhanced coating may offer a facile way to prepare durable
      superamphiphobic fabrics.

PMID- 28863244
TI  - Abstracts From the 49th Congress of the International Society of Paediatric
      Oncology (SIOP) Washington, DC, USA October 12-15, 2017.

PMID- 28863243
TI  - One-Pot Multicomponent Synthesis of Glycopolymers through a Combination of Host
      Guest Interaction, Thiol-ene, and Copper-Catalyzed Click Reaction in Water.
AB  - There is a common phenomenon that the heterogeneity of natural oligosaccharides
      contains various sugar units, which can be used to enhance affinity and
      selectivity toward a specific receptor, so the synthesis of heterogeneous
      glycopolymers is always an important issue in the glycopolymer field. Herein,
      this study conducts a one-pot method to prepare polyrotaxane-based
      heteroglycopolymers anchored with different sugar units and fluorescent moieties
      via the combination of host-guest interaction, thiol-ene, and copper-catalyzed
      click chemistry in water. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear
      magnetic resonance spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, X-ray
      diffraction, and Ellman's assay test are used in the paper to characterize the
      compounds. Quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation (QCD-D) experiments and
      bacterial adhesion assay are utilized to study the interactions of polyrotaxane
      based heteroglycopolymers with Con A and Escherichia coli. The results reveal
      that polyrotaxanes (PRs) with mannose and glucose present better specificity
      toward Con A and E. coli than PRs with glucose due to synergistic effects.

PMID- 28863245
TI  - Ultrasensitive and Fast All-Inorganic Perovskite-Based Photodetector via Fast
      Carrier Diffusion.
AB  - Low trap-state density, high carrier mobility, and efficient charge carrier
      collection are key parameters for photodetectors with high sensitivity and fast
      response time. This study demonstrates a simple solution growth method to prepare
      CsPbBr3 microcrystals (MCs) with low trap-state density. Time-dependent
      photoluminescence study with one-photon excitation (OPE) and two-photon
      excitation (TPE) indicates that CsPbBr3 MCs exhibit fast carrier diffusion with
      carrier mobility over 100 cm2 V-1 S-1 . Furthermore, CsPbBr3 MC-based
      photodetectors with high charge carriers' collection efficiency are fabricated.
      Such photodetectors show ultrahigh responsivity (R) up to 6 * 104 A W-1 with OPE
      and high R up to 6 A W-1 with TPE. The R for OPE is over one order of magnitude
      higher (the R for TPE is three orders of magnitude higher) than that of
      previously reported all-inorganic perovskite-based photodetectors. Moreover, the
      photodetectors exhibit fast response time of ~1 ms, which corresponds to a gain
      ~105 and a gain- bandwidth product of 108 Hz for OPE (a gain ~103 and a gain
      bandwidth product of 106 Hz for TPE).

PMID- 28863246
TI  - FLCRM: Functional linear cox regression model.
AB  - We consider a functional linear Cox regression model for characterizing the
      association between time-to-event data and a set of functional and scalar
      predictors. The functional linear Cox regression model incorporates a functional
      principal component analysis for modeling the functional predictors and a high
      dimensional Cox regression model to characterize the joint effects of both
      functional and scalar predictors on the time-to-event data. We develop an
      algorithm to calculate the maximum approximate partial likelihood estimates of
      unknown finite and infinite dimensional parameters. We also systematically
      investigate the rate of convergence of the maximum approximate partial likelihood
      estimates and a score test statistic for testing the nullity of the slope
      function associated with the functional predictors. We demonstrate our estimation
      and testing procedures by using simulations and the analysis of the Alzheimer's
      Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) data. Our real data analyses show that
      high-dimensional hippocampus surface data may be an important marker for
      predicting time to conversion to Alzheimer's disease. Data used in the
      preparation of this article were obtained from the ADNI database
      (adni.loni.usc.edu).

PMID- 28863247
TI  - Self-Powered Pulse Sensor for Antidiastole of Cardiovascular Disease.
AB  - Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally; fortunately, 90%
      of cardiovascular diseases are preventable by long-term monitoring of
      physiological signals. Stable, ultralow power consumption, and high-sensitivity
      sensors are significant for miniaturized wearable physiological signal monitoring
      systems. Here, this study proposes a flexible self-powered ultrasensitive pulse
      sensor (SUPS) based on triboelectric active sensor with excellent output
      performance (1.52 V), high peak signal-noise ratio (45 dB), long-term performance
      (107 cycles), and low cost price. Attributed to the crucial features of acquiring
      easy-processed pulse waveform, which is consistent with second derivative of
      signal from conventional pulse sensor, SUPS can be integrated with a bluetooth
      chip to provide accurate, wireless, and real-time monitoring of pulse signals of
      cardiovascular system on a smart phone/PC. Antidiastole of coronary heart
      disease, atrial septal defect, and atrial fibrillation are made, and the
      arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation) is indicative diagnosed from health, by
      characteristic exponent analysis of pulse signals accessed from volunteer
      patients. This SUPS is expected to be applied in self-powered, wearable
      intelligent mobile diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in the future.

PMID- 28863248
TI  - Controllable Microfluidic Fabrication of Microstructured Materials from
      Nonspherical Particles to Helices.
AB  - This work reports on a facile and flexible strategy based on the deformation of
      encapsulated droplets in fiber-like polymeric matrices for template synthesis of
      controllable microstructured materials from nonspherical microparticles to
      complex 3D helices. Monodisperse droplets generated from microfluidics are
      encapsulated into crosslinked polymeric networks via an interfacial crosslinking
      reaction in microchannel to in situ produce the droplet-containing, fiber-like
      matrices. By stretching and twining the dried fiber-like matrices, the
      encapsulated droplets can be flexibly engineered into versatile shapes for
      template synthesis of controllable nonspherical microparticles and helices.
      Moreover, magnetic helices can be fabricated by simply dispersing magnetic Fe3 O4
      nanoparticles in the droplets to achieve rotational and translational motion
      under a rotated magnetic field. This work provides a simple and versatile
      strategy for the template synthesis of advanced functional microstructured
      materials with flexible shapes.

PMID- 28863249
TI  - Bio-Inspired Synthesis of an Ordered N/P Dual-Doped Porous Carbon and Application
      as an Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - Carbonaceous materials are one of the most promising anode materials for sodium
      ion batteries, because of their abundance, stability, and safe usage. However,
      the practical application of carbon materials is hindered by poor specific
      capacity and low initial Coulombic efficiency. The design of porous structure and
      doping with heteroatoms are two simple and effective methods to promote the
      sodium storage performance. Herein, the N, P co-doped porous carbon materials are
      fabricated using renewable and biodegradable gelatin as carbon and nitrogen
      resource, phosphoric acid as phosphorus precursor and polystyrene nanospheres as
      a template. The product can deliver a reversible capacity of 230 mA h g-1 at a
      current density of 0.2 A g-1 , and even a high capacity of 113 mA h g-1 at 10 Ag
      1 . The enhanced sodium storage performance is attributed to the synergistic
      effect of the porosity and the dual-doping of nitrogen and phosphorus.

PMID- 28863250
TI  - 2017 Scholars Day Symposium Abstracts.

PMID- 28863251
TI  - CYP2D6 and Tamoxifen: Lessons Learned.

PMID- 28863252
TI  - A Fish Mouth Appearing Perforation of the Native Aortic Valve Due to
      Streptococcus infantarius subspecies coli.
AB  - Infective endocarditis due to Streptococcus infantarius with the subspecies
      (subsp.) coli is infrequently encountered in healthy humans. This entity is
      associated with hepatobiliary malignancies and colorectal neoplasia. Here, we
      report on a unique case of endocarditis associated with S. infantarius subsp.
      coli in an 80-year-old male with no known risk factors of the infective
      endocarditis.

PMID- 28863253
TI  - Tick Talk: Tick-borne Diseases of South Dakota.
AB  - In addition to being a nuisance, ticks can carry disease. This article presents a
      brief review of ticks and associated tick-borne disease relevant to South Dakota
      and surrounding regions. Tick-borne diseases of special relevance in South Dakota
      include tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Lyme disease. A number of
      others may also be encountered in the state as well. Prompt treatment of
      suspected cases is important to ensure a successful recovery, and tick-avoidance
      measures can reduce the risks of acquiring them. Most of these conditions are
      nationally reportable infectious diseases.

PMID- 28863254
TI  - "How Did You Get to This Appointment?" The First Step in Assessing the Older
      Driver in Your Primary Care Clinic.

PMID- 28863255
TI  - Think About Ramifications Before Taking Away Right to Choose.

PMID- 28863256
TI  - Bezlotoxumab for Preventing Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infections.

PMID- 28863257
TI  - Care Transition: Returning Patients Home Safely and Reducing Readmissions.

PMID- 28863258
TI  - Using Particle Lithography to Tailor the Architecture of Au Nanoparticle
      Plasmonic Nanoring Arrays.
AB  - The facile assembly of metal nanostructured arrays is a fundamental step in the
      design of plasmon enhanced chemical sensing and solar cell architectures. Here we
      have investigated methods of creating controlled formations of two-dimensional
      periodic arrays comprised of 20 nm Au nanoparticles (NPs) on a hydrophilic
      polymer surface using particle lithography. To direct the assembly process,
      capillary force and NP concentration both play critical roles on the resulting
      nanostructured arrays. As such, tuning these experimental parameters can directly
      be used to modify the nature of the nanostructures formed. To explore this, two
      different concentrations of Au NP solutions (~7 * 1011 or 4 * 1012 NPs/mL) were
      used in conjunction with a fixed concentration of polystyrene microspheres (PS
      MS, ~6 * 109 PS MS/mL). Assembly at a relative humidity (RH) of 45% with the
      higher concentration resulted in the formation of well-defined Au nanorings of
      ca. 23 nm in height and 881 nm in diameter with a pitch of 2.5 MUm. Assembly at
      65% RH with the lower concentration of NPs resulted in Au nanodonut arrays
      comprised of isolated single Au NPs. To explore the extent of coupling in the
      well-defined structures, dark field scattering spectra were collected and showed
      a broad localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak with a shoulder, which
      full-wave electrodynamics modeling (finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method)
      attributed to be a result of pronounced particle-particle coupling along the
      circumference of the nanoring array.

PMID- 28863259
TI  - Stereoselective Analysis and Degradation of Pyrisoxazole in Cabbage, Pakchoi, and
      Pepper by Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Pyrisoxazole is a chiral fungicide with high sterilizing activity to the plant
      pathogenic bacteria and thus can be used for protecting the vegetables from gray
      mold, powdery mildew, and brown rot. The present work aimed to explore its
      stereoselective degradation in cabbage, pakchoi, and pepper samples. The
      enantioseparation and analysis on chiral column Lux Cellulose-3 based on liquid
      chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was developed coupled to the QuEChERS
      method. The recoveries of the stereoisomers in various vegetables ranged from
      72.6 to 124% with RSD lower than 5.0%. Enantioselective dissipation of
      pyrisoxazole in vegetables displayed that (-)-A-pyrisoxazole was preferentially
      degraded versus (+)-A-pyrisoxazole in all the vegetables. (+)-B-pyrisoxazole was
      preferentially degraded in cabbage, while there was no obvious enantioselectivity
      in pakchoi and pepper. Meanwhile, stereoselectivity analysis demonstrated that
      (+/-)-A-pyrisoxazole was degraded faster than (+/-)-B-pyrisoxazole in pakchoi and
      pepper, while there was no stereoselective degradation in cabbages.

PMID- 28863260
TI  - Interfacial Assembly and Jamming Behavior of Polymeric Janus Particles at Liquid
      Interfaces.
AB  - The self-assembly and interfacial jamming of spherical Janus nanoparticles (JNPs)
      at the water/oil interface were investigated. Polymeric JNPs, made by cross
      linking polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PB
      PMMA), with a high interfacial activity assemble at the water/oil interface.
      During the self-assembly at the interface, the interfacial energy was reduced and
      a dynamic interlayer was observed that is responsive to the pH of the aqueous
      phase. Unlike hard particles, the JNPs are composed of polymer chains that can
      spread at the liquid-liquid interface to maximize coverage at relatively low
      areal densities. In a pendant drop geometry, the interfacial area of a water
      droplet in oil was significantly decreased and the JNPs were forced to pack more
      closely. Entangling of the polymer chains causes the JNPs to form a solid-like
      interfacial assembly, resulting in the formation of wrinkles when the interfacial
      area is decreased. The wrinkling behavior, the retention of the wrinkles, or the
      slow relaxation of the liquid drop back to its original equilibrium shape was
      found to depend upon the pH.

PMID- 28863261
TI  - Characterization of Hsp90 Co-Chaperone p23 Cleavage by Caspase-7 Uncovers a
      Peptidase-Substrate Interaction Involving Intrinsically Disordered Regions.
AB  - Caspases are cysteinyl peptidases involved in inflammation and apoptosis during
      which hundreds of proteins are cleaved by executioner caspase-3 and -7. Despite
      the fact that caspase-3 has a higher catalytic activity, caspase-7 is more
      proficient at cleaving poly(ADP ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) because it uses an
      exosite within its N-terminal domain (NTD). Here, we demonstrate that molecular
      determinants also located in the NTD enhance the recognition and proteolysis of
      the Hsp90 co-chaperone p23. Structure-activity relationship analyses using
      mutagenesis of the caspase-7 NTD and kinetics show that residues 36-45 of caspase
      7, which overlap with residues necessary for efficacious PARP1 cleavage,
      participate in p23 recognition. We also demonstrate using chimeric and truncated
      proteins that the caspase-7 NTD binds close to the cleavage site in the C
      terminal tail of p23. Moreover, because p23 is cleaved at a site bearing a P4 Pro
      residue (PEVD142?G), which is far from the optimal sequence, we tested all
      residues at that position and found notable differences in the preference of
      caspase-7 and magnitude of differences between residues compared to the results
      of studies that have used small peptidic substrate libraries. Finally,
      bioinformatics shows that the regions we identified in caspase-7 and p23 are
      intrinsically disordered regions that contain molecular recognition features that
      permit a transient interaction between these two proteins. In summary, we
      characterized the binding mode for a caspase that is tailored to the specific
      recognition and cleavage of a substrate, highlighting the importance of studying
      the peptidase-substrate pair to understand the modalities of substrate
      recognition by caspases.

PMID- 28863262
TI  - Spatiotemporal Analysis of K-Ras Plasma Membrane Interactions Reveals Multiple
      High Order Homo-oligomeric Complexes.
AB  - Self-assembly of plasma membrane-associated Ras GTPases has major implications to
      the regulation of cell signaling. However, the structural basis of homo
      oligomerization and the fractional distribution of oligomeric states remained
      undetermined. We have addressed these issues by deciphering the distribution of
      dimers and higher-order oligomers of K-Ras4B, the most frequently mutated Ras
      isoform in human cancers. We focused on the constitutively active G12V K-Ras and
      two of its variants, K101E and K101C/E107C, which respectively destabilize and
      stabilize oligomers. Using raster image correlation spectroscopy and number and
      brightness analysis combined with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching,
      fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and electron microscopy in live cells, we
      show that G12V K-Ras exists as a mixture of monomers, dimers and larger
      oligomers, while the K101E mutant is predominantly monomeric and K101C/E107C is
      dominated by oligomers. This observation demonstrates the ability of K-Ras to
      exist in multiple oligomeric states whose population can be altered by
      interfacial mutations. Using molecular modeling and simulations we further show
      that K-Ras uses two partially overlapping interfaces to form compositionally and
      topologically diverse oligomers. Our results thus provide the first detailed
      insight into the multiplicity, structure, and membrane organization of K-Ras
      homomers.

PMID- 28863264
TI  - Folate-Targeted Dendrimers Selectively Accumulate at Sites of Inflammation in
      Mouse Models of Ulcerative Colitis and Atherosclerosis.
AB  - Folate-receptor-positive activated macrophages are critical for the development
      and maintenance of many chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Previously,
      small-molecule folate-targeted conjugates were found to specifically bind to
      these activated macrophages in vitro and selectively accumulate at sites of
      inflammation in vivo. While these small-molecule conjugates have shown promise,
      the use of a folate-targeted, higher cargo capacity nanovehicle may prove
      superior in delivering imaging or therapeutic agents in vivo. This nanoparticle
      strategy has been demonstrated in oncology, where targeted dendrimers have shown
      superior delivery capabilities; however, little research has been pursued in the
      area of folate-targeted dendrimers for inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
      Therefore, we endeavored to create a folate-decorated dendrimer to explore its
      uptake in mouse models of ulcerative colitis and atherosclerosis. We demonstrate
      that our final poly(ethylene glycol)-coated, acetic-anhydride-capped, folate
      targeted poly(amidoamine) dendrimer exhibits no discernible cytotoxicity in
      vitro, specifically binds to a folate-receptor-expressing macrophage cell line in
      vitro, and selectively accumulates in areas of inflammation in vivo.

PMID- 28863263
TI  - Single-Nanoparticle Plasmonic Electro-optic Modulator Based on MoS2 Monolayers.
AB  - The manipulation of light in an integrated circuit is crucial for the development
      of high-speed electro-optic devices. Recently, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)
      monolayers generated broad interest for the optoelectronics because of their huge
      exciton binding energy, tunable optical emission, direct electronic band-gap
      structure, etc. Miniaturization and multifunctionality of electro-optic devices
      further require the manipulation of light-matter interaction at the single
      nanoparticle level. The strong exciton-plasmon interaction that is generated
      between the MoS2 monolayers and metallic nanostructures may be a possible
      solution for compact electro-optic devices at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate
      a nanoplasmonic modulator in the visible spectral region by combining the MoS2
      monolayers with a single Au nanodisk. The narrow MoS2 excitons coupled with broad
      Au plasmons result in a deep Fano resonance, which can be switched on and off by
      applying different gate voltages on the MoS2 monolayers. A reversible display
      device that is based on this single-nanoparticle modulator is demonstrated with a
      heptamer pattern that is actively controlled by the external gates. Our work
      provides a potential application for electro-optic modulation on the nanoscale
      and promotes the development of gate-tunable nanoplasmonic devices in the future.

PMID- 28863265
TI  - Structure-Property Relationships in Sodium Muricholate Derivative (Bile Salts)
      Micellization: The Effect of Conformation of Steroid Skeleton on Hydrophobicity
      and Micelle Formation-Pattern Recognition and Potential Membranoprotective
      Properties.
AB  - It is known that beta-muricholic acid anions prevent membrane toxicity of
      hydrophobic bile acids, which are being used in therapy for solubilization of the
      cholesterol type bile stone. Better knowledge of these derivative micelles is
      very important for understanding their physiological and pharmacological effects.
      beta-Axial (a) oriented hydroxyl group from the steroid skeleton decreases the
      hydrophobic surface of the convex side of the steroid skeleton. Therefore, the
      critical micellization concentration (CMC) for steroid surfactants with beta-a-OH
      group should increase, but in the case of OH groups of different orientations
      forming H-bonds in the hydrophobic phase of the micelle, it has the opposite
      effect; the CMC decreses, and aggregation is more favored. The set of muricholic
      acids (MCs) is composed by alpha-MC, beta-MC, gamma-MC, and omega-MC, where alpha
      MC and beta-MC have beta-axial-OH groups. The aggregation numbers (n) are
      determined using the Moroi-Matsuoka-Sugioka thermodynamic method. CMC, enthalpy
      of demicellization, and DeltaCp are determined by isothermal titration
      calorimetry (ITC). This report pioneers in the study of MC derivatives
      micellization. Micelles of beta-MC and gamma-MC belong to the linear congeneric
      group (LCG) and their micelles above 85 mM have constant aggregation numbers n =
      4-5. Micelles of alpha-MC and omega-MC are outliers in relation to the LCG, their
      aggregation number constantly increases; at 85 mM n = 6.8 (alpha-MC) and 6.5
      (omega-MC). In micelles of derivatives beta-MC and gamma-MC, there is a low
      probability for the existence of hydrogen bonds. A micelle of alpha-MC probably
      has hydrogen bonds in its hydrophobic domain.

PMID- 28863266
TI  - Development of a Systems Science Curriculum to Engage Rural African American
      Teens in Understanding and Addressing Childhood Obesity Prevention.
AB  - Engaging youth from racial and ethnic minority communities as leaders for change
      is a potential strategy to mobilize support for addressing childhood obesity, but
      there are limited curricula designed to help youth understand the complex
      influences on obesity. Our aim was to develop and pilot test a systems science
      curriculum to elicit rural African American youth perspectives on childhood
      obesity and enhance their understanding of and support for obesity prevention
      solutions. The curriculum was designed so it could be integrated with existing
      positive youth development curricula that help youth advocate for and implement
      identified solutions. We conducted four workshop sessions with youth that engaged
      them in systems learning activities such as guided systems diagramming
      activities. The participants ( n = 21) completed validated surveys presession and
      postsession that assessed their causal attributions of obesity and support for
      obesity prevention policies. The youths' perception that environmental factors
      cause obesity increased ( p < .05), and perceptions that individual behavior and
      biology cause obesity did not change. Their support for policies that addressed
      food access and food pricing significantly increased ( p < .05). The youths'
      system diagrams elucidated links between multilevel factors such as personal
      attitudes, social influence, and the built environment, which provides important
      information for designing synergistic solutions. The changes we observed in
      youths' perceptions of obesity and support for policy changes have important
      implications for youths' interest and willingness to advocate for social and
      environmental changes in their community. The strategies have a promising role in
      supporting community mobilization to address childhood obesity.

PMID- 28863267
TI  - Obesity as a Predictor of Delayed Lactogenesis II.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lactogenesis II is the onset of copious milk production. A delay in
      this has been associated with an increased risk of formula supplementation and
      early cessation of breastfeeding. Prepregnancy obesity has also been associated
      with decreased breastfeeding rates and early cessation. Research aim: This study
      aimed to evaluate the effect of prepregnancy obesity on self-reported delayed
      lactogenesis II. METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational cohort study
      of 216 women with a singleton pregnancy and who planned to breastfeed. We
      compared the onset of lactogenesis II between women with a body mass index (BMI)
      < 30 kg/m2 and women with a BMI >= 30 kg/m2. Using multivariate logistic
      regression analyses, we assessed the relationship between maternal BMI and delay
      of lactogenesis II. RESULTS: The prevalence of delayed lactogenesis II among
      women with prepregnancy BMI < 30 kg/m2 and BMI >= 30 kg/m2 was 46.4% and 57.9%,
      respectively. Delayed lactogenesis II occurred more frequently among women who
      were obese at the time of delivery ( p < .05). After controlling for the
      covariates, age, prepregnancy BMI, and gestational weight gain were positively
      associated with delayed lactogenesis II. CONCLUSION: Prepregnancy obesity and
      excessive gestational weight gain are associated with an increased risk of
      delayed lactogenesis II. Women who are at risk for delay in lactogenesis II and
      early breastfeeding cessation will need targeted interventions and support for
      them to achieve their personal breastfeeding goals.

PMID- 28863268
TI  - Two years' outcome of thread lifting with absorbable barbed PDO threads:
      Innovative score for objective and subjective assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thread-lifting rejuvenation procedures have evolved again, with the
      development of absorbable threads. Although they have gained popularity among
      plastic surgeons and dermatologists, very few articles have been written in
      literature about absorbable threads. This study aims to evaluate two years'
      outcome of thread lifting using absorbable barbed threads for facial
      rejuvenation. METHODS: Prospective comparative stud both objectively and
      subjectively and follow-up assessment for 24 months. RESULTS: Thread lifting for
      face rejuvenation has significant long-lasting effects that include skin lifting
      from 3-10 mm and high degree of patients' satisfaction with less incidence rate
      of complications, about 4.8%. Augmented results are obtained when thread lifting
      is combined with other lifting and rejuvenation modalities. CONCLUSION:
      Significant facial rejuvenation is achieved by thread lifting and highly
      augmented results are observed when they are combined with Botox, fillers, and/or
      platelet rich plasma (PRP) rejuvenations.

PMID- 28863269
TI  - Bacteriophages: the possible solution to treat infections caused by pathogenic
      bacteria.
AB  - Since their discovery in 1915, bacteriophages have been used to treat bacterial
      infections in animals and humans because of their unique ability to infect their
      specific bacterial hosts without affecting other bacterial populations. The
      research carried out in this field throughout the 20th century, largely in
      Georgia, part of USSR and Poland, led to the establishment of phage therapy
      protocols. However, the discovery of penicillin and sulfonamide antibiotics in
      the Western World during the 1930s was a setback in the advancement of phage
      therapy. The misuse of antibiotics has reduced their efficacy in controlling
      pathogens and has led to an increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant
      bacteria. As an alternative to antibiotics, bacteriophages have become a topic of
      interest with the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, which are a threat
      to public health. Recent studies have indicated that bacteriophages can be used
      indirectly to detect pathogenic bacteria or directly as biocontrol agents.
      Moreover, they can be used to develop new molecules for clinical applications,
      vaccine production, drug design, and in the nanomedicine field via phage display.

PMID- 28863270
TI  - Mindfulness-based forgiveness groups for older adults.
AB  - Interventions that enable individuals to be more forgiving toward themselves and
      others are important for older adults. This article describes a group
      intervention for adults aged 60 or older that integrates forgiveness-related
      skills with a mindfulness approach. The Mindfulness-based Forgiveness Group was
      designed to meet for eight sessions. The skills taught included: recognizing
      one's own expectations and unenforceable rules, broadening one's perspectives
      about the context of the transgression, and discovering positive intentions
      through exercises as well as a variety of meditations to cultivate mindfulness,
      self-compassion and forgiveness. Data from five Mindfulness-Based Forgiveness
      Groups were collected. Based on pre- and post-test measures, analyses indicate
      that participants improved significantly in relation to forgiveness,
      mindfulness/self-compassion, and mental health. Using qualitative post-test data
      from participants, we identify elements of the intervention that appear to be
      helpful. Suggestions are provided for social workers seeking to replicate and
      build upon this promising intervention.

PMID- 28863271
TI  - Feasibility and acceptability of shared decision-making to promote alcohol
      behavior change among women Veterans: Results from focus groups.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although rates of unhealthy drinking are high among women Veterans
      with mental health comorbidities, most women Veterans with mental comorbidities
      who present to primary care with unhealthy drinking do not receive alcohol
      related care. Barriers to alcohol-related treatment could be reduced through
      patient-centered approaches to care, such as shared decision-making. AIMS: We
      assessed the feasibility and acceptability of a telephone-delivered shared
      decision-making intervention for promoting alcohol behavior change in women
      Veterans with unhealthy drinking and co-morbid depression and/or probable post
      traumatic stress disorder. METHODS: We used 3, 2-hour focus group discussions
      with 19 women Veterans to identify barriers and solicit recommendations for using
      the intervention with women Veterans who present to primary care with unhealthy
      drinking and mental health comorbidities. Transcripts from the focus groups were
      qualitatively analyzed using template analysis. RESULTS: Although participants
      perceived that the intervention was feasible and acceptable for the targeted
      patient population, they identified the treatment delivery modality, length of
      telephone sessions, and some of the option grid content as potential barriers.
      Facilitators included strategies for enhancing the telephone-delivered shared
      decision-making sessions and diversifying the treatment options contained in the
      option grids. Focus group feedback resulted in preliminary adaptations to the
      intervention that are mindful of women Veterans' individual preferences for care
      and realistic in the everyday context of their busy lives.

PMID- 28863272
TI  - Recombinant protein rMBP-NAP restricts tumor progression by triggering antitumor
      immunity in mouse metastatic lung cancer.
AB  - Recombinant Helicobacter pylori neutrophil-activating protein fused with maltose
      binding protein (rMBP-NAP), a potential TLR2 ligand, was reported to possess
      immunomodulatory effects on in situ tumors in our previous study. In the present
      work, we attempt to elucidate the effect of rMBP-NAP at the local immune
      modulation in B16-F10-induced metastatic lung cancer. Our results demonstrated
      that growth of B16-F10 melanoma metastases in the lung was significantly arrested
      after rMBP-NAP treatment, along with marked reduction in metastatic lung nodules
      and significant increase in survival. The treatment induced both local and
      systemic immune responses, which were associated with higher influx of CD4+/CD8+
      T cells and drove toward Th1-like and cytotoxic immune environment. Moreover,
      rMBP-NAP also showed significant anti-angiogenic activity by reducing
      vascularization in lung tumor sections. rMBP-NAP could induce antitumor immunity
      through activating Th1 cells and producing pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are
      responsible for the effective cytotoxic immune response against cancer
      progression. Our findings indicate that rMBP-NAP might be a novel antitumor
      therapeutic strategy.

PMID- 28863273
TI  - 2,3,4',5-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-beta-d-glycoside attenuates atherosclerosis in
      apolipoprotein E-deficient mice: role of reverse cholesterol transport.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effects of 2,3,4',5
      tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-beta-d-glucoside (TSG) on the development of
      atherosclerotic plaque in ApoE-/- mice, and explore the mechanisms involved. Our
      data showed that after 8 weeks of treatment, TSG ameliorated serum levels of
      total cholesterol, triglyceride, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and
      increased serum levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol in ApoE-/- mice.
      TSG suppressed hepatic steatosis, the formation of atherosclerotic lesions, and
      the formation of macrophage foam cells in ApoE-/- mice. Moreover, TSG improved
      the expressions of hepatic SR-BI, ABCG5, and CYP7A1, and up-regulated the protein
      expressions of aortic ABCA1 and ABCG1. An in-vitro study showed that TSG promoted
      macrophage cholesterol efflux and increased the protein expressions of ABCA1 and
      ABCG1. Our findings provide evidence for a positive role of TSG in preventing
      atherosclerosis by promoting reverse cholesterol transport. These effects may be
      achieved by stimulating cholesterol efflux through ABCA1 and ABCG1, promoting SR
      BI-mediated cholesterol uptake in the liver, increasing secretion of cholesterol
      into bile by ABCG5, and improving cholesterol metabolism by the CYP7A1 pathway.
      In addition, antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of TSG may also
      contribute to its inhibitory effects on atherosclerosis. Further study is needed
      to investigate whether other potential mechanisms are involved in TSG-mediated
      atheroprotection.

PMID- 28863274
TI  - Rare Variants in NR2F2 Cause Congenital Heart Defects in Humans.

PMID- 28863275
TI  - Mutations in TSPAN12 Cause Autosomal-Dominant Familial Exudative
      Vitreoretinopathy.

PMID- 28863276
TI  - Immobilization of methotrexate anticancer drug onto the graphene surface and
      interaction with calf thymus DNA and 4T1 cancer cells.
AB  - Immobilization of methotrexate (MTX) anticancer drug onto the graphene surface is
      reported through three methods, including either covalent linkage via (a) EDC/NHS
      organic activators and (b) electrografting of MTX diazonium salt, or (c)
      noncovalent bonding, resulting in three different systems. To evaluate the
      interaction ability of the immobilized MTX with biological species, calf thymus
      DNA (ctDNA), mouse 4T1 breast tumor, and Human foreskin fibroblast (hFF) cells as
      models of the primary intracellular target of anticancer drugs, cancer and normal
      cells, respectively, are examined. The features of the constructed systems and
      their interactions with ctDNA are followed by surface analysis techniques and
      electrochemical methods. The results indicate that (i) the amount of the
      immobilized MTX on the graphene surface is affected by type of the immobilization
      method; and a maximum value of (Gamma=9.3+/-0.9pmolcm-2) is found via
      electrografting method, (ii) graphene-modified-MTX has high affinity for ctDNA in
      a wide dynamic range of concentrations, and (iii) the nature of the interaction
      is of electrostatic and/or hydrogen bonding type, formed most probably between
      OH, NH and CO groups of MTX and different DNA functions. Finally, electrochemical
      impedance spectroscopy results approved the high affinity of the systems for 4T1
      cancer cells.

PMID- 28863277
TI  - Insights into genetic diversity and biological propensities of potentially
      zoonotic avian influenza H9N2 viruses circulating in Egypt.
AB  - Low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) H9N2 viruses have established endemic
      status in Egyptian poultry populations since 2012. Recently, four cases of human
      H9N2 virus infections in Egypt demonstrated the zoonotic potential of these
      viruses. Egyptian H9N2 viruses obtained from 2011 to 2014 phylogenetically
      grouped into three clusters (1-3) within subclade B of the G1 lineage.
      Antigenically, a close clustering of the Egyptian H9N2 viruses with other recent
      G1-B like H9N2 strains and a significant antigenic distance from viruses outside
      the G1-B lineage was evident. Recent Egyptian LPAIV H9N2 showed a tendency to
      increased binding with erythrocytes expressing alpha 2,6-linked sialic acid which
      correlated with the Q226L amino acid substitution at the receptor binding unit of
      the hemagglutinin (Q234L, H9 numbering). Sequence analyses of the N2
      neuraminidase (NA) revealed substitutions in the NA hemadsorption site similar to
      the N2 of prepandemic H3N2/1968, but no distinct antigenic or functional
      characteristics of the H9N2 NA associated with increased zoonotic potential could
      be identified.

PMID- 28863278
TI  - On the use of SEM correlative tools for in situ mechanical tests.
AB  - In situ SEM mechanical tests are key to study crystal plasticity. In particular,
      imaging and diffraction (EBSD) allow microstructure and surface kinematics to be
      monitored all along the test. However, to get a full benefit from different
      modalities, it is necessary to register all images and crystallographic
      orientation maps from EBSD into the same frame. Different correlative approaches
      tracking either Pt surface markings, crystal orientations or grain boundaries,
      allow such registrations to be performed and displacement as well as rotation
      fields to be measured, a primary information for crystal plasticity
      identification. However, the different contrasts that are captured in different
      modalities and unavoidable stage motions also give rise to artifacts that are to
      be corrected to register the different information onto the same material points.
      The same image correlation tools reveal very powerful to correct such artifacts.
      Illustrated by an in situ uniaxial tensile test performed on a bainitic-ferritic
      steel sample, recent advances in image correlation techniques are reviewed and
      shown to provide a comprehensive picture of local strain and rotation maps.

PMID- 28863279
TI  - Strain measurement of 3D structured nanodevices by EBSD.
AB  - We present a new methodology to accurately measure strain magnitudes from 3D
      nanodevices using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). Because the dimensions
      of features on these devices are smaller than the interaction volume for
      backscattered electrons, EBSD patterns from 3D nanodevices will frequently be the
      superposition of patterns from multiple material regions simultaneously. The
      effect of this superposition on EBSD strain measurement is demonstrated, along
      with an approach to separate EBSD patterns from these devices via subtraction.
      The subtraction procedure is applied to 33 nm wide SiGe lines, and it provides
      accurate strain magnitudes where the traditional EBSD strain analysis method
      undervalues the strain magnitude by an order of magnitude. The approach provides
      a strain measurement technique for nanoscale 3D structures that is high spatial
      resolution, nondestructive, and accurate.

PMID- 28863280
TI  - Molar absorption coefficients and stability constants of Zincon metal complexes
      for determination of metal ions and bioinorganic applications.
AB  - : Zincon (ZI) is one of the most common chromophoric chelating probes for the
      determination of Zn2+ and Cu2+ ions. It is also known to bind other metal ions.
      However, literature data on its binding properties and molar absorption
      coefficients are rather poor, varying among publications or determined only in
      certain conditions. There are no systematic studies on Zn2+ and Cu2+ affinities
      towards ZI performed under various conditions. However, this widely commercially
      available and inexpensive agent is frequently the first choice probe for the
      measurement of metal binding and release as well as determination of affinity
      constants of other ligands/macromolecules of interest. Here, we establish the
      spectral properties and the stability of ZI and its complexes with Zn2+, Cu2+,
      Cd2+, Hg2+, Co2+, Ni2+ and Pb2+ at multiple pH values from 6 to 9.9. The obtained
      results show that in water solution the MZI complex is predominant, but in the
      case of Co2+ and Ni2+, M(ZI)2 complexes are also formed. The molar absorption
      coefficient at 618 nm for ZnZI and 599nm for CuZI complexes at pH7.4 in buffered
      (I=0.1M) water solutions are 24,200 and 26,100M-1cm-1, respectively. Dissociation
      constants of those complexes are 2.09*10-6 and 4.68*10-17M. We also characterized
      the metal-assisted Zincon decomposition. Our results provide new and reassessed
      optical and stability data that are applicable to a wide range of chemical and
      bioinorganic applications including metal ion detection, and quantification and
      affinity studies of ligands of interest. SYNOPSIS: Accurate values of molar
      absorption coefficients of Zincon complex with Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, Co2+, Ni2+,
      Cu2+, and Pb2+ for rapid metal ion quantification are provided. Zincon stability
      constants with Zn2+ and Cu2+ in a wide pH range were determined.

PMID- 28863281
TI  - Aging-related decline in the induction of Nrf2-regulated antioxidant genes in
      human bronchial epithelial cells.
AB  - Evidence from animal studies suggests that stress-induced increases in Nrf2
      regulated antioxidant gene expression, a critical mechanism of cellular
      protection, declines with aging. This study examined whether this also occurs in
      humans. We measured the basal and inducible levels of Nrf2-regulated antioxidant
      genes in human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells from subjects of young adult (21
      29 years) and older (60-69 years) non-smokers, and explored factors affecting
      expresion. The basal expression of three representative Nrf2-regulated genes, the
      catalytic and modulator subunits of glutamate cysteine ligase (GCLC and GCLM,
      respectively), and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), was higher in cells
      from the older donors compared with cells from the young adult donors. Upon
      exposure to the Nrf2 activator, sulforaphane (SF), the expression of these
      antioxidant genes was increased in cells from both the young adults and the older
      donors; however, the induction by SF in older donor cells was significantly less
      than that seen in young adult cells. In addition, the activation of an EpRE
      driven reporter by SF was lower in cells from older donors compared to cells from
      young adults. The basal expression of Nrf2 protein was also lower in cells from
      older donors than cells from young adults. Furthermore, we found that the basal
      expression of both Bach1 and c-Myc, two Nrf2 suppressors, was higher in cells
      from older adults than from young adult donors. In summary, our data suggest
      that, as in other species, basal expression of Nrf2-regulated genes increases
      with aging, while inducibility declines with aging. The increased expression of
      Nrf2 suppressors such as Bach1 and c-Myc may contribute to the impaired
      inducibility of the Nrf2-regulated antioxidant genes with aging in human
      bronchial epithelial cells.

PMID- 28863282
TI  - Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Romanian translation of the
      Body Appreciation Scale-2.
AB  - We examined the psychometric properties of a Romanian translation of the 10-item
      Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2). A total of 453 university students from
      Romania completed the BAS-2, along with measures of disordered eating, self
      esteem, satisfaction with life, and subjective happiness. In addition, a separate
      sample of university students (N=109) completed only the BAS-2 at two time-points
      three weeks apart. Principal-axis factor analysis indicated that BAS-2 scores had
      a one-dimensional factor structure in both women and men. Confirmatory factor
      analysis indicated that this factor structure had adequate fit, but invariance
      across sex was not supported. Further analyses indicated that BAS-2 scores
      evidenced internal consistency, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability
      in both women and men. These results suggest that BAS-2 scores reduce to one
      dimension in Romanian adults, but the lack of sex invariance may indicate that
      the same latent construct is not being measured in women and men.

PMID- 28863283
TI  - The role of propionic acid at diagnosis predicts mortality in patients with
      septic shock.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of
      propionic acid in patients with septic shock on a medical intensive care unit
      (ICU). METHODS: Serum propionic acid and clinical common cytokines levels were
      measured within 24h after the diagnosis of sepsis, and the Acute Physiology and
      Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, Sequential Organ Failure
      Assessment (SOFA) score, and Mortality were recorded in ICU. A 28-day and 90-day
      follow-up was performed for all patients. RESULTS: A total of 118 septic patients
      were enrolled in this study. The propionic acid was higher in patients with
      septic shock compared with sepsis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis
      showed that propionic acid was independent predictor of sepsis (odds ratio:
      1.279; 95% confidence interval: 1.069-1.530; P=0.007) and septic shock (odds
      ratio: 1.859; 95% confidence interval: 1.342-2.576; P<0.001) and ICU mortality
      (odds ratio: 1.331; 95% confidence interval: 1.107-1.600; P=0.002), 28-day
      mortality (odds ratio: 1.259; 95% confidence interval: 1.046-1.514; P=0.015) and
      90-day mortality (odds ratio: 1.304; 95% confidence interval: 1.092-1.558;
      P=0.003). The receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) analysis showed the
      areas under of propionic acid on ICU admission day for predicting sepsis and
      septic shock were 0.773 and 0.85 respectively, the areas under of propionic acid
      for predicting ICU mortality, 28-d and 90-d mortality were 0.779, 0.739 and 0.809
      respectively. Using a PA cutoff of 0.053 and 0.095 for predicting sepsis and
      septic shock respectively, the sensitivity was 97.62% and 85.5%, and the
      specificity was 58% and 83.5%, respectively. Using a PA cutoff of 0.139 for
      predicting ICU mortality, 28- and 90-day mortality, the sensitivity was 69.39%,
      67.44% and 69.09% respectively, and the specificity was 78.26%, 73.33% and 82.54%
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Propionic acid showed diagnostic capacity to diagnose
      septic shock and revealed prognostic information for mortality.

PMID- 28863284
TI  - Establishing objective volume-outcome measures for anterior and posterior
      cervical spine fusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There is a growing literature on the relationship between provider
      volume and patient outcomes, specifically within joint arthroplasty and lumbar
      spine surgery. Such benchmarks have yet to be established for many other spinal
      procedures, including cervical fusion. We sought to determine whether outcomes
      based volume measures for both surgeons and hospitals can be established for
      cervical spine fusion procedures. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective
      review of patient data in the Florida Statewide Inpatient Dataset (SID; 2011-14).
      Patients identified in the Florida SID who underwent either anterior or posterior
      cervical fusion were identified along with the operative surgeons and the
      hospitals where the procedures were performed. Socio-demographic data, as well as
      medical and surgical characteristics were obtained, as were the development of
      complications and readmissions up to 90days following hospital discharge. Surgeon
      and hospital volume were plotted separately against the number of complications
      and readmissions in an adjusted spline analysis. Multivariable logistic
      regression analysis was subsequently performed to assess the effect of surgeon
      and hospital volume on post-operative complications and readmissions. RESULTS:
      There were 8960 patients with posterior cervical fusion and 57,108 anterior
      cervical fusions (total=66,068) identified for inclusion in the analysis. The
      patients of low-volume surgeons were found to have an increased (OR 1.83; 95% CI
      1.65, 2.02) likelihood of complications following anterior and posterior (OR
      1.45; 95% CI 1.24, 1.69) cervical fusion. Low-volume surgeons demonstrated
      increased likelihood of readmission, irrespective of anterior (OR 1.37; 95% CI
      1.29, 1.47) or posterior (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.16, 1.48) approach. No clinically
      meaningful differences in the likelihood of complications or readmissions were
      detected between high- and low-volume hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrates objective volume-outcome measures for surgeons who perform anterior
      and posterior cervical fusions. Our results have immediate applicability to
      clinical practice and may be used to benchmark procedural volume. Findings with
      respect to hospitals speak against the need for healthcare regionalization in
      this specific clinical context.

PMID- 28863285
TI  - Endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke in octogenarians: A meta-analysis
      of observational studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to compare procedural outcomes after
      endovascular treatment (EVT) according to age (>=80 years vs. <80 years) and to
      examine treatment outcomes after mechanical thrombectomy using a stent retriever
      between the different age groups. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A systemic literature
      review of an online database of articles published from January 2004 to February
      2017 was conducted. The primary outcome was successful recanalization in the
      final angiogram and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (S-ICH) after EVT. The
      secondary outcome was good clinical outcome and mortality at 3 months. A random
      effect model was used in cases of heterogeneity over 50%. RESULTS: Eight articles
      including 1711 patients compared outcomes according to age. Successful
      recanalization did not differ significantly between the two groups (>=80 years,
      n=214 (70.6%);<80years, n=1035 (73.5%); OR: 0.797; 95% CI: 0.599-1.060). Age >=80
      years did not significantly increase the risk of S-ICH (OR: 1.271; 95% CI: 0.784
      2.060). Octogenarians showed lower good clinical outcome at 3 months (OR: 0.323;
      95% CI: 0.233-0.448) and higher mortality (OR: 2.689; 95% CI: 2.050-3.527). Three
      studies including 670 patients (>=80 years, n=140;<80years, n=530) assessed
      outcomes after mechanical thrombectomy using a stent retriever. Successful
      recanalization (OR: 0.786; 95% CI: 0.507-1.218) and S-ICH (OR: 1.679; 95% CI:
      0.918-3.071) did not significantly differ between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Procedural outcomes such as successful recanalization and S-ICH after EVT in
      octogenarians are comparable to those seen in patients <80years. EVT is
      technically feasible to treat hyperacute stroke in octogenarians. Further large
      scale studies dealing with various factors, such as occlusion site, stroke
      severity, comorbidities, and concomitant use of endovascular devices are
      required.

PMID- 28863286
TI  - Flow diversion with the pipeline embolization device for patients with
      intracranial aneurysms and antiplatelet therapy: A systematic literature review.
AB  - Flow diversion with the Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) is reported as a safe
      and efficient treatment for patients with intracranial aneurysms; however,
      literature discussing the antiplatelet (APT) regimen used before and after the
      PED is limited. Our aim was to systematically review and summarize available data
      regarding the APT regimen and the platelet function test (PFT) that was used. We
      also sought to provide an overview of the aneurysm morphologies and adverse event
      rates associated with the PED use. This systematic review was conducted according
      to the PRISMA statement and eligible studies were identified through search of
      the PubMed and Cochrane databases. We reviewed 28 studies, involving 1556
      patients that underwent aneurysm treatment with the PED. The preprocedural
      aspirin (ASA) 300- 325mg (2-14days) combined with clopidogrel 75mg (3 to >10days)
      were used as a treatment strategy in 61.7% of patients and ASA 81mg with
      clopidogrel 75mg for 5-10days for 27%. Patients who received low versus high dose
      pre-PED ASA, were at less risk for a hemorrhagic event (0.7% versus 3.3%,
      p=0.053); however no statistical significance was reached. There was also lack of
      relationship between patients that received low versus high preprocedural ASA in
      terms of thromboembolic events. Regarding postprocedural APT, ASA (>6months) and
      clopidogrel (3- 12 months) was the regimen of choice for 93% of patients. Most
      studies conducted at least one PFT, most common being the VerifyNow. The most
      frequently reported target P2Y12 Reaction unit (PRU) and Aspirin Reaction Unit
      (ARU) values were <230 and <550 respectively. There was no statistically
      demonstrable difference in regards to thrombotic events between centers that
      conducted at least one PFT and centers that did not test their patients with a
      PFT. The overall rates of symptomatic thrombotic episodes were 6.6% and
      hemorrhagic were 3%. The pre- and post-PED APT dose and duration varies across
      different institutions. More prospective studies are needed to compare the
      efficacy of different APT agents and reach conclusions regarding use of PFT and
      platelet reaction values in order to decrease hemorrhagic and thromboembolic
      complications associated with the PED.

PMID- 28863287
TI  - Proving of a Mathematical Model of Cell Calculation Based on Apparent Diffusion
      Coefficient.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Recently, Atuegwu et al. proposed a mathematical model based on
      ADCmean and ADCmin to calculation of cellularity. Our purpose was to compare the
      calculated cellularity according to the formula with the estimated cell count by
      histopathology in different tumors. METHODS: For this study, we re-analyzed our
      previous data regarding associations between ADC parameters and histopathological
      findings. Overall, 134 patients with different tumors were acquired for the
      analysis. For all tumors, the number of tumor cells was calculated according to
      Atuegwu et al. 2013. We performed a correlation analysis between the calculated
      and estimated cellularity. Thereby, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used
      and P < .05 was taken to indicate statistical significance in all instances.
      RESULTS: The estimated and calculated cellularity correlated well together in
      HNSCC (r=0.701, P=.016) and lymphomas (r=0.661, P=.001), and moderately in rectal
      cancer (r=0.510, P=.036). There were no statistically significant correlations
      between the estimated and calculated cellularity in uterine cervical cancer,
      meningiomas, and in thyroid cancer. CONCLUSION: The proposed formula for
      cellularity calculation does not apply for all tumors. It may be used for HNSCC,
      cerebral lymphomas and rectal cancer, but not for uterine cervical cancer,
      meningioma, and thyroid cancer. Furthermore, its usefulness should be proved for
      other tumors.

PMID- 28863288
TI  - Radiation and criticality safety analyses for the highly-enriched uranium core
      removal from a research reactor.
AB  - Analysis was performed to estimate radiation levels during removal and packaging
      of the highly-enriched uranium core of the JM-1 SLOWPOKE-2 research reactor. Due
      to severe limitations of space in and around the reactor pool, the core could not
      be removed in the conventional manner as was done for previous SLOWPOKE
      defuelling operations. A transfer shield, with a balance between shielding
      efficacy, volume and weight was designed. Fuel depletion, Monte Carlo shielding
      and criticality calculations were performed. Comparisons of measured and
      calculated dose rates as well as results of the criticality safety assessment are
      presented. The designed transfer shield reduced the calculated unshielded dose
      rate from 29Sv/h to 8mSv/h. The maximum calculated effective neutron
      multiplication factor of approximately 0.89 was below the 0.91 upper subricital
      limit.

PMID- 28863289
TI  - Accounting for the impact of parent internalizing symptoms on Parent Training
      benefits: The role of positive parenting.
AB  - Parent Training (PT) is not as effective for parents with histories of
      internalizing symptoms as it is for other parents. This study aimed to determine
      which dimensions of parenting, notably parenting efficacy, positive parenting,
      inconsistent discipline, and poor supervision, mediate the association between
      parent lifetime internalizing symptoms and post-PT child emotional and behavioral
      difficulties. One hundred fourteen parents (82% biological mothers) of children
      aged 9-12 years received PT at an urban children's mental health clinic. Parents
      reported their lifetime internalizing symptoms, pre- and post- PT parenting
      skills, and pre- and post- PT child difficulties. Positive parenting fully
      mediated the relation between parent lifetime internalizing symptoms and elevated
      child post-PT emotional and behavioral difficulties. Specifically, parents higher
      in internalizing symptoms reported lower positive parenting post-PT, which in
      turn predicted more child difficulties post-PT. Findings suggest that fostering
      positive parenting in PT may be particularly important for parents with histories
      of internalizing symptoms.

PMID- 28863290
TI  - Zinc-arsenic interactions in soil: Solubility, toxicity and uptake.
AB  - Arsenic (As) and zinc (Zn) are common co-contaminants in mining impacted soils.
      Their interaction on solubility and toxicity when present concurrently is not
      well understood in natural systems. The aim of this study was to observe their
      interaction in solubility (soil-solution), bioaccumulation (shoot uptake) and
      toxicity to cucumber (Cucumis sativa L) conducting 4 weeks pot study in 5
      different soils spiked with As (0, 2, 4, 8 to 1024 mg kg-1) individually and with
      Zn at two phytotoxic doses. The As pore-water concentration was significantly
      reduced (df = 289, Adjusted R2 = 0.84, p < 0.01) in the presence of Zn in the
      whole dataset, whereas Zn and Zn2+ activity in pore-water was reduced
      significantly only in the two alkaline soils. This outcome may be due to
      adsorption/surface precipitation or tertiary bridging complexation. No homogenous
      precipitation of zinc arsenate could be established using electron microscopy,
      XRD or even equilibrium calculations. For bioaccumulation phase, no significant
      effect of Zn on As uptake was observed except acidic MG soil whereas, Zn uptake
      was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) by As in whole dataset. However, an additive
      response was observed mostly except acidic MG soil. The synergistic response
      (more than additive) was predominant in this soil for a wide range of inhibition
      concentration (0-80%) at both Zn EC10 and EC50 levels. Since additive response is
      mostly considered in risk assessment for mixtures, precautions should be
      implemented for assessment of toxicity for As-Zn mixture in acidic soil due to
      their synergistic response in some soils.

PMID- 28863291
TI  - Comparison of methods for determination of total oil sands-derived naphthenic
      acids in water samples.
AB  - There are several established methods for the determination of naphthenic acids
      (NAs) in waters associated with oil sands mining operations. Due to their highly
      complex nature, measured concentration and composition of NAs vary depending on
      the method used. This study compared different common sample preparation
      techniques, analytical instrument methods, and analytical standards to measure
      NAs in groundwater and process water samples collected from an active oil sands
      operation. In general, the high- and ultrahigh-resolution methods, namely high
      performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-TOF-MS)
      and Orbitrap mass spectrometry (Orbitrap-MS), were within an order of magnitude
      of the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) methods. The gas
      chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods consistently had the highest NA
      concentrations and greatest standard error. Total NAs concentration was not
      statistically different between sample preparation of solid phase extraction and
      liquid-liquid extraction. Calibration standards influenced quantitation results.
      This work provided a comprehensive understanding of the inherent differences in
      the various techniques available to measure NAs and hence the potential
      differences in measured amounts of NAs in samples. Results from this study will
      contribute to the analytical method standardization for NA analysis in oil sands
      related water samples.

PMID- 28863292
TI  - Oxidation of clofibric acid in aqueous solution using a non-thermal plasma
      discharge or gamma radiation.
AB  - In this work, we study degradation of clofibric acid (CFA) in aqueous solution
      using either ionizing radiation from a60Co source or a non-thermal plasma
      produced by discharges in the air above the solution. The results obtained with
      the two technologies are compared in terms of effectiveness of CFA degradation
      and its by-products. In both cases the CFA degradation follows a quasi
      exponential decay in time well modelled by a kinetic scheme which considers the
      competition between CFA and all reaction intermediates for the reactive species
      generated in solution as well as the amount of the end product formed. A new
      degradation law is deduced to explain the results. Although the end-product CO2
      was detected and the CFA conversion found to be very high under the studied
      conditions, HPLC analysis reveals several degradation intermediates still bearing
      the aromatic ring with the chlorine substituent. The extent of mineralization is
      rather limited. The energy yield is found to be higher in the gamma radiation
      experiments.

PMID- 28863293
TI  - Dynamic arsenic aging processes and their mechanisms in nine types of Chinese
      soils.
AB  - Although specific soil properties controlling the arsenic (As) aging process have
      been studied extensively, few investigations have attempted to determine how soil
      types influence As bioavailability and fractionations in soils. Nine types of
      soil were selected from typical grain producing areas in China, and the
      bioavailability and fractionations of As during aging were measured. Results
      showed that available As in all soils rapidly decreased in the first 30 days and
      slowly declined thereafter. In spiked soils, As easily became less available and
      less toxic in low pH soils compared to high pH soils, demonstrating the
      importance of soil pH on As availability. Results from fitting kinetic equations
      revealed that the pseudo-second-order model described the As aging processes well
      in all soils (R2 = 0.945-0.999, P < 0.01, SE = 0.09-4.25), implying that the
      mechanism for As aging combined adsorption, external diffusion, and internal
      diffusion. Fe oxides were more important than Al oxides for determining the As
      aging rate (|k|). Based on these results, we are the first to propose the
      approximate aging equilibrium time (T) for As, which was mainly influenced by
      soil clay content. The shortest time for approximate stabilization of As aging
      was 28 d in latosol soils (LS), while the longest approximate equilibrium time
      was 169 d in cinnamon soils (CS). Individual soil properties controlling the
      variation in different As fractionations further confirmed that the influences of
      soil types on As aging were the result of the combined effects of soil properties
      and a time-consuming redistribution process.

PMID- 28863294
TI  - Chlorine decay and trihalomethane formation following ferrate(VI) preoxidation
      and chlorination of drinking water.
AB  - This paper presents the effect of preoxidation with ferrate(VI) (FeVIO42-,
      Fe(VI)) prior to chlorination on chlorine decay and formation of disinfection by
      products in filtered raw water from a full-scale drinking water treatment plant.
      The rate of chlorine decay became significantly faster as the concentration of
      ferrate(VI) increased. Chlorine degradation followed two first-order decay
      reactions with rate constants k1 and k2 for fast and slow decay, respectively.
      Kinetic modeling established the relationships between k1 and k2 and varying
      dosages of chlorine and ferrate(VI). When ferrate(VI) was used as a pre-oxidant,
      the levels of trihalomethanes (trichloromethane (TCM), dichlorobromomethane
      (DCBM), dibromochloromethane (DBCM), and tribromomethane (TBM)) in water samples
      decreased as the ferrate(VI) concentration increased. The concentrations of these
      trihalomethanes followed the order TCM > DCBM ~ DBCM > TBM.

PMID- 28863295
TI  - Enhanced chiral recognition by beta-cyclodextrin at liquid/liquid interfaces as
      revealed by chromatographic and interfacial tension measurements.
AB  - The chiral selectivity of beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) in the water/hexane (3.0%
      THF) two-phase system is studied with chromatography and interfacial tension
      measurements. Chromatography using silica gel impregnated with aqueous beta-CDas
      the stationary phase reveals that the chiral selectivity of this system is higher
      than that predicted from the beta-CD complexation that occurs in bulk water. The
      retention of the solutes and chiral selectivity can be explained by the
      adsorption of beta-CD at the interface between the aqueous phase (AP) and hexane
      (3.0% THF) phase. The interfacial tension measurements suggest that beta-CD
      molecules forms a monolayer at this interface. The interfacial complexation
      constants are larger than the corresponding bulk water constants by at least one
      order of magnitude. The beta-CD molecules adsorbed at the interface are
      preferably oriented for the formation of inclusion complexes, and thereby solute
      molecules are directly accommodated in the CD cavity at the interface without
      partitioning into the AP. The present chromatography-based method probes the
      interfacial phenomena that are not accessible by other methods. Hence, the
      liquid/liquid interface is a new field for molecular recognition that does not
      occur in bulk solution phases.

PMID- 28863296
TI  - Associations of prolonged standing with musculoskeletal symptoms-A systematic
      review of laboratory studies.
AB  - While prolonged standing has shown to be detrimentally associated with
      musculoskeletal symptoms, exposure limits and underlying mechanisms are not well
      understood. We systematically reviewed evidence from laboratory studies on
      musculoskeletal symptom development during prolonged (>=20min) uninterrupted
      standing, quantified acute dose-response associations and described underlying
      mechanisms. Peer-reviewed articles were systematically searched for. Data from
      included articles were tabulated, and dose-response associations were
      statistically pooled. A linear interpolation of pooled dose-response associations
      was performed to estimate the duration of prolonged standing associated with
      musculoskeletal symptoms with a clinically relevant intensity of >=9 (out of
      100). We included 26 articles (from 25 studies with 591 participants), of which
      the majority examined associations of prolonged standing with low back and lower
      extremity symptoms. Evidence on other (e.g., upper limb) symptoms was limited and
      inconsistent. Pooled dose-response associations showed that clinically relevant
      levels of low back symptoms were reached after 71min of prolonged standing, with
      this shortened to 42min in those considered pain developers. Regarding standing
      related low back symptoms, consistent evidence was found for postural mechanisms
      (i.e., trunk flexion and lumbar curvature), but not for mechanisms of muscle
      fatigue and/or variation in movement. Blood pooling was the most consistently
      reported mechanism for standing-related lower extremity symptoms. Evidence
      suggests a detrimental association of prolonged standing with low back and lower
      extremity symptoms. To avoid musculoskeletal symptoms (without having a-priori
      knowledge on whether someone will develop symptoms or not), dose-response
      evidence from this study suggests a recommendation to refrain from standing for
      prolonged periods >40min. Interventions should also focus on underlying pain
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28863297
TI  - Clinical gait evaluation of patients with knee osteoarthritis.
AB  - Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is the most common osteoarthritis in lower limbs, and
      gait measurement is important to evaluate walking function of KOA patients before
      and after treatment. The third generation Intelligent Device for Energy
      Expenditure and Activity (IDEEA3) is a portable gait analysis system to evaluate
      gaits. This study is to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of IDEEA3 for gait
      measurement of KOA patients. Meanwhile, gait differences between KOA patients and
      healthy subjects are examined. Twelve healthy volunteers were recruited for
      measurement comparison of gait cycle (GC), cadence, step length, velocity and
      step counts between a motion analysis system and a high-speed camera (GoPro
      Hero3). Twenty-three KOA patients were recruited for measurement comparison of
      former five parameters between GoPro Hero3 and IDEEA3. Paired t-test, Concordance
      Correlation Coefficient (CCC) and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were
      used for data analysis. All p-values of paired t-tests for GC, cadence, step
      length and velocity were greater than 0.05 while all CCC and ICC results were
      above 0.95. The measurements of GC, cadence, step length, velocity and step
      counts by motion analysis system are highly consistent with the measurements by
      GoPro Hero3. The measurements of former parameters by GoPro Hero3 are not
      statistically different from the measurements by IDEEA3. IDEEA3 can be
      effectively used for the measurement of GC, cadence, step length, velocity and
      step counts in KOA patients. The KOA patients walk with longer GC, lower cadence,
      shorter step length and slower speed compared with healthy subjects in natural
      speed with flat shoes.

PMID- 28863298
TI  - Effectiveness of assertive case management on repeat self-harm in patients
      admitted for suicide attempt: Findings from ACTION-J study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-harm is an important risk factor for subsequent suicide and
      repetition of self-harm, and a common cause of emergency department
      presentations. However, there still remains limited evidence on intervention in
      emergency department settings for individuals who self-harm. METHODS: This
      multicentre, randomised controlled trial was conducted at 17 general hospitals in
      Japan. In total, 914 adult patients admitted to emergency departments for a
      suicide attempt and had a DSM-IV-TR axis I disorder were randomly assigned to two
      groups, to receive either assertive case management (intervention) or enhanced
      usual care (control). Assertive case management was introduced by the case
      manager during emergency department admissions for suicide attempts, and
      continued after discharge. Interventions were provided until the end of the study
      period (for at least 18 months and up to 5 years). RESULTS: The number of overall
      self-harm episodes per person-year was significantly lower in the intervention
      group (adjusted incidence risk ratio (IRR) 0.88, 95%CI 0.80-0.96, p=0.0031).
      Subgroup analysis showed a greater reduction of overall self-harm episodes among
      patients with no previous suicide attempt at baseline (adjusted IRR 0.73, 95% CI
      0.53-0.98, p=0.037). LIMITATIONS: Patients younger than 20 years and patients who
      self-harmed but were not admitted to an emergency department were excluded.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that assertive case management following
      emergency admission for a suicide attempt reduced the incident rate of repeat
      overall self-harm.

PMID- 28863299
TI  - Sensory profiles as potential mediators of the association between hypomania and
      hopelessness in 488 major affective outpatients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Extreme sensory processing patterns may contribute to the
      pathophysiology of major affective disorders. We aimed to examine whether
      significant correlations exist between sensory profiles, hypomania, self-reported
      depression, and hopelessness and whether sensory profiles may be potential
      mediators of the association between hypomania and depression/hopelessness.
      METHODS: The sample consisted of 488 euthymic affective disorder patients of
      which 283 diagnosed with unipolar and 162 with bipolar disorder with an age
      ranging from 18 to 65 years (mean = 47.82 +/- 11.67). RESULTS: Lower registration
      of sensory input and sensory sensitivity significantly correlated with elevated
      self-reported depression, hopelessness, and irritable/risk-taking hypomania while
      sensation seeking and avoiding significantly correlated with elevated depression
      and hopelessness but not with irritable/risk-taking hypomania. Moreover,
      individuals with lower ability to register sensory input and higher hypomania
      showed higher self-reported depression than those with good registration of
      sensory information. According to SEM analyses, there was both a direct/indirect
      effect of irritable/risk-taking on depression-hopelessness with the mediation
      model explaining 48% of the variance in depression-hopelessness. LIMITATIONS: The
      relatively small sample size and the cross-sectional nature of the study design
      do not allow the generalization of the main findings. CONCLUSION: Low
      registration was associated with enhanced depressed mood and hopelessness while
      sensory seeking may be considered a resilient factor.

PMID- 28863300
TI  - Affective reactivity to daily life stress: Relationship to positive psychotic and
      depressive symptoms in a general population sample.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Increased affective reactivity to daily life stress has been found
      in individuals with psychosis and depression, and in those at risk for these
      conditions. Because depressive and psychotic symptoms often co-occur, increased
      affective reactivity in these disorders may be explained by the presence of
      depressive symptoms, psychotic symptoms, or both. Therefore, we examined whether
      affective reactivity to daily stress is related to positive psychotic symptoms,
      independently of depressive symptoms, and vice versa. METHODS: We used data from
      an intensive sampling study in the general population (n = 411), with three
      measurements a day (t = 90). The following subjective stressors were assessed:
      appraisal of activities, appraisal of social interactions, and experienced
      physical discomfort. Affective reactivity was conceptualized as both the positive
      affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) response to these stressors. By means of
      mixed model analyses, it was examined whether affective reactivity was
      independently related to depressive and/or positive psychotic symptoms. RESULTS:
      The PA response to activities and NA response to social interactions were
      negatively and positively related to depressive symptoms, respectively,
      independent of psychotic symptoms. In contrast, no (in)dependent association was
      found between positive psychotic symptoms and affective reactivity to any of the
      daily life stressors. These findings were confirmed in a subsample with increased
      symptoms. LIMITATIONS: The prevalence of positive psychotic symptoms was
      relatively low in this general population sample. CONCLUSIONS: Increased affect
      reactivity predicts depressive symptoms, but not positive psychotic symptoms.
      Affective reactivity may still facilitate the development of psychotic
      symptomatology via its impact on depressive symptoms.

PMID- 28863301
TI  - Long-term atmospheric visibility trends in megacities of China, India and the
      United States.
AB  - Millions of premature deaths worldwide every year mostly in China and India are
      contributed by the poor air quality. The atmospheric visibility is a proven
      indicator of the ambient air quality. In this study, nine megacities were
      selected, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from China, Chicago, Los
      Angeles (LA) and New York City (NYC) from the United States, and Mumbai, Chennai
      and Jaipur from India. The data of visibility, aerosol optical depth (AOD), and
      meteorological factors from 1973 to 2015 were collected. The temporal variations
      of annual and monthly percentages of bad days (visibility < 5km) and good days
      (visibility > 15km) were evaluated. Visibility of Chicago, LA and NYC gradually
      improved during the past 43 years and has reached a very good level (good day
      percentages: 75-88%; bad day percentages: 0 - 4%). Conversely, visibility in
      Mumbai, Chennai and Jaipur continued deteriorating and suffered an extremely poor
      visibility situation in recent years (good day percentages: 0; bad day
      percentages: 6-100%). Likewise, visibility in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou has
      experienced the worsening period during the industrial development from 1970s and
      turned better after the 1990s. A strong seasonal pattern of bad day percentages
      of each year were observed in most cities, especially in the winter, which is
      caused by the fossil fuel combustion for heating, relatively high relative
      humidity, and other unfavorable meteorological conditions. The low visibility
      events occurred more frequently in days with low wind speeds and specific wind
      directions, further explaining the seasonal patterns of visibility. With
      population growth from the period of 2000-2010 to the period of 2011-2015, AOD
      and bad day percentages both increased in Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur and Beijing
      while others were relatively stable. This study demonstrated that the macro
      control of pollution emissions could effectively reduce air deterioration. The
      relationships among visibility variation, meteorological, pollutant and
      population factors provide valuable scientific support for public health
      researches, air quality managements (monitoring and forecasting), and clean
      energy initiatives.

PMID- 28863302
TI  - Beyond the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): Developing a Natural
      Space Index for population-level health research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Natural spaces can provide psychological benefits to individuals, but
      population-level epidemiologic studies have produced conflicting results.
      Refining current exposure-assessment methods is necessary to advance our
      understanding of population health and to guide the design of health-promoting
      urban forms. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive
      Natural Space Index that robustly models potential exposure based on the
      presence, form, accessibility, and quality of multiple forms of greenspace (e.g.,
      parks and street trees) and bluespace (e.g., oceans and lakes). MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The index was developed for greater Vancouver, Canada. Greenness
      presence was derived from remote sensing (NDVI/EVI); forms were extracted from
      municipal and private databases; and accessibility was based on restrictions such
      as private ownership. Quality appraisals were conducted for 200 randomly sampled
      parks using the Public Open Space Desktop Appraisal Tool (POSDAT). Integrating
      these measures in GIS, exposure was assessed for 60,242 postal codes using 100-
      to 1,600-m buffers based on hypothesized pathways to mental health. A single
      index was then derived using principal component analysis (PCA). RESULTS:
      Comparing NDVI with alternate approaches for assessing natural space resulted in
      widely divergent results, with quintile rankings shifting for 22-88% of postal
      codes, depending on the measure. Overall park quality was fairly low (mean of 15
      on a scale of 0-45), with no significant difference seen by neighborhood-level
      household income. The final PCA identified three main sets of variables, with the
      first two components explaining 68% of the total variance. The first component
      was dominated by the percentages of public and private greenspace and bluespace
      and public greenspace within 250m, while the second component was driven by lack
      of access to bluespace within 1 km. CONCLUSIONS: Many current approaches to
      modeling natural space may misclassify exposures and have limited specificity.
      The Natural Space Index represents a novel approach at a regional scale with
      application to urban planning and policy-making.

PMID- 28863303
TI  - Low doses and non-targeted effects in environmental radiation protection; where
      are we now and where should we go?
AB  - The field of low dose radiobiology has advanced considerably in the last 30 years
      from small indications in the 1980's that all was not simple, to a paradigm shift
      which occurred during the 1990's, which severely dented the dose-driven models
      and DNA centric theories which had dominated until then. However while the
      science has evolved, the application of that science in environmental health
      protection has not. A reason for this appears to be the uncertainties regarding
      the shape of the low dose response curve, which lead regulators to adopt a
      precautionary approach to radiation protection. Radiation protection models
      assume a linear relationship between dose (i.e. energy deposition) and effect (in
      this case probability of an adverse DNA interaction leading to a mutation). This
      model does not consider non-targeted effects (NTE) such as bystander effects or
      delayed effects, which occur in progeny cells or offspring not directly receiving
      energy deposition from the dose. There is huge controversy concerning the role of
      NTE with some saying they reflect "biology" and that repair and homeostatic
      mechanisms sort out the apparent damage while others consider them to be a class
      of damage which increases the size of the target. One thing which has recently
      become apparent is that NTE may be very critical for modelling long-term effects
      at the level of the population rather than the individual. The issue is that NTE
      resulting from an acute high dose such as occurred after the A-bomb or Chernobyl
      occur in parallel with chronic effects induced by the continuing residual effects
      due to radiation dose decay. This means that if ambient radiation doses are
      measured for example 25 years after the Chernobyl accident, they only represent a
      portion of the dose effect because the contribution of NTE is not included.

PMID- 28863304
TI  - Is therapist evaluation of Social Anxiety/Avoidance traits associated with
      patient-reported attachment style?
AB  - The Social Anxiety/Avoidance Scale was recently added to the Shedler Westen
      Assessment Procedure (SWAP), and requires independent validation. This study used
      data drawn from a larger ongoing project in order to retrospectively examine its
      convergent validity with two self-report attachment measures: Relationship
      Questionnaire (RQ) and Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire-Revised
      (ECR-R). Fifty-two patients completed the RQ and the ECR-R before beginning
      psychotherapy treatment. Clinicians rated the patients on the SWAP after six
      sessions. The SWAP Social Anxiety/Avoidance Scale (SWAP-SAAS) was negatively
      related to the RQ secure attachment prototype scale and positively related to the
      ECR-R attachment anxiety scale. Our findings provide initial support for the use
      of the SWAP-SAAS as a therapist-rated measure associated with lower patient
      reported levels of fit with a secure attachment prototype and with higher patient
      reported levels of attachment anxiety. Implications and suggestions for future
      research on the SWAP-SAAS, as well as for clinical work with socially anxious and
      avoidant patients, are discussed.

PMID- 28863305
TI  - Diterpenoids from the roots of Croton dichogamus Pax.
AB  - Four previously undescribed diterpenoids including two crotofolanes,
      crotodichogamoin A and B, and two halimanes, crothalimene A and B, a new
      sesquiterpenoid, and fifteen previously reported compounds, including the
      crotofolane, crotohaumanoxide, the casbane, depressin, a further seven
      furanohalimane diterpenoids, three patchoulane and two further cadinane
      sesquiterpenoids and aleuritolic acid were isolated from the root of Croton
      dichogamus. Crotodichogamoin B is an important biosynthetic intermediate of the
      crotofolane class and this is the first report of patchoulene sesquiterpenoids
      from the genus. Compounds were tested at one concentration, 1 * 10-5 M, in the
      NCI59 cell one-dose screen but did not show significant activity snd were also
      evaluated for their cytotoxicity against Caco-2 cell lines using the neutral red
      assay. 10-epi-Maninsigin D reduced Caco-2 cell viability at 10, 30 and 100 MUM,
      with values of decreased viability of 28%, 48% and 43% respectively. None of the
      other tested compounds showed significant activity.

PMID- 28863306
TI  - The study of flavonolignan association patterns in fruits of diverging Silybum
      marianum (L.) Gaertn. chemotypes provides new insights into the silymarin
      biosynthetic pathway.
AB  - Silymarin is the phytochemical with medicinal properties extracted from Silybum
      marianum (L.) Gaertn. fruits. Yet, little information is available about
      silymarin biosynthesis. Moreover, the generally accepted pathway, formulated thus
      far, is not in agreement with actual experimental measurements on flavonolignan
      contents. The present work analyses flavonolignan and taxifolin content in 201 S.
      marianum samples taking into consideration a wide phenotypic variability. Two
      stable chemotypes were identified: one characterized by both high silychristin
      and silybin content (chemotype A) and another by a high silydianin content
      (chemotype B). Through the correlation analysis of samples divided according to
      chemotype, it was possible to construct a simplified silymarin biosynthetic
      pathway that is sufficiently versatile in explaining experimental results
      responding to the actually unresolved questions about this process. The proposed
      pathway highlights that three separate and equally sized metabolite pools exist,
      namely: diastereoisomers A (silybin A plus isosilybin A), diastereoisomers B
      (silybin B plus isosilybin B) and silychristin. In both A and B diastereoisomers
      pools, isosilybin A and isosilybin B always represent a given amount of the
      metabolite flux through the specific metabolite pool suggesting the possible
      involvement of dirigent protein-like enzymes. We suggest that chemotype B
      possesses a complete silymarin biosynthetic pathway in which silydianin
      biosynthesis is enzymatically controlled. On the contrary, chemotype A is
      probably a natural mutant unable to biosynthesize silydianin. The present
      simplified pathway for silymarin biosynthesis will constitute an important tool
      for the further understanding of the reactions that drive flavonolignan
      biosynthesis in S. marianum.

PMID- 28863307
TI  - Transcriptomic characterization of bovine primary cultured hepatocytes; a cross
      comparison with a bovine liver and the Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells.
AB  - Bovine primary cultured hepatocytes (CHs) are widely used in vitro models for
      liver toxicity testing. However, little is known about their whole-transcriptome
      profile and its resemblance to the normal liver tissue. In the present study, we
      profiled - by microarray - the whole-transcriptome of bovine CHs (n=4) and
      compared it with the transcriptomic landscape of control liver samples (n=8), as
      well the Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cells (n=4). Compared with liver
      tissue, the bovine CHs relatively expressed (fold change >2, P<0.05) about 2155
      and 2073 transcripts at a lower and higher abundance, respectively. Of those
      expressed at a lower abundance, many were drug biotransformation enzyme-coding
      genes, such as the cytochrome P450 family (CYPs), sulfotransferases,
      methyltransferases, and glutathione S-transferases. Also, several drug
      transporters and solute carriers were expressed at a lower abundance in bovine
      CHs. 'Drug metabolism', 'PPAR signaling', and 'metabolism of xenobiotics by CYPs'
      were among the most negatively-enriched pathways in bovine CHs compared with
      liver. A qPCR cross-validation using 8 selected genes evidenced a high
      correlation (r=0.95, P=0.001) with the corresponding microarray results. Although
      from a kidney origin, and albeit to a lower extent compared to bovine CHs, the
      MDBK cells showed a basal expression of many CYP-coding genes. Our study provides
      a whole-transcriptome-based evidence for the bovine CHs and hepatic tissue
      resemblance. Overall, the bovine CHs' transcriptomic profile might render it
      unreliable as an in vitro model to study drug metabolism.

PMID- 28863308
TI  - Clickable and imageable multiblock polymer micelles with magnetically guided and
      PEG-switched targeting and release property for precise tumor theranosis.
AB  - Targeted delivery of therapeutics and diagnostics using nanotechnology holds
      great promise to minimize the side effects of conventional chemotherapy and
      enable specific and real-time detection of diseases. To realize this goal, we
      report a clickable and imageable nanovehicle assembled from multiblock
      polyurethanes (MPUs). The soft segments of the polymers are based on detachable
      poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and degradable poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), and
      the hard segments are constructed from lysine- and cystine-derivatives bearing
      reduction-responsive disulfide linkages and click-active alkynyl moieties,
      allowing for post-conjugation of targeting ligands via a click chemistry. It was
      found that the cleavage of PEG corona bearing a pH-sensitive benzoic-imine
      linkage (BPEG) could act as an on-off switch, which is capable of activating the
      clicked targeting ligands under extracellular acidic condition, followed by
      triggering the core degradation and payload release within tumor cells. In
      combination with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) clustered
      within the micellar core, the MPUs exhibit excellent magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) contrast effects and T2 relaxation in vitro, as well as magnetically guided
      MR imaging and multimodal targeting of therapeutics to tumor precisely, leading
      to significant inhibition of cancer with minimal side effect. This work provides
      a safe and versatile platform for the further development of smart theranostic
      systems for potential magnetically-targeted and imaging-guided personalized
      medicine.

PMID- 28863309
TI  - Polymeric nanoparticles of siRNA prepared by a double-emulsion solvent-diffusion
      technique: Physicochemical properties, toxicity, biodistribution and efficacy in
      a mammary carcinoma mice model.
AB  - siRNA-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) administered systemically can overcome the poor
      stability and rapid elimination of free double-stranded RNA in circulation,
      resulting in increased tumor accumulation and efficacy. siRNA against osteopontin
      (siOPN), a protein involved in breast cancer development, was encapsulated in
      poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) NPs by a double emulsion solvent diffusion
      (DESD) technique. We also compared the effect of polyethylenimine (PEI) molecular
      weight (800 Da and 25 kDa), used as the counter-ion for siRNA complexation, on
      the physicochemical properties of the NPs, cytotoxicity, and cellular uptake. NPs
      prepared by the DESD technique were obtained at the desired size (~170 nm) using
      both types of PEIs, and were characterized with a neutral surface charge, high
      encapsulation yield (up to ~60%), siOPN concentration of 5.6-8.4 MUg/mg,
      stability in physiologic conditions in vitro and in vivo, and long-term shelf
      life stability (> 3 years). The NPs prepared using both PEIs exhibited no
      cytotoxicity in primary smooth muscle culture, and no detrimental effect on mice
      liver enzymes following their IV administration. Following cellular uptake and
      biodistribution studies, the therapeutic potential of the NPs was demonstrated by
      a significant decrease of tumor progression and size in an ectopic xenograft
      model of mammary carcinoma in mice.

PMID- 28863310
TI  - Altered patterns of resting-state functional connectivity between the caudate and
      other brain regions in medication-naive children with attention deficit
      hyperactivity disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Structural and functional alterations occur in the caudate of
      patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Here we aimed to
      investigate the functional connectivity between the dorsal caudate and other
      brain regions in ADHD children. METHODS: Resting-state functional connectivity
      from 30 ADHD and 33 age- and gender-matched "normal" children were measured by
      functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. RESULTS: Positive connectivity with dorsal
      caudate was observed in the prefrontal areas, cingulate cortex and temporal lobe.
      Negative functional connectivity was observed in the precuneus, occipital
      cortices and cerebellum. The connectivity of left dorsal caudate to left inferior
      frontal gyrus was correlated with severity of ADHD. CONCLUSIONS: Connectivity of
      dorsal caudate with several brain regions was identified in ADHD children.

PMID- 28863311
TI  - Approach-avoidance responses to infant facial expressions in nulliparous women:
      Associations with early experience and mood induction.
AB  - Infant expressions are important signals for eliciting caregiving behaviors in
      parents. The present study sought to test if infant expressions affect adults'
      behavioral response, taking into account the role of a mood induction and
      childhood caregiving experiences. A modified version of the Approach Avoidance
      Task (AAT) was employed to study nulliparous female university students' implicit
      responses to infant faces with different expressions. Study 1 showed that sad,
      neutral and sleepy expressions elicit a tendency for avoidance, while no tendency
      for approach or avoidance was found for happy faces. Notably, differences between
      approach and avoidance response latencies for sad faces and participants'
      negative caregiving experiences were positively correlated (r=0.30, p=0.04,
      Bonferroni corrected), indicating that individuals who experienced insensitive
      parental care show more bias toward sad infant faces. In Study 2, we manipulated
      participants' current mood (inducing sad and happy mood by asking to recall a
      happy or sad event of their recent life) before the AAT. Results showed that sad
      mood enhanced the bias toward sad faces that is buffered by positive mood
      induction. In conclusion, these findings indicate that implicit approach
      avoidance behaviors in females depend on the emotional expression of infant faces
      and are associated with childhood caregiving experiences and current mood.

PMID- 28863312
TI  - Healthcare cost of HER2-positive and negative breast tumors in the United States
      (2012-2035).
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we estimated the current and future costs related to
      the use of targeted agents in patients with HER2-positive and negative advanced
      breast cancer (BC), aimed at identifying the subgroup associated with the higher
      cost in the coming years. METHODS: We calculated the patient cost considering an
      ideal patient who received therapeutic sequences including all approved agents
      for HER2-positive or negative BC. The duration of treatment was estimated by the
      median Progression-Free Survival (PFS) reported in the phase III trials which
      have led to the approval of these drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration.
      The estimated number of BC patients in the US from 2012 to 2035 refers to data
      published by the World Health Organization. RESULTS: The per patient cost was
      $292,155 for HER2-positive and $224,955 for negative tumors, respectively. The
      total cost for HER2-positive patients was estimated for 2012 at $2,719,542,347,
      with an annual increase ranged from 4.3 (for 2035) to 7.7% (for 2020), leading to
      a total expense of $3,648,232,975 in 2035. Otherwise, the total cost for HER2
      negative patients in 2012 was estimated as $8,376,028,459, with an increase of
      more than $2.5 billion from 2012 to 2035. The estimated cost for HER2-negative
      patients was $5.6 billion higher that for HER2-positive tumors, raising to $7.6
      billion to 2035. CONCLUSIONS: Our data strongly suggest that cost-analyses should
      be carefully evaluated in the coming years, in particular in patients with HER2
      negative tumors.

PMID- 28863313
TI  - Duration of adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2 positive breast cancer: Overall and
      disease free survival results from meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One year of trastuzumab, chosen empirically, improves survival of
      women with early-stage, HER2-positive breast cancer but also adds substantially
      to cost, toxicity, and inconvenience. Longer treatment does not improve outcomes,
      but potentiates toxicities. METHODS: Medline, Embase, and major conference
      proceedings were searched systematically in June 2017 to identify Randomized
      Controlled Trials (RCTs) comparing one year versus shorter durations of
      trastuzumab in adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. Reported Hazard-Ratios (HR)
      for Overall Survival (OS) and Disease-Free Survival (DFS), and Odds-Ratio for
      cardiac events, with respective 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) from each study was
      weighted using generic inverse-variance, and pooled in a meta-analysis. Inter
      study heterogeneity and sub-group difference (based on hormone-receptors and node
      positivity) were assessed using I2, and chi2 statistics, respectively. RESULTS:
      Four studies (n=7614) satisfied inclusion criteria. Individual RCTs had diverse
      pre-specified upper-limits of 95% CI for declaring non-inferiority (range: <1.15
      to <1.53). Pooled results demonstrated significant improvements in OS (HR 1.28,
      p=0.04), and DFS (HR 1.24, p=0.005) with 1year of trastuzumab compared to shorter
      durations. Absence of multiplicity argument allowed for declaring superiority of
      1year of trastuzumab based on our results despite non-inferiority designs of
      individual trials. No influence on overall effect by duration of trastuzumab in
      experimental arm (9weeks versus 6months) was noted. No statistical interaction by
      hormone-receptor status and node-positivity on overall results was noticed [p(sub
      group difference) 0.73, and 0.52, respectively]. Odds-Ratio for cardiac events
      was 2.65 (p<0.001) favoring shorter duration. CONCLUSION: One year of trastuzumab
      prolongs overall, and disease-free survivals in women with early-stage HER2
      positive breast cancer compared to shorter durations and this should remain as
      the standard of care. Cardiotoxicity increased significantly with the 1-year
      treatment.

PMID- 28863314
TI  - When do you know what you know? The emergence of memory monitoring.
AB  - Recent research on comparative metacognition shows that animals, like humans, can
      differentiate between what they know and what they do not know. However, not much
      is known about the metacognitive behaviors of human children during their early
      years. To explore the emergence of memory-monitoring skills, two experiments were
      conducted using nonverbal tasks adapted from the work of Kornell, Son, and
      Terrace (2007) and Hampton (2001). Experiment 1 endeavored to determine when
      children began to show the ability to monitor their memories retrospectively.
      Experiment 2 aimed to reveal when young children knew what they knew by assessing
      their prospective monitoring. The results suggested that 4- to 5-year-olds had
      the ability to judge retrospectively their accuracy in a serial position task,
      whereas 3- to 4-year-olds did not. In contrast, 4.5- to 5-year-olds could discern
      items present in and absent from their memory before recognition, whereas 4- to
      4.5-year-olds could not. In conclusion, 4-year-olds began to make accurate
      confidence judgments retrospectively, and children who are approximately 4.5years
      old began to demonstrate prospective memory-monitoring skills.

PMID- 28863315
TI  - A biosocial cognitive model of cannabis use in emerging adulthood.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to test a new theoretical model of cannabis
      use incorporating biologically-based personality traits and social cognition.
      This biosocial cognitive theory (bSCT) has robust support in alcohol studies, but
      has not been applied to cannabis. The model proposes two pathways linking
      dimensions of impulsivity to cannabis use. The first predicts that the
      association between Reward Sensitivity (SR) and cannabis use is mediated by
      positive outcome expectancies. The second predicts that the relationship between
      Rash Impulsiveness (RI) and cannabis use is mediated by cannabis refusal self
      efficacy. An extended version of this model was also tested and included a third
      pathway linking Punishment Sensitivity (SP) to cannabis use via higher negative
      outcome expectancies. METHOD: Participants were 252 18-to-21-year-olds who
      completed questionnaires assessing cannabis use, personality and social
      cognition. Theoretical models were tested using structural equation modeling.
      RESULTS: The bSCT model provided a good fit to the data (CFI=0.95; RMSEA=0.07;
      SRMR=0.06). Positive cannabis expectancies and refusal self-efficacy partially
      mediated the association between SR and cannabis use (p<0.05). Cannabis refusal
      self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between RI and cannabis use
      (p<0.05). The addition of a third SP pathway did not improve model fit.
      CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with alcohol studies, the association between impulsivity
      and cannabis use is largely mediated by social cognition. The bSCT may provide
      novel insights to inform prevention and treatment of problematic cannabis use.

PMID- 28863316
TI  - Use of hormonal contraceptives and smoking cessation: A preliminary report.
AB  - Although endogenous sex hormones influence smoking-related outcomes, little is
      known about the effect of exogenous sex hormones. Therefore, the goal of this
      preliminary study was to examine differences in withdrawal symptoms and cessation
      between women using hormonal contraceptives (HC), women not using hormonal
      contraceptives (no-HC) and men. Utilizing data from two recently completed
      smoking cessation randomized clinical trials, we selected participants who were
      between the ages of 18-35years old. Participants were classified based on use of
      hormonal contraceptives and gender, then matched based on pharmacotherapy
      randomization assignment and baseline cigarettes per day. Participants provided
      self-reported assessments on withdrawal, craving and negative affect, and smoking
      status was assessed for 52weeks after quit date. Participants (N=130) were 28.7+/
      0.4years old and smoked 16.8+/-0.6 cigarettes/day. Compared to both no-HC and
      men, the HC group had significantly greater withdrawal one week prior to the quit
      date, on the quit date and one week after the quit date. During the first week of
      attempted abstinence, craving declined in HC and in men, but increased in no-HC.
      At end of treatment, the HC group was at 3.73 times higher odds of being
      abstinent compared to men (95% confidence interval: 1.12-12.40). There were no
      group differences in abstinence rates at Week 26 or 52. These data suggest that
      HC users may experience more adverse levels of withdrawal, though may be more
      likely to achieve short-term abstinence. Future research is needed to replicate
      our observations and explore mechanisms of action.

PMID- 28863317
TI  - Mediator or moderator? The role of mindfulness in the association between child
      behavior problems and parental stress.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Raising a child with intellectual disability (ID) may be stressful
      for parents. Previous studies have suggested the mediating role of mindfulness in
      the association between child behavior problems and parental stress. AIMS: The
      present study examined whether this mediating role is a result of parents' self
      report bias. It also explored whether mindfulness has a moderating role instead
      when child behavior problems are reported by teachers. METHODS: In a
      questionnaire survey, 271 Chinese parents of children with ID in 6 Hong Kong
      special schools reported their levels of stress and mindfulness, as well as their
      children's behavior problems. The latter was also reported by teachers. RESULTS:
      When child behavior problems were reported by parents, parental mindfulness was a
      mediator between child behavior problems and parental stress. In contrast, when
      child behavior problems were reported by teachers, parental mindfulness was a
      moderator between child behavior problems and parental stress. CONCLUSION: The
      mediation role of mindfulness maybe an artifact of measurement. The findings
      provide an encouraging message that parenting a child with ID and behavior
      problems does not necessarily mean more stress among all parents. Parents with a
      high level of mindfulness may experience less stress than those with a low level
      of mindfulness. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Parents of children with intellectual
      disability (ID) tend to report high psychological stress. Previous self-report
      studies have identified mindfulness as a mediator in the association between
      child behavior problems and parental stress. The present study differs from
      previous studies by including third-party's reports. It has contributed to the
      existing body of knowledge in two respects. First, it examined whether the
      mediation effect resulted from parent self-report bias. Second, it tested an
      alternative hypothesis of the moderation effect by using teachers' reports to
      measure child behavior problems. The results showed that when child behavior
      problems were measured by parents' reports, parental mindfulness was a mediator
      between child behavior problems and parental stress. The more the parents
      reported that their children had behavior problems, the less they reported being
      mindful, which in turn the more stressful they were. However, when child behavior
      problems were measured by teachers' reports, parental mindfulness was a moderator
      instead, moderating the association between child behavior problems and parental
      stress. The association was ameliorated when parents reported high levels of
      mindfulness. These findings reveal another possible role of mindfulness and shed
      light on the support for parents of children with ID.

PMID- 28863318
TI  - Therapeutic effect of carnosine in rat model of experimental liver
      carcinogenesis.
AB  - The possible anticancer effect of carnosine versus doxorubicin was investigated
      against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) induced by trichloroacetic acid (TCA)
      (500mg/kg/day, p.o., for 5days) in rats. Following induction of HCC, rats treated
      with either carnosine (10mg/kg/day, i.p.), or doxorubicin (2.5mg/kg, i.p., once
      weekly), for 2 weeks. Carnosine significantly decreased serum alanine
      aminotransferase, and hepatic lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide, tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha, and nuclear factor-kappaB p65 unit, and significantly increased
      liver total antioxidant status in TCA-challenged rats. The effects of doxorubicin
      on oxidative, nitrative, and inflammatory biomarkers were less significant than
      carnosine. However, both carnosine and doxorubicin significantly induced liver
      tissue apoptotic biomarkers, Bax, cytosolic cytochrome C, and caspase-3, in a
      comparable manner. Additionally, carnosine and doxorubicin reduced the
      histopathological dysplastic changes, and alpha-fetoprotein expression in liver
      of rats with HCC. It was concluded that carnosine significantly protected against
      TCA-induced liver carcinogenesis in rats, through its antioxidant, antinitrative,
      and anti-inflammatory effects, and induction of apoptosis.

PMID- 28863319
TI  - Comparison of mechanical compressive properties of commercial and autologous
      fibrin glues for tissue engineering applications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fibrin glues are widely used in orthopedic surgery as adhesives and
      hemostatic agents. We evaluated the compressive properties of selected fibrin
      glues in order to identify which are appropriate for tissue regeneration
      applications subject to compression. METHODS: Uniaxial unconfined compression
      tests were performed on fibrin gels prepared from commercial and autologous
      products: (1) Evicel (Ethicon), (2) Tisseel (Baxter), (3) Angel (Arthrex), and
      (4) ProPlaz (Biorich). Cyclic loads were applied from 0 to 30% strain for
      100cycles at 0.5Hz. Following cyclic testing, specimens were subjected to ramp
      displacement of 1% strain per second to 80% strain. FINDINGS: Throughout cyclic
      loading, Evicel and Tisseel deformed (shortened) less than Angel at all but one
      time point, and deformed less than ProPlaz at cycles 10 and 20. The dynamic
      moduli, peak stress, and strain energy were significantly greater in Tisseel than
      all other groups. Evicel displayed significantly greater dynamic moduli, peak
      stress, and strain energy than Angel and ProPlaz. Following cyclic testing,
      Tisseel and Evicel were significantly less deformed than Angel. No specimens
      exhibited gross failure during ramp loading to 80% strain. Ramp loading trends
      mirrored those of cyclic loading. INTERPRETATION: The tested commercial glues
      were significantly more resistant to compression than the autologous products.
      The compressive properties of Tisseel were approximately twice those of Evicel.
      All preparations displayed moduli multiple orders of magnitude less than that of
      native articular cartilage. We conclude that in knee surgeries requiring fibrin
      glue to undergo compression of daily activity, commercial products are preferable
      to autologous preparations from platelet-poor plasma, though both will deform
      significantly.

PMID- 28863320
TI  - NTRK2 (TrkB gene) variants and temporal lobe epilepsy: A genetic association
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The NTRK2 gene encodes a member of the neurotrophic tyrosine kinase
      receptor family known as TrkB. It is a membrane-associated receptor with
      signaling and cellular differentiation properties that has been involved in
      neuropsychiatric disorders, including epilepsy. We report here the frequencies of
      NTRK2 allele variants in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) compared to
      controls without epilepsy and explore the impact of these polymorphisms on major
      clinical variables in TLE. METHODS: A case-control study comparing the
      frequencies of the NTRK2 gene polymorphisms beween 198 TLE Caucasian patients and
      200 matching controls without epilepsy. In a second step, the impact of allelic
      variation on major clinical and electroencephalographic epilepsy variables was
      evaluated in the group of TLE patients. The following polymorphisms were
      determined by testing different regions of the NTRK2 gene: rs1867283, rs10868235,
      rs1147198, rs11140800, rs1187286, rs2289656, rs1624327, rs1443445, rs3780645, and
      rs2378672. To correct for multiple correlations the level of significance was set
      at p<0.01. RESULTS: Patients with TLE showed a statistical trend for increase of
      the T/T genotype in rs10868235 compared to control (O.R.=1.90; 95%CI=1.17-3.09;
      p=0.01). Homozygous patients for the A allele in rs1443445 had earlier mean age
      at onset of seizures, p=0.009 (mean age of 16.6 versus 22.4years). We also
      observed that the T allele in rs3780645 was more frequent in patients who needed
      polytheraphy for seizure control than in patients on monotherapy, (O.R.=4.13;
      95%CI=1.68-10.29; p=0.001). This finding may reflect an increased difficulty to
      obtain seizure control in this group of patients. No additional differences were
      observed in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with epilepsy showed a trend for a
      difference in rs10868235 allelic distribution compared to controls without
      epilepsy. NTRK2 variability influenced age at seizure onset and the
      pharmacological response to seizure control. As far as we know, this is the first
      study showing an association between NTKR2 allelic variants in human epilepsy. We
      believe that further studies in this venue will shade some light on the molecular
      mechanisms involved in epileptogenesis and in the clinical characteristics of
      epilepsy.

PMID- 28863321
TI  - The role of necroptosis in status epilepticus-induced brain injury in juvenile
      rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the role of necroptosis in status epilepticus (SE)-induced
      injury in the developing brain and the possible associations of necroptosis with
      epileptogenesis and cognitive dysfunction. METHODS: The lithium-pilocarpine
      epilepsy model was reproduced in male rats at postnatal day 25. Propidium iodide
      (PI) staining was used to detect cell death after SE. Transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM) was performed to observe morphological changes in injured
      neurons. Western blot and immunofluorescence (IF) staining were used to
      investigate the expression of receptor interacting protein kinase-3 (RIP3), mixed
      lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL), and p-MLKL after SE. EEG was monitored during
      the chronic epileptic period. The Morris water maze test was performed to
      evaluate spatial learning and memory in juvenile rats after SE. RESULTS: Massive
      PI-positive (PI+) neurocytes were observed mainly in the amygdala and piriform
      cortex 24h to 7days after SE, with the most prominent changes observed after 72h.
      Injured neurons observed via TEM exhibited necroptotic morphological features,
      including loss of ribosomes, autophagosome formations, deformed nuclei with
      condensed and marginated chromatin, and disruptive cell membranes. The expression
      of RIP3 and p-MLKL increased after 24h, peaked at 72h, and decreased 7days after
      SE. In addition, IF staining revealed that MLKL was expressed in cell plasma
      membranes present in the amygdala and piriform cortex. This finding was
      concomitant with the fact that MLKL is involved in executing necroptosis by
      binding and disrupting the plasma membrane. During the chronic epileptic period,
      spontaneous recurrent seizures were observed behaviorally and interictal spikes
      and sharp waves were recorded by EEG in the SE group. The Morris water maze test
      revealed that in the place navigation test, the escape latency of the SE group
      was longer than that of the control group (p<0.05). In the spatial probe test,
      the number of times the rats in the SE group passed through the original platform
      site was lesser than that of the rats in the control group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION:
      SE-induced brain injury leads to neuronal necroptosis in juvenile rats. MLKL may
      play a significant role in the execution of SE-induced necroptosis. Further
      studies are required to determine whether inhibiting necroptosis can prevent
      chronic epileptogenesis and improve cognitive ability for juvenile rats.

PMID- 28863322
TI  - IL-17 contributes to the pathogenesis of obliterative bronchiolitis via
      regulation of M1 macrophages polarization in murine heterotopic trachea
      transplantation models.
AB  - Acute allograft rejection is a principal conundrum in lung obliterative
      bronchiolitis (OB). Monocytes/macrophages infiltration has been proved to be the
      main reason for acute rejection. IL-17 contributes to the recruitment and
      function of macrophages. However, the mechanism of IL-17 underlying OB
      progression remains elusive. In the present study, we showed that the deficiency
      of IL-17 attenuated the pathology of murine heterotopic trachea allografts.
      Compared to WT recipients, IL-17-/- mice displayed higher frequency of CD206+
      cells and lower ratio of CD86+ cells among F4/80+ macrophages in allografts and
      spleens on day 7 post heterotopic trachea transplantation. Moreover, mRNA levels
      of pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, TNF-alpha, and IL-1beta decreased
      in allografts of IL-17-/- recipients, but these of MRC1 and Arg-1 increased in
      comparison with WT. IL-17 deficiency can inhibit LPS induced M1 while promote IL
      4 induced M2 polarization of bone marrow-derived macrophages. Further data
      demonstrated that the deficiency of IL-17 suppressed the lipopolysaccharide
      induced M1 polarization and function through prevention of phosphorylation of
      both STAT3 and STAT5. Therefore, IL-17 contributes to OB pathogenesis through
      regulating macrophages function, thereby it may unravel part of the complexity of
      IL-17 in OB and enhance future therapeutic development.

PMID- 28863323
TI  - Ethyl pyruvate reverses development of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia during
      sepsis-induced immunosuppression.
AB  - Sepsis is characterized by an innate immune response and the following immune
      dysfunction which can increase the emergence of secondary infections. Ethyl
      pyruvate (EP) has multiple immunoregulation functions in several serious
      illnesses, such as burn injury, severe sepsis and acute respiratory syndrome.
      However, little data was shown the effect of EP administration on
      immunosuppression post-CLP and the following secondary infection. The cecal
      ligation and puncture (CLP) followed by the induction of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      (PA) was used as a clinically relevant two-hit model of sepsis. We assessed the
      survival rate, lung damage and lung bacterial clearance in vehicle or EP
      treatment group to demonstrate the lung response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa of
      septic mice. Then cytokines including lung IL-6, IL-1beta, IL-10 and plasma
      HMGB1, apoptosis of splenic immune cells and Foxp3 level on regulatory T cells
      (Tregs) were studied to demonstrate the mechanisms of EP administration on two
      hit mice. We found that the susceptibility of septic mice to Secondary
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia could be down-regulated by ethyl pyruvate
      treatment and the protective effects of EP may via decreasing lung IL-10 and
      plasma HMGB1 expression, inhibiting the function of Tregs and relieving the
      apoptosis of splenic immune cells. The "immune paralysis" post-sepsis still
      remains a rigorous challenge for curing sepsis, our study may aid in the
      development of new therapeutic strategies to this problem.

PMID- 28863324
TI  - Quantification of viable and non-viable Legionella spp. by heterogeneous
      asymmetric recombinase polymerase amplification (haRPA) on a flow-based
      chemiluminescence microarray.
AB  - Increasing numbers of legionellosis outbreaks within the last years have shown
      that Legionella are a growing challenge for public health. Molecular biological
      detection methods capable of rapidly identifying viable Legionella are important
      for the control of engineered water systems. The current gold standard based on
      culture methods takes up to 10 days to show positive results. For this reason, a
      flow-based chemiluminescence (CL) DNA microarray was developed that is able to
      quantify viable and non-viable Legionella spp. as well as Legionella pneumophila
      in one hour. An isothermal heterogeneous asymmetric recombinase polymerase
      amplification (haRPA) was carried out on flow-based CL DNA microarrays. Detection
      limits of 87 genomic units (GU) uL-1 and 26GUuL-1 for Legionella spp. and
      Legionella pneumophila, respectively, were achieved. In this work, it was shown
      for the first time that the combination of a propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment
      with haRPA, the so-called viability haRPA, is able to identify viable Legionella
      on DNA microarrays. Different proportions of viable and non-viable Legionella,
      shown with the example of L. pneumophila, ranging in a total concentration
      between 101 to 105GUuL-1 were analyzed on the microarray analysis platform MCR 3.
      Recovery values for viable Legionella spp. were found between 81% and 133%. With
      the combination of these two methods, there is a chance to replace culture-based
      methods in the future for the monitoring of engineered water systems like
      condensation recooling plants.

PMID- 28863325
TI  - Recent advances and future prospects in molecularly imprinted polymers-based
      electrochemical biosensors.
AB  - Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs)-based electrochemical biosensors (ECBSs)
      have many advantages from MIPs and ECBSs, such as high selectivity and
      sensitivity, chemical/mechanical stability, reusability, low limit of detection,
      facile preparation and low cost. MIPs-based ECBSs attract much attention in
      medical diagnose, biological analysis, environmental monitoring, food safety
      evaluation, etc. Due to the capacity of highly specific recognition for target
      biomolecules, MIPs-based ECBSs have been smartly designed and extensively used
      for electrochemical sensing applications in recent years, exhibiting obvious
      superiority over other analytical techniques. In this review, firstly we
      systematically summarize the recent advances of MIPs-based ECBSs reported in
      recent years, referring to the preparation, structures and components of sensing
      systems. Secondly, we highlight the sensing applications for various significant
      biomolecules (proteins, antibiotics, pesticide, neurotransmitter, hormone, etc.),
      and demonstrate the sensing mechanism and detection performance. Finally, the
      rational summaries, present challenges and future prospects in the field of MIPs
      based ECBSs have been discussed reasonably.

PMID- 28863326
TI  - Confocal epifluorescence sensor with an arc-shaped aperture for slide-based PCR
      quantification.
AB  - The increasing needs of point-of-care diagnostics, quarantine of epidemic
      pathogens, and prevention of terrorism's bio-attacks have promised the future of
      portable real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) sensors. This
      work aims at developing a highly sensitive and low-cost light emitting diode
      (LED)-based epifluorescence sensor module for qPCR sensor development and
      relevant bioassay applications. Inspired by the light stop design and dark-field
      detection of microscopes, this paper first reports a compact confocal LED
      epifluorescence sensor using a light stop with an arc-shaped aperture for
      enhancing the flexibility of quick DNA and PCR detection. The sensor features the
      advantages of the dichroic mirror-free and confocal (shared-focus)
      characteristics, which benefits size reduction and minimal optics used. It also
      allows extension to integrate with in situ real-time PCR thermal cycling since
      the sample slide is placed apart from the epi-sensing module. The epifluorescence
      sensor can detect as low as sub-ng/MUL standard DNA and 101 copies of Salmonella
      typhimurium InvA gene sequences (cloned in E. coli and after 30-cycle PCR) with
      SYBR(r) Green I from non-purified culture samples, having highly sensitive and
      specific signal responses comparable with that of a commercial qPCR instrument.

PMID- 28863327
TI  - A specific nanoprobe for cysteine based on nitrogen-rich fluorescent quantum dots
      combined with Cu2.
AB  - As a new member of the carbon quantum-dot family, fluorescent nitrogen-rich
      quantum dots (NRQDs) were prepared by a mixed solvothermal method using 2
      azidoimidazole and aqueous ammonia as reactants. These NRQDs are rich in nitrogen
      up to 40.2%, which are endowed with high fluorescence quantum yield, good
      photostability, water-solubility and favourable biocompatibility. We further
      explored the use of NRQDs combined with Cu2+ as a nanoprobe for sensing
      fluorescently of cysteine (Cys) in complex biological samples. In this sensing
      system, the fluorescence is significantly quenched via energy transfer from NRQDs
      to Cu2+ for the coordination of amino-containing groups with Cu2+. The strong
      affinity between Cu 2+ and Cys leads to the formation of Cu2+-Cys complexes and
      cause the detachment of Cu2+ from the surface of NRQDs, thus the fluorescence of
      NRQDs recover. This nanoprobe allows analysis of Cys by modulating the switch of
      the fluorescence of NRQDs with a detection limit of 5.3nM. As expected, the
      proposed NRQDs-Cu2+complex-based nanoprobes were successfully applied for the
      determination of Cys in human serum and plasma samples with recoveries ranging
      from 97.2% to 105.7%. The probe ensemble was also successfully applied to imaging
      of Cys in living cells with satisfactory results, which shows strong potential
      for clinical diagnosis.

PMID- 28863328
TI  - Effects of age, gender and statin dose on lipid levels: Results from the VOYAGER
      meta-analysis database.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The effectiveness of statins in the treatment of
      dyslipidaemia and reduction of cardiovascular risk is well established. However,
      the association of statin-mediated lipid effects with age and gender is unclear.
      This study aimed to determine whether age and gender are associated with statin
      mediated changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and non-HDL-C. METHODS: Individual patient data
      (n = 32,258) were obtained from VOYAGER. Least-squares mean percentage change
      from baseline in LDL-C, non-HDL-C and HDL-C with atorvastatin 10-80 mg,
      rosuvastatin 5-40 mg or simvastatin 10-80 mg was estimated in women aged <70
      years, women aged >=70 years, men aged <70 years and men aged >=70 years.
      RESULTS: All statins and doses gave significant dose-dependent reductions in LDL
      C and non-HDL-C, and increases in HDL-C, in all four patient groups. A 2.1%
      greater reduction in LDL-C was observed in women, compared with men (p < 0.0001).
      Patients aged >=70 years experienced a 2.7% greater reduction in LDL-C compared
      with younger patients (p < 0.0001). Similar results were also observed for statin
      mediated changes in non-HDL-C. Men experienced a significantly greater increase
      in HDL-C than women, and patients aged >=70 years achieved a significantly
      greater increase than younger patients (both p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: While
      statins improve the lipid profile in all gender and age groups analysed, the
      improvements are greater in women than in men and in those aged >=70 years
      compared with those aged <70 years.

PMID- 28863329
TI  - Both Notch1 and its ligands in B cells promote antibody production.
AB  - Notch1 signaling regulates B and T lymphocyte development and also in vitro
      promotes antibody secretion upon B cell activation. However, it is still unclear
      about the role of Notch1 in antibody production upon in vitro and in vivo mixture
      lymphocytes activation. We first showed that Notch1 expressed in LPS-activated
      CD19hi B cells and CD19cre mediated Notch1 knock-down in LPS-activated B cells.
      Furthermore, we demonstrated that Notch1 knock-down in B cells reduced antibody
      production in LPS-stimulated B cells but did not affect antibody production in
      LPS-stimulated splenocytes and in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE)
      mice. Importantly, Notch1 ligands Dll1 and Jag1 expressed in B cells and pre
      coated Notch1 protein promotes Notch1-knocked down B cells to produce antibody in
      LPS-stimulated B cells suggesting that Notch1 in other cells may promote antibody
      production by binding its ligands Dll1 and Jag1 in B cells. Together, our results
      suggest that both Notch1 and its ligands in B cells play an important role in
      antibody production.

PMID- 28863330
TI  - 18F-Labeled perfluorocarbon droplets for positron emission tomography imaging.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nanoscale perfluorocarbon (PFC) droplets have been used to create
      imaging agents and drug delivery vehicles. However, development and
      characterization of new formulations of PFC droplets are hindered because of the
      lack of simple methods for quantitative and sensitive assessment of whole body
      tissue distribution and pharmacokinetics of the droplets. To address this issue,
      a general-purpose method for radiolabeling the inner core of nanoscale
      perfluorocarbon droplets with a hydrophobic and lipophobic fluorine-18 compound
      was developed, so that positron emission tomography (PET) and quantitative
      biodistribution studies can be employed to evaluate PFC nanodroplets in vivo.
      METHODS: A robust method to produce [18F]CF3(CF2)7(CH2)3F from a tosylate
      precursor using [18F]F- was developed. The product's effectiveness as a general
      label for different PFCs and its ability to distinguish the in vivo behavior of
      different PFC droplet formulations was evaluated using two types of PFC
      nanodroplets: fluorosurfactant-stabilized perfluorohexane (PFH) nanodroplets and
      lipid-stabilized perfluorooctylbromide (PFOB) nanodroplets. In vivo assessment of
      the 18F-labeled PFH and PFOB nanodroplets were conducted in normal mice following
      intravenous injection using small animal PET imaging and gamma counting of
      tissues and fluids. RESULTS: [18F]CF3(CF2)7(CH2)3F was produced in modest yield
      and was stable with respect to loss of fluoride in vitro. The labeled
      fluorocarbon was successfully integrated into PFH nanodroplets (~175 nm) and PFOB
      nanodroplets (~260 nm) without altering their mean sizes, size distributions, or
      surface charges compared to their non-radioactive analogues. No leakage of the
      radiolabel from the nanodroplets was detected after droplet formation in vitro.
      PET imaging and biodistribution data for the two droplet types tested showed
      significantly different tissue uptake and clearance patterns. CONCLUSION: A
      convenient method for producing 18F-labeled PFC droplets was developed. The
      results highlight the potential utility of the strategy for pre-clinical
      evaluation of different PFC droplet formulations through direct PFC core labeling
      using a fluorinated radiolabel.

PMID- 28863331
TI  - Grip strength is not associated with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus in healthy
      adults: The CoLaus study.
AB  - AIMS: We examined the association of grip strength with incident type 2 diabetes
      mellitus (T2DM) in healthy subjects initially aged 50 to 75years after a follow
      up of 5.5years and 10.7years. METHODS: This was a prospective, population-based
      study derived from the CoLaus (Cohorte Lausannoise) study including 2318
      participants (aged 60.2y; 1354 women) free from T2DM at baseline. Grip strength
      was assessed using a handheld dynamometer. The effect of grip strength on the
      incidence of T2DM was analyzed by logistic regression. RESULTS: After a follow-up
      of 5.5years, 190 (8.2%) T2DM cases were identified. In bivariate analysis,
      participants who developed T2DM had a higher absolute grip strength (35.3+/-10.6
      versus 33.2+/-10.7kg, P=0.013). Analysis between grip strength expressed in 5kg
      increment and incident TD2M showed a negative association when adjusted for age
      and sex [ORs (95% CI): 0.88 (0.79, 0.98)], or for age, sex and body mass index
      (BMI) [ORs (95% CI): 0.87 (0.78, 097)]. After a follow-up of 10.7years, 131
      supplemental (7.3%) T2DM cases were identified, but there was no association
      between grip strength and incident T2DM in bivariate and multivariable analysis,
      potentially due to a lack of statistical power. CONCLUSIONS: In non elderly
      healthy adults, the risk of incident T2DM is overall not associated with grip
      strength over a maximum follow-up of 10.7years. Future studies are warranted to
      better assess the association between grip strength and incident T2DM in bigger
      and even younger cohorts.

PMID- 28863332
TI  - Screening for gestational diabetes in Tuscany, Italy. A population study.
AB  - AIMS: According to current Italian guidelines, only women at higher risk of
      gestational diabetes (GDM) are eligible for receiving a glucose tolerance test
      (OGTT) during pregnancy. This study evaluates the compliance to national
      guidelines, additionally proposing an algorithm able to identify women with GDM.
      METHODS: The study included 23,270 pregnant women aged >15yr, resident in
      Tuscany, a region in central Italy, delivering in year 2015, identified by
      certificates of care at delivery. Eligibility to screening was evaluated by
      fulfillment to regional guidelines recommending a 2-h-75g-OGTT only in presence
      of risk factors. Additionally, a validated algorithm is proposed to diagnose GDM
      from regional administrative databases. RESULTS: Glucose tolerance was tested in
      79.2% of women. Eligibility criteria were fulfilled in 55.6% of OGTT performers
      and in 40.2% of those who didn't perform any OGTT. Performers' rate increased
      with age, body weight, higher education degree and in those followed by a well
      defined clinical setting. Housewives and students had a lower chance of receiving
      an OGTT. Algorithm identified GDM in 11% of women, ranging from 14% among
      eligible and 7% among non-eligible ones. CONCLUSION: Selective screening for GDM
      is not being currently applied in Tuscany. Despite the percentage of eligible
      women by national guidelines was 55%, the rate of those who performed the
      screening was about 80%, with a 40% of low risk women continuing to be screened.
      Moreover, GDM rate, calculated by algorithm, was relatively large (7%) among non
      eligible women, suggesting the need of universal glucose screening to adequately
      capture all GDM cases.

PMID- 28863333
TI  - Reverse phase HPLC method for detection and quantification of lupin seed gamma
      conglutin.
AB  - A simple, selective and accurate reverse phase HPLC method was developed for
      detection and quantitation of gamma-conglutin from lupin seed extract. A linear
      gradient of water and acetonitrile containing trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) on a
      reverse phase column (Agilent Zorbax 300SB C-18), with a flow rate of 0.8ml/min
      was able to produce a sharp and symmetric peak of gamma-conglutin with a
      retention time at 29.16min. The identity of gamma-conglutin in the peak was
      confirmed by mass spectrometry (MS/MS identification) and sodium dodecyl sulphate
      polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis. The data obtained from
      MS/MS analysis was matched against the specified database to obtain the exact
      match for the protein of interest. The proposed method was validated in terms of
      specificity, linearity, sensitivity, precision, recovery and accuracy. The
      analytical parameters revealed that the validated method was capable of
      selectively performing a good chromatographic separation of gamma-conglutin from
      the lupin seed extract with no interference of the matrix. The detection and
      quantitation limit of gamma-conglutin were found to be 2.68MUg/ml and 8.12MUg/ml
      respectively. The accuracy (precision and recovery) analysis of the method was
      conducted under repeatable conditions on different days. Intra-day and inter-day
      precision values less than 0.5% and recovery greater than 97% indicated high
      precision and accuracy of the method for analysis of gamma-conglutin. The method
      validation findings were reproducible and can be successfully applied for routine
      analysis of gamma-conglutin from lupin seed extract.

PMID- 28863334
TI  - Molecularly imprinted polymer-sol-gel tablet toward micro-solid phase extraction:
      II. Determination of amphetamine in human urine samples by liquid chromatography
      tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - Amphetamine selective molecularly imprinted sol-gel polymer tablets, MIP-tablets,
      for solid-phase microextraction of biofluid samples were prepared. An
      acetonitrile solution of deuterated amphetamine template and silane precursor, 3
      (propylmethacrylate) trimethoxysilane, was soaked into the pores of polyethylene
      tablet substrates and polymerized by an acid-catalysed sol-gel process.
      Application of the resultant MIP-tablets to extract amphetamine from human urine
      samples followed by LC-MS/MS analysis was investigated. The extraction protocol
      was optimised with respect to pH of sample, addition of sodium chloride,
      extraction time, desorption solvent and desorption time. The final analysis
      method determined amphetamine in human urine with a limit of detection (LOD) of
      1.0ng/mL and a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 5ng/mL. Validation
      demonstrated accuracy of the method was 91.0-104.0% and inter-assay precision was
      4.8-8.5% (RSD). Extraction recovery was 80%. The MIP-tablets could be re-used and
      the same tablet could be employed for more than twenty extractions.

PMID- 28863335
TI  - An efficient analytical method for determination of S-phenylmercapturic acid in
      urine by HPLC fluorimetric detector to assessing benzene exposure.
AB  - Benzene is an important occupational and environmental contaminant, naturally
      present in petroleum and as by-product in the steel industry. Toxicological
      studies showed pronounced myelotoxic action, causing leukemic and others blood
      cells disorders. Assessing of benzene exposure is performed by biomarkers as
      trans, trans-muconic acid (AttM) and S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) in urine.
      Due to specificity of S-PMA, this biomarker has been proposed to asses lower
      levels of benzene in air. The aim of this study was to validate an analytical
      method for the quantification of S-PMA by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography
      with fluorometric detector. The development of an analytical method of S-PMA in
      urine was carried out by solid phase extraction (SPE) using C-18 phase. The
      eluated were submitted to water bath at 75 degrees C and nitrogen to analyte
      concentration, followed by alkaline hydrolysis and derivatization with
      monobromobimane. The chromatography conditions were reverse phase C-18 column
      (240mm, 4mm and 5MUm) at 35 degrees C; acetonitrile and 0.5% acetic acid (50:50)
      as mobile phase with a flow of 0.8mL/min. The limits of detection and
      quantification were 0.22MUg/L and 0.68MUg/L, respectively. The linearity was
      verified by simple linear regression, and the method exhibited good linearity in
      the range of 10-100MUg/L. There was no matrix effect for S-PMA using
      concentrations of 40, 60, 80 and 100MUg/L. The intra- and interassay precision
      showed coefficient of variation of less than 10% and the recovery ranged from
      83.4 to 102.8% with an average of 94.4%. The stability of S-PMA in urine stored
      at -20 degrees C was of seven weeks. The conclusion is that this method presents
      satisfactory results per their figures of merit. This proposed method for
      determining urinary S-PMA showed adequate sensitivity for assessment of
      occupational and environmental exposure to benzene using S-PMA as biomarker of
      exposure.

PMID- 28863336
TI  - Patient-provider communication, maternal anxiety, and self-care in pregnancy.
AB  - RATIONALE: Favorable relationships with health care providers predict greater
      patient satisfaction and adherence to provider recommendations. However, the
      specific components of patient-provider relationships that account for these
      benefits have not been identified. The potential benefits of strong patient
      provider relationships in pregnancy may be especially important, as care
      providers have frequent, intimate interactions with pregnant women that can
      affect their emotions and behaviors. In turn, prenatal emotions and health
      behaviors have potent effects on birth outcomes. OBJECTIVE: This study
      investigated whether pregnant women's relationships with their midwives predicted
      better self-care. Specific components of the patient-provider relationship
      (communication, integration, collaboration, and empowerment) were examined. We
      also investigated a mechanism through which these relationship components may be
      associated with salutary health behaviors: by alleviating women's anxiety.
      METHODS: In total, 139 low-risk patients of a university-affiliated midwifery
      practice in the northeastern United States completed well-validated measures
      assessing their relationship with midwives, state anxiety, and prenatal health
      behaviors in late pregnancy; state anxiety was also assessed in mid-pregnancy.
      RESULTS: Women's perceptions of better communication, collaboration, and
      empowerment from their midwives were associated with more frequent salutary
      health behavior practices in late pregnancy. Controlling for mid-pregnancy
      anxiety, lower anxiety in late pregnancy mediated associations of communication
      and collaboration with health behavior practices, indicating that these
      associations were attributable to reductions in anxiety from mid- to late
      pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Results substantiate that benefits of patient-provider
      relationships in pregnancy may extend beyond providing medical expertise. Some
      aspects of patient-provider relationships may offer direct benefits to pregnant
      women in promoting better health practices; other aspects of these relationships
      may indirectly contribute to better health practices by alleviating negative
      emotions. The benefits of strong midwife relationships may derive from the
      reassurance, comfort, and warmth these relationships offer, as well as the
      information and education that midwives provide to their patients.

PMID- 28863337
TI  - 'Being' a ventricular assist device recipient: A liminal existence.
AB  - Ventricular assist devices (VADs) are playing an increasing role in the
      management of heart failure. VADs are mechanical circulatory devices that support
      or replace the function of a failing heart. Currently, VADs are only offered in
      theUnited Kingdom (UK) to patients waiting for a heart transplant; however, the
      use of these devices is likely to increase in the near future. Presently, there
      is a dearth of literature exploring the day-to-day realities of living with a
      VAD, which will become increasingly important as the role of VADs is increased.
      This paper adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach to uncover the
      experience of 'Being' a VAD recipient. Semi-structured interviews were conducted
      with 20 VAD recipients. The overarching theme is that life with a VAD is a
      liminal existence. This comprised four subthemes: the first examines how the VAD
      imposes limitations on recipients' lives that can precipitate a loss of identity;
      the second focuses on temporal disruptions, recipients' sense of time changes
      from authentic to inauthentic; the third explores how the VAD itself is liminal,
      it is positioned as temporary rather than as the 'answer' to the condition; and
      finally, we discuss VAD recipients' projections to the future and the possibility
      of an end to the experience of liminality.

PMID- 28863338
TI  - Perceptions of incentives offered in a community-based malaria diagnosis and
      treatment program in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
AB  - What motivates community-based health workers to provide care in rural and remote
      areas, often on a voluntary or casual basis, is a key question for program
      managers and public health officials. This paper examines how a range of
      incentives offered as part of the Marasin Stoa Kipa program, a community-based
      malaria diagnosis and treatment program that has been implemented since 2007
      within a major oil and gas development area in Papua New Guinea, are perceived
      and critiqued by community-based health workers. Nineteen interviews and seven
      focus group discussions with the workers who deliver services and members of the
      communities served by the program, conducted between November 4 and 25, 2015,
      reveal a pattern of mixed motivations and changes in motivation over time. This
      can be attributed partly to the unique social and economic circumstances in which
      the program is operating. Changes in the burden of disease as well as in global
      and national health services policy with implications for local level program
      operations also had an impact, as did the nature of relationships between program
      managers, community-based health workers, and program beneficiaries. Overall, the
      findings suggest that while financial and in-kind incentives can be a useful tool
      to motivate voluntary or minimally-compensated community-based health workers,
      they must be carefully structured to align with local social, economic, and
      epidemiological realities over the long-term.

PMID- 28863339
TI  - Treatments of asbestos containing wastes.
AB  - Since the second half of the twentieth century, many studies have indicated
      inhalation of asbestos fibers as the main cause of deadly diseases including
      fibrosis and cancer. Consequently, since the beginning of the 80s, many countries
      started banning production and use of asbestos containing products (ACP),
      although still present in private and public buildings. Due to some extraordinary
      catastrophic events and/or the aging of these products, people's health and
      environmental risk associated with the inhalation of asbestos fibers keeps being
      high even in those countries where it was banned. For these reasons, many
      communities are developing plans for an environmental and sanitary safe asbestos
      removal and management. Asbestos containing wastes (ACW) are usually disposed in
      controlled landfills, but this practice does not definitively eliminate the
      problems related with asbestos fiber release and conflicts with the ideas of
      sustainable land use, recycling, and closing material cycles. Consequently, many
      scientific papers and patents proposed physical, chemical, and biological
      treatments aimed to the detoxification of ACW (or the reduction of their health
      effects) and looking for the adoption of technologies, which allow the reuse of
      the end-products. By including recent relevant bibliography, this report
      summarizes the status of the most important and innovative treatments of ACW,
      providing main operating parameters, advantages, and disadvantages.

PMID- 28863340
TI  - Assessing the long-term effects of land use changes on runoff patterns and food
      production in a large lake watershed with policy implications.
AB  - Effects of land use development on runoff patterns are salient at a hydrological
      response unit scale. However, quantitative analysis at the watershed scale is
      still a challenge due to the complex spatial heterogeneity of the upstream and
      downstream hydrological relationships and the inherent structure of drainage
      systems. This study aims to use the well-calibrated Soil and Water Assessment
      Tool (SWAT) to assess the response of hydrological processes under different land
      use scenarios in a large lake watershed (Lake Dongting) in the middle Yangtze
      River basin in China. Based on possible land use changes, scale-dependent land
      use scenarios were developed and parameters embedded in SWAT were calibrated and
      validated for hydrological systems analysis. This approach leads to the
      simulation of the land use change impacts on the hydrological cycle. Results
      indicated that evapotranspiration, surface runoff, groundwater flow, and water
      yield were affected by the land use change scenarios in different magnitudes.
      Overall, changes of land use and land cover have significant impacts on runoff
      patterns at the watershed scale in terms of both the total water yield (i.e.,
      groundwater flow, surface runoff, and interflow, minus transmission losses) and
      the spatial distribution of runoff. The changes in runoff distribution were
      resulted in opposite impacts within the two land use scenarios including forest
      and agriculture. Water yield has a decrease of 1.8 percent in the forest-prone
      landscape scenario and an increase of 4.2 percent in the agriculture-rich
      scenario during the simulated period. Surface runoff was the most affected
      component in the hydrological cycle. Whereas surface runoff as part of water
      yield has a decrease of 8.2 percent in the forest- prone landscape scenario,
      there is an increase of 8.6 percent in the agriculture-rich landscape scenario.
      Different runoff patterns associated with each land use scenario imply the
      potential effect on flood or drought mitigation policy. Based on the results, key
      areas were identified to show that hydrological extreme mitigation and flood
      control can be coordinated by some land use regulations.

PMID- 28863341
TI  - Acetic acid bacteria in fermented foods and beverages.
AB  - Although acetic acid bacteria (AAB) are commonly found in spontaneous or
      backslopped fermented foods and beverages, rather limited knowledge about their
      occurrence and functional role in natural food fermentation ecosystems is
      available. Not only is their cultivation, isolation, and identification
      difficult, their cells are often present in a viable but not culturable state.
      Yet, they are promising starter cultures either to better control known food
      fermentation processes or to produce novel fermented foods and beverages. This
      review summarizes the most recent findings on the occurrence and functional role
      of AAB in natural food fermentation processes such as lambic beer, water kefir,
      kombucha, and cocoa.

PMID- 28863342
TI  - Molecular transformation of natural and anthropogenic dissolved organic matter
      under photo-irradiation in the presence of nano TiO2.
AB  - Photochemical transformation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays a very
      important role in the cycling of organic carbon in aquatic systems. Increasing
      release of photoactive nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano
      TiO2) into surface water may impact this process. The present study employed
      Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) to
      examine the molecular transformation of natural DOM (peat DOM, DOMp) and
      anthropogenic DOM (sludge-derived DOM, DOMs) under photo-irradiation as affected
      by nano TiO2. Differences in molecular components between DOMp and DOMs were
      observed. DOMs contained more heteroatom formulas (76%) with low aromaticity and
      low carbon oxidation state than did DOMp (22%). The presence of nano TiO2
      resulted in significant decreases in both DOM content and molecular diversity
      under photo-irradiation. Consistent alterations were observed between DOMp and
      DOMs such that high molecular weight compounds, high aromaticity and/or
      heteroatom S-containing compounds were more easily photodegraded in the presence
      of nano TiO2; whereas the average carbon oxidation state decreased in DOMp but
      increased in DOMs, likely due to the significant differences in O abundance,
      especially in the contents of carboxyl moieties, between DOMp and DOMs. The
      findings of the present study suggest that the release of nano TiO2 into aquatic
      environment will accelerate the consumption of dissolved organic carbon and the
      attenuation of molecular diversity for both DOM in waters.

PMID- 28863343
TI  - Activation of peroxymonosulfate by phenols: Important role of quinone
      intermediates and involvement of singlet oxygen.
AB  - In this study, the kinetics of reactions of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) with ten
      model phenols (including phenol, methylphenols, methoxyphenols, and
      dihydroxybenzenes) were examined. The oxidation kinetics of these phenols by PMS
      except for catechol and resorcinol showed autocatalysis in alkaline conditions
      (pH 8.5 and 10), due to the contribution of singlet oxygen (1O2) produced from
      PMS activation by quinone intermediates formed from their phenolic parents. The
      oxidation rates of ortho- and meta-substituted methylphenols and methoxyphenols
      by PMS were much higher than their para-substituted counterparts under similar
      conditions. This was attributed to the relatively low yields of quinone
      intermediates from para-substituted phenols. SMX could be efficiently degraded by
      PMS in the presence of phenols which showed great autocatalysis when they
      individually reacted with PMS, and the addition of methanol in excess had
      negligible influence suggesting that 1O2 rather than hydroxyl radical and sulfate
      radical played an important role. Transformation of SMX by 1O2 underwent three
      pathways including hydroxylation of aniline ring, oxidation of aromatic amine
      group to generate nitro-SMX, and oxidative coupling to generate azo-SMX and
      hydroxylated azo-SMX. These results obtained in this work improve the
      understanding of in situ chemical oxidation using PMS for remediation of
      subsurface, where phenolic and quinonoid moieties are ubiquitous.

PMID- 28863344
TI  - Elimination of antibiotic-resistance bacterium and its associated/dissociative
      blaTEM-1 and aac(3)-II antibiotic-resistance genes in aqueous system via
      photoelectrocatalytic process.
AB  - The ubiquity of antibiotic-resistance bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic-resistance
      genes (ARGs) in various environmental matrices is a potential threat to human and
      ecological health. Therefore, the inactivation of ARB E. coli S1-23 and the
      elimination of its associated ARGs, blaTEM-1 and aac(3)-II, were investigated
      using the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) process. Results indicate that the ARB E.
      coli S1-23 (1 * 108 cfu mL-1) and its ARGs (extracellular and intracellular)
      could be fully inactivated within 10 and 16 h PEC treatment, respectively. In
      contrast, photocatalytic (PC) and electrochemical (EC) treatments displayed no
      obvious effect; however, ARG-containing DNA extracted from E. coli S1-23, which
      was used as a model for dissociative naked ARGs, could be completely decomposed
      within a few minutes through these three treatments. Further analyses, including
      PCR, AFM and HPLC, proved that the structural integrity and surface topography of
      naked ARGs are damaged during treatment and can be completely eliminated.
      Furthermore, there is no generation of cytosine, guanine, adenine or thymine
      intermediates during the PEC, PC, and EC treatments. This study is the first
      report to propose the PEC treatment as a promising method for complete
      decomposition of ARB and ARGs in aqueous systems.

PMID- 28863345
TI  - The Stromal Microenvironment Modulates Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation in
      Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells.
AB  - Peripheral blood chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells are replicationally
      quiescent mature B-cells. In short-term cultures, supporting stromal cells
      provide a survival advantage to CLL cells by inducing transcription and
      translation without promoting proliferation. We hypothesized that the stromal
      microenvironment augments malignant B cells' metabolism to enable the cells to
      cope with their energy demands for transcription and translation. We used
      extracellular flux analysis to assess the two major energy-generating pathways,
      mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) and glycolysis, in primary CLL
      cells in the presence of three different stromal cell lines. OxPhos, measured as
      the basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and maximum respiration capacity, was
      significantly higher in 28 patients' CLL cells cocultured with bone marrow
      derived NK.Tert stromal cells than in CLL cells cultured alone (P = .004 and
      <.0001, respectively). Similar OCR induction was observed in CLL cells cocultured
      with M2-10B4 and HS-5 stromal lines. In contrast, heterogeneous changes in the
      extracellular acidification rate (a measure of glycolysis) were observed in CLL
      cells cocultured with stromal cells. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of CLL cells'
      metabolomics profile indicated stroma-mediated stimulation of nucleotide
      synthesis. Quantitation of ribonucleotide pools showed a significant two-fold
      increase in CLL cells cocultured with stromal cells, indicating that the stroma
      may induce CLL cellular bioenergy and the RNA building blocks necessary for the
      transcriptional requirement of a prosurvival phenotype. The stroma did not impact
      the proliferation index (Ki-67 staining) of CLL cells. Collectively, these data
      suggest that short-term interaction (<=24 hours) with stroma increases OxPhos and
      bioenergy in replicationally quiescent CLL cells.

PMID- 28863346
TI  - The Imipridone ONC201 Induces Apoptosis and Overcomes Chemotherapy Resistance by
      Up-Regulation of Bim in Multiple Myeloma.
AB  - In multiple myeloma, despite recent improvements offered by new therapies,
      disease relapse and drug resistance still occur in the majority of patients.
      Therefore, there is an urgent need for new drugs that can overcome drug
      resistance and prolong patient survival after failure of standard therapies. The
      imipridone ONC201 causes downstream inactivation of ERK1/2 signaling and has
      tumoricidal activity against a variety of tumor types, while its efficacy in
      preclinical models of myeloma remains unclear. In this study, we treated human
      myeloma cell lines and patient-derived tumor cells with ONC201. Treatment
      decreased cellular viability and induced apoptosis in myeloma cell lines, with
      IC50 values of 1 to 1.5 MUM, even in those with high risk features or TP53 loss.
      ONC201 increased levels of the pro-apoptotic protein Bim in myeloma cells,
      resulting from decreased phosphorylation of degradation-promoting Bim Ser69 by
      ERK1/2. In addition, myeloma cell lines made resistant to several standard-of
      care agents (by chronic exposure) were equally sensitive to ONC201 as their drug
      naive counterparts, and combinations of ONC201 with proteasome inhibitors had
      synergistic anti-myeloma activity. Overall, these findings demonstrate that
      ONC201 kills myeloma cells regardless of resistance to standard-of-care
      therapies, making it promising for clinical testing in relapsed/refractory
      myeloma.

PMID- 28863347
TI  - Deletion of Dlk2 increases the vulnerability to anxiety-like behaviors and
      impairs the anxiolytic action of alprazolam.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of the non-canonical DLK2
      NOTCH ligand in the regulation of emotional behavior. To this aim, anxiety and
      depressive-like behaviors were examined in Dlk2 knock-out (Dlk2-/-) and its
      corresponding wild-type (WT) mice. Furthermore, relative gene expression analyses
      of corticotropin releasing hormone (Crh) in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN),
      glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) and FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5) in the
      hippocampus (HIPP), and the transcription factors Hes1, Hes5 and Hey1 in the PVN,
      HIPP and amygdala (AMY) were carried out in Dlk2-/- and WT mice under basal
      conditions and after exposure to restraint stress. The anxiolytic action of
      alprazolam and the relative gene expression levels of the GABA-A alpha 2 and
      gamma 2 receptor subunits (Gabra2 and Gabrg2) were also evaluated in the HIPP and
      AMY of WT and Dlk2-/- mice. The results reveal that deletion of Dlk2 increased
      anxiety and depressive-like behaviors and altered the vulnerability to restraint
      stress on Crh gene expression in the PVN, Nr3c1 and Fkbp5 gene expression in the
      HIPP, and Hes1, Hes5 and Hey1 gene expression in the PVN, HIPP and AMY.
      Interestingly, the administration of alprazolam failed to produce an anxiolytic
      action in Dlk2-/- mice. Indeed, Gabra2 and Gabrg2 gene expression levels were
      significantly affected under basal conditions and after stress exposure in Dlk2-/
      mice compared with WT mice. In conclusion, the results suggest that DLK2 plays
      an important role in the regulation of emotional behaviors and relevant targets
      of the stress axis, NOTCH pathway and GABAergic neurotransmission. In addition,
      the deletion of Dlk2 blocked the anxiolytic response to alprazolam. Future
      studies are needed to determine the relevance of DLK2 as a potential therapeutic
      target for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders with anxiety or depressive
      like behaviors.

PMID- 28863348
TI  - Biological and perceived stress in motor functional neurological disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current models explaining motor functional neurological disorders
      (FND) integrate both the neurobiological mechanisms underlying symptoms
      production and the role of psychosocial stressors. Imaging studies have suggested
      abnormal motor control linked to impaired emotional and stress regulation.
      However, little is known on the biological stress regulation in FND. Our aim was
      to study the biological and perceived response to stress in patients with motor
      FND. METHODS: Sixteen patients with motor FND (DSM-5 criteria) and fifteen
      healthy controls underwent the Trier Social Stress Test. Hypothalamo-pituitary
      adrenal axis (HPA) response was evaluated with salivary cortisol and autonomous
      sympathetic response with salivary alpha-amylase. Area under the curve was
      computed to reflect background levels (AUCg) and change over time (AUCi). Life
      adversities and perceived subjective stress on a visual analog scale (VAS) were
      correlated with biological responses. RESULTS: FND patients had significantly
      higher background levels (AUCg) of both stress markers (cortisol and amylase)
      than controls. The biological response (AUCi) to stress did not differ between
      groups for both markers but the subjective response showed an interaction effect
      with patients reporting higher levels of stress than controls. After stress,
      controls showed a strong correlation between subjective and objective sympathetic
      values (amylase) but not patients. The number and subjective impact of adverse
      life events correlated with cortisol AUCg in patients only. CONCLUSION: This
      study confirms a baseline HPA-axis and sympathetic hyperarousal state in motor
      FND related to life adversities. During a social stress, dissociation between
      perceived stress and biological markers was observed in patients only, reflecting
      a dysregulation of interoception capacity, which might represent an endophenotype
      of this disorder.

PMID- 28863349
TI  - Effect of bovine somatotropin injection in late pregnant Holstein heifers on
      metabolic parameters and steroidogenic potential of the first postpartum dominant
      follicle.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the effect of pre-partum injections of
      bovine somatotropin (bST) in dairy heifers on metabolic markers and the
      steroidogenic potential of the first postpartum dominant follicle. Heifers were
      assigned to two groups: bST (ST; n = 29), that received two doses of bST (500
      mg/dose) at -28 and -14 days relative to calving; and control (CTL; n = 30), that
      did not received bST. Follicular development was monitored via ultrasound every 3
      days starting at 8 days in milk (DIM) in a subset of 20 heifers until the day the
      first large follicle reached a diameter of 16 mm. From these cows follicular
      fluid was aspirated and the follicular cells recovered (ST; n = 8 and CTL; n =
      10). Blood samples were collected weekly for all heifers. Follicular fluid IGF-I
      concentrations of the first postpartum dominant follicle was higher (P = 0.05) in
      ST (87.1 +/- 7.7 mg/mL) than CTL cows (64.3 +/- 6.8 mg/mL). Also, E2
      concentration in the follicular fluid was higher (P = 0.02) for ST (199.7 +/-
      55.9 ng/mL) than CTL cows (74.5 +/- 37.7 ng/mL). The expression of LHCGR and STAR
      mRNA in follicular cells was higher (P < 0.05) in ST than CTL cows. Nonetheless,
      HSD3B, P450scc, P450c17, IGFr and CYP19A1 mRNA expression was not different
      between groups (P > 0.05). Serum IGF-I concentration was higher in ST treated
      heifers during the pre-partum period (P = 0.01) and no difference was observed in
      the postpartum period (P = 0.19). In conclusion, pre-partum bST treatment in
      dairy heifers increased intrafollicular IGF-I and expression of LHCGR and STAR
      mRNA in follicular cells of the first postpartum dominant follicle. These changes
      were associated to increased intrafollicular and serum E2 concentration, which
      can potentially increase the chance of ovulation of the first follicular wave.

PMID- 28863350
TI  - Ice nucleating agents allow embryo freezing without manual seeding.
AB  - Embryo slow freezing protocols include a nucleation induction step called manual
      seeding. This step is time consuming, manipulator dependent and hard to
      standardize. It requires access to samples, which is not always possible within
      the configuration of systems, such as differential scanning calorimeters or
      cryomicroscopes. Ice nucleation can be induced by other methods, e.g., by the use
      of ice nucleating agents. Snomax is a commercial preparation of inactivated
      proteins extracted from Pseudomonas syringae. The aim of our study was to
      investigate if Snomax can be an alternative to manual seeding in the slow
      freezing of mouse embryos. The influence of Snomax on the pH and osmolality of
      the freezing medium was evaluated. In vitro development (blastocyst formation and
      hatching rates) of fresh embryos exposed to Snomax and embryo cryopreserved with
      and without Snomax was assessed. The mitochondrial activity of frozen-thawed
      blastocysts was assessed by JC-1 fluorescent staining. Snomax didn't alter the
      physicochemical properties of the freezing medium, and did not affect embryo
      development of fresh embryos. After cryopreservation, the substitution of manual
      seeding by the ice nucleating agent (INA) Snomax did not affect embryo
      development or embryo mitochondrial activity. In conclusion, Snomax seems to be
      an effective ice nucleating agent for the slow freezing of mouse embryos. Snomax
      can also be a valuable alternative to manual seeding in research protocols in
      which manual seeding cannot be performed (i.e., differential scanning calorimetry
      and cryomicroscopy).

PMID- 28863351
TI  - Mexican consumers at the point of meat purchase. Pork choice.
AB  - Use of within-consumer preference replication and systematic image manipulation
      in surveying showed that consumers in four cities across Mexico had similar
      strategies for pork choice. New surveying tools also determined preferred levels
      of the characteristics used in the decision-making process. The most important
      choice criteria were colour (31% chose dark and 21% light red), and fat cover
      (42% chose lean and 8% fatty). Marbling and drip were less used, but are
      nevertheless important given that 21% of consumers used three or four
      characteristics to make their choice. Split colour and marbling preferences and a
      range of acceptable limits for both, and a preference for the leanest fat cover
      available were observed. Preferences within the normal range of pork colour, fat
      cover achieved through trimming and drip countered by an absorbent pad all favour
      industry practice. Unfortunately, preferences for minimal or no marbling and fat
      cover likely result in a compromised gustative experience for many Mexican
      consumers.

PMID- 28863352
TI  - The circumstances, orientations, and impact locations of falls in community
      dwelling older women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We sought to characterize the circumstances, orientations, and impact
      locations of falls in community-dwelling, ambulatory, older women. METHODS: For
      this longitudinal, observational study, 125 community-dwelling women age>=65years
      were recruited. Over 12-months of follow-up, fall details were recorded using
      twice-monthly questionnaires. RESULTS: More than half (59%) of participants fell,
      with 30% of participants falling more than once (fall rate=1.3 falls per person
      year). Slips (22%) and trips (33%) accounted for the majority of falls.
      Approximately 44% of falls were forward in direction, while backward falls
      accounted for 41% of falls. About a third of all falls were reported to have
      lateral (sideways) motion. Subjects reported taking a protective step in response
      to 82% of forward falls and 37% of backward falls. Of falls reporting lateral
      motion, a protective step was attempted in 70% of accounts. Common impact
      locations included the hip/pelvis (47% of falls) and the hand/wrist (27%).
      Backwards falls were most commonly reported with slips and when changing
      direction, and increased the risk of hip/pelvis impact (OR=12.6; 95% CI: 4.7
      33.8). Forward falls were most commonly reported with trips and while hurrying,
      and increased the risk of impact to the hand/wrist (OR=2.6; 95% CI: 1.2-5.9).
      CONCLUSION: Falls in older ambulatory women occur more frequently than previously
      reported, with the fall circumstance and direction dictating impact to common
      fracture locations. Stepping was a common protective recovery strategy and that
      may serve as an appropriate focus of interventions to reduce falls in this high
      risk population.

PMID- 28863354
TI  - Domain-general neural computations underlying prosociality during infancy and
      early childhood.
AB  - A mounting body of neuroscience research in the social and moral evaluative
      abilities of infants and young children suggests the coopting of three domain
      general processes involved in attention allocation, approach/avoidance, and
      intention and action understanding. Electrophysiological investigations
      demonstrate children's preference for prosocial others, that children's
      individual differences in moral evaluation predict prosocial behaviors, and that
      parental values may already influence neural sociomoral computations at quite
      young ages. This review highlights the importance of a developmental neuroscience
      approach in clarifying our understanding of early prosocial preference and
      behavior.

PMID- 28863353
TI  - Predicting 3-year mortality and admission to acute-care hospitals, skilled
      nursing facilities, and long-term care facilities in Medicare beneficiaries.
AB  - PURPOSE: The ability to predict mortality and admission to acute care hospitals,
      skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and long-term care (LTC) facilities in the
      elderly and how it varies by activity of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL
      (IADL) status could be useful in measuring the success or failure of economic,
      social, or health policies aimed at disability prevention and management. We
      sought to derive and assess the predictive performance of rules to predict 3-year
      mortality and admission to acute care hospitals, SNFs, and LTC facilities among
      Medicare beneficiaries with differing ADL and IADL functioning levels. METHODS:
      Prospective cohort using Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data from the 2001
      to 2007 entry panels. In all, 23,407 community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries
      were included. Multivariable logistic models created predicted probabilities for
      all-cause mortality and admission to acute care hospitals, SNFs, and LTC
      facilities, adjusting for sociodemographics, health conditions, impairments,
      behavior, and function. RESULTS: Sixteen, 22, 14, and 14 predictors remained in
      the final parsimonious model predicting 3-year all-cause mortality, inpatient
      admission, SNF admission, and LTC facility admission, respectively. The C
      statistic for predicting 3-year all-cause mortality, inpatient admission, SNF
      admission, and LTC facility admission was 0.779, 0.672, 0.753, and 0.826 in the
      ADL activity limitation stage development cohorts, respectively, and 0.788,
      0.669, 0.748, and 0.799 in the ADL activity limitation stage validation cohorts,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Parsimonious models can identify elderly Medicare
      beneficiaries at risk of poor outcomes and can aid policymakers, clinicians, and
      family members in improving care for older adults and supporting successful aging
      in the community.

PMID- 28863355
TI  - Design, synthesis and preliminary biological evaluation of new
      [1,2,3]triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidine/thiourea hybrids as antiproliferative agents.
AB  - A series of new [1,2,3]triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidine/thiourea hybrids were designed
      and synthesized through the scaffold replacement/ring cleavage strategy. SARs
      studies revealed that the N-heteroarene moiety attached to the thiourea is
      preferred over the phenyl ring for the R2 substituents, while the hydrophobic
      aromatic group is beneficial for improving the activity. Among these compounds,
      compound 5r significantly inhibited cell growth of lung cancer cell lines H1650
      and A549 (IC50 = 1.91, 3.28 MUM, respectively), but was less toxic against the
      normal cell line GES-1 (IC50 = 27.43 MUM). Mechanistic studies showed that
      compound 5r could remarkably inhibit the colony formation of H1650 cells, induced
      apoptosis possibly through the intrinsic apoptotic pathways, and arrested the
      cell cycle at G2/M phase. Our studies suggest that the [1,2,3]triazolo[4,5
      d]pyrimidine/thiourea hybrids are a new class of chemotypes possessing
      interesting antiproliferative activity against lung cancer cells and could be
      potentially utilized for designing new antitumor agents.

PMID- 28863356
TI  - Glycine-replaced derivatives of [Pro3,DLeu9]TL, a temporin L analogue: Evaluation
      of antimicrobial, cytotoxic and hemolytic activities.
AB  - In this study we designed and synthesized a new library of antimicrobial peptides
      correlated to [Pro3,DLeu9]TL 1, a temporin L derivative devoid of cytolytic
      effects in vitro, and investigated the correlation between the alpha-helical
      content of the compounds and their antibacterial, cytotoxic and hemolytic
      activities. We systematically replaced Gly in position 10 of reference peptide
      with several amino acids. Structure-activity relationship studies of these
      analogues were performed by means of antimicrobial and cytotoxicity assays along
      with CD spectroscopy analyses. NMR analysis was also accomplished for compound
      10. As well, the most promising peptides were additionally evaluated for their
      activity against some clinical strains isolated from human skin and for their
      mechanism of action by studying the kinetics of membrane perturbation of some
      representative microbial strains. We identified novel analogues with interesting
      properties that make them attractive lead compounds for potential topical
      applications.

PMID- 28863357
TI  - Dual Inhibition of Mnk2 and FLT3 for potential treatment of acute myeloid
      leukaemia.
AB  - The discovery of novel anti-AML therapeutic agents is urgently needed, but the
      complex heterogeneity of the disease has so far hampered the development of a
      curative treatment. FLT3 inhibitors have shown therapeutic potential in clinical
      trials; but a monotherapy regimen has been associated with resistance mediated by
      the activation of parallel signalling circuitry, including MAPK and mTOR.
      Therefore, inhibiting a nexus of the two signalling pathways along with
      inhibition of FLT3 might be advantageous. Herein, we propose that a dual
      inhibition of FLT3 and Mnk would provide a better clinical option for AML
      patients compared to targeting FLT3 alone. Thus, a series of N-phenyl-4-(thiazol
      5-yl)pyrimidin-2-amines and 4-(indol-3-yl)-N-phenylpyrimidin-2-amines were
      prepared. Potent Mnk2 inhibitors, FLT3 inhibitors, and dual inhibitors of Mnk2
      and FLT3 were identified and their anti-proliferative activities assessed against
      MV4-11 AML cell lines. Dual inhibition of FLT3 and Mnk2 caused the increased
      apoptotic cell death of MV4-11 cells compared to inhibition of FLT3 or Mnk2
      alone.

PMID- 28863358
TI  - From dual binding site acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to allosteric modulators:
      A new avenue for disease-modifying drugs in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - The lack of an effective treatment for Alzheimer' disease (AD), an increasing
      prevalence and severe neurodegenerative pathology boost medicinal chemists to
      look for new drugs. Currently, only acethylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors and
      glutamate antagonist have been approved to the palliative treatment of AD.
      Although they have a short-term symptomatic benefits, their clinical use have
      revealed important non-cholinergic functions for AChE such its chaperone role in
      beta-amyloid toxicity. We propose here the design, synthesis and evaluation of
      non-toxic dual binding site AChEIs by hybridization of indanone and quinoline
      heterocyclic scaffolds. Unexpectely, we have found a potent allosteric modulator
      of AChE able to target cholinergic and non-cholinergic functions by fixing a
      specific AChE conformation, confirmed by STD-NMR and molecular modeling studies.
      Furthermore the promising biological data obtained on human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y
      cell assays for the new allosteric hybrid 14, led us to propose it as a valuable
      pharmacological tool for the study of non-cholinergic functions of AChE, and as a
      new important lead for novel disease modifying agents against AD.

PMID- 28863359
TI  - Novel chemotypes targeting tubulin at the colchicine binding site and unbiasing P
      glycoprotein.
AB  - Retrospective validation studies carried out on three benchmark databases
      containing a small fraction (that is 2.80%) of known tubulin binders permitted us
      to develop a computational platform very effective in selecting easier manageable
      subsets showing by far higher percentages of actives (about 25%). These studies
      relied on the hierarchical application of multilayer in silico screenings
      employing filters implying molecular shape similarity; a structure-based
      pharmacophore model and molecular docking campaigns. Building on this validated
      approach, we performed intensive prospective studies to screen a large chemical
      collection, including up to 3.7 millions of commercial compounds, to across an
      unexplored and patent space in the search of novel colchicine binding site
      inhibitors. Our investigation was successful in identifying a pool of 31 initial
      hits showing new molecular scaffolds (such as 4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrolo[3,4
      c]pyrazol-6-one and pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine). This panel of new hits resulted
      antiproliferative activity in the low MUM range towards MCF-7 human breast
      cancer, HepG2 human liver cancer, HeLa human ovarian cancer and SHSY5Y human
      glioblastoma cell lines as well as interesting concentration-dependent inhibition
      of tubulin polymerization assessed through fluorescence polymerization assays.
      Unlike typical tubulin inhibitors, a satisfactorily low sensitivity towards P-gp
      was also measured in bi-directional transport studies across MDCKII-MDR1 cells
      for a selected subset of seven compounds.

PMID- 28863360
TI  - Idiopathic intracranial hypertension: Ocular vestibular evoked myogenic
      potentials as a new evaluation tool.

PMID- 28863361
TI  - Evaluating brain-computer interface performance using color in the P300
      checkerboard speller.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Current Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems typically flash an
      array of items from grey to white (GW). The objective of this study was to
      evaluate BCI performance using uniquely colored stimuli. METHODS: In addition to
      the GW stimuli, the current study tested two types of color stimuli (grey to
      color [GC] and color intensification [CI]). The main hypotheses were that in a
      checkboard paradigm, unique color stimuli will: (1) increase BCI performance over
      the standard GW paradigm; (2) elicit larger event-related potentials (ERPs); and,
      (3) improve offline performance with an electrode selection algorithm (i.e.,
      Jumpwise). RESULTS: Online results (n=36) showed that GC provides higher accuracy
      and information transfer rate than the CI and GW conditions. Waveform analysis
      showed that GC produced higher amplitude ERPs than CI and GW. Information
      transfer rate was improved by the Jumpwise-selected channel locations in all
      conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Unique color stimuli (GC) improved BCI performance and
      enhanced ERPs. Jumpwise-selected electrode locations improved offline
      performance. SIGNIFICANCE: These results show that in a checkerboard paradigm,
      unique color stimuli increase BCI performance, are preferred by participants, and
      are important to the design of end-user applications; thus, could lead to an
      increase in end-user performance and acceptance of BCI technology.

PMID- 28863362
TI  - The location of late night bars and alcohol-related crashes in Houston, Texas.
AB  - A study in the City of Houston, Texas, related the location of establishments
      primarily serving alcohol ("bars") after midnight to late night alcohol-related
      motor vehicle crashes. There were three data sets for 2007-09: 1) 764bars that
      were open after midnight; 2) 1660 alcohol-related crashes that occurred within
      the City of Houston between midnight and 6 am; and 3) 4689 modeling network road
      segments to which bars and alcohol-related crashes were assigned. Forty-five
      percent of the late night alcohol-related crashes were within a quarter mile of a
      late night bar. The bars were highly concentrated in 17 small bar clusters. Using
      the modeling network, Poisson-Gamma-CAR and Poisson-Lognormal-CAR spatial
      regression models showed a positive exponential relationship between late night
      alcohol-related crashes and the number of late nights bars and bar clusters, and
      a negative exponential relationship to distance to the nearest late night bar
      controlling for the type of road segment (freeway, principal arterial, minor
      arterial). A more general model dropped the bar cluster variable. Further, the
      Poisson-Gamma-CAR model appeared to produce a better representation than the
      Poisson-Lognormal-CAR model though the errors were different. The general Poisson
      Gamma-CAR model showed that each late night bar increased the frequency of
      alcohol-related crashes on a segment by approximately 190%. For each mile closer
      a segment was to a late night bar, the likelihood increased by 42%.

PMID- 28863363
TI  - Operating conditions influence microbial community structures, elimination of the
      antibiotic resistance genes and metabolites during anaerobic digestion of cow
      manure in the presence of oxytetracycline.
AB  - The way that antibiotic residues in manure follow is one of the greatest concerns
      due to its potential negative impacts on microbial communities, the release of
      metabolites and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) into the nature and the loss of
      energy recovery in anaerobic digestion (AD) systems. This study evaluated the
      link between different operating conditions, the biodegradation of
      oxytetracycline (OTC) and the formation of its metabolites and ARGs in anaerobic
      digesters treating cow manure. Microbial communities and ARGs were determined
      through the use of quantitative real-time PCR. The biodegradation of OTC and
      occurrence of metabolites were determined using UV-HPLC and LC/MS/MS
      respectively. The maximum quantity of resistance genes was also examined at the
      beginning of AD tests and concentration was in the order of: tetM >tetO. The
      numbers of ARGs were always higher at high volatile solids (VS) content and high
      mixing rate. The results of the investigation revealed that relationship between
      mixing rate and VS content plays a crucial role for elimination of ARGs, OTC and
      metabolites. This can be attributed to high abundance of microorganisms due to
      high VS content and their increased contact with elevated mixing rate. An
      increased interaction between microorganisms triggers the promotion of ARGs.

PMID- 28863364
TI  - High-energy breakfast based on whey protein reduces body weight, postprandial
      glycemia and HbA1C in Type 2 diabetes.
AB  - Acute studies show that addition of whey protein at breakfast has a glucose
      lowering effect through increased incretin and insulin secretion. However,
      whether this is a long-term effect in Type 2 diabetes is unknown. Fifty-six Type
      2 diabetes participants aged 58.9+/-4.5 years, BMI 32.1+/-0.9 kg/m2 and HbA1C
      7.8+/-0.1% (61.6+/-0.79 mmol/mol) were randomized to one of 3 isocaloric diets
      with similar lunch and dinner, but different breakfast: 1) 42 g total protein, 28
      g whey (WBdiet, n=19); 2) 42 g various protein sources (PBdiet, n=19); or 3) high
      carbohydrate breakfast, 17 g protein from various sources (CBdiet, n=18). Body
      weight and HbA1C were examined after 12 weeks. All participants underwent three
      all-day meal challenges for postprandial glycemia, insulin, C-peptide, intact
      glucagon-like peptide 1 (iGLP-1), ghrelin and hunger and satiety scores. Overall
      postprandial AUCglucose was reduced by 12% in PBdiet and by 19% in WBdiet,
      compared with CBdiet (P<.0001). Compared with PBdiet and CBdiet, WBdiet led to a
      greater postprandial overall AUC for insulin, C-peptide, iGLP-1 and satiety
      scores, while postprandial overall AUC for ghrelin and hunger scores were reduced
      (P<.0001). After 12 weeks, HbA1C was reduced after WBdiet by 0.89+/-0.05% (11.5+/
      0.6 mmol/mol), after PBdiet by 0.6+/-0.04% (7.1+/-0.31 mmol/mol) and after CBdiet
      by 0.36+/-0.04% (2.9+/-0.31 mmol/mol) (P<.0001). Furthermore, the participants on
      WBdiet lost 7.6+/-0.3 kg, PBdiet 6.1+/-0.3 kg and CBdiet 3.5+/-0.3 kg (P<.0001).
      Whey protein-based breakfast is an important adjuvant in the management of Type 2
      diabetes.

PMID- 28863365
TI  - A polyphenolic extract from green tea leaves activates fat browning in high-fat
      diet-induced obese mice.
AB  - Fat browning has emerged as an attractive target for the treatment of obesity and
      related metabolic disorders. Its activation leads to increased energy expenditure
      and reduced adiposity, thus contributing to a better energy homeostasis. Green
      tea extracts (GTEs) were shown to attenuate obesity and low-grade inflammation
      and to induce the lipolytic pathway in the white adipose tissue (WAT) of mice fed
      a high-fat diet. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the
      antiobesity effect of an extract from green tea leaves was associated with the
      activation of browning in the WAT and/or the inhibition of whitening in the brown
      adipose tissue (BAT) in HF-diet induced obese mice. Mice were fed a control diet
      or an HF diet supplemented with or without 0.5% polyphenolic GTE for 8 weeks. GTE
      supplementation significantly reduced HF-induced adiposity (WAT and BAT) and HF
      induced inflammation in WAT. Histological analysis revealed that GTE reduced the
      adipocyte size in the WAT and the lipid droplet size in the BAT. Markers of
      browning were induced in the WAT upon GTE treatment, whereas markers of HF
      induced whitening were reduced in the BAT. These results suggest that browning
      activation in the WAT and whitening reduction in the BAT by the GTE could
      participate to the improvement of metabolic and inflammatory disorders mediated
      by GTE upon HF diet. Our study emphasizes the importance of using GTE as a
      nutritional tool to activate browning and to decrease fat storage in all adipose
      tissues, which attenuate obesity.

PMID- 28863366
TI  - Fat-enriched rather than high-fructose diets promote whitening of adipose tissue
      in a sex-dependent manner.
AB  - Adipose tissue is a critical regulator of energy metabolism and an effector organ
      of excessive caloric intake. We studied the effects of high-fructose (HFruD),
      high-fat (HFD) and mixed high-sucrose and high-fat diet (HFHSD) on adipocyte
      morphology and biology and consecutive metabolic effects in male and female
      C57BL/6 mice. Forty male and 40 female mice were randomly assigned to one of four
      dietary groups and fed for 10 weeks ad libitum. After 10 weeks of feeding, mice
      were analyzed in regard to glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity and alteration
      in adipocyte morphology and function. Weight gain and diminished insulin
      sensitivity in HFD- and HFHSD-fed mice were accompanied by increased adipocyte
      size and a shift in size distribution towards larger adipocytes in all mice. The
      latter effect was also found but less pronounced in HFruD-fed mice, while insulin
      sensitivity and body weight remained unaffected. In male mice, expansion of white
      adipocytes along with decreased uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1) expression and
      alterations of mitochondrial biogenesis was found after HFD and HFHSD feeding,
      while in female mice, UCP-1 expression was also reduced in the HFruD dietary
      group. Diet-induced cellular alterations were less pronounced in female mice. Our
      data demonstrate that high-fat rather than high fructose consumption drives
      metabolically disadvantageous alterations of adipocyte differentiation involving
      whitening and insulin resistance in a sex-dependent manner with most deleterious
      effects seen upon administration of combined sucrose and fat-enriched diet in
      male mice.

PMID- 28863367
TI  - Monomeric cocoa catechins enhance beta-cell function by increasing mitochondrial
      respiration.
AB  - A hallmark of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is beta-cell dysfunction and the eventual
      loss of functional beta-cell mass. Therefore, mechanisms that improve or preserve
      beta-cell function could be used to improve the quality of life of individuals
      with T2D. Studies have shown that monomeric, oligomeric and polymeric cocoa
      flavanols have different effects on obesity, insulin resistance and glucose
      tolerance. We hypothesized that these cocoa flavanols may have beneficial effects
      on beta-cell function. INS-1 832/13-derived beta-cells and primary rat islets
      cultured with a monomeric catechin-rich cocoa flavanol fraction demonstrated
      enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, while cells cultured with total
      cocoa extract and with oligomeric or polymeric procyanidin-rich fraction
      demonstrated no improvement. The increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion
      in the presence of the monomeric catechin-rich fraction corresponded with
      enhanced mitochondrial respiration, suggesting improvements in beta-cell fuel
      utilization. Mitochondrial complex III, IV and V components are up-regulated
      after culture with the monomer-rich fraction, corresponding with increased
      cellular ATP production. The monomer-rich fraction improved cellular redox state
      and increased glutathione concentration, which corresponds with nuclear factor,
      erythroid 2 like 2 (Nrf2) nuclear localization and expression of Nrf2 target
      genes including nuclear respiratory factor 1 (Nrf1) and GA binding protein
      transcription factor alpha subunit (GABPA), essential genes for increasing
      mitochondrial function. We propose a model by which monomeric cocoa catechins
      improve the cellular redox state, resulting in Nrf2 nuclear migration and up
      regulation of genes critical for mitochondrial respiration, glucose-stimulated
      insulin secretion and ultimately improved beta-cell function. These results
      suggest a mechanism by which monomeric cocoa catechins exert their effects as an
      effective complementary strategy to benefit T2D patients.

PMID- 28863369
TI  - Application of ozone micro-nano-bubbles to groundwater remediation.
AB  - Ozone is widely used for water treatment because of its strong oxidation ability.
      However, the efficiency of ozone in groundwater remediation is limited because of
      its relatively low solubility and rapid decomposition in the aqueous phase.
      Methods for increasing the stability of ozone within the subsurface are drawing
      increasing attention. Micro-nano-bubbles (MNBs), with diameters ranging from tens
      of nanometres to tens of micrometres, present rapid mass transfer rates, persist
      for a relatively long time in water, and transport with groundwater flow, which
      significantly improve gas concentration and provide a continuous gas supply.
      Therefore, MNBs show a considerable potential for application in groundwater
      remediation. In this study, the characteristics of ozone MNBs were examined,
      including their size distribution, bubble quantity, and zeta potential. The mass
      transfer rate of ozone MNBs was experimentally investigated. Ozone MNBs were then
      used to treat organics-contaminated water, and they showed remarkable cleanup
      efficiency. Column tests were also conducted to study the efficiency of ozone
      MNBs for organics-contaminated groundwater remediation. Based on the laboratory
      tests, field monitoring was conducted on a trichloroethylene (TCE)-contaminated
      site. The results showed that ozone MNBs can greatly improve remediation
      efficiency and represent an innovative technology for in situ remediation of
      organics-contaminated groundwater.

PMID- 28863370
TI  - Cognitive flexibility and its electrophysiological correlates in Gilles de la
      Tourette syndrome.
AB  - Motor symptoms in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) have been related to
      changes in frontostriatal brain networks. These changes may also give rise to
      alterations in cognitive flexibility. However, conclusive evidence for altered
      cognitive flexibility in patients with GTS is still lacking. Here, we meta
      analyzed data from 20 neuropsychological studies that investigated cognitive
      flexibility in GTS using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Results revealed
      medium-sized GTS-related performance deficits, which were significantly modulated
      by age: Whilst being substantial in children and adolescents with GTS, WCST
      deficits seem to dissolve in adult patients with GTS. This age-related
      normalization of WCST performance might result from the compensatory recruitment
      of cognitive control in adult patients with GTS. We addressed this possibility by
      examining neural correlates of proactive and reactive cognitive control in an
      event-related potential (ERP) study. We analyzed cue- and target-locked ERPs from
      23 adult patients with GTS and 26 matched controls who completed a computerized
      version of the WCST. Compared to controls, patients with GTS showed a marked
      increase in parietal cue-locked P3 activity, indicating enhanced proactive
      cognitive control. We conclude that the additional recruitment of proactive
      cognitive control might ensure flexible cognitive functioning in adult patients
      with GTS.

PMID- 28863368
TI  - Postprandial effect to decrease soluble epoxide hydrolase activity: roles of
      insulin and gut microbiota.
AB  - Epoxides of free fatty acids (FFAs), especially epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs),
      are lipid mediators with beneficial effects in metabolic and cardiovascular (CV)
      health. FFA epoxides are quickly metabolized to biologically less active diols by
      soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). Inhibition of sEH, which increases EET levels,
      improves glucose homeostasis and CV health and is proposed as an effective
      strategy for the treatment of diabetes and CV diseases. Here, we show evidence
      that sEH activity is profoundly reduced in postprandial states in rats; plasma
      levels of 17 sEH products (i.e., FFA diols), detected by targeted oxylipin
      analysis, all decreased after a meal. In addition, the ratios of sEH product to
      substrate (sEH P/S ratios), which may reflect sEH activity, decreased ~70% on
      average 2.5 h after a meal in rats (P<.01). To examine whether this effect was
      mediated by insulin action, a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp was performed for
      2.5 h, and sEH P/S ratios were assessed before and after the clamp. The clamp
      resulted in small increases rather than decreases in sEH P/S ratios (P<.05),
      indicating that insulin cannot account for the postprandial decrease in sEH P/S
      ratios. Interestingly, in rats treated with antibiotics to deplete gut bacteria,
      the postprandial effect to decrease sEH P/S ratios was completely abolished,
      suggesting that a gut bacteria-derived factor(s) may be responsible for the
      effect. Further studies are warranted to identify such a factor(s) and elucidate
      the mechanism by which sEH activity (or sEH P/S ratio) is reduced in postprandial
      states.

PMID- 28863371
TI  - Modelling CO2 emissions from water surface of a boreal hydroelectric reservoir.
AB  - To quantify CO2 emissions from water surface of a reservoir that was shaped by
      flooding the boreal landscape, we developed a daily time-step reservoir
      biogeochemistry model. We calibrated the model using the measured concentrations
      of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon (C) in a young boreal hydroelectric
      reservoir, Eastmain-1 (EM-1), in northern Quebec, Canada. We validated the model
      against observed CO2 fluxes from an eddy covariance tower in the middle of EM-1.
      The model predicted the variability of CO2 emissions reasonably well compared to
      the observations (root mean square error: 0.4-1.3gCm-2day-1, revised Willmott
      index: 0.16-0.55). In particular, we demonstrated that the annual reservoir
      surface effluxes were initially high, steeply declined in the first three years,
      and then steadily decreased to ~115gCm-2yr-1 with increasing reservoir age over
      the estimated "engineering" reservoir lifetime (i.e., 100years). Sensitivity
      analyses revealed that increasing air temperature stimulated CO2 emissions by
      enhancing CO2 production in the water column and sediment, and extending the
      duration of open water period over which emissions occur. Increasing the amount
      of terrestrial organic C flooded can enhance benthic CO2 fluxes and CO2 emissions
      from the reservoir water surface, but the effects were not significant over the
      simulation period. The model is useful for the understanding of the mechanism of
      C dynamics in reservoirs and could be used to assist the hydro-power industry and
      others interested in the role of boreal hydroelectric reservoirs as sources of
      greenhouse gas emissions.

PMID- 28863372
TI  - Are organosilicon surfactants safe for bees or humans?
AB  - Organosilicon surfactants are the most potent adjuvants available for formulating
      and applying agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, household cleaning and
      personal care products, dental impressions and medicines. Risk assessment of
      pesticides, drugs or personal care products that takes into account only active
      ingredients without the other formulation ingredients and adjuvants commonly used
      in their application will miss important toxicity outcomes detrimental to non
      target species including pollinators and humans. Over a billion pounds of
      organosilicon surfactants from all uses are produced globally per year, making
      this a major component of the chemical landscape to which bees and humans are
      exposed. These silicones, like most "inerts", are generally recognized as safe,
      have no mandated tolerances, and their residues are largely unmonitored. Lack of
      their public disclosure and adequate analytical methods constrains evaluation of
      their risk. Organosilicon surfactants, the most super-spreading and -penetrating
      adjuvants available, at relevant exposure levels impair honey bee learning, are
      acutely toxic, and in combination with bee viruses cause synergistic mortality.
      Organosilicon surfactants need to be regulated as a separate class of "inerts"
      from the more common silicones. In turn, impacts of organosilicon surfactant
      exposures on humans need to be evaluated. Silicones in their great diversity
      probably represent the single most ubiquitous environmental class of global
      synthetic pollutants. Do honey bees, a model environmental indicator organism,
      forewarn of hidden risks to humans of ubiquitous silicone exposures?

PMID- 28863373
TI  - Plastics in soil: Analytical methods and possible sources.
AB  - At least 300 Mio t of plastic are produced annually, from which large parts end
      up in the environment, where it persists over decades, harms biota and enters the
      food chain. Yet, almost nothing is known about plastic pollution of soil; hence,
      the aims of this work are to review current knowledge on i) available methods for
      the quantification and identification of plastic in soil, ii) the quantity and
      possible input pathways of plastic into soil, (including first preliminary
      screening of plastic in compost), and iii) its fate in soil. Methods for plastic
      analyses in sediments can potentially be adjusted for application to soil; yet,
      the applicability of these methods for soil needs to be tested. Consequently, the
      current data base on soil pollution with plastic is still poor. Soils may receive
      plastic inputs via plastic mulching or the application of plastic containing soil
      amendments. In compost up to 2.38-1200mg plastic kg-1 have been found so far; the
      plastic concentration of sewage sludge varies between 1000 and 24,000 plastic
      items kg-1. Also irrigation with untreated and treated wastewater (1000-627,000
      and 0-125,000 plastic items m-3, respectively) as well as flooding with lake
      water (0.82-4.42 plastic items m-3) or river water (0-13,751 items km-2) can
      provide major input pathways for plastic into soil. Additional sources comprise
      littering along roads and trails, illegal waste dumping, road runoff as well as
      atmospheric input. With these input pathways, plastic concentrations in soil
      might reach the per mill range of soil organic carbon. Most of plastic
      (especially >1MUm) will presumably be retained in soil, where it persists for
      decades or longer. Accordingly, further research on the prevalence and fate of
      such synthetic polymers in soils is urgently warranted.

PMID- 28863374
TI  - Uptake of the natural radioactive gas radon by an epiphytic plant.
AB  - Radon (222Rn) is a natural radioactive gas and the major radioactive contributor
      to human exposure. The present effective ways to control Rn contamination are
      ventilation and adsorption with activated carbon. Plants are believed to be
      negligible in reducing airborne Rn. Here, we found epiphytic Tillandsia
      brachycaulos (Bromeliaceae) was effective in reducing airborne Rn via the leaves.
      Rn concentrations in the Rn chamber after Tillandsia plant treatments decreased
      more than those in the natural situation. The specialized foliar trichomes
      densely covering Tillandsia leaves play a major role in the uptake of Rn because
      the amplified rough leaf surface area facilitates deposition of Rn progeny
      particles and the powdery epicuticular wax layer of foliar trichomes uptakes
      liposoluble Rn. The results provide us a new ecological strategy for Rn
      contamination control, and movable epiphytic Tillandsia plants can be applied
      widely in Rn removal systems.

PMID- 28863375
TI  - Detoxification mechanisms, defense responses, and toxicity threshold in the
      earthworm Eisenia foetida exposed to ciprofloxacin-polluted soils.
AB  - The widespread application of antibiotics poses health risks for agro-ecosystems.
      This study examined the effects of ciproflaxin (CIP)-polluted soils (0
      51.2mgCIP/kg) on the earthworm Eisenia foetida. The enhanced activities and
      isozyme levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase after
      15days of CIP exposure suggested reactive oxygen species overproduction and thus
      the generation of oxidatively damaged proteins (e.g., carbonylated proteins) in
      the earthworms. Under mild CIP stress, the 20S proteasome was capable of
      degrading most of the damaged proteins independent of ubiquitin. Under severe
      stress, proteases and endoproteases were up-regulated and maintained the
      proteolysis as 20S proteasome activity diminished. These observations suggested
      that, together with glutathione S-transferases, which also participated in the
      detoxification, 20S proteasome, proteases, endoproteases, and antioxidant enzymes
      constituted a detoxification and defense system in the earthworms. The biphasic
      dose responses of these cellular components confirmed that the dose range tested
      was reasonable for the bioassay of CIP-polluted soils. Our results also
      demonstrated the potential utility of SOD and ubiquitin as highly sensitive
      biomarkers in the early bioassay of CIP-polluted soils. Bases on the results, a
      toxicity threshold for CIP-polluted soils of 3.2-6.4mgCIP/kg soil can be
      proposed.

PMID- 28863376
TI  - Reducing mortality risk by targeting specific air pollution sources: Suva, Fiji.
AB  - Health implications of air pollution vary dependent upon pollutant sources. This
      work determines the value, in terms of reduced mortality, of reducing ambient
      particulate matter (PM2.5: effective aerodynamic diameter 2.5MUm or less)
      concentration due to different emission sources. Suva, a Pacific Island city with
      substantial input from combustion sources, is used as a case-study. Elemental
      concentration was determined, by ion beam analysis, for PM2.5 samples from Suva,
      spanning one year. Sources of PM2.5 have been quantified by positive matrix
      factorisation. A review of recent literature has been carried out to delineate
      the mortality risk associated with these sources. Risk factors have then been
      applied for Suva, to calculate the possible mortality reduction that may be
      achieved through reduction in pollutant levels. Higher risk ratios for black
      carbon and sulphur resulted in mortality predictions for PM2.5 from fossil fuel
      combustion, road vehicle emissions and waste burning that surpass predictions for
      these sources based on health risk of PM2.5 mass alone. Predicted mortality for
      Suva from fossil fuel smoke exceeds the national toll from road accidents in
      Fiji. The greatest benefit for Suva, in terms of reduced mortality, is likely to
      be accomplished by reducing emissions from fossil fuel combustion (diesel),
      vehicles and waste burning.

PMID- 28863377
TI  - A rare case report of an adenomatoid odontogenic tumor associated with odontoma
      in the maxilla.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT) associated with odontoma
      has been described as a new entity with overlapping features of adenomatoid-like
      structures and odontoma. Presentation of the case: We report the second case of
      AOT associated with odontoma in the posterior maxillary region. A 22-year-old
      patient presented expansion of the vestibular and palatine cortical wall of
      maxilla. Radiographic examination and computed tomography confirmed erosion of
      maxillary walls, root resorption, displacement of a neighboring tooth and
      radiopacities within the lesion. Histopathological analysis showed a cystic
      cavity lined by odontogenic epithelium, organized as duct like structures and
      tubular dentin. The diagnosis established was AOT associated with odontoma.
      DISCUSSION: As fewer cases have been described, the aim of this study is to
      report clinical behavior and evolution of adenomatoid odontogenic tumor
      associated with odontoma, as it have not yet been described and its origin is not
      completely established. The hamartomatous or neoplastic origin of this tumor is
      under debate. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, it is necessary similar cases to be
      published to increase the knowledge about the clinical behavior and evolution of
      this tumor, to enable such lesions to be more clearly defined in the next
      classification of odontogenic tumors.

PMID- 28863378
TI  - Right hepatectomy after spontaneous hepatic rupture in a patient with
      preeclampsia: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Spontaneous hepatic rupture associated with preecalmpsia or HELLP
      syndrome is a rare and life threatining event, only 200 cases have been reported
      in the literature. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We present a case of a 31 year old
      female with 28 weeks of gestation that presented with acute abdominal pain,
      elevated blood pressure and altered liver enzymes an abdominal ultrasound that
      showed a subcapsular hematoma occupying the whole right lobe and free abdominal
      fluid, she required emergent laparotomy, C-section, hepatic packing, followed by
      angioembolization and finally right hepatectomy. DISCUSSION AND CONSLUSION:
      Spontaneous hepatic rupture due to preeclampsia or HELLP syndrome is a medical
      emergency, it requires a prompt and decisive treatment. Multiple treatment
      modalities are available, from simple hepatic packing to endovascular
      embolization, but in extreme situations a formal hepatectomy might be required.

PMID- 28863379
TI  - Cassia auriculata flower extract attenuates hyperlipidemia in male Wistar rats by
      regulating the hepatic cholesterol metabolism.
AB  - Hyperlipidemia in the male albino Wistar rats was induced by Triton WR - 1339.
      The treatment of the hyperlipidemic animals with the ethanol extract of Cassia
      auriculata flower (Et-CAF) exhibited a dose dependent reduction in serum
      triacylglycerol, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low
      density lipoprotein (VLDL) similar to the hyperlipidemic animals treated with
      standard drug atorvastatin. Hyperlipidemia altered the protein and mRNA
      expression levels of the key genes (SREBP-1c, ACC1, SREBP-2, HMGR, HMGS, CYP7A1,
      and ABCA1) in lipid metabolism and the treatment with Et-CAF (300mg/kg b. wt)
      reverted these levels similar to that observed with atorvastatin treated
      hyperlipidemic animals. These results revealed that Et-CAF extract served as an
      efficient anti-hyperlipidemic drug.

PMID- 28863380
TI  - Effect of two andrographolide derivatives on cellular and rodent models of non
      alcoholic fatty liver disease.
AB  - The prevalence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is increasing and
      there is an increasing interest in natural products to treat NAFLD. This study
      aimed to evaluate the hepatoprotective effect of andrographolide and two of its
      derivatives; in one the OH group at C-14 was removed and in the other OH groups
      at C-3 and C-19 were protected. Andrographolide (AN) was isolated from the aerial
      parts of Andrographis paniculata Wall. Isoandrographolide (IAN) and 3,19
      acetonylidene andrographolide (ANA) were derivatized from AN. Drug likeness of
      the compounds was studied using DataWarrior. The effect of the compounds in
      ameliorating hepatic steatosis and lipotoxicity was assessed using palmitate
      oleate induced steatotic HepG2 cell lines. In vivo efficacy of the compounds was
      assessed by using HFD fed rats. IAN showed comparatively high drug score and low
      irritability than AN. MTT assay indicated that the treatment with IAN had
      comparatively less toxicity than AN and ANA to HepG2 cells. The treatment with
      IAN significantly reduced the lipid accumulation and the leakage of LDH and
      transaminases, while the treatments with AN and ANA did not prohibit the leakage.
      In the in vivo experiment, the treatment with IAN showed comparatively better
      hepatoprotection by reducing the serum lipid, transaminases and ALP levels than
      with AN and ANA. Our results showed that IAN could be a promising lead to treat
      NAFLD with comparatively low toxicity and improved efficacy.

PMID- 28863381
TI  - Natural killer T cells in Preeclampsia: An updated review.
AB  - Preeclampsia (PE), as a pregnancy-specific syndrome, has become one of the main
      causes of maternal and fetal mortality worldwide and is known as a major risk
      factor for preterm birth. PE is typically characterized by hypertension,
      significant proteinuria, and an excessive maternal systemic inflammatory
      response. Recent evidences provide support for the notion that Natural killer T
      (NKT) cells (a small, but significant immunoregulatory T cell subset of human
      peripheral blood lymphocytes) play pivotal roles in pregnancy. NKT cells with
      unique transcriptional and cytokine profiles exist in different peripheral
      tissues acting as mediators between the innate and adaptive immune systems. NKT
      cells secrete Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) which might
      regulate the balance between Type 1T helper (Th1) and Type 2T helper (Th2)
      responses. During pregnancy, maternal immunity is biased towards type II cytokine
      production to inhibit the function of type I cytokines that could be harmful for
      the developing fetus. This shift to type II cytokines does not occur in
      preeclamptic patients. In this review, we discuss the numbers, phenotype,
      changes, and the functional activity of Natural killer T (NKT) cells during
      normal pregnancy and preeclampsia.

PMID- 28863382
TI  - Design and synthesis of conjugated azo-hydrazone analogues using nano BF3.SiO2
      targeting ROS homeostasis in oncogenic and vascular progression.
AB  - Disrupted redox balance is implicated in multiple pathologies including malignant
      progression and tumor angiogenesis. In this investigation, we report the design
      and development of novel and effective ROS detoxifying azo-hydrazone molecules
      targeting malignant pathologies and neoangiogenesis. A series of azo-derivatives
      conjugated to hydrazones moieties (9a-j) were synthesized using Nano BF3.SiO2.
      The compounds (9a-j) were screened for in-vitro antioxidant and lipid
      peroxidation inhibitory activity. Among the series 9a-j, compound 9f potently
      quenched biologically relevant radicals such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide
      which emerged as the lead ROS detoxifying molecules. Compound 9f potently
      inhibited the proliferative capability of Daltons Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) tumor
      cells in-vivo in dose dependent manner. Regressed tumor progression was
      correlated with pronounced endogenous antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase and
      catalase in-vivo. Also, ROS levels were severely suppressed in 9f treated mice as
      assessed by lapsed lipid peroxidation. Altered enzymic and ROS levels in-vivo by
      9f were implicated in suppressed VEGF secretion leading to regressed tumor
      neovasculature and tumor growth. Considering together, it is evident that the
      synthetic azo-hydrazone analogue 9f with potent ROS scavenging efficacy inhibits
      tumor progression and neo-angiogenesis.

PMID- 28863383
TI  - Acetylenic derivative of betulin induces apoptosis in endometrial adenocarcinoma
      cell line.
AB  - Since betulin (Bet) and its acetylenic derivative, 28-O-propynoylbetulin (proBet)
      were shown to induce apoptosis in several cancer cell lines, we studied the
      mechanism of this process in human endometrial adenocarcinoma cells (EA).
      Previous studies suggested that this group of compounds affect prolidase activity
      (proline releasing enzyme from imidodipeptides) and collagen biosynthesis
      (proline utilizing process) providing substrate (proline) for proline oxidase
      (POX) dependent apoptosis. Here we provide evidence that Bet and proBet exhibit
      prolidase-inducing activity in EA cell line. However, in contrast to Bet, proBet
      inhibited collagen biosynthesis, increased intracellular proline concentration
      and induced apoptosis in EA cells, as detected by caspase-3, and -9 expressions
      and annexin V staining. Although POX expression was not affected by both
      compounds, the process of apoptosis was accompanied by increase in cytoplasmic
      level of proline. The mechanism for proBet-induced prolidase activity was found
      at the level of beta1 integrin signaling. The inhibition of collagen biosynthesis
      was due to up-regulation of NF-kappaB p65, an inhibitor of collagen type I gene
      transcription. Although Bet and proBet induced expression of pro-apoptotic p53 in
      EA cells, the effect of proBet on the processes was much stronger. In contrast to
      proBet, Bet strongly induced expression of pro-survival factors, HIF-1alpha and
      VEGF. The data suggest that massive production of proline by proBet-dependent
      activation of prolidase and inhibition of proline utilization for collagen
      biosynthesis may represent mechanism for POX-dependent apoptosis in EA cells.

PMID- 28863384
TI  - Therapeutical strategies for anxiety and anxiety-like disorders using plant
      derived natural compounds and plant extracts.
AB  - Anxiety and anxiety-like disorders describe many mental disorders, yet fear is a
      common overwhelming symptom often leading to depression. Currently two basic
      strategies are discussed to treat anxiety: pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy. In
      the pharmacotherapeutical clinical approach, several conventional synthetic
      anxiolytic drugs are being used with several adverse effects. Therefore, studies
      to find suitable safe medicines from natural sources are being sought by
      researchers. The results of a plethora experimental studies demonstrated that
      dietary phytochemicals like alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, phenolic acids,
      lignans, cinnamates, and saponins or various plant extracts with the mixture of
      different phytochemicals possess anxiolytic effects in a wide range of animal
      models of anxiety. The involved mechanisms of anxiolytics action include
      interaction with gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptors at benzodiazepine (BZD) and
      non-BZD sites with various affinity to different subunits, serotonergic 5
      hydrodytryptamine receptors, noradrenergic and dopaminergic systems, glutamate
      receptors, and cannabinoid receptors. This review focuses on the use of both
      plant-derived natural compounds and plant extracts with anxiolytic effects,
      describing their biological effects and clinical application.

PMID- 28863385
TI  - Tumour radiosensitivity is associated with immune activation in solid tumours.
AB  - PURPOSE: Our goal was to determine whether tumour radiosensitivity is associated
      with activation of the immune system across all tumour types as measured by two
      gene expression signatures (GESs). METHODS: We identified 10,240 genomically
      profiled distinct solid primary tumours with gene expression analysis available
      from an institutional de-identified database. Two separate GESs were included in
      the analysis, the radiosensitivity index (RSI) GES (a 10-gene GES as a measure of
      radiosensitivity) and the 12-chemokine (12-CK) signature (a 12-gene GES as a
      measure of immune activation). We tested whether the RSI and 12-CK were
      associated with each other across all tumour samples and, in an exploratory
      analysis, their prognostic significance in predicting distant metastasis-free
      survival (DMFS) among a well-characterised, independent cohort of 282 early-stage
      breast cancer cases treated with surgery and post-operative radiation alone
      without systemic therapy. The lower the RSI score, the higher the tumour
      radiosensitivity; whereas, the higher the 12-CK score the higher the immune
      activation. RESULTS: Using an RSI cut-point of <=0.3745, RSI-low tumours (n =
      4,291, 41.9%) had a significantly higher median 12-CK GES value (0.54 [-0.136,
      1.095]) compared with RSI-high tumours (-0.17 [-0.82, 0.42]; p < 0.001) across
      all tumour samples, indicating that radiosensitivity is associated with immune
      activation. In an exploratory analysis of early-stage breast cancer cases, a
      multivariable model with patient age, RSI and 12-CK provided a strong composite
      model for DMFS (p = 0.02), with RSI (hazard ratio [HR] 0.63 [95% confidence
      interval 0.36, 1.09]) and 12-CK (HR 0.66 [0.41, 1.04]) each providing comparable
      contributions. CONCLUSIONS: Tumour radiosensitivity is associated with immune
      activation as measured by the two GESs.

PMID- 28863387
TI  - Autophagy inhibition of immature oocytes during vitrification-warming and in
      vitro mature activates apoptosis via caspase-9 and -12 pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the role of autophagy in the
      immature oocytes during vitrification-warming and in vitro maturation (IVM); the
      correlations among autophagy, apoptosis, and the activities of caspase in the
      immature oocytes during vitrification-warming and IVM were also explored. STUDY
      DESIGN: Immature oocytes from mice were vitrified-warmed and IVM. An autophagy
      inhibitor (3-methyladenine) was supplemented in cryopreservation solutions and
      warming solutions. The expression of beclin-1 (an autophagy marker), caspase-3, 
      8, -9, and -12 were measured. Moreover, the viability of vitrified-warmed
      immature oocytes and their subsequent developmental competence were measured.
      RESULTS: The levels of beclin-1 expression in both mRNA and protein in oocytes
      experienced vitrification-warming and IVM were significantly higher than that in
      fresh immature oocytes experienced IVM. The levels of caspase-3, -9, -12
      expression in both mRNA and protein in oocytes vitrified with 3-methyladenine
      were significantly higher than that vitrified without 3-methyladenine. However,
      the differences in the caspase-8 expression in both mRNA and protein between the
      oocytes vitrified with 3-methyladenine and that vitrified without 3-methyladenine
      were not significant. CONCLUSION: Immature oocyte cryopreservation exhibits
      autophagic activation. Autophagy inhibition of the immature oocytes during
      vitrification-warming and IVM activates apoptosis via caspase-9 and -12 pathway.

PMID- 28863386
TI  - From the statistics of connectivity to the statistics of spike times in neuronal
      networks.
AB  - An essential step toward understanding neural circuits is linking their structure
      and their dynamics. In general, this relationship can be almost arbitrarily
      complex. Recent theoretical work has, however, begun to identify some broad
      principles underlying collective spiking activity in neural circuits. The first
      is that local features of network connectivity can be surprisingly effective in
      predicting global statistics of activity across a network. The second is that,
      for the important case of large networks with excitatory-inhibitory balance,
      correlated spiking persists or vanishes depending on the spatial scales of
      recurrent and feedforward connectivity. We close by showing how these ideas,
      together with plasticity rules, can help to close the loop between network
      structure and activity statistics.

PMID- 28863388
TI  - Children's exposure to brominated flame retardants in indoor environments - A
      review.
AB  - The aim of this review is to present up-to-date research on children's exposure
      to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in indoor environments. Large geographical
      variations were observed for all BFRs [polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs),
      hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA)], with the highest
      concentrations of PBDEs measured in North America (BDE-47) and Europe (BDE-209),
      where higher concentrations of PBDEs are present in dust from houses, daycare
      centers and primary schools. In Asia the highest PBDE concentrations were
      measured in China, near e-waste recycling areas. In the Middle East, Australia
      and Africa BFR levels were low in most indoor spaces. Asian countries also have
      the highest concentrations of TBBPA and HBCDD, followed by European countries.
      Fewer studies have been conducted measuring novel and emerging BFRs (NBFRs or
      EBFRs), of which decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE) has the highest concentration in
      indoor environments, especially in China. The vast majority of children's
      exposure studies have been conducted in houses, sampling either dust or air, and
      considerably fewer in schools, daycare centers, cars and public facilities,
      despite BFR levels being comparable to (or sometimes even higher than) house
      dust. Relatively fewer studies focused on children's tissues such as serum, and
      only two studied exposure via mouthing toys. Alternative noninvasive sampling
      matrices that may act as surrogates for exposure to BFRs such as handwipes and
      silicone wristbands have recently started to gain momentum, because of the ease
      of sampling, faster collection time and better correlations to serum than house
      dust. Feces sampling is another promising alternative to children's serum that
      warrants further research. While many studies have associated different indoor
      environment characteristics, there is a knowledge gap on the association between
      children's behaviour and activity patterns and their exposure to BFRs, as well as
      data on infant exposure to BFRs via baby products. Results from the studies
      showed that dust ingestion was the dominant exposure pathway for most studied
      BFRs compared to indoor air inhalation and dermal contact, especially for infants
      and toddlers who have higher exposures than older children.

PMID- 28863389
TI  - A role of low dose chemical mixtures in adipose tissue in carcinogenesis.
AB  - The Halifax project recently hypothesized a composite carcinogenic potential of
      the mixture of low dose chemicals which are commonly encountered environmentally,
      yet which are not classified as human carcinogens. A long neglected but important
      fact is that adipose tissue is an important exposure source for chemical
      mixtures. In fact, findings from human studies based on several persistent
      organic pollutants in general populations with only background exposure should be
      interpreted from the viewpoint of chemical mixtures because serum concentrations
      of these chemicals can be seen as surrogates for chemical mixtures in adipose
      tissue. Furthermore, in conditions such as obesity with dysfunctional adipocytes
      or weight loss in which lipolysis is increased, the amount of the chemical
      mixture released from adipose tissue to circulation is increased. Thus, both
      obesity and weight loss can enhance the chance of chemical mixtures reaching
      critical organs, however paradoxical this idea may be when fat mass is the only
      factor considered. The complicated, interrelated dynamics of adipocytes and
      chemical mixtures can explain puzzling findings related to body weight among
      cancer patients, including the obesity paradox. The contamination of fat in human
      diet with chemical mixtures, occurring for reasons similar to contamination of
      human adipose tissue, may be a missing factor which affects the association
      between dietary fat intake and cancer. The presence of chemical mixtures in
      adipose tissue should be considered in future cancer research, including clinical
      trials on weight management among cancer survivors.

PMID- 28863390
TI  - More than clean air and tranquillity: Residential green is independently
      associated with decreasing mortality.
AB  - Green space may improve health by enabling physical activity and recovery from
      stress or by decreased pollution levels. We investigated the association between
      residential green (greenness or green space) and mortality in adults using the
      Swiss National Cohort (SNC) by mutually considering air pollution and
      transportation noise exposure. To reflect residential green at the address level,
      two different metrics were derived: normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI)
      for greenness, and high resolution land use classification data to identify green
      spaces (LU-green). We used stratified Cox proportional hazard models (stratified
      by sex) to study the association between exposure and all natural cause
      mortality, respiratory and cardiovascular disease (CVD), including ischemic heart
      disease, stroke and hypertension related mortality. Models were adjusted for
      civil status, job position, education, neighbourhood socio-economic position
      (SEP), geographic region, area type, altitude, air pollution (PM10), and
      transportation noise. From the nation-wide SNC, 4.2 million adults were included
      providing 7.8years of follow-up and respectively 363,553, 85,314 and 232,322
      natural cause, respiratory and CVD deaths. Hazard ratios (and 95%-confidence
      intervals) for NDVI [and LU-green] per interquartile range within 500m of
      residence were highly comparable: 0.94 (0.93-0.95) [0.94 (0.93-0.95)] for natural
      causes; 0.92 (0.91-0.94) [0.92 (0.90-0.95)] for respiratory; and 0.95 (0.94-0.96)
      [0.96 (0.95-0.98)] for CVD mortality. Protective effects were stronger in younger
      individuals and in women and, for most outcomes, in urban (vs. rural) and in the
      highest (vs. lowest) SEP quartile. Estimates remained virtually unchanged after
      incremental adjustment for air pollution and transportation noise, and mediation
      by these environmental factors was found to be small. We found consistent
      evidence that residential green reduced the risk of mortality independently from
      other environmental exposures. This suggests the protective effect goes beyond
      the absence of pollution sources. Environmental public health measures should not
      only aim at reducing pollutant exposure, but additionally maintain existing and
      increase residential green in areas where lacking.

PMID- 28863391
TI  - A precision medicine approach for psychiatric disease based on repeated symptom
      scores.
AB  - For psychiatric diseases, rich information exists in the serial measurement of
      mental health symptom scores. We present a precision medicine framework for using
      the trajectories of multiple symptoms to make personalized predictions about
      future symptoms and related psychiatric events. Our approach fits a Bayesian
      hierarchical model that estimates a population-average trajectory for all
      symptoms and individual deviations from the average trajectory, then fits a
      second model that uses individual symptom trajectories to estimate the risk of
      experiencing an event. The fitted models are used to make clinically relevant
      predictions for new individuals. We demonstrate this approach on data from a
      study of antipsychotic therapy for schizophrenia, predicting future scores for
      positive, negative, and general symptoms, and the risk of treatment failure in
      522 schizophrenic patients with observations over 8 weeks. While precision
      medicine has focused largely on genetic and molecular data, the complementary
      approach we present illustrates that innovative analytic methods for existing
      data can extend its reach more broadly. The systematic use of repeated
      measurements of psychiatric symptoms offers the promise of precision medicine in
      the field of mental health.

PMID- 28863393
TI  - Child maltreatment characteristics as predictors of heterogeneity in
      internalizing symptom trajectories among children in the child welfare system.
AB  - This study investigated heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of
      internalizing symptoms among 541 children who were involved with the child
      welfare system and examined child maltreatment characteristics, including types,
      level of harm, and timing, as predictors of internalizing trajectory patterns.
      Secondary longitudinal research was conducted using data from the National Survey
      of Child and Adolescent Well-Being-I, collected from 1999 to 2007 in the United
      States. Three distinct trajectory groups were identified: high-decreasing; low
      increasing; and low-stable Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and more
      severe levels of harm from maltreatment predicted membership in two maladaptive
      groups compared to the low-stable group. The findings of the study suggest the
      importance of providing a thorough assessment of the type and severity of
      maltreatment experiences and continued monitoring of internalizing symptoms for
      children with child welfare involvement.

PMID- 28863392
TI  - Mindfulness mediates the physiological markers of stress: Systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - Meditation is a popular form of stress management, argued to mediate stress
      reactivity. However, many studies in this field commonly fail to include an
      active control group. Given the frequency with which people are selecting
      meditation as a form of self-management, it is important to validate if the
      practice is effective in mediating stress-reactivity using well-controlled
      studies. Thus, we aimed to conduct a meta-analysis investigating the
      neurobiological effects of meditation, including focused attention, open
      monitoring and automatic self-transcending subtypes, compared to an active
      control, on markers of stress. In the current meta-analysis and systematic
      review, we included randomised controlled trials comparing meditation
      interventions compared to an active control on physiological markers of stress.
      Studied outcomes include cortisol, blood pressure, heart-rate, lipids and
      peripheral cytokine expression. Forty-five studies were included. All meditation
      subtypes reduced systolic blood pressure. Focused attention meditations also
      reduced cortisol and open monitoring meditations also reduced heart rate. When
      all meditation forms were analysed together, meditation reduced cortisol, C -
      reactive protein, blood pressure, heart rate, triglycerides and tumour necrosis
      factor-alpha. Overall, meditation practice leads to decreased physiological
      markers of stress in a range of populations.

PMID- 28863394
TI  - Physical violence against children with hearing loss by parents: A pilot study in
      Beijing, China.
AB  - This study aims to examine the rate and risk factors for physical violence (PV)
      by parents against hearing loss children in Beijing, China. Cross-sectional study
      was carried out among 86 couples of parents of hearing loss children from two
      special education schools in Beijing. Parents' self-reporting questionnaires were
      used to collect information about parental PV behaviors during the past 12
      months, definition of child abuse, attitudes towards the use of corporal
      punishment to discipline children, parents' childhood experience of PV
      victimization, and demographic characteristics. Descriptive statistics and
      logistic regression analyses were conducted. The rates of minor PV and severe PV
      reported by parents were 44.8% and 15.7%, respectively. Results from logistic
      regression analyses indicated that the risk factors of PV were: lower educational
      attainment, favorable or tolerant attitudes towards the use of corporal
      punishment to discipline children, parents' experiences of PV victimization in
      childhood, and younger children. PV by parents against hearing loss children was
      common in Beijing. It is urgent to develop prevention programs to improve
      parents' parenting skills and protect children with hearing loss from PV.

PMID- 28863395
TI  - Comparison of repeated applications of aPDT with amoxicillin and metronidazole in
      the treatment of chronic periodontitis: A short-term study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical effects of Metronidazole
      (MTZ) combined with Amoxicillin (AMX) and repeated applications of antimicrobial
      photodynamic therapy (aPDT) as an adjuvant for the treatment of chronic
      periodontitis. METHODS: A double-blind controlled and randomized clinical trial
      was conducted in 34 patients. All of the patients were treated with scaling and
      root planing (SRP) and separated into 2 groups: the MTZ+AMX Group (n=17), who
      received SRP and the systemic use of MTZ (400mg 3*per day for 7days) and AMX
      (500mg 3*per day for 7days), and the aPDT Group (n=17), who received SRP and
      three aPDT applications at all sites with a probing depth>=5mm immediately, at 48
      and 96h after scaling and placebo pills over the span of 7days. Clinical
      examinations were performed at baseline and 90days post-therapy. The clinical
      parameters of bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD), and clinical
      attachment level (CAL) were measured. The aPDT was conducted using methylene blue
      and a low-level laser (GaAlAs 660nm, 100mW, 48s, and 160J/cm2) in all sites with
      a probing depth>=5mm. A statistical analysis was also performed (alpha=5%).
      RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in CAL only in the intermediate
      pocket in the aPDT group compared to the MTZ+AMX group between baseline and
      90days post-treatment (p=0.01). There was a reduction of both BOP and the
      percentage of residual pockets at 90days after treatment compared with baseline
      in both groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Both proposed adjuvant therapies associated
      with conventional mechanical treatment in patients with chronic periodontitis
      were equally effective in terms of the gain of clinical insertion, control of
      inflammation and elimination of residual pockets.

PMID- 28863396
TI  - Proximity effects in chromosome aberration induction by low-LET ionizing
      radiation.
AB  - Although chromosome aberrations are known to derive from distance-dependent mis
      rejoining of chromosome fragments, evaluating whether a certain model describes
      such "proximity effects" better than another one is complicated by the fact that
      different approaches have often been tested under different conditions. Herein, a
      biophysical model ("BIANCA", i.e. BIophysical ANalysis of Cell death and
      chromosome Aberrations) was upgraded, implementing explicit chromosome-arm
      domains and two new models for the dependence of the rejoining probability on the
      fragment initial distance, r. Such probability was described either by an
      exponential function like exp(-r/r0), or by a Gaussian function like exp(
      r2/2sigma2), where r0 and sigma were adjustable parameters. The second, and last,
      parameters was the yield of "Cluster Lesions" (CL), where "Cluster Lesion"
      defines a critical DNA damage producing two independent chromosome fragments. The
      model was applied to low-LET-irradiated lymphocytes (doses: 1-4Gy) and
      fibroblasts (1-6.1Gy). Good agreement with experimental yields of dicentrics and
      centric rings, and thus their ratio ("F-ratio"), was found by both the
      exponential model (with r0=0.8MUm for lymphocytes and 0.7MUm for fibroblasts) and
      the Gaussian model (with sigma=1.1MUm for lymphocytes and 1.3MUm for
      fibroblasts). While the former also allowed reproducing dose-responses for excess
      acentric fragments, the latter substantially underestimated the experimental
      curves. Both models provided G-ratios (ratio of acentric to centric rings) higher
      than those expected from randomness, although the values calculated by the
      Gaussian model were lower than those calculated by the exponential one. For
      lymphocytes the calculated G-ratios were in good agreement with the experimental
      ones, whereas for fibroblasts both models substantially underestimated the
      experimental results, which deserves further investigation. This work suggested
      that, although both models performed better than a step model (which previously
      allowed reproducing the F-ratio but underestimated the G-ratio), an exponential
      function describes proximity effects better than a Gaussian one.

PMID- 28863397
TI  - Widespread legacy brine contamination from oil production reduces survival of
      chorus frog larvae.
AB  - Advances in drilling techniques have facilitated a rapid increase in hydrocarbon
      extraction from energy shales, including the Williston Basin in central North
      America. This area overlaps with the Prairie Pothole Region, a region densely
      populated with wetlands that provide numerous ecosystem services. Historical
      (legacy) disposal practices often released saline co-produced waters (brines)
      with high chloride concentrations, affecting wetland water quality directly or
      persisting in sediments. Despite the potential threat of brine contamination to
      aquatic habitats, there has been little research into its ecological effects. We
      capitalized on a gradient of legacy brine-contaminated wetlands in northeast
      Montana to conduct laboratory experiments to assess variation in survival of
      larval Boreal Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris maculata) reared on sediments from 3 local
      wetlands and a control source. To help provide environmental context for the
      experiment, we also measured chloride concentrations in 6 brine-contaminated
      wetlands in our study area, including the 2 contaminated sites used for sediment
      exposures. Survival of frog larvae during 46- and 55-day experiments differed by
      up to 88% among sediment sources (Site Model) and was negatively correlated with
      potential chloride exposure (Chloride Model). Five of the 6 contaminated wetlands
      exceeded the U.S. EPA acute benchmark for chloride in freshwater (860 mg/L) and
      all exceeded the chronic benchmark (230 mg/L). However, the Wetland Site model
      explained more variation in survival than the Chloride Model, suggesting that
      chloride concentration alone does not fully reflect the threat of contamination
      to aquatic species. Because the profiles of brine-contaminated sediments are
      complex, further surveys and experiments are needed across a broad range of
      conditions, especially where restoration or remediation actions have reduced
      brine-contamination. Information provided by this study can help quantify
      potential ecological threats and help land managers prioritize conservation
      strategies as part of responsible and sustainable energy development.

PMID- 28863398
TI  - Anti epileptic drug trials for patients with drug resistant idiopathic
      generalised epilepsy: A meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Determine the impact of anti-epileptic drugs (AED) for drug resistant
      patients with idiopathic generalised epilepsy. METHODS: A systematic search of
      Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing an Allied Health Literature (CINAHL),
      Cochrane Epilepsy Group Central Specialised Register, Cochrane Central Register
      of controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Embase and Lenus was performed. Nine randomised
      controlled trials were included. All trials compared antiepileptic drugs to
      placebo. Outcome measures assessed were 50% or greater reduction in seizure,
      seizure freedom and adverse events. RESULTS: Seven trials report a 50% or greater
      reduction in seizure frequency. This was statistically significant (p=<0.00001)
      with a narrow confidence interval implying that the overall this meta-analysis
      has reasonable power to detect an effect. It demonstrated a significant
      statistical difference of seizure freedom occurring in the drug treatment group
      compared to placebo. Adverse events were identified with each drug and are
      reported. There were however methodological issues with the trials included.
      Quality appraisal was undertaken using the risk of bias assessment from Rev Man
      5.3 tool for all randomised controlled trials retrieved. CONCLUSION: This
      systematic review demonstrated efficacy of adjunctive anti-epileptic drugs with
      regard to 50% reduction and seizure freedom. Adverse events are identified in all
      of the studies in the drug treatment groups but are consistent with previous
      studies of these drugs. Additional adequately powered studies with long term
      follow up needs to be conducted to unequivocally establish the long term efficacy
      and tolerability of anti-epileptic drug's for patients with drug resistant
      idiopathic generalised epilepsy.

PMID- 28863399
TI  - High recoverable strain tailoring by Zr adjustment of sintered Ti-13Nb-(0-6)Zr
      biomedical alloys.
AB  - Ti-13Nb-(0-6)Zr alloys were fabricated by conventional powder metallurgy
      sintering method. Their microstructure, phase transformation temperature and
      mechanical properties were investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron
      microscope, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and compression
      test. It was found that with more Zr addition, the content of beta phase
      increased while the content of precipitated alpha phase reduced. With 1 at% Zr
      increase, the Ms of Ti-13Nb-(0~6)Zr alloys decreased linearly by around 10
      degrees C. The compression test results revealed that sintered Ti-13Nb-2Zr owned
      a recoverable strain as high as 3.7% at room temperature, and Ti-13Nb-4Zr and Ti
      13Nb-6Zr exhibited a remarkable recoverable strain of 4.4% at their Ms
      temperature which was lower than room temperature, indicating that these two
      alloys have a higher intrinsic recoverable strain and may be further optimized.

PMID- 28863400
TI  - Looped ends versus open ends braided stent: A comparison of the mechanical
      behaviour using analytical and numerical methods.
AB  - The present study has two major purposes: firstly, to investigate whether the
      analytical model proposed by Jedwab and Clerc for assessing the mechanical
      behaviour of an open ends metallic braided stent is applicable to the looped ends
      stent design and secondly, to compare the response of the two stent designs
      subjected to radial compression. We use finite element analysis to evaluate the
      performance of the two braided stents emulating well established designs:
      WALLSTENT and WallFlex. We validate the WALLSTENT model analytically. We perform
      a radial crimping simulation and evaluate the radial forces and stresses induced.
      This study confirms the validity of using the analytical model in the
      biomechanical analysis of the WALLSTENT design. However, in case of the WallFlex
      design, a major difference in the results can be observed in the levels of radial
      forces and wire peak stresses, justifying the decision of using a different alloy
      in the fabrication of the WallFlex design.

PMID- 28863401
TI  - Hydrogen bonding recognition and colorimetric detection of isoprenaline using 2
      amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazol functionalized gold nanoparticles.
AB  - In this paper, we describe a rapid, low-cost and highly sensitive colorimetric
      method for the detection of isoprenaline, based on 2-amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4
      thiadiazol (AMTD) functionalized gold nanoparticles (AMTD-AuNPs) as a sensing
      element. Hydrogen bonding interaction between isoprenaline and AMTD resulted in
      the aggregation of AuNPs and a consequent color change of AuNPs from red to blue.
      The concentration of isoprenaline could be detected with the naked eye or a UV
      visible spectrometer. Results showed that the absorbance ratio (A650/A524) was
      linear with isoprenaline concentrations in the range of 0.2 to 2.6MUM (R=0.997).
      The detection limit of this method was 0.08MUM. The proposed method is simple,
      without using complicated instruments and adding salts for enhancing sensitivity.
      This probe could be successfully applied to the determination of isoprenaline in
      human serum samples and urine samples after deproteinization.

PMID- 28863402
TI  - Sexual assault and general body injuries: A detailed cross-sectional Australian
      study of 1163 women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the frequency and severity of general body injury in
      women alleging recent sexual assault and then identify demographic and assault
      characteristics associated with injury severity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.
      SETTING: Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC), Western Australia. PARTICIPANTS:
      Total of 1163 women attending SARC from Jan-2009 to Mar-2015. METHODS: Women
      underwent a standardised medical examination and data collection by forensically
      trained doctors. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses were
      performed. An algorithm was used to classify general body injuries as mild,
      moderate or severe. RESULTS: General body injury was observed in 71% of women;
      52%, 17% and 2% were classified as having respectively, mild, moderate and severe
      injuries. Moderate or severe injury was observed in 30.4% of women assaulted by
      intimate partners, 16.4% of women assaulted by strangers and 14.9% of women
      assaulted by friends/acquaintances. In regression analysis, an interaction
      between mental illness and assailant type existed after adjusting for age,
      intellectual disability, time-to-examination, number of assailants and location.
      Mental illness was an independent predictor for lower injury severity (adjusted
      odds ratio=0.5, 95% CI 0.3, 0.9) in women assaulted by strangers and higher
      injury severity in women assaulted by a friend/acquaintance (adjusted odds
      ratio=2.4, 95% CI 1.6, 3.6). While women assaulted by intimate partners had more
      frequent moderate-to-severe injuries than other women their current mental
      illness status was not associated with risk of injury severity. CONCLUSION: This
      study highlights the increased injury severity in women assaulted by intimate
      partners. The risk of moderate/severe injury for women with mental illness
      assaulted by their acquaintances was unexpected and requires further
      investigation.

PMID- 28863403
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28863404
TI  - An examination of the spatial distribution of the tissue fragments created during
      a single explosive attack.
AB  - Throughout the course of a forensic investigation following an explosive attack,
      the identification and recovery of tissue fragments is of extreme importance.
      There are few universally accepted methods to achieve this end. This project aims
      to explore this issue through the examination of the spatial distribution of the
      tissue fragments resulting from an explosive event. To address this, a two stage
      pilot study was conducted: first, a series of controlled explosions on porcine
      carcases was undertaken. Second, the data produced from these explosions were
      used to chart the spatial distribution of the tissue debris. In the controlled
      explosions, 3kg military grade explosive was chosen to create the maximum amount
      of fragmentation; this level of explosive also prevented the complete
      disappearance of forensic evidence through evaporation. Additionally, the blast
      created by military grade explosive is highly powerful and would mean that the
      maximum possible distance was achieved and would therefore allow the recorded
      distances and pattern spread to be a guideline for forensic recovery of
      associated with an explosive amount of an unknown size and quality. A total
      station was employed to record the location of the resulting forensic evidence,
      with the collected data analysed using R Studio. The observed patterns suggested
      that the distribution of remains is fairly consistent in trials under similar
      environmental conditions. This indicates potential for some general guidelines
      for forensic evidence collection (for example, the distance from the explosion
      that a search should cover).

PMID- 28863405
TI  - Phantom study evaluating detection of simulated upper airway occlusion using
      piezoelectric ultrasound transducers.
AB  - : Obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is characterized by
      repetitive narrowing or full collapse of the upper airway concomitant with
      continued respiratory effort during sleep lasting 10s or more. OSAHS is the most
      prevalent form of sleep-disordered breathing, affecting more than 17% of the
      middle-aged U.S. POPULATION: Hence, many individuals need to be tested for having
      OSAHS. Currently, detection of airway occlusion due to OSAHS is achieved by
      indirect measurements, often requiring multiple sensor types, such as a flow
      transducer combined with chest and abdomen plethysmography. The need for the use
      of multiple sensors in the current OSAHS detection systems adds to the cost and
      complexity of the current systems and associated procedures. Development of a
      simple sensor system that allows direct detection of airway occlusion is
      advantageous, as it simplifies detection of OSAHS and paves the way for home
      diagnosis of OSAHS. The utilization of ultrasonic transducers is attractive, as
      it is non-invasive and non-ionizing. We present a new ultrasound sensing system
      for direct detection of the occlusion in the upper airway in OSAHS patients
      during sleep. The system takes into consideration the constraints arising from
      the location of probing and the acoustic requirements for transducers. The
      physiological and theoretical backgrounds are presented for using ultrasonic
      pulses to detect the presence and degree of occlusion in the airway. The proposed
      methodology for creating an anthropomorphically-correct neck and airway phantoms
      to test the hypothesis and the results of the tests are presented. HYPOTHESIS: An
      ultrasonic signal transmitted through or reflected from an open airway will have
      different features compared to those associated with a partially or fully
      occluded airway. METHODOLOGY: A system, comprising a phantom model of the airway
      and neck with the approximate anatomical-correct dimensions and acoustic
      properties of the airway, is designed and built. It allows simulating fully open
      airway as well as hypopnea and apnea events. Further, it facilitates probing
      using multiple ultrasonic frequencies and transducer configurations for use with
      different neck sizes. Ultrasound waves are generated using a piezoelectric source
      to the model of the airway and received by piezoelectric receivers on the
      opposite side. Energy, the area under the curve, and the peak value of the
      received signal, are used to detect the airway occlusion. RESULTS: The amount of
      reflected ultrasonic energy from the phantom model of the airway back to the
      transmitting transducer reduces as the airway model occlusion increases. Also,
      transmitted signal through the airway model increases as the amount occlusion of
      the airway model increases. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study support the
      hypothesis that it is feasible to use ultrasonic pulses to detect partial and
      full upper airway occlusion.

PMID- 28863406
TI  - A Role for Calcium-Activated Adenylate Cyclase and Protein Kinase A in the Lens
      Src Family Kinase and Na,K-ATPase Response to Hyposmotic Stress.
AB  - Purpose: Na,K-ATPase activity in lens epithelium is subject to control by Src
      family tyrosine kinases (SFKs). Previously we showed hyposmotic solution causes
      an SFK-dependent increase in Na,K-ATPase activity in the epithelium. Here we
      explored the role of cAMP in the signaling mechanism responsible for the SFK and
      Na,K-ATPase response. Methods: Intact porcine lenses were exposed to hyposmotic
      Krebs solution (200 mOsm) then the epithelium was assayed for cAMP, SFK
      phosphorylation (activation) or Na,K-ATPase activity. Results: An increase of
      cAMP was observed in the epithelium of lenses exposed to hyposmotic solution. In
      lenses exposed to hyposmotic solution SFK phosphorylation in the epithelium
      approximately doubled as did Na,K-ATPase activity and both responses were
      prevented by H89, a protein kinase A inhibitor. The magnitude of the SFK response
      to hyposmotic solution was reduced by a TRPV4 antagonist HC067047 added to
      prevent TRPV4-mediated calcium entry, and by a cytoplasmic Ca2+ chelator BAPTA
      AM. The Na,K-ATPase activity response in the epithelium of lenses exposed to
      hyposmotic solution was abolished by BAPTA-AM. As a direct test of cAMP-dependent
      SFK activation, intact lenses were exposed to 8-pCPT-cAMP, a cell-permeable cAMP
      analog. 8-pCPT-cAMP caused robust SFK activation. Using Western blot, two calcium
      activated adenylyl cyclases, ADCY3 and ADCY8, were detected in lens epithelium.
      Conclusions: Calcium-activated adenylyl cyclases are expressed in the lens
      epithelium and SFK activation is linked to a rise of cAMP that occurs upon
      hyposmotic challenge. The findings point to cAMP as a link between TRPV4 channel
      mediated calcium entry, SFK activation, and a subsequent increase of Na,K-ATPase
      activity.

PMID- 28863407
TI  - High Symmetry of Visual Acuity and Visual Fields in RPGR-Linked Retinitis
      Pigmentosa.
AB  - Purpose: Mutations in retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator (RPGR) cause 70% to
      90% of X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP3) cases, making this gene a high-yield
      target for gene therapy. This study analyzed the utility of relevant clinical
      biomarkers to assess symmetry and rate of progression in XLRP3. Methods: A
      retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of 50 XLRP3 patients extracted clinical
      data including visual acuity (VA), visual fields (I4e and III4e targets), foveal
      thickness, and ERG data points alongside molecular genetic data. Symmetry was
      assessed by using linear regression analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival curves (KMCs)
      and generalized linear mixed model calculations were used to describe disease
      progression. Results: Ninety-six percent of patients exhibited a rod-cone
      phenotype, and 4% a cone-rod phenotype. Open reading frame 15 (ORF15) was
      confirmed as a mutational hotspot within RPGR harboring 73% of exonic mutations.
      Significant variability, but no clear genotype-phenotype relationship, could be
      shown between mutations located in exons 1-14 versus ORF15. All biomarkers
      suggested a high degree of symmetry between eyes but demonstrated different
      estimates of disease progression. VA and foveal thickness, followed by perimetry
      III4e, were the most useful endpoints to evaluate progression. KMC estimates
      predicted a loss of 6/6 vision at a mean of 34 years (+/-2.9; 95% confidence
      interval). Conclusions: XLRP3 affects retinal structure and function
      symmetrically, supporting the use of the fellow eye as an internal control in
      interventional trials. VA and kinetic visual fields (III4e) seem promising
      functional outcome measures to assess disease progression. KMC analysis predicted
      the most severe decline in vision between the third and fourth decade of life.

PMID- 28863408
TI  - Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomographic Documentation of Choroidal
      Melanin Loss in Chronic Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease.
AB  - Purpose: Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease is a systemic autoimmune disorder
      that affects organs with melanocytes. The sunset glow fundus (SGF) in VKH disease
      was evaluated with polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT).
      Methods: The study involved 28 eyes from 14 patients with chronic VKH disease, 21
      eyes from 21 age-matched controls, and 22 eyes from 22 high-myopic patients with
      a tessellated fundus. VKH eyes were grouped into sunset or non-sunset groups on
      the basis of color fundus images. The presence of melanin in the choroid was
      determined by using the degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU) obtained by PS
      OCT. The sunset glow index (SGI) was calculated by using color fundus images.
      Presence of an SGF was evaluated by using DOPU, SGI, subfoveal choroidal
      thicknesses, near-infrared images, and autofluorescence images at 488 nm (SW-AF)
      and 785 nm (NIR-AF). Results: There were 16 eyes in the sunset group and 12 eyes
      in the non-sunset group. For all eyes in the sunset group, the disappearance of
      choroidal melanin was clearly detected with PS-OCT. Percentage areas of low DOPU
      in the choroidal interstitial stroma of the sunset group were significantly lower
      than those of other groups and showed no overlap with other groups. The
      distribution of choroidal thicknesses and SGI in the sunset group substantially
      overlapped with other groups. The subjective analyses of the sunset and non
      sunset groups, using near infrared, SW-AF, or NIR-AF, showed substantial
      inconsistencies with the PS-OCT results. Conclusions: PS-OCT provides an in vivo
      objective evaluation of choroidal melanin loss of the SGF in chronic VKH disease.

PMID- 28863409
TI  - Effects of Lexical Variables on Silent Reading Comprehension in Individuals With
      Aphasia: Evidence From Eye Tracking.
AB  - Purpose: Previous eye-tracking research has suggested that individuals with
      aphasia (IWA) do not assign syntactic structure on their first pass through a
      sentence during silent reading comprehension. The purpose of the present study
      was to investigate the time course with which lexical variables affect silent
      reading comprehension in IWA. Three lexical variables were investigated: word
      frequency, word class, and word length. Methods: IWA and control participants
      without brain damage participated in the experiment. Participants read sentences
      while a camera tracked their eye movements. Results: IWA showed effects of word
      class, word length, and word frequency that were similar to or greater than those
      observed in controls. Conclusions: IWA showed sensitivity to lexical variables on
      the first pass through the sentence. The results are consistent with the view
      that IWA focus on lexical access on their first pass through a sentence and then
      work to build syntactic structure on subsequent passes. In addition, IWA showed
      very long rereading times and low skipping rates overall, which may contribute to
      some of the group differences in reading comprehension.

PMID- 28863410
TI  - Appearance of Abnormal Cardiothoracic Ratio of Fetuses with Hemoglobin Bart's
      Disease: Life Table Analysis.
AB  - Objective To determine the timeline of the first appearance of an increased CT
      ratio of fetuses with hemoglobin (Hb) Bart's disease. Materials and Methods A
      prospective longitudinal study was conducted on pregnancies at risk for fetal Hb
      Bart's disease. Sonographic markers including cardiothoracic (CT) ratio and
      middle cerebral artery peak systolic velocity (MCA-PSV) were serially assessed
      and recorded from the first trimester. The definite diagnosis of fetal Hb Bart's
      disease based on DNA analysis (CVS), or fetal Hb typing (HPLC; cordocentesis) was
      performed at the first appearance of an increased CT ratio. Results Of 275
      pregnancies at risk, 64 fetuses were finally proven to be affected and life table
      analysis was performed. Most affected fetuses showed an increased CT ratio in
      late first trimester and early second trimester, with median time of the first
      appearance at 13 weeks and all affected fetuses were detected at 23 weeks or
      less. The CT ratio yielded a sensitivity of 100 % at a gestational age of 23
      weeks with a false-positive rate of 8 %. MCA-PSV appeared later than CT ratio.
      Only 9.4 % of affected cases developed abnormal MCA-PSV before an increased CT
      ratio. Conclusion The timeline of the first appearance of an increased CT ratio
      of fetuses with Hb Bart's disease was established. This may help us identify Hb
      Bart's disease among fetuses at risk in earlier gestation and proper schedules
      for serial ultrasound could be made more effectively.

PMID- 28863411
TI  - Sirtuin 1 Levels in Recurrent Implantation Failure.
AB  - Sirtuin 1 has an important role in cellular processes, including apoptosis and
      cellular stress. The purpose of this study was to assess serum sirtuin 1 levels
      in women with recurrent implantation failure (RIF). In this cross-sectional
      study, we included 28 women with RIF, 29 healthy women who had conceived by in
      vitro fertilization (IVF), and 30 women with a 1-cycle failure of IVF as
      controls. Human serum nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)-dependent
      deacetylase sirtuin-1 (SIRT1/SIRT2L1) levels were detected using a commercial
      colorimetric kit. Recurrent implantation failure patients have higher sirtuin 1
      levels than non-pregnant women and healthy pregnant women, but this difference
      did not reach statistical significance due to the low number of patients in our
      study. These higher sirtuin 1 levels may result from the inflammation imbalance
      of RIF patients. The only statistically significant correlation found was between
      age and sirtuin (r = 0.277, p = 0.009).

PMID- 28863412
TI  - ?

PMID- 28863413
TI  - White Paper: Interventional MRI: Current Status and Potential for Development
      Considering Economic Perspectives, Part 2: Liver and Other Applications in
      Oncology.
AB  - Background MRI is attractive for guiding and monitoring interventional procedures
      due to its high intrinsic soft tissue contrast and the possibility to measure
      flow and cardiac function. Methods Technical solutions have been developed for
      all procedural steps including imaging guidance, MR-safe catheters and
      instruments and patient monitoring. This has led to widening of the clinical
      applications. Interventional MRI is becoming increasingly important for the
      treatment of patients suffering from malignant diseases. The detectability of
      masses and consequently their accessibility for biopsy is higher, compared to
      other modalities, due to the high intrinsic soft tissue contrast of MRI.
      Temperature-dependent sequences allow for minimally invasive and tissue-sparing
      ablation (A-0 ablation). Conclusion Interventional MRI has become established in
      the clinical routine for a variety of indications, including biopsies and tumor
      ablation. Since the economic requirement of covering costs by reimbursement is
      met and interventional MRI decreases the mortality and morbidity of
      interventional procedures, broader application of interventional MRI can be
      expected in the clinical routine in the future. Key points  . Particularly for
      the treatment of oncological patients, interventional MRI is superior to other
      methods with respect to minimal invasiveness and tissue protection due to the
      ability to exactly determine tumor borders and to visualize and control the size
      of the ablation area on the basis of MR temperature measurement.. . Due to the
      better visualization of targets and the effects of ablation in tissue,
      interventional MRI can lower the mortality and morbidity associated with these
      interventions for many indications.. . The complex comparison of costs and
      reimbursement shows that this application can be performed in a cost-covering
      manner and broader application can be expected in the future.. Citation Format .
      Barkhausen J, Kahn T, Krombach GA et al. White Paper: Interventional MRI: Current
      Status and Potential for Development Considering Economic Perspectives, Part 2:
      Liver and Other Applications in Oncology. Fortschr Rontgenstr 2017; 189: 1047 -
      1054.

PMID- 28863415
TI  - Oncofertility.

PMID- 28863416
TI  - Acute Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis Secondary to Nifedipine.

PMID- 28863414
TI  - Influence of Age, BMI, Gender and Lumbar Level on T1rho Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging of Lumbar Discs in Healthy Asymptomatic Adults.
AB  - PURPOSE:  To assess the T1rho range of lumbar intervertebral discs in healthy
      asymptomatic individuals at 1.5 T and to investigate the influence of age, body
      mass index (BMI), gender, and lumbar level on T1rho relaxation. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS:  In a prospective study, a total of 81 volunteers aged 20 - 80 years
      were included in this study and divided into three age groups (A: 20 - 39y; B: 40
      - 59y; C: 60 - 80y). All of the volunteers underwent magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) at 1.5 T with acquisition of sagittal T1rho images. The calculated T1rho
      relaxation times were correlated with age, BMI, gender, and lumbar level relative
      to the total disc, the annulus fibrosus, and the nucleus pulposus. RESULTS:  Age
      had a significant influence on T1rho relaxation times at all lumbar levels, with
      increasing age being associated with reduced relaxation times. There was also a
      significant difference between age groups A vs. C and B vs. C (P = 0.0008 and P =
      0.0149, respectively). No significant differences in T1rho relaxation time were
      observed between men and women (P > 0.05). BMI showed a significant negative
      correlation with T1rho relaxation times (P < 0.0001). Analysis of the lumbar
      level revealed a significant decrease in relaxation times from L1/2 to L5 / S1 (P
      = 0.0013). CONCLUSION:  Increasing age correlated significantly with advanced
      lumbar disc degeneration in asymptomatic individuals, particularly in those aged
      60 or older. Increasing BMI correlated significantly with increasing
      degeneration. The lower discs showed more degeneration than the upper ones. KEY
      POINTS:   . Increasing age significantly reduces the T1rho relaxation time in the
      intervertebral discs (P < 0.05). . Gender does not significantly influence T1rho
      relaxation times (P > 0.05). . BMI shows a significant negative correlation with
      T1rho relaxation times (P < 0.01). . Significantly shorter relaxation times in
      lower lumbar spine vs. upper lumbar spine (P < 0.01). CITATION FORMAT: . Gubitz
      R, Lange T, Gosheger G et al. Influence of Age, BMI, Gender and Lumbar Level on
      T1rho Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Lumbar Discs in Healthy Asymptomatic Adults.
      Fortschr Rontgenstr 2018; 190: 144 - 151.

PMID- 28863417
TI  - Permanent Central Diabetes Insipidus as a Complication of S. pneumoniae
      Meningitis in the Pediatric Population.
AB  - Diabetes insipidus is a rare but recognized complication of meningitis. The
      occurrence of diabetes insidipus has been previously attributed to Streptococcus
      pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) in a handful of patients and only once within the
      pediatric subpopulation. We present the clinical course of a previously healthy 2
      year, 8-month-old male child ultimately diagnosed with central diabetes insipidus
      (CDI) secondary to S. pneumoniae meningitis. Permanent CDI following S.
      pneumoniae meningitis is unique to our case and has not been previously
      described. Following the case presentation, we describe the etiology,
      pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of CDI. The mechanism proposed for this
      clinical outcome is cerebral herniation for a sufficient duration and subsequent
      ischemia leading to the development of permanent CDI. Providers should be aware
      of CDI resulting from S. pneumoniae meningitis as prompt diagnosis and management
      may decrease the risk of permanent hypothalamo-pituitary axis damage.

PMID- 28863418
TI  - Hereditary Pyropoikilocytosis: A Rare But Not Uncommon Disease.

PMID- 28863419
TI  - Evaluating Symptom Distress in Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distress in cancer patients negatively affects emotions and coping
      abilities and can reduce treatment adherence, quality of life, and survival
      rates. The prevalence of distress in cancer patients has been reported at 35.1
      percent and 37.8 percent, but is frequently undiagnosed. Previous studies have
      produced conflicting results regarding reported symptoms.This study aims to help
      health care providers identify symptoms correlated with distress to improve
      recognition and treatment. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed via
      medical record review of 40 adult cancer patients at the Avera Cancer Institute.
      Responses were compared using Pearson's chi-square test and the t-test. RESULTS:
      The average age of participants was 56.8 +/- 12.0, and 65 percent had breast
      cancer. The mean overall score for distress was 4.6 +/- 2.7 points on a 0-10
      scale (95 percent CI 3.71 - 5.45). Twenty-four patients (60 percent) reported
      clinically significant distress. Females were more likely to report sadness.
      Specific symptoms with a statistically significant association with a higher
      overall distress included: fears, depression, sleep, worry, fatigue, nervousness,
      eating, and loss of interest in normal activities. CONCLUSIONS: Although our
      sample size was small and homogeneous, the results demonstrated statistically
      significant associations between overall distress and the symptoms of fears,
      depression, sleep, worry, fatigue, nervousness, eating, and loss of interest in
      normal activities. These findings can increase awareness of symptoms associated
      with distress and allow clinicians to recommend specific interventions. Though
      many oncology clinics screen for distress, distress remains an important factor
      affecting quality of life and warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28863420
TI  - Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: Literature Review.
AB  - Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare cause of heart failure that affects
      women during the last month of pregnancy to the first five months after delivery.
      The disease occurs in about one in 1,000 births in the U.S. Risk factors include
      advanced age, multiparity, twin pregnancy, African origin, preeclampsia or
      preexisting hypertension, and severe anemia. Heart failure in PPCM is treated
      similarly to heart failure from other causes, bearing in mind the pregnancy and
      lactation status. In this review article, we discuss the background, etiology,
      clinical evaluation, treatment, and natural history of peripartum cardiomyopathy,
      with a major emphasis on treatment.

PMID- 28863421
TI  - So You Want To Be An Author: A Primer On Writing For Publication In The Medical
      Literature Part II: Manuscript Submission.
AB  - Completing a draft of a manuscript that demonstrates the impact of your research
      within the current literature is the first step toward publication. The next step
      involves a review process that will allow your peers to provide feedback on the
      written document, with the goal of improving the presentation of your work. To
      complete this process, an author will have to be willing to accept constructive
      criticism of his or her work, as presented, and to modify the manuscript based on
      the feedback received. This peer-review process will ultimately shape the final
      draft of your manuscript, and here we provide some points to consider as you
      navigate the submission and review process.

PMID- 28863422
TI  - Are you ready for antimicrobial stewardship?

PMID- 28863423
TI  - Quality Focus: Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative.

PMID- 28863424
TI  - [Presentation of the Colombian Guidelines for the use of immunoglobulins].

PMID- 28863425
TI  - [Colombian Guidelines of clinical practice for the use of immunoglobulins in the
      treatment of replacement and immunomodulation].
AB  - Immunoglobulins are heterodimeric proteins composed of 2 heavy chains and 2 light
      chains. Human immunoglobulin G (IgG) is a plasma derivative and contains more
      than 95% of IgG. The composition of IgG subclasses is similar to that of normal
      human plasma. Immunoglobulin therapy was first introduced more than 50 years ago,
      and its use has been described in numerous diseases. In Colombia, the importance
      of this immunomodulatory resource prompted the need for clinical practice
      guidelines to be available for its use. For this reason, a multidisciplinary
      group of experts was brought together and distributed in working groups, by
      specialties, in order to develop an initial manuscript. Systematic literature
      searches were undertaken; identified evidences were evaluated and classified to
      support a preliminary draft that was discussed, analyzed and amended.
      Recommendations were issued on the use of intravenous immunoglobulin in
      pathologies that include primary and secondary immunodeficiencies, autoimmune
      diseas es, neurological disorders, infections, transplants and miscellaneous
      conditions; grades were assigned to each one of them according to the GRADE
      system. The final result translated into recommendations that are put forth with
      the purpose to inform, guide and support on optimal use of this immunomodulatory
      resource.

PMID- 28863427
TI  - Metabolic control, anticoagulation, and gender aspects.

PMID- 28863426
TI  - Metabolic engineering of Klebsiella pneumoniae J2B for co-production of 3
      hydroxypropionic acid and 1,3-propanediol from glycerol: Reduction of acetate and
      other by-products.
AB  - Production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) or 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO)
      production from glycerol is challenging due to the problems associated with
      cofactor regeneration, coenzyme B12 synthesis, and the instability of pathway
      enzymes. To address these complications, simultaneous production of 3-HP and 1,3
      PDO, instead of individual production of each compound, was attempted. With over
      expression of an aldehyde dehydrogenase, recombinant Klebsiella pneumoniae could
      co-produce 3-HP and 1,3-PDO successfully. However, the production level was
      unsatisfactory due to excessive accumulation of many by-products, especially
      acetate. To reduce acetate production, we attempted; (i) reduction of glycerol
      assimilation through the glycolytic pathway, (ii) increase of glycerol flow
      towards co-production, and (iii) variation of aeration rate. These efforts were
      partially beneficial in reducing acetate and improving co-production: 21g/L of
      1,3-PDO and 43g/L of 3-HP were obtained. Excessive acetate (>150mM) was still
      produced at the end of bioreactor runs, and limited co-production efficiency.

PMID- 28863428
TI  - The future of computers in cardiology: 'the connected patient'?

PMID- 28863430
TI  - Obesity protects during cardiac surgery?: Professor Gavin Murphy speaks to Mark
      Nicholls about a study that could turn conventional thinking of a patient's
      weight, cardiac health, and surgery, on its head.

PMID- 28863429
TI  - Biotherapies and biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases: A 15-year journey at the
      ICREC (Heart Failure and Cardiac Regeneration) Research Laboratory in Barcelona,
      Spain.

PMID- 28863431
TI  - NSAIDs and cardiac arrest: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use is associated
      with increased risk of Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest: A nationwide Case-Time
      Control study.

PMID- 28863432
TI  - Perseverance versus Pedigree: Ankur Kalra, MD, a foreign medical graduate,
      discusses how determination and perseverance overcame 'pedigree' in his quest for
      a successful academic cardiology career in America. Determination was the
      ingredient to success.

PMID- 28863433
TI  - Modern prevention: genetic testing, vascular imaging, machine learning, and drug
      safety.

PMID- 28863434
TI  - Interaction between kisspeptin and adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide 1 on
      the expression of pituitary gonadotropin subunits: a study using mouse pituitary
      lbetaT2 cells.
AB  - We examined direct effect of kisspeptin on pituitary gonadotrophs. Kisspeptin-10
      (KP10) significantly increased the promoter activities of the gonadotropin
      subunits, common alpha-glycoprotein (Cga), luteinizing hormone beta (Lhb), and
      follicle-stimulatinghormone beta (Fshb) in LbetaT2 cells overexpressing
      kisspeptin receptor (Kiss1r). KP10 and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)
      increased gonadotropin subunit levels to similar degrees and combined treatment
      with GnRH and KP10 did not potentiate their individual effects. Adenylate cyclase
      activating polypeptide 1 (ADCYAP1) also stimulates all three gonadotropin
      subunits. When cells were stimulated with both KP10 and ADCYAP1, expression of
      gonadotropin subunits was further increased compared to KP10 or ADCYAP1 alone.
      KP10 and GnRH dramatically increased serum response element (Sre) promoter levels
      but only slightly increased cAMP response element (Cre) promoter levels. Combined
      stimulation with KP10 and GnRH further increased Sre promoter levels. In
      contrast, ADCYAP1 slightly increased Sre promoter expression but did not modify
      the effect of KP10. However, ADCYAP1 increased Cre promoter to greater levels
      than KP10 alone, and combined treatment with KP10 and ADCYAP1 further increased
      Cre promoter expression. KP10 increased the expression of ADCYAP1 type I receptor
      (Adcyap1r) and the basal activity of the Cga promoter was increased at a higher
      Adcyap1r transfection level. The KP10-induced fold increase in all three
      gonadotropin subunit promoters was not altered by transfection with a higher
      amount of Adcyap1r vector. Our findings using model cells show that distinct
      signaling activation by ADCYAP1 potentiates the action of KP10. We also found
      that KP10 increases Adcyap1r expression.

PMID- 28863435
TI  - Erratum to: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone, kisspeptin, and gonadal steroids
      directly modulate nucleobindin-2/nesfatin-1 in murine hypothalamic gonadotropin
      releasing hormone neurons and gonadotropes.

PMID- 28863436
TI  - Erratum to: Reactive Oxygen Stimulation of Interleukin-6 Release in the Human
      Trophoblast Cell Line HTR-8/SVneo by the Trichlorethylene Metabolite S-(1,2
      Dichloro)-l-Cysteine.

PMID- 28863438
TI  - The role of perivascular adipose tissue-derived sensory nerves in influencing
      vascular regulation.

PMID- 28863439
TI  - Ventricular-arterial coupling in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction:
      the devil is in the details.

PMID- 28863440
TI  - Embracing the complexity of RNA regulatory networks: layer by layer.

PMID- 28863437
TI  - Serotonin and catecholamines in the development and progression of heart valve
      diseases.
AB  - Heart valve diseases (HVDs) arise from a number of different processes that
      affect both the structure and function of the valve apparatus. Despite diverse
      aetiologies, treatments for HVDs are limited to percutaneous or surgical
      interventions. The search for medical therapies to prevent or slow the
      progression of HVDs has been hampered by our poor understanding of the
      progression from subclinical to symptomatic phases, and our limited knowledge of
      the molecular signals that control the susceptibility of valve interstitial cells
      to pathological remodeling. Clinical evidence has suggested a link between
      certain neurotransmitters and valvular diseases of the heart. The fenfluramine
      phentermine appetite suppressants popular in the 1980s were linked to mitral
      valve dysfunction, and ergot-derived dopamine agonists for Parkinson's disease
      have been associated with an increased risk of mitral and aortic valve
      regurgitation. The effect does not appear to be limited to medications, as
      valvular pathologies have also been observed in patients with carcinoid tumours
      of serotonin-producing enterochromaffin cells. The role of neurotransmitter
      molecules in valve pathology has not been adequately characterized and may
      represent a target for future medical therapies. Here we present current evidence
      from both clinical and basic science suggesting a link between neurotransmitters
      and HVDs, opening the door to future research in this area.

PMID- 28863441
TI  - Dr Fauconnier talks to genomics expert, Prof. McCarthy.

PMID- 28863442
TI  - PCSK9 inhibition and clinical cardiovascular outcomes in patients with
      atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28863443
TI  - The estimates of 5-year colorectal cancer prevalence in adult population in 2012.

PMID- 28863445
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28863444
TI  - Can Analysis of Routine Viral Testing Provide Accurate Estimates of Respiratory
      Syncytial Virus Disease Burden in Adults?
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is increasingly recognized as a significant
      cause of adult respiratory illness. We evaluated routine viral testing and
      discharge diagnoses for identifying RSV and influenza burden. Polymerase chain
      reaction results performed in adults during emergency room visits or
      hospitalizations were reviewed. Peak RSV activity preceded influenza activity by
      8 weeks. The ratio of total number of viral tests performed divided by total
      number of respiratory visits was higher during influenza than RSV peaks (1.31 vs
      0.72; P = .0001). Influenza and RSV were listed primary diagnoses in 56 (30%) vs
      7 (6%), respectively (P < .0001). Routine viral testing to estimate adult RSV
      disease burden has limitations.

PMID- 28863446
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28863447
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28863448
TI  - Burnout among young European oncologists: a call for action.

PMID- 28863450
TI  - Contrasting Patterns of Gene Flow for Amazonian Snakes That Actively Forage and
      Those That Wait in Ambush.
AB  - Knowledge of genetic structure, geographic distance and environmental
      heterogeneity can be used to identify environmental features and natural history
      traits that influence dispersal and gene flow. Foraging mode is a trait that
      might predict dispersal capacity in snakes, because actively foragers typically
      have greater movement rates than ambush predators. Here, we test the hypothesis
      that 2 actively foraging snakes have higher levels of gene flow than 2 ambush
      predators. We evaluated these 4 co-distributed species of snakes in the Brazilian
      Amazon. Snakes were sampled along an 880 km transect from the central to the
      southwest of the Amazon basin, which covered a mosaic of vegetation types and
      seasonal differences in climate. We analyzed thousands of single nucleotide
      polymorphisms to compare patterns of neutral gene flow based on isolation by
      geographic distance (IBD) and environmental resistance (IBR). We show that IBD
      and IBR were only evident in ambush predators, implying lower levels of dispersal
      than the active foragers. Therefore, gene flow was high enough in the active
      foragers analyzed here to prevent any build-up of spatial genotypic structure
      with respect to geographic distance and environmental heterogeneity.

PMID- 28863452
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28863451
TI  - Intensive Management and Natural Genetic Variation in Red Deer (Cervus elaphus).
AB  - The current magnitude of big-game hunting has outpaced the natural growth of
      populations, making artificial breeding necessary to rapidly boost hunted
      populations. In this study, we evaluated if the rapid increase of red deer
      (Cervus elaphus) abundance, caused by the growing popularity of big-game hunting,
      has impacted the natural genetic diversity of the species. We compared several
      genetic diversity metrics between 37 fenced populations subject to intensive
      management and 21 wild free-ranging populations. We also included a historically
      protected population from a national park as a baseline for comparisons. Contrary
      to expectations, our results showed no significant differences in genetic
      diversity between wild and fenced populations. Relatively lower genetic diversity
      was observed in the protected population, although differences were not
      significant in most cases. Bottlenecks were detected in both wild and fenced
      populations, as well as in the protected population. Assignment tests identified
      individuals that did not belong to their population of origin, indicating
      anthropogenic movement. We discuss the most likely processes, which could have
      led to the observed high levels of genetic variability and lack of
      differentiation between wild and fenced populations and suggest cautionary points
      for future conservation. We illustrate our comparative approach in red deer.
      However, our results and interpretations can be largely applicable to most
      ungulates subject to big-game hunting as most of them share a common exploitation
      recovery history as well as many ecological traits.

PMID- 28863449
TI  - Glioblastoma targeted therapy: updated approaches from recent biological
      insights.
AB  - Glioblastoma (WHO grade IV astrocytoma) is the most frequent primary brain tumor
      in adults, representing a highly heterogeneous group of neoplasms that are among
      the most aggressive and challenging cancers to treat. An improved understanding
      of the molecular pathways that drive malignancy in glioblastoma has led to the
      development of various biomarkers and the evaluation of several agents
      specifically targeting tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment. A number of
      rational approaches are being investigated, including therapies targeting tumor
      growth factor receptors and downstream pathways, cell cycle and epigenetic
      regulation, angiogenesis and antitumor immune response. Moreover, recent
      identification and validation of prognostic and predictive biomarkers have
      allowed implementation of modern trial designs based on matching molecular
      features of tumors to targeted therapeutics. However, while occasional targeted
      therapy responses have been documented in patients, to date no targeted therapy
      has been formally validated as effective in clinical trials. The lack of
      knowledge about relevant molecular drivers in vivo combined with a lack of highly
      bioactive and brain penetrant-targeted therapies remain significant challenges.
      In this article, we review the most promising biological insights that have
      opened the way for the development of targeted therapies in glioblastoma, and
      examine recent data from clinical trials evaluating targeted therapies and
      immunotherapies. We discuss challenges and opportunities for the development of
      these agents in glioblastoma.

PMID- 28863453
TI  - PML Nuclear Bodies Are Altered in Adult-Onset Neuronal Intranuclear Hyaline
      Inclusion Disease.
AB  - Neuronal intranuclear hyaline inclusion disease (NIHID) is a neurodegenerative
      disorder characterized by the presence of eosinophilic nuclear inclusions (NIs)
      in diverse cell lines in systemic organs. Adult-onset NIHID typically manifests
      with dementia associated with leukoencephalopathy. The detection of NIs in skin
      biopsies is useful for an antemortem diagnosis. A previous analysis suggested
      that NIs in NIHID originated from nuclear bodies (NBs), an important nuclear
      domain related to the ubiquitin-p62-mediated protein degradation system. In this
      study, we analyzed skin samples from 5 NIHID and 5 control cases
      immunohistochemically and electron microscopically. In the control cases, small
      but significant amounts of ubiquitin- and p62-positive intranuclear structures
      were found. These structures were consistently colocalized with promyelocytic
      leukemia protein (PML), an essential component of NBs, in particular when
      activated. The p62- and PML-positive structures were more frequently found in
      NIHID cases. Activated NBs, having a core and a shell, were observed by electron
      microscopy in control but not in NIHID cases. Instead, immature and mature
      filamentous NIs were found only in the NIHID cases. Our results indicate that NBs
      could not be normally activated in the NIHID, and an abnormal alteration of NBs
      might be related to the pathogenesis of NIHID.

PMID- 28863454
TI  - Autobiography Series: From Sleep-Wake Mechanisms to Prion Diseases.

PMID- 28863455
TI  - Characterization of 2 Novel Ependymoma Cell Lines With Chromosome 1q Gain Derived
      From Posterior Fossa Tumors of Childhood.
AB  - Ependymoma (EPN) is a common brain tumor of childhood that, despite standard
      surgery and radiation therapy, has a relapse rate of 50%. Clinical trials have
      been unsuccessful in improving outcome by addition of chemotherapy, and
      identification of novel therapeutics has been hampered by a lack of in vitro and
      in vivo models. We describe 2 unique EPN cell lines (811 and 928) derived from
      recurrent intracranial metastases. Both cell lines harbor the high-risk
      chromosome 1q gain (1q+) and a derivative chromosome 6, and both are classified
      as molecular group A according to transcriptomic analysis. Transcriptional
      enrichment of extracellular matrix-related genes was a common signature of
      corresponding primary tumors and cell lines in both monolayer and 3D formats. EPN
      cell lines, when cultured in 3D format, clustered closer to the primary tumors
      with better fidelity of EPN-specific transcripts than when grown as a monolayer.
      Additionally, 3D culture revealed ependymal rosette formation and cilia-related
      ontologies, similar to in situ tumors. Our data confirm the validity of the 811
      and 928 cell lines as representative models of intracranial, posterior fossa 1q+
      EPN, which holds potential to advance translational science for patients affected
      by this tumor.

PMID- 28863456
TI  - Multiplex Detection of Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma Signature Fusion Transcripts
      and Duplications Using the NanoString nCounter System.
AB  - Previous studies identified recurrent fusion and duplication events in pediatric
      low-grade glioma (pLGG). In addition to their role in diagnosis, the presence of
      these events aid in dictating therapy and predicting patient survival.
      Clinically, BRAF alterations are most commonly identified using fluorescent in
      situ hybridization (FISH). However, this method is costly, labor-intensive and
      does not identify nonBRAF events. Here, we evaluated the NanoString nCounter gene
      expression system for detecting 32 of the most commonly reported
      fusion/duplication events in pLGG. The assay was validated on 90 pLGG samples
      using FISH as the gold standard and showed sensitivity and specificity of 97% and
      98%, respectively. We next profiled formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded preserved
      biopsy specimens from 429 pLGG cases. 171 (40%) of the cases within our cohort
      tested positive for a fusion or duplication event contained within our panel.
      These events, in order of prevalence, were KIAA1549-BRAF 16;9 (89/171, 52.0%),
      KIAA1549-BRAF 15;9 (42/171, 24.6%), KIAA1549-BRAF 16;11 (14/171, 8.2%), FGFR1
      TACC1 17;7 (13/171, 7.6%), MYBL1 duplication (5/171, 2.9%), KIAA1549-BRAF 18;10
      (4/171, 2.3%), KIAA1549-BRAF 15;11 (2/171, 1.2%), FAM131B-BRAF 2;9 (1/171, 0.6%),
      and RNF130-BRAF 3;9 (1/171, 0.6%). This work introduces NanoString as a viable
      clinical replacement for the detection of fusion and duplication events in pLGG.

PMID- 28863458
TI  - ESC Professional Membership: An asset for all.

PMID- 28863457
TI  - Bortezomib-Induced Muscle Toxicity in Multiple Myeloma.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) accounts for ~13% of all hematologic malignancies.
      Bortezomib treatment is effective in MM, but can be complicated with neurological
      side effects. We describe a patient with symptomatic MM who had a reversible
      metabolic myopathy associated with bortezomib administration and pathologically
      characterized by excessive storage of lipid droplets together with mitochondrial
      abnormalities. In a single-center prospective study, 14 out of 24 patients with
      symptomatic MM were treated with bortezomib and, among these, 7 developed
      muscular signs and/or symptoms. The myopathy was characterized by a proximal
      muscle weakness involving lower limbs and was an early complication. Complete
      resolution of muscle weakness occurred after treatment discontinuation.
      Conversely, none of the patients who received a treatment without bortezomib
      developed muscular symptoms. Experimental studies demonstrate that in primary
      human myoblasts bortezomib at low concentrations leads to excessive storage of
      lipid droplets together with structural mitochondrial abnormalities,
      recapitulating the pathologic findings observed in patient's muscle. Our data
      suggest that patients treated with bortezomib should be monitored for muscular
      signs and/or symptoms and muscle weakness should alert the clinician to the
      possibility of myopathy. Bortezomib-induced metabolic myopathy is a potentially
      reversible entity with important implications for management and treatment of
      patients with MM.

PMID- 28863459
TI  - Barbara Casadei MD, DPhil, FRCP, FESC.

PMID- 28863460
TI  - Big Data in Cardiovascular Disease.

PMID- 28863461
TI  - Big Data in Cardiology.

PMID- 28863462
TI  - Fractional Flow ReserveCT (FFRCT).

PMID- 28863463
TI  - The electronic cigarette, do we need to worry?

PMID- 28863464
TI  - Sniffing and gasping to prevent syncope?

PMID- 28863465
TI  - Risk factors for chronic heart failure: obesity, renal dysfunction, arteriovenous
      fistulas, and amyloid deposition.

PMID- 28863466
TI  - Characterization of Dengue Virus Infections Among Febrile Children Clinically
      Diagnosed With a Non-Dengue Illness, Managua, Nicaragua.
AB  - Background: We sought to characterize dengue virus (DENV) infections among
      febrile children enrolled in a pediatric cohort study who were clinically
      diagnosed with a non-dengue illness ("C cases"). Methods: DENV infections were
      detected and viral load quantitated by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase
      chain reaction in C cases presenting between January 2007 and January 2013.
      Results: One hundred forty-one of 2892 C cases (4.88%) tested positive for DENV.
      Of all febrile cases in the study, DENV-positive C cases accounted for an
      estimated 52.0% of patients with DENV viremia at presentation. Compared with
      previously detected, symptomatic dengue cases, DENV-positive C cases were
      significantly less likely to develop long-lasting humoral immune responses to
      DENV, as measured in healthy annual serum samples (79.7% vs 47.8%; P < .001).
      Humoral immunity was associated with viral load at presentation: 40 of 43
      patients (93.0%) with a viral load >=7.0 log10 copies/mL serum developed the
      expected rise in anti-DENV antibodies in annual samples versus 13 of 68 (19.1%)
      patients with a viral load below this level (P < .001). Conclusions: Antibody
      responses to DENV-positive C cases differ from responses to classic symptomatic
      dengue. These findings have important implications for DENV transmission
      modeling, immunology, and epidemiologic surveillance.

PMID- 28863467
TI  - Suppressor Cell-Depleting Immunotherapy With Denileukin Diftitox is an Effective
      Host-Directed Therapy for Tuberculosis.
AB  - Host-directed therapies that augment host immune effector mechanisms may serve as
      important adjunctive therapies for tuberculosis treatment. We evaluated the
      activity of denileukin diftitox in an acute mouse model of tuberculosis (TB)
      infection and analyzed the cellular composition and bacterial burden in lungs and
      spleens. These in vivo studies show that denileukin diftitox potentiates standard
      TB treatment in the mouse model, an effect which may be due to depletion of T
      regulatory and myeloid-derived suppressor cells during TB infection. Our results
      indicate that denileukin diftitox and other suppressor cell-depleting therapies
      may be useful adjunctive, host-directed therapies for TB.

PMID- 28863468
TI  - Effect of Prepregnancy Pertussis Vaccination in Young Infants.
AB  - Background: Maternal antibodies to pertussis can hamper infant immune responses
      to pertussis vaccines. The effect a maternal tetanus, diphtheria, acellular
      pertussis (Tdap) vaccine booster between 2 consecutive pregnancies is
      investigated. Methods: A prospective study was conducted in Belgium during 2008
      2014 on the kinetics of maternal pertussis antibodies in unvaccinated women and
      their infants (group A; 86 mother-infant pairs) and in siblings born after the
      women received Tdap vaccine (group B; 58 mother-infant pairs). Levels of antibody
      to pertussis toxin, antibody to filamentous hemagglutinin, and antibody to
      pertactin were measured in maternal blood before and after vaccination and at
      both deliveries, in cord blood from both siblings, and in infants before and
      after they received a priming series of acellular pertussis containing vaccines.
      Results: Levels of pertussis antibodies in all group B siblings at birth were
      significantly higher than those in their siblings at birth, even as the interval
      since maternal vaccination increased. Blunting of the infant pertussis vaccine
      response was detected in group B siblings. We estimated the maximum interval
      between repeat Tdap vaccine doses in adult women that would yield a beneficial
      effect for the consecutive infant. Conclusions: Prepregnancy Tdap vaccination
      significantly increases maternal antibody concentrations in consecutive infants.
      However, similar to the effect of Tdap vaccination during pregnancy, immune
      responses of later-born infants born to mothers who received a prepregnancy
      immunization, are blunted.

PMID- 28863469
TI  - Parasites Causing Cerebral Falciparum Malaria Bind Multiple Endothelial Receptors
      and Express EPCR and ICAM-1-Binding PfEMP1.
AB  - Background: Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1)
      mediates the binding and accumulation of infected erythrocytes (IE) to blood
      vessels and tissues. Specific interactions have been described between PfEMP1 and
      human endothelial proteins CD36, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and
      endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR); however, cytoadhesion patterns typical for
      pediatric malaria syndromes and the associated PfEMP1 members are still
      undefined. Methods: In a cohort of 94 hospitalized children with malaria, we
      characterized the binding properties of IE collected on admission, and var gene
      transcription using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: IE from
      patients with cerebral malaria were more likely to bind EPCR and ICAM-1 than IE
      from children with uncomplicated malaria (P = .007). The level of transcripts
      encoding CIDRalpha1.4 and CIDRalpha1.5 domain subclasses was higher in patients
      with severe disease (P < .05). IE populations exhibiting binding to all 3
      receptors had higher levels of transcripts encoding PfEMP1 with CIDRalpha1.4 and
      Duffy binding-like (DBL)-beta3 domains than parasites, which only bound CD36.
      Conclusions: These results underpin the significance of EPCR binding in pediatric
      malaria patients that require hospital admission, and support the notion that
      complementary receptor interactions of EPCR binding PfEMP1with ICAM-1 amplifies
      development of severe malaria symptoms.

PMID- 28863470
TI  - Effects of Aging on Parasite Biomass, Inflammation, Endothelial Activation,
      Microvascular Dysfunction and Disease Severity in Plasmodium knowlesi and
      Plasmodium falciparum Malaria.
AB  - Background: In populations pauci-immune to malaria, risk of severe malaria
      increases with age. This is particularly apparent in Plasmodium knowlesi malaria.
      However, pathophysiological mechanisms underlying knowlesi malaria, and of the
      age-related increase in risk of severe malaria in general, are poorly understood.
      Methods: In Malaysian patients aged >=12 years with severe (n = 47) and nonsevere
      (n = 99) knowlesi malaria, severe (n = 21) and nonsevere (n = 109) falciparum
      malaria, and healthy controls (n = 50), we measured parasite biomass, systemic
      inflammation (interleukin 6 [IL-6]), endothelial activation (angiopoietin-2), and
      microvascular function, and evaluated the effects of age. Results: Plasmodium
      knowlesi parasitemia correlated with age (Spearman's correlation coefficient [rs]
      = 0.36; P < .0001). In knowlesi malaria, IL-6, angiopoietin-2, and microvascular
      dysfunction were increased in severe compared to nonsevere disease, and all
      correlated with age, independent of parasitemia. In falciparum malaria,
      angiopoietin-2 increased with age, independent of parasite biomass (histidine
      rich protein 2 [HRP2]). Independent risk factors for severe malaria included
      parasitemia and angiopoietin-2 in knowlesi malaria, and HRP2, angiopoietin-2, and
      microvascular dysfunction in falciparum malaria. Conclusions: Parasite biomass,
      endothelial activation, and microvascular dysfunction are associated with severe
      disease in knowlesi malaria and likely contribute to pathogenesis. The
      association of each of these processes with aging may account for the greater
      severity of malaria observed in older adults in low-endemic regions.

PMID- 28863471
TI  - Moving Lassa Fever Research and Care Into the 21st Century.

PMID- 28863473
TI  - Targeting Type IV Secretion System Proteins to Combat Multidrug-Resistant Gram
      positive Pathogens.
AB  - For many gram-positive pathogens, conjugative plasmid transfer is an important
      means of spreading antibiotic resistance . Therefore, the search for alternative
      treatments to fight and prevent infections caused by these bacteria has become of
      major interest. In the present study, we evaluated the protein TraM, from the
      conjugative plasmid pIP501, as a potential vaccine candidate. Anti-TraM antiserum
      mediated in vitro opsonophagocytic killing of the strain harboring the pIP501
      plasmid and also proved to be cross-reactive against other clinically relevant
      enterococcal and staphylococcal strains. Specificity of antibodies toward TraM
      was confirmed by results of an opsonophagocytic inhibition assay and Western
      blot. In addition, conjugative transfer experiments proved that TraM is essential
      for the transfer of pIP501. Finally, immunization with either TraM or anti-TraM
      antiserum reduced significantly the colony counts in mice livers, demonstrating
      that TraM is a promising vaccine candidate against enterococci and other gram
      positive pathogens.

PMID- 28863472
TI  - A Case of Human Lassa Virus Infection With Robust Acute T-Cell Activation and
      Long-Term Virus-Specific T-Cell Responses.
AB  - A nurse who acquired Lassa virus infection in Togo in the spring of 2016 was
      repatriated to the United States for care at Emory University Hospital. Serial
      sampling from this patient permitted the characterization of several aspects of
      the innate and cellular immune responses to Lassa virus. Although most of the
      immune responses correlated with the kinetics of viremia resolution, the CD8 T
      cell response was of surprisingly high magnitude and prolonged duration, implying
      prolonged presentation of viral antigens. Indeed, long after viremia resolution,
      there was persistent viral RNA detected in the semen of the patient, accompanied
      by epididymitis, suggesting the male reproductive tract as 1 site of antigen
      persistence. Consistent with the magnitude of acute T-cell responses, the patient
      ultimately developed long-term, polyfunctional memory T-cell responses to Lassa
      virus.

PMID- 28863474
TI  - Marginal Emission Factors Considering Renewables: A Case Study of the U.S.
      Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) System.
AB  - Estimates of marginal emission factors (MEFs) for the electricity sector have
      focused on emitting sources only, assuming nonemitting renewables rarely
      contribute to marginal generation. However, with increased penetration and
      improved dispatch of renewables, this assumption may be outdated. Here, we
      improve the methodology to incorporate renewables in MEF estimates and
      demonstrate a case study for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)
      system where wind has been commonly dispatched on the margin. We also illustrate
      spatiotemporal variations of MEFs and explore implications for energy storage
      technologies. Results show that because the share of renewables in MISO is still
      relatively low (6.34%), conventional MEFs focused on emitting sources can provide
      a good estimate in MISO overall, as well as in the Central and South subregions.
      However, in the MISO North subregion where wind provides 22.5% of grid
      generation, neglecting nonemitting sources can overestimate MEFs for CO2, SO2,
      and NOx by about 30%. The application of expanded MEFs in this case also reveals
      heightened emission increases associated with load shifting of storage
      technologies. Our study highlights the importance of expanded MEFs in regions
      with high and growing renewables penetration, particularly as renewable energy
      policy seeks to incorporate demand-side technologies.

PMID- 28863475
TI  - Modeling the Self-Assembly of Bolaamphiphiles under Nanoconfinement by Coarse
      Grained Molecular Dynamics.
AB  - Novel and complex nanostructures of amphiphiles assemblies facilitate realizing
      of many practical applications in nanotechnologies. Under different physical
      conditions, amphiphiles can form various morphologies. In this article, the self
      assembly of bolaamphiphiles was investigated under the cylindrical confinement of
      carbon nanotubes by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation. We found that
      bolaamphiphiles inside a carbon nanotube with a relatively large diameter tended
      to self-assemble into curved cylindrical micelles, and further some of these
      micelles can form double helix structures which were not observed in bulk
      solutions. We develop an effective method to characterize different morphologies.
      Our analysis results showed that the formation of double helix and other
      amorphous morphologies of micelles in carbon nanotubes is not induced by the
      conformational variation of bolaamphiphiles. Moreover, through examining the
      potential energies of different structures, we infer that it is entropy which
      leads micelles to bend even to form double stranded helix structures. In
      addition, we analyzed the sizes of micelles and find the scission and
      recombination of micelles during the double helix formation process. This work
      indicates that the confinement of carbon nanotube is an available method to
      produce complex nanostructures and provides some new insights of the self
      assembly of bolaamphiphiles.

PMID- 28863476
TI  - Multi-dark-dark solitons of the integrable repulsive AB system via the
      determinants.
AB  - We investigate the integrable repulsive AB system and construct its Darboux
      transformation using the loop group method. The associated N-fold Darboux
      transformation is found in terms of simple determinants. Moreover, we derive
      multi-dark-dark solitons of the repulsive AB system with a non-vanishing
      background through the Darboux transformation with a limit procedure.
      Particularly, we exhibit the one-, two-, and three-dark-dark solitons. The
      results will be meaningful for the study of vector multi-dark solitons in many
      physical systems such as geophysical fluid dynamics and nonlinear optics.

PMID- 28863478
TI  - Bifurcations of a periodically forced microbial continuous culture model with
      restrained growth rate.
AB  - A three dimensional microbial continuous culture model with a restrained
      microbial growth rate is studied in this paper. Two types of dilution rates are
      considered to investigate the dynamic behaviors of the model. For the unforced
      system, fold bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation are detected, and numerical
      simulations reveal that the system undergoes degenerate Hopf bifurcation. When
      the system is periodically forced, bifurcation diagrams for periodic solutions of
      period-one and period-two are given by researching the Poincare map,
      corresponding to different bifurcation cases in the unforced system. Stable and
      unstable quasiperiodic solutions are obtained by Neimark-Sacker bifurcation with
      different parameter values. Periodic solutions of various periods can occur or
      disappear and even change their stability, when the Poincare map of the forced
      system undergoes Neimark-Sacker bifurcation, flip bifurcation, and fold
      bifurcation. Chaotic attractors generated by a cascade of period doublings and
      some phase portraits are given at last.

PMID- 28863477
TI  - Resilience of epidemics for SIS model on networks.
AB  - Epidemic propagation on complex networks has been widely investigated, mostly
      with invariant parameters. However, the process of epidemic propagation is not
      always constant. Epidemics can be affected by various perturbations and may
      bounce back to its original state, which is considered resilient. Here, we study
      the resilience of epidemics on networks, by introducing a different infection
      rate lambda2 during SIS (susceptible-infected-susceptible) epidemic propagation
      to model perturbations (control state), whereas the infection rate is lambda1 in
      the rest of time. Noticing that when lambda1 is below lambdac, there is no
      resilience in the SIS model. Through simulations and theoretical analysis, we
      find that even for lambda2 < lambdac, epidemics eventually could bounce back if
      the control duration is below a threshold. This critical control time for
      epidemic resilience, i.e., cdmax, seems to be predicted by the diameter (d) of
      the underlying network, with the quantitative relation cdmax ~ dalpha. Our
      findings can help to design a better mitigation strategy for epidemics.

PMID- 28863479
TI  - Ag fractal structures in electroless metal deposition systems with and without
      magnetic field.
AB  - Metal electrodeposition systems display tree-like structures with extensive
      ramification and a fractal character. Electrolysis is not a necessary route for
      the growth of such dendritic metal deposits. We can grow beautiful ramification
      patterns via a simple redox reaction. We present here a study of silver (Ag)
      deposits from the reduction of Ag+ in (AgNO3) solution by metallic copper. The
      experiments are carried out in discotic geometry, in a Petri dish hosting a thin
      AgNO3 solution film. A variety of deposited structures and patterns is obtained
      at different Ag+ concentrations, yet with essentially the same fractal dimension
      averaged at 1.64, typical of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA). A linear
      magnetic field of low induction (0.50-1.0 T) applied across the medium causes a
      notable transformation in the morphology of the deposits. In both the field off
      and the field on cases, the effect of vertical (hence 3D) heaving seems to be
      dominant, perhaps explaining the nearly constant fractal dimension.

PMID- 28863480
TI  - Superregular breathers in a complex modified Korteweg-de Vries system.
AB  - We study superregular (SR) breathers (i.e., the quasi-Akhmediev breather
      collision with a certain phase shift) in a complex modified Korteweg-de Vries
      equation. We demonstrate that such SR waves can exhibit intriguing nonlinear
      structures, including the half-transition and full-suppression modes, which have
      no analogues in the standard nonlinear Schrodinger equation. In contrast to the
      standard SR breather formed by pairs of quasi-Akhmediev breathers, the half
      transition mode describes a mix of quasi-Akhmediev and quasi-periodic waves,
      whereas the full-suppression mode shows a non-amplifying nonlinear dynamics of
      localized small perturbations associated with the vanishing growth rate of
      modulation instability. Interestingly, we show analytically and numerically that
      these different SR modes can be evolved from an identical localized small
      perturbation. In particular, our results demonstrate an excellent compatibility
      relation between SR modes and the linear stability analysis.

PMID- 28863481
TI  - Stationary distribution of a stochastic SIS epidemic model with double diseases
      and the Beddington-DeAngelis incidence.
AB  - In this paper, a stochastic Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) epidemic model
      with double diseases and the Beddington-DeAngelis incidence is proposed and
      studied. Sufficient conditions for the existence of an ergodic stationary
      distribution of the positive solutions to the model are obtained via the Lyapunov
      function method. The existence of stationary distribution implies stochastic
      stability to some extent.

PMID- 28863482
TI  - Network analysis of chaotic systems through unstable periodic orbits.
AB  - A chaotic motion can be considered an irregular transition process near unstable
      periodic orbits embedded densely in a chaotic set. Therefore, unstable periodic
      orbits have been used to characterize properties of chaos. Statistical quantities
      of chaos such as natural measures and fractal dimensions can be determined in
      terms of unstable periodic orbits. Unstable periodic orbits that can provide good
      approximations to averaged quantities of chaos or turbulence are also known to
      exist. However, it is not clear what type of unstable periodic orbits can capture
      them. In this paper, a model for an irregular transition process of a chaotic
      motion among unstable periodic orbits as nodes is constructed by using a network.
      We show that unstable periodic orbits which have lots of links in the network
      tend to capture time averaged properties of chaos. A scale-free property of the
      degree distribution is also observed.

PMID- 28863483
TI  - Long-period clocks from short-period oscillators.
AB  - We analyze repulsively coupled Kuramoto oscillators, which are exposed to a
      distribution of natural frequencies. This source of disorder leads to closed
      orbits of repetitive temporary patterns of phase-locked motion, providing clocks
      on macroscopic time scales. The periods can be orders of magnitude longer than
      the periods of individual oscillators. By construction, the attractor space is
      quite rich. This may cause long transients until the deterministic trajectories
      find their stationary orbits. The smaller the width of the distribution about the
      common natural frequency, the longer are the emerging time scales on average.
      Among the long-period orbits, we find self-similar sequences of temporary phase
      locked motion on different time scales. The ratio of time scales is determined by
      the ratio of widths of the distributions. The results illustrate a mechanism for
      how simple systems can provide rather flexible dynamics, with a variety of
      periods even without external entrainment.

PMID- 28863484
TI  - Uncovering low dimensional macroscopic chaotic dynamics of large finite size
      complex systems.
AB  - In the last decade, it has been shown that a large class of phase oscillator
      models admit low dimensional descriptions for the macroscopic system dynamics in
      the limit of an infinite number N of oscillators. The question of whether the
      macroscopic dynamics of other similar systems also have a low dimensional
      description in the infinite N limit has, however, remained elusive. In this
      paper, we show how techniques originally designed to analyze noisy experimental
      chaotic time series can be used to identify effective low dimensional macroscopic
      descriptions from simulations with a finite number of elements. We illustrate and
      verify the effectiveness of our approach by applying it to the dynamics of an
      ensemble of globally coupled Landau-Stuart oscillators for which we demonstrate
      low dimensional macroscopic chaotic behavior with an effective 4-dimensional
      description. By using this description, we show that one can calculate dynamical
      invariants such as Lyapunov exponents and attractor dimensions. One could also
      use the reconstruction to generate short-term predictions of the macroscopic
      dynamics.

PMID- 28863485
TI  - Detecting dynamical changes in time series by using the Jensen Shannon
      divergence.
AB  - Most of the time series in nature are a mixture of signals with deterministic and
      random dynamics. Thus the distinction between these two characteristics becomes
      important. Distinguishing between chaotic and aleatory signals is difficult
      because they have a common wide band power spectrum, a delta like autocorrelation
      function, and share other features as well. In general, signals are presented as
      continuous records and require to be discretized for being analyzed. In this
      work, we introduce different schemes for discretizing and for detecting dynamical
      changes in time series. One of the main motivations is to detect transitions
      between the chaotic and random regime. The tools here used here originate from
      the Information Theory. The schemes proposed are applied to simulated and real
      life signals, showing in all cases a high proficiency for detecting changes in
      the dynamics of the associated time series.

PMID- 28863486
TI  - Autapse-induced multiple stochastic resonances in a modular neuronal network.
AB  - This study investigates the nontrivial effects of autapse on stochastic resonance
      in a modular neuronal network subjected to bounded noise. The resonance effect of
      autapse is detected by imposing a self-feedback loop with autaptic strength and
      autaptic time delay to each constituent neuron. Numerical simulations have
      demonstrated that bounded noise with the proper level of amplitude can induce
      stochastic resonance; moreover, the noise induced resonance dynamics can be
      significantly shaped by the autapse. In detail, for a specific range of autaptic
      strength, multiple stochastic resonances can be induced when the autaptic time
      delays are appropriately adjusted. These appropriately adjusted delays are
      detected to nearly approach integer multiples of the period of the external weak
      signal when the autaptic strength is very near zero; otherwise, they do not match
      the period of the external weak signal when the autaptic strength is slightly
      greater than zero. Surprisingly, in both cases, the differences between arbitrary
      two adjacent adjusted autaptic delays are always approximately equal to the
      period of the weak signal. The phenomenon of autaptic delay induced multiple
      stochastic resonances is further confirmed to be robust against the period of the
      external weak signal and the intramodule probability of subnetwork. These
      findings could have important implications for weak signal detection and
      information propagation in realistic neural systems.

PMID- 28863487
TI  - A new chaotic oscillator with free control.
AB  - A novel chaotic system is explored in which all terms are quadratic except for a
      linear function. The slope of the linear function rescales the amplitude and
      frequency of the variables linearly while its zero intercept allows offset
      boosting for one of the variables. Therefore, a free-controlled chaotic
      oscillation can be obtained with any desired amplitude, frequency, and offset by
      an easy modification of the linear function. When implemented as an electronic
      circuit, the corresponding chaotic signal can be controlled by two independent
      potentiometers, which is convenient for constructing a chaos-based application
      system. To the best of our knowledge, this class of chaotic oscillators has never
      been reported.

PMID- 28863488
TI  - Detection of coupling delay: A problem not yet solved.
AB  - Nonparametric detection of coupling delay in unidirectionally and bidirectionally
      coupled nonlinear dynamical systems is examined. Both continuous and discrete
      time systems are considered. Two methods of detection are assessed-the method
      based on conditional mutual information-the CMI method (also known as the
      transfer entropy method) and the method of convergent cross mapping-the CCM
      method. Computer simulations show that neither method is generally reliable in
      the detection of coupling delays. For continuous-time chaotic systems, the CMI
      method appears to be more sensitive and applicable in a broader range of coupling
      parameters than the CCM method. In the case of tested discrete-time dynamical
      systems, the CCM method has been found to be more sensitive, while the CMI method
      required much stronger coupling strength in order to bring correct results.
      However, when studied systems contain a strong oscillatory component in their
      dynamics, results of both methods become ambiguous. The presented study suggests
      that results of the tested algorithms should be interpreted with utmost care and
      the nonparametric detection of coupling delay, in general, is a problem not yet
      solved.

PMID- 28863489
TI  - Scaling laws for diffusion on (trans)fractal scale-free networks.
AB  - Fractal (or transfractal) features are common in real-life networks and are known
      to influence the dynamic processes taking place in the network itself. Here, we
      consider a class of scale-free deterministic networks, called (u, v)-flowers,
      whose topological properties can be controlled by tuning the parameters u and v;
      in particular, for u > 1, they are fractals endowed with a fractal dimension df,
      while for u = 1, they are transfractal endowed with a transfractal dimension df.
      In this work, we investigate dynamic processes (i.e., random walks) and
      topological properties (i.e., the Laplacian spectrum) and we show that, under
      proper conditions, the same scalings (ruled by the related dimensions) emerge for
      both fractal and transfractal dimensions.

PMID- 28863490
TI  - Mathematical model of chaotic oscillations and oscillatory entrainment in
      glycolysis originated from periodic substrate supply.
AB  - We study the influence of periodic influx on a character of glycolytic
      oscillations within the forced Selkov system. We demonstrate that such a simple
      system demonstrates a rich variety of dynamical regimes (domains of entrainment
      of different order (Arnold tongues), quasiperiodic oscillations, and chaos),
      which can be qualitatively collated with the known experimental data. We
      determine detailed dynamical regimes exploring the map of Lyapunov characteristic
      exponents obtained in numerical simulations of the Selkov system with periodic
      influx. In addition, a special study of the chaotic regime and the scenario of
      its origin in this system was evaluated and discussed.

PMID- 28863491
TI  - Experimental phase synchronization detection in non-phase coherent chaotic
      systems by using the discrete complex wavelet approach.
AB  - Phase synchronization may emerge from mutually interacting non-linear
      oscillators, even under weak coupling, when phase differences are bounded, while
      amplitudes remain uncorrelated. However, the detection of this phenomenon can be
      a challenging problem to tackle. In this work, we apply the Discrete Complex
      Wavelet Approach (DCWA) for phase assignment, considering signals from coupled
      chaotic systems and experimental data. The DCWA is based on the Dual-Tree Complex
      Wavelet Transform (DT-CWT), which is a discrete transformation. Due to its multi
      scale properties in the context of phase characterization, it is possible to
      obtain very good results from scalar time series, even with non-phase-coherent
      chaotic systems without state space reconstruction or pre-processing. The method
      correctly predicts the phase synchronization for a chemical experiment with three
      locally coupled, non-phase-coherent chaotic processes. The impact of different
      time-scales is demonstrated on the synchronization process that outlines the
      advantages of DCWA for analysis of experimental data.

PMID- 28863492
TI  - Power-functional network.
AB  - Power grids and their properties have been studied broadly in many aspects. In
      this paper, we propose a novel concept, power-flow-based power grid, as a typical
      power-functional network, based on the calculation of power flow distribution
      from power electrical engineering. We compare it with structural networks based
      on the shortest path length and effective networks based on the effective
      electrical distance and study the relationship among these three kinds of
      networks. We find that they have roughly positive correlations with each other,
      indicating that in general any close nodes in the topological structure are
      actually connected in function. However, we do observe some counter-examples that
      two close nodes in a structural network can have a long distance in a power
      functional network, namely, two physically connected nodes can actually be
      separated in function. In addition, we find that power grids in the structural
      network tend to be heterogeneous, whereas those in the effective and power
      functional networks tend to be homogeneous. These findings are expected to be
      significant not only for power grids but also for various other complex networks.

PMID- 28863493
TI  - Amplitude death in a ring of nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with
      unidirectional coupling.
AB  - We study the collective behaviors in a ring of coupled nonidentical nonlinear
      oscillators with unidirectional coupling, of which natural frequencies are
      distributed in a random way. We find the amplitude death phenomena in the case of
      unidirectional couplings and discuss the differences between the cases of
      bidirectional and unidirectional couplings. There are three main differences;
      there exists neither partial amplitude death nor local clustering behavior but an
      oblique line structure which represents directional signal flow on the spatio
      temporal patterns in the unidirectional coupling case. The unidirectional
      coupling has the advantage of easily obtaining global amplitude death in a ring
      of coupled oscillators with randomly distributed natural frequency. Finally, we
      explain the results using the eigenvalue analysis of the Jacobian matrix at the
      origin and also discuss the transition of dynamical behavior coming from
      connection structure as the coupling strength increases.

PMID- 28863494
TI  - Taming stochastic bifurcations in fractional-order systems via noise and delayed
      feedback.
AB  - The dynamics in fractional-order systems have been widely studied during the past
      decade due to the potential applications in new materials and anomalous
      diffusions, but the investigations have been so far restricted to a fractional
      order system without time delay(s). In this paper, we report the first study of
      random responses of fractional-order system coupled with noise and delayed
      feedback. Stochastic averaging method has been utilized to determine the
      stationary probability density functions (PDFs) by means of the principle of
      minimum mean-square error, based on which stochastic bifurcations could be
      identified through recognizing the shape of the PDFs. It has been found that by
      changing the fractional order the shape of the PDFs can switch from unimodal
      distribution to bimodal one, or from bimodal distribution to unimodal one, thus
      announcing the onset of stochastic bifurcation. Further, we have demonstrated
      that by merely modulating the time delay, the feedback strengths, or the noise
      intensity, the shapes of PDFs can transit between a single peak and a double
      peak. Therefore, it provides an efficient candidate to control, say, induce or
      suppress, the stochastic bifurcations in fractional-order systems.

PMID- 28863495
TI  - On the limits of probabilistic forecasting in nonlinear time series analysis II:
      Differential entropy.
AB  - In a previous paper, the authors studied the limits of probabilistic prediction
      in nonlinear time series analysis in a perfect model scenario, i.e., in the ideal
      case that the uncertainty of an otherwise deterministic model is due to only the
      finite precision of the observations. The model consisted of the symbolic
      dynamics of a measure-preserving transformation with respect to a finite
      partition of the state space, and the quality of the predictions was measured by
      the so-called ignorance score, which is a conditional entropy. In practice,
      though, partitions are dispensed with by considering numerical and experimental
      data to be continuous, which prompts us to trade off in this paper the Shannon
      entropy for the differential entropy. Despite technical differences, we show that
      the core of the previous results also hold in this extended scenario for
      sufficiently high precision. The corresponding imperfect model scenario will be
      revisited too because it is relevant for the applications. The theoretical part
      and its application to probabilistic forecasting are illustrated with numerical
      simulations and a new prediction algorithm.

PMID- 28863496
TI  - Andronov-Hopf bifurcation with and without parameter in a cubic memristor
      oscillator with a line of equilibria.
AB  - The model of a memristor-based oscillator with cubic nonlinearity is studied. The
      considered system has infinitely many equilibrium points, which build a line of
      equilibria in the phase space. Numerical modeling of the dynamics is combined
      with the bifurcational analysis. It has been shown that the oscillation
      excitation has distinctive features of the supercritical Andronov-Hopf
      bifurcation and can be achieved by changing of a parameter value as well as by
      variation of initial conditions. Therefore, the considered bifurcation is called
      Andronov-Hopf bifurcation with and without parameter.

PMID- 28863497
TI  - Distinguishability notion based on Wootters statistical distance: Application to
      discrete maps.
AB  - We study the distinguishability notion given by Wootters for states represented
      by probability density functions. This presents the particularity that it can
      also be used for defining a statistical distance in chaotic unidimensional maps.
      Based on that definition, we provide a metric d- for an arbitrary discrete map.
      Moreover, from d-, we associate a metric space with each invariant density of a
      given map, which results to be the set of all distinguished points when the
      number of iterations of the map tends to infinity. Also, we give a
      characterization of the wandering set of a map in terms of the metric d-, which
      allows us to identify the dissipative regions in the phase space. We illustrate
      the results in the case of the logistic and the circle maps numerically and
      analytically, and we obtain d- and the wandering set for some characteristic
      values of their parameters. Finally, an extension of the metric space associated
      for arbitrary probability distributions (not necessarily invariant densities) is
      given along with some consequences. The statistical properties of distributions
      given by histograms are characterized in terms of the cardinal of the associated
      metric space. For two conjugate variables, the uncertainty principle is expressed
      in terms of the diameters of the associated metric space with those variables.

PMID- 28863498
TI  - Analysis and application of opinion model with multiple topic interactions.
AB  - To reveal heterogeneous behaviors of opinion evolution in different scenarios, we
      propose an opinion model with topic interactions. Individual opinions and topic
      features are represented by a multidimensional vector. We measure an agent's
      action towards a specific topic by the product of opinion and topic feature. When
      pairs of agents interact for a topic, their actions are introduced to opinion
      updates with bounded confidence. Simulation results show that a transition from a
      disordered state to a consensus state occurs at a critical point of the tolerance
      threshold, which depends on the opinion dimension. The critical point increases
      as the dimension of opinions increases. Multiple topics promote opinion
      interactions and lead to the formation of macroscopic opinion clusters. In
      addition, more topics accelerate the evolutionary process and weaken the effect
      of network topology. We use two sets of large-scale real data to evaluate the
      model, and the results prove its effectiveness in characterizing a real
      evolutionary process. Our model achieves high performance in individual action
      prediction and even outperforms state-of-the-art methods. Meanwhile, our model
      has much smaller computational complexity. This paper provides a demonstration
      for possible practical applications of theoretical opinion dynamics.

PMID- 28863499
TI  - Cycle flows and multistability in oscillatory networks.
AB  - We study multistability in phase locked states in networks of phase oscillators
      under both Kuramoto dynamics and swing equation dynamics-a popular model for
      studying coarse-scale dynamics of an electrical AC power grid. We first establish
      the existence of geometrically frustrated states in such systems-where although a
      steady state flow pattern exists, no fixed point exists in the dynamical
      variables of phases due to geometrical constraints. We then describe the stable
      fixed points of the system with phase differences along each edge not exceeding
      pi/2 in terms of cycle flows-constant flows along each simple cycle-as opposed to
      phase angles or flows. The cycle flow formalism allows us to compute tight upper
      and lower bounds to the number of fixed points in ring networks. We show that
      long elementary cycles, strong edge weights, and spatially homogeneous
      distribution of natural frequencies (for the Kuramoto model) or power injections
      (for the oscillator model for power grids) cause such networks to have more fixed
      points. We generalize some of these bounds to arbitrary planar topologies and
      derive scaling relations in the limit of large capacity and large cycle lengths,
      which we show to be quite accurate by numerical computation. Finally, we present
      an algorithm to compute all phase locked states-both stable and unstable-for
      planar networks.

PMID- 28863500
TI  - Implementation of dynamic dual input multiple output logic gate via resonance in
      globally coupled Duffing oscillators.
AB  - We have used a system of globally coupled double-well Duffing oscillators under
      an enhanced resonance condition to design and implement Dual Input Multiple
      Output (DIMO) logic gates. In order to enhance the resonance, the first
      oscillator in the globally coupled system alone is excited by two forces out of
      which one acts as a driving force and the other will be either sub-harmonic or
      super-harmonic in nature. We report that for an appropriate coupling strength,
      the second force coherently drives and enhances not only the amplitude of the
      weak first force to all the coupled systems but also drives and propagates the
      digital signals if any given to the first system. We then numerically confirm the
      propagation of any digital signal or square wave without any attenuation under an
      enhanced resonance condition for an amplitude greater than a threshold value.
      Further, we extend this idea for computing various logical operations and succeed
      in designing theoretically DIMO logic gates such as AND/NAND, OR/NOR gates with
      globally coupled systems.

PMID- 28863501
TI  - Large deviation induced phase switch in an inertial majority-vote model.
AB  - We theoretically study noise-induced phase switch phenomena in an inertial
      majority-vote (IMV) model introduced in a recent paper [Chen et al., Phys. Rev. E
      95, 042304 (2017)]. The IMV model generates a strong hysteresis behavior as the
      noise intensity f goes forward and backward, a main characteristic of a first
      order phase transition, in contrast to a second-order phase transition in the
      original MV model. Using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximation for the
      master equation, we reduce the problem to finding the zero-energy trajectories in
      an effective Hamiltonian system, and the mean switching time depends
      exponentially on the associated action and the number of particles N. Within the
      hysteresis region, we find that the actions, along the optimal forward switching
      path from the ordered phase (OP) to disordered phase (DP) and its backward path
      show distinct variation trends with f, and intersect at f = fc that determines
      the coexisting line of the OP and DP. This results in a nonmonotonic dependence
      of the mean switching time between two symmetric OPs on f, with a minimum at fc
      for sufficiently large N. Finally, the theoretical results are validated by Monte
      Carlo simulations.

PMID- 28863502
TI  - Delay-induced locking in bursting neuronal networks.
AB  - In this paper, the collective behaviors for ring structured bursting neuronal
      networks with electrical couplings and distance-dependent delays are studied.
      Each neuron is modeled by the Hindmarsh-Rose neuron. Through changing time delays
      between connected neurons, different spatiotemporal patterns are obtained. These
      patterns can be explained by calculating the ratios between the bursting period
      and the delay which exhibit clear locking relations. The holding and the failure
      of the lockings are investigated via bifurcation analysis. In particular, the
      bursting death phenomenon is observed for large coupling strengths and small time
      delays which is in fact the result of the partial amplitude death in the fast
      subsystem. These results indicate that the collective behaviors of bursting
      neurons critically depend on the bifurcation structure of individual ones and
      thus the variety of bifurcation types for bursting neurons may create diverse
      behaviors in similar neuronal ensembles.

PMID- 28863503
TI  - Evolution of initial discontinuities in the Riemann problem for the Kaup
      Boussinesq equation with positive dispersion.
AB  - We consider the space-time evolution of initial discontinuities of depth and flow
      velocity for an integrable version of the shallow water Boussinesq system
      introduced by Kaup. We focus on a specific version of this "Kaup-Boussinesq
      model" for which a flat water surface is modulationally stable, we speak below of
      "positive dispersion" model. This model also appears as an approximation to the
      equations governing the dynamics of polarisation waves in two-component Bose
      Einstein condensates. We describe its periodic solutions and the corresponding
      Whitham modulation equations. The self-similar, one-phase wave structures are
      composed of different building blocks, which are studied in detail. This makes it
      possible to establish a classification of all the possible wave configurations
      evolving from initial discontinuities. The analytic results are confirmed by
      numerical simulations.

PMID- 28863504
TI  - Proliferation of stability in phase and parameter spaces of nonlinear systems.
AB  - In this work, we show how the composition of maps allows us to multiply, enlarge,
      and move stable domains in phase and parameter spaces of discrete nonlinear
      systems. Using Henon maps with distinct parameters, we generate many identical
      copies of isoperiodic stable structures (ISSs) in the parameter space and
      attractors in phase space. The equivalence of the identical ISSs is checked by
      the largest Lyapunov exponent analysis, and the multiplied basins of attraction
      become riddled. Our proliferation procedure should be applicable to any two
      dimensional nonlinear system.

PMID- 28863505
TI  - Semi-rational solutions of the third-type Davey-Stewartson equation.
AB  - General dark solitons and mixed solutions consisting of dark solitons and
      breathers for the third-type Davey-Stewartson (DS-III) equation are derived by
      employing the bilinear method. By introducing the two differential operators,
      semi-rational solutions consisting of rogue waves, breathers, and solitons are
      generated. These semi-rational solutions are given in terms of determinants whose
      matrix elements have simple algebraic expressions. Under suitable parametric
      conditions, we derive general rogue wave solutions expressed in terms of rational
      functions. It is shown that the fundamental (simplest) rogue waves are line rogue
      waves. It is also shown that the multi-rogue waves describe interactions of
      several fundamental rogue waves, which would generate interesting curvy wave
      patterns. The higher order rogue waves originate from a localized lump and
      retreat back to it. Several types of hybrid solutions composed of rogue waves,
      breathers, and solitons have also been illustrated. Specifically, these semi
      rational solutions have a new phenomenon: lumps form on dark solitons and gradual
      separation from the dark solitons is observed.

PMID- 28863506
TI  - Free energy models for ice VII and liquid water derived from pressure, entropy,
      and heat capacity relations.
AB  - We present equations of state relevant to conditions encountered in ramp and
      multiple-shock compression experiments of water. These experiments compress water
      from ambient conditions to pressures as high as about 14 GPa and temperatures of
      up to several hundreds of Kelvin. Water may freeze into ice VII during this
      process. Although there are several studies on the thermodynamic properties of
      ice VII, an accurate and analytic free energy model from which all other
      properties may be derived in a thermodynamically consistent manner has not been
      previously determined. We have developed such a free energy model for ice VII
      that is calibrated with pressure-volume-temperature measurements and melt curve
      data. Furthermore, we show that liquid water in the pressure and temperature
      range of interest is well-represented by a simple Mie-Gruneisen equation of
      state. Our liquid water and ice VII equations of state are validated by comparing
      to sound speed and Hugoniot data. Although they are targeted towards ramp and
      multiple-shock compression experiments, we demonstrate that our equations of
      state also behave reasonably well at pressures and temperatures that lie somewhat
      beyond those found in the experiments.

PMID- 28863507
TI  - The dynamics of nucleation and growth of a particle in the ternary alloy melt
      with anisotropic surface tension.
AB  - The dynamics of nucleation and growth of a particle affected by anisotropic
      surface tension in the ternary alloy melt is studied. The uniformly valid
      asymptotic solution for temperature field, concentration field, and interface
      evolution of nucleation and particle growth is obtained by means of the multiple
      variable expansion method. The asymptotic solution reveals the critical radius of
      nucleation in the ternary alloy melt and an inward melting mechanism of the
      particle induced by the anisotropic effect of surface tension. The critical
      radius of nucleation is dependent on isotropic surface tension, temperature
      undercooling, and constitutional undercooling in the ternary alloy melt, and the
      solute diffusion melt decreases the critical radius of nucleation. Immediately
      after a nucleus forms in the initial stage of solidification, the anisotropic
      effect of surface tension makes some parts of its interface grow inward while
      some parts grow outward. Until the inward melting attains a certain distance
      (which is defined as "the melting depth"), these parts of interface start to grow
      outward with other parts. The interface of the particle evolves into an ear-like
      deformation, whose inner diameter may be less than two times the critical radius
      of nucleation within a short time in the initial stage of solidification. The
      solute diffusion in the ternary alloy melt decreases the effect of anisotropic
      surface tension on the interface deformation.

PMID- 28863508
TI  - Influence of thermalization on thermal conduction through molecular junctions:
      Computational study of PEG oligomers.
AB  - Thermalization in molecular junctions and the extent to which it mediates thermal
      transport through the junction are explored and illustrated with computational
      modeling of polyethylene glycol (PEG) oligomer junctions. We calculate rates of
      thermalization in the PEG oligomers from 100 K to 600 K and thermal conduction
      through PEG oligomer interfaces between gold and other materials, including
      water, motivated in part by photothermal applications of gold nanoparticles
      capped by PEG oligomers in aqueous and cellular environments. Variation of
      thermalization rates over a range of oligomer lengths and temperatures reveals
      striking effects of thermalization on thermal conduction through the junction.
      The calculated thermalization rates help clarify the scope of applicability of
      approaches that can be used to predict thermal conduction, e.g., where Fourier's
      law breaks down and where a Landauer approach is suitable. The rates and nature
      of vibrational energy transport computed for PEG oligomers are compared with
      available experimental results.

PMID- 28863510
TI  - Depositing nanoparticles on a silicon substrate using a freeze drying technique.
AB  - For the microscopic observation of nanoparticles, an adequate sample preparation
      is an essential part of this task. Much research has been performed for usable
      preparation methods that will yield aggregate-free samples. A freeze drying
      technique, which only requires a -80  degrees C freezer and a freeze dryer, is
      shown to provide an on-substrate dispersion of mostly isolated nanoparticles. The
      particle density could be made sufficiently high for efficient observations using
      atomic force microscopy. Since this sandwich method is purely physical, it could
      be applied to deposit various nanoparticles independent of their surface chemical
      properties. Suspension film thickness, or the dimensionality of the suspension
      film, was shown to be crucial for the isolation of the particles. Silica
      nanoparticles were dispersed on a silicon substrate using this method and the
      sample properties were examined using atomic force microscopy.

PMID- 28863509
TI  - The nature of three-body interactions in DFT: Exchange and polarization effects.
AB  - We propose a physically motivated decomposition of density functional theory
      (DFT) 3-body nonadditive interaction energies into the exchange and density
      deformation (polarization) components. The exchange component represents the
      effect of the Pauli exclusion in the wave function of the trimer and is found to
      be challenging for density functional approximations (DFAs). The remaining
      density-deformation nonadditivity is less dependent upon the DFAs. Numerical
      demonstration is carried out for rare gas atom trimers, Ar2-HX (X = F, Cl)
      complexes, and small hydrogen-bonded and van der Waals molecular systems. None of
      the tested semilocal, hybrid, and range-separated DFAs properly accounts for the
      nonadditive exchange in dispersion-bonded trimers. By contrast, for hydrogen
      bonded systems, range-separated DFAs achieve a qualitative agreement to within
      20% of the reference exchange energy. A reliable performance for all systems is
      obtained only when the monomers interact through the Hartree-Fock potential in
      the dispersion-free Pauli blockade scheme. Additionally, we identify the
      nonadditive second-order exchange-dispersion energy as an important but
      overlooked contribution in force-field-like dispersion corrections. Our results
      suggest that range-separated functionals do not include this component, although
      semilocal and global hybrid DFAs appear to imitate it in the short range.

PMID- 28863511
TI  - Delocalization and stretch-bend mixing of the HOH bend in liquid water.
AB  - Liquid water's rich sub-picosecond vibrational dynamics arise from the interplay
      of different high- and low-frequency modes evolving in a strong yet fluctuating
      hydrogen bond network. Recent studies of the OH stretching excitations of H2O
      indicate that they are delocalized over several molecules, raising questions
      about whether the bending vibrations are similarly delocalized. In this paper, we
      take advantage of an improved 50 fs time-resolution and broadband infrared (IR)
      spectroscopy to interrogate the 2D IR lineshape and spectral dynamics of the HOH
      bending vibration of liquid H2O. Indications of strong bend-stretch coupling are
      observed in early time 2D IR spectra through a broad excited state absorption
      that extends from 1500 cm-1 to beyond 1900 cm-1, which corresponds to transitions
      from the bend to the bend overtone and OH stretching band between 3150 and 3550
      cm-1. Pump-probe measurements reveal a fast 180 fs vibrational relaxation time,
      which results in a hot-ground state spectrum that is the same as observed for
      water IR excitation at any other frequency. The fastest dynamical time scale is
      80 fs for the polarization anisotropy decay, providing evidence for the
      delocalized or excitonic character of the bend. Normal mode analysis conducted on
      water clusters extracted from molecular dynamics simulations corroborate
      significant stretch-bend mixing and indicate delocalization of deltaHOH on 2-7
      water molecules.

PMID- 28863512
TI  - Contact angles from Young's equation in molecular dynamics simulations.
AB  - We propose a method to calculate the equilibrium contact angle of heterogeneous 3
      phase solid/fluid/fluid systems using molecular dynamics simulations. The
      proposed method, which combines the phantom-wall method [F. Leroy and F. Muller
      Plathe, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 044110 (2010)] and Bennett's acceptance ratio
      approach [C. H. Bennett, J. Comput. Phys. 22, 245 (1976)], is able to calculate
      the solid/fluid surface tension relative to the solid surface energy. The
      calculated relative surface tensions can then be used in Young's equation to
      estimate the equilibrium contact angle. A fluid droplet is not needed for the
      proposed method, in contrast to the situation for direct simulations of contact
      angles. In addition, while prior free-energy based methods for contact angles
      mainly focused on the wetting of fluids in coexistence with their vapor on solid
      surfaces, the proposed approach was designed to study the contact angles of fluid
      mixtures on solid surfaces above the fluid saturation pressures. Using the
      proposed approach, the contact angles of binary Lennard-Jones fluid mixtures on a
      non-polar solid substrate were calculated at various interaction parameters and
      the contact angle of water in equilibrium with CO2 on a hydrophilic polar silica
      surface was obtained. For both non-polar and polar systems, the calculated
      contact angles from the proposed method were in agreement with those obtained
      from the geometry of a cylindrical droplet. The computational cost of the
      proposed method was found to be comparable to that of simulations that use fluid
      droplets, but the new method provides a way to calculate the contact angle
      directly from Young's equation without ambiguity.

PMID- 28863513
TI  - Pair 2-electron reduced density matrix theory using localized orbitals.
AB  - Full configuration interaction (FCI) restricted to a pairing space yields size
      extensive correlation energies but its cost scales exponentially with molecular
      size. Restricting the variational two-electron reduced-density-matrix (2-RDM)
      method to represent the same pairing space yields an accurate lower bound to the
      pair FCI energy at a mean-field-like computational scaling of O(r3) where r is
      the number of orbitals. In this paper, we show that localized molecular orbitals
      can be employed to generate an efficient, approximately size-extensive pair 2-RDM
      method. The use of localized orbitals eliminates the substantial cost of
      optimizing iteratively the orbitals defining the pairing space without
      compromising accuracy. In contrast to the localized orbitals, the use of
      canonical Hartree-Fock molecular orbitals is shown to be both inaccurate and non
      size-extensive. The pair 2-RDM has the flexibility to describe the spectra of one
      electron RDM occupation numbers from all quantum states that are invariant to
      time-reversal symmetry. Applications are made to hydrogen chains and their
      dissociation, n-acene from naphthalene through octacene, and cadmium telluride 2
      , 3-, and 4-unit polymers. For the hydrogen chains, the pair 2-RDM method
      recovers the majority of the energy obtained from similar calculations that
      iteratively optimize the orbitals. The localized-orbital pair 2-RDM method with
      its mean-field-like computational scaling and its ability to describe multi
      reference correlation has important applications to a range of strongly
      correlated phenomena in chemistry and physics.

PMID- 28863514
TI  - An ab initio chemical reaction model for the direct simulation Monte Carlo study
      of non-equilibrium nitrogen flows.
AB  - A new ab initio based chemical model for a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC)
      study suitable for simulating rarefied flows with a high degree of non
      equilibrium is presented. To this end, Collision Induced Dissociation (CID) cross
      sections for N2+N2->N2+2N are calculated and published using a global complete
      active space self-consistent field-complete active space second order
      perturbation theory N4 potential energy surface and quasi-classical trajectory
      algorithm for high energy collisions (up to 30 eV). CID cross sections are
      calculated for only a selected set of ro-vibrational combinations of the two
      nitrogen molecules, and a fitting scheme based on spectroscopic weights is
      presented to interpolate the CID cross section for all possible ro-vibrational
      combinations. The new chemical model is validated by calculating equilibrium
      reaction rate coefficients that can be compared well with existing shock tube and
      computational results. High-enthalpy hypersonic nitrogen flows around a cylinder
      in the transition flow regime are simulated using DSMC to compare the predictions
      of the current ab initio based chemical model with the prevailing
      phenomenological model (the total collision energy model). The differences in the
      predictions are discussed.

PMID- 28863515
TI  - Novel tilt-curvature coupling in lipid membranes.
AB  - On mesoscopic scales, lipid membranes are well described by continuum theories
      whose main ingredients are the curvature of a membrane's reference surface and
      the tilt of its lipid constituents. In particular, Hamm and Kozlov [Eur. Phys. J.
      E 3, 323 (2000)] have shown how to systematically derive such a tilt-curvature
      Hamiltonian based on the elementary assumption of a thin fluid elastic sheet
      experiencing internal lateral pre-stress. Performing a dimensional reduction,
      they not only derive the basic form of the effective surface Hamiltonian but also
      express its emergent elastic couplings as trans-membrane moments of lower-level
      material parameters. In the present paper, we argue, though, that their
      derivation unfortunately missed a coupling term between curvature and tilt. This
      term arises because, as one moves along the membrane, the curvature-induced
      change of transverse distances contributes to the area strain-an effect that was
      believed to be small but nevertheless ends up contributing at the same
      (quadratic) order as all other terms in their Hamiltonian. We illustrate the
      consequences of this amendment by deriving the monolayer and bilayer Euler
      Lagrange equations for the tilt, as well as the power spectra of shape, tilt, and
      director fluctuations. A particularly curious aspect of our new term is that its
      associated coupling constant is the second moment of the lipid monolayer's
      lateral stress profile-which within this framework is equal to the monolayer
      Gaussian curvature modulus, kappa-m. On the one hand, this implies that many
      theoretical predictions now contain a parameter that is poorly known (because the
      Gauss-Bonnet theorem limits access to the integrated Gaussian curvature); on the
      other hand, the appearance of kappa-m outside of its Gaussian curvature
      provenance opens opportunities for measuring it by more conventional means, for
      instance by monitoring a membrane's undulation spectrum at short scales.

PMID- 28863516
TI  - Ground state in E ? e Jahn-Teller and Renner-Teller systems: Account of
      nonadiabaticity.
AB  - The ground and lower excited states of an E?e Jahn-Teller system with linear and
      quadratic vibronic coupling are considered, taking nonadiabaticity into account.
      Our calculations confirm a common opinion that in the case of a weak quadratic
      coupling, the ground state is doubly degenerate and the first excited state is
      nondegenerate for any linear coupling. However, with increasing quadratic
      coupling for weak linear coupling, the nondegenerate state becomes the ground
      state. The values of vibronic parameters are found at which the ground state
      changes.

PMID- 28863517
TI  - Terahertz induced optical birefringence in polar and nonpolar liquids.
AB  - The terahertz induced optical birefringence in liquids with polar (acetone,
      chloroform) and nonpolar (benzene, carbon tetrachloride) molecules has been
      investigated. Fast and slow responses were extracted from the experimental data
      and compared with previous studies of the femtosecond optical Kerr effect.
      Terahertz Kerr constants were found and compared with known DC and optical
      constants. Analysis of the results obtained showed that, in contrast to the
      optical excitation, the interaction of a permanent dipole moment of molecules
      with a THz field makes a significant contribution to the transient birefringence
      and Kerr constants. This conclusion fully agrees with the direct comparison of
      the femtosecond optical and THz Kerr effects reported by Sajadi et al. [Nat.
      Commun. 8, 14963 (2017)].

PMID- 28863518
TI  - Helical paths, gravitaxis, and separation phenomena for mass-anisotropic self
      propelling colloids: Experiment versus theory.
AB  - The self-propulsion mechanism of active colloidal particles often generates not
      only translational but also rotational motion. For particles with an anisotropic
      mass density under gravity, the motion is usually influenced by a downwards
      oriented force and an aligning torque. Here we study the trajectories of self
      propelled bottom-heavy Janus particles in three spatial dimensions both in
      experiments and by theory. For a sufficiently large mass anisotropy, the
      particles typically move along helical trajectories whose axis is oriented either
      parallel or antiparallel to the direction of gravity (i.e., they show
      gravitaxis). In contrast, if the mass anisotropy is small and rotational
      diffusion is dominant, gravitational alignment of the trajectories is not
      possible. Furthermore, the trajectories depend on the angular self-propulsion
      velocity of the particles. If this component of the active motion is strong and
      rotates the direction of translational self-propulsion of the particles, their
      trajectories have many loops, whereas elongated swimming paths occur if the
      angular self-propulsion is weak. We show that the observed gravitational
      alignment mechanism and the dependence of the trajectory shape on the angular
      self-propulsion can be used to separate active colloidal particles with respect
      to their mass anisotropy and angular self-propulsion, respectively.

PMID- 28863519
TI  - Ab initio potential energy surface and microwave spectra for the H2-HCCCN
      complex.
AB  - We present a four-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface of the H2-HCCCN
      complex at the coupled-cluster singles and doubles with noniterative inclusion of
      connected triples [CCSD(T)]-F12 level with a large basis set including an
      additional set of bond functions. The artificial neural networks method was
      extended to fit the intermolecular potential energy surface. The complex has a
      planar linear global minimum with the well depth of 199.366 cm-1 located at R =
      5.09 A, phi = 0 degrees , theta1 = 0 degrees , and theta2 = 180 degrees . An
      additional planar local minimum is also found with a depth of 175.579 cm-1 that
      is located at R = 3.37 A, phi = 0 degrees , theta1 = 110 degrees , and theta2 =
      104 degrees . The radial discrete variable representation/angular finite basis
      representation and the Lanczos algorithm were employed to calculate the
      rovibrational energy levels for four species of H2-HCCCN (pH2-HCCCN, oH2-HCCCN,
      pD2-HCCCN, and oD2-HCCCN). The rotational frequencies and spectroscopic
      parameters were also determined for four complexes, which agree well with the
      experimental values.

PMID- 28863520
TI  - A quasi-classical study of energy transfer in collisions of hyperthermal H atoms
      with SO2 molecules.
AB  - A deep understanding of energy transfer processes in molecular collisions is at
      central attention in physical chemistry. Particularly vibrational excitation of
      small molecules colliding with hot light atoms, via a metastable complex
      formation, has shown to be an efficient manner of enhancing reactivity. A quasi
      classical trajectory study of translation-to-vibration energy transfer (T-V ET)
      in collisions of hyperthermal H(2S) atoms with SO2(X1A') molecules is presented
      here. For such a study, a double many-body expansion potential energy surface
      previously reported for HSO2(2A) is used. This work was motivated by recent
      experiments by Ma et al. studying collisions of H + SO2 at the translational
      energy of 59 kcal/mol [J. Ma et al., Phys. Rev. A 93, 040702 (2016)].
      Calculations reproduce the experimental evidence that during majority of
      inelastic non-reactive collision processes, there is a metastable intermediate
      formation (HOSO or HSO2). Nevertheless, the analysis of the trajectories shows
      that there are two distinct mechanisms in the T-V ET process: direct and
      indirect. Direct T-V processes are responsible for the high population of SO2
      with relatively low vibrational excitation energy, while indirect ones dominate
      the conversion from translational energy to high values of the vibrational
      counterpart.

PMID- 28863521
TI  - Quantum dynamics of H2 in a carbon nanotube: Separation of time scales and
      resonance enhanced tunneling.
AB  - Quantum confinement effects are known to affect the behavior of molecules
      adsorbed in nanostructured materials. In order to study these effects on the
      transport of a single molecule through a nanotube, we present a quantum dynamics
      study on the diffusion of H2 in a narrow (8,0) carbon nanotube in the low
      pressure limit. Transmission coefficients for the elementary step of the
      transport process are calculated using the flux correlation function approach and
      diffusion rates are obtained using the single hopping model. The different time
      scales associated with the motion in the confined coordinates and the motion
      along the nanotube's axis are utilized to develop an efficient and numerically
      exact approach, in which a diabatic basis describing the fast motion in the
      confined coordinate is employed. Furthermore, an adiabatic approximation
      separating the dynamics of confined and unbound coordinates is studied. The
      results obtained within the adiabatic approximation agree almost perfectly with
      the numerically exact ones. The approaches allow us to accurately study the
      system's dynamics on the picosecond time scale and resolve resonance structures
      present in the transmission coefficients. Resonance enhanced tunneling is found
      to be the dominant transport mechanism at low energies. Comparison with results
      obtained using transition state theory shows that tunneling significantly
      increases the diffusion rate at T < 120 K.

PMID- 28863522
TI  - Non-equilibrium surface tension of the vapour-liquid interface of active Lennard
      Jones particles.
AB  - We study a three-dimensional system of self-propelled Brownian particles
      interacting via the Lennard-Jones potential. Using Brownian dynamics simulations
      in an elongated simulation box, we investigate the steady states of vapour-liquid
      phase coexistence of active Lennard-Jones particles with planar interfaces. We
      measure the normal and tangential components of the pressure tensor along the
      direction perpendicular to the interface and verify mechanical equilibrium of the
      two coexisting phases. In addition, we determine the non-equilibrium interfacial
      tension by integrating the difference of the normal and tangential components of
      the pressure tensor and show that the surface tension as a function of strength
      of particle attractions is well fitted by simple power laws. Finally, we measure
      the interfacial stiffness using capillary wave theory and the equipartition
      theorem and find a simple linear relation between surface tension and interfacial
      stiffness with a proportionality constant characterized by an effective
      temperature.

PMID- 28863523
TI  - Vibrational relaxation beyond the linear damping limit in two-dimensional optical
      spectra of molecular aggregates.
AB  - We present a computational model for the spectra of molecular aggregates with
      signatures of vibronic progression. Vibronic dynamics is implemented by coupling
      the dynamics of Frenkel excitons with underdamped vibrations. Vibrational
      dynamics includes linear damping resulting in the exponential decay and quadratic
      damping inducing subexponential or power law relaxation and increasing
      vibrational decoherence as demonstrated on lineshapes of the absorption spectrum.
      Simulations of the third-order coherent response account for bath reorganization
      during excitonic transport, which allows us to study the line-shape evolution of
      cross peaks of 2D spectra.

PMID- 28863524
TI  - Nuclear magnetic relaxation by the dipolar EMOR mechanism: Multi-spin systems.
AB  - In aqueous systems with immobilized macromolecules, including biological tissues,
      the longitudinal spin relaxation of water protons is primarily induced by
      exchange-mediated orientational randomization (EMOR) of intra- and intermolecular
      magnetic dipole-dipole couplings. Starting from the stochastic Liouville
      equation, we have previously developed a rigorous EMOR relaxation theory for
      dipole-coupled two-spin and three-spin systems. Here, we extend the stochastic
      Liouville theory to four-spin systems and use these exact results as a guide for
      constructing an approximate multi-spin theory, valid for spin systems of
      arbitrary size. This so-called generalized stochastic Redfield equation (GSRE)
      theory includes the effects of longitudinal-transverse cross-mode relaxation,
      which gives rise to an inverted step in the relaxation dispersion profile, and
      coherent spin mode transfer among solid-like spins, which may be regarded as
      generalized spin diffusion. The GSRE theory is compared to an existing theory,
      based on the extended Solomon equations, which does not incorporate these
      phenomena. Relaxation dispersion profiles are computed from the GSRE theory for
      systems of up to 16 protons, taken from protein crystal structures. These
      profiles span the range from the motional narrowing limit, where the coherent
      mode transfer plays a major role, to the ultra-slow motion limit, where the zero
      field rate is closely related to the strong-collision limit of the dipolar
      relaxation rate. Although a quantitative analysis of experimental data is beyond
      the scope of this work, it is clear from the magnitude of the predicted
      relaxation rate and the shape of the relaxation dispersion profile that the
      dipolar EMOR mechanism is the principal cause of water-1H low-field longitudinal
      relaxation in aqueous systems of immobilized macromolecules, including soft
      biological tissues. The relaxation theory developed here therefore provides a
      basis for molecular-level interpretation of endogenous soft-tissue image contrast
      obtained by the emerging low-field magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

PMID- 28863525
TI  - Effect of stochastic gating on channel-facilitated transport of non-interacting
      and strongly repelling solutes.
AB  - Ligand- or voltage-driven stochastic gating-the structural rearrangements by
      which the channel switches between its open and closed states-is a fundamental
      property of biological membrane channels. Gating underlies the channel's ability
      to respond to different stimuli and, therefore, to be functionally regulated by
      the changing environment. The accepted understanding of the gating effect on the
      solute flux through the channel is that the mean flux is the product of the flux
      through the open channel and the probability of finding the channel in the open
      state. Here, using a diffusion model of channel-facilitated transport, we show
      that this is true only when the gating is much slower than the dynamics of solute
      translocation through the channel. If this condition breaks, the mean flux could
      differ from this simple estimate by orders of magnitude.

PMID- 28863526
TI  - Neural network based coupled diabatic potential energy surfaces for reactive
      scattering.
AB  - An approach for the construction of vibronically coupled potential energy
      surfaces describing reactive collisions is proposed. The scheme utilizes neural
      networks to obtain the elements of the diabatic potential energy matrix. The
      training of the neural network employs a diabatization by the Ansatz approach and
      is solely based on adiabatic electronic energies. Furthermore, no system-specific
      symmetry consideration is required. As the first example, the H2+Cl->H+HCl
      reaction, which shows a conical intersection in the entrance channel, is studied.
      The capability of the approach to accurately reproduce the adiabatic reference
      energies is investigated. The accuracy of the fit is found to crucially depend on
      the number of data points as well as the size of the neural network. 5000 data
      points and a neural network with two hidden layers and 40 neurons in each layer
      result in a fit with a root mean square error below 1 meV for the relevant
      geometries. The coupled diabatic potential energies are found to vary smoothly
      with the coordinates, but the conical intersection is erroneously represented as
      a very weakly avoided crossing. This shortcoming can be avoided if symmetry
      constraints for the coupling potential are incorporated into the neural network
      design.

PMID- 28863527
TI  - Bond dissociation energies of TiSi, ZrSi, HfSi, VSi, NbSi, and TaSi.
AB  - Predissociation thresholds have been observed in the resonant two-photon
      ionization spectra of TiSi, ZrSi, HfSi, VSi, NbSi, and TaSi. It is argued that
      because of the high density of electronic states at the ground separated atom
      limit in these molecules, the predissociation threshold in each case corresponds
      to the thermochemical bond dissociation energy. The resulting bond dissociation
      energies are D0(TiSi) = 2.201(3) eV, D0(ZrSi) = 2.950(3) eV, D0(HfSi) = 2.871(3)
      eV, D0(VSi) = 2.234(3) eV, D0(NbSi) = 3.080(3) eV, and D0(TaSi) = 2.999(3) eV.
      The enthalpies of formation were also calculated as Deltaf,0KH degrees (TiSi(g))
      = 705(19) kJ mol-1, Deltaf,0KH degrees (ZrSi(g)) = 770(12) kJ mol-1, Deltaf,0KH
      degrees (HfSi(g)) = 787(10) kJ mol-1, Deltaf,0KH degrees (VSi(g)) = 743(11) kJ
      mol-1, Deltaf,0KH degrees (NbSi(g)) = 879(11) kJ mol-1, and Deltaf,0KH degrees
      (TaSi(g)) = 938(8) kJ mol-1. Using thermochemical cycles, ionization energies of
      IE(TiSi) = 6.49(17) eV and IE(VSi) = 6.61(15) eV and bond dissociation energies
      of the ZrSi- and NbSi- anions, D0(Zr-Si-) <= 3.149(15) eV, D0(Zr--Si) <=
      4.108(20) eV, D0(Nb-Si-) <= 3.525(31) eV, and D0(Nb--Si) <= 4.017(39) eV, have
      also been obtained. Calculations on the possible low-lying electronic states of
      each species are also reported.

PMID- 28863529
TI  - Potential energy and dipole moment surfaces of the triplet states of the
      O2(X3Sigmag-) - O2(X3Sigmag-,a1Deltag,b1Sigmag+) complex.
AB  - We compute four-dimensional diabatic potential energy surfaces and transition
      dipole moment surfaces of O2-O2, relevant for the theoretical description of
      collision-induced absorption in the forbidden X3Sigmag- -> a1Deltag and X3Sigmag-
      -> b1Sigmag+ bands at 7883 cm-1 and 13 122 cm-1, respectively. We compute
      potentials at the multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI) level and
      dipole surfaces at the MRCI and complete active space self-consistent field
      (CASSCF) levels of theory. Potentials and dipole surfaces are transformed to a
      diabatic basis using a recent multiple-property-based diabatization algorithm. We
      discuss the angular expansion of these surfaces, derive the symmetry constraints
      on the expansion coefficients, and present working equations for determining the
      expansion coefficients by numerical integration over the angles. We also present
      an interpolation scheme with exponential extrapolation to both short and large
      separations, which is used for representing the O2-O2 distance dependence of the
      angular expansion coefficients. For the triplet ground state of the complex, the
      potential energy surface is in reasonable agreement with previous calculations,
      whereas global excited state potentials are reported here for the first time. The
      transition dipole moment surfaces are strongly dependent on the level of theory
      at which they are calculated, as is also shown here by benchmark calculations at
      high symmetry geometries. Therefore, ab initio calculations of the collision
      induced absorption spectra cannot become quantitatively predictive unless more
      accurate transition dipole surfaces can be computed. This is left as an open
      question for method development in electronic structure theory. The calculated
      potential energy and transition dipole moment surfaces are employed in quantum
      dynamical calculations of collision-induced absorption spectra reported in Paper
      II [T. Karman et al., J. Chem. Phys. 147, 084307 (2017)].

PMID- 28863528
TI  - The dynamics of peptide-water interactions in dialanine: An ultrafast amide I 2D
      IR and computational spectroscopy study.
AB  - We present a joint experimental and computational study of the dynamic
      interactions of dialanine (Ala-Ala) with water, comparing the results of
      ultrafast 2D IR and infrared transient absorption spectroscopy of its amide I
      vibration with spectra modeled from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The
      experimental data are analyzed to describe vibrational frequency fluctuations,
      vibrational energy relaxation, and chemical exchange processes. The origin of
      these processes in the same underlying fluctuating forces allows a common
      description in terms of the fluctuations and conformational dynamics of the
      peptide and associated solvent. By comparing computational spectroscopy from MD
      simulations with multiple force fields and water models, we describe how the
      dynamics of water hydrogen bond fluctuations and switching processes act as a
      source of friction that governs the dephasing and vibrational relaxation, and
      provide a description of coupled water and peptide motions that give rise to
      spectroscopic exchange processes.

PMID- 28863530
TI  - Effects of Cd vacancies and unconventional spin dynamics in the Dirac semimetal
      Cd3As2.
AB  - Cd3As2 is a Dirac semimetal that is a 3D analog of graphene. We investigated the
      local structure and nuclear-spin dynamics in Cd3As2 via 113Cd NMR. The wideline
      spectrum of the static sample at 295 K is asymmetric and its features are well
      described by a two-site model with the shielding parameters extracted via
      Herzfeld-Berger analysis of the magic-angle spinning spectrum. Surprisingly, the
      113Cd spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) is extremely long (T1 = 95 s at 295 K),
      in stark contrast to conductors and the effects of native defects upon
      semiconductors; but it is similar to that of 13C in graphene (T1 = 110 s). The
      temperature dependence of 1/T1 revealed a complex bipartite mechanism that
      included a T2 power-law behavior below 330 K and a thermally activated process
      above 330 K. In the high-temperature regime, the Arrhenius behavior is consistent
      with a field-dependent Cd atomic hopping relaxation process. At low temperatures,
      a T2 behavior consistent with a spin-1/2 Raman-like process provides evidence of
      a time-dependent spin-rotation magnetic field caused by angular oscillations of
      internuclear vectors due to lattice vibrations. The observed mechanism does not
      conform to the conventional two-band model of semimetals, but is instead closer
      to a mechanism observed in high-Z element ionic solids with large magnetorotation
      constant [A. J. Vega et al., Phys. Rev. B 74, 214420 (2006)].

PMID- 28863531
TI  - Electronic spectrum of the protonated diacetylene cation (H2C4H+).
AB  - The B1A1<-X1A1 electronic band system of the protonated diacetylene cation
      (H2C4H+) is measured over the 230-295 nm range by photodissociating H2C4H+ ions
      stored in a cryogenic ion trap and by photodissociating H2C4H+ tagged with Ar and
      N2 in a tandem mass spectrometer. The B1A1<-X1A1 band system has an origin at 34
      941 cm-1 for H2C4H+, 34 934 cm-1 for H2C4H+-Ar, and 34 920 cm-1 for H2C4H+-N2.
      The spectra of H2C4H+, H2C4H+-Ar, and H2C4H+-N2 display similar vibronic
      structure, which is assigned using ab initio calculations to progressions in two
      symmetric a1 C-C stretch vibrational modes (nu6 and nu4), with band spacings of
      860 and 1481 cm-1, respectively.

PMID- 28863532
TI  - Dissociative recombination of HCl.
AB  - The dissociative recombination of HCl+, including both the direct and indirect
      mechanisms, is studied. For the direct process, the relevant electronic states
      are calculated ab initio by combining electron scattering calculations to obtain
      resonance positions and autoionization widths with multi-reference configuration
      interaction calculations of the ion and Rydberg states. The cross section for the
      direct dissociation along electronic resonant states is computed by solution of
      the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. For the indirect process, an upper bound
      value for the cross section is obtained using a vibrational frame transformation
      of the elements of the scattering matrix at energies just above the ionization
      threshold. Vibrational excitations of the ionic core from the ground vibrational
      state, v = 0, to the first three excited vibrational states, v = 1, v = 2, and  v
      = 3, are considered. Autoionization is neglected and the effect of the spin-orbit
      splitting of the ionic potential energy upon the indirect dissociative
      recombination cross section is considered. The calculated cross sections are
      compared to measurements.

PMID- 28863534
TI  - SERS active self-assembled diphenylalanine micro/nanostructures: A combined
      experimental and theoretical investigation.
AB  - Enhancing Raman signatures of molecules by self-assembled metal nanoparticles,
      nanolithography patterning, or by designing plasmonic nanostructures is widely
      used for detection of low abundance biological systems. Self-assembled peptide
      nanostructures provide a natural template for tethering Au and Ag nanoparticles
      due to its fractal surface. Here, we show the use of L,L-diphenylalanine micro
      nanostructures (FF-MNSs) for the organization of Ag and Au nanoparticles (Nps)
      and its potential as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active substrates.
      The FF-MNSs undergo an irreversible phase transition from hexagonally packed
      (hex) micro-nanotubes to an orthorhombic (ort) structure at ~150  degrees C. The
      metal Nps form chains on hex FF-MNSs as inferred from transmission electron
      microscopy images and a uniform non-aggregated distribution in the ort phase. The
      high luminescence from the ort FF-MNS phase precludes SERS measurements with
      AgNps. The calculated Raman spectra using density-functional theory shows a
      higher intensity from rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecule in the presence of an Ag atom
      bound to ort FF compared with hex FF. The SERS spectra obtained from R6G bound to
      FF-MNSs with AuNps clearly show a higher enhancement for the ort phase compared
      with hex FF, corroborating our theoretical calculations. Our results indicate
      that FF-MNSs both in the hex and ort phases can be used as substrates for the
      SERS analysis with different metal nanoparticles, opening up a novel class of
      optically active bio-based substrates.

PMID- 28863533
TI  - Primary alpha and secondary beta relaxation dynamics of meta-toluidine in the
      liquid state investigated by broadband dielectric spectroscopy.
AB  - We report a broadband dielectric spectroscopic (BDS) study on the clustering
      fragile glass-former meta-toluidine (m-TOL) from 187 K up to 289 K over a wide
      frequency range of 10-3-109 Hz with focus on the primary alpha relaxation and the
      secondary beta relaxation above the glass temperature Tg. The broadband
      dielectric spectra were fitted by using the Havriliak-Negami (HN) and Cole-Cole
      (CC) models. The beta process disappearing at Tbeta,disap = 1.12Tg exhibits non
      Arrhenius dependence fitted by the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman-Hesse equation with
      T0betaVFTH in accord with the characteristic differential scanning calorimetry
      (DSC) limiting temperature of the glassy state. The essential feature of the
      alpha process consists in the distinct changes of its spectral shape parameter
      betaHN marked by the characteristic BDS temperatures TB1betaHN and TB2betaHN. The
      primary alpha relaxation times were fitted over the entire temperature and
      frequency range by several current three-parameter up to six-parameter dynamic
      models. This analysis reveals that the crossover temperatures of the idealized
      mode coupling theory model (TcMCT), the extended free volume model (T0EFV), and
      the two-order parameter (TOP) model (Tmc) are close to TB1betaHN, which provides
      a consistent physical rationalization for the first change of the shape
      parameter. In addition, the other two characteristic TOP temperatures T0TOP and
      TA are coinciding with the thermodynamic Kauzmann temperature TK and the second
      change of the shape parameter at around TB2betaHN, respectively. These can be
      related to the onset of the liquid-like domains in the glassy state or the
      disappearance of the solid-like domains in the normal liquid state.

PMID- 28863535
TI  - Dilution effects on combined magnetic and electric dipole interactions: A study
      of ferromagnetic cobalt nanoparticles with tuneable interactions.
AB  - Improved understanding of complex interactions between nanoparticles will
      facilitate the control over the ensuing self-assembled structures. In this work,
      we consider the dynamic changes occurring upon dilution in the self-assembly of a
      system of ferromagnetic cobalt nanoparticles that combine magnetic, electric, and
      steric interactions. The systems examined here vary in the strength of the
      magnetic dipole interactions and the amount of point charges per particle.
      Scattering techniques are employed for the characterization of the self-assembly
      aggregates, and zeta-potential measurements are employed for the estimation of
      surface charges. Our experiments show that for particles with relatively small
      initial number of surface electric dipoles, an increase in particle concentration
      results in an increase in diffusion coefficients; whereas for particles with
      relatively high number of surface dipoles, no effect is observed upon
      concentration changes. We attribute these changes to a shift in the
      adsorption/desorption equilibrium of the tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO)
      molecules on the particle surface. We put forward an explanation, based on the
      combination of two theoretical models. One predicts that the growing
      concentration of electric dipoles, stemming from the addition of tri-n
      octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) as co-surfactant during particle synthesis, on the
      surface of the particles results in the overall repulsive interaction. Secondly,
      using density functional theory, we explain that the observed behaviour of the
      diffusion coefficient can be treated as a result of the concentration dependent
      nanoparticle self-assembly: additional repulsion leads to the reduction in self
      assembled aggregate size despite the shorter average interparticle distances, and
      as such provides the growth of the diffusion coefficient.

PMID- 28863536
TI  - Frequency-domain coherent multidimensional spectroscopy when dephasing rivals
      pulsewidth: Disentangling material and instrument response.
AB  - Ultrafast spectroscopy is often collected in the mixed frequency/time domain,
      where pulse durations are similar to system dephasing times. In these
      experiments, expectations derived from the familiar driven and impulsive limits
      are not valid. This work simulates the mixed-domain four-wave mixing response of
      a model system to develop expectations for this more complex field-matter
      interaction. We explore frequency and delay axes. We show that these line shapes
      are exquisitely sensitive to excitation pulse widths and delays. Near pulse
      overlap, the excitation pulses induce correlations that resemble signatures of
      dynamic inhomogeneity. We describe these line shapes using an intuitive picture
      that connects to familiar field-matter expressions. We develop strategies for
      distinguishing pulse-induced correlations from true system inhomogeneity. These
      simulations provide a foundation for interpretation of ultrafast experiments in
      the mixed domain.

PMID- 28863537
TI  - The isobaric heat capacity of liquid water at low temperatures and high
      pressures.
AB  - Isobaric heat capacity for water shows a rather strong anomalous behavior,
      especially at low temperature. However, almost all experimental studies
      supporting this statement have been carried out at low pressure; very few
      experimental data were reported above 100 MPa. In order to explore the behavior
      of this magnitude for water up to 500 MPa, a new heat flux calorimeter was
      developed. With the aim of testing the experimental methodology and comparing
      with water results, isobaric heat capacity was also measured for methanol and
      hexane. Good agreement with indirect heat capacity estimations from the
      literature was obtained for the three liquids. Experimental results show large
      anomalies in water heat capacity. This is especially true as regards its
      temperature dependence, qualitatively different from that observed for other
      liquids. Heat capacity versus temperature curves show minima for most studied
      isobars, whose location decreases with the pressure up to around 100 MPa but
      increases at higher pressures.

PMID- 28863538
TI  - Correlation consistent basis sets for actinides. II. The atoms Ac and Np-Lr.
AB  - New correlation consistent basis sets optimized using the all-electron third
      order Douglas-Kroll-Hess (DKH3) scalar relativistic Hamiltonian are reported for
      the actinide elements Ac and Np through Lr. These complete the series of sets
      reported previously for Th-U [K. A. Peterson, J. Chem. Phys. 142, 074105 (2015);
      M. Vasiliu et al., J. Phys. Chem. A 119, 11422 (2015)]. The new sets range in
      size from double- to quadruple-zeta and encompass both those optimized for
      valence (6s6p5f7s6d) and outer-core electron correlations (valence + 5s5p5d). The
      final sets have been contracted for both the DKH3 and eXact 2-component (X2C)
      Hamiltonians, yielding cc-pVnZ-DK3/cc-pVnZ-X2C sets for valence correlation and
      cc-pwCVnZ-DK3/cc-pwCVnZ-X2C sets for outer-core correlation (n = D, T, Q in each
      case). In order to test the effectiveness of the new basis sets, both atomic and
      molecular benchmark calculations have been carried out. In the first case, the
      first three atomic ionization potentials (IPs) of all the actinide elements Ac-Lr
      have been calculated using the Feller-Peterson-Dixon (FPD) composite approach,
      primarily with the multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) method.
      Excellent convergence towards the respective complete basis set (CBS) limits is
      achieved with the new sets, leading to good agreement with experiment, where
      these exist, after accurately accounting for spin-orbit effects using the 4
      component Dirac-Hartree-Fock method. For a molecular test, the IP and atomization
      energy (AE) of PuO2 have been calculated also using the FPD method but using a
      coupled cluster approach with spin-orbit coupling accounted for using the 4
      component MRCI. The present calculations yield an IP0 for PuO2 of 159.8 kcal/mol,
      which is in excellent agreement with the experimental electron transfer
      bracketing value of 162 +/- 3 kcal/mol. Likewise, the calculated 0 K AE of 305.6
      kcal/mol is in very good agreement with the currently accepted experimental value
      of 303.1 +/- 5 kcal/mol. The ground state of PuO2 is predicted to be the
      Sigma0g+5 state.

PMID- 28863539
TI  - Study of the upper-critical dimension of the East model through the breakdown of
      the Stokes-Einstein relation.
AB  - We investigate the dimensional dependence of dynamical fluctuations related to
      dynamic heterogeneity in supercooled liquid systems using kinetically constrained
      models. The d-dimensional spin-facilitated East model with embedded probe
      particles is used as a representative super-Arrhenius glass forming system. We
      examine the existence of an upper critical dimension in this model by considering
      decoupling of transport rates through an effective fractional Stokes-Einstein
      relation, D~tau-1+omega, with D and tau the diffusion constant of the probe
      particle and the relaxation time of the model liquid, respectively, and where
      omega>0 encodes the breakdown of the standard Stokes-Einstein relation. To the
      extent that decoupling indicates non-mean-field behavior, our simulations suggest
      that the East model has an upper critical dimension at least above d = 10 and
      argue that it may actually be infinite. This result is due to the existence of
      hierarchical dynamics in the East model in any finite dimension. We discuss the
      relevance of these results for studies of decoupling in high dimensional
      atomistic models.

PMID- 28863540
TI  - Theoretical investigation of intersystem crossing in the cyanonitrene molecule,
      1NCN -> 3NCN.
AB  - The NCN diradical is an important intermediate of prompt nitric oxide formation
      in flames. The mechanism of intersystem crossing (ISC) in the NCN molecule formed
      via pyrolysis or photolysis of NCN3 is of relevance to the interpretation of
      experiments that utilize NCN3 as a precursor for laboratory studies of NCN
      kinetics. This mechanism has been investigated by means of multi-reference
      configuration interaction calculations. From the potential energy surfaces for
      NCN3 dissociation, it was inferred that both thermal and photo-chemical
      decomposition initially lead to NCN in its lowest singlet state, a1Deltag, with a
      possible contribution from the b1Sigmag+ state at low photolysis wavelengths.
      Direct formation of the triplet ground state X 3Sigmag- is also feasible for the
      photolytic pathway. An analysis of surface crossings between a or b and the
      triplet ground state X 3Sigmag- in the absence and presence of a helium atom
      revealed an ISC channel NCN1(a)->3NCN(X) via a strongly bent structure. However,
      its barrier of 38 kcal mol-1 relative to the singlet minimum turned out to be
      much too high to explain the fast ISC observed in experiments. A rigid-bender
      model including Renner-Teller interactions was used to examine the occurrence of
      mixed-multiplicity rovibrational states-so-called gateway states-that could
      enhance collision-induced ISC. The results of this study indicate that a gateway
      mechanism is probably not operative in the case of the a/X pair of states in NCN.

PMID- 28863541
TI  - A test for the existence of isomorphs in glass-forming materials.
AB  - We describe a method to determine whether a material has isomorphs in its
      thermodynamic phase diagram. Isomorphs are state points for which various
      properties are invariant in reduced units. Such materials are commonly identified
      from strong correlation between thermal fluctuations of the potential energy, U,
      and the virial W, but this identification is not generally applicable to real
      materials. We show from molecular dynamic simulations of atomic, molecular, and
      polymeric materials that systems with strong U-W correlation cannot be pressure
      densified, that is, the density obtained on cooling to the glassy state and
      releasing the pressure is independent of the pressure applied during cooling.

PMID- 28863542
TI  - Transport gap renormalization at a metal-molecule interface using DFT-NEGF and
      spin unrestricted calculations.
AB  - A method is presented for predicting one-particle energies for a molecule in a
      junction with one metal electrode, using density functional theory methods. In
      contrast to previous studies, in which restricted spin configurations were
      analyzed, we take spin polarization into account. Furthermore, in addition to
      junctions in which the molecule is weakly coupled, our method is also capable of
      describing junctions in which the molecule is chemisorbed to the metal contact.
      We implemented a fully self-consistent scissor operator to correct the highest
      occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital gap in transport
      calculations for single molecule junctions. We present results for various
      systems and compare our results with those obtained by other groups.

PMID- 28863543
TI  - Line-shape theory of the X3Sigmag-->a1Deltag,b1Sigmag+ transitions in O2-O2
      collision-induced absorption.
AB  - We derive the theory of collision-induced absorption for electronic transitions
      in the approximation of an isotropic interaction potential. We apply this theory
      to the spin-forbidden X3Sigmag-->a1Deltag and X3Sigmag-->b1Sigmag+ transitions in
      O2-O2, which are relevant for calibration in atmospheric studies. We consider two
      mechanisms for breaking the spin symmetry, either by the intermolecular exchange
      interaction between paramagnetic collision partners or by the intramolecular spin
      orbit coupling. The calculations for the exchange-based mechanism employ the
      diabatic potential energy surfaces and transition dipole moment surfaces reported
      in Paper I [T. Karman et al., J. Chem. Phys. 147, 084306 (2017)]. We show that
      the line shape of the theoretical absorption spectra is insensitive to the large
      uncertainty in the electronic transition dipole moment surfaces. We also perform
      calculations using a simple model of the alternative mechanism involving
      intramolecular spin-orbit coupling, which leads to absorption intensities which
      are well below the experimental results. The relative intensity of this spin
      orbit-based mechanism may impact the relative contribution to the absorption by
      collisions with diamagnetic collision partners, such as the atmospherically
      relevant N2 molecule. We furthermore show that both the line shape and
      temperature dependence are signatures of the underlying transition mechanism.

PMID- 28863544
TI  - Molecular dynamics study of the potential of mean force of SDS aggregates.
AB  - In our previous study, all-atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) calculations have
      been carried out for the aggregation of ionic sodium dodecyl sulfate in water [S.
      Kawada et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 646, 36 (2016)]. Aggregates of 20-30 dodecyl
      sulfate ions were formed within a short MD run for 10 ns. However, further
      aggregation did not occur despite a long MD calculation for more than 100 ns.
      This suggests that strong electrostatic repulsive interactions between the
      aggregates prevent the fusion of the aggregates. In the present study, mean force
      and potential of mean force acting between two aggregates with aggregation number
      N = 30 were evaluated as a function of their separation by MD calculations. The
      repulsive force becomes strong with decreasing distance between the two
      aggregates before they merge into one. An origin of the repulsive force is an
      electric double layer formed by the sulfate group and counter sodium ions.
      Strength of the repulsive force is in good agreement with the theoretical value
      given by the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. Once the aggregates
      establish contact, the force between them turns to be a large attractive force
      that can be explained by the interfacial tension. In order to form a single
      micelle from the two aggregates, it is necessary for them to climb over a free
      energy barrier of 23 kJ/mol. Once, the barrier is overcome, the micelle is
      stabilized by ~200 kJ/mol. The time constant of aggregation evaluated from the
      calculated free energy barrier was about 28 MUs at the concentration in our
      previous study.

PMID- 28863545
TI  - Photodissociation dynamics of the ortho- and para-xylyl radicals.
AB  - The photodissociation dynamics of the C8H9 isomers ortho- and para-xylyl are
      investigated in a free jet. The xylyl radicals are generated by flash pyrolysis
      from 2-(2-methylphenyl)- and 2-(4-methylphenyl) ethyl nitrite and are excited
      into the D3 state. REMPI- spectra show vibronic structure and the origin of the
      transition is identified at 32 291 cm-1 for the para- and at 32 132 cm-1 for the
      ortho-isomer. Photofragment H-atom action spectra show bands at the same energy
      and thus confirm H-atom loss from xylyl radicals. To gain further insight into
      the photodissociation dynamics, velocity map images of the hydrogen atom
      photofragments are recorded. Their angular distribution is isotropic and the
      translational energy release is in agreement with a dissociation to products in
      their electronic ground state. Photodissociation of para-xylyl leads to the
      formation of para-xylylene (C8H8), while the data for ortho-xylyl agree much
      better with the isomer benzocyclobutene as the dominant molecular fragment rather
      than ortho-xylylene. In computations we identified a new pathway for the reaction
      ortho-xylyl -> benzocyclobutene + H with a barrier of 3.39 eV (27 340 cm-1),
      which becomes accessible at the employed excitation energy. It proceeds via a
      combination of scissoring and rotational motion of the -CH2 and -CH3 groups.
      However, the observed rate constants measured by delaying the excitation and
      ionization laser with respect to each other are significantly faster than
      computed ones, indicating intrinsic non-RRKM behaviour. A comparably high value
      of around 30% of the excess energy is released as translation of the H-atom
      photofragment.

PMID- 28863546
TI  - Terahertz absorption of lysozyme in solution.
AB  - Absorption of radiation by solution is described by its frequency-dependent
      dielectric function and can be viewed as a specific application of the dielectric
      theory of solutions. For ideal solutions, the dielectric boundary-value problem
      separates the polar response into the polarization of the void in the liquid,
      created by the solute, and the response of the solute dipole. In the case of a
      protein as a solute, protein nuclear dynamics do not project on significant
      fluctuations of the dipole moment in the terahertz domain of frequencies and the
      protein dipole can be viewed as dynamically frozen. Absorption of radiation then
      reflects the interfacial polarization. Here we apply an analytical theory and
      computer simulations to absorption of radiation by an ideal solution of lysozyme.
      Comparison with the experiment shows that Maxwell electrostatics fails to
      describe the polarization of the protein-water interface and the "Lorentz void,"
      which does not anticipate polarization of the interface by the external field (no
      surface charges), better represents the data. An analytical theory for the slope
      of the solution absorption against the volume fraction of the solute is
      formulated in terms of the cavity field response function. It is calculated from
      molecular dynamics simulations in good agreement with the experiment. The protein
      hydration shell emerges as a separate sub-ensemble, which, collectively, is not
      described by the standard electrostatics of dielectrics.

PMID- 28863547
TI  - An Ising model for metal-organic frameworks.
AB  - We present a three-dimensional Ising model where lines of equal spins are frozen
      such that they form an ordered framework structure. The frame spins impose an
      external field on the rest of the spins (active spins). We demonstrate that this
      "porous Ising model" can be seen as a minimal model for condensation transitions
      of gas molecules in metal-organic frameworks. Using Monte Carlo simulation
      techniques, we compare the phase behavior of a porous Ising model with that of a
      particle-based model for the condensation of methane (CH4) in the isoreticular
      metal-organic framework IRMOF-16. For both models, we find a line of first-order
      phase transitions that end in a critical point. We show that the critical
      behavior in both cases belongs to the 3D Ising universality class, in contrast to
      other phase transitions in confinement such as capillary condensation.

PMID- 28863548
TI  - Atomistic simulations of cation hydration in sodium and calcium montmorillonite
      nanopores.
AB  - During the last four decades, numerous studies have been directed to the swelling
      smectite-rich clays in the context of high-level radioactive waste applications
      and waste-liners for contaminated sites. The swelling properties of clay mineral
      particles arise due to hydration of the interlayer cations and the diffuse double
      layers formed near the negatively charged montmorillonite (MMT) surfaces. To
      accurately study the cation hydration in the interlayer nanopores of MMT, solvent
      solute and solvent-clay surface interactions (i.e., the solvation effects and the
      shape effects) on the atomic level should be taken into account, in contrast to
      many recent electric double layer based methodologies using continuum models.
      Therefore, in this research we employed fully atomistic simulations using
      classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the software package GROMACS along
      with the CLAYFF forcefield and the SPC/E water model. We present the ion
      distributions and the deformation of the hydrated coordination structures, i.e.,
      the hydration shells of Na+ and Ca2+ in the interlayer, respectively, for MMT in
      the first-layer, the second-layer, the third-layer, the fourth-layer, and the
      fifth-layer (1W, 2W, 3W, 4W, and 5W) hydrate states. Our MD simulations show that
      Na+ in Na-MMT nanopores have an affinity to the ditrigonal cavities of the clay
      layers and form transient inner-sphere complexes at about 3.8 A from clay
      midplane at water contents less than the 5W hydration state. However, these
      phenomena are not observed in Ca-MMT regardless of swelling states. For Na-MMT,
      each Na+ is coordinated to four water molecules and one oxygen atom of the clay
      basal-plane in the first hydration shell at the 1W hydration state, and with five
      to six water molecules in the first hydration shell within a radius of 3.1 A at
      all higher water contents. In Ca-MMT, however each Ca2+ is coordinated to
      approximately seven water molecules in the first hydration shell at the 1W
      hydration state and about eight water molecules in the first hydration shell
      within a radius of 3.3 A at all higher hydration states. Moreover, the MD results
      show that the complete hydration shells are nearly spherical with an orthogonal
      coordination sphere. They could only be formed when the basal spacing d001 >=
      18.7 A, i.e., approximately, the interlayer separation h >= 10 A. Comparison
      between DFT and MD simulations shows that DFT failed to reproduce the outer
      sphere complexes in the Stern-layer (within ~5.0 A from the clay basal-plane),
      observed in the MD simulations.

PMID- 28863549
TI  - Lubricant shear thinning behavior correlated with variation of radius of gyration
      via molecular dynamics simulations.
AB  - The shear thinning of a lubricant significantly affects lubrication film
      generation at high shear rates. The critical shear rate, defined at the onset of
      shear thinning, marks the transition of lubricant behaviors. It is challenging to
      capture the entire shear-thinning curve by means of molecular dynamics (MD)
      simulations owing to the low signal-to-noise ratio or long calculation time at
      comparatively low shear rates (104-106 s-1), which is likely coincident with the
      shear rates of interest for lubrication applications. This paper proposes an
      approach that correlates the shear-thinning phenomenon with the change in the
      molecular conformation characterized by the radius of gyration of the molecule.
      Such a correlation should be feasible to capture the major mechanism of shear
      thinning for small- to moderate-sized non-spherical molecules, which is shear
      induced molecular alignment. The idea is demonstrated by analyzing the critical
      shear rate for squalane (C30H62) and 1-decene trimer (C30H62); it is then
      implemented to study the behaviors of different molecular weight poly-alpha
      olefin (PAO) structures. Time-temperature-pressure superpositioning (TTPS) is
      demonstrated and it helps further extend the ranges of the temperature and
      pressure for shear-thinning behavior analyses. The research leads to a
      relationship between molecular weight and critical shear rate for PAO structures,
      and the results are compared with those from the Einstein-Debye equation.

PMID- 28863550
TI  - Categorizing click trains to increase taxonomic precision in echolocation click
      loggers.
AB  - Passive acoustic monitoring is an efficient way to study acoustically active
      animals but species identification remains a major challenge. C-PODs are popular
      logging devices that automatically detect odontocete echolocation clicks.
      However, the accompanying analysis software does not distinguish between
      delphinid species. Click train features logged by C-PODs were compared to
      frequency spectra from adjacently deployed continuous recorders. A generalized
      additive model was then used to categorize C-POD click trains into three groups:
      broadband click trains, produced by bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) or
      common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), frequency-banded click trains, produced by
      Risso's (Grampus griseus) or white beaked dolphins (Lagenorhynchus albirostris),
      and unknown click trains. Incorrect categorization rates for broadband and
      frequency banded clicks were 0.02 (SD 0.01), but only 30% of the click trains met
      the categorization threshold. To increase the proportion of categorized click
      trains, model predictions were pooled within acoustic encounters and a likelihood
      ratio threshold was used to categorize encounters. This increased the proportion
      of the click trains meeting either the broadband or frequency banded
      categorization threshold to 98%. Predicted species distribution at the 30 study
      sites matched well to visual sighting records from the region.

PMID- 28863551
TI  - Rippling pattern of distortion product otoacoustic emissions evoked by high
      frequency primaries in guinea pigs.
AB  - The origin of ripples in distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE)
      amplitude which appear at specific DPOAE frequencies during f1 tone sweeps using
      fixed high frequency f2 (>20 kHz) in guinea pigs is investigated. The peaks of
      the ripples, or local DPOAE amplitude maxima, are separated by approximately half
      octave intervals and are accompanied by phase oscillations. The local maxima
      appear at the same frequencies in DPOAEs of different order and velocity
      responses of the stapes and do not shift with increasing levels of the primaries.
      A suppressor tone had little effect on the frequencies of the maxima, but
      partially suppressed DPOAE amplitude when it was placed close to the f2
      frequencies. These findings agree with earlier observations that the maxima occur
      at the same DPOAE frequencies, which are independent of the f2 and the primary
      ratio, and thus are likely to be associated with DPOAE propagation mechanisms.
      Furthermore, the separation of the local maxima by approximately half an octave
      may suggest that the maxima are due to interference of the travelling waves along
      the basilar membrane at the frequency of the DPOAE. It is suggested that the
      rippling pattern appears because of interaction between DPOAE reverse travelling
      waves with standing waves formed in the cochlea.

PMID- 28863552
TI  - Input matters: Multi-accent language exposure affects word form recognition in
      infancy.
AB  - Early language input is far from uniform, even among children learning the same
      language. For instance, while some children are exposed to a single accent in
      their linguistic environment, others have routine exposure to multiple accents.
      Nonetheless, few studies have taken this into account when examining word
      recognition, and none has examined this issue in infants prior to the emergence
      of phonological constancy (~18 months). This study demonstrates that daily
      exposure to multiple accents strongly impacts infants' performance in a
      laboratory word form recognition task. Accent variability in the input thus needs
      to be carefully considered when studying speech development.

PMID- 28863553
TI  - Removal of incoherent noise from an averaged cross-spectral matrix.
AB  - Measured cross-spectral matrices (CSMs) from a microphone array will in some
      cases be contaminated by severe incoherent noise signals in the individual
      channels. A typical example is flow noise generated in the individual microphones
      when measuring in a wind tunnel. Assuming stationary signals and performing long
      time averaging, the contamination will be concentrated on the CSM diagonal. When
      the CSM is used for traditional frequency-domain beamforming, diagonal removal
      (DR) will avoid use of the diagonal. DR is effective at suppressing the
      contamination effects, but it also has some side effects. With other beamforming
      algorithms and in connection with acoustic holography, however, the diagonal of
      the CSM is needed. The present paper describes a method for removal of incoherent
      noise contamination from the CSM diagonal. The method formulates the problem as a
      semidefinite program, which is a convex optimization problem that can be solved
      very efficiently and with guaranteed convergence properties. A first numerical
      study investigates the question, whether the semidefinite program formulation
      will provide in all cases the desired output. A second numerical study
      investigates the limitations introduced by off-diagonal noise contributions due
      to finite averaging time. The results of that study are backed up by results from
      a practical measurement.

PMID- 28863554
TI  - Complementary empirical data on minimum bow force.
AB  - The minimum bow force Fmin necessary to maintain Helmholtz motion on stringed
      instruments was widely believed to be proportional to the bow velocity vB, to the
      reciprocal of the bridge resistance R, and to the reciprocal of the relative bow
      bridge distance beta squared [Schelleng, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 53, 26-41 (1973)].
      More recently, a study reported independence from vB and an overproportional
      reciprocal effect of R while confirming the 1/beta2 proportionality
      [Schoonderwaldt, Acta Acust. Acust. 94, 604-622 (2008)]. Here, a bowing pendulum
      is used which facilitates precise control and measurement of related parameters.
      The string excitation at the contact point is recorded to instantly classify
      Helmholtz motion (HM) versus non-Helmholtz motion with one (nHM-1) or more
      additional slips during the stick phase. Monitoring of the classification
      supports the control of bowing parameters during measurement. These are directed
      towards the regions of transition between HM and nHM-1 to reveal the parameters
      related to Fmin. The empirical data gained from cello strings suggest that HM
      requires a baseline force Fmin,0 even for very low vB. Fmin,0 depends on R and
      beta.

PMID- 28863556
TI  - Transverse-to-transverse diffuse ultrasonic scattering.
AB  - Ultrasonic scattering occurs when elastic waves interact with interfaces within
      heterogeneous media. Diffuse ultrasonic backscatter measurements are used to
      capture the effective grain scattering within a polycrystal for extracting
      microstructural information. Recently, a mode-conversion scattering model was
      developed to describe the longitudinal-to-transverse ultrasonic scattering within
      polycrystalline materials and successfully applied to determine the material
      spatial correlation length L by fitting experimental results with the theoretical
      model. The mode-conversion model may allow additional microstructural
      information, such as grain shape, to be assessed. In this article, a theoretical
      extension of the previous mode-conversion ultrasonic scattering model is
      presented. The transverse-to-transverse (T-T) scattering can be measured by an
      experimental configuration with both source and receiving transducers oriented at
      angles between the first and second critical angles, including pitch-catch and
      pulse-echo measurements. The model is used to determine the correlation length
      from a sample of 1040 steel through pulse-echo T-T scattering measurements using
      7.5 and 10 MHz transducers. The results show that the derived T-T model works
      well for lower frequencies but the results for higher frequencies reveal
      deficiencies in the model.

PMID- 28863555
TI  - Binaural pitch fusion: Pitch averaging and dominance in hearing-impaired
      listeners with broad fusion.
AB  - Both bimodal cochlear implant and bilateral hearing aid users can exhibit broad
      binaural pitch fusion, the fusion of dichotically presented tones over a broad
      range of pitch differences between ears [Reiss, Ito, Eggleston, and Wozny.
      (2014). J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 15(2), 235-248; Reiss, Eggleston, Walker, and
      Oh. (2016). J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 17(4), 341-356; Reiss, Shayman, Walker,
      Bennett, Fowler, Hartling, Glickman, Lasarev, and Oh. (2017). J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
      143(3), 1909-1920]. Further, the fused binaural pitch is often a weighted average
      of the different pitches perceived in the two ears. The current study was
      designed to systematically measure these pitch averaging phenomena in bilateral
      hearing aid users with broad fusion. The fused binaural pitch of the reference
      pair tone combination was initially measured by pitch-matching to monaural
      comparison tones presented to the pair tone ear. The averaged results for all
      subjects showed two distinct trends: (1) The fused binaural pitch was dominated
      by the lower-pitch component when the pair tone was either 0.14 octaves below or
      0.78 octaves above the reference tone; (2) pitch averaging occurred when the pair
      tone was between the two boundaries above, with the most equal weighting at 0.38
      octaves above the reference tone. Findings from two subjects suggest that
      randomization or alternation of the comparison ear can eliminate this asymmetry
      in the pitch averaging range. Overall, these pitch averaging phenomena suggest
      that spectral distortions and thus binaural interference may arise during
      binaural stimulation in hearing-impaired listeners with broad fusion.

PMID- 28863557
TI  - Identification of perceptually relevant methods of inter-aural time difference
      estimation.
AB  - The inter-aural time difference (ITD) is a fundamental cue for human sound
      localization. Over the past decades several methods have been proposed for its
      estimation from measured head-related impulse response (HRIR) data. Nevertheless,
      inter-method variations in ITD calculation have been found to exceed the known
      just noticeable differences (JNDs), leading to possible perceptible artifacts in
      virtual binaural auditory scenes, when personalized HRIRs are being used. In the
      absence of an objective means for validating ITD estimations, this paper examines
      which methods lead to the most perceptually relevant results. A subjective
      lateralization study compared objective ITDs to perceptually evaluated inter
      aural pure delay offsets. Results clearly indicate the first-onset threshold
      detection method, using a low relative threshold of -30 dB, applied on 3 kHz low
      pass filtered HRIRs as consistently the most perceptually relevant procedure
      across various metrics. Several alternative threshold values and methods based on
      the maximum or centroid of the inter-aural cross correlation of similarly
      filtered HRIR or HRIR envelopes also provided reasonable results. On the
      contrary, phase-based methods employing the integrated relative group delay or
      auditory model were not found to perform as well.

PMID- 28863558
TI  - Head movement immune active noise control with head mounted moving microphones.
AB  - The active headrest is an important application of active noise control (ANC)
      where the occupant gets a quiet zone during use. However, its performance
      degrades due to head movement, which is an important issue. Unlike conventional
      active headrest algorithm, in the present paper, the two error microphones are
      attached to a head attachment such as a hat or band so that both error
      microphones can move along with the head, keeping the relative distance of ears
      and the microphones intact. The two secondary loudspeakers are kept near to the
      head, facing the ears. The performance of the active headrest was studied through
      real-time experimentation considering head movement. The innovation in this paper
      is that the ANC algorithm uses signals of moving error microphones to tune the
      controller without re-estimating the secondary path transfer functions. Since,
      the phase error of secondary path estimates at different head positions remains
      within +/-90 degrees , the secondary paths estimated once, when the head is
      positioned at the center, can be used for other head positions. This is
      established through real-time experiments using dSpace 1104 ACE system (dSpace,
      Germany).

PMID- 28863559
TI  - Modeling off-frequency binaural masking for short- and long-duration signals.
AB  - Experimental binaural masking-pattern data are presented together with model
      simulations for 12- and 600-ms signals. The masker was a diotic 11-Hz wide noise
      centered on 500 Hz. The tonal signal was presented either diotically or
      dichotically (180 degrees  interaural phase difference) with frequencies ranging
      from 400 to 600 Hz. The results and the modeling agree with previous data and
      hypotheses; simulations with a binaural model sensitive to monaural modulation
      cues show that the effect of duration on off-frequency binaural masking-level
      differences is mainly a result of modulation cues which are only available in the
      monaural detection of long signals.

PMID- 28863561
TI  - Analytical model of mechanically excited piezoelectric unimorph beams.
AB  - A model is presented of a composite beam with one elastic and one piezoelectric
      layer. A reduced set of piezoelectric equations of state that has only the
      longitudinal components of stress and strain and the transverse components of
      electric field and charge density is consistently used to include the effect of
      piezoelectric coupling in all the equations. The equi-potential boundary
      conditions on the electrodes, the open-circuit condition, and the Gauss condition
      are satisfied. The position of the neutral axis and the dynamic equilibrium
      equation are derived after including the effect of piezoelectric coupling. All
      equations are combined to derive an equation of motion that contains only the
      displacement and the mechanical excitation. The solution to the equation is
      expressed in terms of a complete set of functions and an auxiliary function that
      contains the electric potential. The latter is needed to satisfy piezoelectric
      boundary conditions at the ends of the beam. The electric potential varies along
      the length of the beam and has a quadratic variation between the electrodes.
      Analytical expressions for displacement and potential, and numerical results at
      low frequencies and in the neighborhood of resonance, are presented for certain
      sets of boundary conditions.

PMID- 28863560
TI  - Which epenthetic vowel? Phonetic categories versus acoustic detail in perceptual
      vowel epenthesis.
AB  - This study aims to quantify the relative contributions of phonetic categories and
      acoustic detail on phonotactically induced perceptual vowel epenthesis in
      Japanese listeners. A vowel identification task tested whether a vowel was
      perceived within illegal consonant clusters and, if so, which vowel was heard.
      Cross-spliced stimuli were used in which vowel coarticulation present in the
      cluster did not match the quality of the flanking vowel. Two clusters were used,
      /hp/ and /kp/, the former containing larger amounts of resonances of the
      preceding vowel. While both flanking vowel and coarticulation influenced vowel
      quality, the influence of coarticulation was larger, especially for /hp/.

PMID- 28863563
TI  - Transient finite element/equivalent sources using direct coupling and treating
      the acoustic coupling matrix as sparse.
AB  - Transient structural-acoustic problems can be solved using time stepping
      procedures with the structure and fluid modeled using finite elements and
      equivalent sources, respectively. Limitations on the time step size for stable
      solutions have led to the current popularity of iterative coupling to enforce the
      boundary conditions at the fluid-structure interface, which also helps to
      alleviate difficulties caused by the fully populated acoustic coupling matrix.
      The research presented here examines a monolithic approach using a stabilized
      equivalent source formulation where the acoustic coupling matrix is either fully
      diagonal or treated as sparse. In theory, the matrix should be sparse because it
      relates nodal velocities to nodal acoustic pressure forces during a single time
      step, and the pressure waves can only travel a distance equal to the sound speed
      multiplied by the time step. The numerical results demonstrate that for the
      chosen example problems accurate results are obtained for either diagonal
      coupling matrices or with a large percentage of the terms set to zero. It is also
      demonstrated that the formulation adapts well to parallel processing environments
      and that the times associated with the equivalent source computations are
      proportional to the number of processors.

PMID- 28863562
TI  - Uniform theory of diffraction (UTD)-based solution for sound diffraction caused
      by an array of obstacles.
AB  - A formulation based on the uniform theory of diffraction (UTD) for the analysis
      of the multiple-diffraction of a spherical sound wave caused by a series of
      wedges or knife-edges is hereby presented. The receiver location has to be
      considered at the same height as the preceding obstacles and at the same inter
      obstacle distance from the last wedge. The solution, which is based on a UTD
      physical optics formulation for radio-wave multiple-diffraction and has been
      validated through comparison with a geometrical theory of diffraction acoustic
      model, is computationally more efficient than other existing methods thanks to
      the fact that only single diffractions are involved in the calculations (high
      order diffraction terms are not considered in the diffraction coefficients), thus
      allowing for the consideration of a great number of obstacles. In such a way, the
      proposed solution overcomes the limitations of previous works when multiple
      acoustic diffraction caused by an array of elements of equal height is to be
      analyzed. Therefore, the results can be applied in the study of sound propagation
      in scenarios where multiple-diffraction over a series of edges of equal height
      and periodical spacing has to be considered, such as the typical audience seating
      of a concert hall.

PMID- 28863564
TI  - A one-dimensional search method with stable 1-norm solution for linear
      prediction.
AB  - In this paper a simple iterative algorithm that is guaranteed to produce a stable
      all-pole filter when minimizing the 1-norm of the linear prediction error signal
      is proposed. The approach works for both the autocorrelation and covariance
      frameworks, involves only a one-dimensional search at each step, and obviates the
      need for linear programming based methods. Based on simulation studies, it was
      observed that the performance of the algorithm is nearly optimal, i.e., very
      close to the estimates obtained using interior point methods. Moreover, this
      method also has the ability to constrain the bandwidth of any peak. The proposed
      method has been applied for vocal tract estimation and, using spectral distortion
      as the metric, results are presented using synthetic as well as natural speech.

PMID- 28863565
TI  - Cross-linguistic vowel variation in trilingual speakers of Saterland Frisian, Low
      German, and High German.
AB  - The present study compares the acoustic realization of Saterland Frisian, Low
      German, and High German vowels by trilingual speakers in the Saterland. The
      Saterland is a rural municipality in northwestern Germany. It offers the unique
      opportunity to study trilingualism with languages that differ both by their vowel
      inventories and by external factors, such as their social status and the autonomy
      of their speech communities. The objective of the study was to examine whether
      the trilingual speakers differ in their acoustic realizations of vowel categories
      shared by the three languages and whether those differences can be interpreted as
      effects of either the differences in the vowel systems or of external factors.
      Monophthongs produced in a /hVt/ frame revealed that High German vowels show the
      most divergent realizations in terms of vowel duration and formant frequencies,
      whereas Saterland Frisian and Low German vowels show small differences. These
      findings suggest that vowels of different languages are likely to share the same
      phonological space when the speech communities largely overlap, as is the case
      with Saterland Frisian and Low German, but may resist convergence if at least one
      language is shared with a larger, monolingual speech community, as is the case
      with High German.

PMID- 28863566
TI  - Propagation of coherent transverse waves: Influence of the translational and
      rotational subwavelength resonances.
AB  - The propagation of coherent transverse waves through a homogeneous elastic medium
      containing a set of spherical dense inclusions is an interesting topic. In such a
      material, in addition to the coherent longitudinal wave, two coherent transverse
      waves can propagate. The modeling used is based on the multiple scattering
      theory, which requires the scattering coefficients of the single scattering
      problem. These coefficients are calculated for moving rigid particles, leading to
      approximations of the two subwavelength dipolar resonances, one associated to a
      translational motion and the other to a rotational motion. Numerical simulations
      are carried out in order to compare the effective wavenumbers of the coherent
      elastic waves through the analysis of their phase velocity and attenuation. This
      comparison is performed for elastic and moving rigid spheres. It is shown that
      both dipolar resonances may have a great influence on the propagation of coherent
      transverse waves.

PMID- 28863567
TI  - Mixed modeling for irregularly sampled and correlated functional data: Speech
      science applications.
AB  - The speech sciences often employ complex experimental designs requiring models
      with multiple covariates and crossed random effects. For curve-like data such as
      time-varying signals, single-time-point feature extraction is commonly used as
      data reduction technique to make the data amenable to statistical hypothesis
      testing, thereby discarding a wealth of information. The present paper discusses
      the application of functional linear mixed models, a functional analogue to
      linear mixed models. This type of model allows for the holistic evaluation of
      curve dynamics for data with complex correlation structures due to repeated
      measures on subjects and stimulus items. The nonparametric, spline-based
      estimation technique allows for correlated functional data to be observed
      irregularly, or even sparsely. This means that information on variation in the
      temporal domain is preserved. Functional principal component analysis is used for
      parsimonious data representation and variance decomposition. The basic
      functionality and usage of the model is illustrated based on several case studies
      with different data types and experimental designs. The statistical method is
      broadly applicable to any types of data that consist of groups of curves, whether
      they are articulatory or acoustic time series data, or generally any types of
      data suitably modeled based on penalized splines.

PMID- 28863568
TI  - Investigation of the sound generation mechanisms for in-duct orifice plates.
AB  - Sound generation due to an orifice plate in a hard-walled flow duct which is
      commonly used in air distribution systems (ADS) and flow meters is investigated.
      The aim is to provide an understanding of this noise generation mechanism based
      on measurements of the source pressure distribution over the orifice plate. A
      simple model based on Curle's acoustic analogy is described that relates the
      broadband in-duct sound field to the surface pressure cross spectrum on both
      sides of the orifice plate. This work describes careful measurements of the
      surface pressure cross spectrum over the orifice plate from which the surface
      pressure distribution and correlation length is deduced. This information is then
      used to predict the radiated in-duct sound field. Agreement within 3 dB between
      the predicted and directly measured sound fields is obtained, providing direct
      confirmation that the surface pressure fluctuations acting over the orifice
      plates are the main noise sources. Based on the developed model, the
      contributions to the sound field from different radial locations of the orifice
      plate are calculated. The surface pressure is shown to follow a U3.9 velocity
      scaling law and the area over which the surface sources are correlated follows a
      U1.8 velocity scaling law.

PMID- 28863569
TI  - Application of maximum entropy to statistical inference for inversion of data
      from a single track segment.
AB  - In this paper an approach is presented to estimate the constraint required to
      apply maximum entropy (ME) for statistical inference with underwater acoustic
      data from a single track segment. Previous algorithms for estimating the ME
      constraint require multiple source track segments to determine the constraint.
      The approach is relevant for addressing model mismatch effects, i.e.,
      inaccuracies in parameter values determined from inversions because the
      propagation model does not account for all acoustic processes that contribute to
      the measured data. One effect of model mismatch is that the lowest cost inversion
      solution may be well outside a relatively well-known parameter value's
      uncertainty interval (prior), e.g., source speed from track reconstruction or
      towed source levels. The approach requires, for some particular parameter value,
      the ME constraint to produce an inferred uncertainty interval that encompasses
      the prior. Motivating this approach is the hypothesis that the proposed
      constraint determination procedure would produce a posterior probability density
      that accounts for the effect of model mismatch on inferred values of other
      inversion parameters for which the priors might be quite broad. Applications to
      both measured and simulated data are presented for model mismatch that produces
      minimum cost solutions either inside or outside some priors.

PMID- 28863570
TI  - Calibration of focused ultrasonic transducers and absolute measurements of fluid
      nonlinearity with diffraction and attenuation corrections.
AB  - This paper presents analytical and experimental techniques for absolute
      determination of the acoustic nonlinearity parameter (beta) in fluids using
      focused transducers. When focused transducers are used for beta measurements, the
      geometrical and mechanical calibrations are generally required for accurate
      determination of the receiver transfer function from which the absolute pressure
      can be calculated. The fundamental and second harmonic wave amplitudes in
      harmonic generation measurements should be modified to account for beam
      diffraction and material absorption. All these issues are resolved in this study
      and the proposed technique is validated through the beta measurement in water. An
      experimental method is developed to determine the effective radius and focal
      length of focused transducers. A simplified self-reciprocity calibration
      procedure for a broadband focused receiver is described. The diffraction and
      attenuation corrections for the fundamental and second harmonic waves are
      explicitly derived using the multi-Gaussian beam model, and the effects on the
      beta determination are discussed. When the diffraction and attenuation
      corrections are all properly made, the measurement of beta over a large range of
      propagation distances is possible with errors less than 8%.

PMID- 28863571
TI  - Localization of weak objects in reverberant fields using waveform inversion.
AB  - This paper presents an application of the Waveform inversion approach to
      localization of objects in reverberant fields and with limited spatial
      measurements. Reverberant fields in enclosures can potentially carry useful
      information, however, in an incoherent way. Incoherency comes from the
      consecutive reflections of the wave energy several times in the domain. This,
      along with diffraction and dispersion effects, can ultimately lead to mixing of
      the wave energy in a seemingly random way. However, spreading of the wave energy
      can lead to multiple interrogations of each point in the enclosure. Hence, any
      substructural changes in the enclosure can be sensed with sufficient information
      carried by the wave energy flow. Furthermore, the temporal information buried in
      the data makes it feasible to conduct only a few spatial measurements. The
      authors present a localization scheme that benefits from the reverberant field
      and can reduce the required number of spatial measurements.

PMID- 28863572
TI  - On the underwater sound field from impact pile driving: Arrival structure,
      precursor arrivals, and energy streamlines.
AB  - Underwater noise from impact pile driving is studied through measurements using a
      vertical line array (VLA) placed at range 120 m from the pile source (water depth
      7.5 m) over which bathymetry varied gradually increasing to depth 12.5 m at the
      VLA. The data were modeled assuming the pile impact produces a radial expansion
      that acts as sound source and propagates along the pile at supersonic speed. This
      leads to the conceptualization of the pile as a discrete, vertical line source
      for which frequency- and source-depth-dependent complex phasing is applied.
      Dominant features of the pressure time series versus measurement depth are
      reproduced in modeled counterparts that are linearly related. These observations
      include precursor arrivals for which arrival timing depends on hydrophone depth
      and influence of a sediment sound speed gradient on precursor amplitude. Spatial
      gradients of model results are taken to obtain estimates of acoustic particle
      velocity and vector intensity for which active intensity is studied in the time
      domain. Evaluation of energy streamlines based on time-integrated active
      intensity, and energy path lines based on instantaneous (or very-short-time
      integrated) active intensity reveal interesting structure in the acoustic field,
      including an inference as to the source depth of the precursor.

PMID- 28863573
TI  - Older and younger adults' identification of sentences filtered with amplitude and
      frequency modulations in quiet and noise.
AB  - Adding frequency modulations (FM) cues to vocoded (AM) speech aids speech
      recognition for younger listeners. However, this may not be true for older
      listeners since they have poorer FM detection thresholds. We measured FM
      detection thresholds of young and older adults; and in a sentence context
      examined whether adding FM cues to vocoded speech would assist older adults.
      Young and old participants were presented vocoded sentences in quiet and
      multitalker-babble with/without FM cues. Older adults had elevated FM detection
      thresholds but received the same-size FM benefit as younger adults, showing that
      they have the capacity to benefit from FM speech cues.

PMID- 28863574
TI  - Anomaly detection for a vibrating structure: A subspace identification/tracking
      approach.
AB  - Mechanical devices operating in noisy environments lead to low signal-to-noise
      ratios creating a challenging signal processing problem to monitor the
      vibrational signature of the device in real-time. To detect/classify a particular
      type of device from noisy vibration data, it is necessary to identify signatures
      that make it unique. Resonant (modal) frequencies emitted offer a signature
      characterizing its operation. The monitoring of structural modes to determine the
      condition of a device under investigation is essential, especially if it is a
      critical entity of an operational system. The development of a model-based scheme
      capable of the on-line tracking of structural modal frequencies by applying both
      system identification methods to extract a modal model and state estimation
      methods to track their evolution is discussed along with the development of an on
      line monitor capable of detecting anomalies in real-time. An application of this
      approach to an unknown structural device is discussed illustrating the approach
      and evaluating its performance.

PMID- 28863575
TI  - Effect of the three-dimensional microstructure on the sound absorption of foams:
      A parametric study.
AB  - The purpose of this work is to systematically study the effect of the throat and
      the pore sizes on the sound absorbing properties of open-cell foams. The three
      dimensional idealized unit cell used in this work enables to mimic the acoustical
      macro-behavior of a large class of cellular solid foams. This study is carried
      out for a normal incidence and also for a diffuse field excitation, with a
      relatively large range of sample thicknesses. The transport and sound absorbing
      properties are numerically studied as a function of the throat size, the pore
      size, and the sample thickness. The resulting diagrams show the ranges of the
      specific throat sizes and pore sizes where the sound absorption grading is
      maximized due to the pore morphology as a function of the sample thickness, and
      how it correlates with the corresponding transport parameters. These charts
      demonstrate, together with typical examples, how the morphological
      characteristics of foam could be modified in order to increase the visco-thermal
      dissipation effects.

PMID- 28863576
TI  - "Spot" call: A common sound from an unidentified great whale in Australian
      temperate waters.
AB  - Underwater passive acoustic recordings in the Southern and Indian Oceans off
      Australia from 2002 to 2016 have regularly captured a tonal signal of about 10 s
      duration at 22-28 Hz with a symmetrical bell-shaped envelope. The sound is often
      accompanied by short, higher frequency downsweeps and repeated at irregular
      intervals varying from 120 to 200 s. It is termed the "spot" call according to
      its appearance in spectrograms of long-time averaging. Although similar to the
      first part of an Antarctic blue whale Z-call, evidence suggests the call is
      produced by another great whale, with the source as yet not identified.

PMID- 28863577
TI  - Beamforming using subspace estimation from a diagonally averaged sample
      covariance.
AB  - The potential benefit of a large-aperture sonar array for high resolution target
      localization is often challenged by the lack of sufficient data required for
      adaptive beamforming. This paper introduces a Toeplitz-constrained estimator of
      the clairvoyant signal covariance matrix corresponding to multiple far-field
      targets embedded in background isotropic noise. The estimator is obtained by
      averaging along subdiagonals of the sample covariance matrix, followed by
      covariance extrapolation using the method of maximum entropy. The sample
      covariance is computed from limited data snapshots, a situation commonly
      encountered with large-aperture arrays in environments characterized by short
      periods of local stationarity. Eigenvectors computed from the Toeplitz
      constrained covariance are used to construct signal-subspace projector matrices,
      which are shown to reduce background noise and improve detection of closely
      spaced targets when applied to subspace beamforming. Monte Carlo simulations
      corresponding to increasing array aperture suggest convergence of the proposed
      projector to the clairvoyant signal projector, thereby outperforming the classic
      projector obtained from the sample eigenvectors. Beamforming performance of the
      proposed method is analyzed using simulated data, as well as experimental data
      from the Shallow Water Array Performance experiment.

PMID- 28863578
TI  - The echolocation transmission beam of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins
      (Sousa chinensis).
AB  - While the transmission beam of odontocetes has been described in a number of
      studies, the majority of them that have measured the transmission beam in two
      dimensions were focused on captive animals. Within the current study, a dedicated
      cross hydrophone array with nine elements was used to investigate the
      echolocation transmission beam of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. A
      total of 265 on-axis clicks were analyzed, from which the apparent peak to peak
      source levels ranged between 168 to 207 dB (mean 184.5 dB +/- 6.6 dB). The 3-dB
      beam width along the horizontal and vertical plane was 9.6 degrees  and 7.4
      degrees , respectively. Measured separately, the directivity index of the
      horizontal and vertical plane was 12.6 and 13.5 dB, respectively, and the overall
      directivity index (both planes combined) was 29.5 dB. The beam shape was slightly
      asymmetrical along the horizontal and vertical axis. Compared to other species,
      the characteristics of the transmitting beam of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins
      were relatively close to the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), likely due
      to the similarity in the peak frequency and waveform of echolocation clicks and
      comparable body sizes of the two species.

PMID- 28863579
TI  - Investigation of piezoelectric anisotropy of bovine cortical bone at an
      ultrasound frequency by coupling an experiment and a simulation.
AB  - An investigation of the piezoelectric anisotropy of bovine cortical bone at 1 MHz
      was attempted by coupling data obtained from an experiment and a simulation. In
      the experiment, a piezoelectric cell (PE-cell) was used as an ultrasound
      receiver. In the PE-cell, the cortical bone disk, which was cut in the direction
      perpendicular to the bone axis, was electrically shielded. The directivity of the
      PE-cell was measured at 0 degrees -22.5 degrees  and was compared to four
      simulated results using the piezoelectric finite-difference time-domain method.
      It was shown that the piezoelectric signal in the bone could be generated by a
      transverse ultrasound wave.

PMID- 28863581
TI  - Hearing thresholds of a male and a female harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena).
AB  - To study intra-species variability in audiograms, the hearing sensitivity of a
      six-year-old female and a three-year-old male harbor porpoise was measured by
      using a standard psycho-acoustic technique under low ambient noise conditions.
      The porpoises' hearing thresholds for 13 narrow-band sweeps with center
      frequencies between 0.125 and 150 kHz were established. The resulting audiograms
      were U-shaped and similar. The main difference (25 dB) in mean thresholds between
      the two porpoises was at the high-frequency end of the hearing range (at 150
      kHz). Maximum sensitivity (47 dB re 1 MUPa for the female and 44 dB re 1 MUPa for
      the male) occurred at 125 kHz. The range of most sensitive hearing (defined as
      within 10 dB of maximum sensitivity) was from 16 to ~140 kHz. Sensitivity
      declined sharply above 125 kHz. All five porpoises for which a valid behavioral
      audiogram now exists were rehabilitated stranded animals, all were tested with
      similar psycho-acoustic techniques, and all had similar audiograms. The present
      study provides further evidence to confirm that the hearing range and sensitivity
      of the first three harbor porpoises, which have been used in secondary research
      and on which policy decisions have been based, are representative of those of
      young harbor porpoises in general.

PMID- 28863582
TI  - Effect of gate choice on backscatter difference measurements of cancellous bone.
AB  - A variety of ultrasonic techniques have been developed to detect changes in bone
      caused by osteoporosis. One approach, called the backscatter difference
      technique, analyzes the power difference between two different portions of a
      backscatter signal. Analysis gates with a certain delay taud, width tauw, and
      separation taus are used to define portions of the backscatter signal for
      analysis. The goal of the present study was to investigate how different choices
      of taud, tauw, and taus affect four backscatter difference parameters: the
      normalized mean of the backscatter difference (nMBD), the normalized slope of the
      backscatter difference (nSBD), the normalized intercept of the backscatter
      difference (nIBD), and the normalized backscatter amplitude ratio (nBAR).
      Backscatter measurements were performed on 54 cube shaped specimens of human
      cancellous bone. nMBD, nSBD, nIBD, and nBAR were determined for 34 different
      combinations of taud, tauw, and taus for each specimen. nMBD and nBAR
      demonstrated the strongest correlations with apparent bone density (0.48 <= Rs <=
      0.90). Generally, the correlations were found to improve as tauw + taus was
      increased and as taud was decreased. Among the four backscatter difference
      parameters, the measured values of nMBD were least sensitive to gate choice
      (<16%).

PMID- 28863584
TI  - Nonlinear wave propagation in porous materials based on the Biot theory.
AB  - Nonlinearity must be considered with some porous granular media because of the
      large deformation under seismic waves. In this study, the propagation of
      nonlinear waves in porous media is studied based on the Biot theory and the
      governing equations are obtained by the Lagrangian formulation. Three new
      nonlinear parameters are introduced to consider the coupled nonlinearity between
      the solid and fluid components in porous media. It is shown that an additional
      nonlinear wave with a double frequency is generated by the coupling effect of
      linear fast and slow waves. When only a shear wave is applied at the source, no
      double-frequency nonlinear wave is predicted and three nonlinear longitudinal
      waves are generated. On the basis of the practical case studies, the effect of
      strong nonlinearity is computed under the influence of a one-dimensional single
      longitudinal wave source and a single shear wave source.

PMID- 28863583
TI  - Speech rate, rate-matching, and intelligibility in early-implanted cochlear
      implant users.
AB  - An important speech-language outcome for deaf people with cochlear implants is
      speech intelligibility-how well their speech is understood by others, which also
      affects social functioning. Beyond simply uttering recognizable words, other
      speech-language skills may affect communicative competence, including rate
      matching or converging toward interlocutors' speech rates. This initial report
      examines speech rate-matching and its relations to intelligibility in 91
      prelingually deaf cochlear implant users and 93 typically hearing peers age 3 to
      27 years. Live-voice spoken sentences were repeated and later transcribed by
      multiple hearing listeners. Speech intelligibility was calculated as proportions
      of words correctly transcribed. For speech rate-matching measures, speech rates
      (syllables/s) were normalized as percentages faster or slower than examiners'
      speech rates. Cochlear implant users had slower speech rates, less accurate and
      less consistent rate-matching, and poorer speech intelligibility than hearing
      peers. Among cochlear implant users, speech rate and rate-matching were
      correlated with intelligibility: faster talkers and better rate-matchers were
      more intelligible. Rate-matching and intelligibility improved during preschool,
      with cochlear implant users delayed by about a year compared to hearing peers. By
      school-age, rate-matching and intelligibility were good overall, but delays
      persisted for many cochlear implant users. Interventions targeting rate-matching
      skills are therefore warranted in speech-language therapy for this population.

PMID- 28863585
TI  - Geographic variation in Risso's dolphin echolocation click spectra.
AB  - Discrimination of bioacoustic signals to the species or population level is
      critical for using passive acoustic monitoring to study cetacean ecology. Risso's
      dolphins off southern California have distinctive peaks and notches in their
      echolocation clicks, but it was unknown whether Risso's dolphins from other
      geographic areas have similarly distinctive click spectra and whether populations
      are acoustically distinct. This study investigates using clicks for species and
      population identification by characterizing the spectral structure of Risso's
      dolphin echolocation clicks recorded over wide-ranging geographic regions
      including the U.S. waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and North
      Pacific Ocean; and international waters of the Eastern Tropical Pacific. All
      recordings with Risso's dolphin clicks exhibited the spectral peak and notch
      pattern described off southern California, indicating the presence of peak
      banding patterns is useful for species discrimination. Geographic regions were a
      significant explanatory factor for variability in the frequencies of click
      spectral peaks, with relatively higher frequency peaks and notches found off
      Hawaii compared to California waters and off the southeast U.S. compared to the
      Gulf of Mexico. In the North Atlantic Ocean, a latitudinal cline in frequencies
      was evident. Potential causes of acoustic variation within and among acoustic
      encounters are evaluated.

PMID- 28863586
TI  - The energy based characteristics of sperm whale clicks using the Hilbert Huang
      transform analysis method.
AB  - In this paper, a unique analysis method for sperm whale clicks based on Hilbert
      Huang transform (HHT) is proposed. Four sperm whale click samples with durations
      of 10 ms (defined as click I), and four sperm whale click samples with durations
      of 5 ms (defined as click II) were illustrated. These click samples were recorded
      in the Mediterranean Sea by Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacusticae Ricerche
      Ambientali, Universita degli Studi di Pavia. The empirical mode decomposition
      method was used to decompose click I samples into seven intrinsic mode functions
      (IMFs) and one residue function (RF), and click II samples were decomposed into
      six IMFs and one RF. The average energy distributions of multiple IMFs and the
      single RF domain for click I and click II samples were explored using the HHT
      analysis method. The average energy-frequency representations were also
      investigated for the same click I and click II samples. The analysis results show
      that the energy-frequency characteristics of sperm whale clicks can be extracted
      and understood by applying several IMFs and one RF signal with a high-resolution
      analysis.

PMID- 28863587
TI  - Identification of categories of liquid sounds.
AB  - Sounds involving liquid sources are part of everyday life. They form a category
      of sounds easily identified by human listeners in different experimental studies.
      Unlike acoustic models that focus on bubble vibrations, real life instances of
      liquid sounds, such as sounds produced by liquids with or without other
      materials, are very diverse and include water drop sounds, noisy flows, and even
      solid vibrations. The process that allows listeners to group these different
      sounds in the same category remains unclear. This article presents a perceptual
      experiment based on a sorting task of liquid sounds from a household environment.
      It seeks to reveal the cognitive subcategories of this set of sounds. The
      clarification of this perceptive process led to the observation of similarities
      between the perception of liquid sounds and other categories of environmental
      sounds. Furthermore, the results provide a taxonomy of liquid sounds on which an
      acoustic analysis was performed that highlights the acoustical properties of the
      categories, including different rates of air bubble vibration.

PMID- 28863588
TI  - Two-dimensional grid-free compressive beamforming.
AB  - Compressive beamforming realizes the direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation and
      strength quantification of acoustic sources by solving an underdetermined system
      of equations relating microphone pressures to a source distribution via
      compressive sensing. The conventional method assumes DOAs of sources to lie on a
      grid. Its performance degrades due to basis mismatch when the assumption is not
      satisfied. To overcome this limitation for the measurement with plane microphone
      arrays, a two-dimensional grid-free compressive beamforming is developed. First,
      a continuum based atomic norm minimization is defined to denoise the measured
      pressure and thus obtain the pressure from sources. Next, a positive semidefinite
      programming is formulated to approximate the atomic norm minimization.
      Subsequently, a reasonably fast algorithm based on alternating direction method
      of multipliers is presented to solve the positive semidefinite programming.
      Finally, the matrix enhancement and matrix pencil method is introduced to process
      the obtained pressure and reconstruct the source distribution. Both simulations
      and experiments demonstrate that under certain conditions, the grid-free
      compressive beamforming can provide high-resolution and low-contamination
      imaging, allowing accurate and fast estimation of two-dimensional DOAs and
      quantification of source strengths, even with non-uniform arrays and noisy
      measurements.

PMID- 28863589
TI  - Dynamic mass density of resonant metamaterials with homogeneous inclusions.
AB  - The occurrence of a negative dynamic mass density is a striking property of
      metamaterials. It appears when an inner local resonance is present. Results
      coming from an asymptotic theory are recalled briefly, showing the scaling of
      physical properties leading to inner resonance in elastic composites containing
      homogeneous soft inclusions, with negligible scattering of waves traveling
      through the matrix. This appears for a large contrast of elastic properties
      between matrix and inclusion. The frequency-dependent dynamic mass density
      depends on the resonance frequencies of the inner inclusions and on their related
      participation factors. Having solved the dynamic elasticity problem, these
      physical quantities are provided in the case of homogeneous cylindrical and
      spherical inclusions. It is shown that numerous resonance frequencies do not
      contribute to the dynamic mass density or have small participation factors, which
      simplifies significantly the physics involved in the concerned inner resonance
      phenomena. Finally, non-dimensional resonance frequencies and participation
      factors are given for both cases of inclusions as functions of the Poisson's
      ratio, defining completely the dynamic mass density.

PMID- 28863590
TI  - Evidence of a speech evoked electrophysiological release from masking in noise.
AB  - In this study, a release from masking (RFM) was sought with cortical auditory
      evoked potentials (CAEPs) elicited by speech (/da/) in competing continuous and
      interrupted noises. Two paradigms (i.e., fixed speech with varying signal-to
      noise ratios and fixed noise with varying speech levels) were employed. Shorter
      latencies and larger amplitudes were observed in interrupted versus continuous
      noise at equivalent signal-to-noise ratios. With fixed speech presentation, P1-N1
      P2 latencies were prolonged and peak N1 and P2 amplitudes decreased and more so
      with continuous noise. CAEP thresholds were lower in interrupted noise. This is
      the first demonstration of RFM with CAEPs to speech.

PMID- 28863591
TI  - Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) auditory brainstem responses to frequency
      modulated "chirp" stimuli.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated that increasing-frequency chirp stimuli (up
      chirps) can enhance human auditory brainstem response (ABR) amplitudes by
      compensating for temporal dispersion occurring along the cochlear partition. In
      this study, ABRs were measured in two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in
      response to spectrally white clicks, up-chirps, and decreasing-frequency chirps
      (down-chirps). Chirp durations varied from 125 to 2000 MUs. For all stimuli,
      frequency bandwidth was constant (10-180 kHz) and peak-equivalent sound pressure
      levels (peSPLs) were 115, 125, and 135 dB re 1 MUPa. Up-chirps with durations
      less than ~1000 MUs generally increased ABR peak amplitudes compared to clicks
      with the same peSPL or energy flux spectral density level, while down-chirps with
      durations from above ~250 to 500 MUs decreased ABR amplitudes relative to clicks.
      The findings generally mirror those from human studies and suggest that the use
      of chirp stimuli may be an effective way to enhance broadband ABR amplitudes in
      larger marine mammals.

PMID- 28863592
TI  - Numerical evaluation of the backward propagating acoustic field in healing long
      bones.
AB  - The propagation of ultrasound in healing long bones induces complex scattering
      phenomena due to the interaction of an ultrasonic wave with the composite nature
      of callus and osseous tissues. This work presents numerical simulations of
      ultrasonic propagation in healing long bones using the boundary element method
      aiming to provide insight into the complex scattering mechanisms and better
      comprehend the state of bone regeneration. Numerical models of healing long bones
      are established based on scanning acoustic microscopy images from successive
      postoperative weeks considering the effect of the nonhomogeneous callus
      structure. More specifically, the scattering amplitude and the acoustic pressure
      variation are calculated in the backward direction to investigate their potential
      to serve as quantitative and qualitative indicators for the monitoring of the
      bone healing process. The role of the excitation frequency is also examined
      considering frequencies in the range 0.2-1 MHz. The results indicate that the
      scattering amplitude decreases at later stages of healing compared to earlier
      stages of healing. Also, the acoustic pressure could provide supplementary
      qualitative information on the interaction of the scattered energy with bone and
      callus.

PMID- 28863593
TI  - Double-mode lateral-field-excitation bulk acoustic wave characteristics of
      Ca3TaGa3Si2O14 crystals.
AB  - The double-mode lateral-field-excitation (LFE) bulk acoustic wave characteristics
      of Ca3TaGa3Si2O14 (CTGS) crystals are investigated. It is found that LFE devices
      based on (yxl)-57 degrees  CTGS crystals can work on both pure-LFE and pseudo-LFE
      modes when the driving electric field direction is normal to the crystallographic
      x axis of the piezoelectric substrate. Several double-mode LFE bulk acoustic wave
      devices based on CTGS crystals are designed and tested. The experimental results
      conform to the theoretical prediction well. Being able to operate in pure-LFE and
      pseudo-LFE modes, the double-mode LFE sensors show high sensitivity to both
      mechanical and electrical property changes of analytes. The results provide the
      crystal cut for double-mode LFE sensors, which is a critical basis of designing
      high-performance chemical and biological sensors by using double-mode LFE
      devices.

PMID- 28863595
TI  - Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) auditory brainstem responses recorded
      using conventional and randomized stimulation and averaging.
AB  - Auditory brainstem response (ABR) measurements using conventional averaging
      (i.e., constant interstimulus interval, ISI) are limited to stimulus rates low
      enough to prevent overlapping of the ABRs to successive stimuli. To overcome this
      limitation, stimuli may be presented at high rates using pseudorandom sequences
      (e.g., maximum length sequences) or quasi-periodic sequences; however, these
      methods restrict the available stimulus sequences and require deconvolution to
      recover the ABR from the overlapping responses. Randomized stimulation and
      averaging (RSA) is an alternate method where evoked responses at high rates are
      obtained by averaging responses to stimuli with ISIs drawn from a random
      distribution. The RSA method enables precise control over stimulus jitter, is
      flexible with respect to stimulus sequence parameters, and does not require
      deconvolution to extract the ABR waveform. In this study, ABRs were measured in
      three normal-hearing dolphins using conventional averaging and RSA. Results show
      the RSA method to be effective in dolphins if the ISI jitter >= ~1.5 ms and that
      the influence of stimulus artifacts in the averaged ABR can be substantially
      reduced by alternating stimulus polarity on successive presentations rather than
      employing digital blanking or iterative processes.

PMID- 28863594
TI  - Sound speed, attenuation, and reflection in gassy sediments.
AB  - A predictive model for acoustic dispersion and attenuation in gassy sediments is
      proposed. The model combines the linear solution for gas-bubble pulsations in a
      viscoelastic medium with corrected Biot equations involving gas-bubble
      pulsations. Numerical results for sound speed and attenuation are compared with
      predictions from Anderson and Hampton's model to demonstrate the advantages of
      the proposed model. The most important advantage of the current model is that it
      combines the dispersion regimes associated with gas-bubble pulsations and
      relative motion between the pore water and solid framework. The reflection
      coefficient at the water/gassy-sediment interface is derived based on the current
      model, and numerical results show that gas-bubble resonance can lead to the
      highest reflection. This model can also be used with a full acoustic inversion to
      estimate gas-bubble size distributions.

PMID- 28863596
TI  - Linguistic initiation signals increase auditory feedback error correction.
AB  - Previous research has shown that speakers can adapt their speech in a flexible
      manner as a function of a variety of contextual and task factors. While it is
      known that speech tasks may play a role in speech motor behavior, it remains to
      be explored if the manner in which the speaking action is initiated can modify
      low-level, automatic control of vocal motor action. In this study, the nature
      (linguistic vs non-linguistic) and modality (auditory vs visual) of the go signal
      (i.e., the prompts) was manipulated in an otherwise identical vocal production
      task. Participants were instructed to produce the word "head" when prompted, and
      the auditory feedback they were receiving was altered by systematically changing
      the first formants of the vowel /epsilon/ in real time using a custom signal
      processing system. Linguistic prompts induced greater corrective behaviors to the
      acoustic perturbations than non-linguistic prompts. This suggests that the
      accepted variance for the intended speech sound decreases when external
      linguistic templates are provided to the speaker. Overall, this result shows that
      the automatic correction of vocal errors is influenced by flexible, context
      dependant mechanisms.

PMID- 28863598
TI  - Effective wavenumbers for sound scattering by trunks, branches, and the canopy in
      a forest.
AB  - Sound propagation in a forest is often represented as propagation in free space
      with an effective complex wavenumber, which accounts for scattering and
      absorption. In this paper, the effective wavenumbers due to sound scattering by
      trunks, large branches, and the canopy are determined and analyzed based on three
      dimensional multiple scattering theory. Trunks and branches are modeled as
      vertical and slanted finite cylinders, while the canopy is modeled by diffuse
      scatterers. The results are compared with two-dimensional effective wavenumbers
      previously used in the literature, which were obtained by approximating the trunk
      layer as infinite vertical cylinders.

PMID- 28863597
TI  - Instantaneous Bayesian regularization applied to real-time near-field acoustic
      holography.
AB  - Real-time near-field acoustic holography (RT-NAH) is used to recover non
      stationary sound sources using a planar microphone array. Direct propagation is
      described by the convolution of the wavenumber spectrum of the source under study
      with a known impulse response. The deconvolution operation is achieved by a
      singular value decomposition of the propagator and Tikhonov regularization is
      performed to stabilize the solution. The inverse problem has an innate ill-posed
      characteristic, and the regularization process is the key factor in obtaining
      acceptable results. The purpose of this paper is to present the instantaneous
      regularization process applied to RT-NAH method. Bayesian estimation of the
      regularization parameter is introduced from prior knowledge of the problem. The
      computation of the regularization parameter is updated for each block of constant
      time interval allowing one to take into account the fluctuating properties of the
      sound field. The superiority of Bayesian regularization, compared to state-of-the
      art methods, is observed numerically and experimentally for reconstruction of non
      stationary sources. RT-NAH is also enhanced to allow the reconstruction of long
      signals. Updating the regularization parameter accordingly to the fluctuations of
      the SNR is revealed to be a necessary effort to reconstruct highly non-stationary
      sources.

PMID- 28863599
TI  - Acoustic correlates for perceived effort levels in male and female acted voices.
AB  - The best actors, particularly classic Shakespearian actors, are experts at vocal
      expression. With prosodic inflection, change of voice quality, and non-textual
      utterances, they communicate emotion, emphasize ideas, create drama, and form a
      complementary language which works with the text to tell the story in the script.
      To begin to study selected elements of vocal expression in acted speech, corpora
      were curated from male actors' Hamlet and female actresses' Lady Macbeth
      soliloquy performances. L1 speakers of American English on Mechanical Turk
      listened to excerpts from the corpora, and provided descriptions of the speaker's
      vocal expression. In this exploratory, open-ended, mixed-methods study,
      approximately 60% of all responses described emotion, and the remainder of
      responses split evenly between voice quality (including effort levels) and
      prosody. Also, significant differences were found in the kind and quantity of
      descriptors applied to male and female speech. Perception-grounded male and
      female acoustic feature sets which tracked the actors' expressive effort levels
      through the continuum of whispered, breathy, modal, and resonant speech are
      presented and validated via multiple models. The best results in applying these
      features to simple, un-optimized, four-way decision tree classifiers yielded 76%
      accuracy for male and 73% accuracy for female expressive, acted speech.

PMID- 28863600
TI  - Ultrasonic harmonic generation from materials with up to cubic nonlinearity.
AB  - This letter considers the combined effects of quadratic and cubic nonlinearity on
      plane wave propagation in generally anisotropic elastic solids. Displacement
      solutions are derived that represent the fundamental, second-, and third-harmonic
      waves. In arriving at the solutions, the quadratic and cubic nonlinearity
      parameters for generally anisotropic materials are defined. The effects of
      quadratic and cubic nonlinearity are shown to influence the amplitude and phase
      of the fundamental wave. In addition, the phase of the third-harmonic depends on
      a simple combination of the quadratic and cubic nonlinearity parameters.
      Nonlinearity parameters are given explicitly for materials having isotropic and
      cubic symmetry. Lastly, acoustic nonlinearity surfaces are introduced, which
      illustrate the nonlinearity parameters as a function of various propagation
      directions in anisotropic materials.

PMID- 28863601
TI  - ACOUSTICAL STANDARDS NEWS.
AB  - American National Standards (ANSI Standards) developed by Accredited Standards
      Committees S1, S2, S3, S3/SC 1, and S12 in the areas of acoustics, mechanical
      vibration and shock, bioacoustics, animal bioacoustics, and noise, respectively,
      are published by the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). In addition to these
      standards, ASA publishes a catalog of Acoustical American National Standards. To
      receive a copy of the latest Standards catalog, please contact Neil B.
      Stremmel.Comments are welcomed on all material in Acoustical Standards News.This
      Acoustical Standards News section in JASA, as well as the National Catalog of
      Acoustical Standards and other information on the Standards Program of the
      Acoustical Society of America, are available via the ASA home page:
      http://acousticalsociety.org.

PMID- 28863602
TI  - Clear speech and lexical competition in younger and older adult listeners.
AB  - This study investigated whether clear speech reduces the cognitive demands of
      lexical competition by crossing speaking style with lexical difficulty. Younger
      and older adults identified more words in clear versus conversational speech and
      more easy words than hard words. An initial analysis suggested that the effect of
      lexical difficulty was reduced in clear speech, but more detailed analyses within
      each age group showed this interaction was significant only for older adults. The
      results also showed that both groups improved over the course of the task and
      that clear speech was particularly helpful for individuals with poorer hearing:
      for younger adults, clear speech eliminated hearing-related differences that
      affected performance on conversational speech. For older adults, clear speech was
      generally more helpful to listeners with poorer hearing. These results suggest
      that clear speech affords perceptual benefits to all listeners and, for older
      adults, mitigates the cognitive challenge associated with identifying words with
      many phonological neighbors.

PMID- 28863603
TI  - Modeling of the acoustic radiation force in elastography.
AB  - Elastography is a non-invasive imaging technique that can assess in vivo tissue
      stiffness. In shear wave elastography imaging, the acoustic radiation force (ARF)
      produced by focused ultrasound generates a local force that produces shear waves.
      The authors compare three existing formulations for the ARF: its full expression
      in the second-order approximation and two simplified formulations using a quasi
      plane wave and an attenuated plane wave approximation. Analytical expressions for
      the ARF are derived for the special cases of a concave spherical source and a
      quasi-Gaussian beam. They provide expressions for the resulting ARF and show
      discrepancies between the different formulations. For strongly divergent or
      highly focused beams the ARF expressed by the second-order approximation
      significantly differs from both simplified formulations. However, despite those
      differences the second-order and quasi-plane wave approximations create identical
      shear displacements in tissue. To compute the ARF and the displacements produced
      by a conventional ultrasound probe, the three formulations were incorporated into
      the k-Wave simulation package. The second-order and quasi-plane wave
      approximations give different forces but nearly identical displacements while the
      plane wave approximation significantly differs. It is concluded that to properly
      take into account the ultrasound field structure, the second-order or quasi-plane
      wave approximations should be preferably used.

PMID- 28863604
TI  - Fitting pole-zero micromechanical models to cochlear response measurements.
AB  - An efficient way of describing the linear micromechanical response of the cochlea
      is in terms of its poles and zeros. Pole-zero models with local scaling symmetry
      are derived for both one and two degree-of-freedom micromechanical systems. These
      elements are then used in a model of the coupled cochlea, which is optimised to
      minimise the mean square difference between its frequency response and that
      measured on the basilar membrane inside the mouse cochlea by Lee, Raphael, Xia,
      Kim, Grillet, Applegate, Ellerbee Bowden, and Oghalai [(2016) J. Neurosci. 36,
      8160-8173] and Oghalai Lab [(2015). https://oghalailab.stanford.edu], at
      different excitation levels. A model with two degree-of-freedom micromechanics
      generally fits the measurements better than a model with single degree-of-freedom
      micromechanics, particularly at low excitations where the cochlea is active,
      except post-mortem conditions, when the cochlea is passive. The model with the
      best overall fit to the data is found to be one with two degree-of-freedom
      micromechanics and 3D fluid coupling. Although a unique lumped parameter network
      cannot be inferred from such a pole-zero description, these fitted results help
      indicate what properties such a network should have.

PMID- 28863605
TI  - Just noticeable differences for pitch direction, height, and slope for Mandarin
      and English listeners.
AB  - Previous studies on tones suggest that Mandarin listeners are more sensitive to
      pitch direction and slope while English listeners primarily attend to pitch
      height. In this study, just noticeable differences were established for pitch
      discrimination using a three-interval, forced-choice procedure with a two-down,
      one-up staircase design. A high rising and a high falling Mandarin tone were
      manipulated in terms of pitch direction, height, and slope. Results indicate
      that, overall, Mandarin listeners are more sensitive to pitch slope and English
      listeners to pitch height. However, these effects are modulated by both the
      direction (falling/rising) and slope of the pitch contours.

PMID- 28863606
TI  - Erratum: The effect of cubic material nonlinearity on the propagation of
      torsional wave modes in a pipe [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 3874-3883 (2016)].

PMID- 28863607
TI  - Effect of level difference between left and right vocal folds on phonation:
      Physical experiment and theoretical study.
AB  - As an alternative factor to produce asymmetry between left and right vocal folds,
      the present study focuses on level difference, which is defined as the distance
      between the upper surfaces of the bilateral vocal folds in the inferior-superior
      direction. Physical models of the vocal folds were utilized to study the effect
      of the level difference on the phonation threshold pressure. A vocal tract model
      was also attached to the vocal fold model. For two types of different models,
      experiments revealed that the phonation threshold pressure tended to increase as
      the level difference was extended. Based upon a small amplitude approximation of
      the vocal fold oscillations, a theoretical formula was derived for the phonation
      threshold pressure. This theory agrees with the experiments, especially when the
      phase difference between the left and right vocal folds is not extensive.
      Furthermore, an asymmetric two-mass model was simulated with a level difference
      to validate the experiments as well as the theory. The primary conclusion is that
      the level difference has a potential effect on voice production especially for
      patients with an extended level of vertical difference in the vocal folds, which
      might be taken into account for the diagnosis of voice disorders.

PMID- 28863608
TI  - Using multipath reflections to obtain dive depths of beaked whales from a towed
      hydrophone array.
AB  - Beaked whales are deep divers, emitting echolocation clicks while at depth.
      Little is known about the dive behavior of most species; however, passive
      acoustic data collected with towed hydrophone arrays can provide depth
      information using multipath reflections of clicks coupled with a two-dimensional
      localization of the individual. Data were collected during a shipboard survey in
      the western North Atlantic Ocean using a towed linear hydrophone array. Beaked
      whale tracks were classified as either Cuvier's (Ziphius cavirostris) or
      Gervais'/True's (Mesoplodon europaeus/Mesoplodon mirus). Weighted species average
      depths and weighted species standard deviations were 1158 m +/- 287 m for
      Cuvier's (n = 24), and 870 m +/- 151 m for Gervais'/True's (n = 15). Depth
      uncertainties ranged from 3% to 142% of the average depth. Slant ranges were
      corrected for depth to provide average horizontal perpendicular distance
      estimates. The average horizontal perpendicular distance distribution exhibited
      fewer detections in the first bin than the second. This is the first report of
      dive depths for Gervais'/True's beaked whales and use of this method to obtain
      depths for beaked whales using a towed linear array.

PMID- 28863609
TI  - Wave Field Synthesis of moving sources with arbitrary trajectory and velocity
      profile.
AB  - The sound field synthesis of moving sound sources is of great importance when
      dynamic virtual sound scenes are to be reconstructed. Previous solutions
      considered only virtual sources moving uniformly along a straight trajectory,
      synthesized employing a linear loudspeaker array. This article presents the
      synthesis of point sources following an arbitrary trajectory. Under high
      frequency assumptions 2.5D Wave Field Synthesis driving functions are derived for
      arbitrary shaped secondary source contours by adapting the stationary phase
      approximation to the dynamic description of sources in motion. It is explained
      how a referencing function should be chosen in order to optimize the amplitude of
      synthesis on an arbitrary receiver curve. Finally, a finite difference
      implementation scheme is considered, making the presented approach suitable for
      real-time applications.

PMID- 28863610
TI  - Acoustic and perceptual effects of amplitude and frequency compression on high
      frequency speech.
AB  - This study investigated how six different amplification methods influence
      acoustic properties, and subsequently perception, of high-frequency cues in
      fricatives that have been processed with conventional full bandwidth
      amplification or nonlinear frequency compression (NFC)-12 conditions total.
      Amplification methods included linear gain, fast/slow-acting wide dynamic range
      compression crossed with fixed/individualized compression parameters, and a
      method with adaptive time constants. Twenty-one hearing-impaired listeners
      identified seven fricatives in nonsense syllables produced by female talkers. For
      NFC stimuli, frequency-compressed filters that precisely aligned 1/3-octave bands
      between input and output were used to quantify effective compression ratio,
      audibility, and temporal envelope modulation relative to the input. Results
      indicated significant relationships between these acoustic properties, each of
      which contributed significantly to fricative recognition across the entire corpus
      of stimuli. Recognition was significantly better for NFC stimuli compared with
      full bandwidth stimuli, regardless of the amplification method, which had
      complementary effects on audibility and envelope modulation. Furthermore, while
      there were significant differences in recognition across the amplification
      methods, they were not consistent across phonemes. Therefore, neither recognition
      nor acoustic data overwhelmingly suggest that one amplification method should be
      used over another for transmission of high-frequency cues in isolated syllables.
      Longer duration stimuli and more realistic listening conditions should be
      examined.

PMID- 28863611
TI  - Phonetic enhancement of Mandarin vowels and tones: Infant-directed speech and
      Lombard speech.
AB  - Speech units are reported to be hyperarticulated in both infant-directed speech
      (IDS) and Lombard speech. Since these two registers have typically been studied
      separately, it is unclear if the same speech units are hyperarticulated in the
      same manner between these registers. The aim of the present study is to compare
      the effect of register on vowel and tone modification in the tonal language
      Mandarin Chinese. Vowel and tone productions were produced by 15 Mandarin
      speaking mothers during interactions with their 12-month-old infants during a
      play session (IDS), in conversation with a Mandarin-speaking adult in a 70 dBA
      eight-talker babble noise environment (Lombard speech), and in a quiet
      environment (adult-directed speech). Vowel space expansion was observed in IDS
      and Lombard speech, however, the patterns of vowel-shift were different between
      the two registers. IDS displayed tone space expansion only in the utterance-final
      position, whereas there was no tone space expansion in Lombard speech. The
      overall pitch increased for all tones in both registers. The tone-bearing vowel
      duration also increased in both registers, but only in utterance-final position.
      The difference in speech modifications between these two registers is discussed
      in light of speakers' different communicative needs.

PMID- 28863612
TI  - Further understanding of doorway states in elastic systems.
AB  - In a previous work an elastic bar with a groove or notch that presents a doorway
      state was studied when the system was excited with 20 cycles of harmonic signals.
      The strength function had a Lorentzian width Gammad = 1/pitaud, where taud is the
      decay time of the prompt response. In the present paper, the doorway-state
      phenomenon is analyzed again for the same harmonic signals but for a very large
      number of cycles. The strength-function phenomenon is once more obtained, but now
      with a Lorentzian width Gamma' which is larger than Gammad. A qualitative and
      numerical explanation of this fact is given, leading therefore to further
      understanding of doorway states in elastic systems. The numerical results show a
      very good agreement with the values measured in the laboratory.

PMID- 28863613
TI  - Reciprocity relationships in vector acoustics and their application to vector
      field calculations.
AB  - The reciprocity equation commonly stated in underwater acoustics relates pressure
      fields and monopole sources. It is often used to predict the pressure measured by
      a hydrophone for multiple source locations by placing a source at the hydrophone
      location and calculating the field everywhere for that source. A similar equation
      that governs the orthogonal components of the particle velocity field is needed
      to enable this computational method to be used for acoustic vector sensors. This
      paper derives a general reciprocity equation that accounts for both monopole and
      dipole sources. This vector-scalar reciprocity equation can be used to calculate
      individual components of the received vector field by altering the source type
      used in the propagation calculation. This enables a propagation model to
      calculate the received vector field components for an arbitrary number of source
      locations with a single model run for each vector field component instead of
      requiring one model run for each source location. Application of the vector
      scalar reciprocity principle is demonstrated with analytic solutions for a range
      independent environment and with numerical solutions for a range-dependent
      environment using a parabolic equation model.

PMID- 28863615
TI  - Speech produced in noise: Relationship between listening difficulty and acoustic
      and durational parameters.
AB  - Conversational speech produced in noise can be characterised by increases in
      intelligibility relative to such speech produced in quiet. Listening difficulty
      (LD) is a metric that can be used to evaluate speech transmission performance
      more sensitively than intelligibility scores in situations in which performance
      is likely to be high. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the LD
      of speech produced in different noise and style conditions, to evaluate the
      spectral and durational speech modifications associated with these conditions,
      and to determine whether any of the spectral and durational parameters predicted
      LD. Nineteen subjects were instructed to speak at normal and loud volumes in the
      presence of background noise at 40.5 dB(A) and babble noise at 61 dB(A). The
      speech signals were amplitude-normalised, combined with pink noise to obtain a
      signal-to-noise ratio of -6 dB, and presented to twenty raters who judged their
      LD. Vowel duration, fundamental frequency and the proportion of the spectral
      energy in high vs low frequencies increased with the noise level within both
      styles. LD was lowest when the speech was produced in the presence of high level
      noise and at a loud volume, indicating improved intelligibility. Spectrum balance
      was observed to predict LD.

PMID- 28863616
TI  - The role of short-time intensity and envelope power for speech intelligibility
      and psychoacoustic masking.
AB  - The generalized power spectrum model [GPSM; Biberger and Ewert (2016). J. Acoust.
      Soc. Am. 140, 1023-1038], combining the "classical" concept of the power-spectrum
      model (PSM) and the envelope power spectrum-model (EPSM), was demonstrated to
      account for several psychoacoustic and speech intelligibility (SI) experiments.
      The PSM path of the model uses long-time power signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs),
      while the EPSM path uses short-time envelope power SNRs. A systematic comparison
      of existing SI models for several spectro-temporal manipulations of speech
      maskers and gender combinations of target and masker speakers [Schubotz et al.
      (2016). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 524-540] showed the importance of short-time
      power features. Conversely, Jorgensen et al. [(2013). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134,
      436-446] demonstrated a higher predictive power of short-time envelope power SNRs
      than power SNRs using reverberation and spectral subtraction. Here the GPSM was
      extended to utilize short-time power SNRs and was shown to account for all
      psychoacoustic and SI data of the three mentioned studies. The best processing
      strategy was to exclusively use either power or envelope-power SNRs, depending on
      the experimental task. By analyzing both domains, the suggested model might
      provide a useful tool for clarifying the contribution of amplitude modulation
      masking and energetic masking.

PMID- 28863614
TI  - Towards a joint reflection-distortion otoacoustic emission profile: Results in
      normal and impaired ears.
AB  - Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) provide salient information about cochlear function
      and dysfunction. Two broad classes of emissions, linear reflection and nonlinear
      distortion, arise via distinct cochlear processes and hence, appear to provide
      independent information about cochlear health and hearing. Considered in
      combination, these two OAE types may characterize sensory hearing loss most
      effectively. In this study, the level-dependent growth of stimulus-frequency OAEs
      (a reflection-type emission) and distortion-product OAEs (a distortion-type
      emission) were measured in ten normal-hearing ears and eight ears with slight-to
      moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Metrics of OAE strength and compression were
      derived from OAE input/output functions and then considered in a combined
      fashion. Results indicate that SFOAEs and DPOAEs differ significantly in their
      strength and compression features. When SFOAE and DPOAE metrics are displayed
      together on a two-dimensional plot, relatively well-defined data clusters
      describe their normative relationship. In hearing-impaired ears, this
      relationship is disrupted but not in a uniform way across ears; ears with similar
      audiograms showed differently altered joint-OAE profiles. Hearing loss sometimes
      affected only one OAE or one more than the other. Results suggest a joint-OAE
      profile is promising and warrants study in a large group of subjects with sensory
      hearing loss of varied etiologies.

PMID- 28863617
TI  - Time-of-flight dependency on transducer separation distance in a reflective-path
      guided-wave ultrasonic flow meter at zero flow conditions.
AB  - Transit-time flow meters based on guided ultrasonic wave propagation in the pipe
      spool have several advantages compared to traditional inline ultrasonic flow
      metering. The extended interrogation field, obtained by continuous leakage from
      guided waves traveling in the pipe wall, increases robustness toward entrained
      particles or gas in the flow. In reflective-path guided-wave ultrasonic flow
      meters (GW-UFMs), the flow equations are derived from signals propagating solely
      in the pipe wall and from signals passing twice through the fluid. In addition to
      the time-of-flight (TOF) through the fluid, the fluid path experiences an
      additional time delay upon reflection at the opposite pipe wall due to specular
      and non-specular reflections. The present work investigates the influence of
      these reflections on the TOF in a reflective-path GW-UFM as a function of
      transducer separation distance at zero flow conditions. Two models are used to
      describe the signal propagation through the system: (i) a transient full-wave
      finite element model, and (ii) a combined plane-wave and ray-tracing model. The
      study shows that a range-dependent time delay is associated with the reflection
      of the fluid path, introducing transmitter-receiver distance dependence. Based on
      these results, the applicability of the flow equations derived using model (ii)
      is discussed.

PMID- 28863618
TI  - An assessment of a spatial ear training program for perceived auditory source
      width.
AB  - The authors propose a training program for a listener to quantify the horizontal
      extension of an auditory image-auditory source width (ASW). The proposed program
      controls the ASW of a five-channel sound source by spreading it across five front
      loudspeakers, displays the corresponding change in visual width, and trains
      listeners to remember the spread angle through an isomorphic mapping to the
      corresponding visual cue. To evaluate the efficacy of the training, the authors
      conducted pre- and post-training tests. The results show that the width judgment
      error of the post-training test was significantly smaller than the pre-training
      test.

PMID- 28863619
TI  - Vowel recognition at fundamental frequencies up to 1 kHz reveals point vowels as
      acoustic landmarks.
AB  - The phonological function of vowels can be maintained at fundamental frequencies
      (fo) up to 880 Hz [Friedrichs, Maurer, and Dellwo (2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
      138, EL36-EL42]. Here, the influence of talker variability and multiple response
      options on vowel recognition at high fos is assessed. The stimuli (n = 264)
      consisted of eight isolated vowels (/i y e o epsilon a o u/) produced by three
      female native German talkers at 11 fos within a range of 220-1046 Hz. In a closed
      set identification task, 21 listeners were presented excised 700-ms vowel nuclei
      with quasi-flat fo contours and resonance trajectories. The results show that
      listeners can identify the point vowels /i a u/ at fos up to almost 1 kHz, with a
      significant decrease for the vowels /y epsilon/ and a drop to chance level for
      the vowels /e o o/ toward the upper fos. Auditory excitation patterns reveal
      highly differentiable representations for /i a u/ that can be used as landmarks
      for vowel category perception at high fos. These results suggest that theories of
      vowel perception based on overall spectral shape will provide a fuller account of
      vowel perception than those based solely on formant frequency patterns.

PMID- 28863620
TI  - A one-school year longitudinal study of secondary school teachers' voice
      parameters and the influence of classroom acoustics.
AB  - Recent literature reports that a large percentage of teachers complain that
      teaching has an adverse effect on their voice status. Thus, more needs to be done
      to study their vocal behavior. The objective of this longitudinal study was
      twofold: to determine changes in the voice use of teachers over a school year,
      and to study the relationships between voice use and classroom acoustic
      parameters. Thirty-one teachers from two secondary schools in Turin (Italy) were
      involved at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, and 22 of them also
      participated at the end of the same school year. The results show that teachers
      adjust their voices with noise and reverberation. A minimum value of the sound
      pressure level of voice (SPL) was found at a mid-frequency reverberation time of
      0.8 s in both periods. Moreover, the teachers who worked in the worst classroom
      acoustic conditions showed an increase of 2.3 dB in the mean SPL and a decrease
      of 10% in the voicing time percentage at the end of the school year. A predictive
      model that can be used to estimate the mean SPL from the background noise level
      and the reverberation time, based on collected data, is here proposed.

PMID- 28863621
TI  - Rigid and elastic acoustic scattering signal separation for underwater target.
AB  - Underwater target elastic acoustic scattering and other acoustic scattering
      components are aliasing together in the time and frequency domains, and the
      existing signal processing methods cannot recognize the elastic scattering
      features under the aliasing condition because of the resolution limitation. To
      address this problem, this study, which is based on the target echo highlight
      model, analyzes the characteristics of target acoustic scattering components when
      the transmitted signal is a linear frequency modulation pulse. The target
      acoustic scattering structure in the fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) domain
      is deduced theoretically. Then, filtering is used in the FRFT domain to separate
      the target elastic acoustic scattering components. In addition, noise suppression
      performance and filter resolution are discussed. The target rigid and elastic
      acoustic scattering components are separated. Experimental results show that
      filtering in the FRFT domain can separate the elastic scattering components from
      the target echoes. Moreover, separated elastic acoustic scattering components
      have consistent theoretical features, which lay the foundation for studying the
      elastic scattering characteristics further.

PMID- 28863622
TI  - Masking release effects of a standard and a regional linguistic variety.
AB  - Previous research has shown that the more similar the target and the masker
      signal, the harder it is to segregate the two streams effectively [i.e., target
      masker linguistic similarity hypothesis, e.g., Brouwer, Van Engen, Calandruccio,
      and Bradlow (2012). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131(2), 1449-1464]. The present study
      examined whether this hypothesis holds when a standard variety of a language
      (Dutch) is paired with one of its regional varieties (Limburgian). Dutch and
      Limburgian listeners were tested on a speech-in-speech recognition task to
      investigate whether familiarity with the target and/or maskers influenced their
      performance. The findings provide support for the hypothesis and suggest an
      influence of Limburgians' bidialectal status.

PMID- 28863623
TI  - Space-time domain solutions of the wave equation by a non-singular boundary
      integral method and Fourier transform.
AB  - The general space-time evolution of the scattering of an incident acoustic plane
      wave pulse by an arbitrary configuration of targets is treated by employing a
      recently developed non-singular boundary integral method to solve the Helmholtz
      equation in the frequency domain from which the space-time solution of the wave
      equation is obtained using the fast Fourier transform. The non-singular boundary
      integral solution can enforce the radiation boundary condition at infinity
      exactly and can account for multiple scattering effects at all spacings between
      scatterers without adverse effects on the numerical precision. More generally,
      the absence of singular kernels in the non-singular integral equation confers
      high numerical stability and precision for smaller numbers of degrees of freedom.
      The use of fast Fourier transform to obtain the time dependence is not
      constrained to discrete time steps and is particularly efficient for studying the
      response to different incident pulses by the same configuration of scatterers.
      The precision that can be attained using a smaller number of Fourier components
      is also quantified.

PMID- 28863624
TI  - Development of beam emission spectroscopy diagnostic on EAST.
AB  - Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) diagnostic based on Neutron Beam Injection (NBI)
      on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak has been developed. This
      system consists of 16 * 8 channels which can diagnose the density fluctuation in
      a rectangular area of about 20 * 10 cm2 in the cross section, whose radial
      position is adjustable from the core to edge just by means of changing the angle
      of the rotation mirror. The spatial resolution is about 1-3 cm according to the
      diagnosed radial position. The temporal resolution is 1 MUs. Space calibration of
      the diagnostic system is done based on the reversibility of the optical path. The
      NBI modulation experiment shows the success of BES development.

PMID- 28863625
TI  - A tunable single-monochromator Raman system based on the supercontinuum laser and
      tunable filters for resonant Raman profile measurements.
AB  - Resonant Raman spectroscopy requires that the wavelength of the laser used is
      close to that of an electronic transition. A tunable laser source and a triple
      spectrometer are usually necessary for resonant Raman profile measurements.
      However, such a system is complex with low signal throughput, which limits its
      wide application by scientific community. Here, a tunable micro-Raman
      spectroscopy system based on the supercontinuum laser, transmission grating,
      tunable filters, and single-stage spectrometer is introduced to measure the
      resonant Raman profile. The supercontinuum laser in combination with transmission
      grating makes a tunable excitation source with a bandwidth of sub-nanometer. Such
      a system exhibits continuous excitation tunability and high signal throughput.
      Its good performance and flexible tunability are verified by resonant Raman
      profile measurement of twisted bilayer graphene, which demonstrates its potential
      application prospect for resonant Raman spectroscopy.

PMID- 28863626
TI  - Determining the wedge angle and optical homogeneity of a glass plate by
      statistically analyzing the deformation in the wavefront surface.
AB  - By using a light-emitting diode as the probing light source and a Shack-Hartmann
      wavefront sensor as the recorder for the wavefront surface to execute a relative
      measurement, we present a useful method for determining the small wedge angle and
      optical homogeneity of a nominally planar glass plate from the wavefront
      measurements. The measured wavefront surface from the light source was first
      calibrated to be a horizontal plane before the plate under test was inserted. The
      wedge angle of the plate can be determined from the inclining angle of the
      regression plane of the measured wavefront surface after the plate was inserted
      between the light source and the wavefront sensor. Despite the annoying time
      dependent altitude fluctuation in measured wavefront topography, the optical
      homogeneity of the plate can be estimated from the increment on the average
      variance of the wavefront surface to its regression plane after the light passes
      through it by using the Bienayme formula.

PMID- 28863627
TI  - Gated ion spectrometer for spectroscopy of neutral particles.
AB  - A new design of an ion mass spectrometer for the laser-plasma particle
      diagnostic, which is capable to detect simultaneously also neutral particles, is
      described. The particles are detected with micro-channel-plate detector operating
      in a gated mode. This allows us to separate x-rays and energetic electrons from
      other stray plasma emissions, e.g., neutral particles, which hit the detector in
      the same place. The ion energies are measured with the spectrometer in energy
      intervals corresponding to their time-of-flight within the gating window. The
      latter also defines the energy interval of neutrals recorded with the same time
      of-flight. The spectrum of neutral particles can be reconstructed by subsequently
      collecting different parts of the spectrum while applying different delays on the
      gate pulse. That separation-in-time technique (time-of-flight mass spectrometry)
      in combination with the spatially separating mass analyzer (ion mass
      spectrometer) is used for the neutral particles spectroscopy.

PMID- 28863628
TI  - Enhanced fast digital integrator for magnetic measurements.
AB  - An enhanced Fast Digital Integrator (eFDI) was prototyped to satisfy the new
      requirements arising from current on-field exploitation of the previous Fast
      Digital Integrator in magnetic measurements for particle accelerators at CERN. In
      particular, the prototype achieves improved performance in terms of offset (5 ppm
      on 10 V fullscale), self-calibration accuracy (1 ppm of residual error), and data
      throughput (100 MB/s), by simultaneously preserving high-level signal-to-noise
      and distortion ratio (SINAD 105 dB at 10 Hz). In this paper, initially, the
      specifications, the design solutions, and the main features of the eFDI are
      illustrated. Then, the experimental results of the metrological characterization
      are compared with the CERN state-of-the-art integrator FDI performance in order
      to highlight the achieved improvements.

PMID- 28863629
TI  - Pulsed characterization of a UV LED for pulsed power applications on a silicon
      carbide photoconductive semiconductor switch.
AB  - The electrical and optical characteristics of a high-power UV light emitting
      diode (LED) (365 nm wavelength) were evaluated under pulsed operating conditions
      at current amplitudes several orders of magnitude beyond the LED's manufacturer
      specifications. Geared towards triggering of photoconductive semiconductor
      switches (PCSSs) for pulsed power applications, measurements were made over
      varying pulse widths (25 ns-100 MUs), current (0 A-250 A), and repetition rates
      (single shot-5 MHz). The LED forward voltage was observed to increase linearly
      with increasing current (~3.5 V-53 V) and decrease with increasing pulse widths.
      The peak optical power observed was >30 W, and a maximum system efficiency of 23%
      was achieved. The evaluated LED and auxiliary hardware were successfully used as
      the optical trigger source for a 4H-SiC PCSS. The lowest measured on-resistance
      of SiC was approximately 67 kOmega.

PMID- 28863630
TI  - Development of cold cathode arc discharge filament based multi-cusp H- ion
      source.
AB  - A cold cathode arc discharge filament based multicusp H- ion source (HNIS) has
      been developed using an innovative low power igniter system working in a glow
      discharge regime to achieve a longer lifetime of the filament. This HNIS is
      cesium-free and its experimental prototype generates a maximum H- ion beam (HNIB)
      current of 12 mA at 50 keV beam energy in pulse mode with a peak arc power of 27
      kW using the triode extraction system. This article presents the results of
      initial commissioning of the HNIS and steering magnetic field used to separate
      out the co-extracted electrons from HNIB, verified through experiments and 3-D
      ion beam simulations.

PMID- 28863631
TI  - Cyclic flattened Brazilian disc tests for measuring the tensile fatigue
      properties of brittle rocks.
AB  - We propose a cyclic flattened Brazilian disc (FBD) testing method to measure the
      tensile fatigue properties of brittle rocks. Our method has obvious merits in its
      specimen preparation and experimental operation. Two parallel flattens are
      introduced in the disc specimen, which facilitate easily and uniformly loading
      the specimen without special loading devices required. Moreover, the contact
      regions between two flattens and loading planes barely change during the entire
      loading and unloading process, ensuring a consistent contact condition. With
      certain appropriate loading angles, this method guarantees that the very first
      breakage of the specimen occurs at the center of the disc, which is the
      prerequisite of the Brazilian-type indirect tensile tests. To demonstrate our new
      method, nine cyclic FBD tensile tests are conducted. The fatigue load-deformation
      characteristics of FBD specimens are revealed. The tensile fatigue lives of
      tested specimens are observed to increase with the increase in cyclic loading
      frequency. Our proposed method provides a convenient and reliable approach to
      indirectly measure the fatigue tensile properties of brittle rocks and other
      brittle solids subjected to cyclic tensile loadings.

PMID- 28863632
TI  - Direct loop gain and bandwidth measurement of phase-locked loop.
AB  - A simple and robust technique for directly measuring the loop gain and bandwidth
      of a phase-locked loop (PLL) is proposed. This technique can be used for the real
      time measurement of the real loop gain in a closed PLL without breaking its
      locking state. The agreement of the measured loop gain and theoretical
      calculations proves the validity of the proposed measurement technique. This
      technique with a simple configuration can be easily expanded to other phase
      locking systems whose loop gain and bandwidth should be measured precisely.

PMID- 28863633
TI  - Note: On the study of metal/oxide hybrid ferromagnets with magneto-optical
      techniques.
AB  - We analyze here the magneto-optical measurements of hybrid materials containing
      metallic and oxide ferromagnetic phases. We show that the magnetization curves
      obtained with this technique can be fairly different to those obtained with
      standard magnetometry techniques and cannot be representative of the contribution
      of each phase to the magnetization of the material, due to the very different
      optical properties of metals and oxides. However, a proper numerical analysis of
      the magneto-optical measurements allows estimating the fraction of each phase
      present in the material.

PMID- 28863634
TI  - Correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic in TCV.
AB  - The correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic of tokamak a configuration
      variable has recently been upgraded. It now has the choice of three lines of
      sight: two horizontal lines placed on the low field side of the vessel,
      perpendicular to the magnetic field, and a dual-axis steerable antenna. The
      polarization of the radiation collected by the latter can be rotated using a
      universal polarizer situated in the transmission line. This line is also shared
      with a reflectometry system, allowing simultaneous measurements of temperature
      and density fluctuations in the same plasma volumes. When using this line, it is
      possible to choose between two dedicated front ends characterized by different
      local oscillator frequencies, adding flexibility in the choice of the plasma
      region to be studied. The intermediate frequency section is now equipped with six
      frequency tunable YIG filters allowing the study of turbulence properties in a
      wide range of radial positions. When studying fluctuations over the whole video
      bandwidth, the minimum detectable fluctuation level is deltaTe/Te~0.5%. The new
      system has been used to measure electron temperature fluctuations over a large
      fraction of the plasma profiles in a series of plasmas with triangularity varying
      from 0.6 to -0.6 but comparable collisionality profiles.

PMID- 28863635
TI  - High-temperature high-pressure calorimeter for studying gram-scale heterogeneous
      chemical reactions.
AB  - We present an instrument for measuring pressure changes and heat flows of
      physical and chemical processes occurring in gram-scale solid samples under high
      pressures of reactive gases. Operation is demonstrated at 1232  degrees C under
      33 bars of pure hydrogen. Calorimetric heat flow is inferred using a grey-box non
      linear lumped-element heat transfer model of the instrument. Using an electrical
      calibration heater to deliver 900 J/1 W pulses at the sample position, we
      demonstrate a dynamic calorimetric power resolution of 50 mW when an 80-s moving
      average is applied to the signal. Integration of the power signal showed that the
      900 J pulse energy could be measured with an average accuracy of 6.35% or better
      over the temperature range 150-1100  degrees C. This instrument is appropriate
      for the study of high-temperature metal hydride materials for thermochemical
      energy storage.

PMID- 28863636
TI  - A flexible dual-mode proximity sensor based on cooperative sensing for robot skin
      applications.
AB  - A flexible dual-mode proximity sensor has been designed and implemented, which is
      capable of combining capacitive-resistive detection in this paper. The capacitive
      type proximity sensor detecting is defined as mode-C, and the resistive type
      proximity sensor detecting is defined as mode-R. The characteristics of the
      proximity sensor are as follows: (1) the theoretical mode is developed which
      indicates that this proximity sensor can reflect proximity information
      accurately; (2) both sensing modes are vertically integrated into a sandwich-like
      chip with an 8 mm * 12 mm unit area. The thickness of a mode-R sensing material
      (graphene nanoplatelets) and mode-C dielectric (the mixture of carbon black and
      silicone rubber) is 1 mm and 2.5 mm, respectively; (3) for mode-R, the linearity
      of temperature-resistance curve can achieve 0.998 in the temperature range from
      25  degrees C to 65  degrees C. And for mode-C, various materials can be
      successfully detected with fast response and high reversibility. Meanwhile, the
      study compensated the influence of object temperature to ensure mode-C properly
      works. A cooperative sensing test shows that R-C dual modes sense effectively
      which can enlarge the sensing distance compared with the single mode proximity
      sensor. The fabrication of this sensor is convenient, and the integrity of a
      flexible sandwich-like structure based on dual modes is beneficial to form
      arrays, which is suitable to be used in skin-like sensing applications.

PMID- 28863637
TI  - aCORN: An experiment to measure the electron-antineutrino correlation coefficient
      in free neutron decay.
AB  - We describe an apparatus used to measure the electron-antineutrino angular
      correlation coefficient in free neutron decay. The apparatus employs a novel
      measurement technique in which the angular correlation is converted into a proton
      time-of-flight asymmetry that is counted directly, avoiding the need for proton
      spectroscopy. Details of the method, apparatus, detectors, data acquisition, and
      data reduction scheme are presented, along with a discussion of the important
      systematic effects.

PMID- 28863638
TI  - Note: Development of a cryocooler based high efficiency cryosorption pump.
AB  - In this communication, we report the development of a cryosorption pump, whose
      pumping speeds are higher at least by a factor of 1.5 compared to the commercial
      pumps in specific pressure ranges. This uses a material of high adsorbing
      capacity along with an adhesive of high thermal conductivity. The measured
      pumping speeds of these pumps for different gases such as nitrogen, argon,
      hydrogen, and helium are higher than the commercial cryopumps in the pressure
      range from 5 * 10-6 mbar to 5 * 10-5 mbar. The developed pump will be quite
      useful for fusion applications.

PMID- 28863639
TI  - In situ flow cell for combined X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction,
      and mass spectrometry at high photon energies under solar thermochemical looping
      conditions.
AB  - An in situ/operando flow cell for transmission mode X-ray absorption spectroscopy
      (XAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and combined XAS/XRD measurements in a single
      experiment under the extreme conditions of two-step solar thermochemical looping
      for the dissociation of water and/or carbon dioxide was developed. The apparatus
      exposes materials to relevant conditions of both the auto-reduction and the
      oxidation sub-steps of the thermochemical cycle at ambient temperature up to 1773
      K and enables determination of the composition of the effluent gases by online
      quadrupole mass spectrometry. The cell is based on a tube-in-tube design and is
      heated by means of a focusing infrared furnace. It was tested successfully for
      carbon dioxide splitting. In combined XAS/XRD experiments with an unfocused beam,
      XAS measurements were performed at the Ce K edge (40.4 keV) and XRD measurements
      at 64.8 keV and 55.9 keV. Furthermore, XRD measurements with a focused beam at
      41.5 keV were carried out. Equimolar ceria-hafnia was auto-reduced in a flow of
      argon and chemically reduced in a flow of hydrogen/helium. Under reducing
      conditions, all cerium(iv) was converted to cerium(iii) and a cation-ordered
      pyrochlore-type structure was formed, which was not stable upon oxidation in a
      flow of carbon dioxide.

PMID- 28863640
TI  - Synchronous acquisition of multi-channel signals by single-channel ADC based on
      square wave modulation.
AB  - Synchronous acquisition of multi-channel biopotential signals, such as
      electrocardiograph (ECG) and electroencephalograph, has vital significance in
      health care and clinical diagnosis. In this paper, we proposed a new method which
      is using single channel ADC to acquire multi-channel biopotential signals
      modulated by square waves synchronously. In this method, a specific modulate and
      demodulate method has been investigated without complex signal processing
      schemes. For each channel, the sampling rate would not decline with the increase
      of the number of signal channels. More specifically, the signal-to-noise ratio of
      each channel is n times of the time-division method or an improvement of
      3.01*log2n dB, where n represents the number of the signal channels. A numerical
      simulation shows the feasibility and validity of this method. Besides, a newly
      developed 8-lead ECG based on the new method has been introduced. These
      experiments illustrate that the method is practicable and thus is potential for
      low-cost medical monitors.

PMID- 28863642
TI  - Nanometer-resolution depth-resolved measurement of florescence-yield soft x-ray
      absorption spectroscopy for FeCo thin film.
AB  - We develop a fluorescence-yield depth-resolved soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy
      (XAS) technique, which is based on the principle that the probing depth is
      changed by the emission angle of the fluorescence soft x rays. Compared with the
      electron-yield depth-resolved XAS technique, which has been established in this
      decade, we can observe wider range in-depth XAS distribution up to several tens
      of nm. Applying this technique to a 30 ML (~4.3 nm) FeCo thin film, we observe Fe
      L-edge XAS spectra at the probing depth of 0.3-6 nm and find that the film has 22
      ML (~3.1 nm) surface oxide layer while its inner layer shows metallic state. We
      thus successfully obtain nanometer-resolution depth-resolved XAS spectra and
      further expect that operando measurement under the electric and/or magnetic
      fields is possible.

PMID- 28863641
TI  - A high-resolution frequency variable experimental setup for studying ferrofluids
      used in magnetic hyperthermia.
AB  - A scanning system for specific absorption rate of ferrofluids with
      superparamagnetic nanoparticles is presented in this study. The system contains
      an induction heating device designed and built with a resonant inverter in order
      to generate magnetic field amplitudes up to 38 mT, over the frequency band 180
      525 kHz. Its resonant circuit involves a variable capacitor with 1 nF of
      capacitance steps to easily select the desired frequency, reaching from 0.3
      kHz/nF up to 5 kHz/nF of resolution. The device performance is characterized in
      order to compare with the theoretical predictions of frequency and amplitude,
      showing a good agreement with the resonant inverters theory. Additionally, the
      setup is tested using a synthetic iron oxide with 10 +/- 1 nm diameter suspended
      in liquid glycerol, with concentrations at 1%. Meanwhile, the temperature rise is
      measured to determine the specific absorption rate and calculate the dissipated
      power density for each f. This device is a suitable alternative to studying
      ferrofluids and analyzes the dependence of the power absorption density with the
      magnetic field intensity and frequency.

PMID- 28863643
TI  - Linearized spectrum correlation analysis for line emission measurements.
AB  - A new spectral analysis method, Linearized Spectrum Correlation Analysis (LSCA),
      for charge exchange and passive ion Doppler spectroscopy is introduced to provide
      a means of measuring fast spectral line shape changes associated with ion-scale
      micro-instabilities. This analysis method is designed to resolve the fluctuations
      in the emission line shape from a stationary ion-scale wave. The method
      linearizes the fluctuations around a time-averaged line shape (e.g., Gaussian)
      and subdivides the spectral output channels into two sets to reduce contributions
      from uncorrelated fluctuations without averaging over the fast time dynamics. In
      principle, small fluctuations in the parameters used for a line shape model can
      be measured by evaluating the cross spectrum between different channel groupings
      to isolate a particular fluctuating quantity. High-frequency ion velocity
      measurements (100-200 kHz) were made by using this method. We also conducted
      simulations to compare LSCA with a moment analysis technique under a low photon
      count condition. Both experimental and synthetic measurements demonstrate the
      effectiveness of LSCA.

PMID- 28863644
TI  - Note: Planetary gravities made simple: Sample test of a Mars rover wheel.
AB  - We introduce an instrument for a wide spectrum of experiments on gravities other
      than our planet's. It is based on a large Atwood machine where one of the loads
      is a bucket equipped with a single board computer and different sensors. The
      computer is able to detect the falling (or rising) and then the stabilization of
      the effective gravity and to trigger actuators depending on the experiment.
      Gravities within the range 0.4 g-1.2 g are easily achieved with acceleration
      noise of the order of 0.01 g. Under Martian gravity, we are able to perform
      experiments of approximately 1.5 s duration. The system includes features such as
      WiFi and a web interface with tools for the setup, monitoring, and data analysis
      of the experiment. We briefly show a case study in testing the performance of a
      model Mars rover wheel in low gravities.

PMID- 28863646
TI  - Development of a 10 kHz high harmonic source up to 140 eV photon energy for
      ultrafast time-, angle-, and phase-resolved photoelectron emission spectroscopy
      on solid targets.
AB  - We present a newly developed high harmonic beamline for time-, angle-, and
      carrier-envelope phase-resolved extreme ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy on
      solid targets for the investigation of ultrafast band structure dynamics in the
      low-fs to sub-fs time regime. The source operates at a repetition rate of 10 kHz
      and is driven by 5 fs few-cycle near-infrared laser pulses generating high
      harmonic radiation with photon energies up to 120 eV at a feasible flux. The
      experimental end station consists of a complementary combination of photoelectron
      detectors which are able to spectroscopically address electron dynamics both in
      real and in k-space. The versatility of the source is completed by a phase-meter
      which allows for tracking the carrier-envelope phase for each pulse and which is
      synchronized to the photoelectron detectors, thus enabling phase sensitive
      measurements on the one hand and the selection of single attosecond pulses for
      ultimate time resolution in pump-probe experiments on the other hand. We
      demonstrate the applicability of the source by an angle- and carrier-envelope
      phase-resolved photoemission measurement on a tungsten (110) surface with 95 eV
      extreme ultraviolet radiation.

PMID- 28863647
TI  - Development of a real time magnetic island identification system for HL-2A
      tokamak.
AB  - A novel real time magnetic island identification system for HL-2A is introduced.
      The identification method is based on the measurement of Mirnov probes and the
      equilibrium flux constructed by the equilibrium fit (EFIT) code. The system
      consists of an analog front board and a digital processing board connected by a
      shield cable. Four octal-channel analog-to-digital convertors are utilized for
      100 KHz simultaneous sampling of all the probes, and the applications of PCI
      extensions for Instrumentation platform and reflective memory allow the system to
      receive EFIT results simultaneously. A high performance field programmable gate
      array (FPGA) is used to realize the real time identification algorithm. Based on
      the parallel and pipeline processing of the FPGA, the magnetic island structure
      can be identified with a cycle time of 3 ms during experiments.

PMID- 28863645
TI  - Instrumentation for electrochemical performance characterization of neural
      electrodes.
AB  - In an effort to determine the chronic stability, sensitivity, and thus the
      potential viability of various neurochemical recording electrode designs and
      compositions, we have developed a custom device called the Voltammetry Instrument
      for Neurochemical Applications (VINA). Here, we describe the design of the VINA
      and initial testing of its functionality for prototype neurochemical sensing
      electrodes. The VINA consists of multiple electrode fixtures, a flowing
      electrolyte bath, associated reservoirs, peristaltic pump, voltage waveform
      generator, data acquisition hardware, and system software written in National
      Instrument's LabVIEW. The operation of VINA was demonstrated on a set of boron
      doped diamond neurochemical recording electrodes, which were subjected to an
      applied waveform for a period of eighteen days. Each electrode's cyclic
      voltammograms (CVs) were recorded, and sensitivity calibration to dopamine (DA)
      was performed. Results showed an initial decline with subsequent stabilization in
      the CV current measured during the voltammetric sweep, corresponding closely with
      changes in electrode sensitivity to DA. The VINA has demonstrated itself as a
      useful tool for the characterization of electrode stability and chronic
      electrochemical performance.

PMID- 28863648
TI  - Low-profile self-sealing sample transfer flexure box.
AB  - A flexural bearing mechanism has enabled the development of a self-sealing box
      for protecting air sensitive samples during transfer between glove boxes, micro
      machining equipment, and microscopy equipment. The simplicity and self-actuating
      feature of this design makes it applicable to many devices that operate under
      vacuum conditions. The models used to design the flexural mechanism are presented
      in detail. The device has been tested in a Zeiss Merlin GEMINI II scanning
      electron microscope with Li3PS4 samples, showing effective isolation from air and
      corrosion prevention.

PMID- 28863649
TI  - Phase-ambiguity-free and accurate permittivity determination from waveguide
      measurements.
AB  - A microwave method has been proposed for accurate and unique extraction of
      relative complex permittivity (epsilonr) of dielectric materials from 2pi phase
      ambiguity-free amplitude-only two-port and one-port scattering parameter
      measurements. Improved accuracy has been shown by the applied uncertainty
      analysis. For the validation of our method, epsilonr of low-loss and lossy
      samples was extracted.

PMID- 28863650
TI  - Note: A miniature oscillating microbalance for sampling ice and volcanic ash from
      a small airborne platform.
AB  - A lightweight and low power oscillating microbalance for in situ sampling of
      atmospheric ice and volcanic ash is described for airborne platforms. Using a
      freely exposed collecting wire fixed at only one end to a piezo transducer, the
      instrument collects airborne materials. Accumulated mass is determined from the
      change in natural frequency of the wire. The piezo transducer is used in a dual
      mode to both drive and detect the oscillation. Three independent frequency
      measurement techniques are implemented with an on-board microcontroller: a
      frequency sweep, a Fourier spectral method, and a phase-locked loop. These showed
      agreement to +/-0.3 Hz for a 0.5 mm diameter collecting wire of 120 mm long,
      flown to 19 km altitude on a weather balloon. The instrument is well suited to
      disposable use with meteorological radiosondes, to provide high resolution
      vertical profiles of mass concentration.

PMID- 28863651
TI  - Validation of reverse Hartmann test for mirror shape measurement of parabolic
      trough concentrator.
AB  - A method for the surface shape qualification of a parabolic trough solar
      concentrator, based on the reflection of sinusoidal fringes in the mirror surface
      and their distortions due to the surface deviations from ideal geometry, has been
      developed. Without complex calibration, accurate surface slope data were
      collected and reduced by using sixteen-step phase shifting methods. As the
      gradient data may not be ideally available for the entire surface, surface
      deviations and geometrical parameters were obtained through Zernike slope
      polynomials iterative fitting and the Southwell integration algorithm.
      Additionally, an absolute reference measurement for calibration of the
      measurement accuracy using three standard mirrors is presented. It is shown that
      the proposed method can easily test the surface shape and concentration
      efficiency of a solar concentrator with high slope measurement accuracy (less
      than 0.05 mrad in the x-direction) and high spatial resolution (more than 2.5 *
      106 points per mirror facet).

PMID- 28863652
TI  - High-speed 100 MHz strain monitor using fiber Bragg grating and optical filter
      for magnetostriction measurements under ultrahigh magnetic fields.
AB  - A high-speed 100 MHz strain monitor using a fiber Bragg grating, an optical
      filter, and a mode-locked optical fiber laser has been devised, whose resolution
      is DeltaL/L~10-4. The strain monitor is sufficiently fast and robust for the
      magnetostriction measurements of materials under ultrahigh magnetic fields
      generated with destructive pulse magnets, where the sweep rate of the magnetic
      field is in the range of 10-100 T/MUs. As a working example, the magnetostriction
      of LaCoO3 was measured at room temperature, 115 K, and 7 ~ 4.2 K up to a maximum
      magnetic field of 150 T. The smooth dependence on the squared magnetic field and
      the first-order transition were observed at 115 K and 7 ~ 4.2 K, respectively,
      reflecting the field-induced spin state evolution.

PMID- 28863653
TI  - Sine wave gating silicon single-photon detectors for multiphoton entanglement
      experiments.
AB  - Silicon single-photon detectors (SPDs) are the key devices for detecting single
      photons in the visible wavelength range. Here we present high detection
      efficiency silicon SPDs dedicated to the generation of multiphoton entanglement
      based on the technique of high-frequency sine wave gating. The silicon single
      photon avalanche diode components are acquired by disassembling 6 commercial
      single-photon counting modules (SPCMs). Using the new quenching electronics, the
      average detection efficiency of SPDs is increased from 68.6% to 73.1% at a
      wavelength of 785 nm. These sine wave gating SPDs are then applied in a four
      photon entanglement experiment, and the four-fold coincidence count rate is
      increased by 30% without degrading its visibility compared with the original
      SPCMs.

PMID- 28863654
TI  - Note: Measurement of synchrotron radiation phase-space beam properties to verify
      astigmatism compensation in Fresnel zone plate focusing optics.
AB  - The intensity distribution in phase space of an X-ray synchrotron radiation
      beamline was measured using a pinhole camera method, in order to verify
      astigmatism compensation by a Fresnel zone plate focusing optical system. The
      beamline is equipped with a silicon double crystal monochromator. The beam size
      and divergence at an arbitrary distance were estimated. It was found that the
      virtual source point was largely different between the vertical and horizontal
      directions, which is probably caused by thermal distortion of the monochromator
      crystal. The result is consistent with our astigmatism compensation by inclining
      a Fresnel zone plate.

PMID- 28863655
TI  - Design and implementation of improved LsCpLp resonant circuit for power supply
      for high-power electromagnetic acoustic transducer excitation.
AB  - This paper investigates the design and implementation of an improved series
      parallel inductor-capacitor-inductor (LsCpLp) resonant circuit power supply for
      excitation of electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs). The main advantage of
      the proposed resonant circuit is the absence of a high-permeability dynamic
      transformer. A high-frequency pulsating voltage gain can be achieved through a
      double resonance phenomenon. Both resonant tailing behavior and higher harmonics
      are suppressed by the improved resonant circuit, which also contributes to the
      generation of ultrasonic waves. Additionally, the proposed circuit can realize
      impedance matching and can also optimize the transduction efficiency. The
      complete design and implementation procedure for the power supply is described
      and has been validated by implementation of the proposed power supply to drive a
      portable EMAT. The circuit simulation results show close agreement with the
      experimental results and thus confirm the validity of the proposed topology. The
      proposed circuit is suitable for use as a portable EMAT excitation power supply
      that is fed by a low-voltage source.

PMID- 28863656
TI  - Source reconstruction for neutron coded-aperture imaging: A sparse method.
AB  - Neutron coded-aperture imaging has been developed as an important diagnostic for
      inertial fusion studies in recent decades. It is used to measure the distribution
      of neutrons produced in deuterium-tritium plasma. Source reconstruction is an
      essential part of the coded-aperture imaging. In this paper, we applied a sparse
      reconstruction method to neutron source reconstruction. This method takes
      advantage of the sparsity of the source image. Monte Carlo neutron transport
      simulations were performed to obtain the system response. An interpolation method
      was used while obtaining the spatially variant point spread functions on each
      point of the source in order to reduce the number of point spread functions that
      needs to be calculated by the Monte Carlo method. Source reconstructions from
      simulated images show that the sparse reconstruction method can result in higher
      signal-to-noise ratio and less distortion at a relatively high statistical noise
      level.

PMID- 28863657
TI  - Development of high sensitivity 4H-SiC detectors for fission neutron pulse shape
      measurements.
AB  - 4H-silicon carbide (4H-SiC) detectors are well suited for measurements of fission
      neutron pulse shape for their compact size, excellent radiation resistance, and
      hydrogen free composition. The aim of this study is to improve the 4H-SiC
      detector's sensitivity to fission neutron pulses. 4H-SiC detectors with varied
      epilayer thicknesses are fabricated and then tested in the pulsed neutron field
      of the Chinese Fast Burst Reactor II (CFBR II). The sensitivity of the 4H-SiC
      detector to the CFBR II neutron pulse is increased by 139.8%, with the
      enlargement of epilayer thickness from 20 MUm to 120 MUm. By employing the proton
      recoil method, the sensitivity of the 4H-SiC detector to the CFBR II neutron
      pulse is further increased by 11.6%. With enhanced sensitivity to fission neutron
      pulses, 4H-SiC detectors are promising devices for high intensity neutron pulse
      measurements.

PMID- 28863658
TI  - Influence of non-local thermodynamic equilibrium and Zeeman effects on magnetic
      equilibrium reconstruction using spectral motional Stark effect diagnostic.
AB  - The Motional Stark Effect (MSE) diagnostic is a well established technique to
      infer the local internal magnetic field in fusion plasmas. In this paper, the
      existing forward model which describes the MSE data is extended by the Zeeman
      effect, fine-structure, and relativistic corrections in the interpretation of the
      MSE spectra for different experimental conditions at the tokamak ASDEX Upgrade.
      The contribution of the non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (non-LTE) populations
      among the magnetic sub-levels and the Zeeman effect on the derived plasma
      parameters is different. The obtained pitch angle is changed by 3 degrees ...4
      degrees  and by 0.5 degrees ...1 degrees  including the non-LTE and the Zeeman
      effects into the standard statistical MSE model. The total correction is about 4
      degrees . Moreover, the variation of the magnetic field strength is significantly
      changed by 2.2% due to the Zeeman effect only. While the data on the derived
      pitch angle still could not be tested against the other diagnostics, the results
      from an equilibrium reconstruction solver confirm the obtained values for
      magnetic field strength.

PMID- 28863659
TI  - Taylor-Couette flow with radial fluid injection.
AB  - Taylor-Couette cells have been shown to improve a number of industrial processes
      due to the wide variety of hydrodynamic flow states accessible. Traditional
      designs, however, limit the ability to introduce new fluids into the annulus
      during device operation due to geometric confinement and complexity. In this
      paper, a co- and counter-rotating Taylor-Couette cell with radial fluid injection
      has been constructed. The incorporation of 16 ports in the inner cylinder enables
      radial fluid injection during rotation of both cylinders. The design is also
      capable of continuous axial flow, enabling large injection volumes. The new inner
      cylinder design does not modify the critical Re for flow instabilities and can
      precisely inject a desired mass at a desired flow rate. A range of injection
      rates and masses were explored to quantify the effect of radial injection on the
      stability of the turbulent Taylor vortex structure. Only the highest injection
      rate and total mass studied (5.9 g/s, 100 g) modified the turbulent Taylor vortex
      structure after injection for a sustained period. The post-injection vortices
      remained larger than the pre-injection vortices, whereas at lower injection rates
      or masses, the vortex structure quickly returned to the pre-injection structure.
      This new system allows for in situ study of hydrodynamic effects on fluid-fluid
      (gas and liquid) mixing and multiphase complexation, growth, and structure. We
      demonstrated this new design's potential for studying the flocculation of
      bentonite using cationic polyacrylamide for enhancing water treatment operations.

PMID- 28863661
TI  - Fringe order correction for the absolute phase recovered by two selected spatial
      frequency fringe projections in fringe projection profilometry.
AB  - The performance of the two selected spatial frequency phase unwrapping methods is
      limited by a phase error bound beyond which errors will occur in the fringe order
      leading to a significant error in the recovered absolute phase map. In this
      paper, we propose a method to detect and correct the wrong fringe orders. Two
      constraints are introduced during the fringe order determination of two selected
      spatial frequency phase unwrapping methods. A strategy to detect and correct the
      wrong fringe orders is also described. Compared with the existing methods, we do
      not need to estimate the threshold associated with absolute phase values to
      determine the fringe order error, thus making it more reliable and avoiding the
      procedure of search in detecting and correcting successive fringe order errors.
      The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by the experimental
      results.

PMID- 28863660
TI  - Calibration of the linear response range of x-ray imaging plates and their reader
      based on image grayscale values.
AB  - X-ray imaging plates are one of the most important X-ray imaging detectors and
      are widely used in inertial-confinement fusion experiments. However, their linear
      response range, which is the foundation of their quantitative data analysis, has
      not been sufficiently deeply investigated. In this work, we develop an X-ray
      fluorescer calibration system and carefully explore the linear response range of
      X-ray imaging plates. For the first time, nearly the entire grayscale range of
      the X-ray imaging plate linear response-7819-64 879 in the range of 0-65 535-has
      been observed. Further, we discuss the uncertainties involved in the calibration
      process. This work demonstrates the excellent linear response qualities of X-ray
      imaging plates and provides a significant foundation for expanding their
      quantitative applied range.

PMID- 28863662
TI  - Noninvasive hemoglobin measurement using dynamic spectrum.
AB  - Spectroscopy methods for noninvasive hemoglobin (Hgb) measurement are interfered
      by individual difference and particular weak signal. In order to address these
      problems, we have put forward a series of improvement methods based on dynamic
      spectrum (DS), including instrument design, spectrum extraction algorithm, and
      modeling approach. The instrument adopts light sources composed of eight laser
      diodes with the wavelength range from 600 nm to 1100 nm and records
      photoplethysmography signals at eight wavelengths synchronously. In order to
      simplify the optical design, we modulate the light sources with orthogonal square
      waves and design the corresponding demodulation algorithm, instead of adopting a
      beam-splitting system. A newly designed algorithm named difference accumulation
      has been proved to be effective in improving the accuracy of dynamic spectrum
      extraction. 220 subjects are involved in the clinical experiment. An extreme
      learning machine calibration model between the DS data and the Hgb levels is
      established. Correlation coefficient and root-mean-square error of prediction
      sets are 0.8645 and 8.48 g/l, respectively. The results indicate that the Hgb
      level can be derived by this approach noninvasively with acceptable precision and
      accuracy. It is expected to achieve a clinic application in the future.

PMID- 28863663
TI  - Note: Progress on the use of MgB2 superconducting joint technique for the
      development of MgB2 magnets for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
AB  - This note presents a superconducting joint technique for the development of MgB2
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) magnets. The MgB2 superconducting joint was
      fabricated by a powder processing method using Mg and B powders to establish a
      wire-bulk-wire connection. The joint resistance measured using a field-decay
      method was <10-14 Omega, demonstrating that the proposed joint technique could be
      employed for developing "next-generation" MgB2 MRI magnets operating in the
      persistent current mode.

PMID- 28863664
TI  - High-throughput powder diffraction measurement system consisting of multiple
      MYTHEN detectors at beamline BL02B2 of SPring-8.
AB  - In this study, we developed a user-friendly automatic powder diffraction
      measurement system for Debye-Scherrer geometry using a capillary sample at
      beamline BL02B2 of SPring-8. The measurement system consists of six one
      dimensional solid-state (MYTHEN) detectors, a compact auto-sampler, wide-range
      temperature control systems, and a gas handling system. This system enables to do
      the automatic measurement of temperature dependence of the diffraction patterns
      for multiple samples. We introduced two measurement modes in the MYTHEN system
      and developed new attachments for the sample environment such as a gas handling
      system. The measurement modes and the attachments can offer in situ and/or time
      resolved measurements in an extended temperature range between 25 K and 1473 K
      and various gas atmospheres and pressures. The results of the commissioning and
      performance measurements using reference materials (NIST CeO2 674b and Si 640c),
      V2O3 and Ti2O3, and a nanoporous coordination polymer are presented.

PMID- 28863665
TI  - Real-time digital signal recovery for a multi-pole low-pass transfer function
      system.
AB  - In order to solve the problems of waveform distortion and signal delay by many
      physical and electrical systems with multi-pole linear low-pass transfer
      characteristics, a simple digital-signal-processing (DSP)-based method of real
      time recovery of the original source waveform from the distorted output waveform
      is proposed. A mathematical analysis on the convolution kernel representation of
      the single-pole low-pass transfer function shows that the original source
      waveform can be accurately recovered in real time using a particular moving
      average algorithm applied on the input stream of the distorted waveform, which
      can also significantly reduce the overall delay time constant. This method is
      generalized for multi-pole low-pass systems and has noise characteristics of the
      inverse of the low-pass filter characteristics. This method can be applied to
      most sensors and amplifiers operating close to their frequency response limits to
      improve the overall performance of data acquisition systems and digital feedback
      control systems.

PMID- 28863666
TI  - Practical methods for generating alternating magnetic fields for biomedical
      research.
AB  - Alternating magnetic fields (AMFs) cause magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to
      dissipate heat while leaving surrounding tissue unharmed, a mechanism that serves
      as the basis for a variety of emerging biomedical technologies. Unfortunately,
      the challenges and costs of developing experimental setups commonly used to
      produce AMFs with suitable field amplitudes and frequencies present a barrier to
      researchers. This paper first presents a simple, cost-effective, and robust
      alternative for small AMF working volumes that uses soft ferromagnetic cores to
      focus the flux into a gap. As the experimental length scale increases to
      accommodate animal models (working volumes of 100s of cm3 or greater), poor
      thermal conductivity and volumetrically scaled core losses render that strategy
      ineffective. Comparatively feasible strategies for these larger volumes instead
      use low loss resonant tank circuits to generate circulating currents of 1 kA or
      greater in order to produce the comparable field amplitudes. These principles can
      be extended to the problem of identifying practical routes for scaling AMF setups
      to humans, an infrequently acknowledged challenge that influences the extent to
      which many applications of MNPs may ever become clinically relevant.

PMID- 28863667
TI  - Probabilistic n/gamma discrimination with robustness against outliers for use in
      neutron profile monitors.
AB  - A method to stochastically discriminate neutron and gamma-ray signals measured
      with a stilbene organic scintillator is proposed. Each pulse signal was
      stochastically categorized into two groups: neutron and gamma-ray. In previous
      work, the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm was used with the assumption
      that the measured data followed a Gaussian mixture distribution. It was shown
      that probabilistic discrimination between these groups is possible. Moreover, by
      setting the initial parameters for the Gaussian mixture distribution with a k
      means algorithm, the possibility of automatic discrimination was demonstrated. In
      this study, the Student's t-mixture distribution was used as a probabilistic
      distribution with the EM algorithm to improve the robustness against the effect
      of outliers caused by pileup of the signals. To validate the proposed method, the
      figures of merit (FOMs) were compared for the EM algorithm assuming a t-mixture
      distribution and a Gaussian mixture distribution. The t-mixture distribution
      resulted in an improvement of the FOMs compared with the Gaussian mixture
      distribution. The proposed data processing technique is a promising tool not only
      for neutron and gamma-ray discrimination in fusion experiments but also in other
      fields, for example, homeland security, cancer therapy with high energy
      particles, nuclear reactor decommissioning, pattern recognition, and so on.

PMID- 28863668
TI  - Gain depletion of X-ray framing camera.
AB  - X-ray imaging is very useful to investigate imploded core plasma in inertial
      fusion experiments. We can obtain information from X-ray images, such as shape,
      density, and temperature. An X-ray framing camera (XFC) capable of taking two
      dimensional, time-resolved X-ray images is used to capture the images. In
      previous work, we developed a numerical model of an XFC to analyze its X-ray
      image. The calculated results agreed qualitatively with experimental results.
      However, it was not accurate enough to determine the absolute value of the
      signal. We thought this discrepancy was caused by gain depletion. In high energy
      laser experiments, high photon flux may cause gain depletion. This is a problem
      for accurate X-ray measurement. In this paper, we report our new model, including
      gain depletion. The new model is evaluated by tabletop laser experiments and high
      energy laser experiments. The results calculated using the new model agree
      quantitatively with our experimental results. Furthermore, we confirmed that gain
      depletion occurs in our high energy laser experiments. For quantitatively
      accurate X-ray intensity measurements, the XFC should be used with limited
      incident photon flux such that the gain linearity is guaranteed.

PMID- 28863669
TI  - Electrometer with sub-attoampere current load.
AB  - By cooling a conventional junction field-effect transistor below 150 K, a simple
      and versatile electrometer with extremely high impedance can be realized. At
      operating condition, the leakage current to the gate amounts to a few hundredths
      of an attoampere. The electrometer can be used from DC up to a frequency of 10
      kHz. Without reduction of the bandwidth, a sensitivity of a few MUV is obtained.
      Working at low frequencies, currents as low as a few attoamperes can be detected.
      If the input voltage is out of the operational range, the forward current or the
      Zener current of the gate junction protects the transistor against destructive
      charging.

PMID- 28863670
TI  - Temperature-stabilized differential amplifier for low-noise DC measurements.
AB  - A tabletop low-noise differential amplifier with a bandwidth of 100 kHz is
      presented. Low voltage drifts of the order of 100 nV/day are reached by thermally
      stabilizing relevant amplifier components. The input leakage current is below 100
      fA. Input-stage errors are reduced by extensive circuitry. Voltage noise, current
      noise, input capacitance, and input current are extraordinarily low. The input
      resistance is larger than 1 TOmega. The amplifiers were tested with and deployed
      for electrical transport measurements of quantum devices at cryogenic
      temperatures.

PMID- 28863671
TI  - Instrumentation for ice crystal characterization in laboratory using
      interferometric out-of-focus imaging.
AB  - Airborne characterization of ice crystals has important applications. The extreme
      difficulty of realizing in situ tests requires the development of a complete
      instrumentation in the laboratory. Such an installation should enable design,
      development, test, and calibration of instruments in conditions as close as
      possible to real ones. We present a set of numerical and experimental tools that
      have been developed to realize ice crystal sensors based on interferometric
      particle imaging. The set of tools covers the development of complementary
      simulators for crystal growth and interferometric particle imaging predictions,
      experimental generation of "programmable" ice crystals, and instrumentation of a
      freezing column where different techniques as in-focus imaging, out-of-focus
      imaging, and digital in-line holography can be combined simultaneously for test
      and calibration.

PMID- 28863672
TI  - A new high sensitivity far-infrared laser interferometer for the HL-2A tokamak.
AB  - A new four-chord Michelson-type formic acid (HCOOH, lambda = 432.5 MUm) laser
      interferometer has been successfully commissioned on the HL-2A tokamak to measure
      the electron density and density fluctuations. Due to the employment of the two
      laser heterodyne technique, the time resolution of the interferometer reached 1.0
      microseconds (MUs). Four chords of line electron densities with a line-averaged
      density resolution 2 * 1016/m3 were obtained in a recent HL-2A experimental
      campaign, and detailed electron density fluctuations, caused by events such as
      edge localized mode, sawtooth precursor-oscillations, and energetic particle
      driven instabilities, were distinctly measured. In particular, the high-frequency
      electron density fluctuations (up to 500 kHz) caused by the reversed shear
      Alfvenic eigenmode were observed by the internal two interferometry channels, and
      their fluctuation location could be approximately identified from the spectra
      characteristics of multi-chord line electron densities.

PMID- 28863673
TI  - Development of cable fed flash X-ray (FXR) system.
AB  - Flash X-ray sources driven by pulsed power find applications in industrial
      radiography, and a portable X-ray source is ideal where the radiography needs to
      be taken at the test site. A compact and portable flash X-ray (FXR) system based
      on a Marx generator has been developed with the high voltage fed to the FXR tube
      via a cable feed-through arrangement. Hard bremsstrahlung X-rays of few tens of
      nanosecond duration are generated by impinging intense electron beams on an anode
      target of high Z material. An industrial X-ray source is developed with source
      size as low as 1 mm. The system can be operated from 150 kV to 450 kV peak
      voltages and a dose of 10 mR has been measured at 1 m distance from the source
      window. The modeling of the FXR source has been carried out using particle-in
      cell and Monte Carlo simulations for the electron beam dynamics and X-ray
      generation, respectively. The angular dose profile of X-ray has been measured and
      compared with the simulation.

PMID- 28863674
TI  - New laser power sensor using diamagnetic levitation.
AB  - This paper presents a preliminary study of an elementary device consisting of a
      small plate made from pyrolytic carbon levitated above a magnet array which is
      sensitive to any irradiating laser power. This device might provide an
      interesting alternative to power meters based on thermal measurement techniques
      via the Stefan-Boltzmann law or the photon-electron interaction. We show that the
      photo-response of a pyrolytic carbon plate in terms of levitation height versus
      irradiation power in the range of 20 mW to 1 W is sufficiently linear, sensitive,
      and reproducible to be used as a laser power sensor. The elevation height change
      as a function of irradiance time appears to be a suitable measurement parameter
      for establishing a relation with the irradiating laser power. The influence of
      some quantities affecting the measurement results has been highlighted. The study
      demonstrates that such a device should prove useful for applications in
      metrology, industry, or emerging technologies.

PMID- 28863675
TI  - Note: Modification of an FTIR spectrometer for optoelectronic characterizations.
AB  - We propose a very simple system to be adapted to a Fourier Transform Infra-Red
      (FTIR) spectrometer with which three different types of characterizations can be
      done: the Fourier transform photocurrent spectroscopy, the recording of
      reflection-transmission spectra of thin film semiconductors, and the acquisition
      of spectral responses of solar cells. In addition to gather three techniques into
      a single apparatus, this FTIR-based system also significantly reduces the
      recording time and largely improves the resolution of the measured spectra
      compared to standard equipments.

PMID- 28863676
TI  - A 5-MUm pitch charge-coupled device optimized for resonant inelastic soft X-ray
      scattering.
AB  - We have developed a charge-coupled device (CCD) with 5 MUm * 45 MUm pixels on
      high-resistivity silicon. The fully depleted 200 MUm-thick silicon detector is
      back-illuminated through a 10 nm-thick in situ doped polysilicon window and is
      thus highly efficient for soft through >8 keV hard X-rays. The device described
      here is a 1.5 megapixel CCD with 2496 * 620 pixels. The pixel and camera geometry
      was optimized for Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) and is particularly
      advantageous for spectrometers with limited arm lengths. In this article, we
      describe the device architecture, construction and operation, and its performance
      during tests at the Advance Light Source (ALS) 8.0.1 RIXS beamline. The improved
      spectroscopic performance, when compared with a current standard commercial
      camera, is demonstrated with a ~280 eV (CK) X-ray beam on a graphite sample.
      Readout noise is typically 3-6 electrons and the point spread function for soft
      CK X-rays in the 5 MUm direction is 4.0 MUm +/- 0.2 MUm. The measured quantum
      efficiency of the CCD is greater than 75% in the range from 200 eV to 1 keV.

PMID- 28863677
TI  - A gated Thomson parabola spectrometer for improved ion and neutral atom
      measurements in intense laser produced plasmas.
AB  - Ions of high energy and high charge are accelerated from compact intense laser
      produced plasmas and are routinely analysed either by time of flight or Thomson
      parabola spectrometry. At the highest intensities where ion energies can be
      substantially large, both these techniques have limitations. Strong
      electromagnetic pulse noise jeopardises the arrival time measurement, and a
      bright central spot in the Thomson parabola spectrometer affects the signal to
      noise ratio of ion traces that approach close to the central spot. We present a
      gated Thomson parabola spectrometer that addresses these issues and provides an
      elegant method to improvise ion spectrometry. In addition, we demonstrate that
      this method provides the ability to detect and measure high energy neutral atoms
      that are invariably present in most intense laser plasma acceleration
      experiments.

PMID- 28863678
TI  - Note: Guaranteed collocated multimode control of an atomic force microscope
      cantilever using on-chip piezoelectric actuation and sensing.
AB  - The quality (Q) factor is an important parameter of the resonance of the
      microcantilever as it determines both imaging bandwidth and force sensitivity.
      The ability to control the Q factor of multiple modes is believed to be of great
      benefit for atomic force microscopy techniques involving multiple eigenmodes. In
      this paper, we propose a novel cantilever design employing multiple piezoelectric
      transducers which are used for separated actuation and sensing, leading to
      guaranteed collocation of the first eight eigenmodes up to 3 MHz. The design
      minimizes the feedthrough usually observed with these systems by incorporating a
      guard trace on the cantilever chip. As a result, a multimode Q controller is
      demonstrated to be able to modify the quality factor of the first two eigenmodes
      over up to four orders of magnitude without sacrificing robust stability.

PMID- 28863679
TI  - Novel diamond cells for neutron diffraction using multi-carat CVD anvils.
AB  - Traditionally, neutron diffraction at high pressure has been severely limited in
      pressure because low neutron flux required large sample volumes and therefore
      large volume presses. At the high-flux Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge
      National Laboratory, we have developed new, large-volume diamond anvil cells for
      neutron diffraction. The main features of these cells are multi-carat, single
      crystal chemical vapor deposition diamonds, very large diffraction apertures, and
      gas membranes to accommodate pressure stability, especially upon cooling. A new
      cell has been tested for diffraction up to 40 GPa with an unprecedented sample
      volume of ~0.15 mm3. High quality spectra were obtained in 1 h for crystalline Ni
      and in ~8 h for disordered glassy carbon. These new techniques will open the way
      for routine megabar neutron diffraction experiments.

PMID- 28863680
TI  - An investigation of interface transferring mechanism of surface-bonded fiber
      Bragg grating sensors.
AB  - Surface-bonded fiber Bragg grating sensor has been widely used in measuring
      strain in materials. The existence of fiber Bragg grating sensor affects strain
      distribution of the host material, which may result in a decrease in strain
      measurement accuracy. To improve the measurement accuracy, a theoretical model of
      strain transfer from the host material to optical fiber was developed,
      incorporating the influence of the fiber Bragg grating sensor. Subsequently,
      theoretical predictions were validated by comparing with data from finite element
      analysis and the existing experiment [F. Ansari and Y. Libo, J. Eng. Mech.
      124(4), 385-394 (1998)]. Finally, the effect of parameters of fiber Bragg grating
      sensors on the average strain transfer rate was discussed.

PMID- 28863681
TI  - Optical device for thermal diffusivity determination in liquids by reflection of
      a thermal wave.
AB  - In this work, we present a device for determination of the thermal diffusivity
      using the oblique reflection of a thermal wave within a solid slab that is in
      contact with the medium to be characterized. By using the reflection near a
      critical angle under the assumption that thermal waves obey Snell's law of
      refraction with the square root of the thermal diffusivities, the unknown thermal
      diffusivity is obtained by simple formulae. Experimentally, the sensor response
      is measured using the photothermal beam deflection technique within a slab that
      results in a compact device with no contact of the laser probing beam with the
      sample. We describe the theoretical basis and provide experimental results to
      validate the proposed method. We determine the thermal diffusivity of
      tridistilled water and glycerin solutions with an error of less than 0.5%.

PMID- 28863682
TI  - Determining the ion temperature and energy distribution in a lithium-plasma
      interaction test stand with a retarding field energy analyzer.
AB  - The ThermoElectric-driven Liquid-metal plasma-facing Structures (TELS) experiment
      at the University of Illinois is a gas-puff driven, theta-pinch plasma source
      that is used as a test stand for off-normal plasma events incident on materials
      in the edge and divertor regions of a tokamak. The ion temperatures and resulting
      energy distributions are crucial for understanding how well a TELS pulse can
      simulate an extreme event in a larger, magnetic confinement device. A retarding
      field energy analyzer (RFEA) has been constructed for use with such a transient
      plasma due to its inexpensive and robust nature. The innovation surrounding the
      use of a control analyzer in conjunction with an actively sampling analyzer is
      presented and the conditions of RFEA operation are discussed, with results
      presented demonstrating successful performance under extreme conditions. Such
      extreme conditions are defined by heat fluxes on the order of 0.8 GW m-2 and on
      time scales of nearly 200 MUs. Measurements from the RFEA indicate two primary
      features for a typical TELS discharge, following closely with the pre-ionizing
      coaxial gun discharge characteristics. For the case using the pre-ionization
      pulse (PiP) and the theta pinch, the measured ion signal showed an ion
      temperature of 23.3 +/- 6.6 eV for the first peak and 17.6 +/- 1.9 eV for the
      second peak. For the case using only the PiP, the measured signal showed an ion
      temperature of 7.9 +/- 1.1 eV for the first peak and 6.6 +/- 0.8 eV for the
      second peak. These differences illustrate the effectiveness of the theta pinch
      for imparting energy on the ions. This information also highlights the importance
      of TELS as being one of the few linear pulsed plasma sources whereby moderately
      energetic ions will strike targets without the need for sample biasing.

PMID- 28863683
TI  - Portable double-sided pulsed laser heating system for time-resolved geoscience
      and materials science applications.
AB  - A portable double-sided pulsed laser heating system for diamond anvil cells has
      been developed that is able to stably produce laser pulses as short as a few
      microseconds with repetition frequencies up to 100 kHz. In situ temperature
      determination is possible by collecting and fitting the thermal radiation
      spectrum for a specific wavelength range (particularly, between 650 nm and 850
      nm) to the Planck radiation function. Surface temperature information can also be
      time-resolved by using a gated detector that is synchronized with the laser pulse
      modulation and space-resolved with the implementation of a multi-point thermal
      radiation collection technique. The system can be easily coupled with equipment
      at synchrotron facilities, particularly for nuclear resonance spectroscopy
      experiments. Examples of applications include investigations of high-pressure
      high-temperature behavior of iron oxides, both in house and at the European
      Synchrotron Radiation Facility using the synchrotron Mossbauer source and nuclear
      inelastic scattering.

PMID- 28863684
TI  - Note: Hybrid-pi model and parameter extraction method for electrode-electrolyte
      interface characterization with superbly accurate reactance.
AB  - This paper presents an equivalent circuit model for the electrode-electrolyte
      interface and aims at improving the modeling accuracy of the parasitic effects at
      frequencies up to 300 MHz. Different from the conventional model, the electrode
      inductances, body loss capacitances, and body loss resistances are all included
      in the proposed hybrid-pi model. In addition, the S-parameters obtained by a
      vector network analyzer are innovatively used to extract the parameters of the
      electrode-electrolyte interface model for a frequency range from 10 Hz to 300
      MHz. Since reactance is proportional to frequency, the proposed technique can
      precisely calculate the parasitic effects at higher frequencies. Verified by
      experiments, the hybrid-pi model presents better accuracies when fitted to both
      the phases and magnitudes of S11 and S21. The superb modeling accuracy of this
      work is beneficial for biomedical applications that have an electrode-electrolyte
      interface.

PMID- 28863685
TI  - Note: Single ion imaging and fluorescence collection with a parabolic mirror
      trap.
AB  - Efficient fluorescence collection is the most challenging part in remote
      entangled ion qubit state generation. To address this issue, we developed an ion
      trap consisting of a reflective parabolic surface and a needle electrode. This
      parabolic trap design covers a solid angle of 2pi steradians and allows precise
      ion placement at the focal point of the parabola. We measured (39 +/- 3)%
      fluorescence collection from a single ion with this trap and analyzed the mirror
      optical performance. We observed single ion image spot size of 3.4 times
      diffraction limit, improved to 2.8 times diffraction limit with the help of an
      external deformable mirror. The micromotion of the ion is determined to be the
      limiting factor, and the result is consistent with theoretical calculation.

PMID- 28863686
TI  - Optimization of grating duty cycle in non-interferometric grating-based X-ray
      phase contrast imaging.
AB  - Grating-based X-ray phase contrast imaging technology is one of the most
      potential imaging methods in real applications. It can be classified into two
      categories: interferometry and non-interferometric imaging. The non
      interferometric grating-based X-ray phase contrast imaging (NIGPCI) instrument
      has a great advantage in the forthcoming commercial applications for the flexible
      system design and the use of large periodic gratings. The performance of the
      NIGPCI instrument depends on its angular sensitivity to a great extent.
      Therefore, good angular sensitivity is mandatory in order to obtain high quality
      phase-contrast images. Several parameters, such as the X-ray spectrum, the inter
      grating distances, and the parameters of the three gratings, influence the
      angular sensitivity of the imaging system. However, the quantitative relationship
      between the angular sensitivity and grating duty cycle is unclear. Therefore,
      this paper is devoted to revealing their internal relation by theoretical
      deduction and emulation of the imaging process with the theories of linear system
      and Fourier optics. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis method to optimize the
      duty cycles of gratings is proposed and its applicability to a general NIGPCI
      system is verified.

PMID- 28863687
TI  - Comment on "Plasma fireball: A unique tool to fabricate patterned nanodots" [Rev.
      Sci. Instrum. 88, 063507 (2017)].
AB  - The article of Chauhan et al. ["Plasma fireball: A unique tool to fabricate
      patterned nanodots," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88(6), 063507 (2017)] describes the very
      interesting idea of utilising the plasma phenomenon of fireballs for the creation
      of patterned nanodots on a GaSb substrate. For this purpose, the authors obtained
      a large plasma fireball in a magnetised background plasma and used it to
      accelerate ions in the sheath, which surrounds such a fireball. Chauhan et al.
      were able to demonstrate the production of large ion fluxes that can be extracted
      from the fireball and that the properties of these fluxes define the geometric
      structure of the nanodots on the substrate surface. Hence, the nanodot pattern
      can be easily controlled by the discharge parameters of the plasma fireball. This
      is clearly a novel method of fireball-induced surface modification. However,
      plasma fireballs themselves have been known for about hundred years, although as
      a very particular plasma phenomenon. Therefore, this letter aims at providing
      some additional background information and references on this topic for the
      interested reader.

PMID- 28863688
TI  - A high voltage pulse generator based on silicon-controlled rectifier for field
      reversed configuration experiment.
AB  - A high voltage pulse generator based on a silicon-controlled rectifier has been
      designed and implemented for a field reversed configuration experiment. A
      critical damping circuit is used in the generator to produce the desired pulse
      waveform. Depending on the load, the rise time of the output trigger signal can
      be less than 1 MUs, and the peak amplitudes of trigger voltage and current are up
      to 8 kV and 85 A in a single output. The output voltage can be easily adjusted by
      changing the voltage on a capacitor of the generator. In addition, the generator
      integrates an electrically floating heater circuit so it is capable of triggering
      either pseudosparks (TDI-type hydrogen thyratron) or ignitrons. Details of the
      circuits and their implementation are described in the paper. The trigger
      generator has successfully controlled the discharging sequence of the pulsed
      power supply for a field reversed configuration experiment.

PMID- 28863689
TI  - 32-channel time-correlated-single-photon-counting system for high-throughput
      lifetime imaging.
AB  - Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) is a very efficient technique for
      measuring weak and fast optical signals, but it is mainly limited by the
      relatively "long" measurement time. Multichannel systems have been developed in
      recent years aiming to overcome this limitation by managing several detectors or
      TCSPC devices in parallel. Nevertheless, if we look at state-of-the-art systems,
      there is still a strong trade-off between the parallelism level and performance:
      the higher the number of channels, the poorer the performance. In 2013, we
      presented a complete and compact 32 * 1 TCSPC system, composed of an array of 32
      single-photon avalanche diodes connected to 32 time-to-amplitude converters,
      which showed that it was possible to overcome the existing trade-off. In this
      paper, we present an evolution of the previous work that is conceived for high
      throughput fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. This application can be
      addressed by the new system thanks to a centralized logic, fast data management
      and an interface to a microscope. The new conceived hardware structure is
      presented, as well as the firmware developed to manage the operation of the
      module. Finally, preliminary results, obtained from the practical application of
      the technology, are shown to validate the developed system.

PMID- 28863690
TI  - Erratum: "A memory efficient implementation scheme of Gauss error function in a
      Laguerre-Volterra network for neuroprosthetic devices" [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88,
      044301 (2017)].

PMID- 28863691
TI  - TinyLev: A multi-emitter single-axis acoustic levitator.
AB  - Acoustic levitation has the potential to enable novel studies due to its ability
      to hold a wide variety of substances against gravity under container-less
      conditions. It has found application in spectroscopy, chemistry, and the study of
      organisms in microgravity. Current levitators are constructed using Langevin
      horns that need to be manufactured to high tolerance with carefully matched
      resonant frequencies. This resonance condition is hard to maintain as their
      temperature changes due to transduction heating. In addition, Langevin horns are
      required to operate at high voltages (>100 V) which may cause problems in
      challenging experimental environments. Here, we design, build, and evaluate a
      single-axis levitator based on multiple, low-voltage (ca. 20 V), well-matched,
      and commercially available ultrasonic transducers. The levitator operates at 40
      kHz in air and can trap objects above 2.2 g/cm3 density and 4 mm in diameter
      whilst consuming 10 W of input power. Levitation of water, fused-silica spheres,
      small insects, and electronic components is demonstrated. The device is
      constructed from low-cost off-the-shelf components and is easily assembled using
      3D printed sections. Complete instructions and a part list are provided on how to
      assemble the levitator.

PMID- 28863692
TI  - A hyperspectral X-ray computed tomography system for enhanced material
      identification.
AB  - X-ray computed tomography (CT) can distinguish different materials according to
      their absorption characteristics. The hyperspectral X-ray CT (HXCT) system
      proposed in the present work reconstructs each voxel according to its X-ray
      absorption spectral characteristics. In contrast to a dual-energy or multi-energy
      CT system, HXCT employs cadmium telluride (CdTe) as the x-ray detector, which
      provides higher spectral resolution and separate spectral lines according to the
      material's photon-counter working principle. In this paper, a specimen containing
      ten different polymer materials randomly arranged was adopted for material
      identification by HXCT. The filtered back-projection algorithm was applied for
      image and spectral reconstruction. The first step was to sort the individual
      material components of the specimen according to their cross-sectional image
      intensity. The second step was to classify materials with similar intensities
      according to their reconstructed spectral characteristics. The results
      demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed material identification process and
      indicated that the proposed HXCT system has good prospects for a wide range of
      biomedical and industrial nondestructive testing applications.

PMID- 28863693
TI  - Kinetic energy offsets for multicharged ions from an electron beam ion source.
AB  - Using a retarding field analyzer, we have measured offsets between the nominal
      and measured kinetic energy of multicharged ions extracted from an electron beam
      ion source (EBIS). By varying source parameters, a shift in ion kinetic energy
      was attributed to the trapping potential produced by the space charge of the
      electron beam within the EBIS. The space charge of the electron beam depends on
      its charge density, which in turn depends on the amount of negative charge
      (electron beam current) and its velocity (electron beam energy). The electron
      beam current and electron beam energy were both varied to obtain electron beams
      of varying space charge and these were related to the observed kinetic energy
      offsets for Ar4+ and Ar8+ ion beams. Knowledge of these offsets is important for
      studies that seek to utilize slow, i.e., low kinetic energy, multicharged ions to
      exploit their high potential energies for processes such as surface modification.
      In addition, we show that these offsets can be utilized to estimate the effective
      radius of the electron beam inside the trap.

PMID- 28863694
TI  - Note: Iodine dissociation with a pulsed arc discharge.
AB  - A new method is presented to dissociate iodine molecules in gas discharge. A high
      repetition rate spark gap is designed and used to trigger the circuit. Absorption
      spectroscopy is applied to measure the dissociation fraction of iodine molecules.
      It is found that more than 35% of iodine molecules are dissociated. The effect of
      switching frequency on the dissociation coefficient is investigated by changing
      the frequency of the rotating spark gap. Pulsed and equivalent direct current
      circuits are compared, and it is found that in the constant current glow
      discharge the dissociation fraction is near to the zero and negligible.

PMID- 28863695
TI  - A multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography system for real-time 2D and 3D
      imaging.
AB  - This paper presents the design and evaluation of a configurable, fast multi
      frequency Electrical Impedance Tomography (mfEIT) system for real-time 2D and 3D
      imaging, particularly for biomedical imaging. The system integrates 32 electrode
      interfaces and the current frequency ranges from 10 kHz to 1 MHz. The system
      incorporates the following novel features. First, a fully adjustable multi
      frequency current source with current monitoring function is designed. Second, a
      flexible switching scheme is developed for arbitrary sensing configuration and a
      semi-parallel data acquisition architecture is implemented for high-frame-rate
      data acquisition. Furthermore, multi-frequency digital quadrature demodulation is
      accomplished in a high-capacity Field Programmable Gate Array. At last, a 3D
      imaging software, visual tomography, is developed for real-time 2D and 3D image
      reconstruction, data analysis, and visualization. The mfEIT system is
      systematically tested and evaluated from the aspects of signal to noise ratio
      (SNR), frame rate, and 2D and 3D multi-frequency phantom imaging. The highest SNR
      is 82.82 dB on a 16-electrode sensor. The frame rate is up to 546 fps at serial
      mode and 1014 fps at semi-parallel mode. The evaluation results indicate that the
      presented mfEIT system is a powerful tool for real-time 2D and 3D imaging.

PMID- 28863696
TI  - X-ray source development for EXAFS measurements on the National Ignition
      Facility.
AB  - Extended X-ray absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) measurements require a bright,
      spectrally smooth, and broad-band x-ray source. In a laser facility, such an x
      ray source can be generated by a laser-driven capsule implosion. In order to
      optimize the x-ray emission, different capsule types and laser irradiations have
      been tested at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). A crystal spectrometer is
      used to disperse the x-rays and high efficiency image plate detectors are used to
      measure the absorption spectra in transmission geometry. EXAFS measurements at
      the K-edge of iron at ambient conditions have been obtained for the first time on
      the NIF laser, and the requirements for optimization have been established.

PMID- 28863697
TI  - High-bandwidth and flexible tracking control for precision motion with
      application to a piezo nanopositioner.
AB  - For precision motion, high-bandwidth and flexible tracking are the two important
      issues for significant performance improvement. Iterative learning control (ILC)
      is an effective feedforward control method only for systems that operate strictly
      repetitively. Although projection ILC can track varying references, the
      performance is still limited by the fixed-bandwidth Q-filter, especially for
      triangular waves tracking commonly used in a piezo nanopositioner. In this paper,
      a wavelet transform-based linear time-varying (LTV) Q-filter design for
      projection ILC is proposed to compensate high-frequency errors and improve the
      ability to tracking varying references simultaneously. The LVT Q-filter is
      designed based on the modulus maximum of wavelet detail coefficients calculated
      by wavelet transform to determine the high-frequency locations of each iteration
      with the advantages of avoiding cross-terms and segmenting manually. The proposed
      approach was verified on a piezo nanopositioner. Experimental results indicate
      that the proposed approach can locate the high-frequency regions accurately and
      achieve the best performance under varying references compared with traditional
      frequency-domain and projection ILC with a fixed-bandwidth Q-filter, which
      validates that through implementing the LTV filter on projection ILC, high
      bandwidth and flexible tracking can be achieved simultaneously by the proposed
      approach.

PMID- 28863698
TI  - Full-wave finite space model of open-ended coaxial line for dielectric
      spectroscopy of liquids.
AB  - The physical equipment was built according to the mathematical model and tested.
      The performance of equipment is demonstrated measuring two known liquids,
      methanol and isopropanol, up to 40 GHz. The accuracy and sensitivity, and the
      versatility and ease of manufacturing of the measurement cell are discussed.

PMID- 28863699
TI  - VUV spectroscopy in impurity injection experiments at KSTAR using prototype ITER
      VUV spectrometer.
AB  - The ITER vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) core survey spectrometer has been designed as
      a 5-channel spectral system so that the high spectral resolving power of 200-500
      could be achieved in the wavelength range of 2.4-160 nm. To verify the design of
      the ITER VUV core survey spectrometer, a two-channel prototype spectrometer was
      developed. As a subsequent step of the prototype test, the prototype VUV
      spectrometer has been operated at KSTAR since the 2012 experimental campaign.
      From impurity injection experiments in the years 2015 and 2016, strong emission
      lines, such as Kr xxv 15.8 nm, Kr xxvi 17.9 nm, Ne vii 46.5 nm, Ne vi 40.2 nm,
      and an array of largely unresolved tungsten lines (14-32 nm) could be measured
      successfully, showing the typical photon number of 1013-1015 photons/cm2 s.

PMID- 28863700
TI  - Fourier transform spectral interferometry with non-phase stable setups by
      broadband single shot detection of fs and ps pulses.
AB  - In this paper, we present a novel approach to Fourier transform spectral
      interferometry based on single-shot detection of broadband pulses. It allows
      heterodyne detection with non-phase-stabilised setups, which use ps- and fs
      pulsed laser sources. This approach can tremendously simplify the implementation
      of complex techniques such as heterodyne Fourier transform four-wave mixing and
      pave the way to novel phase-sensitive diagnostics for lasers and optical setups.

PMID- 28863702
TI  - Development of a wavy Stark velocity filter for studying interstellar chemistry.
AB  - Cold polar molecules are key to both the understanding of fundamental physics and
      the characterization of the chemical evolution of interstellar clouds. To
      facilitate such studies over a wide range of temperatures, we developed a new
      type of Stark velocity filter for changing the translational and rotational
      temperatures of velocity-selected polar molecules without changing the output
      beam position. The translational temperature of guided polar molecules can be
      significantly varied by exchanging the wavy deflection section with one having a
      different radius of the curvature and a different deflection angle. Combining in
      addition a temperature variable gas cell with the wavy Stark velocity filter
      enables to observe the translational and rotational temperature dependence of the
      reaction-rate constants of cold ion-polar molecule reactions over the interesting
      temperature range of 10-100 K.

PMID- 28863703
TI  - The world's smallest capacitive dilatometer, for high-resolution thermal
      expansion and magnetostriction in high magnetic fields.
AB  - For the characterization of novel quantum phases of matter, it is often required
      to study materials under multi-extreme conditions, in particular down to very low
      temperatures and in very high magnetic fields. We developed the world's smallest
      high-resolution capacitive dilatometer suitable for temperatures down to 10 mK
      and usage in high magnetic fields up to 37.5 T. Despite the extreme
      miniaturization, the capacitive dilatometer can resolve length changes down to
      0.01 A. This is an unprecedented resolution in a capacitive dilatometer of this
      compact size. Many cryogenic devices have limited space. Due to the extremely
      reduced cell size (3 cm3, 12 g), implementation or new applications in many of
      these sample space lacking devices are now possible. As an important example, the
      minute device can now be rotated in any standard cryostat, including dilution
      refrigerators or the commercial physical property measurement system. The present
      super compact design provides also for high resolution thermal expansion and
      magnetostriction measurements in a 15.2 mm diameter tube, enabling its use in the
      32 mm bore, 37.5 T Bitter magnet at the High Field Magnet Laboratory in Nijmegen
      down to a temperature of 300 mK.

PMID- 28863704
TI  - Power measurements and coupler optimization in inductive discharges.
AB  - The power absorbed by the plasma is one of the key parameters which defines
      processes in any plasma source. This power, however, can be very different from
      the power at the rf power source output or the coupler terminals, which has been
      used in many publications to characterize the plasma. This article describes how
      to find the power absorbed by the plasma and the power lost in the coupler and
      matcher network for inductively coupled plasmas. In addition, several practical
      coupler configurations to reduce the coupler coil loss and minimize the rf plasma
      potential are discussed. We propose an effective and simple method to achieve
      that by the coupler coil splitting and insertion of the resonating capacitor in
      the middle of the coil. Our experimental data demonstrate this approach having
      superior coupler efficiency and substantially lower rf plasma potential.

PMID- 28863705
TI  - Real-time microwave sensor system for detection of polluting substances in pure
      water.
AB  - In the present work, a real-time coaxial sensor for detecting foreign substances
      in aqueous solutions was developed and tested. This tool, based on a coaxial
      propagation line for determining the electromagnetic parameters of materials, was
      updated into a liquid permittivity monitoring sensor of continuous flow. A few
      solutions of different nature were tested, and while adding a liquid or
      electrolyte substance, named "pollutant," variations in the base solution were
      documented. Ethanol and water mixtures were used as reference, while the ability
      of the system to detect emulsions (such as oil in water solutions) was also
      evaluated. The system shows great potential for the quantification and
      qualification of liquid mixtures, having a threshold of reduced volume/volume
      fractions of foreign substances or pollutants, a property which is shown to be
      extremely useful in an analogue of high glycaemia (diabetes disease)-thus,
      opening the possibilities of monitoring biological liquids.

PMID- 28863706
TI  - Multi-rate cubature Kalman filter based data fusion method with residual
      compensation to adapt to sampling rate discrepancy in attitude measurement
      system.
AB  - This paper investigates the multi-rate inertial and vision data fusion problem in
      nonlinear attitude measurement systems, where the sampling rate of the inertial
      sensor is much faster than that of the vision sensor. To fully exploit the high
      frequency inertial data and obtain favorable fusion results, a multi-rate CKF
      (Cubature Kalman Filter) algorithm with estimated residual compensation is
      proposed in order to adapt to the problem of sampling rate discrepancy. During
      inter-sampling of slow observation data, observation noise can be regarded as
      infinite. The Kalman gain is unknown and approaches zero. The residual is also
      unknown. Therefore, the filter estimated state cannot be compensated. To obtain
      compensation at these moments, state error and residual formulas are modified
      when compared with the observation data available moments. Self-propagation
      equation of the state error is established to propagate the quantity from the
      moments with observation to the moments without observation. Besides, a
      multiplicative adjustment factor is introduced as Kalman gain, which acts on the
      residual. Then the filter estimated state can be compensated even when there are
      no visual observation data. The proposed method is tested and verified in a
      practical setup. Compared with multi-rate CKF without residual compensation and
      single-rate CKF, a significant improvement is obtained on attitude measurement by
      using the proposed multi-rate CKF with inter-sampling residual compensation. The
      experiment results with superior precision and reliability show the effectiveness
      of the proposed method.

PMID- 28863707
TI  - Note: A two-dimensional position-sensitive micro-channel plate detector with a
      cross-connected-pixels resistive anode and integrated spectroscopy amplifiers.
AB  - Based on the charge-division method, a compact detector system for charged
      particles is constructed. The system consists of a pair of micro-channel plates,
      a novel two-dimensional position-sensitive cross-connected-pixels resistive
      anode, and specially designed front-end electronics that can directly drive
      analog-to-digital converters. The detector is tested with an 241Am alpha-source.
      A position resolution of better than 0.3 mm and a maximum distortion within 0.5
      mm in the active dimensions of 100 mm diameter are achieved.

PMID- 28863708
TI  - False star detection and isolation during star tracking based on improved chi
      square tests.
AB  - The star sensor is a precise attitude measurement device for a spacecraft. Star
      tracking is the main and key working mode for a star sensor. However, during star
      tracking, false stars become an inevitable interference for star sensor
      applications, which may result in declined measurement accuracy. A false star
      detection and isolation algorithm in star tracking based on improved chi-square
      tests is proposed in this paper. Two estimations are established based on a
      Kalman filter and a priori information, respectively. The false star detection is
      operated through adopting the global state chi-square test in a Kalman filter.
      The false star isolation is achieved using a local state chi-square test. Semi
      physical experiments under different trajectories with various false stars are
      designed for verification. Experiment results show that various false stars can
      be detected and isolated from navigation stars during star tracking, and the
      attitude measurement accuracy is hardly influenced by false stars. The proposed
      algorithm is proved to have an excellent performance in terms of speed,
      stability, and robustness.

PMID- 28863709
TI  - A surface science compatible epifluorescence microscope for inspection of samples
      under ultra high vacuum and cryogenic conditions.
AB  - We modified an epi-illumination light microscope and mounted it on an ultra high
      vacuum chamber for investigating samples used in a surface science experiment.
      For easy access and bake out, all optical components are placed outside the
      vacuum and the sample is imaged through a glass window. The microscope can be
      operated in reflection brightfield or epifluorescence mode to image the sample
      surface or fluorescent dye molecules adsorbed on it. The homemade sample mounting
      was made compatible for the use under the microscope; sample temperatures as low
      as 6 K can be achieved. The performance of the microscope is demonstrated on two
      model samples: Brightfield-images of a well-prepared Ag(100) surface show a
      macroscopic corrugation of the surface, although low energy electron diffraction
      data indicate a highly ordered crystalline surface. The surface shows macroscopic
      protrusions with flat regions, about 20-200 MUm in diameter, in between.
      Fluorescence images of diluted 3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylicacid dianhydride
      (PTCDA) molecules adsorbed on an ultrathin epitaxial KCl film on the Ag(100)
      surface show a shading effect at surface protrusions due to an inclined angle of
      incidence of the PTCDA beam during deposition. For some preparations, the
      distribution of the fluorescence intensity is inhomogeneous and shows a dense
      network of bright patches about 5 MUm in diameter related to the macroscopic
      corrugation of the surface. We propose that such a light microscope can aid many
      surface science experiments, especially those dealing with epitaxial growth or
      fluorescent materials.

PMID- 28863710
TI  - Radio frequency source of a weakly expanding wedge-shaped xenon ion beam for
      contactless removal of large-sized space debris objects.
AB  - A theoretical-experimental research has been carried out to determine the
      characteristics of a radio frequency (RF) ion source for the generation of a
      weakly expanding wedge-shaped xenon ion beam. Such ion beam geometry is of
      interest as a prototype of an on-board ion injector for contactless "ion
      shepherding" by service spacecraft to remove large space debris objects from
      geostationary orbits. The wedge shape of the ion beam increases its range. The
      device described herein comprises an inductive gas discharge chamber and a slit
      type three-electrode ion extraction grid (IEG) unit. Calculations of accelerating
      cell geometries and ion trajectories determined the dependence of beam expansion
      half-angle on normalized perveance based on the measurements of the spatial
      distributions of the xenon plasma parameters at the IEG entrance for a xenon flow
      rate q ~ 0.2 mg/s and an incident RF power Pin <= 250 W at a driving frequency f
      = 2 MHz. Experimental studies showed that the ion beam, circular at the IEG exit,
      accepted the elliptical form at the distance of 580 mm with half-angle of beam
      expansion across IEG slits about 2 degrees -3 degrees  and close to 0 degrees 
      along them. Thus, the obtained result proved the possibility of creating a new
      generation on-board ion injector that could be used in spacecrafts for removal of
      debris.

PMID- 28863711
TI  - Measurement of contact angles of microscopic droplets by focal length method.
AB  - We present a method to measure contact angles of microscopic droplets with a
      conventional microscope that possesses a precision focus adjustment stage. The
      droplets are modeled as spherical caps that act as lenses. Their focal length is
      determined by measuring the distance from the substrate surface to the level
      where a sharp image of the aperture stop is observed. The lens diameter is found
      by edge detection of a microscope image of the microdroplets. The spherical cap
      model relates the focal length and diameter of such lenses to the contact angle
      of the used liquid with known refractive index. The measurement procedure was
      applied to condensed water droplets on a silicon substrate covered by its native
      oxide layer. The results are found to be in good agreement with conventional,
      goniometric sessile drop measurements of the advancing contact angle.

PMID- 28863712
TI  - Micrometer-thickness liquid sheet jets flowing in vacuum.
AB  - Thin liquid sheet jet flows in vacuum provide a new platform for performing
      experiments in the liquid phase, for example X-ray spectroscopy. Micrometer
      thickness, high stability, and optical flatness are the key characteristics
      required for successful exploitation of these targets. A novel strategy for
      generating sheet jets in vacuum is presented in this article. Precision nozzles
      were designed and fabricated using high resolution (0.2 MUm) 2-photon 3D printing
      and generated 1.49 +/- 0.04 MUm thickness, stable, and <lambda/20-flat jets in
      isopropanol under normal atmosphere and under vacuum at 5 * 10-1 mbar. The thin
      sheet technology also holds great promise for advancing the fields of high
      harmonic generation in liquids, laser acceleration of ions as well as other
      fields requiring precision and high repetition rate targets.

PMID- 28863713
TI  - Scanning SQUID sampler with 40-ps time resolution.
AB  - Scanning Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) microscopy provides
      valuable information about magnetic properties of materials and devices. The
      magnetic flux response of the SQUID is often linearized with a flux-locked
      feedback loop, which limits the response time to microseconds or longer. In this
      work, we present the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel
      scanning SQUID sampler with a 40-ps time resolution and linearized response to
      periodically triggered signals. Other design features include a micron-scale
      pickup loop for the detection of local magnetic flux, a field coil to apply a
      local magnetic field to the sample, and a modulation coil to operate the SQUID
      sampler in a flux-locked loop to linearize the flux response. The entire sampler
      device is fabricated on a 2 mm * 2 mm chip and can be scanned over macroscopic
      planar samples. The flux noise at 4.2 K with 100 kHz repetition rate and 1 s of
      averaging is of order 1 mPhi0. This SQUID sampler will be useful for imaging
      dynamics in magnetic and superconducting materials and devices.

PMID- 28863714
TI  - Symmetry consideration in zero loop-area Sagnac interferometry at oblique
      incidence for detecting magneto-optic Kerr effects.
AB  - I present a detailed account of a zero loop-area Sagnac interferometer operated
      at oblique incidence for detecting magneto-optic Kerr effects arising from a
      magnetized sample. In particular, I describe the symmetry consideration and
      various optical arrangements available to such an interferometer that enables
      measurements of magneto-optic effects due to both in-plane and out-of-plane
      magnetization of the sample with optimizable signal-to-noise ratios.

PMID- 28863715
TI  - Measurement of the velocity of neutral fragments by the "correlated ion and
      neutral time of flight" method combined with "velocity-map imaging".
AB  - In the challenging field of imaging molecular dynamics, a novel method has been
      developed and implemented that allows the measurement of the velocity of neutral
      fragments produced in collision induced dissociation experiments on an event-by
      event basis. This has been made possible by combining a correlated ion and
      neutral time of flight method with a velocity map imaging technique. This new
      method relies on a multiparametric correlated detection of the neutral and
      charged fragments from collision induced dissociation on one single detector. Its
      implementation on the DIAM device (Device for irradiation of biomolecular
      clusters) (Dispositif d'Irradiation d'Agregats bioMoleculaires) allowed us to
      measure the velocity distribution of water molecules evaporated from collision
      induced dissociation of mass- and energy-selected protonated water clusters.

PMID- 28863717
TI  - Abstracts for the 21st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy
      and Repair.

PMID- 28863718
TI  - Cross-Cultural Validity of the Ruminative Responses Scale in Argentina and the
      United States.
AB  - Although frequently used in the United States, the Ruminative Response Scale
      (RRS) has not been extensively studied in cross-cultural samples. The present
      study evaluated the factor structure of Treynor et al.'s 10-item version of the
      RRS in samples from Argentina ( N = 308) and the United States ( N = 371). In
      addition to testing measurement invariance between the countries, we evaluated
      whether the maladaptive implications of rumination were weaker for the
      Argentinians than for the U.S. group. Self-critical perfectionism was the
      criterion in those tests. Partial scalar invariance supported an 8-item version
      of the RRS. There were no differences in factor means or factor correlations in
      RRS dimensions between countries. Brooding and Reflection were positively
      correlated with self-critical perfectionism in both countries, with no
      significant differences in the sizes of these relations between the two samples.
      Results are discussed in terms of psychometric and cross-cultural implications
      for rumination.

PMID- 28863719
TI  - The Effects of Multiple Chronic Conditions on Adult Patient Readmissions and
      Hospital Finances: A Management Case Study.
AB  - Medicare and other payers have launched initiatives to reduce hospital
      utilization, especially targeting readmissions within 30 days of discharge.
      Hospital managers have traditionally contended that hospitals would prosper
      better by ignoring the penalties for high readmission rates and keeping the beds
      more full. We aimed to test the financial effects of admissions and readmissions
      by persons with and without specified chronic conditions in one regional
      hospital. This is a management case study with a descriptive brief report. This
      study was conducted at Winchester Memorial Hospital, a general hospital in a
      largely rural area of Virginia, 2010-2015. The total margin per admission varied
      by diagnosis, with the average patient diagnosed with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease, heart failure, pneumonia, or chronic renal disease having
      negative margins. The largest per-patient losses were in diagnostic categories
      coinciding with the highest readmission rates. The margin declined into
      substantial losses with an increasing number of chronic conditions, which also
      corresponded with higher readmission rates. Patients with 5 or more clinical
      conditions had highest risk of readmission within 30 days (24.8%) and had an
      average total loss of $865 per admission in 2015. The adverse financial effects
      worsened between 2010 and 2015. This hospital might improve its finances by
      investing in strategies to reduce chronic illness hospitalizations, especially
      those with multiple chronic conditions and high risk of readmission. These
      findings counter the common claim that the hospital would do better to fill beds
      rather than to work on efficient utilization. Other hospitals could replicate
      these analyses to understand their situations.

PMID- 28863720
TI  - Harmonic Brain Modes: A Unifying Framework for Linking Space and Time in Brain
      Dynamics.
AB  - A fundamental characteristic of spontaneous brain activity is coherent
      oscillations covering a wide range of frequencies. Interestingly, these temporal
      oscillations are highly correlated among spatially distributed cortical areas
      forming structured correlation patterns known as the resting state networks,
      although the brain is never truly at "rest." Here, we introduce the concept of
      harmonic brain modes-fundamental building blocks of complex spatiotemporal
      patterns of neural activity. We define these elementary harmonic brain modes as
      harmonic modes of structural connectivity; that is, connectome harmonics,
      yielding fully synchronous neural activity patterns with different frequency
      oscillations emerging on and constrained by the particular structure of the
      brain. Hence, this particular definition implicitly links the hitherto poorly
      understood dimensions of space and time in brain dynamics and its underlying
      anatomy. Further we show how harmonic brain modes can explain the relationship
      between neurophysiological, temporal, and network-level changes in the brain
      across different mental states ( wakefulness, sleep, anesthesia, psychedelic).
      Notably, when decoded as activation of connectome harmonics, spatial and temporal
      characteristics of neural activity naturally emerge from the interplay between
      excitation and inhibition and this critical relation fits the spatial, temporal,
      and neurophysiological changes associated with different mental states. Thus, the
      introduced framework of harmonic brain modes not only establishes a relation
      between the spatial structure of correlation patterns and temporal oscillations
      (linking space and time in brain dynamics), but also enables a new dimension of
      tools for understanding fundamental principles underlying brain dynamics in
      different states of consciousness.

PMID- 28863721
TI  - An Examination of the Importance of Strain in the Cannabis Gateway Effect.
AB  - Gateway theory has been the source of much debate in both the research literature
      and public policy. Support for gateway sequencing has been mixed, especially in
      research that has considered the role of criminological variables in the etiology
      of substance use. For example, limited prior research has observed as important
      in gateway sequencing the effects of severe stressors. Data from the National
      Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health are utilized to test gateway
      theory and examine whether severe stressors affect the relationship between
      frequency of cannabis use and later use of other illicit drugs (OIDs). Findings
      suggest that while frequency of cannabis use does increase the likelihood of
      later use of OIDs, this relationship may be the result of the common cause of
      experiencing severe stress. Implications of the findings are discussed.

PMID- 28863722
TI  - Comparing Predictive Validity of JSORRAT-II and MEGA? With Sexually Abusive Youth
      in Long-Term Residential Custody.
AB  - This 6-year prospective study is the first to compare two psychometrically sound
      risk assessment tools for sexually abusive youth: JSORRAT-II and MEGA?. Cross
      validated on representative samples of over 500 youth, these measures have cutoff
      scores, allowing for a more exact assessment of risk. Study sample consisted of
      129 male adjudicated adolescents housed in a secured residential treatment
      facility for sexually abusive youth. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      analysis showed that MEGA? Risk Scale was mildly predictive of sexual recidivism
      over a 6-year period (mean follow-up = 15.6 months)-area under the curve (AUC) =
      .67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.52, 0.82]; p < .015. JSORRAT-II was not
      predictive (AUC = .57; 95% CI = [0.42, 0.72]; p < .297). The study contributes to
      scant literature on the most contemporary, statistically robust risk assessment
      tools for sexually abusive youth.

PMID- 28863723
TI  - Flexor Digitorum Longus (FDL) or Flexor Hallucis Longus (FHL) Harvesting:
      Technical Tip and Case Studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Harvesting of the flexor digitorum longus (FDL) or the flexor
      hallucis longus (FHL) is a procedure used when tendon transfer is needed. It is
      commonly used in tibialis posterior reconstruction and Achilles tendon
      reconstruction. Harvesting of these tendons is sometimes difficult and time
      consuming. It is important to obtain sufficient length to make a loop around the
      navicular bone or anchor it in the calcaneus. We describe a technique in which a
      loop is passed from proximal identification of the FDL or FHL through the tendon
      sheath, harvesting it from a minimal plantar approach. METHODS: After using this
      technique, we evaluated 10 consecutive patients for neurovascular damage.
      RESULTS: We found no postoperative neurovascular injuries. CONCLUSIONS: The
      technique described enables the surgeon to find the FDL/FHL tendon through the
      medial approach and obtain sufficient length for the procedure by cutting the
      distal portion of the tendon through an additional plantar incision. Our
      technical tip for passing the loop facilitates harvest of the tendon easily and
      safely using the plantar approach. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, case series.

PMID- 28863724
TI  - Restricting Back Pain and Subsequent Disability in Activities of Daily Living
      Among Community-Living Older Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between back pain severe enough to
      restrict activity (restricting back pain) and subsequent disability in essential
      (e) and instrumental (i) activities of daily living (ADL) among community-living
      older adults. METHOD: In this prospective cohort study, we evaluated 754 adults,
      aged >=70 years who were initially nondisabled in eADL. Restricting back pain and
      disability were assessed during monthly interviews for up to 159 months.
      Associations between restricting back pain and subsequent eADL and iADL
      disability were evaluated using recurrent events Cox models, adjusted for fixed
      in-time and time-varying covariates. RESULTS: Strong associations were found
      between restricting back pain and eADL and iADL disability, with hazard ratios
      (95% confidence intervals) of 3.47 [3.01, 3.90] and 2.33 [2.08, 2.61],
      respectively. DISCUSSION: Restricting back pain was independently associated with
      subsequent disability in eADL and iADL. Interventions focused on decreasing
      restricting back pain in older adults may have the potential to reduce the
      subsequent burden of disability.

PMID- 28863725
TI  - Clinical Practice Recommendations Based on an Updated Review of Breast Cancer
      Risk Among Women Treated for Childhood Cancer.
AB  - Breast cancer is the most common secondary malignancy among women treated for
      childhood cancer. This review highlights interacting etiologies contributing to
      development of secondary breast cancer to complement guidelines for surveillance
      and survivorship care and make recommendations for clinical practice. Treatment
      exposures determine Children's Oncology Group breast cancer surveillance
      guidelines; those treated with cumulative doses >=20 Gy chest irradiation should
      undergo annual magnetic resonance imaging and mammography after age 25 years or 8
      years after exposure, whichever comes last. Recent investigations suggest that
      those treated with cumulative doses >=10 Gy in fields affecting breast tissue,
      specifically whole lung, should be counseled for similar surveillance. Childhood
      sarcoma and leukemia survivors treated with anthracyclines and/or alkylating
      agents without radiation have increased risk for breast cancer and may require
      enhanced surveillance. Multigene testing and/or genomic evaluation for
      predisposition among certain childhood cancer subtypes may prove to be beneficial
      in identifying those at greatest risk. Pediatric oncology nurses who incorporate
      this information into survivorship care planning discussions/documents and
      clinical research endeavors may help reduce breast cancer-related
      morbidity/mortality for this at-risk population.

PMID- 28863726
TI  - "You Have to Approach Us Right": A Qualitative Framework Analysis for Recruiting
      African Americans Into mHealth Research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the high ownership of smartphones, African Americans (AAs)
      remain underrepresented in health research and specifically mobile health
      (mHealth) research. This may be due to ineffective recruitment efforts. PURPOSE:
      To explore strategies for recruiting AAs into mHealth research and examine how
      these strategies may vary by gender and age-group. METHOD: Twenty triad focus
      groups ( n = 60) were conducted with AA males ( n = 9 groups) and females ( n =
      11 groups). The framework method was used to manage, organize, synthesize, and
      analyze data themes by gender and age-group (18-29, 30-50, 51+). RESULTS: Most
      participants owned smartphones (71%) and were willing to participate in mHealth
      research (62%). The participants' narrative revealed the tension between mistrust
      of researchers and the excitement of participating in technology-based research.
      Both genders and all age-groups can be reached via word-of-mouth because it is
      "the best advertisement." Personal contact must precede traditional and
      electronic recruitment strategies because "we have to know you." Churches are
      excellent places for recruitment because they are "trustworthy" and have a
      "repeat audience." Facebook may be effective for both genders and all age-groups
      because "everybody is on Facebook" and it can "reach more people than text and e
      mail." Beauty/barber shops may be limited in reaching both genders and age
      groups, but especially young women who style their own hair natural, and young
      men who wear braids and dreadlocks. Personal contact must precede traditional and
      electronic recruitment strategies because "we have to know you." CONCLUSION: A
      tailored, multipronged strategy that combines traditional recruitment methods
      with texting, e-mail, and social media may be effective in recruiting AA adults
      into mHealth research.

PMID- 28863727
TI  - Soluble Endoglin (CD105) Serum Level as a Potential Marker in the Management of
      Head and Neck Paragangliomas.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the expression of endoglin in head and neck paragangliomas
      and the soluble endoglin level in serum of paraganglioma patients. METHODS: Seven
      tumor samples of patients operated for cervical paraganglioma were assessed, as
      well as serum samples collected preoperatively, on days 4 and 28 postoperation.
      Serum level of endoglin in healthy controls was also determined. Tumor samples
      were subjected to immunofluorescent staining and examined with confocal
      microscope. The level of soluble endoglin in serum samples was examined using the
      immunoenzymatic assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Endoglin was highly expressed in all
      tumor samples. The level of soluble endoglin was significantly higher in
      paraganglioma patients compared to healthy controls and correlated with the tumor
      size. The serum level of s-endoglin was reduced after surgical excision of the
      tumor and remained stable after 4 weeks in all patients with complete resection
      of the tumor. CONCLUSION: Endoglin is an important factor in the pathophysiology
      of head and neck paragangliomas and may be a potential diagnostic and prognostic
      marker in these types of tumors.

PMID- 28863728
TI  - Venous Complications in One Versus Two Vein Anastomoses in Head and Neck Free
      Flaps.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare rates of reexploration and
      flap failure in patients with 1- and 2-vein anastomoses in free flap
      reconstructions. METHODS: Retrospective chart review of 300 patients undergoing
      free flap reconstruction to head and neck defects from 2010 to 2014. RESULTS: One
      venous anastomosis was performed in 229 patients, and 2 venous anastomoses were
      performed in 71 patients. The 1-vein group had significantly more reexplorations
      in the operating room (36/229, 15.7%) compared with the 2-vein group (4/71, 5.6%;
      P = .028), even when controlling for flap type ( P = .022). This finding remained
      true among radial forearm flaps (17/81, 21% vs 3/53, 5.7%; P = .024). The number
      of venous anastomoses was not significantly associated with flap failure, though
      patients with flap failure did have a significantly greater proportion of venous
      issues ( P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Two-vein anastomoses do not appear to reduce
      rates of flap failure or postoperative venous thrombosis but are associated with
      a lower number of reexplorations in the operating room even after accounting for
      differences in flap types and surgeons.

PMID- 28863729
TI  - Rate of Neurologic Injury Following Lateralizing Calcaneal Osteotomy Performed
      Through a Medial Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calcaneal osteotomies are commonly used to correct varus hindfoot
      alignment in patients with symptomatic cavovarus deformity. Translational,
      closing wedge, and Malerba-type osteotomies have been implicated in the
      development of tarsal tunnel syndrome and neurologic injury to branches of the
      tibial nerve. The authors hypothesized that there would be minimal clinically
      important injury to the tibial nerve by performing a translational calcaneal
      osteotomy from a medial approach. METHODS: All patients undergoing a cavovarus
      reconstruction by a single surgeon were identified. Patients were included if
      they underwent a lateralizing calcaneal osteotomy via medial approach.
      Demographics, operative reports, and clinic notes were reviewed to identify
      concomitant procedures performed, incidence of postoperative tarsal tunnel
      syndrome, complications, and preoperative and postoperative nerve examinations.
      Postoperative radiographs were reviewed for location of the osteotomy relative to
      the posterior tubercle. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients underwent lateralizing
      calcaneal osteotomy via a medial approach. Of the osteotomies, 83.3% (20/24) were
      in the middle third of the calcaneus, with a mean of 11.6-mm translation. No
      patients developed postoperative tarsal tunnel syndrome or tibial nerve palsy.
      CONCLUSION: Lateralizing calcaneal osteotomy performed via a medial approach had
      a clinically negligible incidence of neurologic injury. Adequate translation was
      achieved to obtain correction of varus hindfoot deformity. The authors believe
      that there is less direct and less percussive injury to branches of the tibial
      nerve when performing the osteotomy from medial to lateral. This technique may
      represent an operative strategy to minimize risk to the tibial nerve and reduce
      neurologic deficit following cavovarus reconstruction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level
      IV, case series.

PMID- 28863731
TI  - 6th International Congress of the Cell Transplant Society.

PMID- 28863730
TI  - The Challenges of Identifying and Classifying Child Sexual Abuse Material.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to (a) assess the reliability with which
      indecent images of children (IIOC) are classified as being of an indecent versus
      nonindecent nature, and (b) examine in detail the decision-making process engaged
      in by law enforcement personnel who undertake the difficult task of identifying
      and classifying IIOC as per the current legislative offense categories. One
      experienced researcher and four employees from a police force in the United
      Kingdom coded an extensive amount of IIOC ( n = 1,212-2,233) to determine if they
      (a) were deemed to be of an indecent nature, and (b) depicted a child. Interrater
      reliability analyses revealed both considerable agreement and disagreement across
      coders, which were followed up with two focus groups involving the four
      employees. The first entailed a general discussion of the aspects that made such
      material more or less difficult to identify; the second focused around images
      where there had been either agreement ( n = 20) or disagreement ( n = 36) across
      coders that the images were of an indecent nature. Using thematic analysis, a
      number of factors apparent within IIOC were revealed to make the determination of
      youthfulness and indecency significantly more challenging for coders, with most
      relating to the developmental stage of the victim and the ambiguity of the
      context of an image. Findings are discussed in light of their implications for
      the identification of victims of ongoing sexual exploitation/abuse, the
      assessment and treatment of individuals in possession of IIOC, as well as the
      practice of policing and sentencing this type of offending behavior.

PMID- 28863735
TI  - Regulation of Trophic Factor Expression by Innervating Target Regions in
      Intraocular Double Transplants.
AB  - Trophic factors have been found to play a significant role both in long-term
      survival processes and in more rapid and dynamic processes in the brain and
      spinal cord. However, little is known regarding the regulation of expression of
      growth factors, and how these proteins interact on a cell-to-cell basis. We have
      studied protein levels of one growth factor known to affect the noradrenergic
      innervation of the hippocampal formation, namely brain-derived neurotrophic
      factor (BDNF). The purpose of the present study was to determine if appropriate
      innervation or contact between the LC noradrenergic neurons and their target, the
      hippocampus, affects expression of this growth factor in either brain region.
      Fetal brain stem tissue, containing the LC, and hippocampal formation were
      dissected from embryonic day 17 rat fetuses and transplanted together or alone
      into the anterior chamber of the eye of adult Fisher 344 rats. The tissue was
      grown together for 6 weeks, after which the animals were sacrificed and ELISAs
      for BDNF were undertaken. Transplantation to the anterior chamber of the eye
      increased the expression of BDNF in the hippocampal but not the brain stem
      tissue, compared with levels observed in fetal and adult rats in vivo. In
      addition, double grafting with hippocampal tissue more than tripled BDNF levels
      in brain stem grafts and doubled BDNF levels in the hippocampal portion of double
      grafts compared with hippocampal single grafts. Triple grafts containing basal
      forebrain, hippocampus, and brain stem LC tissue increased brain stem and
      hippocampal BDNF levels even further. Colchicine treatment of LC-hippocampal
      double grafts gave rise to a significant decrease in hippocampal BDNF levels to
      levels seen in single hippocampal grafts, while only a partial reduction of BDNF
      levels was seen in the brain stem portion of the same double grafts treated with
      colchicine. The findings suggest that an appropriate hippocampal innervation or
      contact with its target tissues is essential for regulation of BDNF expression in
      the brain stem, and that retrograde transport of BDNF can occur between double
      grafted fetal tissues in oculo.

PMID- 28863737
TI  - Improvement of Pancreatic Islet Isolation Outcomes Using Glutamine Perfusion
      during Isolation Procedure.
AB  - During procurement, isolation, and transplantation, islets are exposed to high
      levels of oxidative stress triggering a variety of signaling pathways that can
      ultimately lead to cell death. Glutamine is an important cellular fuel and an
      essential precursor for the antioxidant glutathione. The aim of this study was to
      examine the role of intraductal glutamine administration in facilitating recovery
      of isolated rat islets from pancreases subjected to a clinically relevant period
      of warm ischemia. Islets were isolated in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (n= 18 per
      group). Pancreata in groups 1 and 2 were procured immediately while groups 3 and
      4 were subjected to 30-min warm ischemia. Groups 2 and 4 were treated
      intraductally with 5 mM glutamine prior to pancreatectomy. Exposure to 30-min
      warm ischemia significantly reduced islet yield [groups 1 & 2 (nonischemia): 503
      +/- 29 islets/rat vs. groups 3 & 4 (ischemia): 247 +/- 26 islets/rat; p < 0.05].
      Intraductal glutamine treatment significantly improved islet yield when pancreata
      were subjected to 30-min warm ischemia [144 +/- 16 islets/rat without glutamine
      (group 3) vs. 343 +/- 36 islets/rat with glutamine (group 4), p < 0.05].
      Glutamine also significantly improved islet viability (values were 50 +/- 4% in
      group 4 vs. 27 +/- 3% in group 3, p < 0.05). Similarly, glutathione (reduced)
      levels were significantly elevated in both glutamine-treated groups; however,
      this increase was greatest in tissues exposed to ischemia (2.76 +/- 0.04 nmol/mg
      protein in group 4 vs. 1.66 +/- 0.04 nmol/mg protein in group 3, p < 0.05).
      Intraductal glutamine administration considerably improves the islet yield,
      viability, and augments endogenous glutathione levels in pancreata procured after
      a clinically relevant period of ischemia. Intraductal administration of glutamine
      at the time of digestive enzyme delivery into the harvested pancreas may
      represent a simple yet effective tool to improve islet yields in clinical
      isolations.

PMID- 28863738
TI  - Insulin-Induced Normoglycemia Reduces Islet Number Needed to Achieve
      Normoglycemia after Allogeneic Islet Transplantation in Diabetic Mice.
AB  - The Edmonton protocol established that insulin independence could be reached with
      the transplantation of an appropriate number of islet cells. However, to effect a
      cure, islets from two or three pancreases are needed. The aim of this study was
      to examine whether normoglycemia, with insulin treatment before and after
      transplantation, reduces the islet number needed to achieve normoglycemia in
      allogeneic islet transplantation. Swiss mice were used as donors and recipients.
      Diabetes was induced by IP administration of streptozotocin (180 mg/kg BW).
      Diabetic mice were transplanted with 300 (n = 16), 400 (n = 16), or 500 (n = 16)
      islets under the left kidney capsule. For every group, half the animals were kept
      normoglycemic with insulin treatment from day 4 before transplantation to day 10
      after transplantation. At the end of the study, all normoglycemic mice were given
      an IP glucose tolerance test (IPGTT). For statistical analysis, paired or
      unpaired Student's t-test or ANOVA was used. Only insulin-treated mice achieved
      normoglycemia by the end of the study (37.5% of animals transplanted with 400
      islets and 50% transplanted with 300 or 500 islets). At the end of the study,
      normoglycemic mice transplanted with 300 allogeneic islets showed better
      glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) than did normoglycemic mice transplanted with 500
      islets (300 islets: 2.7 +/- 0.2%; 500 islets: 3.6 +/- 0.2%; p < 0.05). After the
      IPGTT, insulin-treated mice transplanted with 500 islets showed abnormal glucose
      tolerance; however, insulin-treated mice transplanted with 300 or 400 islets
      showed normal glucose tolerance. Insulin treatment reduced the islet number
      needed to achieve normoglycemia in allogeneic islet transplantation. The HbA1C
      and IPGTT results suggest that transplanting smaller numbers of allogeneic islets
      improves beta-cell function; some studies suggest that this may be due to lower
      immunogenicity, hypoxia, and inflammation.

PMID- 28863739
TI  - Response of Encapsulated Rat Pancreatic Islets to Hypoxia.
AB  - Hypoxia contributes to encapsulated pancreatic islet graft failure. To gain
      insight into the mechanisms that lead to hypoxia-induced graft failure,
      encapsulated islet function, vitality, and cell replication were assessed after 2
      and 5 days of hypoxic (1% O2) and normoxic (20% O2) culture. The mRNA expression
      levels of Bcl-2, Bax, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and monocyte
      chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) were assessed, as well as the amount of nitrite
      and MCP-1 in the culture medium. Hypoxia was associated with loss of encapsulated
      islet function and vitality, but not with an increase in islet cell replication.
      Loss of vitality was due to necrosis, and only modestly due to apoptosis. Hypoxia
      was not associated with changes in the Bcl-2/Bax mRNA ratio, but it did increase
      the expression of iNOS and MCP-1 mRNA. The increased mRNA levels were, however,
      not associated with elevated concentrations of nitrite nor with elevated levels
      of MCP-1 protein. The increased iNOS mRNA levels imply a role for NO in the
      completion of cell death by hypoxia. The increased MCP-1 mRNA levels suggest that
      encapsulated islets in vivo contribute to their own graft failure by attracting
      cytokine-producing macrophages. The discrepancy between iNOS mRNA and nitrite is
      explained by the longer half-life of NO during hypoxia. MCP-1 protein levels are
      underestimated as a consequence of the lower number of vital cells in combination
      with a higher proteolytic activity due to necrosis. Thus, strategies to eliminate
      hypoxia may not only improve islet function and vitality, but may also reduce the
      attraction of macrophages by encapsulated islets.

PMID- 28863740
TI  - Article Commentary: Cell Transplantation: The Regenerative Medicine Journal. A
      Biennial Analysis of Publications.

PMID- 28863741
TI  - 9th International Conference on Neural Transplantation and Repair.

PMID- 28863743
TI  - Abstracts for the 15th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy
      and Repair.

PMID- 28863744
TI  - Maintenance of Mouse, Rat, and Pig Pancreatic Islet Functions by Coculture with
      Human Islet-Derived Fibroblasts.
AB  - Development of an efficient preculture system of islets is ideal. Toward that
      goal, we constructed a human pancreatic islet-derived fibroblast cell line MNNK-1
      for a source as a coculture system for freshly isolated islets to maintain islet
      functions. Human pancreatic islet cells were nucleofected with a plasmid vector
      pYK-1 expressing simian virus 40 large T antigen gene (SV40T) and hygromycin
      resistance gene (HygroR). One of the transduced cell lines, MNNK-1, was
      established and served as a feeder cell in the coculture for freshly isolated
      mouse, rat, and pig islets. Morphology, viability, and glucose-responding insulin
      secretion were analyzed in the coculture system. MNNK-1 cells were
      morphologically spindle shaped and were negative for pancreatic endocrine
      markers. MNNK-1 cells were positive for alpha-smooth muscle actin and collagen
      type I and produced fibroblast growth factor. Coculture of the mouse, rat, and
      pig islets with MNNK-1 cells maintained their viability and insulin secretion
      with glucose responsiveness. A human pancreatic islet-derived fibroblast cell
      line MNNK-1 was established. MNNK-1 cells were a useful means for maintaining
      morphology and insulin secretion of islets in the coculture system.

PMID- 28863745
TI  - Survival and Function of Transplanted Islet Cells on an in Vivo, Vascularized
      Tissue Engineering Platform in the Rat: A Pilot Study 1.
AB  - As in vivo tissue engineering of complex tissues and organs progresses, there is
      a need for an independently vascularized, alterable, and recoverable model.
      Current models of islet cell transplantation (release into the portal venous
      system, placement under the renal capsule, and microencapsulation) lack these
      qualities. We have developed a model of angiogenesis and spontaneous tissue
      generation in the rat that lends itself as a potential platform for tissue
      engineering. In this experiment, we examined the effectiveness of such a model in
      addressing some of the shortcomings of endocrine pancreatic transplantation. An
      arteriovenous loop was created in the groins of five adult inbred Sprague-Dawley
      rats, and placed within polycarbonate chambers. Isolated pancreatic islet cell
      clusters were placed within the chambers, suspended in a matrix of Matrigel(r).
      The chambers were recovered at 3 weeks, and the newly generated tissue was
      processed for histologic and immunohistochemical analysis. By 3 weeks,
      spontaneous generation of angiogenesis and collagen matrix and deposition of a
      collagen matrix was observed. Surviving islet cells were identified by histology
      and their viability was confirmed via immunohistochemistry for insulin and
      glucagon. This study demonstrates the ability to maintain viability and
      functionality of transplanted islet cells on a tissue-engineered platform with an
      independent vascular supply. The model provides the ability to alter the graft
      environment via matrix substitution, cellular coculture, and administration of
      growth factors. The transplanted tissues are recoverable without animal sacrifice
      and are microsurgically transferable. This model may provide an in vivo culture
      platform for the study of islet transplantation.

PMID- 28863747
TI  - Chemokines and Their Receptors in Islet Allograft Rejection and as Targets for
      Tolerance Induction.
AB  - Graft rejection is a major barrier to successful outcome of transplantation
      surgery. Islet transplantation introduces insulin secreting tissue into type 1
      diabetes mellitus recipients, relieving patients from exogenous insulin
      injection. However, insulitis of grafted tissue and allograft rejection prevent
      long-term insulin independence. Leukocyte trafficking is necessary for the launch
      of successful immune responses to pathogen or allograft. Chemokines, small
      chemotactic cytokines, direct the migration of leukocytes through their
      interaction with chemokine receptors found on cell surfaces of immune cells.
      Unique receptor expression of leukocytes, and the specificity of chemokine
      secretion during various states of immune response, suggest that the
      extracellular chemokine milieu specifically homes certain leukocyte subsets.
      Thus, only those leukocytes required for the current immune task are attracted to
      the inflammatory site. Chemokine blockade, using antagonists and monoclonal
      antibodies directed against chemokine receptors, is an emerging and specific
      immunosuppressive strategy. Importantly, chemokine blockade may potentiate
      tolerance induction regimens to be used following transplantation surgery, and
      prevent the need for life-long immunosuppression of islet transplant recipients.
      Here, the role for chemokine blockade in islet transplant rejection and tolerance
      is reviewed.

PMID- 28863748
TI  - The Development and Characterization of an HEK293-Derived Cell Line for Use in an
      Intratumoral Cytokine Delivery System.
AB  - As part of ongoing work to develop a method of cytokine delivery for use as an
      intratumoral depot, we noted that HEK293 cells, encapsulated in alginate, died
      within 24-48 h after in vivo, intratumoral implantation. We hypothesized that the
      highly hypoxic and acidic conditions found inside the tumor was the cause of the
      cells' premature demise. Therefore, we set out to develop a cell line, derived
      from HEK293, that would survive these hostile conditions. The HEK293 line was
      selected in 0.3-0.5% oxygen conditions over several weeks, followed by a further
      6-week period of culture in alternating hypoxic and normoxic conditions. The most
      rapidly growing clones were selected and grown in normoxic conditions for several
      weeks to ensure their stability. The clones were then compared to the original
      line in terms of cell proliferation in normoxia and hypoxia, colony-forming
      efficiency, and morphological characteristics. The resulting line was able to
      proliferate in the harshest of conditions and continues to release its biological
      payload after alginate microencapsulation.

PMID- 28863749
TI  - Establishment of Immortalized Human Hepatocytes by Introduction of HPV16 E6/E7
      and hTERT as Cell Sources for Liver Cell-Based Therapy.
AB  - For future cell-based therapies for liver diseases, the shortage of cell sources
      must be resolved. Immortalized human hepatocytes are expected to be among the new
      sources. In addition to telomerase activation by the introduction of human
      telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), inactivation of the p16/RB pathway
      and/or p53 by E6/E7 of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) has been shown to be
      useful for efficient immortalization of several human cell types. Here we report
      the immortalization of human hepatocytes by the introduction of HPV16 E6/E7 and
      hTERT. Human adult hepatocytes were lentivirally transduced with HPV16 E6/E7 and
      hTERT. Two human immortalized hepatocyte cell lines were established and were
      named HHE6E7T-1 and HHE6E7T-2. Those cells proliferated in culture beyond 200
      population doublings (PDs). Albumin synthesis and expression of liver-enriched
      genes were confirmed, but gradually decreased as passages progressed. Karyotype
      analysis showed that HHE6E7T-1 cells remained near diploid but that HHE6E7T-2
      cells showed severe aneuploidy at 150 PDs. Subcutaneous injection of these cells
      into severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice did not induce tumor
      development. Intrasplenic transplantation of dedifferentiated HHE6E7T-1 cells
      over 200 PDs significantly improved the survival of acetaminophen-induced acute
      liver failure SCID mice. In conclusion, we successfully established immortalized
      human hepatocytes that retain the characteristics of differentiated hepatocytes.
      We also showed the reduction of hepatocyte-specific functions in long-term
      culture. However, the results of intrasplenic transplantation to SCID mice with
      acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure showed the possibility of HHE6E7T-1
      serving as a cell source for hepatocyte transplantation.

PMID- 28863751
TI  - The Choice of Anatomical Site for Islet Transplantation.
AB  - Islet transplantation into the portal vein is the current clinical practice.
      However, it has now been recognized that this implantation site has several
      characteristics that can hamper islet engraftment and survival, such as low
      oxygen tension, an active innate immune system, and the provocation of an
      inflammatory response (IBMIR). These factors result in the loss of many
      transplanted islets, mainly during the first hours or days after transplantation,
      which could in part explain the necessity for the transplantation of islets from
      multiple pancreas donors to cure type 1 diabetes. This increases the burden on
      the limited pool of donor organs. Therefore, an alternative anatomical site for
      islet transplantation that offers maximum engraftment, efficacious use of
      produced insulin, and maximum patient safety is urgently needed. In this review,
      the experience with alternative sites for islet implantation in clinical and
      experimental models is discussed. Subcutaneous transplantation guarantees maximum
      patient safety and has become clinically applicable. Future improvements could be
      achieved with innovative designs for devices to induce neovascularization and
      protect the islets from cellular rejection. However, other sites, such as the
      omentum, offer drainage of produced insulin into the portal vein for direct
      utilization in the liver. The use of pigs would not only overcome the shortage of
      transplantable islets, but genetic modification could result in the expression of
      human genes, such as complement regulatory or "anticoagulation" genes in the
      islets to overcome some site-specific disadvantages. Eventually, the liver will
      most likely be replaced by a site that allows long-term survival of islets from a
      single donor to reverse type 1 diabetes.

PMID- 28863750
TI  - Variation in the Incidence of Teratomas after the Transplantation of Nonhuman
      Primate ES Cells into Immunodeficient Mice.
AB  - Embryonic stem (ES) cells have the ability to generate teratomas when
      transplanted into immunodeficient mice, but conditions affecting the generation
      remain to be elucidated. Nonhuman primate cynomolgus ES cells were transplanted
      into immunodeficient mice under different conditions; the number of transplanted
      cells, physical state (clumps or single dissociated cells), transplant site,
      differentiation state, and immunological state of recipient mice were all varied.
      The tumorigenicity was then evaluated. When cynomolgus ES cells were transplanted
      as clumps into the lower limb muscle in either nonobese diabetic/severe combined
      immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) or NOD/SCID/?cnull (NOG) mice, teratomas developed in
      all the animals transplanted with 1 * 105 or more cells, but were not observed in
      any mouse transplanted with 1 * 103 cells. However, when the cells were
      transplanted as dissociated cells, the number of cells necessary for teratomas to
      form in all mice increased to 5 * 105. When the clump cells were injected
      subcutaneously (instead of intramuscularly), the number also increased to 5 *
      105. When cynomolgus ES cell-derived progenitor cells (1 * 106), which included
      residual pluripotent cells, were transplanted into the lower limb muscle of NOG
      or NOD/SCID mice, the incidence of teratomas differed between the strains;
      teratomas developed in five of five NOG mice but in only two of five NOD/SCID
      mice. The incidence of teratomas varied substantially depending on the
      transplanted cells and recipient mice. Thus, considerable care must be taken as
      to tumorigenicity.

PMID- 28863752
TI  - Divergent Preferences for HIV Prevention: A Discrete Choice Experiment for
      Multipurpose HIV Prevention Products in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The development of antiretroviral (ARV)-based prevention products has
      the potential to substantially change the HIV prevention landscape; yet, little
      is known about how appealing these products will be outside of clinical trials,
      as compared with the existing options. METHODS: We conducted a discrete choice
      experiment (DCE) to measure preferences for 5 new products among 4 important
      populations in the HIV response: adult men and women in the general population
      (aged 18 to 49 y), adolescent girls (aged 16 to 17 y), and self-identifying
      female sex workers (aged 18 to 49 y). We interviewed 661 self-reported HIV
      negative participants in peri-urban South Africa, who were asked to choose
      between 3 unique, hypothetical products over 10 choice sets. Data were analyzed
      using multinomial, latent class and mixed multinomial logit models. RESULTS: HIV
      protection was the most important attribute to respondents; however, results
      indicate significant demand among all groups for multipurpose prevention products
      that offer protection from HIV infection, other STIs, and unwanted pregnancy. All
      groups demonstrated a strong preference for long-lasting injectable products.
      There was substantial heterogeneity in preferences within and across population
      groups. LIMITATIONS: Hypothetical DCE data may not mirror real-world choices, and
      products will have more attributes in reality than represented in choice tasks.
      Background data on participants, including sensitive areas of HIV status and
      condom use, was self-reported. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that
      stimulating demand for new HIV prevention products may require a more a nuanced
      approach than simply developing highly effective products. No single product is
      likely to be equally attractive or acceptable across different groups. This study
      strengthens the call for effective and attractive multipurpose prevention
      products to be deployed as part of a comprehensive combination prevention
      strategy.

PMID- 28863753
TI  - Article Commentary: Cell Transplantation: Stem Cells in the Spotlight.

PMID- 28863773
TI  - Down-regulation of miRNA-148a and miRNA-625-3p in colorectal cancer is associated
      with tumor budding.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MiRNAs are often deregulated in colorectal cancer and might function
      as tumor suppressors or as oncogenes. They participate in controlling key
      signaling pathways involved in proliferation, invasion and apoptosis and may
      serve as prognostic and predictive markers. In this study we aimed to evaluate
      the role of miRNA-148a and miRNA-625-3p in metastatic colorectal cancer. METHODS:
      Fifty-four patients with a first-time diagnosed CRC receiving FOLFOX +/-
      Bevacizumab were involved in the study. Tumor samples underwent routine pathology
      examination including evaluation for tumor budding and KRAS. MiRNA-148a and miRNA
      625-3p expression analysis was done by RT-PCR. Associations between expression of
      both miRNAs and clinico-pathological factors, treatment outcomes and survival
      were analyzed. RESULTS: Both miRNA-148a and miRNA-625-3p were down-regulated in
      the tumors compared to normal colonic mucosa. Significantly lower expression of
      both miRNAs was noticed in tumors with budding phenomenon compared to tumors
      without it (median values of miRNA-148a were 0.314 and 0.753 respectively, p =
      0.011, and 0.404 and 0.620 respectively for miRNA-625-3p, p = 0.036).
      Significantly lower expression of miRNA-625-3p was detected in rectal tumors,
      compared to tumors in the colon (median 0.390 and 0.665 respectively, p = 0.037).
      Progression free survival was significantly lower in patients with high miRNA
      148a expression (6 and 9 months respectively, p = 0.033), but there were no
      significant differences in PFS for miRNA-625-3p and in overall survival for both
      miRNAs. CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant relationship between low miRNA-148a
      and miRNA-625-3p expression and tumor budding, which is thought to represent
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Both studied miRNAs may be associated with a
      more aggressive phenotype and could be the potential prognostic and predictive
      biomarkers in CRC. Further investigation is needed to confirm miRNAs involvement
      in EMT, and their prognostic and predictive value.

PMID- 28863774
TI  - Cost-effectiveness analysis of a multifactorial fall prevention intervention in
      older home care clients at risk for falling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Falls among older adults can cause serious morbidity and pose
      economic burdens on society. Older age is a known risk factor for falls and age
      has been shown to influence the effectiveness of fall prevention programs. To our
      knowledge, no studies have explicitly investigated whether cost-effectiveness of
      a multifactorial fall prevention intervention (the intervention) is influenced by
      age. This economic evaluation explores: 1) the cost-effectiveness of a
      multifactorial fall prevention intervention compared to usual care for community
      dwelling adults >= 75 years at risk of falling in Canada; and 2) the influence of
      age on the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. METHODS: Net benefit
      regression was used to examine the cost-effectiveness of the intervention with
      willingness-to-pay values ranging from $0-$50,000. Effects were measured as
      change in the number of falls, from baseline to 6-month follow-up. Costs were
      measured using a societal perspective. The cost-effectiveness analysis was
      conducted for both the total sample and by age subgroups (75-84 and 85+ years).
      RESULTS: For the total sample, the intervention was not economically attractive.
      However, the intervention was cost-effective at higher willingness-to-pay (WTP)
      (>= $25,000) for adults 75-84 years and at lower WTP (< $5,000) for adults 85+
      years. CONCLUSIONS: The cost-effectiveness of the intervention depends on age and
      decision makers' WTP to prevent falls. Understanding the influence of age on the
      cost-effectiveness of an intervention may help to target resources to those who
      benefit most. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Retrospectively registered. Clinicaltrials.gov
      identifier: NCT00463658 (18 April 2007).

PMID- 28863775
TI  - Self-medication among the elderly in Iran: a content analysis study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-medication is described as the use of drugs without a
      physician's prescription to treat self-recognized illness or symptoms, and an
      important health issue among the elderly. Despite the wide range of different
      definitions, recognizing all forms of self-medication among older adults,
      particularly, in developing countries, help healthcare professionals and
      providers to reduce harmful effects of self-medication. The purpose of this study
      is to describe the practice of self-medication and its related factors among
      elderly people in Iran based on the experiences of people who are involved in
      this phenomenon. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted using content
      analysis. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants and continued
      until saturation. The participants were the elderly, their care-givers,
      physicians, and pharmacists. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews,
      and analysis was done using an inductive approach. The theory of planned behavior
      was used as a framework to explain the role of the emerged factors in the
      occurrence of self-medication behavior. RESULTS: Based on the expressed
      experiences of the participants, factors related to the practice of self-
      medication among the elderly in Iran fit in these 5 categories: "patient's
      attitudes towards disease, treatment, and physicians", "living with disease",
      "unfriendly environments", "enabling health system", and "influential others".
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study, self-medication of the elderly
      in Iran has commonalities with many countries in regard to over-the-counter
      medications and complementary and alternative medicine; however, self-medication
      is also seen with drugs that require a prescription but can easily be obtained
      from pharmacies. Contributing factors, apart from the elderly themselves, include
      their families, caregivers, and social circle, the physical environment where
      they live, and the health system from which they receive services.

PMID- 28863776
TI  - A change in the study evaluation paradigm reveals that larynx preservation
      compromises survival in T4 laryngeal cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Larynx preservation (LP) is recommended for up to low-volume T4
      laryngeal cancer as an evidence-based treatment option that does not compromise
      survival. However, a reevaluation of the current literature raises questions
      regarding whether there is indeed reliable evidence to support larynx
      preservation for T4 tumor patients. METHODS: In an observational cohort study of
      810 laryngeal cancer patients, we evaluated the outcomes of all T4 tumor patients
      treated with primary chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) or primary radiotherapy alone (RT)
      compared with upfront total laryngectomy followed by adjuvant (chemo)radiotherapy
      (TL + a[C]RT). Additionally, we reevaluated the studies that form the evidence
      base for the recommendation of LP for patients with up to T4 tumors (Pfister et
      al., J Clin Oncol 24:3693-704, 2006). RESULTS: The evaluation of all 288 stage
      III and IV patients together did not show a significant difference in overall
      survival (OS) between CRT-LP and TL + a(C)RT (hazard ratio (HR) 1.23; 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 0.82-1.86; p = 0.31) using a multivariate proportional
      hazard model. However, a subgroup analysis of T4 tumor patients alone (N = 107;
      13.9%) revealed significantly worse OS after CRT compared with TL + a(C)RT (HR
      2.0; 95% CI: 1.04-3.7; p = 0.0369). A reevaluation of the subgroup of T4 patients
      in the 5 LP studies that led to the ASCO clinical practice guidelines revealed
      that only 21-45 T4 patients had differential data on survival outcome. These
      data, however, showed a markedly worse outcome for T4 patients after LP.
      CONCLUSIONS: T4 laryngeal cancer patients who reject TL as a treatment option
      should be informed that their chance of organ preservation with primary
      conservative treatment is likely to result in a significantly worse outcome in
      terms of OS. Significant loss of survival in T4 patients after LP is also
      confirmed in recent literature.

PMID- 28863778
TI  - Gene flow during glacial habitat shifts facilitates character displacement in a
      Neotropical flycatcher radiation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pleistocene climatic fluctuations are known to be an engine of biotic
      diversification at higher latitudes, but their impact on highly diverse tropical
      areas such as the Andes remains less well-documented. Specifically, while periods
      of global cooling may have led to fragmentation and differentiation at colder
      latitudes, they may - at the same time - have led to connectivity among insular
      patches of montane tropical habitat with unknown consequences on diversification.
      In the present study we utilized ~5.5 kb of DNA sequence data from eight nuclear
      loci and one mitochondrial gene alongside diagnostic morphological and
      bioacoustic markers to test the effects of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations on
      diversification in a complex of Andean tyrant-flycatchers of the genus Elaenia.
      RESULTS: Population genetic and phylogenetic approaches coupled with coalescent
      simulations demonstrated disparate levels of gene flow between the taxon
      chilensis and two parapatric Elaenia taxa predominantly during the last glacial
      period but not thereafter, possibly on account of downward shifts of montane
      forest habitat linking the populations of adjacent ridges. Additionally,
      morphological and bioacoustic analyses revealed a distinct pattern of character
      displacement in coloration and vocal traits between the two sympatric taxa
      albiceps and pallatangae, which were characterized by a lack of gene flow.
      CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that global periods of cooling are likely to
      have facilitated gene flow among Andean montane Elaenia flycatchers that are more
      isolated from one another during warm interglacial periods such as the present
      era. We also identify a hitherto overlooked case of plumage and vocal character
      displacement, underpinning the complexities of gene flow patterns caused by
      Pleistocene climate change across the Andes.

PMID- 28863777
TI  - Dosage-sensitive genes in evolution and disease.
AB  - For a subset of genes in our genome a change in gene dosage, by duplication or
      deletion, causes a phenotypic effect. These dosage-sensitive genes may confer an
      advantage upon copy number change, but more typically they are associated with
      disease, including heart disease, cancers and neuropsychiatric disorders. This
      gene copy number sensitivity creates characteristic evolutionary constraints that
      can serve as a diagnostic to identify dosage-sensitive genes. Though the link
      between copy number change and disease is well-established, the mechanism of
      pathogenicity is usually opaque. We propose that gene expression level may
      provide a common basis for the pathogenic effects of many copy number variants.

PMID- 28863779
TI  - Optimization of a metatranscriptomic approach to study the lignocellulolytic
      potential of the higher termite gut microbiome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thanks to specific adaptations developed over millions of years, the
      efficiency of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose decomposition of higher termite
      symbiotic system exceeds that of many other lignocellulose utilizing
      environments. Especially, the examination of its symbiotic microbes should reveal
      interesting carbohydrate-active enzymes, which are of primary interest for the
      industry. Previous metatranscriptomic reports (high-throughput mRNA sequencing)
      highlight the high representation and overexpression of cellulose and
      hemicelluloses degrading genes in the termite hindgut digestomes, indicating the
      potential of this technology in search for new enzymes. Nevertheless, several
      factors associated with the material sampling and library preparation steps make
      the metatranscriptomic studies of termite gut prokaryotic symbionts challenging.
      METHODS: In this study, we first examined the influence of the sampling strategy,
      including the whole termite gut and luminal fluid, on the diversity and the
      metatranscriptomic profiles of the higher termite gut symbiotic bacteria.
      Secondly, we evaluated different commercially available kits combined in two
      library preparative pipelines for the best bacterial mRNA enrichment strategy.
      RESULTS: We showed that the sampling strategy did not significantly impact the
      generated results, both in terms of the representation of the microbes and their
      transcriptomic profiles. Nevertheless collecting luminal fluid reduces the co
      amplification of unwanted RNA species of host origin. Furthermore, for the four
      studied higher termite species, the library preparative pipeline employing Ribo
      Zero Gold rRNA Removal Kit "Epidemiology" in combination with Poly(A) Purist MAG
      kit resulted in a more efficient rRNA and poly-A-mRNAdepletion (up to 98.44% rRNA
      removed) than the pipeline utilizing MICROBExpress and MICROBEnrich kits. High
      correlation of both Ribo-Zero and MICROBExpresse depleted gene expression
      profiles with total non-depleted RNA-seq data has been shown for all studied
      samples, indicating no systematic skewing of the studied pipelines. CONCLUSIONS:
      We have extensively evaluated the impact of the sampling strategy and library
      preparation steps on the metatranscriptomic profiles of the higher termite gut
      symbiotic bacteria. The presented methodological approach has great potential to
      enhance metatranscriptomic studies of the higher termite intestinal flora and to
      unravel novel carbohydrate-active enzymes.

PMID- 28863780
TI  - Feature tracking CMR reveals abnormal strain in preclinical arrhythmogenic right
      ventricular dysplasia/ cardiomyopathy: a multisoftware feasibility and clinical
      implementation study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regional right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is the hallmark of
      Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C), but is
      currently only qualitatively evaluated in the clinical setting. Feature Tracking
      Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (FT-CMR) is a novel quantitative method that
      uses cine CMR to calculate strain values. However, most prior FT-CMR studies in
      ARVD/C have focused on global RV strain using different software methods,
      complicating implementation of FT-CMR in clinical practice. We aimed to assess
      the clinical value of global and regional strain using FT-CMR in ARVD/C and to
      determine differences between commercially available FT-CMR software packages.
      METHODS: We analyzed cine CMR images of 110 subjects (39 overt ARVD/C
      [mutation+/phenotype+], 40 preclinical ARVD/C [mutation+/phenotype-] and 31
      control) for global and regional (subtricuspid, anterior, apical) RV strain in
      the horizontal longitudinal axis using four FT-CMR software methods
      (Multimodality Tissue Tracking, TomTec, Medis and Circle Cardiovascular Imaging).
      Intersoftware agreement was assessed using Bland Altman plots. RESULTS: For
      global strain, all methods showed reduced strain in overt ARVD/C patients
      compared to control subjects (p < 0.041), whereas none distinguished preclinical
      from control subjects (p > 0.275). For regional strain, overt ARVD/C patients
      showed reduced strain compared to control subjects in all segments which reached
      statistical significance in the subtricuspid region for all software methods (p <
      0.037), in the anterior wall for two methods (p < 0.005) and in the apex for one
      method (p = 0.012). Preclinical subjects showed abnormal subtricuspid strain
      compared to control subjects using one of the software methods (p = 0.009).
      Agreement between software methods for absolute strain values was low (Intraclass
      Correlation Coefficient = 0.373). CONCLUSIONS: Despite large intersoftware
      variability of FT-CMR derived strain values, all four software methods
      distinguished overt ARVD/C patients from control subjects by both global and
      subtricuspid strain values. In the subtricuspid region, one software package
      distinguished preclinical from control subjects, suggesting the potential to
      identify early ARVD/C prior to overt disease expression.

PMID- 28863781
TI  - Downregulation of GPR155 as a prognostic factor after curative resection of
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Molecular biomarkers capable of predicting recurrence patterns and
      prognosis are helpful for risk stratification and providing appropriate treatment
      to patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we focused on G
      protein-coupled receptor 155 (GPR155), a cell surface signaling protein, as a
      candidate biomarker. METHODS: We analyzed GPR155 expression, DNA methylation, and
      copy number in HCC cell lines. The clinical significance of GPR155 expression was
      evaluated using 144 pairs of surgically resected liver and normal tissues with
      subgroup analysis based on hepatitis virus infection. RESULTS: GPR155 mRNA
      expression levels were differential and were decreased in 89% of HCC cell lines.
      No DNA methylation was detected, whereas copy number alterations were present in
      five (56%) HCC cell lines. GPR155 mRNA expression level was independent of
      background liver status and significantly lower in HCC tissues than corresponding
      normal liver tissues. The expression patterns of GPR155 protein by
      immunohistochemical staining were significantly associated with those of GPR155
      mRNA. Downregulation of GPR155 was significantly associated with more aggressive
      HCC phenotypes including high preoperative alpha-fetoprotein, poor
      differentiation, serosal infiltration, vascular invasion, and advanced disease
      stage. Patients with downregulation of GPR155 were more likely to have worse
      prognosis after curative resection irrespective of hepatitis virus infection.
      Patients who experienced extrahepatic (distant) recurrences had significantly
      lower GPR155 expression than those with intrahepatic (liver confined)
      recurrences. CONCLUSIONS: Downregulation of GPR155 may serve as a prognosticator
      that also predicts initial recurrence sites independent of hepatitis virus
      infection.

PMID- 28863783
TI  - Erratum to: Thermotherapy. An alternative for the treatment of American cutaneous
      leishmaniasis.

PMID- 28863782
TI  - Effectiveness of PIVKA-II in the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma based on
      real-world clinical data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Protein Induced by Vitamin K Absence or Antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) is
      an efficient biomarker specific for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Some
      researchers have proved that levels of PIVKA-II reflect HCC oncogenesis and
      progression. However, the effectiveness of PIVKA-II based on real-world clnical
      data has barely been studied. METHODS: A total of 14,861 samples were tested in
      Southwest Hospital in over 2 years' time. Among them, 4073 samples were PIVKA-II
      positive. Finally, a total of 2070 patients with at least two image examinations
      were enrolled in this study. Levels of AFP and PIVKA-II were measured by
      chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA) and chemiluminescent microparticle
      Immunoassay (CMIA), respectively. RESULTS: A total of 1016 patients with HCC were
      detected by PIVKA-II in a real-world application. In all these cases, 88.7% cases
      primarily occurred and patients with advanced HCC covered 61.3%. Levels of PIVKA
      II were significantly higher in advanced group (4650.0 mAU/ml, 667.0-33,438.0
      mAU/ml) than early-stage group (104.5 mAU/ml, 61.0-348.8 mAU/ml; P < 0.001).
      Levels of PIVKA-II elevated significantly in recurrence and residual group than
      recovery group (P < 0.001). A total of 1054 PIVKA-II positive patients were non
      HCC cases. Among them, cirrhosis took the largest part (46.3%), followed by
      hepatitis (20.6%) and benign nodules (15.3%). High-levels of PIVKA-II in at-risk
      patients is an indicator of HCC development in two-year time. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      data showed that PIVKA-II effectively increases the detection rate of HCC was a
      valid complement to AFP and image examination in HCC surveillance.

PMID- 28863784
TI  - Erratum to: Whole metagenome profiles of particulates collected from the
      International Space Station.

PMID- 28863785
TI  - Erratum to Development of a core outcome set for orthodontic trials using a mixed
      methods approach: protocol for a multicentre study.

PMID- 28863786
TI  - Prdm13 forms a feedback loop with Ptf1a and is required for glycinergic amacrine
      cell genesis in the Xenopus Retina.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amacrine interneurons that modulate synaptic plasticity between
      bipolar and ganglion cells constitute the most diverse cell type in the retina.
      Most are inhibitory neurons using either GABA or glycine as neurotransmitters.
      Although several transcription factors involved in amacrine cell fate
      determination have been identified, mechanisms underlying amacrine cell subtype
      specification remain to be further understood. The Prdm13 histone
      methyltransferase encoding gene is a target of the transcription factor Ptf1a, an
      essential regulator of inhibitory neuron cell fate in the retina. Here, we have
      deepened our knowledge on its interaction with Ptf1a and investigated its role in
      amacrine cell subtype determination in the developing Xenopus retina. METHODS: We
      performed prdm13 gain and loss of function in Xenopus and assessed the impact on
      retinal cell fate determination using RT-qPCR, in situ hybridization and
      immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: We found that prdm13 in the amphibian Xenopus is
      expressed in few retinal progenitors and in about 40% of mature amacrine cells,
      predominantly in glycinergic ones. Clonal analysis in the retina reveals that
      prdm13 overexpression favours amacrine cell fate determination, with a bias
      towards glycinergic cells. Conversely, knockdown of prdm13 specifically inhibits
      glycinergic amacrine cell genesis. We also showed that, as in the neural tube,
      prdm13 is subjected to a negative autoregulation in the retina. Our data suggest
      that this is likely due to its ability to repress the expression of its inducer,
      ptf1a. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that Prdm13, downstream of Ptf1a,
      acts as an important regulator of glycinergic amacrine subtype specification in
      the Xenopus retina. We also reveal that Prdm13 regulates ptf1a expression through
      a negative feedback loop.

PMID- 28863788
TI  - Role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Support of
      the Vitamin D Initiative of the National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary
      Supplements.
AB  - Since 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has
      collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Dietary
      Supplements (ODS) to improve the quality of measurements related to human
      nutritional markers of vitamin D status. In support of the NIH-ODS Vitamin D
      Initiative, including the Vitamin D Standardization Program (VDSP), NIST efforts
      have focused on (1) development of validated analytical methods, including
      reference measurement procedures (RMPs); (2) development of Standard Reference
      Materials (SRMs); (3) value assignment of critical study samples using NIST RMPs;
      and (4) development and coordination of laboratory measurement QA programs. As a
      result of this collaboration, NIST has developed RMPs for 25-hydroxyvitamin D2
      [25(OH)D2], 25(OH)D3, and 24R,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [24R,25(OH)2D3];
      disseminated serum-based SRMs with values assigned for 25(OH)D2, 25(OH)D3, 3-epi
      25(OH)D3, and 24R,25(OH)2D3; assigned values for critical samples for VDSP
      studies, including an extensive interlaboratory comparison and reference material
      commutability study; provided an accuracy basis for the Vitamin D External
      Quality Assurance Scheme; coordinated the first accuracy-based measurement QA
      program for the determination of 25(OH)D2, 25(OH)D3, and 3-epi-25(OH)D3 in human
      serum/plasma; and developed methods and SRMs for the determination of vitamin D
      and 25(OH)D in food and supplement matrix SRMs. The details of these activities
      and their benefit and impact to the NIH-ODS Vitamin D Initiative are described.

PMID- 28863789
TI  - Introduction: Translational Immunology in Kidney Disease.

PMID- 28863787
TI  - Venous thromboembolism and hyperhomocysteinemia as first manifestation of
      pernicious anemia: a case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperhomocysteinemia has been suspected of favoring thrombosis.
      Several case-control studies and even a meta-analysis have confirmed a link
      between venous thrombosis and hyperhomocysteinemia. Homocysteine is due to
      genetic and acquired factors (poor diet in folate and vitamin B12, older age,
      renal impairment, thyroid diseases, and malignancies) induced by the intake and
      the concentrations of vitamin B9 or B12 in the majority of cases. CASES
      PRESENTATION: We report the cases of four Moroccan patients who presented with
      acute vein thrombosis of different sites: a 34-year-old man, a 60-year-old man, a
      58-year-old man, and a 47-year-old woman. All patients had a low level of
      cobalamin with marked hyperhomocysteinemia with normal serum and red cell folic
      acid. Venous thrombosis revealed pernicious anemia in all patients. Their low
      levels of cobalamin, atrophic gastritis, and positive results for gastric
      parietal cell antibodies confirmed the diagnosis of pernicious anemia. There was
      no evidence of immobilization, recent surgery, malignancy, antiphospholipid
      antibody, myeloproliferative disorder, or hormone replacement therapy. No
      deficiencies in protein C and protein S were detected; they had normal
      antithrombin III function and factor V Leiden; no prothrombin gene mutations were
      detected. Treatment included orally administered anticoagulation therapy and
      cobalamin supplementation. The outcome was favorable in all cases. CONCLUSIONS:
      These reports demonstrate that pernicious anemia, on its own, can lead to
      hyperhomocysteinemia that is significant enough to lead to thrombosis.
      Understanding the molecular pathogenesis of the development of thrombosis in
      patients with hyperhomocysteinemia related to Biermer disease would help us to
      identify patients at risk and to treat them accordingly. The literature
      concerning the relationship between homocysteine and venous thrombosis is briefly
      reviewed.

PMID- 28863790
TI  - ANCA-Associated Vasculitis: Pathogenesis, Models, and Preclinical Testing.
AB  - Our understanding of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated
      vasculitis has developed greatly since the discovery of ANCA, directed against
      neutrophil components, in 1982. Observations in human disease, and increasingly
      sophisticated studies in vitro and in rodent models in vivo, have allowed a
      nuanced understanding of many aspects of the immunopathogenesis of disease,
      including the significance of ANCA as a diagnostic and monitoring tool as well as
      a mediator of microvascular injury. The mechanisms of leukocyte recruitment and
      tissue injury, and the role of T cells increasingly are understood. Unexpected
      findings, such as the role of complement, also have been uncovered through
      experimental studies and human observations. This review focusses on the
      pathogenesis of ANCA-associated vasculitis, highlighting the challenges in
      finding new, less-toxic treatments and potential therapeutic targets in this
      disease. The current suite of rodent models is reviewed, and future directions in
      the study of this complex and fascinating disease are suggested.

PMID- 28863791
TI  - Translational Aspects of Primary Membranous Nephropathy.
AB  - Membranous nephropathy (MN) in an autoimmune disease caused by binding of
      circulating antibodies to podocytic antigens. The search for the responsible
      target antigens has extended for more than 50 years and led to the identification
      of the major pathomechanisms leading to MN. The combination of clinical and
      morphologic observations, experimental work, and technical advancements has
      enabled us deep insights in the pathophysiology of this disease, simultaneously
      improving treatment of patients. MN represents a perfect example of how patient
      care may profit from the convergence of scientific and clinical achievements and
      the benefits of translational approaches in medicine.

PMID- 28863792
TI  - Genetics of Immune-Mediated Glomerular Diseases: Focus on Complement.
AB  - The spectrum of immune-mediated glomerular diseases is wide, ranging from rare
      diseases with well-recognized genetic origins to more common and multifactorial
      diseases. Immune-mediated glomerular injury is complex and involves both the
      innate and the adaptive immune systems. In the past 20 years a huge effort has
      been undertaken to unravel the genetic basis of immune-mediated glomerular
      diseases. The discovery of abnormalities in genes encoding proteins of the
      alternative pathway of complement in more than 50% of patients with atypical
      hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), and in approximately 20% of patients with
      membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), has highlighted the role of this
      complement pathway in the pathogenesis of immune-mediated glomerular diseases.
      aHUS-associated complement gene abnormalities mainly result in complement
      dysregulation restricted to the cell surface, whereas complement activation in
      the fluid phase prevails in most, but not all, genetic cases of MPGN. Results
      achieved in aHUS and MPGN have boosted interest in the impact of complement gene
      abnormalities and variations in the predisposition to more common, multifactorial
      kidney diseases, including IgA nephropathy and lupus nephritis. Emerging findings
      in these complex diseases have broadened our understanding of the fragile balance
      between the protective and harmful functions of the complement system.

PMID- 28863793
TI  - Immunosuppression in IgA Nephropathy: Guideline Medicine Versus Personalized
      Medicine.
AB  - The role of immunosuppression in IgAN remains controversial despite a growing
      evidence base of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In IgAN with nephrotic
      syndrome the role for corticosteroids is limited to cases with minimal change on
      light microscopy. In crescentic IgAN, the use of immunosuppression is supported
      only by anecdotal data, and outcome may be poor especially when glomerular
      filtration rate is impaired severely at presentation or there are pathologic
      features of chronic injury. In slowly progressive IgAN, prediction of outcome now
      is based both on clinical and pathologic features. Most RCTs have studied
      patients with urine protein levels greater than 1 g/24 h and only a minority have
      enrolled patients with a glomerular filtration rate less than 60 mL/min. The
      Supportive versus immunosuppressive Therapy of Progressive IgA nephropathy (STOP)
      IgAN study emphasized the efficacy of supportive therapy (including blood
      pressure control and renin-angiotensin system blockade) in decreasing proteinuria
      to less than the usually accepted threshold for the use of corticosteroids.
      Earlier RCTs of corticosteroids usually did not deploy supportive therapy
      optimally. The recent Therapeutic Evaluation of STeroids in IgA Nephropathy
      Global (TESTING) study closed prematurely because of excess toxicity, but the
      high dose of corticosteroids seemed to provide benefit. Guidelines provide
      valuable information about the quality and limitations of available evidence that
      needs to be personalized in application to the individual patient's medical and
      nonmedical circumstances to ensure wise clinical decision making.

PMID- 28863795
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28863794
TI  - Immunoadsorption in Autoimmune Diseases Affecting the Kidney.
AB  - Autoantibodies play an important role in the pathophysiology of renal involvement
      in systemic autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),
      systemic vasculitis, and anti-glomerular basement membrane disease (or
      Goodpasture syndrome). Direct removal of autoantibodies therefore has been tried
      in various ways, first by plasma exchange. Today, immunoadsorption is the
      extracorporeal method that most effectively removes (pathogenic) immune complexes
      and antibodies. Although past data have shown efficacy and biocompatibility of
      immunoadsorption in (renal) SLE, it is still an experimental and expensive
      procedure, and evidence from randomized controlled trials is needed.
      Nevertheless, immunoadsorption is being used as a rescue therapy in life
      threatening situations of SLE patients because of its fast mode of action and its
      acceptable safety profile. In granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) (or
      Wegener's granulomatosis), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), and anti-glomerular
      basement membrane disease, the current standard is plasma exchange.
      Immunoadsorption, which probably would reduce the autoantibody burden more
      effectively, might be an even better more effective option, but sufficient
      evidence is lacking.

PMID- 28863796
TI  - A promising new treatment horizon for haemophilia A.

PMID- 28863797
TI  - Predicting death in patients with acute graft-versus-host disease after reduced
      intensity conditioning.

PMID- 28863798
TI  - Peripheral intravenous catheter assessment: beyond phlebitis.

PMID- 28863799
TI  - IMiD-induced gene expression profiling predicts multiple myeloma prognosis.

PMID- 28863800
TI  - Conflicts of interest in Twitter.

PMID- 28863801
TI  - Research on Biosimilars: pivotal trials and principles.

PMID- 28863802
TI  - Reply to correspondence "Do big numbers assure high-quality of data?"

PMID- 28863803
TI  - XXVI Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

PMID- 28863804
TI  - Investigation of a gene signature to predict response to immunomodulatory
      derivatives for patients with multiple myeloma: an exploratory, retrospective
      study using microarray datasets from prospective clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immunomodulatory derivatives (IMiDs), along with proteasome
      inhibitors, are key components of treatment regimens for multiple myeloma.
      Nonetheless, outcomes vary among treated individuals. Drug-specific gene
      expression profile (GEP) signatures that aid the prediction of favourable and
      unfavourable outcomes can provide patients with the most effective therapy for
      their individual disease. We aimed to develop and validate a gene expression
      signature to suggest which patients would benefit most from IMiD-based therapies.
      METHODS: For this exploratory retrospective study, we selected a cohort of
      patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who were
      treated in clinical trials with IMiD-containing regimens. Cohorts were eligible
      if they had publicly available GEP data from patients' bone marrow plasma cells,
      with long-term follow-up and clinicopathological data. In the development stage
      of the model, we identified 176 IMiD response genes that were differentially
      expressed before and after IMiD exposure using pharmacogenomic GEP data from
      patients who had bone marrow samples taken before and 48 h after a test dose
      exposure with thalidomide (n=42), lenalidomide (n=18), or pomalidomide (n=18). 14
      of these genes had p values less than 0.05 for associations with progression-free
      survival in patients who received thalidomide in induction and maintenance
      therapy in the Total Therapy (TT) 2 trial (ie, the training cohort). We combined
      the 14 genes to create a continuous IMiD-14 score and an optimal cutoff. The
      subgroup with an IMiD-14 score higher than the cutoff was deemed to be IMiD
      resistant. We obtained validation cohorts from four studies of IMiD combination
      regimens: the TT3a trial (thalidomide in induction and maintenance), the TT3b
      trial (thalidomide in induction and lenalidomide in maintenance), the TT6 trial
      (thalidomide in induction and lenalidomide in maintenance), and the vincristine,
      doxorubicin, and dexamethasone (VAD) group of the HOVON65/GMMG-HD4 trial
      (thalidomide in maintenance). The primary endpoint was to show the prognostic
      value of the IMiD-14 gene signature for progression-free survival. FINDINGS: In
      the training cohort, progression-free survival was significantly shorter in the
      83 patients with IMiD-14 high scores than in the 92 patients with IMiD-14 low
      scores; 3 year progression-free survival was 52% (95% CI 42-64) for the IMiD-14
      high group versus 85% (78-92) for the IMiD-14 low group, with a hazard ratio (HR)
      of 2.51 (95% CI 1.72-3.66; p<0.0001). These findings were supported by the
      results in the validation cohorts, TT3a (115 patients with IMiD-14 high vs 160
      patients with IMiD-14 low; 3 year progression-free survival 63% [95% CI 55-73] vs
      87% [82-92]; HR 1.54 [1.11-2.15], p=0.010), TT3b (77 patients with IMiD-14 high
      vs 89 patients with IMiD-14 low; 62% [52-74] vs 80% [72-89]; HR 2.07 [1.28-3.34],
      p=0.0024), TT6 (20 patients with IMiD-14 high vs 36 patients with IMiD-14 low;
      39% [22-68] vs 74% [61-90]; HR 2.40 [1.09-5.30], p=0.026), and the VAD group of
      HOVON65/GMMG-HD4 (65 patients with IMiD-14 high vs 77 patients with IMiD-14 low;
      16% [9-28] vs 54% [44-67]; HR 2.29 [1.52-3.45], p<0.0001). INTERPRETATION: Our
      results suggest that the IMiD-14 model has prognostic value in patients with
      multiple myeloma who are treated with IMiDs. Some genes in the model could
      provide novel targets for IMiD resistance and therapeutic intervention. The IMiD
      14 model warrants evaluation in prospective studies. FUNDING: Conquer Cancer
      Foundation ASCO Young Investigator Award and the Carolinas Myeloma Research Fund.

PMID- 28863805
TI  - [Topical issues in neonatology].

PMID- 28863806
TI  - Corrigendum to "Early Prediction of Functional Outcome Using Dynamic Contrast
      Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Experimental Stroke" [Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging 34 (2016) 1000-1007].

PMID- 28863807
TI  - Destruction of Clostridium difficile spores colitis using acidic electrolyzed
      water.

PMID- 28863809
TI  - APIC education online: Are you ready? We are....

PMID- 28863808
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28863810
TI  - Exploring inappropriate certified nursing assistant glove use in long-term care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) frequently wear gloves when they
      care for patients in standard precautions. If CNAs use gloves inappropriately,
      they may spread pathogens to patients and the environment, potentially leading to
      health care-associated infections (HAIs). METHODS: Using a descriptive structured
      observational design, we examined the degree of inappropriate health care
      personnel glove use in a random sample of 74 CNAs performing toileting and
      perineal care at 1 long-term care facility. RESULTS: During the 74 patient care
      events, CNAs wore gloves for 80.2% (1,774/2,213) of the touch points, failing to
      change gloves at 66.4% (225/339) of glove change points. CNAs changed gloves a
      median of 2.0 times per patient care event. A median of 1.0 change occurred at a
      change point. CNAs failed to change their gloves at a glove change point a median
      of 2.5 times per patient care event. Most (61/74; 82.4%) patient care events had
      >1 contaminated touch point. Over 44% (782/1,774) of the gloved touch points were
      defined as contaminated for a median of 8.0 contaminated glove touch points per
      patient care event. All contaminated touches were with gloved hands (P <.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Inappropriate glove use was frequently observed in this study.
      Contaminated gloves may be a significant cause of cross-contamination of
      pathogens in health care environments. Future research studies should evaluate
      strategies to improve glove use to reduce HAIs.

PMID- 28863811
TI  - Can improving patient hand hygiene impact Clostridium difficile infection events
      at an academic medical center?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene plays an important role in the prevention of Clostridium
      difficile (CD) infection (CDI). Patient hand hygiene (PHH) may be a potentially
      underused preventative measure for CDI. Patient mobility and acuity along with a
      lack of education present obstacles to PHH for the hospitalized patient. Surveys
      of patients at our institution showed a need for increased PHH opportunities. The
      objective of this study was to increase PHH and to examine if PHH affected CDI at
      our hospital. METHODS: A biphasic, quasi-experimental study was performed to
      increase PHH through education for staff and to provide education, assistance,
      and opportunities to the patient for hand cleaning. PHH practice was assessed by
      patient surveys and analyzed by chi2 test. PHH effect on CDI was determined by
      following health care facility-onset CD laboratory-identified events data
      analyzed by National Healthcare Safety Network standardized infection ratios
      (SIRs). RESULTS: PHH opportunities improved significantly (P < .0001) after staff
      and patient education. CD SIRs deceased significantly for 6 months (P <= .05)
      after the PHH intervention. CONCLUSIONS: PHH opportunities can be increased by
      providing education and opportunities for patients to clean their hands. PHH
      should be considered a relevant preventative measure for CDI in hospitalized
      patients.

PMID- 28863812
TI  - A young man with frequent episodes of palpitations.

PMID- 28863813
TI  - Corrigendum to "Central insulin dysregulation and energy dyshomeostasis in two
      mouse models of Alzheimer's disease" [Neurobiol. Aging 58 (2017) 1-13].

PMID- 28863814
TI  - Multiple Mechanisms of Regulation of Transient Receptor Potential Ion Channels by
      Cholesterol.
AB  - The transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels is constituted by
      several nonselective cation channels that are activated by diverse stimuli and
      that function as polymodal receptors. TRP ion channels are expressed in neural
      and nonneural tissues where they play important roles in cell physiology. The
      activation of these ion channels is achieved through changes in temperature,
      osmolarity, voltage, pH, pressure, and by some natural or synthetic chemical
      compounds that directly bind to these proteins to regulate their activity. Other
      compounds that regulate TRP ion channel function are some endogenously
      synthetized lipid compounds. One such example of a compound of lipidic nature,
      commonly found in cells, is cholesterol. Cholesterol has been shown to exert
      positive and negative roles on TRP ion channel activity, albeit through different
      mechanisms which include a direct interaction of this molecule with specific
      amino acids located in the sequence of these channels or through the recruitment
      of the channels into specialized membrane microdomains (lipid rafts or caveolae).
      In this chapter, we will discuss important aspects of cholesterol as a regulator
      of some members of the TRP family of ion channels, and we will highlight the role
      of cholesterol on thermo-, chemo-, and osmosensation through regulation of the
      activity of these proteins.

PMID- 28863815
TI  - Direct Interactions of Cholesterol With Pentameric Ligand-Gated Ion Channels:
      Testable Hypotheses From Computational Predictions.
AB  - Several essential ionotropic neurotransmitter receptors, including the nicotinic
      acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptor
      (GABAAr), belong to the family of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGICs).
      Function of these receptors is particularly sensitive to their lipid environment,
      including cholesterol and cholesterol-derived neurosteroids. Direct structural
      data investigating interactions between sterols and pLGICs, as well as their role
      in modulatory mechanisms, are largely unavailable. Physics-based computational
      approaches can serve a vital role in interpretation of more indirect data as well
      as hypothesis generation and experimental design. In this chapter, I report
      several examples in which computational approaches were used to predict direct
      binding interactions of steroids and pLGICs, evaluate the relative likelihood of
      possible interpretations of experimental data, and present rationally designed
      simple experiments. I conclude by offering several predictions that could be
      tested by future experiments.

PMID- 28863816
TI  - Insights Into the Molecular Requirements for Cholesterol Binding to Ion Channels.
AB  - The concept that cholesterol binds to proteins via specific binding motifs, and
      thereby modulates their function, has emerged two decades ago. When we recently
      embarked on studies to uncover the putative binding region(s) of cholesterol in
      the Kir2.1 channel, we carried out an unbiased approach that combines
      computational and experimental methods. This approach resulted in the
      identification of novel cholesterol-binding regions distinct from known
      cholesterol-binding motifs. In recent years, a plethora of structures of proteins
      complexed with cholesterol have been determined revealing variegated cholesterol
      binding regions that can provide invaluable insights into the prerequisites for
      cholesterol binding. Thus, using this database of structures, the goal of this
      chapter is to present a comprehensive analysis of representative cholesterol
      binding regions, and thereby determine the molecular requirements for cholesterol
      binding. The analysis demonstrates that the primary requirement for cholesterol
      binding is a highly hydrophobic environment, and that the interaction with the
      cholesterol molecule can be stabilized by stacking interactions between its ring
      structure and hydrophobic aromatic residues, and by hydrogen bonding between its
      hydroxyl group and a variety of protein residues. This general requirement
      suggests that the known cholesterol-binding motifs describe a subset of
      cholesterol-binding regions, and provides a framework for expanding the search
      for novel cholesterol-binding regions in ion channels.

PMID- 28863817
TI  - Regulation of P2X Purinergic Receptor Signaling by Cholesterol.
AB  - P2X receptors are cation-selective channels that are activated by the binding of
      extracellular ATP. They have a high permeability to Ca2+, Na+, and K+ and are
      expressed widely throughout the nervous, immune, cardiovascular, skeletal,
      gastrointestinal, respiratory, and endocrine systems. Seven mammalian subtypes of
      P2X receptor subunits have been identified, P2X1-7, and those that function as
      homotrimeric receptors (P2X1, 2, 3, 4, and 7) are targeted to lipid rafts,
      although they show limited resistance to solubilization by Triton X-100. Recent
      crystal structures of P2X3 and P2X4 receptors have provided considerable high
      resolution information about the architecture of this family of receptors and yet
      the molecular details of how they are regulated by cholesterol are unknown.
      Currents mediated by the P2X1-4 receptors are either inhibited or relatively
      insensitive to cholesterol depletion, but there is no clear evidence to support
      the direct binding of cholesterol to these receptors. In contrast, the activity
      of the low-affinity, proinflammatory P2X7 receptor is potentiated by cholesterol
      depletion and regions within the proximal C-terminus play an important role in
      coupling changes in cholesterol to the gating of the pore. Based upon our
      understanding of the lipid signaling events that are triggered downstream of P2X7
      receptor activation, a change in the levels of cholesterol may contribute to the
      sensitization of receptor currents and the dilation of the pore that occurs
      following prolonged, high-level stimulation. This chapter focuses on the
      regulation of P2X7 receptor signaling by cholesterol and our current
      understanding of the mechanisms that underlie this.

PMID- 28863818
TI  - Depletion of Membrane Cholesterol Suppresses Drosophila Transient Receptor
      Potential-Like (TRPL) Channel Activity.
AB  - Cholesterol is an essential compound of higher eukaryotic cell membranes and a
      known modulator of ion channel activity. Changes in phospholipids and cholesterol
      composition of cell membranes are known to alter the activity of ion channels.
      However, there is little knowledge on the effects of cholesterol on transient
      receptor potential (TRP) channels. In this study, we explore the effects of
      cholesterol depletion on the Drosophila photoreceptor channel TRP-like (TRPL),
      when expressed in tissue culture cells. Depletion of membrane cholesterol with
      methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MbetaCD) induced fast (<100s) suppression of
      spontaneous TRPL channel activity, a typical state of expressed TRPL channels in
      Drosophila S2 cells. An equally fast suppression of receptor-induced TRPL channel
      activity in HEK293 cells, downstream of phospholipase C (PLC) activation, was
      also induced by MbetaCD. Biochemical experiments showed binding of TRPL to
      immobilized cholesterol, suggesting direct binding of cholesterol to TRPL.
      Exploring the effects of several mutations in a putative cholesterol-binding site
      of TRPL was inconclusive as some did not render the channel insensitive to
      cholesterol depletion while others rendered the channel inactive. We conclude
      that (i) cholesterol is essential for TRPL channel activity, (ii) TRPL channels
      interact with cholesterol, and (iii) the binding site of cholesterol in TRPL
      differs from the putative binding site of TRPV1. Thus, the fast and strong
      effects of cholesterol depletion on the TRPL channel activity suggest that
      cholesterol is an important component of fly photoreceptor signaling membrane.

PMID- 28863819
TI  - Differential Effects of Sterols on Ion Channels: Stereospecific Binding vs
      Stereospecific Response.
AB  - Numerous ion channels have been shown to be regulated by the level of membrane
      cholesterol, but the mechanisms responsible for these effects are still not well
      understood. The key question in the field is how to discriminate between the
      contributions of the two central mechanisms that might be responsible for the
      sensitivity of ion channels to cholesterol: specific sterol-protein interactions
      or regulation of channels by the bilayer physical properties. Comparative
      analysis of cholesterol and its isomers on the function of an ion channel is a
      powerful tool to achieve this goal. An increasing number of studies show that
      cholesterol regulates several types of ion channels in a stereospecific manner,
      suggesting an involvement of specific sterol-protein interactions. However in
      this chapter, we present evidence that the stereospecificity of cholesterol-ion
      channel interactions may be mediated, not by a lack of binding, as has been
      generally assumed, but by the specificity of the interaction, which results in a
      functional effect, in the case of native cholesterol, and a lack of functional
      effect, in the case of a cholesterol isomer. In other words, accumulating
      evidence suggests that the structural requirements of ion channel cholesterol
      binding sites are lax, allowing chiral isomers of cholesterol to bind to the same
      site in a nonstereospecific way, but the ability of a sterol to confer a
      functional effect on the channel activity can still be stereospecific. This is an
      important distinction both conceptually and methodologically. Indeed, our
      analysis shows that the orientations of cholesterol and its chiral isomer ent
      cholesterol within a hydrophobic binding pocket of Kir2.2 are significantly
      different, and we propose that this difference may underlie distinct functional
      outcomes.

PMID- 28863820
TI  - Sterol Regulation of Voltage-Gated K+ Channels.
AB  - Cholesterol is an essential lipid building block of the cellular plasma membrane.
      In addition to its structural role, it regulates the fluidity and raft structure
      of the membrane and influences the course of numerous membrane-linked signaling
      pathways and the function of transmembrane proteins, including ion channels. This
      is supported by a vast body of scientific data, which demonstrates the modulation
      of ion channels with a great variety of ion selectivity, gating, and tissue
      distribution by changes in membrane cholesterol. Here, we review what is
      currently known about the modulation of voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channels by changes
      in membrane cholesterol content, considering raft association of the channels,
      the roles of cholesterol recognition sites, and those of adaptor proteins in
      cholesterol-Kv channel interactions. We specifically focus on Kv1.3, the dominant
      K+ channel of human T cells. Effects of cholesterol depletion and enrichment and
      7-dehydrocholesterol enrichment on Kv1.3 gating are discussed in the context of
      the immunological synapse and the comparison of the in vitro effects of sterol
      modifications on Kv1.3 function with ex vivo effects on cells from
      hypercholesterolemic and Smith-Lemli-Opitz patients.

PMID- 28863821
TI  - Relevance of CARC and CRAC Cholesterol-Recognition Motifs in the Nicotinic
      Acetylcholine Receptor and Other Membrane-Bound Receptors.
AB  - Cholesterol is a ubiquitous neutral lipid, which finely tunes the activity of a
      wide range of membrane proteins, including neurotransmitter and hormone receptors
      and ion channels. Given the scarcity of available X-ray crystallographic
      structures and the even fewer in which cholesterol sites have been directly
      visualized, application of in silico computational methods remains a valid
      alternative for the detection and thermodynamic characterization of cholesterol
      specific sites in functionally important membrane proteins. The membrane-embedded
      segments of the paradigm neurotransmitter receptor for acetylcholine display a
      series of cholesterol consensus domains (which we have coined "CARC"). The CARC
      motif exhibits a preference for the outer membrane leaflet and its mirror motif,
      CRAC, for the inner one. Some membrane proteins possess the double CARC-CRAC
      sequences within the same transmembrane domain. In addition to in silico
      molecular modeling, the affinity, concentration dependence, and specificity of
      the cholesterol-recognition motif-protein interaction have recently found
      experimental validation in other biophysical approaches like monolayer techniques
      and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. From the combined studies, it
      becomes apparent that the CARC motif is now more firmly established as a high
      affinity cholesterol-binding domain for membrane-bound receptors and remarkably
      conserved along phylogenetic evolution.

PMID- 28863822
TI  - Regulation of Ca2+-Sensitive K+ Channels by Cholesterol and Bile Acids via
      Distinct Channel Subunits and Sites.
AB  - Cholesterol (CLR) conversion into bile acids (BAs) in the liver constitutes the
      major pathway for CLR elimination from the body. Moreover, these steroids
      regulate each other's metabolism. While the roles of CLR and BAs in regulating
      metabolism and tissue function are well known, research of the last two decades
      revealed the existence of specific protein receptors for CLR or BAs in tissues
      with minor contribution to lipid metabolism, raising the possibility that these
      lipids serve as signaling molecules throughout the body. Among other lipids, CLR
      and BAs regulate ionic current mediated by the activity of voltage- and Ca2+
      gated, K+ channels of large conductance (BK channels) and, thus, modulate cell
      physiology and participate in tissue pathophysiology. Initial work attributed
      modification of BK channel function by CLR or BAs to the capability of these
      steroids to directly interact with bilayer lipids and thus alter the
      physicochemical properties of the bilayer with eventual modification of BK
      channel function. Based on our own work and that of others, we now review
      evidence that supports direct interactions between CLR or BA and specific BK
      protein subunits, and the consequence of such interactions on channel activity
      and organ function, with a particular emphasis on arterial smooth muscle. For
      each steroid type, we will also briefly discuss several mechanisms that may
      underlie modification of channel steady-state activity. Finally, we will present
      novel computational data that provide a chemical basis for differential
      recognition of CLR vs lithocholic acid by distinct BK channel subunits and
      recognition sites.

PMID- 28863823
TI  - The Role of Cholesterol in the Activation of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors.
AB  - Cholesterol is a potent modulator of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)
      from Torpedo. Here, we review current understanding of the mechanisms underlying
      cholesterol-nAChR interactions in the context of increasingly available high
      resolution structural and functional data. Cholesterol and other lipids influence
      function by conformational selection and kinetic mechanisms, stabilizing varying
      proportions of activatable vs nonactivatable conformations, as well as
      influencing the rates of transitions between conformational states. In the
      absence of cholesterol and anionic lipids, the nAChR adopts an uncoupled
      conformation that binds agonist but does not undergo agonist-induced
      conformational transitions-unless the nAChR is located in a relatively thick
      lipid bilayer, such as that found in cholesterol-rich lipid rafts. We highlight
      different sites of cholesterol action, including the lipid-exposed M4
      transmembrane alpha-helix. Cholesterol and other lipids likely alter function by
      modulating interactions between M4 and the adjacent transmembrane alpha-helices,
      M1 and M3. These same interactions have been implicated in both the folding and
      trafficking of nAChRs to the cell surface. We evaluate the nature of cholesterol
      nAChR interactions, considering the evidence supporting the roles of both direct
      binding to allosteric sites and cholesterol-induced changes in bulk membrane
      physical properties.

PMID- 28863824
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28863827
TI  - Endovascular treatment of arterial ischaemic stroke in paediatric patients: A
      case-report.

PMID- 28863826
TI  - Impact of anti-rheumatic treatment on cardiovascular risk in Asian patients with
      rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To estimate the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Asian
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to evaluate the impact of anti
      rheumatic treatment on the development of CVD. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of
      Asian patients with RA was established to identify the incidence rate (IR) of CVD
      in RA patients. The cohort was generated using the Korean National Healthcare
      claims database, which contained claims from Jan 2009 to Dec 2013. A total of
      137,512 RA patients were identified; individuals with a history of CVD for 6
      months or more before the index date were excluded. Nested case-control samples
      were drawn from the full study population with a case:control ratio of 1:4 (n =
      7102 cases; n = 27,018 controls without CVD). A conditional multivariate
      regression model was used to evaluate the impact of anti-rheumatic treatment on
      the development of CVD in RA patients after matching for age, sex, RA index date,
      comorbidities, and drug use (e.g., antiplatelet agents and cholesterol-lowering
      agents). RESULTS: The IR for development of overall CVD in RA patients was 182.1
      (95% CI: 178.4-185.9) per 10,000 person-years. In models adjusted for other CVD
      risk factors, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) (OR = 0.79) were
      protective against CVD, and biologic DMARDs were not significantly associated
      with CVD risk (OR = 0.85). Corticosteroids (OR = 1.26) and NSAIDs (nonselective
      NSAIDs: OR = 1.32, Cox-2 inhibitors: OR = 1.31) were risk factors for CVD in RA
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: The use of DMARDs is protective against CVD, while
      corticosteroids and NSAIDs increased the risk of CVD in RA patients.

PMID- 28863828
TI  - Quantitative and qualitative analysis of semantic verbal fluency in patients with
      temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) perform poorly on
      semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tasks. Completing these tasks successfully involves
      multiple cognitive processes simultaneously. Therefore, quantitative analysis of
      SVF (number of correct words in one minute), conducted in most studies, has been
      found to be insufficient to identify cognitive dysfunction underlying SVF
      difficulties in TLE. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a sample of patients with
      TLE had SVF difficulties compared with a control group (CG), and to identify the
      cognitive components associated with SVF difficulties using quantitative and
      qualitative analysis. METHODS: SVF was evaluated in 25 patients with TLE and 24
      healthy controls; the semantic verbal fluency test included 5 semantic
      categories: animals, fruits, occupations, countries, and verbs. All 5 categories
      were analysed quantitatively (number of correct words per minute and interval of
      execution: 0-15, 16-30, 31-45, and 46-60seconds); the categories animals and
      fruits were also analysed qualitatively (clusters, cluster size, switches,
      perseverations, and intrusions). RESULTS: Patients generated fewer words for all
      categories and intervals and fewer clusters and switches for animals and fruits
      than the CG (P<.01). Differences between groups were not significant in terms of
      cluster size and number of intrusions and perseverations (P>.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Our results suggest an association between SVF difficulties in TLE and difficulty
      activating semantic networks, impaired strategic search, and poor cognitive
      flexibility. Attention, inhibition, and working memory are preserved in these
      patients.

PMID- 28863829
TI  - Experimental models of demyelination and remyelination.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Experimental animal models constitute a useful tool to deepen our
      knowledge of central nervous system disorders. In the case of multiple sclerosis,
      however, there is no such specific model able to provide an overview of the
      disease; multiple models covering the different pathophysiological features of
      the disease are therefore necessary. DEVELOPMENT: We reviewed the different in
      vitro and in vivo experimental models used in multiple sclerosis research.
      Concerning in vitro models, we analysed cell cultures and slice models. As for in
      vivo models, we examined such models of autoimmunity and inflammation as
      experimental allergic encephalitis in different animals and virus-induced
      demyelinating diseases. Furthermore, we analysed models of demyelination and
      remyelination, including chemical lesions caused by cuprizone, lysolecithin, and
      ethidium bromide; zebrafish; and transgenic models. CONCLUSIONS: Experimental
      models provide a deeper understanding of the different pathogenic mechanisms
      involved in multiple sclerosis. Choosing one model or another depends on the
      specific aims of the study.

PMID- 28863830
TI  - The great imitator: Mesial temporal alterations in MRI in an atypical case of
      neurosyphilis.

PMID- 28863831
TI  - Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in an immunocompetent patient.

PMID- 28863832
TI  - Twenty five years of Cytokine: on a forward path to exciting discoveries of
      pathological mechanisms and therapeutics.
AB  - Cytokines, chemokines, adipokines, myokines, and other hematopoietic growth
      factors constitute the largest network of intercellular signaling proteins that
      shape organismal development, survival, tissue repair and host defenses. Cytokine
      has been established for reporting the original research studies in these
      burgeoning areas. A special issue dedicated to celebrate the quarter century of
      Cytokine as a journal is here. This review summarizes the contents of several
      articles published in this special issue.

PMID- 28863833
TI  - Allergic diseases: From bench to clinic - Contribution of the discovery of
      interleukin-5.
AB  - T helper 2 cells produce a number of cytokines including inteleukin (IL)-5, IL-4
      and IL-13. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) also produce IL-5 under sterile
      conditions. IL-5 is interdigitating homodimeric glycoprotein and a member of the
      four alpha helical bundle motifs conserved among hematopoietic cytokines. IL-5
      exerts its effects on target cells via IL-5 receptor (IL-5R), composed of an IL
      5R alpha and betac subunit. The membrane proximal proline-rich motif of the
      cytoplasmic domain of both IL-5R alpha and betac subunits is essential for IL-5
      signal transduction. Although IL-5 was initially identified by its ability to
      support the growth and terminal differentiation of mouse B cells into antibody
      secreting cells, recombinant IL-5 exerts pleiotropic activities on various target
      cells. For example, IL-5 is now recognized as the major maturation and
      differentiation factor for eosinophils in mice and humans. Overexpression of IL-5
      in mouse significantly increases eosinophil numbers and antibody levels in vivo,
      while mice lacking a functional gene for IL-5 or IL-5R display developmental and
      functional impairments in B cell and eosinophil lineages. In mice, the role of
      the IL-5/IL-5R system in the production and secretion of Immunoglobulin (Ig) M
      and IgA in mucosal tissues has been reported. Although eosinophils protect
      against invading pathogens including virus, bacteria and helminthes, they are
      also involved in the pathogenesis of various diseases, such as food allergy,
      asthma, and inflammatory bowel diseases. The recent expansion in our
      understanding in the context of IL-5 and IL-5-producing ILC2s in eosinophil
      activation and the pathogenesis of eosinophil-dependent inflammatory diseases has
      led to advances in therapeutic options. A new therapy currently under
      invetigarion in clinical trials uses humanized monoclonal antibodies against IL-5
      or the IL-5R. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the
      functions of IL-5 and its receptor, the innate regulation of IL-5-producing
      cells, and therapeutic potential of anti-IL-5 and anti-eosinophil (IL-5R)
      antibodies.

PMID- 28863835
TI  - Title Page Of Identification of risk factors associated with onset andprogression
      of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using systematic review and meta-analysis.

PMID- 28863834
TI  - Title Page Of Burden of Neurological conditions in Canada.

PMID- 28863836
TI  - Title Page Of Systematic reviews of factors associated with the onset and
      progression of neurological conditions in humans: a methodological overview.

PMID- 28863837
TI  - Title Page Of Onset and Progression Factors in Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic
      Review.

PMID- 28863838
TI  - Title Page Of Risk factors associated with the onset and progression of
      Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review of the evidence.

PMID- 28863839
TI  - Title Page Of Factors associated with onset, relapses or progression in multiple
      sclerosis: a systematic review.

PMID- 28863840
TI  - Title Page Of A Systematic Review of the Risks Factors Associated with the Onset
      and Natural Progression of Spina Bifida.

PMID- 28863841
TI  - Title Page Of A systematic review of the risk factors associated with the onset
      and progression of primary brain tumours.

PMID- 28863842
TI  - Title Page Of Factors Associated with the Onset and Progression of Neurotrauma: A
      Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

PMID- 28863843
TI  - Title Page Of Genetic variation associated with the occurrence and progression of
      neurological disorders.

PMID- 28863844
TI  - Title Page Of Determinants of Neurological Disease: Synthesis of Systematic
      Reviews.

PMID- 28863845
TI  - Title Page Of A Systematic Review of the Risks Factors Associated with the Onset
      and Natural Progression of Hydrocephalus.

PMID- 28863846
TI  - Title Page Of Onset Factors in Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review.

PMID- 28863847
TI  - Title Page Of A Systematic Review of Risk Factors associated with Muscular
      Dystrophies.

PMID- 28863849
TI  - Title Page Of Risk Factors for the Onset and Progression of Huntington Disease.

PMID- 28863848
TI  - Title Page Of A Systematic Review of the Risks Factors Associated with the Onset
      and Natural Progression of Epilepsy.

PMID- 28863850
TI  - Preface by Kim Elmslie and Joyce Gordon.

PMID- 28863851
TI  - Names of the conditions systematically reviewed.

PMID- 28863852
TI  - Guest Editors Affiliation And Pictures.

PMID- 28863853
TI  - Foreword by Celina Caesar-Chavannes.

PMID- 28863854
TI  - Group pictures of the investigators.

PMID- 28863855
TI  - Implicit guidance of attention: The priority state space framework.
AB  - Visual selective attention is the process by which we tune ourselves to the world
      so that, of the millions of bits per second transmitted by the retina, the
      information that is most important to us reaches awareness and directs action.
      Recently, new areas of attention research have opened up as classic models
      dividing attention into top-down and bottom-up systems have been challenged. In
      this paper, we propose a theoretical framework, the priority state space (PSS)
      framework, integrating sources of salience that guide visual attention according
      to a nested hierarchy of goals. Using the PSS framework as a scaffold, we review
      evidence of selected sources of implicit attentional guidance, including recent
      research on statistical learning, semantic associations, and motivational and
      affective salience. We next summarize current understanding of the underlying
      neural circuitry facilitating guidance of attention by specific sources of
      salience, including key neuromodulator systems, with an emphasis on affective
      salience and the noradrenergic system. Finally, we discuss evidence for common
      mechanisms of prioritization, including integration of sources of salience via
      priority maps, and introduce the concept of the PSS as a model for mapping a
      complex dynamic attentional landscape.

PMID- 28863856
TI  - Weld inspection by focused adjoint method.
AB  - This paper reports a methodology for the non-destructive ultrasonic evaluation of
      welds, based on probing, residue back-focusing and topological energy calculation
      using an enhanced (focused) adjoint method. The proposed method combines the
      advantages of time reversal to compensate for the cumulative distorsions
      experienced by a wave propagating in a heterogeneous medium, and topological
      imaging to highlight the defect location. The synergistic effect of this combined
      approach makes it possible to detect anomalies in the most efficient way. The
      method paves the way towards a matched-insonification imaging of anomalies in
      anisotropic media.

PMID- 28863858
TI  - Invasion Science: Looking Forward Rather Than Revisiting Old Ground - A Reply to
      Zenni et al.

PMID- 28863857
TI  - Revised consensus statement on the preventive and symptomatic care of patients
      with leukodystrophies.
AB  - Leukodystrophies are a broad class of genetic disorders that result in disruption
      or destruction of central myelination. Although the mechanisms underlying these
      disorders are heterogeneous, there are many common symptoms that affect patients
      irrespective of the genetic diagnosis. The comfort and quality of life of these
      children is a primary goal that can complement efforts directed at curative
      therapies. Contained within this report is a systems-based approach to management
      of complications that result from leukodystrophies. We discuss the initial
      evaluation, identification of common medical issues, and management options to
      establish a comprehensive, standardized care approach. We will also address
      clinical topics relevant to select leukodystrophies, such as gallbladder
      pathology and adrenal insufficiency. The recommendations within this review rely
      on existing studies and consensus opinions and underscore the need for future
      research on evidence-based outcomes to better treat the manifestations of this
      unique set of genetic disorders.

PMID- 28863859
TI  - Grafting materials for alveolar cleft reconstruction: a systematic review and
      best-evidence synthesis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of alveolar bone
      reconstruction for alveolar cleft patients performed with the traditional iliac
      graft or alternative/supplementary bone grafting materials. Electronic databases,
      relevant journals, and reference lists of the included studies were searched to
      the end of June 2016. A best-evidence synthesis was performed to draw
      conclusions. A total of 38 studies were included, which provided 25 pieces of
      evidence: seven of moderate evidence and 18 of insufficient evidence. The seven
      pieces of moderate evidence indicated that (1) bone morphogenetic protein 2 bound
      to absorbable collagen sponge shares similar cleft repair efficacy to the iliac
      graft; (2) covering the iliac graft with an acellular dermis matrix membrane may
      increase bone retention for unilateral cleft patients; (3) mixing iliac graft
      with platelet-rich plasma may increase bone retention for skeletally mature
      patients, but (4) does not achieve the same result for younger patients; and
      compared with the iliac graft, (5) the mandible graft is more effective, whereas
      (6) the cranium graft and (7) rib graft are less effective for alveolar cleft
      reconstruction. The efficacy of the remaining grafting materials was supported by
      insufficient evidence. More well-designed controlled studies are needed to
      ascertain the long-term clinical results of alveolar cleft reconstruction.

PMID- 28863861
TI  - Neuromyelitis optica, atypical hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and
      heterozygous perforin A91V mutation.
AB  - Neuromyelitis optica is an autoimmune demyelinating inflammatory disease
      characterized by optic neuritis and myelitis with anti-aquaporin 4 antibodies.
      Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is a severe systemic inflammatory syndrome
      that can present in a genetic primary form or secondarily to infective,
      neoplastic or autoimmune diseases. Our case discusses the first reported case of
      atypical late-onset hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in a patient with
      neuromyelitis optica, with multiple triggering factors and carrying the common
      A91V hypomorphic perforin mutation, that blurs the distinction between primary
      and secondary forms.

PMID- 28863860
TI  - Discoidin domain receptor inhibition reduces neuropathology and attenuates
      inflammation in neurodegeneration models.
AB  - The role of cell surface tyrosine kinase collagen-activated receptors known as
      discoidin domain receptors (DDRs) is unknown in neurodegenerative diseases. We
      detect up-regulation in DDRs level in post-mortem Alzheimer and Parkinson brains.
      Lentiviral shRNA knockdown of DDR1 and DDR2 reduces the levels of alpha
      synuclein, tau, and beta-amyloid and prevents cell loss in vivo and in vitro.
      DDR1 and DDR2 knockdown alters brain immunity and significantly reduces the level
      of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (TREM)-2 and microglia. These
      studies suggest that DDR1 and DDR2 inhibition is a potential target to clear
      neurotoxic proteins and reduce inflammation in neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28863862
TI  - Imaging strategy and outcome following partial nephrectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to analyze the outcomes of surveillance
      after partial nephrectomy (PN) in a single institution and the relevance of
      imaging studies in detecting recurrence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective
      study of 830 patients who underwent PN for localized renal cell carcinoma between
      2007 and 2015 at a single institution. We studied the characteristics of
      recurrence according to pathological and clinical features and elaborated risk
      groups. The type and the total number of imaging studies performed during
      surveillance or until recurrence were evaluated. Outcomes of surveillance were
      analyzed. RESULTS: There were 48 patients (5.8%) diagnosed with recurrence during
      median 36 [21-52] months follow-up, including local recurrence in 18 patients
      (37.5%) and metastasis in 30 patients (62.5%). Totally, 17/18 patients (94.4%)
      with local recurrence and 26/30 patients (86.6%) with metastasis were diagnosed
      within the first 36 months after PN. When studying the recurrence rate, and time
      to-recurrence, 2 risk groups emerged. Patients with pathological characteristics
      (tumors with pT1b or higher or high-grade tumor or positive surgical margin
      status) or patients with anatomical characteristics (high or moderate R.E.N.A.L.
      score) or both had high recurrence rate. Chest x-ray and abdominal ultrasound
      detected 7.7% and 3.4% of all recurrences, respectively, whereas computed
      tomography scan and magnetic resonance imaging scan detected the rest. Of the 48
      patients diagnosed with recurrence, 44 (91.6%) were suitable for secondary active
      treatment (systemic, surgery, and radiotherapy) including 26 (54.2%) suitable for
      metastasectomy. The rate of relapse after secondary treatment was 43.5% (16.6%
      for the local recurrence group and 60.7% for metastasis group). CONCLUSION: Local
      recurrence emerges earlier than distant metastasis. Patients with any adverse
      pathological or anatomical features should be considered as high-risk group and
      followed closely in the first 36 months after PN with cross-sectional studies.
      Secondary active treatment is suitable for most patients, while surgical
      treatment fits fewer patients. Local recurrence is associated with increased
      rates of metastatic progression.

PMID- 28863863
TI  - Unitary Properties of AMPA Receptors with Reduced Desensitization.
AB  - Wild-type AMPA receptors display a characteristic rapidly desensitizing
      phenotype. Many studies point to the dimer interface between pairs of
      extracellular ligand binding domains as the key region controlling the rate at
      which the receptors desensitize. However, mutations at the extracellular end of
      the pore-forming regions (near the putative ion channel gate) have also been
      shown to alter desensitization. Here we report the behavior of single GluA4
      receptors carrying one of two mutations that greatly reduce desensitization at
      the level of ensemble currents: the dimer interface mutation L484Y and the
      Lurcher mutation (A623T, GluA4-Lc) in the extracellular end of M3 (the second
      true transmembrane helix). Analysis of unitary currents in patches with just one
      active receptor showed that each mutation greatly prolongs bursts of openings
      without prolonging the apparent duration of individual openings. Each mutation
      decreases the frequency with which individual receptors visit desensitized
      states, but both mutant receptors still desensitize multiple times per second.
      Cyclothiazide (CTZ) reduced desensitization of wild-type receptors and both types
      of mutant receptor. Analysis of shut-time distributions revealed a form of short
      lived desensitization that was resistant to CTZ and was especially prominent for
      GluA4-Lc receptors. Despite reducing desensitization of GluA4 L484Y receptors,
      CTZ decreased the amplitude of ensemble currents through GluA2 and GluA4 LY
      receptor mutants. Single-channel analysis and comparison of the GluA2 L483Y
      ligand binding domain dimer in complex with glutamate with and without CTZ is
      consistent with the conclusion that CTZ binding to the dimer interface prevents
      effects of the LY mutation to modulate receptor activation, resulting in a
      reduction in the prevalence of large-conductance substates that accounts for the
      decrease in ensemble current amplitudes. Together, the results show that similar
      nondesensitizing AMPA-receptor phenotypes of population currents can arise from
      distinct underlying molecular mechanisms that produce different types of unitary
      activity.

PMID- 28863865
TI  - LC-MS/MS quantitation of antimalarial drug piperaquine and metabolites in human
      plasma.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop a sensitive, quantitative assay for the
      antimalarial piperaquine (PQ) and its metabolites M1 and M2 in human plasma.
      RESULTS: Analytes were gradiently separated on a C18 column and detected with a
      Sciex API 4000 MS/MS with an ESI source operated in the positive ion mode with
      deuterated PQ as internal standard. The response was linear in the range 3.9
      2508nM with a runtime of 7.0min per sample. The method was applied to clinical
      samples from healthy volunteers. CONCLUSION: This LC-MS/MS method for the
      simultaneous quantitation of PQ and two of its metabolites in plasma may prove
      helpful for assessment of metabolite safety issues in vivo.

PMID- 28863864
TI  - Two Pools of Vesicles Associated with Synaptic Ribbons Are Molecularly Prepared
      for Release.
AB  - Neurons that form ribbon-style synapses are specialized for continuous
      exocytosis. To this end, their synaptic terminals contain numerous synaptic
      vesicles, some of which are ribbon associated, that have difference
      susceptibilities for undergoing Ca2+-dependent exocytosis. In this study, we
      probed the relationship between previously defined vesicle populations and
      determined their fusion competency with respect to SNARE complex formation. We
      found that both the rapidly releasing vesicle pool and the releasable vesicle
      pool of the retinal bipolar cell are situated at the ribbon-style active zones,
      where they functionally interact. A peptide inhibitor of SNARE complex formation
      failed to block exocytosis from either pool, suggesting that these two vesicle
      pools have formed the SNARE complexes necessary for fusion. By contrast, a third,
      slower component of exocytosis was blocked by the peptide, as was the functional
      replenishment of vesicle pools, indicating that few vesicles outside of the
      ribbon-style active zones were initially fusion competent. In cone
      photoreceptors, similar to bipolar cells, fusion of the initial ribbon-associated
      synaptic vesicle cohort was not blocked by the SNARE complex-inhibiting peptide,
      whereas a later phase of exocytosis, attributable to the recruitment and
      subsequent fusion of vesicles newly arrived at the synaptic ribbons, was blocked.
      Together, our results support a model in which stimulus-evoked exocytosis in
      retinal ribbon synapses is SNARE-dependent; where vesicles higher up on the
      synaptic ribbon replenish the rapidly releasing vesicle pool; and at any given
      time, there are sufficient SNARE complexes to support the fusion of the entire
      ribbon-associated cohort of vesicles. An important implication of these results
      is that ribbon-associated vesicles can form intervesicular SNARE complexes,
      providing mechanistic insight into compound fusion at ribbon-style synapses.

PMID- 28863866
TI  - Rethinking number-needed-to-vaccinate for pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in
      older adults: Current and future implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Number-needed-to-vaccinate (NNV) is increasingly used to inform
      decisions about vaccine use, but it is not calculated uniformly across studies.
      This study compared two methodologies for calculating NNV with 13-valent
      pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) to prevent one case of community-acquired
      pneumonia (CAP) among US adults aged >=65years: (i) using one-year absolute rate
      differences as was originally performed by the Centers for Disease Control and
      Prevention (CDC) and (ii) using absolute risk reduction over 5years. METHODS: We
      constructed a hypothetical fixed cohort of 200,000 adults aged >=65years equally
      separated into PCV13-vaccinated and PCV13-unvaccinated groups. We incorporated
      the same conservative assumptions used by CDC in 2014 regarding annual incidence
      of hospitalized (1375 per 100,000) and outpatient (2010 per 100,000) CAP, the
      initial (2014) proportion of adult PCV13-type CAP (10%), and PCV13 efficacy
      against vaccine-type CAP (45%). To model PCV13 impact over time, we assumed
      annual mortality was 5% for both groups, the percentage of adult PCV13-type CAP
      declined annually due to pediatric herd effects, and PCV13 efficacy did not wane
      over 5years. RESULTS: Among adults aged >=65years, NNV with PCV13 to prevent one
      hospitalized and one outpatient case of CAP as originally calculated by CDC in
      2014 were 1620 and 1110, respectively. Accounting for 5-year cumulative effects,
      NNV with PCV13 to prevent one hospitalized and one outpatient case of CAP over
      5years were 576 and 394, respectively. These revised NNV estimates are roughly
      one third of initial estimates in which cumulative effects were ignored. NNV to
      prevent any CAP (inpatient or outpatient) over 5years with one PCV13 dose was
      234. CONCLUSION: Accounting for cumulative preventive effects of PCV13
      vaccination over time is critical. Failing to do so, even when using conservative
      disease burden parameters, can grossly underestimate the public health impact of
      adult PCV13 use.

PMID- 28863867
TI  - Results on exposure during pregnancy from a pregnancy registry for AS04-HPV-16/18
      vaccine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess pregnancy outcomes after exposure to AS04-HPV-16/18 vaccine
      (Cervarix, GSK, Belgium) prior to, or during pregnancy, as reported to a
      pregnancy registry. METHODS: A pregnancy exposure registry was established to
      collect data in the United Kingdom and the United States. Exposure was defined as
      vaccination with AS04-HPV-16/18 within 60days before the estimated conception
      date and delivery. Reporting was voluntary. RESULTS: Between September 2007 and
      November 2015, 306 pregnancy exposure reports were received of which 181 were
      prospective, evaluable reports. From these 181 reports, 154 (85.1%) pregnancies
      resulted in a live birth, 14 (7.7%) in spontaneous abortion, one (0.5%) in
      stillbirth, and 12 (6.6%) were electively terminated. There was no clustering of
      outcomes with respect to the timing of exposure. There were 18 infants born with
      a congenital anomaly of which nine were minor structural defects, seven were
      major structural defects, one was a hereditary disorder and one was likely the
      result of a congenital infection. In three cases of structural defect (two minor
      and one major), there was a temporal association to vaccination during the
      critical developmental period of gestation. There was no cluster or constellation
      of congenital anomalies suggestive of possible teratogenesis. CONCLUSION: The
      pharmacovigilance plan to investigate the effects of inadvertent exposure to AS04
      HPV-16/18 vaccine during pregnancy included assessment of pregnancy outcomes
      among women enrolled in clinical trials, evaluation of pregnancy exposure reports
      from all countries as part of routine passive safety surveillance, a large, well
      conducted post-authorization observational study, and the pregnancy registry.
      These registry data complement other data from clinical trials and post-marketing
      surveillance showing no evidence that vaccination with AS04-HPV-16/18 during the
      defined exposure period (within 60days before conception until delivery)
      increases the risk of teratogenicity.

PMID- 28863868
TI  - Prevention of treatable infectious diseases: A game-theoretic approach.
AB  - We model outcomes of voluntary prevention using an imperfect vaccine, which
      confers protection only to a fraction of vaccinees for a limited duration. Our
      mathematical model combines a single-player game for the individual-level
      decision to get vaccinated, and a compartmental model for the epidemic dynamics.
      Mathematical analysis yields a characterization for the effective vaccination
      coverage, as a function of the relative cost of prevention versus treatment; note
      that cost may involve monetary as well as non-monetary aspects. Three behaviors
      are possible. First, the relative cost may be too high, so individuals do not get
      vaccinated. Second, the relative cost may be moderate, such that some individuals
      get vaccinated and voluntary vaccination alleviates the epidemic. In this case,
      the vaccination coverage grows steadily with decreasing relative cost of
      vaccination versus treatment. Unlike previous studies, we find a third case where
      relative cost is sufficiently low so epidemics may be averted through the use of
      prevention, even for an imperfect vaccine. However, we also found that disease
      elimination is only temporary-as no equilibrium exists for the individual
      strategy in this third case-and, with increasing perceived cost of vaccination
      versus treatment, the situation may be reversed toward the epidemic edge, where
      the effective reproductive number is 1. Thus, maintaining relative cost
      sufficiently low will be the main challenge to maintain disease elimination.
      Furthermore, our model offers insight on vaccine parameters, which are otherwise
      difficult to estimate. We apply our findings to the epidemiology of measles.

PMID- 28863869
TI  - Intention to accept pertussis vaccine among pregnant women in Karachi, Pakistan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal immunization against pertussis is a potential strategy to
      protect young infants from severe disease. We assessed factors associated with
      intention to accept pertussis vaccination among pregnant women in Karachi,
      Pakistan. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey between May and August
      2013 in pregnant women who visited healthcare centers in urban slums of Karachi
      city. Women completed a survey examining socio-demographic factors, vaccination
      history, knowledge on pertussis disease, perception of vaccine recommendation
      sources, and potential influences on vaccine decision-making. RESULTS: Of the 283
      participants, 259 (92%) provided their intention to either accept or decline
      pertussis vaccination. Eighty-three percent women were willing to accept the
      pertussis vaccine if offered during pregnancy. About half (53%) of the
      participants had ever heard of pertussis disease. Perceptions of pertussis
      vaccine efficacy, safety, and disease susceptibility were strongly associated
      with intention to accept pertussis vaccine (p<0.01). Healthcare providers,
      Ministry of Health, and mass media were considered as highly reliable sources of
      vaccine recommendation and associated with intention to accept antenatal
      pertussis vaccination (p<0.001). Healthcare provider recommendation was a common
      reason cited by respondents for pregnant women to accept antenatal pertussis
      vaccination (p=0.0005). However, opinion of primary decision-makers in the family
      (husbands and in-laws) was a crucial reason cited by respondents for pregnant
      women to reject pertussis vaccination in pregnancy (p=0.003). CONCLUSION:
      Antenatal pertussis vaccination initiatives in South Asia should strongly
      consider inclusion of family members, healthcare providers, national health
      ministries, and mass media to help implement new vaccination programs.

PMID- 28863870
TI  - The role of self-efficacy, self-esteem and optimism for using routine health
      check-ups in a population-based sample. A longitudinal perspective.
AB  - While several cross-sectional studies have shown that self-efficacy, self-esteem
      and optimism are associated with the use of routine health check-ups, little is
      known about this relationship based on longitudinal studies. Consequently, the
      purpose of this study was to examine whether these factors are associated with
      routine health check-ups longitudinally. Data were retrieved from a population
      based longitudinal study of individuals (>=40years of age) residing in private
      households in Germany (two waves: 2008 and 2011). Widely established scales were
      used to quantify self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism. Respondents reported
      whether they used a health check-up in the last two years. Conditional fixed
      effects logistic regressions were used (n=1504), adjusting for socio-demographic,
      lifestyle and health-related variables. After adjusting for various potential
      confounders, regression analysis revealed that the use of routine health check
      ups increased with self-efficacy [OR: 1.71 (95%-CI: 1.14-2.55)], self-esteem [OR:
      1.78 (1.16-2.73)], and optimism [OR: 1.37 (1.01-1.86)]. Furthermore, the use of
      routine health check-ups increased with changes from employment to retirement
      [OR: 2.60 (1.34-5.03)], whereas it was not associated with changes in age,
      marital status, smoking status, the number of physical illnesses, self-rated
      health and body-mass index. The current study stresses the importance of an
      association between screening behavior and self-efficacy, self-esteem and
      optimism longitudinally. Interventions aiming at modifying these psychological
      factors might help to increase the use of routine health check-ups.

PMID- 28863871
TI  - Neighborhood built environment and socio-economic status in relation to multiple
      health outcomes in adolescents.
AB  - The study aim was to examine associations of neighborhood built environment and
      neighborhood socio-economic status (SES) with multiple physical activity (PA)
      behaviors, sedentary time, and obesity indicators among adolescents. Cross
      sectional study of 325 adolescents aged 14-18years recruited from schools in
      Valencia, Spain. Participants' home neighborhoods were classified according to
      walkability and SES levels. Walkability was defined as an index of three built
      environment characteristics (i.e., residential density, land use mix, and street
      connectivity) based on geographic information system data. Moderate-vigorous PA
      (MVPA) and sedentary time were assessed using accelerometers. Active commuting to
      school, leisure-time PA, and time in specific sedentary activities were evaluated
      by questionnaire. Objectively measured weight and height were used to calculate
      body mass index, and percent body fat was analyzed by bioelectrical impedance.
      Data were collected in 2013-15. Mixed model regression analyses were performed.
      Analyses showed an SES-by-walkability interaction for MVPA on weekends. MVPA was
      highest in high-SES/high-walkable neighborhoods. Another SES-by-walkability
      interaction was found for sedentary minutes per weekend day. The lowest average
      sedentary minutes were found in high-SES/high-walkable areas. Neighborhood SES
      was positively related to participation in sports teams/PA classes and,
      negatively to time spent in sedentary behaviors. Adolescents living in lower-SES
      neighborhoods spent more time watching TV and had more obesity and body fat.
      Present findings strengthen the rationale for targeting neighborhood built and
      SES environments as health promotion interventions for adolescents.

PMID- 28863872
TI  - Decision-making in fecal occult blood test compliance: A quali-quantitative study
      investigating motivational processes.
AB  - The qualitative-quantitative study investigates the co-existence of barriers and
      levers to FOBT screening in 5894 individuals reluctant to be screened,
      identifying operational motivational patterns that may increase screening
      compliance. Co-occurrence analysis was performed according to three motivational
      conditions (barriers, levers, or both).Cluster analysis then identified
      motivational predictors of effective screening. One quarter of the individuals
      who had refused screening nevertheless expressed at least one motivation towards
      FOBT. As such, co-existence of barriers and levers within the same individual
      demonstrates ambivalence tendencies. Intrinsic motivations appear to be the most
      likely to increase FOBT compliance. This study finds that certain factors well
      known to improve CRC screening compliance generally, may not have much impact on
      reluctant individuals due to ambivalence and contextual nuances. Several
      practical recommendations to encourage screening participation are offered, such
      as focusing on levers rather barriers, providing tailored education to improve
      awareness and readiness, and fostering intrinsic motivation with relevant
      approaches.

PMID- 28863873
TI  - Evaluation of the associations between immunoglobulin E levels and the number of
      natural teeth.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the association
      between the number of natural teeth and the total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE),
      allergen-specific IgE against Dermatophagoides farina, allergen-specific IgE
      against cockroaches, or allergen-specific IgE against dogs with nationally
      representative data using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey (KNHANES). METHODS: This study involved a cross-sectional analysis using
      KNHANES data from 2010. A total of 1916 participants were eligible for this
      study. Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the risk of tooth loss
      in relation to IgE levels. The model was adjusted for age, sex, body mass index,
      smoking habits, drinking habits, exercise habits, vitamin D levels, metabolic
      syndrome, allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and tooth-brushing
      frequency. RESULTS: The number of natural teeth of the first quartile to the
      fourth quartile of total serum IgE were 25.9 +/- 0.2, 25.9 +/- 0.2, 25.1 +/- 0.2,
      and 25.4 +/- 0.2, respectively, showing an inverse association (P < 0.05). The
      number of natural teeth of the first quartile to the fourth quartile of allergen
      specific IgE against Dermatophagoides farina and allergen-specific IgE against
      dogs farina both showed an inverse association with statistical significance (P <
      0.05). CONCLUSION: This study clearly showed the inverse association between
      total serum IgE and number of natural teeth after adjustments, especially
      regarding participants without systemic diseases, including diabetes mellitus,
      hypertension, metabolic diseases, and obesity.

PMID- 28863875
TI  - [Hypothyroidism in adults in a basic health area].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of the present study is to study the prevalence, as
      well as the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of hypothyroid disease
      in adults using the computerised clinical records. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study. The target population was
      the patients of the health centres of Lucena I and II (Cordoba). INCLUSION
      CRITERIA: Patients 14 years or older, diagnosed with hypothyroidism, born and
      resident in Lucena. Two hundred and fourteen patients were recruited by random
      sampling, who then underwent a clinical interview using a questionnaire. RESULTS:
      The mean age of the patients was 49.71 years (SD 17.03; 95% CI 47.34-51.98), with
      85.5% women. A diagnosis of sub-clinical hypothyroidism was found in 74.8%,
      compared to 18.7% of primary hypothyroidism, and 6.5% of secondary
      hypothyroidism. The 53.7% (95% CI 46.81-60.59) of patients diagnosed with
      hypothyroidism did not have thyroid antibodies results. However, 75.2% (95% CI
      68.89-80.86) were being treated with levothyroxine. The prevalence of
      hypothyroidism was 5.7% (95% CI 5.46-5.96). CONCLUSIONS: Sub-clinical
      hypothyroidism is very common in Primary Care clinics. Many patients are not
      correctly diagnosed and many are over-medicated, suggesting a need to review the
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28863876
TI  - [Haemoptysis and a radiological image that appears and disappears].

PMID- 28863874
TI  - A randomized controlled trial of eicosapentaenoic acid in patients with coronary
      heart disease on statins.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a residual risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) despite
      intensive statin therapy for secondary prevention. The aim of this study was to
      investigate whether coronary plaque regression and stabilization are reinforced
      by the addition of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to high-dose pitavastatin (PTV).
      METHODS: We enrolled 193 CHD patients who underwent percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI) in six hospitals. Patients were randomly allocated to the PTV
      group (PTV 4mg/day, n=96) or PTV/EPA group (PTV 4mg/day and EPA 1800mg/day,
      n=97), and prospectively followed for 6-8 months. Coronary plaque volume and
      composition in nonstenting lesions were analyzed by integrated backscatter
      intravascular ultrasound (IB-IVUS). RESULTS: The PTV/EPA group showed a greater
      reduction in total atheroma volume compared to PTV group. IB-IVUS analyses
      revealed that lipid volume was significantly decreased during follow-up period in
      only PTV/EPA group. The efficacy of additional EPA therapy on lipid volume
      reduction was significantly higher in stable angina pectoris (SAP) patients
      compared to acute coronary syndrome patients. EPA/AA ratio was significantly
      improved in PTV/EPA group compared to PTV group. There was no significant
      difference in the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events and side
      effects. CONCLUSIONS: Combination EPA/PTV therapy significantly reduced coronary
      plaque volume compared to PTV therapy alone. Plaque stabilization was also
      reinforced by EPA/PTV therapy in particular SAP patients. The addition of EPA is
      a promising option to reduce residual CHD risk under intensive statin therapy.

PMID- 28863877
TI  - Gout Mimicking Soft Tissue Tumor.

PMID- 28863878
TI  - Pulmonary sarcoidosis mimicking tuberculosis: Importance of the galaxy sign on
      thoracic computed tomography.
AB  - Sarcoidosis and tuberculosis are two common granulomatous conditions that may
      share clinical and radiological presentations. The galaxy sign (sarcoid galaxy
      sign) is a characteristic radiological sign of pulmonary sarcoidosis on thoracic
      computed tomography (CT). We present the case of a patient with sarcoidosis that
      was initially misdiagnosed as tuberculosis, in whom the galaxy sign on CT was
      useful as it suggested the correct diagnosis.

PMID- 28863879
TI  - Vitamin C in Clinical Therapeutics.

PMID- 28863880
TI  - Plasma Cell Granuloma of the Jaw and the Infratemporal Fossa: A Clinical Case.
AB  - Plasma cell granuloma or inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT) is diagnosed by a process
      of elimination. The precise etiology is unknown, although it can occur after a
      bout of periodontal infection. This report describes the various stages of
      progression for this ailment. A 49-year-old woman with no noteworthy medical
      history presented with a recurrent periodontal abscess accompanied by progressive
      and severe destruction of the right maxilla. There was invasion of the
      infratemporal fossa and very tight trismus. Histologic examination indicated a
      reactive plasma cell granuloma. IPT is an entity recognized by the World Health
      Organization. A triggering infectious or inflammatory factor is often present. In
      the maxilla, progression is very aggressive. Treatment relies on corticotherapy,
      with or without radiotherapy, and administration of cyclosporine.

PMID- 28863881
TI  - Does Guided Bone Regeneration Prevent Unfavorable Bone Shapes in Distraction Gap?
AB  - PURPOSE: Complications related to distraction osteogenesis can cause degradation
      of newly regenerated bone. Additionally, an unfavorable shape of the regenerated
      bone at the distraction gap can reduce the quantity of regenerated bone. The aim
      of the present study was to report on the prevention of unfavorable shapes of
      regenerated bone using guided bone regeneration during distraction. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Bilateral alveolar distraction was performed in 10 beagle dog mandibles.
      One side of the mandible formed the experimental group and the other side served
      as the control group. In the experimental group, guided bone regeneration was
      performed simultaneously with distraction osteogenesis. In the control group,
      only alveolar distraction was applied. At the end of a 1-week latent period, all
      mandibles were distracted 10 mm (1 mm/day). After the distraction period, 3
      months were allowed for consolidation. After consolidation, all the dogs were
      euthanized, and the shape of the regenerated bone was determined to be either
      favorable or unfavorable. Densitometric evaluation and area measurements were
      performed using computed tomography scans. Statistical evaluation was performed
      using the independent t test, with a significance level of P < .05. RESULTS: In
      the experimental group, no unfavorable bone shape developed in the distraction
      gap, and the new bone had a surface and volume similar to those of the segments.
      In contrast, in the control group, 4 mandibles had an unfavorable bone shape in
      the distraction gap and 4 showed favorable bone healing with no defect. The
      surface area of the regenerating bone in the experimental group was significantly
      greater than that in the control group. Also, the surface area differed
      significantly between the experimental and control groups (P < .05). However, the
      densitometric values did not differ between the 2 groups (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Concomitant use of guided bone regeneration with distraction osteogenesis could
      be an optimal method for generating a favorable bone shape within the distraction
      gap.

PMID- 28863882
TI  - Evaluation of Mandibular Bone After Dental Extraction in Rats Treated With
      Antiresorptive Drugs.
AB  - PURPOSE: Zoledronic acid (ZOL) and denosumab (Dmab) are commonly used to treat
      bone pathologies. Because these drugs suppress bone metabolism, this study sought
      to compare their effect on bone repair after tooth extraction. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Four-week-old male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups:
      ZOL 0.125 mg/kg, Dmab 0.25 mg/kg, or saline solution 10 mL/kg (control). After 1
      week of treatment, the first left molar was extracted; the rats were euthanized
      at 28 days. The jaws were removed and photographed for macroscopic analysis of
      wound healing and then subjected to tomographic and histologic analyses.
      Immunohistochemistry was carried out against the receptor activator of nuclear
      factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG). RESULTS: No difference in
      wound healing, presence of inflammatory infiltrate and bone sequestration, or
      osteocyte expression of RANKL and OPG was found among groups. Tomographic
      analysis showed that the ZOL group had less alveolar resorption and more complete
      alveolar repair compared with the other groups. There was a statistically
      significant difference in the OPG marker in the control (P = .008) and ZOL (P =
      .05) groups when comparing the extracted and non-extracted sides. CONCLUSION:
      Systemic use of ZOL can improve alveolar bone healing; however, the potential
      risk for the development of osteonecrosis should be considered. Higher expression
      of OPG seems to be associated with the control of osteoclastogenesis during bone
      repair.

PMID- 28863883
TI  - Clinicopathologic and Surgical Study of Pleomorphic Adenoma of the Parotid Gland:
      Analysis of Risk Factors for Recurrence and Facial Nerve Dysfunction.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether clinicopathologic or surgical features are risk
      factors for recurrence and facial nerve dysfunction in pleomorphic adenoma (PA)
      of the parotid gland. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The records of 198 patients
      surgically treated for a PA of the parotid gland from 1999 through 2013 were
      retrospectively reviewed to identify patients who developed a tumor recurrence.
      The Fisher exact test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze patient
      characteristics between recurrent and non-recurrent PAs. Logistic regression was
      used to determine the risks of recurrence and facial nerve dysfunction. RESULTS:
      Twenty-three patients (11.6%) developed a recurrence. Patients with tumor
      recurrence were notably younger than patients without recurrence. Of the 14
      patients who underwent enucleation, 11 (78.6%) developed residual disease, as did
      10 of 165 patients (6%) managed by a superficial parotidectomy (P < .0005).
      Furthermore, the risk of residual disease was 9.3 to 21.6 times higher in
      patients who underwent enucleation than in those who underwent a total or
      superficial parotidectomy. For tumor histology, recurrence was observed in 3
      (15.8%) of the 19 cellular types, 18 (11.5%) of 157 classic cases, and 1 (4.8%)
      of 21 myxoid cases (P = .5). The risk of recurrence with positive resection
      margins was 49 times higher than with negative margins (P = .001). CONCLUSION:
      Young age, enucleation, and positive margins are risk factors for residual
      pleomorphic adenoma, and surgical technique and histomorphologic features are
      associated with increased facial nerve dysfunction.

PMID- 28863884
TI  - How Accurate Are Implant Surgical Guides Produced With Desktop Stereolithographic
      3-Dimentional Printers?
AB  - PURPOSE: The use of tooth-supported static stereolithographic guides has greatly
      improved the ability to ideally place implants. This study was designed to
      determine the accuracy of in office-printed implant surgical guides. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Using 3shape Implant Studio, a treatment plan for implant placement
      for tooth 8 was developed using a digital intraoral scan from a Trios scanner and
      cone-beam computed tomography. Ten stereolithographic guides were printed using a
      Form2 3-dimensional printer. Pre- and post-implant insertion digital scans were
      used to determine distance and angulation differences in the mesiodistal and
      faciolingual positions of the implants compared with the planned position.
      RESULTS: The mean difference in mesiodistal direction at the alveolar crest
      between planned implants and placed implants was 0.28 mm (range, 0.05 to 0.62 mm)
      and the difference in the faciolingual direction was 0.49 mm (range, 0.08 to 0.72
      mm). The mean mesiodistal angulation deviation was 0.84 degrees  (range, 0.08
      degrees  to 4.48 degrees ) and the mean faciolingual angulation deviation was
      3.37 degrees  (range, 1.12 degrees  to 6.43 degrees ). CONCLUSIONS: In-office
      fabricated stereolithographic implant surgical guides show similar accuracy to
      laboratory- or manufacturer-prepared guides. This technique provides a convenient
      and cost-effective means of assuring proper implant placement.

PMID- 28863885
TI  - A New Indication for Barbed Threads: Static Reanimation of the Paralyzed Face.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to present the authors' experience in
      static facial reanimation using a straightforward incisionless procedure adapted
      from techniques commonly used for performing minimally invasive facelifts.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventeen patients were treated by static suspension using
      barbed sutures and all resulting changes were reviewed. The technique used for
      suture placement is described in detail, as are the author's tips for achieving
      the best esthetic and functional results. All patients had preoperative
      indication for physiotherapy and rehabilitation procedures (local massage and
      mirror therapy). Facial nerve function was evaluated using the Arianna Disease
      Scale. RESULTS: The cosmetic outcome improved in all cases, with marked
      amelioration of the preoperative facial asymmetry. Oral competence was enhanced
      by elevating the oral commissure and reinforcing the cheek, and amelioration of
      symptoms related to lagophthalmos was achieved through increased support and
      decreased pull on the inferior eyelid. The addition of physiotherapy with
      specific rehabilitation exercises before the surgical intervention increased the
      success rate. CONCLUSION: This technique proved to be a good alternative to other
      static reanimation procedures because of its straightforward technique,
      availability, good outcomes, low complication rate, and ability to perform minor
      adjustments and corrections at any time.

PMID- 28863886
TI  - Is Superselective Neck Dissection Safer Than Supraomohyoid Neck Dissection for
      Oral Carcinoma Patients With N0 Neck in Terms of Shoulder Morbidity and
      Recurrence Rate?
AB  - PURPOSE: To estimate the clinical and functional results of patients who
      underwent distinctive types of neck dissection, with particular emphasis on
      shoulder function, rate of recurrence, and quality of life in patients with N0
      neck. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A randomized clinical trial was conducted from
      August 2014 to March 2017 in which 20 adult patients with T1 to T3 lesions of the
      oral cavity and N0 neck were included. Patients were randomly allocated to group
      I (n = 10; selective neck dissection) or group II (n = 10; superselective neck
      dissection). All patients were evaluated objectively for degree of arm abduction
      and subjectively for quality of life using a questionnaire completed pre- and
      postoperatively at 6 months. Also, locoregional recurrence was investigated for
      2.5 years. Data were scrutinized by applying mean and standard deviation,
      unpaired t test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kaplan-Meier test. RESULTS: Mean values
      of the Arm Abduction Test and quality-of-life scores were statistically
      significant (P < .05) for group II compared with group I at all intervals. Data
      analyzed for locoregional recurrence showed a statistically significant
      difference between groups (P < .05), with group II having the better outcome.
      CONCLUSION: The results showed less shoulder morbidity and improved quality of
      life for superselective neck dissection (group II) compared with selective neck
      dissection (group I). Furthermore, group II was better for locoregional
      recurrence, which determines the oncologic safety of the procedure.

PMID- 28863887
TI  - Development of monoclonal antibodies against the human 3beta-hydroxysteroid
      dehydrogenase/isomerase isozymes.
AB  - The human 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/isomerase (HSD3B) enzymes catalyze
      the conversion of 3beta-hydroxy Delta5-6 steroids into 3-keto Delta4-5 steroids,
      which is required for the synthesis of the mature steroid hormones secreted by
      the adrenal and gonads. The human has 2 isozymes, the HSD3B1 that is
      traditionally located in placenta and extra-adrenal tissues and the HSD3B2 that
      is expressed in the adrenal and gonads. Mice with both cryptochrome 1 and 2 genes
      deletion were recently found to have salt-sensitive hypertension and
      hyperaldosteronism. These deletions were also associated with overexpression of
      the Hsd3b6 enzyme, the homolog of the human HSD3B1, in the zona glomerulosa which
      was believed to explain the hyperaldosteronism. A report using antibodies against
      human HSD3B1 suggested that it was expressed in the zona glomerulosa of normal
      human adrenals and in patients with idiopathic hyperaldosteronism and the HSD3B2
      expressed in both the zona fasciculata and glomerulosa. We have developed
      specific monoclonal antibodies against the human HSD3B1 and HSD3B2 isozymes and
      found that the main enzyme expressed in the zona glomerulosa was the HSD3B2.
      Faint staining of the adrenal was also obtained using the anti-HSD3B1antibody
      only at high concentrations of antibody. This study fails to confirm that HSD3B1
      expression in the human zona glomerulosa and double immunofluorescence clearly
      shows that the HSD3B2 is expressed in the zona glomerulosa and fasciculata and in
      the zona glomerulosa HSD3B2 is co-expressed with aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2).

PMID- 28863888
TI  - Marine yeast Yarrowia lipolytica improves the immune responses in Pacific red
      snapper (Lutjanus peru) leukocytes.
AB  - The climatic conditions in saltern saline environments allows the growth of
      microorganisms adapted to these peculiar ambient and could represent a promising
      source of new bioactive compounds that could have applications on as animal food
      supplements, including aquaculture. In this study, we evaluated the role of
      Yarrowia lipolytica N-6 isolate, from a hypersaline natural environment (Guerrero
      Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico), as immunostimulant of the non-specific
      immune response of head-kidney and spleen Pacific red snapper (Lutjanus peru)
      leukocytes after challenge with Vibrio parahaemolyticus. In this study, the
      presence of Y. lipolytica reduced considerably the V. parahaemolyticus load in
      spleen leukocytes. In vitro assays using head-kidney and spleen leukocytes showed
      that the response to V. parahaemolyticus infection reveled that leukocyte pre
      incubated with Y. lipolytica N-6 significantly increased the non-specific immune
      response such as respiratory burst, phagocytic activity, NO and MPO activities
      follow by an increase in SOD and CAT activities, and at the same time inhibited
      leukocyte apoptosis caused by V. parahaemolyticus. Moreover, Y. lipolytica N-6
      incubation also regulated the transcription of genes related to immunity (IL
      1beta) or oxidative stress (MnSOD, icCu/ZnSOD or CAT) in leukocytes. These
      results strongly support the idea that the extreme yeast Y. lipolytica N-6
      isolate can stimulate the non-specific immune parameters and the antioxidant
      immune mechanism in head-kidney and spleen Pacific red snapper leukocytes and
      could be used as potential immunostimulant.

PMID- 28863889
TI  - Transcriptome analysis of Mytilus coruscus hemocytes in response to Vibrio
      alginnolyficus infection.
AB  - As an economically important bivalve, the Mytilus coruscus is cultured widely in
      the eastern coast of China. In recent years, this bivalve has been seriously
      affected by the pathogenic infections. To elucidate the host defense mechanisms
      of M. coruscus against pathogenic challenge, the hemocyte transcriptomes of M.
      coruscus before and after Vibrio alginnolyficus infection were analyzed using the
      deep-sequencing platform Illumina/HiSeq-2500, meanwhile the differentially
      expressed genes (DEGs) were investigated. In total, 130,031,083 clean reads were
      obtained and then assembled into 63,942 unigenes with an average length of 810 bp
      and an N50 of 1056 bp. Unigenes were annotated by comparing against nr, Swiss
      Prot, KEGG, COG, KOG, GO, and Pfam databases, and 27,345 unigenes (42.77%) were
      annotated in at least one database. After bacterial challenge, 1270 and 265 genes
      were identified as remarkably up- or down-regulated, respectively, amongst 1154
      were associated with 122 pathways, including classical immune-related pathways,
      such as 'Toll-like receptor signaling', 'the complement cascades', 'MAPK
      signaling pathway', 'Apoptosis' and 'Wnt signaling pathway'. Besides, nine genes
      which were differently-expressed immuno-related were confirmed by using
      quantitative real-time PCR. These findings would provide new insights on the M.
      coruscus innate immunity, based on which, some novel strategies for management of
      diseases and long-term sustainability of M. coruscus culture could be developed.

PMID- 28863890
TI  - Effects of Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) and chitooligosaccharides (COS) on
      growth, immune response and disease resistance of juvenile largemouth bass,
      Micropterus salmoides.
AB  - The effects of oral administration of Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) and
      chitooligosaccharides (COS), single or combined, on the growth performance,
      immunity and disease resistance of M. salmoides were investigated. Largemouth
      bass juvenile were divided into 4 groups and each group was fed with diets
      supplemented with or without immunostimulant for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks of
      feeding trial, five fish per tank were sampled for immunity determination, ten
      fish per tank were challenged by A. hydrophila. The results showed that the
      largemouth bass fed with two immunostimulants alone or in combination
      significantly enhanced the final weight and specific growth rate (SGR), decreased
      feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant
      differences (P < 0.05) in specific growth rate (SGR) between dietary COS and
      dietary APS. In addition, both COS and APS upregulated respiratory burst activity
      (RBA), phagocytic activity (PA), lysozyme activity and superoxide dismutase (SOD)
      activity. Meanwhile, COS also exhibited a increase in total leukocyte count,
      nitric oxide (NO) content and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity
      compared to the control. When challenged with A. hydrophila, the mortality of
      groups fed with COS and/or APS was lower than the control (P < 0.05). Under the
      experimental conditions, dietary APS and COS had a synergistic effect on lysozme
      activity, iNOS activity, NO content and disease resistance of fish (P < 0.05).

PMID- 28863891
TI  - Black carp STING functions importantly in innate immune defense against RNA
      virus.
AB  - Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is a central and multifaceted mediator in
      the innate immune response of higher vertebrates. To explore its role in teleost
      fish, the STING homolog of black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) (bcSTING) has been
      cloned and characterized in this paper. bcSTING transcription in Mylopharyngodon
      piceus fin (MPF) cells increased remarkably in response to GCRV and SVCV
      infection, or poly (I:C) stimulation. bcSTING migrated around 42 KDa in
      immunoblot assay and was identified as a cytosolic protein locating on ER majorly
      through immunofluorescence staining. Under condition of SVCV/GCRV infection or
      poly (I:C) stimulation, the subcellular distribution of bcSTING majorly displayed
      on mitochondria, which overlapped with that of bcMAVS. HA-bcSTING instead of
      bcSTING-HA presented strong IFN-inducing activity in reporter assay and antiviral
      ability against both SVCV and GCRV in plaque assay. Site mutation of serine (S)
      on C-terminus of bcSTING demonstrated that both S371 and S379 were crucial for
      its mediated signaling. Taken together, our study support the conclusion that
      bcSTING plays an important role in host innate immune defense against RNA virus
      such as SVCV and GCRV, in which its C-terminus functions crucially.

PMID- 28863892
TI  - Simultaneous detection and differentiation of human parvovirus B19 and human
      parvovirus 4 by an internally controlled multiplex quantitative real-time PCR.
AB  - Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) and human parvovirus 4 (PARV4) are two parvoviruses
      known to infect humans and transmit through blood and plasma derived medicinal
      products (PDMPs). Inactivation of the two parvoviruses has proven to be difficult
      and nucleic acid testing (NAT) would be an efficient means to exclude viruses. In
      this study, an internally controlled multiplex quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR)
      assay for B19V and PARV4 simultaneous detection and quantification was
      established and evaluated. The optimized multiplex qPCR assay allowed for
      simultaneous detection of all of the genotypes (1-3) of B19V and PARV4, with
      equal limit of quantification (LOQ) of 5 copies/MUL, rather than other blood
      borne viruses. It had a wide dynamic range of reliable amplification linearity of
      at least 8 orders of magnitude. Low standard deviations (SD) of quantification
      cycle (Cq) values and low coefficients of variation (CV) of copy numbers for both
      B19V and PARV4 suggested a high level of repeatability and reproducibility for
      the multiplex qPCR assay. This multiplex qPCR assay can be served as a readily
      applicable approach to screen plasma units intended for further manufacturing
      into PDMPs to reduce the risk of parvoviruses infection by such products and may
      also be useful for the detection of B19V/PARV4 co-infection or co-existence.

PMID- 28863893
TI  - Lactoferrin promotes MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells proliferation via MAPK signaling
      pathways.
AB  - Lactoferrin has attracted great attention as a potential functional factor to
      prevent osteoporosis due to its various bioactivities. However, the molecular
      mechanism underlining the osteogenic activity of lactoferrin is unclear. In this
      study, effect of lactoferrin on MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells proliferation was
      determined using MTT assay, while MAPK signaling pathways related to
      proliferation of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells were investigated based on mRNA and
      protein expressions. The distribution of cells at different cell cycle stages was
      evaluated by flow cytometry. Our findings indicated that lactoferrin enhanced
      MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells proliferation in a dose-dependent manner; namely, it
      increased the proportion of cells in S and G2/M phases. Furthermore, we also
      found that lactoferrin could stimulate ERK, JNK and p38 MAPK. The mRNA expression
      of MAPK were significantly enhanced after treatment of lactoferrin. Lactoferrin
      significantly promoted the activation-associated phosphorylation of ERK and p38
      MAPK and prevented the activation of JNK. Additionally, lactoferrin could enhance
      c-Fos and c-Jun expression by 3 times and 26 times, respectively. These results
      indicated that lactoferrin induced MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells proliferation
      through c-Fos and c-Jun by stimulating ERK, JNK and p38, elucidating the
      molecular basis of the osteogenic activity of lactoferrin on MC3T3-E1 osteoblast
      cells.

PMID- 28863894
TI  - Characterization of a pectin from Lonicera japonica Thunb. and its inhibition
      effect on Abeta42 aggregation and promotion of neuritogenesis.
AB  - Pectin is a class of complex polysaccharides and recognized for its potential
      bioactivities. In this study, we showed that a pectic polysaccharide, LFA03-a,
      was extracted from Lonicera japonica Thunb. flowers and purified with DEAE
      cellulose and Sephacryl S-100HR. LFA03-a was composed of rhamnose, arabinose,
      galactose and galacturonic acid in the molar ratio of 18.1:25.3:36.8:19.5. Its
      structure was determined to possess a rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I) backbone
      consisting of alpha-l-1,2-Rhap and alpha-d-1,4-GalAp disaccharide repeating unit,
      substituted at O-4 of l-rhamnose. The side chain was involved with beta-d-1,4
      Galp, beta-d-1,3-Galp, beta-d-1,3,6-Galp and branched alpha-l-1,5-Araf.
      Fluorescence spectroscopic analysis with thioflavine T (ThT) and atomic force
      microscopy (AFM) results showed that LFA03-a inhibited Abeta42 aggregation in a
      dose dependent manner and impeded Abeta42 oligomerization and fibril formation.
      In addition, LFA03-a mildly induced the differentiation of PC12 cells and
      promoted neuritogenesis.The results suggested that pectin LFA03-a might be a
      potential targeted therapeutic drug for Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28863895
TI  - Polylactide/graphene oxide nanosheets/clove essential oil composite films for
      potential food packaging applications.
AB  - Antimicrobial nanopackaging films were developed by incorporating clove essential
      oil (CLO) (15-30% w/w) and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets (1% w/w) into
      polylactide (PLA), suitable for use as food packaging, via solution casting.
      Addition of CLO into PLA matrix improved the flexibility of the composite films
      by lowering tensile stress, complex viscosity (eta*), and glass transition
      temperature (Tg). GO improved the Tg, eta* and lowered the oxygen permeability of
      the plasticized PLA matrix. Optical and anti-UV properties of the film were
      influenced by both GO and CLO incorporation. FTIR spectra exhibited a change in
      the molecular organization of the plasticized PLA film after incorporation with
      CLO. Microstructural studies revealed that the reinforcement of GO prevented
      porosity of plasticized PLA/CLO film surface. The developed composite film showed
      excellent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia
      coli and therefore, has a potential to be used as active packaging material for
      food safety and preservation.

PMID- 28863896
TI  - Evaluation of antibacterial properties on polysulfone composite membranes using
      synthesized biogenic silver nanoparticles with Ulva compressa (L.) Kutz. and
      Cladophora glomerata (L.) Kutz. extracts.
AB  - Polysulfone (PS) composite membrane using green synthesized biogenic silver
      nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with Ulva compressa (L.) Kutz. and Cladophora glomerata
      (L.) Kutz. extract were prepared by spin coating technique and are tested for
      antimicrobial activity using a direct contact test for the first time. Initially
      green synthesis of Ag-NPs was accomplished utilizing green macro algae i.e. U.
      compressa (L.) Kutz. and C. glomerata (L.) Kutz. by the reduction of AgNO3. The
      Ag-NPs/PS composite membranes from both algae revealed outstanding antimicrobial
      activity against all bacteria i.e. K. pneumonia, P. aeruginasa, E. coli, E.
      faecium and S. aureus. Bacterial growth was monitored for 17h with a temperature
      controlled microplate spectrophotometer. The kinetics of the outgrowth in each
      well were recorded continuously at 630nm every 60min. Thus present work
      remarkably offers a feasible, cheap and efficient alternative for making Ag-NPs
      and their utilization as antimicrobial agent on the PS composite membrane.

PMID- 28863897
TI  - Lactoferrin functionalized PEG-PLGA nanoparticles of shikonin for brain targeting
      therapy of glioma.
AB  - Shikonin (SHK) is a highly liposoluble naphthoquinone pigment has recently been
      investigated as a potential antiglioma agent. However, shikonin shows several
      limitations like poor aqueous solubility, short half-life and non-selective
      biodistribution. Herein, we have developed a nanoparticles (NPs) prepared from
      PEG-PLGA using an emulsion solvent evaporation method. Nanoparticle surfaces were
      modified by coating with lactoferrin (Lf) to improve the crossing of the blood
      brain barrier and targeting of glioma cells via receptor-mediated path-ways. X
      ray powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry analysis revealed
      the amorphous nature of SHK encapsulated within the NPs. Moreover, the drug
      loaded NPs exhibit narrow size distribution and high encapsulation efficiency.
      The in vitro release experiments of the NPs exhibited sustained release for more
      than 72h. When compared to free SHK and SHK/NPs, in vivo study demonstrated
      higher brain concentration of SHK, indicating a significant effect of Lf coated
      NPs on brain targeting. Accordingly, these findings provide evidence for the
      potential of Lf-modified NPs as a targeted delivery system for brain
      glioblastomas treatment.

PMID- 28863898
TI  - The enhanced inhibition of water extract of black tea under baking treatment on
      alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase.
AB  - This paper studied the inhibition of water extract of natural or baked black tea
      on the activity of alpha-amylase and alpha- glucosidase. Baking treatment was
      found to be one effective way to enhance the inhibition of black tea on both
      alpha-amylase and alpha- glucosidase, and IC50 of water extract of baked black
      tea (BBTWE) were 1.213mg/mL and 4.190mg/mL, respectively, while IC50 of water
      extract of black tea (BTWE) were 1.723mg/mL and 6.056mg/mL, respectively. This
      study further studied the mechanism of the effect of water extract on alpha
      amylase and alpha- glucosidase using HPLC, circular dichroism, and synchronous
      fluorescence. HPLC analysis of tea polyphenols showed that the content of tea
      polyphenols with low polarity increased after baking. In addition, BBTWE had
      higer abilty on decreasing the hydrophobicity of tryptophan residues than BTWE
      for both alpha-amylase and alpha- glucosidase.The increase of alpha-helix
      proportion of alpha-amylase when treated with BBTWE was more obvious than that
      when treated with BTWE. In a word, thermal process of baked foods may be
      beneficial for tea polyphenols to reduce the rate of starch digestion.

PMID- 28863899
TI  - An orthodontic registry: Producing evidence from existing resources.

PMID- 28863900
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28863901
TI  - Will similar force magnitude cause differential tooth movement?

PMID- 28863902
TI  - Mandibular molar mesialization.

PMID- 28863903
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28863904
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28863905
TI  - Midpalatal suture density ratio as a predictor of skeletal response to rapid
      maxillary expansion.

PMID- 28863906
TI  - Atomic force microscopy analysis of enamel nanotopography after interproximal
      reduction.

PMID- 28863907
TI  - Authors' response.

PMID- 28863909
TI  - The proof is in the pudding.

PMID- 28863910
TI  - Influence of cortical bone thickness on miniscrew microcrack formation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this in-vitro study was to investigate the influence of
      cortical bone thickness on the amount of surface microdamage produced after
      insertion of orthodontic miniscrews (OM) in porcine tibia bone. METHODS: Aarhus
      OMs (Medicon, Tuttlingen, Germany; diameter, 1.5 mm; length, 6 mm) were inserted
      into 1.0 mm (group A; n = 10), 1.5 mm (group B; n = 10), and 2.0 mm (group C; n =
      10) of porcine cortical bone using a torque-limiting hand screwdriver set at 18
      Ncm. A sequential staining technique was used to identify microdamage under laser
      confocal microscopy. Virtual slices were stitched together using ImageJ software
      (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md) to form a compressed 2-dimensional
      composition of the microdamage. The ImageJ software was used to quantify the
      total damage area, diffuse damage area, maximum crack length, maximum damage
      radius, and maximum diffuse damage radius. Kruskal-Wallis tests and Wilcoxon rank
      sum tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: All OMs in group A (1.0 mm)
      were inserted completely; however, 2 OMs from group B (1.5 mm) and all OMs in
      group C (2.0 mm) failed to insert completely. The entry surface of group C (2.0
      mm) exhibited significantly higher amounts of total damage, diffuse damage area,
      maximum crack length, and maximum crack damage radius compared with groups A (1.0
      mm) and B (1.5 mm). The maximum crack length observed on the entry and exit
      surfaces ranged from 1.03 to 3.06 mm. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we demonstrated
      a higher level of microdamage after the insertion of OMs into 2.0-mm thick
      cortical bone compared with 1.0-mm thick cortical bone. Therefore, clinicians
      need to consider the thickness of the cortical bone at the insertion site,
      because mechanisms to reduce cortical bone thickness would likely reduce the
      amount of microdamage formed. A safety zone of 3.5 mm from the OM is also
      recommended for OMs inserted into 1.0- and 1.5-mm cortical bone thicknesses to
      minimize any detrimental effects after targeted remodeling.

PMID- 28863911
TI  - Quantitative analysis of enamel on debonded orthodontic brackets.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Iatrogenic damage to the tooth surface in the form of enamel
      tearouts can occur during removal of fixed orthodontic appliances. The aim of
      this study was to assess debonded metal and ceramic brackets attached with a
      variety of bonding materials to determine how frequently this type of damage
      occurs. METHODS: Eighty-one patients close to finishing fixed orthodontic
      treatment were recruited. They had metal brackets bonded with composite resin and
      a 2-step etch-and-bond technique or ceramic brackets bonded with composite resin
      and a 2-step etch-and- bond technique, and composite resin with a self-etching
      primer or resin-modified glass ionomer cement. Debonded brackets were examined by
      backscattered scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray
      spectroscopy to determine the presence and area of enamel on the base pad.
      RESULTS: Of the 486 brackets collected, 26.1% exhibited enamel on the bonding
      material on the bracket base pad. The incidences of enamel tearouts for each
      group were metal brackets, 13.3%; ceramic brackets, 30.2%; composite resin with
      self-etching primer, 38.2%; and resin-modified glass ionomer cement, 21.2%. The
      percentage of the bracket base pad covered in enamel was highly variable, ranging
      from 0% to 46.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Enamel damage regularly occurred during the
      debonding process with the degree of damage being highly variable. Damage
      occurred more frequently when ceramic brackets were used (31.9%) compared with
      metal brackets (13.3%). Removal of ceramic brackets bonded with resin-modified
      glass ionomer cement resulted in less damage compared with the resin bonding
      systems.

PMID- 28863912
TI  - Prevalence of extraction space reopening in different orthodontic treatment
      protocols.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this study, we aimed to compare the amount and frequency of
      extraction space reopening after 2- and 4-premolar extraction treatments in Class
      II and 4-premolar extractions in Class I malocclusion patients. METHODS: The
      sample comprised 105 subjects with full-cusp Class II and Class I malocclusions,
      divided into 3 groups. Group 1 consisted of 33 full-cusp Class II malocclusion
      patients treated with a 2-premolar extraction protocol. Group 2 had 34 full-cusp
      Class II malocclusion patients treated with 4-premolar extractions, and group 3
      included 38 Class I malocclusion patients treated with 4-premolar extractions.
      The Peer Assessment Rating index was used to assess initial malocclusion severity
      and quality of the occlusal outcome, measured on dental casts. The amounts of
      extraction spaces were measured with a digital caliper on the final and long-term
      posttreatment dental casts, after an average of 9.79 years posttreatment.
      Intergroup comparisons were performed by analysis of variance, followed by Tukey
      tests and chi-square tests. RESULTS: There were no significant differences
      regarding the amount and frequency of extraction space reopening among the
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: Two- and 4-premolar extractions in Class II and 4-premolar
      extraction treatment in Class I malocclusion patients show similar reopening of
      extraction spaces in the long term.

PMID- 28863913
TI  - Bone-anchored maxillary protraction therapy in patients with unilateral complete
      cleft lip and palate: 3-dimensional assessment of maxillary effects.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to 3-dimensionally assess the treatment
      outcomes of bone-anchored maxillary protraction (BAMP) in patients with
      unilateral cleft lip and palate. METHODS: The cleft group comprised 24 patients
      with unilateral cleft lip and palate and Class III malocclusion with mean initial
      and final ages of 11.8 and 13.2 years, respectively. The noncleft group comprised
      24 noncleft patients with Class III malocclusion with mean initial and final ages
      of 11.9 and 12.9 years, respectively. Cone-beam computed tomography examinations
      were performed before and after BAMP therapy in both groups and superimposed at
      the cranial base. Three-dimensional displacements of maxillary landmarks were
      quantified and visualized with color-coded maps and semitransparent
      superimpositions. The t test corrected for multiple testing (Holm-Bonferroni
      method), and the paired t test was used for statistical comparison between groups
      and sides, respectively (P <0.05). RESULTS: BAMP produced anterior (1.66 mm) and
      inferior (1.21 mm) maxillary displacements in the cleft group with no significant
      differences compared with the noncleft group. The maxillary first molars of the
      cleft group showed significantly greater medial displacement than did those in
      the noncleft group. The zygoma showed significantly greater lateral displacement
      at the cleft side compared with the noncleft side. CONCLUSIONS: BAMP caused
      similar amounts of maxillary protraction in patients with and without unilateral
      cleft lip and palatem with discrete differences between the cleft side and the
      noncleft side.

PMID- 28863914
TI  - Three-dimensional assessment of soft tissue changes associated with bone-anchored
      maxillary protraction protocols.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the 3-dimensional soft tissue
      changes in growing Class III patients with maxillary deficiency associated with 2
      bone-anchored maxillary protraction protocols in relation to an untreated control
      group of Class III patients. METHODS: Growing skeletal Class III patients between
      the ages of 10 and 14 years participated in this study. In group 1 (n = 10),
      skeletally anchored facemasks were used with miniplates placed at the zygomatic
      buttress. In group 2 (n = 10), the 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. Three
      dimensional stereophotogrammetry images were acquired before and after treatment,
      and then superimposed and analyzed. In addition, lateral cephalometric
      radiographs were analyzed. RESULTS: The maxilla moved forward significantly in
      groups 1 and 2 compared with the untreated control group (group 1, 4.87 mm; group
      2, 5.81 mm). The 3-dimensional soft tissue analysis showed significant treatment
      effects; the major changes were observed in the upper lips, cheeks, and middle of
      the face, which had a significant positive sagittal displacement in both
      treatment groups. The lower lip and chin area showed significant negative
      sagittal changes that indicated that the soft tissue growth in this area was
      restrained with backward displacement especially in group 1 more than in group 2.
      CONCLUSIONS: The 2 bone-anchored maxillary protraction protocols effectively
      improved the Class III concave soft tissue profile.

PMID- 28863916
TI  - A simple and accurate craniofacial midsagittal plane definition.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this article, we aimed to establish an ideal definition for the
      craniofacial midsagittal plane (MSP) by first finding an optimal "plane of best
      fit" and then deriving a simple approximation for clinical use that is highly
      accurate. METHODS: For 60 adolescent patients, 3-dimensional coordinates of 8
      central landmarks and 6 pairs of lateral landmarks were collected. Across all
      patients, the coplanarity of the central landmarks was compared with that of the
      midpoints of the lateral landmarks. The MSP of best fit was then found by
      minimizing the mean square distance of the 8 central landmarks to a plane. Across
      all patients, each possible 3-point plane was compared with the MSP of best fit
      with respect to both orientation and proximity. RESULTS: The central landmarks
      were more coplanar and thus more accurate than the midpoints of the lateral
      pairs. The plane defined by nasion, basion, and incisive foramen was the closest
      to the MSP of best fit in both orientation and proximity. CONCLUSIONS: The nasion
      basion-incisive foramen plane should be used for skull orientation and 3
      dimensional cephalometric analyses because it approximates the MSP of best fit
      with high accuracy, avoids the use of horizontal reference planes, avoids
      influence from upper and midface asymmetry, uses easily identifiable relevant
      landmarks, and is simple to define.

PMID- 28863915
TI  - Root resorptions associated with canine retraction treatment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The hypothesis of this study was that multiple factors are dominant
      in causing external apical root resorption (EARR). The objective of this
      investigation was to better understand the clinical factors that may lead to
      EARR. METHODS: Maxillary cone-beam computed tomography scans of 18 subjects who
      were treated with bilateral canine retractions during orthodontics were used to
      calculate EARR. The subjects were treated using well-calibrated segmental T-loops
      for delivering a 124-cN retraction force and the moment-to-force ratio suitable
      for moving the canine under either translation or controlled tipping. The
      subjects' age, sex, treatment duration, and genotype were collected. RESULTS: Six
      subjects of the 18 showed definite EARR, meaning that load was not the only
      causing factor. All 5 subjects with the genotype identified had GG genotype of IL
      1beta rs11143634, indicating that people with this genotype may be at high risk.
      Longer treatment duration, female sex, and older age may also contribute to EARR,
      although the findings were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: EARR
      appears to be related to multiple factors. The orthodontic load and the genotype
      should be the focuses for future studies.

PMID- 28863917
TI  - Assessment of upper airway size after orthopedic treatment for maxillary
      protrusion or mandibular retrusion.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this retrospective study was to find out whether
      different Class II treatments would affect the airway sizes of patients having
      maxillary protrusion or mandibular retrusion. METHODS: The study sample comprised
      57 Class II patients whose upper airway sizes were not significantly different at
      the start of treatment and whose sagittal skeletal jaw relationships showed that
      they had maxillary protrusion or mandibular retrusion. Twenty-two of them were
      treated with cervical headgear, 16 with activator, and 19 were selected as a
      control. Lateral cephalograms at the start of treatment and the end of orthopedic
      treatment were assessed. The intragroup comparisons were performed by using the
      paired-samples t test, and intergroup comparisons of the skeletal features and
      upper airways were performed with 1-way analysis of variance, with the Tukey test
      as a second step, at P < 0.05. RESULTS: The ANB angle decreased significantly in
      the treatment groups. The middle airway space and the SNB angle were
      significantly increased after the activator therapy (P < 0.05). The SNB angle
      increased and SN-1 decreased in the mandibular retrusion group when compared with
      both maxillary protrusion and control groups. No statistically significant
      difference between the maxillary protrusion and the mandibular retrusion groups
      was found regarding the upper airway sizes after cervical headgear or activator
      treatments, respectively (P > 0.05). The only significant differences observed in
      airway variables were at the middle airway space of the activator and control
      groups with an increase of 1.6 +/- 2.5 mm and a decrease of 1.5 +/- 2.3 mm,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Orthopedic treatment with either cervical headgear or
      activator did not result in different upper airway changes, but activator
      treatment resulted in increased middle airway space with regard to the Class II
      control group.

PMID- 28863918
TI  - Three-dimensional evaluation of the airway spaces in patients with and without
      cleft lip and palate: A digital volume tomographic study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) suffer from several
      esthetic and functional challenges. Comprehensive treatment of these patients
      involves orthognathic surgery that may lead to velopharyngeal insufficiency or
      reduction in lower airway. Several cases of airway insufficiency, velopharyngeal
      incompetence, snoring, hypopnea, and obstructive sleep apnea have been reported
      in subjects with CLP. The aim of this study was to compare the anteroposterior
      dimensions of the oropharyngeal airway at 5 levels, the height of the
      oropharyngeal column, and the volume of the oropharyngeal airway in subjects with
      and without CLP. METHODS: The sample consisted of 62 patients with CLP and 42
      subjects with Angle Class I malocclusion. Anteroposterior dimension, height, and
      volume of the oropharyngeal airway were measured using the midsagittal and axial
      slices obtained from 3-dimensional digital volume tomographic scans for both
      groups. RESULTS: The anteroposterior dimensions of the airway were significantly
      reduced in the study subjects compared with the control group at the level of the
      postnasal spine, the base of the tongue, and the epiglottis. The airway
      dimensions measured on the axial sections at the level of the palatal and
      epiglottic plane were also significantly lower in the study group. The height and
      volume of the oropharyngeal airway were also significantly smaller in patients
      with CLP compared with subjects without CLP. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with CLP
      showed reduced dimensions and volumes of the oropharyngeal airway in all 3 planes
      compared with the control group.

PMID- 28863919
TI  - Genome-wide association study for mandibular prognathism using microsatellite and
      pooled DNA method.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to extend an association study from
      chromosome 1 to the whole genome (genome-wide association study) to find
      susceptibility loci of mandibular prognathism. METHODS: Two hundred forty
      patients diagnosed with mandibular prognathism and 360 healthy controls of
      Japanese descent were recruited. The typing of microsatellites covering the whole
      genome was conducted using a pooled DNA method. Upon completion of the first and
      second screenings with pooled DNA, the positive microsatellite markers from both
      the first and second typings were retyped using individual-subject DNA samples to
      confirm the significance of allele frequency. RESULTS: Six microsatellites
      (D1S0411i, D1S1358i, D3S0810i, D6S0827i, D7S0133i, and D15S0154i) showed
      differences between allele frequencies of the subjects and controls at P <0.001.
      D1S0411i, D1S1358i, D3S0810i, D6S0827i, D7S0133i, and D15S0154i were located on
      chromosomes 1p22.3, 1q32.2, 3q23, 6q23.2, 7q11.22, and 15q22.22, respectively.
      SSX2IP, PLXNA2, RASA2, TCF21, CALN1, and RORA were suggested as candidate genes.
      CONCLUSIONS: The genome-wide association study using microsatellites suggested
      that 6 loci (1p22.3, 1q32.2, 3q23, 6q23.2, 7q11.22, and 15q22.22) were
      susceptibility regions of mandibular prognathism. The locus 1p22.3 was supported
      by a previous linkage analysis, and the other 5 were novel loci.

PMID- 28863920
TI  - Combined orthodontic-orthopedic treatment of an adolescent Class II Division 2
      patient with extreme deepbite using the Forsus Fatigue Resistant Device.
AB  - Class II Division 2 malocclusion is often characterized by severe, traumatic
      deepbite with lingually inclined and overerupted incisors. Combined orthodontic
      orthopedic treatment of this malocclusion is a challenging issue for
      orthodontists. This case report describes the combined orthodontic-orthopedic
      treatment of an adolescent Class II Division 2 patient with an extreme deepbite
      and a retrognathic mandible using the Forsus Fatigue Resistant Device.

PMID- 28863921
TI  - Fixed-functional appliance treatment combined with growth hormone therapy.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to illustrate the effects of growth hormone (GH)
      therapy and fixed functional appliance treatment in a 13-year-old Class II
      malocclusion patient without GH deficiency. GH has been shown to effectively
      increase endochondral growth and induce a more prognathic skeletal pattern.
      Although a major concern in Class II retrognathic patients is chin deficiency,
      long-term studies have shown that the mandibular growth enhancement effects of
      functional appliances are clinically insignificant. This case report demonstrates
      that the mandible grew significantly during fixed functional appliance treatment
      combined with GH therapy, with stable results during 2 years 11 months of
      retention. More studies are needed to evaluate GH therapy as a supplement in
      Class II treatment.

PMID- 28863922
TI  - Miniscrew biomechanics: Guidelines for the use of rigid indirect anchorage
      mechanics.
AB  - Indirect anchorage is an established form of anchorage provided by orthodontic
      miniscrews. Although there are different ways to set up the mechanics, rigid
      indirect anchorage offers the greatest biomechanical versatility but is more
      difficult to install than conventional, nonrigid indirect anchorage or direct
      anchorage. The purpose of this article was to introduce readers to the concept of
      rigid indirect anchorage and provide guidelines as to its use.

PMID- 28863923
TI  - Accuracy of 3-dimensional curvilinear measurements on digital models with
      intraoral scanners.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our objectives were to evaluate and compare the digital dental
      models generated from 2 commercial intraoral scanners with manual measurements
      when performing 3-dimensional surface measurements along a curved line
      (curvilinear). METHODS: Dry mandibles (n = 61) with intact dentition were used.
      The mandibles were digitized using 2 chair-side intraoral scanners: Cadent iTero
      (Align Technology, San Jose, Calif) and Lythos Digital Impression system (Ormco,
      Orange, Calif). Digitized 3-dimensional models were converted to individual
      stereolithography files and used with commercial software to obtain the
      curvilinear measurements. Manual measurements were carried out directly on the
      mandibular teeth. Measurements were made on different locations on the dental
      arch in various directions. One-sample t tests and linear regression analyses
      were performed. To further graphically examine the accuracy between the different
      methods, Bland-Altman plots were computed. The level of significance was set at P
      <0.05. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between any of the paired
      methods; this indicated a certain level of agreement between the methods tested
      (P >0.05). Bland-Altman analysis showed no fixed bias of 1 approach vs the other,
      and random errors were detected in all comparisons. Although the mean biases of
      the digital models obtained by the iTero and Lythos scanners, when compared with
      direct caliper measurements, were low, the comparison of the 2 intraoral scanners
      yielded the lowest mean bias. No comparison displayed statistical significance
      for the t scores; this indicated the absence of proportional bias in these
      comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: The intraoral scanners tested in this study produced
      digital dental models that were comparatively accurate when performing direct
      surface measurements along a curved line in 3 dimensions.

PMID- 28863924
TI  - Immunity from what?

PMID- 28863925
TI  - Survival analysis, part 1: Introduction.

PMID- 28863926
TI  - Association between maternal circulating IL-27 levels and preeclampsia.
AB  - In this study, we investigated the relationship between serum level of IL-27 with
      preeclampsia and its severity. Fifty-six preeclamptic, 21 health pregnant and 20
      health nonpregnant women formed the study group. The levels of IL-27 in maternal
      circulation were determined by ELISA. IL-27 serum levels were found to be
      elevated in healthy pregnant and preeclamptic groups as compared to non-pregnant
      women, this increase was significant in preeclamptic cases (p=0.0004). Moreover,
      a significant difference of IL-27 serum level was observed between groups and the
      healthy pregnant controls, (p=0.0095). Notably, the level of IL-27 was
      considerably elevated in women with severe preeclampsia, but not with mild
      preeclampsia as compared with healthy pregnant women (p=0.0056, p=0.0964,
      respectively). Furthermore, IL-27 serum levels were significantly differences in
      early onset and late onset sever preeclampsia than in gestation matched healthy
      pregnancies (p=0.0376, p=0.0085, respectively). In conclusion, our results
      suggest IL-27 might be a useful biomarker for disease severity in preeclampsia.

PMID- 28863928
TI  - Potential relationships between chikungunya and depression: Solving the puzzle
      with key cytokines.

PMID- 28863927
TI  - The role of non-invasive modalities for assessing inflammation in patients with
      non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bronchiectasis is a heterogeneous entity, taking into account
      clinical characteristics, inflammatory response, effectiveness of treatment and
      frequency of exacerbations. In stable state non-cystic fibrosis (non-CF)
      bronchiectasis, little is known about non-invasive techniques used for evaluating
      airway inflammation in obstructive airway diseases. OBJECTIVES: We sought to
      evaluate the associations between induced sputum and clinical/radiologic
      characteristics, and the differences between biomarkers expressing Th1 and Th2
      response in patients with non-CF bronchiectasis and to compare our findings with
      a previously studied population of patients with asthma and COPD. METHODS: We
      evaluated prospectively collected data from subjects with bronchiectasis.
      Comparisons were made between clinical, radiographic and physiologic
      characteristics, as well as induced sputum markers using appropriate statistical
      tools. We compared the levels of sputum markers with those of a previously
      studied cohort of asthma and COPD patients. RESULTS: We enrolled 40 subjects
      (21men, mean age 63.5yrs) with bronchiectasis. Fifteen subjects (37.5%) had a
      neutrophilic phenotype, 7 (17.5%) had an eosinophilic phenotype, 3 (12.5%) had a
      mixed neutrophilic-eosinophilic phenotype and 15 (37.5%) had a paucigranulocytic
      phenotype. Subjects with sputum neutrophilia had more severe bronchiectasis in
      HRCT and higher levels of IL-8 in sputum, whereas subjects with eosinophilia had
      higher levels of FeNO, greater bronchodilator reversibility and higher sputum IL
      13. Sputum IL-8 levels were higher in subjects exhibiting frequent exacerbations
      and correlated with neutrophils in sputum (r=0.799), the extent of bronchiectasis
      in HRCT (r=0.765) and post-bronchodilator FEV1 (r=-0.416). Sputum IL-13 levels
      correlated with sputum eosinophils (r=0.656) and bronchodilator reversibility
      (r=0.441). Neutrophilic bronchiectasis exhibited comparable IL-8 levels to COPD,
      whereas eosinophilic bronchiectasis showed significantly lower IL-13 levels
      compared to asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Sputum cell counts and IL-8 and IL-13 correlate
      with distinct clinical and functional measurements of disease severity and
      therefore may have a role for non-invasively assessing inflammation in non-cystic
      fibrosis bronchiectasis.

PMID- 28863929
TI  - Tracing the phylogeographic history of Southeast Asian long-tailed macaques
      through mitogenomes of museum specimens.
AB  - The biogeographical history of Southeast Asia is complicated due to the
      continuous emergences and disappearances of land bridges throughout the
      Pleistocene. Here, we use long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), which are
      widely distributed throughout the mainland and islands of Southeast Asia, asa
      model for better understanding the biogeographical patterns of diversification in
      this geographically complex region. A reliable intraspecific phylogeny including
      individuals from localities on oceanic islands, continental islands, and the
      mainland is needed to trace relatedness along with the pattern and timing of
      colonization in this region. We used high-throughput sequencing techniques to
      sequence mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from 95 Southeast Asian M.
      fascicularis specimens housed at natural history museums around the world. To
      achieve a comprehensive picture, we more than tripled the mitogenome sample size
      for M. fascicularis from previous studies, and for the first time included
      documented samples from the Philippines and several small Indonesian islands.
      Confirming the result from a previous, recent intraspecific phylogeny for M.
      fascicularis, the newly reconstructed phylogeny of 135 specimens divides the
      samples into two major clades: Clade A includes haplotypes from the mainland and
      some from northern Sumatra, while Clade B includes all insular haplotypes along
      with lineages from southern Sumatra. This study resolves a previous disparity by
      revealing a disjunction in the origin of Sumatran macaques, with separate
      lineages originating within the two major clades, suggesting that at least two
      major migrations to Sumatra occurred. However, our dated phylogeny reveals that
      the two major clades split ~1.88Ma, which is earlier than in previously published
      phylogenies. Our new data reveal that most Philippine macaque lineages diverged
      from the Borneo stock within the last ~0.06-0.43Ma. Finally, our study provides
      insight into successful sequencing of DNA across museums and shotgun sequencing
      of DNA specimens asa method to sequence the mitogenome.

PMID- 28863930
TI  - The role of Eastern approaches in David Bohm's scientific-philosophical odysseia.

PMID- 28863931
TI  - Diabetes mellitus does not affect the neuromuscular blocking action of atracurium
      in dogs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the duration of action of atracurium in diabetic and
      nondiabetic dogs. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, blinded, clinical study. ANIMALS: A
      total of 26 diabetic and 29 nondiabetic dogs. METHODS: Following preanaesthetic
      medication and intravenous (IV) propofol induction, anaesthesia was maintained
      with isoflurane in oxygen. Atracurium 0.2 mg kg-1 IV was administered to provide
      neuromuscular blockade (NMB) and the responses (twitches; T) to train-of-four
      nerve stimulation were recorded by palpation and electromyography (EMG). Time to
      onset of NMB (from atracurium administration to loss of T4 by EMG), duration of
      NMB (to return of T1 by EMG) and also times to loss and return of T2-T4 were
      recorded. Heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure, end-tidal isoflurane (Fe'Iso),
      end-tidal CO2 concentrations and oesophageal temperature were recorded at onset
      of NMB and when T1EMG returned. Groups were compared using t tests and Mann
      Whitney U tests (p<0.05). RESULTS: Diabetic dogs were older (9.9+/-0.3 compared
      with 6.8+/-0.7 years, p=0.0003). Group parameters were similar at onset and
      offset of NMB apart from HR at offset, which was higher for diabetics compared to
      nondiabetics (114+/-4 compared with 100+/-3 beats minute-1, respectively,
      p=0.004), Fe'Iso was higher in the diabetic group at onset (1.3+/-0.03% compared
      with 1.2+/-0.04%, p=0.026) and offset (1.4+/-0.03% compared with 1.3+/-0.03%,
      p=0.007), and temperature was higher for diabetics at onset (37.5+/-0.1  degrees
      C compared with 37.0+/-0.2  degrees C, p=0.012) and offset (37.5+/-0.1  degrees C
      compared with 36.9+/-0.2  degrees C, p=0.004). The duration of action of
      atracurium(tactile) and atracurium(EMG) were similar for both groups. CONCLUSIONS
      AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The duration of action of atracurium was similar in
      diabetic and nondiabetic dogs as indicated by tactile and EMG monitoring.

PMID- 28863932
TI  - Tissue iron quantification in chronic liver diseases using MRI shows a
      relationship between iron accumulation in liver, spleen, and bone marrow.
AB  - AIM: To investigate iron loading within the liver, pancreas, spleen, and bone
      marrow using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) transverse relaxation rate (R2*),
      in patients with diffuse liver diseases; to evaluate the relationships between
      iron accumulation in these tissue compartments; and to assess the association
      between tissue iron overload and the pattern of hepatic cellular iron
      distribution (hepatocytes versus Kupffer cells). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-six
      patients with diffuse liver diseases had MRI-derived R2* values, using a multi
      echo chemical-shift encoded MRI sequence, of the liver, pancreas, spleen, and
      vertebral bone marrow. All patients had liver biopsy samples scored for hepatic
      iron grading (0-4) and iron cellular distribution (within hepatocytes only or
      within both hepatocytes and Kupffer cells). RESULTS: Liver R2* increased with
      histological iron grade (RS=0.58, p<0.001) and correlated with spleen (RS=0.71,
      p<0.001) and bone marrow R2* (RS=0.66, p<0.001), but not with pancreatic R2*
      (RS=0.22, p=0.096). Splenic and bone marrow R2* values were also correlated
      (RS=0.72, p<0.001). Patients with iron inside Kupffer cells had the highest R2*
      in liver, spleen and bone marrow. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with chronic diffuse
      liver diseases have concomitant hepatic, splenic, and bone marrow iron loading.
      The highest hepatic iron scores and iron inside Kupffer cells were associated
      with the highest splenic and bone marrow deposits, suggesting systemic iron
      accumulation in the mononuclear phagocytic system.

PMID- 28863933
TI  - Window of implantation transcriptomic stratification reveals different
      endometrial subsignatures associated with live birth and biochemical pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To refine the endometrial window of implantation (WOI) transcriptomic
      signature by defining new subsignatures associated to live birth and biochemical
      pregnancy. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: University-affiliated in
      vitro fertilization clinic and reproductive genetics laboratory. PATIENT(S):
      Healthy fertile oocyte donors (n = 79) and patients with infertility diagnosed by
      Endometrial Receptivity Analysis (n = 771). INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): WOI transcriptomic signatures associated with specific reproductive
      outcomes. RESULT(S): The retrospective cohort study was designed to perform a
      prediction model based on transcriptomic clusters for endometrial classification
      (training set, n = 529). The clinical follow-up set in the expected WOI (n = 321)
      was tested with the transcriptomic predictor to detect WOI variability and the
      pregnancy outcomes associated with these subsignatures (n = 228). The endometrial
      receptivity signature was redefined into four WOI transcriptomic profiles. This
      stratification identified an optimal endometrial receptivity (RR) signature
      resulting in an ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR) of 80% in terms of live birth, as
      well as a late receptive-stage (LR) signature with a potential high risk of 50%
      biochemical pregnancy. Abnormal down-regulation of the cell cycle was the main
      dysregulated function among the 22 genes associated with biochemical pregnancy.
      CONCLUSION(S): The major differences between the WOI transcriptomic
      stratification were in the OPR and biochemical pregnancy rate. The OPR ranged
      from 76.9% and 80% in the late prereceptive (LPR) and RR signatures,
      respectively, versus 33.3% in the LR. The biochemical pregnancy rate was 7.7% and
      6.6% in LPR and RR, respectively, but 50% in LR, which highlights the relevance
      of endometrial status in the progression of embryonic implantation.

PMID- 28863934
TI  - Semen characteristics and pregnancy loss: an important step in addressing a
      complex problem.

PMID- 28863935
TI  - Preferential selection and transfer of euploid noncarrier embryos in
      preimplantation genetic diagnosis cycles for reciprocal translocations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a new strategy to distinguish between
      balanced/euploid carrier and noncarrier embryos in preimplantation genetic
      diagnosis (PGD) cycles for reciprocal translocations and to successfully achieve
      a live birth after selective transfer of a noncarrier embryo. DESIGN:
      Retrospective and prospective study. SETTING: In vitro fertilization (IVF) units.
      PATIENT(S): Eleven patients undergoing mate pair sequencing for identification of
      translocation breakpoints, followed by clinical PGD cycles. INTERVENTION(S):
      Embryo biopsy with 24-chromosome testing to determine carrier status of
      balanced/euploid embryos. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Definition of translocation
      breakpoints and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic primers, correct
      diagnosis of euploid embryos for carrier status, and a live birth with a normal
      karyotype after transfer of a noncarrier embryo. RESULT(S): In 9 of 11 patients
      (82%), translocation breakpoints were successfully identified. In four patients
      with a term PGD pregnancy established with a balanced/euploid embryo of unknown
      carrier status, the correct carrier status was retrospectively determined,
      matching with the cytogenetic karyotype of the resulting newborns. In a
      prospective PGD cycle undertaken by a patient with a 46,XY,t(7;14)(q22;q24.3)
      translocation, the four balanced/euploid embryos identified comprised three
      carriers and one noncarrier. Transfer of the noncarrier embryo resulted in birth
      of a healthy girl who was subsequently confirmed with a normal 46,XX karyotype.
      CONCLUSION(S): The combination of mate pair sequencing and PCR breakpoint
      analysis of balanced reciprocal translocation derivatives is a novel, reliable,
      and accurate strategy for distinguishing between carrier and noncarrier
      balanced/euploid embryos. The method has potential application in clinical PGD
      cycles for patients with reciprocal translocations or other structural
      rearrangements.

PMID- 28863936
TI  - Analysis of the morphological dynamics of blastocysts after
      vitrification/warming: defining new predictive variables of implantation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the morphological dynamics of vitrified/warmed blastocysts
      and to identify quantitative morphological variables related to implantation.
      Subsequently, by using the most predictive parameters, to develop a hierarchical
      model by subdividing vitrified/warmed blastocysts into categories with different
      implantation potentials. DESIGN: Observational, retrospective, cohort study.
      SETTING: University-affiliated private IVF center. PATIENT(S): The study included
      429 vitrified/warmed blastocysts with known implantation data, which were
      evaluated by time-lapse imaging. Blastocysts were routinely placed in EmbryoScope
      (Vitrolife) immediately after warming until transfer. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Embryos were vitrified and warmed by the Cryotop method
      (KitazatoBiopharma). The studied variables included the initial and minimum
      thicknesses of zona pellucida (MUm), the initial and maximum areas (MUm2), the
      area of inner cell mass (MUm2), expansion (whether the embryo reexpands or not
      after warming), and collapsing or contraction after warming. After defining the
      optimal ranges according to the consecutive quartiles with the highest
      probability of implantation, a logistic regression analysis was performed by
      combining the former variables and the blastocyst morphological classification
      criteria defined by the Spanish Association of Embryologists into A, B, C, or D
      categories. RESULT(S): Reexpansion of vitrified/warmed blastocysts correlated
      strongly with implantation (44.6% for reexpanded vs. 6.5% for the blastocysts
      that did not reexpand after warming). Throughout the logistic regression
      analysis, the model identified the maximum blastocyst area, odds ratio (OR) =
      0.41 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.22-0.77), followed by the initial area, OR
      = 0.62 (95% CI, 0.35-1.08) as the most predictive variables related to implanting
      embryos. Blastocyst morphology was not considered relevant in our model. The
      hierarchical tree model subdivided embryos into four categories, A-D, with
      lowering expected implantation potentials (from 47.3% for A to 14.2% for D).
      CONCLUSION(S): The analysis of warmed blastocysts by time-lapse imaging may
      provide objective quantitative markers for the blastocyst implantation potential.
      We propose a hierarchical model to classify vitrified/warmed blastocysts
      according to their implantation probability. The observed correlations and the
      proposed algorithm should be validated in a prospective trial to evaluate its
      efficacy.

PMID- 28863937
TI  - Maternal endometriosis and genital malformations in boys: a Danish register-based
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between maternal endometriosis and
      occurrence of the genital anomalies cryptorchidism and hypospadias in sons.
      DESIGN: Population-based cohort study. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): All
      live-born singleton boys born from 1978 to 2012. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Cryptorchidism and hypospadias in boys based on information
      from the Danish National Patient Register. RESULT(S): The study included
      1,073,026 live-born singleton boys. A total of 6,443 boys were sons of women
      diagnosed with endometriosis before pregnancy. Altogether, 27,342 boys were
      diagnosed with cryptorchidism, of whom 16,446 had corrective surgery. Hypospadias
      was diagnosed in 4,853 boys. As compared with unexposed boys, a tendency towards
      a slightly higher occurrence of cryptorchidism was observed among boys of women
      with endometriosis (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.18; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 0.97, 1.44). When stratified by medically assisted reproduction (MAR)
      technologies, the association was slightly stronger among boys born to women with
      endometriosis who had conceived via MAR, yet it remained moderate and
      statistically insignificant (aHR 1.27; 95% CI, 0.86; 1.88). When women who
      conceived with MAR were excluded, the association between endometriosis and
      cryptorchidism disappeared. For hypospadias, we observed no association, either
      in the main analysis or the stratified analysis. CONCLUSION(S): The findings from
      this register-based study do not provide strong evidence for a higher occurrence
      of the studied genital anomalies among boys of women with endometriosis.

PMID- 28863938
TI  - Assisted hatching and live births in first-cycle frozen embryo transfers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of assisted hatching (AH) on live-birth rates in
      a retrospective cohort of patients undergoing first-cycle, autologous frozen
      embryo transfer (FET). DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort using cycles reported to the
      Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic Outcomes Reporting System
      between 2004 and 2013. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Women who underwent
      first-cycle, autologous FET with (n = 70,738) and without (n = 80,795) AH
      reported from 2004 to 2013. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Live
      births. RESULT(S): Propensity matching was used to account for confounding
      covariates, and a logistic regression model was constructed to identify the
      predictors of live-birth rates in relationship to AH. In all first-cycle FETs,
      there was a slight but statistically significant decrease in the live-birth rate
      with AH compared with no AH (34.2% vs. 35.4%). In older patients and in the years
      2012-2013 AH was associated with decreased live births. Live-birth rates and the
      number of AH cycles performed before FET vary by the geographic location of
      clinics. CONCLUSION(S): Assisted hatching slightly decreases the live-birth rate
      in first-cycle, autologous FET. Its use should be carefully considered,
      especially in patients 38 years old and older. Prospective, clinical studies are
      needed to improve our knowledge of the impact of AH.

PMID- 28863939
TI  - Semen quality and pregnancy loss in a contemporary cohort of couples recruited
      before conception: data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the
      Environment (LIFE) Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between semen quality and pregnancy loss in
      a cohort of couples attempting to conceive. DESIGN: Observational prospective
      cohort. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Three hundred and forty-four couples
      with a singleton pregnancy observed daily through 7 postconception weeks of
      gestation. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Association between
      semen quality and pregnancy loss. RESULT(S): Ninety-eight (28%) of the couples
      experienced a pregnancy loss after singleton pregnancy. No differences were
      observed in semen volume, sperm concentration, total sperm count, sperm
      viability, or sperm morphology (World Health Organization [WHO] and strict
      criteria) by couple's pregnancy loss status irrespective of whether they were
      analyzed continuously or as dichotomous variables per the WHO 5th edition semen
      criteria. A dichotomous DNA fragmentation measure of >=30% was statistically
      significantly associated with pregnancy loss. No association was identified with
      other sperm morphometric or movement measures. Of the 70 couples who re-enrolled
      after a pregnancy loss, 14 experienced a second loss. Similar findings were
      identified when examining semen quality from couples with recurrent pregnancy
      loss. CONCLUSION(S): Although a few trends were identified (e.g., DNA
      fragmentation), general semen parameters seemed to have little relation with risk
      of pregnancy loss or recurrent pregnancy loss at the population level. However,
      given that 30% of pregnancies end in miscarriage and half the fetal genome is
      paternal in origin, the findings await corroboration.

PMID- 28863940
TI  - New MCM8 mutation associated with premature ovarian insufficiency and chromosomal
      instability in a highly consanguineous Tunisian family.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the gene(s) involved in the etiology of premature ovarian
      insufficiency in a highly consanguineous Tunisian family. DESIGN: Genetic
      analysis of a large consanguineous family with several affected siblings.
      SETTING: University hospital-based cytogenetics and molecular genetics
      laboratories. PATIENT(S): A highly consanguineous Tunisian family with several
      affected siblings born to healthy second-degree cousins. INTERVENTION(S): None.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Targeted exome sequencing was performed by next
      generation sequencing for affected family members. Mutations were validated by
      Sanger sequencing. Functional experiments were performed to explore the
      deleterious effects of the identified mutation. DNA damage was induced by
      increasing mitomycin C (MMC) concentrations on cultured peripheral lymphocytes.
      RESULT(S): Analysis of the next-generation sequencing data revealed a new
      homozygous missense mutation in the minichromosome maintenance 8 gene (MCM8).This
      homozygous mutation (c. 482A>C; p.His161Pro) was predicted to be deleterious and
      segregated with the disease in the family. MCM8 participates in homologous
      recombination during meiosis and DNA double-stranded break repair by dimerizing
      with MCM9. Mcm8 knock out results in an early block in follicle development and
      small gonads. Given this, we tested the chromosomal breakage repair capacity of
      homozygous and heterozygous MCM8 p.His161Pro mutation on cultured peripheral
      lymphocytes exposed to increasing MMC concentrations. We found that chromosomal
      breakage after MMC exposure was significantly higher in cells from homozygously
      affected individuals than in those from a healthy control. CONCLUSION(S): Our
      findings provide additional support to the view that MCM8 mutations are involved
      in the primary ovarian insufficiency phenotype.

PMID- 28863941
TI  - Potential role of ferric hemoglobin in MS pathogenesis: Effects of oxidative
      stress and extracellular methemoglobin or its degradation products on myelin
      components.
AB  - There is a well-documented relationship between cerebral vasculature and multiple
      sclerosis (MS) lesions: abnormal accumulations of iron have been found in the
      walls of the dilated veins in cerebral MS plaques. The source of this iron is
      unknown, but could be related to the recognized phenomenon of capillary and
      venous hemorrhages leading to blood extravasation. In turn, hemorrhaging leading
      to hemolysis results in extracellular release of hemoglobin, a reactive molecule
      that could induce local oxidative stress, inflammation, and tissue damage. Our
      previous studies with a reduced form of hemoglobin (oxyHb) have demonstrated its
      ability to cause extensive lipid and protein oxidation in vitro, which would
      result in membrane destabilization. Here, we investigated in further detail the
      mechanism by which the more abundant oxidized form of extracellular hemoglobin
      (metHb), and dissociated hemin, cause direct oxidative damage to myelin
      components, specifically membrane-mimetic lipid vesicles and myelin basic protein
      (MBP), a highly-abundant protein in the CNS. Oxidation of lipids was assessed by
      the formation of conjugated diene/triene and malondialdehyde, and oxidation of
      MBP was demonstrated by the bityrosine formation and by the change in protein
      mass. Our results show that metHb causes oxidative damage to MBP and myelin
      lipids, partly by transferring its hemin moiety to protein and lipid, but mostly
      as an intact protein possibly via formation of a ferryl radical. These results
      elucidating the mechanism of extracellular hemoglobin-induced oxidative damage to
      myelin components support the need for further research into vascular pathology
      in MS pathogenesis, to gain insight into the role of iron deposits and/or in
      stimulation of different comorbidities associated with the disease.

PMID- 28863943
TI  - The Effect of Testing Reliability on Visual Field Sensitivity in Normal Eyes: The
      Singapore Chinese Eye Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To quantitatively determine how the reliability indices in standard
      automated perimetry (SAP) affect the global indices of visual field (VF) results
      in nonglaucomatous eyes. DESIGN: Observational, cross-sectional study.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 830 adults aged 40 to 80 years, without visual
      impairment, glaucoma, significant cataract, and major eye diseases, were selected
      from the population-based Singapore Chinese Eye Study (SCES). METHODS: Study
      participants underwent a comprehensive and standardized ocular examination and VF
      assessment using a Humphrey Field Analyzer II (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin,
      CA). The effects of the test reliability, as indicated by the false-negative
      (FN), false-positive (FP), and fixation loss (FL) rates, on global indices, as
      indicated by the mean deviation (MD) and pattern standard deviation (PSD), were
      analyzed with multivariable regression models. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The MD and
      PSD. RESULTS: A total of 1828 VF results from 1235 normal eyes of 830 study
      subjects were included in the analyses. The multivariable regression analyses
      adjusted for age, gender, best-corrected visual acuity, and test duration showed
      that at lower frequencies of false answers (<15%), FNs decreased the MD (beta
      [change in decibels {dB} per 5% increment in false answers] = -0.71 dB; P <
      0.001), whereas FPs increased the MD (beta = 0.65 dB; P < 0.001). At higher
      frequencies (>=15%), the false answers influenced the MD to a greater extent,
      where the beta for the associations with FN and FP rates was -1.15 and 1.26 dB,
      respectively (both P < 0.001). We also found that when FN rate was <15%, higher
      FN rate increased the PSD (beta = 0.51 dB; P < 0.001), and the effect was
      slightly larger when FN rate was >=15% (beta = 0.71 dB; P < 0.001). The effect of
      FPs on PSD was observed only when FP rate was <15% (beta = -0.22 dB; P < 0.001).
      The FL had no associations with the MD, and had minimal effects on the PSD.
      CONCLUSIONS: We quantified the effect of unreliable responses on the MD and PSD
      in SAP. Our study may allow clinicians to estimate how VF results are affected by
      varying degrees of unreliability, instead of relying on cutoff values for
      reliability indices.

PMID- 28863942
TI  - Mitochondrial dysfunction in the APP/PSEN1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and
      a novel protective role for ascorbate.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction is elevated in very early stages of Alzheimer's disease
      and exacerbates oxidative stress, which contributes to disease pathology.
      Mitochondria were isolated from 4-month-old wild-type mice, transgenic mice
      carrying the APPSWE and PSEN1dE9 mutations, mice with decreased brain and
      mitochondrial ascorbate (vitamin C) via heterozygous knockout of the sodium
      dependent vitamin C transporter (SVCT2+/-) and transgenic APP/PSEN1 mice with
      heterozygous SVCT2 expression. Mitochondrial isolates from SVCT2+/- mice were
      observed to consume less oxygen using high-resolution respirometry, and also
      exhibited decreased mitochondrial membrane potential compared to wild type
      isolates. Conversely, isolates from young (4 months) APP/PSEN1 mice consumed more
      oxygen, and exhibited an increase in mitochondrial membrane potential, but had a
      significantly lower ATP/ADP ratio compared to wild type isolates. Greater levels
      of reactive oxygen species were also produced in mitochondria isolated from both
      APP/PSEN1 and SVCT2+/- mice compared to wild type isolates. Acute administration
      of ascorbate to mitochondria isolated from wild-type mice increased oxygen
      consumption compared with untreated mitochondria suggesting ascorbate may support
      energy production. This study suggests that both presence of amyloid and
      ascorbate deficiency can contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction, even at an
      early, prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease, although occurring via different
      pathways. Ascorbate may, therefore, provide a useful preventative strategy
      against neurodegenerative disease, particularly in populations most at risk for
      Alzheimer's disease in which stores are often depleted through mitochondrial
      dysfunction and elevated oxidative stress.

PMID- 28863944
TI  - Cocaine Allergy in Drug-Dependent Patients and Allergic People.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adverse reactions to local anesthetics (LAs), especially esters, are
      not uncommon, but true allergy is rarely diagnosed. To our knowledge, currently
      there is no reliable method of determining IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to LAs
      and cocaine. OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical value of allergy tests (prick,
      IgE, challenges, and arrays) in people suffering hypersensitivity reactions
      (asthma and anaphylaxis) during local anesthesia with cocaine derivatives and
      drug abusers with allergic symptoms after cocaine inhalation. METHODS: We
      selected cocaine-dependent patients and allergic patients who suffered severe
      reactions during local anesthesia from a database of 23,873 patients. The
      diagnostic yield (sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value) of allergy
      tests using cocaine and coca leaf extracts in determining cocaine allergy was
      assessed, taking a positive challenge as the criterion standard. RESULTS: After
      prick tests, specific IgE, and challenge with cocaine extract, 41 of 211 patients
      (19.4%) were diagnosed as sensitized to cocaine. Prick tests and IgE to coca
      leaves (coca tea) had a good sensitivity (95.1% and 92.7%, respectively) and
      specificity (92.3 and 98.8%, respectively) for the diagnosis of cocaine allergy
      and LA-derived allergy. CONCLUSIONS: Cocaine may be an important allergen. Drug
      abusers and patients sensitized to local anesthesia and tobacco are at risk. Both
      prick tests and specific IgE against coca leaf extract detected sensitization to
      cocaine. The highest levels were related to severe clinical profiles.

PMID- 28863945
TI  - The renal artery is involved in Chinese Takayasu's arteritis patients.
AB  - Takayasu's arteritis is a rare systemic vasculitis mainly affecting the aorta and
      its major branches. Previous studies have suggested that almost half of the Asian
      Takayasu's patients have renal artery involvement. However, due to the rarity of
      the disease, little is known about renal artery involvement in Chinese Takayasu's
      arteritis patients. Here, we retrospectively reviewed and analyzed 411 patients
      diagnosed with Takayasu's arteritis in our center to explore the clinical
      features of renal artery involvement in this group of patients. Of these, 201
      patients were diagnosed to have renal artery involvement, with stenosis (78.1%)
      the most common renal artery pattern. Compared to those without, patients with
      renal artery involvement were significantly younger at disease onset (23.5 vs
      25.6 years) and more frequently had hypertension (74.6% vs 28.1%). Congestive
      heart failure (22.4% vs 7.6%) and pulmonary hypertension (19.9% vs 9.5%) were
      both significantly more prevalent among patients with than those without renal
      artery involvement. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) significantly
      decreased as the severity of renal artery stenosis increased. Age at disease
      onset older than 24 years (odds ratio 6.06 [95% Confidence Interval 2.76-13.3]),
      disease duration longer than 19 months (3.35 [1.52-7.4]) and renal artery
      involvement (8.7 [3.8-20.1]) were independent risk factors for renal dysfunction
      (eGFR under 90 mL/min/1.73m2) among patients with Takayasu's arteritis. Thus,
      patients with renal artery involvement have more severe cardiac and renal
      dysfunction compared to those without. The eGFR is correlated negatively with the
      severity of renal artery stenosis.

PMID- 28863946
TI  - Regulatory elements driving the expression of skeletal lineage reporters differ
      during bone development and adulthood.
AB  - To improve bone healing or regeneration more insight in the fate and role of the
      different skeletal cell types is required. Mouse models for fate mapping and
      lineage tracing of skeletal cells, using stage-specific promoters, have advanced
      our understanding of bone development, a process that is largely recapitulated
      during bone repair. However, validation of these models is often only performed
      during development, whereas proof of the activity and specificity of the used
      promoters during the bone regenerative process is limited. Here, we show that the
      regulatory elements of the 6kb collagen type II promoter are not adequate to
      drive gene expression during bone repair. Similarly, the 2.3kb promoter of
      collagen type I lacks activity in adult mice, but the 3.2kb promoter is suitable.
      Furthermore, Cre-mediated fate mapping allows the visualization of progeny, but
      this label retention may hinder to distinguish these cells from ones with active
      expression of the marker at later time points. Together, our results show that
      the lineage-specific regulatory elements driving gene expression during bone
      development differ from those required later in life and during bone repair, and
      justify validation of lineage-specific cell tracing and gene silencing strategies
      during fracture healing and bone regenerative applications.

PMID- 28863947
TI  - The prenylflavonoid Icaritin enhances osteoblast proliferation and function by
      signal transducer and activator of transcription factor 3 (STAT-3) regulation of
      C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) expression.
AB  - In this study, we examined the effects of a natural prenylflavonoid Icaritin
      (ICT), on human osteoblast proliferation and osteogenic function. We observed
      that ICT dose-dependently enhanced osteoblast proliferation by ~15% over a 7day
      period. This increase in cell proliferation was associated with corresponding
      increases in osteoblast functions as measured by ALP secretion, intracellular
      calcium ions influx and calcium deposition. These anabolic effects were
      associated with a 4-fold increase in CXCR4 mRNA and protein expression. Silencing
      of CXCR4 protein expression using small interfering RNA reversed ICT-induced
      increase in cell proliferation, ALP activity and calcium deposition.
      Interestingly, we observed that ICT dose-dependently increased STAT-3
      phosphorylation; and this resulted in increased binding of phosphorylated STAT-3
      to the promoter region of the CXCR4 gene, to increase CXCR4 protein expression.
      Furthermore, we found that inhibition of STAT-3 phosphorylation resulted in a
      decrease in CXCR4 protein expression; whilst increasing phosphorylation of STAT-3
      using a constitutive active STAT-3 vector significantly increased CXCR4 levels.
      Moreover, the chemical inhibition of STAT-3 phosphorylation annulled our
      previously observed ICT-induced increases of osteoblast proliferation and
      function. Finally, in a rat model of estrogen-deficient osteoporosis, ICT
      restored both osteoblasts numbers and CXCR4 expression. Taken together, both
      cellular and animal models support the novel findings that ICT; through the
      phosphorylation of STAT-3, up-regulated CXCR4, to increase osteoblast
      proliferation and function.

PMID- 28863949
TI  - Impact of rapid response car system on ECMO in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A
      retrospective cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) has been reported to be more
      effective than conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). In ECLS, a
      shorter time from arrival to implantation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
      (ECMO; door-to-ECMO) time was predicted to be associated with better survival
      rates. This study aimed to examine the impact of the physician-based emergency
      medical services (P-EMS) using a rapid response car (RRC) on door-to-ECMO time in
      patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). METHODS: In this
      retrospective cohort study, adult patients with OHCA who were admitted to a
      Japanese tertiary care hospital from April 2012 to December 2016 and underwent
      venoarterial ECMO were included. Patients were either transferred by emergency
      medical service (EMS only group) or RRC (RRC group). Primary outcome was door-to
      ECMO time. Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare the outcome between the two
      groups. RESULTS: A total of 34 patients were included in this study, and outcome
      data were available for all patients. The door-to-ECMO time was significantly
      shorter in the RRC group than in the EMS only group (median, 23min vs. 36min;
      P=0.006). Additionally, the RRC was also associated with earlier successful
      intubation and intravenous adrenaline administration. CONCLUSION: The physician
      based RRC system was associated with a shorter door-to-ECMO time and successful
      advanced procedures in prehospital settings. Combination of the RRC system with
      ECLS may lead to better outcomes in patients with OHCA.

PMID- 28863948
TI  - Fatty acid metabolism by the osteoblast.
AB  - The emergence of bone as an endocrine organ able to influence whole body
      metabolism, together with comorbid epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and
      osteoporosis, have prompted a renewed interest in the intermediary metabolism of
      the osteoblast. To date, most studies have focused on the utilization of glucose
      by this specialized cell, but the oxidation of fatty acids results in a larger
      energy yield. Osteoblasts express the requisite receptors and catabolic enzymes
      to take up and then metabolize fatty acids, which appears to be required during
      later stages of differentiation when the osteoblast is dedicated to matrix
      production and mineralization. In this article, we provide an overview of fatty
      acid beta-oxidation and highlight studies demonstrating that the skeleton plays a
      significant role in the clearance of circulating lipoproteins and non-esterified
      fatty acids. Additionally, we review the requirement for long-chain fatty acid
      metabolism during post-natal bone development and the effects of anabolic stimuli
      on fatty acid utilization by osteoblasts. These recent findings may help to
      explain the skeletal manifestations of human diseases associated with impaired
      lipid metabolism while also providing additional insights into the metabolic
      requirements of skeletal homeostasis.

PMID- 28863950
TI  - The state of T cells before cryopreservation: Effects on post-thaw proliferation
      and function.
AB  - AIM: We aim to assess the effect of the state of T cells before cryopreservation
      on the post-thaw proliferative capacity, phenotype and functional response.
      METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from a
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient, and the T cells were frozen during cell
      culture according to our experimental design. After a period of re-culture, the
      proliferative capacity of the cryopreserved cells, the expression of T cell
      surface markers and the secretion of IFN-gamma and IL-10 were assayed. RESULTS:
      There was >90% cell viability after thaw in every group. Lymphocytes
      cryopreserved at day 4, 8 or 12 during the cell culture were allowed to recover
      for 24 h, whereas lymphocytes cryopreserved while freshly isolated were allowed
      to recover for 72 h. After the period of re-culture, cryopreservation at day 4, 8
      or 12 during T cell culture was not found to alter the T cell subpopulation. The
      proportions of NKT and Treg cells were unchanged when cells were cryopreserved at
      day 12 during T cell culture. IFN-gamma secretion was not impacted by
      cryopreservation, and IL-10 secretion was significantly decreased when cells were
      cryopreserved at day 8 or 12 during T cell culture. CONCLUSION: The state of T
      cells before cryopreservation has effects on the post-thaw proliferation
      capacity, the phenotype and the secretion of IFN-gamma and IL-10.
      Cryopreservation of lymphocytes at day 8 or 12 during the cell culture may be the
      best choice for T cell immunotherapy.

PMID- 28863951
TI  - Prevention of high-temperature-induced chromosome damage in mouse spermatozoa
      freeze-dried using Ca2+ chelator-containing buffer alkalinized with NaOH or KOH.
AB  - In order to protect sperm chromosomes against degradation when they are being
      stored for relatively high temperatures, we investigated the optimal pH of the
      freeze-drying solution, EGTA/Tris-HCl buffered solution alkalinized by NaOH (Na
      ETBS) or KOH (K-ETBS). Mouse spermatozoa suspended in Na-ETBS or K-ETBS were
      freeze-dried at pH 5.0-8.4 and stored at 4  degrees C or 50  degrees C for 3
      days. Some freeze-dried samples were stored at 25  degrees C for 3 days or 1
      month. After storage, samples injected into oocytes using intracytoplasmic sperm
      injection were assessed for chromosome damage in resulting zygotes. Irrespective
      of freeze-drying solutions and storage temperatures, almost all the zygotes (97
      100%) produced using the spermatozoa freeze-dried at pH 5.0 had structural
      chromosome aberrations of sperm origin. When freeze-drying was conducted at pH
      8.0-8.4 using Na-ETBS, the incidence of chromosome damage decreased to 14-17% in
      4  degrees C storage and 24-26% in 50  degrees C storage. When freeze-dried in K
      ETBS, the lowest level of chromosome damage occurred at pH levels of 7.7-8.4 at 4
      degrees C storage (13-15%) and at pH 7.7-8.0 at 50  degrees C storage (16-23%).
      Spermatozoa freeze-dried in Na-ETBS at pH 8.2 and K-ETBS at pH 7.7 showed no
      significant increase in chromosome damage during 25  degrees C storage from 3
      days to 1 month (11%-20% in Na-ETBS; 13%-18% in K-ETBS). Thus, use of the
      solutions optimized for short-term storage at high temperature (50  degrees C, 3
      days) permits prolonged storage (1 month) of freeze-dried spermatozoa at room
      temperature.

PMID- 28863952
TI  - Survival and risk factors for progression after resection of the dominant tumor
      in multifocal, lepidic-type pulmonary adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether a dominant lung adenocarcinoma that
      presents with multifocal ground glass opacities (GGOs) should be treated by local
      therapy. We sought to address survival in this setting and to identify risk
      factors for progression of unresected GGOs. METHODS: Retrospective review of 70
      patients who underwent resection of a pN0, lepidic adenocarcinoma, who harbored
      at least 1 additional GGO. Features associated with GGO progression were
      determined using logistic regression and survival was evaluated using the Kaplan
      Meier method. RESULTS: Subjects harbored 1 to 7 GGOs beyond their dominant tumor
      (DT). Mean follow-up was 4.1 +/- 2.8 years. At least 1 GGO progressed after DT
      resection in 21 patients (30%). In 11 patients (15.7%), this progression prompted
      resection (n = 5) or stereotactic radiotherapy (n = 6) at mean 2.8 +/- 2.3 years.
      Several measures of the overall tumor burden were associated with GGO progression
      (all P values < .03) and with progression prompting intervention (all P values <
      .01). In logistic regression, greater DT size (odds ratio, 1.07; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.01-1.14) and an initial GGO > 1 cm (odds ratio, 4.98; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.15-21.28) were the only factors independently associated with GGO
      progression. Survival was not negatively influenced by GGO progression (100% with
      vs 80.7% without; P = .1) or by progression-prompting intervention (P = .4).
      CONCLUSIONS: At 4.1-year mean follow-up, 15.7% of patients with unresected GGOs
      after resection of a pN0 DT underwent subsequent intervention for a progressing
      GGO. Some features correlated with GGO growth, but neither growth, nor need for
      an intervention, negatively influenced survival. Thus, even those at highest risk
      for GGO progression should not be denied resection of a DT.

PMID- 28863953
TI  - Endovascular repair of the aortic arch: To see the future, we need to look
      beyond.

PMID- 28863954
TI  - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support bridge to transplant: Avoiding a
      bridge to nowhere.

PMID- 28863955
TI  - An umbrella arrives toward the end of the storm: Patient-tailored aspirin dosing
      improves late perioperative thromboprophylaxis.

PMID- 28863956
TI  - Stent-graft balloon occlusion with selective cerebral perfusion for cardiac
      surgery after proximal aortic arch stent grafting: A case report.

PMID- 28863957
TI  - Do we see ourselves in the rat?

PMID- 28863958
TI  - The "Big Kowalski".

PMID- 28863959
TI  - Corrigendum to "Defluoridation of drinking water using a new flow column
      electrocoagulation reactor (FCER) - Experimental, statistical, and economic
      approach" [J. Environ. Manage. 197 (2017) 80-88].

PMID- 28863961
TI  - Cerebellopathy secondary to anti-peroxidase antibody-mediated toxicity. A special
      case of Hashimoto encephalopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case report is to highlight the importance of
      recognizing uncommon causes of cerebellar involvement. CASE PRESENTATION: A 45
      year-old woman with no medical history who presented gait instability that
      appears suddenly and evolves rapidly in two weeks, causing frequent falls.
      Neurological examination revealed an inability to walk due to severe ataxia,
      accompanied by global hypotonia, appendicular dysmetria, opsoclonus and
      dysarthria. We studied this patient with cerebellar syndrome, obtaining as
      relevant findings global cerebellar atrophy in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
      and especially, considerably elevated levels of antibodies against thyroid
      peroxidase (TPO). The patient was treated with high doses of intravenous
      methylprednisolone for 5days. Six months after diagnosis and in treatment with
      low doses of prednisone, the patient is asymptomatic. CONCLUSION: We must
      considerer the cerebellar involvement secondary to steroid responsive
      encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (SREAT) in a patient in
      whom other more frequent causes of isolated cerebellar disease have been ruled
      out.

PMID- 28863962
TI  - In vitro efficacy of essential oil mouthrinse versus dentifrices.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the antimicrobial efficacy and kill penetration of
      essential oils (EO) mouthrinse versus stannous fluoride, and triclosan dentifrice
      slurries on saliva-derived biofilms using confocal laser scanning microscopy
      (CLSM). METHODS: Saliva-derived biofilms were grown for 48h on hydroxyapatite
      discs using pooled, homogenized saliva from 8 healthy volunteers as the inoculum.
      The mean thickness of these biofilms was 84MUm (range, 23-241MUm). CLSM with
      viability mapping was used to visualize the antimicrobial kill penetration of
      each treatment regime within a biofilm. RESULTS: At 30s treatment durations, CLSM
      imaging revealed greater antimicrobial activity and kill penetration of EO
      mouthrinse compared to sodium fluoride-, stannous fluoride-, and triclosan
      containing dentifrice slurries. Quantification of biovolume revealed that EO
      mouthrinse treatment at 30s resulted in a greater non-viable biovolume proportion
      (84.6%+/-15.0%) than other treatment groups. Increasing the treatment duration of
      the triclosan dentifrice (to 60 and 120s) resulted in better penetration and an
      increased reduction of viable cells, comparable to EO mouthrinse treatment at 30s
      duration. Further, CLSM imaging showed that the combined treatment of a non
      antimicrobial dentifrice (45s) with EO mouthrinse (30s) showed superior
      antimicrobial activity (96.2%+/-3.7%) compared to the antimicrobial triclosan
      containing dentifrice used without a mouthrinse step (26.0%+/-32.0%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Within typical exposure times, the EO-containing mouthrinse can
      penetrate deep into the accumulating plaque biofilm compared to the
      chemotherapeutic dentifrice slurries, and may provide an efficacious alternative
      to triclosan, when used as an adjunct with a mechanical oral care regimen.
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Using viability mapping and CLSM, this study demonstrated
      that EO-containing mouthrinse penetrates and kills microorganisms deeper and more
      effectively in plaque biofilm in typical exposure times when compared to
      dentifrice chemotherapeutic agents, providing an efficacious alternative to
      triclosan or stannous fluoride when used as an adjunct to mechanical oral care.

PMID- 28863963
TI  - A qualitative study of patients' views of techniques to reduce dental anxiety.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the fear/anxiety inducing triggers associated with dental
      treatment, and what dentally anxious adults would like from their dental
      encounter. METHODS: Two focus-groups and three interviews with fourteen dentally
      anxious people were conducted in this qualitative study. All discussions were
      tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Content was categorised by common
      characteristics to identify underlying themes using thematic analysis. RESULTS:
      Four themes were identified to bring general meaning within the content: 1.
      Preparedness, 2. Teamwork, 3. Reinforced trust, 4. Tailored treatment plan.
      CONCLUSIONS: Preparatory information may need to be tailored and comprehensive,
      yet dissociative and reassuring. Dentally-anxious people might want a sense of
      control and shared-decision making. They may not want dentists to understate the
      treatment procedures and risks to make them feel better temporarily. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: Dental anxiety affects between 10 and 60% of the population.
      Participants in this study suggested different ways the dental team could help
      their anxiety. Therefore, it is key for whole dental team to find out what could
      be done to help dentally anxious patients.

PMID- 28863960
TI  - Memory responses of natural killer cells.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells have traditionally been classified as a cellular
      component of the innate immune system, given their ability to rapidly produce
      effector cytokines and kill infected or transformed cells without prior exposure.
      More recently, NK cells have been shown to possess features of adaptive immunity
      such as clonal expansion, longevity, and robust recall responses. NK cell memory
      can be broadly divided into two categories: antigen-specific and antigen
      independent. In the first case, exposure to certain viral or hapten stimuli
      endows NK cells with antigen-specific immunological memory, similar to T and B
      cells. In the second case, exposure of NK cells to specific cytokine milieus can
      imprint long-lasting changes on effector functions, resulting in antigen
      independent memory-like NK cells. In this review, we discuss the various
      conditions that promote generation of these two categories of memory NK cells,
      and the mechanistic requirements underlying these processes.

PMID- 28863964
TI  - Design and biological effects of a vaginally administered gel containing the GnRH
      agonist, triptorelin, for synchronizing ovulation in swine.
AB  - A novel gel formulation was selected for intravaginal delivery of the GnRH
      agonist (triptorelin) for synchronizing ovulation in pigs. Studies with gilt
      models were used to assess LH response profiles. The lowest dose of triptorelin
      that induced the most gilts to show an LH surge was 100 MUg in 1.2%
      methylcellulose gel. This formulation had a similar effect in weaned sows while
      also advancing ovulation. The timing of administration was evaluated in sows
      after weaning. Administration at 96 h induced more sows to ovulate (58%) by 48 h
      compared to treatment at estrus (45%) or for controls (34%), but the desired
      level of ovulation synchrony was not achieved. As a result, greater doses of
      triptorelin were tested and 200 MUg given at 96 h after weaning, induced 81% of
      sows to ovulate within 48 h after treatment. The best synchrony of ovulation
      occurred when given at 96 h after weaning compared to earlier or later intervals.
      The optimum time to give a single fixed time AI (SFT-AI) after administration of
      200 MUg of triptorelin in 1.2% gel (OvuGel(r)) at 96 h after weaning was tested.
      A SFT-AI at 22 +/- 2 h after OvuGel achieved the highest fertility and was
      practical for staff during the normal work day. In field trials, a SFT-AI 22 +/-
      2 h after all weaned sows were treated with OvuGel improved (P = 0.04) farrowing
      rate to 82.5% compared to control sows weaned (80.1%), with no effect on numbers
      of pigs born alive (12.1). Research continues for identifying the advantages for
      use of OvuGel in different production systems, and potential application for use
      in gilts.

PMID- 28863965
TI  - [Utility of normality low limit of spirometry in diagnosed COPD patients].
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the differences in COPD patients below the lower limit of normal
      (LLN) of the fixed ratio FEV1/FVC < 0.70 and those above this limit. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Cross-sectional study. COPD patients between 40 and 85 years old
      included in primary care clinical record database were randomly selected.
      Baseline and postbronchodilator spirometries were performed. Two groups of
      patients were established: FEV1/FVC<0.70 and <=LIN (group1) and FEV/FVC<0.70 and
      >LIN (group 2). Sociodemographic, clinical, pulmonary obstruction, quality of
      life and attendance to health services variables were measured. The results of
      both groups were compared. RESULTS: 22.3% of the subjects were misdiagnosed
      FEV1/FVC < 0,70. Patients in group 2 (FEV1/FVC<0.70 y > LLN) are diagnosed at an
      older age, they have a lower exposure to tobacco and better pulmonary function
      (FEV1: 74.9% vs 54.6%). 35.5% of those patients belong to stage i of GOLD, vs
      8.5%, this patients have an increased comorbidity. Patients in group 1 have more
      COPD exacerbations, worse quality of life, a higher BODEx index 2,3 (1.8) vs 1.1
      (1.5); 55.1% of those patients were high risk patients (GoldC or Gold D).
      Diagnose before being 56 years old, an increased exposure to tobacco, the
      FEV>50%, and a lower comorbidity are associated with a greater chance of
      suffering COPD with LLN criteria. CONCLUSION: We obtain two groups of patients
      with differentiated clinical characteristics if we use LLN. Subjects with
      FEV1/FVC<0.7 and >LLN have less obstruction, less severity and more comorbidity,
      suggesting the possibility of overdiagnosis or misdiagnosis. On the other hand,
      younger age at the time of diagnosis, higher tobacco consumption and more severe
      obstruction are related with FEV1/FVC >0.70 and<LLN (group 1).

PMID- 28863966
TI  - [Mortality and medical care of patients hospitalized during weekends].
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It has been shown that patients admitted to hospital
      during the weekends tend to have less favourable outcomes, including higher
      mortality rates, compared with those admitted during weekdays. The main objective
      of this study is to evaluate the impact of on the health outcomes of patients
      admitted during the weekend. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective observational
      study was conducted on all patients admitted to Montilla Hospital (Cordoba).. All
      hospitalised patients were attended to daily, including weekends and holidays. An
      analysis was performed on the epidemiological variables and health outcomes
      (total mortality). RESULTS: The study included a total of 2,565 hospital
      admissions, of whom 653 (25.6%) were discharged during the weekend. Patients
      discharged during the weekend were significantly younger [53 (27) versus 56 (27)
      years, P<.002], had fewer diagnoses on discharge [6.2 (3.7) versus 6.7 (3.9),
      P<.003], and had fewer procedures performed [(3 (1.9) versus 3.2 (1.8), P<.005].
      The mean length of stay was shorter for weekend discharges than the weekday
      discharges [3 (2.6) days versus 3.7 (3.9) days, P<.001). The total mortality was
      4%, and there were no differences between weekday and weekend admissions (4.3%
      versus 3.7%). Home discharges on the weekend were related to a reduction in the
      mean length of stay by 0.3 days (from 3.6 to 3.9 days, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Hospitalised patient care has led to the disappearance of increased mortality
      during weekends.

PMID- 28863967
TI  - Prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism - The guidelines are there.

PMID- 28863968
TI  - Nucleosomes and neutrophil extracellular traps in septic and burn patients.
AB  - NETosis is a host defense mechanism associated with inflammation and tissue
      damage. Experimental models show that platelets and von Willebrand factor (VWF)
      are key elements for intravascular NETosis. We determined NETosis in septic and
      burn patients at 1 and 4days post-admission (dpa). Nucleosomes were elevated in
      patients. In septics, they correlated with Human Neutrophil Elastase (HNE)-DNA
      complexes and SOFA score at 1dpa, and were associated with mortality. Patient's
      neutrophils had spontaneous NETosis and were unresponsive to stimulation.
      Although platelet P-selectin and TNF-alpha were increased in both groups, higher
      platelet TLR-4 expression, VWF levels and IL-6 were found in septics at 1dpa.
      Neither platelet activation markers nor cytokines correlated with nucleosomes or
      HNE-DNA. Nucleosomes could be indicators of organ damage and predictors of
      mortality in septic but not in burn patients. Platelet activation, VWF and
      cytokines do not appear to be key mediators of NETosis in these patient groups.

PMID- 28863970
TI  - Characterization of an antimicrobial substance produced by Lactobacillus
      plantarum NTU 102.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are used in a variety of bio
      industrial processes, including milk fermentation, and have been reported to have
      bactericidal activities. We previously isolated Lactobacillus plantarum NTU 102
      from homemade Korean-style cabbage pickles. The aims of this work were to perform
      a screen of the antimicrobial substances produced by L. plantarum NTU 102 and to
      characterize it. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the bactericidal
      activity of this LAB strain and demonstrated that the cell-free supernatant of L.
      plantarum NTU 102 had antimicrobial activity. RESULTS: The antibacterial activity
      was significantly decreased by proteolytic enzymes, including pepsin, proteinase
      K, and trypsin, suggesting that the antimicrobial substance had proteinaceous
      properties. Additionally, this activity was heat stable and not affected by
      alterations in the pH from 1.0 to 4.0. The antibacterial substance produced by L.
      plantarum NTU 102, which we named LBP102, exhibited a broad inhibitory spectrum.
      The active compound was identified by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques
      (1H NMR and 13C NMR). The IUPAC name was 2-(2-1 mino-1-hydroxyethoxy) ethyl 2
      methylpropanoate. The substance showed antibacterial activity against Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus, and completely inhibited the growth of V. parahaemolyticus on
      agar plates at a concentration of 75 MUg/mL. CONCLUSION: The proposed
      antimicrobial substance, LBP102 was found to be effective against V.
      parahaemolyticus BCRC 12864 and Cronobacter sakazakii BCRC 13988. The remarkable
      effects of LBP102 against this and other pathogens indicated its potential as a
      natural preservative/food additive.

PMID- 28863969
TI  - Soluble Interleukin-7 receptor levels and risk of acute graft-versus-host disease
      after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - Interleukin-7 is a cytokine essential for T cell homeostasis. IL-7 binds to
      cellular IL-7 receptors in competition with a soluble form of the receptor (sIL
      7Ralpha). We hypothesized that altered sIL-7Ralpha levels may cause adverse
      outcomes in patients undergoing HSCT. In parallel, we investigated the impact of
      the IL-7Ralpha SNP rs6897932, which has been associated with release of IL-7R.
      The sIL-7Ralpha levels decreased during HSCT (from 114ng/ml before to 48ng/ml at
      day +14 (P<0.0001)). This pattern was inversely mirrored by IL-7. The IL-7/sIL
      7Ralpha ratio at day +14 was significantly higher in patients developing grades
      II-IV aGVHD (OR=4.3, P=0.026). Furthermore, donor carriage of the rs6897932 T
      allele was associated with reduced sIL-7Ralpha levels, increased risk of grades
      II-IV aGVHD (OR=2.4, P=0.055) and increased transplant-related mortality
      (CC=4.5%, CT=21.4% and TT=27.3%, P=0.0037). In conclusion, this study suggests an
      impact of sIL-7Ralpha levels and rs6897932 donor genotype on alloreactivity and
      outcome after HSCT.

PMID- 28863972
TI  - Editorial commentary: Death after acute myocardial infarction, possible to
      predict?

PMID- 28863971
TI  - Editorial commentary: Is it still important to evaluate patients with ischemic
      cardiomyopathy for viable dysfunctional myocardium prior to myocardial
      revascularization?

PMID- 28863973
TI  - Current status of MitraClip for patients with mitral and tricuspid regurgitation.
AB  - Mitral valve regurgitation (MR) affects approximately 4 million people in the
      United States alone, increasing in prevalence with age. Approved by the Food and
      Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2013, percutaneous edge-to-edge
      transcatheter mitral valve repair (also known as the MitraClip system) has been
      used in over 40,000 patients globally. Additionally, there is keen interest and
      early exploration into the use of MitraClip for treatment of severe symptomatic
      tricuspid regurgitation, another undertreated disease with significant morbidity
      and mortality. In this manuscript, we aim to review the current indications,
      procedural details as well as emerging indications for this novel technology.

PMID- 28863974
TI  - Coral morphology and sedimentation.
AB  - The sediment rejection ability of 8 coral species of 5 families and 3
      morphologies were assessed in a series of short term exposure tests over a
      sedimentation range of 0.5-40mgcm-2d-1 and one longer term exposure test of
      235mgcm-2. Sediment accumulation rates on live corals and dead (enamel-covered)
      skeletons varied between morphologies, with branching species often more adept at
      self-cleaning. Flow rates (0-17cms-1) significantly affected sediment-shedding
      ability as did differences in particle sizes, with coarse silt rejected faster
      than fine silt, but only at very high (235mgcm-2) deposition rates. Siliciclastic
      sediment was rejected faster than carbonate sediments and smothering for many
      days by mms of low organic content carbonate sediment resulted in bleaching, but
      no mortality. The findings are discussed with respect to turbidity generated in
      natural and dredging-related resuspension events and in the context for impact
      prediction for dredging projects.

PMID- 28863975
TI  - Assessing the seawater quality of a coastal city using fecal indicators and
      environmental variables (eastern Aegean Sea).
AB  - The presence of fecal bacteria in seawater is one of the most important bio
      indicator parameters of fecal pollution. In this study, the Bay of Izmir (in the
      eastern Aegean Sea), which is a critical area because of its relationship with
      marine transportation and industrial and commercial activities, was evaluated for
      its microbiological and physicochemical parameters through a monitoring program.
      The data were obtained from seasonally assembled surface seawater samples from
      2015 to 2017 at 23 sampling stations. Bacteriological investigations were
      performed by membrane filtration technique. During the monitoring period, for
      stations at the inner and middle-outer part, it was found that the inner part is
      exposed to more number of fecal coliforms (8.8*102cfu/100mL) and fecal
      streptococci (1.1*103cfu/100mL). The monitoring analysis performed in this study
      showed that there was negative correlation between physicochemical parameters and
      the level of fecal bacteria, but no significance was recorded by the Pearson
      correlation test. Fecal contamination parameters should be routinely monitored
      for improving the environmental conditions of coastal cities.

PMID- 28863976
TI  - Influence of environmental factors on the toxin production of Ostreopsis cf.
      ovata during bloom events.
AB  - Intense blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis have been a recurrent
      phenomenon along several Mediterranean coasts. Blooms have been associated with
      noxious effects on human health and mortality of marine organisms, due to the
      production of palytoxin-like compounds. We analyzed the toxin concentrations
      throughout an O. cf. ovata bloom to highlight their relationships with
      environmental parameters in the Conero Riviera, northern Adriatic Sea. High
      temperature and balanced nutrient conditions were the optimal environmental
      conditions to start and sustain blooms as well as to maximize toxin production.
      Ostreopsis showed a gradual decrease of toxin content throughout the bloom
      ascribed to the occurring of the same non-optimal conditions that led to the
      bloom decline. Moreover, our results suggest that toxin fraction released during
      bloom could be higher than that released in batch culture. Results from this
      study pointed out that the first bloom phase is potentially the most dangerous to
      human health.

PMID- 28863977
TI  - ICMPE-8: Dedicated to Professor Rudolf Wu.

PMID- 28863978
TI  - Effects of shipping on marine acoustic habitats in Canadian Arctic estimated via
      probabilistic modeling and mapping.
AB  - Canadian Arctic and Subarctic regions experience a rapid decrease of sea ice
      accompanied with increasing shipping traffic. The resulting time-space changes in
      shipping noise are studied for four key regions of this pristine environment, for
      2013 traffic conditions and a hypothetical tenfold traffic increase. A
      probabilistic modeling and mapping framework, called Ramdam, which integrates the
      intrinsic variability and uncertainties of shipping noise and its effects on
      marine habitats, is developed and applied. A substantial transformation of
      soundscapes is observed in areas where shipping noise changes from present
      occasional-transient contributor to a dominant noise source. Examination of
      impacts on low-frequency mammals within ecologically and biologically significant
      areas reveals that shipping noise has the potential to trigger behavioral
      responses and masking in the future, although no risk of temporary or permanent
      hearing threshold shifts is noted. Such probabilistic modeling and mapping is
      strategic in marine spatial planning of this emerging noise issues.

PMID- 28863979
TI  - Computer Simulation Model to Train Medical Personnel on Glucose Clamp Procedures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A glucose clamp procedure is the most reliable way to quantify insulin
      pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, but skilled and trained research personnel
      are required to frequently adjust the glucose infusion rate. A computer
      environment that simulates glucose clamp experiments can be used for efficient
      personnel training and development and testing of algorithms for automated
      glucose clamps. METHODS: We built 17 virtual healthy subjects (mean age, 25+/-6
      years; mean body mass index, 22.2+/-3 kg/m2), each comprising a mathematical
      model of glucose regulation and a unique set of parameters. Each virtual subject
      simulates plasma glucose and insulin concentrations in response to intravenous
      insulin and glucose infusions. Each virtual subject provides a unique response,
      and its parameters were estimated from combined intravenous glucose tolerance
      test-hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp data using the Bayesian approach. The
      virtual subjects were validated by comparing their simulated predictions against
      data from 12 healthy individuals who underwent a hyperglycemic glucose clamp
      procedure. RESULTS: Plasma glucose and insulin concentrations were predicted by
      the virtual subjects in response to glucose infusions determined by a trained
      research staff performing a simulated hyperglycemic clamp experiment. The total
      amount of glucose infusion was indifferent between the simulated and the real
      subjects (85+/-18 g vs. 83+/-23 g; p=NS) as well as plasma insulin levels (63+/
      20 mU/L vs. 58+/-16 mU/L; p=NS). CONCLUSIONS: The virtual subjects can reliably
      predict glucose needs and plasma insulin profiles during hyperglycemic glucose
      clamp conditions. These virtual subjects can be used to train personnel to make
      glucose infusion adjustments during clamp experiments.

PMID- 28863980
TI  - Gender difference and laterality of sleep position.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A higher incidence in women (approximately 7:3) and a predominant
      involvement of the right ear (approximately 7:5) are interesting features of BPPV
      (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo). It is speculated that these features are
      related to sleep position. The first aim of this study was to compare the
      frequency of position shifts during sleep between men and women. The second aim
      was to elucidate any differences in sleep position between men and women. The
      third aim was to clarify the laterality of sleep position. METHODS: We
      retrospectively selected the data of 30 males (mean, 53.1 years) and 22 females
      (mean, 50.6 years) diagnosed as mild or moderate obstructive sleep apnea. A
      position sensor was attached to the patient's anterior chest. Supine position was
      defined as less than 45 degrees  tilt, and lateral position was defined as more
      than 45 degrees  tilt. A single overnight laboratory polysomnography provided the
      number of position shifts, total sleep time, sleep time spent in the supine
      position (S), sleep time spent in the right-side-down lateral position (R), and
      sleep time spent in the left-side-down lateral position (L). RESULTS: The mean
      value and standard deviation of the number of position shifts per hour was 2.4+/
      1.3 in males, and 2.3+/-1.1 in females. There was no significant difference
      between males and females. Twelve cases (40%) were lateral type (S<R+L), and 18
      (60%) were supine type (S>R+L) in males. Ten cases (45%) were lateral type, and
      12 (55%) were supine type in females. There was no significant difference between
      males and females. Seventeen cases (56.6%) were right-dominant type (R-L>0), and
      13 (43.3%) were left-dominant type (R-L<0) in males. Thirteen cases (59%) were
      right-dominant type, and 9 (41%) were left-dominant type in females. CONCLUSION:
      Body position and the number of position shifts during sleep differ substantially
      between individuals. There is no gender difference in the frequency of position
      shifts. Although the supine type is more common than the lateral type, there is
      no gender difference in sleep position. Therefore, the reason of higher incidence
      in women is not related to sleep. The right-dominant type occurs more than the
      left-dominant type in both genders. It is possible that this behavior is the
      reason for the predominant involvement of the right ear in BPPV.

PMID- 28863982
TI  - Non-invasive pre-lens tear film assessment with high-speed videokeratoscopy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of two types of daily contact lenses (delefilcon
      A and omafilcon A) on the tear film and establish whether it is dependent on pre
      corneal tear film characteristics using a new method to analyse high-speed
      videokeratoscopy recordings, as well as to determine the sensitivity of the
      method in differentiating between contact lens materials on eye. METHODS: High
      speed videokeratoscopy recordings were analysed using a custom made automated
      algorithm based on a fractal dimension approach that provides a set of parameters
      directly related to tear film stability. Fifty-four subjects participated in the
      study. Baseline measurements, in suppressed and natural blinking conditions, were
      taken before subjects were fitted with two different daily contact lenses and
      after four hours of contact lens wear. RESULTS: The method for analysing the
      stability of the tear film provides alternative parameters to the non-invasive
      break up time to assess the quality of the pre-corneal and pre-lens tear film.
      Both contact lenses significantly decreased the quality of the tear film in
      suppressed and natural blinking conditions (p<0.001). The utilised method was
      able to distinguish between contact lens materials on eye in suppressed blinking
      conditions. The pre-corneal tear film characteristics were not correlated with
      the decrease in pre-lens tear film quality. CONCLUSION: High-speed
      videokeratoscopy equipped with an automated method to analyse the dynamics of the
      tear film is able to distinguish between contact lens materials in vivo.
      Incorporating the assessment of pre-lens tear film to the clinical practice could
      aid improving contact lens fitting and understand contact lens comfort.

PMID- 28863983
TI  - The utility of measuring tear film break-up time for prescribing contact lenses.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical value of non-invasive keratograph tear film
      breakup time (NIKBUT) in the assessment of pre-corneal and pre-lens tear film
      quality for prescribing contact lenses (CLs). METHODS: Forty-six subjects aged
      25.5+/-4.3 (mean+/-standard deviation) years were recruited. Visual acuity (VA),
      anterior eye health checks and NIKBUT were evaluated. On the following day,
      subjects were fitted with a daily Silicon Hydrogel (SiHy) CL in one eye and a
      Hydrogel (Hy) CL in the other. After four hours one material for both eyes was
      chosen based on a qualitative analysis which included VA, CL fitting and comfort.
      Information about the first and the mean NIKBUT was then contrasted against the
      prescription decision. RESULTS: Thirty-four subjects were fitted with SiHy and
      twelve with Hy CL. No statistically significant differences were found for both
      NIKBUT parameters between left and right eye at baseline (p=0.38 and p=0.50,
      respectively) and post four hours of CL wear (p=0.61 and p=0.06). The chosen lens
      did not always correspond to longer NIKBUT. In 39.1% and 34.8% of cases (i.e., 18
      and 16 out of 46), there was a match between prescription decision and the first
      and the mean NIKBUT results, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although there is no
      evidence whether tear film surface quality measurement has a superior diagnostic
      values compared to other traditional clinical measures used in practice, NIKBUT
      measurements have provided additional information that could be of interest
      during CL fit.

PMID- 28863981
TI  - Single cell analysis of normal and leukemic hematopoiesis.
AB  - The hematopoietic system is well established as a paradigm for the study of
      cellular hierarchies, their disruption in disease and therapeutic use in
      regenerative medicine. Traditional approaches to study hematopoiesis involve
      purification of cell populations based on a small number of surface markers.
      However, such population-based analysis obscures underlying heterogeneity
      contained within any phenotypically defined cell population. This heterogeneity
      can only be resolved through single cell analysis. Recent advances in single cell
      techniques allow analysis of the genome, transcriptome, epigenome and proteome in
      single cells at an unprecedented scale. The application of these new single cell
      methods to investigate the hematopoietic system has led to paradigm shifts in our
      understanding of cellular heterogeneity in hematopoiesis and how this is
      disrupted in disease. In this review, we summarize how single cell techniques
      have been applied to the analysis of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in
      normal and malignant hematopoiesis, with a particular focus on recent advances in
      single-cell genomics, including how these might be utilized for clinical
      application.

PMID- 28863984
TI  - Immunomodulatory Properties of Plants and Mushrooms.
AB  - Plants and mushrooms are used for medicinal purposes and the screening of
      molecules possessing biological activities. A single plant or mushroom may
      produce both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on immune cells, depending on
      experimental conditions, but the reason behind this dichotomy remains obscure. We
      present here a large body of experimental data showing that water extracts of
      plants and mushrooms usually activate immune cells, whereas ethanol extracts
      inhibit immune cells. The mode of extraction of plants and mushrooms may thus
      determine the effects produced on immune cells, possibly due to differential
      solubility and potency of stimulatory and inhibitory compounds. We also examine
      the possibility of using such plant and mushroom extracts to treat immune system
      disorders.

PMID- 28863985
TI  - Targeting 12-Lipoxygenase as a Potential Novel Antiplatelet Therapy.
AB  - Platelets are key contributors to the formation of occlusive thrombi; the major
      underlying cause of ischemic heart disease and stroke. Antiplatelet therapy has
      reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with thrombotic events; however,
      the utility of current antiplatelet therapies is limited by the concomitant risk
      of an adverse bleeding event. Novel antiplatelet therapies that are more
      efficacious at inhibiting thrombosis while minimally affecting hemostasis are
      required. Platelet-type 12-(S)-lipoxygenase (12-LOX), an oxygenase shown to
      potentiate platelet activation, represents a novel antiplatelet target. Recently,
      a selective 12-LOX inhibitor, ML355, was shown to decrease thrombosis without
      prolonging hemostasis. While published data suggests targeting 12-LOX is a viable
      approach, further work is required to determine the safety and effectiveness of
      12-LOX inhibitors in humans.

PMID- 28863987
TI  - [Quality appraisal in systematic reviews of normative literature. A problem
      analysis].
AB  - Systematic reviews aim at searching, selecting, analyzing and synthesizing
      scientific literature in a transparent and systematic way in order to inform
      decision-making in the health care system on the basis of the best available
      evidence. In recent years, such reviews have also gained importance also in bio-,
      public health- and research ethics, as well as in health technology assessment.
      Such reviews do not only analyze ethically relevant empirical literature (e.g. on
      risk and benefit), but normative literature as well, i.e. literature consisting
      of ethical arguments. As the appraisal of the literature that should be included
      is paramount for a systematic review, the problem of how to appraise the quality
      of normative literature arises. This problem has not yet been solved
      satisfactorily. After developing a pragmatic definition for "normative
      literature", a typology of different types of systematic reviews of normative
      literature is presented. Based on existing approaches for quality appraisal, this
      paper identifies three possible strategies for solving the problem of quality
      appraisal of normative literature, and discusses their respective strength and
      weaknesses relative to the different types of systematic reviews. It becomes
      apparent that none of the existing approaches is able to solve the problem of
      quality appraisal in a general and convincing way. The paper concludes with
      stating minimal conditions regarding the elaboration of future strategies, and
      outlines a promising strategy that is theoretically acceptable and practically
      feasible.

PMID- 28863988
TI  - Identifying the key factors that affect the formation of humic substance during
      different materials composting.
AB  - The aim of this work was to identify the factors which can affect humic substance
      (HS) formation. Composting periods, HS precursors, bacteria communities and
      environment factors were recognized as the key factors and few studies explored
      the potential relationships among them. During composting, HS precursors were
      mainly formed in the heating and thermophilic phases, but HS were polymerized in
      the cooling and mature phases. Moreover, bacterial species showed similar
      classification of community structure in the same composting period of different
      materials. Furthermore, structural equation model showed that NH4--N and NO3--N
      were the indirect environmental factors for regulating HS formation by the
      bacteria and precursors as the indirect and direct driver, respectively.
      Therefore, both environmental factors and HS precursors can be the regulating
      factors to promote HS formation. Given that, a new staging regulating method had
      been proposed to improve the amount of HS during different materials composting.

PMID- 28863989
TI  - Sorption of sulfamethazine to biochars as affected by dissolved organic matters
      of different origin.
AB  - Sorption characteristic of sulfamethazine (SMT) to straw biochars pyrolyzed at
      300 degrees C (BC300) and 600 degrees C (BC600), and the effect of ubiquitous DOM
      were investigated. Results showed that physisorption (partition) and weak
      chemical binding (pi-pi EDA interaction) dominated the sorption of SMT to BC300
      and BC600, respectively. Graphene sheets in biochar played important roles in the
      sorption of SMT, leading to higher sorption capacity (Kf) on BC600 (1.77mg1-nLng
      1) than BC300 (0.11mg1-nLng-1). Sorption amount of SMT to BC300 was not affected
      by polysaccharide and malic acid, while it was slightly promoted by citric acid,
      but dramatically increased 1.25 times by methacrylic acid through decreasing
      solution pH and providing new sorption sites. Humic acid and bovine serum albumin
      restrained the sorption of SMT to BC600, but enhanced SMT- adsorption to BC300.
      The chemical nature of DOM, biochar properties and antibiotic species co
      determined the impact of DOM on antibiotics adsorption.

PMID- 28863990
TI  - Environmental application of biochar: Current status and perspectives.
AB  - In recent years, there has been a significant interest on biochar for various
      environmental applications, e.g., pollutants removal, carbon sequestration, and
      soil amelioration. Biochar has several unique properties, which makes it an
      efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly material for diverse
      contaminants removal. The variability in physicochemical properties (e.g.,
      surface area, microporosity, and pH) provides an avenue for biochar to maximize
      its efficacy to targeted applications. This review aims to highlight the vital
      role of surface architecture of biochar in different environmental applications.
      Particularly, it provides a critical review of current research updates related
      to the pollutants interaction with surface functional groups of biochars and the
      effect of the parameters variability on biochar attributes pertinent to specific
      pollutants removal, involved mechanisms, and competence for these removals.
      Moreover, future research directions of biochar research are also discussed.

PMID- 28863991
TI  - Enhanced methane production and wastewater sludge stabilization of a continuous
      full scale thermal pretreatment and thermophilic anaerobic digestion.
AB  - A continuous full scale thermophilic anaerobic digestion (AD) of wastewater
      sludge in conjunction with thermal pretreatment was developed for enhanced CH4
      production as well as sludge stabilization and reduction. Continuous thermal
      sludge treatment obtained 45.5, 51.7, and 26.1% of hydrolysis based on TS, VS,
      and COD at 160 degrees C for 30min. After AD, TS, VS, and COD removal
      efficiencies reached 54.7, 60.4, and 59.2%, respectively, at 3.50kgVS/m3.d.
      Maximum CH4 yield (0.35m3 CH4/kg VSadd) was obtained at 2.49kgVS/m3.d and less,
      and the yield decreased with increasing sludge load while net available energy
      production increased. Continuous thermal sludge treatment and thermophilic AD
      enhanced CH4 production and solids reduction and showed stable performance for
      full scale application.

PMID- 28863992
TI  - Nutrient removal and energy recovery from high-rate activated sludge processes -
      Impact of sludge age.
AB  - This study evaluated high-rate activated sludge treatment across a broad range of
      short solids retention times (SRT)s (0.5-3d) and found a strong SRT-outcome
      dependence for performance and subsequent anaerobic degradability of the sludge.
      Up to 50% total nitrogen, and 35% ammonia removal was also achieved at the longer
      SRTs, via partitioning rather than reaction. The aerobic SRT significantly
      affected the anaerobic degradability of the sludge produced (p<0.001), with
      degradability increasing from 66% to over 80% while reducing the SRT from 3d to
      0.5d. This is higher than predicted by conventional models, likely due to
      additional mechanisms such as adsorption and storage, not included in these.

PMID- 28863993
TI  - Impact of shear stress and impeller design on the production of biogas in
      anaerobic digesters.
AB  - Today, intensification of anaerobic digestion is still a scientific and technical
      challenge. The present study proposed combined experimental and computational
      fluid dynamics simulations to characterize the impact of shear stress and
      impeller design on the biogas production after sequential additions of substrate.
      Liquid phase (cattle manure digestate) rheological law was experimentally
      determined and input in numerical simulations. The results showed that the
      original use of a double helical ribbon in digester allowed a significantly
      faster dispersion of fresh substrate than the use of a classical Rushton turbine,
      leading to a 50% higher methane production rate. However, with both impellers,
      too high agitation rates entailed a clear slow-down of production rate and a
      decrease in CH4 content. To avoid this loss of productivity, it was shown that
      the maximal value of shear stress, determined by numerical simulations, was a
      consistent parameter to set the upper agitation conditions in digesters.

PMID- 28863994
TI  - High performance biological methanation in a thermophilic anaerobic trickle bed
      reactor.
AB  - In order to enhance energy efficiency of biological methanation of CO2 and H2,
      this study investigated the performance of a thermophilic (55 degrees C)
      anaerobic trickle bed reactor (ATBR) (58.1L) at ambient pressure. With a methane
      production rate of up to 15.4m3CH4/(m3trickle bed.d) at methane concentrations
      above 98%, the ATBR can easily compete with the performance of other mixed
      culture methanation reactors. Control of pH and nutrient supply turned out to be
      crucial for stable operation and was affected significantly by dilution due to
      metabolic water production, especially during demand-orientated operation.
      Considering practical applications, inoculation with digested sludge, containing
      a diverse biocenosis, showed high adaptive capacity due to intrinsic biological
      diversity. However, no macroscopic biofilm formation was observed at thermophilic
      conditions even after 313days of operation. The applied approach illustrates the
      high potential of thermophilic ATBRs as a very efficient energy conversion and
      storage technology.

PMID- 28863995
TI  - Bioelectrochemical enhancement of anaerobic digestion: Comparing single- and two
      chamber reactor configurations at thermophilic conditions.
AB  - Bioelectrochemical system (BES) can act as an auxiliary technology for improving
      organic waste treatment and biogas production in anaerobic digestion (AD). For
      the first time this study directly compared the performance of a single- and a
      cation-exchange membrane-equipped two-chamber BES-AD systems at thermophilic
      conditions. The results indicated that an active glucose-fed thermophilic
      anaerobic sludge could readily (<3days) increase biogas production in both
      reactor configurations by inserting a carbon electrode poised at -0.8V (vs.
      Ag/AgCl). However, after a 3-week operation, the biogas production rates from the
      single- and two-chamber BES reactor decreased due to volatile fatty acids
      accumulation. Only the two-chamber configuration could enable methane enrichment
      (98% CH4v/v) in biogas. Overall, this study suggests that integrating
      bioelectrodes in-situ could not sustainably improve biogas production in a
      thermophilic AD reactor, and future studies should be directed towards the use of
      bioelectrodes for improving biogas quality.

PMID- 28863996
TI  - Improvement of fermentation performance of Gluconobacter oxydans by combination
      of enhanced oxygen mass transfer in compressed-oxygen-supplied sealed system and
      cell-recycle technique.
AB  - Oxygen supply for microbial cultures is often identified as a limiting factor for
      aerobic fermentation. Through implementation of an integrated oxygen control
      strategy, the high oxygen mass transfer rate satisfied cellular metabolic
      demands. Gluconobacter oxydans NL71 fermentation of xylose to xylonic acid was
      improved remarkably. Finally, the productivity of xylonic acid from xylose by
      biooxidation was markedly increased to 32.5+/-3.1g/L/h compared to production
      levels using conventional laboratory-scale bioreactors. By improving microbial
      fermentative vitality, we successfully bio-converted 1800g xylose to 1813+/-36g
      xylonic acid by combination of a fed-batch addition of xylose substrate as well
      as a cell-recycling strategy. Bioconversion results demonstrated a highly
      efficient fermentation model that performs continuous bioreaction, assisting the
      effort to industrialize microbial xylonic acid production.

PMID- 28863997
TI  - Micronized progesterone pretreatment affects the inflammatory response of human
      gestational tissues and the cervix to lipopolysaccharide stimulation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Vaginal administration of micronized progesterone (utrogestan
      capsule, UG) reduces the risk of preterm birth (PTB) in asymptomatic women with a
      sonographic short cervix at mid-trimester or with a prior history of spontaneous
      PTB; however, its exact mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesized that UG limits
      the inflammatory processes within the gestational tissues and the cervix.
      METHODS: Fetal membranes and villous tissues were obtained from normal term
      placentas from women with cesarean delivery before labor onset. Ectocervical
      tissues were obtained from premenopausal women undergoing hysterectomies for
      uterine fibroids. Explant tissue cultures were pretreated with UG for 24 h and
      then exposed to UG with or without lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 48 h. Tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, monocyte
      chemotactic protein-1, interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-13,
      interferon-gamma, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1, and TIMP-2
      levels in tissue homogenates and culture medium were measured by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assays. Real-time quantitative PCR, Western blot, and gelatine
      zymography were used to measure matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 and MMP-2 mRNA,
      protein, and activity levels, respectively. RESULTS: UG pretreatment did not
      cause a significant change in basal levels or in LPS-induced production and
      secretion of cytokines, chemokines, and TIMPs in the three tissues. However, UG
      pretreatment significantly reduced MMP-9 and MMP-2 expression and activity in
      fetal membranes stimulated with LPS but not in villous or cervical tissues.
      DISCUSSION: UG pretreatment significantly reduced MMP-9 and MMP-2 expression and
      activity in fetal membranes stimulated with LPS, suggesting a possible protective
      mechanism of micronized progesterone in preventing infection-associated PTB.

PMID- 28863998
TI  - Changes in mitochondrial respiration in the human placenta over gestation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Placental mitochondria are subjected to micro-environmental changes
      throughout gestation, in particular large variations in oxygen. How placental
      mitochondrial respiration adapts to changing oxygen concentrations remains
      unexplored. Additionally, placental tissue is often studied in culture; however,
      the effect of culture on placental mitochondria is unclear. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Placental tissue was obtained from first trimester and term (laboured and non
      laboured) pregnancies, and selectively permeabilized to access mitochondria.
      Respirometry was used to compare respiration states and substrate use in
      mitochondria. Additionally, explants of placental tissue were cultured for four,
      12, 24, 48, or 96 h and respiration measured. RESULTS: Mitochondrial respiration
      decreased at 11 weeks compared to earlier gestations (p = 0.05-0.001), and
      mitochondrial content increased at 12-13 weeks compared to 7-10 weeks (p =
      0.042). In term placentae, oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) through
      mitochondrial complex IV (p < 0.001), the relative proportion of OXPHOS CI (p <
      0.001), the total capacity of the respiratory system (p = 0.003), and
      mitochondrial content (p < 0.001) were higher compared to first trimester.
      Respiration was increased (p <= 0.006-0.001) in laboured compared to non-laboured
      placenta. After four hours of culture, respiration was depressed compared to
      fresh tissue from the same placenta and continued to decline with time in
      culture. Markers of apoptosis were increased, while markers of autophagy,
      mitochondrial biogenesis, and mitochondrial membrane potential were decreased
      after four hours of culture. DISCUSSION: Respiration and mitochondrial content
      alter over gestation/with labour. Decreased respiration at 11 weeks and increased
      mitochondrial content at 12-13 weeks may relate to onset of maternal blood flow,
      and increased respiration as a result of labour may be an adaptation to ischaemia
      reperfusion. At term, mitochondria were more susceptible to changes in
      respiratory function relative to first trimester when cultured in vitro, perhaps
      reflecting changes in metabolic demands as gestation progresses. Metabolic
      plasticity of placental mitochondria has relevance to placenta-mediated diseases.

PMID- 28863999
TI  - Isolation and characterization of the trophectoderm from the Arabian camel
      (Camelus dromedarius).
AB  - We isolated and characterized trophoblast from in vivo-derived camel embryos and
      compared with embryonic stem-like cells. Camel embryos were flushed on day 8 post
      insemination and used to derive trophectoderm and embryonic stem-like cells under
      feeder-free culture conditions using a basement membrane matrix. Embryos were
      evaluated for the expression of POU5F1, MYC, KLF4, SOX2, CDX2, and KRT8 mRNA
      transcripts by relative quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Camel embryos
      grew and expanded to ~4.5 mm and maintained their vesicular shape in vitro for 21
      days post-insemination. Trophoblast and embryonic stem-like cell lines grew under
      feeder-free culture conditions and showed distinct morphological criteria and
      normal chromosomal counts. Embryonic stem-like cells showed positive staining in
      the alkaline phosphatase reaction. Trophoblast cells showed a significant
      increase in CDX2, KRT8, KLF4, and SOX2 expression compared with embryonic stem
      like cells and whole embryos. Embryonic stem-like cells showed a significant
      decrease in CDX2 expression and increase in SOX2 and KRT8 expression compared to
      embryonic expression. POU5F1 and MYC expression showed no difference between
      embryos and both cell lines. We characterized embryo survival in vitro,
      particularly the derivation of trophectoderm and embryonic stem-like cells,
      providing a foundation for further analysis of early embryonic development and
      placentation in camels.

PMID- 28864000
TI  - First-trimester placental thickness and the risk of preeclampsia or SGA.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Placental thickness in the second trimester of pregnancy has been
      associated with risks of placenta-mediated complications of pregnancy. We aimed
      to estimate the association between first-trimester maximum placental thickness
      and the subsequent risk of preeclampsia and/or the delivery of small-for
      gestational-age (SGA) neonate. METHODS: Prospective cohort study of women
      recruited at 11-14 weeks gestation. Placental thickness was measured at its
      apparent center and reported in multiple of median (MoM) adjusted for gestational
      age. Participants were followed until delivery for pregnancy outcomes. Placental
      measurements of participants who developed preeclampsia and/or delivered SGA
      neonate (defined as birth weight below 10th percentile) were compared with those
      who did not using non-parametric statistical analyses. RESULTS: We recruited 991
      participants at a mean gestational age of 12.7 +/- 0.7 weeks of gestation. SGA (n
      = 52) was associated with reduced 1st trimester placental thickness (median: 0.89
      MoM; interquartile (IQ): 0.75-1.02 vs 0.98 MoM; IQ: 0.84-1.15; p < 0.01).
      Pregnancies that developed preeclampsia (n = 20) tended to have greater placental
      thickness (median: 1.10 MoM; IQ: 0.93-1.25 vs 0.97 MoM; IQ: 0.84-1.14; p = 0.06)
      with values > 1.2 MoM significantly increasing the risk for preeclampsia
      (relative risk: 3.6; 95%CI: 1.5-8.6, p < 0.01). Pregnancies complicated by both
      SGA and preeclampsia (n = 5) had similar placental thickness in the first
      trimester in comparison with uncomplicated pregnancies (median: 1.03 MoM; IQ:
      0.89-1.42 vs 0.98 MoM; IQ: 0.84-1.14; p = 0.33). CONCLUSION: First-trimester
      placental thickness diverges in pregnancies at risk of preeclampsia (increased)
      or SGA (decreased), but remains within normal values in pregnancies at risk of
      both conditions, suggesting that the underlying pathologies have some opposing
      effects on early placental growth. The current findings should be validated in a
      larger cohort.

PMID- 28864001
TI  - Associations between the levels of soluble (pro)renin receptor in maternal and
      umbilical cord blood and hypertensive disorder of pregnancy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The prorenin (PR) receptor [(P)RR] contributes to the regulation of
      the tissue renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and Wnt signaling, which is involved in
      embryogenesis and the pathological progression of malignant tumors and diabetes
      mellitus. Placental (P)RR is significantly upregulated in placental tissues from
      preeclamptic women. However, because it cannot be examined during pregnancy, the
      chronological relationship between the acceleration of tissue RAS and the disease
      state of hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP) has not been reported. In this
      study, we examined whether chronological changes in placental tissue RAS can be
      assessed by measuring soluble (P)RR [s(P)RR]. METHODS: We obtained maternal and
      umbilical cord blood samples from 517 pregnant women (441 singleton and 76 twin
      pregnancies). The concentrations of s(P)RR and prorenin (PR) were measured using
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis showed that
      maternal serum s(P)RR levels were significantly higher in patients with HDP or
      fetal growth restriction (FGR) and were positively correlated with serum PR
      levels. Furthermore, the maternal s(P)RR level was significantly higher in HDP
      with severe hypertension and after the onset of HDP. However, maternal s(P)RR
      levels were not affected by the severity of proteinuria. Serum s(P)RR levels in
      umbilical cord blood of singleton pregnancies were significantly correlated with
      gestational week at delivery and PR level. DISCUSSION: Maternal serum s(P)RR
      concentrations may reflect acceleration of tissue RAS in the placenta and blood
      pressure severity; however, the umbilical serum s(P)RR concentration was not
      affected by maternal HDP.

PMID- 28864002
TI  - Interleukin-11 classic but not trans-signaling is essential for fertility in
      mice.
AB  - The cytokine interleukin (IL)-11 activates its target cells through binding to
      the membrane-bound IL-11 receptor (IL-11R). Female mice deficient in IL-11R
      (Il11ra-/-) are infertile due to a defect in decidualization when the blastocyst
      implants. We have recently shown that IL-11 can also signal via a soluble IL-11R
      (trans-signaling). Which IL-11 pathway is required for fertility in mice is
      unknown. We confirm that female Il11ra-/-mice, lacking both classic and trans
      signaling, are infertile. In contrast, the selective blockade of IL-11 trans
      signaling does not affect fertility in mice. These results show that classic, but
      not trans-signaling of IL-11, is essential for fertility in mice.

PMID- 28864003
TI  - Vesicular uptake of macromolecules by human placental amniotic epithelial cells.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Studies in animal models have shown that unidirectional vesicular
      transport of amniotic fluid across the amnion plays a primary role in regulating
      amniotic fluid volume. Our objective was to explore vesicle type, vesicular
      uptake and intracellular distribution of vesicles in human amnion cells using
      high- and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. METHODS: Placental amnion was
      obtained at cesarean section and amnion cells were prepared and cultured. At 20%
      50% confluence, the cells were incubated with fluorophore conjugated
      macromolecules for 1-30 min at 22  degrees C or 37  degrees C. Fluorophore
      labeled macromolecules were selected as markers of receptor-mediated caveolar and
      clathrin-coated vesicular uptake as well as non-specific endocytosis. After
      fluorophore treatment, the cells were fixed, imaged and vesicles counted using
      Imaris(r) software. RESULTS: Vesicular uptake displayed first order saturation
      kinetics with half saturation times averaging 1.3 min at 37  degrees C compared
      to 4.9 min at 22  degrees C, with non-specific endocytotic uptake being more
      rapid at both temperatures. There was extensive cell-to-cell variability in
      uptake rate. Under super-resolution microscopy, the pattern of intracellular
      spatial distribution was distinct for each macromolecule. Co-localization of
      fluorescently labeled macromolecules was very low at vesicular dimensions.
      CONCLUSIONS: In human placental amnion cells, 1) vesicular uptake of
      macromolecules is rapid, consistent with the concept that vesicular transcytosis
      across the amnion plays a role in the regulation of amniotic fluid volume; 2)
      uptake is temperature dependent and variable among individual cells; 3) the
      unique intracellular distributions suggest distinct functions for each vesicle
      type; 4) non-receptor mediated vesicular uptake may be a primary vesicular uptake
      mechanism.

PMID- 28864004
TI  - Maternal BMI and gestational diabetes alter placental lipid transporters and
      fatty acid composition.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Placental fatty acid (FA) uptake and metabolism depend on maternal
      supply which may be altered when women have a high pre-pregnancy body mass index
      (BMI) or develop gestational diabetes (GDM). Consequently, an impaired FA
      transport to the fetus may negatively affect fetal development. While placental
      adaptation of maternal-fetal glucose transfer in mild GDM has been described,
      knowledge on placental FA acid metabolism and possible adaptations in response to
      maternal obesity or GDM is lacking. We aimed to analyze the FA composition and
      the expression of key genes involved in FA uptake and metabolism in placentas
      from women with pre-pregnancy normal weight (18.5 <= BMI<25 kg/m2), overweight
      (25 <= BMI<30 kg/m2), obesity (BMI >= 30 kg/m2), and lean pregnant women with
      GDM. METHODS: Placental FA content was determined by gas liquid chromatography.
      Placental mRNA expression of FA transport proteins (FATP1, FATP4, FATP6), FA
      binding proteins (FABP3, FABP4, FABP7), FA translocase (FAT/CD36) and enzymes
      (Endothelial lipase (EL) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL)) were quantified by qRT
      PCR. RESULTS: High pre-pregnancy BMI and GDM were associated with decreased
      placental FATP1, FATP4, EL and increased FAT/CD36 and FATP6 expressions. LPL mRNA
      levels and placental total FA content were similar among groups. Specific FA,
      including some long-chain polyunsaturated FA, were altered. DISCUSSION: Our
      results demonstrate that high pre-pregnancy BMI or GDM independently alter mRNA
      expression levels of genes involved in FA uptake and metabolism and the placental
      FA profile, which could affect fetal development and long-term health.

PMID- 28864005
TI  - Sp1 transcription factor is a modulator of estradiol leptin induction in
      placental cells.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pleiotropic effects of leptin have been identified in reproduction
      and pregnancy, particularly in the placenta, where it functions as an autocrine
      hormone. The synthesis of leptin in normal trophoblastic cells is regulated by
      different endogenous biochemical agents, but the regulation of placental leptin
      expression is still poorly understood. We have previously reported that 17beta
      estradiol up-regulates placental leptin expression through genomic and nongenomic
      mechanisms. METHODS: To improve the understanding of estrogen receptor mechanisms
      in regulating leptin gene expression, we examined Sp1 transcription factor effect
      on estradiol leptin induction in human BeWo cell line. RESULTS: We demonstrated
      that Sp1 induces leptin expression determined by qRT-PCR, Western blot and
      transient transfection experiments. We also found that estradiol induction effect
      on leptin expression is enhanced by the over expression of Sp1 factor. Moreover,
      estradiol effect was not evidenced when Sp1 binding site on leptin promoter is
      mutated, suggesting that estradiol action is dependent on Sp1. On the other hand
      we showed data that demonstrate that Sp1 induction of leptin expression is
      insensitive to the antiestrogen ICI 182 780. By over expression experiments, we
      have also found that Sp1 effect on leptin expression could be mediated by
      estrogen receptor alpha. Supporting this idea, the downregulation of estrogen
      receptor alpha level through a specific siRNA, abolished Sp1 effect on leptin
      expression. DISCUSSION: Taken together all these evidences suggest a cooperative
      behavior between estrogen receptor alpha and Sp1 transcription factors to induce
      leptin transcription.

PMID- 28864006
TI  - Endoplasmic reticulum stress responses in placentation - A true balancing act.
AB  - The unfolded protein response (UPR) is recognized as a key mechanism to promote
      protein folding and processing in eukaryotes when endoplasmic reticulum stress
      (ERS) occurs. Some conditions such as hypoxia or glucose deprivation are factors
      that may elicit ERS response. Recent literature collectively proposes that ERS
      response is crucial for mammalian reproduction by allowing decidualization and
      placentation to occur. However, prolonged ERS and activation of UPR pathways can
      lead to apoptosis and autophagy, which in turn could pose adverse effects on
      pregnancy outcomes and placentation. ERS associated pregnancy pathologies include
      intrauterine growth restriction and early-onset preeclampsia. Given these
      findings, evidence suggests that overactivation of UPR may lead to harmful
      reproductive circumstances, whereas physiological regulation of ERS response is
      essential for mammalian reproduction and placental function. In this review, we
      discuss the dual role of UPR activation with respect to its contribution to
      placental development as well as pathologies caused by pathway overactivation. In
      addition, we suggest potential protein markers associated with the UPR, as
      circulating C-terminal GRP78 or anti-GRP78 autoantibodies which may prove to be
      of clinical interest.

PMID- 28864007
TI  - Expression pattern and phosphorylation status of Smad2/3 in different subtypes of
      human first trimester trophoblast.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: TGF-beta superfamily members are thought to play a pivotal role in
      placental development and differentiation. However, their downstream effectors,
      the Smad transcription factors, have been poorly investigated in human
      trophoblasts. METHODS: Expression and localisation of the canonical TGF-beta
      targets Smad2/3 and their regulators (Smad4 and Smad7) were investigated in first
      trimester placenta and purified cytotrophoblast (CTB) subtypes using
      immunofluorescence, western blotting and qPCR. Canonical and non-canonical
      activation was analysed in nuclear/cytoplasmic extracts of trophoblast subtypes
      as well as in tissue sections using antibodies against Smad2/3, phosphorylated
      either at the C-terminus (pSmad2C/3C) or in their linker regions (pSmad2L/3L).
      Smad phosphorylation was also examined in differentiating extravillous
      trophoblasts (EVTs) in the absence or presence of decidual stromal cell (DSC)
      conditioned medium. RESULTS: Smad2, Smad4 and Smad7 protein were uniformly
      expressed between 6th and 12th week placentae and the different isolated CTB
      subtypes. Activated pSmad2L was mainly detected in nuclei and cytoplasm of
      villous CTBs, whereas pSmad2C was absent from these cells. In contrast, pSmad2C
      could be detected in the cytoplasm of cell column trophoblasts and in the
      cytoplasm/nuclei of EVTs. Smad3 and its phosphorylated forms pSmad3C and pSmad3L
      specifically localised to EVT nuclei. During EVT differentiation autocrine
      activation of pSmad2C/3C and pSmad3L was observed. DSC-conditioned medium further
      increased Smad2/3 phosphorylation in EVTs. DISCUSSION: The lack of pSmad2C in
      villous CTBs suggests that other mitogens than TGF-beta could promote Smad2
      linker phosphorylation under homeostatic conditions. Whereas autocrine signalling
      activates Smad2/3 in differentiating EVTs, paracrine factors contribute to Smad
      phosphorylation in these cells.

PMID- 28864008
TI  - Temporal and spatial expression of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase
      (Gapdh) in the mouse placenta.
AB  - Glucose metabolism in trophoblast cells is essential to provide the required
      energy for the development and function of the placenta. Glyceraldehyde 3
      phosphate dehydrogenase (Gapdh), a key enzyme in the glycolysis pathway has been
      considered ubiquitously expressed in cells. There is, however, a growing body of
      evidence suggesting that Gapdh has many functions in pathways unrelated to
      glucose metabolism. In the present study, we show that GAPDH expression and sub
      cellular localization changes through gestation in the mouse placenta. Our
      findings raise the possibility that GAPDH has multiple functions in trophoblast
      cells and the developing placenta, while also cautioning against its use as an
      endogenous reference or standard for gene expression in the placenta.

PMID- 28864009
TI  - Negative uterine asynchrony retards early equine conceptus development and
      upregulation of placental imprinted genes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Placental imprinted genes appear to be sensitive indicators of an
      inappropriate pre-implantation environment. This study examined the effects of
      negative uterine asynchrony after embryo transfer (ET) on early horse embryo
      development, and yolk-sac membrane expression of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs)
      and equine specific placental imprinted genes. METHODS: Day 8 embryos were
      transferred to recipient mares on day 8 (synchronous) or day 3 (asynchronous)
      after ovulation, and conceptuses were recovered 6 or 11 days later (day 14 or 19
      of development). RESULTS: Day 14 conceptuses recovered from an asynchronous
      uterus had a smaller embryonic disc, in which primitive streak development was
      visibly retarded compared to conceptuses from a synchronous uterus. Similarly,
      length, somite number and organogenesis were retarded in day 19 embryos after
      asynchronous ET. Maternal (GRB10, H19, IGF2R, PHLDA2) and paternal (IGF2, INSR,
      PEG3, PEG10, DIO3, NDN, SNRPN) imprinted genes and DNMTs (DNMT1, 3A and 3B) were
      all up-regulated between day 14 and 19 of pregnancy and, for most, mRNA
      expression was higher in synchronous than asynchronous day 19 yolk-sac membrane.
      Expression of the paternally imprinted gene HAT1 increased between day 14 and 19
      of pregnancy, but was not affected by the asynchrony. DISCUSSION: Conceptus
      development and upregulation of DNMTs and imprinted genes were delayed rather
      than dysregulated after transfer into a negatively asynchronous uterus. We
      propose that this ability to 'reset' conceptus development to uterine stage is an
      adaptation that explains why horse embryos are unusually tolerant of asynchrony
      after ET.

PMID- 28864010
TI  - The association between placental histopathology and autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Research suggests that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has its
      origins in utero. This study examines the association between evidence of
      placental histopathology and ASD. METHODS: Administrative claims data and medical
      records data were used to identify ASD cases (N = 55) and matched controls (N =
      199) born at New York Methodist Hospital between 2007 and 2014 and subsequently
      seen in affiliated pediatrics clinics. Placentas from all births during this time
      period were reviewed as part of routine care. Data were analyzed using
      conditional logistic regression to account for the matched (gender, gestational
      age, and birth weight) design. RESULTS: Acute placental inflammation, regardless
      of type was associated with an increased risk of ASD (odds ratio [OR] = 3.14, 95%
      CI = 1.39, 6.95). Chronic uteroplacental vasculitis (OR = 7.13; 95% CI = 1.17,
      43.38), the fetal inflammatory response in the chorionic plate vessels (OR =
      5.12; 95% CI = 2.02, 12.96), and maternal vascular malperfusion pathology (OR =
      12.29; 95% CI = 1.37, 110.69) were associated with an increased risk of ASD.
      Placental villous edema was associated with a decreased risk of ASD (OR = 0.05;
      95% CI = 0.0005, 0.42). In subanalyses among male placentas acute inflammation
      overall, fetal inflammatory response in the chorionic plate vessels, and maternal
      vascular malperfusion pathology remained significantly associated with an
      increased risk of ASD whereas placental villous edema remained associated with a
      decreased risk of ASD. DISCUSSION: Histologic evidence of placental inflammation
      and maternal vascular malperfusion pathology are associated with ASD.

PMID- 28864011
TI  - Can color difference on the maternal side of the placenta distinguish between
      acute peripartum twin-twin transfusion syndrome and twin anemia-polycythemia
      sequence?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the color difference between two placental shares in
      monochorionic placentas with acute peripartum twin-twin transfusion syndrome
      (TTTS) and twin anemia-polycythemia sequence (TAPS). METHODS: We evaluated all
      digital pictures of TAPS, acute peripartum TTTS and a control group of
      uncomplicated monochorionic placentas examined at our center. We determined the
      color intensity of the individual placental share on the maternal side of each
      monochorionic placenta using an image-processing program and calculated the color
      difference ratio (CDR). RESULTS: Digital pictures of 5 acute peripartum TTTS, 25
      TAPS and 54 control group placentas were included in this study. The median CDR
      in acute peripartum TTTS was significantly lower compared to TAPS placentas, 1.20
      (inter-quartile range (IQR) 1.05-1.20) and 2.50 (IQR 1.85-3.34), respectively (p
      < 0.01), and was comparable to the control group (CDR 1.11, IQR 1.05-1.22).
      CONCLUSION: TAPS placentas have a higher CDR compared to acute peripartum TTTS
      placentas. Examining color difference on the maternal side of the placenta might
      help distinguish between acute peripartum TTTS and TAPS.

PMID- 28864012
TI  - Maternal obesity and gestational weight gain are modestly associated with
      umbilical cord DNA methylation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Maternal obesity (OB) and excessive gestational weight gain (GWG)
      are strong independent contributors that augment obesity risk in offspring.
      However, direct evidence of epigenetic changes associated with maternal habitus
      remains sparse. METHODS: We utilized Bisulfite Amplicon Sequencing (BSAS) to
      conduct targeted DNA methylation association analysis of maternal obesity and
      excessive GWG with DNA methylation of select metabolism-related and imprinted
      genes. Umbilical cord (UC) tissue from infants born to normal weight and
      overweight/obese women from the Glowing study were utilized (n = 78). RESULTS: In
      multivariable linear regression adjusted for relevant confounders, Institute on
      Medicine (IOM) GWG category and infant sex were significantly associated with UC
      IGFBP1 methylation, while gestation length was significantly associated with UC
      PRKAA1 methylation. In addition, infant fat mass (%) at 2 weeks of age was
      significantly associated with umbilical cord methylation of RAPTOR. While
      regression tree analysis confirmed findings from multivariable models
      demonstrating that maternal early pregnancy BMI and IOM GWG category are
      associated with fetal UC DNA methylation patterns for select metabolic and
      imprinted genes, in general, effect sizes were quite small and statistical
      significance was not maintained when accounting for multiple testing. DISCUSSION:
      Our findings suggest that maternal obesity and excessive GWG are weakly
      correlated with offspring DNA methylation patterns at birth.

PMID- 28864013
TI  - The transformative potential of an integrative approach to pregnancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Complex traits typically involve diverse biological pathways and are
      shaped by numerous genetic and environmental factors. Pregnancy-associated traits
      and pathologies are further complicated by extensive communication across
      multiple tissues in two individuals, interactions between two genomes-maternal
      and fetal-that obscure causal variants and lead to genetic conflict, and rapid
      evolution of pregnancy-associated traits across mammals and in the human lineage.
      Given the multi-faceted complexity of human pregnancy, integrative approaches
      that synthesize diverse data types and analyses harbor tremendous promise to
      identify the genetic architecture and environmental influences underlying
      pregnancy-associated traits and pathologies. METHODS: We review current research
      that addresses the extreme complexities of traits and pathologies associated with
      human pregnancy. RESULTS: We find that successful efforts to address the many
      complexities of pregnancy-associated traits and pathologies often harness the
      power of many and diverse types of data, including genome-wide association
      studies, evolutionary analyses, multi-tissue transcriptomic profiles, and
      environmental conditions. CONCLUSION: We propose that understanding of pregnancy
      and its pathologies will be accelerated by computational platforms that provide
      easy access to integrated data and analyses. By simplifying the integration of
      diverse data, such platforms will provide a comprehensive synthesis that
      transcends many of the inherent challenges present in studies of pregnancy.

PMID- 28864014
TI  - Glycosylation and immunocytochemistry of binucleate cells in pronghorn
      (Antilocapra americana, Antilocapridae) show features of both Giraffidae and
      Bovidae.
AB  - Although the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) resembles an antelope, its nearest
      relatives are the giraffe and okapi. In this study we have examined the placentae
      of 6 pronghorns using lectin- and immunocytochemistry to identify giraffid and
      bovid features. Binucleate cells (BNC) of the placenta exhibited features
      intermediate between those of the giraffe and bovine; Dolichos biflorus
      agglutinin binding - strong in the bovine BNC and absent in the giraffe - was
      evident in only a subpopulation of BNC while binding to blood vessels, as in the
      giraffe. Binding of Phytolacca americana agglutinin resembled that of the giraffe
      and okapi whereas many other glycans were found in all four clades. PAG antigens
      were similar to bovine and okapi but not giraffe. In summary, although the
      pronghorn outwardly resembles an antelope, placental BNC show giraffid features.
      Although each clade has its own individual characteristics, there are far more
      similarities than differences between them, emphasizing the common ancestry of
      all four clades.

PMID- 28864015
TI  - Availability of COLLECT, a database for pregnancy and placental research studies
      worldwide.
AB  - Cost and availability of a database often impede research while the lack of
      compatibility inhibits collaboration by making merging of databases difficult or
      impossible. The Global Pregnancy Collaboration (CoLab) has promoted harmonization
      of studies and standardized data collection to facilitate pregnancy and placental
      research. Its online database, COLLECT, allows collection of minimal and optimal
      clinical datasets to accompany basic and applied science studies and provides a
      placental sample inventory system. COLLECT is available free of charge in LMIC
      and for $100 per month in HIC. Data is the property of the investigator but with
      permission can be combined into larger studies across centers and countries.

PMID- 28864017
TI  - Maternal GRB10 microdeletion is a novel cause of cystic placenta: Spectrum of
      genomic changes in the etiology of enlarged cystic placenta.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The genetics and pathology of diploid complete and triploid partial
      hydatidiform moles have been well established. Enlarged cystic placenta often
      indicates an underlying etiology and is frequently associated with adverse
      pregnancy outcome. Several imprinted genes are strongly expressed in placental
      tissues and essential for normal placental growth and development. Disruption of
      these imprinted genes can lead to abnormal placental pathology and placental
      stunting or overgrowth. We present the genetic etiologies of five unusual mosaic
      cases of enlarged cystic placentas and report a novel etiology, mosaicism for
      deletion of the maternal GRB10 gene. METHODS: Five mosaic placental mesenchymal
      dysplasia cases with discrete populations of "cystic" and "normal" villi and/or
      atypical p57KIP2 immunostaining were evaluated by genetic analysis; including G
      banded karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), whole genome CGH +
      SNP microarray, conventional Sanger sequencing, and STR microsatellite analysis.
      RESULTS: Genetic etiologies ranged from genome-wide changes, including mosaic
      androgenetic isodisomy and mosaic diandric triploidy, to a novel microdeletion of
      the maternally-expressed GRB10 gene. An abnormal mosaic population of cells was
      also detected in the fetus in two cases. DISCUSSION: Four cases were mosaic for
      either diandric triploidy or an androgenetic cell population, and the enlarged
      cystic placentas were likely due to an excess of paternally-expressed growth
      promoting genes and also the absence of maternally-expressed growth restricting
      genes. Also we identified mosaicism for a novel microdeletion of the maternal
      GRB10 allele, a potent growth inhibitor, which resulted in placental overgrowth
      in the cystic area of one placenta. We advocate the use of ancillary techniques
      to investigate complex mosaic cases of enlarged cystic placentas to discover
      atypical genetic etiologies and to increase our understanding of the placental
      genome.

PMID- 28864016
TI  - Effects of maternal diabetes and fetal sex on human placenta mitochondrial
      biogenesis.
AB  - Abnormal placental function in maternal diabetes affects fetal health and can
      predispose offspring to metabolic diseases in later life. There are fetal sex
      specific differences in placenta structure and gene expression, which may affect
      placental responses to maternal diabetes. The present study examined the effects
      of maternal diabetes on indices of mitochondrial biogenesis in placentae from
      male and female offspring. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number and expression
      of key regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis were assessed in placentae from 19
      diabetic and 23 non-diabetic women. The abundance of peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1alpha) and mitochondria
      transcription factor A (TFAM) were lower in female placentae compared to males,
      but not mtDNA content. In male offspring, maternal diabetes was associated with
      decreased placental PGC-1alpha and TFAM, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content.
      Male placental TFAM levels were highly correlated with PGC-1alpha and mtDNA
      content. However, despite decreased PGC-1alpha, concomitant changes in TFAM and
      mtDNA content by diabetes were not observed in females. In addition, TFAM
      abundance in female placentae was not correlated with PGC-1alpha or mtDNA
      content. In summary, placental PGC-1alpha/TFAM/mitochondrial biogenesis pathway
      is affected by maternal diabetes and offspring sex. Decreased PGC-1alpha in
      response to maternal diabetes plausibly contributes to impaired mitochondrial
      biogenesis in placentae of male offspring, which may affect long-term health and
      explain some of enhanced risk of future metabolic diseases in males.

PMID- 28864018
TI  - Bovine placentomal heparanase and syndecan expression is related to placental
      maturation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Impaired placental maturation has been associated with retention of
      fetal membranes, which is a major reproductive disease in cattle. This maturation
      includes alterations in all tissue compartments of the placenta, specifically of
      epithelial and stroma cells and extracellular matrix. It is believed to be
      controlled by hormones, adhesion molecules and proteolytic enzymes. To
      investigate if the proteolytic enzyme heparanase and its substrates, the
      syndecans (SDCs) could be involved in the release of fetal membranes, their
      expression in bovine placentomes was analyzed. METHODS: Placentomes were taken
      from gestational day 35 until term, directly after spontaneous parturition, after
      preterm caesarean section, and after chemically induced parturition. Heparanase
      and SDCs were localized by immunohistochemistry and the respective mRNAs were
      quantified by qRT-PCR. Heparanase expression was additionally quantified by
      Western blot. RESULTS: Heparanase, SDC1 and SDC4 displayed significant changes in
      expression and localization depending on gestational progress and mode of
      parturition. All three proteins showed an expression at the end of gestation,
      together with an altered, predominant localization in fetal and maternal
      epithelia. After physiological parturition, the placentomal tissue stained weaker
      for all syndecans. This change in staining pattern could not be observed after
      induced preterm parturition. SDC2 expression did not change during the course of
      gestation. DISCUSSION: The changing placental expression patterns of heparanase,
      SDC1 and SDC4 indicate that these molecules might be involved in fetomaternal
      communication and placental maturation in cattle. The matrix degrading properties
      of heparanase could assist in a timely reduction of fetomaternal adhesion and
      thus promote separation of the membranes after parturition.

PMID- 28864019
TI  - Glyburide treatment in gestational diabetes is associated with increased
      placental glucose transporter 1 expression and higher birth weight.
AB  - Use of glyburide in gestational diabetes (GDM) has raised concerns about fetal
      and neonatal side effects, including increased birth weight. Placental nutrient
      transport is a key determinant of fetal growth, however the effect of glyburide
      on placental nutrient transporters is largely unknown. We hypothesized that
      glyburide treatment in GDM pregnancies is associated with increased expression of
      nutrient transporters in the syncytiotrophoblast plasma membranes. We collected
      placentas from GDM pregnancies who delivered at term and were treated with either
      diet modification (n = 15) or glyburide (n = 8). Syncytiotrophoblast microvillous
      (MVM) and basal (BM) plasma membranes were isolated and expression of glucose
      (glucose transporter 1; GLUT1), amino acid (sodium-coupled neutral amino acid
      transporter 2; SNAT2 and L-type amino acid transporter 1; LAT1) and fatty acid
      (fatty acid translocase; FAT/CD36, fatty acid transporter 2 and 4; FATP2, FATP4)
      transporters was determined by Western blot. Additionally, we determined GLUT1
      expression by confocal microscopy in cultured primary human trophoblasts (PHT)
      after exposure to glyburide. Birth weight was higher in the glyburide-treated
      group as compared to diet-treated GDM women (3764 +/- 126 g vs. 3386 +/- 75 g; p
      < 0.05). GLUT1 expression was increased in both MVM (+50%; p < 0.01) and BM
      (+75%; p < 0.01). In contrast, MVM FAT/CD36 (-65%; p = 0.01) and FATP2 (-65%; p =
      0.02) protein expression was reduced in mothers treated with glyburide. Glyburide
      increased membrane expression of GLUT1 in a dose-dependent manner in cultured
      PHT. This data is the first to show that glyburide increases GLUT1 expression in
      syncytiotrophoblast MVM and BM in GDM pregnancies, and may promote transplacental
      glucose delivery contributing to fetal overgrowth.

PMID- 28864020
TI  - Pre-clinical evaluation of a nanoparticle-based blood-pool contrast agent for MR
      imaging of the placenta.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Non-invasive 3D imaging that enables clear visualization of
      placental margins is of interest in the accurate diagnosis of placental
      pathologies. This study investigated if contrast-enhanced MRI performed using a
      liposomal gadolinium blood-pool contrast agent (liposomal-Gd) enables clear
      visualization of the placental margins and the placental-myometrial interface
      (retroplacental space). Non-contrast MRI and contrast-enhanced MRI using a
      clinically approved conventional contrast agent were used as comparators.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Studies were performed in pregnant rats under an approved
      protocol. MRI was performed at 1T using a permanent magnet small animal scanner.
      Pre-contrast and post-liposomal-Gd contrast images were acquired using T1
      weighted and T2-weighted sequences. Dynamic Contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) was
      performed using gadoterate meglumine (Gd-DOTA, Dotarem(r)). Visualization of the
      retroplacental clear space, a marker of normal placentation, was judged by a
      trained radiologist. Signal-to-noise (SNR) and contrast-to-noise (CNR) ratios
      were calculated for both single and averaged acquisitions. Images were reviewed
      by a radiologist and scored for the visualization of placental features. Contrast
      enhanced CT (CE-CT) imaging using a liposomal CT agent was performed for
      confirmation of the MR findings. Transplacental transport of liposomal-Gd was
      evaluated by post-mortem elemental analysis of tissues. Ex-vivo studies in
      perfused human placentae from normal, GDM, and IUGR pregnancies evaluated the
      transport of liposomal agent across the human placental barrier. RESULTS: Post
      contrast T1w images acquired with liposomal-Gd demonstrated significantly higher
      SNR (p = 0.0002) in the placenta compared to pre-contrast images (28.0 +/- 4.7
      vs. 6.9 +/- 1.8). No significant differences (p = 0.39) were noted between SNR in
      pre-contrast and post-contrast liposomal-Gd images of the amniotic fluid,
      indicating absence of transplacental passage of the agent. The placental margins
      were significantly (p < 0.001) better visualized on post-contrast liposomal-Gd
      images. DCE-MRI with the conventional Gd agent demonstrated retrograde
      opacification of the placenta from fetal edge to the myometrium, consistent with
      the anatomy of the rat placenta. However, no consistent and reproducible
      visualization of the retroplacental space was demonstrated on the conventional Gd
      enhanced images. The retroplacental space was only visualized on post-contrast
      T1w images acquired using the liposomal agent (SNR = 15.5 +/- 3.4) as a sharply
      defined, hypo-enhanced interface. The retroplacental space was also visible as a
      similar hypo-enhancing interface on CE-CT images acquired using a liposomal CT
      contrast agent. Tissue analysis demonstrated undetectably low transplacental
      permeation of liposomal-Gd, and was confirmed by lack of permeation through a
      perfused human placental model. CONCLUSIONS: Contrast-enhanced T1w-MRI performed
      using liposomal-Gd enabled clear visualization of placental margins and
      delineation of the retroplacental space from the rest of the placenta; the space
      is undetectable on non-contrast imaging and on post-contrast T1w images acquired
      using a conventional, clinically approved Gd chelate contrast agent.

PMID- 28864022
TI  - Child neurodevelopmental outcomes following preterm and term birth: What can the
      placenta tell us?
AB  - A significant proportion of children born preterm will experience some level of
      neurodevelopmental impairment. Changes in placental function have been observed
      with many antenatal conditions that are risk factors for preterm birth and/or
      poor neurodevelopment including fetal growth restriction and in-utero
      inflammation. This review will highlight placental factors that have been studied
      to understand the underlying mechanisms and identify biomarkers that lead to poor
      child neurodevelopmental outcomes. These include changes in gross morphological
      and histopathological structure and the placental inflammatory response to
      prenatal infection. Further, we will describe the placenta's role as both a
      barrier to maternally-derived bioactive substances critical for normal fetal
      brain development, such as cortisol, and a source of neuroactive steroids and
      neurotrophins known to have critical functions in neuronal proliferation, axonal
      growth, myelination and the regulation of apoptosis. Finally, emerging data
      supporting the potential utility of novel placental biomarkers in the early
      prediction of poor neurodevelopmental outcome in infants born both preterm and
      term will be discussed. These include the assessment of genetic variants (e.g.
      single nucleotide polymorphisms in placental tissue) and epigenetic biomarkers
      (e.g. placental microRNAs and placental DNA methylation). With the placenta the
      key tissue regulating the fetal environment, integration of observed changes in
      placental function with genetic and epigenetic variations may advance our ability
      to predict future infant health. Ultimately, this may facilitate targeted
      allocation of health resources with the aim of improving lifelong
      neurodevelopmental capability.

PMID- 28864021
TI  - The core transcriptome of mammalian placentas and the divergence of expression
      with placental shape.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The placenta is arguably the most anatomically variable organ in
      mammals even though its primary function is conserved. METHOD: Using RNA-Seq, we
      measured the expression profiles of 55 term placentas of 14 species of mammals
      representing all major eutherian superordinal clades and marsupials, and compared
      the evolution of expression across clades. RESULTS: We identified a set of 115
      core genes which is expressed (FPKM >=10) in all eutherian placentas, including
      genes with immune-modulating properties (ANXA2, ANXA1, S100A11, S100A10, and
      LGALS1), cell-cell interactions (LAMC1, LUM, and LGALS1), invasion (GRB2 and
      RALB) and syncytialization (ANXA5 and ANXA1). We also identified multiple pre
      eclampsia associated genes which are differentially expressed in Homo sapiens
      when compared to the other 13 species. Multiple genes are significantly
      associated with placenta morphology, including EREG and WNT5A which are both
      associated with placental shape. DISCUSSION: 115 genes are important for the core
      functions of the placenta in all eutherian species analyzed. The molecular
      functions and pathways enriched in the core placenta align with the
      evolutionarily conserved functionality of the placenta.

PMID- 28864024
TI  - Hemodynamic analysis of blood flow in umbilical artery using computational
      modeling.
AB  - The umbilical cord is the crucial pathway for blood flow between the fetus and
      the placenta. Umbilical coiling and length have been separately linked to adverse
      clinical outcomes; however, the effects of variations of these parameters on
      umbilical arterial blood flow are not well understood. Using 3D computational
      model, we studied the individual and combined effects of umbilical coiling index,
      cord length and arterial diameter on umbilical artery hemodynamics. We found that
      specific combinations of umbilical coiling index, cord length and arterial
      diameter yielded pressure and flow drops incompatible with fetal life. Such
      models are useful as hypothesis-developing tools.

PMID- 28864023
TI  - Clinicoplacental correlates of amniocyte vacuolization in association with
      gastroschisis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: Gastroschisis has been associated with a characteristic
      type of amniocyte vacuolization. In this study, we determined the frequency and
      clinicoplacental correlates of this apparently unique alteration of the amniotic
      epithelium. METHODS: We performed a retrospective clinicopathologic analysis of
      74 consecutive cases of isolated gastroschisis. Placental membrane sections were
      reviewed for presence and extent of amniocyte vacuolization, and immunostained
      for adipophilin, a lipid droplet-associated protein. Controls included placentas
      from pregnancies complicated by omphalocele, meconium exposure or
      chorioamnionitis. RESULTS: A distinct type of diffuse, fine and homogeneous
      amniocyte vacuolization was present in 15/74 (20%), absent in 41/74 (55%), and
      equivocal in 18/74 (24%) gastroschisis cases. Similar amniocyte vacuolization was
      seen in only 1/30 meconium-stained controls, and in none of the other non
      gastroschisis controls. Adipophilin immunostaining enhanced the visualization of
      the cytoplasmic vacuoles and confirmed their lipid nature. Compared to
      gastroschisis cases without such vacuolization, cases with typical, extensive
      amniocyte vacuolization had a tendency to lower birth weight percentile (26%
      versus 40%; P < 0.08), a significantly lower fetal:placental weight ratio (4.72
      versus 5.51; P < 0.01), and a significantly higher frequency of associated
      meconium exposure (14/15 versus 15/41, P < 0.001) and/or chorioamnionitis (8/15
      versus 6/41; P < 0.01). The length of hospital stay was equivalent for infants
      with or without amniocyte vacuolization. CONCLUSION: Diffuse, fine and
      homogeneous lipid droplet accumulation in amniocytes is highly characteristic of
      gastroschisis, but only seen in about 20% of cases. The functional implications
      of excessive lipid accumulation, and the exact mechanisms underlying the strong
      association between amniocyte lipid accumulation and chorioamnionitis/meconium
      exposure in a subset of gastroschisis cases remain undetermined.

PMID- 28864025
TI  - Birth weight, umbilical and placental traits in relation to neonatal loss in
      cloned pigs.
AB  - Cloned piglets generated through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) have a high
      rate of neonatal death. Postnatal loss is associated with low birth weight,
      umbilical status and placental parameters in fertilisation-derived piglets. To
      investigate whether or not this relationship also exists in cloned piglets, birth
      weight, umbilical status, placental parameters, placental morphology and gene
      expression pattern were compared among four piglet groups, namely, SCNT-derived
      male piglets that died within 4 days (SCNT-DW4), SCNT-derived male piglets that
      survived over 4 days (SCNT-SO4), artificial insemination (AI)-generated male
      piglets that died within 4 days (AI-DW4) and AI-generated male piglets that
      survived over 4 days (AI-SO4). Results showed that the occurring frequency of
      abnormal umbilical cord in SCNT-DW4 piglets was significantly higher than that in
      AI-SO4 piglets but was similar to that in SCNT-SO4 and AI-DW4 piglets. The birth
      weight, placental surface area and placental weight of AI-SO4, AI-DW4 and SCNT
      SO4 groups were similar but were significantly higher than those in SCNT-DW4
      group. SCNT-SO4 placentas exhibited mild but SCNT-DW4 placentas showed severe
      morphological abnormalities compared with AI-SO4 placentas. The expression
      profiles of imprinting, angiopoiesis, nutrient transport, apoptosis and oxidative
      stress-related genes in SCNT-DW4 placentas were erroneous compared with those in
      SCNT-SO4 and AI-SO4 placentas, which both had similar gene expression patterns.
      These results indicate that birth weight, umbilical status, placental parameters,
      placental morphology and gene expression were associated with neonatal death of
      cloned piglets. The high loss of cloned piglets during neonatal age may be caused
      by severe deficiency of extra-embryonic development during prenatal stage.

PMID- 28864026
TI  - Cardiac cycle-induced EPI time series fluctuations in the brain: Their temporal
      shifts, inflow effects and T2* fluctuations.
AB  - The cardiac-induced arterial pressure wave causes changes in cerebral blood flow
      velocities and volumes that affect the signals in echo-planar imaging (EPI).
      Using single-echo EPI time series data, acquired fast enough to unalias the
      cardiac frequency, we found that the cardiac cycle-induced signal fluctuations
      are delayed differentially in different brain regions. When referenced to the
      time series in larger arterial structures, the cortical voxels are only minimally
      shifted but significant shifts are observed in subcortical areas. Using double
      echo EPI data we mapped the voxels' "signal at zero echo time", S0, and apparent
      T2* over the cardiac cycle. S0 pulsatility was maximised for voxels with a
      cardiac cycle-induced timing that was close to the arterial structures and is
      likely explained by enhanced inflow effects in the cortical areas compared to
      subcortical areas. Interestingly a consistent T2* waveform over the cardiac cycle
      was observed in all voxels with average amplitude ranges between 0.3-0.55% in
      grey matter and 0.15-0.22% in white matter. The timing of the T2* waveforms
      suggests a partial volume fluctuation where arteriolar blood volume changes are
      counterbalanced by changes in CSF volumes.

PMID- 28864028
TI  - Convergence of carbapenem-resistance and hypervirulence in Klebsiella pneumoniae.

PMID- 28864027
TI  - Efficacy and safety of tribendimidine, tribendimidine plus ivermectin,
      tribendimidine plus oxantel pamoate, and albendazole plus oxantel pamoate against
      hookworm and concomitant soil-transmitted helminth infections in Tanzania and
      Cote d'Ivoire: a randomised, controlled, single-blinded, non-inferiority trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preventive chemotherapy is the current strategy to control soil
      transmitted helminth infections (caused by Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm, and
      Trichuris trichiura). But, to improve efficacy and avoid emerging resistance, new
      drugs are warranted. Tribendimidine has shown good anthelmintic efficacy and is
      therefore a frontrunner for monotherapy and combination chemotherapy. METHODS: We
      did a randomised, controlled, single-blinded, non-inferiority trial on Pemba
      Island, Tanzania, and in Cote d'Ivoire. We recruited adolescents aged 15-18 years
      from four primary schools on Pemba, and school attendees and non-schoolers from
      two districts in Cote d'Ivoire. Only hookworm-positive participants were randomly
      assigned (1:1:1:1) to single, oral doses of tribendimidine 400 mg plus placebo
      (tribendimidine monotherapy), tribendimidine 400 mg plus ivermectin 200 MUg/kg,
      tribendimidine 400 mg plus oxantel pamoate 25 mg/kg, or albendazole 400 mg plus
      oxantel pamoate 25 mg/kg. Randomisation was done via a computer-generated list in
      block sizes of four or eight. Participants were asked to provide two stool
      samples on 2 consecutive days at baseline and again 14-21 days at follow-up. The
      primary outcome was the difference in egg-reduction rates (ERRs; ie, the
      geometric mean reduction) in hookworm egg counts between treatment groups,
      measured by the Kato-Katz technique. Differences in coadministrated treatment
      groups were assessed for non-inferiority with a margin of -3% to albendazole plus
      oxantel pamoate based on the available-case population, analysed by intention to
      treat. Safety was assessed 3 h and 24 h after treatment. This study is registered
      with ISRCTN (number 14373201). FINDINGS: Between July 26, and Dec 23, 2016, we
      treated 636 hookworm-positive participants, and outcome data were available for
      601 participants (151 assigned to tribendimidine monotherapy, 154 to
      tribendimidine plus ivermectin, 148 to tribendimidine plus oxantel pamoate, and
      148 to albendazole plus oxantel pamoate). Tribendimidine plus ivermectin was non
      inferior to albendazole plus oxantel pamoate (ERRs 99.5% [95% CI 99.2-99.7] vs
      96.0% [93.9-97.4]; difference 3.52 percentage points [2.05-5.65]). Likewise,
      tribendimidine plus oxantel pamoate was non-inferior to albendazole plus oxantel
      pamoate (ERRs 96.5% [95% CI 94.9 to 97.6] vs 96.0% [93.9 to 97.4]; difference
      0.48 percentage points [-1.61 to 2.88]). 3 h after treatment, headache (n=50
      [8%]) and vertigo (n=37 [6%]) were the most widely reported symptoms; 24 h after
      treatment, 50 (8%) patients reported vertigo and 41 (7%) reported headache.
      Mainly mild adverse events were reported with peak numbers (n=111 [18%]) at 24 h
      after treatment. Three participants had moderate adverse events 3 h after
      treatment: two (<1%) had vertigo and one (<1%) had headache, and two had moderate
      adverse events 24 h after treatment: one (<1%) had vomiting and one (<1%) had
      vomiting plus diarrhoea. INTERPRETATION: Tribendimidine in combination with
      either ivermectin or oxantel pamoate had a similar, non-inferior efficacy profile
      as albendazole plus oxantel pamoate, hence tribendimidine will be a useful
      addition to the depleted anthelmintic drug armamentarium. FUNDING: Swiss National
      Science Foundation.

PMID- 28864029
TI  - Global deworming: moving past albendazole and mebendazole.

PMID- 28864030
TI  - A fatal outbreak of ST11 carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae
      in a Chinese hospital: a molecular epidemiological study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae strains often cause life
      threatening community-acquired infections in young and healthy hosts, but are
      usually sensitive to antibiotics. In this study, we investigated a fatal outbreak
      of ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by a new emerging hypervirulent K
      pneumoniae strain. METHODS: The outbreak occurred in the integrated intensive
      care unit of a new branch of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang
      University (Hangzhou, China). We collected 21 carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae
      strains from five patients and characterised these strains for their
      antimicrobial susceptibility, multilocus sequence types, and genetic relatedness
      using VITEK-2 compact system, multilocus sequence typing, and whole genome
      sequencing. We selected one representative isolate from each patient to establish
      the virulence potential using a human neutrophil assay and Galleria mellonella
      model and to establish the genetic basis of their hypervirulence phenotype.
      FINDINGS: All five patients had undergone surgery for multiple trauma and
      subsequently received mechanical ventilation. The patients were aged 53-73 years
      and were admitted to the intensive care unit between late February and April,
      2016. They all had severe pneumonia, carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae
      infections, and poor responses to antibiotic treatment and died due to severe
      lung infection, multiorgan failure, or septic shock. All five representative
      carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae strains belonged to the ST11 type, which is the
      most prevalent carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae type in China, and originated
      from the same clone. The strains were positive on the string test, had survival
      of about 80% after 1 h incubation in human neutrophils, and killed 100% of wax
      moth larvae (G mellonella) inoculated with 1 * 106 colony-forming units of the
      specimens within 24 h, suggesting that they were hypervirulent K pneumoniae.
      Genomic analyses showed that the emergence of these ST11 carbapenem-resistant
      hypervirulent K pneumoniae strains was due to the acquisition of a roughly 170
      kbp pLVPK-like virulence plasmid by classic ST11 carbapenem-resistant K
      pneumoniae strains. We also detected these strains in specimens collected in
      other regions of China. INTERPRETATION: The ST11 carbapenem-resistant
      hypervirulent K pneumoniae strains pose a substantial threat to human health
      because they are simultaneously hypervirulent, multidrug resistant, and highly
      transmissible. Control measures should be implemented to prevent further
      dissemination of such organisms in the hospital setting and the community.
      FUNDING: Chinese National Key Basic Research and Development Program and
      Collaborative Research Fund of Hong Kong Research Grant Council.

PMID- 28864031
TI  - Comparison of Wound Complications and Deep Infections With Direct Anterior and
      Posterior Approaches in Obese Hip Arthroplasty Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the posterior approach (PA)
      with the direct anterior approach (DAA) among obese and nonobese total hip
      arthroplasty patients to determine if obese DAA patients have a higher risk of
      infection or wound complications compared with obese PA patients. METHODS: We
      retrospectively evaluated 4651 primary total hip cases performed via anterior
      approach or PA between 2009 and 2015. Patients were divided into 4 study groups
      based on approach and body mass index (BMI): (1) DAA <35 kg/m2, (2) DAA >=35
      kg/m2, (3) PA <35 kg/m2, and (4) PA >=35 kg/m2. Infection rates and wound
      complications were compared. RESULTS: The rate of deep infection in groups 1 and
      3 (nonobese anterior vs posterior) was 0.28% and 0.36%, respectively (P = .783);
      and in groups 2 and 4 (obese anterior vs posterior) was 2.35% and 2.7%,
      respectively (P = .80). The rate of wound complications between groups 1 and 3
      (nonobese) was 1.0% and 0.3%, respectively (P = .005). Between groups 2 and 4
      (obese), the rates of complications were 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively (P = 1.0).
      There was no difference in reoperation rates for wounds between groups 1 and 3 or
      between groups 2 and 4 (P = .217, P = .449). CONCLUSION: In the largest available
      series, there was no difference in deep infection rates between the 2 approaches.
      In the subset of obese patients with BMI >=35 kg/m2, there was no increased risk
      of deep infection or wound complications in DAA patients compared with PA
      patients. However, anterior hip cases experienced higher rates of superficial
      wound complications compared with posterior cases across all BMIs.

PMID- 28864032
TI  - In memory of Norman Bowery (1944-2016).
AB  - This article is in memory of Professor Norman Bowery (1944-2016). Norman was a
      pharmacologist who spent most of his career researching the pharmacology of gamma
      aminobutyric acid (GABA). He discovered a novel metabotropic receptor subtype,
      GABAB, that is pharmacologically, and structurally different from the original
      ionotropic receptor now designated as GABAA. In his research he also studied the
      neurotransmitters glutamate and substance P, two molecules whose release in parts
      of the spinal cord is inhibited by baclofen a GABAB receptor agonist. Norman was
      interested in the therapeutic potential of interacting with the GABAB receptor,
      in particular spasticity, pain and absence epilepsy.

PMID- 28864034
TI  - A Service Commitment to Fund Your Medical Education.

PMID- 28864033
TI  - Characterising the effect of antimalarial drugs on the maturation and clearance
      of murine blood-stage Plasmodium parasites in vivo.
AB  - The artemisinins are the first-line therapy for severe and uncomplicated malaria,
      since they cause rapid declines in parasitemia after treatment. Despite this, in
      vivo mechanisms underlying this rapid decline remain poorly characterised. The
      overall decline in parasitemia is the net effect of drug inhibition of parasites
      and host clearance, which competes against any ongoing parasite proliferation.
      Separating these mechanisms in vivo was not possible through measurements of
      total parasitemia alone. Therefore, we employed an adoptive transfer approach in
      which C57BL/6J mice were transfused with Plasmodium berghei ANKA strain-infected,
      fluorescent red blood cells, and subsequently drug-treated. This approach allowed
      us to distinguish between the initial drug-treated generation of parasites
      (Gen0), and their progeny (Gen1). Artesunate efficiently impaired maturation of
      Gen0 parasites, such that a sufficiently high dose completely arrested maturation
      after 6h of in vivo exposure. In addition, artesunate-affected parasites were
      cleared from circulation with a half-life of 6.7h. In vivo cell depletion studies
      using clodronate liposomes revealed an important role for host phagocytes in the
      removal of artesunate-affected parasites, particularly ring and trophozoite
      stages. Finally, we found that a second antimalarial drug, mefloquine, was less
      effective than artesunate at suppressing parasite maturation and driving host
      mediated parasite clearance. Thus, we propose that in vivo artesunate treatment
      causes rapid decline in parasitemia by arresting parasite maturation and
      encouraging phagocyte-mediated clearance of parasitised RBCs.

PMID- 28864035
TI  - The 2017 Match and the Future US Workforce.

PMID- 28864036
TI  - Aerobic Training Effect on Arterial Stiffness in Metabolic Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome, physical inactivity, and central obesity
      contribute to early vascular aging, which leads to increased risk of
      cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to assess the effect of heart rate (HR)
      targeted aerobic exercise training on the indices of early vascular aging, in
      particular, arterial stiffness, and on anthropometric and clinical profile of
      metabolic syndrome subjects. METHODS: There were 126 metabolic syndrome subjects
      randomly selected. Anthropometric parameters, blood pressure (BP), blood sample,
      and arterial wall functional and structural parameters were obtained prior to and
      after the 8-week (84 patients) supervised training program. The age- and sex
      matched control group (42 patients) followed the same protocol, except for the HR
      targeted training program. RESULTS: In the study group, HR-targeted training was
      associated with decreased aortic pulse wave velocity (8.47 +/- 1.40 vs 8.01 +/-
      1.06 m/s; P = .005), HR (P < .001), systolic (P < .015) and diastolic (P < .004)
      BP, waist circumference (P < .004), total and low-density-lipid cholesterol
      (respectively, 6.42 +/- 1.41 vs 5.89 +/- 1.32, P = .003 and 4.2 +/- 1.18 vs 3.8
      +/- 1.21, P = .002), and an increase in aerobic capacity (P < .001). In the
      control group there were no statistically significant changes of arterial
      stiffness parameters. Multivariate analysis revealed that reduction of arterial
      stiffness was BP dependent. CONCLUSIONS: In subjects with metabolic syndrome, HR
      targeted exercise training is associated with BP-dependent decrease in aortic
      stiffness and improvement of metabolic and fitness parameters.

PMID- 28864037
TI  - Utility of T1- and T2-Weighted High-Resolution Vessel Wall Imaging for the
      Diagnosis and Follow Up of Isolated Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery
      Dissection with Ischemic Stroke: Report of 4 Cases and Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An accurate diagnosis of isolated posterior inferior cerebellar
      artery dissection (iPICA-D) is difficult due to the limitation of spatial
      resolution on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to detect
      subtle vessel wall abnormalities. The recent development of MRI techniques,
      including high-resolution vessel wall imaging (HRVWI), has resulted in the
      improved diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of iPICA-D. In fact, T1-weighted
      HRVWI, which can reveal intramural hematomas in the posterior inferior cerebellar
      artery (PICA), is useful for the diagnosis of iPICA-D. However, the utility of T2
      weighted HRVWI has not been previously reported. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the diagnostic utility of T1- and T2-weighted HRVWI for the diagnosis
      of iPICA-D. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated MRI findings including
      intramural hematomas, dilations, and chronological changes in 4 patients with
      iPICA-D admitted to our hospital and related facility from January 2015 to August
      2016. In addition to T1-weighted HRVWI, T2-weighted HRVWI was performed on
      isovoxel three-dimensional (3D) fast spin-echo or 3D sampling perfection with
      application-optimized contrast using different flip-angle evolution. We also
      reviewed cases of nonhemorrhagic iPICA-D with ischemic onset in which the MRI
      findings were described. RESULTS: In all 4 patients, in addition to the
      intramural hematomas on T1-weighted HRVWI, T2-weighted HRVWI clearly showed the
      fusiform dilation of the external diameter of the PICA. T2-weighted HRVWI was
      more useful than other techniques, including T1-weighted HRVWI, for the
      evaluation of arterial shape changes. CONCLUSIONS: Like T1-weighted HRVWI, T2
      weighted HRVWI is useful for the diagnosis and assessment of chronological
      changes in vessel wall abnormalities during the follow-up period.

PMID- 28864038
TI  - Radiologically Isolated Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy-Related Inflammation.
AB  - In amyloid beta-related angiitis of the central nervous system (also called
      cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation), cerebral amyloid angiopathy
      occurs in association with primary vasculitis of small- and medium-sized
      leptomeningeal and cortical arteries. To avoid brain biopsy, clinicoradiological
      criteria (including clinical features due to inflammation-related uni/multifocal
      white matter hyperintensities) for the diagnosis of cerebral amyloid angiopathy
      related inflammation have been validated recently. We report 3 cases with acute
      symptoms directly related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the presence of
      asymptomatic cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation hyperintensities on
      initial magnetic resonance imaging. Recognizing radiological features of cerebral
      amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation in patients with cerebral amyloid
      angiopathy is important because radiological isolated cerebral amyloid angiopathy
      related inflammation may become symptomatic and immunosuppressive treatment is
      often effective in cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation, although
      optimal treatment regimen is yet unknown. In contrast, apart from hypertension
      treatment, few therapeutic options exist in cerebral amyloid angiopathy.

PMID- 28864039
TI  - Conceiving of addicted pleasures: A 'modern' paradox.
AB  - Drawing on research with people who inject drugs in London, UK, this article will
      explore how participants conceived of pleasure, and try to understand some of the
      tensions that ensued. There is a strong sense in participants' accounts that drug
      use is at points pleasurable but it should not, or rather, could not be conceived
      of in this way. As such, the article will reflect on several situations in which
      pleasure came up during fieldwork but was quickly redirected towards addiction
      using terms such as 'denial'. Trying to make sense of this seemingly paradoxical
      dynamic, in which pleasure can be addictive, but addiction cannot be pleasurable,
      I turn to some of the practices that actively keep pleasure and addiction apart,
      indeed, in some areas of the addiction sciences, antithetical. That is, a
      singular account of pleasure is produced as freely chosen (of the 'free' subject)
      in opposition to the determined nature of addiction (of the automated brain or
      object). These realities materialise in participants' accounts, but due to their
      constructed nature they also collapse and multiply. This 'hybridisation' is what
      Bruno Latour refers to as the paradox of the Moderns. Considering pleasure,
      however, as both natural and cultural, it is better conceived of as always in
      tension, expressed by participants as 'mixed feelings', 'love/hate', 'sweet and
      sour', 'good things and bad things'. Against a backdrop of neglect, especially
      within the context of injecting drug use, such conceptualisation can help
      acknowledge pleasure where it is least conceivable and yet perhaps has the most
      to offer.

PMID- 28864040
TI  - Sundarbanxylogranins A-E, five new limonoids from the Sundarban Mangrove,
      Xylocarpus granatum.
AB  - Five new limonoids, named sundarbanxylogranins A-E (1-5), were isolated from the
      seeds of an Indian mangrove, Xylocarpus granatum, collected from mangrove swamps
      of the Sundarbans, India. The structures of these limonoids were established by
      HRESIMS and NMR spectroscopic data. Sundarbanxylogranin A (1) is a rare limonoid
      containing a bicyclo[5.2.1]dec-3-en-8-one scaffold as the ring A/B-fused core;
      whereas sundarbanxylogranin B (2) is a typical mexicanolide with an 8alpha,
      30alpha-epoxy ring. Sundarbanxylogranins C-E (3-5), among which the former two
      possess a 29-OMe group with different orientation, belong to a small group of
      limonoids containing a C1-O-C29 oxygen bridge. Sundarbanxylogranin B exhibited
      moderate anti-HIV activity with an IC50 value of 23.14+/-1.29MUM and a CC50 value
      of 78.45+/-1.69MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28864041
TI  - Abietane diterpenoids from Sideritis montana L. and their antiproliferative
      activity.
AB  - The present study aimed at the phytochemical and pharmacological investigation of
      Sideritis montana L. (Lamiaceae). Two new abietane diterpenes [sideritins A (1)
      and B (2)] were isolated from the methanol extract of the plant. Six known
      compounds [pomiferin E (3), 9alpha,13alpha-epi-dioxyabiet-8(14)-en-18-ol (4),
      paulownin (5), 6-methoxysakuranetin (6), 3-oxo-alpha-ionol (7) and 4-allyl-2,6
      dimethoxyphenol glucoside (8)] were also obtained from the plant. The structures
      were determined by means of HREIMS and NMR experiments. The antiproliferative
      effect of the isolated compounds was investigated on human cancer cell lines
      (HeLa, SiHa and C33A) at 10 and 30MUM concentrations, using the MTT assay. The
      results demonstrated that pomiferin E (3) and 6-methoxysakuranetin (6) displayed
      considerable activity [inhibition (%)+/-SEM: 46.93+/-2.35 on HeLa (pomiferin E),
      and 51.52+/-2.45 on C33A (6-methoxysakuranetin)] at 30MUM concentration.

PMID- 28864042
TI  - Colectomy in refractory Crohn's colitis improves nutrition and reduces steroid
      use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric patients with severe refractory Crohn's colitis (CC) may
      require total colectomy (TC) or diverting loop ileostomy (DLI). Our understanding
      of outcomes (postoperative complications, nutrition and restoration of intestinal
      continuity) is currently limited. METHODS: Pediatric patients with severe CC who
      underwent TC or DLI were identified. Demographics, pre and postoperative
      anthropometric and biochemical data, surgical complications and medication
      requirements were recorded. RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients (TC=22, DLI=5) with a
      median age of 15.0years (range 3-18) were identified, 64% male with a median
      follow-up of 45months (range 3-120). Mean weight and BMI improved for TC patients
      by 1year postoperatively - weight z-score from -1.08 to -0.54 (p=0.02), BMI z
      score from -0.83 to -0.38 (p=0.04), with a non-significant height change from -
      0.79 to -0.65 (p=0.07). Mean hemoglobin and albumin both also improved - 9.88g/dl
      to 11.76g/dl (p=0.003) and 3.44g/dl to 4.03g/dl (p=0.004) respectively. These
      measures did not significantly improve after DLI. Most TC patients (59%) had
      attempted restoration of intestinal continuity with 45% in continuity at end of
      follow-up. One DLI patient underwent ileostomy takedown but subsequently needed
      re-diversion. CONCLUSIONS: In severe CC, TC offers an opportunity to improve
      nutrition and growth, with a reasonable likelihood of restoring intestinal
      continuity. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV - Case series.

PMID- 28864043
TI  - Development of an immunochromatographic strip for detection of antibodies against
      duck Tembusu virus.
AB  - Duck Tembusu virus (DTMUV), a novel flavivirus, causes severe disease in ducks.
      There is an urgent need for a rapid and effective diagnostic method to control
      the spread of DTMUV. We chose the envelope (E) protein from DTMUV as an antigen
      and combined it with colloidal gold particles as tracers to specifically detect
      anti-DTMUV antibodies. Based on the double-antigen sandwich format, an
      immunochromatographic strip (ICS) for the rapid detection of anti-DTMUV
      antibodies was developed. The ICS showed a high specificity and no cross
      reactivity with other sera. By detecting a serially diluted duck anti-DTMUV
      serum, the sensitivity of the ICS was 16-fold higher than that of the agar gel
      double diffusion test. Moreover, the ICS was both stable and reproducible,
      maintaining the same performance at 4 degrees C for at least 6 months. To
      evaluate the effectiveness of the ICS, 217 duck serum samples were tested with
      the ICS and an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA). The
      consistency ratio of positive and negative results between the two methods was
      97.87% and 97.06%, respectively. The agreement between the ICS and the ELISA was
      97.24%. The ICS developed in this study offers a specific, sensitive, and rapid
      method to detect anti-DTMUV antibodies.

PMID- 28864044
TI  - Transvaginal Ultrasound for the Diagnosis of Adenomyosis: Systematic Review and
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Adenomyosis is characterized by the presence of ectopic foci of endometrial
      glandular tissue and/or stroma within the myometrium. The diagnosis of
      adenomyosis is traditionally made through histologic evaluation of the
      postsurgical specimen. More recently, imaging with transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS)
      has been used for the preoperative diagnosis of adenomyosis. As yet, there is no
      consensus regarding the best imaging feature or combination thereof for the
      nonsurgical diagnosis of adenomyosis. This study systematically evaluated the
      literature in the last 10 years to determine the accuracy of 2-dimensional (2D)
      TVUS, different imaging features, enhancing methods such as 3-dimensional (3D)
      TVUS, elastography and color Doppler in the nonsurgical diagnosis of adenomyosis.
      A total of 8 studies were included. Pooled sensitivity and specificity for 2D
      TVUS for the diagnosis of adenomyosis for all combined imaging characteristics
      was 83.8% and 63.9%, respectively. Pooled sensitivity for 355 total patients with
      use of imaging feature of heterogeneous myometrium with 2D TVUS was highest
      (86.0%), and pooled specificity for 283 total patients with use of globular
      uterus was highest (78.1%). After including the "question mark" sign with other
      TVUS features, higher sensitivity and specificity, of 92% and 88%, respectively,
      were noted. For 3D TVUS, pooled sensitivity and specificity for all combined
      imaging characteristics was 88.9% and 56.0%, respectively. Poor definition of
      junctional zone showed the highest pooled sensitivity (86%) and the highest
      pooled specificity (56.0%) for the diagnosis of adenomyosis with 3D TVUS. There
      was no improvement in overall accuracy in 3D TVUS compared with 2D TVUS.
      Preliminary results of TVUS with color Doppler showed a high sensitivity and
      specificity for the differentiation between adenomyosis and myomas (95.6% and
      93.4%, respectively). Also, TVUS elastography in 1 study showed an improvement in
      specificity (82.9%) compared with 2D TVUS (63.9%), albeit with comparable
      sensitivity. Larger studies are needed to advance our understanding of the
      different types of adenomyosis and their clinical impact.

PMID- 28864045
TI  - Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Imaging of Deep Infiltrating Endometriotic Lesions
      of the Bowel.

PMID- 28864046
TI  - [Radiotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: State of the art and
      future directions].
AB  - Therapeutic principles of radiation therapy in head and neck carcinomas will be
      discussed in this review. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy with concomitant
      cisplatin should be standard. In case of contraindication to chemotherapy,
      cetuximab is an option, while hyperfractionation should be considered in patients
      unfit for concomitant treatment. Concomitant chemotherapy should be administered
      in the presence of extracapsular extensions and positive margins in the
      postoperative setting. Current research areas such as desescalation in human
      papillomavirus-positive tumours, adaptive radiotherapy, radiomics and
      immunotherapy will also be addressed.

PMID- 28864048
TI  - [Who can be dismissed in rectal cancer management?]
AB  - Dramatic progress has deeply moved rectal cancer management. Tailoring of
      treatment allow to select participants according to initial prognostic factors
      (radiotherapist) or tumoral response (surgeon). Today, this management must keep
      in mind tumoral initial staging, prognostic at the time of diagnosis, tumoral
      response and characteristic, and patient's motivation. The result of this patient
      care is more than oncologic, it is also functional.

PMID- 28864047
TI  - [Combination external beam radiation and brachytherapy boost for prostate
      cancer].
AB  - Brachytherapy as sole treatment is standard of care for D'Amico classification
      low-risk prostate cancer. For intermediate and high-risk patients, brachytherapy
      can be associated to external beam radiation therapy to better take into account
      the risk of extracapsular effraction and/or seminal vesicle involvement. Three
      randomized studies have shown that this association increases freedom from
      relapse survival compared to exclusive external beam radiation therapy. This
      benefit is not shown for overall survival. The addition of a hormonal therapy to
      this association is most likely mandatory for high-risk patients, and needs to be
      confirmed for intermediate risk patients. Both high-dose rate and low-dose rate
      brachytherapy are suitable with similar biochemical disease free survival rates.
      High-dose rate brachytherapy seems to have a better genitourinary tolerance
      profile, while low-dose rate brachytherapy is an easier process and has a more
      widespread expertise.

PMID- 28864049
TI  - Cerebroretinal microangiopathy with calcifications and cysts (CRMCC) or "Coats
      Plus": when peripheral retinal vasculature signals neurologic disease.
AB  - An 8-month-old girl presented with vitreous hemorrhage, peripheral retinal
      arteriovenous anastomosis, and hypoplasia of the thumb. Magnetic resonance
      imaging of the brain showed multiple hyperintensities, cysts, and calcifications
      in the white matter. DNA testing showed a mutation in one allele of the CTC gene,
      supporting the diagnosis of cerebroretinal microangiopathy with calcifications
      and cysts (CRMCC), or Coats plus disease, despite which designation this
      condition can present without subretinal exudate. In infants with peripheral
      retinal vascular disease, neuroimaging can identify the characteristic
      abnormalities of CRMCC.

PMID- 28864050
TI  - [Pap Smear after 65 years].
AB  - The French recommendations (in favor of stopping cervical cancer screening by
      cervico-uterine smear from 65 years of age) are logical in the context of
      organized screening; however, it is not yet generalized in France. The proportion
      of invasive cervical cancer in the oldest patients is high and these cancers are
      more evolved and have a more pejorative prognosis. The prevalent infection with
      high-risk HPV virus remains important in elderly patients: if the HPV infection
      does not appear to be more risky in the elderly, HPV-induced lesions appear to be
      more evolving. Unfortunately, pap smear coverage rates are low in the most
      advanced age groups. Patients without adequate follow-up are exposed to invasive
      cancer after age 65: all studies insist on the protective effect of two or more
      normal pap smears between 50 and 65 years that would allow to stop screening.
      Recent publications in Europe insist, however, on the value of continuing
      screening beyond the age of 65 in populations that live longer. For the
      clinician, in France, patients who could benefit from systematic FCU after age 65
      could be those: (1) who request it, (2) who have an HPV history, (3) who have not
      had more than 3 consecutive normal pap smears or (4) who have an associated
      pathogenic condition. The place of the HPV test deserves to be considered:
      because of its very high negative predictive value, it could be performed as an
      exit test or as an alternative test to the pap smear.

PMID- 28864051
TI  - [Bowel endometriosis and infertility: Do we need to operate?]
AB  - Endometriosis is a benign chronic inflammatory disease, whose pathogenesis is
      still unclear. Endometriosis is responsible for infertility and/or pelvic pain.
      One of the most important features of the disease is the heterogeneity (clinical
      and anatomical: superficial peritoneal, ovarian and/or deep infiltrating
      lesions). Bowel involvement constitutes one particularly severe form of the
      disease, affecting 8-12% of women with deep endometriosis. In case of associated
      infertility, bowel endometriosis constitutes a real therapeutic challenge for
      gynecologists. Indeed, while complete resection of the lesions alleviates pain
      and seems to improve spontaneous fertility, surgery remains technically
      challenging and may cause severe complications. Reverting to assisted
      Reproductive Technology (ART) is another valuable therapeutic option regarding
      pregnancy rates. Thus, the choice between surgical management or ART is still
      debated. Benefits and risks of these two options should be considered and
      discussed before planning treatment. In the present study, we aimed to answer the
      question: Bowel endometriosis and infertility: do we need to operate?

PMID- 28864052
TI  - The health literacy demands of electronic personal health records (e-PHRs): An
      integrative review to inform future inclusive research.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To integrate the findings of research on electronic personal health
      records (e-PHRs) for an understanding of their health literacy demands on both
      patients and providers. METHODS: We sought peer-reviewed primary research in
      English addressing the health literacy demands of e-PHRs that are online and
      allow patients any degree of control or input to the record. A synthesis of three
      theoretical models was used to frame the analysis of 24 studies. RESULTS: e-PHRs
      pose a wide range of health literacy demands on both patients and health service
      providers. Patient participation in e-PHRs relies not only on their level of
      education and computer literacy, and attitudes to sharing health information, but
      also upon their executive function, verbal expression, and understanding of
      spoken and written language. CONCLUSION: The multiple health literacy demands of
      e-PHRs must be considered when implementing population-wide initiatives for
      storing and sharing health information using these systems. PRACTICE
      IMPLICATIONS: The health literacy demands of e-PHRs are high and could
      potentially exclude many patients unless strategies are adopted to support their
      use of these systems. Developing strategies for all patients to meet or reduce
      the high health literacy demands of e-PHRs will be important in population-wide
      implementation.

PMID- 28864053
TI  - Diaphragm and Lung Ultrasound to Predict Weaning Outcome: Systematic Review and
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Deciding the optimal timing for extubation in patients who are
      mechanically ventilated can be challenging, and traditional weaning predictor
      tools are not very accurate. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis
      was to assess the accuracy of lung and diaphragm ultrasound for predicting
      weaning outcomes in critically ill adults. METHODS: MEDLINE, the Cochrane
      Library, Web of Science, Scopus, LILACS, Teseo, Tesis Doctorales en Red, and
      OpenGrey were searched, and the bibliographies of relevant studies were reviewed.
      Two researchers independently selected studies that met the inclusion criteria
      and assessed study quality in accordance with the Quality Assessment of
      Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. The summary receiver-operating characteristic
      curve and pooled diagnostic OR (DOR) were estimated by using a bivariate random
      effects analysis. Sources of heterogeneity were explored by using predefined
      subgroup analyses and bivariate meta-regression. RESULTS: Nineteen studies
      involving 1,071 people were included in the study. For diaphragm thickening
      fraction, the area under the summary receiver-operating characteristic curve was
      0.87, and DOR was 21 (95% CI, 11-40). Regarding diaphragmatic excursion, pooled
      sensitivity was 75% (95% CI, 65-85); pooled specificity, 75% (95% CI, 60-85); and
      DOR, 10 (95% CI, 4-24). For lung ultrasound, the area under the summary receiver
      operating characteristic curve was 0.77, and DOR was 38 (95% CI, 7-198). Based on
      bivariate meta-regression analysis, a significantly higher specificity for
      diaphragm thickening fraction and higher sensitivity for diaphragmatic excursion
      was detected in studies with applicability concerns. CONCLUSIONS: Lung and
      diaphragm ultrasound can help predict weaning outcome, but its accuracy may vary
      depending on the patient subpopulation.

PMID- 28864054
TI  - Quality Gaps and Comparative Effectiveness of Management Strategies for Recurrent
      Malignant Pleural Effusions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guidelines for recurrent malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) recommend
      definitive procedures, such as indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs) or
      pleurodesis, over repeat thoracentesis. We hypothesized that many patients have
      multiple thoracenteses rather than definitive procedures and that this results in
      more procedures and complications. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study using SEER
      Medicare data from 2007 to 2011. Patients 66 to 90 years of age with an MPE were
      included. The primary outcome was whether patients with rapidly recurring MPE,
      defined as recurrence within 2 weeks of first thoracentesis, received guideline
      consistent care. Guideline consistent care was defined as a definitive second
      pleural procedure. RESULTS: Thoracentesis for MPE was performed in 23,431
      patients. A second pleural procedure because of recurrence was required in 12,967
      (55%). Recurrence was rapid in 7,565 (58%) of the 12,967 patients that had a
      recurrence. Of the 7,565 patients with rapid recurrence, 1,811 (24%) received
      guideline consistent care. Definitive pleural procedures compared with repeat
      thoracentesis resulted in fewer subsequent pleural procedures (0.62 vs 1.44
      procedures per patient, respectively; P < .0001), fewer pneumothoraxes (< 0.0037
      vs 0.009 pneumothoraxes per patient, respectively; P = .001), and fewer ED
      procedures (0.02 vs 0.04 ED procedures per patient, respectively; P < .001).
      Repeat thoracentesis and IPCs resulted in fewer inpatient days compared with
      chest tube or thoracoscopic pleurodesis (0.013 vs 0.013 vs 0.085 vs 0.097
      inpatient days per day of life, respectively; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Guideline
      consistent care using definitive procedures compared with repeat thoracentesis
      was associated with fewer subsequent procedures and complications; however,
      pleurodesis resulted in more inpatient days.

PMID- 28864055
TI  - Tracheobronchopathy From Inhaled Corticosteroids.
AB  - Inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) have become the mainstay of asthma control. They
      are also recommended as an add-on therapy to long-acting beta agonists and
      anticholinergics in moderate to severe COPD with recurrent exacerbations.
      Ultimately this clinical practice has led to the widespread use of ICSs, which
      are supported by a more favorable side effect profile than that of systemic
      steroids.

PMID- 28864057
TI  - The road to precision medicine in sepsis: blood transcriptome endotypes.

PMID- 28864058
TI  - Barriers to insulin initiation in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
      in Brazil.
AB  - AIMS: We aimed to explore insulin initiation barriers in the Brazilian Type 2
      Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) elderly population, according to the physician's
      perspective, and suggest strategies to overcome them. METHODS: A 45-questions
      survey addressing issues as clinical characteristics, barriers to insulinization,
      and treatment strategies in elderly patients with T2DM, was sent to six
      endocrinologists from different Brazilian locations. Thereafter, all the
      respondents participated in a panel discussion to validate their responses and
      collect additional relevant data. RESULTS: Endocrinologists had at least 15 years
      of experience, with a mean of 63 elderly patients per month. Nearly 25% of the
      elderly patients were treated in the Brazilian public healthcare system (SUS,
      Unified Health System); only a quarter presented proper glycemic control. In
      contrast, 55% of the patients from private healthcare system presented adequate
      glycemic control. The main barriers for insulin initiation for patients,
      according to physicians' perspective, are side effects and negative perception
      over treatment (100%). For endocrinologists, main barriers were lack of time to
      guide patients and concern over side effects (83%). Therefore, specialists
      considered education for both healthcare professionals and patients as one of the
      most important strategies to circumvent the current scenario related insulin
      therapy among elderly patients in the country. CONCLUSION: Insulin therapy
      remains underused due to several barriers, such as concern over side effects and
      negative perception. Educational measures for patients and HCPs could improve the
      current scenario.

PMID- 28864056
TI  - Classification of patients with sepsis according to blood genomic endotype: a
      prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Host responses during sepsis are highly heterogeneous, which hampers
      the identification of patients at high risk of mortality and their selection for
      targeted therapies. In this study, we aimed to identify biologically relevant
      molecular endotypes in patients with sepsis. METHODS: This was a prospective
      observational cohort study that included consecutive patients admitted for sepsis
      to two intensive care units (ICUs) in the Netherlands between Jan 1, 2011, and
      July 20, 2012 (discovery and first validation cohorts) and patients admitted with
      sepsis due to community-acquired pneumonia to 29 ICUs in the UK (second
      validation cohort). We generated genome-wide blood gene expression profiles from
      admission samples and analysed them by unsupervised consensus clustering and
      machine learning. The primary objective of this study was to establish endotypes
      for patients with sepsis, and assess the association of these endotypes with
      clinical traits and survival outcomes. We also established candidate biomarkers
      for the endotypes to allow identification of patient endotypes in clinical
      practice. FINDINGS: The discovery cohort had 306 patients, the first validation
      cohort had 216, and the second validation cohort had 265 patients. Four molecular
      endotypes for sepsis, designated Mars1-4, were identified in the discovery
      cohort, and were associated with 28-day mortality (log-rank p=0.022). In the
      discovery cohort, the worst outcome was found for patients classified as having a
      Mars1 endotype, and at 28 days, 35 (39%) of 90 people with a Mars1 endotype had
      died (hazard ratio [HR] vs all other endotypes 1.86 [95% CI 1.21-2.86];
      p=0.0045), compared with 23 (22%) of 105 people with a Mars2 endotype (HR 0.64
      [0.40-1.04]; p=0.061), 16 (23%) of 71 people with a Mars3 endotype (HR 0.71 [0.41
      1.22]; p=0.19), and 13 (33%) of 40 patients with a Mars4 endotype (HR 1.13 [0.63
      2.04]; p=0.69). Analysis of the net reclassification improvement using a combined
      clinical and endotype model significantly improved risk prediction to 0.33 (0.09
      0.58; p=0.008). A 140-gene expression signature reliably stratified patients with
      sepsis to the four endotypes in both the first and second validation cohorts.
      Only Mars1 was consistently significantly associated with 28-day mortality across
      the cohorts. To facilitate possible clinical use, a biomarker was derived for
      each endotype; BPGM and TAP2 reliably identified patients with a Mars1 endotype.
      INTERPRETATION: This study provides a method for the molecular classification of
      patients with sepsis to four different endotypes upon ICU admission. Detection of
      sepsis endotypes might assist in providing personalised patient management and in
      selection for trials. FUNDING: Center for Translational Molecular Medicine,
      Netherlands.

PMID- 28864060
TI  - Corrigendum to "Intradiencephalon injection of histamine inhibited the recovery
      of locomotor function of spinal cord injured zebrafish" [Biochem. Biophys. Res.
      Comm. 489 (1) (2017) 275-280].

PMID- 28864059
TI  - Role of omentin 1 and IL-6 in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with diabetic
      nephropathy.
AB  - AIMS: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the major chronic vascular complication
      of T2DM and leading cause of end-stage renal disease. Inflammation is one of the
      proposed pathway which explains microvascular complications in T2DM but exact
      mechanism is still unclear. Omentin-1 is an anti-inflammatory adipokine which
      promotes insulin signaling. IL-6 is a multifunctional cytokine having role in
      immune and inflammatory responses. The present study was conducted to elucidate
      the role of omentin-1 and IL-6 in the pathogenesis of DN and its association with
      insulin resistance. We aimed to assess and compare the serum levels of omentin-1
      and IL-6 in T2DM patients with and without DN. MATERIALS & METHODS: Our study
      comprised of 2 groups of 41 each. Group A (controls) included T2DM without
      nephropathy patients and group B (cases) included T2DM nephropathy patients.
      Parameters studied were serum omentin-1, insulin, IL-6, fasting blood glucose,
      urea, creatinine, lipid profile, HOMA-IR, eGFR and BMI. RESULTS & CONCLUSION:
      Omentin-1 (p=0.03) was significantly decreased; concomitantly, significant
      increase in levels of insulin (p=0.004), IL-6 (p=0.023) and HOMA-IR (p=0.0004)
      were found in cases compared to controls. Bivariate analysis showed eGFR
      correlating positively with omentin-1 and negatively with insulin in the study
      population. Our study results, based on serum omentin-1 and IL-6 data suggest
      important role played by inflammatory mechanism and insulin resistance in the
      pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

PMID- 28864061
TI  - Chlorhexidine with and without alcohol is effective in preventing biofilm
      formation in highly compliant patients, but chlorhexidine without alcohol has
      fewer adverse effects and better palatability.

PMID- 28864062
TI  - Cyanoacrylate and laser treatment result in small improvement in oral health
      related quality of life for patients with dentin hypersensitivity.

PMID- 28864063
TI  - Oral hygiene regimen that includes toothbrushing, tongue cleaning, and
      mouthrinsing is probably more effective in minimizing morning oral halitosis than
      toothbrushing alone.

PMID- 28864064
TI  - Moderate-quality evidence shows a strong association between inadequate oral
      hygiene and periodontitis.

PMID- 28864065
TI  - Insufficient evidence about the comparative effectiveness of 3 horizontal ridge
      augmentation techniques.

PMID- 28864066
TI  - Angulation, contact point, and cementoenamel junction distance of impacted
      mandibular third molars referred for extraction are probably associated with
      distal caries in the second molar.

PMID- 28864067
TI  - A novel chemoradiation targeting stem and nonstem pancreatic cancer cells by
      repurposing disulfiram.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a 5-year relative survival rate of 8%
      and is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer death by 2030,
      underscoring the urgency to develop new strategies to improve current therapeutic
      modalities for PDAC. Targeting pancreatic cancer stem cells (PCSCs), which are
      resistant to radiation and chemotherapy, is a promising strategy. A novel
      approach which can be readily clinically translated is to repurpose disulfiram
      (DSF), a drug for treating alcoholism, to target PCSCs. Chemoradiation or the
      combination of chemotherapy agents FOLFIRINOX, currently standard care for PDAC,
      can increase stemness in some established or primary PDAC cell lines. However,
      DSF in the presence of exogenously or endogenously supplied copper (Cu), when
      combined with chemotherapy or chemoradiation, targets both PCSCs and nonstem PDAC
      cells. Previously, we demonstrated that DSF/Cu effectively targets breast cancer
      stem cells in the context of fractionated radiation (FIR) by inhibiting the NF
      kappaB-stemness gene pathway. Therefore, the hypothesis that PCSCs can be
      effectively targeted by incorporating DSF/Cu into the standard chemoradiation
      regimen consisting of 5-FU and FIR was investigated and found to be effective in
      vitro in targeting PCSCs, identified as either ALDHbright or CD24+/CD44+/ESA+ or
      sphere-forming cells, as well as nonstem PDAC cells. In vivo, the combination of
      IR+5-FU+DSF/Cu was more effective (72.46%) than either IR+5-FU (30.32%) or
      IR+FOLFIRINOX therapy (43.04%) in inhibiting growth of the mouse Panc02 tumor.
      These encouraging results provide a solid foundation for clinical trials to
      improve the outcomes of the current standard chemoradiation therapy regimen for
      PDAC.

PMID- 28864068
TI  - Y-linked iDmrt1 paralogue (iDMY) in the Eastern spiny lobster, Sagmariasus
      verreauxi: The first invertebrate sex-linked Dmrt.
AB  - Sex determination pathways are extensively diverse across species, with the
      master sex-determinants being the most variable element. Despite this, there is a
      family of DM-domain transcription factors (Dmrts), which hold a highly conserved
      function in sexual development. This work is the first to describe a
      heterogametic sex-linked Dmrt in an invertebrate species, the Eastern spiny
      lobster, Sagmariasus verreauxi. We have termed the Y-linked, truncated paralogue
      of the autosomal iDmrt1, Sv-iDMY. Considering the master sex-determining function
      of both DMY in medaka and DM-W in frog, we hypothesised a similar function of Sv
      iDMY. By conducting temporal expression analyses during embryogenesis we have
      identified a putative male sex-determining period during which iDMY>iDmrt1.
      Employing a GAL4-transactivation assay we then demonstrate the dominant negative
      suppression of iDMY over its autosomal iDmrt1 paralogue, suggesting the mechanism
      with which iDMY determines sex. Comparative analyses of Sv-iDMY, DM-W and medaka
      DMY, highlight the C'-mediated features of oligomerisation and transactivation as
      central to the mechanism that each exerts. Indeed, these features may underpin
      the plasticity facilitating the convergent emergence of these three sporadic sex
      linked master-Dmrts.

PMID- 28864069
TI  - PTHrP is essential for normal morphogenetic and functional development of the
      murine placenta.

PMID- 28864070
TI  - Pediatric Corneal Cross-linking: Comparison of Visual and Topographic Outcomes
      Between Conventional and Accelerated Treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare visual and topographic outcomes 1 year after conventional (C
      CXL) vs accelerated corneal cross-linking (A-CXL) in pediatric keratoconus (KC).
      DESIGN: Comparative, retrospective, consecutive case series. METHODS: Patients
      with topography-confirmed, progressive KC and a corneal thickness of >=400 MUm at
      the time of surgery were enrolled. Uncorrected (UCVA) and best phoropter
      corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and normal maximum keratometry reading (Kmax) were
      measured at study entry and at the 12-month follow-up. Treatment failure rate was
      defined as the percentage of eyes with an increase in Kmax of more than 1.0
      diopter during follow-up. The adverse event rate was the percentage of eyes with
      a loss of >=2 Snellen lines of BCVA from baseline. This was a single-center
      analysis of 78 eyes of 58 patients that underwent C-CXL (39 eyes) and A-CXL (39
      eyes). No eyes were lost to follow-up after 12 months. RESULTS: No significant
      difference between changes in 12 months after as compared to the time before CXL
      for UCVA (0.01 log MAR; 95% confidence interval -0.14 to 0.15, P = .944), BCVA
      (0.05 log MAR; 95% confidence interval -0.05 to 0.15, P = .310), and Kmax (-0.77
      diopters; 95% confidence interval -2.20 to 0.65, P = .282) between the C-CXL and
      A-CXL group were observed. Treatment failure rate was observed in 9 of 39 eyes
      (23.1%) in C-CXL and in 6 of 39 eyes (15.4%) in A-CXL (P = .389). Adverse events
      were seen only in 1 eye in the C-CXL group. CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective
      comparison, the accelerated approach was equally as effective as the conventional
      protocol to treat pediatric keratoconus.

PMID- 28864071
TI  - Forming and shaping the field of limb development: A tribute to Dr. John
      Saunders.

PMID- 28864072
TI  - Improvements in the quality of advanced life support and patient outcome after
      implementation of a standardized real-life post-resuscitation feedback system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Educational aspects in the training of advanced life support (ALS)
      represent a key role in critical care management of patients with out-of-hospital
      cardiac arrest (OHCA) and received special attention in guidelines of various
      international societies. While a positive association of feedback on ALS
      performance in training conditions is well established, data on the impact of a
      real-life post-resuscitation feedback on both ALS quality and outcome remain
      scarce and inconclusive. We aimed to elucidate the impact of a standardized post
      resuscitation feedback on quality of ALS and improvements in patient outcome, in
      a real-life out-of-hospital setting. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled and
      analyzed 2209 patients presenting with OHCA receiving resuscitation attempts by
      the municipal emergency medical service (EMS) of Vienna over a two-year period. A
      standardized post-resuscitation feedback protocol was delivered to the respective
      EMS-team to elucidate its impact on the quality of ALS. RESULTS: We observed that
      both chest compression rates and ratios were in accordance to recommendations of
      recent guidelines. While interruptions of chest compressions longer than 30s
      declined during the observation period (-6.5%) rates of the recommended chest
      compressions during defibrillator-charging periods increased (+8.9%). Since the
      percentage of ROSC and 30-day survival remained balanced, the frequencies of both
      survival until hospital discharge (+6.3%) and favorable neurological outcome
      (+16%) in survivors significantly increased during the observation period.
      CONCLUSION: Improvements in the quality of advanced life support as well the
      patient outcome were observed after the implementation of a standardized post
      resuscitation feedback protocol.

PMID- 28864075
TI  - Large Scale Epitope Identification Screen and Its Potential Application to the
      Study of Alopecia Areata.

PMID- 28864074
TI  - Evaluation of antiviral effect of type I, II, and III interferons on direct
      acting antiviral-resistant hepatitis C virus.
AB  - Treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has greatly improved in the last 5
      years because of the identification of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). However,
      concerns exist regarding the emergence of drug resistance-associated
      substitutions (RASs). In this study, we evaluated the in vivo antiviral effect of
      three classes of interferons (IFNs), namely, types I, II, and III IFNs, on DAA
      resistant HCVs. IFN-alpha2, IFN-gamma, and IFN-lambda1 were selected as typical
      types I, II, and III IFNs, respectively. Human hepatocyte-transplanted chimeric
      mice were infected with NS3-D168, NS5A-L31-, and NS5A-Y93-mutated HCVs, and the
      antiviral effect of IFN-alpha2, IFN-gamma, and IFN-lambda1 on these HCV RASs was
      examined. Chimeric mice infected with NS3- and NS5A-mutated HCVs were
      hydrodynamically injected with IFN-expressing plasmids to evaluate the antiviral
      effect of IFNs. Serum concentrations of IFNs were maintained for at least 42
      days. We found that serum HCV level significantly decreased and serum and hepatic
      HCV levels reached below detection limit in 5/5 and 3/5 chimeric mice injected
      with IFN-gamma- and IFN-lambda1-expressing plasmids, respectively. The antiviral
      effect of IFN-alpha2 on DAA-resistant HCVs was weaker than that of IFN-gamma and
      IFN-lambda1. Serum ALT levels showed a small and transient increase in mice
      injected with the IFN-gamma-expressing plasmid but not in mice injected with the
      IFN-lambda1-expressing plasmid. However, no apparent histological damage was
      observed in the liver sections of mice injected with the IFN-gamma-expressing
      plasmid. These results indicate that IFN-gamma and IFN-lambda1 are an attractive
      therapeutic option for treating infection caused by NS3- and NS5A-mutated HCV.

PMID- 28864073
TI  - Treatment outcomes after reduction of the target volume of intensity-modulated
      radiotherapy following induction chemotherapy in patients with locoregionally
      advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A prospective, multi-center, randomized
      clinical trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate whether reducing the target volume of intensity-modulated
      radiotherapy (IMRT) after induction chemotherapy (IC) improves the quality of
      life (QOL) in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) without
      decreasing the local control and survival rate. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total
      number of 212 NPC patients staged as III-IVb were randomly assigned to group A
      (n=97) or group B (n=115) in this prospective clinical trial. All patients
      received IC followed by cisplatin concurrent with IMRT. IMRT was planned using
      the images of pre-IC in group A and post-IC in group B. RESULTS: The dose
      received by normal tissues in group B was lower than that of group A (P<0.05).
      The recovery of the dry mouth symptoms in group B was significantly improved than
      group B. The quality of life (QOL) scores in group B were higher than group A.
      With a median follow-up of 35months, the 1-year estimated overall survival (OS),
      progression-free survival (PFS), locoregional failure-free survival (LRFFS),
      distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in group A versus group B were 97.9% vs
      97.3%, 90.7% vs 92,2%, 99.0% vs 98.2%, 91.8% vs 94.8%. The 2-year OS, PFS, LRFFS,
      DMFS in group A versus group B were 93.7% vs 92.9%, 83.4% vs 84.3%, 96.8% vs
      95.5%, 86.5% vs 89.5%. The 3-year OS, PFS, LRFFS, DMFS in group A versus group B
      were 82.3% vs 87%, 74.7% vs 83.4%, 91.8 vs 93.9%, 81.3% vs 88.6%, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Reducing the IMRT target volume after IC did not reduce the local
      control and survival rate in locoregionally advanced NPC but the doses received
      by normal tissues were decreased, and the QOL scores were improved.

PMID- 28864076
TI  - The Role of Fibroblast Growth Factor-Binding Protein 1 in Skin Carcinogenesis and
      Inflammation.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor-binding protein 1 (FGFBP1) is a secreted chaperone that
      mobilizes paracrine-acting FGFs, stored in the extracellular matrix, and presents
      them to their cognate receptors. FGFBP1 enhances FGF signaling including
      angiogenesis during cancer progression and is upregulated in various cancers.
      Here we evaluated the contribution of endogenous FGFBP1 to a wide range of organ
      functions as well as to skin pathologies using Fgfbp1-knockout mice. Relative to
      wild-type littermates, knockout mice showed no gross pathologies. Still, in
      knockout mice a significant thickening of the epidermis associated with a
      decreased transepidermal water loss and increased proinflammatory gene expression
      in the skin was detected. Also, skin carcinogen challenge by 7,12
      dimethylbenz[a]anthracene/12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate resulted in
      delayed and reduced papillomatosis in knockout mice. This was paralleled by
      delayed healing of skin wounds and reduced angiogenic sprouting in subcutaneous
      matrigel plugs. Heterozygous green fluorescent protein (GFP)-knock-in mice
      revealed rapid induction of gene expression during papilloma induction and during
      wound healing. Examination of wild-type skin grafted onto Fgfbp1 GFP-knock-in
      reporter hosts and bone marrow transplants from the GFP-reporter model into wild
      type hosts revealed that circulating Fgfbp1-expressing cells migrate into healing
      wounds. We conclude that tissue-resident and circulating Fgfbp1-expressing cells
      modulate skin carcinogenesis and inflammation.

PMID- 28864077
TI  - Phenotype and Antimicrobial Activity of Th17 Cells Induced by Propionibacterium
      acnes Strains Associated with Healthy and Acne Skin.
AB  - Studies of the human skin microbiome suggest that Propionibacterium acnes strains
      may contribute differently to skin health and disease. However, the immune
      phenotype and functions of T helper type 17 (Th17) cells induced by healthy (PH)
      versus acne (PA) skin-associated P. acnes strains are currently unknown. We
      stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors and observed
      that PA strains induce higher IL-17 levels than PH strains. We next generated PH
      and PA strain-specific Th17 clones and show that P. acnes strains induce Th17
      cells of varied phenotype and function that are stable in the presence of IL-2
      and IL-23. Although PH- and PA-specific clones expressed similar levels of LL-37
      and DEFB4, only PH-specific clones secreted molecules sufficient to kill P.
      acnes. Furthermore, electron microscopic studies showed that supernatants derived
      from activated PH and not PA-specific clones exhibited robust bactericidal
      activity against P. acnes, and complete breaches in the bacterial cell envelope
      were observed. This antimicrobial activity was independent of IL-26, because both
      natural IL-26 released by Th17 clones and rhIL-26 lacked antimicrobial potency
      against P. acnes. Overall, our data suggest that P. acnes strains may
      differentially modulate the CD4+ T-cell responses, leading to the generation of
      Th17 cells that may contribute to either homeostasis or acne pathogenesis.

PMID- 28864078
TI  - Re: Quantitative Evaluation of Biologic Therapy Options for Psoriasis: A
      Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.

PMID- 28864079
TI  - Rubber Hand Illusion Increases Pain Caused by Electric Stimuli.
AB  - : The rubber hand illusion (RHI) has been shown to alter the experience of pain,
      although studies have yielded inconsistent results. In this experiment we tested
      the influence of the RHI on the intensity of pain caused by electric stimuli.
      Electric stimuli were delivered to participants' experimental and control hands
      before RHI induction (control condition) and afterward (experimental condition),
      in a procedure that was double-blind with respect to location and strength of
      noxious stimulation. All hands were covered during the stimulation to avoid the
      analgesic effect of seeing one's own body part. The perceived location of the
      hand and of pain were measured after each trial in the experimental condition.
      The results showed that noxious stimuli were experienced as more painful on the
      hand under the illusion. In addition, in the experimental condition the perceived
      location of noxious stimulation applied to the experimental hand drifted toward
      the rubber hand. Our data suggest that the link between bodily illusions and pain
      could be modulated by uncertainty about location of pain and the affected body
      part. Future studies should aim to determine which aspects of altered body
      awareness lead to pain sensitization. PERSPECTIVE: We show that the RHI can
      change the perceived location of pain and increase pain ratings caused by
      electric stimuli. Our data suggest that the link between bodily illusions and
      pain could be modulated by uncertainty about location of pain and the affected
      body part.

PMID- 28864081
TI  - Hypoxic acclimation leads to metabolic compensation after reoxygenation in
      Atlantic salmon yolk-sac alevins.
AB  - Hypoxia is common in aquatic environments and has substantial effects on
      development, metabolism and survival of aquatic organisms. To understand the
      physiological effects of hypoxia and its dependence on temperature, metabolic
      rate ( [Formula: see text] ) and cardiorespiratory function were studied in
      response to acute hypoxia (21->5kPa) at different measurement temperatures (Ta;
      4, 8 and 12 degrees C) in Salmo salar alevins that were incubated under normoxic
      conditions (PO2=21kPa) or following hypoxic acclimation (PO2=10kPa) as well as
      two different temperatures (4 degrees C or 8 degrees C). Hypoxic acclimation lead
      to a developmental delay manifested through slower yolk absorption. The general
      response to acute hypoxia was metabolic depression (~60%). Hypoxia acclimated
      alevins had higher [Formula: see text] s when measured in normoxia than alevins
      acclimated to normoxia. [Formula: see text] s were elevated to the same degree
      (~30% per 4 degrees C change) irrespective of Ta. Under severe, acute hypoxia
      (~5kPa) and irrespective of Ta or acclimation, [Formula: see text] s were similar
      between most groups. This suggests that despite different acclimation regimes, O2
      transport was limited to the same degree. While cardiorespiratory function (heart
      , ventilation rate) was unchanged in response to acute hypoxia after normoxic
      acclimation, hypoxic acclimation led to cardiorespiratory changes predominantly
      in severe hypoxia, indicating earlier onset and plasticity of cardiorespiratory
      control mechanisms. Although [Formula: see text] in normoxia was higher after
      hypoxic acclimation, at the respective acclimation PO2, [Formula: see text] was
      similar in normoxia and hypoxia acclimated alevins. This is indicative of
      metabolic compensation to an intrinsic [Formula: see text] at the acclimation
      condition in hypoxia-acclimated alevins after re-exposure to normoxia.

PMID- 28864080
TI  - Developing the Brain-Early Illustrations of Cerebral Cortex and Its Gyri.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Throughout the Middle Ages, most representations of the brain
      amounted to highly schematized ventricles housed within abstract squiggles of
      neural tissue. The works by the pre-eminent Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius in
      his De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543) added considerably more accuracy and
      detail; still, his drawings of cerebral hemispheres do not exhibit the gyral
      sulcal pattern recognized today. Identifiable cortical landmarks would not be
      featured in print until Cerebri Anatome (1664) by the English physician Thomas
      Willis. METHODS: A review of primary and secondary sources on the subject.
      RESULTS: Medieval doctors understood neurophysiology according to the cell
      doctrine, whereby the first cell (modern-day lateral ventricles) was responsible
      for sensation, the second cell (third ventricle) for cognition, and the third
      cell (fourth ventricle) for memory. Vesalius challenged this ventricle-centric
      model and resolved to portray physical form only, without the influence of
      conceptual function. A century later, Willis and his illustrator, Christopher
      Wren, citing limited clinical evidence, proposed that the corpus striatum, the
      white matter, and the gray matter replace the three cells, finally allowing the
      cortex a physiological rather than a structurally supportive role. This
      relocation of executive function demanded the more meticulous rendering of the
      brain provided in the Cerebri Anatome. CONCLUSIONS: Thomas Willis produced
      anatomic drawings of the brain depicting previously ill-defined surface features,
      as in Fabrica by Vesalius, because of a paradigm shift in neurophysiology,
      emphasizing the cortex over the ventricles, not because of advances in techniques
      of dissection or illustration. Perhaps, as the study of the brain continues,
      another future revelation in neurophysiology will drive another unexpected,
      enduring change in the study of the structures of the nervous system.

PMID- 28864083
TI  - An operant-based detection method for inferring tinnitus in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Subjective tinnitus is a hearing disorder in which a person perceives
      sound when no external sound is present. It can be acute or chronic. Because our
      current understanding of its pathology is incomplete, no effective cures have yet
      been established. Mouse models are useful for studying the pathophysiology of
      tinnitus as well as for developing therapeutic treatments. NEW METHOD: We have
      developed a new method for determining acute and chronic tinnitus in mice, called
      sound-based avoidance detection (SBAD). The SBAD method utilizes one paradigm to
      detect tinnitus and another paradigm to monitor possible confounding factors,
      such as motor impairment, loss of motivation, and deficits in learning and
      memory. RESULTS: The SBAD method has succeeded in monitoring both acute and
      chronic tinnitus in mice. Its detection ability is further validated by
      functional studies demonstrating an abnormal increase in neuronal activity in the
      inferior colliculus of mice that had previously been identified as having
      tinnitus by the SBAD method. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: The SBAD method
      provides a new means by which investigators can detect tinnitus in a single mouse
      accurately and with more control over potential confounding factors than existing
      methods. CONCLUSION: This work establishes a new behavioral method for detecting
      tinnitus in mice. The detection outcome is consistent with functional validation.
      One key advantage of mouse models is they provide researchers the opportunity to
      utilize an extensive array of genetic tools. This new method could lead to a
      deeper understanding of the molecular pathways underlying tinnitus pathology.

PMID- 28864082
TI  - Effects of Aging on Vocal Fundamental Frequency and Vowel Formants in Men and
      Women.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study reports data on vocal fundamental frequency (fo) and the
      first four formant frequencies (F1, F2, F3, F4) for four vowels produced by
      speakers in three adult age cohorts, in a test of the null hypothesis that there
      are no age-related changes in these variables. Participants were 43 men and 53
      women between the ages of 20 and 92 years. RESULTS: The most consistent age
      related effect was a decrease in fo for women. Significant differences in F1, F2,
      and F3 were vowel-specific for both sexes. No significant differences were
      observed for the highest formant F4. CONCLUSIONS: Women experience a significant
      decrease in fo, which is likely related to menopause. Formant frequencies of the
      corner vowels change little across several decades of adult life, either because
      physiological aging has small effects on these variables or because individuals
      compensate for age-related changes in anatomy and physiology.

PMID- 28864084
TI  - Emergency Nurse Implementation of the Brief Smoking-Cessation Intervention: Ask,
      Advise, and Refer.
AB  - PROBLEM: Smoking is the single most avoidable risk factor for many health
      problems such as cardiovascular disease and pulmonary dysfunction. Emergency
      departments provide care for many patients who smoke. Patients who smoke and are
      discharged to home from emergency departments do not customarily receive smoking
      cessation information. This project explored the feasibility and acceptability of
      a brief smoking-cessation intervention as part of emergency nursing practice.
      METHODS: This practice improvement project was conducted in a large midwestern
      emergency department. A review of data from 12 months before the project revealed
      a 17.6% prevalence of smoking among patients discharged from the emergency
      department with no patient having received smoking-cessation information,
      confirming the need for intervention. A survey of emergency nurse attitudes and
      learning needs indicated that nurses believed offering advice to quit was
      appropriate but that they had limited smoking-cessation training. A total of 83
      nurses received training on an "Ask, Advise, Refer" protocol. RESULTS: Evaluation
      after training indicated that emergency nurses gained knowledge about brief
      smoking-cessation intervention methods, and 75.7% (n=74) felt adequately trained.
      During the 12-week intervention, data were collected on 7,465 emergency visits.
      Nurses advised all smokers to quit using the protocol, and 6.3% of patients
      accepted smoking-cessation referrals. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Emergency nurses
      felt comfortable performing the smoking-cessation intervention, suggesting that
      training was effective. Data indicated that patients were consistently advised to
      quit smoking. Results suggest that brief smoking-cessation interventions are
      feasible and acceptable in emergency settings. The training and protocol could be
      used in other emergency departments, and lessons learned can guide future efforts
      by emergency nurses to help patients quit smoking.

PMID- 28864085
TI  - Aseptic steatonecrosis in a patient with multiple sclerosis under treatment with
      interferon-beta 1b.

PMID- 28864086
TI  - Pulmonary toxicity by riluzole.

PMID- 28864087
TI  - Bone marrow trephine biopsy in Hodgkin's lymphoma. Comparison with PET-CT scan in
      65 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To compare bone marrow biopsy (BMB) and PET/CT in
      detecting bone marrow involvement in Hodgkin's lymphoma MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Retrospective analysis of 65 patients with both tests in the initial staging or
      in relapse with special attention to the PET/CT uptake pattern. RESULTS: In 3
      patients (4.6%), the BMB showed bone marrow involvement with the PET/CT being
      positive in them all: 2 with diffuse+multifocal pattern and one diffuse only. In
      11 additional patients (total 14/65, 21%), bone marrow involvement was diagnosed
      by PET/CT because bone marrow uptake was above hepatic one. The pattern was focal
      only in 2 cases, multifocal in 5, diffuse in 3 and diffuse+multifocal in one. In
      these last 4 cases the BMB showed an unspecific myelopathy. CONCLUSIONS: PET/CT
      detects all cases with BMB affected and many that escape to biopsy, however when
      the uptake pattern is diffuse it could be by involvement or reactive hyperplasia
      and in those cases the BMB should be done.

PMID- 28864088
TI  - Stroke and arrhythmic storm: An atypical presentation of cardiac amyloidosis.

PMID- 28864089
TI  - Transient hyperandrogenism in 2 preterm twins with exposure to antiretrovirals.

PMID- 28864091
TI  - Consumption of teratogenic drugs in pregnant women in the primary care clinic.

PMID- 28864090
TI  - 2017, a key year on clinical trials transparency.

PMID- 28864092
TI  - Facts and controversies in mixed connective tissue disease.
AB  - Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) is a systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease
      (SARD) characterised by the combination of clinical manifestations of systemic
      lupus erythematosus (SLE), cutaneous systemic sclerosis (SSc) and polymyositis
      dermatomyositis, in the presence of elevated titers of anti-U1-RNP antibodies.
      Main symptoms of the disease are polyarthritis, hand oedema, Raynaud's
      phenomenon, sclerodactyly, myositis and oesophageal hypomobility. Although widely
      discussed, most authors today accept MCTD as an independent entity. Others,
      however, suggest that these patients may belong to subgroups or early stages of
      certain definite connective diseases, such as SLE or SSc, or are, in fact, SARD
      overlap syndromes.

PMID- 28864093
TI  - Biopsy-proven renal involvement and prognosis in 13 hispanic patients with
      primary Sjogren syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to describe a case series of 13 Hispanic
      patients with primary Sjogren syndrome (pSS) and biopsy-proven renal involvement.
      METHODS: We describe the clinical, serological and histological characteristics
      as well as the prognosis in a group of patients with pSS and biopsy-proven renal
      involvement, treated in 2 referral nephrology units in Mexico City. RESULTS:
      Thirteen patients with pSS underwent kidney biopsy (KB) over a period of 27
      years. The median duration from pSS diagnosis to KB was 13.9 months. Seven
      patients (54%) had glomerulonephritis and 6 patients (46%) had tubulointerstitial
      nephritis. All patients were treated with corticosteroids and/or
      immunosuppressants. Eight patients (62%) remained stable or their renal function
      improved after a median follow-up of 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: This case series
      reflects the broad spectrum of renal involvement in pSS. We observed that in our
      Hispanic population, glomerular involvement was the most frequent abnormality,
      mainly membranous glomerulopathy, followed by tubulointerstitial disease. Tubular
      atrophy and interstitial fibrosis were also common biopsy findings. Treatment
      with corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive agents appear to slow renal
      disease progression.

PMID- 28864094
TI  - Parathyroid crisis: Hypercalcemia as a medical emergency.

PMID- 28864095
TI  - Minimal residual disease in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
AB  - Minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment is an important endpoint in the
      treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). It is highly predictive of
      prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival and could be
      considered a surrogate for PFS in the context of chemoimmunotherapy based
      treatment. Evaluation of MRD level by flow cytometry or molecular techniques in
      the era of the new BCR and Bcl-2 targeted inhibitors could identify the most cost
      effective and durable treatment sequencing. A therapeutic approach guided by the
      level of MRD might also determine which patients would benefit from an early stop
      or consolidation therapy. In this review, we discuss the different MRD methods of
      analysis, which source of tumour samples must be analysed, the future role of the
      detection of circulating tumour DNA, and the potential role of MRD negativity in
      clinical practice in the modern era of CLL therapy.

PMID- 28864096
TI  - Hemichorea as first clinical manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus.

PMID- 28864098
TI  - Childhood Stress and Adversity is Associated with Late-Life Dementia in
      Aboriginal Australians.

PMID- 28864097
TI  - Validating the 11-Item Revised University of California Los Angeles Scale to
      Assess Loneliness Among Older Adults: An Evaluation of Factor Structure and Other
      Measurement Properties.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the measurement properties and factor structure of the
      short version of the Revised University of California Los Angeles (R-UCLA)
      loneliness scale from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). METHODS: Based on
      data from 3,706 HRS participants aged 65 + who completed the 2012 wave of the HRS
      and its Psychosocial Supplement, the measurement properties and factorability of
      the R-UCLA were examined by conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and
      the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on randomly split halves. RESULTS: The
      average score for the 11-item loneliness scale was 16.4 (standard deviation:
      4.5). An evaluation of the internal consistency produced a Cronbach's alpha of
      0.87. Results from the EFA showed that two- and three-factor models were
      appropriate. However, based on the results of the CFA, only a two-factor model
      was determined to be suitable because there was a very high correlation between
      two factors identified in the three-factor model, available social connections
      and sense of belonging. CONCLUSION: This study provides important data on the
      properties of the 11-item R-UCLA scale by identifying a two-factor model of
      loneliness: feeling isolated and available social connections. Our findings
      suggest the 11-item R-UCLA has good factorability and internal reliability.

PMID- 28864099
TI  - Dr Google: The readability and accuracy of patient education websites for Graves'
      disease treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: National guidelines emphasize the importance of incorporating patient
      preferences into the recommendations for the treatment of Graves' disease. Many
      patients use the Internet to obtain health information, and search results can
      affect their treatment decisions. This study compares the readability and
      accuracy of patient-oriented online resources for the treatment of Graves'
      disease by website affiliation and treatment modality. METHODS: A systematic
      Internet search was used to identify the top websites discussing the treatment of
      Graves' disease. Readability was measured using 5 standardized tests. Accuracy
      was assessed by a blinded, expert panel, which scored the accuracy of sites on a
      scale of 1 to 5. Mean readability and accuracy scores were compared among website
      affiliations and treatment modalities. RESULTS: We identified 13 unique websites,
      including 2 academic, 2 government, 5 nonprofit, and 4 private sites. There was a
      difference in both readability (mean 13.2, range 9.1-15.7, P = .003) and accuracy
      (mean 4.04, range 2.75-4.50, P = .019) based on website affiliation. Government
      sites (mean readability 11.1) were easier to read than academic (14.3, P < .01),
      nonprofit (13.9, P < .01), and private sites (13.5, P < .05). Academic sites
      (mean accuracy 4.50) were more accurate than private sites (3.56, P < .05).
      CONCLUSION: Online patient resources for the treatment of Graves' disease are
      written at an inappropriately high reading level. Academic sites contain both the
      most accurate and the most difficult to read information. Private sites
      represented the majority of our top results but contained the least accurate
      information.

PMID- 28864100
TI  - Optimal stump management in laparoscopic appendectomy: A network meta-analysis by
      the Minimally Invasive Surgery Synthesis of Interventions and Outcomes Network.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic appendectomy is the predominant method of treatment of
      acute appendicitis. There is insufficient evidence on the most effective
      management of the appendix stump. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      relative effectiveness and provide a treatment ranking of different options for
      securing the appendix stump. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched to
      identify randomized controlled trials comparing ligation methods of the appendix.
      The primary outcomes were organ/space infection and superficial operative site
      infection. We performed a network meta-analysis and estimated the pairwise
      relative treatment effects of the competing interventions using the odds ratio
      and its 95% confidence interval. We obtained a hierarchy of the competing
      interventions using rankograms and the surface under the cumulative ranking
      curve. RESULTS: Forty-three randomized controlled trials were eligible and
      provided data for >5,000 patients. Suture ligation seemed to be the most
      effective treatment strategy, in terms of both organ/space infection and
      superficial operative site infection. Statistical significance was reached for
      the comparisons of clip versus endoloop (odds ratio 0.56, 95% confidence
      interval, 0.32-0.96) for organ/space infection; and suture versus clip (odds
      ratio 0.20, 95% confidence interval 0.08-0.55) and clip versus endoloop (odds
      ratio 2.22, 95% confidence interval 1.56-3.13) for superficial operative site
      infection. The network was informed primarily by indirect treatment comparisons.
      CONCLUSION: The use of suture ligation of the appendix in laparoscopic
      appendectomy seems to be superior to other methods for the composite parameters
      of organ/space and superficial operative site infection.

PMID- 28864101
TI  - Brief surgical procedure code lists for outcomes measurement and quality
      improvement in resource-limited settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The lack of a classification system for surgical procedures in
      resource-limited settings hinders outcomes measurement and reporting. Existing
      procedure coding systems are prohibitively large and expensive to implement. We
      describe the creation and prospective validation of 3 brief procedure code lists
      applicable in low-resource settings, based on analysis of surgical procedures
      performed at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda's second largest public
      hospital. METHODS: We reviewed operating room logbooks to identify all surgical
      operations performed at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital during 2014. Based on
      the documented indication for surgery and procedure(s) performed, we assigned
      each operation up to 4 procedure codes from the International Classification of
      Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification. Coding of procedures was performed
      by 2 investigators, and a random 20% of procedures were coded by both
      investigators. These codes were aggregated to generate procedure code lists.
      RESULTS: During 2014, 6,464 surgical procedures were performed at Mbarara
      Regional Referral Hospital, to which we assigned 435 unique procedure codes.
      Substantial inter-rater reliability was achieved (kappa = 0.7037). The 111 most
      common procedure codes accounted for 90% of all codes assigned, 180 accounted for
      95%, and 278 accounted for 98%. We considered these sets of codes as 3 procedure
      code lists. In a prospective validation, we found that these lists described
      83.2%, 89.2%, and 92.6% of surgical procedures performed at Mbarara Regional
      Referral Hospital during August to September of 2015, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Empirically generated brief procedure code lists based on International
      Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification can be used to
      classify almost all surgical procedures performed at a Ugandan referral hospital.
      Such a standardized procedure coding system may enable better surgical data
      collection for administration, research, and quality improvement in resource
      limited settings.

PMID- 28864102
TI  - Presenting hypertension, burn injury, and mortality in combat casualties.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The effect of presenting hypertension is poorly studied in combat
      casualties. We hypothesized that elevated mean arterial pressure (MAP) on
      presentation to combat hospitals would be associated with poor outcomes. METHODS:
      Data was obtained from the Department of Defense Trauma Registry and the Armed
      Forces Medical Examiner System. Variables analyzed included presenting vital
      signs to Role II-III military theater hospital, demographic variables, injury
      severity score (ISS), location and mechanism of injury, presence of traumatic
      brain injury (TBI), acute kidney injury (AKI), and mortality. Patients were
      stratified by decile of MAP and logistic regression analysis was employed to
      adjust for confounders. RESULTS: A total of 4072 subjects injured from February
      2002 to February 2011 were identified. Compared to patients in the middle deciles
      of presenting MAP, patients in the highest and lowest MAP deciles were the only
      groups that demonstrated a higher mortality on univariate analysis (OR 2.06, 95%
      CI 1.16-2.31 and OR 2.86, 95% CI 1.76-4.67, respectively), and this relationship
      persisted after adjustment for ISS, HR, temperature, presence of burn injury,
      TBI, and AKI. Burn injury was associated with mortality in the full multivariate
      analysis. However, further analysis limited to patients without burn injury did
      not demonstrate an association between high MAP and mortality (OR 0.84, 95% CI
      0.36-1.99; p=0.70). Conversely, when limited to patients with burn injury, high
      MAP was associated with mortality (OR 3.78, 95% CI 1.74-8.20; p=0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The relationship between mortality and presenting MAP appears to be U
      shaped, demonstrating increased mortality in the lowest and highest deciles.
      However, mortality in the highest MAP decile appears to be limited to casualties
      with associated burn injury, even after adjustment for TBI, AKI, and ISS, which
      takes into account the severity of the burn injury. Physicians should recognize
      that burn patients presenting with an elevated MAP are at an increased risk for
      poor outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28864103
TI  - An important caution to tissue expander manufacturing companies: Burned tissues
      because of their inherent weakness need more delicate expanders to reduce
      complications.

PMID- 28864104
TI  - Classifying patient portal messages using Convolutional Neural Networks.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients communicate with healthcare providers via secure messaging in
      patient portals. As patient portal adoption increases, growing messaging volumes
      may overwhelm providers. Prior research has demonstrated promise in automating
      classification of patient portal messages into communication types to support
      message triage or answering. This paper examines if using semantic features and
      word context improves portal message classification. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Portal messages were classified into the following categories: informational,
      medical, social, and logistical. We constructed features from portal messages
      including bag of words, bag of phrases, graph representations, and word
      embeddings. We trained one-versus-all random forest and logistic regression
      classifiers, and convolutional neural network (CNN) with a softmax output. We
      evaluated each classifier's performance using Area Under the Curve (AUC).
      RESULTS: Representing the messages using bag of words, the random forest detected
      informational, medical, social, and logistical communications in patient portal
      messages with AUCs: 0.803, 0.884, 0.828, and 0.928, respectively. Graph
      representations of messages outperformed simpler features with AUCs: 0.837,
      0.914, 0.846, 0.884 for informational, medical, social, and logistical
      communication, respectively. Representing words with Word2Vec embeddings, and
      mapping features using a CNN had the best performance with AUCs: 0.908 for
      informational, 0.917 for medical, 0.935 for social, and 0.943 for logistical
      categories. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Word2Vec and graph representations
      improved the accuracy of classifying portal messages compared to features that
      lacked semantic information such as bag of words, and bag of phrases.
      Furthermore, using Word2Vec along with a CNN model, which provide a higher order
      representation, improved the classification of portal messages.

PMID- 28864105
TI  - Morphine and metabolites plasma levels after administration of sustained release
      morphine in Roux-en-Y gastric bypass subjects versus matched control subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Better knowledge of opioid pharmacology after Roux-en-Y gastric
      bypass (RYGB) is required for optimizing their use in this growing population.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case-controlled pharmacokinetic (PK) study was to
      compare morphine and its glucuronidated metabolites (morphine-3-glucuronide and
      morphine-6-glucuronide) plasma PKs between patients with RYGB and their controls.
      SETTINGS: University hospital, Lariboisiere Hospital, Paris. METHODS: Thirty
      milligrams of morphine as a sustained-release formulation was orally administered
      in 12 women who had undergone RYGB for at least 2 years (RYGB group) and in their
      nonsurgical controls matched for sex, body mass index (+/-2 points), and age (+/
      5 yr). Morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide, and morphine-6-glucuronide plasma
      concentrations over a 12-hour period were determined by a validated method using
      liquid chromatography mass spectrometry in tandem. Drowsiness, respiratory rate,
      and oxygen saturation were monitored during the PK visit. RESULTS: Morphine oral
      area under the curve (for time 0-12 hr; 115.8 +/- 108.0 nmol.hr/L and 86.9 +/-
      38.8 nmol.hr/L for RYGB group and control group, respectively, P = .71), morphine
      at maximal concentration, metabolites oral area under the curve (for time 0-12
      hr), and other PK parameters were similar between groups. After drug
      administration, mean drowsiness was superior in RYGB group. Mean respiratory rate
      and oxygen saturation were similar in both groups. CONCLUSION: No dose adjustment
      seems to be needed for sustained release morphine when prescribed to RYGB
      patients.

PMID- 28864106
TI  - Gastric mesenchymal tumors as incidental findings during Roux-en-Y gastric
      bypass.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Occurrences of mesenchymal tumors have been more recognized in recent
      years, and the incidental diagnosis of these lesions during bariatric surgery has
      been previously reported. OBJECTIVE: To describe the cases of incidentally
      diagnosed mesenchymal tumors during consecutive bariatric surgeries. SETTING:
      Private health-providing service, Brazil. METHODS: A retrospective population
      based study, which enrolled individuals who consecutively underwent Roux-en-Y
      gastric bypass at a single center from January 2006 through July 2016. RESULTS:
      Of 1502 individuals, there were 16 cases (1.1%) of confirmed mesenchymal tumors.
      Of these 16 cases, 14 (87.5%) were gastrointestinal stromal tumors and 2 (12.5%)
      were leiomyomas. The affected individuals were significantly older (aged 46.2 +/-
      6.3 versus 35.4 +/- 7.2 yr; P = .00031), presented a lower body mass index (38.2
      +/- 5.1 versus 45.3 +/- 8.1 kg/m2; P<.00001), and had a lower weight (102.1 +/-
      17.9 versus 121.1 +/- 7.4 kg; P = .00321). None of the individuals presented
      reported relapses of the mesenchymal tumors. CONCLUSION: The possibility of
      incidental gastric mesenchymal tumors during bariatric surgery should not be
      neglected; a careful inventory of the stomach at the beginning of the procedure
      and resection of lesions found are mandatory. (Surg Obes Relat Dis 2017;X:XXX
      XXX.) (c) 2017 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. All rights
      reserved.

PMID- 28864107
TI  - Application of dispersive solid phase extraction based on a surfactant-coated
      titanium-based nanomagnetic sorbent for preconcentration of bisphenol A in water
      samples.
AB  - Herein, a new extraction method employing a surfactant-coated titanium-based
      nanomagnetic sorbent for the effective extraction of bisphenol A (BPA) from
      various water samples was developed. Initially, the titanium-based nanomagnetic
      particles (Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2 NPs) were successfully synthesized and subsequently
      characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared
      spectrometry. Two cationic surfactants were then incorporated into the particles
      to form a new sorbent for enhancing the extraction of BPA through micelle
      formation. Once the analyte was extracted, it was desorbed from the sorbent and
      quantified by high performance liquid chromatography with ultra violet detection
      (HPLC-UV). Various factors affecting the extraction and desorption of the analyte
      were investigated in detail and the optimum conditions established. Under these
      established conditions, the calibration curve was linear over the concentration
      range of 1-500ng/mL. The limit of detection was determined to be 0.5ng/mL based
      on a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N)=3. To test the extraction efficiency, the method
      was applied to various real water samples that were spiked. The average
      recoveries obtained from the spiked samples ranged between 92-105% with relative
      standard deviations of 3.2-7.8%. Finally, the approach was determined to be
      effective for BPA environmental analysis.

PMID- 28864108
TI  - Peak capacity and peak capacity per unit time in capillary and microchip zone
      electrophoresis.
AB  - The origins of the peak capacity concept are described and the important
      contributions to the development of that concept in chromatography and
      electrophoresis are reviewed. Whereas numerous quantitative expressions have been
      reported for one- and two-dimensional separations, most are focused on
      chromatographic separations and few, if any, quantitative unbiased expressions
      have been developed for capillary or microchip zone electrophoresis. Making the
      common assumption that longitudinal diffusion is the predominant source of zone
      broadening in capillary electrophoresis, analytical expressions for the peak
      capacity are derived, first in terms of migration time, diffusion coefficient,
      migration distance, and desired resolution, and then in terms of the remaining
      underlying fundamental parameters (electric field, electroosmotic and
      electrophoretic mobilities) that determine the migration time. The latter
      expressions clearly illustrate the direct square root dependence of peak capacity
      on electric field and migration distance and the inverse square root dependence
      on solute diffusion coefficient. Conditions that result in a high peak capacity
      will result in a low peak capacity per unit time and vice-versa. For a given
      symmetrical range of relative electrophoretic mobilities for co- and counter
      electroosmotic species (cations and anions), the peak capacity increases with the
      square root of the electric field even as the temporal window narrows
      considerably, resulting in a significant reduction in analysis time. Over a broad
      relative electrophoretic mobility interval [-0.9, 0.9], an approximately two-fold
      greater amount of peak capacity can be generated for counter-electroosmotic
      species although it takes about five-fold longer to do so, consistent with the
      well-known bias in migration time and resolving power for co- and counter
      electroosmotic species. The optimum lower bound of the relative electrophoretic
      mobility interval [MUr,Z, MUr,A] that provides the maximum peak capacity per unit
      time is a simple function of the upper bound, but its direct application is
      limited to samples with analytes whose electrophoretic mobilities can be varied
      independently of electroosmotic flow. For samples containing both co- and counter
      electroosmotic ions whose electrophoretic mobilities cannot be easily
      manipulated, comparable levels of peak capacity and peak capacity per unit time
      for all ions can be obtained by adjusting the EOF to devote the same amount of
      time to the separation of each class of ions; this corresponds to MUr,Z=-0.5.

PMID- 28864109
TI  - A modification on the vector cosine algorithm of Similarity Analysis for improved
      discriminative capacity and its application to the quality control of Magnoliae
      Flos.
AB  - Chromatographic fingerprint analysis has been widely used in quality control of
      herbal medicines, and Similarity Analysis (SA) as a well-established method has
      been applied in the quality control practice as well as publications related to
      the study of herbal medicines and preparations. However, in some cases the
      results of SA do not fit well with those of other chemometric approaches and
      quantitative analysis, and the problem remains unsolved. In this study, a
      modified SA algorithm has been proposed, with its advantages discussed in theory.
      The extract of dried flower bud of Magnolia biondii Pamp. obtained by pressurized
      solvent extraction was then selected as a case to verify the modified algorithm.
      After identification of the components, fingerprint analysis was performed using
      different chemometric methods including Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA),
      Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as well as original and modified SA methods,
      and the improved discriminative capacity of modified SA algorithm was
      illustrated. Characteristic chemical markers were then identified using the
      modified SA approach and then confirmed using PCA method. The quantitative
      results were then utilized to confirm the advantage of modified SA approach over
      the original one. The study made a modification to the widely applied SA
      algorithm, which was possibly a beneficial improvement in fingerprint analysis
      and quality control practice of herbal medicines.

PMID- 28864110
TI  - Accurate prediction of retention in hydrophilic interaction chromatography by
      back calculation of high pressure liquid chromatography gradient profiles.
AB  - Gradient retention times are difficult to project from the underlying retention
      factor (k) vs. solvent composition (phi) relationships. A major reason for this
      difficulty is that gradients produced by HPLC pumps are imperfect - gradient
      delay, gradient dispersion, and solvent mis-proportioning are all difficult to
      account for in calculations. However, we recently showed that a gradient "back
      calculation" methodology can measure these imperfections and take them into
      account. In RPLC, when the back-calculation methodology was used, error in
      projected gradient retention times is as low as could be expected based on
      repeatability in the k vs. phi relationships. HILIC, however, presents a new
      challenge: the selectivity of HILIC columns drift strongly over time. Retention
      is repeatable in short time, but selectivity frequently drifts over the course of
      weeks. In this study, we set out to understand if the issue of selectivity drift
      can be avoid by doing our experiments quickly, and if there any other factors
      that make it difficult to predict gradient retention times from isocratic k vs.
      phi relationships when gradient imperfections are taken into account with the
      back-calculation methodology. While in past reports, the accuracy of retention
      projections was >5%, the back-calculation methodology brought our error down to
      ~1%. This result was 6-43 times more accurate than projections made using ideal
      gradients and 3-5 times more accurate than the same retention projections made
      using offset gradients (i.e., gradients that only took gradient delay into
      account). Still, the error remained higher in our HILIC projections than in RPLC.
      Based on the shape of the back-calculated gradients, we suspect the higher error
      is a result of prominent gradient distortion caused by strong, preferential water
      uptake from the mobile phase into the stationary phase during the gradient - a
      factor our model did not properly take into account. It appears that, at least
      with the stationary phase we used, column distortion is an important factor to
      take into account in retention projection in HILIC that is not usually important
      in RPLC.

PMID- 28864111
TI  - Investigation of the effect of column temperature and back-pressure in achiral
      supercritical fluid chromatography within the context of drug impurity profiling.
AB  - Twenty commercially available stationary phases were characterized in
      supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) using a diverse set of pharmaceutical
      compounds. Six dissimilar phases were selected, and a benzodiazepine and a
      trimethoprim impurity mixture were screened on these phases. Two stationary
      phases were then selected for each mixture to study the effect of temperature and
      back-pressure on retention, separation and chromatographic efficiency using a
      response surface design approach. The maximal feasible domain for each phase was
      examined and column performance was monitored for stability during the duration
      of the study. Chromatographic responses of the individual mixture components,
      such as retention time, peak width and apparent plate count, were modelled as a
      function of temperature and back-pressure. The use of high temperatures led to
      improved separations and higher efficiencies while high back-pressures resulted
      in reduced retention. For the two mixtures, the response surface plots of the
      resolution of the worst-separated peak pair over the experimental domain allowed
      the identification of the temperature and back-pressure leading to the maximal
      resolution for the worst-separated peak pair. For the mixtures investigated, the
      use of high temperatures led to improved separations and high efficiencies, while
      high back-pressures resulted in reduced retention. These factors are fine-tuning
      parameters in SFC, and similarly to the modifier composition, they lead to local,
      rather than global selectivity differences.

PMID- 28864112
TI  - Solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography coupled to magnetic sector
      high resolution mass spectrometry for the ultra-trace determination of
      contaminants in surface water.
AB  - With the aim of monitoring water quality according to the regulations established
      by the European Union it would be necessary to implement analytical methodologies
      capable of simultaneously determining a broad range of organic pollutants at
      ultra-trace levels, allowing for increased sample throughput. In addition, the
      high number of samples to be analyzed requires a particular focus on setting up
      fully automated analytical methodologies. In view of that, this study is aimed at
      the development of a complete automated procedure for the ultra-trace
      determination of certain pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
      brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in surface
      waters. The proposed method is based on an on-line combination of solid phase
      microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography coupled to double-focusing magnetic
      sector high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS). SPME as well as GC-HRMS
      conditions were optimized to achieve maximum extraction efficiency and
      sensitivity, which was reinforced by using multiple ion detection (MID) as
      acquisition mode. Using only 19mL of water and with minimum sample manipulation,
      the method allowed for the determination of 53 compounds exhibiting good
      linearity (R2>0.99), recoveries between 84 and 118% and relative standard
      deviation (RSD) values <20% for intra-day and inter-day precision. In addition,
      the method provides quantification limits (LOQs) between 0.1-50ngL-1, lower than
      the Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) fixed by Directive 2013/39/EC. Finally,
      the method was successfully applied to determine target contaminants in Almeria
      surface water compartments, detecting dioxin-like PCBs, BDEs and some pesticides.

PMID- 28864113
TI  - Identification of apoptosis-related genes Bcl2 and Bax from yellow catfish
      Pelteobagrus fulvidraco and their transcriptional responses to waterborne and
      dietborne zinc exposure.
AB  - Apoptosis plays a key role in the physiology of multicellular organisms, and has
      been well studied in mammals, but not in teleosts. Zinc (Zn) has been shown to be
      an important regulator of apoptosis and apoptosis involves in the regulation of
      lipid metabolism. Moreover, our recent study indicated that waterborne and
      dietborne Zn exposure differently influenced lipid metabolism in Pelteobagrus
      fulvidraco, but further mechanism remained unknown. The hypothesis of the present
      study is that apoptosis mediated the Zn-induced changes of lipid metabolism of P.
      fulvidraco subjected to different exposure pathways. To this end, we cloned full
      length cDNA sequences of Bcl2 and three Bax subtypes involved in apoptosis in P.
      fulvidraco, explored their mRNA expressions in responses to different Zn exposure
      pathways. Bcl2 and three Bax subtypes shared similar domain structure as typical
      pro- and anti-apoptotic Bcl2 family members. Their mRNAs were widely expressed
      among various tissues, but at variable levels. Waterborne Zn exposure down
      regulated mRNA levels of Baxg and ratios of Baxa/Bcl2, and Baxg/Bcl2, but showed
      no significant effects on mRNA abundances of Bcl2, Baxa and Baxb, and the ratio
      of Baxb/Bcl2. In contrast, dietborne Zn exposure up-regulated mRNA levels of
      Bcl2, Baxa, Baxb and Baxg, but reduced the ratios of Baxa/Bcl2, Baxb/Bcl2, and
      Baxg/Bcl2. Considering their important roles of these genes in apoptosis induced
      by Zn, apoptosis may mediate the Zn-induced changes of hepatic lipid metabolism
      of Pelteobagrus fulvidraco under different Zn exposure pathways. For the first
      time, we characterized the full-length cDNA sequences of Bcl2 and three Bax
      subtypes, determined their expression profiles and transcriptional responses to
      different Zn exposure pathways, which would contribute to our understanding of
      the molecular basis of apoptosis, and also provide new insights into
      physiological responses to different Zn exposure pathways.

PMID- 28864114
TI  - Leptin siRNA promotes ovarian granulosa cell apoptosis and affects
      steroidogenesis by increasing NPY2 receptor expression.
AB  - Leptin has been found to be involved in the ovarian granulosa cell apoptosis and
      steroidogenesis. Loss of neuropeptide Y (NPY) can correct the obesity syndrome of
      mutant mice lacking of leptin (ob/ob). However, the association of NPY and leptin
      in ovarian granulosa cells and ovarian steroidogenesis has not been investigated.
      Here, C57BL/6J ob/ob mice and C57BL/6J (control) mice were intraperitoneally
      injected with PBS, leptin (0.4MUg/g bodyweight) or BIIE0246 (NPY2 receptor
      [NPY2R] antagonist, 30MUg/kg bodyweight) every day for 15days. We found that
      NPY2R mRNA expression in mouse ovary was suppressed by leptin treatment, but
      increased by leptin deficiency. Leptin or BIIE0246 treatment significantly
      increased E2, but notably decreased progesterone in both mice. A lower level of
      E2 and a higher level of progesterone was observed in ob/ob mice than in control
      mice. Further, we then knocked down leptin expression in human ovarian granulosa
      cells by siRNA transfection and treated the cells with DMSO or BIIE0246. In vitro
      experiments confirmed the findings in mice. siLeptin treatment decreased the
      secretion of E2, anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1
      and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta, and the cell proliferation, but
      increased the secretion of progesterone and cell apoptosis. Western blotting
      analysis of PCNA, Bcl-2 and Bax confirmed the results of cell proliferation and
      apoptosis. Activation of JAK2 and STAT3 was also suppressed by knocking down
      leptin. All the effects of siLeptin on ovarian granulosa cells were partially
      reversed by BIIE0246. In conclusion, knockdown of leptin significantly affected
      ovarian steroidogenesis and ovarian function through NPY. siLeptin transfection
      impaired the activation of JAK2/STAT3 and contributed to ovarian granulosa cell
      apoptosis partially through up-regulating NPY2R expression.

PMID- 28864115
TI  - RasGRP3 controls cell proliferation and migration in papillary thyroid cancer by
      regulating the Akt-MDM2 pathway.
AB  - Accumulating evidence has shown that Ras guanylnucleotide releasing peptide 3
      (RasGRP3) is up-regulated in several distinct cancer types; however, its role in
      papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrate
      that RasGRP3 was overexpressed in PTC tissues and cell lines. Downregulation of
      RasGRP3 using small interfering (si) RNA significantly inhibited PTC cell
      proliferation and migration in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo, reflecting an
      oncogenic role of RasGRP3 in PTC. We subsequently identified that the expression
      of mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2) and phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) was
      significantly decreased in RasGRP3-downregulated PTC cells. Overexpression of
      MDM2 attenuated the function of si-RasGRP3. Taken together, our data show that
      RasGRP3 exerts its oncogenic effect in PTC through Akt-mediated MDM2 activation.
      RasGRP3 may serve as a potential new therapeutic target for PTC.

PMID- 28864116
TI  - The role of long non-coding RNA PCA3 in epithelial ovarian carcinoma
      tumorigenesis and progression.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Ovarian carcinoma is one of the highest incidence of tumors in women,
      and the generation, development and prognosis of epithelial ovarian carcinoma
      (EOC) remains an open field of study. The role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)
      in epithelial ovarian carcinoma is an emerging area of research. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: LncRNA PCA3 expression was determined in EOC and normal ovarian tissues
      by RT-PCR. Phenotypes indicative of tumor progression and aggressiveness,
      including cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and expression of related
      molecules, were analysed in EOC cell following knockdown of lncRNA PCA3 by
      transfection with small interfering RNA (siRNA). RESULTS: Expression of lncRNA
      PCA3 in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues was higher than in normal ovarian
      tissue. We discovered that knockdown of lncRNA PCA3 in EOC cells by siRNA
      transfection significantly suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and
      invasion. Bioinformatic predictions and dual-luciferase reporter assays indicate
      that the 3'UTR of PCA3 has potential binding sites for miR-106b-5p. Knockdown of
      the lncRNA PCA3 by siRNA resulted in up-regulated miR-106b expression. In
      addition, knockdown of PCA3 also reduced protein expression of Ras homolog gene
      family member C (RhoC), Bcl/xl, P70 ribosomal S6 kinase (P70S6K), and Matrix
      metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2), which are regulated by miR-106b. CONCLUSIONS: Research
      results show that lncRNA PCA3 may coordinate EOC tumorigenesis through disrupting
      miR-106b regulated gene expression. PCA3 may be a novel and important diagnostic
      biomarker and a valuable marker for prediction in the clinical care of epithelial
      ovarian carcinoma.

PMID- 28864117
TI  - MRC Centre Neuromuscular Biobank (Newcastle and London): Supporting and
      facilitating rare and neuromuscular disease research worldwide.
AB  - Neuromuscular diseases are both genetic and acquired conditions resulting in
      progressive muscle weakness and wasting which lead to disability and reduced
      survival. The availability of high-quality human biomaterial is crucial to
      support biomedical research with potential applications at all stages of
      development, from molecular pathophysiology to drug discovery, clinical trials
      and evaluation of biomarkers. Although significant progress has been made over
      the last few years in the diagnosis of these rare conditions, the genetic defect
      and underlying pathological abnormality remain unknown in approximately 1/3 of
      cases. Moreover, to date no definitive cure is available for most neuromuscular
      disorders, nor are there sufficiently reliable and specific biomarkers to monitor
      disease progression and response to treatment. This is in part due to the rarity
      and genetic heterogeneity of neuromuscular diseases and the lack of access to
      patient samples. The availability of the national MRC Centre Biobank for
      Neuromuscular Diseases in Newcastle and London has addressed this bottleneck and
      supported neuromuscular research. Nine years after the establishment of the MRC
      Centre Biobank, many high profile research publications have highlighted the
      positive impact of neuromuscular biobanking for translational research and proven
      this facility to be a unique repository source for diagnostics, basic science
      research, industry, drug development, and therapy.

PMID- 28864118
TI  - The impacts of institutional child sexual abuse: A rapid review of the evidence.
AB  - While awareness of institutional child sexual abuse has grown in recent years,
      there remains limited understanding of its occurrence and outcomes as a distinct
      form of abuse. Drawing on research commissioned by the Australian Royal
      Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, this article
      presents a rapid review of available evidence on the impacts of institutional
      abuse on victim/survivors. Literature searches identified 75 sources spanning
      international peer reviewed work and reports to Government that document or
      quantify the impacts of mostly historical child sexual abuse occurring in
      religious, educational, sporting and residential or out-of-home care settings.
      Consistent with child sexual abuse in other contexts, institutional child sexual
      abuse is found to be associated with numerous, pervasive and connected impacts
      upon the psychological, physical, social, educative and economic wellbeing of
      victims/survivors. Further, institutional child sexual abuse is associated with
      vicarious trauma at the individual, family and community level, and with impacts
      to the spiritual wellbeing of victims/survivors of abuse that occurs in religious
      settings. The identified literature suggests the trauma of institutional child
      sexual abuse may be exacerbated by the interplay of abuse dynamics in
      institutional settings, which may reduce or impede circumstances supporting
      disclosure, belief, support and protection from future harm. Acknowledging the
      limitations of the present study and the available evidence, this narrative
      synthesis provides insights into the complex impacts of institutional child
      sexual abuse.

PMID- 28864120
TI  - Attitudes towards disclosing a mental illness among German soldiers and their
      comrades.
AB  - Many soldiers with mental illness (SWMIs) struggle with the decision whether to
      disclose their condition in or outside the military. This study therefore
      explored views on (self-)labeling as 'mentally ill', experiences of
      discrimination and coping, risks and benefits of (non-)disclosure, service use,
      disclosure decisions and consequences of disclosing. Active-duty SWMIs as well as
      soldiers without mental illness (commanding officers; enlisted ranks) and
      military social workers participated in focus groups. Transcripts were analyzed
      using qualitative content analysis. SWMIs perceived negative stereotypes about
      their group (weakness, incompetence, blame, malingering) and saw stigma as a
      barrier to help-seeking. Being labeled 'mentally ill' was seen as harmful for
      one's career. Self-labeling led to poor self-esteem, greater need for help and
      feelings of weakness. Many SWMIs had experienced discrimination, such as gossip
      or inappropriate comments. Social isolation was a disadvantage of secrecy. Most
      SWMIs preferred selective disclosure and many did not disclose to their family.
      Military staff without mental illness expressed partly different views and
      described organizational challenges posed by SWMIs. Our findings suggest that
      disclosure decisions are personal and difficult and that stigma remains a barrier
      to re-integration and recovery of SWMIs in the military. Implications for
      interventions to support SWMIs are discussed.

PMID- 28864119
TI  - Value-based decision making under uncertainty in hoarding and obsessive-
      compulsive disorders.
AB  - Difficulties in decision making are a core impairment in a range of disease
      states. For instance, both obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) and hoarding
      disorder (HD) are associated with indecisiveness, inefficient planning, and
      enhanced uncertainty intolerance, even in contexts unrelated to their core
      symptomology. We examined decision-making patterns in 19 individuals with OCD, 19
      individuals with HD, 19 individuals with comorbid OCD and HD, and 57 individuals
      from the general population, using a well-validated choice task grounded in
      behavioral economic theory. Our results suggest that difficulties in decision
      making in individuals with OCD (with or without comorbid HD) are linked to
      reduced fidelity of value-based decision making (i.e. increase in inconsistent
      choices). In contrast, we find that performance of individuals with HD on our
      laboratory task is largely intact. Overall, these results support our hypothesis
      that decision-making impairments in OCD and HD, which can appear quite similar
      clinically, have importantly different underpinnings. Systematic investigation of
      different aspects of decision making, under varying conditions, may shed new
      light on commonalities between and distinctions among clinical syndromes.

PMID- 28864121
TI  - Income disparity and mortality among patients with alcohol use disorder in South
      Korea.
AB  - Problems related to alcohol consumption, particularly alcohol disorders, occur
      frequently in South Korea and are gradually increasing due to the drinking
      culture and social atmosphere. We analyzed the relationship between mortality and
      income among patients with alcohol disorders. We used data from the National
      Sampling Claim Data 2003-2013, which included medical claims filed for 10,593
      patients newly diagnosed with alcohol disorders. We performed survival analyses
      using a Cox proportional hazards model. 12.79% died during the study period.
      Patients with lower incomes were more positively associated with the risk of
      mortality than those with higher incomes (0-30 percentile: hazard ratio [HR] =
      1.432, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.155-1.777; 31-60 percentile: HR = 1.318,
      95% CI = 1.065-1.633; 61-90 percentile: HR = 1.352, 95% CI = 1.097-1.665; 91-100
      percentile: ref). Such associations were significant in males, patients with mild
      conditions, or those who lived in metropolitan areas. In conclusion, we found
      that income disparity was related to mortality among patients diagnosed with
      disorders due to alcohol use. Thus, healthcare professionals need to provide
      active intervention in the early phase of alcohol disorders, and consider policy
      that would improve healthcare accessibility for low-income populations in order
      to reduce income disparity.

PMID- 28864122
TI  - Biological aspects and candidate biomarkers for rapid-cycling in bipolar
      disorder: A systematic review.
AB  - Rapid-cycling bipolar disorder represents a frequent severe subtype of illness
      which has been associated with poor response to pharmacological treatment. Aim of
      the present article is to provide an updated review of biological markers
      associated with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. A research in the main database
      sources has been conducted to identify relevant papers about the topic. Rapid
      cycling bipolar disorder patients seem to have a more frequent family history for
      bipolar spectrum disorders (d range: 0.44-0.74) as well as an increased
      susceptibility to DNA damage or mRNA hypo-transcription (d range: 0.78-1.67) than
      non rapid-cycling ones. A susceptibility to hypothyroidism, which is exacerbated
      by treatment with lithium, is possible in rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, but
      further studies are needed to draw definitive conclusions. Rapid-cycling bipolar
      patients might have more insuline resistance as well as more severe brain changes
      in frontal areas (d range: 0.82-0.94) than non rapid-cycling ones. Many questions
      are still open about this topic. The first is whether the rapid-cycling is
      inheritable or is more generally the manifestation of a severe form of bipolar
      disorder. The second is whether some endocrine dysfunctions (diabetes and
      hypothyroidism) predispose to rapid-cycling or rapid-cycling is the consequence
      of drug treatment or medical comorbidities (e.g. obesity).

PMID- 28864123
TI  - Effects of glucose, lactate and basic FGF as limiting factors on the expansion of
      human induced pluripotent stem cells.
AB  - Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are one of the promising cell sources for tissue
      engineering and drug screening. However, mass production of induced pluripotent
      stem cells (iPSCs) is still developing. Especially, a huge amount of culture
      medium usage causes expensive cost in the mass production process. In this
      report, we reduced culture medium usage by extending interval of changing culture
      medium. In parallel, we also increased glucose concentration and supplied heparan
      sulfate to avoid depletion of glucose and bFGF, respectively. Reverse
      transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analyses showed
      that reducing medium change frequency increased differentiation marker
      expressions but high glucose concentration downregulated these expressions. In
      contrast, heparan sulfate did not prevent differentiation marker expressions.
      According to analyses of growth rate, cell growth with extended medium change
      interval was decreased in later stage of log growth phase despite the existence
      of high glucose concentration and heparan sulfate. This result and culturing
      iPSCs with lactate showed that the accumulation of excreted lactate decreased the
      growth rate regardless of pH control. Conclusively, these experiments show that
      adding glucose and removing lactate are important to expand iPSCs with reduced
      culture medium usage. This knowledge should be useful to design economical iPSC
      mass production and differentiation system.

PMID- 28864124
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28864125
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28864126
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28864127
TI  - Graduated Driver Licensing for Older Novice Drivers: Critical Analysis of the
      Issues.

PMID- 28864128
TI  - Residential Green Space Quantity and Quality and Child Well-being: A Longitudinal
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There are few studies on the potential benefits of green space
      quantity and quality for child well-being. The authors hypothesized that more and
      better quality residential green space would be favorable for well-being and that
      these associations could be subject to effect modification across childhood.
      METHOD: Multilevel linear regression adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic
      confounders was used to track change in well-being (Strengths and Difficulties
      Questionnaire Total Difficulties Score and "internalizing" and "externalizing"
      subscales) across five separate occasions among a cohort of 4,968 Australian
      children aged 4-5 years beginning in 2004. Well-being was assessed with respect
      to objectively measured green space quantity and parent-reported green space
      quality, with interaction terms fitted with age to assess for potential effect
      modification. Data were analyzed in 2015. RESULTS: Non-linear dose-response
      associations were observed for favorable well-being in relation to larger
      quantities of green space and also green space judged to be higher in quality.
      Favorable perceptions of green space quality were associated with larger
      quantities of green space regardless of neighborhood socioeconomic circumstances.
      Benefits for well-being appeared to top out at 21%-40% green space coverage and
      were reasonably consistent across childhood. Inequality in well-being (especially
      the internalizing subscale) emerged as children aged in relation to green space
      quality. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 21%-40% of residential land-use allocated to
      green space may be an optimal amount for promoting child well-being, but the
      quality of this green space increases in importance as children age.

PMID- 28864129
TI  - The Potential for Federal Preemption of State and Local Sugar-Sweetened Beverage
      Taxes.

PMID- 28864130
TI  - Characteristics of Adults Who Switched From Cigarette Smoking to E-cigarettes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Because of the rapidly increasing use of electronic cigarettes (e
      cigarettes), this study aimed to investigate the individual characteristics and
      state-level prevalence of U.S. adults who have switched to e-cigarettes from
      traditional cigarettes. METHODS: Data from the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 National
      Adult Tobacco Surveys were analyzed in 2016. Relative percent change in switching
      was estimated, and the state-specific prevalence of adults who switched to e
      cigarettes from traditional cigarettes was calculated and mapped. Multivariate
      logistic regression was conducted to examine how switching varied by
      sociodemographic subgroups and region. RESULTS: Overall, the number of
      individuals who switched from traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes increased by
      approximately 100% over the 1-year interval. Significant increases were found
      among a number of sociodemographics and regions. Multivariate logistic regression
      analyses showed that young adults and those living in the South and West were
      more likely to switch to e-cigarettes, compared to former smokers who did not
      switch. Compared with current dual users, those with higher education and those
      who were not single were more likely to switch to e-cigarettes. The state with
      the highest prevalence of switching was New Mexico (7.3%), whereas Connecticut
      had the lowest prevalence (0.8 %) among former smokers. CONCLUSIONS: There is an
      increase in the progression from traditional cigarette use to e-cigarette use.
      Further research is warranted to determine whether this change continues and
      facilitates cigarette smoking cessation as a possible public health benefit and
      opportunity to save lives rather than constitutes a potential threat to public
      health.

PMID- 28864131
TI  - ZFP403, a novel tumor suppressor, inhibits the proliferation and metastasis in
      ovarian cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Zinc finger protein 403 (ZFP403) is located on human chromosome 17q12
      21, the most common loss of heterozygosity regions for some oncogenes. However,
      the biological function of ZFP403 on tumor is controversial and its role in
      ovarian cancer remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate its biological
      function in ovarian cancer. METHODS: qRT-PCR and western blotting were first
      performed to detect the expression level of ZFP403 in ovarian cancer tissues and
      cells, respectively. The effect of ZFP403 on cell proliferation was determined by
      colony formation assays. Its effects on cell cycle were analyzed by flow
      cytometry and western blotting. Wound healing, Boyden chamber, western blotting
      and gelatin zymography assays were utilized to assess migration and invasion
      abilities of cells overexpressed with ZFP403. The xenograft model in nude mice
      was used to elucidate the role of ZFP403 on tumorigenesis in vivo. RESULTS:
      Compared with normal ovarian tissues and cells, significantly lower expression
      levels of ZFP403 were observed in ovarian cancer tissues and cells. Ectopic
      overexpression of ZFP403 in ovarian cancer cells dramatically suppressed cell
      proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. Moreover,
      overexpression of ZFP403 in SK-OV3 cells inhibited cell migration and invasion.
      Xenograft study also demonstrated that overexpression of ZFP403 suppressed the
      tumor growth in vivo. CONCLUSION: The effects of ZFP403 on cell proliferation and
      metastasis suggest that it may serve as a tumor suppressor in ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28864132
TI  - Ghost ileostomy in advanced ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28864133
TI  - Association between use of pre-hospital ECG and 30-day mortality: A large cohort
      study of patients experiencing chest pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the assessment of patients with chest pain, there is support for
      the use of pre-hospital ECG in the literature and in the care guidelines. Using
      propensity score methods, we aim to examine whether the mere acquisition of a pre
      hospital ECG among patients with chest pain affects the outcome (30-day
      mortality). METHODS: The association between pre-hospital ECG and 30-day
      mortality was studied in the overall cohort (n=13151), as well as in the one-to
      one matched cohort with 2524 patients not examined with pre-hospital ECG and 2524
      patients examined with pre-hospital ECG. RESULTS: In the overall cohort, 21%
      (n=2809) did not undergo an ECG tracing in the pre-hospital setting. Among those
      who had pain during transport, 14% (n=1159) did not undergo a pre-hospital ECG
      while 32% (n=1135) of those who did not have pain underwent an ECG tracing. In
      the overall cohort, the OR for 30-day mortality in patients who had a pre
      hospital ECG, as compared with those who did not, was 0.63 (95% CI 0.05-0.79;
      p<0.001). In the matched cohort, the OR was 0.65 (95% CI 0.49-0.85; p<0.001).
      Using the propensity score, in the overall cohort, the corresponding HR was 0.65
      (95% CI 0.58-0.74). CONCLUSION: Using propensity score methods, we provide real
      world data demonstrating that the adjusted risk of death was considerably lower
      among the cases in whoma pre-hospital ECG was used. The PH-ECG is underused among
      patients with chest discomfort and the mere acquisition of a pre-hospital ECG may
      reduce mortality.

PMID- 28864134
TI  - Rationale and design of a prospective study to assess the effect of left cardiac
      sympathetic denervation in chronic heart failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The main causes of mortality in patients with chronic heart failure
      include sudden cardiac death (SCD) and progressive heart failure. Autonomic
      dysfunction plays a detrimental role in the progression of chronic heart failure.
      Left cardiac sympathetic denervation (LCSD) is an inexpensive and safe procedure
      which modifies autonomic innervation of the heart and is associated with a
      significant antifibrillatory effect. Whether LCSD reduces the risk of SCD, delays
      progression of heart failure and improves quality of life in patients with heart
      failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is not known. METHODS AND DESIGN:
      This is a 2-phased prospective, randomized trial to test the efficacy and safety
      of LCSD as an adjunct to guideline recommended medical therapy for patients with
      HFrEF. Once the safety and feasibility of conducting a large LCSD study have been
      demonstrated in the pilot phase, a phase III efficacy trial to assess the impact
      on ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure outcomes, and mortality will be
      completed. Outcome data from the pilot study will remain blinded and added to the
      results of phase III study for analysis. RESULTS: To date the study has received
      approval from local and national ethics and regulatory bodies and recruitment has
      commenced, and 4 patients have been randomized so far. CONCLUSION: If LCSD is
      proven to be safe, feasible and effective in this first ever study using this
      novel approach in patients with HFrEF it may be a cost-effective alternative to
      the implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy especially in regions where
      ICDs and cardiac transplantation are unavailable.

PMID- 28864135
TI  - Reliability of right-to-left shunt screening in the prevention of scuba diving
      related-decompression sickness.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between
      right-to-left shunt (RLS) and the clinical features of decompression sickness
      (DCS) in scuba divers and to determine the potential benefit for screening this
      anatomical predisposition in primary prevention. METHODS: 634 injured divers
      treated in a single referral hyperbaric facility for different types of DCS were
      retrospectively compared to 259 healthy divers. All subjects had a RLS screening
      by contrast Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound according to a standardized
      method. The number of bubbles detected defined the degree of RLS (small if 5-20
      bubbles, large if >20 bubbles). RESULTS: TCD detected 63% RLS in DCS group versus
      32% in the control group (p<0.0001) The overall prevalence of RLS was higher in
      divers presenting a cerebral DCS (OR, 5.3 [95% CI, 3.2-8.9]; p<0.0001), a spinal
      cord DCS (OR, 2.1 [95% CI, 1.4-3.1]; p<0.0001), an inner ear DCS (OR, 11.8 [95%
      CI, 7.4-19]; p<0.0001) and a cutaneous DCS (OR, 17.3 [95% CI, 3.9-77]; p<0.0001)
      compared to the control group, but not in divers experiencing ambiguous symptoms
      or musculoskeletal DCS. There was in increased risk of DCS with the size of RLS.
      The determination of diagnostic accuracy of TCD testing through the estimation of
      likelihood ratios revealed that predetermination of RLS did not change
      significantly the prediction of developing or not a DCS event. CONCLUSION: The
      assessment of RLS remains indicated after an initial episode of spinal cord,
      cerebral, inner ear and cutaneous form of DCS but this approach is definitely not
      recommended in routine practice.

PMID- 28864136
TI  - Severe aortic stenosis patients with preserved ejection fraction according to
      flow and gradient classification: Prevalence and outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinicians often encounter patients with apparently discordant
      echocardiographic findings, severe aortic stenosis (SAS) defined by aortic valve
      area (AVA) despite a low mean gradient. A new classification according to flow
      state and pressure gradient has been proposed. We sought to assess the
      prevalence, characteristics and outcomes of patients with asymptomatic SAS with
      preserved left-ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) according to flow and
      gradient. METHODS AND RESULTS: In total 442 patients with SAS (AVAi<0.6 cm2/m2)
      and LVEF >=50% (mean age 80+11years, 54,5% female) were included. Patients were
      classified according to flow state (>= or <35ml/m2) and mean pressure gradient
      (>= or <40mmHg): Low Flow/Low Gradient (LF/LG): 21.3%(n=94); Normal Flow/Low
      Gradient (NF/LG): 32.1%(n=142); Low Flow/High Gradient (LF/HG): 6.8%(n=30);
      Normal Flow/High Gradient (NF/HG): 39,8%(n=176). Mean follow-up time was
      20.5months (SD=10.3). Primary combined endpoint was cardiovascular mortality and
      hospital admission for SAS related symptom, secondary endpoint was aortic valve
      replacement (AVR), comparing HG group to LF/LG group. During follow-up 17 (18%)
      of LF/LG patients and 21 (10.2%) of HG patients met the primary endpoint. A lower
      free of event survival (cardiovascular mortality and hospital admission) was
      observed in patients with LF/LG AS (Breslow, p=0.002). Significant differences
      were noted between groups with a lower AVR free survival in the LF/LG group
      compared to HG groups (Breslow, p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirms the
      high prevalence and worse prognosis of LF/LG SAS. Clinicians must be aware of
      this entity to ensure appropriate patient management.

PMID- 28864137
TI  - Adjuvant Peptide Pulsed Dendritic Cell Vaccination in Addition to T Cell Adoptive
      Immunotherapy for Cytomegalovirus Infection in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell
      Transplantation Recipients.
AB  - Adoptive cellular immunotherapy has been shown to be effective in the management
      of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation and disease. Whether adjuvant dendritic
      cell (DC) vaccination will provide additional benefit in prophylaxis or treatment
      of CMV in hematoietic cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients is unknown. In this
      study, we administered prophylactic CMV-peptide specific T cell infusions,
      followed by 2 doses of intradermal CMV peptide-pulsed DC vaccine, to 4 HSCT
      recipients. There were no immediate adverse events associated with T cell
      infusion or DC vaccinations. One of the 4 patients developed grade III acute gut
      graft-versus-host disease. Immune reconstitution against CMV was detected in all
      4 patients. Patients receiving CMV peptide-specific T cells and DC vaccination
      had peak immune reconstitution at least 10 days after the second DC vaccination.
      In summary, combining DC vaccine with T cell infusion appears feasible, although
      further study is required to ascertain its safety and efficacy in augmenting the
      effects of infusing donor-derived CMV-specific T cells.

PMID- 28864138
TI  - Comparison of Different Rabbit Anti-Thymocyte Globulin Formulations in Allogeneic
      Stem Cell Transplantation: Systematic Literature Review and Network Meta
      Analysis.
AB  - Since 2000, various phase III randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have
      investigated the efficacy of rabbit antithymocyte globulin (ATG) in patients
      following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). Comparisons of
      different ATG formulations are lacking, however. Our aim was to synthesize all
      published efficacy evidence to enable a comparison of all available formulations
      of rabbit ATG in the allo-SCT setting. We performed a systematic literature
      review to identify all available phase III RCT evidence. We searched the Cochrane
      Library, MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process, and the website www.ClinicalTrials.gov. In
      addition, a trial presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of
      Hematology 2016 was added to include the most recent evidence. We identified a
      total of 6 RCTs, including 2 formulations: anti-T lymphocyte globulin (ATLG;
      Grafalon, Neovii Biotech, Lexington, MA) and polyclonal globulin immunized with
      human thymocytes (Thymoglobulin [Thymo]; Genzyme-Sanofi, Cambridge, MA). The
      evidence was synthesized using a conventional network meta-analysis (NMA). The
      best treatment for preventing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was ATLG, which
      had a more favorable hazard ratio (HR) compared with standard treatment (chronic
      GVHD: HR, .42; 95% confidence interval [CI], .31 to .56; acute GVHD grade II-IV:
      HR, .54; 95% CI, .39 to .73; acute GVHD grade III-IV: HR, .50; 95% CI, .29 to
      .86), whereas both ATLG and Thymo were at least similarly effective in terms of
      transplantation-related mortality (TRM) (ATLG: HR, .90; 95% CI, .61 to 1.32;
      Thymo: HR, .90; 95% CI, .56 to 1.44). Thymo tended to be the better treatment
      option regarding overall survival (OS) (HR, .86; 95% CI, .59 to 1.26). Our NMA
      provides the first report of the relative efficacy of all available rabbit ATG
      formulations in patients undergoing allo-SCT. Until additional data from
      randomized head-to-head comparisons are available, based on the present analysis,
      ATLG seems to be the best option to prevent chronic and acute GVHD. Both
      formulations show similar efficacy in terms of TRM, whereas Thymo appears to be
      the better treatment option in terms of OS.

PMID- 28864139
TI  - Optimizing Antithymocyte Globulin Dosing for Unrelated Donor Allogeneic
      Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Based on Recipient Absolute Lymphocyte Count.
AB  - Antithymocyte globulin (ATG) is used as prophylaxis against graft-versus-host
      disease (GVHD). Current dosing regimens for ATG are empiric and weight-based, and
      do not account for patient-specific factors. Furthermore, the target of ATG,
      recipient T cells post-cytotoxic chemotherapy, is not a function of recipient
      weight. We hypothesized the recipient peripheral blood absolute lymphocyte count
      (ALC) on the day of ATG administration would interact with the dose of ATG
      administered to predict transplantation outcomes. We retrospectively analyzed 135
      patients who received ATG for GVHD prophylaxis for unrelated allogeneic
      hematopoietic cell transplantation at 3 different doses: 10 mg/kg, 7.5 mg/kg, and
      5 mg/kg. There was no difference in 2-year overall survival (OS) among ATG dosing
      groups; however, deaths from infectious complications were significantly higher
      with higher doses of ATG (3.7% versus 19% versus 26.7%; P = .02). Severity of
      chronic GVHD was lower with higher doses of ATG (28% versus 24% versus 4%; P =
      .03). In multivariate analysis, the median peripheral blood ALC on day of ATG
      administration and the total amount of ATG interacted to predict OS (hazard
      ratio, .09; P = .03). For low recipient ALC (10th percentile, or .56 * 102/uL), a
      higher total ATG dose was associated with a greater risk of death, whereas for
      high recipient ALC (90th percentile, or 24.96 * 102/uL), a higher ATG dose was
      associated with a lower risk of death. Our findings suggest that the interaction
      between ATG and its target, the recipient lymphocyte, could represent a new
      paradigm for ATG dosing.

PMID- 28864140
TI  - Donor Type and Disease Risk Predict the Success of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell
      Transplantation: A Single-Center Analysis of 613 Adult Hematopoietic Cell
      Transplantation Recipients Using a Modified Composite Endpoint.
AB  - The composite endpoint graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)-free, relapse-free
      survival (GRFS) has recently been introduced as a tool to assess the success of
      allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and has been
      incorporated into recent randomized trials of GVHD prophylaxis by the Blood and
      Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network. As developed, GRFS incorporates
      "chronic GVHD requiring systemic immunosuppression" as a measure of clinically
      significant chronic GVHD (cGVHD). However, the decision to start patients on
      immunosuppressive therapy for cGVHD is subjective and physician-dependent. We
      elected to assess a modification of the GRFS (m-GRFS) that uses a potentially
      more objective measure of cGVHD, specifically the development of National
      Institutes of Health grade moderate or severe cGVHD. A total of 613 patients who
      underwent a first allogeneic HSCT after an HLA-identical sibling (matched related
      donor [MRD]; n = 212), an 8/8 matched unrelated donor (MUD; n = 251) or T cell
      replete haploidentical donor (HID) transplant with post-transplantation
      cyclophosphamide (n = 150) were included in this analysis. In the HID group, 86
      patients (54%) received peripheral blood stem cells as the graft source. The
      median duration of follow-up was 50.2 months. The unadjusted Kaplan-Meier
      estimates for 1- and 2-year m-GRFS were 36% (95% confidence interval [CI], 32% to
      40%) and 28% (95% CI, 25% to 32%), respectively. The 2-year m-GRFS was 30% (95%
      CI, 24% to 36%) for MRD graft recipients, 24% (95% CI, 19% to 30%) for MUD graft
      recipients, and 33% (95% CI, 26% to 41%) for HID graft recipients. A multivariate
      Cox model for m-GRFS identified donor type, Disease Risk Index (DRI) risk, donor
      recipient sex mismatch, and year of transplantation as significant predictors of
      m-GRFS. Patients who received a MUD graft had worse m-GRFS compared to MRD graft
      recipients (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39; P = .003), whereas HID graft recipients had
      a similar m-GRFS as MRD graft recipients (HR, 1.10; P = .43). HID was associated
      with better m-GRFS compared with MUD (HR, .79; P = .046). These data show that m
      GRFS is significantly affected by several modifiable factors, including donor
      type, donor-recipient sex match, and DRI. Adjusting donor choice and earlier
      referral of patients for evaluation of transplantation to improve the DRI can
      potentially overcome the negative impact of these factors.

PMID- 28864141
TI  - Who Uses a Midwife for Prenatal Care and for Birth in the United States? A
      Secondary Analysis of Listening to Mothers III.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although midwife care is slowly but consistently increasing in the
      United States, not much is known regarding women who use a midwife. Our
      objectives were to compare the sociodemographic and health history
      characteristics, and the quality of patient-provider communication, between women
      who used a midwife and those who used a physician for prenatal care and/or birth.
      METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the nationally representative
      Listening to Mothers III survey. We report descriptive findings using weighted
      proportions and means with standard deviations. We used the two one-sided tests
      procedure to assess the equivalence of women who used midwives and those who used
      physicians. RESULTS: Nearly 13% of women used a midwife for prenatal care or as a
      birth attendant. Women who used a midwife for prenatal care were similar to women
      who used a physician in most sociodemographic and health history characteristics,
      as well as their patient-provider communication scores, with the exception of the
      percentage of White (61.7 +/- 5.0 [midwives], 54.3 +/- 1.5 [physicians]) and
      married women (68.7 +/- 4.9 [midwives], 60.6 +/- 1.5 [physicians]). Women who
      used a midwife as a birth attendant were similar to women who used a physician as
      a birth attendant in most characteristics, with the exception of age over 35
      years (7.5 +/- 1.6 [midwives], 15.7 +/- 1.1 [physicians]) and Special
      Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children support (56.8 +/-
      4.9 [midwives], 50.0 +/- 1.6 [physicians]). CONCLUSIONS: Women who use midwives
      are similar to those who use physicians and our findings do not confirm the
      common perception that midwife patients are a self-selected group of wealthier,
      more educated women.

PMID- 28864142
TI  - Optimistic value based optimal control for uncertain linear singular systems and
      application to a dynamic input-output model.
AB  - In this paper, optimal control problems for uncertain discrete-time singular
      systems and uncertain continuous-time singular systems are considered under
      optimistic value criterion. The above singular systems are assumed to be regular
      and impulse-free, and optimistic value method is employed to optimize uncertain
      objective functions. Firstly, based on Bellman's principle of optimality, a
      recurrence equation is presented for settling optimal control problems subject to
      uncertain discrete-time singular systems. Then, by applying the principle of
      optimality and uncertainty theory, an equation of optimality for an optimal
      control model subject to an uncertain continuous-time singular system is derived.
      The optimal control problem can be settled through solving the equation of
      optimality. Two numerical examples and a dynamic input-output model are given to
      show the effectiveness of the results obtained.

PMID- 28864144
TI  - Macronutrients and cardiovascular risk in a global context.

PMID- 28864145
TI  - IEF peptide fractionation method combined to shotgun proteomics enhances the
      exploration of rice milk proteome.
AB  - We conducted a proteomics study in order to detect the proteomic method which
      provides the most complete characterization of the proteins of rice milk. In
      particular, we compared the results obtained from LC-MS/MS after protein
      precipitation with acetone or TCA, as well as the results obtained from LC-MS/MS
      after protein prefractionation based on SDS-PAGE (GeLC-MS/MS) or ProteoMinerTM
      technology (ProteoMiner-LC-MS/MS), and after peptide prefractionation based on
      IEF (pIEF-LC-MS/MS). A total of 158 protein species have been detect in rice
      milk. The physical-chemical analysis and classification of the identified
      proteins were also reported. In particular, we showed that pIEF-LC-MS/MS method
      led to a significant increase in the proteome coverage, allowing the
      identification of a total of 96 proteins of milk rice. This study demonstrates
      the utility of a prefractionation step based on pIEF before the shotgun proteomic
      analysis and offers an in-depth insight into the rice milk proteome.

PMID- 28864146
TI  - Corrigendum to "New approach to improve the keratinised peri-implant soft tissues
      in patients with intraoral osteocutaneous reconstruction using a free flap" [Br J
      Oral Maxillofac Surg 55 (September (7)) (2017) 732-33].

PMID- 28864147
TI  - Randomised controlled clinical trial of augmentation of the alveolar ridge using
      recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 with hydroxyapatite and bovine
      derived xenografts: comparison of changes in volume.
AB  - The aim of this randomised controlled clinical trial was to assess the early
      efficacy of bone morphogenetic protein-2 with hydroxyapatite granules (BMP
      2/hydroxyapatite) on augmentation of the alveolar ridge, by comparing changes in
      volume with those associated with the use of an inorganic bovine-derived
      xenograft (BDX). We studied 20 patients who were divided into two groups using a
      table of random numbers, and BMP-2/hydroxyapatite and BDX were applied
      accordingly. Computed tomographic (CT) images and panoramic radiographs were
      obtained immediately after operation and four months later. CT images were
      reconstructed in three dimensions to measure volumetric changes, and linear
      measurements were made on panoramic images. The mean (SD) absorption rates for
      BMP-2/hydroxyapatite and BDX were 13.2 (8.8)% and 13.8 (20.5)%, respectively.
      While the mean value did not differ significantly between the two materials, the
      SD was higher in the BDX group than in the BMP-2/hydroxyapatite group. No
      clinically important complications occurred in either group. We conclude that
      both BMP-2/hydroxyapatite and BDX were effective in augmenting the alveolar
      ridge, but BMP-2/hydroxyapatite seemed to be more useful in complicated bone
      defects.

PMID- 28864148
TI  - Sentinel lymph node biopsy for oral squamous cell carcinoma. Where are we now?
AB  - Recent data have confirmed that elective surgical management of the cN0 neck
      improves survival in patients with early (T1-T2) oral squamous cell carcinoma
      (SCC), and is better than watchful waiting. However, elective neck dissection
      (END) may not always be necessary. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB), which is a
      reliable staging test for patients with early disease and a radiologically N0
      neck, can detect occult metastases with a sensitivity of 86%-94%. Patients with
      no sign of metastases on SNB could avoid neck dissection, and individual
      treatment should reduce both morbidity and cost. Currently, SNB for oral SCC is
      available at a limited number of centres in the UK, but this is likely to change
      as national guidelines have recommended that it is incorporated into the standard
      treatment pathway. It is therefore important to understand the current evidence
      that supports its use, its limitations and related controversies, and to plan for
      a validated training programme.

PMID- 28864149
TI  - Anticancer potential of aminomethylidene-diazinanes I. Synthesis of
      arylaminomethylidene of diazinetriones and its cytotoxic effects tested in
      glioblastoma cells.
AB  - Diazinane and aryl moieties with vinylamine linkers were synthesized to
      investigate the importance of their structural variations as potential anti
      glioblastoma agents. Structural variations incorporated on to the diazinane
      moiety included oxa and thio derivatives, each with a variety of nitrogen-bound
      substituents. The size and shape of the aromatic moiety was varied, with the
      final variation introducing two carbonyl groups, yielding a substituted
      anthraquinone. Readily available diazinanes and aryl amines were used asan
      advantageous foundation. Several parameters were calculated whilst engineering
      these compounds, including: ClogP, molecular polarizability, polar surface area,
      minimal molecular projected area, and pKa. In addition, a simple and efficient
      procedure was developed to synthesize these compounds. It was demonstrated that a
      vinylamine with 1,3-diazinane-2,4,6-trione and 1-anthraquinone moiety is the most
      promising drug candidate causing almost 70% of LN229 tumor cell death at 1ug/ml.
      In addition, its molecular polarizability, polar surface area and minimal
      molecular projected area indicate a possible potential of this molecule for
      crossing BBB.

PMID- 28864150
TI  - Standard and Strain Measurements by Echocardiography Detect Early Overloaded
      Right Ventricular Dysfunction: Validation against Hemodynamic and Myocyte
      Contractility Changes in a Large Animal Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early detection of right ventricular (RV) failure is required to
      improve the management of patients with congenital heart diseases. The aim of
      this study was to validate echocardiography for the early detection of overloaded
      RV dysfunction, compared with hemodynamic and myocyte contractility assessment.
      METHODS: Using a porcine model reproducing repaired tetralogy of Fallot, RV
      function was evaluated over 4 months using standard echocardiography and speckle
      tracking compared with hemodynamic parameters (conductance catheter). Sarcomere
      shortening and calcium transients were recorded in RV isolated myocytes.
      Contractile reserve (DeltaEmax) was assessed by beta-adrenergic stimulation in
      vivo (dobutamine 5 MUg/kg) and ex vivo (isoproterenol 100 nM). RESULTS: Six
      operated animals were compared with four age- and sex-matched controls. In the
      operated group, hemodynamic RV efficient ejection fraction was significantly
      decreased (29.7% [26.2%-34%] vs 42.9% [40.7%-48.6%], P < .01), and inotropic
      responses to dobutamine were attenuated (DeltaEmax was 51% vs 193%, P < .05).
      Echocardiographic measurements of fraction of area change, tricuspid annular
      plane systolic excursion, tricuspid annular peak systolic velocity (S') and RV
      free wall longitudinal systolic strain and strain rate were significantly
      decreased. Strain rate, S', and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion were
      correlated with DeltaEmax (r = 0.75, r = 0.78, and r = 0.65, respectively, P <
      .05). These alterations were associated in RV isolated myocytes with the decrease
      of sarcomere shortening in response to isoproterenol and perturbations of calcium
      homeostasis assessed by the increase of spontaneous calcium waves. CONCLUSIONS:
      In this porcine model, both standard and strain echocardiographic parameters
      detected early impairments of RV function and cardiac reserve, which were
      associated with cardiomyocyte excitation-contraction coupling alterations.

PMID- 28864151
TI  - Authors' Reply.

PMID- 28864143
TI  - Association of dietary nutrients with blood lipids and blood pressure in 18
      countries: a cross-sectional analysis from the PURE study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relation between dietary nutrients and cardiovascular disease
      risk markers in many regions worldwide is unknown. In this study, we investigated
      the effect of dietary nutrients on blood lipids and blood pressure, two of the
      most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease, in low-income, middle
      income, and high-income countries. METHODS: We studied 125 287 participants from
      18 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia in the
      Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Habitual food intake was
      measured with validated food frequency questionnaires. We assessed the
      associations between nutrients (total fats, saturated fatty acids,
      monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates, protein,
      and dietary cholesterol) and cardiovascular disease risk markers using multilevel
      modelling. The effect of isocaloric replacement of saturated fatty acids with
      other fats and carbohydrates was determined overall and by levels of intakes by
      use of nutrient density models. We did simulation modelling in which we assumed
      that the effects of saturated fatty acids on cardiovascular disease events was
      solely related to their association through an individual risk marker, and then
      compared these simulated risk marker-based estimates with directly observed
      associations of saturated fatty acids with cardiovascular disease events.
      FINDINGS: Participants were enrolled into the study from Jan 1, 2003, to March
      31, 2013. Intake of total fat and each type of fat was associated with higher
      concentrations of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, but also with higher HDL
      cholesterol and apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), and lower triglycerides, ratio of
      total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol,
      and ratio of apolipoprotein B (ApoB) to ApoA1 (all ptrend<0.0001). Higher
      carbohydrate intake was associated with lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol,
      and ApoB, but also with lower HDL cholesterol and ApoA1, and higher
      triglycerides, ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, ratio of
      triglycerides to HDL cholesterol, and ApoB-to-ApoA1 ratio (all ptrend<0.0001,
      apart from ApoB [ptrend=0.0014]). Higher intakes of total fat, saturated fatty
      acids, and carbohydrates were associated with higher blood pressure, whereas
      higher protein intake was associated with lower blood pressure. Replacement of
      saturated fatty acids with carbohydrates was associated with the most adverse
      effects on lipids, whereas replacement of saturated fatty acids with unsaturated
      fats improved some risk markers (LDL cholesterol and blood pressure), but seemed
      to worsen others (HDL cholesterol and triglycerides). The observed associations
      between saturated fatty acids and cardiovascular disease events were approximated
      by the simulated associations mediated through the effects on the ApoB-to-ApoA1
      ratio, but not with other lipid markers including LDL cholesterol.
      INTERPRETATION: Our data are at odds with current recommendations to reduce total
      fat and saturated fats. Reducing saturated fatty acid intake and replacing it
      with carbohydrate has an adverse effect on blood lipids. Substituting saturated
      fatty acids with unsaturated fats might improve some risk markers, but might
      worsen others. Simulations suggest that ApoB-to-ApoA1 ratio probably provides the
      best overall indication of the effect of saturated fatty acids on cardiovascular
      disease risk among the markers tested. Focusing on a single lipid marker such as
      LDL cholesterol alone does not capture the net clinical effects of nutrients on
      cardiovascular risk. FUNDING: Full funding sources listed at the end of the paper
      (see Acknowledgments).

PMID- 28864152
TI  - Deformation Analysis of Myocardial Layers Detects Early Cardiac Dysfunction after
      Chemotherapy in Bone Marrow Transplantation Patients: A Continuous and Additive
      Cardiotoxicity Process.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity has not been extensively
      validated in bone marrow transplantation (BMT) patients. Speckle-tracking
      echocardiography is a sensitive method for the detection of subclinical cardiac
      dysfunction. METHODS: Cardiac function was prospectively assessed in 80 patients
      (44 men; mean age, 45 +/- 11 years) after BMT for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and
      acute or chronic myeloid leukemia by means of various echocardiographic
      techniques. Before chemotherapy for BMT, 89% of the patients had previously been
      treated with anthracyclines. Patients had normal left ventricular ejection
      fraction (LVEF). Left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS),
      subendocardial and subepicardial longitudinal strain, circumferential strain, LV
      twist, and right ventricular GLS were measured by speckle-tracking, and (2) three
      dimensionally derived LVEF and right ventricular ejection fraction were also
      assessed. Abnormal LVEF was defined as <53%. Studies were performed before
      (baseline) and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after chemotherapy conditioning followed by
      BMT. RESULTS: Impaired LV GLS values were observed at 1 month after chemotherapy
      and at 3, 6, and 12 months compared with baseline (-20 +/- 2.2% at baseline, 
      18.4 +/- 2.1% at 1 month, -17.3 +/- 2.2% at 3 months, -17.1 +/- 2.1% at 6 months,
      and -17.1 +/- 2.2% at 12 months; P = .001). Early LV GLS changes were driven
      mostly by changes in subendocardial longitudinal strain (-22.5 +/- 2.4% at
      baseline, -20.5 +/- 2.3% at 1 month, -19.2 +/- 2.3% at 3 months, -19.2 +/- 2.4%
      at 6 months, and -19.1 +/- 2.4 at 12 months; P = .001), whereas significant
      subepicardial strain changes were observed at 3 months after BMT. Compared with
      baseline, right ventricular GLS was also impaired early after chemotherapy.
      Compared with baseline, LVEF was slightly reduced (P = .02) at the end of the
      follow-up. Among echocardiographic markers, LV GLS at 1 month had the strongest
      predictive value for abnormal LVEF (<53%) at 12 months (area under the curve
      0.86; 95% CI, 0.76-0.96). A cutoff LV GLS value of -18.4% had sensitivity of
      84.6% and specificity of 71.9% for the identification of abnormal LVEF at the end
      of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In BMT patients, myocardial deformation analysis
      detected early and progressive subclinical cardiac dysfunction. Impaired LV GLS
      had predictive value for the detection of abnormal LVEF at 12-month follow-up.
      Thus, myocardial deformation study should be applied early after BMT to prevent
      irreversible cardiac dysfunction by appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28864153
TI  - Inhibition coefficient and molecular diversity of multi stress tolerant
      Trichoderma as potential biocontrol agent against Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc.
AB  - Trichoderma is one of the most exploited biocontrol agent for the management of
      plant diseases. Twenty strains of Trichoderma (six of T. harzianum, four of T.
      viride, three of T. virens, three of T. koningii, each one of T. hamatum, T.
      reesei, T. parceramosum and Trichoderma spp.) subjected to in vitro antagonism up
      to 12days after inoculation against Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. causing stem rot in
      groundnut. A new concept was developed to determine inhibition coefficient
      representing pathogen biology and biocontrol related biophysical variables.
      Results explained differential inhibition coefficient of test pathogen by
      Trichoderma antagonists. The inhibition coefficient of test pathogen was examined
      highest (91.13%) by T. virens NBAII Tvs12 followed by T. virens MTCC 794 (89.33%)
      and T. koningii MTCC 796 (62.39%). Microscopic study confirmed biocontrol
      mechanism as mycoparasitism for Tvs12 and antibiosis for T. koningii MTCC 796.
      The sclerotial biogenesis of test pathogen was elevated during weak antagonism
      and diminished in interactions with strong antagonists. The inhibition
      coefficient of S. rolfsii was significantly negatively correlated with sclerotia
      formation and lipid peroxidation during the antagonism. Trichoderma strains were
      screened for fungicides (carbendazim and tebuconazole, thiram and mancozeb) and
      abiotic stress (drought and salt) tolerance. Results indicated that T. koningii
      MTCC 796 efficiently grew better than the other strains with maximum radial
      growth under adverse conditions. The genetic variability among the Trichoderma
      was determined using 34 gene specific markers which amplified 146 alleles. The
      SSR similarities explained substantial diversity (15 to 87%) across Trichoderma
      strains and pathogen S. rolfsii. Principal coordinates analysis (PCA) were
      comparable to the cluster analysis and first three most informative PC components
      explained 64.45% of the total variation. In PCA, potent antagonists appear to be
      distinct from other strains. Five SSR markers T1F/T1R(311),
      TvCTT56f/TvCTT56r(387), TvGAT18f/TvGAT18r(364), TvCA39f/TvCA39r(196) and
      TvAG29f/TvAG29r(418) found to be unique to distinguish best antagonist strain
      Tvs12. However, MTCC 796 was examined most stress tolerant strain with better
      inhibition coefficient which might be useful to control the disease under adverse
      conditions or as a part of integrated pest management.

PMID- 28864154
TI  - Novel avian oropharyngeal trichomonads isolated from European turtle doves
      (Streptopelia turtur) and racing pigeons (Columba livia): genetic and
      morphometric characterisation of clonal cultures.
AB  - Extensive diversity has been described within the avian oropharyngeal trichomonad
      complex in recent years. In this study we developed clonal cultures from four
      isolates selected by their different ITS1/5.8S/ITS2 (ITS) genotype and their
      association with gross lesions of avian trichomonosis. Isolates were obtained
      from an adult racing pigeon and a nestling of Eurasian eagle owl with macroscopic
      lesions, and from a juvenile wood pigeon and an European turtle dove without
      clinical signs. Multi-locus sequence typing analysis of the ITS, small subunit of
      ribosomal rRNA (SSUrRNA) and Fe-hydrogenase (Fe-hyd) genes together with a
      morphological study by optical and scanning electron microscopy was performed. No
      significant differences in the structures were observed with scanning electron
      microscopy. However, the genetic characterisation revealed novel sequence types
      for the SSUrRNA region and Fe-hyd gene. Two clones were identified as Trichomonas
      gallinae in the MLST analysis, but the clones from the racing pigeon and European
      turtle dove showed higher similarity with Trichomonas tenax and Trichomonas
      canistomae than with T. gallinae at their ITS region, respectively. SSUrRNA
      sequences grouped all the clones in a clade that includes T. gallinae, T. tenax
      and T. canistomae. Further diversity was detected within the Fe-hyd locus, with a
      clear separation from T. gallinae of the clones obtained from the racing pigeon
      and the European turtle dove. In addition, morphometric comparison by optical
      microscopy with clonal cultures of T. gallinae revealed significant statistical
      differences on axostyle projection length in the clone from the European turtle
      dove. Morphometric and genetic data indicate that possible new species within the
      Trichomonas genus were detected. Taking in consideration the diversity in
      Trichomonas species present in the oral cavity of birds, a proper genetic
      analysis is highly recommended when outbreaks occur.

PMID- 28864155
TI  - Large-scale HFMD epidemics caused by Coxsackievirus A16 in Bangalore, India
      during 2013 and 2015.
AB  - Hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a relatively unreported disease in India.
      This study was undertaken to characterize the enterovirus type/s associated with
      two unexpectedly-massive epidemics that occurred in Bangalore, India in 2013 and
      2015. Stool samples of 229 children with HFMD living in Northern and Southern
      areas of Bangalore were tested by RT-PCR; 189 (82.5%) were enterovirus positive.
      The Indian CV-A16 strains exhibited 98-99% sequence identity with those reported
      in France and China in the 5' untranslated region. BLAST and phylogenetic
      analyses of complete genomes of representative Indian isolates revealed that the
      2015 epidemic was predominated by an inter-species recombinant between CV-A16 and
      coxsackievirus B5. The 2013 epidemic was primarily caused by nonrecombinant
      strains. The CV-A16 strains circulated in India since 2007 and phylogeographic
      analyses indicated imported cases in France and China. In conclusion, CV-A16
      associated HFMD epidemics should be recognized as an emerging public health
      problem in India.

PMID- 28864156
TI  - An evidence-based approach to the surgical interventions for severe pancreatic
      fistula after pancreatoduodenectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and therapeutic outcome of
      different surgical interventions for severe pancreatic fistula after
      pancreatoduodenectomy. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed in
      PubMed database for relevant articles published between 1990 and March 2017.
      Descriptive statistics were performed and data are expressed as mean. RESULTS:
      Twenty-four studies involving 370 patients undergoing surgical interventions for
      severe pancreatic fistula after pancreatoduodenectomy were included. Rates of
      further relaparotomy, in-hospital mortality, and long-term endocrine
      insufficiency were reported for completion pancreatectomy (31.8%, 42% and 100%
      respectively), disconnection of anastomosis with preservation of a pancreatic
      remnant (25%, 21.3% and 17.8% respectively), internal or external wirsungostomy
      (10.4%, 14.9%, and 12.3% respectively), salvage pancreaticogastrostomy (12.5%, 0%
      and 25%, respectively), and simple peripancreatic drainage (30%, 47.9% and 12.5%,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The pancreas-preserving strategy of disconnection of
      anastomosis with preservation of a pancreatic remnant, internal or external
      wirsungostomy, and salvage pancreatogastrostomy seems to be the preferred option
      for the treatment of severe pancreatic fistula after pancreatoduodenectomy. As
      completion pancreatectomy is a very aggressive treatment, it should only be
      reserved for specific instances in which organ-preserving resection is
      technically unfeasible.

PMID- 28864157
TI  - Basal insulin for the management of diabetic ketoacidosis.
AB  - Due to its pharmacokinetic properties, it has been suggested that long-acting
      insulin analogues may have a role in facilitating the transition from continuous
      intravenous insulin infusion to subcutaneous maintenance therapy in patients with
      DKA for prevention of rebound hyperglycemia, particularly if there are high
      insulin requirements. Concomitant administration of basal insulin analogues with
      regular insulin infusion accelerates ketoacidosis resolution and prevents rebound
      hyperglycemia. Several studies have investigated the use of basal insulin in the
      management of DKA. Studies have been instituted on pediatric patients and adult
      patients. These studies reveal that co-administration of basal insulin in
      combination with an insulin infusion in the acute management of DKA is feasible.
      Basal insulin co-administration with regular insulin infusion was well tolerated,
      associated with faster resolution of acidosis without any adverse effects;
      patients required a shorter duration of intravenous insulin infusion and had a
      lower total dose of intravenous insulin and significantly decreased hyperglycemia
      after discontinuation of the intravenous insulin. This could potentially lead to
      a shorter ICU length of stay and reduced costs in the treatment of DKA. However,
      this approach may be associated with an increased risk of hypokalemia. The
      current literature on this management approach is incomplete, due to its many
      limitations (retrospective nature, small sample size, nonrandomized design).
      Additional prospective randomized studies are needed on this new therapeutic
      approach in the management patients with DKA.

PMID- 28864158
TI  - An unusual case of distal necrosis. Looking for the truth.

PMID- 28864159
TI  - Predictors of Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation in Adults After Acute Type-A
      Aortic Dissection Repair-Implications for the Future.

PMID- 28864160
TI  - Incidence and Outcomes of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia in Patients Undergoing
      Vascular Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from years 2010 through 2012 was
      utilized to determine the incidence, predictive risk factors, and outcomes of
      heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) in patients undergoing vascular surgery.
      DESIGN: Retrospective population-based study. SETTING: Data from the National
      Inpatient Sample (NIS) (2011 through 2013) using specific International
      Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM)
      procedure codes corresponding with vascular surgery. PARTICIPANTS: 425,379
      hospital admissions in patients which underwent vascular surgery. Among these,
      1,290 (0.31%) were diagnosed with HIT, and 17,765 (4.18%) were diagnosed with
      secondary thrombocytopenia. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The incidence of HIT is
      0.3% in the vascular surgery population. The highest incidence is observed in
      thoraco-subclavian and vein reconstruction procedures. This study indicated that
      liver disease, endocarditis, chronic renal failure, congestive heart failure,
      atrial fibrillation, obesity, and female sex are associated with a higher
      incidence of HIT in this population. In vascular surgery patients, HIT can
      increase mortality by 3-fold and lead to severe complications such as acute renal
      failure, venous embolism, pulmonary embolism, and respiratory failure.
      CONCLUSION: The incidence of HIT in the vascular surgery population is similar to
      previously reported incidence in cardiac surgery patients. In the vascular
      surgery population, mortality increases 3-fold in patients with HIT versus those
      without any thrombocytopenia. Understanding the associated risk factors and
      complications will allow clinicians to make informed decisions and anticipate HIT
      and associated complications in certain high-risk populations.

PMID- 28864161
TI  - Mecillinam - Reversion of Resistance and How to Test It.

PMID- 28864163
TI  - [Image-guided tumor ablation].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ablatives techniques for destroying in situ a tumoral process aim
      tissular necrosis by the application of several physical principles. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We searched MEDLINE(r), Embase(r), using (MeSH) words; from January 2005
      through May 2017, and we looked for all the studies. Investigators graded the
      strength of evidence in terms of methodology, language and relevance. RESULTS:
      Forty-seven articles were analyzed. We described ablative techniques and sorted
      them in thermal and non-thermal therapies according to the used physical
      principle and their frequency of use in the urological pathology. CONCLUSION:
      Percutaneous ablative therapies are mini-invasive techniques, which have an
      important role in tumors focal treatment. This article is a review of the
      ablative therapies and describes their physical principles, their equipment and
      their recent technological modifications, which have been developed to improve
      the clinical success of these techniques.

PMID- 28864164
TI  - Baumol's Disease.

PMID- 28864162
TI  - Treatment-Induced Viral Cure of Hepatitis C Virus-Infected Patients Involves a
      Dynamic Interplay among three Important Molecular Players in Lipid Homeostasis:
      Circulating microRNA (miR)-24, miR-223, and Proprotein Convertase
      Subtilisin/Kexin Type 9.
AB  - In patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, viral hijacking of
      the host-cell biosynthetic pathways is associated with altered lipid metabolism,
      which contributes to disease progression and may influence antiviral response. We
      investigated the molecular interplay among four key regulators of lipid
      homeostasis [microRNA (miR)-122, miR-24, miR-223, and proprotein convertase
      subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9)] in HCV-infected patients (n=72) who achieved a
      treatment-based viral cure after interferon-based therapy with first-generation
      direct-acting antivirals. Real-time PCR was used to quantify microRNA plasma
      levels, and ELISA assays were used to determine plasma concentrations of PCSK9.
      We report that levels of miR-24 and miR-223 significantly increased in patients
      achieving sustained virologic response (SVR), whereas the levels of miR-122, a
      liver-specific cofactor for HCV infection, decreased in these patients. PCSK9
      concentrations were significantly increased in SVRs, suggesting that PCSK9 may
      help impede viral infection. The modulatory effect of PCSK9 on HCV infection was
      also demonstrated in the context of HCV-infected Huh-7.5.1 cells employing
      recombinant human PCSK9 mutants. Together, these results provide insights into a
      novel coordinated interplay among three important molecular players in lipid
      homeostasis - circulating miR-24, miR-223 and PCSK9 - whose regulation is
      affected by HCV infection and treatment-based viral cure.

PMID- 28864165
TI  - Public Reporting of MRI of the Lumbar Spine for Low Back Pain and Changes in
      Clinical Documentation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: OP-8 is the Medicare imaging efficiency metric for MRI of the lumbar
      spine for low back pain in the outpatient hospital. We studied trends in
      exclusion criteria coding over time by site of service after implementation of OP
      8 to evaluate provider's response to public reporting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      conducted a secondary data analysis using the Medicare Limited Data Set 5% sample
      for beneficiaries with MRI lumbar spine and lower back pain during 2009 to 2014.
      We evaluated the association between excluding condition prevalence and site by
      using generalized estimating equations regression. We produced model-based
      estimates of excluding condition prevalence by site and year. As a sensitivity
      analysis, we repeated the analysis while including additional conditions in the
      outcome measure. RESULTS: We included 285,911 MRIs of the lumbar spine for low
      back pain. Generalized estimating equations regression found that outpatient
      hospitals had a higher proportion of MRIs with at least one excluding condition
      documented compared with outpatient clinics (P < .05), but increases in excluding
      condition prevalence were similar across all sites during 2009 to 2014. Our
      results were not sensitive to the inclusion of additional conditions. CONCLUSION:
      Documentation of excluding conditions and other clinically reasonable exclusions
      for OP-8 increased over time for outpatient hospitals and clinics. Increases in
      documentation of comorbidities may not translate to actual improvement in imaging
      appropriateness for low back pain. When accounting for all relevant conditions,
      the proportion of patients with low back pain considered uncomplicated and being
      measured by OP-8 would be small, reflecting a small proportion of patients with
      low back pain.

PMID- 28864166
TI  - Artemisinin permeability via Caco-2 cells increases after simulated digestion of
      Artemisia annua leaves.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Artemisia annua has been used for > 2000yrs to
      treat fever and is more recently known for producing the important antimalarial
      drug, artemisinin. AIM OF THE STUDY: Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are
      effective for treating malaria, but are often unavailable to those in need. Dried
      leaves of A. annua (DLA) have recently been studied as a cost effective
      alternative to traditional ACTs. DLA was shown to dramatically increase oral
      bioavailability compared to pure artemisinin, so more investigation into the
      mechanisms causing this increased bioavailability is needed. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this study, we used a simulated digestion system coupled with Caco-2
      cell permeability assays to investigate the intestinal permeability of DLA
      compared to pure artemisinin. We also determined the effects of different
      phytochemicals (7 flavonoids, 3 monoterpenes, 2 phenolic acids, scopoletin and
      inulin) and the cytochrome P450 isoform CYP3A4 on artemisinin intestinal
      permeability. RESULTS: Artemisinin permeability, when delivered as digested DLA,
      significantly increased by 37% (Papp = 8.03 * 10-5cms-1) compared to pure
      artemisinin (Papp = 5.03 * 10-5cms-1). However, none of the phytochemicals tested
      or CYP3A4 had any significant effect on the intestinal permeability of
      artemisinin. We also showed that essential oil derived from A. annua negatively
      affected the intestinal permeability of artemisinin, but only after simulated
      digestion. Finally, we showed that A. annua essential oil reduced the
      transepithelial electrical resistance of Caco-2 monolayers, but only in the
      presence of bile. Although also reduced by essential oils, artemisinin Papp
      subsequently recovered in the presence of plant matrix. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results shed light on the mechanisms by which DLA enhances the oral
      bioavailability of artemisinin.

PMID- 28864167
TI  - A review of cinnabar (HgS) and/or realgar (As4S4)-containing traditional
      medicines.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMOCOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Herbo-metallic preparations have a long history
      in the treatment of diseases, and are still used today for refractory diseases,
      as adjuncts to standard therapy, or for economic reasons in developing countries.
      AIM OF THE REVIEW: This review uses cinnabar (HgS) and realgar (As4S4) as mineral
      examples to discuss their occurrence, therapeutic use, pharmacology, toxicity in
      traditional medicine mixtures, and research perspectives. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A literature search on cinnabar and realgar from PubMed, Chinese pharmacopeia,
      Google and other sources was carried out. Traditional medicines containing both
      cinnabar and realgar (An-Gong-Niu-Huang Wan, Hua-Feng-Dan); mainly cinnabar (Zhu
      Sha-An-Shen Wan; Zuotai and Dangzuo), and mainly realgar (Huang-Dai Pian; Liu
      Shen Wan; Niu-Huang-Jie-Du) are discussed. RESULTS: Both cinnabar and realgar
      used in traditional medicines are subjected to special preparation procedures to
      remove impurities. Metals in these traditional medicines are in the sulfide forms
      which are different from environmental mercurials (HgCl2, MeHg) or arsenicals
      (NaAsO2, NaH2AsO4). Cinnabar and/or realgar are seldom used alone, but rather as
      mixtures with herbs and/or animal products in traditional medicines. Advanced
      technologies are now used to characterize these preparations. The
      bioaccessibility, absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination of these
      herbo-metallic preparations are different from environmental metals. The
      rationale of including metals in traditional remedies and their interactions with
      drugs need to be justified. At higher therapeutic doses, balance of the benefits
      and risks is critical. Surveillance of patients using these herbo-metallic
      preparations is desired. CONCLUSION: Chemical forms of mercury and arsenic are a
      major determinant of their disposition, efficacy and toxicity, and the use of
      total Hg and As alone for risk assessment of metals in traditional medicines is
      insufficient.

PMID- 28864168
TI  - Liuweiwuling tablets attenuate BDL-induced hepatic fibrosis via modulation of TGF
      beta/Smad and NF-kappaB signaling pathways.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Liuweiwuling (LWWL) tablets contain a six-herb
      Chinese formula and are commonly prescribed to facilitate nourishment of the
      liver and kidneys, clear away toxic materials and activate blood circulation.
      Administration of LWWL is well known for its protective effects on the liver and
      its capacity to confer long-term stability in patients exhibiting reduced
      transaminase levels. Clinical studies have reported that LWWL can also be used
      for the treatment of liver fibrosis with associated treatment regimens resulting
      in a concomitant reduction in transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) levels
      in the serum of patients with hepatic fibrosis. TGF-beta1 plays a prominent role
      in stimulating liver fibrogenesis and this effect is mediated by myofibroblasts
      (MFB) derived from hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). It is likely that this
      phenomenon underpins the antifibrotic effects associated with LWWL. AIM: The
      purpose of this study was to investigate the antifibrotic effects and mechanisms
      pertaining to LWWL. METHODS: Hepatic fibrosis was induced in rats following bile
      duct ligation (BDL). Rats that underwent BDL received daily gavage administration
      of colchicine (0.2mg/kg per day), LWWL (0.4, 1.6, 6.4g/kg per day) or PBS (for
      the control group). Pathological changes in hepatic tissue were examined using
      hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and sirius red staining. Immunohistochemical analysis
      was performed to monitor alpha-SMA and type I collagen (Collagen I) protein
      expression. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot analyses were used to monitor the expression
      of genes and proteins in the TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathway, including TGF
      beta1, bone morphogenic protein and activin membrane-bound inhibitor (Bambi),
      Smad3, phosphorylated Smad3 (p-Smad3) and Smad7. We also monitored the expression
      of genes and proteins in the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) signaling pathway,
      including NF-kappaB p65, IkappaBalpha and phosphorylation of IkappaBalpha (p
      IkappaBalpha), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and
      interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta). RESULTS: LWWL dose-dependently inhibited BDL
      induced liver injury and hepatic fibrosis in rats. Furthermore, LWWL reduced
      liver tissue collagen deposition, hydroxyproline content, liver dysfunction and
      alpha-SMA expression in BDL-induced hepatic fibrosis rats. Moreover, LWWL
      markedly prevented activation of the TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathway by
      inhibiting expression of Smad2/3 and phosphorylation of Smad3, and upregulating
      the expression of Bambi and Smad7. In addition, LWWL regulated the expression of
      the inflammatory cytokines IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and IL-6 by inhibiting the
      activation of NF-kappaB p65 and the phosphorylation of IkappaBalpha, and
      increasing the expression of IkappaBalpha. CONCLUSIONS: LWWL can attenuate BDL
      induced hepatic fibrosis in rats, and this effect may be due to modulation of the
      NF-kappaB-dependent inflammatory response and activation of HSC and TGF-beta/Smad
      mediated synthesis and degradation of Collagen I.

PMID- 28864169
TI  - Molecular understanding of Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in cardiovascular and
      metabolic diseases.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The compound epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG),
      the major polyphenolic compound present in green tea [Camellia sinensis
      (Theaceae], has shown numerous cardiovascular health promoting activity through
      modulating various pathways. However, molecular understanding of the
      cardiovascular protective role of EGCG has not been reported. AIM OF THE REVIEW:
      This review aims to compile the preclinical and clinical studies that had been
      done on EGCG to investigate its protective effect on cardiovascular and metabolic
      diseases in order to provide a systematic guidance for future research. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Research papers related to EGCG were obtained from the major
      scientific databases, for example, Science direct, PubMed, NCBI, Springer and
      Google scholar, from 1995 to 2017. RESULTS: EGCG was found to exhibit a wide
      range of therapeutic properties including anti-atherosclerosis, anti-cardiac
      hypertrophy, anti-myocardial infarction, anti-diabetes, anti-inflammatory and
      antioxidant. These therapeutic effects are mainly associated with the inhibition
      of LDL cholesterol (anti-atherosclerosis), inhibition of NF-kappaB (anti-cardiac
      hypertrophy), inhibition of MPO activity (anti-myocardial infarction), reduction
      in plasma glucose and glycated haemoglobin level (anti-diabetes), reduction of
      inflammatory markers (anti-inflammatory) and the inhibition of ROS generation
      (antioxidant). CONCLUSION: EGCG shows different biological activities and in this
      review, a compilation of how this bioactive molecule plays its role in treating
      cardiovascular and metabolic diseases was discussed.

PMID- 28864170
TI  - FLAG-Ida Regimen as Bridge Therapy to Allotransplantation in Refractory/Relapsed
      Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with primary refractory or first relapse acute myeloid
      leukemia (AML) are considered to have worse clinical outcomes after treatment.
      For these patients, the achievement of complete remission appears crucial for
      them to be able to undergo allotransplantation, which might be the only possible
      treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We used the FLAG-Ida (fludarabine, cytarabine
      [cytosine arabinoside], granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, idarubicin)
      regimen in patients with primary refractory/first relapse AML as a bridge to
      transplantation. We studied its efficacy in terms of overall response and overall
      survival to assess which variables (age, lactate dehydrogenase, bone marrow blast
      count, peripheral blood blast count, platelet count, white blood cell count, de
      novo or secondary AML, molecular-cytogenetic risk, duration of response, and
      relapsed or refractory disease) might have an effect on outcome. RESULTS: We
      analyzed the data from 108 consecutive adult patients (52 males, 66 females;
      median age, 49 years; range, 17-72 years) with newly diagnosed AML refractory to
      standard induction regimens or relapse after first complete remission, who had
      received the FLAG-Ida protocol as salvage therapy from January 2005 to December
      2015. An overall response was achieved in 48 patients (44%). On multivariate
      analysis, the variables with a positive effect on the response rate were
      molecular-cytogenetic risk (P = .009), duration of first response in relapsed AML
      (P = .003), AML status (relapsed or refractory; P = .047), and peripheral blood
      blast count (P = .016). On multivariate analysis, overall survival was
      significantly associated with FLAG-Ida response (hazard ratio, 0.343; P = .001)
      and receipt of allotransplantation (hazard ratio, 0.277; P < .001). CONCLUSION:
      Our data seem to confirm the value of FLAG-Ida in this setting and might suggest
      its best usage as bridge therapy for patients awaiting allotransplantation.

PMID- 28864171
TI  - Increased Mortality Among Patients With Acute Leukemia Admitted on Weekends
      Compared to Weekdays.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between weekend admission and patient outcomes has
      been reported in several acute illnesses but is unknown in acute leukemia.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: We used the 2002 to 2014 Nationwide Inpatient Sample to
      identify patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of acute leukemia. Admissions
      were classified as weekend or weekday admissions for comparison. Hierarchical
      logistic regression models were used to analyze predictors of hospital mortality.
      RESULTS: There was a 22.3% decline in acute leukemia admissions in 2014 compared
      to 2002 and a 4% decline in in-hospital mortality (19.0%-14.9%; P < .001). A
      total of 82,833 admissions were included in the study, and 14,241 (17.19%)
      occurred over the weekend. Hospital mortality was higher for weekend than weekday
      admissions (18.8% vs. 16.1%; P < .001). Weekend admissions were less likely to
      undergo early bone marrow biopsy than their weekday counterparts (27.5% vs.
      46.3%; P < .01). Bone marrow biopsy (adjusted odds ratio 0.36; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 0.33-0.39; P < .001) and admission to a teaching hospital
      (adjusted odds ratio, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.56-0.75; P < .001) independently predicted
      lower hospital mortality. Weekend admission was associated with higher hospital
      mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 1.12; 95 CI, 1.02-1.23; P = .01) and more
      complications (50.6% vs. 47.8%; P < .001) than weekday admissions. CONCLUSION:
      There was significantly increased mortality among weekend admissions for acute
      leukemia. Mortality was reduced among patients admitted to teaching hospitals.

PMID- 28864172
TI  - Do Patients Understand the Role of Resident Physicians in the Operating Room? A
      Survey of Gynaecology Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Studies from disciplines outside gynaecology have found that most
      patients do not understand the clinical responsibilities allocated to physicians
      in-training. No research on this topic has been published in gynaecology, despite
      litigation against gynaecological surgeons regarding the role of residents in
      surgery. The goal of this research was to explore what gynaecological surgery
      patients understand about the role of resident doctors. METHODS: A questionnaire
      was distributed to female patients in gynaecological surgery pre-admission
      clinics in Edmonton, Alberta. Surveys included knowledge and opinion statements
      about residents' duties. Anonymous responses were entered into a secure database.
      Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the results. RESULTS: Of 108
      participants, 83% understood that residents had a higher level of training than
      medical students, yet 40% were unsure whether residents were doctors. Almost one
      half (43%) of participants were uncertain whether residents required supervision,
      including while operating (20%). Most (92%) believed it was important to know
      their physician's level of training, yet only 63% reported knowing this
      information. Only 50% of participants would be comfortable with residents
      operating on them under supervision. A considerable number (56%) wanted to learn
      more about residents' roles. CONCLUSION: Patients do not fully understand the
      role of residents, and many are uncomfortable with trainees operating on them
      under supervision. Considering the significant role of residents in patient care,
      educating patients is essential to improve their comfort and the overall consent
      process.

PMID- 28864173
TI  - Stenose ureterale a la suite de l'excision de lesions d'endometriose profonde.

PMID- 28864174
TI  - Ureteric Stricture Following Excision of Deep Endometriosis.

PMID- 28864175
TI  - Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas in Mature Cystic Teratomas: A Case Report and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mature teratomas, better known as dermoid cysts, are the most common
      ovarian neoplasms in women in the second and third decade of life. They are
      invariably benign, and most women are asymptomatic. Ovarian cystectomy is the
      preferred therapeutic option. CASE: A 24-year-old woman was planned for elective
      laparoscopic cystectomy for a suspected teratoma; operative findings led to a
      unilateral oophorectomy. Pathological analysis of the specimen revealed a focus
      of large cell lymphoma of unknown lineage arising in a mature cystic teratoma. A
      total body positron emission tomography (PET) scan revealed no other disease, and
      the patient was managed conservatively with regular follow-up. CONCLUSION:
      Lymphoma in a teratoma is an excessively rare finding with only five previously
      reported cases. A review of the literature revealed very different theories as to
      its pathogenesis and management.

PMID- 28864176
TI  - Riboflavin and ultraviolet A irradiation for the prevention of progressive myopia
      in a guinea pig model.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated the effect of oral administration of riboflavin
      combined with whole-body ultraviolet A (UVA) irradiation on the biochemical and
      biomechanical properties of sclera in a guinea pig model to control the
      progression of myopia. Experimental groups were administered 0.1% riboflavin
      solution with or without vitamin C by gavage from 3 days before myopic modeling
      and during the modeling process. Guinea pigs underwent 30 min of whole-body UVA
      irradiation after each gavage for 2 weeks. For control groups, guinea pigs were
      administered vitamin C and underwent either whole-body UVA irradiation without
      0.1% riboflavin solution or whole-body fluorescent lamp irradiation with or
      without 0.1% riboflavin solution. Resultantly, myopia models were established
      with an increased axial length and myopic diopter. Compared with myopic eyes in
      the control groups, the net increase in axial length, diopter and strain
      assessment decreased significantly, and the net decrease in sclera thickness,
      ultimate load, and stress assessment decreased significantly in experimental
      groups. MMP-2 expression showed a lower net increase, while TIMP-2 expression
      showed a lower net decrease. In addition, hyperplasia of scleral fibroblasts was
      more active in myopic eyes of experimental groups. Overall, our results showed
      that oral administration of riboflavin with whole-body UVA irradiation could
      increase the strength and stiffness of sclera by altering the biochemical and
      biomechanical properties, and decreases in axial elongation and myopic diopter
      are greater in the guinea pig myopic model.

PMID- 28864177
TI  - Corneoscleral stiffening increases IOP spike magnitudes during rapid
      microvolumetric change in the eye.
AB  - Factors governing the steady-state IOP have been extensively studied; however,
      the dynamic aspects of IOP are less understood. Clinical studies have suggested
      that intraocular pressure (IOP) fluctuation may be associated with glaucoma risk.
      This study aims to investigate how stiffening of corneoscleral biomechanical
      properties affects IOP spikes induced by rapid microvolumetric change. Porcine
      eyes (n = 25 in total) were subjected to volumetric infusions before and after
      external treatment of a circular area (11 mm diameter) in either the central
      cornea or posterior sclera. The treated area in the control group was immersed in
      phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for 40 min, while the treated area of the
      chemical crosslinking group was immersed in 4% glutaraldehyde/PBS for 40 min. A
      subset of the sham-treated eyes was also subjected to volumetric infusions at a
      raised steady-state IOP. The magnitude of IOP spikes increased after localized
      chemical crosslinking of either the cornea (27.5% increase, p < 0.001) or the
      sclera (14.3% increase, p < 0.001) with corneal crosslinking having a stronger
      effect than scleral crosslinking (p = 0.018). We also observed that raising the
      steady-state IOP from 15 to 25 mmHg resulted in marked increase in IOP spike
      magnitudes by 63.9% (p < 0.001). These results suggested that an increased
      corneoscleral stiffness could significantly increase IOP spike magnitudes at the
      same volumetric change. Corneal stiffness appeared to have a strong impact on the
      IOP spike magnitude and may play a major role in regulating rapid volume-pressure
      dynamics. An increase in steady-state IOP also resulted in larger IOP
      fluctuations due to the increased "apparent" stiffness of the ocular shell,
      suggesting a potential interaction between the magnitude of IOP and its
      fluctuations. Corneoscleral properties may represent additional pathways for
      understanding and managing glaucoma risk and warrant future investigation.

PMID- 28864178
TI  - Very early onset inflammatory bowel disease: Investigation of the IL-10 signaling
      pathway in Iranian children.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIM: Comparing to adult inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), those with
      early onset manifestations have different features in terms of the underlying
      molecular pathology, the course of disease and the response to therapy. We
      investigated the IL-10 signaling pathway previously reported as an important
      cause of infantile (Very Early Onset) IBD to find any possible variants. METHOD:
      With the next generation sequencing technique we screened IL-10, IL-10RA and
      IL10RB genes of 15 children affected by very early onset-GI (gastrointestinal)
      disorders. Additionally, we analyzed them based on Thermo Fisher immune
      deficiency panel for genes either having a known role in IBD pathogenesis or
      cause the disorders with overlapping manifestations. We performed multiple
      functional analyses only for the cases showing variants in IL-10- related genes.
      RESULT: In 3 out of 15 patients we identified variants including a homozygous and
      heterozygote mutations in IL-10RA and a novel homozygous mutation in IL-12RB1.
      Our functional studies reveal that in contrast to the IL-10RA heterozygote
      mutation that does not have deleterious effects, the homozygous mutation
      abrogates the IL-10 signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests we need to
      modify the classical diagnostic approach from functional assays followed by
      candidate- gene or genes sequencing to the firstly parallel genomic screening
      followed by functional studies.

PMID- 28864179
TI  - Microfluidic device coupled with a microfabricated oxygen electrode for the
      measurement of bactericidal activity of neutrophil-like cells.
AB  - A microfluidic device coupled with a microfabricated Clark-type oxygen electrode
      was used to measure the bactericidal activity of neutrophil-like cells
      differentiated from HL-60 cells. The neutrophil-like cells and Escherichia coli
      (E. coli) cells were cultured in the same medium, which was introduced into the
      flow channel of the device. Changes in the respiratory activity of E. coli were
      measured as changes in the consumption of dissolved oxygen. As the activity of
      the neutrophil-like cells increased, the rate of elimination of E. coli
      increased. The accompanying decrease in the number of E. coli reduced the
      consumption of dissolved oxygen. The changes were actually observed as changes in
      generated current. A distinct difference in changes in dissolved oxygen
      concentrations was observed between E. coli cells co-incubated with IFN-gamma
      activated or non-activated neutrophil-like cells. The required sample volume was
      less than 10 MUL, and results could be obtained within 1-2 h. The device may be
      useful for the assessment of psychological stresses that affect the activity of
      neutrophils.

PMID- 28864180
TI  - Nitric oxide sensing by chlorophyll a.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) acts as a signalling molecule that has direct and indirect
      regulatory roles in various functional processes in biology, though in plant
      kingdom its role is relatively unexplored. One reason for this is the fact that
      sensing of NO is always challenging. There are very few probes that can classify
      the different NO species. The present paper proposes a simple but straightforward
      way for sensing different NO species using chlorophyll, the source of inspiration
      being hemoglobin that serves as NO sink in mammalian systems. The proposed method
      is able to classify NO from DETA-NONOate or (Z)-1-[N-(2-aminoethyl)-N-(2
      ammonioethyl) amino] diazen-1-ium-1,2-diolate, nitrite, nitrate and S
      nitrosothiol or SNO. This discrimination is carried out by chlorophyll a (chl a)
      at nano molar (nM) order of sensitivity and at 293 K-310 K. Molecular docking
      reveals the differential binding effects of NO and SNO with chlorophyll, the
      predicted binding affinity matching with the experimental observation. Additional
      experiments with a diverse range of cyanobacteria reveal that apart from the
      spectroscopic approach the proposed sensing module can be used in microscopic
      inspection of NO species. Binding of NO is sensitive to temperature and static
      magnetic field. This provides additional support for the involvement of the
      porphyrin ring structures to the NO sensing process. This also, broadens the
      scope of the sensing methods as hinted in the text.

PMID- 28864181
TI  - Novel ionic liquid matrices for qualitative and quantitative detection of
      carbohydrates by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry.
AB  - Analysis of carbohydrates based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
      mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) is still challenging and researchers have been
      devoting themselves to efficient matrices discovery. In the present study, the
      design, synthesis, qualitative and quantitative performance of non-derivative
      ionic liquid matrices (ILMs) were reported. DHB/N-methylaniline (N-MA) and DHB/N
      ethylaniline (N-EA), performing best for carbohydrate detection, have been
      screened out. The limit of detection for oligosaccharide provided by DHB/N-MA and
      DHB/N-EA were as low as 10 fmol. DHB/N-MA and DHB/N-EA showed significantly
      higher ion generation efficiency than DHB. The comparison of capacity to probe
      polysaccharide between these two ILMs and DHB also revealed their powerful
      potential. Their outstanding performance were probably due to lower proton
      affinities and stronger UV absorption at lambda = 355 nm. What is more, taking
      DHB/N-MA as an example, quantitative analysis of fructo-oligosaccharide mixtures
      extracted and identified from rice noodles has been accomplished sensitively
      using an internal standard method. Overall, DHB/N-MA and DHB/N-EA exhibited
      excellent performance and might be significant sources as the carbohydrate
      matrices.

PMID- 28864182
TI  - Integration of laminar flow extraction and capillary electrophoretic separation
      in one microfluidic chip for detection of plant alkaloids in blood samples.
AB  - The design, construction and testing for integration of liquid-liquid extraction
      (EX) and capillary electrophoretic (CE) separation on one glass microchip was
      reported. In this EX-CE chip, a 1.5 cm-long and 200 MUm-wide EX channel was used
      for extraction based on the two-phase laminar flow, followed by a single-cross CE
      unit for on-line analysis without any auxiliary devices. One side of the EX
      channel surface for the organic solvent phase was selectively modified to be
      hydrophobic while the surface of the other side for the aqueous phase remained
      hydrophilic, and the extraction product reservoir is also used as the sample
      reservoir for the subsequent chip separation in the CE channel. With the surface
      directed liquid flow behavior and liquid level adjustment in various reservoirs
      of the EX-CE chip, no disturbance occurred between the extraction (EX) and
      capillary electrophoretic (CE) units. A small heating block was placed under the
      chip to accelerate solvent evaporation after liquid-liquid extraction.
      Sanguinarine (SAN), a plant alkaloid, was used as a model analyte to evaluate the
      performance of the EX-CE chip. The influences of organic solvent type and liquid
      flow speed on the extraction efficiency were investigated. Rhodamine 123 (Rh123)
      was used as an internal standard for quantification of Sanguinarine (SAN) in a
      physiological buffer (e.g. PBS) or blood samples. A good linearity in the
      concentration range of 0.05 MUg mL-1 to 0.1 mg mL-1 for SAN in PBS was obtained,
      with the detection limit of 0.5 ng mL-1. Good repeatibilities for migration times
      (RSD of SAN is 0.63%, Rh123 is 0.91%, n = 5) and peak area ratio of SAN to Rh123
      (RSD is 1.3%, n = 5) were obtained. For blood sample analysis, only 20 MUL of
      sample was needed, and the whole analysis was finished in 17 min. In addition to
      the advantages in fast analysis speed, minimum sample handling, potential
      automation, the reported method showed an on-line sample pre-concentration
      capability.

PMID- 28864183
TI  - Novel volumetric method for highly repeatable injection in microchip
      electrophoresis.
AB  - A novel injector for microchip electrophoresis (MCE) has been designed and
      evaluated that achieves very high repeatability of injection volume suitable for
      quantitative analysis. It eliminates the injection biases in electrokinetic
      injection and the dependence on pressure and sample properties in hydrodynamic
      injection. The microfluidic injector, made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS),
      operates similarly to an HPLC injection valve. It contains a channel segment
      (chamber) with a well-defined volume that serves as an "injection loop". Using on
      chip microvalves, the chamber can be connected to the sample source during the
      "loading" step, and to the CE separation channel during the "injection" step.
      Once the valves are opened in the second state, electrophoretic potential is
      applied to separate the sample. For evaluation and demonstration purposes, the
      microinjector was connected to a 75 MUm ID capillary and UV absorbance detector.
      For single compounds, a relative standard deviation (RSD) of peak area as low as
      1.04% (n = 11) was obtained, and for compound mixtures, RSD as low as 0.40% (n =
      4) was observed. Using the same microchip, the performance of this new injection
      technique was compared to hydrodynamic injection and found to have improved
      repeatability and less dependence on sample viscosity. Furthermore, a non
      radioactive version of the positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging probe, FLT,
      was successfully separated from its known 3 structurally-similar byproducts with
      baseline resolution, demonstrating the potential for rapid, quantitative analysis
      of impurities to ensure the safety of batches of short-lived radiotracers. Both
      the separation efficiency and injection repeatability were found to be
      substantially higher when using the novel volumetric injection approach compared
      to electrokinetic injection (performed in the same chip). This novel
      microinjector provides a straightforward way to improve the performance of
      hydrodynamic injection and enables extremely repeatable sample volume injection
      in MCE. It could be used in any MCE application where volume repeatability is
      needed, including the quantitation of impurities in pharmaceutical or
      radiopharmaceutical samples.

PMID- 28864184
TI  - Reduced graphene oxide as a resonance light-scattering probe for thrombin
      detection using dual-aptamer-based dsDNA.
AB  - This paper describes a reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-based resonance light
      scattering (RLS) method for thrombin detection by using double strand DNA (dsDNA)
      as a binding element. dsDNA is obtained by hybridizing DNA1 and DNA2, which
      respectively consist of one aptamer of thrombin and the complementary strand of
      the other aptamer of thrombin. When thrombin is added, the specific binding of
      two aptamers to thrombin results in a complex (DNA1-thrombin-DNA2) and triggers
      the release of the complementary strand of two aptamers from dsDNA. The released
      ssDNA can be self-assembled on the surface of RGO to form a stable DNA1-thrombin
      DNA2-RGO complex, which increases RLS signals. This simple and rapid method has
      enabled the detection of thrombin in the picomolar level in buffer and human
      serum samples. This study is the first to use RGO as a platform in RLS sensor,
      which can extend the application of RGO.

PMID- 28864185
TI  - Sensitive amperometric detection of riboflavin with a whole-cell electrochemical
      sensor.
AB  - A novel whole-cell electrochemical sensor was developed and applied for sensitive
      amperometric detection of riboflavin. In this work, a whole-cell based riboflavin
      redox cycling system was characterized, in which electroactive bacteria
      Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 was employed as the biocatalyst to regenerate the
      reduced riboflavin after the electrode oxidation. This redox cycling system
      efficiently enhanced the electrochemical response of riboflavin and enabled a
      stable current output at poised electrode potential. Thus, a sensitive
      amperometric biosensing system for riboflavin detection was developed by
      integrating this whole-cell redox cycling system with the conventional riboflavin
      electrochemical sensor. Remarkably, this riboflavin biosensor exhibited high
      sensitivity (LOD = 0.85 +/- 0.09 nM, S/N = 3), excellent selectivity and
      stability. Additionally, reliable analysis of real samples (food and
      pharmaceutical samples) by this biosensor was achieved. This work provided
      sensitive and practical tool for riboflavin detection, and demonstrated that the
      integration of electroactive bacteria and using its outwards electron transfer
      for redox cycling would be a powerful and promising strategy to improve the
      performance of electrochemical sensing system.

PMID- 28864186
TI  - Facile synthesis of MnO2-embedded flower-like hierarchical porous carbon
      microspheres as an enhanced electrocatalyst for sensitive detection of caffeic
      acid.
AB  - Tailored designs/fabrications of hierarchical porous advanced electrode materials
      are of great importance for developing high-performance electrochemical sensors.
      Herein, we demonstrate a simple and low-cost in situ chemical approach for the
      facile synthesis of MnO2-embedded hierarchical porous carbon microspheres
      (MnO2/CM). By the characterizations of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and energy dispersive
      spectroscopy, we evidenced that the synthesized product were flower-like carbon
      microspheres (CM) assembled by the bent flakes with thickness of about several
      nanometers and MnO2 nanorods were highly dispersed and successfully decorated on
      the CM layers, resulting in a rough surface and three-dimensional microstructure.
      The greatest benefit from the combined porous CM with MnO2 nanorods is that the
      MnO2/CM modified electrode has the synergetic catalysis effect on the electro
      oxidation of caffeic acid, leading to the remarkable increase in the electron
      transfer rate and significant decrease in the over-potential for the caffeic acid
      oxidation in contrast to the bare electrode and CM modified electrode. This
      implies that the prepared MnO2/CM can be employed as an enhanced electrocatalyst
      for the sensitive detection of caffeic acid. Under the optimum conditions, the
      anodic peak current of caffeic acid is linear with its concentration in the range
      of 0.01-15.00 MUmol L-1, and a detection limit of 2.7 nmol L-1 is achieved based
      on S/N = 3. The developed sensor shows good selectivity, sensitivity,
      reproducibility, and also excellent recovery in the detections of real samples,
      revealing the promising practicality of the sensor for the caffeic acid
      detection.

PMID- 28864187
TI  - Quantum-dot nanoprobes and AOTF based cross talk eliminated six color imaging of
      biomolecules in cellular system.
AB  - Primary cell cultures mimic the physiology and genetic makeup of in-vivo tissue
      of origin, nonetheless, a complication in the derivation and propagation of
      primary cell culture limits its use in biological research. However, in-vitro
      models using primary cells might be a complement model to mimic in vivo response.
      But, conventional techniques such as western blot and PCR employed to study the
      expression and activation of proteins requires a large number of cells, hence
      repeated establishment and maintenance of primary culture are unavoidable.
      Quantum dot (Q-dot) and acousto-optic tunable filters (AOTF) based multiplex
      imaging system is a viable alternative choice to evaluate multiple signaling
      molecules by using a small number of cells. Q-dots have broad excitation and
      narrow emission spectra, which allows to simultaneously excite multiple Q-dots by
      using single excitation wavelength. The use of AOTF in the fluorescence detection
      system enables to scan the fluorescence emission intensity of a Q-dot at their
      central wavelength, this phenomenon effectively avoids spectral overlap among the
      neighboring Q-dots. When Q-dots are conjugated with antibodies it acts as
      effective sensing probes. To validate this, the expression pattern of p-JNK-1, p
      GSK3beta, p-IRS1ser, p-IRS1tyr, p-FOXO1, and PPAR-gamma, involved in the insulin
      resistance were concurrently monitored in adipocyte and HepG2 co-cell culture
      model. The observed results clearly indicate that PPAR-gamma is the critical
      component in the development of insulin resistance. Moreover, the results proved
      that developed Q-dot based AOTF imaging methodology is a sensible choice to
      concurrently monitor multiple signaling molecules with limited cell population.

PMID- 28864188
TI  - Fluorescence sensor array based on amino acids-modulating quantum dots for the
      discrimination of metal ions.
AB  - We developed an easily extensible fluorescence sensor array based on amino acids
      modulating QDs for the discrimination of nine metal ions. Two amino acids
      (Glutamine and Arginine) were assembled with two quantum dots including 3
      mercaptopropionic acid capped Mn-ZnS QDs (MPA-QDs) and alpha-thioglycerol capped
      Mn-ZnS QDs (TG-QDs), achieving six across-reactive sensing elements. Amino acids
      as the modulators imparted the diversity and differential detection of metal
      ions, because they could bind QDs and also form complexes with metal ions through
      their carboxyl, amino, and hydroxyl groups. Therefore, the fluorescence response
      signals for metal ions could be either enhanced or decreased. This sensing system
      allowed the accurate classification of nine metal ions in pure water at 0.5 MUM
      and tap water at 3.0 MUM. Moreover, two metal ions with different oxidation state
      Fe3+ and Fe2+, as well as their binary mixtures were well distinguished. Our
      sensor array was capable of the quantitative analysis of metal ions, showing a
      linear range from 0.5 MUM to 20 MUM for Co2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, and Fe2+. The results
      demonstrated that the number of sensing elements was easily extensible by using
      amino acids as QDs regulators. This strategy will provide a new direction to
      establish the sensitive array sensing systems.

PMID- 28864189
TI  - High-performance chiral stationary phases based on chitosan derivatives with a
      branched-chain alkyl urea.
AB  - In this study, two series of chitosan 3,6-bis(arylcarbamate)-2-(isobutylurea)s
      and corresponding coated-type chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were prepared from
      two kinds of chitosans with different molecular weights. Most of the prepared
      CSPs demonstrated better enantioseparation performance than the homemade CSP of
      cellulose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate). The CSPs of chitosan 3,6-bis(4
      methylphenylcarbamate)-2-(isobutylurea) with higher molecular weight and chitosan
      3,6-bis(3-chloro-4-methylphenylcarbamate)-2-(isobutylurea) with lower molecular
      weight possessed outstanding chiral recognition abilities which were at least as
      good as that of the commercialized CSP of Chiralcel OD-H towards the tested
      chiral analytes. Except for the two CSPs derived from chitosan 3,6-bis(4
      methylphenylcarbamate)-2-(isobutylurea)s, the CSPs (the first class) with the
      chiral selectors of lower molecular weight provided better enantioseparations
      than the ones (the second class) with the chiral selectors of higher molecular
      weight. On the other hand, the chiral selectors of the first class CSPs showed
      higher swelling capacities in organic solvents than the ones of the second class.
      All prepared CSPs could be analyzed with a wider range of mobile phases, in which
      some "unusual organic solvents" such as ethyl acetate, chloroform and THF etc.
      could be used as additives. According to separation performance and tolerance
      against organic solvents, we concluded that the chitosan derivatives with
      branched-chain alkyl urea at 2-C of glucosamine residue were preferable to be
      used as chiral selectors for enantiomeric separation.

PMID- 28864190
TI  - Core-shell silica microsphere-based trypsin nanoreactor for low molecular-weight
      proteome analysis.
AB  - Core-shell mesoporous silica (CSMS) microspheres with tunable mesopores in the
      shell are highly desired in various bioapplications. With novel CSMS microspheres
      that are synthesized using a convenient two-phase process, we report in this
      study the analysis of low molecular-weight (MW < 30 kDa) proteins by combining
      size-exclusion separation and enzyme immobilization. The obtained CSMS
      microspheres possess uniform diameter (1.3 MUm with a shell thickness of 57 nm),
      large and tunable perpendicular mesopores (7.9 nm), high surface area (55.5
      m2/g), large pore volume (0.12 cm3/g) and excellent water dispersibility. The
      CSMS microsphere-based enzyme nanoreactors have been fabricated by immobilizing
      trypsin on the pore channels of the CSMS microspheres using either physical
      absorption or covalent binding via thiol or aldehyde group with a high loading
      capacity of 11.8-6.1 mg/g. Due to the unique fibrous pore structure, low MW
      proteins can enter the channels in the shell to interact with immobilized
      trypsin, followed by analysis of the digestion products using MALDI-TOF MS or
      electrophoresis (CE) techniques. The properties and analytical performance of
      different trypsin-immobilized CSMS microspheres has been systematically
      evaluated. The results show that the peptide-sequence coverage of the smaller
      protein is enhanced by using trypsin-CSMS microspheres, indicating the size
      dependent digestion which results from the size-exclusion interaction of the
      mesopores against the high-MW proteins. The present study would pave the way for
      further applications of mesoporous materials in proteome analysis.

PMID- 28864191
TI  - Focusing and non-focusing modulation strategies for the improvement of on-line
      two-dimensional hydrophilic interaction chromatography * reversed phase profiling
      of complex food samples.
AB  - Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC * LC) is ever gaining
      interest in food analysis, as often, food-related samples are too complex to be
      analyzed through one-dimensional approaches. The use of hydrophilic interaction
      chromatography (HILIC) combined with reversed phase (RP) separations has already
      been demonstrated as a very orthogonal combination, which allows attaining
      increased resolving power. However, this coupling encompasses different
      analytical challenges, mainly related to the important solvent strength mismatch
      between the two dimensions, besides those common to every LC * LC method. In the
      present contribution, different strategies are proposed and compared to further
      increase HILIC * RP method performance for the analysis of complex food samples,
      using licorice as a model sample. The influence of different parameters in non
      focusing modulation methods based on sampling loops, as well as under focusing
      modulation, through the use of trapping columns in the interface and through
      active modulation procedures are studied in order to produce resolving power and
      sensitivity gains. Although the use of a dilution strategy using sampling loops
      as well as the highest possible first dimension sampling rate allowed significant
      improvements on resolution, focusing modulation produced significant gains also
      in peak capacity and sensitivity. Overall, the obtained results demonstrate the
      great applicability and potential that active modulation may have for the
      analysis of complex food samples, such as licorice, by HILIC * RP.

PMID- 28864192
TI  - Designed graphene-peptide nanocomposites for biosensor applications: A review.
AB  - The modification of graphene with biomacromolecules like DNA, protein, peptide,
      and others extends the potential applications of graphene materials in various
      fields. The bound biomacromolecules could improve the biocompatibility and bio
      recognition ability of graphene-based nanocomposites, therefore could greatly
      enhance their biosensing performances on both selectivity and sensitivity. In
      this review, we presented a comprehensive introduction and discussion on recent
      advance in the synthesis and biosensor applications of graphene-peptide
      nanocomposites. The biofunctionalization of graphene with specifically designed
      peptides, and the synthesis strategies of graphene-peptide (monomer, nanofibrils,
      and nanotubes) nanocomposites were demonstrated. On the other hand, the
      fabrication of graphene-peptide nanocomposite based biosensor architectures for
      electrochemical, fluorescent, electronic, and spectroscopic biosensing were
      further presented. This review includes nearly all the studies on the fabrication
      and applications of graphene-peptide based biosensors recently, which will
      promote the future developments of graphene-based biosensors in biomedical
      detection and environmental analysis.

PMID- 28864193
TI  - Process modeling and control applied to real-time monitoring of distillation
      processes by near-infrared spectroscopy.
AB  - A distillation device that acquires continuous and synchronized measurements of
      temperature, percentage of distilled fraction and NIR spectra has been designed
      for real-time monitoring of distillation processes. As a process model, synthetic
      commercial gasoline batches produced in Brazil, which contain mixtures of pure
      gasoline blended with ethanol have been analyzed. The information provided by
      this device, i.e., distillation curves and NIR spectra, has served as initial
      information for the proposal of new strategies of process modeling and
      multivariate statistical process control (MSPC). Process modeling based on PCA
      batch analysis provided global distillation trajectories, whereas multiset MCR
      ALS analysis is proposed to obtain a component-wise characterization of the
      distillation evolution and distilled fractions. Distillation curves, NIR spectra
      or compressed NIR information under the form of PCA scores and MCR-ALS
      concentration profiles were tested as the seed information to build MSPC models.
      New on-line PCA-based MSPC approaches, some inspired on local rank exploratory
      methods for process analysis, are proposed and work as follows: a) MSPC based on
      individual process observation models, where multiple local PCA models are built
      considering the sole information in each observation point; b) Fixed Size Moving
      Window - MSPC, in which local PCA models are built considering a moving window of
      the current and few past observation points; and c) Evolving MSPC, where local
      PCA models are built with an increasing window of observations covering all
      points since the beginning of the process until the current observation.
      Performance of different approaches has been assessed in terms of sensitivity to
      fault detection and number of false alarms. The outcome of this work will be of
      general use to define strategies for on-line process monitoring and control and,
      in a more specific way, to improve quality control of petroleum derived fuels and
      other substances submitted to automatic distillation processes monitored by NIRS.

PMID- 28864194
TI  - Cathodic electrogenerated chemiluminescence of aromatic Tb(III) chelates at
      polystyrene-graphite composite electrodes.
AB  - Tb(III) chelates exhibit intense hot electron-induced electrogenerated
      chemiluminescence during cathodic polarization of metal/polystyrene-graphite
      (M/PG) electrodes in fully aqueous solutions. The M/PG working electrode provides
      a sensitive means for the determination of aromatic Tb(III) chelates at nanomolar
      concentration levels with a linear log-log calibration curve spanning more than
      five orders of magnitude. The charge transport and other properties of these
      novel electrodes were studied by electrochemiluminescence measurements and cyclic
      voltammetry. The present composite electrodes can by utilized both under pulse
      polarization and DC polarization unlike oxide-coated metal electrodes which do
      not tolerate cathodic DC polarization. The present cost-effective electrodes
      could be utilized e.g. in immunoassays where polystyrene is extensively used as a
      solid phase for various bioaffinity assays by using electrochemiluminescent
      Tb(III) chelates or e.g. Ru(bpy)32+as labels.

PMID- 28864195
TI  - Flow injection amperometric sandwich-type aptasensor for the determination of
      human leukemic lymphoblast cancer cells using MWCNTs-Pdnano/PTCA/aptamer as
      labeled aptamer for the signal amplification.
AB  - In this research, we demonstrated a flow injection amperometric sandwich-type
      aptasensor for the determination of human leukemic lymphoblasts (CCRF-CEM) based
      on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) decorated with gold nanoparticles (PEDOT
      Aunano) as a nano platform to immobilize thiolated sgc8c aptamer and multiwall
      carbon nanotubes decorated with palladium nanoparticles/3,4,9,10-perylene
      tetracarboxylic acid (MWCNTs-Pdnano/PTCA) to fabricate catalytic labeled aptamer.
      In the proposed sensing strategy, the CCRF-CEM cancer cells were sandwiched
      between immobilized sgc8c aptamer on PEDOT-Aunano modified surface electrode and
      catalytic labeled sgc8c aptamer (MWCNTs-Pdnano/PTCA/aptamer). After that, the
      concentration of CCRF-CEM cancer cells was determined in presence of 0.1 mM
      hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an electroactive component. The attached MWCNTs
      Pdnano nanocomposites to CCRF-CEM cancer cells amplified the electrocatalytic
      reduction of H2O2 and improved the sensitivity of the sensor to CCRF-CEM cancer
      cells. The MWCNT-Pdnano nanocomposite was characterized with transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The electrochemical
      impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to confirm the
      stepwise changes in the electrochemical surface properties of the electrode. The
      proposed sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor exhibited an excellent
      analytical performance for the detection of CCRF-CEM cancer cells ranging from
      1.0 * 101 to 5.0 * 105 cells mL-1. The limit of detection was 8 cells mL-1. The
      proposed aptasensor showed high selectivity toward CCRF-CEM cancer cells. The
      proposed aptasensor was also applied to the determination of CCRF-CEM cancer
      cells in human serum samples.

PMID- 28864196
TI  - A polypyrrole-chitosan cryogel stir-bead micro-solid phase extractor for the
      determination of phthalate esters in contact lenses storage solutions and in
      artificial saliva in contact with baby teethers.
AB  - Phthalate esters (PAEs), especially dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate
      (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) are widely used
      as plasticizers in plastics and polymers. They are not chemically bound and can
      easily migrate into food and human tissue that comes into contact with these
      materials. The method developed in this work was applied for the preconcentration
      and determination of these four phthalate esters that might leach from contact
      lenses and baby teethers. A novel stir-bead micro-solid phase extractor of
      chitosan cryogel composited with polypyrrole with a steel wire core was evaluated
      for the extraction of DMP, DEP, DBP and DEHP before analysis by high performance
      liquid chromatography (HPLC). Scanning electron micrographs of the polypyrrole
      chitosan cryogel beads revealed a high porosity with large surface area. Under
      the optimum conditions, the developed method provided a good linearity in a
      concentration range from 10 to 750 ng mL-1 for DMP and from 5.0 to 750 ng mL-1
      for DEP, DBP and DEHP. The limits of detection (LOD) were 6.07 +/- 0.22 ng mL-1,
      4.358 +/- 0.097 ng mL-1, 4.408 +/- 0.099 ng mL-1 and 3.916 +/- 0.053 ng mL-1 for
      DMP, DEP, DBP and DEHP, respectively, and the method reproducibility was good (n
      = 6, % RSD < 6.0). DBP and DEHP were detected in two original storage solutions
      of contact lenses from 13.2 +/- 1.1 ng mL-1 to 15.4 +/- 1.9 ng mL-1 and from 21.3
      +/- 1.6 ng mL-1 to 23.5 +/- 1.5 ng mL-1, respectively. In the artificial saliva
      in contact with baby teether samples only DEHP was found, from 4.91 +/- 0.31 ng
      mL-1 to 6.78 +/- 0.23 ng mL-1, with good recoveries ranging from 81.3 +/- 8.4% to
      106.3 +/- 5.2%.

PMID- 28864197
TI  - Electrophoretic separations on paper: Past, present, and future-A review.
AB  - Point-of-collection (POC) devices aim for a fast, on-site detection for medical
      and environmental purposes. In this area, microfluidic Paper-based Analytical
      Devices (MUPADs) have recently gained popularity because these are potentially
      cheap and environmentally friendly to produce, and easy to use. From an
      analytical perspective, paper is well known for its use as a substrate for
      chromatography, but less known for its use in electrophoretic separations. With
      the recent interest in MUPADs, most applications are based on rather simple
      assays with relatively few applications incorporating an analytical separation.
      The focus of this review is on paper-based electrophoresis, originating with the
      key developments in the 1940s and 1950s as well as the recent developments of
      electrophoretic MUPADs, and concluding with a critical discussion of the
      opportunities and challenges for electrophoretic MUPADS in the future.

PMID- 28864198
TI  - Comprehensive solid-phase extraction of multitudinous bioactive peptides from
      equine plasma and urine for doping detection.
AB  - The ability to analyze biological samples for multitudinous exogenous peptides
      with a single analytical method is desired for doping control in horse racing.
      The key to achieving this goal is the capability of extracting all target
      peptides from the sample matrix. In the present study, theory of mixed-mode solid
      phase extraction (SPE) of peptides from plasma is described, and a generic mixed
      mode SPE procedure has been developed for recovering multitudinous exogenous
      peptides with remarkable sequence diversity, from equine plasma and urine in a
      single procedure. Both the theory and the developed SPE procedure have led to the
      development of a novel analytical method for comprehensive detection of
      multitudinous bioactive peptides in equine plasma and urine using liquid
      chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Thirty
      nine bioactive peptides were extracted with strong anion-exchange mixed-mode SPE
      sorbent, separated on a reversed-phase C18 column and detected by HRMS and data
      dependent tandem mass spectrometry. The limit of detection (LOD) was 10-50 pg mL
      1 in plasma for most of the peptides and 100 pg mL-1 for the remaining. For
      urine, LOD was 20-400 pg mL-1 for most of the peptides and 1-4 ng mL-1 for the
      others. In vitro degradation of the peptides in equine plasma and urine was
      examined at ambient temperature; the peptides except those with a D-amino acid at
      position 2 were unstable not only in plasma but also in urine. The developed
      method was successful in analysis of plasma and urine samples from horses
      administered dermorphin. Additionally, dermorphin metabolites were identified in
      the absence of reference standards. The developed SPE procedure and LC-HRMS
      method can theoretically detect virtually all peptides present at a sufficient
      concentration in a sample. New peptides can be readily included in the method to
      be detected without method re-development. The developed method also generates
      such data that can be retrospectively analyzed for peptides unknown at the time
      of sample analysis. It is the first generic analytical method for comprehensive
      detection of multitudinous exogenous peptides in biological samples, to the
      authors' knowledge.

PMID- 28864199
TI  - Silica stationary phase functionalized by 4-carboxy-benzoboroxole with enhanced
      boronate affinity nature for selective capture and separation of cis-diol
      compounds.
AB  - 4-Carboxy-benzoboroxole was designed and synthesized. It was then combined with
      the modification effect of polyethyleneimine (PEI) for the preparation of
      boronate affinity silica stationary phase. The stationary phase showed improved
      binding strength with dissociation constant (Kd) towards xanthosine as low as
      2.48 * 10-4 M. The column showed excellent selectivity, high binding capacities
      (88.3 MUmol adenosine g-1, pH 7.0) and the lowest binding pH (4.0 for cytidine
      and as low as 2.24 for xanthosine). These binding properties were superior to the
      existing boronate affinity materials, facilitating the selective extraction of
      trace cis-diol compounds in complex samples and greatly expanding the application
      scope of boronate affinity chromatography. In addition, the column showed
      secondary separation capability under acidic conditions and this secondary
      separation capability was investigated thoroughly. It was found that the
      separation was pH-dependent and mainly determined by binding strength with the
      possibility of involvement of other interaction, providing alternative strategy
      for the separation of cis-diol compounds. The feasibility and practicability were
      demonstrated through the selective enrichment of nucleosides in urine samples and
      the results indicated the excellent performance and great potential for the
      extraction of trace cis-diol compounds in complex samples.

PMID- 28864200
TI  - Vascular expression of angiopoietin1, alpha5beta1 integrin and tight junction
      proteins is tightly regulated during vascular remodeling in the post-ischemic
      brain.
AB  - The post-stroke angiogenic response is accompanied by changes of tight junctions
      (TJs) of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, the precise dynamic change of TJ
      proteins (TJPs) in the different stages of stroke-induced vascular remodeling and
      the molecules mediating these processes have yet to be fully defined. To
      investigate the temporal relationship between changes in TJPs, the pro-angiogenic
      factor alpha5beta1 integrin and the anti-permeability factor Ang1 in cerebral
      vessels following cerebral ischemic stroke, male C57Bl/6 mice were subject to
      90min of ischemia by temporary occlusion of the middle cerebral artery followed
      by reperfusion and their brains analyzed 0, 1, 2, 4, 7 and 14days post-ischemia.
      Immunofluorescent studies demonstrated that in the ischemic penumbra, TJPs
      claudin-5 and ZO-1 levels decreased during the early stages of vascular
      remodeling, but then increased in the later stages. In contrast, within the
      ischemic core, TJPs levels decreased over the 14-day time-course, plateaued at
      day 4, and remained at low levels up to day 14. In the penumbra, Ang1 expression
      was induced, peaking at the same time point as alpha5beta1 expression. Consistent
      with these findings, oxygen glucose deprivation/reperfusion induced expression of
      alpha5beta1 and Ang1 on brain endothelial cell (BEC) in a similar manner in
      vitro, which correlated closely with BEC proliferation and increased expression
      of TJPs. Our results demonstrate that in the post-ischemic penumbra, a tight
      temporal correlation exists between the angiogenic markers alpha5beta1 and Ang1
      and the TJPs, suggesting a potential role for Ang1 and alpha5beta1 in promoting
      BBB integrity following ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28864202
TI  - Pathogenesis of thromboangiitis obliterans: Gene polymorphism and
      immunoregulation of human vascular endothelial cells.
AB  - Thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) is a nonatherosclerotic, segmental, inflammatory
      vasculitis, which commonly affects the small- and medium-sized arteries of the
      upper and lower extremities. Despite its discovery more than a century ago,
      little progress has been made in its treatment. Unless the pathogenesis is
      elucidated, therapeutic approaches will be limited. The purpose of this review
      article is to collate current knowledge of mechanisms for the pathogenesis of
      thromboangiitis obliterans and to propose potential mechanisms from a genetic and
      immunoreactive point of view for its inception. Therefore, we discuss the
      possibility that the pathogenesis of this disease is due to a type of gene
      polymorphism, which leads to an immunological inflammatory vasculitis associated
      with tobacco abuse, highly linked to T cells, human vascular endothelial cells
      (HVECs), and the TLR-MyD88-NFkappaB pathway, distinct from arteriosclerosis
      obliterans and other vasculitides.

PMID- 28864201
TI  - OPUS-DOSP: A Distance- and Orientation-Dependent All-Atom Potential Derived from
      Side-Chain Packing.
AB  - We report a new distance- and orientation-dependent, all-atom statistical
      potential derived from side-chain packing, named OPUS-DOSP, for protein structure
      modeling. The framework of OPUS-DOSP is based on OPUS-PSP, previously developed
      by us [JMB (2008), 376, 288-301], with refinement and new features. In
      particular, distance or orientation contribution is considered depending on the
      range of contact distance. A new auxiliary function in energy function is also
      introduced, in addition to the traditional Boltzmann term, in order to adjust the
      contributions of extreme cases. OPUS-DOSP was tested on 11 decoy sets commonly
      used for statistical potential benchmarking. Among 278 native structures, 239 and
      249 native structures were recognized by OPUS-DOSP without and with the auxiliary
      function, respectively. The results show that OPUS-DOSP has an increased decoy
      recognition capability comparing with those of other relevant potentials to date.

PMID- 28864203
TI  - Vitamin A: An enhanced vision of the relationship between apolipoproteins and
      cardiovascular risk?

PMID- 28864204
TI  - Soluble form of receptor for advanced glycation end products and incidence of new
      cardiovascular events among patients with cardiovascular disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Soluble RAGE (sRAGE) serum level could be a biomarker for
      atherosclerosis and subsequent diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD).
      Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether peripheral sRAGE level is associated
      with new cardiovascular events among patients with CVD using the Cox's regression
      analysis. METHODS: In this three-year longitudinal cohort study, 1002 in-patients
      with angiographically proven CVD were included. In 933 patients, sRAGE levels
      were determined by a commercial available ELISA kit at the time of baseline
      examination. The combined endpoint was defined as myocardial infarction,
      stroke/TIA (non-fatal, fatal), and cardiovascular death. For risk analysis, sRAGE
      values were distributed in quartiles. For generation of adjusted hazard ratios
      (HR), other risk factors for CVD, such as age, gender, current smoking, body mass
      index, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipoproteinemia, family history of CVD, severe
      periodontitis, serum levels for C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were
      recorded. RESULTS: 886 patients completed the 3-year follow-up. The overall
      incidence of the combined endpoint was 16%. Patients with sRAGE levels >838.19
      pg/ml (fourth quartile) had the highest incidence of recurrent CVD events (24.9%
      versus 13.1%, p < 0.0001). In multivariate Cox regression with respect to further
      confounders for CVD, the association between sRAGE and new CVD events was
      confirmed (HR = 1.616, 95% CI 1.027-2.544, p = 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated
      sRAGE serum level is associated with further adverse events in patients with CVD.

PMID- 28864205
TI  - The delta opioid receptor agonist KNT-127 in the prelimbic medial prefrontal
      cortex attenuates veratrine-induced anxiety-like behaviors in mice.
AB  - We previously reported that systemic administration of the selective delta opioid
      receptor (DOP) agonist KNT-127 produces potent anxiolytic-like effects in rats.
      Although a higher distribution pattern of DOPs was reported in the prelimbic
      medial prefrontal cortex (PL-PFC) of rodents, the role of DOPs in PL-PFC and in
      anxiolytic-like effects have not been well examined. Recently, we demonstrated
      that activation of PL-PFC with the sodium channel activator veratrine increases
      glutamatergic neurotransmission and produces anxiety-like behaviors in mice.
      Therefore, we investigated the effects of co-perfusion with KNT-127 in PL-PFC on
      veratrine-induced anxiety-like behaviors in mice. We also simultaneously measured
      extracellular glutamate and GABA levels. In addition, we assessed the effect of
      KNT-127 on the expression of c-Fos in sub-regions of the amygdala. Extracellular
      glutamate levels were measured in seven-week-old male C57BL/6N mice using an in
      vivo microdialysis-HPLC/ECD system, and behaviors were assessed simultaneously in
      an open field test. Basal levels of glutamate were measured by collecting samples
      every 10min for 60min. The drug-containing medium was perfused for 30min, and the
      open field test was performed during the last 10min of drug perfusion. After drug
      treatments, the perfusion was switched from drug-containing medium to control
      medium without drugs and samples were collected for another 90min. KNT-127 co
      perfusion completely diminished veratrine-induced anxiety-like behaviors and
      attenuated the veratrine-induced increase in extracellular glutamate levels in PL
      PFC. Interestingly, KNT-127 perfusion alone in PL-PFC did not affect anxiety-like
      behaviors. Local perfusion of veratrine in PL-PFC induced c-Fos immunoreactivity
      in sub-regions of amygdala. Co-perfusion of KNT-127 diminished c-Fos expression.
      Here we demonstrate that the DOP agonist KNT-127 in PL-PFC attenuates veratrine
      induced anxiety-like behaviors in mice. These effects may be caused by the
      presynaptic suppression of activated glutamatergic transmission in PL-PFC, which
      projects to sub-regions of the amygdala. We propose that compounds like KNT-127,
      which inhibit glutamatergic transmission in PL-PFC, are candidates for novel
      anxiolytics.

PMID- 28864206
TI  - Mice lacking hippocampal left-right asymmetry show non-spatial learning deficits.
AB  - Left-right asymmetry is known to exist at several anatomical levels in the brain
      and recent studies have provided further evidence to show that it also exists at
      a molecular level in the hippocampal CA3-CA1 circuit. The distribution of N
      methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor NR2B subunits in the apical and basal synapses
      of CA1 pyramidal neurons is asymmetrical if the input arrives from the left or
      right CA3 pyramidal neurons. In the present study, we examined the role of
      hippocampal asymmetry in cognitive function using beta2-microglobulin knock-out
      (beta2m KO) mice, which lack hippocampal asymmetry. We tested beta2m KO mice in a
      series of spatial and non-spatial learning tasks and compared the performances of
      beta2m KO and C57BL6/J wild-type (WT) mice. The beta2m KO mice appeared normal in
      both spatial reference memory and spatial working memory tasks but they took more
      time than WT mice in learning the two non-spatial learning tasks (i.e., a
      differential reinforcement of lower rates of behavior (DRL) task and a straight
      runway task). The beta2m KO mice also showed less precision in their response
      timing in the DRL task and showed weaker spontaneous recovery during extinction
      in the straight runway task. These results indicate that hippocampal asymmetry is
      important for certain characteristics of non-spatial learning.

PMID- 28864207
TI  - Differential effects of relaxin-3 and a selective relaxin-3 receptor agonist on
      food and water intake and hypothalamic neuronal activity in rats.
AB  - The neuropeptide relaxin-3 (RLN3) binds with high affinity to its cognate
      receptor, relaxin-family peptide receptor 3 (RXFP3), and with lower affinity to
      RXFP1, the cognate receptor for relaxin. Intracerebroventricular (icv)
      administration of RLN3 in rats strongly increases food and water intake and
      alters the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and gonadal (HPG)
      axes, but the relative involvement of RXFP3 and RXFP1 in these effects is not
      known. Therefore, the effects of icv administration of equimolar (1.1 nmol)
      amounts of RLN3 and the RXFP3-selective agonist RXFP3-A2 on food and water
      intake, plasma levels of corticosterone, testosterone, and oxytocin and c-fos
      mRNA expression in key hypothalamic regions in male rats were compared. Food
      intake was increased by both RLN3 and RXFP3-A2, but the orexigenic effects of
      RXFP3-A2 were significantly stronger than RLN3, 30 and 60min after injection.
      Water intake and plasma corticosterone and testosterone levels were significantly
      increased by RLN3, but not by RXFP3-A2. Conversely, RXFP3-A2 but not RLN3
      decreased oxytocin plasma levels. RLN3, but not RXFP3-A2, increased c-fos mRNA
      levels in the parvocellular (PVNp) and magnocellular (PVNm) paraventricular and
      supraoptic (SON) hypothalamic nuclei, in the ventral medial preoptic area (MPAv),
      and in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT). A significant
      increase in c-fos mRNA expression was induced in the perifornical lateral
      hypothalamic area (LHApf) by RLN3 and RXFP3-A2. These results suggest that RXFP1
      is involved in the RLN3 stimulation of water intake and activation of the HPA and
      HPG axes. The reduced food intake stimulation by RLN3 compared to RXFP3-A2 may
      relate to activation of both orexigenic and anorexigenic circuits by RLN3.

PMID- 28864208
TI  - A new mechanism of inhibition of IL-1beta secretion by celastrol through the
      NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.
AB  - The NLRP3 (NOD-like receptor protein 3) inflammasome is a caspase-1-containing
      multiprotein complex that controls the release of IL-1beta and has been
      associated with the development of inflammatory diseases. Celastrol, a
      pharmacologically active ingredient extracted from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook,
      has anti-inflammatory activities based on its inhibition of IL-1beta secretion.
      The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible modulation of
      NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1beta and IL-18 release from macrophages by
      celastrol. It was shown that celastrol significantly reduced the secretion of IL
      1beta and IL-18 by inhibiting the expression of NLRP3 and the cleavage of caspase
      1 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/ATP-induced macrophages. In addition, celastrol
      suppressed pyroptosis in macrophages, demonstrated by caspase-1 activation, LDH
      leakage and PI uptake assays. Furthermore, these inhibitory effects of celastrol
      were found to be at least partially achieved by decreasing the up-regulation of
      reactive oxygen species generation and NF-kappaB activation. Taken together,
      these findings suggested a new anti-inflammation mechanism of celastrol through
      inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

PMID- 28864210
TI  - Inhibition of the mevalonate pathway by simvastatin interferes with mast cell
      degranulation by disrupting the interaction between Rab27a and double C2 alpha
      proteins.
AB  - Statins are well-known inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG
      CoA) reductase, which block the mevalonate pathway. The activity of statins not
      only decreases cholesterol levels but also ameliorates inflammation and modulates
      the immune system. In this study, we investigated the effects of simvastatin on
      histamine release using rat basophilic leukaemia (RBL-2H3) cells, and examined
      its interaction with proteins involved in the exocytosis process. Treatment with
      simvastatin for 24h inhibited histamine release in RBL-2H3 cells in a
      concentration-dependent manner after stimulation with dinitrophenylated bovine
      serum albumin (DNP-BSA, as an antigen), ionomycin (a calcium ion [Ca2+]
      ionophore), and thapsigargin (an inhibitor of Ca2+-ATPase in the endoplasmic
      reticulum). Simvastatin-induced inhibition was counteracted by co-administration
      of mevalonolactone or geranylgeraniol, but not farnesol. Indeed, several
      exocytotic proteins were post-translationally modified by isoprenylation, which
      is required for proper localization in the lipid membrane. RBL-2H3 cells express
      proteins involved in the fusion of granules and the plasma membrane, such as Ras
      like protein in the brain 27a (Rab27a), synaptosome-associated protein 23
      (SNAP23), and vesicle-associated membrane protein 7 (VAMP7), as well as Ca2+
      binding proteins, such as double C2 alpha (Doc2a), synaptotagmin2, and mammalian
      uncoordinated13-4 (munc13-4). The interaction of Rab27a and Doc2a proteins was
      detected using proximity ligation assays. Antigen stimulation caused these
      proteins to interact, and this interaction could be disrupted by co
      administration of simvastatin. In conclusion, simvastatin inhibited the
      mevalonate pathway, which suppressed the geranylgeranylation of Rab27a by
      depleting geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate and interfering with the Rab27a-Doc2a
      interaction. This activity resulted in the inhibition of exocytosis in RBL-2H3
      cells.

PMID- 28864209
TI  - Danshensu accelerates angiogenesis after myocardial infarction in rats and
      promotes the functions of endothelial progenitor cells through SDF-1alpha/CXCR4
      axis.
AB  - The present study was performed to investigate the potential role of Danshensu in
      therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic myocardium and endothelial progenitor cells
      (EPCs) function. The rat model of myocardial infarction (MI) injury was induced
      by left anterior descending coronary artery ligation for 14 days. Danshensu
      significantly alleviated myocardial ischemia injury by ameliorating left
      ventricular function and reducing infarct size. Furthermore, Danshensu
      potentiated post-ischemia neovascularization as evidenced by increased
      microvessel density in infarction boundary zone, as well as the expression of
      marker proteins vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast
      growth factor (bFGF). Moreover, Danshensu notably promoted stromal cell-derived
      factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha) level in plasma and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4
      (CXCR4) expression in peri-infarction myocardium, and AMD3100 (CXCR4 antagonist)
      could reverse the angiogenic and cardioprotective effects of Danshensu. For in
      vitro study, EPCs were isolated from bone marrow of rats. On the one hand,
      Danshensu provided significant cytoprotection against hypoxia insult by boosting
      EPCs viability and inhibiting apoptosis, and upregulated Akt phosphorylation. On
      the other hand, Danshensu enhanced proangiogenic functions of EPCs on cell
      migration and tube formation, and increased SDF-1alpha and CXCR4 expression.
      Likewise, the cytoprotection and proangiogenic functions of Danshensu on EPCs
      were partly negated by LY294002 (PI3K antagonist) and CXCR4 siRNA, respectively.
      Taken together, our results suggested that the cardioprotection of Danshensu in
      MI rats may be related to promoting myocardial neovascularization. The possible
      mechanisms may involve improving EPCs survival in hypoxia condition through Akt
      phosphorylation, and accelerating EPCs proangiogenic functions through SDF
      1alpha/CXCR4 axis.

PMID- 28864211
TI  - Effects of SPAK on vascular reactivity and nitric oxide production in endotoxemic
      mice.
AB  - Vasoplegia impedes therapeutic interventions to restore vascular tone, leading to
      severe hypotension, poor tissue perfusion, and multiple organ failure in septic
      shock. High levels of circulating nitric oxide (NO) play a crucial role in
      endotoxin-induced vascular hyporeactivity. Proinflammatory cytokines have been
      implicated in the induction of inducible NO synthase and overproduction of NO.
      Anti-inflammatory therapy can diminish NO formation and improve vascular
      hyporeactivity in septic shock. STE20/SPS1-realted proline/alanine-rich kinase
      (SPAK) has been reported to activate mitogen-activated protein kinase and
      contribute to intestinal inflammation. Thus, we evaluated the roles of SPAK in NO
      production and vascular hyporeactivity in endotoxemic animals. Male wild-type and
      SPAK deficiency mice were intraperitoneally administered vehicle or Escherichia
      coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 50mg/kg). The changes of systolic blood pressure
      and plasma nitrate and nitrite levels were measured during the experimental
      period. Thoracic aortas were exercised to assess vascular reactivity and SPAK
      expression. In the present study, mice in endotoxin model showed severe
      hypotension and hyporeactivity to serotonin, phenylephrine (PE), and
      acetylcholine in the aortic rings. Phosphorylated SPAK expression in the aorta
      and NO levels in the plasma were also increased in animals with endotoxic shock.
      However, deletion of SPAK not only reduced the elevation of NO levels but also
      improved vascular hyporeactivity to serotonin and PE in endotoxemic mice. Taken
      together, SPAK could be involved in the NO overproduction and vascular
      hyporesponsiveness to vasoconstrictors in endotoxic shock. Thus, inhibition of
      SPAK could be useful in the prevention of endotoxin-induced vascular
      hyporeactivity.

PMID- 28864212
TI  - 14-O-Methylmorphine: A Novel Selective Mu-Opioid Receptor Agonist with High
      Efficacy and Affinity.
AB  - 14-O-methyl (14-O-Me) group in morphine-6-O-sulfate (M6SU) or oxymorphone has
      been reported to be essential for enhanced affinity, potency and antinociceptive
      effect of these opioids. Herein we report on the pharmacological properties
      (potency, affinity and efficacy) of the new compound, 14-O-methylmorphine (14-O
      MeM) in in vitro. Additionally, we also investigated the antinociceptive effect
      of the novel compound, as well as its inhibitory action on gastrointestinal
      transit in in vivo. The potency and efficacy of test compound were measured by
      [35S]GTPgammaS binding, isolated mouse vas deferens (MVD) and rat vas deferens
      (RVD) assays. The affinity of 14-O-MeM for opioid receptors was assessed by
      radioligand binding and MVD assays. The antinociceptive and gastrointestinal
      effects of the novel compound were evaluated in the rat tail-flick test and
      charcoal meal test, respectively. Morphine, DAMGO, Ile5,6 deltorphin II,
      deltorphin II and U-69593 were used as reference compounds. 14-O-MeM showed
      higher efficacy (Emax) and potency (EC50) than morphine in MVD, RVD or
      [35S]GTPgammaS binding. In addition, 14-O-MeM compared to morphine showed higher
      affinity for MU-opioid receptor (MOR). In vivo, in rat tail-flick test 14-O-MeM
      proved to be stronger antinociceptive agent than morphine after peripheral or
      central administration. Additionally, both compounds inhibited the
      gastrointestinal peristalsis. However, when the antinociceptive and antitransit
      doses for each test compound are compared, 14-O-MeM proved to have slightly more
      favorable pharmacological profile. Our results affirm that 14-O-MeM, an opioid of
      high efficacy and affinity for MOR can be considered as a novel analgesic agent
      of potential clinical value.

PMID- 28864213
TI  - How pure is the honey? Distinguishing premature ventricular complex-induced from
      premature ventricular complex-worsened cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28864214
TI  - MicroRNA-218 acts by repressing TNFR1-mediated activation of NF-kappaB, which is
      involved in MUC5AC hyper-production and inflammation in smoking-induced
      bronchiolitis of COPD.
AB  - Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is largely attributable to
      cigarette smoke (CS). However, little is known about the effect of miRNAs on CS
      induced mucus hypersecretion and the inflammatory response in the airway
      epithelium, which are pathological characteristics of COPD-related chronic
      bronchiolitis. As determined in the present investigation, population-based data
      indicate that smokers with COPD had serious airflow obstruction and inflammation,
      whereas smokers without COPD had mild airflow obstruction and inflammation.
      Moreover, levels of serum miR-218 positively correlated with FEV1/FVC% and
      negatively correlated with levels of serum IL-6 and IL-8. In human bronchial
      epithelial (HBE) cells, cigarette smoke extract (CSE) decreased miR-218 levels
      and increased levels of MUC5AC, interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumor
      necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), and p-p65. Enhancement of miR-218 levels by
      an miR-218 mimic blocked these CSE-induced changes. Moreover, luciferase reporter
      assays confirmed that miR-218 bound to the 3'UTR region of TNFR1 mRNA. Down
      regulation of TNFR1 blocked the CSE-induced increases of MUC5AC, IL-6, and IL-8
      and the activation of NF-kappaB. Furthermore, over-expression of miR-218
      attenuated the CSE-induced overproduction of MUC5AC, IL-6, and IL-8, effects that
      were reversed by elevated expression of TNFR1. In sum, our findings provide a
      mechanism by which miR-218 regulates CSE-induced MUC5AC hyper-production and
      inflammation by targeting TNFR1-mediated activation of NF-kappaB, indicating that
      overexpression of miR-218 may be a strategy against cigarette smoking-induced
      bronchiolitis in COPD.

PMID- 28864215
TI  - Experimental Sealers Containing Metal Methacrylates: Physical and Biological
      Properties.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical properties, the
      antimicrobial effect, and the biocompatibility of dual polymerization
      experimental sealers after the incorporation of dibutyltin (ET) or calcium (EC)
      methacrylate at concentrations of 0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 5%. METHODS: RealSeal (RS;
      SybronEndo, Glendora, CA) was used as a commercial control. Materials were
      evaluated regarding film thickness, degree of conversion, radiopacity,
      antimicrobial effect against Enterococcus faecalis using the modified direct
      contact test, and cell viability. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance
      followed by the Tukey test or the Student-Newman-Keuls test in SigmaPlot 12.0
      (Systat Software, Inc, Point Richmond, CA) (P = .05). RESULTS: The film thickness
      of the dibutyltin and calcium were greater than experimental sealers following
      the standards given by ISO 6876:2012. For degree of conversion, dual
      polymerization was not influenced by the addition of metal methacrylate.
      Regarding the modified direct contact test, calcium and dibutyltin at all
      concentrations showed antimicrobial activity when compared with the positive
      control after 48 hours of contact (P < .05). In cell viability, ET at all
      concentrations showed high cytotoxicity similar to RS, and EC at concentrations
      of 0.5%, 1%, and 2% showed moderate cytotoxicity that was less than 5% of calcium
      and RS. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that calcium and dibutyltin methacrylate
      incorporation in experimental sealers promoted the antimicrobial effect. The
      incorporation of calcium methacrylate at 0.5%, 1%, and 2% seemed to be a good
      treatment option to provide antimicrobial activity associated with moderate
      cytotoxicity and adequate physical properties.

PMID- 28864216
TI  - Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis Mimicking Periapical Pathology in a 39-year-old
      Man.
AB  - Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a clonal neoplastic proliferation of
      Langerhans-type dendritic cells, with more than 50% of cases of LCH seen in
      children younger than 15 years of age. The most common clinical presentation of
      LCH is solitary or multiple bony lesions. The jaws are affected in approximately
      10%-20% of cases, with a strong predilection for the mandible. The maxilla is
      involved in only 1% of head and neck cases. When the jaws are involved, lesions
      of LCH may mimic periapical pathology as seen in patients requiring endodontic
      therapy or bone loss as seen in periodontal disease. We report the case of a 39
      year-old man with LCH involving the posterior maxilla. This is a rare
      presentation of LCH with respect to both location and patient age. Clinicians
      should consider LCH when developing a differential diagnosis of an apical
      radiolucency of vital teeth or teeth that fail to respond to endodontic therapy
      and be aware of its clinical and radiographic mimics.

PMID- 28864217
TI  - Tooth Discoloration Induced by Different Calcium Silicate-based Cements: A
      Systematic Review of In Vitro Studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: On the basis of many clinical observations, some calcium silicate
      based cements have a high potential for staining tooth tissue. This feature
      greatly limits the use of those cements, particularly for anterior teeth. This
      review aimed to provide a systematic evaluation of published in vitro studies to
      determine the effect of different calcium silicate-based cements on dental tissue
      discoloration. METHODS: This literature review was developed according to the
      Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. The
      literature search was based on all publications without a year limit. The last
      search was performed on October 22, 2016. An electronic search was performed on
      MEDLINE (PubMed), Cochrane, and Scopus. The articles were selected to address the
      following research question: Which materials based on calcium silicate-based
      cements have hard tissue staining potential? The necessary information was
      extracted by 2 authors independently using a standardized form. RESULTS: The
      search resulted in 390 titles from all databases. Twenty-three studies met the
      inclusion criteria. Most of the studies exhibited a moderate risk of bias. The
      results indicated that some materials showed a strong potential for staining,
      including gray and white MTA Angelus (Londrina, PR, Brazil), gray and white
      ProRoot MTA (Dentsply, Tulsa, OK), and Ortho MTA (BioMTA, Seoul, Korea).
      Individual study results showed that Biodentine (Septodont, Saint Maur des
      Fosses, France), Retro MTA (BioMTA), Portland cement, EndoSequence Root Repair
      Material (Brasseler USA, Savannah, GA), Odontocem (Australian Dental
      Manufacturing, Brisbane, Australia), MM-MTA (Micro Mega, Besancon Cedex, France),
      and MTA Ledermix (Riemser Pharma GmbH, Greiswald-Insel Riems, Germany) were
      materials with the smallest staining potential. CONCLUSIONS: This review clearly
      showed that some calcium silicate-based cements have a high potential for
      staining hard tissue. On the other hand, some showed only a small change in
      color, which was nearly invisible to the human eye (DeltaE <3.3). However, more
      long-term clinical studies are needed.

PMID- 28864218
TI  - The Association between the Anatomic Landmarks of the Pulp Chamber Floor and the
      Prevalence of Middle Mesial Canals in Mandibular First Molars: An In Vivo
      Analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to determine the incidence and anatomic
      variation of the middle mesial (MM) canal in mandibular permanent first molars
      using cone-beam computed tomographic imaging and to evaluate the association
      between the presence of MM canals and anatomic landmarks of the pulp chamber
      floor in the mesial root. METHODS: In this in vivo cross-sectional study, 210
      CBCT scans of mandibular fist molars from 210 patients were included. CBCT scans
      were evaluated in 3 sections, and the following data were collected for further
      analysis: identification of the MM canal, the distance between the mesiobuccal
      (MB) and mesiolingual (ML) orifices, the presence of any isthmus between the MB
      and ML orifices, and the MB and ML root canal system (RCS) configurations. Binary
      logistic regression was performed to assess the effect of pulp floor anatomic
      characteristics as an independent variable on the outcome variable (the presence
      of an MM canal). RESULTS: The overall prevalence of the identification of an MM
      canal regardless of age was 14.7%. Mandibular first molars with an isthmus
      between the MB and ML RCS configurations were almost 5 times more likely to show
      an MM canal (P < .05, odds ratio [OR] = 4.9). The MB-ML intraorifice distance was
      inversely associated with the presence of an MM canal (P < .05, OR = 0.73).
      Patients less than 42 years old were 4 times more likely to have an MM canal in
      their CBCT scans compared with patients older than 42 years old (P < .05, OR =
      3.9). CONCLUSIONS: The suggested anatomic landmarks of the pulp chamber floor
      could act as a reliable predictive factor for the presence of an MM canal. This
      knowledge of anatomic clues may serve to better direct endodontists in locating
      an MM canal, which could prevent excessive removal of tooth structures.

PMID- 28864219
TI  - Regenerative Endodontics Versus Apexification in Immature Permanent Teeth with
      Apical Periodontitis: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to compare the outcomes of regenerative
      endodontic treatment (RET) and apexification on immature permanent teeth with
      pulp necrosis and apical periodontitis. METHODS: A total of 118 patients (118
      teeth) were recruited and randomly assigned to either RET or apexification
      treatment. Each treatment group was divided into 2 subgroups according to the
      etiology: dens evaginatus or trauma. Clinical symptoms and complications were
      recorded, and cone-beam computed tomographic imaging with a limited field of view
      was used to measure the change of root length, root thickness, and apical foramen
      size at the 12-month follow-up. The t test/rank sum test and Fisher exact test
      were applied to compare the change of root morphology between RET and
      apexification. RESULTS: One hundred three of 118 cases were completed at the 12
      month follow-up. The survival rate was 100% for both treatment groups. All cases
      were asymptomatic with apical healing. The RET group showed a significant
      increase in root length and root thickness compared with the apexification group
      (P < .05). In the RET group, the cases caused by dens evaginatus achieved
      increased root length and root thickness compared with those caused by trauma (P
      < .05). CONCLUSIONS: RET and apexification achieved a comparable outcome in
      regard to the resolution of symptoms and apical healing. RET showed a better
      outcome than apexification regarding increased root thickness and root length.
      The etiology had an impact on the outcome of RET. Dens evaginatus cases showed
      better prognoses than trauma cases after RET.

PMID- 28864220
TI  - Evaluation of Pulp Response to Novel Bioactive Glass Pulp Capping Materials.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to investigate dental pulp responses to novel
      bioactive glass (BG) pulp capping materials after direct pulp capping in vivo.
      METHODS: Novel BG pulp capping materials are composed of powder and fluid. The
      powder is BG (82.36% SiO2, 15.36% CaO, and 2.28% P2O5), and the fluid is provided
      in 2 kinds: (1) phosphate buffer solution (BG-PB) and (2) phosphate buffer
      solution with the addition of 1 wt% sodium alginate (BG-PB-SA). After mixing the
      powder and fluid, BG-PB and BG-PB-SA were prepared. Cavities with mechanical pulp
      exposure were prepared on maxillary first molars of Wistar rats. The exposures
      were randomly capped with BG-PB, BG-PB-SA, or mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA).
      After 1 (n = 6) and 4 weeks (n = 8), maxillary segments were obtained and
      prepared for histologic analysis with a scoring system. Statistical analysis was
      performed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests with the significance
      set at .05. RESULTS: After 1 week, few inflammatory cells were present in the BG
      PB, BG-PB-SA, and MTA groups. Moreover, a thin layer of newly generated matrix
      was observed in most specimens. After 4 weeks, all specimens from the 3 groups
      formed a heavy dentin bridge. BG-PB and BG-PB-SA groups exhibited no or slight
      inflammatory response, whereas the MTA group exhibited a slight to moderate
      inflammatory response. No significant difference was observed in pulp
      inflammation and dentin formation among the 3 groups at either time point (P >
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: When used as a pulp capping agent, BG-PB and BG-PB-SA had
      similar favorable cellular and inflammatory pulp responses to those of MTA.
      Therefore, BG is a promising pulp capping material.

PMID- 28864222
TI  - Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinomas: Prognostic Factors and Outcomes in Patients
      With Non-Lymph Node Distant Metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Upper tract urothelial carcinomas (UTUCs) are increasingly recognized
      as separate malignancies. Additional insight into clinical outcomes and key
      prognostic factors are needed. OBJECTIVES: To detail outcomes of patients with
      UTUCs recurring after radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) and to determine a risk
      score that predicts outcomes of patients with non-lymph node distant metastasis.
      DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Chart review of all patients who had an
      extraurothelial recurrence after RNU for UTUC at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
      between 2009 and 2014. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Median
      overall survival defined as time from chemotherapy for distant relapse to death.
      Prognostic relevance of performance status, hemoglobin, and receipt of cisplatin
      were assessed by Cox regression model. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: A total of 102
      patients were identified, 57 of whom had non-lymph node distant metastases at
      relapse; 45 received chemotherapy. Median follow-up was 29.8 months; median
      overall survival was 14.7 months. Objective response rate to any chemotherapy in
      the first-line setting was only 22%. Hemoglobin > 11 g/dL and receipt of
      cisplatin was associated with numerically longer median survival but did not
      reach statistical significance in univariate and multivariate analysis.
      Prognostic risk score scale including hemoglobin < 11 g/dL and receipt of
      cisplatin was inversely associated with survival, with scores of 0, 1, and 2
      leading to median survival of 19.0, 14.9, and 7.2 months (P = .38), respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Advanced UTUC portends a poor prognosis, and most patients cannot
      receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy. A risk score that includes anemia and
      receipt of cisplatin helps stratify patients with distant metastasis for
      inclusion into eventual clinical trials. More studies are needed to validate
      these findings. PATIENT SUMMARY: Metastatic UTUC is an aggressive disease, where
      anemia and ineligibility to receive cisplatin are adverse features associated
      with shorter survival.

PMID- 28864221
TI  - A START-domain-containing protein is a novel marker of nervous system components
      of the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima.
AB  - One of the main challenges faced by investigators studying the nervous system of
      members of the phylum Echinodermata is the lack of markers to identify nerve
      cells and plexi. Previous studies have utilized an antibody, RN1, that labels
      most of the nervous system structures of the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima
      and other echinoderms. However, the antigen recognized by RN1 remained unknown.
      In the present work, the antigen has been characterized by immunoprecipitation,
      tandem mass spectrometry, and cDNA cloning. The RN1 antigen contains a START
      lipid-binding domain found in Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory (StAR) proteins and
      other lipid-binding proteins. Phylogenetic tree assembly showed that the START
      domain is highly conserved among echinoderms. We have named this antigen
      HgSTARD10 for its high sequence similarity to the vertebrate orthologs. Gene and
      protein expression analyses revealed an abundance of HgSTARD10 in most H.
      glaberrima tissues including radial nerve, intestine, muscle, esophagus,
      mesentery, hemal system, gonads and respiratory tree. Molecular cloning of
      HgSTARD10, consequent protein expression and polyclonal antibody production
      revealed the STARD10 ortholog as the antigen recognized by the RN1 antibody.
      Further characterization into this START domain-containing protein will provide
      important insights for the biochemistry, physiology and evolution of
      deuterostomes.

PMID- 28864223
TI  - Risk Factors for Disease Progression After Postprostatectomy Salvage Radiation:
      Long-term Results of a Single-institution Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Salvage radiotherapy (SRT) has been successfully used for recurrent
      prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy; however, the optimal timing of SRT
      remains controversial. Our objective was to identify the risk factors for disease
      progression after SRT, with a focus on the pre-SRT prostate-specific antigen
      (PSA) levels in the modern era of PSA testing. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed
      a retrospective review of 551 consecutive patients who had undergone postradical
      prostatectomy SRT for recurrent prostate cancer from 2000 to 2013. The exclusion
      criteria were hormonal therapy before or concurrent with SRT, adjuvant RT,
      distant metastases, and missing data. Disease progression was defined as a repeat
      PSA level of >= 0.2 ng/mL greater than the post-SRT nadir, a continued increase
      in the PSA level despite SRT, initiation of systemic therapy, local recurrence,
      nodal failure, and/or distant metastases. Univariate and multivariable Cox
      regression analysis were performed to identify the predictors of disease
      progression. Secondarily, PSA kinetics were evaluated in the model and compared
      using the Akaike information criterion. RESULTS: Of the 551 patients, 307
      underwent SRT, of whom 134 experienced subsequent disease progression. The median
      interval to recurrence was 6.03 years (95% confidence interval, 3.74-8.36 years).
      On multivariable analysis, Gleason score, T stage, positive surgical margins, and
      pre-SRT PSA level were associated with progression; PSA kinetics did not
      independently predict for progression. When the pre-SRT PSA level was stratified
      (<= 0.30, 0.31-0.50, 0.51-1.00, and > 1 ng/mL), incremental elevations were
      associated with an increased risk of disease progression. CONCLUSION: Multiple
      factors predict for progression after SRT. These risk factors could help identify
      those who would derive the greatest benefit from additional systemic treatment.
      The findings of the present study also support initiation of early SRT,
      irrespective of the PSA kinetics.

PMID- 28864224
TI  - Catheter-directed therapy as a treatment for submassive pulmonary embolism: A
      meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS: Catheter-directed therapy (CDT) is included in the guidelines for
      diagnosing and treating massive pulmonary embolism. However, few studies have
      evaluated the efficacy of CDT as a treatment for submassive pulmonary embolism
      (SPE). Therefore, we used evidence-based medicine to evaluate the effectiveness
      and safety of CDT in treating SPE. METHODS: Search terms describing CDT in SPE
      and patients with intermediate pulmonary embolism were entered into the PubMed,
      Embase and Cochrane Library databases to identify relevant articles without
      language restrictions published between January 1990 and December 2016. A quality
      assessment and data extraction were performed by two investigators. The clinical
      efficacy of and major complications associated with treatment were analysed using
      a fixed effects model. KEY FINDINGS: A total of 552 patients in 16 studies were
      included in this meta-analysis. The clinical success rate in CDT was
      approximately 100% (95% confidence interval (CI): 99%, 100%), the primary
      bleeding rate was 0.02% (95% CI: 0%, 0.05%), and mortality during hospitalization
      was approximately 0% (95% CI: 0%, 0.01%). The mean decrease in pulmonary artery
      systolic pressure after treatment was -14.9% (95% CI: -19.25%, -10.55%), and the
      mean post-treatment change in the ratio of the right to the left ventricle
      (RV/LV) was -0.35% (95% CI: -0.48%, -0.22%). SIGNIFICANCE: CDT is effective and
      safe as a treatment for SPE and could be a first-line treatment for SPE under
      specific conditions.

PMID- 28864226
TI  - Magnesium co-administration decreases cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in the
      multiple cisplatin administration.
AB  - PURPOSE: Pretreatment with magnesium (Mg) has been reported to attenuate
      cisplatin (CDDP)-induced nephrotoxicity (CIN). This attenuation involves
      modulation of the expression of renal transporters, resulting in reduced renal
      platinum accumulation after a single round of CDDP treatment. In this study, we
      investigated whether Mg co-administration ameliorates CIN after multiple doses of
      CDDP as effectively as after a single dose. METHODS: Rats were divided into
      control, Mg alone, CDDP alone, and CDDP with Mg groups. Rats received CDDP
      (2.5mg/kg), MgSO4 (40mg/kg), or saline once per week for three weeks. Seven days
      after the third round of treatment, the kidneys were excised, and the expression
      of renal transporters and renal platinum accumulation were analyzed. RESULTS:
      CDDP significantly elevated serum creatinine levels, which were significantly
      reduced by Mg co-administration. Renal platinum accumulation was significantly
      lower in the CDDP-Mg group than in the CDDP group. Expression of renal organic
      cation transporter 2 (rOct2) and multidrug and toxin extrusion protein 1
      (rMate1), which are involved in CDDP transport, did not differ between the
      groups. However, the expression of copper transporter 1 (rCtr1) was significantly
      downregulated after Mg co-administration. CONCLUSION: Mg co-administration
      significantly attenuated CIN by reducing renal platinum accumulation even after
      multiple rounds of treatment with CDDP as effectively as in a model of a single
      CDDP administration. However, the specific underlying mechanism was different
      between single and multiple administrations, further studies will be needed to
      identify what contributes to this difference and to elucidate how Mg regulates
      the expression of renal transporters.

PMID- 28864227
TI  - Azotobacter chroococcum as a potentially useful bacterial biofertilizer for
      cotton (Gossypium hirsutum): Effect in reducing N fertilization.
AB  - The aim of this research was to evaluate whether the application of two plant
      growth-promoting (rhizo)bacteria might reduce nitrogen fertilization doses in
      cotton. We used strains Azotobacter chroococcum AC1 and AC10 for their proven
      ability to promote seed germination and cotton growth. These microorganisms were
      characterized by their plant growth-promoting activities. Then, we conducted a
      glasshouse study to evaluate the plant growth promoting ability of these strains
      with reduced doses of urea fertilization in cotton. Results revealed that both
      strains are capable of fixing nitrogen, solubilizing phosphorus, synthesizing
      indole compounds and producing hydrolytic enzymes. After 12 weeks, the glasshouse
      experiment showed that cotton growth was positively influenced due to bacterial
      inoculation with respect to chemical fertilization. Notably, we observed that
      microbial inoculation further influenced plant biomass (p<0.05) than nitrogen
      content. Co-inoculation, interestingly, exhibited a greater beneficial effect on
      plant growth parameters compared to single inoculation. Moreover, similar results
      without significant statistical differences were observed among bacterial co
      inoculation plus 50% urea and 100% fertilization. These findings suggest that co
      inoculation of A. chroococcum strains allow to reduce nitrogen fertilization
      doses up to 50% on cotton growth. Our results showed that inoculation with AC1
      and AC10 represents a viable alternative to improve cotton growth while
      decreasing the N fertilizer dose and allows to alleviate the environmental
      deterioration related to N pollution.

PMID- 28864228
TI  - Burkholderia species associated with legumes of Chiapas, Mexico, exhibit stress
      tolerance and growth in aromatic compounds.
AB  - Leguminous plants have received special interest for the diversity of beta
      proteobacteria in their nodules and are promising candidates for biotechnological
      applications. In this study, 15 bacterial strains were isolated from the nodules
      of the following legumes: Indigofera thibaudiana, Mimosa diplotricha, Mimosa
      albida, Mimosa pigra, and Mimosa pudica, collected in 9 areas of Chiapas, Mexico.
      The strains were grouped into four profiles of genomic fingerprints through BOX
      PCR and identified based on their morphology, API 20NE biochemical tests,
      sequencing of the 16S rRNA, nifH and nodC genes as bacteria of the Burkholderia
      genus, genetically related to Burkholderia phenoliruptrix, Burkholderia phymatum,
      Burkholderia sabiae, and Burkholderia tuberum. The Burkholderia strains were
      grown under stress conditions with 4% NaCl, 45 degrees C, and benzene presence at
      0.1% as the sole carbon source. This is the first report on the isolation of
      these nodulating species of the Burkholderia genus in legumes in Mexico.

PMID- 28864225
TI  - RNA interference for glioblastoma therapy: Innovation ladder from the bench to
      clinical trials.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and deadliest type of primary
      brain tumor with a prognosis of 14months after diagnosis. Current treatment for
      GBM patients includes "total" tumor resection, temozolomide-based chemotherapy,
      radiotherapy or a combination of these options. Although, several targeted
      therapies, gene therapy, and immunotherapy are currently in the clinic and/or in
      clinical trials, the overall survival of GBM patients has hardly improved over
      the last two decades. Therefore, novel multitarget modalities are urgently
      needed. Recently, RNA interference (RNAi) has emerged as a novel strategy for the
      treatment of most cancers, including GBM. RNAi-based therapies consist of using
      small RNA oligonucleotides to regulate protein expression at the post
      transcriptional level. Despite the therapeutic potential of RNAi molecules,
      systemic limitations including short circulatory stability and low release into
      the tumor tissue have halted their progress to the clinic. The effective delivery
      of RNAi molecules through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) represents an additional
      challenge. This review focuses on connecting the translational process of RNAi
      based therapies from in vitro evidence to pre-clinical studies. We delineate the
      effect of RNAi in GBM cell lines, describe their effectiveness in glioma mouse
      models, and compare the proposed drug carriers for the effective transport of
      RNAi molecules through the BBB to reach the tumor in the brain. Furthermore, we
      summarize the most important obstacles to overcome before RNAi-based therapy
      becomes a reality for GBM treatment.

PMID- 28864229
TI  - Force-time characteristics during sustained maximal handgrip effort according to
      age and clinical condition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Muscle fatigue, a prominent symptom in older patients, can be
      assessed by sustained maximal handgrip testing. The force decline during
      sustained maximal contraction is described for young adults, but data for elderly
      persons are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate force-time
      characteristics during a sustained maximal handgrip effort according to age and
      clinical condition. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Force-time data were continuously
      recorded during sustained maximal grip effort in 91 elderly patients (aged 83+/
      5years), 100 elderly controls (aged 74+/-5years) and 100 young controls (aged
      23+/-3years). The force-time curve was divided in 4 parts per 25% strength drop
      observed. Time (representing fatigue resistance (FR)) was measured during which
      grip strength (GS) dropped to 75% (FR75), 50% (FR50), 25% (FR25) of its maximum
      and to exhaustion (FRexhaustion). Grip work ((GW), the area under the force-time
      curve) was measured for the 4 parts as well as for the first 20 and 30s of the
      fatigue protocol test. Strength decay (GWdecay), defined as the difference
      between the area under the curve (% GW) and a theoretical maximal area under the
      curve (assuming there's no strength drop), was also studied. In the elderly
      participants, relationships (controlling for age and sex) of GS, FR and GW with
      circulating IL-6 and TNF-alpha were analyzed. RESULTS: FRexhaustion was similar
      for all groups, whereas the duration of each of the 4 parts was significantly
      different between the 3 groups. FR75 was shortest in old patients (p=0.004), FR75
      50 was almost twice as long in old community-dwelling compared to old patients
      and young controls (p<0.001). This contrast was inverted for FR50-25 which was
      significantly shorter in old community-dwelling compared to the other groups
      (p=0.013). FR25-exhaustionwas significantly longer in young controls compared to
      the groups of older participants (p=0.017). Old patients showed lower GW for the
      first 2 parts compared to old community-dwelling and young controls. Also,
      GWdecay values during the first 20 and 30s were significantly higher in old
      patients compared to old community-dwelling and young controls (both p<0.001). IL
      6 was significantly related to lower GSmax, FR75, FR50, FR25, FRexhaustion, GW75,
      GW50 and GW75-50. CONCLUSION: This is the first study reporting differences in
      strength decay during a sustained maximal handgrip effort according to age and
      clinical condition. Old patients showed a particularly rapid decline in GW during
      the first part of sustained handgrip. GW was also significantly related to
      circulating IL-6. Future studies should confirm whether a shorter FR test
      protocol (i.e. until FR75) but using a continuous registration of the strength
      decay could be more informative in a clinical setting compared to the classical
      FR test (measuring only FR50).

PMID- 28864230
TI  - There Is an Inclusion for That: Material Properties of Protein Granules Provide a
      Platform for Building Diverse Cellular Functions.
AB  - Proteins perform a staggering variety of functions in the cell. Traditionally,
      protein function was thought to be hard-wired into the folded structure and
      conformational dynamics of each protein molecule. Recent work describes a new
      mode of protein functionality driven by the collective behavior of many different
      proteins; most of which lack a defined structure. These proteins form clusters or
      granules in which unstructured polypeptides interact transiently. Nonspecific
      multivalent interactions drive the formation of phase-separated structures
      resembling aggregates. This type of functional aggregate granule can be thought
      of as a single supermolecular functional entity that derives function from its
      unique material properties. In this review we examine the emerging idea of
      protein granules as a new functional and structural unit of cellular
      organization.

PMID- 28864232
TI  - Development and validation of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      assay for the simultaneous quantitation of 5 azole antifungals and 1 active
      metabolite.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Azole antifungal medications are often administered to prevent or
      treat invasive fungal infections. These infections are deadly in the
      immunocompromised population. Therapeutic drug monitoring of the azole antifungal
      medications may potentially decrease morbidity and mortality in patients
      undergoing azole treatment. METHODS: To assist with azole therapeutic drug
      monitoring, a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method
      was developed and validated for 6 azole analytes: fluconazole, voriconazole,
      posaconazole, isavuconazole, itraconazole, and its active metabolite
      hydroxyitraconazole. RESULTS: The validated method solely required a protein
      precipitation step before subsequent dilution and injection onto the LC-MS/MS
      system. Furthermore, the analysis time was <2min per sample. CONCLUSIONS: This
      method enables measurement of all 6 of these analytes into a single LC-MS/MS
      assay.

PMID- 28864234
TI  - Simultaneous measurement of salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase: Application and
      recommendations.
AB  - Salivary cortisol (sCort) and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) constitute proxy
      measures of the two major stress response systems, i.e. the hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system, respectively.
      Potentially confounding determinants of sCort and sAA may limit a reliable
      concurrent measurement of both biomarkers, if not adequately considered. We
      reviewed the most important determinants of sCort and sAA and provide
      recommendations for handling these potential confounders. We focused on a
      selection of confounders, resulting in an in-depth consideration of age, sex
      steroid-related factors, somatic health, acute medication, smoking, consumption
      of food and drinks, alcohol consumption, physical activity/fitness, and sleep.
      Our review further highlights the importance of the consideration of potential
      confounders for a reliable and valid simultaneous measurement of sCort and sAA.
      We further provide recommendations about which and how to handle relevant
      confounders in the study design or data analysis.

PMID- 28864231
TI  - Improved sensitivity of serum/plasma 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D quantification
      by DAPTAD derivatization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although immunoassays have several limitations such as the cross
      reactivities of antibodies, such techniques are widely used for serum/plasma
      1,25(OH)2D quantification. An accurate method is required for the determination
      of the 1,25(OH)2D status. METHODS: We designed a serum/plasma 1,25(OH)2D
      quantification method using LC-MS/MS. Immunoaffinity extraction (IE) and the
      recently developed Cookson-type reagent 4-(4'-dimethylaminophenyl)-1,2,4
      triazoline-3,5-dione (DAPTAD) were used for sample preparation and
      derivatization, respectively. Analytical and pre-analytical validations were
      performed. Serum 1,25(OH)2D3 concentrations were determined in 232 healthy
      Japanese individuals. RESULTS: The intra- and inter-assay CVs for 1,25(OH)2D3
      were 5.2% and 7.0%, respectively. The limit of quantification for 1,25(OH)2D3 was
      7.1pg/ml. Rheumatoid factor (RF) at concentrations below 517IU/ml did not affect
      serum 1,25(OH)2D analysis. No significant differences were observed for various
      blood collection tubes, repeated freeze-thaw cycles, whole blood standing time,
      or serum storage time. A strong correlation between LC-MS/MS and radioimmunoassay
      (RIA) was observed (r=0.786), but serum 1,25(OH)2D concentrations obtained from
      RIA were 2-fold higher than those obtained from LC-MS/MS. Serum 1,25(OH)2D3
      concentrations by LC-MS/MS were 18.7-53.9pg/ml. CONCLUSION: A highly sensitive
      and selective LC-MS/MS-based serum/plasma 1,25(OH)2D quantification method was
      developed using IE and DAPTAD derivatization. This method will enable the
      accurate determination of serum/plasma 1,25(OH)2D concentrations in the clinical
      setting.

PMID- 28864233
TI  - MicroRNA-10b and the clinical outcomes of various cancers: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of miR-10b expression on the survival outcome of patients
      with cancers is still controversial. METHOD AND MATERIALS: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis was performed to determine its implication on the survival of
      cancer patients. We carried out an electrical literature search to identify the
      eligible studies published in PubMed, Web of Science and Embase together with the
      Chinese databases. RESULT: In total, 28 studies of 23 articles enrolling 3134
      patients were included for this meta-analysis, of which 25 studies reported
      overall survival (OS), 4 studies evaluated recurrence-free survival (RFS) and 3
      studies were related to disease-free survival (DFS). As a result, this meta
      analysis revealed that up-regulation of miR-10b could confer an unfavorable
      factor for OS (HR=1.853, 95% CIs: 1.521-2.258, P<0.01) but not DFS (HR=1.309, 95%
      CIs: 0.699-2.453, P=0.4) or RFS (HR=2.692, 95% CIs: 0.877-8.265, P=0.084).
      Additionally, further analysis also suggested that overexpression of miR-10b
      predicted the shorter OS for the patient with different types of cancers, which
      contained lung cancer, breast cancer, glioma, colorectal cancer and gastric
      carcinoma. Subgroup analyses were also conducted according the region, sample
      size, system and miR-10b detection assay and statistical method. CONCLUSION: This
      study shows that augmented expression of miR-10b strongly predicts poor prognosis
      for patients with cancers.

PMID- 28864235
TI  - Alignment options for total knee arthroplasty: A systematic review.
AB  - In spite of improvements in implant designs and surgical precision, functional
      outcomes of mechanically aligned total knee arthroplasty (MA TKA) have plateaued.
      This suggests probable technical intrinsic limitations that few alternate more
      anatomical recently promoted surgical techniques are trying to solve. This review
      aims at (1) classifying the different options to frontally align TKA implants,
      (2) at comparing their safety and efficacy with the one from MA TKAs, therefore
      answering the following questions: does alternative techniques to position TKA
      improve functional outcomes of TKA (question 1)? Is there any pathoanatomy not
      suitable for kinematic implantation of a TKA (question 2)? A systematic review of
      the existing literature utilizing PubMed and Google Scholar search engines was
      performed in February 2017. Only studies published in peer-reviewed journals over
      the last ten years in either English or French were reviewed. We identified 569
      reports, of which 13 met our eligibility criteria. Four alternative techniques to
      position a TKA are challenging the traditional MA technique: anatomic (AA),
      adjusted mechanical (aMA), kinematic (KA), and restricted kinematic (rKA)
      alignment techniques. Regarding osteoarthritic patients with slight to mid
      constitutional knee frontal deformity, the KA technique enables a faster recovery
      and generally generates higher functional TKA outcomes than the MA technique.
      Kinematic alignment for TKA is a new attractive technique for TKA at early to mid
      term, but need longer follow-up in order to assess its true value. It is probable
      that some forms of pathoanatomy might affect longer-term clinical outcomes of KA
      TKA and make the rKA technique or additional surgical corrections (realignment
      osteotomy, retinacular ligament reconstruction etc.) relevant for this sub-group
      of patients. Longer follow-up is needed to define the best indication of each
      alternative surgical technique for TKA. Level I for question 1 (systematic review
      of Level I studies), level 4 for question 2.

PMID- 28864236
TI  - Crossing the border - Solute entry into the chlamydial inclusion.
AB  - Chlamydiales comprise important human and animal pathogens as well as
      endosymbionts of amoebae. Generally, these obligate intracellular living bacteria
      are characterized by a biphasic developmental cycle, a reduced genome and a
      restricted metabolic capacity. Because of their metabolic impairment,
      Chlamydiales essentially rely on the uptake of diverse metabolites from their
      hosts. Chlamydiales thrive in a special compartment, the inclusion, and hence are
      surrounded by an additional membrane. Solutes might enter the inclusion through
      pores and open channels or by redirection of host vesicles, which fuse with the
      inclusion membrane and release their internal cargo. Recent investigations shed
      new light on the chlamydia-host interaction and identified an additional way for
      nutrient uptake into the inclusion. Proteome studies and targeting analyses
      identified chlamydial and host solute carriers in inclusions of Chlamydia
      trachomatis infected cells. These transporters are involved in the provision of
      UDP-glucose and biotin, and probably deliver further metabolites to the
      inclusion. By the controlled recruitment of specific solute carriers to the
      inclusion, the chlamydial resident thus can actively manipulate the metabolite
      availability and composition in the inclusion. This review summarizes recent
      findings and new ideas on carrier mediated solute uptake into the chlamydial
      inclusion in the context of the bacterial and host metabolism.

PMID- 28864237
TI  - [Comparison of the efficacy and safety of dronedarone and flecainide as
      maintenance antiarrhythmic therapy for sinus rhythm in atrial fibrillation].
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Dronedarone and flecainide are the first
      pharmacological choice to reduce recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF); however,
      there are no studies comparing them. A study was performed to compare the
      efficacy in terms of recurrence of AF and safety of both drugs. METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort study was conducted that included 123 consecutive patients
      treated with flecainide or dronedarone due to paroxysmal AF (76.4%) or persistent
      AF (23.6%), from October 2010 to February 2013. Electrical cardioversion was
      performed in 7.3% of patients and pharmacological cardioversion in 16.3%. The
      median (interquartile range) follow-up was 301days (92-474) with a mean of 2.8
      reviews per patient. Time to first event analysis was performed using Kaplan
      Meier and Cox regression, adjusted for propensity score. RESULTS: Of the 123
      consecutive patients with AF included, 71 were on dronedarone and 52 on
      flecainide. During the follow-up, there were 36 AF recurrences and 20 safety
      events. There were recurrences in 36.6% of patients treated with flecainide,
      compared with 21% of those receiving dronedarone (P=.073). Dronedarone showed to
      be at least as effective as flecainide in preventing recurrence of atrial
      fibrillation (HR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.20-1.44, P=.221), and demonstrated an
      acceptable safety profile when compared with flecainide (HR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.18
      2.53, P=.566). CONCLUSIONS: In our experience, dronedarone has been at least as
      effective and safe as flecainide, despite it was most frequently prescribed in
      patients with worse baseline risk profile.

PMID- 28864238
TI  - [Sintrom-induced cutaneous necrosis; a little-known complication].

PMID- 28864239
TI  - Network oscillatory activity driven by context memory processing is differently
      regulated by glutamatergic and cholinergic neurotransmission.
AB  - Memory retrieval requires coordinated intra- and inter-regional activity in
      networks of brain structures. Dysfunction of these networks and memory impairment
      are seen in many psychiatric disorders, but relatively little is known about how
      memory retrieval and memory failure are represented at the level of local and
      regional oscillatory activity. To address this question, we measured local field
      potentials (LFPs) from mice as they explored a novel context, retrieved memories
      for contextual fear conditioning, and after administration of two amnestic
      agents: the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor
      antagonist scopolamine (SCOP). LFPs were simultaneously recorded from
      retrosplenial cortex (RSC), dorsal hippocampus (DH), and anterior cingulate
      cortex (ACC), which are involved in processing contextual memories, and analyzed
      for changes in intra-regional power and inter-regional peak coherence of
      oscillations across multiple frequency bands. Context encoding and memory
      retrieval sessions yielded similar patterns of changes across all three
      structures, including decreased delta power and increased theta peak coherence.
      Baseline effects of MK-801 and SCOP were primarily targeted to gamma
      oscillations, but in opposite directions. Both drugs also blocked memory
      retrieval, as indicated by reduced freezing when mice were returned to the
      conditioning context, but this common behavioral impairment was only associated
      with power and peak coherence disruptions after MK-801 treatment. These findings
      point to neural signatures for memory impairment, whose underlying mechanisms may
      serve as therapeutic targets for related psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28864240
TI  - Global motion perception is associated with motor function in 2-year-old
      children.
AB  - The dorsal visual processing stream that includes V1, motion sensitive area V5
      and the posterior parietal lobe, supports visually guided motor function. Two
      recent studies have reported associations between global motion perception, a
      behavioural measure of processing in V5, and motor function in pre-school and
      school aged children. This indicates a relationship between visual and motor
      development and also supports the use of global motion perception to assess
      overall dorsal stream function in studies of human neurodevelopment. We
      investigated whether associations between vision and motor function were present
      at 2 years of age, a substantially earlier stage of development. The Bayley III
      test of Infant and Toddler Development and measures of vision including visual
      acuity (Cardiff Acuity Cards), stereopsis (Lang stereotest) and global motion
      perception were attempted in 404 2-year-old children (+/-4 weeks). Global motion
      perception (quantified as a motion coherence threshold) was assessed by observing
      optokinetic nystagmus in response to random dot kinematograms of varying
      coherence. Linear regression revealed that global motion perception was modestly,
      but statistically significantly associated with Bayley III composite motor
      (r2=0.06, P<0.001, n=375) and gross motor scores (r2=0.06, p<0.001, n=375). The
      associations remained significant when language score was included in the
      regression model. In addition, when language score was included in the model,
      stereopsis was significantly associated with composite motor and fine motor
      scores, but unaided visual acuity was not statistically significantly associated
      with any of the motor scores. These results demonstrate that global motion
      perception and binocular vision are associated with motor function at an early
      stage of development. Global motion perception can be used as a partial measure
      of dorsal stream function from early childhood.

PMID- 28864241
TI  - Theacrine: A purine alkaloid from Camellia assamica var. kucha with a hypnotic
      property via the adenosine system.
AB  - Theacrine (l,3,7,9-tetramethyluric acid), a purine alkaloid from Camellia
      assamica var. kucha, has diverse pharmacological properties, including sedative
      and hypnotic activities, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities,
      antidepressant effects, and a protective effect against stress-provoked liver
      damage. The present study aims to investigate the possible mechanism of the
      hypnotic activity of theacrine. The results revealed that theacrine significantly
      enhanced pentobarbital-induced sleep at a dose of 3.0mg/kg (i.g.) in mice. Sleep
      parameter analysis by EEG and EMG showed that theacrine obviously shortened wake
      time and increased NREM sleep time and that theacrine almost had no effect on REM
      sleep. Meanwhile, theacrine markedly attenuated caffeine (a nonselective
      antagonist of adenosine receptor)-induced insomnia. In pretreatment with the
      adenosine A1 receptor antagonist DPCPX and the A2A receptor antagonist SCH 58261,
      theacrine significantly reversed the decrease in sleeping time in pentobarbital
      treated mice. In addition, theacrine also markedly increased the adenosine
      content in the hippocampus of rats. These results suggested that theacrine might
      mediate the adenosine system to augment pentobarbital-induced sleep.

PMID- 28864243
TI  - Diagnostic value of conventional MRI combined with DTI for neonatal
      hyperbilirubinemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NHB) is a common clinical disease and
      can cause bilirubin encephalopathy in severe cases. It is now widely accepted
      that increased signal intensity in the globus pallidus on MR T1WI is an important
      sign of neonatal bilirubin encephalopathy. And brain diffusion tensor imaging
      (DTI) has not been used extensively to study hyperbilirubinemia (HB). So we
      compared newborns with different hyperbilirubinemia of different severities and
      healthy newborns in order to determine the relationships among MRI signal
      intensities, serum bilirubin levels, and the molecular changes in brain water
      diffusion in hyperbilirubinemia. METHODS: Seventy-three newborns with
      hyperbilirubinemia were grouped into three groups: the mild increase group (M, 27
      cases), the moderate increase group (O, 28 cases), and the severe group (S, 18
      cases). The groups were based on serum bilirubin levels. We performed cranial MRI
      in these newborns, as well as 29 healthy full-term infants (group N). We compared
      and analyzed the mean signal values for the globus pallidus and the relationship
      between the bilirubin level and the score on the neonatal behavioral neurological
      assessment. Fifteen, 10, and 10 patients in groups M, O + S, and N were
      successfully examined using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We assessed the
      relationships among the signal from the globus pallidus, fractional anisotropy
      (FA), and average diffusion coefficient (DCav) of the posterior limb of the
      internal capsule (PLIC). RESULTS: There were significant differences in the mean
      signal value of bilateral globus pallidus between group O/S and group N [p =
      0.029 and 0.000 (left), 0.038 and 0.000 (right)]. There were no significant
      differences in bilateral FA or DCav values between the patient groups and group
      N. The bilateral PLIC-FA and DCav values were significantly different between the
      patient groups and group N (P = 0.014 and 0.047, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      Increased signal intensity in the globus pallidus on T1-weighted imaging can be
      used as an objective index to evaluate neonatal bilirubin encephalopathy. Globus
      pallidus and PLIC injuries are likely to occur when the total serum bilirubin
      level is >=20 mg/dl.

PMID- 28864242
TI  - Thymosin beta4 for the treatment of acute stroke in aged rats.
AB  - Thymosin beta4 (Tbeta4) is a 5K peptide which influences cellular migration by
      inhibiting organization of the actin-cytoskeleton. Tbeta4 has neurorestorative
      properties and is a potential candidate for the treatment of sub-acute stroke.
      Previous research demonstrated that Tbeta4 improved neurological outcome in a
      young (3 months) rat model of embolic stroke. We hypothesized that Tbeta4 would
      improve neurological outcome in an aged rat model of embolic stroke when
      administered 24h after embolic stroke. Aged Male Wistar rats (Charles River,
      France 18-21 months) were subjected to embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion
      (MCAo). Rats were randomized to receive Tbeta4 (12mg/kg, RegeneRx
      Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.) or control 24h after MCAo and then every 3days for 4
      additional doses. The dose of 12mg/kg was the maximal dose of Tbeta4 that showed
      functional improvement in a young rat model of embolic stroke. Functional tests
      (adhesive-removal test (ART), foot fault test (FFT) and the modified Neurological
      Severity Score (mNSS)) were performed weekly. The rats were sacrificed 56days
      after MCAo and lesion volumes were measured. Immunohistochemical analysis for
      oligodendrogenesis, myelination and gliosis was also performed. Twenty-three rats
      were included in the study: control group (n=12) and Tbeta4 group (n=11). After
      randomization, there were three deaths in both the control and Tbeta4 groups. The
      Tbeta4 treatment reduced infarct volume by more than 50% (12.8%+/-9.3%, mean+/
      SE, p<0.05) compared to the control group (26.0%+/-4.3%). However, Tbeta4 did not
      show improvement in functional outcome compared to control. There was no
      significant increase in oligodendrogenesis, myelination and gliosis between
      control and treatment with Tbeta4, however, we unexpectedly observed that overall
      (control and Tbeta4 groups) astrocytic gliosis as measured by GFAP
      immunoreactivity was significantly inversely correlated with neurological outcome
      measured using the modified Neurological Severity Score (mNSS) (p<0.01),
      suggesting that greater gliosis may be related to improvement of neurological
      outcome in aged rats. In summary, Tbeta4 treatment of stroke aged rats
      significantly reduces infarct volume compared to vehicle treated stroke, however,
      Tbeta4 treatment did not show improvement in functional outcome, myelination or
      gliosis when compared to control. GFAP staining was significantly inversely
      correlated to improvement in the mNSS, suggesting that gliosis in the aged rat
      may be of benefit in improvement of functional outcome.

PMID- 28864244
TI  - Performance on a Clinical Quadriceps Activation Battery Is Related to a
      Laboratory Measure of Activation and Recovery After Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the relation between performance on a clinical quadriceps
      activation battery with (1) activation measured by doublet interpolation and (2)
      recovery of quadriceps strength and functional performance after total knee
      arthroplasty (TKA). DESIGN: Planned secondary analysis of a randomized controlled
      trial. SETTING: University research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Patients (N=162;
      mean age, 63+/-7y; 89 women) undergoing TKA. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients were
      classified as high (quadriceps activation battery >=4/6) or low (quadriceps
      activation battery <=3/6) based on performance on the quadriceps activation
      battery measured 4 days after TKA. Differences between groups in activation and
      recovery at 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 months after TKA were compared using a repeated
      measures maximum likelihood model. RESULTS: The low quadriceps activation battery
      group demonstrated poorer quadriceps activation via doublet interpolation
      (P=.01), greater quadriceps strength loss (P=.01), and greater functional
      performance decline (all P<.001) at 1 month after TKA compared with the high
      quadriceps activation battery group. Differences between low and high quadriceps
      activation battery groups on all measures did not persist at 3 and 12 months (all
      P>.05). CONCLUSIONS: Poor performance on the quadriceps activation battery early
      after TKA is related to poor quadriceps activation and poor recovery in the early
      postoperative period. Patients in the low quadriceps activation battery group
      took 3 months to recover to the same level as the high quadriceps activation
      battery group. The quadriceps activation battery may be useful in identifying
      individuals who need specific interventions to target activation deficits or
      different care pathways in the early postoperative period to speed recovery after
      TKA.

PMID- 28864245
TI  - Musical training increases functional connectivity, but does not enhance mu
      suppression.
AB  - Musical training provides an ideal platform for investigating action
      representation for sound. Learning to play an instrument requires integration of
      sensory and motor perception-action processes. Functional neuroimaging studies
      have indicated that listening to trained music can result in the activity in
      premotor areas, even after a short period of training. These studies suggest that
      action representation systems are heavily dependent on specific sensorimotor
      experience. However, others suggest that because humans naturally move to music,
      sensorimotor training is not necessary and there is a more general action
      representation for music. We previously demonstrated that EEG mu suppression,
      commonly implemented to demonstrate mirror-neuron-like action representation
      while observing movements, can also index action representations for sounds in
      pianists. The current study extends these findings to a group of non-musicians
      who learned to play randomised sequences on a piano, in order to acquire specific
      sound-action mappings for the five fingers of their right hand. We investigated
      training-related changes in neural dynamics as indexed by mu suppression and task
      related coherence measures. To test the specificity of training effects, we
      included sounds similar to those encountered in the training and additionally
      rhythm sequences. We found no effect of training on mu suppression between pre-
      and post-training EEG recordings. However, task-related coherence indexing
      functional connectivity between electrodes over audiomotor areas increased after
      training. These results suggest that long-term training in musicians and short
      term training in novices may be associated with different stages of audiomotor
      integration that can be reflected in different EEG measures. Furthermore, the
      changes in functional connectivity were specifically found for piano tones, and
      were not apparent when participants listened to rhythms, indicating some degree
      of specificity related to training.

PMID- 28864246
TI  - Pathways for smiling, disgust and fear recognition in blindsight patients.
AB  - The aim of the present review is to discuss the localization of circuits that
      allow recognition of emotional facial expressions in blindsight patients. Because
      recognition of facial expressions is function of different centers, and their
      localization is not always clear, we decided to discuss here three emotional
      facial expression - smiling, disgust, and fear - whose anatomical localization in
      the pregenual sector of the anterior cingulate cortex (pACC), anterior insula
      (AI), and amygdala, respectively, is well established. We examined, then, the
      possible pathways that may convey affective visual information to these centers
      following lesions of V1. We concluded that the pathway leading to pACC, AI, and
      amygdala involves the deep layers of the superior colliculus, the medial
      pulvinar, and the superior temporal sulcus region. We suggest that this visual
      pathway provides an image of the observed affective faces, which, although
      deteriorated, is sufficient to determine some overt behavior, but not to provide
      conscious experience of the presented stimuli.

PMID- 28864247
TI  - Comparison of three methods for recovery of Brucella canis DNA from canine blood
      samples.
AB  - Brucella canis, a gram-negative, facultative intracellular and zoonotic bacterium
      causes canine brucellosis. Direct methods are the most appropriate for the
      detection of canine brucellosis and bacterial isolation from blood samples has
      been employed as gold-standard method. However, due to the delay in obtaining
      results and the biological risk of the bacterial culturing, the polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR) has been successfully used as an alternative method for the
      diagnosis of the infection. Sample preparation is a key step for successful PCR
      and protocols that provide high DNA yield and purity are recommended to ensure
      high diagnostic sensitivity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the
      performance of PCR for the diagnosis of B. canis infection in 36 dogs by testing
      DNA of whole blood obtained through different extraction and purification
      protocols. Methods 1 and 2 were based on a commercial kit, using protocols
      recommended for DNA purification of whole blood and tissue samples, respectively.
      Method 3 was an in-house method based on enzymatic lysis and purification using
      organic solvents. The results of the PCR on samples obtained through three
      different DNA extraction protocols were compared to the blood culture. Of the 36
      dogs, 13 (36.1%) were positive by blood culturing, while nine (25.0%), 14
      (38.8%), and 15 (41.6%) were positive by PCR after DNA extraction using methods
      1, 2 and 3, respectively. PCR performed on DNA purified by Method 2 was as
      efficient as blood culturing and PCR performed on DNA purified with in-house
      method, but had the advantage of being less laborious and, therefore, a suitable
      alternative for the direct B. canis detection in dogs.

PMID- 28864248
TI  - Regulation of immune response by bioactive ions released from silicate
      bioceramics for bone regeneration.
AB  - : Silicate bioceramics have been considered to possess a wide prospect of
      clinical application for orthopedic tissue regeneration due to their excellent
      osteogenesis and angiogenesis. However, the mechanism for silicate bioceramics
      stimulating bone formation is not fully understood. The host immune defense to
      implants is proved to greatly influence the osteogenesis and new bone formation,
      but up to now, few studies are focused on the silicate bioceramics modulated host
      immune responses. In our present study, two representative silicate bioceramics,
      akermanite (AKT) and nagelschmidtite (NAGEL) were used as model materials to
      investigate the inflammation responses in vitro and in vivo, and beta-tricalcium
      phosphate (beta-TCP) bioceramics were used as a control. It was found that the
      mouse macrophage cell RAW264.7 that cultured on AKT and NAGEL bioceramics
      displayed not only less viability and proliferation, but also a significant less
      inflammatory cytokine secretion than those on beta-TCP in vitro. The formation of
      foreign body giant cells and fibrous capsules, the invasion of macrophages, as
      well as the detected inflammatory cytokines around the implanted materials were
      much lower in both AKT and NAGEL bioceramic groups as compared with those in the
      beta-TCP controls in vivo. Furthermore, it was found that not just the certain
      concentration of extracellular Si-containing ionic products released from the
      silicate bioceramics, but also the separate Si, Mg and Ca ions revealed the
      activity to inhibit the macrophage inflammatory responses by the way of
      suppressing the activated inflammatory MAPK and NF-kappaB signaling pathway and
      promoting the caspase-dependent apoptosis of macrophages. In general, our study
      suggests that the silicate bioceramics could regulate immune responses by
      altering the ionic microenvironment between the implants and hosts, which may
      offer new insight about the mechanism of the bioactivity of silicate bioceramics
      in bone regeneration and provide profitable guidance for designing new
      biomaterials for bone tissue engineering. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Silicate
      bioceramics have been widely used for orthopedic tissue regeneration because of
      their excellent characteristics in bone formation. However, there are few studies
      concerning their interrelationships with the host immune defense that has been
      proved to greatly influence osteogenesis. In our present study, the akermanite
      and nagelschmidtite were used as two representative silicate bioceramics to
      investigate the inflammation responses in vitro and in vivo; and for the first
      time, the bioactive ions released from the silicate bioceramics were discovered
      to regulate the macrophage immune responses through both inhibiting the
      inflammatory signaling and activating apoptosis of macrophages. Our findings in
      this study may not only increase the understanding in osteogenic activity of
      silicate bioceramics, but also provide profitable guidance for designing and
      manufacturing new biomaterials for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28864249
TI  - Hydrogel substrate stress-relaxation regulates the spreading and proliferation of
      mouse myoblasts.
AB  - : Mechanical properties of the extracellular microenvironment are known to alter
      cellular behavior, such as spreading, proliferation or differentiation. Previous
      studies have primarily focused on studying the effect of matrix stiffness on
      cells using hydrogel substrates that exhibit purely elastic behavior. However,
      these studies have neglected a key property exhibited by the extracellular matrix
      (ECM) and various tissues; viscoelasticity and subsequent stress-relaxation. As
      muscle exhibits viscoelasticity, stress-relaxation could regulate myoblast
      behavior such as spreading and proliferation, but this has not been previously
      studied. In order to test the impact of stress relaxation on myoblasts, we
      created a set of two-dimensional RGD-modified alginate hydrogel substrates with
      varying initial elastic moduli and rates of relaxation. The spreading of
      myoblasts cultured on soft stress-relaxing substrates was found to be greater
      than cells on purely elastic substrates of the same initial elastic modulus.
      Additionally, the proliferation of myoblasts was greater on hydrogels that
      exhibited stress-relaxation, as compared to cells on elastic hydrogels of the
      same modulus. These findings highlight stress-relaxation as an important
      mechanical property in the design of a biomaterial system for the culture of
      myoblasts. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: This article investigates the effect of
      matrix stress-relaxation on spreading and proliferation of myoblasts by using
      tunable elastic and stress-relaxing alginate hydrogels substrates with different
      initial elastic moduli. Many past studies investigating the effect of mechanical
      properties on cell fate have neglected the viscoelastic behavior of extracellular
      matrices and various tissues and used hydrogels exhibiting purely elastic
      behavior. Muscle tissue is viscoelastic and exhibits stress-relaxation.
      Therefore, stress-relaxation could regulate myoblast behavior if it were to be
      incorporated into the design of hydrogel substrates. Altogether, we showed that
      stress-relaxation impacts myoblasts spreading and proliferation. These findings
      enable a better understanding of myoblast behavior on viscoelastic substrates and
      could lead to the design of more suitable substrates for myoblast expansion in
      vitro.

PMID- 28864250
TI  - A straightforward approach to enhance the textural, mechanical and biological
      properties of injectable calcium phosphate apatitic cements (CPCs): CPC/blood
      composites, a comprehensive study.
AB  - : Two commercial formulations of apatitic calcium phosphate cements (CPCs),
      Graftys(r) Quickset (QS) and Graftys(r) HBS (HBS), similar in composition but
      with different initial setting time (7 and 15min, respectively), were combined to
      ovine whole blood. Surprisingly, although a very cohesive paste was obtained
      after a few minutes, the setting time of the HBS/blood composite dramatically
      delayed when compared to its QS analogue and the two blood-free references. Using
      solid state NMR, scanning electron microscopy and high frequency impedance
      measurements, it was shown that, in the particular case of the HBS/blood
      composite, formation of a reticulated and porous organic network occurred in the
      intergranular space, prior to the precipitation of apatite crystals driven by the
      cement setting process. The resulting microstructure conferred unique biological
      properties to this material upon implantation in bone defects, since its
      degradation rate after 4 and 12weeks was more than twice that for the three other
      CPCs, with a significant replacement by newly formed bone. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: A major challenge in the design of bone graft substitutes is the
      development of injectable, cohesive, resorbable and self-setting calcium
      phosphate cement (CPC) that enables rapid cell invasion with initial mechanical
      properties as close as bone ones. Thus, we describe specific conditions in CPC
      blood composites where the formation of a 3D clot-like network can interact with
      the precipitated apatite crystals formed during the cement setting process. The
      resulting microstructure appears more ductile at short-term and more sensitive to
      biological degradation which finally promotes new bone formation. This important
      and original paper reports the design and in-depth chemical and physical
      characterization of this groundbreaking technology.

PMID- 28864252
TI  - Design of protein delivery systems by mimicking extracellular mechanisms for
      protection of growth factors.
AB  - : Heparin sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are responsible for the storage and
      stabilization of numerous growth factors in the extracellular matrix. In this
      complex native environment, the efficient binding of the growth factors is
      determined by multivalent, specific and reversible electrostatic interactions
      between the sulfate groups of HSPGs and the positively charged amino acids of the
      growth factor. Inspired by this naturally occurring stabilization process, we
      propose the use of diblock copolymers of heparin and polyethylene glycol (Hep-b
      PEG) for protection and delivery of FGF-2. We describe the encapsulation of FGF-2
      into spontaneously assembling polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) with Hep-b-PEG in
      which the Hep block ensures the formation of the PECs, while the PEG moiety
      confers stability of the generated complex by a stealth corona. Our results
      demonstrate that by this method we can generate homogeneous complexes (ca. 400nm
      diameter, PDI 0.29+/-0.07) with a very high encapsulation efficiency (about 99%
      encapsulated FGF-2). The release of the growth factor in response to different
      stimuli such as pH, ionic strength or presence of heparinase was also studied. We
      report a sustained release of up to 80% during 28days which is not influenced by
      the presence of heparinase - a result that clearly demonstrates the protective
      effect of the stealth corona. We also show that FGF-2 remains bioactive as it
      influences the morphology of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: We describe a biopolymer that uses the way the cells shield a type
      of proteins (growth factors) to simultaneously assemble, slowly deliver and
      shield the protein in a "nanocarrier". Growth factors are essential for the
      regeneration of cartilage, bones by stem cell therapies but have a short life
      time as when added directly to tissues. Our design makes use of the heparin
      bioactivity towards such proteins in combination with a polyethylene glycol
      moiety (PEG) that makes a protecting shell. PEG, is biocompatible and used in
      approved medicines and countless cosmetic products. The highest novelty is the
      reaction (oxime click) used to bound these molecules that does not require
      modification of heparin and allows preservation of its bioactivity.

PMID- 28864251
TI  - Living nanofiber yarn-based woven biotextiles for tendon tissue engineering using
      cell tri-culture and mechanical stimulation.
AB  - : Non-woven nanofibrous scaffolds have been developed for tendon graft
      application by using electrospinning strategies. However, electrospun nanofibrous
      scaffolds face some obstacles and limitations, including suboptimal scaffold
      structure, weak tensile and suture-retention strengths, and compact structure for
      cell infiltration. In this work, a novel nanofibrous, woven biotextile,
      fabricated based on electrospun nanofiber yarns, was implemented as a tissue
      engineered tendon scaffold. Based on our modified electrospinning setup,
      polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber yarns were fabricated with reproducible quality,
      and were further processed into plain-weaving fabrics interlaced with polylactic
      acid (PLA) multifilaments. Nonwoven nanofibrous PCL meshes with random or aligned
      fiber structures were generated using typical electrospinning as comparative
      counterparts. The woven fabrics contained 3D aligned microstructures with
      significantly larger pore size and obviously enhanced tensile mechanical
      properties than their nonwoven counterparts. The biological results revealed that
      cell proliferation and infiltration, along with the expression of tendon-specific
      genes by human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (HADMSC) and human
      tenocytes (HT), were significantly enhanced on the woven fabrics compared with
      those on randomly-oriented or aligned nanofiber meshes. Co-cultures of HADMSC
      with HT or human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) on woven fabrics
      significantly upregulated the functional expression of most tenogenic markers.
      HADMSC/HT/HUVEC tri-culture on woven fabrics showed the highest upregulation of
      most tendon-associated markers than all the other mono- and co-culture groups.
      Furthermore, we conditioned the tri-cultured constructs with dynamic conditioning
      and demonstrated that dynamic stretch promoted total collagen secretion and
      tenogenic differentiation. Our nanofiber yarn-based biotextiles have significant
      potential to be used as engineered scaffolds to synergize the multiple cell
      interaction and mechanical stimulation for promoting tendon regeneration.
      STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Tendon grafts are essential for the treatment of
      various tendon-related conditions due to the inherently poor healing capacity of
      native tendon tissues. In this study, we combined electrospun nanofiber yarns
      with textile manufacturing strategies to fabricate nanofibrous woven biotextiles
      with hierarchical features, aligned fibrous topography, and sufficient mechanical
      properties as tendon tissue engineered scaffolds. Comparing to traditional
      electrospun random or aligned meshes, our novel nanofibrous woven fabrics possess
      strong tensile and suture-retention strengths and larger pore size. We also
      demonstrated that the incorporation of tendon cells and vascular cells promoted
      the tenogenic differentiation of the engineered tendon constructs, especially
      under dynamic stretch. This study not only presents a novel tissue engineered
      tendon scaffold fabrication technique but also provides a useful strategy to
      promote tendon differentiation and regeneration.

PMID- 28864253
TI  - Engineered Potato virus X nanoparticles support hydroxyapatite nucleation for
      improved bone tissue replacement.
AB  - : Bionanoparticles based on filamentous phages or flexuous viruses are
      interesting candidates for meeting the challenges of tailoring biomineralization
      in hydrogel-based bone tissue substitutes. We hypothesized that hydroxyapatite
      crystal nucleation and matrix mineralization can be significantly increased by
      mineralization-inducing (MIP) and integrin binding motif (RGD) peptides presented
      on biomimetic nanoparticles. In this study, Potato virus X (PVX), a flexible rod
      shaped plant virus was genetically engineered to present these functional
      peptides on its particle surface. Recombinant PVX-MIP/RGD particles were isolated
      from infected Nicotiana benthamiana plants and characterized by western blot,
      SEM, TEM, and TPLSM in MSC cultures. The presence of RGD was proven by cell
      attachment, spreading, and vinculin cluster analysis, and MIP by in vitro
      mineralization and osteogenic differentiation assays. Thus the tailored surface
      of genetically engineered PVX forms fibril-like nanostructures which enables
      enhanced focal adhesion-dependent cell adhesion, and matrix mineralization
      verified by Alizarin. Hydroxyapatite crystal nucleation is supported on
      recombinant PVX particles leading to a biomimetic network and bundle-like
      structures similar to mineralized collagen fibrils. In conclusion, the
      recombinant flexuous PVX nanoparticles exhibit properties with great potential
      for bone tissue substitutes. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: A suitable biomaterial
      for tissue engineering should be able to mimic the endogenous extracellular
      matrix by presenting biochemical and biophysical cues. Novel hydrogel-based
      materials seek to meet the criteria of cytocompatibility, biodegradability,
      printability, and crosslinkability under mild conditions. However, a majority of
      existing hydrogels lack cell-interactive motifs, which are crucial to modulate
      cellular responses. The incorporation of the plant virus PVX to the hydrogel
      could improve functions like integrin-binding and mineralization due to peptide
      presentation on the particle surface. The tailored surface of genetically
      engineered PVX forms fibril-like nanostructures which enables enhanced focal
      adhesion-dependent cell adhesion and matrix mineralization and offers great
      potential for the development of new hydrogel compositions for bone tissue
      substitutes.

PMID- 28864254
TI  - Parental feeding behavior in relation to children's tasting behavior: An
      observational study.
AB  - Children's eating habits are shaped in part by parental feeding practices. While
      maladaptive practices have already received a lot of research attention, the
      effects of adaptive strategies, especially in elementary school aged children of
      different weight status, are less examined. This study examines how parents (1)
      model and (2) encourage their child to taste an unknown food. Thereby, attention
      is paid to the distinction between encouraging what (i.e. adaptive type of
      encouragement) and the amount (i.e. maladaptive type of encouragement) children
      eat/drink. Twenty-five families with a child with overweight and 30 families with
      a child of healthy weight (7-13 years) participated in a taste task. Both the
      child's tasting behavior and the parents' modelling and encouragement behavior
      were observed and related to the child's age and weight status. As 94.3% of the
      children tasted the unknown food, weight status differences between tasters and
      non-tasters could not be investigated. Only 26.9% of the parents used modelling
      to enhance tasting behavior; this was unrelated to age and weight status. 77.4%
      of the parents encouraged their children to taste (encouragement of what children
      eat/drink), and this was significantly more prevalent in parents of younger
      children and of healthy-weight children. 21.1% of the parents also encouraged
      their children to finish the juice (encouragement of amount children eat/drink)
      and this was also more prevalent in parents of the healthy-weight group. These
      results evidenced that parental modelling is not often used to enhance tasting
      behavior in children. In contrast, parental encouragement was frequently
      observed, especially in parents of younger children and of healthy-weight
      children. Encouragement, however, seems difficult to measure and more research on
      adaptive parental encouragement is needed.

PMID- 28864255
TI  - Salad bar selection patterns of elementary school children.
AB  - From the perspective of child-focused nutrition research, the analysis of the
      school cafeteria culture and environment is critical. Most children eat at least
      one meal at school per school day, thus elementary schools are a good setting for
      influencing the early development of healthy eating habits. The salad bar in
      particular has gained attention as a means of increasing fruit and vegetable
      consumption. The purpose of the present study was to provide insight about the
      types of items children choose or do not choose from the salad bar. Our aims were
      to document elementary school children's food selection patterns by examining
      photographs of 2903 cafeteria trays. Our results show students in this study took
      very few items - and a substantial number did not take any at all. We examined
      three factors, gender, grade, and item placement, in relation to food selection.
      Gender was the most significant factor, with girls being more likely to choose
      both fruits and vegetables. Students in lower grades were more likely to select
      vegetables and to choose more of them. Finally, item placement did not affect
      choice. Our findings lead us to suggest the importance of integrating information
      about fruits and vegetables into the school curriculum and that schools strongly
      consider which items to offer because our results indicate children consistently
      do not choose certain items and probably do not conceive of them in the context
      of the adult concept of a salad. Finally, because a child's choice of food is not
      always a simple act we suggest ethnographic research on how children perceive and
      use salad bars would provide important insight into the value of retaining or
      expanding salad bars in elementary schools.

PMID- 28864256
TI  - Pica is prevalent and strongly associated with iron deficiency among Hispanic
      pregnant women living in the United States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Anecdotal evidence suggests that pica occurs among Hispanic women
      in the United States, especially during pregnancy. However, the prevalence and
      socio-demographic and biological factors associated with pica in this population
      have not been adequately identified. METHODS: Trained, bilingual study personnel
      conducted structured interviews at public health clinics in Salinas Valley,
      California with 187 pregnant Hispanic women in their 2nd or 3rd trimesters of
      pregnancy. Hemoglobin was measured using Hemocue; concentrations of transferrin
      receptor (TfR) and alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP) were measured in dried blood
      spots. Multivariable stepwise regression analyses were conducted with pica during
      pregnancy as the dependent variable and individual- and family-level factors as
      independent variables to identify significant associations. Additionally,
      multivariable models were built to explore the associations between pica and iron
      status (iron deficiency and anemia). RESULTS: Half of all participants (51.3%)
      had ever engaged in pica, and 37.6% had done so during the current pregnancy.
      Pica substances included large quantities of ice, frost, raw starches, and
      various earthen items. Pica during the current pregnancy was significantly
      associated with higher TfR concentrations [OR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.51]
      indicative of low iron stores and greater food insecurity [OR: 1.20, 95% CI:
      1.03, 1.40]. Women who engaged in pica during the current pregnancy were more
      likely to be iron deficient [adjusted OR: 2.58; 95% CI: 1.19, 5.60], but not
      anemic [adjusted OR: 1.40; 0.60, 3.23]. CONCLUSIONS: Among pregnant Hispanic
      women, pica was prevalent and strongly associated with iron deficiency and food
      insecurity. Clinicians should screen for pica during pregnancy in Hispanic
      populations, and future studies should elucidate the underlying etiology and
      consequences of engaging in pica during pregnancy.

PMID- 28864257
TI  - Measurement invariance of the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire-28
      among a community of socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers and fathers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Determine whether feeding practices across mothers and fathers are
      interpreted and measured with equivalent accuracy (measurement invariance) using
      the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire-28 (FPSQ-28). DESIGN: Cross
      sectional hard-copy and online survey design; Setting: Socioeconomically
      disadvantaged community in Queensland, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Mothers (n = 279)
      and fathers (n = 225) of 2- to 5-year old children. VARIABLES MEASURED: Parental
      feeding practices were measured using the 7 multi-item factors from the FPSQ-28.
      ANALYSIS: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to evaluate the factor
      structure of the FPSQ-28 among mothers and fathers from a socioeconomically
      disadvantaged community. Measurement invariance between mothers and fathers was
      examined using hierarchical multi-group CFAs. RESULTS: The 7-factor FPSQ-28 model
      showed good fit and was invariant across parent gender. CONCLUSIONS AND
      IMPLICATIONS: The FPSQ-28 subscales appear to be interpreted equivalently, and
      thus to measure the same constructs, irrespective of the gender of the parents.
      The questionnaire can be used to measure or compare mothers' and fathers' self
      reported feeding practices and examine influence on child health outcomes. In the
      current sample of mothers and fathers recruited from a socioeconomically
      disadvantaged community, mothers used more 'covert restriction' than fathers.

PMID- 28864258
TI  - Emotion suppression and food intake in the context of a couple discussion: A
      dyadic analysis.
AB  - Using dyadic analysis, this study examined whether emotion suppression is a valid
      mediator in the relationship between mood change following a stressful couple
      discussion and subsequent food intake among cohabiting couples. In a laboratory
      setting, 80 heterosexual couples were presented with a bogus taste test
      immediately after discussing aspects that they would like each other to change.
      Mood change, emotion suppression and appetite perceptions were self-reported
      using visual analogue scales, and BMI was calculated based on objective measures.
      The moderated-mediation Actor-Partner Interdependence Model revealed a
      significant indirect conditional effect, showing that mood worsening was
      significantly associated with higher emotion suppression and that emotion
      suppression was significantly associated with more food intake among spouses with
      a high BMI. For spouses with a low BMI, the reverse effect was found, i.e., mood
      worsening was significantly associated with less food intake through the indirect
      effect of emotion suppression. Furthermore, an indirect partner effect was
      observed regardless of BMI, i.e., mood worsening was related to more food intake,
      which was mediated by the partner's emotion suppression. These results highlight
      the key role of emotion suppression in the relationship between mood change and
      food intake in the context of a stressful couple discussion.

PMID- 28864259
TI  - Perceived impact of smaller compared with larger-sized bottles of sugar-sweetened
      beverages on consumption: A qualitative analysis.
AB  - Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption increases obesity risk and is linked
      to adverse health consequences. Large packages increase food consumption, but
      most evidence comes from studies comparing larger with standard packages,
      resulting in uncertainty regarding the impact of smaller packages. There is also
      little research on beverages. This qualitative study explores the experiences of
      consuming cola from smaller compared with larger bottles, to inform intervention
      strategies. Sixteen households in Cambridge, England, participating in a
      feasibility study assessing the impact of bottle size on in-home SSB consumption,
      received a set amount of cola each week for four weeks in one of four bottle
      sizes: 1500 ml, 1000 ml, 500 ml, or 250 ml, in random order. At the study end,
      household representatives were interviewed about their experiences of using each
      bottle, including perceptions of i) consumption level; ii) consumption-related
      behaviours; and iii) factors affecting consumption. Interviews were semi
      structured and data analysed using the Framework approach. The present analysis
      focuses specifically on experiences relating to use of the smaller bottles. The
      smallest bottles were described as increasing drinking occasion frequency and
      encouraging consumption of numerous bottles in succession. Factors described as
      facilitating their consumption were: i) convenience and portability; ii) greater
      numbers of bottles available, which hindered consumption monitoring and control;
      iii) perceived insufficient quantity per bottle; and iv) positive attitudes. In a
      minority of cases the smallest bottles were perceived to have reduced
      consumption, but this was related to practical issues with the bottles that
      resulted in dislike. The perception of greater consumption and qualitative
      reports of drinking habits associated with the smallest bottles raise the
      possibility that the 'portion size effect' has a lower threshold, beyond which
      smaller portions and packages may increase consumption. This reinforces the need
      for empirical evidence to assess the in-home impact of smaller bottles on SSB
      consumption.

PMID- 28864260
TI  - Interferon-gamma mediated signaling in the brain endothelium is critical for
      inflammation-induced aversion.
AB  - Systemic inflammation elicits malaise and a negative affective state. The
      mechanism underpinning the aversive component of inflammation include cerebral
      prostaglandin synthesis and modulation of dopaminergic reward circuits, but the
      messengers that mediate the signaling between the peripheral inflammation and the
      brain have not been sufficiently characterized. Here we investigated the role of
      interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) in the aversive response to systemic inflammation
      induced by a low dose (10MUg/kg) of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in mice. LPS induced
      IFN-gamma expression in the blood and deletion of IFN-gamma or its receptor
      prevented the development of conditioned place aversion to LPS. LPS induced
      expression of the chemokine Cxcl10 in the striatum of normal mice, but this
      induction was absent in mice lacking IFN-gamma receptors or Myd88 in blood brain
      barrier endothelial cells. Furthermore, inflammation-induced aversion was blocked
      in mice lacking Cxcl10 or its receptor Cxcr3. Finally, mice with a selective
      deletion of the IFN-gamma receptor in brain endothelial cells did not develop
      inflammation-induced aversion, demonstrating that the brain endothelium is the
      critical site of IFN-gamma action. Collectively, these findings show that
      circulating IFN-gamma that binds to receptors on brain endothelial cells and
      induces Cxcl10, is a central link in the signaling chain eliciting inflammation
      induced aversion.

PMID- 28864261
TI  - The efficacy of (+)-Naltrexone on alcohol preference and seeking behaviour is
      dependent on light-cycle.
AB  - Circadian rhythm affects drug-induced reward behaviour and the innate immune
      system. Peaks in reward-associated behaviour and immune responses typically occur
      during the active (dark) phase of rodents. While the role of the immune system,
      specifically, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4, an innate immune receptor) in drug
      induced reward is becoming increasingly appreciated, it is unclear whether its
      effects vary according to light-cycle. Therefore, the aim of this study was to
      characterise the effects of the phase of the light-cycle and the state of the
      innate immune system on alcohol reward behaviour and subsequently determine
      whether the efficacy of targeting the immune component of drug reward depends
      upon the light-cycle. This study demonstrates that mice exhibit greater alcohol
      induced conditioned place preference and alcohol two-bottle choice preference
      during the dark cycle. This effect overlapped with elevations in reward-, thirst-
      and immune-related genes. Administration of (+)-Naltrexone, a TLR4 antagonist,
      reduced immune-related gene mRNA expression and alcohol preference with its
      effects most pronounced during the dark cycle. However, (+)-Naltrexone, like
      other TLR4 antagonists exhibited off-target side effects, with a significant
      reduction in overall saccharin intake - an effect likely attributable to a
      reduction in tyrosine hydroxylase (Th) mRNA expression levels. Collectively, the
      study highlights a link between a time-of-day dependent influence of TLR4 on
      natural and alcohol reward-like behaviour in mice.

PMID- 28864262
TI  - Balanced activation of IspG and IspH to eliminate MEP intermediate accumulation
      and improve isoprenoids production in Escherichia coli.
AB  - The MEP pathway genes were modulated to investigate whether there were new rate
      limiting steps and toxic intermediates in this pathway. Activating IspG led to
      significant decrease of cell growth and beta-carotene production. It was found
      that ispG overexpression led to accumulation of intermediate HMBPP, which
      seriously interfered with synthesis machinery of nucleotide and protein in
      Escherichia coli. Activation of the downstream enzyme IspH could solve HMBPP
      accumulation problem and eliminate the negative effects of ispG overexpression.
      In addition, intermediate MECPP accumulated in the starting strain, while
      balanced activation of IspG and IspH could push the carbon flux away from MECPP
      and led to 73% and 77% increase of beta-carotene and lycopene titer respectively.
      Our work for the first time identified HMBPP to be a cytotoxic intermediate in
      MEP pathway and demonstrated that balanced activation of IspG and IspH could
      eliminate accumulation of HMBPP and MECPP and improve isoprenoids production.

PMID- 28864263
TI  - Mechanism of chimeric vaccine stimulation of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase
      biosynthesis in human dendritic cells is independent of TGF-beta signaling.
AB  - Cholera toxin B subunit fusion to autoantigens such as proinsulin (CTB-INS) down
      regulate dendritic cell (DC) activation and stimulate synthesis of DC
      immunosuppressive cytokines. Recent studies of CTB-INS induction of immune
      tolerance in human DCs indicate that increased biosynthesis of indoleamine 2,3
      dioxygenase (IDO1) may play an important role in CTB-INS vaccine suppression of
      DC activation. Studies in murine models suggest a role for transforming growth
      factor beta (TGF-beta) in the stimulation of IDO1 biosynthesis, for the induction
      of tolerance in DCs. Here, we investigated the contribution of TGF-beta
      superfamily proteins to CTB-INS induction of IDO1 biosynthesis in human monocyte
      derived DCs (moDCs). We show that CTB-INS upregulates the level of TGF-beta1,
      activin-A and the TGF-beta activator, integrin alphavbeta8 in human DCs. However,
      inhibition of endogenous TGF-beta, activin-A or addition of biologically active
      TGF-beta1, and activin-A, did not inhibit or stimulate IDO1 biosynthesis in human
      DCs treated with CTB-INS. While inhibition with the kinase inhibitor, RepSox,
      blocked SMAD2/3 phosphorylation and diminished IDO1 biosynthesis in a
      concentration dependent manner. Specific blocking of the TGF-beta type 1 kinase
      receptor with SB-431542 did not arrest IDO1 biosynthesis, suggesting the
      involvement of a different kinase pathway other than TGF-beta type 1 receptor
      kinase in CTB-INS induction of IDO1 in human moDCs. Together, our experimental
      findings identify additional immunoregulatory proteins induced by the CTB-INS
      fusion protein, suggesting CTB-INS may utilize multiple mechanisms in the
      induction of tolerance in human moDCs.

PMID- 28864264
TI  - A Self-Reported Needs Assessment Survey of Pediatric Orthopaedic Education in
      Haiti.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The burden of musculoskeletal disease remains high in low-income
      countries, with a high rate of pediatric disease. Efforts continue for orthopedic
      education, but there is little guidance on local needs and desires. Our aim was
      to determine the specific content and modalities that would be most useful for
      pediatric orthopedic educational programs abroad, and we demonstrate a practical
      method of identifying country-specific educational deficits through a self
      reported needs survey in Haiti. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was administered
      using an automated response system. We obtained demographic information as well
      as training and practice patterns, comfort levels with pediatric diagnoses, and
      desired topics for education using a 5-point Likert Scale. SETTING: Haitian
      Annual Assembly for Orthopaedic Trauma (HAAOT), the only national, continuing
      medical education conference for orthopedic providers in Haiti. PARTICIPANTS: Of
      60 eligible participants, 51 were included in the final analysis. RESULTS: Time
      spent on pediatric orthopedics varied widely, centered at 10% to 25%. Median
      comfort level with pediatric orthopedics was 3 of 5. Skills with lowest self
      reported competence included spica casting, clubfoot casting, and management of
      supracondylar humerus fractures. Skills with highest self-reported competence
      were long-leg casting and Salter-Harris classification. Modes of education highly
      requested included didactics/lectures, hands-on sessions, dedicated rotations,
      and exchanges with foreign peers/mentors. Diagnoses most encountered were
      osteomyelitis, trauma, and clubfoot; lowest comfort levels were in neuromuscular,
      spine, lower extremity deformity, congenital hip, and clubfoot; and most
      requested for future teaching were congenital hip, neuromuscular, and spine.
      CONCLUSIONS: Haitian orthopedic providers express a strong desire and need for
      ongoing pediatric orthopedic education. They describe a high prevalence of trauma
      and infection, but convey a requirement for more comprehensive, multimodal
      teaching that also includes congenital deformities/dysplasias, neuromuscular, and
      spine. Our results demonstrate the importance of assessing country-specific needs
      and involving local care providers in curriculum development.

PMID- 28864265
TI  - Effect of Continuous Motion Parameter Feedback on Laparoscopic Simulation
      Training: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial on Skill Acquisition and
      Retention.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of motion parameter feedback on laparoscopic
      basic skill acquisition and retention during a standardized box training
      curriculum. DESIGN: A Lap-X Hybrid laparoscopic simulator was designed to provide
      individual and continuous motion parameter feedback in a dry box trainer setting.
      In a prospective controlled trial, surgical novices were randomized into 2 groups
      (regular box group, n = 18, and Hybrid group, n = 18) to undergo an identical 5
      day training program. In each group, 7 standardized tasks on laparoscopic basic
      skills were completed twice a day on 4 consecutive days in fixed pairs.
      Additionally, each participant performed a simulated standard laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy before (day 1) and after training (day 5) on a LAP Mentor II
      virtual reality (VR) trainer, allowing an independent control of skill progress
      in both groups. A follow-up assessment of skill retention was performed after 6
      weeks with repetition of both the box tasks and VR cholecystectomy. SETTING:
      Muenster University Hospital Training Center, Muenster, Germany. PARTICIPANTS:
      Medical students without previous surgical experience. RESULTS: Laparoscopic
      skills in both groups improved significantly during the training period, measured
      by the overall task performance time. The 6 week follow-up showed comparable
      skill retention in both groups. Evaluation of the VR cholecystectomies
      demonstrated significant decrease of operation time (p < 0.01), path length of
      the left and right instrument, and the number of movements of the left and right
      instruments for the Hybrid group (all p < 0.001), compared to the box group.
      Similar results were found at the assessment of skill retention. CONCLUSION:
      Simulation training on both trainers enables reliable acquisition of laparoscopic
      basic skills. Furthermore, individual and continuous motion feedback improves
      laparoscopic skill enhancement significantly in several aspects. Thus, training
      systems with feedback of motion parameters should be considered to achieve long
      term improvement of motion economy among surgical trainees.

PMID- 28864266
TI  - The Colorado Humanitarian Surgical Skills Workshop: A Cadaver-Based Workshop to
      Prepare Residents for Surgery in Austere Settings.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Interest in humanitarian surgery is high among surgical and obstetric
      residents. The Colorado Humanitarian Surgical Skills Workshop is an annual 2-day
      course exposing senior residents to surgical techniques essential in low- and
      middle-income countries but not traditionally taught in US residencies. We
      evaluated the course's ability to foster resident comfort, knowledge, and
      competence in these skills. DESIGN: The cohort of course participants was studied
      prospectively. Participants attended didactic sessions followed by skills
      sessions using cadavers. Sample areas of focus included general surgery (mesh
      free hernia repair), orthopedics (powerless external fixation), and neurosurgery
      (powerless craniotomy). Before and after the course, participants answered a
      questionnaire assessing confidence with taught skills; took a knowledge-based
      test composed of multiple choice and open-ended questions; and participated in a
      manual skills test of tibial external fixation. SETTING: The Center for Surgical
      Innovation, University of Colorado School of Medicine. PARTICIPANTS: A total of
      12 residents (11 general surgical and 1 obstetric) from ten US institutions.
      RESULTS: After the course, participants perceived increased confidence in
      performing all 27 taught procedures and ability to practice in low- and middle
      income countries. In knowledge-based testing, 10 of 12 residents demonstrated
      improvement on multiple choice questioning and 9 of 12 residents demonstrated
      improvement on open-ended questioning with structured scoring. In manual skills
      testing, all external fixator constructs demonstrated objective improvement on
      structured scoring and subjective improvement on stability assessment.
      CONCLUSIONS: For senior residents interested in humanitarian surgery, a
      combination of skills-focused teaching and manual practice led to self-perceived
      and objective improvement in relevant surgical knowledge and skills. The Colorado
      Humanitarian Surgical Skills Workshop represents an effective model for
      transmitting essential surgical principles and techniques of value in low
      resource settings.

PMID- 28864267
TI  - Developing the Blueprint for a General Surgery Technical Skills Certification
      Examination: A Validation Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a recognized need to develop high-stakes technical skills
      assessments for decisions of certification and resident promotion. High-stakes
      examinations requires a rigorous approach in accruing validity evidence
      throughout the developmental process. One of the first steps in development is
      the creation of a blueprint which outlines the potential content of examination.
      The purpose of this validation study was to develop an examination blueprint for
      a Canadian General Surgery assessment of technical skill certifying examination.
      METHODS: A Delphi methodology was used to gain consensus amongst Canadian General
      Surgery program directors as to the content (tasks or procedures) that could be
      included in a certifying Canadian General Surgery examination. Consensus was
      defined a priori as a Cronbach's alpha >= 0.70. All procedures or tasks reaching
      a positive consensus (defined as >=80% of program directors rated items as >=4 on
      the 5-point Likert scale) were then included in the final examination blueprint.
      RESULTS: Two Delphi rounds were needed to reach consensus. Of the 17 General
      Surgery Program directors across the country, 14 (82.4%) and 10 (58.8%) program
      directors responded to the first and second round, respectively. A total of 59
      items and procedures reached positive consensus and were included in the final
      examination blueprint. CONCLUSIONS: The present study has outlined the
      development of an examination blueprint for a General Surgery certifying
      examination using a consensus-based methodology. This validation study will serve
      as the foundational work from which simulated model will be developed, pilot
      tested and evaluated.

PMID- 28864268
TI  - Baicalein induces cell death in murine T cell lymphoma via inhibition of
      thioredoxin system.
AB  - We have earlier demonstrated the radioprotective potential of baicalein using
      murine splenic lymphocytes. Here, we have studied the effect of baicalein on
      murine T cell lymphoma EL4 cells and investigated the underlying mechanism of
      action. We observed that baicalein induced a dose dependent cell death in EL4
      cells in vitro and significantly reduced the frequency of cancer stem cells.
      Previously, we have reported that murine and human T cell lymphoma cells have
      increased oxidative stress tolerance capacity due to active thioredoxin system.
      Hence, we monitored the effect of baicalein on thioredoxin system in EL4 cells.
      Docking studies revealed that baicalein could bind to the active site of
      thioredoxin reductase. Baicalein treatment led to significant reduction in the
      activity of thioredoxin reductase and nuclear levels of thioredoxin-1 thereby
      increasing ASK1 levels and caspase-3 activity. Interestingly, CRISPR-Cas9 based
      knock-out of ASK1 or over-expression of thioredoxin-1 abolished anti-tumor
      effects of baicalein in EL4 cells. Further, baicalein administration
      significantly reduced intra-peritoneal tumor burden of EL4 cells in C57BL/6 mice.
      Thus, our study describes anti-tumor effects of baicalein in EL4 cells via
      inhibition of thioredoxin system.

PMID- 28864269
TI  - Uses of chitosan for treating different forms of serious obstetrics hemorrhages.
AB  - Postpartum hemorrhage is a major cause of maternal death worldwide. Many
      therapeutic strategies have been developed to reduce maternal morbidity and
      mortality like oxytocin, prostaglandin, and uterine balloons. A new member of the
      therapeutic arsenal has recently emerged, the chitosan (Celox(r)), used since
      several years by military doctors to stop bleeding of combat wounds. In 2012, a
      first study was reported with the successful use of chitosan-coated gauze to
      treat severe postpartum hemorrhage. We report here four cases of the use of
      chitosan to treat life-threatening obstetric bleeding. In the first case, a
      pelvic packing with chitosan gauze after hemostatic hysterectomy with persistent
      bleeding. In the second case, the use of chitosan powder in a case of severe
      bleeding from multiple vaginal tears. In the third case, the use of chitosan
      gauze in uterine packing for postpartum hemorrhage by atonia. In the fourth case,
      the use of chitosan powder for stop bleeding during a hemorrhagic cesarean
      section. Postpartum hemorrhage of uterine origin resistant to treatment with
      prostaglandins can be treated with chitosan-coated gauze. This treatment requires
      no training and its costs are one fifth those of a Bakri(r) intrauterine balloon.
      Using these two forms of chitosan, powder and gauze, we have a new therapeutic
      method at our disposal for dealing with the most serious cases of bleeding.

PMID- 28864270
TI  - Spontaneous Tear After Insufflation: A Unique Finding of Collagenous Colitis.

PMID- 28864271
TI  - Leukemic Infiltration of Colon in a Case of Diarrhea Post Hematopoietic Cell
      Transplantation (HCT).

PMID- 28864272
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28864273
TI  - Transtympanic pseudoaneurysm of the internal carotid artery complicating a
      myringotomy in a four-year old child: Case report and literature review.
AB  - We report the first case of a transtympanic iatrogenic internal carotid artery
      (ICA) pseudoaneurysm diagnosed in a 4-year-old child following a myringotomy. An
      endovascular treatment with a covered-stent was decided; spontaneous thrombosis
      was found during the therapeutic arteriography, and the procedure was aborted.
      Otoscopy and computed tomography (CT) scan monitoring showed a prolonged
      thrombosis and the disappearance of the pseudoaneurysm 18months after the
      diagnostic arteriography. Based on literature review, endovascular techniques
      seem to be preferred to the surgical approach for treatment of intrapetrous ICA
      pseudoaneurysm, however clinical and CT scan monitoring may also be a valid
      option.

PMID- 28864274
TI  - Retraction notice to "Obesity-Induced Increase in Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
      Leads to Development of Colon Cancer in Mice" Gastroenterology 2012;143:741
      753.e4.
AB  - This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal
      (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). This article has been
      retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor-in-Chief
      following an investigation into the data that were presented in several figures
      within the article. A number of images used in this article are believed to be
      duplicated images. The authors stated that they inadvertently inserted images of
      the wrong blots in several of the figures, resulting in the duplications;
      however, they did not address all of the concerns raised. Because the editors
      were no longer confident in the conclusions of the article based on these
      incorrect data, a decision was made to retract the paper. All authors have been
      notified of this decision. The University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Sao Paulo,
      Brazil was contacted regarding these concerns, but to date the journal has
      received no response.

PMID- 28864275
TI  - Racial disparity in infant mortality.
AB  - In the United States, African-American infants have significantly higher
      mortality than white infants. Previous work has identified associations between
      individual socioeconomic factors and select community-level factors. In this
      review, the authors look beyond traditional risk factors for infant mortality and
      examine the social context of race in this country, in an effort to understand
      African-American women's long-standing birth outcome disadvantage. In the
      process, recent insights are highlighted concerning neighborhood-level factors
      such as crime, segregation, built environment, and institutional racism, other
      likely causes for the poor outcomes of African-American infants in this country
      compared with infants in most other industrialized nations.

PMID- 28864276
TI  - Physiopathology of multiple organ dysfunctions in severely monocrotophos-poisoned
      rabbits.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Acute organophosphorus pesticides poisoning has a serious threat on
      people's health. This study aimed to investigate the pathogenesis and molecular
      mechanism of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in severely monocrotophos
      poisoned rabbits. METHODS: Chinchilla rabbits were used to build the
      monocrotophos-poisoned animal model via subcutaneous abdominal injection.
      Acetylcholinesterase activity was determined using the dithiobisnitrobenzoic acid
      enzyme kinetics method, and the free organophosphorus (FOP) toxic substances
      content was analyzed using the enzyme inhibition method. The contents of tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF-alpha), interleukin 1-beta (IL-beta) and thromboxane B2
      (TXB2) in the plasma and tissue homogenates were determined via radioimmunoassay.
      RESULTS: Twenty-four hours after exposure, in comparison to the plasma, blood
      cells and homogenates of various tissues, the bile had a significantly different
      FOP content (P < 0.05). In different phases, HE staining results confirmed that
      several degrees of pathological lesions (such as hemorrhage, edema, degeneration
      and necrosis) were detected in FOP poisoned rabbits. The TXB2 and TNF contents in
      plasma were significantly higher than those of the control (P < 0.05). Except for
      the intercostal muscle, all of the tissues had significantly higher TXB2 contents
      than the control. The TNF contents of the liver and lung and the IL-1beta
      contents of the liver and kidney were significantly higher than those of the
      control (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: FOP stored in the gallbladder may play important
      role in enterohepatic circulation. In MODS rabbits, caused by OP poisoning, the
      TXB2 and TNF-alpha may play important role in inflammatory response and
      complement and coagulation systems respectively.

PMID- 28864277
TI  - Neolignans from leaves of Nectandra leucantha (Lauraceae) display in vitro
      antitrypanosomal activity via plasma membrane and mitochondrial damages.
AB  - Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease, caused by the protozoan parasite
      Trypanosoma cruzi, which affects more than eight million people in Tropical and
      Subtropical countries especially in Latin America. Current treatment is limited
      to nifurtimox and benznidazole, both with reduced effectiveness and high
      toxicity. In this work, the n-hexane extract from leaves of Nectandra leucantha
      (Lauraceae) displayed in vitro antitrypanosomal activity against T. cruzi. Using
      several chromatographic steps, four related neolignans were isolated and
      chemically characterized as dehydrodieugenol B (1), 1-(8-propenyl)-3-[3'-methoxy
      1'-(8-propenyl)-phenoxy]-4,5-dimethoxybenzene (2), 1-[(7S)-hydroxy-8-propenyl]-3
      [3'-methoxy-1'-(8'-propenyl)-phenoxy]-4-hydroxy-5-methoxybenzene (3), and 1-[(7S)
      hydroxy-8-propenyl]-3-[3'-methoxy-1'-(8'-propenyl)-phenoxy]-4,5-dimethoxybenzene
      (4). These compounds were tested against intracellular amastigotes and
      extracellular trypomastigotes of T. cruzi and for mammalian cytotoxicity.
      Neolignan 4 showed the higher selectivity index (SI) against trypomastigotes (>5)
      and amastigotes (>13) of T. cruzi. The investigation of the mechanism of action
      demonstrated that neolignan 4 caused substantial alteration of the plasma
      membrane permeability, together with mitochondrial dysfunctions in trypomastigote
      forms. In silico studies of pharmacokinetics and toxicity (ADMET) properties
      predicted that all compounds were non-mutagenic, non-carcinogenic, non-genotoxic,
      weak hERG blockers, with acceptable volume of distribution (1.66-3.32 L/kg), and
      low rodent oral toxicity (LD50 810-2200 mg/kg). Considering some clinical events
      of cerebral Chagas disease, the compounds also demonstrated favorable properties,
      such as blood-brain barrier penetration. Unfavorable properties were also
      predicted as high promiscuity for P450 isoforms, high plasma protein binding
      affinity (>91%), and moderate-to-low oral bioavailability. Finally, none of the
      isolated neolignans was predicted as interference compounds (PAINS). Considering
      the promising chemical and biological properties of the isolated neolignans,
      these compounds could be used as starting points to develop new lead compounds
      for Chagas disease.

PMID- 28864278
TI  - Effects of sodium pyruvate on viability, synthesis of reactive oxygen species,
      lipid peroxidation and DNA integrity of cryopreserved bovine sperm.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine effects of sodium pyruvate on viability as
      well as on synthesis of reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation and DNA
      integrity of cryopreserved bovine sperm. In each of 23 Simmental AI bulls three
      ejaculates were collected. In a split sample design ejaculates were diluted by
      using Triladyl(r) extender without and with the addition of 5mM sodium pyruvate.
      Both aliquots were equilibrated for 24h before freezing. Frozen sperm samples
      were thawed, and examined immediately after thawing (0h) as well as after 3, 6,
      12, and 24h incubation at 37 degrees C. The percentages of rapidly motile sperm
      (RMS), plasma membrane and acrosome intact sperm (PMAI), sperm with a high
      mitochondrial membrane potential (HMMP), amounts of ROS synthesis
      (dichlorofluorescein-diacetate (DCFH), CellROX Deep Red Reagent(r) probe
      (CellROX)) and lipid peroxidation of sperm (LPO) and percentage of sperm with a
      high degree of DNA fragmentation (%DFI) were determined. Overall, sperm diluted
      with the extender containing sodium pyruvate showed higher levels of RMS, PMAI
      and HMMP, CellROX and lower %DFI values (P<0.001) compared to sperm frozen in the
      extender without sodium pyruvate. However, there was no effect (P>0.05) of sodium
      pyruvate on LPO and DCFH. The results of this study show that the addition of
      sodium pyruvate to the semen extender improved the viability as well as DNA
      integrity of cryopreserved sperm and did not affect their lipid peroxidation,
      although it increased the synthesis of some ROS.

PMID- 28864279
TI  - HBV recurrence after HCV clearance on DAAs: Sometimes they come back.

PMID- 28864280
TI  - Cultural factors in first episode psychosis treatment engagement.
AB  - Specialized First Episode Psychosis (FEP) services have been conceptualized in
      part around the issue of engagement. Creating treatment that is easier to access,
      with more frequent contacts, assertive outreach to clients between appointments,
      and an explicit youth-oriented culture could make services more attractive to
      those most in need of care. However, engagement has remained a mostly fuzzy,
      peripheral construct rather than the object of study in itself. As we recognize
      the importance of treatment engagement, we must prepare to address it more
      rigorously within psychosis and schizophrenia research. At the same time, factors
      enhancing or obstructing treatment engagement are inevitably local, rather than
      universal. The availability of care, its associated costs and stigmas,
      individuals' motivations for seeking treatment, and their beliefs and
      expectations about providers' roles are determined by local and cultural
      features. There can be no singular "best practice" for engagement - but curiosity
      about how culture and locale influence clients' willingness to participate in
      care, and creativity in how we account for and incorporate these variables into
      study designs, will help to shed light on the critical issue of engagement in FEP
      treatment.

PMID- 28864281
TI  - Interaction of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met genotype and history of
      stress in regulation of prepulse inhibition in mice.
AB  - The Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism results in
      reduced activity-dependent BDNF release and has been implicated in schizophrenia.
      However, effects of the polymorphism on functional dopaminergic and N-methyl-d
      aspartate (NMDA) receptor-associated activity remain unclear. We used prepulse
      inhibition, a measure of sensorimotor gating which is disrupted in schizophrenia,
      and assessed the effects of acute treatment with the dopamine receptor agonist,
      apomorphine (APO), and the NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801. We used adult
      humanized hBDNFVal66Met 'knockin' mice which express either the Val/Val, Val/Met
      or Met/Met genotype. An interaction of BDNF with stress was modelled by chronic
      young-adult treatment with corticosterone (CORT). At 1 or 3mg/kg, APO had no
      effect in Val/Val mice but significantly reduced PPI at the 100ms inter-stimulus
      interval (ISI) in Val/Met and Met/Met mice. However, after CORT pretreatment, APO
      significantly reduced PPI in all genotypes similarly. At 0.1 or 0.25mg/kg, MK-801
      significantly disrupted PPI at the 100ms ISI independent of genotype or CORT
      pretreatment. There were differential effects of APO and MK-801 on PPI at the
      30ms ISI and startle between the genotypes, irrespective of CORT pretreatment.
      These results show that the BDNF Val66Met Val/Met and Met/Met genotypes are more
      sensitive than the Val/Val genotype to the effect of APO on PPI. A history of
      stress, here modelled by chronic CORT administration, increases effects of APO in
      Val/Val mice.

PMID- 28864282
TI  - What do we know about insight into illness and its association with the
      underlying biology of schizophrenia?

PMID- 28864283
TI  - Covariation between motor signs and negative symptoms in drug-naive subjects with
      schizophrenia-spectrum disorders before and after antipsychotic treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the covariation between negative symptoms and motor signs
      in a broad sample of drug-naive subjects with schizophrenia-spectrum psychoses
      before and after inception of antipsychotic medication. METHODS: One-hundred and
      eighty-nine antipsychotic-naive subjects with DSM-IV schizophrenia-spectrum
      psychoses were assessed for negative symptoms including affective flattening,
      alogia, avolition/apathy and anhedonia/associality, and motor signs including
      catatonia, parkinsonism and dyskinesia. We examined the association between
      negative and motor features at baseline, 4-weeks after inception of antipsychotic
      treatment and that of their mean change over the treatment period, such as their
      trajectories and treatment response pattern. RESULTS: At the drug-naive state,
      motor signs were strongly related to affective flattening and alogia (p<0.01); at
      4-weeks, most negative and motor features were significantly interrelated
      (p<0.01); mean change of motor signs and negative symptoms tended to be
      unrelated. This association pattern was irrespective of levels of positive
      symptoms. Ratings of negative symptoms, excepting affective flattening, improved
      after treatment (p<0.001) while motor ratings showed divergent trajectories with
      catatonia improving (p<0.001), parkinsonism worsening (p<0.001) and dyskinesia
      remaining unchanged (p>0.01). Although to a different extent, motor and negative
      features showed drug-responsive, drug-worsening, of drug-unchanged patterns of
      response to antipsychotic medication. The main predictors of negative and motor
      features in treated subjects were their corresponding baseline ratings (p<0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Negative and motor features are differentiated, but to some extent,
      overlapping domains that are meaningfully influenced by antipsychotic medication.
      At the drug-naive state, motor signs and the diminished expression domain of
      negative symptoms may share underlying neurobiological mechanisms.

PMID- 28864284
TI  - Evaluation of caffeine versus codeine for pain and swelling management after
      implant surgeries: A triple blind clinical trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There are controversies in recent studies over the application of
      NSAIDs for controlling pain and swelling after implant surgeries for
      osseointegration. The aim of this study was to compare caffeine-containing versus
      codeine-containing analgesics in relation to their anti-inflammatory and
      analgesic effects after dental implant surgeries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 80
      patients (40 in each group) were selected as the final sample size. Forty drug
      packs, which were formulated and made by the consultant pharmacist, each
      containing 10 capsules of acetaminophen caffeine (consisting of 300 mg of
      acetaminophen and 20 mg of caffeine), and another 40 packs, each containing 10
      capsules of acetaminophen codeine (consisting of 300 mg acetaminophen and 20 mg
      codeine) were prepared. These drugs were administered randomly to patients 1 h
      before surgery and every 6 h afterward until 48 h, according to the protocol. The
      patients' pain severities were determined at 30-min, 3-h, 6-h, 12-h, 1-day, 2
      day, and 1-week intervals. In addition, the swelling was evaluated after 1-day, 2
      days, 3-days, and 1-week. Data were analyzed with Mann-Whitney, student's t, and
      chi-squared tests, using SPSS 11. RESULTS: A total of 76 patients, including 38
      males and 38 females, with a mean age of 41.06 +/- 5 and an age range of 35-53
      years, were studied. The pain severities in patients in the codeine group were
      significantly less than those in the caffeine group at 3-, 6-, and 12-h
      postoperative intervals (p = 0.001). However, the pain severities at the above
      intervals, even in caffeine group, were within the moderate pain severity range
      (VAS = 3-7). It is also interesting to note that the pain was at its maximum
      severity at the 6-h postoperative interval, and at its minimum at the 1-week
      interval. The severity of swelling was also evaluated in both groups, indicating
      that it was significantly less in the caffeine group at 1-, 2-, and 3-day
      postoperative intervals (p = 0.018). CONCLUSION: According to this study, the
      codeine-containing analgesics are significantly more effective than caffeine
      containing ones in reducing postoperative pain. It was also concluded that
      caffeine-containing analgesics are significantly more effective than codeine
      containing ones in reducing postoperative swelling, which was reported to be
      significantly less within the first 3-days in the caffeine group. As a result,
      caffeine-containing analgesics are effective and acceptable in reducing both
      postoperative pain and swelling.

PMID- 28864285
TI  - Impact of greenspaces in city on avian species richness and abundance in Northern
      Africa.
AB  - Increasing urbanization is a major challenge in the context of global changes,
      because this environment is known to negatively impact biodiversity. It is
      therefore important to identify factors maintaining biodiversity in such areas.
      Here, we tested in 650 sites whether the greenspaces in urbanized area of Annaba
      (Algeria) has positive effects on avian species richness and abundances. Our
      results show that species detection (n=26) is more important during the breeding
      season as compared to the winter season, and that avian species richness is
      positively affected by the greenspaces. For most species, greenspaces impact
      positively their presence and abundances. Only the feral pigeon was less detected
      in greenspaces as compared to built-up areas. Our study therefore confirmed, for
      the first time in a Northern African city, that greenspaces significantly
      increase the species richness and abundances of birds, and shows that the season
      can profoundly affect such indicators.

PMID- 28864286
TI  - Abnormalities of T-cell receptor repertoire in CD4+ regulatory and conventional T
      cells in patients with RAG mutations: Implications for autoimmunity.

PMID- 28864288
TI  - A novel hypothesis for the pathogenesis of glaucomatous disc hemorrhage.
AB  - Disc hemorrhage is known to be associated with glaucoma development and
      progression. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of
      disc hemorrhage in glaucoma, including mechanical and ischemic theories. However,
      no theory has yet provided a clear explanation of cellular-level events and
      related histologic findings. Moreover, research has yet to elucidate why
      glaucomatous disc hemorrhage occurs around the optic disc and at the margin of
      the retinal nerve fiber layer defect. Understanding the pathogenic mechanism of
      disc hemorrhage will facilitate interpretation of its clinical importance, and
      provide better insight into clinical practice. In this review, we sought to
      provide a plausible hypothesis for the development of glaucomatous disc
      hemorrhage that could explain the aforementioned characteristic features. We
      suggest a new and detailed mechanism for disc hemorrhage. Critical microscopic
      events are also discussed in relation to reactive gliosis in glaucoma. With
      proliferative reactive gliosis, fibrous glial scar forms, and we suggest that the
      traction force induced by glial scar formation might disrupt capillary at the
      border between the healthy and damaged retinal nerve fiber layer, and develop
      splinter-shaped peripapillary hemorrhage. In addition to glial scar formation,
      remodeling and deformation of lamina cribrosa beams would insult the capillary
      surrounding the pore of the lamina cribrosa, and lead to development of round
      blotch-shaped cup hemorrhage. Histopathologic confirmation of these findings
      should be explored in future investigations.

PMID- 28864289
TI  - Phase 1 clinical trial of adoptive immunotherapy using "off-the-shelf" activated
      natural killer cells in patients with refractory and relapsed acute myeloid
      leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND AIMS: Activated NK cells (aNK) generated by expansion of a human
      interleukin-2-dependent NK cell line (NK-92) were shown to mediate strong anti
      leukemia activity. This phase 1 study evaluated feasibility, safety, and activity
      of aNK cells adoptively transferred to patients with refractory/relapsed acute
      myeloid leukemia (AML). In addition, effects of these aNK cells on the patient's
      immune system were evaluated. METHODS: Two cell-dose levels (1 * 109 cells/m2 and
      3 * 109 cells/m2) were used. One treatment course consisted of two infusions of
      the same cell dose, each cell infusion delivered 24 h apart. The aNK cells were
      administered in the outpatient setting. RESULTS: Seven patients with
      refractory/relapsed AML were treated with a total of 20 aNK cell infusions. None
      of the 7 patients experienced dose-limiting toxicities during the aNK cell
      administration or during 21 days of the post-infusion observation period. No
      grade 3-4 toxicities (probable or definite) related to aNK cell infusions
      occurred. Activity was transient in 3 of 7 patients. No significant changes in
      the patient's lymphocyte counts, subsets frequency, phenotype or activity were
      observed post-infusion. Cell dose-dependent effects in the plasma levels of
      several cytokines were observed. DISCUSSION: The trial demonstrated the safety
      and feasibility of adoptive cell therapy with "off-the-shelf" aNK cells in
      patients with refractory/relapsed AML. These data provide the foundation for
      future combination immunotherapy trials and for the optimization of aNK cell
      based therapies in patients with AML.

PMID- 28864290
TI  - Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells regress aortic aneurysm via the NF
      kB, Smad3 and Akt signaling pathways.
AB  - BACKGROUND AIMS: We have confirmed that aortic aneurysm (AA) can be regressed by
      the administration of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs). We
      investigated the kinetics of signaling pathways in AA following treatment with BM
      MSCs. METHODS: Angiotensin II-infused apolipoprotein E-deficient mice were
      treated by intravenous injection of 1 * 106 BM-MSCs in 0.2 mL saline (BM-MSCs
      group, n = 5) or 0.2 mL saline (saline group, n = 5). Mice were sacrificed 2
      weeks after injection and subjected to measurements of the incidence of AA and
      levels of phosphorylated proteins. Levels of proteins in conditioned media of BM
      MSCs were also measured. RESULTS: The incidence of AA in the BM-MSCs group was
      reduced (BM-MSC 40% versus saline 100%, P <0.05). Levels of pNF-kB and pSTAT1
      were reduced (pNF-kB: 0.28 versus 0.45 unit/mL, P <0.05, pSTAT1: 0.16 versus
      0.34, P <0.05), whereas levels of pAkt and pSmad3 were elevated (pAkt: 0.13
      versus 0.07, P <0.01, pSmad3: 1.07 versus 0.47, P <0.05) in the BM-MSCs group.
      The levels of pNF-kB, pAkt, and pSmad3 were correlated with aortic diameters.
      Trophic factors including IGFPB-3, NRF, Activin A and PDGF-AA were secreted from
      BM-MSCs (IGFBP-3: 35.2 pg/mL, NRF: 3.1 pg/mL, Activin A: 3.1 pg/mL, PDGF-AA: 0.45
      pg/mL). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that the therapeutic mechanism of BM
      MSC-mediated AA regression could contribute to regulation of the NF-kB, Smad3 and
      Akt signaling pathways. In addition, paracrine actions by factors including NRF,
      IGFBP-3, Activin A and PDGF-AA might have affected these signaling pathways.

PMID- 28864291
TI  - Functional recovery upon human dental pulp stem cell transplantation in a
      diabetic neuropathy rat model.
AB  - Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is among the most debilitating complications of
      diabetes. Here, we investigated the effects of human dental pulp stem cell (DPSC)
      transplantation in Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced neuropathic rats. Six weeks after
      STZ injection, DPSCs were transplanted through two routes, intravenous (IV) or
      intramuscular (IM), in single or two repeat doses. Two weeks after
      transplantation, a significant improvement in hyperalgesia, grip-strength, motor
      coordination and nerve conduction velocity was observed in comparison with
      controls. A rapid improvement in neuropathic symptoms was observed for a single
      dose of DPSC IV; however, repeat dose of DPSC IV did not bring about added
      improvement. A single dose of DPSC IM showed steady improvement, and further
      recovery continued upon repeat IM administration. DPSC single dose IV showed
      greater improvement than DPSC single dose IM, but IM transplantation brought
      about better improvement in body weight. A marked reduction in tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF) alpha and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels was observed in the blood
      plasma for all treated groups, as compared with controls. With respect to
      inflammatory cytokines, repeat dose of DPSC IM showed further improvement,
      suggesting that a repeat dose is required to maintain the improved inflammatory
      state. Gene expression of inflammatory markers in liver confirmed amelioration in
      inflammation. Arachidonic acid level was unaffected by IV DPSC transplantation
      but showed noticeable increase through IM administration of a repeat dose. These
      results suggest that DPSC transplantation through both routes and dosage was
      beneficial for the retrieval of neuropathic parameters of DN; transplantation via
      the IM route with repeat dose was the most effective.

PMID- 28864292
TI  - The effect of bone mass and architecture on mandibular condyle after mandibular
      distraction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mandibular distraction surgery is a critical treatment for jaw
      deformity. However, abnormal mandibular condylar bone resorption is often seen as
      complication after surgery. Our previous study using a rat mandibular distraction
      model suggested that overloading leads to mandibular condylar resorption. Host
      factors are also believed to influence the resorption. To understand the
      relationship between host factors and resorption, we investigated the effect of
      changing bone mass and architecture on the mandibular condyle using FK506. STUDY
      DESIGN: FK506, an immunosuppressant, was used to compromise bone mass and
      architecture in this study. Animals were divided into 4 groups: distraction
      surgery (Dist), FK506 administration (FK), distraction surgery with FK506
      administration (FK + Dist), and no surgery or FK506 administration (Cont).
      RESULTS: The FK group showed reduced bone mass and impaired bone architecture.
      The Dist group exhibited abnormal bone resorption on the surface of the condyles,
      which was slightly exacerbated in the FK + Dist group. Bone defect length
      decreased over time as a result of bone apposition in the Dist group. However, in
      the FK + Dist group, the bone defect length remained the same. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that bone mass and architecture strongly affect the tolerance to
      the overloading and adaptation with bone apposition in condylar resorption site.

PMID- 28864293
TI  - DNA methylation profiles of 22 apoptosis-related genes in odontogenic keratocysts
      before and after marsupialization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Odontogenic keratocysts (OKCs) are cystic lesions of the jaw and tend
      to recur after treatment. Marsupialization is an effective preliminary treatment
      for large OKCs. This procedure induces epithelial lining changes in association
      with reduction of Bcl-2 protein expression, but the underlying mechanisms remain
      unknown. The purpose of our study was to compare the methylation profile of the
      apoptosis-related genes of OKCs before and after marsupialization. STUDY DESIGN:
      We assessed the methylation percentages of the promoter region of 22 apoptosis
      related genes in 13 OKCs, both marsupialized and nonmarsupialized lesions, by
      using methylation quantitative polymerase chain reaction array. We validated the
      expression of genes that showed the greatest differences in methylation
      percentages between the 2 groups. RESULTS: LTBR and BCLAF1 showed higher DNA
      methylation percentages in the marsupialized OKCs, but this difference did not
      affect gene expression (P > .05). The other 20 genes showed similar DNA
      methylation in both OKC groups. CONCLUSIONS: OKCs show a distinct methylation
      profile after marsupialization, but this is not followed by gene expression
      alterations.

PMID- 28864294
TI  - Preanalytical errors in transfusion medicine: Reply to "74-year-old female with
      new monoclonal protein on serum immunofixation electrophoresis".

PMID- 28864295
TI  - E-cigarettes emit very high formaldehyde levels only in conditions that are
      aversive to users: A replication study under verified realistic use conditions.
AB  - PURPOSE: In 2015, a study identified 5-15-fold higher levels of formaldehyde
      emissions from an old-generation e-cigarette tested at 5.0 V compared to tobacco
      cigarettes. We set to replicate this study using the same e-cigarette equipment
      and e-liquid, while checking for the generation of dry puffs. DESIGN: Experienced
      e-cigarette users (n = 26) took 4 s puffs at different voltage settings and were
      asked to report the generation of dry puffs. Formaldehyde emissions were measured
      at both realistic and dry puff conditions. RESULTS: Dry puffs were detected at
      <=4.2 V by 88% of participants; thus, 4.0 V was defined as the upper limit of
      realistic use. Levels ranged from 3.4 (SE = 2.2) MUg/10 puffs at 3.3 V to 718.2
      (SE = 58.2) MUg/10 puffs at 5.0 V. The levels detected at 4.0 V were 19.8 (SE =
      5.6) MUg/10 puffs. At 4.0 V, the daily exposure to formaldehyde from consuming 3
      g of liquid with the device tested would be 32% lower compared to smoking 20
      tobacco cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS: The high levels of formaldehyde emissions that
      were reported in a previous study were caused by unrealistic use conditions that
      create the unpleasant taste of dry puffs to e-cigarette users and are thus
      avoided.

PMID- 28864287
TI  - Age-related cataracts: Role of unfolded protein response, Ca2+ mobilization,
      epigenetic DNA modifications, and loss of Nrf2/Keap1 dependent cytoprotection.
AB  - Age-related cataracts are closely associated with lens chronological aging,
      oxidation, calcium imbalance, hydration and crystallin modifications.
      Accumulating evidence indicates that misfolded proteins are generated in the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by most cataractogenic stresses. To eliminate
      misfolded proteins from cells before they can induce senescence, the cells
      activate a clean-up machinery called the ER stress/unfolded protein response
      (UPR). The UPR also activates the nuclear factor-erythroid-2-related factor 2
      (Nrf2), a central transcriptional factor for cytoprotection against stress. Nrf2
      activates nearly 600 cytoprotective target genes. However, if ER stress reaches
      critically high levels, the UPR activates destructive outputs to trigger
      programmed cell death. The UPR activates mobilization of ER-Ca2+ to the cytoplasm
      and results in activation of Ca2+-dependent proteases to cleave various enzymes
      and proteins which cause the loss of normal lens function. The UPR also enhances
      the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage lens
      constituents and induce failure of the Nrf2 dependent cytoprotection. Kelch-like
      ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) is an oxygen sensor protein and regulates the
      levels of Nrf2 by the proteasomal degradation. A significant loss of DNA
      methylation in diabetic cataracts was found in the Keap1 promoter, which
      overexpresses the Keap1 protein. Overexpressed Keap1 significantly decreases the
      levels of Nrf2. Lower levels of Nrf2 induces loss of the redox balance toward to
      oxidative stress thereby leading to failure of lens cytoprotection. Here, this
      review summarizes the overall view of ER stress, increases in Ca2+ levels,
      protein cleavage, and loss of the well-established stress protection in somatic
      lens cells.

PMID- 28864296
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, 1-methyl-3-methoxy-4
      isopropylbenzene, CAS Registry Number 1076-56-8.

PMID- 28864297
TI  - Structural analysis of phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase IIIbeta (PI4KB) - 14-3-3
      protein complex reveals internal flexibility and explains 14-3-3 mediated
      protection from degradation in vitro.
AB  - Phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase IIIbeta (PI4KB) is responsible for the synthesis of
      the Golgi and trans-Golgi network (TGN) pool of phosphatidylinositol 4-phospahte
      (PI4P). PI4P is the defining lipid hallmark of Golgi and TGN and also serves as a
      signaling lipid and as a precursor for higher phosphoinositides. In addition,
      PI4KB is hijacked by many single stranded plus RNA (+RNA) viruses to generate
      PI4P-rich membranes that serve as viral replication organelles. Given the
      importance of this enzyme in cells, it has to be regulated. 14-3-3 proteins bind
      PI4KB upon its phosphorylation by protein kinase D, however, the structural basis
      of PI4KB recognition by 14-3-3 proteins is unknown. Here, we characterized the
      PI4KB:14-3-3 protein complex biophysically and structurally. We discovered that
      the PI4KB:14-3-3 protein complex is tight and is formed with 2:2 stoichiometry.
      Surprisingly, the enzymatic activity of PI4KB is not directly modulated by 14-3-3
      proteins. However, 14-3-3 proteins protect PI4KB from proteolytic degradation in
      vitro. Our structural analysis revealed that the PI4KB:14-3-3 protein complex is
      flexible but mostly within the disordered regions connecting the 14-3-3 binding
      site of the PI4KB with the rest of the PI4KB enzyme. It also predicted no direct
      modulation of PI4KB enzymatic activity by 14-3-3 proteins and that 14-3-3 binding
      will not interfere with PI4KB recruitment to the membrane by the ACBD3 protein.
      In addition, the structural analysis explains the observed protection from
      degradation; it revealed that several disordered regions of PI4KB become
      protected from proteolytical degradation upon 14-3-3 binding. All the structural
      predictions were subsequently biochemically validated.

PMID- 28864298
TI  - Curvature of designed armadillo repeat proteins allows modular peptide binding.
AB  - Designed armadillo repeat proteins (dArmRPs) were developed to create a modular
      peptide binding technology where each of the structural repeats binds two
      residues of the target peptide. An essential prerequisite for such a technology
      is a dArmRP geometry that matches the peptide bond length. To this end, we
      determined a large set (n=27) of dArmRP X-ray structures, of which 12 were
      previously unpublished, to calculate curvature parameters that define their
      geometry. Our analysis shows that consensus dArmRPs exhibit curvatures close to
      the optimal range for modular peptide recognition. Binding of peptide ligands can
      induce a curvature within the desired range, as confirmed by single-molecule FRET
      experiments in solution. On the other hand, computationally designed ArmRPs,
      where side chains have been chosen with the intention to optimally fit into a
      geometrically optimized backbone, turned out to be more divergent in reality, and
      thus not suitable for continuous peptide binding. Furthermore, we show that the
      formation of a crystal lattice can induce small but significant deviations from
      the curvature adopted in solution, which can interfere with the evaluation of
      repeat protein scaffolds when high accuracy is required. This study corroborates
      the suitability of consensus dArmRPs as a scaffold for the development of modular
      peptide binders.

PMID- 28864299
TI  - The concerted movement of the switch region of Troponin I in cardiac muscle thin
      filaments as tracked by conventional and pulsed (DEER) EPR.
AB  - The absence of a crystal structure of the calcium free state of the cardiac
      isoform of the troponin complex has hindered our understanding of how the simple
      binding of Ca2+ triggers conformational changes in troponin which are then
      propagated to enable muscle contraction. Here we have used continuous wave (CW)
      and Double Electron-Electron Resonance (DEER) pulsed EPR spectroscopy to measure
      distances between TnI and TnC to track the movement of the functionally important
      regulatory 'switch' region of cardiac Tn. Spin labels were placed on the switch
      region of Troponin I and distances measured to Troponin C. Under conditions of
      high Ca2+, the interspin distances for one set (TnI151/TnC84) were 'short' (9
      10A) with narrow distance distribution widths (3-8A) indicating the close
      interaction of the switch region with the N-lobe of TnC. Additional spin
      populations representative of longer interspin distances were detected by DEER.
      These longer distance populations, which were ~16-19A longer than the short
      distance populations, possessed notably broader distance distribution widths (14
      29A). Upon Ca2+ removal, the interspin population shifted toward the longer
      distances, indicating the release of the switch region from TnC and an overall
      increase in disorder for this region. Together, our results suggest that under
      conditions of low Ca2+, the close proximity of the TnI switch region to TnC in
      the cardiac isoform is necessary for promoting the interaction between the
      regulatory switch helix with the N-lobe of cardiac Troponin C, which, unlike the
      skeletal isoform, is largely in a closed conformation.

PMID- 28864300
TI  - The pregenital abdomen of Enicocephalomorpha and morphological evidence for
      different modes of communication at the dawn of heteropteran evolution.
AB  - The internal and external anatomy of the posterior metathoracic region,
      pregenital abdomen, and associated nervous system of the heteropteran infraorder
      Enicocephalomorpha are thoroughly described, using an array of state-of-the art
      techniques. Based on morphology, it is hypothesised which modes of communication
      these insects use. This study is based primarily on an undescribed species of
      Cocles Bergroth, 1905 (Enicocephalidae) and another undescribed species of
      Lomagostus Villiers, 1958 (Aenictopecheidae), but additional representatives of
      the infraorder are also examined. Our results are compared with the literature on
      other Heteroptera. The metathoracic scent gland system of Enicocephalomorpha uses
      the same muscles as that of more derived Heteroptera, although the efferent
      system is different. The presence of a tergal plate and well-developed
      longitudinal musculature in the families Enicocephalidae and Aenictopecheidae, as
      well as a sexually dimorphic set of sclerites and membranes that allow an as yet
      undetermined type of motion, may indicate the presence of vibrational signaling
      in the infraorder, although experimental confirmation is required. Our findings
      raise new research questions regarding heteropteran functional morphology and
      communication.

PMID- 28864301
TI  - The scolopidial accessory organs and Nebenorgans in orthopteroid insects:
      Comparative neuroanatomy, mechanosensory function, and evolutionary origin.
AB  - Scolopidial sensilla in insects often form large sensory organs involved in
      proprioception or exteroception. Here the knowledge on Nebenorgans and accessory
      organs, two organs consisting of scolopidial sensory cells, is summarised. These
      organs are present in some insects which are model organisms for the physiology
      of mechanosensory systems (cockroaches and tettigoniids). Recent comparative
      studies documented the accessory organ in several taxa of Orthoptera (including
      tettigoniids, cave crickets, Jerusalem crickets) and the Nebenorgan in related
      insects (Mantophasmatodea). The accessory organ or Nebenorgan is usually a small
      organ of 8-15 sensilla located in the posterior leg tibia of all leg pairs. The
      physiological properties of the accessory organs and Nebenorgans are so far
      largely unknown. Taking together neuroanatomical and electrophysiological data
      from disparate taxa, there is considerable evidence that the accessory organ and
      Nebenorgan are vibrosensitive. They thus complement the larger vibrosensitive
      subgenual organ in the tibia. This review summarises the comparative studies of
      these sensory organs, in particular the arguments and criteria for the homology
      of the accessory organ and Nebenorgan among orthopteroid insects. Different
      scenarios of repeated evolutionary origins or losses of these sensory organs are
      discussed. Neuroanatomy allows to distinguish individual sensory organs for
      analysis of sensory physiology, and to infer scenarios of sensory evolution.

PMID- 28864302
TI  - The allometry of the central nervous system during the postembryonic development
      of the spider Eratigena atrica.
AB  - During ontogenesis, the size of a spider body, tissues and organs increases
      dramatically. The aim of the study was to estimate changes in the central nervous
      system of postembryonic stages of Eratigena atrica and compare them with the
      literature data on species differing in behavioural traits. Allometric analysis
      involved evaluation of histological slides embedded in paraffin and stained with
      hematoxylin and eosin. The reduced major axis regression (RMA) was applied to
      find allometric relationships between the volumes of the particular parts of the
      body. All the measured parts of the central nervous system (CNS) were negatively
      allometrically related to the volume of the prosoma, showing that the increment
      of the CNS was lower than that of the entire body. The growth of the brain was
      negatively allometrically related to the growth of the CNS but the increment of
      the subesophageal ganglion was greater than that of the CNS, exhibiting a
      positive allometry. Within both these structures, the increase in neuropil volume
      was greater than the growth of the cortex (cell body rind). Thus, in
      postembryonic development, the share of the subesophageal ganglion and neuropil
      in the total volume of the CNS increased, whereas that of the brain and cortex
      decreased. The mode of the CNS development in E. atrica is similar to that
      observed in other arthropods, including Argiope aurantia, a spider of different
      ecology and behaviour.

PMID- 28864303
TI  - Corrigendum to "Body weight loss, reduced urge for palatable food and increased
      release of GLP-1 through daily supplementation with green-plant membranes for
      three months in overweight women" [81 (1 October 2014) 295-304].

PMID- 28864304
TI  - [Cancer diagnosis disclosure and supportive care seen from the patient side. A
      cross sectional multicentre survey].
AB  - : The objective of this study was to describe patients' experience during cancer
      disclosure and initial carers' support phase, in three healthcare facilities in
      Haute-Savoie District, France. METHODOLOGY: We conducted a multicentric, cross
      sectional telephone survey. Patients registered on the multidisciplinary cancer
      consultation platform lists were randomised. Practitioners validated the
      inclusion criteria of their patients, i.e. age over 18, patient fully informed of
      his/her diagnosis and able to answer a telephone interview. RESULTS: Two hundred
      thirty-six patients have been included. Outcome indicators reported as
      satisfactory were: the general setting of the disclosure consultation, the
      patient-doctor relationship, the coordination between the different carers and
      the patient carer relationship. The overall duration of the medical disclosure
      consultation and the time dedicated to explain the treatment and its adverse
      effects have been considered as insufficient. DISCUSSION: The measured
      indicators, which were by essence subjective, convey useful information on the
      quality of care in cancer treatment in the initial disclosure phase, as
      experienced by patients. This study has in particular allowed carers to start
      exploring ways to improve the experience of care of their patients.

PMID- 28864305
TI  - Transport and retention of carbon dots (CDs) in saturated and unsaturated porous
      media: Role of ionic strength, pH, and collector grain size.
AB  - Carbon-based engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) are widely used in consumer products
      due to their small size and unique physicochemical properties. Therefore, their
      release and distribution into the surface and subsurface environment is a subject
      of concern. Several studies have evaluated the transport and retention of carbon
      nanotubes and fullerenes, but none investigated the transport and retention of
      carbon dots (CDs). The aim of this research is to fill this knowledge gap by
      evaluating the transport and retention of CDs in saturated and unsaturated porous
      medium. Here, we investigate the effects of solution ionic strength (IS, 1-700 mM
      NaCl) and pH (4-9), the initial concentration of CDs (50-200 mg L-1), and porous
      media grain size (0.20-0.50 mm, 0.50-1 mm, 1-1.5 mm and 1.5-2 mm grain diameters)
      on the transport and retention of CDs in saturated (upward flow) and unsaturated
      (downward flow) quartz porous media. A mathematical model based on the advection
      dispersion equation coupled with the second-order kinetics was used to fit the
      breakthrough curves and to calculate the attachment and straining rates under the
      different experimental conditions. These analyses were underpinned by
      characterization of CD surface functional groups, surface charge and aggregation
      under the different experimental conditions, calculation of CD-CD and CD-quartz
      sand interaction potential according to DLVO theory. Transport and retention of
      CDs in quartz porous media are consistent with those observed for other types of
      carbon-based ENPs such as fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. Mobility of CDs in
      both saturated and unsaturated porous media increases with the decrease in ionic
      strength, increase in pH, and increase in collector grain size. Retention of CDs
      increases with the increase in IS, decrease in pH and decrease in grain size.
      Generally, CDs mobility was higher under saturated than under unsaturated flow
      conditions, for the same experimental conditions. Overall, CDs tend to be highly
      mobile and could travel for long distances at a wide range of environmental
      conditions.

PMID- 28864306
TI  - A meta-analysis of nevus-associated melanoma: Prevalence and practical
      implications.
AB  - The reported prevalence of nevus-associated melanoma varies substantially. We
      performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the incidence and
      prevalence of this disease; we also performed subanalyses considering age, tumor
      thickness, and nevus-type classification. In 38 observational cohort and case
      control studies, 29.1% of melanomas likely arose from a preexisting nevus and
      70.9% de novo. Any given melanoma was 64% less likely to be nevus-associated than
      de novo (risk ratio 0.36, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.29-0.44; P < .001; I2 =
      99%); nevus-associated melanomas had a lower mean Breslow thickness than de novo
      melanomas (mean difference -0.39 mm; 95% CI -0.60 to -0.18; P = .0003; I2 = 66%).
      No significant differences were noted regarding the association of nevus
      associated melanomas with nondysplastic nevi or dysplastic nevi (risk ratio 0.77,
      95% CI 0.49-1.20; P = .24; I2 = 98%).

PMID- 28864307
TI  - Identifying gaps in consumer knowledge about sunscreen.

PMID- 28864308
TI  - A neurosurgeon's view: Outcome after RF-ablation for mTLE.
AB  - We reviewed the current RF-ablation technique for mTLE and complications relating
      to the procedure. RF-ablation of the amygdalohippocampal complex (AHC) is a
      stereotactic technique, performed under local anesthesia, which achieved long
      term seizure-free clinical seizure outcomes in 71% of mTLE patients. Occipital
      access is used and thermolesions are made from a single trajectory in the long
      axis of the AHC. RF-ablation has shown a low complication rate and clinical
      seizure outcomes seem to be comparable with open surgical techniques.

PMID- 28864309
TI  - Combining contrast harmonic and elastography during EUS examination of pancreatic
      tumors increases diagnostic accuracy.

PMID- 28864310
TI  - Cost-effective treatment of swine wastes through recovery of energy and
      nutrients.
AB  - Wastes from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are challenging to
      treat because they are high in organic matter and nutrients. Conventional swine
      waste treatment options in the U.S., such as uncovered anaerobic lagoons, result
      in poor effluent quality and greenhouse gas emissions, and implementation of
      advanced treatment introduces high costs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is
      to evaluate the performance and life cycle costs of an alternative system for
      treating swine CAFO waste, which recovers valuable energy (as biogas) and
      nutrients (N, P, K+) as saleable fertilizers. The system uses in-vessel anaerobic
      digestion (AD) for methane production and solids stabilization, followed by
      struvite precipitation and ion exchange (IX) onto natural zeolites (chabazite or
      clinoptilolite) for nutrient recovery. An alternative approach that integrated
      struvite recovery and IX into a single reactor, termed STRIEX, was also
      investigated. Pilot- and bench-scale reactor experiments were used to evaluate
      the performance of each stage in the treatment train. Data from these studies
      were integrated into a life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) to assess the cost
      effectiveness of various process alternatives. Significant improvement in water
      quality, high methane production, and high nutrient recovery (generally over 90%)
      were observed with both the AD-struvite-IX process and the AD-STRIEX process. The
      LCCA showed that the STRIEX system can provide considerable financial savings
      compared to conventional systems. AD, however, incurs high capital costs compared
      to conventional anaerobic lagoons and may require larger scales to become
      financially attractive.

PMID- 28864311
TI  - Factors affecting the shear strength behavior of municipal solid wastes.
AB  - In this study, the shear strength behavior of European (E-1), Turkey (T-1), and
      United States of America (U-1) average synthetic municipal solid waste (MSW)
      compositions were investigated. The large-scale direct shear tests were conducted
      using fresh and aged MSW samples collected from the Manisa Landfill. The natural
      samples' test results were compared with synthetic samples. The affecting factors
      such as ageing, waste composition, and waste type (synthetic and natural) on the
      shear strength of MSWs were investigated. The effect of composition was evaluated
      using three main and six modified synthetic MSW compositions. In addition to the
      synthetic fresh MSW samples, synthetic aged samples were also used. Angle of
      shearing resistance decreased with increasing organic content whereas cohesion
      intercept increased with increasing organic content. The fresh and aged wastes
      with higher coarse fraction lead to a higher angle of shearing resistance. The
      synthetic aged samples had higher internal friction angles but lower cohesion
      values than the synthetic fresh samples. Waste with average European composition
      had the highest internal friction angle as it has the highest fibrous content. On
      the other hand, the highest cohesion belonged to the Turkey composition, which
      had the highest organic matter ratio. The main differences between E-1, T-1 and U
      1 samples in terms of compositions were observed. The results of this study
      indicated that shear strength of waste significantly depends on composition and
      hence a site specific evaluation is recommended.

PMID- 28864312
TI  - Why Do the Children (Pretend) Play?
AB  - Pretend play appears to be an evolved behavior because it is universal and
      appears on a set schedule. However, no specific functions have been determined
      for pretend play and empirical tests for its functions in humans are elusive. Yet
      animal play fighting can serve as an analog, as both activities involve as-if,
      metacommunicative signaling and symbolism. In the rat and some other animals,
      adaptive functions of play fighting include assisting social behavior and emotion
      regulation. Research is presented suggesting that pretend play might serve
      similar functions for humans.

PMID- 28864313
TI  - Toe-to-finger combined with free flap transfer for primary one-stage post
      traumatic reconstruction of the complex fingerless hand.
AB  - Toe-to-finger transplantation is intimately related to the development of
      microsurgical free tissue transplantation, which is one of the most important
      advances in the history of reconstructive surgery. It is also generally
      acknowledged that a mangled hand with massive tissue loss and amputation of
      multiple digits presents a challenge for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. In
      this retrospective study we reviewed 11 cases of primary one-stage post-traumatic
      reconstruction of complex fingerless hands using a combination of toe-to-finger
      and free tissue transplantation performed in Shanghai Jiao Tong University
      affiliated Sixth People's Hospital and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of
      Medicine affiliated Ninth People's Hospital from January 2001 to November 2014.
      Primary healing was achieved in 10 cases, while in the other case partial flap
      loss was documented and secondary healing was achieved by skin grafting. We
      concluded from this study that, by selecting suitable patients, use of a
      combination of toe-to-finger and free tissue transplantation may provide an
      alternative option for mangled hand salvage with satisfactory functional and
      esthetic results.

PMID- 28864314
TI  - Non-living microvascular training models: Face validity of liquid latex and the
      challenge of structural vs. "physiological" patency assessment.

PMID- 28864315
TI  - Preventing the complications of tissue expansion using fat grafting under
      expanded skin.

PMID- 28864317
TI  - Feasibility and Safety of Early Repeat Transradial Access Within 30 Days of
      Previous Coronary Angiography and Intervention.
AB  - Transradial approach (TRA) is the default access site for diagnostic angiography
      and intervention in many centers. Repeat ipsilateral radial artery access late
      after index procedure has been associated with failures. It is unknown whether
      early (<=30 days) and very early (<24 hours) repeat radial access is technically
      feasible and safe. Study population consisted of consecutive patients undergoing
      repeat (>=2) procedures within 30 days in a high-volume TRA center. Transradial
      access failure and resulting femoral approach was categorized as primary (no
      repeat attempt) or secondary (crossover). Timing of repeat access and reasons for
      failure were recorded. From November 2012 to December 2014, repeat
      catheterization by TRA was performed twice in 573 of 626 patients (92%) (median
      delay 4 [2 to 9] days), 3 times in 29 of 38 (76%) patients (median delay 15 [5 to
      26] days), and 4 times in 1 patient within 21 days. When repeat catheterization
      occurred during the first 24 hours following the index procedure, 53% and 75% of
      patients had second and third procedures using the same ipsilateral radial
      artery, respectively. Primary radial failure occurred in 5.8% for second attempt
      and 13% for a third attempt, whereas crossovers were noted in 2.7% and 2.6%,
      respectively. Main reasons for failed re-access of ipsilateral radial artery were
      related either to operator's reluctance to repeat attempt (primary failure) or to
      issues with puncture site (crossover). In a high-volume TRA center, patients who
      required repeat catheterization within 24 hours and within the first 30 days had
      the same radial artery re-accessed in the majority of cases.

PMID- 28864316
TI  - Relation of Diastolic Blood Pressure and Coronary Artery Calcium to Coronary
      Events and Outcomes (From the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis).
AB  - Diastolic blood pressure has a J-curve relation with coronary heart disease and
      death. Because this association is thought to reflect reduced coronary perfusion
      at low diastolic blood pressure, we hypothesized that the J-curve would be most
      pronounced in persons with coronary artery calcium. In 6,811 participants from
      the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, we used Cox models to examine if
      diastolic blood pressure category is associated with coronary heart disease
      events, stroke, and mortality. Analyses were conducted in the sample overall and
      after stratification by coronary artery calcium score. In multivariable-adjusted
      analyses, compared with diastolic blood pressure of 80 to 89 mm Hg (reference),
      persons with diastolic blood pressure <60 mm Hg had increased risk of coronary
      heart disease events (hazard ratio 1.69 [95% confidence interval 1.02 to 2.79])
      and all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.48 [95% confidence interval 1.10 to
      2.00]), but not stroke. After stratification, associations of diastolic blood
      pressure <60 mm Hg with events were present only in participants with coronary
      artery calcium >0. Diastolic blood pressure <60 mm Hg was not associated with
      events when coronary artery calcium was zero. However, the association between
      diastolic blood pressure and events did not demonstrate statistical interaction
      when stratified by presence or absence of coronary calcium. We also found no
      interaction in the association between low diastolic blood pressure and events
      based on race. In conclusion, diastolic blood pressure <60 mm Hg was associated
      with increased risk of coronary heart disease events and all-cause mortality in
      the sample overall, but this association appeared strongest in individuals with
      subclinical atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28864318
TI  - Comparison of the Effectiveness and Safety of Apixaban, Dabigatran, Rivaroxaban,
      and Warfarin in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - No studies have performed direct pairwise comparisons of the effectiveness and
      safety of warfarin and the new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) apixaban, dabigatran,
      and rivaroxaban. Using 2013 to 2014 claims from a 5% random sample of Medicare
      beneficiaries, we identified patients newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation
      who initiated apixaban, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, warfarin, or no oral
      anticoagulation therapy in 2013 to 2014. Outcomes included the composite of
      ischemic stroke, systemic embolism (SE) and death, any bleeding event,
      gastrointestinal bleeding, intracranial bleeding, and treatment persistence. We
      constructed Cox proportional hazard models to compare outcomes between each pair
      of treatment groups. The composite risk of ischemic stroke, SE, and death was
      lower for NOACs than for warfarin: hazard ratio (HR) 0.86, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 0.76 to 0.98 for apixaban; 0.73, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.86 for
      dabigatran; and 0.82, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.89 for rivaroxaban, all compared with
      warfarin. There were no differences in effectiveness across NOACs. The risk of
      any bleeding was lower with apixaban than with warfarin, but higher with
      rivaroxaban than with warfarin. Apixaban (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.79) and
      dabigatran (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.92) were associated with lower bleeding
      risk than rivaroxaban. Treatment persistence was highest for apixaban (82%), and
      lowest for dabigatran and warfarin (64%) (p value <0.001). Compared with
      warfarin, NOACs are more effective in preventing stroke but their risk of
      bleeding varies, with rivaroxaban having higher risk than warfarin. Altogether,
      apixaban had the most favorable effectiveness, safety, and persistence profile.

PMID- 28864319
TI  - Evaluation of Imaging Strategy to Optimize and Improve Outcome of Transcatheter
      Aortic Valvular Implantation.
AB  - Cardiac computed tomography (CT) provides additional information with ultrasound
      in the transcatheter heart valve (THV) size selection. However, the influence of
      these incremental data on outcomes has not been evaluated in a randomized study.
      A single-center prospective, randomized, and open study was performed. Patients
      referred for transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation with a balloon
      expandable endoprothesis were included. THV size selection was performed using
      either transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography data (control group) or
      ultrasound and CT results (CT group). The primary composite end point included
      the occurrence of stroke, major vascular complications, and moderate or severe
      paravalvular aortic regurgitation (PAR) at 1 year. Fifty patients (n = 25 in the
      control and CT groups) were enrolled. The primary composite end point occurred in
      40% and 8% of patients from the control and CT groups, respectively (p = 0.008).
      The Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a pejorative association with not performing
      the CT (p = 0.007). A decrease in the occurrence of PAR was observed in the CT
      group compared with the control group (PAR 28% vs 4%, p = 0.04; major vascular
      complications 12% vs 4%, p = 0.6; all-cause death 16% vs. 4%, p = 0.34; no
      stroke). In conclusion, the use of cardiac CT in addition to ultrasound data in
      THV size selection reduced the long-term occurrence of cardiovascular events.

PMID- 28864320
TI  - Effect of Adjunctive Thrombus Aspiration on In-Hospital and 3-Year Outcomes in
      Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction and Large Native
      Coronary Artery Thrombus Burden.
AB  - Although the long-term clinical benefit of adjunctive thrombus aspiration (TA)
      during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) remains controversial,
      the impact of TA in patients with large thrombus has not been evaluated. The aim
      of the present study was to investigate the effect of adjunctive TA during PPCI
      on clinical outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) and a large thrombus. We assessed the effect of adjunctive TA on in
      hospital and 3-year clinical outcomes in 627 patients with STEMI and a large
      thrombus in the native coronary artery. The cumulative 3-year incidence of all
      cause death was not significantly different between the 2 groups (91.5% vs 89.0%,
      log-rank test p = 0.347). After adjusting for confounders, the risk of all-cause
      death in the TA group was not significantly lower than that in the non-TA group
      (hazard ratio 1.11, 95% confidence interval 0.60 to 3.54, p = 0.674). The
      adjusted risks of target lesion revascularization, nonfatal acute myocardial
      infarction, and stent thrombosis were also not significantly different between
      the 2 groups. In conclusion, adjunctive TA during PPCI was not associated with
      better in-hospital and 3-year all-cause deaths in patients with STEMI and a large
      coronary artery thrombus.

PMID- 28864321
TI  - Frequency of Recovery from Complete Atrioventricular Block After Cardiac Surgery.
AB  - Best timing for permanent pacemaker implantation to treat complete
      atrioventricular block (AVB) after cardiac surgery is unclear, as late pacemaker
      dependency was found low in recent observational studies. This study aimed to
      identify factors associated with spontaneous recovery from AVB. In a prospective
      and observational cohort, all patients who underwent cardiothoracic surgery
      during a 14-month-period were included (n = 1,200). Risk factors of postoperative
      AVB were assessed by logistic regression. Among patients who developed AVB,
      variables associated with recovery from AVB were assessed by Cox and logistic
      regression. Overall incidence of postoperative AVB was 6.0%. Risk factors of AVB
      were age (OR 1.03 [1.00 to 1.06], p = 0.023); female gender (OR 2.06 [1.24 to
      3.41], p = 0.005), active endocarditis (OR 3.31 [1.33 to 8.26], p = 0.01), and
      aortic valve replacement (OR 3.17 [1.92 to 5.25], p <0.001). Among aortic valve
      replacement, sutureless aortic valve replacement was associated with more AVB
      (26.7% vs 8.1%, p <0.01). Recovery from AVB occurred in 30 patients (41.7%) in a
      median period of 3 days [interquartile range = 1;5]. Among patients who would
      recover from AVB, 90% of patients did so before day 7. None of the studied
      variable was independently associated with recovery from AVB. In conclusion,
      identified risk factors of postoperative AVB after cardiac surgery were age,
      female gender, endocarditis, and aortic valve replacement. Because most patients
      who would recover did so before day 7, this study validates modern guidelines
      suggesting permanent pacemaker implantation on day 7.

PMID- 28864322
TI  - Impact of Body Mass Index on 5-Year Clinical Outcomes in Patients With ST-Segment
      Elevation Myocardial Infarction After Everolimus-Eluting or Bare-Metal Stent
      Implantation.
AB  - Patients with high body mass index (BMI) seem to have better outcomes after
      percutaneous coronary intervention than normal-weight patients. However,
      contrasting results have been reported on the "obesity paradox" in patients
      presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The aim of our study
      was to investigate the impact of BMI on mortality in the population enrolled in
      the Evaluation of the Xience-V stent in Acute Myocardial INfArcTION (EXAMINATION)
      trial. The EXAMINATION trial randomized 1,498 patients with STEMI to a bare-metal
      stent or an everolimus-eluting stent. In this substudy patients were stratified
      into 3 groups according to BMI values: normal (BMI < 25 kg/m2), overweight (BMI =
      25 to 29.9 kg/m2), and obese (BMI >= 30 kg/m2). The coprimary end points were the
      all-cause and cardiac deaths among the groups at the 5-year follow-up. BMI was
      available in 1,421 patients, divided in 401 (28.2%) normal, 702 (49.4%)
      overweight, and 318 (22.4%) obese. Obese patients were younger (p = 0.012)
      compared with the other groups, but with a worse cardiovascular risk profile.
      They were more frequently female (p <0.001) and with a higher rate of obesity
      related co-morbidity conditions such as diabetes mellitus (p = 0.005), arterial
      hypertension (p <0.001), and hyperlipidemia (p = 0.001) compared with the other
      groups. At the 5-year follow-up, all-cause and cardiac deaths were less frequent
      in obese patients than in the other groups (p = 0.003 and p = 0.030,
      respectively). After adjustment for confounding variables, BMI was an independent
      predictor of all-cause death (hazard ratio 0.765, 95% confidence interval 0.599
      to 0.979, p = 0.033), but not of cardiac death, without any interaction with the
      stent type. In conclusion, in patients with STEMI who underwent primary PCI, the
      long-term all-cause death rate decreased as BMI increased, confirming the obesity
      paradox, irrespective of the stent type.

PMID- 28864323
TI  - Contemporary Determinants of Delayed Benchmark Timelines in Acute Myocardial
      Infarction in Men and Women.
AB  - Treatment delays in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are related
      to increased morbidity and mortality. Hence, identifying determinants of delay
      may help reduce time to treatment. Importantly, limited data suggest that there
      may be sex-related disparities in benchmark timelines. Although guidelines
      advocate the use of the first medical contact (FMC) rather than hospital
      admission as the moment from which delays to treatment should be monitored, the
      latter is still often used for quality purposes. We aimed to identify factors
      associated with treatment delays, with an emphasis on sex-related disparities. We
      reviewed data on 3,658 patients with AMI from 2 contemporary, consecutive
      multicenter surveys. Measured delays were FMC-to-electrocardiogram >10 minutes in
      ST-elevation MI (STEMI) and non-STEMI, FMC-to-primary percutaneous coronary
      intervention >90 minutes in STEMI, and invasive angiography >72 hours after
      admission in non-STEMI patients. Timely electrocardiogram was performed in 48% of
      patients with STEMI and in 39.8% of non-STEMI patients without significant sex
      related differences. Independent determinants of delay included atypical chest
      pain (CP) and presentation during daytime. In patients with STEMI, 37.5% had
      primary percutaneous coronary intervention in less than 90 minutes without
      significant sex-related disparities. Independent determinants of delay included
      atypical CP, night presentation, and diabetes. In non-STEMI patients, independent
      determinants of delayed invasive approach were female sex, age >75 years,
      atypical CP, and renal failure. In conclusion, significant treatment delays in
      patients with AMI are still frequent in contemporary practice, highlighting the
      need for improvement and guidelines implementation. Predictors of delay
      identified in our study may facilitate targeting of interventions to improve
      adherence to guidelines.

PMID- 28864324
TI  - Intracoronary Optical Coherence Tomography-Derived Virtual Fractional Flow
      Reserve for the Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is widely used for the assessment of myocardial
      ischemia. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides accurate visualization of
      coronary artery morphology. The aim of this study was to investigate the relation
      between FFR and OCT-derived FFR. We retrospectively analyzed 31 lesions (25 left
      anterior descending arteries, 2 left circumflex arteries, and 4 right coronary
      arteries) in 31 patients with moderate-to-severe coronary stenosis, who underwent
      OCT and FFR measurements simultaneously. OCT-derived FFR was calculated by the
      original algorithm, which was calculated using the following equation based on
      fluid dynamics: DeltaP = FV + SV2, where V is the flow velocity, F is the
      coefficient of pressure loss because of viscous friction (Poiseuille resistance),
      and S is the coefficient of local pressure loss because of abrupt enhancement
      (flow separation). Mean values of % diameter stenosis by quantitative coronary
      angiography and FFR were 55.2 +/- 14.0% and 0.70 +/- 0.14, respectively. OCT
      derived FFR showed a stronger linear correlation with FFR measurements (r = 0.89,
      p <0.001; root mean square error = 0.062 FFR units) than quantitative coronary
      angiography % diameter stenosis (r = -0.65, p <0.001), OCT measurements of
      minimum lumen area (r = 0.68, p <0.001), and % area stenosis (r = -0.70, p
      <0.001). OCT-derived FFR has the potential to become an alternative method for
      the assessment of functional myocardial ischemia, and may elucidate the relation
      between coronary morphology and FFR.

PMID- 28864325
TI  - First genotyping of Blastocystis sp. in dairy, meat, and cashmere goats in
      northwestern China.
AB  - Blastocystis is one of the most common parasites inhabiting in small intestines
      of human and animals. Although its pathogenicity has been remaining
      controversial, the possibility of zoonotic transmission between human and animals
      was recognized. The goat was one of the most important economic animals supplying
      people with cashmere, meat, and dairy products. However, few studies were to
      investigate Blastocystis infection in goats. A total of 789 faecal specimens of
      goats (including 362 of dairy, 193 of meat and 234 of cashmere goats) were
      collected from multiple regions of Shaanxi province in northwestern China to
      investigate the colonization frequency and subtypes of Blastocystis, and to
      assess the zoonotic potential of these goats. The respective colonization
      frequencies of Blastocystis in dairy, meat and cashmere goats were 54.1%
      (196/362), 40.4% (78/193) and 78.6% (184/234). The prevalence of Blastocystis in
      pre-weaned (0-2-month) goats was significantly lower than that in goats of other
      age groups, and the highest colonization was observed in goats of 7-11-month age
      group. Sequence analysis of Blastocystis positive samples indicated the presence
      of seven subtypes in these goats, including six known subtypes (STs1, 3, 4, 5,
      10, 14) and one possible novel subtype (isolate Sd26), with the subtype 10 as the
      predominant one. Additionally, zoonotic subtypes were found in dairy (ST1, ST3
      and ST5) and cashmere (ST4 and ST5) goats, but not detected in meat goats. These
      results showed that Blastocystis is highly prevalent, widely distributed and
      genetically diverse in goats in Shaanxi province, northwestern China, and
      zoonotic potential of dairy and cashmere goats to transmit Blastocystis.

PMID- 28864326
TI  - Monocyte/high-density lipoprotein ratio predicts the mortality in ischemic stroke
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The inflammatory process is a very important stage in the development
      and prognosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The monocyte to high-density
      lipoprotein (HDL) ratio (MHR) is accepted as a novel marker for demonstrating
      inflammation. However, the role of MHR as a predictor of mortality in patients
      with AIS remains unclear. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 466 patients who
      were referred to our clinic within the first 24hours of symptom presentation and
      who were diagnosed with AIS between January 2008 and June 2016. Four hundred and
      eight controls of similar age and gender were also included. The patient group
      was classified into two groups according to 30-day mortality. The groups were
      compared in terms of monocyte counts, HDL, and MHR values. RESULTS: The patient
      group had significantly higher monocyte counts and lower HDL levels; therefore,
      this group had higher values of MHR compared to controls. Additionally, the
      monocyte count and MHR value were higher, and the HDL level was lower in non
      surviving patients (p<0.001). The MHR value was also observed as a significant
      independent variable of 30-day mortality in patients with AIS (p<0.001). The
      optimum cut-off value of MHR in predicting the 30-day mortality for patients with
      AIS was 17.52 (95% CI 0.95-0.98). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that a high
      MHR value is an independent predictor of 30-day mortality in patients with AIS.

PMID- 28864327
TI  - Early endovascular stenting for extracranial carotid artery dissection with
      angiographic flow stasis: A series of four cases.
AB  - Extracranial carotid artery dissection is a major cause of ischemic stroke in
      young patients. Progressive stroke or recurrent ischemic symptoms may occur
      despite adequate medical treatment. Our treatment policy for these conditions is
      based on the fact that immediate vascular reconstruction is necessary in the
      cases with angiographic flow stasis in the true lumen beyond the dissection site.
      We report our experiences with four consecutive extracranial carotid artery
      dissections successfully treated with early endovascular stenting and discuss the
      indication of this treatment with a special emphasis on the angiographic
      findings.

PMID- 28864328
TI  - The patient with mild diencephalic-mesencephalic junction dysplasia - Case report
      and review of literature.
AB  - Diencephalic-mesencephalic junction dysplasia (DMJD) is very rare congenital
      brain malformation. We present a 66-years-old man with mild cognitive impairment,
      dysarthria, deafness, gait abnormality, and involuntary movements of the trunk.
      The first symptoms, psychomotor excitation and anxiety begun when he was over
      thirty years old however the symptoms gradually intensified and slowly
      progressed. The magnetic resonance imaging scans showed partial DMJD. According
      to recent date it represented type-B of the malformation with relatively mild
      phenotype in relation to the previously described in literature type-A. To the
      best of our knowledge this is the first description of an adult patient diagnosed
      with DMJD anomaly.

PMID- 28864329
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28864330
TI  - PURE study challenges the definition of a healthy diet: but key questions remain.

PMID- 28864334
TI  - The benefits of avoiding cancer (or dying from cancer): Evidence from a four-
      country study.
AB  - We use stated-preference methods to estimate the cancer Value per Statistical
      Life (VSL) and Value per Statistical Case (VSCC) from a representative sample of
      45-60-year olds in four countries in Europe. We ask respondents to report
      information about their willingness to pay for health risk reductions that are
      different from those used in earlier valuation work because they are comprised of
      two probabilities-that of getting cancer, and that of dying from it (conditional
      on getting it in the first place). The product of these two probabilities is the
      unconditional cancer mortality risk. Our hypothetical risk reductions also
      include two severity-related attributes-quality-of-life impacts and pain. The
      results show that respondents did appear to have an intuitive grasp of compound
      probabilities, and took into account each component of the unconditional cancer
      mortality risk when answering the valuation questions. We estimate the cancer VSL
      to be between approximately ? 2 and 5.950 million, depending on whether the
      (unconditional) mortality risk was reduced by lowering the chance of getting
      cancer, increasing the chance of surviving cancer, or both. The VSCC is estimated
      to be up to ? 0.578 million euro, and its magnitude depends on the initial
      (conditional) cancer mortality and on the improvement in survival. The survey
      responses show that our measures of cancer severity-impacts on daily activities
      and pain-have little or no effect on the WTP to reduce the adverse health risks.

PMID- 28864333
TI  - Fruits, vegetables, and legumes: sound prevention tools.

PMID- 28864335
TI  - The phagocyte respiratory burst: Historical perspectives and recent advances.
AB  - When exposed to certain stimuli, phagocytes (including neutrophils, macrophages
      and eosinophils) undergo marked changes in the way they handle oxygen. Firstly,
      their rate of oxygen uptake increases greatly. This is accompanied by (i) the
      production of large amounts of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide and (ii) the
      metabolism of large quantities of glucose through the hexose monophosphate shunt.
      We now know that the oxygen used is not for respiration but for the production of
      powerful microbiocidal agents downstream of the initial production of superoxide.
      Concomitantly, glucose is oxidised through the hexose monophosphate shunt to re
      generate the NADPH that has been consumed through the reduction of molecular
      oxygen to generate superoxide. This phagocyte respiratory burst is generated by
      an NADPH oxidase multi-protein complex that has a catalytic core consisting of
      membrane-bound gp91phox (CYBB) and p22phox (CYBA) sub-units and cytosolic
      components p47phox (NCF1), p67phox (NCF2) and p40phox (NCF4). Finally, another
      cytosolic component, the small G-protein Rac (Rac2 in neutrophils and Rac1 in
      macrophages) is also required for full activation. The importance of the complex
      in host defence is underlined by chronic granulomatous disease, a severe life
      limiting immunodeficiency caused by mutations in the genes encoding the
      individual subunits. In this review, I will discuss the experimental evidence
      that underlies our knowledge of the respiratory burst, outlining how elegant
      biochemical analysis, coupled with study of patients deficient in the various
      subunits has helped elucidate the function of this essential part of innate
      immunity. I will also discuss some exciting recent studies that shed new light on
      how the abundance of the various components is controlled. Finally, I will
      explore the emerging role of reactive oxygen species such as superoxide and
      hydrogen peroxide in the pathogenesis of major human diseases including auto
      inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28864337
TI  - Complement genomics and antibody-mediated rejection in heart recipients.
AB  - In this issue of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Marron-Linares et
      al report the results of an interesting study in which they evaluated 51 genes
      associated with the complement pathway in a small number of heart recipients to
      explore their relationship with antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). Next
      generation sequencing was used in 46 heart transplant recipients (23 with AMR and
      23 without AMR). The authors identified a significant association of 2 single
      nucleotide polymorphisms with the absence or presence of AMR, respectively,
      p.Gly54Asp-MBL2 in the mannose-binding lectin (MBL) 2 gene and p.Asn428(p=)-CFP
      in the alternative complement factor properdin (CFP) gene. This article is a new
      contribution to the heart transplant literature. It suggests that complement
      single-nucleotide polymorphisms may influence circulating levels of selected
      proteins of both the lectin pathway and alternative complement pathways, thus
      potentially determining which patients will develop AMR.

PMID- 28864336
TI  - Analysis of Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury and Possible Transfusion
      Related Acute Lung Injury Reported to the French Hemovigilance Network From 2007
      to 2013.
AB  - Using the French Hemovigilance Network database from 2007 to 2013, we provide
      information on demographics, incidence, and risk factors of reported transfusion
      related acute lung injury (TRALI) and possible TRALI, analyze TRALI mitigation
      efforts for fresh frozen plasma and platelet concentrates, and consider the
      impact of platelet additive solutions on TRALI incidence. We applied the Toronto
      consensus conference definitions for TRALI and possible TRALI. Two TRALI
      subgroups were considered: "antibody positive" when a donor has human leukocyte
      antigen (class I or II) and/or human neutrophil antigen antibodies and the
      recipient has cognate antigen, and "antibody negative" when immunological
      investigation is negative or not done. The analysis targeted 378 cases, divided
      into antibody-positive TRALI (n=75), antibody-negative TRALI (n=100), and
      possible TRALI (n=203). TRALI patients were younger and received more blood
      components than the general population of transfused patients. Moreover, we
      identified the following clinical conditions where patients seemed to be at
      higher risk to develop TRALI: postpartum hemorrhage, acute myeloid leukemia,
      liver transplantation, allogeneic and autologous hematopoietic stem cells
      transplantation, polytrauma, and thrombotic microangiopathy. Policy measures
      intended to reduce antibody-positive TRALI were found effective for apheresis
      platelet concentrates and fresh frozen plasma but not for whole blood-derived
      platelet concentrates. The use of platelet additive solutions was associated with
      a significant reduction in the incidence of TRALI following transfusion of buffy
      coat-derived platelet concentrates but not following transfusion of apheresis
      platelets. Our data reinforce the concept that possible TRALI and TRALI, as
      defined in the Canadian consensus conference, share many characteristics. No
      specific policy measures are currently directed at mitigation of possible TRALI
      despite its impact on transfusion safety. Despite TRALI mitigation measures, the
      overall incidence of TRALI cases reported to the French Hemovigilance system was
      not significantly reduced. Therefore, additional research is needed to reduce, if
      not eradicate, all TRALI categories.

PMID- 28864338
TI  - Low ejection fraction in donor hearts is not directly associated with increased
      recipient mortality.

PMID- 28864339
TI  - Preoperative Antibiotics Before Bladder Biopsy: Are They Necessary?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare postoperative infectious outcomes of bladder biopsies
      performed in the office without antibiotic prophylaxis vs those done with
      preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis in the operating room (OR). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Our institutional review board-approved database was retrospectively
      reviewed for patients who underwent bladder biopsy in the office or in the OR
      between July 2014 and August 2015. All patients with bladder biopsies performed
      in the OR and none in the office received preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis.
      Patient characteristics and post-procedural outcomes including bacteriuria,
      urinary tract infection (UTI), and febrile UTI were recorded. The rates of these
      outcomes were compared between the 2 groups using the chi-square test. Patients
      were excluded from analysis if they experienced a UTI or were prescribed
      antibiotics within 30 days before their procedure. RESULTS: In all, 216 biopsies
      were identified (106 in the office and 110 in the OR). No difference was noted in
      the rate of UTI (0.94% vs 0.91%, P = .98), or febrile UTI (0% vs 0.91%, P = .33)
      between those undergoing bladder biopsy in the office and those in the OR. There
      was no difference in the incidence of new urinary symptoms (2.8% vs 5.5%, P =
      .33) or post-procedural bacteriuria (3.8% vs 3.6%, P = .96). CONCLUSION: Since
      the introduction of the mandated use of antibiotics for routine procedures such
      as bladder biopsy, antibiotic use has markedly increased. Our data suggest that
      the preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis that is recommended may not confer
      benefit to select patients. At a time when antibiotic stewardship is of utmost
      importance, guidelines regarding its use should be reconsidered.

PMID- 28864340
TI  - Clinical and Patient-reported Outcomes of 1-sided Anterior Urethroplasty for Long
      segment or Panurethral Strictures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical and patient-reported urinary and sexual outcomes
      after a long-segment stricture repair using the 1-sided urethral dissection,
      penile invagination, and dorsal buccal mucosa graft onlay technique described by
      Kulkarni et al. METHODS: Patients from 4 institutions after single-stage repairs
      for long-segment urethral strictures (>8 cm) from January 2002 to April 2016 were
      reviewed. Technique described by Kulkarni et al was used in all cases. Clinical
      outcomes included uroflowmetry (Qmax) and post-void residuals. Patient-reported
      outcome measures included International Prostate Symptom Score survey, Sexual
      Health Inventory for Men, Male Sexual Health Questionnaire, and Global Response
      Assessment questionnaire to measure voiding, sexual, ejaculatory symptoms, and
      overall improvement, respectively. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients with a minimum
      of 12 months' follow-up were included. The mean age and stricture length were 56
      (21-80) years and 13.6 (8-21) cm, respectively. At a mean follow-up of 44 (12
      162) months, 9 of 73 (12%) strictures recurred. The mean baseline International
      Prostate Symptom Score of 23 (7-24) decreased to 10 (1-17) on follow-up (P
      <.001). Eight of 42 patients (21.4%) reported an increase, and 6 of 42 patients
      (14.3%) decreased in Sexual Health Inventory for Men following urethroplasty.
      Ejaculatory function on Male Sexual Health Questionnaire improved after
      urethroplasty from 8 preoperatively to 11 postoperatively (P <.004). All patients
      reported improvement after urethroplasty on Global Response Assessment
      questionnaire. Post-void dribbling and chordee occurred in 45% and 25% of
      patients, respectively. CONCLUSION: Durable patency in most patients is
      demonstrated in this study. PROMs indicate an improvement in urinary function and
      moderate effect on sexual function. Transient penile chordee was evident in 25%
      of patients.

PMID- 28864331
TI  - Fruit, vegetable, and legume intake, and cardiovascular disease and deaths in 18
      countries (PURE): a prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between intake of fruits, vegetables, and legumes
      with cardiovascular disease and deaths has been investigated extensively in
      Europe, the USA, Japan, and China, but little or no data are available from the
      Middle East, South America, Africa, or south Asia. METHODS: We did a prospective
      cohort study (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology [PURE] in 135 335 individuals
      aged 35 to 70 years without cardiovascular disease from 613 communities in 18 low
      income, middle-income, and high-income countries in seven geographical regions:
      North America and Europe, South America, the Middle East, south Asia, China,
      southeast Asia, and Africa. We documented their diet using country-specific food
      frequency questionnaires at baseline. Standardised questionnaires were used to
      collect information about demographic factors, socioeconomic status (education,
      income, and employment), lifestyle (smoking, physical activity, and alcohol
      intake), health history and medication use, and family history of cardiovascular
      disease. The follow-up period varied based on the date when recruitment began at
      each site or country. The main clinical outcomes were major cardiovascular
      disease (defined as death from cardiovascular causes and non-fatal myocardial
      infarction, stroke, and heart failure), fatal and non-fatal myocardial
      infarction, fatal and non-fatal strokes, cardiovascular mortality, non
      cardiovascular mortality, and total mortality. Cox frailty models with random
      effects were used to assess associations between fruit, vegetable, and legume
      consumption with risk of cardiovascular disease events and mortality. FINDINGS:
      Participants were enrolled into the study between Jan 1, 2003, and March 31,
      2013. For the current analysis, we included all unrefuted outcome events in the
      PURE study database through March 31, 2017. Overall, combined mean fruit,
      vegetable and legume intake was 3.91 (SD 2.77) servings per day. During a median
      7.4 years (5.5-9.3) of follow-up, 4784 major cardiovascular disease events, 1649
      cardiovascular deaths, and 5796 total deaths were documented. Higher total fruit,
      vegetable, and legume intake was inversely associated with major cardiovascular
      disease, myocardial infarction, cardiovascular mortality, non-cardiovascular
      mortality, and total mortality in the models adjusted for age, sex, and centre
      (random effect). The estimates were substantially attenuated in the multivariable
      adjusted models for major cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio [HR] 0.90, 95% CI
      0.74-1.10, ptrend=0.1301), myocardial infarction (0.99, 0.74-1.31;
      ptrend=0.2033), stroke (0.92, 0.67-1.25; ptrend=0.7092), cardiovascular mortality
      (0.73, 0.53-1.02; ptrend=0.0568), non-cardiovascular mortality (0.84, 0.68-1.04;
      ptrend =0.0038), and total mortality (0.81, 0.68-0.96; ptrend<0.0001). The HR for
      total mortality was lowest for three to four servings per day (0.78, 95% CI 0.69
      0.88) compared with the reference group, with no further apparent decrease in HR
      with higher consumption. When examined separately, fruit intake was associated
      with lower risk of cardiovascular, non-cardiovascular, and total mortality, while
      legume intake was inversely associated with non-cardiovascular death and total
      mortality (in fully adjusted models). For vegetables, raw vegetable intake was
      strongly associated with a lower risk of total mortality, whereas cooked
      vegetable intake showed a modest benefit against mortality. INTERPRETATION:
      Higher fruit, vegetable, and legume consumption was associated with a lower risk
      of non-cardiovascular, and total mortality. Benefits appear to be maximum for
      both non-cardiovascular mortality and total mortality at three to four servings
      per day (equivalent to 375-500 g/day). FUNDING: Full funding sources listed at
      the end of the paper (see Acknowledgments).

PMID- 28864341
TI  - Techniques Used to Create Continent Catheterizable Channels: A Comparison of Long
      term Results in Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare long-term results of 3 different techniques used to create
      continent catheterizable channels (CCCs) in children in a single institution.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data were retrospectively collected from 112 children who
      had a CCC (appendicovesicostomy [APV], tubularized bladder flap [TBF] or Monti)
      created between December 1995 and December 2013. Primary outcome was revision
      free survival. Secondary outcomes were channel stenosis, incontinence, and false
      channel requiring revision. Time-to-event survival was analyzed using a Kaplan
      Meier survival curve. RESULTS: A total of 117 CCCs were identified with median
      follow-up of 85 months. Surgical revision was required in 52%, with no
      significant difference between the different techniques. Major revision was
      required in 27% of the cases and significantly more often in Monti channels.
      Complete revision was required in 7%. Stenosis requiring revision was seen in
      33%. A false channel was formed in 9% of the cases. Incontinence with a low leak
      point pressure was seen in 12%. A time-to-event analysis with a Kaplan-Meier
      curve showed no significant differences between the 3 techniques. CONCLUSION:
      Although CCC is an effective solution for children who cannot perform urethral
      catheterization, 52% requires surgical revision. Because no differences were
      found in outcome between APV, TBF, and Monti, we conclude that a TBF CCC is a
      good alternative for the APV. If the appendix is not available and bladder volume
      is sufficient, a TBF channel is preferred to a Monti channel.

PMID- 28864342
TI  - The logistics of afferent cortical specification in mice and men.
AB  - The mechanisms shaping areal specification in the neocortex have been the focus
      of a sustained interest over the past three decades. Studies in rodents have
      provided insight in the interplay between intrinsic genetic mechanisms and
      extrinsic inputs relayed to the cortex by thalamocortical axons. Here we focus on
      the exploration of the developing primate visual system which points to embryonic
      thalamic axons exerting a profound, early instructive role on arealisation in the
      primate cortex, via an influence on cortical progenitor cell-cycle and mode of
      division.

PMID- 28864332
TI  - Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and
      mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between macronutrients and cardiovascular disease
      and mortality is controversial. Most available data are from European and North
      American populations where nutrition excess is more likely, so their
      applicability to other populations is unclear. METHODS: The Prospective Urban
      Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study is a large, epidemiological cohort study of
      individuals aged 35-70 years (enrolled between Jan 1, 2003, and March 31, 2013)
      in 18 countries with a median follow-up of 7.4 years (IQR 5.3-9.3). Dietary
      intake of 135 335 individuals was recorded using validated food frequency
      questionnaires. The primary outcomes were total mortality and major
      cardiovascular events (fatal cardiovascular disease, non-fatal myocardial
      infarction, stroke, and heart failure). Secondary outcomes were all myocardial
      infarctions, stroke, cardiovascular disease mortality, and non-cardiovascular
      disease mortality. Participants were categorised into quintiles of nutrient
      intake (carbohydrate, fats, and protein) based on percentage of energy provided
      by nutrients. We assessed the associations between consumption of carbohydrate,
      total fat, and each type of fat with cardiovascular disease and total mortality.
      We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) using a multivariable Cox frailty model with
      random intercepts to account for centre clustering. FINDINGS: During follow-up,
      we documented 5796 deaths and 4784 major cardiovascular disease events. Higher
      carbohydrate intake was associated with an increased risk of total mortality
      (highest [quintile 5] vs lowest quintile [quintile 1] category, HR 1.28 [95% CI
      1.12-1.46], ptrend=0.0001) but not with the risk of cardiovascular disease or
      cardiovascular disease mortality. Intake of total fat and each type of fat was
      associated with lower risk of total mortality (quintile 5 vs quintile 1, total
      fat: HR 0.77 [95% CI 0.67-0.87], ptrend<0.0001; saturated fat, HR 0.86 [0.76
      0.99], ptrend=0.0088; monounsaturated fat: HR 0.81 [0.71-0.92], ptrend<0.0001;
      and polyunsaturated fat: HR 0.80 [0.71-0.89], ptrend<0.0001). Higher saturated
      fat intake was associated with lower risk of stroke (quintile 5 vs quintile 1, HR
      0.79 [95% CI 0.64-0.98], ptrend=0.0498). Total fat and saturated and unsaturated
      fats were not significantly associated with risk of myocardial infarction or
      cardiovascular disease mortality. INTERPRETATION: High carbohydrate intake was
      associated with higher risk of total mortality, whereas total fat and individual
      types of fat were related to lower total mortality. Total fat and types of fat
      were not associated with cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, or
      cardiovascular disease mortality, whereas saturated fat had an inverse
      association with stroke. Global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered in
      light of these findings. FUNDING: Full funding sources listed at the end of the
      paper (see Acknowledgments).

PMID- 28864343
TI  - Secondary growth as a determinant of plant shape and form.
AB  - Plants are the primary producers of biomass on earth. As an almost stereotypic
      feature, higher plants generate continuously growing bodies mediated by the
      activity of different groups of stem cells, the meristems. Shoot and root
      thickening is one of the fundamental growth processes determining form and
      function of these bodies. Mediated by a group of cylindrical meristems located
      below organ surfaces, vascular and protective tissues are continuously generated
      in a highly plastic manner, a competence essential for the survival in an ever
      changing environment. Acknowledging the fundamental role of this process, which
      is overall designated as secondary growth, we discuss in this review our current
      knowledge about the evolution and molecular regulation of the vascular cambium.
      The cambium is the meristem responsible for the formation of wood and bast, the
      two types of vascular tissues important for long-distance transport of water and
      assimilates, respectively. Although regulatory patterns are only beginning to
      emerge, we show that cambium activity represents a highly rewarding model for
      studying cell fate decisions, tissue patterning and differentiation, which has
      experienced an outstanding phylogenetic diversification.

PMID- 28864344
TI  - Understanding and engineering plant form.
AB  - A plant's form is an important determinant of its fitness and economic value.
      Here, we review strategies for producing plants with altered forms. Historically,
      the process of changing a plant's form has been slow in agriculture, requiring
      iterative rounds of growth and selection. We discuss modern techniques for
      identifying genes involved in the development of plant form and tools that will
      be needed to effectively design and engineer plants with altered forms. Synthetic
      genetic circuits are highlighted for their potential to generate novel plant
      forms. We emphasize understanding development as a prerequisite to engineering
      and discuss the potential role of computer models in translating knowledge about
      single genes or pathways into a more comprehensive understanding of development.

PMID- 28864346
TI  - Re"CYC"ling molecular regulators in the evolution and development of flower
      symmetry.
AB  - Flower forms are both highly diverse and multifaceted. As well as varying in
      colour, size, organ number, and much more, flowers show different types of
      symmetry. Floral symmetry can be grouped into three main categories: asymmetry,
      bilateral symmetry and radial symmetry, characterised by zero, one, and multiple
      planes of symmetry, respectively. This review will first explore floral symmetry
      from a classical morphological view, then from a modern molecular perspective.
      The recent molecular work on symmetry in monocots and eudicots will be discussed,
      followed by an in-depth discussion into the evolution of CYC genes, particularly
      in the capitulum of the sunflower family (Asteraceae). Whilst recent studies on
      non-model species are helping to bring new light to this field, more species
      coverage is required to understand how traits such as bilateral symmetry have
      evolved so many times, and whether the same molecular regulators were recruited
      for this function.

PMID- 28864347
TI  - Role of BAG3 in cancer progression: A therapeutic opportunity.
AB  - BAG3 is a multifunctional protein that can bind to heat shock proteins (Hsp) 70
      through its BAG domain and to other partners through its WW domain, proline-rich
      (PXXP) repeat and IPV (Ile-Pro-Val) motifs. Its intracellular expression can be
      induced by stressful stimuli, while is constitutive in skeletal muscle, cardiac
      myocytes and several tumour types. BAG3 can modulate the levels, localisation or
      activity of its partner proteins, thereby regulating major cell pathways and
      functions, including apoptosis, autophagy, mechanotransduction, cytoskeleton
      organisation, motility. A secreted form of BAG3 has been identified in studies on
      pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Secreted BAG3 can bind to a specific
      receptor, IFITM2, expressed on macrophages, and induce the release of factors
      that sustain tumour growth and the metastatic process. BAG3 neutralisation
      therefore appears to constitute a novel potential strategy in the therapy of PDAC
      and, possibly, other tumours.

PMID- 28864345
TI  - Enhancing our brains: Genomic mechanisms underlying cortical evolution.
AB  - Our most distinguishing higher cognitive functions are controlled by the cerebral
      cortex. Comparative studies detail abundant anatomical and cellular features
      unique to the human developing and adult neocortex. Emerging genomic studies have
      further defined vast differences distinguishing developing human neocortices from
      related primates. These human-specific changes can affect gene function and/or
      expression, and result from structural variations such as chromosomal deletions
      and duplications, or from point mutations in coding and noncoding regulatory
      regions. Here, we review this rapidly growing field which aims to identify and
      characterize genetic loci unique to the human cerebral cortex. We catalog known
      human-specific genomic changes distinct from other primates, including those
      whose function has been interrogated in animal models. We also discuss how new
      model systems and technologies such as single cell RNA sequencing, primate iPSCs,
      and gene editing, are enabling the field to gain unprecedented resolution into
      function of these human-specific changes. Some neurological disorders are thought
      to uniquely present in humans, thus reinforcing the need to comprehensively
      understand human-specific gene expression in the developing brain.

PMID- 28864348
TI  - Acquisition of histologic diversity contributes to not only invasiveness but also
      lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As more endoscopic resections are performed in early gastric cancer,
      the pretreatment prediction of lymph node metastasis (LNM) becomes more
      important. Some tumor characteristics including histologic type, invasion depth,
      ulceration, size, and lymphovascular invasion have been used to determine the
      endoscopic resectability of early gastric cancer; however, a more detailed
      analysis between clinicopathologic factors and lymph node metastasis is needed.
      METHODS: We analyzed the correlation between the clinicopathological findings and
      LNM with 310 cases of early gastric cancer by dividing invasion depths in detail.
      RESULTS: LNM occurred in 3.2% and 16.2% of the T1a and T1b tumors, respectively.
      LNM was associated with invasion depth (p=0.002) and lymphatic (p<0.001) and
      perineural (p=0.013) invasion. Among them, lymphatic invasion was the most
      powerful factor associated with LNM and significantly constant in T1a and T1b.
      The rate of LNM increased gradually as the tumor invaded deeper, and invasion of
      the muscularis mucosae layer was associated with an increased mixed
      adenocarcinoma incidence, suggesting that histologic diversity was associated
      with tumor invasiveness. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that lymphatic invasion was
      the most important and powerful parameter for LNM in early gastric cancers. In
      addition, tumor invasiveness into the muscularis mucosae was accompanied by tumor
      histologic diversity.

PMID- 28864349
TI  - Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) upregulated by
      Helicobacter pylori and is associated with gastric cancer cells migration.
AB  - Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1), a secreted protein,
      implicated of various cells in mediating the proliferation, migration, invasion,
      adhesion, survival and so on. In this study, we assessed the expression and
      release of IGFBP-1 from gastric cancer cells with H. pylori 26695 infection and
      the biological functions of IGFBP-1 in gastric cancer cells. The results showed
      that the expression and release of IGFBP-1 were increased in gastric cancer cells
      (MGC-803, BGC-823, SGC-7901) infected with H. pylori 26695. In addition, the
      upregulation of IGFBP-1 was dose-dependent in BGC-823 cells infected with H.
      pylori 26695 but not time-dependent. The upregulation of IGFBP-1 got to peak at
      12h after H. pylori 26695 infection and then decreased over time. Subsequently,
      we measured its functions by silencing and overexpressing IGFBP1 which suggested
      that overexpression of IGFBP-1 could inhibit the migration of BGC-823 and SGC
      7901 cells. However, knocking down the IGFBP-1 could increase the migration of
      BGC-823 and SGC-7901 cells. Functional findings illustrated that IGFBP-1 was
      implicated in H. pylori 26695-induced MMP-9 expression in BGC-823 cells. In
      addition, overexpressing IGFBP1 reduce the promoting effect of MMP-9 on the BGC
      823 cells migration. In summary, we demonstrated that IGFBP-1 suppress the
      migration of BGC-823 cells and play a protective role in the process of H. pylori
      induced gastric cancer.

PMID- 28864350
TI  - Immunohistochemical analysis of NKX2.2, ETV4, and BCOR in a large series of
      genetically confirmed Ewing sarcoma family of tumors.
AB  - Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive neoplasm of pediatric and adolescent patients.
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC) can be used to support the morphologic diagnosis of
      Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) in a convincing clinical/radiological
      context. Although neither NKX2.2 nor CD99 alone are entirely specific, when
      combined, the diagnostic specificity is high. The aim of the present study was to
      investigate the IHC expression of NKX2.2, ETV4 and BCOR in a large series of
      genetically confirmed ESFT. The results for CD99 and CAV-1 immunoreactivity, and
      the histological and fusion gene subtypes were retrieved from our previous study.
      NKX2.2 demonstrated moderate or strong nuclear positivity in 91.2% of the tumors.
      The staining intensity was heterogeneous. Many of the ESFT with negative NKX2.2
      immunoreactivity were in bone. Strong/moderate ETV4 nuclear expression was
      detected in two small round cell tumors, both were negative for NKX2.2. No
      relationships could be found between expression of NKX2.2 and the histological
      subgroups or ESFT gene fusion subtypes. BCOR was negative in all ESFT. In
      conclusion, NKX2.2, ETV4 and BCOR IHC may be helpful in daily practice for
      distinguishing ESFT from CIC or BCOR-associated sarcomas, especially in hospitals
      without access to molecular assays. In addition, the combination of strong CD99
      membranous positivity and nuclear NKX2.2 positivity seems to be very reliable for
      ESFT diagnosis in an appropriate clinicoradiological setting. So far no antibody
      is entirely specific for ESFT diagnosis, and the IHC or molecular results in
      round cell tumors of bone may be strongly influenced by decalcification
      processes.

PMID- 28864351
TI  - Adaptation of a MR imaging protocol into a real-time clinical biometric
      ultrasound protocol for persons with spinal cord injury at risk for deep tissue
      injury: A reliability study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High strain in soft tissues that overly bony prominences are
      considered a risk factor for pressure ulcers (PUs) following spinal cord
      impairment (SCI) and have been computed using Finite Element methods (FEM). The
      aim of this study was to translate a MRI protocol into ultrasound (US) and
      determine between-operator reliability of expert sonographers measuring diameter
      of the inferior curvature of the ischial tuberosity (IT) and the thickness of the
      overlying soft tissue layers on able-bodied (AB) and SCI using real-time
      ultrasound. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Part 1: Fourteen AB participants with a mean
      age of 36.7 +/- 12.09 years with 7 males and 7 females had their 3 soft tissue
      layers in loaded and unloaded sitting measured independently by 2 sonographers:
      tendon/muscle, skin/fat and total soft tissue and the diameter of the IT in its
      short and long axis. Part 2: Nineteen participants with SCI were screened, three
      were excluded due to abnormal skin signs, and eight participants (42%) were
      excluded for abnormal US signs with normal skin. Eight SCI participants with a
      mean age of 31.6 +/- 13.6 years and all male with 4 paraplegics and 4
      tetraplegics were measured by the same sonographers for skin, fat, tendon, muscle
      and total. Skin/fat and tendon/muscle were computed. RESULTS: AB between-operator
      reliability was good (ICC = 0.81-0.90) for 3 soft tissues layers in unloaded and
      loaded sitting and poor for both IT short and long axis (ICC = -0.028 and -0.01).
      SCI between-operator reliability was good in unloaded and loaded for total,
      muscle, fat, skin/fat, tendon/muscle (ICC = 0.75-0.97) and poor for tendon (ICC =
      0.26 unloaded and ICC = -0.71 loaded) and skin (ICC = 0.37 unloaded and ICC =
      0.10). CONCLUSION: A MRI protocol was successfully adapted for a reliable 3 soft
      tissue layer model and could be used in a 2-D FEM model designed to estimate soft
      tissue strain as a novel risk factor for the development of a PU.

PMID- 28864352
TI  - An E-Pain intervention to spread modern pain education in Brazil.

PMID- 28864354
TI  - Methods of reactivation and reprogramming of neural stem cells for neural repair.
AB  - Research on the biology of adult neural stem cells (NSCs) and induced NSCs
      (iNSCs), as well as NSC-based therapies for diseases in central nervous system
      (CNS) has started to generate the expectation that these cells may be used for
      treatments in CNS injuries or disorders. Recent technological progresses in both
      NSCs themselves and their derivatives have brought us closer to therapeutic
      applications. Adult neurogenesis presents in particular regions in mammal brain,
      known as neurogenic niches such as the dental gyrus (DG) in hippocampus and the
      subventricular zone (SVZ), within which adult NSCs usually stay for long periods
      out of the cell cycle, in G0. The reactivation of quiescent adult NSCs needs
      orchestrated interactions between the extrinsic stimulis from niches and the
      intrinsic factors involving transcription factors (TFs), signaling pathway,
      epigenetics, and metabolism to start an intracellular regulatory program, which
      promotes the quiescent NSCs exit G0 and reenter cell cycle. Extrinsic and
      intrinsic mechanisms that regulate adult NSCs are interconnected and feedback on
      one another. Since endogenous neurogenesis only happens in restricted regions and
      steadily fails with disease advances, interest has evolved to apply the iNSCs
      converted from somatic cells to treat CNS disorders, as is also promising and
      preferable. To overcome the limitation of viral-based reprogramming of iNSCs,
      bioactive small molecules (SM) have been explored to enhance the efficiency of
      iNSC reprogramming or even replace TFs, making the iNSCs more amenable to
      clinical application. Despite intense research efforts to translate the studies
      of adult and induced NSCs from the bench to bedside, vital troubles remain at
      several steps in these processes. In this review, we examine the present status,
      advancement, pitfalls, and potential of the two types of NSC technologies,
      focusing on each aspects of reactivation of quiescent adult NSC and reprogramming
      of iNSC from somatic cells, as well as on progresses in cell-based regenerative
      strategies for neural repair and criteria for successful therapeutic
      applications.

PMID- 28864353
TI  - Manipulation of neural progenitor fate through the oxygen sensing pathway.
AB  - Neural progenitor cells hold significant promise in a variety of clinical
      settings. While both the brain and spinal cord harbor endogenous neural
      progenitor or stem cells, they typically are not capable of repopulating neural
      populations in case of injury or degenerative disease. In vitro systems for the
      culture of neural progenitors has come a long ways due to advances in the method
      development. Recently, many groups have shown that manipulation of the oxygen
      sensing pathway leading to activation of hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) that
      can influence the proliferation, differentiation or maturation of neural
      progenitors. Moreover, different oxygen concentrations appear to affect lineage
      specification of neural progenitors upon their differentiation in vitro. Here we
      summarize some of these studies in an attempt to direct effort towards
      implementation of best methods to advance the use of neural progenitors from
      basic development towards clinical application.

PMID- 28864356
TI  - Lensless digital holographic microscopy and its applications in biomedicine and
      environmental monitoring.
AB  - Optical compound microscope has been a major tool in biomedical imaging for
      centuries. Its performance relies on relatively complicated, bulky and expensive
      lenses and alignment mechanics. In contrast, the lensless microscope digitally
      reconstructs microscopic images of specimens without using any lenses, as a
      result of which it can be made much smaller, lighter and lower-cost. Furthermore,
      the limited space-bandwidth product of objective lenses in a conventional
      microscope can be significantly surpassed by a lensless microscope. Such lensless
      imaging designs have enabled high-resolution and high-throughput imaging of
      specimens using compact, portable and cost-effective devices to potentially
      address various point-of-care, global-health and telemedicine related challenges.
      In this review, we discuss the operation principles and the methods behind
      lensless digital holographic on-chip microscopy. We also go over various
      applications that are enabled by cost-effective and compact implementations of
      lensless microscopy, including some recent work on air quality monitoring, which
      utilized machine learning for high-throughput and accurate quantification of
      particulate matter in air. Finally, we conclude with a brief future outlook of
      this computational imaging technology.

PMID- 28864355
TI  - Separation of neural stem cells by whole cell membrane capacitance using
      dielectrophoresis.
AB  - Whole cell membrane capacitance is an electrophysiological property of the plasma
      membrane that serves as a biomarker for stem cell fate potential. Neural stem and
      progenitor cells (NSPCs) that differ in ability to form neurons or astrocytes are
      distinguished by membrane capacitance measured by dielectrophoresis (DEP).
      Differences in membrane capacitance are sufficient to enable the enrichment of
      neuron- or astrocyte-forming cells by DEP, showing the separation of stem cells
      on the basis of fate potential by membrane capacitance. NSPCs sorted by DEP need
      not be labeled and do not experience toxic effects from the sorting procedure.
      Other stem cell populations also display shifts in membrane capacitance as cells
      differentiate to a particular fate, clarifying the value of sorting a variety of
      stem cell types by capacitance. Here, we describe methods developed by our lab
      for separating NSPCs on the basis of capacitance using several types of DEP
      microfluidic devices, providing basic information on the sorting procedure as
      well as specific advantages and disadvantages of each device.

PMID- 28864357
TI  - Biorelevant Drug Solubility Enhancement Modeled by a Linear Solvation Energy
      Relationship.
AB  - It is for the pharmaceutical sciences of vital importance to understand how drugs
      are solubilized in biorelevant media. However, the complexity of fasted state
      simulated intestinal fluid (FaSSIF) has so far hampered adequate solubility
      modeling. The present study focuses on apparently neutral compounds at
      physiological pH and a linear free energy relationship is introduced for
      biorelevant drug solubilization. Based on literature data of 40 compounds, the
      Abraham solvation descriptors were calculated from chemical structure to then
      predict the ratio of solubility enhancement log(SE) in FaSSIF compared to aqueous
      buffer solubility at pH 6.5. A suitable model was obtained with R2 of 0.810 and
      notable were especially the positive effect of McGowan's characteristic volume
      and the negative effect of drug basicity. A negative influence on log(SE) was
      further evidenced for dipolarity/polarizability and for the excess molar
      refraction descriptor. A positive solubilization effect was obtained for drug
      acidity and hence the tendency for proton donation, which was likely due to the
      different proton-accepting moieties of taurocholic acid and lecithin that are
      both present in the mixed colloids of FaSSIF. Overall, an improved understanding
      was achieved regarding the molecular features that are driving drug
      solubilization in biorelevant media.

PMID- 28864358
TI  - Granulomatous mastitis: We need a useful classification system.

PMID- 28864359
TI  - Hepatitis E in Italy: A silent presence.
AB  - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) was discovered in the 1980s and has been considered as
      being confined to developing countries. The purpose of this critical review was
      to determine the reported HEV seroprevalence rates in Italy, to identify
      predisposing factors and individuals at risk and to assess possible importation
      of HEV by immigrants. A critical review of 159 articles published in PubMed from
      1994 to date was done. Only 27 original reports of 50 or more subjects, written
      in the English or Italian language, were included. Over three decades, the HEV
      seroprevalence varied from 0.12% to 49%, with the highest rates being reported
      from the central region of Italy. Risk factors included ingestion of raw pork or
      potentially contaminated food. The seroprevalence among immigrants ranged from
      15.3% to 19.7% in Apulia. Italy has a population of 60656000; the total number of
      individuals surveyed was only 21.882 (0.036%). A national epidemiological survey
      program is needed to capture more comprehensive seroprevalence data.

PMID- 28864360
TI  - Current treatment options and the role of peptides as potential therapeutic
      components for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS): A review.
AB  - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a highly pathogenic
      respiratory virus with mechanisms that may be driven by innate immune responses.
      Despite the effort of scientific studies related to this virus, Middle East
      Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is still a public health concern. MERS-CoV infection
      has a high mortality rate, and to date, no therapeutic or vaccine has been
      discovered, that is effective in treating or preventing the disease. In this
      review, we summarize our understanding of the molecular and biological events of
      compounds acting as MERS-CoV inhibitors, the outcomes of existing therapeutic
      options and the various drugs undergoing clinical trials. Currently, several
      therapeutic options have been employed, such as convalescent plasma (CP),
      intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), monoclonal antibodies and repurposing of
      existing clinically approved drugs. However, these therapeutic options have
      drawbacks, thus the need for an alternative approach. The requirement for
      effective therapeutic treatment has brought the necessity for additional MERS
      treatments. We suggest that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) may be used as
      alternative therapeutic agents against MERS-CoV infection. In addition, we
      propose the feasibility of developing effective agents by repurposing the
      existing and clinically approved anti-coronavirus and anti-viral peptide drugs.

PMID- 28864362
TI  - Benchmarking of antibiotic usage: An adjustment to reflect antibiotic stewardship
      program outcome in a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - Antimicrobial stewardship program aims to reduce antibiotic use. Periodic
      measurement and monitoring of antibiotic use and comparison within the
      institution as well as with other organizations are important indicators. We
      analyzed antibiotic usage in a general hospital in Saudi Arabia. Antibiotic data
      were collected retrospectively for 2011 and from 2013 to 2015, and only adult
      patients (>15year of age) were included in the study. Data were presented as days
      of therapy (DOT) and defined daily dose (DDD). DDD was adjusted per 100 bed-days
      and according to the case mix index (CMI). The total DDD was 37,557 in 2013,
      36,550 in 2014 and 38,738 in 2015. The DDD per 100 patient-days was 90.7-94.5.
      There was a discordant findings of antibiotic measurements based on the DDD
      compared to DOT, and DDD/100 bed-days compared to DOT/100 bed-days. There was a
      negative correlation between CMI and DDD per 100 bed days (r -0.696), but a
      positive correlation of CMI with DOT (r +0.93). Adjusted DDD/100 bed-days showed
      decrease in the usage of antibiotics, reflecting activities of the antibiotic
      stewardship program. The increase in DOT/100 bed-days may indicate the favorable
      utilization of combination therapy. Antibiotic usage needs to be adjusted per 100
      bed-days and correlated with CMI for better reflection of optimal antibiotic
      utilization, activities of the antibiotic stewardship program, and to allow
      benchmarking.

PMID- 28864363
TI  - Global research trends of yellow fever: A bibliometric overview.

PMID- 28864361
TI  - Healthcare associated infections in neonatal intensive care unit and its
      correlation with environmental surveillance.
AB  - Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are frequent complications in neonatal
      intensive care units (NICU) with varying risk factors and bacteriological
      profile. There is paucity of literature comparing the bacteriological profile of
      organisms causing HAI with the environmental surveillance isolates. Therefore,
      this study aimed to evaluate demographic profile, risk factors and outcome of HAI
      in NICU and correlate with environmental surveillance. Three hundred newborns
      with signs and symptoms of sepsis were enrolled in the study group and their
      profile, risk factors and outcome were compared with the control group.
      Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed.
      Environmental surveillance results were compared to the bacteriological profile
      of HAIs. We identified lower gestational age, male gender and apgar score less
      than 7 at 5min, use of peripheral vascular catheter & ventilator along with their
      duration as significant risk factors. Mortality rate was 29% in the study group
      (p<0.05). The HAI site distribution showed blood-stream infections (73%) to be
      the most common followed by pneumonia (12%) and meningitis (10%). Gram positive
      cocci were the most common isolates in HAI as well as environmental surveillance.
      The bacteriological profile of HAI correlates with the environmental surveillance
      report thus insisting for periodic surveillance and thereby avoiding irrational
      antibiotic usage.

PMID- 28864364
TI  - Role of astrocyte connexin hemichannels in cortical spreading depression.
AB  - Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is an intriguing phenomenon consisting of
      massive slow brain depolarizations that affects neurons and glial cells. It has
      been recognized since 1944, but its pathogenesis has only been uncovered during
      the last decade. Acute brain injuries can be further complicated by CSD in >50%
      of severe cases. This phenomenon is repetitive and produces a metabolic overload
      that increments secondary damage. Propagation of CSD is known to be linked to
      excitotoxicity, but the mechanisms associated with its initiation remain less
      understood. It has been shown that CSD can be initiated by increases in
      extracellular [K+] ([K+]e), and animal models use high [K+]e to promote CSD.
      Connexin hemichannel activity increases due to high [K+]e and low extracellular
      [Ca2+], conditions that occur after brain injury. Moreover, glial cell gap
      junction channels are fundamental in controlling extracellular medium
      composition, particularly in maintaining normal extracellular glutamate and K+
      concentrations through "spatial buffering". However, the role of astrocytic gap
      junctions under tissue stress can change to damage spread in the acute damage
      zone whereas the reduced communication in adjacent zone would reduce cell dead
      propagation. Here, we review the main findings associated with CSD, and discuss
      the possible involvement of astrocytic connexin-based channels in secondary
      damage propagation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Gap
      Junction Proteins edited by Jean Claude Herve.

PMID- 28864365
TI  - Diabetes-Related Dyslipidemia and Cardiovascular Events.

PMID- 28864366
TI  - Tuberculous Pleural Effusions: A New Look at an Old Problem.

PMID- 28864367
TI  - Thromboprophylaxis Failure in the Adult Medical Inpatient.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among
      hospitalized patients, is often due to prophylaxis failure rather than omission,
      but few studies have identified the risk factors for failure. Risk factors for
      thromboprophylaxis failure include personal or family history of VTE, use of
      vasopressors or inotropes, increased body mass index, cranial surgery, intensive
      care patient, leukocytosis, indwelling central venous catheter and admission from
      a long-term care facility. Identifying patients at risk for thromboprophylaxis
      failure should prompt close observation during hospitalization for signs of VTE,
      close observation after discharge and potentially more aggressive prophylaxis
      strategies, although no specific guidelines exist for medical patients at this
      time.

PMID- 28864368
TI  - Triglyceride to High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Ratio and Cardiovascular
      Events in Diabetics With Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been demonstrated that an elevated ratio of triglycerides (TG)
      to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is a risk factor of coronary
      artery disease (CAD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and is also
      found to be associated with cardiovascular events (CVEs) in the general
      population. However, its prognostic value in patients with T2DM along with CAD
      remains to be determined. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1,447 consecutive
      patients with T2DM with angiographic-proven stable CAD were enrolled in the
      present study and followed-up for an average of 20.3 months. The characteristics
      of all patients including fasting lipid profile were obtained at baseline and
      multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were constructed using log TG/HDL-C
      as a predictor variable. The relationships between CVEs and total cholesterol
      (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), non-HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL
      C and apolipoprotein B/ apolipoprotein AI (apoB/apoAI) were also explored.
      RESULTS: Compared with patients without CVEs, the ones who experienced CVEs had a
      higher TG/HDL-C ratio. Univariable regression revealed a significant association
      of log TG/HDL-C with CVEs (hazard ratio = 2.5, P = 0.015). After adjusting for
      multiple traditional risk factors of cardiovascular disease, the association was
      still found (hazard ratio = 2.47, P = 0.047). Moreover, results suggested that
      the ratios of non-HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C and apoB/apoAI were not predictors
      for CVEs in T2DM. CONCLUSIONS: In our primary study, data suggested that elevated
      TG/HDL-C value might be a useful predictor for future CVEs in Chinese patients
      with T2DM with stable CAD. Further study is needed to confirm our findings.

PMID- 28864369
TI  - Predictive Factors and Treatment Outcomes of Tuberculous Pleural Effusion in
      Patients With Cancer and Pleural Effusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with cancer are at an increased risk of tuberculosis. As
      pleural effusion has great clinical significance in patients with cancer, the
      differential diagnosis between tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) and malignant
      pleural effusion (MPE) is important. However, the predictive factors and
      treatment outcomes of TPE in patients with cancer have rarely been studied.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Confirmed TPE cases identified at cancer diagnosis and
      during anticancer management from 2008-2015 were retrospectively investigated.
      Patients in the study included coexisting TPE and cancer (n = 20), MPE (n = 40)
      and TPE without cancer (n = 40). Control groups were patients with MPE, and
      patients with TPE without cancer. Clinical, laboratory and pleural fluid
      characteristics were compared among groups. Treatment outcomes were compared
      between patients with TPE with and without cancer. RESULTS: In the final
      analysis, serum C-reactive protein (S-CRP) >=3.0mg/dL and pleural fluid adenosine
      deaminase (ADA) >=40U/L were independent predictors for identifying TPE in
      patients with cancer having pleural effusion. The combination of S-CRP with
      pleural fluid ADA using an "or" rule achieved a sensitivity of 100%, whereas both
      parameters combined in an "and" rule had a specificity of 98%. Treatment outcomes
      were not different between the TPE groups with and without cancer. CONCLUSIONS: S
      CRP and pleural fluid ADA levels may be helpful for predicting TPE in patients
      with cancer with pleural effusion. The combination of these biomarkers provides
      better information for distinguishing between TPE and MPE in these patients.
      Treatment outcomes of TPE in patients with cancer are comparable to those in
      patients without cancer.

PMID- 28864370
TI  - Pro-Brain Natriuretic Peptide and Troponin T-Hypersensitivity Levels Correlate
      With the Severity of Liver Dysfunction in Liver Cirrhosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased pro-brain natriuretic peptide (pro-BNP) or troponin T
      hypersensitivity (TnT-HSST) levels are common in liver cirrhosis. We conducted a
      retrospective observational study aimed to evaluate the correlation of pro-BNP
      and TnT-HSST levels with the clinical characteristics, laboratory data and in
      hospital outcomes of patients with liver cirrhosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      selected cirrhotic patients admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and
      June 2014. All eligible patients had pro-BNP or TnT-HSST data, or both. The pro
      BNP and TnT-HSST data were further divided according to the presence of cardiac
      diseases. RESULTS: The prevalence of pro-BNP level >900pg/mL was 41.72% (63 of
      151 patients). The prevalence of TnT-HSST level >0.05ng/mL was 11.22% (45 of 401
      patients). In the overall analysis, pro-BNP level significantly correlated with
      red blood cell (RBC), platelet, ascites, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine
      (Cr), Child-Pugh score, model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score and in
      hospital death; TnT-HSST level significantly correlated with white blood cell,
      ascites, albumin (ALB), BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score, MELD score and in-hospital
      death. In patients with cardiac diseases, pro-BNP level significantly correlated
      with RBC, ascites, BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score and MELD score; TnT-HSST level
      significantly correlated with sex, ascites, white blood cell, ALB, BUN, Cr, Child
      Pugh score, MELD score and in-hospital death. In patients without cardiac
      diseases, pro-BNP level significantly correlated with ascites, RBC, platelet,
      BUN, Cr, MELD score and in-hospital death; TnT-HSST level significantly
      correlated with age, ascites, RBC, ALB, BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score, MELD score and
      in-hospital death. CONCLUSIONS: Pro-BNP and TnT-HSST levels significantly
      correlated with the severity of liver dysfunction and in-hospital mortality in
      cirrhosis.

PMID- 28864371
TI  - Left Ventricular Noncompaction in Older Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Information on left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) in older people
      is sparse. This study aimed to investigate the clinical profile of LVNC in an
      older cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between August 2007 and September 2015,
      older patients (age >= 60 years) who were diagnosed with LVNC using
      cardiovascular magnetic resonance were prospectively enrolled at our hospital.
      RESULTS: A total of 35 patients (male, 80%; mean age, 65 +/- 5 years) were
      prospectively included in this study. LVNC was not detected in 18 patients (51%)
      at the initial echocardiographic evaluation. Of the 21 patients who received
      coronary imaging, 8 patients (38%) had coronary artery disease. Left ventricular
      (LV) dysfunction and dilation were detected in 31 patients (89%) and 30 patients
      (86%), respectively. Nine patients (26%) died during a follow-up period of 2.9 +/
      2.3 years. Cox analysis showed that patients with syncope (hazard ratio [HR] =
      20.51; 95% CI: 1.70-246.60; P = 0.02), increased LV end-diastolic diameter (HR =
      1.12; 95% CI: 1.01-1.24; P = 0.03), decreased LV ejection fraction (HR = 0.87;
      95% CI: 0.77-0.98; P = 0.02) and the presence of late gadolinium enhancement on
      cardiovascular magnetic resonance (HR = 8.9; 95% CI: 1.07-74.08; P = 0.04) had a
      higher risk for death. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnosis of LVNC is easily missed at
      echocardiographic assessment in older patients. Coronary artery disease is a
      common concomitant disorder in these patients. Older patients with LVNC have a
      high risk for mortality. Syncope, LV dilation, systolic dysfunction and late
      gadolinium enhancement are related to adverse outcomes in older patients.

PMID- 28864372
TI  - Therapeutic Mechanism of Glucocorticoids on Cellular Crescent Formation in
      Patients With Antiglomerular Basement Membrane Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore the therapeutic mechanism of
      glucocorticoids (GCs) in antiglomerular basement membrane disease. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Thirty-four patients with biopsy-proven antiglomerular basement membrane
      nephritis were divided into the following 2 groups: group 1 (patients treated
      with GCs, n = 22) and group 2 (patients who were not treated with GCs, n = 12).
      The expression of parietal epithelial cells (PECs), activated PECs and
      glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) was examined quantitatively and compared between
      the 2 groups. Correlations between GR expression in glomeruli and patients'
      clinicopathological indices were also analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with patients
      in group 2, patients in group 1 showed lower levels of serum creatinine (SCr) (P
      = 0.03), average cellular crescent percentage (P = 0.005) and macrophages
      infiltrating in renal interstitium (P = 0.03). PECs (P = 0.007) and activated
      PECs (P = 0.03) were strongly detected in the cellular components of classic
      crescents, and both were significantly reduced in group 1 compared to group 2. GR
      expression either in glomeruli (P = 0.01) or interstitium (P = 0.009) was lower
      in group 1 after GCs treatment than in group 2. Additionally, GR expression in
      glomeruli was strongly correlated with renal function (SCr: r = 0.45, P = 0.009;
      eGFR: r = -0.35, P = 0.046), the proportion of cellular crescents (r = 0.67, P <
      0.001), PECs (r = 0.64, P < 0.001) and activated PECs (r = 0.72, P < 0.001), and
      the degree of interstitial (r = 0.50, P = 0.004) and glomerular (r = 0.49, P =
      0.007) macrophage infiltration. CONCLUSIONS: GCs might exert their therapeutic
      effects via inhibiting the activation and proliferation of PECs, as well as
      macrophage infiltration, which could contribute to crescent formation and
      determine renal survival. GRs are involved in this process as well.

PMID- 28864373
TI  - Significance of Hyperferritinemia in Hospitalized Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although high ferritin levels are associated with iron overload, it
      is known that ferritin is also an acute-phase reactant that may be elevated in
      conditions associated with acute and chronic inflammation. In addition, an
      elevated ferritin level is a criterion for the diagnosis of hemophagocytic
      lymphohistiocytosis/macrophage activation syndrome (HLH/MAS). Therefore, the
      significance of elevated serum ferritin is often unclear. As HLH/MAS is a medical
      emergency, prompt diagnosis is important to guide appropriate treatment.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: To study the spectrum of diagnoses associated with
      elevated serum ferritin, we did a retrospective review of adult patients admitted
      to our academic medical center from 2008-2012 with serum ferritin levels greater
      than 2,000ng/mL. The degree of hyperferritinemia was compared to different
      diagnoses and selected laboratory values. RESULTS: A total of 333 patients were
      identified with a serum ferritin level >2,000ng/mL. Hepatocellular injury was the
      most prevalent diagnosis with n = 126; infection was next with n = 96. Eleven
      patients were diagnosed with HLH/MAS. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated ferritin, as an
      isolated finding, was not a specific marker for the diagnosis of HLH/MAS.
      However, as a group, HLH/MAS patients had the highest mean and median ferritin
      values.

PMID- 28864374
TI  - Trends in the Incidence and In-Hospital Outcomes of Cardiogenic Shock
      Complicating Thyroid Storm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thyroid storm (TS) constitutes an endocrine emergency with an
      incidence of up to 10% of all admissions for thyrotoxicosis. Cardiogenic shock
      (CS) is a rare complication of TS and very limited data exists on its incidence
      and outcomes. We aimed to estimate the national trends in incidence and outcomes
      of CS among patients admitted to US hospitals with TS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      queried the nationwide inpatient sample for patients with the discharge diagnosis
      of TS between the years of 2003 and 2011. RESULTS: Based on a weighted estimate,
      we identified 41,835 patients with a diagnosis of TS, of which 1% developed CS.
      Patients with CS were more likely to have history of atrial fibrillation, alcohol
      abuse, preexisting congestive heart failure, coagulopathy, drug use, liver
      disease, pulmonary circulation disorders, valvular disorders, weight loss, renal
      failure, fluid and electrolyte disorders as compared to those who did not develop
      CS (P < 0.001 for all). We observed an increase in incidence of CS from 0.5% in
      2003 to 3% in 2011 and a decrease in mortality from 60.5% in 2003 to 20.9% in
      2011 (Ptrend < 0.001 for both). CONCLUSIONS: We observed that CS is a rare
      complication of TS, which occurs more commonly in male patients with preexisting
      structural and atherosclerotic heart disease, and carries a very poor prognosis.
      Although incidence has increased over the years, mortality from CS has steadily
      declined.

PMID- 28864375
TI  - Metformin Use and Vitamin B12 Deficiency: Untangling the Association.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current evidence linking vitamin B12 deficiency with metformin use is
      inconsistent. Hence, there is uncertainty regarding the diagnostic approach in
      this scenario. Furthermore, this possible association has not been studied in the
      complete spectrum of patients with diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted
      a cross-sectional, controlled study with the objective of assessing differences
      in serum vitamin B12 levels among patients with and without diabetes with
      different metformin-treatment regimens. A total of 150 participants were
      recruited: patients with diabetes (group 1: metformin alone >=850mg/day, group 2:
      patients with type 2 diabetes naive to treatment and group 3: metformin
      >=850mg/day, in addition to any other oral glucose lowering agent or insulin, or
      both) and without diabetes (group 4: polycystic ovary syndrome or group 5:
      healthy individuals). Serum vitamin B12, folate levels and complete blood counts
      were obtained for the entire population. Methylmalonic acid and homocysteine were
      obtained for patients when vitamin B12 levels were found to be borderline or low.
      RESULTS: When patients with or without diabetes were compared, no significant
      difference was found in relation to their vitamin B12 levels (517.62 versus
      433.83; P = 0.072). No difference in vitamin B12 levels was found among
      participants with metformin use and metformin naive participants (503.4 versus
      462.3; P = 0.380). CONCLUSIONS: Irrespective of metformin use, no significant
      difference in the serum levels of vitamin B12 was observed, both in patients with
      and without diabetes. In the light of the body of evidence and the results of
      this study, a universal recommendation for vitamin B12 deficiency screening
      cannot be made.

PMID- 28864376
TI  - Methotrexate Hepatotoxicity and the Impact of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
AB  - Methotrexate (MTX) is commonly used to treat individuals with rheumatological and
      dermatologic disorders. Current American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and
      American Association of Dermatology (AAD) guidelines identify diabetes and
      obesity as risk factors for MTX-induced liver injury. Both diabetes and obesity
      are components of the metabolic syndrome, and are also risk factors for
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD affects approximately 40% of the
      U.S. population, and those with more advanced NAFLD (i.e., nonalcoholic
      steatohepatitis with or without fibrosis) are likely to develop progressive liver
      disease. As such, individuals who are treated with MTX may need to be screened
      for advanced NAFLD, as this may put them at an increased risk of MTX-induced
      liver injury. In this mini-review, we review the current ACR and AAD guidelines
      on MTX hepatotoxicity, discuss the evidence (or lack thereof) of the impact of
      metabolic risk factors on MTX-induced liver injury and highlight the areas that
      need further research.

PMID- 28864377
TI  - Antiviral Drug Ribavirin Targets Thyroid Cancer Cells by Inhibiting the eIF4E
      beta-Catenin Axis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) is
      important in cancer development and progression, its role in thyroid cancer is
      not well understood. Ribavirin, an anti-viral drug, has been identified as an
      eIF4E inhibitor. Herein, we investigated the effects of ribavirin on thyroid
      cancer and its molecular mechanisms of action. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effects
      of ribavirin on thyroid cancer was investigated using in vitro cellular assays
      and in vivo xenograft mouse model. The mechanism of its action on eIF4E-beta
      catenin axis was examined using genetic and biochemical approaches. RESULTS: We
      show that ribavirin inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in the thyroid
      cancer cell lines 8505C and FTC-133. Ribavirin inhibited thyroid cancer growth in
      a xenograft mouse model. Ribavirin also sensitized thyroid cancer's response to
      paclitaxel. Mechanistically, ribavirin suppressed eIF4E phosphorylation and
      overexpression of its wildtype and phosphor-mimetic form (S209D) but not of the
      non-phosphorylatable form (S209A), which rescued the inhibitory effects of
      ribavirin in thyroid cancer cells. We further demonstrated that ribavirin
      suppressed phosphorylation and activities of beta-catenin and its subsequent gene
      transcriptional expression. beta-Catenin overexpression rescued the effects of
      ribavirin in thyroid cancer cells. Importantly, we show that eIF4E regulated beta
      catenin and that the regulation depended on phosphorylation at S209. The in vivo
      inhibitory effects of ribavirin on phosphorylation of eIF4E and beta-catenin were
      also observed in thyroid tumor. CONCLUSIONS: Our data clearly demonstrate that
      ribavirin acts on thyroid cancer cells by inhibiting eIF4E/beta-catenin
      signaling. Our findings suggest that ribavirin has the potential to be repurposed
      for thyroid cancer treatment and also highlight the therapeutic value of
      inhibiting eIF4E-beta-catenin in thyroid cancer.

PMID- 28864378
TI  - Potential Cardiovascular and Renal Protective Effects of Vitamin D and Coenzyme
      Q10 in l-NAME-Induced Hypertensive Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the primary modifiable risk factors for
      cardiovascular disease. Adequate vitamin D (vit D) levels have been shown to
      reduce vascular smooth muscle contraction and to increase arterial compliance,
      which may be beneficial in hypertension. Further, coenzyme Q10 (COQ10) through
      its action to lower oxidative stress has been reported to have beneficial effects
      on hypertension and heart failure. This study examined the possible cardiac and
      renal protective effects of vit D and COQ10 both separately and in combination
      with an angiotensin II receptor blocker, valsartan (vals) in l-NAME hypertensive
      rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hypertension was induced in rats by l-NAME
      administration. Following induction of hypertension, the rats were assigned into
      the following 6 subgroups: an l-NAME alone group and treated groups receiving the
      following drugs intraperitoneally for 6 weeks; vals, vit D, COQ10 and combination
      of vals with either vit D or COQ10. A group of normotensive rats were used as
      negative controls. At the end of the treatment period, blood pressure, serum
      creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, lipids and serum, cardiac and renal parameters
      of oxidative stress were measured. RESULTS: Compared to the l-NAME only group,
      all treatments lowered systolic, diastolic, mean arterial pressure, total
      cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and creatinine levels as well
      as TNF-alpha and malondialdehyde. Further, the agents increased serum, cardiac
      and renal total antioxidant capacity. Interestingly, the combination of agents
      had further effects on all the parameters compared to treatment with each single
      agent. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the additive protective effects of
      vit D and COQ10 when used alone or concurrent with vals treatment in hypertensive
      rats may be due to their effects as antioxidants, anticytokines and blood
      pressure conservers.

PMID- 28864379
TI  - Overexpression of Heparin-Binding Epidermal Growth Factor-Like Growth Factor
      Mediates Liver Fibrosis in Transgenic Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth
      factor (HB-EGF) in liver fibrosis is not clear and is sometimes even
      contradictory. To clarify this role, a HB-EGF transgenic (Tg) mouse model was,
      for the first time, used to evaluate the functions of HB-EGF in liver fibrosis.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the in vivo study, carbon tetrachloride injection and
      bile duct ligation treatment were used to induce liver fibrosis in HB-EGF Tg mice
      and wild-type (WT) mice, respectively. Primary hepatic satellite cells (HSCs)
      were isolated from HB-EGF Tg and WT mice for the in vitro study. RESULTS:
      Compared with the WT mice, HB-EGF Tg mice were shown to develop more severe liver
      fibrosis when treated with carbon tetrachloride or bile duct ligation, with
      increased matrix metalloproteinases 13 activity and enhanced expression of
      fibrogenic genes including alpha-smooth muscle actin and collagen I. HB-EGF gene
      transfer led to an increase in proliferation and a decrease in apoptosis in
      primary HSCs. The ERK signaling pathway was more highly activated in primary HSCs
      from HB-EGF Tg mice than in those from WT mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our investigation
      confirmed the profibrotic effect of HB-EGF on the liver using a Tg mouse model.
      This result may contribute to the elucidation of HB-EGF as a therapeutic target
      in liver fibrosis.

PMID- 28864380
TI  - Malakoplakia Presenting as an Endobronchial Lesion in a Human Immunodeficiency
      Virus-Positive Man.

PMID- 28864381
TI  - Cardiac Metastasis as Initial Site of Recurrence in Rectal Cancer.

PMID- 28864382
TI  - Occult Cardiac Angiosarcoma Presenting as Cardiac Tamponade.

PMID- 28864383
TI  - Retinal Metastases From Anaplastic Astrocytoma.

PMID- 28864384
TI  - Is it Your Disease or the Patient's?

PMID- 28864385
TI  - Pulmonary Mucormycosis in a Patient With Poorly Controlled Diabetes After a Liver
      Transplant.

PMID- 28864386
TI  - Coarctation of Aorta With Classical Imaging Findings.

PMID- 28864387
TI  - Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor in the Midfoot Treated With Femoral Head Allograft
      Reconstruction.
AB  - Tenosynovial giant cell tumor (also known as giant cell tumor of tendon sheath or
      pigmented villonodular synovitis) is a rare soft tissue tumor that arises from
      the tenosynovium of a tendon sheath or the synovium of a diarthrodial joint. This
      disease process occurs infrequently in the foot and ankle but can result in
      significant bone erosion and destructive changes of affected joints. These cases
      are challenging to treat, because the tumor most commonly presents in young,
      active patients and can be associated with extensive bone loss. We review a case
      of tenosynovial giant cell tumor of tendon sheath of the midfoot, which was
      treated with mass resection, structural femoral head allograft bone grafting, and
      internal fixation with dorsal plating. The patient had achieved successful bony
      fusion and acceptable functional outcomes at the final follow-up visit 40 months
      postoperatively.

PMID- 28864388
TI  - Validity and Reliability of Visual Analog Scale Foot and Ankle: The Turkish
      Version.
AB  - The present study tested the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of
      the visual analog scale foot and ankle (VAS-FA) among healthy subjects and
      patients with foot problems. A total of 128 participants, 65 healthy subjects and
      63 patients with foot problems, were evaluated. The VAS-FA was translated into
      Turkish and administered to the 128 subjects on 2 separate occasions with a 5-day
      interval. The test-retest reliability and internal consistency were assessed with
      the intraclass correlation coefficient and Cronbach's alpha. The validity was
      assessed using the correlations with Turkish versions of the Foot Function Index,
      the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score, and the Short-Form 36-item Health Survey. A
      statistically significant difference was found between the healthy group and the
      patient group in the overall score and subscale scores of the VAS-FA (p < .001).
      The internal consistency of the VAS-FA was very good, and the test-retest
      reliability was excellent. Adequate to good correlations were found between the
      overall VAS-FA score and the Foot Function Index, Foot and Ankle Outcome Score,
      and Short-Form 36-item Health Survey scores in the healthy and patient groups
      both. The Turkish version of the VAS-FA is sensitive enough to distinguish foot
      and ankle-specific pathologic conditions from asymptomatic conditions. The
      Turkish version of the VAS-FA is a reliable and valid method and can be used for
      foot-related problems.

PMID- 28864389
TI  - Antibiotic incorporation in jet-sprayed nanofibrillar biodegradable scaffolds for
      wound healing.
AB  - In view of preparing antibiotic-loaded structures that can be used as dressing to
      prevent or contain wound infections, this study evaluates biodegradable
      nanofibrillar matrices obtained by jet-spraying and containing ciprofloxacin
      (CIF). The matrices were prepared from different blends of poly-(epsilon
      caprolactone) (PCL) and poly-d,l-(lactic acid) (PDLLA) in view of controlling
      mechanical properties, biodegradation and antibiotic release rate. The effect of
      CIF incorporation was assessed in regard of matrices fiber diameter, mechanical
      properties and degradation while antibiotic release from the polymer blends of
      different PCL/PDLLA ratios was measured in buffers of different pH to better
      mimic the wound context. Finally, antibiotic activity of the nanofibrillar
      matrices and their ability to be colonized by skin cells were evaluated. Non
      woven nanofibrillar matrices could be obtained from various polymer blends by jet
      spraying and CIF crystals incorporation was easily obtained. The crystals were
      dispersed in the fibers, without complete embedding. Antibiotic incorporation
      resulted in a slight increase of fiber diameter and did not modified the
      mechanical properties of the various matrices composed of different polymer
      blends. Unlike fiber diameter, degradation and mechanical properties of the
      fibrillar matrices, CIF release profiles were not controlled by the polymer blend
      ratios. However, sustained release was observed over more than 23days. Due to the
      antibiotic pH-dependent solubility, burst release was more prominent in acidic
      conditions, which mimic the pH of undamaged skin. Finally the incorporated
      antibiotic was efficient in inhibiting bacterial growth of E. coli and B.
      subtilis whereas human fibroblasts were able to colonize the CIF-loaded matrices.

PMID- 28864390
TI  - Protease-functionalized mucus penetrating microparticles: In-vivo evidence for
      their potential.
AB  - The focus of the current study was to explore whether immobilization of proteases
      to microparticles could result in their enhanced penetration into mucus. The
      proteases papain (PAP) and bromelain (BROM) were covalently attached to a
      polyacrylate (PAA; Carbopol 971P) via amide bond formation based on carbodiimide
      reaction. Microparticles containing these conjugates were generated via ionic
      gelation with calcium chloride and were characterized regarding size, surface
      charge, enzymatic activity and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) loading efficiency.
      Furthermore, mucus penetration potential of these microparticles was evaluated in
      vitro on freshly collected porcine intestinal mucus, on intact intestinal mucosa
      and in-vivo in Sprague-Dawley rats. Results showed mean diameter of
      microparticles ranging between 2-3MUm and surface charge between -8 to -18mV. The
      addition of PAA-microparticles to porcine intestinal mucus led to a 1.39-fold
      increase in dynamic viscosity whereas a 3.10- and 2.12-fold decrease was observed
      in case of PAA-PAP and PAA-BROM microparticles, respectively. Mucus penetration
      studies showed a 4.27- and 2.21- fold higher permeation of FDA loaded PAA-PAP and
      PAA-BROM microparticles as compared to PAA microparticles, respectively. Extent
      of mucus diffusion determined via silicon tube assay illustrated 3.96- fold
      higher penetration for PAA-PAP microparticles and 1.99- fold for PAA-BROM
      microparticles. An in-vitro analysis on porcine intestinal mucosa described up to
      16- and 7.35-fold higher degree of retention and furthermore, during in-vivo
      evaluation in Sprague-Dawley rats a 3.35- and 2.07-fold higher penetration
      behavior was observed in small intestine for PAA-PAP and PAA-BROM microparticles
      as compared to PAA microparticles, respectively. According to these results,
      evidence for microparticles decorated with proteases in order to overcome the
      mucus barrier and to reach the absorption lining has been provided that offers
      wide ranging applications in mucosal drug delivery.

PMID- 28864391
TI  - Particle interactions of fluticasone propionate and salmeterol xinafoate detected
      with single particle aerosol mass spectrometry (SPAMS).
AB  - Particle co-associations between the active pharmaceutical ingredients
      fluticasone propionate and salmeterol xinafoate were examined in dry powder
      inhaled (DPI) and metered dose inhaled (MDI) combination products. Single
      Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry was used to investigate the particle
      interactions in Advair Diskus(r) (500/50 mcg) and Seretide(r) (125/25 mcg). A
      simple rules tree was used to identify each compound, either alone or co
      associated at the level of the individual particle, using unique marker peaks in
      the mass spectra for the identification of each drug. High levels of drug
      particle co-association (fluticasone-salmeterol) were observed in the aerosols
      emitted from Advair Diskus(r) and Seretide(r). The majority of the detected
      salmeterol particles were found to be in co-association with fluticasone in both
      tested devices. Another significant finding was that rather coarse fluticasone
      particles (in DPI) and fine salmeterol particles (both MDI and DPI) were forming
      the particle co-associations.

PMID- 28864392
TI  - Amphiphilic lipopeptide significantly enhances uptake of charge-neutral splice
      switching morpholino oligonucleotide in spinal muscular atrophy patient-derived
      fibroblasts.
AB  - Splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (SSOs) are emerging therapeutics with
      two SSOs recently approved by the FDA for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal
      muscular atrophy. SSOs are administered without any delivery vector and require
      large doses to achieve the therapeutic benefit, primarily due to their poor
      cellular uptake. Although cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) have shown great
      potential in delivering SSOs into cells, their capacity as delivery vector is
      limited. Here we have studied the effect of lipid conjugation on the cell
      permeability of a known CPP (ApoE). Myristic acid was coupled at the N-terminus
      of ApoE to a C-terminal cysteine residue. The myristoylated ApoE (Myr-ApoE) was
      conjugated to a maleimide functionalised phosphorodiamidate morpholino
      oligonucleotide (PMO). The Myr-ApoE-PMO conjugate showed no cytoxicity and had
      significantly higher efficiency in cell permeability with 30% higher splice
      switching activity compared to ApoE-PMO. The self-assembly properties of this
      amphiphilic lipopeptide-PMO conjugate was assessed. Transmission electron
      microscopy showed formation of nanoparticles with amphiphile behaviour and
      spherical structure. The self-assembly of Myr-ApoE-PMO into nanoparticles enabled
      it to better bind to cell membranes and to be more efficiently taken up by
      fibroblast cells. These results showed that modification of physico-chemical
      properties of peptides to produce peptide amphiphiles enhances cellular uptake
      and can be used as an efficient delivery vector for therapeutic SSOs.

PMID- 28864393
TI  - Biosorbents based on esterified starch carrying immobilized oil-degrading
      microorganisms.
AB  - The complex sorbents based on hydrophobized starch, which contain oil-degrading
      microorganisms, have been proposed for effective sorption and utilization of
      petroleum-related pollutants. The sorbents were made on the base of benzoic,
      lauric and stearic acid esters of starch with degrees of substitution of 0.4-1.1.
      The esterification of starch was carried out by the reaction with acyl chlorides
      of the corresponding acids in an aqueous-organic medium. The structure of the
      esters was studied by SEM, IR and NMR spectroscopy. As a result of porous
      hydrophobic structure, these sorbents are capable of binding and retention of
      petroleum products on the water surface, and keeping the flotation for at least
      30days after the petroleum products sorption. The test of biodegradability of the
      obtained samples revealed that the modified starches can be degraded by
      microscopic fungi, therefore they do not cause secondary pollution. The cultures
      of yeast Rhodotorula glutinis VKM Y-2993D and bacteria Pseudomonas libanensis VKM
      B-3041D immobilized on the sorbent facilitate the rapid utilization of
      accumulated petroleum products.

PMID- 28864394
TI  - Trauma pneumonectomy: A narrative review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Thoracic injuries are common in both blunt and penetrating trauma. Most
      thoracic injuries are managed non-operatively, approximately 7-20% undergo
      thoracotomy. Of the injuries requiring thoracotomy, 1-6% ultimately require
      pulmonary resection. Wedge resection and lobectomies are well-studied in the
      literature; however, there is a paucity regarding reports on total pneumonectomy
      in the setting of trauma. Our objectives were to summarize the evidence
      supporting the role of trauma pneumonectomy (TP) in the current era and reiterate
      that despite the associated morbidity and mortality TP is justified in selective
      cases. METHODS: A review of the world's literature was conducted following
      standard guidelines. Inclusion criteria included those studies reviewing blunt
      and penetrating trauma to the lungs in adults (age greater than 15 year) that
      reported mortality rates and outcome measures. RESULTS: The PubMed search yielded
      713 studies. Of these, 14 studies included pertinent information on TP. Studies
      included in this review were published from 1985 to 2017 and involved patient
      data that was collected from 1972 to 2014. Mortality ranged from 50% to 100%
      (median 63%; mean 68%). CONCLUSION: In the setting of severe thoracic trauma,
      pulmonary resection may be necessary. Less aggressive techniques are options in a
      stable patient; however, in the setting of ongoing hemorrhage, TP should be
      considered and expediently conducted. The role of damage control thoracic surgery
      and related techniques is vitally important in these patients to improve the
      significant mortality of trauma pneumonectomy.

PMID- 28864395
TI  - Bronchoscopic techniques in the management of patients with tuberculosis.
AB  - Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality
      worldwide. Early diagnosis and treatment are key to prevent Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis transmission. Bronchoscopy can play a primary role in pulmonary TB
      diagnosis, particularly for suspected patients with scarce sputum or sputum smear
      negativity, and with endobronchial disease. Bronchoscopic needle aspiration
      techniques are accurate and safe means adopted to investigate hilar and
      mediastinal lymph nodes in cases of suspected TB lymphadenopathy.
      Tracheobronchial stenosis represents the worst complication of endobronchial
      tuberculosis. Bronchoscopic procedures are less invasive therapeutic strategies
      than conventional surgery to be adopted in the management of TB-related stenosis.
      We conducted a non-systematic review aimed at describing the scientific
      literature on the role of bronchoscopic techniques in the diagnosis and therapy
      of patients with TB. We focused on three main areas of interventions:
      bronchoscopic diagnosis of smear negative/sputum scarce TB patients,
      endobronchial TB diagnosis and treatment and needle aspiration techniques for
      intrathoracic TB lymphadenopathy. We described experiences on bronchoalveolar
      lavage, bronchial washing, and biopsy techniques for the diagnosis of patients
      with tracheobronchial and pulmonary TB; furthermore, we described the role played
      by conventional and ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in the
      diagnosis of suspected hilar and mediastinal TB adenopathy. Finally, we assessed
      the role of the bronchoscopic therapy in the treatment of endobronchial TB and
      its complications, focusing on dilation techniques (such as balloon dilation and
      airway stenting) and ablative procedures (both heat and cold therapies).

PMID- 28864396
TI  - Environmental indicators of oyster norovirus outbreaks in coastal waters.
AB  - This paper presents an artificial intelligence-based approach to identifying
      environmental indicators of oyster norovirus outbreaks in coastal waters. It was
      found that oyster norovirus outbreaks are generally linked to the extreme
      combination of antecedent environmental conditions characterized by low water
      temperature, low solar radiation, low gage height, low salinity, strong wind, and
      heavy precipitation. Among the six environmental indicators, the most important
      three indicators, including water temperature, solar radiation and gage height,
      are capable of explaining 77.7% of model-predicted oyster norovirus outbreaks
      while the extremely low temperature alone may explain 37.2% of oyster norovirus
      outbreaks. It is, therefore, recommended that water temperature in oyster
      harvesting areas be monitored in the cold season and particularly the extremely
      low temperature during a low gage height be used as the primary indicator of
      oyster norovirus outbreaks. The findings are of profound significance to reducing
      the public health risk of norovirus outbreaks associated with consumption of
      oysters.

PMID- 28864397
TI  - Adrenocortical tumors associated with the TP53 p.R337H germline mutation can be
      identified during child-care consultations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical features associated with adrenocortical
      hormone overexpression and familial cancer profiling as potential markers for
      early detection of adrenocortical tumors in children from South and Southeast
      Brazil. METHODS: The clinical manifestations and anthropometric measurements of
      103 children diagnosed with adrenocortical tumors were analyzed. RESULTS: Between
      1982 and 2011, 69 girls and 34 boys diagnosed with adrenocortical tumors were
      followed-up for a median time of 9.0 years (0-34 years). Signs of androgen
      overproduction alone (n=75) or associated with cortisol (n=18) were present in
      90.3%. TP53 p.R337H mutation was found in 90.5% of patients. Stages I, II, III,
      and IV were observed in 45.6%, 27.2%, 19.4%, and 7.8% of patients, respectively.
      At diagnosis, there were no significant differences in height (p=0.92) and weight
      (p=0.22) among children with adrenocortical tumors, but children with
      virilization alone had significantly higher height-for-age Z-scores (0.92+/-1.4)
      than children with hypercortisolism alone or combined (-0.32+/-1,8; p=0.03). The
      five-year overall survival was 76.7% (SD+/-4.2). Patients with advanced-stage
      disease had a significantly worse prognosis than those with limited disease
      (p<0.001). During follow-up, ten of 55 p.R337H carrier parents developed cancer,
      whereas none of the 55 non-carriers did. CONCLUSIONS: Signs of adrenocortical
      hormone overproduction appear early, even in cases with early-stage. These signs
      can be identified at the physical examination and anthropometric measurements. In
      southern Brazil, pediatric adrenocortical tumor is a sentinel cancer for
      detecting families with germline p.R337H mutation in TP53 gene.

PMID- 28864398
TI  - The role of asymptomatics and dogs on leishmaniasis propagation.
AB  - Leishmaniasis is a parasite disease transmitted by the bites of sandflies.
      Cutaneous leishmaniasis is the most common form of the disease and it is endemic
      in the Americas. Around 70 animal species, including humans, have been found as
      natural reservoir hosts of leishmania parasites. Among the reservoirs, dogs are
      the most important ones due to their proximity to the human habitat. Infection by
      leishmaniasis does not invariably cause illness in the host, and it also can
      remain asymptomatic for a long period, specially in dogs. In this work we
      formulate a model to study the transmission of the disease among the vector,
      humans and dogs. Our main objective is to asses the impact of dogs as a reservoir
      as well as the impact of asymptomatic humans and dogs on the spread of
      leishmaniasis. For this end we calculate the Basic Reproduction Number of the
      disease and we carry out sensitivity analysis of this parameter with respect to
      the epidemiological and demographic parameters.

PMID- 28864399
TI  - Multiple Symptoms in Family Caregivers of Intensive Care Unit Patients.
AB  - CONTEXT: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients experience physical and psychological
      challenges related to ICU admission in the acute and recovery phases after a
      critical illness. Involvement of family caregivers (FCs) is essential in the
      patients' struggle to survive critical illness. FCs report a high symptom burden
      related to ICU admission. Previous research has investigated mainly single
      symptoms. Little is known about multiple symptom burden related to FC experiences
      in an ICU. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed: 1) to describe the occurrence, severity,
      and distress related to multiple symptoms in FCs of ICU patients, and 2) to
      identify associations between the background characteristics and symptom burden
      of FCs. METHODS: This cross-sectional study investigated multiple symptoms in
      adult FCs of ICU patients. FCs completed a self-report symptom assessment
      questionnaire within 2 weeks after the patient's admission to the ICU. RESULTS:
      FCs (N=211) experienced a median of 9 (range 0-24) symptoms, among which,
      worrying (91%) was the most occurring. Severity and distress varied between
      symptoms. Younger age, being a spouse of an ICU patient, and having more
      comorbidities were significantly associated with the number of symptoms.
      CONCLUSIONS: FCs of ICU patients experience multiple symptoms, among which,
      psychological symptoms are most occurring. Age, relationship to the patient, and
      comorbidities were significantly associated with the number of symptoms reported
      by FCs. Comprehensive symptom assessment may identify FCs who are at risk of
      developing a high symptom burden when the patient is admitted to the ICU.

PMID- 28864400
TI  - Effects of Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation on Neurosurgical Skill
      Acquisition: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent changes in surgical training environments may have limited
      opportunities for trainees to gain proficiency in skill. Complex skills such as
      neurosurgery require extended periods of training. Methods to enhance surgical
      training are required to overcome duty-hour restrictions, to ensure the
      acquisition of skill proficiency. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS)
      can enhance motor skill learning, but is untested in surgical procedural
      training. We aimed to determine the effects of tDCS on simulation-based
      neurosurgical skill acquisition. METHODS: Medical students were trained to
      acquire tumor resection skills using a virtual reality neurosurgical simulator.
      The primary outcome of change in tumor resection was scored at baseline, over 8
      repetitions, post-training, and again at 6 weeks. Participants received anodal
      tDCS or sham over the primary motor cortex. Secondary outcomes included changes
      in brain resected, resection effectiveness, duration of excessive forces (EF)
      applied, and resection efficiency. Additional outcomes included tDCS
      tolerability. RESULTS: Twenty-two students consented to participate, with no
      dropouts over the course of the trial. Participants receiving tDCS intervention
      increased the amount of tumor resected, increased the effectiveness of resection,
      reduced the duration of EF applied, and improved resection efficiency. Little or
      no decay was observed at 6 weeks in both groups. No adverse events were
      documented, and sensation severity did not differ between stimulation groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: The addition of tDCS to neurosurgical training may enhance skill
      acquisition in a simulation-based environment. Trials of additional skills in
      high-skill residents, and translation to nonsimulated performance are needed to
      determine the potential utility of tDCS in surgical training.

PMID- 28864401
TI  - Implementing Radiation Dose-Volume Liver Response in Biomechanical Deformable
      Image Registration.
AB  - PURPOSE: Understanding anatomic and functional changes in the liver resulting
      from radiation therapy is fundamental to the improvement of normal tissue
      complication probability models needed to advance personalized medicine. The
      ability to link pretreatment and posttreatment imaging is often compromised by
      significant dose-dependent volumetric changes within the liver that are currently
      not accounted for in deformable image registration (DIR) techniques. This study
      investigated using delivered dose, in combination with other patient factors, to
      biomechanically model longitudinal changes in liver anatomy for follow-up care
      and re-treatment planning. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Population models describing
      the relationship between dose and hepatic volume response were produced using
      retrospective data from 33 patients treated with focal radiation therapy. A DIR
      technique was improved by implementing additional boundary conditions associated
      with the dose-volume response in series with a previously developed biomechanical
      DIR algorithm. Evaluation of this DIR technique was performed on computed
      tomography imaging from 7 patients by comparing the model-predicted volumetric
      change within the liver with the observed change, tracking vessel bifurcations
      within the liver through the deformation process, and then determining target
      registration error between the predicted and identified posttreatment bifurcation
      points. RESULTS: Evaluation of the proposed DIR technique showed that all lobes
      were volumetrically deformed to within the respective contour variability of each
      lobe. The average target registration error achieved was 7.3 mm (2.8 mm left
      right and anterior-posterior and 5.1 mm superior-inferior), with the superior
      inferior component within the average limiting slice thickness (6.0 mm). This
      represented a significant improvement (P<.01, Wilcoxon test) over the application
      of the previously published biomechanical DIR algorithm (10.9 mm). CONCLUSIONS:
      This study demonstrates the feasibility of implementing dose-driven volumetric
      response in deformable registration, enabling improved accuracy of modeling liver
      anatomy changes, which could allow for improved dose accumulation, particularly
      for patients who require additional liver radiation therapy.

PMID- 28864402
TI  - Increased Number of Beam Angles Is Associated With Higher Cardiac Dose in
      Adjuvant Fixed Gantry Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy of Left-Sided Breast
      Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the relationship between angle number and mean heart dose
      (MHD) in adjuvant fixed gantry intensity modulated radiation therapy (FG-IMRT)
      treatment of left-sided breast cancer as is currently practiced in the community.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: We performed a retrospective, multi-institutional review
      of women with left-sided breast cancer receiving adjuvant FG-IMRT between 2012
      and 2014, encompassing 85 centers in 15 states. Bivariate and multivariate
      regression analyses were done to identify factors associated with MHD. Long-term
      cardiac risk was estimated according to a previously published model. RESULTS: Of
      the 538 women included, 284 had >2 gantry angle treatment plans (multi-angle),
      and 254 had 2 gantry angle (standard) plans. Median MHD was higher in patients
      with multi-angle plans compared with standard (median 475 vs 203 cGy). Number of
      gantry angles was significantly associated with MHD, with multi-angle plans
      independently increasing MHD by 229 cGy. Absolute risk of acute coronary events
      20 years after treatment was estimated as 7 excess events per 1000 women for
      standard plans, compared with 12 excess events for multi-angle plans.
      CONCLUSIONS: Fixed gantry IMRT breast treatment plans with >2 gantry angles were
      associated with increased MHD, which translated to an increased cardiac risk.
      Clinicians should account for this potential drawback in treatment technique when
      assessing overall plan quality.

PMID- 28864403
TI  - Clinical Outcomes of Several IMRT Techniques for Patients With Head and Neck
      Cancer: A Propensity Score-Weighted Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Advanced Radiotherapy Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie (ART-ORL) study
      (NCT02024035) was performed to prospectively evaluate the clinical and economic
      aspects of helical TomoTherapy and volumetric modulated arc therapy (RapidArc,
      Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) for patients with head and neck cancer.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: Fourteen centers participated in this prospective
      comparative study. Randomization was not possible based on the availability of
      equipment. Patients with epidermoid or undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma
      or epidermoid carcinoma of the oropharynx and oral cavity (T1-T4, M0, N0-N3) were
      included between February 2010 and February 2012. Only the results of the
      clinical study are presented in this report, as the results of the economic
      assessment have been published previously. Inverse probability of treatment
      weighting using the propensity score analysis was undertaken in an effort to
      adjust for potential bias due to nonrandomization. Locoregional control, cancer
      specific survival, and overall survival assessed 18 months after treatment, as
      well as long-term toxicity and salivary function, were evaluated. RESULTS: The
      analysis included 166 patients. The following results are given after inverse
      probability of treatment weighting adjustment. The locoregional control rate at
      18 months was significantly better in the TomoTherapy group: 83.3% (95%
      confidence interval [CI], 72.5%-90.2%) versus 72.7% (95% CI, 62.1%-80.8%) in the
      RapidArc group (P=.025). The cancer-specific survival rate was better in the
      TomoTherapy group: 97.2% (95% CI, 89.3%-99.3%) versus 85.5% (95% CI, 75.8%-91.5%)
      in the RapidArc group (P=.014). No significant difference was shown in
      progression-free or overall survival. TomoTherapy induced fewer acute salivary
      disorders (P=.012). Posttreatment salivary function degradation was worse in the
      RapidArc group (P=.012). CONCLUSIONS: TomoTherapy provided better locoregional
      control and cancer-specific survival than RapidArc treatment, with fewer salivary
      disorders. No significant difference was shown in progression-free and overall
      survival. These results should be explored in a randomized trial.

PMID- 28864404
TI  - Toxicity and Outcomes in Patients With and Without Esophageal Stents in Locally
      Advanced Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Esophageal stenting is often considered to relieve dysphagia in patients
      with locoregionally advanced esophageal cancer. We sought to determine the
      effects of stenting on the incidence of acute toxicity and oncologic outcomes in
      patients undergoing chemoradiation therapy (CRT). METHODS AND MATERIALS: The data
      from patients treated with curative intent CRT for locoregionally advanced
      esophageal cancer at the University of Utah were retrospectively analyzed. The
      chi2 or Fisher exact test was used to compare the demographic and tumor
      characteristics between patients with and without esophageal stenting before RT.
      Univariate and multivariate analyses using logistic regression modeling were used
      to identify the predictors of acute toxicities. A propensity score-matched
      analysis with shared frailty Cox hazard regression was performed according to
      stent status to identify the stent effect on survival. Acute toxicities were
      graded using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.
      RESULTS: From 2005 to 2013, 103 consecutive patients received CRT. Of the 103
      patients, 28 had a stent in place during CRT. The median dose was 50.4 Gy for all
      patients. Grade >=3 acute toxicities were seen in 71% of the stent versus 27% of
      the no-stent patients (P<.01), including esophagitis (39% vs 20%; P=.05),
      dehydration (29% vs 13%; P=.07), and anorexia (14% vs 5%; P=.13). Of the 103
      patients, 29% of the stent and 51% of the no-stent patients underwent
      esophagectomy (P=.05). The only significant predictor for acute toxicity on
      multivariate analysis was esophageal stenting (odds ratio 8.1; P<.01). After
      propensity score matching, the stent patients had a worse median overall survival
      compared with the no-stent patients (11.5 vs 22.0 months; hazard ratio 2.3;
      P=.016). CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing CRT with curative intent, esophageal
      stenting was associated with significantly increased grade >=3 acute toxicities,
      fewer patients proceeding to esophagectomy, and worse overall survival.

PMID- 28864405
TI  - Ischemic Cardiac Events Following Treatment of the Internal Mammary Nodal Region
      Using Contemporary Radiation Planning Techniques.
AB  - PURPOSE: Regional nodal irradiation, including radiation therapy (RT) to the
      internal mammary node (IMN) region, improves oncologic outcomes in patients with
      node-positive breast cancer. Concern remains, however, given the proximity of the
      IMNs to the heart and the association between cardiac RT exposure and toxicity.
      The objective of the study was to evaluate rates of ischemic cardiac events
      (ICEs) and associated risk with treatment of the IMN region. METHODS AND
      MATERIALS: The cardiac outcomes of 2126 patients treated with adjuvant breast RT
      or breast and nodal RT from 1984 to 2007 at a single institution were reviewed.
      The primary endpoint was an ICE following RT initiation. The association between
      IMN RT and ICEs was assessed using Cox proportional hazards models. Treatment
      with both IMN RT and 3-dimensional (3D) conformal radiation therapy (CRT) began
      in 1997; therefore, subset analyses of patients with only 3D CRT were performed
      to minimize bias associated with improved treatment technique. RESULTS: The
      median follow-up period was 9.3 years. An ICE occurred in 87 patients (4.1%). No
      increased 10-year rate of ICEs was observed with IMN RT compared with no IMN RT
      in the total cohort (3.2% [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.4%-4.3%] vs 3.4% [95%
      CI, 1.5%-7.5%]; hazard ratio [HR], 0.88; P=.73). Similarly, no statistically
      significant difference was noted in the 3D CRT-planned, left-sided disease subset
      (5.1% [95% CI, 1.8%-14.1%] vs 4.0% [95% CI, 2.0%-8.0%]; HR, 1.18, P=.76). On
      multivariate analysis, adjusting for cardiac risk factor imbalances, no
      significantly increased hazard was noted with IMN RT (HR, 1.84; P=.28) in the 3D
      CRT-planned, left-sided disease subset. CONCLUSIONS: No statistically significant
      association between IMN RT and ICEs was demonstrated in a review of patients
      treated at a single institution from 1984 to 2007. Given the long natural history
      and low overall rate of ICEs, continued follow-up of this study, as well as
      additional studies in the 3D CRT era, is warranted to confirm these results.
      Minimizing cardiac exposure, when treating a limited IMN field, is critical to
      limit excess risk of ICEs.

PMID- 28864406
TI  - Comparative study of perioperative complication rates of cervical laminoplasty
      performed by residents and teaching neurosurgeons.
AB  - Early surgical education is required for neurosurgical residents to learn many
      surgical procedures. However, the participation of less experienced residents may
      increase perioperative complication rates. Perioperative complication studies in
      the field of neurosurgery are being increasingly published; however, studies have
      not yet focused on cervical laminoplasty. The study population included 193
      consecutive patients who underwent cervical laminoplasty in Tokyo Metropolitan
      Neurological Hospital between 2008 and 2014. Patient and surgeon background
      factors, as well as perioperative complication rates were retrospectively
      compared between resident and board-certified spine neurosurgeon groups.
      Deteriorated or newly developed neurological deficits and surgical site
      complications within 30days of cervical laminoplasty were defined as
      perioperative complications. Out of 193 patients, 123 (64%) were operated on by
      residents as the first operator and 70 (36%) by board-certified spine
      neurosurgeons. No significant differences were observed in patient and surgeon
      factors between the two groups, except for hyperlipidemia (13 vs 17, p=0.02).
      Furthermore, no significant differences were noted in perioperative complication
      rates between the two groups (7 [5.7%] vs 4 [5.7%], p=1). Cervical laminoplasty
      performed in a standardized manner by residents who received their surgical
      training in our hospital did not increase perioperative complication rates, and
      ensured the safety of patients.

PMID- 28864407
TI  - Military service and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A meta-analysis.
AB  - To explore the relationship between the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and
      exposure to overall military service, we conducted a search of articles relevant
      to military service and the risk of ALS that used human subjects and were
      published in English through 20 May 2016, using Ovid Medline and Embase
      databases. Studies specially investigating the risk of ALS for Gulf war veterans
      were excluded. Quality of the cohort and case-control studies was assessed
      according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Analysis of data and publication
      bias were performed with Review Manager 5.3. A total of 8 case-control studies
      and 3 cohort studies were included in the meta-analysis. Only two case-control
      studies were conducted in Japan, comparing to 9 studies conducted in Europe/USA.
      The NOS scores of all studies were >=6/9. The risk of ALS was significantly
      increased in military personnel compared to non-military personnel (pooled
      OR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.08-1.54, by random-effects model), with a moderate
      heterogeneity (P=0.01, I2=55%) due to some studies with lower quality, conformed
      by subgroup and sensitivity analysis. The present meta-analysis supports a
      positive association between overall military service and the risk of ALS.
      Additional studies are needed to find out related factors influencing the ALS
      risk of veterans, especially by gender and for specific geographic regions such
      as Asia. That would also do some favor to explore the etiology and mechanism of
      ALS.

PMID- 28864408
TI  - Spinal stereotactic body radiotherapy in the United States: A decade-long
      nationwide analysis of patient demographics, practice patterns, and trends over
      time.
AB  - Nationwide utilization of spinal stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is not
      known; to address this void, the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) from 2004 to
      2013 was used for analysis. Spinal SBRT was defined as 1-5 fractions (14-32Gy)
      delivered to the cervical, thoracic, lumbar or sacral spine. From 2004 to 2013,
      1044 patients received spinal SBRT, most commonly in single-fraction (38%), three
      fraction (26%) and five-fractions (25%). Metastatic spinal disease most commonly
      originated from the lung (34%), kidney (14%), and blood (9%). The most common
      insurance status receiving spinal SBRT was private (44%) followed by Medicare
      (43%), with Medicaid (8%) a distant third. Fifty-six percent of patients were
      male, and 55% of patients were younger than age 65. 80% of patients were
      Caucasian, with 13% being African-American. The vast majority (74%) of patients
      had no Charlson/Deyo comorbidities. The incidence of spinal SBRT gradually
      increased over time, rising from 2% to 20% of cases from 2004 to 2013. Comprising
      only 1.4% of spinal metastases radiation in 2004, SBRT rose to a 5.8% share in
      2013. In conclusion, SBRT for spine metastases in the United States has more than
      quadrupled in utilization over a recent ten-year span. Although the majority of
      spinal SBRT is multi-fraction, the most popular fractionation scheme was single
      fraction. It has been most commonly used for Caucasian men under age 65 with
      private/Medicare insurance and no comorbidities. By far the most common origin of
      spinal metastases treated by SBRT was the lung, followed by renal cancer. These
      results provide a baseline for further prospective investigation.

PMID- 28864409
TI  - Changes in brain amyloid-beta accumulation after donepezil administration.
AB  - Recent studies using the mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have shown that
      donepezil administration reduces brain amyloid-beta (Abeta) accumulation. This
      study investigated whether donepezil administration can reduce brain Abeta
      accumulation in human patients with AD. Ten patients with AD underwent two 11C
      Pittsburgh Compound B positron emission tomography sessions approximately one
      year apart to measure brain Abeta accumulation before and after donepezil
      treatment. Volumes-of-interest were placed on Abeta-preferred regions, and the
      standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) was calculated considering the cerebellum
      as a reference region. Three and seven patients received 10mg and 5mg of
      donepezil, respectively. SUVR was significantly higher in the second than in the
      first session (P=0.026). This study showed that one year of donepezil
      administration does not reduce brain Abeta accumulation in human patients with
      AD.

PMID- 28864410
TI  - Aspiration thrombectomy with off-label distal access catheters in the distal
      intracranial vasculature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As neurointerventionalists aim to treat occlusions in the ever more
      distal vasculature, off-label catheters (OLCs) have been adapted for aspiration
      thrombectomy. This may not be without its attendant risks. Recently issued, a
      letter from the FDA cautioned providers against using OLCs as substitutes for FDA
      cleared aspiration thrombectomy catheters, especially in the distal vasculature.
      In light of this, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of OLCs used for
      aspiration thrombectomy in the distal vasculature at our institution. METHODS: We
      retrospectively queried all patients who underwent thrombectomy at our
      institution between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017. Patients were screened
      for: (1) occlusion location in the distal vasculature (M2 or more distal) and (2)
      direct thrombus aspiration attempt with an OLC. Demographic, clinical, and
      procedural data were recorded. RESULTS: Eight patients were included for analysis
      (Table 1). The median admission NIHSS was 17 (IQR 13-23.3). Occlusion locations
      included left M2 (6/8), right M2 (1/8), and left M3 (1/8). The OLCs employed
      included the Stryker Catalyst 6 (5/8), Penumbra Velocity (2/8), and the
      MicroVention Sofia Plus (1/8). Direct thrombus aspiration was successful in 50%
      (4/8) of cases, though final TICI 2b-3 was achieved in all patients. There were
      no instances of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. Median NIHSS at discharge
      was 5 (IQR 0.8, 15). CONCLUSIONS: Aspiration thrombectomy with OLCs may be safe
      and effective in the distal vasculature. In light of the recent FDA warning
      regarding their use, further evaluation of OLCs in this capacity is warranted.

PMID- 28864411
TI  - "Revisions of the International Consensus Fukuoka Guidelines for the Management
      of IPMN of the Pancreas": Progress for twelve years.

PMID- 28864412
TI  - Role of the ribosomal quality control machinery in nucleocytoplasmic
      translocation of polyQ-expanded huntingtin exon-1.
AB  - The subcellular localization of polyQ-expanded huntingtin exon1 (Httex1)
      modulates polyQ toxicity in models of Huntington's disease. Using genome-wide
      screens in a yeast model system, we report that the ribosome quality control
      (RQC) machinery, recently implicated in neurodegeneration, is a key determinant
      for the nucleocytoplasmic distribution of Httex1-103Q. Deletion of the RQC genes,
      LTN1 or RQC1, caused the accumulation of Httex1-103Q in the nucleus through a
      process that required the CAT-tail tagging activity of Rqc2 and transport via the
      nuclear pore complex. We provide evidence that nuclear accumulation of Httex1
      103Q enhances its cytotoxicity, suggesting that the RQC machinery plays an
      important role in protecting cells against the adverse effects of polyQ expansion
      proteins.

PMID- 28864413
TI  - Effect of sodium fluoride on the sperm mitochondrial DNA in mice.
AB  - Previous studies demonstrated that fluoride, as a widespread environmental
      pollutant, induced the reproductive toxicity at high dose. Besides the decrease
      of sperm characteristics like concentration, survival, and sperm motility, it was
      found that high fluoride induced the destructive mitochondrial ultrastructure and
      decreased ATP production from mitochondrial respiration. However, whether
      fluoride exposure can damage the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of sperm is still
      unknown. In this study, 100 male mice were randomly divided into four groups 25
      each, which were administrated with the distilled water containing 0, 25, 50 and
      100 mg L-1 NaF, respectively for 60 days. After exposure, sperm mtDNA copy number
      was measured by real-time PCR, mtDNA integrity by acridine orange (AO) staining,
      and nuclear DNA (nDNA) integrity through long PCR amplification, as well as MTCYB
      and MTATP6 mutations by PCR and direct sequencing. The results showed that 100 mg
      L-1 NaF significantly increased sperm mtDNA copy number, and reduced nDNA
      integrity. There were no changes observed in mtDNA integrity, and mutations of
      MTCYB and MTATP6 between fluoride groups and the control group. These results
      indicated that along with low sperm quality, sperm mtDNA copy number is also a
      sensitive biomarker to reflect the sperm toxicity of fluoride.

PMID- 28864414
TI  - Structure of 4'-demethylepipodophyllotoxin in complex with tubulin provides a
      rationale for drug design.
AB  - Microtubules consists of alphabeta-tubulin heterodimers and are highly attractive
      targets for anti-cancer drugs. A broad range of agents have been identified to
      bind to tubulin and interfere with microtubule assembly, including colchicine
      binding site inhibitors (CBSIs). Podophyllotoxin is a CBSI that inhibits the
      assembly of microtubules. However, for a long time, the design and development of
      podophyllotoxin family drugs have been hindered by the lack of high-resolution
      structural information of the tubulin-agent complex. We report the first high
      resolution (2.8 A) structure of a podophyllotoxin family agent (4'
      demethylepipodophyllotoxin, DMEP) complexed with tubulin and revealed the
      detailed interactions between DMEP and tubulin. Comparison of this structure and
      other CBSIs explains previous results of the structure-activity-relationship
      (SAR) studies, and provides insights into the development of new podophyllotoxin
      derivatives targeting the colchicine site.

PMID- 28864415
TI  - Long pentraxin PTX3 mediates acute inflammatory responses against pneumococcal
      infection.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important human pathogen responsible for more than
      2 million deaths annually worldwide. The airway epithelium acts as the first-line
      of defense against pneumococcal infections by regulating acute inflammation
      against invading pneumococcus. Despite the intact adaptive immunity, failure in
      early defense due to loss of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and/or acute
      phase proteins (APPs) results in detrimental damage and death. C-reactive protein
      (CRP), the first found APP, is a member of the pentraxin family of proteins and
      an important soluble PRR for pneumococcus. CRP and another short pentraxin, serum
      amyloid P, are critical for acute defense against pneumococcal infection.
      However, the role of the long pentraxin PTX3 in regulating pneumococcal
      infections is unknown. In this study, PTX3 expression was upregulated by
      pneumococcus in epithelial cells and in lungs of mice. In addition, PTX3
      potentiated pneumococcal inflammation; overexpression of PTX3 enhanced
      pneumococcus-induced cytokine expression, whereas knock-down of PTX3 with siPTX3
      inhibited the cytokine expression. Furthermore, PTX3 deficiency indeed
      ameliorated acute inflammation and protected mice against death following
      pneumococcal infection. Pneumococcal toxin pneumolysin was responsible for PTX3
      expression and upregulated PTX3 expression via JNK MAPK signaling. These data
      implicate PTX3 as a novel therapeutic target for the control of acute
      inflammation by pneumococcus.

PMID- 28864416
TI  - Neuromedin U suppresses glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in pancreatic beta
      cells.
AB  - Neuromedin U (NMU), a highly conserved peptide in mammals, is implicated in
      energy homeostasis and glycemic control, and may also be involved in the
      regulation of adipoinsular axis function. However, the role of NMU in regulating
      insulin secretion has not been clearly established. In this study, we
      investigated the role of NMU in the regulation of insulin secretion both in vitro
      and in vivo. We found that NMU and NMU receptor (NMUR) 1 were expressed in mouse
      islets and beta cell-derived MIN6-K8 cells. In mice, NMU suppressed glucose
      stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, an
      NMUR1 agonist inhibited GSIS in both MIN6-K8 cells and mice islets. Moreover, NMU
      attenuated intracellular Ca2+ influx in MIN6-K8 cells, potentially causing a
      decrease in insulin secretion. siNmu-transfected MIN6-K8 cells showed elevated
      GSIS. Treatment with anti-NMU IgG increased GSIS in isolated mouse pancreatic
      islets. These results suggested that NMU can act directly on beta cells through
      NMUR1 in an autocrine or paracrine fashion to suppress insulin secretion.
      Collectively, our results highlight the crucial role of NMU in suppressing
      pancreatic insulin secretion, and may improve our understanding of glucose
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28864417
TI  - TIF1beta is phosphorylated at serine 473 in colorectal tumor cells through p38
      mitogen-activated protein kinase as an oxidative defense mechanism.
AB  - TIF1beta is a pleiotropic regulator of a diverse range of cellular processes such
      as DNA repair or gene repression in stem cells. This functional switch depends on
      phosphorylation at serine residue 473 and multiple pathways exist to accomplish
      this. However, the effects of exogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated
      by bacterial flora and dietary metabolites in the colonic lumen or chemotherapy
      on TIF1beta have not been determined. We report here that exposure of colorectal
      cancer (CRC) cell lines DLD-1 and HCT116 to hydrogen peroxide specifically
      induces TIF1beta Ser473 phosphorylation. Hydrogen peroxide also induces primarily
      p38 MAPK and some p42/44 MAPK phosphorylation. Chemical inhibition of p38 MAPK
      and p42/44 MAPK reduced phosphorylation of TIF1beta serine 473 and increased CRC
      cell death upon peroxide exposure. Taken together, this suggests that it is
      primarily peroxide-induced p38 MAPK that mediates Ser473 phosphorylation and
      activation of TIF1beta to enable more efficient DNA repair to assist in tumor
      cell survival against exogenous ROS.

PMID- 28864418
TI  - The expression profiles of circRNAs in lung tissues from rats with
      lipopolysaccharide-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome: A microarray
      study.
AB  - The development of circular RNA (circRNA) microarray has facilitated the study of
      the role of circRNAs in regulating gene expression through a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA
      network. In our study, microarray was performed to detect the expression profiles
      of circRNAs during lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute respiratory distress
      syndrome (ARDS). Twenty rats were randomly divided into 2 groups, the control
      group and the LPS group, 10 rats in each group. Three rats each from both groups
      were randomly selected. Using circRNA microarray data, we compared the circRNA
      expression profiles in lung tissues between these 6 rats. The most differentially
      expressed circRNA species from these profiles were validated and optimized as
      ARDS biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets. Overall, 395 and 562 circRNAs
      were significantly up- and down-regulated in LPS group vs. control group,
      respectively. Six up-regulated and 4 down-regulated circRNAs from the top 10
      candidates were eventually selected to be validated. Among them, only 4 up
      regulated circRNAs (mmu_circRNA_19423, rno_circRNA_010489, rno_circRNA_011426,
      mmu_circRNA_30664) and 1 down-regulated circRNA (rno_circRNA_005564) exhibited
      significant validation. The 5 highest ranking target miRNAs of these 5 validated
      circRNAs were predicted according to the miRNA support vector regression method.
      This is the first study to investigate circRNA expression profile and a large
      number of aberrantly expressed circRNAs were revealed during ARDS. The
      significantly over- or under-expressed circRNA may represent a novel biomarker
      and be developed as a novel therapeutic target for the clinical management of
      ARDS. The results are preliminary and need to be confirmed in further well
      designed studies with larger sample size.

PMID- 28864419
TI  - Epiphycan is specifically expressed in cochlear supporting cells and is necessary
      for normal hearing.
AB  - The study of inner ear specific transcripts has revealed novel information about
      hereditary hearing loss and a mechanism of normal hearing. In this study, by
      analyzing a published cDNA library, we focused on Epiphycan (Epyc), a member of
      the small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan family, whose transcript is enriched
      in the inner ear. Epyc mRNA was expressed abundantly and specifically in adult
      mice cochleae and was localized in supporting cells within the organ of Corti of
      both neonatal and adult mice. To examine the function of Epyc, we generated Epyc
      knockout (KO) mice using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Epyc KO mice cochleae exhibited
      normal morphology. However, measurement of the auditory brain-stem response in
      Epyc KO mice revealed an elevated hearing threshold above 16 kHz frequency. This
      study suggests that Epyc is necessary for normal auditory function.

PMID- 28864420
TI  - Functional characterization of malaria parasites deficient in the K+ channel
      Kch2.
AB  - : K+ channels are integral membrane proteins, which contribute to maintain vital
      parameters such as the cellular membrane potential and cell volume. Malaria
      parasites encode two K+ channel homologues, Kch1 and Kch2, which are well
      conserved among members of the Plasmodium genus. In the rodent malaria parasite
      P. berghei, the functional significance of K+ channel homologue PbKch2 was
      studied using targeted gene knock-out. The knockout parasites were characterized
      in a mouse model in terms of growth-kinetics and infectivity in the mosquito
      vector. Furthermore, using a tracer-uptake technique with 86Rb+ as a K+ congener,
      the K+ transporting properties of the knockout parasites were assessed. RESULTS:
      Genetic disruption of Kch2 did not grossly affect the phenotype in terms of
      asexual replication and pathogenicity in a mouse model. In contrast to Kch1-null
      parasites, Kch2-null parasites were fully capable of forming oocysts in female
      Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. 86Rb+ uptake in Kch2-deficient blood-stage P.
      berghei parasites (Kch2-null) did not differ from that of wild-type (WT)
      parasites. About two-thirds of the 86Rb+ uptake in WT and in Kch2-null parasites
      could be inhibited by K+ channel blockers and could be inferred to the presence
      of functional Kch1 in Kch2 knockout parasites. Kch2 is therefore not required for
      transport of K+ in P. berghei and is not essential to mosquito-stage sporogonic
      development of the parasite.

PMID- 28864421
TI  - Twinfilin 1 enhances milk bio-synthesis and proliferation of bovine mammary
      epithelial cells via the mTOR signaling pathway.
AB  - Twinfilin1 (TWF1) is an actin monomer-binding protein, which biological function
      has not yet been fully uncovered. In our previous study, we found by mass
      spectrometry analysis that TWF1 might be one of the major proteins responsible
      for milk bio-synthesis and proliferation of bovine mammary epithelial cells
      (BMECs). The purpose of this study was to explore the possible mechanism by which
      TWF1 regulates signaling pathways that enhance milk bio-synthesis and
      proliferation of BMECs. We first explored the effects of TWF1 on milk bio
      synthesis and cell proliferation, and analyzed the role of TWF1 on the protein
      levels of signaling molecules (mTOR, SREBP-1c and Cyclin D1) related to milk bio
      synthesis and cell proliferation. Then we determinate the impacts of amino acids
      (methionine and leucine) and hormones (estrogen and prolactin) on the expressions
      of TWF1. These results reveal that TWF1 is highly induced by the stimulation of
      amino acids and hormones and involved in regulation of milk bio-synthesis and
      cell proliferation via the mTOR pathway in BMECs.

PMID- 28864422
TI  - ALS-linked mutant SOD1 proteins promote Abeta aggregates in ALS through direct
      interaction with Abeta.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized
      by progressive degeneration of motor neurons. Aggregation of ALS-linked mutant
      Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) is a hallmark of a subset of familial ALS
      (fALS). Recently, intracellular amyloid-beta (Abeta) is detected in motor neurons
      of both sporadic and familial ALS. We have previously shown that intracellular
      Abeta specifically interacts with G93A, an ALS-linked SOD1 mutant. However,
      little is known about the pathological and biological effect of this interaction
      in neurons. In this study, we have demonstrated that the Abeta-binding region is
      exposed on the SOD1 surface through the conformational changes due to misfolding
      of SOD1. Interestingly, we found that the intracellular aggregation of Abeta is
      enhanced through the direct interaction of Abeta with the Abeta-binding region
      exposed to misfolded SOD1. Ultimately, increased Abeta aggregation by this
      interaction promotes neuronal cell death. Consistent with this result, Abeta
      aggregates was three-fold higher in the brains of G93A transgenic mice than those
      of non Tg. Our study provides the first direct evidence that Abeta, an AD-linked
      factor, is associated to the pathogenesis of ALS and provides molecular clues to
      understand common aggregation mechanisms in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative
      diseases. Furthermore, it will provide new insights into the development of
      therapeutic approaches for ALS.

PMID- 28864423
TI  - Alpha-mangostin inhibits both dengue virus production and cytokine/chemokine
      expression.
AB  - Since severe dengue virus (DENV) infection in humans associates with both high
      viral load and massive cytokine production - referred to as "cytokine storm", an
      ideal drug for treatment of DENV infection should efficiently inhibit both virus
      production and cytokine expression. In searching for such an ideal drug, we
      discovered that alpha-mangostin (alpha-MG), a major bioactive compound purified
      from the pericarp of the mangosteen fruit (Garcinia mangostana Linn), which has
      been used in traditional medicine for several conditions including trauma,
      diarrhea, wound infection, pain, fever, and convulsion, inhibits both DENV
      production in cultured hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 and Huh-7 cells, and
      cytokine/chemokine expression in HepG2 cells. alpha-MG could also efficiently
      inhibit all four serotypes of DENV. Treatment of DENV-infected cells with alpha
      MG (20MUM) significantly reduced the infection rates of four DENV serotypes by 47
      55%. alpha-MG completely inhibited production of DENV-1 and DENV-3, and markedly
      reduced production of DENV-2 and DENV-4 by 100 folds. Furthermore, it could
      markedly reduce cytokine (IL-6 and TNF-alpha) and chemokine (RANTES, MIP-1beta,
      and IP-10) transcription. These actions of alpha-MG are more potent than those of
      antiviral agent (ribavirin) and anti-inflammatory drug (dexamethasone). Thus,
      alpha-MG is potential to be further developed as therapeutic agent for DENV
      infection.

PMID- 28864424
TI  - Wheat streak mosaic virus coat protein is a host-specific long-distance transport
      determinant in oat.
AB  - Viral determinants involved in systemic infection of hosts by monocot-infecting
      plant viruses are poorly understood. Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV, genus
      Tritimovirus, family Potyviridae) exclusively infects monocotyledonous crops such
      as wheat, oat, barley, maize, triticale, and rye. Previously, we reported that
      WSMV CP amino acids 36-84 are expendable for systemic infection of wheat, maize,
      barley and rye. In this study, the role of coat protein (CP) in systemic
      infection of oat by WSMV was examined by using a series of viable deletion
      mutants. WSMV bearing deletions within or encompassing all of amino acids 36-57
      efficiently infected oat, indicating that these amino acids are dispensable for
      systemic infection of oat. However, WSMV mutants lacking CP amino acids 58-84 or
      85-100 failed to systemically infect oat. Furthermore, green fluorescent protein
      tagged WSMV mutants lacking CP amino acids 58-100 elicited local foci in oat but
      failed to enter the vasculature. These data suggest that CP amino acids 58-100
      are required for systemic infection of oat by WSMV by specifically facilitating
      virus long-distance transport in oat.

PMID- 28864425
TI  - Functional RNA during Zika virus infection.
AB  - Zika virus (ZIKV; family Flaviviridae; genus Flavivirus) is a pathogenic mosquito
      borne RNA virus that currently threatens human health in the Americas, large
      parts of Asia and occasionally elsewhere in the world. ZIKV infection is often
      asymptomatic but can cause severe symptoms including congenital microcephaly and
      Guillain-Barre syndrome. The positive single-stranded RNA genome of the mosquito
      borne ZIKV requires effective replication in two evolutionary distinct hosts -
      mosquitoes and primates. In addition to some of the viral proteins, the ZIKV
      genomic RNA and functional RNAs produced thereof aid in the establishment of
      productive infection and the evasion of host cell antiviral responses. ZIKV has
      evolved to contain a nucleotide composition and RNA modifications, such as
      methylation and the formation of G-quadruplexes that allow effective replication
      in both hosts. Furthermore, a number of host factors interact with the viral
      genome to modulate RNA replication. Importantly, the ZIKV genome produces non
      coding subgenomic flavivirus RNA (sfRNA) due to stalling of host 5'- 3'
      ribonucleases on viral RNA structures in the 3' untranslated region (UTR). This
      sfRNA (sfRNA) exerts important proviral functions such as antagonizing the innate
      interferon response and RNA interference. Here, we discuss the ZIKV genomic RNA
      and functional RNAs thereof to assess their significance during ZIKV infection.
      Understanding the details of the ZIKV infection cycle will aid in the development
      of effective antiviral strategies and safe vaccines.

PMID- 28864426
TI  - IL-6-mediated signaling pathways limit Chlamydia muridarum infection and
      exacerbate its pathogenicity in the mouse genital tract.
AB  - Chlamydia muridarum induction of mouse hydrosalpinx, depending on both tubal
      infection and inflammation, has been used for investigating Chlamydia trachomatis
      pathogenesis. We now report that IL-6 both inhibits C. muridarum infection and
      exacerbates pathogenicity in the mouse genital tract. When intravaginally
      inoculated with a high dose of C. muridarum, IL-6-deficient mice developed more
      extensive genital tract infection with severe hydrosalpinx, suggesting that IL-6
      is required for controlling the high dose infection but not essential for C.
      muridarum-induced pathology. However, at a low dose, IL-6-deficient mice still
      developed more extensive infection in the genital tract but no longer with
      significant pathology, suggesting that IL-6 is required for both controlling the
      low dose infection and exacerbating the low dose infection-induced pathology. The
      lack of hydrosalpinx in IL-6-deficient mice correlated with significantly reduced
      inflammatory infiltration in the oviduct tissue and decreased spleen CD4+ and
      CD8+ T cells that produce TNFalpha. Thus, IL-6-dependent pathways are important
      for both limiting chlamydial colonization in the genital tract mucosal tissues
      regardless of the infection doses and exacerbating chlamydial pathogenicity in
      the upper genital tract when IL-6-independent pathogenic mechanisms are not yet
      activated with a low infection dose.

PMID- 28864428
TI  - Legacy Effect of Delayed Blood Pressure-Lowering Pharmacotherapy in Middle-Aged
      Individuals Stratified by Absolute Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Protocol for a
      Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many national and international guidelines recommend that the
      initiation of blood pressure (BP)-lowering drug treatment for the primary
      prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) should no longer be based on BP level
      alone, but on absolute cardiovascular risk. While BP-lowering drug treatment is
      beneficial in high-risk individuals at any level of elevated BP, clinicians are
      concerned about legacy effects on patients with low-to-moderate risk and mildly
      elevated BP who remain "untreated". OBJECTIVE: We aim to investigate the legacy
      effect of delayed BP-lowering pharmacotherapy in middle-aged individuals (45-65
      years) with mildly elevated BP (systolic BP 140-159 mmHg and/or diastolic BP 90
      99 mmHg) stratified by absolute risk for primary prevention of CVD, but
      particularly in the low-risk (<10% five-year absolute risk) group. METHODS:
      Randomized trials of BP-lowering therapy versus placebo or pretreated subjects in
      active comparator studies with posttrial follow-up will be identified using a 2
      step process. First, randomized trials of BP-lowering therapy will be identified
      by (1) retrieving the references of trials included in published systematic
      reviews of BP-lowering therapy, (2) retrieving studies published by the Blood
      Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists' Collaboration (BPLTTC), and (3) checking
      studies referenced in the 1993 World Health Organization/International Society of
      Hypertension meeting memorandum on BP management. Posttrial follow-up studies
      will then be identified by forward citation searching the randomized trials
      identified in step 1 through Web of Science. The search will include randomized
      controlled trials with at least 1-year in-trial period and a posttrial follow-up
      phase. Age is the major determinant of absolute cardiovascular risk, so the
      participants in our review will be restricted to middle-aged adults who are more
      likely to have a lower cardiovascular risk profile. The primary outcome will be
      all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes will include cardiovascular mortality,
      fatal stroke, fatal myocardial infarction, and death due to heart failure.
      RESULTS: The searches for existing systematic reviews and BPLTTC studies were
      piloted and modified. The study is expected to be completed before June 2018.
      CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study will contribute to the body of knowledge
      concerning the beneficial, neutral, or harmful effects of delayed BP-lowering
      drug treatment on the primary prevention of CVD in patients with mildly elevated
      BP and low-to-moderate CVD risk. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO International
      Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews: CRD42017058414;
      https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID=CRD42017058414
      (Archived by WebCite(r) at http://www.webcitation.org/6t6sa8O2Q).

PMID- 28864427
TI  - Social Media for the Dissemination of Cochrane Child Health Evidence: Evaluation
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health care providers value ready access to reliable synthesized
      information to support point-of-care decision making. Web-based communities,
      facilitated by the adoption of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and
      YouTube, are increasingly being used for knowledge dissemination, bridging the
      gap between knowledge generation and synthesis and knowledge implementation.
      OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to implement and evaluate a structured social media
      strategy, using multiple platforms, to disseminate Cochrane Child Health evidence
      to health care providers caring for children. METHODS: Our social media strategy
      had three components: daily "tweets" using the Cochrane Child Health Twitter
      account, weekly WordPress blog posts, and a monthly journal club on Twitter
      ("tweet chat"). Each tweet, blog, and journal club shared Cochrane evidence on a
      child health topic. We evaluated the strategy through (1) Twitter and blog site
      analytics, (2) traceable link (Bitly) statistics, (3) Altmetric.com scores for
      promoted evidence, and (4) participant feedback. We also tracked the resources
      required to write the blog, tweet content, and manage the strategy. RESULTS: The
      22-week social media strategy ran between November 2014 and April 2015. We
      created 25 blog posts, sent 585 tweets, and hosted 3 tweet chats. Monthly blog
      visits and views and Twitter account followers increased over time. During the
      study period, the blog received 2555 visitors and 3967 page views from a
      geographically diverse audience of health care providers, academics, and health
      care organizations. In total, 183 traceable Bitly links received 3463 clicks, and
      the Twitter account gained 469 new followers. The most visited and viewed blog
      posts included gastrointestinal topics (lactose avoidance), research on
      respiratory conditions (honey for cough and treatments for asthma), and maternal
      newborn care (skin-to-skin contact). On Twitter, popular topics were related to
      public health (vaccination) and pain management. We collected Altmetric.com
      scores for 61 studies promoted during the study period and recorded an average
      increase of 11 points. Research staff (n=3) contributed approximately 433 hours
      to promotion activities and planning (6.5 hours each per week) to implement the
      social media strategy, and study investigators reviewed all content (blog posts
      and tweets). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides empirical evidence on the use of a
      coordinated social media strategy for the dissemination of evidence to
      professionals providing health services to children and youth. The results and
      lessons learned from our study provide guidance for future knowledge
      dissemination activities using social media tools.

PMID- 28864429
TI  - Critical Care Is Guided by Why.

PMID- 28864432
TI  - Increasing Nurses' Palliative Care Communication Skills.

PMID- 28864431
TI  - Palliative Care Professional Development for Critical Care Nurses: A Multicenter
      Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Integrating palliative care into intensive care units (ICUs) requires
      involvement of bedside nurses, who report inadequate education in palliative
      care. OBJECTIVE: To implement and evaluate a palliative care professional
      development program for ICU bedside nurses. METHODS: From May 2013 to January
      2015, palliative care advanced practice nurses and nurse educators in 5 academic
      medical centers completed a 3-day train-the-trainer program followed by 2 years
      of mentoring to implement the initiative. The program consisted of 8-hour
      communication workshops for bedside nurses and structured rounds in ICUs, where
      nurse leaders coached bedside nurses in identifying and addressing palliative
      care needs. Primary outcomes were nurses' ratings of their palliative care
      communication skills in surveys, and nurses' identification of palliative care
      needs during coaching rounds. RESULTS: Each center held at least 6 workshops,
      training 428 bedside nurses. Nurses rated their skill level higher after the
      workshop for 15 tasks (eg, responding to family distress, ensuring families
      understand information in family meetings, all P < .01 vs preworkshop). Coaching
      rounds in each ICU took a mean of 3 hours per month. For 82% of 1110 patients
      discussed in rounds, bedside nurses identified palliative care needs and created
      plans to address them. CONCLUSIONS: Communication skills training workshops
      increased nurses' ratings of their palliative care communication skills. Coaching
      rounds supported nurses in identifying and addressing palliative care needs.

PMID- 28864433
TI  - Determinants of Nurses' Use of Physical Restraints in Surgical Intensive Care
      Unit Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical restraints are used in intensive care units, particularly
      among patients at risk for self-terminating necessary treatment interventions,
      including endotracheal tubes and invasive catheters. Assessments conducted by
      intensive care unit nurses often influence the collaborative decision to initiate
      and discontinue restraints in critical care patients. However, little is known
      about factors that influence the critical thought processes of intensive care
      unit nurses in determining use of restraints. OBJECTIVES: To describe nurses'
      determinants of initiation and discontinuation of restraints in surgical
      intensive care unit patients. METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted
      to identify and describe determinants of initiation and discontinuation of
      physical restraints. Demographic and employment data were collected via
      questionnaire. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by using
      conventional content analysis to establish categories and identify themes.
      RESULTS: A total of 13 nurses (mean age 43 [SD, 12] years, 92% female, mean of 18
      [SD, 12] years of practice as a registered nurse, 69% bachelor of science in
      nursing) participated in the study. Content analysis revealed 3 general
      categories and 8 themes that indicated the thoughtful reflection processes nurses
      in a surgical intensive care unit use to determine use of restraints.
      CONCLUSIONS: Top priorities were ensuring patient safety and comfort. Nurses
      synthesized factors including practice experience, patient-specific behaviors and
      risk, and patients' need for devices in determining use of restraints.

PMID- 28864434
TI  - Psychotropic Drug Use in Physically Restrained, Critically Ill Adults Receiving
      Mechanical Ventilation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Restraining therapies (physical or pharmacological) are used to
      promote the safety of both patients and health care workers. Some guidelines
      recommend nonpharmacological or pharmacological interventions be used before
      physical restraints in critically ill patients. OBJECTIVES: To characterize
      psychotropic drug interventions before and after use of physical restraints in
      critically ill adults receiving mechanical ventilation. METHODS: A single-center,
      prospective, observational study documenting psychotropic drug use and Sedation
      Agitation Scale (SAS) scores in the 2 hours before and the 6 hours after
      application of physical restraints. RESULTS: Ninety-three patients were
      restrained for a median of 21 hours (interquartile range, 9-70 hours). Thirty
      percent of patients did not receive a psychotropic drug or had a drug stopped or
      decreased before physical restraints were applied. More patients received a
      psychotropic drug intervention after use of physical restraints than before (86%
      vs 56%, P = .001). Administration of opioids was more common after the use of
      physical restraints (54% vs 20% of patients, P = .001) and accounted for more
      drug interventions (45% vs 29%, P = .001). Fifty patients had SAS scores from
      both time periods; 16% remained oversedated, 24% were appropriately sedated, and
      16% remained agitated in both time periods. Patients became oversedated (20%),
      more agitated (10%), less agitated (8%), and less sedated (6%) after restraint
      use. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotropic drug interventions (mostly using opioids) were
      more common after use of physical restraints. Some patients may be physically
      restrained for anticipated treatment interference without consideration of
      pharmacological options and without documented agitation.

PMID- 28864435
TI  - Patterns of Instability Associated With Endotracheal Suctioning in Infants With
      Single-Ventricle Physiology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In infants with single-ventricle physiology, endotracheal suctioning
      poses risks because of the instability between pulmonary and systemic blood flow.
      OBJECTIVE: To examine processes and adverse events associated with endotracheal
      suctioning in the first 48 hours after 3 surgical procedures: the Norwood or
      Norwood-Sano procedure, pulmonary artery banding, and the modified Blalock
      Taussig shunt. METHODS: Prospective observational study in a pediatric intensive
      care unit. RESULTS: Bedside nurses collected data from 211 episodes of
      endotracheal suctioning in 24 infants. Most (62%,130/211) suction episodes were
      unplanned; 38% (81/211) were planned. The most common reason for unplanned
      suctioning was arterial desaturation (48%, 62/130 episodes). The infants' oxygen
      saturation levels before suctioning ranged from 27% to 86%. Serious adverse
      events occurred in 9% (19/211) of suction episodes. In 8 (42%) of the episodes
      involving a serious adverse event, the patient received no additional intravenous
      bolus of analgesic or muscle relaxant before suctioning; in 8 episodes (42%), the
      patient received both an analgesic and a relaxant; in 3 episodes (16%), the
      patient received either an analgesic or a relaxant but not both. More adverse
      events occurred with open suctioning (68%, 13/19) than with closed suctioning
      (32%, 6/19). Most adverse events (68%, 13/19) occurred during the night shift.
      CONCLUSIONS: Significant hemodynamic instability and adverse events occur during
      routine suctioning in infants with single-ventricle physiology after surgical
      palliation.

PMID- 28864436
TI  - Enrollment Challenges in Critical Care Nursing Research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enrollment challenges for critical care research are common.
      Contributing factors include short enrollment windows, the crisis nature of
      critical illness, lack of research staff, unavailable legal proxy, family
      dynamics, and language barriers. OBJECTIVE: To describe enrollment statistics for
      an ongoing critical care nursing trial, barriers to recruitment, and strategies
      to enhance enrollment. METHODS: Two years' worth of recruitment and enrollment
      data from an oral care intervention trial in critically ill adults receiving
      mechanical ventilation at 1 hospital were analyzed. Recruitment logs include
      number of patients screened, eligible, enrolled, and declined and patients' sex,
      race, and ethnicity. RESULTS: Target enrollment (15.5 patients per month) was
      based on experience and historical data. Strategies implemented to promote
      enrollment included providing study personnel at least 18 hours per day for 7
      days per week, regular rounds, communication with direct care staff, and Spanish
      consent processes. In 2 years, 6963 patients were screened; 1551 (22%) were
      eligible. Consent was sought from 366 (24% of eligible patients). Enrollment
      averaged 13.3 patients per month (86% of projected target). The main factor
      impeding enrollment was unavailability of a legal proxy to provide consent (88%).
      The refusal rates of white (11%), black (13%), and Hispanic (16%) patients did
      not differ significantly. However, those classified as Asian or as more than 1
      race declined significantly more often (35%) than did white or black patients (P
      = .02). CONCLUSIONS: Unavailability of a legal proxy within a short enrollment
      window was the major challenge to enrollment. Various factors influenced consent
      decisions. Clinical study design requires more conservative estimates.

PMID- 28864437
TI  - Organizational Factors Associated With Perceived Quality of Patient Care in
      Closed Intensive Care Units.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improving patient care quality in intensive care units is
      increasingly important as intensive care unit services account for a growing
      proportion of hospital services. Organizational factors associated with quality
      of patient care in such units have been identified; however, most were examined
      in isolation, making it difficult to assess the relative importance of each.
      Furthermore, though most intensive care units now use a closed model, little
      research has been done in this specific context. OBJECTIVES: To examine the
      relative importance of organizational factors associated with patient care
      quality in closed intensive care units. METHOD: In a national exploratory, cross
      sectional study focused on intensive care units at US Veterans Health
      Administration acute care hospitals, unit directors were surveyed about nurse and
      physician staffing, work resources and training, patient care coordination,
      rounding, and perceptions of patient care quality. Administrative records yielded
      data on patient volume and facility teaching status. Descriptive statistics,
      bivariate analyses, and regression modeling were used for data analysis. RESULTS:
      Sixty-nine completed surveys from directors of closed intensive care units were
      returned. Regression model results showed that better patient care coordination
      (beta = 0.43; P = .01) and having adequate work resources (beta = 0.26; P = .02)
      were significantly associated with higher levels of patient care quality in such
      units (R2 = 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: Augmenting work resources and/or focusing limited
      hospital resources on improving patient care coordination may be the most
      productive ways to improve patient care quality in closed intensive care units.

PMID- 28864438
TI  - Measuring Stroke Volume: Impedance Cardiography vs Phase-Contrast Magnetic
      Resonance Imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Determination of cardiac output requires measurement of both heart
      rate and stroke volume. Techniques for measuring heart rate are widespread, and 1
      technique for bedside monitoring of stroke volume is electrical impedance
      cardiography. OBJECTIVES: To determine the accuracy and precision of stroke
      volume measured via impedance cardiography and whether the technique can be used
      to detect trends. METHODS: Eleven healthy research participants (22-52 years old)
      were examined with simultaneous impedance cardiography and phase-contrast
      magnetic resonance imaging at rest and during exercise. Bland-Altman analysis
      with repeated-measures correction was used to compare stroke volumes determined
      with the 2 methods. The suitability of impedance cardiography for detecting
      trends in stroke volume was analyzed by using the Critchley radial limits of
      agreement method. RESULTS: Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging indicated a
      mean stroke volume of 87 (SD, 16) mL at rest; in 9 volunteers, it changed during
      exercise (P = .04 to P < .001); in 2 volunteers, it did not (P = .32, P = .06).
      For the range of stroke-volume measurements (60-122 mL), impedance cardiography
      yielded underestimates of stroke volumes at the low end (bias, -17 mL) and
      overestimates at the high end (bias, +17 mL; P < .001). Corresponding 95% limits
      of agreement were 64 mL, a 73% overestimate or underestimate of stroke volume at
      rest. Critchley radial limits of agreement indicated poor concordance of stroke
      volume trends. CONCLUSIONS: Impedance cardiography had low accuracy and precision
      in measuring absolute stroke volume and was a poor detector of stroke-volume
      trends.

PMID- 28864439
TI  - Post-Intensive Care Syndrome in Family Decision Makers of Long-term Acute Care
      Hospital Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Family members of critically ill patients experience indications of
      post-intensive care syndrome, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic
      stress disorder. Despite increased use of long-term acute care hospitals for
      critically ill patients, little is known about the impact of long-term
      hospitalization on patients' family members. OBJECTIVES: To examine indications
      of post-intensive care syndrome, coping strategies, and health-related quality of
      life among family decision makers during and after patients' long-term
      hospitalization. METHODS: A single-center, prospective, longitudinal descriptive
      study was undertaken of family decision makers of adult patients admitted to long
      term acute care hospitals. Indications of post-intensive care syndrome and coping
      strategies were measured on the day of hospital admission and 30 and 60 days
      later. Health-related quality of life was measured by using the Short Form-36,
      version 2, at admission and 60 days later. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 30
      family decision makers. On admission, 27% reported moderate to severe anxiety,
      and 20% reported moderate to severe depression. Among the decision makers, 10%
      met criteria for a provisional diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. At
      admission, the mean physical summary score for quality of life was 47.8 (SD,
      9.91) and the mean mental summary score was 48.00 (SD, 10.28). No significant
      changes occurred during the study period. Problem-focused coping was the most
      frequently used coping strategy at all time points. CONCLUSION: Family decision
      makers of patients in long-term acute care hospitals have a significant
      prevalence of indications of post-intensive care syndrome.

PMID- 28864440
TI  - Global ST-T Wave Changes: Ischemic vs Nonischemic.

PMID- 28864441
TI  - All GP referrals should be subject to clinical peer review, says NHS England.

PMID- 28864442
TI  - Integrated Noninvasive Physiological Assessment of Coronary Circulatory Function
      and Impact on Cardiovascular Mortality in Patients With Stable Coronary Artery
      Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is suggested that the integration of maximal myocardial blood flow
      (MBF) and coronary flow reserve (CFR), termed coronary flow capacity, allows for
      comprehensive evaluation of patients with known or suspected stable coronary
      artery disease. Because management decisions are predicated on clinical risk, we
      sought to determine the independent and integrated value of maximal MBF and CFR
      for predicting cardiovascular death. METHODS: MBF and CFR were quantified in 4029
      consecutive patients (median age 66 years, 50.5% women) referred for rest/stress
      myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography scans from January 2006 to
      December 2013. The primary outcome was cardiovascular mortality. Maximal MBF <1.8
      mL.g-1.min-1 and CFR<2 were considered impaired. Four patient groups were
      identified based on the concordant or discordant impairment of maximal MBF or
      CFR. Association of maximal MBF and CFR with cardiovascular death was assessed
      using Cox and Poisson regression analyses. RESULTS: A total of 392 (9.7%)
      cardiovascular deaths occurred over a median follow-up of 5.6 years. CFR was a
      stronger predictor of cardiovascular mortality than maximal MBF beyond
      traditional cardiovascular risk factors, left ventricular ejection fraction,
      myocardial scar and ischemia, rate-pressure product, type of radiotracer or
      stress agent used, and revascularization after scan (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.79;
      95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38-2.31; P<0.001 per unit decrease in CFR after
      adjustment for maximal MBF and clinical covariates; and adjusted hazard ratio,
      1.03; 95% CI, 0.84-1.27; P=0.8 per unit decrease in maximal MBF after adjustment
      for CFR and clinical covariates). In univariable analyses, patients with
      concordant impairment of CFR and maximal MBF had high cardiovascular mortality of
      3.3% (95% CI, 2.9-3.7) per year. Patients with impaired CFR but preserved maximal
      MBF had an intermediate cardiovascular mortality of 1.7% (95% CI, 1.3-2.1) per
      year. These patients were predominantly women (70%). Patients with preserved CFR
      but impaired maximal MBF had low cardiovascular mortality of 0.9% (95% CI, 0.6
      1.6) per year. Patients with concordantly preserved CFR and maximal MBF had the
      lowest cardiovascular mortality of 0.4% (95 CI, 0.3-0.6) per year. In
      multivariable analysis, the cardiovascular mortality risk gradient across the 4
      concordant or discordant categories was independently driven by impaired CFR
      irrespective of impairment in maximal MBF. CONCLUSIONS: CFR is a stronger
      predictor of cardiovascular mortality than maximal MBF. Concordant and discordant
      categories based on integrating CFR and maximal MBF identify unique prognostic
      phenotypes of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.

PMID- 28864443
TI  - Conscious Sedation Versus General Anesthesia for Transcatheter Aortic Valve
      Replacement: Insights from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry Society of
      Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy
      Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conscious sedation is used during transcatheter aortic valve
      replacement (TAVR) with limited evidence as to the safety and efficacy of this
      practice. METHODS: The National Cardiovascular Data Registry Society of Thoracic
      Surgeons/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry was
      used to characterize the anesthesia choice and clinical outcomes of all US
      patients undergoing elective percutaneous transfemoral TAVR between April 1,
      2014, and June 30, 2015. Raw and inverse probability of treatment-weighted
      analyses were performed to compare patients undergoing TAVR with general
      anesthesia with patients undergoing TAVR with conscious sedation on an intention
      to-treat basis for the primary outcome of in-hospital mortality, and secondary
      outcomes including 30-day mortality, in-hospital and 30-day death/stroke,
      procedural success, intensive care unit and hospital length-of-stay, and rates of
      discharge to home. Post hoc falsification end point analyses were performed to
      evaluate for residual confounding. RESULTS: Conscious sedation was used in
      1737/10 997 (15.8%) cases with a significant trend of increasing usage over the
      time period studied (P for trend<0.001). In raw analyses, intraprocedural success
      with conscious sedation and general anesthesia was similar (98.2% versus 98.5%,
      P=0.31). The conscious sedation group was less likely to experience in-hospital
      (1.6% versus 2.5%, P=0.03) and 30-day death (2.9% versus 4.1%, P=0.03).
      Conversion from conscious sedation to general anesthesia was noted in 102 of 1737
      (5.9%) of conscious sedation cases. After inverse probability of treatment
      weighted adjustment for 51 covariates, conscious sedation was associated with
      lower procedural success (97.9% versus 98.6%, P<0.001) and a reduced rate of
      mortality at the in-hospital (1.5% versus 2.4%, P<0.001) and 30-day (2.3% versus
      4.0%, P<0.001) time points. Conscious sedation was associated with reductions in
      procedural inotrope requirement, intensive care unit and hospital length of stay
      (6.0 versus 6.5 days, P<0.001), and combined 30-day death/stroke rates (4.8%
      versus 6.4%, P<0.001). Falsification end point analyses of vascular
      complications, bleeding, and new pacemaker/defibrillator implantation
      demonstrated no significant differences between groups after adjustment.
      CONCLUSIONS: In US practice, conscious sedation is associated with briefer length
      of stay and lower in-hospital and 30-day mortality in comparison with TAVR with
      general anesthesia in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. These results
      suggest the safety of conscious sedation in this population, although comparative
      effectiveness analyses using observational data cannot definitively establish the
      superiority of one technique over another.

PMID- 28864444
TI  - Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome With Intact or Restrictive Atrial Septum: A
      Report From the International Fetal Cardiac Intervention Registry.

PMID- 28864445
TI  - Dissection of the molecular circuitry controlling virulence in Francisella
      tularensis.
AB  - Francisella tularensis, the etiological agent of tularemia, is one of the most
      infectious bacteria known. Because of its extreme pathogenicity, F. tularensis is
      classified as a category A bioweapon by the US government. F. tularensis
      virulence stems from genes encoded on the Francisella pathogenicity island (FPI).
      An unusual set of Francisella regulators-the heteromeric macrophage growth locus
      protein A (MglA)-stringent starvation protein A (SspA) complex and the DNA
      binding protein pathogenicity island gene regulator (PigR)-activates FPI
      transcription and thus is essential for virulence. Intriguingly, the second
      messenger, guanosine-tetraphosphate (ppGpp), which is produced during infection,
      is also involved in coordinating Francisella virulence; however, its role has
      been unclear. Here we identify MglA-SspA as a novel ppGpp-binding complex and
      describe structures of apo- and ppGpp-bound MglA-SspA. We demonstrate that MglA
      SspA, which binds RNA polymerase (RNAP), also interacts with the C-terminal
      domain of PigR, thus anchoring the (MglA-SspA)-RNAP complex to the FPI promoter.
      Furthermore, we show that MglA-SspA must be bound to ppGpp to mediate high
      affinity interactions with PigR. Thus, these studies unveil a novel pathway
      different from those described previously for regulation of transcription by
      ppGpp. The data also indicate that F. tularensis pathogenesis is controlled by a
      highly interconnected molecular circuitry in which the virulence machinery
      directly senses infection via a small molecule stress signal.

PMID- 28864446
TI  - The potential of the microbiota to influence vaccine responses.
AB  - After clean water, vaccines are the primary public health intervention providing
      protection against serious infectious diseases. Antigen-specific antibody
      mediated responses play a critical role in the protection conferred by
      vaccination; however these responses are highly variable among individuals. In
      addition, vaccine immunogenicity is frequently impaired in developing world
      populations, for reasons that are poorly understood. Although the factors that
      are associated with interindividual variation in vaccine responses are likely
      manifold, emerging evidence from mouse models and studies in human populations
      now suggests that the gut microbiome plays a key role in shaping systemic immune
      responses to both orally and parenterally administered vaccines. Herein, we
      review the evidence to date that the microbiota can influence vaccine responses
      and discuss the potential mechanisms through which these effects may be mediated.
      In addition, we highlight the gaps in this evidence and suggest future directions
      for research.

PMID- 28864447
TI  - Use of parecoxib by continuous subcutaneous infusion for cancer pain in a hospice
      population.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterise the use of the parenteral non-steroidal anti
      inflammatory drug parecoxib when given by continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSCI)
      in a hospice population. Clinical experience suggests parecoxib CSCI may be of
      benefit in this population, but empirical evidence in relation to its safety and
      efficacy is lacking. METHODS: Retrospective chart review of patients with a
      cancer diagnosis receiving parecoxib CSCI from 2008 to 2013 at the Marie Curie
      Hospice, Belfast. Data were collected on treatment regime, tolerability and, in
      patients receiving at least 7 days treatment, baseline opioid dose and changes in
      pain scores or opioid rescue medication requirements. RESULTS: Parecoxib CSCI was
      initiated in 80 patients with a mean administration of 17.9 days (median 11,
      range 1-94). When used for a period of 7 days, there was a statistically
      significant reduction in pain scores (p=0.002) and in the number of rescue opioid
      doses required (p=0.001), but no statistically significant opioid-sparing effect
      (p=0.222). It was generally well tolerated, although gastrointestinal, renal
      adverse effects and local site irritation were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Parecoxib
      may have a valuable place in the management of cancer pain, especially towards
      the end of life when oral administration is no longer possible and CSCI
      administration is relied on. Further studies into the efficacy and tolerability
      of parecoxib CSCI are merited.

PMID- 28864448
TI  - Discussion and documentation of future care: a before-and-after study examining
      the impact of an alternative approach to recording treatment decisions on advance
      care planning in an acute hospital.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether discussion and documentation of decisions about
      future care was improved following the introduction of a new approach to
      recording treatment decisions: the Universal Form of Treatment Options (UFTO).
      METHODS: Retrospective review of the medical records of patients who died within
      90 days of admission to oncology or respiratory medicine wards over two 3-month
      periods, preimplementation and postimplementation of the UFTO. A sample size of
      70 per group was required to provide 80% power to observe a change from 15% to
      35% in discussion or documentation of advance care planning (ACP), using a two
      sided test at the 5% significance level. RESULTS: On the oncology ward,
      introduction of the UFTO was associated with a statistically significant increase
      in cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions documented for patients (pre-UFTO 52%
      to post-UFTO 77%, p=0.01) and an increase in discussions regarding ACP (pre-UFTO
      27%, post-UFTO 49%, p=0.03). There were no demonstrable changes in practice on
      the respiratory ward. Only one patient came into hospital with a formal ACP
      document. CONCLUSIONS: Despite patients' proximity to the end-of-life, there was
      limited documentation of ACP and almost no evidence of formalised ACP. The
      introduction of the UFTO was associated with a change in practice on the oncology
      ward but this was not observed for respiratory patients. A new approach to
      recording treatment decisions may contribute to improving discussion and
      documentation about future care but further work is needed to ensure that all
      patients' preferences for treatment and care at the end-of-life are known.

PMID- 28864449
TI  - Feasibility and acceptability of a patient-reported outcome intervention in
      chronic heart failure.
AB  - : Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) have symptoms and concerns which are
      inadequately addressed. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) can potentially
      improve the identification and management of advanced symptoms and palliative
      concerns. However, these have not been used in CHF. OBJECTIVES: To examine the
      feasibility and acceptability of using a PROM-the Integrated Palliative care
      Outcome Scale (IPOS)-together with heart failure nurse education and training to
      improve the identification and management of symptoms and concerns among patients
      with CHF. METHODS: A parallel, mixed methods design with an embedded qualitative
      component was used to examine the feasibility of recruitment, retention,
      intervention adherence/compliance and follow-up assessment completion (symptom
      burden, quality of life, psychological well-being). Patient and nurse qualitative
      semistructured interviews explored intervention and study design feasibility and
      its acceptability. RESULTS: Conversion to consent was 46.9% (372 screened, 81
      approached, 38 recruited). 66% of patient participants completed the IPOS; 6% of
      IPOS questionnaire items were missing (non-response). Over two-thirds (65.6%) of
      these missing items related to three patients. No item was consistently missing;
      appetite was the most frequent missing item (1.4%). 92% of participants who
      completed the IPOS completed all follow-up assessments (1-2 days, 1-2 weeks and 4
      6 weeks post-IPOS completion) with no missing data. The a priori feasibility
      objectives were met. Patients and nurses reported the intervention and study
      design feasible and acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: A palliative-specific PROM-based
      intervention is feasible and acceptable to both patients with CHF and nurses in
      nurse-led disease management clinics for the purposes of both clinical care and
      research.

PMID- 28864452
TI  - Addressing Disparities: The 10th Anniversary of the AACR Cancer Health
      Disparities Conference.

PMID- 28864453
TI  - No Association of Vitamin D Pathway Genetic Variants with Cancer Risks in a
      Population-Based Cohort of German Older Adults.
AB  - Background: Several investigations assessed the association of vitamin D receptor
      (VDR) SNPs with cancer risk. Less is known about the implications of other
      vitamin D pathway SNPs on cancer risk.Methods: In a population-based cohort study
      of 9,949 German older adults, we used Cox regression to assess the association of
      6 SNPs in the VDR, vitamin D-binding protein (GC), 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase
      (DHCR7), vitamin D 25-hydroxylase (CYP2R1), and vitamin D 24-hydroxylase
      (CYP24A1) genes with total and site-specific cancer incidence endpoints.Results:
      Overall, no association of SNPs with cancer incidence endpoints was observed,
      except for a genotype score based on SNPs associated with lower 25(OH)D, which
      was associated with higher lung cancer risk [HR, 1.20; 95% confidence intervals
      (CI), 1.03-1.39], although this was no longer significant after correcting for
      multiple testing.Conclusions: Our data provide little to no evidence of a major
      influence of vitamin D genetic predisposition on cancer risks.Impact: Large-scale
      genetic epidemiology consortia and meta-analysis of smaller published studies are
      needed to verify a potential modest influence of genetic variation in the
      association of vitamin D with the risk of cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers
      Prev; 26(9); 1459-61. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864454
TI  - Genome-Wide Testing of Exonic Variants and Breast Cancer Risk in the California
      Teachers Study.
AB  - Background: Few studies have focused on the relationship of exonic variation with
      breast cancer and subtypes defined by tumor markers: estrogen receptor (ER),
      progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2.Methods: We genotyped 1,764 breast cancer
      patients and 1,400 controls from the California Teachers Study cohort using the
      Infinium HumanExome Beadchip. Individual variant and gene-based analyses were
      conducted for overall breast cancer and by individual tumor marker
      subtype.Results: No exonic variants or gene-based analyses were statistically
      significantly associated with breast cancer overall or by ER-, PR-, or HER2
      defined subtype.Conclusions: We did not detect any novel statistically
      significant exonic variants with overall breast cancer risk or by subtype.Impact:
      Exonic variants in the exome chip may not be associated with overall breast
      cancer or subtype susceptibility. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(9); 1462
      5. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864455
TI  - Genetic Ancestry Is not Associated with Breast Cancer Recurrence or Survival in
      U.S. Latina Women Enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente Pathways Study.
AB  - Background: The U.S. Hispanic/Latino population is heterogeneous both
      socioculturally and by the proportion of European, Indigenous American, and
      African ancestry of the regions from which individuals originate. A previous
      study reported that genetic ancestry was associated with breast cancer survival
      among Latinas, independent of sociodemographic and tumor characteristics,
      suggesting that a genetic factor associated with ancestry may affect breast
      cancer survival.Methods: We evaluated the association of genetic ancestry with
      breast cancer outcomes among 506 Latina women with invasive breast cancer in the
      Pathways Study, a cohort study within Kaiser Permanente, an integrated health
      care delivery system. Proportional hazards models were used to assess the effect
      of ancestry on breast cancer recurrence (53 events), breast cancer-specific
      mortality (31 events) and all-cause mortality (54 events), with a mean follow-up
      time of 6 years.Results: Indigenous American ancestry was not associated with
      breast cancer recurrence [HR = 1.00 per 10% increase; 95% confidence interval
      (CI), 0.86-1.16], breast cancer mortality (HR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.77-1.17), or all
      cause mortality (HR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.80-1.08). Adjustment for sociodemographic
      variables, tumor characteristics, and treatment did not alter the
      associations.Conclusions: Our results suggest that previously reported
      differences in breast cancer survival by genetic ancestry may be overcome by
      improving health care access and/or quality.Impact: Improving health care access
      and quality may reduce breast cancer disparities among U.S. Latinas. Cancer
      Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(9); 1466-9. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864457
TI  - Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Incident Invasive Breast Cancer-Letter.

PMID- 28864456
TI  - History of Comorbidities and Survival of Ovarian Cancer Patients, Results from
      the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium.
AB  - Background: Comorbidities can affect survival of ovarian cancer patients by
      influencing treatment efficacy. However, little evidence exists on the
      association between individual concurrent comorbidities and prognosis in ovarian
      cancer patients.Methods: Among patients diagnosed with invasive ovarian carcinoma
      who participated in 23 studies included in the Ovarian Cancer Association
      Consortium, we explored associations between histories of endometriosis; asthma;
      depression; osteoporosis; and autoimmune, gallbladder, kidney, liver, and
      neurological diseases and overall and progression-free survival. Using Cox
      proportional hazards regression models adjusted for age at diagnosis, stage of
      disease, histology, and study site, we estimated pooled HRs and 95% confidence
      intervals to assess associations between each comorbidity and ovarian cancer
      outcomes.Results: None of the comorbidities were associated with ovarian cancer
      outcome in the overall sample nor in strata defined by histologic subtype, weight
      status, age at diagnosis, or stage of disease (local/regional vs.
      advanced).Conclusions: Histories of endometriosis; asthma; depression;
      osteoporosis; and autoimmune, gallbladder, kidney, liver, or neurologic diseases
      were not associated with ovarian cancer overall or progression-free
      survival.Impact: These previously diagnosed chronic diseases do not appear to
      affect ovarian cancer prognosis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(9); 1470-3.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864458
TI  - Optimizing genomic medicine in epilepsy through a gene-customized approach to
      missense variant interpretation.
AB  - Gene panel and exome sequencing have revealed a high rate of molecular diagnoses
      among diseases where the genetic architecture has proven suitable for sequencing
      approaches, with a large number of distinct and highly penetrant causal variants
      identified among a growing list of disease genes. The challenge is, given the DNA
      sequence of a new patient, to distinguish disease-causing from benign variants.
      Large samples of human standing variation data highlight regional variation in
      the tolerance to missense variation within the protein-coding sequence of genes.
      This information is not well captured by existing bioinformatic tools, but is
      effective in improving variant interpretation. To address this limitation in
      existing tools, we introduce the missense tolerance ratio (MTR), which summarizes
      available human standing variation data within genes to encapsulate population
      level genetic variation. We find that patient-ascertained pathogenic variants
      preferentially cluster in low MTR regions (P < 0.005) of well-informed genes. By
      evaluating 20 publicly available predictive tools across genes linked to
      epilepsy, we also highlight the importance of understanding the empirical null
      distribution of existing prediction tools, as these vary across genes.
      Subsequently integrating the MTR with the empirically selected bioinformatic
      tools in a gene-specific approach demonstrates a clear improvement in the ability
      to predict pathogenic missense variants from background missense variation in
      disease genes. Among an independent test sample of case and control missense
      variants, case variants (0.83 median score) consistently achieve higher
      pathogenicity prediction probabilities than control variants (0.02 median score;
      Mann-Whitney U test, P < 1 * 10-16). We focus on the application to epilepsy
      genes; however, the framework is applicable to disease genes beyond epilepsy.

PMID- 28864459
TI  - RNA editing in bacteria recodes multiple proteins and regulates an evolutionarily
      conserved toxin-antitoxin system.
AB  - Adenosine (A) to inosine (I) RNA editing is widespread in eukaryotes. In
      prokaryotes, however, A-to-I RNA editing was only reported to occur in tRNAs but
      not in protein-coding genes. By comparing DNA and RNA sequences of Escherichia
      coli, we show for the first time that A-to-I editing occurs also in prokaryotic
      mRNAs and has the potential to affect the translated proteins and cell
      physiology. We found 15 novel A-to-I editing events, of which 12 occurred within
      known protein-coding genes where they always recode a tyrosine (TAC) into a
      cysteine (TGC) codon. Furthermore, we identified the tRNA-specific adenosine
      deaminase (tadA) as the editing enzyme of all these editing sites, thus making it
      the first identified RNA editing enzyme that modifies both tRNAs and mRNAs.
      Interestingly, several of the editing targets are self-killing toxins that belong
      to evolutionarily conserved toxin-antitoxin pairs. We focused on hokB, a toxin
      that confers antibiotic tolerance by growth inhibition, as it demonstrated the
      highest level of such mRNA editing. We identified a correlated mutation pattern
      between the edited and a DNA hard-coded Cys residue positions in the toxin and
      demonstrated that RNA editing occurs in hokB in two additional bacterial species.
      Thus, not only the toxin is evolutionarily conserved but also the editing itself
      within the toxin is. Finally, we found that RNA editing in hokB increases as a
      function of cell density and enhances its toxicity. Our work thus demonstrates
      the occurrence, regulation, and functional consequences of RNA editing in
      bacteria.

PMID- 28864460
TI  - A germline FANCA alteration that is associated with increased sensitivity to DNA
      damaging agents.
AB  - Defects in genes involved in DNA damage repair (DDR) pathway are emerging as
      novel biomarkers and targets for new prostate cancer drug therapies. A previous
      report revealed an association between an exceptional response to cisplatin
      treatment and a somatic loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of FANCA in a patient with
      metastatic prostate cancer who also harbored a germline FANCA variant (S1088F).
      Although germline FANCA mutations are the most frequent alterations in patients
      with Fanconi anemia, germline alterations are less common in prostate cancer. We
      hypothesized that the germline S1088F FANCA variant in combination with FANCA LOH
      was deleterious for FANCA function and contributed to the patient's exceptional
      response to cisplatin. We show that although it properly localizes to the
      nucleus, the S1088F FANCA mutant protein disrupts the FANC protein complex
      resulting in increased sensitivity to DNA damaging agents. Because molecular
      stratification is emerging as a strategy for treating men with metastatic,
      castrate-resistant prostate cancer harboring specific DDR gene defects, our
      findings suggest that more biomarker studies are needed to better define
      clinically relevant germline and somatic alterations.

PMID- 28864461
TI  - Somatic uniparental disomy of Chromosome 16p in hemimegalencephaly.
AB  - Hemimegalencephaly (HME) is a heterogeneous cortical malformation characterized
      by enlargement of one cerebral hemisphere. Somatic variants in mammalian target
      of rapamycin (mTOR) regulatory genes have been implicated in some HME cases;
      however, ~70% have no identified genetic etiology. Here, we screened two HME
      patients to identify disease-causing somatic variants. DNA from leukocytes,
      buccal swabs, and surgically resected brain tissue from two HME patients were
      screened for somatic variants using genome-wide genotyping arrays or sequencing
      of the protein-coding regions of the genome. Functional studies were performed to
      evaluate the molecular consequences of candidate disease-causing variants. Both
      HME patients evaluated were found to have likely disease-causing variants in DNA
      extracted from brain tissue but not in buccal swab or leukocyte DNA, consistent
      with a somatic mutational mechanism. In the first case, a previously identified
      disease-causing somatic single nucleotide in MTOR was identified. In the second
      case, we detected an overrepresentation of the alleles inherited from the mother
      on Chromosome 16 in brain tissue DNA only, indicative of somatic uniparental
      disomy (UPD) of the p-arm of Chromosome 16. Using methylation analyses, an
      imprinted locus on 16p spanning ZNF597 was identified, which results in increased
      expression of ZNF597 mRNA and protein in the brain tissue of the second case.
      Enhanced mTOR signaling was observed in tissue specimens from both patients. We
      speculate that overexpression of maternally expressed ZNF597 led to aberrant
      hemispheric development in the patient with somatic UPD of Chromosome 16p
      possibly through modulation of mTOR signaling.

PMID- 28864462
TI  - Rapid whole-genome sequencing identifies a novel GABRA1 variant associated with
      West syndrome.
AB  - A 9-mo-old infant was admitted with infantile spasms that improved on
      administration of topiramate and steroids. He also had developmental delay,
      esotropia, and hypsarrhythmia on interictal electroencephalogram (EEG), and
      normal brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). West syndrome is the triad of
      infantile spasms, interictal hypsarrhythmia, and mental retardation. Rapid trio
      whole-genome sequencing (WGS) revealed a novel, likely pathogenic, de novo
      variant in the gene encoding gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptor,
      alpha1 polypeptide (GABRA1 c.789G>A, p.Met263Ile) in the proband. GABRA1
      mutations have been associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy type
      19 (EIEE19). We suggest that GABRA1 p.Met263Ile is associated with a distinct
      West syndrome phenotype.

PMID- 28864463
TI  - Screening for rheumatic heart disease: is a paradigm shift required?
AB  - This focused review presents a critical appraisal of the World Heart Federation
      criteria for the echocardiographic diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) and
      its performance in African RHD screening programmes. It identifies various
      logistical and methodological problems that negatively influence the current
      guideline's performance. The authors explore novel RHD screening methodology that
      could address some of these shortcomings and if proven to be of merit, would
      require a paradigm shift in the approach to the echocardiographic diagnosis of
      subclinical RHD.

PMID- 28864464
TI  - Use of the CHA2DS2VASc score to reduce utilisation of transoesophageal
      echocardiography prior to ablation for atrial fibrillation.
AB  - Transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) is frequently performed prior to atrial
      fibrillation (AF) ablation to exclude left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombus.
      However, patients undergoing AF ablation are usually anticoagulated, thus making
      the presence of thrombus unlikely in most cases. This study aimed to determine
      whether the CHA2DS2VASc scoring system can be used to identify patients that do
      not require TOE prior to AF ablation. In this single-centre retrospective study,
      local institutional and primary care databases and electronic patient records
      were searched to identify patients that had undergone TOE prior to AF ablation.
      Patient demographics, CHA2DS2VASc score, TOE findings and anticoagulation status
      were collected for analysis. Over a 7-year period (2008-2014), 332 patients (age
      57 +/- 10 years; 74% male) underwent TOE prior to proposed AF ablation.
      CHA2DS2VASc scores of 0, 1, 2 and >2 were found in 39, 34, 15 and 12% of
      patients, respectively. The prevalence of LAA thrombus was 0.6% (2 patients) and
      these 2 patients had risk scores of 2 and 4. No patients with a score of 0 or 1
      had LAA thrombus. Patients that are classed as low risk by the CHA2DS2VASc score
      do not require a pre-ablation TOE to screen for LAA thrombus provided they are
      adequately anticoagulated. This would lead to a significant reduction in health
      care expenditures by reducing unnecessary TOE requests and thereby improve
      patient experience.

PMID- 28864467
TI  - Upregulation of Epac-1 in Hepatic Stellate Cells by Prostaglandin E2 in Liver
      Fibrosis Is Associated with Reduced Fibrogenesis.
AB  - Exchange protein activated by cAMP (Epac-1) is an important signaling mechanism
      for cAMP-mediated effects, yet factors that change Epac-1 levels are unknown.
      Such factors are relevant because it has been postulated that Epac-1 directly
      affects fibrogenesis. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a well-known cAMP activator, and
      we therefore studied the effects of this cyclo-oxygenase product on Epac-1
      expression and on fibrogenesis within the liver. Liver fibrosis was induced by 8
      weeks carbon tetrachloride (CCL4) administration to mice. In the last 2 weeks,
      mice received vehicle, PGE2, the cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitor niflumic acid (NFA),
      or PGE2 coupled to cell-specific carriers to hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, or
      hepatic stellate cells (HSC). Results showed antifibrotic effects of PGE2 and
      profibrotic effects of NFA in CCL4 mice. Western blot analysis revealed reduced
      Epac-1 protein expression in fibrotic livers of mice and humans compared with
      healthy livers. PGE2 administration to fibrotic mice completely restored
      intrahepatic Epac-1 levels and also led to reduced Rho kinase activity, a
      downstream target of Epac-1. Cell-specific delivery of PGE2 to either
      hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, or HSC identified the latter cell as the key player
      in the observed effects on Epac-1 and Rho kinase. No significant alterations in
      protein kinase A expressions were found. In primary isolated HSC, PGE2 elicited
      Rap1 translocation reflecting Epac-1 activation, and Epac-1 agonists attenuated
      platelet-derived growth factor-induced proliferation and migration of these
      cells. These studies demonstrate that PGE2 enhances Epac-1 activity in HSC, which
      is associated with significant changes in (myo)fibroblast activities in vitro and
      in vivo. Therefore, Epac-1 is a potential target for antifibrotic drugs.

PMID- 28864468
TI  - A Model of the Block of Voltage-Gated Potassium Kv4.2 Ionic Currents by 4
      Aminopyridine.
AB  - Voltage clamp recordings of macroscopic currents were made from rat potassium
      gated potassium 4.2(Kv4.2) channels expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK293)
      cells with the main goals of quantifying the concentration, time, and voltage
      dependence of the block and to generate a state model that replicates the
      features of the block. When applied either externally or internally, the block of
      Kv4.2 currents by 4-aminopyridine (4AP) occurs at the holding potential (-80 mV),
      is affected by the stimulus frequency, and is relieved by membrane
      depolarization. The Kd for the tonic block at -80 mV was 0.9 +/- 0.07 mM and was
      consistent with 1:1 binding. Relief of block during a step to 50 mV was well
      fitted by a single exponential with a time constant of ~40 milliseconds. At -80
      mV, the association rate constant was 0.08 mM-1 s-1, and the off-rate was 0.08 s
      1 The state model replicates the features of the experimental data reasonably
      well by assuming that 4AP binds only to closed states, that 4AP binding and
      inactivation are mutually exclusive processes, and that the activation of closed
      bound channels is the same as for closed channels. Since the open channel has a
      very low or no affinity for 4AP, channel opening promotes the unbinding of 4AP,
      which accounts for the reverse use dependence of the block.

PMID- 28864466
TI  - The Evolving Complexity of the Podocyte Cytoskeleton.
AB  - Podocytes exhibit a unique cytoskeletal architecture that is fundamentally linked
      to their function in maintaining the kidney filtration barrier. The cytoskeleton
      regulates podocyte shape, structure, stability, slit diaphragm insertion,
      adhesion, plasticity, and dynamic response to environmental stimuli. Genetic
      mutations demonstrate that even slight impairment of the podocyte cytoskeletal
      apparatus results in proteinuria and glomerular disease. Moreover, mechanisms
      underpinning all acquired glomerular pathologies converge on disruption of the
      cytoskeleton, suggesting that this subcellular structure could be targeted for
      therapeutic purposes. This review summarizes our current understanding of the
      function of the cytoskeleton in podocytes and the associated implications for
      pathophysiology.

PMID- 28864469
TI  - Project Haiku.

PMID- 28864470
TI  - The G-Box Transcriptional Regulatory Code in Arabidopsis.
AB  - Plants have significantly more transcription factor (TF) families than animals
      and fungi, and plant TF families tend to contain more genes; these expansions are
      linked to adaptation to environmental stressors. Many TF family members bind to
      similar or identical sequence motifs, such as G-boxes (CACGTG), so it is
      difficult to predict regulatory relationships. We determined that the flanking
      sequences near G-boxes help determine in vitro specificity but that this is
      insufficient to predict the transcription pattern of genes near G-boxes.
      Therefore, we constructed a gene regulatory network that identifies the set of
      bZIPs and bHLHs that are most predictive of the expression of genes downstream of
      perfect G-boxes. This network accurately predicts transcriptional patterns and
      reconstructs known regulatory subnetworks. Finally, we present Ara-BOX-cis
      (araboxcis.org), a Web site that provides interactive visualizations of the G-box
      regulatory network, a useful resource for generating predictions for gene
      regulatory relations.

PMID- 28864471
TI  - Peripheral Deletion of CD8 T Cells Requires p38 MAPK in Cross-Presenting
      Dendritic Cells.
AB  - Peripheral tolerance mechanisms exist to prevent autoimmune destruction by self
      reactive T cells that escape thymic deletion. Dominant tolerance imposed by
      CD4+Foxp3+ T regulatory cells can actively control autoaggressive T cell
      responses. Tolerance mechanisms that act endogenous to the T cell also exist.
      These mechanisms include T cell inactivation (anergy) and deletion. A major
      difference between anergic T cells and T cells undergoing peripheral deletion is
      the capacity of the latter to still signal through MAPKs upon TCR stimulation,
      suggesting these signals may be required for T deletion. In this study, we used
      several different models of CD8 T cell deletion to investigate the contribution
      of MAPK activation. Using chemical inhibitors, we established that inhibition of
      p38, but not ERK or JNK, rescue T cells from undergoing peripheral deletion both
      in vitro and in vivo. Using T cell-specific murine lines genetically altered in
      expression of p38alpha, and mice in which p38alpha was deleted only in CD11c
      expressing cells, we surprisingly found that CD8 T cell-intrinsic p38alpha
      activation was not responsible for increased survival, but rather that inhibition
      of p38alpha in the Ag-presenting dendritic cells prevented CD8 T cell deletion.

PMID- 28864472
TI  - The Stimulation of Macrophages with TLR Ligands Supports Increased IL-19
      Expression in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients and in Colitis Models.
AB  - IL-19, a member of the IL-10 cytokine family that signals through the IL-20
      receptor type I (IL-20Ralpha:IL-20Rbeta), is a cytokine whose function is not
      completely known. In this article, we show that the expression of IL19 in
      biopsies of patients with active ulcerative colitis was increased compared with
      patients with quiescent ulcerative colitis and that colitis was attenuated in IL
      19-deficient mice. The disruption of the epithelial barrier with dextran sodium
      sulfate leads to increased IL-19 expression. Attenuated colitis in IL-19
      deficient animals was associated with reduced numbers of IL-6-producing
      macrophages in the inflamed colonic lamina propria. Microbial-driven expression
      of IL-19 by intestinal macrophages may contribute to the pathogenesis of
      inflammatory bowel disease.

PMID- 28864473
TI  - HVEM Imprints Memory Potential on Effector CD8 T Cells Required for Protective
      Mucosal Immunity.
AB  - Mucosal immunity to reinfection with a highly virulent virus requires the
      accumulation and persistence of memory CD8 T cells at the site of primary
      infection. These cells may derive from memory precursor effector cells (MPECs),
      which are distinct from short-lived effector cells that provide acute protection
      but are often destined to die. Using respiratory virus infection, we show that
      herpes virus entry mediator (HVEM; TNFRSF14), a member of the TNF receptor
      superfamily, provides key signals for MPEC persistence. HVEM-deficient CD8 T
      cells expanded normally but were skewed away from MPECs with resultant poor
      development of circulating and lung-resident memory cells. HVEM was selectively
      expressed on MPECs whereas MPECs deficient in HVEM failed to survive in adoptive
      transfer recipients. As a consequence, HVEM-deficient recipients failed to afford
      protection against respiratory reinfection with influenza virus. HVEM therefore
      represents a critical signal for MPECs and development of protective mucosal CD8
      T cell memory.

PMID- 28864475
TI  - Monitoring C5aR2 Expression Using a Floxed tdTomato-C5aR2 Knock-In Mouse.
AB  - The biological significance of C5a receptor [(C5aR)2/C5L2], a seven-transmembrane
      receptor binding C5a and C5adesArg, remains ill-defined. Specific ligation of
      C5aR2 inhibits C5a-induced ERK1/2 activation, strengthening the view that C5aR2
      regulates C5aR1-mediated effector functions. Although C5aR2 and C5aR1 are often
      coexpressed, a detailed picture of C5aR2 expression in murine cells and tissues
      is still lacking. To close this gap, we generated a floxed tandem dye (td)Tomato
      C5aR2 knock-in mouse that we used to track C5aR2 expression in tissue-residing
      and circulating immune cells. We found the strongest C5aR2 expression in the
      brain, bone marrow, and airways. All myeloid-derived cells expressed C5aR2,
      although with different intensities. C5aR2 expression in blood and tissue
      neutrophils was strong and homogeneous. Specific ligation of C5aR2 in neutrophils
      from tdTomato-C5aR2 mice blocked C5a-driven ERK1/2 phosphorylation, demonstrating
      functionality of C5aR2 in the reporter mice. In contrast to neutrophils, we found
      tissue-specific differences in C5aR2 expression in eosinophils, macrophages, and
      dendritic cell subsets. Naive and activated T cells stained negative for C5aR2,
      whereas B cells from different tissues homogeneously expressed C5aR2. Also, NK
      cell subsets in blood and spleen strongly expressed C5aR2. Activation of C5aR2 in
      NK cells suppressed IL-12/IL-18-induced IFN-gamma production. Intratracheal IL-33
      challenge resulted in decreased C5aR2 expression in pulmonary eosinophils and
      monocyte-derived dendritic cells. In summary, we provide a detailed map of murine
      C5aR2 immune cell expression in different tissues under steady-state conditions
      and upon pulmonary inflammation. The C5aR2 knock-in mouse will help to reliably
      track and conditionally delete C5aR2 expression in experimental models of
      inflammation.

PMID- 28864474
TI  - The Scaffolding Protein IQGAP1 Interacts with NLRC3 and Inhibits Type I IFN
      Production.
AB  - Sensing of cytosolic nucleotides is a critical initial step in the elaboration of
      type I IFN. One of several upstream receptors, cyclic GMP-AMP synthase, binds to
      cytosolic DNA and generates dicyclic nucleotides that act as secondary
      messengers. These secondary messengers bind directly to stimulator of IFN genes
      (STING). STING recruits TNFR-associated NF-kappaB kinase-binding kinase 1 which
      acts as a critical node that allows for efficient activation of IFN regulatory
      factors to drive the antiviral transcriptome. NLRC3 is a recently characterized
      nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat containing protein (NLR) that
      negatively regulates the type I IFN pathway by inhibiting subcellular
      redistribution and effective signaling of STING, thus blunting the transcription
      of type I IFNs. NLRC3 is predominantly expressed in lymphoid and myeloid cells.
      IQGAP1 was identified as a putative interacting partner of NLRC3 through yeast
      two-hybrid screening. In this article, we show that IQGAP1 associates with NLRC3
      and can disrupt the NLRC3-STING interaction in the cytosol of human epithelial
      cells. Furthermore, knockdown of IQGAP1 in THP1 and HeLa cells causes
      significantly more IFN-beta production in response to cytosolic nucleic acids.
      This result phenocopies NLRC3-deficient macrophages and fibroblasts and short
      hairpin RNA knockdown of NLRC3 in THP1 cells. Our findings suggest that IQGAP1 is
      a novel regulator of type I IFN production, possibly via interacting with NLRC3
      in human monocytic and epithelial cells.

PMID- 28864481
TI  - CDK4/6 Inhibitors Induce Antitumor Immunity.
AB  - CDK4/6 inhibitors not only induce cell-cycle arrest but also promote antitumor
      immunity by stimulating the production of type III interferons, which enhance
      tumor antigen presentation, and suppress regulatory T cells. The immune effects
      of these drugs provide a rationale for combining CDK4/6 inhibitors with
      checkpoint blockade agents.

PMID- 28864476
TI  - Recurrent Tumor Cell-Intrinsic and -Extrinsic Alterations during MAPKi-Induced
      Melanoma Regression and Early Adaptation.
AB  - Treatment of advanced BRAFV600-mutant melanoma using a BRAF inhibitor or its
      combination with a MEK inhibitor typically elicits partial responses. We compared
      the transcriptomes of patient-derived tumors regressing on MAPK inhibitor (MAPKi)
      therapy against MAPKi-induced temporal transcriptomic states in human melanoma
      cell lines or murine melanoma in immune-competent mice. Despite heterogeneous
      dynamics of clinical tumor regression, residual tumors displayed highly recurrent
      transcriptomic alterations and enriched processes, which were also observed in
      MAPKi-selected cell lines (implying tumor cell-intrinsic reprogramming) or in
      bulk mouse tumors (and the CD45-negative or CD45-positive fractions, implying
      tumor cell-intrinsic or stromal/immune alterations, respectively). Tumor cell
      intrinsic reprogramming attenuated MAPK dependency, while enhancing mesenchymal,
      angiogenic, and IFN-inflammatory features and growth/survival dependence on multi
      RTKs and PD-L2. In the immune compartment, PD-L2 upregulation in CD11c+
      immunocytes drove the loss of T-cell inflammation and promoted BRAFi resistance.
      Thus, residual melanoma early on MAPKi therapy already displays potentially
      exploitable adaptive transcriptomic, epigenomic, immune-regulomic
      alterations.Significance: Incomplete MAPKi-induced melanoma regression results in
      transcriptome/methylome-wide reprogramming and MAPK-redundant escape. Although
      regressing/residual melanoma is highly T cell-inflamed, stromal adaptations, many
      of which are tumor cell-driven, could suppress/eliminate intratumoral T cells,
      reversing tumor regression. This catalog of recurrent alterations helps identify
      adaptations such as PD-L2 operative tumor cell intrinsically and/or extrinsically
      early on therapy. Cancer Discov; 7(11); 1248-65. (c)2017 AACR.See related
      commentary by Haq, p. 1216This article is highlighted in the In This Issue
      feature, p. 1201.

PMID- 28864483
TI  - Cadaveric study of movement in the unstable upper cervical spine during emergency
      management: tracheal intubation and cervical spine immobilisation-a study
      protocol for a prospective randomised crossover trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Emergency management of upper cervical spine injuries often
      requires cervical spine immobilisation and some critical patients also require
      airway management. The movement of cervical spine created by tracheal intubation
      and cervical spine immobilisation can potentially exacerbate cervical spinal cord
      injury. However, the evidence that previous studies have provided remains
      unclear, due to lack of a direct measurement technique for dural sac's space
      during dynamic processes. Our study will use myelography method and a wireless
      human motion tracker to characterise and compare the change of dural sac's space
      during tracheal intubations and cervical spine immobilisation in the presence of
      unstable upper cervical spine injury such as atlanto-occipital dislocation or
      type II odontoid fracture. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Perform laryngoscopy and
      intubation, video laryngoscope intubation, laryngeal tube insertion, fiberoptic
      intubation and cervical collar application on cadaveric models of unstable upper
      cervical spine injury such as atlanto-occipital dislocation or type II odontoid
      fracture. The change of dural sac's space and the motion of unstable cervical
      segment are recorded by video fluoroscopy with previously performing myelography,
      which enables us to directly measure dural sac's space. Simultaneously, the whole
      cervical spine motion is recorded at a wireless human motion tracker. The maximum
      dural sac compression and the maximum angulation and distraction of the injured
      segment are measured by reviewing fluoroscopic and myelography images. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: This study protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee of
      the State Medical Association Rhineland-Palatinate, Mainz, Germany. The results
      will be published in relevant emergency journals and presented at relevant
      conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: DRKS00010499.

PMID- 28864484
TI  - Lifetime risks of kidney donation: a medical decision analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study estimated the potential loss of life and the lifetime
      cumulative risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) from live kidney donation.
      DESIGN: Markov medical decision analysis. SETTING: USA. PARTICIPANTS: 40-year-old
      live kidney donors of both sexes and black/white race. INTERVENTION: Live donor
      nephrectomy. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: Potential remaining life years lost,
      quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) lost and added lifetime cumulative risk of
      ESRD from donation. RESULTS: Overall 0.532-0.884 remaining life years were lost
      from donating a kidney. This was equivalent to 1.20%-2.34% of remaining life
      years (or 0.76%-1.51% remaining QALYs). The risk was higher in male and black
      individuals. The study showed that 1%-5% of average-age current live kidney
      donors might develop ESRD as a result of nephrectomy. The added risk of ESRD
      resulted in a loss of only 0.126-0.344 remaining life years. Most of the loss of
      life was predicted to be associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) not ESRD.
      Most events occurred 25 or more years after donation. Reducing the increased risk
      of death associated with CKD had a modest overall effect on the per cent loss of
      remaining life years (0.72%-1.9%) and QALYs (0.58%-1.33%). Smoking and obesity
      reduced life expectancy and increased overall lifetime risks of ESRD in non
      donors. However the percentage loss of remaining life years from donation was not
      very different in those with or without these risk factors. CONCLUSION: Live
      kidney donation may reduce life expectancy by 0.5-1 year in most donors. The
      development of ESRD in donors may not be the only measure of risk as most of the
      predicted loss of life predates ESRD. The study identifies the potential
      importance of following donors and treating risk factors aggressively to prevent
      ESRD and to improve donor survival.

PMID- 28864485
TI  - The prevalence and correlates of elder abuse and neglect in a rural community of
      Negeri Sembilan state: baseline findings from The Malaysian Elder Mistreatment
      Project (MAESTRO), a population-based survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As Malaysia is fast becoming an ageing nation, the health, safety and
      welfare of elders are major societal concerns. Elder abuse is a phenomenon
      recognised abroad but less so locally. This paper presents the baseline findings
      from the Malaysian Elder Mistreatment Project (MAESTRO) study, the first
      community-based study on elder abuse in Malaysia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study,
      analysing baseline findings of a cohort of older adults. SETTING: Kuala Pilah
      district, Negeri Sembilan state, Malaysia. OBJECTIVES: To determine the
      prevalence of elder abuse among community dwelling older adults and its
      associated factors. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2112 community dwelling older adults
      aged 60 years and above were recruited employing a multistage sampling using the
      national census. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Elder abuse, measured
      using a validated instrument derived from previous literature and the modified
      Conflict Tactic Scales, similar to the Irish national prevalence survey on elder
      abuse with modification to local context. Factors associated with abuse and
      profiles of respondents were also examined. RESULTS: The prevalence of overall
      abuse was reported to be 4.5% in the past 12 months. Psychological abuse was most
      common, followed by financial, physical, neglect and sexual abuse. Two or more
      occurrences of abusive acts were common, while clustering of various types of
      abuse was experienced by one-third of abused elders. Being male (adjusted OR
      (aOR) 2.15, 95% CI 1.23 to 3.78), being at risk of social isolation (aOR 1.96,
      95% CI 1.07 to 3.58), a prior history of abuse (aOR 3.28, 95% CI 1.40 to 7.68)
      and depressive symptomatology (aOR 7.83, 95% CI 2.88 to 21.27) were independently
      associated with overall abuse. CONCLUSION: Elder abuse occurred among one in
      every 20 elders. The findings on elder abuse indicate the need to enhance elder
      protection in Malaysia, with both screening of and interventions for elder abuse.

PMID- 28864486
TI  - How can primary care enhance end-of-life care for liver disease? Qualitative
      study of general practitioners' perceptions and experiences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver disease is the third most common cause of premature death in
      the UK. The symptoms of terminal liver disease are often difficult to treat, but
      very few patients see a palliative care specialist and a high proportion die in
      hospital. Primary care has been identified as a setting where knowledge and
      awareness of liver disease is poor. Little is known about general practitioners'
      (GPs) perceptions of their role in managing end-stage liver disease. OBJECTIVE:
      To explore GPs' experiences and perceptions of how primary care can enhance end
      of-life care for patients with liver disease. DESIGN: Qualitative interview
      study, thematic analysis. PARTICIPANTS: Purposive sample of 25 GPs from five
      regions of England. RESULTS: GPs expressed a desire to be more closely involved
      in end-of-life care for patients with liver disease but identified a number of
      factors that constrained their ability to contribute. These fell into three main
      areas; those relating directly to the condition, (symptom management and the need
      to combine a palliative care approach with ongoing medical interventions); issues
      arising from patients' social circumstances (stigma, social isolation and the
      social consequences of liver disease) and deficiencies in the organisation and
      delivery of services. Collaborative working with support from specialist hospital
      clinicians was regarded as essential, with GPs acknowledging their lack of
      experience and expertise in this area. CONCLUSIONS: End-of-life care for patients
      with liver disease merits attention from both primary and secondary care
      services. Development of care pathways and equitable access to symptom relief
      should be a priority.

PMID- 28864487
TI  - Self-administered versus provider-directed sampling in the Anishinaabek Cervical
      Cancer Screening Study (ACCSS): a qualitative investigation with Canadian First
      Nations women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While (Pap)anicolaou screening has helped to decrease cervical cancer
      incidence in Canada, First Nations women continue to have a higher burden and
      mortality relative to mainstream populations. Many First Nations women may feel
      uncomfortable with the invasiveness of this test, contributing to this statistic.
      Implemented from 2009 to 2015 in 10 Northwest Ontario First Nations communities,
      the Anishinaabek Cervical Cancer Screening Study (ACCSS) uniquely addressed this
      Indigenous health inequity through a mixed methods approach. OBJECTIVE: Our goal
      was to offer an alternative test which the women could do themselves: human
      papillomavirus (HPV) testing based on self-sampling. We investigated whether
      First Nations women preferred HPV self-sampling over healthcare provider (HCP)
      administered Pap screening. METHODS: Participatory action researchinformed by the
      ethical space concept has guided all stages of the ACCSS. We conducted
      qualitative interviews with 16 HCPs and 8 focus group discussions with 69 female
      community members followed by a cluster-randomised controlled trial (RCT). Here,
      we draw on the qualitative field data and an end-of-study community update
      gathering to disseminate and contextualise research findings. Informant data were
      evaluated using thematic analysis. RESULTS: We discuss factors influencing
      participants' strong preference for HPV self-sampling over physician-conducted
      Pap screening. Key arguments included enhanced accessibility and more personal
      control, less physical and emotional discomfort and fewer concerns regarding
      privacy of test results. For future implementation of HPV self-sampling, study
      participants emphasised the need for more culturally sensitive education
      addressed to community members of all genders, starting at school, clarifying
      that HPV causes cervical cancer. Further, HPV infection should be de-stigmatised
      by accentuating that it affects men and women alike. CONCLUSION: Here we show
      that self-sampling in conjunction with community engagement and culturally
      sensitive education and could be a viable option for underscreened Canadian First
      Nations women. These informant data echo our previous RCT results.

PMID- 28864489
TI  - Correction: Protocol for a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study
      of variation in practice in perioperative analgesic strategies in elective
      laparoscopic colorectal surgery: the LapCoGesic Study.

PMID- 28864488
TI  - How does preclinical laboratory training impact physical examination skills
      during the first clinical year? A retrospective analysis of routinely collected
      objective structured clinical examination scores among the first two
      matriculating classes of a reformed curriculum in one Polish medical school.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: As a result of a curriculum reform launched in 2012 at our
      institution, preclinical training was shortened to 2 years instead of the
      traditional 3 years, creating additional incentives to optimise teaching methods.
      In accordance with the new curriculum, a semester-long preclinical module of
      clinical skills (CS) laboratory training takes place in the second year of study,
      while an introductory clinical course (ie, brief introductory clerkships) is
      scheduled for the Fall semester of the third year. Objective structured clinical
      examinations (OSCEs) are carried out at the conclusion of both the preclinical
      module and the introductory clinical course. Our aim was to compare the scores at
      physical examination stations between the first and second matriculating classes
      of a newly reformed curriculum on preclinical second-year OSCEs and early
      clinical third-year OSCEs. DESIGN: Analysis of routinely collected data. SETTING:
      One Polish medical school. PARTICIPANTS: Complete OSCE records for 462 second
      year students and 445 third-year students. OUTCOME MEASURES: OSCE scores by
      matriculation year. RESULTS: In comparison to the first class of the newly
      reformed curriculum, significantly higher (ie, better) OSCE scores were observed
      for those students who matriculated in 2013, a year after implementing the
      reformed curriculum. This finding was consistent for both second-year and third
      year cohorts. Additionally, the magnitude of the improvement in median third-year
      OSCE scores was proportional to the corresponding advancement in preceding second
      year preclinical OSCE scores for each of two different sets of physical
      examination tasks. In contrast, no significant difference was noted between the
      academic years in the ability to interpret laboratory data or ECG - tasks which
      had not been included in the second-year preclinical training. CONCLUSION: Our
      results suggest the importance of preclinical training in a CS laboratory to
      improve students' competence in physical examination at the completion of
      introductory clinical clerkships during the first clinical year.

PMID- 28864490
TI  - Correction: Factors predicting self-reported medication low adherence in a large
      sample of adults in the US general population: a cross-sectional study.

PMID- 28864491
TI  - Correction: A randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact of sexual health
      clinic based automated text message reminders on testing of HIV and other
      sexually transmitted infections in men who have sex with men in China: protocol
      for the T2T Study.

PMID- 28864492
TI  - Correction: Incidence and prevalence of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) among adults
      with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D): a systematic literature review.

PMID- 28864493
TI  - Correction: Protocol for a prospective longitudinal study of risk factors for
      hypertension incidence in a Mexico City population: the Tlalpan 2020 cohort.

PMID- 28864495
TI  - What to expect when you're expecting.
AB  - Applying systems immunology to study human pregnancy.

PMID- 28864496
TI  - A recycling program that keeps PD-L1 out of the cancer cell's junkyard.
AB  - CMTM6 limits antitumor immunity by ensuring efficient recycling of endocytosed PD
      L1 protein.

PMID- 28864494
TI  - An immune clock of human pregnancy.
AB  - The maintenance of pregnancy relies on finely tuned immune adaptations. We
      demonstrate that these adaptations are precisely timed, reflecting an immune
      clock of pregnancy in women delivering at term. Using mass cytometry, the
      abundance and functional responses of all major immune cell subsets were
      quantified in serial blood samples collected throughout pregnancy. Cell signaling
      based Elastic Net, a regularized regression method adapted from the elastic net
      algorithm, was developed to infer and prospectively validate a predictive model
      of interrelated immune events that accurately captures the chronology of
      pregnancy. Model components highlighted existing knowledge and revealed
      previously unreported biology, including a critical role for the interleukin-2
      dependent STAT5ab signaling pathway in modulating T cell function during
      pregnancy. These findings unravel the precise timing of immunological events
      occurring during a term pregnancy and provide the analytical framework to
      identify immunological deviations implicated in pregnancy-related pathologies.

PMID- 28864497
TI  - A role for T helper cells in anti-CTLA-4 therapy.
AB  - Comparison of immune responses to CTLA4 and PD-1 blockade uncovers a role for
      helper T cells in anti-CTLA-4 therapy.

PMID- 28864498
TI  - New ultrasonographic screening method for oropharyngeal dysphagia: tissue Doppler
      imaging.
AB  - Ultrasound tissue Doppler imaging (US-TDI) has been used to diagnose regional
      wall motion (WM) abnormalities in coronary artery disease but has not been
      applied to oropharyngeal diseases. This study aimed first to validate an US-TDI
      method to assess cervical esophageal (CE) WM and secondly to use the method to
      evaluate CE WM in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD). First, we enrolled
      22 healthy men (mean age: 59.7 yr) who all underwent both US-TDI and
      videofluoroscopy (VF) and then esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM) in the
      same week. We evaluated the reproducibility of the US-TDI and the relationship
      between US-TDI and other modalities (VF and HRM). Second, we enrolled 56 mild OD
      patients (mean age: 58.0 yr) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
      Difference in CE WM between these groups was evaluated by US-TDI. All healthy
      subjects underwent US-TDI, VF, and HRM successfully, with a sufficiently high
      reproducibility coefficient for this method, and significant correlation between
      US-TDI and VF/HRM parameters. US-TDI showed mean time to open CE wall and mean
      velocity of CE wall opening significantly differed between patients and healthy
      controls ( P < 0.01). In conclusion, we have developed a US-TDI method for easily
      assessing CE WM in daily practice and also found significant differences in CE WM
      between mild OD patients and healthy controls. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A new
      ultrasonographic screening method using tissue Doppler imaging for oropharyngeal
      dysphagia was found to be a reliable, reproducible, and well-tolerated method.
      There is a significant correlation between this new method and conventional
      methods. This method revealed that patients having mild symptoms of oropharyngeal
      dysphagia had already significantly delayed cervical esophageal wall opening.

PMID- 28864499
TI  - Ethanol metabolism by alcohol dehydrogenase or cytochrome P450 2E1 differentially
      impairs hepatic protein trafficking and growth hormone signaling.
AB  - The liver metabolizes alcohol using alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and cytochrome
      P450 2E1 (CYP2E1). Both enzymes metabolize ethanol into acetaldehyde, but CYP2E1
      activity also results in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that
      promote oxidative stress. We have previously shown that microtubules are
      hyperacetylated in ethanol-treated polarized, hepatic WIF-B cells and livers from
      ethanol-fed rats. We have also shown that enhanced protein acetylation correlates
      with impaired clathrin-mediated endocytosis, constitutive secretion, and nuclear
      translocation and that the defects are likely mediated by acetaldehyde. However,
      the roles of CYP2E1-generated metabolites and ROS in microtubule acetylation and
      these alcohol-induced impairments have not been examined. To determine if CYP2E1
      mediated alcohol metabolism is required for enhanced acetylation and the
      trafficking defects, we coincubated cells with ethanol and diallyl sulfide (DAS;
      a CYP2E1 inhibitor) or N-acetyl cysteine (NAC; an antioxidant). Both agents
      failed to prevent microtubule hyperacetylation in ethanol-treated cells and also
      failed to prevent impaired secretion or clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Somewhat
      surprisingly, both DAS and NAC prevented impaired STAT5B nuclear translocation.
      Further examination of microtubule-independent steps of the pathway revealed that
      Jak2/STAT5B activation by growth hormone was prevented by DAS and NAC. These
      results were confirmed in ethanol-exposed HepG2 cells expressing only ADH or
      CYP2E1. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we further determined that ethanol exposure
      led to blunted growth hormone-mediated gene expression. In conclusion, we
      determined that alcohol-induced microtubule acetylation and associated defects in
      microtubule-dependent trafficking are mediated by ADH metabolism whereas impaired
      microtubule-independent Jak2/STAT5B activation is mediated by CYP2E1 activity.NEW
      & NOTEWORTHY Impaired growth hormone-mediated signaling is observed in ethanol
      exposed hepatocytes and is explained by differential effects of alcohol
      dehydrogenase (ADH)- and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1)-mediated ethanol metabolism
      on the Jak2/STAT5B pathway.

PMID- 28864501
TI  - Zinc strengthens the jejunal barrier by reversibly tightening the paracellular
      route.
AB  - During the postweaning period, piglets are prone to gastrointestinal infections.
      The resulting impairment of intestinal barrier function may cause diarrhea
      associated with growth retardation or even death of piglets. Orally applied Zn is
      commonly used to prevent and treat diarrhea, but its mode of action still needs
      to be elucidated. To analyze the molecular mechanism whereby Zn acts on porcine
      intestinal barrier function, ex vivo studies on piglet jejunum and accompanying
      in vitro studies on a porcine jejunal epithelial cell line, IPEC-J2/PS, were
      performed with electrophysiological tools. Feeding pharmacological Zn doses
      exerted no significant electrophysiologically ascertainable short- and long-term
      effects on jejunal barrier function ex vivo. However, in IPEC-J2/PS, basolateral
      Zn was cytotoxic since its application caused a release of lactate dehydrogenase
      and an irreversible breakdown of the epithelial barrier. In contrast, apical Zn
      application caused an immediate increase in paracellular resistance and a
      decrease in permeability to the paracellular marker fluorescein, reflecting
      overall barrier strengthening in vitro. Apical effects were fully reversible upon
      washout. This indicates that Zn supplemented to feed was completely washed out
      during ex vivo jejunum preparation. We conclude that there is no evidence for
      long-term barrier effects through prophylactic Zn supplementation and that
      extracellular Zn acts acutely and reversibly from the apical side via tightening
      the paracellular route, thus counteracting leak-flux diarrhea.NEW & NOTEWORTHY
      Therapeutically administered Zn successfully treats diarrhea in veterinary and
      human medicine. Here we present data that Zn strengthens the porcine jejunal
      epithelial barrier by reversibly tightening the paracellular route for inorganic
      ions and small solutes. Acute or long-lasting Zn effects on transcellular
      transport (Cl- secretion) were not detected. We therefore conclude that Zn is
      useful for acutely treating leak-flux diarrhea rather than secretory diarrhea.
      Suitability as prophylactic feed supplement, however, is questionable.

PMID- 28864500
TI  - Kruppel-like factor 5 is essential for maintenance of barrier function in mouse
      colon.
AB  - Kruppel-like factor 5 (KLF5) is a member of the zinc finger family of
      transcription factors that regulates homeostasis of the intestinal epithelium.
      Previous studies suggested an indispensable role of KLF5 in maintaining
      intestinal barrier function. In the current study, we investigated the mechanisms
      by which KLF5 regulates colonic barrier function in vivo and in vitro. We used an
      inducible and a constitutive intestine-specific Klf5 knockout mouse models
      (Villin-CreERT2;Klf5fl/fl designated as Klf5DeltaIND and Villin-Cre;Klf5fl/fl as
      Klf5DeltaIS ) and studied an inducible KLF5 knockdown in Caco-2 BBe cells using a
      lentiviral Tet-on system (Caco-2 BBe KLF5DeltaIND). Specific knockout of Klf5 in
      colonic tissues, either inducible or constitutive, resulted in increased
      intestinal permeability. The phenotype was accompanied by a significant reduction
      in Dsg2, which encodes desmoglein-2, a desmosomal cadherin, at both mRNA and
      protein levels. Transmission electron microscopy showed alterations of desmosomal
      morphology in both KLF5 knockdown Caco-2 BBe cells and Klf5 knockout mouse
      colonic tissues. Inducible knockdown of KLF5 in Caco-2BBe cells grown on
      Transwell plates led to impaired barrier function as evidenced by decreased
      transepithelial electrical resistance and increased paracellular permeability to
      fluorescein isothiocyanate-4 kDa dextran. Furthermore, DSG2 was significantly
      decreased in KLF5 knockdown cells, and DSG2 overexpression partially rescued the
      impaired barrier function caused by KLF5 knockdown. Electron microscopy studies
      demonstrated altered desmosomal morphology after KLF5 knockdown. In combination
      with chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis and promoter study, our data show
      that KLF5 regulates intestinal barrier function by mediating the transcription of
      DSG2, a gene encoding a major component of desmosome structures.NEW & NOTEWORTHY
      The study is original research on the direct function of a Kruppel-like factor on
      intestinal barrier function, which is commonly exerted by cell junctions,
      including tight junctions, adherens junctions, and desmosomes. Numerous previous
      studies were focused on tight junctions and adherens junctions. However, this
      study provided a new perspective on how the intestinal barrier function is
      regulated by KLF5 through DSG2, a component of desmosome complexes.

PMID- 28864504
TI  - It's time to manage pain in calves.

PMID- 28864502
TI  - Pharmacologic Differences of Sulfonylureas and the Risk of Adverse Cardiovascular
      and Hypoglycemic Events.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Sulfonylureas have been associated with an increased risk of
      cardiovascular adverse events and hypoglycemia, but it is unclear if these risks
      vary with different agents. We assessed whether the risks of acute myocardial
      infarction, ischemic stroke, cardiovascular death, all-cause mortality, and
      severe hypoglycemia differ between sulfonylureas grouped according to pancreas
      specificity and duration of action. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using the U.K.
      Clinical Practice Research Datalink, linked with the Hospital Episodes Statistics
      and the Office for National Statistics databases, we conducted a cohort study
      among patients with type 2 diabetes initiating monotherapy with sulfonylureas
      between 1998 and 2013. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were estimated
      using Cox proportional hazards models, comparing use of pancreas-nonspecific,
      long-acting sulfonylureas (glyburide/glimepiride) to pancreas-specific, short
      acting sulfonylureas (gliclazide/glipizide/tolbutamide). RESULTS: The cohort
      included 17,604 sulfonylurea initiators (mean [SD] follow-up 1.2 [1.5] years).
      Compared with specific, short-acting sulfonylureas (15,741 initiators),
      nonspecific, long-acting sulfonylureas (1,863 initiators) were not associated
      with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction (HR 0.86; CI 0.55-1.34),
      ischemic stroke (HR 0.92; CI 0.59-1.45), cardiovascular death (HR 1.01; CI 0.72
      1.40), or all-cause mortality (HR 0.81; CI 0.66-1.003), but with an increased
      risk of severe hypoglycemia (HR 2.83; CI 1.64-4.88). CONCLUSIONS: The
      nonspecific, long-acting sulfonylureas glyburide and glimepiride do not have an
      increased risk of cardiovascular adverse events compared with the specific, short
      acting sulfonylureas gliclazide, glipizide, and tolbutamide. However,
      nonspecific, long-acting sulfonylureas glyburide and glimepiride have an
      increased risk of severe hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28864505
TI  - Scotland pushes for tougher action on cattle farmers to eradicate BVD.

PMID- 28864506
TI  - Vets 'extremely concerned' about reclassification of sheep anthelmintic.

PMID- 28864508
TI  - Medicines update.
AB  - The following information has been produced for Veterinary Record by the
      Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) to provide an update for veterinary
      surgeons on recent changes to marketing authorisations for veterinary medicines
      in the UK.

PMID- 28864509
TI  - Small animal disease surveillance: GI disease and salmonellosis.
AB  - Presentation for gastrointestinal (GI) disease comprised 2.2 per cent of cat, 3.2
      per cent of dog and 2.2 per cent of rabbit consultations between April 1, 2016
      and March 31, 2017Diarrhoea and vomiting without blood were the most frequently
      reported GI disease clinical signs (34.4 and 38.9 per cent in cats and 42.8 and
      37.3 per cent in dogs, respectively)The mean percentage of samples testing
      positive for Salmonella in dogs was double that in cats (0.82 per cent and 0.41
      per cent, respectively) from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2016In dogs, autumn
      was associated with a greater proportion of Salmonella-positive sample
      submissions; no clear suggestion of seasonal variation in cats was observedIn
      both cats and dogs, isolates belonging to Salmonella enterica group B serotypes
      were the most common (68.9 per cent in cats and 55.0 per cent in dogs).

PMID- 28864510
TI  - Clinical significance of equine cheek teeth infundibular caries.

PMID- 28864511
TI  - What does the futurologists' view hold for vets?

PMID- 28864512
TI  - Bovine TB controls in the UK.

PMID- 28864513
TI  - Need for clear product labelling.

PMID- 28864514
TI  - Preparing graduates for practice.

PMID- 28864515
TI  - The mosquito Aedes vexans in England.

PMID- 28864516
TI  - Bovine TB in the pilot badger cull zone in Gloucestershire.

PMID- 28864517
TI  - Death notice.

PMID- 28864518
TI  - John Alexander MacKenzie.
AB  - John MacKenzie was a well-liked veterinary officer with a wry sense of humour,
      who could always be relied on to solve problems.

PMID- 28864519
TI  - John Maelor Gittins.
AB  - John Gittins was a small animal vet who excelled at surgery.

PMID- 28864520
TI  - BVA offers support in practice veterinary ethics.
AB  - Sean Wensley, BVA Senior Vice President discusses how the growth of veterinary
      ethics has prompted the need for additional support and learning for veterinary
      teams.

PMID- 28864521
TI  - What should you look for in your first practice role?
AB  - Will Chandler reflects on his experience finding his first clinical job after
      qualifying, including his tips on what to look for in a potential employer.

PMID- 28864523
TI  - Make customer service a priority.
AB  - BVA has partnered with Moneypenny, one of the UK's leading outsourced
      communications providers, to provide members with an effective way to respond to
      client calls. Moneypenny talked to Pauline Sloan, receptionist at Village Vets in
      East Lothian, about her practice's experience of using their service.

PMID- 28864522
TI  - The privilege of connecting with your clients.
AB  - Nicky Mansell, one of the Young Vet Network representatives on BVA Council,
      reflects on the importance of keeping your clients in mind.

PMID- 28864524
TI  - Career advice and practice management support at the London Vet Show.
AB  - Zoe Davies, BVA Marketing Manager, outlines this year's programme for the BVA
      career stream and financial one-to-ones at London Vet Show.

PMID- 28864525
TI  - Making animal welfare education fun for children.
AB  - Girija Duggal, BVA Media Officer, explains how to make learning about animal
      welfare fun for all ages.

PMID- 28864526
TI  - Recent graduate places at Northern Ireland dinner.
AB  - Helena Cotton, BVA Public Affairs Manager, explains how recent graduates can get
      involved with BVA's annual dinners.

PMID- 28864527
TI  - Vet Virtual Congress 2018 launched.
AB  - The Webinar Vet has announced the line-up for next year's Virtual Congress, which
      takes place from 19 to 21 January.

PMID- 28864528
TI  - Parallel careers: a parasitologist and a vet.
AB  - Ian Wright heads the European Scientific Counsel Companion Animal Parasites
      (ESCCAP) UK and Ireland, which involves some international travel. He and his
      wife are also practice owners and they have two children. He admits that work
      life balance can be a challenge.

PMID- 28864529
TI  - Thyroid hormone receptor beta and NCOA4 regulate terminal erythrocyte
      differentiation.
AB  - An effect of thyroid hormone (TH) on erythropoiesis has been known for more than
      a century but the molecular mechanism(s) by which TH affects red cell formation
      is still elusive. Here we demonstrate an essential role of TH during terminal
      human erythroid cell differentiation; specific depletion of TH from the culture
      medium completely blocked terminal erythroid differentiation and enucleation.
      Treatment with TRbeta agonists stimulated premature erythroblast differentiation
      in vivo and alleviated anemic symptoms in a chronic anemia mouse model by
      regulating erythroid gene expression. To identify factors that cooperate with
      TRbeta during human erythroid terminal differentiation, we conducted RNA-seq in
      human reticulocytes and identified nuclear receptor coactivator 4 (NCOA4) as a
      critical regulator of terminal differentiation. Furthermore, Ncoa4-/- mice are
      anemic in perinatal periods and fail to respond to TH by enhanced erythropoiesis.
      Genome-wide analysis suggests that TH promotes NCOA4 recruitment to chromatin
      regions that are in proximity to Pol II and are highly associated with
      transcripts abundant during terminal differentiation. Collectively, our results
      reveal the molecular mechanism by which TH functions during red blood cell
      formation, results that are potentially useful to treat certain anemias.

PMID- 28864530
TI  - Cbfbeta governs osteoblast-adipocyte lineage commitment through enhancing beta
      catenin signaling and suppressing adipogenesis gene expression.
AB  - The mechanism underlying how transcription factors regulate mesenchymal stem cell
      lineage commitment remains unclear. To determine the role of core-binding factor
      subunit beta (Cbfbeta) in osteoblast lineage commitment, we generated three mouse
      models by deleting Cbfbeta at different osteoblast lineage stages. We
      demonstrated that the Cbfbetaf/fPrx1-Cre, Cbfbetaf/fCol2alpha1-Cre, and
      Cbfbetaf/fOsx-Cre mice exhibited severe osteoporosis with substantial
      accumulation of marrow adipocytes resembling aged bone from enhanced
      adipogenesis, indicating that mesenchymal stem cells and osteoblasts can be
      programed and reprogramed, respectively, into adipocytes. Consistently, Cbfbeta
      deficient calvarial cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells displayed strong
      adipogenic potential, with 5- to ~70-fold increased adipocyte gene expression,
      which can be rescued by Cbfbeta overexpression. Canonical Wnt signaling was
      impeded in the Cbfbeta-deficient cells, with ~80% decrease of Wnt10b expression.
      Accordingly, ChIP and luciferase assays demonstrated that Cbfbeta/RUNX2 binds to
      Wnt10b promoter driving Wnt10b expression. Furthermore, Wnt3a suppressed
      adipogenesis but did not rescue osteoblastogenesis in Cbfbeta-deficient cells.
      Notably, mixing culture of Cbfbeta-deficient with normal cells demonstrates that
      Cbfbeta functions not only through WNT paracrine pathway but also through
      endogenous signaling. Further analysis shows that Cbfbeta/RUNX2 inhibits
      c/ebpalpha expression at transcriptional level. Our results show that, besides
      its osteogenic role, Cbfbeta governs osteoblast-adipocyte lineage commitment both
      cell nonautonomously through enhancing beta-catenin signaling and cell
      autonomously through suppressing adipogenesis gene expression to maintain
      osteoblast lineage commitment, indicating Cbfbeta may be a therapeutic target for
      osteoporosis.

PMID- 28864532
TI  - Warmer climate squeezes aquatic predators out of their preferred habitat.

PMID- 28864531
TI  - Multiple proteolytic events in caspase-6 self-activation impact conformations of
      discrete structural regions.
AB  - Caspase-6 is critical to the neurodegenerative pathways of Alzheimer's,
      Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases and has been identified as a potential
      molecular target for treatment of neurodegeneration. Thus, understanding the
      global and regional changes in dynamics and conformation provides insights into
      the unique properties of caspase-6 that may contribute to achieving control of
      its function. In this work, hydrogen/deuterium exchange MS (H/DX-MS) was used to
      map the local changes in the conformational flexibility of procaspase-6 at the
      discrete states that reflect the series of cleavage events that ultimately lead
      to the fully active, substrate-bound state. Intramolecular self-cleavage at Asp
      193 evoked higher solvent exposure in the regions of the substrate-binding loops
      L1, L3, and L4 and in the 130s region, the intersubunit linker region, the 26-32
      region as well as in the stabilized loop 2. Additional removal of the linker
      allowed caspase-6 to gain more flexibility in the 130s region and in the L2
      region converting caspase-6 to a competent substrate-binding state. The prodomain
      region was found to be intrinsically disordered independent of the activation
      state of caspase-6; however, its complete removal resulted in the protection of
      the adjacent 26-32 region, suggesting that this region may play a regulatory
      role. The molecular details of caspase-6 dynamics in solution provide a
      comprehensive scaffold for strategic design of therapeutic approaches for
      neurodegenerative disorders.

PMID- 28864534
TI  - Letter to the editor: BET inhibitors might target innate inflammatory and
      profibrotic signaling networks in COPD.

PMID- 28864533
TI  - First critical repressive H3K27me3 marks in embryonic stem cells identified using
      designed protein inhibitor.
AB  - The polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) histone methyltransferase plays a
      central role in epigenetic regulation in development and in cancer, and hence to
      interrogate its role in a specific developmental transition, methods are needed
      for disrupting function of the complex with high temporal and spatial precision.
      The catalytic and substrate recognition functions of PRC2 are coupled by binding
      of the N-terminal helix of the Ezh2 methylase to an extended groove on the EED
      trimethyl lysine binding subunit. Disrupting PRC2 function can in principle be
      achieved by blocking this single interaction, but there are few approaches for
      blocking specific protein-protein interactions in living cells and organisms.
      Here, we describe the computational design of proteins that bind to the EZH2
      interaction site on EED with subnanomolar affinity in vitro and form tight and
      specific complexes with EED in living cells. Induction of the EED binding
      proteins abolishes H3K27 methylation in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and at
      all but the earliest stage blocks self-renewal, pinpointing the first critical
      repressive H3K27me3 marks in development.

PMID- 28864535
TI  - Cardiovascular manifestations of primary hyperparathyroidism: a narrative review.
AB  - Data on cardiovascular disease in primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) are
      controversial; indeed, at present, cardiovascular involvement is not included
      among the criteria needed for parathyroidectomy. Aim of this narrative review is
      to analyze the available literature in an effort to better characterize
      cardiovascular involvement in PHPT. Due to physiological effects of both
      parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcium on cardiomyocyte, cardiac conduction
      system, smooth vascular, endothelial and pancreatic beta cells, a number of data
      have been published regarding associations between symptomatic and mild PHPT with
      hypertension, arrhythmias, endothelial dysfunction (an early marker of
      atherosclerosis), glucose metabolism impairment and metabolic syndrome. However,
      the results, mainly derived from observational studies, are inconsistent.
      Furthermore, parathyroidectomy resulted in conflicting outcomes, which may be
      linked to several potential biases. In particular, differences in the methods
      utilized for excluding confounding co-existing cardiovascular risk factors
      together with differences in patient characteristics, with varying degrees of
      hypercalcemia, may have contributed to these discrepancies. The only meta
      analysis carried out in PHPT patients, revealed a positive effect of
      parathyroidectomy on left ventricular mass index (a predictor of cardiovascular
      mortality) and more importantly, that the highest pre-operative PTH levels were
      associated with the greatest improvements. In normocalcemic PHPT, it has been
      demonstrated that cardiovascular risk factors are almost similar compared to
      hypercalcemic PHPT, thus strengthening the role of PTH in the cardiovascular
      involvement. Long-term longitudinal randomized trials are needed to determine the
      impact of parathyroidectomy on cardiovascular diseases and mortality in PHPT.

PMID- 28864538
TI  - Hospital Costs and Charges of Discharge Delays in Children Hospitalized for Abuse
      and Neglect.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Hospitalizations for child maltreatment cases are longer and costlier
      than hospitalizations for medically similar nonabuse cases. Some discharges are
      delayed despite medical clearance because of a lack of safe disposition,
      increasing the cost of hospitalization. We aim to quantify the additional charges
      and costs of these delays. METHODS: A retrospective chart review evaluated the
      dates of medical clearance and clinical characteristics of child protection team
      inpatient consults from 2012 to 2014 at a 595-bed quaternary-care urban hospital.
      Charges and costs were compared between those with no delay, those with any
      delay, and those with a delay >1 day. We excluded children who were not admitted,
      in whom no abuse was suspected, or in whom sexual abuse was suspected absent
      extragenital injury. RESULTS: Thirty-six percent (134 of 375) of children
      hospitalized for abuse remained hospitalized after medical clearance and 20.5%
      (77 of 375) of children were delayed >1 day. Among those who were delayed, the
      mean number of days delayed was 4.37 (SD +/-7.44). Mean charges after medical
      clearance were $13 647.53 (+/-$30 172.17), and mean costs after medical clearance
      were $6521.93 (+/-$13 975.34). Both charges and costs were markedly right-skewed.
      Median costs after medical clearance were $1553.64 (interquartile range, $26.10
      $5244.20). Cumulatively, 586 total days of delay resulted in excess charges of
      $1.8 million. CONCLUSIONS: Continued hospitalization beyond medical clearance
      occurs often and represents a significant cost. Further study is needed to
      evaluate whether interventions can be targeted at children with characteristics
      correlated with prolonged discharge delays.

PMID- 28864536
TI  - Changes in the clinicopathological characteristics and genetic alterations of
      follicular thyroid cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Changes in the clinicopathological characteristics and genetic
      alterations of follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) over time have not been reported.
      Moreover, the prognostic effects of RAS and TERT promoter mutations in FTC have
      not been clearly elucidated. We investigated changes in the clinicopathological
      characteristics of patients with FTC over four decades, as well as the clinical
      significance of genetic mutations of FTC. DESIGN AND METHODS: This retrospective
      study included 690 patients with FTC who underwent thyroidectomy between 1973 and
      2015 at the Seoul National University Hospital. In 134 samples, genetic tests for
      N/H/KRAS and TERT promoter mutations and PAX8/PPARgamma rearrangement were
      performed. RESULTS: The age at diagnosis has increased (P < 0.001) in recent
      decades and extrathyroidal extension of the tumor has become less common (P =
      0.033). Other clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of FTC have not
      significantly changed. The prevalence of RAS mutations decreased (P = 0.042) over
      time, whereas that of TERT promoter mutations remained stable. RAS mutations were
      associated with distant metastasis and persistent disease, and TERT promoter
      mutations were associated with distant metastasis, advanced TNM stage, recurrence
      and disease-specific mortality. FTC patients with coexistent RAS and TERT
      promoter mutations showed a higher recurrence risk than those with only one
      mutation. CONCLUSIONS: The age at diagnosis of FTC and the frequency of
      extrathyroidal extension have changed over four decades. Moreover, the prevalence
      of RAS mutations decreased. RAS and TERT promoter mutations may be associated
      with poor clinical outcomes in FTC, especially when the two mutations coexist.

PMID- 28864540
TI  - Vps13-Mcp1 interact at vacuole-mitochondria interfaces and bypass ER-mitochondria
      contact sites.
AB  - Membrane contact sites between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria,
      mediated by the ER-mitochondria encounter structure (ERMES) complex, are critical
      for mitochondrial homeostasis and cell growth. Defects in ERMES can, however, be
      bypassed by point mutations in the endosomal protein Vps13 or by overexpression
      of the mitochondrial protein Mcp1. How this bypass operates remains unclear. Here
      we show that the mitochondrial outer membrane protein Mcp1 functions in the same
      pathway as Vps13 by recruiting it to mitochondria and promoting its association
      to vacuole-mitochondria contacts. Our findings support a model in which Mcp1 and
      Vps13 work as functional effectors of vacuole-mitochondria contact sites, while
      tethering is mediated by other factors, including Vps39. Tethered and
      functionally active vacuole-mitochondria interfaces then compensate for the loss
      of ERMES-mediated ER-mitochondria contact sites.

PMID- 28864539
TI  - Signals from the Adipose Microenvironment and the Obesity-Cancer Link-A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - Obesity and its associated metabolic dysregulation are established risk factors
      for many cancers. However, the biologic mechanisms underlying this relationship
      remain incompletely understood. Given the rising rates of both obesity and cancer
      worldwide, and the challenges for many people to lose excess adipose tissue, a
      systematic approach to identify potential molecular and metabolic targets is
      needed to develop effective mechanism-based strategies for the prevention and
      control of obesity-driven cancer. Epidemiologic, clinical, and preclinical data
      suggest that within the growth-promoting, proinflammatory microenvironment
      accompanying obesity, crosstalk between adipose tissue (comprised of adipocytes,
      macrophages and other cells) and cancer-prone cells may occur via obesity
      associated hormones, cytokines, and other mediators that have been linked to
      increased cancer risk and/or progression. We report here a systematic review on
      the direct "crosstalk" between adipose tissue and carcinomas in humans. We
      identified 4,641 articles with n = 20 human clinical studies, which are
      summarized as: (i) breast (n = 7); (ii) colorectal (n = 4); (iii) esophageal (n =
      2); (iv) esophageal/colorectal (n = 1); (v) endometrial (n = 1); (vi) prostate (n
      = 4); and (vii) ear-nose-throat (ENT) cancer (n = 1). Findings from these
      clinical studies reinforce preclinical data and suggest organ-dependent crosstalk
      between adipose tissue and carcinomas via VEGF, IL6, TNFalpha, and other
      mechanisms. Moreover, visceral white adipose tissue plays a more central role, as
      it is more bioenergetically active and is associated with a more procancer
      secretome than subcutaneous adipose tissue. Efforts to eavesdrop and ultimately
      interfere with this cancer-enhancing crosstalk may lead to new targets and
      strategies for decreasing the burden of obesity-related cancers. Cancer Prev Res;
      10(9); 494-506. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864541
TI  - Karyopherins regulate nuclear pore complex barrier and transport function.
AB  - Nucleocytoplasmic transport is sustained by karyopherins (Kaps) and a Ran
      guanosine triphosphate (RanGTP) gradient that imports nuclear localization signal
      (NLS)-specific cargoes (NLS-cargoes) into the nucleus. However, how nuclear pore
      complex (NPC) barrier selectivity, Kap traffic, and NLS-cargo release are
      systematically linked and simultaneously regulated remains incoherent. In this
      study, we show that Kapalpha facilitates Kapbeta1 turnover and occupancy at the
      NPC in a RanGTP-dependent manner that is directly coupled to NLS-cargo release
      and NPC barrier function. This is underpinned by the binding affinity of Kapbeta1
      to phenylalanine-glycine nucleoporins (FG Nups), which is comparable with
      RanGTP.Kapbeta1, but stronger for Kapalpha.Kapbeta1. On this basis, RanGTP is
      ineffective at releasing standalone Kapbeta1 from NPCs. Depleting
      Kapalpha.Kapbeta1 by RanGTP further abrogates NPC barrier function, whereas
      adding back Kapbeta1 rescues it while Kapbeta1 turnover softens it. Therefore,
      the FG Nups are necessary but insufficient for NPC barrier function. We conclude
      that Kaps constitute integral constituents of the NPC whose barrier, transport,
      and cargo release functionalities establish a continuum under a mechanism of Kap
      centric control.

PMID- 28864544
TI  - Share research profits with NHS trusts to encourage innovation, says NHS
      Confederation.

PMID- 28864542
TI  - Somatodendritic accumulation of Tau in Alzheimer's disease is promoted by Fyn
      mediated local protein translation.
AB  - The cause of protein accumulation in neurodegenerative disease is incompletely
      understood. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), the axonally enriched protein Tau forms
      hyperphosphorylated aggregates in the somatodendritic domain. Consequently, a
      process of subcellular relocalization driven by Tau phosphorylation and
      detachment from microtubules has been proposed. Here, we reveal an alternative
      mechanism of de novo protein synthesis of Tau and its hyperphosphorylation in the
      somatodendritic domain, induced by oligomeric amyloid-beta (Abeta) and mediated
      by the kinase Fyn that activates the ERK/S6 signaling pathway. Activation of this
      pathway is demonstrated in a range of cellular systems, and in vivo in brains
      from Abeta-depositing, Abeta-injected, and Fyn-overexpressing mice with Tau
      accumulation. Both pharmacological inhibition and genetic deletion of Fyn abolish
      the Abeta-induced Tau overexpression via ERK/S6 suppression. Together, these
      findings present a more cogent mechanism of Tau aggregation in disease. They
      identify a prominent role for neuronal Fyn in integrating signal transduction
      pathways that lead to the somatodendritic accumulation of Tau in AD.

PMID- 28864543
TI  - Structural basis for antibacterial peptide self-immunity by the bacterial ABC
      transporter McjD.
AB  - Certain pathogenic bacteria produce and release toxic peptides to ensure either
      nutrient availability or evasion from the immune system. These peptides are also
      toxic to the producing bacteria that utilize dedicated ABC transporters to
      provide self-immunity. The ABC transporter McjD exports the antibacterial peptide
      MccJ25 in Escherichia coli Our previously determined McjD structure provided some
      mechanistic insights into antibacterial peptide efflux. In this study, we have
      determined its structure in a novel conformation, apo inward-occluded and a new
      nucleotide-bound state, high-energy outward-occluded intermediate state, with a
      defined ligand binding cavity. Predictive cysteine cross-linking in E. coli
      membranes and PELDOR measurements along the transport cycle indicate that McjD
      does not undergo major conformational changes as previously proposed for multi
      drug ABC exporters. Combined with transport assays and molecular dynamics
      simulations, we propose a novel mechanism for toxic peptide ABC exporters that
      only requires the transient opening of the cavity for release of the peptide. We
      propose that shielding of the cavity ensures that the transporter is available to
      export the newly synthesized peptides, preventing toxic-level build-up.

PMID- 28864549
TI  - Atrial Natriuretic Peptide Affects Stimulus-Secretion Coupling of Pancreatic beta
      Cells.
AB  - Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) influences glucose homeostasis and possibly acts
      as a link between the cardiovascular system and metabolism, especially in
      metabolic disorders like diabetes. The current study evaluated effects of ANP on
      beta-cell function by the use of a beta-cell-specific knockout of the ANP
      receptor with guanylate cyclase activity (betaGC-A-KO). ANP augmented insulin
      secretion at the threshold glucose concentration of 6 mmol/L and decreased KATP
      single-channel activity in beta-cells of control mice but not of betaGC-A-KO
      mice. In wild-type beta-cells but not beta-cells lacking functional KATP channels
      (SUR1-KO), ANP increased electrical activity, suggesting no involvement of other
      ion channels. At 6 mmol/L glucose, ANP readily elicited Ca2+ influx in control
      beta-cells. This effect was blunted in beta-cells of betaGC-A-KO mice, and the
      maximal cytosolic Ca2+ concentration was lower. Experiments with inhibitors of
      protein kinase G (PKG), protein kinase A (PKA), phosphodiesterase 3B (PDE3B), and
      a membrane-permeable cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) analog on KATP channel
      activity and insulin secretion point to participation of the cGMP/PKG and
      cAMP/PKA/Epac (exchange protein directly activated by cAMP) directly activated by
      cAMP Epac pathways in the effects of ANP on beta-cell function; the latter seems
      to prevail. Moreover, ANP potentiated the effect of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP
      1) on glucose-induced insulin secretion, which could be caused by a cGMP-mediated
      inhibition of PDE3B, which in turn reduces cAMP degradation.

PMID- 28864550
TI  - Corrigendum: Building a genomic framework for prospective MRSA surveillance in
      the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

PMID- 28864551
TI  - Corrigendum: The evolution of African great ape subtelomeric heterochromatin and
      the fusion of human chromosome 2.

PMID- 28864552
TI  - Corrigendum: Transcriptome analyses of rhesus monkey preimplantation embryos
      reveal a reduced capacity for DNA double-strand break repair in primate oocytes
      and early embryos.

PMID- 28864553
TI  - Language Matters: Identifying Medically Complex Children in Foster Care.

PMID- 28864554
TI  - Dietary Supplements, Isotretinoin, and Liver Toxicity in Adolescents: A
      Retrospective Case Series.
AB  - Isotretinoin is the most effective acne therapy available, but has the potential
      for a number of adverse side effects, including transaminitis. The iPLEDGE
      isotretinoin program recommends avoiding some herbals and supplements due to
      potential side effects. However, little is known about the effects of protein
      supplements on the liver, particularly in patients taking isotretinoin. We
      designed a retrospective chart review to evaluate the symptoms, diagnosis,
      treatment, and outcome of patients on or preparing to take isotretinoin therapy
      who were concurrently ingesting protein or herbal supplementation and who
      developed transaminitis. In 100% (8/8) of cases, dietary supplementation was
      determined to be at least a possible cause of elevated liver transaminases. In
      75% (6/8) of cases, dietary supplement appears to be the most likely cause at
      some point in their evaluation. Most of our patients' elevations in aspartate
      aminotransferase and/or alanine aminotransferase were likely caused by
      supplementation with protein, creatine, or herbal extracts, rather than
      prescribed isotretinoin or tetracycline antibiotics for acne. Hence, dietary
      supplementation may cause liver function abnormalities. As supplement usage
      appears common in teenagers, clinicians should consider counseling their patients
      to avoid these products, particularly when prescribing known hepatotoxic drugs.

PMID- 28864556
TI  - Massive splenomegaly due to concurrent primary Epstein-Barr virus and
      cytomegalovirus infection in a patient on adalimumab.
AB  - A 32-year-old man who was receiving adalimumab for seronegative rheumatoid
      arthritis presented with a 4-week history of fever, night sweats, fatigue,
      myalgias and diarrhoea. On examination, he had obvious splenomegaly but no
      lymphadenopathy or pharyngitis. Full blood count revealed mild neutropenia and
      significant lymphocytosis, with a blood film showing atypical lymphocytes. Liver
      function tests were mildly deranged with a mixed hepatitic and obstructive
      pattern. Ultrasound confirmed massive splenomegaly with a span of 21 cm in the
      long axis. Serological tests confirmed the presence of both primary Epstein-Barr
      virus and cytomegalovirus infections. The patient had his adalimumab withheld,
      was treated with supportive measures and improved over a period of 8 weeks. He
      remained well 5 months after the onset of illness with complete normalisation of
      blood count and a resolution of the splenomegaly.

PMID- 28864555
TI  - Distinct Signaling Patterns of Allosteric Antagonism at the P2Y1 Receptor.
AB  - Traditionally, G protein-coupled receptor antagonists are classified as
      competitive or noncompetitive and surmountable or insurmountable based on
      functional antagonism. P2Y1 receptor (P2Y1R) structures showed two antagonists
      binding to two spatially distinct sites: nucleotide MRS2500 (orthosteric,
      contacting the helical bundle) and urea BPTU (allosteric, on the external
      receptor surface). However, the nature of their P2Y1R antagonism has not been
      characterized. Here we characterized BPTU antagonism at various signaling
      pathways activated by structurally diverse agonists. BPTU rightward shifted the
      concentration-response curves of both 2-methylthioadenosine 5'-diphosphate
      trisodium salt and MRS2365 (5'-diphosphates) in some signaling events, such as
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 and label free, in a parallel manner
      without affecting the maximum agonist effect (Emax) but antagonized
      insurmountably (suppressed agonist Emax) in signaling events such as guanosine 5'
      3-O-(thio)triphosphate binding and beta-arrestin2 recruitment. However, with
      dinucleotide Ap4A as an agonist, BPTU suppressed the Emax insurmountably in all
      signaling pathways. By comparison, MRS2500 behaved as surmountable antagonist
      rightward-shifting concentration-response curves of all three agonists in a
      parallel manner for all signaling pathways measured. Thus, we demonstrated a
      previously undocumented phenomenon that P2Y1R antagonism patterns could vary in
      different signaling pathways, which could be related to conformational selection,
      signaling amplification, and probe dependence. This phenomenon may apply
      generally to other receptors considering that antagonism by a specific ligand is
      often not compared at multiple signaling pathways. Thus, antagonism can be
      surmountable or insurmountable depending on the signaling pathways measured and
      the agonists used, which should be of broad relevance to drug discovery and
      disease treatment.

PMID- 28864558
TI  - Correction: Atypical presentation of false asystole detection in implantable loop
      recorder.

PMID- 28864557
TI  - Over-the-scope-clip system secured nasojejunal tube feeding in refractory
      hyperemesis gravidarum.
AB  - Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is a severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.
      It complicates up to 2% of all pregnancies and can be associated with adverse
      outcomes. Its management commonly involves a combination pharmacotherapy,
      however, the efficacy of such treatment is limited. Supplemental nutrition is
      often required in refractory cases. Enteral route is preferred over parenteral,
      given the high rate of intravenous catheter-related complications. Enteral
      feeding tube placement can be challenging and is commonly thwarted by
      dislodgement. We present a pharmacotherapy refractory HG case where the over-the
      scope-clip (OTSC) system was successfully used for durable mucosal fixation of
      the nasojejunal feeding tube.

PMID- 28864559
TI  - Cerebellar abscesses, infective endocarditis and bacteraemia due to a rare
      pathogen: Streptococcus constellatus.
AB  - Intracranial infections may result from contiguity, such as mastoiditis or acute
      otitis media, or from haematogenous dissemination from an infectious source.
      Streptococcus constellatus, a coccus from the normal genital, oral and
      gastrointestinal flora, has a tendency to form abscesses, but not to cause
      infective endocarditis (IE). Also, S. constellatus is an extremely rare causative
      agent of brain abscess. We report the case of a woman with a colorectal tumour
      who presented with IE and cerebellar abscesses due to a S. constellatus
      bacteraemia.

PMID- 28864560
TI  - Delayed diagnosis and management of second trimester abdominal pregnancy.
AB  - Second trimester abdominal ectopic pregnancies are rare and life threatening.
      Early diagnosis and treatment are paramount in reducing maternal morbidity and
      mortality. We describe an unusually late diagnosis of abdominal pregnancy despite
      multiple ultrasounds beginning in early pregnancy. A 28-year-old G2P1001 sought
      pregnancy termination at 22 weeks' gestation after fetal anomalies were noted on
      an 18-week ultrasound during evaluation for elevated maternal serum alfa
      fetoprotein. Due to abortion restrictions in her home state, she travelled over
      500 miles for abortion care. During dilation and evacuation, suspected uterine
      perforation led to the finding of a previously undiagnosed abdominal pregnancy.
      At laparotomy, she underwent left salpingo-oophorectomy and removal of abdominal
      pregnancy and placenta. A multidisciplinary team approach was paramount in
      optimising the patient's outcome. Abortion restrictions requiring travel away
      from the patient's home community interrupted her continuity of care and created
      additional hardships, complicating management of an unexpected, rare and life
      threatening condition.

PMID- 28864561
TI  - Wet purpura: a sinister sign in thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28864562
TI  - Waiting for the Sun: the circannual programme of reindeer is delayed by the
      recurrence of rhythmical melatonin secretion after the arctic night.
AB  - At temperate latitudes, the annual cycle of day length synchronizes circannual
      rhythms, and, in mammals, this is mediated via nocturnal production of the pineal
      hormone melatonin, proportional to the length of the night. Here, we studied
      circannual synchronization in an arctic species, the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus
      tarandus), which ceases to produce a rhythmic melatonin signal when it is exposed
      to extended periods of continuous midwinter darkness and continuous midsummer
      light. Using food intake, antler growth and moult as endpoints, we demonstrate
      that when animals living at 70 degrees N are transferred from natural
      photoperiods in late autumn to either continuous light or continuous darkness,
      they undergo a conspicuous acceleration of the circannual programme. We conclude
      that rhythmical melatonin secretion, recommencing when the Sun reappears late in
      January, is required for proper timing of spring physiological responses, through
      a delaying effect on the circannual programme set in motion during the preceding
      autumn.

PMID- 28864563
TI  - Induced parental care in a poison frog: a tadpole cross-fostering experiment.
AB  - Understanding the external stimuli and natural contexts that elicit complex
      behaviours, such as parental care, is key in linking behavioural mechanisms to
      their real-life function. Poison frogs provide obligate parental care by
      shuttling their tadpoles from terrestrial clutches to aquatic nurseries, but
      little is known about the proximate mechanisms that control these behaviours. In
      this study, we used Allobates femoralis, a poison frog with predominantly male
      parental care, to investigate whether tadpole transport can be induced in both
      sexes by transferring unrelated tadpoles to the backs of adults in the field.
      Specifically, we asked whether the presence of tadpoles on an adult's back can
      override the decision-making rules preceding tadpole pick-up and induce the
      recall of spatial memory necessary for finding tadpole deposition sites. We used
      telemetry to facilitate accurate tracking of individual frogs and spatial
      analysis to compare movement trajectories. All tested individuals transported
      their foster-tadpoles to water pools outside their home area. Contrary to our
      expectation, we found no sex difference in the likelihood to transport or in the
      spatial accuracy of finding tadpole deposition sites. We reveal that a
      stereotypical cascade of parental behaviours that naturally involves sex-specific
      offspring recognition strategies and the use of spatial memory can be manipulated
      by experimental placement of unrelated tadpoles on adult frogs. As individuals
      remained inside their home area when only the jelly from tadpole-containing
      clutches was brushed on the back, we speculate that tactile rather than chemical
      stimuli trigger these parental behaviours.

PMID- 28864564
TI  - Metabolite Extraction from Saccharomyces cerevisiae for Liquid Chromatography
      Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Prior to mass spectrometric analysis, cellular small molecules must be extracted
      and separated from interfering components such as salts and culture medium. To
      ensure minimal perturbation of metabolism, yeast cells grown in liquid culture
      are rapidly harvested by filtration as described here. Simultaneous quenching of
      metabolism and extraction is afforded by immediate immersion in low-temperature
      organic solvent. Samples prepared using this method are suitable for a range of
      downstream liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses and are stable in
      solvent for >1 yr at -80 degrees C.

PMID- 28864565
TI  - A High-Throughput Method for the Quantitative Determination of Free Amino Acids
      in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography-Tandem Mass
      Spectrometry.
AB  - Amino acids are the building blocks for protein synthesis and the precursors for
      many biomolecules, such as glutathione and S-adenosylmethionine. Their
      intracellular concentrations provide valuable information about the overall
      metabolic state of the cell, as they are closely connected to carbon and nitrogen
      metabolism and are tightly regulated to meet cellular demands in ever-changing
      environments. Here, we describe a fast and simple method enabling metabolic
      profiling for free amino acids for large numbers of yeast strains. Metabolites
      are extracted with boiling ethanol and, without further conditioning, analyzed by
      hydrophilic interaction chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS).
      Several hundred samples can be prepared in a single day with an analytical
      runtime of 3.25 min. This method is valuable for functional characterization,
      identification of metabolic regulators and processes, or monitoring of
      biotechnological processes.

PMID- 28864566
TI  - Spectrophotometric Analysis of Ethanol and Glucose Concentrations in Yeast
      Culture Media.
AB  - Fermentative growth on glucose is one of the most widely studied conditions of
      yeast growth in the laboratory. The production of ethanol from sugars is relevant
      to the wine, beer, and bread industries and to production of biofuels. Assaying
      the levels of glucose and ethanol in yeast growth medium allows the experimenter
      to determine the consumption of the carbon source glucose and the production of
      ethanol. This protocol describes enzyme-coupled assays for determination of
      glucose and ethanol concentrations in a sample of cell-free culture medium.
      Enzymes convert glucose or ethanol into other compounds through chemical
      reactions that reduce NAD(P)+ to NAD(P)H, and the production of NAD(P)H is
      measured using a spectrophotometer. The methods presented are highly sensitive,
      with a detection limit of ~0.4 mg/L of glucose and 50 mg/L of ethanol, and also
      have the advantage of high specificity. For example, glucose and fructose have
      identical chemical formulas and thus cannot be distinguished by a mass
      spectrometer, but the enzyme assay presented here is specific for glucose. The
      glucose assay can be coupled to other assays to determine the quantity of
      additional carbohydrates such as fructose, trehalose, and glycogen.

PMID- 28864567
TI  - Preparation of Genomic DNA from Mouse Tails and Other Small Samples.
AB  - This protocol is used for extracting DNA from fragments of tissue for genotyping
      transgenic and knockout mice. Digestions of mouse tail fragments are performed
      overnight at 55 degrees C. Each tail snippet generates 50-100 ug of DNA that can
      be used in dot or slot blotting to detect a transgene of interest, in Southern
      hybridization to detect DNA fragments that are <20 kb in size, and, more
      expediently, as a template in polymerase chain reactions (PCRs).

PMID- 28864568
TI  - Using Phage Display to Create Recombinant Antibodies.
AB  - A variety of phage display technologies have been developed since the approach
      was first described for antibodies. The most widely used approaches incorporate
      antibody sequences into the minor coat protein pIII of the nonlytic filamentous
      phage fd or M13. Libraries of variable gene sequences, encoding either scFv or
      Fab fragments, are made by incorporating sequences into phagemid vectors. The
      phagemid is packaged into phage particles with the assistance of a helper phage
      to produce the antibody display phage. This protocol describes a method for
      creating a phagemid library. The multiple cloning site (MCS) of the pBluescript
      KS(-) phagemid vector is replaced by digestion with the restriction enzyme
      BssHII, followed by the insertion of four overlapping oligonucleotides to create
      a new MCS within the vector. Next, the 3' portion of gene III (from M13mp18) is
      amplified and combined with an antibody sequence using overlap extension PCR.
      This product is inserted into the phagemid vector to create pPDS. Two helper
      plasmids are also created from the modified pBluescript vector: pLINK provides
      the linker between the heavy and light chains, and pFABC provides the CH1 domain
      of the heavy chain. An antibody cDNA library is constructed from the RNA of
      interest and ligated into pPDS. The phagemid library is electroporated into
      Escherichia coli cells along with the VCS-M13 helper phage.

PMID- 28864569
TI  - Modification of Antibody Function by Mutagenesis.
AB  - The ability to "fine-tune" recombinant antibodies by mutagenesis separates
      recombinant antibodies from hybridoma-derived antibodies because the latter are
      locked with respect to their properties. Recombinant antibodies can be modified
      to suit the application: Changes in isotype, format (e.g., scFv, Fab, bispecific
      antibodies), and specificity can be made once the heavy- and light-chain
      sequences are available. After immunoglobulin heavy and light chains for a
      particular antibody have been cloned, the binding site-namely, the
      complementarity determining regions (CDR)-can be manipulated by mutagenesis to
      obtain antibody variants with improved properties. The method described here is
      relatively simple, uses commercially available reagents, and is effective. Using
      the pComb3H vector, a commercial mutagenesis kit, PfuTurbo polymerase (Agilent),
      and two mutagenic primers, a library of phage with mutagenized heavy and light
      CDR3 can be obtained.

PMID- 28864570
TI  - Isolation, Propagation, and Differentiation of Radial Glia-Like Neural Progenitor
      Cells in Adherent Cultures.
AB  - This protocol describes the isolation of radial glia-like neural progenitors
      (RGLs) from embryonic and adult mouse brain. Their propagation as an adherent
      monolayer is greatly supported by use of the AK-cyclo(RGDfC) adhesive peptide
      conjugate that allows the application of fully defined culture conditions in
      which epidermal growth factor (EGF) represents the only growth factor supplement.
      RGL cells maintained that way can be efficiently differentiated into the three
      major CNS cell types: neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes.

PMID- 28864571
TI  - Injecting Embryonic Stem Cells into Eight-Cell-Stage Mouse Embryos.
AB  - In this protocol, eight-cell-stage precompaction embryos from outbred mouse
      strains are used for the injection of hybrid or inbred embryonic stem (ES) cells.
      This process often leads to generation of fully ES cell-derived so-called F0 mice
      (VelociMice). Postinjection culture of embryos is necessary to achieve the
      highest ratio of fully ES cell-derived mice and high-degree chimeras. Typically,
      50 embryos are injected per ES cell clone.

PMID- 28864572
TI  - Cell Proliferation Analysis during Xenopus Metamorphosis: Using 5-Ethynyl-2
      Deoxyuridine (EdU) to Stain Proliferating Intestinal Cells.
AB  - Proper cell proliferation is important for organ homeostasis and normal tissue
      development. Aberrations in cell proliferation, however, can give rise to
      degenerative diseases and cancer. Therefore, accurate and simple methods to
      evaluate cell proliferation are important and necessary to understand the
      pathways regulating cell proliferation and mechanisms underlying normal
      development and pathogenesis. The thymidine analog 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine
      (EdU), which is incorporated into DNA during active DNA synthesis (e.g., during S
      phase of the cell cycle), allows easy visualization of proliferating cells.
      Incorporated EdU can be detected without harsh chemical or enzymatic treatments
      and is fully compatible with a number of other staining methods, such as
      immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. This protocol describes how to
      detect proliferating cells using EdU staining in the intestines of Xenopus
      tadpoles (stages 54-66). Although this method was developed for studying
      intestinal metamorphosis, it should be applicable to other tissues/organs and
      other developmental stages as well.

PMID- 28864573
TI  - Metabolomics in Yeast.
AB  - Budding yeast has from the beginning been a major eukaryotic model for the study
      of metabolic network structure and function. This is attributable to both its
      genetic and biochemical capacities and its role as a workhorse in food production
      and biotechnology. New inventions in analytical technologies allow accurate,
      simultaneous detection and quantification of metabolites, and a series of recent
      findings have placed the metabolic network at center stage in the physiology of
      the cell. For example, metabolism might have facilitated the origin of life, and
      in modern organisms it not only provides nutrients to the cell but also serves as
      a buffer to changes in the cellular environment, a regulator of cellular
      processes, and a requirement for cell growth. These findings have triggered a
      rapid and massive renaissance in this important field. Here, we provide an
      introduction to analysis of metabolomics in yeast.

PMID- 28864574
TI  - Genome-Wide RNA Interference: Functional Genomics in the Postgenomics Era.
AB  - This introduction briefly describes the types of RNAi libraries (both shRNA-based
      and double-stranded siRNA-based) that are available for understanding diverse
      biological questions and then discusses recent advances in RNAi screening
      methodologies in mouse, rat, humans, Drosophila, and worms.

PMID- 28864575
TI  - Substitution of whole grains for refined grains: a means to avoid excess B
      vitamin intake.

PMID- 28864576
TI  - Reply to S-S Zhou and Y Zhou.

PMID- 28864577
TI  - Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, but not sedentary time, predicts changes
      in cardiometabolic risk factors in 10-y-old children: the Active Smarter Kids
      Study.

PMID- 28864578
TI  - Reply to A Lu and R Wang.

PMID- 28864579
TI  - The use of implausible data without caveats is misleading.

PMID- 28864580
TI  - Reply to E Archer.

PMID- 28864581
TI  - The NHANES dietary data are physiologically implausible and inadmissible as
      scientific evidence.

PMID- 28864582
TI  - Reply to E Archer.

PMID- 28864583
TI  - Mediterranean diet: omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids and diabetes.

PMID- 28864584
TI  - Odd-chain fatty acids as dietary biomarkers for fiber and fish intake.

PMID- 28864585
TI  - Reply to TM Venalainen et al.

PMID- 28864586
TI  - Dietary whole grains and zinc nutriture.

PMID- 28864587
TI  - Reply to HH Sandstead and AS Prasad.

PMID- 28864588
TI  - Considerations in hypermetabolism, cachexia, and survival in cancer.

PMID- 28864589
TI  - Reply to N Dominguez and T Canada.

PMID- 28864590
TI  - Regarding "Central adiposity and the overweight risk paradox in aging: follow-up
      of 130,473 UK Biobank participants".

PMID- 28864591
TI  - Reply to WG Thompson.

PMID- 28864592
TI  - Invitation for Nominations for 2018.

PMID- 28864594
TI  - Erratum for Pettit et al. Dietary methionine restriction regulates liver protein
      synthesis and gene expression independently of eukaryotic initiation factor 2
      phosphorylation in mice. J Nutr 2017;147:1031-40.

PMID- 28864596
TI  - Doctors' use of Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp is the focus of 28 GMC
      investigations.

PMID- 28864597
TI  - Parvovirus B19 Infection in Children With Arterial Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Case-control studies suggest that acute infection
      transiently increases the risk of childhood arterial ischemic stroke. We
      hypothesized that an unbiased pathogen discovery approach utilizing MassTag
      polymerase chain reaction would identify pathogens in the blood of childhood
      arterial ischemic stroke cases. METHODS: The multicenter international VIPS study
      (Vascular Effects of Infection in Pediatric Stroke) enrolled arterial ischemic
      stroke cases, and stroke-free controls, aged 29 days through 18 years. Parental
      interview included questions on recent infections. In this pilot study, we used
      MassTag-polymerase chain reaction to test the plasma of the first 161 cases and
      34 controls enrolled for a panel of 28 common bacterial and viral pathogens.
      RESULTS: Pathogen DNA was detected in no controls and 14 cases (8.7%): parvovirus
      B19 (n=10), herpesvirus 6 (n=2), adenovirus (n=1), and rhinovirus 6C (n=1).
      Parvovirus B19 infection was confirmed by serologies in all 10; infection was
      subclinical in 8. Four cases with parvovirus B19 had underlying congenital heart
      disease, whereas another 5 had a distinct arteriopathy involving a long-segment
      stenosis of the distal internal carotid and proximal middle cerebral arteries.
      CONCLUSIONS: Using MassTag-polymerase chain reaction, we detected parvovirus B19
      a virus known to infect erythrocytes and endothelial cells-in some cases of
      childhood arterial ischemic stroke. This approach can generate new, testable
      hypotheses about childhood stroke pathogenesis.

PMID- 28864598
TI  - Relationship of Preexisting Cardiovascular Comorbidities to Newly Diagnosed
      Atrial Fibrillation After Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There remains uncertainty as whether newly diagnosed
      atrial fibrillation (AF) after ischemic stroke reflects underlying heart disease
      and represents an increased risk of cardioembolic stroke, or whether it is
      triggered by neurogenic mechanisms. We aimed to determine whether cardiovascular
      comorbidities in patients with new AF after ischemic stroke differ from patients
      with previous known AF or without AF. METHODS: This French longitudinal cohort
      study was based on the database covering hospital care from 2009 to 2012 for the
      entire population. RESULTS: Of 336 291 patients with ischemic stroke, 240 459
      (71.5%) had no AF and 95 832 (28.5%) had previously known AF at baseline.
      Patients without previous AF had a mean CHA2DS2-VASc score of 4.98+/-1.63 SD.
      During a mean follow-up of 7.9+/-11.5 months, 14 095 (5.9%) of these patients had
      incident AF, representing an annual incidence of AF after ischemic stroke of 8.9
      per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval, 8.8-9.0). New AF patients had
      higher CHA2DS2-VASc score, more likely comorbidities, and more frequent history
      of previous transient ischemic attack than patients with previous known AF or
      without AF. CONCLUSIONS: Preexisting cardiovascular comorbidities underlie AF
      newly diagnosed after stroke. Consequently, these high-risk patients should be
      closely monitored for incident AF to facilitate an earlier diagnosis of AF and
      avoid stroke with appropriate thromboprophylaxis.

PMID- 28864599
TI  - Response by Brinjikji to Letter Regarding Article "Neurons Over Nephrons:
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Patients
      With Acute Stroke".

PMID- 28864600
TI  - Letter by Malhotra et al Regarding Article, "Neurons Over Nephrons: Systematic
      Review and Meta-Analysis of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Patients With Acute
      Stroke".

PMID- 28864602
TI  - Intermediate Filaments and the Regulation of Cell Motility during Regeneration
      and Wound Healing.
AB  - SUMMARYIntermediate filaments (IFs) comprise a diverse group of flexible
      cytoskeletal structures, the assembly, dynamics, and functions of which are
      regulated by posttranslational modifications. Characteristically, the expression
      of IF proteins is specific for tissues, differentiation stages, cell types, and
      functional contexts. Recent research has rapidly expanded the knowledge of IF
      protein functions. From being regarded as primarily structural proteins, it is
      now well established that IFs act as powerful modulators of cell motility and
      migration, playing crucial roles in wound healing and tissue regeneration, as
      well as inflammatory and immune responses. Although many of these IF-associated
      functions are essential for tissue repair, the involvement of IF proteins has
      been established in many additional facets of tissue healing and regeneration.
      Here, we review the recent progress in understanding the multiple functions of
      cytoplasmic IFs that relate to cell motility in the context of wound healing,
      taking examples from studies on keratin, vimentin, and nestin. Wound healing and
      regeneration include orchestration of a broad range of cellular processes,
      including regulation of cell attachment and migration, proliferation,
      differentiation, immune responses, angiogenesis, and remodeling of the
      extracellular matrix. In this respect, IF proteins now emerge as multifactorial
      and tissue-specific integrators of tissue regeneration, thereby acting as
      essential guardian biopolymers at the interface between health and disease, the
      failing of which contributes to a diverse range of pathologies.

PMID- 28864601
TI  - Predictive Value of Computed Tomography Angiography-Determined Occlusion Type in
      Stent Retriever Thrombectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We investigated whether occlusion type identified with
      computed tomography angiography (CTA-determined occlusion type) could predict
      endovascular treatment success using stent retriever (SR) thrombectomy. METHODS:
      Consecutive patients with stroke who underwent CTA and then endovascular
      treatment for intracranial large artery occlusion were retrospectively reviewed.
      CTA-determined occlusion type was classified into truncal-type occlusion or
      branching-site occlusion and compared with digital subtraction angiography
      determined occlusion type during endovascular treatment. Three rapidly- and
      readily-assessable pre-procedural findings (CTA-determined occlusion type, atrial
      fibrillation, and hyperdense artery sign), which may infer occlusion
      pathomechanism (embolic versus nonembolic) before endovascular treatment, were
      evaluated for association with SR success along with stroke risk factors and
      laboratory results. In addition, the predictive power of the 3 pre-procedural
      findings for SR success was compared with receiver operating characteristic curve
      analyses. RESULTS: A total of 238 patients (mean age, 70.0 years; male patients,
      52.9%) were included in this study. CTA-determined occlusion type corresponded
      adequately with digital subtraction angiography-determined occlusion type
      (P=0.453). Atrial fibrillation (odds ratio, 2.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.25
      5.66) and CTA-determined branching-site occlusion (odds ratio, 8.20; confidence
      interval, 3.45-19.5) were independent predictors for SR success. For predicting
      SR success, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value for
      CTA-determined branching-site occlusion (0.695) was significantly greater than
      atrial fibrillation (0.594; P=0.038) and hyperdense artery sign (0.603; P=0.023).
      CONCLUSIONS: CTA-determined branching-site occlusion was significantly associated
      with SR success. Furthermore, among the 3 rapidly- and readily-assessable pre
      procedural findings, CTA-determined branching-site occlusion had the greatest
      predictive power for SR success.

PMID- 28864603
TI  - Career Options for Scientists.
AB  - Most PhD students in the biological sciences will not go on to become academics.
      For these individuals, choosing the best career path can be difficult.
      Fortunately, there are many options that allow them to take advantage of skills
      they hone during graduate and postdoctoral work.

PMID- 28864604
TI  - Careers in Science Journalism and Writing.
AB  - Science journalists cover some of the most complex, exciting, and important
      issues of our day, ranging from the impacts of climate change to emerging
      infectious diseases. They use words, sounds, images, and graphics to create
      compelling stories about science that appear in newspapers and magazines, in
      print and online, on the radio and TV, and in podcasts and videos. The field is
      undergoing rapid change, which presents both challenges and opportunities. The
      migration of readers and advertising to the internet and digital platforms has
      led to declining sales of print publications. This means that jobs are now scarce
      in traditional print media, but that there are growing opportunities to produce
      digital content.

PMID- 28864605
TI  - Radioembolization of Colorectal Liver Metastases: Indications, Technique, and
      Outcomes.
AB  - Liver metastases are a major cause of death from colorectal cancer. Intraarterial
      therapy options for colorectal liver metastases include chemoinfusion via a
      hepatic arterial pump or port, irinotecan-loaded drug-eluting beads, and
      radioembolization using 90Y microspheres. Intraarterial therapy allows the
      delivery of a high dose of chemotherapy or radiation into liver tumors while
      minimizing the impact on liver parenchyma and avoiding systemic effects.
      Specificity in intraarterial therapy can be achieved both through preferential
      arterial flow to the tumor and through selective catheter positioning. In this
      review, we discuss indications, contraindications, preprocedure evaluation,
      activity prescription, follow-up, outcomes, and complications of
      radioembolization of colorectal liver metastases. Methods for preventing off
      target embolization, increasing the specificity of microsphere delivery, and
      reducing the lung-shunt fraction are discussed. There are 2 types of 90Y
      microspheres: resin and glass. Because glass microspheres have a higher activity
      per particle, they can deliver a particular radiation dose with fewer particles,
      likely reducing embolic effects. Glass microspheres thus may be more suitable
      when early stasis or reflux is a concern, in the setting of hepatocellular
      carcinoma with portal vein invasion, and for radiation segmentectomy. Because
      resin microspheres have a lower activity per particle, more particles are needed
      to deliver a particular radiation dose. Resin microspheres thus may be preferable
      for larger tumors and those with high arterial flow. In addition, resin
      microspheres have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
      colorectal liver metastases, whereas institutional review board approval is
      required before glass microspheres can be used under a compassionate-use or
      research protocol. Finally, radiation segmentectomy involves delivering a
      calculated lobar activity of 90Y microspheres selectively to treat a tumor
      involving 1 or 2 liver segments. This technique administers a very high radiation
      dose and effectively causes the ablation of tumors that are too large or are in a
      location considered unsafe for thermal ablation. The selective delivery spares
      surrounding normal liver, reducing the risk of liver failure.

PMID- 28864606
TI  - Approaches to Multireceptor Targeting: Hybrid Radioligands, Radioligand
      Cocktails, and Sequential Radioligand Applications.
AB  - Modern drug discovery highly depends on the identification and validation of the
      drug targets. Using the method of in vitro quantitative receptor autoradiography,
      we demonstrated that-for instance, in neuroendocrine tumors-up to 3 receptors can
      be coexpressed at a relatively high density. In addition, nonendocrine tumors
      such as breast, prostate, and brain tumors concomitantly express several G
      protein-coupled receptors at a high density. We propose 3 strategies for
      exploiting these findings for multireceptor targeting in vivo: use of
      heterobivalent or heteromultivalent ligands, which may bind simultaneously or
      monovalently to their different molecular targets; coinjection of a cocktail of
      radioligands; and sequential injection of different radioligands. Any of these
      strategies may help to remedy some of the major problems in cancer targeting:
      heterogeneity, change in phenotype during disease progression, and resistance.

PMID- 28864607
TI  - Glu-Ureido-Based Inhibitors of Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen: Lessons
      Learned During the Development of a Novel Class of Low-Molecular-Weight
      Theranostic Radiotracers.
AB  - In recent years, several radioligands targeting prostate-specific membrane
      antigen (PSMA) have been clinically introduced as a new class of theranostic
      radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of prostate cancer (PC). In the second
      decade of the 21st century, a new era in nuclear medicine was initiated by the
      clinical introduction of small-molecule PSMA inhibitor radioligands, 40 y after
      the clinical introduction of 18F-FDG. Because of the high incidence and mortality
      of PC, the new PSMA radioligands have already had a remarkable impact on the
      clinical management of PC. For the continuing clinical development and long-term
      success of theranostic agents, designing modern prospective clinical trials in
      theranostic nuclear medicine is essential. First-in-human studies with PSMA
      radioligands derived from small-molecule PSMA inhibitors showed highly sensitive
      imaging of PSMA-positive PC by means of PET and SPECT as well as a dramatic
      response of metastatic castration-resistant PC after PSMA radioligand therapy.
      This tremendous success logically led to the initiation of prospective clinical
      trials with several PSMA radioligands. Meanwhile, MIP-1404, PSMA-11, 2-(3-{1
      carboxy-5-[(6-fluoro-pyridine-3-carbonyl)-amino]-pentyl}-ureido)-pentanedioic
      acid (DCFPyL), PSMA-617, PSMA-1007, and others have entered or will enter
      prospective clinical trials soon in several countries. The significance becomes
      apparent by, for example, the considerable increase in the number of publications
      about PSMA-targeted PET imaging from 2013 to 2016 (e.g., a search of the Web of
      Science for "PSMA" AND "PET" found only 19 publications in 2013 but 218 in 2016).
      Closer examination of the initial success of PC treatment with PSMA inhibitor
      radiotracers leads to several questions from the basic research perspective as
      well as from the perspective of clinical demands: What lessons have been learned
      regarding the design of PSMA radioligands that have already been developed? Has
      an acceptable compromise between optimal PSMA radioligand design and a broad
      range of clinical demands been reached? Can the lessons learned from multiple
      successes within the PSMA experience be transferred to further theranostic
      approaches?

PMID- 28864608
TI  - Theranostic Concepts: More Than Just a Fashion Trend-Introduction and Overview.

PMID- 28864609
TI  - Identification of Ligands and Translation to Clinical Applications.
AB  - Technologic advances in molecular biology and biotechnology are increasingly
      being used for the development of new tumor-targeting tracers. In oncology, major
      progress has recently been achieved with peptidic and proteinaceous compounds.
      The development of new biocompatible molecules relies on the identification and
      validation of new target structures in close conjunction with the application of
      novel techniques. The identification of lead compounds by these techniques is
      followed by the screening of various derivatives of these molecules. Hence, high
      throughput methods that generate vast libraries of epitopes have been applied.
      These libraries are screened to identify the few variants that bind with a high
      affinity to the target structure. A key feature of this strategy is the large
      number of candidate molecules that can be identified. Further evaluation and
      optimization of these molecules requires characterization of structure-function
      relationships and subsequent improvement with respect to binding,
      internalization, and biodistribution through a rational design of corresponding
      analogs.

PMID- 28864610
TI  - Iodine Symporter Targeting with 124I/131I Theranostics.
AB  - Theranostics, a modern approach combining therapeutics and diagnostics, is among
      the most promising concepts in nuclear medicine for optimizing and
      individualizing treatments for many cancer entities. Theranostics has been used
      in clinical routines in nuclear medicine for more than 60 y-as 131I for
      diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in thyroid diseases. In this minireview, we
      provide a survey of the use of 2 different radioiodine isotopes for targeting the
      sodium-iodine symporter in thyroid cancer and nonthyroidal neoplasms as well as a
      brief summary of theranostics for neuroendocrine neoplasms and metastatic
      castration-refractory prostate cancer. In particular, we discuss the role of 124I
      based dosimetry in targeting of the sodium-iodine symporter and describe the
      clinical application of 124I dosimetry in a patient who had radioiodine
      refractory thyroid cancer and who underwent a redifferentiation treatment with
      the mitogen-activated extracellular signal-related kinase kinase inhibitor
      trametinib.

PMID- 28864612
TI  - Clinical History of the Theranostic Radionuclide Approach to Neuroendocrine
      Tumors and Other Types of Cancer: Historical Review Based on an Interview of Eric
      P. Krenning by Rachel Levine.
AB  - In nuclear medicine, the term theranostics describes the combination of therapy
      and diagnostic imaging. In practice, this concept dates back more than 50 years;
      however, among the most successful examples of theranostics are peptide receptor
      scintigraphy and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy of neuroendocrine tumors.
      The development of these modalities through the radiolabeling of somatostatin
      analogs with various radionuclides has led to a revolution in patient management
      and established a foundation for expansion of the theranostic principle into
      other oncology indications. This article provides a review of the evolution and
      development of the theranostic radionuclide approach to the management of
      neuroendocrine tumors, as described by the inventor of this technique, Eric P.
      Krenning, in an interview with Rachel Levine.

PMID- 28864613
TI  - Somatostatin Receptor 2-Targeting Compounds.
AB  - The molecular imaging and treatment of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) with
      radiolabeled somatostatin analogs represent a milestone in the development of
      theranostic compounds. Whole-body scintigraphy with 111In-pentetreotide has
      revolutionized the diagnosis and staging of NETs and the evaluation of treatment
      outcomes. At present, diagnostic accuracy with positron-emitting radionuclides is
      greater than 90%. Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) has become a well
      accepted treatment for patients with well-differentiated inoperable or metastatic
      NETs and disease progression after first-line treatment. Disease control rates
      (complete or partial remission or stable disease in patients with formerly
      progressive disease) of up to 95%, with a low incidence of long-term hematologic
      and renal toxicity, have been reported. In a recently published randomized trial,
      compared with intensified treatment of midgut NETs with long-acting and
      repeatable octreotide, PRRT reduced the hazard of disease progression and death
      by 79%. Upcoming developments in PRRT include the use of somatostatin receptor
      antagonists and alpha-emitting radionuclides, which may further enhance treatment
      outcomes.

PMID- 28864611
TI  - Norepinephrine Transporter as a Target for Imaging and Therapy.
AB  - The norepinephrine transporter (NET) is essential for norepinephrine uptake at
      the synaptic terminals and adrenal chromaffin cells. In neuroendocrine tumors,
      NET can be targeted for imaging as well as therapy. One of the most widely used
      theranostic agents targeting NET is metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG), a
      guanethidine analog of norepinephrine. 123I/131I-MIBG theranostics have been
      applied in the clinical evaluation and management of neuroendocrine tumors,
      especially in neuroblastoma, paraganglioma, and pheochromocytoma. 123I-MIBG
      imaging is a mainstay in the evaluation of neuroblastoma, and 131I-MIBG has been
      used for the treatment of relapsed high-risk neuroblastoma for several years,
      however, the outcome remains suboptimal. 131I-MIBG has essentially been only
      palliative in paraganglioma/pheochromocytoma patients. Various techniques of
      improving therapeutic outcomes, such as dosimetric estimations, high-dose
      therapies, multiple fractionated administration and combination therapy with
      radiation sensitizers, chemotherapy, and other radionuclide therapies, are being
      evaluated. PET tracers targeting NET appear promising and may be more convenient
      options for the imaging and assessment after treatment. Here, we present an
      overview of NET as a target for theranostics; review its current role in some
      neuroendocrine tumors, such as neuroblastoma, paraganglioma/pheochromocytoma, and
      carcinoids; and discuss approaches to improving targeting and theranostic
      outcomes.

PMID- 28864614
TI  - Somatostatin Receptor Antagonists for Imaging and Therapy.
AB  - Somatostatin receptor (sstr) scintigraphy for imaging and sstr analogs for
      treatment have been used for more than 20 y. An important improvement in recent
      years was the introduction of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy with
      radiolabeled sstr agonists, such as [90Y-DOTA0,Tyr3]octreotide or [177Lu
      DOTA0,Tyr3]octreotide (90Y- or 177Lu-DOTATOC, respectively) and [177Lu
      DOTA0,Tyr3]octreotate (177Lu-DOTATATE). PET/CT with 68Ga-labeled sstr agonists,
      such as 68Ga-DOTATOC, 68Ga-DOTATATE, and [68Ga-DOTA,1-Nal3]octreotide (68Ga
      DOTANOC), plays an important role in staging and restaging neuroendocrine tumors.
      Most importantly, sstr scintigraphy and sstr PET/CT can distinguish patients who
      will qualify for and benefit from peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. This
      characteristic of sstr targeting is important because it allows a personalized
      treatment approach (theranostic approach). Until recently, it was thought that
      internalization of the radiolabeled agonist was mandatory for sstr-mediated
      imaging and therapy. It was Ginj et al. who proposed in 2006 the paradigm shift
      that radiolabeled sstr antagonists may perform better than agonists despite the
      lack of internalization. Despite the rather limited number of head-to-head
      comparisons of sstr antagonists and agonists, the superiority of sstr antagonists
      was demonstrated in several cases. From a small library of sstr antagonists, the
      analog JR11 (Cpa-c[d-Cys-Aph(Hor)-d-Aph(Cbm)-Lys-Thr-Cys]-d-Tyr-NH2), an
      antagonist with selectivity for sstr subtype 2, showed the best overall
      characteristics for sstr subtype 2 targeting and was therefore selected for
      clinical translation. JR11 is under clinical development as a PET imaging agent
      when labeled with 68Ga (68Ga-NODAGA-JR11 or 68Ga-OPS202) and as a therapeutic
      agent when labeled with 177Lu (177Lu-DOTA-JR11 or 177Lu-OPS201). In this article,
      we discuss the development and current status of radiolabeled sstr antagonists.
      Evidence based on preclinical work, on quantitative in vivo autoradiography of
      human tumor slices, and on human data now supports a shift to sstr antagonists.

PMID- 28864615
TI  - Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Ligands for Imaging and Therapy.
AB  - The prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is highly expressed on most
      prostate cancer (PC) cells. Therefore, the targeting of PSMA has become
      increasingly important over the last decade. Glu-urea-based PSMA ligands used for
      both imaging and radioligand therapy are the mainstays of the current success.
      For PET imaging, both 68Ga- and 18F-labeled agents have been successfully
      translated to clinical applications. Mainly retrospective cohort studies have
      shown a high value in the setting of biochemical recurrence, with high detection
      rates even in the presence of low prostate-specific antigen levels. Preliminary
      data indicated that radioguided surgery with PSMA ligands may help to further
      improve patient outcomes because it facilitates the removal of small tumor
      deposits that are otherwise difficult to detect. For primary PC, PSMA ligand PET
      imaging has been shown to be superior to cross-sectional imaging for the
      detection of metastatic lymph nodes. In addition, it promises to also provide
      intraprostatic tumor localization, especially when used in combination with
      multiparametric MRI. Increasing numbers of studies have reported considerable
      changes in management resulting from PSMA ligand PET imaging for both biochemical
      recurrence and primary disease. The use of 177Lu-PSMA-based radioligand therapy
      has demonstrated a reasonable response, mainly as defined by a prostate-specific
      antigen response of more than 50%, comparable to other recently introduced
      agents. Especially given the high level of safety of 177Lu-PSMA radioligand
      therapy, with only minimal grade 3 and 4 toxicities reported so far, it has the
      potential to expand options for metastatic castration-resistant PC. This review
      is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the current literature on low
      molecular-weight PSMA ligands for both PET imaging and therapeutic approaches,
      with a focus on agents that have been clinically adopted.

PMID- 28864616
TI  - CXCR4 Ligands: The Next Big Hit?
AB  - The G protein-coupled protein receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) is an
      attractive target for cancer diagnosis and treatment, as it is overexpressed in
      many solid and hematologic cancers. Binding of its ligand, C-X-C chemokine ligand
      12 (CXCL12), results in receptor internalization and activation of several signal
      transduction pathways, such as phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B, which
      are critical in cell proliferation, angiogenesis, development of metastasis, and
      survival. Also, the CXCR4-CXCL12 axis is involved in the interaction between
      hematopoietic stem cells (as well as hematologic and solid tumor cells) and their
      protective microenvironment. This interaction can be disrupted by CXCR4
      antagonists. This concept is being used clinically to harvest hematopoietic stem
      or progenitor cells from bone marrow and to sensitize cancer cells to
      conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and the potential to overcome tumor
      microenvironment-driven immunosuppression is being explored. This review focuses
      on new strategies for improvement of cancer treatment by targeting of the CXCR4
      CXCL12 interaction. Because of its critical role in cancer, many peptidic and
      nonpeptidic ligands with different modes of antagonistic activity against the
      CXCR4-CXCL12 axis have been developed, with some of them reaching clinical
      trials. Molecular imaging with recently developed radiolabeled CXCR4 ligands
      could facilitate the selection of patients who might benefit from directed
      targeted therapy, including CXCR4-directed endoradiotherapy.

PMID- 28864618
TI  - Theranostics Using Antibodies and Antibody-Related Therapeutics.
AB  - In theranostics, radiolabeled compounds are used to determine a treatment
      strategy by combining therapeutics and diagnostics in the same agent. Monoclonal
      antibodies (mAbs) and antibody-related therapeutics represent a rapidly expanding
      group of cancer medicines. Theranostic approaches using these drugs in oncology
      are particularly interesting because antibodies are designed against specific
      targets on the tumor cell membrane and immune cells as well as targets in the
      tumor microenvironment. In addition, these drugs are relatively easy to
      radiolabel. Noninvasive molecular imaging techniques, such as SPECT and PET,
      provide information on the whole-body distribution of radiolabeled mAbs and
      antibody-related therapeutics. Molecular antibody imaging can potentially
      elucidate drug target expression, tracer uptake in the tumor, tumor saturation,
      and heterogeneity for these parameters within the tumor. These data can support
      drug development and may aid in patient stratification and monitoring of the
      treatment response. Selecting a radionuclide for theranostic purposes generally
      starts by matching the serum half-life of the mAb or antibody-related therapeutic
      and the physical half-life of the radionuclide. Furthermore, PET imaging allows
      better quantification than the SPECT technique. This information has increased
      interest in theranostics using PET radionuclides with a relatively long physical
      half-life, such as 89Zr. In this review, we provide an overview of ongoing
      research on mAbs and antibody-related theranostics in preclinical and clinical
      oncologic settings. We identified 24 antibodies or antibody-related therapeutics
      labeled with PET radionuclides for theranostic purposes in patients. For this
      approach to become integrated in standard care, further standardization with
      respect to the procedures involved is required.

PMID- 28864619
TI  - Therapeutic Radiometals Beyond 177Lu and 90Y: Production and Application of
      Promising alpha-Particle, beta--Particle, and Auger Electron Emitters.
AB  - In recent years, new alpha-particle-, beta--particle-, and Auger electron
      emitting radiometals-such as 67Cu, 47Sc, 166Ho, 161Tb, 149Tb, 212Pb/212Bi, 225Ac,
      and 213Bi-have been produced and evaluated (pre)clinically for therapeutic
      purposes. In this short review article, the most important routes of production
      of these radiometals are critically discussed, as are examples of their
      application in preclinical and clinical studies.

PMID- 28864620
TI  - Individualized Dosimetry for Theranostics: Necessary, Nice to Have, or
      Counterproductive?
AB  - In 2005, the term theragnostics (theranostics) was introduced for describing the
      use of imaging for therapy planning in radiation oncology. In nuclear medicine,
      this expression describes the use of tracers for predicting the absorbed doses in
      molecular radiotherapy and, thus, the safety and efficacy of a treatment. At
      present, the most successful groups of isotopes for this purpose are
      123I/124I/131I, 68Ga/177Lu, and 111In/86Y/90Y. The purpose of this review is to
      summarize available data on the dosimetry and dose-response relationships of
      several theranostic compounds, with a special focus on radioiodine therapy for
      differentiated thyroid cancer and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. These
      are treatment modalities for which dose-response relationships for healthy
      tissues and tumors have been demonstrated. In addition, available data
      demonstrate that posttherapeutic dosimetry after a first treatment cycle predicts
      the absorbed doses in further cycles. Both examples show the applicability of the
      concept of theranostics in molecular radiotherapies. Nevertheless, unanswered
      questions need to be addressed in clinical trials incorporating dosimetry-related
      concepts for determining the amount of therapeutic activity to be administered.

PMID- 28864621
TI  - Nuclear Medicine Career Portal for Young Physicians.

PMID- 28864622
TI  - Nominations Open for 2 SNMMI Awards.

PMID- 28864623
TI  - From the ABNM: Updates on MOC Part 3.

PMID- 28864624
TI  - SNMMI Leadership Update: Strategic Advocacy.

PMID- 28864628
TI  - All tests can sometimes cause more harm than good.

PMID- 28864629
TI  - Predictive Value of PET Response Combined with Baseline Metabolic Tumor Volume in
      Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma Patients.
AB  - Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a heterogeneous group of aggressive non
      Hodgkin lymphomas with poor outcomes on current therapy. We investigated whether
      response assessed with PET/CT combined with baseline total metabolic tumor volume
      (TMTV) could detect early relapse or refractory disease. Methods: From 7 European
      centers, 140 patients with nodal PTCL who underwent baseline PET/CT were
      selected. Forty-three had interim PET (iPET) performed after 2 cycles (iPET2), 95
      had iPET performed after 3 or 4 cycles (iPET3/4), and 96 had end-of-treatment PET
      (eotPET). Baseline TMTV was computed with a 41% SUVmax threshold, and PET
      response was reported using the Deauville 5-point scale. Results: With a median
      of 43 mo of follow-up, the 2-y progression-free survival (PFS) and overall
      survival (OS) were 51% and 67%, respectively. iPET2-positive patients (Deauville
      score >= 4) had a significantly worse outcome than iPET2-negative patients (P <
      0.0001, hazard ratio of 6.8 for PFS; P < 0.0001, hazard ratio of 6.6 for OS). The
      value of iPET3/4 was also confirmed for PFS (P < 0.0001) and OS (P < 0.0001). The
      2-y PFS and OS for iPET3/4-positive (n = 28) and iPET3/4-negative (n = 67)
      patients were 16% and 32% versus 75% and 85%, respectively. The eotPET results
      also reflected patient outcome. A model combining TMTV and iPET3/4 stratified the
      population into distinct risk groups (TMTV <= 230 cm3 and iPET3/4-negative [2-y
      PFS/OS, 79%/85%]; TMTV > 230 cm3 and iPET3/4-negative [59%/84%]; TMTV <= 230 cm3
      and iPET3/4-positive [42%/50%]; TMTV > 230 cm3 and iPET3/4-positive [0%/18%]).
      Conclusion: iPET response is predictive of outcome and allows early detection of
      high-risk PTCL patients. Combining iPET with TMTV improves risk stratification in
      individual patients.

PMID- 28864630
TI  - A PET/CT-Based Strategy Is a Stronger Predictor of Survival Than a Standard
      Imaging Strategy in Patients with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - Our purpose was to examine whether staging of head and neck squamous cell
      carcinoma (HNSCC) by upfront 18F-FDG PET/CT (i.e., on the day of biopsy and
      before the biopsy) discriminates survival better than the traditional imaging
      strategies based on chest x-ray plus head and neck MRI (CXR/MRI) or chest CT plus
      head and neck MRI (CCT/MRI). Methods: We performed a masked prospective cohort
      study based on paired data. Consecutive patients with histologically verified
      primary HNSCC were recruited from Odense University Hospital from September 2013
      to March 2016. All patients underwent CXR/MRI, CCT/MRI, and PET/CT on the same
      day. Tumors were categorized as localized (stages I and II), locally advanced
      (stages III and IVB), or metastatic (stage IVC). Discriminative ability for each
      imaging modality with respect to HNSCC staging were compared using Kaplan-Meier
      analysis, Cox proportional hazards regression with the Harrell C-index, and net
      reclassification improvement. Results: In total, 307 patients with histologically
      verified HNSCC were included. Use of PET/CT significantly altered the
      stratification of tumor stage when compared with either CXR/MRI or CCT/MRI (chi2,
      P < 0.001 for both). Cancer stages based on PET/CT, but not CXR/MRI or CCT/MRI,
      were associated with significant differences in mortality risk on Kaplan-Meier
      analyses (P <= 0.002 for all PET/CT-based comparisons). Furthermore, overall
      discriminative ability was significantly greater for PET/CT (C-index, 0.712) than
      for CXR/MRI (C-index, 0.675; P = 0.04) or CCT/MRI (C-index, 0.657; P = 0.02).
      Finally, PET/CT was significantly associated with a positive net reclassification
      improvement when compared with CXR/MRI (0.184, P = 0.03) but not CCT/MRI (0.094%,
      P = 0.31). Conclusion: Tumor stages determined by PET/CT were associated with
      more distinct prognostic properties in terms of survival than those determined by
      standard imaging strategies.

PMID- 28864631
TI  - Radionuclide Tumor Targeting Using ADAPT Scaffold Proteins: Aspects of Label
      Positioning and Residualizing Properties of the Label.
AB  - Visualization of cancer-associated alterations of molecular phenotype using
      radionuclide imaging is a noninvasive approach to stratifying patients for
      targeted therapies. The engineered albumin-binding domain-derived affinity
      protein (ADAPT) is a promising tracer for radionuclide molecular imaging because
      of its small size (6.5 kDa), which satisfies the precondition for efficient tumor
      penetration and rapid clearance. Previous studies demonstrated that the human
      epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)-targeting ADAPT6 labeled with
      radiometals at the N terminus is able to image HER2 expression in xenografts a
      few hours after injection. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the use
      of a nonresidualizing label or placement of the labels at the C terminus would
      further improve the targeting properties of ADAPT6. Methods: Two constructs, Cys2
      ADAPT6 and Cys59-ADAPT6, having the (HE)3DANS sequence at the N terminus were
      produced and site-specifically labeled using 111In-DOTA or 125I-iodo-((4
      hydroxyphenyl)ethyl) maleimide (HPEM). The conjugates were compared in vitro and
      in vivo. HER2-targeting properties and biodistribution were evaluated in BALB/C
      nu/nu mice bearing ovarian carcinoma cell (SKOV-3) xenografts. Results: Specific
      HER2 binding and high affinity were preserved after labeling. Both Cys2-ADAPT6
      and Cys59-ADAPT6 were internalized slowly by HER2-expressing cancer cells.
      Depending on the label position, uptake at 4 h after injection varied from 10% to
      22% of the injected dose per gram of tumor tissue. Regardless of terminus
      position, the 125I-HPEM label provided more than 140-fold lower renal uptake than
      the 111In-DOTA label at 4 after injection. The tumor-to-organ ratios were, in
      contrast, higher for both of the 111In-DOTA-labeled ADAPT variants in other
      organs. Tumor-to-blood ratios for 111In-labeled Cys2-ADAPT6 and Cys59-ADAPT6 did
      not differ significantly (250-280), but 111In-DOTA-Cys59-ADAPT6 provided
      significantly higher tumor-to-lung, tumor-to-liver, tumor-to-spleen, and tumor-to
      muscle ratios. Radioiodinated variants had similar tumor-to-organ ratios, but
      125I-HPEM-Cys59-ADAPT6 had significantly higher tumor uptake and a higher tumor
      to-kidney ratio. Conclusion: Residualizing properties of the label strongly
      influence the targeting properties of ADAPT6. The position of the radiolabel
      influences targeting as well, although to a lesser extent. Placement of a label
      at the C terminus yields the best biodistribution features for both radiometal
      and radiohalogen labels. Low renal retention of the radioiodine label creates a
      precondition for radionuclide therapy using 131I-labeled HPEM-Cys59-ADAPT6.

PMID- 28864632
TI  - 223Ra Therapy of Advanced Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer:
      Quantitative Assessment of Skeletal Tumor Burden for Prognostication of Clinical
      Outcome and Hematologic Toxicity.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the quantitative
      assessment of skeletal tumor burden on bone scintigraphy (Bone Scan Index [BSI])
      in patients who have advanced metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
      (mCRPC) and are receiving 223RaCl2 We hypothesized that the BSI can serve as a
      prognostic biomarker of overall survival (OS) and hematologic toxicity and as a
      tool for response assessment in patients with mCRPC treated with 223RaCl2Methods:
      This study was a retrospective investigation of a Danish cohort of mCRPC patients
      who received 223RaCl2 therapy between March 2014 and October 2015 and for whom
      baseline bone scintigraphy was available. Bone scintigraphy studies were reviewed
      and graded according to the extent of disease. Furthermore, an automated BSI
      (EXINI BoneBSI) was obtained for baseline scintigraphy studies and follow-up
      scans after 3 cycles as well as at the end of therapy. Clinical outcomes were OS
      and occurrence of hematologic toxicity of grades 2-5. Associations between the
      BSI and clinical outcomes were investigated in multivariate regression models
      including the visual assessment of bone scintigraphy and other relevant
      covariates. Results: A total of 88 patients were included. The median number of
      completed 223RaCl2 cycles was 4, and 27 patients (31%) completed 6 cycles. The
      BSI was significantly associated with OS in the multivariate analysis; the median
      OS for patients with a BSI of greater than 5 was 8.2 mo, and the median OS for
      patients with a BSI of less than or equal to 5 was 15.0 mo (hazard ratio, 2.65
      [95% confidence interval, 1.5-4.71]; P = 0.001). Likewise, the baseline BSI was
      prognostic for the occurrence of hematologic toxicity; patients with a BSI of
      greater than 5 had an odds ratio of 3.02 (95% confidence interval, 1.2-7.8; P =
      0.02) for toxicity. The BSI declined during therapy in 44% of the patients who
      completed 3 cycles of 223RaCl2 (n = 52) and in 84% of the patients after the end
      of therapy (n = 32). There was no significant association between a change in the
      BSI during therapy and OS. Conclusion: The BSI is a promising biomarker for
      prognostication of OS and hematologic toxicity in late-stage mCRPC patients
      receiving 223RaCl2 Further prospective studies are needed to evaluate the
      potential of the BSI for response assessment in 223RaCl2 therapy.

PMID- 28864633
TI  - Correlations of 18F-THK5351 PET with Postmortem Burden of Tau and Astrogliosis in
      Alzheimer Disease.
AB  - Clinical PET studies using 18F-THK5351 have demonstrated significant tracer
      retention in sites susceptible to tau burden in Alzheimer disease (AD). However,
      the in vivo PET signal to reflect tau aggregates remains controversial. Methods:
      We examined the spatial pattern of tracer binding, amyloid-beta, tau, and gliosis
      in an autopsy-confirmed AD patient who underwent 18F-THK5351 and 11C-Pittsburgh
      compound B PET before death. Results: Regional in vivo 18F-THK5351 retention was
      significantly correlated with the density of tau aggregates in the neocortex and
      monoamine oxidase-B in the whole brain, but not correlated with that of insoluble
      amyloid-beta. Furthermore, significant association was observed between the
      density of tau aggregates, monoamine oxidase-B, and glial fibrillary acidic
      protein, suggesting that neocortical tau would strongly influence the formation
      of reactive astrocytes. Conclusion:18F-THK5351 PET may have limited utility as a
      biomarker of tau pathology in AD; however, it could be used to monitor the
      neuroinflammatory processes in the living brain.

PMID- 28864634
TI  - Evaluation of the Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor Type 1 Radioligand 11C-BMT
      136088 for Lung Imaging in Rhesus Monkeys.
AB  - The lysophosphatidic acid receptor type 1 (LPA1) is 1 of 6 known receptors of the
      extracellular signaling molecule lysophosphatidic acid. It mediates effects such
      as cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. In the lung, LPA1 is
      involved in pathways leading, after lung tissue injury, to pulmonary fibrosis
      instead of normal healing, by mediating fibroblast recruitment and vascular
      leakage. Thus, a LPA1 PET radiotracer may be useful for studying lung fibrosis or
      for developing LPA1-targeting drugs. We developed and evaluated the radiotracer
      11C-BMT-136088 (1-(4'-(3-methyl-4-(((1(R)-(3-11C
      methylphenyl)ethoxy)carbonyl)amino)isoxazol-5-yl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4
      yl)cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) in rhesus monkeys to image LPA1 in the lung in
      vivo with PET. Methods: The study consisted of 3 parts: test-retest scans; self
      saturation to estimate the tracer's in vivo dissociation constant,
      nondisplaceable volume of distribution (VND), and nondisplaceable binding
      potential (BPND); and dosimetry. In the first 2 parts, the radiotracer was
      administered using a bolus-plus-infusion protocol, the arterial input function
      was measured, and the animals underwent 2 scans per day separated by about 4 h.
      Lung regions of interest were segmented, and the tissue density estimated, from
      CT images. A fixed blood volume correction was applied. The tracer volume of
      distribution (VT) was estimated using multilinear analysis 1 (MA1) or equilibrium
      analysis (EA). Results:11C-BMT-136088 baseline VT was 1.83 +/- 0.16 (MA1, n = 5)
      or 2.1 +/- 0.55 (EA, n = 7) mL of plasma per gram of tissue in the left and right
      lung regions of interest, with a test-retest variability of -6% (MA1, n = 1) or 
      1% +/- 14% (EA, n = 2). For the self-saturation study, 11C-BMT-136088 VND and
      BPND were estimated to be 0.9 +/- 0.08 mL of plasma per gram of tissue and 1.1 +/
      0.14, respectively. The unlabeled drug dose and plasma concentration leading to
      a 50% reduction of 11C-BMT-136088 specific binding were 73 +/- 30 nmol/kg and 28
      +/- 12 nM, respectively. The average plasma free fraction was 0.2%; thus, the
      tracer's in vivo dissociation constant was estimated to be 55 pM. For the
      dosimetry study, the highest organ dose was in the liver (43.1 +/- 4.9 and 68.9
      +/- 9.4 MUSv/MBq in reference human male and female phantoms, respectively), and
      the effective dose equivalent was 6.9 +/- 0.6 and 8.7 +/- 0.6 MUSv/MBq,
      respectively. Conclusion: Specific binding of 11C-BMT-136088 can be reliably
      measured to quantify LPA1 in the lungs of rhesus monkeys in vivo.

PMID- 28864638
TI  - Fast-TRKing Drug Development for Rare Molecular Targets.
AB  - <b/> Drug development for rare molecular targets in oncology presents unique
      challenges. In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Drilon and colleagues report the
      accelerated development and innovative initial clinical trial strategy of a next
      generation TRK inhibitor, LOXO-195, designed to overcome common secondary TRK
      resistance mutations. Cancer Discov; 7(9); 934-6. (c)2017 AACR.See related
      article by Drilon et al., p. 963.

PMID- 28864639
TI  - Reversion Mutations with Clinical Use of PARP Inhibitors: Many Genes, Many
      Versions.
AB  - <b/> Reversion mutations associated with PARP inhibitor resistance have been
      identified in tumors with RAD51C, RAD51D, and PALB2 as well as BRCA1 and BRCA2
      mutations. Multiple different reversion mutations can occur in a single patient,
      and they can be detected by analysis of circulating cell-free DNA. Cancer Discov;
      7(9); 937-9. (c)2017 AACRSee related article by Kondrashova et al., p. 984See
      related article by Quigley et al., p. 999See related article by Goodall et al.,
      p. 1006.

PMID- 28864640
TI  - Spotlight on Ibrutinib in PCNSL: Adding Another Feather to Its Cap.
AB  - <b/> In this issue Grommes and colleagues elegantly show that the irreversible
      inhibitor of Bruton tyrosine kinase, ibrutinib, promotes a high proportion of
      durable responses in primary central nervous system lymphoma, a type of diffuse
      large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and also in secondary DLBCL relapsing to the
      central nervous system. Mutations in the B-cell antigen receptor-associated
      protein CD79B with upregulation of the MTOR pathway were associated with
      diminished response, but preclinical combination of PIK3CA and PIK3CD inhibitors
      synergized with ibrutinib to overcome this resistance mechanism, providing
      opportunity for further targeted therapy of this difficult-to-treat disease.
      Cancer Discov; 7(9); 940-2. (c)2017 AACRSee related article by Grommes et al., p.
      1018.

PMID- 28864641
TI  - Trends in Treatment, Outcomes, and Incidence of Orthopedic Surgery in Patients
      with Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Observational Cohort Study Using the Japanese
      National Database of Rheumatic Diseases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, we investigated the changes in clinical outcome,
      treatment, and incidence of orthopedic surgery in patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) from 2004 to 2014. METHODS: Data were studied from the Japanese
      nationwide cohort database, NinJa (National Database of Rheumatic Diseases by iR
      net in Japan), from 2004 to 2014. The time trends in the incidence of orthopedic
      procedures were analyzed using linear regression analysis. The cross-sectional
      annual data were compared between 2004 and 2014 to analyze the changes in
      clinical outcome and treatment. RESULTS: The incidence of orthopedic surgeries in
      patients with RA consistently decreased from 72.2 procedures per 1000 patients in
      2004 to 51.5 procedures per 1000 patients in 2014 (regression coefficient = 
      0.0028, 95% CI -0.0038 to -0.0019, p < 0.001). The greatest reduction was found
      in total knee arthroplasty and total hip arthroplasty. Disease activity and
      functional disability improved significantly over this decade. The proportions of
      patients receiving methotrexate and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic
      drugs significantly increased from 39.6% and 1.7% in 2004 to 63.8% and 27.4% in
      2014, respectively. CONCLUSION: The overall incidence of orthopedic surgeries in
      patients with RA significantly decreased, accompanied by improved clinical
      outcomes because of the expanded use of effective drugs; however, the declining
      trend differed between procedures or locations. The results from the present
      study suggest that there might be a change in supply and demand for orthopedic
      surgeries.

PMID- 28864642
TI  - Closing the Serological Gap in the Antiphospholipid Syndrome: The Value of "Non
      criteria" Antiphospholipid Antibodies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Most clinicians use the 2006 Sydney classification criteria to
      evaluate patients suspected of having antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Although
      sensitive and specific for APS, many patients fulfilling clinical criteria for
      the syndrome are persistently negative for the specific serological tests
      ("laboratory criteria"). These "seronegative APS" (SN-APS) patients can go
      undiagnosed and untreated until they experience serious clinical events. This
      study's objective was to describe antibody profiles of SN-APS patients using non
      criteria markers, assess the clinical utility of these markers separately and in
      combination, and suggest incorporation into guidelines for patients suspected of
      APS. METHODS: We categorized 175 consecutive patients suspected of APS into 2
      subgroups: 107 fulfilling Sydney APS classification for seropositive APS (SP-APS)
      and 68 with clinical manifestations suggestive of APS but having negative
      serology, on 2 occasions, for criteria markers (SN-APS). On study inclusion,
      samples were retested for criteria and 11 non-criteria markers, including
      antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin antibodies. RESULTS: Using 4 of 11 non
      criteria tests, a cumulative 30.9% of SN-APS patients were detected. Combining
      results of all 11 non-criteria tests, 25 SN-APS (36.8%) and 89 SP-APS (83.2%)
      were positive for 1 or more non-criteria antibodies. CONCLUSION: Failure to
      diagnose APS can result in severe clinical consequences. Patients displaying
      clinical features of APS, but negative for conventional criteria markers, should
      undergo additional testing for non-criteria biomarkers. In our cohort, around one
      third of SN-APS patients showed reactivity to 1 or more non-criteria markers. An
      update to the current classification criteria incorporating new serological
      markers should be considered to identify and stratify patients with APS for more
      effective treatment and management.

PMID- 28864643
TI  - Performance of Screening Tests for Cognitive Impairment in Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is a need for a cognitive function screening test that can be
      administered to patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in clinic. The
      objectives of this study were to determine (1) prevalence of cognitive impairment
      (CI) in SLE by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Mini Mental State
      Examination (MMSE), in relation to the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT
      R), and Perceived Deficits Questionnaire 5-Item (PDQ-5); and (2) associated
      factors with CI. METHODS: Consecutive patients followed at a single center were
      recruited. HVLT-R, MoCA, and MMSE were administered. Sensitivity/specificity,
      positive (PPV)/negative (NPV) predictive values, and positive likelihood ratio
      (LR+) of MoCA/MMSE were determined (compared to HVLT-R). A test on intellectual
      ability and questionnaires on anxiety, depression, and perceived cognitive
      deficits were completed. Regression analyses determined associations with CI.
      RESULTS: Of 98 patients, 48% had CI using MoCA and 31% using HVLT-R. Sensitivity
      was higher for MoCA (73%) compared to MMSE (27%), though MMSE was more specific
      (90%) than MoCA (63%). PPV and LR+ were similar in MoCA and MMSE (PPV: 47%, 53%;
      LR+: 2.0, 2.6, respectively), but NPV was higher in MoCA (84%) than MMSE (74%).
      PDQ-5 predicted objective CI (HVLT-R: sensitivity 100%, specificity 89%).
      Although CI was associated with depression in univariate analyses, it did not
      hold in the multivariate analysis, while longer SLE disease duration and more
      years of education remained significant. CONCLUSION: CI is highly prevalent and
      MoCA may be a useful tool to screen for CI in SLE. Patients with more years of
      education were less likely to have CI.

PMID- 28864644
TI  - Myositis-associated Interstitial Lung Disease: Predictors of Failure of
      Conventional Treatment and Response to Tacrolimus in a US Cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with myositis-associated interstitial lung disease (MA-ILD)
      are often refractory to conventional treatment, and predicting their response to
      therapy is challenging. Recent case reports and small series suggest that
      tacrolimus may be useful in refractory cases. METHODS: A retrospective cohort
      study of patients with MA-ILD comparing clinical characteristics between those
      who responded to or failed conventional treatment. In those who failed
      conventional treatment and received adjunctive tacrolimus, response to tacrolimus
      was measured by the improvement in myositis, ILD, and change in the dose of
      glucocorticoids. RESULTS: Thirty-one of 54 patients (57%) responded to
      conventional treatment based on the predefined variables of improvement in
      myositis and/or ILD. Patients with polymyositis (PM)-ILD were more likely to
      respond to conventional treatment than those with dermatomyositis (DM)-ILD (67%
      vs 35%, p = 0.013). Twenty-three patients failed conventional treatment, 18 of
      whom subsequently received adjunctive tacrolimus. Ninety-four percent had
      improvements in ILD and 72% showed improvement in both myositis and ILD. The mean
      doses of prednisone decreased from baseline by 65% at 3-6 months (p = 0.002) and
      81% at 1 year (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients with PM-ILD were more likely to
      respond to conventional treatment than patients with DM-ILD, but clinical
      characteristics and serology did not otherwise predict response to therapy. A
      majority of patients with MA-ILD refractory to conventional therapy improved
      while receiving tacrolimus and were able to decrease their dose of both
      glucocorticoids and other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

PMID- 28864645
TI  - Risk of Retinal Toxicity in Longterm Users of Hydroxychloroquine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several studies have reported risk factors for hydroxychloroquine
      (HCQ) retinal toxicity, but data are limited for patients of Asian ancestry. The
      aim of this study was to investigate the rate of and factors for HCQ retinal
      toxicity in the Korean population. METHODS: There were 123 patients enrolled in
      this study who were using or had used HCQ. Retinal toxicity was detected using
      spectral domain optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence, multifocal
      electroretinography, and automated visual field testing. Binary logistic
      regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with HCQ retinal
      toxicity. RESULTS: Mean duration of HCQ use and mean HCQ dose in study
      participants was 10.1 years and 6.4 mg/kg, respectively. We found 17 patients
      (13.8%) with HCQ retinal toxicity among 123 patients. Patients with retinal
      toxicity took HCQ ranging from 6.7-21.9 years and daily dosage ranging from 4.9
      9.1 mg/kg. Only 1 patient had retinal toxicity among patients with daily dose <
      5.0 mg/kg. These factors increased the risk of HCQ retinal toxicity: longer
      duration of HCQ use [adjusted OR (aOR) = 4.71, 95% CI 2.18-10.15 for duration of
      HCQ use in 5-yr increments], higher daily HCQ dose (aOR = 3.34, 95% CI 1.03-10.80
      for daily HCQ dose in 100-mg increments), and the presence of kidney disease (aOR
      = 8.56, 95% CI 1.15-64.00). CONCLUSION: HCQ retinal toxicity is associated with
      duration of HCQ use, daily HCQ dose, and presence of kidney disease. Proper
      dosing of maximum 5 mg/kg and regular screening according to risk factors are
      important in HCQ use.

PMID- 28864646
TI  - Development of a Core Set of Outcome Measures for Large-vessel Vasculitis: Report
      from OMERACT 2016.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Among the challenges in conducting clinical trials in large-vessel
      vasculitis (LVV), including both giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu
      arteritis (TA), is the lack of standardized and meaningful outcome measures. The
      Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) Vasculitis Working Group initiated an
      international effort to develop and validate data-driven outcome tools for
      clinical investigation in LVV. METHODS: An international Delphi exercise was
      completed to gather opinions from clinical experts on LVV-related domains
      considered important to measure in trials. Patient interviews and focus groups
      were completed to identify outcomes of importance to patients. The results of
      these activities were presented and discussed in a "Virtual Special Interest
      Group" using telephone- and Internet-based conferences, discussions through
      electronic mail, and an in-person session at the 2016 OMERACT meeting. A
      preliminary core set of domains common for all forms of LVV with disease-specific
      elements was proposed. RESULTS: The majority of experts agree with using common
      outcome measures for GCA and TA, with the option of supplementation with disease
      specific items. Following interviews and focus groups, pain, fatigue, and
      emotional effect emerged as health-related quality of life domains important to
      patients. Current disease assessment tools, including the Birmingham Vasculitis
      Activity Score, were found to be inadequate to assess disease activity in GCA and
      standardized assessment of imaging tests were felt crucial to study LVV,
      especially TA. CONCLUSION: Initial data from a clinician Delphi exercise and
      structured patient interviews have provided themes toward an OMERACT-endorsed
      core set of domains and outcome measures.

PMID- 28864647
TI  - Isolated Arthritis of the Temporomandibular Joint as the Initial Manifestation of
      Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe characteristics of patients with juvenile idiopathic
      arthritis (JIA) presenting with isolated arthritis of the temporomandibular
      joints (TMJ). METHODS: Patients with JIA with isolated TMJ arthritis from 4 large
      tertiary pediatric rheumatology centers were included. Demographic and clinical
      data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Fifty-five patients
      were identified (65% bilateral presentation). Six patients developed arthritis in
      other joints (median time 6 mos); 4 patients developed uveitis, all prior to
      arthritis. At last followup, 9% were still taking antirheumatic medications.
      CONCLUSION: JIA TMJ arthritis can occur in isolation, and is probably
      underdiagnosed. Care providers including dentists and orthodontists should be
      aware of this presentation.

PMID- 28864649
TI  - Phenotypic Features and Longterm Outcomes of Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease
      Patients with Arthritis and Arthralgia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The natural history of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
      patients with joint involvement has not been clearly described. Thus, we aimed to
      investigate phenotypic features and clinical outcomes of this distinct
      association. METHODS: The medical records of patients with pediatric IBD
      diagnosed from 2000 to 2016 were reviewed retrospectively. Main outcome measures
      included time to first flare, hospitalization, surgery, and biologic therapy.
      RESULTS: Of 301 patients with Crohn disease (median age 14.2 yrs), 37 (12.3%) had
      arthritis while 44 (14.6%) had arthralgia at diagnosis. Arthritis and arthralgia
      were more common in women (p = 0.028). Patients with arthritis and arthralgia
      demonstrated lower rates of perianal disease (2.7% and 4.5% vs 16.9%, p = 0.013),
      whereas patients with arthritis were more likely to be treated with biologic
      therapy (HR 2.05, 95% CI 1.27-3.33, p = 0.009). Of 129 patients with ulcerative
      colitis (UC; median age 13.7 yrs), 3 (2.3%) had arthritis and 16 (12.4%) had
      arthralgia at diagnosis. Patients with arthralgia were treated more often with
      corticosteroids (p = 0.03) or immunomodulator therapies (p = 0.003) compared with
      those without joint involvement. The likelihood to undergo colectomy was
      significantly higher in patients with arthralgia (HR 2.9, 95% CI 1.1-7.4, p =
      0.04). During followup (median 9.0 yrs), 13 patients developed arthritis (3.3%).
      Arthralgia at diagnosis was a significant predictor for the development of
      arthritis during followup (HR 9.0, 95% CI 2.86-28.5, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Pediatric IBD patients with arthritis have distinct phenotypic features.
      Arthralgia at diagnosis is a predictor for colectomy in UC and a risk factor for
      the development of arthritis during followup.

PMID- 28864648
TI  - Assessment of Disease Activity in Large-vessel Vasculitis: Results of an
      International Delphi Exercise.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To arrive at consensus for candidate outcomes for disease activity
      assessment in large-vessel vasculitis (LVV) in clinical trials. METHODS: A Delphi
      survey including 99 items was circulated among international experts for 3
      rounds. RESULTS: Fifty-seven items were accepted for both giant cell arteritis
      and Takayasu arteritis. Sixty-seven percent of experts voted to have a common
      approach for both diseases with additional disease-specific items such as weight
      loss, scalp tenderness/necrosis, morning stiffness, dizziness, visual symptoms,
      and imaging. CONCLUSION: This study highlights similarities and differences in
      experts' perspectives for assessing clinical activity in LVV and may guide a
      consensus-driven core set of validated outcomes.

PMID- 28864651
TI  - Associations Between Knee Effusion-synovitis and Joint Structural Changes in
      Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the associations between effusion-synovitis and joint
      structural abnormalities in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) over 24
      months. METHODS: A posthoc analysis using data from a randomized controlled trial
      in 413 patients with symptomatic OA (aged 63 +/- 7 yrs, 208 women). Knee effusion
      synovitis volume and score, cartilage defects, cartilage volume, and bone marrow
      lesions (BML) were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging. Joint space
      narrowing (JSN) and osteophytes were assessed using radiograph. Least significant
      change criterion was used to define change in effusion-synovitis volume. Knee
      symptoms were assessed by Western Ontario and McMaster University OA Index.
      Multivariable linear/logistic regression and multilevel generalized mixed-effects
      models were used in longitudinal analyses. RESULTS: Total effusion-synovitis
      volume increased modestly from baseline (8.0 +/- 8.5 ml) to followup (9.0 +/-
      10.5 ml). Baseline BML, cartilage defect, JSN, and osteophyte scores were
      positively associated with change in effusion-synovitis volume (p < 0.05).
      Baseline cartilage defects and JSN were also associated with change in effusion
      synovitis score (p < 0.05). However, neither baseline effusion-synovitis score
      nor volume consistently predicted change in the above structures except cartilage
      volume. In the mixed-effects models, knee effusion-synovitis was positively
      associated with BML (volume: beta = 1.19 ml/grade; score: OR = 1.75/grade) and
      cartilage defects (volume: beta = 1.87 ml/grade; score: OR = 2.22/grade), while
      negatively associated with cartilage volume loss. Change in effusion-synovitis
      volume was positively correlated with changes in knee pain and stiffness scores
      (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Knee cartilage and subchondral bone abnormalities
      predicted change in effusion-synovitis, but effusion-synovitis did not predict
      knee structural changes. These findings suggest that synovial inflammation is
      likely the result of joint structural abnormalities in established OA.
      ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01176344. Australian New Zealand Clinical
      Trials Registry: ACTRN12610000495022.

PMID- 28864650
TI  - OMERACT Endorsement of Patient-reported Outcome Instruments in Antineutrophil
      Cytoplasmic Antibody-associated Vasculitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitides (AAV)
      are multiorgan diseases. Patients with AAV report impairment in their health
      related quality of life (HRQOL) and have different priorities regarding disease
      assessment compared with physicians. The Outcome Measures in Rheumatology
      (OMERACT) Vasculitis Working Group previously received endorsement for a core set
      of domains in AAV. Two approaches to measure patient-reported outcomes (PRO) were
      presented at OMERACT 2016. METHODS: A novel 5-step tool was used to facilitate
      assessment of the instruments by delegates: the OMERACT Filter 2.0 Instrument
      Selection Algorithm, with a red-amber-green checklist of questions, including (1)
      good match with domain (face and content validity), (2) feasibility, (3) do
      numeric scores make sense (construct validity)?, (4) overall ratings of
      discrimination, and (5) can individual thresholds of meaning be defined?
      Delegates gave an overall endorsement. Three generic Patient-Reported Outcomes
      Measurement Information System (PROMIS) instruments (fatigue, physical
      functioning, and pain interference) and a disease-specific PRO, the AAV-PRO (6
      domains related to symptoms and HRQOL), were presented. RESULTS: OMERACT
      delegates endorsed the use of the PROMIS instruments for fatigue, physical
      functioning, and pain interference (87.6% overall endorsement) and the disease
      specific AAV-PRO instrument (89.4% overall endorsement). CONCLUSION: The OMERACT
      Vasculitis Working Group gained endorsement by OMERACT for use of the PROMIS and
      the AAV-PRO in clinical trials of vasculitis. These instruments are complementary
      to each other. The PROMIS and the AAV-PRO need further work to assess their
      utility in longitudinal settings, including their ability to discriminate between
      treatments of varying efficacy in the setting of a randomized controlled trial.

PMID- 28864652
TI  - CRISPR-Cas9D10A Nickase-Assisted Genome Editing in Lactobacillus casei.
AB  - Lactobacillus casei has drawn increasing attention as a health-promoting
      probiotic, while effective genetic manipulation tools are often not available,
      e.g., the single-gene knockout in L. casei still depends on the classic
      homologous recombination-dependent double-crossover strategy, which is quite
      labor-intensive and time-consuming. In the present study, a rapid and precise
      genome editing plasmid, pLCNICK, was established for L. casei genome engineering
      based on CRISPR-Cas9D10A In addition to the P23-Cas9D10A and Pldh-sgRNA (single
      guide RNA) expression cassettes, pLCNICK includes the homologous arms of the
      target gene as repair templates. The ability and efficiency of chromosomal
      engineering using pLCNICK were evaluated by in-frame deletions of four
      independent genes and chromosomal insertion of an enhanced green fluorescent
      protein (eGFP) expression cassette at the LC2W_1628 locus. The efficiencies
      associated with in-frame deletions and chromosomal insertion is 25 to 62%.
      pLCNICK has been proved to be an effective, rapid, and precise tool for genome
      editing in L. casei, and its potential application in other lactic acid bacteria
      (LAB) is also discussed in this study.IMPORTANCE The lack of efficient genetic
      tools has limited the investigation and biotechnological application of many LAB.
      The CRISPR-Cas9D10A nickase-based genome editing in Lactobacillus casei, an
      important food industrial microorganism, was demonstrated in this study. This
      genetic tool allows efficient single-gene deletion and insertion to be
      accomplished by one-step transformation, and the cycle time is reduced to 9 days.
      It facilitates a rapid and precise chromosomal manipulation in L. casei and
      overcomes some limitations of previous methods. This editing system can serve as
      a basic technological platform and offers the possibility to start a
      comprehensive investigation on L. casei As a broad-host-range plasmid, pLCNICK
      has the potential to be adapted to other Lactobacillus species for genome
      editing.

PMID- 28864653
TI  - Chemical Pretreatment-Independent Saccharifications of Xylan and Cellulose of
      Rice Straw by Bacterial Weak Lignin-Binding Xylanolytic and Cellulolytic Enzymes.
AB  - Complete utilization of carbohydrate fractions is one of the prerequisites for
      obtaining economically favorable lignocellulosic biomass conversion. This study
      shows that xylan in untreated rice straw was saccharified to xylose in one step
      without chemical pretreatment, yielding 58.2% of the theoretically maximum value
      by Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus B-6 PcAxy43A, a weak lignin-binding
      trifunctional xylanolytic enzyme, endoxylanase/beta-xylosidase/arabinoxylan
      arabinofuranohydrolase. Moreover, xylose yield from untreated rice straw was
      enhanced to 78.9% by adding endoxylanases PcXyn10C and PcXyn11A from the same
      bacterium, resulting in improvement of cellulose accessibility to cellulolytic
      enzyme. After autoclaving the xylanolytic enzyme-treated rice straw, it was
      subjected to subsequent saccharification by a combination of the Clostridium
      thermocellum endoglucanase CtCel9R and Thermoanaerobacter brockii beta
      glucosidase TbCglT, yielding 88.5% of the maximum glucose yield, which was higher
      than the glucose yield obtained from ammonia-treated rice straw saccharification
      (59.6%). Moreover, this work presents a new environment-friendly xylanolytic
      enzyme pretreatment for beneficial hydrolysis of xylan in various agricultural
      residues, such as rice straw and corn hull. It not only could improve cellulose
      saccharification but also produced xylose, leading to an improvement of the
      overall fermentable sugar yields without chemical pretreatment.IMPORTANCE Ongoing
      research is focused on improving "green" pretreatment technologies in order to
      reduce energy demands and environmental impact and to develop an economically
      feasible biorefinery. The present study showed that PcAxy43A, a weak lignin
      binding trifunctional xylanolytic enzyme, endoxylanase/beta
      xylosidase/arabinoxylan arabinofuranohydrolase from P. curdlanolyticus B-6, was
      capable of conversion of xylan in lignocellulosic biomass such as untreated rice
      straw to xylose in one step without chemical pretreatment. It demonstrates
      efficient synergism with endoxylanases PcXyn10C and PcXyn11A to depolymerize
      xylan in untreated rice straw and enhanced the xylose production and improved
      cellulose hydrolysis. Therefore, it can be considered an enzymatic pretreatment.
      Furthermore, the studies here show that glucose yield released from steam- and
      xylanolytic enzyme-treated rice straw by the combination of CtCel9R and TbCglT
      was higher than the glucose yield obtained from ammonia-treated rice straw
      saccharification. This work presents a novel environment-friendly xylanolytic
      enzyme pretreatment not only as a green pretreatment but also as an economically
      feasible biorefinery method.

PMID- 28864654
TI  - Exogenous Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Impact Membrane Remodeling and Affect
      Virulence Phenotypes among Pathogenic Vibrio Species.
AB  - The pathogenic Vibrio species (V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V.
      vulnificus) represent a constant threat to human health, causing foodborne and
      skin wound infections as a result of ingestion of or exposure to contaminated
      water and seafood. Recent studies have highlighted Vibrio's ability to acquire
      fatty acids from environmental sources and assimilate them into cell membranes.
      The possession and conservation of such machinery provokes consideration of fatty
      acids as important factors in the pathogenic lifestyle of Vibrio species. The
      findings here link exogenous fatty acid exposure to changes in bacterial membrane
      phospholipid structure, permeability, phenotypes associated with virulence, and
      consequent stress responses that may impact survival and persistence of
      pathogenic Vibrio species. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) (ranging in carbon
      length and unsaturation) supplied in growth medium were assimilated into
      bacterial phospholipids, as determined by thin-layer chromatography and liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry. The incorporation of fatty acids variably
      affected membrane permeability, as judged by uptake of the hydrophobic compound
      crystal violet. For each species, certain fatty acids were identified as
      affecting resistance to antimicrobial peptide treatment. Significant fluctuations
      were observed with regard to both motility and biofilm formation following growth
      in the presence of individual PUFAs. Our results illustrate the important and
      complex roles of exogenous fatty acids in the membrane physiology and virulence
      of a bacterial genus that inhabits aquatic and host environments containing an
      abundance of diverse fatty acids.IMPORTANCE Bacterial responses to fatty acids
      include, but are not limited to, degradation for metabolic gain, modification of
      membrane lipids, alteration of protein function, and regulation of gene
      expression. Vibrio species exhibit significant diversity with regard to the
      machinery known to participate in the uptake and incorporation of fatty acids
      into their membranes. Both aquatic and host niches occupied by Vibrio are rife
      with various free fatty acids and fatty acid-containing lipids. The roles of
      fatty acids in the environmental survival and pathogenesis of bacteria have begun
      to emerge and are expected to expand significantly. The current study
      demonstrates the responsiveness of V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V.
      vulnificus to exogenous PUFAs. In addition to phospholipid remodeling, PUFA
      assimilation impacts membrane permeability, motility, biofilm formation, and
      resistance to polymyxin B.

PMID- 28864655
TI  - Cupriavidus necator H16 Uses Flavocytochrome c Sulfide Dehydrogenase To Oxidize
      Self-Produced and Added Sulfide.
AB  - Production of sulfide (H2S, HS-, and S2-) by heterotrophic bacteria during
      aerobic growth is a common phenomenon. Some bacteria with sulfide:quinone
      oxidoreductase (SQR) and persulfide dioxygenase (PDO) can oxidize self-produced
      sulfide to sulfite and thiosulfate, but other bacteria without these enzymes
      release sulfide into the medium, from which H2S can volatilize into the gas
      phase. Here, we report that Cupriavidus necator H16, with the fccA and fccB genes
      encoding flavocytochrome c sulfide dehydrogenases (FCSDs), also oxidized self
      produced H2S. A mutant in which fccA and fccB were deleted accumulated and
      released H2S. When fccA and fccB were expressed in Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain
      Pa3K with deletions of its sqr and pdo genes, the recombinant rapidly oxidized
      sulfide to sulfane sulfur. When PDO was also cloned into the recombinant, the
      recombinant with both FCSD and PDO oxidized sulfide to sulfite and thiosulfate.
      Thus, the proposed pathway is similar to the pathway catalyzed by SQR and PDO, in
      which FCSD oxidizes sulfide to polysulfide, polysulfide spontaneously reacts with
      reduced glutathione (GSH) to produce glutathione persulfide (GSSH), and PDO
      oxidizes GSSH to sulfite, which chemically reacts with polysulfide to produce
      thiosulfate. About 20.6% of sequenced bacterial genomes contain SQR, and only
      3.9% contain FCSD. This is not a surprise, since SQR is more efficient in
      conserving energy because it passes electrons from sulfide oxidation into the
      electron transport chain at the quinone level, while FCSD passes electrons to
      cytochrome c The transport of electrons from the latter to O2 conserves less
      energy. FCSDs are grouped into three subgroups, well conserved at the taxonomic
      level. Thus, our data show the diversity in sulfide oxidation by heterotrophic
      bacteria.IMPORTANCE Heterotrophic bacteria with SQR and PDO can oxidize self
      produced sulfide and do not release H2S into the gas phase. C. necator H16 has
      FCSD but not SQR, and it does not release H2S. We confirmed that the bacterium
      used FCSD for the oxidation of self-produced sulfide. The bacterium also oxidized
      added sulfide. The common presence of SQRs, FCSDs, and PDOs in heterotrophic
      bacteria suggests the significant role of heterotrophic bacteria in sulfide
      oxidation, participating in sulfur biogeochemical cycling. Further, FCSDs have
      been identified in anaerobic photosynthetic bacteria and chemolithotrophic
      bacteria, but their physiological roles are unknown. We showed that heterotrophic
      bacteria use FCSDs to oxidize self-produced sulfide and extraneous sulfide, and
      they may be used for H2S bioremediation.

PMID- 28864656
TI  - Impacts of Repeated Glyphosate Use on Wheat-Associated Bacteria Are Small and
      Depend on Glyphosate Use History.
AB  - Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide worldwide and a critical tool for
      weed control in no-till cropping systems. However, there are concerns about the
      nontarget impacts of long-term glyphosate use on soil microbial communities. We
      investigated the impacts of repeated glyphosate treatments on bacterial
      communities in the soil and rhizosphere of wheat in soils with and without long
      term history of glyphosate use. We cycled wheat in the greenhouse using soils
      from 4 paired fields under no-till (20+-year history of glyphosate) or no history
      of use. At each cycle, we terminated plants with glyphosate (2* the field rate)
      or by removing the crowns, and soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities were
      characterized. Location, cropping history, year, and proximity to the roots had
      much stronger effects on bacterial communities than did glyphosate, which only
      explained 2 to 5% of the variation. Less than 1% of all taxa were impacted by
      glyphosate, more in soils with a long history of use, and more increased than
      decreased in relative abundance. Glyphosate had minimal impacts on soil and
      rhizosphere bacteria of wheat, although dying roots after glyphosate application
      may provide a "greenbridge" favoring some copiotrophic taxa.IMPORTANCE Glyphosate
      (Roundup) is the most widely used herbicide in the world and the foundation of
      Roundup Ready soybeans, corn, and the no-till cropping system. However, there
      have been recent concerns about nontarget impacts of glyphosate on soil microbes.
      Using next-generation sequencing methods and glyphosate treatments of wheat
      plants, we described the bacterial communities in the soil and rhizosphere of
      wheat grown in Pacific Northwest soils across multiple years, different
      locations, and soils with different histories of glyphosate use. The effects of
      glyphosate were subtle and much less than those of drivers such as location and
      cropping systems. Only a small percentage of the bacterial groups were influenced
      by glyphosate, and most of those were stimulated, probably because of the dying
      roots. This study provides important information for the future of this important
      tool for no-till systems and the environmental benefits of reducing soil erosion
      and fossil fuel inputs.

PMID- 28864657
TI  - Recovery Optimization and Survival of the Human Norovirus Surrogates Feline
      Calicivirus and Murine Norovirus on Carpet.
AB  - Carpets have been implicated in prolonged and reoccurring outbreaks of human
      noroviruses (HuNoV), the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Viral
      recovery from environmental surfaces, such as carpet, remains undeveloped. Our
      aim was to determine survival of HuNoV surrogates on an understudied
      environmental surface, carpet. First, we measured the zeta potential and
      absorption capacity of wool and nylon carpet fibers, we then developed a minispin
      column elution (MSC) method, and lastly we characterized the survival of HuNoV
      surrogates, feline calicivirus (FCV) and murine norovirus (MNV), over 60 days
      under 30 and 70% relative humidity (RH) on two types of carpet and one glass
      surface. Carpet surface charge was negative between relevant pH values (i.e., pH
      7 to 9). In addition, wool could absorb approximately two times more liquid than
      nylon. The percent recovery efficiency obtained by the MSC method ranged from
      4.34 to 20.89% and from 30.71 to 54.14% for FCV and MNV on carpet fibers,
      respectively, after desiccation. Overall, elution buffer type did not
      significantly affect recovery. Infectious FCV or MNV survived between <1 and 15
      or between 3 and 15 days, respectively. However, MNV survived longer under some
      conditions and at significantly (P < 0.05) higher titers compared to FCV. Albeit,
      surrogates followed similar survival trends, i.e., both survived longest on wool
      then nylon and glass, while 30% RH provided a more hospitable environment
      compared to 70% RH. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR signals for both
      surrogates were detectable for the entire study, but FCV genomic copies
      experienced significantly higher reductions (<3.80 log10 copies) on all surfaces
      compared to MNV (<1.10 log10 copies).IMPORTANCE Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are the
      leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Classical symptoms of illness
      include vomiting and diarrhea which could lead to severe dehydration and death.
      HuNoV are transmitted by the fecal-oral or vomitus-oral route via person-to
      person contact, food, water, and/or environmental surfaces. Published laboratory
      controlled studies have documented the environmental stability of HuNoV on hard
      surfaces, but there is limited laboratory-based evidence available about survival
      on soft surfaces, e.g., carpet and upholstered furniture. Several epidemiological
      reports have suggested soft surfaces may be HuNoV fomites illustrating the
      importance of conducting a survival study. The three objectives of our research
      were to demonstrate techniques to characterize soft surfaces, develop a viral
      elution method for carpet, and characterize the survival of HuNoV surrogates on
      carpet. These results can be used to improve microbial risk assessments, the
      development of much-needed soft surface disinfectant, and standardizing protocols
      for future soft surface studies.

PMID- 28864658
TI  - PLA2 and ENPP6 may act in concert to generate phosphocholine from the matrix
      vesicle membrane during skeletal mineralization.
AB  - Mineralization is a key process in the formation of bone and cartilage in
      vertebrates, involving the deposition of calcium- and phosphate-containing
      hydroxyapatite (HA) mineral within a collagenous matrix. Inorganic phosphate (Pi)
      accumulation within matrix vesicles (MVs) is a fundamental stage in the
      precipitation of HA, with PHOSPHO1 being identified as the principal enzyme
      acting to produce Pi PHOSPHO1 is a dual-specific
      phosphocholine/phosphoethanolamine phosphatase enriched in mineralizing cells and
      within MVs. However, the source and mechanism by which PHOSPHO1 substrates are
      formed before mineralization have not been determined. Here, we propose that 2
      enzymes-phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and ectonucleotide
      pyrophophatase/phosphodiesterase 6 (ENPP6)-act in sequence upon
      phosphatidylcholine found in MV membranes to produce phosphocholine, which
      PHOSPHO1 can hydrolyze to liberate Pi This hypothesis is supported by evidence
      that both enzymes are expressed in mineralizing cells and data showing that
      phosphatidylcholine is broken down in MVs during mineralization. Therefore, PLA2
      and ENPP6 activities may represent a key step in the mineralization process.
      Further functional studies are urgently required to examine their specific roles
      in the initiation of skeletal mineralization.-Stewart, A. J., Leong, D. T. K.,
      Farquharson, C. PLA2 and ENPP6 may act in concert to generate phosphocholine from
      the matrix vesicle membrane during skeletal mineralization.

PMID- 28864660
TI  - De novo digenic mutations of telomere-associated proteins and inflammasomes
      initiate many chronic human diseases: a hypothesis.
AB  - Many age-related human diseases have inflammatory components of uncertain causes.
      It has been proposed that some may be initiated or sustained by doubly mutated
      immune cells that have both inappropriately activated inflammasomes and enhanced
      replicative potential. Genes of cells that express mutant TERT and NLRP3 proteins
      are presumed to be at increased risk for mutagenesis because they reside in
      subtelomeric regions of chromatin that are deficient in DNA repair mechanisms.
      Expanded clones of proinflammatory cells can occur throughout one's lifetime and
      could represent an alternative explanation for some forms of pathologic scarring
      that are now attributed to truncated telomeres.-Marchesi, V. T. De novo digenic
      mutations of telomere-associated proteins and inflammasomes initiate many chronic
      human diseases: a hypothesis.

PMID- 28864662
TI  - Spondyloarthritis: Harlequin or Chameleon?

PMID- 28864659
TI  - A novel role for ceramide synthase 6 in mouse and human alcoholic steatosis.
AB  - Perilipin 2 (PLIN2) is a lipid-droplet protein that is up-regulated in alcoholic
      steatosis and associated with hepatic accumulation of ceramides, bioactive lipids
      implicated in alcoholic liver disease pathogenesis. The specific role of ceramide
      synthetic enzymes in the regulation of PLIN2 and promotion of hepatocellular
      lipid accumulation is not well understood. We examined the effects of
      pharmacologic ceramide synthesis inhibition on hepatic PLIN2 expression,
      steatosis, and glucose and lipid homeostasis in mice with alcoholic steatosis and
      in ethanol-incubated human hepatoma VL17A cells. In cells, pharmacologic
      inhibition of ceramide synthase reduced lipid accumulation by reducing PLIN2 RNA
      stability. The subtype ceramide synthase (CerS)6 was specifically up-regulated in
      experimental alcoholic steatosis in vivo and in vitro and was up-regulated in
      zone 3 hepatocytes in human alcoholic steatosis. In vivo ceramide reduction by
      inhibition of de novo ceramide synthesis reduced PLIN2 and hepatic steatosis in
      alcohol-fed mice, but only de novo synthesis inhibition, not sphingomyelin
      hydrolysis, improved glucose tolerance and dyslipidemia. These findings implicate
      CerS6 as a novel regulator of PLIN2 and suggest that ceramide synthetic enzymes
      may promote the earliest stage of alcoholic liver disease, alcoholic steatosis.
      Williams, B., Correnti, J., Oranu, A., Lin, A., Scott, V., Annoh, M., Beck, J.,
      Furth, E., Mitchell, V., Senkal, C. E., Obeid, L., Carr, R. M. A novel role for
      ceramide synthase 6 in mouse and human alcoholic steatosis.

PMID- 28864661
TI  - Glioma-derived cancer stem cells are hypersensitive to proteasomal inhibition.

PMID- 28864663
TI  - Cardiovascular Morbidity in Psoriatic Arthritis: What Is the Effect of
      Inflammation?

PMID- 28864664
TI  - Psoriatic Disease 10 Years Later.

PMID- 28864665
TI  - The Clinical and Research Implications of Anti-carbamylated Protein Antibodies.

PMID- 28864666
TI  - Lytic Bone Lesions: Osteomyelitis or Intraosseous Gout?

PMID- 28864667
TI  - Tongue Involvement in Parry-Romberg Syndrome.

PMID- 28864668
TI  - Demographic and Clinical Characteristics Associated with Central Nervous System
      Hemorrhage in Patients with Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis: A Case
      Report and Review of the Literature.

PMID- 28864669
TI  - Use of Belimumab throughout 2 Consecutive Pregnancies in a Patient with Systemic
      Lupus Erythematosus.

PMID- 28864670
TI  - Anti-HMGCR Autoantibodies in Juvenile Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies Identify
      a Rare but Clinically Important Subset of Patients.

PMID- 28864671
TI  - Expression of an RNA glycosidase inhibits HIV-1 transactivation of transcription.
AB  - HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus) transcription is primarily controlled by the
      virally encoded Tat (transactivator of transcription) protein and its interaction
      with the viral TAR (transcription response element) RNA element. Specifically,
      binding of a Tat-containing complex to TAR recruits cellular factors that promote
      elongation of the host RNA polymerase engaging the viral DNA template. Disruption
      of this interaction halts viral RNA transcription. In the present study, we
      investigated the effect of pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP), an RNA glycosidase
      (EC#: 3.2.2.22) synthesized by the pokeweed plant (Phytolacca americana), on
      transcription of HIV-1 mRNA. We show that co-expression of PAP with a proviral
      clone in culture cells resulted in a Tat-dependent decrease in viral mRNA levels.
      PAP reduced HIV-1 transcriptional activity by inhibiting Tat protein synthesis.
      The effects of PAP expression on host factors AP-1 (activator protein 1), NF
      kappaB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells) and
      specificity protein 1, which modulate HIV-1 transcription by binding to the viral
      LTR (5'-long terminal repeat), were also investigated. Only AP-1 showed a modest
      JNK pathway-dependent increase in activity in the presence of PAP; however, this
      activation was not sufficient to significantly enhance transcription from a
      partial viral LTR containing AP-1 binding sites. Therefore, the primary effect of
      PAP on HIV-1 transcription is to reduce viral RNA synthesis by decreasing the
      abundance of Tat. These findings provide a mechanistic explanation for the
      observed decrease in viral RNAs in cells expressing PAP and contribute to our
      understanding of the antiviral effects of this plant protein.

PMID- 28864672
TI  - The coproporphyrin ferrochelatase of Staphylococcus aureus: mechanistic insights
      into a regulatory iron-binding site.
AB  - The majority of characterised ferrochelatase enzymes catalyse the final step of
      classical haem synthesis, inserting ferrous iron into protoporphyrin IX. However,
      for the recently discovered coproporphyrin-dependent pathway, ferrochelatase
      catalyses the penultimate reaction where ferrous iron is inserted into
      coproporphyrin III. Ferrochelatase enzymes from the bacterial phyla Firmicutes
      and Actinobacteria have previously been shown to insert iron into coproporphyrin,
      and those from Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus are known to be
      inhibited by elevated iron concentrations. The work herein reports a Km
      (coproporphyrin III) for S. aureus ferrochelatase of 1.5 uM and it is shown that
      elevating the iron concentration increases the Km for coproporphyrin III,
      providing a potential explanation for the observed iron-mediated substrate
      inhibition. Together, structural modelling, site-directed mutagenesis, and
      kinetic analyses confirm residue Glu271 as being essential for the binding of
      iron to the inhibitory regulatory site on S. aureus ferrochelatase, providing a
      molecular explanation for the observed substrate inhibition patterns. This work
      therefore has implications for how haem biosynthesis in S. aureus is regulated by
      iron availability.

PMID- 28864673
TI  - Mystery Case: CSF-1R mutation is a cause of intracranial cerebral calcifications,
      cysts, and leukoencephalopathy.

PMID- 28864674
TI  - Neurologic complications of sickle cell disease in Africa: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To summarize prevalence data on the neurologic complications of sickle
      cell disease (SCD) in Africa. METHODS: We searched EMBASE, PubMed, and African
      Index Medicus to identify all relevant articles published from inception to May
      31, 2016. Each study was reviewed for methodologic quality. A random-effects
      model was used to estimate the prevalence of neurologic complications of SCD
      across studies. RESULTS: Thirty-one studies were included. Methodologic quality
      was high or moderate in 90% of studies. Stroke, conditional and abnormal cerebral
      blood flow, seizures, and headache were the complications most frequently
      reported, with overall prevalence rates of 4.2%, 10.6%, 6.1%, 4.4%, and 18.9%,
      respectively. Some complications, like silent brain infarcts, peripheral
      neuropathies, neurocognitive deficits, or moyamoya disease, have been rarely or
      not studied at all in the African setting. Incidence data were scarce and of poor
      quality. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of neurologic complications of SCD is important
      in Africa and most likely underestimated. A better evaluation of this burden
      requires larger prospective studies using standard up-to-date screening methods.
      Accessibility to diagnostic tools such as neuroimaging, transcranial Doppler,
      EEG, and neuropsychological evaluation, as well as to preventive and therapeutic
      interventions and trained health care providers, should be improved in routine
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28864675
TI  - Causal inference methods to study gastric tube use in amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate effects of gastric tube (G-tube) on survival and quality
      of life (QOL) in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) correcting for
      confounding by indication inherent in nonrandomized observational data. METHODS:
      To complement a recent causal inference analysis, which concluded that G-tube
      placement increases the hazard of death, permanent assisted ventilation, or
      tracheostomy by 28%, we fit causal inference models on a different sample of 481
      patients with ALS enrolled in a recent clinical trial of ceftriaxone. Forward
      selection identified predictors of G-tube placement. Effects of G-tube on
      survival and QOL were estimated using structural nested models and marginal
      structural models, accounting for predictors of G-tube treatment. RESULTS: Forced
      vital capacity and the total score and bulbar subscale of the revised ALS
      Functional Rating Scale best predicted G-tube placement. Correcting for these
      confounders, G-tube placement decreased survival time by 46% (p < 0.001) and had
      no effect on QOL (p = 0.078). Sensitivity survival analyses varied in
      significance, but none revealed a survival benefit. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence
      of randomization, causal inference methods are necessary to correct for time
      varying confounding. G-tube placement may have a negative effect on survival with
      no QOL-related benefit for people with ALS. A randomized controlled trial is
      warranted to further evaluate the efficacy of this widely used intervention.
      CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: NCT00349622. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study
      provides Class III evidence that for patients with ALS, G-tube placement
      decreases survival time and does not affect QOL.

PMID- 28864676
TI  - A predictive model to identify Parkinson disease from administrative claims data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To use administrative medical claims data to identify patients with
      incident Parkinson disease (PD) prior to diagnosis. METHODS: Using a population
      based case-control study of incident PD in 2009 among Medicare beneficiaries aged
      66-90 years (89,790 cases, 118,095 controls) and the elastic net algorithm, we
      developed a cross-validated model for predicting PD using only demographic data
      and 2004-2009 Medicare claims data. We then compared this model to more basic
      models containing only demographic data and diagnosis codes for constipation,
      taste/smell disturbance, and REM sleep behavior disorder, using each model's
      receiver operator characteristic area under the curve (AUC). RESULTS: We observed
      all established associations between PD and age, sex, race/ethnicity, tobacco
      smoking, and the above medical conditions. A model with those predictors had an
      AUC of only 0.670 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.668-0.673). In contrast, the
      AUC for a predictive model with 536 diagnosis and procedure codes was 0.857 (95%
      CI 0.855-0.859). At the optimal cut point, sensitivity was 73.5% and specificity
      was 83.2%. CONCLUSIONS: Using only demographic data and selected diagnosis and
      procedure codes readily available in administrative claims data, it is possible
      to identify individuals with a high probability of eventually being diagnosed
      with PD.

PMID- 28864677
TI  - Sickle cell disease and the unmet challenges of neurologic complications.

PMID- 28864678
TI  - The yin and yang of gastrostomy in the management of ALS: Friend or foe?

PMID- 28864679
TI  - Mitochondrial genome inheritance and replacement in the human germline.

PMID- 28864680
TI  - Dual Inhibition of Hedgehog and c-Met Pathways for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most chemotherapy- and
      radiotherapy-resistant tumors. The c-Met and Hedgehog (Hh) pathways have been
      shown previously by our group to be key regulatory pathways in the primary tumor
      growth and metastases formation. Targeting both the HGF/c-Met and Hh pathways has
      shown promising results in preclinical studies; however, the benefits were not
      readily translated into clinical trials with PDAC patients. In this study,
      utilizing mouse models of PDAC, we showed that inhibition of either HGF/c-Met or
      Hh pathways sensitize the PDAC tumors to gemcitabine, resulting in decreased
      primary tumor volume as well as significant reduction of metastatic tumor burden.
      However, prolonged treatment of single HGF/c-Met or Hh inhibitor leads to
      resistance to these single inhibitors, likely because the single c-Met treatment
      leads to enhanced expression of Shh, and vice versa. Targeting both the HGF/c-Met
      and Hh pathways simultaneously overcame the resistance to the single-inhibitor
      treatment and led to a more potent antitumor effect in combination with the
      chemotherapy treatment. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(11); 2399-409. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864681
TI  - Inhibition of Discoidin Domain Receptor 1 Reduces Collagen-mediated
      Tumorigenicity in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - The extracellular matrix (ECM), a principal component of pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma (PDA), is rich in fibrillar collagens that facilitate tumor cell
      survival and chemoresistance. Discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) is a receptor
      tyrosine kinase that specifically binds fibrillar collagens and has been
      implicated in promoting cell proliferation, migration, adhesion, ECM remodeling,
      and response to growth factors. We found that collagen-induced activation of DDR1
      stimulated protumorigenic signaling through protein tyrosine kinase 2 (PYK2) and
      pseudopodium-enriched atypical kinase 1 (PEAK1) in pancreatic cancer cells.
      Pharmacologic inhibition of DDR1 with an ATP-competitive orally available small
      molecule kinase inhibitor (7rh) abrogated collagen-induced DDR1 signaling in
      pancreatic tumor cells and consequently reduced colony formation and migration.
      Furthermore, the inhibition of DDR1 with 7rh showed striking efficacy in
      combination with chemotherapy in orthotopic xenografts and autochthonous
      pancreatic tumors where it significantly reduced DDR1 activation and downstream
      signaling, reduced primary tumor burden, and improved chemoresponse. These data
      demonstrate that targeting collagen signaling in conjunction with conventional
      cytotoxic chemotherapy has the potential to improve outcome for pancreatic cancer
      patients. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(11); 2473-85. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864682
TI  - mTOR Kinase Inhibition Effectively Decreases Progression of a Subset of
      Neuroendocrine Tumors that Progress on Rapalog Therapy and Delays Cardiac
      Impairment.
AB  - Inhibition of mTOR signaling using the rapalog everolimus is an FDA-approved
      targeted therapy for patients with lung and gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine
      tumors (NET). However, patients eventually progress on treatment, highlighting
      the need for additional therapies. We focused on pancreatic NETs (pNET) and
      reasoned that treatment of these tumors upon progression on rapalog therapy, with
      an mTOR kinase inhibitor (mTORKi), such as CC-223, could overcome a number of
      resistance mechanisms in tumors and delay cardiac carcinoid disease. We performed
      preclinical studies using human pNET cells in vitro and injected them
      subcutaneously or orthotopically to determine tumor progression and cardiac
      function in mice treated with either rapamycin alone or switched to CC-223 upon
      progression. Detailed signaling and RNA sequencing analyses were performed on
      tumors that were sensitive or progressed on mTOR treatment. Approximately 57% of
      mice bearing pNET tumors that progressed on rapalog therapy showed a significant
      decrease in tumor volume upon a switch to CC-223. Moreover, mice treated with an
      mTORKi exhibited decreased cardiac dilation and thickening of heart valves than
      those treated with placebo or rapamycin alone. In conclusion, in the majority of
      pNETs that progress on rapalogs, it is possible to reduce disease progression
      using an mTORKi, such as CC-223. Moreover, CC-223 had an additional transient
      cardiac benefit on valvular fibrosis compared with placebo- or rapalog-treated
      mice. These results provide the preclinical rationale to further develop mTORKi
      clinically upon progression on rapalog therapy and to further test their long
      term cardioprotective benefit in those NET patients prone to carcinoid syndrome.
      Mol Cancer Ther; 16(11); 2432-41. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28864683
TI  - A CRISPR/Cas9-Based Screening for Non-Homologous End Joining Inhibitors Reveals
      Ouabain and Penfluridol as Radiosensitizers.
AB  - Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is the major pathway responsible for the repair
      of ionizing radiation (IR)-induced DNA double-strand breaks (DSB), and
      correspondingly regulates the cellular response to IR. Identification of NHEJ
      inhibitors could substantially enhance the tumor radiosensitivity and improve the
      therapeutic efficiency of radiotherapy. In this study, we demonstrated a
      screening for NHEJ inhibitors using the clustered regularly interspaced short
      palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) system and high
      resolution melting (HRM) analysis. Because NHEJ is regarded as an error-prone
      mechanism, the NHEJ-mediated ligation of the site-specific DSB induced by Cas9
      nuclease would eventually cause the mutation of the targeted sequence. Then, HRM
      analysis, a reliable and rapid assay for detecting sequence variation, was
      performed to evaluate the mutation efficiency of the targeted site. Validating
      analysis confirmed the NHEJ activities were positively correlated with the
      mutation frequencies. Next, an approved drug library containing 1,540 compounds
      was interrogated by using this screening strategy. Our results identified
      ouabain, a cardiotonic agent, and penfluridol, an antipsychotic agent, have the
      capacity to restrain NHEJ activity. Further experiments in vitro revealed the
      radiosensitizing effects of these compounds. Overall, we presented a cell-based
      screening for NHEJ inhibitors, which could promote the discovery of novel
      radiosensitizers. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(2); 419-31. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in
      this MCT Focus section, "Developmental Therapeutics in Radiation Oncology."

PMID- 28864684
TI  - Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and later-life depression: perceived social
      support as a potential protective factor.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations between adverse childhood experiences
      (ACEs) and later-life depressive symptoms; and to explore whether perceived
      social support (PSS) moderates these. METHOD: We analysed baseline data from the
      Mitchelstown (Ireland) 2010-2011 cohort of 2047 men and women aged 50-69 years.
      Self-reported measures included ACEs (Centre for Disease Control ACE
      questionnaire), PSS (Oslo Social Support Scale) and depressive symptoms (CES-D).
      The primary exposure was self-report of at least one ACE. We also investigated
      the effects of ACE exposure by ACE scores and ACE subtypes abuse, neglect and
      household dysfunction. Associations between each of these exposures and
      depressive symptoms were estimated using logistic regression, adjusted for socio
      demographic factors. We tested whether the estimated associations varied across
      levels of PSS (poor, moderate and strong). RESULTS: 23.7% of participants
      reported at least one ACE (95% CI 21.9% to 25.6%). ACE exposures (overall,
      subtype or ACE scores) were associated with a higher odds of depressive symptoms,
      but only among individuals with poor PSS. Exposure to any ACE (vs none) was
      associated with almost three times the odds of depressive symptoms (adjusted OR
      2.85; 95% CI 1.64 to 4.95) among individuals reporting poor PSS, while among
      those reporting moderate and strong PSS, the adjusted ORs were 2.21 (95% CI 1.52
      to 3.22) and 1.39 (95% CI 0.85 to 2.29), respectively. This pattern of results
      was similar when exposures were based on ACE subtype and ACE scores, though the
      interaction was clearly strongest among those reporting abuse. CONCLUSIONS: ACEs
      are common among older adults in Ireland and are associated with higher odds of
      later-life depressive symptoms, particularly among those with poor PSS.
      Interventions that enhance social support, or possibly perceptions of social
      support, may help reduce the burden of depression in older populations with ACE
      exposure, particularly in those reporting abuse.

PMID- 28864685
TI  - Suicide and all-cause mortality in Swedish deployed military veterans: a
      population-based matched cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate suicide and mortality risk in deployed military
      veterans versus non-deployed comparators who had gone through military
      conscription testing. DESIGN: Population-based matched cohort study. SETTING:
      Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were identified from the Military Service
      Conscription Register and deployment status from the Swedish Military Information
      Personnel Register. Of 1.9 million conscripts, 21 721 had deployed at some time
      between 1990 and 2013 (deployed military veterans). Non-deployed comparators were
      matched to deployed military veterans in two ways: (1) by cognitive ability,
      psychological assessment, mental health, body mass index, sex, birth-year and
      conscription-year (carefully matched), with further adjustment for exercise
      capacity and suicide attempt history; and (2) by sex, birth-year and conscription
      year (age- and sex-matched). MAIN OUTCOME: Suicide retrieved from the Swedish
      National Patient and Causes of Death Register until 31 December 2013. RESULTS:
      During a median follow-up of 12 years, 39 and 211 deaths by suicide occurred in
      deployed military veterans (n=21 627) and carefully matched non-deployed
      comparators (n=107 284), respectively (15 vs 16/100 000 person-years; adjusted HR
      (aHR) 1.07; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.52; p=0.72) and 329 in age- and sex-matched non
      deployed comparators (n=108 140; 25/100 000 person-years; aHR 0.59; 95% CI 0.42
      to 0.82; p=0.002). There were 284 and 1444 deaths by suicide or attempted
      suicides in deployed military veterans and carefully matched non-deployed
      comparators, respectively (109 vs 112; aHR 0.99; 95% CI 0.88 to 1.13; p=0.93) and
      2061 in age- and sex-matched non-deployed comparators (158; aHR 0.69; 95% CI 0.61
      to 0.79; p<0.001). The corresponding figures for all-cause mortality for
      carefully matched non-deployed comparators were 159 and 820 (61 vs 63/100 000
      person-years; aHR 0.97; 95% CI 0.82 to 1.15; p=0.71) and 1289 for age- and sex
      matched non-deployed comparators (98/100 000 person-years; aHR 0.62; 95% CI 0.52
      to 0.73; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Deployed military veterans had similar suicide and
      mortality risk as non-deployed comparators after accounting for psychological,
      psychiatric and physical factors. Studies of mental health in deployed veterans
      need to adjust for more factors than age and sex for comparisons to be
      meaningful.

PMID- 28864686
TI  - Epidemiology of competence: a scoping review to understand the risks and supports
      to competence of four health professions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study examined the risks and supports to competence discussed in
      the literature related to occupational therapists, pharmacists, physical
      therapists and physicians, using epidemiology as a conceptual model. DESIGN:
      Articles from a scoping literature review, published from 1975 to 2014 inclusive,
      were included if they were about a risk or support to the professional or
      clinical competence of one of four health professions. Descriptive and regression
      analyses identified potential associations between risks and supports to
      competence and the location of study, type of health profession, competence life
      cycle and the domain(s) of competence (organised around the CanMEDS framework).
      RESULTS: A total of 3572 abstracts were reviewed and 943 articles analysed. Most
      focused on physicians (n=810, 86.0%) and 'practice' (n=642, 68.0%). Fewer
      articles discussed risks to competence (n=418, 44.3%) than supports (n=750,
      79.5%). The top four risks, each discussed in over 15% of articles, were:
      transitions in practice, being an international graduate, lack of clinical
      exposure/experience (ie, insufficient volume of procedures or patients) and age.
      The top two supports (over 35%) were continuing education participation and
      educational information/programme features. About 60% of all the articles
      discussed medical expert and about 25% applied to all roles. Articles focusing on
      residents had a greater probability of reporting on risks. CONCLUSIONS: Articles
      about physicians were dominant. The majority of articles were written in the last
      decade and more discussed supports than risks to competence. An epidemiology
      based conceptual model offers a helpful organising framework for exploring and
      explaining the competence of health professions.

PMID- 28864687
TI  - Suicide and self-harm trends in recent immigrant youth in Ontario, 1996-2012: a
      population-based longitudinal cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the trends in suicide and emergency department (ED) visits
      for self-harm in youth by immigration status and immigrant characteristics.
      DESIGN: Population-based longitudinal cohort study from 1996 to 2012 using linked
      health and administrative datasets. SETTING: Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Youth
      10 to 24 years, living in Ontario, Canada. EXPOSURE: The main exposure was
      immigrant status (recent immigrant (RI) versus long-term residents (LTR)).
      Secondary exposures included region of birth, duration or residence, and refugee
      status. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Trends over time in suicide and ED self-harm were
      modelled within consecutive 3-year time periods. Rate ratios were estimated using
      Poisson regression models. RESULTS: 2.5 to 2.9 million individuals were included
      per cohort period. LTR suicide rates ranged from 7.4 to 9.4/100 000 male person
      years versus 2.2-3.4/100 000 females. RI's suicide rates were 2.7-7.2/100,000
      male versus 1.9-2.7/100 000 female person-years. Suicide rates were lower among
      RI compared with LTR (adjusted relative rate (aRR)=0.70, 95% CI=0.57 to 0.85)
      with different mechanisms of suicide. No significant time trend in suicide rates
      was observed (p=0.40). ED self-harm rates for LTR and RI were highest in females
      (2.6-3.4/1000 LTR females versus 1.1-1.5/1000 males, 1.2-1.8/1000 RI females
      versus 0.4-0.6/1000 males). RI had lower rates of self-harm compared with LTR
      (aRR=0.60, 95% CI=0.56 to 0.65). Stratum-specific rates showed a steeper decline
      per period in RI compared with LTR (RI: aRR=0.85, 95% CI=0.81 to 0.89; LTR:
      aRR=0.91, 95% CI=0.90 to 0.93). Observed trends were not universal across region
      of origin and by refugee status. INTERPRETATION: Suicide rates have been stable
      and ED self-harm rates are declining over time among RI youth. These trends by
      important subgroups should continue to be monitored to allow for early
      identification of subpopulations of immigrant youth in need of targeted and
      culturally appropriate public health interventions.

PMID- 28864688
TI  - Effect of propofol combined with opioids on cough reflex suppression in
      gastroscopy: study protocol for a double-blind randomized controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The best methods for inducing analgesia and sedation for
      gastroscopy are still debated but finding an adequate regimen of
      sedation/analgesia is important. Stimulation of the larynx under sedation can
      cause reflex responses. Propofol with opioids has been recommended for
      gastroscopy sedation but the effects on cough reflex suppression remain unclear.
      This trial will evaluate the effects of propofol combined with small doses of
      dezocine, oxycodone, sufentanil or fentanyl for gastroscopy. We hypothesise that
      better performance may be obtained with a combination of propofol and oxycodone.
      We will observe the incidence and degree of reflex coughing and gagging under
      sedation when using propofol combined with one of the above drugs or propofol
      alone. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This will be a prospective, randomised, double
      blind, controlled trial. ASA I-II level patients aged 18-65 years and scheduled
      for gastroscopy will be included. It is planned that 500 subjects will be
      randomised to intravenously receive 2-2.2 mg/kg propofol plus 0.5-0.8 MUg/kg
      fentanyl (fentanyl group), 2-2.2 mg/kg propofol plus 0.05-0.08 MUg/kg sufentanil
      (sufentanil group), 2-2.2 mg/kg propofol plus 0.04-0.05 mg/kg dezocine (dezocine
      group), 2-2.2 mg/kg propofol plus 0.04-0.05 mg/kg oxycodone (oxycodone group), or
      2.4-3 mg/kg propofol plus 2-2.5 mL saline (control group) for sedation. The
      primary endpoint is the incidence and degree of reflex coughing and gagging. The
      secondary endpoints include the occurrence of discomfort or side effects, the use
      of jaw thrust, assisted ventilation or additional propofol, recovery time,
      duration of procedure and Steward score. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has
      been approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee for Clinical Research of
      Zhongda Hospital, Affiliated to Southeast University (No. 2015ZDSYLL033.0). The
      results of the trial will be published in an international peer-reviewed journal.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study has been registered with the Chinese Clinical
      Trial Register (No. ChiCTR-ICR-15006952). TRIAL STATUS: At the time of manuscript
      submission, the study was in the recruitment phase.

PMID- 28864689
TI  - Stepped-wedge cluster-randomised controlled trial to assess the cardiovascular
      health effects of a managed aquifer recharge initiative to reduce drinking water
      salinity in southwest coastal Bangladesh: study design and rationale.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Saltwater intrusion and salinisation have contributed to drinking
      water scarcity in many coastal regions globally, leading to dependence on
      alternative sources for water supply. In southwest coastal Bangladesh,
      communities have few options but to drink brackish groundwater which has been
      associated with high blood pressure among the adult population, and pre-eclampsia
      and gestational hypertension among pregnant women. Managed aquifer recharge
      (MAR), the purposeful recharge of surface water or rainwater to aquifers to bring
      hydrological equilibrium, is a potential solution for salinity problem in
      southwest coastal Bangladesh by creating a freshwater lens within the brackish
      aquifer. Our study aims to evaluate whether consumption of MAR water improves
      human health, particularly by reducing blood pressure among communities in
      coastal Bangladesh. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study employs a stepped-wedge
      cluster-randomised controlled community trial design in 16 communities over five
      monthly visits. During each visit, we will collect data on participants' source
      of drinking and cooking water and measure the salinity level and electrical
      conductivity of household stored water. At each visit, we will also measure the
      blood pressure of participants >=20 years of age and pregnant women and collect
      urine samples for urinary sodium and protein measurements. We will use
      generalised linear mixed models to determine the association of access to MAR
      water on blood pressure of the participants. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study
      protocol has been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the
      International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
      Informed written consent will be taken from all the participants. This study is
      funded by Wellcome Trust, UK. The study findings will be disseminated to the
      government partners, at research conferences and in peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02746003; Pre-results.

PMID- 28864690
TI  - Interprofessional team assessments of the patient safety climate in Swedish
      operating rooms: a cross-sectional survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A positive patient safety climate within teams has been associated
      with higher safety performance. The aim of this study was to describe and compare
      attitudes to patient safety among the various professionals in surgical teams in
      Swedish operating room (OR) departments. A further aim was to study nurse
      managers in the OR and medical directors' estimations of their staffs' attitudes
      to patient safety. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey with the Safety Attitudes
      Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to elicit estimations from surgical teams. To evoke
      estimations from nurse managers and medical directors about staff attitudes to
      patient safety, a short questionnaire, based on SAQ, was used. Three OR
      departments at three different hospitals in Sweden participated. All licensed
      practical nurses (n=124), perioperative nurses (n=233), physicians (n=184) and
      their respective manager (n=22) were invited to participate. RESULTS: Mean
      percentage positive scores for the six SAQ factors and the three professional
      groups varied, and most factors (safety climate, teamwork climate, stress
      recognition, working conditions and perceptions of management), except job
      satisfaction, were below 60%. Significantly lower mean values were found for
      perioperative nurses compared with physicians for perceptions of management (56.4
      vs 61.4, p=0.013) and working conditions (63.7 vs 69.8, p=0.007). Nurse managers
      and medical directors' estimations of their staffs' ratings of the safety climate
      cohered fairly well. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows variations and some weak areas
      for patient safety climate in the studied ORs as reported by front-line staff and
      acknowledged by nurse managers and medical directors. This finding is a concern
      because a weak patient safety climate has been associated with poor patient
      outcomes. To raise awareness, managers need to support patient safety work in the
      OR.

PMID- 28864691
TI  - Efficacy and safety of renal denervation for Chinese patients with resistant
      hypertension using a microirrigated catheter: study design and protocol for a
      prospective multicentre randomised controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Available data show that approximately 8%-18% of patients with
      primary hypertension will develop resistant hypertension. In recent years,
      catheter-based renal denervation (RDN) has emerged as a potential treatment
      option for resistant hypertension. A number of observational studies and
      randomised controlled trials among non-Chinese patients have demonstrated its
      potential safety and efficacy. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a multicentre,
      randomised, open-label, parallel-group, active controlled trial that will
      investigate the efficacy and safety of a 5F saline-irrigated radiofrequency
      ablation (RFA) used for RDN in the treatment of Chinese patients with resistant
      hypertension. A total of 254 patients who have failed pharmacological therapy
      will be enrolled. Eligible subjects will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to undergo
      RDN using the RFA plus antihypertensive medication or to receive treatment with
      antihypertensive medication alone. The primary outcome measure is the change in
      24 hours average ambulatory systolic blood pressure from baseline to 3 months,
      comparing the RDN-plus-medication group with the medication-alone group.
      Important secondary endpoints include the change in office blood pressure from
      baseline to 6 months after randomisation. Safety endpoints such as changes in
      renal function will also be evaluated. The full analysis set, according to the
      intent-to-treat principle, will be established as the primary analysis
      population. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: All participants will provide informed
      consent; the study protocol has been approved by the Independent Ethics Committee
      for each site. This study is designed to investigate the efficacy and safety of
      RDN using a 5F saline microirrigated RFA. Findings will be shared with
      participating hospitals, policymakers and the academic community to promote the
      clinical management of resistant hypertension in China. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02900729; pre-results.

PMID- 28864692
TI  - Common evidence gaps in point-of-care diagnostic test evaluation: a review of
      horizon scan reports.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Since 2008, the Oxford Diagnostic Horizon Scan Programme has been
      identifying and summarising evidence on new and emerging diagnostic technologies
      relevant to primary care. We used these reports to determine the sequence and
      timing of evidence for new point-of-care diagnostic tests and to identify common
      evidence gaps in this process. DESIGN: Systematic overview of diagnostic horizon
      scan reports. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: We obtained the primary studies
      referenced in each horizon scan report (n=40) and extracted details of the study
      size, clinical setting and design characteristics. In particular, we assessed
      whether each study evaluated test accuracy, test impact or cost-effectiveness.
      The evidence for each point-of-care test was mapped against the Horvath framework
      for diagnostic test evaluation. RESULTS: We extracted data from 500 primary
      studies. Most diagnostic technologies underwent clinical performance (ie, ability
      to detect a clinical condition) assessment (71.2%), with very few progressing to
      comparative clinical effectiveness (10.0%) and a cost-effectiveness evaluation
      (8.6%), even in the more established and frequently reported clinical domains,
      such as cardiovascular disease. The median time to complete an evaluation cycle
      was 9 years (IQR 5.5-12.5 years). The sequence of evidence generation was
      typically haphazard and some diagnostic tests appear to be implemented in routine
      care without completing essential evaluation stages such as clinical
      effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence generation for new point-of-care diagnostic
      tests is slow and tends to focus on accuracy, and overlooks other test attributes
      such as impact, implementation and cost-effectiveness. Evaluation of this dynamic
      cycle and feeding back data from clinical effectiveness to refine analytical and
      clinical performance are key to improve the efficiency of point-of-care
      diagnostic test development and impact on clinically relevant outcomes. While the
      'road map' for the steps needed to generate evidence are reasonably well
      delineated, we provide evidence on the complexity, length and variability of the
      actual process that many diagnostic technologies undergo.

PMID- 28864693
TI  - Ablation with irreversible electroporation in patients with advanced perihilar
      cholangiocarcinoma (ALPACA): a multicentre phase I/II feasibility study protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The majority of patients with perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (PHC)
      has locally advanced disease or distant lymph node metastases on presentation or
      exploratory laparotomy, which makes them not eligible for resection. As the
      prognosis of patients with locally advanced PHC or lymph node metastases in the
      palliative setting is significantly better compared with patients with organ
      metastases, ablative therapies may be beneficial. Unfortunately, current ablative
      options are limited. Photodynamic therapy causes skin phototoxicity and thermal
      ablative methods, such as stereotactic body radiation therapy and radiofrequency
      ablation, which are affected by a heat/cold-sink effect when tumours are located
      close to vascular structures, such as the liver hilum. These limitations may be
      overcome by irreversible electroporation (IRE), a relatively new ablative method
      that is currently being studied in several other soft tissue tumours, such as
      hepatic and pancreatic tumours. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In this multicentre phase
      I/II safety and feasibility study, 20 patients with unresectable PHC due to
      vascular or distant lymph node involvement will undergo IRE. Ten patients who
      present with unresectable PHC will undergo CT-guided percutaneous IRE, whereas
      ultrasound-guided IRE will be performed in 10 patients with unresectable tumours
      detected at exploratory laparotomy. The primary outcome is the total number of
      clinically relevant complications (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse
      Events, score of>=3) within 90 days. Secondary outcomes include quality of life,
      tumour response, metal stent patency and survival. Follow-up will be 2 years.
      ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The protocol has been approved by the local ethics
      committees. Data and results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
      CONCLUSION: The Ablation with irreversible eLectroportation in Patients with
      Advanced perihilar CholangiocarcinomA (ALPACA) study is designed to assess the
      feasibility of IRE for advanced PHC. The main purpose is to inform whether a
      follow-up trial to evaluate safety and effectiveness in a larger cohort would be
      feasible.

PMID- 28864694
TI  - Labtracker+, a medical smartphone app for the interpretation of consecutive
      laboratory results: an external validation study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: When monitoring patients over time, clinicians may struggle to
      distinguish 'real changes' in consecutive blood parameters from so-called natural
      fluctuations. In practice, they have to do so by relying on their clinical
      experience and intuition. We developed Labtracker+, a medical app that calculates
      the probability that an increase or decrease over time in a specific blood
      parameter is real, given the time between measurements. DESIGN: We presented
      patient cases to 135 participants to examine whether there is a difference
      between medical students, residents and experienced clinicians when it comes to
      interpreting changes between consecutive laboratory results. Participants were
      asked to interpret if changes in consecutive laboratory values were likely to be
      'real' or rather due to natural fluctuations. The answers of the study
      participants were compared with the calculated probabilities by the app
      Labtracker+ and the concordance rates were assessed. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:
      Medical students (n=92), medical residents from the department of internal
      medicine (n=19) and internists (n=24) at a Dutch University Medical Centre.
      PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Concordance rates between the study
      participants and the calculated probabilities by the app Labtracker+ were
      compared. Besides, we tested whether physicians with clinical experience scored
      better concordance rates with the app Labtracker+ than inexperienced clinicians.
      RESULTS: Medical residents and internists showed significantly better concordance
      rates with the calculated probabilities by the app Labtracker+ than medical
      students, regarding their interpretation of differences between consecutive
      laboratory results (p=0.009 and p<0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: The app
      Labtracker+ could serve as a clinical decision tool in the interpretation of
      consecutive laboratory test results and could contribute to rapid recognition of
      parameter changes by physicians.

PMID- 28864695
TI  - Pregnancy physiology pattern prediction study (4P study): protocol of an
      observational cohort study collecting vital sign information to inform the
      development of an accurate centile-based obstetric early warning score.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Successive confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the UK
      have identified an urgent need to develop a national early warning score (EWS)
      specifically for pregnant or recently pregnant women to aid more timely
      recognition, referral and treatment of women who are developing life-threatening
      complications in pregnancy or the puerperium. Although many local EWS are in use
      in obstetrics, most have been developed heuristically. No current obstetric EWS
      has defined the thresholds at which an alert should be triggered using evidence
      based normal ranges, nor do they reflect the changing physiology that occurs with
      gestation during pregnancy. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: An observational cohort study
      involving 1000 participants across three UK sites in Oxford, London and
      Newcastle. Pregnant women will be recruited at approximately 14 weeks' gestation
      and have their vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen
      saturation and temperature) measured at 4 to 6-week intervals during pregnancy.
      Vital signs recorded during labour and delivery will be extracted from hospital
      records. After delivery, participants will measure and record their own vital
      signs daily for 2 weeks. During the antenatal and postnatal periods, vital signs
      will be recorded on an Android tablet computer through a custom software
      application and transferred via mobile internet connection to a secure database.
      The data collected will be used to define reference ranges of vital signs across
      normal pregnancy, labour and the immediate postnatal period. This will inform the
      design of an evidence-based obstetric EWS. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study
      has been approved by the NRES committee South East Coast-Brighton and Sussex
      (14/LO/1312) and is registered with the ISRCTN (10838017). All participants will
      provide written informed consent and can withdraw from the study at any point.
      All data collected will be managed anonymously. The findings will be disseminated
      in international peer-reviewed journals and through research conferences.

PMID- 28864696
TI  - Risk factors of diabetic retinopathy and sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy:
      a cross-sectional study of 13 473 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in
      mainland China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the risk factors of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and sight
      threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) among Chinese patients with diabetes.
      DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional investigation was performed
      in eight screening clinics in six provinces across mainland China. Information
      about the risk factors was recorded in screening clinics. Some risk factors (sex,
      age, diagnosis age, diabetes duration, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic
      blood pressure, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c))
      were recorded in all eight clinics, while others were collected only in a subset
      of the clinics. The relationships between the risk factors and DR and between the
      risk factors and STDR were explored for the eight factors mentioned above and for
      all factors studied. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Risk factors of DR and STDR were
      assessed, and a nomogram of the results was produced. RESULTS: Younger age,
      longer diabetes duration, higher SBP, higher FBG and higher HbA1c were found to
      be independent risk factors for both DR and STDR in the eight-factor analyses. In
      the all-factor analysis, younger age, longer diabetes duration, higher SBP, oral
      medicine use and insulin use were independent risk factors for both DR and STDR;
      higher postprandial blood glucose (PBG), HbA1c, triglyceride andlow-density
      lipoprotein were independent risk factors for DR only, and higher FBG was a risk
      factor for STDR only. CONCLUSIONS: In this cross-sectional investigation, several
      risk factors were found for DR and STDR. Notably, FBG, PBG and HbA1c were all
      risk factors for DR or STDR, suggesting that stricter blood glucose control in
      clinical practice is required.

PMID- 28864697
TI  - Estimating the prevalence of heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) confers a
      significant risk for premature cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the
      estimated prevalence of FH varies substantially among studies. We aimed to
      provide a summary estimate of FH prevalence in the general population and assess
      variations in frequency across different sociodemographic characteristics.
      SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND OUTCOME MEASURES: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Global
      Health, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO and PubMed for peer-reviewed literature
      using validated strategies. Results were limited to studies published in English
      between January 1990 and January 2017. Studies were eligible if they determined
      FH prevalence using clinical criteria or DNA-based analyses. We determined a
      pooled point prevalence of FH in adults and children and assessed the variation
      of the pooled frequency by age, sex, geographical location, diagnostic method,
      study quality and year of publication. Estimates were pooled using random-effects
      meta-analysis. Differences by study-level characteristics were investigated
      through subgroups, meta-regression and sensitivity analyses. RESULTS: The pooled
      prevalence of FH from 19 studies including 2 458 456 unique individuals was 0.40%
      (95% CI 0.29% to 0.52%) which corresponds to a frequency of 1 in 250 individuals.
      FH prevalence was found to vary by age and geographical location but not by any
      other covariates. Results were consistent in sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our systematic review suggests that FH is a common disorder, affecting 1 in 250
      individuals. These findings underscore the need for early detection and
      management to decrease CVD risk.

PMID- 28864698
TI  - Development and validation of the Fracture Risk Scale (FRS) that predicts
      fracture over a 1-year time period in institutionalised frail older people living
      in Canada: an electronic record-linked longitudinal cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate our Fracture Risk Scale (FRS) over a 1-year
      time period, using the long-term care (LTC) Resident Assessment Instrument
      Minimum Data Set Version 2.0 (RAI-MDS 2.0). DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study.
      SETTING: LTC homes in Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Older adults who were
      admitted to LTC and received a RAI-MDS 2.0 admission assessment between 2006 and
      2010. RESULTS: A total of 29 848 LTC residents were enrolled in the study. Of
      these 22 386 were included in the derivation dataset and 7462 individual were
      included in the validation dataset. Approximately 2/3 of the entire sample were
      women and 45% were 85 years of age or older. A total of 1553 (5.2%) fractures
      were reported over the 1-year time period. Of these, 959 (61.8%) were hip
      fractures. Following a hip fracture, 6.3% of individuals died in the emergency
      department or as an inpatient admission and did not return to their LTC home.
      Using decision tree analysis, our final outcome scale had eight risk levels of
      differentiation. The percentage of individuals with a hip fracture ranged from
      0.6% (lowest risk level) to 12.6% (highest risk level). The area under the curve
      of the outcome scale was similar for the derivation (0.67) and validation (0.69)
      samples, and the scale exhibited a good level of consistency. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      FRS predicts hip fracture over a 1-year time period and should be used as an aid
      to support clinical decisions in the care planning of LTC residents. Future
      research should focus on the transformation of our scale to a Clinical Assessment
      Protocol and to assess the FRS in other healthcare settings.

PMID- 28864699
TI  - Uterine balloon tamponade as an adjunct to misoprostol for the treatment of
      uncontrolled postpartum haemorrhage: a randomised controlled trial in Benin and
      Mali.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of low-cost uterine tamponade as an
      adjunct to misoprostol for the treatment of uncontrolled postpartum haemorrhage
      (PPH) in low-resource settings. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. SETTING:
      Seven healthcare facilities in Cotonou, Benin and Bamako, Mali. POPULATION: Women
      delivering vaginally who had clinically diagnosed PPH that was suspected to be
      due to uterine atony, who were unresponsive to oxytocin and who needed additional
      uterotonics. METHODS: Women were randomly assigned to receive uterine balloon
      tamponade with a condom-catheter device or no tamponade; both groups were also
      given intrarectal or sublingual misoprostol. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Proportion of
      women with invasive surgery or who died before hospital discharge. RESULTS: The
      proportion of primary composite outcome did not differ significantly between the
      tamponade arm (16%; 9/57) and the standard second line treatment arm (7%; 4/59):
      relative risk 2.33 (95% CI 0.76 to 7.14, p=0.238). A significantly increased
      proportion of women with tamponade and misoprostol versus misoprostol alone had
      total blood loss more than 1000 mL: relative risk 1.52 (95% CI 1.15 to 2.00,
      p=0.01). Case fatality rate was higher in the tamponade group (10%; 6/57) than in
      the control group (2%; 1/59) (p=0.059). TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCT Registry
      Number 01202389; Post-results.

PMID- 28864700
TI  - Psychological distress and quality of life: rationale and protocol of a
      prospective cohort study in a rural district in Bangaladesh.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A significant proportion of the global burden of disease has been
      attributed to mental and behavioural disorders. People with mental disorders
      (MDs) have lower levels of health-related quality of life than those without MDs.
      Several studies have shown that in low-resource countries, a range of social
      determinants including poor health literacy is critical in the epidemiological
      transition of disease outcome. There is a lack of evidence of MDs literacy, the
      prevalence and risk factors of common mental health conditions, or any validated
      instruments to measure psychological distress or evaluate the quality of life in
      rural areas of Bangladesh. AIMS: The aims of this study are: (1) report the
      awareness, knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) of MDs; (2) estimate the
      prevalence of and risk factors for psychological distress; (3) measure
      association of psychological distress and other socio-demographic factors with
      quality of life and (4) test the feasibility to use Kessler 10-item (K10) and WHO
      Quality Of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaires in rural Bangladesh for
      measuring psychological distress and quality of life. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A
      sample of 1500 adults aged 18-59 years and 1200 older adults aged 60-90 years
      will be interviewed from a multistage cluster random sample. Each participant
      will go through a face-to-face interview to assess their awareness and KAP of
      MDs. Information about the participant's sociodemographic and socioeconomic
      status will be collected along with the psychological distress (K10) and quality
      of life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaires. Internal consistency, validity, reliability
      and item discrimination of K10 and WHOQOL-BREF instruments will be determined by
      using Rasch analysis and regression techniques. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Human
      Ethics Approval was received from the Swinburne University of Technology Human
      Ethics Committee. Results of this research will be disseminated via scientific
      forums including peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national and
      international conferences.

PMID- 28864701
TI  - Is there evidence that the yearly numbers of children newly certified with sight
      impairment in England and Wales has increased between 1999/2000 and 2014/2015? A
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To use routine data capture from hospitals in England and Wales to
      identify whether there has been an increase in the annual numbers of children
      newly certified sight impaired in England and Wales between 1999/2000 and
      2014/2015 and to examine causes of certifiable sight impairment in children
      certified in 2014/2015. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study including an analysis of
      all certificates of vision impairment completed in hospitals in England and Wales
      each year between 2007/2008 and 2014/2015 and all certificates completed in
      hospitals in England and Wales in 1999/2000. PARTICIPANTS: Certificates for all
      individuals aged 16 years or less at the time of certification in England and
      Wales for each financial year between 1 April 2007 and the 31 March 2015 and for
      individuals aged 15 years or less for the year ending 31 March 2000. We obtained
      information on the main cause of certifiable sight loss for all children
      certified in 2014/2015. We estimated crude and sex specific incidence estimates
      with 95% confidence intervals computed by Byars method. RESULTS: In 1999/2000,
      the estimated incidence (95 % CI) of certification was 8.2 (7.7 to 8.8) per 1 00
      000. In 2007/2008, the estimated incidence was statistically significantly higher
      at 10.1 (9.5 to 10.7). Since then a trend of increasing incidence with time has
      been observed until 2014/2015 when an estimated incidence of 13.3 (12.6 to 14.0)
      was observed. Hereditary retinal dystrophies, cerebral visual impairment and
      nystagmus were the most common single causes of certifiable sight impairment in
      children in 2014/2015. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that in England and Wales
      there has been an increase in the number of children newly certified sight
      impaired by consultant ophthalmologists since 1999/2000. This mirrors our
      previous findings based on data originating within social service departments.

PMID- 28864702
TI  - Design and validation of a clinical scale for prehospital stroke recognition,
      severity grading and prediction of large vessel occlusion: the shortened NIH
      Stroke Scale for emergency medical services.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop an NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS)-compatible, all-in-one scale
      for rapid and comprehensive prehospital stroke assessment including stroke
      recognition, severity grading and progression monitoring as well as prediction of
      large vessel occlusion (LVO). METHODS: Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel
      and stroke physicians (n=326) rated each item of the NIHSS regarding suitability
      for prehospital use; best rated items were included. Stroke recognition was
      evaluated retrospectively in 689 consecutive patients with acute stroke or stroke
      mimics, prediction of LVO in 741 consecutive patients with ischaemic stroke with
      acute vessel imaging independent of admission NIHSS score. RESULTS: Nine of the
      NIHSS items were rated as 'suitable for prehospital use.' After excluding two
      items in order to increase specificity, the final scale (termed shortened NIHSS
      for EMS, sNIHSS-EMS) consists of 'level of consciousness', 'facial palsy', 'motor
      arm/leg', 'sensory', 'language' and 'dysarthria'. Sensitivity for stroke
      recognition of the sNIHSS-EMS is 91% (95% CI 86 to 94), specificity 52% (95% CI
      47 to 56). Receiver operating curve analysis revealed an optimal cut-off point
      for LVO prediction of >=6 (sensitivity 70% (95% CI 65 to 76), specificity 81%
      (95% CI 76 to 84), positive predictive value 70 (95% CI 65 to 75), area under the
      curve 0.81 (95% CI 0.78 to 0.84)). Test characteristics were non-inferior to non
      comprehensive scales. CONCLUSIONS: The sNIHSS-EMS may overcome the sequential use
      of multiple emergency stroke scales by permitting parallel stroke recognition,
      severity grading and LVO prediction. Full NIHSS-item compatibility allows for
      evaluation of stroke progression starting at the prehospital phase.

PMID- 28864703
TI  - Admission to psychiatric hospital for mental illnesses 2 years prechildbirth and
      postchildbirth in Scotland: a health informatics approach to assessing mother and
      child outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated with: admission to a specialist mother
      and baby unit (MBU) and the impact of perinatal mental illness on early childhood
      development using a data linkage approach in the 2 years prechildbirth and
      postchildbirth. METHODS: Scottish maternity records (SMR02) were linked to
      psychiatric hospital admissions (SMR04). 3290 pregnancy-related psychiatric
      admissions for 1730 women were assessed. To investigate factors associated with
      MBU admission, the group of mothers admitted to an MBU were compared with those
      admitted to general psychiatric wards. To assess the impact of perinatal mental
      illness on early child development, a pragmatic indicator for 'at potential risk
      of adversity', defined as a child who was recorded as requiring intensive
      treatment at any time under the health plan indicators (HPI) and/or who had no
      record of completing three doses of the 5-in-1 vaccine by 12 months was
      generated. Logistic regression models were used to describe the association
      between each variable and the risk of admission between those with a history of
      prior psychiatric admission and those without. RESULTS: Women admitted to an MBU
      were significantly more likely to be admitted with non-affective psychosis
      (OR=1.97, 95% CI 1.22 to 3.18), affective psychosis (OR=2.44, 95% CI 1.37 to
      4.33) and non-psychotic depressive episodes (OR=1.93, 95% CI 1.42 to 2.63). They
      were less likely to come from deprived areas (OR=0.68 95% CI 0.49 to 0.93). Women
      with a previous history of psychiatric admission were significantly more likely
      to be located in the two most deprived quintiles. Almost one-third (29%) of
      children born to mothers with a pregnancy-related psychiatric admission were
      assessed as 'at potential risk of adversity.' CONCLUSIONS: A health informatics
      approach has potential for improving understanding of social and clinical
      factors, which contribute to the outcomes of perinatal mental illness, as well as
      potential adverse developmental outcomes for offspring.

PMID- 28864704
TI  - "It is merely a paper tiger." Battle for increased tobacco advertising regulation
      in Indonesia: content analysis of news articles.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: At the end of 2012, the Indonesian government enacted tobacco control
      regulation (PP 109/2012) that included stricter tobacco advertising, promotion
      and sponsorship (TAPS) controls. The PP did not ban all forms of TAPS and
      generated a great deal of media interest from both supporters and detractors.
      This study aims to analyse stakeholder arguments regarding the adoption and
      implementation of the regulation as presented through news media converge.
      DESIGN: Content analysis of 213 news articles reporting on TAPS and the PP that
      were available from the Factiva database and the Google News search engine.
      SETTING: Indonesia, 24 December 2012-29 February 2016. METHODS: Arguments
      presented in the news article about the adoption and implementation of the PP
      were coded into 10 supportive and 9 opposed categories. The news actors
      presenting the arguments were also recorded. Kappa statistic were calculated for
      intercoder reliability. RESULTS: Of the 213 relevant news articles, 202 included
      stakeholder arguments, with a total of 436 arguments coded across the articles.
      More than two-thirds, 69% (301) of arguments were in support of the regulation,
      and of those, 32.6% (98) agreed that the implementation should be enhanced. Of
      135 opposed arguments, the three most common were the potential decrease in
      government revenue at 26.7% (36), disadvantage to the tobacco industry at 18.5%
      (25) and concern for tobacco farmers and workers welfare at 11.1% (15). The
      majority of the in support arguments were made by national government, tobacco
      control advocates and journalists, while the tobacco industry made most opposing
      arguments. CONCLUSIONS: Analysing the arguments and news actors provides a
      mapping of support and opposition to an essential tobacco control policy
      instrument. Advocates, especially in a fragmented and expansive geographic area
      like Indonesia, can use these findings to enhance local tobacco control efforts.

PMID- 28864705
TI  - A protocol for a randomised controlled trial of the bone response to impact
      loading or resistance training in young women with lower than average bone mass:
      the OPTIMA-Ex trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of the Osteoporosis Prevention Through Impact and Muscle
      loading Approaches to Exercise trial is to compare the bone response to two known
      osteogenic stimuli - impact loading exercise and resistance training.
      Specifically, we will examine the effect of a 10-month, twice-weekly, high
      intensity impact loading exercise intervention and a 10-month, twice-weekly, high
      intensity resistance training intervention on bone mass and strength at
      clinically important skeletal sites. The intervention groups will be compared
      against a home-based 'positive' control group. Safety and acceptability of each
      exercise modality will also be determined. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Sedentary
      otherwise healthy young women aged 18-30 years with bone mineral density (BMD) T
      scores less than or equal to 0 at the hip and lumbar spine, screened for
      conditions and medications that influence bone and physical function, will be
      recruited. Eligible participants are randomised to 10-month, twice-weekly, either
      supervised high-intensity impact training, high-intensity resistance training or
      a home-based 'positive' control group. The primary outcome measure will be lumbar
      spine areal BMD, while secondary outcome measures will include: whole body,
      femoral neck and regional measures (upper and lower limb) of bone, muscle and
      fat; anthropometrics; muscle strength and power; quality of life and exercise
      safety, enjoyment and acceptability. All outcome measures will be conducted at
      baseline (T0) and 10 months (T10) and will be analysed according to the intention
      to-treat principle and per protocol. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been
      granted ethical approval from the Griffith University Human Research Ethics
      Committee (GU Ref: 2015/775). Standard scientific reporting practices will occur,
      including publication in peer-reviewed journals. Participant confidentiality will
      be maintained in all forms of reporting. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      ACTRN12616001444471.

PMID- 28864706
TI  - Contingency management for tobacco smoking during opioid addiction treatment: a
      randomised pilot study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Smoking rates among individuals in treatment for opioid addiction
      are close to five times that of the general public. Moreover, drug-addicted
      smokers have a premature mortality rate four times greater than drug-addicted non
      smokers. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether contingency
      management (CM) can be successfully added to evidence-based stop smoking
      treatment in individuals undergoing treatment for opioid addiction and assess
      preliminary evidence for its impact. PARTICIPANTS: Forty tobacco smokers
      currently undergoing treatment for opioid addiction. INTERVENTION: Escalating
      with reset CM as an adjunct to standard smoking cessation treatment. Financial
      incentives will be administered over a 5-week period for either biochemically
      verified abstinence from smoking or attendance at the clinic. Participants will
      be randomised to conditions stratified on current levels of smoking (high or
      low). OBJECTIVES AND ANALYSES: To assess whether a CM intervention can be
      successfully added to standard stop smoking services treatment, in patients
      undergoing outpatient treatment for opioid addiction. This will be measured as
      the number of people completing the 5 weeks of the intervention. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval for the study was granted on the 16 June 2016 by
      the London-city and east (reference 16/LO/0990) ethics committee. The pilot study
      was retrospectively registered on clincaltrials.gov in January 2017 (ID:
      NCT03015597). A SPIRIT checklist and figure are available for this protocol. It
      is planned that the results of this study will be published in an academic
      journal.

PMID- 28864707
TI  - Patients' and nurses' views on providing psychological support within cardiac
      rehabilitation programmes: a qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore patients' and nurses' views on the feasibility and
      acceptability of providing psychological care within cardiac rehabilitation
      services. DESIGN: In-depth interviews analysed thematically. PARTICIPANTS: 18
      patients and 7 cardiac nurses taking part in a pilot trial (CADENCE) of an
      enhanced psychological care intervention delivered within cardiac rehabilitation
      programmes by nurses to patients with symptoms of depression. SETTING: Cardiac
      services based in the South West of England and the East Midlands, UK. RESULTS:
      Patients and nurses viewed psychological support as central to good cardiac
      rehabilitation. Patients' accounts highlighted the significant and immediate
      adverse effect a cardiac event can have on an individual's mental well-being.
      They also showed that patients valued nurses attending to both their mental and
      physical health, and felt this was essential to their overall recovery. Nurses
      were committed to providing psychological support, believed it benefited
      patients, and advocated for this support to be delivered within cardiac
      rehabilitation programmes rather than within a parallel healthcare service.
      However, nurses were time-constrained and found it challenging to provide
      psychological care within their existing workloads. CONCLUSIONS: Both patients
      and nurses highly value psychological support being delivered within cardiac
      rehabilitation programmes but resource constraints raise barriers to
      implementation. Consideration, therefore, should be given to alternative forms of
      delivery which do not rely solely on nurses to enable patients to receive
      psychological support during cardiac rehabilitation. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      ISCTRN34701576.

PMID- 28864709
TI  - Early interventions for the prevention of post-traumatic stress symptoms in
      survivors of critical illness: protocol for a systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is being increasingly
      reported among survivors of critical illness and injury. Previous work has
      demonstrated that PTSD reduces patient quality of life and ability to return to
      work, as well as increases healthcare costs. As such, identifying interventions
      aimed at preventing the development of critical illness-related PTSD could have
      an important public health impact. The objective of this systematic review is to
      collate the world's literature on early interventions aimed at preventing PTSD
      among survivors of critical illness. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will perform a
      qualitative systematic review of human clinical trials of interventions aimed at
      preventing or reducing critical illness-related PTSD symptoms. We will
      methodically search CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL. We will also search
      websites containing details on clinical trials registration (National Library of
      Medicine's ClinicalTrials.gov and the WHO's International Clinical Trials
      Registry Platform), as well as screen reference lists of the articles we select
      for inclusion to identify additional studies for potential inclusion. Two authors
      will independently review all search results. After identification and inclusion
      of articles, we will use a standardised form for data extraction. We will use
      tables to describe the study type, populations, interventions tested and timing
      of interventions, outcome measures and effects of interventions on outcome
      measures compared with control groups. This review will be completed between 1
      August 2017 and 31 August 2017. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The proposed systematic
      review will not collect individual patient level data and does not require
      ethical approval. Results of this study will contribute to the understanding of
      critical illness-related PTSD and help prompt future research aimed at further
      developing interventions to prevent PTSD symptoms in survivors of critical
      illness. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: This systematic review is registered in
      the PROSPERO international prospective register of systematic reviews
      (registration number CRD42017069672).

PMID- 28864708
TI  - Does supplementation with carnosine improve cardiometabolic health and cognitive
      function in patients with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes? study protocol for a
      randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Carnosine, an over-the-counter food supplement, has a promising
      potential for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases such as type 2
      diabetes (T2DM), cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases through its anti
      inflammatory, antiglycation, antioxidative and chelating effects. We have
      previously shown that supplementation with carnosine preserves insulin
      sensitivity and secretion in non-diabetic overweight and obese individuals. The
      effect of carnosine on cardiometabolic risk and related cognitive outcomes in
      patients with pre-diabetes and T2DM has thus far not been studied. We therefore
      aim to investigate whether supplementation with carnosine improves
      cardiometabolic health and cognitive function in patients with pre-diabetes and
      T2DM. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will employ a parallel design randomised
      controlled trial. Fifty participants with pre-diabetes (impaired fasting
      glycaemia and impaired glucose tolerance) and T2DM (with HbA1c level < 8%) aged
      between 18 to 70 years will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control
      group. At baseline, participants will undergo a medical review and series of
      tests including anthropometric measurements (body mass index, a dual X-ray
      absorptiometry and peripheral quantitative computed tomography scan), an oral
      glucose tolerance test, cardiovascular measurements (central blood pressure,
      endothelial function and arterial stiffness), cognitive function, physical
      activity measurement, heart rate variability and liver fibroscan as well as
      questionnaires to assess dietary habits, sleep quality, depression and quality of
      life. The intervention group will receive 2 g of carnosine daily in two divided
      doses while the control group will receive identical placebo capsules for 14
      weeks. All baseline measurements will be repeated at the end of the intervention.
      The change in glycaemic, cardiovascular and cognitive parameters as well as other
      measures will be compared between the groups. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This
      study is approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Monash Health and
      Monash University, Australia. The findings will be disseminated via peer-reviewed
      publications and conference presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02917928; Pre
      results.

PMID- 28864710
TI  - Principles of Child Health Care Financing.
AB  - After passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more children
      and young adults have become insured and have benefited from health care coverage
      than at any time since the creation of the Medicaid program in 1965. From 2009 to
      2015, the uninsurance rate for children younger than 19 years fell from 9.7% to
      5.3%, whereas the uninsurance rate for young adults 19 to 25 years of age
      declined from 31.7% to 14.5%. Nonetheless, much work remains to be done. The
      American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) believes that the United States can and
      should ensure that all children, adolescents, and young adults from birth through
      the age of 26 years who reside within its borders have affordable access to high
      quality and comprehensive health care, regardless of their or their families'
      incomes. Public and private health insurance should safeguard existing benefits
      for children and take further steps to cover the full array of essential health
      care services recommended by the AAP. Each family should be able to afford the
      premiums, deductibles, and other cost-sharing provisions of the plan. Health
      plans providing these benefits should ensure, insofar as possible, that families
      have a choice of professionals and facilities with expertise in the care of
      children within a reasonable distance of their residence. Traditional and
      innovative payment methodologies by public and private payers should be
      structured to guarantee the economic viability of the pediatric medical home and
      of other pediatric specialty and subspecialty practices to address developing
      shortages in the pediatric specialty and subspecialty workforce, to promote the
      use of health information technology, to improve population health and the
      experience of care, and to encourage the delivery of evidence-based and quality
      health care in the medical home, as well as in other outpatient, inpatient, and
      home settings. All current and future health care insurance plans should
      incorporate the principles for child health financing outlined in this statement.
      Espousing the core principle to do no harm, the AAP believes that the United
      States must not sacrifice any of the hard-won gains for our children. Medicaid,
      as the largest single payer of health care for children and young adults, should
      remain true to its origins as an entitlement program; in other words, future
      fiscal or regulatory reforms of Medicaid should not reduce the eligibility and
      scope of benefits for children and young adults below current levels nor
      jeopardize children's access to care. Proposed Medicaid funding "reforms" (eg,
      institution of block grant, capped allotment, or per-capita capitation payments
      to states) will achieve their goal of securing cost savings but will inevitably
      compel states to reduce enrollee eligibility, trim existing benefits (such as
      Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment), and/or compromise
      children's access to necessary and timely care through cuts in payments to
      providers and delivery systems. In fact, the AAP advocates for increased Medicaid
      funding to improve access to essential care for existing enrollees, fund care for
      eligible but uninsured children once they enroll, and accommodate enrollment
      growth that will occur in states that choose to expand Medicaid eligibility. The
      AAP also calls for Congress to extend funding for the Children's Health Insurance
      Program, a plan vital to the 8.9 million children it covered in fiscal year 2016,
      for a minimum of 5 years.

PMID- 28864711
TI  - Meningococcal B Vaccine Failure With a Penicillin-Resistant Strain in a Young
      Adult on Long-Term Eculizumab.
AB  - We describe a case of invasive meningococcal disease due to a vaccine-preventable
      and penicillin-resistant strain in a fully immunized young adult on long-term
      complement inhibitor therapy and daily penicillin chemoprophylaxis. Eculizumab is
      a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds human complement C5 protein and
      inhibits the terminal complement pathway. It is currently recommended for the
      treatment of complement-mediated thrombotic microangiopathies. An unwanted
      complication of inhibiting complement, however, is an increased risk of invasive
      meningococcal disease. Here, we report the first case of meningococcal group B
      vaccine failure in a young adult receiving eculizumab for atypical hemolytic
      uremic syndrome. She developed invasive meningococcal disease due to a vaccine
      preventable and penicillin-resistant meningococcal group B strain 4 months after
      receiving 2 doses of meningococcal group B vaccine while on oral penicillin
      prophylaxis against meningococcal infection.

PMID- 28864712
TI  - Age at Intervention for Permanent Hearing Loss and 5-Year Language Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Universal newborn hearing screening has been implemented to detect
      permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL) early, with the ultimate goal of
      improving outcomes through early treatment. However, there is disagreement
      between studies on the size of this benefit and in some cases whether it is
      significantly different from 0. There have been no studies of sufficient size in
      which researchers have determined reliably whether the effect varies with degree
      of PCHL. We aimed to explore how intervention timing influences 5-year language
      in children with PCHL. METHODS: Via a prospective study of 350 children, we used
      standard multiple regression analyses to investigate the effect of age at
      intervention or hearing screening on language outcomes after allowing for the
      effects of nonverbal IQ, degree of PCHL, sex, birth weight, maternal education,
      additional disabilities, and communication mode. RESULTS: The benefit of early
      intervention for language development increased as hearing loss increased.
      Children whose amplification started at age 24 months had poorer language than
      those whose amplification started at 3 months. The difference was larger for 70
      dB HL (-11.8 score points; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: -18.7 to -4.8) than
      for 50-dB HL (-6.8; 95% CI: -10.8 to -2.8). Children who received cochlear
      implants at 24 months had poorer language than those implanted at 6 months (
      21.4; 95% CI: -33.8 to -9.0). There was no significant effect of screening on
      outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Early intervention improves language outcomes, thereby
      lending support to streamlining clinical pathways to ensure early amplification
      and cochlear implantation after diagnosis.

PMID- 28864713
TI  - Is Shared Decision-making the Right Approach for Febrile Infants?

PMID- 28864714
TI  - A new modification for mammalian messenger RNA.
AB  - The discovery of multiple RNA modifications in the past few years has broadened
      our views of the structures and potential functions of RNA species, but
      deciphering which modifications are made where and how remains a challenge. A new
      study by Xu et al. applies a combination of mass spectrometry, biochemistry,
      genetics, and cellular biology tools to reveal the two mammalian
      methyltransferases that are responsible for m3C installation in tRNA and a third
      that mediates the previously unknown installation of m3C in mammalian mRNA.

PMID- 28864715
TI  - Opposites attract in bispecific antibody engineering.
AB  - Bispecific antibodies show great promise as intrinsic combination therapies, but
      often suffer from poor physiochemical properties, many times related to poor
      heterodimerization. De Nardis et al. identify specific electrostatic interactions
      that facilitate efficient heterodimerization, resulting in bispecific antibodies
      with physiochemical properties very similar to those of naturally occurring
      antibodies. This provides a new platform for the treatment of an array of
      diseases from cancer and autoimmune diseases to infectious diseases.

PMID- 28864716
TI  - Trajectories and characteristics of work disability before and after acute
      myocardial infarction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Scientific knowledge on work disability in terms of sickness absence
      and disability pension (SA/DP) among patients with acute myocardial infarction
      (AMI) is scarce. The study aimed to investigate trajectories of SA/DP among
      individuals with or without AMI and examined the associations between
      sociodemographic, morbidity and coronary revascularisation characteristics with
      such trajectories among patients with AMI. METHODS: This is a population-based
      cohort study of 10 255 individuals aged 30-60 years who had a first AMI during
      2008-2010 and were alive 30 days after AMI. Each case was matched by
      sociodemographics to one control without AMI. Trajectories of annual SA/DP months
      over a 6-year period for cases and controls were analysed by group-based
      trajectory modelling. Associations of characteristics with trajectory groups were
      estimated by Chi2 test and multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: The majority
      of patients (59%) had slightly increased annual levels of SA/DP (1 month) at the
      time of AMI, which returned to no SA/DP 2 years after the event. One group (4%)
      had increasing SA/DP months preceding and after AMI. Three groups showed constant
      SA/DP months on low (14%), medium (9%) and high (15%) levels. Sex, unemployment,
      education, musculoskeletal disorders and prescription of antidepressants were the
      strongest factors discriminating the SA/DP trajectories (R2difference=0.02-0.03,
      p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients with AMI have a good outcome in
      terms of low levels of work disability within 2 years after AMI. Patterns of
      SA/DP before AMI, sex, socioeconomic status as well as comorbid musculoskeletal
      and mental disorders provide crucial clinical information on work disability
      after AMI.

PMID- 28864717
TI  - Impact of presynaptic sympathetic imbalance in long-QT syndrome by positron
      emission tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated the impact of cardiac presynaptic norepinephrine
      recycling in patients with long-QT syndrome (LQTS) using positron emission
      tomography (PET) with 11C-meta-hydroxyephedrine ([11C]mHED-PET). METHODS:
      [11C]mHED-PET was performed in 25 patients with LQTS (LQT1: n=14; LQT2: n=11) and
      20 healthy controls and correlated with clinical parameters. [11C]mHED-PET images
      were analysed for global and regional retention indices (RI) and washout rates
      (WO) reflecting dynamic parameters of the tracer activity. RESULTS: Global and
      regional RI values were similar between patients with LQTS and controls. Although
      the global WO rates were similar between these groups, regional WO rates were on
      average higher in the lateral left ventricle (LV) wall in patients with LQTS
      (dose, mean +/-SD; 0.08+/-0.14 vs 0.00%+/-0.09% min-1; p=0.033). In addition,
      patients with LQTS with a longer QTc interval showed a higher global WO rate.
      Clinical symptoms correlated with higher global WO rates. In the presence of
      normal global WO rates, asymptomatic LQTS patients showed higher global RI
      values. CONCLUSION: The increased regional WO rate of [11C]mHED in the lateral LV
      suggests an imbalance of presynaptic catecholamine reuptake and release,
      resulting in a higher synaptic catecholamine concentration, in particular in LQT1
      patients. This might enhance beta-adrenoceptor signalling and thereby aggravate
      inherited ion channel dysfunction and may facilitate occurrence of ventricular
      tachyarrhythmias. Detection of regional differences in LV sympathetic nervous
      function may modify disease expression and potentially serve as a non-invasive
      risk marker in congenital LQTS. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2006-002767
      41;Results.

PMID- 28864718
TI  - Assessment of the 2016 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence high
      sensitivity troponin rule-out strategy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the limit of detection of high-sensitivity
      troponin (hs-cTn) and Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) score
      combination rule-out strategy suggested within the 2016 National Institute for
      Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Chest Pain of Recent Onset guidelines and
      establish the optimal TIMI score threshold for clinical use. METHODS: A pooled
      analysis of adult patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain
      and a non-ischaemic ECG, recruited into six prospective studies, from Australia,
      New Zealand and the UK. We evaluated the sensitivity of TIMI score thresholds
      from 0 to 2 alongside hs-cTnT or hs-cTnI for the primary outcome of major adverse
      cardiac events within 30 days. RESULTS: Data were available for 3159 patients for
      hs-cTnT and 4532 for hs-cTnI, of these 376 (11.9%) and 445 (9.8%) had major
      adverse cardiac events, respectively. Using a TIMI score of 0, the sensitivity
      for the primary outcome was 99.5% (95% CI 98.1% to 99.9%) alongside hs-cTnT and
      98.9% (97.4% to 99.6%)%) alongside hs-cTnI, identifying 17.9% and 21.0% of
      patients as low risk, respectively. For a TIMI score <=1 sensitivity was 98.9%
      (97.3% to 99.7%)%) alongside hs-cTnT and 98.4% (96.8% to 99.4%)%) alongside hs
      cTnI, identifying 28.1% and 35.7% as low risk, respectively. For TIMI<=2, meta
      sensitivity was <98% with either assay. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the
      rule-out strategy suggested by NICE. The TIMI score threshold suggested for
      clinical use is 0. The proportion of patients identified as low risk (18%-21%)
      and suitable for early discharge using this threshold may be sufficient to
      encourage change of practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: ADAPT observational
      study/IMPACT intervention trial ACTRN12611001069943.ADAPT-ADP randomised
      controlled trial ACTRN12610000766011. EDACS-ADP randomised controlled trial
      ACTRN12613000745741. TRUST observational study ISRCTN no. 21109279.

PMID- 28864719
TI  - Anatomical and clinical predictors of valve dysfunction and aortic dilation in
      bicuspid aortic valve disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is associated with early valvular
      dysfunction and proximal aorta dilation with high heterogeneity. This study aimed
      to assess the determinants of these complications. METHODS: Eight hundred and
      fifty-two consecutive adults diagnosed of BAV referred from cardiac outpatient
      clinics to eight echocardiographic laboratories of tertiary hospitals were
      prospectively recruited. Exclusion criteria were aortic coarctation, other
      congenital disorders or intervention. BAV morphotype, significant valve
      dysfunction and aorta dilation (>=2 Z-score) at sinuses and ascending aorta were
      established. RESULTS: Three BAV morphotypes were identified: right-left coronary
      cusp fusion (RL) in 72.9%, right-non-coronary (RN) in 24.1% and left-non-coronary
      (LN) in 3.0%. BAV without raphe was observed in 18.3%. Multivariate analysis
      showed aortic regurgitation (23%) to be related to male sex (OR: 2.80, p<0.0001)
      and valve prolapse (OR: 5.16, p<0.0001), and aortic stenosis (22%) to BAV-RN (OR:
      2.09, p<0.001), the presence of raphe (OR: 2.75, p<0.001), age (OR: 1.03;
      p<0.001), dyslipidaemia (OR: 1.77, p<0.01) and smoking (OR: 1.63, p<0.05).
      Ascending aorta was dilated in 76% without differences among morphotypes and
      associated with significant valvular dysfunction. By contrast, aortic root was
      dilated in 34% and related to male sex and aortic regurgitation but was less
      frequent in aortic stenosis and BAV-RN. CONCLUSIONS: Normofunctional valves are
      more prevalent in BAV without raphe. Aortic stenosis is more frequent in BAV-RN
      and associated with some cardiovascular risk factors, whereas aortic
      regurgitation (AR) is associated with male sex and sigmoid prolapse. Although
      ascending aorta is the most commonly dilated segment, aortic root dilation is
      present in one-third of patients and associated with AR. Remarkably, BAV-RL
      increases the risk for dilation of the proximal aorta, whereas BAV-RN spares this
      area.

PMID- 28864722
TI  - Refining Immunotherapy Approvals.

PMID- 28864720
TI  - Overexpression of TrpC5 promotes tumor metastasis via the HIF-1alpha-Twist
      signaling pathway in colon cancer.
AB  - In cancer cells, intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis is altered, and this is involved
      in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis. However, little is known about
      the underlying mechanisms. Here, we report that transient receptor potential
      channel 5 (TrpC5), a receptor-activated non-selective Ca2+ channel, is correlated
      with tumor metastasis in colon cancer patients. Moreover, in colon cancer cells,
      overexpression of TrpC5 caused a robust rise in the concentration of ([Ca2+]i),
      decreased E-cadherin, and increased mesenchymal biomarker expression, then
      promoted cell migration, invasion, and proliferation. Interestingly, we found
      that TrpC5 mediated hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha (HIF-1alpha) expression,
      activating Twist to promote the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Notably,
      patients with high expression of TrpC5 displayed poorer overall and metastasis
      free survival. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that TrpC5 induces the
      EMT through the HIF-1alpha-Twist signaling pathway to promote tumor metastasis in
      colon cancer.

PMID- 28864723
TI  - Challenges and Opportunities in Adapting Clinical Trial Design for
      Immunotherapies.
AB  - Immunotherapy adds an exciting new dimension to the treatment of cancer, joining
      other approaches as a key pillar in the oncotherapeutics armamentarium. Immuno
      oncology agents harbor unique mechanisms of antitumor activity by leveraging the
      host immune system, which may result in response patterns, resistance kinetics,
      and toxicity profiles that differ from other systemic therapies. These features
      have led to many discussions on ways to optimally integrate immunotherapy into
      cancer clinical trials. This overview provides an introduction to the four CCR
      Focus articles that ensue, with special thoughts paid to clinical trial
      endpoints, biomarker development and validation, combination strategies, and
      limitations that arise with increasing use of these agents. In addition, this
      overview examines design concepts that may be applied to invigorate clinical
      trials and to maximize their impact in the immuno-oncology era.

PMID- 28864724
TI  - Immuno-oncology Trial Endpoints: Capturing Clinically Meaningful Activity.
AB  - Immuno-oncology (I-O) has required a shift in the established paradigm of
      toxicity and response assessment in clinical research. The design and
      interpretation of cancer clinical trials has been primarily driven by
      conventional toxicity and efficacy patterns observed with chemotherapy and
      targeted agents, which are insufficient to fully inform clinical trial design and
      guide therapeutic decisions in I-O. Responses to immune-targeted agents follow
      nonlinear dose-response and dose-toxicity kinetics mandating the development of
      novel response evaluation criteria. Biomarker-driven surrogate endpoints may
      better capture the mechanism of action and biological response to I-O agents and
      could be incorporated prospectively in early-phase I-O clinical trials. While
      overall survival remains the gold standard for evaluation of clinical efficacy of
      I-O agents in late-phase clinical trials, exploration of potential novel
      surrogate endpoints such as objective response rate and milestone survival is to
      be encouraged. Patient-reported outcomes should also be assessed to help redefine
      endpoints for I-O clinical trials and drive more efficient drug development. This
      paper discusses endpoints used in I-O trials to date and potential optimal
      endpoints for future early- and late-phase clinical development of I-O therapies.

PMID- 28864725
TI  - The Challenge for Development of Valuable Immuno-oncology Biomarkers.
AB  - The development of immunotherapy is an important breakthrough for the treatment
      of cancer, with antitumor efficacy observed in a wide variety of tumors. To
      optimize immunotherapy use, approaches must be developed to identify which
      patients are likely to achieve benefit. To minimize therapeutic toxicities and
      costs, understanding the ideal choice and sequencing of the numerous immuno
      oncology agents available for individual patients is thus critical, but fraught
      with challenges. The immune tumor microenvironment (TME) is a unique aspect of
      the response to immuno-oncology agents and measurement of single biomarkers does
      not adequately capture these complex interactions. Therefore, multiple potential
      biomarkers are likely needed. Current candidates in this area include PD-L1
      expression, CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, tumor mutation load and
      neoantigen burden, immune-related gene signatures, and multiplex IHC assays that
      examine the pharmacodynamic and spatial interactions of the TME. The most
      fruitful investigations are likely to use several techniques to predict response
      and interrogate mechanisms of resistance. Immuno-oncology biomarker research must
      employ validated assays to ask focused research questions utilizing clinically
      annotated tissue collections and biomarker-focused clinical trial designs to
      investigate specific endpoints. Real-time input from patients and their advocates
      into biomarker discovery is necessary to ensure that the investigations pursued
      will improve both clinical outcomes and quality of life. We herein provide a
      framework of recommendations to guide the search for immuno-oncology biomarkers
      of value.

PMID- 28864728
TI  - mTOR Pathway Mutations and Response to Rapalogs in RCC-Letter.

PMID- 28864726
TI  - From Famine to Feast: Developing Early-Phase Combination Immunotherapy Trials
      Wisely.
AB  - Not until the turn of this century has immunotherapy become a fundamental
      component of cancer treatment. While monotherapy with immune modulators, such as
      immune checkpoint inhibitors, provides a subset of patients with durable clinical
      benefit and possible cure, combination therapy offers the potential for antitumor
      activity in a greater number of patients. The field of immunology has provided us
      with a plethora of potential molecules and pathways to target. This abundance
      makes it impractical to empirically test all possible combinations efficiently.
      We recommend that potential immunotherapy combinations be chosen based on sound
      rationale and available data to address the mechanisms of primary and acquired
      immune resistance. Novel trial designs may increase the proportion of patients
      receiving potentially efficacious treatments and, at the same time, better define
      the balance of clinical activity and safety. We believe that implementing a
      strategic approach in the early development of immunotherapy combinations will
      expedite the delivery of more effective therapies with improved safety and
      durable outcomes.

PMID- 28864727
TI  - Immuno-oncology Clinical Trial Design: Limitations, Challenges, and
      Opportunities.
AB  - Recent advances in immuno-oncology and regulatory approvals have been rapid and
      paradigm shifting in many difficult-to-treat malignancies. Despite immune
      checkpoint inhibitor therapy becoming the standard of care across multiple tumor
      types, there are many unanswered questions that need to be addressed before this
      therapeutic modality can be fully harnessed. Areas of limitations include
      treatment of patients not sufficiently represented in clinical trials,
      uncertainty of the optimal treatment dosing and duration, and lack of
      understanding regarding long-term immune related toxicities and atypical tumor
      responses. Patients such as those with autoimmune disease, chronic viral
      infections, limited performance status, and brain metastases were often excluded
      from initial trials due to concerns of safety. However, limited data suggest that
      some of these patients can benefit from therapy with manageable toxicities; thus,
      future studies should incorporate these patients to clearly define safety and
      efficacy. There are still controversies regarding the optimal dosing strategy
      that can vary from weight-based to flat dosing, with undefined treatment
      duration. Further elucidation of the optimal dosing approach and evaluation of
      predictive biomarkers should be incorporated in the design of future trials.
      Finally, there are long-term immune-mediated toxicities, atypical tumor responses
      such as pseudoprogression and endpoints unique to immuno-oncology that are not
      adequately captured by traditional trial designs; thus, novel study designs are
      needed. In this article, we discuss in detail the above challenges and propose
      needed areas of research for exploration and incorporation in the next generation
      of immuno-oncology clinical trials.

PMID- 28864729
TI  - Retraction: Polymorphisms of the CYP1B1 Gene as Risk Factors for Human Renal Cell
      Cancer.

PMID- 28864731
TI  - Management of Pediatric Community-acquired Bacterial Pneumonia.

PMID- 28864732
TI  - Pediatric Lymphoma.

PMID- 28864733
TI  - Approach to Hypertriglyceridemia in the Pediatric Population.
AB  - Hypertriglyceridemia is increasingly identified in children and adolescents,
      owing to improved screening and higher prevalence of childhood obesity.
      Hypertriglyceridemia can result from either increased triglyceride (TG)
      production or reduced TG clearance. The etiologic origin can be primary (genetic)
      or secondary, but it is often multifactorial. Management is challenging because
      of the interplay of genetic and secondary causes and lack of evidence-based
      guidelines. Lifestyle changes and dietary interventions are most important,
      especially in hypertriglyceridemia associated with obesity. Dietary restriction
      of fat remains the mainstay of management in primary hypertriglyceridemia. When
      fasting TG concentration is increased above 500 mg/dL (5.65 mmol/L), fibrates may
      be used to prevent pancreatitis. Omega-3 fatty acids are often used as an
      adjunctive therapy. When the fasting TG concentration is less than 500 mg/dL
      (5.65 mmol/L) and if the non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level is above
      145 mg/dL (3.76 mmol/L), statin treatment can be considered.

PMID- 28864734
TI  - Case 1: Fever and Ataxia in a Toddler with Pica.

PMID- 28864736
TI  - Case 3: Abdominal Pain and Epididymitis in an 8-year-old Boy.

PMID- 28864735
TI  - Case 2: Sternal Mass in an 18-year-old Boy.

PMID- 28864737
TI  - Case 4: Suspected Sudden Visual Loss in a 2-year-old Girl.

PMID- 28864738
TI  - Case 5: Large Amounts of Urine Bilirubin on Urine Dipstick in a 14-year-old Girl.

PMID- 28864739
TI  - Case 6: Dehydration and Electrolyte Abnormalities in an 11-year-old Boy.

PMID- 28864740
TI  - CME Quiz Correction.

PMID- 28864741
TI  - Human Papillomavirus and HPV Vaccines.

PMID- 28864742
TI  - Retractions.

PMID- 28864743
TI  - Sun Exposure.

PMID- 28864744
TI  - Visual Diagnosis: Vesicular Rash in a Neonate.

PMID- 28864746
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28864745
TI  - Visual Diagnosis: A 3-week-old Girl with an Unusual Rash.

PMID- 28864747
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28864749
TI  - Wuzhi Tablet (Schisandra sphenanthera Extract) is a Promising Tacrolimus-Sparing
      Agent for Renal Transplant Recipients Who are CYP3A5 Expressers: a Two-Phase
      Prospective Study.
AB  - Tacrolimus is a potent but expensive first-line immunosuppressant, thus solutions
      to reduce tacrolimus consumption while maintain therapeutic level are in urgent
      need. A two-phase prospective study was conducted to assess the efficacy of an
      ethanolic extraction preparation of Schisandra sphenanthera (Wuzhi tablet) as a
      tacrolimus-sparing agent in renal transplant recipients who were high-dose
      tacrolimus consumers (CYP3A5*1 allele carriers, CYP3A5 expressers). A total of 12
      patients were included in the Part I study. After co-administration of Wuzhi
      tablet, the average individual increment (%) in dose-adjusted C0, Cmax and AUC0
      12 hour of tacrolimus were 198.8% (95% CI 149.2, 248.3), 111.0% (95% CI 63.4,
      158.6) and 126.1% (95% CI 89.4, 162.8), respectively (P < 0.01), while the
      average individual reduction (%) in tacrolimus daily dose was 40.9% (95% CI 25.2,
      56.6) (P < 0.01). Subsequently, 32 patients were enrolled in a prospective,
      randomized, controlled study and randomly assigned to receive tacrolimus by
      CYP3A5 genotype plus Wuzhi tablet co-administration guided dosing (study group)
      or standard dosing (control group). Besides less tacrolimus dose requirement (P <
      0.01), a more accurate tacrolimus initial dose characterized by lower incidence
      of out-of-range C0 after initial dose (P < 0.01) and fewer dose changes (P <
      0.01) was found in the study group. Moreover, no significant differences in acute
      rejection rate and serum creatinine levels were observed between two groups. Our
      results show that CYP3A5 genotype plus Wuzhi tablet co-administration guided
      tacrolimus dosing is a promising therapy for CYP3A5 expressers in the early post
      transplant stage, while further study with a larger sample size is required to
      prove these findings.

PMID- 28864750
TI  - Do antipsychotic drugs lose their efficacy for relapse prevention over time?
AB  - There is a debate about long-term treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic
      drugs, with some experts suggesting that these drugs should be discontinued. In
      this issue, Takeuchi et al demonstrated by a meta-analysis of 11 trials that
      antipsychotic drugs maintained their efficacy for relapse prevention for 1 year,
      whereas patients on placebo kept getting worse. We consider these findings in the
      light of the current discussion about possible dose-related brain volume loss,
      supersensitivity psychosis, the high variability of results in long-term follow
      up studies and recent approaches to discontinue antipsychotics in patients with a
      first-episode. The new findings speak in favour of continuing antipsychotics at
      the same dose, at least in patients whose condition is chronic, but the topic is
      complex.

PMID- 28864751
TI  - Up and Away by Isobell Prescott - psychiatry in pictures.

PMID- 28864752
TI  - Closing the mortality gap for severe mental illness: are we going in the right
      direction?
AB  - In this editorial, we discuss a UK-based cohort study examining the mortality gap
      for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder from 2000 to 2014. There have
      been concerted efforts to improve physical and mental healthcare for this
      population in recent decades. Have these initiatives reduced mortality and
      'closed the gap'?

PMID- 28864748
TI  - Novel Interactions between Gut Microbiome and Host Drug-Processing Genes Modify
      the Hepatic Metabolism of the Environmental Chemicals Polybrominated Diphenyl
      Ethers.
AB  - The gut microbiome is a novel frontier in xenobiotic metabolism. Polybrominated
      diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), especially BDE-47 (2, 2', 4, 4'-tetrabromodiphenyl
      ether) and BDE-99 (2, 2', 4, 4',5-pentabromodiphenyl ether), are among the most
      abundant and persistent environmental contaminants that produce a variety of
      toxicities. Little is known about how the gut microbiome affects the hepatic
      metabolism of PBDEs and the PBDE-mediated regulation of drug-processing genes
      (DPGs) in vivo. The goal of this study was to determine the role of gut
      microbiome in modulating the hepatic biotransformation of PBDEs. Nine-week-old
      male C57BL/6J conventional (CV) or germ-free (GF) mice were treated with vehicle,
      BDE-47 or BDE-99 (100 MUmol/kg) for 4 days. Following BDE-47 treatment, GF mice
      had higher levels of 5-OH-BDE-47 but lower levels of four other metabolites in
      liver than CV mice; whereas following BDE-99 treatment GF mice had lower levels
      of four minor metabolites in liver than CV mice. RNA sequencing demonstrated that
      the hepatic expression of DPGs was regulated by both PBDEs and enterotypes. Under
      basal conditions, the lack of gut microbiome upregulated the Cyp2c subfamily but
      downregulated the Cyp3a subfamily. Following PBDE exposure, certain DPGs were
      differentially regulated by PBDEs in a gut microbiome-dependent manner.
      Interestingly, the lack of gut microbiome augmented PBDE-mediated upregulation of
      many DPGs, such as Cyp1a2 and Cyp3a11 in mouse liver, which was further confirmed
      by targeted metabolomics. The lack of gut microbiome also augmented the Cyp3a
      enzyme activity in liver. In conclusion, our study has unveiled a novel
      interaction between gut microbiome and the hepatic biotransformation of PBDEs.

PMID- 28864753
TI  - Bipolar disorder and addictions: the elephant in the room.
AB  - Addictions are highly prevalent in bipolar disorder and greatly affect clinical
      outcomes. In this editorial, we review the evidence that addictions are a key
      challenge in bipolar disorder, examine putative neurobiological mechanisms, and
      reflect on the limited clinical trial evidence base with suggestions for
      treatment strategies and further developments.

PMID- 28864754
TI  - Doctor in court: what do lawyers really need from doctors, and what can doctors
      learn from lawyers?
AB  - Doctors and lawyers are usually well-educated, thoughtful people. Both groups
      have to assimilate large amounts of information and use it to make decisions. But
      the way that they do it is very different. Doctors have a better chance of
      helping courts to make good decisions if they understand exactly what courts need
      from them.

PMID- 28864755
TI  - The Gastroenterology ward at Delphi - poems by doctors.

PMID- 28864756
TI  - Public anti-stigma programmes might impove help-seeking.

PMID- 28864757
TI  - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28864758
TI  - Suicide risk assessment tools do not perform worse than clinical judgement.

PMID- 28864759
TI  - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28864761
TI  - Kaleidoscope.

PMID- 28864760
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28864762
TI  - Life-course psychiatry: promoting healthy parenting, childhoods, treatment, and
      living space.

PMID- 28864764
TI  - Optogenetic interrogation of integrin alphaVbeta3 function in endothelial cells.
AB  - The integrin alphaVbeta3 is reported to promote angiogenesis in some model
      systems but not in others. Here, we used optogenetics to study the effects of
      alphaVbeta3 interaction with the intracellular adapter kindlin-2 (Fermt2) on
      endothelial cell functions potentially relevant to angiogenesis. Because
      interaction of kindlin-2 with alphaVbeta3 requires the C-terminal three residues
      of the beta3 cytoplasmic tail (Arg-Gly-Thr; RGT), optogenetic probes LOVpep and
      ePDZ1 were fused to beta3DeltaRGT-GFP and mCherry-kindlin-2, respectively, and
      expressed in beta3 integrin-null microvascular endothelial cells. Exposure of the
      cells to 450 nm (blue) light caused rapid and specific interaction of kindlin-2
      with alphaVbeta3 as assessed by immunofluorescence and total internal reflection
      fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, and it led to increased endothelial cell
      migration, podosome formation and angiogenic sprouting. Analyses of kindlin-2
      mutants indicated that interaction of kindlin-2 with other kindlin-2 binding
      partners, including c-Src, actin, integrin-linked kinase and phosphoinositides,
      were also likely necessary for these endothelial cell responses. Thus, kindlin-2
      promotes alphaVbeta3-dependent angiogenic functions of endothelial cells through
      its simultaneous interactions with beta3 integrin and several other binding
      partners. Optogenetic approaches should find further use in clarifying
      spatiotemporal aspects of vascular cell biology.

PMID- 28864765
TI  - Vinexin family (SORBS) proteins play different roles in stiffness-sensing and
      contractile force generation.
AB  - Vinexin, c-Cbl associated protein (CAP) and Arg-binding protein 2 (ArgBP2)
      constitute an adaptor protein family called the vinexin (SORBS) family that is
      targeted to focal adhesions (FAs). Although numerous studies have focused on each
      of the SORBS proteins and partially elucidated their involvement in
      mechanotransduction, a comparative analysis of their function has not been well
      addressed. Here, we established mouse embryonic fibroblasts that individually
      expressed SORBS proteins and analysed their functions in an identical cell
      context. Both vinexin-alpha and CAP co-localized with vinculin at FAs and
      promoted the appearance of vinculin-rich FAs, whereas ArgBP2 co-localized with
      alpha-actinin at the proximal end of FAs and punctate structures on actin stress
      fibers (SFs), and induced paxillin-rich FAs. Furthermore, both vinexin-alpha and
      CAP contributed to extracellular matrix stiffness-dependent vinculin behaviors,
      while ArgBP2 stabilized alpha-actinin on SFs and enhanced intracellular
      contractile forces. These results demonstrate the differential roles of SORBS
      proteins in mechanotransduction.

PMID- 28864767
TI  - Sequential activities of Dynein, Mud and Asp in centrosome-spindle coupling
      maintain centrosome number upon mitosis.
AB  - Centrosomes nucleate microtubules and are tightly coupled to the bipolar spindle
      to ensure genome integrity, cell division orientation and centrosome segregation.
      While the mechanisms of centrosome-dependent microtubule nucleation and bipolar
      spindle assembly have been the focus of numerous works, less is known about the
      mechanisms ensuring the centrosome-spindle coupling. The conserved NuMA protein
      (Mud in Drosophila) is best known for its role in spindle orientation. Here, we
      analyzed the role of Mud and two of its interactors, Asp and Dynein, in the
      regulation of centrosome numbers in Drosophila epithelial cells. We found that
      Dynein and Mud mainly initiate centrosome-spindle coupling prior to nuclear
      envelope breakdown (NEB) by promoting correct centrosome positioning or
      separation, while Asp acts largely independently of Dynein and Mud to maintain
      centrosome-spindle coupling. Failure in the centrosome-spindle coupling leads to
      mis-segregation of the two centrosomes into one daughter cell, resulting in cells
      with supernumerary centrosomes during subsequent divisions. Altogether, we
      propose that Dynein, Mud and Asp operate sequentially during the cell cycle to
      ensure efficient centrosome-spindle coupling in mitosis, thereby preventing
      centrosome mis-segregation to maintain centrosome number.

PMID- 28864766
TI  - Distinct intracellular sAC-cAMP domains regulate ER Ca2+ signaling and OXPHOS
      function.
AB  - cAMP regulates a wide variety of physiological functions in mammals. This single
      second messenger can regulate multiple, seemingly disparate functions within
      independently regulated cell compartments. We have previously identified one such
      compartment inside the matrix of the mitochondria, where soluble adenylyl cyclase
      (sAC) regulates oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). We now show that sAC knockout
      fibroblasts have a defect in OXPHOS activity and attempt to compensate for this
      defect by increasing OXPHOS proteins. Importantly, sAC knockout cells also
      exhibit decreased probability of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ release
      associated with diminished phosphorylation of the inositol 3-phosphate receptor.
      Restoring sAC expression exclusively in the mitochondrial matrix rescues OXPHOS
      activity and reduces mitochondrial biogenesis, indicating that these phenotypes
      are regulated by intramitochondrial sAC. In contrast, Ca2+ release from the ER is
      only rescued when sAC expression is restored throughout the cell. Thus, we show
      that functionally distinct, sAC-defined, intracellular cAMP signaling domains
      regulate metabolism and Ca2+ signaling.

PMID- 28864771
TI  - Two independent but synchronized Gbetagamma subunit-controlled pathways are
      essential for trailing-edge retraction during macrophage migration.
AB  - Chemokine-induced directional cell migration is a universal cellular mechanism
      and plays crucial roles in numerous biological processes, including embryonic
      development, immune system function, and tissue remodeling and regeneration.
      During the migration of a stationary cell, the cell polarizes, forms lamellipodia
      at the leading edge (LE), and triggers the concurrent retraction of the trailing
      edge (TE). During cell migration governed by inhibitory G protein (Gi)-coupled
      receptors (GPCRs), G protein betagamma (Gbetagamma) subunits control the LE
      signaling. Interestingly, TE retraction has been linked to the activation of the
      small GTPase Ras homolog family member A (RhoA) by the Galpha12/13 pathway.
      However, it is not clear how the activation of Gi-coupled GPCRs at the LE
      orchestrates the TE retraction in RAW264.7 macrophages. Here, using an
      optogenetic approach involving an opsin to activate the Gi pathway in defined
      subcellular regions of RAW cells, we show that in addition to their LE
      activities, free Gbetagamma subunits also govern TE retraction by operating two
      independent, yet synchronized, pathways. The first pathway involves RhoA
      activation, which prevents dephosphorylation of the myosin light chain, allowing
      actomyosin contractility to proceed. The second pathway activates phospholipase
      Cbeta and induces myosin light chain phosphorylation to enhance actomyosin
      contractility through increasing cytosolic calcium. We further show that both of
      these pathways are essential, and inhibition of either one is sufficient to
      abolish the Gi-coupled GPCR-governed TE retraction and subsequent migration of
      RAW cells.

PMID- 28864772
TI  - Mechanism for the inhibition of the cAMP dependence of HCN ion channels by the
      auxiliary subunit TRIP8b.
AB  - TRIP8b, an accessory subunit of hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide
      gated (HCN) ion channels, alters both the cell surface expression and cyclic
      nucleotide dependence of these channels. However, the mechanism by which TRIP8b
      exerts these dual effects is still poorly understood. In addition to binding to
      the carboxyl-terminal tripeptide of HCN channels, TRIP8b also binds directly to
      the cyclic nucleotide-binding domain (CNBD). That interaction, which requires a
      small central portion of TRIP8b termed TRIP8bcore, is both necessary and
      sufficient for reducing the cAMP-dependent regulation of HCN channels. Here,
      using fluorescence anisotropy, we report that TRIP8b binding to the CNBD of HCN2
      channels decreases the apparent affinity of cAMP for the CNBD. We explored two
      possible mechanisms for this inhibition. A noncompetitive mechanism in which
      TRIP8b inhibits the conformational change of the CNBD associated with cAMP
      regulation and a competitive mechanism in which TRIP8b and cAMP compete for the
      same binding site. To test these two mechanisms, we used a combination of
      fluorescence anisotropy, biolayer interferometry, and double electron-electron
      resonance spectroscopy. Fitting these models to our fluorescence anisotropy
      binding data revealed that, surprisingly, the TRIP8b-dependent reduction of cAMP
      binding to the CNBD can largely be explained by partial competition between
      TRIP8b and cAMP. On the basis of these findings, we propose that TRIP8b competes
      with a portion of the cAMP-binding site or distorts the binding site by making
      interactions with the binding pocket, thus acting predominantly as a competitive
      antagonist that inhibits the cyclic-nucleotide dependence of HCN channels.

PMID- 28864773
TI  - The calcium-binding protein ALG-2 regulates protein secretion and trafficking via
      interactions with MISSL and MAP1B proteins.
AB  - Mobilization of intracellular calcium is essential for a wide range of cellular
      processes, including signal transduction, apoptosis, and vesicular trafficking.
      Several lines of evidence have suggested that apoptosis-linked gene 2 (ALG-2,
      also known as PDCD6), a calcium-binding protein, acts as a calcium sensor linking
      calcium levels with efficient vesicular trafficking, especially at the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-to-Golgi transport step. However, how ALG-2 regulates
      these processes remains largely unclear. Here, we report that MAPK1-interacting
      and spindle-stabilizing (MISS)-like (MISSL), a previously uncharacterized
      protein, interacts with ALG-2 in a calcium-dependent manner. Live-cell imaging
      revealed that upon a rise in intracellular calcium levels, GFP-tagged MISSL (GFP
      MISSL) dynamically relocalizes in a punctate pattern and colocalizes with ALG-2.
      MISSL knockdown caused disorganization of the components of the ER exit site, the
      ER-Golgi intermediate compartment, and Golgi. Importantly, knockdown of either
      MISSL or ALG-2 attenuated the secretion of secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP),
      a model secreted cargo protein, with similar reductions in secretion by single-
      and double-protein knockdowns, suggesting that MISSL and ALG-2 act in the same
      pathway to regulate the secretion process. Furthermore, ALG-2 or MISSL knockdown
      delayed ER-to-Golgi transport of procollagen type I. We also found that ALG-2 and
      MISSL interact with microtubule-associated protein 1B (MAP1B) and that MAP1B
      knockdown reverts the reduced secretion of SEAP caused by MISSL or ALG-2
      depletion. These results suggest that a change in the intracellular calcium level
      plays a role in regulation of the secretory pathway via interaction of ALG-2 with
      MISSL and MAP1B.

PMID- 28864774
TI  - Negatively charged residues in the first extracellular loop of the L-type CaV1.2
      channel anchor the interaction with the CaValpha2delta1 auxiliary subunit.
AB  - Voltage-gated L-type CaV1.2 channels in cardiomyocytes exist as heteromeric
      complexes. Co-expression of CaValpha2delta1 with CaVbeta/CaValpha1 proteins
      reconstitutes the functional properties of native L-type currents, but the
      interacting domains at the CaV1.2/CaValpha2delta1 interface are unknown. Here, a
      homology-based model of CaV1.2 identified protein interfaces between the
      extracellular domain of CaValpha2delta1 and the extracellular loops of the
      CaValpha1 protein in repeats I (IS1S2 and IS5S6), II (IIS5S6), and III (IIIS5S6).
      Insertion of a 9-residue hemagglutinin epitope in IS1S2, but not in IS5S6 or in
      IIS5S6, prevented the co-immunoprecipitation of CaV1.2 with CaValpha2delta1.
      IS1S2 contains a cluster of three conserved negatively charged residues Glu-179,
      Asp-180, and Asp-181 that could contribute to non-bonded interactions with
      CaValpha2delta1. Substitutions of CaV1.2 Asp-181 impaired the co
      immunoprecipitation of CaVbeta/CaV1.2 with CaValpha2delta1 and the
      CaValpha2delta1-dependent shift in voltage-dependent activation gating. In
      contrast, single substitutions in CaV1.2 in neighboring positions in the same
      loop (179, 180, and 182-184) did not significantly alter the functional up
      regulation of CaV1.2 whole-cell currents. However, a negatively charged residue
      at position 180 was necessary to convey the CaValpha2delta1-mediated shift in the
      activation gating. We also found a more modest contribution from the positively
      charged Arg-1119 in the extracellular pore region in repeat III of CaV1.2. We
      conclude that CaV1.2 Asp-181 anchors the physical interaction that facilitates
      the CaValpha2delta1-mediated functional modulation of CaV1.2 currents. By
      stabilizing the first extracellular loop of CaV1.2, CaValpha2delta1 may up
      regulate currents by promoting conformations of the voltage sensor that are
      associated with the channel's open state.

PMID- 28864775
TI  - Proteolytic processing of lysyl oxidase-like-2 in the extracellular matrix is
      required for crosslinking of basement membrane collagen IV.
AB  - Lysyl oxidase-like-2 (LOXL2) is an enzyme secreted into the extracellular matrix
      that crosslinks collagens by mediating oxidative deamination of lysine residues.
      Our previous work demonstrated that this enzyme crosslinks the 7S domain, a
      structural domain that stabilizes collagen IV scaffolds in the basement membrane.
      Despite its relevant role in extracellular matrix biosynthesis, little is known
      about the structural requirements of LOXL2 that enable collagen IV crosslinking.
      In this study, we demonstrate that LOXL2 is processed extracellularly by serine
      proteases, generating a 65-kDa form lacking the first two scavenger receptor
      cysteine-rich domains. Site-specific mutagenesis to prevent proteolytic
      processing generated a full-length enzyme that is active in vitro toward a
      soluble substrate, but fails to crosslink insoluble collagen IV within the
      extracellular matrix. In contrast, the processed form of LOXL2 binds to collagen
      IV and crosslinks the 7S domain. Together, our data demonstrate that proteolytic
      processing is an important event that allows LOXL2-mediated crosslinking of
      basement membrane collagen IV.

PMID- 28864777
TI  - Sequence variation in PPP1R13L results in a novel form of cardio-cutaneous
      syndrome.

PMID- 28864776
TI  - A histone-mimicking interdomain linker in a multidomain protein modulates
      multivalent histone binding.
AB  - N-terminal histone tails are subject to many posttranslational modifications that
      are recognized by and interact with designated reader domains in histone-binding
      proteins. BROMO domain adjacent to zinc finger 2B (BAZ2B) is a multidomain
      histone-binding protein that contains two histone reader modules, a plant
      homeodomain (PHD) and a bromodomain (BRD), linked by a largely disordered linker.
      Although previous studies have reported specificity of the PHD domain for the
      unmodified N terminus of histone H3 and of the BRD domain for H3 acetylated at
      Lys14 (H3K14ac), the exact mode of H3 binding by BAZ2B and its regulation are
      underexplored. Here, using isothermal titration calorimetry and NMR spectroscopy,
      we report that acidic residues in the BAZ2B PHD domain are essential for H3
      binding and that BAZ2B PHD-BRD establishes a polyvalent interaction with H3K14ac.
      Furthermore, we provide evidence that the disordered interdomain linker modulates
      the histone-binding affinity by interacting with the PHD domain. In particular,
      lysine-rich stretches in the linker, which resemble the positively charged N
      terminus of histone H3, reduce the binding affinity of the PHD finger toward the
      histone substrate. Phosphorylation, acetylation, or poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation of the
      linker residues may therefore act as a cellular mechanism to transiently tune
      BAZ2B histone-binding affinity. Our findings further support the concept of
      interdomain linkers serving a dual role in substrate binding by appropriately
      positioning the adjacent domains and by electrostatically modulating substrate
      binding. Moreover, inhibition of histone binding by a histone-mimicking
      interdomain linker represents another example of regulation of protein-protein
      interactions by intramolecular mimicry.

PMID- 28864778
TI  - Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Reveals Food Intake-Induced Neuropeptide Level
      Changes in Rat Brain: Functional Assessment of Selected Neuropeptides as Feeding
      Regulators.
AB  - Endogenous neuropeptides are important signaling molecules that function as
      regulators of food intake and body weight. Previous work has shown that
      neuropeptide gene expression levels in a forebrain reward site, the nucleus
      accumbens (NAc), were changed by feeding. To directly monitor feeding-induced
      changes in neuropeptide expression levels within the NAc, we employed a
      combination of cryostat dissection, heat stabilization, neuropeptide extraction
      and label-free quantitative neuropeptidomics via a liquid chromatography-high
      resolution mass spectrometry platform. Using this methodology, we described the
      first neuropeptidome in NAc and discovered that feeding caused the expression
      level changes of multiple neuropeptides derived from different precursors,
      especially proSAAS-derived peptides such as Big LEN, PEN and little SAAS. We
      further investigated the regulatory functions of these neuropeptides derived from
      the ProSAAS family by performing an intra-NAc microinjection experiment using the
      identified ProSAAS neuropeptides, 'Big-LEN' and 'PEN'. Big LEN significantly
      increased rats' food and water intake, whereas both big LEN and PEN affected
      other behaviors including locomotion, drinking and grooming. In addition, we
      quantified the feeding-induced changes of peptides from hippocampus, hypothalamus
      and striatum to reveal the neuropeptide interplay among different anatomical
      regions. In summary, our study demonstrated neuropeptidomic changes in response
      to food intake in the rat NAc and other key brain regions. Importantly, the
      microinfusion of ProSAAS peptides into NAc revealed that they are behaviorally
      active in this brain site, suggesting the potential use of these peptides as
      therapeutics for eating disorders.

PMID- 28864779
TI  - RNAi-mediated TCF-3 gene silencing inhibits proliferation of Eca-109 esophageal
      cancer cells by inducing apoptosis.
AB  - Esophageal cancer (EC) remains an important health problem in China. In the
      present study, through the use of siRNA, specific gene knockdown of transcription
      factor 3 gene (TCF-3) was achieved in vitro and the effect of TCF-3 gene on human
      EC Eca-109 cell proliferation and apoptosis. Eca-109 cells were treated using
      negative control (NC) of siRNA against TCF-3 (siTCF-3) and siTCF-3 group. Colony
      formation assay was used to detect the colony formation ability in Eca-109 cells.
      MTT assay was used to measure the cell growth and viability, whereas BrDU assay
      was used to evaluate cell proliferation, and flow cytometry (FCM) to assess cell
      apoptosis. Reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was applied to
      measure TCF-3 gene expression. Protein expressions of TCF-3, apoptosis-related
      proteins, Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3 were determined using Western blotting.
      Transfection of siTCF-3 successfully down-regulated TCF-3 gene expression. In
      addition, siTCF-3, reduced Eca-109 cell viability and proliferation, in a time
      dependent manner, and inhibited progression of cell cycle from G0/G1 to S-stage.
      When treated with siTCF-3, the Eca-109 cells exhibited increased apoptosis, with
      up-regulated cleaved caspase and Bax expressions, whereas Bcl-2 expression was
      down-regulated. The present study shows that TCF-3 gene silencing inhibits Eca
      109 cell growth and proliferation, suppresses cell cycle progression, and
      promotes apoptosis, which might serve as a new objective for EC treatment.

PMID- 28864780
TI  - MicroRNA sequence analysis identifies microRNAs associated with peri-implantitis
      in dogs.
AB  - Peri-implantitis, which is characterized by dense inflammatory infiltrates and
      increased osteoclast activity, can lead to alveolar bone destruction and
      implantation failure. miRNAs participate in the regulation of various
      inflammatory diseases, such as periodontitis and osteoporosis. Therefore, the
      present study aimed to investigate the differential expression of miRNAs in
      canine peri-implantitis and to explore the functions of their target genes. An
      miRNA sequence analysis was used to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in
      peri-implantitis. Under the criteria of a fold-change >1.5 and P<0.01, 8 up
      regulated and 30 down-regulated miRNAs were selected for predictions of target
      genes and their biological functions. Based on the results of Gene Ontology (GO)
      and KEGG pathway analyses, these miRNAs may fine-tune the inflammatory process in
      peri-implantitis through an intricate mechanism. The results of quantitative real
      time PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed that let-7g, miR-27a, and miR-145 may play important
      roles in peri-implantitis and are worth further investigation. The results of the
      present study provide insights into the potential biological effects of the
      differentially expressed miRNAs, and specific enrichment of target genes involved
      in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway was observed.
      These findings highlight the intricate and specific roles of miRNAs in
      inflammation and osteoclastogenesis, both of which are key aspects of peri
      implantitis, and thus may contribute to future investigations of the etiology,
      underlying mechanism, and treatment of peri-implantitis.

PMID- 28864781
TI  - Homocysteine inhibits angiogenesis through cytoskeleton remodeling.
AB  - Homocysteine (Hcy) is an intermediate non-diet amino acid connecting methionine
      and folate cycles. Elevated total Hcy level in blood, denoted as
      hyperhomocysteinemia, has emerged as a prevalent and strong risk factor for
      multiple diseases including atherosclerotic vascular disease in coronary,
      cerebral, and peripheral vessels. Its detrimental effect on vascular system
      implies the potential application as an inhibitor of angiogenesis. However, the
      detailed mechanism is unveiled. Inhibitory effect of Hcy was assessed on vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induced cell proliferation and migration with
      endothelial cell (EC) culture system. Its effect on angiogenesis was further
      examined in vitro and in vivo After Hcy treatment, key angiogenic factors were
      measured by RT-qPCR. Cellular skeletal structure was also evaluated by actin
      stress fiber staining. VEGF-induced human umbilical vein EC (HUVEC) proliferation
      and migration were dramatically down-regulated by Hcy in a dose-responsive
      manner. Hcy treatment significantly inhibited the VEGF-induced angiogenesis in
      vitro by tube formation assay and chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) vessel
      formation in vivo Key angiogenic factors like VEGFR1/2 and angiopoietin (Ang)1/2
      were substantially reduced by Hcy in HUVEC- and VEGF-induced actin stress fiber
      cytoskeletal structure was abolished. We demonstrated that Hcy could inhibit
      angiogenesis by targetting key angiogenic factor and disruption of actin
      cytoskeleton which is crucial for cell migration.

PMID- 28864783
TI  - Mesenchymal stromal cells can be applied to red blood cells storage as a kind of
      cellular additive.
AB  - During storage in blood banks, red blood cells (RBCs) undergo the mechanical and
      metabolic damage, which may lead to the diminished capacity to deliver oxygen. At
      high altitude regions, the above-mentioned damage may get worse. Thus, more
      attention should be paid to preserve RBCs when these components need transfer
      from plain to plateau regions. Recently, we found that mesenchymal stromal cells
      (MSCs) could rescue from anemia, and MSCs have been demonstrated in hematopoietic
      stem cells (HSCs) transplantation to reconstitute hematopoiesis in vivo by us.
      Considering the functions and advantages of MSCs mentioned above, we are trying
      to find out whether they are helpful to RBCs in storage duration at high
      altitudes. In the present study, we first found that mice MSCs could be preserved
      in citrate phosphate dextrose adenine-1 (CPDA-1) at 4 +/- 2 degrees C for 14
      days, and still maintained great viability, even at plateau region. Thus, we
      attempted to use MSCs as an available supplement to decrease RBCs lesion during
      storage. We found that MSCs were helpful to support RBCs to maintain biochemical
      parameters and kept RBCs function well on relieving anemia in an acute hemolytic
      murine model. Therefore, our investigation developed a method to get a better
      storage of RBCs through adding MSCs, which may be applied in RBCs storage as a
      kind of cellular additive into preservation solution.

PMID- 28864782
TI  - Ozone oil promotes wound healing by increasing the migration of fibroblasts via
      PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.
AB  - Skin injury affects millions of people via the uncontrolled inflammation and
      infection. Many cellular components including fibroblasts and signaling pathways
      such as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) were activated to facilitate
      the wound healing to repair injured tissues. C57BL/6 female mice were divided
      into control and ozone oil treated groups. Excisional wounds were made on the
      dorsal skin and the fibroblasts were isolated from granulation tissues. The skin
      injured mouse model revealed that ozone oil could significantly decrease the
      wound area and accelerate wound healing compared with control group. QPCR and
      Western blotting assays showed that ozone oil up-regulated collagen I, alpha-SMA,
      and TGF-beta1 mRNA and protein levels in fibroblasts. Wound healing assay
      demonstrated that ozone oil could increase the migration of fibroblasts. Western
      blotting assay demonstrated that ozone oil increased the epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) process in fibroblasts via up-regulating fibronectin, vimentin,
      N-cadherin, MMP-2, MMP-9, insulin-like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP)-3,
      IGFBP5, and IGFBP6, and decreasing epithelial protein E-cadherin and cellular
      senescence marker p16 expression. Mechanistically, Western blotting assay
      revealed that ozone oil increased the phosphorylation of PI3K, Akt, and mTOR to
      regulate the EMT process, while inhibition of PI3K reversed this effect of ozone
      oil. At last, the results from Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) demonstrated ozone oil
      significantly decreased the inflammation in fibroblasts. Our results demonstrated
      that ozone oil facilitated the wound healing via increasing fibroblast migration
      and EMT process via PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in vivo and in vitro The
      cellular and molecular mechanisms we found here may provide new therapeutic
      targets for the treatment of skin injury.

PMID- 28864785
TI  - Leveling the Three-Legged Stool.

PMID- 28864784
TI  - SH003 reverses drug resistance by blocking signal transducer and activator of
      transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling in breast cancer cells.
AB  - Overcoming drug resistance is an important task for investigators and clinician
      to achieve successful chemotherapy in cancer patients. Drug resistance is caused
      by various factors, including the overexpression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp, MDR1).
      The development of new, useful compounds that overcome drug resistance is urgent.
      SH003 is extracted from the mixture of three different herbs, and its anticancer
      effect has been revealed in different cancer cell types. In the present study, we
      investigated whether SH003 is able to reverse drug resistance using paclitaxel
      resistant breast cancer cells (MCF-7/PAC). In our experiments, SH003
      significantly decreased cell growth and colony formation in MCF-7/PAC cells and
      parental MCF-7 cells. This growth inhibition was related to the accumulation of
      cells in the sub-G0/G1 apoptotic population and an increase in the number of
      apoptotic cells. SH003 reduced the mRNA expression of multidrug resistance 1
      (MDR1) and multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs) in MCF-7/PAC cells.
      SH003 also down-regulated the expression of P-gp. SH003 reversed drug efflux from
      MCF-7/PAC cells, resulting in rhodamine123 (Rho123) accumulation. Inhibition of
      drug resistance by SH003 is related to the suppression of the signal transducer
      and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway. SH003 decreased STAT3
      activation (p-STAT3) and its nuclear translocation and inhibited the secretion of
      VEGF and MMP-2, which are STAT3 target genes. An STAT3 inhibitor, JAK inhibitor I
      and an HIF-1alpha inhibitor decreased cell growth in MCF-7 and MCF-7/PAC cells.
      Taken together, these results demonstrate that SH003 can overcome drug
      resistance, and SH003 might be helpful for chemotherapy in cancer patients.

PMID- 28864786
TI  - Enhancing Dental Students' Understanding of Poverty Through Simulation.
AB  - Dental students should develop an understanding of the barriers to and
      frustrations with accessing dental care and maintaining optimal oral health
      experienced by persons with limited resources rather than blaming the patient or
      caregiver. Developing this understanding may be aided by helping students learn
      about the lives of underserved and vulnerable patients they will encounter not
      only in extramural rotations, but throughout their careers. The aim of this study
      was to determine if dental students' understanding of daily challenges faced by
      families with low income changed as a result of a poverty simulation. In 2015 and
      2016, an experiential poverty simulation was used to prepare third-year dental
      students at one U.S. dental school for their upcoming required community-based
      rotations. In 2015, United Way staff conducted the simulation using the Missouri
      Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS); in 2016, faculty members trained in
      CAPS conducted the simulation using a modified version of the tool. In the
      simulation, students were assigned to family units experiencing various types of
      hardship and were given specific identities for role-playing. A retrospective
      pretest and a posttest were used to assess change in levels of student
      understanding after the simulation. Students assessed their level of
      understanding in five domains: financial pressures, difficult choices,
      difficulties in improving one's situation, emotional stressors, and impact of
      community resources for those living in poverty. The survey response rates in
      2015 and 2016 were 86% and 74%, respectively. For each of the five domains,
      students' understanding increased from 58% to 74% per domain. The majority
      reported that the exercise was very valuable or somewhat valuable (74% in 2015,
      88% in 2016). This study found that a poverty simulation was effective in raising
      dental students' understanding of the challenges faced by low-income families. It
      also discovered that framing the issues in the context of accessing dental care
      was important.

PMID- 28864787
TI  - Screening for Diabetes in a Dental School Clinic to Assess Interprofessional
      Communication Between Physicians and Dental Students.
AB  - If a dental student diagnoses a patient in a dental school clinic as being at
      high risk of prediabetes or diabetes, the patient should be referred to his or
      her physician for further diagnostic evaluation, and the physician should send
      back the evaluation results so that the dental team can optimize treatment and
      health care choices if the diagnosis is confirmed. The primary aim of this study
      was to evaluate physicians' responses to written and oral requests for
      information regarding follow-up diabetes testing. A secondary aim was to evaluate
      patients' compliance with recommendations to seek medical care after being
      determined to be at high risk of prediabetes or diabetes in the dental clinic.
      Based on at least one positive risk factor for diabetes, 74 patients in one U.S.
      dental school's clinic were screened by third- and fourth-year dental students
      for prediabetes or diabetes and underwent point of care HbA1C (glycalated
      hemoglobin) blood tests between June 2014 and June 2015. Patients with an HbA1C
      value of 5.7% or above were referred to their physicians for follow-up testing.
      The physician was mailed the patient's HIPAA release and a request for updates to
      the student regarding the patient's diabetes status. If the physician did not
      provide the requested information, a dental student telephoned him or her to
      obtain the patient's diabetes status. Of the 74 patients, 34 (46%) tested
      positive with HbA1C tests and were referred to their physicians. Of those 34
      referred patients, 20 (59%) saw their physicians for additional evaluations
      within six months of referral. None of the 20 physicians responded to the written
      requests for information on additional diabetes testing. After one or two
      telephone requests, all 20 physicians provided the test results. This study found
      that most of the patients (59%) followed their dental practitioner's advice to
      seek follow-up care with their physician, supporting the value of conducting
      these tests in a dental clinic. However, the results also suggested that a single
      written request may be insufficient to prompt physicians to return those results
      and that follow-up communication in a phone call may be more effective.

PMID- 28864788
TI  - Oral Health Education for Medical Students: Malaysian and Australian Students'
      Perceptions of Educational Experience and Needs.
AB  - Education in oral health is important to prepare future medical professionals for
      collaborative roles in maintaining patients' oral health, an important component
      of general health and well-being. The aims of this study were to determine the
      perceptions of medical students in Malaysia and Australia of the quality of their
      training in oral health care and their perceptions of their professional role in
      maintaining the oral health of their patients. A survey was administered in the
      classroom with final-year Malaysian (n=527; response rate=79.3%) and Australian
      (n=455; response rate: 60%) medical students at selected institutions in those
      countries. In the results, most of these medical students reported encountering
      patients with oral health conditions including ulcers, halitosis, and edentulism.
      A majority in both countries reported believing they should advise patients to
      obtain regular dental check-ups and eat a healthy diet, although they reported
      feeling less than comfortable in managing emergency dental cases. A high
      percentage reported they received a good education in smoking cessation but not
      in managing dental trauma, detecting cancerous lesions, or providing dietary
      advice in oral disease prevention. They expressed support for inclusion of oral
      health education in medical curricula. These students' experience with and
      perceptions of oral health care provide valuable information for medical
      curriculum development in these two countries as well as increasing understanding
      of this aspect of interprofessional education and practice now in development
      around the world.

PMID- 28864789
TI  - Improving Dental Students' Long-Term Retention of Pharmacy Knowledge with
      "Medication Minutes".
AB  - A major challenge in foundational science courses in dental curricula is the
      application of information from the classroom to a clinical setting. To bridge
      this gap, the aim of this study was to increase students' learning in a
      foundational pharmacology course through increasing clinical relevance and using
      formative assessment. Second-year dental students in an introductory pharmacology
      course were presented material in a traditional basic science lecture format and
      in brief examples of pharmacy-generated clinical content (Medication Minutes).
      Short-term retention was assessed with a series of five post-class session, non
      graded quizzes, each containing four questions: two knowledge-based (one from
      basic science material and one Medication Minute) and two application-based (one
      from basic science material and one Medication Minute). Ten knowledge-based
      (basic science material) questions and ten application-based (Medication Minutes)
      questions were included on exams throughout the semester. The primary outcome was
      to measure long-term retention using performance on these questions on an
      assessment the following semester. Additionally, the impact of student engagement
      on examination performance was evaluated based on the number of quizzes each
      student completed. Students who completed three or more quizzes (n=43, 53%) were
      designated as "highly engaged," while students who completed less than three
      quizzes (n=36, 44%) were defined as "less engaged." Two students (3%) were
      excluded for not completing the long-term assessment or not consenting to the
      study. On short-term retention measures, the students performed better on the
      Medication Minute (M=0.76) than basic science (M=0.58) (p<0.001) material;
      however, on the in-semester examinations, there was no difference in performance.
      On long-term retention measures, the students performed better on Medication
      Minute material (M=0.64) than basic science material (M=0.33) (p<0.001); this was
      true for both highly engaged and less-engaged students. These results suggest
      that teaching pharmacology in a clinical context yielded better long-term
      retention than teaching with a non-clinical focus.

PMID- 28864790
TI  - A Survey of Dental Implant Instruction in Predoctoral Dental Curricula in North
      America.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the extent and forms of predoctoral
      implant dentistry instruction in North American dental schools and to identify
      future directions and challenges. The survey collected data on curriculum
      content, departmental oversight, techniques, and materials, as well as current
      problems to be solved. The 30-question survey was sent in 2012 to the dean or
      administrator in charge of the predoctoral curriculum of all 73 dental schools in
      the U.S. and Canada at the time; four reminders were sent. Forty-seven schools
      responded, for a response rate of 64%. Of the 47 responding schools, 46 (98%)
      offered didactic instruction (mean of 17 hours); 87% had a laboratory component
      (mean of 14.46 hours); and 57% had a clinical requirement. In the responding
      schools, students had an average of 1.85 implant restorative cases and 0.61
      surgical cases. Forty-two of the schools (89%) had implemented observation of
      implant surgery and/or assisting with implant surgery in their curricula. Major
      challenges reported in implementing a comprehensive predoctoral implant
      curriculum included expense of implant systems to the schools and to patients,
      shortage of predoctoral cases, and lack of curriculum time and trained faculty.
      These results show that implant education for predoctoral dental students
      continues to expand, with a trend towards more preclinical exercises and clinical
      experiences and fewer didactic courses.

PMID- 28864791
TI  - Dental and Medical Students' Use and Perceptions of Learning Resources in a Human
      Physiology Course.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the use and perceived utility of various
      learning resources available during the first-year Integrated Human Physiology
      course at the dental and medical schools at Harvard University. Dental and
      medical students of the Class of 2018 were surveyed anonymously online in 2015
      regarding their use of 29 learning resources in this combined course. The
      learning resources had been grouped into four categories to discern frequency of
      use and perceived usefulness among the categories. The survey was distributed to
      169 students, and 73 responded for a response rate of 43.2%. There was no
      significant difference among the learning resource categories in frequency of
      use; however, there was a statistically significant difference among categories
      in students' perceptions of usefulness. No correlation was found between
      frequency of use and perceived usefulness of each category. Students seemingly
      were not choosing the most useful resources for them. These results suggest that,
      in the current educational environment, where new technologies and self-directed
      learning are highly sought after, there remains a need for instructor-guided
      learning.

PMID- 28864792
TI  - Color-Blind Racial Beliefs Among Dental Students and Faculty.
AB  - Providing culturally competent patient care requires an awareness of racial and
      cultural norms as well as a recognition of racism. Yet, there is a paucity of
      research devoted to this problem. In dental education, increased attention has
      focused on eliminating oral health care disparities due to ethnicity and race.
      Further investigation to determine the relationship between color-blind attitudes
      (failing to recognize the impact of race and racism on social justice) and dental
      educators' cultural competence is needed. The aim of this study was to determine
      dental faculty and student baseline color-blind racial attitudes scale scores,
      using the color-blind racial attitudes scale (CoBRAS). This 20-item instrument
      that measures three subscales of color-blind racial attitudes (Unawareness of
      Racial Privilege, Institutional Discrimination, and Blatant Racial Issues) was
      administered to student and faculty groups at one U.S. dental school. Out of a
      total 245 students in three class years, 235 responded to all items, for a
      response rate of 96%; out of a total 77 faculty members invited to participate,
      71 responded to all items, for a response rate of 92%. Underrepresented minority
      (URM) faculty scored significantly higher on the Institutional Discrimination
      subscale and lower on Unawareness of Racial Privilege compared to non-URM
      students. Males scored significantly higher on Institutional Discrimination and
      Blatant Racial Issues compared to females. Compared to white students, URM
      students scored lower on all three subscales. The findings were consistent with
      previous studies indicating that female and URM students were more sensitive to
      racism compared to male and majority students. The findings that white faculty
      had higher awareness of racial privilege than white students and that URM faculty
      were less aware of institutional discrimination than URM students provided new
      information. These findings suggest that dental faculty members need professional
      development opportunities that promote becoming color-conscious and understanding
      privilege and biases, that model instruction on discussing race and racism, and
      that extend beyond a brief workshop.

PMID- 28864793
TI  - Impact of a Differential Learning Approach on Practical Exam Performance: A
      Controlled Study in a Preclinical Dental Course.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate if differential learning in a preclinical
      dental course impacted the performance of dental students in a practical exam
      (preparation of a gold partial crown) immediately after the training session and
      20 weeks later compared to conventional learning. This controlled study was
      performed in a preclinical course in operative dentistry at a dental school in
      Germany. Third-year students were trained in preparing gold partial crowns by
      using either the conventional learning (n=41) or the differential learning
      approach (n=32). The differential learning approach consisted of 20 movement
      exercises with a continuous change of movement execution during the learning
      session, while the conventional learning approach was mainly based on repetition,
      a methodological series of exercises, and correction of preparations during the
      training phase. Practical exams were performed immediately after the training
      session (T1) and 20 weeks later (T2, retention test). Preparations were rated by
      four independent and blinded examiners. At T1, no significant difference between
      the performance (exam passed) of the two groups was detected (conventional
      learning: 54.3%, differential learning: 68.0%). At T2, significantly more
      students passed the exam when trained by the differential learning approach
      (68.8%) than by the conventional learning approach (18.9%). Interrater
      reliability was moderate (Kappa: 0.57, T1) or substantial (Kappa: 0.67, T2),
      respectively. These results suggest that a differential learning approach can
      increase the manual skills of dental students.

PMID- 28864794
TI  - Developing Common Competencies for Southeast Asian General Dental Practitioners.
AB  - Current policy in Southeast Asian dental education focuses on high-quality dental
      services from new dental graduates and the free movement of dental practitioners
      across the region. The Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Dental Councils have
      proposed the "Common Major Competencies for ASEAN General Dental Practitioners"
      to harmonize undergraduate dental education. This article discusses how the ASEAN
      competencies were developed and established to assist the development of general
      dental practitioners with comparable knowledge, skills, and attitudes across
      ASEAN. The competencies were developed through four processes: a questionnaire
      about current national oral health problems, a two-round Delphi process that
      sought agreement on competencies, a panel discussion by representatives from
      ASEAN Dental Councils, and data verification by the representatives after the
      meeting. Key themes of the ASEAN competencies were compared with the competencies
      from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. A total of 33 competency
      statements, consistent with other regions, were agreed upon and approved. Factors
      influencing the ASEAN competencies and their implementation include oral health
      problems in ASEAN, new knowledge and technology in dentistry, limited
      institutional resources, underregulated dental schools, and uneven distribution
      of dental practitioners. The ASEAN competencies will serve as the foundation for
      further developments in ASEAN dental education including policy development,
      curriculum revision, quality assurance, and staff development. Collaboration
      amongst stakeholders is essential for successful harmonization of ASEAN dental
      education.

PMID- 28864795
TI  - The Oral Health Care Delivery System in 2040: Executive Summary.
AB  - This executive summary for Section 4 of the "Advancing Dental Education in the
      21st Century" project examines the projected oral health care delivery system in
      2040 and the likely impact of system changes on dental education. Dental care is
      at an early stage of major changes with the decline in solo practice and increase
      in large group practices. These groups are not consolidated at the state level,
      but further consolidation is expected as they try to increase their negotiating
      leverage with dental insurers. At this time, there is limited integration of
      medical and dental care in terms of financing, regulation, education, and
      delivery. This pattern may change as health maintenance organizations and
      integrated medical systems begin to offer dental care to their members. By 2040,
      it is expected that many dentists will be employed in large group practices and
      working with allied dental staff with expanded duties and other health
      professionals, and more dental graduates will seek formal postdoctoral training
      to obtain better positions in group practices.

PMID- 28864796
TI  - The Allied Dental Professions: Executive Summary.
AB  - This executive summary for Section 5 of the "Advancing Dental Education in the
      21st Century" project addresses the current and future educational systems for
      dental assisting, dental hygiene, dental therapy, and dental laboratory
      technology. Nineteen experts prepared six background articles on the educational
      changes necessary for future roles and practices. The key issues addressed relate
      to delivery system changes, educational curricula, scopes of practice, regulatory
      measures, and the public's oral health. The major finding is that substantial
      reforms will be needed to adequately prepare allied oral health professionals for
      the changes anticipated in 2040. A reconsideration of current accreditation
      guidelines, more flexibility with scopes of practice, and an adherence to
      rigorous academic programs are essential elements for the future of these
      professions.

PMID- 28864797
TI  - Oral Health Research and Scholarship in 2040: Executive Summary.
AB  - This executive summary for Section 6 of the "Advancing Dental Education in the
      21st Century" project provides an overview of five background articles that
      address the role of research and scholarship in dental education in the year
      2040. Beginning with a historical account of research and discovery science in
      dentistry's evolution as a profession, the article then reviews the role of early
      thought leaders and organized dentistry in establishing research as a cornerstone
      of dental education and dental practice. The dental research workforce faces an
      uncertain future fueled by a volatile funding environment and inadequate
      mentoring and training of research faculty. Dental schools must forge stronger
      academic and scientific ties to their university and academic health centers and
      will be challenged to develop sustainable research and patient care
      collaborations with other health professions. The changing health care
      environment will create new opportunities for oral health care providers to
      expand their scope of practice and focus on prevention and screening for non
      communicable chronic diseases. Dental practitioners in the future are likely to
      place greater emphasis on managing the overall health of their patients while
      promoting closer integration with other health professionals. All dental schools
      must develop a sustainable research mission if they hope to graduate dentists who
      function effectively in a collaborative health care environment. The changing
      scientific and health care landscape will dramatically alter dental education and
      dental practice. Dental schools need to reconsider their research and educational
      priorities and clinical practice objectives. Until dental schools and the
      practicing community come to grips with these challenges, a persistent attitude
      of complacency will likely be at the dental profession's peril.

PMID- 28864798
TI  - Future Organization of Oral Health Services Delivery: From 2012 to 2042.
AB  - The United States is currently experiencing a vortex of change in both general
      health and oral health care delivery, the ultimate outcome of which is still not
      well understood. The specific focus of this article is to examine the future
      organization of the oral health services delivery system (OHSDS) in the U.S.,
      with special attention given to the role of large group dental practices (LGDPs)
      in that future. The article describes the various types of LGDPs and their
      ability to change the economic characteristics of the OHSDS. Large geographically
      distributed corporate group dental practices (LGDCGDPs) are the type that may
      expand their market share to the extent that they could change the economic
      characteristics of the OHSDS. A wide range of scenarios is used to project the
      expansion of LGDCGDPs into the future. The scenarios modeled are not intended as
      predictions but rather to present a range of possible OHSDS market structures
      that may emerge over the next 30 years. The implications of each scenario for the
      economic competition within the OHSDS are described. Possible implications of
      these trends for dental education are also discussed. This article was written as
      part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864799
TI  - Expected Changes in Regulation and Licensure: Influence on Future Education of
      Dentists.
AB  - This article is based on the following assumptions about dental care in the
      United States: there is an access to oral health care problem; the number of
      individuals with dental insurance is increasing; the demographics of the dental
      profession does not mirror the overall demographics of the U.S. population; and
      emerging oral health workforce models may help improve access to care. Based on
      these assumptions, this article explores related licensure and regulatory factors
      that will influence the education and practice of dentists in the future. The
      issues discussed are licensure of emerging oral health practitioners, mobility of
      the dental health care workforce, corporate ownership of dental practices,
      ethical issues related to use of human subjects in dental licensure examinations,
      interprofessional education and practice, and health care reform. The licensure
      and regulatory bodies discussed are the Commission on Dental Accreditation
      (CODA), state legislatures and boards of dentistry, federal legislative
      activities, judicial activities, and the Federal Trade Commission.
      Recommendations based on this discussion are presented. This article was written
      as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864800
TI  - Integrated Medical-Dental Delivery Systems: Models in a Changing Environment and
      Their Implications for Dental Education.
AB  - Models and systems of the dental care delivery system are changing. Solo practice
      is no longer the only alternative for graduating dentists. Over half of recent
      graduates are employees, and more than ever before, dentists are practicing in
      groups. This trend is expected to increase over the next 25 years. This article
      examines various models of dental care delivery, explains why it is important to
      practice in integrated medical-dental teams, and defines person-centered care,
      contrasting it with patient-centered care. Systems of care in which teams are
      currently practicing integrated oral health care delivery are described, along
      with speculation on the future of person-centered care and the team approach.
      Critical steps in the education of dental and other health care professionals and
      the development of clinical models of care in moving forward are considered. This
      article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the
      21st Century."

PMID- 28864801
TI  - The Evolution of the Dental Assisting Profession.
AB  - The objectives of this article are to describe the dental assistant's role in the
      dental delivery system; assess the educational structure of the dental assisting
      profession; and project factors likely to impact the future role of the dental
      assistant. The article summarizes the current status and trends of the dental
      assisting profession including general responsibilities, credentialing, and
      regulation. An overview of the workforce and parameters of employment is provided
      with a description of the broad scope of practice, education, and licensure
      options, which vary by state. Existing academic models and enrollment trends in
      accredited dental programs are included, as are the strengths and weaknesses of
      the current educational system. Multiple factors may impact the future of this
      profession. To address the anticipated increase in the demand for and
      responsibilities of dental assistants, curricular revisions will be needed to
      prepare for implementation of interprofessional care models in which dental
      assistants will play a vital role. Well-educated dental assistants will be needed
      to support viable models of dental care and wellness in the U.S. Enhanced career
      opportunities and varied employment environments may increase job satisfaction
      and practice longevity. As protection of the public is of the utmost importance
      in the dental profession, this evolving dental clinician must be formally
      educated in all aspects of clinical practice and be permitted to perform
      delegated patient care, as legally allowed by their states. This article was
      written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864802
TI  - Strengths and Weaknesses of the Current Dental Hygiene Educational System.
AB  - The state of the dental hygiene educational system in the United States is
      evolving. The numbers of programs, extent of curricula, and diversity of
      students, faculty, and practice settings vary significantly across the country.
      New trends in workforce utilization and delivery models are challenging current
      educational foundations and mandating an interprofessional approach to both the
      education and practice of dental hygienists. This article presents an overview of
      the current state of dental hygiene education to create a baseline for discussion
      of desired educational models for 2040. The strengths and weaknesses are defined
      to motivate change. Limitations of the current two-year associate degree are
      emphasized, along with the need to add expanded content and development of new
      skills. The developing non-traditional practice settings bring both a challenge
      to dental hygiene education and a promise of increasing potential in primary care
      interprofessional settings for the 21st century. This article was written as part
      of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864803
TI  - Preparing the Future Dental Hygiene Workforce: Knowledge, Skills, and Reform.
AB  - With the health care delivery system in transition, the way in which oral health
      care services are delivered in 2040 will inevitably change. To achieve the aims
      of reduced cost, improved access, and higher quality and to advance population
      wellness, oral health care will likely become a more integrated part of medical
      care. An integrated primary care system would better meet the needs of an
      increasingly diverse and aging U.S. population with uneven access to health care
      services. By 2040, trends suggest that a smaller proportion of dental hygienists
      will work in traditional solo dental offices; many more will practice with
      multidisciplinary health care teams in large-group dental and medical practices
      and in a variety of non-traditional community settings. This integration will
      require changes in how dental hygienists are educated. To shape the skill sets,
      clinical judgment, and knowledge of future practitioners, current dental hygiene
      curricula must be reexamined, redirected, and enhanced. This article examines
      some of the factors that are likely to shape the future of dental hygiene
      practice, considers the strengths and weaknesses of current curricula, and
      proposes educational changes to prepare dental hygienists for practice in 2040.
      This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in
      the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864804
TI  - Exploring Current and Future Roles of Non-Dental Professionals: Implications for
      Dental Hygiene Education.
AB  - The health care system is undergoing transformation in which oral health is not
      only valued as an aspect of overall health, but health care delivery systems are
      aligning to better deliver total patient care. As a result of this
      transformation, education for many non-dental professionals incorporates oral
      health content to prepare them to practice in comprehensive delivery models.
      While some non-dental professionals already incorporate oral health care in their
      service, many opportunities exist for expansion of oral health care delivery by
      other non-dental professionals, including radiologic technicians, nursing staff,
      and human services professionals. As non-dental professionals take on expanded
      roles in oral health care, the dental hygiene workforce must be prepared to
      practice in settings with new types of professionals. Dental hygiene curricula
      should prioritize interprofessional education to best prepare these students for
      practice in evolved delivery models. This article was written as part of the
      project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864805
TI  - Transforming Dental Technology Education: Skills, Knowledge, and Curricular
      Reform.
AB  - Dental technology is one of the core allied dental health professions supporting
      the practice of dentistry. By definition, it is the art, science, and
      technologies that enable the design and fabrication of dental prostheses and/or
      corrective devices to restore natural teeth and supporting structures to fulfill
      a patient's physiological and esthetic needs. Dental technology educational
      programs are faced with serious challenges, including rapid changes in
      technology, inadequate funding for educational programs, and the need to develop
      curricula that reflect current industry needs. Better communications between
      dental technologists and practitioners are needed to gain greater recognition of
      the contribution that technologists make to patient health. Amid these
      challenges, the technology workforce is dedicated to providing patients with the
      best possible restorative dental prostheses. This article was written as part of
      the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864806
TI  - Dental Therapists as New Oral Health Practitioners: Increasing Access for
      Underserved Populations.
AB  - The development of dental therapy in the U.S. grew from a desire to find a
      workforce solution for increasing access to oral health care. Worldwide, the
      research that supports the value of dental therapy is considerable. Introduction
      of educational programs in the U.S. drew on the experiences of programs in New
      Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with Alaska tribal
      communities introducing dental health aide therapists in 2003 and Minnesota
      authorizing dental therapy in 2009. Currently, two additional states have
      authorized dental therapy, and two additional tribal communities are pursuing the
      use of dental therapists. In all cases, the care provided by dental therapists is
      focused on communities and populations who experience oral health care
      disparities and have historically had difficulties in accessing care. This
      article examines the development and implementation of the dental therapy
      profession in the U.S. An in-depth look at dental therapy programs in Minnesota
      and the practice of dental therapy in Minnesota provides insight into the early
      implementation of this emerging profession. Initial results indicate that the
      addition of dental therapists to the oral health care team is increasing access
      to quality oral health care for underserved populations. As evidence of dental
      therapy's success continues to grow, mid-level dental workforce legislation is
      likely to be introduced by oral health advocates in other states. This article
      was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st
      Century."

PMID- 28864807
TI  - How Research Training Will Shape the Future of Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial
      Research.
AB  - This is a critical time in the history of the dental profession for it to fully
      embrace the responsibility to safeguard its reputation as a learned profession.
      In this golden era of scientific and technological advances, opportunities abound
      to create new diagnostics, preventions, treatments, and cures to improve oral
      health. Dental schools are the largest national resource entrusted with the
      responsibility to educate, train, and retain oral health researchers who can
      leverage such technologies and research opportunities that will benefit the
      profession at large as well as patients. This article reemphasizes the theme that
      research training and scholarship must be inextricably woven into the environment
      and culture in dental schools to ensure the future standing of the profession. An
      overview of the history of support provided by the National Institutes of Health
      and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research for the training and
      career development of dentist-scientists is presented. In addition, new data on
      the outcomes of such investments are presented along with a comparison with other
      health professions. This overview underscores the need to expand the capacity of
      a well-trained cadre of oral health researchers through the reengineering of
      training programs. Such strategies will best prepare future graduates for team
      science, clinical trials, and translational research as well as other emerging
      opportunities. The urgent need for national organizations like the American
      Dental Association, American Dental Education Association, and American
      Association for Dental Research to create new alliances and novel initiatives to
      assist dental schools and universities in fulfilling their research mission is
      emphasized. To ignore such calls for action is to disavow a valuable legacy
      inherited by the dental profession. This article was written as part of the
      project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864808
TI  - Oral Health Care in the Future: Expansion of the Scope of Dental Practice to
      Improve Health.
AB  - The health care environment in the U.S. is changing. The population is aging, the
      prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is increasing, edentulism is
      decreasing, and periodontal infection/inflammation has been identified as a risk
      factor for NCDs. These trends offer an opportunity for oral health care providers
      to broaden the scope of traditional dental practice, specifically becoming more
      involved in the management of the general health of patients. This new practice
      paradigm will promote a closer integration with the larger health care system.
      This change is based on the realization that a healthy mouth is essential for a
      healthy life, including proper mastication, communication, esthetics, and
      comfort. Two types of primary care are proposed: screenings for medical
      conditions that are directly affected by oral disease (and may modify the
      provision of dental care), and a broader emphasis on prevention that focuses on
      lifestyle behaviors. Included in the former category are screenings for NCDs
      (e.g., the risk of cardiovascular disease and identification of patients with
      undiagnosed dysglycemia or poorly managed diabetes mellitus), as well as
      identification of infectious diseases, such as HIV or hepatitis C. Reducing the
      risk of disease can be accomplished by an emphasis on smoking cessation and
      dietary intake and the prevention of obesity. These activities will promote
      interprofessional health care education and practice. While change is always
      challenging, this new practice paradigm could improve both oral health and health
      outcomes of patients seen in the dental office. This article was written as part
      of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864809
TI  - The Future of Dental Schools in Research Universities and Academic Health
      Centers.
AB  - As a profession, dentistry is at a point of discernible challenge as well as
      incredible opportunity in a landscape of evolving changes to health care, higher
      education, and evidence-based decision making. Respecting the past yet driving
      forward, a well-mapped future course is critical. Orchestrating this course in a
      collaborative manner is essential for the visibility, well-being, and potentially
      the existence of the dental profession. The research performed in dental
      institutions needs to be contemporary, aligned with biomedical science in
      general, and united with other disciplines. Dentistry is at risk of attrition in
      the quality of its research and discovery mission if participation with
      bioscience colleagues in the collaborative generation of new knowledge is
      underoptimized. A fundamental opportunity dentistry has is to contribute via its
      position in academic health centers. Rigorous research as to the impact of
      interprofessional education and collaborative care on population health outcomes
      provides significant potential for the dental profession to participate and/or
      lead such evidence-centered efforts. It is imperative that academic dental
      institutions are part of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary organizations
      that move health care into its new day. Strategizing diversity by bringing
      together people who have different ways of seeing problems to share perspectives,
      heuristics, interpretations, technologies, and predictive models across
      disciplines will lead to impactful progress. Academic dental institutions are a
      natural part of an emphasis on translational research and acceleration of
      implementing new scientific discoveries. Dentistry needs to remain an essential
      and integrated component of higher education in the health professions; doing so
      necessitates deliberate, respectful, and committed change. This article was
      written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864810
TI  - Research and Discovery Science and the Future of Dental Education and Practice.
AB  - Dental graduates of 2040 will face new and complex challenges. If they are to
      meet these challenges, dental schools must develop a research and discovery
      mission that will equip graduates with the new knowledge required to function in
      a modern health care environment. The dental practitioner of 2040 will place
      greater emphasis on risk assessment, disease prevention, and health maintenance;
      and the emerging discipline of precision medicine and systems biology will
      revolutionize disease diagnosis and reveal new targeted therapies. The dental
      graduate of 2040 will be expected to function effectively in a collaborative,
      learning health care system and to understand the impact of health care policy on
      local, national, and global communities. Emerging scientific fields such as big
      data analytics, stem cell biology, tissue engineering, and advanced biomimetics
      will impact dental practice. Despite all the warning signs indicating how the
      changing scientific and heath care landscape will dramatically alter dental
      education and dental practice, dental schools have yet to reconsider their
      research and educational priorities and clinical practice objectives. Until
      dental schools and the practicing community come to grips with these challenges,
      this persistent attitude of complacency will likely be at the dental profession's
      peril. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental
      Education in the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864811
TI  - The Impact of Research on the Future of Dental Education: How Research and
      Innovation Shape Dental Education and the Dental Profession.
AB  - Scientific inquiry and discovery are the fuel for education, research,
      technology, and health care in all the health professions: dentistry, medicine,
      nursing, pharmacy, and allied health sciences. The progression of discoveries
      from basic or fundamental to clinical research is followed by the progression
      from clinical to implementation and improved health outcomes and processes.
      Generally, implementation science is the scientific study of methods to promote
      the systematic uptake of research findings (e.g., basic, translational,
      behavioral, socioeconomic, and clinical) as well as other related evidence-based
      practices into standards of care, thereby improving the quality, effectiveness,
      and cost benefits of health care services. There is little doubt that science has
      and will continue to provide the essential fuel for innovations that lead to new
      and improved technologies for risk assessment, prevention, diagnosis, treatments
      and therapeutics, and implementation for addressing oral and craniofacial
      diseases and disorders. The history of the U.S. dental profession reviewed in
      this article gives testimony to the continued need for investments in scientific
      inquiry that accelerate progress in comprehensive health care for all people.
      This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in
      the 21st Century."

PMID- 28864812
TI  - Yeast Prp2 liberates the 5' splice site and the branch site adenosine for
      catalysis of pre-mRNA splicing.
AB  - The RNA helicase Prp2 facilitates the remodeling of the spliceosomal Bact complex
      to the catalytically activated B* complex just before step one of splicing. As a
      high-resolution cryo-EM structure of the B* complex is currently lacking, the
      precise spliceosome remodeling events mediated by Prp2 remain poorly understood.
      To investigate the latter, we used chemical structure probing to compare the RNA
      structure of purified yeast Bact and B* complexes. Our studies reveal deviations
      from conventional RNA helices in the functionally important U6 snRNA internal
      stem-loop and U2/U6 helix Ib in the activated Bact complex, and to a lesser
      extent in B*. Interestingly, the N7 of U6-G60 of the catalytic triad becomes
      accessible to DMS modification in the B* complex, suggesting that the Hoogsteen
      interaction with U6-A52 is destabilized in B*. Our data show that Prp2 action
      does not unwind double-stranded RNA, but enhances the flexibility of the first
      step reactants, the pre-mRNA's 5' splice site and branch site adenosine. Prp2
      therefore appears to act primarily as an RNPase to achieve catalytic activation
      by liberating the first step reactants in preparation for catalysis of the first
      step of splicing.

PMID- 28864813
TI  - The immunophilin FKBP12 inhibits hepcidin expression by binding the BMP type I
      receptor ALK2 in hepatocytes.
AB  - The expression of the key regulator of iron homeostasis hepcidin is activated by
      the BMP-SMAD pathway in response to iron and inflammation and among drugs, by
      rapamycin, which inhibits mTOR in complex with the immunophilin FKBP12. FKBP12
      interacts with BMP type I receptors to avoid uncontrolled signaling. By
      pharmacologic and genetic studies, we identify FKBP12 as a novel hepcidin
      regulator. Sequestration of FKBP12 by rapamycin or tacrolimus activates hepcidin
      both in vitro and in murine hepatocytes. Acute tacrolimus treatment transiently
      increases hepcidin in wild-type mice. FKBP12 preferentially targets the BMP
      receptor ALK2. ALK2 mutants defective in binding FKBP12 increase hepcidin
      expression in a ligand-independent manner, through BMP-SMAD signaling. ALK2 free
      of FKBP12 becomes responsive to the noncanonical inflammatory ligand Activin A.
      Our results identify a novel hepcidin regulator and a potential therapeutic
      target to increase defective BMP signaling in disorders of low hepcidin.

PMID- 28864814
TI  - Rituximab-based first-line treatment of cGVHD after allogeneic SCT: results of a
      phase 2 study.
AB  - Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is the main cause of late nonrelapse
      mortality and morbidity after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). To
      improve such patients' outcomes, we conducted a phase 2, prospective, multicenter
      trial to test the efficacy of the addition of rituximab to corticosteroids (CSs)
      and cyclosporine A (CsA) as first-line therapy for newly diagnosed cGVHD after
      allo-SCT. Twenty-four patients (median age, 47 years) with mild (n = 2), moderate
      (n = 7), or severe (n = 15) cGVHD were included. All patients received rituximab
      375 mg/m2 weekly for 4 weeks, followed by a second course 1 month later for
      patients with partial response. Twenty of 24 patients (83%) were in response at 1
      year. Furthermore, among 19 evaluable patients, 14 (74%) were off CSs. The
      estimated 1-year overall survival was 83%, and the 1-year cumulative incidence of
      nonrelapse mortality was 14%. One patient died of progressive multifocal
      leukoencephalopathy. Although PD-L1hi naive B cells were significantly decreased
      at diagnosis of cGVHD, they increased after anti-CD20 B-cell depletion. In
      contrast, activated ICOShi PD-1hi circulating T follicular helper (Tfh) cells
      decreased after rituximab treatment. Overall, the addition of rituximab to
      corticosteroid and CsA appeared to be safe and effective for first-line treatment
      of cGVHD. Furthermore, our data suggest that this efficacy may be in part related
      to an effect on PD-L1hi B cells and Tfh cells. This study was registered at
      www.clinicaltrials.gov as identifier NCT01135641.

PMID- 28864815
TI  - Eltrombopag: a powerful chelator of cellular or extracellular iron(III) alone or
      combined with a second chelator.
AB  - Eltrombopag (ELT) is a thrombopoietin receptor agonist reported to decrease
      labile iron in leukemia cells. Here we examine the previously undescribed
      iron(III)-coordinating and cellular iron-mobilizing properties of ELT. We find a
      high binding constant for iron(III) (log beta2=35). Clinically achievable
      concentrations (1 uM) progressively mobilized cellular iron from hepatocyte,
      cardiomyocyte, and pancreatic cell lines, rapidly decreasing intracellular
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and also restoring insulin secretion in pancreatic
      cells. Decrements in cellular ferritin paralleled total cellular iron removal,
      particularly in hepatocytes. Iron mobilization from cardiomyocytes exceeded that
      obtained with deferiprone, desferrioxamine, or deferasirox at similar iron
      binding equivalents. When combined with these chelators, ELT enhanced cellular
      iron mobilization more than additive (synergistic) with deferasirox. Iron-binding
      speciation plots are consistent with ELT donating iron to deferasirox at
      clinically relevant concentrations. ELT scavenges iron citrate species faster
      than deferasirox, but rapidly donates the chelated iron to deferasirox,
      consistent with a shuttling mechanism. Shuttling is also suggested by enhanced
      cellular iron mobilization by ELT when combined with the otherwise ineffective
      extracellular hydroxypyridinone chelator, CP40. We conclude that ELT is a
      powerful iron chelator that decreases cellular iron and further enhances iron
      mobilization when combined with clinically available chelators.

PMID- 28864816
TI  - Swimming in a sea of drugs: Psychiatric drugs in the aquatic environment could
      have severe adverse effects on wildlife and ecosystems.

PMID- 28864818
TI  - The Italian Pharmacovigilance Program: An Observational Study of Adverse Effects
      of Natalizumab in Multiple Sclerosis Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND This study shows the results of a regional pharmacovigilance program
      on Natalizumab therapy in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS) patients
      after 3 years of experience. MATERIAL AND METHODS The primary objectives of this
      study were to estimate the incidence of expected and unexpected adverse effects
      correlated to Natalizumab therapy in a cohort of 88 RR-MS patients from Sicily,
      Italy, and to investigate the procedures adopted by the physicians to minimize
      the risk of developing severe adverse reactions correlated to Natalizumab
      therapy. Secondary objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of
      Natalizumab therapy for a careful examination of the risk/benefit ratio and to
      assess the actions undertaken in case of adverse reactions. RESULTS Among 88 RR
      MS patients, 55.68% did not report any type of adverse reaction, 35.22% showed
      expected adverse reactions (58.70% slight, 22.58% moderate, and 19.35% severe),
      and 9.10% showed unexpected adverse effects (62.50% slight, 25.00% moderate, and
      12.50% severe). Approximately 4.54% of the patients treated with Natalizumab
      interrupted the therapy. Overall, among all patients, 56.62% showed ameliorated
      condition, 32.53% had stable disease condition, and 10.85% worsened. CONCLUSIONS
      We provide a short overview of evidence, which may be useful to better
      characterize the efficacy and potential adverse effects correlated to Natalizumab
      therapy.

PMID- 28864819
TI  - Direct imaging of delayed magneto-dynamic modes induced by surface acoustic
      waves.
AB  - The magnetoelastic effect-the change of magnetic properties caused by the elastic
      deformation of a magnetic material-has been proposed as an alternative approach
      to magnetic fields for the low-power control of magnetization states of
      nanoelements since it avoids charge currents, which entail ohmic losses. Here, we
      have studied the effect of dynamic strain accompanying a surface acoustic wave on
      magnetic nanostructures in thermal equilibrium. We have developed an experimental
      technique based on stroboscopic X-ray microscopy that provides a pathway to the
      quantitative study of strain waves and magnetization at the nanoscale. We have
      simultaneously imaged the evolution of both strain and magnetization dynamics of
      nanostructures at the picosecond time scale and found that magnetization modes
      have a delayed response to the strain modes, adjustable by the magnetic domain
      configuration. Our results provide fundamental insight into magnetoelastic
      coupling in nanostructures and have implications for the design of strain
      controlled magnetostrictive nano-devices.Understanding the effects of local
      dynamic strain on magnetization may help the development of magnetic devices.
      Foerster et al. demonstrate stroboscopic imaging that allows the observation of
      both strain and magnetization dynamics in nickel when surface acoustic waves are
      driven in the substrate.

PMID- 28864820
TI  - A prophage tail-like protein is deployed by Burkholderia bacteria to feed on
      fungi.
AB  - Some bacteria can feed on fungi, a phenomenon known as mycophagy. Here we show
      that a prophage tail-like protein (Bg_9562) is essential for mycophagy in
      Burkholderia gladioli strain NGJ1. The purified protein causes hyphal
      disintegration and inhibits growth of several fungal species. Disruption of the
      Bg_9562 gene abolishes mycophagy. Bg_9562 is a potential effector secreted by a
      type III secretion system (T3SS) and is translocated into fungal mycelia during
      confrontation. Heterologous expression of Bg_9562 in another bacterial species,
      Ralstonia solanacearum, confers mycophagous ability in a T3SS-dependent manner.
      We propose that the ability to feed on fungi conferred by Bg_9562 may help the
      bacteria to survive in certain ecological niches. Furthermore, considering its
      broad-spectrum antifungal activity, the protein may be potentially useful in
      biotechnological applications to control fungal diseases.Some bacteria can feed
      on live fungi through unclear mechanisms. Here, the authors show that a T3SS
      secreted protein, which is homologous to phage tail proteins, allows a
      Burkholderia gladioli strain to kill and feed on various fungal species.

PMID- 28864821
TI  - Timely regulated sorting from early to late endosomes is required to maintain
      cerebellar long-term depression.
AB  - An important feature of long-term synaptic plasticity is the prolonged
      maintenance of plastic changes in synaptic transmission. The trafficking of AMPA
      type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) is involved in the expression of many forms of
      synaptic plasticity, yet the subsequent events accomplishing the maintenance of
      plastic changes in synaptic AMPAR numbers are not fully understood. Here, we find
      that maintenance of cerebellar long-term depression results from a reduction in
      the number of AMPARs residing within endocytic recycling pathways. We then
      develop a genetically encoded, photosensitive inhibitor of late endosome sorting
      and use this to discover that initial maintenance of long-term depression relies
      on timely regulated late endosome sorting, which exhibits a threshold as well as
      switch-like behavior. Thus, our results indicate that recycling AMPAR numbers are
      reduced by a switching machinery of transient late endosome sorting, and that
      this process enables the transition from basal synaptic transmission to long-term
      depression maintenance.Long term depression (LTD) of the cerebellum is known to
      be mediated by postsynaptic trafficking of glutamate receptor AMPAR. Here, Kim
      and colleagues show that early- to late-endosomal sorting of AMPAR represents the
      switch from expression to maintenance phase of cerebellar LTD.

PMID- 28864822
TI  - Hepcidin is regulated by promoter-associated histone acetylation and HDAC3.
AB  - Hepcidin regulates systemic iron homeostasis. Suppression of hepcidin expression
      occurs physiologically in iron deficiency and increased erythropoiesis but is
      pathologic in thalassemia and hemochromatosis. Here we show that epigenetic
      events govern hepcidin expression. Erythropoiesis and iron deficiency suppress
      hepcidin via erythroferrone-dependent and -independent mechanisms, respectively,
      in vivo, but both involve reversible loss of H3K9ac and H3K4me3 at the hepcidin
      locus. In vitro, pan-histone deacetylase inhibition elevates hepcidin expression,
      and in vivo maintains H3K9ac at hepcidin-associated chromatin and abrogates
      hepcidin suppression by erythropoietin, iron deficiency, thalassemia, and
      hemochromatosis. Histone deacetylase 3 and its cofactor NCOR1 regulate hepcidin;
      histone deacetylase 3 binds chromatin at the hepcidin locus, and histone
      deacetylase 3 knockdown counteracts hepcidin suppression induced either by
      erythroferrone or by inhibiting bone morphogenetic protein signaling. In iron
      deficient mice, the histone deacetylase 3 inhibitor RGFP966 increases hepcidin,
      and RNA sequencing confirms hepcidin is one of the genes most differentially
      regulated by this drug in vivo. We conclude that suppression of hepcidin
      expression involves epigenetic regulation by histone deacetylase 3.Hepcidin
      controls systemic iron levels by inhibiting intestinal iron absorption and iron
      recycling. Here, Pasricha et al. demonstrate that the hepcidin-chromatin locus
      displays HDAC3-mediated reversible epigenetic modifications during both
      erythropoiesis and iron deficiency.

PMID- 28864823
TI  - Rechargeable aqueous zinc-manganese dioxide batteries with high energy and power
      densities.
AB  - Although alkaline zinc-manganese dioxide batteries have dominated the primary
      battery applications, it is challenging to make them rechargeable. Here we report
      a high-performance rechargeable zinc-manganese dioxide system with an aqueous
      mild-acidic zinc triflate electrolyte. We demonstrate that the tunnel structured
      manganese dioxide polymorphs undergo a phase transition to layered zinc-buserite
      on first discharging, thus allowing subsequent intercalation of zinc cations in
      the latter structure. Based on this electrode mechanism, we formulate an aqueous
      zinc/manganese triflate electrolyte that enables the formation of a protective
      porous manganese oxide layer. The cathode exhibits a high reversible capacity of
      225 mAh g-1 and long-term cyclability with 94% capacity retention over 2000
      cycles. Remarkably, the pouch zinc-manganese dioxide battery delivers a total
      energy density of 75.2 Wh kg-1. As a result of the superior battery performance,
      the high safety of aqueous electrolyte, the facile cell assembly and the cost
      benefit of the source materials, this zinc-manganese dioxide system is believed
      to be promising for large-scale energy storage applications.The development of
      rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries are challenging but promising for energy
      storage applications. With a mild-acidic triflate electrolyte, here the authors
      show a high-performance Zn-MnO2 battery in which the MnO2 cathode undergoes Zn2+
      (de)intercalation.

PMID- 28864824
TI  - Automatic Categorization and Scoring of Solid, Part-Solid and Non-Solid Pulmonary
      Nodules in CT Images with Convolutional Neural Network.
AB  - We present a computer-aided diagnosis system (CADx) for the automatic
      categorization of solid, part-solid and non-solid nodules in pulmonary
      computerized tomography images using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN).
      Provided with only a two-dimensional region of interest (ROI) surrounding each
      nodule, our CNN automatically reasons from image context to discover informative
      computational features. As a result, no image segmentation processing is needed
      for further analysis of nodule attenuation, allowing our system to avoid
      potential errors caused by inaccurate image processing. We implemented two
      computerized texture analysis schemes, classification and regression, to
      automatically categorize solid, part-solid and non-solid nodules in CT scans,
      with hierarchical features in each case learned directly by the CNN model. To
      show the effectiveness of our CNN-based CADx, an established method based on
      histogram analysis (HIST) was implemented for comparison. The experimental
      results show significant performance improvement by the CNN model over HIST in
      both classification and regression tasks, yielding nodule classification and
      rating performance concordant with those of practicing radiologists. Adoption of
      CNN-based CADx systems may reduce the inter-observer variation among screening
      radiologists and provide a quantitative reference for further nodule analysis.

PMID- 28864825
TI  - Multiple periodicity in a nanoparticle-based single-electron transistor.
AB  - A single-electron transistor is a nano-device with large potential for low-power
      applications that can be used as logic elements in integrated circuits. In this
      device, the conductance oscillates with a well-defined period due to the Coulomb
      blockade effect. By using a unique technique, we explore single-electron
      transistors based on a single metallic nanoparticle with tunable coupling to
      electric leads. We demonstrate a unique regime in which the transistor is
      characterized by multi-periodic oscillations of the conductance with gate voltage
      where the additional periods are harmonics of the basic periodicity of the
      Coulomb blockade and their relative strength can be controllably tuned. These
      harmonics correspond to a charge change on the dot by a fraction of the electron
      charge. The presence of multiple harmonics makes these transistors potential
      elements in future miniaturization of nano-sized circuit elements.Single-electron
      transistors are elements for nanoscale electronics. Employing single-electron
      transistors based on gold nanoparticles, Bitton et al., report a fabrication
      technique that allows precise control over the coupling between a nanodot and
      leads, resulting in new transport characteristics.

PMID- 28864827
TI  - Ultrathin metal-organic framework membrane production by gel-vapour deposition.
AB  - Ultrathin, molecular sieving membranes composed of microporous materials offer
      great potential to realize high permeances and selectivities in separation
      applications, but strategies for their production have remained a challenge. Here
      we show a route for the scalable production of nanometre-thick metal-organic
      framework (MOF) molecular sieving membranes, specifically via gel-vapour
      deposition, which combines sol-gel coating with vapour deposition for solvent
      /modification-free and precursor-/time-saving synthesis. The uniform MOF
      membranes thus prepared have controllable thicknesses, down to ~17 nm, and show
      one to three orders of magnitude higher gas permeances than those of conventional
      membranes, up to 215.4 * 10-7 mol m-2 s-1 Pa-1 for H2, and H2/C3H8, CO2/C3H8 and
      C3H6/C3H8 selectivities of as high as 3,400, 1,030 and 70, respectively. We
      further demonstrate the in situ scale-up processing of a MOF membrane module (30
      polymeric hollow fibres with membrane area of 340 cm2) without deterioration in
      selectivity.MOF-based membranes have shown great promise in separation
      applications, but producing thin membranes that allow for high fluxes remains
      challenging. Here, the authors use a gel-vapour deposition strategy to fabricate
      composite membranes with less than 20 nm thicknesses and high gas permeances and
      selectivities.

PMID- 28864826
TI  - IgSF21 promotes differentiation of inhibitory synapses via binding to
      neurexin2alpha.
AB  - Coordinated development of excitatory and inhibitory synapses is essential for
      higher brain function, and impairment in this development is associated with
      neuropsychiatric disorders. In contrast to the large body of accumulated evidence
      regarding excitatory synapse development, little is known about synaptic adhesion
      and organization mechanisms underlying inhibitory synapse development. Through
      unbiased expression screens and proteomics, we identified immunoglobulin
      superfamily member 21 (IgSF21) as a neurexin2alpha-interacting membrane protein
      that selectively induces inhibitory presynaptic differentiation. IgSF21 localizes
      postsynaptically and recruits axonal neurexin2alpha in a trans-interaction
      manner. Deleting IgSF21 in mice impairs inhibitory presynaptic organization,
      especially in the hippocampal CA1 stratum radiatum, and also diminishes GABA
      mediated synaptic transmission in hippocampal CA1 neurons without affecting their
      excitatory synapses. Finally, mice lacking IgSF21 show a sensorimotor gating
      deficit. These findings suggest that IgSF21 selectively regulates inhibitory
      presynaptic differentiation through interacting with presynaptic neurexin2alpha
      and plays a crucial role in synaptic inhibition in the brain.Molecular mechanisms
      regulating the development of inhibitory synapses are poorly understood. Here the
      authors show that IgSF21 interacts with neurexin2alpha to induce presynaptic
      differentiation of inhibitory synapses, and that mice lacking IgSF21 exhibit
      deficits in inhibitory synaptic transmission.

PMID- 28864828
TI  - [Severe atypical ketoacidosis due to SGLT2-inhibitor therapy : Two case reports].
AB  - Two female patients were admitted due to ketoacidosis. Serum glucose was
      moderately elevated. The patients exhibited abdominal and neurologic symptoms.
      Treatment consisted of metformin, insulin glargin and empagliflozin, as well as
      glimepiride, insulin detemir and empagliflozin, respectively. Treatment with
      intravenous fluid replacement, insulin, glucose, potassium and buffer solution
      led to a normalisation of pH and serum glucose levels. Our report describes two
      cases of atypical ketoacidosis with moderately elevated serum glucose during
      sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor therapy.

PMID- 28864829
TI  - Physiologic and Genetic Factors Influencing the Zoonotic Cycle of Borrelia
      burgdorferi.
AB  - Borrelia burgdorferi is a symbiont of ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex. These
      ticks serve as vectors to disseminate the spirochete to a variety of susceptible
      vertebrate hosts, which, in turn, act as reservoirs for naive ticks to become
      infected, perpetuating the infectious life cycle of B. burgdorferi. The pivotal
      role of ticks in this life cycle and tick-spirochete interactions are the focus
      of this chapter. Here, we describe the challenging physiological environment that
      spirochetes encounter within Ixodes ticks, and the genetic factors that B.
      burgdorferi uses to successfully infect, persist, and be transmitted from the
      vector.

PMID- 28864830
TI  - ER Stress and Neurodegenerative Disease: A Cause or Effect Relationship?
AB  - The accumulation of protein aggregates has a fundamental role in the
      patophysiology of distinct neurodegenerative diseases. This phenomenon may have a
      common origin, where disruption of intracellular mechanisms related to protein
      homeostasis (here termed proteostasis) control during aging may result in
      abnormal protein aggregation. The unfolded protein response (UPR) embodies a
      major element of the proteostasis network triggered by endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      stress. Chronic ER stress may operate as possible mechanism of neurodegenerative
      and synaptic dysfunction, and in addition contribute to the abnormal aggregation
      of key disease-related proteins. In this article we overview the most recent
      findings suggesting a causal role of ER stress in neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28864831
TI  - Ultrastructural features of aberrant glial cells isolated from the spinal cord of
      paralytic rats expressing the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-linked SOD1G93A
      mutation.
AB  - In the rat model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis expressing the G93A superoxide
      dismutase-1 mutation, motor neuron death and rapid paralysis progression are
      associated with the emergence of a population of aberrant glial cells (AbAs) that
      proliferate in the degenerating spinal cord. Targeting of AbAs with anti
      neoplasic drugs reduced paralysis progression, suggesting a pathogenic potential
      contribution of these cells accelerating paralysis progression. In the present
      study, analyze the cellular and ultrastructural features of AbAs following their
      isolation and establishment in culture during several passages. We found that
      AbAs exhibit permanent loss of contact inhibition, absence of intermediate
      filaments and abundance of microtubules, together with an important production of
      extracellular matrix components. Remarkably, AbAs also exhibited exacerbated ER
      stress together with a significant abundance of lipid droplets, as well as
      autophagic and secretory vesicles, all characteristic features of cellular stress
      and inflammatory activation. Taken together, the present data show AbA cells as a
      unique aberrant phenotype for a glial cell that might explain their pathogenic
      and neurotoxic effects.

PMID- 28864832
TI  - MRI findings associated with microscopic residual tumor following unplanned
      excision of soft tissue sarcomas in the extremities.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: MRI is often used to determine the presence of residual disease
      following unplanned excisions (UPE) of soft tissue sarcomas (STS). We sought to
      identify MRI features associated with histologic evidence of residual disease
      after TBE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was an IRB-approved retrospective review
      of 27 patients with R1-type UPE of STS over a 32-month period, with subsequent
      MRI and TBE. MRI studies were retrospectively evaluated to determine depth of
      tissue involvement, presence of nodular enhancement, and maximum length of soft
      tissue edema normalized to extremity size. MRI findings were correlated with
      histology from unplanned excision and TBE. RESULTS: Among the 21 subjects, there
      were 13 males and 8 females, mean age 58. Eighteen of 21 STS were grade 2 or 3.
      Deep compartments were involved in 5/21 cases. Original margins were positive in
      17/21 UPE, with inadequate margin assessment in the remaining 4 cases. Residual
      tumor was present at TBE in 11/21 cases; it was found in 4/6 cases with nodular
      enhancement and 7/15 cases without nodular enhancement (sensitivity = 0.36;
      specificity = 0.80; PPV = 0.67; NPV = 0.53). Increased extent of soft tissue
      edema increased the likelihood of residual tumor at TBE (OR = 35.0; 95% CI = 1.6
      to 752.7; p = 0.023). CONCLUSION: Nodular enhancement is neither sensitive nor
      specific in predicting residual microscopic tumor in TBE following UPE. Extensive
      soft tissue edema on MRI after UPE increases the likelihood of finding a residual
      microscopic tumor, justifying ample margins at TBE and consideration of adjuvant
      therapy.

PMID- 28864833
TI  - Impact of multiple malignancies on surgical outcomes in patients with 1 cm or
      smaller non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because most patients with small-sized non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC) are asymptomatic, their lesions are detected by cancer screenings or
      routine checkups for other diseases. Incidences of multiple malignancies have
      been reported to be 27% in patients with stage I-III NSCLC. Some patients have
      treatment histories for other malignancies, and their small-sized NSCLC was
      incidentally detected during follow-up. There is no established report regarding
      the influence of multiple malignancies on small-sized NSCLC prognosis. Therefore,
      we investigated the correlation between multiple malignancies and surgical
      outcomes in patients with small-sized NSCLC. METHODS: In total, 44 patients
      underwent definitive pulmonary resection for NSCLC of 1 cm or smaller between
      January 2003 and December 2012. Tumor size was measured by macroscopic findings
      of the resected specimens, and we then retrospectively investigated their
      clinical courses. RESULTS: One patient had hemoptysis symptoms, whereas 43
      patients were asymptomatic; among them, NSCLC was detected by examinations for
      other diseases in 31 patients and by cancer screening in 12 patients. In total,
      20 patients (45%) had multiple malignancies. The median follow-up period was 68
      months. One patient had a recurrence from current NSCLC. No patients died of
      current NSCLC. The overall 5-year survival rate was 90% for all patients.
      Patients with multiple malignancies had significantly poorer prognoses compared
      with those without multiple malignancies (P = 0.016). However, patients with
      treatment intervals of more than 5 years had prognoses equivalent to those of
      patients without multiple malignancies (P = 0.829). Only the presence of multiple
      malignancies was a significantly poor prognostic factor in univariate and
      multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION: NSCLC of 1 cm or smaller showed good
      prognoses. The presence of multiple malignancies was a significantly poor
      prognostic factor, and short treatment intervals also correlated with poor
      prognosis.

PMID- 28864834
TI  - Rapid and efficient CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in Citrus using the YAO promoter.

PMID- 28864835
TI  - NEAT1 accelerates the progression of liver fibrosis via regulation of microRNA
      122 and Kruppel-like factor 6.
AB  - : Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be involved in many
      important biological processes including proliferation, apoptosis,
      differentiation, and survival. Recently, nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript
      1 (NEAT1), a novel lncRNA, serves as a crucial regulator in tumors. However, the
      biological role of NEAT1 in liver fibrosis is largely unknown. In this study, the
      role of NEAT1 was explored in primary mouse hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and
      carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced mouse liver fibrosis models. We found that
      NEAT1 expression was significantly increased in CCl4-induced mice and activated
      HSCs. Loss of NEAT1 suppressed liver fibrosis in vivo and in vitro. Conversely,
      NEAT1 overexpression accelerated HSC activation, including increased cell
      proliferation and collagen expression. Further studies indicated that the
      microRNA-122 (miR-122)-Kruppel-like factor 6 (KLF6) axis was involved in the
      effects of NEAT1 on HSC activation. The effects of NEAT1 on HSC activation were
      almost blocked down by miR-122 mimics or KLF6 knockdown. Interestingly, both
      NEAT1 and KLF6 are targets of miR-122. In addition, miR-122 led to a significant
      reduction in NEAT1 level while NEAT1 overexpression resulted in the suppression
      of miR-122 expression. Pull-down assay confirmed a direct interaction between miR
      122 and NEAT1. NEAT1 contributes to HSC activation via the miR-122-KLF6 axis. In
      human fibrotic liver samples, increased NEAT1 levels positively correlated with
      liver fibrosis markers. In conclusion, we disclose a novel NEAT1-miR-122-KLF6
      signaling cascade and its implication in liver fibrosis. KEY MESSAGES: NEAT1 was
      significantly increased in CCl4-induced mice and activated HSCs. Loss of NEAT1
      suppressed liver fibrosis in vivo and in vitro. KLF6 and miR-122 were required
      for the effects of NEAT1 on HSC activation. NEAT1 contributes to HSC activation
      via competitively binding miR-122. We disclose a novel NEAT1-miR-122-KLF6
      signaling cascade.

PMID- 28864836
TI  - Parental Perceptions and Child Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Autism.
AB  - Emotional and behavioral difficulties in children with autism often present
      problems for families seeking appropriate treatment interventions. Using data
      from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services, ordinal logistic
      regression models were used to examine the association between parental
      perceptions about autism and their reports of child emotional and behavioral
      problems. Results showed that parents who attributed their child's autism to
      environmental factors, experienced emotional upset or confusion about autism, or
      perceived the condition to be pervasive or burdensome, were more likely to
      reported clinically significant emotional and behavioral difficulties. Findings
      suggest that support services must consider parent perceptions when developing
      interventions to assist with children's emotional and behavioral challenges.
      Implications for practice and research are discussed.

PMID- 28864838
TI  - An improved multi-objective optimization-based CICA method with data-driver
      temporal reference for group fMRI data analysis.
AB  - Group independent component analysis (GICA) has been successfully applied to
      study multi-subject functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, and the
      group independent component (GIC) represents the commonality of all subjects in
      the group. However, some studies show that the performance of GICA can be
      improved by incorporating a priori information, which is not always considered
      when looking for GICs in existing GICA methods. In this paper, we propose an
      improved multi-objective optimization-based constrained independent component
      analysis (CICA) method to take advantage of the temporal a priori information
      extracted from all subjects in the group by incorporating it into the
      computational process of GICA for group fMRI data analysis. The experimental
      results of simulated and real data show that the activated regions and the time
      course detected by the improved CICA method are more accurate in some sense.
      Moreover, the GIC computed by the improved CICA method has a higher correlation
      with the corresponding independent component of each subject in the group, which
      means that the improved CICA method with the temporal a priori information
      extracted from the group can better reflect the commonality of the subjects.
      These results demonstrate that the improved CICA method has its own advantages in
      fMRI data analysis.

PMID- 28864839
TI  - Outcomes of treatment in men with prostate cancer at the cancer centre Bahamas.
AB  - PURPOSE: This is a first report from The Bahamas of management and long-term
      outcomes in men with non-metastatic prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy,
      with or without androgen deprivation therapy, from 2004 to 2016. METHODS:
      Patients were characterized by baseline factors, stratified by risk groups using
      tumor stage (clinical T-stage), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test result and
      Gleason grade, and sorted by treatment combinations (by radiation volume and use
      of androgen deprivation). RESULTS: Overall, 205/216 men were Afro-Caribbean.
      Median age was 66. There were 18 low-, 77 intermediate-, and 121 high-risk
      patients, treated with prostate-only versus pelvis plus prostate radiotherapy,
      many receiving 2 years of androgen suppression. Time to commence radiation was
      about 6 months from initial diagnosis. In those not relapsing, global PSA nadir
      was reached in 4 years and was under 1.0, reduced from a mean at baseline of 31.
      At 10 years, disease-free experience (32 relapses) was 68% and overall survival
      was 87%, although only 2/12 deaths were related to prostate cancer. This
      experience compares favorably with recently published outcomes from other
      countries using very similar treatments. CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes
      benchmark statistics from diagnosis to long-term follow-up. Outcomes in Bahamian
      men are consistent with expectations from risk-stratified guidelines followed in
      developed countries.

PMID- 28864837
TI  - Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and vagus somatosensory evoked potentials
      (VSEP) in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: rationale, design, methods,
      and first baseline data of the Vogel study.
AB  - Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and vagus somatosensory evoked
      potentials (VSEP) show deviant patterns in subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD)
      compared to healthy controls. We now aimed at testing the predictive value of
      these methods in the early diagnosis of AD. The Vogel study is a prospective,
      observational, long-term follow-up study with three time points of investigation
      within 6 years. Residents of the city of Wurzburg born between 1936 and 1941 were
      recruited. Every participant underwent physical, psychiatric, and laboratory
      examinations, and performed an intense neuropsychological testing as well as VSEP
      and NIRS according to the published procedures. 604 subjects were included. Mean
      age of the participants was 73.9 +/- 1.55 years. The most frequent pathological
      physical and laboratory examination results were observed for blood pressure
      (62%), body weight (54%), HbA1c (16%), cholesterol (42%), and homocysteine (69%).
      Comprehensive analysis of cognitive testing showed mild cognitive impairment
      (MCI) in 12.3% of the patients. Concurrent major depression was found in 6.6% of
      the patients. We observed a high rate of MCI and somatic comorbidity in our
      cohort. The high rate of vascular risk factors and depressive symptoms, all of
      which are known risk factors of AD, is consistent with the notion that there are
      multiple options to prevent or postpone the onset of AD in a geriatric population
      like the one of the Vogel studies.

PMID- 28864840
TI  - Renal, auricular, and ocular outcomes of Alport syndrome and their current
      management.
AB  - Alport syndrome is a hereditary glomerular basement membrane disease caused by
      mutations in the COL4A3/4/5 genes encoding the type IV collagen alpha 3-5 chains.
      Most cases of Alport syndrome are inherited as X-linked dominant, and some as
      autosomal recessive or autosomal dominant. The primary manifestations are
      hematuria, proteinuria, and progressive renal failure, whereas some patients
      present with sensorineural hearing loss and ocular abnormalities. Renin
      angiotensin-aldosterone system blockade is proven to delay the onset of renal
      failure by reducing proteinuria. Renal transplantation is a curative treatment
      for patients who have progressed to end-stage renal disease. However, only
      supportive measures can be used to improve hearing loss and visual loss. Although
      both stem cell therapy and gene therapy aim to repair the basement membrane
      defects, technical difficulties require more research in Alport mice before
      clinical studies. Here, we review the renal, auricular, and ocular manifestations
      and outcomes of Alport syndrome and their current management.

PMID- 28864842
TI  - A semiparametric regression cure model for doubly censored data.
AB  - This paper discusses regression analysis of doubly censored failure time data
      when there may exist a cured subgroup. By doubly censored data, we mean that the
      failure time of interest denotes the elapsed time between two related events and
      the observations on both event times can suffer censoring (Sun in The statistical
      analysis of interval-censored failure time data. Springer, New York, 2006). One
      typical example of such data is given by an acquired immune deficiency syndrome
      cohort study. Although many methods have been developed for their analysis (De
      Gruttola and Lagakos in Biometrics 45:1-12, 1989; Sun et al. in Biometrics 55:909
      914, 1999; 60:637-643, 2004; Pan in Biometrics 57:1245-1250, 2001), it does not
      seem to exist an established method for the situation with a cured subgroup. This
      paper discusses this later problem and presents a sieve approximation maximum
      likelihood approach. In addition, the asymptotic properties of the resulting
      estimators are established and an extensive simulation study indicates that the
      method seems to work well for practical situations. An application is also
      provided.

PMID- 28864841
TI  - Diabetic Neuropathy and Gait: A Review.
AB  - Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a major sequela of diabetes mellitus and
      may have a detrimental effect on the gait of people with this complication. DPN
      causes a disruption in the body's sensorimotor system and is believed to affect
      up to 50% of patients with diabetes mellitus, dependent on the duration of
      diabetes. It has a major effect on morbidity and mortality. The peripheral
      nervous system controls the complex series of events in gait through somatic and
      autonomic functions, careful balancing of eccentric and concentric muscle
      contractions and a reliance on the sensory information received from the plantar
      surface. In this literature review focussing on kinetics, kinematics and posture
      during gait in DPN patients, we have identified an intimate link between DPN and
      abnormalities in gait and demonstrated an increased risk in falls for older
      patients with diabetes. As such, we have identified a need for further research
      on the role of gait abnormalities in the development of diabetic foot ulceration
      and subsequent amputations.

PMID- 28864843
TI  - Pupillary autonomic dysfunction in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess autonomic function by infrared dynamic pupillometry in
      patients with ANCA-vasculitis (AAV) in correlation to autonomic symptoms, disease
      specific clinical parameters and cardiovascular reflex tests. METHODS: Patients
      with AAV and healthy controls underwent pupillometry at rest and after
      sympathetic stimulation (cold pressor test). Three parasympathetic parameters
      (amplitude, relative amplitude, maximum constriction velocity) and one
      sympathetic parameter (late dilatation velocity) were assessed. Results were
      correlated with clinical parameters, symptoms of autonomic dysfunction (COMPASS31
      questionnaire), heart rate variability during deep breathing test and blood
      pressure response to pain. RESULTS: 23 patients and 18 age-matched controls were
      enrolled. Patients had a smaller amplitude (1.44 vs. 1.70 mm; p = 0.009) and a
      slower constriction velocity (4.15 vs. 4.71 mm/s; p = 0.028) at baseline and
      after sympathetic stimulation (1.47 vs. 1.81 mm, p = 0.001; 4.38 vs. 5.19 mm/s, p
      = 0.006, respectively). Relative amplitude was significantly smaller in patients
      after sympathetic stimulation (28.6 vs. 32.5%; p = 0.043), but not at baseline.
      There was no difference in sympathetic pupillary response between the groups. In
      patients, parasympathetic pupil response was correlated negatively with age and
      positively with parasympathetic cardiac response. After adjusting for age, no
      significant correlation was observed with clinical parameters. However, there was
      a trend towards a negative correlation with disease duration, vasculitis damage
      index and CRP. CONCLUSION: Patients with AAV exhibit parasympathetic pupillary
      autonomic dysfunction. Although correlations were weak and not significant,
      pupillary autonomic dysfunction is rather linked to chronic damage than to active
      inflammation or symptoms of autonomic dysfunction.

PMID- 28864844
TI  - Checkpoint inhibitors: the new treatment paradigm for urothelial bladder cancer.
AB  - Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy involving the genitourinary system
      (Siegel et al. in CA Cancer J Clin, 66:7-30, 2016). In the USA, it is the fifth
      most common cancer and approximately 79,000 new cases will be diagnosed in 2017
      (Siegel et al. in CA Cancer J Clin, 66:7-30, 2016). The mortality from bladder
      cancer is approximately 17,000 deaths each year (Siegel et al. in CA Cancer J
      Clin, 66:7-30, 2016). The incidence rate for bladder cancer is higher in men
      compared to women. Risk factors are predominantly related to tobacco smoking,
      although infection with Schistosoma haematobium is another risk factor in
      selected populations (Antoni et al. in Eur Urol, 71:96-108, 2017). Cisplatin
      based systemic chemotherapy regimens remain the standard of care in both the
      neoadjuvant and metastatic setting for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (Gupta et
      al. in Cancer, 9(15):1-14, 2017; Von der Maase et al. in J Clin Oncol, 23:4602
      4608, 2005; De Santis et al. in J Clin Oncol, 30:191-199, 2012; Bellmunt et al.
      in J Clin Oncol, 27: 4454-4461, 2009). There is an estimated overall survival of
      9-15 months in metastatic bladder cancer in those who receive the standard of
      care platinum-based chemotherapy (Von der Maase et al. in J Clin Oncol, 23:4602
      4608, 2005; De Santis et al. in J Clin Oncol, 30:191-199, 2012). The median
      survival, however, is significantly reduced after relapse in patient treated with
      platinum chemotherapy to less than 7 months (Bellmunt et al. in J Clin Oncol, 27:
      4454-4461, 2009). Thus, this approach is preferred for patients who can tolerate
      this treatment as first-line chemotherapy (Gupta et al. in Cancer, 9(15):1-14,
      2017). Until recently, there were few treatment options for those patients with
      poor performance status who are ineligible to receive cisplatin including renal
      insufficiency and multiple comorbidities or had disease progression after
      receiving platinum-based chemotherapy (Gupta et al. in Cancer, 9(15):1-14, 2017).
      With further understanding of tumor immune evasion, systemic immunotherapy which
      utilizes the patient's own immune system directly to eradicate and target
      neoplastic cells, has now been approved for urothelial bladder cancer. Monoclonal
      antibodies that target programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), including
      Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab, and its ligand, PD-L1, including Atezolizumab,
      Durvalumab, Avelumab, have all been investigated and approved in the setting of
      metastatic refractory urothelial cancer (Gupta et al. in Cancer, 9(15):1-14,
      2017; Von der Maase et al. in J Clin Oncol, 23:4602-4608, 2005; Zilchi et al. in
      BioMed Res Int, 2017, 2017, doi: 10.1155/2017/5618174 ). Atezolizumab and
      Pembrolizumab have also been approved as first-line therapy in the setting of
      cisplatin-ineligible metastatic bladder cancer (Gupta et al. in Cancer, 9(15):1
      14, 2017; Zilchi et al. in BioMed Res Int, 2017, 2017, doi: 10.1155/2017/5618174
      ). Those that target cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4, including
      Ipilimumab and Tremelimumab, have also been investigated and further studies are
      being performed (Gupta et al. in Cancer, 9(15):1-14, 2017; Zilchi et al. in
      BioMed Res Int, 2017, 2017, doi: 10.1155/2017/5618174 ). This review outlines the
      systemic immunotherapies that have been approved or are currently being
      investigated.

PMID- 28864845
TI  - Delayed Diagnosis and Treatment Among Children with Autism Who Experience
      Adversity.
AB  - The effects of family adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on timing of ASD
      diagnoses and receipt of therapies were measured using data from the 2011-2012
      National Survey of Children's Health. Parametric accelerated failure time models
      estimated the relationship between family ACEs and both timing of ASD diagnosis
      and receipt of therapies among US children (age 2-17 years; N = 1624). Compared
      to children without family ACEs, the adjusted effects of 1-2 and >= 3 ACEs
      resulted in prolonged time of diagnoses with time ratios of 1.17 and 1.23. Report
      of 1-2 and >= 3 ACEs were associated with a 22 and 27% increase in the median age
      of entry into services. ACEs may pose significant barriers to diagnoses and
      treatment of children with ASD.

PMID- 28864846
TI  - The Use of Decision-Analytic Models in Atopic Eczema: A Systematic Review and
      Critical Appraisal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review was to identify and assess the
      quality of published economic decision-analytic models within atopic eczema
      against best practice guidelines, with the intention of informing future decision
      analytic models within this condition. METHODS: A systematic search of the
      following online databases was performed: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to
      Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Database
      of Systematic Reviews, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, EconLit, Scopus, Health
      Technology Assessment, Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Registry and Web of Science.
      Papers were eligible for inclusion if they described a decision-analytic model
      evaluating both the costs and benefits associated with an intervention or
      prevention for atopic eczema. Data were extracted using a standardised form by
      two independent reviewers, whilst quality was assessed using the model-specific
      Philips criteria. RESULTS: Twenty-four models were identified, evaluating either
      preventions (n = 12) or interventions (n = 12): 14 reported using a Markov
      modelling approach, four utilised decision trees and one a discrete event
      simulation, whilst five did not specify the approach. The majority, 22 studies,
      reported that the intervention was dominant or cost effective, given the
      assumptions and analytical perspective taken. Notably, the models tended to be
      short-term (16 used a time horizon of <=1 year), often providing little
      justification for the limited time horizon chosen. The methodological and
      reporting quality of the studies was generally weak, with only seven studies
      fulfilling more than 50% of their applicable Philips criteria. CONCLUSIONS: This
      is the first systematic review of decision models in eczema. Whilst the majority
      of models reported favourable outcomes in terms of the cost effectiveness of the
      new intervention, the usefulness of these findings for decision-making is
      questionable. In particular, there is considerable scope for increasing the range
      of interventions evaluated, for improving modelling structures and reporting
      quality.

PMID- 28864847
TI  - A monocentric centerline extraction method for ring-like blood vessels.
AB  - Centerline is generally used to measure topological and morphological parameters
      of blood vessels, which is pivotal for the quantitative analysis of vascular
      diseases. However, previous centerline extraction methods have two drawbacks on
      complex blood vessels, represented as the failure on ring-like structures and the
      existing of multi-voxel width. In this paper, we propose a monocentric centerline
      extraction method for ring-like blood vessels, which consists of three
      components. First, multiple centerlines are generated from the seed points that
      are chosen by randomly sprinkling points on blood vessel data. Second, multi
      centerline fusion is used to repair the notches of centerlines on ring-like
      vessels, and the local maximum of distance from oundary is employed to remedy the
      missing centerline points. Finally, monocentric processing is devised to keep the
      vascular centerline with single voxel width. We compared the proposed method with
      Wan et al.'s method and topological thinning on five groups of data including
      synthesized vascular datasets and MR brain images. The result showed the proposed
      method performed better than the two contrast methods both by visual inspection
      and by quantitative assessment, which demonstrated the performance of the
      proposed method on ring-like blood vessels as well as the elimination of multi
      voxel width points.

PMID- 28864848
TI  - Lessons learned from 300 consecutive pancreaticoduodenectomies over a 25-year
      experience: the "safety net" improves the outcomes beyond surgeon skills.
AB  - Pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is associated with high postoperative morbidity. The
      management of postoperative complications is paramount for reducing the mortality
      rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of surgical and
      hospital experience on outcomes by comparing postoperative results in three
      different hospitals with increasing resources for supporting the same surgical
      team. Patients data and surgical outcome of 300 consecutive patients undergoing
      PD were collected prospectively in the department database and divided into three
      periods (A = 1990-2000, B = 2001-March 2007, C = April 2007-2015). Pancreatico
      jejunostomy was the procedure of choice between 1995 and 2004, and pancreatico
      gastrostomy was performed afterwards. In the periods A, B and C, a total of 78,
      85 and 137 PD were performed, respectively, and the number of PDs per year
      increased from 5 to 25. Between the three periods, the death rate (10.4 vs. 6 vs.
      1.6%, p = 0.01) and intraoperative RBC transfusion rate (84.9 vs. 42.4 vs. 6.5%,
      p = 0.01) decreased significantly, whereas the vascular resection rate increased
      significantly (1.2 vs. 7 vs. 14.5, p < 0.002). Morbidity and reoperation rates
      did not change significantly between the three periods as well as operative time
      and median length of stay. Infectious complications and sepsis represented the
      most frequent major complication. Massive bleeding associated with uncontrolled
      pancreatic leak represented the major cause of morbidity and reoperation in the
      three periods, however, the relative mortality rate decreased significantly with
      no deaths in the last period. PD remains a challenging procedure with high
      morbidity and mortality rate. A multidisciplinary pancreatic team represents the
      "safety net" of pancreatic surgeon because it improves the results beyond the
      surgeon skills and experience.

PMID- 28864849
TI  - Maximal exercise increases mucosal associated invariant T cell frequency and
      number in healthy young men.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells have properties of the
      innate and acquired immune systems. While the response to vigorous exercise has
      been established for most leukocytes, MAIT cells have not been investigated.
      Therefore, the purpose was to determine if MAIT cell lymphocytosis occurs with
      acute maximal aerobic exercise and if this response is influenced by exercise
      duration, cardiovascular fitness, or body composition. METHODS: Twenty healthy
      young males with moderate fitness levels performed an extended graded exercise
      test until volitional fatigue. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated
      from venous blood obtained prior and immediately after exercise and were labeled
      to identify specific T cell populations using flow cytometry. RESULTS: The
      percentage of MAIT cells relative to total T cells significantly increased from
      3.0 to 3.8% and absolute MAIT cell counts increased by 2.2-fold following maximal
      exercise. MAIT cell subpopulation proportions were unchanged with exercise.
      Within cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), MAIT cells consisted of 8% of these cells
      and this remained constant after exercise. MAIT cell counts and changes with
      exercise were not affected by body composition, VO2peak, or exercise duration.
      CONCLUSIONS: Maximal exercise doubled MAIT cell numbers and showed preferential
      mobilization within total T cells but the response was not influenced by fitness
      levels, exercise duration, or body composition. These results suggest that acute
      exercise could be used to offset MAIT cell deficiencies observed with certain
      pathologies. MAIT cells also make up a substantial proportion of CTLs, which may
      have implications for cytotoxicity assays using these cells.

PMID- 28864850
TI  - Comment to: "Factors associated with hernia recurrence after laparoscopic total
      extraperitoneal repair for inguinal hernia: a 2-year prospective cohort study."
      By Schjoth-Iversen L. (Hernia. 2017 Jul 27. doi:10.1007/s10029-017-1634-7. [Epub
      ahead of print]).

PMID- 28864851
TI  - Dietary sugar/starches intake and Barrett's esophagus: a pooled analysis.
AB  - Barrett's esophagus (BE) is the key precursor lesion of esophageal
      adenocarcinoma, a lethal cancer that has increased rapidly in westernized
      countries over the past four decades. Dietary sugar intake has also been
      increasing over time, and may be associated with these tumors by promoting
      hyperinsulinemia. The study goal was to examine multiple measures of
      sugar/starches intake in association with BE. This pooled analysis included 472
      BE cases and 492 controls from two similarly conducted case-control studies in
      the United States. Dietary intake data, collected by study-specific food
      frequency questionnaires, were harmonized across studies by linking with the
      University of Minnesota Nutrient Database, and pooled based on study-specific
      quartiles. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for age, sex, race, total energy intake,
      study indicator, body mass index, frequency of gastro-esophageal reflux, and
      fruit/vegetable intake. In both studies, intake of sucrose (cases vs. controls,
      g/day: 36.07 vs. 33.51; 36.80 vs. 35.06, respectively) and added sugar (46.15 vs.
      41.01; 44.18 vs. 40.68, respectively) were higher in cases than controls. BE risk
      was increased 79% and 71%, respectively, for associations comparing the fourth to
      the first quartile of intake of sucrose (ORQ4vs.Q1 = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.07-3.02, P
      trend = 0.01) and added sugar (ORQ4vs.Q1 = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.05-2.80, P trend =
      0.15). Intake of sweetened desserts/beverages was associated with 71% increase in
      BE risk (ORQ4vs.Q1 = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.07-2.73, P trend = 0.04). Limiting dietary
      intake of foods and beverages that are high in added sugar, especially refined
      table sugar, may reduce the risk of developing BE.

PMID- 28864852
TI  - Effect of influent C/N ratio on N2O emissions from anaerobic/anoxic/oxic
      biological nitrogen removal processes.
AB  - The problem of producing strong greenhouse gas of nitrous oxide (N2O) from
      biological nitrogen removal (BNR) process in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)
      has elicited great concern from various sectors. In this study, three laboratory
      scale wastewater treatment systems, with influent C/N ratios of 3.4, 5.4, and
      7.5, were set up to study the effect of influent C/N ratio on N2O generation in
      anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2O) process. Results showed, with the increased influent
      C/N ratio, N2O generation from both nitrification and denitrification process was
      decreased, and the N2O-N conversion ratio of the process was obviously reduced
      from 2.23 to 0.05%. Nitrification rate in oxic section was reduced, while
      denitrification rate in anaerobic and anoxic section was elevated and the removal
      efficiency of COD, NH4+-N, TN, and TP was enhanced in different extent. As the
      C/N ratio increased from 3.4 to 7.5, activities of three key denitrifying enzymes
      of nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, and nitrous oxide reductase were
      increased. Moreover, microorganism analysis indicated that the relative abundance
      of ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were
      positively correlated with N2O generation, which was reduced from (8.42 +/- 3.65)
      to (3.61 +/- 1.66)% and (10.38 +/- 4.12) to (4.67 +/- 1.62)%, respectively. NosZ
      gene copy numbers of the A2O system were increased from (1.19 +/- 0.49) * 107 to
      (2.84 +/- 0.54) * 108 copies/g MLSS with the influent C/N ratio elevated from 3.4
      to 7.5. Hence, appropriate influent C/N condition of A2O process could optimize
      the microbial community structure that simultaneously improve treatment
      efficiency and decrease the N2O generation.

PMID- 28864853
TI  - [Cooperation between nursing homes and intellectual disability care services :
      State of affairs in Flanders].
AB  - Considering the increasing life expectancy of people with intellectual
      disabilities (ID), the importance of cooperation between services for people with
      ID and elderly care services has been stressed in Flanders and the Netherlands,
      as well as internationally. However, the prevalence, intensity and content of
      such a cooperation are yet unknown. In order to gain information to address this
      issue, an online-survey was delivered to directors of all nursing homes in
      Flanders (n = 781). 229 surveys were completed.In more than 75% of the nursing
      homes, people with ID were among the residents over the past decade. However, at
      the same time a lack of expertise has been identified as a barrier to provide
      them optimal care and support. Hence, the respondents point out that a
      cooperation with ID care services could be beneficial. Nevertheless, those
      partnerships only arose in a quarter of the nursing homes so far, primarily for
      the purpose of exchange of expertise. Intersectoral multidisciplinary
      consultations and intersectoral care team consultations have been taking place as
      well, be it mainly in the context of a persons' transition from an ID care
      service to a nursing home. Until now, radical cooperations which involve an
      exchange of staff, seem to be rather rare.

PMID- 28864854
TI  - Time-resolved CT assessment of collaterals as imaging biomarkers to predict
      clinical outcomes in acute ischemic stroke.
AB  - PURPOSE: Collateral circulation plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of
      acute ischemic stroke and is increasingly recognized as a promising biomarker for
      predicting the clinical outcome. However, there is no single established grading
      system. We designed a novel machine-learning software that allows non-invasive,
      objective, and quantitative assessment of collaterals according to their vascular
      territories. Our goal is to investigate the prognostic and predictive value of
      this collateral score for the prediction of acute stroke outcome. METHODS: This
      is a retrospective study of 135 patients with anterior circulation stroke treated
      with IV TPA. An equation using this collateral score (adjusting for age, baseline
      NIHSS, and recanalization) was derived to predict the clinical outcome (90-day
      mRS). The primary analyses focused on determining the prognostic value of our
      newly developed collateral scores. Secondary analyses examined the
      interrelationships between the collateral score and other variables. RESULTS: The
      collateral score emerged as a statistically significant prognostic biomarker for
      good clinical outcome (p < 0.033) among recanalized patients, but not among non
      recanalized patients (p < 0.497). Our results also showed that collateral score
      was a predictive biomarker (p < 0.044). These results suggest that (1) patients
      with good collateral score derive more benefit from successful recanalization
      than patients with poor collateral score and (2) collateral status is
      inconsequential if recanalization is not achieved. CONCLUSION: Our data results
      reinforce the importance of careful patient selection for recanalization therapy
      to avoid futile recanalization. The paucity of collaterals predicts poor clinical
      outcome despite recanalization. On the other hand, robust collaterals warrant
      consideration for recanalization therapy given the better odds of good clinical
      outcome.

PMID- 28864855
TI  - Erratum to: The Economic Burden of Insulin-Related Hypoglycemia in Spain.

PMID- 28864856
TI  - Comparison of adverse events following injection of original or generic docetaxel
      for the treatment of breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The approval of injectable generic drugs does not require bioequivalence
      testing. However, although generic products contain the same level of the active
      compound, the levels and types of additives present can differ from those used in
      the original product. Since docetaxel is highly lipophilic, polysorbate 80
      (PS80), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and ethyl alcohol are employed to solubilize
      this anticancer agent. This retrospective study compared the safety of five
      docetaxel products (Taxotere(r), Docetaxel Hospira, Docetaxel Sandoz, Docetaxel
      Sawai, and Docetaxel EE). METHODS: The incidence and severity of adverse events
      were analyzed using the medical records of operable breast cancer patients (n =
      363) treated with docetaxel (75 mg/m2) in Showa University Hospital, Japan, from
      Jan 2013 to Mar 2016. Toxicities were graded using the Common Terminology
      Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0. RESULTS: Significant product-related
      differences were observed in the following non-hematological adverse events:
      injection site reaction (P = 0.0012), hand-foot syndrome (>=grade 3) (P =
      0.0003), and oral mucositis (>=grade 3) (P = 0.0080). Multivariate logistic
      regression analyses of the associations between these adverse events and the
      total additive administered (g/m2) identified significant negative effects of
      PS80 and ethyl alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: Injectable docetaxel products had different
      adverse event profiles, which showed negative associations with the amounts of
      PS80 and ethyl alcohol present. This finding indicated that there might be
      additive-related pharmacokinetic and physiochemical differences among these
      products, suggesting a need for further pre- or post-approval testing of
      injectable generic products containing noticeable different levels of additives.

PMID- 28864857
TI  - Guidance for establishing an integrative oncology service in the Australian
      healthcare setting-a discussion paper.
AB  - There is an obvious mismatch between the high reported rates of use of
      traditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) by Australian cancer patients and
      cancer survivors and the low numbers of Australian cancer services integrating
      T&CM. An estimated 65% of Australian cancer patients use at least one form of
      T&CM. Over half use T&CM in conjunction with conventional cancer therapy. Yet,
      less than 20% of Australian hospital cancer care facilities provide access to
      T&CM. This compares to around 70% of UK cancer care facilities offering at least
      one T&CM therapy. Barriers to developing integrative oncology services include
      determining an appropriate service model and revenue structure; concerns with
      ethical and legal issues such as regulations and credentialing; and inadequate
      high-quality scientific evidence demonstrating safety and effectiveness,
      including concerns about the possibility of adversely affecting chemotherapy or
      radiotherapy treatment. This paper aims to provide general guidance and practical
      strategies for those seeking to develop integrative oncology services in
      Australian cancer care facilities.

PMID- 28864858
TI  - Erratum to: An IGRT margin concept for pelvic lymph nodes in high-risk prostate
      cancer.

PMID- 28864859
TI  - Expression and purification of classical swine fever virus E2 protein from Sf9
      cells using a modified vector.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop a simple method for efficient expression of classical swine
      fever virus (CSFV) E2 protein. RESULTS: The pFastBac HT B vector (pFastHTB-M1)
      was modified by adding a melittin signal peptide sequence. The E2 gene fragment
      without the transmembrane region was cloned into pFastHTB-M1. The modified vector
      has clear advantage over the original one, as evidenced by the purified
      recombinant E2 protein that was detected significantly by SDS-PAGE. CONCLUSIONS:
      The modified vector has the potential for large-scale production and easy
      purification of the CSFV E2 protein or other proteins of interests.

PMID- 28864860
TI  - Overseas Hepatitis B Vaccinations Among Newly Arrived Cubans in Texas-2010-2015.
AB  - We assessed hepatitis B virus (HBV) serologic results among newly arrived Cubans
      with vaccination documentation. We matched the post-arrival health assessment HBV
      serologic results of Cubans who arrived during 2010-2015 in Texas with their
      overseas hepatitis B (HepB) vaccination records in the CDC's Electronic Disease
      Notification database and calculated the proportion of those immune due to HepB
      vaccinations. Among 2123 who had overseas HepB vaccination and serologic results,
      1072 (50.5%) had three valid documented doses of HepB. Of these 1072, 441 (41.1%)
      were immune due to HepB vaccination, 24 (2.2%), immune due to natural infection,
      599 (55.9%), susceptible to HBV, and 8 (0.7%), HBV infected. Stratified by age,
      21 (87.5%) of 24 children <5 years of age showed protection, and the antibody to
      HepB surface antigen (anti-HBs) decreased as age increased. Our findings
      concurred with previous observations that anti-HBs serologic results wane over
      time. Many newly arrived Cubans with complete HepB vaccination records on the
      U.S. Department of State overseas vaccination forms might be immune despite <10
      mIU/mL anti-HBs response levels.

PMID- 28864861
TI  - Clarification of a suspicious thyroid nodule by use of camSPECT/US fusion
      imaging.

PMID- 28864862
TI  - Is the novel olecranon tension plate a valid alternative to tension band wiring
      of olecranon fractures? A biomechanical study on cadaver bones.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tension band wiring (TBW) used for olecranon fractures is afflicted
      with a high rate of complications. The aim of this study was to compare the
      stability of the TBW versus an alternative, novel low-profile olecranon tension
      plate (OTP) with angular stable screws in a simulated complex fracture model.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine fresh-frozen pairs of cadaver proximal ulnae with an
      oblique osteotomy and an additional wedge fragment simulating an unstable
      fracture were tested. The TBW and OTP were implanted pairwise. The elbow motion
      was simulated in a single-muscle model and ranged from full extension to 90
      degrees  of flexion. The pulling force of the triceps tendon ranged from 50 to
      200 N. The displacement of the fracture fragments was measured with a video
      motion analysis system over 304 cycles. Data were assessed statistically using
      the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. RESULTS: The cyclic loading tests showed mean
      loosening of the fracture fragments at the articular surface of 0.56 mm using TBW
      (SD 0.65) and 0.15 mm for OTP (SD 0.39). There was no statistical significance in
      loosening between the two constructs (p = 0.31). No plate breakage or screw
      loosening occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The low-profile OTP, using the principles of pre
      tensioning, lag, cortical, and angular stable screws together, demonstrated
      similar stability after olecranon fracture fixation when compared with the TBW
      technique and a lag screw in the olecranon fracture model with a third wedge
      fragment.

PMID- 28864863
TI  - Fampridine Prolonged Release: A Review in Multiple Sclerosis Patients with
      Walking Disability.
AB  - Oral fampridine prolonged release (PR) [Fampyra(r)] is a lipid-soluble selective
      potassium channel blocker that is approved in the EU for the improvement of
      walking in adult multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with walking disability
      (expanded disability status scale score of 4-7). In clinical trials (MS-F203 and
      MS-F204) using an objective measure of walking improvement [the timed 25-foot
      walk (T25FW)], more than one-third of patients receiving fampridine PR achieved a
      consistent on-treatment improvement in walking speed (i.e. became TW responders)
      over 9-14 weeks of treatment. Fampridine PR recipients who fulfilled the
      definition of TW responder had mean improvements of ~25% from baseline in T25FW
      walking speed. In a clinical trial (ENHANCE) that used a patient-rated measure of
      walking improvement [12-item MS walking scale (MSWS-12)], a significantly greater
      proportion of fampridine PR recipients than placebo recipients achieved a >=8
      point improvement on the MSWS-12 with 24 weeks of treatment. Where reported,
      adverse events were mostly mild or moderate in severity, and generally consistent
      with the underlying disease or mechanism of action of fampridine PR. Fampridine
      PR is a useful treatment option to consider in adult MS patients with walking
      disability.

PMID- 28864864
TI  - The anticancer estrogen receptor antagonist tamoxifen impairs consolidation of
      inhibitory avoidance memory through estrogen receptor alpha.
AB  - Over two-thirds of women with breast cancer have positive tumors for hormone
      receptors, and these patients undergo treatment with endocrine therapy, tamoxifen
      being the most widely used agent. Despite being very effective in breast cancer
      treatment, tamoxifen is associated with side effects that include cognitive
      impairments. However, the specific aspects and mechanisms underlying these
      impairments remain to be characterized. Here, we have investigated the effects of
      tamoxifen and interaction with estrogen receptors on formation of memory for
      inhibitory avoidance conditioning in female rats. In the first experiment, Wistar
      female rats received a single oral dose of tamoxifen (1, 3, or 10 mg/kg) or
      saline by gavage immediately after training and were tested for memory
      consolidation 24 h after training. In the second experiment, rats received a
      single dose of 1 mg/kg tamoxifen or saline by gavage 3 h after training and were
      tested 24 h after training for memory consolidation. In the third experiment,
      rats received a subcutaneous injection with estrogen receptor alpha agonist or
      estrogen receptor beta agonist 30 min before the training. After training, rats
      received a single oral dose of tamoxifen 1 mg/kg or saline and were tested 24 h
      after training. In the fourth experiment, rats were trained and tested 24 h
      later. Immediately after test, rats received a single dose of tamoxifen (1 mg/kg)
      or saline by gavage and were given four additional daily test trials followed by
      a re-instatement. Tamoxifen at 1 mg/kg impaired memory consolidation when given
      immediately after training and the estrogen receptor alpha agonist improved the
      tamoxifen-related memory impairment. Moreover, tamoxifen impairs memory
      consolidation of the test. These findings indicate that estrogen receptors
      regulate the early phase of memory consolidation and the effects of tamoxifen on
      memory consolidation.

PMID- 28864865
TI  - The effect of single-dose methylphenidate on the rate of error-driven learning in
      healthy males: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Norepinephrine mediates the adjustment of error-driven
      learning to match the rate of change of the environment, while phasic dopamine
      signals prediction errors. We tested the hypothesis that pharmacologic
      manipulation may modulate this process. METHODS: We administered a single dose of
      methylphenidate, a norepinephrine/dopamine reuptake inhibitor, or placebo in
      double-blind randomized fashion to 20 healthy human males, who then performed a
      probabilistic learning task. Each subject was tested in two sessions, receiving
      methylphenidate in one session and placebo in the other, in randomized order.
      Task performance was quantified by the percentage of trials on which subjects
      chose the most likely option, while learning rate was measured using a
      computational model-based parameter as well as with a behavioral analogue of this
      parameter. RESULTS: There was a substance-by-session interaction effect on
      behavioral learning rate and model-based learning rate, such that subjects
      receiving methylphenidate exhibited higher learning rates than those receiving
      placebo in session 1, with no difference observed in session 2, suggesting that
      subjects retained the increased learning rate across sessions. Higher behavioral
      learning rate was associated with both higher task performance and with the model
      based learning rate. Higher learning rates were advantageous given the high rate
      of change on the task. Subjects receiving methylphenidate and placebo began the
      task in session 1 with a similar behavioral learning rate, but those receiving
      methylphenidate rapidly increased learning rate toward the optimal value,
      suggesting that methylphenidate accelerated the adaptation of learning rate based
      on the environment. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that methylphenidate may
      improve disrupted probabilistic learning in disorders involving noradrenergic or
      dopaminergic dysfunction.

PMID- 28864866
TI  - Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis.
AB  - Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis (APD) is an exceptional condition affecting
      young women of childbearing age with a high prevalence during the third decade of
      life. The diagnosis should be confirmed using an intradermal skin test to
      progesterone, during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. APD represents
      an early manifestation of autoimmune disease. A case of APD is presented who
      after curative treatment did not develop other autoimmune diseases during a 6
      year follow-up. Dermatologists, gynecologists and obstetricians should be aware
      of this rare but highly invalidating entity.

PMID- 28864867
TI  - Safety of the Solitaire 4 * 40 mm Stent Retriever in the Treatment of Ischemic
      Stroke.
AB  - PURPOSE: Stent retrievers apply mechanical force to the intracranial vasculature.
      Our aim was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the long Solitaire 4 * 40 mm
      stent retriever for large vessel occlusion in stroke patients. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective analysis of all patients treated for acute ischemic
      large vessel occlusion stroke with the Solitaire 2 FR 4 * 40 device between May
      and October 2016 at our institution. Patient-specific data at baseline and at
      discharge were documented. Reperfusion was graded with the thrombolysis in
      cerebral infarction (TICI) classification. Postinterventional angiograms and
      follow-up cross-sectional imaging were used to evaluate complications. RESULTS:
      TICI 2b/3 recanalization was achieved in 20 of 23 patients (87.0%), in 17
      patients with the first retriever pass. NIHSS improved from a mean score at
      presentation of 16 (range 4-36) to 11 (range 0-41) at discharge. Mean mRS score
      at discharge was 3 (range 0-6) and 3 (range 0-6) at 90 days post-treatment. No
      infarcts in other territories were observed. One patient showed a (reversible)
      vasospasm in the postinterventional angiogram and another a small contrast
      extravasation in follow-up imaging. CONCLUSION: The Solitaire 2 FR 4 * 40 stent
      retriever is a safe and efficient device for large vessel occlusion acute
      ischemic stroke with a high recanalization rate and a low peri- and
      postinterventional complication rate together with a good clinical outcome.
      Despite potentially higher friction and shearing forces, no increased incidence
      of visible damage to the vessel wall was observed.

PMID- 28864868
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
AB  - Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with a moderate degree of
      underperformance on cognitive tests, including deficient processing speed.
      However, despite little research focusing on Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in OCD,
      it has long been speculated that the disorder is associated with elevated
      intellectual capacity. The present meta-analytic study was, therefore, conducted
      to quantitatively summarize the literature on IQ in OCD systematically. We
      identified 98 studies containing IQ data among individuals with OCD and non
      psychiatric comparison groups, and computed 108 effect sizes for Verbal IQ (VIQ,
      n = 55), Performance IQ (PIQ, n = 13), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ, n = 40). Across
      studies, small effect sizes were found for FSIQ and VIQ, and a moderate effect
      size for PIQ, exemplifying reduced IQ in OCD. However, mean IQ scores across OCD
      samples were in the normative range. Moderator analyses revealed no significant
      moderating effect across clinical and demographic indices. We conclude that,
      although lower than controls, OCD is associated with normative FSIQ and VIQ, and
      relatively lowered PIQ. These results are discussed in light of
      neuropsychological research in OCD, and particularly the putative impact of
      reduced processing speed in this population. Recommendations for utilization of
      IQ tests in OCD, and directions for future studies are offered.

PMID- 28864869
TI  - Charlson Comorbidity Index, inappropriate medication use and cognitive impairment
      : Bermuda Triangle.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim is to evaluate the association between the Charlson
      Comorbidity Index (CCI), polypharmacy, inappropriate medication use and cognitive
      impairment in long-term care facility patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study
      including 105 long-term care facility residents was performed. The Charlson
      Comorbidity Index (CCI) was used. Inappropriate drug use (IDU) was defined
      according to the STOPP (Screening Tool of Older People's Prescriptions) criteria.
      Univariate analysis to identify variables associated with patient outcome related
      with cognitive impairment was investigated with chi2, Pearson correlation, Fisher
      exact, and Mann-Whitney U test where appropriate. For the multivariate analysis,
      the possible factors identified with univariate analysis were further entered
      into logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: A significant difference was found
      between gender, CCI and cognitive impairment (p = 0.038, p = 0.01). While every
      one point increment in the CCI increases the risk of cognitive impairment 3.1
      fold (95% CI = 1.8-5.4, p < 0.001), hypertension increases the risk 12 fold (95%
      CI = 2.5-67.8, p = 0.002). While the correlation between Mini-Mental Status
      Examination (MMSE) score and polypharmacy is significant (p = 0.015), the
      correlation between MMSE and IDU was insignificant (p = 0.739). The association
      of urogenital system drugs and dementia was significant (p = 0.044). CONCLUSIONS:
      Comorbidities, especially hypertension and old age, are risk factors for
      cognitive impairment. Polypharmacy correlates with MMSE and is considered a risk
      factor for cognitive impairment. Inappropriate medication use is high among long
      term care facility residents. More studies on large cohorts are needed regarding
      optimal drug prescription and detection of specific drugs that may have an impact
      on cognitive performance.

PMID- 28864870
TI  - 20(S)-25-methoxyl-dammarane-3beta, 12beta, 20-triol negatively regulates
      activation of STAT3 and ERK pathways and exhibits anti-cancer effects in HepG2
      cells.
AB  - The pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 6 (IL-6), via activating its downstream
      JAK/STAT3 and Ras/ERK signaling pathways, is involved in cell growth,
      proliferation and anti-apoptotic activities in various malignancies. To screen
      inhibitors of IL-6 signaling, we constructed a STAT3 and ERK dual-pathway
      responsive luciferase reporter vector (Co.RE). Among several candidates, the
      natural compound 20(S)-25-methoxyl-dammarane-3beta, 12beta, 20-triol (25-OCH3
      PPD, GS25) was identified to clearly inhibit the luciferase activity of Co.RE.
      GS25 was confirmed to indeed inhibit activation of both STAT3 and ERK pathways
      and expression of downstream target genes of IL-6, and to predominantly decrease
      the viability of HepG2 cells via induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.
      Interestingly, GS25 showed preferential inhibition of HepG2 cell viability
      relative to normal liver L02 cells. Further investigation showed that GS25 could
      not induce apoptosis and block activation of STAT3 and ERK pathways in L02 cells
      as efficiently as in HepG2 cells, which may result in differential effects of
      GS25 on malignant and normal liver cells. In addition, GS25 was found to potently
      suppress the expression of endogenous STAT3 at a higher concentration and
      dramatically induce p38 phosphorylation in HepG2 cells, which could mediate its
      anti-cancer effects. Finally, we demonstrated that GS25 also inhibited tumor
      growth in HepG2 xenograft mice. Taken together, these findings indicate that GS25
      elicits its anti-cancer effects on HepG2 cells through multiple mechanisms and
      has the potential to be used as an inhibitor of IL-6 signaling. Thus, GS25 may be
      developed as a treatment for hepatocarcinoma with low toxicity on normal liver
      tissues as well as other inflammation-associated diseases.

PMID- 28864871
TI  - Eltrombopag for thrombocytopenia in patients with advanced solid tumors receiving
      gemcitabine-based chemotherapy: a randomized, placebo-controlled phase 2 study.
AB  - In this phase 2 study, patients with solid tumors receiving gemcitabine
      monotherapy or gemcitabine plus cisplatin/carboplatin were randomized 2:1 to
      eltrombopag 100 mg (n = 52) or placebo (n = 23) for 5 days before and after
      chemotherapy was started. The primary endpoint was prechemotherapy (Day 1)
      platelet count across <=6 cycles. Prechemotherapy platelet counts were
      numerically higher with eltrombopag than placebo. Frequencies of grades 3/4
      thrombocytopenia were lower with eltrombopag in both the combination therapy (77
      vs. 100%) and monotherapy (36 vs. 42%) groups. Proportionately fewer eltrombopag
      treated patients had platelet counts <100 * 109/L at nadir. Among patients
      receiving combination chemotherapy, mean time to recovery from platelet nadir was
      8 days with eltrombopag vs. 15 days with placebo. Eltrombopag-treated patients
      had fewer dose delays/reductions or missed doses due to thrombocytopenia in both
      the combination therapy (77 vs. 91%) and monotherapy (62 vs. 83%) groups. Adverse
      events and serious adverse events were less frequent with eltrombopag in both
      chemotherapy groups, with reduced rates of anemia, neutropenia, and
      thrombocytopenia in patients receiving combination chemotherapy. In conclusion,
      eltrombopag treatment shortened the time to recovery from platelet nadir in
      patients treated with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy and reduced dose
      delays/reductions due to thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28864872
TI  - Pathobiology of myomatosis uteri: the underlying knowledge to support our
      clinical practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Uterine myomatosis, a benign condition, is the most common
      indication for hysterectomies worldwide, affecting the reproductive goals and
      quality of health of women. However, gynecologists have been provided with
      interesting insights on its pathobiology, which are the basis for uterine
      preserving therapies. The aim of this paper is to discuss the latest evidence on
      these mechanisms and its importance in the clinical practice. METHOD: A
      comprehensive literature search was made in Pubmed, Medline, the Cochrane
      Library, Orbis plus and Google Scholar for articles related to the
      epidemiological, biological, and genetic bases. RESULTS: There is extensive
      evidence that genetic, epigenetic, hormonal, environmental, proinflamatory,
      angiogenetic, and growing factors are involved in the biology of myomatosis. Such
      factors are capable of activating and promoting inhibitory signaling pathways
      leading to initiation, development, and regression of myomata through changes in
      myometrial cells and myomata fibers, such as cellular proliferation,
      differentiation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and changes in the surrounding
      environment. CONCLUSION: A good understanding of the pathobiologic mechanisms of
      myomatosis gives reasons to physicians to elect conservative or combined
      therapies, and allow affected women to receive an individualized management,
      according to age, reproduction desire, and clinical condition.

PMID- 28864873
TI  - Health Outcomes in Individuals with Problem and Pathological Gambling: An
      Analysis of the 2014 North Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Survey System (BRFSS).
AB  - Problem and pathological gambling refers to subclinical and clinical levels of
      maladaptive gambling, respectively, and is associated with specific
      sociodemographic characteristics as well as a number of poor health outcomes. We
      examined such demographic, physical health, mental health, and health-related
      behaviors in a sample of 7045 low-risk gamblers and 244 problem/pathological
      gamblers. Participants completed the 2014 North Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor
      Surveillance System telephone survey. Using the National Opinion Research
      Center's Diagnostic Screen for Gambling Disorders-CLiP, participants were
      categorized as either "problem/pathological gamblers" or "low-risk gamblers."
      Problem/pathological gamblers were younger, more likely to be male, of ethnic
      minority status, unmarried, and of lower education than low-risk gamblers. No
      physical health variables differentiated the groups but problem/pathological
      gamblers reported experiencing significantly more adverse childhood experiences
      and engaging in significantly more tobacco and alcohol use compared to low-risk
      gamblers. Moreover, gender moderated relationships between gambling group and
      several of the alcohol use variables such that male problem/pathological gamblers
      exhibited greater alcohol use behavior than male low-risk gamblers but no such
      relationship was present in females. Overall, this study expands the current
      knowledgebase on disordered gambling and highlights the need to assess disordered
      gambling in public health samples. Clinical implications are discussed.

PMID- 28864874
TI  - Close interpersonal proximity modulates visuomotor processing of object
      affordances in shared, social space.
AB  - Research suggests that the human brain codes manipulable objects as possibilities
      for action, or affordances, particularly objects close to the body. Near-body
      space is not only a zone for body-environment interaction but also is socially
      relevant, as we are driven to preserve our near-body, personal space from others.
      The current, novel study investigated how close proximity of a stranger modulates
      visuomotor processing of object affordances in shared, social space. Participants
      performed a behavioural object recognition task both alone and with a human
      confederate. All object images were in participants' reachable space but appeared
      relatively closer to the participant or the confederate. Results revealed when
      participants were alone, objects in both locations produced an affordance
      congruency effect but when the confederate was present, only objects nearer the
      participant elicited the effect. Findings suggest space is divided between
      strangers to preserve independent near-body space boundaries, and in turn this
      process influences motor coding for stimuli within that social space. To
      demonstrate that this visuomotor modulation represents a social phenomenon,
      rather than a general, attentional effect, two subsequent experiments employed
      nonhuman joint conditions. Neither a small, Japanese, waving cat statue
      (Experiment 2) nor a metronome (Experiment 3) modulated the affordance effect as
      in Experiment 1. These findings suggest a truly social explanation of the key
      interaction from Experiment 1. This study represents an important step toward
      understanding object affordance processing in real-world, social contexts and has
      implications broadly across fields of social action and cognition, and body space
      representation.

PMID- 28864876
TI  - Molecular evolution and epidemiological links study of Newcastle disease virus
      isolates from 1995 to 2016 in Iran.
AB  - In the case of Newcastle disease virus, multiple factors such as host adaptation,
      immune response evasion, and selective pressures have been suggested to result in
      evolution of viruses and the emergence of genetic variants. Multiple studies on
      virus classification and global epidemiological links have yielded consistent
      data. Here, we have performed a molecular analysis study of circulating Newcastle
      disease viruses in Iran (1995-2016). According to evolutionary divergences,
      subgenotype VIg, VIj, VIIj, VIId, XIIIa and XIIId isolates have been circulating
      in the country during a 21-year period. Based on data analysis, VIg isolates
      shared highest sequence identity with Russian and Polish isolates of the VIg
      subgenotype, while VIj subgenotype isolates (2012) were most similar to a virus
      isolated in 2015 in India. Analysis of the evolutionary divergence of subgenotype
      VIIj suggests that Chinese and Ukrainian viruses may have played a crucial role
      in the emergence of VIIj isolates. Evolutionary difference studies also indicated
      that XIIIa isolates circulating in Iran may have caused the emergence of adapted
      variants of subgenotype XIIId. Therefore, we propose that the evolutionary and
      epidemiological study of virulent Newcastle disease viruses could help to provide
      accurate molecular data about variants circulating in the region, thus aiding in
      the design of more efficient recombinant vaccines.

PMID- 28864875
TI  - Deciphering the Pathogenesis of Human Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) by Interrogating T
      Cells from the "Scene of the Crime".
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Autoimmune-mediated destruction of insulin-producing beta
      cells within the pancreas results in type 1 diabetes (T1D), which is not yet
      preventable or curable. Previously, our understanding of the beta-cell specific T
      cell repertoire was based on studies of autoreactive T cell responses in the
      peripheral blood of patients at risk for, or with, T1D; more recently,
      investigations have included immunohistochemical analysis of some T cell
      specificities in the pancreas from organ donors with T1D. Now, we are able to
      examine live, islet-infiltrating T cells from donors with T1D. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Analysis of the T cell repertoire isolated directly from the pancreatic islets of
      donors with T1D revealed pro-inflammatory T cells with targets of known
      autoantigens, including proinsulin and glutamic acid decarboxylase, as well as
      modified autoantigens. We have assayed the islet-infiltrating T cell repertoire
      for autoreactivity and function directly from the inflamed islets of T1D organ
      donors. Design of durable treatments for prevention of or therapy for T1D
      requires understanding this repertoire.

PMID- 28864877
TI  - Clinical Assessment and Management of Delirium in the Palliative Care Setting.
AB  - Delirium is a neurocognitive syndrome arising from acute global brain
      dysfunction, and is prevalent in up to 42% of patients admitted to palliative
      care inpatient units. The symptoms of delirium and its associated communicative
      impediment invariably generate high levels of patient and family distress.
      Furthermore, delirium is associated with significant patient morbidity and
      increased mortality in many patient populations, especially palliative care where
      refractory delirium is common in the dying phase. As the clinical diagnosis of
      delirium is frequently missed by the healthcare team, the case for regular
      screening is arguably very compelling. Depending on its precipitating factors, a
      delirium episode is often reversible, especially in the earlier stages of a life
      threatening illness. Until recently, antipsychotics have played a pivotal role in
      delirium management, but this role now requires critical re-evaluation in light
      of recent research that failed to demonstrate their efficacy in mild- to moderate
      severity delirium occurring in palliative care patients. Non-pharmacological
      strategies for the management of delirium play a fundamental role and should be
      optimized through the collective efforts of the whole interprofessional team.
      Refractory agitated delirium in the last days or weeks of life may require the
      use of pharmacological sedation to ameliorate the distress of patients, which is
      invariably juxtaposed with increasing distress of family members. Further
      evaluation of multicomponent strategies for delirium prevention and treatment in
      the palliative care patient population is urgently required.

PMID- 28864879
TI  - Engineering of Microbial Electrodes.
AB  - This chapter provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in the
      engineering of microbial electrodes for application in microbial
      electrosynthesis. First, important functional aspects and requirements of basic
      materials for microbial electrodes are introduced, including the meaningful
      benchmarking of electrode performance, a comparison of electrode materials, and
      methods to improve microbe-electrode interaction. Suitable current collectors and
      composite materials that combine different functionalities are also discussed.
      Subsequently, the chapter focuses on the design of macroscopic electrode
      structures. Aspects such as mass transfer and electrode topology are touched
      upon, and a comparison of the performance of microbial electrodes relevant for
      practical application is provided. The chapter closes with an overall conclusion
      and outlook, highlighting the future prospects and challenges for the engineering
      of microbial electrodes toward practical application in the field of microbial
      electrosynthesis. Graphical Abstract.

PMID- 28864878
TI  - Self-rated health as a predictor of mid-term and long-term mortality in older
      Afro-Caribbeans hospitalised via the emergency department.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether self-rated health (SRH) is an independent predictor
      for mortality in older Afro-Caribbean patients hospitalised for an acute
      condition. METHODS: Prospective cohort of patients recruited from the University
      Hospitals of Martinique Acute Care for Elders unit. Patients aged 75 or older and
      hospitalised for an acute condition were eligible. The outcome was time to death
      within the 36-week follow-up. SRH was the explanatory variable of interest. Cox's
      Proportional Hazards model was used to estimate the relationship between SRH and
      mortality. RESULTS: The 223 patients included in the study were aged 85.1 +/- 5.5
      years. In total, 123 patients reported "very good to good" health, and 100
      "medium to very poor" health. Crude mortality rates at six months, 1, 2, and 3
      years were 30.5, 34.8, 48.4, and 57.0%, respectively. By multivariate analysis,
      SRH reached significant relationship for all mortality timepoints. The adjusted
      hazard ratios for subjects who perceived their health as medium, poor or very
      poor was 1.6-2.7 times greater than that of subjects who reported good or very
      good health. CONCLUSION: Assessment of SRH could have implications for clinical
      practice, particularly in helping practitioners to better estimate prognosis in
      the acute care settings.

PMID- 28864880
TI  - Cytotoxicity of novel fluorinated alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl
      substances to human liver cell line and their binding capacity to human liver
      fatty acid binding protein.
AB  - Although shorter chain homologues and other types of fluorinated chemicals are
      currently used as alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs),
      their safety information remains unclear and urgently needed. Here, the
      cytotoxicity of several fluorinated alternatives (i.e., 6:2 fluorotelomer
      carboxylic acid (6:2 FTCA), 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTSA), 6:2
      chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (6:2 Cl-PFESA), and
      hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) homologues) to human liver HL-7702 cell line
      were measured and compared with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane
      sulfonate (PFOS). Their binding mode and affinity to human liver fatty acid
      binding protein (hL-FABP) were also determined. Compared with PFOA and PFOS, 6:2
      Cl-PFESA, HFPO trimer acid (HFPO-TA), HFPO tetramer acid (HFPO-TeA), and 6:2 FTSA
      showed greater toxic effects on cell viabilities. At low exposure doses, these
      alternatives induced cell proliferation with similar mechanism which was
      different from that of PFOA and PFOS. Furthermore, binding affinity to hL-FABP
      decreased in the order of 6:2 FTCA < 6:2 FTSA < HFPO dimer acid (HFPO-DA) < PFOA
      < PFOS/6:2 Cl-PFESA/HFPO-TA. Due to their distinctive structure, 6:2 Cl-PFESA and
      HFPO homologues were bound to the hL-FABP inner pocket with unique binding modes
      and higher binding energy compared with PFOA and PFOS. This research enhances our
      understanding of the toxicity of PFAS alternatives during usage and provides
      useful evidence for the development of new alternatives.

PMID- 28864881
TI  - Improving quality of life in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor
      following peptide receptor radionuclide therapy assessed by EORTC QLQ-C30.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) have proven to be appropriate
      neoplasms for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), as the majority of
      these slow-growing malignancies overexpress somatostatin receptors. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate changes in quality of life (QoL) of patients with P
      NET following PRRT. METHODS: Sixty-eight patients with P-NET (31 female, mean age
      61.4 y) underwent PRRT: 12 with NET of grade 1, 40 of grade 2, 8 of grade 3
      (grade non-available n = 8). Prior to treatment, 39 patients showed ECOG 0, 26
      patients ECOG 1, and three patients ECOG 2. Clinical assessment included
      evaluation of QoL and symptom changes using a standardized questionnaire (EORTC
      QLQ-C30) and was performed at baseline and every three months following each
      therapy cycle up to 12 months. Primary analysis compared QoL at baseline and
      after the fourth treatment cycle (N = 53). RESULTS: Up to four treatment cycles
      PRRT were performed for each patient. The median cumulative administered activity
      was 28.2 GBq. Primary analysis revealed that compared to baseline QoL was
      significantly improved revealing increased global health status (p = 0.008) and
      social functioning (p = 0.049) at the end of the study. Furthermore, fatigue and
      appetite loss showed a significant improvement after the last PRRT cycle
      (fatigue: p = 0.029, appetite loss p = 0.015). Sub-analyses showed that QoL was
      improved revealing increased global health status (3 months after first, second,
      and third treatment cycle p = 0.048, p = 0.002, and p < 0.001, respectively),
      emotional functioning (3 months after first-third cycle p = 0.003, p = 0.049, and
      p = 0.001, respectively) and social functioning (3 months after the first and
      second p < 0.001, and after the third cycle p = 0.015, respectively).
      Furthermore, some symptoms were significantly alleviated compared with baseline:
      fatigue (after first-third cycle p = 0.026, p = 0.050, and p = 0.008,
      respectively), nausea and vomiting (after first and second cycle p = 0.006 and p
      = 0.001, respectively), dyspnea (after third cycle p = 0.025), appetite loss
      (after first-third cycle p = 0.010, p = 0.001, and p = 0.009, respectively),
      constipation (after first-third cycle p = 0.050, p = 0.003, and p = 0.060,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: PRRT is an effective treatment of P-NET improving QoL
      of patients in terms of increasing global health and mitigation of physical
      complaints.

PMID- 28864882
TI  - Identification of additional loci associated with antibody response to
      Mycobacterium avium ssp. Paratuberculosis in cattle by GSEA-SNP analysis.
AB  - Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis: (MAP) causes a contagious chronic
      infection results in Johne's disease in a wide range of animal species, including
      cattle. Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been carried out to
      identify loci putatively associated with MAP susceptibility by testing each
      marker separately and identifying SNPs that show a significant association with
      the phenotype, while SNP with modest effects are usually ignored. The objective
      of this study was to identify modest-effect genes associated with MAP
      susceptibility using a pathway-based approach. The Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip
      was used to genotype 966 Holstein cows, 483 positive and 483 negative for
      antibody response to MAP, data were then analyzed using novel SNP-based Gene Set
      Enrichment Analysis (GSEA-SNP) and validated with Adaptive Rank Truncated Product
      methodology. An allele-based test was carried out to estimate the statistical
      association for each marker with the phenotype, subsequently SNPs were mapped to
      the closest genes, considering for each gene the single variant with the highest
      value within a window of 50 kb, then pathway-statistics were tested using the
      GSEA-SNP method. The GO biological process "embryogenesis and morphogenesis" was
      most highly associated with antibody response to MAP. Within this pathway, five
      genes code for proteins which play a role in the immune defense relevant to
      response to bacterial infection. The immune response genes identified would not
      have been considered using a standard GWAS, thus demonstrating that the pathway
      approach can extend the interpretation of genome-wide association analyses and
      identify additional candidate genes for target traits.

PMID- 28864883
TI  - Transcriptional regulation of CRMP5 controls neurite outgrowth through Sox5.
AB  - Transcriptional regulation of proteins involved in neuronal polarity is a key
      process that underlies the ability of neurons to transfer information in the
      central nervous system. The Collapsin Response Mediator Protein (CRMP) family is
      best known for its role in neurite outgrowth regulation conducting to neuronal
      polarity and axonal guidance, including CRMP5 that drives dendrite
      differentiation. Although CRMP5 is able to control dendritic development, the
      regulation of its expression remains poorly understood. Here we identify a Sox5
      consensus binding sequence in the putative promoter sequence upstream of the
      CRMP5 gene. By luciferase assays we show that Sox5 increases CRMP5 promoter
      activity, but not if the putative Sox5 binding site is mutated. We demonstrate
      that Sox5 can physically bind to the CRMP5 promoter DNA in gel mobility shift and
      chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Using a combination of real-time RT-PCR and
      quantitative immunocytochemistry, we provide further evidence for a Sox5
      dependent upregulation of CRMP5 transcription and protein expression in N1E115
      cells: a commonly used cell line model for neuronal differentiation. Furthermore,
      we report that increasing Sox5 levels in this neuronal cell line inhibits neurite
      outgrowth. This inhibition requires CRMP5 because CRMP5 knockdown prevents the
      Sox5-dependent effect. We confirm the physiological relevance of the Sox5-CRMP5
      pathway in the regulation of neurite outgrowth using mouse primary hippocampal
      neurons. These findings identify Sox5 as a critical modulator of neurite
      outgrowth through the selective activation of CRMP5 expression.

PMID- 28864884
TI  - Sensitive indicators of Stipa bungeana response to precipitation under ambient
      and elevated CO2 concentration.
AB  - Precipitation is a primary environmental factor in the semiarid grasslands of
      northern China. With increased concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases,
      precipitation regimes will change, and high-impact weather events may be more
      common. Currently, many ecophysiological indicators are known to reflect drought
      conditions, but these indicators vary greatly among species, and few studies
      focus on the applicability of these drought indicators under high CO2 conditions.
      In this study, five precipitation levels (- 30%, - 15%, control, + 15%, and +
      30%) were used to simulate the effects of precipitation change on 18
      ecophysiological characteristics in Stipa bungeana, including leaf area, plant
      height, leaf nitrogen (N), and chlorophyll content, among others. Two levels of
      CO2 concentration (ambient, 390 ppm; 550 ppm) were used to simulate the effects
      of elevated CO2 on these drought indicators. Using gray relational analysis and
      phenotypic plasticity analysis, we found that total leaf area or leaf number
      (morphology), leaf water potential or leaf water content (physiology), and
      aboveground biomass better reflected the water status of S. bungeana under
      ambient and elevated CO2 than the 13 other analyzed variables. The sensitivity of
      drought indicators changed under the elevated CO2 condition. By quantifying the
      relationship between precipitation and the five most sensitive indicators, we
      found that the thresholds of precipitation decreased under elevated CO2
      concentration. These results will be useful for objective monitoring and
      assessment of the occurrence and development of drought events in S. bungeana
      grasslands.

PMID- 28864885
TI  - A systematic meta-analysis of the association of Neuregulin 1 (NRG1), D-amino
      acid oxidase (DAO), and DAO activator (DAOA)/G72 polymorphisms with
      schizophrenia.
AB  - The glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia is related to the proposed
      dysregulation of D-amino acid oxidase (DAO), DAO activator (DAOA)/G72, and
      Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) genes. Genetic studies have shown significant associations
      between DAO, DAOA, NRG1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and
      schizophrenia. The systematic literature search yielded 6, 5, and 18 new studies
      for DAO, DAOA, and NRG1 published after 2011 and not included in the previous
      SchizophreniaGene (SZGene) meta-analysis. We conducted meta-analyses of 20, 23,
      and 48 case-control studies, respectively, to comprehensively evaluate the
      association of 8 DAO, 12 DAOA, and 14 NRG1 SNPs with schizophrenia. The updated
      meta-analyses resulted in the following findings: the C-allele of DAO rs4623951
      was associated with schizophrenia across all pooled studies [Odds ratio (OR) =
      0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.79-0.98, p = 0.02, N = 3143]; however, no
      new reports could be included. The G-allele of DAOA rs778293 was associated with
      schizophrenia in Asian patients (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.08-1.27, p = 0.00008, N =
      6117), and the T-allele of DAOA rs3916971 was associated with schizophrenia
      across all studies (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.73-0.96, p = 0.01, N = 1765). Again,
      for both SNPs, no new eligible studies were available. After adding new reports,
      the T-allele of NRG1 SNP8NRG241930 (rs62510682) across all studies (OR = 0.95,
      95% CI = 0.91-0.997, p = 0.04, N = 22,898) and in Caucasian samples (OR = 0.95,
      95% CI = 0.90-0.99, p = 0.03, N = 16,014), and the C-allele of NRG1 rs10503929
      across all studies (OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.81-0.97, p = 0.01, N = 6844) and in
      Caucasian samples (OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.81-0.98, p = 0.01, N = 6414) were
      protective against schizophrenia. Our systematic meta-analysis is the most
      updated one for the association of DAO, DAOA, and NRG1 SNPs with schizophrenia.

PMID- 28864886
TI  - Essential oils of aromatic Egyptian plants repel nymphs of the tick Ixodes
      ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae).
AB  - Due to the role of Ixodes ricinus (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae) in the transmission of
      many serious pathogens, personal protection against bites of this tick is
      essential. In the present study the essential oils from 11 aromatic Egyptian
      plants were isolated and their repellent activity against I. ricinus nymphs was
      evaluated Three oils (i.e. Conyza dioscoridis L., Artemisia herba-alba Asso and
      Calendula officinalis L.) elicited high repellent activity in vitro of 94, 84.2
      and 82%, respectively. The most active essential oil (C. dioscoridis) was applied
      in the field at a concentration of 6.5 ug/cm2 and elicited a significant
      repellent activity against I. ricinus nymphs by 61.1%. The most repellent plants
      C. dioscoridis, C. officinalis and A. herba-alba yielded essential oils by 0.17,
      0.11 and 0.14%, respectively. These oils were further investigated using gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. alpha-Cadinol (10.7%) and hexadecanoic
      acid (10.5%) were the major components of C. dioscoridis whereas in C.
      officinalis, alpha-cadinol (21.2%) and carvone (18.2%) were major components.
      Artemisia herba-alba contained piperitone (26.5%), ethyl cinnamate (9.5%),
      camphor (7.7%) and hexadecanoic acid (6.9%). Essential oils of these three plants
      have a potential to be used for personal protection against tick bites.

PMID- 28864887
TI  - Patients' experience of breast reconstruction after mastectomy and its influence
      on postoperative satisfaction.
AB  - PURPOSE: Breast cancer patients have the option to choose a breast reconstruction
      after mastectomy. A range of studies have postulated that patients' individually
      appraised significance of their breast is an important factor in the decision for
      or against breast reconstruction. This study explored the individually perceived
      significance of the breast among patients with and without breast reconstruction
      and its correlation with postoperative satisfaction. METHODS: Ten patients
      without breast reconstruction, and ten patients with immediate breast
      reconstruction after mastectomy participated in the study. The perceived
      importance of the breast and the pre-and postoperative esthetic satisfaction of
      the patients were obtained using an 11-point Likert scale. Qualitative interviews
      explored patients' views on the meaning of their breast and their experience
      after surgery. RESULTS: Patients who had decided for breast reconstruction rated
      the importance of their breast for femininity (p = 0.004) and attractiveness (p =
      0.037) significantly higher than patients without reconstruction. The qualitative
      data provide evidence that the breast of a woman fulfills a variety of
      intrapsychic and interactional functions. Difficulties in integrating the
      reconstructed breast into the body image were reported. A high importance of the
      breast correlated significantly with a decrease in satisfaction with the breast
      after reconstruction (rs = -0.652, p = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Patients who found
      their breast to be highly important were more likely to decide for a
      reconstruction. Mastectomy has an impact on various psychosocial variables but
      impairments may also occur after breast reconstruction. Patients reporting a high
      significance of their breast showed the greatest decrease in satisfaction with
      their breast after reconstruction.

PMID- 28864890
TI  - [Computer-based diagnosis of skin cancer using artificial intelligence].

PMID- 28864889
TI  - Methylglyoxal-derived advanced glycation end products contribute to negative
      cardiac remodeling and dysfunction post-myocardial infarction.
AB  - Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) have been associated with poorer outcomes
      after myocardial infarction (MI), and linked with heart failure. Methylglyoxal
      (MG) is considered the most important AGE precursor, but its role in MI is
      unknown. In this study, we investigated the involvement of MG-derived AGEs (MG
      AGEs) in MI using transgenic mice that over-express the MG-metabolizing enzyme
      glyoxalase-1 (GLO1). MI was induced in GLO1 mice and wild-type (WT) littermates.
      At 6 h post-MI, mass spectrometry revealed that MG-H1 (a principal MG-AGE) was
      increased in the hearts of WT mice, and immunohistochemistry demonstrated that
      this persisted for 4 weeks. GLO1 over-expression reduced MG-AGE levels at 6 h and
      4 weeks, and GLO1 mice exhibited superior cardiac function at 4 weeks post-MI
      compared to WT mice. Immunohistochemistry revealed greater vascular density and
      reduced cardiomyocyte apoptosis in GLO1 vs. WT mice. The recruitment of c-kit+
      cells and their incorporation into the vasculature (c-kit+CD31+ cells) was higher
      in the infarcted myocardium of GLO1 mice. MG-AGEs appeared to accumulate in type
      I collagen surrounding arterioles, prompting investigation in vitro. In culture,
      the interaction of angiogenic bone marrow cells with MG-modified collagen
      resulted in reduced cell adhesion, increased susceptibility to apoptosis, fewer
      progenitor cells, and reduced angiogenic potential. This study reveals that MG
      AGEs are produced post-MI and identifies a causative role for their accumulation
      in the cellular changes, adverse remodeling and functional loss of the heart
      after MI. MG may represent a novel target for preventing damage and improving
      function of the infarcted heart.

PMID- 28864888
TI  - Molecular cloning of a CC-NBS-LRR gene from Vitis quinquangularis and its
      expression pattern in response to downy mildew pathogen infection.
AB  - Downy mildew, caused by Plasmopara viticola, can result in a substantial decrease
      in grapevine productivity. Vitis vinifera is a widely cultivated grapevine
      species, which is susceptible to this disease. Repeated pesticide applications
      are harmful for both the environment and human health. Thus, it is essential to
      develop varieties/cultivars that are resistant to downy mildew and other
      diseases. In our previous studies, we investigated the natural resistance of the
      Chinese wild grapevine V. quinquangularis accession 'PS' against P. viticola and
      obtained several candidate resistance (R) genes that may play important roles in
      plant disease resistance. In the present study, we isolated a CC-NBS-LRR-type R
      gene from 'PS' and designated it VqCN. Its open reading frame is 2676 bp which
      encodes a protein of 891 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 102.12
      kDa and predicted isoelectric point of 6.53. Multiple alignments with other
      disease resistant (R) proteins revealed a conserved phosphate-binding loop (P
      loop), resistance nucleotide binding site, a hydrophobic domain (GLPL) and
      methionine-histidine-aspartate (MHD) motifs, which are typical components of
      nucleotide-binding site leucine-rich repeat proteins, as well as a coiled-coil
      region in the N-terminus. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction
      analysis showed that the transcript of VqCN was rapidly and highly induced after
      infection with P. viticola in 'PS'. Moreover, the leaves of susceptible 'Cabernet
      Sauvignon' transiently expressing VqCN manifested increased resistance to P.
      viticola. The results indicated that VqCN might play a positive role in
      protecting grapevine against infection with P. viticola. Cloning and functional
      analysis of a putative resistance gene provide a basis for disease-resistance
      breeding.

PMID- 28864891
TI  - Cytotoxicity of targeted HER2-specific phototoxins based on flavoprotein miniSOG
      is determined by the rate of their internalization.
AB  - The concept of targeted therapy implies the development of bifunctional agents
      complementing the therapeutic module with a targeting one. A promising target for
      the delivery of imaging and/or toxic modules is the HER2 (ErbB2) receptor.
      Earlier, we have functionally characterized the targeted photosensitizers 4D5scFv
      miniSOG and DARPin-miniSOG, causing the death of HER2-overexpressing cells when
      irradiated with blue light. However, the cytotoxicity of targeted toxins 4D5scFv
      miniSOG and DARPin-miniSOG (both having functionally active targeted and
      cytotoxic modules in recombinant proteins) against human breast adenocarcinoma
      cells differs 5 times. The study of the dynamics of internalization of 4D5scFv
      miniSOG and DARPin-miniSOG proteins in the complex with HER2 in this work showed
      that the rate of internalization contributes most significantly to the toxicity
      of these photosensitizers, because it determines the duration of the presence of
      the phototoxin in the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane, where its damaging
      effect is maximum.

PMID- 28864892
TI  - Influence of dicarbonyls on kinetic characteristics of glutathione peroxidase.
AB  - Se-containing glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) is one of the key enzymes of the
      body's antioxidant system. The kinetic characteristics of GSH-Px (substrate is
      tert-butyl hydroperoxide) after modification of the enzyme by various
      concentrations of natural dicarbonyls (glyoxal, methylglyoxal, malonic
      dialdehyde) were studied. It was shown that dicarbonyls affected both K m and V
      max for GSH-Px. It is suggested that the effect of various dicarbonyls on GSH-Px
      depends on the molecular mechanisms of their interaction with the amino acid
      residues of the enzyme.

PMID- 28864893
TI  - The metabolic changes in tumor-associated macrophages during cancer grow in mice
      with Ehrlich ascites carcinoma.
AB  - In this work, we investigated the activity of the key NAD(P)-dependent
      dehydrogenases associated with macrophage tumors in mice with Ehrlich ascites
      carcinoma. It was shown that cancer grow is associated with the development of
      conditions in macrophages leading to a decrease in the substrate flow intensity
      in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, deceleration of oxidative deamination of L
      glutamate, NADP regeneration, and a decrease in the antioxidant defense
      efficiency. There results are consistent with our recent concept on the
      nonspecific metabolic reaction of cells to extreme exposures.

PMID- 28864895
TI  - The role of production of adipsin and leptin in the development of insulin
      resistance in patients with abdominal obesity.
AB  - We investigated the tissue-specific features of the production of adipokines
      (leptin and adipsin) by adipose tissue in obese patients depending on the degree
      of obesity and the state of carbohydrate metabolism. An increase in the content
      of adipsin and leptin in the blood plasma was found. In patients with varying
      degrees of obesity with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM 2), we
      determined the level of tissue-specific expression of LEP and CFD genes encoding
      leptin and adipsin, respectively. The contribution of different adipose tissue
      depots to the blood plasma level of adipsin and leptin in obese patients with and
      without DM 2 was established. The disturbance of reciprocal relationships between
      adipsin and leptin in obesity is associated with the development of insulin
      resistance.

PMID- 28864894
TI  - Evolution of catalytic centers of antibodies by virtual screening of broad
      repertoire of mutants using supercomputer.
AB  - It is proposed to perform quantum mechanical/molecular dynamics calculations of
      chemical reactions that are planned to be catalyzed by antibodies and then
      conduct a virtual screening of the library of potential antibody mutants to
      select an optimal biocatalyst. We tested the effectiveness of this approach by
      the example of hydrolysis of organophosphorus toxicant paraoxon using kinetic
      approaches and X-ray analysis of the antibody biocatalyst designed de novo.

PMID- 28864896
TI  - Dependence of expression of regulatory master genes of embryonic development in
      pancreatic cancer cells on the intracellular concentration of the master
      regulator PDX1.
AB  - Exogenous expression of the gene encoding the pancreatic master regulator PDX1 in
      cell lines with different degrees of differentiation of pancreatic cancer cells
      is accompanied by changes in the expression of known master genes involved in
      cancer progression. In BxPC3PDX+ cells, as compared to BxPC3PDX-, we detected an
      increased expression of the following genes: NKX6.1 (2 times), NR5A2 (2.5 times),
      KLF5 (1.8 times), ZEB1 (3 times), and ONECUT1 (1.3 times), as well as a decreased
      expression of MUC1 and SLUG genes (3 and 2 times, respectively). In PANC1PDX+
      cells, as compared to the control PANC1PDX- cells, we detected a decreased
      expression of ISL1 (2 times) and an increased expressed of KRT8 (2 times) and
      MUC1 (by 30%). In the high-grade cell lines (including the BxPC3 line studied),
      the total content of sites containing the marks of active enhancers was higher
      than that in the low-grade cell lines (PANC1).

PMID- 28864897
TI  - New paradoxical three-finger toxin from the cobra Naja kaouthia venom: Isolation
      and characterization.
AB  - A new three-finger toxin nakoroxin was isolated from the cobra Naja kaouthia
      venom, and its complete amino acid sequence was established. Nakoroxin belongs to
      the group of "orphan" toxins, data on the biological activity of which are
      practically absent. Nakoroxin shows no cytotoxicity and does not inhibit the
      binding of alpha-bungarotoxin to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors of muscle and
      alpha7 types. However, it potentiates the binding of alpha-bungarotoxin to the
      acetylcholine-binding protein from Lymnaea stagnalis. This is the first toxin
      with such an unusual property.

PMID- 28864898
TI  - Antiglycation activity of melatonin.
AB  - For the first time, it was found that the hormone melatonin exhibited
      antiglycation activity in vitro. It was shown that melatonin significantly slowed
      down the accumulation of fluorescent Schiff adducts formed as a result of BSA
      modification in the presence of high concentration of fructose. It was noted
      that, unlike the fructosylation reaction, melatonin did not affect the process of
      modification of BSA by methylglyoxal. We assume that melatonin is able to inhibit
      the development of the Maillard reaction but does not affect the process of BSA
      modification by reactive carbonyls.

PMID- 28864899
TI  - Detection of human neuronal alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by
      conjugates of snake alpha-neurotoxin with quantum dots.
AB  - Fluorescent derivatives are widely used to study the structure and functions of
      proteins. Quantum dots (QDs), fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals, have a high
      quantum yield and are much more resistant to bleaching compared to organic dyes.
      Conjugates of alpha-neurotoxins with QDs were used for visualization of human
      alpha7 acetylcholine receptors heterologously expressed in GH4C1 pituitary
      adenoma cells. Specific staining of cells by the conjugated toxins was observed.

PMID- 28864900
TI  - Expression of master regulatory genes of embryonic development in pancreatic
      tumors.
AB  - The expression level of some important master regulators of embryonic development
      of the pancreas in the tumor samples of this human organ was determined. We found
      that the transcription of SOX9, GATA4, PDX1, PTF1a, and HNF1b genes in the tumor
      samples was reduced as compared to the samples of normal pancreatic tissues, and
      the KLF5 gene expression in the tumor cells was elevated. We assume that all the
      studied genes, except KLF5, form a single regulatory module that supports the
      identity of tumor progenitor cells. A simultaneous suppression of expression of
      these master factors may be critical for the neoplastic transformation of
      pancreatic cells.

PMID- 28864901
TI  - Expression of transcription factor genes in cell lines corresponding to different
      stages of pancreatic cancer progression.
AB  - The expression level of six transcription factor genes and the content of their
      protein products in five pancreatic cancer cell lines with parallel control of
      expression of three marker genes reflecting epithelial or mesenchymal state of
      cells was investigated. Cell lines MIA PaCa-2 and Capan-2 represented the best
      models of quasi-mesenchymal and epithelial, respectively, types of progression of
      the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, according to the content of E-cadherin and
      vimentin and the expression of KLF5 and ZEB1 transcription factors.

PMID- 28864902
TI  - Fatty acid composition of odonate's eyes.
AB  - We have studied the fatty acid composition of eyes of amphibiotic insects,
      namely, the odonate Sympetrum flaveolum. The main polyunsaturated fatty acid of
      odonate's eyes has been found to be 20:5n-3 (eicosapentaenoic fatty acid, EPA)
      rather than 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3, which usually dominate in eyes of terrestrial
      insects, or 22:6n-3, which dominates in eyes of vertebrates. The prevalence of
      EPA in odonate's eyes probably provides a more effective transmission of light
      signal in this animal compared to terrestrial insects. It is important for
      odonates because vision plays a decisive role in finding and catching prey.

PMID- 28864903
TI  - A pepper mottle virus-based vector enables systemic expression of endoglucanase D
      in non-transgenic plants.
AB  - Plant-virus-based expression vectors have been used as an alternative to the
      creation of transgenic plants. Using a virus-based vector, we investigated the
      feasibility of producing the endoglucanase D (EngD) from Clostridium
      cellulovorans in Nicotiana benthamiana. This protein has endoglucanase, xylanase,
      and exoglucanase activities and may be of value for cellulose digestion in the
      generation of biofuels from plant biomass. The EngD gene was cloned between the
      nuclear inclusion b (NIb)- and coat protein (CP)-encoding sequences of pSP6PepMoV
      Vb1. In vitro transcripts derived from the clone (pSP6PepMoV-Vb1/EngD) were
      infectious in N. benthamiana but caused milder symptoms than wild-type PepMoV
      Vb1. RT-PCR amplification of total RNA from non-inoculated upper leaves infected
      with PepMoV-Vb1/EngD produced the target band for the CP, partial NIb and EngD-CP
      regions of PepMoV-V1/EngD, in addition to nonspecific bands. Western blot
      analysis showed the CP target bands of PepMoV-Vb1/EngD as well as non-target
      bands. EngD enzymatic activity in infected plants was detected using a glucose
      assay. The plant leaves showed increased senescence compared with healthy and
      PepMoV-Vb1-infected plants. Our study suggests the feasibility of using a viral
      vector for systemic infection of plants for expression of heterologous engD for
      the purpose of digesting a cellulose substrate in plant cells for biomass
      production.

PMID- 28864904
TI  - Veno-veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for acute respiratory
      distress syndrome with septic-induced cardiomyopathy due to severe pulmonary
      tuberculosis.
AB  - We describe the rare experience of veno-veno-arterial (VVA) extracorporeal
      membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in a patient with acute respiratory distress syndrome
      and septic-induced cardiomyopathy due to pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). A 24-year
      old male patient who developed septic-induced cardiomyopathy secondary to
      pulmonary TB was administered veno-arterial (VA) ECMO for cardiac support. Six
      days later, the ECMO configuration mode was changed from VA to VVA to improve
      hypoxemia of the upper body and to prevent further lung injury. The patient was
      then successfully managed using an appropriate alternative ECMO strategy.

PMID- 28864905
TI  - Measurement of protein backbone 13CO and 15N relaxation dispersion at high
      resolution.
AB  - Peak overlap in crowded regions of two-dimensional spectra prevents
      characterization of dynamics for many sites of interest in globular and
      intrinsically disordered proteins. We present new three-dimensional pulse
      sequences for measurement of Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill relaxation dispersions at
      backbone nitrogen and carbonyl positions. To alleviate increase in the
      measurement time associated with the additional spectral dimension, we use non
      uniform sampling in combination with two distinct methods of spectrum
      reconstruction: compressed sensing and co-processing with multi-dimensional
      decomposition. The new methodology was validated using disordered protein CD79A
      from B-cell receptor and an SH3 domain from Abp1p in exchange between its free
      form and bound to a peptide from the protein Ark1p. We show that, while providing
      much better resolution, the 3D NUS experiments give the similar accuracy and
      precision of the dynamic parameters to ones obtained using traditional 2D
      experiments. Furthermore, we show that jackknife resampling of the spectra yields
      robust estimates of peak intensities errors, eliminating the need for recording
      duplicate data points.

PMID- 28864906
TI  - Composite tumor with pheochromocytoma and immature neuroblastoma: report of two
      cases with cytogenetic analysis and discussion of current terminology.

PMID- 28864907
TI  - Alterations in the reduced pteridine contents in the cerebrospinal fluids of
      LRRK2 mutation carriers and patients with Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is a cofactor for tyrosine hydroxylase that is
      essential for the biosynthesis of dopamine. Parkinson's disease (PD) is
      characterized by a progressive degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic
      neurons, and biomarkers reflecting the degree of neurodegeneration are important
      not only for basic research but also for clinical diagnosis and the treatment of
      the disease. Although the total neopterin and biopterin levels in the
      cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) of the patients with PD were reported, alterations in
      the composition of reduced and oxidized forms of pteridine compounds have not
      been examined. In this study, we first examined the time-dependent alterations in
      BH4 and other reduced pteridine compounds in the CSF of an MPTP-treated monkey as
      a primate PD model. We found that the CSF levels of BH4 and dihydroneopterin, an
      intermittent metabolite of BH4-biosynthesis, altered inversely with progression
      of neurodegeneration, whereas those of dihydrobiopterin and neopterin were
      relatively low and constant. Next, we assayed the amounts of reduced pteridine
      compounds in the CSF of 36 pre-symptomatic LRRK2-mutation (N1437H or G2019S)
      carriers (LRRK2-carrier), 13 patients with PD symptoms (LRRK2-PD), 46 patients
      with sporadic PD (sPD), and 26 non-PD individuals. The BH4 levels were
      significantly lower in both the LRRK2-PD and sPD patients, and the LRRK2-carriers
      exhibited higher BH4 levels compared with the sPD patients. The total neopterin
      levels in the CSF of the LRRK2-PD were significantly higher than those in the sPD
      and non-PD individuals, which indicated greater inflammatory responses in the
      brains of LRRK2-PD patients. The present results suggest that detailed analyses
      of pteridine levels in the CSF might be useful for understanding the
      pathophysiology of familial PD and for monitoring PD progression.

PMID- 28864908
TI  - Antitumor activity and expression profiles of genes induced by sulforaphane in
      human melanoma cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Human melanoma is a highly aggressive incurable cancer due to intrinsic
      cellular resistance to apoptosis, reprogramming, proliferation and survival
      during tumour progression. Sulforaphane (SFN), an isothiocyanate found in
      cruciferous vegetables, plays a role in carcinogenesis in many cancer types.
      However, the cytotoxic molecular mechanisms and gene expression profiles promoted
      by SFN in human melanoma remain unknown. METHODS: Three different cell lines were
      used: two human melanoma A375 and 501MEL and human epidermal melanocytes (HEMa).
      Cell viability and proliferation, cell cycle analysis, cell migration and
      invasion and protein expression and phosphorylation status of Akt and p53 upon
      SFN treatment were determined. RNA-seq of A375 was performed at different time
      points after SFN treatment. RESULTS: We demonstrated that SFN strongly decreased
      cell viability and proliferation, induced G2/M cell cycle arrest, promoted
      apoptosis through the activation of caspases 3, 8, 9 and hampered migration and
      invasion abilities in the melanoma cell lines. Remarkably, HEMa cells were not
      affected by SFN treatment. Transcriptomic analysis revealed regulation of genes
      involved in response to stress, apoptosis/cell death and metabolic processes. SFN
      upregulated the expression of pro-apoptotic genes, such as p53, BAX, PUMA, FAS
      and MDM2; promoted cell cycle inhibition and growth arrest by upregulating EGR1,
      GADD45B, ATF3 and CDKN1A; and simultaneously acted as a potent inhibitor of
      genotoxicity by launching the stress-inducible protein network (HMOX1, HSPA1A,
      HSPA6, SOD1). CONCLUSION: Overall, the data show that SFN cytotoxicity in
      melanoma derives from complex and concurrent mechanisms during carcinogenesis,
      which makes it a promising cancer prevention agent.

PMID- 28864910
TI  - Acute kidney injury and stroke: unresolved issues.

PMID- 28864911
TI  - The Effectiveness of Aquatic Group Therapy for Improving Water Safety and Social
      Interactions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Program.
AB  - Drowning is the number one cause of accidental death in children with Autism
      Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Few studies have examined the effectiveness of swim
      instruction for improving water safety skills in children with moderate to severe
      ASD. This study examines the feasibility and effectiveness of an aquatic therapy
      program on water safety and social skills in children with mild to severe ASD (n
      = 7). Water safety skills were evaluated using the Aquatics Skills Checklist and
      social skills were measured using the Social Skills Improvement Scale. We provide
      preliminary evidence that children with ASD can improve water safety skills (p =
      0.0002), which are important for drowning prevention after only 8 h of
      intervention. However, social skills did not respond to intervention (p =
      0.6409).

PMID- 28864909
TI  - Melatonin as a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant: one of evolution's best ideas.
AB  - Melatonin is an ancient antioxidant. After its initial development in bacteria,
      it has been retained throughout evolution such that it may be or may have been
      present in every species that have existed. Even though it has been maintained
      throughout evolution during the diversification of species, melatonin's chemical
      structure has never changed; thus, the melatonin present in currently living
      humans is identical to that present in cyanobacteria that have existed on Earth
      for billions of years. Melatonin in the systemic circulation of mammals quickly
      disappears from the blood presumably due to its uptake by cells, particularly
      when they are under high oxidative stress conditions. The measurement of the
      subcellular distribution of melatonin has shown that the concentration of this
      indole in the mitochondria greatly exceeds that in the blood. Melatonin
      presumably enters mitochondria through oligopeptide transporters, PEPT1, and
      PEPT2. Thus, melatonin is specifically targeted to the mitochondria where it
      seems to function as an apex antioxidant. In addition to being taken up from the
      circulation, melatonin may be produced in the mitochondria as well. During
      evolution, mitochondria likely originated when melatonin-forming bacteria were
      engulfed as food by ancestral prokaryotes. Over time, engulfed bacteria evolved
      into mitochondria; this is known as the endosymbiotic theory of the origin of
      mitochondria. When they did so, the mitochondria retained the ability to
      synthesize melatonin. Thus, melatonin is not only taken up by mitochondria but
      these organelles, in addition to many other functions, also probably produce
      melatonin as well. Melatonin's high concentrations and multiple actions as an
      antioxidant provide potent antioxidant protection to these organelles which are
      exposed to abundant free radicals.

PMID- 28864912
TI  - Evaluation of port site hernias, chronic pain and recurrence rates after
      laparoscopic ventral hernia repair: a monocentric long-term study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate hernia appearance at the trocar
      site after laparoscopic treatment of primary or incisional ventral hernias using
      an intraperitoneal prosthetic mesh. Chronic pain at the trocar site and primary
      hernia recurrence were also evaluated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two-hundred and
      twenty-six consecutive patients who underwent a standardized laparoscopic hernia
      repair for primary or incisional ventral hernia at our centre between January
      2000 and December 2008 were included. All patients had clinical and radiological
      examinations. Primary end points were port site hernia and the occurrence of
      chronic trocar site pain. Secondary end point was primary hernia recurrence.
      RESULTS: Seventy-eight patients were excluded: 6 declined to participate, 48 were
      unreachable, and 24 did not meet the inclusion criteria (nine underwent a single
      site laparoscopic approach, ten died of unrelated disease, three were unable to
      visit the hospital and two had relocated). After exclusion, 148 remained in our
      study. Mean follow-up was 49 +/- 12.6 months. Mean age at the time of surgery was
      60 years (range, 28-83) In total, 504 port sites were clinically and
      radiologically evaluated, and only one (0.02%) had secondary herniation. Three
      patients (2.0%) had a recurrent hernia, and 14 (9.5%) had developed chronic pain
      at time of assessment. Nine patients (6.1%) were re-operated for the recurrent
      hernia before the follow-up evaluation. The overall recurrence rate is,
      therefore, 8.1%. Only two minor complications and no major complications occurred
      after surgery. No mortality was observed. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic repair for
      primary or incisional ventral hernias is a safe surgical approach, with low rates
      of hernia recurrence and a low morbidity rate. When fascial closure is maintained
      for 10 mm port sites, the incidence of port site hernias is very low. Five
      millimetre ports do not require closure.

PMID- 28864914
TI  - Nonketotic hyperglycinemia: spectrum of imaging findings with emphasis on
      diffusion-weighted imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore brain abnormalities in
      nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and when
      feasible, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography. METHODS: Seven
      patients with confirmed diagnosis of NKH (8 days-2 years) underwent brain MRI.
      Conventional T1 and T2WI were acquired in all patients, DWI in six and DTI and
      tractography in two (4 months and 2 years). Measurements of fractional anisotropy
      (FA), radial diffusivity (RD), axial diffusivity (AD) and Trace from eight white
      matter regions were compared between the two patients and age-matched controls.
      Tractography of corpus callosum, superior longitudinal fasciculus and
      corticospinal tracts was performed with extraction of their FA and diffusivity
      indices. RESULTS: MRI showed nonspecific brain atrophy in three children. Corpus
      callosum atrophy was found as a part of these atrophic changes. Cerebellar
      vermian hypoplasia and supratentorial hydrocephalus were seen in one patient. The
      topographic distribution of diffusion restriction was different among patients.
      The affected white matter regions were not predominantly following the expected
      areas of myelination according to patients' age. Deep grey matter nuclei were
      affected in one patient. DTI revealed lower FA with higher RD in most of the
      measured white matter regions and tracts. These changes were more appreciated in
      the 2-year-old patient. However, Trace was higher in the 2-year-old patient and
      lower in the 4-month-old one. The extracted tracts were decreased in volume.
      CONCLUSION: DWI, DTI and tractography with FA and diffusivity measurements can
      give insights into white matter microstructural alterations that can occur in
      NKH.

PMID- 28864913
TI  - Pancreatic neuro-insular network in young mice revealed by 3D panoramic
      histology.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: It has been proposed that the neuro-insular network enables
      rapid, synchronised insulin secretion. However, to date, acquiring the pancreatic
      tissue map to study the neural network remains a challenging task as there is a
      lack of feasible approaches for large-scale tissue analysis at the organ level.
      Here, we have developed 3-dimensional (3D) panoramic histology to characterise
      the pancreatic neuro-insular network in young mice. METHODS: Pancreases harvested
      from young wild-type B6 mice (3 and 8 weeks old) and db/db mice (3 weeks old;
      db/db vs db/+) were used to develop 3D panoramic histology. Transparent
      pancreases were prepared by optical clearing to enable deep-tissue, tile-scanning
      microscopy for qualitative and quantitative analyses of islets and the pancreatic
      tissue network in space. RESULTS: 3D panoramic histology reveals the pancreatic
      neurovascular network and the coupling of ganglionic and islet populations via
      the network. This integration is identified in both 3- and 8-week-old mice,
      featuring the peri-arteriolar neuro-insular network and islet-ganglionic
      aggregation. In weaning hyperphagic db/db mice, the 3D image data identifies the
      associated increases in weight, adipose tissue attached to the pancreas, density
      of large islets (major axis > 150 MUm) and pancreatic sympathetic innervation
      compared with db/+ mice. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our work provides insight
      into the neuro-insular integration at the organ level and demonstrates a new
      approach for investigating previously unknown details of the pancreatic tissue
      network in health and disease.

PMID- 28864915
TI  - A gene-based test of association through an orthogonal decomposition of genotype
      scores.
AB  - The burden test and the sequence kernel association test (SKAT) are two popular
      methods for detecting association with rare variants. Treated as two different
      sources of association information, they are adaptively combined to form an
      optimal SKAT (SKAT-O) method for optimal power. We show that the burden test is
      part of rather than independent of the SKAT. We introduce a new test statistic
      that is the sum of the burden statistic and a statistic asymptotically
      independent of the burden statistic. The performance of this new test statistic
      is demonstrated through extensive simulation studies and applications to a
      Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 data set and the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study
      data.

PMID- 28864917
TI  - Formulation, physicochemical characterization and in vitro evaluation of human
      insulin-loaded microspheres as potential oral carrier.
AB  - The objective of the present investigation was to formulate and characterize the
      human insulin entrapped Eudragit S100 microspheres containing protease inhibitors
      and to develop an optimized formulation with desirable features. A w/o/w multiple
      emulsion solvent evaporation technique was employed to produce microspheres of
      human insulin using Eudragit S-100 as coating material and polyvinyl alcohol as a
      stabilizer. The resultant microspheres were evaluated for drug-excipient
      compatibility, encapsulation efficiency, particle size, surface morphology,
      micromeritic properties, enteric nature, and in vitro drug release studies.
      Micromeritic properties indicated good flow properties and compressibility. In
      present investigation formulation F6 with drug/polymer ratio (1:100) was found to
      be optimal in terms of evaluated parameters where it showed a significantly
      higher percentage of encapsulation efficiency (76.84%) with minimal drug release
      (3.25%) in an acidic environment. The optimized formulation (F6) also possessed
      good spherical shape and particle size (57.42 um) required to achieve the desired
      in vitro drug release profile at pH 7.4. The results confirmed that human insulin
      loaded Eudragit S-100 microspheres containing protease inhibitor possessed good
      encapsulation efficiency, pH dependant controlled release carrying encapsulated
      insulin to its optimum site of absorption. This ultimately resulted in enhanced
      insulin absorption and biological response.

PMID- 28864916
TI  - Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on the auditory mismatch
      negativity response and working memory performance in schizophrenia: a pilot
      study.
AB  - Cognitive impairment has been proposed to be the core feature of schizophrenia
      (Sz). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive form of
      brain stimulation which can improve cognitive function in healthy participants
      and in psychiatric patients with cognitive deficits. tDCS has been shown to
      improve cognition and hallucination symptoms in Sz, a disorder also associated
      with marked sensory processing deficits. Recent findings in healthy controls
      demonstrate that anodal tDCS increases auditory deviance detection, as measured
      by the brain-based event-related potential, mismatch negativity (MMN), which is a
      putative biomarker of Sz that has been proposed as a target for treatment of Sz
      cognition. This pilot study conducted a randomized, double-blind assessment of
      the effects of pre- and post-tDCS on MMN-indexed auditory discrimination in 12 Sz
      patients, moderated by auditory hallucination (AH) presence, as well as working
      memory performance. Assessments were conducted in three sessions involving
      temporal and frontal lobe anodal stimulation (to transiently excite local brain
      activity), and one control session involving 'sham' stimulation (meaning with the
      device turned off, i.e., no stimulation). Results demonstrated a trend for pitch
      MMN amplitude to increase with anodal temporal tDCS, which was significant in a
      subgroup of Sz individuals with AHs. Anodal frontal tDCS significantly increased
      WM performance on the 2-back task, which was found to positively correlate with
      MMN-tDCS effects. The findings contribute to our understanding of tDCS effects
      for sensory processing deficits and working memory performance in Sz and may have
      implications for psychiatric disorders with sensory deficits.

PMID- 28864918
TI  - Ingwenascaris n. g. (Nematoda: Ascaridida: Heterocheilidae) established for I.
      sprenti n. sp. and I. assymmetrica (Ortlepp, 1932) n. comb., parasites of African
      crocodiles, and an identification key to the genera of the Heterocheilidae.
AB  - Ingwenascaris n. g. (Nematoda: Heterocheilidae) is established to accommodate
      Ingwenascaris sprenti n. g., n. sp., described from the stomach of Crocodylus
      niloticus Laurenti (Reptilia: Crocodylidae) in South Africa, based on light and
      scanning electron microscopy studies of its morphology. The new genus can be
      distinguished from other heterocheilid genera through a combination of its
      characters, including the pronounced asymmetry of each subventral lip due to an
      alate ventral margin and a non-alate margin facing the dorsal lip, the presence
      of continuous ridges of triangular denticles along the free labial margins, the
      lack of interlocking processes or a rostral plate, interlabia being indistinct or
      represented by small lateral interlabia between the dorsal and ventral lips only,
      the absence of prominent interlabial longitudinal cuticular ridges, the presence
      of lateral alae that are fused with the subventral lips, the presence of lateral
      caudal alae in both sexes, spicules of males that are composed of handle and
      alate blade, the presence of a gubernaculum, the number and arrangement of male
      caudal papillae and the position of the vulva near the anterior and middle third
      of the body in females. Ingwenascaris sprenti n. g., n. sp. represents the sixth
      heterocheilid genus parasitising African crocodilians. Trispiculascaris
      assymmetrica (Ortlepp, 1932) (syn. Porrocaecum assymmetricum Ortlepp, 1932) from
      a Central African crocodile is transferred to the new genus as I. assymmetrica
      (Ortlepp, 1932) n. comb. The genus Trispiculascaris Skrjabin, 1916 is considered
      a genus incertae sedis. An identification key to the genera of the family
      Heterocheilidae is presented.

PMID- 28864919
TI  - Electrochemical treatment of penicillin, cephalosporin, and fluoroquinolone
      antibiotics via active chlorine: evaluation of antimicrobial activity, toxicity,
      matrix, and their correlation with the degradation pathways.
AB  - Antibiotics are pharmaceuticals widely consumed and frequently detected in
      environmental water, where they can induce toxic effects and development of
      resistant bacteria. Their structural variety makes the problem of antibiotics in
      natural water more complex. In this work, six highly used antibiotics (at 40
      MUmol L-1) belonging to three different classes (penicillins, cephalosporins, and
      fluoroquinolones) were treated using an electrochemical system with a Ti/IrO2
      anode and a Zr cathode in the presence of NaCl (0.05 MUmol L-1). The attack of
      electrogenerated active chlorine was found to be the main degradation route.
      After only 20 min of treatment, the process decreased more than 90% of the
      initial concentration of antibiotics, following the degradation order:
      fluoroquinolones > penicillins > cephalosporins. The primary interactions of the
      degrading agent with fluoroquinolones occurred at the cyclic amine (i.e.,
      piperazyl ring) and the benzene ring. Meanwhile, the cephalosporins and
      penicillins were initially attacked on the beta-lactam and sulfide groups.
      However, the tested penicillins presented an additional reaction on the central
      amide. In all cases, the transformations of antibiotics led to the antimicrobial
      activity decreasing. On the contrary, the toxicity level showed diverse results:
      increasing, decreasing, and no change, depending on the antibiotic type. In fact,
      due to the conservation of quinolone nucleus in the fluoroquinolone by-products,
      the toxicity of the treated solutions remained unchanged. With penicillins, the
      production of chloro-phenyl-isoxazole fragments increased the toxicity level of
      the resultant solution. However, the opening of beta-lactam ring of cephalosporin
      antibiotics decreased the toxicity level of the treated solutions. Finally, the
      application of the treatment to synthetic hospital wastewater and seawater
      containing a representative antibiotic showed that the high amount of chloride
      ions in seawater accelerates the pollutant degradation. In contrast, the urea and
      ammonium presence in the hospital wastewater retarded the removal of this
      pharmaceutical.

PMID- 28864920
TI  - Discovery of mutations in homologous recombination genes in African-American
      women with breast cancer.
AB  - African-American women are more likely to develop aggressive breast cancer at
      younger ages and experience poorer cancer prognoses than non-Hispanic Caucasians.
      Deficiency in repair of DNA by homologous recombination (HR) is associated with
      cancer development, suggesting that mutations in genes that affect this process
      may cause breast cancer. Inherited pathogenic mutations have been identified in
      genes involved in repairing DNA damage, but few studies have focused on African
      Americans. We screened for germline mutations in seven HR repair pathway genes in
      DNA of 181 African-American women with breast cancer, evaluated the potential
      effects of identified missense variants using in silico prediction software, and
      functionally characterized a set of missense variants by yeast two-hybrid assays.
      We identified five likely-damaging variants, including two PALB2 truncating
      variants (Q151X and W1038X) and three novel missense variants (RAD51C C135R, and
      XRCC3 L297P and V337E) that abolish protein-protein interactions in yeast two
      hybrid assays. Our results add to evidence that HR gene mutations account for a
      proportion of the genetic risk for developing breast cancer in African-Americans.
      Identifying additional mutations that diminish HR may provide a tool for better
      assessing breast cancer risk and improving approaches for targeted treatment.

PMID- 28864921
TI  - Invasive Pulmonary Fungal Infections in Cystic Fibrosis.
AB  - Invasive pulmonary mycosis is after allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis
      (ABPA) a frequent and severe complication of CF lung disease. Among CF
      caregivers, there is an insecurity when and how to treat infections of the lung
      parenchyma caused by different fungi in patients with CF. This case series
      provides a multicenter experience on diagnostic, manifestation, and treatment of
      non-ABPA cases of pulmonary. Non-ABPA cases of pulmonary mycoses in patients with
      CF have been collected from the CF Centers in Berlin, Essen, Worms, Frankfurt
      (Germany), Leeds (UK), and Barcelona (Spain). Non-ABPA was defined as total serum
      IgE level <500 kU/L. Scedosporium and Lomentospora species seem to be more
      virulent in patients with CF and have been successfully treated with triple
      antifungal drug regimens in several cases. Rare fungi including yeasts can have
      pathogenic potential in CF. In this series, antibiotic treatment failure was the
      main indicator for the initiation of antifungal treatment. For an early and
      effective treatment of pulmonary mycoses in CF, the identification of biomarkers
      and of risk factors beyond antibiotic treatment failure is crucial and urgently
      needed. Furthermore, treatment efficacy studies are necessary for the different
      causative agents of these infections.

PMID- 28864922
TI  - A phase I, randomized, single-dose study evaluating the pharmacokinetic
      equivalence of biosimilar ABP 215 and bevacizumab in healthy adult men.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study compared the pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles of the proposed
      biosimilar ABP 215 with bevacizumab in healthy males. METHODS: In this
      randomized, single-blind, single-dose, three-arm, parallel-group study, healthy
      subjects were randomized to receive ABP 215 (n = 68), bevacizumab (US) (n = 67),
      or bevacizumab (EU) (n = 67) 3 mg/kg intravenously. Primary endpoints were area
      under the serum concentration-time curve from time 0 extrapolated to infinity
      (AUCinf) and the maximum observed concentration (C max). Secondary endpoints
      included safety and immunogenicity. RESULTS: AUCinf and C max were similar across
      the three groups. Geometric means ratio (GMR) for C max and AUCinf, respectively,
      was 0.98 and 0.99 for ABP 215 versus bevacizumab (US); 1.03 and 0.96 for ABP 215
      versus bevacizumab (EU); and 1.05 and 0.97 for bevacizumab (US) versus
      bevacizumab (EU). The 90% confidence intervals for the GMRs of AUCinf and C max
      were within the prespecified standard PK bioequivalence criteria of 0.80 to 1.25.
      The incidence of adverse events (AEs) was 47.1, 32.8, and 61.2% in the ABP 215,
      bevacizumab (US) and bevacizumab (EU) groups, respectively. When analyzed by
      investigational site, the incidence and severity of AEs were comparable in the
      ABP 215 and bevacizumab groups. There were no AEs leading to study
      discontinuation. No binding or neutralizing anti-drug anti-bodies was detected.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the PK similarity of ABP 215 to both
      bevacizumab (US) and bevacizumab (EU), and of bevacizumab (US) to bevacizumab
      (EU). Safety and tolerability were comparable between treatments and no subject
      developed binding or neutralizing anti-drug anti-bodies.

PMID- 28864923
TI  - Evaluation of carbon dioxide laser therapy for benign tumors of the eyelid
      margin.
AB  - Eyelid margin tumors require special attention based on both anatomical and
      histological perspectives. Our aim in this study was to evaluate carbon dioxide
      (CO2) laser therapy for the treatment of eyelid margin tumors. Fifty-two patients
      with 55 eyelid margin tumors were included in this study. All tumors were removed
      with a CO2 laser, and histopathological evaluation was obtained in 52 cases. All
      patients were followed up for a mean period of 8.5 months (range 6 to 14 months).
      There were no bleedings in the intra- and postoperative period; the wounds were
      dry and reepithelized after 10-14 days and no recurrence occurred during follow
      up period. Compared to the surrounding tissue, the treated area was hypopigmented
      and maximum five eyelashes (average 2.5) were wasted during the procedure. We
      achieved complete patient and surgeon satisfaction with cosmetic and therapeutic
      results. CO2 laser treatment of eyelid margin is a safe and effective procedure;
      its cosmetic result is beneficial as it does not cause malposition of the eyelid
      or damage to the lacrimal drainage system if the tumor is located in its
      proximity.

PMID- 28864925
TI  - Colored noise and a stochastic fractional model for correlated inputs and
      adaptation in neuronal firing.
AB  - High variability in the neuronal response to stimulations and the adaptation
      phenomenon cannot be explained by the standard stochastic leaky integrate-and
      fire model. The main reason is that the uncorrelated inputs involved in the model
      are not realistic. There exists some form of dependency between the inputs, and
      it can be interpreted as memory effects. In order to include these physiological
      features in the standard model, we reconsider it with time-dependent coefficients
      and correlated inputs. Due to its hard mathematical tractability, we perform
      simulations of it for a wide investigation of its output. A Gauss-Markov process
      is constructed for approximating its non-Markovian dynamics. The first passage
      time probability density of such a process can be numerically evaluated, and it
      can be used to fit the histograms of simulated firing times. Some estimates of
      the moments of firing times are also provided. The effect of the correlation time
      of the inputs on firing densities and on firing rates is shown. An exponential
      probability density of the first firing time is estimated for low values of input
      current and high values of correlation time. For comparison, a simulation-based
      investigation is also carried out for a fractional stochastic model that allows
      to preserve the memory of the time evolution of the neuronal membrane potential.
      In this case, the memory parameter that affects the firing activity is the
      fractional derivative order. In both models an adaptation level of spike
      frequency is attained, even if along different modalities. Comparisons and
      discussion of the obtained results are provided.

PMID- 28864924
TI  - Cardiovascular disease mortality among women with endometrial cancer in the Iowa
      Women's Health Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Obesity is associated with endometrial cancer (EC) development and
      cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. As the number of obese EC survivors
      continues to increase, an examination of CVD mortality in this vulnerable
      population is warranted. METHODS: In the Iowa Women's Health Study (1986-2011),
      we examined CVD mortality among 552 women with EC compared with 2,352 age- and
      body mass index-matched women without EC (controls). Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs) for CVD mortality were estimated using multivariable
      adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models stratified by an indicator
      for match set. RESULTS: Compared to controls, women with EC more often reported a
      history of diabetes, hypertension, and never smoking. Compared with controls,
      women with EC had lower CVD mortality (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.56-0.99), and higher all
      cause mortality (HR 1.50, 95% CI 1.30-1.74). CONCLUSIONS: Although some CVD risk
      factors were more common in women with versus without EC, CVD mortality was lower
      among the former group. Additional well-adjusted analyses with larger study
      populations are needed to understand interactions between CVD risk factors with
      CVD mortality among EC survivors. The CVD risk factor profile of EC survivors
      warrants emphasis on cardiovascular health.

PMID- 28864926
TI  - In reply: Clinical supervision: what does it mean to be better?

PMID- 28864927
TI  - Cost analysis on the use of rituximab and calcineurin inhibitors in children and
      adolescents with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rituximab (RTX) is increasingly being used in place of calcineurin
      inhibitors (CNI) in pediatric patients with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome
      (SDNS). However, despite its favorable safety profile, its unit cost is
      prohibitive. We therefore compared the healthcare costs associated with the use
      of both agents in a retrospective cohort. METHODS: This study was a retrospective
      analysis of data retrieved from the medical charts and electronic databases of
      pediatric patients (age range 2-18 years) with SDNS who were treated with either
      CNI or RTX from January 2008 to December 2012 at Children's Hospital of New
      Orleans, Louisiana. The minimum follow-up period was 12 months. RESULTS: Of the
      18 patients whose medical data were analyzed, ten received RTX and eight were
      treated with CNI. The annualized healthcare cost for the rituximab group was
      $197,031 versus $189,857 (all values in US dollars) for the CNI group (p > 0.05).
      At the 12-month follow-up, more patients in the RTX group were in remission (40
      vs. 25%). Duration of freedom from steroid use was longer in the RTX group, while
      body mass index was higher in the CNI arm (p > 0.05). No significant adverse
      events occurred in either group. CONCLUSION: The expenditure for the RTX and CNI
      groups was comparable, but there were fewer clinical encounters in the former
      group, potentially reducing the burden of healthcare on the patient's family.

PMID- 28864928
TI  - Effects of cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6 on prostate cancer
      risk in a population of African ancestry.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the association between serum cholesterol and prostate
      cancer and whether any effect may be mediated through inflammatory markers.
      METHODS: Data from a case-control study of 40-80 years old Jamaican male patients
      (229 cases; 252 controls) were used. Cases had incident histologically-confirmed
      prostate cancer and controls were men with normal digital rectal examination and
      prostate-specific antigen (PSA) < 4 MUg/L or free: total PSA > 0.15 obtained from
      the same clinic. Total and HDL cholesterol, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and C-reactive
      protein (CRP) were measured from a non-fasting sample. Multivariable logistic
      regression models were used to evaluate the associations between these factors
      and prostate cancer, adjusting for age, body mass index, waist circumference,
      family history of prostate cancer, diabetes, hypertension, use of cholesterol
      lowering drugs, and smoking. RESULTS: Total cholesterol [Mean (cases, 4.71 +/-
      1.07; controls, 4.64 +/- 1.07 mmol/L)], CRP [median (cases, 2.11; controls, 2.09
      ug/ml)], and IL-6: [median (cases, 3.34; controls, 3.24 pg/ml)] did not differ by
      PCA status. Higher total cholesterol was associated with an increased risk of low
      grade disease after adjusting for potential confounders [multivariable-adjusted
      OR (95% CI): tertile 2: 3.32(1.66, 6.45), tertile 3: 2.14(1.07, 4.32)]. Total
      cholesterol was unrelated to overall prostate cancer or high-grade disease. There
      was no significant association between HDL cholesterol or any of the inflammatory
      markers with prostate cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing total cholesterol but not
      inflammatory markers were associated with low-grade prostate cancer in Caribbean
      men.

PMID- 28864929
TI  - Antibiotic resistance genes in an urban river as impacted by bacterial community
      and physicochemical parameters.
AB  - Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in urban rivers are a serious public health
      concern in regions with poorly planned, rapid development. To gain insights into
      the predominant factors affecting the fate of ARGs in a highly polluted urban
      river in eastern China, a total of 285 ARGs, microbial communities, and 20
      physicochemical parameters were analyzed for 17 sites. A total of 258 unique ARGs
      were detected using high-throughput qPCR, and the absolute abundance of total
      ARGs was positively correlated with total organic carbon and total dissolved
      nitrogen concentrations (P < 0.01). ARG abundance and diversity were greatly
      altered by microbial community structure. Variation partitioning analysis showed
      that the combined effects of multiple factors contributed to the profile and
      dissemination of ARGs, and variation of microbial communities was the major
      factor affecting the distribution of ARGs. The disparate distribution of some
      bacteria, including Bacteroides from mammalian gastrointestinal flora,
      Burkholderia from zoonotic infectious diseases, and Zoogloea from wastewater
      treatment, indicates that the urban river was strongly influenced by point-source
      pollution. Results imply that microbial community shifts caused by changes in
      water quality may lead to the spread of ARGs, and point-source pollution in urban
      rivers requires greater attention to control the transfer of ARGs between
      environmental bacteria and pathogens.

PMID- 28864930
TI  - Contemporary epidemiology and novel predictors of uterine rupture: a nationwide
      population-based study.
AB  - PURPOSE: In spite of several policies aiming to decrease cesarean rates and
      related complications such as uterine rupture, data show that uterine rupture and
      associated morbidity are increasing along the years. Whether previously
      unidentified risk factors are currently playing an important role on these trends
      is unknown. We analyze current risks of uterine rupture and main preceding
      factors from more recent years compared to former data. METHODS: All uterine
      rupture cases in the US from 2011-2012 were selected, with matched non-uterine
      rupture cases selected as controls. Variables considered for analysis included
      demographics, maternal morbidity, and obstetric complications. Likelihood forward
      selection was used to identify main risk factors of uterine rupture. Medians of
      main factors identified were used to simulate groups at risk and calculate odds
      ratios of uterine rupture. RESULTS: From ~8 million births, 1925 presented
      uterine rupture. In patients with no prior cesarean delivery, multiple gestation,
      chronic hypertension and chorioamnionitis presented the highest odds of uterine
      rupture, with the combination of these factors increasing the odds of rupture 59
      times (~1%). In women with prior cesarean delivery, induction/augmentation and
      chorioamnionitis were the most significant predictors, with the combination
      increasing the odds 33 times (~3%). CONCLUSIONS: Despite policies implemented and
      changes in clinical practice, uterine rupture remains an important issue.
      Previously unidentified risk factors are playing now an important role,
      information that should be considered during patient counseling and clinical
      practice. Combinations of some of these factors may increase the risk of uterine
      rupture significantly enough to modify clinical care.

PMID- 28864931
TI  - Bone metastases from breast cancer: associations between morphologic CT patterns
      and glycolytic activity on PET and bone scintigraphy as well as explorative
      search for influential factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the detection of bone metastases from
      breast cancer on F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)
      and bone scintigraphy (BS). An explorative search for factors influencing the
      sensitivity or uptake of BS and FDG-PET was also performed. METHODS: Eighty-eight
      patients with bone metastases from breast cancer were eligible for this study.
      Histological confirmation of bone metastases was obtained in 31 patients. The
      bone metastases were visually classified into four types based on their computed
      tomography (CT) appearance: osteoblastic, osteolytic, mixed, and negative. The
      sensitivity of BS and FDG-PET were obtained regarding CT type, adjuvant therapy,
      and the primary tumor characteristics. The FDG maximum standardized uptake value
      (SUVmax) was analyzed. RESULTS: The sensitivities of the three modalities (CT,
      BS, and FDG-PET) were 77, 89, and 94%, respectively. The sensitivity of FDG-PET
      for the osteoblastic type (69%) was significantly lower than that for the other
      types (P < 0.001), and the sensitivity of BS for the negative type (70%) was
      significantly lower than that for the others. Regarding tumor characteristics,
      the sensitivity of FDG-PET significantly differed between nuclear grade (NG)1 and
      NG2-3 (P = 0.032). The SUVmax of the osteoblastic type was significantly lower
      than that of the other types (P = 0.009). The SUVmax of NG1 was also
      significantly lower than that of NG2-3 (P = 0.011). No significant difference in
      FDG uptake (SUVmax) was detected between different histological types.
      CONCLUSION: Although FDG-PET is superior to BS for the detection of bone
      metastases from breast cancer, this technique has limitations in depicting
      osteoblastic bone metastases and NG1.

PMID- 28864933
TI  - Cigarette smoking in Austria - a call for action.

PMID- 28864932
TI  - Perceived Intensity of Emotional Point-Light Displays is Reduced in Subjects with
      ASD.
AB  - One major characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is problems with
      social interaction and communication. The present study explored ASD-related
      alterations in perceiving emotions expressed via body movements. 16 participants
      with ASD and 16 healthy controls observed video scenes of human interactions
      conveyed by point-light displays. They rated the valence of the depicted emotions
      in terms of their intensity and judged their confidence in their ratings. Results
      showed that healthy participants rated emotional interactions displaying positive
      emotionality as being more intense and were more confident about their ratings
      than ASD subjects. Results support the idea that patients with ASD have an
      altered perception of emotions. This extends research on subjective features
      (intensity, confidence) of emotion perception to the domain of emotional body
      movements and kinematics.

PMID- 28864935
TI  - Program and Abstracts of the 14th Transgenic Technology Meeting (TT2017) :
      Snowbird Resort, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 1-4 October 2017.

PMID- 28864936
TI  - A Case of Cutaneous Mycosis Caused by Scedosporium dehoogii on an
      Immunocompromised Patient.
AB  - This report describes a 77-year-old man with cutaneous mycosis caused by
      Scedosporium dehoogii while taking oral betamethasone and tacrolimus for the
      treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. At examination in our clinic, the patient had
      multiple cystic lesions and nodules with slight tenderness, varying in size up to
      4 cm, on his left knee and shin. He had not noticed any traumatic injury at the
      site of the lesions. Fungal cultures of samples taken from the abscesses, scales,
      and crusts of the lesions yielded white, later grayish brown, fluffy surfaced
      colonies. Partial sequencing of the beta-tubulin gene confirmed the species of
      the isolate. The patient was initially treated with oral voriconazole and local
      hyperthermia, but experienced hepatic injury 2 weeks later. His treatment was
      changed to itraconazole (ITC) and local hyperthermia, followed by a combination
      of ITC and terbinafine. The patient recovered completely during the 12-month
      course of treatment.

PMID- 28864934
TI  - Gene therapy for chondral and osteochondral regeneration: is the future now?
AB  - Gene therapy might represent a promising strategy for chondral and osteochondral
      defects repair by balancing the management of temporary joint mechanical
      incompetence with altered metabolic and inflammatory homeostasis. This review
      analysed preclinical and clinical studies on gene therapy for the repair of
      articular cartilage defects performed over the last 10 years, focussing on
      expression vectors (non-viral and viral), type of genes delivered and gene
      therapy procedures (direct or indirect). Plasmids (non-viral expression vectors)
      and adenovirus (viral vectors) were the most employed vectors in preclinical
      studies. Genes delivered encoded mainly for growth factors, followed by
      transcription factors, anti-inflammatory cytokines and, less frequently, by cell
      signalling proteins, matrix proteins and receptors. Direct injection of the
      expression vector was used less than indirect injection of cells, with or without
      scaffolds, transduced with genes of interest and then implanted into the lesion
      site. Clinical trials (phases I, II or III) on safety, biological activity,
      efficacy, toxicity or bio-distribution employed adenovirus viral vectors to
      deliver growth factors or anti-inflammatory cytokines, for the treatment of
      osteoarthritis or degenerative arthritis, and tumour necrosis factor receptor or
      interferon for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis.

PMID- 28864937
TI  - Meta-analysis of randomised trials comparing the use of prophylactic mesh to
      standard midline closure in the reduction of incisional herniae.
AB  - : Purpose Incisional hernia (IH) is common complication following laparotomy.
      Research suggests that the use of a prophylactic mesh can reduce the rate of IH.
      We performed an updated meta-analysis to better understand the evidence regarding
      prevention of IH using prophylactic mesh. METHODS: PubMed, clinictrials.gov.uk,
      and the Cochrane database were searched for randomised controlled trials
      comparing closure of the abdomen after laparotomy using a prophylactic mesh with
      suture closure. A meta-analysis was then performed. The primary outcome was the
      occurrence of IH. RESULTS: Eight studies were identified for inclusion in the
      meta-analysis with a total of 727 patients. PRIMARY OUTCOME: There was a
      significant reduction in the occurrence of IH in the mesh group vs. the suture
      repair group, OR 0.14 (95% CI 0.07-0.27). SECONDARY OUTCOMES: There was a
      significant increase in the number of seromas in the mesh group vs. the suture
      repair group, OR 1.73 (95% CI 1.04-2.87). There was also a significant increase
      in operative time in the mesh group vs. the suture repair group SMD 0.24 (95% CI
      0.00-0.48). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis found a reduction in the occurrence
      of IH after a laparotomy when a prophylactic mesh is used versus a suture repair.
      The majority of patients included in the studies were deemed to be at high risk
      of IH. There appears to be sufficient evidence to recommend the use of a
      prophylactic mesh during laparotomy in high-risk patients.

PMID- 28864938
TI  - Danish sperm donors and the ethics of donation and selection.
AB  - There has been a great deal of discussion about the ethical implications of
      donating sperm and of the ways in which donated tissue is presented, selected,
      and sold for use in assisted reproduction. Debates have emerged within the
      academic sphere, from donor offspring and recipients, and in broader popular
      culture, including questions about the commodification of human tissue and the
      eugenic potential of selecting donors from particular demographic categories.
      However, the voices of donors themselves on this subject have been largely
      silent. This paper draws on data from qualitative interviews with men who donated
      at a major Danish sperm bank between 2012 and 2013. It argues that many of them
      are indeed thinking through these complex issues. Donors' approaches to ethical
      issues fell into two broad 'types': a pragmatic, individualistic approach which
      focused on more immediate personal consequences, and an ethically-driven approach
      in which donors considered the impact of donation on offspring and on a wider
      societal level.

PMID- 28864940
TI  - Discussion of "Microsurgical Reconstruction Following Oncologic Resection in
      Pediatric Patients: A 15-Year Experience" by M. Starnes-Roubaud et al.

PMID- 28864939
TI  - Intravenous immunoglobulins for treatment of connective tissue diseases in
      dermatology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Connective tissue diseases are a heterogeneous group of autoimmune
      disorders affecting not only skin, but also various organs and systems. First
      line treatment of connective tissue diseases is systemic steroids as monotherapy
      or combined with immunosuppressive drugs. Since intravenous immunoglobulins
      (IVIGs) have been found to be effective for various autoimmune dermatoses, their
      indications have expanded tremendously. OBJECTIVE: The aim this review article is
      to highlight the indications, effectiveness, and side effects of high doses
      immunoglobulins for treatment of patients with connective tissue diseases.
      METHODS: MEDLINE was searched for prospective clinical studies and case reports
      on IVIG treatment of lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, systemic sclerosis,
      and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). Included studies were analyzed and
      discussed in terms of the different disease entities. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:
      IVIGs are a valuable alternative for treating therapy-resistant patients with
      lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, systemic sclerosis, or MCTD. However, more
      placebo-controlled clinical studies are needed to evaluate the exact indications
      and therapeutic regimens.

PMID- 28864941
TI  - Influence of diligent disintegration on anaerobic biomass and performance of
      microbial fuel cell.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To enhance the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFC) by
      increasing the surface area of cathode and diligent mechanical disintegration of
      anaerobic biomass. RESULTS: Tannery effluent and anaerobic biomass were used. The
      increase in surface area of the cathode resulted in 78% COD removal, with the
      potential, current density, power density and coulombic efficiency of 675 mV, 147
      mA m-2, 33 mW m-2 and 3.5%, respectively. The work coupled with increased surface
      area of the cathode with diligent mechanical disintegration of the biomass, led
      to a further increase in COD removal of 82% with the potential, current density,
      power density and coulombic efficiency of 748 mV, 229 mA m-2, 78 mW m-2 and 6%
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Mechanical disintegration of the biomass along with
      increased surface area of cathode enhances power generation in vertical MFC
      reactors using tannery effluent as fuel.

PMID- 28864942
TI  - A Dutch MYH7 founder mutation, p.(Asn1918Lys), is associated with early onset
      cardiomyopathy and congenital heart defects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mutations in the myosin heavy chain 7 (MYH7) gene commonly cause
      cardiomyopathy but are less frequently associated with congenital heart defects.
      METHODS: In this study, we describe a mutation in the MYH7 gene, c. 5754C > G; p.
      (Asn1918Lys), present in 15 probands and 65 family members. RESULTS: Of the 80
      carriers (age range 0-88 years), 46 (57.5%) had cardiomyopathy (mainly dilated
      cardiomyopathy (DCM)) and seven (8.8%) had a congenital heart defect. Childhood
      onset of cardiomyopathy was present in almost 10% of carriers. However, in only a
      slight majority (53.7%) was the left ventricular ejection fraction reduced and
      almost no arrhythmias or conduction disorders were noted. Moreover, only one
      carrier required heart transplantation and nine (11.3%) an implantable
      cardioverter defibrillator. In addition, the standardised mortality ratio for
      MYH7 carriers was not significantly increased. Whole exome sequencing in several
      cases with paediatric onset of DCM and one with isolated congenital heart defects
      did not reveal additional known disease-causing variants. Haplotype analysis
      suggests that the MYH7 variant is a founder mutation, and is therefore the first
      Dutch founder mutation identified in the MYH7 gene. The mutation appears to have
      originated in the western region of the province of South Holland between 500 and
      900 years ago. CONCLUSION: Clinically, the p. (Asn1918Lys) mutation is associated
      with congenital heart defects and/or cardiomyopathy at young age but with a
      relatively benign course.

PMID- 28864943
TI  - Two novel Alphaflexiviridae members revealed by deep sequencing of the Vanilla
      (Orchidaceae) virome.
AB  - The genomes of two novel viruses were assembled from 454 pyrosequencing data
      obtained from vanilla leaves from La Reunion. Based on genome organization and
      homologies, one agent was unambiguously classified as a member of the genus
      Potexvirus and named vanilla virus X (VVX). The second one, vanilla latent virus
      (VLV), is phylogenetically close to three unclassified members of the family
      Alphaflexiviridae with similarity to allexiviruses, and despite the presence of
      an additional 8-kDa open reading frame, we propose to include VLV as a new member
      of the genus Allexivirus. Both VVX and VLV were mechanically transmitted to
      vanilla plants, resulting in asymptomatic infections.

PMID- 28864944
TI  - Induction of antitumor response to fibrosarcoma by Newcastle disease virus
      infected tumor vaccine.
AB  - Fibrosarcoma is a locally aggressive malignant tumor with a high recurrence rate,
      so that wide excisional surgery is necessary for treatment. However, it is often
      difficult to resect with a sufficient margin of excision at the site of tumor
      infiltration. Recombinant tumor vaccine therapy is a useful method to induce
      specific immunity. In this study, we have shown its utility as a candidate for
      therapy by applying a recombinant Newcastle disease virus (rNDV) tumor vaccine
      (rNDV-TV). Although the therapeutic effect of similar viruses has been examined
      in several tumors, the vaccination efficacy against fibrosarcoma has not been
      demonstrated until now. In this study, we showed the induction of an antitumor
      response by rNDV-TV against murine fibrosarcoma and investigated the role of
      lymphocytes in tumor elimination. Intraperitoneal inoculation of murine
      fibrosarcoma (WEHI164) cells showed increased lethality in C.B.17scid/scid (scid)
      mice within 2 weeks of inoculation. The survival rate increased to 80% when the
      mice were transfused with CD3+ cells from BALB/c mice previously immunized with
      rNDV-TV. However, all mice died from tumor growth after inoculation with non
      immunized CD3+ cells. Although the survival rate was around 50% in mice receiving
      only immunized CD4+ and CD8+ cells, the survival rate was not decreased in mice
      receiving CD3+CD4-CD8- (natural killer T; NKT) cells together with immunized CD4+
      and CD8+ cells. This study showed rNDV-TV induced an antitumor T cell response to
      WEHI164 cells, and major subsets of cells involved in tumor exclusion were CD4+
      and CD8+ cells, together with NKT cells.

PMID- 28864945
TI  - Fecal microbiota of lambs fed purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea Vent.) and
      alfalfa (Medicago sativa).
AB  - The present study assessed the effect of purple prairie clover (PPC) and PPC
      condensed tannins (CT) on the fecal microbiota of lambs using high-throughput 16S
      rRNA gene pyrosequencing. A total of 18 individual lambs were randomly divided
      into three groups and fed either green chop alfalfa (Alf), a 40:60 (DM basis;
      Mix) mixture of Alf and PPC, or Mix supplemented with polyethylene glycol (Mix-P)
      for 18 days. Fecal samples were collected on days 13 through 18 using digital
      rectal retrieval. The DNA of fecal samples was extracted and the microbial 16S
      rRNA gene amplicons were sequenced using 454 pyrosequencing. Regardless of diet,
      the bacterial community was dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes with many
      sequences unclassified at the genus level. Forage type and CT had no effect on
      the fecal microbial composition at the phylum level or on alpha-diversity.
      Compared to the Alf diet, the Mix diet reduced the relative abundance of
      Akkermansia (P = 0.03) and Asteroleplasma (P = 0.05). Fecal microbial populations
      in Alf and Mix-P clustered separately from each other when assessed using
      unweighted UniFrac (P < 0.05). These results indicate that PPC CT up to 36 g/kg
      DM in the diet had no major effect on fecal microbial flora at the phyla level
      and exerted only minor effects on the genera composition of fecal microbiota in
      lambs.

PMID- 28864946
TI  - TMDIM: an improved algorithm for the structure prediction of transmembrane
      domains of bitopic dimers.
AB  - [Formula: see text]-Helical transmembrane proteins are the most important drug
      targets in rational drug development. However, solving the experimental
      structures of these proteins remains difficult, therefore computational methods
      to accurately and efficiently predict the structures are in great demand. We
      present an improved structure prediction method TMDIM based on Park et al.
      (Proteins 57:577-585, 2004) for predicting bitopic transmembrane protein dimers.
      Three major algorithmic improvements are introduction of the packing type
      classification, the multiple-condition decoy filtering, and the cluster-based
      candidate selection. In a test of predicting nine known bitopic dimers,
      approximately 78% of our predictions achieved a successful fit (RMSD <2.0 A) and
      78% of the cases are better predicted than the two other methods compared. Our
      method provides an alternative for modeling TM bitopic dimers of unknown
      structures for further computational studies. TMDIM is freely available on the
      web at https://cbbio.cis.umac.mo/TMDIM . Website is implemented in PHP, MySQL and
      Apache, with all major browsers supported.

PMID- 28864947
TI  - Immortal time bias in pharmacoepidemiological studies on cancer patient survival:
      empirical illustration for beta-blocker use in four cancers with different
      prognosis.
AB  - Immortal time bias (ITB) is still seen frequently in medical literature. However,
      not much is known about this bias in the field of cancer (pharmaco-)epidemiology.
      In context of a hypothetical beneficial beta-blocker use among cancer patients,
      we aimed to demonstrate the magnitude of ITB among 9876 prostate, colorectal,
      lung and pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed between 1998 and 2011, which were
      selected from a database linkage of the Netherlands Cancer Registry and the
      PHARMO Database Network. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals from
      three ITB scenarios, defining exposure at a defined point after diagnosis (model
      1), at any point after diagnosis (model 2) and as multiple exposures after
      diagnosis (model 3), were calculated to investigate the association between beta
      blockers and cancer prognosis using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results
      were compared to unbiased estimates derived from the Mantel-Byar model. Ignoring
      ITB led to substantial smaller HRs for beta-blocker use proposing a significant
      protective association in all cancer types [e.g. HR 0.18 (0.07-0.43) for
      pancreatic cancer in model 1], whereas estimates derived from the Mantel-Byar
      model were mainly suggesting no association [e.g. HR 1.10 (0.84-1.44)]. The
      magnitude of bias was consistently larger among cancer types with worse prognosis
      [overall median HR differences between all scenarios in model 1 and Mantel-Byar
      model of 0.56 (prostate), 0.72 (colorectal), 0.77 (lung) and 0.85 (pancreas)]. In
      conclusion, ITB led to spurious beneficial associations of beta-blocker use among
      cancer patients. The magnitude of ITB depends on the duration of excluded
      immortal time and the prognosis of each cancer.

PMID- 28864948
TI  - Building Community Partnerships: Using Social Network Analysis to Strengthen
      Service Networks Supporting a South Carolina Program for Pregnant and Parenting
      Teens.
AB  - In 2013, South Carolina implemented a multi-year program providing support
      services for pregnant and parenting teens. Local lead sites were responsible for
      coordinating service delivery in partnership with other multidisciplinary
      community-based organizations. We used social network theory and analyses (SNA)
      to examine changes in partnerships over time. Using two-stage purposeful
      sampling, we identified three lead sites and their self-reported community
      partners. We administered two web-based surveys grounded in social network theory
      that included questions about partnership relationships and organizational
      characteristics. We calculated selected whole-network measures (size, cohesion,
      equity, diversity). Following the Year 1 surveys, we reviewed our findings with
      the lead sites and suggested opportunities to strengthen their respective
      partnerships. Following the Year 3 surveys, we observed changes across the
      networks. Survey response rates were 91.5% (43/47) in Year 1 and 68.2% (45/66) in
      Year 3. By Year 3, the average network size increased from 15.6 to 20.3
      organizations. By Year 3, one lead site doubled its measure of network cohesion
      (connectedness); another lead site doubled in size (capacity). A third lead site,
      highly dense in Year 1, increased in size but decreased in cohesion by Year 3.
      Innovative use of SNA findings can help community partnerships identify gaps in
      capacity or services and organizations needed to fulfill program aims. SNA
      findings can also improve partnership function by identifying opportunities to
      improve connectedness or reduce redundancies in program work. The ability of lead
      sites to strategically reconfigure partnerships can be important to program
      success and sustainability.

PMID- 28864949
TI  - Skeletal muscle mitochondrial mass is linked to lipid and metabolic profile in
      individuals with spinal cord injury.
AB  - PURPOSE: Changes in metabolism and body composition after spinal cord injury
      (SCI) predispose individuals to obesity, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular
      disease. A link between lean mass and skeletal muscle mitochondrial mass has been
      reported but it is unknown how skeletal muscle mitochondrial mass and activity
      impact metabolic health. This study examined the relationship between skeletal
      muscle mitochondrial mass, activity and metabolic profile in individuals with
      chronic SCI. METHODS: Twenty-two men with motor complete SCI participated in the
      study. Citrate synthase (CS) and complex III (CIII) activity was measured in
      vastus lateralis biopsies. Metabolic profile was assessed by intravenous glucose
      tolerance test, basal metabolic rate (BMR), maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 peak) and
      blood lipid profile. RESULTS: Skeletal muscle CS activity was negatively related
      to the cholesterol:high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio and
      triglycerides (r = -0.60, p = 0.009; r = -0.64, p = 0.004, respectively). CS
      activity was positively related to insulin sensitivity and BMR (r = 0.67, p =
      0.006; r = 0.64, p = 0.005, respectively). Similar relationships were found for
      CIII and metabolic profile, but not CIII normalized to CS. Many of the
      relationships between CS and metabolism remained significant when age, level of
      injury, or time since injury were accounted for. They also remained significant
      when CS activity was normalized to total lean mass. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      suggest that an increase in skeletal muscle mitochondrial mass is associated with
      improved metabolic health independent of age, level of injury, or time since
      injury in individuals with chronic SCI. This highlights the importance of
      maintaining and improving mitochondrial health in individuals with SCI.

PMID- 28864950
TI  - Correlation of early PET findings with tumor response to molecular targeted
      agents in patients with advanced driver-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - Recent advances in positron emission tomography with fluorine-18
      fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-PET) have facilitated not only the diagnosis and staging
      of lung cancer, but also the prediction of treatment outcome. The present study
      was designed to assess the usefulness of early FDG-PET examination for predicting
      subsequent tumor size reduction in response to molecular targeted agents in
      metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with sensitive gene anomalies. I.
      In 29 targeted lesions of 10 NSCLC patients, changes in FDG uptake before and on
      day 7 after the initiation of molecular targeted therapy (gefitinib, n = 7;
      crizotinib, n = 3) were compared with subsequent radiographic tumor size
      reduction by RECIST. FDG uptake was evaluated as the maximum standardized uptake
      value (SUVmax) of each targeted lesion. SUVmax decreased in all lesions after
      therapy (mean SUVmax 8.3 +/- 3.4 before to 3.7 +/- 1.8 after therapy, p < 0.05).
      The % decrease in SUVmax of each lesion was significantly correlated with the %
      tumor size reduction (r = 0.44). In addition, the reduction rate of SUVmax in
      metastatic bone lesions after initiation of molecular targeted therapy was
      significantly lower than that in targeted organs (27.1 +/- 27.5 vs. 51.2 +/-
      21.3%, respectively, p < 0.05). Early reduction in FDG-PET uptake after
      initiation of molecular targeted agents was able to predict subsequent tumor
      reduction in patients harboring EGFR-mutated or ALK-positive NSCLC. In addition,
      nontargeted bone metastasis may have different glucose metabolism after TKI
      treatment compared with other involved organs.

PMID- 28864952
TI  - Transitions from Assertive Community Treatment Among Urban and Rural Teams:
      Identifying Barriers, Service Options, and Strategies.
AB  - An emerging focus of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams is the transition
      of clients to less intensive services, which creates space for individuals in
      need of ACT and is consistent with a recovery orientation of treatment. However,
      there is limited research on team transition rates, post-ACT services, and
      strategies to overcome transition barriers. In addition, few studies have
      examined differences in these factors among urban and rural ACT teams. To address
      these knowledge gaps, we interviewed eight ACT teams in urban and rural areas of
      eastern Ontario regarding their transition rates, processes of transitioning ACT
      clients to less intensive services, transition barriers, and solutions to
      overcoming these barriers. On average, teams transitioned about 6% of their
      clients over our 3-year study period. Urban and rural teams described both
      similar and distinct clinical and systemic barriers, such as client reluctance to
      transition and finding psychiatric follow-up outside of ACT. Implications for ACT
      practice and policy are discussed.

PMID- 28864951
TI  - Time course of cellular HIV-DNA and low-level HIV viremia in HIV-HCV co-infected
      patients whose HCV infection had been successfully treated with directly acting
      antivirals.
AB  - This longitudinal study described cellular HIV-DNA changes and their correlation
      with HIV low-level plasma viremia (LLV) in HIV-HCV co-infected patients on
      successful antiretroviral and anti-HCV therapy by treatment with direct-acting
      antivirals (DAA). Thirty-nine patients were examined prior to the start of DAA
      (T0), after week 12 (T1) and 24 weeks (T2) of anti-HCV therapy. Cellular PBMC HIV
      DNA was analysed as an absolute value and as the percentage of increase or
      decrease from T0 to T2. Patients were classified as having undetectable plasma
      HIV viraemia (UV) or LLV in the year before the start of anti-HCV treatment and
      within the T0-T2 study period. Thirty-five patients (89.7%) of the 39 subjects
      enrolled had the same plasma HIV viraemia control in the year before HCV
      treatment and in the T0-T2 interval. The HIV-DNA value at T0 and at T2 was higher
      in patients with LLV than in subjects with UV (p = 0.015 and p = 0.014,
      respectively). A similar proportion of patients with LLV and UV experienced an
      increase or decrease of HIV-DNA from T0 to T2. The percentage increase in HIV-DNA
      value (262.8%) from T0 to T2 was higher compared to the decrease (43.5%) in
      patients with UV (p = 0.012), and it was higher compared to the percentage
      increase in HIV-DNA value reported in subjects with LLV (262.8 versus 49%, p =
      0.026). HIV-HCV co-infected patients experienced a multifaceted perturbation of
      cellular HIV-DNA levels within a 24-week period during anti-HCV treatment; the
      extent of the phenomenon was greater in subjects with UV. Fast HCV-RNA clearance
      seemed to have a greater influence on the cellular reservoir than on plasma HIV
      RNA.

PMID- 28864953
TI  - Monitoring of genetically modified Escherichia coli in laboratory wastewater.
AB  - Containment of genetically modified (GM) microorganisms such as Escherichia coli
      is a legal requirement to protect the environment from an unintended release and
      to avoid horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of recombinant DNA to native bacteria. In
      this study, we sampled the laboratory wastewater (LWW) at a large Swiss
      university from three sources over 2 years and cultured ampicillin-resistant,
      presumptive GM E. coli. From a total of 285 samples, 127 contained presumptive GM
      E. coli (45%) at a mean concentration of 2.8 * 102 CFU/ml. Plasmid DNA of 11
      unique clones was partially or entirely sequenced. All consisted of cloning
      vectors harboring research-specific inserts. To estimate the chance of HGT
      between GM E. coli and native bacteria in LWW, we identified taxa representative
      for the bacterial community in LWW using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and
      measured conjugation frequencies of E. coli with five LWW isolates. At optimal
      conjugation conditions, frequencies were between 3.4 * 10-3 and 2.4 * 10-5. Given
      the absence of transferable broad-host range plasmids and suboptimal conjugation
      conditions in the LWW system, we conclude that the chance of HGT is relatively
      low. Still, this study shows that the implementation of robust containment
      measures is key to avoid the escape of GM microorganisms.

PMID- 28864954
TI  - Comparison of the Trace Elements and Active Components of Lonicera japonica flos
      and Lonicera flos Using ICP-MS and HPLC-PDA.
AB  - Thirteen trace elements and active constituents of 40 batches of Lonicera
      japonica flos and Lonicera flos were comparatively studied using inductively
      coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS) and high-performance liquid
      chromatography-photodiode array (HPLC-PDA). The trace elements were 24Mg, 52Cr,
      55Mn, 57Fe, 60Ni, 63Cu, 66Zn, 75As, 82Se, 98Mo, 114Cd, 202Hg, and 208Pb, and the
      active compounds were chlorogenic acid, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinc acid, 4,5-O
      dicaffeoylquinc acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, and 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid. The
      data of 18 variables were statistically processed using principal component
      analysis (PCA) and discriminate analysis (DA) to classify L. japonica flos and L.
      flos. The validated method was developed to divide the 40 samples into two groups
      based on the PCA in terms of 18 variables. Furthermore, the species of Lonicera
      was better discriminated by using DA with 12 variables. These results suggest
      that the method and statistical analysis of the contents of trace elements and
      chemical components can classify the L. japonica flos and L. flos using 12
      variables, such as 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquincacid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, Cd, Mn, Hg,
      Pb, Ni, 4-O-caffeoyl-quinic acid, 4,5-O-dicaffeoylquinc acid, Fe, Mg, and Cr.

PMID- 28864956
TI  - Overextended Personality Disorder is Epidemic in Academic Medical Centers:
      Proposed Criteria and Preliminary Treatment Suggestions.

PMID- 28864955
TI  - Laparoscopic extraperitoneal repair versus open inguinal hernia repair: 20-year
      follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study compared the long-term recurrence rates of laparoscopic
      totally extraperitoneal (TEP) and open inguinal hernia repair in patients from a
      randomised trial completed in 1994. Laparoscopic inguinal hernia surgery,
      especially TEP repair, has gained widespread acceptance in recent years. There is
      still paucity of data on long-term follow-up comparing recurrence rates for open
      and laparoscopic techniques. This is the first study providing direct long-term
      comparative data about these techniques. METHODS: A randomised controlled trial
      was conducted between 1992 and 1994 on patients undergoing a laparoscopic TEP or
      an open inguinal hernia (Shouldice) repair at our institution. Of the original
      104 participants, contemporary follow-up data could be obtained for 98 patients
      with regards to long-term recurrence. These data were collected with the help of
      questionnaires, telephone calls and retrieval of case records. Medical records
      were reviewed for all patients. Data were analysed using a Cox proportional
      hazards model. RESULTS: There were 7/72 (9.7%) recurrences in the open group and
      9/35 (25.7%) recurrences in the laparoscopic group. This difference in recurrence
      rates was statistically significant (HR = 2.94; 95% CI 1.05-8.25; p = 0.041.)
      CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic TEP inguinal hernia repair performed in 1992-1994 had a
      higher recurrence rate than open Shouldice inguinal hernia repair during the same
      period. The original study was undertaken in the inceptive days of laparoscopic
      surgery and results need to be interpreted considering the technology and
      expertise available at that time.

PMID- 28864957
TI  - Physical Activity and Nutrition INfluences In ageing (PANINI): consortium mission
      statement.

PMID- 28864958
TI  - Mathematical Modeling of Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury and Postconditioning
      Therapy.
AB  - Reperfusion (restoration of blood flow) after a period of ischemia (interruption
      of blood flow) can paradoxically place tissues at risk of further injury: so
      called ischemia-reperfusion injury or IR injury. Recent studies have shown that
      postconditioning (intermittent periods of further ischemia applied during
      reperfusion) can reduce IR injury. We develop a mathematical model to describe
      the reperfusion and postconditioning process following an ischemic insult,
      treating the blood vessel as a two-dimensional channel, lined with a monolayer of
      endothelial cells that interact (respiration and mechanotransduction) with the
      blood flow. We investigate how postconditioning affects the total cell density
      within the endothelial layer, by varying the frequency of the pulsatile flow and
      the oxygen concentration at the inflow boundary. We find that, in the scenarios
      we consider, the pulsatile flow should be of high frequency to minimize cellular
      damage, while oxygen concentration at the inflow boundary should be held
      constant, or subject to only low-frequency variations, to maximize cell
      proliferation.

PMID- 28864959
TI  - Transoral robotic-assisted surgery for the approach to anterior cervical spine
      lesions.
AB  - The Da Vinci robotic surgical system is increasingly being used by head and neck
      surgeons in transoral approaches for head and neck cancer. Our experience using
      the Da Vinci system for transoral robotic-assisted surgery (TORS) is presented.
      The feasibility of TORS for lesions involving the anterior portion of C1-C2 and
      the cranio-cervical junction has been evaluated from an anatomical viewpoint in a
      cadaveric laboratory. Two patients treated using the Da Vinci system to reach C1
      C2 benign lesions are presented. The anatomical cadaveric study showed that this
      approach is safe and feasible. The first two cases which we describe confirmed
      the advantages of the Da Vinci system in the anterior approach to the cervical
      spine and allowed the limitations of this procedure to be assessed. TORS may be
      useful to reach anterior lesions of the cervical spine localized at the level of
      C1 and C2: first, for removal of small benign and well-delineated lesions; and
      second, for diagnostic purposes with biopsy of large lesions. Further studies and
      new instruments are needed to confirm the safety and results of this approach in
      terms of morbidity.

PMID- 28864960
TI  - Anoplodiscus Sonsino, 1890 (Monogenea: Anoplodiscidae): a new Australian species,
      and the first African record from South African hosts.
AB  - Species of Anoplodiscus Sonsino, 1890 were previously only known from host
      members of Sparidae. A new species, Anoplodiscus hutsonae n. sp. is proposed for
      museum specimens originally collected from species of Scolopsis Cuvier
      (Nemipteridae) off Heron Island and Lizard Island, Australia. Additionally,
      Anoplodiscus tai Ogawa, 1994 is synonymised with Anoplodiscus cirrusspiralis
      Roubal, Armitage & Rohde, 1983 due to a lack of support for differential
      characters, and Anoplodiscus richiardii is considered a species inquirenda.
      Anoplodiscus cirrusspiralis causes visible lesions on the skin and fins of its
      host, and may also contribute to poor food conversion rates in sparid
      aquaculture. Anoplodiscus cirrusspiralis has been recorded from cultured sparids
      in Australia, Japan, South Africa, and South Korea, and was implicated as a
      disease agent in fish from the former two countries. However, the discovery of A.
      cirrusspiralis on Chrysoblephus gibbiceps (Valenciennes), Ch. laticeps
      (Valenciennes) and Cymatoceps nasutus (Castelnau) in South Africa, ?Pagrus major
      (Temminck & Schlegel) in South Korea, and P. auratus (Forster) in Australia, New
      Zealand and Japan suggests that this species may have a wide distribution and low
      host-specificity within the Sparidae. In South Africa, A. cirrusspiralis was
      first encountered on a morbid C. nasutus and Ch. gibbiceps from two public
      aquaria in 2009 (Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town and uShaka Sea World, Durban,
      respectively). Additional material was collected from C. laticeps kept at an
      abalone farm in Hermanus that originated from Struisbaai on the South African
      south coast. Anoplodiscus cirrusspiralis is redescribed from the South African
      specimens. This is the first record of a member of Anoplodiscidae Tagliani, 1912
      from Africa.

PMID- 28864961
TI  - The effect of smoking on surgical outcomes in ventral hernia repair: a propensity
      score matched analysis of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data.
AB  - PURPOSE: Although studies have implicated smoking as a positive predictor of post
      operative outcomes in inguinal hernia repair, its impact on ventral hernia repair
      (VHR) is not as clear. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the
      impact of smoking on developing adverse 30-day post-operative outcomes in VHR.
      METHODS: Patients undergoing VHR between 2005 and 2014 were extracted from the
      American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
      database. Patients were stratified by smoking status and compared for significant
      differences in baseline characteristics. Logistic regression modeled the impact
      of smoking on the primary outcome variable of 30-day mortality and the secondary
      outcome variables of 30-day overall, cardiac, respiratory, or wound morbidity. To
      evaluate the influence of smoking in comparable groups undergoing VHR, a
      propensity score matched analysis was performed. RESULTS: Out of 169,458 patients
      identified, 32,973 (19.5%) were classified as current smokers. Smokers and non/ex
      smokers differed significantly in multiple pre-operative baseline
      characteristics. Unmatched univariate analyses revealed smoking status as a
      positive predictor of every post-operative outcome. These findings were validated
      with propensity score matching analyses, which found current smokers have an
      increased likelihood of 30-day mortality (OR 1.42), overall morbidity (OR 1.39),
      wound (OR 1.40), respiratory (OR 1.14), or cardiac morbidity (OR 1.88) compared
      to non/ex-smokers (p < 0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Smoking is a modifiable risk
      factor with a detrimental impact on outcomes in patients undergoing ventral
      hernia repair. Delaying VHR and promoting smoking cessation prior to surgery may
      help reduce the odds of adverse 30-day post-operative outcomes.

PMID- 28864962
TI  - Heat stress mortality and desired adaptation responses of healthcare system in
      Poland.
AB  - Heat stress is one of the environmental factors influencing the health of
      individuals and the wider population. There is a large body of research to
      document significant increases in mortality and morbidity during heat waves all
      over the world. This paper presents key results of research dealing with heat
      related mortality (HRM) in various cities in Poland which cover about 25% of the
      country's population. Daily mortality and weather data reports for the years 1991
      2000 were used. The intensity of heat stress was assessed by the universal
      thermal climate index (UTCI). The research considers also the projections of
      future bioclimate to the end of twenty-first century. Brain storming discussions
      were applied to find necessary adaptation strategies of healthcare system (HCS)
      in Poland, to minimise negative effects of heat stress. In general, in days with
      strong and very strong heat stress, ones must expect increase in mortality (in
      relation to no thermal stress days) of 12 and 47%, respectively. Because of
      projected rise in global temperature and heat stress frequency, we must expect
      significant increase in HRM to the end of twenty-first century of even 165% in
      comparison to present days. The results of research show necessity of urgent
      implementation of adaptation strategies to heat in HCS.

PMID- 28864963
TI  - A 46-year-old man with recurrent embolic events.

PMID- 28864964
TI  - Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology and the effect of multiple-ion
      interactions.
AB  - High incidence of chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDU) prevalent in
      many countries (e.g., Sri Lanka, equatorial America) is reviewed in the context
      of recent experimental work and using our understanding of the hydration of ions
      and proteins. Qualitative considerations based on Hofmeister-type action of these
      ions, as well as quantitative electrochemical models for the Gibbs free energy
      change for ionpair formation, are used to explain why (1) fluoride and water
      hardness due to magnesium ions (but not due to calcium ions) and similarly (2)
      cadmium ions in the presence of suitable pairing ions can be expected to be more
      nephrotoxic, while arsenite in the presence of fluoride and hardness may be
      expected to be less nephrotoxic. No synergy of arsenic with calcium hardness is
      found. The analysis is applied to a variety of ionic species that may be found in
      typical water sources to predict their likely combined electrochemical action.
      These results clarify the origins of chronic kidney disease that has reached
      epidemic proportions in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka as being most
      likely due to the joint presence of fluoride and magnesium ions in drinking
      water. The conclusion is further strengthened by a study of the dietary load of
      Cd and other toxins in the affected regions and in the healthy regions where the
      dietary toxin loads and lifestyles are similar, and found to be safe especially
      when the mitigating effects of micronutrient ionic forms of Zn, Se, as well as
      corrections for bioavailability are taken into account. The resulting etiological
      picture is consistent with the views of most workers in the field who have
      suspected that fluoride and other ions found in the hard water stagnant in
      shallow household wells were the major causative factors of the disease. Similar
      incidence of CKDu found in other hot tropical climates is likely to have similar
      origins.

PMID- 28864966
TI  - Race, Remarital Status, and Infertility in 1910: More Evidence of Multiple
      Causes.
AB  - The dominant approach to studying historical race-related fertility differences
      has been to limit samples to first-married and younger women. We argue that
      studying historical race-related fertility differences in the context of
      remarriage is also important: remarriage and fertility patterns are both rooted
      in the biosocial conditions that produce racial disparities in health. We employ
      a multiple causes framework that attributes variation in fertility patterns to
      voluntary limitation and involuntary factors (infecundity/subfecundity). We use
      data from the 1910 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series and estimate zero
      inflated negative binomial models that simultaneously distinguish those who are
      infecund (vs. fecund) and estimate the number of remarital births among the
      fecund. Our approach allows us to evaluate historical remarital (in)fertility
      differences, accounting for marital, socioeconomic, and geographic influences on
      fecundity and fertility, while empirically accounting for the influence of
      children "missing" from the household due to mortality and fostering/aging out.
      Consistent with past studies that emphasized poorer African American health as a
      major influence on involuntary infertility, we find that African American women
      were more likely than white women to be in the always-zero (infecund) group and
      to have fewer remarital births. Supplemental analyses nuance these findings but
      indicate that these results are robust. Overall, we find support for a multiple
      causes perspective: while the findings are consistent with the adoption of
      deliberate fertility control among urban and higher-status women at higher
      parities, remarital fertility differences in 1910 also reflected greater
      infecundity/subfecundity among subgroups of women, especially African American
      women.

PMID- 28864965
TI  - Pharmacological Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with an increased risk of
      adverse pregnancy outcomes in the setting of poor glycemic control. The initial
      management for GDM includes intensive lifestyle modification, which often
      requires behavioral and nutritional changes to optimize glycemic control.
      Pharmacotherapy for GDM is initiated when glycemic targets are not met. The rapid
      acting bolus analogues aspart and lispro achieve postprandial targets with less
      hypoglycemia compared to regular insulin, with similar fetal outcomes. The long
      acting insulin analogues glargine and detemir appear safe with similar
      maternal/fetal outcomes compared to NPH. While insulin has been the mainstay
      therapy for women with GDM to improve glycemic control when lifestyle
      modifications are insufficient, certain oral antihyperglycemic drugs (OADs) can
      be considered as alternative treatment options for GDM but continue to be
      controversial for use as first-line treatment options compared to insulin by many
      professional bodies. Metformin has good efficacy and short-term safety data but
      it freely crosses the placenta and long-term safety data are lacking. Glyburide
      has good efficacy and short-term data but it also crosses the placenta and may be
      associated with increased rates of large-for-gestational-age (LGA) infants and
      neonatal hypoglycaemia when compared with insulin. This review aims to give an
      overview of the pharmacological treatment for women with GDM including some of
      the known safety profiles of current therapeutic options.

PMID- 28864967
TI  - Characterization and Cu sorption properties of humic acid from the decomposition
      of rice straw.
AB  - Humic acid (HA) derived from rice straw decomposed for 1 (HA-1), 3 (HA-3), 6 (HA
      6) and 12 (HA-12) months was characterized by potentiometric titration and solid
      state cross-polarization magic-angle spinning 13C nuclear magnetic resonance
      spectroscopy (CPMAS 13C NMR). The sorption of Cu on examined HA was investigated
      using a combination of batch sorption, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and
      sequential desorption. Results showed that the functional group content and the
      humification degree of HA tended to increase with increasing decomposition time
      especially in the latter stage of examined decomposition period. Cu sorption on
      HA was a rapid process that occurred within the first 1 h and the sorption
      capacity increased from 245.4 mmol kg-1 on HA-1 to 294.6 mmol kg-1 on HA-12. The
      sorption of Cu was endothermic, spontaneous and the randomness was increased
      during Cu sorption. Sorbed Cu on examined HA can be hardly released by NH4Ac but
      nearly fully released by EDTA. Forming inner-sphere complexes was the main
      mechanism of Cu sorption on examined HA. This study could provide valuable
      information for a better understanding on the environmental impacts of the
      decomposition of organic waste.

PMID- 28864970
TI  - ?

PMID- 28864968
TI  - Ethylene promotes pollen tube growth by affecting actin filament organization via
      the cGMP-dependent pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana.
AB  - Ethylene and cGMP are key regulators of plant developmental processes. In this
      study, we demonstrate that ethylene or cGMP promote pollen tube growth in a dose
      dependent manner. The etr1-1 mutant was found to be insensitive to ethylene with
      regard to pollen tube growth, while the growth-promoting effect of ethylene in
      etr2-2, ein4-4, or ein4-7 did not change, suggesting that ethylene signaling was
      mainly perceived by ETR1. However, the function of cGMP was not inhibited in etr1
      1 and pollen tubes became insensitive to ethylene when the endogenous cGMP level
      was artificially decreased. This shows that cGMP is necessary for the control of
      pollen tube growth and that it might be a downstream component of ETR1 in the
      ethylene signaling pathway. Our study also found that ethylene or cGMP increase
      the actin bundles and elevated the percentage of relative amount of F-actin,
      while removal of cGMP decreased actin bundles abundance and altered the ratio of
      F-actin in the tip and base regions of pollen tubes. In conclusion, our data
      suggests that ethylene functions as the upstream signal of cGMP, and that both
      signals promote pollen germination and tube growth by regulating F-actin, which
      is essential for vesicular transport and cytoplasmic streaming.

PMID- 28864969
TI  - Auditory Event-Related Potentials in the Interictal Phase of Migraine Indicate
      Alterations in Automatic Attention.
AB  - Migraine has been characterized by interictal cortical hyperresponsivity. We
      compared event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to unattended tone pairs in
      migraineurs (interictal) versus non-headache controls, with particular interest
      in attention-related activity (i.e., the N1 component). Electroencephalograms
      were recorded from 11 interictal migraineurs and 14 headache-free controls while
      they watched a silent video. Pairs of 50-ms tones with 500-ms inter-tone
      intervals were presented with inter-pair intervals of 1 or 5 s. P1, N1, P2, and
      N2 components were analyzed. N1 peak amplitudes were larger in migraineurs than
      in controls, especially after the 5-s inter-pair interval. However, there was no
      difference between groups in the attenuation of the N1 (i.e., no interaction). P2
      peak amplitudes were larger in migraineurs, but only after the first tone in the
      pair. The three migraineurs without aura had larger N1s than the eight with aura.
      Our findings are consistent with interictal hyperresponsivity of cortical
      generators of these ERPs in migraineurs. However, areas that inhibit the
      responses with stimulus repetition do not seem to be affected.

PMID- 28864971
TI  - Proteomics and 1H NMR-based metabolomics analysis of pathogenic Vibrio vulnificus
      aquacultures isolated from sewage drains.
AB  - Vibrio bacteria live in both marine and freshwater habitats and are associated
      with aquatic animals. Vibrio vulnificus is a pathogenic bacterium that infects
      people and livestock. It is usually found in offshore waters or within fish and
      shellfish. This study presents a comparative proteomic analysis of the outer
      membrane protein (OMP) changes in V. vulnificus proteins after stimulation with
      sewage from sewage drains. Using two-dimensional electrophoresis followed by
      MALDI-TOF MS/MS, 32 protein spots with significant differences in abundance were
      identified and characterized. These identified proteins were found to be involved
      in various functional categories, including catalysis, transport, membrane
      proteins progresses, receptor activity, energy metabolism, cytokine activity, and
      protein metabolism. The mRNA expression levels of 12 differential proteins were
      further assessed by qRT-PCR. Seven genes including carboxypeptidase, hemoglobin
      receptor, succinate dehydrogenase iron-sulfur subunit, ATP synthase subunit
      alpha, thioredoxin, succinyl-CoA synthetase subunit, and alanine dehydrogenase
      were downregulated upon stimulation, whereas the protein expression levels HupA
      receptor, type I secretion outer membrane protein, glutamine synthetase,
      superoxide dismutase, OmpU, and VuuA were upregulated. 1H NMR spectra showed 18
      dysregulated metabolites from V. vulnificus after the sewage stimulation and the
      pathogenicity was enhanced after that.

PMID- 28864973
TI  - The Role of Oxytocin in Social Buffering: What Do Primate Studies Add?
AB  - The ability to maintain close social bonds impacts on reproductive success,
      longevity, stress and health in social mammals, including humans (Silk et al.,
      Curr Biol 20(15):1359-1361, 2010; Crockford et al., Horm Behav 53(1):254-265,
      2008; Wittig et al., Horm Behav 54(1):170-177, 2008; Archie et al., Proc R Soc B
      281(1793):20141261, 2014; Cameron et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:13850
      13853, 2009; Schulke et al., Curr Biol 20:2207-2210, 2010; Silk et al., Science
      302:1231-1234, 2003; Holt-Lunstad et al., PLoS Med 7(7):e1000316, 2010). Close
      social bonds provide an important social support system, at least in part by
      acting as a buffer against the deleterious effects of chronic exposure to
      stressors (Young et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 51:18195-18200, 2014; Heinrichs
      et al., Biol Psychiatry 54:1389-1398, 2003). There is accumulating evidence that
      individuals that provide predictable affiliation or support to others (bond
      partners) may moderate the perception of the stressor as well as of the
      physiological stress response. The neuropeptide, oxytocin, may mediate social
      buffering by down-regulating HPA activity and thus reducing the stress response.
      However, much within this process remains unclear, such as whether oxytocin is
      always released when exposed to a stressor, whether more oxytocin is released if
      there is social support, what aspect of stress or social support triggers
      oxytocin release and whether social support in the absence of a stressor also
      impacts oxytocin release and HPA activity, during everyday life. We review the
      literature that addresses each of these questions in an attempt to clarify where
      future research effort will be helpful. A better understanding of these dynamics
      is likely to have implications for enhancing social and health gains from human
      social relationships.

PMID- 28864972
TI  - Oxytocin Modulation of Neural Circuits.
AB  - Oxytocin is a hypothalamic neuropeptide first recognized as a regulator of
      parturition and lactation which has recently gained attention for its ability to
      modulate social behaviors. In this chapter, we review several aspects of the
      oxytocinergic system, focusing on evidence for release of oxytocin and its
      receptor distribution in the cortex as the foundation for important networks that
      control social behavior. We examine the developmental timeline of the cortical
      oxytocin system as demonstrated by RNA, autoradiographic binding, and protein
      immunohistochemical studies, and describe how that might shape brain development
      and behavior. Many recent studies have implicated oxytocin in cognitive processes
      such as processing of sensory stimuli, social recognition, social memory, and
      fear. We review these studies and discuss the function of oxytocin in the young
      and adult cortex as a neuromodulator of central synaptic transmission and
      mediator of plasticity.

PMID- 28864974
TI  - Oxytocin and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.
AB  - In this chapter, we present an overview of studies of oxytocin (OXT) in
      schizophrenia and the schizophrenia spectrum. We first outline the current state
      of pharmacological treatment of the symptoms of schizophrenia and point to unmet
      clinical needs. These relate particularly to the debilitating negative symptoms
      and social cognitive deficits that are frequently observed in patients suffering
      from schizophrenia. We argue that new treatments are needed to alleviate these
      impairments. As OXT has been proposed and investigated as a putative treatment,
      we will then summarise evidence from studies in patients with schizophrenia that
      have investigated the effects of OXT at several levels, i.e. at the levels of
      clinical symptoms, social cognitive function as assessed with experimental and
      neuropsychological tasks, and brain function as assessed using functional
      magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Finally, we will introduce the concept of the
      schizophrenia spectrum and highlight the importance of studying OXT effects in
      subclinical spectrum samples, such as in people with high levels of schizotypal
      personality. We conclude that the evidence of beneficial effects of OXT in
      schizophrenia is inconsistent, calling for further research in this field.

PMID- 28864975
TI  - Oxytocin and Aggression.
AB  - The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has a solid reputation as a facilitator of social
      interactions such as parental and pair bonding, trust, and empathy. The many
      results supporting a pro-social role of OT have generated the hypothesis that
      impairments in the endogenous OT system may lead to antisocial behavior, most
      notably social withdrawal or pathological aggression. If this is indeed the case,
      administration of exogenous OT could be the "serenic" treatment that
      psychiatrists have for decades been searching for.In the present review, we list
      and discuss the evidence for an endogenous "hypo-oxytocinergic state" underlying
      aggressive and antisocial behavior, derived from both animal and human studies.
      We furthermore examine the reported effects of synthetic OT administration on
      aggression in rodents and humans.Although the scientific findings listed in this
      review support, in broad lines, the link between a down-regulated or impaired OT
      system activity and increased aggression, the anti-aggressive effects of
      synthetic OT are less straightforward and require further research. The rather
      complex picture that emerges adds to the ongoing debate questioning the
      unidirectional pro-social role of OT, as well as the strength of the effects of
      intranasal OT administration in humans.

PMID- 28864976
TI  - Overview of Human Oxytocin Research.
AB  - Social dysfunction is a core symptom of many psychiatric disorders and current
      medications have little or no remedial effects on this. Following on from
      extensive studies on animal models demonstrating that the neuropeptide oxytocin
      plays an important role in social recognition and bonding, human-based research
      has explored its therapeutic potential for social dysfunction in psychiatric
      disorders. Here we outline the historical background of this human-based research
      and some of the current methodological challenges it is facing. To date, research
      has primarily attempted to establish functional effects through measuring altered
      endogenous concentrations, observing effects of exogenous administration and by
      investigating the effects of polymorphisms and epigenetic modifications of the
      oxytocin receptor gene. We summarize some of the key findings on behavioral and
      neural effects that have been reported in healthy subjects in the context of
      social cognition which have provided encouragement that oxytocin could represent
      a promising therapeutic target. At the same time, we have identified a number of
      key areas where we urgently need further information about optimal dosing
      strategies and interactions with other peptide and transmitter systems. Finally,
      we have summarized current translational findings, particularly in the context of
      therapeutic outcomes of intranasal oxytocin administration in autism and
      schizophrenia. These clinical findings while somewhat varied in outcome do offer
      increasing cause for optimism that targeting the oxytocin system may provide a
      successful therapeutic approach for social dysfunction. However, future research
      needs to focus on the most effective treatment strategy and which types of
      individuals are likely to benefit most.

PMID- 28864977
TI  - Oxytocin and Animal Models for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of complex neurodevelopmental
      conditions characterized by deficits in social communication and by repetitive
      and stereotypic patterns of behaviors, with no pharmacological treatments
      available to treat these core symptoms. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that
      powerfully regulates mammalian social behavior and has been shown to exert pro
      social effects when administered intranasally to healthy human subjects. In the
      last decade, there has been a significant interest in using oxytocin to treat
      social behavior deficits in ASD. However, little attention has been paid to
      whether the oxytocin system is perturbed in subgroups of individuals with ASD and
      whether these individuals are likely to benefit more from an oxytocin treatment.
      This oversight may in part be due to the enormous heterogeneity of ASD and the
      lack of methods to carefully probe the OXT system in human subjects. Animal
      models for ASD are valuable tools to clarify the implication of the oxytocin
      system in ASD and can help determine whether perturbation in this system should
      be considered in future clinical studies as stratifying biomarkers to inform
      targeted treatments in subgroups of individuals with ASD. In this chapter, we
      review the literature on genetic- and environmental-based animal models for ASD,
      in which perturbations in the oxytocin system and/or the effect of oxytocin
      administration on the ASD-associated phenotype have been investigated.

PMID- 28864979
TI  - [Painless, soft, livid erythematous swelling on the neck and upper part of the
      back].

PMID- 28864978
TI  - Phase II basket trial of perifosine monotherapy for recurrent gynecologic cancer
      with or without PIK3CA mutations.
AB  - Objective Perifosine exhibits anti-tumor activity by inhibiting AKT
      phosphorylation. The purpose of this phase II basket trial was to evaluate the
      efficacy and safety of perifosine monotherapy for ovarian, endometrial, and
      cervical cancers. Methods Recurrent or persistent ovarian, endometrial, or
      cervical cancer patients were assigned to PIK3CA wild-type or mutant groups. Each
      patient received 600 mg oral perifosine on day 1 followed by a maintenance dose
      of 100 mg daily. The primary endpoint was disease control rate; secondary
      endpoints included response rate, progression-free survival, overall survival,
      and safety. Immunohistochemical staining and targeted sequencing were used to
      explore new biomarkers in such patients. Results Sixteen and 5 ovarian, 17 and 7
      endometrial, and 18 and 8 cervical cancer patients with PIK3CA wild-type and
      mutant, respectively, were enrolled. Disease control rates (wild-type/mutant)
      were 12.5/40.0%, 47.1/14.3%, and 11.1/25.0% in ovarian, endometrial, and cervical
      cancer, respectively. The most common grade 3/4 toxicities were anemia (22.5%)
      and anorexia (11.3%). Immunohistochemical staining revealed that the disease
      control rate in patients with negative phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN)
      expression was 50.0%, and the odds ratio of positive to negative patients was
      0.24 in all patients. Conclusions Perifosine monotherapy showed good tolerability
      but expected efficacy was not achieved. Modest efficacy was demonstrated in
      ovarian cancer patients with PIK3CA mutations and endometrial cancer patients
      with PIK3CA wild-type; no difference was observed between PIK3CA wild-type and
      mutant in cervical cancer. Absence of PTEN expression may be predictive of
      clinical efficacy with perifosine monotherapy.

PMID- 28864981
TI  - Technical aspects of acquiring and measuring myocardial blood flow: Method,
      technique, and QA.
AB  - Measuring absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF) is becoming a common aid for
      diagnosing patients suspected to have coronary artery disease. An MBF study,
      however, requires a scanner with high count rate capability, is more susceptible
      to artifacts, and is much more technically involved than static imaging, which
      leads to a greater risk of artifactual results contaminating the final result.
      This technical note gives the reader an introductory understanding of the method
      for calculating MBF. It then describes the scanning protocol, potential pitfalls
      and how to recognize them, and quality control steps that should be taken to
      avoid basing a clinical decision on possibly inaccurate flow information.

PMID- 28864980
TI  - Activated carbon-plasticised agarose composite films for the adsorption of thiol
      as a model of wound malodour.
AB  - Conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and long-term immobilisation
      can precipitate the development of chronic dermal ulcers. Such wounds are
      associated with inflammation and bacterial contamination which in turn can lead
      to the liberation of offensive odours that cause patient embarrassment and, in
      some instances, social isolation. Activated carbon-containing dressings have been
      used to manage the odours from such wounds. However, these can be bulky and can
      become fouled by wound exudate. Agarose is a natural polysaccharide derived from
      seaweed that forms brittle free-standing films that can be made pliable by
      addition of a plasticiser. In this study, activated carbon-containing plasticised
      agarose films were evaluated for their ability to sequester thiol-containing
      molecules from solution and the gaseous phase. The water vapour transmission rate
      was also evaluated to determine the potential breathability of these films should
      they be considered for application to the skin. It was found that the adsorption
      of thiols was directly proportional to the activated carbon content of the films.
      Water vapour was found to pass relatively freely through the films indicating
      that sweat-induced tissue maceration would be unlikely to occur if applied
      clinically. In conclusion, activated carbon-containing plasticised agarose films
      have some potential in the sequestration of malodourous molecules such as those
      liberated from chronic dermal wounds.

PMID- 28864982
TI  - Introduction: A Brief Guide to the Periconception Environment.
AB  - Definition of the periconception period is not an exact science and is probably
      somewhat arbitrary. One can define it as spanning the period from the final
      stages of gamete maturation until formation of the embryo and the stages of
      embryonic development and implantation. Hence, the periconception period includes
      periods when spermatozoa are in the female reproductive tract, oocytes are
      matured and ovulated into the oviduct, fertilization occurs and the embryo
      undergoes development. By definition the implantation process and the early
      stages of placenta formation are also regarded as a part of the periconception
      period. In this article we highlight a few of the major advances which have
      transformed this topic over the last two decades. It is now clear that the
      fitness and wellbeing of developing mammalian embryos, including the human, are
      highly dependent on the health status, diet and habits of both parents especially
      in the months and weeks that precede the formation of oocytes and spermatozoa.

PMID- 28864983
TI  - Epigenetic Influences During the Periconception Period and Assisted Reproduction.
AB  - The periconception period starts 6 months before conception and lasts until the
      tenth week of gestation. In this chapter, we will focus on epigenetic
      modifications to DNA and gene expression within this period and during assisted
      reproduction. There are two critical times during the periconception window when
      significant epigenetic 'reprogramming' occur: one during gametogenesis and
      another during the pre-implantation embryonic stage. Furthermore, assisted
      conception treatments, laboratory protocols and culture media can affect the
      embryo development and birth weights in laboratory animals. There is, however, an
      ongoing debate as to whether epigenetic changes in humans, causing embryo mal
      development, placenta dysfunction and birth defects, result from assisted
      reproductive technologies or are consequences of pre-existing medical and/or
      genetic conditions in the parents. The periconception period starts from ovarian
      folliculogenesis, through resumption of oogenesis, fertilisation, peri
      implantation embryo development, embryogenesis until the end of organogenesis. In
      men, it is the period from spermatogenesis to epididymal sperm storage and
      fertilisation. Gametes and developing embryos are sensitive to environmental
      factors during this period, and epigenetic modifications can occur in response to
      adverse lifestyles and environmental factors. We now know that lifestyle factors
      such as advanced parentage age, obesity or undernutrition, smoking, excessive
      alcohol and caffeine intake and recreational drugs used during gamete production
      and embryogenesis could induce epigenetic alterations, which could impact
      adversely on pregnancy outcomes and health of the offspring. Furthermore, these
      can also result in a permanent and irreversible effect in a dose-dependent
      manner, which can be passed on to the future generations.

PMID- 28864984
TI  - The Importance of the Periconception Period: Immediate Effects in Cattle Breeding
      and in Assisted Reproduction Such as Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer.
AB  - In livestock breeding, the successful outcome is largely depending on the
      "periconception environment" which, in a narrow sense, refers to the genital
      tract, where gametogenesis and embryogenesis occur. During these early stages of
      development, gametes and embryos are known to be particularly sensitive to
      alterations in their microenvironment. However, as the microenvironment somehow
      reflects what is going on in the external world, we must widen our definition of
      "periconception environment" and refer to all events taking place around the time
      of conception, including metabolic state and health and nutrition of the dam. In
      modern dairy cows that have to manage an optimal reproductive performance with
      continued growth and high milk yield, the periconception period is particularly
      challenging. The metabolic priority for growth and lactation is known to generate
      adverse conditions hampering optimal ovarian function, oocyte maturation, and
      development of embryo/fetus. In addition, by using artificial reproductive
      technologies (ARTs), gametes and/or embryos of livestock are exposed to unnatural
      conditions outside the male and female genital tract. Artificial insemination,
      the most widely used technique, is currently yielding pregnancy rates similar to
      natural mating, and calves produced by AI are equally viable after natural
      mating. In contrast, other ART, such as multiple ovulation and embryo transfer,
      have been reported to induce changes in gene expression and DNA methylation
      patterns with potential consequences for development.Finally, the
      "periconceptional" environment has been shown to not only influence the
      successful establishment of pregnancy but also the long-term health and
      productivity of the offspring. Hence, the optimization of management around the
      time of conception might open doors to improve animal production and product
      quality.

PMID- 28864985
TI  - The Consequences of Maternal-Embryonic Cross Talk During the Periconception
      Period on Subsequent Embryonic Development.
AB  - The periconception period comprises the final maturation of sperm and the
      processes of fertilization and early embryonic development, which take place in
      the oviduct. The final goal of these important events is to lead to establishment
      of pregnancy leading to the birth of healthy offspring. Studies in rodents and
      domestic animals have demonstrated that environmental conditions experienced
      during early development affect critical aspects of future growth, metabolism,
      gene expression, and physiology. Similarly, in vitro culture of embryos can be
      associated with changes in fetal growth, gene expression and regulation, and
      postnatal behavior.In the oviduct, the cross talk between the mother and
      gametes/embryo begins after ovulation, between the oocyte and the female
      reproductive tract, and continues with the sperm and the early embryo after
      successful fertilization. These signals are mainly the result of direct
      interaction of gametes and embryos with oviductal and endometrial cells,
      influencing the microenvironment at the specific location. Identifying and
      understanding the mechanisms involved in this cross talk during the critical
      period of early reproductive events leading to pregnancy establishment could
      potentially lead to improvements in current in vitro embryo production systems in
      domestic mammals and humans. In this review, we discuss current knowledge of the
      short- and long-term consequences of in vitro embryo production on embryo
      development.

PMID- 28864986
TI  - The Role of Maternal Nutrition During the Periconceptional Period and Its Effect
      on Offspring Phenotype.
AB  - The early preimplantation embryo has been rigorously studied for decades to
      understand inherent reproductive and developmental mechanisms driving its
      morphogenesis from before fertilisation through to and beyond implantation.
      Recent research has demonstrated that this short developmental window is also
      critical for the embryo's interaction with external, maternal factors,
      particularly nutritional status. Here, maternal dietary quality has been shown to
      alter the pattern of development in an enduring way that can influence health
      throughout the lifetime. Thus, using mouse models, maternal protein restriction
      exclusively during the preimplantation period with normal nutrition thereafter is
      sufficient to cause adverse cardiometabolic and neurological outcomes in adult
      offspring. Evidence for similar effects whereby environmental factors during the
      periconceptional window can programme postnatal disease risk can be found in
      human and large animal models and also in response to in vitro conditions such as
      assisted conception and related infertility treatments. In this review, using
      mouse malnutrition models, we evaluate the step-by-step mechanisms that lead from
      maternal poor diet consumption though to offspring disease. We consider how
      adverse programming within the embryo may be induced, what nutrient factors and
      signalling pathways may be involved, and how these cues act to change the embryo
      in distinct ways across placental and foetal lineage paths, leading especially to
      changes in the growth trajectory which in turn associate with later disease risk.
      These mechanisms straddle epigenetic, molecular, cellular and physiological
      levels of biology and suggest, for health outcomes, preimplantation development
      to be the most important time in our lives.

PMID- 28864987
TI  - The Long-Term Effect of the Periconception Period on the Embryo's Epigenetic
      Profile and Phenotype: The Role of Maternal Disease Such as Diabetes and How the
      Effect Is Mediated (Example from a Rabbit Model).
AB  - Maternal metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus with diabetogenic
      hypoinsulinemia and hyperglycemia change periconceptional developmental
      conditions in utero. In preimplantation rabbit embryos, all major metabolic
      pathways are affected. Alterations in protein, lipid and glucose metabolism,
      adipokines, advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) are described in this review. The embryonic metabolism is characterized by
      a high plasticity which enables survival of most preimplantation embryos under
      the non-physiological developmental conditions in diabetic mothers. Adiponectin,
      for example, compensates for the missing insulin-driven glucose supply and
      stimulates intracellular lipid accumulation in embryonic cells. AGEs and ROS are
      clear indicators of metabolic stress. The price paid for survival, however, needs
      to be taken into consideration. It is an increase in lipogenesis and
      proteinogenesis, leading to metabolic stress and with potentially negative long
      term health effects.

PMID- 28864988
TI  - Long-Term Effects of the Periconception Period on Embryo Epigenetic Profile and
      Phenotype: The Role of Stress and How This Effect Is Mediated.
AB  - Stress represents an unavoidable aspect of human life, and pathologies associated
      with dysregulation of stress mechanisms - particularly psychiatric disorders -
      represent a significant global health problem. While it has long been observed
      that levels of stress experienced in the periconception period may greatly affect
      the offspring's risk of psychiatric disorders, the mechanisms underlying these
      associations are not yet comprehensively understood. In order to address this
      question, this chapter will take a 'top-down' approach, by first defining stress
      and associated concepts, before exploring the mechanistic basis of the stress
      response in the form of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and how
      dysregulation of the HPA axis can impede our mental and physical health,
      primarily via imbalances in glucocorticoids (GCs) and their corresponding
      receptors (GRs) in the brain. The current extent of knowledge pertaining to the
      impact of stress on developmental programming and epigenetic inheritance is then
      extensively discussed, including the role of chromatin remodelling associated
      with specific HPA axis-related genes and the possible role of regulatory RNAs as
      messengers of environmental stress both in the intrauterine environment and
      across the germ line. Furthering our understanding of the role of stress on
      embryonic development is crucial if we are to increase our predictive power of
      disease risk and devise-effective treatments and intervention strategies.

PMID- 28864989
TI  - The Long-Term Effects of the Periconceptional Period on Embryo Epigenetic Profile
      and Phenotype; The Paternal Role and His Contribution, and How Males Can Affect
      Offspring's Phenotype/Epigenetic Profile.
AB  - The number of adults afflicted with heart disease, obesity and diabetes, central
      components of metabolic disorder, has grown rapidly in recent decades, affecting
      up to one quarter of the world's population. Typically, these diseases are
      attributed to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, lack of exercise and smoking.
      However, studies have now identified strong associations between patterns of
      growth during foetal and neonatal life and an increase predisposition towards
      developing heart disease, obesity and diabetes in adult life. While the
      connection between a mother's diet and the long-term health of her offspring has
      been studied in great detail, our understanding of whether offspring health might
      be affected by a father's diet remains limited. Greater insight into the impact
      that paternal nutrition has on sperm quality, epigenetic status and potential
      offspring programming mechanisms is needed to redress this parental-programming
      knowledge imbalance. Disturbances in paternal reproductive epigenetic status
      represents one key mechanism linking paternal diet with the programing of
      offspring development and adult health, as many enzymatic processes involved in
      epigenetic regulation use metabolic intermediates to modify DNA and histones.
      Here, poor paternal nutrition could result in perturbed sperm and testicular
      epigenetic status, impacting on post-fertilisation gene transcriptional
      regulation and protein expression in offspring tissues, resulting in increased
      incidences of metabolic disorder in adult life.

PMID- 28864990
TI  - Exploitation of Non-mammalian Model Organisms in Epigenetic Research.
AB  - Model organisms are widely used in research that is ultimately aimed at
      understanding the causes and consequences of human disease. It may seem
      counterintuitive to expect clinically useful information to be obtained from
      species as diverse as fishes and insects, but because fundamental biological
      mechanisms share evolutionary origins they transcend species barriers. Epigenetic
      mechanisms fulfil this expectation admirably as more and more is discovered about
      the basic operational rules of inheritance, which are much more elaborate than
      formerly thought. Only a few decades ago, although the complex interplay between
      genes, inheritance and the environment was recognized, it was difficult to
      explain. Recent discoveries about the controlling influences of gene silencing
      through DNA and histone methylation, the roles of so-called non-coding DNA and
      microRNA, and the way in which these factors respond to environmental conditions
      have started to shed light on these basic mechanisms. Diverse model species allow
      epigenetic mechanisms to be studied from different perspectives; for example,
      some are better suited to studies of sex determination while others may be more
      convenient for studying the earliest stages of organ development, growth and the
      influence of nutrition on future wellbeing. The rationale for including this
      chapter in a book that is focused on uncovering relationships between
      periconception nutrition in humans is to highlight the opportunities and insights
      that may be gained by focusing attention on studies in non-mammalian model
      species.

PMID- 28864991
TI  - Evaluating safety of thrombolysis in chronic kidney disease patients presenting
      with pulmonary embolism using propensity score matching.
AB  - To assess the safety of thrombolytic therapy in chronic kidney disease (CKD)
      patients who present with pulmonary embolism (PE). We used the Nationwide
      Inpatient Sample Database to identify patients who underwent thrombolysis for PE
      between 2010 and 2014. The patients were divided into two groups: (1) No CKD and
      (2) CKD. Patients with and without CKD were matched using 1:1 propensity score
      matching and a caliper width of 0.01. The primary outcomes were in-hospital
      mortality and hemorrhagic events. The secondary outcomes were blood transfusions,
      length of stay and total hospitalization charge. Two separate, multivariate
      analyses were also performed to determine the predictors for primary outcomes.
      The No CKD group had 16,238 and CKD group had 1341 patients prior to matching.
      Patients with CKD were older (Median age 67 vs. 57 years; p < 0.01), male (60.6
      vs. 51.8%) and had a higher prevalence of coronary artery disease, congestive
      heart failure, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and prior stroke among
      other comorbidities. They also had significantly higher rate of in-hospital
      mortality (OR 1.66) and hemorrhagic events (OR 1.47) prior to matching. Post
      matching, there was no difference in hospital mortality (22.9 vs. 21.8%; p =
      0.51) or hemorrhagic events (3.8 vs. 3.0%; p = 0.27) between CKD and No CKD
      groups. Patients with CKD had a longer length of stay, but no difference in
      proportion of patients receiving a blood transfusion and total hospitalization
      charges post-matching. Multivariate analysis showed that CKD did not predict
      mortality (OR 0.88, 0.75-1.02; p = 0.09) or hemorrhagic events (OR 0.89, 95% CI
      0.76-1.04; 0.13). There was no increase in rate of hospital mortality or
      hemorrhagic events among CKD patients who underwent thrombolysis for PE.

PMID- 28864992
TI  - Optimization of blood loss during robotic IVC thrombectomy in a Jehovah's
      witness: a case report with 14-month follow up.

PMID- 28864993
TI  - What is This Image? 2017: Image 3.

PMID- 28864995
TI  - Reply to Drs. Karakonstantis and Kalemaki.

PMID- 28864994
TI  - A genetic variant in the placenta-derived MHC class I chain-related gene A
      increases the risk of preterm birth in a Chinese population.
AB  - Preterm birth (PTB) is a predominant contributor to neonatal mortality and
      morbidity worldwide. However, the pathophysiology of PTB is not well-understood.
      We tested the hypothesis that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the
      placenta-derived MHC class I chain-related gene A (MICA) could disrupt placental
      development and hence result in PTB. Nineteen selected SNPs in MICA were
      genotyped in a case-control study of 127 premature infants and 634 term controls
      in a Chinese Han population. We found that significantly increased PTB risk was
      associated with homozygosity for the A variant of rs2256318 (adjusted odds ratio
      = 6.97 and 95% confidence interval = 2.34-20.74 for A/A, compared with G/G
      genotype, P = 0.001). In addition, the A/A genotype of rs2256318 was associated
      with decreased placental weight of neonates (beta = -25.331; P = 0.033).
      Furthermore, stratified analysis demonstrated that the A/A genotype of rs2256318
      was associated with increased PTB risk in female group. In addition, we observed
      statistical interaction between the polymorphism rs2516448 and sex (P = 0.04). No
      significant differences in the distribution of haplotypes between cases and
      controls were detected. Our results indicate that the polymorphism of rs2256318
      in MICA may contribute to the etiology of PTB through interfering with placental
      development. These findings need to be further validated in larger and multi
      ethnic populations.

PMID- 28864996
TI  - Immunomodulatory basis of antioxidant therapy and its future prospects: an
      appraisal.
AB  - Antioxidants are agents which can modulate oxidant-antioxidant profile of body
      system by neutralizing pro-oxidant molecules. The current scientific knowledge on
      mechanisms of antioxidant activity of biomolecules was critically reviewed with a
      special emphasis on immunomodulation. The immuno-oxidative wreckage of animals in
      various disease conditions and the role of biomodulators in curbing the oxidative
      stress through immune pathways were analyzed. The critical role of
      immunomodulatory mechanisms in controlling oxidative damage was identified.
      Selection of antioxidant therapy considering the immunopharmacology of the drug
      as well as immunological basis of disease may reduce treatment failure and
      adverse health effects. Hence, it is suggested that future studies on
      antioxidants may focus on the immuno-oxidative pathobiology to better understand
      its clinical effects and effective disease management.

PMID- 28864997
TI  - Rationale, Design, and Baseline Characteristics of the Utopia Trial for
      Preventing Diabetic Atherosclerosis Using an SGLT2 Inhibitor: A Prospective,
      Randomized, Open-Label, Parallel-Group Comparative Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are anti
      diabetic agents that improve glycemic control with a low risk of hypoglycemia and
      ameliorate a variety of cardiovascular risk factors. The aim of the ongoing study
      described herein is to investigate the preventive effects of tofogliflozin, a
      potent and selective SGLT2 inhibitor, on the progression of atherosclerosis in
      subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) using carotid intima-media thickness (IMT),
      an established marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD), as a marker. METHODS: The
      Study of Using Tofogliflozin for Possible better Intervention against
      Atherosclerosis for type 2 diabetes patients (UTOPIA) trial is a prospective,
      randomized, open-label, blinded-endpoint, multicenter, and parallel-group
      comparative study. The aim was to recruit a total of 340 subjects with T2DM but
      no history of apparent CVD at 24 clinical sites and randomly allocate these to a
      tofogliflozin treatment group or a conventional treatment group using drugs other
      than SGLT2 inhibitors. As primary outcomes, changes in mean and maximum IMT of
      the common carotid artery during a 104-week treatment period will be measured by
      carotid echography. Secondary outcomes include changes in glycemic control,
      parameters related to beta-cell function and diabetic nephropathy, the occurrence
      of CVD and adverse events, and biochemical measurements reflecting vascular
      function. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to address the effects of SGLT2
      inhibitors on the progression of carotid IMT in subjects with T2DM without a
      history of CVD. The results will be available in the very near future, and these
      findings are expected to provide clinical data that will be helpful in the
      prevention of diabetic atherosclerosis and subsequent CVD. FUNDING: Kowa Co.,
      Ltd. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN000017607.

PMID- 28864998
TI  - Sequential use of extracorporeal devices to avoid mechanical ventilation in a
      patient with complicated pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - Extracorporeal lung assist devices are widely used these days for a growing
      number of indications. We report the case of a patient managed with three
      different flow-range devices sequentially, enabling us to avoid mechanical
      ventilation. Handling and ethics of this approach are discussed.

PMID- 28864999
TI  - Early Depiction of a Parotid Tumour in the "School of Athens" (1509-1511) by
      Raphael (1483-1520).

PMID- 28865000
TI  - Assessment of DDT contamination in house rat as a possible bioindicator in DDT
      sprayed areas from Ethiopia and South Africa.
AB  - Ethiopia and South Africa are among the few countries to still implement indoor
      residual spraying with dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) for malaria vector
      control. In this study, we investigated the levels and ecological risks of DDT
      and its metabolites in liver tissues of house rat, as a sentinel animal, for
      providing an early warning system for public health and wildlife intervention
      from Ethiopia and South Africa. The results showed that SigmaDDT concentration
      ranged from 127 to 9155 MUg/kg wet weight, and the distribution order of DDT and
      its metabolites in the analyzed liver samples was p,p'-DDD > p,p'-DDE >> p,p'
      DDT, o,p'-DDT, and o,p'-DDD. The risk assessment indicated a potential adverse
      impact on humans, especially for pregnant women and children, because they spend
      majority of their time in a DDT-sprayed house. The ecological assessment also
      showed a concern for birds of prey and amphibians like frogs. This study is the
      first report on DDT contamination in liver tissues of house rats from Ethiopia
      and South Africa, and henceforth, the data will serve as a reference data for
      future studies.

PMID- 28865001
TI  - The Social Networks of Children With and Without Disabilities in Early Childhood
      Special Education Classrooms.
AB  - Interaction with peers is an important contributor to young children's social and
      cognitive development. Yet, little is known about the nature of social networks
      within preschool inclusive classrooms. The current study applied a social network
      analysis to characterize children's peer interactions in inclusive classrooms and
      their relations with children's disability status. The participants were 485
      preschoolers from 64 early childhood special education (ECSE) inclusive
      classrooms. Results from teachers' report of children's social networks showed
      that children with disabilities formed smaller play networks compared to their
      typically developing peers in the classroom, but no evidence indicated that
      children with disabilities engaged in more conflict networks than their
      counterparts. Children's play and conflict networks were segregated by children's
      disability status.

PMID- 28865002
TI  - Clinical supervision: what does it mean to be better?

PMID- 28865003
TI  - Influence of farmyard manure on some morphological and biochemical parameters of
      cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) seedling grown in cadmium-treated soil.
AB  - The present study aims to assess the effects of the two kinds of farmyard manure
      (poultry and pig manures) as amendments for soil on cadmium (Cd) toxicity in
      plants using cowpea seedlings as plant model. Cd toxicity was evaluated by
      assessing the effect of the metal on the growth rate and antioxidant status as
      well as the ability of the plant to metabolise xenobiotic. There was a
      significantly (p < 0.05) increased concentration of Cd in the root, stem and
      leaves of cowpea seedlings grown in all the treated soils relative to control.
      Addition of poultry manure to the soil significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the
      level of Cd in these component parts of the seedlings and their corresponding
      bioaccumulation factor in a dose-dependent manner as compared with treatments
      with Cd pollution without manure addition and Cd pollution with pig manure
      addition. There was restoration of Cd-induced effect on growth rate parameters to
      levels comparable to controls in cowpea seedlings grown in Cd-treated soil
      augmented with poultry manure but not in cowpea seedlings in cadmium-treated soil
      with pig manure amendments. Similarly, augmentation of Cd-treated soil with pig
      manure did not alter the Cd-induced effect on the levels of superoxide dismutase
      (SOD) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) in leaf, stem and roots, as SOD remained
      significantly (p < 0.05) decreased and LPO increased relative to control. On the
      other hand, the levels of SOD and LPO in these parts of cowpea seedlings grown in
      Cd-treated soils amended with poultry manure were restored to a level not
      significantly (p > 0.05) different from control. Like in the case of SOD, the Cd
      induced inhibition of the activity of xenobiotic metabolising enzymes, aldehyde
      oxidase and sulphite oxidase remained significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in the
      organs of seedling grown in Cd-treated soil amended with pig manure. Conversely,
      the Cd-induced effect on the activities of these enzymes was reversed in the
      organs of seedlings exposed to Cd and poultry manure as it was not significantly
      (p > 0.05) different from control. In conclusion, the findings of the study
      revealed that supplementation of Cd-treated soils with pig and poultry manures
      reversed effects of Cd on cowpea seedlings. However, poultry manure was more
      effective than pig manure in ameliorating the effects of Cd.

PMID- 28865005
TI  - A Laplacian characterization of phytoplankton shape.
AB  - Phytoplankton exhibit pronounced morphological diversity, impacting a range of
      processes. Because these impacts are challenging to quantify, however,
      phytoplankton are often approximated as spheres, and when effects of non
      sphericity are studied it is usually experimentally or via geometrical
      approximations. New methods for quantifying phytoplankton size and shape
      generally, so all phytoplankton are analyzable by the same procedure, can
      complement advances in microscopic imagery and automated classification to study
      the influence of shape in phytoplankton. Here we apply to phytoplankton a
      technique for defining the size of arbitrary shapes based on the Laplacian-the
      operator that governs processes, such as nutrient uptake and fluid flow, where
      phytoplankton shape is expected to have the greatest effect. Deviations from
      values given by spherical approximation are a measure of phytoplankton shape and
      indicate the fitness increases for phytoplankton conferred by their non-spherical
      shapes. Comparison with surface-to-volume quotients suggests the Laplacian-based
      metric is insensitive to small-scale features which can increase surface area
      without affecting key processes, but is otherwise closely related to surface-area
      to-volume, demonstrating this metric is a meaningful measure. While our analysis
      herein is limited to axisymmetric phytoplankton due to relative sparsity of 3D
      information about other phytoplankton shapes, the definition and method are
      directly generalizable to 3D shape data, which will in the near future be more
      readily available.

PMID- 28865006
TI  - Dexamethasone for chronic subdural haematoma: a systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic subdural haematoma is a common but retractable neurological
      disease in the elderly with a high rate of recurrence. Dexamethasone (DX) either
      as monotherapy or adjuvant therapy has been applied clinically, but its
      effectiveness and feasibility remain controversial. We conducted this review to
      clarify this issue. METHODS: With a systematic review through multiple databases,
      we retrieved eligible English language publications and extracted relevant data
      to perform meta-analyses. The respective risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence
      interval (CI) were pooled to evaluate the overall effect. RESULTS: Our meta
      analysis showed overall that DX (alone or adjuvant) resulted in a lower
      recurrence rate when compared with non-DX therapy (RR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.33-0.88; p
      = 0.01), but sensitivity analysis by excluding the most influential study
      achieved inconsistent results. The pooled effect revealed no statistical
      difference on recurrence rate between DX alone and non-DX therapy or surgical
      therapy (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.43-1.71; p = 0.66) (RR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.43-1.85; p =
      0.76). Comparison between DX alone with the surgical therapy demonstrated no
      difference on the poor outcome (RR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.15-1.04; p = 0.06).
      CONCLUSIONS: We had no enough evidence to support DX use as an effective
      alternation to surgical therapy. But adjuvant DX use may facilitate the surgical
      therapy by reducing recurrence. Further study focusing on adjuvant DX was
      required.

PMID- 28865004
TI  - Gold nanoparticles with patterned surface monolayers for nanomedicine: current
      perspectives.
AB  - Molecular self-assembly is a topic attracting intense scientific interest.
      Various strategies have been developed for construction of molecular aggregates
      with rationally designed properties, geometries, and dimensions that promise to
      provide solutions to both theoretical and practical problems in areas such as
      drug delivery, medical diagnostics, and biosensors, to name but a few. In this
      respect, gold nanoparticles covered with self-assembled monolayers presenting
      nanoscale surface patterns-typically patched, striped or Janus-like domains
      represent an emerging field. These systems are particularly intriguing for use in
      bio-nanotechnology applications, as presence of such monolayers with three
      dimensional (3D) morphology provides nanoparticles with surface-dependent
      properties that, in turn, affect their biological behavior. Comprehensive
      understanding of the physicochemical interactions occurring at the interface
      between these versatile nanomaterials and biological systems is therefore crucial
      to fully exploit their potential. This review aims to explore the current state
      of development of such patterned, self-assembled monolayer-protected gold
      nanoparticles, through step-by-step analysis of their conceptual design,
      synthetic procedures, predicted and determined surface characteristics,
      interactions with and performance in biological environments, and experimental
      and computational methods currently employed for their investigation.

PMID- 28865008
TI  - [Endocrine and diabetic emergencies].

PMID- 28865007
TI  - Cryphonectria hypovirus 1-Induced Epigenetic Changes in Infected Phytopathogenic
      Fungus Cryphonectria parasitica.
AB  - Biotic stress caused by virus infections induces epigenetic changes in infected
      plants and animals, but this is the first report on methylation pattern changes
      in a fungus after mycovirus infection. As a model pathosystem for mycovirus-host
      interactions, we used Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) and its host fungus
      Cryphonectria parasitica, in which deregulation of methylation cycle enzymes upon
      virus infection was observed previously. Six CHV1 strains of different subtypes
      were transferred into three different C. parasitica isolates in order to assess
      the effect of different CHV1 strains and/or subtypes on global cytosine
      methylation level in infected fungus, using methylation-sensitive amplification
      polymorphism (MSAP). Infection with CHV1 affected the methylation pattern of the
      C. parasitica genome; it increased the number and diversity of methylated, hemi
      methylated, and total MSAP markers found in infected fungal isolates compared to
      virus-free controls. The increase in methylation levels correlated well with the
      CHV1-induced reduction of fungal growth in vitro, indicating that C. parasitica
      genome methylation upon CHV1 infection, rather than being the defensive mechanism
      of the fungus, is more likely to be the virulence determinant of the virus.
      Furthermore, the severity of CHV1 effect on methylation levels of infected C.
      parasitica isolates depended mostly on individual CHV1 strains and on the
      combination of host and virus genomes, rather than on the virus subtype. These
      novel findings broaden our knowledge about CHV1 strains which could potentially
      be used in human-aided biocontrol of chestnut blight, a disease caused by C.
      parasitica in chestnut forest ecosystems and orchards.

PMID- 28865009
TI  - Inverse relationship between Ki67 and survival in early luminal breast cancer:
      confirmation in a multivariate analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ki67 is a prognostic marker in early breast cancer, but its real
      usefulness remains controversial. The standard cut-off values for Ki67 have not
      been universally accepted and different values may be used depending on the type
      of biopsy (fine needle biopsy versus surgical specimen biopsy). The objective of
      this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of Ki67 and to determine
      the most accurate prognostic cut-off. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 495 tissue samples
      from patients with luminal tumours who underwent breast surgery between 2005 and
      2011 were collected from the Department of Pathology at Hospital de la Santa Creu
      i Sant Pau, Barcelona. Patients with stage IV, HER2-positive tumours or triple
      negative breast carcinoma were excluded from the study. Pathology data including
      tumour grading and ki67 percentage were obtained retrospectively from clinical
      records. In all cases, the percentage of ki67 was evaluated in fine needle
      biopsies. RESULTS: In the multivariate analysis, Ki67 as a continuous variable
      was associated with poor overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS)
      (OS p = 0.0001, HR 1.037, CI 1.014-1.059; CSS p = 0.0001, HR 1.063, CI 1.031
      1.096) (Cox regression model). CSS was poor when associated with a KI67 cut-off
      point >14% (p = 0.013, HR 14.85; CI 1.074-120.53) (Cox regression model). Disease
      free survival (DFS) was not associated with Ki67 CONCLUSIONS: Prognosis of
      luminal breast carcinoma can be predicted using Ki67 as a continuous variable and
      a standard cut-off value of 14%. Information about the specimen type used to
      determine ki67 should be recorded in the pathological report.

PMID- 28865010
TI  - Genome Characterization of Oleaginous Aspergillus oryzae BCC7051: A Potential
      Fungal-Based Platform for Lipid Production.
AB  - The selected robust fungus, Aspergillus oryzae strain BCC7051 is of interest for
      biotechnological production of lipid-derived products due to its capability to
      accumulate high amount of intracellular lipids using various sugars and agro
      industrial substrates. Here, we report the genome sequence of the oleaginous A.
      oryzae BCC7051. The obtained reads were de novo assembled into 25 scaffolds
      spanning of 38,550,958 bps with predicted 11,456 protein-coding genes. By synteny
      mapping, a large rearrangement was found in two scaffolds of A. oryzae BCC7051 as
      compared to the reference RIB40 strain. The genetic relationship between BCC7051
      and other strains of A. oryzae in terms of aflatoxin production was investigated,
      indicating that the A. oryzae BCC7051 was categorized into group 2 nonaflatoxin
      producing strain. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the structural genes
      focusing on the involvement in lipid metabolism among oleaginous yeast and fungi
      revealed the presence of multiple isoforms of metabolic enzymes responsible for
      fatty acid synthesis in BCC7051. The alternative routes of acetyl-CoA generation
      as oleaginous features and malate/citrate/pyruvate shuttle were also identified
      in this A. oryzae strain. The genome sequence generated in this work is a
      dedicated resource for expanding genome-wide study of microbial lipids at systems
      level, and developing the fungal-based platform for production of diversified
      lipids with commercial relevance.

PMID- 28865011
TI  - General Introduction to Drebrin.
AB  - Drebrin was first discovered by our group as "developmentally regulated brain
      protein" from the chicken optic tectum. Drebrin is an actin-binding protein,
      which is classified into two major isoforms produced by alternative splicing from
      a single DBN1 gene. The isoform predominantly expressed in the adult brain
      (drebrin A) is neuron specific, containing a neuron-specific sequence (Ins2) in
      the middle of the molecule. Drebrin A is highly concentrated in dendritic spines,
      and its accumulation level is regulated by synaptic activity. In contrast,
      drebrin E, which lacks Ins2, is found in widespread but not ubiquitous cell types
      in various tissues. The isoform conversion from drebrin E to drebrin A occurs in
      parallel with synaptogenesis. Drebrin decorating F-actin is found at the
      recipient side of cell-cell communication systems, such as gap junctions,
      adherens junctions, immunological synapses, and neuronal synapses. In addition,
      it is involved in the cellular mechanisms of cell migration, cell process
      formation, cancer metastasis, and spermatogenesis. Lack of drebrin leads to the
      dysfunction of cell-cell communication, resulting in aberrant migration of
      metastatic cancer cells, aberrant synaptic function in dementia, and rupture of
      endothelial integrity. Because drebrin forms a unique F-actin with a longer
      helical crossover, drebrin may create an F-actin platform for molecular assembly
      and play a pivotal role in intercellular communication.

PMID- 28865012
TI  - Molecular Cloning of Drebrin: Progress and Perspectives.
AB  - Chicken drebrin isoforms were first identified in the optic tectum of developing
      brain. Although the time course of protein expression was different in each
      drebrin isoform, the similarity between their protein structures was suggested by
      biochemical analysis of purified protein. To determine their protein structures,
      the cloning of drebrin cDNAs was conducted. Comparison between the cDNA sequences
      shows that all drebrin cDNAs are identical except that the internal insertion
      sequences are present or absent in their sequences. Chicken drebrin are now
      classified into three isoforms, namely, drebrins E1, E2, and A. Genomic cloning
      demonstrated that the three isoforms are generated by an alternative splicing of
      individual exons encoding the insertion sequences from single drebrin gene. The
      mechanism should be precisely regulated in cell-type-specific and developmental
      stage-specific fashion. Drebrin protein, which is well conserved in various
      vertebrate species, although mammalian drebrin has only two isoforms, namely,
      drebrin E and drebrin A, is different from chicken drebrin that has three
      isoforms. Drebrin belongs to an actin-depolymerizing factor homology (ADF-H)
      domain protein family. Besides the ADF-H domain, drebrin has other domains,
      including the actin-binding domain and Homer-binding motifs. Diversity of protein
      isoform and multiple domains of drebrin could interact differentially with the
      actin cytoskeleton and other intracellular proteins and regulate diverse cellular
      processes.

PMID- 28865013
TI  - Biochemistry of Drebrin and Its Binding to Actin Filaments.
AB  - Drebrin is an actin-binding protein mainly expressed in developing neurons and
      dendritic spine in mature neurons. To understand the functions of drebrin in
      vivo, we must understand its molecular properties. In this chapter, I will focus
      on the purification and characterization of drebrin in vitro. Drebrin binds to F
      actin with a stoichiometry of 1:5~6 with a K d of 1~3 * 10-7 M and strongly
      inhibits the binding of other actin-binding proteins such as tropomyosin,
      caldesmon, fascin, alpha-actinin, and cofilin. It also inhibits the activities of
      myosin-II and myosin-V. These results are discussed in terms of the possible
      roles of drebrin in the stability, dynamics, and organizations of actin
      structures in neuronal cells.

PMID- 28865014
TI  - Phosphorylation of Drebrin and Its Role in Neuritogenesis.
AB  - Neuritogenesis is an early event in neuronal development in which newborn neurons
      first form growth cones, as a prerequisite for the formation of axons and
      dendrites. Growth cones emerge from segmented regions of the lamellipodium of
      embryonic neurons and grow away from the cell body leaving behind a neurite that
      will eventually polarise into an axon or dendrite. Growth cones also function to
      navigate precise routes through the embryo to locate an appropriate synaptic
      partner. Dynamic interactions between two components of the neuronal
      cytoskeleton, actin filaments and microtubules, are known to be essential for
      growth cone formation and hence neuritogenesis. The molecular mechanisms that
      coordinate interactions between actin filaments and dynamic microtubules during
      neuritogenesis are beginning to be understood. One candidate pathway coupling
      actin filaments to microtubules consists of the actin filament-binding protein
      drebrin and the microtubule-binding +TIP protein EB3. This pathway is regulated
      proximally by cyclin-dependent kinase 5 phosphorylation of drebrin but the
      upstream elements in the pathway have yet to be identified.

PMID- 28865015
TI  - Remodeling of Actin Filaments by Drebrin A and Its Implications.
AB  - Dendritic spines are small protrusions of dendrites that are critical for
      synaptic transmission. The plasticity and stability of dendritic spines is
      tightly linked to actin cytoskeleton. However, our understanding of specific
      properties and the fine-tuning of neuronal actin structures is incomplete.
      Drebrin A is highly enriched in dendritic spines, but its effects on actin
      morphology, dynamics, and interplay with other actin regulators are yet to be
      clarified. Here we review recent advances in understanding drebrin effects on
      actin morphology and dynamics.

PMID- 28865016
TI  - Cell Shape Change by Drebrin.
AB  - Drebrin is localized in actin-rich regions of neuronal and non-neuronal cells. In
      mature neurons, its localization is strictly restricted to the postsynaptic
      sites. In order to understand the function of drebrin in cells, many studies have
      been performed to examine the effect of overexpression or knocking down of
      drebrin in various cell types, including neurons, myoblasts, kidney cells, and
      intestinal epithelial cells. In most cases alteration of cell shape and
      impairment or facilitation of actin-based activities of these cells were
      observed. Interestingly, overexpression of drebrin in matured neurons results in
      the alteration in dendritic spine morphology. Further studies have shown
      alteration in the localization of postsynaptic receptors and even changes in
      synaptic transmission caused by drebrin overexpression or depletion in neurons.
      These drebrin's effects are thought to come from drebrin's actin-cross-linking
      activity or competitive binding to actin against tropomyosin, fascin, and alpha
      actinin. Furthermore, drebrin binds to various molecules, such as homer, EB3, and
      cell-cell junctional proteins, indicating that drebrin is a multifunctional
      cytoskeletal regulator.

PMID- 28865017
TI  - Localization of Drebrin: Light Microscopy Study.
AB  - Developmental changes in the expression and localization of drebrin has been
      mainly analyzed in chick embryo and young rat by various anti-drebrin polyclonal
      and monoclonal antibodies. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated that the adult
      drebrin isoform (drebrin A) is restricted to neural tissues, while the embryonic
      drebrin isoforms (drebrin E1 and E2 in chicken and drebrin E in mammals) are
      found in a wide variety of tissues. In the developing brain, drebrin E (including
      chicken drebrin E2) is expressed in newly generated neurons. During neuronal
      migration, drebrin E is distributed ubiquitously within the neurons. Once drebrin
      A is expressed in the developing neuron, drebrin E is no longer present within
      the cell soma and accumulates in the growth cone of growing processes, resulting
      in the cessation of neuronal migration. The limited subcellular localization of
      drebrin A, which is possibly regulated by a drebrin A-specific mechanism, is
      likely to affect the localization of drebrin E. In the adult brain, drebrin is
      mainly localized in dendritic spines, but in some nuclei, drebrin can be detected
      in neuronal somata as well as dendritic spines. The fact that the developmental
      changes in drebrin expression highly correlate in time with the sensitive period
      of visual cortical plasticity in kittens suggests that synaptic plasticity
      depends on drebrin.

PMID- 28865019
TI  - Drebrin in Neuronal Migration and Axonal Growth.
AB  - During development, production of neurons from neural stem cells, migration of
      neurons from their birthplace to their final location, and extension of neurites,
      axons, and dendrites are important for the formation of functional neuronal
      circuits. The actin cytoskeleton has major roles in the morphological development
      of neurons. In this chapter, we focused on the distribution and function of the
      actin-binding protein, drebrin, to elucidate the importance of drebrin-bound F
      actin in neurons during early developmental stages of neurons in embryonic,
      postnatal, and adult brains. There are three major isoforms of drebrin in the
      chicken brain (E1, E2, and A) and two major isoforms in the mammalian brain (E
      and A). Among these drebrin isoforms, drebrin E1 and E2 in chicken and drebrin E
      in the mammalian brain are involved in these neuronal stages. In migrating
      neurons of the developing and adult brain, drebrin is localized at the base of
      filopodia of leading processes, to regulate neuronal migration. In axonal growth
      cones, drebrin is localized in the transitional zone to regulate axonal growth by
      inhibiting actomyosin interactions and mediating the interactions between F-actin
      and microtubules. For axonal collateral branching, drebrin is localized at axonal
      actin patches and the base of filopodia, to accelerate the transition from actin
      patches to filopodia and stabilize the filopodia.

PMID- 28865018
TI  - Making of a Synapse: Recurrent Roles of Drebrin A at Excitatory Synapses
      Throughout Life.
AB  - Mature excitatory synapses are composed of more than 1500 proteins
      postsynaptically and hundreds more that operate presynaptically. Among them,
      drebrin is an F-actin-binding protein that increases noticeably during juvenile
      synaptogenesis. Electron microscopic analysis reveals that drebrin is highly
      enriched specifically on the postsynaptic side of excitatory synapses. Since
      dendritic spines are structures specialized for excitatory synaptic transmission,
      the function of drebrin was probed by analyzing the ultrastructural
      characteristics of dendritic spines of animals with genetic deletion of drebrin A
      (DAKO), the adult isoform of drebrin. Electron microscopic analyses revealed that
      these brains are surprisingly intact, in that axo-spinous synaptic junctions are
      well-formed and not significantly altered in number. This normal ultrastructure
      may be because drebrin E, the alternate embryonic isoform, compensates for the
      genetic deletion of drebrin A. However, DAKO results in the loss of homeostatic
      plasticity of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). The NMDAR activation
      dependent trafficking of the NR2A subunit-containing NMDARs from dendritic shafts
      into spine head cytoplasm is greatly diminished within brains of DAKO.
      Conversely, within brains of wild-type rodents, spines respond to NMDAR blockade
      with influx of F-actin, drebrin A, and NR2A subunits of NMDARs. These
      observations indicate that drebrin A facilitates the trafficking of NMDAR cargos
      in an F-actin-dependent manner to mediate homeostatic plasticity. Analysis of the
      brains of transgenic mice used as models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) reveals that
      the loss of drebrin from dendritic spines predates the emergence of synaptic
      dysfunction and cognitive impairment, suggesting that this form of homeostatic
      plasticity contributes toward cognition. Two studies suggest that the nature of
      drebrin's interaction with NMDARs is dependent on the receptor's subunit
      composition. Drebrin A can be found co-clustering with NR2B-containing NMDARs at
      the plasma membrane, while NR2A-containing NMDARs co-traffic into the spine
      cytoplasm but do not co-cluster at the plasma membrane. Most recently, we
      encountered a physiological condition that supports this idea. When adolescent
      female rats are reared under a condition of restricted food access and ad libitum
      wheel access, they paradoxically become excessive runners, choosing to run, even
      during the limited hours of food availability. This behavioral pattern is termed
      activity-based anorexia (ABA) and has served as an animal model for anorexia
      nervosa. Those animals that exhibit the greatest ABA vulnerability, in that they
      lose the most amount of body weight and run with greatest exuberance to the point
      of risking their lives, exhibit the highest levels of NR2B-NMDARs and drebrin at
      the postsynaptic membrane of hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Those animals that
      exhibit the greatest resilience to ABA, in that they run minimally under such
      condition, thereby losing minimal amount of weight, exhibit the highest level of
      NR2A-NMDARs in the spine cytoplasm and lowest levels of drebrin at the
      postsynaptic membrane. This pattern suggests that drebrin has dual roles:
      retention of NR2A-NMDARs in the reserve pool and trafficking of NR2B-NMDARs to
      the postsynaptic membrane, ultimately contributing to an individual's reactivity
      to stress. Altogether, these observations indicate that drebrin is a protein that
      is important for synaptic plasticity and deserves the attention of
      neuroscientists studying the neurobiological basis of cognition and stress
      reactivity.

PMID- 28865020
TI  - Drebrin and Spine Formation.
AB  - Dendritic spines are the postsynaptic receptive regions of most excitatory
      synapses in the central nervous system. Thus, spines are supposed to act as a
      fundamental unit for information processing of the brains. Previous studies have
      demonstrated the roles of drebrin in the formation of dendritic spines and in the
      recruitment of synaptic proteins to postsynaptic sites. Further, a live imaging
      study has revealed the unique dynamics of drebrin in dendritic spines, which help
      to understand how drebrin is involved in dendritic spine formation. This review
      will provide a basic knowledge about dendritic spine and overview recent
      progresses in understanding of the roles of drebrin in dendritic spine
      morphogenesis and synaptogenesis.

PMID- 28865021
TI  - Role of Drebrin in Synaptic Plasticity.
AB  - Synaptic plasticity underlies higher brain function such as learning and memory,
      and the actin cytoskeleton in dendritic spines composing excitatory postsynaptic
      sites plays a pivotal role in synaptic plasticity. In this chapter, we review the
      role of drebrin in the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton during synaptic
      plasticity, under long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD).
      Dendritic spines have two F-actin pools, drebrin-decorated stable F-actin (DF
      actin) and drebrin-free dynamic F-actin (FF-actin). Resting dendritic spines
      change their shape, but are fairly constant over time at steady state because of
      the presence of DF-actin. Accumulation of DF-actin is inversely regulated by the
      intracellular Ca2+ concentration. However, LTP and LTD stimulation induce Ca2+
      influx through N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors into the potentiated spines,
      resulting in drebrin exodus via myosin II ATPase activation. The potentiated
      spines change to excited state because of the decrease in DF-actin and thus
      change their shape robustly. In LTP, the Ca2+ increase via NMDA receptors soon
      returns to the basal level, and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4
      isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) expression at the postsynaptic membrane
      is increased. The Ca2+ recovery and AMPAR increase coordinately induce the re
      accumulation of DF-actin and change the dendritic spines from the excited state
      to steady state during LTP maintenance. During LTD, the prolonged intracellular
      Ca2+ increase inhibits the re-accumulation of DF-actin, resulting in facilitation
      of AMPAR endocytosis. Because of the positive feedback loop of the AMPAR decrease
      and drebrin re-accumulation inhibition, the dendritic spines are instable during
      LTD maintenance. Taken together, we propose the presence of resilient spines at
      steady state and plastic spines at excited state and discuss the physiological
      and pathological relevance of the two-state model to synaptic plasticity.

PMID- 28865022
TI  - Drebrin in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder accompanied by severe
      progressive memory and cognitive impairment. The brain of AD patients has an
      abundance of two abnormal structures, amyloid plaques (senile plaques) and
      neurofibrillary tangles. In addition, drebrin loss is another hallmark of AD
      brains, which is a common feature in the brain of both AD patients and AD mouse
      models. Strong evidence from human genetics and transgenic mouse models has
      indicated that amyloid beta (Abeta) is part of the etiology and pathogenesis of
      AD. Recently, it has become clear that synaptic dysfunction, including reduced
      synaptic transmission and loss of dendritic spines, occurs prior to the formation
      of amyloid plaques and neuronal cell loss. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry
      using postmortem human brains and AD mouse models has shown that drebrin loss in
      postsynaptic sites occurs earlier than the presynaptic change in AD brains. In
      addition, dysregulation of glutamate receptor trafficking and the p21-activated
      kinase/LIM kinase pathway has been observed in AD brains. It is now believed that
      soluble Abeta oligomers, namely, Abeta-derived diffusible ligands (ADDLs), but
      not insoluble Abeta aggregation mediates Abeta toxicity. ADDLs bind to the
      postsynaptic site and induce the aberrant morphology and density of dendritic
      spines. Consistent with the AD mouse models, the surface expression of glutamate
      receptors decreases after ADDL exposure. Importantly, the ADDL-induced drebrin
      loss in dendritic spines occurs prior to aberrations in dendritic spine
      morphology and density. These observations indicate that drebrin loss in
      dendritic spines occurs at the prodromal stage of AD, before the density and
      morphology of dendritic spines change. Quantitation of drebrin may be a possible
      tool for diagnosing the prodromal stage of AD, before dementia development in AD.

PMID- 28865023
TI  - Drebrins and Connexins: A Biomedical Perspective.
AB  - In this chapter we summarize knowledge on the role of drebrin in cell-cell
      communications. Specifically, we follow drebrin-connexin-43 interactions and
      drebrin behavior at the cell-cell interface described earlier. Drebrin is a part
      of the actin cytoskeleton which is a target of numerous bacteria and viruses
      invading mammalian cells. Drebrin phosphorylation, self-inhibition and transition
      between filaments, particles, and podosomes underlie cellular mechanisms involved
      in diseases and cognitive disorders. Cytoskeletal rearrangements influence the
      state of gap junction contacts which regulate cell signaling and metabolic flow
      of information across cells in tissues. Taking into account that connexin-43
      (Cx43) (together with Cx30) is heavily expressed in astrocytes and that drebrin
      supports cell-cell contacts, the understanding of details of how brain cells live
      and die reveals molecular pathology involved in neurodegeneration, Alzheimer's
      disease (AD), other cognitive disorders, and aging.Bidirectional connexin
      channels are permeable to Ca2+ ions, IP3, ATP, and cAMP. Connexin hemichannels
      are important for paracrine regulation and can release and exchange energy with
      other cells using ATP to transfer information and to support damaged cells.
      Connexin channels, hemichannels, and adhesion plaques are regulated by assembly
      and disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton. Drebrin degradation can alter gap
      junction communication, and drebrin level is decreased in the brain of AD
      patients. The diversity of drebrin functions in neurons, astrocytes, and non
      neuronal cells still remains to be revealed. We believe that the knowledge on
      drebrin summarized here will contribute to key questions, "covering the gap"
      between cell-cell communications and the submembrane cytoskeleton.

PMID- 28865024
TI  - Homer, Spikar, and Other Drebrin-Binding Proteins in the Brain.
AB  - Drebrin is a major F-actin-binding protein in the brain. In the past two decades,
      many drebrin-binding proteins in addition to F-actin have been identified in
      several research fields including neuroscience, oncology, and immunology. Among
      the drebrin-binding proteins, there are various kinds of proteins including
      scaffold proteins, nuclear proteins, phosphatases, microtubule-binding proteins,
      G-actin-binding proteins, gap junction proteins, chemokine receptors, and cell
      adhesion-related proteins. The interaction between drebrin and its binding
      partners seems to play important roles in higher brain functions, because drebrin
      is involved in the pathogenesis of some neurological diseases with cognitive
      defects. In this chapter, we will first review the interaction of Homer and
      spikar with drebrin, particularly focusing on spine morphogenesis and synaptic
      function. Homer contributes to spine morphogenesis by cooperating with shank and
      activated Cdc42 small GTPase, suggesting a novel signaling pathway comprising
      Homer, drebrin, shank, and Cdc42 for spine morphogenesis. Drebrin sequesters
      spikar in the cytoplasm and stabilizes it in dendritic spines, leading to spine
      formation. Finally, we will introduce some other drebrin-binding proteins
      including end-binding protein 3 (EB3), profilin, progranulin, and phosphatase and
      tensin homologue (PTEN). These proteins are involved in Alzheimer's disease and
      cancer. Therefore, further studies on drebrin and its binding proteins will be of
      great importance to elucidate the pathologies of various diseases and may
      contribute to their medical treatment and diagnostics development.

PMID- 28865025
TI  - Role of Drebrin at the Immunological Synapse.
AB  - Although drebrin was first described in neurons, it is also expressed in cells of
      the immune system, such as T lymphocytes and mast cells. Another member of the
      drebrin family of proteins, mammalian actin-binding protein 1 (mAbp-1) is more
      widely expressed and plays important roles in the function of macrophages,
      polymorphonuclear neutrophils, and B lymphocytes. We will briefly discuss on the
      function of mAbp-1 and drebrin in immune cells with emphasis on T cells.
      Specifically, drebrin enables the immune responses of CD4+ T lymphocytes. T cells
      are activated after the recognition of an antigen presented by antigen-presenting
      cells through cognate cell-cell contacts called immunological synapses (IS). In
      CD4+ T cells, drebrin associates with the chemokine receptor CXCR4, and both
      molecules redistribute to the IS displaying similar dynamics. Through its
      interaction with CXCR4 and the actin cytoskeleton, drebrin regulates T cell
      activation. CD4+ T cells are one of the main targets for the human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1. This virus utilizes the IS structure to be
      transmitted to uninfected cells, forming cell-cell contacts called virological
      synapses (VS). Interestingly, drebrin negatively regulates HIV-1 infection of
      CD4+ T lymphocytes, by regulating actin polymerization at the VS.

PMID- 28865026
TI  - Drebrin Regulation of Calcium Signaling in Immune Cells.
AB  - Store-operated Ca2+ channels are plasma membrane channels that are activated by
      depletion of intracellular Ca2+ stores, resulting in an increase in intracellular
      Ca2+; however, little is known about their regulation. Our work has shown that
      the immunosuppressant compound BTP2, which blocks Ca2+ influx into cells,
      interacts with the actin-reorganizing protein, drebrin. Here we review the role
      of drebrin in the regulation of calcium signaling, with a focus on immune cells.

PMID- 28865028
TI  - Drebrin at Junctional Plaques.
AB  - Adhesion, segregation, and cellular plasticity are regulated by actin filaments
      anchored at the plaques of adherens junctions, sites of mechanical stabilization,
      and interfaces of multiple signaling networks. Drebrins were originally
      identified in neuronal cells, but the isoform drebrin E was also detected at
      adherens junctions of a wide range of non-neuronal cells, including polarized
      epithelia, endothelia, and fibroblasts. Here the protein is enriched at actin
      filament bundles associated with junctional plaques. Polarized epithelial cells
      contain two types of actin-associated complexes, one comprising drebrin but not
      vinculin and the other involving vinculin, but not drebrin. At gap junctions
      drebrin interacts with connexin 43, stabilizes this protein at membranes, and
      links it to the actin cytoskeleton. In vivo drebrin is widespread in diverse non
      neuronal tissues of epithelial, endothelial, and smooth muscle origin, but not
      ubiquitous. In intestinal cells it is involved in cell compaction, linking of
      actin filaments to microtubules and formation and stabilization of the terminal
      web. Upregulation of drebrin was noted in several types of cancers, e.g., basal
      cell carcinomas for which it may serve as marker, liver metastases of colon
      carcinomas, and bladder cancer, suggesting that it is involved in regulating
      actin dynamics during tumor development, progression, and metastasis.

PMID- 28865029
TI  - Juxtanuclear Drebrin-Enriched Zone.
AB  - Drebrin E contributes to remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton and formation of
      cell processes. Therefore, its role in cell migration was studied in prototypes
      of motile cells with prominent lamellipodia such as murine B16F1 melanoma and
      Swiss 3T3 cells and in human SV80 fibroblasts. Confocal microscopy revealed
      absence of drebrin from the tips of lamellipodia but enrichment in the tail of
      the cells, in retraction zones and in a specific juxtanuclear actin filament
      compartment, named "drebrin-enriched zone." A similar subset of juxtanuclear
      actin filaments is characterized by the actin-binding protein SWAP-70, but
      drebrin and SWAP-70 localized to different compartments, suggesting the existence
      of novel distinct subdomains within the actin filament system. In cells
      overexpressing drebrin-EGFP, numerous long, branched cell processes were formed
      which slowly retracted and extended. However, in stable transfectants containing
      lower amounts of the fusion protein, drebrin-EGFP was recruited to the same sites
      as the endogenous protein during cell migration, i.e., to retracting membrane
      domains and into the juxtanuclear drebrin-enriched zone. In the leading edges of
      SV80 cells, characterized by pronounced actin microspikes, drebrin was
      concentrated along posterior portions of the microspikes, together with
      tropomyosin, with which it competes for actin binding. Drebrin knockdown by siRNA
      did not impact forward migration or ruffling. Taken together, these findings
      suggest that during cell migration drebrin is involved in retraction processes
      but not in lamellipodia formation. The novel, sizable juxtanuclear drebrin
      enriched zone remains to be characterized in detail with respect to its molecular
      assembly and functions.

PMID- 28865030
TI  - Drebrin in Renal Glomeruli.
AB  - The central function of renal glomeruli is plasma ultrafiltration for primary
      urine production. The glomerular filtration barrier consists of a fenestrated
      endothelium, the glomerular basement membrane and podocytes, mesenchymal-like
      cells with actin filament-rich protrusions, the "foot processes." Their
      architecture and function are maintained and regulated by actin and several actin
      binding proteins, mutations of which can be causative of glomerular diseases.
      Since initial immunostaining experiments had demonstrated intense drebrin
      reactions in renal glomeruli, the distribution of this protein was studied in
      detail in the kidneys of diverse mammalian species. Double-label confocal laser
      scanning microscopy revealed drebrin enrichment in mesangial cells of human,
      bovine, murine, and rat kidneys. In Thy-1.1 nephritic rat glomeruli, the protein
      was concentrated in mesangial cell processes and upregulated during their
      formation and remodeling. In adult human and bovine kidneys, drebrin was
      additionally accumulated in the foot processes of podocytes, a finding confirmed
      by immunoelectron microscopy. By contrast, podocytes of rodent glomeruli
      contained significant amounts of drebrin only during early developmental stages.
      In cultured murine podocytes induced to form cell processes, however, drebrin was
      concentrated in these protrusions, partly in colocalization with other actin
      binding proteins. Protein extracts from human and bovine kidneys comprised 20 S
      complexes of drebrin and actin, so-called drebrosomes. In summary, drebrin has to
      be added to the list of actin-binding proteins regulating actin dynamics of
      mesangial cell processes and foot processes of podocytes. It will be important to
      determine its role in hereditary and acquired glomerulopathies.

PMID- 28865027
TI  - Drebrin and Spermatogenesis.
AB  - Drebrin is a family of actin-binding proteins with two known members called
      drebrin A and E. Apart from the ability to stabilize F-actin microfilaments via
      their actin-binding domains near the N-terminus, drebrin also regulates multiple
      cellular functions due to its unique ability to recruit multiple binding partners
      to a specific cellular domain, such as the seminiferous epithelium during the
      epithelial cycle of spermatogenesis. Recent studies have illustrated the role of
      drebrin E in the testis during spermatogenesis in particular via its ability to
      recruit branched actin polymerization protein known as actin-related protein 3
      (Arp3), illustrating its involvement in modifying the organization of actin
      microfilaments at the ectoplasmic specialization (ES) which includes the testis
      specific anchoring junction at the Sertoli-spermatid (apical ES) interface and at
      the Sertoli cell-cell (basal ES) interface. These data are carefully evaluated in
      light of other recent findings herein regarding the role of drebrin in actin
      filament organization at the ES. We also provide the hypothetical model regarding
      its involvement in germ cell transport during the epithelial cycle in the
      seminiferous epithelium to support spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28865031
TI  - Drebrin's Role in the Maintenance of Endothelial Integrity.
AB  - The human endothelium forms a permeable barrier between the blood stream and
      surrounding tissues, strictly governing the passage of immune cells, fluids and
      metabolites. The regulation of cell-cell contact dynamics between endothelial
      cells is essential for this function and thus for the maintenance of vascular
      integrity. Intercellular adhesion within the endothelium is mainly dependent on
      adherens junctions, composed of cell-cell adhesion proteins such as VE-cadherin
      and nectin, and their associated proteins. Recent research points to a critical
      role of the actin cytoskeleton in endothelial integrity, by providing anchorage
      of adhesion complexes to the cell cortex. We could show that the F-actin-binding
      protein drebrin is a critical regulator of endothelial integrity, by linking
      nectin to the cortical actin cytoskeleton. In particular, the knockdown of
      drebrin leads to functional impairment of endothelial cells, characterized by
      rupturing of endothelial monolayers cultured under conditions mimicking vascular
      flow. This weakening of cell-cell contacts upon drebrin depletion is based on the
      destabilization of nectin at adherens junctions, followed by internalization and
      degradation in lysosomes. Conducting interaction studies, we showed that drebrin
      binds to nectin's interaction partner afadin, thus linking the nectin/afadin
      system to the cortical F-actin network. Drebrin, containing binding sites for
      both afadin and F-actin, is thus uniquely equipped to stabilize nectin at
      adherens junctions, thereby preserving endothelial integrity. Collectively, these
      results contribute to the current understanding of cell-cell junction regulation,
      introducing a new function of drebrin as a stabilizer of endothelial integrity.

PMID- 28865032
TI  - Regulation of Skeletal Myoblast Differentiation by Drebrin.
AB  - Myoblast differentiation is a complex process. As myoblasts differentiate into
      myofibers, they acquire a cell type-specific transcriptional program,
      irreversibly exit the cell cycle, and dramatically change their morphology. The
      morphological changes include cell elongation, alignment, and fusion into
      syncytial myofibers. Several lines of evidence suggest that these events may be
      co-regulated. However, the mechanisms that coordinate major alterations in a
      cell's transcriptome and its shape are not well understood. Muscle-specific
      transcription is controlled by proteins of the MyoD family, transcription factors
      whose activity is regulated by specific signal transduction pathways, including
      the p38 MAP kinase pathway. In a search for genes that might play a role in
      linking myogenic signal transduction, cytoskeletal regulation, and myoblast
      differentiation, Dbn1 (encoding the actin regulator drebrin) was identified. Dbn1
      expression is induced during myoblast differentiation, in a p38 MAP kinase- and
      MyoD- dependent manner. RNAi-mediated depletion of drebrin, or treatment with a
      chemical drebrin inhibitor, resulted in a similar phenotype in myoblasts:
      defective differentiation, with low levels of early and late differentiation
      markers and inefficient production of myofibers. Drebrin localizes at sites of
      cell-cell contact and cell extensions, locations that are also enriched for F
      actin. Drebrin may be important in linking transcriptional and morphological
      aspects of myoblast differentiation.

PMID- 28865033
TI  - The Role of Drebrin in Cancer Cell Invasion.
AB  - Cancer progression is characterized by the capacity of malignant cells to exploit
      an innate migratory ability in order to invade adjacent tissues, enter the
      vasculature and eventually metastasize to secondary organs. It is this spread of
      cancer cells that is the major cause of death in cancer patients. Understanding
      the basic biology of how cancer cells generate an invasive phenotype will be
      crucial to the identification of drug targets with the aim of impeding tumour
      dissemination. Ten years on from its initial description in neuronal cells,
      drebrin expression was found in a wide variety of non-neuronal cells that
      importantly included cancer cell lines. Since then mounting evidence suggests
      that drebrin may be a key player in the advancement of several diverse cancer
      types where its expression is frequently upregulated. Cancer cell motility and
      invasion are crucial elements in the metastatic cascade and involve dramatic
      changes in cellular morphology that are associated with dynamic remodelling of
      the cytoskeleton. Interestingly, it now appears that drebrin could deliver this
      role during cancer development.

PMID- 28865034
TI  - 'The Elephant on the Table': Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Home Health
      Services.
AB  - Healthcare services are increasingly being provided in the home. At the same
      time, these home contexts are changing as global migration has brought
      unprecedented diversity both in the recipients of care, and home health workers.
      In this paper, we present findings of a Canadian study that examined the
      negotiation of religious and ethnic plurality in home health. Qualitative
      analysis of the data from interviews and observations with 46 participants
      clients, administrators, home healthcare workers-revealed how religion is
      expressed and 'managed' in home health services.

PMID- 28865036
TI  - Giant Hepatic Adenoma in a 12-Year-Old Girl.

PMID- 28865035
TI  - Effect of zoledronic acid on lumbar spinal fusion in osteoporotic patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of zoledronic acid (ZA) on lumbar spinal
      fusion in patients with osteoporosis. METHODS: This retrospective study includes
      94 osteoporotic patients suffering from lumbar degenerative diseases or lumbar
      fracture who underwent lumbar spinal fusion in our institution from January 2013
      to August 2014. They were divided into ZA group and control group according to
      whether the patient received ZA infusion or not. The patients in ZA group were
      given 5 mg intravenous ZA at the 3rd-5th days after operation. All patients took
      daily oral supplement of 600 mg calcium carbonate and 800 IU vitamin D during the
      follow-up after operation. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability
      Index (ODI), and Short Form 36 (SF-36) scores were recorded preoperatively and
      post-operatively to evaluate the clinic outcomes; the spinal fusion was assessed
      by X-ray or CT Scan. RESULTS: 64 patients finished the final follow-up, including
      30 patients in ZA group and 34 patients in control group. No significant
      difference was observed in gender, age, and preoperative BMI VAS, ODI, and SF-36
      scores between the two groups (P > 0.05). The post-operative VAS and ODI scores
      decreased rapidly at 3 and 6 months, but rose back slightly at 12 and 24 months
      in both groups. On the contrary, post-operative SF-36 scores increased rapidly at
      3 and 6 months, while fell back slightly at 12 and 24 months, with a
      statistically significant difference between the two groups at 12 months, but not
      at 3 and 6 month post-operation. The spinal fusion rate in ZA group was 90% at 6
      months, 92% at 12 months, while it was 75% at 6 months, 92.86% at 12 months in
      control group, significantly different between the two groups at 12 months, but
      not at 6 months. In the whole follow-up period, adjacent vertebral compressing
      fracture occurred in five patients in control group, none in ZA group. No pedicle
      screw loosening was observed in ZA group, with six in control group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Zoledronic acid accelerates spinal fusion, shortens the time of fusion without
      changing fusion rate, and also decreases the risk of adjacent vertebral
      compressing fracture and the rate of pedicle screw loosening, resulting in the
      improvement of clinical outcomes and quality of life.

PMID- 28865037
TI  - The presence of anaemia negatively influences survival in patients with POLG
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mitochondria play an important role in iron metabolism and
      haematopoietic cell homeostasis. Recent studies in mice showed that a mutation in
      the catalytic subunit of polymerase gamma (POLG) was associated with
      haematopoietic dysfunction including anaemia. The aim of this study was to
      analyse the frequency of anaemia in a large cohort of patients with POLG related
      disease. METHODS: We conducted a multi-national, retrospective study of 61
      patients with confirmed, pathogenic biallelic POLG mutations from six centres,
      four in Norway and two in the United Kingdom. Clinical, laboratory and genetic
      data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Anaemia was defined as an
      abnormally low haemoglobin value adjusted for age and sex. Univariate survival
      analysis was performed using log-rank test to compare differences in survival
      time between categories. RESULTS: Anaemia occurred in 67% (41/61) of patients and
      in 23% (14/61) it was already present at clinical presentation. The frequency of
      anaemia in patients with early onset disease including Alpers syndrome and
      myocerebrohepatopathy spectrum (MCHS) was high (72%) and 35% (8/23) of these had
      anaemia at presentation. Survival analysis showed that the presence of anaemia
      was associated with a significantly worse survival (P = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Our
      study reveals that anaemia can be a feature of POLG-related disease. Further, we
      show that its presence is associated with significantly worse prognosis either
      because anaemia itself is impacting survival or because it reflects the presence
      of more serious disease. In either case, our data suggests anaemia is a marker
      for negative prognosis.

PMID- 28865039
TI  - The Roles of Relative Linguistic Proficiency and Modality Switching in Language
      Switch Cost: Evidence from Chinese Visual Unimodal and Bimodal Bilinguals.
AB  - The current study investigated the mechanism of language switching in unbalanced
      visual unimodal bilinguals as well as balanced and unbalanced bimodal bilinguals
      during a picture naming task. All three groups exhibited significant switch costs
      across two languages, with symmetrical switch cost in balanced bimodal bilinguals
      and asymmetrical switch cost in unbalanced unimodal bilinguals and bimodal
      bilinguals. Moreover, the relative proficiency of the two languages but not their
      absolute proficiency had an effect on language switch cost. For the bimodal
      bilinguals the language switch cost also arose from modality switching. These
      findings suggest that the language switch cost might originate from multiple
      sources from both outside (e.g., modality switching) and inside (e.g., the
      relative proficiency of the two languages) the linguistic lexicon.

PMID- 28865040
TI  - The impact of peri-operative dexamethasone administration on the normal
      hypothalamic pituitary adrenal response to major surgical procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical procedures are associated with activation of the
      hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). Studies examining HPA dynamics peri
      operatively are limited and the modulating influence of peri-operatively
      administered glucocorticoids on that is not well established. This investigation
      examined alterations in HPA function and the impact of dexamethasone (DEX)
      administration during the peri-operative period. METHODS: We examined HPA
      function in 297 patients with normal function who had surgical procedures
      including pituitary mass resection (n = 191), craniotomy (n = 17) and other
      thoracic/ abdominal/ pelvic surgeries (n = 89). HPA function was assessed by
      frequent measurements of parameters defining adrenal function: ACTH, cortisol,
      DHEA and DHEA-S levels for 48 h. DEX was administered as a single dose (2-10 mg)
      to 30 and as multiple doses (12-36 mg) to 21 patients. The data of DEX-treated
      subjects within each group were similar and were combined together. RESULTS: Pre
      operative data were similar for patients having different surgical procedures.
      Without DEX exposure, ACTH increased to 225 +/- 100 ng/L at 2-4 h and gradually
      declined to baseline values by 36 h while cortisol levels peaked (39.2 +/- 13.2
      ug/dL) at 6-8 h declining gradually thereafter. Cortisol rise was paralleled by
      an equimolar increase in DHEA and a subsequent increase in DHEA-S levels. Single
      doses of DEX did not influence ACTH or cortisol secretion but suppressed the
      expected rise in DHEA and DHEA-S levels. Multiple doses of DEX suppressed ACTH
      and cortisol after the 15th postoperative hour and completely blocked the
      expected rise in DHEA and DHEA-S levels. CONCLUSIONS: The data provide a detailed
      overview of HPA function in a large number of subjects who had major surgical
      procedures. Single and large doses of DEX did not suppress ACTH or cortisol
      secretion but suppressed adrenal androgen secretion. It took multiple doses of
      DEX to partially suppress ACTH and cortisol secretion in the peri-operative
      period.

PMID- 28865041
TI  - Bezlotoxumab: A Review in Preventing Clostridium difficile Infection Recurrence.
AB  - Bezlotoxumab (ZinplavaTM) is a fully human monoclonal antibody against
      Clostridium difficile toxin B indicated for the prevention of C. difficile
      infection (CDI) recurrence in patients with a high recurrence risk. It is the
      first agent approved for recurrence prevention and is administered as a single
      intravenous infusion in conjunction with standard-of-care (SoC) antibacterial
      treatment for CDI. In well-designed, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials (MODIFY 1
      and 2), a single infusion of bezlotoxumab, given in combination with SoC
      antibacterial therapy for CDI in adults, was effective in reducing CDI recurrence
      in the 12 weeks post-treatment, with this benefit being seen mainly in the
      patients at high recurrence risk. Bezlotoxumab did not impact the efficacy of the
      antibacterials being used to treat the CDI and, consistent with its benefits on
      CDI recurrence, appeared to reduce the need for subsequent antibacterials, thus
      minimizing further gut microbiota disruption. Longer term, there were no further
      CDI recurrences over 12 months' follow-up among patients who had received
      bezlotoxumab in MODIFY 2 and entered an extension substudy. Bezlotoxumab has low
      immunogenicity and is generally well tolerated, although the potential for heart
      failure in some patients requires consideration; cost-effectiveness data for
      bezlotoxumab are awaited with interest. Thus, a single intravenous infusion of
      bezlotoxumab during SoC antibacterial treatment for CDI is an emerging option for
      reducing CDI recurrence in adults at high risk of recurrence.

PMID- 28865038
TI  - Benzodiazepines and Z-Drugs: An Updated Review of Major Adverse Outcomes Reported
      on in Epidemiologic Research.
AB  - Various adverse events resulting from, or associated with, benzodiazepine and/or
      Z-drug use have been extensively reported on and discussed in great detail within
      the biomedical literature. It is widely accepted that motor vehicle accidents and
      falls leading to fractures in older adults are major adverse events that have
      been shown to occur more frequently in users of sedative-hypnotic medication,
      especially of the benzodiazepine and related Z-drug variety. However, the last
      few years have seen increasing reports in the literature raising the issue of
      benzodiazepine and Z-drug exposure in the development of other serious medical
      issues including dementia, infections, respiratory disease exacerbation,
      pancreatitis, and cancer. This article provides an overview and interpretation on
      the current state of evidence regarding each of these associations and proposes
      what gaps in the evidence for drug-exposure-harm associations need to be
      addressed in the future for the purpose of evaluating causality of harm as it
      relates to these drugs.

PMID- 28865042
TI  - Influence of undersized cementless hip stems on primary stability and strain
      distribution.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Undersizing of cementless hip stems is a risk factor for aseptic
      loosening and early subsidence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
      effects of undersized stems and determine whether a biomechanical study can
      predict the clinical results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three consecutive sizes of a
      clinically proven stem (CLS Spotorno) were implanted into six composite femora
      (size large, Sawbones(r)), respectively. According to the Canal Fill Index (CFI),
      two stems (size 11.25 and 12.5) were undersized (CFI < 80%) and one stem (size
      13.75) had an appropriate size (CFI > 80%). The primary stability was evaluated
      by measurement of 3-dimensional (3D)-micromotions under physiological adapted
      load and surface strains were recorded before and after implantation to detect
      stress-shielding processes. RESULTS: Both undersized stems revealed significantly
      higher micromotions in all regions compared to the appropriate stem. The highest
      micromotions were registered at the distal tip of the three stem sizes. The
      changes in surface strain did not show a significant difference between the three
      stem sizes, but the highest strain reduction was observed proximally indicating a
      tendency for stress shielding. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the clinical
      assumption that undersized stem result in a significantly reduced primary
      stability. Furthermore, in vitro studies allow to determine the effects of
      undersizing and stress shielding processes.

PMID- 28865043
TI  - Cerebrospinal fluid injection into adult zebrafish for disease research.
AB  - A modified method of cerebrospinal fluid injection was developed for the
      efficient and reliable administration of substances to the zebrafish central
      nervous system. The accuracy of this modified method was evaluated using Alexa
      Fluor dye injection. A high survival ratio was achieved due to the simplicity of
      the procedure and ice-tricaine combined anaesthesia. To validate this new method,
      we injected ammonium chloride, which successfully blocked lysosome function
      resulting in elevated LC3-II and the accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins.
      Injection of human alpha-synuclein fibrils initiated a prion-like propagation of
      alpha-synuclein pathology in zebrafish. This method can be used to investigate
      the effects of various substances and the propagation of alpha-synuclein in the
      central nervous system.

PMID- 28865044
TI  - The Implications of Genetics for Prevention and Intervention Programming.

PMID- 28865045
TI  - Best not to bet on the horserace: A comment on Forrin and MacLeod (2017) and a
      relevant stimulus-response compatibility view of colour-word contingency learning
      asymmetries.
AB  - One powerfully robust method for the study of human contingency learning is the
      colour-word contingency learning paradigm. In this task, participants respond to
      the print colour of neutral words, each of which is presented most often in one
      colour. The contingencies between words and colours are learned, as indicated by
      faster and more accurate responses when words are presented in their expected
      colour relative to an unexpected colour. In a recent report, Forrin and MacLeod
      (2017b, Memory & Cognition) asked to what extent this performance (i.e., response
      time) measure of learning might depend on the relative speed of processing of the
      word and the colour. With keypress responses, learning effects were comparable
      when responding to the word and to the colour (contrary to predictions). However,
      an asymmetry appeared in a second experiment with vocal responses, with a
      contingency effect only present for colour identification. In a third experiment,
      the colour was preexposed, and contingency effects were again roughly
      symmetrical. In their report, they suggested that a simple speed-of-processing
      (or "horserace") model might explain when contingency effects are observed in
      colour and word identification. In the present report, an alternative view is
      presented. In particular, it is argued that the results are best explained by
      appealing to the notion of relevant stimulus-response compatibility, which also
      resolves discrepancies between horserace model predictions and participant
      results. The article presents simulations with the Parallel Episodic Processing
      model to demonstrate this case.

PMID- 28865046
TI  - Prospective experience of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tubes placed by
      otorhinolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons: safe and efficacious.
AB  - Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is often the treatment of choice in
      head and neck cancer (HNC) patients needing long-term nutritional support.
      Prospective studies on PEG tube placement in an otorhinolaryngologist service are
      lacking. At our hospital, otolaryngologist-head and neck (ORL-HN) surgeons-have
      performed PEG insertions for HNC patients since 2008. We prospectively analyzed
      127 consecutive HNC patients who received their PEG tubes at the Department of
      Otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery, and evaluated the outcome of PEG tube
      insertions performed by ORL-HN surgeons. To compare time delays before and after,
      PEG placement service was transferred from gastrointestinal surgeons to ORL-HN
      surgeons, and we retrospectively analyzed a separate group of 110 HNC patients
      who had earlier received PEG tubes at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery.
      ORL-HN surgeons' success rate in PEG insertion was 97.6%, leading to a final
      prospective study group of 124 patients. Major complications occurred in four
      (3.2%): two buried bumper syndromes, one subcutaneous hemorrhage leading to an
      abscess in the abdominal wall, and one metastasis at the PEG site. The most
      common minor complication was peristomal granulomatous tissue affecting 23
      (18.5%) patients. After the change in practice, median time delay before PEG
      insertion decreased from 13 to 10 days (P < 0.005). The proportion of early PEG
      placements within 0-3 days increased from 3.6 to 14.6% (P < 0.005). PEG tube
      insertion seems to be a safe procedure in the hands of an ORL-HN surgeon.
      Independence from gastrointestinal surgeons' services reduced the time delay and
      improved the availability of urgent PEG insertions.

PMID- 28865047
TI  - Facile synthesis of Gd-doped CdTe quantum dots with optimized properties for
      optical/MR multimodal imaging.
AB  - Each imaging modality has its own merits and intrinsic limitations; therefore,
      combining two or more complementary imaging modalities has become an interesting
      area of research. Recently, magnetic ion-doped quantum dots have become an
      increasingly promising class of optical/magnetic resonance multimodal imaging
      probes due to their excellent physical and chemical properties. In this work, Gd
      doped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were successfully synthesized via a facile one-step
      refluxing route,and their optimal synthesis conditions were investigated. The
      prepared CdTe:Gd QDs were shown to exhibit good optical properties with high
      quantum yields up to 69%, high longitudinal relaxivity (r 1 = 3.8 mM-1 s-1), and
      good crystalline structures. In addition, after further QD surface modification
      with dextran amine (DA), the resulting DA-modified QDs (i.e. DA-CdTe:Gd QDs)
      showed strong magnetic resonance imaging contrast (r 1 = 3.5 mM-1 s-1) and
      improved biocompatibility when tested with cell cultures in vitro. Taken
      together, this new material demonstrated promising performances for both optical
      and magnetic resonance imaging modalities, suggesting its promising potential
      applications in non-invasive imaging, particularly in neuronal tracing.

PMID- 28865048
TI  - Assessing the combined toxicity of conventional and newer insecticides on the
      cotton mealybug Phenacoccus solenopsis.
AB  - Reduced susceptibility to insecticides often results in failure of insect pest
      control and repetitive use of broad-spectrum insecticides, which could have
      detrimental effects on beneficial arthropods and surrounding agro-ecosystems. The
      cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley is a pest of worldwide importance
      that can be effectively controlled using a number of insecticides. This insect
      has developed resistance due to injudicious use and repeated exposure to
      insecticides throughout the year. The aim of the present study was to investigate
      the toxicity of the insecticides chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin, spinosad, emamectin
      benzoate and indoxacarb tested either singly or in combination on laboratory
      susceptible (Lab-PK) and field population (Field Pop) of P. solenopsis. In the
      Field Pop, combination of chlorpyrifos with either spinosad or emamectin benzoate
      or indoxacarb showed a synergistic effect at 1:1, 1:10 and 1:20. The combination
      of deltamethrin with either emamectin benzoate or indoxacarb at all ratios showed
      synergistic effect, while the combination of deltamethrin with spinosad at 1:1
      and 1:20 ratios showed antagonistic effects and that at 1:10 ratio showed
      synergistic effect against Field Pop. The results of synergism experiments using
      piperonyl butoxide (PBO) and S,S,S-tributylphosphorotrithioate (DEF) enzyme
      inhibitors, when combined with insecticides against the Field Pop, toxicities of
      all tested insecticides were significantly increased. The present study suggests
      that insecticide combinations and synergism could help achieve effective control
      of less susceptible populations of P. solenopsis. This would contribute to
      suitably managing resistance of this pest to insecticides with reduced negative
      impacts on the surrounding environment.

PMID- 28865050
TI  - Histogram Analysis of T1-Weighted, T2-Weighted, and Postcontrast T1-Weighted
      Images in Primary CNS Lymphoma: Correlations with Histopathological Findings-a
      Preliminary Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Previously, some reports mentioned that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      can predict histopathological features in primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL). The
      reported data analyzed diffusion-weighted imaging findings. The aim of this study
      was to investigate possible associations between histopathological findings, such
      as tumor cellularity, nucleic areas and proliferation index Ki-67, and signal
      intensity on T1-weighted and T2-weighted images in PCNSL. PROCEDURES: For this
      study, 18 patients with PCNSL were retrospectively investigated by histogram
      analysis on precontrast and postcontrast T1-weighted and fluid-attenuated
      inversion recovery (FLAIR) images. For every patient, histopathology parameters,
      nucleic count, total nucleic area, and average nucleic area, as well as Ki-67
      index, were estimated. RESULTS: Correlation analysis identified several
      statistically significant associations. Skewness derived from precontrast T1
      weighted images correlated with Ki-67 index (p = - 0.55, P = 0.028). Furthermore,
      entropy derived from precontrast T1-weighted images correlated with average
      nucleic area (p = 0.53, P = 0.04). Several parameters from postcontrast T1
      weighted images correlated with nucleic count: maximum signal intensity (p =
      0.59, P = 0.017), P75 (p = 0.56, P = 0.02), and P90 (p = 0.52, P = 0.04) as well
      as SD (p = 0.58, P = 0.02). Maximum signal intensity derived from FLAIR sequence
      correlated with nucleic count (p = 0.50, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Histogram-derived
      parameters of conventional MRI sequences can reflect different histopathological
      features in PSNCL.

PMID- 28865049
TI  - Exercise therapy for treatment of supraspinatus tears does not alter glenohumeral
      kinematics during internal/external rotation with the arm at the side.
AB  - PURPOSE: Rotator cuff tears are a significant clinical problem, with exercise
      therapy being a common treatment option for patients. Failure rates of exercise
      therapy may be due to the failure to improve glenohumeral kinematics. Tears
      involving the supraspinatus may result in altered glenohumeral kinematics and
      joint instability for internal/external rotation with the arm at the side because
      not all muscles used to stabilize the glenohumeral joint are functioning
      normally. The objective of the study is to assess in vivo glenohumeral kinematic
      changes for internal/external rotation motions with the arm at the side of
      patients with a symptomatic full-thickness supraspinatus tear before and after a
      12-week exercise therapy programme. METHODS: Five patients underwent dynamic
      stereoradiography analysis before and after a 12-week exercise therapy protocol
      to measure changes in glenohumeral kinematics during transverse plane
      internal/external rotation with the arm at the side. Patient-reported outcomes
      and shoulder strength were also evaluated. RESULTS: No patient sought surgery
      immediately following exercise therapy. Significant improvements in isometric
      shoulder strength and patient-reported outcomes were observed (p < 0.05). No
      significant changes in glenohumeral kinematics following physical therapy were
      found. CONCLUSION: Isolated supraspinatus tears resulted in increased joint
      translations compared to healthy controls from the previous literature for
      internal/external rotation with the arm at the side. Despite satisfactory
      clinical outcomes following exercise therapy, glenohumeral kinematics did not
      change. The lack of changes may be due to the motion studied or the focus of
      current exercise therapy protocols being increasing shoulder strength and
      restoring range of motion. Current exercise therapy protocols should be adapted
      to also focus on restoring glenohumeral kinematics to improve joint stability
      since exercise therapy may have different effects depending on the motions of
      daily living. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic study, Level II.

PMID- 28865051
TI  - Tree growth response of Fokienia hodginsii to recent climate warming and drought
      in southwest China.
AB  - To date, few attempts have been made to assess the influence of climate change on
      forest ecosystems and on the relationship between tree growth and climate in
      humid areas of low latitudes. In this paper, we studied the response of tree
      growth and forest ecosystem to climate change by using Fokienia hodginsii tree
      ring cores from the northern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, southwest of China. Tree
      growth correlates the highest (r = -0.64, p < 0.01) with mean temperature (July
      September), but the coefficients were changing with time as revealed by a moving
      correlation analysis. Tree growth is significantly (p < 0.05) and positively
      correlated with January-April mean temperature from AD 1961-1987, while
      correlations with precipitation are insignificant. In contrast, from 1988 to
      2014, tree growth correlated negatively with mean temperature of previous summer
      and positively with precipitation of previous August-September. This indicated
      that the limiting factors for tree growth have changed under different climate
      conditions. The meteorological data suggested that from 1961 to 1987 it was cold
      and wet in the study area and radial growth is limited by winter and spring
      temperatures. This restriction is weaker if the climate is appropriate in
      general. However, from 1988 to 2014, the combined effects of recent warming and
      decreasing precipitation have led to an increasing response of tree-ring width to
      drought. In addition, a large proportion of mature F. hodginsii mortality
      occurred from 2007 to 2013, which corresponds with a drastic reduction of radial
      growth (narrowest in recent 100 years). The recent drought, induced by decreasing
      precipitation and increasing temperature, may have passed the threshold which F.
      hodginsii could tolerate, causing tree growth reduction, tree growth-climate
      relationship change, as well as catastrophic tree mortality. All these changes
      may lead to further responses of the local ecosystem to climate change which
      should be highly regarded.

PMID- 28865052
TI  - An improved method for identifying SUMOylation sites of viral proteins.
AB  - In this study, we improved the most commonly used methods for MS detection of
      SUMOylated sites and used an E. coli recombination SUMOylation system with SUMO-1
      (T95R). This system provides fast enrichment of SUMOylated viral protein in less
      than 2 days, and shows advantage over the method of collecting modified protein
      from cells in convenience and sensitivity. Furthermore, this method provides an
      option for rapid and accurate identification of the potential viral protein
      SUMOylation sites.

PMID- 28865053
TI  - DC-SIGN promotes Japanese encephalitis virus transmission from dendritic cells to
      T cells via virological synapses.
AB  - Skin-resident dendritic cells (DCs) likely encounter incoming viruses in the
      first place, and their migration to lymph nodes following virus capture may
      promote viral replication. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these
      processes remain unclear. In the present study, we found that compared to cell
      free viruses, DC-bound viruses showed enhanced capture of JEV by T cells.
      Additionally, JEV infection was increased by co-culturing DCs and T cells.
      Blocking the C-type lectin receptor DC-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3
      grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN) with neutralizing antibodies or antagonists
      blocked JEV transmission to T cells. Live-cell imaging revealed that DCs captured
      and transferred JEV viral particles to T cells via virological synapses formed at
      DC-T cell junctions. These findings indicate that DC-SIGN plays an important role
      in JEV transmission from DCs to T cells and provide insight into how JEV exploits
      the migratory and antigen-presenting capabilities of DCs to gain access to lymph
      nodes for dissemination and persistence in the host.

PMID- 28865054
TI  - The history of medicine : Challenges and successes.

PMID- 28865055
TI  - Polychlorinated biphenyl 19 blocks the most common form of store-operated Ca2+
      entry through Orai.
AB  - PCB19, a 2,2',6-trichlorinated biphenyl, is one of many non-dioxin-like
      polychlorinated biphenyls (NDL-PCBs), which are ubiquitous pollutants. NDL-PCBs
      affect cytosolic Ca2+ signaling by promoting Ca2+ release from ryanodine receptor
      sensitive Ca2+ pools and inhibiting store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) from the
      extracellular space. However, NDL-PCB-mediated SOCE inhibition has only been
      demonstrated in PC12 cells, in which SOCE is thought to be mainly mediated by
      TRPC family channels. Here, we investigated the effect of PCB19 on SOCE using
      human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells, human leukemia T cell line Jurkat-T
      cells and human promyelocytoma HL-60 cells which are the cell lines that are
      previously demonstrated to mediate the most common form of SOCE solely by the
      intrinsic Orai channels. PCB19 reduced thapsigargin-induced Ca2+ influx after
      Ca2+ pool depletion in HEK293 cells. SOCEs in HEK293, Jurkat T, HL-60 and PC12
      cells showed distinct sensitivities to SOCE inhibitors such as Gd3+ and ML-9;
      however, PCB19 also showed a common effect of inhibiting SOCEs in all cell lines.
      PCB19-mediated SOCE inhibition was confirmed by demonstrating the ability of
      PCB19 to inhibit the SOCE current but not the TRPM7 current. These results imply
      that PCB19 inhibits not only TRPC-mediated SOCE as in PC12 cells but also Orai
      mediated SOCE as in many other cells including HEK293, Jurkat T and HL-60 cells.

PMID- 28865056
TI  - Blinded evaluation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) ligands binding using molecular
      docking and free energy calculations.
AB  - Our participation to the D3R Grand Challenge 2 involved a protocol in two steps,
      with an initial analysis of the available structural data from the PDB allowing
      the selection of the most appropriate combination of docking software and scoring
      function. Subsequent docking calculations showed that the pose prediction can be
      carried out with a certain precision, but this is dependent on the specific
      nature of the ligands. The correct ranking of docking poses is still a problem
      and cannot be successful in the absence of good pose predictions. Our free energy
      calculations on two different subsets provided contrasted results, which might
      have the origin in non-optimal force field parameters associated with the
      sulfonamide chemical moiety.

PMID- 28865058
TI  - Combined metformin-associated lactic acidosis and euglycemic ketoacidosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In renal failure metformin can lead to lactic acidosis. Additional
      inhibition of hepatic gluconeogenesis by accumulation of the drug may aggravate
      fasting-induced ketoacidosis. We report the occurrence of metformin-associated
      lactic acidosis (MALA) with concurrent euglycemic ketoacidosis (MALKA) in three
      patients with renal failure. CASE PRESENTATIONS: Patient 1: a 78-year-old woman
      (pH = 6.89, lactic acid 22 mmol/l, serum ketoacids 7.4 mmol/l and blood glucose
      63 mg/dl) on metformin and insulin treatment. Patient 2: a 79-year-old woman on
      metformin treatment (pH = 6.80, lactic acid 14.7 mmol/l, serum ketoacids 6.4
      mmol/l and blood glucose 76 mg/dl). Patient 3: a 71-year-old man on metformin,
      canagliflozin and liraglutide treatment (pH = 7.21, lactic acid 5.9 mmol/l, serum
      ketoacids 16 mmol/l and blood glucose 150 mg/dl). In all patients, ketoacidosis
      receded on glucose infusion and renal replacement therapy. CONCLUSION: This case
      series highlights the parallel occurrence of MALA and euglycemic ketoacidosis,
      the latter exceeding ketosis due to starvation, suggesting a metformin-triggered
      inhibition of gluconeogenesis. Affected patients benefit from glucose infusion
      counteracting suppressed hepatic gluconeogenesis.

PMID- 28865057
TI  - Patient-Reported Outcome Measures 2 Years After Standard and Distal Gastric
      Bypass-a Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The preferred surgical procedure for treating morbid obesity is
      debated. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are relevant for evaluation of
      the optimal bariatric procedure. METHODS: A total of 113 patients with BMI from
      50 to 60 were randomly assigned to standard (n = 57) or distal (n = 56) Roux-en-Y
      gastric bypass (RYGB). Validated PROMS questionnaires were completed at baseline
      and 2 years after surgery. Data were analyzed using mixed models for repeated
      measures and the results are expressed as estimated means and mean changes.
      RESULTS: Obesity-related quality of life improved significantly after both
      procedures, without significant between-group differences (- 0.4 (95% CI = - 8.4,
      7.2) points, p = 0.88, ES = 0.06). Both groups had significant reductions in the
      number of weight-related symptoms and symptom distress score, with a mean group
      difference (95% CI) of 1.4 (- 0.3, 3.3) symptoms and 5.0 (2.9. 12.8) symptom
      distress score points. There were no between-group differences for uncontrolled
      eating (22.0 (17.2-26.7) vs. 28.9 (23.3-34.5) points), cognitive restraint (57.4
      (52.0-62.7) vs. 62.1 (57.9-66.2) points), and emotional eating (26.8 (20.5-33.1)
      vs. 32.6 (25.5-39.7) points). The prevalence of anxiety was 33% after standard
      and 25% after distal RYGB (p = 0.53), and for depression 12 and 9%, respectively
      (p = 0.76). CONCLUSIONS: There were no statistically significant differences
      between standard and distal RYGB 2 years post surgery regarding weight loss,
      obesity-related quality of life, weight-related symptoms, anxiety, depression, or
      eating behavior. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trials.gov number NCT00821197.

PMID- 28865059
TI  - Sinus bradycardia induced by darunavir-ritonavir in a patient with acquired
      immunodeficiency syndrome.

PMID- 28865060
TI  - Gut contents, digestive half-lives and feeding state prediction in the soil
      predatory mite Pergamasus longicornis (Mesostigmata: Parasitidae).
AB  - Mid- and hind-gut lumenal changes are described in the free-living predatory soil
      mite Pergamasus longicornis (Berlese) from a time series of histological sections
      scored during and after feeding on fly larval prey. Three distinct types of
      tangible material are found in the lumen. Bayesian estimation of the change
      points in the states of the gut lumenal contents over time is made using a time
      homogenous first order Markov model. Exponential processes within the gut exhibit
      'stiff' dynamics. A lumen is present throughout the midgut from 5 min after the
      start of feeding as the gut rapidly expands. It peaks at about 21.5 h-1.5 days
      and persists post-feeding (even when the gut is contracted) up until
      fasting/starvation commences 10 days post start of feeding. The disappearance of
      the lumen commences 144 h after the start of feeding. Complete disappearance of
      the gut lumen may take 5-9 weeks from feeding commencing. Clear watery prey
      material arrives up to 10 min from the start of feeding, driving gut lumen
      expansion. Intracellular digestion triggered by maximum gut expansion is
      indicated. Detectable granular prey material appears in the lumen during the
      concentrative phase of coxal droplet production and, despite a noticeable
      collapse around 12 h, lasts in part for 52.5 h. Posterior midgut regions differ
      slightly from anterior regions in their main prey food dynamics being somewhat
      faster in processing yet being slightly delayed. Posterior regions are confirmed
      as Last-In-Last-Out depots, anterior regions confirmed as First-In-First-Out
      conveyor belt processes. Evidence for differential lability of prey fractions is
      found. A scheme is presented of granular imbibed prey material being first
      initially rapidly absorbed ([Formula: see text] = 23 min), and also being quickly
      partly converted to globular material extra-corporeally/extracellularly
      ([Formula: see text] = 36 min)-which then rapidly disappears ([Formula: see text]
      = 1.1 h, from a peak around 4 h). This is then followed by slow intracellular
      digestion ([Formula: see text] = 6.9 h) of the resultant resistant prey residue
      matching the slow rate of appearance of opaque pre-excretory egestive refractive
      grains (overall [Formula: see text] = 4.5 days). The latter confirmed latent
      'catabolic fraction' (along with Malpighian tubule produced guanine crystals)
      drives rectal vesicle expansion as 'faeces' during the later phases of gut
      emptying/contraction. Catabolic half-lives are of the order of 6.3-7.8 h.
      Membraneous material is only present in the lumen of the gut in starving mites.
      No obvious peritrophic membrane was observed. The total feeding cycle time may be
      slightly over 52.5 h. Full clearance in the gut system of a single meal including
      egestive and excretory products may take up to 3 weeks. Independent corroborative
      photographs are included and with posterior predictive densities confirm the
      physiological sequence of ingestion/digestion, egestion, excretion, defecation,
      together with their timings. Visually dark midguts almost certainly indicate
      egestive refractive grains (xanthine?) production. Nomograms to diagnose the
      feeding state of P. longicornis in field samples are presented and show that the
      timing of these four phases in the wild could be inferred by scoring 10-12 mites
      out of a sample of 20. Suggestions to critically confirm or refute the
      conclusions are included.

PMID- 28865062
TI  - The fever of Tommaso Campanella.

PMID- 28865061
TI  - Severe Enteropathy and Hypogammaglobulinemia Complicating Refractory
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Disseminated Disease in a Child with IL
      12Rbeta1 Deficiency.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease is a rare clinical
      condition characterized by a predisposition to infectious diseases caused by
      poorly virulent mycobacteria. Other infections such as salmonellosis and
      candidiasis are also reported. The purpose of this article is to describe a young
      boy affected with various infectious diseases caused by Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis complex, Salmonella sp, Klebsiella pneumonie, Citrobacter sp., and
      Candida sp, complicated with severe enteropathy and transient
      hypogammaglobulinemia. METHODS: We reviewed medical records and performed flow
      cytometry staining for lymphocyte populations, lymphocyte proliferation in
      response to PHA, and intracellular IFN-gamma production in T cell PHA blasts in
      the patient and a healthy control. Sanger sequencing was used to confirm the
      genetic variants in the patient and relatives. RESULTS: Genetic analysis revealed
      a bi-allelic mutation in IL12RB1 (C291Y) resulting in complete IL-12Rbeta1
      deficiency. Functional analysis demonstrated the lack of intracellular production
      of IFN-gamma in CD3+ T lymphocytes from the patient in response to rhIL-12p70.
      CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the third patient with MSMD due to IL
      12Rbeta1 deficiency complicated with enteropathy and hypogammaglobulinemia and
      the first case of this disease to be described in Colombia.

PMID- 28865063
TI  - Potential Role of Thyroid Receptor beta Agonists in the Treatment of
      Hyperlipidemia.
AB  - Thyroid hormones have important effects on cellular development, growth, and
      metabolism and are necessary for the healthy function of almost all tissues.
      Hyperthyroid patients with excess thyroid hormone levels experience tachycardia,
      fatigue, muscle wasting, and osteoporosis. However, although high thyroid hormone
      levels have adverse effects, efforts have been made to harness the beneficial
      effects, such as reduced serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels,
      elevated basal metabolic rate, and weight loss. Thyroid hormones interact with
      nuclear thyroid hormone receptors (TRs), and cholesterol levels are reduced
      through TRbeta, whereas extrahepatic adverse actions are primarily connected to
      TRalpha. Thus, to develop a useful compound for clinical use, efforts have been
      focusing on developing compounds with isomer-specific functions based on the
      structure of thyroid hormones, i.e., thyromimetics that are liver and/or TRbeta
      specific. In this short review, we discuss the development of the early
      thyromimetics that enabled, through modern molecular techniques, the progress
      towards improved design of TRbeta-selective thyromimetics. We also address the
      early promise shown in human clinical trials and the current status of these
      drugs and other emerging compounds.

PMID- 28865064
TI  - Self-disorders in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: a 5-year follow-up study.
AB  - Self-disorders have been hypothesized to be an underlying and trait-like core
      feature of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and a certain degree of temporal
      stability of self-disorders would therefore be expected. The aim of the study was
      to examine the persistence of self-disorders measured by the Examination of
      Anomalous Self Experiences over a time span of 5 years. 48 patients with
      schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were thoroughly assessed for psychopathology at
      baseline and 5 years later. Self-disorders were assessed by the Examination of
      Anomalous Self Experiences. The level of self-disorders was same at the two
      occasions for the full Examination of Anomalous Self Disorders and for four out
      of the five domains. For one domain, the level of self-disorders increased
      slightly from baseline to follow-up. The correlations between baseline and follow
      up were moderate. 9 out of the 13 most-frequently rated items at baseline showed
      equal frequencies at follow-up. The baseline level of self-disorders predicted
      global symptomatic, but not functional outcome. Self-disorders measured by the
      Examination of Anomalous Self Experiences show a high level of temporal
      persistence over 5 years and predict symptomatic outcome.

PMID- 28865065
TI  - Fluoride in saliva and dental biofilm after 1500 and 5000 ppm fluoride exposure.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this randomized, double-blind, crossover study was to
      measure fluoride in saliva and 7-day-old biofilm fluid and biofilm solids after
      rinsing three times per day for 3 weeks with 0, 1500, or 5000 ppm fluoride (NaF).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following the 3-week wash-in/wash-out period, including 1
      week of biofilm accumulation, saliva and biofilm samples were collected from 12
      participants immediately before (background fluoride), and 10, 30, and 60 min
      after a single rinse. Biofilm samples were separated into fluid and solids, and
      samples were analyzed using a fluoride electrode (microanalysis). RESULTS: The
      background fluoride concentration was statistically significantly higher in the
      5000 compared to the 1500 ppm F rinse group in all three compartments (22.3 and
      8.1 MUM in saliva, 126.8 and 58.5 MUM in biofilm fluid, and 10,940 and 4837
      MUmol/kg in biofilm solids). The 1-h fluoride accumulation for the 5000 ppm F
      rinse was higher than for the 1500 ppm F rinse in all three compartments,
      although not statistically significant for saliva and biofilm solids. CONCLUSION:
      Regular exposure to 5000 ppm fluoride elevates background fluoride concentrations
      in saliva, biofilm fluid, and biofilm solids compared to 1500 ppm fluoride.
      Increasing the fluoride concentration almost 3.5 times (from 1500 to 5000 ppm)
      only elevates the background fluoride concentrations in saliva, biofilm fluid,
      and biofilm solids twofold. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Even though fluoride toothpaste
      may be diluted by saliva, the results of the present study indicate that use of
      5000 ppm fluoride toothpaste might lead to improved caries control.

PMID- 28865068
TI  - Expert protocol teams enhance patient centered cardiac testing and care.

PMID- 28865066
TI  - Spatial distribution and human health risk assessment of mercury in street dust
      resulting from various land-use in Ahvaz, Iran.
AB  - Mercury as a toxic element and its associated health hazard has been an important
      topic of research for urban pollution for many years. In this paper, the spatial
      distribution, pollution assessment, and health risk associated with Hg in
      roadside dust 96 street dust samples, representing differing land-uses, have been
      investigated. Land-uses included residential areas (RA), industrial areas (IA),
      public gardens (PG), roadside areas (RS), and suburban areas (SA) in the city of
      Ahvaz, Iran were investigated. Compared with other cities, the concentration of
      Hg in Ahvaz was considerably higher with a mean value of 2.53 mg kg-1, ranging
      from 0.02 to 8.75 mg kg-1. Residential areas exhibited higher Hg in street dust
      than other areas, as demonstrated by spatial mapping illustrating hot spots
      associated with old urban areas with high residential density, high volume
      traffic of roadside areas, and industrial districts: including oil-drilling
      activities, steel smelting-related industries, and small industrial towns around
      Ahvaz. However, Hg concentrations in street dust near to the public gardens (PG)
      and suburban areas (SA) were not at elevated levels compared other land-uses
      investigated in this study. A health risk assessment model of non-carcinogenic
      effects was evaluated for both children and adults. The HQ values also revealed
      that the main exposures route for children and adults decreased as follows:
      vapour > ingestion > dermal contact > inhalation. The hazard index (HI) in each
      area is less than the safe level (HI <= 1) for children and adults, but higher
      for children. The HI value decreases as the following order: RS > IA > RA > SA >
      PG, which indicates potentially serious health hazards for children in the study
      areas.

PMID- 28865067
TI  - Predictors of CPAP compliance in different clinical settings: primary care versus
      sleep unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Good adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)
      treatment improves the patient's quality of life and decreases the risk of
      cardiovascular disease. Previous studies that have analyzed the adherence to CPAP
      were performed in a sleep unit (SU) setting. The involvement of primary care (PC)
      in the management of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients receiving CPAP
      treatment could introduce factors related to the adherence to treatment.
      OBJECTIVES: The objective was to compare the baseline predictors of CPAP
      compliance in SU and PC settings. METHODS: OSA patients treated with CPAP were
      followed for 6 months in SU or PC setting. We included baseline clinical and
      anthropometrical variables, the Epworth Sleep Scale (ESS) score, the quality of
      life index, and the Charlson index. A logistic regression was performed for each
      group to determine the CPAP compliance predictors. Discrimination and calibration
      were performed using the area under the curve and Hosmer-Lemeshow tests. RESULTS:
      We included 191 patients: 91 in the PC group and 100 in the SU group. In 74.9% of
      the patients, the compliance was >= 4 h per day, with 80% compliance in the SU
      setting and 69.2% compliance in the PC setting (p = 0.087). The predictors of
      CPAP compliance were different between SU and PC settings. Body mass index, ESS,
      and CPAP pressure were predictors in the SU setting, and ESS, gender, and waist
      circumference were predictors in the PC setting. CONCLUSIONS: The predictors of
      adequate CPAP compliance vary between SU and PC settings. Detecting compliance
      predictors could help in the planning of early interventions to improve CPAP
      adherence.

PMID- 28865069
TI  - Effect of dietary copper level on the gut microbiota and its correlation with
      serum inflammatory cytokines in Sprague-Dawley rats.
AB  - In China's swine industry, copper is generally supplemented above the National
      Research Council (NRC) requirement (2012) because of its antimicrobial properties
      and the potential for growth promotion. Yet few are concerned about whether this
      excess supplementation is necessary. In this study, the 16S rRNA pyrosequencing
      was designed and used to investigate the effect of dietary copper level on the
      diversity of the fecal microbial community and the correlation of copper level
      with the serum level of inflammatory cytokines in Sprague-Dawley rat models. The
      results showed that the diet containing a high level of Cu (120 and 240 mg/kg)
      changed the microbial richness and diversity of rat feces associated with the
      increased copper content in the rat ileac and colonic digesta. Furthermore, a
      Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that an accumulation of unabsorbed
      copper in the chyme was correlated with the microbial composition of the rat
      feces, which was linked with TNF-alpha in serum. The results suggest that dietary
      copper level may have a direct impact on circulating inflammatory cytokines in
      the serum, perhaps inducing an inflammatory response by altering the microbial
      composition of rat feces. Serum TNF-alpha could be the chief responder to
      excessive copper exposure.

PMID- 28865070
TI  - Variations in bacterial and fungal communities through soil depth profiles in a
      Betula albosinensis forest.
AB  - Microbial communities in subsurface soil are specialized for their environment,
      which is distinct from that of the surface communities. However, little is known
      about the microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) that exist in the deeper
      soil horizons. Vertical changes in microbial alpha-diversity (Chao1 and Shannon
      indices) and community composition were investigated at four soil depths (0-10,
      10-20, 20-40, and 40-60 cm) in a natural secondary forest of Betula albosinensis
      by high-throughput sequencing of the 16S and internal transcribed spacer rDNA
      regions. The numbers of operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and the Chao1 and
      Shannon indices decreased in the deeper soil layers. Each soil layer contained
      both mutual and specific OTUs. In the 40-60 cm soil layer, 175 and 235 specific
      bacterial and fungal OTUs were identified, respectively. Acidobacteria was the
      most dominant bacterial group in all four soil layers, but reached its maximum at
      40-60 cm (62.88%). In particular, the 40-60 cm soil layer typically showed the
      highest abundance of the fungal genus Inocybe (47.46%). The Chao1 and Shannon
      indices were significantly correlated with the soil organic carbon content.
      Redundancy analysis indicated that the bacterial communities were closely
      correlated with soil organic carbon content (P = 0.001). Collectively, these
      results indicate that soil nutrients alter the microbial diversity and relative
      abundance and affect the microbial composition.

PMID- 28865071
TI  - Promising cellulolytic fungi isolates for rice straw degradation.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of eight fungal
      isolates obtained from soils in rice crops for straw degradation in situ. From
      the initial eight isolates, Pleurotus ostreatus T1.1 and Penicillium sp. HC1 were
      selected for further characterization based on qualitative cellulolytic enzyme
      production and capacity to use rice straw as a sole carbon source. Subsequently,
      cellulolytic, xylanolytic, and lignolytic (Pleurotus ostreatus) activity on
      carboxymethyl cellulose, oat xylan, and rice straw with different nitrogen
      sources was evaluated. From the results obtained it was concluded both isolates
      are capable to produce enzymes necessary for rice straw degradation. However,
      their production is dependent upon carbon and nitrogen source. Last, it was
      established that Pleurotus ostreatus T1.1 and Penicillium sp. HC1 capability to
      colonize and mineralize rice straw, in mono-and co-culture, without affecting
      nitrogen soil content.

PMID- 28865072
TI  - Gallibacterium elongation factor-Tu possesses amyloid-like protein
      characteristics, participates in cell adhesion, and is present in biofilms.
AB  - Gallibacterium, which is a bacterial pathogen in chickens, can form biofilms.
      Amyloid proteins present in biofilms bind Congo red dye. The aim of this study
      was to characterize the cell-surface amyloid-like protein expressed in biofilms
      formed by Gallibacterium strains and determine the relationship between this
      protein and curli, which is an amyloid protein that is commonly expressed by
      members of the Enterobacteriaceae family. The presence of amyloid-like proteins
      in outer membrane protein samples from three strains of G. anatis and one strain
      of Gallibacterium genomospecies 2 was evaluated. A protein identified as
      elongation factor-Tu (EF-Tu) by mass spectrometric analysis and in silico
      analysis was obtained from the G. anatis strain F149T. This protein bound Congo
      red dye, cross-reacted with anti-curli polyclonal serum, exhibited polymerizing
      properties and was present in biofilms. This protein also reacted with pooled
      serum from chickens that were experimentally infected with G. anatis, indicating
      the in vivo immunogenicity of this protein. The recombinant EF-Tu purified
      protein, which was prepared from G. anatis 12656-12, polymerizes under in vitro
      conditions, forms filaments and interacts with fibronectin and fibrinogen, all of
      which suggest that this protein functions as an adhesin. In summary, EF-Tu from
      G. anatis presents amyloid characteristics, is present in biofilms and could be
      relevant for the pathogenesis of G. anatis.

PMID- 28865073
TI  - Spirosoma daeguensis sp. nov., isolated from beach soil.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped, aerobic
      bacterium, designated 15J9-6T, was isolated from beach soil on Jeju Island, South
      Korea. Strain 15J9-6T, grew at 10-30 degrees C (optimum growth at 25 degrees C)
      and pH 7-8 (optimum growth at pH 7) on R2A, NA, and TSA agar. Phylogenetically,
      the strain was closely related to members of the genus Spirosoma (92.3-90.1% 16S
      rRNA gene sequence similarities) and showed highest sequence similarity to
      Spirosoma panaciterrae DSM 21099T (92.3%). The G+C content of the genomic DNA of
      strain 15J9-6T was 45.7 mol%. The strain contained phosphatidylethanolamine, two
      unidentified aminophospholipids, an unidentified phospholipid, and an
      unidentified lipid as the major polar lipids; menaquinone MK-7 as the predominant
      respiratory quinone and summed feature 3 (C16:1 omega6c/C16:1 omega7c; 30.1%),
      C16:1 omega5c (23.1%), iso C15:0 (13.3%), and C16:0 (8.4%) as the major fatty
      acids which supported the affiliation of strain 15J9-6T to the genus Spirosoma.
      The results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed genotypic and
      phenotypic differentiation of strain 15J9-6T from recognized Spirosoma species.
      On the basis of its phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness,
      strain 15J9-6T represents a novel species of the genus Spirosoma, for which the
      name Spirosoma daeguensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 15J9-6T (=KCTC
      52036T =JCM 31995T).

PMID- 28865074
TI  - Diversity of lactic acid bacteria from Miang, a traditional fermented tea leaf in
      northern Thailand and their tannin-tolerant ability in tea extract.
AB  - The microbiota of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in thirty-five samples of Miang, a
      traditional fermented tea leaf product, collected from twenty-two different
      regions of eight provinces in upper northern Thailand was revealed through the
      culture-dependent technique. A total of 311 presumptive LAB strains were isolated
      and subjected to clustering analysis based on repetitive genomic element-PCR (rep
      PCR) fingerprinting profiles. The majority of the strains belonged to the
      Lactobacillus genera with an overwhelming predominance of the Lb. plantarum
      group. Further studies of species-specific PCR showed that 201 of 252 isolates in
      the Lb. plantarum group were Lb. plantarum which were thus considered as the
      predominant LAB in Miang, while the other 51 isolates belonged to Lb. pentosus.
      In contrast to Lb. plantarum, there is a lack of information on the tannase gene
      and the tea tannin-tolerant ability of Lb. pentosus. Of the 51 Lb. pentosus
      isolates, 33 were found to harbor the genes encoding tannase and shared 93-99%
      amino acid identity with tannase obtained from Lb. pentosus ATCC 8041T. Among 33
      tannase gene-positive isolates, 23 isolates exhibited high tannin- tolerant
      capabilities when cultivated on de Man Rogosa and Sharpe agar-containing
      bromocresol purple (0.02 g/L, MRS-BCP) supplemented with 20% (v/v) crude tea
      extract, which corresponded to 2.5% (w/v) tannins. These Lb. pentosus isolates
      with high tannin-tolerant capacity are expected to be the high potential strains
      for functional tannase production involved in Miang fermentation as they will
      bring about certain benefits and could be used to improve the fermentation of tea
      products.

PMID- 28865075
TI  - Comparison of antibiotic resistance and copper tolerance of Enterococcus spp. and
      Lactobacillus spp. isolated from piglets before and after weaning.
AB  - In China, antimicrobials and copper are used extensively as growth-promoting
      agents for piglets. This study aimed to characterize the role of in-feed copper
      in the emergence of copper-tolerant and antibiotic-resistant Enterococcus and
      Lactobacillus isolates in Chinese pig farms. Feces of the same eight piglets from
      four litters at 7 and 55 days old and their mothers were traced in order to
      isolate Enterococcus spp. and Lactobacillus spp.. The minimum inhibitory
      concentrations of 10 antimicrobials and copper sulfate were determined using an
      agar dilution method. The feed levels of Cu2+ for lactating sows, suckling
      piglets, and weaned piglets were 6, 177, and 18 mg/kg, respectively. All the 136
      Enterococcus isolates were sensitive to vancomycin; and the resistance rates to
      penicillin, enrofloxacin, and high level streptomycin resistance increased
      significantly after weaning. For the 155 Lactobacillus isolates, the resistance
      rates to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and enrofloxacin were
      significantly higher in weaned piglets. The ratios of copper tolerant
      Enterococcus and Lactobacillus isolates both increased significantly after
      weaning (P < 0.05). A phenotypic correlation was observed after classifying the
      isolates into two groups (CuSO4 MIC50 < 16 or ?16 for enterococci; CuSO4 MIC50 <
      12 or ?12 for lactobacilli) and comparing the antimicrobial-resistant percentage
      of two groups. On species level, a significant increase of E. faecalis to
      enrofloxacin was observed in line with the increase of copper MIC (P < 0.05). The
      findings revealed the changes of the antibiotic resistance and copper tolerance
      level of enterococci and lactobacilli between suckling and weaned piglets and
      demonstrated that there might be a strong association between in-feed copper and
      increased antibiotic resistance in enterococci and lactobacilli in Chinese
      intensive swine farms.

PMID- 28865077
TI  - Sunburn and ambient temperature.

PMID- 28865076
TI  - Loss of FrmB results in increased size of developmental structures during the
      multicellular development of Dictyostelium cells.
AB  - FERM domain-containing proteins are involved in diverse biological and
      pathological processes, including cell-substrate adhesion, cell-cell adhesion,
      multicellular development, and cancer metastasis. In this study, we determined
      the functions of FrmB, a FERM domain-containing protein, in the cell morphology,
      cell adhesion, and multicellular development of Dictyostelium cells. Our results
      show that FrmB appears to play an important role in regulating the size of
      developmental structures. frmB null cells showed prolonged aggregation during
      development, resulting in increased size of developmental structures, such as
      mounds and fruiting bodies, compared to those of wild-type cells, whereas FrmB
      overexpressing cells exhibited decreased size of developmental structures. These
      results suggest that FrmB may be necessary for limiting the sizes of
      developmental structures. Loss of FrmB also resulted in decreased cell-substrate
      adhesion and slightly increased cell area, suggesting that FrmB had important
      roles in the regulation of cell adhesion and cell morphology. These studies would
      contribute to our understanding of the intertwined and overlapped functions of
      FERM domain-containing proteins.

PMID- 28865078
TI  - Epidemiology and survival outcomes of sinonasal verrucous carcinoma in the United
      States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Verrucous carcinoma (VC) is a rare, variant of squamous cell
      carcinoma with benign cytohistopathologic features and a generally favorable
      prognosis. Epidemiologic and clinical outcomes data are lacking as a result of
      limited cases of sinonasal VC. OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence and
      determinants of survival of patients with verrucous carcinoma of the sinonasal
      tract between the years of 1973 to 2014 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and
      End Results (SEER) database. METHODS: The SEER registry was utilized to calculate
      survival trends for patients with verrucous carcinoma of the sinonasal tract
      between 1973 and 2014. Patient data then was analyzed with respect to age, sex,
      race, and treatment modalities (surgery and radiation therapy). Overall survival
      (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 86
      cases of VC of the sinonasal tract were identified. The cohort was comprised of
      69.8% males. The mean age at diagnosis was 67.4 years. The nasal cavity was the
      most common primary site (51.2%), followed by the maxillary sinus (40.7%) and
      nasopharynx (5.8%). The median OS was 97.6 months. 89.5% of cases underwent
      surgery and 20.9% received both surgery and radiation therapy. Overall survival
      at 2, 5, and 10 years was 73%, 59%, and 36%, respectively. On multivariate
      analysis, advanced age (P < 0.05) and primary site (P < 0.05) were associated
      with worse OS and DSS, respectively. Primary nasopharyngeal tumor site was
      associated with reduced DSS (P < 0.05). Surgery improved OS (P < 0.001) and DSS
      (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Verrucous carcinoma of the sinonasal tract is associated
      with a generally favorable prognosis. Age, primary site, and surgical therapy are
      independent predictors of OS and DSS, respectively. We present the first
      population-based analysis of sinonasal VC, thus clarifying the prognosis and
      reinforcing the management of this malignancy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.
      Laryngoscope, 128:651-656, 2017.

PMID- 28865079
TI  - Acquired erythropoietic uroporphyria secondary to myelodysplastic syndrome with
      chromosome 3 alterations: a case report.
AB  - Congenital erythropoietic porphyria is a rare autosomal recessive disease caused
      by a deficiency of uroporphyrinogen III synthase, owing to mutations in UROS in
      chromosome 10. Occasionally, patients show a mild, late-onset disease, without
      germline UROS mutations, associated with haematological malignancies. We report a
      65-year-old patient with photosensitivity, overexcretion of porphyrins and
      thrombocytopenia. Bone marrow analysis gave a diagnosis of myelodysplastic
      syndrome (MDS) with the presence of a derivative chromosome 3, possibly due to an
      inversion including 3q21 and 3q26 break points. After allogeneic stem-cell
      transplantation, complete remission of MDS and uroporphyria was achieved. To our
      knowledge, this is the first reported case of acquired erythropoietic
      uroporphyria associated with MDS, with chromosome 3 alterations.

PMID- 28865080
TI  - Density functional study of porphyrin distortion effects on redox potential of
      heme.
AB  - Heme is involved in various biochemical roles in hemoproteins. In the present
      study, the effect of heme distortion on the redox potential was systematically
      investigated with density functional calculations. We focused on the ruffled and
      saddled distortions of heme, which correspond to the two lowest-frequency normal
      modes. Our computations demonstrated that the ruffled distortion tended to reduce
      the redox potential of heme and that the transition of the electronic
      configuration occurred from (dxz , dyz )3 (dxy )2 to (dxz , dyz )4 (dxy )1 . In
      contrast, the saddled distortion had a tendency toward an increase in the redox
      potential, and no transition of the electronic configuration occurred. In
      experiments, these tendencies were found in the relationship between with the
      heme distortions and the redox potentials in cytochrome c3 . (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28865081
TI  - Chronic treatment with zoledronic acid increases inflammatory markers in
      periodontium of rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bisphosphonates (BF) rise proinflammatory markers and irreversibly
      bind to bone. Chronically, BF can lead to an inflammatory status and can increase
      the local oxidative stress in periodontium. Therefore, the objective of this
      study was to evaluate whether the chronic infusion of Zoledronic Acid (ZA)
      increases inflammatory markers in periodontium of rats. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Chronically, infusion therapy was performed with ZA (0.04, 0.2 or 1 mg/kg or
      saline) by four doses in over a 70-day period to analyze periodontium of the
      first right inferior molar using histologic, histochemical (toluidine blue), and
      immunohistochemical (CD68, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin
      1beta (IL-1beta), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and nuclear factor kappa
      B (NF-kB)) tests. The experiment was replicated (ZA 0.2 mg/kg versus saline) for
      myeloperoxidase (MPO) assay and dose TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, malondialdehyde (MDA)
      and glutathione (GSH) in gingiva of the same tooth. Despite there is no
      alteration in mast cells (P = .608) and CD68 mononuclear-positive cells (P =
      .351), in the periodontium of the ZA-treated group, was observed an increase in
      the presence of inflammatory cells (P = .001) and cytoplasmic immunostaining for
      TNF-alpha (P = .003), IL-1b (P = .004), iNOS (P = .008), and NF-kB (P =  .025).
      Levels of MPO (P < .001), TNF-alpha (P = .002), IL-1beta (P < .001), and GSH (P =
      .005) were augmented in gingiva of ZA-treated group but MDA (P = .993) levels and
      NF-kB nuclear staining (P = .923) were not altered. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic
      treatment with ZA increase proinflammatory cytokines and the number of
      inflammatory cells in periodontium of rats and GSH are expressed probably in a
      compensatory manner.

PMID- 28865082
TI  - Highly Luminescent Pincer Gold(III) Aryl Emitters: Thermally Activated Delayed
      Fluorescence and Solution-Processed OLEDs.
AB  - Herein are described the synthesis, photophysical properties and applications of
      a series of luminescent cyclometalated AuIII complexes having an auxiliary aryl
      ligand. These complexes show photoluminescence with emission quantum yields of up
      to 0.79 in solution and 0.84 in thin films (4 wt % in PMMA) at room temperature,
      both of which are the highest reported values among AuIII complexes. Thermally
      activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is the emission origin for some of these
      complexes. Solution-processed OLEDs made with these complexes showed sky-blue to
      green electroluminescence with external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of up to 23.8
      %, current efficiencies of up to 70.4 cd A-1 , and roll-off of down to 1 %,
      highlighting the bright prospect of AuIII -TADF emitters in OLEDs.

PMID- 28865083
TI  - Radiation-induced changes in the microstructure of epithelial cells of the oral
      mucosa: A comparative light and electron microscopic study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The microplicae is a typical structure of the epithelial cell surface
      of the oral mucosa. The cell surface is potentially of great significance, as it
      provides the underlying basis for the protective function of the salivary
      pellicle. The aim of this study was to investigate whether radiation therapy
      affects the surface morphology of the superficial cells of the human oral mucosa
      in patients who have received radiotherapy for oral cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Oral mucosal tissue samples from 91 patients were collected during dental implant
      surgery or ablative surgery. Study group 1 consisted of 28 patients who underwent
      dental implant surgery after radiotherapy. Group 2 consisted of five patients who
      developed osteoradionecrosis. Group 3 consisted of eight oral cancer patients
      without radiotherapy. Group 4 consisted of 50 clinically healthy subjects as
      controls. The samples were studied with scanning electron microscopy and compared
      with both light and transmission electron micrographs. RESULTS: Radiation therapy
      (RT) induces breakage and destruction in the microplicae morphology and declines
      the density of the microplicae surface structures. In some of the irradiated
      cells, the microplicae were completely vanished, especially in patients who
      developed osteoradionecrosis. In non-irradiated tissue, the microplicae of the
      superficial epithelial cells were intact in all cases. CONCLUSION: Scanning
      electron microscopy, in contrast to light microscopy, appears to be a useful tool
      to reveal the condition of superficial oral mucosal cells. In respect of the
      possible pathogenesis of osteoradionecrosis, the radiation-induced damage of the
      microplicae and its influence on the mucosal salivary pellicle is discussed.

PMID- 28865084
TI  - Eosinophilic esophagitis in children under the age of 5 years: Clinical
      characteristics.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To delineate clinical characteristics and treatment
      outcomes of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) in the youngest of children. STUDY
      DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. METHODS: A 7-year retrospective chart review
      of children with clinicopathologic diagnosis of EoE was performed with specific
      analysis of patients under 5 years old. EoE was defined as the presence of
      symptoms of esophageal dysfunction with pathologically proven eosinophilic
      inflammation (>=15 eosinophils per high-power field [EOS/HPF]) unresponsive to
      reflux therapy. Patient parameters and clinical results were systematically
      reviewed. RESULTS: Of 558 children diagnosed with EoE, 127 (22.8%) were younger
      than 5 years old (mean age 2.5 years). This subgroup presented with reflux
      symptoms (90.1%), vomiting (86.2%), diarrhea (55.3%), liquid dysphagia (52.0%),
      and constipation (50.0%), whereas food impaction (1.6%) was rare. Liquid
      dysphagia was present at all ages but significantly more common in younger
      children (P = .0101). The most common food and environmental allergens were egg
      whites (39.7%), cow's milk (36.5%), peanuts (34.9%), animal dander (15.1%), and
      weed pollen (11.1%). Patients were managed with antireflux medication (100%),
      elimination diet (83.5%), and steroid medication (68.5%). After treatment, 86% of
      parents reported symptom improvement. Mean reduction of EOS in pos-treatment
      biopsy was 33.5 EOS/HPF (P < .0001), and 67 patients showed histologic resolution
      of EoE (56.8%, P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one-quarter of children
      with EoE present under 5 years of age with multiple esophageal symptoms,
      comorbidities, and allergen-sensitization profiles. These patients demonstrate
      substantial clinicohistologic improvement following therapy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      4. Laryngoscope, 128:798-805, 2018.

PMID- 28865085
TI  - Commercial Programs' Online Weight-Loss Claims Compared to Results from
      Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To characterize weight-loss claims and disclaimers present on websites
      for commercial weight-loss programs and compare them with results from published
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS: A content analysis of all home
      pages and testimonials available on the websites of 24 randomly selected programs
      was performed. Two team members independently reviewed each page and abstracted
      information from text and images to capture relevant content, including
      demographics, weight loss, and disclaimers. A systematic review was performed to
      evaluate the efficacy of these programs by searching MEDLINE and the Cochrane
      Database of Systematic Reviews, and the mean weight change from each RCT included
      was abstracted. RESULTS: Overall, the amount of weight loss portrayed in the
      testimonials was extreme across all programs examined (range median weight loss
      10.7-49.5 kg). Only 10 out of the 24 programs had eligible RCTs. Median weight
      losses reported in testimonials exceeded that achieved by trial participants.
      Most programs with RCTs (78%) provided disclaimers stating that the testimonial's
      results were nontypical and/or gave a range of typical weight loss. CONCLUSIONS:
      Weight-loss claims within testimonials were higher than results from RCTs. Future
      studies should examine whether commercial programs' advertising practices
      influence patients' expectations or satisfaction with modest weight-loss results.

PMID- 28865086
TI  - Fragmentation of 2-aroylbenzofuran derivatives by electrospray ionization tandem
      mass spectrometry.
AB  - We investigated the gas-phase fragmentation reactions of a series of 2
      aroylbenzofuran derivatives by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry
      (ESI-MS/MS). The most intense fragment ions were the acylium ions m/z 105 and
      [M+H-C6 H6 ]+ , which originated directly from the precursor ion as a result of 2
      competitive hydrogen rearrangements. Eliminations of CO and CO2 from [M+H-C6 H6
      ]+ were also common fragmentation processes to all the analyzed compounds. In
      addition, eliminations of the radicals *Br and *Cl were diagnostic for halogen
      atoms at aromatic ring A, whereas eliminations of *CH3 and CH2 O were useful to
      identify the methoxyl group attached to this same ring. We used thermochemical
      data, obtained at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d) level of theory, to rationalize the
      fragmentation pathways and to elucidate the formation of E, which involved
      simultaneous elimination of 2 CO molecules from B.

PMID- 28865088
TI  - A co-culture system with three different primary human cell populations reveals
      that biomaterials and MSC modulate macrophage-driven fibroblast recruitment.
AB  - The biological response to implanted biomaterials is a complex and highly
      coordinated phenomenon involving many different cell types that interact within
      3D microenvironments. Here, we increased the complexity of a 3D platform to
      include at least 3 cell types that play a role in the host response upon scaffold
      implantation. With this system, it was possible to address how immune responses
      triggered by 3D biomaterials mediate recruitment of stromal cells that promote
      tissue regeneration, mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSC), or a foreign body
      response, fibroblasts. Primary human macrophages yielded the highest fibroblast
      recruitment when interacting with chitosan scaffolds but not polylactic acid.
      Interestingly, when there were MSC and fibroblasts in the same environment,
      macrophages in chitosan scaffolds again promoted a significant increase on
      fibroblast recruitment, but not of MSC. However, macrophages that were firstly
      allowed to interact with MSC within the scaffolds were no longer able to recruit
      fibroblasts. This study illustrates the potential to use different scaffolds to
      regulate the dynamics of recruitment of proregenerative or fibrotic cell types
      through immunomodulation. Overall, this work strengths the idea that ex vivo
      predictive systems need to consider the different players involved in the
      biological response to biomaterials and that timing of arrival of specific cell
      types will affect the outcome.

PMID- 28865087
TI  - The Arabidopsis U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase PUB30 negatively regulates salt
      tolerance by facilitating BRI1 kinase inhibitor 1 (BKI1) degradation.
AB  - The Arabidopsis U-box E3 ubiquitin ligases play an important role in the
      ubiquitin/26S proteasome-mediated protein degradation pathway. Recently, PUB30
      has been reported to participate in the salt stress response during seed
      germination stage in abscisic acid (ABA)-independent manner, but the molecular
      mechanism remains to be elucidated. Here, we displayed that the pub30 mutant was
      more tolerant to salt stress during seed germination, whereas the mutant of its
      closest homologue PUB31 showed mild sensitivity to salt stress. PUB30 exhibited
      E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in vitro. PUB30 specifically interacted with BRI1
      kinase inhibitor 1 (BKI1), a regulator playing dual roles in brassinosteroids
      signaling, in vitro and in vivo. We found that BKI1 protein was ubiquitinated and
      degraded by the 26S proteasome. The degradation of BKI1 was slowed down in the
      pub30-1 mutant compared with that in the wild type. The bki1 mutant was sensitive
      to salt, whereas the transgenic plants overexpressing BKI1 showed salt tolerant
      phenotype. All these results indicate that PUB30 negatively regulates salt
      tolerance probably through regulating the degradation of BKI1 and
      brassinosteroids signaling in Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28865089
TI  - Impact of enzalutamide and its main metabolite N-desmethyl enzalutamide on
      pharmacokinetically important drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters.
AB  - Enzalutamide is a new drug against castration-resistant prostate cancer. Recent
      data indicate profound induction of drug metabolizing enzymes (e.g. cytochrome
      P450 isoenzyme (CYP) 3A4) but comprehensive in vitro data on other CYP enzymes,
      drug conjugating enzymes or drug transporters is scarce. Moreover, the mechanisms
      of induction are poorly investigated and the effects of the active metabolite N
      desmethyl enzalutamide are unknown. Using LS180 cells as an induction model and
      quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, our study
      demonstrated a concentration-dependent induction of CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP3A5,
      CYP3A4, UGT1A3, UGT1A9, ABCB1, ABCC2 and ABCG2 mRNA. Induction of CYP3A4 and
      ABCB1 was confirmed by Western blot analysis and is likely mediated by activation
      of the nuclear receptor pregnane x receptor, elucidated by a luciferase-based
      reporter gene assay. Enzalutamide's main active metabolite N-desmethyl
      enzalutamide exhibited only weak induction properties. mRNA expression of UGT2B7
      was suppressed by enzalutamide and its metabolite. Both compounds are apparently
      not transported by P-glycoprotein (P-gp) or breast cancer resistance protein
      (BCRP). N-desmethyl enzalutamide more potently inhibited important drug
      transporters (P-gp, BCRP, OATPs) than enzalutamide. Taken together, the
      pharmacokinetics of concurrently administered drugs is likely altered during
      enzalutamide therapy. Levels of metabolically (mainly CYP3A4) eliminated drugs
      are expected to be decreased, whereas the abundance of compounds with solely
      transporter-determined pharmacokinetics (P-gp, OATPs) is likely enhanced.

PMID- 28865090
TI  - Sinonasal quality of life after endoscopic resection of malignant sinonasal and
      skull base tumors.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Improvement in sinonasal quality of life (QoL) following sinus
      surgery has been well-documented across the literature. To our knowledge, only
      one series has evaluated long-term QoL in patients undergoing tumor resection,
      and that study demonstrated no improvement in rhinologic QoL following malignant
      tumor resection at 2-year follow-up. The objective of the present study was to
      evaluate QoL in the 2 years following endoscopic malignant tumor resection.
      METHODS: A prospective cohort study was performed, including patients with both
      malignant and benign sinonasal tumors in a tertiary academic medical center.
      Patients undergoing endoscopic tumor resection who had completed Sinonasal
      Outcome Test 22 (SNOT-22) questionnaires were included in the cohort. SNOT-22
      questionnaires were administered preoperatively and over a 2-year follow-up
      period at clinic visits. Longitudinal linear mixed-effects regression was used to
      compare preoperative QoL to QoL over the 2 years following surgery. RESULTS:
      Among 145 patients included in this study, 64 had malignant tumors. There was a
      statistically significant improvement in SNOT-22 score from baseline to 2 years
      for patients with both malignant tumors (37.0, 95% confidence Interval [CI] 32.0
      42.1 at baseline; 26.5 95% CI 20.8-32.2 at 2 years; P < 0.001) and benign tumors
      (26.5, 95% CI 21.4-30.4 at baseline; 12.9 95% CI 7.6-18.2 at 2 years; P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: In contrast to previously reported series, in this cohort endoscopic
      resection of sinonasal tumors appears to be followed by an improvement in QoL,
      which is sustained over a 2-year period. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2b. Laryngoscope,
      128:789-793, 2018.

PMID- 28865091
TI  - Biocompatibility of two model elastin-like recombinamer-based hydrogels formed
      through physical or chemical cross-linking for various applications in tissue
      engineering and regenerative medicine.
AB  - Biocompatibility studies, especially innate immunity induction, in vitro and in
      vivo cytotoxicity, and fibrosis, are often lacking for many novel biomaterials
      including recombinant protein-based ones, such as elastin-like recombinamers
      (ELRs), and has not been extensively explored in the scientific literature, in
      contrast to traditional biomaterials. Herein, we present the results from a set
      of experiments designed to elucidate the preliminary biocompatibility of 2 types
      of ELRs that are able to form extracellular matrix-like hydrogels through either
      physical or chemical cross-linking both of which are intended for different
      applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Initially, we
      present in vitro cytocompatibility results obtained upon culturing human
      umbilical vein endothelial cells on ELR substrates, showing optimal proliferation
      up to 9 days. Regarding in vivo cytocompatibility, luciferase-expressing hMSCs
      were viable for at least 4 weeks in terms of bioluminescence emission when
      embedded in ELR hydrogels and injected subcutaneously into immunosuppressed mice.
      Furthermore, both types of ELR-based hydrogels were injected subcutaneously in
      immunocompetent mice and serum TNFalpha, IL-1beta, IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10
      concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, confirming the
      lack of inflammatory response, as also observed upon macroscopic and histological
      evaluation. All these findings suggest that both types of ELRs possess broad
      biocompatibility, thus making them very promising for tissue engineering and
      regenerative medicine-related applications.

PMID- 28865092
TI  - Aqueous and Template-Free Synthesis of Meso-Macroporous Polymers for Highly
      Selective Capture and Conversion of Carbon Dioxide.
AB  - Meso-macroporous polymers possessing nitrogen functionality were innovatively
      synthesized through an aqueous and template-free route herein. Specifically, the
      polymerization of 1-(4-vinylbenzyl)-1,3,5,7-tetraazaadamantan-1-ium chloride in
      aqueous solution under high temperatures induces the decomposition of the
      hexamethylenetetramine unit into ammonia and formaldehyde molecules, followed by
      the cross-linking of benzene rings through "resol chemistry". During this
      process, extended meso-macroporous frameworks were constructed, and active
      nitrogen species were incorporated. Taking the advantage of the meso
      macroporosity and nitrogen functionality, the synthesized polymers offer
      competitive CO2 capacities (0.37-1.58 mmol g-1 at 0  degrees C and 0.15 bar) and
      outstanding CO2 /N2 selectivities (155-324 at 0  degrees C). Furthermore, after
      complexed with metal ions, the synthesized polymers show excellent activity for
      catalyzing the cycloaddition of propylene oxide with CO2 (yield>98.5 %, turnover
      frequency: 612.9-761.1 h-1 ).

PMID- 28865093
TI  - In reference to Does mutational analysis influence the management of
      differentiated thyroid cancers?

PMID- 28865095
TI  - Are donors or recipients a more important predictive factor for the development
      of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease after liver transplantation?

PMID- 28865094
TI  - Use of systemic corticosteroids for atopic dermatitis: International Eczema
      Council consensus statement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guidelines discourage the use of systemic corticosteroids for atopic
      dermatitis (AD), but their use remains widespread. OBJECTIVES: To reach consensus
      among an international group of AD experts on the use of systemic corticosteroids
      for AD. METHODS: A survey consisting of statements accompanied by visual analogue
      scales ranging from 'strongly disagree' to 'neutral' to 'strongly agree' was
      distributed to the International Eczema Council (IEC). Consensus was reached in
      agreement on a statement if < 30% of respondents marked to the left of 'neutral'
      towards 'strongly disagree'. RESULTS: Sixty of 77 (78%) IEC members participated.
      Consensus was reached on 12 statements, including that systemic corticosteroids
      should generally be avoided but can be used rarely for severe AD under certain
      circumstances, including a lack of other treatment options, as a bridge to other
      systemic therapies or phototherapy, during acute flares in need of immediate
      relief, in anticipation of a major life event or in the most severe cases. If
      used, treatment should be limited to the short term. Most respondents agreed that
      systemic corticosteroids should never be used in children, but consensus was not
      reached on that statement. The conclusions of our expert group are limited by a
      dearth of high-quality published evidence. If more stringent consensus criteria
      were applied (e.g. requiring < 20% of respondents marking towards 'strongly
      disagree'), consensus would have been reached on fewer statements. CONCLUSIONS:
      Based on expert opinion from the IEC, routine use of systemic corticosteroids for
      AD is generally discouraged and should be reserved for special circumstances.

PMID- 28865096
TI  - The predictive value of coronary artery calcium detected by computed tomography
      in a prospective study on cardiac allograft vasculopathy in heart transplant
      patients.
AB  - The predictive value of coronary artery calcium (CAC) in heart transplant (HTX)
      patients is not established. We explored if the absence of CAC on computed
      tomography (CT) could exclude moderate and severe cardiac allograft vasculopathy
      [CAV2-3 ; the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT)
      recommended nomenclature] and significant coronary artery stenosis (diameter
      reduction >=50%) and predict long-term clinical outcomes. HTX recipients (n =
      133) were prospectively included and underwent CT for CAC scoring and invasive
      coronary angiography (ICA) 7.8 +/- 5.0 years after HTX. CAC was detected in 73
      (55%) patients. The absence of CAC on CT had a negative predictive value of 97%
      for ISHLT CAV2-3 and 88% for significant stenosis on ICA. During 7.5 +/- 2.6
      years of follow-up after CAC CT (n = 127), there were 57 (45%) nonfatal major
      adverse cardiac events and 23 (18%) deaths or graft losses registered as first
      events. Patients with CAC had significantly more events (P = 0.011). In an
      adjusted Cox regression analysis, the presence of CAC was significantly
      associated with a negative outcome (HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1-3.0; P = 0.023). The
      absence of CAC predicted low prevalences of ISHLT CAV2-3 and significant coronary
      artery stenosis in HTX patients. The presence of CACS was significantly
      associated with a worse long-term outcome.

PMID- 28865097
TI  - Suspected Phenobarbital-Induced Pseudolymphoma in a Dog.
AB  - Pseudolymphoma is a drug reaction to anti-epileptics that is well recognized in
      humans; it has been reported in one cat but not dogs. In this report, lymphoma
      like clinical signs are suspected to be secondary to phenobarbital administration
      in a dog. A 2.5-year-old male, neutered Shepherd mix presented for a 3-day
      history of progressive ataxia, dazed mentation, pyrexia, and lethargy. While
      hospitalized, the dog developed generalized lymphadenopathy and sustained
      pyrexia. The dog was receiving levetiracetam and phenobarbital for epilepsy, and
      serum concentrations of both were within standard therapeutic ranges. Abdominal
      ultrasound revealed hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and generalized lymphadenopathy.
      Cytology of the peripheral lymph nodes was consistent with reactive lymph nodes,
      and aspirates of the liver and spleen revealed histiocytic-neutrophilic
      inflammation. Phenobarbital was discontinued and replaced with zonisamide. Within
      24 hours, the dog was normothermic, and other clinical signs resolved within a
      week. This case highlights a potentially serious yet reversible adverse reaction
      to phenobarbital in a dog. This idiosyncratic reaction could be mistaken for
      neoplasia and is an important differential for lymphoma-like signs in any dog
      administered phenobarbital.

PMID- 28865099
TI  - A computational study of samarium diiodide-induced cyclizations of N-oxoalkyl
      substituted methyl indole-3-carboxylates-A rationale of the diastereoselectivity.
AB  - A detailed model for the reaction mechanism of the samarium diiodide (SmI2 )
      mediated reductive coupling of N-oxoalkyl-substituted methyl indole-3
      carboxylates is developed in this study by determining the Gibbs energies for the
      intermediates of possible reaction pathways. The Gibbs energies at ambient
      temperature are calculated with dispersion corrected density functional theory in
      combination with implicit (D-COSMO-RS) and explicit solvent description.
      Temperature dependent ro-vibrational contributions are considered with the help
      of statistical thermodynamics. In contrast to previous proposals for the reaction
      mechanism, the high diastereoselectivity in the cyclization is found to be due to
      the formation of an energetically highly favorable chelate complex in which the
      final relative configuration is already preformed. After cyclization and a second
      electron transfer, alkylation of the resulting anion takes place under kinetic
      control from the more "open" face whereas protonation is under thermodynamic
      control. The calculations are in good agreement with these experimental findings.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28865098
TI  - Therapy of gastroesophageal reflux disease and functional dyspepsia overlaps with
      symptoms after usual-dose proton pump inhibitor: Acotiamide plus usual-dose
      proton pump inhibitor versus double-dose proton pump inhibitor.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and functional
      dyspepsia (FD) often coexist or overlap. In this study, the efficacy of
      acotiamide in combination with a standard dose of rabeprazole for GERD and FD was
      compared with that of a double dose of rabeprazole. METHODS: Patients with
      overlap between GERD and FD experiencing heartburn and epigastric fullness
      symptoms after standard-dose proton pump inhibitor (PPI) for >= 8 weeks were
      randomized into two groups and received either acotiamide 300 mg/day +
      rabeprazole 10 mg/day or rabeprazole 20 mg/day for 4 weeks. Efficacy was assessed
      by reductions in symptom scores using the Izumo scale questionnaire and modified
      F-scale questionnaire. RESULTS: As the primary endpoint, three upper
      gastrointestinal symptoms (heartburn, epigastralgia, and epigastric fullness)
      were reduced by >= 50% in 40.8% and 46.9% of patients in the combination and PPI
      double-dose groups, respectively, with no significant difference between the two
      groups. Essentially similar results were obtained for the modified F-scale
      questionnaire. No serious adverse events were noted. CONCLUSIONS: Acotiamide 300
      mg/day in combination with rabeprazole 10 mg/day or rabeprazole 20 mg/day
      relieved symptoms in patients with overlap between GERD and FD experiencing
      heartburn and epigastric fullness symptoms after standard-dose PPI for >= 8
      weeks, and the efficacies did not differ between the two treatments. The
      combination therapy may be an alternative option for persistent symptoms in these
      patients.

PMID- 28865100
TI  - Untreated oral cavity cancer: Long-term survival and factors associated with
      treatment refusal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Oral cavity cancer is the most common malignant disease of the head
      and neck. The natural course of the disease is poorly characterized and
      unavailable for patient consideration during initial treatment planning. Our
      primary objective was to outline this natural history, with a secondary aim of
      identifying predictors of treatment refusal. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review
      of adult patients with oral cavity cancer who refused surgery that was
      recommended by their physician in the National Cancer Database. METHODS:
      Demographic, tumor, and survival variables were included in the analyses.
      Multivariate Cox regressions as well as univariate Kaplan-Meier analyses were
      conducted. RESULTS: Patients who were older, uninsured, had government insurance,
      or had more advanced disease were more likely to go untreated. Survival among
      untreated patients was poor, but there was a small proportion of patients
      surviving long term. Five-year survival rates ranged from 31.1% among early-stage
      patients to 12.6% among stage 4 patients. CONCLUSION: Although the natural course
      of oral cavity cancer carries a poor prognosis, there are a number of patients
      with longer-than-expected survival. The survival estimates may provide
      supplemental information for patients deciding whether to pursue treatment. In
      addition to age and extent of disease, system factors such as insurance status
      and facility case volume are associated with a patient's likelihood of refusing
      treatment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 128:664-669, 2018.

PMID- 28865101
TI  - Oral mucosa is a useful substrate for detecting autoantibodies of mucous membrane
      pemphigoid.

PMID- 28865102
TI  - Influence of UV filters on the texture profile and efficacy of a cosmetic
      formulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Considering that many cosmetic products contain UV filters in their
      composition and that few studies have evaluated the role of UV filters in the
      physical properties and clinical efficacy of these products, the aim of this
      study was to assess the influence of UV filters on the properties and immediate
      effects of a cosmetic formulation. METHODS: Four cosmetic formulations, vehicle
      (V), vehicle containing UV filters (F), vehicle containing cassava
      polysaccharides and alfalfa (A) oligosaccharides and vehicle containing UV
      filters plus cassava polysaccharides and alfalfa oligosaccharides
      (multifunctional formulation, M) were developed. The texture profile of the
      formulations was analysed with a TA.XT plus Texturometer(r) . Twenty female
      volunteers aged 39-45 years were then selected for the assessment of immediate
      clinical efficacy of the formulations under study and of transepidermal water
      loss (TEWL), stratum corneum water content and microrelief of the skin obtained
      with their use. RESULTS: The presence of UV filters resulted in an improvement of
      the physical properties of the multifunctional cosmetic formulation (M) and of
      skin microrelief. However, the presence of UV filters also caused a significant
      decrease in hydration. CONCLUSION: The presence of sunscreens had a negative
      influence on immediate skin hydration and TEWL. On the other hand, it positively
      influenced parameters related to the physical properties of the multifunctional
      formulation and skin microrelief. Thus, we conclude that the influence of UV
      filters on the development of cosmetic formulations is an important factor to be
      considered because it can have either positive or negative effect on the efficacy
      of the product.

PMID- 28865104
TI  - Developing a quality-of-life questionnaire for oral submucous fibrosis patients.

PMID- 28865103
TI  - The worldwide diversity of scalp seborrhoea, as daily experienced by seven human
      ethnic groups.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The re-greasing process and kinetics of the human scalp, post
      shampooing, have been previously documented, in vivo, on a few Caucasian
      subjects. The objective of the presented research was to extend such knowledge
      over seven different ethnic groups. METHODS: The post-shampooing re-greasing
      kinetics of the scalp was studied on 1325 subjects (women and men of two distinct
      age classes) from seven different ethnic groups in their residential and native
      country. Sebum amounts were determined onto small shaved scalp areas at various
      times post-shampooing, using the Sebumeter(r) technique. RESULTS: As previously
      published on Caucasian subjects, scalp re-greasing process follows a hyperbolic
      like kinetics over days. However, amounts of collected sebum highly vary with
      ethnicity. As recorded through the casual level (CL) at the equilibrium phase, 2
      3 days post-shampooing, the highest amount of sebum was found in African American
      subjects, followed in descending order by Caucasian American, Japanese, Chinese,
      Thai, Caucasian European and Indian subjects, the latter showing very low values.
      Lower amounts of sebum were recorded in the older age class in all ethnics, as
      compared to the younger one, and male subjects were found higher sebum producers
      than women, irrespective of ethnicity. CONCLUSION: The kinetics and slopes of the
      re-greasing process of the human scalp appear similar in all ethnic groups
      studied. However, striking quantitative differences are found between the seven
      ethnic groups, resulting from different sebaceous production levels and scalp
      hygiene routines.

PMID- 28865105
TI  - Minimally invasive and targeted therapeutic cell delivery to the skin using
      microneedle devices.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Translation of cell therapies to the clinic is accompanied by
      numerous challenges, including controlled and targeted delivery of the cells to
      their site of action, without compromising cell viability and functionality.
      OBJECTIVES: To explore the use of hollow microneedle devices (to date only used
      for the delivery of drugs and vaccines into the skin and for the extraction of
      biological fluids) to deliver cells into skin in a minimally invasive, user
      friendly and targeted fashion. METHODS: Melanocyte, keratinocyte and mixed
      epidermal cell suspensions were passed through various types of microneedles and
      subsequently delivered into the skin. RESULTS: Cell viability and functionality
      are maintained after injection through hollow microneedles with a bore size >= 75
      MUm. Healthy cells are delivered into the skin at clinically relevant depths.
      CONCLUSIONS: Hollow microneedles provide an innovative and minimally invasive
      method for delivering functional cells into the skin. Microneedle cell delivery
      represents a potential new treatment option for cell therapy approaches including
      skin repigmentation, wound repair, scar and burn remodelling, immune therapies
      and cancer vaccines.

PMID- 28865106
TI  - Neonatal Encephalopathy in Calves Presented to a University Hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While studies have examined bovine dystocia in relation to calf
      survival, little has been published regarding perinatal morbidity and treatment
      of newborn calves beyond failure of transfer of passive immunity (FTPI). Neonatal
      encephalopathy (NE) is a clinical syndrome commonly diagnosed in infants and
      foals but is poorly described in calves. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To identify risk
      factors for development of NE in calves and factors predictive of survival.
      ANIMALS: Neonatal calves presented to a University hospital over a 10-year
      period. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study (2005-2015). Medical records of all
      neonatal calves presented to the hospital were examined, and cases of NE were
      identified. Data pertaining to demographics, dam parity, labor, treatment, and
      outcome were collected and analyzed with univariate and multivariate statistics.
      RESULTS: Of 200 calves in the final analysis, 58 (29%; 95% CI: 22.8-35.8%) were
      classified as NE and 142 calves as non-NE. In univariate analysis, factors
      significantly associated with diagnosis of NE included male sex, presence of
      dystocia, abnormal position in the birth canal, and prolonged labor. In the
      multivariate model, only orientation of the calf in the birth canal remained
      significant (OR 2.14; 95% CI: 1.02-4.49; P = 0.044). Overall survival of calves
      with NE was good (45/58; 77.6%; 95% CI: 64.7-87.5); dam parity and being a twin
      was significantly associated with nonsurvival. CONCLUSIONS: Calves born after
      dystocia, especially if malpresented, should be closely monitored for nursing
      behavior within the first 24 hours of life. Prognosis for survival is good, but
      supportive care might be required for several days.

PMID- 28865108
TI  - Glycerolipid analysis during desiccation and recovery of the resurrection plant
      Xerophyta humilis (Bak) Dur and Schinz.
AB  - Xerophyta humilis is a poikilochlorophyllous monocot resurrection plant used as a
      model to study vegetative desiccation tolerance. Dehydration imposes tension and
      ultimate loss of integrity of membranes in desiccation sensitive species. We
      investigated the predominant molecular species of glycerolipids present in root
      and leaf tissues, using multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry, and then
      analysed changes therein during dehydration and subsequent rehydration of whole
      plants. The presence of fatty acids with long carbon chains and with odd numbers
      of carbons were detected and confirmed by gas chromatography. Dehydration of both
      leaves and roots resulted in an increase in species containing polyunsaturated
      fatty acids and a decrease in disaturated species. Upon rehydration, lipid
      saturation was reversed, with this being initiated immediately upon watering in
      roots but only 12-24 hr later in leaves. Relative levels of species with short
      chained odd-numbered saturated fatty acids decreased during dehydration and
      increased during rehydration, whereas the reverse trend was observed for long
      chained fatty acids. X. humilis has a unique lipid composition, this report being
      one of the few to demonstrate the presence of odd-numbered fatty acids in plant
      phosphoglycerolipids.

PMID- 28865107
TI  - Effect of Body Position, Exercise, and Sedation on Estimation of Pulmonary Artery
      Pressure in Dogs with Degenerative Atrioventricular Valve Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severity of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in dogs is related to
      clinical signs and prognosis. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that Doppler
      echocardiographic (DE) indices of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and pulmonary
      vascular resistance (PVR) are influenced by independent factors that create
      clinically important variability of DE-based estimates of PH in dogs. ANIMALS:
      Thirty-eight client owned dogs with naturally acquired degenerative
      atrioventricular valve disease and tricuspid regurgitation (TR). METHODS: Dogs
      were prospectively enrolled, and target variables were acquired during 4
      echocardiographic study periods (lateral recumbency, standing, lateral recumbency
      after a 6-minute walk test [6MWT], and lateral recumbency after sedation with
      butorphanol 0.25 mg/kg IM). Statistical methods included repeated measures ANOVA,
      mixed model analysis, and Chi-squared test of association. RESULTS: There was a
      significant increase in peak TR flow velocity (TRFV; P < 0.01) after sedation in
      78% of dogs, with TRFV increasing by >0.4 m/s in 42% of dogs, independent of
      stroke volume. A significant effect of study period on DE-estimated PVR was not
      found (P = 0.15). There were negligible effects of sonographer, body position,
      and 6MWT on echocardiographic variables of PH. Clinically relevant cyclic
      variation of TRFV was found. There was an association between estimation of right
      atrial pressure based on subjective assessment and estimation based on cranial
      vena cava collapsibility (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The
      increase in TRFV observed with sedation could change assessment of PH severity
      and impact prognostication and interpretation of treatment response. Further
      studies with invasive validation are needed.

PMID- 28865109
TI  - Effects of Moxonidine and Low-Calorie Diet: Cardiometabolic Benefits from
      Combination of Both Therapies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Because sympathetic nervous system activity plays a detrimental role
      in metabolic and cardiovascular health, this study compared the effects of a
      centrally acting sympatholytic agent, the effects of a weight loss (WL) program
      using a low-calorie diet, and the effects of a combination of both. METHODS:
      Young (18-30 years) male subjects with overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2 ) were
      allocated to a WL program (n = 10), a moxonidine treatment course (M; n = 10, 0.4
      mg/d), a combination of both (WL + M; n = 11), or to a control (C) group (n = 6)
      for 6 months. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), endothelial function,
      renal function (Cockcroft-Gault formula), and the metabolic profile were assessed
      before and after intervention. RESULTS: WL occurred in the WL and WL + M groups (
      7.6 +/- 1.9 kg, P < 0.001 in both). MSNA and systolic blood pressure decreased
      similarly in the WL, M, and WL + M groups (by ~10 bursts/min, P < 0.001, and by
      ~9 mm Hg, P < 0.05). All other parameters for the WL, C, and M groups remained
      unchanged. In the WL + M group, decreased total cholesterol (-0.78 +/- 0.23
      mmol/L, P < 0.001), decreased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (-0.49 +/- 0.16
      mmol/L, P < 0.01), decreased insulin (-6.5 +/- 2.8 mmol/L, P < 0.05), and
      attenuated glomerular hyperfiltration (-19 +/- 5 mL/min, P < 0.01) occurred.
      CONCLUSIONS: The combination of moxonidine with a WL program has beneficial
      effects on aspects of the metabolic profile and end organ damage in young males
      with overweight.

PMID- 28865110
TI  - The effect of photodamage on the female Caucasian facial stratum corneum corneome
      using mass spectrometry-based proteomics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of photodamage on facial stratum corneum (SC) is still
      poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To describe the SC proteome from tape strippings of
      Caucasian SC from photoexposed cheek and photoprotected post-auricular (PA) site,
      a global analysis of photodamage on the skin will be developed leading to a
      better understanding of keratinocyte signalling pathways and identification of
      new molecular targets for the treatment of photoaged skin. METHODS: Female
      Caucasian subjects had nine consecutive tape strippings taken from their cheeks
      and PA site. Proteins were extracted and the trypsin-digested peptides were
      analysed by nanochromatography coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer.
      Data-dependent acquisition allowed protein identification that was processed by
      Paragon algorithm of Protein Pilot software. RESULTS: Changes in the levels of
      epidermal differentiation proteins were apparent indicating poor epidermal
      differentiation and SC maturation (keratins, cornified envelope (CE) proteins) on
      photoexposed cheeks. Differences in protease-anti-protease balance were observed
      for corneodesmolysis (favouring desquamation) and filaggrinolysis (favouring
      reduced filaggrin processing). 12R-LOX, a CE maturation enzyme, was reduced in
      photodamaged skin but not transglutaminases. Changes in signal keratinocyte
      transduction pathway markers were demonstrated especially by reduced levels of
      downstream signalling markers such as calreticulin (unfolded protein response;
      UPR) and increased level of stratifin (target of rapamycin; mTOR). Evidence for
      impaired proteostasis was apparent by reduced levels of a key proteasomal subunit
      (subunit beta type-6). Finally, key antioxidant proteins were upregulated except
      catalase. CONCLUSION: Clear examples of poor keratinocyte differentiation and
      associated metabolic and signalling pathways together with reduced SC maturation
      were identified in photodamaged facial SC. Corneocyte immaturity was evident with
      changes in CE proteins. Particularly, the reduction in 12R-LOX is a novel finding
      in photodamaged skin and supports the lack of SC maturation. Moreover,
      filaggrinolysis was reduced, whereas corneodesmolysis was enhanced. From our
      results, we propose that there is a poor cross-talk between the keratinocyte
      endoplasmic reticulum UPR, proteasome network and autophagy machinery that
      possibly leads to impaired keratinocyte proteostasis. Superimposed on these
      aberrations is an apparently enhanced mTOR pathway that also contributes to
      reduced SC formation and maturation. Our results clearly indicate a corneocyte
      scaffold disorder in photodamaged cheek SC.

PMID- 28865111
TI  - Neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser to treat primary pilonidal cysts:
      an alternative treatment.

PMID- 28865112
TI  - On the Electronic Origin of Remarkable Ligand Effects on the Reactivities of
      [NiL]+ Complexes (L=C6 H5 , C5 H4 N, CN) towards Methane.
AB  - The gas-phase reactions of [NiL]+ (L=C6 H5 , C5 H4 N, CN) with methane have been
      explored by using electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) complemented
      by quantum chemical calculations. Though the phenyl Ni complex [Ni(C6 H5 )]+
      exclusively abstracts one hydrogen atom from methane at ambient conditions, the
      cyano Ni complex [Ni(CN)]+ brings about both H-atom abstraction and ligand
      exchange to generate [Ni(CH3 )]+ . In contrast, the complex 2-pyridinyl Ni [Ni(C5
      H4 N)]+ is inert towards this substrate. The presence of the empty 4s(Ni) orbital
      dominates the proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) processes for the
      investigated systems.

PMID- 28865113
TI  - Investigation on the absolute and relative photoionization cross sections of 3
      potential propargylic fuels.
AB  - Absolute photoionization cross sections for 2 potential propargylic fuels
      (propargylamine and dipropargyl ether) along with the partial ionization cross
      sections for their dissociative fragments are measured and presented for the
      first time via synchrotron photoionization mass spectrometry. The experimental
      setup consists of a multiplexed orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometer and
      is located at the Advanced Light Source facility of the Lawrence Berkeley
      National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Data for a third propargylic
      compound (propargyl alcohol) were taken; however, because of its low signal, due
      to its weakly bound cation, only the dissociative ionization fragment from the H
      loss channel is observed and presented. Suggested pathways leading to formation
      of dissociative photoionization fragments along with CBS-QB3 calculated adiabatic
      ionization energies and appearance energies for the dissociative fragments are
      also presented.

PMID- 28865115
TI  - Paving the future of rhinosinusitis care.
AB  - Novel insights into the pathophysiology of chronic rhinosinsusitis (CRS) will
      lead to endo-type driven treatment and reduce oral corticosteroid treatment.

PMID- 28865114
TI  - Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Leads to Enhanced Serine 9 Phosphorylation of Glycogen
      Synthase Kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta) in the Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus of Adult
      Mouse.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to evaluate the expression and serine 9
      phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3beta) within the adult
      hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) in a preclinical mouse model of fetal alcohol
      spectrum disorders. GSK-3beta is a multifunctional kinase that modulates many
      hippocampal processes affected by gestational alcohol, including synaptic
      plasticity and adult neurogenesis. GSK-3beta is a constitutively active kinase
      that is negatively regulated by phosphorylation at the serine 9 residue. METHODS:
      We utilized a well-characterized limited access "drinking-in-the-dark" paradigm
      of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and measured p(Ser9)GSK-3beta and total GSK
      3beta within adult DG by Western blot analysis. In addition, we evaluated the
      expression pattern of both p(Ser9)GSK-3beta and total GSK-3beta within the adult
      hippocampal dentate of PAE and control mice using high-resolution confocal
      microscopy. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrate a marked 2.0-fold elevation of
      p(Ser9)GSK-3beta in PAE mice, concomitant with a more moderate 36% increase in
      total GSK-3beta. This resulted in an approximate 63% increase in the p(Ser9)GSK
      3beta/GSK-3beta ratio. Immunostaining revealed robust GSK-3beta expression within
      Cornu Ammonis (CA) pyramidal neurons, hilar mossy cells, and a subset of
      GABAergic interneurons, with low levels of expression within hippocampal
      progenitors and dentate granule cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that
      PAE may lead to a long-term disruption of GSK-3beta signaling within the DG, and
      implicate mossy cells, GABAergic interneurons, and CA primary neurons as major
      targets of this dysregulation.

PMID- 28865116
TI  - Power input effects on degeneration in prolonged penicillin chemostat cultures: A
      systems analysis at flux, residual glucose, metabolite, and transcript levels.
AB  - In the present work, by performing chemostat experiments at 400 and 600 RPM, two
      typical power inputs representative of industrial penicillin fermentation (P/V,
      1.00 kW/m3 in more remote zones and 3.83 kW/m3 in the vicinity of the impellers,
      respectively) were scaled-down to bench-scale bioreactors. It was found that at
      400 RPM applied in prolonged glucose-limited chemostat cultures, the previously
      reported degeneration of penicillin production using an industrial Penicillium
      chrysogenum strain was virtually absent. To investigate this, the cellular
      response was studied at flux (stoichiometry), residual glucose, intracellular
      metabolite and transcript levels. At 600 RPM, 20% more cell lysis was observed
      and the increased degeneration of penicillin production was accompanied by a 22%
      larger ATP gap and an unexpected 20-fold decrease in the residual glucose
      concentration (Cs,out ). At the same time, the biomass specific glucose
      consumption rate (qs ) did not change but the intracellular glucose concentration
      was about sixfold higher, which indicates a change to a higher affinity glucose
      transporter at 600 RPM. In addition, power input differences cause differences in
      the diffusion rates of glucose and the calculated Batchelor diffusion length
      scale suggests the presence of a glucose diffusion layer at the glucose
      transporting parts of the hyphae, which was further substantiated by a simple
      proposed glucose diffusion-uptake model. By analysis of calculated mass action
      ratios (MARs) and energy consumption, it indicated that at 600 RPM glucose
      sensing and signal transduction in response to the low Cs,out appear to trigger a
      gluconeogenic type of metabolic flux rearrangement, a futile cycle through the
      pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and a declining redox state of the cytosol. In
      support of the change in glucose transport and degeneration of penicillin
      production at 600 RPM, the transcript levels of the putative high-affinity
      glucose/hexose transporter genes Pc12g02880 and Pc06g01340 increased 3.5- and 3.3
      fold, respectively, and those of the pcbC gene encoding isopenicillin N
      synthetase (IPNS) were more than twofold lower in the time range of 100-200 hr of
      the chemostat cultures. Summarizing, changes at power input have unexpected
      effects on degeneration and glucose transport, and result in significant
      metabolic rearrangements. These findings are relevant for the industrial
      production of penicillin, and other fermentations with filamentous
      microorganisms.

PMID- 28865117
TI  - Development of a general defined medium for Pichia pastoris.
AB  - Pichia pastoris is widely used as a host for recombinant protein production. More
      than 500 proteins have been expressed in the organism at a variety of cultivation
      scales, from small shake flasks to large bioreactors. Large-scale fermentation
      strategies typically employ chemically defined growth medium because of its
      greater batch-to-batch consistency and in many cases, lower costs compared to
      complex medium. For biopharmaceuticals, defined growth medium may also simplify
      downstream purification and regulatory documentation. Standard formulations of
      defined media for P. pastoris are minimal ones that lack the metabolic
      intermediates provided by complex components such as peptone and yeast extract.
      As a result, growth rates and per-cell productivities are significantly lower
      than in complex medium. We have designed a rich defined medium (RDM) for Pichia
      pastoris by systematically evaluating nutrients of increasing complexity and
      identifying those that are most critical for growth. We have also employed
      transcriptomics to gain deeper insights into the underlying metabolic processes
      and inform our media design. We have demonstrated that using RDM for expression
      of three heterologous proteins yields titers comparable to, or higher than, those
      in standard complex medium. RDM improves productivity of P. pastoris
      fermentations and its development demonstrates the usefulness of transcriptomics
      to accelerate process development for new molecules.

PMID- 28865119
TI  - We have to do more for former paediatric renal transplant recipients!

PMID- 28865120
TI  - Uptake of radiolabeled 3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl into Japanese quail egg
      compartments and embryo following air cell and albumen injection.
AB  - The avian embryo is an excellent model for testing adverse developmental effects
      of environmental chemicals as well as uptake and movement of xenobiotics within
      the egg compartments. Before incubation at embryonic day 0, 14 C 3,3',4,4'
      tetrachlorobiphenyl (14 C PCB 77) was injected into Japanese quail eggs either
      onto the air cell or into the albumen. All egg components were collected on
      embryonic day 1, 5, or 10, and concentrations of 14 C PCB 77 were measured in
      various egg components (shell, membrane, yolk, albumen, and embryo). The results
      showed measurable 14 C PCB 77 in all egg components, with changing concentrations
      in each egg component over the course of embryonic development. Specifically,
      concentrations in the shell content decreased between embryonic days 1 and 10,
      increased in albumen from embryonic days 1 to 5 and then decreased at embryonic
      day 10, and increased in both yolk and embryo from embryonic days 1 to 10.
      Vehicle and injection site both influenced 14 C PCB 77 allantoic fluid
      concentrations, with little effect on other egg components except for the inner
      shell membrane. The fatty acid vehicle injected into the albumen yielded the
      highest 14 C PCB 77 recovery. These findings demonstrate dynamic movement of
      toxicants throughout the egg components during avian embryonic development and a
      steady increase of relatively low levels of 14 C PCB 77 in the embryo compared
      with the yolk, albumen, and shell, suggesting that embryonic uptake (i.e.,
      exposure) mirrors utilization of egg components for nutrition and growth during
      development. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:126-135. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28865121
TI  - HNF1A/CASC2 regulates pancreatic cancer cell proliferation through PTEN/Akt
      signaling.
AB  - Pancreatic cancer (PC) has a high mortality rate in all cancers worldwide.
      According to recent studies, long noncoding RNA-CASC2 is involved in the
      development and progression of many malignant tumors; in the present study, we
      demonstrated that lncRNA-CASC2 was specifically downregulated in PC tissues and
      cell lines, and a lower CASC2 expression in PC was related with a poorer
      prognosis. CASC2 suppressed PC cell proliferation. Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1
      alpha (HNF1A) is a transcription factor known to regulate pancreatic
      differentiation and maintain the homeostasis of the endocrine pancreas. Recently,
      HNF1A is considered to be a possible tumor suppressor in PC. In the present
      study, we observed that HNF1A positively regulated CASC2 expression. Through
      luciferase assays, we demonstrated that CASC2 gene possessed an HNF1A-responsive
      element (CASC2-HNF1A RE); HNF1A could promote CASC2 expression through direct
      binding to CASC2-HNF1A RE. Further, PTEN/Akt signaling was involved in HNF1A
      regulation of CASC2. Finally, we evaluated the expression level of HNF1A in PC
      tissues; lower HNF1A expression was correlated with shorter overall survival in
      patients with PC. Taken together, these findings will shed light on the role and
      mechanism of HNF1A/CASC2 in regulating PC cells proliferation through PTEN/Akt
      signaling. CASC2 may serve as a potential therapeutic target in PC in the future.

PMID- 28865118
TI  - Glucose-stimulated insulin release: Parallel perifusion studies of free and
      hydrogel encapsulated human pancreatic islets.
AB  - To explore the effects immune-isolating encapsulation has on the insulin
      secretion of pancreatic islets and to improve our ability to quantitatively
      describe the glucose-stimulated insulin release (GSIR) of pancreatic islets, we
      conducted dynamic perifusion experiments with isolated human islets. Free
      (unencapsulated) and hydrogel encapsulated islets were perifused, in parallel,
      using an automated multi-channel system that allows sample collection with high
      temporal resolution. Results indicated that free human islets secrete less
      insulin per unit mass or islet equivalent (IEQ) than murine islets and with a
      less pronounced first-phase peak. While small microcapsules (d = 700 um) caused
      only a slightly delayed and blunted first-phase insulin response compared to
      unencapsulated islets, larger capsules (d = 1,800 um) completely blunted the
      first-phase peak and decreased the total amount of insulin released.
      Experimentally obtained insulin time-profiles were fitted with our complex
      insulin secretion computational model. This allowed further fine-tuning of the
      hormone-release parameters of this model, which was implemented in COMSOL
      Multiphysics to couple hormone secretion and nutrient consumption kinetics with
      diffusive and convective transport. The results of these GSIR experiments, which
      were also supported by computational modeling, indicate that larger capsules
      unavoidably lead to dampening of the first-phase insulin response and to a
      sustained-release type insulin secretion that can only slowly respond to changes
      in glucose concentration. Bioartificial pancreas type devices can provide long
      term and physiologically desirable solutions only if immunoisolation and
      biocompatibility considerations are integrated with optimized nutrient diffusion
      and insulin release characteristics by design.

PMID- 28865122
TI  - Investigation of challenging spin systems using Monte Carlo configuration
      interaction and the density matrix renormalization group.
AB  - We investigate if a range of challenging spin systems can be described
      sufficiently well using Monte Carlo configuration interaction (MCCI) and the
      density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) in a way that heads toward a more
      "black box" approach. Experimental results and other computational methods are
      used for comparison. The gap between the lowest doublet and quartet state of
      methylidyne (CH) is first considered. We then look at a range of first-row
      transition metal monocarbonyls: MCO when M is titanium, vanadium, chromium, or
      manganese. For these MCO systems we also employ partially spin restricted open
      shell coupled-cluster (RCCSD). We finally investigate the high-spin low-lying
      states of the iron dimer, its cation and its anion. The multireference character
      of these molecules is also considered. We find that these systems can be
      computationally challenging with close low-lying states and often multireference
      character. For this more straightforward application and for the basis sets
      considered, we generally find qualitative agreement between DMRG and MCCI. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28865123
TI  - Kaempferol increases apoptosis in human acute promyelocytic leukemia cells and
      inhibits multidrug resistance genes.
AB  - Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is one of the most life-threatening
      hematological malignancies. Defects in the cell growth and apoptotic pathways are
      responsible for both disease pathogenesis and treatment resistance. Therefore,
      pro-apoptotic agents are potential candidates for APL treatment. Kaempferol is a
      flavonoid with antioxidant and anti-tumor properties. This study was designed to
      investigate the cytotoxic, pro-apoptotic, and differentiation-inducing effects of
      kaempferol on HL-60 and NB4 leukemia cells. Resazurin assay was used to determine
      cell viability following treatment with kaempferol (12.5-100 MUM) and all-trans
      retinoic acid (ATRA; 10 MUM; used as a positive control). Apoptosis and
      differentiation were also detected using propidium iodide and NBT staining
      techniques, respectively. Furthermore, the expression levels of genes involved in
      apoptosis (PI3 K, AKT, BCL2, BAX, p53, p21, PTEN, CASP3, CASP8, and CASP9),
      differentiation (PML-RAR and HDAC1), and multi-drug resistance (ABCB1 and ABCC1)
      were determined using quantitative real-time PCR. The protein expressions of
      Bax/Bcl2 and casp3 were confirmed using Western blot. The results showed that
      kaempferol decreased cell viability and increased subG1 population in the tested
      leukemic cells. This effect was associated with decreased expression of Akt,
      BCL2, ABCB1, and ABCC1 genes, while the expression of CASP3 and BAX/BCL-2 ratio
      were significantly increased at both gene and protein levels. Kaempferol promoted
      apoptosis and inhibited multidrug resistance in a concentration-dependent manner,
      without any differential effect on leukemic cells. In conclusion, this study
      suggested that kaempferol may be utilized as an appropriate alternative for ATRA
      in APL patients.

PMID- 28865124
TI  - Dry biorefining maximizes the potentials of simultaneous saccharification and co
      fermentation for cellulosic ethanol production.
AB  - Despite the well-recognized merits of simultaneous saccharification and co
      fermentation (SSCF) on relieving sugar product inhibition on cellulase activity,
      a practical concomitance difficulty of xylose with inhibitors in the pretreated
      lignocellulose feedstock prohibits the essential application of SSCF for
      cellulosic ethanol fermentation. To maximize the SSCF potentials for cellulosic
      ethanol production, a dry biorefining approach was proposed starting from dry
      acid pretreatment, disk milling, and biodetoxification of lignocellulose
      feedstock. The successful SSCF of the inhibitor free and xylose conserved
      lignocellulose feedstock after dry biorefining reached a record high ethanol
      titer at moderate cellulase usage and minimum wastewater generation. For wheat
      straw, 101.4 g/L of ethanol (equivalent to 12.8% in volumetric percentage) was
      produced with the overall yield of 74.8% from cellulose and xylose, in which the
      xylose conversion was 73.9%, at the moderate cellulase usage of 15 mg protein per
      gram cellulose. For corn stover, 85.1 g/L of ethanol (equivalent to 10.8% in
      volumetric percentage) is produced with the overall conversion of 84.7% from
      cellulose and xylose, in which the xylose conversion was 87.7%, at the minimum
      cellulase usage of 10 mg protein per gram cellulose. Most significantly, the SSCF
      operation achieved the high conversion efficiency by generating the minimum
      amount of wastewater. Both the fermentation efficiency and the wastewater
      generation in the current dry biorefining for cellulosic ethanol production are
      very close to that of corn ethanol production, indicating that the technical gap
      between cellulosic ethanol and corn ethanol has been gradually filled by the
      advancing biorefining technology.

PMID- 28865125
TI  - Countercurrent staged diafiltration for formulation of high value proteins.
AB  - A number of groups have studied the application of continuous bioreactors and
      continuous chromatographic systems as part of efforts to develop an integrated
      continuous biomanufacturing process. The objective of this study was to examine
      the feasibility of using a countercurrent staged diafiltration process for
      continuous protein formulation with reduced buffer requirements. Experiments were
      performed using a polyclonal immunoglobulin (IgG) with CadenceTM Inline
      Concentrators. Model equations were developed for the product yield, impurity
      removal, and buffer requirements as a function of the number of stages and the
      stage conversion (ratio of permeate to feed flow rate). Data from a
      countercurrent two-stage system were in excellent agreement with model
      calculations, demonstrating the potential of using countercurrent staged
      diafiltration for protein formulation. Model simulations demonstrated the
      importance of the countercurrent staging on both the extent of buffer exchange
      and the amount of buffer required per kg of formulated product. The staged
      diafiltration process not only provides for continuous buffer exchange, it could
      also provide significant reductions in the number of pump passes while providing
      opportunities for reduced buffer requirements.

PMID- 28865126
TI  - Circadian control of pain and neuroinflammation.
AB  - The importance of a neuroinflammatory response to the development and maintenance
      of inflammatory and neuropathic pain have been highlighted in recent years.
      Inflammatory cells contributing to this response include circulating immune cells
      such as monocytes, T and B lymphocytes, and neutrophils, as well as microglia in
      the central nervous system. Pain signals are transmitted via sensory neurons in
      the peripheral nervous system, which express various receptors and channels that
      respond to mediators secreted from these inflammatory cells. Chronobiological
      rhythms, which include the 24-hr circadian cycle, have recently been shown to
      regulate both nervous and immune cell activity and function. This review examines
      the current literature on chronobiological control of neuroinflammatory
      processes, with a focus on inflammatory and neuropathic pain states. While the
      majority of this work has stemmed from observational studies in humans, recent
      advances in using animal models have highlighted distinct mechanisms underlying
      these interactions. Better understanding interactions between the circadian and
      neuroimmune systems can help guide the development of new treatments and provide
      improved care for patients suffering from acute and chronic pain.

PMID- 28865128
TI  - Mechanisms underlying human genetic diversity: consequence for antigraft antibody
      responses.
AB  - This review focuses on the emerging concept of genomewide genetic variation as
      basis of an alloimmune response. Chronic antibody-mediated rejection is the major
      cause of long-term graft loss and growing evidence supports the clinical
      relevance of HLA but also non-HLA related alloimmune responses. Several
      polymorphic gene products have been identified as minor histocompatibility
      antigens. The formation of donor-specific alloantibodies is driven by indirect
      allorecognition of donor-derived peptides representing a form of conventional T
      cell response. With the availability of high-throughput sequencing and genotyping
      technologies, the identification of genomewide genetic variation and thus
      mismatches between organ donors and graft recipients has become feasible. First
      clinical data linking genetic polymorphism and clinical outcome have been
      published and larger studies are currently under way. Protein arrays have
      successfully been used to identify a large variety of non-HLA antibodies in
      kidney transplant recipients and the availability of customizable peptide arrays
      made screening for linear epitopes on an individual patient level feasible. This
      review provides a summary of the recent findings in histocompatibility matching
      in the field of solid organ transplantation and complements it with a clear
      workflow for assessing the impact of genetic differences in protein-coding genes
      in solid organ transplantation.

PMID- 28865127
TI  - Evaluation of an acute oral gavage method for assessment of pesticide toxicity in
      terrestrial amphibians.
AB  - Development of an acute oral toxicity test with a terrestrial-phase amphibian was
      considered necessary to remove the uncertainty within the field of agrochemical
      risk assessments. The bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) was selected for use as
      it is a representative of the family Ranidae and historically this species has
      been used as an amphibian test model species. Prior to definitive study, oral
      gavage methods were developed with fenthion and tetraethyl pyrophosphate.
      Dimethoate and malathion were subsequently tested with both male and female
      juvenile bullfrogs in comprehensive acute oral median lethal dose (LD50) studies.
      Juvenile bullfrogs were administered a single dose of the test article via oral
      gavage of a single gelatin capsule of dimethoate technical (dimethoate) or neat
      liquid Fyfanon(r) Technical (synonym malathion), returned to their respective
      aquaria, and monitored for survival for 14 d. The primary endpoint was mortality,
      whereas behavioral responses, food consumption, body weight, and snout-vent
      length (SVL) were used to evaluate indications of sublethal toxicity (secondary
      endpoints). Acute oral LD50 values (95% fiducial interval) for dimethoate were
      1459 (1176-1810, males) and 1528 (1275-1831, females), and for malathion they
      were 1829 (1480-2259, males) and 1672 (1280-2183, females) mg active substance/kg
      body weight, respectively. Based on the results of these studies, the methodology
      for the acute oral gavage administration of test items to terrestrial-phase
      amphibians was demonstrated as being a practical method of providing data for
      risk assessments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:436-450. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28865129
TI  - Effects of long-term low oxygen tension in human chondrosarcoma cells.
AB  - The cell-based therapies could be potential methods to treat damaged cartilage
      tissues. Instead of native hyaline cartilage, the current therapies generate
      mainly weaker fibrocartilage-type of repair tissue. A correct microenvironment
      influences the cellular phenotype, and together with external factors it can be
      used, for example, to aid the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells to
      defined types of differentiated adult cells. In this study, we investigated the
      effect of long-term exposure to 5% low oxygen atmosphere on human chondrosarcoma
      HCS-2/8 cells. This atmosphere is close to normal oxygen tension of cartilage
      tissue. The proteome was analyzed with label-free mass spectrometric method and
      further bioinformatic analysis. The qRT-PCR method was used to gene expression
      analysis, and ELISA and dimethylmethylene blue assays for type II collagen and
      sulfated glycosaminoglycan measurements. The 5% oxygen atmosphere did not
      influence cell proliferation, but enhanced slightly ACAN and COL2A1 gene
      expression. Proteomic screening revealed a number of low oxygen-induced protein
      level responses. Increased ones included NDUFA4L2, P4HA1, NDRG1, MIF, LDHA, PYGL,
      while TXNRD1, BAG2, TXN2, AQSTM1, TNFRSF1B, and EPHX1 decreased during the long
      term low oxygen atmosphere. Also a number of proteins previously not related to
      low oxygen tension changed during the treatment. Of those S100P, RPSS26, NDUFB11,
      CDV3, and TUBB8 had elevated levels, while ALCAM, HLA-B, EIF1, and ACOT9 were
      lower in the samples cultured at low oxygen tension. In conclusion, low oxygen
      condition causes changes in the cellular amounts of several proteins.

PMID- 28865130
TI  - Temperature-dependent dynamic control of the TCA cycle increases volumetric
      productivity of itaconic acid production by Escherichia coli.
AB  - Based on the recently constructed Escherichia coli itaconic acid production
      strain ita23, we aimed to improve the productivity by applying a two-stage
      process strategy with decoupled production of biomass and itaconic acid. We
      constructed a strain ita32 (MG1655 DeltaaceA Deltapta DeltapykF DeltapykA
      pCadCs), which, in contrast to ita23, has an active tricarboxylic acid (TCA)
      cycle and a fast growth rate of 0.52 hr-1 at 37 degrees C, thus representing an
      ideal phenotype for the first stage, the growth phase. Subsequently we
      implemented a synthetic genetic control allowing the downregulation of the TCA
      cycle and thus the switch from growth to itaconic acid production in the second
      stage. The promoter of the isocitrate dehydrogenase was replaced by the Lambda
      promoter (pR ) and its expression was controlled by the temperature-sensitive
      repressor CI857 which is active at lower temperatures (30 degrees C). With
      glucose as substrate, the respective strain ita36A grew with a fast growth rate
      at 37 degrees C and switched to production of itaconic acid at 28 degrees C. To
      study the impact of the process strategy on productivity, we performed one-stage
      and two-stage bioreactor cultivations. The two-stage process enabled fast
      formation of biomass resulting in improved peak productivity of 0.86 g/L/hr
      (+48%) and volumetric productivity of 0.39 g/L/hr (+22%) in comparison to the one
      stage process. With our dynamic production strain, we also resolved the glutamate
      auxotrophy of ita23 and increased the itaconic acid titer to 47 g/L. The
      temperature-dependent activation of gene expression by the Lambda promoters (pR
      /pL ) has been frequently used to improve protein or, in a few cases, metabolite
      production in two-stage processes. Here we demonstrate that the system can be as
      well used in the opposite direction to selectively knock-down an essential gene
      (icd) in E. coli to design a two-stage process for improved volumetric
      productivity. The control by temperature avoids expensive inducers and has the
      potential to be generally used to improve cell factory performance.

PMID- 28865131
TI  - Quercetin reduces neural tissue damage and promotes astrocyte activation after
      spinal cord injury in rats.
AB  - Spinal cord injury (SCI) is lead to locomotor impairment because of neurological
      damage after following trauma. Quercetin (Que) has been confirmed to have a neuro
      protective effect during nerve damage processes. The purpose of this study was to
      determine the roles of Que in functional recovery, cavity formation, astrocyte
      activation, and nerve regeneration following SCI. Sprague-Dawley rats were
      randomly divided into three groups: Sham group, SCI group, and Que + SCI group. A
      rat model of SCI was made at T10 using the modified Allen's method. In the Que +
      SCI group, animals underwent laminectomy and were then intraperitoneally injected
      with 20 mg/kg Que for 7 days. Locomotor function was determined with the Basso,
      Beattie, Bresnahan (BBB) scores at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days post-injury. At 7 days
      post-injury, somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and motor evoked potentials
      (MEPs) were recorded. Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) staining was used to investigate
      cavity formation. Astrocyte activation was assayed by immunohistochemistry
      staining with an antibody specific for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as
      well as the expression of GFAP and S100beta. Axons were stained using an antibody
      specific for neurofilament 200 (NF200) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). In
      addition, the protein level of BDNF, p-JNK2, and p-STAT3 was detected using
      Western blot. Que promoted locomotor function and electrophysiological recovery,
      reduced cavity formation, contributed to astrocyte activation and axonal
      regeneration after acute SCI. Moreover, Que up-regulated the expression of BDNF,
      but reduced p-JNK2 and p-STAT3 expression after acute SCI. Taken together, Que
      promoted locomotor and electrophysiological functional recovery, astrocyte
      activation and axonal regeneration after acute SCI, possibly through BDNF and
      JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathways.

PMID- 28865132
TI  - Growth Rate Changes in CHO Host Cells Are Associated with Karyotypic
      Heterogeneity.
AB  - Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line instability and clonality issues can affect
      cell culture phenotypes such as cell growth, productivity, or product quality and
      remain challenges for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. While there have been
      efforts for characterizing cell line instability in CHO production cell lines, a
      pre-existing level of cell line instability in CHO host cells has not been
      determined. In this study, cell line instability and chromosomal heterogeneity of
      the host, CHO-DUK cell line, is reported by using a karyotyping approach. Long
      term cultures and karyotype analysis of CHO-DUK cells revealed that the growth
      rate was higher in later passage cultures, correlating with an increase in the
      population ratio containing the mar3 chromosome. To further investigate a
      correlation between growth rate and karyotype, CHO-DUK cells are subcloned by
      limiting dilution and the growth rate and karyotype of each subclone are
      determined. Subclones containing the mar3 chromosome exhibit higher cell growth
      rates than subclones without the mar3 chromosome. Finally, karyotype analysis
      indicate that CHO-DUK cells, as well as limiting-diluted subclones, exhibit a
      karyotypically heterogeneous population, suggesting that chromosomal
      rearrangements occur spontaneously and frequently even in non-engineered host
      cells. These results demonstrate CHO host cell line instability and suggest that
      chromosomal instability and karyotypic changes are associated with compromised
      clonality (heterogeneity), affecting cell line (in)stability in CHO host cells.

PMID- 28865133
TI  - Prosthodontic Rehabilitation of an Ectodermal Dysplasia Patient with Implant
      Telescopic Crown Attachments.
AB  - Telescopic crown attachments have been successfully used in completely and
      partially edentulous patients. This type of attachment provides retention,
      support, and stability with optimal hygiene for the removable dental prosthesis
      (RDP). With the emergence of CAD/CAM technology, telescopic crown attachments can
      be virtually designed and milled precisely to ensure a passive fit of the
      attachment parts and maximal functionality of the RDP. This article reviews both
      the clinical outcome and prosthodontic rehabilitation of telescopic crown
      attachments of an edentulous ectodermal dysplasia patient with solitary rigid
      conical telescopic crown attachments.

PMID- 28865134
TI  - Human Pulmonary 3D Models For Translational Research.
AB  - Lung diseases belong to the major causes of death worldwide. Recent innovative
      methodological developments now allow more and more for the use of primary human
      tissue and cells to model such diseases. In this regard, the review covers
      bronchial air-liquid interface cultures, precision cut lung slices as well as ex
      vivo cultures of explanted peripheral lung tissue and de-/re-cellularization
      models. Diseases such as asthma or infections are discussed and an outlook on
      further areas for development is given. Overall, the progress in ex vivo modeling
      by using primary human material could make translational research activities more
      efficient by simultaneously fostering the mechanistic understanding of human lung
      diseases while reducing animal usage in biomedical research.

PMID- 28865135
TI  - Designing Randomized DNA Sequences Free of Restriction Enzyme Recognition Sites.
AB  - DNA libraries containing random "barcodes" complicate synthetic biology workflows
      that utilize restriction enzymes since restriction sites can appear inside some
      barcodes. By removing bases at particular sites in the barcodes, it is possible
      to create semi-random pools of barcodes that do not contain any restriction
      sites. The challenge is to remove as few bases as possible to maximize the number
      of sequences in the pool while ensuring all sequences are free of restriction
      sites. The authors present CutFree, a computational approach to create pools of
      random DNA barcodes that lack a pre-defined set of restriction sites. The
      resulting pools can be inexpensively produced en masse with standard DNA
      synthesis techniques. CutFree is experimentally validated by blocking digestion
      of pools of barcodes designed to frequently contain restriction sites. Using
      CutFree, a pool of 1.3 billion barcodes that are free from recognition sites for
      182 commercially available restriction enzymes is designed. CutFree is available
      as a software package and an online tool (http://jensenlab.net/tools).

PMID- 28865136
TI  - Covalent Binding of Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 and Transforming Growth Factor
      beta3 to 3D Plotted Scaffolds for Osteochondral Tissue Regeneration.
AB  - Engineering the osteochondral tissue presents some challenges mainly relying in
      its function of transition from the subchondral bone to articular cartilage and
      the gradual variation in several biological, mechanical, and structural features.
      A possible solution for osteochondral regeneration might be the design and
      fabrication of scaffolds presenting a gradient able to mimic this transition.
      Covalent binding of biological factors proved to enhance cell adhesion and
      differentiation in two-dimensional culture substrates. Here, we used polymer
      brushes as selective linkers of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and
      transforming growth factor-beta3 (TGF-beta3) on the surface of 3D scaffolds
      fabricated via additive manufacturing (AM) and subsequent controlled radical
      polymerization. These growth factors (GFs) are known to stimulate the
      differentiation of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) toward the osteogenic
      and chondrogenic lineages, respectively. BMP-2 and TGF-beta3 were covalently
      bound both homogeneously within a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based brush
      functionalized scaffolds, and following a gradient composition by varying their
      concentration along the axial section of the 3D constructs. Following an approach
      previously developed by our group and proved to be successful to generate
      fibronectin gradients, opposite brush-supported gradients of BMP-2 and TGF-beta3
      were finally generated and subsequently tested to differentiate cells in a
      gradient fashion. The brush-supported GFs significantly influenced hMSCs
      osteochondral differentiation when the scaffolds were homogenously modified, yet
      no effect was observed in the gradient scaffolds. Therefore, this technique seems
      promising to maintain the biological activity of growth factors covalently linked
      to 3D scaffolds, but needs to be further optimized in case biological gradients
      are desired.

PMID- 28865137
TI  - High-Performance CsPb1-x Snx Br3 Perovskite Quantum Dots for Light-Emitting
      Diodes.
AB  - All inorganic CsPbBr3 perovskite quantum dots (QDs) are potential emitters for
      electroluminescent displays. We have developed a facile hot-injection method to
      partially replace the toxic Pb2+ with highly stable Sn4+ . Meanwhile, the
      absolute photoluminescence quantum yield of CsPb1-x Snx Br3 increased from 45 %
      to 83 % with SnIV substitution. The transient absorption (TA) exciton dynamics in
      undoped CsPbBr3 and CsPb0.67 Sn0.33 Br3 QDs at various excitation fluences were
      determined by femtosecond transient absorption, time-resolved photoluminescence,
      and single-dot spectroscopy, providing clear evidence for the suppression of
      trion generation by Sn doping. These highly luminescent CsPb0.67 Sn0.33 Br3 QDs
      emit at 517 nm. A device based on these QDs exhibited a luminance of 12 500 cd m
      2 , a current efficiency of 11.63 cd A-1 , an external quantum efficiency of 4.13
      %, a power efficiency of 6.76 lm w-1 , and a low turn-on voltage of 3.6 V, which
      are the best values among reported tin-based perovskite quantum-dot LEDs.

PMID- 28865138
TI  - A Cost-Effective Culture System for the In Vitro Assembly, Maturation, and
      Stimulation of Advanced Multilayered Multiculture Tubular Tissue Models.
AB  - The development of tubular engineered tissues is a challenging research area
      aiming to provide tissue substitutes but also in vitro models to test drugs,
      medical devices, and even to study physiological and pathological processes. In
      this work, the design, fabrication, and validation of an original cost-effective
      tubular multilayered-tissue culture system (TMCS) are reported. By exploiting
      cellularized collagen gel as scaffold, a simple moulding technique and an
      endothelialization step on a rotating system, TMCS allowed to easily prepare in
      48 h, trilayered arterial wall models with finely organized cellular composition
      and to mature them for 2 weeks without any need of manipulation. Multilayered
      constructs incorporating different combinations of vascular cells are compared in
      terms of cell organization and viscoelastic mechanical properties demonstrating
      that cells always progressively aligned parallel to the longitudinal direction.
      Also, fibroblast compacted less the collagen matrix and appeared crucial in term
      of maturation/deposition of elastic extracellular matrix. Preliminary studies
      under shear stress stimulation upon connection with a flow bioreactor are
      successfully conducted without damaging the endothelial monolayer. Altogether,
      the TMCS herein developed, thanks to its versatility and multiple
      functionalities, holds great promise for vascular tissue engineering
      applications, but also for other tubular tissues such as trachea or oesophagus.

PMID- 28865139
TI  - Expression of Synthetic Phytoene Synthase Gene to Enhance beta-Carotene
      Production in Scenedesmus sp. CPC2.
AB  - beta-carotene is a valuable pigment abundant in some microalgal species but the
      low beta-carotene productivity of microalgae has become the major obstacles
      against its commercialization. This work aims to improve the productivity of
      algae-based beta-carotene via genetic engineering approaches. First, a synthetic
      psy gene construct (891 bp) encoding 297 amino acids is expressed in Scenedesmus
      sp. CPC2 host to enhance the beta-carotene production. The synthetic psy gene is
      designed by considering the highest consensus of amino acids (i.e., 62% identity)
      from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Dunaliella salina, and Mariella zofingiensis. The
      original beta-carotene content in wild-type Scenedesmus sp. CPC2 is 10.8 mg g-1 
      cell when grown on BG11 medium under 2% CO2 aeration, 150 MUmol m-2  s-1 light
      intensity and 25 degrees C. After transformation of the psy gene into the
      microalgal host, the beta-carotene content of the best recombinant strain (i.e.,
      transformant CPC2-4) significantly increased to over 30 mg g-1 -cell. The optimal
      production of beta-carotene with the CPC2-4 recombinant strain was achieved when
      the strain is grown on BG11 medium amended with 0.075 g of MgSO4 , giving
      approximately 3-fold higher beta-carotene content than that of the wild-type
      strain. The best cellular beta-carotene content obtained (i.e., 31.8 mg g-1 ) is
      superior to most algae-based beta-carotene production performance reported in the
      literature.

PMID- 28865140
TI  - The comparison of nasal surgery and CPAP on daytime sleepiness in patients with
      OSAS.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Residual sleepiness after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)
      is a critical problem in some patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome
      (OSAS). However, nasal surgery is likely to reduce daytime sleepiness and
      feelings of unrefreshed sleep. The aim of this study is to clarify the effects of
      nasal surgery and CPAP on daytime sleepiness. METHODOLOGY: This is a
      retrospective and matched-case control study. The participants were consecutive
      40 patients with OSAS who underwent nasal surgery (Surgery group) and 40 matched
      patients who were treated with CPAP (CPAP group). RESULTS: In the Surgery group,
      although the nasal surgery did not decrease either apnea or hypopnea, it improved
      oxygenation, the quality of sleep. In the CPAP Group, the CPAP treatment reduced
      apnea and hypopnea, and improved oxygenation, quality of sleep. The degree of
      relief from daytime sleepiness was different between the two groups. The
      improvement of Epworth Sleepiness Scale was more significant in the Surgery Group
      than those in the CPAP Group (Surgery from 11.0 to 5.1, CPAP from 10.0 to 6.2).
      DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that the results of the nasal surgery is more
      satisfactory for some patients with OSAS than CPAP on daytime sleepiness.

PMID- 28865141
TI  - Hen's egg allergen in house and bed dust is significantly increased after hen's
      egg consumption-A pilot study.
AB  - Environmental exposure to food allergens may be a risk factor for cutaneous
      sensitization. Previous studies could detect peanut allergen in house dust. In
      this pilot study, we wanted to investigate whether hen's egg allergen is
      detectable in house dust collected from different household areas and whether
      levels are increased after intentional hen's egg consumption. Hen's egg protein
      levels of dust samples were measured using ELISA. In 8 of 8 households, hen's egg
      was detectable in dust samples of eating area and bed. Forty-eight hours after
      intentional hen's egg consumption, hen's egg protein levels were significantly
      increased in both. Still, further research is necessary to investigate whether
      hen's egg allergen in house and bed dust plays a role in sensitization via skin.

PMID- 28865142
TI  - Learning curve for the single-incision suburethral sling procedure for female
      stress urinary incontinence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the learning curve for the single-incision sling (SIS)
      procedure in a single-surgeon case series. METHODS: Data were retrospectively
      analyzed from women with non-recurrent symptomatic stress urinary incontinence
      confirmed by urodynamics and treated at San Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy,
      between October 2008 and November 2015. All women underwent the SIS procedure
      using a MiniArc sling fitted by the same urogynecologic surgeon. Blood loss,
      operative time, and complications were recorded. At follow-up visits, objective
      cure was assessed with a stress test and subjective outcome was determined by
      International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form and Patient
      Global Impression of Improvement scores. Postoperative overactive bladder
      syndrome and voiding symptoms were recorded. RESULTS: In total, 192 patients
      underwent the SIS procedure. Estimated blood loss, operative time, and
      complication rate were not influenced by the number of procedures performed.
      Among 191 patients who completed 12 months of follow-up, neither objective nor
      subjective outcomes at longest follow-up available were influenced by surgeon's
      experience. Conversely, de novo overactive bladder syndrome (P<0.001) and voiding
      symptoms (P=0.029) decreased with increasing experience. CONCLUSION: SIS showed
      encouraging objective and subjective outcomes with a minimal complication rate
      even at the beginning of the learning curve. However, increasing experience
      reduced postoperative voiding symptoms and overactive bladder syndrome.

PMID- 28865143
TI  - Identifying Patients With High Data Completeness to Improve Validity of
      Comparative Effectiveness Research in Electronic Health Records Data.
AB  - Electronic health record (EHR)-discontinuity, i.e., having medical information
      recorded outside of the study EHR system, is associated with substantial
      information bias in EHR-based comparative effectiveness research (CER). We aimed
      to develop and validate a prediction model identifying patients with high EHR
      continuity to reduce this bias. Based on 183,739 patients aged >=65 in EHRs from
      two US provider networks linked with Medicare claims data from 2007-2014, we
      quantified EHR-continuity by mean proportion of encounters captured (MPEC) by the
      EHR system. We built a prediction model for MPEC using one EHR system as training
      and the other as the validation set. Patients with top 20% predicted EHR
      continuity had 3.5-5.8-fold smaller misclassification of 40 CER-relevant
      variables, compared to the remaining study population. The comorbidity profiles
      did not differ substantially by predicted EHR-continuity. These findings suggest
      that restriction of CER to patients with high predicted EHR-continuity may confer
      a favorable validity to generalizability trade-off.

PMID- 28865144
TI  - Intraoperative cervical treatment does not affect the prevalence of vaginal
      bleeding 1 year postoperatively after subtotal hysterectomy. A register study
      from the Swedish National Register for Gynecological Surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objectives were to establish the prevalence of persistent
      vaginal bleeding following subtotal hysterectomy, to analyze the effect of
      intraoperative cervical treatment on the occurrence of persistent vaginal
      bleeding, and to evaluate the impact of persistent vaginal bleeding on the
      patient-reported opinion concerning result of surgery and medical condition.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective study with data from the Swedish National
      Register for Gynecological Surgery including 5240 women undergoing subtotal
      hysterectomy for benign conditions between January 2004 and June 2016.
      Demographic and clinical data were obtained from the pre- and perioperative
      forms. Data concerning occurrence of persistent vaginal bleeding, rating of
      medical condition and contentment with result of surgery were collected from the
      1-year inquiry form. Statistical analyses were performed with multivariable
      logistic regression models. The results are presented as adjusted odd ratios and
      95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Persistent vaginal bleeding occurred in 18.6%.
      Intraoperative cervical treatment did not affect the frequency of persistent
      vaginal bleeding (adjusted odds ratio 1.48; 95% confidence interval 0.93-2.37).
      More than 90% were satisfied with the result of the hysterectomy, but women with
      persistent vaginal bleeding were less content compared with those without
      persistent vaginal bleeding (adjusted odds ratio 0.42; 95% confidence interval
      0.26-0.67). The self-perception of the medical condition did not differ between
      the women with and without persistent vaginal bleeding (adjusted odds ratio 1.16;
      95% confidence interval 0.33-4.12). CONCLUSIONS: Nearly two in ten women may
      expect persistent vaginal bleeding following subtotal hysterectomy, and cervical
      treatment intraoperatively did not affect this. More than 90% were satisfied with
      the result but women with persistent vaginal bleeding were less content.
      Preoperative information on this risk of persistent vaginal bleeding may be
      important when choosing hysterectomy technique.

PMID- 28865145
TI  - First record of resting cysts of the benthic dinoflagellate Prorocentrum leve in
      a natural reservoir in Gujan-Mestras, Gironde, France.
AB  - The resting cysts of the benthic dinoflagellate Prorocentrum leve from a natural
      reservoir in Gujan-Mestras (Gironde, France) were described in this study. The
      incubated urn-shaped cysts gave rise to cells of P. leve. Morphological
      observations through light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy,
      particularly of the periflagellar platelets, combined with large subunit
      ribosomal DNA sequences obtained through single-cell analysis confirm their
      affinity to the species P. leve. The cysts were characterized by a specific shape
      and the presence of an anterior plug. This is the first conclusive evidence for
      fossilizable resting stages within the Prorocentrales, one of the major orders
      within the Dinophyceae. Palynological treatments show that the cysts and
      endospores withstand hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids. Micro-Fourier transform
      infrared analysis on single specimens suggests that the composition of the
      endospore is cellulosic and the cyst wall a more robust, noncellulosic beta
      glucan. The spectra overall are similar to other published spectra of resting
      cysts from autotrophic, planktonic dinoflagellates.

PMID- 28865148
TI  - Chronic elevation of plasma fibroblast growth factor 19 in long-term farnesoid X
      receptor agonist therapy, a happy marriage or cause for oncological concern?

PMID- 28865146
TI  - Cocoa agroforestry is less resilient to sub-optimal and extreme climate than
      cocoa in full sun.
AB  - Cocoa agroforestry is perceived as potential adaptation strategy to sub-optimal
      or adverse environmental conditions such as drought. We tested this strategy over
      wet, dry and extremely dry periods comparing cocoa in full sun with agroforestry
      systems: shaded by (i) a leguminous tree species, Albizia ferruginea and (ii)
      Antiaris toxicaria, the most common shade tree species in the region. We
      monitored micro-climate, sap flux density, throughfall, and soil water content
      from November 2014 to March 2016 at the forest-savannah transition zone of Ghana
      with climate and drought events during the study period serving as proxy for
      projected future climatic conditions in marginal cocoa cultivation areas of West
      Africa. Combined transpiration of cocoa and shade trees was significantly higher
      than cocoa in full sun during wet and dry periods. During wet period,
      transpiration rate of cocoa plants shaded by A. ferruginea was significantly
      lower than cocoa under A. toxicaria and full sun. During the extreme drought of
      2015/16, all cocoa plants under A. ferruginea died. Cocoa plants under A.
      toxicaria suffered 77% mortality and massive stress with significantly reduced
      sap flux density of 115 g cm-2  day-1 , whereas cocoa in full sun maintained
      higher sap flux density of 170 g cm-2  day-1 . Moreover, cocoa sap flux recovery
      after the extreme drought was significantly higher in full sun (163 g cm-2  day-1
      ) than under A. toxicaria (37 g cm-2  day-1 ). Soil water content in full sun was
      higher than in shaded systems suggesting that cocoa mortality in the shaded
      systems was linked to strong competition for soil water. The present results have
      major implications for cocoa cultivation under climate change. Promoting shade
      cocoa agroforestry as drought resilient system especially under climate change
      needs to be carefully reconsidered as shade tree species such as the recommended
      leguminous A. ferruginea constitute major risk to cocoa functioning under
      extended severe drought.

PMID- 28865147
TI  - Differential regulation of PD-1 and its ligands in allergic asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Targeting PD-1/PD-1 ligand signalling is an established treatment
      option for cancer. The role of these molecules in allergic asthma has been
      investigated in several mouse studies yielding conflicting results. However,
      human studies investigating the expression and regulation of PD-1 and its ligands
      in allergic inflammation are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the expression and
      regulation of PD-1 and its ligands in human allergic asthma. METHODS: The well
      established human asthma model of segmental allergen challenge (SAC) was used to
      analyse the regulation of PD-1 and its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2 on T lymphocytes
      and dendritic cells by flow cytometry. The impact of immunoglobulin E (IgE)
      mediated signalling on PD-L1 expression was analysed on isolated plasmacytoid
      dendritic cells (pDCs). RESULTS: PD-1 expression by blood CD4+ T cells was
      negatively associated with total and specific (against the allergen used for
      provocation) IgE serum concentrations. Twenty-four hours after SAC, a small
      decrease in endobronchial PD-1+ CD4+ T cells was accompanied by an increase in PD
      L1 expression on endobronchial myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and pDCs. The PD-L1
      up-regulation on pDCs was not induced by IgE-mediated mechanisms. In contrast, PD
      L2 was only detected on endobronchial mDCs and was significantly down-regulated
      24 hours after SAC. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study shows, for the
      first time, an association of a low PD-1 expression by circulating CD4+ T cells
      with high total and specific (against the allergen used for provocation) IgE
      concentrations in allergic asthma. In addition, we demonstrate a differential
      regulation of PD-1 ligands on endobronchial DCs after allergen challenge which
      may favour Th2 inflammation. Therefore, modulating PD-1 ligand-mediated pathways
      might be a promising target in allergic asthma.

PMID- 28865149
TI  - Bordetella bronchiseptica bloodstream infection in a renal transplant patient.
AB  - Bordetella bronchiseptica is a gram-negative coccobacillus that infects animals,
      but rarely affects humans. B. bronchiseptica has been reported to cause disease
      in immunocompromised hosts. We present a case of a 61-year-old man with a renal
      transplant who developed B. bronchiseptica bacteremia likely as a result of close
      contact between dogs and his skin cancer biopsy sites. The patient was
      successfully treated with 2 weeks of oral levofloxacin. This case alerts
      physicians to B. bronchiseptica as a cause of bacteremia in solid organ
      transplant patients with exposure to animals.

PMID- 28865150
TI  - Comparative proteomic profiling of the choline transporter-like1 (CHER1) mutant
      provides insights into plasmodesmata composition of fully developed Arabidopsis
      thaliana leaves.
AB  - In plants, intercellular communication and exchange are highly dependent on cell
      wall bridging structures between adhering cells, so-called plasmodesmata (PD). In
      our previous genetic screen for PD-deficient Arabidopsis mutants, we described
      choline transporter-like 1 (CHER1) being important for PD genesis and maturation.
      Leaves of cher1 mutant plants have up to 10 times less PD, which do not develop
      to complex structures. Here we utilize the T-DNA insertion mutant cher1-4 and
      report a deep comparative proteomic workflow for the identification of cell-wall
      embedded PD-associated proteins. Analyzing triplicates of cell-wall-enriched
      fractions in depth by fractionation and quantitative high-resolution mass
      spectrometry, we compared > 5000 proteins obtained from fully developed leaves.
      Comparative data analysis and subsequent filtering generated a list of 61
      proteins being significantly more abundant in Col-0. This list was enriched for
      previously described PD-associated proteins. To validate PD association of so far
      uncharacterized proteins, subcellular localization analyses were carried out by
      confocal laser-scanning microscopy. This study confirmed the association of PD
      for three out of four selected candidates, indicating that the comparative
      approach indeed allowed identification of so far undescribed PD-associated
      proteins. Performing comparative cell wall proteomics of Nicotiana benthamiana
      tissue, we observed an increase in abundance of these three selected candidates
      during sink to source transition. Taken together, our comparative proteomic
      approach revealed a valuable data set of potential PD-associated proteins, which
      can be used as a resource to unravel the molecular composition of complex PD and
      to investigate their function in cell-to-cell communication.

PMID- 28865151
TI  - Immune evasion mechanisms of human papillomavirus: An update.
AB  - Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most frequently sexually transmitted agent in
      the world. It can cause cervical and other anogenital malignancies, and
      oropharyngeal cancer. HPV has the unique ability to persist in the host's
      epithelium for a long time-longer than most viruses do-which is necessary to
      complete its replication cycle. To this end, HPV has developed a variety of
      immune evasion mechanisms, which unfortunately also favor the progression of the
      disease from infection to chronic dysplasia and eventually to cancer. This
      article summarizes the current knowledge about HPV immune evasion strategies. A
      special emphasis lies in HPV-mediated changes of the antigen processing
      machinery, which is generating epitopes for T cells and contributes to the
      detectability of infected cells.

PMID- 28865152
TI  - Efficacy and safety of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in Japanese patients with chronic
      genotype 2 hepatitis C virus infection.
AB  - : Glecaprevir (nonstructural protein 3/4A protease inhibitor) and pibrentasvir
      (nonstructural protein 5A inhibitor) (G/P), a coformulated once-daily, all oral,
      ribavirin (RBV)-free, direct-acting antiviral regimen, was evaluated for safety
      and efficacy in hepatitis C virus genotype 2 (GT2)-infected Japanese patients,
      including those with compensated cirrhosis. CERTAIN-2 is a phase 3, open-label,
      multicenter study assessing the safety and efficacy of G/P (300/120 mg) once
      daily in treatment-naive and interferon +/- RBV treatment-experienced Japanese
      patients without cirrhosis but with GT2 infection. Patients were randomized 2:1
      to receive 8 weeks of G/P (arm A) or 12 weeks of sofosbuvir (400 mg once daily) +
      RBV (600-1000 mg weight-based, twice daily) (arm B). The primary endpoint was
      noninferiority of G/P compared to sofosbuvir + RBV by assessing sustained
      virologic response at posttreatment week 12 (SVR12) among patients in the intent
      to-treat population. SVR12 was also assessed in treatment-naive and interferon +/
      RBV treatment-experienced patients with GT2 infection and compensated cirrhosis
      who received G/P for 12 weeks in the CERTAIN-1 study. A total of 136 patients
      were enrolled in CERTAIN-2. SVR12 was achieved by 88/90 (97.8%) patients in arm A
      and 43/46 (93.5%) patients in arm B. No patient in arm A experienced virologic
      failure, while 2 did in arm B. The primary endpoint was achieved. In CERTAIN-1,
      100% (18/18) of GT2-infected patients with compensated cirrhosis achieved SVR12.
      Treatment-emergent serious adverse events were experienced by 2 patients without
      cirrhosis in each arm and no patient with cirrhosis. CONCLUSION: The results
      demonstrate high efficacy and favorable tolerability of G/P in GT2-infected
      Japanese patients. (Hepatology 2017).

PMID- 28865153
TI  - Evaluation of the pharmacokinetic drug interaction potential of tivantinib (ARQ
      197) using cocktail probes in patients with advanced solid tumours.
AB  - AIMS: This phase 1, open-label, crossover study sought to evaluate drug-drug
      interactions between tivantinib and cytochrome P450 (CYP) substrates and
      tivantinib and P-glycoprotein. METHODS: The effect of tivantinib doses on the
      pharmacokinetics of the probe drugs for CYP1A2 (caffeine), CYP2C9 (S-warfarin),
      CYP2C19 (omeprazole), and CYP3A4 (midazolam), and for P-glycoprotein (digoxin)
      was investigated in 28 patients with advanced cancer using a cocktail probe
      approach. Patients received single doses of probe drugs alone and, after 5 days
      of treatment, with tivantinib 360 mg twice daily. RESULTS: The ratios of
      geometric least squares mean (90% confidence interval) for the area under the
      concentration-time curve from time zero to the last quantifiable concentration in
      the presence/absence of tivantinib were 0.97 (0.89-1.05) for caffeine, 0.88 (0.76
      1.02) for S-warfarin, 0.89 (0.60-1.31) for omeprazole, 0.83 (0.67-1.02) for
      midazolam, and 0.69 (0.51-0.94) for digoxin. Similar effects were observed for
      maximum plasma concentrations; the ratio for digoxin in the presence/absence of
      tivantinib was 0.75 (0.60-0.95). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that tivantinib
      360 mg twice daily has either a minimal or no effect on the pharmacokinetics of
      probe drugs for CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 substrates, and decreases the
      systemic exposure of P-glycoprotein substrates when administered with tivantinib.

PMID- 28865154
TI  - Multimodular assessment of a calcified extraradicular deposit on the root
      surfaces of a mandibular molar.
AB  - AIM: To achieve a better understanding of a calcified extraradicular deposit on
      the apical root surfaces of a mandibular first molar associated with a radicular
      cyst and a sinus tract. A multimodular approach was applied using a combination
      of multiple investigation methods. SUMMARY: This case report presents a
      mandibular first molar with a calcified extraradicular deposit on the apical root
      surfaces of both roots. An apical periodontitis lesion was present and a sinus
      tract served as the only communication with the oral cavity. Diagnosis and
      treatment planning were based on clinical, radiographic (two- and three
      dimensional) and ultrasound examination. The tooth was further analysed after
      extraction using microscopic imaging, nano-computed tomography (nano-CT), hard-
      and soft tissue histology and electron probe microanalysis. This multimodular
      approach revealed the calculus-like appearance and mineral composition of the
      extraradicular deposit. Multiple hypotheses about its aetiology are discussed.
      KEY LEARNING POINTS: Calcified extraradicular deposits can develop on the apical
      root surfaces of teeth with apical periodontitis in association with a radicular
      cyst and sinus tract. A sinus tract can serve as the only communication between
      the apical lesion and the oral cavity whilst no periodontal defects are present.
      The interplay of intra-oral radiography, high resolution CBCT, nano-CT, hard
      tissue histology and EPMA can reveal the calculus-like appearance and composition
      of the extraradicular deposit. Calcified extraradicular deposits appear
      hyperechoic on ultrasound imaging and can lead to the occurrence of twinkling
      artefacts due to their rough mineralized surface.

PMID- 28865155
TI  - A distinct class of vesicles derived from the trans-Golgi mediates secretion of
      xylogalacturonan in the root border cell.
AB  - Root border cells lie on the surface of the root cap and secrete massive amounts
      of mucilage that contains polysaccharides and proteoglycans. Golgi stacks in the
      border cells have hypertrophied margins, reflecting elevated biosynthetic
      activity to produce the polysaccharide components of the mucilage. To investigate
      the three-dimensional structures and macromolecular compositions of these Golgi
      stacks, we examined high-pressure frozen/freeze-substituted alfalfa root cap
      cells with electron microscopy/tomography. Golgi stacks in border cells and
      peripheral cells, precursor cells of border cells, displayed similar
      morphological features, such as proliferation of trans cisternae and swelling of
      the trans cisternae and trans-Golgi network (TGN) compartments. These swollen
      margins give rise to two types of vesicles larger than other Golgi-associated
      vesicles. Margins of trans-Golgi cisternae accumulate the LM8 xylogalacturonan
      (XGA) epitope, and they become darkly stained large vesicles (LVs) after release
      from the Golgi. Epitopes for xyloglucan (XG), polygalacturonic
      acid/rhamnogalacturonan-I (PGA/RG-I) are detected in the trans-most cisternae and
      TGN compartments. LVs produced from TGN compartments (TGN-LVs) stained lighter
      than LVs and contained the cell wall polysaccharide epitopes seen in the TGN. LVs
      carrying the XGA epitope fuse with the plasma membrane only in border cells,
      whereas TGN-LVs containing the XG and PGA/RG-I epitopes fuse with the plasma
      membrane of both peripheral cells and border cells. Taken together, these results
      indicate that XGA is secreted by a novel type of secretory vesicles derived from
      trans-Golgi cisternae. Furthermore, we simulated the collapse in the central
      domain of the trans-cisternae accompanying polysaccharide synthesis with a
      mathematical model.

PMID- 28865156
TI  - Gene-disease associations identify a connectome with shared molecular pathways in
      human cholangiopathies.
AB  - : Cholangiopathies are a diverse group of progressive diseases whose primary cell
      targets are cholangiocytes. To identify shared pathogenesis and molecular
      connectivity among the three main human cholangiopathies (biliary atresia [BA],
      primary biliary cholangitis [PBC], and primary sclerosing cholangitis [PSC]), we
      built a comprehensive platform of published data on gene variants, gene
      expression, and functional studies and applied network-based analytics in the
      search for shared molecular circuits. Mining the data platform with largest
      connected component and interactome analyses, we validated previously reported
      associations and identified essential and hub genes. In addition to disease
      specific modules, we found a substantial overlap of disease neighborhoods and
      uncovered a group of 34 core genes that are enriched for immune processes and
      abnormal intestine/hepatobiliary mouse phenotypes. Within this core, we
      identified a gene subcore containing signal transduction and activator of
      transcription 3, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor, and forkhead box P3
      prominently placed in a regulatory connectome of genes related to cellular
      immunity and fibrosis. We also found substantial gene enrichment in the advanced
      glycation endproduct/receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) pathway
      and showed that RAGE activation induced cholangiocyte proliferation. CONCLUSION:
      Human cholangiopathies share pathways enriched by immunity genes and a molecular
      connectome that links different pathogenic features of BA, PBC, and PSC.
      (Hepatology 2017).

PMID- 28865157
TI  - Acute simvastatin treatment restores cerebral functional capillary density and
      attenuates angiotensin II-induced microcirculatory changes in a model of primary
      hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated the acute effects of SIM on cerebral microvascular
      rarefaction and dysfunction in SHRs. METHODS: Male WKY and SHRs were divided into
      4 groups of 8 animals each: WKY-CTL and SHR-CTL, treated with 0.9% saline; and
      WKY+SIM and SHR+SIM, treated with SIM (30 mg/kg/d) for 3 days by gavage. Cerebral
      FCD was assessed by intravital fluorescence videomicroscopy. mCBF before and
      after administration within the cranial window of angiotensin II (1 MUmol L-1 )
      was investigated using laser speckle contrast imaging. RESULTS: Cerebral FCD was
      reduced in SHR-CTL compared to WKY-CTL (P < .05). SIM increased cerebral FCD in
      SHRs compared to SHR-CTL (P < .05). The mCBF was reduced in SHR-CTL compared to
      WKY-CTL (P < .05), and SIM increased mCBF compared with SHR-CTL (P < .05).
      Angiotensin II elicited a reduction of mCBF in SHR-CTL and increased mCBF in WKY
      CTL (SHR-CTL -13.53 +/- 2% vs WKY-CTL +13.74 +/- 4%; P < .001), which was
      attenuated in SHRs treated with SIM (SHR+SIM -6.7 +/- 1% vs SHR-CTL -13.53 +/-
      2%; P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: The antihypertensive effect of SIM is associated with
      an improvement in cerebral microvascular perfusion and capillary density that may
      help to prevent hypertension-induced cerebrovascular damage independent of
      cholesterol-lowering.

PMID- 28865158
TI  - Assessing SSU rDNA Barcodes in Foraminifera: A Case Study using Bolivina
      quadrata.
AB  - The Small Subunit Ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rDNA) is a widely used tool to
      reconstruct phylogenetic relationships among foraminiferal species. Recently, the
      highly variable regions of this gene have been proposed as DNA barcodes to
      identify foraminiferal species. However, the resolution of these barcodes has not
      been well established, yet. In this study, we evaluate four SSU rDNA
      hypervariable regions (37/f, 41/f, 43/e, and 45/e) as DNA barcodes to distinguish
      among species of the genus Bolivina, with particular emphasis on Bolivina
      quadrata for which ten new sequences (KY468817-KY468826) were obtained during
      this study. Our analyses show that a single SSU rDNA hypervariable sequence is
      insufficient to resolve all Bolivina species and that some regions (37/f and
      41/f) are more useful than others (43/e and 45/e) to distinguish among closely
      related species. In addition, polymorphism analyses reveal a high degree of
      variability. In the context of barcoding studies, these results emphasize the
      need to assess the range of intraspecific variability of DNA barcodes prior to
      their application to identify foraminiferal species in environmental samples; our
      results also highlight the possibility that a longer SSU rDNA region might be
      required to distinguish among species belonging to the same taxonomic group (i.e.
      genus).

PMID- 28865159
TI  - Ligation and interposition of a modified Martius graft for rectovaginal fistula
      repair after low anterior resection for rectal cancer - a video vignette.

PMID- 28865161
TI  - Methylene blue submucosal infiltration may facilitate transanal submucosal
      dissection.

PMID- 28865162
TI  - Three new cases of bullous pemphigoid during anti-PD-1 antibody therapy.

PMID- 28865163
TI  - Maternal health outcomes following the implementation of Janani Shishu Suraksha
      Yojana (JSSY) at a tertiary healthcare center in Rajasthan.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of the Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojana (JSSY)
      initiative on maternal health in terms of the number of prenatal checkup
      registrations, institutional deliveries, and maternal deaths. The aim of JSSY was
      to reduce maternal and infant mortality by promoting institutional delivery.
      METHODOLOGY: The present retrospective descriptive study included data from all
      institutional deliveries that occurred at the Department of Obstetrics and
      Gynecology, Mahila Chikitsalaya, SMS Medical College Jaipur, India, both before
      (between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2011) and after the implementation of
      JSSY (between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2015). Numbers of prenatal
      outpatient department registrations, institutional deliveries, and maternal
      deaths per year were compared between the periods using the Mann-Whitney U test.
      RESULTS: Increases in the mean number of prenatal outpatient department
      registrations (P=0.021) and institutional deliveries (P=0.021) were recorded
      following the implementation of JSSY; a non-significant decrease in the maternal
      mortality ratio was also observed (P=0.248). CONCLUSION: JSSY appeared to be an
      effective program in improving maternal health; use of prenatal care and
      institutional deliveries increased following its implementation.

PMID- 28865164
TI  - Viral-specific T-cell response in hemorrhagic cystitis after haploidentical donor
      stem cell transplantation.
AB  - Viral hemorrhagic cystitis (HC) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (HSCT) can be devastating. Standard treatment modalities have not been well
      established, but immune reconstitution may be necessary for sustained viral
      clearance. We studied five pediatric patients who developed viral HC after haplo
      identical HSCT. All patients developed virus-specific CD4- and CD8-positive T
      cells, and the emergence of these viral-specific T cells was temporally
      associated with successful viral clearance.

PMID- 28865165
TI  - Spectroanalysis in native gels (SING): rapid spectral analysis of pigmented
      thylakoid membrane complexes separated by CN-PAGE.
AB  - Photosynthetic organisms rapidly adjust the capture, transfer and utilization of
      light energy to optimize the efficiency of photosynthesis and avoid photodamage.
      These adjustments involve fine-tuning of expression levels and mutual
      interactions among electron/proton transfer components and their associated light
      harvesting antenna. Detailed studies of these interactions and their dynamics
      have been hindered by the low throughput and resolution of currently available
      research tools, which involve laborious isolation, separation and
      characterization steps. To address these issues, we developed an approach that
      measured multiple spectroscopic properties of thylakoid preparations directly in
      native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gels, enabling unprecedented resolution
      of photosynthetic complexes, both in terms of the spectroscopic and functional
      details, as well as the ability to distinguish separate complexes and thus test
      their functional connections. As a demonstration, we explore the thylakoid
      membrane components of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii acclimated to high and low
      light, using a combination of room temperature absorption and 77K fluorescence
      emission to generate a multi-dimensional molecular and spectroscopic map of the
      photosynthetic apparatus. We show that low-light-acclimated cells accumulate a
      photosystem I-containing megacomplex that is absent in high-light-acclimated
      cells and contains distinct LhcII proteins that can be distinguished based on
      their spectral signatures.

PMID- 28865166
TI  - Asymmetries in leaf branch are associated with differential speeds along growth
      axes: A theoretical prediction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Morphogenesis, when accompanied by continuous growth, requires stable
      positional information to create a balanced shape in an organism. Evenly spaced
      branches are examples of such morphogenesis. Previously, we created a model that
      showed when a one-dimensional (1D) ring (a boundary of a 2D field) was
      periodically deformed based on a stable, doubled iterative pattern during
      expansion; a nested, regularly spaced, symmetrically branched structure was
      generated. The characteristic divaricating pattern is common in the leaves of
      many plant species; however, the divarication symmetry was often broken. To
      evaluate this type of asymmetry, we investigated several species with dissected
      or compound leaves. RESULTS: Sometimes these leaves showed asymmetries in the
      number of lobes or segments positioned on either side of the secondary axes. The
      direction of the asymmetry, i.e., which side of a secondary axis has more axes,
      appeared to be species-specific. CONCLUSIONS: When different growth speeds along
      axes of a divaricating leaf were introduced into our previous model, robust and
      directed asymmetries were reproduced. The differences in growth speed could be
      predicted from the distributions of leaf segments in actual leaves. Developmental
      Dynamics 246:981-991, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28865167
TI  - Colorectal surveillance after segmental resection for young-onset colorectal
      cancer: is there evidence for extended resection?
AB  - AIM: Although sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) usually occurs in patients aged
      over 50, recent evidence suggests that the incidence is increasing in younger
      patients. Such patients are theoretically at high risk of metachronous neoplasia
      and may be candidates for extended prophylactic colectomy. This study aimed to
      define the risk of metachronous cancer/adenomas during follow-up of younger
      patients who underwent segmental colectomy for CRC. METHOD: A CRC database was
      used to identify patients aged under 50 who underwent surgery for CRC between
      1994 and 2010. Patients diagnosed with hereditary cancer or inflammatory bowel
      disease were excluded. The primary end-points were frequency of extended
      resection and the rates of metachronous cancer and high-risk adenomas during
      follow-up. RESULTS: There were 284 young patients with a resectable primary
      tumour, of whom 280 (98.6%) underwent segmental resection, 3 (1%) extended
      resection and 1 (0.4%) local resection. Endoscopic follow-up was available for
      150 of the patients who had segmental colectomy, with a mean age of 42.6 (+/-5.8)
      years at diagnosis and median follow-up time of 68 months (interquartile range 45
      105). Out of these 150 patients, 4 (2.7%) developed metachronous colonic
      adenocarcinoma at 24, 71, 151 and 228 months after index surgery. Thirty
      additional patients had at least one adenoma identified during surveillance, and
      three had sessile serrated polyps. Out of the three patients undergoing extended
      resection, none had metachronous cancer or advanced adenomas at an average follow
      up of 17 years. CONCLUSION: A segmental colectomy or proctectomy is adequate
      treatment for patients presenting with CRC under the age of 50.

PMID- 28865168
TI  - On the Redox Reactivity of a Geometrically Constrained Phosphorus(III) Compound.
AB  - The reactivity of a geometrically constrained phosphorus(III) complex bearing the
      N,N-bis(3,5-di-tert-butyl-2-phenolate)amide pincer ligand (P(ONO); 1) towards
      oxidants and reductants is explored. This compound can be readily oxidized to the
      phosphorus(V) dihalo-derivatives P(ONO)X2 where X=Cl (2), Br (3) and I (4).
      Attempts at isolating the analogous difluoride through oxidation of 1 were
      unsuccessful yielding only the hydrofluoride P(ONO)(H)F (5), however P(ONO)F2 (6)
      can be accessed via a halide exchange reaction of 2 with KF. Compound 2 can be
      employed as a precursor to novel cationic species through chloride ion
      displacement using strong Lewis bases. Thus, reaction of 2 with two or three
      molar equivalents of dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) affords [P(ONO)(Cl)(DMAP)2 ]+
      (7) and [P(ONO)(DMAP)3 ]2+ (8). Reaction of 2 with the weaker bidentate base 2,2'
      bipyridine (bipy) affords [P(ONO)(Cl)(bipy)]+ (9), although this species was only
      accessible upon addition of a halide abstracting agent. The dicationic
      tris(pyridine) adduct [P(ONO)(py)3 ]2+ (10) is also accessible by reaction of 4
      with pyridine. Oxidation of 1 using oxygen gas proceeds slowly and allows for the
      observation of two compounds, a mixed valence dimeric
      phosphorus(III)/phosphorus(V) compound [P(ONO)(MU2 -O)(MU2 :kappa1 ,kappa2 
      ONO)P] (11) and the fully oxidized species [P(ONO)(MU2 -O)(MU2 :kappa1 ,kappa2 
      ONO)P(O)] (12). Finally, reaction of 1 using KC8 results in the dimerization of
      the putative radical anion [P(ONO)].- through formation of a P-P bond to afford
      [P(ONO)]22- (13). Reactions with TEMPO result in the formation of the trigonal
      bipyramidal species P(ONO)(TEMPO)2 (14).

PMID- 28865170
TI  - A method for characterizing and matching CT image quality across CT scanners from
      different manufacturers.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to quantitatively characterize the
      fundamental aspects of image quality (IQ) associated with different computed
      tomography (CT) reconstruction algorithms, the resolution, noise texture, noise
      magnitude per dose, and use those data to devise a methodology to match IQ
      between different CT systems. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This study entailed a 3-step
      methodology involving (a) characterizing the noise magnitude, texture, and
      resolution for a CT system-reconstruction using the relationship between noise
      magnitude and Computed Tomography Dose Index (CTDI), noise power spectrum (NPS),
      and modulation transfer function (MTF), (b) developing clinically relevant
      strategies of weighting the differences among system-reconstructions as a means
      to determine the best match (c) identifying for each target system
      reconstruction, system-reconstructions with matched in terms of that minimum IQ
      differences. Images of the ACR CT phantom were acquired at two dose levels on
      each of two CT scanners. Images were reconstructed using all available
      reconstruction kernels and multiple iterative reconstruction (IR) settings. Each
      reconstruction was characterized as described above. Percent changes for each IQ
      metric were calculated for every possible pair of system-reconstructions.
      Weighting functions, reflecting the human visual system's limit to discriminate
      between spatial frequencies with differences below 5%, were applied to the
      differences and the product of the weighted values was used to indicate the best
      match for each system-reconstruction. RESULTS: Noise texture and resolution are
      governed by choice of reconstruction kernel and IR strength, while noise
      magnitude is additionally dependent on dose. Harder kernels have better
      resolution, finer noise texture, and increase the required dose for a given noise
      magnitude, and vice versa. Increasing IR strength generally improves resolution,
      coarsens noise texture, and lowers the required dose. Seventy-one percent of
      Siemens matches for GE target reconstructions had percent changes in noise
      texture/resolution under 5%. Seventy-three percent of GE matches for Siemens
      target reconstructions had percent changes in noise texture/resolution under 5%.
      ACR phantom images for each matched reconstruction pair appeared similar in both
      noise magnitude and noise texture. CONCLUSION: Matching image appearance in terms
      of resolution, noise magnitude, and noise texture provides a quantitative and
      reproducible strategy to improve consistency in image quality among different CT
      scanners and reconstructions.

PMID- 28865169
TI  - A developmental-based motivational intervention to reduce alcohol and marijuana
      use among non-treatment-seeking young adults: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - AIMS: To test the hypothesis that among non-treatment-seeking emerging adults
      (EA) who both use marijuana and have alcohol binges, a brief, longitudinally
      delivered, developmentally based motivational intervention would show greater
      reductions in the use of these two substances compared with a health education
      control condition. DESIGN: Parallel, two-group, randomized controlled trial with
      follow-up interventions conducted at 1, 3, 6 and 9 months and final assessments
      at 12 and 15 months. SETTING: Hospital-based research unit in the United States.
      PARTICIPANTS: Community-based 18-25-year-olds who reported at least monthly binge
      drinking and at least weekly marijuana use. INTERVENTION: Motivational
      intervention (EA-MI) focused primarily on themes of emerging adulthood (identity
      exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, a sense of
      possibilities) and the subjects' relationship to substance use (n = 110) compared
      with an attention-matched health education control condition (n = 116).
      MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcomes were days of binge alcohol, marijuana and dual
      use day as measured using the timeline follow-back method analysing the treatment
      by time interaction to determine relative differences in the rate of change
      between intervention arms. FINDINGS: At baseline, the mean rate (days/30) of
      binge drinking was 5.23 (+/- 4.31) of marijuana use was 19.4 (+/- 10.0) and of
      dual (same day) use was 4.11 (+/- 4.13). Relative to baseline, there were
      reductions in the rate of binge alcohol use, marijuana use and days of combined
      binge alcohol and marijuana use (P < 0.001) at all follow-up assessments.
      However, the treatment * time interaction was not statistically significant for
      alcohol (P = 0.37), for marijuana (P = 0.07) or for dual use (P = 0.55). Averaged
      over all follow-ups, mean reductions in binge, marijuana and dual use days were
      1.16, 1.45 and 1.08, respectively, in the health education arm, and 1.06, 1.69
      and 0.96 in EA-MI. Bayes factors were < 0.01 for frequency of binge alcohol use
      and frequency of dual binge alcohol and marijuana and 0.016 for marijuana use.
      CONCLUSIONS: A brief, longitudinally delivered, developmentally based
      motivational intervention for young adults did not produce reductions in binge
      alcohol, marijuana use or dual use days relative to a control condition.

PMID- 28865173
TI  - The extracts of bredigite bioceramics enhanced the pluripotency of human dental
      pulp cells.
AB  - Biomaterials have a profound effect on tissue engineering and regenerative
      medicine, but few studies have reported the role of extracts from bioceramics in
      the regulation of stem cell pluripotency. The present study investigated the
      effects of bioceramics extracts, including silicate bredigite (Ca7 MgSi4 O16 )
      and conventional beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP), on the pluripotency and
      the multilineage differentiation potential of human dental pulp cells (hDPCs).
      Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), which is a known regulator of hDPCs
      pluripotency, was used as a reference. Bredigite extracts significantly promoted
      cell growth, proliferation, TERT expression and maintained hDPCs in a
      presenescent state. The extracts of bredigite significantly up-regulated the
      expression of pluripotency-related genes such as Stro1, Oct4 and Sox2, and
      further promoted the multilineage differentiation of hDPCs after
      odontogenic/adipogenic induction. The stimulation of bredigite extracts on hDPCs
      pluripotency was comparable to that of bFGF, whereas beta-TCP extracts lacked
      these properties. Our results suggested for the first time that bredigite
      extracts enhance the pluripotency of dental-derived stem cells, paving the way
      for extended applications in regenerative medicine. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3465-3474, 2017.

PMID- 28865172
TI  - Intersection of retinoblastoma tumor suppressor function, stem cells, metabolism,
      and inflammation.
AB  - The Retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor regulates G1 /S transition during cell
      cycle progression by modulating the activity of E2F transcription factors. The RB
      pathway plays a central role in the suppression of most cancers, and RB mutation
      was initially discovered by virtue of its role in tumor initiation. However, as
      cancer genome sequencing has evolved to profile more advanced and treatment
      resistant cancers, it has become increasingly clear that, in the majority of
      cancers, somatic RB inactivation occurs during tumor progression. Furthermore,
      despite the presence of deregulation of cell cycle control due to an INK4A
      deletion, additional CCND amplification and/or other mutations in the RB pathway,
      mutation or deletion of the RB gene is often observed during cancer progression.
      Of note, RB inactivation during cancer progression not only facilitates G1 /S
      transition but also enhances some characteristics of malignancy, including
      altered drug sensitivity and a return to the undifferentiated state. Recently, we
      reported that RB inactivation enhances pro-inflammatory signaling through
      stimulation of the interleukin-6/STAT3 pathway, which directly promotes various
      malignant features of cancer cells. In this review, we highlight the consequences
      of RB inactivation during cancer progression, and discuss the biological and
      pathological significance of the interaction between RB and pro-inflammatory
      signaling.

PMID- 28865174
TI  - Considerations for reporting of stillbirths and fetal deaths.

PMID- 28865175
TI  - Control of cell growth on 3D-printed cell culture platforms for tissue
      engineering.
AB  - Biocompatible tissue growth has excellent prospects for tissue engineering. These
      tissues are built over scaffolds, which can influence aspects such as cell
      adhesion, proliferation rate, morphology, and differentiation. However, the ideal
      3D biological structure has not been developed yet. Here, we applied the electro
      hydrodynamic jet (E-jet) 3D printing technology using poly-(lactic-co-glycolic
      acid, PLGA) solution to print varied culture platforms for engineered tissue
      structures. The effects of different parameters (electrical voltage, plotting
      speed, and needle sizes) on the outcome were investigated. We compared the
      biological compatibility of the 3D printed culture platforms with that of random
      fibers. Finally, we used the 3D-printed PLGA platforms to culture fibroblasts,
      the main cellular components of loose connective tissue. The results show that
      the E-jet printed platforms could guide and improve cell growth. These highly
      aligned fibers were able to support cellular alignment and proliferation. Cell
      angle was consistent with the direction of the fibers, and cells cultured on
      these fibers showed a much faster migration, potentially enhancing wound healing
      performance. Thus, the potential of this technology for 3D biological printing is
      large. This process can be used to grow biological scaffolds for the engineering
      of tissues. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A:
      3281-3292, 2017.

PMID- 28865176
TI  - Feasibility of dynamic risk prediction for hepatocellular carcinoma development
      in patients with chronic hepatitis B.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Several risk prediction models for hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) development are available. We explored whether the use of risk prediction
      models can dynamically predict HCC development at different time points in
      chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. METHODS: Between 2006 and 2014, 1397 CHB
      patients were recruited. All patients underwent serial transient elastography at
      intervals of >6 months. RESULTS: The median age of this study population (931
      males and 466 females) was 49.0 years. The median CU-HCC, REACH-B, LSM-HCC and
      mREACH-B score at enrolment were 4.0, 9.0, 10.0 and 8.0 respectively. During the
      follow-up period (median, 68.0 months), 87 (6.2%) patients developed HCC. All
      risk prediction models were successful in predicting HCC development at both the
      first liver stiffness (LS) measurement (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.067-1.467 in the
      subgroup without antiviral therapy [AVT] and 1.096-1.458 in the subgroup with
      AVT) and second LS measurement (HR = 1.125-1.448 in the subgroup without AVT and
      1.087-1.249 in the subgroup with AVT). In contrast, neither the absolute nor
      percentage change in the scores from the risk prediction models predicted HCC
      development (all P > .05). The mREACH-B score performed similarly or
      significantly better than did the other scores (AUROCs at 5 years, 0.694-0.862 vs
      0.537-0.875). CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic prediction of HCC development at different
      time points was achieved using four risk prediction models, but not using the
      changes in the absolute and percentage values between two time points. The mREACH
      B score was the most appropriate prediction model of HCC development among four
      prediction models.

PMID- 28865179
TI  - Histopathological challenges in suspected drug-induced liver injury.
AB  - When a patient with suspected drug-induced liver injury (DILI) undergoes liver
      biopsy, the pathologist is confronted with two major challenges. The first and
      most important is to establish the pattern(s) of injury which are present.
      Patterns of injury represent stereotypical responses of an organ to injury and
      relate to specific aetiologies of liver damage. The pattern of injury and the
      histological details of that injury can then be analysed with respect to the
      patient's intercurrent diseases and medication history. The specific expertise of
      the pathologist can be used to weigh the prospect of DILI against the likelihood
      of other explanations of injury. The second challenge is to characterize specific
      types of injury and the severity of injury, both of which may have importance for
      clinical decision-making and prognosis. The pathologist's report should convey
      both an accurate description of the pathology as well its interpretation.

PMID- 28865177
TI  - Surface topography of silicon nitride affects antimicrobial and osseointegrative
      properties of tibial implants in a murine model.
AB  - While silicon nitride (Si3 N4 ) is an antimicrobial and osseointegrative
      orthopaedic biomaterial, the contribution of surface topography to these
      properties is unknown. Using a methicillin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus
      aureus (MRSA), this study evaluated Si3 N4 implants in vitro utilizing scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM) with colony forming unit (CFU) assays, and later in an
      established in vivo murine tibia model of implant-associated osteomyelitis. In
      vitro, the "as-fired" Si3 N4 implants displayed significant reductions in
      adherent bacteria versus machined Si3 N4 (2.6 * 104 vs. 8.7 * 104 CFU,
      respectively; p < 0.0002). Moreover, SEM imaging demonstrated that MRSA cannot
      directly adhere to native as-fired Si3 N4 . Subsequently, a cross-sectional study
      was completed in which sterile or MRSA contaminated as-fired and machined Si3 N4
      implants were inserted into the tibiae of 8-week old female Balb/c mice, and
      harvested on day 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, or 14 post-operatively for SEM. The findings
      demonstrated that the antimicrobial activity of the as-fired implants resulted
      from macrophage clearance of the bacteria during biofilm formation on day 1,
      followed by osseointegration through the apparent recruitment of mesenchymal stem
      cells on days 3-5, which differentiated into osteoblasts on days 7-14. In
      contrast, the antimicrobial behavior of the machined Si3 N4 was due to repulsion
      of the bacteria, a phenomenon that also limited osteogenesis, as host cells were
      also unable to adhere to the machined surface. Taken together, these results
      suggest that the in vivo biological behavior of Si3 N4 orthopaedic implants is
      driven by critical features of their surface nanotopography. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3413-3421, 2017.

PMID- 28865180
TI  - Automated and simplified identification of normal and abnormal plasma cells in
      Multiple Myeloma by flow cytometry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable disease characterized by clonal
      plasma cell (PC) proliferation within the bone marrow (BM). Next-generation flow
      cytometry has become the reference tool to follow minimal residual disease (MRD).
      We developed a new simpler and cheaper flow cytometry method to analyze bone
      marrow samples in patients with MM. METHODS: To identify and characterize
      abnormal PCs, we designed a simple panel composed of anti-CD38, antikappa, and
      antilambda light chain antibodies, combined with two antibody pools with the same
      fluorophore (anti-CD19 and anti-CD27 for the negative pool and anti-CD56, anti
      CD117, and anti-CD200 antibodies for the positive pool). We also developed
      dedicated software for the automated identification of malignant PCs and MRD
      assessment. We then compared PC identification with our simple antibody panel and
      with the larger antibody panel routinely used at Montpellier University Hospital
      Center in 52 patients with MM (M-CHU cohort). RESULTS: Results for total PC
      detection (r2  = 0.9965; P < 0.001; n = 52) and malignant PC detection (r2  =
      0.9486; P < 0.001; n = 38) obtained with the two panels were significantly
      correlated. Moreover, comparison of the results obtained by automated detection
      with our software and by manual gating analysis in 80 BM samples (38 from the M
      CHU cohort and 42 patients from another MM cohort) showed strong correlation for
      both total and malignant PC selection (respectively, r2  = 0.936; P < 0.001 and
      r2  = 0.9505; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our simple and automated strategy for MRD
      assessment in MM could help increasing reproducibility and productivity without
      compromising sensitivity and specificity, while decreasing the test cost. (c)
      2017 International Clinical Cytometry Society.

PMID- 28865178
TI  - Inhibition of IL-6-JAK/Stat3 signaling in castration-resistant prostate cancer
      cells enhances the NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity via alteration of PD-L1/NKG2D
      ligand levels.
AB  - To investigate whether IL-6 signaling affects the susceptibility of castration
      resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cells to cytotoxic action of natural killer (NK)
      cells, CRPC cell lines (having different IL-6 levels) were developed by
      lentiviral transduction. While observing no secreted IL-6 level in parental C4-2
      and CWR22Rv1 cells, we found the IL-6 expression/secretion in these cells was
      induced after the transduction process and the IL-6 level difference in C4-2siIL
      6/sc and CWR22siIL-6/sc cell CRPC cell sets could be detected. We then found that
      IL-6-knockdown cells were more susceptible to NK cell cytotoxicity than control
      cells due to lowered programmed death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1) and increased NK
      group 2D (NKG2D) ligand levels. In animal studies, to concur with the in vitro
      results, we found that IL-6-expressing cell-derived tumors were more resistant to
      NK cell action than the tumors of IL-6-knockdown cells. Further, we discovered
      that JAK-Stat3 is the most critical IL-6 downstream signaling that modulates PD
      L1/NKG2D ligand levels in CRPC cells. Furthermore, inhibition of the JAK or Stat3
      signaling effectively increased the susceptibility of C4-2sc and CWRsc cells to
      NK cell cytotoxicity. We observed the most effective cytotoxicity when the PD-L1
      Ab and JAK inhibitor (or Stat 3 inhibitor) were used together. These results
      suggest that the strategy of targeting IL-6 signaling (or its downstream
      signaling) may enhance the NK cell-mediated immune action to CRPC tumors, thus
      yielding clinical implications in developing future immunotherapeutics of
      exploiting this strategy to treat patients with CRPC.

PMID- 28865181
TI  - Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel 1-(4-(Hydroxy(1-oxo-1,3-dihydro-2H
      inden-2-ylidene)methyl)phenyl)-3-phenylurea Derivatives.
AB  - A series of novel phenylurea containing 2-benzoylindan-1-one derivatives 3a - 3j
      were synthesized from the reaction of phenylurea-substituted acetophenones 1a -
      1j with phthalaldehyde 2 under mild reaction conditions in good yields. All
      synthesized compounds were characterized by spectroscopic methods. The obtained
      compounds (3a - 3j) were evaluated for anticancer activity against HeLa and C6
      cell lines. Antiproliferative activity was determined by the BrdU proliferation
      ELISA assay, 3f and 3g were found to be most active compounds. The compounds were
      also screened for antimicrobial activity and all compounds showed remarkable
      activity against used microorganisms.

PMID- 28865182
TI  - Quercetin and alendronate multi-functionalized materials as tools to hinder
      oxidative stress damage.
AB  - In spite of its remarkable anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer
      properties and its possible inhibition activity towards bone resorption,
      quercetin therapeutic use is limited by its poor bioavailability. Herein we
      developed a new multifunctionalized system for the local administration of
      quercetin and alendronate, one of the most potent anti-osteoporotic drugs, with
      the aim to get a material with enhanced properties. To this purpose we loaded
      quercetin on hydroxyapatite functionalized with alendronate, as well as on
      hydroxyapatite. Characterization was performed by means of X-ray diffraction, FT
      IR and Raman spectroscopies, thermogravimetric and spectrophotometric analyses.
      Loading of quercetin from hydro-alcoholic solution increased with time and
      reached a constant value of about 5 weight% on both substrates, without causing
      significant structural and morphological modifications. Quercetin functionalized
      materials exhibit relevant anti-oxidant properties, in agreement with their high
      radical scavenging activity, and a quercetin sustained release in phosphate
      buffer. In vitro osteoblast and osteoclast co-culture in a microenvironment
      altered by oxidative stress shows that both alendronate and quercetin
      significantly reduce osteoclast viability, whereas they are able to counteract
      the negative effect of oxidative stress on osteoblast viability and
      differentiation, suggesting that their relative amount in the functionalized
      materials can be utilized to tailor bone cells response. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3293-3303, 2017.

PMID- 28865183
TI  - Comparison of Chemical Profile and Antioxidant Capacity of Seeds and Oils from
      Salvia sclarea and Salvia officinalis.
AB  - Composition of tocopherols, tocotrienols, carotenoids, fatty acids, as well as
      hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant activities, were determined in seeds of
      two Salvia species and oils obtained from them. Both seeds contained a large
      amount of oil (around 20%) rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. While Salvia
      officinalis seed oil can be classified as oleic-linoleic oil, the predominant
      fatty acid in Salvia sclarea was alpha-linolenic acid (around 54%). Among tocols,
      the main isomers in both seeds and oils were gamma-tocopherol, followed by alpha
      tocopherol. Concerning carotenoids, their concentration was around 0.75 mg/100 g
      of seeds and 0.16 mg/100 g of oils, with a predominance of lutein. Oil and seeds
      of S. officinalis exhibited higher antioxidant potential compared to S. sclarea
      investigated samples which could be attributed to higher content of total vitamin
      E and carotenoids. This study provides results that enables use of two Salvia
      species as new alternative sources of vegetable oils.

PMID- 28865184
TI  - DNA barcoding of invasive plants in China: A resource for identifying invasive
      plants.
AB  - Invasive plants have aroused attention globally for causing ecological damage and
      having a negative impact on the economy and human health. However, it can be
      extremely challenging to rapidly and accurately identify invasive plants based on
      morphology because they are an assemblage of many different families and many
      plant materials lack sufficient diagnostic characteristics during border
      inspections. It is therefore urgent to evaluate candidate loci and build a
      reliable genetic library to prevent invasive plants from entering China. In this
      study, five common single markers (ITS, ITS2, matK, rbcL and trnH-psbA) were
      evaluated using 634 species (including 469 invasive plant species in China, 10
      new records to China, 16 potentially invasive plant species around the world but
      not introduced into China yet and 139 plant species native to China) based on
      three different methods. Our results indicated that ITS2 displayed largest intra-
      and interspecific divergence (1.72% and 91.46%). Based on NJ tree method, ITS2,
      ITS, matK, rbcL and trnH-psbA provided 76.84%, 76.5%, 63.21%, 52.86% and 50.68%
      discrimination rates, respectively. The combination of ITS + matK performed best
      and provided 91.03% discriminatory power, followed by ITS2 + matK (85.78%). For
      identifying unknown individuals, ITS + matK had 100% correct identification rate
      based on our database, followed by ITS/ITS2 (both 93.33%) and ITS2 + matK
      (91.67%). Thus, we propose ITS/ITS2 + matK as the most suitable barcode for
      invasive plants in China. This study also demonstrated that DNA barcoding is an
      efficient tool for identifying invasive species.

PMID- 28865185
TI  - Developmental Morphology and Topography of the Components of the Cervical
      Sympathetic Trunk in Sheep (Ovis aries) During the Fetal Period.
AB  - The objective of this study was to clarify the typical architecture and
      morphological variations of cervical sympathetic trunk (CST) in sheep during
      fetal period. Components of CST were examined on both sides of 40 male and female
      sheep fetuses aged from 60 to 140 days under a stereomicroscope. Skeletotopy and
      frequency of presence of cranial cervical ganglion (CCG), syntopy of cervical
      ganglia, and composition and topography of vagosympathetic trunk were consistent
      among specimens whereas the shape of cervical ganglia, the skeletotopy and number
      of three middle cervical ganglia (MG), and the frequency of communicating
      branches of CCG to the first cervical spinal nerve exhibited differences during
      fetal period. A reduction in the number of MG and the caudal movement of main MG
      were noted by increasing fetal age. Based on these detailed findings, comparative
      and developmental anatomy and evolutionary changes are discussed and compared
      with previous studies. The number of MG, skeletotopy of CCG and main MG, the
      number and range of communicating branches of CCG to spinal nerves, and the
      association of vagus and sympathetic nerves in fetal sheep were fundamentally
      different from those of mostly reported species. These results suggest that data
      obtained from CST of fetal sheep are significantly different from those obtained
      from humans, and it is problematic to apply them to humans because of the more
      cranial position of CCG, very narrow contribution of CCG to spinal nerve, absence
      of the vertebral ganglion, existence of multiple MG, and no communicating
      branches from MG to spinal nerves. Anat Rec, 300:2250-2262, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28865186
TI  - Hyaluronic acid-hydroxyapatite nanocomposite hydrogels for enhanced biophysical
      and biological performance in a dermal matrix.
AB  - A hyaluronic acid (HAc)-hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocomposite (HAc-nanoHAp) hydrogel
      was fabricated through an in situ precipitation process for mechanical and
      biological enhancement as a soft tissue augmentation product. In this study,
      these composite hydrogel fillers were analyzed from three different perspectives
      and compared with pure HAc hydrogel for soft tissue augmentation application: (1)
      rheological behaviors, (2) in vivo lateral diffusion under mouse skin, and (3)
      wrinkle improvement in a photo-aged mouse model. HAc-nanoHAp provided great
      improvement to wrinkles because of its higher stiffness and gel cohesiveness in
      comparison with that of pure HAc. HAc-nanoHAp also presented great enhancement in
      strengthening the dermal matrix by stimulating the synthesis of collagen and
      elastin. Thus, HAc-nanoHAp filler has great potential as a soft tissue
      augmentation product, improving the biophysical and biological performance in
      skin tissue. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A:
      3315-3325, 2017.

PMID- 28865187
TI  - Sustained release of multicomponent platelet-rich plasma proteins from
      hydrolytically degradable PEG hydrogels.
AB  - Platelet-rich plasma (PRP), an autologous blood derived product is a concentrated
      mix of multiple growth factors and cytokines. Direct injections of PRP are
      clinically used for treatment of various musculoskeletal disorders and in wound
      healing. However, PRP therapy has met with limited clinical success possibly due
      to unpredictable and premature bolus delivery of PRP growth factors. The
      objective of this study was to predictably control the bioavailability of PRP
      growth factors using a hydrolytically degradable polyethylene glycol (PEG)
      hydrogel. We used a step-growth polymerization based on a Michael-type addition
      reaction between a 6-arm PEG-acrylate and a dithiol crosslinker, which led to the
      formation of a homogenous hydrogel network under mild, physiologically relevant
      conditions. Specifically, to model the release of multicomponent PRP through PEG
      hydrogels, we examined bulk diffusion of PRP as well as model proteins in a size
      range corresponding to that of growth factors found in PRP. Our results indicated
      that protein size and hydrogel degradation controlled diffusion of all proteins
      and that secondary structure of proteins encapsulated during gelation remained
      unaffected post-release. Analysis of specific PRP proteins released from the
      hydrogel showed sustained release until complete hydrogel degradation. PRP
      released from hydrogels promoted proliferation of human dermal fibroblast,
      indicating retained bioactivity upon encapsulation and release. The versatile
      hydrogel system holds clinical potential as a therapeutic drug delivery depot of
      multicomponent mixtures like PRP. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater
      Res Part A: 105A: 3304-3314, 2017.

PMID- 28865194
TI  - Poster session 3. Imaging and image processing III.

PMID- 28865200
TI  - Poster session 35: Radiation therapy VI.

PMID- 28865202
TI  - Poster session 15: Radiation therapy II.

PMID- 28865188
TI  - PhenoGraph and viSNE facilitate the identification of abnormal T-cell populations
      in routine clinical flow cytometric data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Flow cytometric identification of neoplastic T-cell populations is
      complicated by the wide range of phenotypic abnormalities in T-cell neoplasia,
      and the diverse repertoire of reactive T-cell phenotypes. We evaluated whether a
      recently described clustering algorithm, PhenoGraph, and dimensionality-reduction
      algorithm, viSNE, might facilitate the identification of abnormal T-cell
      populations in routine clinical flow cytometric data. METHODS: We applied
      PhenoGraph and viSNE to peripheral blood mononuclear cells labeled with a single
      8-color T/NK-cell antibody combination. Individual peripheral blood samples
      containing either a T-cell neoplasm or reactive lymphocytosis were analyzed
      together with a cohort of 10 normal samples, which established the location and
      identity of normal mononuclear-cell subsets in viSNE displays. RESULTS:
      PhenoGraph-derived subpopulations from the normal samples formed regions of
      phenotypic similarity in the viSNE display describing normal mononuclear-cell
      subsets, which correlated with those obtained by manual gating (r2  = 0.99, P <
      0.0001). In 24 of 24 cases of T-cell neoplasia with an aberrant phenotype,
      compared with 4 of 17 cases of reactive lymphocytosis (P = 1.4 * 10-7 , Fisher
      Exact test), PhenoGraph-derived subpopulations originating exclusively from the
      abnormal sample formed one or more distinct phenotypic regions in the viSNE
      display, which represented the neoplastic T cells, and reactive T-cell
      subpopulations not present in the normal cohort, respectively. The numbers of
      neoplastic T cells identified using PhenoGraph/viSNE correlated with those
      obtained by manual gating (r2  = 0.99; P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: PhenoGraph and
      viSNE may facilitate the identification of abnormal T-cell populations in routine
      clinical flow cytometric data. (c) 2017 Clinical Cytometry Society.

PMID- 28865204
TI  - Diagnosis of Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus infection in dairy goats by
      ELISA, PCR and Viral Culture.
AB  - For preventive and control strategies of Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus
      (CAEV) infection in dairy goats, performance of the available diagnostic tests
      was described as one of the most important and necessary aspects. The study aimed
      at evaluating the diagnostic test performance, including PCR, ELISA and viral
      culture, for CAEV infection in dairy goats in Thailand. Blood samples of 29 dairy
      goats from five low- to medium-prevalence herds and one very low-prevalence herd
      were collected for PCR and ELISA methods. The performance of these two diagnostic
      methods was evaluated by comparing with cytopathic effects (CPE) in the co
      cultivation of CAEV and primary synovial cells. Results indicated that
      sensitivity, specificity were, respectively, 69.6%, 100%, for PCR; and 95.7%,
      83.3% for ELISA. The PCR assay tended to have lower sensitivity and higher
      specificity than ELISA. When multiple tests were applied, parallel testing
      provided sensitivity and specificity of 98.7% and 83.3%, while series testing
      showed sensitivity and specificity of 66.6% and 100% respectively. These results
      indicated that combination of ELISA and PCR provided some advantages and possibly
      offered optimal methods to detect CAEV-infected goats. Kappa value of the
      agreement between PCR and ELISA test was 0.34, indicating fair agreement.
      Regarding the possibility of antigenic variation between CAEV strains used in
      both PCR and ELISA assays, the actual circulating CAEV strain should be reviewed
      in order to develop and enhance the diagnostic tests using the CAE viral antigens
      derived from specific local strains of Thailand.

PMID- 28865203
TI  - Pharmacological and phytochemical screening of Palestinian traditional medicinal
      plants Erodium laciniatum and Lactuca orientalis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various epidemiological studies showed that herbal remedies
      containing polyphenols may protect against various diseases such as cancers,
      vascular diseases and inflammatory pathologies. Currently, such groups of
      bioactive compounds have become a subject of many antimicrobials and antioxidant
      investigations. Accordingly, the current study aimed to conduct biological and
      phytochemical screening for two Palestinian traditional medicinal plants, Erodium
      laciniatum and Lactuca orientalis. METHODS: Current plants phytoconstituents and
      their antioxidant activities were evaluated by using standard phytochemical
      methods; meanwhile, antimicrobial activities were estimated by using several
      types of American Type Culture Collection and multidrug resistant clinical
      isolates by using agar diffusion well-variant, agar diffusion disc-variant and
      broth microdilution methods. RESULTS: Phytochemical screenings showed that L.
      orientalis and E. laciniatum contain mixtures of secondary and primary
      metabolites Moreover, total flavonoid, tannins and phenols content in E.
      laciniatum extract were higher than the L. orientalis extracts with almost the
      same antioxidant potentials. Additionally, both plants organic and aqueous
      extracts showed various potentials of antimicrobial activity Conclusions:
      Overall, the studied species have a mixture of phytochemicals, flavonoids,
      phenols and tannins also have antioxidant and antimicrobial activities which
      approved their folk uses in treatments of infectious and Alzheimer diseases and
      simultaneously can be used as therapeutic agents in the pharmaceutical
      industries.

PMID- 28865205
TI  - Investigation of the bone metabolism in dogs with leishmaniasis.
AB  - The present study was aimed at determining bone metabolism related changes in
      dogs with visseral leishmaniasis such as vitamin D, calcium, phosphate and ALP
      levels as compared to healthy ones. A total of 40 serums of male dogs aged
      between 4 and 6 years that were sent to Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of
      Medicine, Parasitology Laboratory from Kusadasy and Bodrum districts between the
      years 2012 and 2013, suspected with leishmaniasis, by the veterinary physicians
      in accordance with the cold chain rules and 20 of which were evaluated as
      leishmania seropositive and 20 as leishmania seronegative by the IFA test, were
      included in this study. There was no any statistically significant difference
      between the serum 25-OH-D3 levels of Leishmania positive and negative dogs
      (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant difference between the serum ALP
      (p<0.05), and P levels were observed to be higher in the seropositive dogs than
      in the seronegative dogs, while Ca level was low (p<0.001).

PMID- 28865206
TI  - The animal-dependent risk factors in canine osteosarcomas.
AB  - Canine osteosarcoma (OSA) is a malignant neoplastic tumor, which develops from
      the primitive mesenchymal stem cell, that has or can acquire the capacity to
      produce neoplastic osteoid with possible neoplastic bone formation.
      Predisposition of some dog breeds to OSA indicates genetic background of
      oncogenesis. The aim of the study was to characterize animal-dependent risk
      factors for canine osteosarcoma development in Poland. The study was conducted on
      canine patients diagnosed cytologically or histopathologically as having OSA, and
      data on age, breed, sex, as well as tumor location and character were recorded.
      No sex predisposition to OSA was observed, mongrels were significantly
      underrepresented. Large and giant dogs accounted for 47% and 35% of all pedigree
      dogs, respectively, and both proved predisposed to OSA. A vast majority of OSA
      developed in the skeleton (appendicular skeleton was more commonly affected than
      axial skeleton), soft tissues were affected less often. Rottweiler dogs are
      strongly predisposed to OSA, suggesting that the genetic background is involved
      in the tumor development, and indicates that dogs of this breed are a promising
      object for further studies on OSA pathogenesis.

PMID- 28865207
TI  - Immunohistochemical characterization of the jugular (superior vagal) ganglion in
      the pig.
AB  - The study was carried out on three 4-month old female pigs. All the animals were
      deeply anesthetized and transcardially perfused with 4% buffered paraformaldehyde
      (pH 7.4). Left and right superior vagal ganglia (SVG) were collected and
      processed for immunofluorescence labeling method. The preparations were examined
      under a Zeiss LSM 710 confocal microscope equipped with adequate filter block.
      Neurons forming SVG were round or oval in shape with a round nucleus in the
      center. The majority of them (52%) were medium (M) (31-50 MUm in diameter) while
      7% and 41% were small (S) (up to 30MUm in diameter) or large (L) (above 50 MUm in
      diameter) in size, respectively. Double-labeling immunofluorescence revealed that
      SVG neurons stained for CGRP (approx. 57%; among them 37%, 9% and 54% were M, S
      and L in size, respectively), SP (14.5%; 72.4% M, 3.4% S, 24.2% L), VACHT (26%;
      63% M, 24% S and 13% L), GAL (14%; 57% M, 29% S, 14% L), NPY (12%; 53% M, 12% S,
      35% L), Met-Enk (5%; 40% M, 6% S and 54% L), PACAP (15%; 52% M, 24% S and 24% L),
      VIP (6.3%; 67% M, 8% S and 25% L), and NOS-positive (6%; 31% M and 69% L). The
      most abundant populations of intraganglionic nerve fibers were those which
      stained for CGRP or GAL, whereas only single SP-, PACAP- or Met-ENK-positive
      nerve terminals were observed.

PMID- 28865208
TI  - Identification of Transmissible Viral Proventriculitis (TVP) in broiler chickens
      in Poland.
AB  - The aim of the study was to investigate the possibility of Transmissible Viral
      Proventriculitis (TVP) occurrence in broiler chickens in Poland. In march 2016
      proventriculi samples were collected from broiler chickens showing poor
      uniformity and decreased body weight, accompanied by enlarged proventriculi.
      Histopathological examination of affected proventriculi revealed typical lesions
      associated with TVP (vacuolar degeneration and necrosis of glandular epithelium,
      replacement of glandular epithelium by hyperplastic ductal epithelium and
      moderate to severe lymphocytic infiltration). To our best knowledge, up to date
      there is no report indicating the presence of TVP in Poland nor in Central and
      Eastern Europe.

PMID- 28865209
TI  - Impact of production technology on morphological lesions in the gills of
      commercial rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Walbaum 1792).
AB  - The most popular rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Walbaum 1792) production
      technologies include both an extensive method with the flow through system (FTS)
      and an intensive method with the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Their
      impact on the fish was evaluated with a morphological assessment of the gills, as
      these are organs susceptible to environmental changes. Trout of 350 - 500 g body
      mass were caught for trial in spring and autumn, with 36 fish originating from 3
      fish farms with the FTS system and an equal number from 3 RAS fish farms (n = 6).
      The fish were macroscopically examined and the gills were investigated
      microscopically (haematoxylin and eosin staining). Hypertrophy and hyperplasia
      were most commonly detected, amounting to 89% of all structural abnormalities.
      These lesions were slightly more common in the FTS, especially in autumn, whereas
      the changes to the blood vessels in the gills were observed more frequently in
      the rainbow trout from the RAS system than in the fish obtained from the FTS
      technology (the difference was statistically significant). The morphological
      lesions in the mucous cells of the gills were detected at a comparable severity
      regardless of the technology or production season. The predominantly low values
      of the histopathologic indices, which described the microscopic lesions in the
      gills of fish from the FTS and RAS systems, showed that the examined organ was
      most often free of lesions or demonstrated only minor morphological damage
      regardless of the production technology.

PMID- 28865210
TI  - Clinical efficacy of nutraceutical diet for cats with clinical signs of cutaneus
      adverse food reaction (CAFR).
AB  - Food allergies and food intolerances are clinically difficult to discriminate.
      Most often, along with cutaneous adverse food reactions or CAFR, they are
      classified as adverse food reactions, whose causes are numerous, including toxic
      compounds. Eighteen indoor-housed domestic cats with evident clinical symptoms
      related to CAFR (drooling, back and neck intense itching, neck eczema, chronic
      conjunctivitis and stomatitis) involving skin lesions were studied. Cytological
      evaluations of ear, skin and gingival swabs revealed an increased turnover of
      keratinocytes while the oxytetracycline ELISA determination showed an unexpected
      high amount of oxytetracycline in all cats at the first visit. All cats were then
      randomly assigned to receive a standard (SD group) or a nutraceutical diet (ND
      group) for 60 days. In the ND group a significant reduction of the mean serum
      concentration of oxytetracycline, pruritus intensity and skin lesion severity
      (**p<0.01, ***p<0.001, and ***p<0.001, respectively) was observed after 60 days,
      and associated with a significant improvement in the clinical picture. Although a
      direct correlation between oxytetracycline presence within cat sera and CAFR
      related symptoms has never been described, this study highlights the benefit of a
      specific nutraceutical diet supplementation in improving clinical symptoms and
      skin lesions in cats with CARF.

PMID- 28865211
TI  - Evaluation of in-feed larch sawdust anti-inflammatory effect in sows.
AB  - The study aimed to investigate the possible anti-inflammatory activity of larch
      sawdust as feed supplement in lactating sows' diet and its possible effect on the
      prevalence of Postpartum Dysgalactia Syndrome under field conditions. In a Greek
      farrow-to-finish pig farm, fifteen sows were randomly and equally allocated to a
      negative control group (NC group), a positive control group (PC group), and a
      treatment group (LT group). The animals of the first two groups received 99%
      basic diet and 1% corn starch, while LT group animals received 99% basic diet and
      1% larch sawdust. The whole trial period lasted 35 days (7 days prior to farrow -
      day of weaning). At parturition day, animals of the PC group received 2 ml of an
      anti-inflammatory drug intramuscularly (meloxicam, Metacam(r), Boehringer
      Ingelheim Vetmedica), while the animals of both other groups, received 2 ml of
      normal saline. Results showed insignificant differences among experimental groups
      for parameters such as post-partum rectal temperature and piglets performance. On
      the contrary, a significant increase of mean milk lactation index was observed in
      LT and PC groups on the 4th day of lactation period, when compared with NC group
      (p=0.014). Additionally, mean IL-6 concentrations in blood in the LT group showed
      a tendency for reduction when compared with those found in NC, and insignificant
      difference (p>0.05) when compared with those observed in PC group 24 hours
      postpartum. Moreover, the respective TNFalpha mean level in the LT group at 24
      and 72 hours after parturition was similar to that found in PC group,
      respectively) and significantly lower than that determined in the NC group
      (p=0.003, p=0.024. The results suggest a possible anti-inflammatory effect of
      larch sawdust in sows.

PMID- 28865212
TI  - Indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method based on Streptococcus
      agalactiae rSip-Pgk-FbsA fusion protein for detection of bovine mastitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to establish a rapid and accurate method for
      the detection of the Streptococcus agalactiae antibody (SA-Ab) to determine the
      presence of the bovine mastitis (BM)-causative pathogen. METHODS: The multi
      subunit fusion protein rSip-Pgk-FbsA was prokaryotically expressed and purified.
      The triple activities of the membrane surface-associated proteins Sip,
      phosphoglycerate kinase (Pgk), and fibronectin (FbsA) were used as the diagnostic
      antigens to establish an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
      method for the detection of SA-Ab in BM. RESULTS: The optimal antigen coating
      concentration was 2 MUg/mL, the optimal serum dilution was 1:160, and the optimal
      dilution of the enzyme-labeled secondary antibody was 1:6000. The sensitivity,
      specificity, and repeatability tests showed that the method established in this
      study had no cross-reaction with antibodies to Streptococcus pyogenes,
      Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis in the
      sera. The results of the sensitivity test showed that a positive result could be
      obtained even if the serum dilution reached 1:12,800, indicating the high
      sensitivity and good repeatability of the method. The positive coincidence rate
      of this method was 98.6%, which is higher than that of previous tests established
      with the Sip or Pgk mono-antigen fusion protein, respectively, demonstrating the
      relatively higher sensitivity of this newly established method. The detection
      rate for 389 clinical samples was 46.53%. CONCLUSIONS: The indirect ELISA method
      established in this study could provide a more accurate and reliable serological
      method for the rapid detection of S. agalactiae in cases of BM.

PMID- 28865213
TI  - Injection in temporomandibular joint of rats. Description of technical protocol.
AB  - The development of animal models for research has been very diffused.
      Osteoarthritis is a joint degenerative pathology that induces cartilage erosion,
      chondrocyte proliferation and osteophyte formation. The aim of this paper is to
      present a technical procedure to perform the injection of monosodium iodine
      acetate in the temporomandibular joints of rats to generate osteoarthritis and to
      contribute to future research analysis related to pathology progression and
      proper treatment performance. The use of rat models may be a complex process
      because of their size, but they can be compared to the human temporomandibular
      joint due to the similar characteristics and the possibility of performing
      diagnosis and treatment protocols in order to detect this pathology.

PMID- 28865214
TI  - Serum amyloid A protein (SAA), haptoglobin (Hp) and selected hematological and
      biochemical parameters in wild mares before and after parturition.
AB  - The aim of the study was to evaluate physiological changes in hematological and
      biochemical parameters in mares in perinatal period. Blood samples were collected
      from 24 pregnant Polish Konik breed mares which were divided into two groups. The
      first group (Group - I, n=12) comprised mares living in the wild, in the reserve.
      The second group (Group - II, n=12) consisted of mares kept in stables. The blood
      was collected 2 weeks prior to the parturition, then 24 hours after the delivery,
      and then at the 7th and 21st day after foaling. When comparing the two groups
      before the parturition, no significant differences in terms of WBC, RBC, and Hb
      were found, however, there was a significant difference in MCV, MCH, LYM, NEU and
      SEG NEU (p<=0.05). In Group II, 24 hours after the parturition and at the 21st
      day after foaling, a significant raise in WBC, NEU and SEG NEU (p<=0.05) was
      detected. No significant differences in serum concentrations of proteins such as
      TP, Alb or Glb were observed. As to acute phase proteins, significant rise in SAA
      and Hp (p<=0.05) was found in the two examined groups 24 hours after the
      parturition. Yet, this rise remained within physiological range. The study
      revealed a certain degree of fluctuations in hematological parameters, in serum
      concentrations of acute-phase proteins and total proteins in the mares in the
      perinatal period. However, these changes remained still within physiological
      ranges and thus they do not indicate potential susceptibility to disorders of
      perinatal period.

PMID- 28865215
TI  - Survivin expression in correlation with apoptotic activity in canine lymphomas.
AB  - Survivin regulates cell cycle and mitosis and has antiapoptotic properties.
      Because of its dual function survivin has been the subject of much research
      focusing on its role in tumorigenesis and the relationship between survivin
      expression and apoptotic and/or proliferative activity in many types of human
      tumor including non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas. Such studies have not been conducted in
      canine lymphomas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of
      survivin in canine lymphomas of low (5/25) and high (20/25) grades in relation to
      apoptotic markers (apoptotic index and index of caspase-3). Survivin was found in
      all examined lymphomas. Most tumors (18/25) showed survivin expression in 10%-25%
      of positive cells. Only in single cases was lower (0-10% positive cells, 1/25) or
      higher (25%-50% and >50% positive cells, 5/25 and 1/25, respectively) survivin
      expression. No significant differences between mean values of either index of
      survivin or apoptotic index was found between low and high grade lymphomas.
      However, such a difference among lymphoma grades was shown regarding the caspase
      3 index. No correlation between the survivin index and either the apoptotic index
      or caspase-3 index was found, irrespective of the method of quantification: in
      whole specimens or in areas of low and high survivin expression. Positive
      correlation was consistently noted only between both apoptotic markers. The
      results indicate that survivin is commonly expressed in canine lymphomas. It
      seems that survivin does not exhibit anti-apoptotic activity in canine lymphomas.
      Lack of correlation between survivin expression and apoptotic markers could
      indicate its potential role in cell cycle activation in lymphoma cells.

PMID- 28865216
TI  - Coagulology, biochemical profile and muscle pathology in calves diagnosed with
      nutritional muscular dystrophy.
AB  - The aim of this study was to explain the correlations between selenium
      deficiency, hemostatic and biochemical disorders, and the progression of
      pathological changes in calves diagnosed with nutritional muscular dystrophy
      (NMD). The study was performed on 20 calves with supplementation of 8 ml selenium
      and vitamin E preparation and 20 calves with symptoms of NMD. Blood was sampled
      from calves aged 5, 12 and 19 days. On day 19, samples of the biceps femoris
      muscle were collected from 6 animals in each group for histopathological
      analysis. The following blood parameters were determined: PLT, PT, TT, APTT,
      fibrinogen and D-dimer concentrations, antithrombin III activity, glucose,
      selenium and vitamin E concentrations, activity of CK, LDH and GSH-Px. Muscle
      sections were stained with H&E and HBFP. Platelet counts were significantly lower
      in calves with symptoms of NMD. No significant differences in coagulation
      parameters were observed between the groups. Sick calves were diagnosed with
      hyperglycemia and elevation of CK and LDH activity. Selenium and vitamin E
      concentrations in the blood serum were significantly lower in the experimental
      group together with significant drop in GSH-Px activity. Changes characteristic
      of Zenker's necrosis were observed in a muscle of the sick animals. To our best
      knowledge this is the first study in which the attempt was made to explain the
      relationship between selenium deficiency and changes in the coagulation system in
      ruminants.

PMID- 28865217
TI  - Effects of the platelet-activating factor (PAF) supplementation on ATP content of
      cryopreserved bull spermatozoa (AI).
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of PAF supplementation in
      semen extender on ATP content in cryopreserved bull spermatozoa used for
      artificial insemination at different time intervals. Cryopreserved semen was
      treated with different concentrations of PAF: 1*10-5M, 1*10-6M, 1*10-7M, 1*10-8M
      and 1*10-9M at 37 degrees C. In the present work we showed that content of ATP in
      cryopreserved semen supplemented with 1*10-9M PAF was statistically significantly
      higher at 90 and 120 minutes of incubation in comparison to the control group
      (p<=0.05). Present study indicates the potential influence of PAF on ATP content
      in male spermatozoa via it's protective role towards mitochondria metabolic
      activity.

PMID- 28865218
TI  - Determination of tigecycline in turkey plasma by LC-MS/MS: validation and
      application in a pharmacokinetic study.
AB  - Tigecycline (TIG), a novel glycylcycline antibiotic, plays an important role in
      the management of complicated skin and intra-abdominal infections. The available
      data lack any description of a method for determination of TIG in avian plasma.
      In our study, a selective, accurate and reversed-phase high performance liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the
      determination of TIG in turkey plasma. Sample preparation was based on protein
      precipitation and liquid-liquid extraction using 1,2-dichloroethane.
      Chromatographic separation of TIG and minocycline (internal standard, IS) was
      achieved on an Atlantis T3 column (150 mm * 3.0 mm, 3.0 MUm) using gradient
      elution. The selected reaction monitoring transitions were performed at 293.60
      m/z -> 257.10 m/z for TIG and 458.00 m/z -> 441.20 m/z for IS. The developed
      method was validated in terms of specificity, selectivity, linearity, lowest
      limit of quantification, limit of detection, precision, accuracy, matrix effect,
      carry-over effect, extraction recovery and stability. All parameters of the
      method submitted to validation met the acceptance criteria. The assay was linear
      over the concentration range of 0.01-100 MUg/ml. This validated method was
      successfully applied to a TIG pharmacokinetic study in turkey after intravenous
      and oral administration at a dose of 10 mg/kg at various time-points.

PMID- 28865219
TI  - Expression and immunological evaluation of elongation factor Tu of Streptococcus
      suis serotype 2.
AB  - Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) is considered as a major pathogen that causes
      sepsis and meningitis in piglets and humans, but knowledge of its antigenic
      proteins remains limited so far. The surface-related proteins of pathogens often
      play significant roles in bacterium-host interactions and infection. Here, we
      obtained the elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) gene of Streptococcus suis and
      constructed the recombinant expression plasmid successfully. The target
      recombinant plasmid was then expressed in Escherichia coli and the immuno
      protection of the recombinant protein was subsequently evaluated as well. The EF
      Tu gene of Streptococcus suis is 1197 bp in length, encodes 398 amino acids. The
      target recombinant EF-Tu (rEF-Tu) protein can recognize the antiserum of
      Streptococcus suis and can provoke obvious humoral immune responses in rabbits
      and conferred protection to rabbits against Streptococcus suis ear-vein
      challenge, implying that the EF-Tu may be used as an attractive candidate antigen
      for a component of subunit vaccine.

PMID- 28865221
TI  - Effect of deoxynivalenol on the levels of toll-like receptors 2 and 9 and their
      mRNA expression in enterocytes in the porcine large intestine: a preliminary
      study.
AB  - Deoxynivalenol (DON), one of the most prevalent mycotoxins in the world, and is
      capable of inducing immune disorders in humans and animals. The aim of this study
      was to determine the effect of feed contaminated with DON on the number of TLR2-
      and TLR9-positive cells and their mRNA expression in the porcine large intestine.
      The experiment was conducted on two equal groups of pigs (n=4). The experimental
      group (E) was administered feed contaminated with DON (1008 MUg/kg of feed) for 6
      weeks, and the control group (C) was administered non-contaminated feed over the
      same period of time. A decrease in the expression of TLR2 mRNA was noted in the
      cecum. The percentage of TLR9-positive enterocytes increased in the ascending
      colon and decreased in the cecum. The results of this study indicate that DON can
      modify the local immune response by changing the expression of TLRs.

PMID- 28865220
TI  - Frequency of iss and irp2 genes by PCR method in Escherichia coli isolated from
      poultry with colibacillosis in comparison with healthy chicken in poultry farms
      of Zabol, South East of Iran.
AB  - There is no special trait for differentiation of Avian Pathogenic Escherichia
      coli from Avian Fecal Escherichia coli. This investigation is aimed, as a case
      control study, to evaluate and compare the frequency of iss and irp2 in 43 AFEC
      strains and also 40 and 56 E. coli strains isolated from the liver and kidney of
      chickens with colibacillosis, respectively, farmed in Zabol, as a border region
      of Iran, by PCR. 86.9% and 37.2% of isolates collected from chickens with
      colibacillosis and feces samples obtained from healthy chickens were positive for
      iss gene, respectively (P<0.05). On average, 59.3% of E. coli strains isolated
      from colibacillosis have irp2 gene while 27.9% of isolates from the feces of
      healthy birds were positive (P<0.05). 52.15% of isolates from colibacillosis and
      19.62% of isolates from healthy chicken feces were positive for both genes, with
      statistical significant difference (p<0.05). This marked difference in the
      distribution of iss and irp2 genes makes these two genes good markers to
      differentiate AFEC and APEC strains especially in Sistan region to improve
      colibacillosis control measurements.

PMID- 28865222
TI  - Evaluation of intra-testicular injections of calcium chloride and 4
      vinylcyclohexene 1,2 monoepoxide for chemical sterilization in guinea pigs.
AB  - This study was aimed at investigating the use of intra-testicular calcium
      chloride (CaCl2) and 4-vinylcyclohexene 1,2-monoepoxide (VCM) injections as a
      side effect-free alternative method for the control of reproduction in guinea
      pigs. Fifty male guinea pigs were randomly assigned to five groups. In all
      groups, the chemical agents were injected into both testes in 1% lidocaine
      hydrochloride. While Groups I, II and III were administered with a single dose
      (0.25 mL) of sterile physiological saline, 15 mg/100 g CaCl2, and 240 mg/kg VCM,
      respectively, Group IV and V received a daily dose of 15 mg/100 g CaCl2, and 240
      mg/kg VCM for 3 days, respectively. On day 90 post-administration, all animals
      were weighed and later decapitated under ether anaesthesia. Blood and tissue
      (testis, liver, hypophysis and adrenal gland) samples were taken. Sperm samples
      from the cauda epididymis were examined for spermatological parameters. Blood was
      used for hormone analyses and tissue samples were examined histopathologically
      (haematoxylin-eosin) and immunohistochemically (Tunel staining). The epididymal
      sperm count decreased in all treatment groups. Excluding 2 animals, Group V
      displayed azoospermia. When compared to the control group, Group V displayed the
      highest prolactin and lowest testosterone levels, and Group III showed the
      highest testosterone level. Histopathological examination revealed no
      intoxication finding. Chemical castration with VCM may be a good alternative to
      surgical castration as it enables mass sterilization without postoperative risks
      in guinea pig.

PMID- 28865223
TI  - Improvement of dairy cow embryo yield with low level laser irradiation.
AB  - The goal of this study is to estimate the effects of low-level laser irradiation
      (LLLI) on the superovulatory response according to the number of corpora lutea
      (CL), follicles (F) and the embryo yield. In recent years, while searching for
      new, more efficient and organic methods to improve superovulatory response and
      embryo yield with respect to the conventional methods, low-level laser
      irradiation (LLLI) is a more sensitive and less costly technology that can be
      used to improve animal reproduction, namely, artificial insemination and the
      embryo production system. The dairy-cow donors were treated for superovulation
      with Pluset(r), at any time during the oestrus cycle, and the total dose per
      donor was 700 IU. The first group of the donors (n=25), test group (TG), was
      irradiated on the sacroiliac area for 180 seconds per day, from the 1st to 11th
      superovulatory treatment (ST) days in a row, with LLLI in the 870-970-nm
      wavelength, 65.93 J/cm dose, frequencies in the 20-2000 Hz range and pulse
      durations commonly in the range of about 1 second. For the second control group
      (CG) (n=25), the ST was performed without LLLI. After the ST, The mean number of
      CL in the right side ovaries in the TG was 25.43% (p<0.05) greater than in those
      of the CG. The number of total recovered and transferable embryos was greater in
      the TG compared with the CG by 28.97% (p<0.05) and 15.8% (p>0.05), respectively.
      With respect to conventional methods, LLLI can be used to improve the
      superovulatory response and embryo yield as a supplementary environment and
      animal-friendly method of treatment.

PMID- 28865224
TI  - Direct effect of hypothalamic neuropeptides on the release of catecholamines by
      adrenal medulla in sheep - study ex vivo.
AB  - Stress causes the activation of both the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical
      axis and sympatho-adrenal system, thus leading to the release from the adrenal
      medulla of catecholamines: adrenaline and, to a lesser degree, noradrenaline. It
      has been established that in addition to catecholamines, the adrenomedullary
      cells produce a variety of neuropeptides, including corticoliberine (CRH),
      vasopressin (AVP), oxytocin (OXY) and proopiomelanocortine (POMC) - a precursor
      of the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). The aim of this study was to
      investigate adrenal medulla activity in vitro depending, on a dose of CRH, AVP
      and OXY on adrenaline and noradrenaline release. Pieces of sheep adrenal medulla
      tissue (about 50 mg) were put on 24-well plates and were incubated in 1 mL of
      Eagle medium without hormone (control) or supplemented only once with CRH, AVP
      and OXY in three doses (10-7, 10-8 and 10-9 M) in a volume of 10 MUL. The results
      showed that CRH stimulates adrenaline and noradrenaline release from the adrenal
      medulla tissue. The stimulating influence of AVP on adrenaline release was
      visible after the application of the two lower doses of this neuropeptide;
      however, AVP reduced noradrenaline release from the adrenal medulla tissue. A
      strong, inhibitory OXY effect on catecholamine release was observed, regardless
      of the dose of this hormone. Our results indicate the important role of OXY in
      the inhibition of adrenal gland activity and thus a better adaptation to stress
      on the adrenal gland level.

PMID- 28865225
TI  - Horizontal transfer and functional evaluation of high pathogenicity islands in
      Avian Escherichia coli.
AB  - High pathogenicity islands (HPIs) in Escherichia coli encode genes that are
      primarily involved in iron uptake and regulation, and confer virulence and
      pathogenicity. The aim of this study was to investigate the transfer of HPIs in
      avian E. coli and identify the function of HPI in the acceptor strain. The HPI
      transfer strain was obtained under conditions of low temperature and low iron
      abundance, and the donor and acceptor strains were confirmed. E. coli HPIs are
      transferred by horizontal gene transfer events, which are likely mediated
      primarily by homologous recombination in HPI-adjacent sequences. Assays for
      biological activity and pathogenicity changes in the acceptor strain indicated
      that HPIs might not be involved in pathogenesis in avian E. coli, and thus the
      main function of HPIs in this strain of bacteria may be to regulate iron
      nutrition.

PMID- 28865226
TI  - Evaluation of clinicopathological features in cats with chronic gastrointestinal
      signs.
AB  - Food-responsive enteropathy (FRE), idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD),
      and alimentary tract lymphoma (AL) are often the remaining differentials for cats
      presenting with chronic gastrointestinal (GI) signs. Differential diagnosis is
      further complicated by overlapping clinicopathological features and
      histopathological changes, however. In this study we describe the clinical
      presentation of cats with chronic GI signs secondary to FRE, IBD, and AL, and
      evaluate possible associations between clinical, clinicopathological,
      ultrasonographic findings and diagnosis. The medical records of client-owned cats
      with chronic GI signs secondary to FRE, IBD, and AL were reviewed. Univariate and
      multivariate logistic regression models and receiver-operating characteristic
      curve (ROC) analysis were used for testing the data. Of the 56 cats included in
      the study, 22 were diagnosed with FRE (mean age, 70 months +/- 49), 17 with IBD
      (mean age, 101 months +/- 40), and 17 with AL (mean age, 122 months +/- 45). Cats
      with FRE were younger and presented more often with diarrhea and less frequently
      with muscle wasting than cats with IBD or AL. In cats with AL, serum cobalamin
      levels were lower than in those with FRE or IBD (239 +/- 190 ng/L vs. 762 +/- 408
      ng/L and 625 +/- 443 ng/L, respectively) and folate levels were higher than in
      cats with IBD (18.2 +/- 4.2 MUg/L vs. 9.1 +/- 4.7 MUg/L, respectively).
      Multivariate/ROC curve analysis showed increased values of BUN (sensitivity 100,
      specificity 29.4, criterion >37 mg/dl) and serum folate (sensitivity 80,
      specificity 100, criterion >15.6 MUg/L) and reduced values of cobalamin
      (sensitivity 100, specificity 62.5, criterion <=540 ng/L), which suggested a
      diagnosis of AL versus IBD. Some clinicopathological features evaluated at
      diagnosis might suggest AL; however, because differentiating AL from IBD is often
      difficult, definitive diagnosis should be based on invasive diagnostic workup.

PMID- 28865227
TI  - Pathological findings in low-field magnetic resonance imaging of the canine spine
      - a study of 112 patients.
AB  - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a method of choice in diagnosing nervous
      system disorders. This paper presents the results of a study where selected
      segments of the canine spine were examined by low-field MRI in 112 patients.
      Images of pathological changes were obtained in spin echo (SE), fast spin echo
      (FSE) and hybrid contrast enhancement (3D HYCE) sequences. The cervical region of
      the spinal cord (C1-C5) was examined in 32 patients, the cervicothoracic region
      (C6-Th2)- in 14 patients, the thoracolumbar region (Th3-L3) - in 23 patients, and
      the lumbosacral region (L4-S3) - in 43 patients. The results were used to
      determine the incidence of pathological changes in different sections of the
      canine spine, such as intervertebral disc disease (IDD), disc desiccation,
      syringomyelia and changes characterized by higher uptake of the contrast medium.
      Intervertebral disc disease was diagnosed in 52.7% of patients and it was the
      most common abnormality. Disc dehydratation without protrusion or extrusion was
      noted in 23.2% of animals. Pathological changes with increased uptake of the
      contrast medium and indicative of neoplastic growth were observed in 13.4% of
      patients and syringomyelia was diagnosed in 9.82% of the examined animals. The
      proposed sequences revealed the presence of above abnormalities.

PMID- 28865228
TI  - The diagnostic importance of coagulation parameters in cattle having natural
      theileriosis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic importance of
      coagulation parameters in cattle with natural theileriosis. Nine Holstein cross
      breed cattle with theileriosis as infected group and 6 healthy Holstein cattle as
      control group were used in the present study. Mean fibrinogen level, thrombin
      time (TT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and prothrombin time (PT)
      were not statistically different when control and infected groups compared,
      except for the D-dimer concentration. Quantitative D-dimer concentrations were
      determined by immune-turbidimetric assay. D-dimer values increased significantly
      (p<0.05) in infected group (631.55 +/- 74.41 MUg/L) compared to control group
      (370.00 +/- 59.94 MUg/L). D-dimer sensitivity and specificity were also
      determined at cut-off concentrations (372 MUg/L). Sensitivity and specificity of
      D-dimer values were determined to be 88.89% and 83.33%, respectively. D-dimer is
      thought to be important indicator in the evaluation of the prognosis in
      theileriosis cases. Analysis of D-dimer values before and after treatment in
      controlled case studies were suggested in future studies to enlighten the issue.

PMID- 28865229
TI  - Cytokine profiles of dendritic cells (DCs) during infection with bovine leukaemia
      virus (BLV).
AB  - BLV is an agent of enzootic bovine leukaemia (EBL), an infectious disease
      affecting cattle worldwide. BLV infection has been associated with immune system
      disorders and discrepancies in the cytokine network. The significance of
      dendritic cells in the pathogenesis of BLV infection is largely unknown, but
      considering their fundamental role in immune response it may be crucial. DCs
      precursors were isolated with the use of immunomagnetic beads from BLV-infected
      and BLV-free cows. From these precursors cultures of monocyte derived dendritic
      cells (MoDCs) were generated with the use of a cytokine cocktail (IL-4 and GM
      CSF). Additionally, parallel DCs from BLV-negative animals were infected in
      vitro. The level of cytokines: IL-6, IL-10, IL-12(p40), IL-12(p70) was determined
      in DC cultures: infected in vitro, originating from naturally infected cattle and
      BLV-free cattle. The investigation showed significant changes in almost all
      analyzed populations of BLV-infected DCs. Cytokine profiles of blood MoDCs
      indicated activation of these groups during infection. In the case of spleen
      MoDCs and lymph node MoDCs a decrease in production of IL-12(p40) and IL-12(p70)
      in favour of IL-6 and IL-10 was noted, suggesting promotion of BLV infection
      development.

PMID- 28865230
TI  - Withdrawal of cefoperazone with milk after intramammary administration in dairy
      cows - prospective and retrospective analysis.
AB  - The aim of the study was to carry out retrospective and prospective comparative
      analyses of the pharmacokinetics of CEF after single intramammary (IMM)
      administration in cows. The prospective study (study A) was conducted on 9 dairy
      cows of the Polish Black-White race with clinical mastitis during the lactation
      period. Milk samples were collected at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 84 h
      after single IMM administration of 250 mg of CEF to one quarter. Drug
      concentrations in milk samples were determined by HPLC-MS/MS technique and the
      results of the pharmacokinetic analysis were compared to those obtained in
      previous studies based on the microbiological (study B) and HPLC-UV methods
      (study C and D). Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated based on adapted two
      compartment model of drug distribution. One of the findings of the comparison of
      the analysed investigations is that the CEF kinetics determined with the
      microbiological method is consistent with the results obtained by the authors of
      this paper. Both studies yielded similar results of the key pharmacokinetic
      parameters related to the level of the drug distribution to tissues and
      elimination half-life. In the pharmacodynamic analysis, the observations in all
      four studies were entirely consistent and have shown lower values of T>MIC90 in
      healthy animals and significantly higher values in infected dairy cows. The
      comparison of studies A, B, C, and D revealed that the time of complete CEF wash
      out of 90.90% varied and amounted to 5.7, 8.0, 2.2, and 2.2 days after
      administration of the drug, respectively. It was confirmed that not only the type
      of the analytical method but also correct sampling have a significant impact on
      determination of the correct value of the drug half-life after IMM
      administration. The comparative analysis of studies in which the milk yield was
      high and low allows a conclusion that this parameter in the case of CEF has no
      significant effect on T>MIC90.

PMID- 28865231
TI  - Effect of feeding with bilberry fruit on the expression pattern of alphaCaMKII in
      hippocampal neurons in normal and diabetic rats.
AB  - alphaCaMKII, widely occurring in the central nervous system, plays a significant
      role in cognitive processes. It is well known that diabetes is a risk factor that
      may trigger brain atrophy, cognitive dysfunction and finally lead to memory loss.
      Antioxidants richly present in bilberry fruits are believed to have significant
      effects on diabetes-related brain dysfunctions mainly due to their abilities to
      modulate neurotransmitter release that lead to reduction of the negative impact
      of free radicals on cognitive processes. The aim of the present research was to
      immunohistochemically investigate the expression patterns of alphaCaMKII in
      hippocampal neurons from non-diabetic, diabetic and diabetic rats fed with an
      extract of bilberry fruit. The obtained results show that in comparison to the
      control group, in diabetic rats hippocampal neurons immunoreactive (ir) to
      alphaCaMKII were swollen and the lengths of the neuronal fibres were reduced.
      Further study shows that in diabetic rats fed with bilberry fruit, alphaCaMKII
      positive nerve fibres were significantly longer when compared to the groups of
      diabetic and control rats. Additionally, we observed statistically significant
      changes in the average larger diameter of alphaCaMKII-ir hippocampal neurons
      between groups of diabetic rats (with vs. without supplement of bilberry fruit).
      The results of the present work suggest that antioxidants present in bilberry
      fruits influence the morphology of and possibly exhibit beneficial and
      neuroprotective effects on hippocampal neurons during diabetes. It is likely that
      changes in the appearance of alphaCaMKII-expressed hippocampal neurons may
      reflect the diabetes-evoked rise in Ca2+ level in the cerebral nerve terminals.
      The present research extends our knowledge of preventive mechanisms for cognitive
      dysfunctions occurring in the brain during diabetes.

PMID- 28865232
TI  - Hyponatremia, bone mineral density and falls in the elderly; Results from AHAP
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyponatremia (HN) can be associated with osteoporosis, falls and bone
      fractures in the elderly. Recent researches demonstrated different results about
      the correlation of HN with bone mineral density and bone fractures. METHODS: This
      analytic research came from the AHAP project in northern IRAN. All people aged 60
      years and over were included in the study. Individuals with severe comorbidities
      and then who had concurrent conditions which could have impact on bone mineral
      densities (BMD) such as long-term use of steroids, calcium and/or vitamin D
      supplements, bisphosphonates, calcitonin, thiazides and hormonal medications were
      excluded. RESULTS: One thousand and one hundred and thirteen older persons
      entered in the study. More than 10 percent of the participants had HN (serum Na+
      level <= 137mEq/L). No significant difference has been observed between
      hyponatremic and nonhyponatremic individuals about their balance abilities; bone
      mineral density; incidence of falls and/or bone fracture during the previous 6
      months; dependency in activities of daily living; and osteoporosis. CONCLUSION:
      HN was not a prevalent problem in older adults who met the inclusion criteria of
      this research. No significant difference has been observed between HN and bone
      mineral density and falls in the elderly.

PMID- 28865233
TI  - First allergenic pollen monitoring in Bucharest and results of three years
      collaboration with European aerobiology specialists.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Respiratory allergies induced by allergenic plants pollen represent
      an important public health problem with increasing prevalence and severity.
      Aerobiologic study of allergenic pollens is performed in many countries on
      regular basis and correlated with health data from allergists in the frame of
      national aerobiology networks. Romania has no aerobiology network and pollen
      measurements have been done between 1999-2012 in West region only. In the frame
      of COST Action called Sustainable management of Ambrosia artemisiifolia in Europe
      (SMARTER FA 1203), three years collaboration with Reseau National de Surveillance
      Aerobiologique (RNSA) from France and the first pollen monitoring center in
      Bucharest were established.The aim of this paper is to present results of first
      pollen monitoring in Bucharest, activities of Romanian SMARTER group and
      collaboration with European aerobiology specialists. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We used
      a Hirst-type pollen trap placed on the roof of the Research Center from
      "Colentina" Clinical Hospital and the pollen monitoring method based on European
      Aeroallergen Network (EAN) standardized requirements. Monthly results during the
      pollen seasons 2014-2016 were sent to RNSA and EAN and posted on the European
      pollen information site. RESULTS: We found high amounts of allergenic pollen,
      mainly grasses from May to September and Ambrosia artemisiifolia during
      September. Conlcusions. We concluded that SMARTER offered access to aerobiology
      training, improved multidisciplinary collaboration and perspectives to further
      develop national and international projects. More coordinated efforts to develop
      national aerobiology network and to recuperate the gap comparing to other
      European countries in the field of aerobiology and respiratory allergology are
      needed.

PMID- 28865234
TI  - Impact of Seminal Plasma Trace Elements on Human Sperm Motility Parameters.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Human seminal plasma contains a variety of macro and trace elements
      including magnesium (Mg), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and iron (Fe) that have
      essential roles in normal functioning of semen and its quality. The imbalance of
      these elements has been reported in several pathologic and male infertility
      disorders. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the levels of these elements
      in seminal plasma samples, their relationships with each other and their impact
      on sperm motility. METHODS: Overall, 192 males (96 normospermic and 96
      asthenospermic males) were enrolled in the study. Semen samples were collected by
      masturbation and computer-assisted/aided semen analysis of sperm motility was
      performed. The samples were centrifuged and seminal levels of Mg, Cu, Zn and Fe
      were measured using atomic absorption spectroscopy. RESULTS: The levels of Zn did
      not differ between the two groups, while the levels of Mg, Cu, and Fe were
      significantly higher in normospermic males. Fe showed a positive correlation with
      Mg and Cu in asthenospermic group. However, a negative relationship was found
      between Mg and Fe levels and between Mg and sperm concentration in the
      normospermic group. Fe levels were higher in the normospermic group compared to
      the asthenospermic group. Nevertheless, increased Fe levels caused a decrease in
      most of sperm motility fractions. CONCLUSION: Elements play major roles in male
      fertility and directly affect sperm quality. According to the results of this
      study, the levels of Zn do not affect the sperm quality and motility, while Fe,
      Cu and Mg are decreased in males with sperm motility problems. Nevertheless, Fe
      levels can adversely affect sperm motility in normospermic men.

PMID- 28865235
TI  - Effect of Electro-Acupuncture on Neuroplasticity of Spinal Cord-Transected Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the effects of electro-acupuncture (EA)
      on neuroplasticity associated with the expressions of neurotrophic factors (NTFs)
      and their receptors in rats subjected to spinal cord transection (SCT). MATERIAL
      AND METHODS A total of 144 rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=48 per
      group): sham-operated group, SCT group, and EA (electro-acupuncture) group. Rats
      in SCT and EA groups received spinal cord transection at T10-T11 vertebral
      levels. Then, EA group rats received EA treatment. Reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction was used to detect NTFs and receptors at the mRNA
      level. In situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to
      detect the expression of NTFs and their receptors. Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan
      (BBB) scores and cortical somato-sensory evoked potentials (CSEP) were evaluated
      to assess the recovery of motor and sensory functions. We also measured BDA
      (Biotinylated dextran amine) axonal tracing, CGRP (Calcitonin gene-related
      peptide), GAP-43 (Growth-associated protein), and synaptophysin
      immunohistochemistry (IHC). RESULTS EA treatment led to obvious improvement in
      hindlimb locomotor and sensory functions. CNTF, FGF-2, and TrkB mRNA were
      significantly upregulated, while NGF, PDGF, TGF-b1, IGF-1, TrkA, and TrkC mRNA
      were concomitantly downregulated in the caudal spinal segment (CSS) following EA.
      Immunohistochemistry demonstrated an increased number of CGRP fibers, GAP-43, and
      synaptophysin profiles in the CSS in the EA rats. CONCLUSIONS EA may promote the
      recovery of neuroplasticity in rats subjected to SCT. This could be attributed to
      the systematic regulation of NTFs and their receptors after EA.

PMID- 28865236
TI  - Horse hair follicles: A novel dermal stem cell source for equine regenerative
      medicine.
AB  - The easily accessible niche represented by skin and its appendages may serve as a
      promising source to complement modern regenerative medicine for horses. In humans
      and in animal models for human medicine, the hair follicle and its stem cell
      niches are well characterized. Since literature in this field of equine research
      is scarce, we sought to analyze cells of the dermal stem cell niche of the equine
      hair follicle morphologically and for a subset of markers useful for cell
      characterization via immunolabeling. We cultured equine forelock skin explants to
      obtain cultures with cells migrating from the hair follicles. Isolation of cells
      revealed typical fibroblast morphology with a strong tendency to aggregate and
      form spheroids. For immunofluorescent characterization of primary isolations, we
      tested an antibody panel consisting of lineage makers for the dermal compartment
      of the hair follicle, markers associated with an undifferentiated cell status and
      markers for epithelial cell types as negative controls. All antibodies used were
      also tested on equine skin sections. The isolated cells displayed clear profiles
      of dermal and undifferentiated cells. To substantiate our findings, we tested our
      primary isolations for established equine multipotent mesenchymal stromal cell
      antigen expression markers in flow cytometry experiments yielding strong
      convergence. The data presented here provide insights to a stem cell source in
      horses almost unnoticed to date. The basic investigations of the equine dermal
      hair follicle stem cell niche confirm the expression of standard markers used in
      other species and lay the foundation for future studies on this easily available
      adult stem cell source. (c) 2017 International Society for Advancement of
      Cytometry.

PMID- 28865237
TI  - Dose-dependent acute liver injury with hypersensitivity features in humans due to
      a novel microsomal prostaglandin E synthase 1 inhibitor.
AB  - AIMS: LY3031207, a novel microsomal prostaglandin E synthase 1 inhibitor, was
      evaluated in a multiple ascending dose study after nonclinical toxicology studies
      and a single ascending dose study demonstrated an acceptable toxicity, safety and
      tolerability profile. METHODS: Healthy subjects were randomized to receive
      LY3031207 (25, 75 and 275 mg), placebo or celecoxib (400 mg) once daily for 28
      days. The safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles
      of LY3031207 were evaluated. RESULTS: The study was terminated when two subjects
      experienced drug-induced liver injury (DILI) after they had received 225 mg
      LY3031207 for 19 days. Liver biopsy from these subjects revealed acute liver
      injury with eosinophilic infiltration. Four additional DILI cases were identified
      after LY3031207 dosing had been stopped. All six DILI cases shared unique
      presentations of hepatocellular injury with hypersensitivity features and
      demonstrated a steep dose-dependent trend. Prompt discontinuation of the study
      drug and supportive medical care resulted in full recovery. Metabolites from
      metabolic activation of the imidazole ring were observed in plasma and urine
      samples from all subjects randomized to LY3031207 dosing. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      emphasized the importance of careful safety monitoring and serious adverse events
      management in phase I trials. Metabolic activation of the imidazole ring may be
      involved in the development of hepatotoxicity of LY3031207.

PMID- 28865238
TI  - Association between insulin-induced weight change and CVD mortality: Evidence
      from a historic cohort study of 18,814 patients in UK primary care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study explores the association of insulin-induced weight (wt)
      gain on cardiovascular outcomes and mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes
      (T2D) following insulin initiation using real-world data. METHODS: A historical
      cohort study was performed in 18,814 adults with insulin-treated T2D derived from
      the UK The Health Improvement Network database. Based on the average weight
      change of 5 kg, 1 year postinsulin initiation, patients were grouped into 5
      categories (>5 kg wt loss; 1.0-5.0 kg wt loss; no wt change; 1.0-5.0 kg wt gain;
      >5.0 kg wt gain) and followed-up for 5 years. Cox proportional hazard models and
      Kaplan-Meier estimators were fitted to estimate the hazards of a 3-point
      composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke, and all-cause mortality
      between categories. RESULTS: The median age was 62.8 (IQR: 52.3-71.8) years,
      HbA1c : 8.6% (IQR: 7.4-9.8) and mean BMI: 31.8 (6.5) kg/m2 . The 5 year
      probability of survival differed significantly within the wt-change categories
      (log-rank test P value = .0005). Only 1963 composite events occurred. Compared
      with the weight-neutral group, the risk of composite events was 31% greater in
      the >5 kg wt-loss group (aHR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.68), the same in the 1.0 to
      5.0 kg wt-gain category, but nonsignificantly increased in the 1.0 to 5.0 kg wt
      loss (15%) and >5.0 kg wt gain (13%) categories, respectively. In the obese
      subgroup, this risk was 50% (aHR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.08-2.08) more in the >5 kg
      weight-loss group compared with the weight-neutral group. CONCLUSION: Insulin
      induced weight gain did not translate to adverse cardiovascular outcomes and
      mortality in patients with T2D. These data provide reassurance on the
      cardiovascular safety of insulin patients with T2D.

PMID- 28865240
TI  - Electropermeabilization by uni- or bipolar nanosecond electric pulses: The impact
      of extracellular conductivity.
AB  - Cellular effects caused by nanosecond electric pulses (nsEP) can be reduced by an
      electric field reversal, a phenomenon known as bipolar cancellation. The reason
      for this cancellation effect remains unknown. We hypothesized that assisted
      membrane discharge is the mechanism for bipolar cancellation. CHO-K1 cells bathed
      in high (16.1mS/cm; HCS) or low (1.8mS/cm; LCS) conductivity solutions were
      exposed to either one unipolar (300-ns) or two opposite polarity (300+300-ns;
      bipolar) nsEP (4-40kV/cm) with increasing interpulse intervals (0.1-50MUs). Time
      lapse YO-PRO-1 (YP) uptake revealed enhanced membrane permeabilization in LCS
      compared to HCS at all tested voltages. The time-dependence of bipolar
      cancellation was similar in both solutions, using either identical (22kV/cm) or
      isoeffective nsEP treatments (12 and 32kV/cm for LCS and HCS, respectively).
      However, cancellation was significantly stronger in LCS when the bipolar nsEP had
      no, or very short (<1MUs), interpulse intervals. Finally, bipolar cancellation
      was still present with interpulse intervals as long as 50MUs, beyond the time
      expected for membrane discharge. Our findings do not support assisted membrane
      discharge as the mechanism for bipolar cancellation. Instead they exemplify the
      sustained action of nsEP that can be reversed long after the initial stimulus.

PMID- 28865241
TI  - Processing speed and the relationship between Trail Making Test-B performance,
      cortical thinning and white matter microstructure in older adults.
AB  - Part B of the Trail Making Test (TMT-B) is widely used as a quick and easy to
      administer measure of executive dysfunction. The current study investigated the
      relationships between TMT-B performance, brain volumes, cortical thickness and
      white matter water diffusion characteristics in a large sample of older
      participants, before and after controlling for processing speed. Four hundred and
      eleven healthy, community-dwelling older adults who were all born in 1936 were
      assessed on TMT-B, 5 tests of processing speed, and provided contemporaneous
      structural and diffusion MRI data. Significant relationships were found between
      slower TMT-B completion times and thinner cortex in the frontal, temporal and
      inferior parietal regions as well as the Sylvian fissure/insula. Slower TMT-B
      completion time was also significantly associated with poorer white matter
      microstructure of the left anterior thalamic radiation, and the right uncinate
      fasciculus. The majority of these associations were markedly attenuated when
      additionally controlling for processing speed. These data suggest that individual
      differences in processing speed contribute to the associations between TMT-B
      completion time and the grey and white matter structure of older adults.

PMID- 28865242
TI  - Novel graphene-based biosensor for early detection of Zika virus infection.
AB  - We have developed a cost-effective and portable graphene-enabled biosensor to
      detect Zika virus with a highly specific immobilized monoclonal antibody. Field
      Effect Biosensing (FEB) with monoclonal antibodies covalently linked to graphene
      enables real-time, quantitative detection of native Zika viral (ZIKV) antigens.
      The percent change in capacitance in response to doses of antigen (ZIKV NS1)
      coincides with levels of clinical significance with detection of antigen in
      buffer at concentrations as low as 450pM. Potential diagnostic applications were
      demonstrated by measuring Zika antigen in a simulated human serum. Selectivity
      was validated using Japanese Encephalitis NS1, a homologous and potentially cross
      reactive viral antigen. Further, the graphene platform can simultaneously provide
      the advanced quantitative data of nonclinical biophysical kinetics tools, making
      it adaptable to both clinical research and possible diagnostic applications. The
      speed, sensitivity, and selectivity of this first-of-its-kind graphene-enabled
      Zika biosensor make it an ideal candidate for development as a medical diagnostic
      test.

PMID- 28865239
TI  - Principles of pharmacology in the eye.
AB  - The eye is a highly specialized organ that is subject to a huge range of
      pathology. Both local and systemic disease may affect different anatomical
      regions of the eye. The least invasive routes for ocular drug administration are
      topical (e.g. eye drops) and systemic (e.g. tablets) formulations. Barriers that
      subserve as protection against pathogen entry also restrict drug permeation.
      Topically administered drugs often display limited bioavailability due to many
      physical and biochemical barriers including the pre-corneal tear film, the
      structure and biophysiological properties of the cornea, the limited volume that
      can be accommodated by the cul-de-sac, the lacrimal drainage system and reflex
      tearing. The tissue layers of the cornea and conjunctiva are further key factors
      that act to restrict drug delivery. Using carriers that enhance viscosity or bind
      to the ocular surface increases bioavailability. Matching the pH and polarity of
      drug molecules to the tissue layers allows greater penetration. Drug delivery to
      the posterior segment is a greater challenge and, currently, the standard route
      is via intravitreal injection, notwithstanding the risks of endophthalmitis and
      retinal detachment with frequent injections. Intraocular implants that allow
      sustained drug release are at different stages of development. Novel exciting
      therapeutic approaches include methods for promoting transscleral delivery,
      sustained release devices, nanotechnology and gene therapy.

PMID- 28865244
TI  - Pathways from anxiety to stressful events: An expansion of the stress generation
      hypothesis.

PMID- 28865243
TI  - Self-harm and suicide attempts in Schizophrenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk of suicide among persons with schizophrenia (SZ) is higher
      than in general population, with multiple contributory factors. We assessed the
      prevalence of risk of deliberate self-harm and suicide attempts, along with
      associated socio-demographic and clinical factors in a group of SZ outpatients
      (n=61) as part of a larger study on overall schizophrenia-associated risks. AIMS:
      To investigate factors associated with risk of deliberate self-harm and suicide
      among persons with schizophrenia. METHOD: Out of 270 SZ participants evaluated
      for various risks using Ram Manohar Lohia Risk Assessment Interview (RML-RAI), 61
      reported risk of self-harm including suicide attempt/s. The factors associated
      with this risk were further evaluated on clinical details and Diagnostic
      Interview for Genetic Studies. RESULTS: Risk of reported self-harm was 22.59%.
      Among them, 10% had attempted suicide at least once. Current age and past month
      Global Assessment of Functioning score from DIGS (GAF) were significantly
      correlated with suicide attempt. Attempters had significantly lower current GAF
      score, indicating poorer functioning. Among 27 attempters, 9 attempted at the
      onset of illness while 6 others attempted suicide within one year. Most common
      method of attempt was ingestion of insecticides or overdose of medication,
      followed by hanging or jumping from height. CONCLUSION: In our hospital-based
      sample of suicide attempters, 10% had attempted suicide, among them over 55%
      within first year of illness. Attempters were significantly older than non
      attempters and suffered from significantly more severe illness than non
      attempters. Positive symptoms were significantly associated with attempt,
      irrespective of time at which suicide was attempted.

PMID- 28865245
TI  - The SH2B3 and KCNK5 loci may be implicated in regulation of platelet count,
      volume, and maturity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In recent genome-wide association studies, coronary artery disease
      (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI) have been linked to a number of genetic
      variants, but their role in thrombopoiesis is largely unknown. AIM: We
      investigated the association between CAD and MI-associated genetic variants and
      five thrombopoiesis-related indices: platelet count (PC), mean platelet volume
      (MPV), immature platelet count (IPC), immature platelet fraction (IPF), and serum
      thrombopoietin (TPO). METHODS: We genotyped 45 genome-wide significant CAD/MI
      markers in 879 stable CAD patients. A genetic risk score was calculated to assess
      the combined risk associated with all the genetic variants. Platelet indices were
      analysed using the Sysmex XE-2100 haematology analyser. TPO was measured by
      ELISA. RESULTS: Two variants were nominally associated with several indices; for
      rs10947789 (KCNK5), the adjusted geometric mean was 2% higher for MPV (95%
      confidence interval: 1-2%, p=0.002), 6% for IPC (0-12%, p=0.033), and 9% for IPF
      (3-16%, p=0.004) per CAD risk allele. Moreover, an 11% lower TPO (3-19%, p=0.010)
      was observed. Rs3184504 (SH2B3) was associated with a higher adjusted geometric
      mean of 3% (1-6%, p=0.003) per CAD risk allele for PC, and an 11% (5-17%,
      p<0.001) lower TPO. Furthermore, the adjusted IPC was 5% (0-9%, p=0.037) lower
      per CAD risk allele for PC, whereas IPF levels did not vary across genotypes.
      CONCLUSION: As a novel finding, our study suggests a role for KCNK5 in the
      regulation of platelet size and maturity. Furthermore, our findings confirm an
      association between the SH2B3-locus and platelet count.

PMID- 28865246
TI  - Factor XIII levels and factor XIII B subunit polymorphisms in patients with
      venous thromboembolism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association of plasma factor XIII (FXIII) level with venous
      thromboembolism (VTE) is still controversial and the effect of sex and FXIII B
      subunit (FXIII-B) polymorphisms in this respect have not been explored.
      OBJECTIVES: 1/ To determine FXIII activity and antigen levels in patients with a
      history of VTE and how they are influenced by sex and FXIII-B polymorphisms. 2/
      To explore the association of FXIII levels and FXIII-B polymorphisms with the
      risk of VTE. METHODS: 218 VTE patients and equal number of age and sex matched
      controls were enrolled in the study. FXIII activity was measured by ammonia
      release assay; FXIII-A2B2 and FXIII-B levels were determined by ELISAs. FXIII-B
      polymorphisms were identified by RT-PCR using melting point analysis. RESULTS:
      Adjusted FXIII activity and FXIII-A2B2 antigen levels were significantly higher
      in females with a history of VTE than in the respective controls. FXIII-B levels
      were significantly lower in male VTE patients than in controls. FXIII-A2B2
      antigen levels in the upper tertile increased the risk of VTE in females
      (adjusted OR: 2.52; CI: 1.18-5.38). Elevated FXIII-B antigen level had a
      protective effect only in males (adjusted OR: 0.19; CI: 0.08-0.46). FXIII-B
      Intron K c.1952+144 C>G polymorphism significantly lowered FXIII activity, FXIII
      A2B2 and FXIII-B antigen levels in both groups. FXIII-B polymorphisms did not
      influence the risk of VTE. CONCLUSIONS: In VTE patients the changes of FXIII
      level and their effect on the risk of VTE show considerable sex-specific
      differences. Intron K polymorphism results in decreased FXIII levels, but does
      not influence the risk of VTE.

PMID- 28865247
TI  - Allostery in enzyme catalysis.
AB  - Modern interpretations of allostery typically rely on conformational ensembles to
      describe enzyme function. Conformational motions controlling these ensembles are
      often stimulated or quenched by allosteric effectors, and are critical to
      optimizing ligand binding pockets and enzyme architectures. Thus, enzymes rely on
      dynamic allosteric pathways that transmit long-range binding information to
      control catalysis. In this review, we provide a brief discussion of the ever
      expanding principles of allosteric regulation in enzyme catalysis and highlight
      in-depth studies of three enzymes that have contributed to the paradigms of
      dynamic allostery.

PMID- 28865248
TI  - Analysis of multiple tank car releases in train accidents.
AB  - There are annually over two million carloads of hazardous materials transported
      by rail in the United States. The American railroads use large blocks of tank
      cars to transport petroleum crude oil and other flammable liquids from production
      to consumption sites. Being different from roadway transport of hazardous
      materials, a train accident can potentially result in the derailment and release
      of multiple tank cars, which may result in significant consequences. The prior
      literature predominantly assumes that the occurrence of multiple tank car
      releases in a train accident is a series of independent Bernoulli processes, and
      thus uses the binomial distribution to estimate the total number of tank car
      releases given the number of tank cars derailing or damaged. This paper shows
      that the traditional binomial model can incorrectly estimate multiple tank car
      release probability by magnitudes in certain circumstances, thereby significantly
      affecting railroad safety and risk analysis. To bridge this knowledge gap, this
      paper proposes a novel, alternative Correlated Binomial (CB) model that accounts
      for the possible correlations of multiple tank car releases in the same train. We
      test three distinct correlation structures in the CB model, and find that they
      all outperform the conventional binomial model based on empirical tank car
      accident data. The analysis shows that considering tank car release correlations
      would result in a significantly improved fit of the empirical data than
      otherwise. Consequently, it is prudent to consider alternative modeling
      techniques when analyzing the probability of multiple tank car releases in
      railroad accidents.

PMID- 28865249
TI  - Effects of ultra-low-dose versus standard hormone therapy on fibrinolysis and
      thrombin generation in postmenopausal women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of different doses of oral hormone therapy (HT)
      on thrombin generation and fibrinolysis. STUDY DESIGN: One hundred fifty
      postmenopausal women were assigned in a randomized controlled study in which the
      effect of standard dose (1mg 17beta-estradiol/5mg dydrogesterone), ultra-low-dose
      HT (0.5mg 17beta-estradiol/2.5mg dydrogesterone) on fibrinolysis and coagulation
      was compared to controls. Factors measured included plasma clot lysis time (CLT),
      fibrinolysis activators and inhibitors, thrombin generation (prothrombin
      fragments 1+2 [F1+2], endogenous thrombin potential [ETP]), normalized activated
      protein C sensitivity ratio (nAPCsr), and factor (F)VIII activity and were
      determined before and after 24 weeks of HT. RESULTS: In ultra-low-dose group
      posttreatment CLT tended to be shorter when compared to standard HT (-7%) and
      control group (-4%) with reduced plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1)
      antigen (by -16% vs both groups). Higher mean changes from baseline between ultra
      low-HT group and standard group in CLT (-7.4 vs 3.05) and PAI-1 antigen
      concentration (-5.1 vs 0.9) were observed. Standard HT, compared with the ultra
      low-dose HT, led to higher F1+2 (+9%) and FVIII activity (+37%). CONCLUSIONS: In
      contrast to the standard HT, ultra-low-dose HT may enhance fibrinolysis through
      reduced PAI-1 levels.

PMID- 28865250
TI  - Delay in diagnosis of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures in adults: A post hoc
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the current post hoc study was to investigate factors
      associated with delay in diagnosis of adult patients with psychogenic
      nonepileptic seizures (PNES). METHODS: We retrospectively investigated all
      patients with PNES admitted to the epilepsy-monitoring unit at the Jefferson
      Comprehensive Epilepsy Center from 2012 through 2016. We identified the median
      time to diagnosis of PNES and divided the patients into two groups. We studied
      factors associated with delay in diagnosis of PNES. RESULTS: In all, 49 patients
      (39 women and 10 men) were studied. Mean age at the time of admission was 40+/
      16years and at the onset of the seizures was 34+/-16years. Disease duration was
      5.6+/-8.2years. The median for time to diagnosis was 3years. Patients with early
      diagnosis (before 3years after seizure onset) (21 patients) and patients with
      late diagnosis (delay of 3years or more from onset) (28 patients) were compared.
      Only history of head trauma had significant association with the delay in
      diagnosis: 2 of 19 patients (7%) with an early diagnosis and 11 of 28 patients
      (39%) with a late diagnosis reported head trauma (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: Delay in
      diagnosis of PNES is common, and some factors (e.g., history of head trauma) may
      contribute to this delay. It is important that physicians involved in the
      management of seizures appreciate the importance of making an early and
      definitive diagnosis of PNES.

PMID- 28865251
TI  - "Stay cool, sell stuff cheap, and smile": Examining how reputational management
      of dental tourism reinforces structural oppression in Los Algodones, Mexico.
AB  - Los Algodones, Mexico is characteristic of other medical border towns whose
      proximity to the Mexico-United States border enables American and Canadian
      patients to take advantage of economic asymmetries on either side of the border
      to access desired health care. Los Algodones is unique, however, in its focus on
      the provision of dental care and claims by local residents that it has the
      highest concentration of dentists per capita in the world. In this paper, we
      present an analysis of interviews with employees working in Los Algodones' dental
      tourism industry to examine interviewees' participation in practices related to
      reputational management of the industry site. Drawing on our interview
      discussions, we argue that many of these reputational management practices
      reinforce structural injustices and raise concerns for structural exploitation in
      the industry. This analysis nuances ethical considerations for medical tourism by
      highlighting structural factors informing unjust practices within the industry,
      factors which might be relevant to other medical tourism contexts.

PMID- 28865252
TI  - Finding HOPE: Changes in depressive symptomology following relocation from
      distressed public housing.
AB  - Many public housing residents suffer from poor mental health and depression,
      which may be a function of both socioeconomic deprivation and residing in
      disorderly, unstable, and disadvantaged neighborhoods. While not explicitly
      targeting mental health, the HOPE VI program may improve public housing
      residents' mental health by relocating them from distressed developments and into
      less-disadvantaged and disorderly neighborhoods. This paper examines post
      relocation depressive symptomology among residents relocated from the Boulevard
      Homes public housing development in Charlotte, NC. Drawing on pre- and post
      relocation surveys, as well as interviews with staff and case managers, we
      examine whether depressive symptomology - measured by the CES-D-10 - is
      associated with whether tenants relocate to other public housing or to private
      market housing through the Housing Choice Voucher program. Further, we
      investigate whether social support, perceptions of safety, or objective
      neighborhood measures result in improvements in post-relocation depressive
      symptomology. We find that depressive symptomology substantially decreased
      following relocation, and those with higher CES-D-10 scores were more likely to
      move to other public housing rather than through the voucher program. Interviews
      with case managers suggest that some residents were fearful of leaving public
      housing and assuming the responsibilities of a private-market rental unit - e.g.,
      basic maintenance and utility payments. Further, we find that reductions in post
      relocation depressive symptomology are associated with greater perceptions of
      safety, greater social support in their new neighborhoods, and length of tenure
      at Boulevard Homes. Policy recommendations include expanding community-based
      mental health services, conducting pre-relocation mental health screenings, and
      providing additional relocation counseling to those suffering from depression.

PMID- 28865253
TI  - Why did life expectancy decline in the United States in 2015? A gender-specific
      analysis.
AB  - In 2015, age-adjusted mortality rates increased for 8 of the 10 leading causes of
      death in the United States. As a result, life expectancy declined by 0.17 years
      for both women and men. The decline could be just an anomaly, or it could
      represent the start of a new trend of stagnation or decline in life expectancy,
      as some scholars have warned. The first step is to determine the sources of the
      decline. In this study we analyze the contribution of specific causes of death to
      the decline in men's versus women's life expectancy, as well as the mechanisms
      that generated the decline. With regard to mechanisms, we examine whether the
      decline in life expectancy resulted from reductions in the average age at death
      for most causes of death, or from a greater risk of dying of causes that
      disproportionately affect the young and middle-aged. Using CDC mortality data, we
      construct life tables for men and women separately, based on 20 different
      underlying causes of death. We find that men's reduction in life expectancy was
      attributable primarily to changes in midlife mortality, with a greater risk of
      dying of causes such as accidental poisoning or homicide. The reduction in
      women's life expectancy, on the other hand, was attributable primarily to changes
      in old-age mortality, where the mean age at death for most causes (such as heart
      disease and mental illnesses) was lower in 2015 than it was in 2014. These gender
      specific mechanisms that contributed to the decline in life expectancy are common
      to the major racial/ethnic groups, but the magnitude of the decline differs
      greatly across racial/ethnic groups. Future research can use the tools provided
      here to investigate in more detail how the gender-specific mechanisms of the 2015
      decline differ by race.

PMID- 28865254
TI  - "The land of the sick and the land of the healthy": Disability, bureaucracy, and
      stigma among people living with poverty and chronic illness in the United States.
AB  - Disability benefits have become an increasingly prominent source of cash
      assistance for impoverished American citizens over the past two decades. This
      development coincided with cuts and market-oriented reforms to state and federal
      welfare programs, characteristic of the wider political-economic trends
      collectively referred to as neoliberalism. Recent research has argued that
      contemporary discourses on 'disability fraudsters' and 'malingerers' associated
      with this shift represent the latest manifestation of age-old stigmatization of
      the 'undeserving poor'. Few studies, however, have investigated how the system of
      disability benefits, as well as these stigmatizing discourses, shapes the lived
      experience of disabling physical illness in today's United States. Here we
      present qualitative data from 64 semi-structured interviews with low-income
      individuals living with HIV and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus to explore the
      experience of long-term, work-limiting disability in the San Francisco Bay Area.
      Interviews were conducted between April and December 2014. Participants explained
      how they had encountered what they perceived to be excessive, obstructive, and
      penalizing bureaucracy from social institutions, leading to destitution and poor
      mental health. They also described being stigmatized as disabled for living with
      chronic ill health, and simultaneously stigmatized as shirking and malingering
      for claiming disability benefits as a result. Notably, this latter form of stigma
      appeared to be exacerbated by the bureaucracy of the administrating institutions.
      Participants also described intersections of health-related stigma with stigmas
      of poverty, gender, sexual orientation, and race. The data reveal a complex
      picture of poverty and intersectional stigma in this population, potentiated by a
      convoluted and inflexible bureaucracy governing the system of disability
      benefits. We discuss how these findings reflect the historical context of
      neoliberal cuts and reforms to social institutions, and add to ongoing debate
      around the future of public social provision for impoverished and chronically ill
      citizens under neoliberalism.

PMID- 28865255
TI  - Parent use of cannabis for intractable pediatric epilepsy: Everyday empiricism
      and the boundaries of scientific medicine.
AB  - Cannabis is an increasingly sought-after remedy for US children with intractable
      (biomedically uncontrollable) epilepsy. However, like other complementary
      alternative medicine (CAM) modalities, and particularly as a federally illegal,
      stigmatized substance, it is unsanctioned by mainstream medicine. Parents are
      largely on their own when it comes to learning about, procuring, dispensing, and
      monitoring treatments. Exploring how they manage is crucial to better assist
      them. Moreover, it can illuminate how 'research' done on the ground by laypeople
      variously disrupts and reinforces lay-expert and science-non-science divides. To
      those ends, in 2016, 25 Southern California parents who used, had used, or sought
      to use cannabis pediatrically for epilepsy/seizures were interviewed regarding
      their evidentiary standards, research methods, and aims when trying the drug.
      Parents generally described their work as experimentation; they saw their efforts
      as adhering to authorized scientific practices and standards, and as contributing
      to the authorized medical cannabis knowledge base. Findings subverted
      assumptions, based on an outdated stereotype of CAM, that cannabis-using parents
      do not believe in biomedicine. Indeed, parents' desire for their children's
      biomedical demarginalization, combined with biomedical dependency and a high
      caregiver burden, fueled a collaborative stance. Implications for understanding
      the boundaries of science are explored, as are norms for parent agency as ill
      children's care managers, radicalization among people affected by contested
      illnesses, and the future of 'medical marijuana.'

PMID- 28865256
TI  - Identification and verification of hybridoma-derived monoclonal antibody variable
      region sequences using recombinant DNA technology and mass spectrometry.
AB  - Antibody engineering requires the identification of antigen binding domains or
      variable regions (VR) unique to each antibody. It is the VR that define the
      unique antigen binding properties and proper sequence identification is essential
      for functional evaluation and performance of recombinant antibodies (rAb). This
      determination can be achieved by sequence analysis of immunoglobulin (Ig)
      transcripts obtained from a monoclonal antibody (MAb) producing hybridoma and
      subsequent expression of a rAb. However the polyploidy nature of a hybridoma cell
      often results in the added expression of aberrant immunoglobulin-like transcripts
      or even production of anomalous antibodies which can confound production of rAb.
      An incorrect VR sequence will result in a non-functional rAb and de novo assembly
      of Ig primary structure without a sequence map is challenging. To address these
      problems, we have developed a methodology which combines: 1) selective PCR
      amplification of VR from both the heavy and light chain IgG from hybridoma, 2)
      molecular cloning and DNA sequence analysis and 3) tandem mass spectrometry
      (MS/MS) on enzyme digests obtained from the purified IgG. Peptide analysis
      proceeds by evaluating coverage of the predicted primary protein sequence
      provided by the initial DNA maps for the VR. This methodology serves to both
      identify and verify the primary structure of the MAb VR for production as rAb.

PMID- 28865257
TI  - Highly efficient extraction and selective separation of uranium (VI) from
      transition metals using new class of undiluted ionic liquids based on H
      phosphonate anions.
AB  - In this paper, we report the development of an environmental friendly process to
      decontaminate uranium-containing ores and nuclear wastes by using non-fluorinated
      ionic liquids (ILs). The main advantages of this extraction process are the
      absence of any organic diluent and extra extraction agents added to the organic
      phase. Moreover, the process is cost-effective and maybe applied as a sustainable
      hydrometallurgical method to recover uranium. The distribution ratio (DU) and the
      extraction efficiency (%E) of uranium(VI) (UO22+) were found to be dependent on
      the acidity of the aqueous phase, the extraction time, the alkyl chain length in
      the ILs, the concentration of the aqueous feed and molar quantity of ILs. The DU
      value is higher than 600 and the %E is equal to 98.6% when [HNO3]=7M. The
      extraction reactions follows a neutral partition or ionic exchange mechanism
      depending on nitric acid concentration. The nature of bonding in the extracted
      complexes was investigated by spectroscopic techniques. The potential use of Mor1
      8-OP for the separation of UO22+ from a mixture containing transition metal ions
      Mn+ was also examined. The UO22+ ions were separated and extracted efficiently.
      These ILs are promising candidates for the recovery and separation of uranium.

PMID- 28865258
TI  - Effects of magnesium-based hydrogen storage materials on the thermal
      decomposition, burning rate, and explosive heat of ammonium perchlorate-based
      composite solid propellant.
AB  - MgH2, Mg2NiH4, and Mg2CuH3 were prepared, and their structure and hydrogen
      storage properties were determined through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and
      thermal analyzer. The effects of MgH2, Mg2NiH4, and Mg2CuH3 on the thermal
      decomposition, burning rate, and explosive heat of ammonium perchlorate-based
      composite solid propellant were subsequently studied. Results indicated that
      MgH2, Mg2NiH4, and Mg2CuH3 can decrease the thermal decomposition peak
      temperature and increase the total released heat of decomposition. These
      compounds can improve the effect of thermal decomposition of the propellant. The
      burning rates of the propellant increased using Mg-based hydrogen storage
      materials as promoter. The burning rates of the propellant also increased using
      MgH2 instead of Al in the propellant, but its explosive heat was not enlarged.
      Nonetheless, the combustion heat of MgH2 was higher than that of Al. A possible
      mechanism was thus proposed.

PMID- 28865259
TI  - Current margin practice and effect on re-excision rates following the publication
      of the SSO-ASTRO consensus and ABS consensus guidelines: a national prospective
      study of 2858 women undergoing breast-conserving therapy in the UK and Ireland.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is variation in margin policy for breast conserving therapy
      (BCT) in the UK and Ireland. In response to the Society of Surgical Oncology and
      American Society for Radiation Oncology (SSO-ASTRO) margin consensus ('no ink on
      tumour' for invasive and 2 mm for ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS]) and the
      Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) consensus (1 mm for invasive and DCIS), we
      report on current margin practice and unit infrastructure in the UK and Ireland
      and describe how these factors impact on re-excision rates. METHODS: A trainee
      collaborative-led multicentre prospective study was conducted in the UK and
      Ireland between 1st February and 31st May 2016. Data were collected on
      consecutive BCT patients and on local infrastructure and policies. RESULTS: A
      total of 79 sites participated in the data collection (75% screening units;
      average 372 cancers annually, range 70-900). For DCIS, 53.2% of units accept 1 mm
      and 38% accept 2-mm margins. For invasive disease 77.2% accept 1 mm and 13.9%
      accept 'no ink on tumour'. A total of 2858 patients underwent BCT with a mean re
      excision rate of 17.2% across units (range 0-41%). The re-excision rate would be
      reduced to 15% if all units applied SSO-ASTRO guidelines and to 14.8% if all
      units followed ABS guidelines. Of those who required re-operation, 65% had
      disease present at margin. CONCLUSION: There continues to be large variation in
      margin policy and re-excision rates across units. Altering margin policies to
      follow either SSO-ASTRO or ABS guidelines would result in a modest reduction in
      the national re-excision rate. Most re-excisions are for involved margins rather
      than close margins.

PMID- 28865262
TI  - Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in breast milk from Korea: Time-course trends,
      influencing factors, and infant exposure.
AB  - Breastfeeding is an important exposure pathway to perfluoroalkyl substances
      (PFASs) for newborn infants. Nevertheless, reports are limited on the occurrence
      and time-course of PFASs in breast milk, and most studies have focused on the
      analysis of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
      In this study, 16 PFASs were analyzed in breast milk samples (n=293) collected
      from 128 mothers in Korea during various lactation periods to assess maternal
      exposure levels, contamination profiles, time-course variations, and infant
      health risks. The total concentrations of PFASs (SigmaPFAS) ranged from 31.7 to
      1004 (median: 188) ng/L, which was within the ranges recently reported for Asian
      and European populations. After a month of nursing, the concentrations of PFOS,
      PFOA, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and SigmaPFAS significantly increased. This
      could be due to changes in the dietary and behavior patterns of the mothers after
      the first month of lactation. The concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were
      significantly correlated with maternal age, body mass index, and parity. Certain
      types of diet (e.g. consuming snacks and milk) and eating-out frequency were
      significantly associated with increasing levels of PFAS. Significant correlations
      and similar time-course trends were found between PFASs and PCBs/DDTs, implying
      similar exposure sources and biokinetics for these contaminants. The estimated
      daily intakes of PFOS and PFOA via the consumption of breast milk were below the
      tolerable daily intakes for infants suggested by the European Food Safety
      Authority (EFSA).

PMID- 28865263
TI  - Source apportionment of PM2.5 for 25 Chinese provincial capitals and
      municipalities using a source-oriented Community Multiscale Air Quality model.
AB  - Source contributions to fine airborne particulate matter with aerodynamic
      diameters <2.5MUm (PM2.5) during 2013 were determined for 25 Chinese provincial
      capitals and municipalities using a source-oriented version of the Community
      Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Based on the hierarchical clustering
      analysis of the observed PM2.5 concentrations, the 25 cities were categorized
      into nine groups. Generally, annual PM2.5 concentrations were highest in the
      cities in the north (81-154MUgm-3) and lowest in the cities close to seas in the
      south and east (27-57MUgm-3). Seasonal PM2.5 observations in the cities were
      generally higher in winter than in the other seasons. Industrial or residential
      sources were predicted to be the largest contributor to PM2.5 for all the city
      groups, with annually fractional contributions of 25.0%-38.6% and 9.6%-27%,
      respectively. The annual contributions from power plants, agriculture NH3,
      windblown dust, and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) for the city groups were 8.7%
      12.7%, 9.5%-12%, 6.1%-12.5%, and 5.4%-15.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, the annual
      contributions from transportation, sea salt, and open burning were relatively low
      (<8%, <2%, and <6%, respectively). Secondary PM2.5 accounted for 47%-63% of total
      annual PM2.5 concentrations in the cities and contributed to as much as 70% of
      daily PM2.5 concentrations on PM2.5 pollution days (daily concentrations>75MUgm
      3). Industrial or residential sources were generally the largest contributor on
      PM2.5 pollution days for all the city groups in each season, except that open
      burning, SOA, and windblown dust could be more important on some days,
      particularly in spring. The results of this study would be helpful to develop
      measures to reduce annual PM2.5 concentrations and the number of PM2.5 pollution
      days for different regions of China.

PMID- 28865260
TI  - Societal challenges of precision medicine: Bringing order to chaos.
AB  - The increasing number of drugs targeting specific proteins implicated in
      tumourigenesis and the commercial promotion of relatively affordable genome-wide
      analyses has led to an increasing expectation among patients with cancer that
      they can now receive effective personalised treatment based on the often complex
      genomic signature of their tumour. For such approaches to work in routine
      practice, the development of correspondingly complex biomarker assays through an
      appropriate and rigorous regulatory framework will be required. It is becoming
      increasingly evident that a re-engineering of clinical research is necessary so
      that regulatory considerations and procedures facilitate the efficient
      translation of these required biomarker assays from the discovery setting through
      to clinical application. This article discusses the practical requirements and
      challenges of developing such new precision medicine strategies, based on
      leveraging complex genomic profiles, as discussed at the Innovation and
      Biomarkers in Cancer Drug Development meeting (8th-9th September 2016, Brussels,
      Belgium).

PMID- 28865264
TI  - The association between environmental lead exposure with aggressive behavior, and
      dimensionality of direct and indirect aggression during mid-adolescence: Birth to
      Twenty Plus cohort.
AB  - Chronic lead exposure is associated with neurological ill-health including anti
      social behavior such as aggressive behavior. The main aim of this study was to
      examine the association between lead exposure at 13years old and dimensions of
      aggressive behavior during mid-adolescence. The study sample included 508 males
      and 578 females in mid-adolescence (age 14 to 15years) from the Birth to Twenty
      Plus cohort in Johannesburg, South Africa. Blood samples collected at age 13years
      were used to measure blood lead levels. Seventeen items characterizing aggression
      from the Youth Self Report questionnaire were used to examine aggressive
      behavior. Principal Component Analysis was used to derive composite variables
      from the original data for aggressive behavior; and data were examined for an
      association between blood lead levels and dimensionality of direct and indirect
      aggression and disobedience during mid-adolescence. We also examined the
      dimensions of aggression during mid-adolescence in relation to gender and socio
      demographic factors. Blood lead levels ranged from 1 to 28.1MUg/dL. Seventy two
      percent of males and 47.7% of females in the study had blood lead levels
      >=5MUg/dL. There was a positive association between elevated blood lead levels
      and direct aggression (p<0.05). Being male was positively associated with direct
      aggression (p<0.001) but, negatively associated with indirect aggression
      (p<0.001). Maternal education and age at birth were negatively associated with
      direct aggression during mid-adolescence. The significant association between
      elevated blood lead levels and direct aggressive behavior observed in this study
      may shed light on a possible environmental toxicological contribution to
      aggressive behavior in South African youth; and most importantly the type of
      aggressive behavior associated to lead exposure.

PMID- 28865265
TI  - Nitrification inhibitors mitigated reactive gaseous nitrogen intensity in
      intensive vegetable soils from China.
AB  - Nitrification inhibitors, a promising tool for reducing nitrous oxide (N2O)
      losses and promoting nitrogen use efficiency by slowing nitrification, have
      gained extensive attention worldwide. However, there have been few attempts to
      explore the broad responses of multiple reactive gaseous nitrogen emissions of
      N2O, nitric oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH3) and vegetable yield to nitrification
      inhibitor applications across intensive vegetable soils in China. A greenhouse
      pot experiment with five consecutive vegetable crops was performed to assess the
      efficacies of two nitrification inhibitors, namely, nitrapyrin and dicyandiamide
      on reactive gaseous nitrogen emissions, vegetable yield and reactive gaseous
      nitrogen intensity in four typical vegetable soils representing the intensive
      vegetable cropping systems across mainland China: an Acrisol from Hunan Province,
      an Anthrosol from Shanxi Province, a Cambisol from Shandong Province and a
      Phaeozem from Heilongjiang Province. The results showed soil type had significant
      influences on reactive gaseous nitrogen intensity, with reactive gaseous nitrogen
      emissions and yield mainly driven by soil factors: pH, nitrate, C:N ratio, cation
      exchange capacity and microbial biomass carbon. The highest reactive gaseous
      nitrogen emissions and reactive gaseous nitrogen intensity were in Acrisol while
      the highest vegetable yield occurred in Phaeozem. Nitrification inhibitor
      applications decreased N2O and NO emissions by 1.8-61.0% and 0.8-79.5%,
      respectively, but promoted NH3 volatilization by 3.2-44.6% across all soils.
      Furthermore, significant positive correlations were observed between inhibited
      N2O+NO and stimulated NH3 emissions with nitrification inhibitor additions across
      all soils, indicating that reduced nitrification posed the threat of NH3 losses.
      Additionally, reactive gaseous nitrogen intensity was significantly reduced in
      the Anthrosol and Cambisol due to the reduced reactive gaseous nitrogen emissions
      and increased yield, respectively. Our findings highlight the benefits of
      nitrification inhibitors for integrating environment and agronomy in intensive
      vegetable ecosystems in China.

PMID- 28865266
TI  - Vehicle exhaust: An overstated cause of haze in China.
AB  - Overall, total exhaust emissions of NOX, VOC and particulate matter (PM)
      declined, though vehicles in use continued to increase in China. This suggested
      that contribution of motor vehicle exhaust to haze in China may be exaggerated. A
      higher frequency of haze episodes in China with lower total emissions fraction
      from vehicle exhaust compared with those in the USA confirmed that there exists
      no strict causality between vehicle and haze. No significant correlation (p<0.05)
      between haze days and the contribution of vehicles to airborne PM2.5
      (particulates that are <2.5MUm in aerodynamic diameter) or car ownerships. All
      results revealed again that vehicle exhaust is an overstated cause for haze
      formation in China.

PMID- 28865261
TI  - Quality analysis of population-based information on cancer stage at diagnosis
      across Europe, with presentation of stage-specific cancer survival estimates: A
      EUROCARE-5 study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer registries (CRs) are fundamental for estimating cancer burden,
      evaluating screening and monitoring health service performance. Stage at
      diagnosis-an essential information item collected by CRs-has been made available,
      for the first time, by CRs participating in EUROCARE-5. We analysed the quality
      of this information and estimated stage-specific survival across Europe for CRs
      with good data quality. DATA AND METHODS: Sixty-two CRs sent stage (as TNM,
      condensed TNM or extent of disease) for 15 cancers diagnosed in 2000-2007. We
      assessed the quality, partly by comparing stage according to the three systems.
      We also developed procedures to reconstruct stage (categories: local, regional,
      metastatic and unknown) using information from all three systems, thus minimising
      the amount of missing information. RESULTS: Moderate-to-excellent stage
      concordance was found for practically all 24 CRs, for which it was possible to
      compare at least two staging systems. However, since stage was often incorrectly
      assigned, and information on the presence/absence of metastases was often
      lacking, data on only 7/15 cancers from 34/62 CRs (15 countries) were of
      sufficient quality for further analysis. Cases diagnosed >=70 years had more
      advanced (or lacking) stage- and worse stage-specific survival than those <70
      years. CONCLUSIONS: Many European CRs collect and record reasonably accurate
      stage information. Others have difficulties. Both the completeness of primary
      data and the accuracy of stage coding need to be improved in order for CRs to
      fulfil their expanding roles in cancer control. We propose our stage
      reconstruction/checking procedures as a means of fully exploiting the stage
      information provided by EUROCARE CRs. More advanced (or lacking) stage at
      diagnosis plus poorer stage-specific survival in the elderly are worrying.

PMID- 28865267
TI  - Halogenated and organophosphorus flame retardants in European aquaculture
      samples.
AB  - This work monitors flame retardants in sediment, mussel and water samples from
      European fish farms. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were detected in 95%
      of the sediment and mussel samples with mean levels of 8.60+/-22.6ngg-1 dw in
      sediments and 0.07+/-0.18ngg-1 dw in mussels. BDE-209 was the main contributor
      for the sediments and BDE-47 was found in about 60% of the samples of both
      matrices. Pentabromoethylbenzene (PBEB) and hexabromobenzene (HBB) were detected
      in 42% of the sediments, but not in mussels. Decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) was
      found in about 55% of the samples of both matrices. The same happened for
      dechloranes in mussels, but they were detected in 92% of the sediments. Syn-DP
      and anti-DP were always the main contributors. Methoxylated PBDEs (MeO-PBDEs)
      were detected in all mussels and some sediments, mainly 6-MeO-BDE-47 and 2'-MeO
      BDE-68. Organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) were found in all matrices with
      concentrations of 0.04-92.8ngg-1 dw in sediment, 0.50-102ngg-1 dw in mussel and
      0.43-867ngl-1 in water. Only OPFRs were analysed in water samples as halogenated
      flame retardants and MeO-PBDEs are highly unlikely to be detected in water due to
      their physicochemical properties. Flame retardants have no application in fish
      farming so results should reflect the impact of human activity on the farm
      locations. A large majority of the most contaminated samples were collected from
      sampling spots that were at urban shores or in enclosed water bodies not
      completely open to the sea.

PMID- 28865268
TI  - Effects of resource availability and hydrological regime on autochthonous and
      allochthonous carbon in the food web of a large cross-border river (China).
AB  - Resource availability and flooding disturbance restrict the amount of energy
      available to the upper trophic level consumers and thus determine the trophic
      structure and energy mobilization in river food webs. In this study, we evaluated
      the availability of primary and secondary food resources, food web structure
      (determined by delta13C and delta15N) and relative contributions of autochthonous
      and allochthonous particulate carbon to aquatic consumers in the Irtysh River,
      which spans from northwest China to Kazakhstan and suffers from a long frozen
      period. Despite higher density and biomass, epilithic algae did not make large
      contributions to aquatic consumers due to the restriction of flow velocity, water
      depth and turbidity. Aquatic invertebrates specialized in utilization of
      terrestrial carbon sources, whereas fish varied from aquatic to riparian plants.
      Different resource use of aquatic consumers across the three reaches in the
      Irtysh River was ascribed to the spatial distribution of species and resource
      availability determined by flooding, flood scouring and dam construction. The
      trophic positions and food chain length at the upper reach were higher than those
      at the middle and lower reaches. These findings suggest that allochthonous carbon
      had an advantage over autochthonous carbon in supporting aquatic food webs of the
      Irtysh River. Higher availability of allochthonous particulate carbon might be
      relevant to intensive forest cover and high energy flood events in the Irtysh
      River.

PMID- 28865269
TI  - Climate and drought risk regionalisation in China based on probabilistic aridity
      and drought index.
AB  - The general approach to drought regionalisation regards the multi-year average
      values of drought indexes as regionalisation indicators, without taking long-term
      variability into account. This type of regionalisation is known as static
      regionalisation, or mean regionalisation, and does not consider possible
      variations over multiple years. In order to analyse the probability of climate
      aridity and drought, in this study, we firstly introduce the novel concept of a
      probabilistic aridity index for climate regionalisation and a drought index for
      drought risk regionalisation, as well as a methodology for estimating the
      frequency of the probabilistic aridity and drought index. Details of the approach
      used in the regionalisation of aridity and drought risk, and its associated
      characteristics, are then discussed. Finally, the value of our approach is
      demonstrated in China. The result shows that climate and drought risk
      regionalisation is able to provide enriched aridity and drought probability
      information compared with general climate and drought regionalisation, and can
      thus provide enhanced technical support for the rational allocation of water
      resources and the prevention and mitigation of drought disasters.

PMID- 28865270
TI  - Phosphorus activators contribute to legacy phosphorus availability in
      agricultural soils: A review.
AB  - Phosphorus (P) is one of the most limiting macronutrients for crop productivity
      and P deficiency is a common phenomenon in agricultural soils worldwide. Despite
      long-term application of phosphate fertilizers to increase crop yields, P
      availability is often low, due to the high affinity of phosphate for the soil
      solid phase. It has been suggested that the accumulated (surplus) P in
      agricultural soils is sufficient to sustain crop yields worldwide for about
      100years. In this paper, we try to clear up the potential for making use of
      legacy P in soils for crop growth potentially alleviating the global P resource
      shortage. Specifically, we try to clear up the potential of soil "P activators"
      for releasing fixed P. P activators accelerate and strengthen process which
      transform P into bio-available forms via a range of chemical reactions and
      biological interactions. They include phosphate solubilizing microorganisms,
      phosphatase enzymes and enzyme activators, low molecular weight organic acids,
      humic acids, lignin, crop residues, biochar and zeolites. Although reported
      performance is variable, there is growing evidence that P activators can promote
      the release of phosphate from soil and, hence, have potential for mitigating the
      impending global P crisis. Further basic and applied research is required to
      better understand the mechanisms of interaction of P activators with natural
      soils and to maximize activator efficacy.

PMID- 28865271
TI  - The phenotypic variability in Rana temporaria decreases in response to drying
      habitats.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated the diversity of skin coloration as a proxy for
      phenotypic diversity. The European common frog (Rana temporaria) populations from
      the Southern slope of central Pyrenees lie at the limit of the species
      distribution in latitude and altitude. We analysed the relationship of skin color
      typology with different environmental variables and found a large decrease in
      skin type variety in frogs developing in temporary water bodies when compared to
      those developing in permanent water bodies. Our results show that our method can
      be used as a non-invasive way to study phenotypic diversity and suggest that
      adaptation to an early metamorphosis in a rapidly-drying habitat can have
      negative effects on adult phenotypic diversity. In light of these results, we
      argue that access to permanent water bodies is important to prevent loss of
      diversity in anuran populations and reduce their vulnerability to environmental
      impacts as well as pathogens.

PMID- 28865272
TI  - Rhizoremediation half-lives of PCBs: Role of congener composition, organic carbon
      forms, bioavailability, microbial activity, plant species and soil conditions, on
      the prediction of fate and persistence in soil.
AB  - Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants widely
      produced and used in many countries until the increasing concern about their
      environmental risk lead to their ban in the 1980s. Although their emissions
      decreased, PCBs are nowadays still present in the environment and can be
      reemitted from reservoir compartments such as contaminated soils. In the last two
      decades, there has been a growing interest in bioremediation technologies that
      use plants and microorganisms (i.e. rhizoremediation) to degrade organic
      chemicals in contaminated sites. Different studies have been conducted to
      investigate the potential of plant-microbe interactions in the remediation of
      organic chemical contaminated soils. They range from short-term and
      laboratory/greenhouse experiments to long-term and field trials and, when
      correctly set up, they could provide useful data such as PCB rhizoremediation
      half-lives in soil. Such type of data are important input parameters for
      multimedia fate models that aim to estimate the time requested to achieve
      regulatory thresholds in a PCB contaminated site, allowing to draw up its
      remediation plan. This review focuses on the main factors influencing PCB fate,
      persistence and bioavailability in soil including PCB mixture congener
      composition, soil organic carbon forms, microorganism activity, plant species and
      soil conditions. Furthermore, it provides an estimate of rhizoremediation half
      lives of the ten PCB families starting from the results of literature
      rhizoremediation experiments. Finally, guidance to perform appropriate
      experiments to obtain comparable, accurate and useful data for fate estimation is
      proposed.

PMID- 28865273
TI  - Designer carbon nanotubes for contaminant removal in water and wastewater: A
      critical review.
AB  - The search for effective materials for environmental cleanup is a scientific and
      technological issue of paramount importance. Among various materials, carbon
      nanotubes (CNTs) possess unique physicochemical, electrical, and mechanical
      properties that make them suitable for potential applications as environmental
      adsorbents, sensors, membranes, and catalysts. Depending on the intended
      application and the chemical nature of the target contaminants, CNTs can be
      designed through specific functionalization or modification processes. Designer
      CNTs can remarkably enhance contaminant removal efficiency and facilitate
      nanomaterial recovery and regeneration. An increasing number of CNT-based
      materials have been used to treat diverse organic, inorganic, and biological
      contaminants. These success stories demonstrate their strong potential in
      practical applications, including wastewater purification and desalination.
      However, CNT-based technologies have not been broadly accepted for commercial use
      due to their prohibitive cost and the complex interactions of CNTs with other
      abiotic and biotic environmental components. This paper presents a critical
      review of the existing literature on the interaction of various contaminants with
      CNTs in water and soil environments. The preparation methods of various designer
      CNTs (surface functionalized and/or modified) and the functional relationships
      between their physicochemical characteristics and environmental uses are
      discussed. This review will also help to identify the research gaps that must be
      addressed for enhancing the commercial acceptance of CNTs in the environmental
      remediation industry.

PMID- 28865274
TI  - Thermal effects on arsenic emissions during coal combustion process.
AB  - In this study, the rate of emission of arsenic during the burning process of
      different kinds of coal is examined in order to study the volatile
      characteristics of arsenic during coal combustion which have negative effects on
      the ecological environment and human health. The results show that the emission
      rate of arsenic gradually increases with increased burning temperature, with a
      threshold of approximately 700 degrees C to 800 degrees C in the process of
      temperature increase. Then, the relationships among the arsenic emission rate and
      combustion environment, original arsenic content, combustion time, burning
      temperature, air flow and amount of arsenic fixing agent are discussed, and it is
      found that except for the original arsenic content, the rest of the factors have
      a nonlinear relationship with the emission rate of arsenic. That is, up to a
      certain level, they all contribute to the release of arsenic, and then their
      impact is minimal. The original arsenic content in coal is proportional to the
      arsenic emission rate. Therefore, taking into consideration the nonlinear
      relationships between factors that affect the arsenic emission rate can reduce
      contamination from arsenic.

PMID- 28865275
TI  - Multitemporal mapping of peri-urban carbon stocks and soil sealing from satellite
      data.
AB  - Peri-urbanisation is the expansion of compact urban areas towards low-density
      settlements. This phenomenon directly challenges the agricultural landscape
      multifunctionality, including its carbon (C) storage capacity. Using satellite
      data, we mapped peri-urban C stocks in soil and built-up surfaces over three
      areas from 1993 to 2014 in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy: a thinly populated
      area around Piacenza, an intermediate-density area covering the Reggio Emilia
      Modena conurbation and a densely anthropized area developing along the coast of
      Rimini. Satellite-derived maps enabled the quantitative analysis of spatial and
      temporal features of urban growth and soil sealing, expressed as the ratio
      between C in built-up land and organic C in soils (Cc/Co). The three areas show
      substantial differences in C stock balance and soil sealing evolution. In
      Piacenza (Cc/Co=0.07 in 1993), although questioned by late industrial expansion
      and connected residential sprawl (Cc/Co growth by 38%), most of the new
      urbanisation spared the best rural soils. The Reggio Emilia-Modena conurbation,
      driven by the polycentricism of the area and the heterogeneity of economic
      sectors (Cc/Co rising from 0.08 to 0.14 from 1993 to 2014), balances sprawl and
      densification. Rimini, severely sealed since the 1960s (Cc/Co=0.23 in 1993),
      densifies its existing settlements and develops an industrial expansion of the
      hinterland, with Cc/Co growth accelerating from +15% before 2003 to +36% for the
      last decade.

PMID- 28865276
TI  - Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of new pyrrolidine carboxamide
      analogues as potential chemotherapeutic agents for hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - The successful targeting of different malignancies by OSU-2S, encouraged us to
      design and synthesize a novel series of pyrrolidine aryl carboxamide derivatives.
      In this context, we found that, the amide nature and tether length were found to
      be key determinant elements for the anticancer activity of these new and rigid
      analogues of OSU-2S. The most effective analogues induced apoptosis in cancer
      cells by a similar mechanism to that of OSU-2S, possibly via the activation of
      PKCdelta in addition to their ability to induce cell cycle arrest and inhibition
      of cancer cell migration. Compound 10m, possesses anticancer potency comparable
      to that of OSU-2S when tested against cancer cell lines under study, and was
      found to be safer on normal cells. Furthermore, compound 10m, was found to be
      about 2-folds more potent than the anticancer drug Sorafenib in hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC). The newly developed compounds represent a therapeutically
      promising approach for the treatment of HCC.

PMID- 28865277
TI  - Study on the design, synthesis and structure-activity relationships of new
      thiosemicarbazone compounds as tyrosinase inhibitors.
AB  - 52 Structure-based thiosemicarbazone compounds bearing various substituted
      lipophilic part, including substituted-benzaldehyde, substituted-phenylalkan-1
      one and their biphenyl-type thiosemicarbazone analogs, were designed, synthesized
      and evaluated as new tyrosinase inhibitors. The results demonstrated that 22
      compounds have potent inhibitory activities against tyrosinase with the IC50
      value of lower than 1.0 MUM. On the basis of the obtained experimental data, the
      structure-activity relationships (SARs) were rationally derived. Besides, the
      inhibition mechanism and the inhibitory kinetics of selected compounds 3d and 6e
      were investigated, revealing that such type of compounds were belonged to the
      reversible and competitive tyrosinase inhibitors. To verify the safety of these
      developed thiosemicarbazone compounds, four randomly selected compounds 3d, 4e,
      6a and 9a were also tested in 293T cell line for the evaluation of the
      cytotoxicity. Interestingly, all these compounds almost did not perform any
      toxicity to 293T cells even at a high concentration of 1000 MUmol/L. Taken
      together, these results suggested that such compounds could serve as the highly
      efficient and more safe candidates for the treatment of tyrosinase-related
      disorders.

PMID- 28865278
TI  - Studies on the cytotoxicity and anticancer performance of heterocyclic
      hypervalent organobismuth(III) compounds.
AB  - Novel organobismuth(III) complex of 5H-dibenzo[c,f][1,5]oxabismocin-12(7H)-yl
      nitrate (C2) was synthesized and characterized by spectral and elemental
      analysis. It was compared with other five C,E,C-chelating (E = N, O, S)
      organobismuth(III) complexes against human adenocarcinoma alveolar basal
      epithelial cells (A549), human liver cancer cell line (SMCC7721), human gastric
      cancer cell line (SGC-7901), human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (SW480) and
      healthy human bronchial cell line (16HBE14o-) in vitro. It was found that C2
      exhibited the best anticancer activity. Further mechanistic investigation
      indicated that toxicological activity of C2 was ascribable to apoptosis rather
      than anti-proliferative activity. Apoptosis was induced through up-regulating the
      level of Bcl-2/Bax as well as the activation of caspase-3. The results
      demonstrate that heterocyclic organobismuth(III) complexes of this type have
      great potential in the treatment of cancer.

PMID- 28865279
TI  - Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel C-29 carbamate celastrol
      derivatives as potent and selective cytotoxic compounds.
AB  - Celastrol and its derivatives have been reported for their potent anticancer
      activity. Among other celastrol analogues, novel carbamate derivatives were
      designed and synthesised, and their biological activity on the viability of human
      cancer cell lines was evaluated. Additionally, a preliminary structure-activity
      relationship study was conducted. Derivative 18 showed the highest activity on
      cancer cell viability, combined with the best selectivity between malignant cells
      and non-malignant fibroblasts. Preliminary mechanistic studies of its anti-tumour
      action indicated that compound 18 has an antiproliferative effect on SKOV-3 human
      ovarian cancer cells (IC50 = 0.54 MUM). The results also suggested that its
      potent anticancer activity is mediated by apoptosis, and that this process was
      mainly the result of the activation of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway. Moreover,
      our results demonstrated the potential of derivative 18 as a new agent for
      combinatorial drug therapy for ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28865281
TI  - Design strategies in the prodrugs of HIV-1 protease inhibitors to improve the
      pharmaceutical properties.
AB  - Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) is currently the most effective
      treatment for HIV-1 infection. HIV-1 protease inhibitors (PIs) are an important
      component of some regimens of cART. However, PIs are known for sub-optimal ADME
      properties, resulting in poor oral bioavailability. This often necessitates high
      drug doses, combination with pharmacokinetic enhancers and/or special
      formulations in order to effectively deliver PIs, which may lead to a high pill
      burden and reduced patient compliance. As a remedy, improving the ADME properties
      of existing drugs via prodrug and other approaches has been pursued in addition
      to the development of next generation PIs with improved pharmacokinetic,
      resistance and side effect profiles. Phosphate prodrugs have been explored to
      address the solubility-limiting absorption and high excipient load. Prodrug
      design to target carrier-mediated drug delivery has also been explored. Amino
      acid prodrugs have been shown to improve permeability by engaging active
      transport mechanisms, reduce efflux and mitigate first pass metabolism while acyl
      migration prodrugs have been shown to improve solubility. Prodrug design efforts
      have led to the identification of one marketed agent, fosamprenavir, and clinical
      studies with two other prodrugs. Several of the reported approaches lack detailed
      in vivo characterization and hence the potential preclinical or clinical benefits
      of these approaches are yet to be fully determined.

PMID- 28865280
TI  - Synthesis, in vitro beta-glucuronidase inhibitory potential and molecular docking
      studies of quinolines.
AB  - In this study synthesis and beta-glucuronidase inhibitory potential of 3/5/8
      sulfonamide and 8-sulfonate derivatives of quinoline (1-40) are discussed.
      Studies reveal that all the synthetic compounds were found to have good
      inhibitory activity against beta-glucuronidase. Nonetheless, compounds 1, 2, 5,
      13, and 22-24 having IC50 values in the range of 1.60-8.40 MUM showed superior
      activity than the standard saccharic acid 1,4-lactone (IC50 = 48.4 +/- 1.25 MUM).
      Moreover, molecular docking studies of selected compounds were also performed to
      see interactions between active compounds and binding sites. Structures of all
      the synthetic compounds were confirmed through 1H NMR, EI-MS and HREI-MS
      spectroscopic techniques.

PMID- 28865282
TI  - Social capital and antenatal depression among Chinese primiparas: A cross
      sectional survey.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate the associations between social capital
      and antenatal depression among Chinese primiparas. A cross-sectional design was
      used and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 1471 participants using the
      intercept method at the provincial hospital in Zhejiang in 2016. Antenatal
      depression was evaluated using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
      and social capital was assessed by the Chinese version of Social Capital
      Assessment Questionnaire (C-SCAQ). The prevalence of antenatal depression was
      assessed among Chinese primiparas in their third trimesters. The antenatal
      depression prevalence among sub-groups with lower social trust (ST), social
      reciprocity (SR), social network (SN), and social participation (SP) were
      significantly higher than those among higher score sub-groups. In the fully
      adjusted model, primiparas' antenatal depression was significantly associated
      with ST, SR, SN, and SP. Compared to the structural social capital, the cognitive
      social capital was a more crucial dimension to the prevalence of antenatal
      depression. For future community pregnancy health care management programs in
      China, it might be beneficial to add more social capital related intervention.

PMID- 28865283
TI  - The supramarginal and angular gyri underlie orthographic competence in Spanish
      language.
AB  - Orthographic competence allows automatic word recognition and reading fluency. To
      elucidate how the orthographic competence in Spanish-speaking adults might affect
      the neurofunctional mechanisms of visual word recognition, 32 young adults
      equally divided in two groups (HSS: High Spelling Skills, and LSS: Low Spelling
      Skills) were evaluated using fMRI methods, while they performed an orthographic
      recognition task involving pseudohomophones. HSS achieved significantly more
      correct responses and lower reaction times than LSS. Interestingly, LSS showed
      greater activation in the left angular and supramarginal regions with increased
      bilateral activation pattern in the inferior frontal gyrus, and the anterior
      temporal and posterior parietal regions. In contrast, HSS showed a more left
      lateralized pattern over these regions along with higher activation of the
      anterior cingulated gyrus for misspelled words. Results suggest that the
      differences found in cortical activation patterns might be explained by the
      higher degree of specialization for word recognition in HSS, a group of
      participants that due to their greater orthographic skills require less
      engagement of processing resources to succeed in the task.

PMID- 28865285
TI  - Towards an integrative model of visual short-term memory maintenance: Evidence
      from the effects of attentional control, load, decay, and their interactions in
      childhood.
AB  - Over the past decades there has been a surge of research aiming to shed light on
      the nature of capacity limits to visual short-term memory (VSTM). However, an
      integrative account of this evidence is currently missing. We argue that
      investigating parameters constraining VSTM in childhood suggests a novel
      integrative model of VSTM maintenance, and that this in turn informs mechanisms
      of VSTM maintenance in adulthood. Over 3 experiments with 7-year-olds and young
      adults (total N=206), we provide evidence for multiple cognitive processes
      interacting to constrain VSTM performance. While age-related increases in storage
      capacity are undisputable, we replicate the finding that attentional processes
      control what information will be encoded and maintained in VSTM in the face of
      increased competition. Therefore, a central process to the current model is
      attentional refreshment, a mechanism that it is thought to reactivate and
      strengthen the signal of the visual representations. Critically, here we also
      show that attentional influences on VSTM are further constrained by additional
      factors, traditionally studied to the exclusion of each other, such as memory
      load and temporal decay. We propose that these processes work synergistically in
      an elegant manner to capture the adult-end state, whereas their less refined
      efficiency and modulations in childhood account for the smaller VSTM capacity
      that 7-year-olds demonstrate compared to older individuals. We conclude that
      going beyond the investigation of single cognitive mechanisms, to their
      interactions, holds the promise to understand both developing and fully developed
      maintenance in VSTM.

PMID- 28865286
TI  - The influence of time on task on mind wandering and visual working memory.
AB  - Working memory relies on executive resources for successful task performance,
      with higher demands necessitating greater resource engagement. In addition to
      mnemonic demands, prior studies suggest that internal sources of distraction,
      such as mind wandering (i.e., having off-task thoughts) and greater time on task,
      may tax executive resources. Herein, the consequences of mnemonic demand, mind
      wandering, and time on task were investigated during a visual working memory
      task. Participants (N=143) completed a delayed-recognition visual working memory
      task, with mnemonic load for visual objects manipulated across trials (1 item=low
      load; 2 items=high load) and subjective mind wandering assessed intermittently
      throughout the experiment using a self-report Likert-type scale (1=on-task, 6=off
      task). Task performance (correct/incorrect response) and self-reported mind
      wandering data were evaluated by hierarchical linear modeling to track trial-by
      trial fluctuations. Performance declined with greater time on task, and the rate
      of decline was steeper for high vs low load trials. Self-reported mind wandering
      increased over time, and significantly varied asa function of both load and time
      on task. Participants reported greater mind wandering at the beginning of the
      experiment for low vs. high load trials; however, with greater time on task, more
      mind wandering was reported during high vs. low load trials. These results
      suggest that the availability of executive resources in support of working memory
      maintenance processes fluctuates in a demand-sensitive manner with time on task,
      and may be commandeered by mind wandering.

PMID- 28865284
TI  - The relationship between consumer, clinician, and organizational characteristics
      and use of evidence-based and non-evidence-based therapy strategies in a public
      mental health system.
AB  - We investigated the relationship between consumer, clinician, and organizational
      factors and clinician use of therapy strategies within a system-wide effort to
      increase the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Data from 247 clinicians in 28
      child-serving organizations were collected. Clinicians participating in evidence
      based practice training initiatives were more likely to report using cognitive
      behavioral therapy when they endorsed more clinical experience, being salaried
      clinicians, and more openness to evidence-based practice. Clinicians
      participating in evidence-based practice initiatives were more likely to use
      psychodynamic techniques when they had older clients, less knowledge about
      evidence-based practice, more divergent attitudes toward EBP, higher financial
      strain, and worked in larger organizations. In clinicians not participating in
      evidence-based training initiatives; depersonalization was associated with higher
      use of cognitive-behavioral; whereas clinicians with less knowledge of evidence
      based practices were more likely to use psychodynamic techniques. This study
      suggests that clinician characteristics are important when implementing evidence
      based practices; and that consumer, clinician, and organizational characteristics
      are important when de-implementing non evidence-based practices. This work posits
      potential characteristics at multiple levels to target with implementation and
      deimplementation strategies.

PMID- 28865287
TI  - Do silhouettes and photographs produce fundamentally different object-based
      correspondence effects?
AB  - When participants classify pictures of objects as upright or inverted with a left
      or right keypress, responses are faster if the response location (left/right)
      corresponds with the location of a handle (left/right) than if it does not. This
      result has typically been attributed to a grasping affordance (automatic
      activation of muscles associated with grasping the object with the ipsilateral
      hand), but several findings have indicated instead that the effect is a spatial
      correspondence effect, much like the Simon effect for object location. Pappas
      (2014) reported evidence he interpreted as showing that spatial coding
      predominates with silhouettes of objects, whereas photographs of objects yield
      affordance-based effects. We conducted two experiments similar to those of
      Pappas, using frying pans as stimuli, with our two experiments differing in
      whether the entire object was centered on the display screen or the base was
      centered. When the objects were centered, a positive correspondence effect
      relative to the handle was evident for the silhouettes but a negative
      correspondence effect for the photographs. When the base was centered, the handle
      was clearly located to the left or right side of the display, and both
      silhouettes and photographs produced correspondence effects of similar size
      relative to the handle location. Despite the main results being counter to the
      grasping affordance hypothesis, response-time distribution analyses suggest that,
      instead of activating automatically at fast responses, an effector-specific
      component of the hypothesized type may come into play for responses that are
      selected after the handle location has been identified.

PMID- 28865288
TI  - Why consistent completion criterion are required in childhood weight management
      programmes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Current research in the field of childhood weight management (WM)
      effectiveness is hampered by inconsistent terminology and criterion for WM
      programme completion, alongside other engagement-related concepts (e.g.
      adherence, dropout and attrition). Evidence reviews are not able to determine
      conclusive intervention effectiveness because of this issue. This study aims to
      quantify how various completion criterion impacts upon on: 1) the percentage of
      WM completers; 2) the standardised body mass index (BMI SDS) reduction; and 3)
      the predictors of WM completion. STUDY DESIGN: A methodological, sensitivity
      analysis to examine how differential completion criterion affect programme
      outcomes and predictors. METHODS: Secondary data of 2948 children were used. All
      children attended a MoreLife WM programme between 2009 and 2014. The completion
      criterion was incrementally adjusted by 10% (i.e. completer attends 10%, 20%,
      30%... of sessions) for research aims 1-2, with the percentage of completers and
      change in BMI SDS calculated at each increment. For aim 3, the stability
      (strength, direction and significance) of the predictors were examined when using
      the completion criterion of four alternative studies against our previous study
      (completion >=70% attendance). RESULTS: The volume of programme completers
      decreased in a linear manner as the completion criterion became more stringent
      (i.e. 70-100% attendance). The change in BMI SDS conversely became incrementally
      greater. The strength, direction and significance of the predictors was highly
      dependent on the completion criterion; the odds ratio varied by 24.2% across a
      single predictor variable (delivery period). The degree of change is evidenced in
      the paper. CONCLUSIONS: Inconsistent completion criterion greatly limits the
      synthesis of programme effectiveness and explains some of the inconsistency in
      the predictors of engagement. Standardised criterion for engagement-related
      terminology are called for.

PMID- 28865289
TI  - DNA polymerase iota: The long and the short of it!
AB  - The cDNA encoding human DNA polymerase iota (POLI) was cloned in 1999. At that
      time, it was believed that the POLI gene encoded a protein of 715 amino acids.
      Advances in DNA sequencing technologies led to the realization that there is an
      upstream, in-frame initiation codon that would encode a DNA polymerase iota
      (poliota) protein of 740 amino acids. The extra 25 amino acid region is rich in
      acidic residues (11/25) and is reasonably conserved in eukaryotes ranging from
      fish to humans. As a consequence, the curated Reference Sequence (RefSeq)
      database identified poliota as a 740 amino acid protein. However, the existence
      of the 740 amino acid poliota has never been shown experimentally. Using highly
      specific antibodies to the 25 N-terminal amino acids of poliota, we were unable
      to detect the longer 740 amino acid (iota-long) isoform in western blots.
      However, trace amounts of the iota-long isoform were detected after enrichment by
      immunoprecipitation. One might argue that the longer isoform may have a distinct
      biological function, if it exhibits significant differences in its enzymatic
      properties from the shorter, well-characterized 715 amino acid poliota. We
      therefore purified and characterized recombinant full-length (740 amino acid)
      poliota-long and compared it to full-length (715 amino acid) poliota-short in
      vitro. The metal ion requirements for optimal catalytic activity differ slightly
      between iota-long and iota-short, but under optimal conditions, both isoforms
      exhibit indistinguishable enzymatic properties in vitro. We also report that like
      iota-short, the iota-long isoform can be monoubiquitinated and polyubiuquitinated
      in vivo, as well as form damage induced foci in vivo. We conclude that the
      predominant isoform of DNA poliota in human cells is the shorter 715 amino acid
      protein and that if, or when, expressed, the longer 740 amino acid isoform has
      identical properties to the considerably more abundant shorter isoform.

PMID- 28865290
TI  - Erythrocyte membrane-encapsulated celecoxib improves the cognitive decline of
      Alzheimer's disease by concurrently inducing neurogenesis and reducing apoptosis
      in APP/PS1 transgenic mice.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the loss of neurogenesis and
      excessive induction of apoptosis. The induction of neurogenesis and inhibition of
      apoptosis may be a promising therapeutic approach to combating the disease.
      Celecoxib (CB), a cyclooxygenase-2 specific inhibitor, could offer
      neuroprotection. Specifically, the CB-encapsulated erythrocyte membranes (CB
      RBCMs) sustained the release of CB over a period of 72 h in vitro and exhibited
      high brain biodistribution efficiency following intranasal administration, which
      resulted in the clearance of aggregated beta-amyloid proteins (Abeta) in neurons.
      The high accumulation of the CB-RBCMs in neurons resulted in a decrease in the
      neurotoxicity of CB and an increase in the migratory activity of neurons, and
      alleviated cognitive decline in APP/PS1 transgenic (Tg) mice. Indeed, COX-2
      metabolic products including prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and PGD2, PGE2 induced
      neurogenesis by enhancing the expression of SOD2 and 14-3-3zeta, and PGD2
      stimulated apoptosis by increasing the expression of BIK and decreasing the
      expression of ARRB1. To this end, the CB-RBCMs achieved better effects on
      concurrently increasing neurogenesis and decreasing apoptosis than the
      phospholipid membrane-encapsulated CB liposomes (CB-PSPD-LPs), which are critical
      for the development and progression of AD. Therefore, CB-RBCMs provide a rational
      design to treat AD by promoting the self-repairing capacity of the brain.

PMID- 28865291
TI  - Advances in polymeric islet cell encapsulation technologies to limit the foreign
      body response and provide immunoisolation.
AB  - Islet transplantation for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is hampered by
      the shortage of donor tissue and the need for life-long immunosuppression. The
      engineering of materials to limit host immune rejection opens the possibilities
      of utilising allogeneic and even xenogeneic cells without the need for systemic
      immunosuppression. Here we discuss the most recent developments in
      immunoisolation of transplanted cells using advanced polymeric biomaterials,
      utilising macroscale to nanoscale approaches, to limit aberrant immune responses.

PMID- 28865292
TI  - Pyrazole-hydrazone derivatives as anti-inflammatory agents: Design, synthesis,
      biological evaluation, COX-1,2/5-LOX inhibition and docking study.
AB  - A new series of pyrazole-hydrazone derivatives 4a-i were designed and
      synthesized, their chemical structures were confirmed by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS
      spectral data and elemental analysis. IC50 values for all prepared compounds to
      inhibit COX-1, COX-2 and 5-LOX enzymes were determined in vitro. Compounds 4a
      (IC50=0.67MUM) and 4b (IC50=0.58MUM) showed better COX-2 inhibitory activity than
      celecoxib (IC50=0.87MUM) with selectivity index (SI=8.41, 10.55 in sequent)
      relative to celecoxib (SI=8.85). Also, compound 4a and 4b exhibited superior
      inhibitory activity against 5-LOX (IC50=1.92, 2.31MUM) higher than zileuton
      (IC50=2.43MUM). All target pyrazoles were screened for their ability to reduce
      nitric oxide production in LPS stimulated peritoneal macrophages. Compounds 4a,
      4b, 4f and 4i displayed concentration dependent reduction and were screened for
      in vivo anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced rat paw edema assay.
      Compound 4f showed the highest anti-inflammatory activity (% edema inhibition=15
      20%) at all doses when compared to reference drug celecoxib (% edema
      inhibition=15.7-17.5%). Docking studies were carried out to investigate the
      interaction of target compounds with COX-2 enzyme active site.

PMID- 28865293
TI  - A new lignan and a new alkaloid, and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory compounds from
      the grains of Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yabuno.
AB  - A new lignan, utilisin (1), and a new alkaloid, echinoutilin (2), together with
      eleven known compounds 3-13 were isolated from the grains of Echinochloa utilis
      Ohwi & Yabuno. Their structures were identified through the analysis of
      spectroscopic data. The absolute configuration of 2 was determined by Mosher's
      method. These compounds were evaluated for alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity.
      Among them, compounds 2, 3 and 6 exhibited considerable alpha-glucosidase
      inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 42.1+/-1.3, 58.9+/-3.7, and 40.9+/
      1.1MUM, respectively. The results indicate that the grains of E. utilis will be
      useful in the treatment of diabetes control agents.

PMID- 28865294
TI  - Thiazolo[4,5-d]pyridazine analogues as a new class of dihydrofolate reductase
      (DHFR) inhibitors: Synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular modeling study.
AB  - A new series of 1,3-thiazoles and thiazolo[4,5-d]pyridazine both bearing the 2
      thioureido function were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their invitro
      DHFR inhibition and antitumor activities. Compound 26 proved to be the most
      active DHFR inhibitor (IC50 of 0.06MUM). Compound 4, 20 and 21 showed in vitro
      antitumor activity against a collection of cancer cell lines. Compound 26 proved
      lethal to HS 578T breast cancer cell line with IC50 value of 0.8MUM, inducing
      cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Molecular modeling studies concluded that
      recognition with key amino acids Phe 31 and Arg 22 is essential for DHFR binding.
      The obtained model could be useful for the development of new class of DHFR
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28865296
TI  - Peroxiredoxin 6 phospholipid hydroperoxidase activity in the repair of
      peroxidized cell membranes.
AB  - Although lipid peroxidation associated with oxidative stress can result in
      cellular death, sub-lethal lipid peroxidation can gradually resolve with return
      to the pre-exposure state. We have shown that resolution of lipid peroxidation is
      greatly delayed in lungs or cells that are null for peroxiredoxin 6 (Prdx6) and
      that both the phospholipase A2 and the GSH peroxidase activities of Prdx6 are
      required for a maximal rate of recovery. Like other peroxiredoxins, Prdx6 can
      reduce H2O2 and short chain hydroperoxides, but in addition can directly reduce
      phospholipid hydroperoxides. This study evaluated the relative role of these two
      different peroxidase activities of Prdx6 in the repair of peroxidized cell
      membranes. The His26 residue in Prdx6 is an important component of the binding
      site for phospholipids. Thus, we evaluated the lungs from H26A-Prdx6 expressing
      mice and generated H26A-Prdx6 expressing pulmonary microvascular endothelial
      cells (PMVEC) by lentiviral infection of Prdx6 null cells to compare with wild
      type in the repair of lipid peroxidation. Isolated lungs and PMVEC were exposed
      to tert-butyl hydroperoxide and mice were exposed to hyperoxia (> 95% O2). Assays
      for lipid peroxidation in wild type control and mutant lungs and cells showed ~4
      fold increase at end-exposure. Control lungs and cells showed gradual resolution
      during a post-exposure recovery period. However, there was no recovery from lipid
      peroxidation by H26A-Prdx6 lungs or PMVEC. These studies confirm an important
      role for Prdx6 in recovery from membrane lipid peroxidation and indicate that
      reduction of H2O2 or short chain hydroperoxides does not play a role in the
      recovery process.

PMID- 28865295
TI  - Observation of directional storybook reading influences young children's counting
      direction.
AB  - Even before formal schooling, children map numbers onto space in a directional
      manner. The origin of this preliterate spatial-numerical association is still
      debated. We investigated the role of enculturation for shaping the directionality
      of the association between numbers and space, focusing on counting behavior in 3-
      to 5-year-old preliterate children. Two studies provide evidence that, after
      observing reading from storybooks (left-to-right or right-to-left reading)
      children change their counting direction in line with the direction of observed
      reading. Just observing visuospatial directional movements had no such effect on
      counting direction. Complementarily, we document that book illustrations,
      prevalent in children's cultures, exhibit directionality that conforms to the
      direction of a culture's written language. We propose that shared book reading
      activates spatiotemporal representations of order in young children, which in
      turn affect their spatial representation of numbers.

PMID- 28865297
TI  - Effects of hCG and salmon gonadoliberine analogue on spermiation in the Eurasian
      perch (Perca fluviatilis).
AB  - This study analysed (i) the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and
      salmon gonadoliberine analogue (sGnRHa) on the effectiveness of induction of
      spermiation and (ii) the effect of latency time following the application of
      those spawning agents on the quantity and quality of the sperm of Eurasian perch,
      Perca fluviatilis, obtained during out-of-season spawning. For this study, pond
      reared fish were used which had been acclimated to the controlled conditions.
      Three groups were distinguished which were treated with either saline (0.9% NaCl;
      control group), hCG (500 IU kg-1) or sGnRHa (100 MUg kg-1). The fish were kept in
      a recirculating system at 12  degrees C throughout the study, during which sperm
      was collected every two days between the 2nd and 10th day following hormonal
      treatment. During the study, quantitative (e.g. sperm volume, total sperm
      production) and qualitative (measured with a computer-assisted sperm analysis
      system - i.e. CASA) parameters were monitored. The results of the study indicate
      that the hormonal treatment had a highly beneficial effect on the spermiation
      rate (100% in experimental groups from day 6 following injection) as well as
      quantity, which increased 50% in experimental groups (over 2200 * 109 of
      spermatozoa per kg of body weight) by day 4 following injection. For the sperm
      quality, both spawning agents tested had a rather positive effect, although sperm
      motility rate (MOT) was seen to be significantly reduced on day 10 following the
      application of hCG (MOT = 72.8% +/- 8.1), which was not observed after the
      application of sGnRHa (minimum mean MOT 81.7% +/- 6.1). The results clearly
      indicate that hormonal treatment had a positive effect on spermiation in Eurasian
      perch, most apparent from day 6 following injection, regardless of the hormonal
      agent used. Though application of sGnRHa allowed a high volume of high quality
      sperm to be stripped for two days longer (up to day 10 post-injection) compared
      to the application of hCG.

PMID- 28865298
TI  - Cognitive ability across the life course and cortisol levels in older age.
AB  - Elevated cortisol levels have been hypothesized to contribute to cognitive aging,
      but study findings are inconsistent. In the present study, we examined the
      association between salivary cortisol in older age and cognitive ability across
      the life course. We used data from 370 members of the 36-Day Sample of the
      Scottish Mental Survey 1947, who underwent cognitive testing at age 11 years and
      were then followed up at around age 78 years, completing further cognitive tests
      and providing diurnal salivary cortisol samples. We hypothesized that higher
      cortisol levels would be associated with lower cognitive ability in older age and
      greater cognitive decline from childhood to older age but also lower childhood
      cognitive ability. Few of the tested associations were significant, and of those
      that were, most suggested a positive relationship between cortisol and cognitive
      ability. Only 1 cognitive measure showed any sign of cortisol-related impairment.
      However, after correcting for multiple comparisons, no results remained
      significant. These findings suggest that cortisol may not play an important role
      in cognitive aging across the life course.

PMID- 28865299
TI  - Airway management: Utilizing radiologist expertise and neuroimaging with head and
      neck masses.

PMID- 28865300
TI  - Technical feasibility of personalized articulating knee joint distraction for
      treatment of tibiofemoral osteoarthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent degenerative joint disorder
      characterized by joint tissue damage and pain. Knee joint distraction has been
      introduced as a joint preserving surgical procedure to postpone knee
      arthroplasty. An often used standard externally fixation device for distraction
      poses a burden to patients due to the absence of joint flexion during the 6weeks
      treatment. Therefore, a personalized articulating distraction device was
      developed. The aim of this study was to test technical feasibility of this
      device. METHODS: Based on an often applied rigid device, using equal bone pin
      positions and connectors, a hinge mechanism was developed consisting of a cam
      following system for reproducing the complex joint-specific knee kinematics. In
      support, a device was developed for capturing the joint-specific sagittal plane
      articulation. The obtained kinematic data were translated into joint-specific cam
      shapes that were installed bilaterally in the hinge mechanism of the distraction
      device, as such providing personalized knee motion. Distraction of 5mm was
      performed within a range of motion of 30deg. joint flexion. Pre-clinical
      evaluation of the working principle was performed on human cadaveric legs and
      system stiffness characteristics were biomechanically evaluated. FINDINGS: The
      desired range of motion was obtained and distraction was maintained under
      physiologically representative loading. Moreover, the joint-specific approach
      demonstrated tolerance of deviations from anatomical and alignment origin during
      initial placement of the developed distraction device. INTERPRETATION:
      Articulation during knee distraction is considered technically feasible and has
      potential to decrease burden and improve acceptance of distraction therapy.
      Testing of clinical feasibility is warranted.

PMID- 28865301
TI  - Misidentified Human Gene Functions with Mouse Models: The Case of the
      Retinoblastoma Gene Family in Senescence.
AB  - Although mice models rank among the most widely used tools for understanding
      human genetics, biology, and diseases, differences between orthologous genes
      among species as close as mammals are possible, particularly in orthologous gene
      pairs in which one or more paralogous (i.e., duplicated) genes appear in the
      genomes of the species. Duplicated genes can possess overlapping functions and
      compensate for each other. The retinoblastoma gene family demonstrates typical
      composite functionality in its three member genes (i.e., RB1, RB2/P130, and
      P107), all of which participate in controlling the cell cycle and associated
      phenomena, including proliferation, quiescence, apoptosis, senescence, and cell
      differentiation. We analyzed the role of the retinoblastoma gene family in
      regulating senescence in mice and humans. Silencing experiments with each member
      of the gene family in mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and fibroblasts from mouse
      and human tissues demonstrated that RB1 may be indispensable for senescence in
      mouse cells, but not in human ones, as an example of species specificity.
      Furthermore, although RB2/P130 seems to be implicated in maintaining human cell
      senescence, the function of RB1 within any given species might differ by cell
      type, as an example of cell specificity. For instance, silencing RB1 in mouse
      fibroblasts induced a reduced senescence not observed in mouse MSCs. Our findings
      could be useful as a general paradigm of cautions to take when inferring the role
      of human genes analyzed in animal studies and when examining the role of the
      retinoblastoma gene family in detail.

PMID- 28865302
TI  - Coordination difficulties in preschool-aged children are associated with maternal
      parenting stress: A community-based cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although coordination difficulties are sometimes observed even in
      children in the general population, no empirical studies have examined the impact
      of these difficulties on parenting stress. AIMS: The aim of this study was to
      elucidate the relationship between coordination difficulties and parenting stress
      in a community-based sample of preschool-aged children and their mothers.
      METHODS: The study included 1691 families. Mothers with 4- or 5-year-old children
      completed questionnaires about parenting stress and children's coordination
      difficulties, as well as traits associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). RESULTS: The results of
      hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that coordination difficulties,
      and ADHD and ASD traits were each independent predictors of parenting stress.
      Among the significant predictive factors, impaired general coordination, as well
      as hyperactivity-impulsivity, showed a strong impact on parenting stress. In
      addition, a gender difference was observed in the manner in which coordination
      difficulties influenced parenting stress. CONCLUSIONS: Coordination difficulties
      in preschool-aged children in the general population increased maternal parenting
      stress (as did ADHD and ASD traits). This highlights the need to provide support
      for mothers who have children with coordination difficulties, even when there is
      no clinical diagnosis.

PMID- 28865304
TI  - Hypocoagulability as assessed by thrombin generation test in newly-diagnosed
      patients with multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28865305
TI  - Leaving moss and litter layers undisturbed reduces the short-term environmental
      consequences of heathland managed burns.
AB  - Variation in the structure of ground fuels, i.e. the moss and litter (M/L) layer,
      may be an important control on fire severity in heather moorlands and thus
      influence vegetation regeneration and soil carbon dynamics. We completed
      experimental fires in a Calluna vulgaris-dominated heathland to study the role of
      the M/L layer in determining (i) fire-induced temperature pulses into the soil
      and (ii) post-fire soil thermal dynamics. Manually removing the M/L layer before
      burning increased fire-induced soil heating, both at the soil surface and 2 cm
      below. Burnt plots where the M/L layer was removed simulated the fuel structure
      after high severity fires where ground fuels are consumed but the soil does not
      ignite. Where the M/L layer was manually removed, either before or after the
      fire, post-fire soil thermal dynamics showed larger diurnal and seasonal
      variation, as well as similar patterns to those observed after wildfires,
      compared to burnt plots where the M/L layer was not manipulated. We used soil
      temperatures to explore potential changes in post-fire soil respiration.
      Simulated high fire severity (where the M/L layer was manually removed) increased
      estimates of soil respiration in warm months. With projected fire regimes
      shifting towards higher severity fires, our results can help land managers
      develop strategies to balance ecosystem services in Calluna-dominated habitats.

PMID- 28865303
TI  - Defects at the crossroads of GABAergic signaling in generalized genetic
      epilepsies.
AB  - Seizure disorders are very common and affect 3% of the general population. The
      recurrent unprovoked seizures that are also called epilepsies are highly diverse
      as to both underlying genetic basis and clinic presentations. Recent genetic
      advances and sequencing technologies indicate that many epilepsies previously
      thought to be without known causes, or idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGEs),
      are virtually genetic epilepsy as they are caused by genetic variations. IGEs are
      estimated to account for ~15-20% of all epilepsies. Initially IGEs were primarily
      considered channelopathies, because the first genetic defects identified in IGEs
      involved ion channel genes. However, new findings indicate that mutations in many
      non ion channel genes are also involved in addition to those in ion channel
      genes. Interestingly, mutations in many genes associated with epilepsy affect
      GABAergic signaling, a major biological pathway in epilepsy. Additionally, many
      antiepileptic drugs work via enhancing GABAergic signaling. Hence, the review
      will focus on the mutations that impair GABAergic signaling and selectively
      discuss the newly identified STXBP1, PRRT2, and DNM1 in addition to those long
      established epilepsy ion channel genes that also impair GABAergic signaling like
      SCN1A and GABAA receptor subunit genes. GABAergic signaling includes the pre- and
      post- synaptic mechanisms. Some mutations, such as STXBP1, PRRT2, DNM1, and
      SCN1A, impair GABAergic signaling mainly via pre-synaptic mechanisms while those
      mutations in GABAA receptor subunit genes impair GABAergic signaling via post
      synaptic mechanisms. Nevertheless, these findings suggest impaired GABAergic
      signaling is a converging pathway of defects for many ion channel or non ion
      channel mutations associated with genetic epilepsies.

PMID- 28865306
TI  - Natural ecosystem mimicry in traditional dryland agroecosystems: Insights from an
      empirical and holistic approach.
AB  - While the aim of Ecological Intensification is to enable the design of more
      sustainable and productive agricultural systems, it is not suited to dryland
      agroecosystems that are driven by non-equilibrium dynamics and intrinsic
      variability. Instead, a model based on mobility and variability management has
      been proposed for these agroecosystems. However, this model remains under-applied
      in southern Morocco where there have been few studies on the functioning of
      traditional agroecosystems. This paper focuses on an agroecosystem in the
      Moroccan Saharan fringe zone that combines agriculture and pastoralism in an
      acacia parkland. A grounded theory approach was used over a three-year
      investigation period (i) to highlight how agro-pastoral activities interface with
      environmental variability, and (ii) to analyze the formal and informal
      institutions that support these activities. Results show that farmers interface
      with rainfall variability through (i) an opportunistic agricultural calendar,
      (ii) a variation of cultivated areas, and (iii) crop diversification. Herders
      combine macro-mobility (nomads move over long distances to track rainfall) and
      micro-mobility (nomadic and sedentary herds are driven on a daily basis around
      settlements) to optimize the exploitation of ecological heterogeneity. During
      droughts, they also resort to State-subsidized forage supplies. Both cultivation
      and pastoral activities tend to interface with ecological dynamics and to mimic
      nature, resulting in a human-modified parkland that could be considered as a
      'green agroecosystem'. The sustainability of natural resource use relies on
      flexible property rights, backed up by a social and cultural norm-based
      regulation system, that allow crop-livestock integration and landscape collective
      management. Despite encouraging results, the agroecosystem appears to be
      threatened by current agricultural policies, rural exodus and the lack of social
      recognition of nomadism. Nevertheless, because ecosystem mimicry of nature is
      often considered as a sound agricultural model for drylands, this case study
      could provide a basis for local development policies, and thus merits further
      attention from local managers and researchers.

PMID- 28865307
TI  - Active MgO-SiO2 hybrid material for organic dye removal: A mechanism and
      interaction study of the adsorption of C.I. Acid Blue 29 and C.I. Basic Blue 9.
AB  - A comparative analysis was performed concerning the removal of two different
      organic dyes from model aqueous solution using an inorganic oxide adsorbent. The
      key element of the study concerns evaluation of the influence of the dyes'
      structure and their acid-base character on the efficiency of the adsorption
      process. The selection of sorbent material for this research - an MgO-SiO2 oxide
      system synthesized via a modified sol-gel route - is also not without
      significance. The relatively high porous structure parameters of this material
      (ABET = 642 m2/g, Vp = 1.11 mL and Sp = 9.8 nm) are a result of the proposed
      methodology for its synthesis. Both organic dyes (C.I. Acid Blue 29 and C.I.
      Basic Blue 9) were subjected to typical batch adsorption tests, including
      investigation of such process parameters as time, initial adsorbate
      concentration, adsorbent dose, pH and temperature. An attempt was also made to
      estimate the sorption capacity of the oxide material with respect to the analyzed
      organic dyes. To achieve the objectives of the research - determine the
      efficiency of adsorption - it was important to perform a thorough physicochemical
      analysis of the adsorbents (e.g. FTIR, elemental analysis and porous structure
      parameters). The results confirmed the significantly higher affinity of the basic
      dye to the oxide adsorbents compared with the acidic dye. The regeneration tests,
      which indirectly determine the nature of the adsorbent/adsorbate interactions,
      provide further evidence for this finding. On this basis, a probable mechanism of
      dyes adsorption on the MgO-SiO2 oxide adsorbent was proposed.

PMID- 28865308
TI  - Hydrogen sulfide emissions from a swine building affected by dietary crude
      protein.
AB  - Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a toxic air pollutant at animal facilities; but the
      understanding of its generation and emission processes has been limited. This
      paper studied H2S emissions during a complete cycle of wean-finish pigs from a
      research building, where 12 pig rooms were divided into three groups that were
      fed with standard feed (control), and 2.1-3.8% (T1) and 4.4-7.8% (T2) reduced
      dietary crude protein (CP) feed. The group cycle mean H2S emission rates were 4.0
      +/- 2.9, 4.3 +/- 3.2, and 5.4 +/- 4.0 g d-1 AU-1 (Animal Unit = 500 kg live
      mass), respectively, for the control, T1, and T2 groups. Emissions of H2S were
      promoted by 10.0 and 36.7%, respectively, for the T1 and T2 groups (p < 0.001),
      although large variabilities existed in the emissions from different rooms within
      the same groups. The enhanced H2S emissions from the T1 and T2 groups were
      related to the reduced manure pH and were possibly affected through a number of
      pathways, which could involve volatile fatty acids and nitrogen concentrations,
      and microbial activities in manure.

PMID- 28865309
TI  - Electrocoagulation treatment of raw landfill leachate using iron-based
      electrodes: Effects of process parameters and optimization.
AB  - The main problem of landfill leachate is its diverse composition comprising many
      persistent organic pollutants which must be removed before being discharge into
      the environment. This study investigated the treatment of raw landfill leachate
      using electrocoagulation process. An electrocoagulation system was designed with
      iron as both the anode and cathode. The effects of inter-electrode distance,
      initial pH and electrolyte concentration on colour and COD removals were
      investigated. All these factors were found to have significant effects on the
      colour removal. On the other hand, electrolyte concentration was the most
      significant parameter affecting the COD removal. Numerical optimization was also
      conducted to obtain the optimum process performance. Under optimum conditions
      (initial pH: 7.73, inter-electrode distance: 1.16 cm, and electrolyte
      concentration (NaCl): 2.00 g/L), the process could remove up to 82.7% colour and
      45.1% COD. The process can be applied as a pre-treatment for raw leachates before
      applying other appropriate treatment technologies.

PMID- 28865310
TI  - Dynamic range of frontoparietal functional modulation is associated with working
      memory capacity limitations in older adults.
AB  - Older adults tend to over-activate regions throughout frontoparietal cortices and
      exhibit a reduced range of functional modulation during WM task performance
      compared to younger adults. While recent evidence suggests that reduced
      functional modulation is associated with poorer task performance, it remains
      unclear whether reduced range of modulation is indicative of general WM capacity
      limitations. In the current study, we examined whether the range of functional
      modulation observed over multiple levels of WM task difficulty (N-Back) predicts
      in-scanner task performance and out-of-scanner psychometric estimates of WM
      capacity. Within our sample (60-77years of age), age was negatively associated
      with frontoparietal modulation range. Individuals with greater modulation range
      exhibited more accurate N-Back performance. In addition, despite a lack of
      significant relationships between N-Back and complex span task performance, range
      of frontoparietal modulation during the N-Back significantly predicted domain
      general estimates of WM capacity. Consistent with previous cross-sectional
      findings, older individuals with less modulation range exhibited greater
      activation at the lowest level of task difficulty but less activation at the
      highest levels of task difficulty. Our results are largely consistent with
      existing theories of neurocognitive aging (e.g. CRUNCH) but focus attention on
      dynamic range of functional modulation asa novel marker of WM capacity
      limitations in older adults.

PMID- 28865311
TI  - NLRC5 promotes cell proliferation via regulating the NF-kappaB signaling pathway
      in Rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease and the
      pathogenesis remains unclear. Previous studies suggested that fibroblast-like
      synoviocytes (FLSs) play an important role in RA pathogenesis, including the
      injury of cartilage, the hyperplasia of the synovium and the release of
      inflammatory cytokines. We used complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) induced rats as
      animal models for studying the RA pathogenesis. NLRC5 as the largest member of
      the NLR family has been reported to play a critical role in regulating immune
      responses. Increasing evidence suggests that NLRC5 is an pivotal negative
      modulator of inflammatory pathways. We investigated the mechanisms and signaling
      pathways of NLRC5 in RA progression. Significantly increased expression of NLRC5
      was found in AA rats synovial tissues and cells. And high expression of
      inflammatory cytokine and cell proliferation of FLSs accompanied with NLRC5
      overexpression, but inhibited in cells with NLRC5 silencing treatment.
      Interestingly, we found that overexpression of NLRC5 also coordinated the
      activation of NF-kappaB signaling pathway. These results suggested that NLRC5
      promotes RA progression via the NF-kappaB signaling pathway potentially.

PMID- 28865312
TI  - Postural stability in subjects with temporomandibular disorders and healthy
      controls: A comparative assessment.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The influence of the stomatognathic apparatus on body
      posture is a continuously discussed topic with contrasting results. The aim of
      this study is to analyze differences in postural stability between subjects with
      and without myogenous TMD. METHODS: 25 subjects affected by myogenous TMD
      according with DC/TMD (6 males, 19 females; mean age 31.75+/-6.68years) and a
      healthy control group of 19 subjects (4 Males, 15 Females; mean age 27.26+/
      3.85years) were enrolled in the study. Both groups underwent a posturo
      stabilometric force platform exam under different mandibular and visual
      conditions. Sway area and sway velocity of the COP (Center Of foot Pressure)
      posturo-stabilometric parameters were evaluated and compared applying Mann-U
      Whitney statistical test. RESULTS: The sway area and sway velocity parameters
      resulted statistically significantly higher in the TMD group (sway area p<0.01;
      sway velocity p<0.05) in mandibular maximum intercuspation and rest positions
      with eyes open. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates a significant difference in
      body postural stability between subjects with myogenous TMD and healthy controls.
      In particular, sway area and sway velocity postural parameters are increased in
      these subjects.

PMID- 28865313
TI  - Autonomy facilitates repeated maximum force productions.
AB  - Performer autonomy (or self-control) has consistently been shown to enhance motor
      learning, and it can also provide immediate benefits for motor performance.
      Autonomy is also a key variable in the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (Wulf &
      Lewthwaite, 2016). It is assumed to contribute to enhanced expectancies and goal
      action coupling, affecting performance effectiveness and efficiency. The purpose
      of the present study was to examine whether providing autonomy support by giving
      performers choices would enhance their ability to maintain maximum force levels.
      Participants were asked to repeatedly produce maximum forces using a hand
      dynamometer. After 2 initial trials with the dominant and non-dominant hand,
      stratified randomization was used to assign participants with the same average
      maximum force to one of two groups, choice or yoked control groups. Choice group
      participants were able to choose the order of hands (dominant, non-dominant) on
      the remaining trials (3 per hand). For control group participants, hand order was
      determined by choice-group counterparts. Maximum forces decreased significantly
      across trials in the control group, whereas choice group participants were able
      to maintain the maximum forces produced on the first trial. We interpret these
      findings as evidence that performer autonomy promotes movement efficiency. The
      results are in line with the view that autonomy facilitates the coupling of goals
      and actions (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016).

PMID- 28865314
TI  - Safety analysis of urban arterials at the meso level.
AB  - Urban arterials form the main structure of street networks. They typically have
      multiple lanes, high traffic volume, and high crash frequency. Classical crash
      prediction models investigate the relationship between arterial characteristics
      and traffic safety by treating road segments and intersections as isolated units.
      This micro-level analysis does not work when examining urban arterial crashes
      because signal spacing is typically short for urban arterials, and there are
      interactions between intersections and road segments that classical models do not
      accommodate. Signal spacing also has safety effects on both intersections and
      road segments that classical models cannot fully account for because they
      allocate crashes separately to intersections and road segments. In addition,
      classical models do not consider the impact on arterial safety of the immediately
      surrounding street network pattern. This study proposes a new modeling
      methodology that will offer an integrated treatment of intersections and road
      segments by combining signalized intersections and their adjacent road segments
      into a single unit based on road geometric design characteristics and operational
      conditions. These are called meso-level units because they offer an analytical
      approach between micro and macro. The safety effects of signal spacing and street
      network pattern were estimated for this study based on 118 meso-level units
      obtained from 21 urban arterials in Shanghai, and were examined using CAR
      (conditional auto regressive) models that corrected for spatial correlation among
      the units within individual arterials. Results showed shorter arterial signal
      spacing was associated with higher total and PDO (property damage only) crashes,
      while arterials with a greater number of parallel roads were associated with
      lower total, PDO, and injury crashes. The findings from this study can be used in
      the traffic safety planning, design, and management of urban arterials.

PMID- 28865315
TI  - On the use of naturalistic methods to examine safety-relevant behaviours amongst
      children and evaluate a cycling education program.
AB  - School-based cycling education programs aim to improve cycling safety and
      participation amongst children. Available research suggests that typical
      programs, which focus on bicycle manoeuvring skills, have limited effects on
      behaviour observed on a track or planned route. The current study uses
      theoretically more valid, naturalistic cycling data, to evaluate Safe Cycle, a
      program that incorporates hazard and self-awareness training. Soon after Safe
      Cycle was delivered at treatment schools, research bicycles instrumented with a
      rearward- and a forward-facing camera were loaned to six children from treatment
      schools and six children from (waitlist) control schools. In each group half the
      children were in Year 6, and half were in Year 7/8. Each child was instructed to
      ride the research bicycle instead of their own bicycle for the 1-2 weeks that
      they had a research bicycle. Video data were reduced using a purpose-designed
      coding scheme that identified whether participants performed specific safety
      relevant behaviours in appropriate circumstances. While the participants
      controlled their bicycles well, gave way appropriately to traffic at
      intersections, and stopped at red lights, participants frequently removed one or
      both hands from the handlebars, and seldom signalled turns, conducted over
      shoulder-checks when changing lanes, or looked in multiple directions at
      intersections (except when crossing a road). While aspects of design and small
      sample sizes limited evaluation findings, this research demonstrated the
      feasibility and potential of naturalistic data to support cycling education
      program evaluation. Further, the study substantially extended available
      naturalistic study of children's cycling behaviour to highlight behaviours which
      might be targeted by cycling safety initiatives.

PMID- 28865317
TI  - Photoprotection against UV-induced damage by skin-derived precursors in hairless
      mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skin photodamage is associated with UV-induced overproduction of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the inactivation of NF-E2-related factor 2
      (Nrf2). Skin-derived precursor cells (SKPs), a population of dermal stem cells,
      are considered to be involved in wound repair and skin regeneration through the
      activation of Nrf2. However, no reports concentrate on the treatment of skin
      photodamage with SKPs. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the photoprotective role of SKPs
      against UV-induced damage in mice. METHODS: Fifty Balb/c hairless mice were
      divided into five groups (n=10), namely, normal (no intervention), model,
      prevention, treatment, and control groups. The latter four groups were dorsally
      exposed to UVA+UVB irradiation over a 2-week period. Mice in the prevention group
      received weekly SKP injections for 2weeks the day before irradiation. Mice in the
      treatment and Hanks groups received a two-time injection of SKPs and Hanks,
      respectively, after irradiation. One week after final intervention, skin
      appearance, pathological alterations, and oxidative indicators were evaluated by
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunohistochemical analysis, and western
      blotting. RESULTS: After irradiation, lesions were observed on the dorsal skin of
      mice, including erythema, edema, scales, and wrinkles; however, these were
      significantly ameliorated by subcutaneous SKP injection. Hyperkeratosis,
      acanthosis, and spongiosis in the epidermis, as well as dermal papillae edema and
      inflammatory cell infiltration, were observed in both model and control groups;
      however, these conditions resolved with either pretreatment or posttreatment with
      SKPs. In addition, SKPs increased Nrf2, heme oxygenase-1, glutathione peroxidase,
      superoxide dismutase, catalase, and gluthathione expression, while decreasing
      levels of ROS, MDA, and H2O2. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that SKPs have
      a photoprotective role against UV-induced damage in mice, which may be associated
      with their ability to scavenge photo-oxidative insults and activate Nrf2.

PMID- 28865316
TI  - Oxidative species-induced excitonic transport in tubulin aromatic networks:
      Potential implications for neurodegenerative disease.
AB  - Oxidative stress is a pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative tauopathic
      disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease-related dementia,
      which are characterized by altered forms of the microtubule-associated protein
      (MAP) tau. MAP tau is a key protein in stabilizing the microtubule architecture
      that regulates neuron morphology and synaptic strength. When MAP tau is degraded
      in tauopathic disorders, neuron dysfunction results. The precise role of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) in the tauopathic disease process, however, is poorly
      understood. Classically, mitochondrial dysfunction has been viewed as the major
      source of oxidative stress and has been shown to precede tau and amyloid
      pathology in various dementias, but the exact mechanisms are not clear. It is
      known that the production of ROS by mitochondria can result in ultraweak photon
      emission (UPE) within cells. While of low intensity, surrounding proteins within
      the cytosol can still absorb these energetic photons via aromatic amino acids
      (e.g., tryptophan and tyrosine). One likely absorber of these photons is the
      microtubule cytoskeleton, as it forms a vast network spanning neurons, is highly
      co-localized with mitochondria, and shows a high density of aromatic amino acids.
      Functional microtubule networks may traffic this ROS-generated endogenous photon
      energy for cellular signaling, or they may serve as dissipaters/conduits of such
      energy to protect the cell from potentially harmful effects. Experimentally,
      after in vitro exposure to exogenous photons, microtubules have been shown to
      reorient and reorganize in a dose-dependent manner with the greatest effect being
      observed around 280nm, in the tryptophan and tyrosine absorption range. In this
      paper, recent modeling efforts based on ambient temperature experiment are
      presented, showing that tubulin polymers can feasibly absorb and channel these
      photoexcitations via resonance energy transfer, on the order of dendritic length
      scales and neuronal fine structure. Since microtubule networks are compromised in
      tauopathic diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementias, patients with
      these illnesses would be unable to support effective channeling of these photons
      for signaling or dissipation. Consequent emission surplus due to increased UPE
      production or decreased ability to absorb and transfer may lead to increased
      cellular oxidative damage, thus hastening the neurodegenerative process.

PMID- 28865318
TI  - Preparation and characterization of Fe3O4-Ag2O quantum dots decorated cellulose
      nanofibers as a carrier of anticancer drugs for skin cancer.
AB  - The Best performance drug delivery systems designed with Fe3O4-Ag2O quantum dots
      decorated cellulose nanofibers which that grafted with Etoposide and
      Methotrexate. Morphology properties were characterized by Scanning and
      Transmittance electron microscopy. The crystalline structure of prepared sample
      was evaluated using by X-ray diffraction. The vibrating sample magnetometer
      analysis was used for magnetic behavior of samples. The size distributions of
      Fe3O4-Ag2O QDs/Cellulose fibers nanocomposites indicate that the average diameter
      was 62.5nm. The Saturation magnetization (Ms) indicates the Fe3O4-Ag2O
      QDs/Cellulose fibers nanocomposites have ferromagnetic properties in nature. For
      make carrier, the Iron and Silver should be binds to cellulose nanofibers and to
      drug molecules and observe in UV-vis spectroscopy. The drug release kinetics was
      studied in vitro as spectrophotometrically. The release of Etoposide and
      Methotrexate were carried out with a constant speed, and the equilibrium reached
      at 24 and 30h with a total amount 78.94% and 63.84%, respectively. The results
      demonstrated that the obtained Fe3O4-Ag2O quantum dots/cellulose fibers
      nanocomposites could be applied for drug delivery systems. Cytotoxicity and
      antioxidant study confirmed the activity of the drug incorporated in
      nanocomposites. In addition, the cytotoxicity of drug was increased when loaded
      on nanocomposites, compared to pure Fe3O4-Ag2O quantum dots/cellulose fibers
      nanocomposites.

PMID- 28865319
TI  - Comparative in vitro study of photodynamic activity of hypericin and
      hypericinates in MCF-7 cells.
AB  - In this work we present a comparative in vitro study of photodynamic activity
      between hypericin (HYP) and some hypericinates (hypericin ionic pair with lysine
      or N-methylglucamine) in human mammary adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7). The toxicity
      and phototoxicity of hypericin and hypericinates were compared, as well as their
      cellular uptake and localization and mutagenic, genotoxic and clonogenic
      capacity. Our results demonstrate that different cationic moieties promote
      differences in the hypericinate solubility in a biological environment, and can
      influence the cellular localization and the phototoxicity of the photosensitizer.
      It was verified that hypericinates have better efficiency to generate singlet
      oxygen than HYP, and a lower aggregation in biological medium. In vitro assays
      have shown that HYP and the hypericinates are able to permeate the MCF-7 cell
      membrane and accumulated in organelles near the nucleus. The difference in
      location, however, was not determinant to the cell death mechanism, and a higher
      prevalence of apoptosis for all studied compounds occurred. The photodynamic
      studies indicated that hypericinates were more effective than HYP and were able
      to inhibit the formation of cellular colonies, suggesting a possible ability to
      prevent the recurrence of tumors. It also appears that all compounds have
      relative safety for mutagenicity and genotoxicity, which opens up a further safe
      route for application in in vivo studies.

PMID- 28865320
TI  - Antiproliferation and antibacterial effect of biosynthesized AgNps from leaves
      extract of Guiera senegalensis and its catalytic reduction on some persistent
      organic pollutants.
AB  - The study concentrate on the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNps) from
      the leaves extract of Guiera senegalensis with focus on its; antiproliferation
      effect on prostate (PC3), breast (MCF7) and liver (HepG2) cancer cell lines,
      antibacterial effect on Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S.
      aureus) and the degradation on 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and congo red dye (CR). The
      synthesized AgNps were characterized by FTIR, TEM, FESEM, XRD and EDX analysis.
      The EDS spectrum revealed that the synthesized nanoparticles (Nps) were composed
      of 55.45% Ag atoms of spherical shape with approximately 50nm size, identified
      from TEM and FESEM data. The antiproliferation effect of the AgNps varies with
      cell lines in a concentration dependent manner. The result showed that the AgNps
      were more effective on PC3 (IC50 23.48MUg/mL) than MCF7 (29.25MUg/mL) and HepG2
      (33.25MUg/mL) by the virtue of their IC50 values. The AgNps were highly effective
      against E. coli and S. aureus by killing 99% colonies. The AgNps also shows a
      good catalytic reduction of the toxic organic pollutants in which only 3mg of the
      AgNps degraded 95% of both CR dye and 4-NP in 22 and 36min respectively.
      Therefore, the green synthesis of AgNps may have potential applications in
      pharmacology and industries for the treatment of cancers, bacterial infections
      and in degrading toxic organic pollutants in water.

PMID- 28865321
TI  - In silico identification of inhibitors of ribose 5-phosphate isomerase from
      Trypanosoma cruzi using ligand and structure based approaches.
AB  - Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, affects approximately
      seven million people, mainly in Latin America, and causes about 7000 deaths
      annually. The available treatments are unsatisfactory and search for more
      effective drugs against this pathogen is critical. In this context, the ribose 5
      phosphate isomerase (Rpi) enzyme is a potential drug target mainly due to its
      function in the pentose phosphate pathway and its essentiality (previously shown
      in other trypanosomatids). In this study, we propose novel potential inhibitors
      for the Rpi of T. cruzi (TcRpi) based on a computer-aided approach, including
      structure-based and ligand-based pharmacophore modeling. Along with a
      substructural and similarity search, the selected pharmacophore hypotheses were
      used to screen the purchasable subset of the ZINC Database, yielding 20,183
      candidate compounds. These compounds were submitted to molecular docking studies
      in the TcRpi and Human Rpi (HsRpi) active sites in order to identify potential
      selective inhibitors for the T. cruzi enzyme. After the molecular docking and
      ADME-T (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity)/PAINS (pan
      assay interference compounds) screenings, 211 molecules were selected as
      potential TcRpi inhibitors. Out of these, three compounds - ZINC36975961,
      ZINC63480117, and ZINC43763931 - were submitted to molecular dynamics simulations
      and two of them - ZINC36975961 and ZINC43763931- had good performance and made
      interactions with important active site residues over all the simulation time.
      These compounds could be considered potential TcRpi inhibitors candidates and
      also may be used as leads for developing new TcRpi inhibitors.

PMID- 28865322
TI  - Microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia in patients with failed
      gamma knife surgery: Analysis of efficacy and safety.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Though it is usually successful, failure or delayed pain recurrence
      may occur after gamma knife surgery (GKS) in patients with trigeminal neuralgia
      (TN), and additional intervention may be required. This study aimed to
      investigate whether the safety and efficacy of microvascular decompression (MVD)
      were influenced by prior GKS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The authors retrospectively
      evaluated 36 consecutive TN patients who underwent MVD after failed GKS from
      January 2012 to June 2013. The clinical features, operative findings and surgical
      outcomes were reviewed and statistically analyzed, and the operation results were
      further compared with a cohort of 60 patients with no prior GKS. RESULTS: At
      surgery, atrophy of the trigeminal nerve was observed in 13 patients (36.1%),
      arachnoid thickening in 6 patients (16.7%), adhesions between vessels and the
      trigeminal nerve in 8 patients (22.2%), and atherosclerotic plaque in the
      offending vessels in 3 patients (8.3%). The complete pain relief rates were 83.3%
      immediately after MVD and 72.2% at last follow-up, which showed no statistical
      difference when compared with patients without GKS. New or worsened facial
      numbness occurred in 7 patients (19.4%), which was significantly higher than
      those without GKS (p=0.02). Univariate analysis suggested that a positive pain
      response to the prior GKS correlated with better long-term outcome (p=0.015), and
      the existence of arachnoid adhesions correlated with higher risk of facial
      numbness (p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: MVD remains an appropriate and effective
      alternative therapy for patients with failed GKS, with no added technical
      difficulty. However, the risk of facial numbness seems to be higher than those
      with MVD alone.

PMID- 28865323
TI  - Impact of antithrombotic treatment on clinical outcomes after craniotomy for
      unruptured intracranial aneurysm.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients receiving antithrombotic treatment occasionally undergo
      craniotomy. We aimed to explore the impact of perioperative use of antithrombotic
      agents on the occurrence of surgical complications and clinical outcomes in
      patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively analyzed 401 consecutive patients who had undergone craniotomy
      for UIA at our institution between January 2006 and December 2016. Patients were
      divided into two groups: those who received oral antiplatelet and/or
      anticoagulant agents during the perioperative period (antithrombotic treatment
      group, n=45); and those who did not (no antithrombotic treatment group, n=356).
      In the antithrombotic treatment group, 40 patients received antiplatelet alone, 2
      received anticoagulant alone, and 3 received antiplatelet plus anticoagulant.
      RESULTS: The two groups showed no significant differences in mortality,
      morbidity, or occurrence of symptomatic brain infarction, but intracranial
      hemorrhage was more frequent in the antithrombotic treatment group than in the no
      antithrombotic treatment group (p=0.0187). Multivariate analysis revealed
      posterior location of the aneurysm (odds ratio (OR), 8.10; 95% confidence
      interval (CI), 2.77-23.68; p=0.0001) and surgical procedure (OR, 5.48; 95%CI,
      1.68-17.86; p=0.0048) as significantly correlated with severe morbidity, and
      intracranial hemorrhage as correlated significantly with antithrombotic treatment
      (OR, 3.83; 95%CI, 1.36-10.76; p=0.0110). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides
      important information about the occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage and
      clinical outcomes in patients undergoing antithrombotic treatment during the
      perioperative period of craniotomy for UIA.

PMID- 28865324
TI  - The impact of APOA5, APOB, APOC3 and ABCA1 gene polymorphisms on ischemic stroke:
      Evidence from a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Genetic studies have been reported on the association
      between APOA5, APOB, APOC3 and ABCA1 gene polymorphisms and ischemic stroke, but
      results remain controversial. Hence, this meta-analysis aimed to infer the causal
      relationships of APOA5 (rs662799, rs3135506), APOB (rs693, rs1042031, rs1801701),
      APOC3 (rs4520, rs5128, rs2854116, rs2854117) and ABCA1 rs2230806 with ischemic
      stroke risk. METHODS: A systematic review was performed for all the articles
      retrieved from multiple databases, up until March 2017. Data were extracted from
      all eligible studies, and meta-analysis was carried out using RevMan 5.3 and R
      package 3.2.1. The strength of association between each studied polymorphism and
      ischemic stroke risk was measured as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs), under fixed- and random-effect models. RESULTS: A total of 79
      studies reporting on the association between the studied polymorphisms and
      ischemic stroke risk were identified. The pooled data indicated that all genetic
      models of APOA5 rs662799 (ORs = 1.23-1.43), allelic and over-dominant models of
      APOA5 rs3135506 (ORs = 1.77-1.97), APOB rs1801701 (ORs = 1.72-2.13) and APOB
      rs1042031 (ORs = 1.66-1.88) as well as dominant model of ABCA1 rs2230806 (OR =
      1.31) were significantly associated with higher risk of ischemic stroke. However,
      no significant associations were observed between ischemic stroke and the other
      five polymorphisms, namely ApoB (rs693) and APOC3 (rs4520, rs5128, rs2854116 and
      rs2854117), under any genetic model. CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis
      confirmed a significant association of APOA5 rs662799 CC, APOA5 rs3135506 CG,
      APOB rs1801701 GA, APOB rs1042031 GA and ABCA1 rs2230806 GG with increased risk
      of ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28865325
TI  - Impact of cystatin C and microalbuminuria on cognitive impairment in the
      population of community-dwelling Japanese.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cognitive impairment is an important element affecting our
      well-being, and as such, early diagnosis is critical today. We investigated
      whether serum cystatin C and microalbuminuria are associated with cognitive
      impairment. METHODS: A total of 1943 subjects (774 males, 1169 females, mean age
      65.8 years) took part in the investigation, and underwent a health examination in
      Tanushimaru, Japan, in 2009. The participants' cognitive function was evaluated
      using of mini-mental state examination (MMSE). We measured the levels of serum
      cystatin C using latex nephelometric immunoassay. Spot urine samples were used to
      measure microalbuminuria levels. Multivariate linear regression analyses were
      used to assess the relationship between MMSE scores and the level of cystatin C
      or microalbuminuria. All statistical analyses were performed using the SAS
      system. RESULTS: The mean values of log-transformed serum cystatin C levels and
      log-transformed microalbuminuria were 0.95 (range 0.41-7.11) mg/L and 10.7 (range
      1.1-2600) mg/g.Cr, respectively. The means of MMSE score were 27.7 +/- 2.5. In
      the multivariate linear regression analyses adjusted for age and sex, MMSE was
      significantly associated with systolic blood pressure (p = 0.024, inversely),
      cystatin C (p = 0.046, inversely) and microalbuminuria (p = 0.019, inversely),
      whereas estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) had an insignificant
      association (p = 0.197). In the multiple stepwise linear regression analysis,
      age, history of stroke, systolic blood pressure, serum cystatin C were
      independently associated with MMSE levels. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated for the
      first time that cognitive function was significantly and inversely associated
      with cystatin C and microalbuminuria, in the relatively younger general
      population.

PMID- 28865326
TI  - Hydrogen sulfide attenuates calcification of vascular smooth muscle cells via
      KEAP1/NRF2/NQO1 activation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Vascular calcification is a common health problem related to
      oxidative stress, inflammation, and circulating calciprotein particles (CPP).
      Hydrogen sulfide is an endogenous signaling molecule with antioxidant properties
      and potential for drug development targeting redox signaling. Yet, its molecular
      mechanisms of action in vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) calcification have not
      been delineated. We therefore sought to identify key pathways involved in the
      calcification-inhibitory properties of sulfide employing our recently developed
      CPP-induced VSMC calcification model. METHODS: Using next-generation sequencing,
      we investigated the transcriptomic changes of sodium hydrosulfide-treated versus
      non-treated calcifying VSMCs. The potential role of candidate genes and/or
      regulatory pathways in prevention of calcification was investigated by small
      interfering RNA (siRNA). RESULTS: CPP led to a pronounced accumulation of cell
      associated calcium, which was decreased by sulfide in a concentration-dependent
      manner. Both, CPP-induced hydrogen peroxide production and enhanced pro
      inflammatory/oxidative stress-related gene expression signatures were attenuated
      by sulfide-treatment. Gene ontology enrichment and in silico pathway analysis of
      our transcriptome data suggested NAD(P)H dehydrogenase [quinone] 1 (NQO1) as
      potential mediator. Corroborating these findings, silencing of Kelch-like ECH
      associated protein 1 (KEAP1), an inhibitor of nuclear factor (erythroid-derived
      2)-like 2 (NRF2) nuclear activity, enhanced NQO1 expression, whereas NRF2
      silencing reduced the expression of NQO1 and abrogated the calcification
      suppressing activity of sulfide. Moreover, immunofluorescence microscopy and
      Western blot analysis confirmed nuclear translocation of NRF2 by sulfide in VSMC.
      CONCLUSIONS: Sulfide attenuates CPP-induced VSMC calcification in vitro via the
      KEAP1-NRF2 redox sensing/stress response system by enhancing NQO1 expression.

PMID- 28865327
TI  - Increased diabetes risk and interaction with social and medical events in
      patients upon stroke: Two nationwide studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The relationship between stroke and diabetes is not completely
      understood. This study evaluated diabetes risk and post-diabetes adverse events
      in patients with stroke. METHODS: We identified 10,255 adults, newly diagnosed
      with stroke from 2000 to 2005, using the Taiwan's National Health Insurance
      Research Database. A comparison cohort of 41,020 adults without stroke was
      randomly selected from the same dataset, frequency matched by age and sex.
      Diabetes events from 2000 to 2013 were ascertained from medical claims. Adjusted
      hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were calculated for diabetes associated with
      stroke. A nested cohort study of 33,437 patients with inpatient care for diabetes
      between 2008 and 2013 was conducted to calculate the adjusted odds ratios (ORs)
      and 95% CIs for adverse events after diabetes, in patients with and without
      stroke. RESULTS: During 489,561 person-years of follow-up, there were 10,742
      newly diagnosed diabetes cases. The incidence of diabetes for people with and
      without stroke was 43.9 and 17.8 per 1000 person-years, respectively (p <
      0.0001). Compared to that for people without stroke, the adjusted HR for diabetes
      was 2.69 (95% CI 2.56-2.82) for stroke patients. The ORs of post-diabetes
      pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and mortality associated with stroke were
      1.35 (95% CI 1.17-1.55), 1.52 (95% CI 1.36-1.70), and 1.71 (95% CI 1.27-2.29),
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We provide evidence that the consequences of stroke
      are not limited to the neurological defect, but evoke diabetes and a plethora of
      associated medical, psychological and social impacts the physician must be
      strongly aware of if evaluating and treating stroke patients.

PMID- 28865328
TI  - Uptake of Plutonium-238 into Solanum tuberosum L. (potato plants) in presence of
      complexing agent EDTA.
AB  - Bioavailability and plant uptake of radionuclides depend on various factors.
      Transfer into different plant parts depends on chemical and physical processes,
      which need to be known for realistic ingestion dose modelling when these plants
      are used for food. Within the scope of the present work, the plutonium uptake by
      potato plants (Solanum tuberosum L.) was investigated in hydroponic solution of
      low concentration [Pu] = 10-9 mol L-1. Particular attention was paid to the
      speciation of radionuclides in the solution which was modelled by the speciation
      code PHREEQC. The speciation, the solubility and therefore the plant availability
      of radionuclides mainly depend on the pH value and the redox potential of the
      solution. During the contamination period, the redox potential did not change
      significantly. In contrast, the pH value showed characteristic changes depending
      on exudates excreted by the plants. Plant roots took up high amounts of plutonium
      (37%-50% of the added total amount). In addition to the uptake into the roots,
      the radionuclides can also adsorb to the exterior root surface. The solution-to
      plant transfer factor showed values between 0.03 and 0.80 (Bq kg-1/ Bq L-1) for
      the potato tubers. By addition of the complexing agent EDTA (10-4 mol L-1), the
      plutonium uptake from solution increased by 58% in tubers and by 155% in
      shoots/leaves. The results showed that excreted substances by plants affect
      bioavailability of radionuclides at low concentration, on the one hand. On the
      other hand, the uptake of plutonium by roots and the accumulation in different
      plant parts can lead to non-negligible ingestion doses, even at low
      concentration. We are aware of the limited transferability of data obtained in
      hydroponic solutions to plants growing in soil. However, the aim of this study is
      twofold: First we want to investigate the influence of Pu speciation on plant
      uptake in a rather well defined system which can be modelled using available
      thermodynamic data. Second, techniques developed here shall be applied to the
      investigation of plants growing in soil in the future. The present work
      contributes to the basic understanding how plant induced effects on nutrient
      solution influence bioavailability of radionuclides and fosters the need for more
      detailed investigations of the complex uptake and accumulation processes of
      radionuclides into plants.

PMID- 28865329
TI  - A retrospective clinicopathological study of lung adenocarcinoma: Total tumor
      size can predict subtypes and lymph node involvement.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the predictive ability of total tumor size in lung
      adenocarcinoma subtype and lymph node involvement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 1018
      patients, <=3cm tumor, were enrolled. The maximum diameter and other variables of
      each tumor were measured. RESULTS: The optimal cut-off value for total tumor size
      in differentiating AIS and MIA from IAC was <1.15cm, in distinguishing lymph node
      involvement, it was 1.65cm. CONCLUSIONS: Total tumor size could be a reliable
      predictor of lung adenocarcinoma subtype and lymph node involvement irrespective
      of ground glass, part solid and solid characteristics.

PMID- 28865330
TI  - Online monitoring of astragaloside II metabolism using a homemade cultural device
      coupled with microdialysis and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - A new system was described for the online monitoring of astragaloside II (AII)
      metabolism in intestinal microbial community. The system was based on a homemade
      cultural device coupled with microdialysis (MD) and ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). Main improvements include a
      simplified anaerobic incubator enabling the experiment to be conducted in ambient
      atmosphere, continuous sampling, and decreased matrix effect. Importantly, our
      method distinctly decreases the interference of small molecules by adding 20mgml
      1 of 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) to the perfusion fluid. Using
      the developed method, the metabolism of AII in intestinal bacteria was
      successfully investigated. Results were then compared with those obtained by
      conventional incubation and sampling method. We found that the integrated
      experimental system maintained the proper fermentation environment for bacteria
      and enabled high chromatography performance. With the advantages of auto
      sampling, online detection, non-requirement of expensive fermenting equipment,
      and negligible matrix interference, the method can greatly contribute to the
      investigation of the dynamic biotransformation of astragalosides in complicated
      matrix-based biological samples.

PMID- 28865331
TI  - Preparative separation of the polar part from the rhizomes of Anemarrhena
      asphodeloides using a hydrophilic C18 stationary phase.
AB  - The goal of this study was to develop a method that utilized a hydrophilic C18
      stationary phase in the preparative high performance liquid chromatography to
      isolate the polar part from the rhizomes of Anemarrhena asphodeloides. The
      results showed that an initial mobile phase of pure water for the separation
      could greatly increase the retention and solubility of the polar compounds at the
      preparative scale. Introducing polar groups on the surface of the hydrophilic C18
      column together with the use of optimized mobile phase compositions improved the
      column separation selectivity for polar compounds. Eleven previously undescribed
      compounds in Anemarrhena asphodeloides were obtained, indicating that the method
      developed in this study would facilitate the purification and separation of the
      polar part of traditional Chinese medicines.

PMID- 28865333
TI  - Assessing mood symptoms through heartbeat dynamics: An HRV study on
      cardiosurgical patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is reduced both in depression and in
      coronary heart disease (CHD) suggesting common pathophysiological mechanisms for
      the two disorders. Within CHD, cardiac surgery patients (CSP) with postoperative
      depression are at greater risk of adverse cardiac events. Therefore, CSP would
      especially benefit from depression early diagnosis. Here we tested whether HRV
      multi-feature analysis discriminates CSP with or without depression and provides
      an effective estimation of symptoms severity. METHODS: Thirty-one patients
      admitted to cardiac rehabilitation after first-time cardiac surgery were
      recruited. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic
      Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). HRV features in time, frequency, and nonlinear
      domains were extracted from 5-min-ECG recordings at rest and used as predictors
      of "least absolute shrinkage and selection" (LASSO) operator regression model to
      estimate patients' CES-D score and to predict depressive state. RESULTS: The
      model significantly predicted the CES-D score in all subjects (the total
      explained variance of CES-D score was 89.93%). Also it discriminated depressed
      and non-depressed CSP with 86.75% accuracy. Seven of the ten most informative
      metrics belonged to non-linear-domain. LIMITATIONS: A higher number of patients
      evaluated also with a structured clinical interview would help to generalize the
      present findings. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge this is the first study using a
      multi-feature approach to evaluate depression in CSP. The high informative power
      of HRV-nonlinear metrics suggests their possible pathophysiological role both in
      depression and in CHD. The high-accuracy of the algorithm at single-subject level
      opens to its translational use as screening tool in clinical practice.

PMID- 28865332
TI  - Metabolomic study for monitoring of biomarkers in mouse plasma with asthma by gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry.
AB  - Asthma is a multifaceted chronic disease caused by an alteration of various
      genetic and environmental factors that is increasing in incidence worldwide.
      However, the biochemical mechanisms regarding asthma are not completely
      understood. Thus, we performed of metabolomic study for understanding of the
      biochemical events by monitoring of altered metabolism and biomarkers in asthma.
      In mice plasma, 27 amino acids(AAs), 24 fatty acids(FAs) and 17 organic
      acids(OAs) were determined by ethoxycarbonyl(EOC)/methoxime(MO)/tert
      butyldimethylsilyl(TBDMS) derivatives with GC-MS. Their percentage composition
      normalized to the corresponding mean levels of control group. They then plotted
      as star symbol patterns for visual monitoring of altered metabolism, which were
      characteristic and readily distinguishable in control and asthma groups. The Mann
      Whitney test revealed 25 metabolites, including eight AAs, nine FAs and eight
      OAs, which were significantly different (p<0.05), and orthogonal partial least
      squares-discriminant analysis revealed a clear separation of the two groups. In
      classification analysis, palmitic acid and methionine were the main metabolites
      for discrimination between asthma and the control followed by pipecolic, lactic,
      alpha-ketoglutaric, and linoleic acids for high classification accuracy as
      potential biomarkers. These explain the metabolic disturbance in asthma for AAs
      and FAs including intermediate OAs related to the energy metabolism in the TCA
      cycle.

PMID- 28865334
TI  - Agent-based modeling as a tool for program design and evaluation.
AB  - Recently, systems thinking and systems science approaches have gained popularity
      in the field of evaluation; however, there has been relatively little exploration
      of how evaluators could use quantitative tools to assist in the implementation of
      systems approaches therein. The purpose of this paper is to explore potential
      uses of one such quantitative tool, agent-based modeling, in evaluation practice.
      To this end, we define agent-based modeling and offer potential uses for it in
      typical evaluation activities, including: engaging stakeholders, selecting an
      intervention, modeling program theory, setting performance targets, and
      interpreting evaluation results. We provide demonstrative examples from published
      agent-based modeling efforts both inside and outside the field of evaluation for
      each of the evaluative activities discussed. We further describe potential
      pitfalls of this tool and offer cautions for evaluators who may chose to
      implement it in their practice. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion
      of the future of agent-based modeling in evaluation practice and a call for more
      formal exploration of this tool as well as other approaches to simulation
      modeling in the field.

PMID- 28865335
TI  - The capability of radial basis function to forecast the volume fractions of the
      annular three-phase flow of gas-oil-water.
AB  - The problem of how to precisely measure the volume fractions of oil-gas-water
      mixtures in a pipeline remains as one of the main challenges in the petroleum
      industry. This paper reports the capability of Radial Basis Function (RBF) in
      forecasting the volume fractions in a gas-oil-water multiphase system. Indeed, in
      the present research, the volume fractions in the annular three-phase flow are
      measured based on a dual energy metering system including the 152Eu and 137Cs and
      one NaI detector, and then modeled by a RBF model. Since the summation of volume
      fractions are constant (equal to 100%), therefore it is enough for the RBF model
      to forecast only two volume fractions. In this investigation, three RBF models
      are employed. The first model is used to forecast the oil and water volume
      fractions. The next one is utilized to forecast the water and gas volume
      fractions, and the last one to forecast the gas and oil volume fractions. In the
      next stage, the numerical data obtained from MCNP-X code must be introduced to
      the RBF models. Then, the average errors of these three models are calculated and
      compared. The model which has the least error is picked up as the best predictive
      model. Based on the results, the best RBF model, forecasts the oil and water
      volume fractions with the mean relative error of less than 0.5%, which indicates
      that the RBF model introduced in this study ensures an effective enough mechanism
      to forecast the results.

PMID- 28865336
TI  - Isotope investigation on groundwater recharge and dynamics in shallow and deep
      alluvial aquifers of southwest Punjab.
AB  - Groundwater samples collected from the alluvial aquifers of southwest Punjab,
      both shallow and deep zones were measured for environmental tritium (3H) and
      stable isotopes (2H and 18O) to evaluate the source of recharge and aquifer
      dynamics. The shallow groundwater shows wide variation in isotopic signature
      (delta18O: -11.3 to -5.00/00) reflecting multiple sources of recharge. The
      average isotopic signature of shallow groundwaters (delta18O: -6.73 +/- 1.030/00)
      is similar to that of local precipitation (-6.98 +/- 1.660/00) indicating local
      precipitation contributes to a large extent compared to other sources. Other
      sources have isotopically distinct signatures due to either high altitude
      recharge (canal sources) or evaporative enrichment (irrigation return flow). Deep
      groundwater shows relatively depleted isotopic signature (delta18O: -8.60/00) and
      doesn't show any evaporation effect as compared to shallow zone indicating
      recharge from precipitation occurring at relatively higher altitudes.
      Environmental tritium indicates that both shallow (3H: 5 - 10 T.U.) and deeper
      zone (3H: 1.5 - 2.5 T.U.) groundwaters are modern. In general the inter-aquifer
      connections seem to be unlikely except a few places. Environmental isotope data
      suggests that shallow groundwater is dynamic, local and prone to changes in land
      use patterns while deep zone water is derived from distant sources, less dynamic
      and not impacted by surface manifestations. A conceptual groundwater flow diagram
      is presented.

PMID- 28865337
TI  - Spectrally resolved thermoluminescence of pure potassium chloride crystals.
AB  - Alkali halides are wide band gap dielectric materials, which are very important
      for luminescence dosimetry. Nevertheless, only some of them were studied
      comprehensively. Potassium chloride (KCl) is alkali halide material, which shows
      pronounced thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
      The material occurs also in natural mineral form as sylvite (or sylvine). This
      paper presents results of spectrally resolved thermoluminescence (SR-TL)
      measurements of pure KCl crystals in temperature range 300-550K for various doses
      of beta irradiation. Four emission bands were found relating to different
      recombination centers in this material. TL curves relating to these centers have
      different shape. It indicates that recombination centers are not filled
      concurrently.

PMID- 28865338
TI  - Impact of restarting home neuropsychiatric medications on sedation outcomes in
      medical intensive care unit patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: This single-center, retrospective cohort study investigated the effects
      of timing of initiating home neuropsychiatric medications (NPMs) on sedation
      related outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects included adult medical
      intensive care unit (MICU) patients who had an NPM on their admission medication
      list; intubated before or on arrival to the intensive care unit (ICU); and were
      on benzodiazepine-based sedation. The intervention assessed was the timing of the
      initiation of home NPMs: early (<=5days) vs. late (>5days) into the ICU stay.
      RESULTS: There were 56 and 53 patients in the early and late restart groups,
      respectively. Early cohort patients maintained a median daily RASS of -1.5, while
      late cohort patients had a median daily RASS of -2.0 (p=0.02). The effect was
      driven by the subgroup of patients on home anti-depressant therapy who were
      restarted early on these agents. The early restart group had a higher percentage
      of days with RASS scores within goal (p=0.01) and less delirium (p=0.02). Early
      restarting of home NPMs was associated with a non-significant decrease in
      ventilator days compared with late restarting (p=0.11). CONCLUSIONS: Restarting
      home NPMs was associated with lighter sedation levels and less delirium.

PMID- 28865339
TI  - Enteral nutrition as stress ulcer prophylaxis in critically ill patients: A
      randomized controlled exploratory study.
AB  - PURPOSE: We investigated whether early enteral nutrition alone may be sufficient
      prophylaxis against stress-related gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding in mechanically
      ventilated patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective, double blind,
      randomized, placebo-controlled, exploratory study that included mechanically
      ventilated patients in medical ICUs of two academic hospitals. Intravenous
      pantoprazole and early enteral nutrition were compared to placebo and early
      enteral nutrition as stress-ulcer prophylaxis. The incidences of clinically
      significant and overt GI bleeding were compared in the two groups. RESULTS: 124
      patients were enrolled in the study. After exclusion of 22 patients, 102 patients
      were included in analysis: 55 patients in the treatment group and 47 patients in
      the placebo group. Two patients (one from each group) showed signs of overt GI
      bleeding (overall incidence 1.96%), and both patients experienced a drop of >3
      points in hematocrit in a 24-hour period indicating a clinically significant GI
      bleed. There was no statistical significant difference in the incidence of overt
      or significant GI bleeding between groups (p=0.99). CONCLUSION: We found no
      benefit when pantoprazole is added to early enteral nutrition in mechanically
      ventilated critically ill patients. The routine prescription of acid-suppressive
      therapy in critically ill patients who tolerate early enteral nutrition warrants
      further evaluation.

PMID- 28865340
TI  - Is patient length of stay associated with intensive care unit characteristics?
AB  - PURPOSE: We described the association between Intensive care units (ICU)
      characteristics and ICU Length of stay (LoS), after correcting for patient
      characteristics. We also compared the predictive performances of models including
      either patient and ICU characteristics or only patient characteristics. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We included all admissions of 38 ICUs participating in the Dutch
      National Intensive Care Evaluation registry (NICE) between 2014 and 2016. We
      performed mixed effect regression including, one ICU characteristic in each model
      and a random intercept per ICU. Furthermore, we developed a prediction model
      containing multiple ICU characteristics and patients characteristics. RESULTS: We
      found negative associations for the number of hospital beds; number of ICU beds;
      availability of fellows in training for intensivist; full-time equivalent ICU
      nurses; and discharged in a shift with 100% bed occupancy. Furthermore, we found
      a U-shaped association with the nurses to patient ratio as spline function. The
      performance based on R2 was between 0.30 and 0.32 for both the model containing
      only patient characteristics and the model also containing ICU characteristics.
      CONCLUSION: After correcting for patient characteristics, we found statistically
      significant associations between ICU LoS and six ICU characteristics, mainly
      describing staff availability. Furthermore, we conclude that including ICU
      characteristics did not significantly improve ICU LoS prediction.

PMID- 28865341
TI  - Small RNAs in major foodborne pathogens: from novel regulatory activities to
      future applications.
AB  - Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) are involved in post-transcriptional control of
      important cellular processes and contribute to the success of a pathogen. Here,
      we use studies primarily selected from Salmonella enterica and Listeria
      monocytogenes to illustrate the current status of sRNA biology in important
      foodborne pathogens. We discuss how the regulatory activities of sRNAs can be
      affected by base pairing RNAs known as 'sponge RNAs', or by RNA-binding proteins,
      such as the newly discovered sRNA chaperone ProQ. Furthermore, we highlight
      recent findings for sRNAs with regulatory roles during infection, some of which
      are present in multiple copies, designated 'sibling sRNAs'. Importantly,
      knowledge on sRNA-mediated regulation can be exploited for biotechnological
      applications, such as in generating gene knockdowns to promote desired traits.

PMID- 28865342
TI  - Inclusion of oligonucleotide antimicrobials in biocompatible cationic liposomes:
      A structural study.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Transcription factor decoys (TFD) are short oligonucleotides designed
      to block essential genetic pathways in bacteria and defeat resistant infections.
      TFD protection in biological fluids and their delivery to the site of infection
      require formulation in appropriate delivery systems. In this work, we build on a
      classical phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylethanolamine (POPC/DOPE) scaffold to
      design TFD-loaded cationic liposomes by combining the DNA-complexing abilities of
      a bolaamphiphile, (1,1'-(dodecane-1,12-diyl)-bis-(9-amino-1,2,3,4
      tetrahydroacridinium) chloride (12-bis-THA), with the biocompatible cationic
      lipid ethyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPePC). The goal is to perform a structural
      study to determine the impact of the bolaamphiphile and TFD incorporation on the
      liposome structure, the capacity for TFD encapsulation, and the colloidal
      stability in saline media and cell culture environments. EXPERIMENTS: The systems
      are characterized by means of dynamic light scattering, small-angle X-ray
      scattering, and zeta-potential measurements, to provide a clear picture of the
      liposome structure. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is used to assess the
      compaction of the oligonucleotide in a psi form, while steady-state fluorescence
      and fluorescence correlation spectroscopies give insight into the entrapment rate
      and distribution of the TFD in the liposomes. FINDINGS: We found that the
      combination of the two cationic species, 12-bis-THA and DPePC, allows
      encapsulation of 90% of the TFD. Results of CD experiments revealed that the TFD
      is condensed, therefore likely protected from the lytic action of serum
      nucleases. Finally, the systems showed colloidal stability in aqueous dispersion
      with ionic strength comparable to biologically relevant media.

PMID- 28865343
TI  - Formation of peptide layers and adsorption mechanisms on a negatively charged
      cation-exchange membrane.
AB  - Polypeptide/solid charged surface interactions are omnipresent in the biomedical
      and biochemical fields. The present study aimed to understand the adsorption
      mechanisms of a cation-exchange membrane (CEM) by a well-characterized peptide
      mixture at three different pH values. Results demonstrated that fouling was
      important at pH 6, twice lower at pH 2 and negligible at pH 10. At pH 6, ALPMHIR
      and TKIPAVFK sequences firstly established electrostatic interactions with the
      negative CEM charges (SO3-) through their positive K and R residues (NH3+)
      creating a first nanolayer. Secondly, peptide/peptide interactions occurred
      through their respective hydrophobic residues creating a second nanolayer. At pH
      2, VLVLDTDYK and IDALNENK sequences interacted only electrostatically and that in
      a lower proportion since at acidic pH values, most of the CEM charges would be
      protonated and uncharged (HSO3) and then limit the potential electrostatic
      interactions. In addition, the sequences of peptides interacting at pH 2 and 6
      were different. This was explained by their structure in terms of residue nature
      and position in the sequence. At pH 10, no fouling was observed due to the lack
      of positive peptide charges. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first in
      depth study concerning the fouling of CEMs by peptides from a complex mixture.

PMID- 28865344
TI  - Heartland virus infection in hamsters deficient in type I interferon signaling:
      Protracted disease course ameliorated by favipiravir.
AB  - Heartland virus (HRTV) is an emerging tick-borne virus (Bunyaviridae,
      Phlebovirus) that has caused sporadic cases of human disease in several central
      and mid-eastern states of America. Animal models of HRTV disease are needed to
      gain insights into viral pathogenesis and advancing antiviral drug development.
      Presence of clinical disease following HRTV challenge in hamsters deficient in
      STAT2 function underscores the important role played by type I interferon-induced
      antiviral responses. However, the recovery of most of the infected animals
      suggests that other mechanisms to control infection and limit disease offer
      substantial protection. The most prominent disease sign with HRTV infection in
      STAT2 knockout hamsters was dramatic weight loss with clinical laboratory and
      histopathology demonstrating acute inflammation in the spleen, lymph node, liver
      and lung. Finally, we show that HRTV disease in hamsters can be prevented by the
      use of favipiravir, a promising broad-spectrum antiviral in clinical development
      for the treatment of influenza.

PMID- 28865346
TI  - Prevalence of depressive symptoms and their association with brainstem raphe
      echogenicity in patients with Parkinson's disease and non-PD controls.
AB  - Despite advances in diagnostics and clinical recognition, depressive symptoms in
      Parkinson's disease (PD) exceeding normal limits remain effectively untreated. In
      this study, we report on the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms as
      well as their association with brainstem raphe echogenicity in patients with PD
      and non-PD controls. The study included 266 Estonian PD patients and 168 age- and
      education-matched controls. Demographic and clinical data was documented.
      Brainstem raphe (BR) was visualized by transcranial sonography (TCS). The
      prevalence of depressive symptoms in the patient sample was found to be
      significantly higher than in controls. BR echogenicity in both patients and
      controls was directly related to their total BDI score, although we found a
      significantly greater reduction of BR echogenicity in patients with PD and
      depressive symptoms compared to depressed non-PD controls. The present results
      corroborate the hypothesis that morphological alteration of the BR is involved in
      the pathogenesis of depressive disorders. TCS of BR could be used as a non
      invasive biomarker to improve detection of depressive symptoms in early PD stages
      where clinicians may not recognize affective disturbances in the context of PD
      phenomena.

PMID- 28865347
TI  - Time-varying assessment of heart rate variability parameters using respiratory
      information.
AB  - Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) is commonly used for characterization of
      autonomic nervous system. As high frequency (HF, known as the respiratory
      related) component of HR, overlaps with the typical low frequency (LF) band when
      the respiratory rate is low, a reference signal for HF variations would help in
      better discriminating the LF and HF components of HR. The present study proposes
      a model for time-varying separation of HRV components as well as estimation of
      HRV parameters using respiration information. An autoregressive moving average
      with exogenous input (ARMAX) model of HRV is considered with a parametrically
      modeled respiration signal as the input. The model parameters are estimated using
      smoothed extended Kalman filtering. Results for different synthetic data show
      that our proposed joint model outperforms the classical AR modeling in estimation
      of HRV parameters especially in the case of low respiration rate. In addition,
      the possibility of using pulse transit time (PTT) and the amplitude of
      photoplethysmogram (PPGamp) as surrogates of the input respiratory signal has
      been investigated. To this end, electrocardiogram (ECG), PPG and respiration have
      been recorded from 21 healthy subjects (10 males and 11 females, mean age 27.5 +/
      4.1) during normal and deep respiration. Results show that indeed PTT and PPGamp
      offer good potential to be used as references for respiratory-related variations
      of HR, thus avoiding additional devices for recording respiration.

PMID- 28865348
TI  - Prediction of muscle activation for an eye movement with finite element modeling.
AB  - In this paper, a 3D finite element (FE) modeling is employed in order to predict
      extraocular muscles' activation and investigate force coordination in various
      motions of the eye orbit. A continuum constitutive hyperelastic model is employed
      for material description in dynamic modeling of the extraocular muscles (EOMs).
      Two significant features of this model are accurate mass modeling with FE method
      and stimulating EOMs for motion through muscle activation parameter. In order to
      validate the eye model, a forward dynamics simulation of the eye motion is
      carried out by variation of the muscle activation. Furthermore, to realize muscle
      activation prediction in various eye motions, two different tracking-based
      inverse controllers are proposed. The performance of these two inverse
      controllers is investigated according to their resulted muscle force magnitude
      and muscle force coordination. The simulation results are compared with the
      available experimental data and the well-known existing neurological laws. The
      comparison authenticates both the validation and the prediction results.

PMID- 28865345
TI  - White matter microstructural deficits in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.
AB  - Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS), a
      neurogenetic condition associated with psychosis, report brain white matter (WM)
      microstructure aberrations. Several studies report that WM disruptions in 22q11DS
      are similar to deficits in idiopathic schizophrenia. Yet, DTI results in 22q11DS
      are inconsistent. We used DTI to compare WM structure in 22q11DS individuals to
      healthy controls (HC) and explored WM differences in 22q11DS with (+) and without
      (-) psychosis spectrum symptoms. We examined 39 22q11DS individuals and 39 age,
      sex and race equivalent HC. DTI was performed at 3T using a 64-direction
      protocol. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was lower, while radial diffusivity was
      higher in 22q11DS within the cingulum bundle. Mean diffusivity was lower in the
      inferior longitudinal fasciculus, while axial diffusivity (AD) was lower in the
      cingulum bundle, forceps major, and several posterior to anterior fasciculi.
      22q11DS+ had lower FA in the cingulum bundle and lower AD in the uncinate
      fasciculus compared to 22q11DS-. Overall, we found aberrant WM microstructure in
      individuals with 22q11DS compared to age and sex matched HC and exploratory
      analysis indicated subtle WM deficits associated with psychosis. The findings
      highlight the dysfunction of WM microstructure in 22q11DS and its potential
      importance in elucidating WM abnormalities in psychosis.

PMID- 28865349
TI  - Adsorption characteristics of Copper (II), Zinc (II) and Mercury (II) by four
      kinds of immobilized fungi residues.
AB  - This study investigated the adsorption characteristics of Copper (II), Zinc (II)
      and Mercury (II) by immobilized Flammulina velutipes, Auricularia polytricha,
      Pleurotus eryngii and Pleurotus ostreatus residues. Lagergren model, elovich and
      intraparticle diffusion model were used to present the adsorption kinetics, and
      it was proved that Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second order kinetics are
      the best suitable model with high correlation coefficient to characterize the
      adsorption process of Copper (II), Zinc (II) and Mercury (II). The results showed
      that adsorption process finished in 120min at pH 6.0. The adsorption rate of
      Cu2+, Zn2+ and Hg2+ were reached to 53.8-84.1% of total in the initial 60min, and
      finished in 120min. Ion exchange and complexation of F. velutipes were the main
      mechanisms for adsorption of metal ions by characterizations of Scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). In addition the
      functional group of cell walls such as hydroxyl, amide, carbonyl, phosphoric
      played a critical role in ions adsorption of edible mushroom residues. Cu2+, Zn2+
      and Hg2+ in wastewater could be efficiently removed by F. velutipes residue with
      removal ratio of 73.11%, 66.67% and 69.35%, respectively.

PMID- 28865350
TI  - How do educational contexts contribute to the social class achievement gap:
      documenting symbolic violence from a social psychological point of view.
AB  - This article examines how the educational system participates in the reproduction
      of social inequality. After exposing the basics of the Social Reproduction Theory
      developed in sociology by Bourdieu and Passeron in 1977, we examine the research
      in social psychology that documents the reality of 'symbolic violence' that is
      the symbolic power that operates in the classroom and undermines the performance
      of students from underprivileged backgrounds. Three lines of research are
      examined: self-esteem, self-threat and research on the non-neutrality of
      educational settings.

PMID- 28865352
TI  - Is it really penetration? Locomotion of devitalized Enterococcus faecalis cells
      within dentinal tubules of bovine teeth.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the penetration
      characteristics of devitalized and vital E. faecalis cells into root dentinal
      tubules. DESIGN: Thirteen root canals were incubated with devitalized (4days,
      7days, 14days, 28days) and vital (28days) E. faecalis strains (streptomycin
      resistant strains) after root canal enlargement (size 80, taper 0.02) with 3 %
      NaOCl solution. The smear layer was intentionally removed with 20 % EDTA before
      inoculation. Samples were processed for analysis by scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM) and DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining. DAPI was conducted for
      fluorescence microscopic visualization of the bacterial penetration into dentinal
      tubules. The penetration depth was calculated with the measurement tool of the
      Axio Vision program (Zeiss, Jena, Germany). RESULTS: Devitalized E. faecalis
      strains were able to penetrate into dentinal tubules of the root canal. Apikal
      penetration depths of the devitalized cells were 100.67MUm+/-26.54MUm after
      7days, 230.67MUm+/-111.5MUm after 14days and 266.5MUm+/-92.63MUm after 28days of
      incubation. The total number and penetration depth of E. faecalis cells was lower
      compared to a vital suspension of E. faecalis (1002.45MUm) after 28days. It was
      noted that bacterial penetration was not common to all of the dentinal tubules in
      the vital E. faecalis control and especially in the devitalized control.
      CONCLUSIONS: Increased exposure times of devitalized bacteria into root canals
      lead to an increased number of penetrated dentinal tubules as well as to a deeper
      penetration.

PMID- 28865351
TI  - Exogenous testosterone enhances cortisol and affective responses to social
      evaluative stress in dominant men.
AB  - Stress often precedes the onset of mental health disorders and is linked to
      negative impacts on physical health as well. Prior research indicates that
      testosterone levels are related to reduced stress reactivity in some cases but
      correlate with increased stress responses in other cases. To resolve these
      inconsistencies, we tested the causal influence of testosterone on stress
      reactivity to a social-evaluative stressor. Further, prior work has failed to
      consider status-relevant individual differences such as trait dominance that may
      modulate the influence of testosterone on responses to stressors. Participants
      (n=120 males) were randomly assigned to receive exogenous testosterone or placebo
      (n=60 testosterone treatment group) via topical gel prior to a well-validated
      social-evaluative stressor. Compared to placebo, testosterone significantly
      increased cortisol and negative affect in response to the stressor, especially
      for men high in trait dominance (95% confidence intervals did not contain zero).
      The findings suggest that the combination of high testosterone and exposure to
      status-relevant social stress may confer increased risk for stress-mediated
      disorders, particularly for individuals high in trait dominance.

PMID- 28865354
TI  - The discrimination of 72 nitrate, chlorate and perchlorate salts using IR and
      Raman spectroscopy.
AB  - Inorganic oxidizing energetic salts including nitrates, chlorates and
      perchlorates are widely used in the manufacture of not only licit pyrotechnic
      compositions, but also illicit homemade explosive mixtures. Their identification
      in forensic laboratories is usually accomplished by either capillary
      electrophoresis or ion chromatography, with the disadvantage of dissociating the
      salt into its ions. On the contrary, vibrational spectroscopy, including IR and
      Raman, enables the non-invasive identification of the salt, i.e. avoiding its
      dissociation. This study focuses on the discrimination of all nitrate, chlorate
      and perchlorate salts that are commercially available, using both Raman and IR
      spectroscopy, with the aim of testing whether every salt can be unequivocally
      identified. Besides the visual spectra comparison by assigning every band with
      the corresponding molecular vibrational mode, a statistical analysis based on
      Pearson correlation was performed to ensure an objective identification, either
      using Raman, IR or both. Positively, 25 salts (out of 72) were unequivocally
      identified using Raman, 30 salts when using IR and 44 when combining both
      techniques. Negatively, some salts were undistinguishable even using both
      techniques demonstrating there are some salts that provide very similar Raman and
      IR spectra.

PMID- 28865353
TI  - Mechanisms involved in facial heat hyperalgesia induced by endothelin-1 in female
      rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pronociceptive responses to endothelins in the trigeminal system seem
      to be mediated by ETA and ETB receptors, which have been shown to be expressed in
      neurons of the trigeminal ganglion of humans and rats. The present study aimed to
      evaluate the ability of endothelin-1 (ET-1) to induce facial heat hyperalgesia in
      female rats, the contribution of ETA and ETB receptors to this response, as well
      as the mechanisms underlying heat hyperalgesia induced by ET-1. DESIGN: ET-1
      (100pmol/50MUL) was injected into the upper lip and heat hyperalgesia was
      evaluated for up to 6h. Facial heat hyperalgesia induced by ET-1 was assessed in
      rats pre-treated locally with BQ-123 or BQ-788 (selective ETA and ETB receptor
      antagonists, respectively, 30nmol/50MUL); BCTC (TRPV1 receptor antagonist;
      300MUg/50MUL); anti-NGF (3MUg/50MUL); K252a (TrkA inhibitor, 1MUg/50MUL); or in
      rats that received intraganglionar resiniferatoxin injection (RTX, 200ng/10MUL)
      to promote C-fibers ablation. RESULTS: ET-1 induced facial heat hyperalgesia that
      persisted up to 6h and was prevented by BQ-123, BQ-788 or by intraganglionar RTX
      injection. Likewise, local pre-treatment with BCTC abolished ET-1 induced facial
      heat hyperalgesia up to 3h. Local pre-treatment with anti-NGF or K252a was
      effective to prevent ET-1 induced heat hyperalgesia. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion,
      ET-1 is able to induce heat hyperagelsia in trigeminal primary afferents of
      female rats, which is mediated by ETA and ETB receptors. Activation of TRPV1
      receptors and NGF-signaling pathways may contribute to heat hyperalgesia induced
      by ET-1.

PMID- 28865355
TI  - Multi-spectroscopic investigation on the complexation of tetracycline with
      dissolved organic matter derived from algae and macrophyte.
AB  - Interactions of antibiotics with algae-derived dissolved organic matter (ADOM)
      and macrophyte-derived dissolved organic matter (MDOM) are of vital importance to
      the transport and ecotoxicity of antibiotics in eutrophic freshwater lakes. Multi
      spectroscopic techniques were used to investigate the complexation of
      tetracycline (TTC) with ADOM and MDOM collected from Lake Taihu (China). The 3
      fluorescent components, tyrosine-, tryptophan-, and humic-like component, were
      identified by excitation emission matrix spectra with parallel factor analysis.
      Their fluorescence was quenched at different degree by TTC titration through
      static quenching. The complexation of TTC induced conformational changes in DOM
      fractions. Synchronous fluorescence spectra combined with two dimensional
      correlation spectroscopy further suggested that the formation of TTC-DOM
      complexes occurred on the sequential order of tryptophan-like->tyrosine-like
      >humic-like component. The effective quenching constants of tryptophan- and
      tyrosine-like component were similar, higher than those of humic-like component.
      The strong binding ability and abundant content of protein-like substances
      indicated their prominent role in the TTC-DOM complexation. Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy further revealed that the heterogeneous functional groups,
      including amide I and II, aromatics, and aliphatics, were responsible for the
      complexation. These results highlight the significant impact of the overgrowth of
      algae and macrophyte on the environmental behavior of antibiotics in waters.

PMID- 28865356
TI  - Chemical composition of submicron and fine particulate matter collected in
      Krakow, Poland. Consequences for the APARIC project.
AB  - Submicron particulate matter containing particles with an aerodynamic diameter
      <=1 MUm (PM1) are not monitored continuously by Environmental Protection Agencies
      around the World and are seldom studied. Numerous studies have indicated that
      people exposed to ultrafine (<=100 nm), submicron and fine particulate matter
      containing particles with an aerodynamic diameter <=2.5 MUm (PM2.5), can suffer
      from respiratory track diseases, cardiovascular, immunological or heart diseases
      and others. Inorganic pollutants containing redox active transition metals and
      small gaseous molecules, are involved in the generation of reactive oxygen and
      reactive nitrogen species. Inhalation of this kind of particles can affect immune
      toxicity. Environmental pollution may aggravate the course of autoimmune
      diseases, in particular influence the mechanisms of the autoimmune system.
      Important factors that influence the toxicity of particulate matter, are particle
      size distribution, composition and concentration. This report deals with the
      composition of PM1 and PM2.5 fractions collected in Krakow, Poland. In spring
      2015, the mean concentrations of PM1 and PM2.5 were 19 +/- 14 and 27 +/- 19
      MUg/m3, respectively. The PM2.5 fraction contained approximately 70 +/- 17% of
      submicron particulate matter. In spring 2016, the mean concentrations of PM1 and
      PM2.5 were 12 +/- 5 and 22 +/- 12 MUg/m3, respectively. The PM2.5 fraction
      contained approximately 60 +/- 15% of submicron particulate matter. The
      concentrations of the elements Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr
      and Pb in both fractions were determined by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Most
      of the analyzed metals had higher concentrations in the fine fraction than in the
      submicron one. Concentrations of V and As were below the detection limit in both
      fractions, whereas concentrations of Mn and Ca were below the detection limits in
      the PM1 fraction. The results are discussed in terms of the consequences they may
      have on the APARIC project presently underway in Krakow.

PMID- 28865357
TI  - Check point inhibitors as therapies for infectious diseases.
AB  - The recent successes of immune check point targeting therapies in treating cancer
      patients has driven a resurgence of interest in targeting these pathways in
      chronically infected patients. While still in early stages, basic and clinical
      data suggest that blockade of CTLA-4 and PD-1 can be beneficial in the treatment
      of chronic HIV, HBV, and HCV infection, as well as other chronic maladies.
      Furthermore, novel inhibitory receptors such as Tim-3, LAG-3, and TIGIT are the
      potential next wave of check points that can be manipulated for the treatment of
      chronic infection. Blockade of these pathways influences more than simply T cell
      responses, and may provide new therapeutic options for chronically infected
      patients.

PMID- 28865358
TI  - Fabrication of all-trans-retinoic acid-loaded biocompatible precirol: A strategy
      for escaping dose-dependent side effects of doxorubicin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drug delivery-based nanoparticles have been emerged to be an
      alternative and efficient approach to cancer therapy compared to conventional
      systems. Here, we investigated the role of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA)
      formulated with precirol in increasing doxorubicin (Dox) induced apoptosis and
      cell cycle arrest in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. METHODS: ATRA-loaded Nano
      structured lipid carriers (NLCs) were evaluated in terms of particle size, zeta
      potential, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), cell internalization,
      and scanning electron microscope (SEM). To understand molecular mechanism of
      apoptosis and cell cycle progression flow cytometric assay, MTT and DAPI staining
      was applied. Real time (RT)-PCR analysis was employed to investigate the
      expression of apoptosis related genes, including Survivin, Bcl-2 and Bax.
      RESULTS: The optimized ATRA formulation exhibited average particle size of 95+/
      5nm with nearly narrow size distribution. The IC50 values for ATRA and
      doxorubicin were 48+/-0.4MUM and 0.81+/-0.02MUM, respectively. ATRA-loaded NLCs
      decreased percentage of cell proliferation from 51+/-7.2% to 36+/-4.1% (p <0.05).
      Co-treatment of the MDA-MB-231 cells with ATRA formulation and doxorubicin caused
      two-fold increase in the percentage of apoptosis (p<0.05). The results from gene
      expression exhibited a significant decrease in survivin along with increase at
      Bax mRNA levels accompanied by a slight increase in Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. CONCLUSION:
      Our results propose that ATRA encapsulated in precirol as a biocompatible
      compound augments the efficacy of Dox in cancer therapy.

PMID- 28865359
TI  - Thermosensitive in situ nanocomposite of rivastigmine hydrogen tartrate as an
      intranasal delivery system: Development, characterization, ex vivo permeation and
      cellular studies.
AB  - Intranasal administration of pharmaceutical compounds is gaining considerable
      attention as an alternative route for localized/systemic drug delivery. However,
      insufficient therapeutic efficacy of drugs via this route seems to be a major
      challenge for development of de novo intranasal formulations. This shortcoming
      can be overcome by simultaneous utilization of a nanoparticulate delivery system
      with a polymeric gel network. Therefore, the main aim of the present study was to
      develop erodible in-situ gel forming systems of poloxamer 407(r) (P407) as a
      promising platform, capable of prolonging rivastigmine hydrogen tartrate (RHT)
      release from the embedded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles
      (NPs). PLGA NPs containing RHT were formulated and characterized, then were
      embedded in P407 gel forming matrix and analyzed in terms of viscosity,
      stability, gelation temperature, loading efficiency and mucoahesive behavior. The
      cytotoxicity of NPs was evaluated on A549 cell line using MTT assay. Cellular
      uptake of the NPs was also measured by means of fluorescence microcopy and flow
      cytometry analyses. The formulations were finally evaluated for their
      permeability across sheep nasal mucosa. A linear dependence of sol-gel
      temperature (Tsol-gel) on the P407 concentration was observed, and a P407 content
      of 18% was selected. The loading efficiencies of formulations were found to be
      around 100.22-104.31%. The RHT-loaded NPs showed a suitable cytocompatibility on
      A549 cells with a time-dependent increase in cellular uptake. Besides,
      nanocomposites showed higher amounts of drug permeation through nasal sheep
      mucosa than plain drug gel. Taken all, it is concluded that the formulated
      nanocomposites may be considered as useful drug delivery systems for the nasal
      delivery of RHT with enhanced therapeutic efficacy.

PMID- 28865360
TI  - Quantification of cell-substratum interactions by atomic force microscopy.
AB  - Microorganisms adhere to surfaces and, subsequently, form biofilms. This process
      is of major interest in biotechnology, environmental sciences and medicine. It is
      crucial to understand the mechanisms of interactions between substratum and cells
      or biofilms. By combining force mapping-based atomic force microscopy (AFM) with
      pyrite-modified cantilevers we quantified the adhesion forces between undenatured
      planktonic or biofilm cells of Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans and the
      substratum pyrite with values of 2.6+/-0.3nN and 77.3+/-7.1pN, respectively. This
      was achieved under natural conditions without any artefact resulting from the use
      of denaturing chemicals such as glutaraldehyde. This new technique is unique for
      quantifying the real interaction forces between cells or biofilms and their
      substrata.

PMID- 28865361
TI  - Recent advances in biocompatible semiconductor nanocrystals for immunobiological
      applications.
AB  - Quantum confinement in inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals produces brightly
      luminescent nanoparticles endowed with unique photo-physical properties, such as
      tunable optical properties. These have found widespread applications in
      nanotechnology. The ability to render such nanostructures biocompatible, while
      maintaining their tunable radiation in the visible range of the electromagnetic
      spectrum, renders them appropriate for bio-applications. Promising in vitro and
      in vivo diagnostic applications have been demonstrated, such as fluorescence
      based detection of biological interactions, single molecule tracking,
      multiplexing and immunoassaying. In particular, these fluorescent inorganic
      semiconductor nanocrystals, generally known as quantum dots, have the potential
      of remarkable immunobiological applications. This review focuses on the current
      status of biocompatible quantum dots and their applications in immunobiology -
      immunosensing, immunofluorescent imaging and immunotherapy.

PMID- 28865362
TI  - The association between multidimensional feminine norms, binge drinking and
      alcohol-related problems among young adult college women.
AB  - Alcohol consumption among women has steadily increased over the past 30years, and
      women's drinking behavior is now similar to that of men's. The escalation of
      alcohol use among women highlights the critical need to examine gender issues and
      motivational factors that contribute to binge drinking and related problems
      within this population. Feminine norms or the socially constructed beliefs,
      messages and attitudes about what it means to be a woman may contribute to within
      group differences in drinking patterns among women. The current study examined
      the relationship between multidimensional feminine norms and binge drinking and
      alcohol-related problems among 1910 college women. Participants completed a self
      report measure of binge drinking, alcohol-related problems, conformity to
      feminine norms, alcohol expectancies and descriptive norms. Controlling for the
      covariates descriptive norms, positive alcohol expectancies, and sorority
      membership, adherence to feminine norms related to sexual fidelity and belief
      that one needs to be sweet and nice were negatively associated to binge drinking,
      while adhering to investment in appearance was positively associated to binge
      drinking and alcohol-related problems. Distinct feminine norms also had a
      significant indirect effect on alcohol-related problems through binge drinking.
      This study significant contributes to the literature by elucidating the
      theoretically gender-relevant risk and protective aspects of feminine norms in
      relation to binge drinking and related problems, and provides important
      information that might be used in clinical and prevention efforts to reduce
      alcohol-related harm among a vulnerable group: college women.

PMID- 28865363
TI  - Postcessation weight gain concern as a barrier to smoking cessation: Assessment
      considerations and future directions.
AB  - PURPOSE: Concern about postcessation weight gain may be one potential barrier to
      quitting smoking. In this 'mini-review' of recent literature, we summarize
      findings on the relationship between postcessation weight gain concern and
      smoking cessation, and evaluate varied use of postcessation weight gain concern
      assessments and potential moderators of the postcessation weight gain concern
      cessation association. METHODS: We conducted a search using the terms "smoking"
      OR "smoking cessation" AND "weight concern" for articles published between
      January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2016. We identified 17 studies assessing
      postcessation weight gain concern, seven of which evaluated the postcessation
      weight gain concern-cessation association. RESULTS: The relationship between
      postcessation weight gain concern and smoking cessation was mixed. Recent studies
      varied in their assessments of postcessation weight gain concern, many of which
      were not validated and assessed correlates of this construct. Studies varied in
      their adjustment of demographic (e.g., sex), smoking-specific (e.g., smoking
      level), and weight-specific (e.g., body mass index) variables. CONCLUSIONS: The
      use of non-validated assessments and variability in testing covariates/moderators
      may contribute to conflicting results regarding the postcessation weight gain
      concern-cessation relationship. We recommend validating an assessment of
      postcessation weight gain concern, maintaining vigilance in testing and reporting
      covariates/moderators, and investigating trajectories of this construct over time
      and by smoking status to inform future assessment and intervention efforts.

PMID- 28865364
TI  - Antitumor activity of Lobaplatin against esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
      through caspase-dependent apoptosis and increasing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio.
AB  - Esophageal cancer is one of the most aggressive malignancies with poor prognosis.
      The administration of the first- and second-generation platinum drugs is
      frequently accompanied by drug resistance and severe toxicity. The aim of present
      study is to investigate the anti-tumor activity of the third-generation platinum
      drug Lobaplatin against esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in vitro and in vivo,
      and clarify the underlying molecular mechanism. The cytotoxicity of Lobaplatin
      against esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines was determined by the MTT
      and clonogenic assay. Cell apoptosis was assessed by Annexin V-FITC/PI apoptosis
      assay using flow cytometry. The expression of proteins was determined by western
      blot analysis. The in vivo anti-tumor activity was evaluated in nude mice
      xenograft. Lobaplatin significantly inhibited the growth of KYSE-410 and EC-109
      cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner and induced cell apoptosis by
      increasing expressions of cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-8, cleaved-caspase-9
      and Bax, decreasing expression of Bcl-2. In vivo study showed that Lobaplatin
      suppressed tumor growth of EC-109 xenograft. Lobaplatin significantly inhibited
      the growth of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by inducing apoptosis through
      the caspase-dependent pathway. Lobaplatin is an effective anti-cancer agent
      against esophageal cancer.

PMID- 28865365
TI  - MiR125b-5p protects endothelial cells from apoptosis under oxidative stress.
AB  - Endothelial cell damage, such as apoptosis and necrosis, is involved in many
      cardiovascular diseases. In recent years, the crucial role of microRNAs in
      controlling tissue homeostasis and disease in the epithelium has become widely
      recognized. In the present study, human umbilical vein endothelial cells were
      transfected with a miRNA agomir and a SMAD4 expression vector. The expression of
      miR125b-5p was determined by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain
      reaction. Cell apoptosis and necrosis were measured with flow cytometry. The
      expression of SMAD4 was evaluated with Western blotting. Here, we demonstrated
      that the rates of apoptosis and necrosis were significantly decreased in the
      miR125b-5p agomir group of HUVECs under H2O2-induced oxidative stress compared
      with the miR125b-5p antagomir group. Further experiments revealed that the
      expression of SMAD4 is negatively regulated by miR125b-5p. Moreover, we
      identified that the rates of apoptosis and necrosis were increased when SMAD4 and
      miR125b-5p were both overexpressed compared with miR125b-5p overexpression alone.
      The present study demonstrates for the first time that the overexpression of
      miR125b-5p can reduce H2O2-induced oxidative damage via SMAD4, suggesting that
      miR125b-5p has therapeutic potential for preventing oxidative stress-related
      diseases.

PMID- 28865366
TI  - Buyanghuanwu Decoction alleviated pressure overload induced cardiac remodeling by
      suppressing Tgf-beta/Smads and MAPKs signaling activated fibrosis.
AB  - Buyanghuanwu Decoction (BHD), a traditional Chinese medicine recipe, is a
      representative prescription for the treatment of qi-deficiency and blood-stasis
      syndrome. In this study, the effect of BHD on pressure overload induced cardiac
      remodeling was investigated and possible mechanism underlying was explored. Rats
      were randomly divided into four groups: sham, transverse aorta constriction (TAC)
      with saline, TAC with telmisartan (TAC+Tel), and TAC with BHD (TAC+BHD) for 16
      weeks (n=6~8 in each group). Cardiac morphological and functional changes were
      evaluated by echocardiography and histological methods, the molecular alterations
      were detected by western blotting. Our results revealed that pressure overload
      prominently induced cardiac dysfunction, dilated and atrophied left ventricle,
      decreased cardiomyocyte cross sectional area, and fibrosis. However, BHD, similar
      to Tel, greatly reversed cardiac dysfunction, left ventricular dilation, and
      fibrosis, together with increased left ventricular wall thickness and size of
      cardiomyocyte. Furthermore, activated classical pro-fibrotic signaling of Tgf
      beta/Smads and MAPKs after TAC was dramatically suppressed by BHD or Tel
      treatment. Taken together, it was demonstrated in this study that BHD exerted a
      cardioprotective effect against pressure overload induced cardiac remodeling via
      inactivation of Tgf-beta/Smads and MAPKs signaling triggered fibrosis.

PMID- 28865367
TI  - The role of radionuclide probes for monitoring anti-tumor drugs efficacy: A brief
      review.
AB  - Despite recent advances in the development of new therapeutic agents and
      diagnostic imaging modalities, cancer is still one of the main causes of death
      worldwide. A better understanding of the molecular signature of cancer has
      promoted the development of a new generation of anti-cancer drugs and diagnostic
      agents that specifically target molecular components such as genes, ligands,
      receptors and signaling pathways. However, intrinsic heterogeneity of tumors has
      hampered the overall success of target therapies even among patients with similar
      tumor types but unpredictable different responses to therapy. In this sense, post
      treatment response monitoring becomes indispensable and nuclear medicine imaging
      modalities could provide the tools for an early indication of therapeutic
      efficacy. Herein, we briefly discuss the current role of PET and SPECT imaging in
      monitoring cancer therapy together with an update on the current radiolabeled
      probes that are currently investigated for tumor therapy response assessment.

PMID- 28865368
TI  - Sweroside eradicated leukemia cells and attenuated pathogenic processes in mice
      by inducing apoptosis.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), characterized by extremely heterogeneous molecular
      and biologic abnormalities, is an aggressive hematologic malignancy, hampering
      the research and development of effective targeted treatment modalities.
      Sweroside (SWE), an iridoid glycoside, is isolated from Lonicera japonIca. It has
      diverse biological activities, but little is known in human leukemia. Here, our
      study showed the potential of sweroside as an effective agent against human
      leukemia using in vitro and in vivo approaches. Sweroside treatment obviously
      reduced the cell viability in human leukemia cell lines and primary human
      leukemia cells. S and G2/M cell-cycle arrest were induced by sweroside,
      associated with the down-regulation of Cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinase 4
      (CDK4), CDC2 and CDC25 as well as the up-regulation of p53 and p21. In addition,
      apoptosis was highly induced by sweroside both in vitro and in vivo through
      enhancement of cleaved Caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribosyl) transferase (PARP).
      Consistently, anti-apoptotic molecule of B cell CLL/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) was
      impeded by sweroside, while pro-apoptotic signal of Bcl-2-associated X protein
      (Bax) was elevated. In vivo, HL-60-bearing tumor growth was considerably
      inhibited by sweroside, which was related to proliferation suppression and
      apoptosis induction. Our study highlighted the therapeutic potential of
      sweroside, and provided new insights into the molecular mechanism of sweroside
      chemosensitization in human leukemia.

PMID- 28865369
TI  - Binge eating behaviours in bipolar disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent research, especially from the USA, suggests that comorbid
      binge eating (BE) behaviour and BE disorder are frequent in individuals with
      Bipolar Disorder (BD). Although basic clinical associations between BD and BE
      have been investigated, less is known about psychological or temperamental
      dimensions and qualitative aspects of eating habits. In a French cohort of
      patients with BD, we investigated the prevalence of BE behaviour and any
      associations with illness characteristics, anxiety, impulsivity, emotional
      regulation and eating habits. METHODS: 145 outpatients with BD (I and II) were
      assessed for the presence of BE behaviour using the Binge Eating Scale (BES).
      Characteristics identified in univariate analyses as differentiating BD cases
      with and without BE behaviour were then included in a backward stepwise logistic
      regression (BSLR) model. RESULTS: In this sample, 18.6% of BD patients met
      criteria for BE behaviour. Multivariate analysis (BSLR) indicated that shorter
      duration of BD, and higher levels of anxiety and emotional reactivity were
      observed in BD with compared to BD without BE behaviour. LIMITATIONS: Relatively
      small sample referred to specialist BD clinics and cross-sectional evaluation
      meant that it was not possible to differentiate between state and trait levels of
      impulsivity, emotional instability and disinhibition. These dimensions may also
      overlap with mood symptoms. CONCLUSION: BE behaviour is common in females and
      males with BD. Emotional dysregulation and anxiety may represent important shared
      vulnerability factors for worse outcome of BD and increased likelihood of BE
      behaviour.

PMID- 28865370
TI  - The relative influence of individual risk factors for attempted suicide in
      patients with bipolar I versus bipolar II disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the relative influence (RI) of individual predictors for
      lifetime attempted suicide between adults with bipolar I (BDBD-I) and bipolar II
      disorder (BDBD-II). METHODS: We conducted an analysis of data from 1465 enrollees
      in the Mayo Clinic Bipolar Disorder Biobank. Demographic and clinical variables
      and history of attempted suicide were ascertained using standardized
      questionnaires. Height and weight were assessed to determine body mass index
      (BMI); obesity was defined as BMI >=30kg/m2. The frequencies of these variables
      were compared between persons with and without self-reported lifetime suicide
      attempts both overall, and within BD-I and BD-II subgroups. Gradient boosting
      machine (GBM) models were used to quantify the RI of study variables on the risk
      of lifetime attempted suicide. RESULTS: Nearly one-third of patients reported
      having a lifetime suicide attempt. Attempted suicide rates were higher in
      patients with BD-I than BD-II, but absolute differences were small. Lifetime
      attempted suicide was associated with female sex, BD-I subtype, psychiatric and
      substance use comorbidities, binge eating behavior, lifetime history of rapid
      cycling, other indicators of adverse illness course, and early age of bipolar
      illness onset in the entire cohort. Differences in the rank-ordering of RI for
      predictors of attempted suicide between BD-I and BD-II patients were modest.
      Rapid cycling was a strong risk factor for attempted suicide, particularly in men
      with BD-I. LIMITATIONS: Actively psychotic or suicidal patients needing
      psychiatric hospitalization were initially excluded, but were approached after
      these acute psychiatric problems resolved. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      lifetime attempted suicide was significantly higher in BD-I than BD-II in this
      large, cross-sectional cohort. Predictors of attempted suicide were similar in BD
      I and BD-II subgroups.

PMID- 28865371
TI  - The relationship between cognitions and symptoms in obsessive-compulsive
      disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cognitive theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
      ascertains that catastrophic (mis)interpretations of normally occurring intrusive
      thoughts are related to the maintenance of OCD. Nonetheless, findings supporting
      the relationship between cognitive biases and OCD symptoms are largely
      inconsistent. In the present study we examined the relationship between OCD
      cognitions and symptoms among 382 OCD patients participating in the longitudinal
      Netherlands Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Association (NOCDA) study. METHODS: OCD
      cognitions and OC, anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed using self
      report questionnaires at baseline and at two-year follow-up. Baseline multiple
      regression analyses assessed the specificity of OC cognitions to OCD symptoms.
      Cross-lagged analyses examined whether cognitions predict OCD symptoms at two
      year follow up. RESULTS: Baseline analyses demonstrated significant relationships
      between comorbid anxiety, depressive severity and OC cognitions, adjusted for OCD
      symptoms (beta = .283, p < .001 and beta = .246, p < .001, respectively). OCD
      severity adjusted for comorbid symptoms was unrelated to cognitions at baseline
      (beta = .040, p = n.s). Unique associations were found between cognitions and two
      OCD symptom subtypes (Impulses: beta = .215, p < .001; Rumination/doubting: beta
      = .205, p < .001). Longitudinal analyses yielded non-significant associations
      between OCD cognitions and symptom severity. Prospective analyses of cognitions
      and OCD symptom subtypes yielded significant effects for both bidirectional and
      unidirectional associations (beta = .11-.16, p < .05). LIMITATIONS: Given the
      naturalistic design of the study, we did not assess therapeutic interventions
      between baseline and follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Results only partially concord with
      the predictions of the cognitive theory of OCD. Future studies should focus on
      mechanisms alternative to cognitions when investigating the course of OCD.

PMID- 28865372
TI  - Impact of inoculum sources on biotransformation of pharmaceuticals and personal
      care products.
AB  - Limited knowledge of optimal microbial community composition for PPCP
      biotreatment, and of the microbial phylotypes that drive biotransformation within
      mixed microbial communities, has hindered the rational design and operation of
      effective and reliable biological PPCP treatment technologies. Herein, bacterial
      community composition was investigated as an isolated variable within batch
      biofilm reactors via comparison of PPCP removals for three distinct inocula.
      Inocula pre-acclimated to model PPCPs were derived from activated sludge (AS),
      ditch sediment historically-impacted by wastewater treatment plant effluent (Sd),
      and material from laboratory-scale soil aquifer treatment (SAT) columns. PPCP
      removals were found to be substantially higher for AS- and Sd-derived inocula
      compared to the SAT-derived inocula despite comparable biomass. Removal patterns
      differed among the 6 model compounds examined (diclofenac, 5-fluorouracil,
      gabapentin, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, and triclosan) indicating differences in
      biotransformation mechanisms. Sphingomonas, Beijerinckia, Methylophilus, and
      unknown Cytophagaceae were linked with successful PPCP biodegradation via next
      generation sequencing of 16S rRNA genes over time. Results indicate the
      criticality of applying engineering approaches to control bacterial community
      compositions in biotreatment systems.

PMID- 28865373
TI  - Evaluation of risk assessment of new industrial pollutant, ionic liquids on
      environmental living systems.
AB  - Ionic liquids (ILs) are much known for their promising alternative for volatile
      solvents in industries and gained popularity as a greener solvent, however
      industrial effluent discharge containing ILs are also increasing. There is a
      scarcity of information on the toxicity of ILs; the present study will explore
      different facts about their harmfulness. The toxic effects of five different ILs:
      [C4MIM]Br, [Hx3PC14]N(CN)2, [C10MIM]BF4, [BTDA]Cl and [C4MPY]Cl were analysed on
      bacteria, fungi, plant and animal cells. Both Gram positive and negative bacteria
      were found to be more susceptible to [C10MIM]BF4 and [BTDA]Cl than [C4MIM]Br,
      [Hx3PC14]N(CN)2 and [C4MPY]Cl, whereas fungi revealed quite a resistance to all
      ILs. All ILs were toxic towards Triticum aestivum affecting their roots and
      shoots, however [C10MIM]BF4 and [BTDA]Cl were more toxic amongst them. Studies on
      Allium cepa described their toxic behaviour at the genetic level by altering cell
      division and nuclear material. Furthermore, studies on human red blood cells
      described by % haemolysis in which [Hx3PC14]N(CN)2 and [BTDA]Cl exhibited higher
      toxicity at very lower concentrations. While the genotoxic effect on blood
      lymphocytes exerted by [Hx3PC14]N(CN)2, [C10MIM]BF4 and [BTDA]Cl confirmed their
      toxic effects on human cells.

PMID- 28865374
TI  - Microbial competition among anammox bacteria in nitrite-limited bioreactors.
AB  - Phylogenetically diverse anammox bacteria have been detected in most of anoxic
      natural and engineered ecosystems and thus regarded as key players in the global
      nitrogen cycle. However, ecological niche differentiation of anammox bacteria
      remains unresolved despite its ecological and practical importance. In this
      study, the microbial competitions for a common substrate (nitrite) among three
      anammox species (i.e. "Candidatus Brocadia sinica", "Candidatus Jettenia caeni"
      and "Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis") were systematically investigated in
      nitrite-limited gel-immobilized column reactors (GICR) and membrane bioreactors
      (MBRs) under different nitrogen loading rates (NLRs). 16 S rRNA gene-based
      population dynamics revealed that "Ca. J. caeni" could proliferate only at low
      NLRs, whereas "Ca. B. sinica" outcompeted other two species at higher NLRs in
      both types of reactors. Furthermore, FISH analysis revealed that "Ca. J. caeni"
      was mainly present as spherical microclusters at the inner part (low NO2-
      environment), whereas "Ca. B. sinica" was present throughout the gel beads and
      granules. This spatial distribution supports the outcomes of the competition
      experiments. However, the successful competition of "Ca. J. caeni" at low NLR
      could not be explained with the Monod model probably due to inaccuracy of kinetic
      parameters such as half saturation constant (Ks) for nitrite and a difference in
      the maintenance rate (m). In addition, the growth of "Ca. K. stuttgartiensis"
      could not be observed in any experimental conditions, suggesting possible unknown
      factor(s) is missing. Taken together, NLR was one of factors determining
      ecological niche differentiation of "Ca. B. sinica" and "Ca. J. caeni".

PMID- 28865375
TI  - Dramatic enhancement of organics degradation and electricity generation via
      strengthening superoxide radical by using a novel 3D AQS/PPy-GF cathode.
AB  - A dramatic enhancement of organics degradation and electricity generation has
      been achieved in a wastewater fuel cell (WFC) system via strengthening superoxide
      radical with radical chain reaction by using a novel 3D anthraquinone/polypyrrole
      modified graphite felt (AQS/PPy-GF) cathode. The AQS/PPy-GF was synthesized by
      one-pot electrochemical polymerization method and used to in-situ generate
      superoxide radical by reducing oxygen under self-imposed electric field. Results
      showed that methyl orange (MO) were effectively degraded in AQS/PPy-GF/Fe2+
      system with a high apparent rate constant (0.0677 min-1), which was 3.9 times
      that (0.0174 min-1) in the Pt/Fe2+ system and even 9.4 times that (0.0072 min-1)
      in the traditional WFC system (without Fe2+). Meanwhile, it showed a superior
      performance for electricity generation and the maximum power density output
      (1.130 mW cm-2) was nearly 3.3 times and 5.0 times higher, respectively, when
      compared with the Pt/Fe2+ system and traditional WFC. This dramatic advance was
      attributed to 3D AQS/PPy-GF cathode which produces more O2- via one-electron
      reduction process. The presence of O2- cannot only directly contribute to MO
      degradation, but also promotes the final complete mineralization by turning
      itself to OH. Additionally, O2- accelerates the Fe2+/Fe3+ couple cycling, thus
      avoiding continuous addition of any external ferrous ions. Inhibition and probe
      studies were conducted to ascertain the role of several radicals (OH and O2-) on
      the MO degradation. Superoxide radicals were considered as the primary reactive
      oxidants, and the degradation mechanism of MO was proposed. The proposed WFC
      system provides a more economical and efficient way for energy recovery and
      wastewater treatment.

PMID- 28865376
TI  - Assessment of the microbial growth potential of slow sand filtrate with the
      biomass production potential test in comparison with the assimilable organic
      carbon method.
AB  - Slow sand filtration is the final treatment step at four surface-water supplies
      in the Netherlands. The microbial growth potential (MGP) of the finished water
      was measured with the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) method using pure cultures
      and the biomass production potential (BPP) test. In the BPP test, water samples
      were incubated untreated at 25  degrees C and the active-biomass concentration
      was measured by adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) analysis. Addition of a river-water
      inoculum improved the test performance and characteristic growth and maintenance
      profiles of the water were obtained. The maximum ATP concentration attained
      within seven days and the cumulative biomass production after 14 days of
      incubation (BPC14, d ng ATP L-1) showed highly significant and strong linear
      relationships with the AOC in the slow sand filtrates. The lowest AOC and BPC14
      levels were observed in the supplies applying dune filtration without ozonation
      in post treatment, with AOC/TOC = 1.7 +/- 0.3 MUg acetate-C equivalents mg-1 C
      and BPC14/TOC = 16.3 +/- 2.2 d ng ATP mg-1 C, corresponding with 1.2 +/- 0.19 ng
      ATP mg-1 C. These characteristics may represent the lowest specific MGP of
      natural organic matter achievable by biofiltration at temperatures <=20  degrees
      C. The AOC and BPC14 concentrations in the slow sand filtrate of the supply
      treating lake water by ozonation with granular-activated-carbon filtration and
      slow sand filtration as post treatment increased with decreasing temperature. The
      BPP test revealed that this slow sand filtrate sampled at 2  degrees C contained
      growth-promoting compounds that were not detected with the AOC test. These
      observations demonstrate the utility of the BPP test for assessing the MGP of
      drinking water and show the performance limits of biofiltration for MGP
      reduction.

PMID- 28865377
TI  - Assessing pain in patients with chronic disorders of consciousness: Are we
      heading in the right direction?
AB  - The deterioration of sensory-motor integration within the pain matrix in patients
      with chronic Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) is one of the principal mechanisms
      responsible for non-conscious pain perception. The present study aimed to assess
      whether the variability in the inter-peak interval (IPI) between the N2 and P2
      components of laser evoked potentials (LEP) could represent an objective marker
      of the behavioral responsiveness to nociceptive stimulation, as measured by the
      Nociception Coma Scale-Revised (NCS-R), and regardless of the sensory part of
      pain processing. We found that only IPI variability showed a significant
      correlation with NCS-R score, independently of the stimulation intensity (that
      influences the sensory part of pain processing). It was thus concluded that IPI
      variability might represent an objective measure of pain processing, which may
      help clinicians in the development of effective pain management strategies.

PMID- 28865379
TI  - Quantitative sensory tests (QST) are promising tests for clinical relevance of
      anti-nociceptive effects of new analgesic treatments.

PMID- 28865378
TI  - High-throughput dietary exposure predictions for chemical migrants from food
      contact substances for use in chemical prioritization.
AB  - Under the ExpoCast program, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
      researchers have developed a high-throughput (HT) framework for estimating
      aggregate exposures to chemicals from multiple pathways to support rapid
      prioritization of chemicals. Here, we present methods to estimate HT exposures to
      chemicals migrating into food from food contact substances (FCS). These methods
      consisted of combining an empirical model of chemical migration with estimates of
      daily population food intakes derived from food diaries from the National Health
      and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A linear regression model for
      migration at equilibrium was developed by fitting available migration
      measurements as a function of temperature, food type (i.e., fatty, aqueous,
      acidic, alcoholic), initial chemical concentration in the FCS (C0) and chemical
      properties. The most predictive variables in the resulting model were C0,
      molecular weight, log Kow, and food type (R2=0.71, p<0.0001). Migration-based
      concentrations for 1009 chemicals identified via publicly-available data sources
      as being present in polymer FCSs were predicted for 12 food groups (combinations
      of 3 storage temperatures and food type). The model was parameterized with
      screening-level estimates of C0 based on the functional role of chemicals in FCS.
      By combining these concentrations with daily intakes for food groups derived from
      NHANES, population ingestion exposures of chemical in mg/kg-bodyweight/day (mg/kg
      BW/day) were estimated. Calibrated aggregate exposures were estimated for 1931
      chemicals by fitting HT FCS and consumer product exposures to exposures inferred
      from NHANES biomonitoring (R2=0.61, p<0.001); both FCS and consumer product
      pathway exposures were significantly predictive of inferred exposures. Including
      the FCS pathway significantly impacted the ratio of predicted exposures to those
      estimated to produce steady-state blood concentrations equal to in-vitro
      bioactive concentrations. While these HT methods have large uncertainties (and
      thus may not be appropriate for assessments of single chemicals), they can
      provide critical refinement to aggregate exposure predictions used in risk-based
      chemical priority-setting.

PMID- 28865380
TI  - Exploration of biodegradation mechanisms of black carbon-bound nonylphenol in
      black carbon-amended sediment.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate biodegradation mechanisms of black carbon
      (BC)-bound contaminants in BC-amended sediment when BC was applied to control
      organic pollution. The single-point Tenax desorption technique was applied to
      track the species changes of nonylphenol (NP) during biodegradation process in
      the rice straw carbon (RC)-amended sediment. And the correlation between the
      biodegradation and desorption of NP was analyzed. Results showed that
      microorganisms firstly degraded the rapid-desorbing NP (6 h Tenax desorption) in
      RC-amended sediment. The biodegradation facilitated the desorption of slow
      desorbing NP, which was subsequently degraded as well (192 h Tenax desorption).
      Notably, the final amount of NP degradation was greater than that of NP
      desorption, indicating that absorbed NP by RC amendment can be degraded by
      microorganisms. Finally, the residual NP amount in RC-amended sediment was
      decided by RC content and its physicochemical property. Moreover, the presence of
      the biofilm was observed by the confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) and
      scanning electron microscope (SEM) so that microorganisms were able to overcome
      the mass transfer resistance and directly utilized the absorbed NP. Therefore,
      single-point Tenax desorption alone may not be an adequate basis for the
      prediction of the bioaccessibility of contaminants to microorganisms or
      bioremediation potential in BC-amended sediment.

PMID- 28865381
TI  - Nonmalignant respiratory mortality and long-term exposure to PM10 and SO2: A 12
      year cohort study in northern China.

PMID- 28865382
TI  - Air quality considerations for stormwater green street design.
AB  - Green streets are increasingly being used as a stormwater management strategy to
      mitigate stormwater runoff at its source while providing other environmental and
      societal benefits, including connecting pedestrians to the street.
      Simultaneously, human exposure to particulate matter from urban transportation is
      of major concern worldwide due to the proximity of pedestrians, drivers, and
      cyclists to the emission sources. Vegetation used for stormwater treatment can
      help designers limit the exposure of people to air pollutants. This goal can be
      achieved through the deliberate placement of green streets, along with strategic
      planting schemes that maximize pollutant dispersion. This communication presents
      general design considerations for green streets that combine stormwater
      management and air quality goals. There is currently limited guidance on
      designing green streets for air quality considerations; this is the first
      communication to offer suggestions and advice for the design of green stormwater
      streets in regards to their effects on air quality. Street characteristics
      including (1) the width to height ratio of the street to the buildings, (2) the
      type of trees and their location, and (3) any prevailing winds can have an impact
      on pollutant concentrations within the street and along sidewalks. Vegetation
      within stormwater control measures has the ability to reduce particulate matter
      concentrations; however, it must be carefully selected and placed within the
      green street to promote the dispersion of air flow.

PMID- 28865383
TI  - Fluoride concentrations in traditional and herbal teas: Health risk assessment.
AB  - Traditional tea (Camellia sinensis) and herbal tea are being consumed across the
      world. However, long term consumption of tea can increase the chances of
      fluorosis owing to the presence of fluoride (F) in teas. Therefore, it is
      imperative to assess the health risk associated with tea consumption. The main
      objectives of this study were to: 1) estimate total F in 47 popular teas,
      including traditional and herbal teas and F concentrations in 1% (w/v) infusion
      of 5 min, and 2) assess the exposure risks of F from tea consumption in children
      and adults. The data showed that total F was the least in herbal teas (33-102
      mg/kg) and their infusions (0.06-0.69 mg/L) compared to traditional teas (296
      1112 mg/kg) and their infusions (1.47-6.9 mg/L). During tea infusion, 6-96% and
      18-99% of the F was released into the water from herbal and traditional teas,
      respectively. Ten samples of traditional teas, including five green teas had
      chronic daily intake (CDI) values of F > 0.05 mg/d/kg bw, the stipulated
      permissible limits of F intake from all sources. Although the F from teas posed
      no immediate health hazards with hazard quotient <1, some tea samples could
      potentially contribute >4 mg F/d, thereby adding to the overall F burden.
      Therefore, together with F from food and water sources, daily F consumptions from
      teas might increase its health risks to humans. So, caution should be excised
      when drinking teas containing high F.

PMID- 28865384
TI  - Widespread detection of a brominated flame retardant, hexabromocyclododecane, in
      expanded polystyrene marine debris and microplastics from South Korea and the
      Asia-Pacific coastal region.
AB  - The role of marine plastic debris and microplastics as a carrier of hazardous
      chemicals in the marine environment is an emerging issue. This study investigated
      expanded polystyrene (EPS, commonly known as styrofoam) debris, which is a common
      marine debris item worldwide, and its additive chemical, hexabromocyclododecane
      (HBCD). To obtain a better understanding of chemical dispersion via EPS pollution
      in the marine environment, intensive monitoring of HBCD levels in EPS debris and
      microplastics was conducted in South Korea, where EPS is the predominant marine
      debris originate mainly from fishing and aquaculture buoys. At the same time, EPS
      debris were collected from 12 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and
      HBCD concentrations were measured. HBCD was detected extensively in EPS buoy
      debris and EPS microplastics stranded along the Korean coasts, which might be
      related to the detection of a quantity of HBCD in non-flame-retardant EPS bead
      (raw material). The wide detection of the flame retardant in sea-floating buoys,
      and the recycling of high-HBCD-containing EPS waste inside large buoys highlight
      the need for proper guidelines for the production and use of EPS raw materials,
      and the recycling of EPS waste. HBCD was also abundantly detected in EPS debris
      collected from the Asia-Pacific coastal region, indicating that HBCD
      contamination via EPS debris is a common environmental issue worldwide. Suspected
      tsunami debris from Alaskan beaches indicated that EPS debris has the potential
      for long-range transport in the ocean, accompanying the movement of hazardous
      chemicals. The results of this study indicate that EPS debris can be a source of
      HBCD in marine environments and marine food web.

PMID- 28865386
TI  - Response of Rhizobium to Cd exposure: A volatile perspective.
AB  - The volatile metabolome of Rhizobium sp. strain E20-8 exposed to three
      concentrations of cadmium (2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 MUM) was screened using comprehensive
      two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time of flight mass spectrometry
      (GC * GC-ToFMS), combined with headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME).
      Cd exposure induced a global increase in the concentration of volatile organic
      compounds (VOCs) both intra and extracellularly. Peak areas of several linear
      alkanes, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, terpenic and volatile sulfur compounds,
      and one ester (ethyl acetate), were especially increased when compared with the
      control condition (no Cd). These compounds might originate from the
      metabolization of toxic membrane peroxidation products, the proteolysis of
      oxidized proteins or the alteration of metabolic pathways, resulting from the
      oxidative stress imposed by Cd. Several VOCs are related to oxidative damage, but
      the production of VOCs involved in antioxidant response (menthol, alpha-pinene,
      dimethyl sulfide, disulfide and trisulfide, 1-butanol and 2-butanone) and in cell
      aggregation (2,3-butanedione, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-butanone) is also
      observed. These results bring new information that highlights the role of VOCs on
      bacteria response to Cd stress, identify a novel set of biomarkers related with
      metal stress and provide information to be applied in biotechnological and
      remediation contexts.

PMID- 28865385
TI  - Intake, distribution, and metabolism of decabromodiphenyl ether and its main
      metabolites in chickens and implications for human dietary exposure.
AB  - Diet is considered as the most important human exposure pathway for
      polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Metabolism and accumulation patterns of
      PBDEs in different growth periods of chickens are helpful for evaluating human
      dietary exposure, but such information is scarce. In this study, female chickens
      were fed with food spiked with BDE-209 at 85 mg kg-1, and the intake,
      accumulation, and excretion of BDE-209 and its main metabolites in various
      tissues were examined. Concentrations of BDE-209 in chicken tissues increased
      over time in a tissue-specific manner; they were the greatest in liver and
      generally the lowest in breast meat during the entire exposure period. The
      kinetic patterns were dependent on both growth-dilution effects and accumulated
      concentrations of BDE-209. Tissue concentrations of ?8PBDE (sum of BDE-28, 47,
      99, 100, 153, 154, 183, and 209) followed the sequence of liver > blood > skin >
      intestine > stomach > leg meat > breast meat. Different tissue partition
      coefficients and perfusion rates for blood may have resulted in different PBDE
      concentrations in tissues. The absorption efficiency of BDE-209 in chicken
      tissues followed the sequence of liver (0.15 +/- 0.032%) > skin (0.14 +/- 0.038%)
      > intestine (0.071 +/- 0.021%) > breast meat (0.062 +/- 0.020%) > leg meat (0.059
      +/- 0.016%) > stomach (0.021 +/- 0.0095%), likely due in part to facilitated
      absorption of BDE-209 by transport proteins (P-glycoproteins). On average, 9.3 +/
      1.7% of BDE-209 was excreted in feces. Estimated human average dietary intake
      via the consumption of chicken tissues of ?8PBDE for adults and children was 319
      and 1380 ng day-1 for liver, 211 and 632 ng day-1 for leg meat, and 104 and 311
      ng day-1 for breast meat from the contaminated group. Liver clearly poses the
      highest exposure risk for human consumption, particularly if chickens are fed
      with contaminated feed.

PMID- 28865387
TI  - Exploring the relationship between stride, stature and hand size for forensic
      assessment.
AB  - Forensic evidence often relies on a combination of accurately recorded
      measurements, estimated measurements from landmark data such as a subject's
      stature given a known measurement within an image, and inferred data. In this
      study a novel dataset is used to explore linkages between hand measurements,
      stature, leg length and stride. These three measurements replicate the type of
      evidence found in surveillance videos with stride being extracted from an
      automated gait analysis system. Through correlations and regression modelling, it
      is possible to generate accurate predictions of stature from hand size, leg
      length and stride length (and vice versa), and to predict leg and stride length
      from hand size with, or without, stature as an intermediary variable. The study
      also shows improved accuracy when a subject's sex is known a-priori. Our method
      and models indicate the possibility of calculating or checking relationships
      between a suspect's physical measurements, particularly when only one component
      is captured as an accurately recorded measurement.

PMID- 28865388
TI  - Post-mortem findings in 22 fatal Taxus baccata intoxications and a possible
      solution to its detection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The yew (Taxus baccata) is a common evergreen tree containing the
      toxin taxine B. Between 42 and 91 g of yew leaf is lethal to a 70-kg adult. The
      objective of this article is to present an overview of findings in fatal yew
      intoxications. METHODS: A search using MeSH terms was performed in PubMed for yew
      intoxications in the period between January 1960 and August of 2016. RESULTS: We
      describe a total of 22 cases. Fatal intoxications can be divided into
      intoxications by leaves, by pulp, by bark and by yew tea. Recognizing yew tea
      intoxication is difficult since tea no longer contains any botanically
      recognisable parts. In autopsy and external examination no characteristic
      findings are reported, regarding the presence of parts of plants. CONCLUSIONS:
      Indications for yew tree intoxications at a post-mortem examination and autopsy
      are limited to finding parts of yew tree. The absence of recognisable parts can
      result in yew intoxications being overlooked. Therefore toxicological screening
      is recommended in unexplained deaths.

PMID- 28865389
TI  - Self-assessed remission rates after electroconvulsive therapy of depressive
      disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) effectively treats severe depression,
      but not all patients remit. The aim of the study was to identify clinical factors
      that associate with ECT-induced remission in a community setting. METHODS:
      Depressed patients who underwent ECT in 2011-2014 were identified from the
      Swedish National Quality Register for ECT. Remission was defined as self-rated
      Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale scores of 0-10 after ECT. Other
      registers provided data on previous antidepressant use, comorbidities, and
      demographics. RESULTS: Of 1671 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria, 42.8%
      achieved remission. Older age, education length over 9 years, psychotic symptoms,
      shorter duration of preceding antidepressant use, pulse width stimulus>=0.50ms,
      absence of substance use disorders, anxiety diagnosis, lamotrigine, and
      benzodiazepines, were associated with remission. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows
      that psychotic subtype of depression and older age are clinically relevant
      predictors of a beneficial ECT effect. Additionally, ECT outcomes can be further
      improved by optimizing the treatment technique and concomitant medication.

PMID- 28865390
TI  - Association between public injecting and drug-related harm among HIV-positive
      people who use injection drugs in a Canadian setting: A longitudinal analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: and Aims Injecting illicit drugs in public settings has been linked
      to a higher risk of a range of drug-related harms, including overdose and HIV
      infection. However, the factors associated with public injecting among HIV
      positive individuals have not been previously explored. We investigated the links
      between public drug injecting, drug-related harm, and HIV treatment measures
      among a cohort of HIV-positive persons who inject drugs (PWID) in a Canadian
      setting. METHODS: We used data from a prospective cohort of HIV-positive PWID
      recruited from community settings in Vancouver, Canada, linked to comprehensive
      clinical monitoring data in the context of an ongoing Treatment-as-Prevention
      (TasP) initiative to examine harms associated with public injecting. We used
      generalized linear mixed-effects analyses to identify longitudinal factors
      associated with self-reported public drug injection. RESULTS: Between 2005 and
      2014, 626 HIV-seropositive PWID were recruited, of whom 213 (34%) reported public
      injection in the preceding 180days. In a longitudinal multivariable model, public
      injection was positively associated with daily heroin injection (Adjusted Odds
      Ratio [AOR]=2.63), incarceration (AOR=1.78), and detectable plasma HIV-1 RNA
      viral load (VL, AOR=1.42). CONCLUSIONS: Public injecting was linked to numerous
      drug-related harms among HIV-seropositive PWID in this setting. Given its link
      with detectable VL, an important marker of poor HIV treatment outcomes, our
      findings support prioritizing individuals engaged in public injecting with harm
      reduction strategies as well as clinical and social supports as a part of TasP
      based efforts to prevent HIV-related morbidity and mortality, and HIV
      transmission.

PMID- 28865392
TI  - Type III CRISPR-Cas systems: when DNA cleavage just isn't enough.
AB  - Type III CRISPR-Cas systems have a unique targeting mechanism that requires the
      transcription of the DNA target and results in the degradation of not only the
      genome of the invader but also its transcripts. Here we discuss the most recent
      studies describing dual DNA and RNA targeting by these systems, as well as the
      implications of this complex molecular mechanism for immunity in vivo.

PMID- 28865391
TI  - Discriminative stimulus and locomotor effects of para-substituted and benzofuran
      analogs of amphetamine.
AB  - Novel psychoactive substances have maintained a prominent role in the global drug
      culture, despite increased regulation by governing bodies. Novel compounds
      continue to become available on the market, often in "Ecstasy" or "Molly"
      formulations in lieu of MDMA, at a much faster rate than they can be properly
      characterized. The current study aimed to investigate the discriminative stimulus
      and locomotor effects of three putatively entactogenic compounds that have become
      increasingly prevalent on the drug market: 5-(2-aminopropyl)-benzofuran (5-APB),
      6-(2-aminopropryl)-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (6-APDB), and 4-fluoroamphetamine (4
      FA). Locomotor stimulant effects were assessed in an open-field assay for
      locomotor activity using Swiss-Webster mice. Discriminative stimulus effects were
      assessed in Sprague-Dawley rats trained to discriminate either cocaine,
      methamphetamine, DOM, or MDMA from vehicle. The benzofuran compounds produced
      locomotor stimulation whereas 4-FA depressed locomotor activity. The benzofurans
      substituted for the discriminative stimulus effects of MDMA, but only partially
      or not at all for methamphetamine, cocaine, and DOM, whereas 4-FA fully
      substituted for MDMA, methamphetamine and cocaine, but not DOM. These results
      indicate an MDMA-like pattern of abuse might be expected for the benzofurans,
      whereas 4-FA may be substituted for psychostimulants and MDMA.

PMID- 28865393
TI  - Pediatric aortoiliac injury following blunt abdominal trauma: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The most common mechanism of aortic injury involves motor vehicle
      collisions resulting in aortic disruptions, occurring almost exclusively in the
      chest. Injury to the abdominal aorta following blunt trauma is nearly twenty
      times less likely to occur than the thoracic aorta. Because of the low incidence,
      there are few reports regarding the presentation and repair of these particular
      injuries, especially in the pediatric population. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We
      present a case of a 7-year-old boy involved in a high speed motor vehicle
      accident with an abdominal aorta transection at the aortic bifurcation extending
      into the left iliac artery. The injury was repaired using bovine pericardium with
      the adventitia and intima of the vessel approximated over the bovine bridge.
      DISCUSSION: Primary repair of thoracic aortic injury has been thoroughly
      described in the literature with good outcomes yet, abdominal aortic repair
      remains ambiguous. Few techniques and materials have been described with even
      less data surrounding the long-term outcomes. CONCLUSION: Bovine pericardium is a
      strong and stable acellular collagenous material with the potential to accelerate
      endothelialization and tissue regeneration. This remains an interesting field of
      research as stenosis and pseudo-coarction data have yet to be determined.

PMID- 28865394
TI  - Clinical measures of balance in people with type two diabetes: A systematic
      literature review.
AB  - Approximately 422 million people have diabetes mellitus worldwide, with the
      majority diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The complications of
      diabetes mellitus include diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and retinopathy,
      both of which can lead to balance impairments. Balance assessment is therefore an
      integral component of the clinical assessment of a person with T2DM. Although
      there are a variety of balance measures available, it is uncertain which measures
      are the most appropriate for this population. Therefore, the aim of this study
      was to conduct a systematic review on clinical balance measures used with people
      with T2DM and DPN. Databases searched included: CINAHL plus, MEDLINE,
      SPORTDiscus, Dentistry and Oral Sciences source, and SCOPUS. Key terms, inclusion
      and exclusion criteria were used to identify appropriate studies. Identified
      studies were critiqued using the Downs and Black appraisal tool. Eight studies
      were included, these studies incorporated a total of ten different clinical
      balance measures. The balance measures identified included the Dynamic Balance
      Test, balance walk, tandem and unipedal stance, Functional Reach Test, Clinical
      Test of Sensory Interaction and Balance, Berg Balance Scale, Tinetti Performance
      Oriented Mobility Assessment, Activity-Specific Balance Confidence Scale, Timed
      Up and Go test, and the Dynamic Gait Index. Numerous clinical balance measures
      were used for people with T2DM. However, the identified balance measures did not
      assess all of the systems of balance, and most had not been validated in a T2DM
      population. Therefore, future research is needed to identify the validity of a
      balance measure that assesses these systems in people with T2DM.

PMID- 28865395
TI  - Factors influencing knee adduction moment measurement: A systematic review and
      meta-regression analysis.
AB  - The external knee adduction moment has been identified as a key biomarker in
      biomechanics research, with associations with this variable and degenerative
      diseases such as knee osteoarthritis. Heterogeneity in participant
      characteristics and the protocols used to measure this variable may however
      complicate its interpretation. Previous reviews have focused on interventions or
      did not control for potential moderator variables in their analysis. In this meta
      regression analysis, we aimed to determine the influence of factors including the
      cohort type, footwear, and walking speed on the measurement of knee adduction
      moment. We performed a systematic review of the literature, identifying articles
      that used the Plug-in-Gait inverse dynamics model to calculate the knee adduction
      moment during level walking, and used a mixed effect model to determine the
      effect of the previously described factors on the measurement. Results for 861
      individuals were described in 19 articles. Walking speed had the largest
      influence on knee adduction moment (p<0.001), and participants with medial knee
      osteoarthritis had an increased knee adduction moment (p=0.008) compared to
      healthy subjects. Footwear was found to have a significant overall effect
      (p=0.024). Participants tested barefoot or wearing their own shoes had lower
      adduction moments than those tested in footwear provided by the researchers.
      Overall, the moderators accounted for 60% of the heterogeneity in the results.
      These results support the hypothesis that an increased knee adduction moment is
      associated with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis, and that footwear choice
      can influence the results. Gait speed has the largest effect on knee adduction
      moment measurement and should be carefully controlled for in studies
      investigating this variable.

PMID- 28865396
TI  - How does wearable robotic exoskeleton affect overground walking performance
      measured with the 10-m and six-minute walk tests after a basic locomotor training
      in healthy individuals?
AB  - It is still unknown to what extent overground walking with a WRE is equivalent to
      natural overground walking without a WRE. Hence, the interpretability of the 10-m
      (10MWT) and six-minute (6MWT) walk tests during overground walking with a WRE
      against reference values collected during natural overground walking without a
      WRE is challenging. This study aimed to 1) compare walking performance across
      three different overground walking conditions: natural walking without a WRE,
      walking with a WRE providing minimal assistance (active walking), and walking
      with a WRE proving complete assistance (passive walking) and 2) assess the
      association and the agreement between the 10MWT and the 6MWT during passive and
      active walking with a WRE. Seventeen healthy individuals who underwent basic
      locomotor training with a WRE performed the 10MWT (preferred and maximal speeds)
      and the 6MWT under the three conditions. For the 10MWT, the speed progressively
      and significantly decreased from natural walking without a WRE (preferred: 1.40+/
      0.18m/s; maximal: 2.16+/-0.19m/s), to active walking with a WRE (preferred:
      0.48+/-0.10m/s; maximal: 0.61+/-0.14m/s), and to passive walking with a WRE
      (preferred: 0.38+/-0.09m/s; maximal: 0.42+/-0.10m/s). For the 6MWT, total
      distances decreased from walking without a WRE (609+/-53.9m), to active walking
      with a WRE (196.6+/-42.6m), and to passive walking with a WRE (144.3+/-33.3m).
      The 10MWT and 6MWT provide distinct information and can't be used interchangeably
      to document speed only during active walking with the WRE. Speed and distance
      drastically decrease during active and, even more so, passive walking with the
      WRE in comparison to walking without a WRE. Selection of walking tests should
      depend on the level of assistance provided by the WRE.

PMID- 28865398
TI  - Practitioner and communities' awareness of CALFB: Child abuse linked to faith or
      belief.
AB  - This paper reports the results of an online survey which aimed to explore
      practitioners' and faith community groups' awareness and understanding of child
      abuse linked to faith or belief (CALFB) and to identify their further training
      needs in this area. The survey was founded in the work of the National working
      group for CALFB; a multi-agency response group committed to raising knowledge and
      awareness of this form of child abuse. Despite the relatively small number of
      recorded cases, CALFB continues to be a matter of concern to professionals and
      faith communities in the UK and beyond. One thousand three hundred and sixty two
      respondents comprising of frontline practitioners, faith and community group
      members completed the survey. A mixed-method analysis of the survey data
      illustrates a wide-ranging understanding of the term CALFB and disagreement about
      whether this is a specific form of child abuse. The results also indicate a
      relationship between confidence levels in identifying and responding to CALFB and
      specific training in this area. There is a call for specialised training to be
      more readily available. Further work is needed to develop a toolkit, which
      identifies indicators of CALFB and effective response pathways together with
      research across communities. The current research is timely and important in
      providing a foundation on which to build more effective identification of cases,
      policy and intervention.

PMID- 28865397
TI  - The relationship between childhood adversity, attachment, and internalizing
      behaviors in a diversion program for child-to-mother violence.
AB  - Very little research has been conducted on the role of childhood adversity in
      child-to-parent violence. Childhood adversity places youth at risk for
      internalizing behaviors (i.e. anxiety and depression) and externalizing behaviors
      (i.e. aggression). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships
      between childhood adversity, child-mother attachment, and internalizing behaviors
      among a sample of 80 youth who have been arrested for domestic battery against a
      mother. This study reported high prevalence rates of childhood adversity (mean
      score of 10 out of 17 events). Multiple regression analysis indicated that
      insecure attachment predicted depression among females (F(6, 73)=4.87, p<0.001),
      and previous experience with child maltreatment and/or witness to parental
      violence predicted anxiety among females (F(6, 73)=3.08, p<0.01). This study is
      the first study to explore childhood adversity among a sample of perpetrators of
      child-to-mother violence and notably adds to our understanding of the multiple
      pathways connecting childhood adversity, child-mother attachment, and depression
      and anxiety among a difficult to treat youth population.

PMID- 28865399
TI  - The Child Abuse Potential Inventory: Development of an Arabic version.
AB  - The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) is a well-validated screening tool for
      assessing potential for child physical abuse, and has been translated into many
      different languages. To date the CAPI has not been translated into Arabic or used
      in any studies in Arabic-speaking populations. This study reports on the process
      of adapting the CAPI into Arabic Language which was undertaken following the
      International Society of Pharma-economics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)
      guidelines. The translation/adaptation process was multi-stage, and involved the
      use of a Delphi process, cognitive debriefing, back translation, and a pilot
      testing of the Arabic CAPI at two primary health care centers with a population
      of pregnant women (n=60). Following "literal translation" 73 out of the 160 items
      needed re-phrasing to adapt the items to the Oman context. No differences were
      found when comparing results of the translated or back-translated versions to
      source; however, eight items needed further amendment following translated to
      back-translated comparison and feedback from the pilot. Iterations were resolved
      following in-depth interviews. Discrepancies were due to differences in culture,
      parenting practices, and religion. Piloting of the tool indicated mean score
      value of 155.8 (SD=59.4) and eleven women (18%) scored above the cut off value of
      215. This Arabic translation of the CAPI was undertaken using rigorous
      methodology and sets the scene for further research on the Arabic CAPI within
      Arabic-speaking populations.

PMID- 28865400
TI  - Accounting for the increase of children in care in western Australia: What can a
      client information system tell us?
AB  - This paper analyses a fourteen-year period of Western Australian data from the
      client information system of the Department for Child Protection and Family
      Support. Western Australia saw a large increase in the number of children in
      state care similar to trends across Australia as a whole. The study shows the
      following trends: changes in response to 'referrals' with particular increases in
      the number of findings of neglect and increasing proportions of these followed
      swiftly by entry to care; changes in patterns of entry to care with more children
      under one-year-old entering; increased length of stay of children in care; and,
      the high incidence of Aboriginal children entering and remaining in care. The
      data demonstrate unequivocally that increased 'referrals' are not associated with
      increased substantiations of harm or 'acts of commission with dangerous intent',
      but that neglect assessed early in the lives of children was the major
      precipitant for entry to care and particularly so for Aboriginal infants.

PMID- 28865401
TI  - Spatial and temporal determinants of A-weighted and frequency specific sound
      levels-An elastic net approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Urban sound levels are a ubiquitous environmental stressor and have
      been shown to be associated with a wide variety of health outcomes. While much is
      known about the predictors of A-weighted sound pressure levels in the urban
      environment, far less is known about other frequencies. OBJECTIVE: To develop a
      series of spatial-temporal sound models to predict A-weighted sound pressure
      levels, low, mid, and high frequency sound for Boston, Massachusetts. METHODS:
      Short-term sound levels were gathered at n = 400 sites from February 2015 -
      February 2016. Spatial and meteorological attributes at or near the sound
      monitoring site were obtained using publicly available data and a portable
      weather station. An elastic net variable selection technique was used to select
      predictors of A-weighted, low, mid, and high frequency sound. RESULTS: The final
      models for low, mid, high, and A-weighted sound levels explained 59 - 69% of the
      variability in each measure. Similar to other A-weighted models, our sound models
      included transportation related variables such as length of roads and bus lines
      in the surrounding area; distance to road and rail lines; traffic volume, vehicle
      mix, residential and commercial land use. However, frequency specific models
      highlighted additional predictors not included in the A-weighted model including
      temperature, vegetation, impervious surfaces, vehicle mix, and density of
      entertainment establishments and restaurants. CONCLUSIONS: Building spatial
      temporal models to characterize sound levels across the frequency spectrum using
      an elastic net approach can be a promising tool for noise exposure assessments
      within the urban soundscape. Models of sound's character may give us additional
      important sound exposure metrics to be utilized in epidemiological studies.

PMID- 28865402
TI  - Effects of age and gender on the serum levels of clozapine, olanzapine,
      risperidone, and quetiapine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate serum concentrations of second-generation
      antipsychotics in relation to age and gender in a population ranging from 18 to
      100 years. METHOD: Results from a routine therapeutic drug monitoring database
      were retrieved, and 43 079 samples from 11 968 patients were included (17 249
      samples for clozapine, 16 171 samples for olanzapine, 5343 samples for
      risperidone, and 4316 samples for quetiapine). The dose-adjusted concentration
      was used as the primary target variable. A linear mixed model was used to allow
      the inclusion of multiple samples from each patient. RESULTS: Age had a
      significant impact on the concentrations of all four drugs. At the age of 80, the
      dose-adjusted concentrations were up to twice those of the age of 40. At the age
      of 90, dose-adjusted concentrations were two- to three-fold higher. Age-related
      increases were largest for clozapine (+108% at 80 years; +197% at 90 years) and
      smallest for olanzapine (+28% at 80 years; +106% at 90 years). Females generally
      had dose-adjusted concentrations 20-30% higher than males. CONCLUSION: The effect
      of age on the serum concentrations of the antipsychotics studied becomes
      pronounced with advanced age. The patient population aged above 70 should be
      subdivided according to exact age, and considerable dose reductions are
      recommended.

PMID- 28865403
TI  - Cumulative incidence and risk factors for the development of hepatocellular
      carcinoma in patients with chronic hepatitis B who achieved sustained
      disappearance of viremia by nucleos(t)ide analog treatment.
AB  - AIM: Nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) therapy has been reported to reduce the risk of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, some patients who achieve hepatitis B
      virus (HBV)-DNA disappearance from serum by NA develop HCC. In this study, we
      investigated the cumulative incidence and risk factors for HCC in patients with
      chronic hepatitis B (CHB) who achieved sustained disappearance of viremia by NA
      treatment. METHODS: A total of 133 CHB patients (median age, 51 years; 79 men
      [59%]; 28 with cirrhosis [21%]) who received NA therapy and achieved HBV-DNA
      disappearance from serum were analyzed retrospectively. We evaluated the
      cumulative incidence of HCC and risk factors associated with HCC based on data
      collected at the time of HBV-DNA disappearance. RESULTS: Thirteen patients
      developed HCC during the follow-up period. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year cumulative
      incidence of HCC was 0.0%, 7.8%, and 11.1%, respectively. In multivariate
      analysis, advanced age (hazard ratio [HR], 4.601; 95% confidence interval [CI],
      1.220-17.351; P = 0.024), liver cirrhosis (HR, 5.563; 95% CI, 1.438-21.519; P =
      0.013), and higher HBV core-related antigen (HBcrAg) levels (HR, 13.532; 95% CI,
      1.683-108.815; P = 0.014) at the time of HBV-DNA disappearance were significantly
      associated with the development of HCC. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate the
      importance of continuous HCC surveillance especially in patients with advanced
      age, cirrhosis, and/or higher serum levels of HBcrAg, even if they achieve HBV
      DNA disappearance.

PMID- 28865404
TI  - From depression to anxiety, and back.

PMID- 28865405
TI  - The role of stress-regulation genes in moderating the association of stress and
      daily-life psychotic experiences.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The interaction of single nucleotide polymorphisms with both distal
      and proximal environmental factors across the extended psychosis phenotype is
      understudied. This study examined (i) the interaction of relevant SNPs with both
      early-life adversity and proximal (momentary) stress on psychotic experiences
      (PEs) in an extended psychosis sample; and (ii) differences between early
      psychosis and non-clinical groups for these interactions. METHODS: Two hundred
      and forty-two non-clinical and 96 early-psychosis participants were prompted
      randomly eight times daily for 1 week to complete assessments of current
      experiences, including PEs and stress. Participants also reported on childhood
      trauma and were genotyped for 10 SNPs on COMT, RGS4, BDNF, FKBP5, and OXTR genes.
      RESULTS: Unlike genetic variants, distal and proximal stressors were associated
      with PEs in both samples and were more strongly associated with PEs in the early
      psychosis than in the non-clinical group. The RGS4 TA and FKBP5 CATT haplotypes
      interacted with distal stress, whereas the A allele of OXTR (rs2254298)
      interacted with proximal stress, increasing momentary levels of PEs in the early
      psychosis group. No interactions emerged with COMT or BDNF variants. CONCLUSION:
      Individual differences in relevant stress-regulation systems interact with both
      distal and proximal psychosocial stressors in shaping the daily-life
      manifestation of PEs across the psychosis continuum.

PMID- 28865407
TI  - Immunoglobulin Free Light Chains in the Pathogenesis of Lung Disorders.
AB  - Inflammation is an important component of numerous cancers and chronic diseases
      and many inflammatory mediators have been shown to have potential prognostic
      roles. Tumor-infiltrating mast cells can promote tumor growth and angiogenesis,
      but the mechanism of mast cell activation is unclear. Early studies have shown
      that immunoglobulin free light chains (FLC) can trigger mast cell activation in
      an antigen-specific manner. Increased expression of FLC is observed within the
      stroma of many human cancers including those of breast, colon, lung, pancreas,
      kidney, and skin. These overexpressed FLCs are co-localized to areas of mast cell
      infiltration. Importantly, FLC expression is associated with basal-like cancers
      with an aggressive phenotype. Moreover, FLC is expressed in areas of inflammatory
      cell infiltration and its expression is significantly associated with poor
      clinical outcome. In addition, serum and bronchoalveolar fluid FLC concentrations
      are increased in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and
      hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) compared to control subjects. In this review,
      we provide an update on the role of FLC in the pathogenesis of several lung
      disorders and indicate how this may contribute to new therapeutic opportunities.

PMID- 28865408
TI  - Peptide-based Vaccines Derived from FcepsilonRI Beta Subunit Can Reduce Allergic
      Response in Mice Model.
AB  - Current therapeutic approaches in allergic diseases especially asthma generally
      focus on using immunological strategies. According to the importance of FceRI in
      controlling allergic response we used two extracellular regions of Fc epsilon
      receptor I (FceRI) beta subunit peptides to design two peptide-based vaccines.
      Probably these peptides vaccines by triggering the immune response to FceRI can
      reduce the allergic symptoms through blocking the IgE specific receptor. Two
      extracellular parts of FceRI beta subunit were made by peptide synthesizer and
      conjugated with keyhole limpet Hemocyanin. These conjugated peptides were used
      and evaluated as therapeutic vaccines in allergic airway inflammation mouse
      model. Total IgE and anti ovalbumin specific IgE were measured in mice serum and
      compared in vaccinated and unvaccinated allergic mice. Histamine, prostaglandin
      D2 (PGD2), IL-4 and IL-13 were measured in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of
      vaccinated allergic mice versus unvaccinated and histopathologic examination were
      performed in studied groups. After vaccination of mice with each of the peptide
      vaccines the specific antibodies titer increased significantly in vaccinated
      groups versus unvaccinated. In histopathologic study, lavage eosinophil
      percentage and peribronchial inflammation in lung sections of vaccinated groups
      was decreased (p<0.05). Also the allergic components including total IgE, anti
      ovalbumin specific IgE, histamine, PGD2, IL-4, and IL-13 showed substantial
      decline in vaccinated allergic mice.  Thus targeting the extracellular regions of
      FceRI beta subunit by peptide-based vaccines and induction of specific antibodies
      against them can reduce allergic responses in allergic mice model.

PMID- 28865406
TI  - Resting state perfusion in the language network is linked to formal thought
      disorder and poor functional outcome in schizophrenia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a core symptom in schizophrenia.
      Here, we focus on resting state cerebral blood flow (rCBF) linked to dimensions
      of FTD. METHODS: We included 47 schizophrenia spectrum patients and 30 age- and
      gender-matched healthy controls. We assessed FTD with the assessment of thought,
      language, and communication (TLC) and imaging on a 3T MRI scanner. Within
      patients, we tested the association of FTD dimensions and in a subgroup (n = 27)
      the association of functional outcome after 6 months with whole brain rCBF.
      RESULTS: Negative FTD was most prominently associated with perfusion within the
      superior temporal gyrus, while positive FTD was associated with perfusion within
      the supplementary motor area, and inferior frontal gyrus. Perfusion within the
      left supramarginal gyrus was associated with social functioning after 6 months.
      CONCLUSIONS: Distinguishable associations of rCBF with FTD dimensions point to
      distinct underlying pathophysiology. The location of aberrant perfusion patterns
      suggests that negative FTD might reflect defective access to semantic memory
      while positive FTD likely reflects defective suppression of irrelevant
      information during increased speech production. Finally, the neural correlates of
      thought block were also predictive of poor functional outcome. Thus, functional
      outcome and distinct FTD dimensions may share some pathophysiology.

PMID- 28865409
TI  - Determination of the Most Common Indoor and Outdoor Allergens in 602 Patients
      with Allergic Symptoms Using Specific IgE Local Panel.
AB  - Aeroallergens play an important role in developing allergic diseases. The aim of
      this study was to determine the outdoor and indoor sensitization using a specific
      regional panel of aeroallergens in allergic patients. All patients with allergic
      symptoms referred to Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute (IAARI) in
      Tehran, Iran from December 2010 to July 2013 entered this cross sectional study.
      We evaluated serum samples for specific IgE against 20 selected aeroallergens
      provided by a specific panel (RIDA Allergy Screen test, IAARI panel). A p value
      less than 0.05 was considered as significant. The patients (n=602) were 49.8 %
      male and 50.2% female. The median age was 9 years. Positive specific IgE at least
      to one allergen was 53.2%. The percentages of patients with only outdoor or
      indoor sensitization were 37.5 and 19.7%, respectively. Moreover, 42.8% showed
      sensitization to both indoor and outdoor aeroallergens. The most common outdoor
      aeroallergens in decreasing order were plane tree (32.8%), Bermuda grass (32.2%),
      timothy grass (30.6%), saltwort (28.4%). The percentage of specific IgE to indoor
      allergens including mold and mite were 23.8 % and 22.2%, respectively. There was
      a statistically significant relationship between specific IgE to timothy grass
      and mold allergens between two genders (p=0.04 and p=0.02, respectively).The
      results of this study shows that outdoor aeroallergens can be considered as the
      most common causes of allergic symptoms in our allergic patients.

PMID- 28865410
TI  - Decreased Sensitization to Aeroallergens among Southwestern Iranian Male Farmers.
AB  - Farmers are usually exposed to various inhaled allergens like pollens, mites,
      molds, and animal dander in their working environment which may lead to allergic
      rhinitis, asthma and urticaria. The purpose of this study was to identify
      sensitization to various aeroallergens in farmers and their occupational allergy
      symptoms. This cross sectional study included 103 male farmers and 100 non-farmer
      healthy controls. The work-related symptoms of farmers were recorded with a
      questionnaire. Spirometry and skin prick tests with 15 commercial allergen
      extracts were performed in both farmers and controls. The rate of sensitization
      to at least one of the applied aeroallergens was 47.6% in farmers compared to 65%
      in the control group (OR=0.48; CI 95%, 1.08 to 2.07) according to skin prick
      tests, after adjusting for age. Occupational allergy symptoms were reported by
      54.3% farmers. Mean FEV1/FVC was significantly lower in farmers than in controls
      (p<0.001). The results of this study showed that farmers had no increased risk of
      sensitization to aeroallergens. Sensitization to pollens was more prevalent than
      to mites among the farmers in our study and smoking was an important predisposing
      factor in farmers who suffered from occupational allergy symptoms.

PMID- 28865411
TI  - Frequency of HLA DQbeta1*0201 and DQbeta1*0301 Alleles and Total Serum IgE in
      Patients with Bronchial Asthma: A Pilot Study from Pakistan.
AB  - In Pakistan about 3.7% of the population is suffering from asthma, a chronic
      inflammatory disorder of airways. Asthma has wide spectrum of predisposing
      factors including environment and genetics. Many studies have been performed to
      determine association of asthma with serum IgE and major histocompatibility
      complex (MHC) alleles but conflicting results were reported. Therefore, present
      study was designed to determine frequency of HLA-DQbeta1*0201 and DQbeta1*0301
      alleles in patients with bronchial asthma. This case control study included 85
      asthmatic patients and 85 healthy controls. HLA-DQbeta1*0201 and DQbeta1*0301
      alleles were detected by allele specific PCR and serum IgE was determined by
      ELISA. Median and inter-quartile range (IQR) of total IgE level were more
      increased in asthma patients (585.7 IU/mL and 247.2-848.1 IU/mL) compared to
      healthy controls (65.1 IU/mL and 28.1-181.3 IU/mL) (p<0.001). Frequency of HLA
      DQbeta1*0201 and -DQbeta1*0301 alleles was more in healthy controls (32% and 38%,
      p=0.616) as compared to bronchial asthma patients (28% and 26%, p= 0.09). There
      was a significant association of IgE levels and HLA-DQbeta1*0201 allele. Patients
      positive for HLA-DQbeta1*0201 allele had low level of serum IgE 357.2 IU/mL
      (153.9-634.3 IU/mL) compared to the patients negative for this HLA allele i.e.
      642.9 IU/mL (289.8-1299.5IU/mL) (p=0.005), whereas, HLA-DQbeta1*0301 allele was
      not associated with total serum IgE level (p=0.865). Our findings show that HLA
      DQbeta1*0201 and -DQbeta1*0301 alleles were not associated with asthma; however,
      HLA-DQbeta1*0201 allele was associated with low levels of total serum IgE in the
      study population.

PMID- 28865412
TI  - Association between +4259 T>G and -574 G>T Polymorphisms of TIM-3 with Asthma in
      an Iranian Population.
AB  - T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain (TIM)-3 have been shown to negatively
      regulate Th1 cell-mediated immunity. Activation of TIM-3 by galectin-9 induces
      Th1 cell apoptosis, which may contribute to skewing of immune response towards
      Th2-dominant immunity. The aim of this study was to determine whether certain
      genetic variations of TIM-3 influence predisposition to asthma in a sample of
      Iranian population. This case-control study was conducted on 209 patients with
      asthma and 200 healthy controls. The +4259 T>G and -574 G>T polymorphisms were
      detected using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length
      polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) and amplification refractory mutation system-PCR(ARMS
      PCR). Total serum IgE was further measured with ELISA. Notably, +4259T > G and
      574G>T polymorphisms of TIM-3 were significantly associated with the
      susceptibility to asthma. In addition, the present study showed a significant
      difference between the distribution frequency of the GT + TT genotype and T
      allele on the +4259 T>G and -574 G>T locus between the groups.However, no
      correlation between the +4259 T > G and -574G > T polymorphisms and total serum
      IgE levels were observed. Together these results suggest that the TIM-3 +4259 T>G
      and -574 G>T polymorphisms are greatly associated with the susceptibility of
      Iranian population to asthma, which could open up new horizons for  better
      understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic
      approaches of asthma.

PMID- 28865413
TI  - Correlation of Serum Levels of IL-33, IL-37, Soluble Form of Vascular Endothelial
      Growth Factor Receptor 2 (VEGFR2), and Circulatory Frequency of VEGFR2-expressing
      Cells with Multiple Sclerosis Severity.
AB  - IL-33 and IL-37 (new cytokines of IL-1 family), soluble form of vascular
      endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (sVEGFR2) as well as membranous expression
      of VEGFR2 have some key roles in the pathogenesis of autoimmune and inflammatory
      diseases. The aim of this study was to correlate circulatory changes of these
      factors with the severity of multiple sclerosis (MS) as an autoimmune and
      inflammatory disease. Our case-control study was performed on 84 patients with MS
      and 75 healthy subjects. The serum levels of IL-33, IL-37 and sVEGFR2 in the
      peripheral blood samples of all participants were measured by enzyme-linked
      immune sorbent assay (ELISA). Flow cytometry was used to analyze the circulatory
      number of VEGFR2-expressing cells. The severity of MS was evaluated using the
      expanded disability status scale (EDSS). Finally, we evaluated the correlation
      between serum levels of those factors with disease severity. Our findings showed
      that the serum level of IL-33, IL-37, sVEGFR2 and the circulatory number of
      VEGFR2-expressing cells were increased in patients with MS compared to healthy
      subjects (p<0.0001). Also, there was a significant correlation between serum
      levels of these 3 factors with disease severity according to EDSS. Our study
      showed that the serum levels of IL-33, IL-37 and sVEGFR2 may be important
      prognostic biomarkers of MS.

PMID- 28865414
TI  - Interleukin 7 Receptor Alpha Gene Variants Are Correlated with Gene Expression in
      Patients with Relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - The association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the IL-7Ralpha gene
      with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been documented in various populations. This
      study aimed to evaluate the genotype distributions of two SNPs, rs6897932 and
      rs201084372, and the functional association of rs6897932 in relation to IL
      7Ralpha gene expression in a group of Iranian relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS)
      patients.  Genotyping for both SNPs in the IL7Ralpha gene and relative
      quantification of mRNA expression for both isoforms of IL-7Ralpha were performed
      in 100 RRMS patients and 100 ethnic-matched healthy controls. Higher significant
      frequencies of the T allele and TT genotype for rs6897932 (C/T) were observed in
      patients comparing to controls (p=0.006). Higher frequencies of the T allele and
      the TT and TG genotypes and lower frequencies of the G allele and GG genotypes
      for rs201084372 (G/A) were found in patients comparing to controls (p<0.0001).  A
      decreased level of mRNA expression for the membrane-bound IL-7Ralpha (mbIL
      7Ralpha) and an increased level of mRNA for the soluble IL-7Ralpha (sIL-7Ralpha)
      were observed in patients versus controls (p=0.005 and p=0.002 respectively). A
      significant decreased level of mRNA expression for mbIL-7Ralpha (p=0.01) and an
      increased level of mRNA for sIL-7Ralpha (p=0.008) were observed in RRMS patients
      compared to healthy controls carrying the TT+CT genotypes. The higher levels of
      mRNA expression for the sIL-7Ralpha isoform in MS patients carrying the IL7R*TT
      genotype is a new finding not previously reported in studies on the genotype
      induced effects of IL-7Ralpha expression in multiple sclerosis.

PMID- 28865415
TI  - Polarization of Helper T Lymphocytes Maybe Involved in the Pathogenesis of Lumbar
      Disc Herniation.
AB  - This study aimed to explore the expression of T helper type 1 (Th1)/T helper type
      2 (Th2) in herniated nucleus pulposus (NP) and determine their association with
      sciatic pain. NP was collected from 12 patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH)
      (extrusion group) and 6 patients with a vertebral fracture (control group). The
      expression of Th1/Th2 and related cytokines in the NP was examined by flow
      cytometry, Western blot, and immunofluorescent staining. Subsequently, an LDH
      model was established in male Sprague-Dawley rats, and behavioral testings were
      carried out. The expression of Th1/Th2 and related cytokines in rat NP and the
      expression of macrophages in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) were also examined.
      The number of Th1 cells in rat NP dramatically increased on day 14 after the
      surgery, but significantly decreased on day 28. The number of Th2 cells increased
      on day 28. Chemokine ligand 3(CCL3) and CD86 proteins (M1-specific molecules)
      were expressed at a relatively low level in naive DRG, markedly increased on day
      14 after the surgery, and decreased on day 28. Arg1 and CD206 protein (M2
      specific molecules) were expressed at a relatively low level in naive DRG and
      markedly increased on day 28. The mechanical allodynia and heat hyperalgesia
      developed after NP application and finally partially alleviated. The results
      suggested that the polarization of Th cells might be involved in the pathogenesis
      of LDH, and this might be achieved via the phenotypic shift of macrophages.

PMID- 28865416
TI  - Immunological Mechanisms Implicated in the Pathogenesis of Chronic Urticaria and
      Hashimoto Thyroiditis.
AB  - Autoimmunity represents the attack of the immune system of an organism against
      its own cells and tissues. Autoimmune diseases may affect one organ (Hashimoto
      thyroiditis) or can be systemic (chronic urticaria). Many factors are implicated
      in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity (white cells, cytokines, chemokines).
      Hashimoto thyroiditis has been associated with chronic urticaria in the last 3
      decades in a number of clinical studies. Anti-thyroid antibodies have been
      documented in a proportion ranging from 10% to 30% in chronic urticaria patients
      in different countries from 3 continents. Two of the factors involved in the
      mechanism of autoimmunity are present both in the pathophysiology of Hashimoto
      thyroiditis and chronic urticaria. According to recent studies, IL6 is implicated
      in the pathogenesis of both diseases. TregsCD4+CD25+Foxp3+ cells have also been
      implicated in the pathological mechanisms of these 2 entities. This review offers
      an explanation of the clinical and statistical association between these two
      diseases from the pathophysiological point of view.

PMID- 28865417
TI  - Association between FcepsilonRIB Polymorphisms and Asthma in Asian Population: A
      Meta-analysis.
AB  - None.

PMID- 28865418
TI  - ODF4, MAGEA3, and MAGEB4: Potential Biomarkers in Patients with Transitional Cell
      Carcinoma
AB  - Background: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of outer dense
      fiber 4 (ODF4), melanoma-associated antigen A3 (MAGEA3), and MAGEAB4 mRNAs in
      transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), using a small amount of cell reverse
      transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on urinary exfoliated cells.
      Methods: We recruited a total of 105 suspected TCC patients and 54 sex- and age
      matched non-TCC controls. The candidates' genetic expression patterns were
      investigated with RT-PCR, while reverse transcription quantitative PCR was
      applied to quantify and compare each mRNA level between cases and control groups.
      Results: The sensitivity of ODF4, MAGEA3, and MAGEAB4 RT-PCR was 54.8%, 63%, and
      53.4%, whereas the specificity was 73.7%, 86%, and 94.7%, respectively. Combining
      ODF4, MAGEA3, and MAGEAB4 RT-PCR offered a relatively higher sensitivity (83.6%).
      Conclusion: RT-PCR with ODF4, MAGEA3, and MAGEAB4 on urinary exfoliated cells
      could provide clinicians with a promising method to improve TCC diagnosis,
      especially in the case of gross hematuria and catheterization. The method used
      here is non-invasive, simple and convenient, and unlike cytology, it does not
      rely directly on expert professional opinions. These features can be of
      particular importance to the management of TCC patients in whom regular and
      lifelong surveillance is required.

PMID- 28865419
TI  - Effect of unaffordable medical need on distress level of family member: analyses
      of 1997-2013 United States National Health Interview Surveys.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reduced funding to public health care systems during economic
      downturns is a common phenomenon around the world. The effect of health care cost
      on family members of the patients has not been established. This paper aims to
      explore the relationship between affordability of health care and vulnerability
      of family members to distress levels. METHODS: Data of a total of 262,843
      participants were obtained from 17 waves (1997-2013) of the United States
      National Health Interview Survey. Multinomial logistic regression was used to
      investigate psychological distress level as a result of having family members who
      experienced unmet medical needs due to cost. RESULTS: Among participants without
      family members who experienced unmet needs for medical care due to cost, risks of
      having 'moderate' (score of 5-12) or 'serious' (score of 13 or above) level of
      psychological distress were 1.0% and 11.5%, respectively. Risks of having
      'moderate' or 'serious' level of psychological distress were 3.1% and 23.4%,
      respectively among participants with family members who experienced unmet needs.
      The adjusted relative risk ratio of 'moderate' and 'serious', as compared to
      'normal' level of psychological distress, were 1.58 (95% confidence interval:
      1.47-1.69) and 2.09 (95% confidence interval: 1.78-2.45) if one's family members
      experienced unmet medical needs. CONCLUSIONS: Unmet medical needs due to cost
      increases risk of distress levels experienced by family members. Careful planning
      and adequate funding to public health care system could be implemented to prevent
      any unnecessary detrimental effect on mental health among family members of the
      unwell and any further increment of the prevalence of mental illnesses. This
      recommendation aligns with the World Health Organization Mental Health Action
      Plan 2013-2020.

PMID- 28865420
TI  - Risk factors for failure of revision total hip arthroplasty using a Kerboull-type
      acetabular reinforcement device.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to identify the risk factors associated with
      revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) failure using a Kerboull-type (KT) plate.
      METHODS: We analyzed 77 revision THAs using cemented acetabular components with a
      KT plate for aseptic loosening between May 2000 and March 2012. We examined the
      association of bone graft type, acetabular bone defects, age at the time of
      surgery, preoperative Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, postoperative
      JOA hip score, and body mass index, with radiographic failure as the outcome.
      RESULTS: The 7.4-year radiographic failure survival rate was 81.6%. The survival
      rate was significantly different between the beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP)
      group and the bulk allograft group (p = 0.019). The survival curves were also
      significantly different between the beta-TCP group and bulk allograft group (p =
      0.036). American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons type IV was significantly
      associated with radiographic failure (odds ratio [OR]: 15.5, 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 1.4-175.4; p = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS: The midterm outcomes of
      revision THA indicate that type of bone graft and bone defect size may affect
      radiographic survival rate when using a KT plate.

PMID- 28865421
TI  - Trends in risk classification and primary therapy of Japanese patients with
      prostate cancer in Nara urological research and treatment group (NURTG) -
      comparison between 2004-2006, 2007-2009, and 2010-2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To assess the trends in risk classification and primary therapy of
      Japanese prostate cancer patients who were diagnosed between 2004 and 2012.
      METHODS: A total of 7768 patients who were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer
      at Nara Medical University and its 23 affiliated hospitals between 2004 and 2012
      were enrolled. The trends in risk classification and primary therapy in 2004-2006
      (prior period), 2007-2009 (middle period), and 2010-2012 (latter period) were
      compared. RESULTS: The proportion of high-risk and worse patients significantly
      decreased in the latter period compared to the prior period (p < 0.001), while
      that of intermediate-risk patients significantly increased over the years (p <
      0.001). The proportion of primary androgen deprivation therapy (PADT) was 50% in
      the prior period, 40% in the middle period, and 30% in the latter period,
      respectively. The proportions of radiation therapy and active surveillance
      significantly increased. The proportion of radical prostatectomy remained similar
      over these periods (30%). The primary therapy was significantly different between
      the three periods (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: High-risk patients significantly
      decreased in the latter period. The use of PADT also significantly decreased,
      while radiation therapy and active surveillance significantly increased over
      these periods.

PMID- 28865422
TI  - Updating vital status by tracking in the community among patients with epidemic
      Kaposi sarcoma who are lost to follow-up in sub-Saharan Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa (and, indeed, most resource
      limited areas), lack of death registries prohibits linkage of cancer diagnoses
      and precludes the most expeditious approach to determining cancer survival.
      Instead, estimation of cancer survival often uses clinical records, which have
      some mortality data but are replete with patients who are lost to follow-up
      (LTFU), some of which may be caused by undocumented death. The end result is that
      accurate estimation of cancer survival is rarely performed. A prominent example
      of a common cancer in Africa for which survival data are needed but for which
      frequent LTFU has precluded accurate estimation is Kaposi sarcoma (KS). METHODS:
      Using electronic records, we identified all newly diagnosed KS among HIV-infected
      adults at 33 primary care clinics in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Malawi from 2009
      to 2012. We determined those patients who were apparently LTFU, defined as absent
      from clinic for >=90 days at database closure and unknown to be dead or
      transferred. Using standardized protocols which included manual chart review,
      telephone calls, and physical tracking in the community, we attempted to update
      vital status amongst patients who were LTFU. RESULTS: We identified 1222 patients
      with KS, of whom 440 were LTFU according to electronic records. Manual chart
      review revealed that 18 (4.1%) were classified as LFTU due to clerical error,
      leaving 422 as truly LTFU. Of these 422, we updated vital status in 78%; manual
      chart review was responsible for updating in 5.7%, telephone calls in 26%, and
      physical tracking in 46%. Among 378 patients who consented at clinic enrollment
      to be tracked if they became LTFU and who had sufficient geographic
      contact/locator information, we updated vital status in 88%. Duration of LTFU was
      not associated with success of tracking, but tracking success was better in Kenya
      than the other sites. CONCLUSION: It is feasible to update vital status in a
      large fraction of patients with HIV-associated KS in sub-Saharan Africa who have
      become LTFU from clinical care. This finding likely applies to other cancers as
      well. Updating vital status amongst lost patients paves the way towards accurate
      determination of cancer survival.

PMID- 28865423
TI  - Patient's perspective of sustained remission in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During the course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), patients have
      profound negative effects on their patient-reported-outcomes (PRO); in addition,
      the impact of sustained remission (SR) on PROs may differ for each particular
      outcome. The objectives of this study were to identify SR from an inception
      cohort of RA patients and to examine the impact of SR in an ample spectrum of
      PROs. METHODS: The study was developed in a well characterized and ongoing cohort
      of RA patients with recent onset disease recruited from 2004 onwards. In November
      2016, the cohort included 187 patients, of whom 145 had at least 30 months of
      follow-up, with complete rheumatic assessments at regular intervals in addition
      to a pain visual analogue scale (PVAS), overall disease-VAS (OVAS), health
      assessment questionnaire (HAQ), Short-Form 36v2 Survey (SF-36) and fatigue
      assessment. First SR was defined according to the DAS28 cut-offs (DAS28-SR) and
      ACR/EULAR 2011 Boolean definition (B-SR), if maintained for at least 12
      consecutive months. The dependent t test and Mc Nemar's tests were used for
      comparisons between related groups. Local IRB approval was obtained. RESULTS:
      More patients achieved DAS28-SR than B-SR: 78 vs. 63, respectively. Fifty
      patients met both SR definitions. Follow-up to DAS28-SR was shorter than to B-SR
      and the duration of DAS28-SR was longer, p <= 0.023 for all comparisons. At SR,
      patients had PRO proxy to normal values; the percentage of patients with normal
      PRO varied from 97% (95% CI: 91-99) for HAQ to 50% (95% CI: 39-61) for absence of
      fatigue. In DAS28-SR patients, acute reactant phases within the normal range were
      detected very early (after 1.5-2.9 months). HAQ, PVAS, OVAS and SF-36 were scored
      within the normal range after 6-7 months. The absence of fatigue was detected at
      8.7 months of follow-up, which was similar to DAS28-SR. In the 63 patients with B
      SR, a similar pattern was observed. The follow-up to outcomes of the 50 patients
      who met both SR definitions was similar, but the absence of fatigue and physical
      component SF-36 normalization were achieved earlier in B-SR patients (p <= 0.02).
      CONCLUSIONS: The impact of SR on PRO differs accordingly to each particular
      outcome.

PMID- 28865424
TI  - Prevalence, pattern and risk factors of retinal vein occlusion in an elderly
      population in Nepal: the Bhaktapur retina study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore the prevalence, pattern and risk factors
      of retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in an elderly population of Nepal. METHOD: One
      thousand eight hundred sixty subjects of age 60 years and above were enrolled in
      a population-based, cross-sectional study. Detailed history, visual acuity,
      anterior segment and posterior segment examinations were done. Blood pressure,
      non-fasting blood sugar, body mass index and abdominal girth were measured.
      Retinal vein occlusions were further divided into branch retinal (BRVO), hemi
      retinal and central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). RESULT: Age ranged from 60 to
      95 years with a mean of 69.64 +/- 7.31 years. Overall population prevalence for
      RVO was 2.95% (95% Confidence interval (CI): 2.23-3.83), BRVO 2.74% (95% CI: 2.05
      3.58) and CRVO 0.21% (95% CI: 0.06-0.55). BRVO was seen in 51 subjects (92.73%)
      and CRVO in 4 (7.27%). Among the total RVO, unilateral and bilateral involvement
      was 85.45% and 14.55%, respectively. Among the subjects with BRVO and CRVO,
      37.25% and 50% had low vision, respectively. The risk of RVO increased with
      ageing and was more among males. There was an increased risk of RVO among those
      with hypertension, and with diabetes and hypertension. There was also an
      increased risk of RVO among subjects with hypermetropia, those with pseudophakia
      and those who were smokers and consumed alcohol. CONCLUSION: Retinal vein
      occlusion is a common retinal vascular disorder in the elderly population of
      Nepal. The main risk factors for RVO were increasing age and hypertension.

PMID- 28865425
TI  - Silver-coated modular Megaendoprostheses in salvage revision arthroplasty after
      periimplant infection with extensive bone loss - a pilot study of 34 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hip and knee replacements in patients with bone defects after
      infection correlates with high rates of reinfection. In this vulnerable patient
      population, the prevention of reinfection is to be considered superordinate to
      the functionality and defect bridging. The use of silver coating of aseptic
      implants as an infection prophylaxis is already proven; however, the significance
      of these coatings in septic reimplantation of large implants is still not
      sufficiently investigated. METHODS: In a retrospective analysis, 34 patients who
      have been treated with a modular mega-endoprosthesis after a cured bone infection
      of the lower limb (femur or tibia) have been evaluated. One group with 14
      patients (NSCG: non silver- coated group) was supplied with the non silver-
      coated implants: MML Munchen- LubeckTM modular endoprosthesis system (AQ
      Implants, Ahrensburg, Germany) or MUTARS(r) Modular Universal Tumor And Revision
      System (Implantcast GmbH, Buxtehude, Germany). The other group with 20 patients
      (SCG: silver- coated group) was supplied with the silver- coated system of
      MUTARS(r). In addition to the clinical findings and the patients' histories,
      specifically the reinfection rates, the patients' mobility was assessed using the
      New Mobility Score (NMS, by Parker and Palmer). RESULTS: The median follow-up
      period was 72 months, ranging from 6 to 267 months. The dropout rate was 5.8%.
      The reinfection rate after healed reinfection in SCG was 40% (8/20), in NSCG 57%
      (8/14), p = 0.34; alpha =0.05. The time for reinfection was, on average, 14
      months (1-72 months) in SCG and 8 months (1-48 months) in the NSCG (p = 0.61;
      alpha =0.05). The two groups showed no differences in the NMS. CONCLUSION: With
      this retrospective analysis, it can be determined that the rate of reinfection of
      modular mega-endoprostheses on the hip and knee joint after healed periprosthetic
      joint infection (PJI) can be reduced by the use of silver coated implants. The
      time until reinfection can also be delayed by utilizing silver coated implants.
      Due to the low number of cases of this highly specific patient population, no
      statistical significance could be determined. A positive effect, however, can be
      assumed through the use of silver coatings in mega-endoprostheses after an
      infectious situation.

PMID- 28865426
TI  - Robust gene selection methods using weighting schemes for microarray data
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A common task in microarray data analysis is to identify informative
      genes that are differentially expressed between two different states. Owing to
      the high-dimensional nature of microarray data, identification of significant
      genes has been essential in analyzing the data. However, the performances of many
      gene selection techniques are highly dependent on the experimental conditions,
      such as the presence of measurement error or a limited number of sample
      replicates. RESULTS: We have proposed new filter-based gene selection techniques,
      by applying a simple modification to significance analysis of microarrays (SAM).
      To prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, we considered a series of
      synthetic datasets with different noise levels and sample sizes along with two
      real datasets. The following findings were made. First, our proposed methods
      outperform conventional methods for all simulation set-ups. In particular, our
      methods are much better when the given data are noisy and sample size is small.
      They showed relatively robust performance regardless of noise level and sample
      size, whereas the performance of SAM became significantly worse as the noise
      level became high or sample size decreased. When sufficient sample replicates
      were available, SAM and our methods showed similar performance. Finally, our
      proposed methods are competitive with traditional methods in classification tasks
      for microarrays. CONCLUSIONS: The results of simulation study and real data
      analysis have demonstrated that our proposed methods are effective for detecting
      significant genes and classification tasks, especially when the given data are
      noisy or have few sample replicates. By employing weighting schemes, we can
      obtain robust and reliable results for microarray data analysis.

PMID- 28865427
TI  - A split ubiquitin system to reveal topology and released peptides of membrane
      proteins.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Membrane proteins define biological functions of membranes in cells.
      Extracellular peptides of transmembrane proteins receive signals from pathogens
      or environments, and are the major targets of drug developments. Despite of their
      essential roles, membrane proteins remain elusive in topological studies due to
      technique difficulties in their expressions and purifications. METHODS: First,
      the target gene is cloned into a destination vector to fuse with C terminal
      ubiquitin at the N or C terminus. Then, Cub vector with target gene and NubWT or
      NubG vectors are transformed into AP4 or AP5 yeast cells, respectively. After
      mating, the diploid cells are dipped onto selection medium to check the growth.
      Topology of the target protein is determined according to Table 1. RESULTS: We
      present a split ubiquitin topology (SUT) analysis system to study the topology
      and truncation peptide of membrane proteins in a simple yeast experiment. In the
      SUT system, transcription activator (TA) fused with a nucleo-cytoplasmic protein
      shows strong auto-activation with both positive and negative control vectors. TA
      fused with the cytoplasmic end of membrane proteins activates reporter genes only
      with positive control vector with a wild type N terminal ubiquitin (NubWT).
      However, TA fused with the extracellular termini of membrane proteins can't
      activate reporter genes even with NubWT. Interestingly,TA fused with the released
      peptide of a membrane protein shows autoactivation in the SUT system. CONCLUSION:
      The SUT system is a simple and fast experimental procedure complementary to
      computational predictions and large scale proteomic techniques. The preliminary
      data from SUT are valuable for pathogen recognitions and new drug developments.

PMID- 28865428
TI  - Psychosocial stressors contributing to emergency psychiatric service utilization
      in a sample of ethno-culturally diverse clients with psychosis in Toronto.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the psychosocial stressors of people with psychoses
      from minority ethnic groups may help in the development of culturally appropriate
      services. This study aimed to compare psychosocial factors associated with
      attendance at an emergency department (ED) for six ethnic groups. Preventing
      crises or supporting people better in the community may decrease hospitalization
      and improve outcomes. METHOD: A cohort was created by retrospective case note
      analysis of people of East-Asian, South-Asian, Black-African, Black-Caribbean,
      White-North American and White-European origin groups attending a specialized
      psychiatric ED in Toronto with a diagnosis of psychosis between 2009 and 2011.
      The psychological or social stressors which were linked to the presentation at
      the ED that were documented by the attending physicians were collected for this
      study. Logistic regression models were constructed to analyze the odds of
      presenting with specific stressors. RESULTS: Seven hundred sixty-five clients
      were included in this study. Forty-four percent of the sample did not have a
      psychiatrist, and 53% did not have a primary care provider. Social environmental
      stressors were the most frequent psychosocial stressor across all six groups,
      followed by issues in the primary support group, occupational and housing
      stressors. When compared to White-North American clients, East-Asian and White
      European origin clients were less likely to present with a housing stressor,
      while Black-African clients had decreased odds of presenting with primary support
      group stressor. Having a primary care provider or psychiatrist were predominantly
      protective factors. CONCLUSION: In Toronto, moving people with chronic mental
      health conditions out of poverty, increasing the social safety net and improving
      access to primary care and community based mental health services may decrease
      many of the stressors which contribute to ED attendance.

PMID- 28865429
TI  - A new and updated resource for codon usage tables.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to the degeneracy of the genetic code, most amino acids can be
      encoded by multiple synonymous codons. Synonymous codons naturally occur with
      different frequencies in different organisms. The choice of codons may affect
      protein expression, structure, and function. Recombinant gene technologies
      commonly take advantage of the former effect by implementing a technique termed
      codon optimization, in which codons are replaced with synonymous ones in order to
      increase protein expression. This technique relies on the accurate knowledge of
      codon usage frequencies. Accurately quantifying codon usage bias for different
      organisms is useful not only for codon optimization, but also for evolutionary
      and translation studies: phylogenetic relations of organisms, and host-pathogen
      co-evolution relationships, may be explored through their codon usage
      similarities. Furthermore, codon usage has been shown to affect protein structure
      and function through interfering with translation kinetics, and cotranslational
      protein folding. RESULTS: Despite the obvious need for accurate codon usage
      tables, currently available resources are either limited in scope, encompassing
      only organisms from specific domains of life, or greatly outdated. Taking
      advantage of the exponential growth of GenBank and the creation of NCBI's RefSeq
      database, we have developed a new database, the High-performance Integrated
      Virtual Environment-Codon Usage Tables (HIVE-CUTs), to present and analyse codon
      usage tables for every organism with publicly available sequencing data. Compared
      to existing databases, this new database is more comprehensive, addresses
      concerns that limited the accuracy of earlier databases, and provides several new
      functionalities, such as the ability to view and compare codon usage between
      individual organisms and across taxonomical clades, through graphical
      representation or through commonly used indices. In addition, it is being
      routinely updated to keep up with the continuous flow of new data in GenBank and
      RefSeq. CONCLUSION: Given the impact of codon usage bias on recombinant gene
      technologies, this database will facilitate effective development and review of
      recombinant drug products and will be instrumental in a wide area of biological
      research. The database is available at hive.biochemistry.gwu.edu/review/codon .

PMID- 28865430
TI  - Aerobic training for improved memory in patients with stress-related exhaustion:
      a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with stress-related exhaustion suffer from cognitive
      impairments, which often remain after psychological treatment or work place
      interventions. It is important to find effective treatments that can address this
      problem. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects on
      cognitive performance and psychological variables of a 12-week aerobic training
      program performed at a moderate-vigorous intensity for patients with exhaustion
      disorder who participated in a multimodal rehabilitation program. METHODS: In
      this open-label, parallel, randomized and controlled trial, 88 patients diagnosed
      with exhaustion disorder participated in a 24-week multimodal rehabilitation
      program. After 12 weeks in the program the patients were randomized to either a
      12-week aerobic training intervention or to a control group with no additional
      training. Primary outcome measure was cognitive function, and secondary outcome
      measures were psychological health variables and aerobic capacity. RESULTS: In
      total, 51% patients in the aerobic training group and 78% patients in the control
      group completed the intervention period. The aerobic training group significantly
      improved in maximal oxygen uptake and episodic memory performance. No additional
      improvement in burnout, depression or anxiety was observed in the aerobic group
      compared with controls. CONCLUSION: Aerobic training at a moderate-vigorous
      intensity within a multimodal rehabilitation program for patients with exhaustion
      disorder facilitated episodic memory. A future challenge would be the clinical
      implementation of aerobic training and methods to increase feasibility in this
      patient group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03073772 .
      Retrospectively registered 21 February 2017.

PMID- 28865431
TI  - Uncommon presentation of a rare tumour - incidental finding in an asymptomatic
      patient: case report and comprehensive review of the literature on
      intrapericardial solitary fibrous tumours.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A solitary fibrous tumour is a rare, mainly benign spindle cell
      mesenchymal tumour most commonly originating from the pleura. An intrapericardial
      location of a solitary fibrous tumour is extremely unusual. We present a case of
      an asymptomatic patient with a slow-growing massive benign cardiac solitary
      fibrous tumour. CASE PRESENTATION: A 37-year-old asymptomatic female patient was
      referred to our hospital with an enlarged cardiac silhouette found on her
      screening chest X-ray. The echocardiographic examination revealed pericardial
      effusion and an inhomogeneous mobile mass located in the pericardial sac around
      the left ventricle. Cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) examination showed an
      intrapericardial, semilunar-shaped mass attached to the pulmonary trunk with an
      intermediate signal intensity on proton density-weighted images and high signal
      intensity on T2-weighted spectral fat saturation inversion recovery images. First
      pass perfusion and early and late gadolinium-enhanced images showed a
      vascularized mass with septated, patchy, inhomogeneous late enhancement. Coronary
      computed tomography angiography revealed no invasion of the coronaries. Based on
      the retrospectively analysed screening chest X-rays, the mass had started to form
      at least 7 years earlier. Complete resection of the tumour with partial resection
      of the pulmonary trunk was performed. Histological evaluation of the septated,
      cystic mass revealed tumour cells forming an irregular patternless pattern;
      immunohistochemically, the cells tested positive for vimentin, CD34, CD99 and
      STAT6 but negative for keratin (AE1-AE3), CD31 and S100. Thus, the diagnosis of
      an intrapericardial solitary fibrous tumour was established. There has been no
      recurrence for 3 years based on the regular MRI follow-up. CONCLUSION:
      Intrapericardial SFTs, showing slow growth dynamics, can present with massive
      extent even in completely asymptomatic patients. MRI is exceedingly useful for
      characterizing intrapericardial masses, allowing precise surgical planning, and
      is reliable for long-term follow up.

PMID- 28865432
TI  - A mixed-methods investigation of incident Hemodialysis access in a safety-net
      population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite improved health outcomes associated with arteriovenous
      fistulas, 80% of Americans initiate hemodialysis using a catheter, influenced by
      low socioeconomic status among other factors. Risk factors for incident catheter
      use in safety-net populations are unknown. Our objective was to identify factors
      associated with incident catheter use among hemodialysis patients at one safety
      net hospital, with a goal of informing fistula placement initiatives targeted at
      safety-net populations more generally. METHODS: We performed a retrospective
      review of all incident hemodialysis patients at a single urban safety-net
      hospital from January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2015 (n = 241), as well as semi
      structured interviews with a multi-lingual convenience sample of patients (n =
      10) from this cohort. The primary outcome was incident vascular access modality.
      Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with
      incident catheter use. Interview transcripts were coded using a directed content
      analysis framework based on a model describing barriers to healthcare access.
      RESULTS: Subjects were 61.8% male, racially/ethnically diverse (19.5% white,
      29.5% black, 28.6% Hispanic, 17.4% Asian), with a mean age of 52.4 years. Eighty
      eight percent initiated hemodialysis using a catheter. In multivariable analysis,
      longer duration of nephrology care was associated with decreased catheter use
      (>12 months vs. 0-6 months: adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] 0.07, 95% CI 0.02-0.23, p <
      0.001), whereas uninsured status increased odds of catheter use (aOR 3.96, 1.23
      12.76, p = 0.02). There was a decrease in catheter use after vascular surgery
      services became available in-hospital (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.16-0.98, p = 0.04),
      however this association was not significant in multivariable analysis (aOR 0.48,
      0.17-1.36, p = 0.17). During interviews, patients cited emotional responses to
      disease, lack of social and financial resources, and limited health knowledge as
      barriers to obtaining fistula surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of catheter use in
      this urban safety-net population is above the national average. Access to health
      insurance, early referrals to nephrology, and provision of in-hospital vascular
      surgery should be prioritized in the safety-net. Additionally, services that
      support patients' emotional and learning needs may decrease delays in fistula
      placement.

PMID- 28865433
TI  - RRCRank: a fusion method using rank strategy for residue-residue contact
      prediction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In structural biology area, protein residue-residue contacts play a
      crucial role in protein structure prediction. Some researchers have found that
      the predicted residue-residue contacts could effectively constrain the
      conformational search space, which is significant for de novo protein structure
      prediction. In the last few decades, related researchers have developed various
      methods to predict residue-residue contacts, especially, significant performance
      has been achieved by using fusion methods in recent years. In this work, a novel
      fusion method based on rank strategy has been proposed to predict contacts.
      Unlike the traditional regression or classification strategies, the contact
      prediction task is regarded as a ranking task. First, two kinds of features are
      extracted from correlated mutations methods and ensemble machine-learning
      classifiers, and then the proposed method uses the learning-to-rank algorithm to
      predict contact probability of each residue pair. RESULTS: First, we perform two
      benchmark tests for the proposed fusion method (RRCRank) on CASP11 dataset and
      CASP12 dataset respectively. The test results show that the RRCRank method
      outperforms other well-developed methods, especially for medium and short range
      contacts. Second, in order to verify the superiority of ranking strategy, we
      predict contacts by using the traditional regression and classification
      strategies based on the same features as ranking strategy. Compared with these
      two traditional strategies, the proposed ranking strategy shows better
      performance for three contact types, in particular for long range contacts.
      Third, the proposed RRCRank has been compared with several state-of-the-art
      methods in CASP11 and CASP12. The results show that the RRCRank could achieve
      comparable prediction precisions and is better than three methods in most
      assessment metrics. CONCLUSIONS: The learning-to-rank algorithm is introduced to
      develop a novel rank-based method for the residue-residue contact prediction of
      proteins, which achieves state-of-the-art performance based on the extensive
      assessment.

PMID- 28865434
TI  - Association between life-course socioeconomic position and inflammatory
      biomarkers in older age: a nationally representative cohort study in Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence of an association between low socioeconomic position (SEP)
      and inflammatory markers is scant. This study aimed to examine how life-course
      SEP predicted C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin (IL-6) in older age from a
      national cohort. METHODS: We collected data from 1036 participants in the Social
      Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study in Taiwan. Four SEP time points,
      childhood, young adulthood, active professional life, and older age were measured
      retrospectively. A group-based trajectory analysis method was used to identify
      the distinct trajectories of life-course SEP, and trajectory group membership was
      used as the predictor of CRP and IL-6 levels in older age. RESULTS: Three
      trajectories of life-course SEP were identified within the total sample: Low-Low
      (36.5%), Low-High (26.8%), and High-High (36.7%). Participants in the High-High
      group had the lowest levels of CRP and IL-6. Compared with those in the Low-Low
      group, the participants in the Low-High group had a similar adjusted CRP [-0.032
      ln mg/L; 95% confidence interval (CI) - 0.193, 0.128] and IL-6 (0.017 ln pg/mL;
      95% CI -0.093, 0.128); the participants in the High-High group had a
      significantly lower level of adjusted CRP concentration (-0.279 ln mg/L; 95% CI: 
      0.434, -0.125) and similarly lower IL-6 concentration (-0.129 ln pg/mL; 95% CI 
      0.236, -0.023) . CONCLUSIONS: Life-course SEP is related to the level of CRP and
      IL-6 in older age. Our data support the notion that life-course SEP predicts
      inflammatory markers in older age. Low SEP in childhood is related to elevated
      inflammatory markers in older age. Even after the transition from low SEP in
      childhood to high SEP in older age, the risk remains. Further study on SEP and
      inflammation-related disease is warranted.

PMID- 28865435
TI  - Role of adjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer with ypT0-3N0
      after preoperative chemoradiation therapy and surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to explore the clinical benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy
      (AC) with fluoropyrimidine in patients with ypT0-3N0 rectal cancer after
      preoperative chemoradiation therapy (CRT) followed by total mesorectal excision
      (TME). METHODS: Patients with ypT0-3N0 rectal cancer after preoperative CRT and
      TME were included using prospectively collected tumor registry cohort between
      January 2001 and December 2013. Patients were categorized into two groups
      according to the receipt of AC. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival
      (OS) were compared between the adjuvant and observation groups. To control for
      potential confounding factors, we also calculated propensity scores and performed
      propensity score-matched analysis for DFS and OS. RESULTS: Of the 339 evaluated
      patients, 87 patients (25.7%) did not receive AC. There were no differences in
      DFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.921; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.562-1.507; P =
      0.742) and OS (HR, 0.835; 95% CI, 0.423-1.648; P = 0.603) between the adjuvant
      and observation groups. After propensity score matching, DFS (HR, 1.129; 95% CI,
      0.626-2.035; P = 0.688) and OS (HR, 1.200; 95% CI, 0.539-2.669; P = 0.655) did
      not differ between the adjuvant and observation groups. Advanced T stage and
      positive resection margin were independently associated with inferior DFS and OS
      on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: AC did not improve DFS and OS for patients
      with ypT0-3N0 rectal cancer after preoperative CRT followed by TME in this cohort
      study. The confirmative role of AC in locally advanced rectal cancer should be
      evaluated in prospective randomized trials with a larger sample size.

PMID- 28865436
TI  - The mediating role of the home environment in relation to parental educational
      level and preschool children's screen time: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest that preschoolers from low socioeconomic
      backgrounds engage in more screen time. Still, the factors in the social and
      physical home environment driving these differences in preschool children's
      screen time are poorly understood. This study examines potential home environment
      mediators in the associations between parental educational level and
      preschoolers' screen time. METHODS: A total of 864 children aged 3-6 years and
      their parents participated in a cross-sectional DAGIS study in 2015-2016. Parents
      recorded their children's screen time in a diary (N = 823). For the analyses, the
      daily average screen time at home was calculated. Parental questionnaires (N =
      808) assessed educational level and eight social and physical environment factors
      in the home (i.e., descriptive norm for children's screen time, parental screen
      use in front of children, parental importance for limiting children's screen
      time, parental attitude toward societal pressures for children's screen time,
      access to screens at home, parental self-efficacy for limiting children's screen
      time, satisfaction of children's screen time, and rules for limiting children's
      screen time). Parental education was grouped into low, middle, and high
      education. The associations were tested by conducting mediation analyses adjusted
      by season and children's sex and age. The significant mediators in the single
      mediator models were included in the final multiple-mediator models. RESULTS: Of
      the potential eight mediators, the following four had a significant indirect
      association: descriptive norm for children's screen time, parental screen use in
      front of children, parental importance for limiting children's screen time, and
      parental attitude toward societal pressures for children's screen time. Parents
      with high education had lower descriptive norm and used fewer screens in front of
      children compared to parents with middle or low education, and in turn, these
      factors were associated with less screen time among children from parents with a
      higher education level. Parents with high education placed greater importance on
      limiting children's screen time and felt less societal pressures about children's
      screen time compared to parents with low education, and in turn, these factors
      were associated with less screen time among children from parents with a higher
      education level. CONCLUSIONS: Our study recognized multiple modifiable mediators
      in the associations between parental education and preschool children's screen
      time. When aiming to diminish socioeconomic status differences in preschool
      children's screen time, the focus should be on parental role models, attitudes,
      and norm related to children's screen time.

PMID- 28865438
TI  - Adjuvant chemotherapy versus chemoradiotherapy for small cell lung cancer with
      lymph node metastasis: a retrospective observational study with use of a national
      database in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The optimal postoperative treatment strategy for small cell lung
      cancer (SCLC) remains unclear, especially in patients with lymph node metastasis.
      We aimed to compare the outcomes of patients with SCLC and lymph node metastasis
      treated with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. METHODS:
      We retrospectively collected data on patients with postoperative SCLC diagnosed
      with N1 and N2 lymph node metastasis from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination
      database in Japan, between July 2010 and March 2015. We extracted data on patient
      age, sex, comorbidities, and TNM classification at lung surgery; operative
      procedures, chemotherapy drugs, and radiotherapy during hospitalization; and
      discharge status. Recurrence-free survival was compared between the chemotherapy
      and chemoradiotherapy groups using multivariable Cox regression analysis.
      RESULTS: Median recurrence-free survival was 1146 days (95% confidence interval
      [CI], 885-1407) in the chemotherapy group (n = 489) and 873 days (95% CI, 464
      1282) in the chemoradiotherapy group (n = 75). There was no significant
      difference between these after adjusting for patient backgrounds (hazard ratio,
      1.29; 95% CI, 0.91-1.84). CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference in
      recurrence-free survival between patients with SCLC and N1-2 lymph node
      metastasis treated with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and
      chemoradiotherapy. Further randomized clinical trials are needed to address this
      issue.

PMID- 28865437
TI  - The top tertile of hematocrit change during hospitalization is associated with
      lower risk of mortality in acute heart failure patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemoconcentration has been proposed as surrogate for changes in
      volume status among patients hospitalized with acute heart failure (AHF) and is
      associated with a favorable outcome. However, there is a dearth of research
      assessing the clinical outcomes of hospitalized patients with hemoconcentration,
      hemodilution and unchanged volume status. METHODS: We enrolled 510 consecutive
      patients hospitalized for AHF from April 2011 to July 2015. Hematocrit (HCT)
      levels were measured at admission and either at discharge or on approximately the
      seventh day of admission. Patients were stratified by delta HCT tertitles into
      hemodilution (DeltaHCT <= - 1.6%), no change (NC, -1.6% < DeltaHCT <=1.5%) and
      hemoconcentration (DeltaHCT >1.5%) groups. The endpoint was all-cause death, with
      a median follow-up duration of 18.9 months. RESULTS: Hemoconcentration was
      associated with lower left ventricle ejection fraction, as compared with NC and
      hemodilution groups, while renal function at entry, New York Heart Association
      class IV, and in-hospital worsening renal function (WRF) were not significantly
      different across the three groups. After multivariable adjustment,
      hemoconcentration had a lower risk of mortality as compared with hemodilution
      [hazard ratio (HR) 0.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.24-0.63, P < 0.001], or
      NC (HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.33-0.88, P = 0.015], while hemodilution and NC did not have
      significantly differ in mortality (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.48-1.10, P = 0.130).
      CONCLUSIONS: In patients hospitalized with AHF, an increased HCT during
      hospitalization is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality than a
      decreased or unchanged HCT. Furthermore, all-cause mortality does not differ
      significantly between patients with unchanged and decreased HCT values.

PMID- 28865439
TI  - Apln-CreERT:mT/mG reporter mice as a tool for sprouting angiogenesis study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis is defined as a new blood vessel sprouting from pre
      existing vessels, and the sprouting angiogenesis is the start phase of
      angiogenesis, which is critical for both physiological and pathological
      processes, such as embryonic development, organ growth, wound healing, tumor
      growth, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Better
      understanding of the mechanisms of sprout angiogenesis will provide a rationale
      for the treatments of these angiogenesis related diseases. METHODS: mT/mG tool
      mice are crossed with Apln-CreERT mice to generate Apln-CreERT: mT/mG mice, then
      we used neonatal retinal angiogenesis model to observe the angiogenic pattern of
      Apln-CreERT:mT/mG mice compared with Cdh5-CreERT:mT/mG mice. FACS analysis was
      used to sort eGFP and tdTomato endothelial cells (ECs) for measuring Apelin and
      Cdh5 expression. Retinal sprouting angiogenesis pattern was also observed at
      different neonatal time when induced by tamoxifen and at hypoxia condition, as
      well as in vivo tumor in real-time angiogenesis in a dorsal skinfold window
      chamber in Apln-CreERT:mT/mG mice. RESULTS: Apln-CreERT:mT/mG mice exhibited eGFP
      signal only in the sprouting angiogenesis, with less eGFP expression in the
      retinal "optic nerve" area than in that of Cdh5-CreERT: mT/mG mice, which might
      be due to relative mature vessels in the "optic nerve" area. The ECs sorted by
      FACS confirmed that the Apelin expression level was higher in eGFP ECs than
      tdTomato ECs of "optic nerve" area. Further we found that GFP-labeled sprouting
      angiogenesis decreased gradually following tamoxifen administration from P5-P7,
      but increased significantly during hypoxia in Apln-CreERT:mT/mG mice. At last,
      using Apln-CreERT:mT/mG mice we found tumor sprouting angiogenesis in dorsal
      skinfold, but not in the normal skinfold tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Apln-CreERT:mT/mG
      mouse line is a useful tool to differentiate sprouting angiogenesis from whole
      blood vessels in the investigation of retinal and tumor sprouting angiogenesis in
      vivo.

PMID- 28865440
TI  - Adherence and outcomes to direct oral anticoagulants among patients with atrial
      fibrillation: findings from the veterans health administration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) reduce the risk of stroke in
      moderate to high-risk patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). Yet,
      concerns remain regarding its routine use in real world practice. We sought to
      describe adherence patterns and the association between adherence and outcomes to
      the DOACs among outpatients with AF. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort
      study of patients in the VA Healthcare System who initiated pharmacotherapy with
      dabigatran, rivaroxaban, or apixaban between November 2010 and January 2015 for
      non-valvular AF with CHA2DS2-VASc score >= 2. Adherence was determined using
      pharmacy refill data and estimated by the proportion of days covered (PDC) over
      the first year of therapy. Clinical outcomes, including all-cause mortality and
      stroke, were measured at 6 months and used to assess measures of adherence for
      each DOAC. RESULTS: A total of 2882 patients were included. Most were prescribed
      dabigatran (72.7%), compared with rivaroxaban (19.8%) or apixaban (7.5%). The
      mean PDC was 0.84 +/- 0.20 for dabigatran, 0.86 +/- 0.18 for rivaroxaban, and
      0.89 +/- 0.14 for apixaban (p < 0.01). The proportion of non-adherent patients,
      PDC <0.80, was 27.6% for all and varied according DOAC. Lower adherence to
      dabigatran was associated with higher risk of mortality and stroke (HR 1.07; 1.03
      1.12 per 0.10 decline in PDC). CONCLUSIONS: In a real-world VA population being
      prescribed anticoagulation for AF, more than one quarter had sub-optimal
      adherence. Lower adherence was associated with a higher risk of mortality and
      stroke. Efforts identifying non-adherent patients, and targeted adherence
      interventions are needed to improve outcomes.

PMID- 28865442
TI  - Midwives' experiences of performing maternal observations and escalating
      concerns: a focus group study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For the past decade, Maternal Mortality Reports, published in the
      United Kingdom every three years, have consistently raised concerns about
      maternal observations in maternity care. The reports identify that observations
      are not being done, not being completed fully, are not recorded on Early Warning
      Score systems, and/or are not escalated appropriately. This has resulted in
      delays in referral, intervention and increases the risk of maternal morbidity or
      mortality. However there has been little exploration of the possible reasons for
      non-completion of maternal observations. METHODS: The aim of this study was to
      explore midwives' experiences of performing maternal observations and escalating
      concerns in rural and urban maternity settings in the West Midlands of England. A
      qualitative design involving a series of six focus groups with midwives and
      Supervisors of Midwives was employed to investigate the facilitators of, and
      barriers to the completion of maternal observations. RESULTS: Eighteen Midwives
      and 8 Supervisors of Midwives participated in a total of 6 focus groups. Three
      key themes emerged from the data: (1) Organisation of Maternal Observations
      (including delegation of tasks to Midwifery Support Workers, variation in their
      training, the care model used e.g. one to one care, and staffing issues); (2)
      Prioritisation of Maternal Observations (including the role of professional
      judgement and concerns expressed by midwives that they did not feel equipped to
      care for women with complex clinical needs; and (3) Negotiated Escalation
      (including the inappropriate response from senior staff to use of Modified Early
      Warning Score systems, and the emotional impact of escalation). CONCLUSIONS: A
      number of organisational and cultural barriers exist to the completion of
      maternal observations and the escalation of concerns. In order to address these
      the following actions are recommended: standardised training for Midwifery
      Support Workers, review of training of midwives to ensure it addresses the
      increasing complexity of the maternal population, identification and agreement
      regarding the organisation of maternal observations among staff, an emphasis on
      increasing the priority placed on maternal observations in all clinical settings,
      and clarification and reinforcement of escalation procedures for both midwives
      and senior clinicians.

PMID- 28865441
TI  - Predicting outcome in frozen shoulder (shoulder capsulitis) in presence of
      comorbidity as measured with subjective health complaints and neuroticism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a substantive lack of knowledge about comorbidity in
      patients with frozen shoulder. The aim of this study was to investigate whether
      subjective health complaints and Neuroticism would predict treatment outcome in
      patients diagnosed with frozen shoulder as measured by the Shoulder Pain and
      Disability Index (SPADI) and change in SPADI. METHODS: A total of 105 patients
      with frozen shoulder were recruited for a randomised controlled trial, where 69
      were in the intervention group and received intraarticular corticosteroid
      injections and 36 patients served as control group. The SPADI was used as the
      outcome measure after 8 weeks, and change in SPADI from baseline to 8 weeks as a
      measure of rate of recovery. To examine comorbidities, all participants completed
      the Subjective Health Complaints (SHC) questionnaire with its five subscales, and
      the Neuroticism (N) component of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised.
      Multiple regression analysis was performed with the baseline comorbidity
      variables that correlated significantly with SPADI after 8 weeks, and with change
      in SPADI from baseline to 8 weeks, controlling for the variables intervention,
      age, gender and duration of pain. RESULTS: In this study, patients with frozen
      shoulder had little comorbidity as measured with SHC and scored normally with
      respect to Neuroticism. Only the Pseudoneurology subscale in SHC correlated
      significantly with SPADI and had significant predictive power (p < 0.001) for the
      outcome at 8 weeks. The intervention group exhibited significant statistical
      predictive power (p < 0.001) for the treatment outcome as measured by a change in
      SPADI from baseline to 8 weeks. Being female also had some predictive
      significance for change in SPADI (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: Psychometric parameters
      as measured by the Pseudoneurology subscale in SHC questionnaire did predict the
      treatment outcome in frozen shoulder as measured by SPADI at 8 weeks, but not by
      change in SPADI from baseline to 8 weeks. One may conclude that psychometric
      parameters may affect symptoms, but do not predict the rate of recovery in frozen
      shoulder. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT01570985 .

PMID- 28865443
TI  - Investigating MicroRNA and transcription factor co-regulatory networks in
      colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies
      worldwide with poor prognosis. Studies have showed that abnormal microRNA (miRNA)
      expression can affect CRC pathogenesis and development through targeting critical
      genes in cellular system. However, it is unclear about which miRNAs play central
      roles in CRC's pathogenesis and how they interact with transcription factors
      (TFs) to regulate the cancer-related genes. RESULTS: To address this issue, we
      systematically explored the major regulation motifs, namely feed-forward loops
      (FFLs), that consist of miRNAs, TFs and CRC-related genes through the
      construction of a miRNA-TF regulatory network in CRC. First, we compiled CRC
      related miRNAs, CRC-related genes, and human TFs from multiple data sources.
      Second, we identified 13,123 3-node FFLs including 25 miRNA-FFLs, 13,005 TF-FFLs
      and 93 composite-FFLs, and merged the 3-node FFLs to construct a CRC-related
      regulatory network. The network consists of three types of regulatory subnetworks
      (SNWs): miRNA-SNW, TF-SNW, and composite-SNW. To enhance the accuracy of the
      network, the results were filtered by using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)
      expression data in CRC, whereby we generated a core regulatory network consisting
      of 58 significant FFLs. We then applied a hub identification strategy to the
      significant FFLs and found 5 significant components, including two miRNAs (hsa
      miR-25 and hsa-miR-31), two genes (ADAMTSL3 and AXIN1) and one TF (BRCA1). The
      follow up prognosis analysis indicated all of the 5 significant components having
      good prediction of overall survival of CRC patients. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we
      generated a CRC-specific miRNA-TF regulatory network, which is helpful to
      understand the complex CRC regulatory mechanisms and guide clinical treatment.
      The discovered 5 regulators might have critical roles in CRC pathogenesis and
      warrant future investigation.

PMID- 28865444
TI  - Application of postoperative autotransfusion in total joint arthroplasty reduces
      allogeneic blood requirements: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total joint arthroplasty is associated with significant blood loss
      and often requires blood transfusion. However, allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT)
      may lead to severe problems, such as immunoreaction and infection. Postoperative
      autotransfusion, an alternative to ABT, is controversial. We conducted a meta
      analysis to evaluate the ability of postoperative autotransfusion to reduce the
      need for ABT following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty
      (THA). METHODS: Systematic literature searches for randomized controlled trials
      were performed using PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library until February
      2016. Relative risks (RRs) and weighted mean differences with 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were calculated using fixed-effect or random-effect models; we
      also evaluated publication bias and heterogeneity. RESULTS: Seventeen trials with
      a total of 2314 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled RRs of
      ABT rate between autotransfusion and the regular drainage/no drainage groups for
      TKA and THA were 0.446 (95% CI = 0.287, 0.693; p < 0.001) and 0.757 (95% CI =
      0.599, 0.958; p = 0.020), respectively. In the subgroup analysis performed in TKA
      patients according to control interventions, the pooled RRs were 0.377 (95% CI =
      0.224, 0.634; p < 0.001) (compared with regular drainage) and 0.804 (95% CI =
      0.453, 1.426, p = 0.456) (compared with no drainage). In the subgroup analysis
      performed for THA, the pooled RRs were 0.536 (95% CI = 0.379, 0.757, p < 0.001)
      (compared with regular drainage) and 1.020 (95% CI = 0.740, 1.405, p = 0.904)
      (compared with no drainage). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to regular drainage,
      autotransfusion reduces the need for ABT following TKA and THA. This reduction is
      not present when comparing autotransfusion to no drainage. However, the
      reliability of the meta-analytic results concerning TKA was limited by
      significant heterogeneity in methods among the included studies.

PMID- 28865445
TI  - Distinctive subgroups derived by cluster analysis based on pain and psychological
      symptoms in Swedish older adults with chronic pain - a population study
      (PainS65+).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Improved knowledge based on clinical features of chronic pain in
      older adults would be valuable in terms of patient-orientated approaches and
      would provide support for health care systems in optimizing health care
      resources. This study identifies subgroups based on pain and psychological
      symptoms among Swedish older adults in the general population and compares
      derived subgroups with respect to socio-demographics, health aspects, and health
      care costs. METHODS: This cross-sectional study uses data collected from four
      registers and one survey. The total sample comprised 2415 individuals >=65 years
      old. A two-step cluster analysis was performed. Data on pain intensity, number of
      pain sites, anxiety, depression, and pain catastrophizing were used as
      classification variables. Differences in socio-demographics, quality of life,
      general health, insomnia, and health care costs among the clusters were
      investigated. Association of the clusters with the above parameters was further
      evaluated using multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: Four major clusters
      were identified: Subgroup 1 (n = 325; 15%) - moderate pain and high psychological
      symptoms; Subgroup 2 (n = 516; 22%) - high pain and moderate psychological
      symptoms; Subgroup 3 (n = 686; 30%) - low pain and moderate psychological
      symptoms; and Subgroup 4 (n = 767; 33%) - low pain and low psychological
      symptoms. Significant differences were found between the four clusters with
      regard to age, sex, educational level, family status, quality of life, general
      health, insomnia, and health care costs. The multinomial logistic regression
      analysis revealed that Subgroups 1 and 2, compared to Subgroup 4, were
      significantly associated with decreased quality of life, decreased general
      health, and increased insomnia. Subgroup 3, compared to Subgroup 4, was
      associated with decreased general health and increased insomnia. In addition,
      compared to Subgroup 4, Subgroups 1 and 2 were significantly associated with
      higher health care costs. CONCLUSIONS: Two high risk clusters of older adults
      suffering from chronic pain; one mainly based on psychological symptoms and one
      mainly on pain intensity and pain spread, associated with decreased quality of
      life and health and increased health care costs were identified. Our findings
      indicate that subgroup-specific treatment will improve pain management and reduce
      health care costs.

PMID- 28865446
TI  - Computational discovery and functional validation of novel fluoroquinolone
      resistance genes in public metagenomic data sets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fluoroquinolones are broad-spectrum antibiotics used to prevent and
      treat a wide range of bacterial infections. Plasmid-mediated qnr genes provide
      resistance to fluoroquinolones in many bacterial species and are increasingly
      encountered in clinical settings. Over the last decade, several families of qnr
      genes have been discovered and characterized, but their true prevalence and
      diversity still remain unclear. In particular, environmental and host-associated
      bacterial communities have been hypothesized to maintain a large and unknown
      collection of qnr genes that could be mobilized into pathogens. RESULTS: In this
      study we used computational methods to screen genomes and metagenomes for novel
      qnr genes. In contrast to previous studies, we analyzed an almost 20-fold larger
      dataset comprising almost 13 terabases of sequence data. In total, 362,843
      potential qnr gene fragments were identified, from which 611 putative qnr genes
      were reconstructed. These gene sequences included all previously described
      plasmid-mediated qnr gene families. Fifty-two of the 611 identified qnr genes
      were reconstructed from metagenomes, and 20 of these were previously undescribed.
      All of the novel qnr genes were assembled from metagenomes associated with
      aquatic environments. Nine of the novel genes were selected for validation, and
      six of the tested genes conferred consistently decreased susceptibility to
      ciprofloxacin when expressed in Escherichia coli. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      presented in this study provide additional evidence for the ubiquitous presence
      of qnr genes in environmental microbial communities, expand the number of known
      qnr gene variants and further elucidate the diversity of this class of resistance
      genes. This study also strengthens the hypothesis that environmental bacterial
      communities act as sources of previously uncharacterized qnr genes.

PMID- 28865447
TI  - Multicenter assessment of sedation and delirium practices in the intensive care
      units in Poland - is this common practice in Eastern Europe?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of critically ill patients experience distress during
      their stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), resulting from systemic illness,
      multiple interventions and environmental factors. Providing humane care should
      address concomitant treatment of pain, agitation and delirium. The use of
      sedation and approaches to ICU delirium should be monitored according to
      structured guidelines. However, it is unknown to what extent these concepts are
      followed in Eastern European countries like Poland. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate sedation and delirium practices in ICUs in Poland, as a representative
      of the Eastern European block, particularly the implementation of sedation and
      ICU delirium screening tools, availability of written sedation guidelines, choice
      of sedation and delirium treatment agents. METHODS: A national postal survey was
      conducted in all Polish ICUs in early 2016. RESULTS: A total of 165 responses out
      of 436 addressed units were received (37.8%). Out of responding ICUs delirium is
      monitored in only 11.9% of the units in Poland. Sedation monitoring tool is used
      in only 46.1% of units. Only 19.4% of ICUs have written protocols for sedation
      and 32.1% do not practice daily sedation interruption. The most frequently used
      agents for short-term sedation (<24 h) were propofol and fentanyl infusions and
      benzodiazepines (midazolam) and morphine for longer sedation (>24 h). The
      preferred agents for delirium treatment were haloperidol (77.6%), dexmedetomidine
      (43.6%) and quetiapine (19.4%). Close to one-third (32.7%) of respondents chose a
      benzodiazepine (diazepam) for ICU delirium treatment. Non-pharmacological
      treatment for ICU delirium was reported by only 45% of the respondents.
      CONCLUSIONS: A majority of Polish ICUs do not adhere to international guidelines
      regarding sedation and delirium practices. There continues to be inadequate use
      of sedation and delirium monitoring tools. High usage of benzodiazepines for
      sedation and ICU delirium treatment reveals persistence of non-evidence-based
      practice. This study should prompt further assessment of other Eastern Europe
      countries and help generate a collective response to update these aspects of
      patient safety and comfort.

PMID- 28865448
TI  - Pediatric supraglottic airway devices in clinical practice: A prospective
      observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Supraglottic airway devices (SGA) are commonly used in pediatric
      anesthesia and serve as primary or back-up devices for difficult airway
      management. Most SGA are marketed without proper clinical evaluation. The purpose
      of this study was to evaluate the performance of the pediatric LMA SupremeTM, Air
      Q(r) and Ambu(r) Aura-iTM. METHODS: This prospective observational study was
      performed at Bern University Hospital, Switzerland. With ethics committee
      approval and a waiver for written informed consent 240 children undergoing
      elective surgery with an ASA class I-III and a weight of 5-30 kg were included.
      Three different pediatric supraglottic airway devices were assessed: The LMA
      SupremeTM, Air-Q(r) and Ambu(r) Aura-iTM. Primary outcome parameter was airway
      leak pressure. Secondary outcome parameters included first attempt and overall
      success rate, insertion time, fiberoptic view through the SGA, and adverse
      events. The primary hypothesis was that the mean airway leak pressure of each
      tested SGA was 20 cmH2O +/- 10%. RESULTS: None of the SGA showed a mean airway
      leak pressure of 20 cmH2O +/- 10%, but mean airway leak pressures differed
      significantly between devices [LMA SupremeTM 18.0 (3.4) cmH2O, Air-Q(r) 15.9
      (3.2) cmH2O, Ambu(r) Aura-iTM 17.3 (3.7) cmH2O, p < 0.001]. First attempt success
      rates (LMA SupremeTM 100%, Air-Q(r) 90%, Ambu(r) Aura-iTM 91%, p = 0.02) and
      overall success rates (LMA SupremeTM 100%, Air-Q(r) 91%, Ambu(r) Aura-iTM 95%, p
      = 0.02) also differed significantly. Insertion times ranged from 20 (7) seconds
      (Air-Q(r)) to 24 (6) seconds (LMA SupremeTM, <p = 0.005). Insertion was rated
      easiest with the LMA SupremeTM (very easy in 97% vs. Air-Q(r) 70%, Ambu(r) Aura
      iTM 72%, p < 0.001). Fiberoptic view was similar between the SGA. Adverse events
      were rare. CONCLUSIONS: Airway leak pressures ranged from 16 to 18 cmH2O,
      enabling positive pressure ventilation with all successful SGA. The highest
      success rates were achieved by the LMA SupremeTM, which was also rated easiest to
      insert. TRIALS REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov , identifier NCT01625858 .
      Registered 31 May 2012.

PMID- 28865449
TI  - Association between self-perception of aging, view of cancer and health of older
      patients in oncology: a one-year longitudinal study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identifying older people affected by cancer who are more at risk of
      negative health outcomes is a major issue in health initiatives focusing on
      medical effectiveness. In this regard, psychological risk factors such as
      patients' perception of their own aging and cancer could be used as indicators to
      improve customization of cancer care. We hypothesize that more negative self
      perception of aging (SPA) and view of cancer could be linked to worse physical
      and mental health outcomes in cancer patients. METHODS: One hundred one patients
      diagnosed with cancer (breast, gynecological, lung or hematological) were
      followed for 1 year. They were evaluated on four occasions (baseline, 3, 6 and 12
      months after the baseline). Their SPA, view of cancer and health (physical and
      mental) were assessed at each time of evaluation. RESULTS: Negative SPA and/or
      view of cancer at baseline are associated with negative evolution of patients'
      physical and mental health. Moreover, when the evolution of SPA and cancer view
      were taken into account, these two stigmas are still linked with the evolution of
      mental health. In comparison, only a negative evolution of SPA was linked to
      worse physical health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Such results indicate that SPA and
      view of cancer could be used as markers of vulnerability in older people with
      cancer.

PMID- 28865450
TI  - Elution kinetics of vancomycin and gentamicin from carriers and their effects on
      mesenchymal stem cell proliferation: an in vitro study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal infections remain a major complication in orthopedic
      surgery. The local delivery of antibiotics provides the high levels required to
      treat an infection without systemic toxicity. However, the local toxicity of
      antibiotic carriers to the mesenchymal stem cells, as a result of both the peak
      concentrations and the type of carrier, may be significant. METHODS: To address
      this concern, the elution kinetics of vancomycin and gentamicin from several
      commercially available antibiotic carriers and several carriers impregnated by a
      surgeon (10 ml of each sterile carrier were manually mixed with a 500 mg
      vancomycin and an 80 mg gentamicin solution, and the duration of impregnation was
      30 min) were assessed. Moreover, the effects of these antibiotic carriers on stem
      cell proliferation were investigated. The following two types of stem cells were
      used: bone marrow and dental pulp stem cells. RESULTS: The high eluted initial
      concentrations from antibiotic impregnated cancellous allogeneic bone grafts
      (which may be increased with the addition of fibrin glue) did not adversely
      affect stem cell proliferation. Moreover, an increased dental pulp stem cell
      proliferation rate in the presence of antibiotics was identified. In contrast to
      allogeneic bone grafts, a significant amount of antibiotics remained in the
      cement. Despite the favorable elution kinetics, the calcium carriers, bovine
      collagen carrier and freeze-dried bone exhibited decreased stem cell
      proliferation activity even in lower antibiotic concentrations compared with an
      allogeneic graft. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the benefits of antibiotic
      impregnated cancellous allogeneic bone grafts versus other carriers.

PMID- 28865451
TI  - Genome-wide computational analysis of potential long noncoding RNA mediated
      DNA:DNA:RNA triplexes in the human genome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Only a handful of long noncoding RNAs have been functionally
      characterized. They are known to modulate regulation through interacting with
      other biomolecules in the cell: DNA, RNA and protein. Though there have been
      detailed investigations on lncRNA-miRNA and lncRNA-protein interactions, the
      interaction of lncRNAs with DNA have not been studied extensively. In the present
      study, we explore whether lncRNAs could modulate genomic regulation by
      interacting with DNA through the formation of highly stable DNA:DNA:RNA
      triplexes. METHODS: We computationally screened 23,898 lncRNA transcripts as
      annotated by GENCODE, across the human genome for potential triplex forming
      sequence stretches (PTS). The PTS frequencies were compared across 5'UTR, CDS,
      3'UTR, introns, promoter and 1000 bases downstream of the transcription
      termination sites. These regions were annotated by mapping to experimental
      regulatory regions, classes of repeat regions and transcription factors. We
      validated few putative triplex mediated interactions where lncRNA-gene pair
      interaction is via pyrimidine triplex motif using biophysical methods. RESULTS:
      We identified 20,04,034 PTS sites to be enriched in promoter and intronic regions
      across human genome. Additional analysis of the association of PTS with core
      promoter elements revealed a systematic paucity of PTS in all regulatory regions,
      except TF binding sites. A total of 25 transcription factors were found to be
      associated with PTS. Using an interaction network, we showed that a subset of the
      triplex forming lncRNAs, have a positive association with gene promoters. We also
      demonstrated an in vitro interaction of one lncRNA candidate with its predicted
      gene target promoter regions. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis shows that PTS are
      enriched in gene promoter and largely associated with simple repeats. The current
      study suggests a major role of a subset of lncRNAs in mediating chromatin
      organization modulation through CTCF and NSRF proteins.

PMID- 28865452
TI  - The development and validation of measures to assess cooking skills and food
      skills.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the increase use of convenience food and eating outside the home
      environment being linked to the obesity epidemic, the need to assess and monitor
      individuals cooking and food skills is key to help intervene where necessary to
      promote the usage of these skills. Therefore, this research aimed to develop and
      validate a measure for cooking skills and one for food skills, that are clearly
      described, relatable, user-friendly, suitable for different types of studies, and
      applicable across all sociodemographic levels. METHODS: Two measures were
      developed in light of the literature and expert opinion and piloted for clarity
      and ease of use. Following this, four studies were undertaken across different
      cohorts (including a sample of students, both 'Food preparation novices' and
      'Experienced food preparers', and a nationally representative sample) to assess
      temporal stability, psychometrics, internal consistency reliability and construct
      validity of both measures. Analysis included T-tests, Pearson's correlations,
      factor analysis, and Cronbach's alphas, with a significance level of 0.05.
      RESULTS: Both measures were found to have a significant level of temporal
      stability (P < 0.001). Factor analysis revealed three factors with eigenvalues
      over 1, with two items in a third factor outside the two suggested measures. The
      internal consistency reliability for the cooking skills confidence measure ranged
      from 0.78 to 0.93 across all cohorts. The food skills confidence measure's
      Cronbach's alpha's ranged from 0.85 to 0.94. The two measures also showed a high
      discriminate validity as there were significant differences (P < 0.05 for cooking
      skills confidence and P < 0.01 for food skills confidence) between Food
      preparation novices' and 'Experienced food preparers.' CONCLUSIONS: The cooking
      skills confidence measure and the food skills confidence measure have been shown
      to have a very satisfactory reliability, validity and are consistent over time.
      Their user-friendly applicability make both measures highly suitable for large
      scale cross-sectional, longitudinal and intervention studies to assess or monitor
      cooking and food skills levels and confidence.

PMID- 28865453
TI  - Arginine vasopressin altered the expression of monocarboxylate transporters in
      cultured astrocytes isolated from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats
      and congenic SHRpch1_18 rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Astrocytes support a range of brain functions as well as neuronal
      survival, but their detailed relationship with stroke-related edema is not well
      understood. We previously demonstrated that the release of lactate from
      astrocytes isolated from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP/Izm)
      was attenuated under stroke conditions. The supply of lactate to neurons is
      regulated by astrocytic monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs). The purpose of this
      study was to examine the contributions of arginine vasopressin (AVP) and/or
      hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R) to the regulation of MCTs and neurotrophic factor
      in astrocytes obtained from SHRSP/Izm and congenic SHRpch1_18 rats. METHODS: We
      compared AVP-induced lactate levels, MCTs, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor
      (BDNF) in astrocytes isolated from SHRSP/Izm, SHRpch1_18, and Wistar Kyoto rats
      (WKY/Izm). The expression levels of genes and proteins were determined by PCR and
      Western blotting (WB). RESULTS: The production of lactate induced by AVP was
      increased in astrocytes from all three strains. However, the levels of lactate
      were lower in SHRSP/Izm and SHRpch1_18 animals compared with the WKY/Izm strain.
      Gene expression levels of Slc16a1, Slc16a4, and Bdnf were lowered by AVP in
      SHRSP/Izm and SHRpch1_18 rats compared with WKY/Izm. The increase of MCT4 that
      was induced by AVP was blocked by the addition of a specific nitric oxide (NO)
      chelator, 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide
      (CPTIO). Furthermore, AVP increased the expression of iNOS and eNOS proteins in
      WKY/Izm and SHRSP/Izm rat astrocytes. However, the iNOS expression levels in
      SHRSP astrocytes differed from those of WKY/Izm astrocytes. The increase of MCT4
      protein expression during AVP treatment was blocked by the addition of a specific
      NF-kB inhibitor, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC). The induction of MCT4 by AVP
      may be regulated by NO through NF-kB. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the
      expression of MCTs mediated by AVP may be regulated by NO. The data suggest that
      AVP attenuated the expression of MCTs in SHRSP/Izm and SHRpch1_18 astrocytes.
      Reduced expression of MCTs may be associated with decreased lactate production in
      SHRSP.

PMID- 28865454
TI  - Effective usage of cationic derivatives of polyprenols as carriers of DNA
      vaccines against influenza virus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cationic derivatives of polyprenols (trimethylpolyprenylammonium
      iodides - PTAI) with variable chain length between 6 and 15 isoprene units
      prepared from naturally occurring poly-cis-prenols were tested as DNA vaccine
      carriers in chickens and mice. This study aimed to investigate if PTAI could be
      used as an efficient carrier of a DNA vaccine. METHODS: Several vaccine mixtures
      were prepared by combining different proportions of the vaccine plasmid (carrying
      cDNA encoding a vaccine antigen, hemagglutinin from H5N1 influenza virus) and
      various compositions of PTAI. The vaccines were delivered by intramuscular
      injection to either chickens or mice. The presence of specific antibodies in sera
      collected from the immunized animals was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. RESULTS: The mixtures of
      PTAI with helper lipids, such as DOPE (1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3
      phosphatidylethanolamine), DC-cholesterol [{3beta-[N-(N',N'-dimethylaminoethane)
      carbamoyl] cholesterol} hydrochloride] or DOPC (1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3
      phosphatidylcholine) induced strong humoral response to the antigen encoded by
      the DNA vaccine plasmid. CONCLUSION: The animal immunization results confirmed
      that PTAI compositions, especially mixtures of PTAI with DOPE and DC-cholesterol,
      do work as effective carriers of DNA vaccines, comparable to the commercially
      available lipid transfection reagent.

PMID- 28865455
TI  - Comparison of conventional reconstruction plate versus direct metal laser
      sintering plate: an in vitro mechanical characteristics study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has helped to achieve several
      advances in the medical field, particularly as far as fabrication of implants is
      concerned. But the application of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) bone plate
      is quite limited due to the indeterminate mechanical property. The purposes of
      this study were to characterize the biomechanical properties of the polished DMLS
      reconstruction plate and to compare these with the properties of commonly applied
      implants and to find whether the mechanical performance of DMLS plate meets the
      requirements for clinical application. METHODS: In this study, we fabricated two
      groups of plates by DMLS and computer numerical control (CNC) techniques. After
      that, we polished all samples and investigated their roughness, components,
      hardness, static bending, and torsional performance. Moreover, cyclic bending
      tests and fractographic analysis were conducted. Statistical comparisons of the
      group by means of monotonic test data were made, and a qualitative comparison was
      performed to assess failures in fatigue. RESULTS: We found no differences in
      surface roughness or components after polishing, but the DMLS plate hardness is
      7.42% (p < 0.01) greater than that of the CNC plates. Compared with the CNC
      plates, the DMLS plate static bending and torsional performance were
      significantly greater. In a dynamic test, the DMLS plates survived 106, 106,
      32,731, and 33,264 cycles under 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, and 1 kN cyclic loads,
      respectively, while the CNC plates survived 106, 106, 106, and 283,714 cycles.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the mechanical performances of the DMLS
      plate are stronger, and the strength under fatigue tests is sufficient. DMLS
      implant has great potential and may become a better choice for clinical use in
      the future. However, direct application of these AM instruments in the operating
      room requires further validation including animal and clinical experiment.

PMID- 28865456
TI  - The effect of preoperative liver dysfunction on cardiac surgery outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To determine the impact of preoperative Liver Dysfunction (LD) on
      outcomes after elective Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) and Valvular
      surgery (VS). METHODS: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2002-2010) was queried to
      identify patients with LD who had elective CABG or VS utilizing ICD-9-CM
      diagnosis and procedure codes. These patients were matched with the similar
      patients without LD (controls) by propensity score matching. Chi-square and
      Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used for analysis. RESULTS: We identified 1197
      patients with LD (CABG = 755; VS = 442) who were matched to 2394 controls. LD
      significantly increased hospital mortality after both CABG (OR = 5.19; 95%CI =
      2.93-9.20) and VS (OR = 7.49; 95%CI = 3.12-17.96). Overall rates of complications
      after CABG with LD were greater than in non-complicated cases (OR = 1.73; 95%CI =
      1.46-2.05). Among them, there was an increase in bleeding (OR = 1.81;95%CI = 1.44
      2.28), respiratory (OR = 2.33;95%CI = 1.86-2.93), renal (OR = 2.79;95%CI = 2.04
      3.81), and infectious (OR = 2.93;95%CI = 2.14-4.01) complications. In general,
      the rates of complications after VS with LD were also greater than in non
      complicated cases (OR = 2.77;95%CI = 2.13-3.60), specifically for bleeding (OR =
      3.07;95%CI = 2.17-4.34), respiratory (OR = 3.57;95%CI = 2.51-5.07), renal (OR =
      4.40;95%CI = 2.80-6.92), and infectious (OR = 4.63;95%CI = 2.85-7.51)
      complications. The development of LD significantly increased mean hospital length
      of stay (LOS) and total hospital charges after both CABG (from7.0 +/- 4.0 to 9.2
      +/- 9.1 days and from $100,265 +/- 87,107 to $117,756 +/- 99,320, respectively; P
      < 0.0001 for both) and VS (from 7.9 +/- 5.0 to 11.4 +/- 9.9 days and from
      $134,306 +/- 114,216 to $176,620 +/- 147,049, respectively; P < 0.0001 for both).
      CONCLUSIONS: LD worsened the outcomes after cardiac surgery. It increased rates
      of complications, hospital mortality, length of stay and total hospital charges
      after both procedures.

PMID- 28865457
TI  - Vision-related quality of life and visual outcomes from cataract surgery in
      patients with vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy: a prospective
      observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To examine the benefit of cataract surgery on visual acuity and
      vision related quality of life in patients with stabilized vision-threatening
      diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: A total of 126 patients (153 eyes) who were
      diagnosed with cataract combined with stabilized vision-threatening diabetic
      retinopathy underwent phacoemulsification. Measurements included the best
      corrected visual acuity (BCVA), which was converted into a weighted logarithm of
      the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) and vision related quality of life
      (VRQoL) using the Chinese-version low vision quality of life questionnaire
      (CLVQOL). RESULTS: Three months after phacoemulsification, statistically
      significant improvements were observed in postoperative weighted logMAR BCVA (Z =
      -9.390 P < 0.001). In all of the participants, the CLVQOL total scores (Z = 
      7.995 P <0.001) and four subscale scores including general vision and lighting
      level (Z = -7.400 P <0.001), mobility level (Z = -6.914 P <0.001), psychological
      adjustment level (Z = -8.112 P <0.001) and reading, fine work and activities of
      daily living level (Z = -5.892 P <0.001), all improved significantly after the
      surgeries. Linear regression analyses indicated that the increase in CLVQOL total
      scores exhibited a significant correlation with the better postoperative weighted
      logMAR BCVA, greater gain of weighted logMAR BCVA after surgery, bilateral
      surgery, and longer duration of diabetic retinopathy. CONCLUSIONS: Both visual
      acuity and the vision related quality of life of the patients with diabetic
      retinopathy improved significantly after cataract surgery. Cataract surgery is an
      effective intervention for patients with stabilized diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28865458
TI  - Salutary effects of glibenclamide during the chronic phase of murine experimental
      autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis (EAE), inflammation is perpetuated by both infiltrating
      leukocytes and astrocytes. Recent work implicated SUR1-TRPM4 channels, expressed
      mostly by astrocytes, in murine EAE. We tested the hypothesis that
      pharmacological inhibition of SUR1 during the chronic phase of EAE would be
      beneficial. METHODS: EAE was induced in mice using myelin oligodendrocyte
      glycoprotein (MOG) 35-55. Glibenclamide (10 MUg/day) was administered beginning
      12 or 24 days later. The effects of treatment were determined by clinical scoring
      and tissue examination. Drug within EAE lesions was identified using bodipy
      glibenclamide. The role of SUR1-TRPM4 in primary astrocytes was characterized
      using patch clamp and qPCR. Demyelinating lesions from MS patients were studied
      by immunolabeling and immunoFRET. RESULTS: Administering glibenclamide beginning
      24 days after MOG35-55 immunization, well after clinical symptoms had plateaued,
      improved clinical scores, reduced myelin loss, inflammation (CD45, CD20, CD3,
      p65), and reactive astrocytosis, improved macrophage phenotype (CD163), and
      decreased expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), B-cell activating factor
      (BAFF), chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) and nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2)
      in lumbar spinal cord white matter. Glibenclamide accumulated within EAE lesions,
      and had no effect on leukocyte sequestration. In primary astrocyte cultures,
      activation by TNF plus IFNgamma induced de novo expression of SUR1-TRPM4 channels
      and upregulated Tnf, Baff, Ccl2, and Nos2 mRNA, with glibenclamide blockade of
      SUR1-TRPM4 reducing these mRNA increases. In demyelinating lesions from MS
      patients, astrocytes co-expressed SUR1-TRPM4 and BAFF, CCL2, and NOS2.
      CONCLUSIONS: SUR1-TRPM4 may be a druggable target for disease modification in MS.

PMID- 28865459
TI  - Clinical efficacy and IL-17 targeting mechanism of Indigo naturalis as a topical
      agent in moderate psoriasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indigo naturalis is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ingredient
      long-recognized as a therapy for several inflammatory conditions, including
      psoriasis. However, its mechanism is unknown due to lack of knowledge about the
      responsible chemical entity. We took a different approach to this challenge by
      investigating the molecular profile of Indigo naturalis treatment and impacted
      pathways. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study
      was conducted using Indigo naturalis as topical monotherapy to treat moderate
      plaque psoriasis in a Chinese cohort (n = 24). Patients were treated with Indigo
      naturalis ointment (n = 16) or matched placebo (n = 8) twice daily for 8 weeks,
      with 1 week of follow-up. RESULTS: At week 8, significant improvements in
      Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores from baseline were observed in
      Indigo naturalis-treated patients (56.3% had 75% improvement [PASI 75] response)
      compared with placebo (0.0%). A gene expression signature of moderate psoriasis
      was established from baseline skin biopsies, which included the up-regulation of
      the interleukin (IL)-17 pathway as a key component; Indigo naturalis treatment
      resulted in most of these signature genes returning toward normal, including down
      regulation of the IL-17 pathway. Using an in vitro keratinocyte assay, an IL-17
      inhibitory effect was observed for tryptanthrin, a component of Indigo naturalis.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the clinical efficacy of Indigo naturalis in
      moderate psoriasis, and exemplified a novel experimental medicine approach to
      understand TCM targeting mechanisms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01901705 .

PMID- 28865461
TI  - Multihormonal pituitary adenoma concomitant with Pit-1 and Tpit lineage cells
      causing acromegaly associated with subclinical Cushing's disease: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A functional pituitary adenoma can produce multiple anterior
      pituitary hormones, such as growth hormone (GH) -producing adenomas (GHoma) with
      prolactin or thyrotropin stimulating hormone production in the same lineage.
      However, it is very rare that acromegaly shows subclinical Cushing's disease
      (SCD) beyond the lineage. Here we describe the involvement of intratumoral
      coexistence with 2 types of hormone-producing cells associated with different
      lineage in acromegaly concomitant with SCD. CASE PRESENTATION: In our study, we
      performed clinical evaluation of the patient showing acromegaly with SCD. To
      elucidate the mechanisms of this pathology, we analyzed immunohistochemistry and
      gene expression of anterior-pituitary hormones and transcriptional factors in the
      resected pituitary tumor. On immunohistochemical staining, most of the tumor
      cells were strongly stained for GH antibody, while some cells were strongly
      positive for adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Gene expression analysis of a
      transsphenoidal surgery sample of the pituitary gland revealed that ACTH-related
      genes, such as POMC, Tpit, and NeuroD1 mRNA, had higher expression in the tumor
      tissue than the nonfunctional adenoma but lower expression compared to an adenoma
      of typical Cushing's disease. Further, double-labeling detection methods with a
      fluorescent stain for ACTH and GH demonstrated the coexistence of ACTH-positive
      cells (GH-negative) among the GH-positive cells in the tumor. Additionally, Pit-1
      expression was reduced in the ACTH-positive cells from tumor tissue primary
      culture. CONCLUSION: Here we described a case of a pituitary tumor diagnosed with
      acromegaly associated with SCD. We performed quantitative-expression analyses of
      transcriptional factors of the tumor tissue and immunohistochemistry analysis of
      tumor-derived primary culture cells, which suggested that the multihormonal
      pituitary adenoma concomitant with Pit-1 and Tpit lineage cells caused acromegaly
      associated with SCD.

PMID- 28865462
TI  - Who benefits from free institutional delivery? evidence from a cross sectional
      survey of North Central and Southwestern Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The reasons for low utilisation of maternal health services in
      settings where the user-fee removal policy has been implemented continue to
      generate scholarly debates. Evidence of whether user-fee removal benefits the
      poor women in underserved settings is scanty and inconsistent. This article
      examines use of maternal health care services in the context of free maternal
      healthcare and profiles the beneficiaries of user-fee removal. METHODS: The study
      adopted a descriptive design. A three-stage cluster sampling method was used to
      select a representative sample of 1227 women who gave birth between 2011 and
      2015. Questionnaires were administered using a face-to-face interview approach
      and data generated were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
      RESULTS: The analysis shows that the use of maternal healthcare services has
      improved considerably in North Central and Southwestern Nigeria. While
      socioeconomic and geographical inequality in the use of maternal healthcare
      services appear to be disappearing in Southwestern Nigeria, it appears to be
      widening in North Central Nigeria. The findings indicate that 33.6% of women
      reported to have benefitted from the free child-delivery programme; however,
      substantial variation exists across the two regions. The proportion of
      beneficiaries of user-fee removal policy was highest in urban areas (35.9%),
      among women belonging to the middle income category (38.3%), among women who gave
      birth in primary health centres (63.1%) and among women who resided in
      communities where there was availability of health facilities (37.2%).
      CONCLUSION: The study concludes that low coverage of the free maternal health
      programme, especially among women of low socioeconomic status residing in
      underserved settings is among the reasons for persistent poor maternal health
      outcomes in the context of free maternal healthcare. A model towards improving
      maternal health in underserved settings, especially in North Central Nigeria,
      would entail provisioning of health facilities as well as focusing on
      implementing equitable maternal health policies.

PMID- 28865463
TI  - Carbon-ion radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer with interstitial lung
      disease: a retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is frequently complicated by interstitial lung disease
      (ILD). Treatment protocols for lung cancer patients with ILD have not been
      established; surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy can all cause acute
      exacerbation of ILD. This study evaluated the toxicity and efficacy of carbon ion
      radiotherapy (CIRT) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and ILD.
      METHODS: Between June 2004 and November 2014, 29 patients diagnosed with NSCLC
      and ILD were treated with CIRT. No patient was eligible for curative surgery or
      conventional radiotherapy secondary to ILD. Owing to prior symptomology,
      radiation pneumonitis (RP) and symptom progression pre- and post-treatment were
      evaluated. The relationships between RP and clinical factors were investigated.
      RESULTS: Twenty-eight men and one woman, aged 62 to 90 years old, were followed
      for 2.7-77.1 months (median: 22.8 months). Single-grade symptomatic progression
      (grade 2-3) was observed in 4 patients, while 1 patient experiencedtwo-grade
      progression. Two patients experienced radiation-induced acute exacerbation. Local
      control at 3 years was 63.3% (72.2% for stage I disease); survival at 3 years was
      46.3% (57.2% for stage I disease). Eighteen patients had died by the time of this
      writing, 10 of lung cancer progression. Radiation pneumonitis post-treatment
      progression correlated with dosimetric factors of the lungs (V5, V10) and a low
      pre-treatment serum surfactant protein-D. CONCLUSIONS: We found that CIRT may be
      useful as a low-risk, curative option for NSCLC patients with ILD, a population
      that is typically ineligible for conventional therapy. The DVH analysis showed
      that minimizing the low-dose region is important for reducing the risk of severe
      RP. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NIRS-9404 . Registered 1 March 1994.

PMID- 28865464
TI  - The research-policy-deliberation nexus: a case study approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Decision-makers tend to make connections with researchers far too
      late in the game of public policy, expecting to find a retail store in which
      researchers are busy filling shop-front shelves with a comprehensive set of all
      possible relevant studies that a decision-maker might some day drop by to
      purchase. This linear type of relation between research and policy needs to be
      replaced by a more interactive model that facilitates both researchers obtaining
      a better understanding of policy processes and policymakers being more aware and
      involved in the conceptualisation and conduct of research. This paper explores
      the role of governance in facilitating the research-policy nexus, testing a
      typology of research utilisation based on Murray's (Soc Policy Society 10(4):459
      70, 2011) analysis that considers various degrees of researcher-policymaker
      deliberation in decision-making processes. The projects were all part of various
      evaluation efforts carried out by the researchers to explore the use of
      governance in health promotion activities. METHODS: Three case studies were
      chosen to provide some specific examples that illustrate each level of Murray's
      typology. The examples involve intersectoral health promotion collaborations that
      combine evidence-based research in health policy initiatives with various levels
      of researcher involvement. For all three projects, interview data was collated in
      the same way, coded thematically and analysed to consider the relationship
      between researchers and policymakers. RESULTS: Comparing the three models and
      their applicability to health promotion interventions, it could be observed that
      all programmes demonstrated successful examples of research translation. Strong
      governance imperatives structuring relationships led to more successful outcomes,
      whereby research was successfully translated into a public policy initiative that
      also led to improved health outcomes. The key idea across all of these models was
      that strong governance arrangements mitigated some of the barriers evidenced by
      the varying degrees of deliberation and researcher involvement in processes.
      CONCLUSIONS: The paper demonstrates that successful research utilisation is
      related to strong governance agendas and that early and ongoing involvement of
      relevant decision-makers and researchers in the governance processes, that is
      both the conceptualisation and conduct of a study, tend to be the best predictors
      of success.

PMID- 28865466
TI  - The impact of a supportive supervision intervention on health workers in Niassa,
      Mozambique: a cluster-controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regular supportive supervision is critical to retaining and
      motivating staff in resource-constrained settings. Previous studies have shown
      the particular contribution that supportive supervision can make to improving job
      satisfaction amongst over-stretched health workers in such settings. METHODS: The
      Support, Train and Empower Managers (STEM) study designed and implemented a
      supportive supervision intervention and measured its' impact on health workers
      using a controlled trial design with a three-arm pre- and post-study in Niassa
      Province in Mozambique. Post-intervention interviews with a small sample of
      health workers were also conducted. RESULTS: The quantitative measurements of job
      satisfaction, emotional exhaustion and work engagement showed no statistically
      significant differences between end-line and baseline. The qualitative data
      collected from health workers post the intervention showed many positive impacts
      on health workers not captured by this quantitative survey. CONCLUSIONS: Health
      workers perceived an improvement in their performance and attributed this to the
      supportive supervision they had received from their supervisors following the
      intervention. Reports of increased motivation were also common. An unexpected,
      yet important consequence of the intervention, which participants directly
      attributed to the supervision intervention, was the increase in participation and
      voice amongst health workers in intervention facilities.

PMID- 28865465
TI  - Gender, childhood and adult socioeconomic inequalities in functional disability
      among Chinese older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gender difference and life-course socioeconomic inequalities in
      functional disability may exist among older adults. However, the association is
      less well understood among Chinese older population. The objective is to provide
      empirical evidences on this issue by exploring the association between gender,
      childhood and adult socioeconomic inequalities in functional disability. METHODS:
      Data from the 2013 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study
      (CHARLS) was utilized. Functional disability was assessed by the activities of
      daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Childhood
      socioeconomic status (SES) was measured by birthplace, father's education and
      occupation. Adult SES was measured in terms of education and household income.
      Multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to assess the association
      between gender, childhood and adult SES and functional disability. RESULTS: Based
      on a sample of 18,448 older adults aged 45 years old and above, our results
      showed that the prevalence of ADL and IADL disability was higher among women than
      men, but gender difference disappeared after adult SES and adult health were
      controlled. Harsh conditions during childhood were associated with functional
      disability but in multivariate analyses only father's education was associated
      with IADL disability (OR for no education = 1.198; 95% CI = 1.062-1.353). Current
      SES such as higher education and good economic situation are protective factors
      of functional disability. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood and adult SES were both related
      to functional disability among older adults. Our findings highlight the need for
      policies and programs aimed at decreasing social inequalities during childhood
      and early adulthood, which could reduce socioeconomic inequalities in functional
      disability in later life.

PMID- 28865467
TI  - Beneficial effects of curcumin nano-emulsion on spermatogenesis and reproductive
      performance in male rats under protein deficient diet model: enhancement of sperm
      motility, conservancy of testicular tissue integrity, cell energy and seminal
      plasma amino acids content.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malnutrition resulting from protein and calorie deficiency continues
      to be a major concern worldwide especially in developing countries. Specific
      deficiencies in the protein intake can adversely influence reproductive
      performance. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of curcumin and
      curcumin nano-emulsion on protein deficient diet (PDD)-induced testicular
      atrophy, troubled spermatogenesis and decreased reproductive performance in male
      rats. METHODS: Juvenile rats were fed the protein deficient diet (PDD) for 75
      days. Starting from day 60 the rats were divided into 4 groups and given the
      corresponding treatments for the last 15 days orally and daily as follows: 1st
      group; curcumin group (C) received 50 mg/kg curcumin p.o. 2ndgroup; curcumin nano
      form low dose group (NCL) received 2.5 mg/kg nano-curcumin. 3rd group; curcumin
      nano-form high dose group (NCH) received 5 mg/kg nano-curcumin. 4th group served
      as malnutrition group (PDD group) receiving the protein deficient diet daily for
      75 days and received distilled water ingestions (5 ml/kg p.o) daily for the last
      15 days of the experiment. A normal control group was kept under the same
      conditions for the whole experiment and received normal diet according to
      nutrition requirement center daily for 75 days and received distilled water
      ingestions (5 ml/kg p.o) daily for the last 15 days of the experiment. RESULTS:
      PDD induced significant (P < 0.05) reduction in serum testosterone level, sperm
      motility, testicular GSH, CAT, SOD, testicular cell energy (ATP, ADP and AMP),
      essential and non-essential amino acids in seminal plasma, an increase in
      testicular MDA, NOx, GSSG and 8-OHDG. Data was confirmed by histological
      examination and revealed pathological alteration in the PDD group. Ingestion of
      curcumin (50 mg/kg) and curcumin nano-emulsion (2.5 and 5 mg/kg) showed
      significant (P< 0.05) amelioration effects against PDD-induced disrupted
      reproductive performance as well as biochemical and pathological alterations and
      the overall results of the nano-emulsion (5 mg/kg) were comparable to curcumin
      (50 mg/kg). CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that administration of
      curcumin nano-emulsion as a daily supplement would be beneficial in malnutrition-
      induced troubled male reproductive performance and spermatogenesis cases.

PMID- 28865468
TI  - Brain ureido degenerative protein modifications are associated with
      neuroinflammation and proteinopathy in Alzheimer's disease with cerebrovascular
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Brain degenerative protein modifications (DPMs) are associated with
      the apparition and progression of dementia, and at the same time, Alzheimer's
      disease with cerebrovascular disease (AD + CVD) is the most prevalent form of
      dementia in the elder population. Thus, understanding the role(s) of brain DPMs
      in this dementia subtype may provide novel insight on the disease pathogenesis
      and may aid on the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Two
      essential DPMs known to promote inflammation in several human diseases are the
      ureido DPMs (uDPMs) arginine citrullination and lysine carbamylation, although
      they have distinct enzymatic and non-enzymatic origins, respectively.
      Nevertheless, the implication of uDPMs in the neuropathology of dementia remains
      poorly understood. METHODS: In this study, we use the state-of-the-art,
      ultracentrifugation-electrostatic repulsion hydrophilic interaction
      chromatography (UC-ERLIC)-coupled mass spectrometry technology to undertake a
      comparative characterization of uDPMs in the soluble and particulate postmortem
      brain fractions of subjects diagnosed with AD + CVD and age-matched controls.
      RESULTS: An increase in the formation of uDPMs was observed in all the profiled
      AD + CVD brains. Citrulline-containing proteins were found more abundant in the
      soluble fraction of AD + CVD whereas homocitrulline-containing proteins were
      preferentially abundant in the particulate fraction of AD + CVD brains. Several
      dementia-specific citrulline residues were also identified in soluble proteins
      previously categorized as pro-immunogenic, which include the receptor P2X7, alpha
      internexin, GFAP, CNP, MBP, and histones. Similarly, diverse dementia-specific
      homocitrulline residues were also observed in the particulate fractions of AD +
      CVD in proteins that have been vastly implicated in neuropathology. Intriguingly,
      we also found that the amino acids immediately flanking arginine residues may
      specifically influence the increase in protein citrullination. CONCLUSIONS: Taken
      together, these results indicate that uDPMs widely contribute to the
      pathophysiology of AD + CVD by promoting neuroinflammation and proteinopathy.
      Furthermore, the obtained results could help to identify disease-associated
      proteins that can act as potential targets for therapeutic intervention or as
      novel biomarkers of specific neuropathology.

PMID- 28865469
TI  - Comics as an educational tool for children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study examined whether the comic book Neta and the Medikidz
      Explain JIA would improve disease-related knowledge and treatment adherence among
      patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). METHODS: In this prospective
      cohort study, JIA patients answered 20 multiple-choice knowledge questions about
      their disease, before and after reading the comic book. Demographic, clinical,
      health-related quality of life and adherence data were recorded and correlated to
      the responses. RESULTS: We studied 61 patients with a mean age of 14 +/- 3.3
      (range 8-18) years, 67% female, 83% Jewish and 17% non-Jewish. Thirty-nine
      percent had oligoarthritis, 13% systemic, 32% polyarthritis 11% psoriatic and 5%
      enthesitis-related type JIA. The disease was active in 46%, 40% were treated with
      biologics/disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, and 34% were in remission on
      medication. Among the 53 patients who completed before and after quizzes, average
      score increased from 63 to 80% (P < 0.001). Non-Jewish patients initially scored
      lower than Jewish patients (48%), but their score increased to 79% after reading
      the comic book. Twenty-seven patients who also completed the quiz 1 year after
      the first reading retained their knowledge (79%). We did not find a statistically
      significant correlation between knowledge and age, sex, disease subtype, or Child
      Health Questionnaire quality of life scores. Adherence to medication use,
      physical therapy and rheumatology clinic visits were high at baseline; thus,
      these did not change after reading the comic. CONCLUSIONS: The comic booklet Neta
      and the Medikidz Explain JIA is a good educational tool for increasing disease
      related knowledge in children with JIA.

PMID- 28865470
TI  - Sasang constitutional types for the risk prediction of metabolic syndrome: a 14
      year longitudinal prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To examine whether the use of Sasang constitutional (SC) types, such
      as Tae-yang (TY), Tae-eum (TE), So-yang (SY), and So-eum (SE) types, increases
      the accuracy of risk prediction for metabolic syndrome. METHODS: From 2001 to
      2014, 3529 individuals aged 40 to 69 years participated in a longitudinal
      prospective cohort. The Cox proportional hazard model was utilized to predict the
      risk of developing metabolic syndrome. RESULTS: During the 14 year follow-up,
      1591 incident events of metabolic syndrome were observed. Individuals with TE
      type had higher body mass indexes and waist circumferences than individuals with
      SY and SE types. The risk of developing metabolic syndrome was the highest among
      individuals with the TE type, followed by the SY type and the SE type. When the
      prediction risk models for incident metabolic syndrome were compared, the area
      under the curve for the model using SC types was significantly increased to
      0.8173. Significant predictors for incident metabolic syndrome were different
      according to the SC types. For individuals with the TE type, the significant
      predictors were age, sex, body mass index (BMI), education, smoking, drinking,
      fasting glucose level, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level, systolic
      and diastolic blood pressure, and triglyceride level. For Individuals with the SE
      type, the predictors were sex, smoking, fasting glucose, HDL cholesterol level,
      systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and triglyceride level, while the
      predictors in individuals with the SY type were age, sex, BMI, smoking, drinking,
      total cholesterol level, fasting glucose level, HDL cholesterol level, systolic
      and diastolic blood pressure, and triglyceride level. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      prospective cohort study among 3529 individuals, we observed that utilizing the
      SC types significantly increased the accuracy of the risk prediction for the
      development of metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28865471
TI  - Performance of community health workers: situating their intermediary position
      within complex adaptive health systems.
AB  - Health systems are social institutions, in which health worker performance is
      shaped by transactional processes between different actors.This analytical
      assessment unravels the complex web of factors that influence the performance of
      community health workers (CHWs) in low- and middle-income countries. It examines
      their unique intermediary position between the communities they serve and actors
      in the health sector, and the complexity of the health systems in which they
      operate. The assessment combines evidence from the international literature on
      CHW programmes with research outcomes from the 5-year REACHOUT consortium,
      undertaking implementation research to improve CHW performance in six contexts
      (two in Asia and four in Africa). A conceptual framework on CHW performance,
      which explicitly conceptualizes the interface role of CHWs, is presented. Various
      categories of factors influencing CHW performance are distinguished in the
      framework: the context, the health system and intervention hardware and the
      health system and intervention software. Hardware elements of CHW interventions
      comprise the supervision systems, training, accountability and communication
      structures, incentives, supplies and logistics. Software elements relate to the
      ideas, interests, relationships, power, values and norms of the health system
      actors. They influence CHWs' feelings of connectedness, familiarity, self
      fulfilment and serving the same goals and CHWs' perceptions of support received,
      respect, competence, honesty, fairness and recognition.The framework shines a
      spotlight on the need for programmes to pay more attention to ideas, interests,
      relationships, power, values and norms of CHWs, communities, health professionals
      and other actors in the health system, if CHW performance is to improve.

PMID- 28865472
TI  - Doctoral level research and training capacity in the social determinants of
      health at universities and higher education institutions in India, China, Oman
      and Vietnam: a survey of needs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research capacity is scarce in low- and middle-income country (LMIC)
      settings. Social determinants of health research (SDH) is an area in which
      research capacity is lacking, particularly in Asian countries. SDH research can
      support health decision-makers, inform policy and thereby improve the overall
      health and wellbeing of the population. In order to continue building this
      capacity, we need to know to what extent training exists and how challenges could
      be addressed from the perspective of students and staff. This paper aims to
      describe the challenges involved in training scholars to undertake research on
      the SDH in four Asian countries - China, India, Oman and Vietnam. METHODS: In
      depth interviews were conducted with research scholars, research supervisors and
      principal investigators (n = 13) at ARCADE partner institutions, which included
      eight universities and research institutes. In addition, structured
      questionnaires (n = 70) were used to collect quantitative data relating to the
      courses available, teaching and supervisory capacity, and related issues for
      students being trained in research on SDH. Simple descriptive statistics were
      calculated from the quantitative data and thematic analysis applied to the
      qualitative data. RESULTS: We identified a general lack of training courses
      focusing on SDH. Added to this, PhD students studying related areas reported
      inadequate supervision, with limited time allocated to meetings and poor
      interpersonal communication. Supervisors cited interpersonal communication
      problems and student lack of skills to perform high quality research as
      challenges to research training. Further challenges reported included a lack of
      research funding to include SDH-related topics. Finally, it was suggested that
      there was a need for institutions to define clear and appropriate standards
      regarding admission and supervision of students to higher education programs
      awarding doctoral degrees. CONCLUSIONS: There are gaps in training for research
      on the SDH at the surveyed universities and research institutes, which are likely
      to also be present in other Asian countries and their higher education
      institutions. Some of the barriers to high quality research and research training
      can be addressed by improved training for supervisors, clearly defined standards
      of supervision, finances for student stipends, and increased use of information
      and communication technology to increase access to teaching materials. Increased
      opportunities for online learning could be provided.

PMID- 28865473
TI  - Development and preliminary validation of a post-fistula repair reintegration
      instrument among Ugandan women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obstetric fistula is a debilitating and traumatic birth injury
      affecting 2-3 million women globally, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
      Affected women suffer physically, psychologically and socioeconomically.
      International efforts have increased access to surgical treatment, yet attention
      to a holistic outcome of post-surgical rehabilitation is nascent. We sought to
      develop and pilot test a measurement instrument to assess post-surgical family
      and community reintegration. METHODS: We conducted an exploratory sequential
      mixed-methods study, beginning with 16 in-depth interviews and four focus group
      discussions with 17 women who underwent fistula surgery within two previous years
      to inform measure development. The draft instrument was validated in a
      longitudinal cohort of 60 women recovering from fistula surgery. Qualitative data
      were analyzed through thematic analysis. Socio-demographic characteristics were
      described using one-way frequency tables. We used exploratory factor analysis to
      determine the latent structure of the scale, then tested the fit of a single
      higher-order latent factor. We evaluated internal consistency and temporal
      stability reliability through Raykov's rho and Pearson's correlation coefficient,
      respectively. We estimated a series of linear regression models to explore
      associations between the standardized reintegration measure and validated scales
      representing theoretically related constructs. RESULTS: Themes central to women's
      experiences following surgery included resuming mobility, increasing social
      interaction, improved self-esteem, reduction of internalized stigma, resuming
      work, meeting their own needs and the needs of dependents, meeting other expected
      and desired roles, and negotiating larger life issues. We expanded the Return to
      Normal Living Index to reflect these themes. Exploratory factor analysis
      suggested a four-factor structure, titled 'Mobility and social engagement',
      'Meeting family needs', 'Comfort with relationships', and 'General life
      satisfaction', and goodness of fit statistics supported a higher-order latent
      variable of 'Reintegration.' Reintegration score correlated significantly with
      quality of life, depression, self-esteem, stigma, and social support in
      theoretically expected directions. CONCLUSION: As more women undergo surgical
      treatment for obstetric fistula, attention to the post-repair period is
      imperative. This preliminary validation of a reintegration instrument represents
      a first step toward improving measurement of post-surgical reintegration and has
      important implications for the evidence base of post-surgical reintegration
      epidemiology and the development and evaluation of fistula programming.

PMID- 28865474
TI  - Barriers and facilitators to implementation of VA home-based primary care on
      American Indian reservations: a qualitative multi-case study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Veterans Health Affairs (VA) home-based primary care (HBPC) is an
      evidence-based interdisciplinary approach to non-institutional long-term care
      that was developed in urban settings to provide longitudinal care for vulnerable
      older patients. Under the authority of a Memorandum of Understanding between VA
      and Indian Health Service (IHS) to improve access to healthcare, 14 VA medical
      centers (VAMC) independently initiated plans to expand HBPC programs to rural
      American Indian reservations and 12 VAMC successfully implemented programs. The
      purpose of this study is to describe barriers and facilitators to implementation
      in rural Native communities with the aim of informing planners and policy-makers
      for future program expansions. METHODS: A qualitative comparative case study
      approach was used, treating each of the 14 VAMC as a case. Using the Consolidated
      Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to inform an open-ended interview
      guide, telephone interviews (n = 37) were conducted with HBPC staff and
      clinicians and local/regional managers, who participated or oversaw
      implementation. The interviews were transcribed, coded, and then analyzed using
      CFIR domains and constructs to describe and compare experiences and to identify
      facilitators, barriers, and adaptations that emerged in common across VAMC and
      HBPC programs. RESULTS: There was considerable variation in local contexts across
      VAMC. Nevertheless, implementation was typically facilitated by key individuals
      who were able to build trust and faith in VA healthcare among American Indian
      communities. Policy promoted clinical collaboration but collaborations generally
      occurred on an ad hoc basis between VA and IHS clinicians to optimize patient
      resources. All programs required some adaptations to address barriers in rural
      areas, such as distances, caseloads, or delays in hiring additional clinicians.
      VA funding opportunities facilitated expansion and sustainment of these programs.
      CONCLUSIONS: Since program expansion is a responsibility of the HBPC program
      director, there is little sharing of lessons learned across VA facilities.
      Opportunities for shared learning would benefit federal healthcare organizations
      to expand other medical services to additional American Indian communities and
      other rural and underserved communities, as well as to coordinate with other
      healthcare organizations. The CFIR structure was an effective analytic tool to
      compare programs addressing multiple inner and outer settings.

PMID- 28865460
TI  - State of the evidence 2017: an update on the connection between breast cancer and
      the environment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this review, we examine the continually expanding and increasingly
      compelling data linking radiation and various chemicals in our environment to the
      current high incidence of breast cancer. Singly and in combination, these
      toxicants may have contributed significantly to the increasing rates of breast
      cancer observed over the past several decades. Exposures early in development
      from gestation through adolescence and early adulthood are particularly of
      concern as they re-shape the program of genetic, epigenetic and physiological
      processes in the developing mammary system, leading to an increased risk for
      developing breast cancer. In the 8 years since we last published a comprehensive
      review of the relevant literature, hundreds of new papers have appeared
      supporting this link, and in this update, the evidence on this topic is more
      extensive and of better quality than that previously available. CONCLUSION:
      Increasing evidence from epidemiological studies, as well as a better
      understanding of mechanisms linking toxicants with development of breast cancer,
      all reinforce the conclusion that exposures to these substances - many of which
      are found in common, everyday products and byproducts - may lead to increased
      risk of developing breast cancer. Moving forward, attention to methodological
      limitations, especially in relevant epidemiological and animal models, will need
      to be addressed to allow clearer and more direct connections to be evaluated.

PMID- 28865475
TI  - A systematic literature review of health state utility values in head and neck
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health state utility values (HSUVs) are essential parameters in model
      based economic evaluations. This study systematically identifies HSUVs in head
      and neck cancer and provides guidance for selecting them from a growing body of
      health-related quality of life studies. METHODS: We systematically reviewed the
      published literature by searching PubMed, EMBASE and The Cochrane Library using a
      pre-defined combination of keywords. The Tufts Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
      Registry and the School of Health and Related Research Health Utilities Database
      (ScHARRHUD) specifically containing health utilities were also queried, in
      addition to the Health Economics Research Centre database of mapping studies.
      Studies were considered for inclusion if reporting original HSUVs assessed using
      established techniques. The characteristics of each study including country,
      design, sample size, cancer subsite addressed and demographics of responders were
      summarized narratively using a data extraction form. Quality scoring and critical
      appraisal of the included studies were performed based on published
      recommendations. RESULTS: Of a total 1048 records identified by the search, 28
      studies qualified for data extraction and 346 unique HSUVs were retrieved from
      them. HSUVs were estimated using direct methods (e.g. standard gamble; n = 10
      studies), multi-attribute utility instruments (MAUIs; n = 13) and mapping
      techniques (n = 3); two studies adopted both direct and indirect approaches.
      Within the MAUIs, the EuroQol 5-dimension questionnaire (EQ-5D) was the most
      frequently used (n = 11), followed by the Health Utility Index Mark 3 (HUI3; n =
      2), the 15D (n = 2) and the Short Form-Six Dimension (SF-6D; n = 1). Different
      methods and types of responders (i.e. patients, healthy subjects, clinical
      experts) influenced the magnitude of HSUVs for comparable health states. Only one
      mapping study developed an original algorithm using head and neck cancer data.
      The identified studies were considered of intermediate quality. DISCUSSION: This
      review provides a dataset of HSUVs systematically retrieved from published
      studies in head and neck cancer. There is currently a lack of research for some
      disease phases including recurrent and metastatic cancer, and treatment-related
      complications. In selecting HSUVs for cost-effectiveness modeling purposes,
      preference should be given to EQ-5D utility values; however, mapping to EQ-5D is
      a potentially valuable technique that should be further developed in this cancer
      population.

PMID- 28865476
TI  - Inhibition of hypothalamic leukemia inhibitory factor exacerbates diet-induced
      obesity phenotype.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The consumption of large amounts of dietary fats can trigger an
      inflammatory response in the hypothalamus and contribute to the dysfunctional
      control of caloric intake and energy expenditure commonly present in obesity. The
      objective of this study was to identify chemokine-related transcripts that could
      be involved in the early stages of diet-induced hypothalamic inflammation.
      METHODS: We used immunoblot, PCR array, real-time PCR, immunofluorescence
      staining, glucose and insulin tolerance tests, and determination of general
      metabolic parameters to evaluate markers of inflammation, body mass variation,
      and glucose tolerance in mice fed a high-fat diet. RESULTS: Using a real-time PCR
      array, we identified leukemia inhibitory factor as a chemokine/cytokine
      undergoing a rapid increase in the hypothalamus of obesity-resistant and a rapid
      decrease in the hypothalamus of obesity-prone mice fed a high-fat diet for 1 day.
      We hypothesized that the increased hypothalamic expression of leukemia inhibitory
      factor could contribute to the protective phenotype of obesity-resistant mice. To
      test this hypothesis, we immunoneutralized hypothalamic leukemia inhibitory
      factor and evaluated inflammatory and metabolic parameters. The
      immunoneutralization of leukemia inhibitory factor in the hypothalamus of obesity
      resistant mice resulted in increased body mass gain and increased adiposity. Body
      mass gain was mostly due to increased caloric intake and reduced spontaneous
      physical activity. This modification in the phenotype was accompanied by
      increased expression of inflammatory cytokines in the hypothalamus. In addition,
      the inhibition of hypothalamic leukemia inhibitory factor was accompanied by
      glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. CONCLUSION: Hypothalamic expression
      of leukemia inhibitory factor may protect mice from the development of diet
      induced obesity; the inhibition of this protein in the hypothalamus transforms
      obesity-resistant into obesity-prone mice.

PMID- 28865477
TI  - RIG-I overexpression decreases mortality of cigarette smoke exposed mice during
      influenza A virus infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) is an important regulator of
      virus-induced antiviral interferons (IFNs) and proinflammatory cytokines which
      participate in clearing viral infections. Cigarette smoke (CS) exposure increases
      the frequency and severity of respiratory tract infections. METHODS: We generated
      a RIG-I transgenic (TG) mouse strain that expresses the RIG-I gene product under
      the control of the human lung specific surfactant protein C promoter. We compared
      the mortality and host immune responses of RIG-I TG mice and their litter-matched
      wild type (WT) mice following challenge with influenza A virus (IAV). RESULTS:
      RIG-I overexpression increased survival of IAV-infected mice. CS exposure
      increased mortality in WT mice infected with IAV. Remarkably, the effect of RIG-I
      overexpression on survival during IAV infection was enhanced in CS-exposed
      animals. CS-exposed IAV-infected WT mice had a suppressed innate response profile
      in the lung compared to sham-exposed IAV-infected WT mice in terms of the protein
      concentration, total cell count and inflammatory cell composition in the
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. RIG-I overexpression restored the innate immune
      response in CS-exposed mice to that seen in sham-exposed WT mice during IAV
      infection, and is likely responsible for enhanced survival in RIG-I TG mice as
      restoration preceded death of the animals. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate
      that RIG-I overexpression in mice is protective for CS enhanced susceptibility of
      smokers to influenza infection, and that CS mediated RIG-I suppression may be
      partially responsible for the increased morbidity and mortality of the mice
      exposed to IAV. Thus, optimizing the RIG-I response may be an important treatment
      strategy for CS-enhanced lung infections, particularly those due to IAV.

PMID- 28865478
TI  - Extracellular histones are clinically relevant mediators in the pathogenesis of
      acute respiratory distress syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extracellular histones were recently identified as an inflammatory
      mediator involved in the pathogenesis of various organ injuries. This study aimed
      to examine extracellular histone levels and their clinical implications in acute
      respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients and to explore histone-mediated
      effects through ex-vivo investigations. METHODS: Extracellular histones, cytokine
      profiles and clinical data from 96 ARDS patients and 30 healthy volunteers were
      obtained. Human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B), human pulmonary artery
      endothelial cells (HPAEC), and human monocytic U937 cells were exposed to
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) collected from ARDS patients, and cellular
      damage and cytokine production were assessed. Furthermore, the effect of histone
      targeted interventions by heparin or anti-histone antibody was evaluated.
      RESULTS: Plasma and BALF extracellular histone levels were much higher in ARDS
      patients than in healthy controls. There was a significant association between
      extracellular histones and ARDS severity and mortality. In addition,
      extracellular histones correlated with an evident systemic inflammation detected
      in ARDS patients. Ex-vivo analysis further showed that ARDS patient's BALF
      remarkably induced epithelial and endothelial cell damage and stimulated cytokine
      production in the supernatant of U937 cells. The adverse effects on these cells
      could be abrogated by heparin or anti-histone antibody. CONCLUSIONS:
      Extracellular histones in ARDS patients are excessively increased and may
      contribute to disease aggravation by inducing cellular damage and promoting
      systemic inflammation. Targeting extracellular histones may provide a promising
      approach for treating ARDS.

PMID- 28865479
TI  - Developing a comprehensive definition of sustainability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding sustainability is one of the significant implementation
      science challenges. One of the big challenges in researching sustainability is
      the lack of consistent definitions in the literature. Most implementation studies
      do not present a definition of sustainability, even when assessing
      sustainability. The aim of the current study was to systematically develop a
      comprehensive definition of sustainability based on definitions already used in
      the literature. METHODS: We searched for knowledge syntheses of sustainability
      and abstracted sustainability definitions from the articles identified through
      any relevant systematic and scoping reviews. The constructs in the abstracted
      sustainability definitions were mapped to an existing definition. The
      comprehensive definition of sustainability was revised to include emerging
      constructs. RESULTS: We identified four knowledge syntheses of sustainability,
      which identified 209 original articles. Of the 209 articles, 24 (11.5%) included
      a definition of sustainability. These definitions were mapped to three constructs
      from an existing definition, and nine new constructs emerged. We reviewed all
      constructs and created a revised definition: (1) after a defined period of time,
      (2) a program, clinical intervention, and/or implementation strategies continue
      to be delivered and/or (3) individual behavior change (i.e., clinician, patient)
      is maintained; (4) the program and individual behavior change may evolve or adapt
      while (5) continuing to produce benefits for individuals/systems. All 24
      definitions were remapped to the comprehensive definition (percent agreement
      among three coders was 94%). Of the 24 definitions, 17 described the continued
      delivery of a program (70.8%), 17 mentioned continued outcomes (70.8%), 13
      mentioned time (54.2%), 8 addressed the individual maintenance of a behavior
      change (33.3%), and 6 described the evolution or adaptation (25.0%). CONCLUSIONS:
      We drew from over 200 studies to identify 24 existing definitions of
      sustainability. Based on these definitions, we identified five key sustainability
      constructs, which can be used as the basis for future research on sustainability.
      Our next step is to identify sustainability frameworks and develop a meta
      framework using a concept mapping approach to consolidate the factors and
      considerations across sustainability frameworks.

PMID- 28865480
TI  - The psychological problems and related influential factors of left-behind
      adolescents (LBA) in Hunan, China: a cross sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to lack of companionship of parents, compared with non left
      behind children, left behind children (LBC) suffer from more psychological
      problems compared with children live with their parents. The aim of this study
      was to explore the mental health status and the relationship among psychological
      problems and the related factors of LBC. METHOD: Adopting delaminating-random
      group sampling and using region, county, village (town) as sampling framework, we
      utilized Demographic Data Recording Form, Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events
      Check List, Scale of APGAR, Perceived Social Support Scale, Simplified Coping
      Style Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Self-Esteem Scale and
      Scale of Mental Health for Chinese Middle-school Student to assess 1309 left
      behind child in junior middle school students' mental health in Hunan. Statistic
      description, Structural equation model was adopted to analyze the data. RESULT:
      There was a significant difference in score of psychological problems between LBC
      and non-LBC(F = 18.224, P<0.000). Life event was the major factor(r = .487) that
      affected psychological problems (path coefficient, PC = 0.08) directly and affect
      psychological problems indirectly through affecting passive coping (PC = 0.01)and
      family functioning(PC = 0.02); family functioning impacted psychological problems
      indirectly through affecting social support (PC = 4.89) and self-esteem (PC =
      0.10); social support (PC = -0.02), passive coping (PC =0.07) and active coping
      PC = -0.04) affected psychological problems directly. Psychoticism (P) (PC =
      0.11), Neuroticism (N) influenced psychological problems of LBC both directly (PC
      = 0.04) and indirectly through affecting self-esteem (PC: P:-1.87; N: -0.83),
      while Extraversion/Introversion (E) (PC = 0.21) only impact psychological
      problems indirectly through self-esteem. Altogether, these variables accounted
      for 50.2% of total variance of psychological problems (F = 130.470, P = 0.000)
      for LBC. CONCLUSION: In this research we proved that LBC have more sever
      psychological problems than non-LBC. We also identified the direct and indirect
      influential factors of psychological problems of LBC. The findings had important
      implications for prevention policies and interventions to promote mental health
      of LBC.

PMID- 28865481
TI  - Members of the Candidate Phyla Radiation are functionally differentiated by
      carbon- and nitrogen-cycling capabilities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) is a recently described expansion
      of the tree of life that represents more than 15% of all bacterial diversity and
      potentially contains over 70 different phyla. Despite this broad phylogenetic
      variation, these microorganisms appear to feature little functional diversity,
      with members generally characterized as obligate fermenters. Additionally, much
      of the data describing CPR phyla has been generated from a limited number of
      environments, constraining our knowledge of their functional roles and
      biogeographical distribution. To expand our understanding of subsurface CPR
      microorganisms, we sampled four separate groundwater wells over 2 years across
      three Ohio counties. RESULTS: Samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon
      and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Amplicon results indicated that CPR members
      comprised between 2 and 20% of the microbial communities with relative abundances
      stable through time in Athens and Greene samples but dynamic in Licking
      groundwater. Shotgun metagenomic analyses generated 71 putative CPR genomes,
      representing roughly 32 known phyla and 2 putative new phyla, Candidatus
      Brownbacteria and Candidatus Hugbacteria. While these genomes largely mirrored
      metabolic characteristics of known CPR members, some features were previously
      uncharacterized. For instance, nitrite reductase, encoded by nirK, was found in
      four of our Parcubacteria genomes and multiple CPR genomes from other studies,
      indicating a potentially undescribed role for these microorganisms in
      denitrification. Additionally, glycoside hydrolase (GH) family profiles for our
      71 genomes and over 2000 other CPR genomes were analyzed to characterize their
      carbon-processing potential. Although common trends were present throughout the
      radiation, differences highlighted potential mechanisms that could allow
      microorganisms across the CPR to occupy various subsurface niches. For example,
      members of the Microgenomates superphylum appear to potentially degrade a wider
      range of carbon substrates than other CPR phyla. CONCLUSIONS: CPR members are
      present across a range of environments and often constitute a significant
      fraction of the microbial population in groundwater systems, particularly.
      Further sampling of such environments will resolve this portion of the tree of
      life at finer taxonomic levels, which is essential to solidify functional
      differences between members that populate this phylogenetically broad region of
      the tree of life.

PMID- 28865482
TI  - Decrease in bone mineral density during three months after diagnosis of early
      rheumatoid arthritis measured by digital X-ray radiogrammetry predicts
      radiographic joint damage after one year.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Periarticular osteopenia is an early sign of incipient joint injury
      in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but cannot be accurately quantified using
      conventional radiography. Digital X-ray radiogrammetry (DXR) is a computerized
      technique to estimate bone mineral density (BMD) from hand radiographs. The aim
      of this study was to evaluate whether decrease in BMD of the hands (BMD loss), as
      determined by DXR 3 months after diagnosis, predicts radiographic joint damage
      after 1 and 2 years in patients with early RA. METHODS: Patients (n = 176) with
      early RA (<12 months after onset of symptoms) from three different Swedish
      rheumatology centers were consecutively included in the study, and 167 of these
      patients were included in the analysis. Medication was given in accordance with
      Swedish guidelines, and the patients were followed for 2 years. Rheumatoid factor
      and antibodies to cyclic citrullinated peptides (anti-CCP) were measured at
      baseline, and 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28) was assessed at each visit.
      Radiographs of the hands and feet were obtained at baseline, 3 months (hands
      only) and 1 and 2 years. Baseline and 1-year and 2-year radiographs were
      evaluated by the Larsen score. Radiographic progression was defined as a
      difference in Larsen score above the smallest detectable change. DXR-BMD was
      measured at baseline and after 3 months. BMD loss was defined as moderate when
      the decrease in BMD was between 0.25 and 2.5 mg/cm2/month and as severe when the
      decrease was greater than 2.5 mg/cm2/month. Multivariate regression was applied
      to test the association between DXR-BMD loss and radiographic damage, including
      adjustments for possible confounders. RESULTS: DXR-BMD loss during the initial 3
      months occurred in 59% of the patients (44% moderate, 15% severe): 32 patients
      (19%) had radiographic progression at 1 year and 45 (35%) at 2 years. In multiple
      regression analyses, the magnitude of DXR-BMD loss was significantly associated
      with increase in Larsen score between baseline and 1 year (p = 0.033, adjusted R
      squared = 0.069). CONCLUSION: DXR-BMD loss during the initial 3 months
      independently predicted radiographic joint damage at 1 year in patients with
      early RA. Thus, DXR-BMD may be a useful tool to detect ongoing joint damage and
      thereby to improve individualization of therapy in early RA.

PMID- 28865483
TI  - Suppression of cortical seizures by optic stimulation of the reticular thalamus
      in PV-mhChR2-YFP BAC transgenic mice.
AB  - Deep brain stimulation in thalamic regions has been proposed as a treatment for
      epilepsy. The electrical current excites thalamocortical activity which is
      controlled by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic interneurons in the reticular
      thalamic nucleus (nRT). Previous studies showed that enhancing GABAergic
      inhibitory strength in the nRT reduces the duration and power of seizures,
      indicating that the thalamus plays an important role in modulating cortical
      seizures. The aim of the present study was to apply optogenetics to study the
      role of the nRT in modulating cortical seizures. We used PV-ChR2-EYFP transgenic
      mice from Jackson Laboratories, in which only Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is
      expressed in parvalbumin-expressing interneurons. Cortical seizure-like activity
      was induced by electrical stimulation of the corpus callosum after applying 4
      aminopyridine. ChR2 expression was abundant in the nRT and cerebellum in PV-ChR2
      EYFP transgenic mice. Light stimulation in the nRT caused burst firing in regions
      of the thalamus and nRT in vitro. Multi-unit activity increased during high
      frequency (100 and 50 Hz) light stimulation in the S1 region and thalamus in
      vivo. Corpus callosum stimulation-induced seizure-like activity was effectively
      suppressed by high-frequency (100 Hz) and long-duration (10 s) light stimulation.
      The suppressive effects were reversed by applying a GABAB receptor antagonist but
      not a GABAA receptor antagonist in the cortex. The results indicated that light
      stimulation affected thalamocortical relay neurons by activating ChR2-expression
      neurons in the nRT. High-frequency and long-duration light stimulation was more
      effective in suppressing cortical seizure-like activity. GABAB receptors may
      participate in suppressing seizure-like activity.

PMID- 28865484
TI  - Renal ultrasound provides low utility in evaluating cardiac surgery associated
      acute kidney injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renal ultrasonography is part of the algorithm in assessing acute
      kidney injury (AKI). The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical utility
      of renal US in postoperative cardiac patients who develop AKI. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective study of 90 postoperative cardiac surgery patients at a
      single institution from 1/19/2010 to 3/19/2016 who underwent renal US for AKI. We
      reviewed provider documentation to determine whether renal US changed management.
      We defined change as: administration of crystalloid or colloid, addition of
      inotropic or vasopressor, or procedural interventions on the renal system.
      RESULTS: Mean age of study patients was 68 +/- 13 years. 48/90 patients (53.3%)
      had pre-existing chronic kidney disease of varying severity. 48 patients (53.3%)
      had normal renal US with incidental findings and 31 patients (34.4%) had US
      evidence of medical kidney disease. 10 patients (11.1%) had limited US results
      due to poor visualization and 1 patient (1.1%) had mild right-sided
      hydronephrosis. No patients were found to have obstructive uropathy or renal
      artery stenosis. Clinical management was altered in only 4/90 patients (4.4%),
      which included 3 patients that received a fluid bolus and 1 patient that received
      a fluid bolus and inotropes. No vascular or urologic procedures resulted from US
      findings. CONCLUSION: Although renal ultrasound is often utilized in the work-up
      of AKI, our study shows that renal US provides little benefit in managing
      postoperative cardiac patients. This diagnostic modality should be scrutinized
      rather than viewed as a universal measure in the cardiac surgery population.

PMID- 28865485
TI  - Combination therapy of PKCzeta and COX-2 inhibitors synergistically suppress
      melanoma metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metastatic malignant melanoma is one of the most aggressive
      malignancies and its treatment remains challenging. Recent studies demonstrate
      that the melanoma metastasis has correlations with the heightened activations of
      protein kinase C zeta (PKCzeta) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) signaling pathways.
      Targeted inhibitions for PKCzeta and COX-2 have been considered as the promising
      strategies for the treatment of melanoma metastasis. Thus, the PKCzeta inhibitor
      J-4 and COX-2 inhibitor Celecoxib were combined to treat melanoma metastasis in
      this study. METHODS: The Transwell assay, Wound-healing assay and Adhesion assay
      were used to evaluate the inhibition of combined therapy of J-4 and Celecoxib on
      melanoma cells invasion, migration and adhesion in vitro, respectively. The
      impaired actin polymerization was observed by confocal microscope and inactivated
      signal pathways about PKCzeta and COX-2 were confirmed by the Western blotting
      assay. The B16-F10/C57BL mouse melanoma model was used to test the inhibition of
      combined therapy of J-4 and Celecoxib on melanoma metastasis in vivo. RESULTS:
      The in vitro results showed that the combination of J-4 and Celecoxib exerted
      synergistic inhibitory effects on the migration, invasion and adhesion of
      melanoma B16-F10 and A375 cells with combination index less than 1. The actin
      polymerization and phosphorylation of Cofilin required in cell migration were
      severely impaired, which is due to the inactivation of PKCzeta related signal
      pathways and the decrease of COX-2. The combined inhibition of PKCzeta and COX-2
      induced Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition (MET) in melanoma cells with the
      expression of E-Cadherin increasing and Vimentin decreasing. The secretion of MMP
      2/MMP-9 also significantly decreased after the combination treatment. In C57BL/6
      mice intravenously injected with B16-F10 cells (5 * 104 cells/mouse), co
      treatment of J-4 and Celecoxib also severely suppressed melanoma lung metastasis.
      The body weight monitoring and HE staining results indicated the low toxicity of
      the combination therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the
      combination therapy of PKCzeta and COX-2 inhibitors can significantly inhibit
      melanoma metastasis in vitro and in vivo, which will be an efficient strategy for
      treatment of melanoma metastasis in clinics.

PMID- 28865486
TI  - NLRP3 inflammasome activation promotes inflammation-induced carcinogenesis in
      head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NLRP3 inflammasome acts as a danger signal sensor that triggers and
      coordinates the inflammatory response. However, the roles of NLRP3 inflammasome
      in the tumorigenesis and development of cancer stem cells (CSCs) of squamous cell
      carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) remain ambiguous. METHODS: In our study,
      tissue microarrays, ELISA, sphere-forming assay, colony formation assay and
      Western blot analysis were performed to evaluate the effect of NLRP3 inflammasome
      on the development of CSCs in human SCCHN tissue specimen, cell lines, and
      transgenic mouse SCCHN model. RESULTS: The components of NLRP3 inflammasome,
      namely, NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1, and IL-18 were correlated with CSCs markers BMI1,
      ALDH1 and CD44 in human SCCHN specimens. Moreover, NLRP3, Caspase-1, IL-1beta,
      and IL-18 were highly expressed in SCCHN cell lines. NLRP3 inflammasome activated
      by LPS and ATP promoted sphere-forming and colony formation capacities along with
      an upregulation of BMI1, ALDH1 and CD44. In addition, NLRP3 inflammasome blockade
      by NLRP3 inhibitor MCC950 reduced sphere and colony number, also decreased the
      expression of BMI1, ALDH1 and CD44 in SCCHN cell lines. Expression of NLRP3, ASC,
      Caspase-1, IL-1beta, IL-18, BMI1, ALDH1 and CD44 was upregulated in Tgfbr1/Pten
      2cKO mouse SCCHN model, and NLRP3 inflammasome expression was closely related to
      those CSCs makers in mice SCCHN. However, MCC950 treatment reduced the expression
      of NLRP3 inflammasome, CSCs markers BMI1, ALDH1 and CD44 in Tgfbr1/Pten 2cKO mice
      SCCHN. In addition, blockade of NLRP3 inflammasome can also delayed the tumor
      burdened speed in SCCHN mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that NLRP3
      inflammasome was upregulated and associated with the carcinogenesis and CSCs self
      renewal activation in SCCHN. NLRP3 inflammasome can be a potential target in the
      development of novel approaches for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
      therapy.

PMID- 28865487
TI  - Sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation of the spleen mimicking metastasis
      of melanoma: a case report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation is a benign disorder of
      splenic tissue and is often mistaken as a potentially malignant entity in the
      diagnostic process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of
      sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation mimicking metastasis of melanoma in
      the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: A 43-year-old white man presented with a newly
      found splenic mass 4 years ago to our Department of Gastroenterology. He was
      diagnosed as having a superficial spreading malignant melanoma localized at his
      left instep 7 years ago and was successfully treated with radical local
      resection. Several diagnostic procedures were conducted. Ultrasound showed a
      hypoechoic lesion in the inferior pole of his spleen with a diameter of 2 cm,
      blurred boundaries, and inhomogeneous interior pattern. Contrast-enhanced
      ultrasound was inconclusive and showed only discrete contrast enhancement of the
      lesion with accentuated nodule-like enrichment of the boundaries in the arterial
      phase. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans showed two
      splenic lesions which were highly suspicious of metastasis. Magnetic resonance
      imaging of his head was inconspicuous. Bone scintigraphy showed no abnormal
      results. Fine-needle aspiration indicated metastasis of the above-mentioned
      malignant melanoma. We conducted a laparoscopic splenectomy. His intraoperative
      and postoperative course were uneventful. In contrast to the result of the fine
      needle aspiration, the presence of metastasis of melanoma could not be confirmed.
      Histological analysis revealed nodule-like arrangement of fibroblasts with low
      cell density and a predominance of dilated capillaries, indicating sclerosing
      angiomatoid nodular transformation of the spleen. CONCLUSIONS: There are no
      preoperative diagnostic imaging procedures which can definitely differentiate
      sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation from malignancies in cases of
      morphological and immunophenotypic variations of the specimen. Morphological and
      immunophenotypic variations of the specimen represent a diagnostic challenge and
      can mimic malignoma. As reported in our case, the specimen obtained by ultrasound
      guided fine-needle aspiration led to the diagnosis of metastasis of melanoma.
      Splenectomy is often conducted due to a splenic mass suspicious of malignoma as
      described in our case or with unknown valency in different diagnostic imaging
      procedures.

PMID- 28865488
TI  - Distinct transcriptional and metabolic profiles associated with empathy in
      Buddhist priests: a pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growing evidence suggests that spiritual/religious involvement may
      have beneficial effects on both psychological and physical functions. However,
      the biological basis for this relationship remains unclear. This study explored
      the role of spiritual/religious involvement across a wide range of biological
      markers, including transcripts and metabolites, associated with the psychological
      aspects of empathy in Buddhist priests. METHODS: Ten professional Buddhist
      priests and 10 age-matched non-priest controls were recruited. The participants
      provided peripheral blood samples for the analysis of gene expression and
      metabolic profiles. The participants also completed validated questionnaires
      measuring empathy, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II (HPLP-II), and a
      brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ). RESULTS: The
      microarray analyses revealed that the distinct transcripts in the Buddhist
      priests included up-regulated genes related to type I interferon (IFN) innate
      anti-viral responses (i.e., MX1, RSAD2, IFIT1, IFIT3, IFI27, IFI44L, and HERC5),
      and the genes C17orf97 (ligand of arginyltranseferase 1; ATE1), hemoglobin gammaA
      (HBG1), keratin-associated protein (KRTAP10-12), and sialic acid Ig-like lectin
      14 (SIGLEC14) were down-regulated at baseline. The metabolomics analysis revealed
      that the metabolites, including 3-aminoisobutylic acid (BAIBA), choline, several
      essential amino acids (e.g., methionine, phenylalanine), and amino acid
      derivatives (e.g., 2-aminoadipic acid, asymmetric dimethyl-arginine (ADMA),
      symmetric dimethyl-arginine (SMDA)), were elevated in the Buddhist priests. By
      contrast, there was no significant difference of healthy lifestyle behaviors and
      daily nutrient intakes between the priests and the controls in this study. With
      regard to the psychological aspects, the Buddhist priests showed significantly
      higher empathy compared with the control. Spearman's rank correlation analysis
      showed that empathy aspects in the priests were significantly correlated with the
      certain transcripts and metabolites. CONCLUSIONS: We performed in vivo
      phenotyping using transcriptomics, metabolomics, and psychological analyses and
      found an association between empathy and the phenotype of Buddhist priests in
      this pilot study. The up-regulation of the anti-viral type I IFN responsive genes
      and distinct metabolites in the plasma may represent systemic biological
      adaptations with a unique signature underlying spiritual/religious practices for
      Buddhists.

PMID- 28865489
TI  - Midterm follow-up of transthoracic device closure of an atrial septal defect
      using the very large domestic occluder (44-48 mm), a single Chinese cardiac
      center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to outline the midterm follow-up
      results and complications in patients who underwent transthoracic device closure
      of an atrial septal defect (ASD) with the very large domestic occluder (44-48
      mm). METHODS: The data of 35 patients who underwent transthoracic device closure
      of an ASD with the very large domestic occluder (44-48 mm) at our institution
      were collected prospectively between January 2010 and January 2015. All patients
      were invited for an outpatient visit and contrast TTE for 12-70 months after ASD
      closure. RESULTS: Thirty-four patients were occluded successfully under this
      approach and 1 patient was transferred for surgical repair for dislodgement of
      the occluder. The most frequent complication was transient cardiac arrhythmia. A
      new third degree atrioventricular block occurred in 1 patient who recovered 1
      week later. During the follow-up period, we found no recurrence, no thrombosis,
      no device embolization, no device failure, and no cases of death. The total
      occlusion rate was 94.1% in the 12 months of follow-up, and the intracardiac
      structure and cardiac function were significant improved contemporaneously.
      CONCLUSION: Transthoracic device closure of an atrial septal defect with the very
      large domestic occluder (44-48 mm) is a safe and feasible technique. However,
      long-term follow-up is required to better assess the safety and feasibility of
      this method for the closure of very large ASDs in patients.

PMID- 28865490
TI  - Mapping insecticide resistance and characterization of resistance mechanisms in
      Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidae) in Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The emergence and spread of insecticide resistance in the major
      African malaria vectors Anopheles gambiae (s.s.) and An. arabiensis may
      compromise the current vector control interventions and threatens the global
      malaria control and elimination efforts. METHODS: Insecticide resistance was
      monitored in several study sites in Ethiopia from 2013 to 2015 using papers
      impregnated with discriminating concentrations of DDT, deltamethrin, bendiocarb,
      propoxur, malathion, fenitrothion and pirimiphos-methyl, following the WHO
      insecticide susceptibility test procedure. Mosquitoes sampled from different
      localities for WHO bioassay were morphologically identified as An. gambiae (s.l.)
      using standard taxonomic keys. Samples were identified to species using species
      specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and screened for the presence of target
      site mutations L1014F, L1014S and N1575Y in the voltage gated sodium channel
      (VGSC) gene and G119S in the acethylcholinesterase (AChE) gene using allele
      specific PCR. Biochemical assays were performed to assess elevated levels of
      acetylcholinesterases, carboxylcholinesterases, glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs)
      and cytochrome P450s monooxygenases in wild populations of An. arabiensis,
      compared to the fully susceptible Sekoru An. arabiensis laboratory strain.
      RESULTS: Populations of An. arabiensis were resistant to DDT and deltamethrin but
      were susceptible to fenitrothion in all the study sites. Reduced susceptibility
      to malathion, pirimiphos-methyl, propoxur and bendiocarb was observed in some of
      the study sites. Knockdown resistance (kdr L1014F) was detected in all mosquito
      populations with allele frequency ranging from 42 to 91%. Elevated levels of
      glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) were detected in some of the mosquito
      populations. However, no elevated levels of monooxygenases and esterases were
      detected in any of the populations assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Anopheles arabiensis
      populations from all surveyed sites in Ethiopia exhibited resistance against DDT
      and pyrethroids. Moreover, some mosquito populations exhibited resistance to
      propoxur and possible resistance to bendiocarb. Target site mutation kdr L1014F
      was detected in all mosquito populations while elevated levels of glutathione-S
      transferases (GSTs) was detected in some mosquito populations. The reduced
      susceptibility of An. arabiensis to propoxur and bendiocarb, which are currently
      used for indoor residual spraying (IRS) in Ethiopia, calls for continuous
      resistance monitoring, in order to plan and implement evidence based insecticide
      resistance management.

PMID- 28865491
TI  - Socio-ecological influences on adolescent (aged 10-17) alcohol use and linked
      unhealthy eating behaviours: protocol for a systematic review and synthesis of
      qualitative studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Excess body weight and risky alcohol consumption are two of the
      greatest contributors to global disease. Health behaviours cluster in adolescence
      and track to adulthood. Very little is known about similar and contrasting
      influences on young people's eating behaviours and alcohol use. Whilst there are
      bodies of literature which explore the influences on young people's eating
      behaviour and alcohol consumption respectively, no qualitative studies have been
      identified with an explicit and concurrent focus on adolescent eating behaviours
      and alcohol consumption. This review will identify and synthesise qualitative
      research evidence to provide insight into common underlying factors which
      influence alcohol use and unhealthy eating behaviours amongst young people aged
      10-17. This will involve bringing together two separate bodies of literature to
      enable analysis and comparison across two associated fields of study. METHODS: We
      will conduct searches in MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts (via
      ProQuest social science premium collection), CINAHL, ERIC, IBSS (via ProQuest
      social science premium collection), ASSIA (via ProQuest social science premium
      collection), and Web of Science Core Collection. Studies reporting primary data
      of any qualitative design, for example, ethnographic studies, studies that used a
      phenomenological or grounded theory approach, or participatory action research
      will be included in the review. Database searches will be supplemented with
      searches of Google Scholar, hand searches of key journals, and backward and
      forward citation searches of reference lists of identified papers. Search records
      will be independently screened by two researchers, with full text copies of
      potentially relevant papers retrieved for in-depth review against the inclusion
      criteria. Reporting of identified studies will be assessed using the Critical
      Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Qualitative Research Checklist. GRADE-CERQual
      will also be used to assess confidence in the findings arising from our review.
      Qualitative synthesis will involve three core phases: line-by-line coding of
      findings; development of descriptive themes; and development of analytical
      themes. Findings from papers will be examined for overlaps, similarities and
      differences. DISCUSSION: This synthesis will interpret individual studies by
      identification of second-order constructs (interpretations offered by the
      original researchers) and third-order constructs (development of new
      interpretations beyond those offered in individual studies) by way of the
      development of a 'model structure' of shared influences upon both unhealthy
      eating behaviours and alcohol use. It is anticipated that this 'model structure'
      will aid subsequent co-design and piloting of a future intervention to help
      reduce health risk and social inequalities due to excess weight gain and alcohol
      consumption. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: CRD42017060624 .

PMID- 28865492
TI  - Pathobiology of the 129:Stat1 -/- mouse model of human age-related ER-positive
      breast cancer with an immune infiltrate-excluded phenotype.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stat1 gene-targeted knockout mice (129S6/SvEvTac-Stat1 tm1Rds)
      develop estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), luminal-type mammary carcinomas at an
      advanced age. There is evidence for both host environment as well as tumor cell
      intrinsic mechanisms to initiate tumorigenesis in this model. In this report, we
      summarize details of the systemic and mammary pathology at preneoplastic and
      tumor-bearing time points. In addition, we investigate tumor progression in the
      129:Stat1 -/- host compared with wild-type 129/SvEv, and we describe the immune
      cell reaction to the tumors. METHODS: Mice housed and treated according to
      National Institutes of Health guidelines and Institutional Animal Care and Use
      Committee-approved methods were evaluated by histopathology, and their tissues
      were subjected to immunohistochemistry with computer-assisted quantitative image
      analysis. Tumor cell culture and conditioned media from cell culture were used to
      perform macrophage (RAW264.7) cell migration assays, including the 129:Stat1 -/-
      derived SSM2 cells as well as control Met1 and NDL tumor cells and EpH4 normal
      cells. RESULTS: Tumorigenesis in 129:Stat1 -/- originates from a population of
      FoxA1+ large oval pale cells that initially appear and accumulate along the
      mammary ducts in segments or regions of the gland prior to giving rise to mammary
      intraepithelial neoplasias. Progression to invasive carcinoma is accompanied by a
      marked local stromal and immune cell response composed predominantly of T cells
      and macrophages. In conditioned media experiments, cells derived from 129:Stat1 
      /- tumors secrete both chemoattractant and chemoinhibitory factors, with greater
      attraction in the extracellular vesicular fraction and inhibition in the soluble
      fraction. The result appears to be recruitment of the immune reaction to the
      periphery of the tumor, with exclusion of immune cell infiltration into the
      tumor. CONCLUSIONS: 129:Stat1 -/- is a unique model for studying the critical
      origins and risk reduction strategies in age-related ER+ breast cancer. In
      addition, it can be used in preclinical trials of hormonal and targeted therapies
      as well as immunotherapies.

PMID- 28865494
TI  - Implementation and validation of the extended Hill-type muscle model with robust
      routing capabilities in LS-DYNA for active human body models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the state of the art finite element AHBMs for car crash analysis
      in the LS-DYNA software material named *MAT_MUSCLE (*MAT_156) is used for active
      muscles modeling. It has three elements in parallel configuration, which has
      several major drawbacks: restraint approximation of the physical reality,
      complicated parameterization and absence of the integrated activation dynamics.
      This study presents implementation of the extended four element Hill-type muscle
      model with serial damping and eccentric force-velocity relation including
      [Formula: see text] dependent activation dynamics and internal method for
      physiological muscle routing. RESULTS: Proposed model was implemented into the
      general-purpose finite element (FE) simulation software LSDYNA as a user material
      for truss elements. This material model is verified and validated with three
      different sets of mammalian experimental data, taken from the literature. It is
      compared to the *MAT_MUSCLE (*MAT_156) Hill-type muscle model already existing in
      LS-DYNA, which is currently used in finite element human body models (HBMs). An
      application example with an arm model extracted from the FE ViVA OpenHBM is
      given, taking into account physiological muscle paths. CONCLUSION: The simulation
      results show better material model accuracy, calculation robustness and improved
      muscle routing capability compared to *MAT_156. The FORTRAN source code for the
      user material subroutine dyn21.f and the muscle parameters for all simulations,
      conducted in the study, are given at https://zenodo.org/record/826209 under an
      open source license. This enables a quick application of the proposed material
      model in LS-DYNA, especially in active human body models (AHBMs) for applications
      in automotive safety.

PMID- 28865493
TI  - High titers of both rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP antibodies at baseline in
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis are associated with increased circulating
      baseline TNF level, low drug levels, and reduced clinical responses: a post hoc
      analysis of the RISING study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although both rheumatoid factor (RF) and anticyclic citrullinated
      peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) are useful for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA), the impact of these autoantibodies on the efficacy of tumor necrosis factor
      (TNF) inhibitors has been controversial. The aim of this post hoc analysis of a
      randomized double-blind study (the RISING study) was to investigate the
      influences of RF and anti-CCP on the clinical response to infliximab in patients
      with RA. METHODS: Methotrexate-refractory patients with RA received 3 mg/kg of
      infliximab from weeks 0 to 6 and then 3, 6, or 10 mg/kg every 8 weeks from weeks
      14 to 46. In this post hoc analysis, patients were stratified into three classes
      on the basis of baseline RF/anti-CCP titers: "low/low-C" (RF < 55 IU/ml, anti-CCP
      < 42 U/ml), "high/high-C" (RF >= 160 IU/ml, anti-CCP >= 100 U/ml), and "middle-C"
      (neither low/low-C nor high/high-C). Baseline plasma TNF level, serum infliximab
      level, and disease activity were compared between the three classes. RESULTS:
      Baseline RF and anti-CCP titers showed significant correlations with baseline TNF
      and infliximab levels in weeks 2-14. Comparison of the three classes showed that
      baseline TNF level was lowest in the low/low-C group and highest in the high/high
      C group (median 0.73 versus 1.15 pg/ml), that infliximab levels at week 14 were
      highest in the low/low-C group and lowest in the high/high-C group (median 1.0
      versus 0.1 MUg/ml), and that Disease Activity Score in 28 joints based on C
      reactive protein at week 14 was lowest in the low/low-C group and highest in the
      high/high-C group (median 3.17 versus 3.82). A similar correlation was observed
      at week 54 in the 3 mg/kg dosing group, but not in the 6 or 10 mg/kg group.
      Significant decreases in both RF and anti-CCP were observed during infliximab
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS: RF/anti-CCP titers correlated with TNF level. This might
      explain the association of RF/anti-CCP with infliximab level and clinical
      response in patients with RA. Baseline RF/anti-CCP titers may serve as indices
      that aid infliximab treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov,
      NCT00691028 . Retrospectively registered on 3 June 2008.

PMID- 28865496
TI  - [Vitamin D in the Prevention of Chronic Diseases: An Evidence Based Analysis].

PMID- 28865495
TI  - Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for treatment-resistant major
      depression (TRMD) Veteran patients: study protocol for a randomized controlled
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluation of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for
      treatment-resistant major depression (TRMD) in Veterans offers unique clinical
      trial challenges. Here we describe a randomized, double-blinded, intent-to-treat,
      two-arm, superiority parallel design, a multicenter study funded by the
      Cooperative Studies Program (CSP No. 556) of the US Department of Veterans
      Affairs. METHODS: We recruited medical providers with clinical expertise in
      treating TRMD at nine Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers as the trial local
      investigators. We plan to enroll 360 Veterans diagnosed with TRMD at the nine VA
      medical centers over a 3-year period. We will randomize participants into a
      double-blinded clinical trial to left prefrontal rTMS treatment or to sham
      (control) rTMS treatment (180 participants each group) for up to 30 treatment
      sessions. All participants will meet Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
      disorders, 4 th edition (DSM-IV) criteria for major depression and will have
      failed at least two prior pharmacological interventions. In contrast with other
      rTMS clinical trials, we will not exclude Veterans with posttraumatic stress
      disorder (PTSD) or history of substance abuse and we will obtain detailed history
      regarding these disorders. Furthermore, we will maintain participants on stable
      anti-depressant medication throughout the trial. We will evaluate all
      participants on a wide variety of potential predictors of treatment response
      including cognitive, psychological and functional parameters. DISCUSSION: The
      primary dependent measure will be remission rate (Hamilton Rating Scale for
      Depression (HRSD24) <= 10), and secondary analyses will be conducted on other
      indices. Comparisons between the rTMS and the sham groups will be made at the end
      of the acute treatment phase to test the primary hypothesis. The unique
      challenges to performing such a large technically challenging clinical trial with
      Veterans and potential avenues for improvement of the design in future trials
      will be described. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01191333 .
      Registered on 26 August 2010. This report is based on the protocol version 4.6
      amended in February 2016. All items from the World Health Organization Trial
      Registration Data Set are listed in Appendix A.

PMID- 28865497
TI  - Exercise as an Essential Therapeutic Tool in Mental Health: Closing the Gap From
      Research to Practice, A Portuguese Perspective.

PMID- 28865498
TI  - [Analysis of the Cochrane Review: Pharmacotherapy for Hyperuricemia in
      Hypertensive Patients. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;4:CD008652.]
AB  - Arterial hypertension is a public health problem that affects approximately 25%
      of the world's adult population. The association between hypertension and
      hyperuricemia has been shown on epidemiological and experimental studies.
      However, it is unclear whether lowering serum uric acid might lower blood
      pressure. This Cochrane systematic review - a revised edition of a previously
      published one - intended as primary objective to evaluate the effect of
      hypouricemic drugs in patients with primary hypertension or prehypertension. The
      secondary objectives were to evaluate the efficacy and safety of hypouricemic
      drugs. A systematic search until February 2016 on controlled, randomized or quasi
      randomized trials comparing the effect of hypouricemic drug versus placebo in
      hypertensive or prehypertensive patients was performed on the following
      databases: The Cochrane Hypertension Specialised Register, the Cochrane Central
      Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medline, Embase, The World Health
      Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, e
      ClinicalTrials.gov. LILACS database up to March 2016 was also searched and the
      authors of relevant studies were contacted. There were 349 identified papers, 21
      were preselected and three randomized clinical trials (211 patients) were
      included in the qualitative analysis and in the meta-analysis. Two of the trials
      were conducted exclusively on adolescents. The authors conclude that hypouricemic
      drugs are not effective in lowering blood pressure in patients with hyperuricemia
      and primary prehypertension or hypertension. However, this strategy might be more
      effective in the specific population of adolescents with prehypertension or mild
      primary hypertension recently diagnosed. Hypouricemic drugs effectively reduce
      serum uric acid level and withdrawals of therapy due to adverse effects were not
      superior in the treated group, comparing to placebo; however, one patient
      withdrew due to a severe cutaneous reaction.

PMID- 28865499
TI  - Association Between Weekend and Holiday Admission with Pneumonia and Mortality in
      a Tertiary Center in Portugal: A Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute bacterial pneumonia is a common and potentially fatal disease
      where early recognition and treatment are crucial. Increasing medical literature
      suggests worse outcomes in patients admitted for medical and surgical conditions
      during the weekend. Little is known about this effect in patients with acute
      bacterial pneumonia. Obective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact
      of weekend and holiday hospital admission on the outcomes of acute bacterial
      pneumonia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective analysis of adult patients (> 18
      years) with acute bacterial pneumonia collected from a tertiary referral center
      database. Length of stay, total cost, admission to intensive care unit,
      development of sepsis and organ failure, and mortality were compared between
      patients admitted on a weekday and patients admitted during a weekend or holiday.
      RESULTS: We analyzed 53 854 hospital admissions from 42 512 patients (median age
      84.0 years, range 18 - 118 years), corresponding to 30 554 admissions during
      weekdays, 21 222 at weekends and 2078 during public holidays. Weekend and holiday
      admission was not associated with increased costs, length of stay, intensive care
      unit admission, development of sepsis, organ failure, and mortality. CONCLUSION:
      A weekend/holiday effect in acute bacterial pneumonia was not evident in our
      series.

PMID- 28865500
TI  - [Determinant Factors of Morbidity in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Severity in systemic lupus erythematosus may vary from mild to even
      fatal consequences. There are no biomarkers to predict the disease's prognosis.
      The Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/ Systemic Damage Index
      defines systemic lupus erythematosus disease severity and is found to predict
      prognosis. OBJECTIVE: To test damage determinants in a single-centre systemic
      lupus erythematosus cohort. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospectively followed
      systemic lupus erythematosus female patients (defined by the identification of at
      least four systemic lupus erythematosus American College of Rheumatology criteria
      - fulfillment 100%, n = 76) over the past five years. Age of onset, ethnicity,
      disease duration, number of American College of Rheumatology criteria at the end
      of follow-up, cumulative: renal, neuropsychiatric and articular phenotypes,
      hypertension, dyslipidaemia, smoking and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease
      Activity Index 2K were correlated to the presence and degree of irreversible
      damage (Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Damage Index).
      Accumulation of American College of Rheumatology criteria was measured in a sub
      group of patients followed from disease onset (within a year of the first symptom
      ascribed to systemic lupus erythematosus) (n = 39 - 51%); Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus Disease Activity Index and Systemic Lupus International
      Collaborating Clinics Damage Index were performed. Statistical analysis was
      performed using Chi-square, Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney tests and Spearman correlation
      rho (Sig. 2-tailed p < 0.05). RESULTS: Systemic Lupus International Collaborating
      Clinics/Systemic Damage Index > 0 was present in 56.6% and significantly
      associated to a longer duration, a higher number of American College of
      Rheumatology criteria and a neuropsychiatric phenotype when compared with those
      with no damage. The final number of American College of Rheumatology criteria
      accrued was positively correlated to a higher disease activity over the past five
      years of follow-up (Spearman's rho 0.02 and p < 0.05). There was no effect from
      other features. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Disease duration and number of
      American College of Rheumatology criteria predict Systemic Lupus International
      Collaborating Clinics/ Systemic Damage Index. neuropsychiatric disease has an
      impact on damage accrual.

PMID- 28865501
TI  - Female Psychological Adjustment Following an Acute Coronary Syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The outcomes of cardiovascular disease are consistently worse among
      women, regardless of age or disease severity. Such trend might arise from
      psychosocial factors, which should be examined in this population. Obective: To
      evaluate the influence of type-D personality on anxiety and depression symptoms
      reported by female patients after a first acute coronary syndrome. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: As part of a larger study, 34 female patients with a first acute
      coronary syndrome were compared with 43 controls on psychosocial measures
      (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; type-D personality, DS - 14). RESULTS:
      Hypertension (p < 0.001), diabetes (p < 0.05), dyslipidemia (p < 0.05), type-D
      personality (p = 0.001) and anxiety (p < 0.001) were more prevalent among
      patients. Exercise (p < 0.05) and antidepressant use (p < 0.05) were more common
      among controls. Logistic regression analysis confirmed that higher prevalence of
      hypertension (p < 0.05), dyslipidemia (p < 0.05), type-D personality (p < 0.05),
      anxiety (p < 0.05) and less antidepressant use (p < 0.05), were independently
      associated with acute coronary syndrome. Type-D personality was associated with
      higher Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores in controls (anxiety: p =
      0.001; depression: p < 0.001) but not in patients. DISCUSSION: High anxiety after
      an acute coronary syndrome might reflect a short-term adaptive response, albeit
      worsening the disease long-term prognosis. The lack of differences in some group
      comparisons (patients versus controls for depression scores; type-D 'positive'
      versus type-D 'negative' for anxiety and depression scores within patients) is
      discussed. CONCLUSION: Type-D personality, high anxiety, hypertension and
      dyslipidemia seem to cluster among female acute coronary syndrome patients.
      Nevertheless, type-D personality itself was not associated with higher anxiety
      and depressive scores during the post-acute period.

PMID- 28865502
TI  - [Validation of the Otitis Media-6 Questionnaire for European Portuguese].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Otitis media is one of the most prevalent childhood diseases. The
      impact of otitis media on quality of life of Portuguese children is unknown,
      because of the unavailability of a tool validated in European Portuguese to
      assess this consequence of otitis media. The Otitis Media-6 questionnaire (Otitis
      Media-6) is the most frequently used tool to assess health-related quality of
      life in children with otitis media. This study aims to create a version in the
      Portuguese language and culturally adapted to Portugal of the otitis media-6
      questionnaire. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Otitis Media-6 questionnaire was
      translated and culturally adapted to the Portuguese language and population.
      Then, to assess the instrument psychometric properties, it was applied to a
      sample of Portuguese children with chronic otitis media with effusion or
      recurrent acute otitis media. RESULTS: The Portuguese version of Otitis Media-6
      questionnaire demonstrated the following psychometric properties: construct
      validity for baseline (rs = 0.98) and change scores (rs = 0.97), internal
      consistency (alpha = 0.780), test-retest reliability (rs = 0.89) and
      responsiveness to clinical change (t(59) = 10.104). DISCUSSION: The simplicity
      and brevity of application of the instrument make it ideal for use in research
      and in clinical practice, enabling a more objective assessment of the extension
      of the otitis media impact in children quality of life and a more targeted
      therapeutic decision. CONCLUSION: The Portuguese version of the Otitis Media-6
      questionnaire is a valid, reliable and sensitive instrument to evaluate the
      health-related quality of life in Portuguese children with otitis media.

PMID- 28865503
TI  - Virtual Reality Simulation as a Tool to Monitor Surgical Performance Indicators:
      VIRESI Observational Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Virtual reality simulation is a topic of discussion as a
      complementary tool to traditional laparoscopic surgical training in the operating
      room. However, it is unclear whether virtual reality training can have an impact
      on the surgical performance of advanced laparoscopic procedures. Our objective
      was to assess the ability of the virtual reality simulator LAP Mentor to identify
      and quantify changes in surgical performance indicators, after LAP Mentor
      training for digestive anastomosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twelve surgeons from
      Centro Hospitalar de Sao Joao in Porto (Portugal) performed two sessions of
      advanced task 5: anastomosis in LAP Mentor, before and after completing the
      tutorial, and were evaluated on 34 surgical performance indicators. RESULTS: The
      results show that six surgical performance indicators significantly changed after
      LAP Mentor training. The surgeons performed the task significantly faster as the
      median 'total time' significantly reduced (p < 0.05) from 759.5 to 523.5 seconds.
      Significant decreases (p < 0.05) were also found in median 'total needle loading
      time' (303.3 to 107.8 seconds), 'average needle loading time' (38.5 to 31.0
      seconds), 'number of passages in which the needle passed precisely through the
      entrance dots' (2.5 to 1.0), 'time the needle was held outside the visible field'
      (20.9 to 2.4 seconds), and 'total time the needle-holders' ends are kept outside
      the predefined operative field' (88.2 to 49.6 seconds). DISCUSSION: This study
      raises the possibility of using virtual reality training simulation as a
      benchmark tool to assess the surgical performance of Portuguese surgeons.
      CONCLUSION: LAP Mentor is able to identify variations in surgical performance
      indicators of digestive anastomosis.

PMID- 28865504
TI  - Reliability and Validity of 39-Item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire and
      Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Parkinson's disease has a significant impact in quality of life,
      which can be assessed with 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire and
      Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire. This study aimed to evaluate
      the reliability and validity of these scales in Portuguese patients. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Reliability was assessed through internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha)
      and reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient). Regarding construct
      validity, we performed one-way analysis of variance across different groups
      according to modified Hoehn and Yahr scale. For criterion validity, we compared
      both scales with each other and with the Short Form 36-item Health Survey.
      RESULTS: In a total of 100 patients with Parkinson's disease, Cronbach's alpha
      ranged for 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire between 0.66 - 0.98, and for
      Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire, between 0.78 - 0.98.
      Intraclass correlation coefficient for 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire
      ranged between 0.49 - 0.96, and for Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life
      Questionnaire, ranged between 0.65 - 0.96. Both scales showed, in general,
      capacity to discriminate differences among patients in the different stages of
      disease. The scales presented moderate to strong magnitude correlations with some
      Short Form 36-item Health Survey domains. DISCUSSION: Cronbach's alpha
      coefficients for most domains were satisfactory. Overall, it has been
      demonstrated good reproducibility, as well as construct and criterion validity.
      CONCLUSION: The Portuguese versions of both scales showed to be valid and
      reliable.

PMID- 28865505
TI  - [Prevalence of Dental Caries in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Treated
      with Multiple Insulin Injections and that of Individuals without Diabetes].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In addition to macro and microvascular complications that are
      associated with the disease, hyperglycaemia is also a risk factor for several
      oral complications. The aim of this study is to establish a relationship between
      dental caries in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus treated with multiple
      insulin injections and that of individuals without diabetes. It is also an aim to
      characterize the oral hygiene habits of this population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An
      observational clinical study of analytical and cross-sectional nature was
      conducted. Thirty patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and 30 individuals
      without diabetes were observed and questioned about information regarding their
      medical history. Oral examination was conducted according to the standards of the
      World Health Organization and ICDAS was used for caries detection. Statistical
      analysis was performed and the significance level was set at 5%. RESULTS:
      Patients with diabetes mellitus showed similar caries levels to that of
      individuals without diabetes. Patients with diabetes mellitus had a higher dental
      plaque index. Only 10% of the patients having episodes of nocturnal hypoglycaemia
      brush their teeth after glucose intake. DISCUSSION: Although there's some
      controversy in the literature regarding the prevalence of caries in patients with
      diabetes mellitus, the results are in agreement with a great number of studies.
      However, patients with diabetes mellitus have a higher plaque index which can be
      associated with a higher risk for developing certain oral pathologies.
      CONCLUSION: No statistically significant association was found between type 1
      diabetes mellitus and dental caries.

PMID- 28865507
TI  - [Gorlin-Goltz Syndrome: Diagnosis and Treatment Options].
AB  - The Gorlin-Goltz syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant hereditary condition, with
      complete penetrance and variable expressivity. Characterized by the appearance of
      multiple basaliomas, and often the development of keratocyst, it can also express
      itself by the presence of palmar/plantar depressions, calcification of brain
      sickle, and skeletal birth defects, although less frequently. This article
      presents two cases involving direct relatives, referred after the identification
      of several basaliomas and jaw cysts. After establishing the diagnosis, given the
      identification of three major criteria, the treatment consisted in the excision
      of the lesions followed, in one case, with vismodegib treatment resulting in
      complete remission. Gorlin-Goltz syndrome is therefore a multidisciplinary
      challenge, whose variable morbidity and high risk of recurrence make treatment
      and surveillance critical. However, new molecular targeted therapies have brought
      a new hope in treating these patients.

PMID- 28865506
TI  - [Anaerobic Bacteria with Clinical Relevance: Morphologic and Taxonomic
      Classification, Distribution among Human Microbiota and Microbiologic Diagnosis].
AB  - The wide burden of anaerobic bacteria colonizing human body comprises about 90%
      of its total biomass. The biotic relationship between humans and its microbiota
      sets reciprocal benefits, albeit with pathogenic potencial for the human being in
      particular dysbiosis situations. Infections adjacent to or originating from the
      skin or mucous membranes of the intestinal, genitourinary and upper respiratory
      tracts are often polymicrobial in nature, whereby should anaerobes be invariably
      included in the etiological differential diagnosis of these conditions. Gram
      negative bacilli such as Bacteroides fragilis group, Fusobacterium spp.,
      Porphyromonas spp., Prevotella spp. and Gram positive cocci such as
      Peptostreptococcus spp. stand out for their high virulence and frequence of
      isolation in suppurative infections and abcesses with metastatic or contiguous
      relation to human microbiota. The fastidious nature of anaerobic bacteria,
      especially of less aerotolerant species, compels to particular techniques of
      sample collection, transport and cultural isolation that challenge clinicians and
      microbiologists for a full efficient practice. Such requirements bring on a poor
      identification of anaerobic bacteria in the clinical practice and undervaluation
      of its aetiopathogenic potential amongst common polymicrobial infections. An
      approach over microbial flora's composition in the different human anatomical
      sites is a primary goal of the present article. Clinicians are intended to
      recognize the variability and proportion of likely involved anaerobic
      microorganisms in certain infectious processes related to human microbiota, in
      order to optimize samples processing and the establishment of an appropriate
      empirical antibiotic therapy, mindful of anaerobic coverage and according to
      known susceptibility profiles.

PMID- 28865508
TI  - Carcinoid Syndrome and Carcinoid Heart Disease as Manifestations of Non
      Metastatic Ovarian Neuroendocrine Tumour.
AB  - The carcinoid syndrome is rare but it is associated with carcinoid heart disease
      in more than a half of the cases. Carcinoid heart disease is typically
      characterised by morphological and functional modifications of right-sided
      valves. Its aetiology is probable multifactorial but serotonin appears to play a
      key role in the development of this valvular disease. Unlike gastrointestinal
      neuroendocrine tumours, ovarian neuroendocrine tumours can present with carcinoid
      syndrome and carcinoid heart disease in the absence of liver metastases; such
      ovarian neuroendocrine tumours are a unique clinical entity. The additional
      burden of cardiac impairment in these patients represents a significant reduction
      in survival. Early recognition and surgical valve replacement before advanced
      heart failure is established may improve the clinical outcome. We report the case
      of a woman with an ovarian neuroendocrine tumour and highly symptomatic carcinoid
      heart disease who was submitted to tumour resection followed by valvuloplasty.
      She demonstrated an outstanding clinical improvement and has remained free of
      tumour and symptomatology.

PMID- 28865509
TI  - Acute Gastrointestinal Bleeding Caused by Dieulafoy Lesion of the Esophagus.

PMID- 28865510
TI  - A Case of Exuberant Elephantiasis Nostras Verrucosa.

PMID- 28865511
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28865513
TI  - Functional Assays for Individual Radiosensitivity: A Critical Review.
AB  - A complete understanding of the mechanisms of the response to radiation would
      help in a better evaluation of the radiation-induced risks. To this aim,
      individual radiosensitivity, that is, the proneness to radiation-induced tissue
      reactions attributable to cell death, has been documented since the beginning of
      the 20th century. For several decades, developing informative predictive assays
      has been one of the most important challenges of radiobiologists. This article is
      a critical review devoted to the major functional assays to predict
      radiosensitivity and their strengths and weaknesses, notably those based on the
      quantification of clonogenic cell survival, micronuclei, p21 expression,
      apoptosis, chromosome and DNA repair, and signaling. Genomic approaches of
      radiosensitivity are reviewed in another article of this issue.

PMID- 28865515
TI  - Imaging Radiation-Induced Normal Tissue Injury to Quantify Regional Dose
      Response.
AB  - Noninvasive imaging has and will continue to play a pivotal role in the
      assessment of radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity. In this review, we will
      examine key literature regarding the use of anatomic and physiological imaging in
      relation to radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity. Additionally, this review
      contains a novel methodology for potentially incorporating dose-response data
      into treatment planning and normal tissue toxicity modeling.

PMID- 28865512
TI  - Radiogenomics: Identification of Genomic Predictors for Radiation Toxicity.
AB  - The overall goal of radiogenomics is the identification of genomic markers that
      are predictive for the development of adverse effects resulting from cancer
      treatment with radiation. The principal rationale for a focus on toxicity in
      radiogenomics is that for many patients treated with radiation, especially
      individuals diagnosed with early-stage cancers, the survival rates are high, and
      therefore a substantial number of people will live for a significant period of
      time beyond treatment. However, many of these patients could suffer from
      debilitating complications resulting from radiotherapy. Work in radiogenomics has
      greatly benefited from creation of the Radiogenomics Consortium (RGC) that
      includes investigators at multiple institutions located in a variety of
      countries. The common goal of the RGC membership is to share biospecimens and
      data so as to achieve large-scale studies with increased statistical power to
      enable identification of relevant genomic markers. A major aim of research in
      radiogenomics is the development of a predictive instrument to enable
      identification of people who are at greatest risk for adverse effects resulting
      from cancer treatment using radiation. It is anticipated that creation of a
      predictive assay characterized by a high level of sensitivity and specificity
      will improve precision radiotherapy and assist patients and their physicians to
      select the optimal treatment for each individual.

PMID- 28865517
TI  - Management of Radiation Toxicity in Head and Neck Cancers.
AB  - Head and neck cancers account for approximately 3% of all cancers in the United
      States with 62,000 new cases diagnosed annually. The global incidence is
      approximately 700,000 new cases a year. There has also been a recent increase in
      human papilloma virus-related oropharyngeal cancers. External beam radiation
      therapy (RT) is commonly used as an effective therapy for head and neck (H&N)
      cancers. This is used as a definitive treatment (alone or in combination with
      chemotherapy) or as an adjuvant treatment after surgical resection of the tumors.
      Because of the complex anatomy of the H&N region, several critical structures in
      and around the area receive radiation treatment. This includes the neural
      structures (brainstem, spinal cord, and brachial plexus), salivary glands,
      mucosa, major blood vessels, and swallowing musculature. Careful RT planning is
      necessary to avoid or mitigate the side effects of treatment. This review
      discusses some of the major acute and late side effects of RT for H&N cancers and
      provides evidence-based guidelines for their management. Patient-reported
      outcomes and quality-of-life implications are also discussed.

PMID- 28865516
TI  - Radiation Toxicity in the Central Nervous System: Mechanisms and Strategies for
      Injury Reduction.
AB  - The potential for radiation-induced toxicities in the brain produces significant
      anxiety, both among patients receiving radiation therapy and those radiation
      oncologists providing treatment. These concerns often play a significant role in
      the medical decision-making process for most patients with diseases in which
      radiotherapy may be a treatment consideration. Although the precise mechanisms of
      neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration after ionizing radiation exposure continue to
      be poorly understood from a biological perspective, there is an increasing body
      of scientific and clinical literature that is producing a better understanding of
      how radiation causes brain injury; factors that determine whether toxicities
      occur; and potential preventative, treatment, and mitigation strategies for
      patients at high risk or with symptoms of injury. This review will focus
      primarily on injuries and biological processes described in mature brain.

PMID- 28865514
TI  - Mechanisms of Normal Tissue Injury From Irradiation.
AB  - Normal tissue injury from irradiation is an unfortunate consequence of
      radiotherapy. Technologic improvements have reduced the risk of normal tissue
      injury; however, toxicity causing treatment breaks or long-term side effects
      continues to occur in a subset of patients. The molecular events that lead to
      normal tissue injury are complex and span a variety of biologic processes,
      including oxidative stress, inflammation, depletion of injured cells, senescence,
      and elaboration of proinflammatory and profibrogenic cytokines. This article
      describes selected recent advances in normal tissue radiobiology.

PMID- 28865518
TI  - Radiation-Induced Liver Toxicity.
AB  - The advent of highly conformal radiation therapy (RT) has defined a new role for
      RT in the treatment of both primary and metastatic liver cancer. Despite major
      advances in how RT is delivered, radiation-induced liver disease (RILD) remains a
      concern. Classic RILD, characterized by anicteric ascites and hepatomegaly, is
      unlikely to occur if treating to doses of <=30Gy in 2Gy per fraction in patients
      with baseline Child-Pugh A liver function. On the other hand, nonclassic RILD is
      a spectrum of liver toxicity, including a general decline in liver function and
      elevation of liver enzymes. It is less well defined and less predictable,
      especially in patients with underlying liver disease. Scoring and quantifying
      RILD remains a challenge. The Child-Pugh score has been the most consistently
      used parameter. Other scoring systems such as the albumin-bilirubin score provide
      further discrimination in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, although their
      value in patients treated with RT remains to be established. Many serum and
      imaging biomarkers of liver function are currently being investigated, and they
      will provide further useful information in the future for local and global liver
      function assessment, for planning optimization, and for treatment adaptation. To
      date, no pharmacological therapies have provided consistent results in mitigating
      RILD once it has manifested clinically. Numerous promising treatment strategies
      including TGFbeta inhibition, Hedgehog inhibition, CXCR4 inhibition, hepatocyte
      transplantation, and bone marrow-derived stromal cell therapy, have potential to
      be helpful in the treatment of RILD in the future.

PMID- 28865519
TI  - Pelvic Radiation and Normal Tissue Toxicity.
AB  - Radiation is a component of treatment for many pelvic malignancies, most often
      originating in the gynecologic, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary systems.
      Therefore, the management of acute and long-term side effects is an important
      part of practice as a radiation oncologist, and limiting morbidity is a primary
      goal. Toxicities vary and are dependent on treatment techniques. Advances in
      radiation delivery, imaging, and knowledge of underlying biologic determinants of
      radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity can guide treatment of acute and long
      term side effects from pelvic radiation.

PMID- 28865520
TI  - Thoracic Radiation Normal Tissue Injury.
AB  - Thoracic malignancies are often a difficult group of tumors to treat definitively
      as the radiation doses needed to achieve a high probability for tumor control are
      often associated with high rates of radiation-induced toxicities. The lungs are
      particularly radiosensitive and are susceptible to radiation pneumonitis in the
      acute and subacute settings and pulmonary fibrosis in the late setting. Acute
      esophagitis is common and affects patient quality of life. Beyond acute
      pericarditis, late cardiac toxicities are increasingly being recognized as
      clinically relevant when delivering thoracic radiotherapy and can affect overall
      survival. This review details the common and dose-limiting acute and late
      toxicities associated with thoracic radiation therapy. As radiation-induced
      toxicities are often amplified with concurrent chemotherapy, this article focuses
      on the toxicities associated with irradiation for lung cancer, the most common
      thoracic malignancy, which is often treated with multimodality therapy. The
      management of radiation-induced toxicities and the changing patterns of
      toxicities with advanced radiation delivery modalities are also described.

PMID- 28865521
TI  - Emphasis on Repair, Not Just Avoidance of Injury, Facilitates Prudent
      Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy.
AB  - Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SAbR) is a potent, hypofractionated treatment
      against cancer which puts adjacent normal tissue in potential peril. Accurate
      delineation of normal tissue injury risks from SAbR has been challenging, and
      lack of clear understanding of SAbR tolerance continues to limit its potential.
      In this review, we contend that SAbR effects on normal tissue could be akin to a
      surgical "wound," and that adequate wound repair of organs at risk is an
      essential component of effective SAbR therapy. To mitigate risks of clinical
      relevance from an SAbR wound, in addition to the traditional views on
      architectural organization and functional organization of an organ at risk, one
      should also consider the organ's predominant wound healing tendencies. We also
      propose that avoidance of SAbR injury to organs at risk must involve careful
      thought to minimize risk factors that could further impair wound healing. It is
      imperative that efforts aimed at determining appropriate dose constraints based
      on predicted SAbR wound injury repair mechanisms for a particular organ to be
      studied as a critically important step to furthering our understanding of SAbR
      related normal tissue tolerances. This can be best achieved through thoughtful
      design of prospective phase I dose-escalation studies.

PMID- 28865522
TI  - Letter From the Guest Editor: Seminars 2017.

PMID- 28865523
TI  - Imaging of Female Pelvic Emergencies.
AB  - Pelvic pain is a common complaint in female patients who present to the emergency
      department. Although encountered frequently, the path to a definitive diagnosis
      is not always a straightforward one, and imaging offers a valuable tool to aid in
      this diagnostic challenge. Radiologists must be familiar with the most common
      etiologies of female pelvic pain in the emergency setting, their imaging
      characteristics, and the best way to further evaluate challenging clinical
      presentations. This allows the radiologist to serve as a valuable asset to the
      treating physician, aiding in accurate diagnosis, and in guiding the course of
      treatment, all while ensuring the "Image Wisely" principle. A sonographic
      approach to female patients presenting to the emergency setting with pelvic pain
      has been presented in this article and some example entities along with their
      imaging findings have also been reviewed.

PMID- 28865524
TI  - Ultrasound Emergencies of the Male Pelvis.
AB  - Male pelvic emergencies are uncommon, and symptoms typically include scrotal
      pain, scrotal enlargement, or a palpable scrotal mass or all of these. Ultrasound
      is often the first-line modality for evaluation of male pelvic emergencies, which
      may be stratified into vascular, infectious, or traumatic causes. Entities such
      as testicular torsion, Fournier gangrene, and testicular dislocation are surgical
      emergencies and should not be missed or misdiagnosed, as this may cause a
      significant delay in urgently necessary treatment. Radiologists need to be
      familiar with the role of imaging as well as the key characteristic imaging
      findings of these injuries to direct the appropriate management.

PMID- 28865525
TI  - Computed Tomography Angiography in Head and Neck Emergencies.
AB  - Computed tomography angiography (CTA) offers a rapid means of evaluating the
      vasculature of the head and neck in patients presenting with acute onset of
      neurologic symptoms and blunt trauma to the head and neck. CTA is noninvasive,
      easy to acquire, and offers excellent detail in identifying site and nature of
      the lesion. The learning objectives of this article are to review normal anatomy
      and variants, recognize CTA appearance of vascular pathologies, describe typical
      parameters used for acquiring the study, and recognize common pitfalls.

PMID- 28865526
TI  - Computed Tomography Angiography of the Extremities in Emergencies.
AB  - Computed tomography angiography (CTA) of the extremities offers a noninvasive,
      rapid means of evaluation of the extremities in vascular emergencies. CTA is now
      the first-line investigation for this purpose, offering high sensitivity and
      specificity in diagnosis. The learning objectives of this review article include
      reviewing normal arterial anatomy and variants of the upper and lower extremity,
      illustrating CTA findings in traumatic vascular injuries, and exploring the range
      of vascular pathologies that may cause acute ischemic symptoms in the
      extremities.

PMID- 28865527
TI  - Emergency Computed Tomography Angiogram of the Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis.
AB  - In the setting of blunt trauma, the rapid assessment of internal injuries is
      essential to prevent potentially fatal outcomes. Computed tomography is a useful
      diagnostic tool for both screening and diagnosis. In addition to trauma, acute
      chest syndromes often warrant emergent computed tomographic angiography, looking
      for etiologies such as aortic aneurysms or complications of aortic aneurysms, or
      both, pulmonary emboli, as well as other acute vascular process like aortic
      dissection and Takayasu aortitis. With continued improvements in diagnostic
      imaging, computed tomographic angiography of the chest, abdominal and pelvis
      proves to be an effective modality to image the aorta and other major vascular
      structures.

PMID- 28865528
TI  - Neurologic Emergencies on Computed Tomography of the Head.
AB  - The purpose of this article is to provide the reader, a seasoned radiologist, a
      budding resident, or a curious practitioner, the background necessary to
      accurately and swiftly interpret a head computed tomography in the emergency
      setting. At the very least, being able to generate a reasonable differential
      diagnosis is the aim and will be accomplished by describing not only features of
      classic neurologic emergencies but also the possible traps to which one may fall
      prey. Images will be used to illustrate cases, and the reader will be instructed
      when other imaging modalities may be required to clarify diagnoses.

PMID- 28865529
TI  - Acute Bowel Computed Tomography.
AB  - Acute abdominal pain is a common presenting complaint in the emergency
      department. Increasingly, computed tomography is utilized for evaluating these
      patients. Radiologists are therefore expected to be familiar with the pertinent
      clinical and radiologic information related to acute bowel pathology. This primer
      will review the need-to-know and latest updates related to computed tomography
      evaluation of acute bowel pathology.

PMID- 28865530
TI  - The 4 Quadrants: Acute Pathology in the Abdomen and Current Imaging Guidelines.
AB  - With several different imaging options available, it is not surprising that
      health care providers are unsure which imaging study is most appropriate for
      evaluating patients who present to the emergency department with abdominal pain.
      The American College of Radiology, currently, has appropriateness criteria for
      patients presenting with right upper, right lower, and left lower quadrant pain,
      and there are different variants for each of these quadrants. Clinicians should
      be aware of the American College of Radiology appropriateness criteria and,
      whenever possible, should be using criteria as guide to help them order the most
      appropriate imaging study.

PMID- 28865531
TI  - Recognition and Appropriate Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Emergent
      Neuroradiology.
AB  - The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of emergent life
      threatening neurologic conditions and what are considered "do not miss"
      pathologies has dramatically increased over the past 10 years due to its
      increasing importance in the emergency department. Although computed tomography
      is likely to remain the more significantly used imaging modality due to lower
      cost and faster speeds, continuing technological advances in MRI have made its
      use more mainstream. Knowledge of specific clinical signs and symptoms as well as
      the technical limitations of MRI should help to guide emergency department
      clinicians with both the recognition and the appropriate use of emergent MRI.

PMID- 28865532
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Musculoskeletal Emergencies.
AB  - Musculoskeletal trauma and infections are commonly encountered in the emergency
      department. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is rarely employed in true
      emergencies and most musculoskeletal studies can be deferred to the outpatient
      setting. This article seeks to address the urgent conditions in which MRI can
      play a role in diagnosis, management, and treatment. This article outlines MRI's
      role in the evaluation of posterolateral corner injuries and other soft-tissue
      pathologies such as rhabdomyolysis, diabetic myonecrosis, septic arthritis,
      cellulitis, necrotizing fasciitis, and compartment syndrome.

PMID- 28865533
TI  - Introduction: Varicoceles: a contemporary perspective.
AB  - In this Views and Reviews section, four groups of authors address the timely and
      highly relevant issue of varicoceles across the male life spectrum. Varicoceles
      are very prevalent among men presenting for an infertility workup. While
      reduction in bulk semen parameters (including sperm concentration, motility, and
      morphology) has long been recognized as a deficit caused by varicoceles, in
      recent years a number of investigators have shown that varicoceles can have
      broader, multi-faceted effects on male reproductive health. Sperm DNA integrity
      and other aspects of sperm function appear to be impacted by the presence of
      varicoceles, and varicocele correction can result in significant improvement in
      not only semen parameters, but also fertilization and pregnancy rates.

PMID- 28865534
TI  - Varicoceles: prevalence and pathogenesis in adult men.
AB  - Varicocele, or dilation of the pampiniform venous plexus, affects up to 15% of
      men. However, few of these men encounter problems with fertility. This
      discrepancy between men with varicocele and the number of adversely affected men
      has led to abundant research to identify the mechanisms for formation of
      varicocele as well as the pathologic mechanisms by which varicoceles affect
      fertility potential. In this review, we discuss the prevalence of varicocele in
      adults, the anatomic features of varicocele, the leading theories as to how
      varicocele can negatively affect fertility potential, and finally, the current
      literature on the impact of varicocele on testosterone production.

PMID- 28865535
TI  - Treatment of varicoceles: techniques and outcomes.
AB  - Varicoceles, a dilation of veins within the pampiniform plexus, are present in
      ~15% of the general male population. This paper reviews the indications for
      treatment of varicoceles, post-intervention outcomes following treatment, and the
      various techniques for treatment of varicoceles. The aim of this review is to
      describe and compare complications associated with each approach to varicocele
      treatment.

PMID- 28865536
TI  - Varicocelectomy before assisted reproductive technology: are outcomes improved?
AB  - Clinical varicoceles have been associated with impaired semen parameters and male
      factor infertility. Varicocele repair can improve live birth rates for men with
      clinical varicocele. Varicocelectomy is often combined with assisted reproductive
      techniques (ART) such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization
      (IVF), or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Here we review the literature
      examining varicocelectomy before ART to evaluate whether improved pregnancy
      outcomes are realized. Although insufficient evidence exists to determine if
      correcting a varicocele improves IUI outcomes, a clinical benefit is observed
      when correcting a clinical varicocele in oligospermic and nonobstructed
      azoospermic men before IVF/ICSI. In couples seeking fertility with the use of
      ART, varicocele repair may offer improvement in semen parameters and may decrease
      the level of ART needed to achieve successful pregnancy.

PMID- 28865537
TI  - Normal ranges: normal for whom?

PMID- 28865538
TI  - Removal of myomas in asymptomatic patients to improve fertility and/or reduce
      miscarriage rate: a guideline.
AB  - The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate if uterine myomas impact the
      likelihood of pregnancy and pregnancy loss, and if myomectomy influences
      pregnancy outcomes in asymptomatic women. There is insufficient evidence to
      conclude that the presence of myomas reduces the likelihood of achieving
      pregnancy. However, there is fair evidence that myomectomy (open or laparoscopic)
      for cavity-distorting myomas (intramural or intramural with a submucosal
      component) improves pregnancy rates and reduces the risk of early pregnancy loss.
      There is fair evidence that hysteroscopic myomectomy for cavity-distorting myomas
      improves clinical pregnancy rates but insufficient evidence regarding the impact
      of this procedure on the likelihood of live birth or early pregnancy loss. In
      women with asymptomatic cavity-distorting myomas, myomectomy may be considered to
      optimize pregnancy outcomes.

PMID- 28865540
TI  - Testicular sperm retrieval for intracytoplasmic sperm injection in non
      azoospermic men: when should we pull the trigger?

PMID- 28865539
TI  - Role of metformin for ovulation induction in infertile patients with polycystic
      ovary syndrome (PCOS): a guideline.
AB  - Metformin alone compared with placebo increases the ovulation rate in women with
      polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) but should not be used as first-line therapy for
      anovulation because oral ovulation induction agents such as clomiphene citrate or
      letrozole alone are much more effective in increasing ovulation, pregnancy, and
      live-birth rates in women with PCOS. There is fair evidence that metformin alone
      does not increase rates of miscarriage when stopped at the initiation of
      pregnancy and insufficient evidence that metformin in combination with other
      agents used to induce ovulation increases live-birth rates.

PMID- 28865541
TI  - What else can we do? The latest attempt to improve the sperm's path.

PMID- 28865542
TI  - The earth isn't flat?

PMID- 28865543
TI  - A high-tech closer look to evaluate the impact of oocyte vitrification on embryo
      quality.

PMID- 28865544
TI  - Effectiveness and safety of time-lapse imaging for embryo culture and selection:
      it is still too early for any conclusions?

PMID- 28865545
TI  - Value of versatility in fibroid surgery.

PMID- 28865546
TI  - Reproductive outcomes of testicular versus ejaculated sperm for intracytoplasmic
      sperm injection among men with high levels of DNA fragmentation in semen:
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) levels between testicular and
      ejaculated sperm and to evaluate outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection
      (ICSI) with the use of testicular (Testi-ICSI) versus ejaculated (Ejac-ICSI)
      sperm in nonazoospermic men with high SDF. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta
      analysis. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Normo- and oligozoospermic men
      with high levels of SDF in semen subjected to Testi-ICSI or Ejac-ICSI.
      INTERVENTION(S): Summary mean difference (MD) and odds ratio (OR) were calculated
      with the use of an inverse variance model and fixed- or random-effects models,
      respectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Primary outcomes were SDF levels, clinical
      pregnancy rates (CPRs), and live birth rates (LBRs). Secondary outcomes were
      fertilization and miscarriage rates. RESULT(S): Five studies involving 143
      patients provided paired SDF rates for testicular and ejaculated sperm, revealing
      lower SDF in testicular sperm (MD -24.58%). Four studies involving 507 cycles and
      3,840 oocytes reported clinical outcomes of Testi-ICSI and Ejac-ICSI.
      Fertilization rates were not different between sperm sources, but a trend to
      lower rates was observed with Testi-ICSI. CPRs were higher for Testi-ICSI than
      for Ejac-ICSI, as were LBRs, whereas miscarriage rates were reduced with Testi
      ICSI. CONCLUSION(S): Testicular sperm have lower levels of SDF than ejaculated
      sperm, with Testi-ICSI for high post-testicular SDF men improving reproductive
      outcomes compared with Ejac-ICSI. Infertile couples may benefit from Testi-ICSI
      if male partners have confirmed high SDF in the ejaculate.

PMID- 28865547
TI  - Does the use of calcium ionophore during artificial oocyte activation demonstrate
      an effect on pregnancy rate? A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the effect, if any, of calcium ionophore as a method of
      artificial oocyte activation (AOA) on pregnancy outcomes and fertilization rates.
      DESIGN: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, prospective observational
      and retrospective trials, case reports, and a case-control trial. SETTING:
      University-affiliated teaching hospital. PATIENT(S): Infertile couples undergoing
      fertilization treatment. INTERVENTION(S): Use of calcium ionophore during AOA.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Odds ratio (OR) as the summary statistic for binary
      variables was used. Both a fixed and random effects model were applied. Subgroup
      analysis using quantitative methodology (risk of bias, metaregression) and
      graphical comparison (funnel plot) assessed statistical heterogeneity. RESULT(S):
      Fourteen studies were selected. AOA with calcium ionophore increased the overall
      clinical pregnancy rate (per ET; OR = 3.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.65
      7.37) and the live birth rate (OR = 3.33; 95% CI, 1.50-7.39). This effect of
      adding calcium ionophore was further demonstrated with fertilization, cleavage,
      blastocyst, and implantation rates. Subgroup analysis further supported our
      findings (studies where n > 10 in both arms; random and fixed effects models). A
      metaregression (beta = -.145) found that as the quality of the study increases,
      the effect of calcium ionophore is significantly more pronounced with regards to
      overall pregnancy rate. CONCLUSION(S): AOA with calcium ionophore treatment after
      intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) results in a statistically significant
      improvement in fertilization, cleavage, blastulation, and implantation rates, as
      well as overall pregnancy and live-birth rates. The conclusion of this systematic
      review, demonstrating a strong effect of calcium ionophore use, is reassuring and
      promising, particularly for couples for whom ICSI alone yields poor fertilization
      rates.

PMID- 28865548
TI  - Effects of adenomyosis on in vitro fertilization treatment outcomes: a meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and summarize the existing evidence related
      to the effect of adenomyosis on fertility and on in vitro fertilization (IVF)
      clinical outcomes, and to explore the effects of surgical or medical treatments.
      DESIGN: Meta-analysis. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): An electronic-based
      search was performed with the use of the following databases: Pubmed, Embase,
      Ovid Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Google Scholar,
      identifying all related articles up to November 2016. We included 11 comparative
      studies that evaluated the clinical outcomes of IVF treatments in women with (519
      patients) and without (1,535 patients) adenomyosis diagnosed with the use of
      magnetic resonance imaging or transvaginal ultrasound. We also separately
      evaluated four articles comparing fertility outcomes in two groups of infertile
      adenomyotic patients untreated and treated surgically or medically with the use
      of GnRH agonist (GnRHa). INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Primary
      outcome: clinical pregnancy rate after IVF. SECONDARY OUTCOMES: rates of
      implantation, ongoing pregnancy, live birth, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy.
      The summary measures were expressed as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence
      interval (CI). RESULT(S): The rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy per
      cycle, clinical pregnancy per embryo transfer, ongoing pregnancy, and live birth
      among women with adenomyosis were significantly lower than in those without
      adenomyosis. The miscarriage rate in women with adenomyosis was higher than in
      those without adenomyosis. It appears that surgical treatment or treatment withf
      GnRHa increases the spontaneous pregnancy rate in women with adenomyosis.
      CONCLUSION(S): Adenomyosis has a detrimental effect on IVF clinical outcomes.
      Pretreatment with the use of long-term GnRHa or long protocol could be
      beneficial.

PMID- 28865549
TI  - Effect of oocyte vitrification on embryo quality: time-lapse analysis and
      morphokinetic evaluation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze whether oocyte vitrification may affect subsequent embryo
      development from a morphokinetic standpoint by means of time-lapse imaging.
      DESIGN: Observational cohort study. SETTING: University-affiliated private IVF
      center. PATIENT(S): Ovum donation cycles conducted with the use of vitrified (n =
      631 cycles; n = 3,794 embryos) or fresh oocytes (n = 1,359 cycles; n = 9,935
      embryos) over 2 years. INTERVENTIONS(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Embryo
      development was analyzed in a time-lapse imaging incubator. The studied variables
      included time to 2 cells (t2), 3 cells (t3), 4 cells (t4), 5 cells (t5), morula
      (tM), and cavitated, early, and hatching blastocyst (tB, tEB, tHB) as well as 2nd
      cell cycle duration (cc2 = t3 - t2). All of the embryos were classified according
      to the hierarchic tree model currently used for embryo selection. The analyzed
      variables were compared with the use of analysis of variance or chi-square and
      included 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULT(S): The embryos that originated
      from vitrified oocytes showed a delay of ~1 hour from the first division to 2
      cells (t2) to the time of blastulation (tB). The embryos that originated from
      vitrified oocytes showed a delay of ~1 hour from the 1st division to 2 cells (t2)
      to the time of blastulation (tB) (P<.05). The proportions of embryos allocated to
      categories A-E in the hierarchical tree were similar between groups. No
      differences in implantation rates between the fresh (51.3% [95% CI 47.1%-55.7%])
      and vitrified (46.4% [95% CI 38.4%-54.4%]) groups were found. CONCLUSION(S): The
      embryo quality of vitrified oocytes was not impaired: cc2, quality according to
      our hierarchic morphokinetic model, and implantation rates were similar between
      fresh and vitrified oocytes. However, morphokinetic differences were observed
      from t2 to tB. Our main study limitation was the retrospective nature of the
      analysis, although a large database was studied.

PMID- 28865550
TI  - Obstetric and perinatal outcomes of pregnancies conceived with embryos cultured
      in a time-lapse monitoring system.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare obstetric and perinatal outcomes of singleton pregnancies
      resulting from embryos incubated in a time-lapse system (TLS) with those of
      embryos grown in standard IVF incubators (SI). DESIGN: Retrospective description
      of a cohort of patients who conceived during a randomized, controlled trial.
      SETTING: Private university-affiliated IVF center. PATIENT(S): Of 856 randomized
      patients, 378 gave birth to a live-born infant: 216 of the deliveries originated
      from embryos incubated in TLS, and 162 deliveries were from embryos cultured in
      SI. INTERVENTION(S): Embryo incubation and selection in TLS. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Delivery and neonatal outcomes. RESULT(S): No significant differences
      were observed in the baseline characteristics of the study population. The
      delivery rate was 49.3% (TLS) vs. 40.0% (SI), and multiple deliveries were higher
      in the TLS group: 31.0% (67 of 216) vs. 24.7% (40 of 162) in the SI group. When
      singleton pregnancies were analyzed no differences were found between the two
      groups in the rate of obstetric problems with respect to weeks at delivery: 38.8
      (95% confidence interval [CI] 38.4-39.1) (TLS) vs. 39.5 (95% CI 38.0-39.9) (SI);
      preterm births (<37 weeks): 10.7% (TLS) vs. 12.3% (SI); and very preterm births
      (<34 weeks): 2.9% (TLS) vs. 3.3% (SI). No statistical differences were found in
      neonatal outcomes such as birth weight: 3,163 g (95% CI 3,035-3,292 g) (TLS) vs.
      3,074 (95% CI 2,913-3,236) (SI); low birth weight (<2,500 g): 12.8% (TLS) vs.
      12.3% (SI); very low birth weight (<1,500 g): 2.0% (TLS) vs. 2.4% (SI); or
      height: 50.3 cm (95% CI 49.6-50.9 cm) (TLS) vs. 49.7 (95% CI 48.9-50.4 cm) (SI).
      No major malformations or perinatal mortality were found in either of the two
      groups. CONCLUSION(S): No detrimental effects were observed in obstetric and
      perinatal outcomes when a time-lapse incubator was used rather than a more widely
      used conventional incubator. As far as we know this is the first report from a
      randomized study of the neonatal outcomes of time-lapse monitoring. Our results
      suggest that this technology is an effective and safe alternative for embryo
      incubation, though trials of larger numbers of patients are required to further
      confirm our conclusions. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01549262.

PMID- 28865551
TI  - Serum antimullerian hormone levels are independently related to miscarriage rates
      after in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether serum antimullerian hormone (AMH) levels are
      independently related to miscarriage rates after in vitro fertilization-embryo
      transfer (IVF-ET). DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: University-affiliated IVF-ET
      center. PATIENT(S): A total of 1,060 patients who attained a clinical pregnancy
      after IVF-ET. INTERVENTIONS(S): Centralized serum AMH measurements were performed
      within the 12 months before IVF-ET. Binary logistic regression was used to verify
      whether serum AMH levels were associated with the occurrence of a miscarriage
      independently from confounding factors, such as age and intensity of ovarian
      response to controlled ovarian stimulation assessed by the number of oocytes
      retrieved. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Miscarriage rates. RESULT(S): In patients
      displaying reduced serum AMH levels, miscarriage rates were significantly
      increased independently from age and the number of oocytes retrieved.
      CONCLUSION(S): The present data indicate that serum AMH levels are independently
      associated with the occurrence of a miscarriage after IVF-ET.

PMID- 28865552
TI  - Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist trigger increases the number of oocytes
      and embryos available for cryopreservation in cancer patients undergoing ovarian
      stimulation for fertility preservation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the oocyte and embryo yield associated with GnRH-agonist
      triggers vs. hCG triggers in cancer patients undergoing controlled ovarian
      stimulation (COS) for fertilization preservation. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort
      study. SETTING: Academic center. PATIENT(S): Cancer patients undergoing COS with
      letrozole and gonadotropins or gonadotropin-only protocols for oocyte or embryo
      cryopreservation. INTERVENTION(S): Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist or hCG
      trigger. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Number of metaphase II (MII) oocytes or two
      pronuclei (2PN) embryos available for cryopreservation were primary outcomes.
      Separate multivariate linear regression models were used to assess the effect of
      trigger type on the primary outcomes, after controlling for confounders of
      interest. RESULT(S): A total of 341 patients were included, 99 (29.0%) in the
      GnRH-agonist group and 242 (71%) in the hCG group. There was no difference in the
      baseline demographics of patients receiving GnRH-agonist or hCG triggers. Within
      the letrozole and gonadotropins group (n = 269), the number (mean +/- SD, 11.8 +/
      5.8 vs. 9.9 +/- 6.0) and percentage of MII oocytes (89.6% vs. 73.0%) available
      for cryopreservation was higher with GnRH-agonist triggers compared with hCG
      triggers. Similar results were noted with GnRH-agonist triggers in the
      gonadotropin-only group (n = 72) (i.e., a higher number [13.3 +/- 7.9 vs. 9.3 +/-
      6.0] and percentage of MII oocytes [85.7% vs. 72.8%] available for
      cryopreservation). Multivariate linear regression demonstrated approximately
      three more MII oocytes and 2PN embryos available for cryopreservation in the GnRH
      agonist trigger group, irrespective of cancer and COS protocol type.
      CONCLUSION(S): Utilization of a GnRH-agonist trigger increases the number of MII
      oocytes and 2PN embryos available for cryopreservation in cancer patients
      undergoing COS for fertility preservation.

PMID- 28865553
TI  - Motivations and attitudes of candidate sperm donors in Belgium.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the motivation and attitudes of a candidate sperm donor
      population in Belgium. DESIGN: Anonymous survey. SETTING: Tertiary referral
      infertility center. PATIENT(S): One hundred candidate sperm donors applying to
      the center for a first semen analysis between April 2013 and March 2016.
      INTERVENTION(S): Invitation to complete an anonymous questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Demographic characteristics, recruitment methods, motivations and
      attitudes toward payment, donor anonymity, disclosure to offspring, donation to
      lesbian couples and single women, views on the donor children and social aspects
      of sperm donation. RESULT(S): The majority of our candidate donor population were
      older men with a partner who were donating sperm for altruistic reasons. The
      financial compensation was only an important motivational factor in 31% of the
      candidate sperm donors. Eighty-two percent of the men said they were willing to
      reveal nonidentifying information about themselves to donor offspring, but only
      26% were willing to donate nonanonymously. The wish to receive certain
      information about the recipient family and the donor offspring was linked to men
      who had a partner and a child of their own. CONCLUSION(S): The wish to receive
      and donate information depends on the characteristics and beliefs of the
      candidate donors. Also, the donor's characteristics were linked to the acceptance
      of meeting the offspring in the future: the donors with a partner and donors who
      said they would donate without financial reimbursement were less willing to meet
      the donor offspring.

PMID- 28865554
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28865555
TI  - Versatility of the suprapubic port in robotic assisted laparoscopic myomectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the multiple advantages of the suprapubic port in
      robotic assisted laparoscopic myomectomy. DESIGN: Video demonstration of a
      robotic assisted laparoscopic myomectomy technique using a suprapubic incisional
      retractor (GelPOINT). SETTING: Hospital. PATIENT(S): A 32-year-old primigravid
      women with heavy menstrual bleeding and pelvic pain with a 12-cm leiomyoma
      (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics type 5). INTERVENTION(S):
      Illustrate a surgical approach during robotic assisted laparoscopic myomectomy
      with the use of a 5-cm suprapubic incision, an incisional retractor (GelPOINT)
      for the enucleation, and extraction of a large leiomyoma. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): The effective enucleation and extraction of a leiomyoma specimen
      using an incisional retractor and GelPOINT. The steps of the technique and the
      role of GelPOINT are demonstrated. RESULT(S): The procedure was performed without
      incident, and the patient experienced pain relief and lighter menses
      postoperatively. This technique has been performed successfully since June 2014
      on 22 women. CONCLUSION(S): During a robotic assisted laparoscopic myomectomy the
      suprapubic incision is both advantageous and practical. The small incision allows
      the surgery to remain minimally invasive; the primary umbilical trocar is
      inserted under direct visualization in an already insufflated abdomen; the
      location of the incision allows the surgical assistant easy access to the port;
      the passing of the needles occurs under direct visualization with minimal camera
      manipulation; and last, the extraction of large tissue can be performed within a
      specimen pouch through this same suprapubic incision in a short period.

PMID- 28865556
TI  - Normative Reference Values of Right Heart in Competitive Athletes: A Systematic
      Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Training-induced right ventricular (RV) enlargement is frequent in athletes.
      Unfortunately, RV dilatation is also a common phenotypic expression and one of
      the diagnostic criteria of arrhythmogenic RV cardiomyopathy (ARVC). The current
      echocardiographic reference values derived from the general population can
      overestimate the presence of RV dilatation in athletes. We performed a meta
      analysis of the literature to derive the proper reference values for assessing RV
      enlargement in competitive athletes. We conducted systematic review of English
      language studies in the MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane databases investigating RV
      size and function by echocardiography and by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in
      competitive athletes. In total, 6,806 and 740 competitive athletes were included
      for the echocardiographic and CMR quantification of the RV, respectively. In this
      review, we present normal reference values for RV size and function to be applied
      in competitive athletes according to the disciplines practiced. The reference
      ranges reported in this review suggest that physicians should be aware that
      application of the current recommendations for normal population could be
      misleading when evaluating athletes. We suggest using these normative reference
      values, obtained in competitive athletes, to avoid the potential for mistakenly
      concluding, in this specific population, that RV size or function are abnormal.

PMID- 28865557
TI  - Multimodality Noninvasive Imaging in the Monitoring of Pediatric Heart
      Transplantation.
AB  - Orthotopic heart transplantation is a well-established and effective therapeutic
      option for children with end-stage heart failure. Multiple modalities, including
      noninvasive cardiac imaging, cardiac catheterization, angiography, and
      endomyocardial biopsy, are helpful to monitor these patients for graft
      dysfunction, rejection, and vasculopathy. Because of morbidities associated with
      invasive monitoring, noninvasive imaging plays a key role in the surveillance and
      evaluation of symptoms in pediatric transplant recipients. Echocardiography with
      or without stress augmentation may provide serial data on systolic and diastolic
      function, ventricular deformation, and tissue characteristics in children after
      transplantation. Although not perfectly sensitive or specific, advanced two- and
      three-dimensional echocardiographic detection of functional changes in cardiac
      grafts may allow early recognition of allograft rejection. Magnetic resonance
      imaging has shown promise for characterization of edema and scar and myocardial
      perfusion reserve, as well as potential application for the detection of
      microvasculopathic changes in the transplanted heart. Cardiac computed tomography
      is particularly well suited for the demonstration of coronary artery dimensions
      and anatomic residual lesions. In combination, these noninvasive imaging
      techniques help the transplantation cardiologist screen for graft dysfunction,
      detect critical graft events, and identify situations that require invasive
      testing of the transplanted heart. Advanced multimodality imaging techniques are
      likely to increasingly shape the monitoring practices for children following
      heart transplantation.

PMID- 28865558
TI  - Impact of Accreditation on Quality in Echocardiograms: A Quantitative Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accreditation through the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission
      (IAC) is believed but not proven to increase quality in imaging. The goal of this
      study was to use quality metrics to evaluate the impact of accreditation on
      quality in pediatric echocardiography. METHODS: This is a retrospective study
      comparing quality metrics in 236 pediatric transthoracic echocardiograms in
      patients with congenital heart disease from (1) California Pacific Medical Center
      (CPMC), a community hospital, before and after IAC accreditation, and (2) the IAC
      accredited Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH), an academic children's
      referral center, during equivalent eras. Consecutive patients who required
      cardiac intervention were matched between sites based on age, complexity, and
      time period. Two raters independently evaluated echocardiograms for image quality
      and study comprehensiveness. A third rater reviewed echocardiogram reports and
      medical charts for report completeness and diagnostic accuracy. Diagnostic error
      characterization was performed by consensus among the three raters. Report
      completeness was an IAC tool approved for maintenance of certification. The
      remaining quality metrics were developed by the American College of Cardiology
      Adult Congenital Pediatric Cardiology Quality Metrics Working Group initiative.
      RESULTS: At each site, 74 echocardiograms in the era before CPMC accreditation
      and 44 echocardiograms in the era after CPMC accreditation were included. There
      was no significant difference in image quality and diagnostic accuracy at CPMC
      before and after accreditation. Study comprehensiveness and report completeness
      improved at CPMC after accreditation (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Accreditation
      through the IAC leads to increased study comprehensiveness and report
      completeness. Image quality and diagnostic accuracy did not differ significantly
      before and after IAC accreditation. We recommend further studies to assess the
      effects of accreditation on quality in echocardiography and patient outcomes.

PMID- 28865560
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28865559
TI  - Laboratory Accreditation: Why This Quality Matter Matters.

PMID- 28865561
TI  - Quality Matters.

PMID- 28865562
TI  - YOU Make the Future Brighter by Sharing Your Voice in ASE's Council on
      Cardiovascular Sonography.

PMID- 28865563
TI  - Getting Back to Basics: The "Primary" Outcome Measure Determines a Study's
      Conclusion.
AB  - In this month's issue, Hollman, Wolterbeek, Zijl, van Egeraat, and Wessel from
      Nieuwegein, The Netherlands, investigate an essential and most basic concern: how
      does an abduction brace compare to a simple sling after arthroscopic rotator cuff
      repair? A criticism of the study, well noted in Editorial Commentary by Kevin
      Plancher, is that Hollman et al. selected postoperative pain (rather than long
      term clinical outcome) as their "primary" outcome measure. The primary outcome
      measure determines the conclusion of a study. Accurate conclusions require
      adequate statistical power, particularly if potentially underpowered secondary
      outcome measures (in this case, long-term clinical outcome) show no difference
      between 2 treatment options. Research clinicians, patients, and payers comparing
      abduction brace versus sling after shoulder rotator cuff repair ultimately need
      to understand if there is a difference in long-term clinical outcomes between the
      treatment options.

PMID- 28865564
TI  - Arthroscopy Association of North America: Past, Present, and Future-2016
      Presidential Address.

PMID- 28865565
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Better Care, Better Health, Better Cost: Is Scientific
      Evidence Negatively Impacting the Transformation of Health Care?
AB  - The selection of an immobilization device and arm positioning may play a role in
      postoperative pain and healing after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Although
      the current evidence is inconclusive, it is important that we aim as a profession
      to produce meaningful evidence that will advance the care of our patients while
      controlling health care costs.

PMID- 28865566
TI  - Decreased Shoulder External Rotation and Flexion Are Greater Predictors of Injury
      Than Internal Rotation Deficits: Analysis of 132 Pitcher-Seasons in Professional
      Baseball.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary aims of this work were to (1) describe normal range of
      motion (ROM) profiles for elite pitchers, (2) describe the characteristics of
      shoulder and elbow injuries in professional pitchers over a 6-year period in one
      Major League Baseball organization, and (3) identify ROM measures that were
      independently associated with a future shoulder or elbow injury. METHODS: Over 6
      seasons (2010-2015), a preseason assessment was performed on all pitchers invited
      to Major League Baseball Spring Training for a single organization. ROM measures
      included shoulder flexion, horizontal adduction, external rotation (ER), internal
      rotation, as well as elbow flexion and extension, were measured for both the
      dominant and nondominant arm, and total range of motion and deficits were
      calculated. All noncontact shoulder and elbow injuries were identified. Using
      multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis to control for age, height,
      weight, and all other ROM measures, the factors associated with an increased risk
      of subsequent shoulder or elbow injury were identified. RESULTS: A total of 53
      shoulder (n = 25) and elbow (n = 28) injuries occurred during 132 pitcher seasons
      (n = 81 pitchers). The most significant categorical risk factor associated with
      increased elbow injury rates was the presence of a shoulder flexion deficit >5
      degrees  (odds ratio [OR] 2.83; P = .042). For continuous variables, the risk of
      elbow injury increased by 7% for each degree of increased shoulder ER deficit (OR
      1.07; P = .030) and 9% for each degree of decreased shoulder flexion (OR 1.09; P
      = .017). None of the measures significantly correlated with shoulder injuries.
      CONCLUSIONS: Preseason shoulder ER and flexion deficits are independent risk
      factors for the development of elbow injuries during the upcoming season.
      Although prior work has supported the importance of reducing glenohumeral
      internal rotation deficits in pitchers, this study demonstrates that deficits in
      shoulder ER and flexion are more significant predictors of subsequent elbow
      injury. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective comparative study.

PMID- 28865567
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Pitching a New Curve: Identifying the Etiology of
      Nontraumatic Throwing Injuries.
AB  - Loss of shoulder motion, especially to flexion and external rotation, may
      increase the risk of nontraumatic shoulder and elbow injuries in elite pitchers.
      However, the etiology of these injuries is likely mulitifactorial, and before we
      direct our therapists to abandon sleeper stretches in favor of flexion and
      external rotation exercises, further research is needed to keep pitchers off the
      disabled list and on the mound.

PMID- 28865568
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Irreparable Rotator Cuff Tears Might Be Surgically
      Treatable After All.
AB  - It appears that implantation of a biodegradable subacromial spacer improves the
      function for patients with massive irreparable rotator cuff tears. In this issue
      of Arthroscopy, an interesting article dealing with the treatment of massive
      irreparable rotator cuff tears is published.

PMID- 28865569
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Success of Rotator Cuff Healing-Do We Need to Improve on
      the Strength Anymore?
AB  - We have had significant progress in improving the biomechanical strength of
      arthroscopic rotator cuff repairs over the past 3 decades. The field has advanced
      from simple suture repairs to double-row, transosseous, massive cuff and rip-stop
      constructs. I do think our focus next should be on improving the biology of
      tendon healing to improve our clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28865570
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Whatever You Do: Anatomic Restoration of the Biconcave
      Glenoid Morphometry for Bone Defects in Patients With Anterior Shoulder
      Instability Is Nearly Impossible.
AB  - There are many bone block procedures described to treat glenoid bone defects in
      anterior shoulder instability and most of these techniques apparently result in
      anatomic reconstruction. However, anatomic restoration of the biconcave glenoid
      morphometry for bone defects in patients with anterior shoulder instability is
      nearly impossible.

PMID- 28865571
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Fixation of Soft-Tissue Anterior Cruciate Ligament Grafts
      in Osteoporotic Bone.
AB  - Tibial-side fixation of soft-tissue grafts in osteoporotic bone has become an
      important concern, as anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction indications push
      toward older patients. Although soft-tissue fixation with an interference screw
      and cortical button may be statistically stronger than graft fixation with a
      screw or button alone, this hybrid construct is probably not optimized from a
      clinical perspective.

PMID- 28865573
TI  - Editorial Commentary: The Ribbon Theory. Another Quantum Leap? The Anterior
      Cruciate Ligament Is Twisted and in Fact a Flat Structure. Or not?
AB  - Is the double bundle structure of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) a myth?
      Derotation untwists the ACL and results in a flat ribbon structure. However,
      other researchers dispute this theory and revealed 2 distinct bundles separated
      by a synovial septum. The answer is simple: we do not know and the evidence is
      conflicting.

PMID- 28865572
TI  - Torsional Appearance of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Explaining "Ribbon" and
      Double-Bundle Concepts: A Cadaver-based Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
      torsion in 90 degrees  knee flexion on the morphological appearance of the ACL.
      METHODS: Sixty knees from fresh frozen anatomical specimens were dissected.
      Eighteen knees were excluded according to selection criteria (torn ACL, mucoid
      degeneration of the ACL, arthritic lesions of the notch, or knees harboring
      synovial inflammatory pathologies). After the removal of the synovial membrane,
      the morphology of the ligamentous fibers of the ACL and the twist were analyzed.
      Twisting of the ACL was measured using a goniometer in 90 degrees  knee flexion
      and defined by the angle of external rotation of the femur on the axis of the
      tibia required to visualize a flat ACL. The orientation of tibial and femoral
      footprint was described in a coronal plane for the tibia and a sagittal plane for
      the femur. RESULTS: In the 42 knees that were finally included, the ACL was
      always displayed as a single ribbon-like structure. The torsion of the fibers was
      on average 83.6 degrees  (+/- 9.4 degrees ) in 90 degrees  knee flexion. The
      twisting could be explained by the different orientations of the femoral
      (vertical in a sagittal plane) and tibial (horizontal in a coronal plane)
      footprints. An intraligamentous proximal cleavage area was encountered in 11
      cases (i.e., 26%). CONCLUSIONS: The ACL is a twisted structure with 83.6 degrees 
      of external torsion of fibers in 90 degrees  knee flexion. It is the torsion in
      the fibers, due to the relative position of bone insertions, which gives the ACL
      the appearance of being double bundle. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The concept of the
      torsional flat structure of the native ACL may be of importance during ACL
      reconstruction, both in terms of graft choice (flat rather than cylindrical) and
      of technical positioning (torsion).

PMID- 28865574
TI  - Can Competitive Athletes Return to High-Level Play After Osteochondral Allograft
      Transplantation of the Knee?
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate functional outcomes among competitive athletes undergoing
      osteochondral allograft (OCA) transplantation of the knee, including rates of
      return to play (RTP), and factors preventing RTP. METHODS: A retrospective review
      identified all competitive athletes (high school, intercollegiate, professional)
      undergoing isolated femoral condyle OCA from 2004 to 2013. Patient-reported
      outcome (PRO) questionnaires (Lysholm, International Knee Documentation Committee
      [IKDC], Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score [KOOS], Western Ontario and
      McMasters Universities Arthritis Index [WOMAC], 12-Item Short Form Health Survey
      [SF-12], Tegner, and Marx) and custom RTP surveys were administered. All
      subsequent reoperations were documented. RESULTS: Thirteen athletes (4
      intercollegiate, 9 high-school) were identified with an average follow-up of 5.9
      +/- 2.5 years. Seven athletes (54%) returned to competitive sport at an average
      of 7.9 +/- 3.5 months, 5 of whom returned to preinjury functional levels. Of the
      8 athletes who either did not return to competitive sport or failed to sustain
      their high level of play, the most common reasons cited were graduation from high
      school or college (4 patients, 50%) or fear of reinjury (3 patients, 38%). All 4
      patients citing graduation as the primary factor preventing return to preinjury
      level of competitive sport resumed recreational sport without limitations,
      yielding an adjusted RTP rate of 10 patients (77%) who either returned to
      competitive play or believed they could return if they had not graduated. At
      final follow-up, athletes reported significant improvements in all PRO scores
      except for KOOS-Sport, WOMAC-Stiffness, and SF-12 Mental subscales. There were 3
      reoperations at an average of 3.8 +/- 3.3 years after the index OCA. There were
      no instances of graft failure. CONCLUSIONS: OCAs provide an adjusted RTP rate of
      77% for high-level adolescent athletes. Social factors may be more likely than
      persistent pain to prevent return to sport. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      therapeutic case series.

PMID- 28865576
TI  - Editorial Commentary: Retrograde Femoral Nail Malpositioning Can Destroy Knee
      Cartilage.
AB  - Retrograde femoral nail malpositioning can obviously destroy knee trochlear
      cartilage. A solution is osteochondral allograft transplantation surgery.
      Although case reports are rarely published in Arthroscopy, we make an exception
      and publish a report of 2 cases of this complication (and how to treat it)
      because exposure of complications that have not been previously well-reported
      could allow future surgeons, and their patients, to solve-and, preferably,
      proactively avoid-similar problems.

PMID- 28865575
TI  - Single-Step Arthroscopic Repair With Cell-Free Polymer-Based Scaffold in
      Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus: Clinical and Radiological Results.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the clinical and radiological results of patients with talar
      osteochondral lesions who were treated by microfracture and cell-free scaffold
      implantation in a single-step arthroscopic surgery. METHODS: Forty patients,
      treated with a single-step arthroscopic surgery, were evaluated in this single
      center-based retrospective study. Patients with degenerative arthritis (n = 1),
      history of ankle fracture (n = 1), kissing lesions (n = 1), lower extremity
      deformity (n = 1), and lesions <1.5 cm2 (n = 4) were excluded. Oversized (>10 mm
      depth) bone cysts were additionally treated with bone graft. Patients were
      evaluated clinically, using the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society
      (AOFAS) hindfoot score. Radiological assessment was performed with magnetic
      resonance imaging, using the magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair
      tissue (MOCART) score. RESULTS: Thirty-two patients with a mean age of 38 +/- 12
      years were evaluated. The mean defect size was 2.5 +/- 0.8 cm2 and the mean
      defect volume was 2.4 +/- 1.9 cm3. The mean preoperative AOFAS score was 52.8 +/-
      13.9 and increased to 87.1 +/- 11.1 postoperatively at the mean follow-up of 33.8
      +/- 14.0 months (P = .0001). A total of 84.4% of patients had good to excellent
      clinical scores. Clinical scores had no significant relation with age, lesion
      size, depth, or body mass index. The mean MOCART score was 64.2 +/- 12.0. There
      was no significant correlation between the total MOCART and AOFAS scores (P =
      .123). A significant relation was found between the defect filling (the subgroup
      of the MOCART score) and the clinical outcomes (P = .0001, rho = 0.731).
      CONCLUSIONS: The arthroscopic scaffold implantation technique is a single-step,
      safe, and effective method for the treatment of talar osteochondral lesions with
      satisfactory clinical and radiological outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      therapeutic case series.

PMID- 28865577
TI  - Saucerization Versus Complete Resection of a Symptomatic Discoid Lateral Meniscus
      at Short- and Long-term Follow-up: A Systematic Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the surgical outcomes of symptomatic discoid menisci after
      total meniscectomy, saucerization, and suture repair of tears of a discoid
      meniscus at short- and long-term follow-up. METHODS: A systematic review was
      conducted using the Pubmed and ScienceDirect databases in adherence with
      Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines.
      Short- and long-term follow-up were defined as an average follow-up of <4 years
      and >4 years, respectively. Pooled quantitative synthesis was performed on
      studies that reported results of total meniscectomy and saucerization in the same
      study. A systematic review was performed on studies that reported data on
      saucerization, total meniscectomy, and/or repair. RESULTS: A total of 19 studies
      for the short term and 22 for the long term were identified that met inclusion
      criteria for qualitative review. Of these, 4 short-term and 5 long-term studies
      were included in the quantitative synthesis. No significant differences in
      Ikeuchi scores are seen in the short-term studies between saucerization and total
      meniscectomy; however, the long-term studies did find a statistical difference
      favoring saucerization (P < .001). The differences noted between the preoperative
      and postoperative Lysholm scores in the short term were 24.1 (95% conflict of
      interest: 10.25-37.95) in 3 studies and 22.38 (95% conflict of interest: 17.68
      27.07) in the 4 long-term studies for saucerization. Suture repair with
      saucerization versus saucerization without suture repair revealed a statistical
      difference in only 1 of 5 studies. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term data demonstrate
      significantly improved patient reported outcomes in favor of saucerization over
      total meniscectomy. Suture repair of tears of a lateral discoid meniscus does not
      demonstrate improved outcomes over partial meniscectomy without repair.
      Considering the cost of repair and lack of demonstrated improvement, based on the
      limited available data, we do not recommend repair of the abnormal anatomy in a
      torn lateral discoid meniscus. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, systematic review.

PMID- 28865578
TI  - Proximal Tibiofibular Joint Instability and Treatment Approaches: A Systematic
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the treatment options, outcomes, and complications
      associated with proximal tibiofibular joint (PTFJ) instability, which will aim to
      improve surgical treatment of PTFJ instability and aid surgeons in their decision
      making and treatment selection. METHODS: A systematic review was performed
      according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
      guidelines. Inclusion criteria were as follows: PTFJ instability treatment
      techniques, PTFJ surgical outcomes, English language, and human studies.
      Exclusion criteria were cadaveric studies, animal studies, basic science
      articles, editorial articles, review articles, and surveys. Furthermore, we
      excluded studies that did not report patient follow-up time and studies without
      any patient-reported, clinical or radiographic outcomes at the final follow-up.
      RESULTS: The systematic review identified 44 studies (96 patients) after
      inclusion and exclusion criteria application. For the treatment of PTFJ
      instability, there were 18 studies (35 patients) describing nonoperative
      management, 3 studies (4 patients) reported on open reduction, 11 studies (25
      patients) reported on fixation, 4 studies (10 patients) that described proximal
      fibula resection, 3 studies (11 patients) reported on adjustable cortical button
      repair, 2 studies (3 patients) reported on ligament reconstructions, and 5 (8
      patients) studies reported on biceps femoris tendon rerouting. The most (77% to
      90%) PTFJ dislocations and instability were anterolateral/unspecified anterior
      dislocation or instability. Improved outcomes after all forms of PTFJ instability
      treatment were reported; however, high complication rates were associated with
      both PTFJ fixation (28%) and fibular head resection (20%). CONCLUSIONS: Improved
      outcomes can be expected after surgical treatment of PTFJ instability. Proximal
      tibiofibular ligament reconstruction, specifically biceps rerouting and anatomic
      graft reconstruction, leads to improved outcomes with low complication rates.
      Nonoperative treatment is associated with persistent symptoms, whereas both
      fixation and fibular head resection are associated with high complication rates.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, systematic review of level IV studies.

PMID- 28865579
TI  - Acute syndesmotic instability in ankle fractures: A review.
AB  - Ankle fractures are among the most common fracture types, and 10% of all ankle
      fractures lead to accessory syndesmotic injury. An injury that is challenging in
      every respect is syndesmotic instability. Since the range of diagnostic
      techniques and the therapeutic options is extensive, it still is a controversial
      subject, despite the abundance of literature. This review aimed to summarize the
      current knowledge on syndesmotic instability in ankle fractures and to formulate
      some recommendations for clinical practice. Chronic instability and the operative
      osseous treatment of ankle fractures are not part of this review.

PMID- 28865580
TI  - Mid-term outcomes of first metatarsophalangeal arthroplasty using the Primus FGT
      double-stemmed silicone implants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Silicone implants for first metatarsophalangeal (MTP-1) arthroplasty
      are regaining popularity, though most studies have long inclusion periods, or
      short follow-up. The authors aimed to report mid-term outcomes of a cohort that
      received a third-generation MTP-1 implant at minimum follow-up of 5 years.
      METHODS: The authors evaluated 70 MTP-1 arthroplasties performed in 64 patients
      using the PrimusTM Flexible Great Toe implant. The indications were hallux
      rigidus of grade II (10%) and grade III (87.1%) or revision surgery (2.9%).
      RESULTS: All patients completed clinical and radiographic assessments at 83.5
      months (range, 62-114). There were no revisions or reoperations and the AOFAS-HMI
      score was 88.9+/-9.1 (median, 90; range, 67-100). Metatarsalgia was 'absent' in
      47.1%, 'mild' in 41.1%, 'moderate' in 7.1% and 'severe' in 1.4%. CONCLUSION: This
      study reported excellent mid-term clinical outcomes and survival rates of a third
      generation MTP-1 arthroplasty design and confirmed findings of recent studies
      regarding efficacy of silicone double-stemmed implants. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level
      IV case series.

PMID- 28865581
TI  - The RotoglideTM total replacement of the first metatarso-phalangeal joint. A
      prospective series with 7-15 years clinico-radiological follow-up with survival
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Rotoglide total replacement of the MTP-1 joint. 15 years survival
      analysis. The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the long-term
      performance clinico-radiographically of an uncemented three-component total
      replacement for the first metatarso-phalangeal joint (MTP-1) used for hallux
      rigidus (primary osteoarthritis grades 3 and 4). The follow-up was median 11.5
      years (7-15). METHODS: The AOFAS forefoot score was used preoperatively and at
      follow-up. Radiographs were taken weight-bearing in the AP-projection and in tip
      toe standing in the lateral view. Arthrosis in the sesamoid junction, prosthetic
      loosening, subsidence (of prosthesis as well as sesamoids), and dorsiflexion were
      measured, recorded and subjected to multiple variance analysis. Survival analysis
      was performed for 15 years. MATERIAL: Ninety implants in 80 patients (53 women
      and 27 men); median age 58 (41-76) were evaluated. RESULTS: Six patients
      representing seven prostheses in situ had died from unrelated reason. The median
      preoperative AOFAS increased significantly from 40 to 95. The median gain was 45.
      Four replacements (4.4%) were extracted for other reasons than loosening. No
      aseptic loosenings were recorded. The survival rate at 15 years was 91.5% (83
      100). Multiple variance analysis showed that arthrosis in the metatarso-sesamoid
      junction correlated with reduced AOFAS score. CONCLUSION: The prosthesis has
      stood the test of time; the results justify its further use.

PMID- 28865582
TI  - 1st metatarso-phalangeal joint arthroplasty with ROTO-glide implant.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total joint replacement of the 1st metatarso-phalangeal Joint (MTPJ)
      has been controversial as arthrodesis remains a good option for patients with end
      stage 1st MTPJ arthritis. We present a multi centre service evaluation of the
      ROTO-glide device METHODS: 33 ROTO-glide procedures were carried out in 30
      patients across 7 sites within the UK. Exclusion criteria - hallux valgus and
      arthritis, age below 45 years and over 80 years, inflammatory joint disease.
      Patient assessed pre and post operatively with AOFAS and Oxford forefoot (MOXFQ)
      scores and plain radiographs. All patients carried out the same post operative
      protocol RESULTS: Average age at patients was 58.6 years (45-77). Follow up
      average was 16.9 months (12-29). Pre-op AOFAS scores average 41.4 (17-67) and
      post op average 76 (29-100) and the MOXFQ summary index decreased from an average
      of 43 (20-64) pre op to an average of 17 (0-51) post op. Average total range of
      motion pre operatively was 32 degrees  and post operatively was 61 degrees .
      There were 2 post operative complications but no revisions were necessary.
      CONCLUSIONS: The early results of this multi centre service evaluation of the
      ROTO-glide 1st MTPJ replacement support its continued use and evaluation of the
      prosthesis further.

PMID- 28865583
TI  - A prospective 24 months follow-up of a three component press-fit prosthesis for
      hallux rigidus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the results following total
      first metatarsophalangeal (FMTP) joint replacement arthroplasty using a modular
      three component press fit prosthesis at two year follow up. METHODS: All patient
      data was collected in a prospective way in four study centres. Both preoperative
      and postoperative evaluation consisted of an assessment using the AOFAS-HMI
      score, visual analogue scale for pain, evaluation of the range of motion and
      patient satisfaction scores. Postoperative X-rays were reviewed for loosening and
      radiolucency up to two years. RESULTS: Fifty-five feet were available for
      analysis at 24 months. Two implants were removed during the study. Six more feet
      had additional surgery due to stiffness or malalignment. Postoperative AOFAS-HMI
      scores improved significantly by 32.4 points at two year follow-up (p<0.001). The
      visual analogue scale for pain improved significantly from 6.8 (std 1,6)
      preoperatively to 1.6 (std 1,9) postoperatively (p<0.0001). Mean dorsiflexion
      improved from 12.6 (std 10,1) degrees preoperatively to 31.2 (std 16,8) degrees
      postoperatively. Eighty-seven percent of patients were moderately to well
      satisfied with the end result. Eighteen prostheses showed radiolucency at 24
      months. CONCLUSION: Implantation of a Metis(r) modular three component press fit
      prosthesis for the metatarsophalangeal joint in hallux rigidus shows significant
      improvement in AOFAS-HMI scores and a decrease in pain. Concerns remain with
      regard to early reoperation rate (14.5%) and long term survival of the implant.
      Future studies will have to address these aspects.

PMID- 28865584
TI  - Bone-block arthrodesis procedure in failures of first metatarsophalangeal joint
      replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment for the failure of a first metatarsophalangeal joint
      (MTP1) prosthesis can be complex. There is no consensus regarding the ideal
      treatment. One of the main issues is the available bone stock after prosthesis
      removal. The aim of the study was to report the clinical and radiographic results
      for MTP1 arthrodesis with autologous calcaneus bone graft (bone-block fusion) as
      a revision procedure of a previous MTP1 implant failure. METHODS: This study
      included 12 patients diagnosed with failure of a MTP1 prosthesis. All patients
      were treated with MTP1 arthrodesis using ipsilateral calcaneal bone graft.
      Patients were evaluated with the Foot Ankle Disability Index (FADI), the visual
      analogue pain scale (VAS) and AOFAS Hallux Metatarsophalangeal Interphalangeal
      scoring system (AOFAS-HMI), weight-bearing radiograph of the foot, and a computed
      tomography scan. The 1-2 intermetatarsal angle, hallux valgus angle, and first
      ray length were measured before surgery and at final follow-up. RESULTS:
      Complications included 3 cases of arthrodesis nonunion, (1 symptomatic, 2
      asymptomatic) with 2 of the 3 patients experiencing hardware failure and 1
      superficial wound infection. The average FADI improved from 41.8 preoperatively
      to 84.6 at final follow-up (p<0.05); the average VAS improved from 8.5
      preoperatively to 2 at final follow-up (p<0,05); the average AOFAS-HMI
      significantly improved from 50.7 preoperatively to 73.8 at final follow-up
      (p<0.05). The average length of the bone-block used was 14.3mm (range 11-19mm).
      The 1-2 intermetatarsal angle decreased from 9.5 degrees  preoperatively to 8.4
      degrees  at final follow-up (p<0.05); hallux valgus angle improved from 19.7
      degrees  preoperatively to 14.3 degrees  at final follow-up (p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: The management of a failed first metatarsophalangeal joint
      prosthesis remains controversial. Bone-block arthrodesis using ipsilateral
      calcaneal autograft appears to be a viable option restoring the bone loss, and
      avoiding hallux shortening. Nonunion is the most frequent complication with 25%
      of patients affected, but only 1/3 of patients with nonunion were symptomatic and
      required revision.

PMID- 28865585
TI  - Are current foot- and ankle outcome measures appropriate for the evaluation of
      treatment for osteoarthritis of the ankle?: Evaluation of ceiling effects in foot
      and ankle outcome measures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many PROMs used for evaluation of ankle osteoarthritis are not
      validated for this purpose. We hypothesize that frequently used PROMs have an
      early ceiling or floor effect. METHODS: We prospectively collected data from
      patients with ankle osteoarthritis between 2011 and 2013. At baseline visit
      patients completed the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score, the Ankle Osteoarthritis
      Score, the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society scale, a visual analogue
      scale for pain and quality of life. Outcomes were analyzed for floor or ceiling
      effects. RESULTS: 197 patients were included in the study. A floor effect was
      present for the AOFAS and VAS for pain in all groups. Floor and ceiling effect
      are absent for the FAOS outcome measure for all groups. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians
      should be aware of floor or ceiling effects when evaluating treatment using
      patient reported outcome measures. The FAOS outcome measure lacks early ceiling
      or floor effects.

PMID- 28865586
TI  - Comparison of two different vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) treatments of multiple
      chronic diabetic foot wounds in the same extremity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study is to compare the clinical efficacy and
      safety of two different vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) applications in one center
      between two groups of patients with Wagner Grade 3-4 multiple chronic diabetic
      foot wounds. METHODS: The study was a randomized-controlled, prospective
      investigation between two groups of patients with Wagner Grade 3-4 multiple
      chronic diabetic foot wounds at single extremity. There were 10 patients in the
      first group receiving VAC treatment by means of Y-connector and 11 patients in
      the second group receiving bridge-VAC treatment. RESULTS: There were no
      significant difference in Revised Foot Function Index scores and total treatment
      costs between the both groups. The cost of the VAC dressing supplies in one
      session of the dressings was lower in the bridge-VAC group. CONCLUSIONS: In
      conclusion, although bridge-VAC treatment seems to be an alternative method to
      the VAC treatment by means of Y-connector, we found no superiority of one over
      the other VAC application for chronic diabetic foot wounds.

PMID- 28865587
TI  - Surgical repair of symptomatic chronic achilles tendon rupture using synthetic
      graft augmentation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical repair of symptomatic chronic Achilles tendon (TA) rupture
      is a challenging problem due to the presence of a large defect between tendon
      edges. We report the results of surgical repair of symptomatic chronic TA rupture
      by synthetic graft augmentation. METHODS: Seven consecutive patients with a
      symptomatic chronic TA rupture underwent surgical repair by VY plasty and
      augmentation with bio-absorbable synthetic graft (Artelon(r)). In all patients,
      the intraoperative tendon gap after debridement was more than 5cm (Myerson Grade
      3). The total duration of plaster immobilization was 10 weeks. The complications
      were recorded prospectively and functional outcome was assessed by AOFAS score
      and Achilles tendon Total Rupture Score (ATRS). RESULTS: At a mean follow up of
      29 months there was no re-rupture or deep infection. All patients reported good
      functional outcome as shown by AOFAS and ATRS scores. There were no graft related
      complications. At final follow up, six patients were able to do single stance
      heel raise however, calf wasting was noted in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Tendon
      repair augmented by absorbable synthetic graft is an acceptable technique in
      Myerson Grade 3 chronic symptomatic TA ruptures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      Case series.

PMID- 28865588
TI  - The effect of active toe movement (AToM) on calf pump function and deep vein
      thrombosis in patients with acute foot and ankle trauma treated with cast - A
      prospective randomized study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with foot and ankle trauma treated with cast are advised to
      perform toe movements to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE). Our aim was to
      determine the effect of active toe movement on asymptomatic deep vein thrombosis
      (DVT) and venous calf pump function. METHODS: Patients aged 18-60 years with
      acute foot and ankle trauma requiring below knee non weight bearing cast were
      randomized to intervention (regular active toe movement) or control groups
      (n=100). Patients had bilateral lower limb venous ultrasound to assess for DVT on
      discharge from clinic. Patients requiring chemical thromboprophylaxis were
      excluded. RESULTS: 78 completed the study. 27% sustained asymptomatic DVT, with
      no statistically significant difference in calf pump function or DVT incidence
      between groups. All DVT's occurred in the injured lower limb. CONCLUSION: Active
      toe movement is not a viable strategy for thromboprophylaxis in patients with
      acute foot and ankle trauma treated with cast.

PMID- 28865589
TI  - Effect of joint pathology, surface preparation and fixation methods on union
      frequency after first metatarsophalangeal joint arthrodesis: A systematic review
      of the English literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this systematic review was to perform a qualitative
      synthesis of the current literature to determine the union frequencies for first
      metatarsophalangeal joint arthrodesis as well as the influence of pathology,
      joint preparation and fixation methods on union. METHODS: MEDLINE and EMBASE were
      searched to identify relevant studies reporting on first metatarsophalangeal
      joint union frequencies. RESULTS: 26 studies with 2059 feet met our inclusion
      criteria. The mean age was 60 years (range 18-84) and the mean follow-up was 32.6
      months (range 1.5-156). The union frequency was 93.5% (1923/2059). The union
      frequencies were significantly higher when low velocity joint preparation methods
      were used (P<0.0001, Chi Square 22.5) and the pathology was hallux rigidus
      (P=0.002, Chi square 9.3). There were similarly high union frequencies with
      crossed screws, locking plate and non-locking plates. CONCLUSIONS: High union
      frequency can be expected following first metatarsophalangeal arthrodesis,
      especially when low velocity joint preparation methods are used in patients with
      hallux rigidus.

PMID- 28865590
TI  - Matrix-associated stem cell transplantation (MAST) in chondral defects of the 1st
      metatarsophalangeal joint is safe and effective-2-year-follow-up in 20 patients.
AB  - The aim of the study was to assess the 2-year-follow-up of matrix-associated stem
      cell transplantation (MAST) in chondral defects of the 1st metatarsophalangeal
      joint (MTPJ). In a prospective consecutive non-controlled clinical follow-up
      study, 20 patients with 25 chondral defect at the 1st MTPJ that were treated with
      MAST from October 1st, 2011 to March, 30th, 2013 were analysed. The size and
      location of the chondral defects range of motion (ROM), and the Visual-Analogue
      Scale Foot and Ankle (VAS FA) before treatment and at follow-up were registered.
      Stem cell-rich blood was harvested from the ipsilateral pelvic bone marrow and
      centrifuged (10min, 1500 RPM). The supernatant was used to impregnate a collagen
      I/III matrix (Chondro-Guide). The matrix was fixed into the chondral defect with
      fibrin glue. The age of the patients was 42 years on average (range, 35-62
      years). The VAS FA before surgery was 50.5 (range, 18.3-78.4). The defects were
      located as follows, dorsal metatarsal head, n=12, plantar metatarsal head, n=5,
      dorsal & plantar, n=8 (two defects, n=5). The defect size was 0.7cm2 (range, .5
      2.5cm2). ROM was 10.3/0/18.8 degrees  (dorsal extension/plantar flexion). All
      patients completed 2-year-follow-up. VAS FA improved to 91.5 (range, 74.2-100; t
      test, p<.01). ROM improved to 34.5/0/25.5 (p=.05). The surgical treatment
      including MAST led to improved clinical scores and ROM. Even though a control
      group is missing, we conclude that MAST is a safe and effective method for the
      treatment of chondral defects of the 1st MTPJ.

PMID- 28865591
TI  - Diagnostics in tarsal fusion: The theory and practise in The Netherlands.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compares the preferences of Dutch orthopaedic surgeons for
      different diagnostic modalities in performing tarsal fusions versus consensus,
      evidence or expert opinion reported in the literature. METHODS: A literature
      search of Medline was performed to obtain evidence-based information on various
      diagnostic tools. In addition, 89 registered Dutch foot and ankle surgeons were
      sent a questionnaire concerning the diagnostic modalities use in tarsal fusion.
      RESULTS: Fifty-eight (65%) questionnaires were returned. The experienced surgeons
      measured outcomes significantly more often than other surgeons. Diagnostic
      injections were often used, although scant evidence exists in the literature.
      Postoperative diagnostics mainly consist of X-ray examination, although there is
      consensus in the literature that computed tomography is more accurate.
      CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed some surprising discrepancies concerning the use
      of diagnostic imaging in tarsal fusion. More clinical research is needed to
      identify the most effective diagnostic imaging modalities so as to encourage
      their wider adoption.

PMID- 28865592
TI  - Corrigendum to "Case series of 17 modified Weil's osteotomies for Freiberg's and
      Kohler's II AVN, with AOFAS scoring pre- and post-operatively" [Foot Ankle Surg
      17 (1) (2011) 19-24].

PMID- 28865593
TI  - Obtaining local bone graft for Evans calcaneal osteotomy in pes planovalgus
      deformity correction.
AB  - Lateral column lengthening osteotomy is very useful surgical technique in
      treating stage II of pes planovalgus deformity of the foot. Either autograft from
      the iliac crest or allograft can be used for this purpose. In our technique we
      describe a novel method of obtaining bone graft locally from the calcaneus and
      therefore avoiding complications and morbidity associated with iliac crest graft.

PMID- 28865594
TI  - Modified Chevron osteotomy for hallux valgus deformity in female athletes. A 2
      year follow-up study.

PMID- 28865595
TI  - Modified Chevron osteotomy for hallux valgus deformity in female athletes. A 2
      year follow-up study.

PMID- 28865596
TI  - Percutaneous foot surgery for the treatment of brachymetatarsia: A case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The term brachimetatarsia refers to an abnormal shortening of the
      metatarsal bones as a result of early closure of the growth plate. The deformity,
      which may be congenital, idiopathic or secondary to surgery or trauma, may result
      in functional as well as cosmetic alterations, which require correction by an
      orthopedic surgeon. The purpose of this report is to illustrate the possibility
      of treating this condition by means of a minimally invasive technique which
      affords results as satisfactory as those of conventional techniques but with
      fewer complications. We report on the case of a 35-year-old female with a
      diagnosis of congenital brachymetatarsia, with bilateral involvement of the
      fourth toe. METHODS: We present our experience of surgical correction of
      brachymetatarsia using percutaneous surgery. The surgical technique is
      illustrated by a case report with a follow-up of 2 years. RESULTS: Radiographic
      and cosmetic correction of the deformity were satisfactory after 9 weeks of
      treatment. No complications were observed during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      minimally invasive surgery for treatment of brachymetatarsia is a relatively
      unknown or explored procedure, it provides good clinical and radiological results
      in experienced hands. In addition, it causes little trauma to the soft tissues,
      reduces operative time and allows patients a better and faster functional
      recovery, offering clear advantages over other techniques used for correcting
      this bone malformation.

PMID- 28865597
TI  - Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Suicidality Among Sexual Minority Youth: Risk Factors
      and Protective Connectedness Factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated differences in prevalence of repetitive nonsuicidal
      self-injury (NSSI), suicidal ideation, and a suicide attempt among youth who
      identified as bisexual, gay/lesbian, and questioning. In addition, we examined
      which types of social connections were associated with reduced risk of repetitive
      NSSI and suicidality among youth who identified with a specific sexual minority
      group. METHODS: Data came from the 2013 Minnesota Student Survey. The analytic
      sample included 77,758 students in grades 9 and 11. Connectedness factors
      included parent connectedness, teacher caring, connectedness to other nonparental
      adults, school safety, and friend caring. Logistic regression analyses,
      stratified according to sexual minority group, determined social connectedness
      factors associated with repetitive NSSI, suicidal ideation, and a suicide
      attempt, as well as moderating effects of significant connectedness factors on
      different risk factors (depression, anxiety, bullying, and violence
      victimization). RESULTS: Approximately 3% identified as bisexual or questioning
      their sexual orientation, and <1% identified as gay/lesbian. Sexual minority
      youth, particularly bisexual youth, were significantly more likely than
      heterosexual youth to report repetitive NSSI and suicidality. Effects of
      connectedness varied across sexual minority groups and outcomes on the basis of
      types of connections. Parent connectedness emerged as a robust protective factor
      for all self-harm behaviors among bisexual and questioning youth. Feeling
      connected to nonparental adults and safe at school represented additional factors
      that reduced risk of repetitive NSSI and suicidality among certain groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: In addition to facilitating connections between youth and parents,
      clinicians might consider encouraging sexual minority youth to remain connected
      to trusted nonparental adults who could offer support and care. Schools might
      consider implementing sociocultural norms of acceptance, tolerance, and positive
      identity development to reduce risk of self-harm.

PMID- 28865598
TI  - My Approach to the patient with CAD and aspirin resistance.

PMID- 28865599
TI  - miR-206 enhances nasopharyngeal carcinoma radiosensitivity by targeting IGF1.
AB  - Radioresistance remains a major problem in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)
      treatment. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of NPC radioresistance
      remain poorly understood. The present study aimed to investigate the potential
      role and mechanism of miR-206 in NPC radioresistance. We observed that miR-206
      was down-regulated in radioresistant NPC cells. Furthermore, restoration of miR
      206 in CNE2-IR cells suppressed enhanced radiosensitivity of NPC cells. In
      contrast, inhibition of miR-206 in CNE2 cells reduced the radiosensitivity. We
      also found that miR-206 directly targeted IGF1 and inhibited the PI3K/AKT
      pathway. Our data demonstrate that miR-206 sensitizes NPC cell to irradiation by
      targeting IGF1, highlighting the therapeutic potential of miR-206 in NPC
      radiosensitization.

PMID- 28865600
TI  - The association of genetic polymorphisms of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha and
      vascular endothelial growth factor with increased risk of chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease: A case-control study.
AB  - Accumulated data over the years have suggested that hypoxia inducible factor-1
      alpha (HIF-1alpha) and its downstream vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      gene may be linked with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study
      aims to investigate the association of HIF-1alpha and VEGF genetic polymorphisms
      and their correlated risks with COPD. COPD patients (case group) and healthy
      individuals (control group) were recruited. DNA was extracted to detect HIF
      1alpha and VEGF genetic polymorphisms. Basal lung volume and forced expiratory
      capacity in 1st second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/predicted
      value (pred)% were calculated. Genotype and allele distributions in HIF-1alpha
      and VEGF genes were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier curves and logistic regression model
      were used for analysis of survival and COPD risk factors. Haplotypes for HIF
      1alpha rs11549465 and rs11549467 were analyzed. FEV1/FVC and FEV1/pred% in the
      case group were lower than the control group. Frequencies of HIF-1alpha
      rs11549465 CT + TT genotype and T allele, and rs11549467 GA + AA genotype and A
      allele were higher in the case group than the control group. Patients with
      rs11549465 CT + TT had higher COPD risk than those with the CC genotype. Patients
      with rs11549467 GA + AA showed higher COPD risk and lower FEV1/FVC and FEV1/pred%
      than those with the GG genotype. Patients with HIF-1alpha TA haplotype showed
      higher COPD risk than those with the CG haplotype. Survival rate of patients with
      HIF-1alpha rs11549467 GG genotype was higher than those with the GA + AA
      genotype. HIF-1alpha rs11549467 polymorphism may be associated with COPD risk.

PMID- 28865601
TI  - Relationship of the MTHFD1 (rs2236225), eNOS (rs1799983), CBS (rs2850144) and ACE
      (rs4343) gene polymorphisms in a population of Iranian pediatric patients with
      congenital heart defects.
AB  - Congenital heart defects are structural cardiovascular malformations that arise
      from abnormal formation of the heart or major blood vessels during the fetal
      period. To investigate the association of 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) in the MTHFD1, eNOS, CBS and ACE genes, we evaluated their relationship
      with CHD in Iranian patients. In this case-control study, a total of 102 children
      with CHD and 98 control children were enrolled. Four SNPs including MTHFD1
      G1958A, eNOS G894T, CBS C-4673G and ACE A2350G were genotyped by PCR-SSCP,
      Multiplex ARMS PCR and PCR-RFLP methods and confirmed by direct sequencing. We
      genotyped 102 patients and 98 controls for four polymorphisms by statistically
      analysis. There were three SNPs including MTHFD1 G1958A, eNOS G894T and ACE
      A2350G which might increase the risk of CHD, but CBS C-4673G was not
      significantly different between patients and controls. (P = 0.017, P = 0.048, P =
      0.025 and P = 0.081 respectively). The allele frequencies of three SNPs for
      MTHFD1 G1958A, eNOS G894T and ACE A2350G in CHD are higher than that in control.
      Our results show that there is a significant relationship between MTHFD1 G1958A,
      eNOS G894T and ACE A2350G polymorphisms with CHD. Therefore, The AA and GA
      genotypes of MTHFD1 G1958A, TT and GT genotypes of eNOS G894T and the AA and GA
      genotypes of ACE A2350G are susceptible factors for CHD and may increase the risk
      of CHD.

PMID- 28865602
TI  - Placental apoptosis in recurrent miscarriage.
AB  - Apoptosis is an interactive and dynamic biological process involved in all phases
      of embryogenesis. We aimed to study the effect of placental apoptosis on
      recurrent miscarriage (RM). Placental tissue samples were collected from 40 women
      with RM (study group) and 30 women with sporadic spontaneous abortion (control
      group). Samples were prepared and stained immunohistochemically with markers for
      both the apoptotic protein (p53) and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 antibodies. Our results
      showed that expression of the apoptotic (p53) protein was significantly increased
      in the placental tissues of the RM group (p = 0.003). By contrast, the expression
      of anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2) antibodies was significantly increased in the placental
      tissues of the control group (p = 0.025). We concluded that placental apoptosis
      plays a crucial role in pregnancy continuation. However, increased p53 expression
      in placental tissue in early pregnancy could negatively affect pregnancy
      continuation.

PMID- 28865603
TI  - Independent and additive interaction between polymorphisms of tumor necrosis
      factor alpha-308 and lymphotoxin alpha+252 on risk of hepatocellular carcinoma
      related to hepatitis B.
AB  - : This case-control study was aimed to assess the effect of genetic variants of
      tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha-308 and lymphotoxin (LT) alpha+252 on
      development of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      Their gene-gene interaction was also investigated. We enrolled 200 pairs of age-
      and sex-matched patients with cirrhotic HBV-HCC and unrelated patients with HBV
      cirrhosis alone. Polymorphisms of TNFalpha-308 and LTalpha+252 were genotyped.
      Synergy index was used to calculate interaction between the variant genotypes.
      The results indicated that the frequency distribution of the variant genotypes
      (TNFalpha-308 G/A and LTalpha+252 G/G) in patients with HCC were significantly
      higher than those in patients with cirrhosis alone. Multivariate analysis
      indicated that TNFalpha-308 G/A (odds ratio [OR], 2.34) and LTalpha+252 G/G (OR,
      2.04) were independent risk factors for HCC. By the clinical characteristics of
      study population, multivariate analysis demonstrated that independent factors
      associated with harboring the variant genotypes included cirrhosis with Child
      Pugh C (OR = 6.47 in cases and OR = 11.56 in controls) and thrombocytopenia (OR =
      8.86 in cases and OR = 7.74 in controls). Calculation of synergy index (SI)
      indicated that there are additive interaction between TNFalpha-308 G/A and
      LTalpha+252 G/G on risk of HCC (SI = 1.29). IN CONCLUSION: There are independent
      and additive interactions between TNFalpha-308 G/A and LTalpha+252 G/G on risk
      for HBV-HCC. They correlated with advanced hepatic fibrosis and severe liver
      damage, which might contribute to a higher risk for HCC.

PMID- 28865604
TI  - Efficacy of holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) in men with bladder
      outlet obstruction (BOO) and non-neurogenic bladder dysfunction.
AB  - We aimed to compare the short-term outcomes of men who had urodynamic evidence of
      detrusor underactivity (DU) or detrusor overactivity (DO) of a non-neurogenic
      etiology as well as bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) and who underwent Holmium
      Laser Enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP). A database of 322 patients who
      underwent HoLEP between 2010 and 2014 was analyzed. Patients were classified into
      three groups according to the results of a preoperative urodynamic study.
      Preoperative parameters such as International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS),
      Quality of Life (QoL) index, IPSS grade, uroflowmetry were compared with
      postoperative parameters measured at 6 months. There were 138 patients with BOO
      only and 89 patients with BOO and detrusor dysfunction including 56 with DO and
      33 with DU. The degree of improvement in IPSS-total (BOO: 10.7, DO: 8.3, DU: 7.0;
      p = 0.023) was greater in the BOO-only group than in the DU group. There were
      more patients whose IPSS grade improved in the BOO-only group (71%) than in the
      detrusor dysfunction group (DO: 53.6% and DU: 45.5%). Postoperative IPSS-voiding
      (4.5 vs 7.0), and Qmax (18 vs 13.7) in the BOO-only group were significantly
      better than those in the DU group. Additionally, postoperative IPSS-storage (4.7
      vs 6.7), and IPSS-total (9.1 vs 12.3) in the BOO-only group were significantly
      better than in the DO group (all p < 0.05). In conclusion, early surgical
      management for men with severe LUTS and associated BPH before secondary
      degeneration occurs may be beneficial for preserving detrusor function and yield
      better treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28865605
TI  - Three dimensional versus standard miniplate fixation in the management of
      mandibular fractures: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - The aim of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the efficacy of the 3-dimensional
      miniplate system in comparison with the standard miniplate system for the
      treatment of mandibular fractures (MFs). A systematic review was conducted
      according to PRISMA guidelines, examining Medline-Ovid, Embase, and PubMed
      databases. The primary search objective was to identify all papers reporting the
      results of randomized control trials (RCTs) for the treatment of adults with
      mandibular fractures, with the aim of comparing the different techniques. The
      incidence of complications was evaluated; nine studies including 283 patients
      with different fracture sites were enrolled in the analysis. The results showed
      no significant differences in overall complications (odds ratio [OR], 0.92; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 0.552-1.542; P = 0.81), postoperative infections (OR,
      0.99; 95% CI, 0.40-2.48; P = 0.89), wound dehiscence (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.13
      7.37; P = 0.96), paresthesia (OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.20-1.07; P = 0.11), or
      malocclusion (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 0.39-8.32; P = 0.47) between standard miniplates
      and 3-dimensional miniplates for treating mandibular fractures. Mandibular
      fractures treated with 3-dimensional miniplates and standard miniplates presented
      similar short-term complication rates, and the low postoperative
      maxillomandibular fixation rate of using standard miniplates also indicated that
      the standard miniplate has a promising application in the treatment of mandibular
      fractures.

PMID- 28865606
TI  - Acupuncture-related penetrating eye injury.

PMID- 28865607
TI  - Observation of bifid mandibular canals on cone-beam computed tomography.

PMID- 28865608
TI  - Divergent paths to the end of AIDS.

PMID- 28865609
TI  - Optimism and concern at IAS 2017.

PMID- 28865610
TI  - Volatile compounds and odour characteristics of seven species of dehydrated
      edible seaweeds.
AB  - The volatile fraction of dehydrated edible seaweeds belonging to seven species
      (Himanthalia elongata, Laminaria ochroleuca, Palmaria palmata, Porphyra
      umbilicalis, Saccharina latissima, Ulva lactuca and Undaria pinnatifida) was
      analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, after solid-phase
      microextraction of samples. Thirty-six hydrocarbons, 34 ketones, 28 aldehydes, 23
      alcohols, 8 carboxylic acids, 6 halogenated compounds, 4 furans, 3 esters, 2
      sulphur compounds, 2 pyrazines, 1 pyridine and 1 amine were detected among the
      151 volatile compounds found in seaweeds. There were significant differences
      between seaweed species for all the volatile compounds. Hydrocarbons reached
      their highest levels in U. pinnatifida, ketones in P. umbilicalis, aldehydes in
      P. palmata and P. umbilicalis, alcohols in P. umbilicalis, carboxylic acids in S.
      latissima, and halogenated compounds in L. ochroleuca and S. latissima. Sensory
      analysis revealed that P. palmata, U. lactuca and H. elongata were the seaweeds
      showing the most potent seafood odour and seaweed odour characteristics.

PMID- 28865611
TI  - Polysaccharides from macroalgae: Recent advances, innovative technologies and
      challenges in extraction and purification.
AB  - Polysaccharides obtained from macroalgae have promising prospects and could
      contribute greatly to the future of a marine based bio-economy. Specifically,
      laminarin and fucoidan from brown macroalgae have a wide variety of potential
      industrial applications including functional foods and nutraceuticals, due to
      their broad range of biological activities. These beneficial biological
      activities are related to the chemical composition and structure of the
      macroalgal polysaccharides. The molecular weight, monosaccharide composition and
      sulphate content of these polysaccharides could be influenced by both macroalgal
      biology (i.e. variations in polysaccharide composition due to macroalgae species
      and their biological cycle) and different extraction/purification techniques
      employed to obtain polysaccharide enriched products (i.e. de-sulphation or
      fragmentation of sulphated polysaccharides). This review focuses on the
      extraction and purification methods for the macroalgal polysaccharides laminarin
      and fucoidan used in the recent literature. The application of innovative
      extraction technologies (such as ultrasound, microwave and enzyme-assisted
      extractions), as well as new purification techniques (i.e. membrane separation),
      are also discussed together with the challenges concerning molecule structure
      function relationship and macroalgal variability.

PMID- 28865612
TI  - Extraction and characterization of protein from Irish brown seaweed Ascophyllum
      nodosum.
AB  - This study investigates traditional and non-conventional methods of extraction of
      protein from Irish brown seaweed A. nodosum. Acid, alkali, combined acid-alkali
      with and without ultrasound pretreatment were investigated for extraction of
      protein from A. nodosum. Molecular weight of protein was determined using high
      performance size exclusion chromatography and amino acid profiling was carried
      out using an amino acid analyzer. Combination of first acid and then alkali
      extraction was found to be the most efficient method of extraction among all
      methods investigated (59% of recovery); followed by single step of alkali
      extraction assisted with ultrasound (68.4MUm) which was able to extract 57% of
      total protein. Alkaline extraction was shown to yield the best protein/algae
      liquefaction ratio (1.28). This can be attributed to the release of
      polysaccharide complexes first by acid and then solubilization of proteins by
      alkali solvent. The molecular weight of extracted protein was found to be
      relatively low, in the range of 2-4kDa average MW. The alkali method of
      extraction was found to be optimum for extraction of amino acids from A. nodosum.

PMID- 28865613
TI  - Protein and carbohydrate extraction from S. platensis biomass by ultrasound and
      mechanical agitation.
AB  - Spirulina platensis is considered an alternative and excellent source of protein
      [46-63% dry basis (DB)], having protein levels comparable to meat and soybeans.
      Thus, it can be considered an adequate ingredient to supply the necessity of this
      compound in the food industry. Its carbohydrates (8-14% DB) may also be a useful
      food ingredient or a potential source of bioenergy. Thus, extracting these
      compounds from the microalgae biomass will maximize its exploitation. Sonication
      can completely or partially degrade the microalgal cell wall, providing a useful
      technique to extract the protein and carbohydrate. This study used a sequential
      strategy of experimental design (fractional factorial design and central
      composite rotatable design) to evaluate the protein and carbohydrate extraction
      from S. platensis defatted biomass using ultrasonic waves and mechanical
      agitation, under alkaline conditions. The optimal conditions for protein and
      carbohydrate co-extraction were established by selecting and maximizing the
      variables that significantly influenced the extraction. The optimized percentages
      recovery from the extraction process yielded 75.76% protein and 41.52%
      carbohydrate at 33-40min sonication and 40-55min agitation. The protein fraction
      may be further concentrated and purified for use in food formulations, and the
      carbohydrates may be a useful feedstock for bioethanol production.

PMID- 28865614
TI  - Identification of chlorophyll molecules with peroxyl radical scavenger capacity
      in microalgae Phormidium autumnale using ultrasound-assisted extraction.
AB  - The identification of chlorophyll molecules with peroxyl radical scavenger
      capacity in microalgae Phormidium autumnale was determined. The ultrasound
      assisted extraction was utilized for obtaining the chlorophyll compounds from
      biomass. A total of eleven molecules were separated in microalgae chlorophyll
      extract, with pheophytin a' (371MUg.g-1) and chlorophyll a (159.3MUg.g-1) as the
      major ones. The chlorophyll extract was shown to be a potent scavenger of peroxyl
      radical, being almost 200 times more potent than alpha-tocopherol. These facts
      suggest the microalgae Phormidium autumnale as potential source of bioactive
      tetrapyrrole compounds.

PMID- 28865615
TI  - C-phycocyanin extraction assisted by pulsed electric field from Artrosphira
      platensis.
AB  - This paper assesses the application of pulsed electric fields (PEF) to the fresh
      biomass of Artrhospira platensis in order to enhance the extraction of C
      phycocyanin into aqueous media. Electroporation of A. platensis depended on both
      electric field strength and treatment duration. The minimum electric field
      intensity for detecting C-phycocyanin in the extraction medium was 15kV/cm after
      the application of a treatment time 150MUs (50 pulses of 3MUs). However higher
      electric field strength were required when shorter treatment times were applied.
      Response surface methodology was used in order to investigate the influence of
      electric field strength (15-25kV/cm), treatment time (60-150MUs), and temperature
      of application of PEF (10-40 degrees C) on C-phycocyanin extraction yield (PEY).
      The increment of the temperature PEF treatment reduced the electric field
      strength and the treatment time required to obtain a given PEY and, consequently
      decreased the total specific energy delivered by the treatment. For example, the
      increment of temperature from 10 degrees C to 40 degrees C permitted to reduce
      the electric field strength required to extract 100mg/g dw of C-phycocyanin from
      25 to 18kV/cm, and the specific energy input from 106.7 to 67.5kJ/Kg. Results
      obtained in this investigation demonstrated PEF's potential for selectively
      extraction C-phycocyanin from fresh A. platensis biomass. The purity of the C
      phycocyanin extract obtained from the electroporated cells was higher than that
      obtained using other techniques based on the cell complete destruction.

PMID- 28865616
TI  - Pressurized liquid extraction of Neochloris oleoabundans for the recovery of
      bioactive carotenoids with anti-proliferative activity against human colon cancer
      cells.
AB  - In recent years, the green microalgae Neochloris oleoabundans have demonstrated
      to be an interesting natural source of carotenoids that could be used as
      potential food additive. In this work, different N. oleoabundans extracts
      obtained by pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) have been analyzed in depth to
      evaluate the influence of different culture conditions (effect of nitrogen, light
      intensity or carbon supplied) not only on the total carotenoid content but also
      on the carotenoid composition produced by these microalgae. Regardless of the
      cultivation conditions, lutein and carotenoid monoesters were the most abundant
      carotenoids representing more than 60% of the total content in all extracts.
      Afterwards, the effect of the different N. oleoabundans extracts and the dose
      effect of the most potent algae extracts (namely, N9, PS and CO2 (-)) on the
      proliferation of human colon cancer cells lines (HT-29 and SW480) and a cell line
      established from a primary colon cancer cell culture (HGUE-C-1) were evaluated by
      an MTT assay whereas a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to get
      additional evidences on the relationship between carotenoid content and the
      antiproliferative activity. Results revealed that, as a general trend, those
      extracts with high total carotenoid content showed comparably antiproliferative
      activity being possible to establish a high correlation between the cell
      proliferation values and the carotenoid constituents. Monoesters showed the
      highest contribution to cell proliferation inhibition whereas lutein and
      violaxanthin showed negative correlation and diesters and zeaxanthin showed a
      positive significant contribution to cell proliferation.

PMID- 28865617
TI  - Development of new green processes for the recovery of bioactives from
      Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
AB  - Two novel extraction techniques, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and
      microwave-assisted solvent extraction (MAE) have been evaluated for the recovery
      of bioactive compounds from Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Microalga P. tricornutum
      is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as EPA, and has a high
      content of the carotenoid fucoxanthin, which is a valuable pigment with several
      biological activities. Cells were disrupted at high pressure and then freeze
      dried as a previous step to extraction. Additionally, only green solvents as
      water and ethanol (EtOH) - and mixtures of them - were used. For comparison
      purposes, the same response variables were considered in both processes:
      extraction yield (% w/w), total phenolic content (Folin-Ciocalteu assay), total
      carotenoids and chlorophylls, and antioxidant activity (ABTS assay, expressed as
      TEAC value). Factorial experimental designs were employed for both PLE and MAE
      optimization, being %EtOH in water and temperature the common experimental
      factors. Extraction time was also a factor considered for optimization in MAE. A
      detailed chemical characterization of pigments was performed by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS
      (high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector-mass spectrometry),
      being fucoxanthin the main compound extracted. Optimum extraction conditions were
      50 degrees C, 100% EtOH, 20min for PLE, while optimum conditions for MAE were 30
      degrees C, 100% EtOH and 2min. Both technologies extract fucoxanthin as a main
      compound but higher recoveries were achieved using PLE due to a higher extraction
      yield. In addition, both MAE and PLE extracts contained different lipid classes
      potentially enriched in EPA, given an added-value to the extracts.

PMID- 28865618
TI  - Application of seaweeds to develop new food products with enhanced shelf-life,
      quality and health-related beneficial properties.
AB  - Edible seaweeds are a good source of antioxidants, dietary fibers, essential
      amino acids, vitamins, phytochemicals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and minerals.
      Many studies have evaluated the gelling, thickening and therapeutic properties of
      seaweeds when they are used individually. This review gives an overview on the
      nutritional, textural, sensorial, and health-related properties of food products
      enriched with seaweeds and seaweed extracts. The effect of seaweed incorporation
      on properties of meat, fish, bakery, and other food products were highlighted in
      depth. Moreover, the positive effects of foods enriched with seaweeds and seaweed
      extracts on different lifestyle diseases such as obesity, dyslipidemia,
      hypertension, and diabetes were also discussed. The results of the studies
      demonstrated that the addition of seaweeds, in powder or extract form, can
      improve the nutritional and textural properties of food products. Additionally,
      low-fat products with less calories and less saturated fatty acids can be
      prepared using seaweeds. Moreover, the addition of seaweeds also affected the
      health properties of food products. The results of these studies demonstrated
      that the health value, shelf-life and overall quality of foods can be improved
      through the addition of either seaweeds or seaweed extracts.

PMID- 28865619
TI  - A comprehensive approach to formulation of seaweed-enriched meat products: From
      technological development to assessment of healthy properties.
AB  - Meat consumption is influenced by various kinds of factors, among them health
      implications. Different strategies can be effective in developing meat-based
      functional foods. These basically entail reducing the presence of compounds with
      negative health implications and enhancing the presence of beneficial compounds.
      This article reviews a comprehensive model for the development of meat-based
      functional foods based on a presentation of the research achieved in terms of the
      design and development of qualitatively and quantitatively modified meat products
      (frankfurters, patties and restructured steaks). These were reformulated to
      incorporate nutrients associated with three different seaweeds (wakame-Undaria
      pinnatifida; nori-Porphyra umbilicalis; and sea spaghetti-Himanthalia elongata)
      as sources of bioactive substances, while simultaneously reducing sodium and fat
      and improving fatty acid profiles. Those seaweeds were chosen, because in terms
      of composition and health implications, abundance on Spanish coasts, relatively
      widespread consumption, and suitability in terms of flavour and colour they are
      better suited than others for use as ingredients in new products. It also
      discusses the consequences of the use of this type of meat-based functional foods
      (combination of pork meat and 5% of each seaweed with or without
      hypercholesterolaemic agent included in the diets) on growing animals (Wistar
      male rats), and their effects on different aspects of lipoprotein metabolism,
      oxidative stress and liver structure. This article, then, reports a comprehensive
      approach to the production of seaweed-enriched meat products, considering aspects
      of technological development aimed at achieving the functional effect.

PMID- 28865620
TI  - Assessment of the antioxidant activity of Bifurcaria bifurcata aqueous extract on
      canola oil. Effect of extract concentration on the oxidation stability and
      volatile compound generation during oil storage.
AB  - In this research the antioxidant activity of water extracts of Bifurcaria
      bifurcata (BBE) at different dose against butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was
      evaluated in canola oil. Water extracts were firstly characterized in terms of
      total solid and polyphenolic compound contents, and their antioxidant activity
      together with that of BHT was evaluated using several in vitro tests (DPPH, ABTS,
      ORAC and FRAP). Next, the progress of lipid oxidation was assessed in canola oil
      added with five BBE concentrations (200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000ppm) and two BHT
      concentrations (50 and 200ppm) using an accelerated oxidation test. The progress
      in lipid oxidation was monitored by assessing some chemical indices (peroxide
      value, p-anisidine value, and conjugated dienes) during oil storage and some
      volatile compounds at the end of the storage period. BBE showed a significant
      antioxidant effect, being this ability concentration-dependent. The extent of
      lipid oxidation was inversely related to BBE dose, specially with regard to
      primary oxidation products. At the highest level of BBE, significant decreases of
      primary and secondary oxidation products, with respect to the control, were
      obtained with reduction percentages of 71.53%, 72.78%, 68.17% and 71.3% for
      peroxides, conjugated dienes, p-anisidine and TOTOX values, respectively. A level
      of 600ppm or higher concentration of the extract inhibits the lipid oxidation in
      a similar way than BHT at 200ppm. Regarding the inhibition of the formation of
      volatile compounds, both BBE and BHT strongly inhibited the formation of
      volatiles during oil storage, being this inhibition similar for all the
      concentrations of BBE and BHT essayed. Overall, results indicated that BBE can be
      used as a potential natural additive for improving oxidative stability of canola
      oil.

PMID- 28865621
TI  - Natural fortification of trout with dietary macroalgae and selenised-yeast
      increases the nutritional contribution in iodine and selenium.
AB  - Fish and seafood consumption are increasing worldwide and the contribution of
      aquaculture products to consumers' diets is significant. External feeding in
      aquaculture unlocks the possibility of tailoring fish products with health
      beneficial compounds. A study was undertaken to evaluate the feed fortification
      with an iodine-rich macroalgae (Laminaria digitata) and selenised yeast, at its
      maximum permitted levels, on minerals and vitamins content in rainbow trout
      edible part. Dietary supplementation resulted in a six-fold increase for iodine
      and a 2.9-fold increase for selenium contents in trout fillets without altering
      sensorial traits. The fortified fish presented a nutritional contribution of
      12.5% DRI for iodine and 78% DRI for selenium, but all produced fish could supply
      80% DRI for vitamin D3. Overall, fish from this trial could be labelled as "high
      in selenium and high in vitamin D3" under the EFSA definition for a functional
      food.

PMID- 28865622
TI  - Microalgae and seaweeds for food applications: Challenges and perspectives.

PMID- 28865623
TI  - Assessment of the functional properties of protein extracted from the brown
      seaweed Himanthalia elongata (Linnaeus) S. F. Gray.
AB  - A protein extract from the brown seaweed Himanthalia elongata (Linnaeus) S. F.
      Gray was prepared and its functional properties, colour and amino acid
      composition were assessed for its potential future use by the food industry. The
      total content of amino acids was determined as 54.02+/-0.46gaminoacids/kg dry
      weight, with high levels of the essential amino acids lysine and methionine. SDS
      PAGE showed 5 protein bands with molecular weights of 71.6, 53.7, 43.3, 36.4 and
      27.1kDa. The water holding capacity and oil holding capacity were determined as
      10.27+/-0.09gH2O/g and 8.1+/-0.07goil/g respectively. Foaming activity and
      stability were higher at alkaline pH values. The emulsifying capacity and
      stability of the extract varied depending on the pH and oil used. These results
      demonstrate the potential use of Himanthalia elongata protein extract in the food
      industry.

PMID- 28865624
TI  - Phenolic compounds from three brown seaweed species using LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS.
AB  - The phenolic compounds of extracts from Ascophyllum nodosum (ANE), Bifurcaria
      bifurcata (BBE) and Fucus vesiculosus (FVE) from Galicia (NW Spain) were analyzed
      by liquid chromatography-diode array detection coupled to negative electrospray
      ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS) with the interest to
      evaluate their potential application as functional ingredients. Phlorotannins
      were tentatively identified as the main phenolic compounds in the three extracts,
      followed by phenolic acids, and flavonoids. Fuhalols were present in ANE and BBE,
      while hydroxyfuhalols were identified in BBE and FVE. Eckol derivatives were
      present in the three extracts. Quinic acid derivatives were tentatively
      identified in the three seaweed species; in addition, ANE showed specifically
      hydroxybenzoic and rosmarinic acid derivatives, BBE showed rosmarinic acid, and
      FVE contained p-coumaric and ferulic acid derivatives. Regarding flavonoids,
      acacetin derivatives were tentatively identified in the three extracts,
      hispidulin and a gallocatechin derivative were specifically detected in ANE, and
      cypellocarpin C was present in BBE. In conclusion, all brown seaweed extracts
      studied could be exploited as sources of antioxidant phenolic compounds with
      potential applications in the food and health sectors.

PMID- 28865625
TI  - Proximate composition, phenolic content and in vitro antioxidant activity of
      aqueous extracts of the seaweeds Ascophyllum nodosum, Bifurcaria bifurcata and
      Fucus vesiculosus. Effect of addition of the extracts on the oxidative stability
      of canola oil under accelerated storage conditions.
AB  - Extracts from three macroalgae species (Ascophyllum nodosum (ANE), Bifurcaria
      bifurcata (BBE) and Fucus vesiculosus (FVE)) were tested for proximate
      composition (total solid, protein and total carbohydrate contents), total phenols
      content (TPC), and for their antioxidant activities in vitro in comparison to
      that of BHT compound by using four different assays (ABTS radical cation
      decolouration, DPPH free radical scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant
      power (FRAP) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC)). The inclusion of the
      extracts as oil stabilizers in canola oil in substitution of the synthetic
      antioxidant (BHT) was also evaluated by assessing lipid oxidation parameters
      (peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine value (AV), TBARS value, conjugated dienes (CD)
      and TOTOX index) under accelerated storage conditions (16days, 60 degrees C).
      There was an inverse relationship between total solid content and total
      polyphenols content in the seaweed extracts. FVE showed an intermediate TPC
      (1.15g PGE/100g extract), but it presented the highest in vitro antioxidant
      activity when measured using the ABTS, DPPH and FRAP tests. BBE, that displayed
      the highest TPC (1.99g PGE/100g extract), only showed the highest in vitro
      antioxidant activity when measured using the ORAC test. ANE showed the lowest TPC
      and the lowest antioxidant activity in all the tests performed. The seaweed
      extracts added in a 500ppm concentration significantly reduced the oxidation
      during canola oil storage at 60 degrees C, being this antioxidant effect
      significantly higher than that of BHT added at 50ppm. Results indicate that
      seaweed extracts can effectively inhibit the oxidation of canola oil and they can
      be a healthier alternative to the synthetic antioxidants in the oil industry.

PMID- 28865627
TI  - Embrace Action: Protect Your Colleagues and Family Members by Preparing for
      Emergencies.

PMID- 28865626
TI  - Characterization of dietary fucoxanthin from Himanthalia elongata brown seaweed.
AB  - This study explored Himanthalia elongata brown seaweed as a potential source of
      dietary fucoxanthin which is a promising medicinal and nutritional ingredient.
      The seaweed was extracted with low polarity solvents (n-hexane, diethyl ether,
      and chloroform) and the crude extract was purified with preparative thin layer
      chromatography (P-TLC). Identification, quantification and structure elucidation
      of purified compounds was performed by LC-DAD-ESI-MS and NMR (1H and 13C). P-TLC
      led purification yielded 18.6mg/g fucoxanthin with 97% of purity based on the
      calibration curve, in single-step purification. LC-ESI-MS (parent ion at m/z 641
      [M+H-H2O]+) and NMR spectra confirmed that the purified band contained all-trans
      fucoxanthin as the major compound. Purified fucoxanthin exhibited statistically
      similar (p>0.05) DPPH scavenging capacity (EC50: 12.9MUg/mL) while the FRAP value
      (15.2MUg trolox equivalent) was recorded lower (p<0.05) than the commercial
      fucoxanthin. The promising results of fucoxanthin purity, recovery and activity
      suggested that H. elongata seaweed has potential to be exploited as an alternate
      source for commercial fucoxanthin production.

PMID- 28865628
TI  - Friendly Hostiles: An Important Link to Successful Publishing.

PMID- 28865629
TI  - The Effect of Offloading Heels on Sacral Pressure.
AB  - Offloading a patient's heels during supine surgical procedures is a common
      practice to prevent heel pressure injuries. This practice may increase sacral
      pressure and jeopardize sacral skin integrity, but prophylactic dressings may
      help protect sacral skin. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of
      offloading the heels and of multilayered silicone foam dressings on sacral
      pressure. We measured the sacral pressure of 50 healthy volunteers using a
      pressure-mapping system under four conditions: heels not offloaded and sacral
      dressing applied, heels offloaded and dressing applied, heels not offloaded and
      no dressing, and heels offloaded and no dressing. We used linear mixed-effects
      modeling to compare the effects of these conditions on sacral pressure.
      Offloading the heels significantly increased sacral pressure (P < .001), whereas
      the dressing had no effect on sacral pressure (P = .49). Offloading a patient's
      heels may increase the risk of sacral pressure injuries.

PMID- 28865630
TI  - Professional and Regulatory Infection Control Guidelines: Collaboration to
      Promote Patient Safety.
AB  - Professional organizations and regulatory agencies collaborate on infection
      prevention and control guidelines to support preventing and controlling infection
      in the surgical setting. More specifically, regulatory and accrediting agencies,
      professional associations, and advisory committees create and promote the use of
      evidence-based recommendations for preventing surgical site infections. Many
      agencies perform accreditation surveys to ensure compliance with these standards
      and guidelines. Perioperative personnel can use these resources to implement and
      sustain essential processes for infection prevention and control and to
      facilitate staff member compliance with standards, regulations, and best
      practices. To guide perioperative practice, it is important for nurses to
      understand the role of these agencies and organizations and the resources each
      offers to help ensure the best patient outcomes.

PMID- 28865631
TI  - An Integrative Review of the Hands-Free Technique in the OR.
AB  - Sharps injury rates are proportionally higher in perioperative areas than in
      other practice settings. The hands-free technique (HFT) has been shown to
      decrease the hazards of sharps injuries when passing sharps during surgery. We
      reviewed and synthesized research studies regarding compliance with the HFT and
      factors facilitating its use using a key word search of online databases and a
      secondary search of references. We reviewed English language studies published
      since 2001 regarding HFT compliance rates or related factors using the Johns
      Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model and Guidelines. We found 14
      articles reporting a wide range of HFT compliance rates (ie, 5% to 84%), which
      identified that a number of organizational factors and health care workers'
      perceptions of infection risks influenced the use of the HFT.

PMID- 28865632
TI  - Back to Basics: Pneumatic Tourniquet Use.
AB  - Pneumatic tourniquets are commonly used in surgeries involving the limbs to
      achieve a nearly bloodless surgery and an optimal operating field or when
      administering regional anesthesia during surgery on a limb. Complications can
      arise from the use of tourniquets, including nerve injuries, pain, compartment
      syndrome, pressure injuries, chemical burns, and tissue necrosis. More serious
      injuries-including deep vein thrombosis, thermal damage to tissues, severe
      ischemic injuries, and rhabdomyolysis-also can occur. Therefore, it is important
      for perioperative team members to understand how to use pneumatic tourniquets
      effectively and safely to provide the best possible care to patients. This
      article addresses the safety risks to patients when using pneumatic tourniquets
      and optimal safe use of these devices.

PMID- 28865633
TI  - Guideline Implementation: Positioning the Patient.
AB  - Every surgical procedure requires positioning the patient; however, all surgical
      positions are associated with the potential for the patient to experience a
      positioning injury. The locations and types of potential injuries (eg,
      stretching, compression, pressure injury) depend on the position. Factors that
      may increase the patient's risk for an injury are the length of the procedure and
      risk factors inherent to the patient (eg, weight, age, frailty). AORN's updated
      "Guideline for positioning the patient" provides guidance on injury prevention
      practices for all surgical positions including supine, Trendelenburg, reverse
      Trendelenburg, lateral, lithotomy, prone, and sitting positions and modifications
      of these positions. This article focuses on the key points of the guideline
      covering the use of prophylactic dressings, neurophysiological monitoring, and
      safely positioning the patient in the supine and prone positions. Perioperative
      RNs should review the complete guideline for additional information and for
      guidance when writing and updating policies and procedures.

PMID- 28865634
TI  - Guideline Summary: Positioning the Patient.

PMID- 28865635
TI  - Improving Efficiency and Patient Experiences: The Perioperative Surgical Home
      Model.

PMID- 28865637
TI  - Evidence appraisal of Ravikumar V, Ho AL, Pendhakar AV, Sussman ES, Chow KK, Li
      G. The use of vancomycin powder for surgical prophylaxis following craniotomy.:
      Neurosurgery. 2017;80(5):754-758.

PMID- 28865636
TI  - Clinical Issues-September 2017.
AB  - Performing Staphylococcus aureus decolonization for urgent procedures Key words:
      decolonization, Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, MSSA, mupirocin. Hand hygiene before
      donning gloves Key words: hand hygiene, glove, personal protective equipment.
      Hand hygiene before skin prep Key words: hand hygiene, skin prep, sterile task,
      aseptic task. Scrubbing by stroke versus timed method Key words: surgical hand
      rub, surgical scrub, stroke method, timed method.

PMID- 28865638
TI  - Guideline at a Glance: Information Management.

PMID- 28865639
TI  - Picking up the Cause of the Stroke.

PMID- 28865640
TI  - Child Well-being and Adverse Childhood Experiences in the United States.

PMID- 28865641
TI  - Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience: Addressing the Unique Needs of
      Adolescents.
AB  - Adolescents exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have unique
      developmental needs that must be addressed by the health, education, and social
      welfare systems that serve them. Nationwide, over half of adolescents have
      reportedly been exposed to ACEs. This exposure can have detrimental effects,
      including increased risk for learning and behavioral issues and suicidal
      ideation. In response, clinical and community systems need to carefully plan and
      coordinate services to support adolescents who have been exposed to ACEs, with a
      particular focus on special populations. We discuss how adolescents' needs can be
      met, including considering confidentiality concerns and emerging independence;
      tailoring and testing screening tools for specific use with adolescents;
      identifying effective multipronged and cross-system trauma-informed
      interventions; and advocating for improved policies.

PMID- 28865642
TI  - Adapting the Patient-Centered Medical Home to Address Psychosocial Adversity:
      Results of a Qualitative Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) seeks to improve population
      health. However, PCMH models often focus on improving treatment of chronic
      diseases rather than on addressing psychosocial adversity. We sought to gather
      key stakeholder input about how PCMHs might feasibly and sustainably address
      psychosocial adversity within their patient populations. METHODS: We conducted 25
      semistructured interviews with key stakeholders, such as physicians, nurses,
      medical assistants, and patients. The audiorecorded interviews focused on
      participants' perceptions of the best ways to modify the PCMH to address
      patients' psychosocial adversity. To facilitate information gathering, a
      fictional patient case was presented. Analyses were conducted using a 3-stage
      content-analysis process. RESULTS: Participants identified provider-related and
      systems-level changes necessary for addressing these psychosocial adversities
      effectively. On the provider level, participants thought that practitioners
      should foster trusting relationships with patients and should be emotionally
      present as patients describe their life experiences. Participants also emphasized
      that providers need to have sensitive conversations about adversity and
      resilience. On a systems level, participants discussed that documentation must
      balance privacy and include relevant information in the medical record. In
      addition, care should be delivered not by a single provider but by a team that
      has a longitudinal relationship with the patient; this care team should include
      behavioral health support. CONCLUSIONS: Participants provided practical
      strategies and highlighted provider and systems level changes to adequately
      address patients' prior psychosocial adversity. Future studies need to assess the
      degree to which such a trauma-informed approach improves patient access,
      outcomes, and care quality, and reduces cost.

PMID- 28865643
TI  - Reclaiming the Patient Encounter.

PMID- 28865644
TI  - ACE, Place, Race, and Poverty: Building Hope for Children.
AB  - Adverse childhood experiences research has focused attention on the importance of
      family safety, stability, and nurturing in ensuring healthy development. This
      safety, stability, and nurturing can be compromised by family poverty,
      discrimination and marginalization, and geographic location. Drawing upon census
      data, this report shows that place, race, and poverty are intertwined concepts
      with particular implications for young children. Examining census tracts
      according to their levels of poverty shows that the poorest census tracts also:
      1) are the "richest" in the proportion of young children, 2) have the least
      realized social, physical, and educational, as well as economic capital, and 3)
      are highly racially segregated and separated from many sources of economic
      opportunity. The implications are that the country's poorest neighborhoods
      require substantially more supports for young children but currently have many
      fewer. This includes individual services to young children and their families but
      also publicly available services and voluntary supports, such as parks,
      playgrounds, and libraries. These data suggest that improving child health
      trajectories and reducing health disparities according to race and socioeconomic
      status therefore will require concerted individual service as well as community
      building efforts directed to poor and usually racially segregated neighborhoods
      and communities.

PMID- 28865645
TI  - Developing a Community-Wide Initiative to Address Childhood Adversity and Toxic
      Stress: A Case Study of The Philadelphia ACE Task Force.
AB  - The Philadelphia ACE Task Force is a community based collaborative of health care
      providers, researchers, community-based organizations, funders, and public sector
      representatives. The mission of the task force is to provide a venue to address
      childhood adversity and its consequences in the Philadelphia metropolitan region.
      In this article we describe the origins and metamorphosis of the Philadelphia ACE
      Task Force, which initially was narrowly focused on screening for adverse
      childhood experiences (ACEs) in health care settings but expanded its focus to
      better represent a true community-based approach to sharing experiences with
      addressing childhood adversity in multiple sectors of the city and region. The
      task force has been successful in developing a research agenda and conducting
      research on ACEs in the urban context, and has identified foci of local activity
      in the areas of professional training and workforce development, community
      education, and local practical interventions around adversity, trauma, and
      resiliency. In this article we also address the lessons learned over the first 5
      years of the task force's existence and offers recommendations for future efforts
      to build a local community-based ACEs collaborative.

PMID- 28865646
TI  - Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences Through the Affordable Care Act:
      Promising Advances and Missed Opportunities.
AB  - Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) occur when children are exposed to trauma
      and/or toxic stress and may have a lifelong effect. Studies have shown that ACEs
      are linked with poor adult health outcomes and could eventually raise already
      high health care costs. National policy interest in ACEs has recently increased,
      as many key players are engaged in community-, state-, and hospital-based efforts
      to reduce factors that contribute to childhood trauma and/or toxic stress in
      children. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has provided a promising foundation for
      advancing the prevention, diagnosis, and management of ACEs and their
      consequences. Although the ACA's future is unclear and it does not adequately
      address the needs of the pediatric population, many of the changes it spurred
      will continue regardless of legislative action (or inaction), and it therefore
      remains an important component of our health care system and national strategy to
      reduce ACEs. We review ways in which some of the current health care policy
      initiatives launched as part of the implementation of the ACA could accelerate
      progress in addressing ACEs by fully engaging and aligning various health care
      stakeholders while recognizing limitations in the law that may cause challenges
      in our attempts to improve child health and well-being. Specifically, we discuss
      coverage expansion, investments in the health workforce, a family-centered care
      approach, increased access to care, emphasis on preventive services, new
      population models, and improved provider payment models.

PMID- 28865647
TI  - Prevent, Screen, Heal: Collective Action to Fight the Toxic Effects of Early Life
      Adversity.

PMID- 28865648
TI  - Financing Mechanisms for Reducing Adversity and Enhancing Resilience Through
      Implementation of Primary Prevention.
AB  - The experience of adversity and toxic stress in childhood is associated with the
      development of chronic health and behavioral health problems. These problems
      contribute substantially to health care expenditures and the overall burden of
      disease. Although a strong scientific literature documents the effectiveness of
      primary prevention in reducing childhood adversity, promoting well-being and
      lessening the incidence of negative outcomes, funding for these interventions is
      highly fragmented across multiple government agencies as well as private and
      philanthropic sectors. It is becoming increasingly clear that improving
      population health will require a concentrated public health effort to improve
      access to and the accountability of these interventions as well as the
      development of novel financing schemes. In this perspective we review existing
      financing mechanisms for funding interventions known to reduce adverse childhood
      experiences and discuss innovative financing approaches that use insurance as
      well as pay-for-success funding mechanisms. The latter require that cost savings
      associated with primary prevention be quantified and that these savings be used
      to offset program costs, sometimes with a return on investment for private
      investors. We provide a series of recommendations regarding better coordination
      and strategic oversight of existing resources as well as the need to further
      develop and validate methodologies for estimating the societal costs and benefits
      associated with the varying social policies that are designed to ameliorate the
      effects of adversity and to build resilience.

PMID- 28865649
TI  - Evolving a More Nurturing Society to Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences.
AB  - This article presents a framework for evolving a society that nurtures the health
      and well-being of its population. We review evidence that adverse social
      conditions, including poverty, conflict, discrimination, and other forms of
      social rejection, contribute immensely to our most ubiquitous psychological,
      behavioral, and health problems. We then enumerate the ways that effective family
      and school prevention programs could ameliorate much of the social adversity
      leading to these problems. The widespread and effective implementation of these
      programs-in primary care, social services, and education-must be a high priority.
      Beyond the implementation of specific programs, however, we must also make a more
      concerted effort to promote prosocial values that support nurturing families and
      schools. Our society's priorities must be to generate specific policies that
      reduce poverty and discrimination and, in so doing, reduce the risk for negative
      health-related outcomes.

PMID- 28865650
TI  - ACEs Implications for Nurses, Nursing Education, and Nursing Practice.

PMID- 28865651
TI  - Lessons From ACEs: Pay Now or Pay (More) Later.

PMID- 28865652
TI  - "Nothing About Us Without Us".

PMID- 28865653
TI  - Culture Matters: Direct Service Programs Cannot Solve Widespread, Complex,
      Intergenerational Social Problems. Culture Change Can.

PMID- 28865654
TI  - Translating Brain Science Research into Community-Level Change.

PMID- 28865655
TI  - How Social Journalism Accelerates the ACEs Movement.

PMID- 28865656
TI  - Mitigating Adverse Childhood Experiences Through Investments in Early Childhood
      Programs.

PMID- 28865657
TI  - ACEs and State Maternal Child Health Programs.

PMID- 28865658
TI  - ACEs in the Criminal Justice System.

PMID- 28865659
TI  - Prioritizing Possibilities for Child and Family Health: An Agenda to Address
      Adverse Childhood Experiences and Foster the Social and Emotional Roots of Well
      being in Pediatrics.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A convergence of theoretical and empirical evidence across many
      scientific disciplines reveals unprecedented possibilities to advance much needed
      improvements in child and family well-being by addressing adverse childhood
      experiences (ACEs), promoting resilience, and fostering nurturance and the social
      and emotional roots of healthy child development and lifelong health. In this
      article we synthesize recommendations from a structured, multiyear field-building
      and research, policy, and practice agenda setting process to address these issues
      in children's health services. METHODS: Between Spring of 2013 and Winter of
      2017, the field-building and agenda-setting process directly engaged more than
      500 individuals and comprised 79 distinct agenda-setting and field-building
      activities and processes, including: 4 in-person meetings; 4 online crowdsourcing
      rounds across 10 stakeholder groups; literature and environmental scans,
      publications documenting ACEs, resilience, and protective factors among US
      children, and commissioning of this special issue of Academic Pediatrics; 8 in
      person listening forums and 31 educational sessions with stakeholders; and a
      range of action research efforts with emerging community efforts. Modified Delphi
      processes and grounded theory methods were used and iterative and structured
      synthesis of input was conducted to discern themes, priorities, and
      recommendations. RESULTS: Participants discerned that sufficient scientific
      findings support the formation of an applied child health services research and
      policy agenda. Four overarching priorities for the agenda emerged: 1) translate
      the science of ACEs, resilience, and nurturing relationships into children's
      health services; 2) cultivate the conditions for cross-sector collaboration to
      incentivize action and address structural inequalities; 3) restore and reward for
      promoting safe and nurturing relationships and full engagement of individuals,
      families, and communities to heal trauma, promote resilience, and prevent ACEs;
      and 4) fuel "launch and learn" research, innovation, and implementation efforts.
      Four research areas arose as central to advancing these priorities in the short
      term. These are related to: 1) family-centered clinical protocols, 2) assessing
      effects on outcomes and costs, 3) capacity-building and accountability, and 4)
      role of provider self-care to quality of care. Finally, we identified 16 short
      term actions to leverage existing policies, practices, and structures to advance
      agenda priorities and research priorities. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to address the
      high prevalence and negative effects of ACEs on child health are needed,
      including widespread and concrete understanding and strategies to promote
      awareness, resilience, and safe, stable, nurturing relationships as foundational
      to healthy child development and sustainable well-being throughout life. A
      paradigm-shifting evolution in individual, organizational, and collective
      mindsets, policies, and practices is required. Shifts will emphasize the
      centrality of relationships and regulation of emotion and stress to brain
      development as well as overall health. They will elevate relationship-centered
      methods to engage individuals, families, and communities in self-care related to
      ACEs, stress, trauma, and building the resilience and nurturing relationships
      science has revealed to be at the root of well-being. Findings reflect a palpable
      hope for prevention, mitigation, and healing of individual, intergenerational,
      and community trauma associated with ACEs and provide a road map for doing so.

PMID- 28865660
TI  - Promoting Lifelong Health and Well-being: Staying the Course to Promote Health
      and Prevent the Effects of Adverse Childhood and Community Experiences.

PMID- 28865662
TI  - Aligning Community Capacity, Networks, and Solutions to Address Adverse Childhood
      Experiences and Increase Resilience.

PMID- 28865661
TI  - Methods to Assess Adverse Childhood Experiences of Children and Families: Toward
      Approaches to Promote Child Well-being in Policy and Practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advances in human development sciences point to tremendous
      possibilities to promote healthy child development and well-being across life by
      proactively supporting safe, stable and nurturing family relationships (SSNRs),
      teaching resilience, and intervening early to promote healing the trauma and
      stress associated with disruptions in SSNRs. Assessing potential disruptions in
      SSNRs, such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can contribute to assessing
      risk for trauma and chronic and toxic stress. Asking about ACEs can help with
      efforts to prevent and attenuate negative impacts on child development and both
      child and family well-being. Many methods to assess ACEs exist but have not been
      compared. The National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) now measures ACEs for
      children, but requires further assessment and validation. METHODS: We identified
      and compared methods to assess ACEs among children and families, evaluated the
      acceptability and validity of the new NSCH-ACEs measure, and identified
      implications for assessing ACEs in research and practice. RESULTS: Of 14 ACEs
      assessment methods identified, 5 have been used in clinical settings (vs public
      health assessment or research) and all but 1 require self or parent report (3
      allow child report). Across methods, 6 to 20 constructs are assessed, 4 of which
      are common to all: parental incarceration, domestic violence, household mental
      illness/suicide, household alcohol or substance abuse. Common additional content
      includes assessing exposure to neighborhood violence, bullying, discrimination,
      or parental death. All methods use a numeric, cumulative risk scoring
      methodology. The NSCH-ACEs measure was acceptable to respondents as evidenced by
      few missing values and no reduction in response rate attributable to asking about
      children's ACEs. The 9 ACEs assessed in the NSCH co-occur, with most children
      with 1 ACE having additional ACEs. This measure showed efficiency and
      confirmatory factor analysis as well as latent class analysis supported a
      cumulative risk scoring method. Formative as well as reflective measurement
      models further support cumulative risk scoring and provide evidence of predictive
      validity of the NSCH-ACEs. Common effects of ACEs across household income groups
      confirm information distinct from economic status is provided and suggest use of
      population-wide versus high-risk approaches to assessing ACEs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although important variations exist, available ACEs measurement methods are
      similar and show consistent associations with poorer health outcomes in absence
      of protective factors and resilience. All methods reviewed appear to coincide
      with broader goals to facilitate health education, promote health and, where
      needed, to mitigate the trauma, chronic stress, and behavioral and emotional
      sequelae that can arise with exposure to ACEs. Assessing ACEs appears acceptable
      to individuals and families when conducted in population-based and clinical
      research contexts. Although research to date and neurobiological findings compel
      early identification and health education about ACEs in clinical settings,
      further research to guide use in pediatric practice is required, especially as it
      relates to distinguishing ACEs assessment from identifying current family
      psychosocial risks and child abuse. The reflective as well as formative
      psychometric analyses conducted in this study confirm use of cumulative risk
      scoring for the NSCH-ACEs measure. Even if children have not been exposed to
      ACEs, assessing ACEs has value as an educational tool for engaging and educating
      families and children about the importance of SSNRs and how to recognize and
      manage stress and learn resilience.

PMID- 28865663
TI  - Income Inequality and the Differential Effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences in
      US Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can affect health and development
      across the life course. Despite a general understanding that adversity is
      associated with lower income, we know less about how ACEs manifest at different
      income levels and how these income-related patterns affect children's health and
      development. METHODS: Data from the 2011 to 2012 National Survey of Children's
      Health were used to examine the prevalence of 9 ACEs in US children, across 4
      levels of household income, and in relationship to 5 parent-reported measures of
      child health. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression models
      were used to examine the associations between number of ACEs and children's
      health outcomes on the basis of the 4 income groups. RESULTS: When partitioned
      according to income strata, the proportion of children who experienced ACEs
      showed a steep income gradient, particularly for children who experienced >=4
      ACEs. The linear gradient across income groups was less pronounced for each
      specific ACE, with several ACEs (experience of divorce, drug and alcohol
      exposure, parental mental illness) showing high reported prevalence in all but
      the highest income group. Multivariate analysis showed a consistent income
      related gradient for each of the health outcomes. However, higher income was not
      necessarily found to be a protective factor against ACEs. CONCLUSIONS: ACEs are
      distributed across the income ladder and not just concentrated below the poverty
      level. This suggests that a more comprehensive policy strategy that includes
      targeted as well as universal interventions is warranted.

PMID- 28865664
TI  - Responding to ACEs With HOPE: Health Outcomes From Positive Experiences.
AB  - This article introduces a framework called "HOPE: Health Outcomes From Positive
      Experiences." The HOPE framework focuses on the need to actively promote positive
      childhood experiences that contribute to healthy development and well-being, as
      well as prevent or mitigate the effect of adverse childhood experiences and other
      negative environmental influences. Key positive childhood experiences fall within
      4 broad categories: being in nurturing, supportive relationships; living,
      developing, playing, and learning in safe, stable, protective, and equitable
      environments; having opportunities for constructive social engagement and
      connectedness; and learning social and emotional competencies. The HOPE framework
      grows out of and complements prior holistic approaches to child health care.

PMID- 28865665
TI  - A New Framework for Addressing Adverse Childhood and Community Experiences: The
      Building Community Resilience Model.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We propose a transformative approach to foster collaboration across
      child health, public health, and community-based agencies to address the root
      causes of toxic stress and childhood adversity and to build community resilience.
      METHODS: Physicians, members of social service agencies, and experts in toxic
      stress and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were interviewed to inform
      development of the Building Community Resilience (BCR) model. Through a series of
      key informant interviews and focus groups, we sought to understand the role of
      BCR for child health systems and their partners to reduce toxic stress and build
      community resilience to improve child health outcomes. RESULTS: Key informants
      indicated the intentional approach to ACEs and toxic stress through continuous
      quality improvement (data-driven decisions and program development, partners
      testing and adapting to changes to their needs, and iterative development and
      testing) which provides a mechanism by which social determinants or a population
      health approach could be introduced to physicians and community partners as part
      of a larger effort to build community resilience. Structured interviews also
      reveal a need for a framework that provides guidance, structure, and support for
      child health systems and community partners to develop collective goals, shared
      work plans, and a means for data-sharing to reinforce the components that will
      contribute to community resilience. CONCLUSIONS: Key informant interviews and
      focus group dialogues revealed a deep understanding of the factors related to
      toxic stress and ACEs. Respondents endorsed the BCR approach as a means to
      explore capacity issues, reduce fragmented health care delivery, and facilitate
      integrated systems across partners in efforts to build community resilience.
      Current financing models are seen as a potential barrier, because they often do
      not support restructured roles, partnership development, and the work to sustain
      upstream efforts to address toxic stress and community resilience.

PMID- 28865666
TI  - The Community and Public Well-being Model: A New Framework and Graduate
      Curriculum for Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences.

PMID- 28865667
TI  - Quality of life, functional status and adhesiolysis during elective abdominal
      surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adhesiolysis during abdominal surgery can cause iatrogenic organ
      injury, increased operative time and a more complicated convalescence. We
      assessed the impact of adhesiolysis and adhesiolysis-related complications on
      quality of life and functional status following elective abdominal surgery.
      METHODS: Prospective cohort study, comparing patients requiring and not requiring
      adhesiolysis during an elective laparotomy or laparoscopy using the SF-36 and
      DASI questionnaire scores. RESULTS: 518 patients were included. Pre- and
      postoperative quality of life did not significantly differ between both groups.
      Patients with adhesiolysis had a significantly lower pre- and postoperative
      functional status (p < 0.01). Higher age, concomitant pulmonary disease,
      postoperative complications, readmissions and chronic abdominal pain 6 months
      after surgery were all associated with a significant and independent decline in
      quality of life and functional status six months after surgery. CONCLUSION:
      Adhesiolysis in itself does not affect functional status and quality of life six
      months after surgery. Postoperative complications, readmissions and chronic
      abdominal pain are associated with a lower health status.

PMID- 28865668
TI  - Management of colonoscopic perforations: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perforation during colonoscopy is a rare but well recognized
      complication with significant morbidity and mortality. We aim to systematically
      review the currently available literature concerning care and outcomes of colonic
      perforation. An algorithm is created to guide the practitioner in management of
      this challenging clinical scenario. DATA SOURCES: A systematic review of the
      literature based on PRISMA-P guidelines was performed. We evaluate 31 articles
      focusing on findings over the past 10 years. CONCLUSION: Colonoscopic perforation
      is a rare event and published management techniques are marked by their
      heterogeneity. Reliable conclusions are limited by the nature of the data
      available - mainly single institution, retrospective studies. Consensus
      conclusions include a higher rate of perforation from therapeutic colonoscopy
      when compared to diagnostic colonoscopy and the sigmoid as the most common site
      of perforation. Mortality appears driven by pre-existing conditions. Treatment
      must be tailored according to the patient's comorbidities and clinical status as
      well as the specific conditions during the colonoscopy that led to the
      perforation.

PMID- 28865669
TI  - Reply for comment on "Bioflocculation management through high-rate contact
      stabilization: A promising technology to recover organic carbon from low-strength
      wastewater by Rahman, A., Meerburg, F. A., Ravadagundhi, S., Wett, B., Jimenez,
      J., Bott, C., Al-Omari, A., Riffat, R., Murthy, S. and De Clippeleir, H. [Water
      Research 104 (2016) 485-496]".

PMID- 28865670
TI  - Estimation of optimal donor number in Bone Marrow Donor Registry: Hong Kong's
      experience.
AB  - Better outcome for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) requires
      optimal matching between donor and recipient at the HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DRB1
      loci. This study estimates the likelihood of identifying HLA matched donors in
      Hong Kong. 7595 volunteer unrelated Chinese donors at the Hong Kong Bone Marrow
      Donor Registry were typed with HLA-A, -B, -C and -DRB1 genotypes. The matching
      probabilities for 8/8 and 7/8 HLA match via the matching models were determined.
      Based on current 100,000 donors in the HKBMDR, the matching probabilities are 45%
      at 8/8 HLA match and 65% at 7/8 match. By increasing the registry to 200,000, the
      likelihoods of match become 54% and 73% at 8/8 and 7/8 match stringencies
      respectively. Our findings may be helpful in planning future donor recruitment
      and HLA typing. A cost-effective Bone Marrow Donor Registry with a larger pool of
      donors could increase chance of matching and the success of HSCT.

PMID- 28865672
TI  - Coming of Age.

PMID- 28865671
TI  - Imaging of Ankle Impingement Syndromes.
AB  - Ankle impingement syndromes are a commonly encountered clinical entity seen in
      athletes, secondary to repetitive forceful microtrauma. Symptoms are related to
      impingement of osseous or soft tissue abnormalities in the ankle joint, in
      particular the tibiotalar joint, which may result in painful limitation of ankle
      movements. Imaging modalities, such as radiographs and magnetic resonance
      imaging, are very useful in diagnosing osseous and soft tissue abnormalities seen
      in different types of ankle impingement syndromes. This article reviews the
      classification of ankle impingement syndromes, their etiology, and clinical and
      radiological findings.

PMID- 28865673
TI  - Locked to a wrong body: Eating disorders as the outcome of a primary disturbance
      in multisensory body integration.
AB  - In his recent paper "Distorted body representations in anorexia nervosa" Gadsby
      (2017) discussed empirical evidence regarding anorexic patients' distorted body
      representations. In particular, he interpreted them using the O'Shaughnessy's
      long-term body image (LTB) hypothesis (O'Shaughnessy, 1998): individuals with
      anorexia nervosa (AN) have a distorted LTB that tracks changes in the spatial
      content of the body and supplies this distorted content to other body
      representations. Even if we agree on the involvement of body memory in the
      distorted body representation, an open issue not fully addressed in the paper is:
      why AN patients do not update their LTBs to reflect their true dimensions? Our
      correspondence tries to answer to this question using a new neuropsychological
      and neurobiological theory: the Allocentric Lock Theory - ALT.

PMID- 28865674
TI  - Tumor Regression Grade After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation and Surgery for Low
      Rectal Cancer Evaluated by Multiple Correspondence Analysis: Ten Years as Minimum
      Follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of Mandard's tumor regression grade (TRG) classification is
      still controversial in defining the prognostic role of patients who have
      undergone neoadjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) and total mesorectal excision. The
      present study evaluated multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) as a tool to
      better cluster variables, including TRG, for a homogeneous prognosis. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: A total of 174 patients with a minimum follow-up period of 10 years
      were stratified into 2 groups: group A (TRG 1-3) and group B (TRG 4-5) using
      Mandard's classification. Overall survival and disease-free survival were
      analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Subsequently, MCA was used
      to analyze TRG plus the other prognostic variables. RESULTS: The overall response
      to CRT was 55.7%, including 13.2% with a pathologic complete response. TRG group
      A correlated strictly with pN status (P = .0001) and had better overall and
      disease-free survival than group B (85.1% and 75.6% vs. 71.1% and 67.3%; P = .06
      and P = .04, respectively). The TRG 3 subset (about one third of our series)
      showed prognostically heterogeneous behavior. In addition to multivariate
      analysis, MCA separated TRG 1 and TRG 2 versus TRG 4 and TRG 5 well and also
      allocated TRG 3 patients close to the unfavorable prognostic variables.
      CONCLUSION: TRG classification should be used in all pathologic reports after
      neoadjuvant CRT and radical surgery to enrich the prognostic profile of patients
      with an intermediate risk of relapse and to identify patients eligible for more
      conservative treatment. Thus, MCA could provide added value.

PMID- 28865676
TI  - Determining the outcomes of interventions to prevent respiratory syncytial virus
      disease in children: what to measure?
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of viral acute lower
      respiratory tract illness (LRTI) in young children, and a major cause of hospital
      admissions and health-care utilisation globally. Substantial efforts have been
      made to develop RSV vaccines and vaccine-like monoclonal antibodies to prevent
      acute RSV LRTI. Prevention of acute disease could improve long-term lung health,
      with potential effects on wheezing, asthma, and chronic lung disease. This
      Personal View describes assessments that should be initiated during clinical
      trials and continued after licensure to fully evaluate the effect of RSV
      preventive interventions. These assessments include recording the incidence of
      RSV-specific LRTI and all-cause LRTI through two RSV seasons, and assessment of
      the prevalence and severity of recurrent wheezing or asthma in children aged up
      to 6 years. Standardised assessments in diverse settings are needed to fully
      determine the effect of interventions for the prevention of RSV disease.

PMID- 28865675
TI  - Plasma galectin-3 levels are associated with the risk of incident chronic kidney
      disease.
AB  - Galectin-3 has been proposed as a novel biomarker of heart failure and cardiac
      fibrosis, and may also be associated with fibrosis of other organs such as the
      kidney. To determine this, we prospectively analyzed data from 9,148
      Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study participants with measured
      plasma galectin-3 levels (baseline, visit 4, 1996-98) and without prevalent
      chronic kidney disease (CKD) or heart failure. We identified 1,983 incident CKD
      cases through December 31, 2013 over a median follow-up of 16 years. At baseline,
      galectin-3 was cross-sectionally associated with estimated glomerular filtration
      rate and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio; both significant. The results were
      adjusted for age, sex, race-center, education, physical activity, smoking status,
      body mass index, systolic blood pressure, anti-hypertensive medication use,
      history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fasting blood glucose, and rs4644 (a
      single nucleotide polymorphism of galactin-3). There was a significant, graded,
      and positive association between galectin-3 and incident CKD (quartile 4 vs. 1
      hazard ratio: 2.22 [95% confidence interval: 1.89, 2.60]). The association was
      attenuated but remained significant after adjustment for estimated glomerular
      filtration rate, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, troponin T, and N-terminal
      pro-brain natriuretic peptide (quartile 4 vs. 1 hazard ratio: 1.75 [95%
      confidence interval: 1.49, 2.06]), and was stronger among those with hypertension
      at baseline (significant interaction). Thus, in this community-based population,
      higher plasma galectin-3 levels were associated with an elevated risk of
      developing incident CKD, particularly among those with hypertension.

PMID- 28865677
TI  - Berkeleyacetal C, a meroterpenoid isolated from the fungus Penicillium
      purpurogenum MHZ 111, exerts anti-inflammatory effects via inhibiting NF-kappaB,
      ERK1/2 and IRF3 signaling pathways.
AB  - Berkeleyacetal C (BAC), a meroterpenoid compound, was isolated from the fungus
      Penicillium purpurogenum MHZ 111 and showed favorable activity of inhibiting
      nitrogen oxide (NO) production of macrophages stimulated by lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS) in our preliminary screening. In order to develop novel therapeutic drug
      for acute and chronic inflammatory diseases, the anti-inflammatory activity and
      underlying mechanisms of BAC were investigated in macrophages and neutrophils.
      The results showed that BAC significantly inhibited the expression of inducible
      nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and the following NO production by macrophages. The
      expression and secretion of key pro-inflammatory factors and chemokines,
      including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha),interleukin-6 (IL-6),
      interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha (MIP
      1alpha), and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) were also intensively
      suppressed by BAC. Furthermore, BAC also markedly inhibited activation of
      neutrophils and reactive oxygen species production. In mechanism study, BAC
      selectively suppressed phosphorylation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB),
      extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), and interferon
      regulatory transcription factor 3 (IRF3) during the activation of NF-kappaB,
      mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), signal transducer and activator of
      transcription 1 and 3 (STAT1/3), and IRF3 signaling pathways induced by LPS. In
      summary, BAC exerts strong anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting NF-kappaB,
      ERK1/2 and IRF3 signaling pathways and thereby shows great potential to be
      developed into therapeutic agent for inflammatory disorders.

PMID- 28865678
TI  - Gabapentin and its salicylaldehyde derivative alleviate allodynia and hypoalgesia
      in a cisplatin-induced neuropathic pain model.
AB  - Cisplatin is an effective chemotherapeutic agent indicated in cancer
      chemotherapy. However, its clinical use is associated with peripheral neuropathy
      that invariably impairs patient quality of life. Gabapentin (GBP) is an effective
      analgesic for neuropathic pain conditions but its clinical efficacy in cisplatin
      induced neuropathic pain (CINP) is limited, in addition to generating unwanted
      side-effects. In this study, a gabapentin-salicylaldehyde derivative [gabapentsal
      (GPS)] was synthesized and evaluated to explore any potential benefit in
      comparison with GBP in a rat model of CIPN. Administration of cisplatin
      (3.0mg/kg/week, i.p.) for five consecutive weeks generated reproducible
      mechanical-allodynia (decreased paw withdrawal threshold to von Frey filament
      application; PWT, g) and thermal hypoalgesia (increased nociceptive reaction
      latency in the hot plate paradigm; s). Treatment with GBP or its derivative on
      the 37th day of the experimental protocol, dose dependently attenuated cisplatin
      induced nocifensive behaviors. Accordingly, doses of GBP (50-100mg/kg, i.p.) and
      GPS (25-100mg/kg, i.p.) suppressed the expression of CINP by normalizing the PWT
      and hot plate response latency 1h and 3h post administration. In the rotarod
      paradigm, GBP at all doses markedly impaired motor performance, whilst GPS was
      devoid of motor incoordination except at the highest dose, when a mild impairment
      occurred. Salicylaldehyde alone had no effect on CINP or rotarod performance and
      neither was there any synergism when coadministered with GBP. These findings
      suggest that both GBP and GPS have beneficial effects in the neuropathic pain
      model though GPS may be potentially more useful in the management of CINP.

PMID- 28865680
TI  - Year Two: The Effort Expands!

PMID- 28865681
TI  - Lifelong Learning through Research Techniques Made Simple.

PMID- 28865679
TI  - Quantification of myocardial perfusion reserve using dynamic SPECT images of
      patients with chronic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an independent risk factor for
      cardiovascular disorders. The aim of this study was to examine whether the
      quantitatively measured myocardial blood flow (MBF) or myocardial perfusion
      reserve (MPR), calculated by dynamic single photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT) analysis using a cardiac cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) gamma camera, was
      related to renal dysfunction in patients with normal myocardial perfusion imaging
      (MPI) findings. METHODS: The study population consisted of 46 patients with CKD
      and 46 individuals without CKD (controls). Their MPR index was quantitatively
      measured using adenosine MPI with a cardiac CZT gamma camera. All assessments
      were with a single tissue compartment kinetic model. The K1 value was calculated
      on stress and at-rest images. To obtain the MPR index we divided K1 stress-by K1
      at-rest values. RESULTS: The at-rest K1 value was significantly higher and the
      MPR index was significantly lower in patients with CKD than those without CKD
      [CKD vs. CONTROLS: at-rest K1 value, 0.21 (0.17-0.25) vs. 0.19 (0.16-0.22),
      p=0.040; MPR index, 1.86 (1.69-2.22) vs. 2.19 (1.93-2.41), p<0.001]. The stress
      K1 values were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: The MPR index is
      significantly lower in CKD patients; this is considered as being mainly due to an
      increase in the at-rest K1 value.

PMID- 28865682
TI  - Purification of Trypanosoma cruzi metacyclic trypomastigotes by ion exchange
      chromatography in sepharose-DEAE, a novel methodology for host-pathogen
      interaction studies.
AB  - Metacyclic trypomastigotes are essential for the understanding of the biology of
      Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease. However, obtaining these
      biological stages in axenic medium is difficult. Techniques based on charge and
      density of the parasite during different stages have been implemented, without
      showing a high efficiency in the purification of metacyclic trypomastigotes. So
      far, there is no protocol implemented where sepharose-DEAE is used as a resin.
      Therefore, herein we tested its ability to purify metacyclic trypomastigotes in
      Liver Infusion Triptose (LIT) medium cultures. A simple, easy-to-execute and
      effective protocol based on ion exchange chromatography on Sepharose-DEAE resin
      for the purification of T. cruzi trypomastigotes is described. T. cruzi strains
      from the Discrete Typing Units (DTUs) I and II were used. The strains were
      harvested in LIT medium at a concentration of 1*107epimastigotes/mL. We
      calculated the time of trypomastigotes increment (TTI). Based on the data
      obtained, Ion exchange chromatography was performed with DEAE-sepharose resin. To
      verify the purity and viability of the trypomastigotes, a culture was carried out
      in LIT medium with subsequent verification with giemsa staining. To evaluate if
      the technique affected the infectivity of trypomastigotes, in vitro assays were
      performed in Vero cells and in vivo in ICR-CD1 mice. The technique allowed the
      purification of metacyclic trypomastigotes of other stages of T. cruzi in a
      percentage of 100%, a greater recovery was observed in cultures of 12days. There
      were differences regarding the recovery of metacyclic trypomastigotes for both
      DTUs, being DTU TcI the one that recovered a greater amount of these forms. The
      technique did not affect parasite infectivity in vitro or/and in vivo.

PMID- 28865683
TI  - Evaluation of near-miss and adverse events in radiation oncology using a
      comprehensive causal factor taxonomy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Incident learning systems (ILSs) are a popular strategy for improving
      safety in radiation oncology (RO) clinics, but few reports focus on the causes of
      errors in RO. The goal of this study was to test a causal factor taxonomy
      developed in 2012 by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and
      adopted for use in the RO: Incident Learning System (RO-ILS). METHODS AND
      MATERIALS: Three hundred event reports were randomly selected from an
      institutional ILS database and Safety in Radiation Oncology (SAFRON), an
      international ILS. The reports were split into 3 groups of 100 events each: low
      risk institutional, high-risk institutional, and SAFRON. Three raters
      retrospectively analyzed each event for contributing factors using the American
      Association of Physicists in Medicine taxonomy. RESULTS: No events were described
      by a single causal factor (median, 7). The causal factor taxonomy was found to be
      applicable for all events, but 4 causal factors were not described in the
      taxonomy: linear accelerator failure (n = 3), hardware/equipment failure (n = 2),
      failure to follow through with a quality improvement intervention (n = 1), and
      workflow documentation was misleading (n = 1). The most common causal factor
      categories contributing to events were similar in all event types. The most
      common specific causal factor to contribute to events was a "slip causing
      physical error." Poor human factors engineering was the only causal factor found
      to contribute more frequently to high-risk institutional versus low-risk
      institutional events. CONCLUSIONS: The taxonomy in the study was found to be
      applicable for all events and may be useful in root cause analyses and future
      studies. Communication and human behaviors were the most common errors affecting
      all types of events. Poor human factors engineering was found to specifically
      contribute to high-risk more than low-risk institutional events, and may
      represent a strategy for reducing errors in all types of events.

PMID- 28865684
TI  - Causal factors for error in radiation oncology.

PMID- 28865685
TI  - Association Between Compliance with Triage Directions from an Organized State
      Trauma System and Trauma Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Louisiana Emergency Response Network (LERN), a statewide trauma
      system, has a single communication center with real-time data on hospital
      capacity across the state. With these data, scene information, and a standardized
      triage protocol, prehospital providers are directed to the most appropriate
      hospital. The purpose of our study was to compare outcomes between those patients
      who complied with the LERN communication center direction and those who did not.
      STUDY DESIGN: Trauma patients directed by LERN from the field in 2014 were
      included. Patients who followed the LERN communication center direction were
      considered the compliant group. Patients brought to a hospital inconsistent with
      the LERN direction were considered the noncompliant group. Chi-square analysis
      was used to compare differences between groups and a p value of <0.05 was
      considered statistically significant. RESULTS: During the study period, LERN
      directed 14,071 patients to a destination hospital. Prehospital providers were
      compliant with the LERN direction in 13,037 (92.7%) patients and noncompliant in
      1,034 (7.3%) patients. There were fewer patients in the compliant group (570 of
      13,037 [4.3%]) requiring transfer to a second hospital than in the noncompliant
      group (312 of 1,034 [30.2%]) (p < 0.01). The mortality rate was lower in the
      compliant group (81 of 13,037 [0.6%]) than in the noncompliant group (21 of 1,034
      [2.03%]) (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Following direction from a central
      communication center with real-time hospital capacity data yielded a 6-fold
      decrease in secondary transfer and a 3-fold decrease in mortality. These data
      emphasize the value of an organized statewide trauma network that routes patients
      to the appropriate facilities.

PMID- 28865687
TI  - Electrohydrodynamic methods for the development of pulmonary drug delivery
      systems.
AB  - Electrospinning and electrospraying are two highly versatile and scalable
      electrohydrodynamic methods, which have attracted considerable attention during
      the last years towards the fabrication of polymer-based drug delivery systems.
      The latter may be obtained in the form of nano- or microfibers (via
      electrospinning) or as drug-loaded nano- and microparticles (via
      electrospraying). This review article begins with an introduction on the basic
      principles and the important influencing parameters governing the
      electrospinning/electrospraying processes, followed by an overview on their use
      for the development of nano/microfibers and nano/microparticles destined for use
      in pharmaceutical applications. Focus is given on research efforts targeting in
      the formulation of drug delivery systems and devices designed for pulmonary drug
      delivery applications thus emphasizing on the potential use of electrospinning
      and electrospraying in the area of inhaled medicines.

PMID- 28865686
TI  - Use of the hyphenated LC-MS/MS technique and NMR/IR spectroscopy for the
      identification of exemestane stress degradation products during the drug
      development.
AB  - Exemestane (6-Methyleneandrosta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione) active pharmaceutical
      ingredient (EE-3) was subjected to thermal, photolytic, oxidative, acidic and
      base stress conditions prescribed by the ICH (International Conference on
      Harmonization) guideline Q1A(R2). EE-3 was found to degrade in base, acidic and
      oxidative conditions. Eleven new degradation products of EE-3 were characterized
      by the LC-MS/MS technique. One of these impurities was isolated and identified by
      the LC-MS/MS, NMR and IR techniques. The LC-MS/MS studies were carried out to
      establish fragmentation pathways of EE-3 and its new impurity. Based on the
      results obtained from different spectroscopic studies, this impurity was
      characterized as 3-hydroxy-1,6-dimethyl-oestratetraen-(1, 3, 5(10), 6)-17-one (EE
      3Z). The degradation pathway of EE-3 leading to the generation of eleven products
      was proposed and this has not been reported so far. The separation of EE-3 from
      its impurities (process-related and degradants) was achieved using a Gemini C18
      column (150mm*4.6mm*3MUm) with gradient elution. The degradation products were
      well resolved from the main peak and its impurities, thus proving the method's
      stability and indicating power of the method. The method was validated according
      to the ICH guidelines for parameters such as specificity, limit of detection,
      limit of quantitation, precision, linearity, accuracy, robustness and system
      suitability.

PMID- 28865688
TI  - ?

PMID- 28865689
TI  - ?

PMID- 28865690
TI  - [Cardiovascular disease in women in 2017].
AB  - From an anatomical, physiological and clinical point of view, cardiovascular
      diseases in women are specific. Long considered as being less exposed to these
      risks, women are nevertheless victims of coronary disease, which remains, in
      developed countries, the leading cause of death in women. The situation is all
      the more concerning given that the number of young women presenting risk factors
      is constantly rising. Encouraging female patients to become players in their
      health care with regard to this pathology is especially important given that
      effective treatments exist which can improve the prognosis.

PMID- 28865691
TI  - [Emergency treatment of myocardial infarction in women].
AB  - Acute myocardial infarction (MI) affects mainly men. In women, chest pain is less
      typical, delaying the diagnosis and increasing the time before treatment is
      delivered. Morbidity-mortality is greater notably due to a modification of the
      myocardial reperfusion strategy. The acute care of MI is almost identical for men
      and women. Knowing more about the epidemiology of women with MI enables
      prevention strategies to be targeted.

PMID- 28865692
TI  - [Raising women's awareness of cardiovascular risks].
AB  - Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier, a cardiologist and vascular specialist at Lille
      university regional hospital, is a leading spokesperson for women in the field of
      the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. One of her many roles is head of the
      'heart, arteries and women health care pathway' set up in 2013 at Lille
      university hospital. She discusses the importance of this specific and
      multidisciplinary care pathway at a time when epidemiological data show that the
      management of women's cardiovascular health has become a public health priority.

PMID- 28865693
TI  - [Therapeutic education program on stroke for prevention of the vascular risk in
      women].
AB  - Stroke is a disease whose frequency is increasing especially in women and in the
      elderly, and that is associated with major functional impairment with adverse
      consequences in terms of quality of life. Implementation of a therapeutic
      education program is helpful for patients and their relatives so as to acquire
      skills to manage their own health, with the goal of reducing recurrences and
      improving personal experience of the disease.

PMID- 28865694
TI  - [Cardiorespiratory arrest at the age of 30].
AB  - The cardiovascular risk of women is specific and polymorphous. Delays in
      treatment in women are evident and caused by multiple social and anthropological
      factors as well as changes to lifestyle habits which are becoming similar to
      those of men. Young women thereby have a higher risk of sudden death than the
      rest of the female and general population. A nurse who experienced
      cardiorespiratory arrest at the age of 30 shares her story.

PMID- 28865695
TI  - [Innovating to support the development of outpatient surgery].
AB  - Le Confluent private hospital in Nantes has opened a unit devoted to outpatient
      surgery. Its architecture, organisation, facilities and services have all been
      designed to treat patients in as short a timeframe as possible.

PMID- 28865696
TI  - [Nursing perspective on the care of people with leprosy in Ivory Coast].
AB  - Lucien Gbadie is a nurse at the Raoul-Follereau Institute in Adzope, Ivory Coast.
      In this article, he describes how people with leprosy or Buruli ulcer are treated
      and supported.

PMID- 28865698
TI  - [The TPE nurse improving the patient's quality of life].
AB  - The impact of interventions by therapeutic education nurses on compliance and the
      quality of life of patients with chronic diseases has been proven. These
      different perspectives of caregivers and patients highlight the specific case of
      the treatment of HIV.

PMID- 28865697
TI  - [Cancer and elderly people, what palliative care?]
AB  - Epidemiological data relating to cancer and the ageing of the population
      highlight the need for oncology, geriatrics and palliative care to work more
      closely together. Geriatric and palliative care assessments in oncology are
      complex procedures and result in the modification of the oncological therapeutic
      choices. They have a significant impact on the methods of treatment of the
      patients concerned.

PMID- 28865699
TI  - [Infections of implantable ports in haematology patients].
AB  - From 2010 to 2015, a study analysed the infections of implantable ports in
      haematology patients. Communication, collaboration and diligence were some of the
      main issues raised.

PMID- 28865700
TI  - ?

PMID- 28865701
TI  - Working in a Refugee Camp in Greece.
AB  - Sophie and Pierre have joined an international team of workers in a humanitarian
      organisation at a makeshift refugee camp in Greece, near the border to Macedonia.

PMID- 28865702
TI  - ?

PMID- 28865703
TI  - ?

PMID- 28865704
TI  - ?

PMID- 28865705
TI  - Corrigendum to "Phosphorus saturation and mobilization in two typical Chinese
      greenhouse vegetable soils" [Chemosphere 172 (2017) 316-324].

PMID- 28865706
TI  - Quantification and visualization of coordination during non-cyclic upper
      extremity motion.
AB  - There are many design challenges in creating at-home tele-monitoring systems that
      enable quantification and visualization of complex biomechanical behavior. One
      such challenge is robustly quantifying joint coordination in a way that is
      intuitive and supports clinical decision-making. This work defines a new measure
      of coordination called the relative coordination metric (RCM) and its
      accompanying normalization schemes. RCM enables quantification of coordination
      during non-constrained discrete motions. Here RCM is applied to a grasping task.
      Fifteen healthy participants performed a reach, grasp, transport, and release
      task with a cup and a pen. The measured joint angles were then time-normalized
      and the RCM time-series were calculated between the shoulder-elbow, shoulder
      wrist, and elbow-wrist. RCM was normalized using four differing criteria: the
      selected joint degree of freedom, angular velocity, angular magnitude, and range
      of motion. Percent time spent in specified RCM ranges was used asa composite
      metric and was evaluated for each trial. RCM was found to vary based on: (1)
      chosen normalization scheme, (2) the stage within the task, (3) the object
      grasped, and (4) the trajectory of the motion. The RCM addresses some of the
      limitations of current measures of coordination because it is applicable to
      discrete motions, does not rely on cyclic repetition, and uses velocity-based
      measures. Future work will explore clinically relevant differences in the RCM as
      it is expanded to evaluate different tasks and patient populations.

PMID- 28865707
TI  - Effect of airway surface liquid on the forces on the pharyngeal wall:
      Experimental fluid-structure interaction study.
AB  - Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is a breathing disorder with a
      multifactorial etiology. The respiratory epithelium is lined with a thin layer of
      airway surface liquid preventing interactions between the airflow and epithelium.
      The effect of the liquid lining in OSAS pathogenesis remains poorly understood
      despite clinical research. Previous studies have shown that the physical
      properties of the airway surface liquid or altered stimulation of the airway
      mechanoreceptors could alleviate or intensify OSAS; however, these studies do not
      provide a clear physical interpretation. To study the forces transmitted from the
      airflow to the liquid-lined compliant wall and to discuss the effects of the
      airway surface liquid properties on the stimulation of the mechanoreceptors, a
      novel and simplified experimental system mimicking the upper airway fundamental
      characteristics (i.e., liquid-lined compliant wall and complex unsteady airflow
      features) was constructed. The fluctuating force on the compliant wall was
      reduced through a damping mechanism when the liquid film thickness and/or the
      viscosity were increased. Conversely, the liquid film damping was reduced when
      the surface tension decreased. Based on the experimental data, empirical
      correlations were developed to predict the damping potential of the liquid film.
      In the future, this will enable us to extend the existing computational fluid
      structure interaction simulations of airflow in the human upper airway by
      incorporating the airway surface liquid effect without adopting two-phase flow
      interface tracking methods. Furthermore, the experimental system developed in
      this study could be used to investigate the fundamental principles of the complex
      once/twice-coupled physical phenomena.

PMID- 28865708
TI  - Computational stability of human knee joint at early stance in Gait: Effects of
      muscle coactivity and anterior cruciate ligament deficiency.
AB  - As one of the most complex and vulnerable structures of body, the human knee
      joint should maintain dynamic equilibrium and stability in occupational and
      recreational activities. The evaluation of its stability and factors affecting it
      is vital in performance evaluation/enhancement, injury prevention and treatment
      managements. Knee stability often manifests itself by pain, hypermobility and
      giving-way sensations and is usually assessed by the passive joint laxity tests.
      Mechanical stability of both the human knee joint and the lower extremity at
      early stance periods of gait (0% and 5%) were quantified here for the first time
      using a hybrid musculoskeletal model of the lower extremity. The roles of muscle
      coactivity, simulated by setting minimum muscle activation at 0-10% levels and
      ACL deficiency, simulated by reducing ACL resistance by up to 85%, on the
      stability margin as well as joint biomechanics (contact/muscle/ligament forces)
      were investigated. Dynamic stability was analyzed using both linear buckling and
      perturbation approaches at the final deformed configurations in gait. The knee
      joint was much more stable at 0% stance than at 5% due to smaller ground reaction
      and contact forces. Muscle coactivity, when at lower intensities (<3% of its
      maximum active force), increased dynamic stability margin. Greater minimum
      activation levels, however, acted asan ineffective strategy to enhance stability.
      Coactivation also substantially increased muscle forces, joint loads and ACL
      force and hence the risk of further injury and degeneration. A deficiency in ACL
      decreases total ACL force (by 31% at 85% reduced stiffness) and the stability
      margin of the knee joint at the heel strike. It also markedly diminishes forces
      in lateral hamstrings (by up to 39%) and contact forces on the lateral plateau
      (by up to 17%). Current work emphasizes the need for quantification of the lower
      extremity stability margin in gait.

PMID- 28865709
TI  - Minilaparoscopy in urology: Systematic review.
AB  - CONTEXT: There has been a boom in recent years in urological procedures using
      minilaparoscopy (ML). OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review of the published
      evidence on ML and its current role in urology. ACQUISITION OF EVIDENCE: We
      performed a search on MedLine spanning October 1983 to December 2016 according to
      PRISMA criteria. A total of 6 comparative articles and 13 series were selected
      for this manuscript. SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE: Only 1 study was randomised, 4
      studies were prospective and comparative, and most were case series in which the
      operations were performed with 3-mm instruments. The most common procedures were
      adrenalectomy, followed by nephrectomy, living donor and pyeloplasty. Other minor
      conditions were also operated on, including cyst decortications,
      pyelolithotomies, lymphadenectomies, varicocelectomies and orchiectomies.
      DISCUSSION: There have been significant technical improvements in recent years in
      the materials of ML. Most procedures were for reconstructive surgery and by
      transperitoneal approach, with a gradually increasing number of cases of
      oncologic surgery. Only 36.8% of the series assessed the cosmetic results with
      validated questionnaires, and 68.4% of the studies used the visual analogue scale
      to measure pain during the postoperative period. CONCLUSIONS: The level of
      evidence of most published studies is low. ML is a reproducible technique for
      urological surgery and is safe even for operations on large surgical masses. The
      procedure's cosmetic and pain results after surgery are superior to those of
      conventional laparoscopy, although these conclusions should be taken with caution
      given the limitations of the current studies.

PMID- 28865711
TI  - Response to a letter to the editor.

PMID- 28865712
TI  - MicroRNA-31 promotes adverse cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in ischemic heart
      disease.
AB  - RATIONALE: Myocardial infarction (MI) triggers a dynamic microRNA response with
      the potential of yielding therapeutic targets. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify
      novel aberrantly expressed cardiac microRNAs post-MI with potential roles in
      adverse remodeling in a rat model, and to provide post-ischemic therapeutic
      inhibition of a candidate pathological microRNA in vivo. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Following microRNA array profiling in rat hearts 2 and 14days post-MI, we
      identified a time-dependent up-regulation of miR-31 compared to sham-operated
      rats. A progressive increase of miR-31 (up to 91.4+/-11.3 fold) was detected in
      the infarcted myocardium by quantitative real-time PCR. Following target
      prediction analysis, reporter gene assays confirmed that miR-31 targets the 3'UTR
      of cardiac troponin-T (Tnnt2), E2F transcription factor 6 (E2f6),
      mineralocorticoid receptor (Nr3c2) and metalloproteinase inhibitor 4 (Timp4)
      mRNAs. In vitro, hypoxia and oxidative stress up-regulated miR-31 and suppressed
      target genes in cardiac cell cultures, whereas LNA-based oligonucleotide
      inhibition of miR-31 (miR-31i) reversed its repressive effect on target mRNAs.
      Therapeutic post-ischemic administration of miR-31i in rats silenced cardiac miR
      31 and enhanced expression of target genes, while preserving cardiac structure
      and function at 2 and 4weeks post-MI. Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF)
      improved by 10% (from day 2 to 30 post-MI) in miR-31i-treated rats, whereas
      controls receiving scrambled LNA inhibitor or placebo incurred a 17%
      deterioration in EF. miR-31i decreased end-diastolic pressure and infarct size;
      attenuated interstitial fibrosis in the remote myocardium and enhanced cardiac
      output. CONCLUSION: miR-31 induction after MI is deleterious to cardiac function
      while its therapeutic inhibition in vivo ameliorates cardiac dysfunction and
      prevents the development of post-ischemic adverse remodeling.

PMID- 28865714
TI  - REMOVED: False aneurysm of the facial artery as complication of sagittal split
      osteotomy, [Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery. Volume 36, Issue 3, April
      2008, Pages 180-182].

PMID- 28865713
TI  - Reduction of depressive symptoms predicts improved glycaemic control: Secondary
      results from the DIAMOS study.
AB  - AIMS: Evidence from randomised trials analysing effects of depression treatment
      on glycaemic control in group comparisons is inconsistent. The aim of this study
      was to test if the reduction of depressive symptoms would explain improved
      glycaemic control irrespective of treatment groups. METHODS: The DIAMOS study
      tested effects of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) versus usual care on
      depressive symptoms in a 12-month prospective trial; HbA1c was a secondary
      outcome. Since the results suggested superiority of CBT for improving depressive
      symptoms, but not HbA1c, we conducted this secondary analysis to test if
      reduction of depressive symptoms could explain improved glycaemic control when
      assessed irrespective of treatment group affiliation. Reduction of depressive
      symptoms was assessed using baseline-to-follow-up changes in the Center for
      Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). We used multiple regression
      analyses, adjusting for baseline HbA1c and depression, group affiliation and
      covariates, to assess associations between reduction of depressive symptoms and
      follow-up HbA1c. RESULTS: 181 participants provided eligible data. Depressive
      symptoms decreased between baseline and follow-up by averagely -5.1+/-11.8 CES-D
      points. Greater reduction of depressive symptoms predicted greater improvement of
      HbA1c at follow-up, while adjusting for baseline HbA1c and covariates (Beta=
      0.24, P=0.004). Additionally, patients with greater reduction of depressive
      symptoms were more likely to reach in-target HbA1c (<7.5%) at follow-up (adjusted
      OR=1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.08, P=0.023). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that
      reduction of depressive symptoms can explain improved glycaemic control.
      Behavioural treatments might aim to improve both affective and glycaemic
      outcomes.

PMID- 28865715
TI  - Plasma oxytocin levels in major depressive and bipolar II disorders.
AB  - Oxytocin may play a role in mood regulation. Research has shown the plasma
      oxytocin level of patients with bipolar I disorder (BD I) during a manic episode
      was significantly higher than that of BD I patients of other statuses, and also
      that of healthy subjects. However, whether or not a difference in the level of
      oxytocin exists between patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and those
      with BD II is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the plasma oxytocin levels
      in MDD and BD II patients in a depressive episode. 119 healthy controls, 135 BD
      II patients, and 97 MDD patients were enrolled. All of the BD II and MDD patients
      were drug-naive, with baseline depressive status 17-item Hamilton Depression
      Rating Scale scores >15. The plasma oxytocin level of the BD II patients was
      significantly higher than that of the MDD patients and controls at baseline.
      After treatment, the plasma oxytocin level of the BD II patients increased
      significantly; however, in the MDD group, the oxytocin level decreased slightly
      after treatment. Our findings suggested more significant plasma oxytocin
      dysregulation in the patients in the BD II group than in the MDD patients and
      controls, both before and after treatment.

PMID- 28865716
TI  - Symptomatic remission in schizophrenia: Results from a risperidone maintenance
      treatment study.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate remission following the treatment of
      schizophrenia patients with risperidone. Clinically stabilized patients with
      schizophrenia (n = 374) were randomly assigned to 4-week, 26-week, or no-dose
      reduction groups, in which the baseline risperidone dose was continued for 4, 26,
      or all weeks during 1-year period. The 'Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale'
      (PANNS) was assessed at baseline and monthly for six months, followed by every
      two months until the last recruited patient completed 1-year follow-up.
      Symptomatic remission was defined according to criteria established by the
      Schizophrenia Working Group. A Generalized Linear Mixed Model indicated
      significant variation in remission over time, which increased after baseline in
      the entire group (F = 49.32, df = 1, 3114, P < 0.001). The overall length of
      risperidone treatment (F = 4.34, df = 1, 416, P = 0.038) and the duration of
      illness (F = 8.51, df = 1, 359, P = 0.004) had significantly negative effects
      upon remission. Baseline remission patients were associated with a significantly
      increased time to relapse compared with the baseline of non-remission patients
      over a one year follow up period (F = 5.74, df = 1, 367, P = 0.017). One-year
      risperidone maintenance treatment increased remission rates in schizophrenia. A
      shorter illness duration, risperidone treatment length, and a lower total PANSS
      score were clinically useful predictors of remission. Achieving remission may
      postpone relapse.

PMID- 28865717
TI  - Measuring learning potential in people with schizophrenia: A comparison of two
      tasks.
AB  - Learning potential measures utilize dynamic assessment methods to capture
      performance changes following training on a cognitive task. Learning potential
      has been explored in schizophrenia research as a predictor of functional outcome
      and there have been calls for psychometric development in this area. Because the
      majority of learning potential studies have utilized the Wisconsin Card Sorting
      Test (WCST), we extended this work using a novel measure, the Rey Osterrieth
      Complex Figure Test (ROCFT). This study had the following aims: 1) to examine
      relationships among different learning potential indices for two dynamic
      assessment tasks, 2) to examine the association between WCST and ROCFT learning
      potential measures, and 3) to address concurrent validity with a performance
      based measure of functioning (Test of Grocery Shopping Skills; TOGSS). Eighty-one
      adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder completed WCST and ROCFT
      learning measures and the TOGSS. Results indicated the various learning potential
      computational indices are intercorrelated and, similar to other studies, we found
      support for regression residuals and post-test scores as optimal indices.
      Further, we found modest relationships between the two learning potential
      measures and the TOGSS. These findings suggest learning potential includes both
      general and task-specific constructs but future research is needed to further
      explore this question.

PMID- 28865718
TI  - Regional supply of outreach service and length of stay in psychiatric hospital
      among patients with schizophrenia: National case mix data analysis in Japan.
AB  - Several clinical trials have demonstrated that linkage to an outreach service can
      prevent prolonged length of stay of patients at psychiatric hospitals. However,
      there has been no investigation of the association between length of stay in
      psychiatric hospital and regional supply of outreach services using national case
      mix data. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between length of
      stay in psychiatric hospital and regional supply of outreach services. We used
      data from the National Patient Survey in Japan, a nationally representative cross
      sectional survey of inpatient care conducted every three years from 1996 to 2014.
      Data from 42,268 patients with schizophrenia who had been admitted to psychiatric
      hospitals were analyzed. After controlling for patient and regional
      characteristics, patients in regions with fewer number of visits for psychiatric
      nursing care at home had significantly longer length of stay in psychiatric
      hospitals. This finding implies that enhancement of the regional supply of
      outreach services would prevent prolonged length of stay in psychiatric
      hospitals.

PMID- 28865719
TI  - The construct and measurement of suicide-related coping.
AB  - Enhancing the ability to cope with suicidal thoughts, urges, and crises is a key
      component of therapeutic work with suicidal patients. Suicide-related coping can
      serve as a treatment target, can provide an additional component in the
      evaluation of suicidal patients, and can serve as an outcome in randomized
      controlled trials for the prevention of suicide. However, to date,
      psychometrically sound measures to assess suicide-related coping are lacking. The
      aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a new measure,
      the Suicide-Related Coping Scale (SRCS). Adult patients who were either admitted
      to a psychiatric inpatient unit (n = 97) or an Emergency Department (n = 232) for
      suicide-related concerns were enrolled in this study. All were administered the
      SRCS at baseline and at one month. Factor analyses and internal consistency
      analyses were conducted. Additional measures were administered to assess
      convergent and divergent validity. Factor analysis of the SRCS revealed two
      factors, internal and external coping strategies. The SRCS had high internal
      consistency, good convergent validity and was sensitive to change. Suicide
      related coping is a promising construct as measured by the SRCS to assess suicide
      related coping in both clinical practice and trials.

PMID- 28865720
TI  - Predictors of short-term repetition of self-harm among patients admitted to an
      emergency room following self-harm: A retrospective one-year cohort study.
AB  - We conducted a retrospective chart-review study, examining predictors of the
      repetition of short-term self-harm (<1 month and <6 months) among the patients
      who were admitted to an emergency department in Japan following self-harm. A
      total of 405 patients were enrolled and were followed-up for a subsequent one
      year. The incidence of repeated self-harm within one- and six- months were 6.4%
      and 13.1%, respectively. Cox's proportional hazards model analyses demonstrated
      that history of self-harm and comorbid physical illness were associated with
      repeated self-harm within one month. The patients who lived alone and who were
      directly discharged from the emergency room after referral to a psychiatrist were
      at higher risk for repeated self-harm within both one and six months. Living on
      public assistance and having been discharged from psychiatric wards within the
      past 12 months were associated with repetition within six months. These risk
      factors should be incorporated into routine assessment at an emergency room, and
      elaborate follow-up plan should be provided to the patients with these risk
      factors upon discharge from the emergency room. Further prospective studies are
      warranted, addressing more comprehensive factors that are associated with short
      term risk for self-harm and suicide.

PMID- 28865721
TI  - To see in a mirror dimly. The looking glass self is self-shaming in borderline
      personality disorder.
AB  - Symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be conceptualized as the
      expression of and defenses against or response to the painful emotion of chronic
      shame, which may relate to early maladaptive schemas (EMS). The goal of this
      research is to examine levels of early maladaptive schemas, self-reported shame,
      and anxious or angry reactions to social put-downs as well as their associations.
      We also looked to assess the association of shame with BPD symptoms. Fifty-six
      patients with BPD completed self-report measures of EMSs, chronic shame, and
      reactions to put-downs. Comparison groups consisted of 24 patients without
      personality disorder (non-PD) and 80 healthy controls (HC). Those with BPD
      reported higher levels of EMSs, characterological, behavioral and bodily shame,
      and were more prone to react with anxiety and anger than non-PD patients and HC
      subjects. EMSs domains had specific associations with chronic shame and reaction
      types to social put-downs. Identity disturbances were associated with
      characterological, behavioral and bodily shame. Stormy relationships were
      associated with bodily shame. Chronic shame and anxious and angry reactions to
      social put-downs are prominent in patients with borderline personality disorder
      and are associated with specific EMS domains and with the symptoms of identity
      disturbance and stormy relationships.

PMID- 28865722
TI  - Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorders in women with
      spontaneous abortion in Germany - A retrospective cohort study.
AB  - The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and
      adjustment disorders in women within the year following miscarriage in Germany.
      This study included women between the ages of 16 and 45 with a first pregnancy
      terminated by spontaneous abortion between January 2007 and December 2015 (index
      date). These women were followed in 262 gynecological practices. Women with a
      spontaneous abortion were matched (1:1) with pregnant women without spontaneous
      abortion by age, index year, diagnosis of female infertility prior to the index
      date, procreative management prior to the index date, and physician. This
      retrospective cohort study included 12,158 women with a spontaneous abortion and
      12,158 pregnant women without a spontaneous abortion. The mean age was 31.6 (SD:
      5.5).years. One year after the index date, 8.9% of women with spontaneous
      abortion and 5.7% of controls were diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or
      adjustment disorder. Individuals who had previously undergone a spontaneous
      abortion were more likely to have one of these three psychiatric disorders
      compared to controls (OR = 1.53). Similar results were found in the age groups 21
      30 and 31-40. Spontaneous abortion is associated with an increased prevalence of
      developing psychiatric diseases within the first year.

PMID- 28865723
TI  - Radiation Oncology Resident Mentorship: Results of a Resident-Coordinated
      Mentorship Program.

PMID- 28865724
TI  - The crystal structures of a copper-bound metallochaperone from Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae.
AB  - Atx1 is a metallochaperone protein from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
      (yAtx1) that plays a major role in copper homeostasis in this organism. yAtx1
      functions as a copper transfer protein by shuttling copper to the secretory
      pathway to control intracellular copper levels. Here we describe the first
      crystal structures of yAtx1 that have been determined in the presence of Cu(I).
      The structures from two different crystal forms have been solved and refined to
      resolutions of 1.65 and 1.93A. In contrast to the previous metallated crystal
      structure of yAtx1 where a single Hg(II) atom was coordinated by one yAtx1
      molecule, the Cu(I)-yAtx1 was crystallised as a dimer in both crystal forms,
      sharing one Cu(I) atom between two yAtx1 molecules. This is consistent with the
      crystal structure of the human homologue Cu(I)-hAtox1. Overall the structures in
      the two different crystal forms of Cu(I)-yAtx1 are remarkably similar to that of
      Cu(I)-hAtox1. However, subtle structural differences between Cu(I)-yCtr1 and
      Cu(I)-hAtox1 are observed in copper coordination geometries and in the
      conformations of Loop 2, with the latter potentially contributing to differential
      interactions and copper transfer mechanisms with membrane transport copper uptake
      systems.

PMID- 28865725
TI  - Aluminum exposure for 60days at an equivalent human dietary level promotes
      peripheral dysfunction in rats.
AB  - Aluminum (Al) is a neurotoxic associated with a number of chronic human diseases.
      We investigated the effects of Al exposure at doses similar to human dietary
      levels and at a high level exposure to Al on the peripheral nervous system.
      Wistar male rats were divided into two major groups and received orally: 1) First
      group - Low level - rats were subdivided and treated for 60days: a) Control -
      received ultrapure water; b) AlCl3 - received Al at 8.3mg/kg body weight (bw) for
      60days; and 2) Second group - High level - rats were subdivided and treated for
      42days: C) Control - received ultrapure water through oral gavage; d) AlCl3 -
      received Al at 100mg/kg bw for 42days. Von Frey hair test, plantar test, the
      presence of catalepsy and the spontaneous motor activity were investigated.
      Reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation and total antioxidant capacity,
      immunohistochemistry to investigate the nerve inflammation and, the specific
      presence of Al in the sciatic nerve fibers were investigated. Al exposure at a
      representative human dietary level promotes the development of mechanical
      allodynia, catalepsy, increased inflammation in the sciatic nerve, systemic
      oxidative stress and, is able to be retained in the sciatic nerve. The effects of
      low-dose Al were similar to those found in rats exposed to Al at a dose much
      higher (100mg/kg). Our findings suggest that Al may be considered toxic for the
      peripheral nervous system, thus inducing peripheral dysfunction.

PMID- 28865726
TI  - B-lines with Lung Ultrasound: The Optimal Scan Technique at Rest and During
      Stress.
AB  - Various lung ultrasound (LUS) scanning modalities have been proposed for the
      detection of B-lines, also referred to as ultrasound lung comets, which are an
      important indication of extravascular lung water at rest and after exercise
      stress echo (ESE). The aim of our study was to assess the lung water spatial
      distribution (comet map) at rest and after ESE. We performed LUS at rest and
      immediately after semi-supine ESE in 135 patients (45 women, 90 men; age 62 +/-
      12 y, resting left ventricular ejection fraction = 41 +/- 13%) with known or
      suspected heart failure or coronary artery disease. B-lines were measured by
      scanning 28 intercostal spaces (ISs) on the antero-lateral chest, 2nd-5th IS,
      along with the midaxillary (MA), anterior axillary (AA), mid-clavicular (MC) and
      parasternal (PS) lines. Complete 28-region, 16-region (3rd and 4th IS), 8-region
      (3rd IS), 4-region (3rd IS, only AA and MA) and 1-region (left 3rd IS, MA) scans
      were analyzed. In each space, the B-lines were counted from 0 = black lung to 10
      = white lung. Interpretable images were obtained in all spaces (feasibility = 100
      %). B-lines (>0 in at least 1 space) were present at ESE in 93 patients (69%) and
      absent in 42. More B-lines were found in the 3rd IS and along AA and MA lines.
      The B-line cumulative distribution was symmetric at rest (right/left = 1.10) and
      asymmetric with left lung predominance during stress (right/left = 0.67). The
      correlation of per-patient B-line number between 28-S and 16-S (R2 = 0.9478), 8-S
      (R2 = 0.9478) and 4-S scan (R2 = 0.9146) was excellent, but only good with 1-S
      (R2 = 0.8101). The average imaging and online analysis time were 5 s per space.
      In conclusion, during ESE, the comet map of lung water accumulation follows a
      predictable spatial pattern with wet spots preferentially aligned with the third
      IS and along the AA and MA lines. The time-saving 4-region scan is especially
      convenient during stress, simply dismissing dry regions and focusing on wet
      regions alone.

PMID- 28865727
TI  - Altered mitochondrial epigenetics associated with subchronic doxorubicin
      cardiotoxicity.
AB  - Doxorubicin (DOX), a potent and broad-spectrum antineoplastic agent, causes an
      irreversible, cumulative and dose-dependent cardiomyopathy that ultimately leads
      to congestive heart failure. The mechanisms responsible for DOX cardiotoxicity
      remain poorly understood, but seem to involve mitochondrial dysfunction on
      several levels. Epigenetics may explain a portion of this effect. Since
      mitochondrial dysfunction may affect the epigenetic landscape, we hypothesize
      that this cardiac toxicity may result from epigenetic changes related to
      disruption of mitochondrial function. To test this hypothesis, eight-week-old
      male Wistar rats (n=6/group) were administered 7 weekly injections with DOX
      (2mgkg-1) or saline, and sacrificed two weeks after the last injection. We
      assessed gene expression patterns by qPCR, global DNA methylation by ELISA, and
      proteome lysine acetylation status by Western blot in cardiac tissue from saline
      and DOX-treated rats. We show for the first time that DOX treatment decreases
      global DNA methylation in heart but not in liver. These differences were
      accompanied by alterations in mRNA expression of multiple functional gene groups.
      DOX disrupted cardiac mitochondrial biogenesis, as demonstrated by decreased
      mtDNA levels and altered transcript levels for multiple mitochondrial genes
      encoded by both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. Transcription of genes
      involved in lipid metabolism and epigenetic modulation were also affected.
      Western blotting analyses indicated a differential protein acetylation pattern in
      cardiac mitochondrial fractions of DOX-treated rats compared to controls.
      Additionally, DOX treatment increased the activity of histone deacetylases. These
      results suggest an interplay between mitochondrial dysfunction and epigenetic
      alterations, which may be a primary determinant of DOX-induced cardiotoxicity.

PMID- 28865728
TI  - Gender-specific association of exposure to non-dioxin-like polychlorinated
      biphenyls during pregnancy with methylation levels of H19 and long interspersed
      nuclear element-1 in cord blood in the Hokkaido study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Associations between prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls
      (PCBs) and reduced birth-size, and between DNA methylation of insulin-like growth
      factor-2 (IGF-2), H19 locus, and long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) and
      reduced birth-size are well established. To date, however, studies on the
      associations between prenatal exposure to PCBs and alterations in methylation of
      IGF-2, H19, and LINE-1 are lacking. Thus, in this study, we examined these
      associations with infant-gender stratification. METHODS: We performed a
      prospective birth cohort study using the Sapporo cohort from the previously
      described Hokkaido Birth Cohort Study on Environment and Children's Health
      conducted between 2002 and 2005 in Japan. In the final 169 study participants
      included in this study, we measured the concentrations of various non-dioxin-like
      PCBs in maternal blood during pregnancy using high-resolution gas
      chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry. IGF-2, H19 and LINE-1
      methylation levels in cord blood were measured using the bisulfite pyrosequencing
      methods Finally, we assessed the associations between prenatal exposure to
      various PCBs and the gene methylation levels using multiple regression models
      stratified by infant gender. RESULTS: We observed a 0.017 (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 0.003-0.031) increase in the log10-transformed H19 methylation
      levels (%) in cord blood for each ten-fold increase in the levels of
      decachlorinated biphenyls (decaCBs) in maternal blood among all infants.
      Similarly, a 0.005 (95% CI: 0.000-0.010) increase in the log10-transformed LINE-1
      methylation levels (%) in cord blood was associated with each ten-fold increase
      in heptachlorinated biphenyls (heptaCBs) in maternal blood among all infants. In
      particular, we observed a dose-dependent association of the decaCB levels in
      maternal blood with the H19 methylation levels among female infants (P value for
      trend=0.040); likewise a dose-dependent association of heptaCB levels was
      observed with LINE-1 methylation levels among female infants (P value for
      trend=0.015). Moreover, these associations were only observed among infants of
      primiparous women. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the dose-dependent
      association between prenatal exposure to specific non-dioxin-like PCBs and
      increases in the H19 and LINE-1 methylation levels in cord blood might be more
      predominant in females than in males.

PMID- 28865729
TI  - Dysphagia: Multiple Pathologies, One Cause.

PMID- 28865730
TI  - Dysphagia After Neck Surgery.

PMID- 28865731
TI  - An Unusual Cause of Halitosis.

PMID- 28865732
TI  - An Unusual Cause of Abdominal Pain and Biliary Obstruction in a Patient With
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

PMID- 28865733
TI  - Anesthesia Assistance in Outpatient Colonoscopy and Risk of Aspiration Pneumonia,
      Bowel Perforation, and Splenic Injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The increase in use of anesthesia assistance (AA) to achieve
      deep sedation with propofol during colonoscopy has significantly increased
      colonoscopy costs without evidence for increased quality and with possible harm.
      We investigated the effects of AA on colonoscopy complications, specifically
      bowel perforation, aspiration pneumonia, and splenic injury. METHODS: In a
      population-based cohort study using administrative databases, we studied adults
      in Ontario, Canada undergoing outpatient colonoscopy from 2005 through 2012.
      Patient, endoscopist, institution, and procedure factors were derived. The
      primary outcome was bowel perforation, defined using a validated algorithm.
      Secondary outcomes were splenic injury and aspiration pneumonia. Using a matched
      propensity score approach, we matched persons who had colonoscopy with AA (1:1)
      with those who did not. We used logistic regression models under a generalized
      estimating equations approach to explore the relationship between AA and
      outcomes. RESULTS: Data from 3,059,045 outpatient colonoscopies were analyzed;
      862,817 of these included AA. After propensity matching, a cohort of 793,073
      patients who had AA and 793,073 without AA was retained for analysis (51% female;
      78% were age 50 years or older). Use of AA did not significantly increase risk of
      perforation (odds ratio [OR], 0.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84-1.16) or
      splenic injury (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.62-1.90]. Use of AA was associated with an
      increased risk of aspiration pneumonia (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.11-2.37).
      CONCLUSIONS: In a population-based cohort study, AA for outpatient colonoscopy
      was associated with a significantly increased risk of aspiration pneumonia, but
      not bowel perforation or splenic injury. Endoscopists should warn patients,
      especially those with respiratory compromise, of this risk.

PMID- 28865734
TI  - Paneth Cell Defects Induce Microbiota Dysbiosis in Mice and Promote Visceral
      Hypersensitivity.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Separation of newborn rats from their mothers induces visceral
      hypersensitivity and impaired epithelial secretory cell lineages when they are
      adults. Little is known about the mechanisms by which maternal separation causes
      visceral hypersensitivity or its relationship with defects in epithelial
      secretory cell lineages. METHODS: We performed studies with C3H/HeN mice
      separated from their mothers as newborns and mice genetically engineered
      (Sox9flox/flox-vil-cre on C57BL/6 background) to have deficiencies in Paneth
      cells. Paneth cell deficiency was assessed by lysozyme staining of ileum tissues
      and lysozyme activity in fecal samples. When mice were 50 days old, their
      abdominal response to colorectal distension was assessed by electromyography.
      Fecal samples were collected and microbiota were analyzed using Gut Low-Density
      Array quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Mice with maternal
      separation developed visceral hypersensitivity and defects in Paneth cells, as
      reported from rats, compared with mice without maternal separation. Sox9flox/flox
      vil-Cre mice also had increased visceral hypersensitivity compared with control
      littermate Sox9flox/flox mice. Fecal samples from mice with maternal separation
      and from Sox9flox/flox-vil-cre mice had evidence for intestinal dysbiosis of the
      microbiota, characterized by expansion of Escherichia coli. Daily gavage of
      conventional C3H/HeN adult mice with 109 commensal E coli induced visceral
      hypersensitivity. Conversely, daily oral administration of lysozyme prevented
      expansion of E coli during maternal separation and visceral hypersensitivity.
      CONCLUSIONS: Mice with defects in Paneth cells (induced by maternal separation or
      genetically engineered) have intestinal expansion of E coli leading to visceral
      hypersensitivity. These findings provide evidence that Paneth cell function and
      intestinal dysbiosis are involved in visceral sensitivity.

PMID- 28865735
TI  - A Rare Cause of Diarrhea and Polyposis.

PMID- 28865737
TI  - Vascular Trauma Revisited.

PMID- 28865738
TI  - Yeasticidal activity of chemical disinfectants and antiseptics against Candida
      auris.
AB  - Candida auris appears to be transmitted readily between patients, yet information
      regarding the efficacy of environmental disinfection and skin decolonization is
      lacking. A quantitative suspension test (EN 13624:2013) was used to evaluate the
      yeasticidal activity of different chemical disinfectants and antiseptics against
      C. auris and Candida albicans. When tested in suspension, both a chlorine-based
      disinfectant and iodine-based skin antiseptic were effective against C. auris,
      suggesting that their use could reduce environmental contamination and skin
      colonization, respectively, if applied appropriately. Chlorhexidine-based
      products may also be effective. However, in this study, activity depended on
      formulation, specifically the presence of isopropyl alcohol.

PMID- 28865739
TI  - The economics of recovery after pancreatic surgery: detailed cost minimization
      analysis of an enhanced recovery program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical pathways (CPW) are considered safe and effective at
      decreasing postoperative length of stay (LoS), but the effect on economic costs
      is uncertain. This study sought to elucidate the effect of a CPW on direct
      hospitalization costs for patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).
      METHODS: A CPW for PD patients at a single Canadian institution was implemented.
      Outcomes included LoS, 30-day readmissions, and direct costs of hospital care. A
      retrospective cost minimization analysis compared patients undergoing PD prior to
      and following CPW implementation, using a bootstrapped t test and deviation-based
      cost modeling. RESULTS: 121 patients undergoing PD after CPW implementation were
      compared to 74 controls. Index LoS was decreased following CPW implementation (9
      vs. 11 days, p = 0.005), as was total LoS (10 vs. 11 days, p = 0.003). The mean
      total cost of postoperative hospitalization per patient decreased in the CPW
      group ($15,678.45 CAD vs. $25,732.85 CAD, p = 0.024), as was the mean 30-day cost
      including readmissions ($16,627.15 CAD vs. $29,872.72 CAD, p = 0.016). Areas of
      significant cost savings included laboratory tests and imaging investigations.
      CONCLUSIONS: CPWs may generate cost savings by reducing unnecessary
      investigations, and improve quality of care through process standardization and
      decreasing practice variation.

PMID- 28865740
TI  - Repetitive 18F-FDG-PET/CT in patients with large-vessel giant-cell arteritis and
      controlled disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: 18F-FDG PET/CT can detect large-vessel involvement in giant-cell
      arteritis (GCA) with a good sensitivity. In patients with clinically and
      biologically controlled disease, we aimed to assess how vascular uptakes evolve
      on repetitive FDG-PET/CT. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All included patients had to
      satisfy the 4 following criteria: 1) diagnosis of GCA was retained according to
      the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology or based on the satisfaction
      of 2 criteria associated with the demonstration of large-vessel involvement on
      FDG-PET/CT; 2) all patients had a positive PET/CT that was performed at diagnosis
      before treatment or within the first 10days of treatment; 3) another FDG-PET/CT
      was performed after at least 3months of controlled disease without any relapse;
      4) patients were followed-up at least for 12months. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients
      (17 [68%] women, median age: 69 [65-78]) with large-vessel inflammation on a
      baseline FDG-PET/CT and with repetitive imaging during the period with controlled
      disease were included and followed-up for 62 [25-95] months. Four repeated
      procedures revealed total extinction of vascular uptakes at 11.5 [8-12] months
      after the first FDG-PET/CT. Eight PET/CT revealed decreased numbers of vascular
      uptakes, and 10 procedures revealed no changes. The 3 remaining procedures
      indicated worsening of the numbers of vascular uptakes in the absence of relapse.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed long-term persistent vascular uptake on repeated
      FDG-PET/CT in >80% of our GCA patients with large-vessel inflammation and
      clinical-biological controlled disease. Prospective studies are required to
      confirm these findings.

PMID- 28865736
TI  - Association Between Inflammatory Diet Pattern and Risk of Colorectal Carcinoma
      Subtypes Classified by Immune Responses to Tumor.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Dietary patterns affect systemic and local intestinal
      inflammation, which have been linked to colorectal carcinogenesis. Chronic
      inflammation can interfere with the adaptive immune response. We investigated
      whether the association of a diet that promotes intestinal inflammation with risk
      of colorectal carcinoma was stronger for tumors with lower lymphocytic reactions
      than tumors with higher lymphocytic reactions. METHODS: We collected data from
      the molecular pathological epidemiology databases of 2 prospective cohort
      studies: the Nurses' Health Study (since 1976) and the Health Professionals
      Follow-Up Study (since 1986). We used duplication-method time-varying Cox
      proportional cause-specific hazards regression to assess the association of
      empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) score (derived from food frequency
      questionnaire data) with colorectal carcinoma subtype. Foods that contribute to
      high EDIP scores include red and processed meats, refined grains, carbonated
      beverages, and some vegetables; foods that contribute to low EDIP scores include
      beer, wine, coffee, tea, yellow and leafy vegetables, and fruit juice. Colorectal
      tissue samples were analyzed histologically for patterns of lymphocytic reactions
      (Crohn's-like lymphoid reaction, peritumoral lymphocytic reaction, intratumoral
      periglandular reaction, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes). RESULTS: During
      follow-up of 124,433 participants, we documented 1311 incident colon and rectal
      cancer cases with available tissue data. The association between the EDIP and
      colorectal cancer risk was significant (Ptrend = .02), and varied with degree of
      peritumoral lymphocytic reaction (Pheterogeneity < .001). Higher EDIP scores were
      associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer with an absent or low
      peritumoral lymphocytic reaction (highest vs lowest EDIP score quintile hazard
      ratio, 2.60; 95% confidence interval, 1.60-4.23; Ptrend < .001), but not risk of
      tumors with intermediate or high peritumoral lymphocytic reaction (Ptrend > .80).
      CONCLUSIONS: In 2 prospective cohort studies, we associated inflammatory diets
      with a higher risk of colorectal cancer subtype that contains little or no
      peritumoral lymphocytic reaction. These findings suggest that diet-related
      inflammation might contribute to development of colorectal cancer, by suppressing
      the adaptive anti-tumor immune response.

PMID- 28865741
TI  - Long-term outcomes of inappropriate antibiotic therapy for upper urinary tract
      infections caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing
      Enterobacteriaceae: a retrospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the short- and long-term outcomes of different
      antimicrobial treatment options for upper urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused
      by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae. METHODS:
      We retrospectively analyzed patients with a first episode of febrile UTI and
      positive urine culture with ESBL-producing E. coli or K. pneumoniae during 2012
      2015. We compared outcomes among patients who received: (1) definitive treatment
      with a carbapenem (CP), (2) a microbiologically appropriate intravenous non
      carbapenem agent (NCA), (3) a non-appropriate antimicrobial (NAA), and (4) an
      intravenous NAA followed by an oral NCA (NAA-PO). RESULTS: The majority of
      patients received empirical therapy with NAA (165/178, 93%), and definitive
      treatment with NCA (n=43), NAA (n=50), and NAA-PO (n=59). The NCA group had
      significantly higher SIRS score than the NAA-PO group (2.18 versus 1.76,
      P=0.018), but no differences were found between the NCA and NAA groups (2.18 and
      1.92, P=0.15). Clinical cure at discharge from the index hospitalization was high
      (97-100%) in all 3 groups. The NCA group had longer length of stay as compared
      with the NAA-PO and NAA groups (8.7days versus 5.39 and 5.24days, P<0.0001) and a
      lower rate of early (48-72h) improvement (79% versus 96-100%, P=0.0002). Among re
      admitted patients, re-admission with ESBL-related bloodstream infection was
      significantly higher in the NAA group as compared to the NAA-PO and NCA groups
      (33% versus 4% and 0%, respectively, P=0.02). Death rate within 60days was also
      higher in the NAA and NCA groups as compared with the NAA-PO group (P=0.048).
      CONCLUSIONS: Inappropriate antimicrobial therapy for febrile non-bacteremic UTI
      with ESBL-producing enterobacteriaceae is associated with favorable short-term
      outcomes, but also with a long-term risk of relapsed bacteremic UTI. Definitive
      treatment with appropriate carbapenem-sparing antimicrobial agents effectively
      prevents late relapses.

PMID- 28865742
TI  - Review: Molecular detection of extended spectrum-beta-lactamase- and
      carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in a clinical setting.
AB  - Enterobacteriaceae are a common source of both community- and hospital-acquired
      infections. The resistance of Enterobacteriaceae to beta-lactam antibiotics is a
      major public health problem and rapid detection is essential for the proper
      management of infections. Not only for the initiation of the proper antimicrobial
      regimen but also to stop the spread of multi-resistant bacteria. In this review,
      molecular methods that detect extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase-harboring and
      carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae were discussed. More specifically the
      performances of assays that were tested in a clinical situation were explored.
      When compared with conventional phenotypical methods (the gold standard) all
      molecular methods generated results faster and showed a higher sensitivity.
      Because molecular methods only detect selected genes, it is important to have
      good knowledge on the local gene pool. Furthermore, result need to be interpreted
      within a defined epidemiological context. Therefore, at this moment molecular
      methods should be seen as an important tool to complement rather than replace
      conventional methods.

PMID- 28865743
TI  - Molecular identification of cestodes and nematodes by cox1 gene real-time PCR and
      sequencing.
AB  - Unlike bacteria and fungi, identification of helminths by gene sequencing is not
      well-standardized. No "pan-cestode" or "pan-nematode" PCR primers are available.
      In this study, we designed 2 pairs of PCR primers for amplifying the cox1 genes
      of cestodes and nematodes respectively and validated their usefulness for real
      time PCR and sequencing identification using clinical samples with cestodes and
      nematodes collected from a variety of animals and human in 7 countries in Asia,
      Europe and Africa. The detection limits of the cox1 real-time PCR assays for
      cestodes and nematodes were 10 copies/reaction of extracted DNA, corresponding to
      CT values of 33 and 31 respectively. Real-time PCR using the 2 pairs of primers
      and probes showed positive results for all 20 clinical samples of cestodes and
      nematodes. Using phenotypic identification results as the reference standard, DNA
      sequencing successfully identified all the 5 cestodes and 7 nematodes with cox1
      gene sequences available in GenBank, with all these names appearing as the best
      match of the cox1 gene sequences of the corresponding clinical samples. The
      percentage nucleotide identities between the cox1 gene sequences of the samples
      and those of the corresponding best match sequences in GenBank were 98-100%. For
      the remaining 5 cestodes and 3 nematodes, the corresponding cox1 gene sequences
      were not available in GenBank. cox1 gene sequencing is discriminative enough for
      accurately identifying most of the cestodes and nematodes in the present study.
      Further expansion of the cox1 gene sequence database will enable accurate
      identification of more cestodes and nematodes.

PMID- 28865744
TI  - Selective Ru(II)/lawsone complexes inhibiting tumor cell growth by apoptosis.
AB  - New Ru(II) complexes with lawsone (law) characterized as trans-[Ru(law)(PPh3)2(N
      N)]PF6, where PPh3 means triphenylphosphine and N-N is 2,2'-bipyridine (1), 4,4'
      dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine (2), 4,4'-dimethoxy-2,2'-bipyridine (3), 1,10
      phenanthroline (4) or 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (5), induce apoptosis in
      tumor cells. Cytotoxicity of the complexes against the tumor cell lines DU-145
      (prostate cancer cells), MCF-7 (breast cancer cells), A549 (lung cancer cells)
      and lung non-tumor cell line MRC-5 demonstrated promising IC50 values, lower than
      those found for the cisplatin, a drug used as a reference. Due to the high
      cytotoxic activity and selectivity against A549 cells line, complex (5) was
      selected for detailed assays. The complex (5) inhibits cells migration in
      concentrations in a nanomolar range, inducing tumor cell death by apoptosis, as
      confirmed by flow cytometry experiments. Furthermore, the antiproliferative
      activity of complex (5) on A549 tumor cells is attributed to a cell cycle arrest
      at the Sub G1 phase, followed by a decrease in the number of cells at the S
      phase. In addition, the interaction of the complexes (1-5) with CT-DNA was
      evaluated by circular dichroism, in which no changes in the secondary structure
      of DNA were observed, suggesting a weak interaction of the complexes with the
      biomolecule. On the other hand, complexes (1-5) showed a higher interaction with
      human serum albumin (HSA) by non-covalent van der Waals forces and hydrogen
      bonding, resulting in static quenching.

PMID- 28865745
TI  - Influence of ancillary ligands on preferential geometry and biomimetic catalytic
      activity in manganese(III)-catecholate systems: A combined experimental and
      theoretical study.
AB  - The present report describes the synthesis and structural characterizations of
      six new manganese(III) complexes with redox-active tetrachlorocatecholate ligand
      in the presence of different ancillary ligands (pyridines and imidazole). X-ray
      crystal structure analysis reveals that the geometry of manganese(III) centres in
      1 and 2 is essentially square pyramidal, while it is discrete octahedron in
      compounds 3-6. These preferential structural diversities in these systems have
      been critically analysed by theoretical calculations. Remarkably, the
      characterization of both pi?pi stacking interactions and MnMn bonds in the
      supramolecular dimeric aggregates in the solid state in 1 and 2 by means of the
      Bader's theory of "atoms in molecules" (AIM) is quite interesting as that nicely
      corroborates the experimental fact. All the complexes are active toward the
      phenoxazinone synthase like activity and the detailed kinetic analysis was
      performed to get better insight into their catalytic efficiency. Electrochemical
      property of these complexes as well as different donor property of the ancillary
      ligands clearly establish that the ease of reduction of the metal centre i.e.,
      the catalytic ability is favoured when the metal centre is bonded to the electron
      deficient pyridyl systems. EPR spectroscopy and theoretical study are further
      helpful to get insight into origin of the catalytic activity in these compounds.
      The present report overall highlights that tuning of the geometry and catalytic
      activity of manganese(III) complexes with tetrachlorocatecholate ligand can be
      attained by the introduction of different substitutions in ancillary pyridine
      ligands.

PMID- 28865747
TI  - Thalidomide as a Potential HIV Latency Reversal Agent: Is It the Right Time to
      Forget the Ancestral Sins?

PMID- 28865748
TI  - Circulating PCSK9 levels in acute coronary syndrome: Results from the PC-SCA-9
      prospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serum proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9)
      concentrations have been shown to be positively associated with LDL cholesterol
      (LDL-C), but the relationship between PCSK9 and coronary atherosclerosis lesions
      remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the correlation
      between serum PCSK9 levels and coronary damage severity in patients hospitalized
      for acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS: In this prospective proof-of-concept
      study, coronary lesions were assessed using SYNTAX scores. Serum PCSK9
      concentrations were measured on admission (Day 0) for ACS by Elisa, and on every
      day of hospitalization. Spearman's correlations were used to determine the
      association between PCSK9 levels, SYNTAX score and metabolic parameters. RESULTS:
      A total of 174 patients (mean age: 59+/-14 years, 79% male) with ACS (on Day 0,
      119 patients were not taking statins, but 55 were) were included. After
      initiation of high-intensity statin therapy, serum PCSK9 concentrations increased
      significantly, reaching maximum levels on Day 2 (+31% vs. Day 0), and remained
      stable up to Day 4 (P<0.001, by mixed model). Serum PCSK9 on Day 0 was associated
      with LDL-C (rho=0.226, P=0.017) and apolipoprotein B (rho=0.282, P=0.005) in the
      statin-naive group only, and with triglycerides and non-HDL-C in all groups. More
      important, PCSK9 levels on Day 0 were positively associated with SYNTAX scores in
      the statin-naive group (rho=0.239, P=0.009), but not in the statin-treated group
      (P=NS). This association was maintained after adjusting for LDL-C (P=0.014) and
      major CV risk factors (P=0.008). CONCLUSION: Serum PCSK9 levels are positively
      associated with severity of coronary artery lesions independently of LDL-C
      concentrations in patients hospitalized for ACS. This reinforces the potential
      importance of PCSK9 inhibition in the management of ACS.

PMID- 28865746
TI  - Rapid Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Platform for Molecular Screening and
      Clinical Genotyping in Subjects with Hemoglobinopathies.
AB  - Hemoglobinopathies are among the most common autosomal-recessive disorders
      worldwide. A comprehensive next-generation sequencing (NGS) test would greatly
      facilitate screening and diagnosis of these disorders. An NGS panel targeting the
      coding regions of hemoglobin genes and four modifier genes was designed. We
      validated the assay by using 2522 subjects affected with hemoglobinopathies and
      applied it to carrier testing in a cohort of 10,111 couples who were also
      screened through traditional methods. In the clinical genotyping analysis of 1182
      beta-thalassemia subjects, we identified a group of additional variants that can
      be used for accurate diagnosis. In the molecular screening analysis of the 10,111
      couples, we detected 4180 individuals in total who carried 4840 mutant alleles,
      and identified 186 couples at risk of having affected offspring. 12.1% of the
      pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants identified by our NGS assay, which were
      undetectable by traditional methods. Compared with the traditional methods, our
      assay identified an additional at-risk 35 couples. We describe a comprehensive
      NGS-based test that offers advantages over the traditional screening/molecular
      testing methods. To our knowledge, this is among the first large-scale population
      study to systematically evaluate the application of an NGS technique in carrier
      screening and molecular diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies.

PMID- 28865749
TI  - Differential deregulation of NGF and BDNF neurotrophins in a transgenic rat model
      of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Evidence from human neuropathological studies indicates that the levels of the
      neurotrophins nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor
      (BDNF) are compromised in Alzheimer's disease. However, the causes and temporal
      (pathology-dependent) evolution of these alterations are not completely
      understood. To elucidate these issues, we investigated the McGill-R-Thy1-APP
      transgenic rat, which exhibits progressive intracellular and extracellular
      amyloid-beta (Abeta) pathology and ensuing cognitive deficits. Neurochemical
      analyses revealed a differential dysregulation of NGF and BDNF transcripts and
      protein expression. While BDNF mRNA levels were significantly reduced at very
      early stages of amyloid pathology, before plaques appeared, there were no changes
      in NGF mRNA expression even at advanced stages. Paradoxically, the protein levels
      of the NGF precursor were increased. These changes in neurotrophin expression are
      identical to those seen during the progression of Alzheimer's disease. At
      advanced pathological stages, deficits in the protease cascade controlling the
      maturation and degradation of NGF were evident in McGill transgenic rats, in line
      with the paradoxical upregulation of proNGF, as seen in Alzheimer's disease, in
      the absence of changes in NGF mRNA. The compromise in NGF metabolism and BDNF
      levels was accompanied by downregulation of cortical cholinergic synapses;
      strengthening the evidence that neurotrophin dysregulation affects cholinergic
      synapses and synaptic plasticity. Our findings suggest a differential temporal
      deregulation of NGF and BDNF neurotrophins, whereby deficits in BDNF mRNA appear
      at early stages of intraneuronal Abeta pathology, before alterations in NGF
      metabolism and cholinergic synapse loss manifest.

PMID- 28865750
TI  - Evaluation of Kunapa jala and Pancha gavya on plant quality, physiology,
      biochemistry, yield and growth attributes - A case study of Withania somnifera
      Dun.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 'Vrikshayurveda', an ancient science of plant life described by
      Surapala, has clearly outlined a systematized agricultural practice that insisted
      on the use of Kunapa jala (KJ) and Pancha gavya (PG) to enhance the yield and
      quality of plants. OBJECTIVE: An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect
      of KJ and PG on growth, physiological, biochemical, quality attributes and yield
      of Withania somnifera Dun. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effect of KJ and PG was
      evaluated in comparison with control, organic (farmyard manure and humic acid)
      and inorganic (NPK) fertilizer at 60, 90, 120 and 150 days after sowing (DAS).
      The study was conducted in randomized complete block design method. RESULTS: KJ
      group were higher in, total leaf area (1707.89 cm2) at 120 DAS, leaf area index
      (3.795) at 120 DAS, crop growth rate (0.256 g m-2 day-1) at 60-90 DAS, leaf area
      duration (101.909) at 120-150 DAS, relative growth rate (0.0170 g g-1 day-1) at
      60-90 DAS, net assimilation rate (0.0537 g m-2 day-1) at 60-90 DAS. Leaf area
      ratio was higher in PG group (37.937 m2 g-1) at 60 DAS. The higher levels of
      chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids were in KJ group (1.877, 0.745 and 1318.14 mg g
      1 respectively) at 90 DAS. Yield and quality attributes at harvest (150 DAS)
      indicated, higher dry root yield (5.93 quintal hectare-1), root length (15.66 cm)
      were higher in KJ group and root diameter was higher in PG group (1.36 cm).
      CONCLUSION: Vrikshayurveda practices viz. Kunapa jala and Pancha gavya were
      effective on studied parameters of W. somnifera. Economical and eco-friendly
      Vrikhayurveda practices can be initiated for sustainable agriculture.

PMID- 28865752
TI  - Preface 16th European Meeting of Complement in Human Disease, Copenhagen,
      Denmark, September 8th-12th 2017.

PMID- 28865751
TI  - RhoA activation and nuclearization marks loss of chondrocyte phenotype in
      crosstalk with Wnt pathway.
AB  - De-differentiation comprises a major drawback for the use of autologous
      chondrocytes in cartilage repair. Here, we investigate the role of RhoA and
      canonical Wnt signaling in chondrocyte phenotype. Chondrocyte de-differentiation
      is accompanied by an upregulation and nuclear localization of RhoA. Effectors of
      canonical Wnt signaling including beta-catenin and YAP/TAZ are upregulated in de
      differentiating chondrocytes in a Rho-dependent manner. Inhibition of Rho
      activation with C3 transferase inhibits nuclear localization of RhoA, induces
      expression of chondrogenic markers on 2D and enhances the chondrogenic effect of
      3D culturing. Upregulation of chondrogenic markers by Rho inhibition is
      accompanied by loss of canonical Wnt signaling markers in 3D or on 2D whereas
      treatment of chondrocytes with Wnt-3a abrogates this effect. However, induction
      of canonical Wnt signaling inhibits chondrogenic markers on 2D but enhances
      chondrogenic re-differentiation on 2D with C3 transferase or in 3D. These data
      provide insights on the context-dependent role of RhoA and Wnt signaling in de
      differentiation and on mechanisms to induce chondrogenic markers for therapeutic
      approaches.

PMID- 28865753
TI  - Developing an emergency department crowding dashboard: A design science approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As an emergency department (ED) is a complex adaptive system, the
      analysis of continuously gathered data is valuable to gain insight in the real
      time patient flow. To support the analysis and management of ED operations,
      relevant data should be provided in an intuitive way. AIM: Within this context,
      this paper outlines the development of a dashboard which provides real-time
      information regarding ED crowding. METHODS: The research project underlying this
      paper follows the principles of design science research, which involves the
      development and study of artifacts which aim to solve a generic problem. To
      determine the crowding indicators that are desired in the dashboard, a modified
      Delphi study is used. The dashboard is implemented using the open source
      Shinydashboard package in R. RESULTS: A dashboard is developed containing the
      desired crowding indicators, together with general patient flow characteristics.
      It is demonstrated using a dataset of a Flemish ED and fulfills the requirements
      which are defined a priori. CONCLUSIONS: The developed dashboard provides real
      time information on ED crowding. This information enables ED staff to judge
      whether corrective actions are required in an effort to avoid the adverse effects
      of ED crowding.

PMID- 28865754
TI  - Prolonged sleep deprivation decreases cell proliferation and immature newborn
      neurons in both dorsal and ventral hippocampus of male rats.
AB  - Previous studies have indicated that sleep deprivation negatively affects
      hippocampal neurogenesis, which may explain the reason for the relation between
      sleep loss and depression. Increasing evidence indicates that the hippocampus is
      anatomically and functionally segregated along a dorsolateral (cognitive
      function)/ventromedial (control for mood and stress response) axis. Thus, the
      present study was conducted to elucidate regional differences in the adverse
      effects of sleep deprivation on hippocampal neurogenesis. Male Sprague-Dawley
      rats were subjected to sleep deprivation using the "platform on the water" method
      for 24- or 72-h. Quantification of hippocampal cell proliferation and immature
      newborn neurons was stereologically estimated using immunostaining with Ki-67 and
      doublecortin (DCX), respectively, by optical fractionator method. A consecutive
      three days of sleep deprivation significantly reduced the density of Ki-67- and
      DCX-immunopositive cells both in the dorsal and ventral hippocampal subgranular
      zone and the decrease in DCX-labeled cells was more pronounced in the ventral
      hippocampus than in dorsal region. Our results indicate that prolonged sleep
      deprivation decreases hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis in both the
      dorsal and ventral dentate gyrus. Future studies will be needed to clarify the
      impact of sleep deprivation-induced decreases in hippocampal neurogenesis on the
      development of depression.

PMID- 28865755
TI  - The relationship between the superior frontal cortex and alpha oscillation in a
      flanker task: Simultaneous recording of electroencephalogram (EEG) and near
      infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).
AB  - Activity in the alpha band of the electroencephalogram (EEG) reflects functional
      inhibition of the cerebral cortex. The superior frontal cortex (SFC) is known to
      control alpha activity. Based on this relationship between SFC and alpha, we
      hypothesized that SFC controlled alpha mediates proactive control over
      interference. In this study, we examined the relationship between SFC and alpha
      in the flanker task by simultaneously recording EEG and near infrared
      spectroscopy (NIRS). Forty participants performed a flanker task with occasional
      (compatible 75%, incompatible 25%) and successive (incompatible 100%) conditions.
      In the occasional condition, larger SFC activity was related to pre-stimulus
      alpha enhancement under occipital electrodes. This is consistent with a model in
      which SFC enhances pre-stimulus alpha activity, leading to proactive control over
      interference. However, we could not detect a correlation between SFC activity and
      alpha activity in the successive condition. Active inhibition may have been
      reduced by a need to continuously inhibit brain regions associated with the
      irrelevant information. This may have reduced the role of the SFC in controlling
      alpha activity. Based on these findings, we postulate that there are two cerebral
      mechanisms of proactive control over interference.

PMID- 28865756
TI  - Curvilinear relationship between age and assisted reproduction technique success:
      retrospective analyses of US National ART Surveillance System data from 2010
      2014.
AB  - In assisted reproduction technique cycles using fresh autologous embryos, the
      pattern by which outcomes per started cycle (live birth and clinical pregnancy)
      and per clinical pregnancy (live birth and miscarriage) change with age was
      determined. A dataset was created with 488,351 cycles. Success rates changed with
      age following well-fitted, ?-shaped curvilinear (quadratic, cubic, quartic)
      regressions. These rates increased steadily from age <24-28 years (P = 0.001; P =
      0.02; P = 0.04; respectively) with positive slopes (P <= 0.03); live birth and
      pregnancy rates per cycle were lower in women aged <25 years versus women aged 25
      28 years (P = 0.0002; P = 0.01, respectively), and declined steadily thereafter
      with negative slopes (P < 0.0001). The initial increase occurred at decreasing
      rates; subsequent decline occurred at increasing rates. Women aged <29 years with
      successful outcomes were older than those who were unsuccessful (P = 0.001; P =
      0.04; P = 0.001; respectively); those with successful outcomes were younger in
      other age groups (P < 0.0001). Miscarriage followed similar but reverse ?-shaped
      curvilinear regressions. Age-driven decline in success rates begins <30 years and
      occurs at increasing rates, suggesting that women >30 years old with infertility
      should not delay assisted reproduction, if it is their only option.

PMID- 28865758
TI  - High doses of systemic corticosteroids in patients hospitalised for exacerbation
      of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of high doses of corticosteroids in patients
      hospitalised for exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted on patients
      hospitalized with COPD between January and March 2015, grouped according to the
      glucocorticoid dosage administered (cutoff, 40mg of prednisone/day). We compared
      the results of hospital stay, readmission and mortality at 3 months of discharge.
      RESULTS: We analysed 87 patients. The median daily dose was 60mg of prednisone
      (interquartile range, 46.67-82.33mg/day), and the administration route was
      intravenous in 96.6% of the cases. We established a relative risk (RR) for
      hospital stays longer than 8 days of 1.095 (95% CI 0.597-2.007; P=.765) when
      steroid dosages greater than 40mg/day were employed. In these patients, the
      hazard ratio (HR) for readmission in the 3 months after discharge was 0.903 (95%
      CI 0.392-2.082; P=.811), and the mortality was 1.832 (95% CI 0.229-16.645;
      P=.568). Neither the RR nor the HR varied in a statistically significant manner
      after adjusting for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: A daily dose greater than
      40mg of prednisone in patients hospitalised for COPD exacerbation was not
      associated with a shorter hospital stay or a reduction in readmissions or
      mortality at 3 months.

PMID- 28865757
TI  - A cell impedance-based real-time in vitro assay to assess the toxicity of
      amphotericin B formulations.
AB  - Aerosolized liposomal amphotericin B (L-AmB) has been investigated as prophylaxis
      against invasive aspergillosis. However, the clinical results are controversial
      and some trials suggest that toxicity could be a limitation for wider use. Our
      aim was to assess the dynamics of cell toxicity induced in a human alveolar
      epithelial cell line (A549) after exposure to L-AmB (50 to 400MUg/ml) or
      amphotericin B deoxycholate (D-AmB; 50 to 200MUg/ml) by monitoring real-time A549
      cell viability using an impedance-based technology. Results were expressed as
      cell index values integrating cell adhesion, proliferation, and survival. In
      parallel, the gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines was quantified at 6
      and 24h after drug addition by real-time RT-PCR on cell lysates. No sustained
      reduction of cell indexes was observed with L-AmB or empty liposomes, even at
      400MUg/ml. Only the highest concentration tested of L-AmB (400MUg/ml) yielded
      transient significant 6-fold and 4-fold induction of TNF-alpha and IL-8 mRNAs,
      respectively. In contrast, D-AmB induced a decrease in cell indexes and only the
      50MUg/ml concentration of D-AmB was followed by cell recovery, higher
      concentrations leading to cell death. Significant 4-fold, 7-fold and 3-fold
      inductions of TNF-alpha, IL-8 and IL-33 mRNAs were also observed at 6h with
      50MUg/ml of D-AmB. In conclusion, continuous cell impedance measurement showed no
      toxicity on overall cellular behavior although a slight proinflammatory cytokine
      expression is possible after L-AmB challenge. Real-time kinetics of cell
      impedance is an interesting tool for initial screening of cell toxicity.

PMID- 28865759
TI  - Enhanced transmucosal delivery of itraconazole by thiolated d-alpha-tocopheryl
      poly(ethylene glycol) 1000 succinate micelles for the treatment of Candida
      albicans.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the transmucosal delivery of itraconazole (ITZ)
      by thiolated d-alpha-tocopheryl poly(ethylene glycol) 1000 succinate (TPGS-Cys)
      micelles. TPGS-Cys polymer was successfully synthesized by the simple coupling
      between carboxyl-activated TPGS and Cys as confirmed by NMR and FTIR techniques.
      Afterwards, the TPGS/TPGS-Cys micelles were prepared using the blend of TPGS and
      TPGS-Cys at 10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7 and 0:10mass ratios. All micelles had the size
      ranged from 8 to 10nm with narrow size distribution and showed spherical in
      shape. The surface of the 10:0 TPGS micelles exhibited negatively charge while,
      the TPGS-Cys micelles demonstrated the slightly positive surface charge. The
      critical micelle concentration, loading capacity and release profiles of
      TPGS/TPGS-Cys micelles were comparable to the TPGS micelles. The release of ITZ
      from all micelles was biphasic and sustained in simulated saliva fluid over 48h.
      The 3:7 and 0:10 TPGS/TPGS-Cys micelles had a good mucoadhesive property.
      Meanwhile, only 0:10 TPGS/TPGS-Cys micelles enhanced the permeability through
      buccal mucosa and potentiated the antifungal activity of ITZ against Candida
      albicans by at least 1.35 folds as compared to ITZ alone. Therefore, this
      formulation can be further developed for the transmucosal delivery of ITZ for the
      treatment of C. albicans.

PMID- 28865762
TI  - Uncoiling the Coil: Coil Extrusion After Coil Assisted Retrograde Transvenous
      Obliteration for Gastric Variceal Bleeding.

PMID- 28865761
TI  - Predicting severe hematologic toxicity from extended-field chemoradiation of para
      aortic nodal metastases from cervical cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine factors predictive for severe
      hematologic toxicity (HT) in cervical cancer patients with para-aortic lymph node
      metastasis treated with concurrent cisplatin chemoradiation to an extended field
      (EFCRT). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Thirty-eight patients with cervical cancer and
      para-aortic lymph node metastasis who underwent EFCRT were analyzed. Active bone
      marrow was defined as the region within irradiated total bone marrow (BMTOT) with
      a standard uptake value on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography greater than the mean standard uptake value for
      BMTOT. Serial weekly blood counts from the beginning to the end of radiation
      treatment were evaluated for HT using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse
      Events, version 4.0. RESULTS: Nineteen patients had grade 3 or higher hematologic
      toxicity (HT3+), not including lymphocyte toxicity. Obese patients (n = 12) were
      less likely to get HT3+ (P = .03) despite getting equivalent doses of
      chemotherapy. Volumes of BMTOT and active bone marrow receiving doses of 20, 30,
      and 45 Gy and body mass index significantly predicted HT3+. Patients who had HT3+
      had prolonged treatment time (62 vs 53 days, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: For patients
      receiving EFCRT, bone marrow irradiation parameters and patient body mass index
      were associated with HT3+. A simplified nomogram has been created to predict HT3+
      in these patients, allowing the potential to explore bone marrow-sparing delivery
      techniques.

PMID- 28865760
TI  - Inhibition of lysozyme amyloidogenesis by phospholipids. Focus on long-chain
      dimyristoylphosphocholine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Protein amyloid aggregation is an important pathological feature of a
      group of different degenerative human diseases called amyloidosis. We tested
      effect of two phospholipids, 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC)
      and 1,2-dihexanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DHPC) on amyloid aggregation of
      hen egg white (HEW) lysozyme in vitro. METHODS: Effect of phospholipids was
      investigated using spectroscopic techniques (fluorescence and CD spectroscopy),
      atomic force microscopy and image analysis. RESULTS: Phospholipids DMPC and DHPC
      are able dose-dependently inhibit lysozyme fibril formation. The length of the
      phospholipid tails and different structural arrangement of the phospholipid
      molecules affect inhibitory activity; long-chain DMPC inhibits fibrillization
      more efficiently. Interestingly, interference of DMPC with lysozyme amyloid
      fibrils has no effect on their morphology or amount. CONCLUSIONS: Phospholipid
      molecules have significant effect on lysozyme amyloid fibrillization. We suggest
      that inhibitory activity is due to the interference of phospholipids with
      lysozyme leading to the blocking of the intermolecular protein interactions
      important for formation of the cross-beta structure within the core of the
      fibrils. The higher inhibitory activity of DMPC is probably due to adsorption of
      protein molecules on the liposome surfaces which caused decrease of species
      needed for fibrillization. Interaction of the phospholipids with formed fibrils
      is not sufficient enough to interrupt the bonds in beta-sheets which are required
      for destroying of amyloid fibrils. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: The obtained results
      contribute to a better understanding of the effect of phospholipids on amyloid
      fibrillization of the lysozyme. The data suggest that DMPC and DHPC phospholipids
      represent agents able to modulate lysozyme amyloid aggregation.

PMID- 28865763
TI  - Ascariasis Diagnosed by Wireless Capsule Endoscopy.

PMID- 28865764
TI  - The Combination Use of an Acetic Acid Indigo Carmine Mixture and Linked-Color
      Imaging to Detect Early Gastric Cancer.

PMID- 28865765
TI  - Two Colonic Masses: Twice the Enigma.

PMID- 28865766
TI  - Efficacy of a Surveillance Endoscopy After an Ileorectal Anastomosis in Patients
      With Ulcerative Colitis.

PMID- 28865767
TI  - Management of Acute Variceal Hemorrhage as a Model of Individualized Care for
      Patients With Cirrhosis.

PMID- 28865768
TI  - A first step to STOP cystic fibrosis exacerbations.

PMID- 28865769
TI  - Take it to the Bank.

PMID- 28865770
TI  - Immuno-engineering: The Next Frontier in Therapeutics Delivery.

PMID- 28865771
TI  - Can skull form predict the shape of the temporomandibular joint? A study using
      geometric morphometrics on the skulls of wolves and domestic dogs.
AB  - The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) conducts and restrains masticatory movements
      between the mammalian cranium and the mandible. Through this functional
      integration, TMJ morphology in wild mammals is strongly correlated with diet,
      resulting in a wide range of TMJ variations. However, in artificially selected
      and closely related domestic dogs, dietary specialisations between breeds can be
      ruled out as a diversifying factor although they display an enormous variation in
      TMJ morphology. This raises the question of the origin of this variation. Here we
      hypothesise that, even in the face of reduced functional demands, TMJ shape in
      dogs can be predicted by skull form; i.e. that the TMJ is still highly integrated
      in the dog skull. If true, TMJ variation in the dog would be a plain by-product
      of the enormous cranial variation in dogs and its genetic causes. We addressed
      this hypothesis using geometric morphometry on a data set of 214 dog and 60 wolf
      skulls. We digitized 53 three-dimensional landmarks of the skull and the TMJ on
      CT-based segmentations and compared (1) the variation between domestic dog and
      wolf TMJs (via principal component analysis) and (2) the pattern of covariation
      of skull size, flexion and rostrum length with TMJ shape (via regression of
      centroid size on shape and partial least squares analyses). We show that the TMJ
      in domestic dogs is significantly more diverse than in wolves: its shape covaries
      significantly with skull size, flexion and rostrum proportions in patterns which
      resemble those observed in primates. Similar patterns in canids, which are
      carnivorous, and primates, which are mostly frugivorous imply the existence of
      basic TMJ integration patterns which are independent of dietary adaptations.
      However, only limited amounts of TMJ variation in dogs can be explained by simple
      covariation with overall skull geometry. This implies that the final TMJ shape is
      gained partially independently of the rest of the skull.

PMID- 28865772
TI  - Expression of myosin heavy chain isoforms mRNA transcripts in the temporalis
      muscle of common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
AB  - PURPOSE: The common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is the primate that is
      phylogenetically most closely related to humans (Homo sapiens). In order to shed
      light on the anatomy and function of the temporalis muscle in the chimpanzee, we
      have analyzed the expression patterns of the mRNA transcripts of the myosin heavy
      chain (MyHC) isoforms in different parts of the muscle. BASIC PROCEDURES: We
      dissected the superficial, deep and sphenomandibularis portions of the temporalis
      muscle in five adult P. troglodytes and quantified the expression of the mRNA
      transcripts of the MyHC isoforms in each portion using real-time quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction. MAIN FINDINGS: We observed significant differences in
      the patterns of expression of the mRNA transcripts of the MyHC-IIM isoform
      between the sphenomandibularis portion and the anterior superficial temporalis
      (33.6% vs 47.0%; P=0.032) and between the sphenomandibularis portion and the
      anterior deep temporalis (33.6% vs 43.0; P=0.016). We also observed non
      significant differences between the patterns of expression in the anterior and
      posterior superficial temporalis. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS: The differential
      expression patterns of the mRNA transcripts of the MyHC isoforms in the
      temporalis muscle in P. troglodytes may be related to the functional differences
      that have been observed in electromyographic studies in other species of
      primates. Our findings can be applicable to the fields of comparative anatomy,
      evolutionary anatomy, and anthropology.

PMID- 28865773
TI  - In vivo characterization of the murine venous system before and during dobutamine
      stimulation: implications for preclinical models of venous disease.
AB  - Although widely used as a preclinical model for studying venous diseases, there
      is a scarcity of in vivo characterizations of the naive murine venous system.
      Additionally, previous studies on naive veins (ex vivo) have not included the
      influence of surrounding structures and biomechanical forces. Using MRI, we
      noninvasively quantified the cross-sectional area, cyclic strain, and circularity
      of the venous system in young and old, male and female C57BL/6 mice. We
      investigated the most common venous locations used to perform venous disease
      research: the common jugular vein, suprarenal inferior vena cava (IVC),
      infrarenal IVC, common iliac vein, and common femoral vein. Our results elucidate
      age-dependent changes in venous cross-sectional area, which varied by location.
      Maximum cyclic strain, a parameter of lumen expansion, showed 10% change across
      the cardiac cycle, approximately half the magnitude of arteries. Veins
      demonstrated noncircular shapes, particularly in the core vasculature. The
      cardiovascular stressor dobutamine had only a small impact on the venous system.
      Also, our data demonstrate that the peripheral veins tend to decrease in cross
      sectional area and circularity with age. Conversely, the IVC tends to increase in
      size and circularity with age, with males exhibiting larger variability in
      response to dobutamine compared to females. This work provides a foundation for
      drawing age and sex comparisons in disease models, and represents the first in
      vivo characterization of the murine venous system at rest and during the
      application of a pharmacological exercise surrogate.

PMID- 28865774
TI  - Clock Genes, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Risk.
AB  - The molecular clockwork drives rhythmic oscillations of signaling pathways
      managing intermediate metabolism; the circadian timing system synchronizes
      behavioral cycles and anabolic/catabolic processes with environmental cues,
      mainly represented by light/darkness alternation. Metabolic pathways, bile acid
      synthesis, and autophagic and immune/inflammatory processes are driven by the
      biological clock. Proper timing of hormone secretion, metabolism, bile acid
      turnover, autophagy, and inflammation with behavioral cycles is necessary to
      avoid dysmetabolism. Disruption of the biological clock and mistiming of body
      rhythmicity with respect to environmental cues provoke loss of internal
      synchronization and metabolic derangements, causing liver steatosis, obesity,
      metabolic syndrome, and diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28865775
TI  - Cardiac Clocks and Preclinical Translation.
AB  - Circadian rhythms are fundamentally important for cardiovascular health,
      including heart rate, blood pressure, and molecular gene and protein responses.
      Rhythms also play a direct role in the pathophysiology of heart disease, such as
      in the timing of onset and severity of myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac
      death, ventricular arrhythmias, and stroke. Importantly, a flurry of new studies
      reveals translational applications for circadian biology to clinical medicine,
      and especially cardiology. Circadian medicine is a promising new approach that
      targets the heart's daily physiologic and molecular rhythms to benefit the
      treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28865776
TI  - Circadian Periodicity of Ischemic Heart Disease: A Systematic Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - The authors performed a MEDLINE search to identify reports, published during the
      last 20 years, focused on circadian variation of acute myocardial infarction
      (AMI), and prevalence and the ratios between the number of events per hour during
      the morning and the other hours of the day were calculated. Despite the
      optimization of interventional and medical therapy of AMI since the first reports
      of circadian patterns in AMI occurrence, it was found that such a pattern still
      exists and that AMI happens most frequently in the morning hours.

PMID- 28865777
TI  - Seasonal Periodicity of Ischemic Heart Disease and Heart Failure.
AB  - Seasonal variation for ischemic heart disease and heart failure is known. The
      interplay of environmental, biological, and physiologic changes is fascinating.
      This article highlights the seasonal periodicity of ischemic heart disease and
      heart failure and examines some of the potential reasons for these unique
      observations.

PMID- 28865778
TI  - Chronobiologic Aspects of Venous Thromboembolism.
AB  - In recent years, several studies have consistently described the chronobiologic
      aspects of many cardiovascular diseases. Several studies have also assessed the
      circadian and circannual patterns of occurrence and mortality of deep vein
      thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, but the results have been less univocal.
      Different mechanisms have been proposed to explain these possible patterns,
      including oscillation of coagulation proteins, the role of meteorologic
      parameters, and air pollution. This article summarizes the available evidence on
      chronobiologic aspects of venous thromboembolism and discusses the casual
      mechanism.

PMID- 28865779
TI  - Chronobiology of Acute Aortic Syndromes.
AB  - Acute aortic syndromes are highly morbid conditions that require prompt diagnosis
      and management. Aortic dissections have rhythmic patterns, with notable peaks at
      certain points in every 24 hours as well as weekly and seasonal variations.
      Several retrospective studies have assessed the chronobiology of acute aortic
      dissections and there seems to be a winter seasonal peak and morning daily peak
      in incidence. Although the pathophysiology of this chronobiology is unclear,
      there are several environmental and physiologic possibilities. This article
      reviews the major studies examining the chronobiology of acute aortic dissection,
      and summarizes some theories on the pathophysiology of this phenomenon.

PMID- 28865780
TI  - Circaseptan Periodicity of Cardiovascular Diseases.
AB  - The occurrence of cardiovascular events shows a different distribution during the
      week, with many studies reporting a Monday peak, possibly related to the role of
      stress associated with commencing weekly activities. Furthermore, a higher
      mortality has been observed among patients hospitalized for cardiovascular and
      other disorders on weekends, a phenomenon known as "weekend effect." Such effect
      may be explained by a higher level of disease severity among patients admitted
      over the weekend, and/or by a poorer quality of care associated with shortage of
      staff, lower experience of personnel, and limited availability of therapeutic and
      diagnostic procedures.

PMID- 28865781
TI  - Sex and Circadian Periodicity of Cardiovascular Diseases: Are Women Sufficiently
      Represented in Chronobiological Studies?
AB  - Women are often excluded/underrepresented in clinical trials; sometimes, the
      number of men/women participants or separate analysis by sex are not reported. A
      robust body of evidence demonstrated that several life-threatening acute
      cardiovascular diseases, for example, acute myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac
      death, cardiac arrest, rupture or dissection of aortic aneurysms, and stroke,
      exhibit a circadian periodicity with a morning peak. An analysis of 20 years of
      chronobiologic studies (44% of them, accounting for 85% of total cases, with
      separate analysis by sex) confirmed that morning hours are a critical time of
      onset of acute cardiovascular diseases in men and women.

PMID- 28865782
TI  - Signal Transduction and Chronopharmacology of Regulation of Circadian
      Cardiovascular Rhythms in Animal Models of Human Hypertension.
AB  - Inbred strains of rats can be used as models of human hypertension to evaluate
      mechanisms of regulation of the circadian rhythms underlying hypertension. Blood
      pressure and heart rate rhythms in rodents are endogenous (circadian). Studies
      have been performed in rats on the turnover of norepinephrine, on processes of
      signal transduction in the beta-adrenoceptor-adenylate cyclase-cyclic AMP
      phosphodiesterase system and in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, and on
      circadian rhythms in blood pressure and heart rate using radiotelemetry. The
      findings allowed a better understanding of the circadian phase-dependent kinetics
      and effects of cardiovascular active drugs (chronopharmacology) used in humans.

PMID- 28865783
TI  - Bedtime Blood Pressure Chronotherapy Significantly Improves Hypertension
      Management.
AB  - Consistent evidence of numerous studies substantiates the asleep blood pressure
      (BP) mean derived from ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) is both an independent and
      a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk than are daytime clinic
      BP measurements or the ABPM-determined awake or 24-hour BP means. Hence, cost
      effective adequate control of sleep-time BP is of marked clinical relevance.
      Ingestion time, according to circadian rhythms, of hypertension medications of 6
      different classes and their combinations significantly improves BP control,
      particularly sleep-time BP, and reduces adverse effects.

PMID- 28865784
TI  - Bedtime Chronotherapy with Conventional Hypertension Medications to Target
      Increased Asleep Blood Pressure Results in Markedly Better Chronoprevention of
      Cardiovascular and Other Risks than Customary On-awakening Therapy.
AB  - The bases for bedtime hypertension chronotherapy (BHCT) as superior
      chronoprevention against cardiovascular disease (CVD) are: (1) correlation
      between blood pressure (BP) and various risks is greater for ambulatory BP
      monitoring (ABPM) than office BP measurements (OBPM); (2) asleep BP mean is a
      better predictor of CVD risk than ABPM awake and 24-hour means and OBPM; and (3)
      targeting of asleep BP by BHCT with one or more conventional medications versus
      usual on-awakening therapy better reduces major and total CVD events. BHCT offers
      the most cost-effective chronoprevention against adverse CVD outcomes in regular
      and vulnerable renal, diabetic, and resistant hypertensive patients.

PMID- 28865785
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28865786
TI  - A Journey into the Science of Cardiovascular Chronobiology.

PMID- 28865787
TI  - Sex-dependent effects of subacute mercuric chloride exposure on histology,
      antioxidant status and immune-related gene expression in the liver of adult
      zebrafish (Danio rerio).
AB  - Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that causes negative health effects. In order
      to assess Hg-induced hepatotoxicity in fish and examine whether gender
      differences existed in response to Hg exposure, adult zebrafish were exposed to
      0, 15 and 30 MUg L-1 Hg2+ for 30 days, and histology, antioxidant status and the
      transcription levels of several immune-related genes were examined in the liver.
      Hg2+ exposure caused a dose-dependent increase in histopathological lesions of
      the liver, including vacuolization, parenchyma disorganization and pyknotic
      nucleus, and these lesions were more severe in males than in females. In females,
      Hg2+ exposure decreased CAT activity and its mRNA levels, while increased GSH
      content and the expressions of sod1, gpx1a, gstr and keap1. In males, the
      decrease in cat1 expression and the increase in GST activity, GSH and MDA
      contents as well as gpx1a, gstr, nrf2 and keap1 mRNA levels were observed in Hg2+
      exposed groups, but the activities of CAT, SOD and GPX were only stimulated in
      the 15 MUg L-1 Hg2+ group. Moreover, both in females and males, Hg2+ exposure
      down-regulated il-8 expression while up-regulated il-10 and lyz mRNAs. However,
      the down-regulation of il-1beta and tnfalpha was detected only in males under
      Hg2+ treatments. Thus, our results indicated that HgCl2 exposure induced
      histopathological damage, oxidative stress and immunotoxicity in the liver of
      zebrafish. Different response patterns of histology, antioxidant status and
      immune defenses to Hg2+ between females and males suggested sex-dependent effects
      of Hg, and males showed more vulnerable to Hg2+ exposure than females.

PMID- 28865788
TI  - Bacterial community and molecular ecological network in response to Cr2O3
      nanoparticles in activated sludge system.
AB  - The potential environmental risks of chromium oxide nanoparticles (Cr2O3 NPs)
      have caused great concerns. However, their possible impacts on activated sludge
      process are very limited. In this study, we carried out long-term exposure
      experiments to evaluate the influence of Cr2O3 NPs on wastewater nutrient
      removal, bacterial community and molecular ecological network (MEN) in the
      sequencing batch reactor (SBR). It was found that 1 mg/L Cr2O3 NPs increased the
      effluent concentrations of NO3--N and TP from 6.5 to 15.4 mg/L, and 0.6-2.7 mg/L,
      indicating the serious deterioration of denitrification and phosphorus removal.
      Cr2O3 NPs significantly decreased the bacterial richness in terms of the number
      of different OTUs (626 OTUs in Cr2O3 samples and 728 OTUs in controls). Detrended
      correspondence analysis (DCA) showed that the overall taxonomic structure of
      bacterial community was altered at Cr2O3 NPs in activated sludge systems. Further
      analysis revealed that three genera related to denitrification (Desulfovibrio,
      Pseudomonas and Hyphomicrobium) and two genera related to phosphorus removal
      (Accumulibacter and Rhodobacter) decreased significantly, which was consistent
      with the observed influences of Cr2O3 NPs on denitrification and phosphorus
      removal. MEN analysis showed that the overall architecture of the network under
      Cr2O3 NPs was substantially alerted. beta-Proteobacteria, playing an important
      role in nutrients removal, had less complex interactions in the presence of Cr2O3
      NPs, which may be associated with the deterioration of denitrification and
      phosphorus removal. This study provides insights into our understanding of shifts
      in the bacteria community and their MEN under Cr2O3 NPs in activated sludge
      systems.

PMID- 28865789
TI  - Historical record of trace elements (1983-2007) in scales from Atlantic salmon
      (Salmo salar): Study of past metal contamination from a copper mine (Ulla River,
      NW Iberian Peninsula).
AB  - The chemical composition of fish scales has been reported to reflect the
      composition of the waters in which fish have been resident, therefore having the
      potential for the assessment of temporal trends in watershed water quality. Here
      we studied the historical (1983-2007) metal contamination in the Ulla river (NW
      Iberian Peninsula) watershed - impacted by a Cu mine that was in operation from
      1973 until 1988 - by means of the analysis of major and trace elements in salmon
      scales. Results indicate the presence of a significant contamination for several
      metals (especially Cu, Au, Ag, Sb, Zn) during the 1980's. Concentrations of Cu in
      salmon scales during the influence of the mine (1983-1990) were 20 +/- 5 MUg/g,
      exceeding the values for the recent years (1995-2007): 1.8 +/- 0.4 MUg/g.
      Concentrations for Au in these two periods were 31 +/- 12 and 2.1 +/- 1.2 ng/g;
      for Ag: 21 +/- 4 and 4 +/- 2 ng/g; for Sb: 48 +/- 21 and 15 +/- 4 ng/g; and for
      Zn: 133 +/- 16 and 93 +/- 10 MUg/g. The estimated concentrations of dissolved
      copper during the operation of the mine indicate a scenario of toxic effects due
      to sensory impairments in the salmon, and a reduction in scales calcification.
      The results presented here demonstrate that the analysis of trace elements in
      archived fish scales is a suitable tool for the reconstruction of the past
      contamination in aquatic systems, and it can be also used as a non-lethal
      approach for biomonitoring purposes.

PMID- 28865790
TI  - Wastewater treatment plant effluents as source of cosmetic polyethylene
      microbeads to freshwater.
AB  - Microplastics in the environment are either a product of the fractionation of
      larger plastic items or a consequence of the release of microbeads, which are
      ingredients of cosmetics, through wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents.
      The aim of this study was to estimate the amount of microbeads that may be
      released by the latter pathways to surface waters using Ljubljana, Slovenia as a
      case study. For this purpose, microbeads contained in cosmetics were in a first
      step characterized for their physical properties and particle size distribution.
      Subsequently, daily emission of microbeads from consumers to the sewerage system,
      their fate in biological WWTPs and finally their release into surface waters were
      estimated for Ljubljana. Most of the particles found in cosmetic products were
      <100 MUm. After application, microbeads are released into sewerage system at an
      average rate of 15.2 mg per person per day. Experiments using a lab-scale
      sequencing batch biological WWTP confirmed that on average 52% of microbeads are
      captured in activated sludge. Particle size analyses of the influent and effluent
      confirmed that smaller particles (up to 60-70 MUm) are captured within activated
      sludge while bigger particles were detected in the effluent. Applying these data
      to the situation in Ljubljana indicates that about 112,500,000 particles may
      daily be released into the receiving river, resulting in a microbeads
      concentration of 21 particles/m3. Since polyethylene particles cannot be degraded
      and thus likely accumulate, the data raise concerns about potential effects in
      aquatic ecosystems in future.

PMID- 28865792
TI  - Delayed fluorescence as an indicator of the influence of the herbicides Irgarol
      1051 and Diuron on hard coral Acropora digitifera.
AB  - We examined the effect of two herbicides (Irgarol 1051 and Diuron) on symbiotic
      dinoflagellates in the hard coral Acropora digitifera using delayed fluorescence
      (DF), specifically assessing changes in molecular membrane transport, i.e. inflow
      and outflow rates, and the binding of the herbicides to target proteins in
      photosystem II. The DF approach is rapid (e.g. measurement time, 60 s) and non
      invasive, and can provide data on the extent of a photosynthetic system and the
      activity of its electron carriers. The DF of A. digitifera is inhibited 2 h after
      exposure to 1 MUg/L of either Irgarol or Diuron. Analysis of DF inhibition over
      time by a compartment model suggests that Irgarol exposure results in a
      relatively higher inflow rate and lower outflow rate than does Diuron exposure.
      This suggests that Irgarol exposure more strongly inhibits photosynthesis and
      that the coral symbiotic dinoflagellates recover less from inhibition.

PMID- 28865791
TI  - Cell death pathways of particulate matter toxicity.
AB  - Humans are exposed to various complex mixtures of particulate matter (PM) from
      different sources. Long-term exposure to high levels of these particulates has
      been linked to a diverse range of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that
      have resulted in hospital admission. The evaluation of the effects of PM exposure
      on the mechanisms related to cell death has been a challenge for many
      researchers. Therefore, in this review, we have discussed the effects of airborne
      PM exposure on mechanisms related to cell death. For this purpose, we have
      compiled literature data on PM sources, the effects of exposure, and the assays
      and models used for evaluation, in order to establish comparisons between various
      studies. The analysis of this collected data suggested divergent responses to PM
      exposure that resulted in different cell death types (apoptosis, autophagy, and
      necrosis). In addition, PM induced oxidative stress within cells, which appeared
      to be an important factor in the determination of cell fate. When the levels of
      reactive oxygen species were overpowering, the cellular fate was directed toward
      cell death. This may be the underlying mechanism of the development or
      exacerbation of respiratory diseases, such as emphysema and chronic obstructive
      pulmonary diseases. In addition, PM was shown to cause DNA damage and the
      resulting mutations increased the risk of cancer. Furthermore, several conditions
      should be considered in the assessment of cell death in PM-exposed models,
      including the cell culture line, PM composition, and the interaction of the
      different cells types in in vivo models.

PMID- 28865793
TI  - Tracing the sources of lead (Pb) in Brunei Bay, Borneo by using integrated
      spectrometry ICP-MS and chemometric techniques.
AB  - The present study aims to define the possible sources that contribute to the
      level of Pb into the Brunei Bay, Borneo. The cluster analysis has classified the
      bay into the northern part with heavy and agriculture-related industries; the
      southern area with a moderate rural human settlement as well as the southwestern
      area with a more pristine environment and a low level of human settlement. The
      score plot of spatial discriminant analysis verified a significant influence of
      the river system toward the estuary, whereas the temporal discriminant analysis
      has discriminated the seasonal changes. In comparison to elsewhere, the stable Pb
      isotopic ratios in Brunei Bay showed a fingerprint similar to coal-related
      sources and of aerosol input. Briefly, even though Pb in the Brunei Bay ecosystem
      proved to be at a low level, the stable Pb isotopic ratios showed that human and
      industrial activities are slowly contributing Pb into the bay ecosystem.

PMID- 28865795
TI  - Insights into the molecular basis for substrate binding and specificity of the
      fungal cystine transporter CgCYN1.
AB  - Cystine transporters are a clinically important class of transporters found in
      bacteria, pathogenic fungi and mammalian cells. Despite their significance, very
      little is known about the mechanism of substrate recognition and transport. We
      have carried out studies on the plasma membrane Candida glabrata cystine
      transporter, CgCYN1 a member of the amino acid-polyamine-organocation (APC)
      transporter superfamily. A homology model of CgCYN1 was generated by using
      crystal structures of three known bacterial APC transporters followed by further
      refinement using molecular dynamics simulations. This revealed a possible
      translocation channel lined by TMD1, TMD3, TMD6, TMD8 and TMD10 helices. In
      silico docking studies with cystine along with comparison with other known
      cystine permeases and closely related lysine permeases allowed prediction of
      amino acid residues specifically involved in cystine binding. To validate this
      model a total of 19 predicted residues were subjected to site directed
      mutagenesis and functionally evaluated by growth on cystine and the analogues
      cystathionine and seleno-dl-cystine. Biochemical evaluation by radioactive uptake
      assays confirmed that these mutants showed reduced cystine uptake. Detailed
      kinetic analysis studies for the transport defective mutants revealed the
      involvement of residue G255 from the conserved FAYGGTE motif of TMD 6, and T339,
      S340 and H347 (all from TMD 8) in cystine binding. The implications of these
      findings on the homologous mammalian cystine transporter, XcT are also discussed.

PMID- 28865794
TI  - Changes in glucosylceramide structure affect virulence and membrane biophysical
      properties of Cryptococcus neoformans.
AB  - Fungal glucosylceramide (GlcCer) is a plasma membrane sphingolipid in which the
      sphingosine backbone is unsaturated in carbon position 8 (C8) and methylated in
      carbon position 9 (C9). Studies in the fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans,
      have shown that loss of GlcCer synthase activity results in complete loss of
      virulence in the mouse model. However, whether the loss of virulence is due to
      the lack of the enzyme or to the loss of the sphingolipid is not known. In this
      study, we used genetic engineering to alter the chemical structure of fungal
      GlcCer and studied its effect on fungal growth and pathogenicity. Here we show
      that unsaturation in C8 and methylation in C9 is required for virulence in the
      mouse model without affecting fungal growth in vitro or common virulence factors.
      However, changes in GlcCer structure led to a dramatic susceptibility to membrane
      stressors resulting in increased cell membrane permeability and rendering the
      fungal mutant unable to grow within host macrophages. Biophysical studies using
      synthetic vesicles containing GlcCer revealed that the saturated and unmethylated
      sphingolipid formed vesicles with higher lipid order that were more likely to
      phase separate into ordered domains. Taken together, these studies show for the
      first time that a specific structure of GlcCer is a major regulator of membrane
      permeability required for fungal pathogenicity.

PMID- 28865796
TI  - pH regulates pore formation of a protease activated Vip3Aa from Bacillus
      thuringiensis.
AB  - Vip3Aa insecticidal protein is produced from Bacillus thuringiensis and exerts a
      broad spectrum of toxicity against lepidopteran insect species. Although Vip3Aa
      has been effectively used as part of integrated pest management strategies, the
      mechanism of the toxin remains unclear. Here, we investigated the effect of pH in
      a range from 5.0 to 10.0 on the pore-forming activity of the trypsin activated
      Vip3Aa (actVip3Aa) by in vitro pore-forming assays. Based on calcein release
      assay, actVip3Aa could permeabilize the artificial neutral liposomes under all
      the pH tested, except pH10.0. The maximum membrane permeability of actVip3Aa was
      detected at pH8.0 and the permeability decreased and abolished when exposing to
      acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. The planar lipid bilayer experiment
      revealed that actVip3Aa formed ion channels at pH5.0-8.0 but no current signals
      were detected at pH10.0, consistent with the observation from calcein release
      assay. The toxin formed ion channels with a diameter of 1.4nm at pH8.0 and pore
      size was gradually decreased when reducing the pH. This study provided a view of
      the molecular mechanism of Vip3Aa by which the pore-forming activity is regulated
      by pH.

PMID- 28865797
TI  - Structure and function of membrane proteins encapsulated in a polymer-bound lipid
      bilayer.
AB  - New technologies for the purification of stable membrane proteins have emerged in
      recent years, in particular methods that allow the preparation of membrane
      proteins with their native lipid environment. Here, we look at the progress
      achieved with the use of styrene-maleic acid copolymers (SMA) which are able to
      insert into biological membranes forming nanoparticles containing membrane
      proteins and lipids. This technology can be applied to membrane proteins from any
      host source, and, uniquely, allows purification without the protein ever being
      removed from a lipid bilayer. Not only do these SMA lipid particles (SMALPs)
      stabilise membrane proteins, allowing structural and functional studies, but they
      also offer opportunities to understand the local lipid environment of the host
      membrane. With any new or different method, questions inevitably arise about the
      integrity of the protein purified: does it retain its activity; its native
      structure; and ability to perform its function? How do membrane proteins within
      SMALPS perform in existing assays and lend themselves to analysis by established
      methods? We outline here recent work on the structure and function of membrane
      proteins that have been encapsulated like this in a polymer-bound lipid bilayer,
      and the potential for the future with this approach. This article is part of a
      Special Issue entitled: Beyond the Structure-Function Horizon of Membrane
      Proteins edited by Ute Hellmich, Rupak Doshi and Benjamin McIlwain.

PMID- 28865798
TI  - MPP1 directly interacts with flotillins in erythrocyte membrane - Possible
      mechanism of raft domain formation.
AB  - Flotillins are prominent, oligomeric protein components of erythrocyte (RBC)
      membrane raft domains and are considered to play an important structural role in
      lateral organization of the plasma membrane. In our previous work on erythroid
      membranes and giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) derived from them we have
      shown that formation of functional domains (resting state rafts) depends on the
      presence of membrane palmitoylated protein 1 (MPP1/p55), pointing to its new
      physiological role. Exploration of the molecular mechanism of MPP1 function in
      organizing membrane domains described here, through searching for its molecular
      partners in RBC membrane by using different methods, led to the identification of
      the raft-marker proteins, flotillin 1 and flotillin 2, as hitherto unreported
      direct MPP1 binding-partners in the RBC membrane. These proteins are found in
      high molecular-weight complexes in native RBC membrane and, significantly, their
      presence was shown to be separate from the well-known protein 4.1-dependent
      interactions of MPP1 with membrane proteins. Furthermore, FLIM analysis revealed
      that loss of the endogenous MPP1-flotillins interactions resulted in significant
      changes in RBC membrane-fluidity, emphasizing the physiological importance of
      such interactions in vivo. Therefore, our data establish a new perspective on the
      role of MPP1 in erythroid cells and suggests that direct MPP1-flotillins
      interactions could be the major driving-force behind the formation of raft
      domains in RBC.

PMID- 28865799
TI  - Pharmacokinetics, Safety, and Tolerability of Tedizolid Phosphate After Single
      dose Administration in Healthy Korean Male Subjects.
AB  - PURPOSE: Tedizolid phosphate is a next-generation oxazolidinone prodrug that is
      transformed into the active moiety tedizolid. Its indication is acute bacterial
      skin and skin structure infections caused by gram-positive species, including
      methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Although tedizolid phosphate has
      been marketed in Korea, no data on the pharmacokinetic (PK) properties or
      tolerability of tedizolid phosphate in Korean subjects are available. This study
      was designed to evaluate the PK properties, oral bioavailability, and
      tolerability with a single-dose oral and intravenous administration of tedizolid
      phosphate in healthy Korean male subjects. METHODS: A block-randomized, double
      blind, placebo-controlled, single-dose study was conducted in 3 groups (200, 400,
      and 600 mg; 10 subjects in each group). In the second part of the study, subjects
      from the 200-mg group received administration orally and intravenously (1-hour
      infusion) via 2-way crossover for the evaluation of absolute bioavailability.
      There was a 7-day washout period between treatments in the absolute
      bioavailability part of the study. Serial blood samples for PK analysis were
      collected for up to 72 hours. Tolerability was assessed by analysis of adverse
      events. FINDINGS: Thirty healthy Korean subjects completed the study and were
      included in the PK and tolerability analyses. Tedizolid phosphate was rapidly
      converted into tedizolid. After a single oral dose, the Tmax of tedizolid was
      observed to be 1.5 to 2.5 hours, and the plasma concentration-time curve of
      tedizolid showed a 2-phase elimination pattern, with a half-life of ~11 hours.
      Dose-dependent increases were observed in the AUClast value (29,441-78,062 MUg .
      h/L) and in the Cmax value (2679-6980 MUg/L) with the administration of tedizolid
      phosphate 200 to 600 mg PO. The absolute bioavailability of tedizolid was 95.2%
      (90% CI, 92.7%-97.8%) in the 200-mg administration group. There were no serious
      adverse events or clinically significant changes in the tolerability assessment.
      IMPLICATIONS: Tedizolid phosphate at doses of up to 600 mg was well-tolerated in
      these healthy Korean male subjects. Tedizolid shows dose linearity with oral
      administration, and no dose adjustment of tedizolid phosphate 200 mg would be
      needed when switching administration routes. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:
      NCT02097043.

PMID- 28865800
TI  - The Role of Continuing Medical Education in Increasing Enrollment in Prescription
      Drug Monitoring Programs.
AB  - PURPOSE: Opioid diversion, misuse, and abuse are rapidly growing problems in the
      United States; >60% of all drug overdose deaths involve an opioid. At least 49
      states now have fully operational prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs)
      to support legitimate medical use of controlled substances; however, there is
      considerable underutilization of such programs. METHODS: To increase awareness of
      PDMPs and their use, a continuing medical education program including 2 webcasts
      and a series of newsletters was offered to health care providers. FINDINGS: Four
      hundred and sixty-five clinicians participated in 1 of 2 webcasts. Of those, 207
      clinicians responded to a pre-survey and 64 responded to a post-survey. Slightly
      more than half of clinicians were registered for their state's PDMP program
      before the educational intervention, and although significantly more clinicians
      reported increased likelihood to access their state PDMP after participation, the
      number that actually registered only trended toward a statistically significant
      increase to 74% after the education (P = 0.06). Immediate post-activity
      evaluation also indicated that the education significantly improved clinician
      knowledge of the characteristics of addiction, findings in a PDMP that would
      suggest diversion or abuse, and strategies to complement the use of a PDMP (P <
      0.001). IMPLICATIONS: Continuing medical education is effective for improving
      clinician knowledge and confidence related to opioid misuse, abuse, and diversion
      and effective use of a PDMP; however, the education did not result in a
      significant increase in enrollment in state PDMPs.

PMID- 28865801
TI  - Approach to Acute Heart Failure in the Emergency Department.
AB  - Acute heart failure (AHF) patients rarely present complaining of 'acute heart
      failure.' Rather, they initially present to the emergency department (ED) with a
      myriad of chief complaints, symptoms, and physical exam findings. Such
      heterogeneity prompts an initially broad differential diagnosis; securing the
      correct diagnosis can be challenging. Although AHF may be the ultimate diagnosis,
      the precipitant of decompensation must also be sought and addressed. For those
      AHF patients who present in respiratory or circulatory failure requiring
      immediate stabilization, treatment begins even while the diagnosis is uncertain.
      The initial diagnostic workup consists of a thorough history and exam (with a
      particular focus on the cause of decompensation), an EKG, chest X-ray, laboratory
      testing, and point-of-care ultrasonography performed by a qualified clinician or
      technologist. We recommend initial treatment be guided by presenting phenotype.
      Hypertensive patients, particularly those in severe distress and markedly
      elevated blood pressure, should be treated aggressively with vasodilators, most
      commonly nitroglycerin. Normotensive patients generally require significant
      diuresis with intravenous loop diuretics. A small minority of patients present
      with hypotension or circulatory collapse. These patients are the most difficult
      to manage and require careful assessment of intra- and extra-vascular volume
      status. After stabilization, diagnosis, and management, most ED patients with AHF
      in the United States (US) are admitted. While this is understandable, it may be
      unnecessary. Ongoing research to improve diagnosis, initial treatment, risk
      stratification, and disposition may help ease the tremendous public health burden
      of AHF.

PMID- 28865802
TI  - "A light heart lives long": A new avenue of secondary prevention we must explore.

PMID- 28865803
TI  - Microbial Identification Using Electrochemical Detection of Metabolites.
AB  - Curbing antibiotic use requires the development of simple diagnostic tests that
      provide caregivers with reliable, immediately actionable information to identify
      whether there is a need to prescribe a specific antibiotic. This Forum article
      highlights advances in infection screening approaches that use electrochemistry
      to detect molecular biomarkers for distinct pathogenic infections.

PMID- 28865804
TI  - Flashing LEDs for Microalgal Production.
AB  - Flashing lights are next-generation tools to mitigate light attenuation and
      increase the photosynthetic efficiency of microalgal cultivation systems
      illuminated by light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Optimal flashing light conditions
      depend on the reaction kinetics and properties of the linear electron transfer
      chain, energy dissipation, and storage mechanisms of a phototroph. In particular,
      extremely short and intense light flashes potentially mitigate light attenuation
      in photobioreactors without impairing photosynthesis. Intelligently controlling
      flashing light units and selecting electronic components can maximize light
      emission and energy efficiency. We discuss the biological, physical, and
      technical properties of flashing lights for algal production. We combine recent
      findings about photosynthetic pathways, self-shading in photobioreactors, and
      developments in solid-state technology towards the biotechnological application
      of LEDs to microalgal production.

PMID- 28865805
TI  - De novo root regeneration from leaf explants: wounding, auxin, and cell fate
      transition.
AB  - Root organogenesis after tissue damage is a type of plant regeneration known as
      de novo root regeneration (DNRR). The DNRR process is widely exploited in
      agricultural technologies, such as cuttings for vegetative propagation. This
      review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of the cellular and
      molecular framework of DNRR, mainly focusing on rooting from Arabidopsis thaliana
      leaf explants. The framework comprises three successive phases, that is, early
      signaling, auxin accumulation, and cell fate transition, and involves two types
      of cells with different functions: the converter cell that converts the early
      signals as the input into auxin flux as the output; and the regeneration
      competent cell that undergoes fate transition guided by auxin.

PMID- 28865806
TI  - Resveratrol promotes human embryonic stem cells self-renewal by targeting SIRT1
      ERK signaling pathway.
AB  - Resveratrol (RSV), a natural polyphenol component, has diverse biological
      properties. It has been shown that RSV regulated the self-renewal and
      differentiation of several types of stem cells, but the precise role of this
      compound on regulation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) self- renewal
      remained to be elucidated. Here we have shown that RSV promoted hESCs
      proliferation through cell cycle modulation and up-regulation of anti-apoptotic
      markers, without affecting pluripotency. Furthermore, inhibition of SIRT1 by EX
      527 resulted in suppression of RSV-induced enhancement of hESCs self-renewal. RSV
      exerted its beneficial effects by activation of MEK/ERK signaling pathway as
      verified by application of specific MEK inhibitor, PD0325901. In conclusion, RSV
      elevated self-renewal of hESCs at least partly via "SIRT1-MEK/ERK" axis. These
      findings provide a novel application of RSV for developing a defined medium for
      hESCs culture which could help to better understanding of the signaling events
      that govern self-renewal of hESCs.

PMID- 28865807
TI  - Intracrine androgen biosynthesis, metabolism and action revisited.
AB  - Androgens play an important role in metabolic homeostasis and reproductive health
      in both men and women. Androgen signalling is dependent on androgen receptor
      activation, mostly by testosterone and 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone. However, the
      intracellular or intracrine activation of C19 androgen precursors to active
      androgens in peripheral target tissues of androgen action is of equal importance.
      Intracrine androgen synthesis is often not reflected by circulating androgens but
      rather by androgen metabolites and conjugates. In this review we provide an
      overview of human C19 steroid biosynthesis including the production of 11
      oxygenated androgens, their transport in circulation and uptake into peripheral
      tissues. We conceptualise the mechanisms of intracrinology and review the
      intracrine pathways of activation and inactivation in selected human tissues. The
      contribution of liver and kidney as organs driving androgen inactivation and
      renal excretion are also highlighted. Finally, the importance of quantifying
      androgen metabolites and conjugates to assess intracrine androgen production is
      discussed.

PMID- 28865808
TI  - Monitoring the evolution and migration of a methane gas plume in an unconfined
      sandy aquifer using time-lapse GPR and ERT.
AB  - Fugitive methane (CH4) leakage associated with conventional and unconventional
      petroleum development (e.g., shale gas) may pose significant risks to shallow
      groundwater. While the potential threat of stray (CH4) gas in aquifers has been
      acknowledged, few studies have examined the nature of its migration and fate in a
      shallow groundwater flow system. This study examines the geophysical responses
      observed from surface during a 72day field-scale simulated CH4 leak in an
      unconfined sandy aquifer at Canadian Forces Base Borden, Canada, to better
      understand the transient behaviour of fugitive CH4 gas in the subsurface. Time
      lapse ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)
      were used to monitor the distribution and migration of the gas-phase and assess
      any impacts to groundwater hydrochemistry. Geophysical measurements captured the
      transient formation of a CH4 gas plume emanating from the injector, which was
      accompanied by an increase in total dissolved gas pressure (PTDG). Subsequent
      reductions in PTDG were accompanied by reduced bulk resistivity around the
      injector along with an increase in the GPR reflectivity along horizontal bedding
      reflectors farther downgradient. Repeat temporal GPR reflection profiling
      identified three events with major peaks in reflectivity, interpreted to
      represent episodic lateral CH4 gas release events into the aquifer. Here, a
      gradual increase in PTDG near the injector caused a sudden lateral breakthrough
      of gas in the direction of groundwater flow, causing free-phase CH4 to migrate
      much farther than anticipated based on groundwater advection. CH4 accumulated
      along subtle permeability boundaries demarcated by grain-scale bedding within the
      aquifer characteristic of numerous Borden-aquifer multi-phase flow experiments.
      Diminishing reflectivity over a period of days to weeks suggests buoyancy-driven
      migration to the vadose zone and/or CH4 dissolution into groundwater. Lateral and
      vertical CH4 migration was primarily governed by subtle, yet measurable
      heterogeneity and anisotropy in the aquifer.

PMID- 28865809
TI  - Lifestyle weight management programmes for children: A systematic review using
      Qualitative Comparative Analysis to identify critical pathways to effectiveness.
AB  - This study aimed to identify critical features of successful lifestyle weight
      management interventions for overweight children (0-11years). Eleven qualitative
      UK-based studies examining children's, parents' and providers' perspectives and
      experiences of programmes were synthesised to identify components felt to be
      critical. Studies for this views synthesis were identified from existing reviews
      and an update of one review's search, which was run in December 2015. The
      identified components were then explored in a synthesis of intervention
      evaluations (five 'most effective' and 15 'least effective') conducted in western
      Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand. The intervention evaluations
      were identified from existing reviews and an update of one review's search, which
      was run in March 2016. This evaluation synthesis was carried out using
      Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Three important mechanisms were present in all
      the most effective interventions but absent in all the least effective: 1/
      showing families how to change: a) providing child physical activity sessions, b)
      delivering practical behaviour change strategy sessions, c) providing calorie
      intake advice; 2/ ensuring all the family are on board: a) delivering
      discussion/education sessions for both children and parents, b) delivering child
      friendly sessions, c) aiming to change behaviours across the whole family; 3/
      enabling social support for both parents and children by delivering both child
      group sessions and parent group sessions. To conclude, programmes should ensure
      the whole family is on board the programme, that parents and children can receive
      social support and are not just told what to change, but shown how.

PMID- 28865810
TI  - Consolidated state political party control and the enactment of obesity-related
      policies in the United States.
AB  - States play a key role in addressing obesity and its risk factors through
      policymaking, but there is variation in state activity nationally. The goal of
      this study was to examine whether the presence of a consolidated Democratic or
      Republican "trifecta" - when a state's governorship and both houses of the
      legislature are dominated by the same political party - or divided government
      (i.e., without a trifecta) is associated with obesity-related policy content and
      enactment. In 2016 and 2017, we gathered state bills and laws utilizing the CDC
      Chronic Disease State Policy Tracking System, and examined the association
      between state-level political party control and the enactment of state-level
      obesity-related policies in all states during 2009-2015. The three areas of
      interest included: policies specifically addressing obesity, nutrition, or
      physical activity in communities, schools, or workplaces using a public health
      framework; neutral policies, such as creating government task forces; and
      policies that employed a business-interest framework (e.g., Commonsense
      Consumption Acts that prohibit consumer lawsuits against restaurant
      establishments). Using divided governments as the reference group, we found that
      states with Democratic trifectas enacted significantly more laws, and more laws
      with a public health framework. Republican trifecta states enacted more laws
      related to physical activity, and in some states like Texas, Republican trifectas
      were exceptionally active in passing policies with a public health framework.
      States with Republican trifectas enacted a statistically similar amount of laws
      as states with divided governments. These findings suggest promise across states
      for obesity-related public health policymaking under a variety of political
      regimes.

PMID- 28865811
TI  - In Defense of Flossing: Part II-Can We Agree It's Premature to Claim Flossing Is
      Ineffective to Help Prevent Periodontal Diseases?
AB  - Periodontal diseases are complex, multifactorial disorders. Effective daily
      plaque control promotes gingival/periodontal health. Recent meta-analyses and
      other reviews have found inconclusive evidence to support that tooth flossing
      promotes gingival/periodontal health. Ideally, the claim should have been that,
      "at present, we do not have high-quality evidence from well-designed randomized
      clinical trials to determine whether flossing lowers the risk for periodontal
      diseases." Rather than "not proven to be effective," the lay public may now think
      that flossing is "almost entirely unhelpful and/or unnecessary." How does the
      dental community communicate the nuances of this topic? Herein, we examine the
      key structural issues underlying this area of research. We assert that effective
      flossing between specific teeth can promote gingival/periodontal health.
      Furthermore, we explore the nuances for whom this may be true and untrue, why our
      evidence is lacking, and what can be done to clarify the effectiveness of
      flossing on clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28865812
TI  - Efficacy of Rapid Maxillary Expansion in the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
      Syndrome: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of rapid
      maxillary expansion (RME) in the treatment of OSAS in children and adolescents.
      METHODS: Five electronic databases were searched systematically: PubMed, Web of
      Science, LILACS, Embase and Cochrane Library. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized
      controlled trials, nonrandomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and
      systematic reviews published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese between January
      2000 and December 2016, performed on children and adolescents younger than 18
      years with OSAS who underwent RME, and assessing RME efficacy as measured by the
      Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) normalization were included. Qualitative assessment of
      the selected studies was performed using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme
      checklists. Statistical evaluation included 2 meta-analyses and was based on a
      random-effects model and Cochran's Q test and I2 statistics to assess
      heterogeneity across the publications. Electronic searches identified 84
      publications. Five publications were considered valid and included in this
      systematic review. RESULTS: Results from the meta-analysis show an overall
      reduction in AHI after RME therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Increasingly the evidence
      indicates that RME devices reduce AHI in children with OSAS, making RME therapy
      an appropriate alternative treatment option for these patients.

PMID- 28865813
TI  - Concordance Between Clinical Practice and Published Evidence: Findings From
      Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the concordance between clinical practice and published
      evidence by dental faculty and graduating students of the Virginia Commonwealth
      University School of Dentistry. METHODS: A questionnaire previously developed by
      the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network with 12 clinical scenarios
      was administered to VCU faculty and graduating students. Responses were scored as
      either consistent or inconsistent with published evidence and then analyzed for
      differences between dental faculty, graduating students, and the national
      results. RESULTS: There were 43 dental faculty members with at least half-time
      student contact who responded to the survey. Faculty concordance ranged from 33%
      to 100%, and general practice faculty had the highest concordance (82%). Eighty
      five of the graduating class of 98 responded to the survey, and student
      concordance ranged from 18% to 92% and averaged 67%. General practice faculty had
      higher concordance with published evidence than recently graduated dental
      students. CONCLUSIONS: Graduating students and dental faculty demonstrated higher
      concordance with evidence-based practice than practitioners in the National
      Dental Practice-Based Research Network. General practice dental faculty
      demonstrated adequate concordance, but students demonstrated only a medium-level
      concordance. Practitioners involved in teaching dental students are better able
      to keep up with evolving evidence and are better able to demonstrate evidence
      based practice.

PMID- 28865814
TI  - Patients' Values in Clinical Decision-Making.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Shared decision-making involves the participation of patient and
      dental practitioner. Well-informed decision-making requires that both parties
      understand important concepts that may influence the decision. This fourth
      article in a series of 4 aims to discuss the importance of patients' values when
      a clinical decision is made. METHODS: We report on how to incorporate important
      concepts for well-informed, shared decision-making. Here, we present patient
      values as an important issue, in addition to previously established topics such
      as the risk of bias of a study, cost-effectiveness of treatment approaches, and a
      comparison of therapeutic benefit with potential side effects. RESULTS: We
      provide 2 clinical examples and suggestions for a decision tree, based on the
      available evidence. CONCLUSION: The information reported in this article may
      improve the relationship between patient and dental practitioner, resulting in
      more well-informed clinical decisions.

PMID- 28865815
TI  - Evaluation of the Need for Antibiotic Prophylaxis During Routine Intra-alveolar
      Dental Extractions in Healthy Patients: A Randomized Double-Blind Controlled
      Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this randomized double-blind controlled trial was to
      evaluate the role of antibiotics in the perioperative period of dental
      extractions in healthy patients. METHODS: The study population included patients
      visiting the outpatient department of our institute. Four hundred patients were
      selected and randomly divided into 4 groups and underwent routine dental
      extraction. In group A, patients were prescribed only anti-inflammatory drugs in
      the postoperative period. In group B, patients were prescribed antibiotics for 3
      days and concomitant anti-inflammatory drugs in the postoperative period only. In
      group C, patients were prescribed a single dose of antibiotic 1 hour before the
      extraction procedure with no postoperative antibiotics, and only anti
      inflammatory drugs were prescribed in the postoperative period. In group D,
      patients were prescribed mouthwash starting 15 minutes before the procedure and
      continuing twice daily for a period of 7 days along with anti-inflammatory drugs
      in the postoperative period. Patients were asked to follow up on the seventh
      postoperative day for suture removal and were evaluated for pain, swelling, dry
      socket, and local signs of infection. The study was approved by the Internal
      Ethics Review Committee of the institute. RESULTS: No significant differences
      were seen among the groups with respect to pain (chi2 [1, N = 171] = 4.939, P =
      .552), swelling (chi2 [1, N = 171] = 10.048, P = .347), or postextraction
      complications. CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic antibiotics are not required during
      routine dental extractions in healthy patients. The use of antibiotic therapy
      without appropriate indications can result in the development of resistant
      organisms. However, a clear trend is seen in which practitioners overprescribe
      antibiotics as well as medications in general. The current evidence questions the
      benefits of prophylactic antibiotic therapy for patients undergoing dental
      extractions. In our opinion, there is no justification for routine antibiotic
      prophylaxis for dental extractions in healthy patients.

PMID- 28865816
TI  - Bacteremia Associated With Oral Surgery: A Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Bacterial (infective) endocarditis, a microbial infection of the
      endocardium surfaces after bacteremia, causes significant morbidity and
      mortality. Recent epidemiologic studies have reported a prevalence of 2-8 cases
      per 100,000 individuals per year, with the highest incidence in those aged 70-80
      years and those living in developed countries. We systematically reviewed the
      literature on several critical aspects regarding the development of bacteremia
      after oral surgery. The purpose of this work is to assess the controversy
      regarding antibiotic prophylaxis before oral surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Publications between 1976 and 2015 were included. Clinical studies focusing on
      oral surgery as the underlying cause were included. RESULTS: Among the 32
      clinical studies reviewed, 3564 cases, accounting for 12,839 blood cultures, were
      evaluated. In 10 of these studies, amoxicillin usefulness was studied.
      Antimicrobial prophylaxis before an invasive dental procedure does not prevent
      bacteremia, although it can decrease both its magnitude and its persistence.
      CONCLUSIONS: The highly conflicting data and conclusions of the analyzed work
      highlight the need for new approaches to the study of bacteremia that would
      provide reliable evidence and thus appropriate prophylactic and therapeutic
      standards. Many reports have explored the occurrence of bacteremia after dental
      procedures, but the results have been conflicting.

PMID- 28865818
TI  - Single vs 2 Implants on Peri-implant Marginal Bone Level and Implant Failures in
      Mandibular Implant Overdentures: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As a consensus, the 2-implant supported overdentures (ODs) are
      considered as the first choice of treatment for the edentulous mandible. In the
      same context, there is increased evidence supporting the use of single-implant
      OD. The aim of any design is to preserve the remaining structures and allow the
      longevity of the treatment. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of single implant
      vs 2 implants on the peri-implant marginal bone loss (MBL) and number of implant
      failures in mandibular implant overdentures. METHODS: A literature search of
      electronic databases (PubMed and Cochrane) was performed up to March 2016 and
      complemented by hand search. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that evaluated MBL
      and number of implant failures relative to single-implant mandibular overdenture
      (MOD) were selected. The review and meta-analysis were performed using meta
      analytic statistical package and in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. FINDINGS: Five RCTs met
      the inclusion criteria for systematic review and qualitative synthesis. The
      observation period ranged from 12 months to 5 years in the selected RCTs. The
      comparison included in the meta-analysis is single- vs 2-implant MODs. Pooled
      data revealed that single-implant MODs significantly decreased the MBL (mean
      difference: 0.27, 95% confidence interval: 0.20-0.34, P < .0001, I2 = 0%) and
      number of implant failures (risk ratio: 3.26, 95% confidence interval: 1.18
      8.97), P = .02; I2 = 0%). CONCLUSIONS: Single-implant MOD was found to be better
      than 2-implant MOD in terms of MBL and number of implant failures. However, this
      result should be interpreted with caution due to limited number of analyzed
      studies with different loading protocols and short follow-up period.

PMID- 28865817
TI  - Uncertain Decision-Making in Primary Root Canal Treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A systematic review of literature was conducted to compare the
      success and survivability of primary root canal interventions. METHODS: The
      Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses protocol was
      adopted in this study to systematically assess and report systematic reviews
      related to success or survival or failure rates of primary root canal
      interventions. MEDLINE and Cochrane Oral Health Library were both searched by
      using specific search terms to identify relevant literature, until June 2016. The
      search was augmented by handsearching. Then, the quality of the included
      systematic reviews was assessed by using the Revised Assessment of Multiple
      Systematic Reviews (RAMSTAR) protocol. RESULTS: Only 9 systematic reviews were
      identified. The RAMSTAR scores of the included reviews ranged from 43/44 to
      29/44. Nevertheless, the later reviews did not provide sufficient evidence or
      statistically significant evidence to support any of the interventions used
      during primary root canal treatment. In addition, a number of key steps during
      primary root canal treatment, such as types of dental files, root canal
      instrumentation techniques, orthograde obturation materials, and techniques, were
      not assessed by systematic reviews. CONCLUSION: The current status of evidence
      related to the success and survivability of primary root canal interventions is
      lacking. This puts dentists under marked degrees of uncertainty. Consequently,
      patients are potentially exposed to health care risks. It is then essential to
      develop tailored methods and tools for decision-making under uncertainty to aid
      both dentists and patients engaged in primary root canal treatment.

PMID- 28865819
TI  - Does Evidence Support a Combined Restorative Surgical Approach for the Treatment
      of Gingival Recessions Associated With Noncarious Cervical Lesions?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Gingival recessions are frequently associated with noncarious
      cervical lesions. Combined restorative surgical approaches have been suggested
      for the management of these combined defects. The aim of this review was to
      analyze the current evidence on the effectiveness of these combined restorative
      surgical approaches. METHODS: A systematic review of randomized controlled
      studies published from January 2006 to June 2016 was performed. RESULTS: Ten
      articles comparing combined restorative surgical approaches to surgery alone were
      included. Both the procedures showed similar outcomes in term of root coverage
      but the combined restorative surgical approach achieved better result in the
      reduction of dentin hypersensitivity. In combined restorative surgical
      treatments, resin-modified glass ionomers showed better antimicrobial properties
      but poorer esthetic outcome than resin composites. CONCLUSION: Data to support or
      refute definitely the interest of combined approaches for the treatment of
      gingival recessions associated with noncarious cervical lesions are limited.

PMID- 28865820
TI  - Methodological Quality Assessment of Systematic Reviews on Autologous Platelet
      Concentrates for the Treatment of Periodontal Defects.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of the methodological quality of systematic reviews (SRs)
      on the effectiveness of autologous platelet concentrates as an adjunct to
      regenerative procedures for the treatment of periodontal defects. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: After a literature screening, eligible SRs were qualitatively assessed
      using 2 validated instruments: A Measurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews
      checklist and Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire. The characteristics and
      findings of SRs were also reported. RESULTS: Ten SRs fulfilled the inclusion
      criteria and were evaluated. With A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews
      tool, SRs displayed a generally satisfying quality. Six SRs satisfied >=8 items
      of 11 (high-quality score), and 4 were classified of medium quality (score 4-7).
      Using Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire instrument, more than half SRs (N
      = 6) satisfied >=7 items of 9, resulting to be of high quality; 3 were classified
      as medium quality (4-6 criteria met); and only 1 of low quality (3 items
      satisfied). A significant correlation between the results of the 2 questionnaires
      was found (Spearman's r = 0.915, P = .0005). CONCLUSIONS: SRs considered had an
      overall high methodological quality. However, some areas were not systematically
      addressed, like a thorough research strategy or publication bias assessment.
      Standard guidelines for designing, performing, and reporting SRs should always be
      followed. The use of platelet concentrates as an adjunct to periodontal surgery
      procedures may have beneficial effects for the treatment of periodontal defects.

PMID- 28865821
TI  - As an Adjunct to Mechanical Oral Hygiene, Essential Oil-containing Mouthwash,
      Compared to Floss, Cetylpryidinium Chloride, or Placebo may be more Effective in
      Reduction of Plaque and Gingitivitis.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Essential oils-containing
      mouthwashes for gingivitis and plaque: Meta-analysis and meta-regression. Haas
      AN, Wagner TP, Muniz FWMG, Fiorini T, Cavagni J, Celeste, RK. J Dent 2016;55:7
      15. SOURCE OF FUNDING: No specific funding for this systematic review TYPE OF
      STUDY/DESIGN: Meta-analysis and meta-regression.

PMID- 28865822
TI  - Botulinum Toxin A Might Be an Alternative or Adjunct Therapy for the Treatment of
      Trigeminal and Postherpetic Neuralgia.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: The efficacy of botulinum toxin for
      the treatment of trigeminal and postherpetic neuralgia: A systematic review with
      meta-analyses. Shackleton T, Ram S, Black M, Ryder J, Clark GT, Enciso R. Oral
      Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol 2016;122(1):61-71. SOURCE OF FUNDING:
      Information not available TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Systematic review and meta
      analysis.

PMID- 28865823
TI  - Insufficient Evidence Supports the Use of Low-Level Laser Therapy to Accelerate
      Tooth Movement, Prevent Orthodontic Relapse, and Modulate Acute Pain During
      Orthodontic Treatment.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Efficacy of low-level laser therapy
      in accelerating tooth movement, preventing relapse and managing acute pain during
      orthodontic treatment in humans: A systematic review. Sonesson M, De Geer E,
      Subraian J, Petren S. BMC Oral Health 2017;17:11. SOURCE OF FUNDING: No funding
      was obtained for this study TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Systematic review.

PMID- 28865824
TI  - Limited Evidence Links Silver Diamine Fluoride and Caries Arrest in Children.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Clinical trials of silver diamine
      fluoride in arresting caries among children: A systematic review. Gao SS, Zhao
      IS, Hiraishi N, Duangthi D, Mei ML, Lo ECM, Chu CH. JDR-CTR 2016;1:201-10. SOURCE
      OF FUNDING: Academic research funding from the General Research Fund of the
      Research Grants Council of Hong Kong TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Systematic review and
      meta-analysis.

PMID- 28865825
TI  - Long-term Use of the Sialogogue Medications Pilocarpine and Cevimeline Can Reduce
      Xerostomia Symptoms and Increase Salivary Flow in Head and Neck Cancer Survivors
      After Radiotherapy.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Interventions for the management of
      radiotherapy-induced xerostomia and hyposalivation: A systematic review and meta
      analysis. Mercadante V, Hamad AA, Lodi G, Porter S, Fedele S. Oral Oncol
      2017;66:64-74. SOURCE OF FUNDING: The authors reported that no external funding
      sources directly supported this study TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Systematic review and
      meta-analysis.

PMID- 28865826
TI  - A Self-Report to 2-Domain Questions May Accurately Screen for Periodontitis.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: A two-domain self-report measure of
      periodontal disease has good accuracy for periodontitis screening in dental
      school outpatients. Chatzopoulos GS, Tsalikis L, Konstantinidis A, Kotsakis GA. J
      Periodontol 2016;87:1165-73. SOURCE OF FUNDING: Information not available TYPE OF
      STUDY/DESIGN: Cohort study.

PMID- 28865827
TI  - Measures of Dynamic Chewing Function, Rather than the Number of Teeth, are a
      Better Predictors of the Elderly's Ability to Intake Food and Nutrients.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Dietary intake is associated with
      occlusal force rather than number of teeth in 80-y-old Japanese. Inomata C, Ikebe
      K, Okubo H et al. J Dent Res 2016;2(2):187-97. SOURCE OF FUNDING: The study was
      supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 23390440 and 25293394)
      from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Cross
      sectional study.

PMID- 28865828
TI  - The Invisalign Appliance Could Be an Effective Modality for Treating Overbite
      Malocclusions Within a Mild to Moderate Range.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Management of overbite with the
      Invisalign appliance. Khosravi R, Cohanim B, Hujoel P, Daher S, Neal M, Liu W,
      Huang G. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2017;151:691-9. SOURCE OF FUNDING: This
      study was supported by the University of Washington Orthodontic Alumni
      Association TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: A retrospective study.

PMID- 28865829
TI  - Limited Evidence Suggests That Symptomatic Cracked Teeth Share Characteristics
      Such as Clenching, Grinding, and Molars With Distal Cracks.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Correlation between symptoms and
      external characteristics of cracked teeth. Hilton TJ, Funkhouser E, Ferracane JL,
      Gilbert GH, Baltuck C, Benjamin P, Louis D, Mungia R, Meyerowitz. JADA 2017;
      148(4):246-56.e1. SOURCE OF FUNDING: National Institutes of Health grant U19-DE
      22516 TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

PMID- 28865830
TI  - Daily Intake of Probiotic Lactobacilli May Reduce Caries Risk in Young Children.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Probiotic compared with standard
      milk for high-caries children: A cluster randomized trial. Rodriguez G, Ruiz B,
      Faleiros S, Vistoso A, Marro ML, Sanchez J, Urzua I, Cabello R. J Dent Res
      2016;95(4):402-7. SOURCE OF FUNDING: Chilean Government (CONICYT FONIS SA11I2035)
      TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Cluster randomized controlled trial.

PMID- 28865831
TI  - Some Malocclusion Traits Significantly Reduce Quality of Life Among Adults.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Malocclusion traits and oral health
      related quality of life in Finnish adults. Masood M, Suominen AL, Pietila T,
      Lahti S. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2017;45:178-88. SOURCE OF FUNDING: Finnish
      Dental Society Apollonia and the Finnish Dental Association TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN:
      Cross-sectional study.

PMID- 28865832
TI  - Although Limited Evidence Suggests Patient Perceptions and Expectations for
      Dental Implants Are Realistic, Many Misconceptions Remain.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: What do patients expect from
      treatment with Dental Implants? Perceptions, expectations and misconceptions: A
      multicenter study. Yao J, Li M, Tang H, Want P-L, Zhao Y-X, McGrath C, Mattheos
      N. Clin Oral Implants Res 28(3):261-71. SOURCE OF FUNDING: Information not
      available TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Cross-sectional study (survey).

PMID- 28865833
TI  - Teeth With Mild and Moderate Enamel Fluorosis Demonstrate Increased Caries
      Susceptibility In Vitro.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Higher fluorosis severity makes
      enamel less resistant to demineralization. Marin LM, Cury JA, Tenuta LMA,
      Castellanos JE, Martignon S. Caries Res 2016; 50:407-13. SOURCE OF FUNDING:
      Government: COLCIENCIAS (grant No. 2012-442) and foundations: FUNCAMP (Conv 4252)
      TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: In vitro study.

PMID- 28865834
TI  - Knowledge Gaps Exist Among Dentists Regarding Curing Lights and Personal
      Protection.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Light curing procedures -
      performance, knowledge level and safety awareness among dentists. Kopperud SE,
      Rukke HV, Kopperud HM, Bruzell EM. J Dent 2017;58:67-73. SOURCE OF FUNDING:
      Information not available TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

PMID- 28865835
TI  - Low Bone Mineral Density Based on Metacarpal Cortical Bone Area May Predict Tooth
      Loss in Older Men.
AB  - ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Metacarpal cortical bone area
      predicts tooth loss in men. Kaye EK, Vokonas P, Garcia RI. JDR Clinical &
      Translational Research Online 2016;20(10):1-8. SOURCE OF FUNDING: US Department
      of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Cohort
      study.

PMID- 28865836
TI  - Reconstruction of neck and face scar contractures using occipito-cervico-dorsal
      supercharged "super-thin flaps": A retrospective analysis of 82 cases in Vietnam.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The concept of the "super-thin flap" (also known as the subdermal
      vascular network flap) was introduced in Japan in 1994. Its distinctive
      characteristic is its extreme thinness: it is thinned to the point that the
      subdermal vascular network (subdermal plexus) can be seen through the minimal fat
      layer. Since 2006 in Vietnam, we have used circumflex scapular artery
      supercharged occipito-cervico-dorsal (OCD) super-thin flaps to reconstruct cases
      of neck and face scar contracture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This case series
      comprised all 82 patients with neck and face scar contracture who underwent
      reconstruction with an OCD supercharged super-thin flap from 2006-2015 at the
      Vietnam National Institute of Burns. The flap was thinned and anastomosed at the
      distal area after elevation. All patients received one flap. RESULTS: Of the 82
      flaps, 77 survived completely. The remaining five developed distal superficial
      necrosis (n=3) and interruption of the sutures due to infection; these required
      resuturing (n=2). In two of the three necrosis cases, the necrotic area affected
      50% of the flap. Eighty of the eighty-two patients were satisfied with both the
      functional and aesthetic results. CONCLUSIONS: The OCD super-thin flap has clear
      benefits, and although it is thin, its vasculature is reliable. Thus, it may be
      one of the best choices for reconstruction of neck and face scar contractures.

PMID- 28865837
TI  - Evaluation of scar quality after treatment of superficial burns of the hands and
      face with Dressilk or Biobrane-An intra-individual comparison.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aesthetic outcome after burn of exposed areas such as the hand
      and face is of high importance. A number of wound dressings used for the
      treatment of superficial and partial thickness burns promise rapid wound healing
      and reduced scarring. Previously, wound healing of hands and faces with
      superficial burns treated with Dressilk(r) compared to Biobrane(r) was evaluated
      intra-individually with similar results. Nevertheless, up to date objective
      information regarding the scarring after superficial burns treated with
      Dressilk(r) does not exist. METHODS: Therefore, 30 patients with superficial
      burns of the hand and face that were treated with Dressilk(r) and Biobrane(r)
      simultaneously were included in the study. An objective scar evaluation was
      performed analyzing melanin and erythema levels, skin elasticity, trans-epidermal
      water loss and scar perfusion three and six and 12 months after injury.
      Furthermore, a subjective scar evaluation was performed with the patient and
      observer scar assessment scale (POSAS) and the Vancouver scar scale (VSS).
      RESULTS: Dressilk(r) and Biobrane(r) both lead to an aesthetic pleasing outcome
      after superficial burns of the hands and faces. Regarding the objective scar
      evaluation only trans-epidermal water loss of burned hands after 6 months showed
      significant differences between the two dressings. However, these differences
      were not detected in the 12-month follow up examination. In the subjective scar
      evaluation no statistical differences could be found between the dressings. All
      patients stated high satisfaction of scar quality. CONCLUSION: Dressilk(r) is an
      interesting alternative to Biobrane(r) for the treatment of superficial burns of
      aesthetic and functional important areas.

PMID- 28865838
TI  - Placement of a cervical collar increases the optic nerve sheath diameter in
      healthy adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Blunt head trauma is a common cause of increased intracranial
      pressure (ICP). Ultrasound measurement of the optic nerve sheath diameter (OSND)
      is an accurate and non-invasive way to detect increased ICP. Blunt trauma
      patients are often immobilized in a rigid cervical spine collar. Our objective
      was to describe the changes in ONSD following the placement of a c-collar and
      determine if any changes were time-dependent. METHODS: We performed a prospective
      cohort study measuring the ONSD of healthy volunteers before and after placement
      of a c-collar. Two physicians obtained the measurements. Each eye was scanned
      twice using a standardized technique. This was done before c-collar placement,
      5min after placement and 20min after placement. A mean of both eyes was
      calculated and analyzed using descriptive statistics. An intraclass correlation
      coefficient (ICC) was used to assess inter-rater reliability. RESULTS: Twenty
      study participants with a mean age of 37.1years old were enrolled. The mean
      baseline ONSD was 3.77mm (95% CI 3.48-4.07). The mean ONSD 5 min after the c
      collar was placed was 4.47 (95% CI 4.17-4.78). The mean ONSD at 20min after c
      collar placement was 4.53 (95% CI 4.13-4.92). These changes were statistically
      significant (p=0.003 and <0.001). Reliability was relatively strong overall
      (ICC=0.74; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.81). CONCLUSION: The placement of a cervical collar
      increased the ONSD at 5min and this change remained increased at 20min. Future
      study should assess whether similar results are found in patients with blunt head
      trauma.

PMID- 28865839
TI  - oVEMP as an objective indicator of successful repositioning maneuver.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Benign paroxysmal positioning vertigo (BPPV) is the
      most common peripheral vestibular disorder. Canalolithiasis in the posterior semi
      circular canal is the most common underlying pathology that can be treated
      effectively by repositioning maneuvers. Our hypothesis suggested that successful
      maneuvers can lead to repositioning of dislodged otoconia to the utricle.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Air conducted oVEMP, which is thought to originate from
      the contra-lateral utricular organ was measured in twenty patients with
      unilateral BPPV and we compared n1-p1 peak to peak amplitude of the affected ears
      in 3 separate intervals: on pre-treatment when typical nystagmus was confirmed,
      immediately after, and 1 week after repositioning maneuvers to assess change, if
      any, in amplitude. RESULTS: This study showed significant increase of oVEMP
      amplitude in the affected ears after successful repositioning maneuver that was
      more significant after 1 week. CONCLUSIONS: oVEMP can be used as a reliable
      objective test for ensuring a successful maneuver rather than subjective
      dependence on the patient's symptoms, which may be misleading due to a remission.

PMID- 28865840
TI  - Efficacy of the myofascial pectoralis major flap in the reduction of salivary
      fistulas after salvage total laryngectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pharyngocutaneous fistula is the most frequent complication after
      total laryngectomy. Its incidence varies between 9%-25% in post primary total
      laryngectomy patients, to 14%-57% in salvage laryngectomy post radiotherapy or
      post chemotherapy + radiotherapy. The pectoralis major myofascial flap (PMMF)is
      postulated as a useful tool to decrease the incidence of this complication.
      MATERIALS AND METHOD: Retrospective analysis of a group of patients treated by
      salvage laryngectomy, associated or not with pharyngeal closure reinforcement
      with PMMF. RESULTS: Twenty patients were included, 18 males (90%) and 2 females
      (10%), in 10 of whom the PMMF was used. The average age was 66.65 years.
      Seventeen (85%) had a laryngeal tumour and 3 (15%) had a hypopharyngeal tumour.
      Eight (80%) patients in the non-PMMF group had postoperative fistula, whereas
      only 2 (20%) patients in the PMMF group had a fistula during the postoperative
      period (P=.005). The mean time for fistula closure was significantly shorter in
      the cases where PMMF flap was used (16+/-11 days vs. 76.8+/-67 days, P=.001), as
      was hospital stay (19. 6+/-18 days vs. 83.9+/-77 days, P=.001). CONCLUSION: The
      use of PMMF in our series is associated with a lower rate of post salvage
      laryngectomy fistulas in patients treated primarily by organ preservation
      protocol for laryngeal/hypopharyngeal cancer. In turn, it promotes local healing
      by decreasing the mean duration of fistula closure and the mean hospital stay.

PMID- 28865841
TI  - Assessment selection in human-automation interaction studies: The Failure-GAM2E
      and review of assessment methods for highly automated driving.
AB  - Highly automated driving will change driver's behavioural patterns. Traditional
      methods used for assessing manual driving will only be applicable for the parts
      of human-automation interaction where the driver intervenes such as in hand-over
      and take-over situations. Therefore, driver behaviour assessment will need to
      adapt to the new driving scenarios. This paper aims at simplifying the process of
      selecting appropriate assessment methods. Thirty-five papers were reviewed to
      examine potential and relevant methods. The review showed that many studies still
      relies on traditional driving assessment methods. A new method, the Failure-GAM2E
      model, with purpose to aid assessment selection when planning a study, is
      proposed and exemplified in the paper. Failure-GAM2E includes a systematic step
      by-step procedure defining the situation, failures (Failure), goals (G), actions
      (A), subjective methods (M), objective methods (M) and equipment (E). The use of
      Failure-GAM2E in a study example resulted in a well-reasoned assessment plan, a
      new way of measuring trust through feet movements and a proposed Optimal Risk
      Management Model. Failure-GAM2E and the Optimal Risk Management Model are
      believed to support the planning process for research studies in the field of
      human-automation interaction.

PMID- 28865842
TI  - Lung fibrosis-associated soluble mediators and bronchoalveolar lavage from
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients promote the expression of fibrogenic
      factors in subepithelial lung myofibroblasts.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by infiltration of
      inflammatory cells, excessive collagen production and accumulation of
      myofibroblasts. We explored the possible role of subepithelial lung
      myofibroblasts (SELMs) in the development of fibrosis in IPF. SELMs, isolated
      from surgical specimens of healthy lung tissue, were cultured with pro
      inflammatory factors or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from patients with
      IPF or idiopathic non-specific interstitial pneumonia (iNSIP) and their fibrotic
      activity was assessed. Stimulation of SELMs with pro-inflammatory factors induced
      a significant increase of Tissue Factor (TF) and Tumor necrosis factor-Like
      cytokine 1 A (TL1A) expression and collagen production in culture supernatants.
      Stimulation with BALF from IPF patients with mild to moderate, but not severe
      disease, and from iNSIP patients induced a significant increase of TF expression.
      BALF from all IPF patients induced a significant increase of TL1A expression and
      collagen production, while BALF from iNSIP patients induced a significant
      increase of TL1A, but not of collagen production. Interestingly, TGF-beta1 and
      BALF from all IPF, but not iNSIP patients, induced a significant increase in
      SELMs migration. In conclusion, BALF from IPF patients induces fibrotic activity
      in lung myofibroblasts, similar to mediators associated with lung fibrosis,
      indicating a key role of SELMs in IPF.

PMID- 28865843
TI  - Activation and inflammation of the venous endothelium in vein graft disease.
AB  - The long saphenous vein is the most commonly used conduit in coronary artery
      bypass graft (CABG) surgery when bypassing multiple diseased arteries; however,
      its use is complicated by the development of vascular inflammation, intimal
      hyperplasia and accelerated atherosclerosis leading to compromised graft
      efficacy. Despite refinement of surgical techniques to improve graft patency,
      late vein graft failure remains a significant problem. Moreover, there is a lack
      of pharmacological interventions proven to be effective in the treatment of late
      vein graft failure. A greater understanding of the molecular nature of the
      disease and the interactions between endothelial and smooth muscle cells as a
      result of alterations in local haemodynamics may assist with designing future
      beneficial pharmacological interventions. Venous endothelial cells (ECs) are
      physiologically adapted to chronic low shear stress; however, once the graft is
      implanted into the arterial circulation, they become suddenly exposed to acute
      high levels of shear stress. A small number of in vitro and ex vivo studies have
      demonstrated that acute high shear stress is associated with the activation of a
      pro-inflammatory profile in saphenous vein ECs, which may be mediated by mitogen
      activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) signalling
      pathways. The impact of acute changes in shear stress on venous ECs and the role
      of ECs in the development of intimal hyperplasia remains incomplete and is the
      subject of this review.

PMID- 28865844
TI  - Factors affecting lifespan following below-knee amputation in diabetic patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Untreatable foot problems in diabetics may require lower extremity
      amputation, which has a high level of patient mortality. This high mortality rate
      is worse than most malignancies. The present study aimed to identify parameters
      that can be used to estimate survival in DM patients undergoing below-knee
      amputations for diabetic foot problems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 470
      patients (299 males, 171 females) with a mean age of 64.32 years who underwent
      below-knee amputation for diabetic foot problems between 2004 and 2014 were
      enrolled in the study. The length of time from the operation to time of death was
      recorded in days. Patient details were obtained, including age during surgery,
      BMI, oral antidiabetic and insulin usage, dialysis therapy history, lower
      extremity endovascular intervention, previous amputation at the same extremity,
      the need for stump revision surgery during follow-up, and above-knee amputation
      at the same site. Biochemical test results of pre-operative HbA1c, ESR, and
      levels of CRP, BUN, and creatinine were also obtained. RESULTS: A total of 333
      patients (70.9%) died and 137 (29.1%) survived post-surgery. Survival rates were
      90% in the first 7 days, 84% in the first 30 days, and 64% after the first year.
      Patient median life expectancy post-surgery was 930 +/- 106 days. Hemodialysis
      treatment (p = 0.001), endovascular intervention (p = 0.04), sex (p = 0.004), age
      (p = 0.001), BUN level (p = 0.001), and duration of insulin use (p = 0.003) were
      shown to be effective predictors of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Life expectancy is
      low (<3 years) in DM patients requiring below-knee amputations for untreatable
      foot problems. Survival could be predicted by duration of insulin use, age, sex,
      and renal insufficiency. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, Therapeutic study.

PMID- 28865845
TI  - Treatment preferences and help-seeking behaviors for sleep problems among
      psychiatric outpatients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand treatment preferences and help-seeking behaviors among
      psychiatric patients for their sleep problems, and to examine determinants of
      problem recognition and help-seeking among patients with sleep difficulties.
      METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among psychiatric outpatients in
      Singapore (n=400). Participants completed questionnaires that assessed their
      sleep quality, daytime fatigue, help-seeking behavior, treatment preferences for
      sleep problems, and sociodemographic information. Multiple logistic regressions
      were used to identify correlates of patients who recognized their sleep
      difficulties and of those who had sought help. RESULTS: Mental health
      professionals were the most preferred choice (60.8%) for consultation on sleep
      problems. Among patients with poor sleep quality (n=275), 28.4% denied having any
      problems and 38.9% had not sought help. Patients with chronic physical
      comorbidity were less likely to recognize their sleep problems (OR=0.432, p
      value=0.009), while those with psychiatric comorbidity were twice as likely to
      perceive the problems (OR=2.094, p-value=0.021) and to seek help (OR=1.957, p
      value=0.022). Daytime fatigue was associated with higher odds of problem
      recognition (OR=1.106, p-value=0.001) and help-seeking (OR=1.064, p-value=0.016).
      CONCLUSION: A considerable number of patients did not perceive their poor sleep
      as an issue and had not sought help for it. General sleep hygiene education is
      needed for psychiatric patients.

PMID- 28865846
TI  - Application of a newly designed mandibular distraction device for navigation
      surgery in goats.
AB  - PURPOSE: This animal study is to investigate the accuracy of navigation-guided
      mandibular distraction osteogenesis with a special designed distraction device by
      TBNavis-CMFS navigation system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four goats were included
      in this study. The 3D simulation unilateral mandibular distraction osteogenesis
      was simulated for 14 mm lengthening in TBNavis-CMFS navigation system. A new
      designed mandibular distraction device with the detachable adapter for navigation
      surgery in combination with the specific mandibular dynamic reference frame was
      applied. Navigation guided distraction osteogenesis was performed on goats and
      mandible was gradually distracted according to the simulation. Postsurgical 3-D
      skeletal measurements of presurgical simulations and postsurgical outcomes were
      compared statistically. RESULTS: Navigation assisted distraction osteogenesis was
      successfully performed and the new designed distraction devices worked
      uneventful. The accuracy of intra-operative registration was within 1 mm. The
      mandible was lengthened for 14.25 mm in average (13.87-14.36 mm). There were no
      significant differences between simulation distraction and post-operative 3-D
      measurements (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A new designed distraction device could be
      used in navigation guided mandibular distraction osteogenesis on goats with high
      accuracy by using the TBNavis-CMFS navigation system.

PMID- 28865847
TI  - Time to acknowledge the obvious.

PMID- 28865848
TI  - Grain challenge affects systemic and hepatic molecular biomarkers of
      inflammation, stress, and metabolic responses to a greater extent in Holstein
      than Jersey cows.
AB  - Long-term feeding of high-grain diets to dairy cows often results in systemic
      inflammation characterized by alterations in acute-phase proteins and other
      biomarkers, both in plasma and immune-responsive tissues like the liver. The
      molecular and systemic changes that characterize an acute grain feeding challenge
      remain unclear. The current study involved 6 Holstein and 6 Jersey cows in a
      replicated 2 * 2 Latin square. Periods (10 d) were divided into 4 stages (S): S1,
      d 1 to 3, served as baseline with total mixed ration (TMR) ad libitum; S2, d 4,
      served as restricted feeding, with cows offered 50% of the average daily intake
      observed in S1; S3, d 5, a grain challenge was performed, in which cows were fed
      a TMR ad libitum without (CON) or with an additional pellet wheat-barley (1:1;
      HIG) at 20% of dry matter intake top-dressed onto the TMR; S4, d 6 to 10, served
      as recovery during which cows were allowed ad libitum access to the TMR. Among
      the 28 biomarkers analyzed in blood 12 h after grain challenge on d 5, the
      concentrations of fatty acids and bilirubin increased in HIG Holstein but not
      Jersey cows. In Holsteins, feeding HIG also increased total protein and albumin
      while decreasing ceruloplasmin, myeloperoxidase, and alkaline phosphatase
      concentrations. At the molecular level, hepatic genes associated with
      inflammation (IL1B, IL6, TNF, TLR4, MYD88, and NFKB1) were upregulated in
      Holstein cows fed HIG versus CON. Despite such response, expression of the acute
      phase proteins SAA and HP in Holsteins fed HIG compared with CON was markedly
      downregulated. In Holsteins fed HIG versus CON, the marked downregulation of SCD,
      ELOVL6, and MTTP along with upregulated CPT1A, ACOX1, and APOA5 indicated
      alterations in fatty acid and lipoprotein metabolism during grain challenge.
      Genes related to ketogenesis (HMGCS2 and ACAT1) were upregulated in Jerseys, and
      gluconeogenic genes (PDK4 and PCK1) were upregulated in Holstein cows fed HIG,
      suggesting alterations in ketone body and glucose production. Expression of
      phosphorylated p70S6K1, RPS6, and 4EBP1 proteins, as well as total mechanistic
      target of rapamycin (mTOR) protein, decreased in Holsteins fed HIG, whereas
      phosphorylated mTOR and 4EBP1 proteins increased in Jerseys fed HIG. From a
      metabolic and inflammatory biomarker standpoint, data indicate that Jersey cows
      better tolerated the acute grain challenge. Alterations in mTOR signaling
      proteins in both Jerseys and Holsteins fed HIG suggest a potential role for
      exogenous AA in the hepatic adaptations to grain challenge. It remains to be
      determined if these acute responses to a grain challenge can elicit long-term
      liver dysfunction, which could negatively affect welfare of the cow.

PMID- 28865849
TI  - Longitudinal assessment of dairy farm management practices associated with the
      presence of psychrotolerant Bacillales spores in bulk tank milk on 10 New York
      State dairy farms.
AB  - The ability of certain spore-forming bacteria in the order Bacillales (e.g.,
      Bacillus spp., Paenibacillus spp.) to survive pasteurization in spore form and
      grow at refrigeration temperatures results in product spoilage and limits the
      shelf life of high temperature, short time (HTST)-pasteurized fluid milk. To
      facilitate development of strategies to minimize contamination of raw milk with
      psychrotolerant Bacillales spores, we conducted a longitudinal study of 10 New
      York State dairy farms, which included yearlong monthly assessments of the
      frequency and levels of bulk tank raw milk psychrotolerant spore contamination,
      along with administration of questionnaires to identify farm management practices
      associated with psychrotolerant spore presence over time. Milk samples were first
      spore pasteurized (80 degrees C for 12 min) and then analyzed for sporeformer
      counts on the initial day of spore pasteurization (SP), and after refrigerated
      storage (6 degrees C) for 7, 14, and 21 d after SP. Overall, 41% of samples
      showed sporeformer counts of >20,000 cfu/mL at d 21, with Bacillus and
      Paenibacillus spp. being predominant causes of high sporeformer counts.
      Statistical analyses identified 3 management factors (more frequent cleaning of
      the bulk tank area, the use of a skid steer to scrape the housing area, and
      segregating problem cows during milking) that were all associated with lower
      probabilities of d-21 Bacillales spore detection in SP-treated bulk tank raw
      milk. Our data emphasize that appropriate on-farm measures to improve overall
      cleanliness and cow hygiene will reduce the probability of psychrotolerant
      Bacillales spore contamination of bulk tank raw milk, allowing for consistent
      production of raw milk with reduced psychrotolerant spore counts, which will
      facilitate production of HTST-pasteurized milk with extended refrigerated shelf
      life.

PMID- 28865850
TI  - Validation of genomic predictions for wellness traits in US Holstein cows.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of wellness trait
      genetic predictions in commercial herds of US Holstein cows from herds that do
      not contribute phenotypic information to the evaluation. Tissue samples for DNA
      extraction were collected from more than 3,400 randomly selected pregnant
      Holstein females in 11 herds and 2 age groups (69% nulliparous, 31% primiparous)
      approximately 30 to 60 d before their expected calving date. Lactation records
      from cows that calved between September 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015, were
      included in the analysis. Genomically enhanced predicted transmitting abilities
      for the wellness traits of retained placenta, metritis, ketosis, displaced
      abomasum, mastitis, and lameness were estimated by the Zoetis genetic evaluation
      and converted into standardized transmitting abilities. Mean reliabilities of the
      animals in the study ranged between 45 and 47% for each of the 6 traits. Animals
      were ranked by their standardized transmitting abilities within herd and age
      group then assigned to 1 of 4 groups of percentile-based genetic groups of equal
      size. Adverse health events, including retained placenta, metritis, ketosis,
      displaced abomasum, mastitis, and lameness, were collected from on-farm herd
      management software, and animal phenotype was coded as either healthy (0),
      diseased (1), or excluded for each of the 6 outcomes of interest. Statistical
      analysis was performed using a generalized linear mixed model with genetic group,
      age group, and lactation as fixed effects, whereas herd and animal nested within
      herd were set as random effects. Results of the analysis indicated that the
      wellness trait predictions were associated with differences in phenotypic disease
      incidence between the worst and best genetic groups. The difference between the
      worst and best genetic groups in recorded disease incidence was 2.9% for retained
      placenta, 10.8% for metritis, 1.1% for displaced abomasum, 1.7% for ketosis, 7.4%
      for mastitis, and 3.9% for lameness. Odds ratio estimates between the highest and
      lowest genetic groups ranged from 1.6 (lameness) to 17.1 (displaced abomasum) for
      the 6 traits analyzed. These results indicate that wellness trait information of
      young calves and heifers can be used to effectively predict meaningful
      differences in future health performance. Improving wellness traits through
      direct genetic selection presents a compelling opportunity for dairy producers to
      help reduce disease incidence and improve profitability when coupled with sound
      management practices.

PMID- 28865852
TI  - Prevalence of digital dermatitis in young stock in Alberta, Canada, using pen
      walks.
AB  - Digital dermatitis (DD), an infectious bacterial foot lesion prevalent in dairy
      cattle worldwide, reduces both animal welfare and production. This disease was
      recently identified in replacement dairy heifers, with implications including
      increased risk of DD and decreased milk production in first lactation, poor
      reproductive performance, and altered hoof conformation. Therefore, a simple and
      effective method is needed to identify DD in young stock and to determine risk
      factors for DD in this group so that effective control strategies can be
      implemented. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine prevalence of DD
      in young stock (based on pen walks); and (2) identify potential risk factors for
      DD in young stock. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 28 dairy farms in
      Alberta, Canada; pen walks were used to identify DD (present/absent) on the hind
      feet of group-housed, young dairy stock. A subset of 583 young stock on 5 farms
      were selected for chute inspection of feet to determine the accuracy of pen walks
      for DD detection. Pen walks as a means of identifying DD lesions on the hind feet
      in young stock had sensitivity and specificity at the animal level of 65 and 98%,
      with positive and negative predictive values of 94 and 83%, respectively, at a
      prevalence of 37%. At the foot level, pen walks had sensitivity and specificity
      of 62 and 98%, respectively, with positive and negative predictive values of 92
      and 88%, respectively, at a prevalence of 26%. Pen walks identified DD in 79
      [2.9%; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 2.3-3.6%] of 2,815 young stock on 11
      (39%; 95% CI: 22-59%) of 28 farms, with all 79 DD-positive young stock >=309 d of
      age. Apparent within-herd prevalence estimates ranged from 0 to 9.3%, with a mean
      of 1.4%. True within-herd prevalence of DD in young stock, calculated using the
      sensitivity and specificity of the pen walks, ranged from 0 to 12.6%, with a mean
      of 1.4%. On the 11 DD-positive farms, the proportion of young stock >12 mo of age
      with DD lesions was 9.9% (95% CI: 7.8-12.0%). Multilevel logistic regression was
      used to assess associations with potential risk factors for DD lesions, including
      age, leg cleanliness, and lactating herd DD prevalence. Presence of DD in young
      stock increased as their age increased and was associated with increased
      prevalence of DD in the lactating herd. Pen walks can be used to identify
      specific young stock with DD or groups where management practices can be
      implemented to prevent disease proliferation and transmission.

PMID- 28865851
TI  - Prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility, and molecular characterization of
      Staphylococcus aureus isolated from dairy herds in northern China.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main pathogens involved in dairy cow
      mastitis. Monitoring of antibiotic use would prove useful to assess the risk of
      Staph. aureus in raw milk. The objective of this work was to investigate the
      prevalence of Staph. aureus strais isolated from raw milk in northern China, and
      to characterize antimicrobial susceptibility of these strains and their key
      virulence genes. In total, 195 raw milk samples were collected from 195 dairy
      farms located in 4 cities of northern China from May to September 2015. Out of
      195 samples, 54 (27.7%) were positive for Staph. aureus. Among these 54 samples,
      54 strains of Staph. aureus were isolated, and 16 strains were identified as
      methicillin-resistant Staph. aureus. The strains exhibited high percentages of
      resistance to penicillin G (85.2%), ampicillin (79.6%), and erythromycin (46.3%).
      Moreover, 72% of the strains showed resistance to more than one antimicrobial
      agent. Overall, 63% of penicillin-resistant strains possessed the blaZ gene, and
      60% of the erythromycin-resistant strains possessed erm(A), erm(B), erm(C),
      msr(A), or msr(B) genes with 8 different gene patterns. All isolates resistant to
      gentamicin, kanamycin, and oxacillin carried the aac6'-aph2", ant(4')-Ia, and
      mecA genes, respectively. Two tet(M)-positive isolates carried specific genes of
      the Tn916-Tn1545 transposon. The most predominant virulence genes were sec, sea,
      and pvl, which encode staphylococcal enterotoxins (sec and sea) and Panton
      Valentine leukocidin, respectively. Thirty-two isolates (59.2%) harbored one or
      more virulence genes. The majority of Staph. aureus strains were multidrug
      resistant and carried multiple virulence genes, which may pose a risk to public
      health. Our data indicated that antimicrobial resistance of Staph. aureus was
      prevalent in dairy herds in northern China, and that antibiotics, especially
      penicillin G and ampicillin, to treat mastitis caused by Staph. aureus should be
      used with caution in northern China.

PMID- 28865853
TI  - Fine-mapping of BTA17 using imputed sequences for associations with de novo
      synthesized fatty acids in bovine milk.
AB  - The aim of this study was to fine-map a genomic region associated with milk fatty
      acids (FA) on Bos taurus autosome (BTA) 17. This genomic region has been
      discovered with 50,000 (50k) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) imputed to
      777,000 (777k) SNP. In this study, high-density genotypes were imputed to whole
      genome sequences level to identify candidate gene(s) associated with milk FA
      composition on BTA17. Phenotypes and genotypes were available for 1,640 cows
      sampled in winter, and for 1,581 cows sampled in summer. Phenotypes consisted of
      gas chromatography measurements in winter and in summer milk samples of 6
      individual FA and the indicator of de novo synthesis, C6:0-C14:0. Genotypes
      consisted of imputed 777k SNP, and 89 sequenced ancestors of the population of
      genotyped cows. In addition, 450 whole-genome sequences from the 1,000 Bull
      Genome Consortium were available. Using 495 Holstein-Friesian sequences as a
      reference population, the 777k SNP genotypes of the cows were imputed to sequence
      level. We then applied single-variant analyses with an animal model, and
      identified thousands of significant associations with C6:0, C8:0, C10:0, C12:0,
      C14:0, and C6:0-C14:0. For C8:0 in summer milk samples, the genomic region
      located between 29 and 34 Mbp on BTA17 revealed a total of 646 significant
      associations. The most significant associations [-log10(P-value) = 7.82] were 8
      SNP in perfect linkage disequilibrium. After fitting one of these 8 SNP as a
      fixed effect in the model, and re-running the single-variant analyses, no further
      significant associations were found for any of the 6 FA or C6:0-C14:0. These
      findings suggest that one polymorphism underlying this QTL on BTA17 influences
      multiple de novo synthesized milk FA. Thirteen genes in the QTL region were
      identified and analyzed carefully. Six out of the 8 SNP that showed the strongest
      associations were located in the La ribonucleoprotein domain family, member 1B
      (LARP1B) gene, and we suggest LARP1B as a primary candidate gene. Another gene of
      interest for this QTL region might be PKL4. None of these suggested candidate
      genes have previously been associated with milk fat synthesis or milk FA
      composition.

PMID- 28865854
TI  - Urinary purine derivatives as a tool to estimate dry matter intake in cattle: A
      meta-analysis.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between dry
      matter intake (DMI) and urinary purine derivative (PD) excretion, to develop
      equations to predict DMI and to determine the endogenous excretion of PD for beef
      and dairy cattle using a meta-analytical approach. To develop the models, 62
      published studies for both dairy (45 studies) and beef cattle (17 studies) were
      compiled. Twenty models were tested using DMI (kg/d) and digestible DMI (dDMI,
      kg/d) as response variables and PD:creatinine (linear term: PD:C, and quadratic
      term: PD:C2), allantoin:creatinine (linear term: ALLA:C, and quadratic term:
      ALLA:C2), metabolic body weight (BW0.75, kg), milk yield (MY, kg/d), and their
      combination as explanatory variables for dairy and beef (except for MY) cattle.
      The models developed to predict DMI for dairy cattle were validated using an
      independent data set from 2 research trials carried out at the University of
      Wisconsin (trial 1: n = 45; trial 2: n = 50). A second set of models was
      developed to estimate the endogenous PD excretion. In all evaluated models, the
      effect of PD (either as PD:C or ALLA:C) was significant, supporting our
      hypothesis that PD are in fact correlated with DMI. Despite the BW-independent
      relationship between PD and DMI, the inclusion of BW0.75 in the models with PD:C
      and ALLA:C as predictors slightly decreased the values of root mean square error
      (RMSE) and Akaike information criterion for the models of DMI. Our models suggest
      that both DMI and dDMI can be equally well predicted by PD-related variables;
      however, predicting DMI seems more useful from a practical and experimental
      standpoint. The inclusion of MY into the dairy models substantially decreased
      RMSE and Akaike information criterion values, and further increased the precision
      of the equations. The model including PD:C, BW0.75, and MY presented greater
      concordance correlation coefficient (0.93 and 0.63 for trials 1 and 2,
      respectively) and lower RMSE of prediction (1.90 and 3.35 kg/d for trials 1 and
      2, respectively) when tested in the validation data set, emerging as a
      potentially useful estimator of nutrient intake in dairy cows. Endogenous PD
      excretion was estimated by the intercept of the linear regression between DMI
      (g/kg of BW0.75) and PD excretion (mmol/kg of BW0.75) for beef (0.404 mmol/kg of
      BW0.75) and dairy cattle (0.651 mmol/kg of BW0.75). Based on the very close
      agreement between our results for beef cattle and the literature, the linear
      regression appears to be an adequate method to estimate endogenous PD excretion.

PMID- 28865855
TI  - Could predicting fatty acid profile by mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy be
      used as a method to increase the value added by milk production chains?
AB  - The aims of this work were (1) to develop prediction equations from mid-infrared
      spectroscopy (MIRS) to establish a detailed fatty acid (FA) composition of milk;
      (2) to propose a milk FA index, utilizing MIRS-developed equations, in which the
      precision of the FA-prediction equations is taken into account to increase the
      value of milk; and (3) to show application examples. A total of 651 bulk cow milk
      samples were collected from 245 commercial farms in northwest Italy. The results
      of the 651 gas chromatography analyses were used to establish (421 samples) and
      to validate (230 samples) the outcomes of the FA composition prediction that had
      been obtained by MIRS. A class-based approach, in which the obtained MIRS
      equations were used, was proposed to define a milk classification. The method
      provides a numerical index [milk FA index (MFAI)] that allows a premium price to
      be quantified to increase the value of a favorable FA profile of milk. Ten FA
      were selected to calculate MFAI, according to their relevance for human health
      and potential cheese sensory properties, and animal welfare and environmental
      sustainability were also considered. These factors were selected as dimensions of
      MFAI. A statistical analysis and expert judgment aggregation were performed on
      the selected FA by weighting the FA and normalizing the dimensions to reduce
      redundancy. A class approach was applied, using the precision of the MIRS
      equations to establish the classes. The median FA concentration of the data set
      was set as a reference value of class 0. The width, number, and limits of classes
      above and below the median were calculated using the 95% confidence level of the
      standard error of prediction, corrected with the bias of each FA. A progressive
      number and a positive or negative sign were assigned to each FA class above or
      below the median according to their role in the above mentioned dimensions. The
      sum of the numbers of each class, associated with its sign for each FA, was used
      to generate MFAI. The MFAI was applied to dairy farms characterized by different
      feeding strategies, all of which deliver milk to a commercial dairy plant. The
      MFAI values ranged from 0.7 to 4.2, and large variations, which depended on the
      cows' diet and forage quality, were observed for each feeding system. The
      proposed method has been found to be flexible and adaptable to several contexts
      on both intensive and extensive dairy farms.

PMID- 28865856
TI  - Effect of exosomes from plasma of dairy cows with or without an infected uterus
      on prostaglandin production by endometrial cell lines.
AB  - A contributing factor to declining fertility in dairy cows is an activated
      inflammatory system associated with uterine infection. Detecting uterine disease
      using biomarkers may allow earlier diagnosis and intervention with resultant
      improvements in fertility. Exosomes are known to participate in intercellular
      communication, paracrine, and endocrine signaling. Exosomes carry a cargo of
      proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids that represent specific cellular sources.
      Prostaglandins are lipids that are critical determinants of bovine fertility. In
      this study exosomes were isolated from the plasma of cows before (d 0) and during
      (d 10) the study in healthy animals or those with an induced uterine infection in
      a 2 * 2 factorial design. Exosomes were characterized for size and number
      (nanoparticle tracking analysis), exosomal marker expression (Western blot), and
      morphology (transmission electron microscopy). No significant differences were
      observed in exosome size or number. The abundance of exosome-enriched markers was
      confirmed in noninfected and infected animals. Transmission electron microscopy
      confirmed the morphology of the exosomes. These exosomes were co-incubated with
      bovine endometrial epithelial and stromal cells. Exosomes from d-10-infected
      animal plasma decreased PGF2alpha production in endometrial epithelial but not
      stromal cells. For future research, the identification of effectors in the cargo
      may provide a useful basis for early diagnosis of uterine infection using an
      exosomal characterization approach.

PMID- 28865857
TI  - Accuracies of breeding values for dry matter intake using nongenotyped animals
      and predictor traits in different lactations.
AB  - Given the interest of including dry matter intake (DMI) in the breeding goal,
      accurate estimated breeding values (EBV) for DMI are needed, preferably for
      separate lactations. Due to the limited amount of records available on DMI, 2
      main approaches have been suggested to compute those EBV: (1) the inclusion of
      predictor traits, such as fat- and protein-corrected milk (FPCM) and live weight
      (LW), and (2) the addition of genomic information of animals using what is called
      genomic prediction. Recently, several methodologies to estimate EBV utilizing
      genomic information (EBV) have become available. In this study, a new method
      known as single-step ridge-regression BLUP (SSRR-BLUP) is suggested. The SSRR
      BLUP method does not have an imposed limit on the number of genotyped animals, as
      the commonly used methods do. The objective of this study was to estimate genetic
      parameters using a relatively large data set with DMI records, as well as compare
      the accuracies of the EBV for DMI. These accuracies were obtained using 4
      different methods: BLUP (using pedigree for all animals with phenotypes), genomic
      BLUP (GBLUP; only for genotyped animals), single-step GBLUP (SS-GBLUP), and SSRR
      BLUP (for genotyped and nongenotyped animals). Records from different lactations,
      with or without predictor traits (FPCM and LW), were used in the model.
      Accuracies of EBV for DMI (defined as the correlation between the EBV and pre
      adjusted DMI phenotypes divided by the average accuracy of those phenotypes)
      ranged between 0.21 and 0.38 across methods and scenarios. Accuracies of EBV for
      DMI using BLUP were the lowest accuracies obtained across methods. Meanwhile,
      accuracies of EBV for DMI were similar in SS-GBLUP and SSRR-BLUP, and lower for
      the GBLUP method. Hence, SSRR-BLUP could be used when the number of genotyped
      animals is large, avoiding the construction of the inverse genomic relationship
      matrix. Adding information on DMI from different lactations in the reference
      population gave higher accuracies in comparison when only lactation 1 was
      included. Finally, no benefit was obtained by adding information on predictor
      traits to the reference population when DMI was already included. However, in the
      absence of DMI records, having records on FPCM and LW from different lactations
      is a good way to obtain EBV with a relatively good accuracy.

PMID- 28865858
TI  - Farm business and operator variables associated with bulk tank somatic cell count
      from dairy herds in the southeastern United States.
AB  - Mastitis is a worldwide problem in dairy cows and results in reduced milk
      production, the culling of cows, and other economic losses. Bulk tank somatic
      cell count (BTSCC) over 200,000 cells/mL often indicates underlying subclinical
      mastitis in dairy herds. Several preventative measures that can be implemented to
      help improve the incidence of mastitis exist, but surveys find these practices
      not fully adopted by producers. The goal of this research was to analyze the farm
      and operator characteristics associated with BTSCC in dairy herds by analyzing a
      survey of dairy producers in the southeastern United States. We examined this
      region because it has experienced a decline in the number of dairy farms, dairy
      cows, and milk production over the past 2 decades. The southeast region is also
      associated with higher BTSCC levels than the national average. Dairy farms in
      Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and
      Virginia were surveyed. Producers were asked questions about the BTSCC at which
      they take action to address BTSCC, the information sources they use to learn
      about and manage BTSCC, farm structure and management characteristics, and
      attitudinal variables associated with profitability, managerial control, and
      planning horizon. Least squares regression was used to determine how these
      factors were associated with BTSCC levels across the 7-state region. Concern over
      mastitis, financial consequences of mastitis, and increased previous-year BTSCC
      were associated with higher current BTSCC levels. Obtaining information about
      mastitis from veterinarians and extension personnel, taking action against
      mastitis at a BTSCC less than 300,000 cells/mL, and perceived ability to control
      processes and mastitis incidence were associated with reduced BTSCC. We found
      average BTSCC was lower in North Carolina and Virginia. These results suggest
      that proactive producers (i.e., those that perceive they can control BTSCC and
      seek information from reliable sources), were more likely to report lower BTSCC.
      As a result, it may be possible to achieve improved milk quality, evident from
      lowered BTSCC, across the region.

PMID- 28865859
TI  - Hypocalcemia-Cow-level prevalence and preventive strategies in German dairy
      herds.
AB  - Hypocalcemia around calving is considered a gateway disease that can lead to
      health disorders and decreased milk production. The objective of this cross
      sectional study was to evaluate the prevalence of clinical and subclinical
      hypocalcemia 0 to 48 h after calving. Blood samples were drawn from 12 animals of
      each dairy farm (n = 115) and analyzed for serum calcium, magnesium, and
      phosphorus concentration. Cows not affected clinically but with a serum calcium
      concentration below 2.0 mmol/L were characterized as subclinical hypocalcemic
      animals. Recumbent cows with a serum calcium concentration below 2.0 mmol/L were
      defined as cows suffering from clinical milk fever. Herds were classified into
      negative (0 to 2/12), borderline (3 to 5/12), and positive (>=6/12) according to
      the number of animals with hypocalcemia. Strategies to control hypocalcemia were
      documented. Prevalence of clinical milk fever was 1.4, 5.7, and 16.1% for second,
      third, and >=fourth parity cows, respectively. None of the cows in first
      lactation were suffering from clinical milk fever. Based on the threshold of 2.0
      mmol/L, 5.7, 29.0, 49.4, and 60.4% of cows in first, second, third, and >=fourth
      lactation were suffering from subclinical hypocalcemia, respectively. Fourteen,
      51, and 50 herds were classified as negative, borderline, and positive,
      respectively. A positive association was observed between serum calcium and serum
      phosphorus concentration. Serum calcium and magnesium concentration were
      negatively associated. Only 50 of 115 farms had a control strategy implemented to
      avoid hypocalcemia. Most common was the use of oral calcium products (40/115
      herds), followed by feeding of anionic salts in the close-up diet (10/115 herds).
      These results indicate that the prevalence of clinical and subclinical
      hypocalcemia in German dairy herds was high and that an active control strategy
      was not implemented on all farms. The negative association between calcium and
      magnesium warrants further research regarding the physiological regulation of
      these 2 minerals around parturition.

PMID- 28865860
TI  - Consistency over time of animal-based welfare indicators as a further step for
      developing a welfare assessment monitoring scheme: The case of the Animal Welfare
      Indicators protocol for dairy goats.
AB  - Consistency over time (COT) of animal-based indicators is key to a reliable and
      feasible welfare protocol, indicating that results are representative over long
      term situations. High levels of consistency ensure fairness for the farmer and
      credibility of the system. In addition, indicator COT reduces recording costs, as
      having indicators that do not change over a long period of time will require less
      farm visits to achieve reliable estimates. To date, COT of animal-based
      indicators included in the welfare assessment of dairy goats has never been
      tested. Therefore, our aim was to investigate COT of animal-based indicators
      included in the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) welfare assessment prototype
      protocol for dairy goats. To meet this goal, a study was designed where an
      average of 3 mo elapsed between 2 sets of visits to the same 20 dairy goat farms
      (10 in Portugal and 10 in Italy), with no major changes in management routines or
      housing conditions occurring during this period. Initially, we performed a
      Wilcoxon signed rank test to investigate whether the results obtained during the
      2 visits were significantly different. After this preliminary screening, the
      indicators presenting nonsignificant differences between visits were submitted to
      a second step analysis, where discriminative and evaluative analyses were
      conducted to reach a final indicator lineup. The discriminative approach helped
      distinguishing among farms, whereas the agreement analysis showed us the range of
      differences between repeated assessments. Some particular conclusions could be
      drawn from this combined analysis, helping to the development of the final AWIN
      welfare assessment protocol for dairy goats and as a further step to develop a
      welfare assessment monitoring scheme for this and other species. In this sense,
      the AWIN welfare assessment protocol allows for the quick differentiation between
      farms based on the identification of persistent welfare problems, by recording
      highly consistent and feasible indicators. In a second step, a more comprehensive
      protocol, consisting of indicators more likely to be subject to variations along
      time, was applied. Repeated assessments and long-term studies of indicator
      consistency are needed to help determine the frequency of visits required to
      obtain a consistent and feasible welfare assessment scheme. This paper adds to
      the literature by providing guidance on the variability of animal-based
      indicators over time.

PMID- 28865861
TI  - Liver transcriptome analysis reveals important factors involved in the metabolic
      adaptation of the transition cow.
AB  - During early lactation, dairy cows experience a severe metabolic load often
      resulting in the development of various diseases. The inevitable deficiency in
      nutrients and energy at the onset of lactation requires an optimal adaptation of
      the hepatic metabolism to overcome metabolic stress. We conducted a whole-liver
      transcriptome analysis for the transition cow to identify novel factors crucial
      for metabolic adaptation. Liver samples were obtained from 6 Red Holstein dairy
      cows (parity 2 to 7, mean +/- standard deviation: 3.7 +/- 2.3) at 3 time points:
      T1 = 22 +/- 4 d antepartum, T2 = 10 +/- 2 d postpartum, and T3 = 17 +/- 2 d
      postpartum. Using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we studied the transcriptomic profile
      of the transition cow before and after parturition. We performed a differential
      gene expression analysis (DGEA) and gene-set enrichment analysis (GSEA) for
      biological processes (gene ontology, GO) and pathways (Kyoto Encyclopedia of
      Genes and Genomes, KEGG). Among the 10,186 expressed genes, we discovered 1,063
      differentially expressed genes (false discovery rate = 5%). The GSEA revealed 16
      biological processes and 7 pathways significantly (false discovery rate = 5%)
      associated with the hepatic changes of the transition cow. Our results confirm
      that major hepatic changes are related to energy mobilization after parturition;
      in particular, they are related to fatty acid oxidation/metabolism, cholesterol
      metabolism, and gluconeogenesis. Using the STRING database (https://string
      db.org/), we investigated interactions between significant genes and identified 9
      key genes (CYP7A1, APOA1, CREM, LOC522146, CYP2C87, HMGCR, FDFT1, SGLE, and
      CYP26A1) through which the different processes involved in the metabolic
      adaptation interact. Comparing our main results with the literature, we could
      identify further genes that have not yet been associated with the transition
      period (e.g., CPT1B, ADIPOR2, LEPR, CREB3L3, and CCND1) and that are mainly
      involved in processes controlled by AMP-activated protein kinase, an important
      regulator of energy homeostasis.

PMID- 28865862
TI  - Rapid and simultaneous quantification of viable Escherichia coli O157:H7 and
      Salmonella spp. in milk through multiplex real-time PCR.
AB  - Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. in milk are 2 common pathogens that
      cause foodborne diseases. An accurate, rapid, specific method has been developed
      for the simultaneous detection of viable E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. in
      milk. Two specific genes, namely, fliC from E. coli O157:H7 and invA from
      Salmonella spp., were selected to design primers and probes. A combined treatment
      containing sodium deoxycholate (SDO) and propidium monoazide (PMA) was applied to
      detect viable E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. only. Traditional culture
      methods and SDO-PMA-multiplex real-time (mRT) PCR assay were applied to determine
      the number of viable E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. in cell suspensions with
      different proportions of dead cells. These methods revealed consistent findings
      regarding the detected viable cells. The detection limit of the SDO-PMA-mRT-PCR
      assay reached 102 cfu/mL for Salmonella spp. and 102 cfu/mL for E. coli O157:H7
      in milk. The detection limit of SDO-PMA-mRT-PCR for E. coli O157:H7 and
      Salmonella spp. in milk was significantly similar even in the presence of 106
      cfu/mL of 2 nontarget bacteria. The proposed SDO-PMA-mRT-PCR assay is a potential
      approach for the accurate and sensitive detection of viable E. coli O157:H7 and
      Salmonella spp. in milk.

PMID- 28865863
TI  - Differential enumeration of subpopulations in concentrated frozen and lyophilized
      cultures of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus.
AB  - Differential enumeration of subpopulations in concentrated frozen and lyophilized
      cultures of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus ND02 derived from 2
      propagation procedures was determined. The subpopulations consisted of 3
      categories (physiological states): viable cells capable of forming colonies on
      agar plates (VC+), viable cells incapable of forming colonies on agar plates (VC
      ), widely referred to as viable but nonculturable (VBNC) cells, and nonviable or
      dead cells (NVC). Counts of VC+ were recorded using a conventional plate count
      procedure. A fluorescent vital staining procedure that discriminates between
      viable (VC+ and VC-) and NVC cells was used to determine the number of viable and
      nonviable cells. Both propagation procedures had 2 variables: in procedure (P)1,
      the propagation medium was rich in yeast extract (4.0%) and the pH was maintained
      at 5.7; in P2, the medium was devoid of yeast extract and the pH was maintained
      at 5.1. The results showed that post-propagation operations-concentration of
      cells by centrifugation and subsequent freezing or lyophilization of cell
      concentrate-induced different degrees of transience from VC+ to VC- states in
      cells derived from P1 and P2. Compared with cells derived from P2, cells from P1
      were more labile to stress associated with centrifugation, freezing, and
      lyophilization, as revealed by differential counting.

PMID- 28865864
TI  - Clinicopathologic and immunophenotypic features of eosinophilic fasciitis and
      morphea profunda: A comparative study of 27 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eosinophilic fasciitis (EF) and morphea profunda (MP) are
      inflammatory and sclerosing disorders of the subcutis that can exhibit clinical
      and pathologic presentations that overlap. OBJECTIVE: To identify
      clinicopathologic features that can be used to distinguish EF from MP. METHODS:
      We performed a retrospective review of 16 patients with EF and 11 patients with
      MP. Hematoxylin-eosin, CD123, CD34, and Verhoeff-Van Gieson stains were evaluated
      on skin biopsies that included the fascia. RESULTS: EF patients were more likely
      than MP patients to be men (P = .047), have forearm involvement (P = .003), and
      have peripheral eosinophilia (P < .01). Compared with MP patients, patients with
      EF were more likely to have fascia that contained eosinophils (P = .003),
      although eosinophils were absent in 3 (19%) patients with EF. Focal absence of
      CD34 staining was more prominent in the fascia of EF patients (P = .04). The
      extent of Verhoeff-Van Gieson staining did not differ between the 2 groups.
      Dermal sclerosis was not detected in many cases of EF and MP (56% and 36%,
      respectively). LIMITATIONS: This was a retrospective study at a single
      institution. CONCLUSION: Although EF and MP share clinical and pathologic
      features, our results indicate that the presence of eosinophils in the blood and
      fascia and focal loss of CD34 staining might be more suggestive of EF than MP.

PMID- 28865865
TI  - Managing sharps injuries and other occupational exposures to HIV, HBV, and HCV in
      the dermatology office.
AB  - Dermatologists and their staff are at risk for needlestick injuries and exposures
      to body fluids. Despite the availability of treatment to reduce the risk of blood
      borne infection, many exposures go unreported. This paper identifies current
      recommendations and the specific details for response to occupational exposures
      to HIV, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus in the dermatology office.
      Issues surrounding each virus are discussed individually, and a summary step-by
      step algorithm of how to proceed in the event of an occupational exposure is
      presented. In addition, a focused Practice Improvement Activity that is based on
      this paper and provides Maintenance of Certification credit has been developed.
      To view and participate, visit https://secure.dataharborsolutions.com/abdermorg/.

PMID- 28865866
TI  - Postexercise hypotension during different water-based concurrent training
      intrasession sequences in young women.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to compare the acute effects of water-based
      resistance-aerobic (RA) and aerobic-resistance (AR) sequences on systolic blood
      pressure, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean blood pressure (MBP) in young
      women. Thirteen active women participated in four sessions: (1) exercises
      familiarization, (2) aquatic maximal test to determine the heart rate (HR)
      corresponding to the anaerobic threshold (HRAT), (3) concurrent protocol RA, and
      (4) concurrent protocol AR. Both protocols were initiated with the blood pressure
      measurements at rest in supine position. After that, either RA or AR concurrent
      protocol was performed. At the end of both protocols, blood pressure was measured
      throughout 60 minutes (every 10 minutes). The water-based resistance protocol was
      made up by exercises at maximal velocity, and the water-based aerobic protocol
      was performed at +/-5 bpm of HRAT continuously. Two-way analysis of variance with
      repeated measures was used to analyze the data (alpha = 0.05). There was no
      hypotensive effect on systolic blood pressure among the time points (P = .235) in
      both water-based intrasession exercise sequences (P = .423). Regarding the DBP
      and MBP, both intrasession exercise sequences presented similar (DBP: P = .980;
      MBP: P = .796) hypotensive effects in the first 10 minutes (DBP: P = .003; MBP: P
      = .008) at the end of RA and AR sessions (DBP: -4 vs. -13 mm Hg; MBP: -3 vs. -10
      mm Hg). It was concluded that both RA and AR water-based concurrent training
      sessions resulted in postexercise hypotension (DBP and MBP) in normotensive young
      women.

PMID- 28865867
TI  - A Longitudinal Study of PROMIS Pediatric Symptom Clusters in Children Undergoing
      Chemotherapy.
AB  - CONTEXT: Children in treatment for cancer experience multiple, troubling, and
      interrelated symptoms. Analyzing the interrelatedness of symptoms and how that
      changes during treatment could yield clinically relevant patient profiles to
      guide patient care. OBJECTIVES: The aims were to identify pediatric profiles with
      respect to Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System(r)
      (PROMIS(r); U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of
      Health) symptom measures, changes in profile status throughout a chemotherapy
      cycle, and if a baseline single-item fatigue measure could significantly predict
      symptom profile status and its changes. METHODS: In a longitudinal, single-site,
      three data point (T1, T2, and T3) design, children between 8 and 18 years
      completed the PROMIS Pediatric short form measures for fatigue, depression,
      anxiety, and pain and one fatigue item from the Symptom Distress Scale. Latent
      profile analysis and latent transition analysis were conducted. RESULTS: About 96
      children participated; 58.3% were between 13 and 18 years, and 54.2% were males.
      Two latent profiles (less severe symptoms and severe symptoms) were identified.
      The prevalence of the severe symptom profile remained relatively unchanged from
      T1 to T2 but significantly declined at T3. The baseline single-item fatigue score
      significantly predicted the child's profile membership and its changes.
      CONCLUSION: Children experiencing troubling symptoms during cancer treatment are
      heterogeneous. With respect to the PROMIS symptom measures, two a priori unknown
      distinct latent profiles of patients were identified in a course of chemotherapy,
      and the transitions in the profile status were significantly predicted by a
      baseline single-item fatigue measure.

PMID- 28865868
TI  - Translation and Psychometric Testing of the Persian Version of the Spiritual
      Needs Questionnaire Among Elders With Chronic Diseases.
AB  - CONTEXT: Spirituality plays an important role in coping with chronic diseases for
      patients and they often report unmet spiritual and existential needs, which
      should be considered for a holistic view of their health. Studying spiritual
      needs in this generation requires culturally appropriate and valid instruments.
      The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties, such as
      validity, reliability, and factor structure of the Persian version of Spiritual
      Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ). OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine
      the psychometric properties, such as validity, reliability, and factor structure
      of the Persian version of Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ). METHODS: The
      "forward-backward" procedure was applied to translate the SpNQ from English into
      Persian. The SpNQ-Persian Version (SpNQ-PV) was checked in terms of validity and
      reliability with a convenience sample of 100 elders with chronic diseases who
      were recruited from the inpatient wards at two university hospitals in Qom, Iran.
      The validity was assessed using content, face, and construct validity. The
      Cronbach alpha and test-retest were used to assess the reliability of the
      questionnaire. RESULTS: The results of the exploratory factor analysis indicated
      a five-factor solution for the questionnaire, which included religious needs,
      existential needs, forgiveness/generativity needs, need for inner peace, and
      emotional needs. These accounted for 60.1% of the total observed variance. One
      item was removed (factor loading <0.4). Convergent validity was supported mostly
      by the pattern of association between SpNQ-PV and the Spiritual Well-being Scale.
      Cronbach alpha of the subscales ranged from 0.56 to 0.78 and the test-retest
      reliability ranged from 0.72 to 0.91, which indicated an acceptable range of
      reliability. CONCLUSION: The SpNQ-PV showed a minor difference in structuring and
      indicated good psychometric properties, which can be used to assess the spiritual
      needs of Iranian elders suffering from chronic diseases.

PMID- 28865869
TI  - Homing in on the Social: System-Level Influences on Overly Aggressive Treatments
      at the End of Life.
AB  - CONTEXT: The American Medical System is programmed to a default setting of
      aggressive care for the terminally ill. Institutional norms of decision making
      have been shown to promote high-intensity care, regardless of consistency with
      patient preferences. There are myriad factors at a system, clinician, surrogate,
      and patient level that drive the culture of overly aggressive treatments in
      American hospitals. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to understand
      physician perspective of the ways systems-level factors influence patient,
      physician, and surrogate perceptions and consequent behavior. METHODS: Semi
      structured in-depth qualitative interviews with 42 internal medicine physicians
      across three American academic medical centers were conducted. This qualitative
      study was exploratory in nature, intended to enhance conceptual understanding of
      underlying phenomena that drive physician attitudes and behavior. RESULTS: The
      interviews revealed many factors that contributed to overly aggressive treatments
      at the end of life. Systemic factors, which describe underlying cultures
      (including institutional, professional, or community-based cultures), typical
      practices of care, or systemic defaults that drive patterns of care, manifested
      its influence both directly and through its impact on patient, surrogate, and
      physician behaviors and attitudes. CONCLUSION: Institutional cultures, social
      norms, and systemic defaults influence both normative beliefs regarding standards
      of care and treatments plans that may not benefit seriously ill patients.

PMID- 28865871
TI  - Variations in Denominators and Cut-off Points of Pain Intensity in the Pain
      Management Index: A Methodological Systematic Review.

PMID- 28865870
TI  - Outcomes That Define Successful Advance Care Planning: A Delphi Panel Consensus.
AB  - CONTEXT: Standardized outcomes that define successful advance care planning (ACP)
      are lacking. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to create an Organizing
      Framework of ACP outcome constructs and rate the importance of these outcomes.
      METHODS: This study convened a Delphi panel consisting of 52 multidisciplinary,
      international ACP experts including clinicians, researchers, and policy leaders
      from four countries. We conducted literature reviews and solicited attendee input
      from five international ACP conferences to identify initial ACP outcome
      constructs. In five Delphi rounds, we asked panelists to rate patient-centered
      outcomes on a seven-point "not-at-all" to "extremely important" scale. We
      calculated means and analyzed panelists' input to finalize an Organizing
      Framework and outcome rankings. RESULTS: Organizing Framework outcome domains
      included process (e.g., attitudes), actions (e.g., discussions), quality of care
      (e.g., satisfaction), and health care (e.g., utilization). The top five outcomes
      included 1) care consistent with goals, mean 6.71 (+/-SD 0.04); 2) surrogate
      designation, 6.55 (0.45); 3) surrogate documentation, 6.50 (0.11); 4) discussions
      with surrogates, 6.40 (0.19); and 5) documents and recorded wishes are accessible
      when needed 6.27 (0.11). Advance directive documentation was ranked 10th, 6.01
      (0.21). Panelists raised caution about whether "care consistent with goals" can
      be reliably measured. CONCLUSION: A large, multidisciplinary Delphi panel
      developed an Organizing Framework and rated the importance of ACP outcome
      constructs. Top rated outcomes should be used to evaluate the success of ACP
      initiatives. More research is needed to create reliable and valid measurement
      tools for the highest rated outcomes, particularly "care consistent with goals."

PMID- 28865872
TI  - Reliability and Validity of the Korean Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short
      Form in Gynecological Cancer Patients.
AB  - CONTEXT: Symptoms of patients with cancer need to be evaluated with a standard
      instrument. The Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form (MSAS-SF) is a
      symptom assessment tool that has been validated in many languages. OBJECTIVES:
      The aim of the present study was to validate the Korean-version Memorial Symptom
      Assessment Scale-Short Form (MSAS-SF) in patients with gynecologic cancer.
      METHODS: We translated the MSAS-SF into Korean, and 175 gynecologic cancer
      inpatients completed the MSAS-SF, Functional Assessment Cancer Therapy-General
      (FACT-G), and gathered demographic and clinical data and Karnofsky Performance
      Status (KPS). Reliability was assessed for internal consistency with Cronbach's
      alpha coefficient. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated between the
      MSAS-SF and FACT-G subscales for convergent validity. T-test analysis was used to
      compare differences in MSAS-SF subscales by cancer stage and KPS for discriminant
      validity. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the MSAS-SF subscales
      ranged from 0.80 to 0.91. The Korean-version MSAS-SF subscales showed convergent
      validity with FACT-G subscales. The correlation coefficients were -0.640 (P <
      0.001) and -0.628 (P < 0.001) for global distress index and total MSAS score with
      FACT-G total score. The scores of MSAS-SF subscales showed appropriate
      differences by cancer stage and KPS. CONCLUSION: The Korean-version MSAS-SF is a
      valid tool for the reliable assessment of patients with gynecologic cancer in
      Korea.

PMID- 28865874
TI  - Predictors of falls in recreational snowboard jumping: An observational study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Jumping is popular in the sport of snowboarding. Epidemiological
      research has shown an increased risk of injury associated with this activity.
      Falls are common when jumping and although there is a logical connection between
      falling and injury occurrence, thus far little attention has been given to
      factors involved in the jumping-fall relationship. The current study aimed to add
      to the current knowledge base by identifying predictors of falling during
      intentional snowboard jumping within terrain park facilities. METHODS: Seven
      hundred and four jumps were video recorded and qualitatively coded using a custom
      template of predetermined parameters related to manoeuvre choice, landing
      technique and jump success. RESULTS: Falling was common within the sample
      population at a rate of one fall for every five jump attempts. Landings made on
      the flat or knuckle of the snow jump as well as incorrect board positioning at
      landing were found to be significant predictors of falling. Additionally the
      choice of manoeuvre was found to influence the risk of falls, with spinning jumps
      associated with a greater fall risk when compared to non spinning jumps. No clear
      relationship was identified between jump length measures and falling risk.
      CONCLUSION: It is likely that jumping will remain popular in snowboarding and
      thus research efforts should focus on minimising the risk of injury associated
      with this skill. Reducing the overall incidence of falling, identified in the
      current study to be high, is a potential area for improvement. The potential for
      fall risk reduction through technique and decision making changes provides
      justification for further research in this area.

PMID- 28865873
TI  - Statin therapy exacerbates alcohol-induced constriction of cerebral arteries via
      modulation of ethanol-induced BK channel inhibition in vascular smooth muscle.
AB  - Statins constitute the most commonly prescribed drugs to decrease cholesterol
      (CLR). CLR is an important modulator of alcohol-induced cerebral artery
      constriction (AICAC). Using rats on a high CLR diet (2% CLR) we set to determine
      whether atorvastatin administration (10mg/kg daily for 18-23weeks) modified
      AICAC. Middle cerebral arteries were pressurized in vitro at 60mmHg and AICAC was
      evoked by 50mM ethanol, that is within the range of blood alcohol detected in
      humans following moderate-to-heavy drinking. AICAC was evident in high
      CLR+atorvastatin group but not in high CLR diet+placebo. Statin exacerbation of
      AICAC persisted in de-endothelialized arteries, and was blunted by CLR enrichment
      in vitro. Fluorescence imaging of filipin-stained arteries showed that
      atorvastatin decreased vascular smooth muscle (VSM) CLR when compared to placebo,
      this difference being reduced by CLR enrichment in vitro. Voltage- and calcium
      gated potassium channels of large conductance (BK) are known VSM targets of
      ethanol, with their beta1 subunit being necessary for ethanol-induced channel
      inhibition and resulting AICAC. Ethanol-induced BK inhibition in excised membrane
      patches from freshly isolated myocytes was exacerbated in the high CLR
      diet+atorvastatin group when compared to high CLR diet+placebo. Unexpectedly,
      atorvastatin decreased the amount and function of BK beta1 subunit as documented
      by immunofluorescence imaging and functional patch-clamp studies. Atorvastatin
      exacerbation of ethanol-induced BK inhibition disappeared upon artery CLR
      enrichment in vitro. Our study demonstrates for the first time statin's ability
      to exacerbate the vascular effect of a widely consumed drug of abuse, this
      exacerbation being driven by statin modulation of ethanol-induced BK channel
      inhibition in the VSM via CLR-mediated mechanism.

PMID- 28865875
TI  - Photochemical internalization (PCI) of bleomycin is equally effective in two
      dissimilar leiomyosarcoma xenografts in athymic mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Photochemical internalization (PCI) is a novel technique for delivery
      of active macromolecules into cancerous cells, via light activation of a specific
      photosensitizer and a low dose systemic drug. Numerous pre-clinical studies and
      one clinical trial have confirmed the treatment potential in carcinomas. Soft
      tissue sarcomas are rare and generally resistant to radio- and chemotherapy. Due
      to treatment resistance and surgical morbidity in sarcoma care, we seek to
      increase knowledge on PCI effects in sarcomas by studying two different, but
      closely related leiomyosarcomas. METHODS: MES-SA and SK-LMS-1 tumours were
      established in the leg muscles of athymic mice. Treatment effects after AlPcS2a
      PCI of bleomycin, PCI with no drug (photodynamic therapy, PDT) and control groups
      were evaluated by: 1) assessment of tumour growth, 2) uptake of contrast agent
      during MRI and 3) histopathology. RESULTS: PCI of bleomycin induced a similar and
      significant increase in time to reach the end point in both tumour models, while
      neither responded to AlPcS2a-PDT. In the MES-SA tumours PCI reduced the growth
      rate, while in the SK-LMS-1 tumours the growth was blocked for 12days followed by
      exponential growth close to that of untreated tumours. SK-LMS-1 tumours were more
      homogenously and better vascularized than MES-SA. After PCI the vascular shutdown
      was more complete in the SK-LMS-1 tumours than in the MES-SA tumours.
      CONCLUSIONS: AlPcS2a-based PCI, but not PDT, induced significant tumour growth
      delay in the evaluated sarcomas. Cellular responsiveness to bleomycin and tumour
      vascularity are identified as predictive markers for PCI treatment effects.

PMID- 28865876
TI  - Resistance and tolerance defenses in cancer: Lessons from infectious diseases.
AB  - Infectious disease and cancer are two maladies with multiple similarities. Both
      types of disease induce activation of the host immune response and induce
      pathologies that compromise host heath and survival. In infection biology,
      defense against pathogens can be broken down into two distinct components called
      resistance and tolerance. Resistance protects the host by killing pathogens.
      Tolerance protects the host by alleviating the pathology caused by the infection.
      The conceptual framework of resistance and tolerance, concepts explored during
      infectious disease, is applicable to cancer, a condition for which patient
      survival is dependent on tumor eradication (resistance) and the mitigation of
      pathologies that occur during disease (tolerance). Here, we propose that
      integration of the concept of disease tolerance into cancer studies will result
      in new therapies to complement current resistance-based treatment strategies to
      increase the likelihood of patient survival and to improve quality of life.
      Furthermore, by drawing parallels between infectious disease and cancer, we
      propose that host interactions with microbes could provide therapeutic insight
      for promoting tolerance defense and focus our discussion on cachexia, a pathology
      resulting in significant morbidity in cancer patients.

PMID- 28865878
TI  - Will Perimetry Be Performed to Monitor Glaucoma in 2025?
AB  - Visual field testing has played an essential role in the diagnosis and management
      of glaucoma for more than a century. Methods to examine the visual field have
      been refined from early kinetic perimetry to current standard automated perimetry
      (SAP). Clinicians now use SAP for the diagnosis and management of glaucoma
      throughout the world. Various testing paradigms and analytic methods have been
      developed to simplify the diagnosis of glaucoma and the interpretation of
      progression. Moreover, strategies have been implemented to improve patient
      experience with visual field testing and to increase reliability. Objective
      functional tests, such as electroretinography, provide an alternative to
      subjective visual field testing but are not yet ready for widespread adoption.
      Standard automated perimetry is being adapted and improved constantly. New
      devices may allow patients to complete visual field tests at home, which could
      relieve patients and clinicians from in-office testing and allow for more
      frequent examinations. Glaucoma detection and progression analysis also are
      incorporating progressively more information and will be improved as deep
      learning strategies are applied. Finally, perimetric and structural testing
      likely will become more closely intertwined as testing platforms and progression
      analysis incorporate both of these measures. Visual field testing will continue
      to have an important role in the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.

PMID- 28865879
TI  - Epilogue.

PMID- 28865880
TI  - The Chalfont Centre, Bucks, United Kingdom.

PMID- 28865877
TI  - Oral immunotherapy for food allergy.
AB  - Food allergy is a pathological, potentially deadly cascade of immune responses to
      molecules or molecular fragments that are normally innocuous when encountered in
      foods, such as milk, egg, or peanut. As the incidence and prevalence of food
      allergy rise, the standard of care is poised to advance beyond food allergen
      avoidance coupled with injectable epinephrine treatment of allergen-induced
      systemic reactions. Recent studies provide evidence that oral immunotherapy may
      effectively redirect the atopic immune responses of food allergy patients as they
      ingest small but gradually increasing allergen doses over many months, eliciting
      safer immune responses to these antigens. Research into the molecular and
      cellular bases of pathological and therapeutic immune responses, and into the
      possibilities for their safe and effective modulation, is generating tremendous
      interest in basic and clinical immunology. We synthesize developments,
      innovations, and key challenges in our understanding of the immune mechanisms
      associated with atopy and oral immunotherapy for food allergy.

PMID- 28865881
TI  - National Center for Epilepsy, Oslo, Norway.

PMID- 28865882
TI  - Kempenhaeghe academic center for epileptology and residential epilepsy care,
      Heeze, The Netherlands.

PMID- 28865883
TI  - Semiology of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: An international cross-cultural
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: We compared the semiology of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES)
      between patients from the USA and Brazil. This international cross-cultural
      comparative study may expand understanding of PNES across the borders. METHODS:
      We retrospectively investigated all patients with PNES admitted to one epilepsy
      center in the USA and one in Brazil. We classified their seizures into four
      classes: generalized motor, akinetic, focal motor, and subjective symptoms. All
      patients were interviewed by an epileptologist in both countries and were
      administered psychological assessment measures, including questions about PNES
      risk factors. For the statistical analyses, we compared patients from the two
      nations. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients (49 from the USA and 40 from Brazil) were
      studied. Patients from the two countries were not significantly different with
      regard to sex and age, but patients from Brazil had earlier age at onset (26years
      vs. 34years; P=0.004) and a significantly greater delay in diagnosis (9.9years
      vs. 5.6years; P=0.001). Some characteristics of PNES were different between the
      two groups; patients from the USA had generally more seizure types and more often
      reported subjective seizures (55% in the USA vs. 10% in Brazil; P=0.0001).
      Clinical and historical characteristics of the patients were not significantly
      different. CONCLUSION: Delay in diagnosis of PNES may represent a major factor in
      resource-limited countries. Large multicenter cross-cultural studies may reveal
      subtle but significant cross-cultural differences with respect to the
      semiological, clinical, and historical aspects of PNES; however, patients with
      PNES share more similarities than differences.

PMID- 28865884
TI  - The William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre, Glasgow, Scotland.

PMID- 28865886
TI  - Posterior hypospadias: Evaluation of a paradigm shift from single to staged
      repair.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Repair of posterior hypospadias is a current dilemma. Single versus
      staged repair is the main question to answer. The answer is not easily reached
      due to lack of comparative studies. Hence such studies are not available, the
      reports of a change from one approach to the other one are important to point out
      the results of each procedure in the same hands and in the same center. Herein,
      we report our results of the repair of posterior hypospadias shifting from single
      stage to staged repair. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 65 children were operated in a
      single Centre in the period from 2011-2016 using single stage repair by dorsal
      island flap in the first 40 children and then a shift to staged repair involved
      25 children repaired using Bracka procedure, children are evaluated for the
      outcome and for the development of complications during the period of follow up.
      RESULTS: The mean age of children operated using single stage technique was 2.8
      years (0.83-12.0), Onlay repair was performed in 29 cases (72.5%), while a tube
      was performed in 11 cases (27.5%). The success rate was 55% with 45% complication
      rate, in the form of infection in (2.5%), partial dehiscence in (10%),
      urethrocutaneous fistula in (15%), meatal stenosis in (12.5%), urethral
      diverticulum in (5%). 25 children were operated using staged repair according to
      Bracka using inner preputial graft in fresh cases and buccal graft in redo cases.
      Mean age of 4.5 years (7 months-18 years), 15 primary cases and 10 redo cases, 12
      penoscrotal, 11 scrotal and 2 perineal cases, preputial graft in 17, buccal graft
      in 8, 25 children completed their second stage, tunica vaginalis cover was used
      in 23 children, localized penile skin dartos was used in 2 children, the overall
      success after second stage was 80%, complications were in the form of 4 fistulas
      (16%), hematoma and complete disruption in a redo case (4%). There is a
      significant statistical difference in the incidence of complications between both
      groups in favor of lower complication rate (20%) in the staged group versus the
      single stage group (45%) with a P = 0.0419. CONCLUSION: Staged repair
      considerably improves complication rate of posterior hypospadias reconstruction
      compared to single stage repair using pedicled island flap. More follow up and
      continuous reporting of honest complication rate is needed to improve the outcome
      of a complex pathology and to help the choice of the best procedure.

PMID- 28865885
TI  - Stone growth patterns and risk for surgery among children presenting with
      hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia and cystinuria as underlying metabolic causes of
      urolithiasis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia and cystinuria are the most common
      underlying metabolic stone abnormalities in children. The present study compared
      stone growth patterns, stone burden, and the risk of stone-related surgery among
      these underlying metabolic conditions. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of 356
      children with renal stones, followed from 2000 to 2015, was studied. Differences
      among metabolic groups were determined using Kruskal-Wallis test; the Scheffe
      test was used for multiple comparisons to determine differences among single
      groups. Independent sample t-test was used when adequate, given the sample size,
      and Chi-squared test was used for categorical variables. Stone growth rates were
      calculated as differences in diameter divided by time elapsed between U/Ss
      (mm/year). Logistic regression was performed to assess the effect of initial
      stone size on the likelihood of surgery. RESULTS: Median stone size at
      presentation was significantly different among groups, with cystinuria being the
      group with the largest proportion of stones >10 mm, while patients with stones <5
      mm were likely to have a normal metabolic workup (P < 0.05). Stones with a higher
      growth rate were found in the operative group, while slower growing stones were
      mostly managed conservatively (3.4 mm/year vs 0.8 mm/year, respectively; P =
      0.014). However, stone growth rates were not significantly different among
      metabolic groups. On the other hand, the rate of new stone formation in
      cystinuric patients at their first follow-up was 30.4%, which was significantly
      higher than in patients with hypercalciuria (16.3%) or with a normal metabolic
      workup (17.2%; P < 0.05). Compared with stones <5 mm, stones measuring 5-10 mm
      were more than four times more likely to result in surgery, whereas the
      likelihood of surgery for 10-20 mm or >20 mm stones was almost 16 or 34 times,
      respectively (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: It is believed that this is the first
      study to evaluate stone growth patterns, stone burden and surgical risk among
      children with hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia and cystinuria. Cystinuric patients
      presented with larger stones at the time of diagnosis, higher new stone formation
      rates, and were at higher risk of surgery. While no significant difference of
      growth rate was found among metabolic groups, stones with a higher growth rate
      were significantly more likely to result in surgical treatment than slower
      growing stones. Initial stone size, location of largest stone, previous urinary
      tract infection, and patient's metabolic type significantly influenced the
      likelihood of a surgical intervention. Better understanding of the natural
      history ultimately helps surgeons and clinicians defining prognosis, treatment,
      and prevention plans for pediatric urolithiasis.

PMID- 28865887
TI  - Flow characteristics of urethral catheters of the same caliber vary between
      manufacturers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) is frequently prescribed for
      bladder dysfunction, either per urethra or via a continent catheterizable
      channel. Small catheters may be required for infants or continent channels.
      Success with CIC is highly dependent upon patient and family compliance. The
      urinary flow rate through the catheter is an important factor, which can decrease
      CIC time and improve quality of life. There is little objective information
      regarding flow rate through urinary catheters to guide catheter recommendation or
      prescription. Clinically, we noted that there was a difference in flow among
      catheter brands, and we questioned if catheters of the same-labeled diameter
      exhibit the same flow characteristics, which could have implications for catheter
      selection. METHODS: Twenty-one commercially available male pediatric urinary
      catheters from nine brands were tested (11 straight tip, 10 coude tip). Nine of
      the 21 tested catheters had a hydrophilic coating. All tested catheters shared a
      10F outer diameter. For each, microscopic imaging and a precision caliper were
      used to measure the inner diameter and tip inlet area. A hydraulic system
      modified from ASTM standard testing specifications was used to simulate bladder
      catheterization. Measurement of each catheter was repeated five times using three
      different static hydraulic pressures (20, 40 and 50 cmH2O). Catheter flow rate
      and structural measurements were identified and the fastest and slowest of the
      catheters are presented in the table. The variable flow rates between brands were
      due to the differences in catheter structural characteristics such as the inner
      diameter (ID) and the tip inlet area to inner lumen area ratio (AR). The maximum
      variation of flow rate of all tested 10F catheters was 48%, ID varied up to 22%,
      from 1.71 to 2.11 mm or 5.13-6.33F. AR varied up to 166%. The table delineates
      the fastest and slowest rates at three measured pressures. The outer diameter
      labeled 10F on packaging was true to size. CONCLUSIONS: Based on packaging
      information, providers, and patients are unable to predict urinary flow through a
      catheter and thus use information regarding flow rate to guide catheter
      selection. This information cannot be calculated based on ideal flow calculations
      and could be listed on packaging to assist physicians and families in selecting
      the optimal urinary catheter for CIC.

PMID- 28865888
TI  - Evolution after switching to biosimilar infliximab in inflammatory bowel disease
      patients in clinical remission.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The biosimilar of infliximab (CT-P13) has been approved for
      the same indications held by the infliximab reference product (Remicade(r));
      however, there are few clinical data on switching in inflammatory bowel disease
      (IBD). The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy, safety, bioavailability
      profile and factors associated with relapse after switching to biosimilar
      infliximab in IBD patients in clinical remission. MATERIAL AND METHOD:
      Observational study with IBD patients treated with Remicade(r) for at least 6
      months and in clinical remission for at least 3 months who switched to infliximab
      biosimilar. The incidence of relapse, adverse effects and possible changes in
      drug bioavailability (trough level and antidrug antibodies) were evaluated.
      RESULTS: Thirty six patients were included (63.9% CD) with a mean follow-up of
      8.4 months (SD+/-3.5). The 13.9% had clinical relapse. The longer clinical
      remission time before switching (HR=0.54, 95% CI=0.29-0.98, P=.04) and detectable
      infliximab levels at the time of switching (HR=0.03, 95% CI=0.001-0.89, P=.04)
      were associated with a lower risk of relapse. No differences were found between
      infliximab levels at the time of switching and at weeks 8 and 16 (P=.94); 8.3% of
      the patients had some adverse event, requiring the suspension of biosimilar in
      one patient for severe pneumonia. CONCLUSION: Switching to biosimilar infliximab
      in a real-life cohort of IBD patients in clinical remission did not have a
      significant impact on short-term clinical outcomes. The factors associated with
      relapse were similar to those expected in patients continuing with Remicade(r).

PMID- 28865889
TI  - Regional Variation in Utilization, In-hospital Mortality, and Health-Care
      Resource Use of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in the United States.
AB  - We queried the National Inpatient Sample database from 2012 to 2014 to identify
      all patients aged >=18 years undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation
      (TAVI) in the United States. Regional differences in TAVI utilization, in
      hospital mortality, and health-care resource use were analyzed. Of 41,025 TAVI
      procedures in the United States between 2012 and 2014, 10,390 were performed in
      the Northeast, 9,090 in the Midwest, 14,095 in the South, and 7,450 in the West.
      Overall, the number of TAVI implants per million adults increased from 24.8 in
      2012 to 63.2 in 2014. The utilization of TAVI increased during the study period
      in all 4 geographic regions, with the number of implants per million adults being
      highest in the Northeast, followed by the Midwest, South, and West, respectively.
      Overall in-hospital mortality was 4.2%. Compared with the Northeast, risk
      adjusted in-hospital mortality was higher in the Midwest (adjusted odds ratio
      [aOR] 1.26 [1.07 to 1.48]) and the South (aOR 1.61 [1.40 to 1.85]) and similar in
      the West (aOR 1.00 [0.84 to 1.18]). Average length of stay was shorter in all
      other regions compared with the Northeast. Among patients surviving to discharge,
      disposition to a skilled nursing facility or home health care was most common in
      the Northeast, whereas home discharge was most common in the West. Average
      hospital costs were highest in the West. In conclusion, we observed significant
      regional differences in TAVI utilization, in-hospital mortality, and health-care
      resource use in the United States. The findings of our study may have important
      policy implications and should provide an impetus to understand the source of
      this regional variation.

PMID- 28865890
TI  - Natriuretic Propeptides as Markers of Atrial Fibrillation Burden and Recurrence
      (from the AMIO-CAT Trial).
AB  - Natriuretic peptides are established plasma markers of systolic heart failure,
      but their usefulness for the evaluation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is unknown.
      We examined mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP) and N
      terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in patients undergoing
      ablation for AF. A subpopulation of 102 patients (median age 60 [52;65], 82%
      male) from the AMIO-CAT trial (Recurrence of arrhythmia following short-term oral
      AMIOdarone after CATheter ablation for atrial fibrillation: a double-blind,
      randomized, placebo-controlled study) undergoing ablation for paroxysmal (n = 55)
      or persistent (n = 47) AF was studied. MR-proANP and NT-proBNP were measured
      before ablation and at 1, 3, and 6 months' follow-up. Three-day Holter monitoring
      was performed before ablation, and 6 to 8 weeks and 6 months after ablation.
      Plasma MR-proANP and NT-proBNP concentrations were higher during AF than during
      sinus rhythm before ablation (188 pmol/L [131;260] vs 94 pmol/L [64;125], p
      <0.001; 78 pmol/L [43;121] vs 10.3 pmol/L [5.9;121], p <0.001) and at 1, 3, and 6
      months' follow-up. Categories of AF burden on 3-day Holter monitoring (0%, 0% to
      99%, and 99% to 100%) were associated with plasma concentrations of both MR
      proANP (94 pmol/L [55;127] vs 117 pmol/L [88;185] vs 192 pmol/L [127;261], p
      <0.001) and NT-proBNP (10 pmol/L [5.9;22] vs 22 pmol/L [8.9;53] vs 81 pmol/L
      [45;116], p <0.001). In a multivariate regression analysis, however, there was no
      significant association between baseline propeptide concentrations and recurrence
      of AF at 6 months' follow-up. In conclusion, AF was associated with higher plasma
      concentrations of MR-proANP and NT-proBNP than sinus rhythm. Moreover, AF burden
      was associated with subsequent concentrations of both MR-proANP and NT-proBNP.
      The results suggest that natriuretic propeptide measurement reflects functional
      cardiac dysfunction during AF, and that AF burden should be included in
      biochemical assessment of left ventricular dysfunction.

PMID- 28865891
TI  - Serum Ferritin Levels in Blacks Without Known Cardiovascular Disease (from the
      Jackson Heart Study).
AB  - There has been conflicting results regarding the role of ferritin, a nonspecific
      marker of systemic inflammation, in the development of coronary heart disease
      (CHD). We aimed to evaluate the association of serum ferritin with incident CHD,
      incident stroke, and subclinical measurements of atherosclerosis among blacks.
      For our prospective study, we utilized data from the Jackson Heart Study.
      Eligible participants (n = 4,659) who were free from CHD were enrolled in 2000 to
      2004. The participants' baseline serum ferritin levels were obtained, and they
      were followed up for an average of 8 years to identify incident CHD events and
      incident stroke. We used multivariate linear regression and Cox proportional
      hazard models to evaluate the association of serum ferritin with incident CHD
      events and incident stroke. The age-adjusted correlations between ferritin and
      specific study covariates, including carotid intima-media thickness, coronary
      artery calcium, and abdominal aortic calcium, were obtained. During an average of
      8 years of follow-up, 161 incident CHD events and 117 incident stroke events were
      documented. There was no significant association between ferritin levels and
      incident CHD events (p = 0.54 in men and p = 0.31 in women) and incident stroke
      (p = 0.17 in men and p = 0.56 in women), or both considered together (p = 0.70 in
      men and p = 0.69 in women). Ferritin was significantly correlated with abdominal
      aortic calcium (r = 0.09, p <0.01) in women but not in men. In conclusion, a
      higher serum ferritin level was not associated with an increased risk of incident
      CHD events or incident stroke, and may not be an independent predictor of
      incident CHD or stroke in blacks.

PMID- 28865892
TI  - Comparison of Readmission Rates After Acute Myocardial Infarction in 3 Patient
      Age Groups (18 to 44, 45 to 64, and >=65 Years) in the United States.
AB  - Postacute myocardial infarction (AMI) readmissions are common among Medicare
      beneficiaries (>=65 years) and are associated with significant resource
      utilization. However, patterns of AMI readmissions for younger age groups in the
      United States are not known. In the Nationwide Readmissions Database, a
      nationally representative all-payer database of inpatient hospitalizations, we
      identified 212,171 index AMI hospitalizations in January to November 2013,
      weighted to represent 478,247 hospitalizations nationally (mean age 66.9 years,
      38% women, 29% low income). This included 26,516 cases in the 18 to 44 age group,
      183,703 in the 45 to 64 age group, and 268,027 in the >=65 age group. The overall
      30-day readmission rate was 14.5% and varied across age groups (9.7% [18 to 44],
      11.2% [45 to 64], and 17.3% [>=65]). The cumulative cost of 30-day readmissions
      was $1.1 billion, of which $365 million was spent on those <65 years of age. In
      multivariable hierarchical models, the risk of readmission was higher in women
      and in low-income patients, but the effect varied by age (p value for age-gender
      and age-income interactions <0.05) and was more prominent in the younger age
      groups. Further, patients in all age groups continue to have a high
      hospitalization burden beyond the typical 30-day readmission period, with an
      overall 24% post-AMI 90-day readmission rate. In conclusion, readmissions in
      young and middle-aged AMI survivors pose a substantial burden on patients and on
      U.S. health-care resources. Women and low-income patients with AMI, particularly
      those in younger age groups, are more frequently readmitted, and readmissions
      continue to burden the health-care system beyond the typical 30-day window.
      Future investigations would need to be targeted toward a better understanding and
      improvement of the rehospitalization burden for vulnerable patient groups.

PMID- 28865893
TI  - Prognostic Impact of in-Hospital-Bleeding in Patients With ST-Elevation
      Myocardial Infarction Treated by Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - Several studies established a link between bleeding and mortality in patients
      with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous
      coronary intervention (pPCI); however, it is unclear whether bleeding has a
      direct role in worsening the prognosis or if it is simply a marker of patient
      frailty. We investigated whether bleeding is an independent predictor of
      mortality in patients with STEMI treated with pPCI. The relationship between the
      presence of heart failure on presentation (Killip classification), bleeding
      occurrence, and outcome was also assessed. Bleeding was defined as the
      combination of Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction major and minor bleeding.
      Short- and long-term mortalities were estimated using the Kaplan-Meyer analysis.
      Multivariable analysis was performed by the Cox regression model. As an
      alternative method to address the potential confounding factors, we performed a
      propensity-matched analysis adjusted for all variables included in the CRUSADE
      score. In the 1,911 consecutive patients with STEMI considered, bleeding
      (observed in 11.4% of patients) was an independent predictor of 30-day (hazard
      ratio 2.61, 95% confidence interval 1.30 to 5.25, p = 0.007) and 1-year mortality
      (hazard ratio 1.98, 95% confidence interval 1.13 to 3.47, p = 0.017) but not in a
      landmark analysis starting from 30 days to 1 year. Bleeding was significantly
      associated with higher 30-day and 1-year mortality in patients with Killip class
      >=II, but not in patients with Killip class I. In conclusion, in-hospital
      bleeding is independently associated with increased mortality in the early period
      after STEMI, also after adjusting for variables associated with the risk of
      bleeding. Bleeding was associated with increased mortality in patients with signs
      of heart failure at admission, whereas it had no effects in patients with Killip
      class I.

PMID- 28865894
TI  - Temporal Associations Between Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease, 1971 to 2006
      (from the Framingham Heart Study).
AB  - Smoking has consistently been related to cardiovascular risk. Public health
      efforts have yielded reduced smoking prevalence and gains in cardiovascular
      disease (CVD) prevention. We hypothesized that the contribution of tobacco to CVD
      risk would be attenuated over prospective decades (1971 to 2006) in a community
      based cohort. We evaluated 5,041 Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort
      participants (mean age 36.1 years, 52% women) without prevalent CVD. We collected
      prospective data on smoking status, relevant CVD risk factors, and incident CVD
      events across prospective decades. We used multivariable-adjusted, Cox
      proportional hazard models to measure the effect of smoking on incident CVD over
      3 prospective 12-year follow-up periods. Our results demonstrated a consistent
      twofold increased risk of CVD in men who smoke compared with nonsmokers for each
      12-year time period spanning from 1971 to 2006. Women who smoked had a 1.5-fold
      increased CVD risk. Smoking remains an important risk factor despite substantial
      improvements in the prevention and treatment of CVD. Significant, contemporary
      improvements in CVD prevention-such as gains in hypertension and cholesterol
      treatment-have not attenuated the strong and persistent associations between
      smoking and CVD observed here. In conclusion, our results highlight the
      importance of continued public health efforts to address smoking as a modifiable
      exposure that strongly contributes toward CVD risk.

PMID- 28865895
TI  - Usefulness of Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty in the Management of Patients With
      Aortic Stenosis.
AB  - We aim to evaluate the contemporary role and outcomes of balloon aortic
      valvuloplasty (BAV), based on physician intent, for the management of severe
      aortic stenosis. This is a prospective, 2-center study of 100 consecutive high
      risk patients with severe aortic stenosis who underwent BAV. Before BAV,
      physicians assigned intent as (1) bridge to decision (BTD); (2) therapeutic
      bridge to planned therapy; or (3) palliation. Patients in the BTD arm underwent
      clinical assessment at 30 days to determine eligibility for definitive valve
      therapy. All patients were followed up to 1 year, with outcomes measured
      including procedural complications, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaires
      scores, 30-day and 1-year mortality, and definitive valve therapy. Enrolled
      patients had a mean age of 80.6 (+/-9.6) years, Society of Thoracic Surgeons
      predicted risk of mortality of 11.4% (+/-7.1%), and 91 (91.0%) patients had class
      III or IV New York Heart Association congestive heart failure. Intent in the 100
      study patients was 76 BTD; 20 therapeutic bridge to planned therapy; and 4
      palliation. Thirty-day mortality for all patients was 6 of 100 (6.0%), and 1-year
      mortality for all patients who received definitive valve therapy was 6 of 54
      (11.1%). For patients surviving to 30 days, adjusted (by Society of Thoracic
      Surgeons predicted risk of mortality) Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaires
      scores were significantly improved from baseline for all patients and BTD
      patients. In conclusion, as a bridge to decision and treatment tool, BAV appears
      to have a valuable role in properly selecting and improving patients to undergo
      definitive valve replacement.

PMID- 28865896
TI  - Comparison of Electrocardiographic Characteristics in Men Versus Women <= 55
      Years With Acute Myocardial Infarction (a Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender
      on Outcomes of Young Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients Substudy).
AB  - Young women with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have a worse prognosis than
      their male counterparts. We searched for differences in the electrocardiographic
      presentation of men and women in a large, contemporary registry of young adults
      with AMI that could help explain gender differences in outcomes. The qualifying
      electrocardiogram was blindly assessed by a central core lab in 3,354 patients
      (67% women) aged 18 to 55 years included in the Variation in Recovery: Role of
      Gender on Outcomes of Young AMI Patients study. Compared with men, women did not
      have a different frequency of sinus rhythm, and they had shorter PR and QRS
      intervals and longer QTc intervals. Intraventricular conduction disturbances were
      not different among genders. Notably, women were more likely than men to have
      abnormal Q waves in anterior leads and a lower frequency of Q waves in other
      territories. ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) diagnosis was
      less frequent in women than in men (44.6% vs 55.1%, p < 0.001). Among patients
      with STEMI, women had less magnitude and extent of ST-segment elevation than men.
      In patients with non-STEMI, the frequency, magnitude, and extent of ST-segment
      depression were not different among genders, but women had anterior ST-segment
      depression less frequently and anterior negative T waves more frequently compared
      with men. These differences remained statistically significant after adjusting
      for baseline characteristics. In conclusion, there are significant gender
      differences in the electrocardiographic presentation of AMI among young patients.
      Further studies are warranted to evaluate their impact on gender-related
      differences in the management and outcomes of AMI.

PMID- 28865897
TI  - Bare metal versus drug eluting stents for ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction in the TOTAL trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The safety and efficacy of drug eluting stents (DES) in the setting
      of ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is not well established. METHODS:
      In the TOTAL trial, patients presenting with STEMI were randomized to routine
      thrombectomy versus PCI alone. In this post-hoc analysis, propensity matching was
      used to assess relative safety and efficacy according to type of stent used.
      RESULTS: Each propensity-matched cohort included 2313 patients. The composite
      primary outcome of cardiovascular death, recurrent MI, cardiogenic shock or class
      IV heart failure within one year was lower in the DES group (HR 0.67; 95% CI 0.54
      to 0.84, p=0.0004). Cardiovascular death (HR 0.61; 95% CI 0.43 to 0.86, p=0.005),
      recurrent MI (HR 0.51; 95% CI 0.35 to 0.75, p=0.0005), target vessel
      revascularization (HR 0.47; 95% CI 0.36 to 0.62, p<0.0001) and stent thrombosis
      (HR 0.60; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.89, p=0.01) were lower in the DES group. There was no
      difference in major bleeding between groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this observational
      analysis, the use of DES was associated with improvement in cardiovascular
      outcomes compared to the use of BMS. These results support the use of DES during
      primary PCI for STEMI.

PMID- 28865898
TI  - Presence of a predator image in potential breeding sites and oviposition
      responses of a dengue vector.
AB  - In dengue vector control, attempts to minimize or replace the use of pesticides
      have mostly involved use of predators, but success has been severely impeded by
      difficulties associated with financial and environmental costs, predator mass
      production, and persistence in target habitats. Visual deterrents have been used
      successfully to control animal pests, in some cases in an effort to replace
      pesticide use. Despite evidence that visual signals are crucial in site choice
      for egg deposition by dengue vectors, and that female mosquitoes respond to
      artificial predation, the role of predator intimidation as it affects the
      oviposition behavior of dengue vectors remains largely unexplored. Here, we
      examined the oviposition responses of Aedes aegypti exposed to various mosquito
      predator pictures. Gravid females were presented with equal opportunities to
      oviposit in two cups with predator images [Toxorhynchites splendens-TXI, Goldfish
      (Carassius auratus)-small (SFI) and large (LFI) and Tx. splendens+Goldfish-TXFI]
      and two others without pictures. Differences in egg deposition were examined
      between sites with and without these images. When given a chance to oviposit in
      cups with and without TXI, Ae. aegypti females were similarly attracted to both
      sites. When provided an opportunity to oviposit in cups displaying pictures of
      fish (SFI or LFI) and blank cups, egg deposition rates were much lower in the
      fish picture sites. Females showed a preference for blank cups over TXFI for egg
      deposition. They also equally avoided cups with pictures of fish, regardless of
      the size of the picture. Our results indicate that the presence of images of
      goldfish and their association with Tx. larvae significantly reduced egg
      deposition by Ae. aegypti, and this was not the case with the predatory larvae
      alone. The observations that the images of natural predators can repel gravid
      females of a dengue vector provide novel possibilities to develop effective and
      inexpensive alternative tools to harmful insecticides.

PMID- 28865899
TI  - Amblyomma ticks and future climate: Range contraction due to climate warming.
AB  - Ticks of the Amblyomma cajennense species complex are important vectors of
      spotted fever in Latin America. Environmental conditions determine the geographic
      distribution of ticks, such that climate change could influence the distribution
      of tick-borne diseases. This study aimed to analyze the potential geographic
      distribution of A. cajennense complex ticks in a Brazil region under present-day
      and future climate models, assuming dispersal limitations and non-evolutionary
      adaptation of these tick populations to climate warming. Records of A. cajennense
      sensu stricto (s.s.) and Amblyomma sculptum were analyzed. Niche models were
      calibrated using Maxent considering climate variables for 1950-2000 and
      projecting models to conditions anticipated for 2050 and 2070 under two models of
      future climate (CCSM4 and HadGEM2-AO). Broad suitable areas for A. cajennense
      s.s. and A. sculptum were found in present-day climate models, but suitability
      was reduced when models were projected to future conditions. Our exploration of
      future climates showed that broad areas had novel climates not existing currently
      in the study region, including novel extremely high temperatures. Indeed,
      predicted suitability in these novel conditions would lead to biologically
      unrealistic results and therefore incorrect forecasts of future tick
      distribution. Previous studies anticipating expansions of vectors populations due
      to climate change should be considered with caution as they assume that model
      extrapolation anticipates that species would evolve rapidly for adaptation to
      novel climatic conditions.

PMID- 28865900
TI  - A benzimidazole derivative (RCB15) in vitro induces the alternative energetic
      metabolism and glycolysis in Taenia crassiceps cysticerci.
AB  - The emergence of resistance to albendazole has encouraged the search for
      effective alternatives for cysticercosis and other parasitosis treatment. RCB15
      is a benzimidazole derivative that may be used against such diseases. The aim of
      this study was to determine the in vitro effect of RCB15 on the alternative
      energetic pathways of Taenia crassiceps cysticerci. The cysticerci were in vitro
      exposed to albendazole sulphoxide (ABZSO) or RCB15 at different concentrations
      during 24h. The cysticerci extract and the culture medium were analyzed through
      spectrophotometry and high performance liquid chromatography as to detect
      glucose, urea, creatinine and organic acids of the energetic metabolism. The
      drugs did not influence the protein catabolism. Fatty acids oxidation was
      enhanced through significantly higher acetate concentrations in the groups
      treated with RCB15 and ABZSO. Beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations were decreased
      which indicates the use of fatty acids towards acetyl-CoA synthesis. There was a
      decrease in glucose uptake and pyruvate concentrations. The absence of lactate
      indicates the use of pyruvate in gluconeogenesis. Therefore it is possible to
      conclude that RCB15 enhanced the alternative energetic pathways of cysticerci in
      vitro exposed to different concentration, with emphasis on the fatty acids
      catabolism.

PMID- 28865901
TI  - Neuroimaging of Female Sexual Desire and Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recent advances in neuroimaging offer an unprecedented window into
      the female sexual brain. The small samples and poor statistical power of
      individual functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have limited what can be
      gleaned about the systematic brain network that is involved in female sexual
      desire and female sexual dysfunction (eg, hypoactive sexual desire disorder
      [HSDD]). AIM: To quantitatively determine the brain network involved in HSDD.
      METHODS: Systematic retrospective review and statistical meta-analysis of
      pertinent neuroimaging literature. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Review of published
      literature on functional magnetic resonance imaging studies illustrating brain
      regions associated with female sexual desire and female HSDD. RESULTS: HSDD is
      associated with a specific fronto-limbic-parietal dysfunction characterized by
      (i) lower blood oxygen level-dependent responses in the sexual desire brain
      network and (ii) higher blood oxygen level-dependent responses in the self
      referential brain network. CONCLUSION: The meta-analytic results are in line with
      a top-down neurofunctional model of HSDD in which inspecting, monitoring, and
      evaluating oneself (rather than sensory experience) before or during sexual
      activities interfere with sexual desire. These results raise new questions
      regarding the necessity and sufficiency of dysfunctional activation in the sexual
      desire and self-referential brain networks, whose answers bear on the development
      and evaluation of personalized treatments for HSDD. Cacioppo S. Neuroimaging of
      Female Sexual Desire and Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. Sex Med Rev
      2017;5:434-444.

PMID- 28865902
TI  - Immediate Auditory Feedback is Superior to Other Types of Feedback for Basic
      Surgical Skills Acquisition.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We examined the effect of timing and type of feedback on medical
      students' knot-tying performance using visual versus auditory and immediate
      versus delayed feedback. We hypothesized that participants who received immediate
      auditory feedback would outperform those who received delayed and visual
      feedback. METHODS: Sixty-nine first- and second-year medical students were taught
      to tie 2-handed knots. All participants completed 3 pretest knot-tying trials
      without feedback. Participants were instructed to tie a knot sufficiently tight
      to stop the "blood" flow while minimizing the amount of force applied to the
      vessel. Task completion time was not a criterion. Participants were stratified
      and randomly assigned to 5 experimental groups based on type (auditory versus
      visual) and timing (immediate versus delayed) of feedback. The control group did
      not receive feedback. All groups trained to proficiency. Participants completed 3
      posttest trials without feedback. RESULTS: There were fewer trials with leak (p <
      0.01) and less force applied (p < 0.01) on the posttest compared to the pretest,
      regardless of study group. The immediate auditory feedback group required fewer
      trials to achieve proficiency than each of the other groups (p < 0.01) and had
      fewer leaks than the control, delayed auditory, and delayed visual groups (p <
      0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In a surgical force feedback simulation model, immediate
      auditory feedback resulted in fewer training trials to reach proficiency and
      fewer leaks compared to visual and delayed forms of feedback.

PMID- 28865903
TI  - The Perfect Storm Is on the Horizon!
AB  - PURPOSE: Provide analysis of data identifying the impending mass turnover of
      Directors and Coordinators of General Surgery residency programs and the
      potential effect on successful continuing accreditation including the ACGME Next
      Accreditation System (NAS) and associated self study. METHODS: The Association of
      Residency Coordinators in Surgery, Executive Committee (ARCS EC) anonymously
      surveyed 254 general surgery Program Coordinators in September/October 2016. This
      represents 60'% of all the members within the Association of Residency
      Coordinators in Surgery. Survey was accomplished using SurveyMonkey. Questions
      included demographics and experience of the Director and Coordinator,
      accreditation status, significant job stressors, and potential retirements or
      position changes planned or possible. RESULTS: 153 (60%) respondents completed
      the survey. Data from the survey indicates that 67% of Program Directors have
      been in their position less than six (6) years. 34% of Program Coordinators have
      been in their position less than five (5) years. 56% of coordinators have been on
      the job less than ten (10) years. Coordinators in 76% of programs reported
      significant levels of burnout. 59% have considered resigning from their position
      in the past year. Participants consistently reported increasing responsibilities
      and expectations combined with declining or inadequate levels of support as
      sources of job stress. Other contributors to Coordinator burnout were identified
      as related to the additional ACGME accreditation requirements and salaries not
      commensurate with workload. CONCLUSION: This survey represents a sentinel
      preliminary look at the possible impending manning crisis in general surgery
      residency program leadership. A Program Director is supported by a Program
      Coordinators who are burned out and considering a job change. The resultant
      potential turnover in personnel and loss of collective program knowledge may have
      devastating ramifications to program accreditation. Subsequent survey of the
      workforce will evaluate proposed solutions and interventions to prevent this
      outcome and secure the future success of general surgery programs.

PMID- 28865904
TI  - Crude ethanolic extract from spent coffee grounds: Volatile and functional
      properties.
AB  - Espresso capsule consumption and spent coffee ground (SCG) generation have
      increased, and the present study was undertaken to evaluate the volatile profile
      (VP), the antioxidant activity (AA) and the sun protection factor (SPF) of the
      Crude ethanolic extract obtained from the SCG in capsules. The extract yield was
      superior to the ether yield because a higher unsaponifiable matter (U.M.) amount
      was recovered by ethanol. The obtained VP (70 compounds) was typical of roasted
      coffee oil. Furthermore, chemometric analysis using principal components (PCA)
      discriminated the extracts and grouped the replicates for each sample, which
      showed the repeatability of the extraction process. The AA ranged from 18.4 to
      23.6 (mg extract mg DPPH-1) and the SPF from 2.27 to 2.76. The combination of the
      coffee VP, AA and SPF gave the espresso SCG's crude ethanolicextract, desirable
      properties that can be used in cosmetic and food industries.

PMID- 28865905
TI  - Analysis on carbon dioxide emission reduction during the anaerobic synergetic
      digestion technology of sludge and kitchen waste: Taking kitchen waste synergetic
      digestion project in Zhenjiang as an example.
AB  - With the popularization of municipal sewage treatment facilities, the improvement
      of sewage treatment efficiency and the deepening degree of sewage treatment, the
      sludge production of sewage plant has been sharply increased. Carbon emission
      during the process of municipal sewage treatment and disposal has become one of
      the important sources of greenhouse gases that cause greenhouse effect. How to
      reduce carbon dioxide emissions during sewage treatment and disposal process is
      of great significance for reducing air pollution. Kitchen waste and excess
      sludge, as two important organic wastes, once uses anaerobic synergetic digestion
      technology in the treatment process can on the one hand, avoid instability of
      sludge individual anaerobic digestion, improve sludge degradation rate and marsh
      gas production rate, and on the other hand, help increase the reduction of carbon
      dioxide emissions to a great extent. The paper uses material balance method,
      analyzes and calculates the carbon dioxide emissions from kitchen waste and
      sludge disposed by the anaerobic synergetic digestion technology, compares the
      anaerobic synergetic digestion technology with traditional sludge sanitary
      landfill technology and works out the carbon dioxide emission reductions after
      synergetic digestion. It takes the kitchen waste and sludge synergetic digestion
      engineering project of Zhenjiang city in Jiangsu province as an example, makes
      material balance analysis using concrete data and works out the carbon dioxide
      daily emission reductions. The paper analyzes the actual situation of emission
      reduction by comparing the data, and found that the synergetic digestion of
      kitchen waste and sludge can effectively reduce the carbon dioxide emission, and
      the reduction is obvious especially compared with that of sludge sanitary
      landfill, which has a certain effect on whether to promote the use of the
      technology.

PMID- 28865906
TI  - Effect of iron sulphate on the phosphorus speciation from agro-industrial sludge
      based and sewage sludge based compost.
AB  - Composting is considered a suitable process for organic waste management,
      providing stable products that can be safely utilized as fertilizers, but little
      is still known about the variation of phosphorous (P) extractability during the
      stabilization process. In this work, sequential chemical extraction (SCE) with
      increasing strength extractants (H2O; 0.5M NaHCO3 pH 8.5; 0.1M NaOH, 1M HCl) was
      applied for P speciation over 56days of composting of either agro-industrial or
      urban wastewater sludge with green waste treated (AICFe+; SSCFe+) or not (AICFe-;
      SSCFe-) with FeSO4 (2%v/v). Composting strongly reduced the H2O-P, promoting the
      organic-P (Po) mineralization from the labile fraction (H2O+NaHCO3 40%), in
      addition to the increases of NaHCO3- and HCl-extractable inorganic-P (Pi) in both
      AICFe- and SSCFe- (+20% on average). The FeSO4 treatment did not negatively
      affect the process, reducing the Po mineralization during composting by
      increasing the NaOH-P, also protecting this fraction from fixation in the
      sparingly soluble fraction. The final P fractionation (%) was in AICFe-: NaOH
      (41)=NaHCO3 (38)>HCl (18)>H2O (3); in AICFe+: NaOH (53)>NaHCO3 (24)=HCl (22)>H2O
      (2); in SSCFe-: NaOH (46)>NaHCO3 (29)>HCl (21)>H2O (4) and in SSCFe+: NaOH
      (66)>NaHCO3 (13)>HCl (20)>H2O (1). Composting reduced the more easily leachable
      fraction (labile-Po), reducing the risk of P loss by increasing the long-term
      available P fraction (NaOH-P). This was enhanced by the FeSO4 addition. Further
      investigation into soil behaviour and plant availability of P from this source is
      needed.

PMID- 28865907
TI  - Environmental comparison of alternative treatments for sewage sludge: An Italian
      case study.
AB  - A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to compare different alternatives for
      sewage sludge treatment: such as land spreading, composting, incineration,
      landfill and wet oxidation. The LCA system boundaries include mechanical
      dewatering, the alternative treatment, transport, and final disposal/recovery of
      residues. Cases of recovered materials produced as outputs from the systems, were
      resolved by expanding the system boundaries to include avoided primary
      productions. The impact assessment was calculated using the CML-IA baseline
      method. Results showed that the incineration of sewage sludge with electricity
      production and solid residues recovery collects the lowest impact indicator
      values in the categories human toxicity, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity,
      acidification and eutrophication, while it has the highest values for the
      categories global warming and ozone layer depletion. Land spreading has the
      lowest values for the categories abiotic depletion, fossil fuel depletion, global
      warming, ozone layer depletion and photochemical oxidation, while it collects the
      highest values for terrestrial ecotoxicity and eutrophication. Wet oxidation has
      just one of the best indicators (terrestrial ecotoxicity) and three of the worst
      ones (abiotic depletion, human toxicity and fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity).
      Composting process shows intermediate results. Landfill has the worst
      performances in global warming, photochemical oxidation and acidification.
      Results indicate that if the aim is to reduce the effect of the common practice
      of sludge land spreading on human and ecosystem toxicity, on acidification and on
      eutrophication, incineration with energy recovery would clearly improve the
      environmental performance of those indicators, but an increase in resource
      depletion and global warming is unavoidable. However, these conclusions are
      strictly linked to the effective recovery of solid residues from incineration, as
      the results are shown to be very sensitive with respect to this assumption.
      Similarly, the quality of the wet oxidation process residues plays an important
      role in defining the impact of this treatment.

PMID- 28865908
TI  - Review on landfill leachate treatment by electrochemical oxidation: Drawbacks,
      challenges and future scope.
AB  - Various studies on landfill leachate treatment by electrochemical oxidation have
      indicated that this process can effectively reduce two major pollutants present
      in landfill leachate; organic matter and ammonium nitrogen. In addition, the
      process is able to enhance the biodegradability index (BOD/COD) of landfill
      leachate, which make mature or stabilized landfill leachate suitable for
      biological treatment. The elevated concentration of ammonium nitrogen especially
      observed in bioreactor landfill leachate can also be reduced by electrochemical
      oxidation. The pollutant removal efficiency of the system depends upon the
      mechanism of oxidation (direct or indirect oxidation) which depends upon the
      property of anode material. Applied current density, pH, type and concentration
      of electrolyte, inter-electrode gap, mass transfer mode, total anode area to
      volume of effluent to be treated ratio, temperature, flow rate or flow velocity,
      reactor geometry, cathode material and lamp power during photoelectrochemical
      oxidation may also influence the system performance. In this review paper, past
      and present scenarios of landfill leachate treatment efficiencies and costs of
      various lab scale, pilot scale electrochemical oxidation studies asa standalone
      system or integrated with biological and physicochemical processes have been
      reviewed with the conclusion that electrochemical oxidation can be employed asa
      complementary treatment system with biological process for conventional landfill
      leachate treatment as well asa standalone system for ammonium nitrogen removal
      from bioreactor landfill leachate. Furthermore, present drawbacks of
      electrochemical oxidation process asa landfill leachate treatment system and
      relevance of incorporating life cycle assessment into the decision-making process
      besides process efficiency and cost, have been discussed.

PMID- 28865909
TI  - Research and demonstration results for a new "Double-Solution" technology for
      municipal solid waste treatment.
AB  - In this paper, the pyrolysis characteristics of six typical components in
      municipal solid waste (MSW) were investigated through a TG-FTIR combined
      technique and it was concluded that the main pyrolysis process of the biomass
      components (including food residues, sawdust and paper) occurred at 150-600
      degrees C. The main volatiles were multi-component gas including H2O, CO2, and
      CO. The main pyrolysis temperatures of three artificial products (PP, PVC and
      leather) was ranged from 200to 500 degrees C. The wavelength of small molecule
      gases (CH4, CO2 and CO) and the the chemical bonds (CO and CC) were observed in
      the infrared spectrum Based on the pyrolysis temperature interval and volatile
      constituent, a new "double-solution" process of pyrolysis and oxygen-enrichment
      decomposition MSW was designed. To achieve this process, a double-solution
      project was built for the direct treatment of MSW (10t/d). The complete setup of
      equipment and analysis of the byproducts has been reported in this paper to
      indicate the performance of this process. Energy balance and economic benefits
      were analysed for the process supporting. It was successfully demonstrated that
      the double-solution process was the environmentally friendly alternative method
      for MSW treatment in Chinese rural areas.

PMID- 28865910
TI  - Methods to estimate the transfer of contaminants into recycling products - A case
      study from Austria.
AB  - Recycling of waste materials is desirable to reduce the consumption of limited
      primary resources, but also includes the risk of recycling unwanted, hazardous
      substances. In Austria, the legal framework demands secondary products must not
      present a higher risk than comparable products derived from primary resources.
      However, the act provides no definition on how to assess this risk potential.
      This paper describes the development of different quantitative and qualitative
      methods to estimate the transfer of contaminants in recycling processes. The
      quantitative methods comprise the comparison of concentrations of harmful
      substances in recycling products to corresponding primary products and to
      existing limit values. The developed evaluation matrix, which considers further
      aspects, allows for the assessment of the qualitative risk potential. The results
      show that, depending on the assessed waste fraction, particular contaminants can
      be critical. Their concentrations were higher than in comparable primary
      materials and did not comply with existing limit values. On the other hand, the
      results show that a long-term, well-established quality control system can assure
      compliance with the limit values. The results of the qualitative assessment
      obtained with the evaluation matrix support the results of the quantitative
      assessment. Therefore, the evaluation matrix can be suitable to quickly screen
      waste streams used for recycling to estimate their potential environmental and
      health risks. To prevent the transfer of contaminants into product cycles,
      improved data of relevant substances in secondary resources are necessary. In
      addition, regulations for material recycling are required to assure adequate
      quality control measures, including limit values.

PMID- 28865911
TI  - Trauma management therapy with virtual-reality augmented exposure therapy for
      combat-related PTSD: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) realistically incorporates traumatic cues
      into exposure therapy and holds promise in the treatment of combat-related
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a randomized controlled trial of 92 Iraq
      and Afghanistan veterans and active duty military personnel with combat-related
      PTSD, we compared the efficacy of Trauma Management Therapy (TMT; VRET plus a
      group treatment for anger, depression, and social isolation) to VRET plus a
      psychoeducation control condition. Efficacy was evaluated at mid- and post
      treatment, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Consistent with our hypothesis, VRET
      resulted in significant decreases on the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and
      the PTSD Checklist-Military version for both groups. Also consistent with our
      hypothesis, significant decreases in social isolation occurred only for those
      participants who received the TMT group component. There were significant
      decreases for depression and anger for both groups, although these occurred after
      VRET and before group treatment. All treatment gains were maintained six-months
      later. Although not part of the original hypotheses, sleep was not improved by
      either intervention and remained problematic. The results support the use of VRET
      as an efficacious treatment for combat-related PTSD, but suggest that VRET alone
      does not result in optimal treatment outcomes across domains associated with
      PTSD.

PMID- 28865913
TI  - Developing a military nurse scientist program of research: A military women's
      health exemplar.
AB  - Developing a feasible, fundable, and sustainable program of research (POR) is an
      essential career goal in research. Nurse scientists can lay the foundation for a
      salient POR as early as during their doctoral studies. The ensuing years of
      postdoctoral experiences are informative as they expand their research skills and
      knowledge around their research area of interest. Following graduation from a
      doctoral research program, novice military nurse scientists (MNS) are placed in
      positions that are conducive to fostering a POR. Military organizational support
      and the rich experiences of peers and mentors facilitate early career development
      of MNS. The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual framework for
      research career development of the novice MNS. Using an exemplar POR in military
      women's health, the concepts are operationalized to illustrate how the military
      environment enhances the development of a successful POR.

PMID- 28865914
TI  - Quality of life of burn survivors treated in the military burn center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited research explains the quality of life (QOL) among burn
      survivors during post-hospitalization rehabilitation. PURPOSE: To determine the
      QOL of military and civilian burn survivors treated in the military burn center.
      METHODS: In this longitudinal study, QOL was examined in 131 burn survivors (88
      civilians; 43 military). Participants completed the Abbreviated Burn Specific
      Health Scale (BSHS-A) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) over 5 time
      points post-discharge. DISCUSSION: Civilian and military participants reported
      improved QOL over time on most BSHS-A subscales. Military participants had higher
      global BSHS-A scores at discharge, but at 6 months plateaued while civilians
      improved and had higher global BSHS-A scores at 18 months. Scores on the SWLS
      were consistently higher for military participants than for civilians.
      CONCLUSION: Military versus civilian patients may have different expectations
      about their ability to rehabilitate. The post-hospitalization period needs to be
      better understood to develop appropriate QOL interventions.

PMID- 28865912
TI  - Inhibition of AMPA receptor and CaMKII activity in the lateral habenula reduces
      depressive-like behavior and alcohol intake in rats.
AB  - Depression is a well-known risk factor for developing relapse drinking, but the
      neuronal mechanisms underlying the interactions between depression and alcohol
      use disorders remain elusive. Accumulating evidence has associated depression
      with hyperactivity of the lateral habenula (LHb), an epithalamic structure in the
      brain that encodes aversive signals. Glutamate receptors contribute substantially
      to the excitability of LHb neurons. Glutamatergic synapses in LHb neurons largely
      express GluA1-containing alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid
      receptors (AMPAR) that can be modulated by Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein II
      (CaMKII). In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that withdrawal from
      repeated cycles of ethanol drinking triggers an increase in LHb AMPAR and CaMKII
      activity concomitant with depression-like symptoms, and their inhibitions bring a
      reduction in depressive-like behaviors and alcohol consumption. Western blotting
      revealed a higher level of phosphorylated AMPAR GluA1 subunit at a CaMKII locus
      (GluA1-Ser831) in the LHb of ethanol-withdrawn rats than that of age-matched
      naive counterparts. In ethanol-withdrawn rats, pharmacological inhibition of LHb
      AMPAR activity significantly mitigated the depressive-like behavior and ethanol
      drinking and seeking behaviors, but affected neither sucrose intake nor locomotor
      activity; and inhibition of LHb CaMKII activity, or chemogenetic inhibition of
      LHb activity produced similar effects. Conversely, activation of LHb AMPARs
      induced depressive-like behaviors in ethanol-naive rats. These results
      demonstrate that CaMKII-AMPAR signaling in the LHb exemplifies a molecular basis
      for depressive-like symptoms during ethanol withdrawal and that inhibition of
      this signaling pathway may offer a new therapeutic approach to address the
      comorbidity of alcohol abuse and depression.

PMID- 28865916
TI  - Antipneumococcal vaccination in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonar
      disease: A matter of improvement.

PMID- 28865915
TI  - Anaesthetic depth control using closed loop anaesthesia delivery system vs.
      target controlled infusion in patients with moderate to severe left ventricular
      systolic dysfunction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the efficacy of anaesthetic depth control using Closed
      Loop Anaesthesia Delivery System (CLADS) and Target Controlled Infusion (TCI) in
      patients with moderate to severe left ventricular dysfunction (LVSD). DESIGN:
      Randomized control trial. PATIENTS: Forty ASA III/IV adult patients with moderate
      to severe LVSD scheduled for open heart surgery. INTERVENTIONS: Propofol was
      administered using CLADS or TCI for maintaining BIS of 50. Induction and
      maintenance doses were controlled automatically in CLADS. Dixon's up and down
      method was used to estimate the plasma concentration needed for induction in TCI.
      MEASUREMENT: Percentage of total anaesthesia time ("valid CLADS time") for which
      BIS remained within +/-10 of target (BIS=50). MAIN RESULTS: BIS remained within
      +/-10 of the target for a significantly longer duration of time in CLADS group
      (p=0.001). Performance parameters like Median Performance Error (MDPE), p=0.024;
      Median Absolute Performance Error (MDAPE), p=0.0212; and global score p=0.017
      were significantly better in CLADS group. Total propofol consumption was
      significantly less in CLADS group (p=0.014). Mean value (95% CI) of EC50 and EC95
      for target plasma propofol concentration for induction was 1.62 (1.45-1.79) MUgml
      1 and 1.87 (1.73-2.96) MUgml-1 respectively using probit analysis. CONCLUSIONS:
      Closed loop delivery of propofol using CLADS performed significantly better than
      TCI in this subset of patients. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION NO.:
      www.ClinicalTrials.gov-NCT02645994.

PMID- 28865917
TI  - Open innovation challenge as a strategy for developing new mobile health
      solutions.

PMID- 28865919
TI  - Syphilis. Status of a current epidemic.

PMID- 28865918
TI  - Extraparotidal low grade follicular lymphoma associated with primary Sjogren's
      syndrome.

PMID- 28865920
TI  - Lactic acidosis associated (or induced by) metformin.

PMID- 28865921
TI  - In vivo assessment of tumor heterogeneity in WHO 2016 glioma grades using
      diffusion kurtosis imaging: Diagnostic performance and improvement of feasibility
      in routine clinical practice.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the diagnostic performance of normalized and non-normalized
      diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) metrics extracted from different tumor volume
      data for grading glioma according to the integrated approach of the revised 2016
      WHO classification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients with
      histopathologically confirmed glioma, who provided written informed consent, were
      retrospectively assessed between 01/2013 and 08/2016 from a prospective trial
      approved by the local institutional review board. Mean kurtosis (MK) and mean
      diffusivity (MD) metrics from DKI were assessed by two blinded physicians from
      four different volumes of interest (VOI): whole solid tumor including (VOItu-ed)
      and excluding perifocal edema (VOItu), infiltrative zone (VOIed), and single
      slice of solid tumor core (VOIslice). Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC)
      was calculated to assess inter-rater agreement. One-way ANOVA was used to compare
      MK between 2016 CNS WHO tumor grades. Friedman's test compared MK and MD of each
      VOI. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to correlate MK with 2016 CNS
      WHO tumor grades. ROC analysis was performed on MK for significant results.
      RESULTS: The MK assessment showed excellent inter-rater agreement for each VOI
      (ICC, 0.906-0.955). MK was significantly lower in IDHmutant astrocytoma (0.40+/
      0.07), than in 1p/19q-confirmed oligodendroglioma (0.54+/-0.10, P=0.001) or
      IDHwild-type glioblastoma (0.68+/-0.13, P<0.001). MK and 2016 WHO tumor grades
      were strongly and positively correlated (VOItu-ed, r=0.684; VOItu, r=0.734;
      VOIed, r=0.625; VOIslice, r=0.698; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Non-normalized MK
      values obtained from VOItu and VOIslice showed the best reproducibility and
      highest diagnostic performance for stratifying glioma according to the integrated
      approach of the recent 2016 WHO classification.

PMID- 28865922
TI  - Prediction of hemorrhagic transformation after acute thrombolysis following major
      artery occlusion using relative ADC ratio: A retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) ratio can be used
      to evaluate the extent of ischemia. We investigated the risk factors for, and
      correlation between, relative ADC ratio and hemorrhagic transformation (HT) after
      thrombolysis. METHODS: This single-center, retrospective study involved 105
      patients with acute occlusion of the anterior circulation. Relative ADC ratio was
      calculated as the ratio of ADC pixel values, within the affected territory to ADC
      pixel values in the contralateral normal region. HT was determined by computed
      tomography and T2* weighted magnetic resonance imaging after endovascular
      revascularization. RESULTS: Data for 80 of the 105 patients were analyzed.
      Comparing the number of patients between the HT group (n=25) and the non-HT group
      (n=55), a significant difference was noted in tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)
      use (P=0.028), time from onset to reperfusion >=380min (P<0.001), fluid
      attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) hyperintensity (P=0.009), and relative ADC
      ratio<0.650 (P<0.001). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified
      relative ADC ratio<0.650 as the only independent predictor of HT (odds ratio
      7.79; 95% confidence interval 2.22-27.3; P=0.001). Twenty-nine patients
      (including 20 in the HT group) had a relative ADC ratio<0.650. Multivariable
      logistic regression analysis identified use of tPA as the only independent
      predictor of HT (odds ratio 13.8; 95% confidence interval 1.35-125.5; P=0.010).
      CONCLUSIONS: Relative ADC ratio<0.650 with use of tPA may be important for
      predicting HT.

PMID- 28865923
TI  - Rapid and label-free electrochemical DNA biosensor for detecting hepatitis A
      virus.
AB  - Diagnostic systems that can deliver highly specific and sensitive detection of
      hepatitis A virus (HAV) in food and water are of particular interest in many
      fields including food safety, biosecurity and control of outbreaks. Our aim was
      the development of an electrochemical method based on DNA hybridization to detect
      HAV. A ssDNA probe specific for HAV (capture probe) was designed and tested on
      DNAs from various viral and bacterial samples using Nested-Reverse Transcription
      Polymerase Chain Reaction (nRT-PCR). To develop the electrochemical device, a
      disposable gold electrode was functionalized with the specific capture probe and
      tested on complementary ssDNA and on HAV cDNA. The DNA hybridization on the
      electrode was measured through the monitoring of the oxidative peak potential of
      the indicator tripropylamine by cyclic voltammetry. To prevent non-specific
      binding the gold surface was treated with 3% BSA before detection. High
      resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirmed the efficiency of electrode
      functionalization and on-electrode hybridization. The proposed device showed a
      limit of detection of 0.65pM for the complementary ssDNA and 6.94fg/uL for viral
      cDNA. For a comparison, nRT-PCR quantified the target HAV cDNA with a limit of
      detection of 6.4fg/uL. The DNA-sensor developed can be adapted to a portable
      format to be adopted as an easy-to- use and low cost method for screening HAV in
      contaminated food and water. In addition, it can be useful for rapid control of
      HAV infections as it takes only a few minutes to provide the results.

PMID- 28865924
TI  - Prospective, Randomized Study of Radiation Dose Escalation With Combined Proton
      Photon Therapy for Benign Meningiomas.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the outcomes of benign meningiomas (BM) treated to two
      radiation dose levels. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We randomly assigned patients (1:1)
      with incompletely resected or recurrent BM to 2 radiation doses: 55.8 Gy(relative
      biological effectiveness [RBE]) and 63.0 Gy(RBE) of fractionated combined proton
      photon radiation therapy. The primary endpoint was local control with hypothesis
      of improved tumor control with higher dose. Secondary endpoints included
      progression-free survival, overall survival, and rates of treatment-related
      toxicities. RESULTS: Between 1991 and 2000, 47 patients were randomized. Three
      patients were excluded for nonbenign histology; therefore, 44 patients were
      analyzed: 22 who received 55.8 Gy(RBE) and 22 who received 63.0 Gy(RBE). The
      median follow-up was 17.1 years. Local control for the entire cohort was 98% at
      10 years and 90% at 15 years. Of the 5 patients with local recurrence, 4 occurred
      after 10 years of follow-up, and 3 were in the lower dose group (P=.322). In the
      modified intention to treat analysis, there was no difference in progression-free
      survival (P=.234) and overall survival (P=.271) between arms. A total of 26
      patients (59%) experienced a grade 2 or higher late toxicity, including 9
      patients (20%) incurring a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), 7 of which were deemed
      at least possibly attributable to irradiation. The median time between completion
      of radiation therapy and CVA was 5.6 years (range, 1.4-14.0 years). CONCLUSIONS:
      Fractionated combined proton-photon radiation therapy is effective for BM, with
      no apparent benefit in dose escalation. Further investigation is needed to better
      define the risk of late toxicities, including CVA after cranial radiation
      therapy.

PMID- 28865925
TI  - Refining Patient Selection for Reirradiation of Head and Neck Squamous Carcinoma
      in the IMRT Era: A Multi-institution Cohort Study by the MIRI Collaborative.
AB  - PURPOSE: The therapeutic ratio of reirradiation for recurrent or second primary
      (RSP) squamous carcinoma of the head and neck may be improved in the intensity
      modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) era. However, patient selection for
      reirradiation remains challenging. We performed a multi-institution cohort study
      to investigate modern outcomes after IMRT-based reirradiation and to identify
      prognostic subgroups. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with RSP squamous carcinoma
      originating in a previously irradiated field (>=40 Gy) who underwent
      reirradiation with IMRT (>=40 Gy re-IMRT) were included. Locoregional failure and
      late toxicity were calculated using the Gray competing risk method. Cox
      proportional hazards regression was used to identify factors associated with
      overall survival (OS). Factors associated with OS were entered into a recursive
      partitioning analysis (RPA) for OS. RESULTS: From 7 institutions, 412 patients
      were included. The median dose of re-IMRT was 60 Gy, and the median time between
      RT courses was 2.4 years. Chemotherapy was used in 76% of patients. The rates of
      grade >=3, grade >=4, and grade 5 acute toxicities were 19%, 4.4%, and 1.2%,
      respectively. The 2-year cumulative incidence of grade >=3 late toxicity adjusted
      for the competing risks of recurrence or death was 14.2%. RPA identified 3
      prognostic subgroups with distinct and homogenous OS (P<.001): class I included
      patients >2 years from their initial course of RT with resected tumors (2-year
      OS, 61.9%); class II included patients >2 years with unresected tumors or those
      <=2 years and without feeding tube or tracheostomy dependence (2-year OS, 40.0%),
      and the remaining patients formed class III (2-year OS, 16.8%). Fifty-nine
      percent of class III patients underwent postoperative re-irradiation.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study informs outcomes and expectations with IMRT-based
      reirradiation. The RPA classification identifies 3 distinct subgroups, which can
      guide patient selection for therapy and clinical trial design. RPA class III
      patients are not ideal candidates for protracted chemoradiation regardless of
      resection status.

PMID- 28865926
TI  - Hazard perception training in young bicyclists improves early detection of risk:
      A cluster-randomized controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Since child bicyclists are more likely to get involved in a traffic
      crash, there is a stringent need to provide child bicyclists with tailored
      interventions in order to enhance their capabilities to deal with the complexity
      of traffic situations. The current study therefore aimed to test the
      effectiveness of a hazard anticipation training in young bicyclists by means of
      eye tracking technology. METHODS: A cluster-randomized controlled design was used
      in which participating schools were randomly assigned to the intervention or the
      control group. At first, a baseline hazard anticipation test was carried out in
      the intervention group (78 children; 9.56+/-0.38years of age) and the control
      group (46 children; 9.58+/-0.41years of age). Child bicyclists who participated
      in the intervention followed the training that consisted of two classroom
      sessions. In each session children were presented with video clips from the
      perspective of a bicyclist encountering various (potentially) dangerous traffic
      situations. Following the intervention, a post-test directly after the training
      and a retention test three weeks later were completed. The control group received
      the intervention after the retention test. RESULTS: Trained child bicyclists were
      found to detect more hazards and reacted quicker compared to the control group
      that did not receive the training. However, the training did not result in
      improvements in anticipatory visual search behaviour. CONCLUSION: Trained child
      bicyclists seemed to have developed a better processing regarding potential
      dangerous situations but were not able to 'see' the hazard sooner. The potential
      of a brief hazard anticipation training is discussed.

PMID- 28865927
TI  - Construction accident narrative classification: An evaluation of text mining
      techniques.
AB  - Learning from past accidents is fundamental to accident prevention. Thus,
      accident and near miss reporting are encouraged by organizations and regulators.
      However, for organizations managing large safety databases, the time taken to
      accurately classify accident and near miss narratives will be very significant.
      This study aims to evaluate the utility of various text mining classification
      techniques in classifying 1000 publicly available construction accident
      narratives obtained from the US OSHA website. The study evaluated six machine
      learning algorithms, including support vector machine (SVM), linear regression
      (LR), random forest (RF), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree (DT) and Naive
      Bayes (NB), and found that SVM produced the best performance in classifying the
      test set of 251 cases. Further experimentation with tokenization of the processed
      text and non-linear SVM were also conducted. In addition, a grid search was
      conducted on the hyperparameters of the SVM models. It was found that the best
      performing classifiers were linear SVM with unigram tokenization and radial basis
      function (RBF) SVM with uni-gram tokenization. In view of its relative
      simplicity, the linear SVM is recommended. Across the 11 labels of accident
      causes or types, the precision of the linear SVM ranged from 0.5 to 1, recall
      ranged from 0.36 to 0.9 and F1 score was between 0.45 and 0.92. The reasons for
      misclassification were discussed and suggestions on ways to improve the
      performance were provided.

PMID- 28865929
TI  - Non-natural lipids: Synthesis and characterization of esters from meta-carborane
      1-carboxylic acid.
AB  - Lipids are defined as apolar molecules comprising as major classes fatty acids
      and fatty acid esters of normally natural origin. Non-natural components, such as
      dicarba-closo-dodecaboranes (in short carboranes) can also form acids and esters,
      which reveal lipid-like properties. Carboranes are synthetic boron clusters
      featuring ten BH and two CH vertices, organized in icosahedral shape. The highly
      hydrophobic clusters are organic-inorganic hybrid constructs and can be modified
      at both the cluster boron and the cluster carbon atoms via adjusted organic
      reactions. Here, we report the synthesis and characterization of lipid esters
      from meta-carborane-1-carboxylic acid using a new coupling reagent strategy.
      Carboranyl esters from long-chain alcohols revealed wax-like properties.

PMID- 28865928
TI  - The use of a driving simulator to determine how time pressures impact driver
      aggressiveness.
AB  - Speeding greatly attributes to traffic safety with approximately a third of fatal
      crashes in the United States being speeding-related. Previous research has
      identified being late as a primary cause of speeding. In this driving simulator
      study, a virtual drive was constructed to evaluate how time pressures, or hurried
      driving, affected driver speed choice and driver behavior. In particular,
      acceleration profiles, gap acceptance, willingness to pass, and dilemma zone
      behavior were used, in addition to speed, as measures to evaluate whether being
      late increased risky and aggressive driving behaviors. Thirty-six drivers were
      recruited with an equal male/female split and a broad distribution of ages.
      Financial incentives and completion time goals calibrated from a control group
      were used to generate a Hurried and Very Hurried experimental group. As compared
      to the control group, Very Hurried drivers selected higher speeds, accelerated
      faster after red lights, accepted smaller gaps on left turns, were more likely to
      pass a slow vehicle, and were more likely to run a yellow light in a dilemma zone
      situation. These trends were statistically significant and were also evident with
      the Hurried group but a larger sample would be needed to show statistical
      significance. The findings from this study provide evidence that hurried drivers
      select higher speeds and exhibit riskier driving behaviors. These conclusive
      results have possible implications in areas such as transportation funding and
      commercial motor vehicle safety.

PMID- 28865930
TI  - Osteoporosis following heart transplantation and immunosuppressive therapy.
AB  - Heart transplantation (HT) remains the ultimate final therapy for patients with
      end-stage heart failure, who despite optimal medical and surgical treatments
      exhibit severe symptoms. To prevent rejection of the transplanted organ, HT
      patients require life-long immunosuppressive therapy. The goal of the
      immunosuppression is to minimise the risk of immune-mediated graft rejection,
      while avoiding clinical side-effects. Current immunosuppressive agents have
      yielded good survival outcome, however, complications of the immunosuppressive
      therapy, such as impaired bone strength and increased fracture risk, are common
      among HT patients rendering increased morbidity and mortality rates. The main aim
      of the present review was to summarise current knowledge on bone strength
      impairment after HT and concomitant immunosuppressive therapy.

PMID- 28865932
TI  - The role of nitric oxide in diabetic skin (patho)physiology.
AB  - The role of nitric oxide (NO) in cutaneous physiology/pathology became a growing
      research field since the discovery that almost all types of skin cells can
      synthetize this redox signaling molecule about 20 years ago. Now, it is evident
      that NO is an important player in skin physiological processes and in responses
      of cutaneous cells to external insults, while the impaired NO signaling has an
      important consequence in skin pathology. Skin disorders are common complications
      in diabetic conditions. Various metabolic/biochemical and immunological
      dysregulations in diabetic skin are tightly coupled with the disturbances in the
      redox state, primarily the ratio between NO and superoxide (O2-). This review
      describes possible therapeutic significance of different redox state modulators
      in the treatment of diabetic skin disorders. The focus is on those modulators
      that tightly control NO/O2- ratio through the complex mechanisms affecting
      endogenous NO and O2- producing and removing systems. The fact that classic
      antioxidants failed to show significant benefits in diabetes, emphasizes the
      importance of such redox mechanism-based and targeted approaches.

PMID- 28865931
TI  - Age-associated alterations in the levels of cytotoxic lipid molecular species and
      oxidative stress in the murine thymus are reduced by growth hormone treatment.
AB  - During age-associated thymic involution, thymocytes decrease and lipid-laden
      cells accumulate. However, if and how aging affects the thymic lipid profile is
      not well understood, nor is it known if the hormonal milieu modifies this
      process. Here we demonstrate a correlation between reduced thymocyte numbers and
      markers of inflammation and oxidative stress with age. Evaluating the lipidomics
      profile of the whole thymus, between the ages of 4 (young) and 18 months (old),
      we found increased amounts of triacylglycerides, free cholesterol, cholesterol
      ester and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) with age. Moreover, levels of C24:0 and C24:1
      sphingomyelins and ceramide C16:0 were elevated in 12-14 month-old (middle-aged)
      mice while the levels of sulfatide ceramide and ganglioside GD1a increased in the
      old thymus. Evaluating isolated thymocytes, we found increased levels of
      cholesterol ester and 4-HNE adducts, as compared to young mice. Next, we treated
      middle-aged mice with growth hormone (GH), which has been considered a potent
      immunomodulator. GH reduced thymic levels of TNF-alpha and 4-HNE and increased
      the number of thymocytes as well as the thymic levels of dihydroceramide, a
      ceramide precursor and autophagic stimuli for cell survival. In conclusion, GH
      treatment attenuated inflammation and age-related increases in oxidative stress
      and lipotoxicity in the thymus.

PMID- 28865933
TI  - A positive touch: C-tactile afferent targeted skin stimulation carries an
      appetitive motivational value.
AB  - The rewarding sensation of touch in affiliative interactions is hypothesised to
      be underpinned by an unmyelinated system of nerve fibres called C-tactile
      afferents (CTs). CTs are velocity tuned, responding optimally to slow, gentle
      touch, typical of a caress. Here we used evaluative conditioning to examine
      whether CT activation carries a positive affective value. A set of neutral faces
      were paired with robotically delivered touch to the forearm. With half the faces
      touch was delivered at a CT optimal velocity of 3cm/s (CT touch) and with the
      other half at a faster, non-CT optimal velocity of 30cm/s (Control touch). Heart
      rate and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded throughout. Whilst rated
      equally approachable pre-conditioning, post-conditioning faces paired with CT
      touch were judged significantly more approachable than those paired with Control
      touch. CT touch also elicited significantly greater heart-rate deceleration and
      lower amplitude SCRs than Control touch. The results indicate CT touch carries a
      positive affective value, which can be acquired by socially relevant stimuli it
      is associated with.

PMID- 28865934
TI  - Rule-based generalisation in single-cue and differential fear conditioning in
      humans.
AB  - Fear generalisation refers to the spread of conditioned fear to stimuli similar
      but distinct from the original conditioned stimulus. In this study, participants
      were presented with repeated pairings of a conditioned stimulus with a shock, in
      either a single-cue or differential conditioning paradigm. Generalisation of fear
      was then tested by presenting stimuli that were novel, but similar to the
      conditioned stimulus along a spatial stimulus dimension. Dependent measures were
      online shock expectancy ratings and skin conductance level. A diverse range of
      generalisation gradients was observed, and the shape of the gradients for both
      expectancy ratings and skin conductance responses corresponded with participants'
      verbally reported rules. The findings point to an important role for cognitively
      controlled processes in human fear generalisation, and provide support for a
      single-system learning model. They also highlight the potential importance of
      cognitive reappraisal in clinical treatments for over-generalised fear.

PMID- 28865936
TI  - Effectiveness of a shielded ultraviolet C air disinfection system in an inpatient
      pharmacy of a tertiary care children's hospital.
AB  - Viable air particles pose a risk in areas where sterile preparations are
      compounded. This study investigated the efficacy of an innovative air
      purification technology that uses a shielded ultraviolet C light lamp to
      continuously purify the air in an inpatient pharmacy. Mean airborne fungal and
      bacterial colony forming units were obtained preinstallation and again in 6
      months. A statistically significant decrease of 78% and 62% was observed for
      fungal and bacterial particles, respectively. This study demonstrates a potential
      role for this novel technology in decreasing the spread of airborne pathogens.

PMID- 28865935
TI  - Expectancy effects in feedback processing are explained primarily by time
      frequency delta not theta.
AB  - The roles of outcome valence and expectancy in feedback processing have been
      investigated as important factors modulating event-related potential (ERP)
      measures including the feedback negativity (FN) and P300, but results have been
      inconsistent. Recent work from our group has shown that processes underlying the
      FN and P300 are better represented as separable processes in the theta (3-7Hz)
      and delta (0-3Hz) ranges using time-frequency analysis. The current study
      evaluated the modulation of time-domain FN and P300 and time-frequency theta and
      delta to outcome valence and expectancy in a gambling feedback task paradigm.
      Results revealed that the FN was sensitive to valence but not expectancy, and
      that valence effects were driven by loss-sensitive theta and gain-sensitive
      delta. Alternatively, the P300 was sensitive to the expectedness of outcomes but
      only for gain trials, and these expectancy differences were explained by time
      frequency delta not theta. These results add to a growing body of research
      showing that time-frequency measures reflect separable processes underlying time
      domain components, where theta is more sensitive to primary task features and
      less sensitive to secondary features while delta is sensitive to primary and more
      complex, secondary task features.

PMID- 28865937
TI  - Impact of respiratory virus molecular testing on antibiotic utilization in
      community-acquired pneumonia.
AB  - We compared the clinical characteristics and antibiotic therapy of community
      acquired pneumonia patients who were positive on a respiratory virus molecular
      test (polymerase chain reaction) with those who were negative. We found that
      respiratory virus molecular polymerase chain reaction testing has a minimal
      impact on reducing antibiotic utilization among viral pneumonia patients.

PMID- 28865939
TI  - [Prevalence of exfoliation syndrome and cardiovascular diseases in patients
      scheduled for cataract surgery].
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the prevalence of exfoliation syndrome (XFS) and its
      association with cardiovascular disease in patients scheduled for cataract
      surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a retrospective, single center,
      descriptive study of 260 patients admitted to a tertiary teaching hospital in
      Rabat, Morocco, between January 2015 and March 2016 and scheduled for cataract
      surgery. All patients had a preoperative cardiovascular exam, an
      electrocardiogram and, if needed, echocardiography. Statistical analysis was
      performed using SPSS software. Results with a P-value<0.05 were considered
      statistically significant. RESULTS: This study included 246 patients: 146 women
      (59.3 %) and 100 men (40.7 %). The mean age (years) was 67.6+/-10.1. The
      percentage of XFS increased with age (P=0.02). Sixty-two percent of patients with
      cardiovascular disease also had exfoliation syndrome (P<0.001). Patients with XFS
      had hypertension in 46.5 % of cases. 14 subjects (19.7 %) had ischemic heart
      disease and XFS. Using multivariate logistic regression and after adjusting for
      age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and arrhythmias,
      smoking was the only factor associated with exfoliation syndrome (P=0.01, odds
      ratio=5.2, confidence interval 95 %=1.35-20.15). CONCLUSION: Exfoliation syndrome
      is a common condition in the aging cataract population. Ischemic heart disease
      and hypertension are frequently associated with XFS. Smoking could be another
      factor associated with this syndrome.

PMID- 28865940
TI  - Oxytocin improves facial emotion recognition in young adults with antisocial
      personality disorder.
AB  - Deficient facial emotion recognition has been suggested to underlie aggression in
      individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). As the neuropeptide
      oxytocin (OT) has been shown to improve facial emotion recognition, it might also
      exert beneficial effects in individuals providing so much harm to the society. In
      a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial, 22 individuals
      with ASPD and 29 healthy control (HC) subjects (matched for age, sex,
      intelligence, and education) were intranasally administered either OT (24 IU) or
      a placebo 45min before participating in an emotion classification paradigm with
      fearful, angry, and happy faces. We assessed the number of correct
      classifications and reaction times as indicators of emotion recognition ability.
      Significant group*substance*emotion interactions were found in correct
      classifications and reaction times. Compared to HC, individuals with ASPD showed
      deficits in recognizing fearful and happy faces; these group differences were no
      longer observable under OT. Additionally, reaction times for angry faces differed
      significantly between the ASPD and HC group in the placebo condition. This effect
      was mainly driven by longer reaction times in HC subjects after placebo
      administration compared to OT administration while individuals with ASPD revealed
      descriptively the contrary response pattern. Our data indicate an improvement of
      the recognition of fearful and happy facial expressions by OT in young adults
      with ASPD. Particularly the increased recognition of facial fear is of high
      importance since the correct perception of distress signals in others is thought
      to inhibit aggression. Beneficial effects of OT might be further mediated by
      improved recognition of facial happiness probably reflecting increased social
      reward responsiveness.

PMID- 28865938
TI  - [A "fast track" to improve management of neovascular age related macular
      degeneration].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of a fast track for management of patients with
      neovascular age- related macular degeneration (nARMD) treated by intravitreal
      injection of anti-VEGF. PATIENTS: The records of 100 patients in the chronic
      maintenance phase of intravitreal anti-VEGF followed in the fast track and 63
      patients followed in the standard protocol for at least 12 months were
      retrospectively analyzed. METHOD: Patients in the fast track underwent visual
      acuity (VA) testing by ETDRS, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and a physician
      assessment. The injection was performed the same day whenever possible. The
      primary endpoint to evaluate patient adherence was the time between the ideal
      date of visit or injection prescribed by the physician and the actual date of
      administration. RESULTS: The mean time between the ideal date of visit or
      injection prescribed by the physician and the actual date of administration was
      4.1+/-7.5 days for the patients followed in the fast track and 5.6+/-18.7 days
      for the patients followed in the standard protocol. Mean VA remained stable for
      the patients followed in the fast track: 20/50 (20/800 to 20/20) at baseline vs.
      20/50 (20/800 to 20/16) at the conclusion of follow-up. It dropped from 40/50 at
      baseline to 20/63 at the conclusion of follow-up for the patients followed in the
      standard protocol. CONCLUSION: In the context of a fast track, it was possible to
      improve the adherence of nARMD patients and maintain their VA gain or
      stabilization achieved after the induction phase.

PMID- 28865941
TI  - A field study of the association between CD38 gene and altruistic behavior:
      Empathic response as a mediator.
AB  - Inspired by the enhancement effects of oxytocin on empathic responses and
      altruistic behaviors, we conducted a field study with a real fundraising event
      and investigated to what extent oxytocin pathway genes (CD38 and OXTR) modulate
      individual differences in charitable donation. Participants were informed that a
      teacher in their university was diagnosed with uremia and could not afford the
      cost of medication. They were given the opportunity to donate any amount of money
      and report their empathic responses to the misfortune of the teacher. We found a
      significant association between CD38 rs3796863 and the amount of donation both
      before and after controlling for gender, age, subjective socioeconomic status,
      religious belief, and social desirability. Individuals with the genotypes (AA/AC)
      leading to higher oxytocin levels reported stronger empathic responses and
      donated more money than individuals with the CC genotype. Moreover, empathic
      response mediated the gene-altruism association. However, we observed no
      significant associations between the three polymorphisms of OXTR (rs53576,
      rs2254298, and rs1042778) and the amount of donation. This study demonstrates the
      importance of CD38 as a source of individual differences in altruistic behavior
      and highlights the role of empathic response in bridging the link between the
      oxytocin pathway gene and altruism.

PMID- 28865942
TI  - Left atrial appendage closure in patients with intracranial haemorrhage and
      atrial fibrillation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The use of oral anticoagulants in patients with a history of atrial
      fibrillation (AF) and intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) is controversial on account
      of the risk of haemorrhagic stroke recurrence. This study presents our experience
      regarding the safety and efficacy of percutaneous left atrial appendage closure
      (LAAC), an alternative to anticoagulation in these patients. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective, single-centre, observational study. LAAC was performed
      in patients with a history of ICH and non-valvular AF. Risk of ischaemic and
      haemorrhagic events was estimated using the CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scales. We
      recorded periprocedural complications, IHC recurrence, cerebral/systemic
      embolism, mortality and use of antithrombotic drugs following the procedure.
      RESULTS: LAAC was performed in 9 patients (7 men, 2 women) using the AMPLATZER
      Amulet device in 7 cases and the AMPLATZER Cardiac Plug device in 2. Mean age was
      72.7+/-8.2 years. Time between ICH and LAAC was less than one month in 5 patients
      and more than one month in 4 patients. Median CHA2DS2-VASc score was 4
      (interquartile range of 2.5). Median HAS-BLED score was 3 (interquartile range of
      0). No periprocedural complications were recorded. All patients received single
      anti-platelet therapy (clopidogrel in 5 patients, aspirin in 4) after the
      procedure; 5 patients received this treatment for 6 months and 4 received it
      indefinitely. No ischaemic or haemorrhagic events were recorded during follow-up
      (mean duration of 15 months). CONCLUSIONS: In our series, LAAC was found to be
      safe and effective in patients with a history of ICH who required anticoagulation
      due to AF.

PMID- 28865943
TI  - Argentinian/Chilean validation of the Spanish-language version of Addenbrooke's
      Cognitive Examination III for diagnosing dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III), an adaptation
      of the ACE cognitive screening test, has been demonstrated to have high
      sensitivity and specificity in detecting cognitive impairment in patients with
      dementia and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although the Spanish
      language version of the ACE-III has already been validated in Spain, it is yet to
      be validated in Latin America. The aim of this study was to validate the ACE-III
      test in an Argentinean and Chilean population. METHODS: ACE-III was administered
      to 70 patients with Alzheimer disease, 31 patients with behavioural variant
      frontotemporal dementia, and a control group of 139 healthy volunteers.
      Participants were recruited at centres in both countries. RESULTS: The Spanish
      language version of ACE-III was found to have good internal consistency
      (Cronbach's alpha=0.87). We found significant differences in total ACE-III scores
      between patients with Alzheimer disease and controls (p< .05) and between
      patients with Alzheimer disease and bvFTD (p< .05). With a cut-off point of 86,
      98.6% of AD patients, 83.9% of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia
      patients, and 84.2% of controls were correctly classified. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study shows that the Spanish-language version of ACE-III continues to be an
      effective tool for detecting cognitive dysfunction in patients with dementia.

PMID- 28865944
TI  - False ischaemic penumbras in CT perfusion in patients with carotid artery
      stenosis and changes following angioplasty and stenting.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Carotid artery stenosis influences CT perfusion (CTP) studies,
      sometimes manifesting as a false ischaemic penumbra (FIP). This study aims to
      estimate the incidence of FIP in patients with carotid artery stenosis, establish
      their relationship with the degree of stenosis, and measure quantitative and
      qualitative changes in CTP after carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS). METHODS:
      Between October 2013 and June 2015, we prospectively selected 26 patients with
      carotid stenosis who underwent CAS, with CTP being performed 2-10 days before and
      after CAS. RESULTS: Sixteen patients had unilateral stenosis (11 in the subgroup
      displaying < 90% stenosis and 5 in the subgroup with >= 90% stenosis) and 10
      patients had bilateral stenosis. The incidence of FIP in patients with carotid
      artery stenosis was 38.5%. Risk of FIP increased in direct relation to degree of
      stenosis, with a relative risk of 11 in the subgroup with >= 90% stenosis with
      respect to the subgroup displaying < 90% stenosis (95% CI, 1.7-71.3; P=.0005).
      There were statistically significant changes in the parameters CBF, TTP, MTT, and
      Tmax CTP, which reverted after angioplasty. No significant changes were found in
      CBV. CONCLUSIONS: Carotid artery stenosis involves changes in CTP parameters.
      Patients with >= 90% stenosis carry a high risk of FIP; CTP studies may therefore
      be misinterpreted in these cases. Changes in CTP parameters are reverted after
      CAS.

PMID- 28865945
TI  - Relationship between Virchow-Robin spaces and Alzheimer disease: A case report.

PMID- 28865946
TI  - Immunosuppressive therapy in opsoclonus-myoclonus ataxia syndrome associated with
      paravertebral neuroblastoma.

PMID- 28865947
TI  - New variant associated with Niemann-Pick disease type C: Neurological
      manifestations and biochemical, molecular, and cellular characterisation.

PMID- 28865948
TI  - A new topical hemostatic agent TT-173 reduces blood loss in a sheep model of
      total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total knee arthroplasty is associated with blood loss during the
      intervention and may require allogenic blood transfusion. Treatments such as
      tranexamic acid and fibrin sealants improved the bleeding control in several
      clinical trials, but the hemorrhage associated with the intervention is still
      significant. Thus far, very few studies have evaluated hemostatic treatments in
      animal models of total knee arthroplasty. This work describes a sheep model of
      bleeding associated with total knee arthroplasty and investigates a new class of
      hemostatic treatment based on recombinant tissue factor. METHODS: Sheep were
      treated with the anticoagulant heparin, and the joint was accessed by a
      paramedial incision. Ligaments and menisci were eliminated and femoral condyles
      and tibia plateau were sectioned exposing the trabecular bone. An intra-articular
      drain was used to recover and quantify the blood loss during the 90-min period
      after treatment. The efficacy of one milligram and three milligrams of TT-173 was
      evaluated and compared with tranexamic acid. The occurrence of analytical
      alterations and systemic absorption was also investigated. RESULTS: Treatment
      with TT-173 reduced the blood loss in comparison with control or tranexamic acid.
      No significant differences were observed between the two doses evaluated.
      Moreover, a dose of six milligrams of TT-173 did not induce any clinical or
      analytical alteration, and significant systemic absorption was not observed.
      CONCLUSION: Data obtained strongly suggest that TT-173 could be useful in
      reducing the blood loss associated with total knee arthroplasty and without
      safety concerns derived from the systemic absorption of the product.

PMID- 28865949
TI  - Valproic acid increases NF-kappaB transcriptional activation despite decreasing
      DNA binding ability in P19 cells, which may play a role in VPA-initiated
      teratogenesis.
AB  - The nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) family of transcription factors regulate
      gene expression in response to diverse stimuli. We previously demonstrated that
      valproic acid (VPA) exposure in utero decreases total cellular protein expression
      of the NF-kappaB subunit p65 in CD-1 mouse embryos with a neural tube defect but
      not in phenotypically normal littermates. This study evaluated p65 mRNA and
      protein expression in P19 cells and determined the impact on DNA binding ability
      and activity. Exposure to 5mM VPA decreased p65 mRNA and total cellular protein
      expression however, nuclear p65 protein expression was unchanged. VPA reduced NF
      kappaB DNA binding and nuclear protein of the p65 DNA-binding partner, p50. NF
      kappaB transcriptional activity was increased with VPA alone, despite decreased
      phosphorylation of p65 at Ser276, and when combined with tissue necrosis factor
      alpha. These results demonstrate that VPA increases NF-kappaB transcriptional
      activity despite decreasing DNA binding, which may play a role in VPA-initiated
      teratogenesis.

PMID- 28865950
TI  - Individual and combined toxicological effects of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone
      on human hepatocytes in in vitro chronic exposure conditions.
AB  - While numerous surveys highlighted the natural co-occurrence of mycotoxins in
      food, data about their toxicological combined effects is still limited. This is
      especially the case for chronic exposure conditions, although the latter are more
      representative of the mycotoxin risk associated with food consumption than acute
      exposure. In the present study, cell viability and gene expression levels of
      relevant hepatocyte-specific functions were evaluated for the HepaRG human liver
      cell line exposed to deoxynivalenol (DON) and/or zearalenone (ZEA) during 14, 28
      and 42days at three subtoxic concentrations corresponding to i) the determined
      average exposure dose of French adult population, ii) the tolerable daily intake
      established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee and iii) the maximum level
      permitted by the European regulation in cereals intended for direct human
      consumption. For the latter, DON and DON+ZEA induced 90% cell mortality after
      14days. In addition, depending on the considered toxin or mixture, doses and
      exposure periods, important variations of gene expression levels were observed.
      Despite the fact that in vitro conditions differ from the in vivo situation, the
      obtained results clearly highlighted that long-term toxicological effects of
      chronic exposure to mycotoxin combinations should be further investigated and, if
      necessary, taken into consideration at the regulatory level.

PMID- 28865951
TI  - Are person-related and socio-structural factors associated with nurses' self
      management support behavior? A correlational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore nurses' self-perceived behavior of supporting patients'
      self-management, and its association with person-related and socio-structural
      factors. METHODS: Correlational study in a sample of nurses from nine general
      hospitals, three community healthcare organizations, and six private community
      practices. Nurses with >50% of their patients living with a chronic condition
      were eligible to participate. Data were collected at two time-points. Self
      management support behavior was measured by the SEPSS-36 instrument. The person
      related and socio-structural associated factors were derived from behavioral
      theories and measured by validated questionnaires. RESULTS: Nurses (N=477) scored
      overall low on self-management support behavior. Nurses lacked mainly
      competencies in collaborative goalsetting, shared decision making and organizing
      follow-up. Factors predicting nurses' behavior in supporting patients' self
      management were self-efficacy, priority, perceived supervisor support and
      training in self-management support. This model explained 51.7% of the variance
      in nurses' behavior. CONCLUSION: To date, nurses do not optimally fulfil their
      role in supporting patients' self-management. Self-management support is
      practiced from a narrow medical point of view and primarily consists of informing
      patients, which is the lowest level of patient participation. PRACTICE
      IMPLICATIONS: It is essential to better prepare and support nurses - and by
      extend all healthcare professionals - for the challenges of supporting patients'
      self-management.

PMID- 28865952
TI  - Sedative and physiological effects of brimonidine tartrate ophthalmic solution in
      healthy cats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of brimonidine tartrate ophthalmic solution
      on sedation, heart rate (HR), respiratory frequency (fR), rectal temperature (RT)
      and noninvasive mean arterial pressure (MAP) in healthy cats. STUDY DESIGN:
      Randomized, blinded crossover study, with 1 week washout between treatments.
      ANIMALS: Six healthy purpose-bred cats. METHODS: Brimonidine tartrate ophthalmic
      solution 0.1% (one or two drops; 58.6 +/- 3.3 MUg per drop) or a control solution
      (artificial tear solution) was administered to six healthy cats. Behavioural
      observations and measurements of HR, fR, RT and MAP were recorded before and at
      30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, 300 and 360 minutes after topical administration.
      Behavioural scores were analysed using Friedman's test for repeated measures to
      evaluate the time effect in each treatment and treatment effect at each time
      point. Physiological variables (HR, fR, RT and MAP) were analysed using two-way
      analysis of variance for repeated measures to evaluate the time and treatment
      effects. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Dose-dependent
      behavioural and physiological responses were noted. A dose of two drops of
      brimonidine resulted in sedation in the cats and decreased HR and MAP.
      Significant sedative effects occurred between 30 and 120 minutes and for
      physiological responses up to 360 minutes. The most frequent adverse reaction was
      vomiting, occurring within 40 minutes in all six cats administered two drops and
      five of the six cats administered one drop of brimonidine. CONCLUSIONS AND
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The results demonstrated that ocular administration of
      brimonidine 0.1% ophthalmic solution induced sedation in cats and some
      cardiovascular effects usually associated with alpha2-adrenoceptor agonists.
      Further studies should be performed to determine clinical applications for this
      agent in cats.

PMID- 28865953
TI  - Ventilatory incidents monitored by electrical impedance tomography in an
      anaesthetized orangutan (Pongo abelii).

PMID- 28865954
TI  - Comparative expression profiling of AtRAD5B and AtNDL1: Hints towards a role in G
      protein mediated signaling.
AB  - Arabidopsis AtRAD5B encodes for a putative helicase of the class SWItch/Sucrose
      Non-Fermentable (SWI/SNF) ATPases. We identified AtRAD5B as an interactor of N
      MYC DOWNREGULATED-LIKE1 (AtNDL1) in a yeast two-hybrid screen. AtNDL1 is a G
      protein signaling component which regulates auxin transport and gradients
      together with GTP binding protein beta 1 (AGB1). Auxin gradients are known to
      recruit SWI/SNF remodeling complexes to the chromatin and regulate expression of
      genes involved in flower and leaf formation. In current study, a comparative
      spatial and temporal co-expression/localization analysis of AtNDL1, AGB1 with
      AtRAD5B was carried out in order to explore the possibility of their coexistence
      in a common signaling network. Translational fusion (GUS) of AtNDL1 and AtRAD5B
      in seedlings and reproductive organs revealed that both shared similar expression
      patterns with the highest expression observed in male reproductive organs.
      Moreover, they shared similar domains of localization in roots, suggesting their
      potential functioning together in reproductive and root development processes.
      This study predicts the existence of a signaling network involving AtNDL1, AGB1
      with AtRAD5B.

PMID- 28865955
TI  - Nanoparticles as effective acaricides against ticks-A review.
AB  - Ticks serve as vectors of a wide range of infectious agents deleterious to humans
      and animals. Tick bite prevention is based to a large extent on the use of
      chemical repellents and acaricides. However, development of resistance in
      targeted ticks, environmental pollution, and contamination of livestock meat and
      milk are major concerns. Recently, metal, metal oxide and carbon nanoparticles,
      particularly those obtained through green fabrication routes, were found to be
      highly effective against a wide array of arthropod pests and vectors. We
      summarize current knowledge on the toxicity of nanoparticles against tick vectors
      of medical and veterinary importance. We also discuss the toxicity of products
      from botanical- and bacterial-based as well as classic chemical nanosynthesis
      routes, showing differences in bioactivity against ticks based on the products
      used for the fabrication of nanoparticles. Further research is needed, to
      validate the efficacy of nanoparticle-based acaricides in the field and clarify
      mechanisms of action of nanoparticles against ticks. From a technical point of
      view, the literature analyzed here showed little standardization of size and
      weight of tested ticks, a lack of uniform methods to assess toxicity and concerns
      related to data analysis. Finally, an important challenge for future research is
      the need for ecotoxicology studies to evaluate potential negative effects on non
      target organisms and site contamination arising from nanoparticle-based
      treatments in close proximity of livestock and farmers.

PMID- 28865956
TI  - Developmentally regulated GTP-binding protein 2 is required for stabilization of
      Rac1-positive membrane tubules.
AB  - Previously we have reported that developmentally regulated GTP-binding protein 2
      (DRG2) localizes on Rab5 endosomes and plays an important role in transferrin
      (Tfn) recycling. We here identified DRG2 as a key regulator of membrane tubule
      stability. At 30 min after Tfn treatment, DRG2 localized to membrane tubules
      which were enriched with phosphatidylinositol 4-monophosphate [PI(4)P] and did
      not contain Rab5. DRG2 interacted with Rac1 more strongly with GTP-bound Rac1 and
      tubular localization of DRG2 depended on Rac1 activity. DRG2 depletion led to
      destabilization of membrane tubules, while ectopic expression of DRG2 rescued the
      stability of the membrane tubules in DRG2-depleted cells. Our results reveal a
      novel mechanism for regulation of membrane tubule stability mediated by DRG2.

PMID- 28865957
TI  - Zinc binds non-cooperatively to human liver metallothionein 2a at physiological
      pH.
AB  - Maintenance of the homeostasis of zinc is very important in regulating bodily
      functions. There are over 300 Zn-dependent enzymes identified where Zn(II) plays
      a structural or catalytic role. However, an excess of Zn(II) in a cell is toxic
      and free Zn(II) is tightly controlled. Metallothioneins (MTs) are small cysteine
      rich proteins that can bind up to seven Zn(II) and act as a Zn(II) reservoir. The
      MT2a isoform is predominantly found in the liver. This study focused on designing
      an MT2a construct of recombinant human MT2a to determine the Zn(II) binding
      profile of MT2a in vitro. We analyzed the pH dependence of Zn-MT2a speciation
      from electrospray ionization mass spectral data. At physiological pH, Zn(II) is
      terminally bound to the cysteine thiols of MT2a, making bead-like structures (non
      cooperative metal binding), while at low pH, Zn(II) formed Zn4S11-MT2a clusters
      involving bridged cysteinyl thiols to the Zn(II) (cooperative metal binding). The
      Zn(II) binding profile of MT2a was compared to Zn(II) binding profile of human
      kidney MT1a, which was reported in literature, and found that the Zn(II) binding
      profile of MT2a is similar to that of MT1a. The facility of forming bead-like
      structures at physiological pH for Zn5-MT2a means that Zn7-MT2a can donate up to
      two Zn(II) to Zn-dependent enzymes.

PMID- 28865958
TI  - Crystal structure of glucose isomerase in complex with xylitol inhibitor in one
      metal binding mode.
AB  - Glucose isomerase (GI) is an intramolecular oxidoreductase that interconverts
      aldoses and ketoses. These characteristics are widely used in the food,
      detergent, and pharmaceutical industries. In order to obtain an efficient GI,
      identification of novel GI genes and substrate binding/inhibition have been
      studied. Xylitol is a well-known inhibitor of GI. In Streptomyces rubiginosus,
      two crystal structures have been reported for GI in complex with xylitol
      inhibitor. However, a structural comparison showed that xylitol can have variable
      conformation at the substrate binding site, e.g., a nonspecific binding mode. In
      this study, we report the crystal structure of S. rubiginosus GI in a complex
      with xylitol and glycerol. Our crystal structure showed one metal binding mode in
      GI, which we presumed to represent the inactive form of the GI. The metal ion was
      found only at the M1 site, which was involved in substrate binding, and was not
      present at the M2 site, which was involved in catalytic function. The O2 and O4
      atoms of xylitol molecules contributed to the stable octahedral coordination of
      the metal in M1. Although there was no metal at the M2 site, no large
      conformational change was observed for the conserved residues coordinating M2.
      Our structural analysis showed that the metal at the M2 site was not important
      when a xylitol inhibitor was bound to the M1 site in GI. Thus, these findings
      provided important information for elucidation or engineering of GI functions.

PMID- 28865959
TI  - Amyloid fibril aggregation: An insight into the underwater adhesion of barnacle
      cement.
AB  - Barnacles robustly adhere themselves to diverse submarine substrates through a
      proteinaceous complex termed the "barnacle cement". Previous studies have
      indicated that certain peptides derived from some barnacle cement proteins can
      self-assemble into amyloid fibrils. In this study, we assessed the self-assembly
      behavior of a full-length 19 kDa cement protein from Balanus albicostatus
      (Balcp19k) in different buffers. Results of Thioflavin T binding assay,
      transmission electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
      suggested that the bacterial recombinant Balcp19k was able to aggregate into
      typical amyloid fibrils. The time required for the self-assembly process was
      close to that required for the complete curing of barnacle cement complex.
      Moreover, the solubility of Balcp19k amyloid deposits in guanidine hydrochloride
      and urea was same as that of the cured cement. These results indicated the
      inherent self-assembling nature of Balcp19k, implying that the amyloid fibril
      formation plays a critical role in barnacle cement curing procedure and its
      insolubility. Our results should be conducive to understanding barnacle
      underwater adhesion mechanisms and have implications in the development of new
      generation antifouling techniques and in the designing of novel wet adhesives for
      biomedical and technical applications.

PMID- 28865960
TI  - Cavin-2 is a specific marker for detection of well-differentiated liposarcoma.
AB  - Caveolae are cholesterol enriched invaginations of the plasma membrane involved
      in a variety of processes, including glucose and fatty acids absorption, cell
      transduction and mechanoprotection. The biogenesis and function of caveolae
      depend on the activity of Caveolin (Cav-1, -2 and -3) and Cavin (Cavin-1, -2, -3
      and -4) protein families. Since the membrane Cavin-2 protein was reported to play
      a key role in caveolae formation of adipocytes, in this work we have used a
      multidisciplinary approach to investigate its expression in liposarcoma (LPS), an
      adipocytic soft tissue sarcoma affecting adults. Data obtained through an in
      silico and immunohistochemical analysis suggest that Cavin-2, along with Cavin-1,
      Cav-1 and Cav-2, is mostly expressed in the least aggressive LPS subtype, namely
      well-differentiated LPS, while is almost undetectable in the more aggressive
      myxoid, pleomorphic and dedifferentiated LPS tumors. Accordingly, in vitro
      analysis confirmed that Cavin-2 expression increases in LPS tumor cell lines
      during differentiation as compared to proliferation, as detected by
      immunoblotting and immunofluorescence analysis. Overall, these data suggest that
      Cavin-2 represents a useful marker for discriminating the degree of
      differentiation in LPS tumors.

PMID- 28865961
TI  - Effect of high-fat diet on cognitive impairment in triple-transgenic mice model
      of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - High-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity is a risk factor for cognitive impairment in
      Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been reported that two typical neuropathological
      markers of AD, beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide and hyperphosphorylated protein tau
      can cause neuronal apoptosis via oxidative stress, which ultimately leads to
      cognitive dysfunction. In this study, we tried to explore the molecular pathway
      underlying memory impairment in young AD transgenic mice model in response to
      HFD. We maintained non-transgenic control mice (non-Tg) and triple transgenic AD
      (3xTg-AD) mice aged 8 weeks on either normal diet (ND) containing 10% fat or HFD
      (60% fat) for 16 weeks. Cognitive functions were evaluated by Morris water maze
      and Y-maze tests. Behavioral tests showed a significant memory impairment in 3xTg
      AD mice fed with HFD. HFD did not alter the levels of Abeta and phospho-tau
      protein in the cortical region regardless of groups. However, 3xTg-AD mice fed
      with HFD exhibited increased neuronal oxidative stress and apoptosis as assessed
      by augmentation of lipid peroxidation, activation of caspase-3 and elevated ratio
      of Bax/Bcl-2. Furthermore, HFD markedly reduced the activation of redox-sensitive
      transcription factor NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) by suppressing its up-stream
      regulatory protein kinase B/Akt as well as down-stream targets such as heme
      oxygenase-1 and manganese superoxide dismutase in these mice. Our findings
      suggest that HFD may accelerate cognitive impairment by enhancing oxidative
      stress and aggravating neuronal apoptosis via inactivation of Nrf2 signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28865962
TI  - Maternal trans-general analysis of the human mitochondrial DNA pattern.
AB  - There is an intimate connection between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) methylation and
      some diseases, such as cancer. MtDNA is almost strictly maternally inherited.
      However, whether the aberrant mtDNA methylation involved in breast cancer
      progression and whether mtDNA methylation can be transmitted through maternal
      line are poorly understood. Here we applied bisulfite sequencing to global
      mitochondrial DNA and whole genomic DNA methylation array from fifteen members of
      five three-female-generation families with one breast cancer patient in each
      family. We found that mtDNA methylation was maternally inherited in D-loop region
      and eight aberrant mtDNA methylation sites were correlated with breast cancer.
      Furthermore, conjoint analysis showed that mtDNA methylation sites could be
      potential biomarkers combined with nuclear DNA methylation sites for breast
      cancer risk prediction.

PMID- 28865963
TI  - Can shoulder range of movement be measured accurately using the Microsoft Kinect
      sensor plus Medical Interactive Recovery Assistant (MIRA) software?
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compared the accuracy of measuring shoulder range of
      movement (ROM) with a simple laptop-sensor combination vs. trained observers
      (shoulder physiotherapists and shoulder surgeons) using motion capture (MoCap)
      laboratory equipment as the gold standard. METHODS: The Microsoft Kinect sensor
      (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) tracks 3-dimensional human motion. Ordinarily
      used with an Xbox (Microsoft Corp.) video game console, Medical Interactive
      Recovery Assistant (MIRA) software (MIRA Rehab Ltd., London, UK) allows this
      small sensor to measure shoulder movement with a standard computer. Shoulder
      movements of 49 healthy volunteers were simultaneously measured by trained
      observers, MoCap, and the MIRA device. Internal rotation was assessed with the
      shoulder abducted 90 degrees  and external rotation with the shoulder adducted.
      Visual estimation and MIRA measurements were compared with gold standard MoCap
      measurements for agreement using Bland-Altman methods. RESULTS: There were 1670
      measurements analyzed. The MIRA evaluations of all 4 cardinal shoulder movements
      were significantly more precise, with narrower limits of agreement, than the
      measurements of trained observers. MIRA achieved +/-11 degrees  (95% confidence
      interval [CI], 8.7 degrees -12.6 degrees ) for forward flexion vs. +/-16 degrees 
      (95% CI, 14.6 degrees -17.6 degrees ) by trained observers. For abduction, MIRA
      showed +/-11 degrees  (95% CI, 8.7 degrees -12.8 degrees ) against +/-15 degrees 
      (95% CI, 13.4 degrees -16.2 degrees ) for trained observers. MIRA attained +/-10
      degrees  (95% CI, 8.1 degrees -11.9 degrees ) during external rotation
      measurement, whereas trained observers only reached +/-21 degrees  (95% CI, 18.7
      degrees -22.6 degrees ). For internal rotation, MIRA achieved +/-9 degrees  (95%
      CI, 7.2 degrees -10.4 degrees ), which was again better than TOs at +/-18 degrees
      (95% CI, 16.0 degrees -19.3 degrees ). CONCLUSIONS: A laptop combined with a
      Microsoft Kinect sensor and the MIRA software can measure shoulder movements with
      acceptable levels of accuracy. This technology, which can be easily set up, may
      also allow precise shoulder ROM measurement outside the clinic setting.

PMID- 28865964
TI  - Routine cultures for seemingly aseptic revision shoulder arthroplasty: are they
      necessary?
AB  - Propionibacterium acnes has recently gained attention as the leading cause of
      periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs) after shoulder arthroplasty. Unlike PJIs
      in the lower extremity, PJIs after shoulder arthroplasty usually have an indolent
      course and are notoriously difficult to diagnose. Most of the time, the diagnosis
      is made after positive intraoperative cultures are taken at the time of revision
      surgery. Adding even more complexity to the diagnosis is the high rate of P acnes
      positive cultures taken at the time of primary shoulder surgery. In many cases
      the preoperative workup yields no suspicion for infection; however,
      intraoperative cultures are taken to completely eliminate the potential of an
      ongoing indolent infection. Concerns over how to interpret positive P acnes
      culture results and the high rate of culture positivity in primary shoulder
      arthroplasty, as well as the potentially high rate of contamination, have led
      surgeons to wonder about the utility of obtaining intraoperative cultures at the
      time of revision shoulder arthroplasty. We present evidence for and against the
      practice of obtaining routine intraoperative cultures at the time of seemingly
      aseptic revision shoulder arthroplasty.

PMID- 28865965
TI  - Proximal stress shielding is decreased with a short stem compared with a
      traditional-length stem in total shoulder arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study compared the outcome and radiographic humeral adaptations
      after placement of a traditional-length (TL) or short-stem (SS) humeral component
      during total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). The hypothesis was there would be no
      difference in outcome or radiographic adaptations. METHODS: A multicenter
      retrospective review was performed of primary TSAs performed with a TL or SS
      press-fit humeral component. The stems were identical in geometry and coating,
      with the only variable being stem length. Functional outcome and radiographs were
      reviewed at a minimum of 2 years postoperatively in 58 TL stems and 56 SSs.
      RESULTS: There were significant improvements in all range of motion and
      functional outcome from baseline (P < .001) but no difference between the groups
      (P > .05). TL stems were placed in anatomic alignment 98% of the time compared
      with 86% of the SS cases (P = .015), but alignment did not influence outcome.
      Cortical thinning was more common in the medial metaphysis with the TL stem (74%)
      than with the SS (50%; P = .008). Partial calcar osteolysis was seen in 31% of TL
      stems and in 23% of SSs (P = .348). There was no difference in loosening or shift
      between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: There is no difference in functional outcome at
      short-term follow-up between a TL stem and a SS in TSA. The pattern of
      radiographic adaptations may differ based on stem length. Further study is needed
      to evaluate the mid- to long-term differences, particularly with regard to calcar
      osteolysis.

PMID- 28865966
TI  - Characterizing the macro and micro mechanical properties of scaffolds for rotator
      cuff repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retearing after rotator cuff surgery is a major clinical problem.
      Numerous scaffolds are being used to try to reduce retear rates. However, few
      have demonstrated clinical efficacy. We hypothesize that this lack of efficacy is
      due to insufficient mechanical properties. Therefore, we compared the macro and
      nano/micro mechanical properties of 7 commercially available scaffolds to those
      of the human supraspinatus tendons, whose function they seek to restore. METHODS:
      The clinically approved scaffolds tested were X-Repair, LARS ligament, Poly-Tape,
      BioFiber, GraftJacket, Permacol, and Conexa. Fresh frozen cadaveric human
      supraspinatus tendon samples were used. Macro mechanical properties were
      determined through tensile testing and rheometry. Scanning probe microscopy and
      scanning electron microscopy were performed to assess properties of materials at
      the nano/microscale (morphology, Young modulus, loss tangent). RESULTS: None of
      the scaffolds tested adequately approximated both the macro and micro mechanical
      properties of human supraspinatus tendon. Macroscale mechanical properties were
      insufficient to restore load-bearing function. The best-performing scaffolds on
      the macroscale (X-Repair, LARS ligament) had poor nano/microscale properties.
      Scaffolds approximating tendon properties on the nano/microscale (BioFiber,
      biologic scaffolds) had poor macroscale properties. CONCLUSION: Existing
      scaffolds failed to adequately approximate the mechanical properties of human
      supraspinatus tendons. Combining the macroscopic mechanical properties of a
      synthetic scaffold with the micro mechanical properties of biologic scaffold
      could better achieve this goal. Future work should focus on advancing techniques
      to create new scaffolds with more desirable mechanical properties. This may help
      improve outcomes for rotator cuff surgery patients.

PMID- 28865967
TI  - Bugging allergy; role of pre-, pro- and synbiotics in allergy prevention.
AB  - Large-scale biodiversity loss and complex changes in social behaviors are
      altering human microbial ecology. This is increasingly implicated in the global
      rise in inflammatory diseases, most notably the "allergy epidemic" in very early
      life. Colonization of human ecological niches, particularly the gastrointestinal
      tract, is critical for normal local and systemic immune development and
      regulation. Disturbances in composition, diversity and timing of microbial
      colonization have been associated with increased allergy risk, indicating the
      importance of strategies to restore a dysbiotic gut microbiota in the primary
      prevention of allergic diseases, including the administration of probiotics,
      prebiotics and synbiotics. Here, we summarize and discuss findings of randomized
      clinical trials that have examined the effects of these microbiome-related
      strategies on short and long-term allergy preventative effects - including new
      guidelines from the World Allergy Organization which now recommend probiotics and
      prebiotics for allergy prevention under certain conditions. The relatively low
      quality evidence, limited comparative studies and large heterogeneity between
      studies, have collectively hampered recommendations on specific probiotic
      strains, specific timing and specific conditions for the most effective
      preventive management. At the same time the risk of using available products is
      low. While further research is needed before specific practice guidelines on
      supplement probiotics and prebiotics, it is equally important that the underlying
      dietary and lifestyle factors of dysbiosis are addressed at both the individual
      and societal levels.

PMID- 28865968
TI  - [Computational medical imaging (radiomics) and potential for immuno-oncology].
AB  - The arrival of immunotherapy has profoundly changed the management of multiple
      cancers, obtaining unexpected tumour responses. However, until now, the majority
      of patients do not respond to these new treatments. The identification of
      biomarkers to determine precociously responding patients is a major challenge.
      Computational medical imaging (also known as radiomics) is a promising and
      rapidly growing discipline. This new approach consists in the analysis of high
      dimensional data extracted from medical imaging, to further describe tumour
      phenotypes. This approach has the advantages of being non-invasive, capable of
      evaluating the tumour and its microenvironment in their entirety, thus
      characterising spatial heterogeneity, and being easily repeatable over time. The
      end goal of radiomics is to determine imaging biomarkers as decision support
      tools for clinical practice and to facilitate better understanding of cancer
      biology, allowing the assessment of the changes throughout the evolution of the
      disease and the therapeutic sequence. This review will develop the process of
      computational imaging analysis and present its potential in immuno-oncology.

PMID- 28865969
TI  - [Role and interest of induction chemotherapy for head and neck cancers].
AB  - Induction chemotherapy must be integrated in a global approach for locally
      advanced head and neck cancer. Its use has theoretical advantages but should not
      compromise locoregional radiotherapy. Induction chemotherapy is a standard for
      organ preservation with the use of the TPF scheme to avoid total laryngectomy
      without compromising survival data. It is more controversial in other locally
      advanced head and neck cancer because concurrent chemoradiotherapy is the
      standard of care. It may be an option for patients with significant lymph node
      invasion to reduce the occurrence of distant metastasis.

PMID- 28865970
TI  - [Description of the GORTEC 2017-03 study: Postoperative stereotactic radiotherapy
      for early stage oropharyngeal and oral cavity cancer with high risk margin (PHRC
      K-16-164)].
AB  - The GORTEC 2017-03-Stereo-postop study is a phase 2, multicentric, nationwide
      study, funded by the hospital clinical research program (PHRC). The sponsor is
      Centre Jean-Perrin in Clermont-Ferrand, in partnership with the GORTEC. The
      principal investigators are Dr J Biau and Dr M Lapeyre. The main objective is to
      study severe late toxicity of postoperative stereotactic radiotherapy (6*6Gy) for
      early stage oropharyngeal and oral cavity cancer with high risk margins. The
      secondary objectives include acute toxicity, efficacy, nutritional impact and
      quality of life. The population is adult patients, with pT1 or pT2 squamous cell
      carcinoma of the oropharynx or oral cavity (except lips), without indication of
      neck irradiation or concomitant chemotherapy, with at risk margin (R1, less than
      5mm or uncertain). Ninety patients will be included over a 2-year period; this
      was calculated to limit the rate of 2-year severe toxicity at 5 to 15%, with a 2
      year local control of at least 80 to 90%. If this study is considered as
      positive, stereotactic radiotherapy (6*6Gy) could become the third therapeutic
      option, with brachytherapy and normofractionated intensity-modulated radiotherapy
      (IMRT), for postoperative irradiation of oropharyngeal and oral cavity cancer
      with high risk margins.

PMID- 28865971
TI  - Haploidentical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Myelodysplastic
      Syndrome.
AB  - This study aimed to validate the capability of the Center for International Blood
      and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) prognostic scoring system to predict
      outcomes of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who had undergone HLA
      haploidentical related donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo
      HSCT). We also propose and validate a more suitable prognostic scoring system. A
      total of 157 patients with MDS who underwent haplo-HSCT were enrolled. The CIBMTR
      prognostic scoring system could predict the 2-year clinical outcomes, but failed
      to predict the 100-day clinical outcomes after haplo-HSCT. Our multivariable
      model identified 2 independent predictors of overall survival: age and monosomal
      karyotype (MK). Weighted scores of 5, 3, and 2 were assigned to age >=50 years,
      age 30 to 49 years, and MK, respectively, and a 2-category system was created:
      low (score <=3) and high (score >3). Our refined prognostic scoring system can
      predict both the 100-day and 2-year clinical outcomes after haplo-HSCT. Our
      findings indicate that the CIBMTR prognostic scoring system is predictive of the
      outcomes of patients with MDS following haplo-HSCT, and that older patients with
      MDS and/or patients with MK should be closely monitored after haplo-HSCT.

PMID- 28865972
TI  - High-Dose Melphalan and Stem Cell Transplantation in Patients on Dialysis Due to
      Immunoglobulin Light-Chain Amyloidosis and Monoclonal Immunoglobulin Deposition
      Disease.
AB  - The kidney is the most common organ affected by immunoglobulin light-chain (AL)
      amyloidosis and monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition disease (MIDD), often
      leading to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). High-dose melphalan and stem cell
      transplantation (HDM/SCT) is effective for selected patients with AL amyloidosis,
      with high rates of complete hematologic response and potential for improved organ
      dysfunction. Data on tolerability and response to HDM/SCT in patients with ESRD
      due to AL amyloidosis and MIDD are limited. We analyzed data on toxicity,
      efficacy, and hematologic and renal response of HDM/SCT in 32 patients with AL
      amyloidosis and 4 patients with MIDD who were dialysis-dependent for ESRD treated
      at Boston Medical Center between 1994 and 2016. The most common grade 3/4
      nonhematologic toxicities were infections (75%), metabolic abnormalities (56%),
      mucositis (42%), constitutional symptoms (39%), pulmonary complications (39%),
      and diarrhea (28%). Treatment related mortality (defined as death within 100 days
      of SCT) occurred in 8% (3 of 36). A complete hematologic response was achieved in
      70% of evaluable patients (19 of 27) at 1 year after HDM/SCT. In the entire
      cohort, median overall survival (OS) after HDM/SCT was 5.8 years; median OS was 1
      year for those who did not achieve a complete hematologic response and 8 years
      for those who did achieve a complete hematologic response. Twelve patients (33%)
      underwent kidney transplantation after successful treatment with HDM/SCT at a
      median of 2.4 years after SCT. HDM/SCT is safe and effective in inducing
      hematologic complete responses and prolonging survival in patients with ESRD from
      AL amyloidosis and MIDD. Achievement of a durable hematologic response can make
      these patients possible candidates for renal transplantation.

PMID- 28865974
TI  - Vacuolar trafficking and biogenesis: a maturation in the field.
AB  - The vacuole is a prominent organelle that is essential for plant viability. The
      vacuole size, and its role in ion homeostasis, protein degradation and storage,
      place significant demands for trafficking of vacuolar cargo along the
      endomembrane system. Recent studies indicate that sorting of vacuolar cargo
      initiates at the ER and Golgi, but not the trans-Golgi network/early endosome, as
      previously thought. Furthermore, maturation of the trans-Golgi network into pre
      vacuolar compartments seems to contribute to a major route for plant vacuolar
      traffic that works by bulk flow and ends with membrane fusion between the pre
      vacuolar compartment and the tonoplast. Here we summarize recent evidence that
      indicates conserved and plant-specific mechanisms involved in sorting and
      trafficking of proteins to this major organelle.

PMID- 28865973
TI  - Recovery of Pulmonary Function after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell
      Transplantation in Children is Associated with Improved Survival.
AB  - Abnormal pulmonary function is prevalent in survivors of allogeneic hematopoietic
      cell transplantation (HCT). Post-transplantation recovery of pulmonary function,
      and its effect on survival, in children are not known. This retrospective cohort
      study of 308 children followed for 10 years after HCT at a single institution
      included 2 groups of patients. Group 1 comprised 188 patients with 3 or more
      pulmonary function test (PFT) results, of which at least 1 was abnormal, and
      group 2 comprised 120 patients with 3 or more PFTs, all of which were normal.
      Pulmonary function normalized post-transplantation in 51 patients (27%) in group
      1. Obstructive lung disease, restrictive lung disease, mixed lung disease, and
      normal pattern were seen in 43%, 25%, 5%, and 27% of patients, respectively, at a
      median of 5 years (range, 0.5 to 11.9 years) post-transplantation. Lung volumes
      recovered better than spirometric indices. Pulmonary complications were seen in
      80 patients (43%) in group 1. Patients who recovered pulmonary function had
      better overall survival (P = .006), which did not differ significantly from that
      in patients in group 2 with normal lung function post-transplantation (P = .80).
      After adjusting for duration of follow-up, pulmonary complications (P = .01), and
      lower pretransplantation forced vital capacity z-scores (P = .01) were associated
      with poor recovery. T cell depletion (P < .001), lower pretransplantation forced
      expired volume in 1 second z-scores (P = .006), and chronic graft-versus-host
      disease (P < .001) increased the risk for pulmonary complications. Nonrecovery of
      lung function with pulmonary complications (P = .03), acute graft-versus-host
      disease (P = .004), and mechanical ventilation (P < .001) were risk factors for
      nonrelapse mortality. Normalization of pulmonary function is possible in long
      term survivors of allogeneic HCT. Strategies to decrease the risk of pulmonary
      complications may improve outcomes.

PMID- 28865975
TI  - Membrane nanodomains and microdomains in plant-microbe interactions.
AB  - During plant-microbe interactions, host cells need to keep stringent control over
      the approaching pathogens and symbionts. This requires specific spatio-temporal
      assemblies of pattern recognition receptors and other complex constituents and a
      strict physical separation of genetically overlapping pathways. Increasing
      evidence suggests that this is, at least partially, achieved by the formation of
      nanometer scale membrane platforms that might act as signaling hubs. These and
      other larger-scale sub-compartments have been termed 'membrane rafts',
      'nanodomains' and 'microdomains'. This review focuses on recent advances in
      understanding these nano-scale signaling platforms during plant-microbe
      interactions and proposes a common definition meant to facilitate the precise
      discrimination between different types of membrane domains in the future.

PMID- 28865976
TI  - From shaping organelles to signalling platforms: the emerging functions of plant
      ER-PM contact sites.
AB  - The plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) defines the biosynthetic site of lipids and
      proteins destined for secretion, but also contains important signal transduction
      and homeostasis components that regulate multiple hormonal and developmental
      responses. To achieve its various functions, the ER has a unique architecture,
      both reticulated and highly plastic, that facilitates the spatial-temporal
      segregation of biochemical reactions and the establishment of inter-organelle
      communication networks. At the cell cortex, the cortical ER (cER) anchors to and
      functionally couples with the PM through largely static structures known as ER-PM
      contact sites (EPCS). These spatially confined microdomains are emerging as
      critical regulators of the geometry of the cER network, and as highly specialized
      signalling hubs. In this review, we share recent insights into how EPCS regulate
      cER remodelling, and discuss the proposed roles for plant EPCS components in the
      integration of environmental and developmental signals at the cER-PM interface.

PMID- 28865977
TI  - Safety and efficacy of polyurethane vascular grafts for early hemodialysis
      access.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arteriovenous grafts made of polyurethane (PU) have the advantage of
      early cannulation obviating the placement of a central vein catheter in patients
      with an acute need for long-term hemodialysis. The aim of the present study was
      to evaluate the safety, efficacy and complication rate of PU vascular grafts for
      dialysis access in patients in whom early cannulation was performed. METHODS:
      Between January 2007 and December 2015, 125 straight brachial-axillary grafts
      were placed in patients with an acute thrombosis of a previous arteriovenous
      access. Sixty-four were PU and 61 were polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) grafts.
      Patency and complications rates were compared between the two groups. RESULTS:
      The median interval from implantation to cannulation was 1 day in the PU group vs
      28 days in the PTFE group. Cumulative infection rate at 5 years was 13% and 8% in
      the PU and the PTFE groups, respectively (P = .6). None of the patients in the PU
      group developed a pseudoaneurysm necessitating intervention, compared with one
      patient in the PTFE group. Primary and secondary patency rates did not differ
      significantly between the two groups. The cumulative median primary patency was
      23 months in the PU group vs 26 months in the PTFE group. Median secondary
      patency was 42 vs 33 months, respectively. Diabetes mellitus was the only factor
      adversely affecting graft patency in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: PU grafts offer
      the advantage of early cannulation with infection, pseudoaneurysm formation and
      patency rates similar to those of the PTFE grafts.

PMID- 28865978
TI  - A systematic review and meta-analysis of variations in branching patterns of the
      adult aortic arch.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aortic arch (AA) is the main conduit of the left side of the
      heart, providing a blood supply to the head, neck, and upper limbs. As it travels
      through the thorax, the pattern in which it gives off the branches to supply
      these structures can vary. Variations of these branching patterns have been
      studied; however, a study providing a comprehensive incidence of these variations
      has not yet been conducted. The objective of this study was to perform a meta
      analysis of all the studies that report prevalence data on AA variants and to
      provide incidence data on the most common variants. METHODS: A systematic search
      of online databases including PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of
      Science, SciELO, BIOSIS, and CNKI was performed for literature describing
      incidence of AA variations in adults. Studies including prevalence data on adult
      patients or cadavers were collected and their data analyzed. RESULTS: A total of
      51 articles were included (N = 23,882 arches). Seven of the most common variants
      were analyzed. The most common variants found included the classic branching
      pattern, defined as a brachiocephalic trunk, a left common carotid, and a left
      subclavian artery (80.9%); the bovine arch variant (13.6%); and the left
      vertebral artery variant (2.8%). Compared by geographic data, bovine arch
      variants were noted to have a prevalence as high as 26.8% in African populations.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although patients who have an AA variant are often asymptomatic,
      they compose a significant portion of the population of patients and pose a
      greater risk of hemorrhage and ischemia during surgery in the thorax. Because of
      the possibility of encountering such variants, it is prudent for surgeons to
      consider potential variations in planning procedures, especially of an
      endovascular nature, in the thorax.

PMID- 28865979
TI  - Comparison of 30-day readmission rates and risk factors between carotid artery
      stenting and endarterectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the rates, reasons, and risk
      factors of 30-day readmission, both planned and unplanned, after carotid
      revascularization as well as to evaluate major outcomes associated with those
      readmissions. METHODS: Using the Premier Healthcare database, we retrospectively
      identified patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery
      stenting (CAS) between 2009 and 2015. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause
      readmission. Secondary outcomes included mortality and overall cost associated
      with readmissions. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used and further
      validated using coarsened exact matching on baseline differences between CEA and
      CAS patients. RESULTS: A total of 95,687 patients underwent carotid
      revascularization, 13.5% of whom underwent CAS. Crude 30-day readmission rates
      were 6.5% after CEA vs 6.1% after CAS (P = .10). Stroke, bleeding, pneumonia, and
      respiratory failure were the most common reasons for readmission after both CEA
      and CAS (6.7% vs 8.3%, 6.9% vs 5.3%, 3.4% vs 2.4%, and 4.4% vs 3.9%; all P >
      .05). Myocardial infarction and wound complications were more likely to be an
      indication for readmission after CEA (4.1% vs 2.5% and 4.1% vs 1.5%,
      respectively; P < .05). On the other hand, readmissions due to vascular or stent
      related complications were more likely after CAS compared with CEA (5.8% vs 3.8%;
      P = .003). On multivariate analysis, CEA was found to be associated with 41%
      higher odds of readmission than CAS (adjusted odds ratio, 1.41; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.29-1.54; P < .001). Age, female gender, emergency/urgent procedures,
      concomitant cardiac procedures, rural hospitals, and Midwest region were
      significantly associated with 30-day readmission. Other risk factors included
      major preoperative comorbidities (diabetes, congestive heart failure, renal
      disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular disease, and
      history of cancer) as well as the occurrence of postoperative stroke and renal
      complications during the index admission and nonhome discharge. Coarsened exact
      matching between CEA and CAS patients also yielded higher adjusted rates of
      readmission after CEA (6.2% vs 4.9%; P < .001). On the other hand, patients
      readmitted after CAS had a longer length of hospital stay (5 days vs 4 days; P =
      .001), increased readmission mortality (6.2% vs 2.8%; P < .001), and higher
      rehospitalization costs ($8903 vs $7629; P = .01) compared with those readmitted
      after CEA. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that CAS is associated with lower 30-day
      readmission rates compared with CEA. However, CAS readmissions are more complex
      and are associated with higher mortality and costs. We have also identified
      patients who are at high risk of readmissions, which can help focus attention on
      interventions that can improve the management of these patients and reduce
      readmission rates.

PMID- 28865980
TI  - Aneurysm sac expansion is independently associated with late mortality in
      patients treated with endovascular aneurysm repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal
      aortic aneurysms can exhibit variations in sac behavior ranging from complete
      regression to expansion. We evaluated the impact of sac behavior at 1-year follow
      up on late survival. METHODS: We used the Vascular Study Group of New England
      (VSGNE) registry from 2003 to 2011 to identify EVAR patients with 1-year computed
      tomography follow-up. Aneurysm sac enlargement >=5 mm (sac expansion) and
      decrease >=5 mm (sac regression) were defined per Society for Vascular Surgery
      guidelines. Predictors of change in sac diameter and impact of sac behavior on
      long-term mortality were assessed by multivariable methods. RESULTS: Of 2437
      patients who underwent EVAR, 1802 (74%) had complete 1-year follow-up data and
      were included in the study. At 1 year, 162 (9%) experienced sac expansion, 709
      (39%) had a stable sac, and 931 (52%) experienced sac regression. Sac expansion
      was associated with preoperative renal insufficiency (odds ratio [OR], 3.4; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 1.5-8.0; P < .01), urgent repair (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.4
      5.1; P < .01), hypogastric coverage (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1-2.7; P = .02), and type
      I/III (OR, 16.8; 95% CI, 7.3-39.0; P < .001) or type II (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 2.0
      4.3; P < .001) endoleak at follow-up, and sac expansion was inversely associated
      with smoking (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.96; P = .03) and baseline aneurysm diameter
      (OR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.6-0.9; P < .001). Sac regression (vs expansion or stable sac)
      was associated with female gender (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.4-2.4; P < .001) and larger
      baseline aneurysm diameter (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2-1.5; P < .001) and inversely
      associated with type I/III (OR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.5; P < .01) or type II
      endoleak at follow-up (OR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.2-0.3; P < .001). After risk-adjusted
      Cox regression, sac expansion was independently associated with late mortality
      (hazard ratio, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1-2.0; P = .01), even with adjustment for
      reinterventions and endoleak during follow-up. Sac regression was associated with
      lower late mortality (hazard ratio, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5-0.7; P < .001). Long-term
      survival was lower (log-rank, P < .001) in patients with sac expansion (98% 1
      year and 68% 5-year survival) compared with all others (99% 1-year and 83% 5-year
      survival). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that an abdominal aortic aneurysm sac
      diameter increase of at least 5 mm at 1 year, although infrequent, is
      independently associated with late mortality regardless of the presence or
      absence of endoleak and warrants close observation and perhaps early
      intervention.

PMID- 28865981
TI  - Randomized clinical trial of negative pressure wound therapy for high-risk groin
      wounds in lower extremity revascularization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The surgical site infection (SSI) rate in vascular surgery after groin
      incision for lower extremity revascularization can lead to significant morbidity
      and mortality. This trial was designed to study the effect of negative pressure
      wound therapy (NPWT) on SSI in closed groin wounds after lower extremity
      revascularization in patients at high risk for SSI. METHODS: A single-center,
      randomized, controlled trial was performed at an academic tertiary medical
      center. Patients with previous femoral artery surgical exposure, body mass index
      of >30 kg/m2 or the presence of ischemic tissue loss were classified as a high
      risk patient for SSI. All wounds were closed primarily and patients were
      randomized to either NPWT or standard dressing. The primary outcome of the trial
      was postoperative 30-day SSI in the groin wound. The secondary outcomes included
      90-day SSI, hospital duration of stay, readmissions or reoperations for SSI, and
      mortality. RESULTS: A total of 102 patients were randomized between August 2014
      and December 2015. Patients were classified as at high risk owing to the presence
      of previous femoral artery cut down (29%), body mass index of >30 kg/m2 (39%) or
      presence of ischemic tissue loss (32%). Revascularization procedures performed
      included femoral to distal artery bypass (57%), femoral endarterectomy (18%),
      femoral to femoral artery crossover (17%), and other procedures (8%). The primary
      outcome of 30-day SSI was 11% in NPWT group versus 19% in standard dressing group
      (P = .24). There was a statistically significant shorter mean duration of
      hospital stay in the NPWT group (6.4 days) compared with the standard group (8.9
      days; P = .01). There was no difference in readmission or reoperation for SSI or
      mortality between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated a
      nonsignificant lower rate of groin SSI in high-risk revascularization patients
      with NPWT compared with standard dressing. Owing to a lower than expected
      infection rate, the study was underpowered to detect a difference at the
      prespecified level. The NPWT group did show significantly shorter mean hospital
      duration of stay compared with the standard dressing group.

PMID- 28865982
TI  - Epidemiology of preterm birth.
AB  - Preterm birth is a worldwide epidemic with a global incidence of 15 million per
      year. Though rates of preterm birth in the United States have declined over the
      last decade, nearly 1 in 10 babies is still born preterm. The incidence,
      gestational age, and underlying etiology of preterm birth is highly variable
      across different racial and ethnic groups and geographic boundaries. In this
      article, we review the epidemiology of preterm birth in the United States and
      globally, with a focus on temporal trends and racial, ethnic, and geographic
      disparities.

PMID- 28865983
TI  - Distal radioulnar joint instability.
AB  - Distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) instability is a rare but disabling problem.
      Surgical treatment remains a challenge. The advent of arthroscopic techniques has
      helped to rebuild the triangular fibrocartilaginous complex (TFCC), especially
      its deep part. However, isolated TFCC damage is not responsible for instability.
      Its repair is sometimes not sufficient to restore DRUJ stability, or the
      chronicity of the injury prevents its direct repair. Open surgical procedures
      still have a role in these cases. They require a detailed knowledge of the
      various stabilizers of the DRUJ. Passive and active stabilizers other than the
      TFCC include the bones, joint capsule, oblique distal bundle of the interosseous
      membrane and the extensor carpi ulnaris. The objective of this review was to
      analyze current anatomical and biomechanical data on DRUJ stability. Different
      arthroscopic and open repair techniques for these structures will be reviewed.
      Lastly, a decision tree will be presented that can be used to better plan the
      management of this complex entity, because most of these injuries often occur in
      combination in RUD instability cases.

PMID- 28865984
TI  - Impact of surgical intensive care unit interdisciplinary rounds on
      interprofessional collaboration and quality of care: Mixed qualitative
      quantitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interprofessional collaboration is a key requirement for safe and
      effective care delivery in the critical care setting. To promote collaboration
      between care providers, intensive care unit interdisciplinary rounds have been
      introduced by multiple institutions and subsequent subjective improvements in
      interprofessional collaboration have been reported. However, only limited data
      are currently available regarding the impact of these rounds on objective patient
      care outcomes. OBJECTIVES: The study had two main goals: (i) to evaluate the
      impact of introducing an interdisciplinary rounding format that formalised the
      participation of nurses in rounds on the effectiveness of interprofessional
      collaboration, specifically between nurses and physicians; and (ii) to evaluate a
      possible impact of adopting these rounds on measurable patient care outcomes.
      METHODS: General surgery rounds were introduced in our 32-bed medical-surgical
      intensive care unit. The impact of the rounds on the quality of collaboration was
      measured using anonymous web-based surveys of nurses and surgeons. Rates of falls
      and self-extubations (adverse events) were compared during five month pre- and
      post-intervention periods (August 2014-Jun 2015). RESULTS: Both nurses and
      physicians reported subjective improvement in collaboration following the
      introduction of interdisciplinary rounds. Additionally, a decline in both rates
      of falls and self-extubations was observed in the post-intervention period;
      however, due to the rarity of these events, neither trend reached statistical
      significance. CONCLUSIONS: Interdisciplinary rounds provide an attractive model
      for improving interprofessional collaboration in critical care. Our findings add
      support to the growing evidence that interdisciplinary rounds improve
      collaboration and have a positive impact on the quality of patient care delivery.

PMID- 28865985
TI  - Extended, continuous measures of functional status in community dwelling persons
      with Alzheimer's and related dementia: Infrastructure, performance, tradeoffs,
      preliminary data, and promise.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The past decades have seen phenomenal growth in the availability of
      inexpensive and powerful personal computing devices. Efforts to leverage these
      devices to improve health care outcomes promise to remake many aspects of
      healthcare delivery, but remain in their infancy. NEW METHOD: We describe the
      development of a mobile health platform designed for daily measures of functional
      status in ambulatory, community dwelling subjects, including those who have
      Alzheimer's disease or related neurodegenerative disorders. Using Smartwatches
      and Smartphones we measure subject overall activity and outdoor location (to
      derive their lifespace). These clinically-relevant measures allow us to track a
      subject's functional status in their natural environment over prolonged periods
      of time without repeated visits to healthcare providers. Functional status
      metrics are integrated with medical information and caregiver reports, which are
      used by a caregiving team to guide referrals for physician/APRN/NP care.
      COMPARISON: with Existing Methods We describe the design tradeoffs involved in
      all aspects of our current system architecture, focusing on decisions with
      significant impact on system cost, performance, scalability, and user-adherence.
      RESULTS: We provide real-world data from current subject enrollees demonstrating
      system accuracy and reliability. CONCLUSIONS: We document real-world feasibility
      in a group of men and women with dementia that Smartwatches/Smartphones can
      provide long-term, relevant clinical data regarding individual functional status.
      We describe the underlying considerations of this system so that interested
      organizations can adapt and scale our approach to their needs. Finally, we
      provide a potential agenda to guide development of future systems.

PMID- 28865986
TI  - Validation of salivary oxytocin and vasopressin as biomarkers in domestic dogs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxytocin (OT) and Vasopressin (AVP) are phylogenetically conserved
      neuropeptides with effects on social behavior, cognition and stress responses.
      Although OT and AVP are most commonly measured in blood, urine and cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF), these approaches present an array of challenges including concerns
      related to the invasiveness of sample collection, the potential for matrix
      interference in immunoassays, and whether samples can be collected at precise
      time points to assess event-linked endocrine responses. NEW METHOD: We validated
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the measurement of salivary OT
      and AVP in domestic dogs. RESULTS: Both OT and AVP were present in dog saliva and
      detectable by ELISA and high performance liquid chromatography - mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-MS). OT concentrations in dog saliva were much higher than
      those typically detected in humans. OT concentrations in the same samples
      analyzed with and without sample extraction were highly correlated, but this was
      not true for AVP. ELISA validation studies revealed good accuracy and
      parallelism, both with and without solid phase extraction. Collection of salivary
      samples with different synthetic swabs, or following salivary stimulation or the
      consumption of food led to variance in results. However, samples collected from
      the same dogs using different techniques tended to be positively correlated. We
      detected concurrent elevations in salivary and plasma OT during nursing.
      COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: There are currently no other validated methods
      for measuring OT/AVP in dog saliva. CONCLUSIONS: OT and AVP are present in dog
      saliva, and ELISAs for their detection are methodologically valid.

PMID- 28865987
TI  - [The German Statutory Accident Insurance: A successful example of a value-based
      healthcare structure].
AB  - In the mid-1920s Porter and others developed a reform approach for existing
      health care systems, aiming at a patient-focused, value-based orientation.
      Improving patient outcomes by attaining, preserving and restoring good health is
      inherently less costly than dealing with poor health. The authors of the present
      article will outline that the German statutory accident insurance system, which
      was already introduced in1884 and is of an evolving nature, reflects key elements
      of Porter's efficient value-based health care system. The German accident
      insurance system with its statutory mandate limited to the prevention and
      rehabilitation of work-related damage to one's health can also serve as a model
      for other larger health care insurance systems. Prevention and rehabilitation is
      pursued using all appropriate means to achieve the set goals of protecting and
      restoring individual health. In line with these objectives, the statutory health
      insurance controls the process in terms of the required care quality. The
      components of a complex health care system, usually managed by a variety of
      different institutions, are consolidated. Thus it can be ensured that in both
      prevention and rehabilitation all services that are necessary to keep focussing
      the value "individual health" rather than indemnities are applied.

PMID- 28865988
TI  - Sentinel lymph node biopsy for thin melanomas under the American Joint Committee
      on Cancer 8th edition cancer staging system.

PMID- 28865989
TI  - Risk of major limb amputation in diabetic foot ulcer and accompanying disease: A
      meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limb amputation in diabetic patients raises important issues
      regarding low quality of life and survival rates. This meta-analysis aimed to
      identify predictive factors accompanying diseases with high major amputation
      rates in diabetic patients. METHODS: A systematic literature review and meta
      analysis were performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases. Eight
      variables were extracted from the included studies and evaluated according to
      major amputation rates. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) was utilized to assess
      the quality of the studies. RESULTS: The search strategy identified 101
      publications. After screening, 10 articles were selected for review.
      Hypertension, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral
      vascular disease were identified as predictive variables of higher major
      amputation rates. CONCLUSIONS: Although further investigation of long-term and
      prospective studies is needed, we identified four variables as predisposing
      factors for higher major amputation in diabetic patients through meta-analysis.

PMID- 28865992
TI  - Looking forward to safer HGVs: The impact of mirrors on driver reaction times.
AB  - Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) collisions are responsible for a disproportionate
      number of urban vulnerable road user casualties (VRU - cyclists and pedestrians).
      Blind-spots to the front and side of HGVs can make it difficult (sometimes
      impossible) to detect close proximity VRUs and may be the cause of some
      collisions. The current solution to this problem is to provide additional mirrors
      that can allow the driver to see into the blind-spots. However, keeping track of
      many mirrors requires frequent off-road glances which can be difficult to execute
      during demanding driving situations. One suggestion is that driving safety could
      be improved by redesigning cabs in order to reduce/remove blind-spot regions,
      with the aim of reducing the need for mirrors, and increasing detection rates
      (and thereby reducing collisions). To examine whether mirrors delay driver
      responses we created a series of simulated driving tasks and tested regular car
      drivers and expert HGV drivers. First we measured baseline reaction times to
      objects appearing when not driving ('Parked'). Participants then repeated the
      task whilst driving through a simulated town (primary driving tasks were
      steering, braking, and following directional signs): driving slowed reaction
      times to objects visible in mirrors but not to objects visible through the front
      windscreen. In a second experiment cognitive load was increased, this slowed RTs
      overall but did not alter the pattern of responses across windows and mirrors.
      Crucially, we demonstrate that the distribution of mirror RTs can be captured
      simply by the mirror's spatial position (eccentricity). These findings provide
      robust evidence that drivers are slower reacting to objects only visible in
      eccentric mirrors compared to direct viewing through the front windscreen.

PMID- 28865991
TI  - Highly porous scaffolds of PEDOT:PSS for bone tissue engineering.
AB  - : Conjugated polymers have been increasingly considered for the design of
      conductive materials in the field of regenerative medicine. However, optimal
      scaffold properties addressing the complexity of the desired tissue still need to
      be developed. The focus of this study lies in the development and evaluation of a
      conductive scaffold for bone tissue engineering. In this study PEDOT:PSS
      scaffolds were designed and evaluated in vitro using MC3T3-E1 osteogenic
      precursor cells, and the cells were assessed for distinct differentiation stages
      and the expression of an osteogenic phenotype. Ice-templated PEDOT:PSS scaffolds
      presented high pore interconnectivity with a median pore diameter of 53.6+/-5.9um
      and a total pore surface area of 7.72+/-1.7m2.g-1. The electrical conductivity,
      based on I-V curves, was measured to be 140uS.cm-1 with a reduced, but stable
      conductivity of 6.1uS.cm-1 after 28days in cell culture media. MC3T3-E1 gene
      expression levels of ALPL, COL1A1 and RUNX2 were significantly enhanced after
      4weeks, in line with increased extracellular matrix mineralisation, and
      osteocalcin deposition. These results demonstrate that a porous material, based
      purely on PEDOT:PSS, is suitable as a scaffold for bone tissue engineering and
      thus represents a promising candidate for regenerative medicine. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: Tissue engineering approaches have been increasingly considered for
      the repair of non-union fractions, craniofacial reconstruction or large bone
      defect replacements. The design of complex biomaterials and successful
      engineering of 3-dimensional tissue constructs is of paramount importance to meet
      this clinical need. Conductive scaffolds, based on conjugated polymers, present
      interesting candidates to address the piezoelectric properties of bone tissue and
      to induce enhanced osteogenesis upon implantation. However, conductive scaffolds
      have not been investigated in vitro in great measure. To this end, we have
      developed a highly porous, electrically conductive scaffold based on PEDOT:PSS,
      and provide evidence that this purely synthetic material is a promising candidate
      for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28865990
TI  - ECM turnover-stimulated gene delivery through collagen-mimetic peptide-plasmid
      integration in collagen.
AB  - : Gene therapies have great potential in regenerative medicine; however, clinical
      translation has been inhibited by low stability and limited transfection
      efficiencies. Herein, we incorporate collagen-mimetic peptide (CMP)-linked
      polyplexes in collagen scaffolds to increase DNA stability by up to 400% and
      enable tailorable in vivo transgene expression at 100-fold higher levels and 10
      fold longer time periods. These improvements were directly linked to a sustained
      interaction between collagen and polyplexes that persisted during cellular
      remodeling, polyplex uptake, and intracellular trafficking. Specifically,
      incorporation of CMPs into polyethylenimine (PEI) polyplexes preserved serum
      exposed polyplex-collagen activity over a period of 14days, with 4 orders-of
      magnitude more intact DNA present in CMP-modified polyplex-collagen relative to
      unmodified polyplex-collagen after a 10day incubation under cell culture
      conditions. CMP-modification also altered endocytic uptake, as indicated by gene
      silencing studies showing a nearly 50% decrease in transgene expression in
      response to caveolin-1 silencing in modified samples versus only 30% in
      unmodified samples. Furthermore, cellular internalization studies demonstrated
      that polyplex-collagen association persisted within cells in CMP polyplexes, but
      not in unmodified polyplexes, suggesting that CMP linkage to collagen regulates
      intracellular transport. Moreover, experiments in an in vivo repair model showed
      that CMP modification enabled tailoring of transgene expression from 4 to 25days
      over a range of concentrations. Overall, these findings demonstrate that CMP
      decoration provides substantial improvements in gene retention, altered release
      kinetics, improved serum-stability, and improved gene activity in vivo. This
      versatile technique has great potential for multiple applications in regenerative
      medicine. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: In this work, we demonstrate a novel
      approach for stably integrating DNA into collagen scaffolds to exploit the
      natural process of collagen remodelling for high efficiency non-viral gene
      delivery. The incorporation of CMPs into DNA polyplexes, coupled with the innate
      affinity between CMPs and collagen, not only permitted improved control over
      polyplex retention and release, but also provided a series of substantial and
      highly unique benefits via the stable and persistent linkage between CMP
      polyplexes and collagen fragments. Specifically, CMP-modification of polyplexes
      was demonstrated to (i) control release for nearly a month, (ii) improve vector
      stability under physiological-like conditions, and (iii) provide ligands able to
      efficiently transfer genes via endocytic collagen pathways. These unique
      properties overcome key barriers inhibiting non-viral gene therapy.

PMID- 28865994
TI  - Resting-state functional connectivity: An emerging method for the study of
      language networks in post-stroke aphasia.
AB  - Aphasia results both from direct effects of focal damage to eloquent cortical
      areas as well as dysfunction of interconnected remote areas within the language
      network. Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) can be used to examine functional
      connectivity (FC) within these networks. Herein we review publications, which
      applied rsfMRI to understand network pathology in post stroke aphasia. A common
      finding in this research is an acute disruption of connectivity within the
      language network, which is correlated with loss of language function and tends to
      resolve with recovery from aphasia. All studies are limited by small sample
      sizes, heterogeneous patient characteristics and a wide range of analytical
      approaches, which further hinder deduction of common patterns across studies. One
      recent large-scale study examining FC and behavior across various cognitive
      domains, however, has made substantial progress with the description of a
      "network phenotype of stroke injury", which consists of a disruption of
      interhemispheric connectivity and reduced segregation of intrahemispheric
      networks. Unlike in other domains, language functions showed substantial
      dependence on intact left intrahemispheric connectivity (Siegel, Ramsey et al.,
      2016). In the future, such analyses of network pathology might support prognosis
      and development of effective treatment strategies in individual patients with
      aphasia.

PMID- 28865993
TI  - Genetic neutrophil deficiency ameliorates cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.
AB  - Neutrophils respond rapidly to cerebral ischemia and are thought to contribute to
      inflammation-mediated injury during stroke. Using myeloid Mcl1 knockout mice as a
      model of genetic neutrophil deficiency, we investigated the contribution of
      neutrophils to stroke pathophysiology. Myeloid Mcl1 knockout mice were subjected
      to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion and infarct size was assessed by
      MRI after 24h reperfusion. Immune cell mobilization and infiltration was assessed
      by flow cytometry. We found that myeloid Mcl1 knockout mice had significantly
      reduced infarct size when compared to heterozygous and wild type control mice
      (MyMcl1+/+: 78.0mm3; MyMcl1+/-: 83.4mm3; MyMcl1-/-: 55.1mm3). This was
      accompanied by a nearly complete absence of neutrophils in the ischemic
      hemisphere of myeloid Mcl1 knockout mice. Although myeloid Mcl1 knockout mice
      were protected from cerebral infarction, no significant differences in
      neurological deficit or the mRNA expression of inflammatory genes (TNFalpha, IL
      1beta, and MCP1) were detected. Inhibition of neutrophil chemotaxis using CXCR2
      pepducin treatment partially reduced neutrophil mobilization and recruitment to
      the brain after stroke, but did not reduce infarct size 24h after transient MCA
      occlusion. These data confirm that neutrophils have an important role in infarct
      development during stroke pathophysiology, and suggest that complete deficiency,
      but not partial inhibition, is necessary to prevent neutrophil-mediated injury
      during stroke.

PMID- 28865995
TI  - Formation of the Legionella-containing vacuole: phosphoinositide conversion,
      GTPase modulation and ER dynamics.
AB  - The environmental bacterium Legionella pneumophila replicates in free-living
      amoeba as well as in alveolar macrophages upon inhalation of bacteria-laden
      aerosols. Resistance of the opportunistic pathogen to macrophages is a
      prerequisite to cause a severe pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease. L.
      pneumophila grows intracellularly in a unique, ER-associated compartment, the
      Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV). The bacterial Icm/Dot type IV secretion
      system represents an essential virulence factor, which translocates approximately
      300 "effector proteins" into protozoan or mammalian host cells. Some of these
      effectors contribute to the formation of the LCV by targeting conserved host
      factors implicated in membrane dynamics, such as phosphoinositide lipids and
      small GTPases. Here we review recent findings on the role of phosphoinositides,
      small and large GTPases as well as ER dynamics for pathogen vacuole formation and
      intracellular replication of L. pneumophila.

PMID- 28865996
TI  - Comparative Perioperative Outcomes in Septuagenarians and Octogenarians
      Undergoing Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer-Do Outcomes Differ?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment choice for muscle invasive bladder cancer continues to be
      radical cystectomy. However, radical cystectomy carries a relatively high risk of
      morbidity and mortality compared with other urological procedures. OBJECTIVE: To
      compare surgical complications following radical cystectomy in septuagenarians
      and octogenarians. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The National Surgical
      Quality Improvement Program database (2009-2013) was used to identify patients
      who were 70 yr and older and underwent radical cystectomy. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS
      AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data were analyzed for demographics and
      comorbidities, and compared for complications, including pulmonary,
      thromboembolic, wound, and cardiac complications. Patients who were 70-79 yr of
      age were compared with those 80 yr and older. Univariate and multivariate
      analyses were completed. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: A total of 1710 patients aged
      >=70 yr met our inclusion criteria. Of them, 28.8% (n=493) were 80 yr and older,
      while 71.2% (n=1217) were between 70 and 79 yr old. Operative time (338.4 vs
      307.2min, p=0.0001) and the length of stay (11.9 vs 10.4 d, p=0.0016) were higher
      in the octogenarian group. The intra- and postoperative transfusion rates,
      reoperative rates, wound dehiscence rates, and pneumonia, sepsis, and myocardial
      infarction rates were similar between the two groups. The wound infection rate
      (7.3% vs 4.1%, p=0.01) was higher in the septuagenarians and mortality rate (4.3%
      vs 2.3%, p=0.04) was higher in the octogenarian group. CONCLUSIONS: Radical
      cystectomy can safely be performed in octogenarians without increased cardiac,
      pulmonary, and thromboembolic complications when compared with septuagenarians.
      These patients need to be counseled that the mortality rate is slightly higher
      compared with that in septuagenarians. Chronological age alone should not be used
      to decide on offering radical cystectomy. PATIENT SUMMARY: We looked at
      complications following radical cystectomy in patients aged 80 yr and older. We
      found that there was no significant difference for wound, cardiac, or pulmonary
      complications, but there was an increased risk of mortality in this age group.

PMID- 28865997
TI  - Functional characterisation of the methionine sulfoxide reductase repertoire in
      Trypanosoma brucei.
AB  - To combat the deleterious effects that oxidation of the sulfur atom in methionine
      to sulfoxide may bring, aerobic cells express repair pathways involving
      methionine sulfoxide reductases (MSRs) to reverse the above reaction. Here, we
      show that Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis,
      expresses two distinct trypanothione-dependent MSRs that can be distinguished
      from each other based on sequence, sub-cellular localisation and substrate
      preference. One enzyme found in the parasite's cytosol, shows homology to the
      MSRA family of repair proteins and preferentially metabolises the S epimer of
      methionine sulfoxide. The second, which contains sequence motifs present in
      MSRBs, is restricted to the mitochondrion and can only catalyse reduction of the
      R form of peptide-bound methionine sulfoxide. The importance of these proteins to
      the parasite was demonstrated using functional genomic-based approaches to
      produce cells with reduced or elevated expression levels of MSRA, which exhibited
      altered susceptibility to exogenous H2O2. These findings identify new reparative
      pathways that function to fix oxidatively damaged methionine within this
      medically important parasite.

PMID- 28865998
TI  - Quantitative Antisense Screening and Optimization for Exon 51 Skipping in
      Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
AB  - Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common lethal genetic disorder, is
      caused by mutations in the dystrophin (DMD) gene. Exon skipping is a therapeutic
      approach that uses antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) to modulate splicing and
      restore the reading frame, leading to truncated, yet functional protein
      expression. In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conditionally
      approved the first phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (morpholino)-based AO
      drug, eteplirsen, developed for DMD exon 51 skipping. Eteplirsen remains
      controversial with insufficient evidence of its therapeutic effect in patients.
      We recently developed an in silico tool to design antisense morpholino sequences
      for exon skipping. Here, we designed morpholino AOs targeting DMD exon 51 using
      the in silico tool and quantitatively evaluated the effects in immortalized DMD
      muscle cells in vitro. To our surprise, most of the newly designed morpholinos
      induced exon 51 skipping more efficiently compared with the eteplirsen sequence.
      The efficacy of exon 51 skipping and rescue of dystrophin protein expression were
      increased by up to more than 12-fold and 7-fold, respectively, compared with the
      eteplirsen sequence. Significant in vivo efficacy of the most effective
      morpholino, determined in vitro, was confirmed in mice carrying the human DMD
      gene. These findings underscore the importance of AO sequence optimization for
      exon skipping.

PMID- 28866000
TI  - Maternal Characteristics Associated With Social Support in At-Risk Mothers of
      Premature Infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify maternal characteristics associated with social support
      among new mothers of premature infants who are at social-environmental risk.
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of intake interview data from a larger
      randomized controlled trial of a mother-premature infant developmentally based
      intervention. SETTING: Two urban community-based hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: One
      hundred ninety-four women (50% Black, 50% Hispanic) who recently gave birth to
      otherwise healthy, premature (29-34 weeks gestational age) infants. Participants
      had at least 2 of 10 social-environmental risks (e.g., poverty). METHODS: In
      hospital interviews were conducted to obtain data on sociodemographic
      characteristics, prior mental health problems, and social support through the use
      of the Personal Resources Questionnaire 2000. Bivariate and multivariable linear
      regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with social
      support. RESULTS: Mean Personal Resources Questionnaire 2000 scores were
      significantly lower for Hispanic than Black participants (92.0 vs. 96.0,
      respectively), those interviewed in Spanish versus English (89.8 vs. 96.1), those
      with low versus age-appropriate education levels (89.7 vs. 95.3), multiparous
      versus primiparous women (92.7 vs. 96.0), and those reporting versus not
      reporting histories of mental health problems (84.7 vs. 94.8). After
      multivariable adjustment, only younger age, Spanish language preference,
      multiparity, and a history of mental health problems were associated with
      significantly lower levels of social support (R2 = 0.18). CONCLUSION: More
      programs should be made available to provide social support to at-risk mothers,
      especially younger mothers, and those with limited English ability, other
      children at home, or histories of mental health problems. Nurses should target
      these mothers for additional support during their premature infants' NICU stay.

PMID- 28866001
TI  - On "Empowering the Girl Child, Improving Global Health".

PMID- 28866002
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28865999
TI  - A Novel Vaccine Targeting Glypican-3 as a Treatment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high morbidity and mortality rate worldwide,
      with limited treatment options. Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a
      glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored glycoprotein that is overexpressed in most
      HCC tissues but not in normal tissues. GPC3-targeting antibody therapy shows
      limited response in a clinical trial due to the lack of a tumor-specific
      cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response. Here, in C57/B6 mice, we demonstrated that
      intravenous infusion of GPC3-coupled lymphocytes (LC/GPC3+) elicited robust GPC3
      specific antibody and CTL responses, which effectively restricted proliferation
      and lysed cultured-HCC cells. Treatment with LC/GPC3+ induced durable tumor
      regression in HCC-bearing C57/B6 mice. Administration of LC/GPC3+ induced
      elevated levels of the cytotoxic T cell bioactive factors tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), granzyme B, and perforin, and
      substantially increased the number of infiltrating CD8+ T cells in tumor tissues.
      Moreover, immune responses elicited by LC/GPC3+ selectively suppressed GPC3+
      tumors, but didn't affect the GPC3- tumors in BALB/c mice. Our findings provide
      the first preclinical evidence that intravenous infusion of the LC/GPC3+ complex
      can induce a strong anti-HCC effect through regulating systemic and local immune
      responses. These results indicate that the LC/GPC3+ complex could be developed as
      precision therapeutics for HCC patients in the future.

PMID- 28866003
TI  - Anterior Chamber Angle and Anterior Segment Structure of Eyes in Children With
      Early Stages of Retinopathy of Prematurity.

PMID- 28866004
TI  - Neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants with very low birth weights are associated
      with the severity of their extra-uterine growth retardation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For infants with very low birth weights (VLBW), their
      neurodevelopmental outcomes are thought to be associated with extra-uterine
      growth retardation (EUGR). In this study, based on a single institute, we
      analyzed the association between different levels or severity of EUGR of VLBW
      infants and their neurodevelopmental outcomes later at a corrected age of 24
      months. METHODS: This is a hospital-based retrospective cohort study. The
      severity of EUGR was classified into three categories according to the z-score of
      discharge weight: z < -2.0, <-2.5, and <-3.0. The outcomes were assessed using
      the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II) at a corrected age of 24
      months. We then estimated the association of EUGR with low mental developmental
      index (MDI) or low psychomotor developmental index (PDI). Multiple logistic
      regression and stratified analyses were used to adjust for the possible
      confounding factors. RESULTS: In total, 224 VLBW infants were enrolled in this
      study from 1997 to 2006. In the univariate analysis, EUGR for weight at discharge
      from hospital was associated with MDI <85 at the corrected age of 24 months, and
      this association was related to the severity of EUGR (z < -2.5, OR: 1.92 (1.04
      3.53); z < -3.0, OR: 2.83 (1.26-6.36)). In addition, the relationship was not
      confounded by gender nor small for gestational age. The stratified analysis
      against hemodynamic significant patent ductus arteriosus also revealed that EUGR
      was an independent predictor for neurodevelopmental outcomes. CONCLUSION: In VLBW
      preterm infants, EUGR was significantly associated with low MDI scores assessed
      at a corrected age of 24 months. Early evaluation and recognition of EUGR should
      be emphasized when caring for preterm infants.

PMID- 28866005
TI  - Discrete memory impairments in largely pure chronic users of MDMA.
AB  - Chronic use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") has repeatedly
      been associated with deficits in working memory, declarative memory, and
      executive functions. However, previous findings regarding working memory and
      executive function are inconclusive yet, as in most studies concomitant stimulant
      use, which is known to affect these functions, was not adequately controlled for.
      Therefore, we compared the cognitive performance of 26 stimulant-free and largely
      pure (primary) MDMA users, 25 stimulant-using polydrug MDMA users, and 56
      MDMA/stimulant-naive controls by applying a comprehensive neuropsychological test
      battery. Neuropsychological tests were grouped into four cognitive domains.
      Recent drug use was objectively quantified by 6-month hair analyses on 17
      substances and metabolites. Considerably lower mean hair concentrations of
      stimulants (amphetamine, methamphetamine, methylphenidate, cocaine), opioids
      (morphine, methadone, codeine), and hallucinogens (ketamine, 2C-B) were detected
      in primary compared to polydrug users, while both user groups did not differ in
      their MDMA hair concentration. Cohen's d effect sizes for both comparisons, i.e.,
      primary MDMA users vs. controls and polydrug MDMA users vs. controls, were
      highest for declarative memory (dprimary=.90, dpolydrug=1.21), followed by
      working memory (dprimary=.52, dpolydrug=.96), executive functions (dprimary=.46,
      dpolydrug=.86), and attention (dprimary=.23, dpolydrug=.70). Thus, primary MDMA
      users showed strong and relatively discrete declarative memory impairments,
      whereas MDMA polydrug users displayed broad and unspecific cognitive impairments.
      Consequently, even largely pure chronic MDMA use is associated with decreased
      performance in declarative memory, while additional deficits in working memory
      and executive functions displayed by polydrug MDMA users are likely driven by
      stimulant co-use.

PMID- 28866006
TI  - The natural selection of metabolism and mass selects allometric transitions from
      prokaryotes to mammals.
AB  - The exponents of inter-specific allometries for several life history (metabolism,
      lifespan, reproductive rate, survival) and ecological (population density, home
      range) traits may evolve from the spatial dimensionality (d) of the intra
      specific interactive competition that selects net assimilated energy into mass,
      with 1/4 exponents being the two-dimensional (2D) case of the more general 1/2d
      (Witting, 1995). While the exponents for mass-specific metabolism cluster around
      the predicted -1/4 and -1/6 in terrestrial and pelagic vertebrates, the
      allometries of mobile organisms are more diverse than the prediction. An exponent
      around zero has been reported for protists and protozoa (Makarieva et al., 2005,
      2008), and the exponent appears to be strongly positive in prokaryotes with a
      value of about 5/6 (DeLong et al., 2010). I show that the natural selection of
      metabolism and mass is sufficient to explain exponents for mass-specific
      metabolism that decline from 5/6 over zero to -1/6 in 3D, and from 3/4 over zero
      to -1/4 in 2D. These results suggest that mass-specific metabolism is selected as
      the pace of the resource handling that generates net energy for self-replication
      and the selection of mass, with the decline in the metabolic exponent following
      from a decline in the importance of mass-specific metabolism for the selection of
      mass. The body mass variation in prokaryotes is found to be selected from primary
      variation in mass-specific metabolism, while the variation in multicellular
      animals is selected from primary variation in the handling and/or densities of
      the underlying resources, with protists and protozoa being selected as an
      intermediate lifeform.

PMID- 28866007
TI  - Forward and backward evolutionary processes and allele frequency spectrum in a
      cancer cell population.
AB  - A cancer grows from a single cell, thereby constituting a large cell population.
      In this work, we are interested in how mutations accumulate in a cancer cell
      population. We provide a theoretical framework of the stochastic process in a
      cancer cell population and obtain near exact expressions of allele frequency
      spectrum or AFS (only continuous approximation is involved) from both forward and
      backward treatments under a simple setting; all cells undergo cell divisions and
      die at constant rates, b and d, respectively, such that the entire population
      grows exponentially. This setting means that once a parental cancer cell is
      established, in the following growth phase, all mutations are assumed to have no
      effect on b or d (i.e., neutral or passengers). Our theoretical results show that
      the difference from organismal population genetics is mainly in the coalescent
      time scale, and the mutation rate is defined per cell division, not per time unit
      (e.g., generation). Except for these two factors, the basic logic is very similar
      between organismal and cancer population genetics, indicating that a number of
      well established theories of organismal population genetics could be translated
      to cancer population genetics with simple modifications.

PMID- 28866008
TI  - Evolutionary rescue of a parasite population by mutation rate evolution.
AB  - The risk of antibiotic resistance evolution in parasites is a major problem for
      public health. Identifying factors which promote antibiotic resistance evolution
      is thus a priority in evolutionary medicine. The rate at which new mutations
      enter the parasite population is one important predictor; however, mutation rate
      is not necessarily a fixed quantity, as is often assumed, but can itself evolve.
      Here we explore the possible impacts of mutation rate evolution on the fate of a
      disease circulating in a host population, which is being treated with drugs, the
      use of which varies over time. Using an evolutionary rescue framework, we find
      that mutation rate evolution provides a dramatic increase in the probability that
      a parasite population survives treatment in only a limited region, while
      providing little or no advantage in other regions. Both epidemiological features,
      such as the virulence of infection, and population genetic parameters, such as
      recombination rate, play important roles in determining the probability of
      evolutionary rescue and whether mutation rate evolution enhances the probability
      of evolutionary rescue or not. While efforts to curtail mutation rate evolution
      in parasites may be worthwhile under some circumstances, our results suggest that
      this need not always be the case.

PMID- 28866009
TI  - Long-Term Functional Outcomes in Military Service Members and Veterans After
      Traumatic Brain Injury/Polytrauma Inpatient Rehabilitation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of the established polytrauma/traumatic brain
      injury (TBI) infrastructure on immediate posttreatment functional gains, the long
      term sustainability of any gains, and participation-related community
      reintegration outcomes in a baseline cohort of patients 8 years postadmission.
      DESIGN: Retrospective review and prospective repeated measures of an inception
      cohort. SETTING: Polytrauma rehabilitation center (PRC). PARTICIPANTS: Patients
      consecutively admitted to the PRC inpatient rehabilitation unit during its first
      full fiscal year, 2006 (N=44). INTERVENTIONS: The PRC infrastructure and
      formalized rehabilitation for polytrauma/TBI. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: FIM scores
      at admission, discharge, 3 months, and 8 years postdischarge; participation
      related socioeconomic factors reflecting community reintegration 8 years after
      admission. RESULTS: Functional gains were statistically significantly increased
      from admission to discharge. Improvements were maintained at both 3 months
      postdischarge and 8 years postdischarge. The socioeconomic data collected at 8
      year follow-up showed >50% either competitively employed or continuing their
      education and 100% living in a noninstitutionalized setting. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study addresses a concern regarding the long-term functional outcomes of
      rehabilitation patients treated by the established infrastructure of the
      Polytrauma System of Care inpatient rehabilitation centers. The results suggest
      that polytrauma/TBI rehabilitation care using a comprehensive, integrated
      approach is effective and durable in achieving functional gains and successful
      community reintegration within our initial PRC cohort. Follow-up of subsequent
      fiscal year cohorts would add to the validity of these outcome findings.

PMID- 28866010
TI  - Contextual Facilitators and Barriers of Community Reintegration Among Injured
      Female Military Veterans: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand the facilitators and barriers to community reintegration
      (CR) among injured female veterans. DESIGN: Phenomenologic qualitative design.
      SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling female veterans with
      physical and/or psychological injury (N=13). INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: None. RESULTS: Conventional content analysis revealed 3 types of
      facilitators, including (1) strong social support, (2) impactful programs, and
      (3) protective personal beliefs. Six types of barriers included (1) inadequate
      services, (2) lack of access to services, (3) poor social support, (4) difficulty
      trusting others, (5) nonsupportive personal beliefs, and (6) injury factors.
      Multiple environmental and personal factors acted as facilitators and barriers to
      CR. Findings are relatively consistent with previous veteran and civilian
      community reintegration research that indicates the importance of health-related
      services, attitudes of others, and social support. However, women in this study
      reported being effected by many of these facilitators and barriers because of
      their sex. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the need to foster social support
      among injured female veterans throughout the rehabilitation process to promote
      CR. Long-term social support can be gained by incorporating services (eg,
      adjunctive therapies, recreation, other social programming) into the
      rehabilitation repertoire to help with CR for all veterans, particularly women.

PMID- 28866011
TI  - Development of a Computerized Adaptive Test of Children's Gross Motor Skills.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To (1) develop a computerized adaptive test for gross motor skills
      (GM-CAT) as a diagnostic test and an outcome measure, using the gross motor
      skills subscale of the Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and
      Toddlers (CDIIT-GM) as the candidate item bank; and (2) examine the psychometric
      properties and the efficiency of the GM-CAT. DESIGN: Retrospective study.
      SETTING: A developmental center of a medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Children with
      and without developmental delay (N=1738). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: The CDIIT-GM contains 56 universal items on gross motor skills
      assessing children's antigravity control, locomotion, and body movement
      coordination. RESULTS: The item bank of the GM-CAT had 44 items that met the
      dichotomous Rasch model's assumptions. High Rasch person reliabilities were found
      for each estimated gross motor skill for the GM-CAT (Rasch person reliabilities
      =.940-.995, SE=.68-2.43). For children aged 6 to 71 months, the GM-CAT had good
      concurrent validity (r values =.97-.98), adequate to excellent diagnostic
      accuracy (area under receiver operating characteristics curve =.80-.98), and
      moderate to large responsiveness (effect size =.65-5.82). The averages of items
      administered for the GM-CAT were 7 to 11, depending on the age group.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study support the use of the GM-CAT as a
      diagnostic and outcome measure to estimate children's gross motor skills in both
      research and clinical settings.

PMID- 28866012
TI  - What Is the Longitudinal Profile of Impairments and Can We Predict Difficulty
      Caring for the Profoundly Affected Arm in the First Year Poststroke?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To establish the longitudinal profile of impairments of body
      functions and activity limitations of the arm, and to evaluate potential
      predictors of difficulty caring for the profoundly affected arm poststroke.
      DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Stroke services. PARTICIPANTS: People
      unlikely to regain functional use of the arm (N=155) were recruited at 2 to 4
      weeks poststroke, and followed up at 3, 6, and 12 months. Potential predictors at
      baseline were hypertonicity, pain, motor control, mood, sensation/perception,
      age, and stroke severity. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Difficulty caring for the arm (Leeds Arm Spasticity Impact Scale), pain,
      hypertonicity, range of movement, arm function, and skin integrity. Multivariable
      linear regression identified the best fitting model for predicting Leeds Arm
      Spasticity Impact Scale score at 12 months. RESULTS: There were 110 participants
      (71%) reviewed at 1 year. There was a large variation in the profile of arm
      functions and activity limitations. Inability or severe difficulty caring for the
      arm affected 29% of participants. Hypertonicity developed in 77%, with severe
      hypertonicity present in 25%. Pain was reported by 65%, 94% developed shoulder
      contracture, and 6% had macerated skin. Difficulty caring for the arm increased
      with age, greater level of hypertonicity, and stroke classification;
      collectively, these factors accounted for 33% of the variance in Leeds Arm
      Spasticity Impact Scale scores. CONCLUSIONS: At 1 year poststroke, there was a
      high incidence of impairments of body functions and activity limitations in
      people with a profoundly affected arm. Individual profiles were very variable and
      although some predisposing factors have been identified, it remains difficult to
      predict who is at greatest risk.

PMID- 28866013
TI  - Contrasting cellular damage after Blue-IRIS and Femto-LASIK in cat cornea.
AB  - Blue-intra-tissue refractive index shaping (Blue-IRIS) is a new approach to laser
      refractive correction of optical aberrations in the eye, which alters the
      refractive index of the cornea rather than changing its shape. Before it can be
      implemented in humans, it is critical to establish whether and to what extent,
      Blue-IRIS damages the cornea. Here, we contrasted the impact of -1.5 D cylinder
      refractive corrections inscribed using either Blue-IRIS or femtosecond laser in
      situ keratomileusis (femto-LASIK) on corneal cell viability. Blue-IRIS was used
      to write a -1.5 D cylinder gradient index (GRIN) lens over a 2.5 mm by 2.5 mm
      area into the mid-stromal region of the cornea in six freshly-enucleated feline
      eyes. The same correction (-1.5 D cylinder) was inscribed into another four cat
      eyes using femto-LASIK. Six hours later, all corneas were processed for histology
      and stained for terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin
      nick end labeling (TUNEL) and p-gamma-H2AX to label damaged cells. In Blue-IRIS
      treated corneas, no tissue was removed and TUNEL-stained cells were confined to
      the laser focal zone in the stroma. In femto-LASIK, photoablation removed 14 MUm
      of anterior stroma, but in addition, TUNEL-positive cells clustered across the
      femto-flap, the epithelium at the flap edges and the stroma below the ablation
      zone. Keratocytes positive for p-gamma-H2AX were seen adjacent to all Blue-IRIS
      focal zones, but were completely absent from femto-LASIK-treated corneas. Unlike
      femto-LASIK, Blue-IRIS attains refractive correction in the cornea without tissue
      removal and only causes minimal, localized keratocyte death within the laser
      focal zones. In addition, Blue-IRIS induced DNA modifications associated with
      phosphorylation of gamma-H2AX in keratocytes adjacent to the laser focal zones.
      We posit that this p-gamma-H2AX response is related to alterations in chromatin
      structure caused by localized changes in osmolarity, a possible mechanism for the
      induced refractive index changes.

PMID- 28866014
TI  - Characterization of a novel polysaccharide isolated from Rosa roxburghii Tratt
      fruit and assessment of its antioxidant in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - In this study, a novel water-soluble polysaccharide (RRTP1-1) was obtained from
      Rosa roxburghii Tratt fruit through the ultrasonic-assisted extraction followed
      by anion-exchange and size-exclusion chromatography purification. The primary
      structure of RRTP1-1 was investigated by UV, FT-IR, HPLC, GC-MS, 1H and 13C NMR
      spectroscopy. Chemical composition analysis revealed that RRTP1-1 had an average
      molecular weight of 97.58kDa and consisted of Man, Rha, GlcA, GalA, Glc, Gal, Ara
      and Xyl in a molar ratio of 2.88:1.39:2.83:1.00:69.11:3.04:2.52:3.41. This
      polysaccharide was proven to be a kind of glucan, owning a backbone structure of 
      >6)-alpha-d-Glcp-(1->6)-alpha-d-Glcp-(1->. Congo red test indicated that RRTP1-1
      had no triple helix structure. Antioxidation tests performed in vitro revealed
      that RRTP1-1 possessed obviously DPPH, hydroxyl and superoxide radicals
      scavenging activities. Furthermore, antioxidant assays in vivo showed that RRTP1
      1 at 200 or 400mg/kg dose could significantly enhance the activities of
      antioxidant enzymes (CAT, SOD, and GSH-Px), increase TAOC values, and decrease
      the LPO and MDA levels in different degrees in the serum of D-Gal aging-induced
      mice. The present results suggested that RRTP1-1 could be a new source of natural
      antioxidants for applications in functional foods and dietary supplemental
      products.

PMID- 28866015
TI  - Chitosan as biomaterial in drug delivery and tissue engineering.
AB  - Chitin is one of the most abundant polysaccharide found on earth. The
      deacetylated form of chitin viz. chitosan has been reported for its various
      important pharmacological properties and its role in tissue engineering and
      regenerative medicine is also well documented. Chitosan based bone graft
      substitutes are biocompatible, biodegradable, osteoconductive, osteoinductive and
      structurally similar to bone, with excellent mechanical strength and cost
      effectiveness. Chitosan based hydrogels and wound healing bandages have also
      found a great market in the field of medicine. More recently, chitosan has gained
      popularity for its use as a matrix molecule for drug delivery and also finds an
      upcoming utility in the area of dentistry. The present article has tried to
      review the latest research on chitosan based tissue engineering constructs, drug
      delivery vehicles as well as dental care products. An attempt has also been made
      to discuss the various modifications of chitosan that enhance its use for a given
      set of applications which would pave a way for future applied research in the
      field of biomedical innovation and regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28866016
TI  - Disintegration of collagen fibrils by Glucono-delta-lactone: An implied lead for
      disintegration of fibrosis.
AB  - Excess accumulation of collagen (fibrosis) undergoes self-aggregation, which
      leads to fibrillar collagen, on the extracellular matrix is the hallmark of a
      number of diseases such as keloids, hypertrophic scars, and systemic scleroderma.
      Direct inhibition or disintegration of collagen fibrils by small molecules offer
      a therapeutic approach to prevent or treat the diseases related to fibrosis.
      Herein, the anti-fibrotic property of Glucono-delta-lactone (GdL), known as
      acidifier, on the fibrillation and its disintegration of collagen was
      investigated. As collagen fibrillation is pH dependent, the pH modulation
      property of GdL is attractive to inhibit self-association of collagen. Optical
      density and microscopic data indicate that GdL elicits concentration-dependent
      fibril inhibition and also disintegrates pre-formed collagen fibrils. The
      simultaneous pH analysis showed that the modulation(lowering) of pH by GdL is the
      primary cause for its anti-fibrotic activity. The intact triple helical structure
      of collagen upon treatment of GdL suggests that collagen fibril disintegration
      can be achieved without affecting the native structure of collagen which is
      essential for any anti-fibrotic agents. Saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR
      result reveals that GdL is in proximity to collagen. The present results thus
      suggest that GdL provides a lead to design novel anti-fibrotic agents for the
      pathologies related to collagen deposition.

PMID- 28866017
TI  - Diatomite as a novel composite ingredient for chitosan film with enhanced
      physicochemical properties.
AB  - Practical applications of biopolymers in different industries are gaining
      considerable increase day by day. But still, these biopolymers lack important
      properties in order to meet the industrial demands. In the same regard, in the
      current study, chitosan composite films are produced by incorporating diatomite
      soil at two different concentrations. In order to obtain a homogeneous film,
      glutaraldehyde was supplemented to chitosan solution as a cross-linker.
      Compositing diatomaceous earth to chitosan film resulted in improvement of
      various important physicochemical properties compared to control such as;
      enhanced film wettability, increase elongation at break and improved thermal
      stability (264-277 degrees C). The microstructure of the film was observed to
      haveconsisted of homogeneously distributed blister-shaped structures arised due
      to the incorporation of diatomite. The incorporation of diatomite did not
      influence the overall antioxidant activity of the composite films, which can be
      ascribe to the difficulty radicals formation. Chitosan film incorporated with
      increasing fraction of diatomite revealed a notable enhancement in the
      antimicrobial activity. Additionally with the present study, for the first time
      possible interactions between chitosan/diatomite were determined via quantum
      chemical calculations. Current study will be helpful in giving a new
      biotechnological perspective to diatom in terms of its successful application in
      hydrophobic composite film production.

PMID- 28866018
TI  - Molecular level insight into the effect of triethyloctylammonium bromide on the
      structure, thermal stability, and activity of Bovine serum albumin.
AB  - Understanding the interactions between protein and ionic liquids (IL) is vital in
      order to avail the ILs in biological applications. In this study, we have
      investigated the influence of triethyloctylammonium bromide on the structure,
      stability, and activity of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) using different
      spectroscopic methods Fluorescence and circular dichroism measurements revealed
      that BSA appears to be in a non-native compact structure in the presence of IL
      (up to concentration 0.02M). But beyond that limit (0.02M), the protein was found
      to be in an unfolded state. The results are supported by dynamic light scattering
      (DLS) measurements and also esterase-like activity test proves non-native or
      unfolded form of protein at a higher concentration of IL. In addition, molecular
      docking study is carried out to find the possible binding sites of IL with BSA.

PMID- 28866019
TI  - Comparative mitochondrial genome analysis of Spilarctia subcarnea and other
      noctuid insects.
AB  - This study was performed to better understand the phylogenetic relationships
      within the lepidopteran superfamily Noctuoidea. The mitochondrial genome
      (mitogenome) has been extensively used for studying phylogenetic relationships at
      different taxonomic levels. In this study, the complete mitogenome of Spilarctia
      subcarnea (Noctuoidea: Erebidae) was sequenced and annotated. The mitogenome is
      15,441bp in length, containing 13 typical protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22
      transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs) and a noncoding
      control region (CR). The order and orientation of genes of S. subcarnea
      mitogenome with the order trnM-trnI-trnQ-nad2 is different from the ancestral
      insects in which trnM is located between trnQ and nad2 (trnI-trnQ-trnM-nad2). The
      phylogenetic relationships based on mitochondrial sequences using Bayesian
      inference and Maximum likelihood methods showed that S. subcarnea was closely
      related to Lemyra melli, supporting that S. subcarnea belongs to Erebidae. These
      analyses confirm that Lymantriidae should be included as subfamilies within
      Erebidae. The Erebidae was sister to (Nolidae+(Euteliidae+Noctuidae));
      Notodontidae is sister to the other families of Noctuoidea in our study.

PMID- 28866020
TI  - Sleep quality during pregnancy: A meta-analysis.
AB  - Women's sleep quality has been reported to change during pregnancy; prevalence
      estimates of poor sleep quality during pregnancy vary widely. To further
      understand the observed variation of findings, we conducted a meta-analysis to
      quantify the prevalence of poor sleep quality during pregnancy. Articles (N = 24)
      that reported prevalence of poor sleep quality as captured by the Pittsburgh
      sleep quality index (PSQI) >= 5 were included, with a total of 11,002
      participants contributing data. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases
      were systematically searched. Results indicated that the average PSQI score
      during pregnancy was 6.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) [5.30, 6.85], and 45.7%,
      95% CI [36.5%, 55.2%], of pregnant women experienced poor sleep quality.
      Longitudinal studies indicated that sleep quality decreased from second (M =
      5.31, SE = 0.40) to third trimester (M = 7.03, SE = 0.85) by 1.68 points, 95% CI
      [0.42, 2.94]. Gestational age moderated the average PSQI scores and prevalence of
      PSQI scores >=5; older samples reported higher mean PSQI scores and higher
      prevalence of poor sleep quality. Clinicians should be aware that some reduction
      in sleep quality is expected during pregnancy, but complaints of very poor sleep
      quality could require intervention. Future research should examine various
      factors underlying poor sleep quality during pregnancy.

PMID- 28866021
TI  - Low-frequency oscillations in default mode subnetworks are associated with
      episodic memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Disruptions to functional connectivity in subsystems of the default mode network
      are evident in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Functional connectivity estimates
      correlations in the time course of low-frequency activity. Much less is known
      about other potential perturbations to this activity, such as changes in the
      amplitude of oscillations and how this relates to cognition. We examined the
      amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in 44 AD patients and 128 cognitively
      normal participants and related this to episodic memory, the core deficit in AD.
      We show higher amplitudes of low-frequency oscillations in AD patients. Rather
      than being compensatory, this appears to be maladaptive, with greater amplitude
      in the ventral default mode subnetwork associated with poorer episodic memory.
      Perturbations to default mode subnetworks in AD are evident in the amplitude of
      low-frequency oscillations in the resting brain. These disruptions are associated
      with episodic memory demonstrating their behavioral and clinical relevance in AD.

PMID- 28866022
TI  - Eradication of HT-29 colorectal adenocarcinoma cells by controlled photorelease
      of CO from a CO-releasing polymer (photoCORP-1) triggered by visible light
      through an optical fiber-based device.
AB  - The gaseous signaling molecule carbon monoxide (CO) has recently been recognized
      for its wide range of physiological activity as well as its antineoplastic
      properties. However, site-specific delivery of this noxious gas presents a major
      challenge in hospital settings. In this work, a visible light-sensitive CO
      releasing molecule (photoCORM) derived from manganese(I) and 2
      (quinolyl)benzothiazole (qbt) namely, [Mn(CO)3(qbt)(4-vpy)](CF3SO3) (1), has been
      co-polymerized within a gas-permeable HEMA/EGDMA hydrogel. The resulting
      photoactive CO-releasing polymer (photoCORP-1) incorporates 1 such that neither
      the carbonyl complex nor its photoproduct(s) exits the polymer at any time. The
      material can be triggered to photorelease CO remotely by low-power broadband
      visible light (<1mWcm-2) with the aid of fiber optics technology. The CO
      photorelease rates of photoCORP-1 (determined by spectrophotometry) can be
      modulated by both the concentration of 1 in the hydrogel and the intensity of the
      light. A CO-delivery device has been assembled to deliver CO to a suspension of
      human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (HT-29) under the control of visible light
      and the extent of CO-induced apoptotic death of the cancer cells has been
      determined via Annexin V/Propidium iodide stain and flow cytometry. This
      photoactive CO-releasing polymer could find use in delivering controlled doses of
      CO to cellular targets such as malignant tissues in remote parts of the body.

PMID- 28866023
TI  - Where Do Transrectal Ultrasound- and Magnetic Resonance Imaging-guided Biopsies
      Miss Significant Prostate Cancer?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the location of missed significant prostate cancer (sPCa)
      lesions by transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUSbx) and multiparametric
      magnetic resonance imaging-guided biopsy (mpMRIbx) in men undergoing repeat
      biopsies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 289 men with prior negative TRUSbx
      underwent multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging. The location of any
      suspicious lesion was registered and scored using Prostate Imaging Reporting and
      Data System version 1 classification according to the likelihood of being sPCa.
      All patients underwent repeat transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (reTRUSbx) and
      targeted mpMRIbx (image fusion) of any suspicious lesion. Biopsy results were
      compared and the locations of missed sPCa lesions were registered. Cancer
      significance was defined as (1) any core with a Gleason score of >6, (2) cancer
      core involvement of >=50% and for reTRUSbx on patient level, and (3) the presence
      of >=3 positive cores. RESULTS: Of the 289 patients, prostate cancer was detected
      in 128 (44%) with 88 (30%) having sPCa. Overall, 165 separate prostate cancer
      lesions were detected with 100 being sPCa. Of these, mpMRIbx and reTRUSbx
      detected 90% (90/100) and 68% (68/100), respectively. The majority of sPCa
      lesions (78%) missed by primary TRUSbx were located either anteriorly or in the
      apical region. Missed sPCa lesions at repeat biopsy were primarily located
      anteriorly (84%) for reTRUSbx (n = 27/32) and posterolateral midprostatic (60%)
      for mpMRIbx (n = 6/10). CONCLUSION: Both TRUSbx and mpMRIbx missed sPCa lesions
      in specific segments of the prostate. Missed sPCa lesions at repeat biopsy were
      primarily located anteriorly for TRUSbx and posterolateral midprostatic for
      mpMRIbx. Localization of these segments may improve biopsy techniques in men
      undergoing repeat biopsies.

PMID- 28866024
TI  - CON4EI: CONsortium for in vitro Eye Irritation testing strategy - EpiOcularTM
      time-to-toxicity (EpiOcular ET-50) protocols for hazard identification and
      labelling of eye irritating chemicals.
AB  - Assessment of acute eye irritation potential is part of the international
      regulatory requirements for testing of chemicals. The objective of the CON4EI
      (CONsortium for in vitro Eye Irritation testing strategy) project was to develop
      tiered testing strategies for eye irritation assessment for all drivers of
      classification. A set of 80 reference chemicals (38 liquids and 42 solids) was
      tested with eight different alternative methods. Here, the results obtained with
      reconstructed human cornea-like epithelium (RhCE) EpiOcularTM in the EpiOcular
      time-to-toxicity Tests (Neat and Dilution ET-50 protocols) are presented. The
      primary aim of this study was to evaluate whether test methods can discriminate
      chemicals not requiring classification for serious eye damage/eye irritancy (No
      Category) from chemicals requiring classification and labelling for Category 1
      and Category 2. In addition, the predictive capacity in terms of in vivo drivers
      of classification was investigated. The chemicals were tested in two independent
      runs by MatTek In Vitro Life Science Laboratories. Results of this study
      demonstrate very high specificity of both test protocols. With the existing
      prediction models described in the SOPs, the specificity of the Neat and Dilution
      method was 87% and 100%, respectively. The Dilution method was able to correctly
      predicting 66% of GHS Cat 2 chemicals, however, prediction of GHS Cat 1 chemicals
      was only 47%-55% using the current protocols. In order to achieve optimal
      prediction for all three classes, a testing strategy was developed which combines
      the most predictive time-points of both protocols and for tests liquids and
      solids separately. Using this new testing strategy, the sensitivity for
      predicting GHS Cat 1 and GHS Cat 2 chemicals was 73% and 64%, respectively and
      the very high specificity of 97% was maintained. None of the Cat 1 chemicals was
      underpredicted as GHS No Category. Further combination of the EpiOcular time-to
      toxicity protocols with other validated in vitro systems evaluated in this
      project, should enable significant reduction and even possible replacement of the
      animal tests for the final assessment of the irritation potential in all of the
      GHS classes.

PMID- 28866026
TI  - The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor pan-agonist bezafibrate suppresses
      microvascular inflammatory responses of retinal endothelial cells and vascular
      endothelial growth factor production in retinal pigmented epithelial cells.
AB  - A randomized clinical trial showed the beneficial effects of the selective
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-alpha agonist, fenofibrate, in
      reducing the progression of diabetic retinopathy independent of serum lipid
      levels. All subtypes of PPAR (PPAR-alpha, PPAR-gamma, and PPAR-beta/delta) have
      been reported to play a key role in microvascular inflammation and angiogenesis.
      Therefore, the agonistic function of fenofibrate against the PPAR-alpha has been
      suggested to contribute to its medicinal effect. Furthermore, bezafibrate is a
      fibrate drug commonly used as a lipid-lowering agent to treat hyperlipidemia and
      acts as a pan-agonist of all PPARs subtypes. However, the effects of bezafibrate
      in diabetic retinopathy remain unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was
      to investigate the effects of bezafibrate on retinal microvascular inflammation.
      Bezafibrate was not cytotoxic against human retinal microvascular endothelial
      cells (HRMECs) and human retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19 cells) treated
      with <100 and 200MUM bezafibrate, respectively. In HRMECs, the expression levels
      of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-induced monocyte chemoattractant protein
      (MCP)-1, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, and vascular cell adhesion
      molecule (VCAM)-1 were significantly suppressed by bezafibrate in a dose
      dependent manner. TNF-alpha-induced nuclear translocation of nuclear factor (NF)
      kappaB p65 and cell migration were also significantly inhibited in bezafibrate
      treated HRMECs. Furthermore, bezafibrate treatment significantly suppressed
      interleukin (IL)-1beta-induced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      production in ARPE-19 cells. These results suggest that bezafibrate has
      beneficial effects on retinal microvascular inflammation. Our study demonstrates
      the therapeutic potential of bezafibrate for managing diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28866027
TI  - Cortisol treatment affects locomotor activity and swimming behaviour of male
      smallmouth bass engaged in paternal care: A field study using acceleration
      biologgers.
AB  - Paternal care, where the male provides sole care for the developing brood, is a
      common form of reproductive investment among teleost fish and ubiquitous in the
      Centrarchidae family. Throughout the parental care period, nesting males expend
      energy in a variety of swimming behaviours, including routine and burst swimming,
      vigilantly monitoring the nest area and protecting the brood from predators.
      Parental care is an energetically demanding period, which is presumably made even
      more difficult if fish are exposed to additional challenges such as those arising
      from human disturbance, resulting in activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary
      interrenal axis (i.e., elevation of cortisol). To study this situation, we
      examined the effects of experimental manipulation of the stress hormone cortisol
      on locomotor activity and behaviour of nest guarding male smallmouth bass
      (Micropterus dolomieu). We exogenously elevated circulating cortisol levels (via
      intracoelomic implants) and attached tri-axial accelerometers to wild smallmouth
      bass for three days. During the recovery period (i.e., <=4h post-release),
      cortisol-treated fish exhibited significantly reduced locomotor activity and
      performed significantly less burst and routine swimming relative to control fish,
      indicating cortisol uptake was rapid, as were the associated behavioural
      responses. Post-recovery (i.e., >4h post-release), fish with high cortisol
      exhibited lower locomotor activity and reduced routine swimming relative to
      controls. Fish were less active and reduced routine and burst swimming at night
      compared to daylight hours, an effect independent of cortisol treatment.
      Collectively, our results suggest that cortisol treatment (as a proxy for
      anthropogenic disturbance and stress) contributed to altered behaviour, and
      consequently cortisol-treated males decreased parental investment in their brood,
      which could have potential fitness implications.

PMID- 28866025
TI  - Muller cells and diabetic retinopathy.
AB  - Muller cells are one of the primary glial cell types found in the retina and play
      a significant role in maintaining retinal function and health. Since Muller cells
      are the only cell type to span the entire width of the retina and have contact to
      almost every cell type in the retina they are uniquely positioned to perform a
      wide variety of functions necessary to maintaining retinal homeostasis. In the
      healthy retina, Muller cells recycle neurotransmitters, prevent glutamate
      toxicity, redistribute ions by spatial buffering, participate in the retinoid
      cycle, and regulate nutrient supplies by multiple mechanisms. Any disturbance to
      the retinal environment is going to influence proper Muller cell function and
      well being which in turn will affect the entire retina. This is evident in a
      disease like diabetic retinopathy where Muller cells contribute to neuronal
      dysfunction, the production of pro-angiogenic factors leading to
      neovascularization, the set up of a chronic inflammatory retinal environment, and
      eventual cell death. In this review, we highlight the importance of Muller cells
      in maintaining a healthy and functioning retina and discuss various pathological
      events of diabetic retinopathy in which Muller cells seem to play a crucial role.
      The beneficial and detrimental effects of cytokine and growth factor production
      by Muller cells on the microvasculature and retinal neuronal tissue will be
      outlined. Understanding Muller cell functions within the retina and restoring
      such function in diabetic retinopathy should become a cornerstone for developing
      effective therapies to treat diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28866028
TI  - Long term impairment of cognitive functions and alterations of NMDAR subunits
      after continuous microwave exposure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The long term effects of continuous microwave exposure cannot be
      ignored for the simulation of the real environment and increasing concerns about
      the negative cognitive effects of microwave exposure. METHODS: In this study, 220
      male Wistar rats were exposed by a 2.856GHz radiation source with the average
      power density of 0, 2.5, 5 and 10mW/cm2 for 6min/day, 5days/week and up to
      6weeks. The MWM task, the EEG analysis, the hippocampus structure observation and
      the western blot were applied until the 12months after microwave exposure to
      detect the spatial learning and memory abilities, the cortical electrical
      activity, changes of hippocampal structure and the NMDAR subunits expressions.
      RESULTS: Results found that the rats in the 10mW/cm2 group showed the decline of
      spatial learning and memory abilities and EEG disorders (the decrease of EEG
      frequencies, and increase of EEG amplitudes and delta wave powers). Moreover,
      changes of basic structure and ultrastructure of hippocampus also found in the 10
      and 5mW/cm2 groups. The decrease of NR 2A, 2B and p-NR2B might contribute to the
      impairment of cognitive functions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that the
      continuous microwave exposure could cause the dose-dependent long term impairment
      of spatial learning and memory, the abnormalities of EEG and the hippocampal
      structure injuries. The decrease of NMDAR key subunits and phosphorylation of NR
      2B might contribute to the cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28866029
TI  - Similarities in smell and taste preferences in couples increase with relationship
      duration.
AB  - Numerous studies point to partners' congruence in various domains and note an
      increase in their compatibility over time. However, none have explored a shift in
      chemosensory perception related to relationship duration. Here, we examined the
      relationship between the time heterosexual couples have spent together and the
      degree to which they share their gustatory and olfactory preferences.
      Additionally, we investigated whether these preferences are associated with
      relationship satisfaction. One-hundred couples aged from 18 to 68 years being
      together for a period between 3 and 540 months rated the pleasantness of a wide
      variety of olfactory and gustatory stimuli. We showed that both taste and smell
      preferences are more similar the longer couples have been in a relationship. We
      also observed a very interesting trend in terms of smell preferences, with
      relationship satisfaction being negatively related to congruence in smell
      preferences between partners. We discuss these results from the perspective of
      evolutionary psychology.

PMID- 28866030
TI  - Dietitians' perceptions of the healthiness of packaged food.
AB  - The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the factors that influence
      Australian dietitians' perceptions of the healthiness of a sample of packaged
      foods. Participant dietitians (n = 120) rated the healthiness (1, less healthy to
      10, more healthy), of seven packaged foods (bread, confectionary, breakfast
      cereal, flavoured yoghurt, curry, spread and crumble) based on information
      obtained from an ingredient list and nutrient information panel (NIP). Influences
      on each food's rating were explored via Likert-scale and open-response questions.
      There was variation in the healthiness rating of all foods, however, least so for
      confectionary and crumble. Bread (M = 7.39 +/- 1.44) and confectionary (M = 1.33
      +/- 0.69) were rated the most and least healthy foods respectively. Crumble was
      rated significantly (p = 0.03) healthier by those with more experience (>=6 vs.
      <=5 years). No other differences were detected. Highly reported influences on
      healthiness were sugar, total fat, sodium and saturated fat values and the
      ingredient list. Content analysis identified 13 categories of information not
      provided on the NIP that influenced participants' ratings. References to the
      Australian Guide to Healthy Eating food groups, micronutrients not listed as
      ingredients, comparisons to other foods, and fibre were most common among the
      sample. These results have implications for research or public health policy
      where expert opinion of the healthiness of food is used as a reference measure.

PMID- 28866031
TI  - Emotional eating is related with temperament but not with stress biomarkers in
      preschool children.
AB  - Emotional eating (EE) corresponds to a change in eating behavior in response to
      distress and results in an increase of food intake (overeating (EOE)) or in food
      avoidance (undereating (EUE)). EE has been related to temperament (i.e. negative
      emotionality) and dysregulated stress biomarkers in school-aged children;
      parenting has been understood to influence this relationship in older children.
      The aim of the study was to investigate to which extent stress biomarkers and
      negative emotionality are related to EE and to understand the role of parenting
      in this relationship. The sample consisted of 271 children aged 2-6 years of the
      Swiss cohort study SPLASHY. We assessed the child's EE, negative emotionality and
      parenting by parent based reports. Salivary samples were collected over two days
      to analyze cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase levels. From the whole sample of
      children, 1.1% showed EOE and 32.9% EUE. Negative emotionality was related to EOE
      and EUE (0.13 (CI 0.06, 021), p < 0.001; 0.25 (CI 0.14, 0.35), p < 0.001). There
      was no relationship between stress biomarkers and EE and parenting had any
      moderating role (all p > 0.05). Similar to a Danish study, parents reported more
      often EUE than EOE of their child. Both are related to the temperament. Even
      though the course of EE has not yet been well documented, we conclude that a
      certain subgroup of children with difficult temperament could be at-risk for eat
      and weight regulation problems in later childhood.

PMID- 28866032
TI  - Intracardiac Echocardiography for Endovascular Left Atrial Appendage Closure: Is
      it Ready for Primetime?

PMID- 28866033
TI  - Very Late Restenosis Following Bioresorbable Scaffold Implantation.

PMID- 28866034
TI  - Bioabsorbable Stents: A Solution in Search of a Problem?

PMID- 28866035
TI  - Neoatherosclerosis as the Cause of Late Failure of a Bioresorbable Vascular
      Scaffold at 8 Months.

PMID- 28866037
TI  - Very Late Restenosis of a BVS Implanted in a Degenerated Saphenous Vein Graft.

PMID- 28866038
TI  - Native Aortic Valve Thrombosis Leading to ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction.

PMID- 28866036
TI  - Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffolds for Patients With In-Stent Restenosis: The RIBS
      VI Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to assess the value of bioresorbable vascular
      scaffolds (BVS) in patients with in-stent restenosis (ISR). BACKGROUND: Currently
      both drug-eluting stents (DES) and drug-eluting balloons (DEB) are recommended in
      patients with ISR. However, the value of BVS in this setting remains unclear.
      METHODS: RIBS VI (Restenosis Intra-stent: drug-eluting Balloon vs everolimus
      eluting Stent) was a prospective multicenter study (19 Spanish sites) that
      included 141 patients treated with BVS for either bare-metal stent (BMS) ISR or
      DES-ISR. Late angiography was scheduled at 6 to 9 months. Inclusion/exclusion
      criteria were similar to those used in the RIBS IV (patients with DES-ISR) and
      RIBS V (patients with BMS-ISR) trials, where DEB (n = 249) was compared with
      everolimus (EES)-DES (n = 249). Results of BVS in RIBS VI were compared with
      those obtained with DEB and EES in the RIBS IV and V trials. RESULTS: On late
      angiography (n = 134; 95% of eligible) the in-segment minimal lumen diameter
      (primary endpoint) was 1.87 +/- 0.5 mm, late lumen loss was 0.23 +/- 0.4 mm, and
      restenosis rate was 11%. At 1-year follow-up (100% of patients) no patient died,
      4 (2.8%) experienced a myocardial infarction, and 16 (11.3%) required target
      lesion revascularization. One patient (0.7%) who discontinued antiplatelet
      therapy experienced definitive BVS thrombosis. Freedom from cardiac death,
      myocardial infarction, and target lesion revascularization was 86%. The minimal
      lumen diameter at follow-up after BVS was similar to that obtained with DEB (1.88
      +/- 0.6 mm; p = NS) but smaller than that achieved after EES (2.16 +/- 0.7 mm; p
      < 0.001). Likewise, target lesion revascularization rates after BVS were similar
      to those seen with DEB (10.4%) but higher than with EES (3.2%; p < 0.001).
      Results remained unchanged after adjusting for potential confounders in baseline
      characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests the safety and efficacy of BVS
      in patients with ISR. In this challenging anatomic scenario BVS obtained late
      angiographic and clinical results similar to DEB but inferior to EES. (Restenosis
      Intrastent: Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffolds Treatment [RIBS VI]; NCT02672878).

PMID- 28866039
TI  - Asymptomatic Large Thrombus Formation in Drug-Eluting Stent 2 Days After Primary
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction
      Patient.

PMID- 28866040
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of a Giant Infected Femoral Artery Pseudoaneurysm.

PMID- 28866041
TI  - Transcatheter Closure of Aortic Anastomosis Leak Resulting in Patent Cabrol Shunt
      After Aortic Replacement.

PMID- 28866042
TI  - Intracardiac Echocardiography From the Left Atrium for Procedural Guidance of
      Transcatheter Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of
      intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) from the left atrium (LA) with
      transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for procedural guidance of transcatheter
      left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO). BACKGROUND: TEE with general anesthesia
      is the current gold standard to guide LAAO. By the use of ICE from the LA, LAAO
      can be performed in local anesthesia and may potentially have advantages over
      TEE. METHODS: A single-center, cohort study of patients undergoing LAAO with the
      Amplatzer Cardiac Plug or Amulet (St. Jude Medical, St. Paul, Minnesota).
      Procedures were guided by ICE from the LA with local anesthesia (n = 109) or TEE
      using general anesthesia (n = 107). All patients had pre-procedural cardiac
      computed tomography. Efficacy outcomes were technical success, procedural
      success, and peridevice leakage at TEE 8 weeks after LAAO. Safety outcome was a
      composite of periprocedural complications. RESULTS: Technical success was
      achieved in 99% of both the TEE and ICE group. Procedural success was similar
      between groups: 94.4% success rate in the TEE-guided group, and 94.5% in the ICE
      guided group. Major periprocedural complications occurred in 4.7% of the TEE
      group and 1.8% of the ICE group. Rate and degree of peridevice leak did not
      differ between groups at follow-up. Turnover time in the catheter laboratory, and
      contrast use were reduced with ICE. CONCLUSIONS: LA ICE to guide LAAO as compared
      with TEE appears to be effective and safe, without increased procedure-related
      complications. The rate of peridevice leak is low and similar to TEE-guided
      procedures. Time spent in the catheterization room may decrease substantially.

PMID- 28866043
TI  - Clinical Factors Predicting Detection of T790M Mutation in Rebiopsy for EGFR
      Mutant Non-small-cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: T790M, a secondary epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation,
      accounts for approximately 50% of acquired resistance to EGFR-tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors (TKIs). To facilitate the use of third-generation EGFR-TKIs to
      potentially overcome T790M-mediated resistance, we evaluated the clinical factors
      influencing the incidence of T790M mutation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively screened patients with non-small-cell lung cancer harboring EGFR
      mutations with progressive disease who were rebiopsied between January 2013 and
      December 2016. Factors influencing T790M status were evaluated by univariate and
      multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Among 131 rebiopsied patients for whom EGFR
      mutation status was available, 58 (44%) had T790M mutations. Patient
      characteristics at rebiopsy were not significantly different between T790M
      positive and -negative groups, except for surgical history (postsurgery
      recurrence). Total duration of EGFR-TKI treatment before rebiopsy, TKI-free
      interval, EGFR-TKI treatment history immediately before rebiopsy, continuation of
      initial EGFR-TKI beyond progressive disease, progression-free survival after
      initial TKI treatment, and rebiopsy site (other than fluid samples) significantly
      influenced T790M status. The incidence of T790M mutation was shown by
      multivariate analysis to be significantly higher in patients with postsurgery
      recurrence and total duration of EGFR-TKI treatment >= 1 year before rebiopsy
      (odds ratio, 4.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-15.7 and odds ratio, 4.4; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.1-19.8, respectively). CONCLUSION: Postsurgery recurrence
      and longer total duration of EGFR-TKI treatment before rebiopsy may represent
      useful predictive markers for T790M detection. In patients with these clinical
      factors, rebiopsies are more recommended to detect T790M mutation.

PMID- 28866044
TI  - Investigation of the preventive effect of Sijunzi decoction on mitomycin C
      induced immunotoxicity in rats by 1H NMR and MS-based untargeted metabolomic
      analysis.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Sijunzi decoction (SJZD) is a well known
      traditional Chinese prescription used for the treatment of gastrointestinal
      disorders and immunity enhancement. It has been found to indeed improve life
      quality of chemotherapy patients and extensive used in clinical conbined with
      chemotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this
      study was to investigate the preventive effect of the immunotoxicity of SJZD on
      mitomycin C (MMC) and the metabolic mechanism of action. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      NMR and MS-based metabolomics approaches were combined for monitoring MMC-induced
      immunotoxicity and the protective effect of SJZD. Body weight change and
      mortality, histopathological observations and relative viscera weight
      determinations of spleen and thymus, sternum micronucleus assay and hematological
      analysis were used to confirm the immunotoxicity and attenuation effects. An OPLS
      DA approach was used to screen potential biomarkers of immunotoxicity and the
      MetaboAnalyst and KEGG PATHWAY Database were used to investigate the metabolic
      pathways. RESULTS: 8 biomarkers in plasma samples, 19 in urine samples and 10 in
      spleen samples were identified as being primarily involved in amino acid
      metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism and lipid metabolism. The most critical
      pathway was alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism. CONCLUSIONS: The
      variations in biomarkers revealed the preventive effect of the immunotoxicity of
      SJZD on MMC and significant for speculating the possible metabolic mechanism.

PMID- 28866045
TI  - Corticosteroid inhibits chemokines production in systemic sclerosis patients.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated glucocorticoids (GC) effects on cytokine/chemokine
      levels in serum samples and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) production
      from systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. We evaluated cytokine and chemokine
      levels in serum samples from SSc patients taking or not taking systemic
      glucocorticoids. PBMCs response to methylprednisolone (MP) was examined from 15
      SSc patients and 8 healthy control subjects following PBMC stimulation with anti
      CD3/CD28. Cytokine (IFN-gamma, TNF, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-17A) and
      chemokine (CXCL8/IL-8, CCL5/RANTES, CXCL9/MIG, CCL2/MCP-1, and CXCL10/IP-10)
      levels were quantified in serum and in PBMC culture supernatants by CBA or ELISA.
      Compared with patients not taking corticosteroids, we did not observe any
      significant differences in cytokines/chemokines serum levels in patients using
      systemic corticosteroids. After stimulation with anti-CD3/CD28, PBMCs treated
      with MP (100MUM), showed a significant reduction of CCL2/MCP-1 (p=0.001),
      CCL5/RANTES (p=0.04), and CXCL8/IL-8 (p=0.003) levels in SSc patients. In PBMC
      from healthy controls, we observed decreased IFN-gamma, TNF, IL-2, and IL-10
      levels after MP treatment, compared with stimulated condition (p<0.01 for all).
      However in SSc patients, we did not find any significant reduction in these
      cytokine levels after MP treatment. In conclusion, CCL2/MCP-1, CCL5/RANTES, and
      CXCL8/IL-8 are chemokines that are potentially modulated by corticosteroids in
      vitro in SSc patients, but no effect was observed on IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL
      17A, TFN, and IFN-gamma secretion. These results suggest a potential effect of
      GCs on SSc treatment and may reflect the benefit of their use in some patients.

PMID- 28866046
TI  - Formaldehyde alters triglyceride synthesis and very low-density lipoprotein
      secretion in a time-dependent manner.
AB  - Formaldehyde is a common indoor air pollutant that is toxic to the liver. This
      study aimed to investigate the effects of formaldehyde on triglyceride metabolism
      in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2). Cell viability was detected
      using a MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay.
      Following treatment with different concentrations of formaldehyde for 24 and 48h,
      the intra and extra-hepatocellular triglyceride (TG) content was determined using
      a chemical-enzymatic method; Western blotting was used to detect the levels of
      fatty acid synthesis and VLDL-related proteins. Our results showed that cell
      viability significantly decreased after formaldehyde treatment (0.5-12.5mM,
      24/48h). Extracellular TG levels in the hepatocytes increased after formaldehyde
      treatment at 0.004mM-0.1mM for 24h. SREBP-1c, ACC, FASN, and MTP, CES3 and DGAT1
      proteins increased significantly after 24h of formaldehyde treatment.
      Intracellular TG levels decreased for 48h treatment of formaldehyde. AMPKalpha
      increased significantly in all tested groups and p-AMPK increased significantly
      after 0.1mM formaldehyde treatment for 48h. Our results indicated that short-term
      formaldehyde exposure balances triglyceride metabolism by promoting
      hepatocellular TG synthesis and VLDL secretion; Long-term formaldehyde disturbs
      the TG metabolism balance in the hepatocytes.

PMID- 28866047
TI  - Mathematical models in cancer therapy.
AB  - In this article, deterministic mathematical models are derived from biochemical
      models within a human cell in two distinct cases, for comparison: healthy cell
      and cancerous cell. The former model is based in the cell cycle model by Novak
      and Tyson and its adaptation by Conradie, and makes use of the MAPK cascade
      pathway and the PI3K/AKT pathway for signalling transduction, to create a wider
      updated model for the regulation of a healthy cell. The latter model, for the
      cancer cell, is derived from the healthy cell model by altering specific pathways
      and interpreting the outcome in the light of literature in cancer. This last
      study is done in two approaches: simulation of common deregulations and specific
      cancer simulation, colon cancer. After studying both models, we propose targeting
      therapies and simulate their consequences. We thus explore mathematical modelling
      efficacy and usefulness in providing enough information from which to derive
      ideas for therapies. The purpose is to validate mathematics, once again, as a
      powerful tool with which one can model the underlying nature of chaotic systems
      and extract useful conclusions to real-life problems.

PMID- 28866048
TI  - Subcutaneous Lipoatrophy and Skin Depigmentation Secondary to TMJ Intra-Articular
      Corticosteroid Injection.
AB  - Chronic orofacial pain is a complex multidimensional experience that produces
      disability and impairment of normal mandibular function. Overall estimations of
      chronic orofacial pain prevalence are 7 to 11% of the general population.
      Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are one of the most prevalent chronic
      orofacial pain conditions, with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) arthralgia
      accounting for 30.1% of TMD patients. Interventional procedures are often used in
      pain and palliative medicine to achieve reasonable and cost-effective pain
      relief. The use of intra-articular corticosteroids in relieving arthralgia and
      improving joint function has been well documented. We present the clinical case
      of an 84-year-old female patient who presented to the Hospital del Salvador
      orofacial pain service with preauricular pain, limited range of motion, provoked
      pain at palpation, and decreased function in the preauricular region. In
      accordance with the DC/TMD criteria, left TMJ arthralgia and degenerative joint
      disease was diagnosed and was later corroborated by cone beam computed
      tomography. An intra-articular injection of 10 mg of methylprednisolone was
      prescribed, and the patient underwent the procedure in accordance with Hospital
      del Salvador's intra-articular injection protocol. The patient underwent the
      intervention without any inconvenience. At the 3-week follow-up visit, the
      patient presented with a depigmented depression zone adjacent to the site of
      injection. After echotomography, we concluded that the patient had developed skin
      depigmentation and subcutaneous lipoatrophy related to the intra-articular
      injection of methylprednisolone. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      report of this complication secondary to an interventional procedure in the TMJ.
      Clinicians should be aware of, and patients must be advised of, this rare
      complication before an intra-articular intervention.

PMID- 28866049
TI  - Overexpression of Mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-3 (MKP-3) reduces
      FoxO1 phosphorylation in mice hypothalamus.
AB  - The mitogen-activated kinase phosphatase-3 (MKP-3) has gained great importance in
      the scientific community by acting as a regulator of the cell cycle through
      dephosphorylation of FoxO1, an important transcription factor involved in the
      insulin intracellular signaling cascade. When dephosphorylated and translocated
      to the nuclei, FoxO1 can promote the transcription of orexigenic neuropeptides
      (NPY/AgRP) in the hypothalamus, whereas insulin signaling is responsible for the
      disruption of this process. However, it is not understood if the hypothalamic
      activation of MKP-3 affects FoxO1 phosphorylation, and we hypothesized that MKP-3
      overexpression reduces the capacity of the insulin signal to phosphorylate FoxO1.
      In the present study, we overexpressed the DUSP6 gene through an injection of
      adenovirus directly into the hypothalamic third ventricle of Swiss mice. The
      colocalization of the adenovirus was confirmed by the immunofluorescence assay.
      Then, MKP-3 overexpression resulted in a significant reduction of hypothalamic
      FoxO1 phosphorylation after insulin stimulation. This effect was independent of
      changes in Akt phosphorylation. Thus, the role of MKP-3 in the hypothalamus is
      closely associated with FoxO1 dephosphorylation and may provide a potential
      therapeutic target against hypothalamic disorders related to obesity and
      unbalanced food intake control.

PMID- 28866050
TI  - Orexin receptors mediate long-term depression of excitatory synaptic transmission
      in the spinal cord dorsal horn.
AB  - Neuropeptides orexin-A and -B are related to the regulation of sleep/wakefulness
      and feeding behaviors. Recently, the peptides have also been shown to yield
      antinociceptive effects in various pain models. However, it is not clear whether
      orexins are involved in forms of synaptic plasticity, such as long-term
      potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), the increase and the decrease
      of synaptic efficacy, respectively. In the present study, we examined whether
      orexin receptor type 1 (OX1) and 2 (OX2) are involved in the induction or
      maintenance of LTD of excitatory synaptic transmission using transverse spinal
      cord slices of young rats. Repetitive electrical stimulation of Lissauer's tract
      zone at 2Hz for 5min (600 pulses), combined with a holding potential of -30mV,
      induced LTD of the amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) which
      are evoked by the activation of primary afferent fibers. The maintenance of LTD
      was significantly prevented by bath application of SB674042 (1MUM), an OX1
      antagonist, or EMPA (1MUM), an OX2 antagonist. In addition, LTD was dependent on
      the NMDA receptor, as the NMDA receptor antagonist D-AP5 blocked the maintenance
      of LTD. Our study suggests that orexins, via activation of both OX1 and OX2, play
      a significant role in the expression of NMDA-dependent LTD, thereby contributing
      to the spinal modulation of pain transmission.

PMID- 28866051
TI  - The effects of cognitive versus motor demands on postural performance and weight
      bearing asymmetry in patients with stroke.
AB  - While several studies have investigated the interaction between postural control
      and secondary cognitive tasks in stroke patients, little is known about the
      influence of secondary motor task on postural control in these patients. The
      current research was designed to further examine dual-task performance by
      comparing the effects of cognitive versus motor dual-tasks on postural
      performance and weight bearing asymmetry (WBA) in stroke patients (n=23) relative
      to healthy, matched controls (n=22). All participants stood on dual-force plate
      under 5 conditions: (1) free standing; (2) simple cognitive task (easy Stroop)
      while standing; (3) difficult cognitive task (difficult Stroop) while standing;
      (4) simple motor task (holding a tray while a cylinder lying on its flat side)
      while standing; and (5) difficult motor task (holding a tray while a cylinder
      lying on its round side) while standing. The center of pressure (COP) measures
      was greater in stroke patients than healthy controls. Also, the WBA of the
      patients was greater than the controls. The COP measures increased when moving
      from single-task to cognitive dual-task conditions. No significant effect of
      motor dual-tasking was seen when moving from single-task to motor dual-task
      conditions. However, in contrast to cognitive dual-tasking, stroke patients and
      healthy controls employed different strategies during simultaneous performance of
      postural and motor tasks. It can be suggested that performing a motor task while
      standing requires greater attentional resources compared to performing a
      cognitive task while standing and this resulted in greater dual-task interference
      on motor performance in the stroke patients.

PMID- 28866052
TI  - Sleep-inducing effect of substance P-cholera toxin A subunit in mice.
AB  - Evidence indicates that the neuropeptide substance P (SP) can act through
      neurokinin receptors to alter sleep and/or non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep
      slow-wave activity. Consequently, drugs acting on SP receptors could potentially
      be used as a novel treatment for sleep-related disorders. In the present study,
      we used SP conjugated with cholera toxin A subunit (SP-CTA), which enhances its
      duration of activity on SP receptor-expressing cells, to determine the effects of
      selectively activating SP receptor-expressing brain cells on sleep regulation in
      mice. Herein, we found that intracerebroventricular administration of SP-CTA
      enhanced amounts of NREM sleep which was highly fragmented. This result suggests
      that the activation of SP receptor-expressing cells in the brain can produce not
      only arousal effects as shown in previous studies but also sleep-inducing
      effects.

PMID- 28866053
TI  - Anti-oxidative effects of safranal on immobilization-induced oxidative damage in
      rat brain.
AB  - Safranal, a major constituent of saffron, possesses antioxidant and anti
      apoptotic properties showing considerable neuroprotective effects. The present
      study was designed to investigate the effects of safranal against restraint
      stress induced oxidative damage in the rat brain. For inducing the chronic
      restraint stress, rats were kept in the restrainers for 1h every day, for 21
      consecutive days, then, the animals received systemic administrations of vehicle
      (0.1% DMSO) acted as the control group or safranal daily for 21days. Results
      indicated that the rats submitted to restraint stress showed an increase in the
      immobility time versus the non-stress rats. In addition, stress decreased number
      of crossing in the rats submitted to restraint stress versus the non-stress
      animals. Treatment with safranal (0.75mg/kg) showed a significant reduction in
      the immobility time compared to the non-treated stress group, while, the
      treatment improved the number of crossing in rats submitted to restraint stress
      versus the vehicle-treated stress rats. In the stressed animals that received
      vehicle, the MDA level was significantly higher and the levels of GSH and
      antioxidant enzymes were significantly lower than the non-stressed rats. Safranal
      ameliorated the changes in the stressed animals as compared with the control
      groups. The present findings indicate that safranal might be effective against
      depressant-like effects induced by chronic stress via modulating brain oxidative
      response.

PMID- 28866054
TI  - Substitutions in the cardenolide binding site and interaction of subunits affect
      kinetics besides cardenolide sensitivity of insect Na,K-ATPase.
AB  - Substitutions within the cardenolide target site of several insects' Na,K-ATPase
      alpha-subunits may confer resistance against toxic cardenolides. However, to
      which extent these substitutions alter the Na,K-ATPase's kinetic properties and
      how they interact with different beta-subunits is not clear. The cardenolide
      adapted milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus possesses three paralogs of the alpha
      subunit (A, B, and C) that differ in number and identity of resistance-conferring
      substitutions. We introduced these substitutions into the alpha-subunit of
      Drosophila melanogaster and combined them with the beta-subunits Nrv2.2 and Nrv3.
      The substitutions Q111T-N122H-F786N-T797A (A-copy mimic) and Q111T-N122H-F786N (B
      copy mimic) mediated high insensitivity to ouabain, yet they drastically lowered
      ATPase activity. Remarkably, the identity of the beta-subunit was decisive and
      all alpha-subunits were less active when combined with Nrv3 than when combined
      with Nrv2.2. Both the substitutions and the co-expressed beta-subunit strongly
      affected the enyzme's affinity for Na+ and K+. Na+ affinity was considerably
      higher for all enzymes expressed with nrv3 while expression with nrv2.2 mostly
      increased K+ affinity. Our results provide the first evidence that resistance
      against cardenolides comes at the cost of significantly altered kinetic
      properties of the Na,K-ATPase. The beta-subunit can strongly modulate these
      properties but cannot fully compensate for the effect of the substitutions.

PMID- 28866055
TI  - A novel culture method reveals unique neural stem/progenitors in mature porcine
      iris tissues that differentiate into neuronal and rod photoreceptor-like cells.
AB  - Iris neural stem/progenitor cells from mature porcine eyes were investigated
      using a new protocol for tissue culture, which consists of dispase treatment and
      Matrigel embedding. We used a number of culture conditions and found an intense
      differentiation of neuronal cells from both the iris pigmented epithelial (IPE)
      cells and the stroma tissue cells. Rod photoreceptor-like cells were also
      observed but mostly in a later stage of culture. Neuronal differentiation does
      not require any additives such as fetal bovine serum or FGF2, although FGF2 and
      IGF2 appeared to promote neural differentiation in the IPE cultures. Furthermore,
      the stroma-derived cells were able to be maintained in vitro indefinitely. The
      evolutionary similarity between humans and domestic pigs highlight the potential
      for this methodology in the modeling of human diseases and characterizing human
      ocular stem cells.

PMID- 28866056
TI  - Mitochondrial dynamics, transport, and quality control: A bottleneck for retinal
      ganglion cell viability in optic neuropathies.
AB  - Retinal ganglion cells, the neurons that selectively die in glaucoma and other
      optic neuropathies, are endowed with an exceedingly active metabolism and display
      a particular vulnerability to mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria are
      exquisitely dynamic organelles that are continually responding to endogenous and
      environmental cues to readily meet the energy demand of neuronal networks. The
      highly orchestrated regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis, fusion, fission,
      transport and degradation is paramount for the maintenance of energy-expensive
      synapses at RGC dendrites and axon terminals geared for optimal
      neurotransmission. The present review focuses on the progress made to date on
      understanding the biology of mitochondrial dynamics and quality control and how
      dysregulation of these processes can profoundly affect retinal ganglion cell
      viability and function in optic nerve diseases.

PMID- 28866057
TI  - Mitochondrial disruption in peroxisome deficient cells is hepatocyte selective
      but is not mediated by common hepatic peroxisomal metabolites.
AB  - The structural disruption of the mitochondrial inner membrane in hepatocytes
      lacking functional peroxisomes along with selective impairment of respiratory
      complexes and depletion of mitochondrial DNA was previously reported. In search
      for the molecular origin of these mitochondrial alterations, we here show that
      these are tissue selective as they do neither occur in peroxisome deficient brain
      nor in peroxisome deficient striated muscle. Given the hepatocyte selectivity, we
      investigated the potential involvement of metabolites that are primarily handled
      by hepatic peroxisomes. Levels of these metabolites were manipulated in L-Pex5
      knockout mice and/or compared with levels in different mouse models with a
      peroxisomal beta-oxidation deficiency. We show that neither the deficiency of
      docosahexaenoic acid nor the accumulation of branched chain fatty acids,
      dicarboxylic acids or C27 bile acid intermediates are solely responsible for the
      mitochondrial anomalies. In conclusion, we demonstrate that peroxisomal
      inactivity differentially impacts mitochondria depending on the cell type but the
      cause of the mitochondrial destruction needs to be further explored.

PMID- 28866058
TI  - Surgical "Fat Patch" Improves Secondary Intracranial Hypotension Orthostatic
      Headache Associated with Lumbosacral Dural Ectasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Secondary intracranial hypotension is a clinical syndrome associated
      with reduction of cerebrospinal fluid volume and dural continuity violation. The
      main symptoms are orthostatic headache associated with nausea, vomiting,
      diplopia, dizziness, and tinnitus. The treatment is usually nonspecific. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: A 37-year-old woman developed secondary intracranial hypotension
      caused by lumbosacral iatrogenic dural ectasia following detethering surgery. An
      orthostatic headache was the mainstay of her clinical picture, and it was
      confirmed by intracranial pressure monitoring. Conservative treatment including
      spinal blood patch improved symptoms for a limited amount of time (<1 month).
      Altered compliance of the dural spinal sac was suspected. Therefore thecal sac
      remodeling by placing autologous fat at the level of the dural ectasia was
      performed, improving the symptoms for 2 years. CONCLUSION: Volumetric reduction
      of the epidural space may be considered as a valuable therapeutic option in case
      of intracranial hypotension that is unresponsive to medical treatments and spinal
      blood patch, as well as when an altered compliance of the dural sac is
      hypothesized.

PMID- 28866059
TI  - Revascularization Operation for Moyamoya Disease with Concurrent von Willebrand
      Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass is an effective
      treatment strategy for symptomatic moyamoya disease, surgeons need to be cautious
      regarding the possibility of postoperative hemorrhagic complications in patients
      with a concurrent coagulation disorder. Here, we describe a case of EC-IC bypass
      for moyamoya disease concurrent with von Willebrand disease type 1. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: Following perioperative replacement of the von Willebrand factor,
      the patient showed an uneventful and uncomplicated clinical course. CONCLUSION:
      This is the first reported case of EC-IC bypass being performed for moyamoya
      disease in a patient with concurrent von Willebrand disease. We emphasize the
      importance of appropriate management with replacement of the von Willebrand
      factor during the perioperative period to avoid hemorrhagic complications.

PMID- 28866060
TI  - Fluorescence Behavior and Dural Infiltration of Meningioma Analyzed by 5
      Aminolevulinic Acid-Based Fluorescence: Operating Microscope Versus Mini
      Spectrometer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare fluorescence intensity of tumor specimens, as measured by a
      fluorescence-guided surgery microscope and a spectrometer, to evaluate tumor
      infiltration of dura mater around meningiomas with help of these 2 different 5
      aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-based fluorescence tools, and to correlate
      fluorescence intensity with histopathologic data. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a
      clinical series, meningiomas were resected by 5-ALA fluorescence-guided surgery.
      Fluorescence intensity was semiquantitatively rated by the surgeon at predefined
      points. Biopsies were harvested and fluorescence intensity measured by a
      spectrometer and histopathologically analyzed. Sampling was realized at the level
      of the dura in a centrifugal direction. RESULTS: A total of 104 biopsies (n = 13
      tumors) were analyzed. Specificity and sensitivity of the microscope were 0.96
      and 0.53 and of the spectrometer 0.95 and 0.93, respectively. Fluorescence
      intensity as measured by the spectrometer was correlated to histologically
      confirmed tumor burden. In a centrifugal direction, tumor burden and fluorescence
      intensity continuously decreased (along the dural tail). Below a threshold value
      of 639 arbitrary units no tumor was histologically detectable. CONCLUSIONS: At
      the level of the dura the spectrometer was highly sensitive for detection of
      meningioma cells. The surgical microscope showed false negative results and
      missed residual tumor cells in more than one half of the cases. The complementary
      use of both fluorescence tools may improve resection quality.

PMID- 28866061
TI  - Staged Trapping of Traumatic Basilar Trunk Pseudoaneurysm: Case Report and Review
      of Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traumatic intracranial aneurysms (TICAs) of the posterior circulation
      in the pediatric populations are rare. Only a few reports in the literature
      document basilar artery TICA in the pediatric population. These cases were
      typically associated with a clival fracture and commonly diagnosed weeks to
      months after trauma. We present a case of a patient with a basilar TICA diagnosed
      after a motor vehicle collision treated with staged trapping and review of the
      literature. CASE DESCRIPTION: We present a case of a 14-year-old boy who
      sustained a high-speed motor vehicle collision and developed a basilar trunk TICA
      identified on admission. Initially, the patient underwent craniotomy for proximal
      sacrifice of the basilar artery in hope for spontaneous thrombosis of the
      aneurysm through flow reversal. Endovascular options were reviewed and felt to be
      less feasible than surgical trapping. Due to continued filling through the right
      posterior communicating artery, the second surgery was performed to distally trap
      the aneurysm. The aneurysm was opened, showing some thrombosis and the absence of
      flow. Repeat magnetic resonance imaging did not reveal any new infarction, and
      the patient was discharged with neurologic improvement over time. At 1 year, he
      was able to ambulate unassisted and had a modified Rankin Scale score of 3.
      CONCLUSION: Development of a TICA may be more acute than literature previously
      suggested. Treatment consists of a wide range of options and should be
      considered, especially in the pediatric population, to prevent rupture. Trapping
      can be performed safely if adequate collateral flow is present in the setting of
      a large basilar artery aneurysm.

PMID- 28866062
TI  - Presurgical Administration of mTOR Inhibitors in Patients with Large Subependymal
      Giant Cell Astrocytoma Associated with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Direct surgical resection remains the standard treatment for patients
      with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) with a large subependymal giant cell
      astrocytoma (SEGA). Rapamycin or everolimus is seldom used in these patients
      because of the risk of increased intracranial pressure and possibility of sudden
      death. CASE DESCRIPTIONS: Three patients with TSC and a large intracranial SEGA
      received oral rapamycin (0.5 mg/day) or everolimus (2.5 mg/day) before surgery
      for tumor resection. After mTOR inhibitor therapy, computed tomography scans and
      magnetic resonance imaging revealed tumor reduction. Tumor bleeding was easy to
      control during surgery, and the border between tumor and surrounding brain tissue
      was clearly differentiated. Analysis of postsurgical tumor specimens showed low
      blood density and focal necrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative mTOR inhibitors could
      be a potentially novel treatment modality in large TSC-SEGA with hydrocephalus.
      In this series, mTOR inhibitors were not only safe and well tolerated, but also
      beneficial for tumor resection.

PMID- 28866064
TI  - Surgical Outcomes of Posterolateral Sulcus Approach for Spinal Intramedullary
      Tumors: Tumor Resection and Functional Preservation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Selection of the access myelotomy is a key issue in surgery for
      spinal intramedullary tumors. This study focused on surgical outcomes with the
      posterolateral sulcus (PLS) approach, equivalent to dorsal root entry zone
      myelotomy. METHODS: This retrospective study of the 10-year period from 2007 to
      2016 included 90 cases of spinal intramedullary lesions (99 operations). A PLS
      approach was indicated for intramedullary lesions situated laterally in the
      spinal cord showing no contact with the spinal cord surface. Neurological
      conditions before and after surgery were carefully assessed objectively. RESULTS:
      A PLS approach was applied in 34 of the 99 operations (34.3%). Among 70 cases
      involving astrocytic tumor, ependymal tumor, cavernous malformation or
      hemangioblastoma, 23 cases (32.9%) were operated on using a PLS approach.
      Microscopically gross total or subtotal removal of the tumor was achieved in 18
      of 23 cases (78.3%). These 18 cases demonstrated mild deterioration of motor
      function on the approach side early after surgery, but usually resolving within
      several months postoperatively. Average grade of the modified McCormick
      functional schema before surgery was maintained 6 months postoperatively. Average
      grade of the sensory pain scale before surgery was significantly improved by 6
      months postoperatively. Segmental dysesthesia on the approach side unexpectedly
      remained in 2 of 18 cases (11.1%) even late after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings suggest that the PLS approach can provide direct access to tumors with
      minimal tissue damage, when applied appropriately after careful case selection.

PMID- 28866063
TI  - Spinal Cord Astrocytoma with Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 1 Gene Mutation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2016, the World Health Organization updated its classification of
      tumors, adding genetic profiles to the conventional histopathologic typing. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: The authors present herein the first case of a 44-year-old female
      with isocitrate dehydrogenase-mutant World Health Organization grade II diffuse
      spinal astrocytoma diagnosed on the basis of both histopathologic and genetic
      findings. CONCLUSIONS: The present case underscores the significant role of a
      molecular genetic analysis in the differential diagnosis of intramedullary spinal
      gliomas.

PMID- 28866065
TI  - Intradural Chordoma of Cerebellopontine Angle: Case Report and Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chordomas are rare, notochord-derived neoplasms. Of these tumors,
      intradural chordomas are exceedingly rare. Most occur within the prepontine,
      parasellar, or other midline intradural locations. An intradural chordoma arising
      from the cerebellopontine angle has not been described previously. CASE REPORT:
      We describe the first case of an intradural chordoma originating from the left
      cerebellopontine angle resected over the course of 2 operations. CONCLUSIONS:
      Intradural chordomas are rare and can arise anywhere in the posterior fossa. Lack
      of bony involvement on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are
      indicative of this pathology when there is also a lack of markers indicating the
      presence of more common cerebellopontine angle tumors. Treatment goals should
      include gross total resection and possible radiation therapy.

PMID- 28866067
TI  - Fostering Student Interest in Neurologic Surgery: The University of Pittsburgh
      Experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Early involvement and research in neurosurgery can increase chances
      for medical students to matriculate successfully into residency. This study
      reports the creation of a Neurological Surgery Interest Group (NSIG) at the
      University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and shares its activities over 2
      academic years. METHODS: In October 2014, the University of Pittsburgh School of
      Medicine's NSIG was created to augment medical student interest in neurosurgery.
      The group consisted of 4 appointed officers for a membership base of 100
      students. In June 2015, a neurosurgery resident and faculty member joined as
      mentors. A research committee of 14 medical students was created to conduct
      collaborative research projects with the department. In August of 2015 and 2016,
      surveys were sent out to the research committee regarding research productivity.
      RESULTS: The NSIG hosted 17 medical student-oriented events over 2 years,
      including didactic and suturing workshops, senior faculty panels, postmatch
      talks, and a neurosurgery networking dinner. A survey of students about scholarly
      achievement in neurosurgery reported 17 accepted publications in peer-reviewed
      journals with a mean impact factor of 3.5 +/- 2.5. Ten abstracts were submitted
      to the 2015 and 2016 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Scientific
      Meetings, with a 100% acceptance rate. An increase in the number of students
      matching from our institution into neurosurgery residencies was observed
      following the group's inception. CONCLUSIONS: An NSIG can be mutually beneficial
      to both medical students and an institution's neurosurgical department. This
      study's findings may be applied to numerous specialties and across various
      academic institutions.

PMID- 28866066
TI  - The Quantitative and Functional Changes of Postoperative Peripheral Blood Immune
      Cell Subsets Relate to Prognosis of Patients with Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A
      Preliminary Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that the preoperative (PRE) and postoperative
      (POST) immune system alteration triggered by aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage
      (SAH) and surgical treatment itself may affect patients' prognosis and contribute
      to POST complications. The mechanisms may be attributed to immune suppression
      triggered infection or immune overreaction-triggered aseptic inflammation. In
      this study, we investigated the dynamic changes in peripheral immune cell subsets
      as well as the alterations of inflammatory cytokines in patients with aneurysmal
      SAH who received craniotomy and clipping surgery. In addition, we studied the
      association of those changes with POST complications and clinical prognosis.
      METHODS: We investigated 27 patients who received craniotomy and clipping surgery
      for aneurysmal SAH. The operations were all performed within 24 hours after the
      occurrence of aneurysm rupture. Detailed immune monitoring (peripheral blood
      leukocytes and lymphocyte subsets and inflammatory cytokines) was performed on
      PRE (on admission), day 1, day 3, and day 6 after operation. RESULTS: Our data
      showed that the percentage of CD3+, CD8+, natural killer T (NKT), CD4+, and
      regulatory T (Treg) cells significantly decreased and the level of interleukin 4
      (IL-4), interferon gamma, and IL-2 significantly increased 1 day after surgery
      compared with the data in PRE. On the contrary, natural killer (NK), NK group 2
      (NKG2D), and B cells increased and the level of IL-10 in plasma decreased. In
      study of the relationship between POST fever and the change in immune cell
      subgroups, the fever group had a lower percentage of CD3+, CD4+, NKT, Tregs, and
      B cells on day 1, day 3, and day 6 after surgery compared with the patients who
      did not have fever, whereas the CD8+, NK, and NKG2D subsets showed the opposite
      trend. Furthermore, we analyzed the association between immune profile changes
      and the prognosis of those patients. The patients were divided into those with an
      unfavorable prognosis (n = 6) and those with a favorable prognosis (n = 21)
      according to Glasgow Outcome Scale score and postoperation (POST) coma. Our
      results showed that except for B cells, patients with a favorable prognosis had a
      relatively higher percentage of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, NK, NKT, NKG2D, and Treg cells
      compared with the unfavorable prognosis group from PRE to day 6 POST.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that patients with aneurysmal SAH undergoing
      craniotomy and clipping surgery had a profound transient deterioration in immune
      function. In addition, the changes in immune cell subgroups had a strong
      association with POST fever. The changes in immune cell subgroups were also
      directly associated with clinical prognosis of the patients. These association
      findings might be attributable to a better biomarker to predict patient
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28866068
TI  - Treating Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea without Dura Repair: A Case Report of
      Posterior Fossa Choroid Plexus Papilloma and Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Choroid plexus papilloma revealed by nontraumatic cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) rhinorrhea has only been described 5 times, to our knowledge, in the
      literature. The challenges in this situation are to recognize CSF leak, to
      rapidly understand the pathophysiology of the leak, and to choose the best
      treatment strategy in emergency. We report an original case of posterior fossa
      choroid plexus papilloma revealed by CSF leak. We then discuss the surgical
      strategy and the pathophysiology of CSF leak, which is explained, in this case,
      by both hyperproduction of CSF and local skull base erosion. CASE DESCRIPTION: We
      report the case of a 47-year-old man who has developed spontaneous rhinorrhea,
      right hearing loss, and confusion. A choroid plexus papilloma of the right
      cerebellomedullary cistern was diagnosed. Hydrocephalus and pneumocephalus were
      associated with an erosion of the homolateral skull base. The patient underwent
      surgical total tumor removal by a median suboccipital approach after implantation
      of a temporary external ventricular drainage. The patient recovered completely
      without any recurrence of CSF rhinorrhea. The 5-month postoperative images show
      total bone re-growth and resolution of hydrocephalus. CONCLUSIONS: Our case shows
      that 1) causal reasoning is of major importance when dealing with CSF rhinorrhea
      and that 2) dura repair can be avoided when treating CSF leak secondary to
      posterior fossa choroid plexus papilloma.

PMID- 28866069
TI  - Revesz syndrome masquerading as traumatic retinal detachment.
AB  - A 13-month-old boy with mild hemophilia A presented for strabismus evaluation and
      was found to have retinal hemorrhages in the right eye, left exotropia, and left
      total retinal detachment. These findings were attributed to trauma and hemophilia
      A. Routine blood work for hemophilia A subsequently showed pancytopenia. A bone
      marrow aspirate showed marked hypocellularity consistent with severe aplastic
      anemia, and telomere testing revealed very short telomeres. The patient was found
      to have a TINF2 mutation consistent with a diagnosis of Revesz syndrome, a
      variant of dyskeratosis congenita. He underwent successful bone marrow
      transplantation, and on subsequent evaluation was found to have retinal
      hemorrhages, vessel sclerosis, and cotton wool spots in the right eye associated
      with peripheral retinal nonperfusion. He underwent retinal laser treatment to the
      areas of retinal nonperfusion which resulted in stable visual function.

PMID- 28866070
TI  - Next-Generation Sequencing: A Novel Approach to Distinguish Multifocal Primary
      Lung Adenocarcinomas from Intrapulmonary Metastases.
AB  - Distinguishing between multiple lung primary tumors and intrapulmonary metastases
      is imperative for accurate staging. The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)
      criteria are routinely used for this purpose but can yield equivocal conclusions.
      This study evaluated whether next-generation sequencing (NGS) using the 50-gene
      AmpliSeq Cancer Hotspot Panel version 2 can help facilitate this distinction. NGS
      was performed on known primary-metastatic pairs (8 patients) and multiple lung
      adenocarcinomas (11 patients). Primary-metastatic pairs had high mutational
      concordance. Seven pairs shared mutations, and 1 was concordant for having no
      mutations. Driver mutations in KRAS (n = 4), EGFR (n = 2), and BRAF (n = 1) were
      always concordant. Multiple lung tumors from 3 patients were completely
      concordant and predicted by NGS to be intrapulmonary metastases, whereas 8 had
      completely discordant mutations and were predicted to be independent primary
      tumors. The NGS prediction correlated with the AJCC (eighth edition) prediction
      in all patients for whom the latter was unequivocal (8 of 11). Furthermore, it
      separated patients by overall survival. Patients with predicted multiple
      independent primary tumors by NGS had better survival than those with distant
      metastases (P = 0.016, log-rank test), whereas those with predicted
      intrapulmonary metastases had no difference (P = 0.527). With further validation,
      the 50-gene panel has the potential to serve as an adjunct to the AJCC criteria.

PMID- 28866071
TI  - Neuropathological and behavioral sequelae in IL-1R1 and IL-1Ra gene knockout mice
      after soman (GD) exposure.
AB  - Soman (GD) exposure results in status epilepticus (SE) that leads to
      neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation, and behavioral consequences including
      learning and memory deficits. The neuroinflammatory response is characterized by
      the upregulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-1 (IL-1), which
      mediates the expression of other neurotoxic cytokines induced after GD exposure.
      However, the specific role of IL-1 signaling has not been defined in terms of the
      consequences of GD-induced SE. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to
      regulate IL-1 signaling and study the behavioral deficits and neurodegeneration
      that occur after convulsion onset. Wild type (WT), IL-1 receptor (IL-1R1)
      knockout (KO), and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) KO mice were exposed to a
      convulsive dose of GD, and behavior was evaluated up to 18days later. Activity
      was studied using the Open Field, anxiety was assessed in the Zero Maze, and
      spatial learning and memory were evaluated with the Barnes Maze. The animals were
      euthanized at 24hours and 18days to determine neuropathology in the piriform
      cortex, amygdala, thalamus, and CA1, CA2/3, and CA4 regions of the hippocampus.
      Unlike the IL-1Ra KO, the IL-1R1 KO showed less neuropathology compared to WT at
      24hours, but moderate to severe injury was found in all strains at 18days.
      Compared to their saline controls, the exposed WT mice were significantly more
      active in the Open Field, and the IL-1R1 KO strain showed reduced anxiety in the
      Zero Maze Test. Compared to WT mice, IL-1R1 and IL-1Ra KO mice had spatial
      learning and memory impairments in the Barnes Maze. Therefore, the IL-1 signaling
      pathway affects neurodegeneration and behavior after GD-induced convulsions.

PMID- 28866072
TI  - Changes in the cannabinoids receptors in rats following treatment with
      antidepressants.
AB  - The endocannabinoid (eCB) system plays a significant role in the pathophysiology
      of depression. The potential participation of this system in the mechanism of
      action of antidepressants has been highlighted in recent years. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the expression of cannabinoid (CB) receptors using
      Western blot and CB1 receptor density using autoradiography after acute or
      chronic administration of antidepressant drugs [imipramine (IMI, 15mg/kg),
      escitalopram (ESC, 10mg/kg) and tianeptine (TIA, 10mg/kg)]. Antidepressants given
      chronically elevated CB1 receptor density in the cortical structures and
      hippocampal areas, while a decrease of CB1 receptor density was observed in the
      striatum after IMI and ESC treatment. The CB1 receptor expression decreases in
      the dorsal striatum after chronic administration of IMI and ESC or the receptor
      rise in the hippocampus after chronic ESC and TIA treatment were confirmed using
      Western blot analyses. An increase in the CB2 receptor expression was observed in
      the cortical structures and hippocampus after chronic administration of ESC and
      TIA, while a decrease in this expression was noted in the striatum and cerebellum
      after chronic IMI treatment. Our results provide clear evidence that the
      antidepressant exposures provoke some modulations within the eCB system through
      CB receptors.

PMID- 28866073
TI  - National trends in radiotherapy for brain metastases at time of diagnosis of non
      small cell lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To analyze the national trends of patients treated radiotherapy for
      brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that were found at
      diagnosis. METHODS: The National Cancer Database was queried for patients with
      NSCLC diagnosed from 2004 to 2013 that received brain irradiation for metastases
      and patients grouped into having had received fractionated brain radiotherapy (5
      15 fractions with or without radiosurgery) or intracranial radiosurgery alone (1
      5 fractions). Univariable and multivariable (MVA) analyses were performed to
      investigate factors associated with the receipt of SRS alone, and
      temporal/regional trends. RESULTS: 47,746 patients met inclusion criteria, of
      which 42,148 received fractionated brain irradiation (88%) and 5,598 received
      radiosurgery (12%). 345 patients received fractioned brain irradiation with a
      radiosurgical boost (0.8%). The utilization of radiosurgery-alone increased over
      time owing to increases in each radiosurgery modality. On MVA, several factors
      were associated with increased odds of receiving intracranial radiosurgery-alone
      over fractionated brain radiotherapy including more recent year of diagnosis,
      increased median income, eastern U.S. regions, further distance to the hospital,
      and the receipt of chemotherapy (each p<0.001). Patients of Asian descent were
      less likely to receive radiosurgery alone (p=0.044). CONCLUSIONS: In the
      management of brain metastases from NSCLC, overall utilization of an intracranial
      radiosurgery alone treatment strategy has increased over the past decade. Despite
      this, there appear to be significant geographic variations and disparities remain
      based on patient income level and race. Further study is needed to define the
      reasons for these disparities and appropriate actions to mitigate them.

PMID- 28866074
TI  - Anatomical connections between the buccinator and the tendons of the temporalis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to clarify the anatomical relationship between the
      buccinator and the temporalis in order to improve understanding of the precise
      and coordinated movements of the mouth and the mandible. The buccinator and the
      temporalis were investigated in 72 hemifaces from Korean cadavers. Removing the
      buccal fat pad from the buccinator revealed that the fascia encircled the space
      between the superficial and deep tendons of the temporalis laterally, and the
      external surface of the buccinator medially in all specimens (100%). The fascia
      was located between the buccinator and the tendons of the temporalis, thereby
      connecting these two muscles. The fascial space was filled with connective
      tissue, and the buccal nerve and artery passed through this space. The inferior
      fibers of the buccinator arose from the anterior portion of the deep tendon of
      the temporalis in all specimens (100%). The anterior portion of the deep tendon
      of the temporalis extended forward obliquely between the ramus and body of the
      mandible. Thus, both the anterior portion of the deep tendon of the temporalis
      and its attaching inferior muscle fibers of the buccinator coursed obliquely. The
      above observations indicate that the connecting fascia between the buccinator and
      tendons of the temporalis and the inferior fibers of the buccinator that were
      attached to the deep tendon of the temporalis could assist in coordinatation of
      the movements of the mandibular region and the mouth angle in the timing and
      strength of contraction of the muscles during mastication, facial expression, and
      speech.

PMID- 28866075
TI  - Between Disease-Causing and an Innocent Bystander: The Role of Titin as a
      Modifier in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28866077
TI  - Importance of Optimization of Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Lifestyle
      Behaviours.

PMID- 28866076
TI  - Score of Adherence to 2016 European Cardiovascular Prevention Guidelines Predicts
      Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality in the General Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guidelines on cardiovascular (CV) disease prevention promote healthy
      lifestyle behaviours and CV risk factor control to reduce CV risk. The effect of
      adherence to these guidelines on CV and all-cause mortality is not well known.
      METHODS: We assessed the effect of baseline adherence to "2016 European
      Guidelines on CV Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice" on long-term CV and all
      cause mortality in a sample recruited from the French general population.
      Analysis was on the basis of the Third French Monitoring of Trends and
      Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease (MONICA) population-based survey
      (recruitment period: 1994-1997). We built an adherence score to European
      guidelines, considering adherence to recommendations for smoking, drinking,
      physical activity, body mass index, blood pressure, low-density and high-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, and diet at baseline. Vital
      status was obtained 18 years after inclusion. Statistical analysis was on the
      basis of multivariate Cox modelling. RESULTS: Adherence score was assessed in
      1311 apparently healthy participants aged 35-64 years (73% men). During the
      follow-up, 186 deaths occurred (41 were due to a CV cause). Considering CV
      mortality, the adjusted hazard ratio for subjects in the fourth quartile of the
      adherence score (worse adherence) was 3.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.62
      6.01; P = 0.001), compared with subjects in the first, second, or third quartile
      (best adherence). Considering all-cause mortality, the adjusted hazard ratio for
      subjects in the fourth quartile of the adherence score was 2.27 (95% CI, 1.68
      3.06; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Better baseline adherence to European guidelines
      on CV disease prevention was associated with a significantly reduced long-term CV
      and all-cause mortality in a sample from the French general population.

PMID- 28866078
TI  - Utility of Unfractionated Heparin in Transradial Cardiac Catheterization: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unfractionated heparin (UFH) is purported to reduce the risk of
      radial artery occlusion (RAO) after transradial cardiac catheterization. However,
      the efficacy and optimal dose remain unclear. This meta-analysis evaluates the
      safety and efficacy of UFH in this context. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, ISI Web of
      Science, and the Cochrane Registry were searched from 1948-May 2017. Studies
      investigating UFH for reducing RAO in transradial coronary catheterization were
      included. Data were combined using a random-effects model. RESULTS: Of 220
      citations, 8 studies (6 randomized, 2 nonrandomized; 2937 patients) were
      included. Two studies comparing UFH and no UFH (n = 778) found no significant
      benefit of UFH in reducing RAO (odds ratio [OR], 0.24; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 0.01-4.67; P = 0.34; I2 = 97%). Studies comparing higher-dose (5000 IU) and
      lower-dose (2,000-3,000 IU) UFH (n = 2475) found a reduction in RAO with higher
      dose UFH but significant heterogeneity was demonstrated (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.12
      0.64; P = 0.003; I2 = 82%). These studies were stratified by study method: for
      nonrandomized studies (n = 411), a lower rate of RAO was observed with no
      heterogeneity (OR, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.07-0.28; P < 0.001; I2 = 0%); for randomized
      studies (n = 2064), a borderline significant reduction was also noted, but
      significant heterogeneity was demonstrated (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.14-0.99; P =
      0.05; I2 = 84%). There was a trend toward more bleeding events with high-dose UFH
      (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 0.93-3.29; P = 0.08; I2, 0%). CONCLUSIONS: Observational
      studies suggest a benefit of higher-dose vs lower-dose UFH in reducing RAO.
      However, this is less clear in randomized trials. Adequately powered randomized
      studies are required to determine the role of UFH in preventing RAO in
      transradial cardiac catheterization.

PMID- 28866079
TI  - Alternate synthesis to d-glycero-beta-d-manno-heptose 1,7-biphosphate.
AB  - d-glycero-beta-d-manno-heptose 1,7-biphosphate (HBP) is an enzymatic intermediate
      in the biosynthesis of the heptose component of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and was
      recently revealed to be a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) that
      allows detection of Gram-negative bacteria by the mammalian immune system.
      Cellular detection of HBP depends upon its stimulation of a cascade that leads to
      the phosphorylation and assembly of the TRAF-interacting with forkhead-associated
      domain protein A (TIFA), which activates the transcription factor NF-kappaB. In
      this note, an alternate chemical synthesis of HBP is described and its biological
      activity is established, providing pure material for further assessing and
      exploiting the biological activity of this compound.

PMID- 28866080
TI  - The Tartary Buckwheat Genome Provides Insights into Rutin Biosynthesis and
      Abiotic Stress Tolerance.
AB  - Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is an important pseudocereal crop that is
      strongly adapted to growth in adverse environments. Its gluten-free grain
      contains complete proteins with a well-balanced composition of essential amino
      acids and is a rich source of beneficial phytochemicals that provide significant
      health benefits. Here, we report a high-quality, chromosome-scale Tartary
      buckwheat genome sequence of 489.3 Mb that is assembled by combining whole-genome
      shotgun sequencing of both Illumina short reads and single-molecule real-time
      long reads, sequence tags of a large DNA insert fosmid library, Hi-C sequencing
      data, and BioNano genome maps. We annotated 33 366 high-confidence protein-coding
      genes based on expression evidence. Comparisons of the intra-genome with the
      sugar beet genome revealed an independent whole-genome duplication that occurred
      in the buckwheat lineage after they diverged from the common ancestor, which was
      not shared with rosids or asterids. The reference genome facilitated the
      identification of many new genes predicted to be involved in rutin biosynthesis
      and regulation, aluminum stress resistance, and in drought and cold stress
      responses. Our data suggest that Tartary buckwheat's ability to tolerate high
      levels of abiotic stress is attributed to the expansion of several gene families
      involved in signal transduction, gene regulation, and membrane transport. The
      availability of these genomic resources will facilitate the discovery of
      agronomically and nutritionally important genes and genetic improvement of
      Tartary buckwheat.

PMID- 28866081
TI  - Mapping the Arabidopsis Metabolic Landscape by Untargeted Metabolomics at
      Different Environmental Conditions.
AB  - Metabolic genome-wide association studies (mGWAS), whereupon metabolite levels
      are regarded as traits, can help unravel the genetic basis of metabolic networks.
      A total of 309 Arabidopsis accessions were grown under two independent
      environmental conditions (control and stress) and subjected to untargeted LC-MS
      based metabolomic profiling; levels of the obtained hydrophilic metabolites were
      used in GWAS. Our two-condition-based GWAS for more than 3000 semi-polar
      metabolites resulted in the detection of 123 highly resolved metabolite
      quantitative trait loci (p <= 1.0E-08), 24.39% of which were environment
      specific. Interestingly, differently from natural variation in Arabidopsis
      primary metabolites, which tends to be controlled by a large number of small
      effect loci, we found several major large-effect loci alongside a vast number of
      small-effect loci controlling variation of secondary metabolites. The two
      condition-based GWAS was followed by integration with network-derived metabolite
      transcript correlations using a time-course stress experiment. Through this
      integrative approach, we selected 70 key candidate associations between
      structural genes and metabolites, and experimentally validated eight novel
      associations, two of them showing differential genetic regulation in the two
      environments studied. We demonstrate the power of combining large-scale
      untargeted metabolomics-based GWAS with time-course-derived networks both
      performed under different abiotic environments for identifying metabolite-gene
      associations, providing novel global insights into the metabolic landscape of
      Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28866082
TI  - The in situ morphology of microglia is highly sensitive to the mode of tissue
      fixation.
AB  - Microglia are known as the most motile cells in the central nervous system (CNS).
      It was shown in vivo that they permanently scan their direct microenvironment and
      react to pathological conditions within minutes. Many studies of brain
      pathologies use fixed brain tissue to investigate cellular changes.
      Unfortunately, due to technical reasons, the time span between the induction of
      the fixation procedure (start of the perfusion) and the finally-fixed tissue
      lasts several minutes, giving time to microglia to start reacting to the ischemic
      conditions due to perfusion start. Here, we investigated the microglial changes
      generated by the fixation itself in TgH(CX3CR1-EGFP) mice with fluorescent
      labelled microglia using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) of fixed brain
      tissue as well as two-photon laser scanning microscopy (2P-LSM) during the
      perfusion of a living animal. We revealed the impact of fixation and buffer
      parameters on cell morphology. The largest morphological differences compared to
      physiological in vivo branch arborization were observed when the directly
      dissected brain was immersed in paraformaldehyde fixation solution overnight,
      without prior fixative perfusion of the animal. But even perfusion with a
      fixative, followed by post-fixation leads to small changes in microglial process
      length and number and could not be prevented when compared to physiological in
      vivo microglia morphology acquired using in vivo 2P-LSM. Interestingly, perfusion
      with different buffers either oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid or
      phosphate buffered saline prior to perfusion-fixation showed minor microglia
      changes in arborization and/or number of processes. Fixation methods influence
      microglia morphology. Therefore, to define microglia activation states
      immunohistochemical stainings or genetic labelling of the cells have to be
      included in addition to morphological analysis.

PMID- 28866083
TI  - The developmental transcriptome landscape of receptive endometrium during embryo
      implantation in dairy goats.
AB  - Under natural conditions, some embryos cannot implant successfully because of the
      dysfunction of receptive endometrium (RE). Thus, it is imperative for us to study
      the molecular mechanisms involved in the formation of the RE from pre-receptive
      endometrium (PE). In this study, the endometrium from gestational day 5 (D5, PE)
      and gestational day 15 (D15, RE) dairy goats were selected to systematically
      analyze the transcriptome using strand-specific Ribo-Zero RNA-Seq, >120 million
      high-quality paired-end reads were generated and 47,616 transcripts were
      identified in the endometrium of dairy goats. A total of 810 mRNAs were
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the RE and PE meeting the criteria
      of P-values<0.05. Bioinformatics analysis of the DEGs revealed that a number of
      biological processes and pathways were potentially involved in the establishment
      of the RE, notably energy metabolism and amino acid metabolism. Furthermore, we
      speculated that CXCL14, IGFBP3, and LGALS15 potentially participated in the
      development of endometrium. What's more, putative SNPs, InDels and AS events were
      identified and analyzed in the endometrium. In a word, this resulting view of the
      transcriptome greatly enhances the comprehensive transcript catalog and uncovers
      the global trends in gene expression during the formation of receptive
      endometrium in dairy goats.

PMID- 28866084
TI  - A homozygous CEP135 mutation is associated with multiple morphological
      abnormalities of the sperm flagella (MMAF).
AB  - Multiple morphological abnormalities of the sperm flagella (MMAF) is a rare
      disease associated with primary infertility; however, ~50% of the genetic
      alterations associated with MMAF remain unclear. Here, we reported the case of a
      30-year-old infertile male from a consanguineous family. Whole-exome sequencing
      identified a homozygous mutation in the CEP135 gene (c.A1364T:p.D455V), with
      CEP135 previously reported to play a role in centriole biogenesis and
      specifically central pair assembly. D455V-mutated proteins formed protein
      aggregates in the centrosome and the flagella, which might potentially affect the
      function of centriole assembly. Moreover, intracytoplasmic sperm injection was
      performed using sperm from this patient; however, pregnancy failed following
      embryo transfer. This represents the first report of a homozygous mutation of
      CEP135 associated with MMAF. These results provide researchers and clinicians
      with a deeper understanding of the gene involved with MMAF and will help predict
      and assess pregnancy outcomes associated with in vitro fertilization.

PMID- 28866085
TI  - Comparative profiling of microRNAs and their association with sexual dimorphism
      in the fig wasp Ceratosolen solmsi.
AB  - microRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate various biological
      processes, including insect metamorphosis and sexual dimorphism. The fig
      pollinating wasp, Ceratosolen solmsi, is a member of the super family
      Chalcidoidea, which have mutualistic relationships with their fig tree hosts. C.
      solmsi exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism, which corresponds to the distinct
      lifestyles of both sexes. Our previous studies showed that these dimorphic
      characteristics are associated with a dimorphic gene expression pattern. In this
      study, we constructed six small RNA libraries from female and male wasps in three
      different developmental stages, i.e., larvae, early pupae, and late pupae. We
      detected known miRNAs and predicted novel miRNAs, and compared their expression
      patterns in both sexes and among different developmental stages. We focused
      mainly on the miRNAs with significantly different expression patterns between
      sexes and among different life stages, as well as their putative associations
      with metamorphosis and the formation of sexual dimorphism.

PMID- 28866086
TI  - Evaluation of the relationship between CD36 and MARCO single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms and susceptibility to carotid atherosclerosis in a Chinese Han
      population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the genetic association between two scavenger
      receptors single nucleotide polymorphisms (CD36 rs1761667, MARCO rs12998782) and
      carotid atherosclerosis in a Chinese Han population. METHODS: Samples of genomic
      DNA collected from patients (n=215) and healthy control subjects (n=252) were
      analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction with high-resolution melting analysis.
      Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were used to evaluate the association
      between the two SNPs and carotid atherosclerosis. RESULTS: There was no
      difference between the SNPs regarding their association with the frequency of
      carotid atherosclerosis in the case and control groups or in the male case group
      and control group. Female patients of genotype GA for CD36 rs1761667 and CT for
      MARCO rs12998782 were at an increased risk for carotid atherosclerosis. The
      presence of rs1761667 GA and rs12998782 CT may increase the risk for carotid
      atherosclerosis among postmenopausal females. CONCLUSIONS: CD36 and MARCO are
      associated with the susceptibility of Chinese Han females to carotid
      atherosclerosis. Menopausal status may affect the association between gene
      polymorphisms and carotid atherosclerosis in the female Chinese Han population.

PMID- 28866087
TI  - Identification, structural characterization and expression analysis of a novel
      carbonic anhydrase from freshwater mussel Hyriopsis cumingii.
AB  - In this study, an alpha-carbonic anhydrase (alpha-CA), HcCA3, from Hyriopsis
      cumingii was characterized. The full-length cDNA of HcCA3 was 1628bp, including a
      CA domain and an ORF of 1053bp which encoded 350 amino acids. Its predicted
      molecular weight was 39.69kDa and the pI was 5.92. qRT-PCR was used to determine
      the expression of the gene in various tissues at 0h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 96h,
      7d, 14d, 21d, 28d and 35d after inserting the pearl nucleus. The results showed
      that the HcCA3 was highly expressed in the mantle, whereas its expression was low
      in other tissues. Expression in the posterior mantle pallial (pMP) was
      significantly higher than that in the anterior mantle pallial (aMP) and mantle
      center (MC). Expression in the aMP, pMP and MC was significantly higher in purple
      mussels compared with that in white mussels. At the same time, during the
      formation of pearls, expression in the aMP, pMP and pearl sac (PS) decreased and
      then increased; whereas expression in the MC increased and then decreased. In
      situ hybridization showed that the HcCA3 was expressed in both inside and outside
      epidermal cells. In protein level, Western blot showed that HcCA3 was mainly
      expressed in the aMP, pMP and MC. Our results suggest that HcCA3 play a role in
      the formation of shell and pearl sac formation.

PMID- 28866088
TI  - Statin use and virus-related cirrhosis: A systemic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Liver cirrhosis and its complications are important
      factors contributing to mortality worldwide. Statin use is probably associated
      with lower risk of hepatic decompensation and mortality, but not with cirrhosis
      or fibrosis progression according to a recent systematic review. We aimed to
      evaluate the definite effects of statins on the risk of virus-related cirrhosis.
      METHODS: We systematically searched four databases up to May 7, 2017, without
      language restriction. Studies were included if they evaluated and clearly defined
      exposure to statins, reported fibrosis progression, risk of cirrhosis in patients
      with chronic viral hepatitis or decompensation in cirrhotic patients, and
      reported relative risks (RRs) or odds ratios (ORs), or provided data for their
      estimation. Pooled RRs (or ORs) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated
      using the random-effects models irrespective of statistical heterogeneity
      assessed with the Cochran's Q statistic and I2 statistic. RESULTS: Ten
      observational studies involving 12,3445 patients (8 cohort studies, n=12,1823; 1
      nested case-control, n=1350; and 1 abstract, n=272) were included. Statin use was
      associated with a statistically significant 51% reduction in the risk of virus
      related cirrhosis (pooled RRs, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.30-0.80; P=0.004), with
      substantial heterogeneity (I2=98.3%; P<0.001). Statin use was also associated
      with a 51% reduction in the risk of decompensation (pooled RRs, 0.49; 95% CI,
      0.41-0.59; P<0.001), which was statistically significant, with no heterogeneity
      (I2=33.8%; P=0.210). CONCLUSIONS: The meta-analysis showed that statin use was
      associated with a significantly reduced risk of virus-related cirrhosis and
      decompensation. However, these results should be interpreted with caution given
      the possibility of residual confounding. Large randomized controlled trials are
      warranted in future studies.

PMID- 28866089
TI  - The association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and atrial
      fibrillation: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
      (NAFLD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) has been suggested by recent epidemiological
      studies although the results were inconsistent. This meta-analysis was conducted
      to summarize all available data. METHODS: A comprehensive literature review was
      conducted using MEDLINE and EMBASE database through May 2017 to identify all
      studies that reported the risk of AF among patients with NAFLD versus those
      without NAFLD. Effect estimates from each study were extracted and combined
      together using the random-effect, generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian
      and Laird. RESULTS: Of 1009 studies, 5 studies (two cross-sectional studies and
      three cohort studies) with 238,129 participants met the eligibility criteria and
      were included in the meta-analysis. The risk of AF in patients with NAFLD was
      significantly higher than subjects without NAFLD with the pooled risks ratio of
      2.06 (95% confidence interval, 1.10-3.85). The statistical heterogeneity was high
      with an I2 of 78%, which was the major limitation of this meta-analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: A significantly increased risk of AF among patients with NAFLD was
      demonstrated in this study.

PMID- 28866090
TI  - Is within-normal range liver enzymes associated with metabolic syndrome in
      adults?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Considering the clear association between metabolic syndrome and
      future cardiovascular disease, early detection of metabolic syndrome is
      important. This study was conducted to assess the correlation between metabolic
      syndrome components and within-normal-range of liver enzymes in Iranian adults.
      METHODS: This cross-sectional study was comprised of 700 Iranian adults in the
      districts of East Azerbaijan-Iran in 2015. The levels of lipid profile and
      glucose were measured by enzymatic colorimetric methods. Weight, height, waist
      circumferences were measured with standard protocols. Aspartate aminotransferase
      (AST) and Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were assessed using the ultraviolet
      method. The Pearson correlation and Logistic regression were used to for
      statistical analysis. RESULTS: With increasing the number of metabolic
      abnormalities, the mean ALT level was increased significantly (Ptrend=0.04). In
      women, the increase in AST and ALT with increasing the number of metabolic
      abnormalities was statistically significant (PAST=0.01; PALT<0.001). In men, ALT
      level had significantly positive correlation with waist circumference (r=0.14,
      P<0.05), serum TG (r=0.16, P<0.05) and fasting plasma glucose (r=0.17, P<0.01).
      In women, there was a significant correlation between AST level and serum TG
      (r=0.15, P<0.05). A significant positive and negative correlation were found
      respectively between serum ALT and AST/ALT ratio and waist circumference, serum
      TG and fasting blood glucose. Women in the 4th quartile of ALT were 4.43 fold at
      an increased risk for metabolic syndrome outcome when compared to those in the
      first quartile [OR (95% CI): 4.43 (1.69, 11.63)]. In women, with increasing the
      quartiles of ALT within normal limits, the percent of participants with metabolic
      syndrome also increased significantly (Ptrend=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the
      results, the use of ALT and AST:ALT ratio as continuous biomarkers for early
      signaling of dysmetabolism especially in women could be encouraged.

PMID- 28866091
TI  - Variation in Sodium Intake and Intra-individual Change in Blood Pressure in
      Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In the kidney disease clinic setting, higher-than-usual blood pressure
      is often ascribed to recent dietary sodium indiscretion. While clinical trials
      demonstrate a clear relationship between salt intake and blood pressure on the
      population level, it is uncertain whether real-world variation in sodium intake
      within individual chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is associated with
      fluctuations in blood pressure. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Phosphorus
      Normalization Trial, in which participants with CKD eating their usual diets
      completed at least three 24-hour urine collections over 9 months, from which we
      measured sodium. Blood pressure was measured at the time of 24-hour urine
      collections. For each individual participant, we assessed the slope of the
      relationship between sodium intake and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP).
      RESULTS: Among 119 participants (mean age 67 years and mean estimated glomerular
      filtration rate 31 mL/minute/1.73 m2), there was substantial variation in sodium
      intake as measured by 24-hour urine collections (mean intake 3,903 mg/day,
      standard deviation 1037 mg/day). Individual participants had highly variable
      associations between their sodium intake and their MAP; 47% (n = 56) had inverse
      associations between sodium and MAP, whereas the remainder had positive (salt
      sensitive) associations. CONCLUSIONS: Among CKD patients, there is substantial
      variation in sodium intake but no predictable relationship between dietary sodium
      and blood pressure in individuals. The frequent dismissal of elevated blood
      pressure readings as related to recent sodium intake in clinic may be a
      misapplication of large-scale population data to explain individual variability
      and may contribute to clinical inertia regarding high blood pressure treatment.

PMID- 28866093
TI  - MiR-127 and miR-376a act as tumor suppressors by in vivo targeting of COA1 and
      PDIA6 in giant cell tumor of bone.
AB  - Giant cell tumors of bone (GCTB) are generally benign bone tumors associated with
      expansive osteolytic defects, a high rate of recurrence and potential malignant
      transformation. We recently observed silencing of miR-127-3p and miR-376a-3p in
      GCTB and identified COA1 and PDIA6 as their target genes. Here, we investigate
      the impact of these microRNAs and their target genes on tumor engraftment and
      progression of giant cell tumor stromal cells (GCTSC) in vivo by
      xenotransplantation on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken eggs. Prior to
      transplantation, the neoplastic GCTSCs were transfected with miRNA mimics or
      siRNAs directed against their target genes. Restoration of miR-127-3p and miR
      376a-3p reduced the tumor take rate to 17% and 47% compared to 95% in the
      controls. The tumor volumes were significantly reduced to 29% by both miRNAs.
      Silencing of COA1 and PDIA6 significantly decreased the tumor volumes to 37.7%
      and 42.7%, while the tumor take rates remained stable. Our results indicate that
      re-expression of miR-127-3p and miR-376a-3p induces a strong tumor suppressor
      effect in GCTSC, which is partially mediated via COA1 and PDIA6.

PMID- 28866094
TI  - Palbociclib, a selective CDK4/6 inhibitor, enhances the effect of selumetinib in
      RAS-driven non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - KRAS is one of the most commonly mutated oncogenes in non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC). Resistance to MEK inhibitor monotherapy develops through a variety of
      mechanisms. CDK4 was reported to have a synthetic lethal interaction with KRAS.
      In this study, we demonstrated the combination effects of the MEK inhibitor
      selumetinib and the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in RAS-driven NSCLC. In vitro,
      cell lines with CDKN2A mutations were insensitive to selumetinib. We used siRNA
      and pharmacologic inhibition of CDK4 and found that the combination of
      selumetinib and palbociclib synergistically inhibited RAS-driven NSCLC cases with
      CDKN2A mutations but not those with wild type CDKN2A. The combination treatment
      potentiated growth inhibition and increased the population of cells in G1 phase.
      Selumetinib completely inhibited p-ERK but not p-RB. The addition of palbociclib
      markedly inhibited p-RB and downregulated survivin expression. In vivo, the
      combination treatment inhibited the growth of NSCLC xenografts, which correlated
      with decreased levels of p-RB, downregulated survivin and decreased Ki-67
      staining. These data suggest that the combination treatment of palbociclib and
      selumetinib is effective in preclinical models of RAS-driven NSCLC with CDKN2A
      mutations.

PMID- 28866092
TI  - Metabolic reprogramming and apoptosis sensitivity: Defining the contours of a T
      cell response.
AB  - An effective adaptive immune response hinges on the rapid clonal expansion of T
      cells in response to antigen. The sensitivity of these T cells to programmed cell
      death (i.e. apoptosis) is carefully calibrated at various stages to ensure a
      robust yet measured reaction that resolves without inflicting unintended damage
      to host tissues. To meet bioenergetic demands associated with vigorous
      proliferation, acquisition of effector functions, and memory formation, T cells
      also undergo dynamic changes in their metabolism at every stage of this response.
      In this review, we focus on relatively recent studies that illuminate intimate
      links between metabolic programs and apoptosis sensitivity in T cells. We then
      examine how these connections ultimately influence T cell survival and function
      within the metabolically taxing environs of the tumor microenvironment.

PMID- 28866095
TI  - Differential expression of MUC4, GPR110 and IL2RA defines two groups of CRLF2
      rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients with distinct secondary lesions.
AB  - CRLF2-rearrangements (CRLF2-r) occur frequently in Ph-like B-ALL, a high-risk ALL
      sub-type characterized by a signaling profile similar to Ph + ALL, however
      accumulating evidence indicates genetic heterogeneity within CRLF2-r ALL. We
      performed thorough genomic characterization of 35 CRLF2-r cases (P2RY8-CRLF2 n =
      18; IGH-CRLF2 n = 17). Activating JAK2 mutations were present in 34% of patients,
      and a CRLF2-F232C mutation was identified in an additional 17%. IKZF1 deletions
      were detected in 63% of cases. The majority of patients (26/35) classified as Ph
      like, and these were characterized by significantly higher levels of MUC4, GPR110
      and IL2RA/CD25. In addition, Ph-like CRLF2-r samples were significantly enriched
      for IKZF1 deletions, JAK2/CRLF2 mutations and increased expression of JAK/STAT
      target genes (CISH, SOCS1), suggesting that mutation-driven CRLF2/JAK2 activation
      is more frequent in this sub-group. Less is known about the genomics of CRLF2-r
      cases lacking JAK2-pathway mutations, but KRAS/NRAS mutations were identified in
      4/9 non-Ph-like samples. This work highlights the heterogeneity of secondary
      lesions which may arise and influence intracellular-pathway activation in CRLF2-r
      patients, and importantly presents distinct therapeutic targets within a group of
      patients harboring identical primary translocations, for whom efficient directed
      therapies are currently lacking.

PMID- 28866096
TI  - Regulation and evolution of the interaction of the seed B3 transcription factors
      with NF-Y subunits.
AB  - The LAFL genes (LEC2, ABI3, FUS3, LEC1) encode transcription factors that
      regulate different aspects of seed development, from early to late embryogenesis
      and accumulation of storage compounds. These transcription factors form a complex
      network, with members able to interact with various other players to control the
      switch between embryo development and seed maturation and, at a later stage in
      the plant life cycle, between the mature seed and germination. In this review, we
      first summarize our current understanding of the role of each member in the
      network in the light of recent advances regarding their regulation and
      structure/function relationships. In a second part, we discuss new insights
      concerning the evolution of the LAFL genes to address the more specific question
      of the conservation of LEAFY COTYLEDONS 2 in both dicots and monocots and the
      putative origin of the network. Last we examine the current major limitations to
      current knowledge and future prospects to improve our understanding of this
      regulatory network.

PMID- 28866097
TI  - Preoperative Imaging is a Critical Component in the Workup of Deeply Infiltrating
      Endometriosis.

PMID- 28866098
TI  - Tissue Extraction Techniques During Laparoscopic Uterine Surgery.
AB  - Morcellation allows minimally invasive approaches to surgery even in the presence
      of large uteri or myomas. Recent restrictions in the use of power morcellation,
      as well as concerns regarding the potential for morcellation to disseminate
      malignant tissue, have initiated investigation and innovation to find safer
      methods. This review examines current techniques for tissue extraction during
      uterine surgery, with a focus on contained power morcellation and contained
      manual morcellation via mini-laparotomy or colpotomy. Videos are included to
      demonstrate these methods.

PMID- 28866099
TI  - Nicotine transport in lung and non-lung epithelial cells.
AB  - AIMS: Nicotine is rapidly absorbed from the lung alveoli into systemic
      circulation during cigarette smoking. However, mechanism underlying nicotine
      transport in alveolar epithelial cells is not well understood to date. In the
      present study, we characterized nicotine uptake in lung epithelial cell lines
      A549 and NCI-H441 and in non-lung epithelial cell lines HepG2 and MCF-7.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Characteristics of [3H]nicotine uptake was studied using
      these cell lines. KEY FINDINGS: Nicotine uptake in A549 cells occurred in a time-
      and temperature-dependent manner and showed saturation kinetics, with a Km value
      of 0.31mM. Treatment with some organic cations such as diphenhydramine and
      pyrilamine inhibited nicotine uptake, whereas treatment with organic cations such
      as carnitine and tetraethylammonium did not affect nicotine uptake. Extracellular
      pH markedly affected nicotine uptake, with high nicotine uptake being observed at
      high pH up to 11.0. Modulation of intracellular pH with ammonium chloride also
      affected nicotine uptake. Treatment with valinomycin, a potassium ionophore, did
      not significantly affect nicotine uptake, indicating that nicotine uptake is an
      electroneutral process. For comparison, we assessed the characteristics of
      nicotine uptake in another lung epithelial cell line NCI-H441 and in non-lung
      epithelial cell lines HepG2 and MCF-7. Interestingly, these cell lines showed
      similar characteristics of nicotine uptake with respect to pH dependency and
      inhibition by various organic cations. SIGNIFICANCE: The present findings suggest
      that a similar or the same pH-dependent transport system is involved in nicotine
      uptake in these cell lines. A novel molecular mechanism of nicotine transport is
      proposed.

PMID- 28866100
TI  - Autophagy: The spotlight for cellular stress responses.
AB  - Autophagy is an essential cellular mechanism which plays "housekeeping" role in
      normal physiological processes including removing of long lived, aggregated and
      misfolded proteins, clearing damaged organelles, growth regulation and aging.
      Autophagy is also involved in a variety of biological functions like development,
      cellular differentiation, defense against pathogens and nutritional starvation.
      The integration of autophagy into these biological functions and other stress
      responses is determined by the transcriptional factors that undertake the
      regulatory mechanism. This review discusses the machinery of autophagy, the
      molecular web that connects autophagy to various stress responses like
      inflammation, hypoxia, ER stress, and various other pathologic conditions.
      Defects in autophagy regulation play a central role in number of diseases,
      including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, pathogen infection and metabolic
      diseases. Similarly, inhibiting autophagy would contribute in the treatment of
      cancer. However, understanding the biology of autophagy regulation requires
      pharmacologically active compounds which modulate the autophagy process. Inducers
      of autophagy are currently receiving considerable attention as autophagy
      upregulation may be a therapeutic benefit for certain neurodegenerative diseases
      (via removal of protein aggregates) while the inhibitors are being investigated
      for the treatment of cancers. Both induction and inhibition of autophagy have
      been proven to be beneficial in the treatment of cancer. This dual role of
      autophagy in cancers is now getting uncovered by the advancement in the research
      findings and development of effective autophagy modulators.

PMID- 28866101
TI  - MiR-542-3p exerts tumor suppressive functions in non-small cell lung cancer cells
      by upregulating FTSJ2.
AB  - AIMS: Up-regulation or down-regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been found in
      non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the role and mechanism of regulation
      of miR-542-3p in NSCLC is still unclear. This study aimed at investigating the
      primary biological function of miR-542-3p and FTSJ2 in NSCLC tumorigenesis and
      the correlation of miR-542-3p and FTSJ2 in NSCLC. MAIN METHODS: Our present
      results showed that miR-542-3p was down-regulated in NSCLC tissues and cancer
      cells. Overexpression of miR-542-3p inhibited cell proliferation, cell migration,
      cell cycle, EMT process and tumor growth in vitro, and induced cell apoptosis by
      MTT assay, colony formation assay, transwell migration assay, flow cytometry
      assay, RT-qPCR assay, western blot experiment and vivo model assay; miR-542-3p
      directly bound to the 3'UTR of FTSJ2 and upregulated FTSJ2 both mRNA and protein
      level by EGFP reporter assay, RT-qPCR and western blot analysis in NSCLC cells.
      FTSJ2 also reduced the aggressiveness of NSCLC cells. KEY FINDINGS: In short, miR
      542-3p functions as a suppressor gene by targeting and upregulating FTSJ2, thus
      inhibiting the malignancy of NSCLC cells. SIGNIFICANCE: According to the results,
      miRNA-542-3p and its targeted FTSJ2 may be indispensable as a predictive
      biomarker of the response to the treatment in patients with NSCLC.

PMID- 28866102
TI  - Liver steatosis in hypothalamic obese rats improves after duodeno-jejunal bypass
      by reduction in de novo lipogenesis pathway.
AB  - AIMS: Hypothalamic obesity is a severe condition without any effective therapy.
      Bariatric operations appear as an alternative treatment, but the effects of this
      procedure are controversial. We, herein, investigated the effects of duodeno
      jejunal bypass (DJB) surgery upon the lipid profile and expression of genes and
      proteins, involved in the regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism, in hypothalamic
      obese (HyO) rats. METHODS: During the first 5days of life, male newborn Wistar
      rats received subcutaneous injections of monosodium glutamate [4g/kg body weight,
      HyO group] or saline (control, CTL group). At 90days of life, HyO rats were
      randomly submitted to DJB (HyO DJB) or Sham-operations (HyO Sham group). Six
      months after DJB, adiposity, hepatic steatosis and lipid metabolism were
      verified. KEY FINDINGS: HyO Sham rats were obese, hyperinsulinemic, insulin
      resistant and dyslipidemic. These rats had higher liver contents of trygliceride
      (TG) and presented disorganization of the hepatocyte structures, in association
      with higher hepatic contents of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), fatty acid synthase
      (FASN), and stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 mRNAs and protein. DJB surgery normalized
      insulinemia, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia in HyO rats. TG content in the
      liver and the hepatic microscopic structures were also normalized in HyO DJB
      rats, while the expressions of ACC and FASN proteins were decreased in the liver
      of these rodents. SIGNIFICANCE: The DJB-induced amelioration in hepatic steatosis
      manifested as a late effect in HyO rats, and was partly associated with a
      downregulation in hepatic de novo lipogenesis processes, indicating that DJB
      protects against liver steatosis in hypothalamic obesity.

PMID- 28866103
TI  - Research progress on the roles of microRNAs in governing synaptic plasticity,
      learning and memory.
AB  - The importance of non-coding RNA involved in biological processes has become
      apparent in recent years and the mechanism of transcriptional regulation has also
      been identified. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of small regulatory non
      coding RNAs of 22bp in length that mediate gene silencing by identifying specific
      sequences in the target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Many miRNAs are highly expressed
      in the central nervous system in a spatially and temporally controlled manner in
      normal physiology, as well as in certain pathological conditions. There is
      growing evidence that a considerable number of specific miRNAs play important
      roles in synaptic plasticity, learning and memory function. In addition, the
      dysfunction of these molecules may also contribute to the etiology of several
      neurodegenerative diseases. Here we provide an overview of the current
      literatures, which support non-coding RNA-mediated gene function regulation
      represents an important but underappreciated, layer of epigenetic control that
      facilitates learning and memory functions.

PMID- 28866104
TI  - The impact of nonpolar lipids on the regulation of the steryl ester hydrolases
      Tgl1p and Yeh1p in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae degradation of steryl esters is catalyzed
      by the steryl ester hydrolases Tgl1p, Yeh1p and Yeh2p. The two steryl ester
      hydrolases Tgl1p and Yeh1p localize to lipid droplets, a cell compartment storing
      steryl esters and triacylglycerols. In the present study we investigated
      regulatory aspects of these two hydrolytic enzymes, namely the gene expression
      level, protein amount, stability and enzyme activity of Tgl1p and Yeh1p in
      strains lacking both or only one of the two major nonpolar lipids, steryl esters
      and triacylglycerols. In a strain lacking both nonpolar lipids and consequently
      lipid droplets, Tgl1p as well as Yeh1p were present at low amount, became highly
      unstable compared to wild-type cells, and lost their enzymatic activity. Under
      these conditions both steryl ester hydrolases were retained in the endoplasmic
      reticulum. The lack of steryl esters alone was not sufficient to cause an altered
      intracellular localization of Tgl1p and Yeh1p. Surprisingly, the stability of
      Tgl1p and Yeh1p was markedly reduced in a strain lacking triacylglycerols, but
      their capacity to mobilize steryl esters remained unaffected. We also tested a
      possible cross-regulation of Tgl1p and Yeh1p by analyzing the behavior of each
      hydrolase in the absence of its counterpart steryl ester hydrolases. In summary,
      this study demonstrates a strong regulation of the two lipid droplet associated
      steryl ester hydrolases Tgl1p and Yeh1p due to the presence/absence of their host
      organelle.

PMID- 28866106
TI  - Elevated baseline D-dimer plasma levels are associated with a prompt response to
      omalizumab in patients with severe CSU.

PMID- 28866105
TI  - Dietary phlorizin enhances osteoblastogenic bone formation through enhancing beta
      catenin activity via GSK-3beta inhibition in a model of senile osteoporosis.
AB  - Osteoporosis is one of the most prevalent forms of age-related bone diseases.
      Increased bone loss with advancing age has become a grave public health concern.
      This study examined whether phlorizin and phloretin, dihydrochalcones in apple
      peels, inhibited senile osteoporosis through enhancing osteoblastogenic bone
      formation in cell-based and aged mouse models. Submicromolar phloretin and
      phlorizin markedly stimulated osteoblast differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells with
      increased transcription of Runx2 and osteocalcin. Senescence-accelerated
      resistant mouse strain prone-6 (SAMP6) mice were orally supplemented with 10
      mg/kg phlorizin and phloretin daily for 12 weeks. Male senescence-accelerated
      resistant mouse strain R1 mice were employed as a nonosteoporotic age-matched
      control. Oral administration of ploretin and phorizin boosted bone mineralization
      in all the bones of femur, tibia and vertebra of SAMP6. In particular, phlorizin
      reduced serum RANKL/OPG ratio and diminished TRAP-positive osteoclasts in
      trabecular bones of SAMP6. Additionally, treating phlorizin to SAMP6 inhibited
      the osteoporotic resorption in distal femoral bones through up-regulating
      expression of BMP-2 and collagen-1 and decreasing production of matrix-degrading
      cathepsin K and MMP-9. Finally, phlorizin and phloretin antagonized GSK-3beta
      induction and beta-catenin phosphorylation in osteoblasts and aged mouse bones.
      Therefore, phlorizin and phloretin were potential therapeutic agents encumbering
      senile osteoporosis through promoting bone-forming osteoblastogenesis via
      modulation of GSK-3beta/beta-catenin-dependent signaling.

PMID- 28866108
TI  - Characteristics and outcome of patients with hypothermic out-of-hospital cardiac
      arrest: Experience from a European trauma center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aim of the study was to investigate patient characteristics, survival
      rates and neurological outcome among hypothermic patients with out-of-hospital
      cardiac arrest (OHCA) admitted to a trauma center. METHODS: A review of patients
      with OHCA and a core temperature <=32 degrees C admitted to a trauma center
      between 2004 and 2016. RESULTS: Ninety-six patients (mean temperature 25.8
      degrees C+/-3.9 degrees C) were entered in the study, 37 (39%) of them after
      avalanche burial. 47% showed return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) prior to
      hospital admission. Survival with Glasgow-Pittsburgh Cerebral Performance
      Category (CPC) scale 1 or 2 was achieved in 25% of all patients and was higher in
      non-avalanche than in avalanche cases (35.6% vs 8.1%, p=0.002). Witnessed cardiac
      arrest was the most powerful predictor of favourable neurological outcome (RR:
      10.8; 95% Confidence Interval: 3.2-37.1; Wald: 14.3; p<0.001), whereas ROSC prior
      to admission and body core temperature were not associated with survival with
      favourable neurological outcome. Cerebral CT scan pathology within 12h of
      admission increased the risk for unfavourable neurological outcome 11.7 fold (RR:
      11.7; 95% CI: 3.1-47.5; p<0.001). Favourable neurological outcome was associated
      lower S 100-binding protein (0.69+/-0.5MUg/l vs 5.8+/-4.9MUg/l, p 0.002) and
      neuron-specific enolase (34.7+/-14.2MUg/l vs 88.4+/-42.7MUg/l, p 0.004)
      concentrations on intensive care unit (ICU) admission. CONCLUSIONS: Survival with
      favourable neurological outcome was found in about a third of all hypothermic non
      avalanche patients with OHCA admitted to a trauma center.

PMID- 28866107
TI  - Baseline Features of the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP III) Cohort:
      Differences with Age.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of age on asthma severity is poorly understood.
      OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to compare the baseline features of
      severe and nonsevere asthma in the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP) III
      cohort, and examine in cross section the effects of age on those features.
      METHODS: SARP III is a National Institutes of Health/National Heart Lung Blood
      Institute multisite 3-year cohort study conducted to investigate mechanisms of
      severe asthma. The sample included 188 children (111 severe, 77 nonsevere) and
      526 adults (313 severe, 213 nonsevere) characterized for demographic features,
      symptoms, health care utilization, lung function, and inflammatory markers
      compared by age and severity. RESULTS: Compared with children with nonsevere
      asthma, children with severe asthma had more symptoms and more historical
      exacerbations, but no difference in body weight, post-bronchodilator lung
      function, or inflammatory markers. After childhood, and increasing with age, the
      cohort had a higher proportion of women, less allergen sensitization, and overall
      fewer blood eosinophils. Enrollment of participants with severe asthma was
      highest in middle-aged adults, who were older, more obese, with greater airflow
      limitation and higher blood eosinophils, but less allergen sensitization than
      adults with nonsevere asthma. CONCLUSIONS: The phenotypic features of asthma
      differ by severity and with advancing age. With advancing age, patients with
      severe asthma are more obese, have greater airflow limitation, less allergen
      sensitization, and variable type 2 inflammation. Novel mechanisms besides type 2
      inflammatory pathways may inform the severe asthma phenotype with advancing age.

PMID- 28866109
TI  - A three-year epidemiological prospective cohort study of rugby league match
      injuries from the European Super League.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Conduct a comprehensive epidemiological study of match injury
      characteristics (incidence, severity, causes, diagnostics, and temporal trends)
      in professional rugby league. DESIGN: Prospective cohort design. METHODS: Data
      was captured over the 2013, '14, and '15 seasons, collected via an online
      reporting survey tool, and underpinned by nominal group technique-agreed
      definitions. Injury details were provided by club medical staff in accordance to
      the survey fields from all European Super League teams (e.g. injury
      occurrence/return dates, diagnosis, mechanism, recurrence). All time-loss
      injuries have been reported. RESULTS: Injury incidence of 57 injuries/1000h has
      been observed over the three-year period, with an average of 34days missed per
      injury. The final 20-min period was the most significant period for injury
      occurrence, and higher incidence of injury/1000h played was during the start of
      the season in February, although an absolute injury risk for injury frequency was
      shown in April due to the greatest playing time. Forward positions reported the
      highest injury incidence whilst tackle activities were the most frequent
      mechanism of injury. Concussions and hamstring strains (5 injuries/1000h) were
      the most commonly diagnosed injuries, although the knee joint region (10
      injuries/1000h) was the most frequently injured area. CONCLUSIONS: In light of
      the most common injury diagnoses, mechanisms, identified seasonal risk, and time
      of match, the data should look to inform player preparation in terms of physical
      conditioning and tackle technique in order to optimise player welfare and
      availability for participation.

PMID- 28866110
TI  - Effect of a 16-week Bikram yoga program on perceived stress, self-efficacy and
      health-related quality of life in stressed and sedentary adults: A randomised
      controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 16 weeks
      of Bikram yoga on perceived stress, self-efficacy and health related quality of
      life (HRQoL) in sedentary, stressed adults. DESIGN: 16 week, parallel-arm,
      randomised controlled trial with flexible dosing. METHODS: Physically inactive,
      stressed adults (37.2+/-10.8 years) were randomised to Bikram yoga (three to five
      classes per week) or control (no treatment) group for 16 weeks. Outcome measures,
      collected via self-report, included perceived stress, general self-efficacy, and
      HRQoL. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, midpoint and completion. RESULTS:
      Individuals were randomised to the experimental (n=29) or control group (n=34).
      Average attendance in the experimental group was 27+/-18 classes. Repeated
      measure analyses of variance (intention-to-treat) demonstrated significantly
      improved perceived stress (p=0.003, partial eta2=0.109), general self-efficacy
      (p=0.034, partial eta2=0.056), and the general health (p=0.034, partial
      eta2=0.058) and energy/fatigue (p=0.019, partial eta2=0.066) domains of HRQoL in
      the experimental group versus the control group. Attendance was significantly
      associated with reductions in perceived stress, and an increase in several
      domains of HRQoL. CONCLUSIONS: 16 weeks of Bikram yoga significantly improved
      perceived stress, general self-efficacy and HRQoL in sedentary, stressed adults.
      Future research should consider ways to optimise adherence, and should
      investigate effects of Bikram yoga intervention in other populations at risk for
      stress-related illness. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials
      Registry ACTRN12616000867493. Registered 04 July 2016. URL:
      http://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12616000867493.aspx.

PMID- 28866111
TI  - Does player unavailability affect football teams' match physical outputs? A two
      season study of the UEFA champions league.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Player unavailability negatively affects team performance in elite
      football. However, whether player unavailability and its concomitant performance
      decrement is mediated by any changes in teams' match physical outputs is unknown.
      We examined whether the number of players injured (i.e. unavailable for match
      selection) was associated with any changes in teams' physical outputs. DESIGN:
      Prospective cohort study. METHODS: Between-team variation was calculated by
      correlating average team availability with average physical outputs. Within-team
      variation was quantified using linear mixed modelling, using physical outputs -
      total distance, sprint count (efforts over 20km/h), and percent of distance
      covered at high speeds (>14km/h) - as outcome variables, and player
      unavailability as the independent variable of interest. To control for other
      factors that may influence match physical outputs, stage (group stage/knockout),
      venue (home/away), score differential, ball possession (%), team ranking (UEFA
      Club Coefficient), and average team age were all included as covariates. RESULTS:
      Teams' average player unavailability was positively associated with the average
      number of sprints they performed in matches across two seasons. Multilevel models
      similarly demonstrated that having 4 unavailable players was associated with 20.8
      more sprints during matches in 2015/2016, and with an estimated 0.60-0.77%
      increase in the proportion of total distance run above 14km/h in both seasons.
      Player unavailability had a possibly positive and likely positive association
      with total match distances in the two respective seasons. CONCLUSIONS: Having
      more players injured and unavailable for match selection was associated with an
      increase in teams' match physical outputs.

PMID- 28866112
TI  - Hemodynamic Assessment of Patients With Septic Shock Using Transpulmonary
      Thermodilution and Critical Care Echocardiography: A Comparative Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To assess the agreement between transpulmonary thermodilution (TPT)
      and critical care echocardiography (CCE) in ventilated patients with septic
      shock. METHODS: Ventilated patients in sinus rhythm requiring advanced
      hemodynamic assessment for septic shock were included in this prospective
      multicenter descriptive study. Patients were assessed successively using TPT and
      CCE in random order. Data were interpreted independently at bedside by two
      investigators who proposed therapeutic changes on the basis of predefined
      algorithms. TPT and CCE hemodynamic assessments were reviewed offline by two
      independent experts who identified potential sources of discrepant results by
      consensus. Lactate clearance and outcome were studied. RESULTS: A total of 137
      patients were studied (71 men; age, 61 +/- 15 years; Simplified Acute Physiologic
      Score, 58 +/- 18; Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, 10 +/- 3). TPT and CCE
      interpretations at bedside were concordant in 87/132 patients (66%) without acute
      cor pulmonale (ACP), resulting in a moderate agreement (kappa, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.37
      0.60). Experts' adjudications were concordant in 100/129 patients without ACP
      (77.5%), resulting in a good intertechnique agreement (kappa, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.55
      0.77). In addition to ACP (n = 8), CCE depicted a potential source of TPT
      inaccuracy in 8/29 patients (28%). Lactate clearance at H6 was similar
      irrespective of the concordance of online interpretations of TPT and CCE (55/84
      [65%] vs 32/45 [71%], P = .55). ICU and day 28 mortality rates were similar
      between patients with concordant and discordant interpretations (29/87 [36%] vs
      13/45 [29%], P = .60; and 31/87 [36%] vs 16/45 [36%], P = .99, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Agreement between TPT and CCE was moderate when interpreted at
      bedside and good when adjudicated offline by experts, but without impact on
      lactate clearance and mortality.

PMID- 28866113
TI  - Infected breast cyst due to Prevotella buccae resistant to metronidazole.
AB  - Prevotella buccae is a Gram-negative anaerobic rod involved in some human
      infections. We report the first case of an infected breast cyst in a non
      puerperal women due to this pathogen. A 53-year-old woman presented with pain and
      a cystic lesion in the right breast. Culture of abscess drainage resulted in
      isolation of P. buccae. High level of resistance to metronidazole was documented.
      Treatment with drainage and amoxicillin-clavulanate was established, and
      improvement of this infection was observed.

PMID- 28866114
TI  - Traditional approaches versus mass spectrometry in bacterial identification and
      typing.
AB  - Biochemical methods such as metabolite testing and serotyping are traditionally
      used in clinical microbiology laboratories to identify and categorize
      microorganisms. Due to the large variety of bacteria, identifying representative
      metabolites is tedious, while raising high-quality antisera or antibodies unique
      to specific biomarkers used in serotyping is very challenging, sometimes even
      impossible. Although serotyping is a certified approach for differentiating
      bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella at the subspecies level, the method is
      tedious, laborious, and not practical during an infectious disease outbreak. Mass
      spectrometry (MS) platforms, especially matrix assisted laser desorption and
      ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), have recently become
      popular in the field of bacterial identification due to their fast speed and low
      cost. In the past few years, we have used liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based approaches to solve various problems hindering
      serotyping and have overcome some insufficiencies of the MALDI-TOF-MS platform.
      The current article aims to review the characteristics, advantages, and
      disadvantages of MS-based platforms over traditional approaches in bacterial
      identification and categorization.

PMID- 28866115
TI  - Association between promoter polymorphism (-108C>T) of paraoxonase1 gene and it's
      paraoxonase activity in patients with Type2 diabetes in northern Iran.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the diseases which depend on the
      obesity associated with insulin resistance. Various factors, such as a reduction
      in the activity of paraoxonase-1 enzyme (PON1), could affect T2DM. PON1 is a
      multifunctional enzyme with paraoxonase and arylesterase activities. The Activity
      of PON1 is influenced by various SNPs. The aim of presence study is to
      investigate the association between promoter polymorphism (-108C>T) of PON1 gene
      and its paraoxonase activity in patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes in
      Golestan Province, north of Iran. To this end, genomic DNA was extracted from
      whole blood then genotyping was carried out using PCR-RFLP and enzymatic activity
      of paraoxonase was measured in the serum of 90 healthy subjects and 90 diabetic
      patients. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16. The relationship between the
      level of paraoxonase activity with polymorphisms of CC, CT, and TT was
      statistically significant in patients with T2DM. There was a significant
      association between polymorphism C-108>T of PON1 and type2 diabetes mellitus,
      with 24.4% of control group subjects and 15.5% of patients having CC genotype;
      p<0.05. The ratio for CT genotype in target and control groups was 51.1% and
      61.1% respectively; p<0.05. TT genotype was 33.3% in patients and 14.4% in the
      control group; p<0.05. In the present study, the highest frequency belonged to CT
      genotype in both the control and the target groups, followed by CC genotype in
      control group and TT genotype in target group. Our findings revealed that
      paraoxonase activity of PON1 in the control group was significantly higher in
      comparison with diabetic patients.

PMID- 28866116
TI  - lncRNA PVT1 in cancer: A review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) is a newly discovered
      long non-coding RNA that functions as an oncogenic molecule in different cancers.
      We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine its prognostic
      potential for malignant tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature survey was
      conducted by searching the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China
      National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang electronic databases for articles
      published as of June 1, 2017. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals
      (95% CIs) were calculated to demonstrate the relationship between PVT1 expression
      and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) using RevMan 5.2 and
      Stata 12.0 software. A quality assessment of the included studies was performed
      according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. RESULTS: A total of 1443 patients from
      15 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Elevated PVT1 expression was
      significantly correlated with poor overall survival (HR=2.03, 95% CI: 1.69-2.43)
      and disease-free survival (HR=1.55, 95% CI: 1.29-1.87). Statistical significance
      was also observed in a subgroup meta-analysis that was stratified by variance
      analysis, cancer type, sample size and PVT1 cut-off value. Additionally,
      increased PVT1 expression was significantly associated with positive lymph node
      metastasis (odds ratio (OR)=1.94, 95% CI: 1.03-3.68), positive distant metastasis
      (OR=3.85, 95% CI: 2.14-6.93), advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage (OR=3.19, 95%
      CI: 2.45-4.15) and poor differentiation grade (OR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.15-2.16), but
      not tumor size (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Elevated PVT1 expression was related to poor
      prognosis and might be a potential biomarkerof clinicopathological
      characteristics in different cancer types. More studies need to be conducted to
      verify the clinical value of PVT1 in human cancers.

PMID- 28866117
TI  - Association of post-procedural early (within 24h) increases in serum creatinine
      with all-cause mortality after coronary angiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of patients undergoing coronary angiography (CAG) or
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are discharged early, with only early
      (within 24h) serum creatinine (SCr) data available without evidence of clinical
      prognosis. We aimed to systemically evaluate the association between post
      procedural early increase in SCr and all-cause mortality following CAG. METHODS:
      We performed a retrospective sub-study analysis within a prospective
      observational study including 3091 consecutive patients with baseline and post
      procedural early (within 24h) SCr data. The degree (mild, moderate, or large) of
      absolute and relative increases in SCr from baseline. The mean follow-up time was
      2.49years. RESULT: Moderate or large early increases in SCr were relatively rare
      (large increase: >1.0mg/dl [0.5%], >100% [0.4%]), whereas mild absolute and
      relative increases in SCr were more common (mild increase: 0.25 to 0.50mg/dl
      [4.5%], 25% to 50% [5.9%]). During the follow-up period, there were 136 post
      procedural deaths (5.6%). After adjustment for confounders, mild absolute and
      relative increases in SCr were associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio
      [HR]: 1.9 and 1.8, respectively, both P<0.05). Moderate or large increases in SCr
      were associated with higher mortality, even higher than with pre-existing renal
      dysfunction (HR: 5.36 and 4.12 for moderate increase [0.5 to 1.0mg/dl] and
      estimated glomerular filtration rate<60ml/min). CONCLUSION: Post-procedural mild,
      moderate, or large early increase in SCr, is associated with significantly
      increased long-term mortality. Although moderate or large increase in SCr
      following CAG was relatively rare, the prognosis is more serious, and is worse
      than that of pre-existing renal dysfunction. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      Predictive Value of Contrast Volume to Creatinine Clearance Ratio (PRECOMIN,
      ClinicalTrials.govNCT01400295).

PMID- 28866118
TI  - Elevation of plateletcrit increasing the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease development in female adults: A large population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the one of the most
      common form of chronic liver disease in China, so it is important to apply bio
      marker in predict the development of NAFLD. AIMS: This study aims to evaluate
      association between plateletcrit (PCT) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
      (NAFLD) in Chinese female adults. METHODS: NAFLD was defined as per ultrasound in
      this study and 9737 NAFLD-free female subjects from Wenzhou People's Hospital
      were followed for five years in average in the study. The determination of NAFLD
      PCT quartiles (Q1 to Q4) were defined: 0-0.16, 0.17-0.18, 0.19-0.21, >=0.22. With
      Q1 used as reference, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and hazard ratios (HRs) in
      different models were computed across each quartile. RESULTS: From Q1 to Q4, the
      incidence ratios (95% CIs) were 8.30 (7.14-9.47), 11.51 (10.12-12.89), 12.68
      (11.47-13.89) and 16.46 (15.03-17.88). Simply considering PCT, in the
      longitudinal population, values in Q2, Q3 and Q4 had HRs (95% CIs) are 1.51 (1.25
      1.84), 1.72 (1.44-2.06) and 2.34 (1.96-2.79) versus Q1. After adjusting for all
      known confounding variables, values in Q2, Q3 and Q4 had HRs (95% CIs) of 1.31
      (1.08-1.60), 1.30 (1.09-1.56) and 1.54 (1.29-1.84) in females compared with Q1.
      CONCLUSIONS: We reported that elevated serum PCT levels are considered as an
      independently significant predictor for NAFLD development in females. The high
      PCT level contributes to the development of NAFLD.

PMID- 28866119
TI  - What constitutes back pain flare? A cross sectional survey of individuals with
      low back pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Low back pain (LBP) is a lifelong problem for many. In
      acute episodes, or as a persistent condition, LBP is fluctuating in nature, with
      pain and other features of the condition varying in intensity and duration over
      time. Symptom flares (also known as flare ups) contribute to this variation and
      can have a great impact on the lives of those who have LBP. An important goal of
      treatments for, and research on, LBP is arguably to decrease symptom flare in
      both frequency and severity. However, this goal is problematic with little
      research, and no consensus, on how to define LBP flare. In particular, patients'
      understandings of LBP flare have received limited attention in the literature. To
      appropriately address this issue, we sought to understand how flares are
      conceptualized by individuals with LBP. METHODS: We used an inductive,
      predominantly qualitative methodology, conducting an online survey with 130
      individuals who self-reported experiencing LBP. The survey investigated
      participants' views on LBP flare including its meaning, features and symptoms,
      and whether 'flare' and 'pain increase' were synonymous. Qualitative analysis of
      responses involved thematic and content analysis with descriptive statistics used
      for the quantitative component. RESULTS: Our data analysis found that
      participants identified many aspects of a flare to be important. Qualitative
      analyses highlighted a number of themes including that LBP flare was
      conceptualized as: (1) an increase in pain and other uncomfortable sensations
      such as paraesthesia or muscle tension, (2) an increase in the area, quality
      and/or duration of symptoms, (3) a reduction in physical, cognitive and/or social
      functioning, and (4) negative psychological and/or emotional factors. Flare was
      also discussed as a change that was difficult to settle. When participants
      considered whether 'flare' and 'pain increase' were synonymous, responses were
      evenly divided between 'no' (47%) and 'yes' (46%) with remaining participants
      'unsure'. CONCLUSIONS: The key finding was that many people with LBP do not
      consider their condition to be flared simply on the basis of a pain increase. In
      general, other features were required to also change. Results highlighted that a
      narrow focus on pain is unlikely to differentiate minor pain events from a flare.
      These findings are important as they contrast with most commonly used definitions
      of a flare that focus predominantly on pain increase. IMPLICATIONS: Our findings
      have implications for understanding the trajectory of LBP over time.
      Understandings derived from perspectives of individuals with LBP highlight that
      defining flare in LBP is complex. In order to provide person-centred care,
      individual context and experiences should be taken into account. Therefore,
      understandings of LBP flare require consideration of factors beyond simply an
      increase in pain. A comprehensive, person-centred understanding of flare that
      includes a number of features beyond simply an increase in pain intensity is
      likely to be useful to better identify flares in research settings, assisting
      endeavours to understand and reduce LBP. Similarly, in clinical settings a
      nuanced conceptualisation of flare is likely to help health professionals
      communicate understandings of flare when working with individuals to manage their
      LBP.

PMID- 28866120
TI  - Identification of a novel single chain fragment variable antibody targeting CD24
      expressing cancer cells.
AB  - CD24 is a heavy glycosylated protein that is overexpressed in numerous cancer and
      cancer stem cells. It is involved in the development, invasion, and metastasis of
      the cancer cells. CD24 can be considered in targeted cancer therapy as a new
      target. Here, phage display technology was used for the identification of novel
      scFv antibodies against CD24. To do so, the CD24 protein was expressed and
      purified from a stable transgenic CHO cell line. The cells were developed by
      using a CD24 encoding construct, which targets the 18S rRNA gene. The recombinant
      CD24 was used in the biopanning process. Four rounds of biopanning were performed
      with the Tomlinson J library. The polyclonal phage ELISA and DNA sequencing of
      the selected colonies confirmed that specific binders have been enriched during
      the biopanning process. Based on the DNA sequencing results, three phage
      displaying scFv were obtained and their specificity to CD24 was verified in the
      monoclonal phage ELISA. The results showed that clone 3 (called Jd3) has the
      highest affinity to CD24 and also is the most abundant clone (80%) among the
      three clones. Therefore, Jd3 was selected for further analyses. In order to
      produce soluble Jd3-scFv, the phage was transfected to E. coli BL21 pLysS.
      Soluble Jd3 scFv was expressed and purified successfully. The soluble Jd3 scFv
      showed appropriate affinity to recombinant CD24 in the ELISA analysis. Also, the
      immunocytochemistry experiment showed that the purified Jd3 scFv can bind to the
      CD24 expressing A549 cells. So, the scFv may be useful in the targeted delivery
      of drugs or diagnostic nanoparticles to the CD24 expressing cancer cells. To the
      best of our knowledge, this study is the first report to identify an scFv
      antibody against CD24, using the phage display method.

PMID- 28866121
TI  - Focus on uterine fibroids: evolving options to optimize care.

PMID- 28866122
TI  - Trends in contraceptive use according to HIV status among privately insured women
      in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is limited information on the patterns and trends of
      contraceptive use among women living with HIV, compared with noninfected women in
      the United States. Further, little is known about whether antiretroviral therapy
      correlates with contraceptive use. Such information is needed to help identify
      potential gaps in care and to enhance unintended pregnancy prevention efforts.
      OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare contraceptive method use among HIV-infected and
      noninfected privately insured women in the United States, and to evaluate the
      association between antiretroviral therapy use and contraceptive method use.
      STUDY DESIGN: We used a large US nationwide health care claims database to
      identify girls and women ages 15-44 years with prescription drug coverage. We
      used diagnosis, procedure, and National Drug Codes to assess female sterilization
      and reversible prescription contraception use in 2008 and 2014 among women
      continuously enrolled in the database during 2003 through 2008 or 2009 through
      2014, respectively. Women with no codes were classified as using no method; these
      may have included women using nonprescription methods, such as condoms. We
      calculated prevalence of contraceptive use by HIV infection status, and by use of
      antiretroviral therapy among those with HIV. We used multivariable polytomous
      logistic regression to calculate unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios and 95%
      confidence intervals for female sterilization, long-acting reversible
      contraception, and short-acting hormonal contraception compared to no method.
      RESULTS: While contraceptive use increased among HIV-infected and noninfected
      women from 2008 through 2014, in both years, a lower proportion of HIV-infected
      women used prescription contraceptive methods (2008: 17.5%; 2014: 28.9%, compared
      with noninfected women (2008: 28.8%; 2014: 39.8%, P < .001 for both). Controlling
      for demographics, chronic medical conditions, pregnancy history, and cohort year,
      HIV-infected women compared to HIV-noninfected women had lower odds of using long
      acting reversible contraception (adjusted odds ratio, 0.67; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.52-0.86 compared to no method) or short-acting hormonal contraception
      method (adjusted odds ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.50-0.70 compared to
      no method). In 2014, HIV-infected women using antiretroviral therapy were
      significantly more likely to use no method (76.8% vs 64.1%), and significantly
      less likely to use short-acting hormonal contraception (11.0% vs 22.7%) compared
      to HIV-infected women not using antiretroviral therapy. Those receiving
      antiretroviral therapy had lower odds of using short-acting hormonal
      contraception compared to no method (adjusted odds ratio, 0.45; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.32-0.63). There was no significant difference in female sterilization
      by HIV status or antiretroviral therapy use. CONCLUSION: Despite the safety of
      reversible contraceptives for women with HIV, use of prescription contraception
      continues to be lower among privately insured HIV-infected women compared to
      noninfected women, particularly among those receiving antiretroviral therapy.

PMID- 28866123
TI  - A systematic review finds underreporting of ethics approval, informed consent,
      and incentives in clinical trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aim to review researchers' reporting practices of
      the ethics statement, financial incentives, and local ethical committees' profile
      in their clinical trials. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: A systematic search was done
      through top-ranked 50 medical journals (Scimago Ranking) to retrieve 2,000 latest
      publications. Only primary clinical trials were included with no restriction to
      language or participants. RESULTS: Among the 927 included trials, 14 trials
      (1.5%) did not report an ethical statement and two-third (63%) did not completely
      report the investigated components (Institutional Review eBoard approval,
      Helsinki Declaration, and informed consent). Moreover, 21 trials (2.26%) reported
      motivational incentives with the method and amount of payment for participants.
      Of them, 15 trials offered monetary incentives to participants in different
      forms. In the remaining six trials, the incentives were mainly medical benefits.
      Only one trial reported the profile or quality of local Institutional Review
      Board. CONCLUSION: A potential gap in the reporting practices of ethics statement
      and financial incentives was addressed in this review. Authors are urged to fully
      report all ethical components related to their study, including incentives and
      compensations plan. Medical journals are also recommended to implement further
      publication requirements concerning ethics reporting.

PMID- 28866124
TI  - Modeling the peak of emergence in systems: Design and katachi.
AB  - It is difficult to model emergence in biological systems using reductionist
      paradigms. A requirement for computational modeling is that individual entities
      can be recorded parametrically and related logically, but their transformation
      into whole systems cannot be captured this way. The problem stems from an
      inability to formally represent the implicit influences that inform emergent
      organization, such as context, shifts in causal agency or scale, and self
      reference. This lack hampers biological systems modeling and its computational
      counterpart, indicating a need for new fundamental abstraction frameworks that
      support system-level characteristics. We develop an approach that formally
      captures these characteristics, focusing on the way they come together to enable
      transformation at the 'peak' of the emergent process. An example from virology is
      presented, in which two seemingly antagonistic systems - the herpes cold sore
      virus and its host - are capable of altering their basic biological objectives to
      achieve a new equilibrium. The usual barriers to modeling this process are
      overcome by incorporating mechanisms from practices centered on its emergent
      peak: design and katachi. In the Japanese science of form, katachi refers to the
      emergence of intrinsic structure from real situations, where an optimal balance
      between implicit influences is achieved. Design indicates how such optimization
      is guided by principles of flow. These practices leverage qualities of situated
      abstraction, which we understand through the intuitive method of physicist Kodi
      Husimi. Early results indicate that this approach can capture the functional
      transformations of biological emergence, whilst being reasonably computable. Due
      to its geometric foundations and narrative-based extension to logic, the method
      will also generate speculative predictions. This research forms the foundations
      of a new biomedical modeling platform, which is discussed.

PMID- 28866125
TI  - The impact of using electrical impedance spectroscopy (ZedScan) on the
      performance of colposcopy in diagnosing high grade squamous lesions of the
      cervix.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the efficacy of colposcopy plus ZedScan, which measures
      changes in tissue electrical impedance, for detecting intraepithelial high-grade
      lesions compared to colposcopy alone. METHODS: A prospective study conducted at a
      university hospital colposcopy clinic. Patients referred following abnormal
      cervical cytology or colposcopic follow up were examined by colposcopy plus
      ZedScan to assess the cervix. The results of ZedScan directed and colposcopically
      directed biopsies were compared. RESULTS: Ninety-one patients were included in
      this study. The median age was 33 years. Eighty (88%) were referred with abnormal
      cytology; LSIL 45%, ASCUS 27%, ACS-H 8%, HSIL 7%, AGC 1% and 12% follow-up
      postconisation or colposcopic follow up. Colposcopy alone detected 18 high-grade
      lesions with 64 women undergoing biopsy with a total of 115 biopsies being taken
      with a sensitivity of 60% and NPV estimated at 81.7%. ZedScan with colposcopy
      increased the detection of high-grade lesions by 47.3%, identifying 27 high-grade
      lesions and one case of invasive cancer. Sensitivity was 93.1% and NPV estimated
      at 91.3%. A combination of normal colposcopy practice and ZedScan had a
      sensitivity and NPV of 100%. CONCLUSION: ZedScan used in conjunction with the
      colposcopy improves sensitivity in detecting high-grade lesions at the expense of
      a moderate increase in the number of biopsies.

PMID- 28866126
TI  - Female pelvic anatomy: Are we there yet? Assessment of the knowledge of
      residents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anatomy is considered a keystone in medical education and pelvic
      anatomy comprehension is the groundwork of the understanding of birthing process
      and pelvic surgery. The objectives of this study were to assess the state of the
      knowledge in anatomy of ob/gyn residents. MATERIEL AND METHODS: The assessment of
      pelvic anatomy knowledge of 52 ob/gyn residents was performed in a cross
      sectional analysis in Lille University Hospital in 2015. A survey was designed
      with educational and clinical objectives on pelvic anatomy to assess the
      resident's real level of knowledge. RESULTS: Ob/gyn residents were not satisfied
      with the learning of anatomy at the medical school with a global rate of 92% of
      unhappy residents. The global score in anatomy for the overall population was
      6.67+/-0.46 (on 20 points). The eldest residents had a significant better global
      score than the youngest, 9.24+/-0.76 vs. 5.53+/-0.46 (P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Ob/gyn residents should be educated to a specific teaching in anatomy throughout
      their residency program. Some strategies could improve the level of ob/gyn
      residents in anatomy and the survey showed the attractiveness of residents to
      modern medias, such as anatomy videos, compared to current historical anatomy
      lectures human cadaveric dissections or books.

PMID- 28866127
TI  - Is anagrelide safe during pregnancy?

PMID- 28866128
TI  - Melatonin prevents memory impairment induced by high-fat diet: Role of oxidative
      stress.
AB  - Consumption of high-fat diet (HFD) induces oxidative stress in the hippocampus
      that leads to memory impairment. Melatonin has antioxidant and neuroprotective
      effects. In this study, we hypothesized that chronic administration of melatonin
      can prevent memory impairment induced by consumption of HFD. Melatonin was
      administered to rats via oral gavage (100mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks. HFD was also
      instituted for the same duration. Behavioral studies were conducted to test
      spatial memory using the radial arm water maze. Additionally, oxidative stress
      biomarkers were assessed in the hippocampus. Results showed that HFD impaired
      both short- and long- term memory (P<0.05), while melatonin treatment prevented
      such effects. Furthermore, melatonin prevented HFD-induced reduction in levels of
      GSH, and ratio of GSH/GSSG, and increase in GSSG in the hippocampus. Melatonin
      also prevented reduction in the catalase activity in hippocampus of animals on
      HFD. In conclusion, HFD induced memory impairment and melatonin prevented this
      impairment probably by preventing alteration of oxidative stress in the
      hippocampus.

PMID- 28866129
TI  - Inhibition of GABA A receptor improved special memory impairment in the local
      model of demyelination in rat hippocampus.
AB  - Cognitive impairment and memory deficit are common features in multiple Sclerosis
      patients. The mechanism of memory impairment in MS is unknown, but neuroimaging
      studies suggest that hippocampal demyelination is involved. Here, we investigate
      the role of GABA A receptor on spatial memory in the local model of hippocampal
      demyelination. Demyelination was induced in male Wistar rats by bilaterally
      injection of lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) 1% into the CA1 region of the
      hippocampus. The treatment groups were received daily intraventricular injection
      of bicuculline (0.025, 0.05MUg/2MUl/animal) or muscimol (0.1, 0.2MUg/2MUl/animal)
      5days after LPC injection. Morris Water Maze was used to evaluate learning and
      memory in rats. We used Luxol fast blue staining and qPCR to assess demyelination
      extention and MBP expression level respectively. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for
      CD45 and H&E staining were performed to assess inflammatory cells infiltration.
      Behavioral study revealed that LPC injection in the hippocampus impaired learning
      and memory function. Animals treated with both doses of bicuculline improved
      spatial learning and memory function; however, muscimol treatment had no effect.
      Histological and MBP expression studies confirmed that demylination in LPC group
      was maximal. Bicuculline treatment significantly reduced demyelination extension
      and increased the level of MBP expression. H&E and IHC results showed that
      bicuculline reduced inflammatory cell infiltration in the lesion site.
      Bicuculline improved learning and memory and decreased demyelination extention in
      the LPC-induced hippocampal demyelination model. We conclude that disruption of
      GABAergic homeostasis in hippocampal demyelination context may be involved in
      memory impairment with the implications for both pathophysiology and therapy.

PMID- 28866130
TI  - Differential effects of imipramine and CORT118335 (Glucocorticoid receptor
      modulator/mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist) on brain-endocrine stress
      responses and depression-like behavior in female rats.
AB  - Depression is commonly associated with hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis
      dysfunction that primarily manifests as aberrant glucocorticoid secretion.
      Glucocorticoids act on Type I mineralocorticoid (MR) and Type II glucocorticoid
      receptors (GR) to modulate mood and endocrine responses. Successful
      antidepressant treatment normalizes HPA axis function, in part due to modulatory
      effects on MR and GR in cortico-limbic structures. Although women are twice as
      likely to suffer from depression, little is known about how antidepressants
      modulate brain, endocrine, and behavioral stress responses in females. Here, we
      assessed the impact of CORT118335 (GR modulator/MR antagonist) and imipramine
      (tricyclic antidepressant) on neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to
      restraint or forced swim stress (FST) in female rats (n=10-12/group). Increased
      immobility CORT118335 in the FST is purported to reflect passive coping or
      depression-like behavior. CORT118335 dampened adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
      and corticosterone responses to the FST, but did not affect immobility.
      Imipramine suppressed ACTH, but had minimal effects on corticosterone responses
      to FST. Despite these marginal effects, imipramine decreased immobility,
      suggesting antidepressant efficacy. In an effort to link brain-endocrine
      responses with behavior, c-Fos was assessed in HPA axis and mood modulatory
      regions in response to the FST. CORT118335 upregulated c-Fos expression in the
      paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Imipramine decreased c-Fos in the
      basolateral amygdala and hippocampus (CA1 and CA3), but increased c-Fos in the
      central amygdala. These data suggest the antidepressant-like (e.g., active
      coping) properties of imipramine may be due to widespread effects on cortico
      limbic circuits that regulate emotional and cognitive processes.

PMID- 28866131
TI  - Increased emotional reactivity to affective pictures in patients with skin
      picking disorder: Evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - The predominant symptom of skin-picking disorder (SPD) is the recurrent picking
      of one's own skin, leading to tissue damage and discomfort. Psychological
      disorder models suggest an enhanced emotional reactivity in patients with SPD,
      which contributes to the maintenance of symptoms. This functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment analyzed both subjective and neuronal
      responses to affective pictures (categories: fear, disgust, happiness, neutral)
      in 19 women with SPD and 16 healthy controls. Also, affective traits (disgust,
      anxiety, depression) were assessed. Those with SPD scored higher on trait
      anxiety/depression, and reported higher intensities of negative emotions
      experienced during the picture viewing. On the neuronal level, the clinical group
      showed enhanced localized brain activation to fear, disgust and happiness in the
      amygdala, the insula and the orbitofrontal cortex. These regions are part of a
      brain circuit mediating affective responses and affective awareness. The current
      fMRI study provides first data on the neuronal basis of elevated emotional
      reactivity to affective pictures in SPD.

PMID- 28866132
TI  - Combining R-DOTAP and a particulate antigen delivery platform to trigger
      dendritic cell activation: Formulation development and in-vitro interaction
      studies.
AB  - The utilization of the cationic lipid R-DOTAP as immune cell stimulant (e.g. its
      stimulating effects on immature dendritic cells) and correspondingly as possible
      adjuvant for vaccination is well known. Likewise, it is described in literature
      that solid polymer particles loaded with antigens can be size-tailored in a
      manner to be suitable for phagocytosis by antigen presenting cells. The effects
      of DOTAP-microparticle combinations, however, are not well understood. This study
      aimed therefore to explore the potential of R-DOTAP stabilized microparticles
      (MP) to act as a carrier platform for antigens e.g. for cancer vaccination. It
      was investigated whether or not a combination of R-DOTAP and PLGA leads to a
      boosted adjuvant effect in dendritic cell maturation. For proper comparison,
      neutral and negatively charged MPs of comparable sizes were developed. Toxicity,
      uptake, routing and maturation of the MP platform was assessed in-vitro on human
      immature dendritic cells (iDCs). Interestingly, none of the tested placebo
      formulations (without antigen) was capable to induce DC maturation when compared
      to LPS as positive control. This is in contrast to experiments previously
      reported in literature, where R-DOTAP (e.g. in liposomal form) triggered iDC
      maturation even without antigen. Possible reasons and further approaches are
      discussed in the paper.

PMID- 28866133
TI  - MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells fuel osteoclast metabolism and activity: A new
      rationale for the pathogenesis of osteolytic bone metastases.
AB  - Recent progress in dissecting the molecular paracrine circuits of cancer and
      stromal cells in bone metastases (BM) are offering new options to improve current
      merely palliative approach. The study of tumor-stroma metabolic interplay may
      further ameliorate this scenario. In this context, we demonstrated that highly
      glycolytic MDA-MB-231 cancer cells, that form osteolytic BM in vivo, release a
      large amount of lactate at a significantly higher level than MCF7 cells. Thus, we
      speculated that lactate released from carcinoma cells is uptaken and
      metabolically used by osteoclasts, the key players of osteolysis associated with
      BM. First, we demonstrated that the release of lactate at the bone site is
      mediated by monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4), as revealed by immunostaining
      and MCT4 localization at the plasma membrane of tumor cells in mouse model of BM
      and in human tissue sections of BM. Then, we showed that in vitro lactate is
      uptaken by osteoclasts to be used as a fuel for the oxidative metabolism of
      osteoclasts, ultimately enhancing Type I collagen resorption. The passive
      transport of lactate into osteoclasts was mediated by MCT1: MCT1 expression is
      significantly upregulated during osteoclast differentiation and Type I collagen
      resorption is significantly impaired when osteoclasts are treated with 7-(N
      benzyl-N-methylamino)-2-oxo-2H-chromene-3-carboxylic acid, an MCT-1 inhibitor.
      Together, these data demonstrate that lactate released by glycolytic breast
      carcinoma cells in the bone microenvironment promotes the formation of osteolytic
      lesions, and provide the rationale for further studies on the use of MCT1
      targeting as a novel therapeutic approach in advanced cancer patients with BM.

PMID- 28866134
TI  - Wnt/beta-catenin signaling links embryonic lung development and asthmatic airway
      remodeling.
AB  - Embryonic lung development requires reciprocal endodermal-mesodermal
      interactions; mediated by various signaling proteins. Wnt/beta-catenin is a
      signaling protein that exhibits the pivotal role in lung development, injury and
      repair while aberrant expression of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling leads to asthmatic
      airway remodeling: characterized by hyperplasia and hypertrophy of airway smooth
      muscle cells, alveolar and vascular damage goblet cells metaplasia, and
      deposition of extracellular matrix; resulting in decreased lung compliance and
      increased airway resistance. The substantial evidence suggests that Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling links embryonic lung development and asthmatic airway
      remodeling. Here, we summarized the recent advances related to the mechanistic
      role of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in lung development, consequences of aberrant
      expression or deletion of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in expansion and progression
      of asthmatic airway remodeling, and linking early-impaired pulmonary development
      and airway remodeling later in life. Finally, we emphasized all possible recent
      potential therapeutic significance and future prospectives, that are adaptable
      for therapeutic intervention to treat asthmatic airway remodeling.

PMID- 28866135
TI  - Congenital Zika syndrome with prolonged detection of Zika virus RNA.

PMID- 28866136
TI  - Major globally disseminated clonal complexes of antimicrobial resistant
      enterococci associated with infections in cancer patients in Brazil.
AB  - Cancer and hematological malignancies constitute major comorbidities in
      enterococcal infections, but little is known about the characteristics of
      enterococci affecting cancer patients. The aim of this study was to characterize
      132 enterococcal clinical isolates obtained from cancer patients attending a
      Cancer Reference Center in Brazil between April 2013 and March 2014.
      Susceptibility to 17 antimicrobial agents was assessed by disk diffusion method.
      Resistance and virulence genes were investigated by PCR. Multilocus sequence
      typing (MLST) was performed for selected Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus
      faecium isolates. The predominant species was E. faecalis (108 isolates),
      followed by E. faecium (18), Enterococcus gallinarum (3), Enterococcus avium (2)
      and Enterococcus durans (1). Multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates made up 44.7%,
      but all isolates were susceptible to fosfomycin, linezolid and glycopeptides. The
      most prevalent genes associated with erythromycin- and tetracycline-non
      susceptible isolates were erm(B) (47/71; 66.2%) and tet(M) (24/68; 35.3%),
      respectively. High-level resistance (HLR) to gentamicin was found in 22 (16.7%)
      isolates and 13 (59.1%) of them carried the aac(6')-Ie-aph(2")-Ia gene. HLR to
      streptomycin was detected in 34 (25.8%) isolates, of which 15 (44.1%) isolates
      had the ant(6')-Ia gene. The most common virulence genes were gelE (48.9%), esp
      (30.5%) and asa1 (29.8%). MLST performed for 26 E. faecalis isolates revealed 18
      different sequence-types (STs), with seven corresponding to novel STs (625, 626,
      627, 628, 629, 630, and 635). On the other hand, nine of 10 E. faecium isolates
      analyzed by MLST belonged to a single clonal complex, comprised of mostly ST412,
      which emerged worldwide after mid-2000s, but also two novel STs (963 and 964). We
      detected major globally disseminated E. faecalis and E. faecium clonal complexes
      along with novel closely related STs, indicating the fitness and continuous
      evolution of these hospital-adapted lineages.

PMID- 28866137
TI  - Aedes Aegypti saliva enhances chikungunya virus replication in human skin
      fibroblasts via inhibition of the type I interferon signaling pathway.
AB  - Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) transmission occurs through the bite of an infected
      Aedes mosquito which injects virus-containing saliva into the skin of the human
      host during blood feeding. In the present study, we have determined the effect of
      Aedes aegypti saliva on CHIKV replication in human skin fibroblasts, a major cell
      type for viral entry, which mimics the events that occur during natural
      transmission. A significant increase in the expression of viral transcripts and
      infectious viral particles was observed in fibroblasts infected with CHIKV in the
      presence of saliva, as compared with those infected with virus alone. CHIKV
      infected human fibroblasts were found to express significantly increased levels
      of various type I IFN-responsive genes, as demonstrated by specific PCR array
      analysis. In contrast, the expression of these genes was markedly decreased in
      cells infected with CHIKV in the presence of mosquito saliva. Moreover, Western
      blotting analysis revealed that STAT2 and its phosphorylated form were down
      regulated in the presence of mosquito saliva. Our data demonstrate for the first
      time the significance of Aedes aegypti saliva in promoting CHIKV infection via
      down-regulation of several type I IFN-responsive genes in infected human skin
      fibroblasts via the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.

PMID- 28866138
TI  - Identification of two novel Rotavirus A genotypes, G35 and P[50], from Peruvian
      alpaca faeces.
AB  - Rotavirus A (RVA) Alp11B was detected from a neonatal Peruvian alpaca presenting
      with diarrhea, and the Alp11B VP7, VP4, VP6, NSP4, and NSP5 genes were sequenced.
      The partial genotype constellation of this strain, RVA/Alpaca-wt/PER/Alp11B/2010,
      was determined to be G35-P[50]-I13-E16-H6.

PMID- 28866139
TI  - Impact of caloric intake in critically ill patients with, and without, refeeding
      syndrome: A retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Refeeding syndrome comprises metabolic disturbances that occur
      after the reintroduction of feeding after prolonged fasting. Standard care
      consists of correcting fluid and electrolytes imbalances. Energy intake during
      refeeding syndrome is heavily debated. This study addresses the effect of caloric
      intake on outcome during the management of refeeding syndrome. METHODS: A
      retrospective study among critically ill invasive mechanically ventilated
      patients admitted for >7 days to a medical-surgical ICU. Refeeding syndrome was
      diagnosed by the occurrence of new onset hypophosphatemia (<0.65 mmol/l) within
      72 h of the start of nutritional support. Primary outcome was 6-month mortality.
      Secondary outcomes were 3-month mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay and
      duration of mechanical ventilation. Outcomes of patients with and without
      refeeding syndrome were compared and subgroup analysis on energy intake within
      the refeeding population was performed for the duration of survival. RESULTS: Of
      337 enrolled patients, 124 (36.8%) developed refeeding syndrome and 213 patients
      (63.2%) maintained normal serum phosphate levels. Between the two groups, no
      statistical significant differences in clinical outcomes were observed. Within
      the refeeding syndrome group, a reduced 6-month mortality risk for low caloric
      intake (<50% of target) was seen compared with normal intake, adjusted Hazard
      Ratio 0.39, (95% CI 0.16-0.95, p = 0.037). In this group, low caloric intake was
      associated with an increased overall survival time at day 180 (153.0 (SE 10.1) vs
      119.1 (SE 8.0) days, log-rank p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Refeeding syndrome is
      common among prolonged mechanically ventilated critically ill patients, however
      not predictable by baseline characteristics. Among patients that develop
      refeeding syndrome low caloric intake was associated with a reduction in 6-month
      mortality risk. This effect was not seen in patients without refeeding syndrome.
      Findings support caloric restriction in refeeding syndrome during critical
      illness.

PMID- 28866140
TI  - Perioperative supplementation with a fruit and vegetable juice powder concentrate
      and postsurgical morbidity: A double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled
      clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Surgical trauma leads to an inflammatory response that causes
      surgical morbidity. Reduced antioxidant micronutrient (AM)a levels and/or
      excessive levels of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)b have previously been linked to
      delayed wound healing and presence of chronic wounds. We aimed to evaluate the
      effect of pre-operative supplementation with encapsulated fruit and vegetable
      juice powder concentrate (JuicePlus+(r)) on postoperative morbidity and Quality
      of Life (QoL)c. METHODS: We conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo
      controlled two-arm parallel clinical trial evaluating postoperative morbidity
      following lower third molar surgery. Patients aged between 18 and 65 years were
      randomised to take verum or placebo for 10 weeks prior to surgery and during the
      first postoperative week. The primary endpoint was the between-group difference
      in QoL over the first postoperative week, with secondary endpoints being related
      to other measures of postoperative morbidity (pain and trismus). RESULTS: One
      hundred and eighty-three out of 238 randomised patients received surgery
      (Intention-To-Treat population). Postoperative QoL tended to be higher in the
      active compared to the placebo group. Furthermore, reduction in mouth opening 2
      days after surgery was 3.1 mm smaller (95% CI 0.1, 6.1), the mean pain score over
      the postoperative week was 8.5 mm lower (95% CI 1.8, 15.2) and patients were less
      likely to experience moderate to severe pain on postoperative day 2 (RR 0.58, 95%
      CI 0.35, 0.95), comparing verum to placebo groups. CONCLUSION: Pre-operative
      supplementation with a fruit and vegetable supplement rich in AM may improve
      postoperative QoL and reduce surgical morbidity and post-operative complications
      after surgery. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01145820;
      Registered June 16, 2010.

PMID- 28866141
TI  - Clinical nutrition education in medical schools: Results of an ESPEN survey.

PMID- 28866142
TI  - In vitro and in vivo degradation of rapamycin-eluting Mg-Nd-Zn-Zr alloy stents in
      porcine coronary arteries.
AB  - In this work, rapamycin-eluting poly (d, l-lactic acid) coating (PDLLA/RAPA) was
      prepared on biodegradable Mg-Nd-Zn-Zr alloy (JDBM) for both in vitro and in vivo
      investigation of the degradation behaviors of the magnesium alloy stent platform.
      Electrochemical tests and hydrogen evolution test demonstrated significant in
      vitro protection of the polymeric coating against magnesium degradation both in
      short and long term. The 3-month in vivo study on the RAPA-eluting JDBM stent
      implanted into porcine coronary arteries confirmed its favorable safety, and in
      the meanwhile revealed similar neointima proliferation compared to the second
      generation DES Firebird 2 with no occurrence of adverse complications. Moreover,
      Micro-CT examination combined with IVUS and OCT detection indicated a remarkably
      lower degradation rate and prolonged radial supporting duration of the drug
      eluting JDBM stent as compared to the bare, attributable to the protection of the
      coating in vivo. Hence, rapamycin-eluting JDBM stents exhibit great potential for
      clinical application.

PMID- 28866143
TI  - Construction of ICG encapsulated W18O49@MSN as a fluorescence carrier for real
      time tracked photothermal therapy.
AB  - Photothermal therapy (PTT) has drawn tremendous attention because of its high
      therapeutic efficiency in targeting cells while minimizing the damage to normal
      tissues and organs. Tungsten oxide (W18O49, WO) plays a pivotal role in PTT
      development and its use in PTT systems has been extensively studied. However, it
      is difficult to control morphology of WO through conventional hydrothermal
      method. Which make its related researches have been limited up to now. In this
      study, we describe the construction and effects on tumor of a novel nanoplatform
      based on WO and indocyanine green (ICG) loaded in mesoporous silica nanoparticles
      (MSN) for dual-modal PTT and near-infrared imaging. (WO+ICG)@MSN could
      efficiently control WO shape without the need of surface modification due to its
      water-soluble of MSN. (WO+ICG)@MSN produced a PTT synergistic effect under
      irradiation of a single 808nm near-infrared (NIR) laser. Notably, an enhanced
      lethal effect of the 808nm laser triggering dual-modal therapy on B16 tumor cells
      was observed. The in vivo animal experiments showed that (WO+ICG)@MSN induced an
      effective solid tumor reduction under 808nm NIR light irradiation, revealing the
      potential of these nanocomposites as a NIR-mediated dual-modal therapeutic
      platform for cancer treatment.

PMID- 28866144
TI  - Solvothermal synthesis of Sm3+-doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
AB  - Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles doped with samarium were prepared by
      solvothermal polyol method. An introduction of 2,2'-bipyridine during the
      synthesis reduces the particle diameter to about 9nm in average. The difference
      in physical and magnetic properties of the samples prepared with and without
      capping agent was outlined on the basis of complex characterization by a number
      of experimental techniques. The characteristics of resulted product make it
      suitable for biomedical applications, for instance, as a contrast agent for MRI.

PMID- 28866145
TI  - Bactericidal performance of nanostructured surfaces by fluorocarbon plasma.
AB  - This study presents the characterization and antibacterial activity of
      nanostructured Si by plasma treatment method using a tetrafluoromethane (CF4) and
      hydrogen (H2) mixture. Nanostructured-Si is a synthetic nanomaterial that
      contains high aspect ratio nanoprotrusions on its surface, produced through a
      reactive-ion etching process. We have shown that the nanoprotrusions on the
      surfaces produce a mechanical bactericidal effect. Nanostructured-Si exhibited
      notable activity against three different microorganisms: Gram-negative
      (Escherichia coli), Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and spore-forming
      bacteria (Bacillus cereus) producing a > 5 log10 reduction after 24h of
      incubation. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analysis the structure and
      morphology character of different surfaces evidencing the physical bactericidal
      activity of the Nanostructured-Si. These results provide excellent prospects for
      the development of a new generation of antibacterial surfaces.

PMID- 28866147
TI  - Nanofibrous poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)/collagen/graphene oxide
      scaffolds for wound coverage.
AB  - The purpose of wound management is to prevent wound from infection, increase the
      fibroblast cell growth, and preserve cellular function. The polymeric electrospun
      nanofiber scaffold made up of natural and/or synthetic polymer provides an
      extracellular matrix for support and initiates the growth, proliferation and
      differentiation of fibroblast cells. The present study deals with the development
      of poly3-hydroxybutyric acid-co-3-hydroxyvaleric acid (PHBV) nanofibrous scaffold
      imbedded with graphene oxide (GO), and collagen. Nanofibrous PHBV offers
      advantages like structural resemblance to native extracellular matrix, high
      porosity and surface area to volume ratio. The nanofibrous mats were
      morphologically and chemically characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron
      Microscopy (FESEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. FESEM
      images showed the nanofiber diameter was decreased and porosity increased by
      adding GO and collagen into the matrix without any chemical interaction among
      them. Incorporation of GO into the matrix increases mechanical strength of
      scaffold in addition to antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus with
      decrease in pore size and hydrophilicity. In contrast, collagen addition into the
      nanofibers enhanced hydrophilicity without affecting mechanical strength and
      porosity significantly. Moreover, collagen enhanced cell proliferation capacity
      of nanofibers in comparison to the samples of PHBV+GO and virgin PHBV. The
      combination of collagen and GO with PHBV has balanced properties which can be
      utilised for the application.

PMID- 28866146
TI  - Rehabilitation of the atrophic mandible with short implants in different
      positions: A finite elements study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze whether the use of inclined short
      implants without lower transcortical involvement (test model - SI), thus
      preserving the mandibular lower cortical bone, could optimize stress
      distribution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six identical atrophic mandible models were
      created featuring 8mm of height at the symphysis. Two study factors were
      evaluated: implant length and angulation. Implant length was represented either
      by short implants (7mm) with preservation of the mandibular lower cortical bone
      or standard implants (9mm) with a bicortical approach and 3 possible implant
      positioning configurations: 4 distally-inclined implants at 45 degrees 
      (experimental model), all-on-four, 4 vertical implants. All tridimensional (3D)
      models were analyzed using the Finite Element Method (FEM) and the Ansys
      Workbench software. RESULTS: The maximum stress on the bone at the cervical
      region of the implants in the experimental model was 132MPa and transcortical
      involvement with implant inclination yielded higher values (171MPa). Regarding
      von Mises stress on the retaining screw of the prosthesis, 61MPa was recorded for
      the experimental model while upright implants had the highest values (223MPa). At
      the acrylic base, 4MPa was recorded for the experimental model whereas models
      with upright implants showed the highest stress values (11MPa). CONCLUSION:
      Rehabilitation of severely resorbed mandibles with 4 short implants placed
      distally at 45 degrees , without lower transcortical involvement, were
      biomechanically more favorable, generating lower stress peaks, than the models
      with short implants on an all-on-four, or on an upright configuration, with or
      without lower transcortical involvement.

PMID- 28866148
TI  - Investigation on direct electrochemical and electrocatalytic behavior of
      hemoglobin on palladium-graphene modified electrode.
AB  - Palladium-graphene (Pd-GR) nanocomposite was acted as modifier for construction
      of the modified electrode with direct electrochemistry of hemoglobin (Hb)
      realized. By using Nafion as the immobilization film, Hb was fixed tightly on Pd
      GR nanocomposite modified carbon ionic liquid electrode. Electrochemical
      behaviors of Hb modified electrode were checked by cyclic voltammetry and a pair
      of redox peaks originated from direct electron transfer of Hb was appeared. The
      Hb modified electrode had excellent electrocatalytic activity to the reduction of
      trichloroacetic acid and sodium nitrite in the concentration range from 0.6 to
      13.0mmol.L-1 and from 0.04 to 0.5 mmol.L-1. Therefore Pd-GR nanocomposite was
      proven to be a good candidate for the fabrication of third-generation
      electrochemical biosensor.

PMID- 28866149
TI  - Three-dimensional finite element analysis of occlusal splint and implant
      connection on stress distribution in implant-supported fixed dental prosthesis
      and peri-implantal bone.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of occlusal splint therapy
      on the stress distribution of implant-supported fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) and
      peri-implantal bone structures using three-dimensional (3D) finite element
      analysis (FEA). The system consisted of two implants (positioned on region of
      second premolar and second molar) as retainers of fixed porcelain-fused-to-metal
      3-unit FDP (first molar as pontic element). Two implant connections systems
      (external and internal hexagon) were tested. Static axial loads simulating
      functional (100N) and overloaded (300N) chewing were applied on the occlusal
      surface of the FDP covered or not with the occlusal splint. Maximum von Mises
      stress and bioperformance were accessed for the implants and bone tissues
      (cortical and cancellous) models. Analytic results indicated that independently
      of the load condition, implant region, and connection type, the presence of the
      occlusal splint decreased the stress developed in the implants. Both bone tissues
      showed increased levels of von Mises stress, and the bioperformance index was far
      from their maximum yield strength. The internal hexagon implants presented lower
      stress on premolar and molar regions than external hexagon implants under
      functional load and overload. The presence of the occlusal splint device over
      implant-supported FDP may be clinically useful for forwarding stresses towards
      the bone structure to maintain implants for long term.

PMID- 28866150
TI  - Synthesis and study of thermal, mechanical and biodegradation properties of
      chitosan-g-PMMA with chicken egg shell (nano-CaO) as a novel bio-filler.
AB  - The important objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of chicken
      eggshell (nano-Cao) as a functionalized bio-filler on the mechanical strength and
      thermal stability of acrylic based bionanocomposite of chitosan grafted with
      poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA). The chitosan grafted PMMA adsorbed with
      functionalized biofiller was prepared via emulsion polymerisation technique and
      physicochemically characterized as bone graft substitute. The so prepared grafted
      bioactive bone cement (BBC) bionanocomposite (BNC), chitosan-g-PMMA/nano-CaO was
      characterized by FTIR, XRD, FESEM and TGA. The water uptake, retention ability,
      their biodegradability and the nanosize particle arrangement in the polymeric BBC
      BNCs were undertaken. These preliminary investigations of the BNCs will open the
      door for their use in bioadhesive bone cement implants in future.

PMID- 28866151
TI  - Liposomes coated with thiolated chitosan as drug carriers of curcumin.
AB  - Liposome is one of a promising delivery system to improve water solubility,
      stability, and bioavailability of curcumin. But its instability is not favorable
      for long-circulating treatment, controlled release or conservation. To overcome
      the disadvantages, thiol derivatised chitosan (CSSH) were synthesized and
      utilized to coat liposomes. The CSSH coated curcumin liposomes (Cur-Lip-CSSH) had
      an encapsulation efficiency (EE) of 93.95%, a drug loading (DL) of 7.95%, an
      average particle size of 406.0nm, and a positive zeta-potential of 36.6mV, which
      were all higher than that of Cur-Lip. Cur-Lip-CSSH showed slower in vitro release
      than Cur-Lip at pH5.5 and pH7.4, and the higher retention of curcumin would be
      remained for the following uptake of cells. The stability of the both liposomes
      at 4 degrees C was almost the same, but Cur-Lip-CSSH displayed a higher stability
      at room temperature and higher temperature by DSC characterization. Curcumin can
      inhibit the growth of cancer cells under certain conditions. MCF-7 cell line was
      used to study its inhibition and proliferation after treating with curcumin and
      Cur-Lip-CSSH. Treatment of MCF-7 with curcumin and Cur-Lip-CSSH showed dose and
      time dependent cytotoxicity, with growth suppression at 200MUM, 72h, obviously.
      These results indicate that the proper coating of liposomes is able to improve
      the stability of liposomes and the Lip-CSSH can function as potential drug
      delivery system.

PMID- 28866152
TI  - Glycerol-plasticised silk membranes made using formic acid are ductile,
      transparent and degradation-resistant.
AB  - Regenerated silk fibroin membranes tend to be brittle when dry. The use of
      plasticisers such as glycerol improve membrane ductility, but, when combined with
      aqueous processing, can lead to a higher degradation rate than solvent-annealed
      membranes. This study investigated the use of formic acid as the solvent with
      glycerol to make deformable yet degradation-resistant silk membranes. Here we
      show that membranes cast using formic acid had low light scattering, with a
      diffuse transmittance of less than 5% over the visible wavelengths, significantly
      lower than the 20% transmittance of aqueous derived silk/glycerol membranes. They
      had 64% beta-sheet content and lost just 30% of the initial silk weight over 6h
      when tested with an accelerated enzymatic degradation assay, in comparison the
      aqueous membranes completely degraded within this timeframe. The addition of
      glycerol also improved the maximum elongation of formic acid derived membranes
      from under 3% to over 100%. They also showed good cytocompatibility and supported
      the adhesion and migration of human tympanic membrane keratinocytes. Formic acid
      based, silk/glycerol membranes may be of great use in medical applications such
      as repair of tympanic membrane perforation or ocular applications where
      transparency and resistance to enzymatic degradation are important.

PMID- 28866153
TI  - Nonenzymatic glucose sensor based on Ag&Pt hollow nanoparticles supported on TiO2
      nanotubes.
AB  - This study was dedicated to develop a nonenzymatic glucose sensor based on Ag&Pt
      hollow nanoparticles supported on TiO2 nanotubes. The Ag&Pt-TiO2/(500 degrees C)
      was synthesized by a simple reduction and galvanic replacement method in an
      aqueous solution. The surface morphology and structure of Ag&Pt-TiO2/(500 degrees
      C) could be examined by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron
      microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer. The mechanical behavior was
      measured by nanoindentation test and the hydropathy property was measured by
      contact angle test. It can be observed that Ag&Pt hollow structures with a
      particle size of 100nm and a wall thickness of 27nm were deposited on TiO2
      nanotubes. The electrochemical properties were investigated by Electrochemical
      Workstation with three-electrode system. Ag&Pt(6h)-TiO2/(500 degrees C) electrode
      exhibited excellent catalytic ability from cyclic voltammetry and fast electron
      transfer rate according to the electron transfer resistance of 330Omega from
      impedance spectroscopy. Differential pulse voltammetry results showed the
      sensitivity to glucose was 3.99MUA*cm-2*mM-1, the linearity increased to 180mM
      and the detection limit was 22.6MUM. The prepared nonenzyme glucose sensor with
      good analytical performance and simple preparation method looks promising in
      accurate glucose detection applications.

PMID- 28866154
TI  - siRNA delivery using polyelectrolyte-gold nanoassemblies in neuronal cells for
      BACE1 gene silencing.
AB  - Small interfering RNA (siRNA) mediated RNA interference is a versatile
      therapeutic tool for many intractable genetic disorders. Various nanoassemblies
      specifically designed to deliver the siRNAs could be utilized for efficient siRNA
      delivery which is one of the major concern for the success of this therapeutic.
      Thus, in the present study, polyelectrolyte-gold nanoassemblies (PE-Gold NAs)
      were selected for siRNA delivery of an in vitro verified siRNA. Three different
      polyelectrolytes (polyethyleneimine, citraconic anhydride modified poly
      (allylamine) hydrochloride and poly l-arginine) were used to formulate the PE
      Gold NAs using the layer-by-layer technique. Successful physico-chemical
      characterizations of these PE-Gold NAs were performed using UV-Visible, FTIR, 1H
      NMR spectroscopies, XRD, TEM, DLS and Zeta potential measurements. In vitro
      studies for the cytotoxicity, the uptake of these nanoassemblies and the gene
      silencing were carried out using these PE-Gold NAs in N2a and NB4 1A3 (murine
      neuronal) cell lines. The three selected PE-Gold NAs showed significant BACE1
      (beta-site APP cleaving enzyme 1) gene silencing (50-60%). This work demonstrates
      the potential of PE-Gold NAs to deliver siRNA targeting BACE1 in neuronal cells.
      Finally, it was concluded that different polyelectrolytes used in the PE-Gold NAs
      achieve different gene silencing due to the variation in their delivery
      efficiencies.

PMID- 28866155
TI  - A novel sensor made of Antimony Doped Tin Oxide-silica composite sol on a glassy
      carbon electrode modified by single-walled carbon nanotubes for detection of
      norepinephrine.
AB  - In this study, we designed a novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), Antimony
      Doped Tin Oxide (ATO)-silica composite sol, which was made using a sol-gel
      method. Then a sensitive and selective imprinted electrochemical sensor was
      constructed with the ATO-silica composite sol on a glassy carbon electrode
      modified by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The introduction of SWNTs
      increased the sensitivity of the MIP sensor. The surface morphology of the MIP
      and MIP/SWNTs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the
      optimal conditions for detection were determined. The oxidative peak current
      increased linearly with the concentration of norepinephrine in the range of
      9.99*10-8M to 1.50*10-5M, as detected by cyclic voltammetry (CV), the detection
      limit was 3.33*10-8M (S/N=3). In addition, the proposed electrochemical sensors
      were successfully applied to detect the norepinephrine concentration in human
      blood serum samples. The recoveries of the sensors varied from 99.67% to 104.17%,
      indicating that the sensor has potential for the determination of norepinephrine
      in clinical tests. Moreover, the imprinted electrochemical sensor was used to
      selectively detect norepinephrine. The analytical application was conducted
      successfully and yielded accurate and precise results.

PMID- 28866156
TI  - Polymer microneedles fabricated from alginate and hyaluronate for transdermal
      delivery of insulin.
AB  - To reduce the inconvenient and painful of subcutaneous needle injection, the
      polymer microneedle patches that fabricated from modified alginate and
      hyaluronate were prepared for transdermal delivery of insulin. The as-prepared
      microneedles (MNs) exhibited excellent mechanical strength to penetrate the skin
      and good degradability to release loaded insulin. In vitro skin insertion
      capability was determined by staining with tissue-marking dye after insertion,
      and the real-time penetration depth was monitored using optical coherence
      tomography. Confocal microscopy images revealed that the rhodamine B and
      fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled insulin (FITC-insulin) can gradually diffuse
      from the puncture sites to deeper tissue. In vivo and pharmacodynamic studies
      were then conducted to estimate the feasibility of the administration of insulin
      loaded microneedle patches on diabetic mice for glucose regulation. The relative
      pharmacologic availability (RPA) and relative bioavailability (RBA) of insulin
      from microneedle patches were 90.5+/-6.8% and 92.9+/-7%, respectively. These
      results suggests the MNs developed in this study have a promising application in
      diabetes treatment via transdermal delivery.

PMID- 28866157
TI  - Low modulus and bioactive Ti/alpha-TCP/Ti-mesh composite prepared by spark plasma
      sintering.
AB  - A titanium mesh scaffold composite filled with Ti/alpha-TCP particles was
      prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The microstructures and interfacial
      reactions of the composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses.
      The compressive strength and elastic modulus were also measured. In vitro
      bioactivity and biocompatibility was evaluated by using simulated body fluid and
      cells culture, respectively. After high temperature sintering, Ti oxides, TixPy
      and CaTiO3 were formed. The formation of Ti oxides and TixPy were resulted from
      the diffusion of O and P elements from alpha-TCP to Ti. CaTiO3 was the reaction
      product of Ti and alpha-TCP. The composite of 70Ti/alpha-TCP incorporated with Ti
      mesh showed a high compressive strength of 589MPa and a low compressive modulus
      of 30GPa. The bioactivity test showed the formation of a thick apatite layer on
      the composite and well-spread cells attachment. A good combination of mechanical
      properties and bioactivity indicated a high potential application of Ti/alpha
      TCP/Ti-mesh composite for orthopedic implants.

PMID- 28866158
TI  - Use of a fluorescent probe to monitor the enhanced affinity of rh-BMP-2 to
      silicated-calcium phosphate synthetic bone graft substitutes under competitive
      conditions.
AB  - A comparative investigation was undertaken on 1-2mm sized granules of two forms
      of synthetic bone graft substitute (SBG) with identical pore structure but varied
      bulk chemistry, stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (HA) and silicate substituted
      (0.8wt% Si) hydroxyapatite (SA), to assess the influence of SBG chemistry on the
      relative affinity of an osteogenic growth factor (GF), recombinant human bone
      morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2). A previously described novel fluorescent
      probe, fluoresceinthioureidoaminocaproic acid (FTCA), was covalently attached to
      rhBMP-2 to give FTCA-rhBMP-2 and facilitate the quantitative monitoring of GF
      uptake and release from the two chemistries of SBG. The relative affinity of
      rhBMP-2 for the HA and SA granules was assessed at a physiologically relevant
      concentration of 300ngmL-1 from three (increasingly complex) environments;
      phosphate buffered saline (PBS), minimum Eagles' medium (MEM) and serum
      supplemented MEM (SCEM) in order to closely mimic clinical bone repair
      procedures. The results demonstrated that rhBMP-2 affinity to SBGs was highly
      sensitive to both SBG chemistry and the composition of the local environment.
      Under the most physiologically relevant competitive conditions of SCEM, rhBMP-2
      showed greater affinity to SA (P<0.05) such that 50% of the rhBMP-2 in solution
      was adsorbed to the SA granules after only 15min, as compared to 30% adsorbed to
      the HA granules. Subsequent investigation of the desorption of adsorbed GF from
      the SBGs demonstrated that a significantly higher percentage of the adsorbed
      rhBMP-2 was desorbed from HA as compared to SA granules. Together, these
      observations suggested that at physiologically relevant concentrations and
      conditions, rhBMP-2 has a greater affinity to silicate-substituted hydroxyapatite
      as compared to stoichiometric hydroxyapatite, which may in part explain the
      enhanced osteoconductivity and reported osteoinductivity for silicate-substituted
      hydroxyapatite based SBGs.

PMID- 28866159
TI  - Biomimetic modification of polyurethane-based nanofibrous vascular grafts: A
      promising approach towards stable endothelial lining.
AB  - The emerging demand for small caliber vascular grafts to replace damaged vessels
      has attracted research attention. However, there is no perfect replacement in
      clinical use yet, mainly due to low patency rate of synthetic small caliber
      grafts. The main pathology behind low patency rate include thrombosis and
      graft/vessel hemodynamic mismatch, leading to intimal hyperplasia. Rapid in-situ
      endothelialization of vascular grafts is considered as one of the best strategies
      to overcome these complications. In the present study, Heparin and VEGF were
      immobilized via self-polymerization and deposition of polydopamine (PDA) on
      polyurethane (PU) nanofibrous scaffolds to improve endothelialization.
      Polyurethane nanofibrous scaffold (PUNF) that mimics vascular extracellular
      matrix (ECM) was chosen owing to its biocompatibility, biodegradability. Scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle (CA) measurement and Raman
      spectroscopy were used to characterize the surface, and tensile test was used to
      analyze mechanical properties before and after surface modification of the
      scaffolds. It was found that tensile strength and young's modulus were
      significantly increased after PDA coating on PUNF membranes. The
      hemocompatibility tests revealed that surface heparinization significantly
      inhibited the adhesion of platelet on the scaffolds. Immobilization of VEGF on
      the scaffolds significantly enhanced the proliferation of human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells (HUVECs) through enhanced cells adhesion and improved cell
      scaffold interactions. The results suggest that dual-factor immobilization
      resulted in not only confluent monolayer of endothelial cells but also conferred
      excellent antithrombotic properties to the surface. This method of surface
      modification (immobilization of Heparin, VEGF by PDA layer) is suggested as a
      promising modification technique to increase hemocompatibility of small-diameter
      vascular grafts.

PMID- 28866160
TI  - Diatomite reinforced chitosan composite membrane as potential scaffold for guided
      bone regeneration.
AB  - In this study, natural silica source, diatomite, incorporated novel chitosan
      based composite membranes were fabricated and characterized for bone tissue
      engineering applications as possible bone regeneration membrane. The effect of
      diatomite loading on the mechanical, morphological, chemical, thermal and surface
      properties, wettability and in vitro cytotoxicity and cell proliferation on of
      composite membranes were investigated and observed by tensile test, atomic force
      microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal
      gravimetric analysis (TGA), protein adsorption assay, air/water contact angle
      analysis and WST-1 respectively. Swelling studies were also performed by water
      absorption capacity determination. Results showed that incorporation of diatomite
      to the chitosan matrix increased the surface roughness, swelling capacity and
      tensile modulus of membranes. An increase of about 52% in Young's modulus was
      achieved for 10wt% diatomite composite membranes compared with chitosan
      membranes. High cell viability results were obtained with indirect extraction
      method. Besides, in vitro cell proliferation and ALP activity results showed that
      diatom incorporation significantly increased the ALP activity of Saos-2 cells
      cultured on chitosan membranes. The novel composite membranes prepared in the
      present study with tunable properties can be considered as a potential candidate
      as a scaffold in view of its enhanced physical & chemical properties as well as
      biological activities for bone tissue engineering applications.

PMID- 28866161
TI  - A graded graphene oxide-hydroxyapatite/silk fibroin biomimetic scaffold for bone
      tissue engineering.
AB  - To better mimic natural bone, a graphene oxide-hydroxyapatite/silk fibroin (cGO
      HA/SF) scaffold was fabricated by biomineralizing carboxylated GO sheets,
      blending with SF, and freeze-drying. The material has increasing porosity and
      decreasing density from outside to inside. Analysis of GO mineralization in
      simulated body fluid indicated that carboxylation and Chitosan may
      synergistically regulate HA growth along the c-axis of weakly crystalline, rod
      like GO-HA particles. Compared with HA/SF gradient composites, a cGO-HA gradient
      scaffold with cGO:HA mass ratio 1:4 has 5-fold and 2.5-fold higher compressive
      strength and compressive modulus, respectively. Additionally, the cGO-HA/SF
      composite stimulated mouse mesenchymal stem cell adhesion and proliferation,
      alkaline phosphatase secretion, and mineral deposition more strongly than HA/SF
      and pure HA scaffolds. Hence, the material may prove to be an excellent and
      versatile scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28866162
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of pectin-6-aminohexanoic acid-magnetite
      nanoparticles for drug delivery.
AB  - In this study, we have synthesized magnetic nanocomposites of magnetite
      nanoparticles coated with 6-aminohexanoic acid and pectin (MAP). The size of the
      aqueous dispersion of the nanocomposites was 147nm with a Polydispersity index
      (PDI) of 0.32, and the nanocomposites were stable in NaCl up to a concentration
      of 0.45% (w/v) after which they aggregated. The dispersion of the nanocomposites
      was stable in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) in the presence of 5 and
      10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Curcumin was used as a model drug to evaluate the
      potential of the nanocomposites for drug delivery applications. The release
      behavior of curcumin from the nanocomposites showed a biphasic pattern with
      initial burst release followed by a slow release, and the size of the aqueous
      dispersion of curcumin loaded nanocomposites was 159nm with a PDI of 0.34.

PMID- 28866163
TI  - Synergistic effects of Woodfordia fruticosa gold nanoparticles in preventing
      microbial adhesion and accelerating wound healing in Wistar albino rats in vivo.
AB  - Therapeutic effectiveness of biogenically synthesized Woodfordia fruticosa nano
      gold particles (WfAuNPs) has been claimed in this study which prevents microbial
      adhesion and enhanced wound healing potential on Wistar albino rats. The
      synthesized WfAuNPs were characterized using several biophysical techniques such
      as UV-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-vis), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Dynamic Light
      Scattering (DLS), Zeta Potential, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR),
      Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy
      (AFM) and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM) analysis. The
      synthesized WfAuNPs in the size range of 10-20nm were used to develop 1%
      Carbopol(r) 934 based nano gold formulation (WfAuNPs-Carbopol(r) 934). The
      WfAuNPs-Carbopol(r) 934 nanoformulation was evaluated using viscosity and
      spreadability measurements. The wound healing potential of WfAuNPs-Carbopol(r)
      934 monitored up to 12days was confirmed by performing wound contraction (%),
      epithelialization, and histopathological studies done in vivo on Wistar albino
      rats. The hydroxyproline content was also measured in the re-epithelized skin for
      quantification of collagen content. The effects of WfAuNPs on microbial adhesion
      leading to biofilm formation were evaluated against Candida albicans and
      Cryptococcus neoformans fungal strains. The respective Minimum Inhibitory
      Concentration (MIC80), Biofilm Inhibitory Concentration (BIC80) and Biofilm
      Eradication Concentration (BEC80) values of C. albicans was found to be 16, 32,
      256MUg/ml respectively while for C. neoformans it was recorded to be 32, 64,
      256MUg/ml respectively. Data obtained, confirmed the effectiveness in preventing
      microbial adhesion and wound healing potential of the WfAuNPs as compared to
      current marketed formulations.

PMID- 28866164
TI  - Comparison of glutaraldehyde and procyanidin cross-linked scaffolds for soft
      tissue engineering.
AB  - Soft tissue injuries are among the most difficult orthopaedic conditions to
      treat, and regenerative medicine holds the promise of better treatments of these
      injuries. There is therefore a requirement for substrates and porous scaffolds
      which provide an appropriate chemical and mechanical environment for cell
      attachment, growth, proliferation and differentiation. In this study, cross
      linked porous gelatin-chitosan (Gel/Chi) scaffolds with high porosity (>90%) were
      fabricated and their internal morphology, pore sizes and porosities were
      characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), micro computed tomography
      (micro-CT) and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The cross-linking agents chosen for
      this study were Procyanidin (PA), chosen for its biocompatibility, and
      glutaraldehyde (GA), chosen for comparison as a highly effective cross-linker.
      Concentrations of these cross-linkers varied from 0.1% to 1% (w/v) and controls
      had the same gelatin-chitosan blend but were untreated. It was found that the
      water absorption of cross-linked scaffolds decreased as the cross-linker
      concentration increased and in vitro collagenase degradation test showed both
      cross-linkers increased the biostability of the scaffolds. Scaffolds were also
      tested under compressive load to investigate their resistance to deformation. The
      results indicated that both cross-linkers increase the stiffness of the scaffolds
      both initially and at higher strains, but GA cross-linked scaffolds had a higher
      compressive stiffness than scaffolds cross-linked with PA for a given
      concentration. Results from cyclic compression and stress relaxation tests showed
      that PA cross-linked scaffolds recover more rapidly after deformation. 3T3
      fibroblasts were cultured on the scaffolds to assess cytotoxicity and
      biocompatibility. The results indicated that PA was non-cytotoxic and promoted
      the attachment and proliferation of the seeded cells, while fewer cells were seen
      on GA cross-linked scaffolds, indicating that the GA had conferred some
      cytotoxicity. PA cross-linked Gel/Chi porous scaffolds show promise as three
      dimentional porous scaffolds in tissue engineering, as porous substrates for
      biomimetic culture environments, and for regenerative medicine applications, due
      to their excellent biocompatibility and easily adaptable mechanical properties,
      as well as their lower cost compared to collagen and fibrin based substrates.

PMID- 28866165
TI  - Multifunctional gold coated iron oxide core-shell nanoparticles stabilized using
      thiolated sodium alginate for biomedical applications.
AB  - In this paper we report synthesis of aqueous based gold coated iron oxide
      nanoparticles to integrate the localized surface plasma resonance (SPR)
      properties of gold and magnetic properties of iron oxide in a single system. Iron
      oxide-gold core shell nanoparticles were stabilized by attachment of thiolated
      sodium alginate to the surface of nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscope
      (TEM) micrograph presents an average elementary particle size of 8.1+/-2.1nm.
      High resolution TEM (HR-TEM) and X-ray photon spectroscopy further confirms the
      presence of gold shell around iron oxide core. Gold coating is responsible for
      reducing saturation magnetization (Ms) value from ~41emu/g to ~24emu/g - in
      thiolated sodium alginate stabilized gold coated iron oxide core-shell
      nanoparticles. The drug (curcumin) loading efficiency for the prepared
      nanocomposites was estimated to be around 7.2wt% (72MUgdrug/mg nanoparticles)
      with encapsulation efficiency of 72.8%. Gold-coated iron oxide core-shell
      nanoparticles could be of immense importance in the field of targeted drug
      delivery along with capability to be used as contrast agent for MRI & CT.

PMID- 28866166
TI  - Polymer brush hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) modified poly (propylene
      g-styrene sulphonic acid) fiber (ZB-1): CTAB/ZB-1 as a promising strategy for
      improving the dissolution and physical stability of poorly water-soluble drugs.
AB  - The feasibility of polymer brush as drug delivery vehicle was demonstrated with
      the goal of improving the dissolution and physical stability of poorly water
      soluble drugs. Polymer brush CTAB/ZB-1 was synthesized by electrostatic
      interaction using a physical modification method with anionic poly (propylene-g
      styrene sulphonic acid) fiber (ZB-1) as the substrate and cationic
      hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the modifier. The polymer brush
      structure of CTAB/ZB-1 was validated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the
      channels of brush provided the drug loading sites. Flurbiprofen (FP), a BCS class
      II representative drug, was selected as the model poorly water-soluble drug to be
      loaded into this polymer brush. Then the drug loading and release were
      systematically investigated. Besides, the transformation from crystalline FP to
      amorphous state was observed by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). In vitro
      dissolution in pure water and pH1.2 HCl media with/without 0.1% sodium dodecyl
      sulfate (SDS) was tested. Moreover, the optimal formulations (namely carrier/drug
      ratios) were determined. The results demonstrated prominent improvement of
      dissolution when FP was released from CTAB/ZB-1. After a long time storage, FP
      remained amorphous in CTAB/ZB-1 according to DSC determinations and performed an
      approximately equivalent dissolution compared with fresh samples, suggesting the
      advantage of CTAB/ZB-1 as carrier in enhancing the physical stability of drugs.
      The study introduced the versatile easily formulated polymer brush CTAB/ZB-1 and
      demonstrated the potential of polymer brush as an alternative approach for
      improving the dissolution and physical stability of poorly water-soluble drugs.

PMID- 28866167
TI  - Design of multi-functional cotton gauze with antimicrobial and drug delivery
      properties.
AB  - The ideal biomedical fiber/fabric materials can both promote the drug delivery
      properties and prevent microbial infection. Herein we present an innovation-based
      strategy for fabrication of biomedical cotton gauze which concomitantly displays
      antimicrobial and drug delivery performance properties. The innovative strategy
      involved three distinct steps: (1) Cationization of cotton gauze by reacting it
      with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride [Quat-188] or
      anionization of cotton gauze through partial carboxymethylation. (2) Thus
      modified samples of cotton gauze along with unmodified blank samples were
      submitted to in situ formation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using trisodium
      citrate (TSC) which has three-fold functions: (a) reducing agent for conversion
      of Ag+ to Ago (atom), (b) stabilizing agent to prevent aggregation of AgNPs and,
      (c) linker for fixation of AgNPs on the surfaces of the cotton gauze. (3) All the
      modified and unmodified cotton gauze samples were loaded with oxytetracyline
      hydrochloride drug. To this end, characterization of the modified and unmodified
      cotton samples before and after being loaded with drug using state-of-the-art
      facilities was undertaken. These facilities comprised UV-vis spectroscopy, energy
      dispersive X-ray, scanning electron microscope and Infrared Spectroscopy by
      Attenuated total Reflectance (ATR/IR). Evaluation of the antimicrobial and drug
      release properties of the cotton gauze samples in question was conducting.
      Results obtained signified that the modified cotton gauze can be used in the area
      of biomedical textiles particularly as antimicrobial and drug delivery. Also
      reported were mechanisms entailed in chemical modifications of cotton gauze and
      interactions of this modified cotton gauze with antimicrobial as well as with
      drugs.

PMID- 28866168
TI  - Osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) induced by three
      calcium phosphate ceramic (CaP) powders: A comparative study.
AB  - Calcium phosphate ceramics (CaPs) appear to be suitable alternatives for bone
      grafts because of their similarity to bone. Tricalcium phosphate (TCP),
      hydroxyapatite (HA) and biphasic calcium phosphates (BCP) are most commonly used
      CaPs. In this study, we studied and compared the osteoinductive ability of the
      powders of the three CaPs including HA, TCP and BCP (HA/beta-TCP weight ratio of
      60/40) by using bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Osteoblastic
      formation, mineralization and gene expression of osteogenesis markers were
      measured in MSCs after 7, 14, 21days of culture. Results showed a positive
      osteogenic differentiation effect of CaPs powders on MSCs as evidenced by an
      increased alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, positive ALP and Alizarin Red S
      staining, and upregulated osteoblastic gene expression compared with control. For
      the three CaPs, BCP powders showed the most prominent effect on osteoinduction.
      Next to BCP is TCP. Thus, this study supported that BCP may have better
      application prospects for repairing of bone defects in clinic.

PMID- 28866170
TI  - Printability study of hydrogel solution extrusion in nanoclay yield-stress bath
      during printing-then-gelation biofabrication.
AB  - Yield-stress support bath-enabled extrusion printing is emerging as a promising
      filament-based direct-write strategy for different applications in tissue
      engineering and regenerative medicine. Central to the printing quality of complex
      three-dimensional structures fabricated by the support bath-enabled fabrication
      approach is the formation of a continuous filament with well-defined geometry.
      The objective of this research is to study the printability of hydrogel precursor
      solutions in a Laponite nanoclay yield-stress bath during extrusion printing
      where the printed hydrogel precursor solutions remain liquid. The printability
      herein is mainly evaluated based on the morphology and dimensions of printed
      liquid filaments. Seven filament types are observed during extrusion in the
      nanoclay bath: three types of well-defined filaments (swelling, equivalent
      diameter, and stretched) and four types of irregular filaments (rough surface,
      over-deposited, compressed, and discontinuous). When the alginate concentration
      increases, the diameter of filaments made of alginate-gelatin blends decreases.
      The nanoclay concentration significantly affects the morphology of deposited
      filaments: low concentration Laponite bath (such as 0.5% (w/v)) may lead to the
      formation of irregular filaments such as rough surface and over-deposited
      filaments while high concentration bath (such as 8.0% (w/v)) may result in the
      formation of compressed filaments. Operating conditions affect the filament
      diameter and morphology similar to those as observed during conventional
      extrusion printing. The printability knowledge enables the successful fabrication
      of cellular vascular constructs in the Laponite nanoclay bath.

PMID- 28866169
TI  - Peptide functionalized poly ethylene glycol-poly caprolactone nanomicelles for
      specific cabazitaxel delivery to metastatic breast cancer cells.
AB  - Metastatic cancer is responsible for 90% of deaths in world. Usage of nano
      carriers improve the delivery and efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents. Recent
      studies suggest that decoration of the surface of nano-carriers with various
      targeting agents may further improve their overall therapeutic efficacy. Using
      specified peptides in targeted drug delivery is a key point in recent researches.
      In this study, tumor metastasis targeting (TMT) homing peptide was applied as a
      targeting group to improve specific drug delivery to tumor cells. TMT peptide is
      conjugated to poly ethylene glycol-poly caprolactone (PEG-PCL) micellar
      nanoparticles as carriers for targeted delivery of cabazitaxel to metastatic
      breast cancer cells. Synthesis of PEG-PCL copolymer was performed by amidation
      reaction between carboxylic acid group of PEG and amine group of PCL.
      Nanomicelles were prepared via solvent evaporation method. TMT peptide was
      covalently conjugated onto nanomicelles through the amine group of PEG. TMT-PEG
      PCL nanoparticles were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
      (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), gel
      permeation chromatography (GPC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Toxicity
      and cellular uptake of nanomicelles were investigated by in vitro cytotoxicity
      assays and confocal scanning microscopy in MCF-7 (non-metastatic breast cancer
      cells) and MDA-MB-231 (metastatic breast cancer cells). The final nanomicelles
      had about 110nm mean size and encapsulation efficiency of 82.5%. Treatment of
      metastatic breast cancer cells with targeted nanomicelles significantly increased
      the necrosis rate to 65%, compared to 33% in non-targeted nanomicelles and 8% in
      control group. The MDA-MB-231 cells treated with targeted nanomicelles exhibited
      a strong increase in the fluorescence intensity of coumarin in comparison to the
      cells treated with non-targeted nanomicelles (p<0.001). It could be concluded
      that the present carrier has the potential to be considered in treatment of
      metastatic breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28866171
TI  - An injectable hydroxyapatite/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) composite reinforced by
      micro/nano-hybrid poly(glycolide) fibers for bone repair.
AB  - Porous nanocomposite of hydroxyapatite/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (HA/PLGA) is
      conventionally used in bone tissue engineering but seldom in load-bearing
      orthopedic applications due to poor mechanical property. This study aimed to
      fabricate an injectable ternary composite by incorporating different contents of
      poly(glycolide) (PGA) fibers (0, 30, 50 and 70wt%) into the nanocomposite HA/PLGA
      matrix as reinforcing fillers for bone tissue repair. The fibers were obtained
      from melt-spinning and fiber diameter ranged from 70nm to 191MUm. The
      injectability, mechanical strength, solidification rate and cytotoxicity of
      injectable composites were characterized. All composites achieved the acceptable
      injectability under an injection force of 100N. The mechanical properties of
      composites were gradually enhanced by increasing PGA fiber contents. The
      compression strength of composite with 70wt% content of PGA fibers was up to
      31.1MPa, which was four times stronger than that of composite without PGA fibers.
      In the solidification rate analysis, the compression strength of composites with
      50 or 70wt% PGA fibers in immersion time of only 45min was similar to that of
      composite without fibers in immersion time of 4-5h. The MTT test showed that
      exceeding 70% cells could survive in the fourfold dilution of extract, and its
      cytotoxicity focused on the first 4h after immersing. This study have revealed
      that the PGA fiber-reinforced HA/PLGA composite is a promising candidate for
      orthopedic applications.

PMID- 28866172
TI  - Influence of bovine serum albumin in Hanks' solution on the corrosion and stress
      corrosion cracking of a magnesium alloy.
AB  - It is essential for any temporary implant to possess adequate strength to
      maintain their mechanical integrity under the synergistic effects of mechanical
      loading characteristics of human body and the corrosive physiological
      environment. Such synergistic effects can cause stress corrosion cracking (SCC).
      The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of the addition of
      bovine serum albumin (BSA) to Hanks' solution in corrosion and SCC susceptibility
      of AZ91D magnesium alloy. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)
      results indicated that the addition of BSA increased corrosion resistance of the
      alloy during the first 48h of immersion and then decreased it rapidly. The energy
      dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
      analyses indicated adsorption of BSA on the alloy surface during initial hours of
      immersion. However, with the increasing immersion time, BSA chelated with the
      corrosion products causing disruption of the protective film; thus, it
      accelerated the corrosion of the alloy. Both the mechanical data and
      fractographic evidence have confirmed susceptibility of the alloy to SCC.
      However, in the presence of BSA, the alloy suffered greater SCC which was
      attributed to its increased susceptibility towards localized corrosion.

PMID- 28866173
TI  - A novel fish collagen scaffold as dural substitute.
AB  - The novel fish collagen scaffolds were prepared by lyophilization. The collagen
      sponges and chitosan were chemically cross-linked with the 1-ethyl-3-(3
      dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) as a cross-linking agent by pressing in
      one special mould. The collagen scaffolds were analyzed by scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM) and mechanical property, and the in vitro collagenase
      degradation was tested. The results revealed that the scaffold has a suitable
      porosity, elasticity and prevent fluid leakage, suggesting potential applications
      in the tissue-engineered. In vitro collagenase degradation demonstrated that the
      collagen cross-linking with EDC by pressing played an important role in their
      resistance to biodegradation. Moreover, the scaffold proved excellent
      biocompatibility for the activity and proliferation of mouse embryonic
      fibroblasts cells (MEFs) in vitro. The rabbit dural defect model demonstrated
      that the scaffolds could prevent brain tissue adhesion, which reduce the
      opportunity of inflammation, facilitate the growth of fibroblasts and enhance the
      tissue regeneration and healing. The novel fish collagen scaffold as dural
      substitute, demonstrate a capability for using in the field of tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28866174
TI  - Modification of calcium phosphate cement with poly (gamma-glutamic acid) and its
      strontium salt for kyphoplasty application.
AB  - To meet the requirements of minimally invasive surgical treatments for
      osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture, various strategies have been
      proposed to enhance the properties of calcium phosphate cement (CPC). Here, a new
      strategy was developed by incorporating poly (gamma-glutamic acid) (gamma-PGA)
      and its strontium salt into the formulation of alpha tricalcium phosphate (alpha
      TCP)-based CPC. Effects of gamma-PGA on the injectability, cohesion, setting
      times, mechanical compressive strengths and cytocompatibility were systematically
      studied. Results showed that the injectability, cohesion and setting times were
      considerably improved by introducing gamma-PGA into the CPC. Moreover, after
      setting for 7days, the compressive strengths increased from 14.6+/-1.4MPa for
      pure CPC to 35.3+/-1.7MPa for CPC with 8.9wt% gamma-PGA and further to 61.2+/
      5.4MPa for CPC with 8.9wt% gamma-PGA combined with its strontium salt. In vitro
      osteoblast proliferation tests showed that the group of CPC modified by gamma-PGA
      and its strontium salt had better cytocompatibility than the pure CPC group. All
      results suggest that optimal properties were obtained for the cement with 8.9wt%
      gamma-PGA added to its solid phases and using strontium salt as the reactive
      liquid phase, making it as a promising candidate for application in kyphoplasty.

PMID- 28866175
TI  - Near infrared radiated stimulus-responsive liposomes based on photothermal
      conversion as drug carriers for co-delivery of CJM126 and cisplatin.
AB  - Synergistic therapy has caused increasing interest in recent treatment of cancer
      owing to its preferable therapeutic efficiency to most single antineoplastic
      protocol. Herein, we design a co-delivery two drugs nanosystem based on
      biodegradable liposomes, loading cisplatin, Indocyanine green (ICG), and CJM126
      coupled with cholesterol derivative (CJM-Chol) for the purpose of synergistic
      therapy. The obtained nanoparticles showed a uniform diameter of 103.8nm and a
      favorable morphology. The investigation on near infrared radiated (NIR)
      responsive release showed that NIR mediated photothermal conversion induced a
      controllable drug release from liposomes. Furthermore, the designed liposomes
      (only 50MUg/mL) displayed an inspiring photothermal conversion efficiency and
      received a high temperature (65.6 degrees C, Tm=42 degrees C) when exposed to an
      808nm near infrared laser (1.54W, 5min). Besides, it turned out that the delivery
      system could be efficiently endocytosed by tumor cells, which attributed to its
      admirable biocompatibility and the targeting role of folate. The prepared
      nanoparticles showed significantly excellent inhibitory effect (3.05% cell
      viability in 24h) on MDA-MB-231 cells when added irradiation as compared with
      free cisplatin (28.41%) or treatment without NIR (11.24%) in our study. Our
      research highlights the present nanoparticles provide a promising strategy for
      targeted delivery and photothermal treatment.

PMID- 28866176
TI  - Electrospinning of gelatin with tunable fiber morphology from round to
      flat/ribbon.
AB  - The electrospinning of gelatin with tunable fiber morphology from round to
      flat/ribbon was shown, and the detailed studies were conducted to correlate the
      fiber morphology with electrospinning process parameters and gelatin
      concentration in electrospinning solution. Particularly, variations in the
      applied voltage and the concentration of gelatin led to the transition of fiber
      shape from round to flat/ribbon. The formation of flat-shaped fibers was
      attributed to rapid evaporation of the solvent (formic acid) from the fiber
      matrix with increasing the applied voltage and gelatin concentration. On the
      other hand, round fibers were due to the steady evaporation of formic acid
      throughout the cross-section of fibers. WAXS analysis revealed that the loss of
      triple-helical crystalline structure in gelatin after the electrospinning
      process. The gelatin fibers were cross-linked through treatment with toluene 2,4
      diisocyanate (TDI) in a mixed solution of acetone and pyridine, and XPS confirmed
      the cross-linking of the fibers over an increased carbon content on the elemental
      composition of the fiber surface due to the incorporated TDI moieties. Overall,
      this study focuses on morphological tuning of gelatin electrospun fibers towards
      a flat/ribbon-like structure by variation of electrospinning parameters and
      polymer concentration, and thus, the proposed concept can be adapted towards
      flattened/ribbon-like fibers of other protein-based systems by electrospinning.

PMID- 28866177
TI  - Biomimetics in thin film design: Niche-like wrinkles designed for i-cell
      progenitor cell differentiation.
AB  - The future and development of science are in interdisciplinary areas, such as
      biomedical engineering. Self-assembled structures, similar to stem cell niches,
      inhibit rapid cellular division processes and enable the capture of stem cells
      from blood flow. By modifying the surface topography and stiffness properties,
      progenitor cells were differentiated towards the formation of endothelial cell
      monolayers to effectively inhibit the coagulation cascade. Wrinkled material
      layers in the form of thin polymeric coatings were prepared. An optimized surface
      topography led to proper cell differentiation and influenced the appropriate
      formation of endothelial cell monolayers. Blood activation was decelerated by the
      formed endothelium.

PMID- 28866178
TI  - Cissus quadrangularis mediated ecofriendly synthesis of copper oxide
      nanoparticles and its antifungal studies against Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus
      flavus.
AB  - Recently, non-toxic source mediated synthesis of metal and a metal oxide
      nanoparticle attains more attention due to key applicational responsibilities.
      This present report stated that the eco-friendly synthesis of copper oxide
      nanoparticles (CuO NPs) using Cissus quadrangularis (C. quadrangularis) plant
      extract. Further the eco-friendly synthesized CuO NPs were characterized using a
      number of analytical techniques. The observed results stated that the synthesized
      CuO NPs were spherical in shape with 30+/-2nm. Then the eco-friendly synthesized
      CuO NPs were subjected for anti-fungal against two strains namely Aspergillus
      niger (A. niger) resulted in 83% at 500ppm, 86% of inhibition at 1000ppm and
      Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) resulted in 81% at 500ppm, 85% of inhibition at
      1000ppm respectively. Despite the fact that compared to standard Carbendazim, eco
      friendly synthesized CuO NPs exhibits better results were discussed in this
      manuscript.

PMID- 28866179
TI  - Fabrication and in vivo evaluation of hydroxyapatite/carbon nanotube electrospun
      fibers for biomedical/dental application.
AB  - The aim was to synthesize bioactive electrospun fibers for biomedical and dental
      application with improved biocompatibility. In situ precipitation of nano
      hydroxyapatite (nHA) was performed with various concentrations (0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%,
      and 5% wt/wt) of functionalized multi-walled-carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by using
      microwave irradiation technique. The obtained composites were characterized by
      Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric
      Analysis/Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TGA/DSC), and the cylindrical discs
      were made for mechanical testing. The failure behavior was analyzed by Scanning
      Electron Microscope (SEM). CNT and HA/CNT were silanized with gamma
      methacryloxypropyl-trimethoxysilane (MPTS) and mixed with polyvinyl alcohol (10%
      wt./vol.) and electrospun to fabricate fibers. The biocompatibility of both
      fibers was accessed by their effects on angiogenesis in a chick chorioallantoic
      membrane (CAM) assay. The electrospun fibers were analyzed by SEM. FTIR confirmed
      the structural behavior of pre and post-silanized HA/CNT. XRD showed the phase
      purity and crystallinity before and after heat treatment. Mechanical properties
      showed that 3% loaded HA/CNT has higher compressive strength (100.5+/-5.9MPa)
      compared to others and the failure behavior exhibited dispersion of CNT in HA
      matrix. The HA/CNT electrospun fibers showed significantly more blood vessels
      formation compared to CNT fibers. These HA/CNT electrospun fibers showed
      promising results in terms of biocompatibility and with improved mechanical
      properties of CNT reinforced composites, they can be used in load bearing
      clinical applications.

PMID- 28866180
TI  - Fabrication of high-performance poly(l-lactic acid)/lignin-graft-poly(d-lactic
      acid) stereocomplex films.
AB  - The need for green renewable alternatives such as lignin to traditional fillers
      has driven recent interest in polylactic acid blend materials. Herein, lignin
      graft-polylactic acid copolymers (LG-g-PDLA, LG-g-PDLLA, and LG-g-PLLA) have been
      synthesized via ring-opening polymerization of d-, dl-, and l-lactic acid. Then
      poly(l-lactic acid)/lignin-graft-polylactic acid (PLLA/LG-g-PDLA, /LG-g-PDLLA,
      and /LG-g-PLLA) complex films have been prepared. The results showed that,
      compared with LG-g-PDLA and LG-g-PLLA, a small amount of LG-g-PDLA addition could
      improve the crystallization rate, reduce the glass transition temperature and
      cold crystallization temperature of PLLA due to the stereocomplex crystallites.
      The thermal stability, tensile strength and strain of the stereocomplex films
      were also enhanced. Moreover, the PLLA/LG-g-PDLA films have good ultraviolet
      resistance and excellent biocompatibility. This study provides a green approach
      to design advanced polylactic acid-based blends with renewable natural resources.

PMID- 28866181
TI  - Biomimetic PEGylation of carbon nanotubes through surface-initiated RAFT
      polymerization.
AB  - Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a type of one-dimensional carbon nanomaterials that
      possess excellent physicochemical properties and have been potentially utilized
      for a variety of applications. Surface modification of CNTs with polymers is a
      general route to expand and improve the performance of CNTs and has attracted
      great research interest over the past few decades. Although many methods have
      been developed previously, most of these methods still showed some disadvantages,
      such as low efficiency, complex experimental procedure and harsh reaction
      conditions etc. In this work, we reported a practical and novel way to fabricate
      CNTs based polymer composites via the combination of mussel inspired chemistry
      and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization.
      First, the amino group was introduced onto the surface of CNTs via self
      polymerization of dopamine. Then, chain transfer agent can be immobilized on the
      amino groups functionalized CNTs to obtain CNT-PDA-CTA, which can be utilized for
      surface-initiated RAFT polymerization. A water soluble and biocompatible monomer
      poly(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA) was adopted to
      fabricate pPEGMA functionalized CNTs through RAFT polymerization. The successful
      preparation of CNTs based polymer composites (CNT-pPEGMA) was confirmed by
      transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
      thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in details. The
      CNT-pPEGMA showed good dispersibility and desirable biocompatibility, making them
      highly potential for biomedical applications. More importantly, a large number of
      CNTs based polymer composites could also be fabricated through the same strategy
      when different monomers were used due to the good monomer adaptability of RAFT
      polymerization. Therefore, this strategy should be a general method for
      preparation of various multifunctional CNTs based polymer composites.

PMID- 28866182
TI  - Preparation of AIE-active fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles through a catalyst
      free thiol-yne click reaction for bioimaging applications.
AB  - Fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles (FPNs) with aggregation-induced emission
      (AIE) characteristics have attracted much attention for biomedical applications
      due to their remarkable AIE feature, high water dispersity and desirable
      biocompatibility. The development of facile and effective strategies for
      fabrication of these AIE-active FPNs therefore should be of great importance for
      their biomedical applications. In this work, we reported that a catalyst-free
      thiol-yne click reaction can be utilized for fabrication of AIE-active FPNs in
      short reaction time and even without protection of inert gas. The results
      indicated that the obtained AIE-active amphiphilic copolymers (PEGMA-PhE) can
      readily self-assemble into luminescent nanoparticles (PEGMA-PhE FPNs) with high
      water dispersity, uniform size and morphology, red fluorescence. Cell viability
      examination and cell uptake behavior of PEGMA-PhE FPNs confirmed that these AIE
      active FPNs possess low toxicity towards cells and can be easily internalized by
      cells through non-specific route. Therefore the remarkable properties of PEGMA
      PhE FPNs such as high water dispersity, AIE-active fluorescence and nanoscale
      size as well as excellent biocompatibility make them promising for biomedical
      applications.

PMID- 28866183
TI  - Application of Gemini quaternary ammonium with ester groups in cationic P(St-co
      BA) nanolatex and study on its antibacterial properties.
AB  - Novel Gemini quaternary ammonium salts (GQASs) with ester groups were
      synthesized. Cationic poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate) (P(St-co-BA)) nanolatex was
      synthesized in the presence of GQASs as emulsifier. The structures of GQASs were
      characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy; the property of P(St-co-BA) nanolatex was characterized
      with dynamic light scattering. The results indicated that GQASs and P(St-co-BA)
      nanolatex with GQASs were successfully synthesized. GQASs, nanolatex, and the
      polymer films exhibited excellent antibacterial activities against Gram-positive
      Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli. The GQASs performed
      even better than the corresponding single-stranded quaternary ammoniums. The
      antibacterial mechanism was also preliminarily studied, and longer, softer
      hydrophobic chains of GQAS had stronger antibacterial activity. The work provided
      a novel, simple approach for developing high-efficiency antibacterial polymer
      material with a low cost, which has broad biomaterial applications.

PMID- 28866184
TI  - A strategy to promote the electroactive platform adopting poly(o-anisidine)
      silver nanocomposites probed for the voltammetric detection of NADH and dopamine.
AB  - A study on the voltammetric detection of NADH (beta-nicotinamide adenine
      dinucleotide), Dopamine (DA) and their simultaneous determination is presented in
      this work. The electrochemical sensor was fabricated with the hybrid
      nanocomposites of poly(o-anisidine) and silver nanoparticles prepared by simple
      and cost-effective insitu chemical oxidative polymerization technique. The
      nanocomposites were synthesized with different (w/w) ratios of o-anisidine and
      silver by increasing the amount of o-anisidine in each, by keeping silver at a
      fixed quantity. The XRD patterns revealed the semi-crystalline nature of poly(o
      anisidine) and the face centered cubic structure of silver. The presence of
      silver in its metallic state and the formation of nanocomposite were established
      by XPS analysis. Raman studies suggested the presence of site-selective
      interaction between poly(o-anisidine) and silver. HRTEM studies revealed the
      formation of polymer matrix type nanocomposite with the embedment of silver
      nanoparticles. The sensing performance of the materials were studied via cyclic
      voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques.
      Fabricated sensor with 3:1 (w/w) ratio of poly(o-anisidine) and silver exhibited
      good catalytic activity towards the detection of NADH and DA in terms of
      potential and current response, when compared to others. Several important
      electrochemical parameters regulating the performance of the sensor have been
      evaluated. Under the optimum condition, differential pulse voltammetry method
      exhibited the linear response in the range of 0.03 to 900MUM and 5 to 270MUM with
      a low detection limit of 0.006MUM and 0.052MUM for NADH and DA, respectively. The
      modified electrodes exhibited good sensitivity, stability, reproducibility and
      selectivity with well-separated oxidation peaks for NADH and DA in the
      simultaneous determination of their binary mixture. The analytical performance of
      the nanocomposite as an electrochemical sensor was also established for the
      determination of NADH in human urine and water samples and DA in pharmaceutical
      dopamine injections with satisfactory coverage.

PMID- 28866185
TI  - Monitoring structural features, biocompatibility and biological efficacy of gamma
      irradiated methotrexate-loaded spray-dried microparticles.
AB  - In this study, biodegradable and biocompatible gamma irradiated poly-(dl-lactide
      co-glycolide) (PLGA) spray-dried microparticles were prepared aiming to improve
      the efficacy of methotrexate (MTX). The experimental design included three
      formulations of microparticles containing distinct drug amount (9%, 18%, and 27%
      w/w) and three distinct gamma irradiation dose (15kGy, 25kGy, and 30kGy). The
      physicochemical and drug release properties of the microparticles supported their
      biocompatibility and biological efficacy studies in different cell lines. The
      irradiation induced slight changes in the spherical shape of the microparticles
      and the formation of free radicals was dependent on the drug loading. However,
      the amorphous character, particle size, drug loading, and drug release rate of
      the microparticles were preserved. The drug release data from all microparticles
      formulation were evaluated by using four drug kinetic models and by comparison of
      their similarity factor (f2). The gamma irradiation did not induce changes in the
      biocompatibility of PLGA microparticles and in the biological activity of the MTX
      loaded microparticles. Finally, the spray-dried MTX-loaded PLGA microparticles
      enhanced the efficacy of the drug in the human cervical cancer cells (SiHa cell
      line). This study demonstrated the feasibility of the gamma irradiated spray
      dried PLGA microparticles for prolonged release of MTX, supporting a promising
      antitumor-drug delivery system for parenteral (subcutaneous) or pulmonary use.

PMID- 28866186
TI  - PLLA scaffolds produced by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) allow human
      chondrocyte growth and extracellular matrix formation dependent on pore size.
AB  - Damage of hyaline cartilage species such as nasoseptal or joint cartilage
      requires proper reconstruction, which remains challenging due to the low
      intrinsic repair capacity of this tissue. Implantation of autologous chondrocytes
      in combination with a biomimetic biomaterial represents a promising strategy to
      support cartilage repair. The aim of this work was to assess the viability,
      attachment, morphology, extracellular matrix (ECM) production of human articular
      and nasoseptal chondrocytes cultured in vitro in porous poly(l-lactic) (PLLA)
      scaffolds of two selected pore sizes (100 and 200MUm). The PLLA scaffolds with
      100 and 200MUm pore sizes were prepared via ternary thermally induced phase
      separation (TIPS) technique and analyzed using scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM). Articular and nasoseptal chondrocytes were seeded on the scaffold and
      cultures maintained for 7 and 14days. Live/dead staining, (immuno-)histology and
      gene expression analysis of type II, type I collagen, aggrecan and SOX9 were
      performed to assess scaffold cytocompatibility and chondrocyte phenotype. The
      majority of both chondrocyte types survived on both scaffolds for the whole
      culture period. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE), alcian blue (visualizing
      glycosaminoglycans) stainings, immunoreactivity and gene expression of ECM
      proteins and cartilage marker (type II, I collagen, aggrecan, SOX9) of the
      chondrocyte scaffold constructs indicated that the smaller pore dimensions
      promoted the differentiation of the chondrocytes compared with the larger pore
      size. The present work revealed that the scaffold pore size is an important
      factor influencing chondrocyte differentiation and indicated that the scaffolds
      with 100MUm pores serve as a cytocompatible basis for further future
      modifications.

PMID- 28866187
TI  - Interconnected porosity analysis by 3D X-ray microtomography and mechanical
      behavior of biomimetic organic-inorganic composite materials.
AB  - Hydroxyapatite-based materials have been used for dental and biomedical
      applications. They are commonly studied due to their favorable response presented
      when used for replacement of bone tissue. Those materials should be porous enough
      to allow cell penetration, internal tissue growth, vascular incursion and
      nutrient supply. Furthermore, their morphology should be designed to guide the
      growth of new bone tissue in anatomically applicable ways. In this work, the
      mechanical performance and 3D X-ray microtomography (X-ray MUCT) study of a
      biomimetic, organic-inorganic composite material, based on hydroxyapatite, with
      physicochemical, structural, morphological and mechanical properties very similar
      to those of natural bone tissue is reported. Ceramic pieces in different shapes
      and several porous sizes were produced using a Modified Gel Casting Method.
      Pieces with a controlled and 3D hierarchical interconnected porous structure were
      molded by adding polymethylmethacrylate microspheres. Subsequently, they were
      subject to a thermal treatment to remove polymers and to promote a sinterization
      of the ceramic particles, obtaining a HAp scaffold with controlled porosity.
      Then, two different organic phases were used to generate an organic-inorganic
      composite material, so gelatin and collagen, which was extracted from bovine
      tail, were used. The biomimetic organic-inorganic composite material was
      characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray
      Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and 3D X
      ray microtomography techniques. Mechanical properties were characterized in
      compression tests, obtaining a dramatic and synergic increment in the mechanical
      properties due to the chemical and physical interactions between the two phases
      and to the open-cell cellular behavior of the final composite material; the
      maximum compressive strength obtained corresponds to about 3 times higher than
      that reported for natural cancellous bone. The pore size distribution obtained
      could be capable to allow cell penetration, internal tissue in-growth, vascular
      incursion and nutrient supply and this material has tremendous potential for use
      as a replacement of bone tissue or in the manufacture and molding of prosthesis
      with desired shapes.

PMID- 28866188
TI  - Interpenetrating network hydrogels with high strength and transparency for
      potential use as external dressings.
AB  - Interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels composed of gelatin and
      hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) were prepared by successive enzymatic and chemical
      crosslinking approaches. The hydrogels displayed porous structure and the pore
      size decreased with the increase of HPC content. Due to the entanglement and
      interpenetrating between the two crosslinked networks, the IPN hydrogels
      exhibited excellent mechanical strength and light transmittance. The maximum
      tensile and tear strengths of the IPN hydrogels reached 3.1 and 5.2MPa,
      respectively. The water vapor permeability of the IPN hydrogels was within the
      acceptable range to maintain appropriate moisture for wound healing. The
      cytotoxicity evaluation indicated that the IPN hydrogels exhibited no toxicity to
      fibroblast cells. In addition, the hydrogels were loaded with chloramphenicol by
      pre-soaking in drug solutions to evaluate drug-loading capacity and in vitro
      release behavior. It was found that the drug loaded hydrogels could act as drug
      delivery devices to create microbe free microenvironment, which was advantageous
      for wound healing.

PMID- 28866189
TI  - Comparison of thermal properties of fish collagen and bovine collagen in the
      temperature range 298-670K.
AB  - The increased interest in fish collagen is a consequence of the risk of exposure
      to Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (CJD) and the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),
      whose occurrence is associated with prions carried by bovine collagen. Collagen
      is the main biopolymer in living organisms and the main component of the skin and
      bones. Until the discovery of the BSE, bovine collagen had been widely used. The
      BSE epidemic increased the interest in new sources of collagen such as fish skin
      collagen (FSC) and its properties. Although the thermal properties of collagen
      originating from mammals have been well described, less attention has been paid
      to the thermal properties of FSC. Denaturation temperature is a particularly
      important parameter, depending on the collagen origin and hydration level. In the
      reported experiment, the free water and bound water release processes along with
      thermal denaturation process were studied by means of the differential scanning
      calorimetry (DSC). Measurements were carried out using a DSC 7 instrument (Elmer
      Perkin), in the temperature range 298-670K. The study material was FSC derived by
      acidic hydration method. The bovine Achilles tendon (BAT) collagen type I was
      used as the control material. The thermograms recorded revealed both, exothermic
      and endothermic peaks. For both materials, the peaks in the temperature range of
      330-360K were assigned to the release of free water and bound water. The
      denaturation temperatures of FSC and BAT collagen were determined as 420K and
      493K, respectively. Thermal decomposition process was observed at about 500K for
      FSC and at about 510K for BAT collagen. These results show that FSC is less
      resistant to high temperature than BAT collagen.

PMID- 28866190
TI  - Enhanced cell affinity of PHBHHx composite scaffold with polylactide-graft
      hydroxyapatite as compatibilizer.
AB  - Poor interfacial bonding and liability to aggregation were the major obstacles
      for designing of composite scaffolds. Herein, hydroxyapatite (HA) surface-grafted
      with poly (l-lactide) via ring-opening polymerization was prepared and introduced
      into PHBHHx-based complex scaffold serving as oligomer compatibilizer. The
      physicochemical properties, including superficial roughness and wettability,
      mechanical strength, as well as in vitro bioactivity were systematically
      investigated. Improved cellular response was acquired owing to the favourable
      uniformity and interfacial compatibility, as well as the decreased contact angle
      and elevated roughness, through surface-modification strategy. Moreover, some of
      the osteogenic marker genes (COL I, Runx2, OCN and OPN) were up-regulated, thus
      made for the osteogenic differentiation. Our study extrapolated that the PHBHHx
      based composite scaffold combined with surface-graft HA compatibilizer might be a
      potential candidate for bone repairing.

PMID- 28866191
TI  - Nanosized CaP-silk fibroin-PCL-PEG-PCL/PCL based bilayer membranes for guided
      bone regeneration.
AB  - Guided bone regeneration (GBR) concept has been developed to prevent the
      formation of non-functional scar tissue layer on defect site by undertaking
      barrier role. In this study, a new bilayer membrane which consisted of one layer
      of electrospun silk fibroin/PCL-PEG-PCL incorporating nanocalcium phosphate
      (SPCA)1 and one layer of PCL membrane was developed for GBR. To improve the
      osteoconductivity of membranes, nanosized calcium phosphate particles synthesized
      by Flame Spray Pyrolysis method were incorporated into membranes at 10% (wt)
      (SPCA10) and 20% (wt) (SPCA20) of the polymer content. The structural and
      chemical analyses revealed the well-integrated two layers of membranes with a
      total thickness of ca 100MUm. In the regenerative layer, the highly porous mesh
      structure had a thickness of 12.6MUm with randomly oriented fibers having
      diameters around 760nm, and nanoparticles dispersed homogenously. The mechanical
      test results showed remarkable improvement on the tensile strength of membranes
      with incorporation of nanoparticles. Higher water affinity of nanoCaP included
      membranes was proved by lower contact angle values and higher percent water
      uptake capacity. Biomineralization assay revealed that nucleation and growth of
      apatites around fibers of SPCA10 and SPCA20 were apparent while on SPCA0 apatite
      minerals were barely detected after 10days. Human dental pulp stem cells (DPSC)
      were seeded on electrospun layer of the bilayer membranes for biocompatibility
      and osteo-compatibility study. Increasing nanoCaP amount resulted in higher cell
      adhesion, proliferation, ALP activity and calcium deposition on membranes. These
      overall results confirmed the biocompatibility and potential applicability of
      proposed membranes for GBR treatments.

PMID- 28866192
TI  - Fabrication of biosensor based on Chitosan-ZnO/Polypyrrole nanocomposite modified
      carbon paste electrode for electroanalytical application.
AB  - A sensitive conductive nanocomposite sensor consisting of chitosan, zinc oxide
      nanoparticles, and polypyrrole was developed. The sensor was prepared by
      oxidative polymerization of pyrrole using (NH4)2S2O8 as the oxidant followed by
      mixing a Chitosan-Zinc oxide composite with a different content of Chitosan. The
      morphology and surface area of the nanocomposites were changed by changing the
      percentage of chitosan. The newly developed nanocomposites also showed a
      significant improvement in electrical conductivity as mentioned from the cyclic
      voltammetry measurements of the K3[Fe(CN)6] sample. A square-wave adsorptive
      anodic stripping voltammetry method successfully measured Isoxsuprine
      hydrochloride using different types of nanocomposite modified CPEs and showed a
      large enhancement of stripping peak current compared to bare CPE. Consequently,
      the proposed sensors proved to have a promissing feature for applications in
      biosensors.

PMID- 28866193
TI  - Injectable natural polymer compound for tissue engineering of intervertebral
      disc: In vitro study.
AB  - Intervertebral disc degeneration is recognized to be the leading cause for
      chronic low-back pain. Injectable hydrogel is one of the great interests for
      tissue engineering and cell encapsulation specially for intervertebral (IVD)
      affecting rate of regeneration success, in this study we assessed viscoelastic
      properties of a Chitosan-beta glycerophosphate-hyaluronic acid, Chondroitin-6
      sulfate, type 2 of Collagen, gelatin, fibroin silk (Ch-beta-GP-HA-CS-Col-Ge-FS)
      hydrogel which was named as NP hydrogel that is natural extracellular matrix of
      IVD. Chitosan-based hydrogel was made in the ratio of 1.5%: 7%: 1%:1%:1%-1.5%-1%
      (Ch: beta-GP: HA-CS-Col-Ge-FS). Gelation time and other rheological properties
      were studied using amplitude sweep and frequency sweep tests. Also, the
      cytotoxicity of the hydrogel invitro assessed by MTT and trypan blue tests.
      Morphology of the hydrogel and attachment of NP cells were evaluated by SEM. Our
      result showed that NP hydrogel in 4 degrees C is an injectable transparent
      solution. It started gelation in 37 degrees C after about 30min. Gelation
      temperature of NP hydrogel was 37 degrees C. Storage modulus (G') of this
      hydrogel at 37 degrees C was almost constant over a wide range of strain. MTT and
      trypan blue tests showed hydrogel was cytocompatible. The obtained results
      suggest that this hydrogel would be a natural and cytocompatible choice as an
      injectable scaffold for using in vivo study of IVD regeneration.

PMID- 28866194
TI  - In situ green synthesis and characterization of sericin-silver nanoparticle
      composite with effective antibacterial activity and good biocompatibility.
AB  - Silver nanoparticle has been widely applied to a variety of fields for its
      outstanding antimicrobial activity. However, the stability of silver nanoparticle
      limits its application under certain conditions. Thus, improving the stability of
      silver nanoparticle via biosynthesis is a promising shortcut to expand its
      application. Sericin from silkworm cocoon has good hydrophilicity, reaction
      activity, biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this study, we developed a
      novel, simple, one-step biosynthesis method to prepare sericin-silver
      nanoparticle composite in situ in solution. Sericin served as the reductant of
      silver ion, the dispersant and stabilizer of the prepared sericin-silver
      nanoparticle composite. Natural light was the only power source used to catalyze
      the synthesis of silver nanoparticle in situ in solution. The novel sericin
      silver nanoparticle composite was characterized by ultraviolet-visible and
      fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy
      and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results showed silver
      nanoparticle could be synthesized through the reduction of AgNO3 by the phenolic
      hydroxyl group of tyrosine residues of sericin under the catalysis of natural
      light. The synthesized silver nanoparticle had good crystalline, size
      distribution and long-term stability at room temperature. Light irradiation was
      essential for the preparation of sericin-silver nanoparticle composite. The
      antibacterial activity assay showed 25mg/L and 100mg/L were the minimum
      concentrations of sericin-silver nanoparticle composite required to inhibit the
      growth of Staphylococcus aureus and kill this bacterium, respectively. The
      cytotoxicity assay showed cell viability and cell growth were almost not affected
      by sericin-silver nanoparticle composite under the concentration of 25mg/L. Our
      study suggested the preparation of sericin-silver nanoparticle composite was
      environmentally friendly and energy conservation, and the prepared sericin-silver
      nanoparticle composite had long-term stability, effective antibacterial activity
      and good biocompatibility. This novel sericin-silver nanoparticle composite has
      shown great potentials for biomedical application such as antibacterial agent and
      wound care.

PMID- 28866195
TI  - Polyglycerol mediated covalent construction of magnetic mesoporous silica
      nanohybrid with aqueous dispersibility for drug delivery.
AB  - Construction of nanohybrids with chemical and colloidal stability is of great
      importance for the exploration of their potential applications in biomedical
      field. In this work, a versatile strategy based on polyglycerol (PG) mediated
      covalent linkage is developed to fabricate a core-satellite nanohybrid, termed
      MMSN, consisting of a mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) as a core and many
      superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) on the outer surface. In this
      synthetic strategy, the PG grafted SPION is derivatized to convert partial
      periphery hydroxyl groups to carboxyl moieties, followed by attachment to
      aminated MSN through amide bonds. The PG layer accounting for ~17wt% of MMSN not
      only serves as a tether to connect the two nanoparticles but also greatly
      enhances the colloidal stability of the nanohybrid, resulting in no significant
      change in hydrodynamic diameter and zeta potential during four months. Taking
      advantage of the combined porosity and magnetic property of the nanohybrid, a
      photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6) is loaded on MMSN and efficiently delivered into
      target cells under magnetic guidance, leading to an enhanced efficacy of
      photodynamic therapy (PDT). The versatile strategy presented here opens up a new
      route to rational design and fabrication of multifunctional nanohybrids for
      various biomedical purposes.

PMID- 28866196
TI  - Respiring cellular nano-magnets.
AB  - Magnetotactic bacteria provide an interesting example for the biosynthesis of
      magnetic (Fe3O4 or Fe3S4) nanoparticles, synthesized through a process known as
      biologically controlled mineralization, resulting in complex monodispersed, and
      nanostructures with unique magnetic properties. In this work, we report a novel
      aerobic bacterial strain isolated from sludge of an oil refinery. Microscopic and
      staining analysis revealed that it was a gram positive rod with the capability to
      thrive in a medium (9K) supplemented, with Fe2+ ions at an acidic pH (~3.2). The
      magnetic behaviour of these cells was tested by their alignment towards a
      permanent magnet, and later on confirmed by magnetometry analysis. The X-ray
      diffraction studies proved the cellular biosynthesis of magnetite nanoparticles
      inside the bacteria. This novel, bio-nano-magnet, could pave the way for green
      synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles to be used in industrial and medical
      applications such as MRI, magnetic hyperthermia and ferrofluids.

PMID- 28866197
TI  - Fabrication and characterization of hydrothermal cross-linked chitosan porous
      scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering applications.
AB  - The use of various chemical cross-linking agents for the improvement of scaffolds
      physical and mechanical properties is a common practical method, which is limited
      by cytotoxicity effects. Due to exerting contract type forces, chondrocytes are
      known to implement shrinkage on the tissue engineered constructs, which can be
      avoided by the scaffold cross-linking. In the this research, chitosan scaffolds
      are cross-linked with hydrothermal treatment with autoclave sterilization time of
      0, 10, 20 and 30min, to avoid the application of the traditional chemical toxic
      materials. The optimization studies with gel content and crosslink density
      measurements indicate that for 20min sterilization time, the gel content
      approaches to ~80%. The scaffolds are fully characterized by the conventional
      techniques such as SEM, porosity and permeability, XRD, compression, thermal
      analysis and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). FT-IR studies shows that
      autoclave inter-chain cross-linking reduces the amine group absorption at 1560cm
      1 and increase the absorption of N-acetylated groups at 1629cm-1. It is
      anticipated, that this observation evidenced by chitosan scaffold browning upon
      autoclave cross-linking is an indication of the familiar maillard reaction
      between amine moieties and carbonyl groups. The biodegradation rate analysis
      shows that chitosan scaffolds with lower concentrations, possess suitable
      degradation rate for cartilage tissue engineering applications. In addition,
      cytotoxicity analysis shows that fabricated scaffolds are biocompatible. The
      human articular chondrocytes seeding into 3D cross-linked scaffolds shows a
      higher viability and proliferation in comparison with the uncross-linked samples
      and 2D controls. Investigation of cell morphology on the scaffolds by SEM, shows
      a more spherical morphology of chondrocytes on the cross-linked scaffolds for
      21days of in vitro culture.

PMID- 28866198
TI  - Bacterial biofilm elimination using gold nanorod localised surface plasmon
      resonance generated heat.
AB  - Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing global health concern and the world is
      facing a major challenge to develop novel ways of replacing antibiotics. Gold
      nanorods exhibit localised surface plasmon resonance upon optical irradiation.
      During relaxation, absorbed energy is dissipated as heat, which has been utilized
      to kill bacteria. In this study, 10*45nm gold nanorods were attached to glass
      surfaces using silanisation. Then biofilms were cultured on the surfaces and
      studied using microscopy. On average, 71% of the early biofilm bacteria were
      eliminated after 5min of near infrared radiation (LED emission peak at 850nm) of
      the gold nanorod coated surfaces, showing the potential of this novel antibiofilm
      technique. Most notably, the best individual result showed 97% biofilm
      elimination. This study demonstrates that nanoplasmonic generated heat offers a
      novel way of eliminating bacterial biofilms. In future applications, this method
      may be used to eliminate bacterial contamination during implant surgery.

PMID- 28866199
TI  - The one-step acetalization reaction for construction of hyperbranched and
      biodegradable luminescent polymeric nanoparticles with aggregation-induced
      emission feature.
AB  - The development of luminescent bioprobes based on organic dyes with aggregation
      induced emission (AIE) characteristic has attracted great attention in recent
      years. In this work, we reported for the first time that AIE-active luminescent
      polymeric nanoparticles (LPNs) can be facilely prepared via a one-step
      acetalization reaction, which can be used to conjugate the aldehyde group
      containing AIE dye (PTH-CHO) and methoxypolyethylene glycols (mPEG-CHO) with a
      commercially available dendritic polyester (H40) using p-toluenesulfonic acid
      (TsOH) as the catalyst. As-prepared star-shaped hyperbranched luminescent
      polymers (named as H40-mPEG-mPTH) were prone to self-assemble into core-shell
      nanoparticles in aqueous solution because of their amphiphilic structure, in
      which hydrophobic components (such as PTH-CHO and H40) were encapsulated in the
      core while the hydrophilic components (mPEG-CHO) were acted as the shell. The
      final AIE-active H40-mPEG-mPTH LPNs displayed uniform spherical structure, strong
      fluorescence, excellent photostability and high water dispersity. Furthermore,
      biological evaluation results demonstrated that H40-mPEG-mPTH LPNs possess low
      toxicity and excellent biocompatibility, indicating their great potential for
      biomedical applications. Taken together, we reported a novel strategy for the
      construction of hyperbranched and biodegradable LPNs with AIE feature through a
      one-step acetalization reaction, which can be also utilized for construction of
      many other AIE-active LPNs with a variety structure and properties.

PMID- 28866200
TI  - Effect of pH on polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced silk microsphere formation for
      drug delivery.
AB  - The effects of changing solution pH in the range of 3.6-10.0 during a one-step
      silk microsphere preparation process, by mixing silk and polyethylene glycol
      (PEG), was assessed. The microspheres prepared at low pH (3.6) showed a more
      homogeneous size (1-3MUm) and less porous texture than those prepared at neutral
      pH. High pH (10.0) inhibited microsphere formation, yielding small and
      inhomogeneous microspheres. Compared to neutral pH, low pH also increased the
      content of silk crystalline beta-sheet structure from approx. 30% to above 40%.
      As a result, the microspheres produced at low pH were more thermally stable as
      well as resistant to chemical (8M urea) and enzymatic (protease XIV) degradation
      when compared to microspheres prepared at neutral pH. Doxorubicin hydrochloride
      (DOX) and curcumin (CUR) were successfully loaded in silk microspheres via
      control of solution pH. The loading efficiency of DOX was approx. 95% at pH7.0
      and approx. 60% for CUR at pH3.6, attributed to charge-charge interactions and
      hydrophobic interactions between the silk and drug molecules, respectively. When
      PBS, pH7.4, was used as a medium for release studies, the pH3.6 microspheres
      released both drugs more slowly than the pH7.0 microspheres, likely due to the
      high content of crystalline beta-sheet structure that enhanced drug-silk
      interactions as well as restricted drug molecule diffusion.

PMID- 28866201
TI  - High-performance peroxidase mimics for rapid colorimetric detection of H2O2 and
      glucose derived from perylene diimides functionalized Co3O4 nanoparticles.
AB  - N,N'-di-caboxy methyl perylene diimides (PDI), as one of the most promising
      functional materials in optional chemosensing, was first used to combine with
      Co3O4 nanoparticles through a facile two-step hydrothermal method and obtain the
      PDI functionalized Co3O4 nanocomposites (PDI-Co3O4 NCs). PDI-Co3O4 NCs were
      characterized by a series of technical analysis including transmission electron
      microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy (FT-IR), respectively. The experimental results indicated that the
      as-prepared PDI-Co3O4 NCs possessed the higher peroxidase-like activity than that
      of Co3O4 nanoparticles without PDI, and could rapidly catalyze oxidation reaction
      of the chromogenic substrate TMB in the presence of H2O2 to a blue product
      (oxTMB) observed by the naked eye. The improved catalytic activity of PDI-Co3O4
      NCs for colorimetric reactions could be attributed to the synergistic effects of
      PDI and Co3O4 nanoparticles. On the basis of these experimental results, a
      convenient colorimetric system based on PDI-Co3O4 as enzyme mimic that is highly
      sensitive and selective was developed for glucose detection. Meanwhile, the
      electron transfer between H2O2 and TMB was responsible for the oxidation of TMB.
      The present work demonstrates a general strategy for the design of organic
      molecules functionalized oxide for different applications, such as nanocatalysts,
      biosensors and nanomedicine.

PMID- 28866202
TI  - Mussel-inspired superhydrophobic surfaces with enhanced corrosion resistance and
      dual-action antibacterial properties.
AB  - In this study, a multilayer antibacterial film was assembled onto 316L stainless
      steel via mussel-inspired depositions of polydopamine (PDA) and silver (Ag)
      nanoparticles followed by post-modification with 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H
      perfluorodecanethiol. The resulting surface exhibited excellent
      superhydrophobicity with hierarchical micro/nanostructures that were constructed
      by both PDA and Ag nanoparticles. The crystal structure and chemical composition
      of these surfaces were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
      analysis. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements revealed that the corrosion
      resistance of the as-prepared surfaces were sequentially increased after each
      step of the fabrication process. Compared with the surface covered with only Ag
      nanoparticles, the superhydrophobic surfaces exhibited substantially enhanced
      antibacterial activity against the Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram
      positive Staphylococcus aureus, resulting from the synergistic antibacterial
      actions of the superhydrophobic surface and Ag nanoparticles. The
      superhydrophobic surface exhibited lower cytotoxicity, compared to the surface
      covered with Ag nanoparticles.

PMID- 28866203
TI  - Microwave-assisted multicomponent reactions for rapid synthesis of AIE-active
      fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles by post-polymerization method.
AB  - The development of simple and effective methods for synthesis of fluorescent
      polymeric nanoparticles (FPNs) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) plays an
      important role for the biomedical applications of AIE-active FPNs. In present
      work, we developed a facile strategy for the fabrication of AIE-active FPNs by a
      post-polymerization method based on the microwave-assisted Kabachnik-Fields (KF)
      reaction, which can conjugate with poly(PEGMA-NH2), AIE-active dye (TPE-CHO) and
      diethyl phosphate (DP) under microwave irradiation within 5min. The
      characterization results confirm that PEGMA-TPE FPNs are successfully prepared
      through the microwave-assisted KF reaction. The resultant AIE-active FPNs show
      high water dispersity, intensive fluorescence and low cytotoxicity. These
      features make these AIE-active FPNs great potential for biomedical applications.
      Moreover, the microwave-assisted KF reaction is simple, fast, atom economy that
      should be a general strategy for the fabrication of various multifunctional AIE
      active FPNs. We believe this work will open up a new avenue for the preparation
      of AIE-active functional materials with great potential for different
      applications.

PMID- 28866204
TI  - A facile novel fluorocarbon copolymer solution coating process for improving
      platelet compatibility of titanium.
AB  - Titanium (Ti) and its alloys possess mechanical properties that are desirable in
      many biomedical applications compared to other metals. Furthermore, the native
      metal oxide layer that prevents further oxidation is also known to be
      biocompatible. However, clinical findings have shown that titanium and its alloys
      are prone to adverse bioreactions such as platelet adhesion and activation which
      could lead to thrombogenic complications. It has been found that surfaces
      modified with fluorocarbons could reduce the degree of both platelet adhesion and
      activation. Nevertheless, direct fluorocarbon deposition onto titanium substrates
      would require significant technical efforts. Instead, this research utilized a
      facile coating process with novel copolymers containing 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl
      methacrylate (TFEMA) and vinylphosphonic acid (VPA) to modify the titanium
      surface, giving the surface lower surface energy and higher hydrophobicity,
      significantly reducing the thrombus formation while exhibiting good
      cytocompatibility. The anchorage group, phosphonic acid provided by VPA, can be
      covalently bound to the oxide surface of titanium metal. Via free radical
      polymerization, VPA and TFEMA formed copolymers with different hydrophobicity
      were then used to modify titanium substrates, on which a series of surface
      characterization, in vitro platelet adhesion tests, and cytotoxicity assays were
      performed. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
      (XPS) confirmed the synthesis of the copolymers and the modification of Ti
      substrates. The platelet adhesion tests showed significantly reduced amount of
      adherent platelets on certain copolymer-modified Ti substrates with low degrees
      of activation. The in vitro cytotoxicity assays further highlighted that the
      modifications conducted on Ti does not induce cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28866205
TI  - Biocompatible curcumin loaded PMMA-PEG/ZnO nanocomposite induce apoptosis and
      cytotoxicity in human gastric cancer cells.
AB  - Although curcumin is efficient in killing cancer cells, its poor water solubility
      and assocaited inadequate bioavailability remain major limitations to its
      therapeutic application. The formulation of curcumin micellar nanoparticles (NPs)
      encapsulated with a biodegradable polymer promises to significantly improve
      curcumin's solubility, stability, and bioavailability. The past decade has
      witnessed the development of nanoscale curcumin delivery systems: curcumin-loaded
      liposomes or nanoparticles, self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems (SMEDDS),
      cyclodextrin inclusions, solid dispersions, nanodisks, and nanotubes. The
      intention of the present investigation was to enhance the bioavailability and
      ultimately the efficacy of curcumin by developing a curcumin loaded PMMA-PEG/ZnO
      bionanocomposite utilizing insoluble curcumin and poorly soluble ZnO
      nanoparticles. Here, the drug (curcumin) may be carry and deliver the
      biomolecule(s) by polymer-encapsulated ZnO NPs. Physical characteristics of these
      novel nanomaterials have been studied with transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
      and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) in conjunction with spectral techniques.
      Aqueous solubility of curcumin was augmented upon conjugation with the polymer
      stabilized ZnO NPs. A narrow nanocomposite particle size distribution with an
      average value of 40 to 90nm was found via TEM. Most importantly, the pH
      responsive release of curcumin from the nano-vehicle ensures safer, more
      controlled delivery of the drug at physiological pH. Cytotoxic potential and
      cellular uptake of curcumin loaded ZnO NPs were assessed by) cell viability
      assay, cell cycle assays along with the cell imaging studies have been done in
      addition to MTT using AGS cancer cells. Hence, these studies demonstrate that the
      clinical potential of the Curcumin Loaded PMMA-PEG/ZnO can induce the apoptosis
      of cancer cells through a cell cycle mediated apoptosis corridor, which raises
      its probability to cure gastric cancer cells.

PMID- 28866206
TI  - Differentiation of dental pulp stem cells into chondrocytes upon culture on
      porous chitosan-xanthan scaffolds in the presence of kartogenin.
AB  - Adhesion, proliferation and differentiation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs)
      into chondrocytes were investigated in this work with the purpose of broadening
      the array of cell alternatives to the therapy of cartilage lesions related to
      tissue engineering approaches. A porous chitosan-xanthan (C-X) matrix was used as
      scaffold and kartogenin was used as a selective chondrogenic differentiation
      promoter. The scaffold was characterized regarding aspect and surface morphology,
      absorption and stability in culture medium, thickness, porosity,
      thermogravimetric behavior, X-ray diffraction, mechanical properties and indirect
      cytocompatibility. The behavior of DPSCs cultured on the scaffold was evaluated
      by scanning electron microscopy and cell differentiation, by histological
      analysis. A sufficiently stable amorphous scaffold with mean thickness of 0.89+/
      0.01mm and high culture medium absorption capacity (13.20+/-1.88g/g) was
      obtained, and kartogenin concentrations as low as 100nmol/L were sufficient to
      efficiently induce DPSCs differentiation into chondrocytes, showing that the
      strategy proposed may be a straightforward and effective approach for tissue
      engineering aiming at the therapy of cartilage lesions.

PMID- 28866207
TI  - ZnO@Gd2O3 core/shell nanoparticles for biomedical applications: Physicochemical,
      in vitro and in vivo characterization.
AB  - The chemical composition of nanoparticles (NPs) may be so designed as to provide
      measurability for numerous imaging techniques in order to achieve synergistic
      advantages. Innovative and unique structure of the core/shell ZnO@Gd2O3 NPs
      possesses luminescent and magnetic properties, and is expected that they will
      become a new generation of contrast agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
      and nanocarriers for theranostics. Thus, by surface biofunctionalization, it is
      possible to indicate particular nanoparticle compositions which provide efficient
      imaging, targeted drug delivery, and biocompatibility. Novel ZnO@Gd2O3 NPs were
      synthesized and biofunctionalized by folic acid (FA) and doxorubicin (Doxo) to
      provide target and anticancer functions. Physicochemical analyses of the
      nanoparticles were performed. The biological study included a cytotoxicity in
      vitro, cellular distribution evaluation, as well as toxicity analyses, performed
      for the first time, on the in vivo zebrafish (Danio rerio) model. Nanoparticles
      were found to be effective double-function biomarkers (MRI T2 contrast agents,
      fluorescent imaging). The biological study showed that ZnO@Gd2O3 and ZnO@Gd2O3@OA
      polySi@FA NPs are biocompatible in a particular concentration ranges. Conjugation
      with folic acid and/or doxorubicin resulted in effective drug delivery targeting.
      The in vivo results described the toxicology profile toward the zebrafish
      embryo/larvae, including new data concerning the survival, hatching ratio, and
      developmental malformations.

PMID- 28866208
TI  - Microwave assisted synthesis of luminescent carbonaceous nanoparticles from silk
      fibroin for bioimaging.
AB  - Bombyx mori silk as a natural protein based biopolymer with high nitrogen
      content, is abundant and sustainable because of its mass product all over the
      world per year. In this study, we developed a facile and fast microwave-assisted
      synthesis of luminescent carbonaceous nanoparticles using Bombyx mori silk
      fibroin and silk solution as the precursors. As a result, the obtained
      carbonaceous nanoparticles exhibit a photoluminescence quantum yield of ~20%,
      high stability, low cytotoxicity, high biocompatibility. Most importantly, we
      successfully demonstrated bioimaging using these luminescent carbonaceous
      nanoparticles with excitation dependent luminescence. In addition, the microwave
      assisted hydrothermal method can be extended to convert other biomass into
      functional nanomaterials.

PMID- 28866209
TI  - The application of silver nano-particles on developing potential treatment for
      chronic rhinosinusitis: Antibacterial action and cytotoxicity effect on human
      nasal epithelial cell model.
AB  - Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) has raised attentions both in many countries due to
      its high relapsing rate and the resistance of certain treatments especially
      antibiotics application on both acute and chronic bacterial rhinosinusitis. The
      aim of this research is stressing on developing an effective alternative
      treatment for treating CRS and reducing the use of antibiotics to avoid further
      resistance forming. The antibacterial functions of silver nano-particles (AgNPs)
      are well known according to previous reports and studies. However, for developing
      a suitable treatment for further clinical application, a variety of AgNPs cell
      cytotoxicity experiments and AgNPs antibacterial properties experiments were
      examined in vitro in this study. For imitating the clinical condition of CRS, the
      human nasal epithelial cell line (RPMI2650) has chosen as experimental model.
      Moreover, Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Gram-negative
      Escherichia coli (E. coli) were selected for antibacterial function experiments.
      The analytical results demonstrated that 5ppm of AgNPs not only maintains >80% of
      cell activity to RPMI2650, but also possesses >80% of antibacterial function to
      S. aureus and 100% of antibacterial function to E. coli. Therefore, 5ppm of AgNPs
      might be considered as a promising antibacterial agent for treating CRS.

PMID- 28866211
TI  - Preparation of an antibacterial, hydrophilic and photocatalytically active
      polyacrylic coating using TiO2 nanoparticles sensitized by graphene oxide.
AB  - In recent years more attentions have been paid for preparation of coatings with
      self-cleaning and antibacterial properties. These properties allow the surface to
      maintain clean and health over long times without any need to cleaning or
      disinfection. Acrylic coatings are widely used on various surfaces such as
      automotive, structural and furniture which their self-cleaning and antibacterial
      ability is very important. The aim of this work is the preparation of a
      polyacrylic based self-cleaning and antibacterial coating by the modification of
      TiO2 as a coating additive. TiO2 nanoparticles were sensitized to the visible
      light irradiation using graphene oxide through the preparation of TiO2/graphene
      oxide nanocomposite. Graphene oxide was prepared via a modified Hummers method.
      TiO2/graphene oxide nanocomposite was used as additive in a polyacrylic coating
      formulation. Hydrophilicity, photocatalytic and antibacterial activities as well
      as coating stability were evaluated for TiO2/graphene oxide modified polyacrylic
      coating and compared with that of pristine TiO2 modified and unmodified
      polyacrylic coatings. TiO2/graphene oxide nanocomposite and polyacrylic coating
      modified by TiO2/graphene oxide additive were characterized using FT-IR, UV-Vis,
      XRD, and FESEM techniques. The effect of TiO2/graphene oxide composition and its
      percent in the coating formulation was evaluated on the polyacrylic coating
      properties. Results showed that polyacrylic coating having 3% W TiO2/graphene
      oxide nanocomposite additive with TiO2 to graphene oxide ratio of 100:20 is the
      best coating considering most of beneficial features such as high
      photodecolorization efficiency of organic dye contaminants, high hydrophilicity,
      and stability in water. According to the results, TiO2 is effectively sensitized
      by graphene oxide and the polyacrylic coating modified by TiO2/graphene oxide
      nanocomposite shows good photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation.

PMID- 28866210
TI  - Synergic effect of chitosan and dicalcium phosphate on tricalcium silicate-based
      nanocomposite for root-end dental application.
AB  - In recent years, cement composites based on calcium silicate have been more
      generally considered for medical applications. Calcium silicate Cement are among
      the categories that are used in dental root canal treatment. The aim of this
      study is to make new calcium silicate cement with dicalcium phosphate and
      chitosan additives to preserve and strengthen desirable properties of this type
      of cements. In this study, composite dental cement based on calcium silicate was
      prepared. Then effect of adding biodegradable and biocompatible polymer such as
      chitosan on setting properties and its structure were studied. In this study, a
      combination of calcium silicate, dicalcium phosphate (DCP) and bismuth oxide
      (Bi2O3) as powder phase and 2% solution of the chitosan dissolved in 1% acetic
      acid solution as liquid phase, was used. As well as control sample was obtained
      by mixing the powder with distilled water as the liquid phase. Based on the
      obtained results, setting time of composite cement was changed from 51 to 67
      minutes by adding chitosan polymer. Presence of chitosan also reduced the
      compressive strength a little. The bioactivity of the cement were studied in a
      solution of simulated body fluid (SBF) for 14 days. The samples were analyzed by
      SEM to identify the microstructure and by XRD to determine crystal structure. The
      composition of cement before incubation in SBF was included early phases (phase
      calcium silicate and calcium phosphate) that after 14 days of immersion in SBF,
      they were converted to layer-shaped hydroxy apatite and the presence of chitosan
      had not any influence on the final phase of hydroxy apatite.

PMID- 28866212
TI  - Growth of a TiNb adhesion interlayer for bioactive coatings.
AB  - Surface bioactivity has been under intensive study with reference to its use in
      medical implants. Our study is focused on coatings prepared from an electroactive
      material which can support bone cell adhesion. Until now, hydroxyapatite films
      have usually been utilized as a chemically-active surface agent. However,
      electrically-active films could set a new direction in hard tissue replacement.
      As a base for these films, it is necessary to prepare an intermediate film, which
      can serve as a suitable barrier against the possible diffusion of some allergens
      and toxic elements from the substrate. The intermediate film also improves the
      adaptation of the mechanical properties of the basic material to an electroactive
      film. The aim of our work was to select an implantable and biocompatible material
      for this intermediate film that is suitable for coating several widely-used
      materials, to check the possibility of preparing an electroactive film for use on
      a material of this type, and to characterize the structure and several mechanical
      properties of this intermediate film. TiNb was selected as the material for the
      intermediate film, because of its excellent chemical and mechanical properties.
      TiNb coatings were deposited by magnetron sputtering on various substrates,
      namely Ti, Ti6Al4V, stainless steel, and bulk TiNb (as standard), and important
      properties of the layers, e.g. surface morphology and surface roughness,
      crystalline structure, etc., were characterized by several methods (SEM, EBSD, X
      ray diffraction, nanoindentation and roughness measurement). It was found that
      the structure and the mechanical properties of the TiNb layer depended
      significantly on the type of substrate. TiNb was then used as a substrate for
      depositing a ferroelectrically active material, e.g., BaTiO3, and the adhesion,
      viability and proliferation of human osteoblast-like Saos-2 cells on this system
      were studied. We found that the electroactive BaTiO3 film was not only non
      cytotoxic (i.e. it did not affect the cell viability). It also enhanced the
      growth of Saos-2 cells in comparison with pure TiNb and with standard tissue
      culture polystyrene wells, and also in comparison with BaTiO3 films deposited on
      Ti, i.e. a material clinically used for implantation into the bone.

PMID- 28866213
TI  - Multifunctional biosynthesized silver nanoparticles exhibiting excellent
      antimicrobial potential against multi-drug resistant microbes along with
      remarkable anticancerous properties.
AB  - This study demonstrates the therapeutic potential of silver nanoparticles
      (AgNPs), which were biosynthesized using the extracts of Citrus maxima plant.
      Characterization through UV-Vis spectrophotometry, Dynamic Light Scattering
      (DLS), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD)
      and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) confirmed the formation of AgNps in
      nano-size range. These nanoparticles exhibited enhanced antioxidative activity
      and showed commendable antimicrobial activity against wide range of microbes
      including multi-drug resistant bacteria that were later confirmed by TEM. These
      particles exhibited minimal toxicity when cytotoxicity study was performed on
      normal human lung fibroblast cell line as well as human red blood cells. It was
      quite noteworthy that these particles showed remarkable cytotoxicity on human
      fibrosarcoma and mouse melanoma cell line (B16-F10). Additionally, the apoptotic
      topographies of B16-F10 cells treated with AgNps were confirmed by using acridine
      orange and ethidium bromide dual dye staining, caspase-3 assay, DNA fragmentation
      assay followed by cell cycle analysis using fluorescence-activated cell sorting.
      Taken together, these results advocate promising potential of the biosynthesized
      AgNps for their use in therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28866214
TI  - Facile fabrication of nickel immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles as an
      efficient affinity adsorbent for purification of his-tagged protein.
AB  - In the present research, an efficient, convenient, and inexpensive method for the
      one-pot synthesis of Fe3O4@Histidine is developed. Histidine is readily loaded on
      magnetic nanoparticles by one step and simple method without any supplemental
      linkers. In the structure of Fe3O4@Histidine, histidine covalently immobilized on
      the surface of Fe3O4, magnetic nanoparticles are able to trap Ni2+ ions through a
      strong interaction between nickel and histidines in protein tag. Two coordination
      sites of nickel are occupied with ligand on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles
      and four coordination sites have been remained that these sites will be occupied
      with histidine tag of recombinant protein A. The functionalized nanoparticles
      were spherical and well separated with an average diameter around 30nm. The
      obtained magnetic nanoparticles have a saturation magnetization of about 54emu/g.
      Fe3O4@Histidine-Ni was used to enrich and purify 6*histidine-tagged recombinant
      protein-A directly from the mixture of lysed cells. It has been found that Ni(II)
      immobilized Fe3O4@Histidine magnetic nanoparticles present negligible nonspecific
      protein adsorption and high His-tag protein binding capacity The average binding
      capacity (MW 42k Da), is 700+/-25MUg.mg-1 (protein/Fe3O4@Histidine-Ni).

PMID- 28866215
TI  - Enhanced antiadhesive properties of chitosan/hyaluronic acid polyelectrolyte
      multilayers driven by thermal annealing: Low adherence for mammalian cells and
      selective decrease in adhesion for Gram-positive bacteria.
AB  - The development of antifouling coatings with restricted cell and bacteria
      adherence is fundamental for many biomedical applications. A strategy for the
      fabrication of antifouling coatings based on the layer-by-layer assembly and
      thermal annealing is presented. Polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) assembled from
      chitosan and hyaluronic acid were thermally annealed in an oven at 37 degrees C
      for 72h. The effect of annealing on the PEM properties and topography was studied
      by atomic force microscopy, zeta-potential, circular dichroism and contact angle
      measurements. Cell adherence on PEMs before and after annealing was evaluated by
      measuring the cell spreading area and aspect ratio for the A549 epithelial, BHK
      kidney fibroblast, C2C12 myoblast and MC-3T3-E1 osteoblast cell lines.
      Chitosan/hyaluronic acid PEMs show a low cell adherence that decreases with the
      thermal annealing, as observed from the reduction in the average cell spreading
      area and more rounded cell morphology. The adhesion of S. aureus (Gram-positive)
      and E. coli (Gram-negative) bacteria strains was quantified by optical
      microscopy, counting the number of colony-forming units and measuring the light
      scattering of bacteria suspension after detachment from the PEM surface. A 20%
      decrease in bacteria adhesion was selectively observed in the S. aureus strain
      after annealing. The changes in mammalian cell and bacteria adhesion correlate
      with the changes in topography of the chitosan/hyaluronic PEMs from a rough
      fibrillar 3D structure to a smoother and planar surface after thermal annealing.

PMID- 28866216
TI  - Ultrasonically assisted preparation of poly(acrylic acid)/calcium phosphate
      hybrid nanogels as pH-responsive drug carriers.
AB  - Biocompatible, biodegradable and stimuli-responsive nanomaterials can be used as
      drug carriers and to achieve controlled drug delivery, which is crucial for
      treating tumors and lowering drug side effects. Calcium phosphate (CaP)
      nanoparticles and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hydrogels can be used as biocompatible
      and pH-responsive drug carriers. In this study, based on the ultrasound effect,
      PAA/CaP hybrid nanogels (approximately 100nm, PDI<0.2) are obtained via the cross
      linking of CaP nanoparticles and PAA molecules between the Ca2+ ions and -COOH
      groups. The PAA/CaP hybrid nanogels show good stability in biological media as
      well as no hemolysis and no cytotoxicity to L02 cells. Moreover, the PAA/CaP
      hybrid nanogels display an enhanced loading capacity (approximately 32%) for
      doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) compared to pure CaP nanoparticles (approximately
      7.5%) and a pH-controlled drug release due to their dissolution in acidic
      environment. DOX can be delivered into cancer cells by the PAA/CaP hybrid
      nanogels, which show an inhibitory effect comparable to that of free DOX,
      although the inhibitory effect is delayed due to the slow release of DOX from the
      carriers. In vivo, the PAA/CaP hybrid nanogels cannot avoid the capture by the
      reticuloendothelial system; however, they show passive tumor targeting ability.
      In brief, the biocompatible, biodegradable and pH-responsive PAA/CaP hybrid
      nanogels have the potential to act as drug carriers for controlled drug release.

PMID- 28866217
TI  - Zirconium amine tris(phenolate): A more effective initiator for biomedical
      lactide.
AB  - Here a zirconium amine tris(phenolate) is used as the initiator for the
      production of polylactide for biomedical applications, as a replacement for a tin
      initiator (usually tin octanoate). The ring opening polymerization (ROP) was
      carried out in the melt at 130 degrees C. The zirconium-catalyzed PLA (PLA-Zr)
      required 30min, resulting in a polydispersity index (PDI) of 1.17, compared to 1h
      and PDI=1.77 for tin-catalyzed PLA (PLA-Sn). PLA-Zr and PLA-Sn supported
      osteosarcoma cell (MG63) culture to the same extent (cell number, morphology,
      extracellular matrix production and osteogenic function) until day 14 when the
      PLA-Zr showed increased cell number, overall extracellular matrix production and
      osteogenic function. To conclude, the reduction in reaction time, controllable
      microstructure and biologically benign nature of the zirconium amine
      tris(phenolate) initiator shows that it is a more effective initiator for ROP of
      polylactide for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28866218
TI  - Preparation of spherical metal-organic frameworks encapsulating ag nanoparticles
      and study on its antibacterial activity.
AB  - A metal-organic frameworks (CuTCPP MOFs) were synthesized with Cu(NO3)2.3H2O and
      5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) by the solvothermal method.
      The structure and morphology of the CuTCPP MOFs were characterized by UV-vis
      absorption spectra, X-ray diffraction (PXRD), energy dispersive spectra, scanning
      electron microscopy (EDS-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The
      structure of the as-synthesized MOF includes copper ions and copper
      metalloporphyrin (Cu-TCPP) by UV-vis absorption spectra and PXRD. The SEM and TEM
      images of the as-synthesized MOF showed the morphology of the CuTCPP MOFs were
      spherical. The as-synthesized spherical MOFs as the carriers were used to
      encapsulate the Ag nanoparticles and prepared Ag-CuTCPP MOFs. The Ag-CuTCPP MOFs
      was also characterized by UV-vis, PXRD, SEM and TEM. The Ag nanoparticles were
      completely encapsulated into the CuTCPP MOFs and no surface absorption, which
      have been confirmed by comparing TEM and SEM-EDS of Ag-CuTCPP MOFs before
      crushing with that of Ag-CuTCPP MOFs after crushing. In addition, the release of
      Ag ions from Ag-CuTCPP MOFs was also investigated by Inductively Coupled Plasma
      Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Furthermore, the antimicrobial
      activities and cytotoxicity of Ag-CuTCPP MOFs were performed by in vitro and in
      vivo experiment. In vitro, the antibacterial effect of Ag-CuTCPP MOFs was even
      better than that of the penicillin as the positive control and the cytotoxicity
      of Ag-CuTCPP MOFs was significantly lower than that of naked Ag nanoparticles and
      Ag ions; in vivo, Ag-CuTCPP MOFs not only exhibited the excellently antibacterial
      effect and extremely low cytotoxicity but also effectively promoted the wound
      healing.

PMID- 28866219
TI  - Effect of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound on the biological behavior of
      osteoblasts on porous titanium alloy scaffolds: An in vitro and in vivo study.
AB  - Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been used in patients with fresh
      fractures, delayed union and non-union to enhance bone healing and improve
      functional outcome. However, there were few studies concerning the effects of
      LIPUS on the biological behavior of osteoblasts on porous scaffolds. This study
      aimed to evaluate the effects of LIPUS on the biological behavior of osteoblasts
      on porous titanium-6aluminum-4vanadium (Ti6Al4V) alloy scaffolds in vitro and in
      vivo. Scaffolds were randomly divided into an ultrasound group and a control
      group. Mouse pre-osteoblast cells were cultured with porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds in
      vitro. The effects of LIPUS on the biological behavior of osteoblasts were
      evaluated by observing the adhesion, proliferation, differentiation and ingrowth
      depth on porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds. In addition, scaffolds were implanted into
      rabbit mandibular defects in vivo. The effects of LIPUS on bone regeneration were
      evaluated via micro-CT, fluorescent staining and toluidine blue staining. The
      results revealed that osteoblast adhered well to the scaffolds, and there was no
      significant difference in the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium value between the
      ultrasound group and the control group (p>0.05). Compared with the control group,
      ultrasound promoted the alkaline phosphatase activity, osteocalcin levels and
      ingrowth depth of the cells on the scaffolds (p<0.05). In addition, micro-CT and
      histomorphological analysis showed that the volume and amount of new bone
      formation were increased and that bone maturity was improved in the ultrasound
      group compared to the control group. These results indicate that LIPUS promotes
      osteoblast differentiation as well as enhances bone ingrowth in porous Ti6Al4V
      scaffolds, and promotes bone formation and maturity in porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds.

PMID- 28866220
TI  - Facile fabrication of luminescent polymeric nanoparticles containing dynamic
      linkages via a one-pot multicomponent reaction: Synthesis, aggregation-induced
      emission and biological imaging.
AB  - Luminescent polymeric nanoparticles (LPNs) with aggregation-induced emission
      (AIE) feature have emerged as the most promising candidates for biological
      imaging owing to their unique AIE feature, great water dispersity, strong
      fluorescence, low cytotoxicity and biocompatibility. Although numerous successful
      strategies for construction of AIE-active LPNs have been developed, the
      preparation of dynamic linkages containing AIE-active LPNs based on
      multicomponent reactions has been rarely reported. In this work, we report a
      facile method for the formation of AIE-active LPNs via a one-pot conjugation of
      PEG-B(OH)2, 1-thioglycerol and AIE-active dye PhE-alc in short time under rather
      mild reaction conditions (e.g. ambient temperature, air atmosphere, absent of
      metal catalysts and in the present of water). The successful formation of AIE
      active mPEG-PhE LPNs was confirmed by different characterization techniques in
      details. The great optical and biological properties certified their applicable
      for biological imaging application. More importantly, the novel method for the
      formation of AIE-active LPNs is rather simple, high efficiency and atom economy,
      which greatly enriched their practical biomedical applications.

PMID- 28866221
TI  - Microstructural effects in drug release by solid and cellular polymeric dosage
      forms: A comparative study.
AB  - In recent studies, we have introduced melt-processed polymeric cellular dosage
      forms to achieve both immediate drug release and predictable manufacture. Dosage
      forms ranging from minimally-porous solids to highly porous, open-cell and thin
      walled structures were prepared, and the drug release characteristics
      investigated as the volume fraction of cells and the excipient molecular weight
      were varied. In the present study, both minimally-porous solid and cellular
      dosage forms consisting of various weight fractions of Acetaminophen drug and
      polyethylene glycol (PEG) excipient are prepared and analyzed. Microstructures of
      the solid forms and the cell walls range from single-phase solid solutions of the
      excipient and a small amount of drug molecules to two-phase composites of the
      excipient and tightly packed drug particles. Results of dissolution experiments
      show that the minimally-porous solid forms disintegrate and release drug by slow
      surface erosion. The erosion rate decreases as the drug weight fraction is
      increased. By contrast, the open-cell structures disintegrate rapidly by viscous
      exfoliation, and the disintegration time is independent of drug weight fraction.
      Drug release models suggest that the solid forms erode by convective mass
      transfer of the faster-eroding excipient if the drug volume fraction is small. At
      larger drug volume fractions, however, the slower-eroding drug particles hinder
      access of the free-flowing fluid to the excipient, thus slowing down erosion of
      the composite. Conversely, the disintegration rate of the cellular forms is
      limited by diffusion of the dissolution fluid into the excipient phase of the
      thin cell walls. Because the wall thickness is of the order of the drug particle
      size, and the particles are enveloped by the excipient during melt-processing,
      the drug particles cannot hinder diffusion through the excipient across the
      walls. Thus the disintegration time of the cellular forms is mostly unaffected by
      the volume fraction of drug in the walls.

PMID- 28866222
TI  - Detection of alprazolam with a lab on paper economical device integrated with
      urchin like Ag@ Pd shell nano-hybrids.
AB  - We present results of the studies relating to fabrication of a microfluidic
      biosensor chip based on urchin like Ag@ Pd shell nano-hybrids that is capable of
      sensing alprazolam through electrochemical detection. Using this chip we
      demonstrate, with high reliability and in a time efficient manner, the detection
      of alprazolam present in buffer solutions at clinically relevant concentrations.
      Methylene blue (MB) was also doped as redox transition substance for sensing
      alprazolam. Nano-hybrids modified EMUPAD showed wide linear range 1-300ng/ml and
      low detection limit of 0.025ng/l. Low detection limit can further enhance its
      suitability for forensic application. Nano-hybrids modified EMUPAD was also
      employed for determination of drug in real samples such as human urine. Reported
      facile lab paper approach integrated with urchin like Ag@ Pd shell nano-hybrids
      could be well applied for the determination of serum metabolites.

PMID- 28866223
TI  - Development of polyurethanes for bone repair.
AB  - The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments on polyurethanes aimed
      at the design, synthesis, modifications, and biological properties in the field
      of bone tissue engineering. Different polyurethane systems are presented and
      discussed in terms of biodegradation, biocompatibility and bioactivity. A
      comprehensive discussion is provided of the influence of hard to soft segments
      ratio, catalysts, stiffness and hydrophilicity of polyurethanes. Interaction with
      various cells, behavior in vivo and current strategies in enhancing bioactivity
      of polyurethanes are described. The discussion on the incorporation of
      biomolecules and growth factors, surface modifications, and obtaining
      polyurethane-ceramics composites strategies is held. The main emphasis is placed
      on the progress of polyurethane applications in bone regeneration, including bone
      void fillers, shape memory scaffolds, and drug carrier.

PMID- 28866224
TI  - Highlights in nanocarriers for the treatment against cervical cancer.
AB  - Cervical cancer is the second most common malignant tumor in women worldwide and
      has a high mortality rate, especially when it is associated with human
      papillomavirus (HPV). In US, an estimated 12,820 cases of invasive cervical
      cancer and an estimated 4210 deaths from this cancer will occur in 2017. With
      rare and very aggressive conventional treatments, one sees in the real need of
      new alternatives of therapy as the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents by
      nanocarriers using nanotechnology. This review covers different drug delivery
      systems applied in the treatment of cervical cancer, such as solid lipid
      nanoparticles (SNLs), liposomes, nanoemulsions and polymeric nanoparticles
      (PNPs). The main advantages of drug delivery thus improving pharmacological
      activity, improving solubility, bioavailability to bioavailability reducing
      toxicity in the target tissue by targeting of ligands, thus facilitating new
      innovative therapeutic technologies in a too much needed area. Among the main
      disadvantage is the still high cost of production of these nanocarriers.
      Therefore, the aim this paper is review the nanotechnology based drug delivery
      systems in the treatment of cervical cancer.

PMID- 28866225
TI  - Fabrication and characterization of two-layered nanofibrous membrane for guided
      bone and tissue regeneration application.
AB  - Membranes used in dentistry act as a barrier to prevent invasion of intruder
      cells to defected area and obtains spaces that are to be subsequently filled with
      new bone and provide required bone volume for implant therapy when there is
      insufficient volume of healthy bone at implant site. In this study a two-layered
      bioactive membrane were fabricated by electrospinning whereas one layer provides
      guided bone regeneration (GBR) and fabricated using poly glycerol sebacate
      (PGS)/polycaprolactone (PCL) and Beta tri-calcium phosphate (beta-TCP) (5, 10 and
      15%) and another one containing PCL/PGS and chitosan acts as guided tissue
      regeneration (GTR). The morphology, chemical, physical and mechanical
      characterizations of the membranes were studied using scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray
      diffraction (XRD), tensile testing, then biodegradability and bioactivity
      properties were evaluated. In vitro cell culture study was also carried out to
      investigate proliferation and mineralization of cells on different membranes.
      Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and SEM results indicated agglomeration of
      beta-TCP nanoparticles in the structure of nanofibers containing 15% beta-TCP.
      Moreover by addition of beta-TCP from 5% to 15%, contact angle decreased due to
      hydrophilicity of nanoparticles and bioactivity was found to increase. Mechanical
      properties of the membrane increased by incorporation of 5% and 10% of beta-TCP
      in the structure of nanofibers, while addition of 15% of beta-TCP was found to
      deteriorate mechanical properties of nanofibers. Although the presence of 5% and
      10% of nanoparticles in the nanofibers increased proliferation of cells on GBR
      layer, cell proliferation was observed to decrease by addition of 15% beta-TCP in
      the structure of nanofibers which is likely due to agglomeration of nanoparticles
      in the nanofiber structure. Our overall results revealed PCL/PGS containing 10%
      beta-TCP could be selected as the optimum GBR membrane in view point of physical
      and mechanical properties along with cell behavior. PCL/PGS nanofibers containing
      10% beta-TCP were electrospun on the GTR layer for fabrication of final membrane.
      Addition of chitosan in the structure of PCL/PGS nanofibers was found to decrease
      fiber diameter, contact angle and porosity which are favorable for GTR layer. Two
      layered dental membrane fabricated in this study can serve as a suitable
      substrate for application in dentistry as it provides appropriate
      osteoconductivity and flexibility along with barrier properties.

PMID- 28866226
TI  - Networks based on biodegradable polyesters: An overview of the chemical ways of
      crosslinking.
AB  - Biodegradable polymers have gained more importance due to growing concern of our
      society for the ecology and sustainable development. Among them, aliphatic
      polyesters, poly(epsilon-caprolactone) PCL, poly(lactic acid) PLA and poly(3
      hydroxyalkanoate)s PHAs present the advantage to be both biodegradable and
      biocompatible. Nevertheless, their thermal and mechanical properties represent a
      major drawback limiting some engineering applications. As a result the design of
      novel structures such as networks based on polyesters is revealing as a great
      challenge for enhancing their mechanical and thermal properties. The networks can
      be obtained throughout several approaches. This review focuses on the different
      chemical methods of crosslinking by using radical mechanisms, condensation
      reactions of polyesters or functionalized oligoesters. Preparation of hybrid,
      interpenetrated or reversible networks are described. This review highlights the
      relations structure-properties of the resulted materials and their potential
      applications.

PMID- 28866228
TI  - Corrigendum to "Cytoprotective effect of the enzyme-mediated polygallic acid on
      fibroblast cells under exposure of UV-irradiation" [Mater. Sci. Eng. C 76C (2017)
      417-424].

PMID- 28866227
TI  - Polymeric nanoparticles: A study on the preparation variables and
      characterization methods.
AB  - Since the emergence of Nanotechnology in the past decades, the development and
      design of nanomaterials has become an important field of research. An emerging
      component in this field is nanomedicine, wherein nanoscale materials are being
      developed for use as imaging agents or for drug delivery applications. Much work
      is currently focused in the preparation of well-defined nanomaterials in terms of
      size and shape. These factors play a significantly role in the nanomaterial
      behavior in vivo. In this context, this review focuses on the toolbox of
      available methods for the preparation of polymeric nanoparticles. We highlight
      some recent examples from the literature that demonstrate the influence of the
      preparation method on the physicochemical characteristics of the nanoparticles.
      Additionally, in the second part, the characterization methods for this type of
      nanoparticles are discussed.

PMID- 28866229
TI  - Photo-controlled aptamers delivery by dual surface gold-magnetic nanoparticles
      for targeted cancer therapy.
AB  - Dual surfaced dumbbell-like gold magnetic nanoparticles (Au-Fe3O4) were
      synthesized for targeted aptamers delivery. Their unique biological properties
      were characterized as a smart photo-controlled drug carrier. DNA aptamers
      targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were assembled onto the
      surface of Au-Fe3O4 by electrostatic absorption. The binding capacity of the
      nanoparticles with VEGF aptamers was confirmed by gel electrophoresis. The
      targeted recognization of ovarian cancer cells by the aptamers-functionalized Au
      Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Apt-Au-Fe3O4 NPs) was observed by confocal microscopy. Apt
      Au-Fe3O4 was found to bind with SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells specifically, leading
      to marked intracellular release of aptamers upon plasmon-resonant light (605nm)
      radiation, and to enhance the in vitro inhibition against tumor cell
      proliferation. The results show high potential of Apt-Au-Fe3O4as a targeted
      cancer hyperthermia carrier by remote control with high spatial/temporal
      resolution.

PMID- 28866230
TI  - Strontium doped injectable bone cement for potential drug delivery applications.
AB  - Microwave assisted wet precipitation method was used to synthesize calcium
      deficient strontium doped beta-tricalcium phosphate (Sr-betaTCP) with a chemical
      formula of Ca2.96-xSrx(PO4)2. Sr-betaTCP was reacted with monocalcium phosphate
      monohydrate [Ca(H2PO4)2.H2O, MCPM] in presence of water to furnish corresponding
      Sr containing brushite cement (Sr-Brc). The samples were characterized by using X
      ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and
      field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Strontium content in the
      prepared samples was determined by using inductively coupled plasma optical
      emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The effect of Sr2+ ions on the structural,
      mechanical, setting properties and drug release of the cement is reported.
      Incorporation of Sr2+ ions improved the injectability, setting time and
      mechanical properties of the Brc. The release profiles of antibiotics
      incorporated in Brc and Sr-Brc confirmed that the Sr incorporation into the Brc
      results in the efficient release of the antibiotics from the cement.

PMID- 28866232
TI  - Aortic Reconstruction in an Infected Field. Commentary on "Self-made Xeno
      pericardial Aortic Tubes to Treat Native and Aortic Graft Infections".

PMID- 28866231
TI  - Gardasil Vaccination for Recurrent Laryngeal Papillomatosis in Adult Men Second
      Report: Negative Conversion of HPV in Laryngeal Secretions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In our first report on antibody levels in middle-aged and older men
      with recurrent laryngeal papillomatosis (RLP), we reported increases in human
      papillomavirus (HPV) antibody levels similar to those seen in adult women and
      young men. We posited that HPV antibodies produced in laryngeal mucus by Gardasil
      would prevent postoperative reinfection in patients with RLP. STUDY DESIGN: This
      is a case series study. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine whether
      Gardasil injection effectively inhibits recurrence of RLP. Specifically, in this
      second report, whether HPV antibodies produced in laryngeal secretions by
      Gardasil are capable of causing negative conversion of HPV-DNA (deoxyribonucleic
      acid) in laryngeal mucosa was investigated. METHODS: A total of 11 patients for
      whom antibodies were measured in the first report were studied. Before
      vaccination and after 1 year Post-vaccination, HPV screening tests were performed
      on laryngeal secretions, and whether HPV-DNA negative conversion had occurred was
      evaluated. At the time of collection of laryngeal secretions, the presence or
      absence of laryngeal papillomas was examined. RESULTS: Before vaccination, all
      patients were HPV low-risk positive on laryngeal secretion screening tests. After
      vaccination, three patients were positive. Laryngeal papillomas remained in five
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: The HPV-DNA test showed negative conversion in eight of 11
      (72.7%) patients after vaccination. Residual laryngeal papillomas were found in
      five of 11 (45.5%) patients. The serum HPV antibody titer did not differ
      significantly between the group in which laryngeal secretions showed HPV negative
      conversion and the group in which conversion did not occur. The serum antibody
      titer did not differ significantly as a function of whether there were residual
      tumors.

PMID- 28866233
TI  - Cyanobacteria growing on tree barks possess high amount of sunscreen compound
      mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs).
AB  - The present study describes cyanobacterial species composition and their
      dominance in biological crusts from barks of different trees, roof top of
      building and soil of agricultural field. An attempt was also made to explore the
      presence of photoprotective compounds such as mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs)
      in the crust samples. Microscopic examination and growth studies revealed the
      presence of Oscillatoria species in all the crust samples excluding the crust of
      roof top of a building. Study on the abundance of dominant genera showed marked
      differences among various crust samples but Hapalosiphon, Lyngbya, Oscillatoria
      and Scytonema sp. were the most dominant genera, Oscillatoria being dominant in
      three crust samples. Screening for the presence of photoprotective compounds
      showed the presence of major peaks in the range of 308-334 nm thereby pointing to
      the presence of MAAs in all the crust samples. The highest amount of MAAs was
      found in the crust of Borassus flabellifer (15,729 nmol g dry wt-1 of bark)
      followed by crust of roof top (14,543 nmol g dry wt-1 of crust). MAAs were
      separated and partially purified employing HPLC, the most common MAA present in
      all the crusts was identified as mycosporine-glycine. Presence of mycosporine
      glycine (M-Gly) was further confirmed by FTIR and NMR. Test of in vitro
      colonization on the bark of Mangifera indica and Azadirachta indica by three
      isolates namely Hapalosiphon, Oscillatoria and Scytonema sp. showed sign of
      active colonization. It is felt that identification of all the MAAs other than M
      Gly may prove useful in future studies especially for assessing their
      significance in the protection mechanism of cyanobacteria/algae against various
      types of abiotic stresses.

PMID- 28866234
TI  - Relative contribution of Na+/K+ homeostasis, photochemical efficiency and
      antioxidant defense system to differential salt tolerance in cotton (Gossypium
      hirsutum L.) cultivars.
AB  - In this study, the role of specific components of different coping strategies to
      salt load were identified. A pot experiment was conducted with four cotton
      (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars (differing in salt-sensitivity) under salinity
      stress. Based on observed responses in growth performance and physiological
      characteristics, CZ91 was the most tolerant of the four cultivars, followed by
      cultivars CCRI44 and CCRI49, with Z571 being much more sensitive to salt stress.
      To perform this tolerant response, they implement different adaptative mechanisms
      to cope with salt-stress. The superior salt tolerance of CZ91 was conferred by at
      least three complementary physiological mechanisms: its ability to regulate K+
      and Na+ transport more effectively, its higher photochemical efficiency and
      better antioxidant defense capacity. However, only one or a few specific
      components of these defense systems play crucial roles in moderately salt
      tolerant CCRI44 and CCRI49. Lower ROS load in CCRI44 may be attributed to
      simultaneous induction of antioxidant defenses by maintaining an unusually high
      level of SOD, and higher activities of CAT, APX, and POD during salt stress.
      CCRI49 could reduce the excess generation of ROS not only by maintaining a higher
      selective absorption of K+ over Na+ in roots across the membranes through SOS1,
      AKT1, and HAK5, but also by displaying higher excess-energy dissipation (e.g.,
      higher ETR, PR and qN) during salt stress. Overall, our data provide a
      mechanistic explanation for differential salt stress tolerance among these
      cultivars and shed light on the different strategies employed by cotton cultivars
      to minimize the ill effects of stress.

PMID- 28866235
TI  - Genome-wide analysis of the YABBY family in soybean and functional identification
      of GmYABBY10 involvement in high salt and drought stresses.
AB  - YABBY family is a plant specific transcription factor family, with the typical N
      terminal C2C2 type zinc finger domain and the C-terminal YABBY conservative
      structure domain, which plays important biological roles in plant growth,
      development and morphogenesis. In this study, a total of 17 YABBY genes were
      identified in the soybean genome. The results of this research showed that 17
      soybean YABBY genes were located on 11 chromosomes. Analysis of putative cis
      acting elements showed that soybean YABBY genes contained lots of MYB and MYC
      elements. Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that the expressions of
      GmYABBY3, GmYABBY10 and GmYABBY16 were more highly sensitive in drought, NaCl and
      ABA stresses. And the transient expression in Arabidopsis protoplasts showed that
      GmYABBY3 protein distributed uniformly the whole cells, while GmYABBY10 protein
      was mainly localized in the membranes and cytoplasm and GmYABBY16 protein was
      localized the nucleus and membranes. To further identify the function of
      GmYABBY10, we obtained the transgenic Arabidopsis overexpression GmYABBY10. Based
      on germination and seedling root arrays in transgenic Arabidopsis, we found that
      the rates of wild type seeds was a litter higher than that of GmYABBY10
      transgenic seeds under both PEG and NaCl treatment. While the root length and
      root surface of wild type seedlings were bigger than those of GmYABBY10
      transgenic seedlings. When seedlings were grown in soil, the survival rates of
      wild type were higher than those of transgenic plants under both PEG and NaCl
      treatment, which indicated that GmYABBY10 may be a negatively regulator in plant
      resistances to drought and salt stresses. This study provided valuable
      information regarding the classification and functions of YABBY genes in soybean.

PMID- 28866236
TI  - Differential accumulation of flavonoids and phytohormones resulting from the
      canopy/rootstock interaction of citrus plants subjected to
      dehydration/rehydration.
AB  - Water scarcity can elicit drastic changes in plant metabolic and hormonal
      regulation, which may be of fundamental importance to stress tolerance. The study
      of plant the metabolic alterations in response to water deficit, especially the
      effects of the rootstocks level, is important to elucidate the mechanisms
      associated to drought tolerance. To verify the influence of rootstock and
      grafting on the tolerance to drought in citrus plants, we analyzed the growth,
      phytohormone levels and flavonoid profiles in grafted and ungrafted citrus plants
      subjected to different soil water regimes on plant status (well-watered, moderate
      drought and severe drought and rehydrated) under field conditions. The
      experiments were conducted under field conditions in the Brazilian Agricultural
      Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Cruz das Almas, BA, Brazil. Water deficit reduced
      the total leaf area per plant in all canopy/rootstock combinations. Self-grafting
      reduce root volume, area and length when compared to ungrafted plants. Drought
      induced increases in salicylic acid and abscisic acid associated with concomitant
      reductions in indoleacetic acid were observed in most canopy/rootstock
      combinations. However, plants with 'Sunki Maravilha' rootstocks exhibited the
      most pronounced changes in hormonal levels upon drought stress. Associated to
      these hormonal changes, drought also significantly affected flavonoid content and
      profile in both leaves and roots of the distinct citrus combinations.
      Glycosylated (GFs) and polimethoxylated flavonoids were predominantly found in
      leaves, whereas prenylated coumarins were found in the roots. Leaf levels of GFs
      (vicenin, F11, rutin and rhoifolin) were particularly modulated by drought in
      plants with 'Rangpur Santa Cruz' lime rootstock, whereas root levels of
      prenylated coumarins were most regulated by drought in plants with the 'Sunki
      Maravilha' root system. Taken together, these data indicate that the impacts of
      water deficit restriction on growth, hormonal balance and flavonoid profiles
      significantly varies depending on the canopy/rootstock combinations.

PMID- 28866237
TI  - Effects of simultaneously elevated temperature and CO2 levels on Nicotiana
      benthamiana and its infection by different positive-sense RNA viruses are
      cumulative and virus type-specific.
AB  - We have studied how simultaneously elevated temperature and CO2 levels [climate
      change-related conditions (CCC) of 30 degrees C, 970 parts-per-million (ppm) of
      CO2 vs. standard conditions (SC) of 25 degrees C, ~ 405ppm CO2] affect
      physiochemical properties of Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, and also its infection
      by several positive-sense RNA viruses. In previous works we had studied effects
      of elevated temperature, CO2 levels separately. Under CCC, leaves of healthy
      plants almost doubled their area relative to SC but contained less protein/unit
      of-area, similarly to what we had found under conditions of elevated CO2 alone.
      CCC also affected the sizes/numbers of different foliar cell types differently.
      Under CCC, infection outcomes in titers and symptoms were virus type-specific,
      broadly similar to those observed under elevated temperature alone. Under either
      condition, infections did not significantly alter the protein content of leaf
      discs. Therefore, effects of elevated temperature and CO2 combined on properties
      of the pathosystems studied were overall cumulative.

PMID- 28866238
TI  - Genetic variation and co-evolutionary relationship of RNA polymerase complex
      segments in influenza A viruses.
AB  - The RNA polymerase complex (RNApc) in influenza A viruses (IVs) is composed of
      the PB2, PB1 and PA subunits, which are encoded by the three longest genome
      segments (Seg1-3) and are responsible for the replication of vRNAs and
      transcription of viral mRNAs. However, the co-evolutionary relationships of the
      three segments from the known 126 subtypes IVs are unclear. In this study, we
      performed a detailed analysis based on a total number of 121,191 nucleotide
      sequences. Three segment sequences were aligned before the repeated, incomplete
      and mixed sequences were removed for homologous and phylogenetic analyses.
      Subsequently, the estimated substitution rates and TMRCAs (Times for Most Recent
      Common Ancestor) were calculated by 175 representative IVs. Tracing the cladistic
      distribution of three segments from these IVs, co-evolutionary patterns and
      trajectories could be inferred. The further correlation analysis of six internal
      protein coding segments reflect the RNApc segments have the closer correlation
      than others during continuous reassortments. This global approach facilitates the
      establishment of a fast antiviral strategy and monitoring of viral variation.

PMID- 28866239
TI  - An evaluation of soil chemistry in human cadaver decomposition islands: Potential
      for estimating postmortem interval (PMI).
AB  - Soil samples from the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF) at Texas
      State University, San Marcos, TX, were analyzed for multiple soil characteristics
      from cadaver decomposition islands to a depth of 5centimeters (cm) from 63 human
      decomposition sites, as well as depths up to 15cm in a subset of 11 of the
      cadaver decomposition islands plus control soils. Postmortem interval (PMI) of
      the cadaver decomposition islands ranged from 6 to 1752 days. Some soil
      chemistry, including nitrate-N (NO3-N), ammonium-N (NH4-N), and dissolved
      inorganic carbon (DIC), peaked at early PMI values and their concentrations at 0
      5cm returned to near control values over time likely due to translocation down
      the soil profile. Other soil chemistry, including dissolved organic carbon (DOC),
      dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), orthophosphate-P (PO4-P), sodium (Na+), and
      potassium (K+), remained higher than the control soil up to a PMI of 1752days
      postmortem. The body mass index (BMI) of the cadaver appeared to have some effect
      on the cadaver decomposition island chemistry. To estimate PMI using soil
      chemistry, backward, stepwise multiple regression analysis was used with PMI as
      the dependent variable and soil chemistry, body mass index (BMI) and physical
      soil characteristics such as saturated hydraulic conductivity as independent
      variables. Measures of soil parameters derived from predator and microbial
      mediated decomposition of human remains shows promise in estimating PMI to within
      365days for a period up to nearly five years. This persistent change in soil
      chemistry extends the ability to estimate PMI beyond the traditionally utilized
      methods of entomology and taphonomy in support of medical-legal investigations,
      humanitarian recovery efforts, and criminal and civil cases.

PMID- 28866240
TI  - An investigation into artefacts formed during gas chromatography/mass
      spectrometry analysis of firearms propellant that contains diphenylamine as the
      stabiliser.
AB  - In the course of providing assistance to legal counsel in a matter that involved
      the analysis of firearms propellant by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry it
      was noticed that phenoxazine was reported as a component of 0.22 calibre
      propellant that contained diphenylamine as the stabiliser. The research was
      conducted to find how phenoxazine was formed. The results showed that the
      compound was not phenoxazine but a diphenylamine derivative 4-(phenylimino)
      cyclohexa-2,5-dien-1-one that formed in the injection port of the gas
      chromatograph. In addition a second artefact was found to form in the ion source
      of the mass spectrometer. While the presence of the artefacts does not affect the
      ability to identify particles as propellant they may impact on comparison with
      source ammunition.

PMID- 28866241
TI  - Acylpeptide hydrolase is a component of the cellular response to DNA damage.
AB  - Acylpeptide hydrolase (APEH) deacetylates N-alpha-acetylated peptides and
      selectively degrades oxidised proteins, but the biochemical pathways that are
      regulated by this protease are unknown. Here, we identify APEH as a component of
      the cellular response to DNA damage. Although APEH is primarily localised in the
      cytoplasm, we show that a sub-fraction of this enzyme is sequestered at sites of
      nuclear damage following UVA irradiation or following oxidative stress. We show
      that localization of APEH at sites of nuclear damage is mediated by direct
      interaction with XRCC1, a scaffold protein that accelerates the repair of DNA
      single-strand breaks. We show that APEH interacts with the amino-terminal domain
      of XRCC1, and that APEH facilitates both single-strand break repair and cell
      survival following exposure to H2O2 in human cells. These data identify APEH as a
      novel proteolytic component of the DNA damage response.

PMID- 28866242
TI  - To engraft or not to engraft: an ecological framework for gut microbiome
      modulation with live microbes.
AB  - Strategies aimed at modulating the gut microbiota by using live microbes range
      from single strains (probiotics or live biotherapeutics) to whole non-defined
      fecal transplants. Although often clinically efficacious, our understanding on
      how microbial-based strategies modulate gut microbiome composition and function
      is vastly incomplete. In this review, we present a framework based on ecological
      theory that provides mechanistic explanations for the findings obtained in
      studies that attempted to modulate the gut microbiota of humans and animals using
      live microbes. We argue that an ecological perspective grounded in theory is
      necessary to interpret and predict the impact of microbiome-modulating strategies
      and thus advance our ability to develop improved and targeted approaches with
      enhanced therapeutic efficiency.

PMID- 28866244
TI  - National Trends and Predictors of Locally Advanced Penile Cancer in the United
      States (1998-2012).
AB  - BACKGROUND: We analyzed the trends in presentation of squamous cell carcinoma
      (SCC) of the penis and determined the socioeconomic predictors for locally
      advanced (cT3-cT4) disease in the United States. PATIENT AND METHODS: The
      National Cancer Database was queried for patients with clinically nonmetastatic
      penile SCC and staging available from 1998 to 2012. Temporal trends per tumor
      stage were evaluated, and a multivariable logistic regression model was used to
      identify predictors for advanced presentation during the study period. RESULTS: A
      total of 5767 patients with stage <= T1-T2 (n = 5423) and T3-T4 (n = 344) disease
      were identified. Increasing trends were noted in all stages of penile SCC with a
      greater proportion of advanced cases over time (P = .001). Significant predictors
      of advanced presentation were age > 55 years, the presence of comorbidities, and
      Medicaid or no insurance (P < .05 for all). CONCLUSION: More penile SCC is being
      detected in the United States. Our results have demonstrated older age, presence
      of comorbidities, and Medicaid or no insurance as potential barriers to early
      access of care in the male population. Understanding the current socioeconomic
      gaps could help guide targeted interventions in vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28866243
TI  - Intestinal Lactobacillus in health and disease, a driver or just along for the
      ride?
AB  - Metagenomics and related methods have led to significant advances in our
      understanding of the human microbiome. Members of the genus Lactobacillus,
      although best understood for essential roles in food fermentations and
      applications as probiotics, have also come to the fore in a number of untargeted
      gut microbiome studies in humans and animals. Even though Lactobacillus is only a
      minor member of the human colonic microbiota, the proportions of those bacteria
      are frequently either positively or negatively correlated with human disease and
      chronic conditions. Recent findings on Lactobacillus species in human and animal
      microbiome research, together with the increased knowledge on probiotic and other
      ingested lactobacilli, have resulted in new perspectives on the importance of
      this genus to human health.

PMID- 28866245
TI  - Incidence and Effect of Thromboembolic Events in Radical Cystectomy Patients
      Undergoing Preoperative Chemotherapy for Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the incidence and effect of thromboembolic events (TEEs)
      in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with preoperative
      chemotherapy (POC) and radical cystectomy (RC) with pelvic lymph node dissection
      (PLND). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of all patients
      who had undergone POC followed by RC plus PLND for muscle-invasive bladder cancer
      from June 2000 to January 2013 (n = 357). The chemotherapy type (neoadjuvant vs.
      induction), incidence and timing of TEE diagnosis (preoperatively vs. <= 90 days
      postoperatively), and effect of TEEs on clinical outcomes were recorded. RESULTS:
      Overall, 79 patients (22%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 18%-27%) experienced a
      TEE: 57 (16%) occurred during POC and 22 (6.2%) were diagnosed postoperatively.
      Forty patients (11%; 95% CI, 8.1%-15%) required an inferior vena cava filter. We
      found no significant differences in neoadjuvant versus induction chemotherapy and
      the risk of TEEs (difference, 3.3%; 95% CI, -5% to 12%; P = .5). No significant
      difference were found in the rates of POC completion according to the presence of
      a TEE (difference, 1.0%; 95% CI, -11% to 13%; P = .9). The occurrence of TEE did
      not significantly affect other perioperative outcomes. The risk of recurrence and
      overall survival were not associated with TEE on multivariable analysis.
      CONCLUSION: We found a high incidence of TEEs (22%) in patients undergoing POC
      before RC plus PLND, with a 16% incidence in the preoperative period. TEEs in the
      POC setting leads to invasive procedures; however, we did not find a significant
      effect on POC completion or postoperative complication risk. Further research is
      required to determine whether preventative TEE measures during POC can improve
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28866246
TI  - Radiofrequency Ablation for Renal Cancer in Von Hippel-Lindau Syndrome Patients:
      A Prospective Cohort Analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Management of renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) in patients with Von
      Hippel-Lindau syndrome (VHL) represents a clinical dilemma: the oncologic
      outcomes must be weighed against preservation of renal function. Radiofrequency
      ablation (RFA) is currently used in selected cases for treatment of small-size
      RCC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, complications, and
      functional and oncologic outcomes of RFA in the treatment of RCC in VHL patients.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: RCCs were treated with ultrasound-guided RFA or with
      laparoscopic RFA. Clinical and radiologic response, disease recurrence, and
      survival outcomes were evaluated during follow-up. Early and late complications
      were recorded and graded. RESULTS: Nine RCC patients underwent RFA. The median
      number of RCCs per patient was 3 (interquartile range, 2-4). Among these 9
      patients, a total of 20 RCCs were treated by RFA (19 ultrasound-guided RFA and 1
      laparoscopic procedure). Median RCC size was 2.5 cm (interquartile range, 2.0
      3.0). RFA did not impair renal function (P = .35). In 2 cases disease persisted,
      and in 1 case disease recurred after 18 months. These patients were retreated
      with ultrasound-guided RFA with complete response and no renal function
      impairment. RFA treatment was overall well tolerated and safe. No complications
      were recorded. Postoperative stay was no longer than 1 day. CONCLUSION: RCC
      occurred in about two-thirds of VHL patients, who had young age at presentation;
      it was frequently multifocal and recurrent. The use of RFA, with extended
      indications, could represent a tailored treatment for VHL patients, reducing the
      risk of renal failure and resulting in satisfying oncologic results.

PMID- 28866247
TI  - Using personal construct methodology to explore relationships with adolescents
      with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research shows that adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
      experience difficulties developing friendships, and that loneliness is a
      significant factor contributing to higher incidence of anxiety and depression
      within this population. AIMS: This study aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of
      relationships as described by adolescents with ASD, and, from these descriptions,
      to explore what can be inferred about the development of successful interpersonal
      relationships for these individuals. METHODS AND PROCEDURE: Eight adolescents
      with ASD participated in semi-structured interviews using established personal
      construct theory (PCT) techniques. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: PCT was found to be a
      helpful approach to elicit rich, qualitative data. A thematic analysis identified
      four themes: relationships as a source of support, perceptions of similarity and
      difference, valued qualities in self and others, and the development and
      maintenance of relationships. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Whilst this
      exploratory study highlighted some commonality in terms of perceptions of family
      support and friendships as protective and desirable, participants differed in
      their ability to establish and maintain peer relationships. Participants valued
      personal qualities such as intelligence, humour and trust within relationships,
      and recognised the important role of peers and siblings in the development of
      social skills, a finding which has implications for the delivery of social skills
      training and other interventions. The study provides empirical support for the
      application of personal construct methodologies in ASD research and offers a
      potentially useful approach to therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28866249
TI  - The synthesis of novel sulfamides derived from beta-benzylphenethylamines as
      acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase and carbonic anhydrase enzymes
      inhibitors.
AB  - In this study, a series of novel beta-benzylphenethylamines and their sulfamide
      derivatives were synthesized starting from (Z)-2,3-diphenylacrylonitriles. Pd-C
      catalysed hydrogenation of diphenylacrylonitriles, reduction of propanenitriles
      with LiAlH4 in the presence of AlCl3 followed by addition of conc. HCl afforded
      beta-benzylphenethylamine hydrochloride salts. The reactions of these amine
      hydrochloride salts with chlorosulfonyl isocyanate (CSI) in the presence of tert
      BuOH and excess Et3N gave sulfamoylcarbamates. Removing of Boc group from the
      synthesized sulfamoylcarbamates with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) yielded novel
      sulfamides in good yields. These novel sulfamides derived from beta
      benzylphenethylamines were effective inhibitors of the cytosolic carbonic
      anhydrase I and II isoenzymes (hCA I and II), acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and
      butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with Ki values in the range of 0.278-2.260nM for hCA
      I, 0.187-1.478nM for hCA II, 0.127-2.452nM for AChE and 0.494-1.790nM for BChE.
      The inhibitory effects of the synthesized novel sulfamides derived from beta
      benzylphenethylamines were compared to those of acetazolamide and dorzolamide as
      clinical hCA I and II isoenzymes inhibitors and tacrine as a clinical AChE and
      BChE enzymes inhibitors. In addition to in vitro tests, molecular modeling
      approaches are implemented not only for prediction of the binding affinities of
      the compounds but also to study their inhibition mechanisms in atomic level at
      the catalytic domains.

PMID- 28866250
TI  - Flow optimization in one-dimensional and comprehensive two-dimensional gas
      chromatography.
AB  - Theoretical considerations of optimal flow in a GC column under different
      conditions are outlined from a single perspective, and numerical recommendations
      are provided. The optimal flow rate in a temperature programmed column is about
      30% lower than its isothermal counterpart in the same column with the same
      carrier gas. A simplified calculation of recommended optimal or near optimal flow
      rate in a single column under different conditions is summarized in a single
      equation. In GC * GC, the primary column operates under temperature-programmed
      conditions while each secondary run is essentially isothermal. As a result, their
      flow optimization requirements are different. The complementary IDs (internal
      diameters) corresponding to equal optimal flow rates in both GC * GC columns
      should relate as 2d = 0.7 .1d. Typical complementary ID pairs are tabulated. If
      choosing the complementary IDs is not an option, several ways to reconcile the
      difference in their optimal flow rates are considered. The most typical cases of
      the column mismatch are identified and their boundary conditions are formulated.
      The effect of the flow reconciliation in these column pairs on the performance of
      GC * GC analysis is evaluated.

PMID- 28866248
TI  - Short overview on metabolomics approach to study pathophysiology of oxidative
      stress in cancer.
AB  - Association of oxidative stress with carcinogenesis is well known, but not
      understood well, as is pathophysiology of oxidative stress generated during
      different types of anti-cancer treatments. Moreover, recent findings indicate
      that cancer associated lipid peroxidation might eventually help defending
      adjacent nonmalignant cells from cancer invasion. Therefore, untargeted
      metabolomics studies designed for advanced translational and clinical studies are
      needed to understand the existing paradoxes in oncology, including those related
      to controversial usage of antioxidants aiming to prevent or treat cancer. In this
      short review we have tried to put emphasis on the importance of pathophysiology
      of oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in cancer development in relation to
      metabolic adaptation of particular types of cancer allowing us to conclude that
      adaptation to oxidative stress is one of the main driving forces of cancer
      pathophysiology. With the help of metabolomics many novel findings are being
      achieved thus encouraging further scientific breakthroughs. Combined with
      targeted qualitative and quantitative methods, especially immunochemistry,
      further research might reveal bio-signatures of individual patients and
      respective malignant diseases, leading to individualized treatment approach,
      according to the concepts of modern integrative medicine.

PMID- 28866251
TI  - Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to high resolution time
      of-flight mass spectrometry for screening of organohalogenated compounds in cat
      hair.
AB  - The coupling of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with high
      resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry offers the best separation efficiency
      combined with accurate mass measurements over a wide mass range. The tremendous
      power of this screening tool is illustrated by trace qualitative screening
      analysis of organohalogenated compounds (OHCs) in pet cat hair. Tentative
      identification was supported by mass spectral database searches and elemental
      formula prediction from the experimentally determined accurate mass data. This
      screening approach resulted in the first tentative identification of
      pentabromoethylbenzene, decabromodiphenyl ethane, hexabromocyclododecane,
      trisbromoneopentyl alcohol, tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate and tris(2
      chloroisopropyl)phosphate in the South African indoor environment. A total of
      seventy-two OHCs were identified in the samples and include known flame
      retardants, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and legacy contaminants such
      as polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine, organophosphorous and pyrethroid
      pesticides. The results obtained from cat hair indicate that these pets are
      exposed to complex mixtures of OHCs and the detection of these compounds suggests
      that non-invasive cat hair samples can be used to model indoor exposure with
      reference to external deposition of OHCs present in the air and dust surrounding
      people. Toddlers share the same environment as pet cats and therefore also the
      same health risks.

PMID- 28866252
TI  - Comprehensive determination of flavouring additives and nicotine in e-cigarette
      refill solutions. Part I: Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      analysis.
AB  - Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (HPLC
      ESI-MS/MS) methods were developed for the simultaneous determination of 42
      flavouring compounds and nicotine in liquids for e-cigarettes. The
      chromatographic separation was performed using an Ace(r) UltracoreTM SuperC18TM
      (100*2.1mm, 2.5MUm) column in both acidic and alkaline pH conditions to separate
      all the compounds. A simple "dilute & shoot" approach was used for the sample
      preparation. The method validation was performed by evaluating key analytical
      parameters such as linearity, accuracy, selectivity, precision, limit of
      detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ). The calibration curves showed
      good linearity within the specific ranges for the investigated compounds with
      correlation coefficients greater than 0.990 in each case. The recovery for all
      the investigated compounds varied from 89% to 110%. The intra- and inter-day
      precision were within the acceptable limits (+/-15%) at all tested
      concentrations. The applicability of the methods was examined by analysing 25
      liquid samples from e-cigarettes commercially available on the Polish market.

PMID- 28866253
TI  - Human odor and forensics. Optimization of a comprehensive two-dimensional gas
      chromatography method based on orthogonality: How not to choose between criteria.
AB  - The use of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass
      spectrometry would be a real asset for the forensic profiling of human hand odor.
      This paper focuses on the optimization of a comprehensive gas chromatography
      method using a synthetic mixture of 80 compounds representative of human hand
      odor composition. In order to rank the candidate column sets, instead of using a
      unique criterion, we used a chemometric tool called desirability which is based
      on Derringer functions and enables to consider several criteria simultaneously
      and hence to get the best compromise. Nine criteria including six orthogonality
      criteria were used to evaluate the quality and the efficiency of the separation.
      The desirability analysis lead to a straightforward ranking and an accurate
      overview of the results in two situations, with an objective of routine analysis
      and without. In both cases, the DB-1MS*DB-1701 set was found to be best suited
      for the separation of the considered mixture, however with different gradients.

PMID- 28866254
TI  - The effects of nursing education on professional values: A longitudinal study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is considered to be extremely important to ensure that nurses
      adopt professional values during their education in order to improve nursing
      practices and develop a professional identity. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study
      is to investigate the effects of nursing education on development of professional
      values. DESIGN: This study was designed as a longitudinal study. SETTINGS: The
      study was conducted in a nursing department at a nursing school in the western
      Turkey. PARTICIPANTS: The population of the study consisted of nursing students
      who were enrolled in the nursing department in academic year of 2011-2012. The
      data of the study were collected from 59 first-year students in 2011 and 83
      fourth-year students in 2015. METHODS: The data of the study were collected using
      Personal Information Form and Nursing Professional Values Scale-NPVS. The
      participants responded to the same questionnaire in their first and fourth years
      in the department. RESULTS: The scale mean score of the students in their first
      year was 3.44+/-0.635. The highest scores were obtained from the subscales of
      responsibility, security, and autonomy. Their scale mean score in their fourth
      year was 3.93+/-0.727. The highest scores were obtained from the subscales of
      dignity and autonomy. The difference between the mean scores was statistically
      significant (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that nursing education had a
      significant effect on development of professional values.

PMID- 28866255
TI  - Novel Junction-specific and Quantifiable In Situ Detection of AR-V7 and its
      Clinical Correlates in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Androgen receptor splice variant 7 (AR-V7) has been implicated in
      resistance to abiraterone and enzalutamide treatment in men with metastatic
      castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Tissue- or cell-based in situ
      detection of AR-V7, however, has been limited by lack of specificity. OBJECTIVE:
      To address current limitations in precision measurement of AR-V7 by developing a
      novel junction-specific AR-V7 RNA in situ hybridization (RISH) assay compatible
      with automated quantification. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We designed a
      RISH method to visualize single splice junctions in cells and tissue. Using the
      validated assay for junction-specific detection of the full-length AR (AR-FL) and
      AR-V7, we generated quantitative data, blinded to clinical data, for 63 prostate
      tumor biopsies. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: We evaluated
      clinical correlates of AR-FL/AR-V7 measurements, including association with
      prostate-specific antigen progression-free survival (PSA-PFS) and clinical and
      radiographic progression-free survival (PFS), in a subset of patients starting
      treatment with abiraterone or enzalutamide following biopsy. RESULTS AND
      LIMITATIONS: Quantitative AR-FL/AR-V7 data were generated from 56 of the 63
      (88.9%) biopsy specimens examined, of which 44 were mCRPC biopsies. Positive AR
      V7 signals were detected in 34.1% (15/44) mCRPC specimens, all of which also co
      expressed AR-FL. The median AR-V7/AR-FL ratio was 11.9% (range 2.7-30.3%).
      Positive detection of AR-V7 was correlated with indicators of high disease burden
      at baseline. Among the 25 CRPC biopsies collected before treatment with
      abiraterone or enzalutamide, positive AR-V7 detection, but not higher AR-FL, was
      significantly associated with shorter PSA-PFS (hazard ratio 2.789, 95% confidence
      interval 1.12-6.95; p=0.0081). CONCLUSIONS: We report for the first time a RISH
      method for highly specific and quantifiable detection of splice junctions,
      allowing further characterization of AR-V7 and its clinical significance. PATIENT
      SUMMARY: Higher AR-V7 levels detected and quantified using a novel method were
      associated with poorer response to abiraterone or enzalutamide in prostate
      cancer.

PMID- 28866256
TI  - Evaluation of ecdysteroid antisera for a competitive enzyme immunoassay and
      extraction procedures for the measurement of mosquito ecdysteroids.
AB  - Ecdysteroid hormones regulate several aspects of insect development and
      reproduction. The predominant ecdysteroids produced by insects including
      mosquitoes are ecdysone (E) and 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). The ability to measure
      E and 20E titers is essential for many studies, but few sensitive, low cost
      options are currently available for doing so. To address this deficiency, we
      developed a new enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA). In the first part of the study,
      we compared the affinity of two new antisera named EAB25 and EAB27 to other
      available ecdysteroid antisera. EAB25 had a 27-fold higher affinity for 20E than
      E, while EAB27 had a four-fold higher affinity for 20E. In the second part of the
      study, EIA protocols were developed for analyzing E and 20E produced by the
      mosquito Aedes aegypti. Results indicated that pelts from fourth instar larvae
      and ovaries from blood-fed, adult females produced E and 20E. Methanol extraction
      in the presence of magnesium from whole body samples altered antibody recognition
      of E and 20E by EIA. However, extraction with 1-butanol and two organic/water
      phase separations eliminated this problem and improved assay performance. We
      conclude the new antisera used in the EIA provide a low-cost, flexible, and
      sensitive method for measuring E and 20E in insects.

PMID- 28866257
TI  - Hyphenated 3D-QSAR statistical model-scaffold hopping analysis for the
      identification of potentially potent and selective sigma-2 receptor ligands.
AB  - A 3D quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model for predicting
      the sigma2 receptor affinity has been constructed with the aim of providing a
      useful tool for the identification, design, and optimization of novel sigma2
      receptor ligands. The model has been built using a set of 500 selective sigma2
      receptor ligands recovered from the sigma-2 receptor selective ligand database
      (S2RSLDB) and developed with the software Forge. The present model showed high
      statistical quality as confirmed by its robust predictive potential and
      satisfactory descriptive capability. The drawn up 3D map allows for a prompt
      visual comprehension of the electrostatic, hydrophobic, and shaping features
      underlying sigma2 receptor ligands interaction. A theoretic approach for the
      generation of new lead compounds with optimized sigma2 receptor affinity has been
      performed by means of scaffold hopping analysis. Obtained results further
      confirmed the validity of our model being some of the identified moieties have
      already been successfully employed in the development of potent sigma2 receptor
      ligands. For the first time is herein reported a 3D-QSAR model which includes a
      number of chemically diverse sigma2 receptor ligands and well accounts for the
      individual ligands affinities. These features will ensure prospectively
      advantageous applications to speed up the identification of new potent and
      selective sigma2 receptor ligands.

PMID- 28866258
TI  - [Change of care model in natural childbirth: Implementation in La Ribera delivery
      room].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess knowledge, wish for inclusion and implementation of normal
      childbirth care protocols at La Ribera University Hospital, the reason why they
      are not applied, and to assess the attendance at antepartum training activities.
      MATERIAL AND METHOD: Cross-sectional descriptive study. They were carried out 186
      surveys by convenience sampling to pregnant women attending fetal well-being
      control at hospital between 2014 and 2015. They were collected data about
      knowledge, wish for inclusion, compliance of protocols and reasons for non
      compliance, and attendance at antepartum training activities. Percentages and
      confidence intervals were calculated. Chi-square test was used to compare
      categorical variables. RESULTS: They were collected percentages of knowledge
      (77%, CI95%: 75,5-78,5) and wish for inclusion (84,6%, CI95%: 82,5-86,7).
      Protocol compliance ranged from 6% (nitrous oxide administration) to 91% (skin-to
      skin contact). The main reasons for non-compliance were due to circumstances of
      childbirth process (56,3%, CI95%: 51,1-61,5). Attendance at maternal education
      classes was 62%, mainly primiparous women (p=0,0001) with medium or high
      education level (p=0,001). CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women have a high knowledge and
      wish for inclusion of normal childbirth care protocols. Attendance at antepartum
      training activities could by improved and the main reason for non-attendance is
      lack of information. Compliance is good enough in most protocols; when they are
      not applied is due to childbirth circumstances. Remaining tasks include the
      introduction of additional protocols and to involve pregnant women in decision
      making.

PMID- 28866259
TI  - Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Diffusion-weighted Imaging: Evaluation of the
      Differentiation of Solid Hepatic Lesions.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate whether intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM)-related
      parameters could be used to differentiate malignant from benign focal liver
      lesions (FLLs) and to improve diagnostic efficiency. METHODS: Seventy-four
      patients with 75 lesions, including 51 malignant FLLs and 24 benign FLLs,
      underwent liver 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging for routine examination
      sequences. IVIM diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with 11 b values (0-800s/mm2)
      was also acquired concurrently. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADCtotal) and
      IVIM-derived parameters, such as the pure diffusion coefficient (D), the
      pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*), and the perfusion fraction (f), were calculated
      and compared between the two groups. A receiver operating characteristic curve
      analysis was performed to assess their diagnostic value. RESULTS: ADCtotal, D,
      and f were significantly lower in the malignant group than in the benign group,
      whereas D* did not show a statistical difference. D had a larger area under the
      curve value (0.968) and higher sensitivity (92.30%) for differentiation.
      CONCLUSION: IVIM is a useful method to differentiate malignant and benign FLLs.
      The D value showed higher efficacy to detect hepatic solid lesions.

PMID- 28866260
TI  - Spatiotemporal Optoacoustic Mapping of Tumor Hemodynamics in a Clinically
      Relevant Orthotopic Rabbit Model of Head and Neck Cancer.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of photoacoustic
      imaging (PAI) for spatiotemporal mapping of tumor hemodynamics in a rabbit model
      of head and neck carcinoma. Shope cottontail rabbit papilloma virus associated
      VX2 carcinomas were established in adult male New Zealand White rabbits (n = 9)
      by surgical transplantation of tumor tissue in the neck. Noninvasive PAI with co
      registered ultrasound (US) was performed to longitudinally monitor tumor growth,
      oxygen saturation (%sO2), and hemoglobin concentration (HbT). PAI findings were
      validated with Doppler sonography measures of percent vascularity (PV).
      Differences in tumor volumes, %sO2, HbT, and PV values over time were analyzed
      using repeated-measures analysis of variance with multiple comparisons. Two
      tailed Spearman correlation analysis was performed to determine the correlation
      coefficient (r) for comparisons between %sO2, HbT, and tumor volume. US revealed
      a significant (P < .0001) increase in tumor volume over the 3-week period from
      549 +/- 260 mm3 on day 7 to 5055 +/- 438 mm3 at 21 days postimplantation.
      Consistent with this aggressive tumor growth, PAI revealed a significant (P <
      .05) and progressive reduction in %sO2 from day 7 (37.6 +/- 7.4%) to day 21 (9.5
      +/- 2.1%). Corresponding Doppler images also showed a decrease in PV over time.
      PAI revealed considerable intratumoral spatial heterogeneity with the tumor rim
      showing two- to three-fold higher %sO2 values compared to the core. Noninvasive
      PAI based on endogenous contrast provides a label-free method for longitudinal
      monitoring of temporal changes and spatial heterogeneity in thick head and neck
      tumors.

PMID- 28866261
TI  - No Fukushima Dai-ichi derived plutonium signal in marine sediments collected 1.5
      57km from the reactors.
AB  - Based on AMS analysis, it is shown that no Pu signals from the Fukushima accident
      could be discerned in marine sediments collected 1.5-57km away from the Fukushima
      Da-ichi power plant (FDNPP), which were clearly influenced by accident-derived
      radiocesium. The 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios (0.21-0.28) were significantly higher
      than terrestrial global fallout (0.182 +/- 0.005), but still in agreement with
      pre-FDNPP accident baseline data for Pu in near coastal seawaters influenced by
      global fallout and long-range transport of Pu from the Pacific Proving Grounds.

PMID- 28866262
TI  - Groin pain associated with sacroiliac joint dysfunction and lumbar disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated the prevalence of groin pain in patients with
      sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction, lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSS), and
      lumbar disc herniation (LDH) who did not have hip disorders, and evaluated the
      clinical features that distinguished SIJ dysfunction from LSS and LDH. PATIENT
      AND METHODS: We evaluated 127 patients (57 men, 70 women, average age 55 years)
      with SIJ dysfunction, 146 (98 men, 48 women, average age 71 years) with LSS, and
      124 (83 men, 41 women, average age 50 years) with LDH. The following data were
      retrospectively collected from the patients' medical charts: (1) the prevalence
      of groin pain for each pathology; (2) corresponding spinal level of LSS and LDH
      in the patients with groin pain; (3) the pain areas in the buttocks and back;
      pain increase while in positions such as sitting, lying supine, and side-lying;
      an SIJ shear test; and four tender points composed of the posterior superior
      iliac spine (PSIS), long posterior sacroiliac ligament (LPSL), sacrotuberous
      ligament (STL), and iliac muscle. RESULTS: Fifty-nine (46.5%) patients with SIJ
      dysfunction, 10 (6.8%) with LSS, and 10 (8.1%) with LDH reported groin pain. Of
      the 10 patients with LSS, five presented with cauda equina symptoms, two had
      stenosis of L2-L3, and three had stenosis below L3-L4. The other five presented
      with radiculopathy: the corresponding nerve root was L2, L3, and L4 in one
      patient each, and L5 in two. Of the 10 patients with LDH, eight presented with
      radiculopathy: the corresponding nerve root was L2 and L4 in three patients each,
      and L5 in two. Two patients presented with L4-L5 discogenic pain without
      radiculopathy. In patients with groin pain, pain provoked by the SIJ shear test
      and the tenderness of the PSIS and LPSL were significant physical signs that
      differentiated SIJ dysfunction from LSS and LDH. (Fisher's exact test, P<0.05)
      CONCLUSION: The prevalence of groin pain in patients with SIJ dysfunction was
      higher than in those with LSS or LDH. When patients who do not have hip disorders
      complain of groin and lumbogluteal pain, not only lumbar disorders but also SIJ
      dysfunction should be considered.

PMID- 28866263
TI  - Use of multiplex PCR based molecular diagnostics in diagnosis of suspected CNS
      infections in tertiary care setting-A retrospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: CNS infections like meningitis and encephalitis pose enormous
      healthcare challenges due to mortality, sequelae and socioeconomic burden. In
      tertiary setting, clinical, microbiological, cytological and radiological
      investigations are not distinctive enough for diagnosing microbial etiology.
      Molecular diagnostics is filling this gap. We evaluated the clinical impact of a
      commercially available multiplex molecular diagnostic system - SES for diagnosing
      suspected CNS infections. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in our
      tertiary level Neurology ICU. 110 patients admitted during Nov-2010 to April-2014
      were included. CSF samples of patients clinically suspected of having CNS
      infections were subjected to routine investigation in our laboratory and SES test
      at XCyton Diagnostics. We studied the impact of SES in diagnosis of CNS
      infections and its efficacy in helping therapeutic management. RESULTS: SES
      showed detection rate of 42.18% and clinical specificity of 100%. It had 10 times
      higher detection rate than conventional tests. Streptococcus pneumoniae and
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis were two top bacterial pathogens. VZV was most
      detected viral pathogen. SES results elicited changes in therapy in both positive
      and negative cases. We observed superior patient outcomes as measured by GCS
      scale. 75% and 82.14% of the patients positive and negative on SES respectively,
      recovered fully. CONCLUSION: Detecting causative organism and ruling out
      infectious etiology remain the most critical aspect for management and prognosis
      of patients with suspected CNS infections. In this study, we observed higher
      detection rate of pathogens, target specific escalation and evidence based de
      escalation of antimicrobials using SES. Institution of appropriate therapy helped
      reduce unnecessary use of antimicrobials.

PMID- 28866264
TI  - A randomized controlled study of intravenous fluid in acute ischemic stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke who
      received or did not receive intravenous fluid. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study
      was a prospective, multicenter, randomized, open-label trial with blinded outcome
      assessment. We enrolled acute ischemic stroke patients without dehydration aged
      between 18 and 85 years with NIH Stroke Scale score (NIHSS) score from 1 to 18
      who presented within 72h after onset. Patients were randomly assigned to receive
      0.9% NaCl solution 100ml/h for 3days or no intravenous fluid. RESULTS: On the
      interim unblinded analysis of the safety data, significant excess early
      neurological deterioration was observed among patients in the non-intravenous
      fluid group. Therefore, the study was prematurely discontinued after enrollment
      of 120 patients, mean age 60 years, 56.6% male. Early neurological deterioration
      (increased NIHSS >=3 over 72h) not of metabolic or hemorrhagic origin was
      observed in 15% of the non-IV fluid group and 3.3% of the IV fluid group
      (p=0.02). Predictors of neurological deterioration were higher NIHSS score,
      higher plasma glucose, and increased pulse rate. There was no difference in the
      primary efficacy outcome, NIHSS<=4 at day 7, 83.3% vs 86.7%, p=0.61 or secondary
      efficacy outcomes. CONCLUSION: Administration of 0.9% NaCl 100ml/h for 72h in
      patients with acute ischemic stroke is safe and may be associated with a reduced
      risk of neurological deterioration. These study findings support the use of
      intravenous fluid in acute ischemic stroke patients with NIHSS less than 18 who
      have no contraindications.

PMID- 28866265
TI  - Chemical-induced asthma and the role of clinical, toxicological, exposure and
      epidemiological research in regulatory and hazard characterization approaches.
AB  - Uncertainties in understanding all potential modes-of-action for asthma induction
      and elicitation hinders design of hazard characterization and risk assessment
      methods that adequately screen and protect against hazardous chemical exposures.
      To address this challenge and identify current research needs, the University of
      Cincinnati and the American Cleaning Institute hosted a webinar series to discuss
      the current state-of-science regarding chemical-induced asthma. The general
      consensus is that the available database, comprised of data collected from
      routine clinical and validated toxicological tests, is inadequate for predicting
      or determining causal relationships between exposures and asthma induction for
      most allergens. More research is needed to understand the mechanism of asthma
      induction and elicitation in the context of specific chemical exposures and
      exposure patterns, and the impact of population variability and patient
      phenotypes. Validated tools to predict respiratory sensitization and to translate
      irritancy assays to asthma potency are needed, in addition to diagnostic
      biomarkers that assess and differentiate allergy versus irritant-based asthmatic
      responses. Diagnostic methods that encompass the diverse etiologies of asthmatic
      responses and incorporate robust exposure measurements capable of capturing
      different temporal patterns of complex chemical mixtures are needed. In the
      absence of ideal tools, risk assessors apply hazard-based safety assessment
      methods, in conjunction with active risk management, to limit potential asthma
      concerns, proactively identify new concerns, and ensure deployment of approaches
      to mitigate asthma-related risks.

PMID- 28866266
TI  - Subchronic toxicity study of yttrium nitrate by 90-day repeated oral exposure in
      rats.
AB  - Concerns regarding the adverse effects of long-term exposure to low levels of
      rare earth elements (REEs) from foods on human health have arisen in recent
      years. Nevertheless, no official acceptable daily intake (ADI) has yet been
      proposed for either total REEs or individual REE. In accordance with the
      Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) testing guideline,
      the present study was undertaken to evaluate the subchronic toxicity of yttrium,
      a representative heavy REE with higher contaminated level in foods in China, to
      achieve a no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) which is a critical basis for
      the establishment of an ADI. Yttrium nitrate was orally administered to rats at
      doses of 0, 10, 30 and 90 mg/kg/day for 90 days followed by a recovery period of
      4 weeks. The following toxicity indices were measured: mortality, clinical signs,
      daily food consumption and weekly body weight; urinalysis, hematology, blood
      coagulation, clinical biochemistry and histopathology at the end of
      administration and recovery periods. No toxicologically significant changes were
      found in any yttrium-treated group as compared to the concurrent control group.
      Under the present experimental condition, the NOAEL in rats was thus set at 90
      mg/kg for yttrium nitrate, i.e. 29.1 mg/kg for yttrium.

PMID- 28866267
TI  - How well can carcinogenicity be predicted by high throughput "characteristics of
      carcinogens" mechanistic data?
AB  - IARC has begun using ToxCast/Tox21 data in efforts to represent key
      characteristics of carcinogens to organize and weigh mechanistic evidence in
      cancer hazard determinations and this implicit inference approach also is being
      considered by USEPA. To determine how well ToxCast/Tox21 data can explicitly
      predict cancer hazard, this approach was evaluated with statistical analyses and
      machine learning prediction algorithms. Substances USEPA previously classified as
      having cancer hazard potential were designated as positives and substances not
      posing a carcinogenic hazard were designated as negatives. Then ToxCast/Tox21
      data were analyzed both with and without adjusting for the cytotoxicity burst
      effect commonly observed in such assays. Using the same assignments as IARC of
      ToxCast/Tox21 assays to the seven key characteristics of carcinogens, the ability
      to predict cancer hazard for each key characteristic, alone or in combination,
      was found to be no better than chance. Hence, we have little scientific
      confidence in IARC's inference models derived from current ToxCast/Tox21 assays
      for key characteristics to predict cancer. This finding supports the need for a
      more rigorous mode-of-action pathway-based framework to organize, evaluate, and
      integrate mechanistic evidence with animal toxicity, epidemiological
      investigations, and knowledge of exposure and dosimetry to evaluate potential
      carcinogenic hazards and risks to humans.

PMID- 28866268
TI  - Investigating the state of physiologically based kinetic modelling practices and
      challenges associated with gaining regulatory acceptance of model applications.
AB  - Physiologically based kinetic (PBK) models are used widely throughout a number of
      working sectors, including academia and industry, to provide insight into the
      dosimetry related to observed adverse health effects in humans and other species.
      Use of these models has increased over the last several decades, especially in
      conjunction with emerging alternative methods to animal testing, such as in vitro
      studies and data-driven in silico quantitative-structure-activity-relationship
      (QSAR) predictions. Experimental information derived from these new approach
      methods can be used as input for model parameters and allows for increased
      confidence in models for chemicals that did not have in vivo data for model
      calibration. Despite significant advancements in good modelling practice (GMP)
      for model development and evaluation, there remains some reluctance among
      regulatory agencies to use such models during the risk assessment process. Here,
      the results of a survey disseminated to the modelling community are presented in
      order to inform the frequency of use and applications of PBK models in science
      and regulatory submission. Additionally, the survey was designed to identify a
      network of investigators involved in PBK modelling and knowledgeable of GMP so
      that they might be contacted in the future for peer review of PBK models,
      especially in regards to vetting the models to such a degree as to gain a greater
      acceptance for regulatory purposes.

PMID- 28866270
TI  - Small molecule inhibitors of bacterial transcription complex formation.
AB  - Knoevenagel condensation was employed to generate a set of molecules potentially
      capable of inhibiting the RNA polymerase-sigma70/sigmaA interaction in bacteria.
      Synthesis was achieved via reactions between a variety of indole-7-carbaldehydes
      and rhodanine, N-allylrhodanine, barbituric acid or thiobarbituric acid. A
      library of structurally diverse compounds was examined by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess the inhibition of the targeted protein
      protein interaction. Inhibition of bacterial growth was also evaluated using
      Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli cultures. The structure-activity
      relationship studies demonstrated the significance of particular structural
      features of the synthesized molecules for RNA polymerase-sigma70/sigmaA
      interaction inhibition and antibacterial activity. Docking was investigated as an
      in silico method for the further development of the compounds.

PMID- 28866269
TI  - Discovery of a novel, CNS penetrant M4 PAM chemotype based on a 6-fluoro-4
      (piperidin-1-yl)quinoline-3-carbonitrile core.
AB  - This Letter details the discovery and subsequent optimization of a novel M4 PAM
      scaffold based on an 6-fluoro-4-(piperidin-1-yl)quinoline-3-carbonitrile core,
      which represents a distinct departure from the classical M4 PAM chemotypes.
      Optimized compounds in this series demonstrated improved M4 PAM potency on both
      human and rat M4 (4 to 5-fold relative to HTS hit), and displayed attractive
      physicochemical and DMPK profiles, including good CNS penetration (rat
      brain:plasma Kp=5.3, Kp,uu=2.4; MDCK-MDR1 (P-gp) ER=1.1).

PMID- 28866272
TI  - Editorial overview: Cell signaling and gene regulation: nutrient sensing,
      signaling, and transport.

PMID- 28866271
TI  - Novel alpha,beta-unsaturated amide derivatives bearing alpha-amino phosphonate
      moiety as potential antiviral agents.
AB  - Based on flexible construction and broad bioactivity of ferulic acid, a series of
      novel alpha,beta-unsaturated amide derivatives bearing alpha-aminophosphonate
      moiety were designed, synthesized and systematically evaluated for their
      antiviral activity. Bioassay results indicated that some compounds exhibited good
      antiviral activities against cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and tobacco mosaic virus
      (TMV) in vivo. Especially, compound g18 showed excellent curative and protective
      activities against CMV, with half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) values
      of 284.67MUg/mL and 216.30MUg/mL, which were obviously superior to that of
      Ningnanmycin (352.08MUg/mL and 262.53MUg/mL). Preliminary structure-activity
      relationships (SARs) analysis revealed that the introduction of electron
      withdrawing group at the 2-position or 4-position of the aromatic ring is
      favorable for antiviral activity. Present work provides a promising template for
      development of potential inhibitor of plant virus.

PMID- 28866273
TI  - Exploring gene expression changes in the amphioxus gill after poly(I:C) challenge
      using digital expression profiling.
AB  - Amphioxus, a cephalochordate, is a key model animal for studying the evolution of
      vertebrate immunity. Recently, studies have revealed that microRNA (miRNA)
      expression profiles change significantly in the amphioxus gill after immune
      stimulation, but it remains largely unknown how gene expression responds to
      immune stress. Elucidating gene expression changes in the amphioxus gill will
      provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of gill immunity in vertebrates.
      Here, we used high-throughput RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq) to conduct tag
      based digital gene expression profiling (DGE) analyses of the gills of control
      Branchiostoma belcheri and of those exposed to the viral mimic, poly(I:C) (pIC).
      Six libraries were created for the control and treatment groups including three
      biological replicates per group. A total of 1999 differently expressed genes
      (DEGs) were obtained, with 571 and 1428 DEGs showing up- or down-regulation,
      respectively, in the treatment group. Enrichment analysis of gene ontology (GO)
      terms and pathways revealed that the DEGs were primarily related to immune and
      defense response, apoptosis, human disease, cancer, protein metabolism, enzyme
      activity, and regulatory processes. In addition, eight DEGs were randomly
      selected to validate the RNA-seq data using real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR),
      and the results confirmed the accuracy of the RNA-seq approach. Next, we screened
      eight key responding genes to examine the dynamic changes in expression levels at
      different time points in more detail. The results indicated that expressions of
      TRADD, MARCH, RNF31, NF-kappab, CYP450, TNFRSF6B, IFI and LECT1 were induced to
      participate in the antiviral response against pIC. This study provides a valuable
      resource for understanding the role of the amphioxus gill in antiviral immunity
      and the evolution of gill immunity in vertebrates.

PMID- 28866274
TI  - Biological parameters, immune enzymes, and histological alterations in the livers
      of grass carp infected with Aeromonas hydrophila.
AB  - Aeromonas hydrophila is the causative agent of bacterial septicemia that is
      frequently observed in grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idellus. In this study, we
      evaluated the biological parameters and immune enzymes in the liver of grass carp
      following A. hydrophila infection and quantified the alterations in liver
      histology using a semi-quantitative system. For the biological parameters, we
      found that the liver somatic index (LSI) was more sensitive than Fulton's
      condition factor (CF) and was significantly decreased at three days post
      injection (DPI). At the immune enzyme level, the level of peroxidase (POD) in the
      liver significantly increased at 1 and 3 DPI. The activity of alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP) significantly increased at 3 DPI. Similarly, acid phosphatase
      (ACP) activity significantly increased at 1, 3, and 5 DPI. Histologically, the
      results indicated that the liver index at 3, 5, and 7 DPI was significantly
      higher than that of control groups. The regressive alterations as the highly
      variable reactions patterns and its index at 5 DPI was significantly higher than
      that of 1, 21 DPI, and the control groups. Based on our results, we suggest that
      grass carp resist A. hydrophila infection via an innate immune mechanism in the
      liver. The findings of this study will help elucidate the underlying mechanisms
      of resistance to A. hydrophila infection.

PMID- 28866275
TI  - MHC class II alpha, beta and MHC class II-associated invariant chains from
      Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) and their response to immune stimulation.
AB  - The major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II) molecules play a vital
      role in adaptive immune response through presenting antigenic peptides to CD4+ T
      lymphocytes. To accomplish this physiologic function, the MHC class II-associated
      invariant chain interacts with the MHC II alpha/beta subunits and promotes their
      correct assembly and efficient traffic. Here, we isolated the cDNAs of MHC II
      alpha, beta and MHC II-associated invariant chains (designated as CsMHC II alpha,
      CsMHC II beta, and CsMHC II gamma) from Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis).
      The CsMHC II alpha, beta, and gamma mRNAs were widely expressed in Chinese
      sturgeon, and the highest expression was found in spleen for CsMHC II alpha and
      beta chains, while in head kidney for CsMHC II gamma chain. Stimulation to
      Chinese sturgeon with inactivated trivalent bacterial vaccine or polyinosinic
      polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) up-regulated the expressions of CsMHC II alpha,
      and beta mRNAs, and their transcripts were overall more quickly up-regulated by
      poly(I:C) than by bacterial vaccine. Poly(I:C) induced higher CsMHC II gamma
      expression than bacterial vaccine in intestine and spleen, while lower than
      bacterial vaccine in head kidney and liver. When co-expressed in mouse dendritic
      cells, the CsMHC II gamma chain bound to both the MHC II alpha and beta chains.
      Furthermore, the over-expressed CsMHC II gamma chain, not CsMHC II alpha or CsMHC
      II beta chain, activated NF-kappaB and STAT3 in mouse dendritic cells, and
      induced TNF-alpha and IL-6 expressions as well. This activity was nearly
      abolished by mutation of the Ser29/Ser34 to Ala29/Ala34 in CsMHC II gamma. These
      results suggested that CsMHC II alpha, beta, and gamma chains might play
      important role in immune response to pathogen microbial infection of Chinese
      sturgeon possibly via a conserved functional mechanism throughout vertebrate
      evolution, which might contribute to our understanding the immune biology of
      sturgeons.

PMID- 28866276
TI  - Deciphering transcriptome profile of the yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco)
      in response to Edwardsiella ictaluri.
AB  - Edwardsiella ictaluri is one of the most important pathogens posing a serious
      threat for yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco), a highly valuable fish
      species of increasing commercial interest in China. Here, a transcriptomic
      strategy was undertaken to investigate the yellow catfish gene expression profile
      against infection by the bacterial pathogen E. ictaluri. Comparison of the
      transcriptome profiles between the infected and uninfected samples showed that a
      massive gene expression change occurred in yellow catfish following bacterial
      exposure. A total of 5527 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected, of
      which 2265 showed up-regulation and 3262 down-regulation. Gene set enrichment
      analysis revealed the presence of canonical pathways directly linked to innate
      and adaptive immune response, such as pattern recognition receptor (PRR)
      signaling pathways, complement and coagulation cascades, as well as T-cell
      receptor (TCR) and B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling pathways. Additionally, 47,526
      putative EST-liked simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers were retrieved for use
      in genetic studies. This study establishes the first molecular clues to
      understand the potential mechanisms of yellow catfish resistance to E. ictaluri,
      thus enabling future efforts on disease control programs in this valuable
      aquaculture species.

PMID- 28866277
TI  - Evaluation of antibody response to an adjuvanted hapten-protein vaccine as a
      potential inhibitor of sexual maturation for farmed Atlantic salmon.
AB  - An experimental contraceptive vaccine was evaluated in Atlantic salmon (Salmo
      salar). A peptide derived from the beta subunit of luteinizing hormone (LH) was
      conjugated to two different carrier proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and
      keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), and formulated with one of four immunostimulants
      in a water-in-oil emulsion. Specific antibody responses to the peptide and each
      carrier protein were evaluated. While the antibody response to KLH was stronger
      than the response to BSA, both carrier proteins stimulated comparable antibody
      responses to the LH peptide. The immunostimulant proved to be more important for
      enhancing the LH peptide antibody response than the carrier protein selection;
      vaccines containing a combination of Aeromonas salmonicida and Vibrio anguillarum
      stimulated significantly greater LH peptide antibody production than any of the
      other three immunostimulants evaluated at 12 weeks post-vaccination. This study
      provides proof-of-concept for specific antibody production against a hapten
      carrier protein antigen in Atlantic salmon and reinforces the importance of
      vaccine immunostimulant selection.

PMID- 28866278
TI  - Precise immune tolerance for hPSC derivatives in clinical application.
AB  - Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) promise a foreseeing future for regeneration
      medicine and cell replacement therapy with their abilities to produce almost any
      types of somatic cells of the body. The complicated immunogenicity of hPSC
      derivatives and context dependent responses in variable transplantations greatly
      hurdle the practical application of hPSCs in clinic. Especially for applications
      of hPSCs, induction of immune tolerance at the same time increases the risks of
      tumorigenesis. Over the past few years, thanks to the progress in immunology and
      practices in organ transplantation, endeavors on exploring strategies to induce
      long term protection of allogeneic transplants have shed light on overcoming this
      barrier. Novel genetic engineering techniques also allow to precisely cradle the
      immune response of transplantation. Here we reviewed the current understanding on
      immunogenicity, and efforts have been attempted on inducing immune tolerance for
      hPSC derivatives, with extra focus on modifying the graft cells. We also glimpse
      on employing cutting-edge genome editing technologies for this purpose, which
      will potentially endow hPSC derivatives with the nature of wide spectrum drugs
      for therapy.

PMID- 28866279
TI  - Simulation of the behavior of a refuse landfill on a laboratory scale.
AB  - The characteristics and properties of waste in a landfill, and its evolution over
      time, are difficult to estimate because of the heterogeneity of materials,
      biomass degradation, density, cover material, and infiltration of water. In this
      work, a lysimeter was used to simulate how refuse from mechanical-biological
      treatment (MBT) plants evolved in a landfill over a 45-day period. Water was
      added as a way to imitate the effects produced during rainy seasons. Field
      capacity and changes in the physical and chemical properties (volatile solids,
      biomass, and heating value) were analyzed. The results of this research show that
      the percentage of biomass lowers, and the heating value increases, after bringing
      about infiltration and percolation of water in the waste mass. Therefore in order
      to stabilize waste in a landfill, employing irrigation or leachate recirculation
      could be advisable. As the heating value increases after percolation, it could
      also be a good idea to recover the fuel material after stabilization.

PMID- 28866280
TI  - Estrogen alters gonadal soma-derived factor (Gsdf)/Foxl2 expression levels in the
      testes associated with testis-ova differentiation in adult medaka, Oryzias
      latipes.
AB  - Testis-ova differentiation in sexually mature male medaka (Oryzias latipes) is
      easily induced by estrogenic chemicals, indicating that spermatogonia persist in
      sexual bipotentiality, even in mature testes in medaka. By contrast, the effects
      of estrogen on testicular somatic cells associated with testis-ova
      differentiation in medaka remain unclear. In this study, we focused on the
      dynamics of sex-related genes (Gsdf, Dmrt1, and Foxl2) expressed in Sertoli cells
      in the mature testes of adult medaka during estrogen-induced testis-ova
      differentiation. When mature male medaka were exposed to estradiol benzoate (EB;
      800ng/L), testis-ova first appeared after EB treatment for 14days (observed as
      the first oocytes of the leptotene-zygotene stage). However, the testis remained
      structurally unchanged, even after EB treatment for 28days. Although Foxl2 is a
      female-specific sex gene, EB treatment for 7days induced Foxl2/FOXL2 expression
      in all Sertoli cell-enclosed spermatogonia before testis-ova first appeared;
      however, Foxl2 was not detected in somatic cells in control testes. Conversely,
      Sertoli-cell-specific Gsdf mRNA expression levels significantly decreased after
      EB treatment for 14days, and no changes were observed in DMRT1 localization
      following EB treatment, whereas Dmrt1 mRNA levels increased significantly.
      Furthermore, after EB exposure, FOXl2 and DMRT1 were co-localized in Sertoli
      cells during testis-ova differentiation, although FOXL2 localization was
      undetectable in Sertoli-cell-enclosed apoptotic testis-ova, whereas DMRT1
      remained localized in Sertoli cells. These results indicated for the first time
      that based on the expression of female-specific sex genes, feminization of
      Sertoli cells precedes testis-ova differentiation induced by estrogen in mature
      testes in medaka; however, complete feminization of Sertoli cells was not induced
      in this study. Additionally, it is suggested strongly that Foxl2 and Gsdf
      expression constitute potential molecular markers for evaluating the effects of
      estrogenic chemicals on testicular somatic cells associated with estrogen-induced
      testis-ova differentiation in mature male medaka.

PMID- 28866281
TI  - Integrated assessment of toxic effects of maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3) nanoparticles
      in zebrafish.
AB  - The increasing use of nanotechnology in the last decade has raised concerns about
      the impact of nanoparticles in the environment. In particular, the potential
      harmful effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) in aquatic organisms have
      been poorly addressed. We analyze here the toxic effects induced by IONPs in
      zebrafish using a combination of classical (genotoxicity, oxidative stress) and
      molecular (transcriptomic) methodologies. Adult animals were exposed for 96h to
      five sub-lethal IONP concentrations, ranging from 4.7 to 74.4mg/L. Comet and
      micronucleus assays revealed a significant number of DNA lesions induced by IONPs
      at all concentrations tested. Conversely, the thiobarbituric acid reactive
      substances (TBARS) test detected only a mild oxidative damage in liver cells
      (~1.5-fold increase of malondialdehyde concentrations) and only at the two higher
      IONP concentrations tested. Microarray analysis of liver samples identified 953
      transcripts (927 unique genes) differentially expressed between controls and IONP
      exposed samples. Subsequent functional analysis identified genes related to
      cation/metal ion binding, membrane formation, and morphogenesis among the
      transcripts overrepresented upon IONP treatments, whereas mRNAs encompassing
      genes associated with RNA biogenesis, translation, ribosomes, and several
      metabolic processes became underrepresented in treated samples. Taken together,
      these results indicate considerable genotoxic effects of IONPs combined with
      general negative effect on cell growth and on the ability of the cell produce new
      proteins. On the contrary, IONPs showed only a limited capacity to induce
      oxidative stress. To our knowledge, this is the first study on IONPs toxicity
      using such an integrative approach in an aquatic organism.

PMID- 28866282
TI  - Calcium channel blockers and breast cancer incidence: An updated systematic
      review and meta-analysis of the evidence.
AB  - Controversy exists regarding the potential association between taking calcium
      channel blockers (CCBs) and the development of breast cancer. As a positive
      association would have important public health implications due to the widespread
      use of CCBs, this study aimed to incorporate new evidence to determine whether an
      association is likely to exist. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane
      Library to 28 June 2016 for relevant literature. References and citing articles
      were checked and authors contacted as necessary. Two authors independently
      selected articles and extracted data. Twenty-nine studies were reviewed; 26 were
      non-randomised studies (NRS). Meta-analysis of study data where adjustment for
      'confounding by indication' was judged to be present suggests that an
      association, if any, is likely to be modest in magnitude (pooled odds/risk ratio
      1.09 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.15, I2=0%, 8 sub-studies; pooled hazard
      ratio 0.99 (95% CI 0.94-1.03, I2=35%, 9 sub-studies)). There are credible study
      data showing an increased relative risk with long-term use of CCBs, but the
      results of our meta-analysis and of meta-regression of log relative risk against
      minimum follow-up time are mixed. The current summative evidence does not support
      a clear association between taking CCBs and developing breast cancer. However,
      uncertainty remains, especially for long-term use and any association might not
      be uniform between different populations and/or breast cancer sub-types. We thus
      recommend further NRS in settings where CCB use is highly prevalent and
      population-based cancer, prescription and health-registries exist, to resolve
      this continuing uncertainty. PROSPERO, CRD42015026712.

PMID- 28866283
TI  - Traumatic brain injury: Comparison between autopsy and ante-mortem CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare pathological findings after
      traumatic brain injury between autopsy and ante-mortem computed tomography (CT).
      A second aim was to identify changes in these findings between the primary
      posttraumatic CT and the last follow-up CT before death. METHODS: Through the
      collaboration between clinical radiology and forensic medicine, 45 patients with
      traumatic brain injury were investigated. These patients had undergone ante
      mortem CT as well as autopsy. During autopsy, the brain was cut in fronto
      parallel slices directly after removal without additional fixation or subsequent
      histology. Typical findings of traumatic brain injury were compared between
      autopsy and radiology. Additionally, these findings were compared between the
      primary CT and the last follow-up CT before death. RESULTS: The comparison
      between autopsy and radiology revealed a high specificity (>=80%) in most of the
      findings. Sensitivity and positive predictive value were high (>=80%) in almost
      half of the findings. Sixteen patients had undergone craniotomy with subsequent
      follow-up CT. Thirteen conservatively treated patients had undergone a follow-up
      CT. Comparison between the primary CT and the last ante-mortem CT revealed marked
      changes in the presence and absence of findings, especially in patients with
      severe traumatic brain injury requiring decompression craniotomy. CONCLUSION: The
      main pathological findings of traumatic brain injury were comparable between
      clinical ante-mortem CT examinations and autopsy. Comparison between the primary
      CT after trauma and the last ante-mortem CT revealed marked changes in the
      findings, especially in patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Hence,
      clinically routine ante-mortem CT should be included in the process of autopsy
      interpretation.

PMID- 28866284
TI  - Intracardiac electrocardiographic assessment of precordial TASER shocks in human
      subjects: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Case reports of cardiac arrest in temporal proximity to Conducted
      Electrical Weapon(CEW) exposure raise legitimate concerns about this as a rare
      possibility. In this pilot study, we respectfully navigate the oversight and
      regulatory hurdles and demonstrate the intra-shock electrocardiographic effects
      of an intentional transcardiac CEW discharge using subcutaneous probes placed
      directly across the precordium of patients with a previously implanted
      intracardiac EKG sensing lead. METHODS: Adults scheduled to undergo diagnostic EP
      studies or replacement of an implanted cardiac device were enrolled. Sterile
      subcutaneous electrodes were placed at the right sternoclavicular junction and
      the left lower costal margin at the midclavicular line. A standard police issue
      TASER Model X26 CEW was attached to the subcutaneous electrodes and a 5 s
      discharge was delivered. Continuous surface and intracardiac EKG monitoring was
      performed. RESULTS: A total of 157 subjects were reviewed for possible inclusion
      and 21 were interviewed. Among these, 4 subjects agreed and completed the study
      protocol. All subjects tolerated the 5 s CEW discharge without clinical
      complications. There were no significant changes in mean heart rate or blood
      pressure. Interrogation of the devices after CEW discharge revealed no
      ventricular pacing, dysrhythmias, damage or interference with the implanted
      devices. CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, we have successfully navigated the
      regulatory hurdles and demonstrated the feasibility of performing intracardiac
      EKG recording during intentional precordial CEW discharges in humans. While no
      CEW-associated dysrhythmias were noted, the size of this preliminary dataset
      precludes making conclusions about the risk of such events. Larger studies are
      warranted and should consider exploring variations of the CEW electrode position
      in relation to the cardiac silhouette.

PMID- 28866285
TI  - Sex determination from the femur in Portuguese populations with classical and
      machine-learning classifiers.
AB  - The assessment of sex is of paramount importance in the establishment of the
      biological profile of a skeletal individual. Femoral relevance for sex estimation
      is indisputable, particularly when other exceedingly dimorphic skeletal regions
      are missing. As such, this study intended to generate population-specific
      osteometric models for the estimation of sex with the femur and to compare the
      accuracy of the models obtained through classical and machine-learning
      classifiers. A set of 15 standard femoral measurements was acquired in a training
      sample (100 females; 100 males) from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection
      (University of Coimbra, Portugal) and models for sex classification were produced
      with logistic regression (LR), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector
      machines (SVM), and reduce error pruning trees (REPTree). Under cross-validation,
      univariable sectioning points generated with REPTree correctly estimated sex in
      60.0-87.5% of cases (systematic error ranging from 0.0 to 37.0%), while
      multivariable models correctly classified sex in 84.0-92.5% of cases (bias from
      0.0 to 7.0%). All models were assessed in a holdout sample (24 females; 34 males)
      from the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection (University of Coimbra,
      Portugal), with an allocation accuracy ranging from 56.9 to 86.2% (bias from 4.4
      to 67.0%) in the univariable models, and from 84.5 to 89.7% (bias from 3.7 to
      23.3%) in the multivariable models. This study makes available a detailed
      description of sexual dimorphism in femoral linear dimensions in two Portuguese
      identified skeletal samples, emphasizing the relevance of the femur for the
      estimation of sex in skeletal remains in diverse conditions of completeness and
      preservation.

PMID- 28866286
TI  - Infant massage improves attitudes toward childbearing, maternal satisfaction and
      pleasure in parenting.
AB  - The first year of motherhood is a period of growth and adaptation in women's
      lives with several challenges such as identifying the baby's needs and giving
      appropriate answers, so that mother and baby get to know each other and form a
      strong bond. Infant massage is one of the approaches that make an important
      contribution to the psychological and physiological wellbeing of both baby and
      mother, helping to form a harmonious relationship. This longitudinal study
      assessed the benefits of infant massage in the relationship between mother and
      baby, from birth to 12 months old. Comprising 194 dyads of mothers and their
      babies the subjects were divided into two groups of 97 dyads each. The
      Experimental group (EG) comprised mothers who undertook infant massage in a
      postnatal program with a physical therapist once a week. The Control group (CG)
      comprised mothers who did not attend any postnatal program and did not perform
      infant massage. Self-reported measures of attitudes concerning motherhood (CAQ
      P), experience associated to motherhood (WBPB), parental satisfaction (PSS) and
      maternal separation anxiety (MSAS) were evaluated. Results showed that mothers in
      the experimental group were better adapted to motherhood, had greater confidence
      in their abilities and received more support from their mothers and husbands than
      mothers in the control group and were therefore more confident in their
      abilities. The EG group experienced a stronger relationship with their babies and
      described it as more positive than mothers in the control group. This
      longitudinal study suggests that mothers who learned how to perform infant
      massage had more positive attitudes towards the experience of motherhood in
      helping to increase the level of knowledge, regulation and proximity in the dyad.
      These findings can in turn help mothers to develop strategies that enable them to
      better cope with motherhood.

PMID- 28866287
TI  - Dangerous arachnids-Fake news or reality?
AB  - The public perception of spiders and scorpions is skewed towards the potential
      harm they can inflict in humans, despite recent scientific evidence that arachnid
      venom components might be useful as bioinsecticides or even human therapeutics.
      Nevertheless, arachnids are becoming more popular as pets in Europe, America and
      Asia, raising the question for regulatory agencies in these regions as to whether
      they need to take measurements to protect their citizens. In order to decide upon
      the necessary regulatory steps, they first need to determine which arachnids are
      actually dangerous to humans. This review therefore provides an overview of the
      current literature on verified bites and stings from spiders and scorpions with
      the aim of assessing their potential danger for human health. As a guideline, we
      also provide a list of those arachnid genera that we consider as potentially
      dangerous, which includes 10 spider and 11 scorpion genera. The arachnid genera
      classified as dangerous comprise less than a quarter of all extant scorpion
      species and only 0.5% of all spiders species, with the actual number most likely
      being much lower than that, as not all species in those genera might turn out to
      pose an actual threat for humans. In conclusion, we found that only a small
      percentage of scorpions and a minute percentage of all spiders can be considered
      as potentially dangerous to humans. While in some countries of origin the high
      incidence of envenomations by dangerous arachnids can result in a serious problem
      to the health system, we assessed the risk that the same species pose when kept
      as pets under controlled maintenance conditions as significantly lower.

PMID- 28866288
TI  - Confronting reality: A case study of a group of student nurses undertaking a
      management of aggression training (MOAT) program.

PMID- 28866290
TI  - Immunogenicity, safety and reactogenicity of the pneumococcal non-typeable
      Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV) in 2-17-year-old
      children with asplenia or splenic dysfunction: A phase 3 study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immunization with pneumococcal vaccines is an important prophylactic
      strategy for children with asplenia or splenic dysfunction, who are at high risk
      of bacterial infections (including S. pneumoniae). This study aimed to assess
      immunogenicity and safety of pneumococcal non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae
      protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV, GSK) in this at-risk population. METHODS:
      This phase III, multi-centre, open-label, controlled study, in which at-risk
      children with asplenia or splenic dysfunction were enrolled (age strata: 2-4, 5
      10 and 11-17years), was conducted in Poland and the Russian Federation. For the 2
      4years at-risk group, healthy age-matched children were enrolled as control.
      Unprimed children (not previously vaccinated with any pneumococcal vaccine)
      received 2 PHiD-CV doses (>=2months apart) and pneumococcal vaccine-primed
      children received 1 dose. Immune responses were assessed pre-vaccination and one
      month post-each dose. Solicited and unsolicited adverse events (AEs) were
      recorded for 4 and 31days post-vaccination, respectively, and serious AEs (SAEs)
      throughout the study. RESULTS: Of 52 vaccinated children (18 at-risk primed, 28
      at-risk unprimed and 6 control unprimed), 45 (18, 23 and 4, respectively) were
      included in the according-to-protocol cohort for immunogenicity. Post-vaccination
      (post-dose 1 in primed and post-dose 2 in unprimed children), for each vaccine
      pneumococcal serotype and vaccine-related serotype 6A all at-risk children had
      antibody concentrations >=0.2ug/mL, and for vaccine-related serotype 19A at least
      94.4%. Increases in antibody geometric mean concentrations were observed. For
      most serotypes, all at-risk children had post-vaccination opsonophagocytic
      activity (OPA) titers >=8 and increases in OPA geometric mean titers were
      observed. No safety concerns were raised. One non-fatal SAE (respiratory tract
      infection, considered not vaccine-related) was reported by one at-risk unprimed
      child. CONCLUSION: PHiD-CV was immunogenic and well tolerated in 2-17-year-old
      children with asplenia or splenic dysfunction. Clinical Trial Registry:
      www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01746108.

PMID- 28866291
TI  - A single dose and long lasting vaccine against pandemic influenza through the
      controlled release of a heterospecies tandem M2 sequence embedded within
      detoxified bacterial outer membrane vesicles.
AB  - The influenza A virus undergoes genetic drift and shift, leaving the general
      population susceptible to emerging pandemic strains, despite seasonal flu
      vaccination. Here we describe a single dose influenza vaccine derived from
      recombinant outer membrane vesicles (rOMVs) that display an antigen-mapped
      heterospecies tandem sequence of the M2 protein from the influenza A virus,
      released over 30days from poly(lactic-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microparticles. Four
      weeks post vaccination, BALB/c mice developed high anti-M2e IgG titers that were
      equivalent to those generated at 8weeks in a typical prime/boost vaccine regimen.
      Challenge of mice with a lethal dose of mouse adapted influenza virus PR8 (H1N1)
      10weeks post vaccination resulted in 100% survival for both rOMV single-dose
      microparticle and prime/boost vaccinated mice. Anti-M2e IgG1 and IgG2a antibody
      titers were weighted toward IgG1, but splenocytes isolated from rOMV single-dose
      microparticle vaccinated mice produced high levels of IFNgamma relative to IL-4
      in response to stimulation with M2e peptides, supporting a more Th1 biased immune
      response. The protective immune response was long lasting, eliciting sustained
      antibody titers and 100% survival of mice challenged with a lethal dose of PR8
      six months post initial vaccination. Together, these data support the potential
      of controlled release rOMVs as an effective single dose, long lasting and rapidly
      effective vaccine to protect against influenza.

PMID- 28866292
TI  - The road to a more effective influenza vaccine: Up to date studies and future
      prospects.
AB  - Influenza virus causes an acute respiratory infection in humans. Frequent point
      mutations in the influenza genome and occasional exchange of genetic segments
      between virus strains help the virus evade the pre-existing immunity, resulting
      in epidemics and pandemics. Although vaccination is the most effective
      intervention, mismatches between circulating viruses and vaccine strains reduce
      vaccine efficacy. Furthermore, current injectable vaccines induce IgG antibodies
      in serum (which limit progression of influenza symptoms) but not secretory IgA
      antibodies in the respiratory mucosa (which prevent virus infection efficiently).
      Therefore, numerous studies have attempted to improve influenza vaccines. The
      discovery of broadly neutralizing antibodies has progressed research into antigen
      design. Studies designed to improve vaccine efficacy by changing the vaccine
      administration route have also been conducted. A thorough understanding of the
      mechanisms underlying the action of various vaccines is essential if we are to
      develop a universal influenza vaccine. Therefore, evaluating the quality and
      quantity of antibodies induced by vaccines, which determine vaccine efficacy, is
      critical. However, at present vaccine evaluation relies on hemagglutination
      inhibition tests, which only measure the quantity of antibody produced. Antibody
      repertoires comprise a set of antibodies with specific genetic or molecular
      features that correspond to their functions. Genetically and functionally similar
      antibodies may be produced by multiple individuals exposed to an identical
      stimulus. Therefore, it may be possible to evaluate and compare multiple vaccine
      strategies in terms of the quality and quantity of an antibody response induced
      by a vaccine by examining antibody repertoires. Recent studies have used single
      cell expression and high-throughput immunoglobulin sequencing to provide a
      detailed picture of antibody responses. These novel methods may be critical for
      detailed characterization of antibody repertoires induced by various vaccination
      strategies.

PMID- 28866293
TI  - Attenuation of pCREB and Egr1 expression in the insular and anterior cingulate
      cortices associated with enhancement of CFA-evoked mechanical hypersensitivity
      after repeated forced swim stress.
AB  - The perception and response to pain are severely impacted by exposure to
      stressors. In some animal models, stress increases pain sensitivity, which is
      termed stress-induced hyperalgesia (SIH). The insular cortex (IC) and anterior
      cingulate cortex (ACC), which are typically activated by noxious stimuli, affect
      pain perception through the descending pain modulatory system. In the present
      study, we examined the expression of phospho-cAMP response element-binding
      protein (pCREB) and early growth response 1 (Egr1) in the IC and ACC at 3h (the
      acute phase of peripheral tissue inflammation) after complete Freund's adjuvant
      (CFA) injection in naive rats and rats preconditioned with forced swim stress
      (FS) to clarify the effect of FS, a stressor, on cortical cell activities in the
      rats showing SIH induced by FS. The CFA injection into the hindpaw induced
      mechanical hypersensitivity and increased the expression of the pCREB and Egr1 in
      the IC and ACC at 3h after the injection. FS (day 1, 10min; days 2-3, 20min)
      prior to the CFA injection enhanced the CFA-induced mechanical hypersensitivity
      and attenuated the increase in the expression of pCREB and Egr1 in the IC and
      ACC. These findings suggested that FS modulates the CFA injection-induced
      neuroplasticity in the IC and ACC to enhance the mechanical hypersensitivity.
      These findings are thought to signify stressor-induced dysfunction of the
      descending pain modulatory system.

PMID- 28866294
TI  - Impact of adaptation algorithm, timing, and stopping boundaries on the
      performance of Bayesian response adaptive randomization in confirmative trials
      with a binary endpoint.
AB  - Despite the concerns of time trend in subject profiles, the use of Bayesian
      response adaptive randomization (BRAR) in large multicenter phase 3 confirmative
      trials has been reported in recent years, motivated by the potential benefits in
      subject ethics and/or trial efficiency. However three issues remain unclear to
      investigators: 1) among several BRAR algorithms, how to choose one for the
      specific trial setting; 2) when to start and how frequently to update the
      allocation ratio; and 3) how to choose the interim analyses stopping boundaries
      to preserve the type 1 error. In this paper, three commonly used BRAR algorithms
      are evaluated based on type 1 error, power, sample size, the proportion of
      subjects assigned to the better performing arm, and the total number of failures,
      under two specific trial settings and different allocation ratio update timing
      and frequencies. Simulation studies show that for two-arm superiority trials,
      none of the three BRAR algorithms has predominant benefits in both patient ethics
      and trial efficiency when compared to fixed equal allocation design. For a
      specific trial aiming to identify the best or the worst among three treatments, a
      properly selected BRAR algorithm and its implementation parameters are able to
      gain ethical and efficiency benefits simultaneously. Although the simulation
      results come from a specific trial setting, the methods described in this paper
      are generally applicable to other trials.

PMID- 28866295
TI  - The psychometric properties of depression screening tools in primary healthcare
      settings: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Consensus on a tool for depression screening among adults in primary
      healthcare (PHC) settings is lacking. This systematic review aimed to explore the
      psychometric properties of depression screening tools. METHODS: A systematic
      literature search composed of four terms (screening AND psychometric AND
      depression AND primary healthcare) was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and
      MEDLINE, between January 1995 through October 2015. Studies that aimed to
      psychometrically test a depression screening tool among the general adult
      population in a PHC setting were included. Studies exploring the diagnostic
      properties of depression screening tools among specific populations were
      excluded. RESULTS: Sixty publications, evaluating the psychometric properties of
      55 tools or adaptations, were included. Studies were conducted in 24 countries
      and 18 languages on 48234 adults. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was the most
      evaluated tool with 14 studies evaluating its psychometric properties. Fifty-four
      studies reported on at least one measure of receiver operating characteristics.
      Sensitivity and specificity values ranged from 28% to 100% and 43% to 100%,
      respectively. Cronbach alpha values ranged from 0.56 to 0.94. Other forms of
      reliability and validity testing were less consistently and commonly reported.
      LIMITATIONS: The inclusion of studies regardless of methodological quality or
      design may have limited generalizability, but allowed for a comprehensive and
      detailed overview of the current literature. CONCLUSIONS: Depression screening
      tools vary in their psychometric properties. The PHQ-9 was the most extensively
      psychometrically tested tool. This systematic review may aid PHC professionals in
      choosing a depression screening tool for universal use as it provides a
      comprehensive overview of their psychometric properties.

PMID- 28866297
TI  - The impact of personality disorder pathology on the effectiveness of Cognitive
      Therapy and Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Major Depressive Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite extensive research, there is no consensus how Personality
      Disorders (PD) and PD features affect outcome for Major Depressive Disorder
      (MDD). The present study evaluated the effects of PD (features) on treatment
      continuation and effectiveness in Cognitive Therapy (CT) and Interpersonal
      Psychotherapy (IPT) for MDD. METHODS: Depressed outpatients were randomized to CT
      (n=72) and IPT (n=74). Primary outcome was depression severity measured
      repeatedly with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) at baseline, three
      months, at the start of each therapy session, at post-treatment and monthly
      during five months follow-up. RESULTS: Comorbid PD and PD features did not affect
      dropout. Multilevel and Cox regression models indicated no negative effect of PD
      on BDI-II change and remission rates during treatment and follow-up, irrespective
      of the treatment received. For both therapies, higher dependent PD features
      predicted overall lower BDI-II scores during treatment, however this effect did
      not sustain through follow-up. Cluster A PD features moderated treatment outcome
      during treatment and follow-up: individuals with high cluster A PD features had
      greater BDI-II reductions over time in CT as compared to IPT. LIMITATIONS: Not
      all therapists and participants were blind to the assessment of PD (features),
      and assessments were performed by one rater. Further research must investigate
      the state and trait dependent changes of PD and MDD over time. CONCLUSIONS: We
      found no negative impact of PD on the effectiveness and treatment retention of CT
      and IPT for MDD during treatment and follow-up. If replicated, cluster A PD
      features can be used to optimize treatment selection.

PMID- 28866296
TI  - Relation of plasma tryptophan concentrations during pregnancy to maternal sleep
      and mental well-being: The GUSTO cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests a relation between plasma tryptophan concentrations
      and sleep and mental well-being. As no studies have been performed in pregnant
      women, we studied the relation of plasma tryptophan concentrations during
      pregnancy with sleep quality, and mood during and after pregnancy. METHODS:
      Pregnant women (n = 572) from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy
      Outcomes study completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Edinburgh
      Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) at
      26-28 weeks gestation and three months post-delivery. Plasma tryptophan
      concentrations were measured at 26-28 weeks gestation. Poisson regressions
      estimated prevalence ratios (PR) for the association between tryptophan and poor
      sleep quality (PSQI global score > 5), probable antenatal depression (EPDS >= 15)
      and probable anxiety (STAI-state >= 41) were calculated adjusting for covariates.
      RESULTS: Mean plasma tryptophan concentrations was 48.0umol/L (SD: 8.09). Higher
      plasma tryptophan concentrations were associated with a lower prevalence of
      antenatal poor sleep quality adjusting for covariates [PR: 0.88 (95% CI 0.80,
      0.97) per 10umol/L], especially in those participants who also suffered from
      anxiety symptoms [PR: 0.80 (95% CI 0.67, 0.95)]. No associations were observed
      between tryptophan concentrations during pregnancy and postnatal sleep quality or
      mental well-being. LIMITATION: Subjective measures were used to assess sleep and
      mental well-being. CONCLUSIONS: We observed that higher plasma tryptophan
      concentrations were associated with a 12% lower prevalence of poor sleep quality
      during pregnancy, in particular among those with anxiety symptoms. These findings
      suggest the importance of having adequate tryptophan concentrations during
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28866299
TI  - Clinical experience using intranasal ketamine in the longitudinal treatment of
      juvenile bipolar disorder with fear of harm phenotype.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Fear of Harm (FOH) is a pediatric onset phenotype of bipolar disorder
      (BD) characterized by BD plus treatment resistance, separation anxiety,
      aggressive obsessions, parasomnias, and thermal dysregulation. Intranasal
      ketamine (InK) in 12 youths with BD-FOH produced marked improvement during a two
      week trial. Here we report on the open effectiveness and safety of InK in
      maintenance treatment of BD-FOH from the private practice of one author. METHODS:
      As part of a chart review, patients 18 years or older and parents of younger
      children responded to a clinical effectiveness and safety survey. Effectiveness
      was assessed from analysis of responses to 49 questions on symptomatology plus
      qualitative content analyses of written reports and chart review. Adverse events
      (AEs) were analyzed by frequency, duration and severity. Peak InK doses ranged
      from 20 to 360mg per administration. RESULTS: Surveys were completed on 45
      patients treated with InK for 3 months to 6.5 years. Almost all patients were
      "much" to "very much" improved clinically and in ratings of social function and
      academic performance. Significant reductions were reported in all symptom
      categories. There were 13 reports of persistent AEs, none of which resulted in
      discontinuation. Acute emergence reactions were sporadically observed in up to
      75%, but were mild and of brief duration. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective review from
      a single practice without placebo control with potential for response and recall
      bias. CONCLUSIONS: InK every 3-4 days at sub-anesthetic doses appeared to be a
      beneficial and well-tolerated treatment. Use of InK may be considered as a
      tertiary alternative in treatment refractory cases. Randomized control trials are
      warranted.

PMID- 28866298
TI  - Disrupted topology of hippocampal connectivity is associated with short-term
      antidepressant response in major depressive disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Graph theoretical analyses have identified disrupted functional
      topological organization across the brain in patients with major depressive
      disorder (MDD). However, the relationship between brain topology and short-term
      treatment responses in patients with MDD remains unknown. METHODS: Sixty-eight
      patients with MDD and 63 cognitively normal (CN) subjects were recruited at
      baseline and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.
      Graph theory analysis was used to examine group differences in the whole-brain
      functional topological properties. The association between altered brain topology
      and the early antidepressant response was examined. RESULTS: Patients with MDD
      showed lower normalized clustering coefficients, lower small-worldness scalars
      and increased nodal efficiencies in the default mode network and decreased nodal
      efficiencies in basal ganglia and hippocampal networks. In addition, the
      decreased nodal efficiency in left hippocampus was negatively correlated with
      depressive severity at baseline and positively correlated with changes in the
      depressive scores after two weeks of antidepressant treatment. LIMITATIONS: The
      patients in the present study received different medications. CONCLUSION: These
      findings indicated that the altered brain functional topological organization in
      patients with MDD is associated with the treatment response in the early phase of
      medication. Therefore, brain topology assessments might be considered a useful
      and convenient predictor of short-term antidepressant responses.

PMID- 28866300
TI  - Action observation effects reflect the modular organization of the human motor
      system.
AB  - Action observation, similarly to action execution, facilitates the observer's
      motor system and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has been instrumental in
      exploring the nature of these motor activities. However, contradictory findings
      question some of the fundamental assumptions regarding the neural computations
      run by the Action Observation Network (AON). To better understand this issue, we
      delivered TMS over the observers' motor cortex at two timings of two reaching
      grasping actions (precision vs power grip) and we recorded Motor-Evoked
      Potentials (4 hand/arm muscles; MEPs). At the same time, we also recorded whole
      hand TMS Evoked Kinematics (8 hand elevation angles; MEKs) that capture the
      global functional motor output, as opposed to the limited view offered by
      recording few muscles. By repeating the same protocol twice, and a third time
      after continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the motor cortex, we observe
      significant time-dependent grip-specific MEPs and MEKs modulations, that
      disappeared after cTBS. MEKs, differently from MEPs, exhibit a consistent
      significant modulation across pre-cTBS sessions. Beside clear methodological
      implications, the multidimensionality of MEKs opens a window on muscle synergies
      needed to overcome system redundancy. By providing better access to the AON
      computations, our results strengthen the idea that action observation shares key
      organizational similarities with action execution.

PMID- 28866302
TI  - Hemophagocytic syndrome: primary forms and predisposing conditions.
AB  - Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH, also referred to a hemophagocytic
      syndrome) is a life-threatening condition in which uncontrolled activation of
      lymphocytes and macrophages, and thus the secretion of large amounts of
      inflammatory cytokines, leads to a severe hyperinflammatory state. Over the last
      few decades, researchers have characterized primary forms of HLH caused by
      genetic defects that impair lymphocytes' cytotoxic machinery. Other genetic
      causes of HLH not related to impaired cytotoxicity have also recently been
      identified. Furthermore, the so-called 'acquired' forms of HLH are encountered in
      the context of severe infections, autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases,
      malignancy, and metabolic disorders, and may also be associated with primary
      immunodeficiencies. This implies that a variety of disease mechanisms can lead to
      HLH. Today's research seeks to gain a better understanding of the various
      pathogenetic and environmental factors that converge to induce HLH.

PMID- 28866301
TI  - Investigating the origin of nonfluency in aphasia: A path modeling approach to
      neuropsychology.
AB  - A major challenge in understanding the origin of clinical symptoms in
      neuropsychological impairments is capturing the complexity of the underlying
      cognitive structure. This paper presents a practical guide to path modeling, a
      statistical approach that is well-suited for modeling multivariate outcomes with
      a multi-factorial origin. We discuss a step-by-step application of such a model
      to the problem of nonfluency in aphasia. Individuals with aphasia are often
      classified into fluent and nonfluent groups for both clinical and research
      purposes, but despite a large body of research on the topic, the origin of
      nonfluency remains obscure. We propose a model of nonfluency inspired by the
      psycholinguistic approach to sentence production, review several bodies of work
      that have independently suggested a relationship between fluency and various
      elements in this model, and implement it using path modeling on data from 112
      individuals with aphasia from the AphasiaBank. The results show that word
      production, comprehension, and working memory deficits all contribute to
      nonfluency, in addition to syntactic impairment which has a strong and direct
      impact on fluency. More generally, we demonstrate that a path model is an
      excellent tool for exploring complex neuropsychological symptoms such as
      nonfluency.

PMID- 28866303
TI  - Fuzzy inference model evaluating turn for Parkinson's disease patients.
AB  - Parkinson's disease is a chronic illness that affects motor skills. The Unified
      Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale sponsored by the Movement Disorder Society (MDS
      UPDRS) quantifies the current state of the disease based on clinician's
      observations. In this scale, turning is part of the gait assessment, yet specific
      guidelines on which features to observe and rate are still unclear. What is more,
      only visual impairment detection is used as the main subjective rating tool. In
      this respect, four biomechanical features are extracted from sensors worn on the
      lower limbs in this work. Afterwards, a turning assessment score is computed by
      means of a fuzzy inference model constructed based on the examiners knowledge.
      Overall, 46 patients with varying motor impairment severity underwent a full MDS
      UPDRS motor examination and were monitored using a measurement system that
      includes inertial sensors on each ankle. Turning rating scores computed are
      reasonably consistent with examiners opinions. Nevertheless, the model proposed
      herein will always output the same score given the same inputs; whereas the
      subjective nature of examiners observations translates into uncertainty and
      variability in the rating scores. Furthermore, the continuous scale implemented
      in this work prevents the floor/ceiling effect inherent of discrete scales.

PMID- 28866304
TI  - Clinical and biological response to rituximab treatment in 3 patients with
      acquired C1-inhibitor deficiency.

PMID- 28866305
TI  - Parental perception of anxiety in children with eosinophilic esophagitis in a
      tertiary care center.

PMID- 28866306
TI  - Eosinophil-derived neurotoxin as a biomarker for disease severity and relapse in
      recalcitrant atopic dermatitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Eosinophils are encountered in many skin diseases, but the role of
      eosinophils in atopic dermatitis (AD) remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To examine
      the role of serum eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN), eosinophil cationic
      protein (ECP), and total IgE as a biomarker of disease severity and relapse in
      severe recalcitrant AD. METHODS: We enrolled 99 patients with AD: 37 with severe
      recalcitrant AD, 20 with severe AD, and 42 with mild to moderate AD. We examined
      the difference in serum level of total IgE, ECP, and EDN between the groups and
      whether any correlation existed between disease severity and ECP or EDN. Lastly,
      difference in levels of ECP or EDN between those who experienced relapse was
      examined in the severe recalcitrant group. RESULTS: Serum levels of total IgE,
      ECP, and EDN were significantly higher in the severe recalcitrant AD group and
      severe AD group compared with the mild to moderate AD group. No significant
      difference was found in serum levels of total IgE, ECP, and EDN between the
      severe recalcitrant group and severe group. EDN had a significant positive
      correlation with the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis. No significant correlation was
      found between EDN and ECP. In the severe recalcitrant group, 29.7% of patients
      experienced relapse, and EDN was significantly higher in those who experienced
      relapse. The cutoff value of EDN for predicting relapse was 64.5. CONCLUSION: EDN
      correlated with the disease severity of AD. EDN may predict relapse in severe
      recalcitrant AD. The EDN serum level could be considered a candidate molecule as
      a clinical biomarker for evaluating AD disease activity and a predictor of
      relapse.

PMID- 28866307
TI  - Evaluation of periprocedural hypersensitivity reactions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identifying the cause of periprocedural hypersensitivity reactions
      (HSRs) remains challenging because of the multitude of medications involved.
      Antibiotics are the most common cause in the United States, whereas neuromuscular
      blocking agents are most common in Europe. OBJECTIVE: To identify causative
      agents for periprocedural HSRs. METHODS: This study was a 7-year retrospective
      medical record review of patients evaluated between December 2009 and January
      2017 at a drug allergy center in Bronx, New York for periprocedural HSRs, defined
      as occurring soon before, during, or soon after a medical procedure or operation
      with or without general anesthesia. Demographics, description of historical HSRs,
      results of testing to potential causative medications, and tolerance of
      subsequent anesthesia were reviewed. RESULTS: Thirty-four patients completed a
      comprehensive evaluation. Skin testing identified an IgE-mediated cause in 22
      patients (64.7%). The most common causative class of medications was induction
      agents (n = 9 [36%]), with midazolam being the most frequently implicated (n = 6
      [3 positive skin test results, 3 equivocal skin test results]). Cefazolin was the
      most common agent identified (n = 8 [32%]) followed by ondansetron (n = 3 [12%]).
      Sixteen of 22 contacted patients were exposed to subsequent anesthesia, including
      3 patients with negative evaluations. One patient experienced a mild urticarial
      HSR. CONCLUSION: Induction agents were the most common causative agents in our
      patients, which differs from other studies. Given the variability in evaluations
      of periprocedural HSRs across the United States with data published on small
      sample sizes, there is a need to establish national guidelines to standardize
      evaluations and to create a national registry to allow for data sharing.

PMID- 28866308
TI  - Unique heterozygous presentation in an infant with DNA ligase IV syndrome.

PMID- 28866309
TI  - Management around invasive procedures in mastocytosis: An update.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mastocytosis is a chronic hematologic disorder that is characterized
      by the accumulation of aberrant mast cells and typically involves the skin and/or
      bone marrow. Patients with mastocytosis are at increased risk of anaphylaxis.
      Based on theoretical assumptions, medical procedures requiring general anesthesia
      or radiocontrast media are deemed hazardous for patients with mastocytosis. The
      objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the actual
      risk of iatrogenic anaphylaxis and provide recommendations for daily practice.
      DATA SOURCES: Various scientific search engines were used (eg, PubMed and
      Medline). STUDY SELECTIONS: Because of the paucity of high-level studies on this
      topic, all available evidence was considered, including case reports. RESULTS:
      Reliable data on the incidence of iatrogenic anaphylaxis in mastocytosis are
      lacking. However, although the incidence as reported in (retrospective) cohort
      studies is higher than in the general population, it is still lower than commonly
      anticipated, with an incidence of 5.4% in 1 study. Adequate premedication and
      avoidance of certain physical stimuli can further decrease this risk by 10-fold.
      The role of drugs as elicitors of anaphylaxis is perhaps overestimated, and
      physical stimuli are at least as important in inducing release of mast cell
      mediators. CONCLUSION: This article provides practical recommendations for the
      management of invasive procedures in patients with mastocytosis based on current
      knowledge of this topic.

PMID- 28866310
TI  - Identification and validation of asthma phenotypes in Chinese population using
      cluster analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asthma is a heterogeneous airway disease, so it is crucial to clearly
      identify clinical phenotypes to achieve better asthma management. OBJECTIVE: To
      identify and prospectively validate asthma clusters in a Chinese population.
      METHODS: Two hundred eighty-four patients were consecutively recruited and 18
      sociodemographic and clinical variables were collected. Hierarchical cluster
      analysis was performed by the Ward method followed by k-means cluster analysis.
      Then, a prospective 12-month cohort study was used to validate the identified
      clusters. RESULTS: Five clusters were successfully identified. Clusters 1 (n =
      71) and 3 (n = 81) were mild asthma phenotypes with slight airway obstruction and
      low exacerbation risk, but with a sex differential. Cluster 2 (n = 65) described
      an "allergic" phenotype, cluster 4 (n = 33) featured a "fixed airflow limitation"
      phenotype with smoking, and cluster 5 (n = 34) was a "low socioeconomic status"
      phenotype. Patients in clusters 2, 4, and 5 had distinctly lower socioeconomic
      status and more psychological symptoms. Cluster 2 had a significantly increased
      risk of exacerbations (risk ratio [RR] 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03
      1.25), unplanned visits for asthma (RR 1.98, 95% CI 1.07-3.66), and emergency
      visits for asthma (RR 7.17, 95% CI 1.26-40.80). Cluster 4 had an increased risk
      of unplanned visits (RR 2.22, 95% CI 1.02-4.81), and cluster 5 had increased
      emergency visits (RR 12.72, 95% CI 1.95-69.78). Kaplan-Meier analysis confirmed
      that cluster grouping was predictive of time to the first asthma exacerbation,
      unplanned visit, emergency visit, and hospital admission (P < .0001 for all
      comparisons). CONCLUSION: We identified 3 clinical clusters as "allergic asthma,"
      "fixed airflow limitation," and "low socioeconomic status" phenotypes that are at
      high risk of severe asthma exacerbations and that have management implications
      for clinical practice in developing countries.

PMID- 28866311
TI  - Filaggrin mutations and Molluscum contagiosum skin infection in patients with
      atopic dermatitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although mutations in the filaggrin (FLG) gene have been reported to
      predispose patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) skin infection susceptibility, to
      date, the data reported in the literature are still controversial. OBJECTIVE: To
      evaluate the role of FLG polymorphisms expression and risk of developing a
      concomitant Molluscum contagiosum sustained skin infection in the pediatric
      population with AD. METHODS: A total of 100 children with AD and 97 healthy
      children were enrolled. AD was diagnosed and assessed according to the validated
      European Task Force on Atopic Dermatitis. DNA samples of patients were analyzed
      for allelic variants in the promoter and coding exon of FLG. Genotyping was
      performed with polymerase chain reaction amplification and direct sequencing.
      RESULTS: Sixteen FLG variants have been detected in 29% of patients with AD: 2
      synonymous (rs79808464 and rs116222149), 12 missense (rs11584340, rs113136594,
      rs145828067, rs374910442, rs747005144, rs145627745, rs144209313, rs74129443,
      rs192455877, rs150957860, rs138055273, rs147472105), 1 stop gained (rs183942200),
      and 1 frameshift (rs 558269137). In contrast, only 13% of the control group
      reported FLG mutations (22 heterozygous variants). In addition, the age at
      disease onset correlated significantly with FLG variants (P < .001). In addition,
      the AD with FLG gene variants (rs145627745, rs79808464, rs150957860, rs145828067,
      rs747005144, rs374910442, rs138055273, rs183942200, rs11584340, and rs113136594)
      reported moderate to severe Scoring Atopic Dermatitis scores. Finally, the AD
      group and the AD plus M contagiosum skin infection group had a significant
      association with FLG mutations when compared with the control group (P < .01).
      CONCLUSION: FLG mutations are associated with early onset of AD, more severe
      clinical course of disease, and a significantly increased risk of M contagiosum
      sustained skin infection.

PMID- 28866312
TI  - Orthotopic liver transplantation provides a survival advantage compared with
      resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and preserved liver function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prior studies comparing the efficacy of orthotopic liver
      transplantation to resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma have not
      controlled for underlying severity of liver disease. METHODS: Patients with stage
      I to III hepatocellular carcinoma and preserved liver function (model for end
      stage liver disease <12) who underwent resection or orthotopic liver
      transplantation between 2010 and 2013 were identified from the National Cancer
      Database. Short-term (30- and 90-day) and overall survival were assessed from 1:1
      propensity score-matched cohorts based on patient and tumor characteristics.
      RESULTS: During the period studied, 689 (28%) underwent orthotopic liver
      transplantation, and 1,774 (72%) patients underwent resection. Propensity score
      matching yielded 374 undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation matched to 374
      patients undergoing resection. Rates of 30-day mortality (01.9% vs 0.8%,
      respectively; P = .34) and 90-day mortality (3.5% vs 2.1%, P = .38) were not
      different between matched cohorts. Orthotopic liver transplantation did, however,
      result in a greater overall survival compared with resection (median overall
      survival not reached versus 4.5 years; P = .01). On multivariable Cox regression,
      resection was associated with a 67% greater likelihood of overall mortality
      compared with orthotopic liver transplantation (hazard ratio 1.67; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.15-2.43). CONCLUSION: For patients diagnosed with hepatocellular
      carcinoma in the context of preserved liver function, orthotopic liver
      transplantation was associated with a significant improvement in overall survival
      relative to resection.

PMID- 28866313
TI  - Impact of super obesity on perioperative outcomes after hepatectomy: The weight
      of the risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated perioperative outcomes in super obese patients (body
      mass index >50 kg/m2) undergoing liver resection using the American College of
      Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. METHODS: Patients
      undergoing hepatectomy recorded in the American College of Surgeons National
      Surgical Quality Improvement Program dataset from 2005 to 2015 were analyzed. Out
      of 21,228 hepatectomies in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
      dataset, 146 were performed on super obese patients. RESULTS: Seventy-two percent
      of the super obese patients were female with a median age of 50.6 years, and 10%
      were classified as American College of Surgeons Class >=III. In this group, 69.2%
      were hypertensive, 38.4% were diabetics, and 17.8% had dyspnea. The median
      operation time was 248 minutes in the super obese group, greater than any other
      body mass index class. Twenty-two percent of these patients required
      perioperative transfusion, although 74% underwent partial hepatectomies. Body
      mass index >50 kg/m2 significantly increased morbidity in patients undergoing
      hepatectomies, almost 2-fold. Infectious complications increased by 86%, and the
      risk of developing critical care complications increased by 63%. CONCLUSION: Our
      data show that super obesity (body mass index >50 kg/m2) is the strongest
      independent predictor of perioperative morbidity. These patients also are at much
      greater risk of infectious complications and critical care complications. Future
      studies should be conducted using weight loss strategies in extreme obese
      patients to reduce their risk of life-threatening complications after
      hepatectomy.

PMID- 28866314
TI  - Preoperative risk factors for conversion and learning curve of minimally invasive
      distal pancreatectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy is considered a standard
      approach, 10% to 40% of these are converted. The preoperative risk factors for
      conversion are not well described. The aim of this study was to identify risk
      factors associated with conversion. METHODS: Clinicopathological variables of 211
      consecutive patients who underwent laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy between
      January 2007 and December 2015 at Johns Hopkins were analyzed to identify factors
      associated with conversion. Furthermore, the learning curve for laparoscopic
      distal pancreatectomy was studied. RESULTS: On univariate analysis of diabetes
      mellitus, preoperative diagnosis of malignant disease, multiorgan resection,
      surgeons' years and case experience were significantly associated with conversion
      (all P < .05). Risk factors independently associated with conversion included
      diagnosis of malignant disease (odds ratio = 5.40; 95% confidence interval, 1.93
      15.12, P = .001), multiorgan resection (odds ratio = 7.10; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.60-31.53, P = .01), and surgeons' case experience (odds ratio = 0.32;
      95% confidence interval, 0.12-0.85, P = .023). Intraoperative reasons for
      conversion included presence of excessive intraabdominal and retroperitoneal fat
      (N = 10, 32.3%), adhesions (N = 10, 32.3%), extent of tumor invasion (N = 8,
      25.8%), anatomy of vessels (N = 6, 19.4%), and intraoperative bleeding (N = 2,
      6.5%). CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy with a
      preoperative diagnosis of malignant disease or possible multiorgan resection are
      at a higher risk of conversion. Surgeon experience of performing >15 procedures
      significantly reduces the risk of conversion.

PMID- 28866315
TI  - Nursing home staff perspectives on adoption of an innovation in goals of care
      communication.
AB  - Nursing homes (NH) are important settings for end-of-life care, but limited
      implementation may impede goals of care discussions. The purpose of this study
      was to understand NH staff perceptions of adoption and sustainability of the
      Goals of Care video decision aid for families of residents with advanced
      dementia. Study design was a cross-sectional survey of staff at 11 NHs in North
      Carolina who participated in the Goals of Care (GOC) cluster randomized clinical
      trial. Staff perceived the GOC decision aid intervention as a positive
      innovation; it was perceived as more compatible with current practices by male
      staff, nurses, and more experienced NH staff. Perceptions were correlated with
      experience, implying that experience with an innovative approach may help to
      promote improved GOC communication in nursing homes. Nurses and social work staff
      could be effective champions for implementing a communication technique, like the
      GOC intervention.

PMID- 28866316
TI  - The impact of mobility limitations on health outcomes among older adults.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to stratify an older adult population for
      subsequent interventions based on functional ability, and to estimate prevalence,
      characteristics and impact of mobility limitations on health outcomes. In 2016,
      surveys were sent to a stratified random sample of AARP(r) Medicare Supplement
      insureds; mobility limitations were defined using two screening questions.
      Responses were stratified to three mobility limitation levels. Multivariate
      regression models determined characteristics and impact on health outcomes. Among
      weighted survey respondents (N = 15,989), severe, moderate and no limitation
      levels were 21.4%, 18.4% and 60.3%, respectively. The strongest predictors of
      increased limitations included pain and poor health. Individuals with more severe
      limitations had increased falls, decreased preventive services compliance and
      increased healthcare utilization and expenditures. Utilizing two screening
      questions stratified this population to three meaningful mobility limitation
      levels. Higher levels of mobility limitations were strongly associated with
      negative health outcomes. Mobility-enhancing interventions could promote
      successful aging.

PMID- 28866317
TI  - Resilience and psychopathology among victimized youth in residential care.
AB  - This study examines the role of several resilience resources in the relationship
      between lifetime victimization and mental health problems among adolescents in
      care. The sample comprised 127 adolescents (53.% females, aged 12-17 years) from
      residential care facilities in Catalonia, Spain. The Juvenile Victimization
      Questionnaire, the Youth Self-Report, and the Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire
      were used to assess victimization, psychological symptoms, and resilience
      respectively. Results indicated that poly-victimization was associated with fewer
      resources, and with an increased risk of mental health problems. Self-resources
      mediated the relationship between victimization and internalizing and
      externalizing symptoms; community support mediated the relationship between
      victimization and internalizing symptoms. Self, school and peer support moderated
      the relationship between victimization and externalizing symptoms. Adolescents
      with fewer self-resources and less school support reported more externalizing
      symptoms, as did those with more peer support. However, poly-victimized youths
      reported symptoms within the clinical range, regardless of their level of
      resources. The findings stress the importance of preventing poly-victimization
      and of empowering poly-victimized adolescents, who appear to present low levels
      of resources. Researchers and clinicians should continue to study the poly
      victimization/psychopathology relationship, and also design interventions and
      prevention programs which incorporate the most relevant resilience resources.

PMID- 28866318
TI  - High vagally mediated resting-state heart rate variability is associated with
      superior action cascading.
AB  - The neurovisceral integration model suggests that individual differences in heart
      rate variability (HRV), an index of vagal tone, may relate to prefrontal cortical
      activity and predict performance on cognitive control tasks. The aim of this
      study was to further verify this model by investigating the relationship between
      vagally-mediated resting-state HRV and action cascading, a crucial cognitive
      control function which refers to the ability to cope with multiple response
      options when confronted with various task goals. Resting-state HRV and
      performance on the stop-change paradigm, which provides a relatively well
      established diagnostic measure of action cascading and response inhibition, was
      assessed in 88 healthy volunteers (age range 18-33). Compared to individuals with
      low resting-state HRV, participants with high resting-state HRV showed enhanced
      action cascading performance, both when a disruption (stopping) and change
      towards an alternative response were required simultaneously, and when
      requirements were cascaded (i.e. when the stopping process had already finished
      at the time the change was required). Our findings represent an important step
      towards extending our understanding of the neurovisceral integration model in
      cognitive control.

PMID- 28866319
TI  - The effect of blast overpressure on the mechanical properties of a chinchilla
      tympanic membrane.
AB  - The rupture of tympanic membrane (TM) has long been viewed as an indicator of
      blast injury, especially for hearing loss. However, little is known about damage
      to the TM caused by blast with pressure lower than the rupture threshold. In this
      paper, we present our study on the effect of blast overpressure on the static
      mechanical properties of TM. Chinchilla was used as the animal model and exposed
      to multiple blasts with pressures lower than the rupture threshold of the TM.
      Using a micro-fringe projection method, we observed the alteration of the static
      mechanical properties of post-blast chinchilla's TMs as compared to those of
      control TMs. Specifically, after exposing to multiple blasts, the Young's modulus
      of chinchilla TM decreased by ~53% while the ultimate failure pressure decreased
      by ~33%. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images show the damage formation in
      the post-blast TM as compared with its control counterpart.

PMID- 28866320
TI  - Differences in perioperative femoral and radial arterial blood pressure in
      neonates and infants undergoing cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several reports claim that blood pressure (BP) in the radial artery
      may underestimate the accurate BP in critically ill patients. Here, the authors
      evaluated differences in mean blood pressure (MBP) between the radial and femoral
      artery during pediatric cardiac surgery to determine the effectiveness of femoral
      arterial BP monitoring. METHOD: The medical records of children under 1 year of
      age who underwent open-heart surgery between 2007 and 2013 were retrospectively
      reviewed. Radial and femoral BP were measured simultaneously, and the differences
      between these values were analyzed at various times: after catheter insertion,
      after the initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB-on), after aortic cross
      clamping (ACC), after the release of ACC, after weaning from CPB, at arrival in
      the intensive care unit (ICU), and every 6h during the first day in the ICU.
      RESULTS: A total of 121 patients who underwent open-heart surgery met the
      inclusion criteria. During the intraoperative period, from the beginning to the
      end of CPB, radial MBPs were significantly lower than femoral MBPs at each time
      point measured (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that longer CPB time
      (>60min, odds ratio: 7.47) was a risk factor for lower radial pressure. However,
      discrepancies between these two values disappeared after arrival in the ICU.
      There was no incidence of ischemic complications associated with the
      catheterization of both arteries. CONCLUSION: The authors suggest that femoral
      arterial pressure monitoring can be safely performed, even in neonates, and
      provides more accurate BP values during CPB-on periods, and immediately after
      weaning from CPB, especially when CPB time was greater than 60min.

PMID- 28866321
TI  - Cerebrospinal fluid lactate: a differential biomarker for bacterial and viral
      meningitis in children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate as a
      biomarker to differentiate bacterial meningitis from viral meningitis in
      children, and to define an optimal CSF lactate concentration that can be called
      significant for the differentiation. METHODS: Children with clinical findings
      compatible with meningitis were studied. CSF lactate and other conventional CSF
      parameters were recorded. RESULTS: At a cut-off value of 3mmol/L, CSF lactate had
      a sensitivity of 0.90, specificity of 1.0, positive predictive value of 1.0, and
      negative predictive value of 0.963, with an accuracy of 0.972. The positive and
      negative likelihood ratios were 23.6 and 0.1, respectively. When comparing
      between bacterial and viral meningitis, the area under the curve for CSF lactate
      was 0.979. CONCLUSIONS: The authors concluded that CSF lactate has high
      sensitivity and specificity in differentiating bacterial from viral meningitis.
      While at a cut-off value of 3mmol/L, CSF lactate has high diagnostic accuracy for
      bacterial meningitis, mean levels in viral meningitis remain essentially below
      2mmol/L.

PMID- 28866322
TI  - Advanced bone age as an indicator facilitates the diagnosis of precocious
      puberty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Diagnosis of central precocious puberty has always been challenging in
      clinical practice. As an important method in the diagnosis of central precocious
      puberty, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone stimulation test is complex and
      time-consuming. In many cases, clinical traits are inconsistent with luteinizing
      hormone-releasing hormone stimulation test results, therefore not reliable for
      diagnosis. In this study, the authors intended to find an indicator that predicts
      the results of the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone stimulation test among
      subjects with early pubertal signs. METHODS: Cases of 382 girls with early breast
      development before 8 years old and luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone
      stimulation test before 9 years old were included and underwent follow-up tests.
      Patients with peak luteinizing hormone level >=5IU/L were considered positive in
      the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone stimulation test. Anthropometric data,
      body mass index, bone age evaluation, blood hormones levels of luteinizing
      hormone, estradiol, follicle-stimulating hormone, and uterine and ovarian volumes
      were analyzed. RESULTS: Subjects with positive results in the initial test
      demonstrated early bone maturation, accelerated growth, and elevated basal blood
      luteinizing hormone, estradiol, and follicle-stimulating hormone levels, when
      compared with subjects with negative results in the initial test. Subjects with
      positive results in the follow-up test presented a more advanced bone age and
      more accelerated linear growth, when compared with subjects with negative results
      in the follow-up test. CONCLUSIONS: According to the statistical analysis,
      advanced bone age is the most effective predictor of the result of luteinizing
      hormone-releasing hormone stimulation test.

PMID- 28866323
TI  - Risk factors for central venous catheter-related infections in a neonatal
      population - systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This was a systematic review of the incidence density and risk factors
      for central venous catheter-related infections in a neonatal population. DATA
      SOURCE: The MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, BDENF, SciELO, and LILACS databases were
      used without date or language restriction. Studies that analyzed risk factors for
      bloodstream infections in newborns were identified. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of
      134 articles were found that met the eligibility criteria. Of these articles, 14
      were selected that addressed risk factors for central venous catheter-related
      infection in neonates. Catheter-related bloodstream infections remain an
      important complication, as shown by the incidence rates reported in the studies
      included in this review. The observed risk factors indicate that low birth
      weight, prematurity, and longer catheter permanence are related to a higher
      incidence of bloodstream infections. It has been observed that low rates of
      catheter-related infections, i.e., close to zero, are already a reality in health
      institutions in developed countries, since they use infection surveillance and
      control programs. CONCLUSION: Catheter-related bloodstream infections still show
      high incidence density rates in developing countries. The authors emphasize the
      need for further longitudinal studies and the need for better strategies to
      prevent risk factors, aiming at the reduction of catheter-related infections.

PMID- 28866324
TI  - Effects of in vivo deletion of GATA2 in bone marrow stromal cells.
AB  - The bone marrow (BM) microenvironment comprises multiple stem cell niches derived
      from BM mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Previous in vitro analyses have suggested
      that transcription factor GATA2 plays an important role in adipocyte
      differentiation of BM-MSCs and in hematopoietic support, but the role of GATA2 in
      vivo remains unknown. We evaluated GATA2 effects in BM-MSCs in vivo. Expression
      profiling analysis of Gata2-knockout Ter119-CD45- mesenchymal stromal cells
      obtained from compact bone from tamoxifen-treated Gata2 conditional knockout mice
      (Gata2f/f/ER-Cre mice) revealed upregulation of 110 genes and downregulation of
      141 genes by a factor of 2. Moreover, gene ontology analysis revealed significant
      enrichment of genes involved in cell adhesion and chemotaxis. We did not find any
      phenotypic changes when Gata2 was deleted with BM-MSC-related gene promoters,
      such as Nestin, Prx1, and Lepr, except for a significant decrease in the colony
      number of Gata2f/f/Prx1-Cre mice. There was a significant decrease in the
      percentage of the common myeloid progenitor fraction when Gata2 was deleted in
      all BM cells, except hematopoietic cells after normal BM cells were transplanted
      into irradiated Gata2f/f/ER-Cre mice with Gata2 subsequently knocked out by
      tamoxifen administration. In conclusion, GATA2 could affect the function of BM
      MSCs in vivo, presumably by regulating the expression of extracellular signals.

PMID- 28866325
TI  - Phosphoinositide 3-kinase participates in l-methionine sulfoximine-induced cell
      death via salicylic acid mediated signaling in Nicotiana benthamiana.
AB  - Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci causes wildfire disease by the action of
      tabtoxinine-beta-lactam (TbetaL), a non-specific bacterial toxin. To better
      understand the molecular mechanisms of wildfire disease and its development, we
      focused on the phosphoinositide 3-kinase in Nicotiana benthamiana (NbPI3K) and
      its potential role in the disease outbreak, using l-methionine sulfoximine (MSX)
      as an easily accessible mimic of the TbetaL action. The NbPI3K-silenced plants
      showed accelerated induction of cell death and necrotic lesion formation by MSX,
      and the expression of hin1, marker gene for the programmed cell death, was
      strongly induced in the plants. However, the accumulation of ammonium ions,
      caused by MSX inhibition of glutamine sythetase activity, was not affected by the
      NbPI3K-silencing. Interestingly, the expression of PR-1a, a marker gene for
      salicylic acid (SA) innate immunity signaling, and accumulation of SA were both
      enhanced in the NbPI3K-silenced plants. Accordingly, the acceleration of MSX
      induced cell death by NbPI3K-silencing was reduced in NahG plants, and by double
      silencing of NbPI3K together with the NbICS1 encoding a SA-biosynthetic enzyme.
      As silencing of NbPI3K accelerated the TbetaL-induced necrotic lesions, and
      lesions of wildfire disease caused by P. syringae pv. tabaci, these results
      suggest that the NbPI3K-related pathway might act as a negative regulator of cell
      death during development of wildfire disease that involves SA-dependent signaling
      pathway downstream of TbetaL action in N. benthamiana.

PMID- 28866326
TI  - Progesterone improves neurocognitive outcomes following therapeutic cranial
      irradiation in mice.
AB  - Despite improved therapeutic methods, CNS toxicity resulting from cancer
      treatment remains a major cause of post-treatment morbidity. More than half of
      adult patients with cranial irradiation for brain cancer develop
      neurobehavioral/cognitive deficits that severely impact quality of life. We
      examined the neuroprotective effects of the neurosteroid progesterone (PROG)
      against ionizing radiation (IR)-induced neurobehavioral/cognitive deficits in
      mice. Male C57/BL mice were exposed to one of two fractionated dose regimens of
      IR (3Gy*3 or 3Gy*5). PROG (16mg/kg; 0.16mg/g) was given as a pre-, concurrent or
      post-IR treatment for 14days. Mice were tested for short- and long-term effects
      of IR and PROG on neurobehavioral/cognitive function on days 10 and 30 after IR
      treatment. We evaluated both hippocampus-dependent and -independent memory
      functions. Locomotor activity, elevated plus maze, novel object recognition and
      Morris water maze tests revealed behavioral deficits following IR. PROG treatment
      produced improvement in behavioral performance at both time points in the mice
      given IR. Western blot analysis of hippocampal and cortical tissue showed that IR
      at both doses induced astrocytic activation (glial fibrillary acidic protein),
      reactive macrophages/microglia (CD68) and apoptosis (cleaved caspase-3) and PROG
      treatment inhibited these markers of brain injury. There was no significant
      difference in the degree of deficit in any test between the two dose regimens of
      IR at either time point. These findings could be important in the context of
      patients with brain tumors who may undergo radiotherapy and eventually develop
      cognitive deficits.

PMID- 28866327
TI  - Beyond quality control: The role of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) in
      regulating gene expression.
AB  - Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) has traditionally been described as a quality
      control system that rids cells of aberrant mRNAs with crippled protein coding
      potential. However, transcriptome-wide profiling of NMD deficient cells
      identified a plethora of seemingly intact mRNAs coding for functional proteins as
      NMD targets. This led to the view that NMD constitutes an additional post
      transcriptional layer of gene expression control involved in the regulation of
      many different biological pathways. Here, we review our current knowledge about
      the role of NMD in embryonic development and tissue-specific cell
      differentiation. We further summarize how NMD contributes to balancing of the
      integrated stress response and to cellular homeostasis of splicing regulators and
      NMD factors through auto-regulatory feedback loops. In addition, we discuss
      recent evidence that suggests a role for NMD as an innate immune response against
      several viruses. Altogether, NMD appears to play an important role in a broad
      spectrum of biological pathways, many of which still remain to be discovered.

PMID- 28866328
TI  - Splicing dysfunction and disease: The case of granulopoiesis.
AB  - Splicing is a ubiquitous process in eukaryotic cells, long recognised as
      contributing to diversity of the transcriptome. More specifically, splicing fine
      tunes the transcriptome output for highly individual outcomes at different stages
      of cell development, in specific timeframes, which when perturbed result in
      significant human diseases. Granulopoiesis provides a particularly well studied
      example of how splicing can be a highly flexible but tightly regulated process.
      Focusing on the specific case of granulopoiesis, this review surveys the
      contribution of cis-splicing variations in individual genes and the trans
      regulation of global splicing outcomes during the normal development of
      neutrophils. Further, the contribution of splicing dysfunction to the
      pathogenesis of diseases of neutrophil number, function and maturation including
      hereditary neutropenia, myelodysplasia, and acute myeloid leukaemia is explored.

PMID- 28866329
TI  - Nuclear export of RNA: Different sizes, shapes and functions.
AB  - Export of protein-coding and non-coding RNA molecules from the nucleus to the
      cytoplasm is critical for gene expression. This necessitates the continuous
      transport of RNA species of different size, shape and function through nuclear
      pore complexes via export receptors and adaptor proteins. Here, we provide an
      overview of the major RNA export pathways in humans, highlighting the
      similarities and differences between each. Its importance is underscored by the
      growing appreciation that deregulation of RNA export pathways is associated with
      human diseases like cancer.

PMID- 28866330
TI  - Aggression and violence in psychiatric hospitals with and without open door
      policies: A 15-year naturalistic observational study.
AB  - Aggressive behavior and violence in psychiatric patients have often been quoted
      to justify more restrictive settings in psychiatric facilities. However, the
      effects of open vs. locked door policies on aggressive incidents remain unclear.
      This study had a naturalistic observational design and analyzed the occurrence of
      aggressive behavior as well as the use of seclusion or restraint in 21 German
      hospitals. The analysis included data from 1998 to 2012 and contained a total of
      n = 314,330 cases, either treated in one of 17 hospitals with (n = 68,135) or in
      one of 4 hospitals without an open door policy (n = 246,195). We also analyzed
      the data according to participants' stay on open, partially open, or locked
      wards. To compare hospital and ward types, we used generalized linear mixed
      effects models on a propensity score matched subset (n = 126,268) and on the
      total dataset. The effect of open vs. locked door policy was non-significant in
      all analyses of aggressive behavior during treatment. Restraint or seclusion
      during treatment was less likely in hospitals with an open door policy. On open
      wards, any aggressive behavior and restraint or seclusion were less likely,
      whereas bodily harm was more likely than on closed wards. Hospitals with open
      door policies did not differ from hospitals with locked wards regarding different
      forms of aggression. Other restrictive interventions used to control aggression
      were significantly reduced in open settings. Open wards seem to have a positive
      effect on reducing aggression. Future research should focus on mental health care
      policies targeted at empowering treatment approaches, respecting the patient's
      autonomy and promoting reductions of institutional coercion.

PMID- 28866331
TI  - Microcystin-LR exposure induces oxidative damage in Caenorhabditis elegans:
      Protective effect of lutein extracted from marigold flowers.
AB  - Microcystin-LR (MIC-LR) is a hepatotoxin, with toxicity mechanisms linked to
      oxidative stress. Besides, neurotoxic effects of MIC-LR have recently been
      described. Herein, we evaluated the effects of environmentally important
      concentrations of MIC-LR (1, 10, 100, 250, and 500 MUg/L) on oxidative stress
      markers and the survival rate of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C.
      elegans). In addition, a possible protective effect of the carotenoid lutein
      (LUT) extracted from marigold flowers against MIC-LR toxicity was investigated.
      Higher concentrations (250 and 500 MUg/L) of MIC-LR induced the generation of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and resulted in a survival loss in C elegans.
      Meanwhile, all MIC-LR concentrations caused an increase in the superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) expression, while catalase (CAT) expression was only affected at
      500 MUg/L. The carotenoid LUT prevented the ROS generation, impairment in the CAT
      expression, and the survival loss induced by MIC-LR in C. elegans. Our results
      confirm the toxicity of MIC-LR even in a liver-lacking invertebrate and the
      involvement of oxidative events in this response. Additionally, LUT appears to be
      able to mitigate the MIC-LR toxic effects.

PMID- 28866332
TI  - Permethrin decreased insulin-stimulated AKT phosphorylation dependent on
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1 (ERK), but not AMP-activated protein
      kinase alpha (AMPKalpha), in C2C12 myotubes.
AB  - Previously 10 MUM permethrin (38.7% cis and 59.4% trans isomers), a pyrethroid
      insecticide widely used in agriculture and household products for pest control,
      was reported to reduce insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and phosphorylation of
      protein kinase B (p-AKT) in C2C12 mouse myotubes. The underlying mechanisms on
      how permethrin decreases insulin-stimulated AKT phosphorylation, however, are
      unknown. Thus, the goal of this study was to determine the possible mechanism(s)
      through which permethrin reduced insulin-stimulated AKT phosphorylation in C2C12
      myotubes. Permethrin treatment, at 10 MUM, decreased insulin-stimulated membrane
      glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) and AKT phosphorylation, and increased insulin
      receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) Ser307 phosphorylation in the presence of insulin.
      The inactivation of AKT by permethrin was independent of AMPKalpha. ERK
      inactivation by U0126, however, restored insulin-stimulated AKT phosphorylation,
      which was decreased by permethrin treatment. These results suggest that
      permethrin decreased insulin-stimulated AKT phosphorylation via ERK activation,
      but not by AMPKalpha inactivation.

PMID- 28866333
TI  - Epilepsy may cause increased pain sensitivity: Evidence from absence epileptic
      WAG/Rij rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The comorbidity of epilepsy and pain disorders as well as
      effectiveness of certain therapeutic approaches in both conditions attracted
      attention to epilepsy-pain interactions. This lead to the discovery of
      significantly shared pathophysiological mechanisms although many aspects remain
      largely unknown. To test the hypothesis that epilepsy may be associated with
      altered pain sensitivity, we analyzed interictal pain sensitivity using epilepsy
      prone WAG/Rij rats, a genetic model exhibiting age-related-onset absence
      epilepsy. METHODS: Two series of experiments were conducted. In experiment I,
      pain sensitivity of symptomatic WAG/Rij rats were compared with age-matched
      control Wistar rats. In experiment II, pain sensitivity of WAG/Rij rats were
      monitored longitudinally when they were presymptomatic (at 2months) and
      symptomatic (after maturation, at 8months), and compared with age-matched control
      Wistar rats. Pain sensitivity was assessed by applying heat stimuli to hind paws
      and measuring the paw-withdrawal latency using thermal plantar analgesia meter in
      awake and freely moving animals. All pain measurements were made during the
      interictal period, confirmed by simultaneous electroencephalography through
      intracranially implanted electrodes. RESULTS: In experiment I, the interictal
      pain withdrawal latency of symptomatic WAG/Rij rats was significantly shorter
      than control Wistar rats (P<0.01). In experiment II, WAG/Rij rats had
      significantly shorter latency of withdrawal response than control Wistar rats,
      both at presymptomatic (P<0.05) and symptomatic stage (P<0.0001). Matured
      (8months old) control Wistar rats demonstrated significantly increased withdrawal
      latency compared to the 2months animals (P<0.01), but the WAG/Rij rats did not
      (P>0.5). CONCLUSION: Epileptic WAG/Rij rats present significantly increased pain
      sensitivity when compared to control Wistar rats, suggesting comorbidity of
      epilepsy and pain.

PMID- 28866334
TI  - Increasing volume and complexity of pediatric epilepsy surgery with stable
      seizure outcome between 2008 and 2014: A nationwide multicenter study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess common practice in pediatric
      epilepsy surgery in Italy between 2008 and 2014. METHODS: A survey was conducted
      among nine Italian epilepsy surgery centers to collect information on presurgical
      and postsurgical evaluation protocols, volumes and types of surgical
      interventions, and etiologies and seizure outcomes in pediatric epilepsy surgery
      between 2008 and 2014. RESULTS: Retrospective data on 527 surgical procedures
      were collected. The most frequent surgical approaches were temporal lobe
      resections and disconnections (133, 25.2%) and extratemporal lesionectomies (128,
      24.3%); the most frequent etiologies were FCD II (107, 20.3%) and glioneuronal
      tumors (105, 19.9%). Volumes of surgeries increased over time independently from
      the age at surgery and the epilepsy surgery center. Engel class I was achieved in
      73.6% of patients (range: 54.8 to 91.7%), with no significant changes between
      2008 and 2014. Univariate analyses showed a decrease in the proportion of
      temporal resections and tumors and an increase in the proportion of FCDII, while
      multivariate analyses revealed an increase in the proportion of extratemporal
      surgeries over time. A higher proportion of temporal surgeries and tumors and a
      lower proportion of extratemporal and multilobar surgeries and of FCD were
      observed in low (<50surgeries/year) versus high-volume centers. There was a high
      variability across centers concerning pre- and postsurgical evaluation protocols,
      depending on local expertise and facilities. SIGNIFICANCE: This survey reveals an
      increase in volume and complexity of pediatric epilepsy surgery in Italy between
      2008 and 2014, associated with a stable seizure outcome.

PMID- 28866335
TI  - Predictors of outcomes and refractoriness in status epilepticus: A prospective
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the predictors of
      outcomes and refractoriness in status epilepticus (SE). METHODS: This is a
      prospective study of 59 adult patients with SE who were admitted to the Emergency
      Department between February 2012 and December 2013. The effects of clinical,
      demographic, and electrophysiologic features of patients with SE were evaluated.
      To evaluate outcome in SE, STESS, mSTESS, and EMSE scales were used. RESULTS:
      Logistic regression analysis showed that being aged >=65years (p=0.02, OR: 17.68,
      95% CI: [1.6-198.4]) for the short term and having potentially fatal etiology
      (p=0.027, OR: 11.7, 95% CI: [1.3-103]) for the long term were the only
      independent predictors of poor outcomes; whereas, the presence of periodic
      epileptiform discharges (PEDs) in EEG was the only independent predictor of
      refractoriness (p=0.032, OR: 13.7, 95% CI: [1.3-148.5]). The patients with >=3
      Status Epilepticus Severity Score (STESS) did not have poorer outcomes in the
      short- (p=0.157) and long term (p=0.065). There was no difference between
      patients with 0-2, 3-4, and >=4 mSTESS in the short- and long term in terms of
      outcome (p=0.28 and 0.063, respectively). Also, there was no difference between
      subgroups (convulsive SE [CSE], nonconvulsive SE [NCSE], and epilepsia partialis
      continua [EPC]) in terms of STESS and mSTESS. When patients with EPC were
      excluded, both STESS and mSTESS scores of the patients correlated with poorer
      long-term outcomes (p=0.025 and 0.017, respectively). The patients with >=64
      points in the Epidemiology-based Mortality in SE-Etiology, age, comorbidity, EEG
      (EMSE-EACE) score and those with >=27 points in EMSE-Etiology, age, comorbidity
      (EMSE-EAC) score did not have poorer outcomes in the short term (p=0.06 and
      0.274, respectively) while they had significantly poorer outcome in the long term
      (p<0.001 and 0.002, respectively). In subgroup analysis, patients with CSE with
      >=64 points in EMSE-EACE had significantly poorer outcome in the both short- and
      long term (p=0.014 and 0.012, respectively), and patients with CSE with >=27
      points in EMSE-EAC had significantly poorer outcome in the long term (p=0.03) but
      not in the short term (p=0.186). Outcomes did not correlate with EMSE scores in
      patients with NCSE and EPC. Status epilepticus was terminated with intravenous
      (IV) levetiracetam (LEV) in 68.75% of patients and with IV phenytoin (PHT) in
      83.3% of patients. No statistically significant difference was found between the
      two groups in terms of efficacy (p=0.334). CONCLUSION: Being aged >=65years
      predicts poor short-term outcomes, and having potentially fatal etiology predicts
      poor long-term outcomes, which highlight the importance of SE treatment
      management in the elderly. Both STESS and mSTESS are not predictive for poor
      outcomes in EPC. Excluding patients with EPC, STESS, and mSTESS could predict
      poor long-term outcomes but not in the short term in SE. Epidemiology-based
      Mortality in Status Epilepticus score could predict poor outcome in the long term
      better than STESS and mSTESS. Specifically, EMSE scores correlated with poor
      outcome in patients with CSE but not with NCSE and EPC. New scales are needed to
      predict outcome especially in patients with NCSE and EPC. The presence of PEDs in
      EEG is a predictor of RSE, and EMSE score can also be used to predict RSE. There
      was no difference in the efficacy of IV LEV and IV PHT in SE. This study is
      significant for having one of the longest follow-up periods in the literature.

PMID- 28866336
TI  - "Atypical forms" of benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS): How to
      diagnose and guide these children. A practical/scientific approach.
AB  - Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) epilepsy, also known as
      rolandic epilepsy, is the most common childhood type of epilepsy. There is debate
      on its "benign" definition given the numerous literature data on its correlation
      to cognitive morbidity. Although its prognosis is often favorable, BECTS can
      present or evolve however to an atypical form, characterized by a worse prognosis
      and negative impact on cognitive development. It is possible that abnormal
      electrical activity, marker of neurological dysfunction, has the potential to
      disrupt neural network function and development. Numerous studies tried to
      identify clinical or electroencephalographic criteria for atypical forms and
      atypical evolution of BECTS in order to guide follow-up and treatment of patients
      and to predict their outcome. This review provides a compact summery of
      literature data with a focus on predictive features of future cognitive decline.

PMID- 28866337
TI  - The possibility of adverse effect of Kv7-channel opener retigabine on memory
      processes in rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Retigabine is a novel antiepileptic drug with a unique and complex
      mechanism of action which allows its use in many diseases associated with
      impaired neuronal activity. This study sought to examine the impact of retigabine
      on two types of memory in rats. METHODS: Adult male Wistar rats were used to
      assess the effect of retigabine, administered p.o. as single (10mg/kg or 20mg/kg)
      or repeated doses, on spatial memory with the Morris water maze test (MWM) and
      emotional memory, associated with fear, with the passive avoidance test (PA).
      RESULTS: Retigabine administered at a high single dose transiently impairs
      learning processes in rats. In the MWM, these changes were delayed in time and of
      a lesser degree when retigabine was given at low single dose. Additionally, the
      drug administered repeatedly for 2weeks slowed learning processes in the MWM, but
      this effect occurred only after 1week of administration in the PA. CONCLUSION:
      These findings indicate that retigabine may affect memory and learning processes,
      especially in the first phase of administration.

PMID- 28866338
TI  - Wake up to sleep: The effects of lacosamide on daytime sleepiness in adults with
      epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of
      lacosamide (LCM) on daytime sleepiness ascertained by the Epworth Sleepiness
      Scale (ESS) in adults with focal epilepsy in a randomized, controlled design.
      METHODS: Subjects taking <=2 AEDs for >=4weeks underwent polysomnography with EEG
      followed by the maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT) and completed the ESS and
      other patient-reported outcomes (PROs) at baseline, LCM 200mg/day, and LCM
      400mg/day (Visit 4; V4). Primary endpoint was ESS change (V4 to baseline) between
      LCM and placebo. Noninferiority test on ESS used a one-sided t-test based on a
      hypothesized difference of 4-point change between groups. Superiority test used a
      two-sided t-test to investigate the difference in change in PROs and MWT mean
      sleep latency (MSL) between groups. Fifty-five subjects provided 80% power to
      show noninferiority of LCM assuming 10% dropout. RESULTS: Fifty-two subjects
      (mean age: 43.5+/-13.2years, 69% female, median monthly seizure frequency: 1 [0,
      4.0]) participated. Baseline group characteristics including age, sex, ethnicity,
      standardized AED dose, seizure frequency, and ESS were similar. Abnormal baseline
      ESS scores were found in 35% of subjects. Noninferiority test found a <=4-point
      increase in ESS (mean [95% CI]) in LCM subjects vs. placebo (-1.2 [-2.9, 0.53]
      vs. -1.1 [-5.2, 3.0], p=0.027) at V4. No significant difference in change in
      PROs, MSL, seizure frequency, or AED standardized dose was observed between
      groups. SIGNIFICANCE: Our interventional trial found that LCM is not a major
      contributor to daytime sleepiness based on subjective and objective measures.
      Inclusion of sleepiness measures in AED trials is warranted given the high
      prevalence of sleep-wake complaints in people with epilepsy.

PMID- 28866339
TI  - Arthroscopic Partial Repair of Irreparable Rotator Cuff Tears: Factors Related to
      Greater Degree of Clinical Improvement at 2 Years of Follow-Up.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of irreparable
      rotator cuff tears (RCT) treated with an arthroscopic partial repair, as well as
      the preoperative factors that may be related to greater improvement of clinical
      outcomes at short-term follow-up. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed patients
      with irreparable RCT who underwent arthroscopic partial rotator cuff repair
      between January 2011 and April 2014. Minimal follow-up of 24 months was required.
      Partial repair was defined as repairing the less retracted posterosuperior
      rotator cuff with a residual defect of the tendon-footprint junction. Tearing
      involving the subscapularis tendon was excluded. Factors collected included age,
      sex, diabetes, smoking, night pain, duration of symptoms, pain visual analog
      scale (VAS) score, acromiohumeral distance (AHD), and American Shoulder and Elbow
      Surgeons (ASES) score. Magnetic resonance images without intra-articular contrast
      were assessed for healing 6 months after surgery for all patients. Functional
      outcome was evaluated with ASES score. Degree of functional improvement was
      defined as the difference of ASES scores pre- and postoperatively (d-ASES).
      Paired t-test and simple linear analysis were used for statistical analysis.
      RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients were included with a mean follow-up period of 29.6
      +/- 6.6 months. VAS score improved from 5.22 to 1.51 (P < .001). ASES score
      improved from 46.0 to 78.6 (P < .001). The incidence of night pain improved from
      70.3% to 8.1% (P < .001). Only a preoperative lower ASES score, higher VAS score,
      and night pain were related to the higher d-ASES score (P < .001, P = .005, P =
      .017, respectively). The rate of repair failure was 41.6% at a mean follow-up of
      6.4 months. CONCLUSIONS: Arthroscopic partial repair of irreparable RCTs is an
      effective treatment to improve the shoulder function and decrease the pain,
      despite the high repair failure rate of 41.6%. Patients with preoperative lower
      functional score, higher VAS score, or night pain experienced a greater degree of
      functional improvement from the surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, therapeutic
      case series.

PMID- 28866340
TI  - Single-Bundle and Double-Bundle Posterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructions: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of 441 Patients at a Minimum 2 Years' Follow
      up.
AB  - PURPOSE: To perform a systematic review on the techniques and a meta-analysis on
      the functional and objective outcomes after single-bundle (SB) versus double
      bundle (DB) posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) reconstructions. METHODS: A
      systematic review of the techniques, as well as functional and objective outcomes
      of clinical studies comparing SB versus DB PCL reconstruction with a mean follow
      up of at least 24 months and minimum level of evidence of III were performed.
      After review of the literature, a quality analysis of the studies (Detsky score)
      and a meta-analysis comparing raw mean differences in data between SB and DB PCL
      groups were performed. Clinical outcome measures included in the meta-analysis
      were functional outcomes (Lysholm, Tegner, and objective International Knee
      Documentation Committee [IKDC] scores) and objective measurements (arthrometer
      and stress radiographs). RESULTS: The systematic search identified 11 studies
      (441 patients). Three studies were prospective randomized controlled trials and
      the other 8 studies were case-control studies. Two hundred thirty-two patients
      were treated with SB PCL reconstruction, whereas 209 were treated with DB PCL
      reconstruction. Only 4 studies satisfied the threshold for a satisfactory level
      of methodologic quality (>75%). There were no significant differences between SB
      and DB PCL reconstructions in postoperative Lysholm (P = .6, 95% confidence
      interval [CI], -0.98, 2.18) or Tegner scores (P = .37, 95% CI, -0.19, 0.92). DB
      PCL reconstruction provided significantly better objective posterior tibial
      translation stability than the SB technique using the Telos technique at 90
      degrees  (P = -.58, 95% CI, -1.06, -0.10). CONCLUSIONS: Improved patient-reported
      outcomes and knee stability were achieved with both SB and DB PCL reconstruction
      surgery. DB PCL reconstruction provided significantly improved objective
      posterior tibial stability and objective IKDC scores when compared with SB PCL
      reconstruction in randomized clinical trials. No significant difference was found
      for the other patient-reported outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, systematic
      review and meta-analysis of Level II and III studies.

PMID- 28866341
TI  - Similar 30-Day Complications for Septic Knee Arthritis Treated With Arthrotomy or
      Arthroscopy: An American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality
      Improvement Program Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the current study was to use the American College of
      Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) to determine
      whether there were differences in 30-day perioperative complications between open
      arthrotomy and arthroscopy for the treatment of septic knees in a large national
      sample. METHODS: Patients who were diagnosed with a septic knee and underwent
      open arthrotomy or arthroscopy were identified in the 2005-2014 NSQIP data sets.
      Patient demographics and perioperative complications were characterized and
      compared between the 2 procedures. RESULTS: In total, 168 patients undergoing
      knee arthrotomy and 216 patients undergoing knee arthroscopy for septic knee were
      identified. There were no statistically significant differences in demographic
      variables between the 2 groups. On univariate analysis, the rate of minor adverse
      events (MAEs; 15.48% vs 8.80%, P = .043) was higher in the open arthrotomy
      treatment group, while the rate of serious adverse events (SAEs; 37.50% vs
      26.19%, P = .019) was higher in the arthroscopic surgery treatment group. On
      multivariate analysis, which controlled for patient characteristics/comorbidities
      and used the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, there were no
      statistically significant differences in risk of any adverse events (relative
      risk [RR] = 0.851; 99% confidence interval [CI], 0.598-1.211; P = .240), MAE (RR
      = 1.653; 99% CI, 0.818-3.341; P = .066), SAE (RR = 0.706; 99% CI, 0.471-1.058; P
      = .027), return to the operating room (RR = 0.810; 99% CI, 0.433-1.516; P =
      .387), or readmission (RR = 1.022; 99% CI, 0.456-2.294; P = .944) between open
      compared with arthroscopic surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Univariate analysis revealed a
      lower rate of MAE but a higher rate of SAE in the arthroscopic surgery treatment
      group. However, on multivariate analysis, similar perioperative complications,
      rate of return to the operating room, and rate of readmission were found after
      open and arthroscopic debridement for septic knees. Based on the lack of
      demonstrated superiority of either of these 2 treatment modalities for this given
      diagnosis, and the expectation that most differences in perioperative
      complications for this diagnosis would have declared themselves within the first
      30 days, deciding between the studied treatment modalities may be based more on
      other factors not included in this study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Retrospective
      comparative study, Level III.

PMID- 28866342
TI  - Recurrent Instability After Arthroscopic Bankart Reconstruction: A Systematic
      Review of Surgical Technical Factors.
AB  - PURPOSE: Recurrent instability remains of concern after arthroscopic Bankart
      reconstruction. We evaluated various technical factors including anchor design,
      anchor material, number of anchors used, and interval closure on risk of
      recurrent instability after arthroscopic Bankart reconstruction. METHODS: A
      systematic review of MEDLINE and Cochrane databases was conducted, following
      PRISMA guidelines. Extracted data were recorded on a standardized form.
      Methodological index for non-randomized studies (MINORS) and Newcastle-Ottawa
      Scale (NOS) were used to assess study quality and risk bias. Because of study
      heterogeneity and low levels of evidence, meta-analysis was not possible. Pooled
      weighted means were calculated and individual study evaluation and comparisons
      (qualitative analysis) were performed for systematic review. RESULTS: Of 2097
      studies identified, 26 met criteria for systematic review. Pooled weighted means
      revealed 11.4% versus 15% recurrent instability with 3 or more suture anchors
      versus fewer than 3 anchors, 10.1% versus 7.8% with absorbable versus
      nonabsorbable suture anchors, respectively, and 8.0% versus 9.4% with knotless
      versus standard anchors, respectively. Interval closure did not qualitatively
      decrease recurrent instability or decrease range of motion. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      systematic review reveals that despite individual study, and previous systematic
      reviews pointing to the contrary, the composite contemporary published literature
      would support no difference in the risk of recurrent instability after
      arthroscopic Bankart reconstruction with rotator interval closure, differing
      numbers of anchors used for the repair, use of knotless versus standard anchors,
      or use of bioabsorbable versus nonabsorbable anchors. We recommend surgeons focus
      on factors that have been shown to modify the risk factors after arthroscopic
      Bankart reconstruction, such as patient selection. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      systematic review of Level III and IV studies.

PMID- 28866343
TI  - Clinical Outcome of Arthroscopic Treatment for Posteromedial Elbow Impingement in
      Adolescent Baseball Players.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of arthroscopic treatment in
      adolescent baseball players with posteromedial elbow impingement. METHODS: This
      retrospective study evaluated the clinical outcome of arthroscopic treatment for
      posteromedial elbow impingement in adolescent baseball players. Patients were
      eligible for participation if they had undergone surgery at least 2 years earlier
      and excluded if they had arthritis, loose bodies, osteochondritis dissecans,
      ulnar collateral ligament tear, flexor/pronator injuries or medial epicondylitis,
      or nerve problems. Patients were also excluded if they had undergone prior elbow
      surgery, were younger than 13 years, or were older than 19 years. Arthroscopic
      treatment included debridement of posteromedial synovitis, fragment removal, and
      olecranon spur excision. At a mean follow-up of 26.7 (range 24-42) months,
      patients were evaluated based on a questionnaire, examination, and the previously
      reported elbow outcome score. RESULTS: This retrospective study involved 15 male
      patients, comprising 6 pitchers, 3 catchers, and 6 fielders, of mean age 15.7
      (range 14-17) years. Mean time from onset of symptoms to surgery was 4.9 (range 3
      18) months. Intraoperative findings included posteromedial synovitis and
      olecranon spurs in all patients and fragments in 10. The elbow outcome score was
      considered excellent in 11 patients and good in 2, with a mean score of 92 points
      (maximum 100 points). The mean postoperative range of motion at the elbow was 5
      degrees  to 139.7 degrees  of flexion. All patients were able to return to their
      previous level of play after an average of 3.4 (range 2.5-4.5) months. No patient
      developed medial instability that later required reconstructive surgery.
      CONCLUSIONS: Arthroscopic debridement, excision of the olecranon spur, and
      removal of fragments yield reliable subjective and objective results and allow a
      return to baseball in adolescent patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      therapeutic case series.

PMID- 28866344
TI  - Clinical Outcomes in Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Meta
      analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine overall objective
      graft failure rate, failure rate by graft type (allograft vs autograft
      reconstruction), instrumented laxity, and patient outcome scores following
      revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Outcomes of interest
      were collected for all studies meeting the study inclusion criteria, but lower
      level studies (level III/IV) were not pooled for quantitative synthesis due to
      high levels of heterogeneity in these study populations. METHODS: A comprehensive
      search strategy was performed to identify studies reporting outcomes of revision
      ACL reconstruction. The primary outcome reported was graft failure. A meta
      analysis comparing rate of failure by graft type was conducted using a random
      effects model. Studies also reported patient clinical outcome scores, including
      International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), Lysholm, and knee injury and
      osteoarthritis outcome scores (KOOS) and graft laxity. RESULTS: Eight studies
      with 3,021 patients (56% male, 44% female) with an average age of 30 +/- 4 years
      and mean follow-up time of 57 months were included. The overall objective failure
      rate was 6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8%-12.3%). Mean instrumented laxity
      as side-to-side difference was 2.5 mm (95% CI, 1.9-3.1 mm). Mean IKDC subjective
      score was 76.99 (95% CI, 76.64-77.34), mean KOOS symptoms score was 76.73 (95%
      CI, 75.85-77.61), and mean Lysholm score was 86.18 (95% CI, 79.08-93.28). The
      proportion of patients with IKDC grade A or B was 85% (95% CI, 77%-91%). When the
      available data for failure rate were analyzed by graft type, autograft
      reconstruction had a failure rate of 4.1% (95% CI, 2.0%-6.9%), similar to
      allograft reconstruction at 3.6% (95% CI, 1.4%-6.7%). CONCLUSIONS: In this meta
      analysis, revision ACL reconstruction had failure rates similar to autograft or
      allograft reconstruction. Overall outcome scores for revision reconstruction have
      improved but appear modest when compared with primary ACL reconstruction surgery.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Meta-analysis of Level II studies, Level II.

PMID- 28866345
TI  - Should the Capsule Be Repaired or Plicated After Hip Arthroscopy for Labral Tears
      Associated With Femoroacetabular Impingement or Instability? A Systematic Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To critically evaluate the existing literature on hip capsule
      biomechanics, clinical evidence of instability, and outcomes of capsular
      management to answer the following question: Should the capsule be repaired or
      plicated after hip arthroscopy for labral tears associated with femoroacetabular
      impingement or instability? METHODS: We used PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items
      for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines to find articles using
      PubMed and Embase. Included studies were Level I through V studies and focused on
      hip capsule biomechanics, postarthroscopic instability, and clinical outcomes.
      Articles were excluded if they discussed treatment of the hip capsule during
      arthroplasty, dislocations without a history of arthroscopy, and pre-existing
      conditions. The Methodological Index for Non-randomized Studies (MINORS) was used
      for quality assessment of clinical outcome studies. RESULTS: A total of 34
      articles were included: 15 biomechanical studies, 9 instability case reports, and
      10 outcome studies. There is consensus from biomechanical studies that the
      capsule is an important stabilizer of the hip and repairing it provides better
      stability than when unrepaired. Case reports of instability have raised concerns
      about capsular management during the index procedure to decrease the
      complications associated with this problem. Furthermore, outcome studies suggest
      that there may be an advantage of capsular closure versus capsulotomy during hip
      arthroscopy for nonarthritic patients. CONCLUSIONS: Short-term outcome studies
      suggest that capsular closure is safe and effective in nonarthritic patients
      undergoing hip arthroscopic procedures and may yield superior outcomes compared
      with unrepaired capsulotomy. Moreover, biomechanical evidence strongly supports
      the role of capsular repair in maintaining stability of the hip. In patients with
      stiffness or inflammatory hip disorders, a release may be appropriate. In
      patients who have signs and symptoms of instability, there is existing evidence
      that capsular plication may be associated with significant improvement in patient
      reported outcomes. Although the multiple procedures performed in combination with
      capsular treatment present confounding variables, current evidence appears to
      support routine capsular closure in most cases and to support capsular plication
      in cases of instability or borderline dysplasia. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      systematic review of Level II through IV studies.

PMID- 28866346
TI  - Surgical Management of Deep Gluteal Syndrome Causing Sciatic Nerve Entrapment: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the causes, surgical indications, patient-reported clinical
      outcomes, and complications in patients with deep gluteal syndrome causing
      sciatic nerve entrapment. METHODS: Three databases (PubMed, Ovid [MEDLINE], and
      Embase) were searched by 2 reviewers independently from database inception until
      September 7, 2016. The inclusion criteria were studies reporting on both
      arthroscopic and open surgery and those with Level I to IV evidence. Systematic
      reviews, conference abstracts, book chapters, and technical reports with no
      outcome data were excluded. The methodologic quality of the studies was assessed
      with the MINORS (Methodological Index for Non-randomized Studies) tool. RESULTS:
      The search identified 1,539 studies, of which 28 (481 patients; mean age, 48
      years) were included for assessment. Of the studies, 24 were graded as Level IV,
      3 as Level III, and 1 as Level II. The most commonly identified causes were
      iatrogenic (30%), piriformis syndrome (26%), trauma (15%), and non-piriformis
      (hamstring, obturator internus) muscle pathology (14%). The decision to pursue
      surgical management was made based on clinical findings and diagnostic
      investigations alone in 50% of studies, whereas surgical release was attempted
      only after failed conservative management in the other 50%. Outcomes were
      positive, with an improvement in pain at final follow-up (mean, 23 months)
      reported in all 28 studies. The incidence of complications from these procedures
      was low: Fewer than 1% and 8% of open surgical procedures and 0% and fewer than
      1% of endoscopic procedures resulted in major (deep wound infection) and minor
      complications, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although most of the studies identified
      were case series and reports, the results consistently showed improvement in pain
      and a low incidence of complications, particularly for endoscopic procedures.
      These findings lend credence to surgical management as a viable option for
      buttock pain caused by deep gluteal syndrome and warrant further investigation.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, systematic review of Level II through IV studies.

PMID- 28866347
TI  - Wearable Inertial Sensors Allow for Quantitative Assessment of Shoulder and Elbow
      Kinematics in a Cadaveric Knee Arthroscopy Model.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a model using wearable inertial sensors to assess the
      performance of orthopaedic residents while performing a diagnostic knee
      arthroscopy. METHODS: Fourteen subjects performed a diagnostic arthroscopy on a
      cadaveric right knee. Participants were divided into novices (5 postgraduate year
      3 residents), intermediates (5 postgraduate year 4 residents), and experts (4
      faculty) based on experience. Arm movement data were collected by inertial
      measurement units (Opal sensors) by securing 2 sensors to each upper extremity
      (dorsal forearm and lateral arm) and 2 sensors to the trunk (sternum and lumbar
      spine). Kinematics of the elbow and shoulder joints were calculated from the
      inertial data by biomechanical modeling based on a sequence of links connected by
      joints. Range of motion required to complete the procedure was calculated for
      each group. Histograms were used to compare the distribution of joint positions
      for an expert, intermediate, and novice. RESULTS: For both the right and left
      upper extremities, skill level corresponded well with shoulder abduction
      adduction and elbow prono-supination. Novices required on average 17.2 degrees 
      more motion in the right shoulder abduction-adduction plane than experts to
      complete the diagnostic arthroscopy (P = .03). For right elbow prono-supination
      (probe hand), novices required on average 23.7 degrees  more motion than experts
      to complete the procedure (P = .03). Histogram data showed novices had markedly
      more variability in shoulder abduction-adduction and elbow prono-supination
      compared with the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show wearable inertial
      sensors can measure joint kinematics during diagnostic knee arthroscopy. Range-of
      motion data in the shoulder and elbow correlated inversely with arthroscopic
      experience. Motion pattern-based analysis shows promise as a metric of resident
      skill acquisition and development in arthroscopy. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Wearable
      inertial sensors show promise as metrics of arthroscopic skill acquisition among
      residents.

PMID- 28866348
TI  - The Effect of Intra-articular Cocktail Versus Femoral Nerve Block for Patients
      Undergoing Hip Arthroscopy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare clinical efficacy and complication rate as measured by
      postoperative falls and development of peripheral neuritis between intra
      articular blockade and femoral nerve block in patients undergoing arthroscopic
      hip surgery. METHODS: An institutional review board approved retrospective review
      was conducted on a consecutive series of patients who underwent elective
      arthroscopic hip surgery by a single surgeon, between November 2013 and April
      2015. Subjects were stratified into 2 groups: patients who received a
      preoperative femoral nerve block for perioperative pain control, and patients who
      received an intra-articular "cocktail" injection postoperatively. Demographic
      data, perioperative pain scores, narcotic consumption, incidence of falls, and
      iatrogenic peripheral neuritis were collected for analysis. Postoperative data
      were then collected at routine clinical visits. RESULTS: A total of 193 patients
      were included in this study (65 males, 125 females). Of them, 105 patients
      received preoperative femoral nerve blocks and 88 patients received an
      intraoperative intra-articular "cocktail." There were no significant differences
      in patient demographics, history of chronic pain (P = .35), worker's compensation
      (P = .24), preoperative pain scores (P = .69), or intraoperative doses of
      narcotics (P = .40). Patients who received preoperative femoral nerve blocks
      reported decreased pain during their time in PACU (P = .0001) and on hospital
      discharge (P = .28); however, there were no statistically significant differences
      in patient-reported pain scores at postoperative weeks 1 (P = .34), 3 (P = .64),
      and 6 (P = .70). Administration of an intra-articular block was associated with a
      significant reduction in the rate of postoperative falls (P = .009) and
      iatrogenic peripheral neuritis (P = .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative femoral
      nerve blocks are associated with decreased immediate postoperative pain, whereas
      intraoperative intra-articular anesthetic injections provide effective
      postoperative pain control in patients undergoing arthroscopic hip surgery and
      result in a significant reduction in the rate of postoperative falls and
      iatrogenic peripheral neuritis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective
      comparative study.

PMID- 28866350
TI  - Critical thinking evaluation in reflective writing: Development and testing of
      Carter Assessment of Critical Thinking in Midwifery (Reflection).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: develop and test a tool designed for use by academics to evaluate pre
      registration midwifery students' critical thinking skills in reflective writing.
      DESIGN: a descriptive cohort design was used. SAMPLE: a random sample (n = 100)
      of archived student reflective writings based on a clinical event or experience
      during 2014 and 2015. METHODS: a staged model for tool development was used to
      develop a fifteen item scale involving item generation; mapping of draft items to
      critical thinking concepts and expert review to test content validity; inter
      rater reliability testing; pilot testing of the tool on 100 reflective writings;
      and psychometric testing. Item scores were analysed for mean, range and standard
      deviation. Internal reliability, content and construct validity were assessed.
      FINDINGS: expert review of the tool revealed a high content validity index score
      of 0.98. Using two independent raters to establish inter-rater reliability, good
      absolute agreement of 72% was achieved with a Kappa coefficient K = 0.43
      (p<0.0001). Construct validity via exploratory factor analysis revealed three
      factors: analyses context, reasoned inquiry, and self-evaluation. The mean total
      score for the tool was 50.48 (SD = 12.86). Total and subscale scores correlated
      significantly. The scale achieved good internal reliability with a Cronbach's
      alpha coefficient of .93. CONCLUSION: this study establishedthe reliability and
      validity of the CACTiM (reflection) for use by academics to evaluate midwifery
      students' critical thinking in reflective writing. Validation with large diverse
      samples is warranted. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: reflective practice is a key
      learning and teaching strategy in undergraduate Bachelor of Midwifery programmes
      and essential for safe, competent practice. There is the potential to enhance
      critical thinking development by assessingreflective writing with the CACTiM
      (reflection) tool to provide formative and summative feedback to students and
      inform teaching strategies.

PMID- 28866352
TI  - Drug Use and Mortality in Parkinson Disease.

PMID- 28866351
TI  - Human T-cell leukemia virus type I Tax genotype analysis in Okinawa, the
      southernmost and remotest islands of Japan: Different distributions compared with
      mainland Japan and the potential value for the prognosis of aggressive adult T
      cell leukemia/lymphoma.
AB  - Okinawa, comprising remote islands off the mainland of Japan, is an endemic area
      of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1), the causative virus of adult T
      cell leukemia-lymphoma (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM). We
      investigated the tax genotype of HTLV-1 among 29 HTLV-1 carriers, 74 ATL
      patients, and 33 HAM patients in Okinawa. The genotype distribution-60 (44%) taxA
      cases and 76 (56%) taxB cases-differed from that of a previous report from
      Kagoshima Prefecture in mainland Japan (taxA, 10%; taxB, 90%). A comparison of
      the clinical outcomes of 45 patients (taxA, 14; taxB, 31) with aggressive ATL
      revealed that the overall response and 1-year overall survival rates for taxA
      (50% and 35%, respectively) were lower than those for taxB (71% and 49%,
      respectively). In a multivariate analysis of two prognostic indices for
      aggressive ATL, Japan Clinical Oncology Group-Prognostic Index and Prognostic
      Index for acute and lymphoma ATL, with respect to age, performance status,
      corrected calcium, soluble interleukin-2 receptor, and tax genotype, the
      estimated hazard ratio of taxA compared with taxB was 2.68 (95% confidence
      interval, 0.87-8.25; P=0.086). Our results suggest that the tax genotype has
      clinical value as a prognostic factor for aggressive ATL.

PMID- 28866349
TI  - Individual differences in regional cortical volumes across the life span are
      associated with regional optical measures of arterial elasticity.
AB  - Aging is often accompanied by changes in brain anatomy and cerebrovascular
      health. However, the specific relationship between declines in regional cortical
      volumes and loss of cerebral arterial elasticity is less clear, as only global or
      very localized estimates of cerebrovascular health have been available. Here we
      employed a novel tomographic optical method (pulse-DOT) to derive local estimates
      of cerebral arterial elasticity and compared regional volumetric estimates
      (obtained with FreeSurfer) with optical arterial elasticity estimates from the
      same regions in 47 healthy adults (aged 18-75). Between-subject analyses revealed
      a global correlation between cortical volume and cortical arterial elasticity,
      which was a significant mediator of the association between age and cortical
      volume. Crucially, a novel within-subject analysis highlighted the spatial
      association between regional variability in cortical volumes and arterial
      elasticity in the same regions. This association strengthened with age. Gains in
      the predictability of cortical volumes from arterial elasticity data were
      obtained by sharpening the resolution up to individual cortical regions. These
      results indicate that some of the variance of sub-clinical age-related brain
      atrophy is associated with differences in the status of cerebral arteries, and
      can help explain the unique patterns of brain atrophy found within each
      individual.

PMID- 28866354
TI  - Beyond the Neuropsychiatric Horizon: Assessing the Risk of Sudden Unexpected
      Death in Parkinson Disease.

PMID- 28866353
TI  - FRAIL Questionnaire Screening Tool and Short-Term Outcomes in Geriatric Fracture
      Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There are limited screening tools to predict adverse postoperative
      outcomes for the geriatric surgical fracture population. Frailty is increasingly
      recognized as a risk assessment to capture complexity. The goal of this study was
      to use a short screening tool, the FRAIL scale, to categorize the level of
      frailty of older adults admitted with a fracture to determine the association of
      each frailty category with postoperative and 30-day outcomes. DESIGN:
      Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Level 1 trauma center. PARTICIPANTS: A total
      of 175 consecutive patients over age 70 years admitted to co-managed orthopedic
      trauma and geriatrics services. MEASUREMENTS: The FRAIL scale (short 5-question
      assessment of fatigue, resistance, aerobic capacity, illnesses, and loss of
      weight) classified the patients into 3 categories: robust (score = 0), prefrail
      (score = 1-2), and frail (score = 3-5). Postoperative outcome variables collected
      were postoperative complications, unplanned intensive care unit admission, length
      of stay (LOS), discharge disposition, and orthopedic follow-up after surgery.
      Thirty-day outcomes measured were 30-day readmission and 30-day mortality.
      Analysis of variance (1-way) and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare
      continuous variables across the 3 FRAIL categories. Fisher exact tests were used
      to compare categorical variables. Multiple regression analysis, adjusted by age,
      sex, and Charlson index, was conducted to study the association between frailty
      category and outcomes. RESULTS: FRAIL scale categorized the patients into 3
      groups: robust (n = 29), prefrail (n = 73), and frail (n = 73). There were
      statistically significant differences between groups in terms of age,
      comorbidity, dementia, functional dependency, polypharmacy, and rate of
      institutionalization, being higher in the frailest patients. Hip fracture was the
      most frequent fracture, and it was more frequent as the frailty of the patient
      increased (48%, 61%, and 75% in robust, prefrail, and frail groups,
      respectively). The American Society of Anesthesiologists preoperative risk
      significantly correlated with the frailty of the patient (American Society of
      Anesthesiologists score 3-4: 41%, 82% and 86%, in robust, prefrail, and frail
      groups, P < .001). After adjustment by age, sex, and comorbidity, there was a
      statistically significant association between frailty and both LOS and the
      development of any complication after surgery (LOS: 4.2, 5.0, and 7.1 days, P =
      .002; any complication: 3.4%, 26%, and 39.7%, P = .03; in robust, prefrail, and
      frail groups). There were also significant differences in discharge disposition
      (31% of robust vs 4.1% frail, P = .008) and follow-up completion (97% of robust
      vs 69% of the frail ones). Differences in time to surgery, unplanned intensive
      care unit admission, and 30-day readmission and mortality, although showing a
      trend, did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty, measured by
      the FRAIL scale, was associated with increase LOS, complications after surgery,
      and discharge to rehabilitation facility in geriatric fracture patients. The
      FRAIL scale is a promising short screen to stratify and help operationalize the
      perioperative care of older surgical patients.

PMID- 28866355
TI  - Use of the Spanish Version of the Rapid Geriatric Assessment in Mexican Patients
      in Long-Term Care.
AB  - We report our experience with the use of a Spanish version of the rapid geriatric
      assessment of 30 patients in 2 long-term care institutions in Mexico City by a
      group of healthcare students without prior experience in geriatric medicine. The
      Spanish version of the rapid geriatric assessment is a very easy tool to
      administer that can provide overall good results for identifying frailty,
      sarcopenia, anorexia, weight loss, and cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28866356
TI  - Associations of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Antidepressant Prescription with
      Survival in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Depression is associated with increased mortality in community
      samples. The use of antidepressant medication may also increase mortality,
      however, it is still unclear whether taking antidepressants before or after a
      diagnosis of dementia influences survival. DESIGN: Retrospective. SETTING: A
      cohort with a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) from a large mental health and
      dementia care database in South London, linked to hospitalization and mortality
      data. PARTICIPANTS: Mild dementia (Mini-Mental State Examination >=18/30) at the
      point of diagnosis. MEASUREMENTS: We ascertained antidepressant prescription,
      either in the 6 months before or after dementia diagnosis, and used the HoNOS65+,
      a standard clinician-rated measure of patient well-being, to determine depression
      severity and other neuropsychiatric, physical health, and functional
      difficulties. We conducted a survival analysis, adjusted for potential
      confounders and addressed possible confounding by indication through adjusting
      for a propensity score. RESULTS: Of 5473 patients with AD, 22.8% were prescribed
      an antidepressant in a 1-year window around dementia diagnosis. Of these, 2415
      (44.1%) died in the follow-up period [mean (standard deviation) 3.5 (2.4) years].
      Prescription of an antidepressant, both before and after dementia diagnosis, was
      significantly associated with higher mortality after adjusting for a broad range
      of potential confounders including symptom severity, functional status, and
      physical illness (hazard ratio 1.22; 95% confidence interval 1.08-1.37 for
      prescription prior to dementia diagnosis; 95% confidence interval 1.04-1.45 for
      prescription post dementia diagnosis). In stratified analyses, risks remained
      significant in those without neuropsychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The
      prescription of antidepressants around the time of dementia diagnosis may be a
      risk factor for mortality.

PMID- 28866357
TI  - Basis for Sarcopenia Screening With the SARC-CalF in Nursing Homes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is a major health problem of the older population. The
      European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) developed
      diagnostic criteria for diagnosis of sarcopenia that require assessing muscle
      mass and strength or physical performance. Recently, however, a rapid screening
      method SARC-CalF was developed. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to
      validate the SARC-CalF test using EWGSOP sarcopenia diagnostic criteria in a
      sample of nursing home residents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. A sample of 80
      nursing home residents [30% of men; mean age 84.3 (7.9) years]. Sarcopenia was
      determined as proposed by the EWGSOP diagnostic criteria, whereby muscle mass was
      measured by bioelectrical impedance, muscle strength by handgrip strength, and
      physical performance by usual gait speed and a Short Physical Performance Battery
      score. Sarcopenia was also assessed by the SARC-CalF screening test. RESULTS: A
      total of 38.7% of sarcopenia was evaluated using EWGSOP diagnostic criteria and
      36.2% using the SARC-CalF test. The SARC-CalF demonstrated a sensitivity level of
      77.4% and specificity of 89.8%. The area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curves of SARC-CalF test was 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.74,
      0.94). CONCLUSIONS: SARC-CalF could be a useful screening test for sarcopenia in
      nursing home residents. The incorporation of the test as a basis for sarcopenia
      screening will provide additional value to current nursing home preventive
      measures.

PMID- 28866358
TI  - LC-MS/MS based method development for the analysis of florfenicol and its
      application to estimate relative distribution in various tissues of broiler
      chicken.
AB  - Florfenicol, a broad spectrum bacteriostatic antibiotic belonging to amphenicol
      class, is widely used in poultry and livestock for the treatment of various
      infections. The major metabolite of florfenicol in different animal species is
      florfenicol amine which is exploited as the marker residue for the determination
      of florfenicol. Analysis of florfenicol merely by solvent extraction cannot
      determine the accurate amount of the drug present in incurred tissues (muscle,
      liver and kidney) of treated birds, as indicated by this study. Thus the methods
      solely based on solvent extraction may lead to false negative results. A reliable
      LC-MS/MS based confirmatory method for the analysis of florfenicol and its
      metabolites in chicken muscle was developed and validated according to the
      European Union Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. The method was based on acid
      hydrolysis to liberate non-extractable residues having presumably been covalently
      bound to tissues, and to convert all the florfenicol residues as well as its
      metabolites into florfenicol amine. The amine was subsequently recovered with
      ethyl acetate at pH 10.5, defatted and further cleaned up with dispersive solid
      phase extraction (dSPE). The LC separation was achieved on reverse phase C-18
      column with isocratic elution using acetonitrile/water mobile phase and the
      analysis was performed on linear ion trap mass spectrometer. Calibration curve
      was obtained over a concentration range of 25-600MUg/kg for chicken muscles. The
      accuracy values ranged from 84 to 101.4% and the precision values for within day
      and between days ranged from 1.2-11.7%, respectively. Limit of detection (LOD),
      limit of quantification (LOD), CCalpha and CCbeta values were 0.98, 3.2, 113 and
      126MUg/kg, respectively. The developed method was highly robust and was further
      applied to estimate the relative distribution of solvent-extractable against
      solvent-non-extractable florfenicol drug residues in muscle, liver and kidney
      samples of broiler chicken after 5days of oral dosing.

PMID- 28866359
TI  - Micro-matrix solid-phase dispersion coupled with MEEKC for quantitative analysis
      of lignans in Schisandrae Chinensis Fructus using molecular sieve TS-1 as a
      sorbent.
AB  - A simple and effective method was developed for determining lignans in
      Schisandrae Chinensis Fructus by using a micro-matrix solid phase dispersion
      (MSPD) technique coupled with microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography
      (MEEKC). Molecular sieve, TS-1, was applied as a solid supporting material in
      micro MSPD extraction for the first time. Parameters that affect extraction
      efficiency, such as type of dispersant, mass ratio of the sample to the
      dispersant, grinding time, elution solvent and volume were optimized. The optimal
      extraction conditions involve dispersing 25mg of powdered Schisandrae samples
      with 50mg of TS-1 by a mortar and pestle. A grinding time of 150s was adopted.
      The blend was then transferred to a solid-phase extraction cartridge and the
      target analytes were eluted with 500MUL of methanol. Moreover, several parameters
      affecting MEEKC separation were studied, including the type of oil, SDS
      concentration, type and concentration of cosurfactant, and concentration of
      organic modifier. A satisfactory linearity (R>0.9998) was obtained, and the
      calculated limits of quantitation were less than 2.77MUg/mL. Finally, the micro
      MSPD-MEEKC method was successfully applied to the analysis of lignans in complex
      Schisandrae fructus samples.

PMID- 28866360
TI  - Quantitative assessment of mandibular canal compression assessed by cone beam
      computed tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to objectively quantify the topographic
      relation of the mandibular canals, impacted third molars, and cortical plates
      using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective chart
      review was conducted using the database of a university-based imaging service.
      Two calibrated reviewers examined the CBCT images of 100 cases scheduled for
      mandibular third molar removal. They characterized the position and condition of
      the mandibular canal and measured its dimensions at 3 different points relative
      to the third molars. RESULTS: The mandibular canal is more often located buccal
      to the third molars but is more likely to be compressed when in a lingual
      position. The vertical (cephalocaudal) dimensions of the mandibular canal change
      significantly as the canal progresses toward the ramus. The horizontal
      (buccolingual) dimensions of the mandibular canal fluctuate very little but
      significantly narrow in proximity to the third molars. Thinning of the lingual
      cortical plate is common, whereas grooving of molar roots is uncommon.
      CONCLUSIONS: Minor variations in the horizontal dimensions of the mandibular
      canal close to the third molars signify an effect on the canal. This effect may
      indicate an increased risk of neurovascular injury. The mandibular canal can have
      a direct or indirect effect on the cortical plates.

PMID- 28866361
TI  - Targeted next-generation sequencing of glandular odontogenic cyst: a preliminary
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Glandular odontogenic cyst (GOC) is an uncommon developmental cyst.
      Its molecular pathogenesis is unclear, and deep sequencing may help identify
      causative low-frequency variants in tumors. We investigated in GOC mutations in
      50 genes commonly altered in human cancers. STUDY DESIGN: Targeted next
      generation sequencing was used to interrogate a panel of approximately 2800
      mutations in GOC. RESULTS: Six missense single nucleotide variations (SNVs) were
      reported. Three SNVs (TP53 rs1042522, KDR rs1870377, and KIT rs3822214) are
      listed as "common single-nucleotide polymorphisms" at the UCSC Genome Browser.
      The other SNVs (PIK3CA p.Glu689Lys, PIK3CA p.Ala708Thr, and TP53 p.Leu289Phe) are
      predicted to have deleterious or damaging effects on proteins, but they showed
      very low frequency in our samples and could not be further validated by
      orthogonal methods. CONCLUSIONS: No pathogenic SNV was detected in this cohort of
      GOCs. Further studies with larger gene panels or whole exome sequencing are
      needed to find the genetic basis of GOC.

PMID- 28866364
TI  - Development of rapid and highly sensitive detection of Bean common mosaic
      necrosis virus in leguminous crops using loop-mediated isothermal amplification
      assay.
AB  - Bean common mosaic necrosis virus (BCMNV) is a plant pathogenic virus that can
      infect leguminous crops such as kidney beans, sunn hemp, red beans, and mung
      beans. BCMNV has not been reported in Korea and is classified as a quarantine
      plant virus. Currently, the standard diagnostic method for diagnosis of BCMNV is
      reverse transcription (RT)-nested PCR system. However a more rapid monitoring
      system is needed to enable the testing of more samples. The use of highly
      efficient loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for its detection
      has not yet been reported, and development of LAMP for detecting BCMNV in this
      study. In addition, confirmation of LAMP amplification can be achieved using
      restriction enzyme Mse I (T/TAA). The developed technique could be used for more
      rapid, specific and sensitive monitoring of BCMNV in leguminous crops than
      conventional nested RT-PCR.

PMID- 28866363
TI  - Effects of apolipoprotein M in uremic atherosclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Chronic kidney disease is characterized by uremia and causes
      premature death, partly due to accelerated atherosclerosis. Apolipoprotein (apo)
      M is a plasma carrier protein for the lipid sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). The
      Apom-S1P complex associates with HDL, and may contribute to its anti
      atherosclerotic effects. The role of Apom/S1P in atherosclerosis is presently
      controversial and has not been explored in a uremic setting. We aimed to explore
      whether plasma concentrations of Apom/S1P are altered by uremia and whether Apom
      overexpression or deficiency affects classical and uremic atherosclerosis.
      METHODS: Mild to moderate uremia was induced by subtotal nephrectomy (NX) in 86
      92 Apoe-deficient mice that were either Apom-wild type, Apom-deficient, or
      overexpressed Apom (~10 fold). The effects of uremia on plasma Apom/S1P and
      atherosclerosis were evaluated and compared to non-nephrectomized controls.
      RESULTS: Uremia increased plasma Apom by ~25%, but not S1P. Plasma S1P was
      elevated by ~300% in mice overexpressing Apom, and decreased by ~25% in Apom
      deficient mice. Apom overexpression augmented aortic root atherosclerosis and
      plasma cholesterol. In contrast, aortic arch atherosclerosis was unaffected by
      the Apom genotype. There was no effect of Apom-deficiency or Apom overexpression
      on uremic atherosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the complexity of
      Apom/S1P in atherosclerosis and challenges the notion that the Apom/S1P complex
      is anti-atherogenic, at least in Apoe-deficient mice.

PMID- 28866362
TI  - Gene, cell, and organ multiplication drives inner ear evolution.
AB  - We review the development and evolution of the ear neurosensory cells, the
      aggregation of neurosensory cells into an otic placode, the evolution of novel
      neurosensory structures dedicated to hearing and the evolution of novel nuclei in
      the brain and their input dedicated to processing those novel auditory stimuli.
      The evolution of the apparently novel auditory system lies in duplication and
      diversification of cell fate transcription regulation that allows variation at
      the cellular level [transforming a single neurosensory cell into a sensory cell
      connected to its targets by a sensory neuron as well as diversifying hair cells],
      organ level [duplication of organ development followed by diversification and
      novel stimulus acquisition] and brain nuclear level [multiplication of
      transcription factors to regulate various neuron and neuron aggregate fate to
      transform the spinal cord into the unique hindbrain organization]. Tying cell
      fate changes driven by bHLH and other transcription factors into cell and organ
      changes is at the moment tentative as not all relevant factors are known and
      their gene regulatory network is only rudimentary understood. Future research can
      use the blueprint proposed here to provide both the deeper molecular evolutionary
      understanding as well as a more detailed appreciation of developmental networks.
      This understanding can reveal how an auditory system evolved through
      transformation of existing cell fate determining networks and thus how
      neurosensory evolution occurred through molecular changes affecting cell fate
      decision processes. Appreciating the evolutionary cascade of developmental
      program changes could allow identifying essential steps needed to restore cells
      and organs in the future.

PMID- 28866365
TI  - Store-operated calcium entry is dispensable for the activation of ERK1/2 pathway
      in prostate cancer cells.
AB  - STIM1, the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ sensor that modulates the activity of
      plasma membrane Ca2+ channels, becomes phosphorylated at ERK1/2 target sites
      during Ca2+ store depletion triggered by thapsigargin or epidermal growth factor
      (EGF). This ERK1/2-dependent phosphorylation regulates STIM1 localization and
      dissociation from microtubules, and it is known that enhances the binding to
      ORAI1, a store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) channel, leading to the activation of
      this Ca2+ influx pathway. However, there remained some evidence of a role for
      SOCE in the activation of ERK1/2, and here we assessed the contribution of SOCE
      to ERK1/2 activation by generating a STIM1-deficient cell line by CRISPR/Cas9
      genome editing of the STIM1 locus in prostate cancer PC3 cells. The genomic
      modification consisted of a 16 base-pair insertion in exon 5 of both alleles,
      therefore abrogating STIM1 synthesis. STIM1-KO cells did show a striking decrease
      in Ca2+ influx in response to thapsigargin or EGF, a result that demonstrates
      that SOCE mediates Ca2+ entry in PC3 cells during stimulation with EGF. Moreover,
      identical levels of total ERK1/2 were found in STIM1-KO cells and the parental
      cell line, and ERK1/2 activation was fully activated in KO cells, both in the
      presence and in the absence of extracellular Ca2+, a result that supports that
      STIM1 and SOCE are not required for ERK1/2 activation. This activation was
      sensitive to Src kinase inhibition, but not to CAMKII nor PKC inhibition, a
      result that sets STIM1 and SOCE as downstream targets of the axis Src-Raf-MEK
      ERK, rather than upstream regulators.

PMID- 28866366
TI  - Interleukin-8 in cancer pathogenesis, treatment and follow-up.
AB  - Interleukin-8 (CXCL8) was originally described asa chemokine whose main function
      is the attraction of a polymorphonuclear inflammatory leukocyte infiltrate acting
      on CXCR1/2. Recently, it has been found that tumors very frequently coopt the
      production of this chemokine, which in this malignant context exerts different
      pro-tumoral functions. Reportedly, these include angiogenesis, survival signaling
      for cancer stem cells and attraction of myeloid cells endowed with the ability to
      immunosuppress and locally provide growth factors. Given the fact that in cancer
      patients IL-8 is mainly produced by tumor cells themselves, its serum
      concentration has been shown to correlate with tumor burden. Thus, IL-8 serum
      concentrations have been shown to be useful asa pharmacodynamic biomarker to
      early detect response to immunotherapy. Finally, because of the roles that IL-8
      plays in favoring tumor progression, several therapeutic strategies are being
      developed to interfere with its functions. Such interventions hold promise,
      especially for therapeutic combinations in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28866367
TI  - The FOP Connection Registry: Design of an international patient-sponsored
      registry for Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva.
AB  - The Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) Connection Registry is an
      international, voluntary, observational study that directly captures demographic
      and disease information initially from patients with FOP (the patient portal) and
      in the near future from treating physicians (the physician portal) via a secure
      web-based tool. It was launched by the International FOP Association (IFOPA) with
      a guiding vision to develop and manage one unified, global, and coordinated
      Registry allowing the assembly of the most comprehensive data on FOP. This will
      ultimately facilitate greater access and sharing of patient data and enable
      better and faster development of therapies and tracking their long-term treatment
      effectiveness and safety. This report outlines the FOP Connection Registry's
      design and procedures for data collection and reporting, as well as the long-term
      sustainability of Registry. Patient-reported, aggregate data are summarized for
      the first 196 enrolled patients, representing participation from 42 countries and
      approximately 25% of the world's known FOP population. Fifty-seven percent of the
      current Registry participants are female with a mean age of 23.8years
      (median=21years, range=1, 76years). Among the Registry participants who provided
      their FOP type, 51% reported FOP Classic (R206H), 41% reported FOP Type Unknown,
      and 8% reported FOP Variant. Patients reported 5.4years (median=3.0years,
      range=0, 45.8years) as the mean age at which they noticed their first FOP
      symptoms and a mean age at final FOP diagnosis of 7.5years (median=5.0years,
      range=0.1, 48.4years). Information on the patients' diagnostic journeys in
      arriving at a correct diagnosis of FOP is also presented. These early patient
      reported data suggest that the IFOPA's vision of one, unified, global, and
      coordinated approach to the FOP Connection Registry is well underway to being
      realized. In addition, the positive response from the FOP patient community to
      the initial launch of the Registry's patient portal has created a solid
      foundation upon which to build the largest international registry for monitoring
      the clinical progression of FOP among patients.

PMID- 28866369
TI  - Interpreting quantitative urine buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine levels in
      office-based clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quantitative urine buprenorphine testing is used to monitor patients
      receiving buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD), however
      the interpretation of urine buprenorphine testing is complex. Currently,
      interpretation of quantitative buprenorphine testing is guided by data from drug
      assay development studies and forensic labs rather than clinical treatment
      cohorts. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we describe the patterns of urine
      buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine levels in patients prescribed sublingual
      buprenorphine for OUD in an office-based addiction treatment clinic. Urine
      buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine levels were analyzed in patients who reported
      having adulterated their urine, patients clinically suspected of adulterating
      their urine, and patients without concern for urine adulteration. Finally, we
      tested the accuracy of urine buprenorphine, norbuprenorphine, and
      norbuprenorphine: buprenorphine ratio (Norbup:Bup) to identify adulterated urine
      samples. RESULTS: Patients without suspicion for urine adulteration rarely
      provided specimens with buprenorphine >=1000ng/ml (4.4%), while the proportion
      provided by those who endorsed or were suspected of urine adulteration was higher
      (42.9%, 40.6%, respectively). Compared to patients without reported urine
      adulteration, specimens from patients who reported or were suspected of urine
      adulteration had significantly higher buprenorphine (p=0.0001) and lower
      norbuprenorphine (<0.0001) levels, and significantly lower Norbup:Bup ratios
      (p=0.04). Buprenorphine >=700ng/ml offered the best accuracy for discriminating
      between adulterated and non-adulterated specimens. CONCLUSION: This study
      describes the patterns of urine buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine levels from
      patients with OUD receiving buprenorphine treatment in an office-based addiction
      treatment clinic. Parameters for identifying urine adulterated by submerging
      buprenorphine medication in the urine specimen are discussed.

PMID- 28866370
TI  - Acute effects of direct inhibitory pressure over the biceps brachii myotendinous
      junction on skeletal muscle activation and force output.
AB  - Force (F) reduction is reported with myotendinous junction (MTJ) manipulation.
      Autogenic inhibition reflex (AIR) activation is supposed to be the main
      mechanism. Still, its role remains unclear. The study aimed at assessing the
      effects of MTJ direct inhibitory pressure (DIP) on neuromuscular activation and F
      in the elbow flexor (agonist) and extensor (antagonist) muscles. After maximum
      voluntary contraction (MVC) assessment, thirty-five participants randomly
      performed submaximal contractions at 20, 40, 60, and 80% MVC. Electromyographic
      (EMG), mechanomyographic (MMG), and F signals were recorded. Protocol was
      repeated under (i) DIP (10-s pressure on the biceps brachii MTJ) with the elbow
      at 120 degrees  (DIP120), (ii) DIP with the elbow at 180 degrees  (DIP180), and
      (iii) without DIP (Ctrl). Electromechanical delay (EMD) components, EMG and MMG
      root mean square (RMS), and rate of force development (RFD) were calculated.
      Independently from the angle, DIP induced decrements in MVC, RFD, and RMS of EMG
      and MMG signals and lengthened the EMD components in agonist muscles (P<0.05).
      The DIP-induced decrease in F output of the agonist muscles seems to be possibly
      due to a concomitant impairment of the neuromuscular activation and a transient
      decrease in stiffness. After DIP, the antagonist muscle displayed no changes;
      therefore, the intervention of AIR remains questionable.

PMID- 28866368
TI  - Overlapping functions of bone sialoprotein and pyrophosphate regulators in
      directing cementogenesis.
AB  - Although acellular cementum is essential for tooth attachment, factors directing
      its development and regeneration remain poorly understood. Inorganic
      pyrophosphate (PPi), a mineralization inhibitor, is a key regulator of cementum
      formation: tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (Alpl/TNAP) null mice
      (increased PPi) feature deficient cementum, while progressive ankylosis protein
      (Ank/ANK) null mice (decreased PPi) feature increased cementum. Bone sialoprotein
      (Bsp/BSP) and osteopontin (Spp1/OPN) are multifunctional extracellular matrix
      components of cementum proposed to have direct and indirect effects on cell
      activities and mineralization. Studies on dentoalveolar development of Bsp
      knockout (Bsp-/-) mice revealed severely reduced acellular cementum, however
      underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The similarity in defective cementum
      phenotypes between Bsp-/- mice and Alpl-/- mice (the latter featuring elevated
      PPi and OPN), prompted us to examine whether BSP is operating by modulating PPi
      associated genes. Genetic ablation of Bsp caused a 2-fold increase in circulating
      PPi, altered mRNA expression of Alpl, Spp1, and Ank, and increased OPN protein in
      the periodontia. Generation of a Bsp knock-out (KO) cementoblast cell line
      revealed significantly decreased mineralization capacity, 50% increased PPi in
      culture media, and increased Spp1 and Ank mRNA expression. While addition of
      2MUg/ml recombinant BSP altered Spp1, Ank, and Enpp1 expression in cementoblasts,
      changes resulting from this dose were not dependent on the integrin-binding RGD
      motif or MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. Decreasing PPi by genetic ablation of Ank on
      the Bsp-/- mouse background reestablished cementum formation, allowing >3-fold
      increased acellular cementum volume compared to wild-type (WT). However, deleting
      Ank did not fully compensate for the absence of BSP. Bsp-/-; Ank-/- double
      deficient mice exhibited mean 20-27% reduced cementum thickness and volume
      compared to Ank-/- mice. From these data, we conclude that the perturbations in
      PPi metabolism are not solely driving the cementum pathology in Bsp-/- mice, and
      that PPi is more potent than BSP as a cementum regulator, as shown by the ability
      to override loss of BSP by lowering PPi. We propose that BSP and PPi work in
      concert to direct mineralization in cementum and likely other mineralized
      tissues.

PMID- 28866371
TI  - No longer any role for routine follow-up chest x-rays in men with stage I germ
      cell cancer.
AB  - Following radical orchidectomy for testicular cancer, most patients undergo
      protocolled surveillance to detect tumour recurrences rather than receive
      adjuvant chemotherapy. Current United Kingdom national and most international
      guidelines recommend that patients require a chest x-ray (CXR) and serum tumour
      markers at each follow-up visit as well as regular CT scans; there is however,
      variation among cancer centres with follow-up protocols. Seminomas often do not
      cause tumour marker elevation; therefore, CT scans are the main diagnostic tool
      for detecting relapse. For non-seminomatous tumours, serum beta-HCG (HCG) and AFP
      levels are a very sensitive harbinger of relapse, but this only occurs in 50% of
      patients [1], and therefore, imaging remains as important. CXRs are meant to aid
      in the detection of lung recurrences and before the introduction of modern cross
      sectional imaging in the early 1980s, CXRs would have been the only method of
      identifying lung metastasis. We examined the Thames Valley and Mount Vernon
      Cancer Centre databases to evaluate the role of CXRs in the 21st century for the
      follow-up of men with stage I testicular cancer between 2003 and 2015 to assess
      its value in diagnosing relapsed germ cell tumours. From a total of 1447
      patients, we identified 159 relapses. All relapses were detected either by rising
      tumour markers or planned follow-up CT scans. Not a single relapse was identified
      on CXR. We conclude that with timely and appropriate modern cross-sectional
      imaging and tumour marker assays, the CXR no longer has any value in the routine
      surveillance of stage I testicular cancer and should be removed from follow-up
      guidelines and clinical practice. Omitting routine CXR from follow-up schedules
      will reduce anxiety as well as time that patients spend at hospitals and result
      in significant cost savings.

PMID- 28866372
TI  - Sutureless enterostomy for extremely low birth weight infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In recent years, improved survival rates of extremely low birth weight
      infants (ELBWIs) have led to an increasing number of enterostomy performed for
      those with meconium obstruction of prematurity (MOP)1,2, spontaneous intestinal
      perforation (SIP)3,4. To prevent serious stoma-related complications such as
      stoma side perforation, prolapse, fall and surgical site infection, we introduce
      our new "sutureless enterostomy" technique. METHODS: We present the procedures in
      detail. We reviewed the medical records of twelve patients who underwent
      "sutureless enterostomy" in our neonatal intensive care unit from 2007 to 2013.
      Patient attributes, surgery-related items, stoma-related complications and
      outcomes were investigated. RESULTS: Mean birth weight was 671+/-158g (mean+/
      S.D.). Six cases of MOP, three cases of SIP and three cases of NEC were
      diagnosed. Mean operative time was 75+/-35min (mean+/-S.D.) None of them
      presented any of early stoma-related complications (necrosis, fall, and surgical
      site infection). However the parastomal hernia occurred in one patient as late
      complication. Three deaths occurred postoperatively as a result of exacerbations
      of their conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our preliminary observations, our new
      "sutureless enterostomy" was done safely and reduced the risk of stoma-related
      complications. It may be an ideal procedure for the ELBWI with MOP or SIP.

PMID- 28866373
TI  - ROS activates autophagy in follicular granulosa cells via mTOR pathway to
      regulate broodiness in goose.
AB  - Broodiness causes reduced reproductive ability in poultry, but its regulatory
      mechanism remains poorly understood. ROS (reactive oxygen species) and autophagy
      are important for follicular development, and the interaction between the two may
      play a role in regulating broodiness. We examined goose follicles for ROS and
      oxidation scavenger activities during the egg-laying and broody stages. The
      follicular granulosa cells were exposed to media containing H2O2, and the
      interactions between ROS and autophagy in follicular granulosa cells in vitro
      were analyzed using a Western blot method. We found that the activities of
      superoxide dismutase (SOD) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were enhanced and the
      amount of malondialdehyde (MDA) decreased in broody goose follicles. H2O2
      inhibited the cell viability and induced autophagy. Furthermore, it was also
      found that H2O2 regulated autophagy by reducing mTOR and increasing p53; however,
      H2O2 had no impact on Beclin1 or ATG12. It was also shown that the enhanced
      autophagy lessened ROS-induced damages. We conclude that ROS and autophagy both
      played important roles in regulating follicular development to control broodiness
      in geese, and ROS activated autophagy in follicular granulosa cells via the mTOR
      pathway.

PMID- 28866374
TI  - 1-Phenyl-1H-indole derivatives as a new class of Bcl-2/Mcl-1 dual inhibitors:
      Design, synthesis, and preliminary biological evaluation.
AB  - Bcl-2 proteins, such as B-cell lymphoma (Bcl-2) protein, myeloid cell leukemia
      sequence 1 (Mcl-1) protein, has been implicated in the progression and survival
      of multiple tumor types and become a validated and attractive target for cancer
      therapy. In this work, a series of 1-phenyl-1H-indole derivatives has been
      designed and synthesized. The preliminary biological studies (binding assay for
      Bcl-2 proteins and MTT assay) suggested that some active compounds showed potent
      inhibitory activities on Bcl-2/Mcl-1 without binding on Bcl-XL. Furthermore,
      Compound 9c and 9h showed better anti-proliferative activity than WL-276.

PMID- 28866375
TI  - Design and optimization of N-acylhydrazone pyrimidine derivatives as E. coli PDHc
      E1 inhibitors: Structure-activity relationship analysis, biological evaluation
      and molecular docking study.
AB  - By targeting the thiamin diphosphate (ThDP) binding site of Escherichia coli (E.
      coli) pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex E1 (PDHc E1), a series of novel
      'open-chain' classes of ThDP analogs A, B, and C with N-acylhydrazone moieties
      was designed and synthesized to explore their activities against E. coli PHDc E1
      in vitro and their inhibitory activity against microbial diseases were further
      evaluated in vivo. As a result, A1-23 exhibited moderate to potent inhibitory
      activities against E. coli PDHc E1 (IC50=0.15-23.55MUM). The potent inhibitors
      A13, A14, A15, C2, had strong inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 0.60,
      0.15, 0.39 and 0.34MUM against E. coli PDHc E1 and with good enzyme-selective
      inhibition between microorganisms and mammals. Especially, the most powerful
      inhibitor A14 could 99.37% control Xanthimonas oryzae pv. Oryzae. Furthermore,
      the binding features of compound A14 within E. coli PDHc E1 were investigated to
      provide useful insights for the further construction of new inhibitor by
      molecular docking, site-directed mutagenesis, and enzymatic assays. The results
      indicated that A14 had most powerful inhibition against E. coli PDHc E1 due to
      the establishment of stronger interaction with Glu571, Met194, Glu522, Leu264 and
      Phe602 at active site of E.coli PDHc E1. It could be used as a lead compound for
      further optimization, and may have potential as a new microbicide.

PMID- 28866377
TI  - A prospective study of short-term functional outcome after dysvascular major
      lower limb amputation.
AB  - : This study investigates functional status on Day 21 after dysvascular major
      lower limb amputation compared with one month pre-amputation and evaluates
      factors potentially influencing outcome. METHODS: A prospective cohort study
      design was used. Data were collected via in-person interviews using structured
      instruments and covered functional level (Barthel index 100) one month pre
      amputation and on Day 21. Out of a consecutive sample of patients having major
      lower limb amputation (tibia, knee or femoral) (n = 105), 51 participated on Day
      21 follow-up. Clinical, demographic, body function and environmental data were
      analysed as factors potentially influencing outcome. RESULTS: From pre-amputation
      to Day 21, participants' functional level decreased significantly in all ten
      activities of daily living activities as measured by the Barthel Index. Almost
      60% of participants were independent in bed-chair transfer on Day 21. Being
      independent in transfer on Day 21 was positively associated with younger age and
      attending physiotherapy after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that
      short-term functional outcome is modifiable by quality of the postoperative care
      provided and thus highlights the need for increased focus on postoperative care
      to maintain basic function as well as establish and provide everyday
      rehabilitation in the general population of patients who have dysvascular lower
      limb amputations.

PMID- 28866376
TI  - Synthesis of amide isosteres of schweinfurthin-based stilbenes.
AB  - The schweinfurthins are plant-derived stilbenes with an intriguing profile of
      anti-cancer activity. To obtain analogues of the schweinfurthins that might
      preserve the biological activity but have greater water solubility, a formal
      replacement of the central olefin with an amide has been explored. Two pairs of
      amides have been prepared, each containing the same hexahydroxanthene "left half"
      joined through an amide linkage to two different "right halves." In each series,
      the amide has been inserted in both possible orientations, placing the carbonyl
      group on the tricyclic ABC ring system and the amine on the D-ring, or placing
      the amine on the hexahydroxanthene and the carbonyl group on the D-ring. The four
      new schweinfurthin analogues have been tested in the NCI 60 cell line screen, and
      in both cases the more active isomer carried the carbonyl group on the C-ring.

PMID- 28866378
TI  - Association of impaired renal function with venous thrombosis: A genetic risk
      score approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The association between impaired kidney function and venous thrombosis
      has been previously reported but supportive data are still sparse. We here wish
      to strengthen this association by investigating, by use of a genetic risk score
      approach, whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) known to decrease the
      estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a surrogate marker for renal
      dysfunction, are associated with increased risk of venous thrombosis. APPROACH
      AND RESULTS: Fifty-one polymorphisms selected from the literature to robustly
      associate with eGFR were first tested for association with venous thrombosis in a
      French case-control collection of 1953 patients and 2338 healthy individuals.
      This led to the identification of a genetic risk score based on 9 polymorphisms
      that strongly associated with increased risk (odds ratio (OR)=1.09 [1.06-1.15],
      p=1.44.10-7). This genetic score association replicated (OR=1.18 [1.11-1.26],
      p=8.86.10-8) in an independent sample of 1289 patients and 1049 healthy controls
      part of the Dutch MEGA study. We then categorized the genetic score distribution
      observed in the combined samples into quintiles. Compared with the lowest
      quintile, the OR for increased risk of disease associated with the second, third,
      fourth and fifth quintiles were 1.13 [0.94-1.16], 1.47 [1.22-1.77], 1.52 [1.26
      1.82] and 1.70 [1.41-2.05], respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Using a genetic risk score
      analysis, our study provides new elements supporting the association between
      impaired renal function and the risk of venous thrombosis.

PMID- 28866379
TI  - Compounding variants rescue the effect of a deleterious ADAMTS13 mutation in a
      child with severe congenital heart disease.

PMID- 28866380
TI  - Mitochondrial transition ROS spike (mTRS) results from coordinated activities of
      complex I and nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase.
AB  - Mitochondria exhibit suppressed ATP production, membrane potential (?Psimt)
      polarization and reactive oxygen species (ROS) bursts during some cellular
      metabolic transitions. Although mitochondrial ROS release is influenced by ?Psimt
      and respiratory state, the relationship between these properties remains
      controversial primarily because they have not been measured simultaneously. We
      developed a multiparametric method for probing mitochondrial function that
      allowed precise characterization of the temporal relationship between ROS, ?Psimt
      and respiration. We uncovered a previously unknown spontaneous ROS spike - termed
      mitochondrial transition ROS spike (mTRS) - associated with re-polarization of
      ?Psimt that occurs at the transition between mitochondrial energy states.
      Pharmacological inhibition of complex CI (CI), nicotinamide nucleotide
      transhydrogenase (NNT) and antioxidant system significantly decreased the ability
      of mitochondria to exhibit mTRS. NADH levels followed a similar trend to that of
      ROS during the mTRS, providing a link between CI and NNT in mTRS regulation. We
      show that (i) mTRS is enhanced by simultaneous activation of CI and complex II
      (CII); (ii) CI is the principal origin of mTRS; (iii) NNT regulates mTRS via NADH
      and ?Psimt-dependent mechanisms; (iv) mTRS is not a pH spike; and (v), mTRS
      changes in amplitude under stress conditions and its occurrence can be a
      signature of mitochondrial health. Collectively, we uncovered and characterized
      the biophysical properties and mechanisms of mTRS, and propose it as a potential
      diagnostic tool for CI-related dysfunctions, and as a biomarker of mitochondrial
      functional integrity.

PMID- 28866381
TI  - Cytochrome c oxidase inhibition by calcium at physiological ionic composition of
      the medium: Implications for physiological significance of the effect.
AB  - Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) from mammalian mitochondria binds Ca2+ and Na+ in a
      special cation binding site. Binding of Ca2+ brings about partial inhibition of
      the enzyme while Na+ competes with Ca2+ for the binding site and protects the
      enzyme from the inhibition [Vygodina, T., Kirichenko, A. and Konstantinov, A.A.
      (2013). Direct Regulation of Cytochrome c oxidase by Calcium Ions. PLoS One 8(9):
      e74436]. In the original studies, the inhibition was found to depend
      significantly on the ionic composition of the buffer. Here we describe inhibition
      of CcO by Ca2+ in media containing the main ionic components of cytoplasm (150mM
      KCl, 12mM NaCl and 1mM MgCl2). Under these conditions, Ca2+ inhibits CcO with
      effective Ki of 20-26MUM, that is an order of magnitude higher than determined
      earlier in the absence of Na+. At physiological value of ionic strength, the
      inhibition can be observed at any turnover number of CcO, rather than only at low
      TN (<10s-1) as found previously. The inhibition requires partially oxidized state
      of cytochrome c and is favored by high ionic strength with a sharp transition at
      0.1-0.2M. The high Ki=20-26MUM found for CcO inhibition by calcium matches
      closely the known value of "Km" for Ca2+-induced activation of the mitochondrial
      calcium uniporter. The inhibition of CcO by Ca2+ is proposed to modulate
      mitochondrial Ca2+-uptake via the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, promote
      permeability transition pore opening and induce reduction of Mia40 in the
      mitochondrial intermembrane space.

PMID- 28866382
TI  - Robustness of intra urban land-use regression models for ultrafine particles and
      black carbon based on mobile monitoring.
AB  - Land-use regression (LUR) models for ultrafine particles (UFP) and Black Carbon
      (BC) in urban areas have been developed using short-term stationary monitoring or
      mobile platforms in order to capture the high variability of these pollutants.
      However, little is known about the comparability of predictions of mobile and
      short-term stationary models and especially the validity of these models for
      assessing residential exposures and the robustness of model predictions developed
      in different campaigns. We used an electric car to collect mobile measurements (n
      = 5236 unique road segments) and short-term stationary measurements (3 * 30min, n
      = 240) of UFP and BC in three Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht) in
      2014-2015. Predictions of LUR models based on mobile measurements were compared
      to (i) measured concentrations at the short-term stationary sites, (ii) LUR model
      predictions based on short-term stationary measurements at 1500 random addresses
      in the three cities, (iii) externally obtained home outdoor measurements (3 * 24h
      samples; n = 42) and (iv) predictions of a LUR model developed based upon a 2013
      mobile campaign in two cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam). Despite the poor model R2
      of 15%, the ability of mobile UFP models to predict measurements with longer
      averaging time increased substantially from 36% for short-term stationary
      measurements to 57% for home outdoor measurements. In contrast, the mobile BC
      model only predicted 14% of the variation in the short-term stationary sites and
      also 14% of the home outdoor sites. Models based upon mobile and short-term
      stationary monitoring provided fairly high correlated predictions of UFP
      concentrations at 1500 randomly selected addresses in the three Dutch cities (R2
      = 0.64). We found higher UFP predictions (of about 30%) based on mobile models
      opposed to short-term model predictions and home outdoor measurements with no
      clear geospatial patterns. The mobile model for UFP was stable over different
      settings as the model predicted concentration levels highly correlated to
      predictions made by a previously developed LUR model with another spatial extent
      and in a different year at the 1500 random addresses (R2 = 0.80). In conclusion,
      mobile monitoring provided robust LUR models for UFP, valid to use in
      epidemiological studies.

PMID- 28866383
TI  - Renal glucose metabolism in normal physiological conditions and in diabetes.
AB  - The kidney plays an important role in glucose homeostasis via gluconeogenesis,
      glucose utilization, and glucose reabsorption from the renal glomerular filtrate.
      After an overnight fast, 20-25% of glucose released into the circulation
      originates from the kidneys through gluconeogenesis. In this post-absorptive
      state, the kidneys utilize about 10% of all glucose utilized by the body. After
      glucose ingestion, renal gluconeogenesis increases and accounts for approximately
      60% of endogenous glucose release in the postprandial period. Each day, the
      kidneys filter approximately 180g of glucose and virtually all of this is
      reabsorbed into the circulation. Hormones (most importantly insulin and
      catecholamines), substrates, enzymes, and glucose transporters are some of the
      various factors influencing the kidney's role. Patients with type 2 diabetes have
      an increased renal glucose uptake and release in the fasting and the post
      prandial states. Additionally, glucosuria in these patients does not occur at
      plasma glucose levels that would normally produce glucosuria in healthy
      individuals. The major abnormality of renal glucose metabolism in type 1 diabetes
      appears to be impaired renal glucose release during hypoglycemia.

PMID- 28866384
TI  - Intestinal microbiota in infants at high risk for allergy: Effects of prebiotics
      and role in eczema development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Development of the gut microbiota in infancy is important in
      maturation of the immune system. Deviations in colonization patterns have been
      associated with allergic manifestations such as eczema, but exact microbiome
      dysfunctions underlying allergies remain unclear. We studied the gut microbiota
      of 138 infants at increased risk of allergy, participating in a clinical trial
      investigating the effectiveness of a partially hydrolyzed protein formula
      supplemented with nondigestible oligosaccharides on the prevention of eczema.
      OBJECTIVE: The effects of interventions and breast-feeding on fecal microbiota
      were investigated. Additionally, we aimed to identify microbial patterns
      associated with the onset of eczema. METHODS: Bacterial taxonomic compositions in
      the first 26 weeks of life were analyzed by using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
      Additionally, fecal pH and microbial metabolite levels were measured. RESULTS:
      Fecal microbial composition, metabolites, and pH of infants receiving partially
      hydrolyzed protein formula supplemented with nondigestible oligosaccharides was
      closer to that of breast-fed infants than that of infants receiving standard
      cow's milk formula. Infants with eczema by 18 months showed discordant
      development of bacterial genera of Enterobacteriaceae and Parabacteroides species
      in the first 26 weeks, as well as decreased acquisition of lactate-utilizing
      bacteria producing butyrate, namely Eubacterium and Anaerostipes species,
      supported by increased lactate and decreased butyrate levels. CONCLUSIONS: We
      showed that a partially hydrolyzed protein infant formula with specific
      prebiotics modulated the gut microbiota closer to that of breast-fed infants.
      Additionally, we identified a potential link between microbial activity and onset
      of eczema, which might reflect a suboptimal implementation of gut microbiota at
      specific developmental stages in infants at high risk for allergy.

PMID- 28866385
TI  - T-cell receptor sequencing reveals decreased diversity 18 years after early
      thymectomy.

PMID- 28866386
TI  - Effects of orally self-administered bath salt constituent 3,4
      methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) in mice.
AB  - Synthetic cathinones in bath salts products are psychostimulant drugs of abuse,
      and 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a common constituent of these
      products. Oral MDPV has been show to stimulate locomotor activity but
      reinforcing, locomotor and appetitive stimulus effects of oral MDPV are unknown.
      Choice procedures evaluated preference for 0.03, 0.10, 0.30, and 1.00mg/mL MDPV
      solutions versus 0.10mg/mL quinine solution or water. To verify that oral MDPV
      produced pharmacological effects, locomotor activity was monitored during and
      after consumption of water, quinine, or MDPV solutions. Conditioned place
      preference (CPP) tested the apparent appetitive effects of a preferred
      concentration of oral MDPV with locomotor stimulant effects (0.30mg/mL), using
      water as a control, and compared with results from intraperitoneally-administered
      MDPV. Consumption of MDPV solutions (0.03-1.00mg/mL) was low when the alternative
      fluid was water, but a history of MDPV consumption increased MDPV choice. When
      paired with a quinine control solution, MDPV solutions (0.03-0.30mg/mL) were
      almost exclusively preferred, and treatment with the catecholamine synthesis
      inhibitor alphaMPT decreased MDPV choice. Consumption of MDPV concentrations (0.1
      1.0mg/mL) stimulated locomotor activity. Chronic (10day) access to 0.30mg/mL MDPV
      resulted in escalated consumption, but locomotor effects did not systematically
      change across the access period. Finally, consumption of 0.30mg/mL MDPV elicited
      CPP with a magnitude similar to the preference observed following intraperitoneal
      administration of MDPV. Consistent with human abuse patterns, oral MDPV has
      reinforcing effects in the mouse which are most likely related to its
      psychostimulant-like pharmacological profile.

PMID- 28866387
TI  - Static and dynamic liver stiffness: An ex vivo porcine liver study using MR
      elastography.
AB  - Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is an MRI-based noninvasive technique for
      quantitatively assessing tissue stiffness. The hypothesis of this study is that
      stiffness increases with portal pressure. We further hypothesized that the rate
      of stiffness change with pressure would be larger in liver tissue treated to
      simulate the stiffening effects of fibrosis. In agreement with our hypothesis,
      the formalin-treated livers were stiffer than the untreated livers, and in both
      groups the liver stiffness increased with portal venous pressure. The rate of
      stiffness change with portal pressure was significantly greater after formalin
      treatment. In this study, we have developed an ex vivo liver model incorporating
      portal venous pressure variations and observed significant changes in liver
      stiffness due to portal pressure. This model could be useful for understanding
      and investigating the changes in the static and dynamic components of liver
      stiffness.

PMID- 28866388
TI  - Structural properties of the intrinsically disordered, multiple calcium ion
      binding otolith matrix macromolecule-64 (OMM-64).
AB  - Fish otoliths are calcium carbonate biominerals that are involved in hearing and
      balance sensing. An organic matrix plays a crucial role in their formation.
      Otolith matrix macromolecule-64 (OMM-64) is a highly acidic, calcium-binding
      protein (CBP) found in rainbow trout otoliths. It is a component of high
      molecular-weight aggregates, which influence the size, shape and polymorph of
      calcium carbonate in vitro. In this study, a protocol for the efficient
      expression and purification of OMM-64 was developed. For the first time, the
      complete structural characteristics of OMM-64 were described. Various biophysical
      methods were combined to show that OMM-64 occurs as an intrinsically disordered
      monomer. Under denaturing conditions (pH, temperature) OMM-64 exhibits folding
      propensity. It was determined that OMM-64 binds approximately 61 calcium ions
      with millimolar affinity. The folding-unfolding experiments showed that calcium
      ions induced the collapse of OMM-64. The effect of other counter ions present in
      trout endolymph on OMM-64 conformational changes was studied. The significance of
      disordered properties of OMM-64 and the possible function of this protein is
      discussed.

PMID- 28866389
TI  - Environmental sustainability of the solar photo-Fenton process for wastewater
      treatment and pharmaceuticals mineralization at semi-industrial scale.
AB  - The environmental sustainability of a semi-industrial solar photo-Fenton reactor,
      treating real effluents emanating from a pharmaceutical laboratory, is assessed
      herein. The life cycle assessment/analysis (LCA) methodology was employed and
      real life cycle inventory (LCI) data was collected from a ferrioxalate-assisted
      homogeneous solar photo-Fenton wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), at Ciudad Real,
      Spain. Electricity was provided by photovoltaic (PV) panels in tandem with a
      battery bank, making the plant autonomous from the local grid. The effective
      treatment of 1m3 of secondary-treated pharmaceutical wastewater, containing
      antipyrine, was used as a functional unit. The main environmental hotspot was
      identified to be the chemical reagents used to enhance treatment efficiency,
      mainly hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and to a smaller degree oxalic acid. On the other
      hand, land use, PV panels, battery units, compound parabolic collectors (CPC),
      tanks, pipes and pumps, as materials, had a low contribution, ranging from as
      little as 0.06% up to about 2% on the total CO2eq emissions. Overall, the solar
      photo-Fenton process was found to be a sustainable technology for treating
      wastewater containing micropollutants at semi-industrial level, since the total
      environmental footprint was found to be 2.71kgCO2m-3 or 272mPtm-3, using IPCC
      2013 and ReCiPe impact assessment methods, respectively. A sensitivity analysis
      revealed that if the excess of solar power is fed back into the grid then the
      total environmental footprint is reduced. Depending on the amount of solar power
      fed back into the grid the process could have a near zero total environmental
      footprint.

PMID- 28866390
TI  - Fully integrated modelling for sustainability assessment of resource recovery
      from waste.
AB  - This paper presents an integrated modelling approach for value assessments,
      focusing on resource recovery from waste. The method tracks and forecasts a range
      of values across environmental, social, economic and technical domains by
      attaching these to material-flows, thus building upon and integrating
      unidimensional models such as material flow analysis (MFA) and lifecycle
      assessment (LCA). We argue that the usual classification of metrics into these
      separate domains is useful for interpreting the outputs of multidimensional
      assessments, but unnecessary for modelling. We thus suggest that multidimensional
      assessments can be better performed by integrating the calculation methods of
      unidimensional models rather than their outputs. To achieve this, we propose a
      new metric typology that forms the foundation of a multidimensional model. This
      enables dynamic simulations to be performed with material-flows (or values in any
      domain) driven by changes in value in other domains. We then apply the model in
      an illustrative case highlighting links between the UK coal-based electricity
      production and concrete/cement industries, investigating potential impacts that
      may follow the increased use of low-carbon fuels (biomass and solid recovered
      fuels; SRF) in the former. We explore synergies and trade-offs in value across
      domains and regions, e.g. how changes in carbon emissions in one part of the
      system may affect mortality elsewhere. This highlights the advantages of
      recognising complex system dynamics and making high-level inferences of their
      effects, even when rigorous analysis is not possible. We also indicate how
      changes in social, environmental and economic 'values' can be understood as being
      driven by changes in the technical value of resources. Our work thus emphasises
      the advantages of building fully integrated models to inform conventional
      sustainability assessments, rather than applying hybrid approaches that integrate
      outputs from parallel models. The approach we present demonstrates that this is
      feasible and lays the foundations for such an integrated model.

PMID- 28866391
TI  - Identifying socio-ecological networks in rural-urban gradients: Diagnosis of a
      changing cultural landscape.
AB  - Socio-ecological systems maintain reciprocal interactions between biophysical and
      socioeconomic structures. As a result of these interactions key essential
      services for society emerge. Urban expansion is a direct driver of land change
      and cause serious shifts in socio-ecological relationships and the associated
      lifestyles. The framework of rural-urban gradients has proved to be a powerful
      tool for ecological research about urban influences on ecosystems and on
      sociological issues related to social welfare. However, to date there has not
      been an attempt to achieve a classification of municipalities in rural-urban
      gradients based on socio-ecological interactions. In this paper, we developed a
      methodological approach that allows identifying and classifying a set of socio
      ecological network configurations in the Region of Madrid, a highly dynamic
      cultural landscape considered one of the European hotspots in urban development.
      According to their socio-ecological links, the integrated model detects four
      groups of municipalities, ordered along a rural-urban gradient, characterized by
      their degree of biophysical and socioeconomic coupling and different indicators
      of landscape structure and social welfare. We propose the developed model as a
      useful tool to improve environmental management schemes and land planning from a
      socio-ecological perspective, especially in territories subject to intense urban
      transformations and loss of rurality.

PMID- 28866392
TI  - Chemical composition and speciation of particulate organic matter from modern
      residential small-scale wood combustion appliances.
AB  - Combustion technologies of small-scale wood combustion appliances are
      continuously developed decrease emissions of various pollutants and increase
      energy conversion. One strategy to reduce emissions is the implementation of air
      staging technology in secondary air supply, which became an established technique
      for modern wood combustion appliances. On that account, emissions from a modern
      masonry heater fuelled with three types of common logwood (beech, birch and
      spruce) and a modern pellet boiler fuelled with commercial softwood pellets were
      investigated, which refer to representative combustion appliances in northern
      Europe In particular, emphasis was put on the organic constituents of PM2.5,
      including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs) and
      phenolic species, by targeted and non-targeted mass spectrometric analysis
      techniques. Compared to conventional wood stoves and pellet boilers, organic
      emissions from the modern appliances were reduced by at least one order of
      magnitude, but to a different extent for single species. Hence, characteristic
      ratios of emission constituents and emission profiles for wood combustion
      identification and speciation do not hold for this type of advanced combustion
      technology. Additionally, an overall substantial reduction of typical wood
      combustion markers, such as phenolic species and anhydrous sugars, were observed.
      Finally, it was found that slow ignition of log woods changes the distribution of
      characteristic resin acids and phytosterols as well as their thermal alteration
      products, which are used as markers for specific wood types. Our results should
      be considered for wood combustion identification in positive matrix factorisation
      or chemical mass balance in northern Europe.

PMID- 28866393
TI  - Occurrence, distribution and environmental risk of pharmaceutically active
      compounds (PhACs) in coastal and ocean waters from the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Spain).
AB  - In this study, we have evaluated the occurrence and distribution of 78
      pharmaceuticals in different aquatic marine environments from the Gulf of Cadiz
      (SW Spain) for the first time. The obtained results revealed that pharmaceuticals
      were present in seawater at total concentrations ranging 61-2133 and 16-189ngL-1
      in coastal and oceanic transects, respectively. Potential marine pollution
      hotspots were observed in enclosed or semi-enclosed water bodies (Cadiz Bay),
      showing concentrations that were one or two orders of magnitude higher than in
      the open ocean. The presence of these chemicals in local sewage treatment plants
      (STPs), one of the main contamination sources, was also assessed, revealing total
      concentrations of up to 23MUgL-1 in effluents. PhACs with the highest detection
      frequencies and concentrations in the sampling region were analgesics and anti
      inflammatories followed by antibiotics in the case of samples from Cadiz Bay or
      caffeine in oceanic seawater samples. Risk quotients, expressed as ratios between
      the measured environmental concentration (MEC) and the predicted no-effect
      concentrations (PNEC) were higher than 1 for two compounds (gemfibrozil and
      ofloxacin) in effluent of Jerez de la Frontera sewage treatment plant (STP). No
      high environmental risk was detected in both coastal and oceanic sampling areas,
      although the information available about the effects of these chemicals on marine
      biota is still very limited and negative effects on non-target species cannot be
      discarded.

PMID- 28866394
TI  - Direct and indirect effects of multiple stressors on stream invertebrates across
      watershed, reach and site scales: A structural equation modelling better
      informing on hydromorphological impacts.
AB  - The purpose of our approach was to take into account the nested spatial scales
      driving stream functioning in the description of pressures/ecological status
      links by analysing the results of a hierarchical model. The development of this
      model has allowed us to answer the following questions: Does the consideration of
      the indirect links between anthropogenic pressures and stream ecological status
      modify the hierarchy of pressure types impacting benthic invertebrates? Do the
      different nested scales play different roles in the anthropogenic
      pressures/ecological status relationship? Does this model lead to better
      understanding of the specific role of hydromorphology in the evaluation of stream
      ecological status? To achieve that goal, we used the Partial Least Square (PLS)
      path modelling method to develop a structural model linking variables describing
      (i) land use and hydromorphological alterations at the watershed scale, (ii)
      hydromorphological alterations at the reach scale, (iii) nutrients-organic matter
      contamination levels at the site scale, and (iv) substrate characteristics at the
      sampling site scale, to explain variation in values of a macroinvertebrate-based
      multimetric index: the French I2M2. We have highlighted the importance of land
      use effects exerted on both hydromorphological and chemical characteristics of
      streams observed at finer scales and their subsequent indirect impact on stream
      ecological status. Hydromorphological alterations have an effect on the substrate
      mosaic structure and on the concentrations of nutrients and organic matter at
      site scale. This result implies that stream hydromorphology can have a major
      indirect effect on macroinvertebrate assemblages and that the hierarchy of
      impacts of anthropogenic pressures on stream ecological status generally
      described in the literature - often determining strategic restoration priorities 
      has to be re-examined. Finally, the effects of nutrients and organic matter on
      macroinvertebrate assemblages are lower than expected when all the indirect
      effects of land use and hydromorphological alterations are taken into account.

PMID- 28866395
TI  - Tritium in river waters from French Mediterranean catchments: Background levels
      and variability.
AB  - Tritium background levels in various environmental compartments are deeply needed
      in particular to assess radiological impact, especially in river systems where
      most of releases from nuclear facilities are performed. The present study aims to
      identify the main environmental factors that influence tritium background levels
      in rivers at the regional scale. 41 samples were collected from 2014 to 2016
      along 17 small rivers in the south of France. All were located out of the
      influence of direct releases from nuclear facilities. Tritiated water (HTO)
      concentrations measured in water samples ranged from 0.12+/-0.11 to 0.86+/
      0.15BqL-1 and HTO concentrations in rains were modelled between 2015 and 2016
      over the study period referring to time series acquired from 1963 to 2014 at
      Thonon-les-Bains monitoring station. The results of tritium concentrations in
      rivers studied present a significant variability and are more than twice lower
      than forecasted values in rain. Multiple linear regressions allowed identifying
      that HTO concentration in rains, watershed area and altitude were the main tested
      parameters that are linked to the variability of HTO concentrations in the
      studied rivers. Finally, HTO fluxes delivered to the Mediterranean Sea by French
      coastal rivers out of influence of nuclear releases were estimated. The results
      highlight that those account for around 1% of HTO exported while 99% are
      transferred by the nuclearized Rhone River.

PMID- 28866396
TI  - Estimating premature mortality attributable to PM2.5 exposure and benefit of air
      pollution control policies in China for 2020.
AB  - In past decade of rapid industrial development and urbanization, China has
      witnessed increasingly persistent severe haze and smog episodes, posing serious
      health hazards to the Chinese population, especially in densely populated cities.
      Quantification of health impacts attributable to PM2.5 (particulates with
      aerodynamic diameter<=2.5MUm) has important policy implications to tackle air
      pollution. The Chinese national monitoring network has recently included direct
      measurements of ground level PM2.5, providing a potentially more reliable source
      for exposure assessment. This study reports PM2.5-related long-term mortality of
      year 2015 in 161 cities of nine regions across China using integrated exposure
      risk (IER) model for PM2.5 exposure-response functions (ERF). It further provides
      an estimate of the potential health benefits by year 2020 with a realization of
      the goals of Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) and the
      three interim targets (ITs) and Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) for PM2.5 by the
      World Health Organization (WHO). PM2.5-related premature mortality in 161 cities
      was 652 thousand, about 6.92% of total deaths in China during year 2015. Among
      all premature deaths, contributions of cerebrovascular disease (stroke), ischemic
      heart disease (IHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer
      (LC) and acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs) were 51.70, 26.26, 11.77,
      9.45 and 0.82%, respectively. The premature mortality in densely populated cities
      is very high, such as Tianjin (12,533/year), Beijing (18,817/year), Baoding
      (10,932/year), Shanghai (18,679/year), Chongqing (23,561/year), Chengdu
      (11,809/year), Harbin (9037/year) and Linyi (9141/year). The potential health
      benefits will be 4.4, 16.2, 34.5, 63.6 and 81.5% of the total present premature
      mortality when PM2.5 concentrations in China meet the APPCAP, WHO IT-1, IT-2, IT
      3 and AQG respectively, by the year 2020. In the current situation, by the end of
      year 2030, even if Chines government fulfills its own target to meet national
      ambient air quality standard of PM2.5 (35MUg/m3), total premature mortality
      attributable to PM2.5 will be 574 thousand across 161 cities. The present
      methodology will greatly help policy makers and pollution control authorities to
      further analyze cost and benefits of air pollution management programs in China.

PMID- 28866397
TI  - A mobile pool of contaminated sediment in the Penobscot Estuary, Maine, USA.
AB  - The natural recovery of estuaries from contamination is largely determined by the
      timescale over which contaminated sediment is exported or buried and replaced by
      cleaner sediment that enters from the watershed or the ocean. That timescale
      depends on the size of the "pool" of contaminated sediment that resides in the
      estuary. The larger the pool, the longer the recovery timescale for a given rate
      of sediment input. A field study was undertaken as part of a study of mercury
      contamination in the Penobscot estuary to assess the mechanisms affecting the
      transport and fate of contaminated sediment. Based on measurements of water
      properties, currents and sediment transport and seabed samples analyzed for
      sediment properties and contaminant concentrations, a "mobile pool" of
      contaminated sediment with relatively uniform geochemical characteristics along a
      20-km reach of the estuary was identified. This pool of sediment is mobilized
      seasonally by resuspension and trapping processes associated with salinity fronts
      that vary in location with discharge conditions. Sediment is transported down
      estuary during high discharge and up-estuary during low discharge, with seasonal,
      bi-directional transport of sediment in the estuary significantly exceeding the
      annual input of new sediment from the watershed. This continual, bi-directional
      transport leads to homogenization of the chemical properties of the mobile
      sediment, including contaminant concentrations. The large mass of mobile sediment
      relative to the input of sediment from the watershed helps explain the long
      recovery timescale of contaminants in the Penobscot estuary.

PMID- 28866398
TI  - Holistic assessment of occurrence and fate of metolachlor within environmental
      compartments of agricultural watersheds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metolachlor [(RS)-2-Chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methyl-phenyl)-N-(1
      methoxypropan-2-yl)acetamide] and two degradates (metolachlor ethane-sulfonic
      acid and metolachlor oxanilic acid) are commonly observed in surface and
      groundwater. The behavior and fate of these compounds were examined over a 12
      year period in seven agricultural watersheds in the United States. They were
      quantified in air, rain, streams, overland flow, groundwater, soil water,
      subsurface drain water, and water at the stream/groundwater interface. The
      compounds were frequently detected in surface and groundwater associated with
      agricultural areas. A mass budget approach, based on all available data from the
      study and literature, was used to determine a percentage-wise generalized
      distribution and fate of applied parent metolachlor in typical agricultural
      environments. RESULTS: In these watersheds, about 90% of applied metolachlor was
      taken up by plants or degraded, 10% volatilized, and 0.3% returned as rainfall.
      One percent was transported to surface water, while an equal amount infiltrated
      into the unsaturated zone soil water. <0.02% reached the groundwater. Subsurface
      flow paths resulted in greater degradation of metolachlor because degradation
      reactions had more time to proceed. CONCLUSIONS: An understanding of the
      residence times of water in the different environmental compartments, and the
      important processes affecting metolachlor as it is transported along flowpaths
      among the environmental compartments allows for a degree of predictability of
      metolachlor's fate. Degradates with long half-lives can be used (in a limited
      capacity) as tracers of metolachlor, because of their persistence and widespread
      occurrence in the environment.

PMID- 28866399
TI  - Temporal variations in a phytoplankton community in a subtropical reservoir: An
      interplay of extrinsic and intrinsic community effects.
AB  - The phytoplankton community structure is potentially influenced by both extrinsic
      effects originating from the surrounding environment and intrinsic effects
      relying on interspecific interactions between two species. However, few studies
      have simultaneously considered both types of effects and assessed the relative
      importance of these factors. In this study, we used data collected over nine
      months (August 2012-May 2013) from a typical subtropical reservoir in southeast
      China to analyze the temporal variation of its phytoplankton community structure
      and develop a quantitative understanding of the extrinsic and intrinsic effects
      on phytoplankton community dynamics. Significant temporal variations were
      observed in environmental variables as well as the phytoplankton and zooplankton
      communities, whereas their variational trajectories and directions were entirely
      different. Variance partitioning analysis showed that extrinsic factors
      significantly explained only 31% of the variation in the phytoplankton community,
      thus suggesting that these factors were incomplete predictors of the community
      structure. Random forest-based models showed that 48% of qualified responsible
      phytoplankton species were more accurately predicted by phytoplankton-only
      models, which revealed clear effects of interspecific species-to-species
      interactions. Furthermore, we used association networks to model the interactions
      among phytoplankton, zooplankton and the environment. Network comparisons
      indicated that interspecific interactions were widely present in the
      phytoplankton community and dominated the network rather than those between
      phytoplankton and extrinsic factors. These findings expand the current
      understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern phytoplankton community
      dynamics.

PMID- 28866400
TI  - Valorisation of N and P from waste water by using natural reactive hybrid
      sorbents: Nutrients (N,P,K) release evaluation in amended soils by dynamic
      experiments.
AB  - The removal of nutrients (nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P)) from waste water has
      become a resource recovery option in recent regulations worldwide, as observed in
      the European Union. Although both of these nutrients could be recovered from the
      sludge line, >70-75% of the N and P is discharged into the water line. Efforts to
      improve the nutrient recovery ratios have focused on developing low-cost
      technologies that use sorption processes. In this study, a natural zeolite
      (clinoptilolite type) in its potassium (K) form was impregnated with hydrated
      metal oxides and used to prepare natural hybrid reactive sorbents (HRS) for the
      simultaneous recovery of ammonium (NH4+) and phosphate (PO43-) from treated urban
      waste water. Three unfertile soils (e.g., one acidic and two basic) amended with
      N-P-K charged HRS were leached with deionized water (e.g. to simulate
      infiltration in the field) at two- and three-day time intervals over 15 different
      leaching cycles (equivalent to 15 bed volumes). The N-P-K leaching profiles for
      the three charged hybrid sorbents exhibited continuous nutrient release, with
      their values dependent on the composition of minerals in the soils. In the basic
      soil that is rich in illite and calcite, the release of potassium (K+) and
      ammonium (NH4+) is favoured by-ion exchange with calcium (Ca2+) and accordingly
      diminishes the release of phosphate (PO43-) due to its limited solubility in
      saturated calcite solutions (pH8 to 9). The opposite is true for sandy soils that
      are rich in albite (both acidic and basic), whereas the release of NH4+ and K+
      was limited and the values of both ions measured in the leaching solutions were
      below 1mg/L. Their leaching solutions were poor in Ca2+, and the release of PO43-
      was higher (up to 12mgP-PO43-/L). The nutrient releases necessary for plant
      growth were provided continuously and were controlled primarily by the soil
      mineral dissolution rates fixing the soil aqueous solution composition (e.g. pH
      and ionic composition; in particular, the presence of calcite is a determinant
      for nutrient release, especially in alkaline soils). The N-P-K charged HRS
      sorbents that were used for soil amendment may be an alternative for avoiding
      nutrient leaching and reaching the goals of soil sustainability in agriculture
      and reducing the nutrient overloading of surface waters.

PMID- 28866401
TI  - Nitrous oxide emission and denitrifier communities in drip-irrigated calcareous
      soil as affected by chemical and organic fertilizers.
AB  - The effects of consecutive application of chemical fertilizer with or without
      organic fertilizer on soil N2O emissions and denitrifying community structure in
      a drip-irrigated field were determined. The four fertilizer treatments were (i)
      unfertilized, (ii) chemical fertilizer, (iii) 60% chemical fertilizer plus cattle
      manure, and (iv) 60% chemical fertilizer plus biofertilizer. The treatments with
      organic amendments (i.e. cattle manure and biofertilizer) reduced cumulative N2O
      emissions by 4.9-9.9%, reduced the N2O emission factor by 1.3-42%, and increased
      denitrifying enzyme activities by 14.3-56.2%. The nirK gene copy numbers were
      greatest in soil which received only chemical fertilizer. In contrast, nirS- and
      nosZ-copy numbers were greatest in soil amended with chemical fertilizer plus
      biofertilizer. Chemical fertilizer application with or without organic fertilizer
      significantly changed the community structure of nirK-type denitrifiers relative
      to the unfertilized soil. In comparison, the nirS- and nosZ-type denitrifier
      genotypes varied in treatments receiving organic fertilizer but not chemical
      fertilizer alone. The changes in the denitrifier communities were closely
      associated with soil organic carbon (SOC), NO3-, NH4+, water holding capacity,
      and soil pH. Modeling indicated that N2O emissions in this soil were primarily
      associated with the abundance of nirS type denitrifying bacteria, SOC, and NO3-.
      Overall, our findings indicate that (i) the organic fertilizers increased
      denitrifying enzyme activity, increased denitrifying-bacteria gene copy numbers,
      but reduced N2O emissions, and (ii) nirS- and nosZ-type denitrifiers were more
      sensitive than nirK-type denitrifiers to the organic fertilizers.

PMID- 28866402
TI  - Human health risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the urban soils of
      Nanjing, China.
AB  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a major group of toxic pollutants in
      urban areas. We calculated the critical concentrations of PAHs in the urban soils
      of Nanjing, China based on a human health risk assessment. In the study area, the
      risk was divided into four levels and toxic equivalent values of benzo[a]pyrene
      (BaPeq) corresponded to <70ngg-1, 70-700ngg-1, 700-7000ngg-1, and >7000ngg-1. By
      this standard, most urban areas in Nanjing fall under level II (potentially low
      risk), while older urban districts, commercial centers, and transportation
      centers exceed the critical concentration (level III) at present. Additionally,
      the correlations between PAH concentrations, factors associated with
      urbanization, and soil properties were analyzed. Population density and black
      carbon content were determined to be the key factors involved. Multiple linear
      regression models and the scenario simulation method were used to predict PAH
      levels in urban soils through 2030. The results indicated that the future
      distribution characteristics of soil BaPeq under various scenarios were different
      than at present, but PAH concentrations remained stable only under the low-carbon
      scenario. Therefore, the consumption of traditional fossil fuels should be
      controlled and replaced with alternative energy sources. In addition, the growth
      of traffic land use should be controlled in the southern and southwestern parts
      of the urban area.

PMID- 28866403
TI  - Operation setup of a nanofiltration membrane unit for purification of two-phase
      olives and olive oil washing wastewaters.
AB  - In this research work, the purification of olives and olive oil washing
      wastewaters from two-phase extraction mills by a novel polymeric NF membrane is
      addressed. The effluent was previously subjected to a physicochemical secondary
      tertiary treatment previously optimized at pilot and industrial scales. Within
      the adequate operating conditions, suspended solids could be completely removed,
      and the EC was considerable lowered down to good quality values acceptable for
      irrigation purposes (1.9-2.0mScm-1), whereas the chemical oxygen demand was
      reduced below 31.9mgL-1. The standards for discharging in public waterways or
      reusing the final treated effluent for irrigation with acceptable quality were
      therefore accomplished. Moreover, the performance of the NF membrane ranged
      between 2.82 and 6.96Lh-1m-2bar-1, that is, a flux of up to 160Lh-1m-2 at 25bar.
      Furthermore, the 15-minute acid cleaning plus 15-minute alkaline/detergent
      cleaning could recover satisfactorily the permeability of the membrane. The
      necessary overdesign of the membrane operation was estimated as 9.42-17.53%,
      which meant a maximum required membrane area of 61.82m2. Hence, just 2 membrane
      modules should be implemented in a medium-sized mill to engineer the operation,
      boosting the economic feasibility of the proposed process both from operational
      and capital costs point of views.

PMID- 28866404
TI  - Fresh water, marine and terrestrial cyanobacteria display distinct allergen
      characteristics.
AB  - During the last decades, global cyanobacteria biomass increased due to climate
      change as well as industrial usage for production of biofuels and food
      supplements. Thus, there is a need for thorough characterization of their
      potential health risks, including allergenicity. We therefore aimed to identify
      and characterize similarities in allergenic potential of cyanobacteria
      originating from the major ecological environments. Different cyanobacterial taxa
      were tested for immunoreactivity with IgE from allergic donors and non-allergic
      controls using immunoblot and ELISA. Moreover, mediator release from human
      FcepsilonR1-transfected rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) cells was measured,
      allowing in situ examination of the allergenic reaction. Phycocyanin content and
      IgE-binding potential were determined and inhibition assays performed to evaluate
      similarities in IgE-binding epitopes. Mass spectrometry analysis identified IgE
      reactive bands ranging between 10 and 160kDa as phycobiliprotein compounds.
      Levels of cyanobacterial antigen-specific IgE in plasma of allergic donors and
      mediator release from sensitized RBL cells were significantly higher compared to
      non-allergic controls (p<0.01). Inhibition studies indicated cross-reactivity
      between IgE-binding proteins from fresh water cyanobacteria and phycocyanin
      standard. We further addressed IgE-binding characteristics of marine water and
      soil-originated cyanobacteria. Altogether, our data suggest that the intensive
      use and the strong increase in cyanobacterial abundance due to climate change
      call for increasing awareness and further monitoring of their potential health
      hazards.

PMID- 28866405
TI  - Impacts of future climate and land cover changes on threatened mammals in the
      semi-arid Chinese Altai Mountains.
AB  - Dryland biodiversity plays important roles in the fight against desertification
      and poverty, but is highly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change.
      However, little research has been conducted on dual pressure from climate and
      land cover changes on biodiversity in arid and semi-arid environments.
      Concequntly, it is crutial to understand the potential impacts of future climate
      and land cover changes on dryland biodiversity. Here, using the Chinese Altai
      Mountains as a case study area, we predicted the future spatial distributions and
      local assemblages of nine threatened mammal species under projected climate and
      land cover change scenarios for the period 2010-2050. The results show that
      remarkable declines in mammal species richness as well as high rates of species
      turnover are seen to occur across large areas in the Chinese Altai Mountains,
      highlighting an urgent need for developing protection strategies for areas
      outside of current nature reserve network. The selected mammals are predicted to
      lose more than 50% of their current ranges on average, which is much higher than
      species' range gains (around 15%) under future climate and land cover changes.
      Most of the species are predicted to contract their ranges while moving eastwards
      and to higher altitudes, raising the need for establishing cross-border migration
      pathways for species. Furthermore, the inclusion of land cover changes had
      notable effects on projected range shifts of individual species under climate
      changes, demonstrating that land cover changes should be incorporated into the
      assessment of future climate impacts to facilitate biodiversity conservation in
      arid and semi-arid environments.

PMID- 28866406
TI  - Rapid startup of thermophilic anaerobic digester to remove tetracycline and
      sulfonamides resistance genes from sewage sludge.
AB  - Spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) originating from sewage sludge is
      highlighted as an eminent health threat. This study established a thermophilic
      anaerobic digester using one-step startup strategy to quickly remove tetracycline
      and sulfonamides resistance genes from sewage sludge. At least 20days were saved
      in the startup period from mesophilic to thermophilic condition. Based on the
      results of 16S rDNA amplicons sequencing and predicted metagenomic method, the
      successful startup largely relied on the fast colonization of core thermophilic
      microbial population (e.g. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria). Microbial
      metabolic gene pathways for substrate degradation and methane production was also
      increased by one-step mode. In addition, real-time quantitative PCR approach
      revealed that most targeted tetracycline and sulfonamides resistance genes ARGs
      (sulI, tetA, tetO, tetX) were substantially removed during thermophilic digestion
      (removal efficiency>80%). Network analysis showed that the elimination of ARGs
      was attributed to the decline of their horizontal (intI1 item) and vertical
      (potential hosts) transfer-related elements under high-temperature. This research
      demonstrated that rapid startup thermophilic anaerobic digestion of wastewater
      solids would be a suitable technology for reducing quantities of various ARGs.

PMID- 28866408
TI  - Spectroscopic investigations on the interaction of thioacetamide with ZnO quantum
      dots and application for its fluorescence sensing.
AB  - The purpose of the present work was to develop a method for the sensing of
      thioacetamide by using spectroscopic techniques. Thioacetamide is a carcinogen
      and it is important to detect its presence in food-stuffs. Semiconductor quantum
      dots are frequently employed as sensing probes since their absorption and
      fluorescence properties are highly sensitive to the interaction with substrates
      present in the solution. In the present work, the interaction between
      thioacetamide and ZnO quantum dots has been investigated by using UV-visible,
      fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy. Besides, dynamic light scattering (DLS)
      has also been utilized for the interaction studies. UV-visible absorption studies
      indicated the bonding of the lone pair of sulphur atom of thioacetamide with the
      surface of the semiconductor. The fluorescence band of the ZnO quantum dots was
      found to be quenched in the presence of micromolar concentrations of
      thioacetamide. The quenching was found to follow the Stern-Volmer relationship.
      The Stern-Volmer constant was evaluated to be 1.20*105M-1. Infrared spectroscopic
      measurements indicated the participation of the NH2 group and the sulphur atom of
      thioacetamide in bonding with the surface of the ZnO quantum dots. DLS
      measurements indicated that the surface charge of the semiconductor was shielded
      by the thioacetamide molecules.

PMID- 28866407
TI  - Removal of emerging organic contaminants in a poplar vegetation filter.
AB  - Vegetation filters (VFs), a type of land application system, are a robust
      technology based on natural treatment mechanisms for the removal of wastewater
      contaminants. Their capacity to attenuate emerging organic contaminants (EOCs)
      has not yet been evaluated. The present study reports the results of a 2-year EOC
      monitoring carried out using a poplar VF receiving wastewater primarily treated
      by an Imhoff tank. The compounds selected included analgesics, a beta-adrenergic
      blocker, stimulants, an anticonvulsant, an anti-depressant, an anti-inflammatory,
      an antibiotic and analgesic and stimulant metabolites. EOCs were analysed in the
      Imhoff tank effluent, in the infiltrated water at a depth of 90cm and in the
      groundwater at a depth of 10m. The results demonstrated that EOC attenuation was
      more significant in the first 90cm than in the rest of the soil profile. The
      removal efficiency for all of the selected EOCs was higher than 90% with the
      exception of ketoprofen, which may pose a higher threat of groundwater
      contamination. The observed attenuation correlated with the hydrophobicity and
      charge state of the EOCs. The higher persistence of the metabolites 4-AAA and 4
      FAA shows that progression in the degradation pathway does not always imply a
      mitigation of contamination.

PMID- 28866409
TI  - Intermolecular vibrational modes and H-bond interactions in crystalline urea
      investigated by terahertz spectroscopy and theoretical calculation.
AB  - The characteristic absorption spectra of crystalline urea in 0.6-1.8 THz region
      have been measured by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy at room temperature
      experimentally. Five broad absorption peaks were observed at 0.69, 1.08, 1.27,
      1.47 and 1.64 THz respectively. Moreover, density functional theory (DFT)
      calculation has been performed for the isolated urea molecule, and there is no
      infrared intensity in the region below 1.8 THz. This means that single molecule
      calculations are failure to predict the experimental spectra of urea crystals. To
      simulate these spectra, calculations on a cluster of seven urea molecules using
      M06-2X and B3LYP-D3 are performed, and we found that M06-2X perform better. The
      observed THz vibrational modes are assigned to bending and torsional modes
      related to the intermolecular H-bond interactions with the help of potential
      energy distribution (PED) method. Using the reduced-density-gradient (RDG)
      analysis, the positions and types of intermolecular H-bond interactions in urea
      crystals are visualized. Therefore, we can confirm that terahertz spectroscopy
      can be used as an effective means to detect intermolecular H-bond interactions in
      molecular crystals.

PMID- 28866410
TI  - Additive-induced aggregate changes of two structurally similar dyes in aqueous
      solutions: A comparative photophysical study.
AB  - Absorption and emission spectral characteristics of the two structurally similar
      phenothiazine dyes, azure B and toluidine blue, in aqueous solutions of the two
      sets of molecular additives (ureas and monosaccharides) were studied as a
      function of the dye and additive concentrations. The absorption spectra of the
      dyes were also studied in pure tetramethylurea with an aprotic nature. The
      spectral data were analyzed using DECOM Program. The dimer structure of the
      interacting molecules in these dyes was discussed using the exciton model. The
      urea class of additives was found to act as water structure-breakers over the
      range of studied concentration. The carbohydrate additives were found to act as
      water structure-breakers at low concentrations. However, the water structure
      breaking process may be disfavored by the additive-additive interactions at
      higher concentrations. It can be concluded that at low additive concentrations,
      the main driving force for breaking the dye association is water-additive
      interaction, which disrupts the water hydrogen bonds induced by the additives.
      However, at the high additive concentrations, the different phenomena including
      additive-additive and additive-dye interactions can change the structure,
      strength, and aggregative properties of the dyes. Finally, the urea in water
      induces noticeably fluorescence quenching in emission spectra of both the dyes.

PMID- 28866411
TI  - Colorimetric and fluorimetric detection of Hg2+ and Cr3+ by boronic acid
      conjugated rhodamine derivatives: Mechanistic aspects and their bio-imaging
      application in bacterial cells.
AB  - Colorimetric and fluorimetric detection of toxic metal ions such as Hg2+ and Cr3+
      has gained tremendous popularity over the conventional methods due to their
      operational simplicity, high selectivity, and speediness. Although numerous
      colorimetric and fluorescent receptors for Hg2+ or Cr3+ were reported in the
      literature, boronic acid-based receptors for these metal ions are rather scarce
      in the literature. Hence, in the present study dual function boronic acid
      conjugated rhodamine derivatives were developed, and their toxic metal ion
      detection abilities were studied by absorption, emission and visual detection
      methods. Absorption and emission spectral studies revealed that these derivatives
      displayed selectivity towards Hg2+, Cr3+ and Fe3+ among the other metal ions
      studied by forming new absorption band. Both the derivatives exhibited
      colorimetric response towards Hg2+ and Cr3+ by the change in color of the
      solution to pink and reddish pink with Fe3+. The detailed mechanism involved in
      the detection of Hg2+ was deduced by 1H NMR and ESI-MS studies. Further, these
      derivatives were used for fluorescence imaging of Hg2+ and Cr3+ in S. aureus
      bacterial cells. Thus the present manuscript demonstrated the use of boronic acid
      conjugated rhodamine derivatives as a dual function (colorimetric and
      fluorescent) probes and as imaging agents for Hg2+ and Cr3+, which are known for
      their toxic influence on bacterial cells.

PMID- 28866412
TI  - Boron difluoride dibenzoylmethane derivatives: Electronic structure and
      luminescence.
AB  - Electronic structure and optical properties of boron difluoride
      dibenzoylmethanate and four of its derivatives have been studied by X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy, absorption and luminescence spectroscopy and quantum
      chemistry (DFT, TDDFT). The relative quantum luminescence yields have been
      revealed to correlate with charge transfers of HOMO-LUMO transitions, energy
      barriers of aromatic substituents rotation and the lifetime of excited states in
      the investigated complexes. The bathochromic shift of intensive bands in the
      optical spectra has been observed to occur when the functional groups are
      introduced into p-positions of phenyl cycles due to destabilizing HOMO levels.
      Calculated energy intervals between electronic levels correlate well with XPS
      spectra structure of valence and core electrons.

PMID- 28866413
TI  - Nano-structural comparison of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine- and
      ethylene glycol-based surface modification for preventing protein and cell
      adhesion.
AB  - Polymer brush, owing to its precisely controllable nanostructure, has great
      potential for surface modification in the biomedical field. In this study, we
      evaluated the bio-inertness of polymer brush, monomer monolayers, and polymer
      coated surfaces based on their structures, to identify the most effective bio
      inert modification. We focused on two well-known bio-inert materials, 2
      methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) and ethylene glycol (EG). The amount
      of adsorbed proteins on the surface was found to be dependent on the monomer unit
      density in the case of MPC, whereas this correlation was not observed in the case
      of EG. Cell adhesion was suppressed on the brush structure of both MPC and EG
      units, regardless of their density. The brush structure of MPC and EG units
      showed better anti-protein- and anti-cell-adhesion than monolayers and polymer
      coated surfaces. Thus, the steric repulsion was not only important in EG units
      based surface, but also in MPC-based surface. In addition, multiple polymer
      layers formed by MPC-based polymer coating also displayed similar properties.

PMID- 28866414
TI  - Bioactive carbon dots lights up microtubules and destabilises cell cytoskeletal
      framework - A robust imaging agent with therapeutic activity.
AB  - A class of bioactive, microtubule specific, self-targeted carbon dots (CDs) has
      been synthesised by simple one-step hydrothermal treatment with Catharanthus
      roseus as the precursor. Apart from excitation dependent multicolour fluorescence
      of as-prepared CDs, they were also attributed with an inherent affinity for
      microtubules of cell cytoskeletal framework. As prepared CDs in-vitro bio
      labelling and live cell imaging studies in NIH 3T3 cells illustrates their
      tubulin specific bio-labelling potential which lights up the cell microtubule
      framework prominently under all filters. The ability of as-prepared CDs to
      simultaneously label tubulin and effectuate microtubule depolymerisation and
      fragmentation enables us to track its therapeutic potential on a real time basis.
      The cascade of events starting from cellular uptake, microtubule labelling and
      subsequent cytoskeletal changes (microtubule fragmentation, depolymerisation and
      cytoplasmic constriction) have been investigated comprehensively in this work by
      flow cytometer, confocal microscope, AFM microscopy (Peak Force QNM) and FE-SEM
      analysis. In summary, this work outlines the synthesis, characterization and
      application of a new class of highly fluorescent self-targeted microtubule
      specific CDs as a potent bioactive imaging nanotags.

PMID- 28866415
TI  - Psychological sequelae of myocardial infarction.
AB  - Patient with myocardial infarction (MI) are often affected by psychological
      disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
      Psychological disorders are disabling and have a negative influence on recovery,
      reduce the quality of life and causes high mortality rate in MI patients. Despite
      tremendous advancement in technologies, screening scales, and treatment
      strategies, psychological sequelae of MI are currently understudied,
      underestimated, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. Depression is highly prevalent
      in MI patients followed by anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
      Pathophysiological factors involved in psychopathologies observed in patients
      with MI are sympathetic over-activity, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
      dysfunction, and inflammation. Numerous preclinical and clinical studies
      evidenced a positive association between MI and psychopathologies with a common
      molecular pathophysiology. This review provides an update on diagnostic feature,
      prevalence, pathophysiology, clinical outcomes, and management strategies of
      psychopathologies associated with MI. Moreover, preclinical research findings on
      molecular mechanisms involved in post-MI psychopathologies and future therapeutic
      strategies have been outlined in the review.

PMID- 28866416
TI  - Upregulation of miR-3607 promotes lung adenocarcinoma proliferation by
      suppressing APC expression.
AB  - Lung cancer is the leading cause of worldwide cancer-related deaths, although
      many drugs and new therapeutic approaches have been used, the 5-years survival
      rate is still low for lung cancer patients. microRNAs have been shown to regulate
      lung cancer initiation and development, here we studied the role of miR-3607 in
      lung cancer cell proliferation. We found miR-3607 was upregulated in lung cancer
      tissues and cells, miR-3607 overexpression promoted lung cancer cell A549
      proliferation determined by MTT assay, colony formation assay, anchorage
      independent growth ability assay and bromodeoxyuridine incorporation assay, while
      the opposite phenotypes were shown when miR-3607 was knocked down. Predicted
      analysis suggested a Wnt signaling pathway regulator adenomatous polyposis coli
      (APC) was the target of miR-3607, miR-3607 could directly bind to the 3'UTR of
      APC, and promoted Cyclin D1 and c-Myc expression which can be suppressed by APC.
      Double knockdown of miR-3607 and APC copied the phenotypes of miR-3607
      overexpression, suggesting miR-3607 promoted lung cancer cell A549 proliferation
      by targeting APC. In conclusion, our study suggested miR-3607 contributes to lung
      cancer cell proliferation by inhibiting APC.

PMID- 28866417
TI  - Effects of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides against doxorubicin-induced
      cardiotoxicity.
AB  - Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely used anthracycline derivative anticancer drug, but
      the use of DOX in clinical applications is limited by its cardiotoxicity. In the
      current research, we were aiming to assess the effects of Ganoderma lucidum
      polysaccharides (GLPS) on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and to illustrate the
      associated mechanisms. H9c2 rat cardiomyocytes were treated with DOX in the
      absence or presence of GLPS, and we found GLPS treatment ameliorated DOX-induced
      H9c2 cell death. Moreover, results of in vivo studies indicated that GLPS
      significantly decreased the serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine
      kinase (CK) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and attenuated DOX-induced
      histological changes of the heart tissues. In addition, we found DOX
      administration promoted myocardial apoptosis, potentiated oxidative stress,
      decreased the activities of antioxidant enzymes and increased the production of
      pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, GLPS pretreatment markedly attenuated all
      these untoward effects of DOX. Furthermore, GLPS pretreatment was found to
      inhibit Cul3-mediated K48-linked polyubiquitination of Nrf2 through suppressing
      Cul3 expression, thereby stabilizing Nrf2 expression in H9c2 cells after DOX
      treatment, leading to the decreased expression of P53 and p-P65 and increased
      levels of MDM2 and HO-1, resulted in the attenuated apoptosis, oxidative stress
      and inflammation induced by DOX.

PMID- 28866418
TI  - PEG modification of Amorfrutin B from Amorpha fructicosa increases gastric
      absorption, circulation half-life and glucose uptake by T3T-L1 adipocytes.
AB  - Through a simple PEG-conjugation of the natural product Amorfrutin B, we enhanced
      its pharmacokinetic profile. The PEGylated molecule displayed significantly
      improved gastrointestinal absorption (p<0.05) and had a longer systemic
      circulation life (p<0.05). Oral glucose tolerance study showed PEGylated
      Amorfrutin B displayed longer protection against oral glucose load compared to
      Amorfrutin B (p<0.05). It also showed significant improvement in glucose uptake
      in-vitro by T3T-L1 adipocytes (p<0.05). The PEGylated molecule also showed
      reduced propensity of crossing the blood brain barrier and accumulating in the
      brain (p<0.05). It also showed reduced accumulation in the adipose tissue.
      Preliminary liver and kidney toxicity screening showed no significant alteration
      in liver or kidney function of Amorfrutin B or its PEGylated form. In conclusion,
      PEG modification can be an attractive strategy to reduce lipophilicity and
      enhance pharmacokinetic properties of natural products, derived from traditional
      medicine.

PMID- 28866419
TI  - Erhuang Formula ameliorates renal damage in adenine-induced chronic renal failure
      rats via inhibiting inflammatory and fibrotic responses.
AB  - AIMS: The present study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of Erhuang
      Formula (EHF) and explore its pharmacological mechanisms on adenine-induced
      chronic renal failure (CRF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The compounds in EHF were
      analyzed by HPLC/MS. Adenine-induced CRF rats were administrated by EHF. The
      effects were evaluated by renal function examination and histology staining.
      Immunostaining of some proteins related cell adhesion was performedin renal
      tissues, including E-cadherin, beta-catenin, fibronectin and laminin. The qRT-PCR
      was carried out determination of gene expression related inflammation and
      fibrosis including NF-kappaB, TNF-alpha, TGF-beta1, alpha-SMA and osteopontin
      (OPN). RESULTS: Ten compounds in EHF were identified including liquiritigenin,
      farnesene, vaccarin, pachymic acid, cycloastragenol, astilbin, 3,5,6,7,8,3',4'
      heptemthoxyflavone, physcion, emodin and curzerene. Abnormal renal function and
      histology had significant improvements by EHF treatment. The protein expression
      of beta-catenin, fibronectin and laminin were significantly increased and the
      protein expression of E-cadherin significantly decreased in CRF groups. However,
      these protein expressions were restored to normal levels in EHF group.
      Furthermore, low expression of PPARgamma and high expression of NF-kappaB, TNF
      alpha, TGF-beta1, alpha-SMA and OPN were substantially restored by EHF treatment
      in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSIONS: EHF ameliorated renal damage in adenine
      induced CRF rats, and the mechanisms might involve in the inhibition of
      inflammatory and fibrotic responses and the regulation of PPARgamma, NF-kappaB
      and TGF-beta signaling pathways.

PMID- 28866420
TI  - Protective effects of phloridzin against methotrexate-induced liver toxicity in
      rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver is the largest internal organ concerning with metabolism,
      hormonal balance and clarifying of the toxins. One of the main complications of
      methotrexate (MTX) therapy was the hepatic injury. OBJECTIVE: This study was
      conducted to elucidate the possible protective effects of phloridzin (PHL)
      against MTX-induced hepatotoxicity as compared to standard agent N-acetylcysteine
      (NAC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were randomly divided into a normal control
      group, a respective group (PHL 40mg/kg/day orally (p.o.) for 10 consecutive
      days), a hepatotoxicity control group (MTX 20mg/kg, i.p., once), and three
      treated groups received NAC (150mg/kg/day; a reference standard), PHL
      (40mg/kg/day) and PHL (80mg/kg/day) p.o. for 10 consecutive days, at the end of
      the day 3 of the experiment rats were administered MTX. Assessed biomarkers
      included serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST)
      and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) as liver function parameters, serum tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and cyclooxygenase-II (COX-II), as inflammatory
      biomarkers, hepatic total antioxidant capacity (TAC), thiobarbituric acid
      reactive substances (TBARS), glutathione reduced (GSH), nitrite (NO2-), catalase
      (CAT), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) as
      oxidative stress biomarkers. Furthermore, hepatic caspase-3 expression was
      assessed. Biochemical and molecular estimations reinforced by histopathological
      findings. RESULTS: Rats pre-treated with PHL significantly reduced hepatic
      injury, evidenced by significant reductions in ALT, AST and LDH, TNF-alpha and
      COX-II levels, significant reductions in hepatic NO2- and TBARS levels, and
      significant elevations in hepatic TAC, GSH, GST, CAT and SOD levels.
      Additionally, downregulation of hepatic caspase-3 expression. Finally,
      histopathological results consistent with our previous findings. CONCLUSION: PHL
      protects against hepatic injury in rats mainly through mitigation of oxidative
      stress, inflammation and apoptosis in hepatic tissues and may be promising to
      alleviate and early treatment of MTX-induced hepatoxicity in man.

PMID- 28866423
TI  - Modelling heavy metals build-up on urban road surfaces for effective stormwater
      reuse strategy implementation.
AB  - Urban road stormwater is an alternative water resource to mitigate water shortage
      issues in the worldwide. Heavy metals deposited (build-up) on urban road surface
      can enter road stormwater runoff, undermining stormwater reuse safety. As heavy
      metal build-up loads perform high variabilities in terms of spatial distribution
      and is strongly influenced by surrounding land uses, it is essential to develop
      an approach to identify hot-spots where stormwater runoff could include high
      heavy metal concentrations and hence cannot be reused if it is not properly
      treated. This study developed a robust modelling approach to estimating heavy
      metal build-up loads on urban roads using land use fractions (representing
      percentages of land uses within a given area) by an artificial neural network
      (ANN) model technique. Based on the modelling results, a series of heavy metal
      load spatial distribution maps and a comprehensive ecological risk map were
      generated. These maps provided a visualization platform to identify priority
      areas where the stormwater can be safely reused. Additionally, these maps can be
      utilized as an urban land use planning tool in the context of effective
      stormwater reuse strategy implementation.

PMID- 28866421
TI  - In vivo antileishmanial activity and histopathological evaluation in Leishmania
      infantum infected hamsters after treatment with a furoxan derivative.
AB  - N-oxide derivatives compounds such as furoxan and benzofuroxan are promising
      scaffolds for designing of new antileishmanial drugs. A series of furoxan (1,2,5
      oxadiazole 2-N-oxide) (compounds 4a-b, and 14a-f) and benzofuroxan
      (benzo[c][1,2,5]oxadiazole1-N-oxide) (compounds 8a-c) derivatives were evaluated
      against in vitro cultured L. infantum promastigotes and amastigotes. The
      compounds exhibited activity against promastigote and intracellular amastigote
      forms with EC50 values ranging from 2.9 to 71.2MUM and 2.1 to 18.2MUM,
      respectively. The most promising compound, 14e, showed good antileishmanial
      activity (EC50=3.1MUM) against intracellular amastigote forms of L. infantum with
      a selectivity index, based on murine macrophages (SI=66.4), almost 3-times
      superior to that presented by the standard drug amphotericin B (AmpB). The
      efficacy of 14e to eliminate the parasites in vivo was also demonstrated.
      Treatment of L. infantum-infected hamsters with compound 14e at 3.0mg/Kg/day led
      to a meaningful reduction of parasite load in spleen (49.9%) and liver (54.2%),
      respectively; these data were corroborated by histopathological analysis, which
      also revealed reduction in the number of inflammatory cells in the liver of the
      treated animals. Moreover, histological analysis of the spleen and kidney of
      treated animals did not reveal alterations suggestive of toxic effects. The
      parasite load reduction might be related to NO production, since this molecule is
      a NO-donor. We observed neither side effects nor elevation of hepatic/renal
      biomarker levels in the plasma. The data herein presented suggest that the
      compound should be considered in the development of new drugs for treatment of
      visceral leishmaniasis.

PMID- 28866422
TI  - Alterations in cardiovascular function by particulate matter in rats using a
      crossover design.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate associations between
      cardiovascular effects and urban ambient particle constituents using an in vivo
      crossover experimental design. Ambient particles were introduced to an exposure
      chamber for whole-body exposure of WKY rats, where the particulate matter with an
      aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 MUm (PM2.5) mass concentration, particle number
      concentration, and black carbon (BC) were monitored. Organic carbon (OC),
      elemental carbon (EC), and soluble ions of PM2.5 were determined. In a crossover
      design, rats were exposed to ambient particles or high-efficiency particle
      arrestance (HEPA)-filtered control air for 7 days following a 7-day washout
      interval. The crossover exposure between particles and HEPA-filtered air was
      repeated 4 times. Radiotelemetric data on blood pressure (BP) [systolic BP (SBP),
      diastolic BP (DBP), pulse pressure (PP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP)], heart
      rate (HR), and heart rate viability (HRV) were subsequently obtained during the
      entire study. Exposure to the PM2.5 mass concentration was associated with
      decreases in the SBP, DBP, MAP, and HR (p < 0.05), whereas no significant changes
      in the BP or HR occurred with the particle number or black carbon. For HRV, the
      ln 5-min standard deviation of the normal-to-normal (NN) interval (LnSDNN) and
      the ln root mean square of successive differences in adjacent NN intervals
      (LnRMSSD) were positively associated with the PM2.5 mass concentration (p <
      0.05). There were no significant effects of the particle number concentration or
      BC on HRV. Alterations in the HR were associated with OC, EC, Na+, Cl-, and NO3-.
      Cl- was associated with the DBP, MAP, HR, SDNN, and RMSSD. NO3- was correlated
      with the SBP, MAP, HR, SDNN, and RMSSD. In conclusion, we observed cardiovascular
      responses to ambient particles in vivo using a crossover design which can reduce
      animal use in future environmental studies.

PMID- 28866424
TI  - Transfer of antibiotics from wastewater or animal manure to soil and edible
      crops.
AB  - Antibiotics are added to agricultural fields worldwide through wastewater
      irrigation or manure application, resulting in antibiotic contamination and
      elevated environmental risks to terrestrial environments and humans. Most studies
      focused on antibiotic detection in different matrices or were conducted in a
      hydroponic environment. Little is known about the transfer of antibiotics from
      antibiotic-contaminated irrigation wastewater and animal manure to agricultural
      soil and edible crops. In this study, we evaluated the transfer of five different
      antibiotics (tetracycline, sulfamethazine, norfloxacin, erythromycin, and
      chloramphenicol) to different crops under two levels of antibiotic-contaminated
      wastewater irrigation and animal manure fertilization. The final distribution of
      tetracycline (TC), norfloxacin (NOR) and chloramphenicol (CAP) in the crop
      tissues under these four treatments were as follows: fruit > leaf/shoot > root,
      while an opposite order was found for sulfamethazine (SMZ) and erythromycin
      (ERY): root > leaf/shoot > fruit. The growth of crops could accelerate the
      dissipation of antibiotics by absorption from contaminated soil. A higher
      accumulation of antibiotics was observed in crop tissues under the wastewater
      treatment than under manure treatment, which was due to the continual irrigation
      that increased adsorption in soil and uptake by crops. The translocation of
      antibiotics in crops mainly depended on their physicochemical properties (e.g.
      log Kow), crop species, and the concentrations of antibiotics applied to the
      soil. The levels of antibiotics ingested through the consumption of edible crops
      under the different treatments were much lower than the acceptable daily intake
      (ADI) levels.

PMID- 28866425
TI  - Impact of commuting exposure to traffic-related air pollution on cognitive
      development in children walking to school.
AB  - A few studies have found associations between the exposure to traffic-related air
      pollution at school and/or home and cognitive development. The impact on
      cognitive development of the exposure to air pollutants during commuting has not
      been explored. We aimed to assess the role of the exposure to traffic-related air
      pollutants during walking commute to school on cognitive development of children.
      We performed a longitudinal study of children (n = 1,234, aged 7-10 y) from 39
      schools in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) who commuted by foot to school. Children
      were tested four times during a 12-month follow-up to characterize their
      developmental trajectories of working memory (d' of the three-back numbers test)
      and inattentiveness (hit reaction time standard error of the Attention Network
      Test). Average particulate matter <=2.5 MUm (PM2.5), Black Carbon (BC) and NO2
      concentrations were estimated using Land Use Regression for the shortest walking
      route to school. Differences in cognitive growth were evaluated by linear mixed
      effects models with age-by-pollutant interaction terms. Exposure to PM2.5 and BC
      from the commutes by foot was associated with a reduction in the growth of
      working memory (an interquartile range increase in PM2.5 and BC concentrations
      decreased the annual growth of working memory by 5.4 (95% CI [-10.2, -0.6]) and
      4.6 (95% CI [-9.0, -0.1]) points, respectively). The findings for NO2 were not
      conclusive and none of the pollutants were associated with inattentiveness.
      Efforts should be made to implement pedestrian school pathways through low
      traffic streets in order to increase security and minimize children's exposure to
      air pollutants.

PMID- 28866426
TI  - Biophysics of Biochemical Signaling in Dendritic Spines: Implications in Synaptic
      Plasticity.
AB  - Dendritic spines are mushroom-shaped postsynaptic compartments that host
      biochemical signal cascades important for synaptic plasticity and, ultimately,
      learning and memory. Signaling events in spines involve a signaling network
      composed of hundreds of signaling proteins interacting with each other
      extensively. Synaptic plasticity is typically induced by Ca2+ elevation in
      spines, which activates a variety of signaling pathways. This leads to changes in
      the actin cytoskeleton and membrane dynamics, which in turn causes structural and
      functional changes of the spine. Recent studies have demonstrated that the
      activities of these proteins have a variety of spatiotemporal patterns, which
      orchestrate signaling activity in different subcellular compartments at different
      timescales. The diffusion and the decay kinetics of signaling molecules play
      important roles in determining the degree of their spatial spreading, and thereby
      the degree of the spine specificity of the signaling pathway.

PMID- 28866427
TI  - Influence of neck torsion on near point convergence in subjects with idiopathic
      neck pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with neck pain (NP) experience sensorimotor and oculomotor
      deficits thought to be due to abnormal cervical afferent input. Convergence
      insufficiency (CI) measured by near point convergence (NPC) may be a feature in
      NP and neck torsion might help to differentiate a cervical cause. OBJECTIVES:
      This study aimed to investigate repeatability and reliability of NPC in neutral
      and torsion and compare between idiopathic NP and controls along with correlation
      to the Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS). DESIGN: Comparative cross
      sectional observational study. METHOD: A Royal Airforce (RAF) Rule measured NPC
      with the neck in neutral and in 45 degrees  torsion to the left and right in 42
      subjects. A revised 15 item CISS was also completed. The average of 3 trials in
      each position and torsion difference were calculated. Within one week, NPC inter
      rater and test-retest reliability was evaluated in 10 subjects. RESULTS: A
      significant NPC torsion difference was demonstrated in participants with NP
      compared to controls (P = 0.01). No significant differences were seen for NPC
      values in neutral (P = 0.73). High inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.95) and
      repeatability (ICC = 0.84) was obtained. No correlations were present between the
      CISS and NPC measures (r <= 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: NPC is impaired in neck torsion
      compared to neutral in NP supporting a cervical afferent cause. NPC, measured
      using the RAF Rule, is a reliable and repeatable measure and can be used to
      assess NPC and CI in those with NP. Objective rather than self-reported measures
      should be used to examine CI in NP.

PMID- 28866429
TI  - Demystifying Medical Science: We're Here to Help.

PMID- 28866428
TI  - Ultrasound imaging transducer motion during standing postural tasks with and
      without using transducer fixator.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Changes in the orientation of ultrasound (US) transducer relative to
      the body surface during dynamic standing tests can affect US measurements.
      OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate ultrasound imaging transducer
      motion while measuring the lateral abdominal muscle thickness during standing
      tasks with and without using transducer fixator (TF). DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      experimental study. METHODS: A digital optical motion analysis system was used to
      assess the motions of US transducer during double-leg stance in different levels
      of platform stability of Biodex Balance System (BBS) (static, levels 6 and 3)
      with and without using TF in 45 healthy individuals. In addition, lateral
      abdominal muscle thickness was evaluated by US imaging. RESULTS: The results
      indicated that the amount of angular and linear transducer motions during static
      and dynamic standing tasks significantly decreased by the use of TF as compared
      to the conditions without TF (P < 0.001, effect size> 0.84). CONCLUSION: TF can
      significantly control US transducer motions within acceptable threshold limits
      during standing postural task. This may improve the clinical application of US
      imaging.

PMID- 28866431
TI  - Outcomes of stage II endometrial cancer: The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
      experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: Previous studies of stage II endometrial cancer have included cancers
      with cervical glandular involvement, a factor no longer associated with risk of
      recurrence. In order to better assess relapse patterns and the impact of adjuvant
      therapy, a retrospective analysis was conducted for patients with modern stage II
      endometrial cancer, defined as cervical stromal invasion. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Patients diagnosed with surgically staged FIGO stage II endometrial cancer at the
      UPMC Hillman Cancer Center from 1990-2013 were reviewed. Factors associated with
      rates of locoregional control (LRC), distant metastasis (DM), disease-free
      survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were analyzed using the log rank test.
      RESULTS: 110 patients with FIGO stage II disease were identified. Most (84.5%)
      received EBRT+/-BT, with 13.6% receiving BT alone. With a median follow-up of
      64.6months, the 5-year actuarial rates of LRC, DM, DFS, and OS were 94.9%, 85.1%,
      67.9%, and 75.0%, respectively. With 5 locoregional failures, the only factor
      predictive of LRC was pelvic lymph node dissection. Characteristics associated
      with DM included age, LVSI, depth of myometrial invasion, and receipt of
      chemotherapy. Factors predictive of both DFS and OS were age, grade, adverse
      histology, LVSI, depth of myometrial invasion, and receipt of chemotherapy.
      CONCLUSIONS: This represents the largest single-institution study for modern
      stage II endometrial cancer, confirming high rates of pelvic disease control
      after surgery and adjuvant therapy. With most patients receiving adjuvant
      radiotherapy, the predominant mode of failure, albeit low in absolute number,
      remains distant metastases.

PMID- 28866432
TI  - [Statins in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease].
AB  - Cardiovascular events are the second leading cause of death in France. The
      assessment of overall cardiovascular risk using a personalized assessment with
      weighting risk factors can predict the risk of cardiovascular events in ten
      years. The validated treatments to reduce cardiovascular mortality in primary
      prevention are few. The use of statins in primary prevention is discussed. We
      report in this review the updated conclusions from clinical trials regarding the
      treatment with statins in primary prevention.

PMID- 28866430
TI  - The role of MicroRNA molecules and MicroRNA-regulating machinery in the
      pathogenesis and progression of epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - MicroRNA molecules are small, single-stranded RNA molecules that function to
      regulate networks of genes. They play important roles in normal female
      reproductive tract biology, as well as in the pathogenesis and progression of
      epithelial ovarian cancer. DROSHA, DICER, and Argonaute proteins are components
      of the microRNA-regulatory machinery and mediate microRNA production and
      function. This review discusses aberrant expression of microRNA molecules and
      microRNA-regulating machinery associated with clinical features of epithelial
      ovarian cancer. Understanding the regulation of microRNA molecule production and
      function may facilitate the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic
      strategies to improve the prognosis of women with epithelial ovarian cancer.
      Additionally, understanding microRNA molecules and microRNA-regulatory machinery
      associations with clinical features may influence prevention and early detection
      efforts.

PMID- 28866433
TI  - Multivariate brain network graph identification in functional MRI.
AB  - Motivated by recent interest in identification of functional brain networks, we
      develop a new multivariate approach for functional brain network identification
      and name it as Multivariate Vector Regression-based Connectivity (MVRC). The
      proposed MVRC method regresses time series of all regions to those of other
      regions simultaneously and estimates pairwise association between two regions
      with consideration of influence of other regions and builds the adjacency matrix.
      Next, modularity method is applied on the adjacency matrix to detect communities
      or functional brain networks. We compare the proposed MVRC method with existing
      methods ranging from simple Pearson correlation to advanced Multivariate Adaptive
      Sparse Representation (ASR) methods. Experimental results on simulated and real
      fMRI dataset demonstrate that MVRC is able to extract functional brain networks
      that are consistent with the literature. Also, the proposed MVRC method is 650
      750 times faster compared to the existing ASR method on 90 node network.

PMID- 28866434
TI  - Gender, social class, and women's employment.
AB  - People in low-power positions, whether due to gender or class, tend to exhibit
      other-oriented rather than self-oriented behavior. Women's experiences at work
      and at home are shaped by social class, heightening identification with gender
      for relatively upper class women and identification with class for relatively
      lower class women, potentially mitigating, or even reversing, class-based
      differences documented in past research. Gender-class differences are reflected
      in women's employment beliefs and behaviors. Research integrating social class
      with gendered experiences in homes and workplaces deepens our understanding of
      the complex interplay between sources of power and status in society.

PMID- 28866435
TI  - A contextual model of self-regulation change mechanisms among individuals with
      addictive disorders.
AB  - Numerous behavioral treatments for addictive disorders include components
      explicitly aimed at targeting self-regulation (e.g., coping and emotion
      regulation). We first provide a summary of key findings to date among studies
      that have examined self-regulation as a mechanism of behavior change (MOBC) in
      behavioral treatments for addictive disorders. Based on our review, we conclude
      that the role of self-regulation as a MOBC across behavioral treatments for
      addictive disorders is not well-characterized and findings are inconsistent
      across studies. For example, our review indicates that there is still
      inconsistent evidence that coping is a unique MOBC in cognitive-behavioral
      approaches for addictive behaviors. We propose that there has been slow progress
      in understanding self-regulation as a MOBC in addiction treatment because of a
      lack of attention to contextual factors. Accordingly, in the second half of this
      paper, we propose a contextual model of self-regulation change mechanisms, which
      emphasizes that the role of various facets of self-regulation as MOBC may depend
      on contextual factors in the immediate situational context (e.g., fluctuating
      internal and external cues) and in the broader context in which an individual is
      embedded (e.g., major life stressors, environmental conditions, dispositions).
      Additionally, we provide specific recommendations to guide future research for
      understanding both between-person and within-person self-regulation MOBC in
      addiction treatment. In particular, we provide key recommendations for how to
      capitalize on intensive longitudinal measurement methods (e.g., ecological
      momentary assessment) when bringing a contextual perspective to the study of self
      regulation as MOBC in various addiction treatments.

PMID- 28866436
TI  - Exploration of Parent-Provider Communication During Clinic Visits for Children
      With Chronic Conditions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to explore the communication
      behaviors demonstrated by parents of children with chronic conditions and
      provider team members when communicating about the child's care in outpatient
      clinics using concepts from the Theory of Shared Communication (TSC). METHODS:
      This was a secondary data analysis of 30 previously recorded pediatric clinic
      visits. Communication among parents and provider team members was analyzed using
      a researcher-developed coding scheme based on the TSC. RESULTS: Provider team
      members dominated communication during clinic visits, showing more frequent use
      of asking, explaining, advocating, and negotiating behaviors than parents.
      Parents were engaged in communication with frequent asking, explaining, and
      advocating behaviors. DISCUSSION: Parents of children with chronic conditions and
      multidisciplinary providers demonstrated the communication behaviors of the TSC
      in an outpatient clinic setting. Provider dominance of communication in the
      clinic setting may disempower parents and impair relationships.

PMID- 28866437
TI  - Adiponectin prevents orthodontic tooth movement in rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective was to examine the effects of repetitive local
      administration of adiponectin on experimental tooth movement in rats. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: The maxillary right first molar of male Wistar rats (n=24) was moved
      mesially for 14days, with local adiponectin injections (0.2 or 2MUg) every third
      day. Micro-computed tomography was performed at days 0, 6 and 14 and molar
      movement, bone density and bone volume fraction were calculated from the scans.
      Changes in extracellular matrix collagen and cell numbers in the periodontal
      ligament were analyzed histologically, and levels of circulating cytokines were
      measured by Luminex and ELISA. RESULTS: Adiponectin injections induced a
      reduction in tooth movement after 12 and 14days compared to controls. No tooth
      movement was observed between days 3 and 14 in the group receiving the highest
      dosage (2MUg) of adiponectin. Differences in bone density and bone volume
      fractions between treatment and control groups were not identified. Relative size
      and morphology of collagen fibrils, and cell number in the periodontal region
      after adiponectin injections were unchanged compared to controls. Levels of
      circulating adiponectin or other selected factors in plasma were not influenced
      by the adiponectin injections. CONCLUSIONS: Submucosal injections of adiponectin
      prevented experimental tooth movement in rats. The effect was dosage-dependent
      and local. Adiponectin injections caused no detectable changes in bone density,
      periodontal cell number or collagen content.

PMID- 28866438
TI  - Observations on fluid flow from exposed dentine in primary teeth: An in vitro
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate fluid flow through dentine in primary teeth in vitro
      using the replica technique, and to compare the results with those obtained from
      permanent dentine. DESIGN: The experiments were carried out on 22 extracted,
      mandibular, primary, incisor teeth. The incisal edge was removed to 1mm below the
      dentino-enamel junction and half the exposed surface etched with phosphoric acid.
      The exposed dentine was blotted dry and the pressure in the pulp cavity held at
      0, 15, 30 or 45cm H2O above atmospheric for 30s. Fluid that accumulated on the
      dentine surface was recorded with impression material and a replica made with
      epoxy resin which was examined in a scanning electron microscope. RESULTS:
      Structures resembling fluid droplets were present in the replicas of unetched
      dentine in all 22 teeth, and at all the pulpal pressures tested. The droplets
      formed at 45cm H2O were significantly larger (median diam., 5.14mm; interquartile
      range, 3.26mm; Friedman repeated measures analysis of variance on ranks (RMAVR)
      and Tukey test) than those formed at other pressures. There was no evidence of
      droplets in the replicas of etched dentine with any of the pulpal pressures.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that fluid will tend to flow from dentine
      in deciduous teeth when it is exposed. They are similar to those obtained in a
      previous study in this laboratory on permanent teeth. The fact that fluid
      droplets were absent from etched dentine suggests that, after being blotted, the
      etched dentine matrix absorbed fluid that tended to flow out through the dentinal
      tubules.

PMID- 28866439
TI  - Ultrasound guided continuous transmuscular quadratus lumborum analgesia for open
      renal surgery: A case series.

PMID- 28866440
TI  - Neurofibromatosis type 1 and right mandibular hypoplasia: unusual diagnosis of
      occlusion of the left common carotid artery.

PMID- 28866441
TI  - Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Evaluation of Left Ventricular Myocardial Strain in
      Pulmonary Hypertension.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: We investigated the feasibility of detecting left
      ventricular (LV) cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) strain abnormalities using
      feature-tracking in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: CMR was performed in 16 patients with all groups of PH and in 13
      controls. Global and regional peak circumferential strains (%) (which have been
      shown to be robust by CMR), peak diastolic strain rate (%/s), and dyssynchrony
      index (ms) were quantified with feature-tracking software. Ventricular function
      and volumes were calculated from CMR, and right heart pressures were measured
      with catheterization. RESULTS: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was
      similar in patients (60.2% +/- 11.0%) and controls (61.9% +/- 4.5%), P = .150.
      Global LV peak circumferential strain was significantly different in patients
      compared to controls, -16.7 +/- 2.8% vs -19.9 +/- 1.8%, respectively (P = .001).
      The greatest difference in strain was seen in the LV septum, -11.6 +/- 4.3% in
      patients vs -16.7 +/- 4.0% in controls (P < .001). There was a significant
      association between septal strain and right ventricular end-diastolic volume
      index (P = .047) in patients with PH; however, there were no associations with
      pulmonary artery pressures or right ventricular ejection fraction. CONCLUSIONS:
      Feature-tracking CMR can detect LV strain abnormalities in patients with PH and
      preserved or mildly depressed LVEF, with greatest abnormality in the septum. The
      association between septal strain and right ventricular end-diastolic volume
      index suggests that ventricular interdependence may be a mechanism of LV
      dysfunction in PH. Feature-tracking CMR may be useful for identification of LV
      dysfunction before LVEF significantly declines in patients with PH. The
      feasibility of detecting LV strain abnormalities in patients with PH shown by
      this study paves the way for a variety of future investigations into the
      applications of LV strain in this patient population.

PMID- 28866443
TI  - Subminimal inhibitory concentration (sub-MIC) of antibiotic induces electroactive
      biofilm formation in bioelectrochemical systems.
AB  - Electroactive biofilms (EABs) generated from mixed inocula are attractive due to
      their unique direct extracellular electron transfer abilities and potential use
      in water pollution control. In this study, for the first time, we identified a
      chemical that can be used for EAB regulation (both inhibition and promotion). We
      confirmed that tobramycin, an antibiotic previously demonstrated to inhibit the
      activity of EABs, is an agonist of EAB formation at subminimal inhibitory
      concentrations (sub-MICs). Compared to the control, at tobramycin concentrations
      of 0.05 (1/80 MIC) and 0.1 mg/L (1/40 MIC), the time required to reach 3 A/m2 was
      shorter, and the limiting current densities increased by 17%. The enhanced EAB
      activity was primarily attributed to the 50% increase in biomass density from 289
      +/- 21 to 434 +/- 12 MUg protein/cm2 and the increased biofilm thickness from 28
      +/- 1 to 37 +/- 0.5 MUm. Geobacter species in the microbial communities were
      selectively increased from 76% to 82%, and their abundance was estimated to
      increase by 1.63-fold. The accelerated growth was further confirmed using the
      model strain G. sulfurreducens PCA. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that 0.05
      mg/L of tobramycin led to a significant upregulation of genes related to
      cytochromes and the type IV pilus, suggesting a possible mechanism for the
      observed current enhancement. These findings extend our knowledge of the
      regulation of EAB formation by antibiotics and the selective enrichment of
      Geobacter from a mixed culture, with broader implications on the potential impact
      of trace antibiotics on the dissimilatory metal reduction process in water
      environment.

PMID- 28866442
TI  - Passive material properties of stroke-impaired plantarflexor and dorsiflexor
      muscles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Following a stroke, intrinsic muscle properties such as stiffness may
      be altered, which is accompanied by increased spasticity and contractures.
      Previously, quantification of muscle stiffness has been based off of indirect
      measurements. Using shear wave ultrasound elastography, direct measurements of
      muscle material properties can be made. METHODS: Our aim was to evaluate material
      properties, specifically passive stiffness, using shear wave ultrasound
      elastography across a range of muscle lengths, in the medial gastrocnemius and
      the tibialis anterior in chronic stroke survivors. FINDINGS: Our main results
      show significant increases of 27.7% and 26.9% in shear wave velocity of stroke
      impaired medial gastrocnemius compared to the unimpaired contralateral side at 90
      degrees  ankle angle (P=0.033) and 15 degrees  plantarflexion (P=0.001),
      respectively. However, no significant difference was found in the tibialis
      anterior between the two sides. Relatively weak correlations were found between
      SW velocity in the medial gastrocnemius and joint stiffness for both the non
      paretic (rho=0.384, P=0.001), and paretic side (rho=0.363, P=0.002).
      Additionally, muscle stiffness estimates of stroke-impaired tibialis anterior
      from joint torque and angle measurements were significantly greater by 23.1%
      (P=0.033) than the unimpaired contralateral side. However, no significant
      difference was found in the medial gastrocnemius. INTERPRETATION: These results
      indicate that there are non-uniform changes in passive stiffness of stroke
      impaired muscle. Therefore, muscles need to be evaluated individually to assess
      alterations. Additionally, interpretation of joint-based calculations of muscle
      stiffness should be made cautiously. Having the ability to non-invasively assess
      muscle stiffness adaptations in vivo would aid in prognosis, evaluation, and
      treatment following a stroke.

PMID- 28866444
TI  - Palladized cells as suspension catalyst and electrochemical catalyst for
      reductively degrading aromatics contaminants: Roles of Pd size and distribution.
AB  - The palladized cell (Pd-cell) could be used as an efficient catalyst in
      catalyzing the degradations of a wide variety of environmental contaminants.
      Nevertheless, when the Pd NPs associate with the bacteria, the catalytic activity
      likely significantly affected by the biomass. Quantitative indicators that
      characterize of Pd-cell are necessary and little attention has been paid to
      investigate how the catalytic efficiency of Pd-cell is affected by the size and
      distribution of Pd NPs. To fill this gap, we explored the roles of the above
      mentioned key factors on the performance of Pd-cell in catalyzing the
      degradations of two aromatic contaminants (nitrobenzene and p-chlorophenol) in
      two commonly used scenarios: (1) using Pd-cell as suspended catalyst in solution
      and (2) using Pd-cell as electrocatalyst directly coated on electrode. In
      scenario (1), the relationship of exposing area to Pd particle size and
      distribution factors was established. Based on theoretical estimation and
      catalytic performance analysis, the results indicated that adjusting the exposing
      area to a large value (9.3 +/- 0.1 * 105 nm2 mg-1 Pd) was extremely effective for
      improving the catalytic activity of Pd-cell used as a suspension catalyst. In
      scenario (2), our results showed that the best electrocatalytic performances were
      achieved on the electrode decorated with Pd-cells with the largest NP size (54.3
      +/- 16.4 nm), which exerted maximum electrochemical active surface area (10.6 m2
      g-1) as well as favorable conductivity. The coverage of deposited Pd NPs (>95%)
      on the cell surface played a crucial role in boosting the conductivity of
      biocatalyst, thus determining the possibility of Pd-cell as an efficient
      electrocatalyst. The findings of this study provide a guidance for the synthesis
      and application of Pd-cell, which enables the design of Pd-cell to be suitable
      for different catalysis systems with high catalytic performance.

PMID- 28866445
TI  - Mainstream upflow nitritation-anammox system with hybrid anaerobic pretreatment:
      Long-term performance and microbial community dynamics.
AB  - Mainstream nitritation-anammox is of strong interest to energy- and resource
      efficient domestic wastewater treatment. However, there lack in-depth studies of
      pretreatment, tests of actual wastewater, and examination of long-term
      performance. Herein, an upflow nitritation-anammox granular reactor has been
      investigated to treat primary effluent with a hybrid anaerobic reactor (HAR) as
      pretreatment for more than 300 days. This system achieved 92% of COD removal, 75%
      of which was accomplished by the HAR, and had an average final effluent COD
      concentration of 22 mg L-1. More than 90% of ammonium was removed in the
      nitritation-anammox reactor, achieving a nitrogen removal rate of 81.0 g N m-3 d
      1 in the last stage. The accumulation of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the HAR
      evidenced the effect of sulfate on COD removal and subsequent nitrogen removal.
      Anammox bacteria (predominantly Ca. Jettenia asiatica) accounted for up to 40.2%
      of total granular communities, but their abundance decreased over time in the
      suspended communities. The dynamics of major metabolisms and functional genes
      involved in nitrogen conversion were predicted by PICRUSt based on the taxonomic
      data, providing more insights into the functions of the microbial communities.
      These results have demonstrated the effectiveness and importance of anaerobic
      pretreatment to successful mainstream nitritation-anammox.

PMID- 28866446
TI  - Augmentation of acyl homoserine lactones-producing and -quenching bacterium into
      activated sludge for its granulation.
AB  - Quorum sensing (QS), especially acyl homoserine lactone (AHL)-mediated QS, in
      activated sludge arouses great interests because of its vital role in the
      formation of biofilm and aerobic granules (AG). Although QS is reported to be
      largely related to the properties of activated sludge, it is not economically
      feasible to tune QS in an activated sludge reactor through dosing pure AHL or AHL
      hydrolase. A more reasonable way to tune QS is to augment reactors with AHL
      producing or -quenching bacteria. In this work, the impacts of continuous dose of
      AHL-producing or -quenching strains on the activated sludge during its
      granulation process were explored. Augmentation of AHL-producing or -quenching
      strains resulted in up- or down-regulation of the AHL concentration in the
      reactors. Granulation of activated sludge was also accomplished in all reactors,
      but the granules showed negligible or slight differences in the physicochemical
      properties of sludge, such as nutrients removal, biomass concentration,
      extracellular polymeric substances, and zeta potential. Interestingly, a smaller
      granule size was observed for both the reactor augmented with either an AHL
      quenching strain or an AHL-producing strain, suggesting that the AHL augmentation
      suppressed the biofilm development. Pyrosequencing analysis reveals that the
      granules cultured in the reactors varied widely in bacterial community structure,
      indicating that the AHL augmentation had a greater impact on the bacterial
      community structure, rather than on the physicochemical properties of activated
      sludge. These results demonstrate that the role of QS in the biofilm formation in
      complex wastewater treatment bioreactors should be re-evaluated.

PMID- 28866447
TI  - Efficacy of fronto-temporal transcranial direct current stimulation for
      refractory auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A randomized, double
      blind, sham-controlled study.
AB  - Persistent auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) that are refractory to
      antipsychotic medications are reported in about 20-30% of schizophrenia patients.
      Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive and safe
      neuromodulatory technique, has attracted significant interest as an add-on
      treatment for refractory AVH in schizophrenia. Studies examining the efficacy of
      tDCS for refractory AVH in schizophrenia have reported inconsistent findings. In
      this study, using a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled design (RCT), we
      sought to examine the effect of add-on tDCS [anode corresponding to left
      dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and cathode to left temporo-parietal junction; 2
      mA, twice-daily sessions for 5-days] to treat refractory AVH in schizophrenia
      patients (N=25); following this RCT phase, patients that had <30% reduction in
      AVH severity were offered an open-label extension (OLE) active stimulation to
      evaluate the effect of cross-over to verum tDCS. In the RCT phase, repeated
      measures ANOVA with tDCS type [verum (N=12) vs. sham (N=13)] as between subjects
      factor demonstrated a significant tDCS-type X time-point interaction [F=21.5,
      p<0.001, partial-eta2=0.48] with significantly greater reduction of AVH score in
      verum tDCS group as compared to sham group. In the OLE phase, sham-to-verum
      crossed over patients (N=13) showed significantly greater reduction in AVH
      severity than their corresponding change during RCT phase (t=2.9; p=0.01).
      Together, these observations add further support to the beneficial effects of add
      on tDCS to treat refractory AVH schizophrenia.

PMID- 28866448
TI  - Paradoxical elevation of systemic inflammatory markers and physical activity in
      patients with schizophrenia.

PMID- 28866449
TI  - Fractional flow reserve in below the knee arteries with critical limb ischemia
      and validation against gold-standard morphologic, functional measures and long
      term clinical outcomes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of fractional
      flow reserve measurement (FFR) in below-the-knee (BTK) arteries and to evaluate
      its correlation with non-invasive functional parameters before and after
      angioplasty. METHODS: We enrolled 39 patients with severe BTK arterial lesions.
      Inclusion criteria were critical limb ischemia (Rutherford 4-6) and
      angiographically proven arterial stenosis of the distal lower limb (percent
      diameter stenosis >=70%). Exclusion criteria were chronic total occlusion,
      diabetic foot syndrome and non-viable distal lower limb. The transstenotic
      distal/proximal pressure ratio was measured under resting (Pd/Pa) and hyperemic
      (FFR) conditions induced by 40mg intra-arterial Papaverin and was compared with
      quantitative angiography-, laser Doppler- and duplex ultrasound-derived
      measurements before and after percutaneous angioplasty (PTA). RESULTS: Comparing
      measurements before and after PTA, we found significant improvements in the
      resting Pd/Pa values (0.79 [0.67-0.90] vs 0.90 [0.85-0.97]; p<0.001) and FFR
      values (0.60+/-0.19 vs 0.76+/-0.15; p<0.001), respectively. At baseline, Pd/Pa
      ratio and FFR were significantly albeit weakly correlated with % area stenosis
      (r:-0.31, p=0.05 and r:-0.31, p=0.05, respectively). After PTA, neither Pd/Pa nor
      FFR remained correlated with % area stenosis. Similarly, prior PTA, Pd/Pa ratio
      and FFR were significantly correlated with TcO2% and perfusion unit change
      (r:0.48, p<0.01 and r:0.34, p<0.05, respectively), but after intervention, these
      significant correlations vanished. Pd/Pa and FFR values did not show correlation
      with duplex ultrasound-derived measurements. At 1year, major adverse events
      (MAEs) and major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (MACCEs) were
      observed in 7 (17.9%) and in 9 (23.1%) patients, respectively. CONCLUSION: CLI
      due to severe BTK arterial disease was associated with several impediments of
      baseline pressure measurements which were significantly improved after successful
      PTA and stenting. Significant relationships between pressure data and functional
      and imaging parameters existed prior intervention but vanished after. Further
      studies are required to determine the clinical value of pre- and post-PTA
      pressure measurements in BTK arterial disease.

PMID- 28866450
TI  - CFTR structure.
AB  - Structural studies of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator
      (CFTR) protein are critical to understand molecular mechanisms involved in gating
      of the apical anion channel as well as the way in which the gating is regulated,
      especially by the regulatory region (R region). They are also instrumental for
      understanding the root cause of cystic fibrosis (CF) and supporting the
      development of therapeutic strategies. In this short review, we summarize recent
      progress in the knowledge of the CFTR 3D structure and briefly discuss
      implications for CF drug development.

PMID- 28866451
TI  - Sexual and reproductive health care utilization and preferences reported by young
      women with cystic fibrosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to describe and compare the sexual and reproductive
      health (SRH) care utilization among young women with cystic fibrosis (CF) with
      the general United States (U.S.) population. METHODS: Women with CF ages 15
      24years from five geographically diverse U.S. CF centers participated in a survey
      investigating SRH. Results were summarized and compared to a nationally
      representative sample of young women aged 15-24 who participated in the U.S.
      National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) using logistic regression to adjust for
      confounders. RESULTS: A total of 188 women with CF (19.7+/-2.7years) completed
      the survey; data were compared to 1997 NSFG respondents (19.6+/-0.10years). Women
      with CF had lower lifetime rates of ever obtaining a Pap smear or pelvic exam
      (26% vs. 57%; p<0.001) and similar rates of HPV vaccination (44% vs. 43%; p=0.64)
      compared to NSFG respondents. Thirty-seven percent of women with CF reported
      seeking contraception and <10% reported contraceptive counseling, STI
      testing/counseling, or pregnancy testing in their lifetime. In the prior
      12months, 41% of NSFG respondents reported seeking contraception, 24% received
      contraceptive counseling, 22% STI testing/counseling, and 23% pregnancy testing.
      A minority of women with CF received or discussed SRH care in the CF setting,
      although 66% wanted to discuss SRH with their CF team. CONCLUSIONS: Young women
      with CF report low rates of SRH care utilization and desire SRH discussions in
      the CF setting. Interventions should target improved SRH care delivery and
      encourage patient-provider communication around SRH in the CF care setting.

PMID- 28866452
TI  - Circulating interleukin-6 levels and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in
      the elderly population: A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Inflammatory markers may be associated with mortality in the elderly
      population. We conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the association of
      elevated circulating interleukin-6 levels with cardiovascular or all-cause
      mortality in the general elderly population. METHODS: A comprehensive literature
      search was conducted through the Pubmed and Embase databases until April 2016.
      Prospective observational studies that investigated the association of
      circulating interleukin-6 levels with cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in
      the elderly general population (aged 60 years or more) were included. Pooled risk
      ratio (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by the highest vs.
      the lowest interleukin-6 levels. RESULTS: Nine prospective studies involving 9087
      participants were identified. When comparing the highest with the lowest
      interleukin-6 levels, the pooled RR of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular
      mortality were 1.49 (95% CI 1.33-1.67) and 1.69 (95% CI 1.27-2.25), respectively.
      Subgroup analysis indicated the effects of interleukin-6 on all-cause mortality
      were consistently observed in sample sizes, region, durations of follow-up,
      interleukin-6 cutoff value and number of adjusted for covariates subgroups.
      CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis indicates that elevated circulating interleukin-6
      levels are independently associated with greater risk of cardiovascular and all
      cause mortality in the general elderly population.

PMID- 28866453
TI  - Ponseti method is superior to surgical treatment in clubfoot - Long-term,
      randomized, prospective trial.
AB  - Treatment of idiopathic clubfoot has shifted from extensive surgical release to
      conservative Ponseti method; however, randomized prospective trials to compare
      both methods are lacking. The goal of this study was to compare the long-term
      results of Ponseti method with those of surgery in terms of morphology, function,
      X-rays, overall health and gait. In 2001, a single center, prospective,
      randomized, and controlled trial with a parallel design was started. Twenty-four
      feet of 15 patients were randomly assigned to two groups: 12 feet each to a
      Ponseti and surgical group. Mean follow-up was 10 years. International Clubfoot
      Study Group score (ICFSG), the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument
      (PODCI) and the Functional Rating System (FRS) were used to compare morphology,
      functional, radiological and subjective outcomes, and the Oxford Foot Model (OFM)
      was used to evaluate foot kinematics. No significant difference was seen between
      groups in the initial Pirani scores (p=0.618). Ponseti group had more favorable
      long-term outcomes according to the FRS (p=0.005), higher ICFSG, scores for
      morphology (p=0.021), function (p=0.005) and X-rays (p=0.02), and better parent
      reported functional status according to the PODCI (p=0.018). Surgically treated
      clubfeet were stiffer - ankle dynamic range of motion (p=0.015) and the maximal
      hindfoot dorsiflexion during gait were limited as measured by OFM (p=0.039). This
      was compensated by an increase in motion between the hindfoot and forefoot.
      Furthermore, these children had more difficulty playing sports and experienced
      more pain, which might have led to inferior results in the happiness domain of
      the PODCI. These results suggest that the Ponseti method provides superior long
      term outcomes for idiopathic clubfoot deformity.

PMID- 28866454
TI  - Gait abnormalities of COPD are not directly related to respiratory function.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess whether gait abnormalities in COPD depend on mere
      impairment of respiratory function. METHODS: In 40 patients with COPD at
      different GOLD stages and 28 controls, we evaluated: forced expiratory volume in
      1s (FEV1); partial pressure of oxygen; Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE);
      dynamic balance through the Mini-BESTest (MBT); Timed Up and Go (TUG) test
      without and with dual task counting aloud back by three; 6-min walk test (6MWT);
      body sway during quiet stance (stabilometry); spatial-temporal variables of gait
      by a 4-m long sensorized walkway (baropodometry). Lower-limb muscle strength,
      tendon reflexes, and sensation were also clinically evaluated. RESULTS: Muscle
      strength of proximal but not distal muscles was slightly reduced in patients,
      whereas reflexes and sensation were unaffected. FEV1, partial pressure of oxygen,
      MMSE, MBT, stabilometry, as well as baropodometry, were abnormal and unrelated to
      muscle weakness. The time taken to perform the TUG test was increased, and to a
      larger extent with than without dual task. At baropodometry, variability of step
      length was increased; abnormalities of gait variables were associated with larger
      body sway but not with FEV1 or hypoxemia. Gait speed at 6MWT was correlated with
      MBT score and with FEV1 as well as hypoxemia. CONCLUSIONS: 6MWT findings give a
      measure of gait disability linked to endurance-related respiratory failure. Gait
      at baropodometry is associated with impairment of balance, cognitive status and
      abnormal dual task performance. We suggest that central nervous lesions,
      presumably of vascular origin, are detrimental to balance and gait in COPD.

PMID- 28866455
TI  - Gait deviations in transverse plane after SCFE in dependence on the femoral
      offset.
AB  - Residual deformity of the femoral head after slipped capital femoral epiphysis
      (SCFE) may be accompanied by a loss of femoral offset and lead to femoro
      acetabular impingement (FAI), especially during hip flexion. It is hypothesized
      that during phases of the gait cycle, when the hip is flexed, the offset-loss is
      compensated by an increased external rotation. The gait pattern of 36 patients
      suffering from SCFE, who were treated by pinning-in-situ, were compared to a
      control group of 40 healthy adults by an instrumented 3D-gait analysis. Total
      patient group was subdivided into 3 subgroups in dependence on the offset (offset
      groups (OG)) quantified by the angle alpha according to Notzli: OG1: alpha-angle
      <55 degrees , OG2: alpha-angle between 55 and 75 degrees , OG3: alpha-angle >75
      degrees . Comparisons were made at 3 instants: initial foot contact (0% gait
      cycle (GC)), 40-60% GC and 90-100% GC. Patients showed an increased external hip
      rotation during all 3 periods of the GC with a tendency of increasing external
      rotation in association with offset-loss. Only during hip extension (40-60% GC)
      there was a weak correlation between angle alpha and hip rotation (r=-0.375,
      p=0.024). In conclusion, the offset-loss does not lead to a functional relevant
      impingement during walking which needs compensation strategies like increasing
      external rotation during periods of hip flexion.

PMID- 28866456
TI  - Physician characteristics associated with higher adenoma detection rate.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Patients who receive a colonoscopy from a physician with a
      low adenoma detection rate (ADR) are at higher risk of subsequent colorectal
      cancer. It is unclear what drives the variation across physicians in ADR. We
      describe physician characteristics associated with higher ADR. METHODS: In this
      retrospective cohort study a natural language processing system was used to
      analyze all outpatient colonoscopy examinations and their associated pathology
      reports from October 2013 to September 2015 for adults age 40 years and older
      across physicians from 4 diverse health systems. Physician performance on ADR was
      risk adjusted for differences in patient population and procedure indication. Our
      sample included 201 physicians performing at least 30 colonoscopy examinations
      during the study period, totaling 104,618 colonoscopy examinations. RESULTS: The
      mean ADR was 33.2% (range, 6.3%-58.7%). Higher ADR was seen among female
      physicians (4.2 percentage points higher than men, P = .020), gastroenterologists
      (9.4 percentage points higher than nongastroenterologists, P < .001), and
      physicians with <=9 years since their residency completion (6.0 percentage points
      higher than physicians who have had 27-51 years of practice, P = .004).
      CONCLUSIONS: Gastroenterologists, female physicians, and more recently trained
      physicians had higher performance in adenoma detection.

PMID- 28866458
TI  - TiO2 nanoparticles supported on PMMA nanofibers for photocatalytic degradation of
      methyl orange.
AB  - In this paper, a photocatalyst composed of TiO2 nanoparticles supported on the
      nanofibers of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was successfully prepared by
      hydrothermally treating the electrospun PMMA nanofibers containing titanium n
      butoxide precursor at 135 degrees C for 8h. As-prepared composite was
      characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction
      pattern, thermal gravimetric analysis and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface
      area measurements. It is revealed that high content (42%) of tetragonal anatase
      TiO2 nanoparticles are uniformly loaded on the PMMA nanofibers to constitute the
      composite (TiO2@PMMA) photocatalyst with BET surface area of 21.4m2g-1. The
      photocatalytic activity of TiO2@PMMA towards the degradation of methyl orange
      (MO), a model pollutant, has been investigated. It is observed that 0.1g of the
      composite could degrade 100mL of MO (10mg/L) completely within 50min under UV
      illumination, exhibiting a high catalytic activity. Moreover, the composite could
      be easily separated from the reaction system by filtration, and maintain high
      photocatalytic activity in five consecutive cycles of the degradation of MO,
      suggesting its potentials in recycling use. The work provides a new approach for
      the development of novel supported photocatalysts with high catalytic activity
      and good reusability.

PMID- 28866457
TI  - Randomized trial of cholangioscopy-guided laser lithotripsy versus conventional
      therapy for large bile duct stones (with videos).
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Bile duct stones >1 cm have a decreased incidence of
      successful endoscopic extraction and often require lithotripsy. Although previous
      guidelines suggested mechanical lithotripsy for large common bile duct stones,
      current guidelines suggest cholangioscopy-guided lithotripsy as an adjunct with
      or without balloon dilation or mechanical lithotripsy. However, no randomized
      trials have assessed the usefulness of this practice. METHODS: Patients with bile
      duct stones >1 cm in diameter were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to cholangioscopy
      guided laser lithotripsy versus conventional therapy only. Conventional therapies
      such as mechanical lithotripsy or balloon dilation were also allowed in the laser
      lithotripsy group. Randomization was stratified by history of ERCP in the past 3
      months. The primary outcome was endoscopic clearance of the bile duct stones.
      RESULTS: Endoscopic clearance was achieved in 39 (93%) of 42 patients treated
      with cholangioscopy-guided laser lithotripsy and 12 (67%) of 18 treated with
      conventional therapy only (P = .009). The 9 patients in whom ERCP was
      unsuccessful underwent surgical common duct exploration with stone removal. Mean
      procedure time was 120.7 +/- 40.2 minutes for the cholangioscopy-guided laser
      lithotripsy group compared with 81.2 +/- 49.3 minutes for the conventional
      therapy group (P = .0008). There was no significant difference in fluoroscopy
      time, number of procedures, or adverse events (cholangitis) (cholangioscopy, 2;
      conventional, 1) and post-ERCP pancreatitis (cholangioscopy, 2; conventional, 1).
      CONCLUSION: Cholangioscopy-guided laser lithotripsy increases the incidence of
      endoscopic clearance of large bile duct stones and decreases the need for surgery
      compared with conventional therapy alone. However, it is associated with longer
      procedure times. (Clinical trial registration number: NCT0175997.).

PMID- 28866459
TI  - Functional modification of breathable polyacrylonitrile/polyurethane/TiO2
      nanofibrous membranes with robust ultraviolet resistant and waterproof
      performance.
AB  - Exploiting high-added-value textiles equipped with multiple functionalities like
      ultraviolet (UV) resistance, waterproofness, and thermal-moisture comfort is
      facing tremendous demand by a more discerning consumer market. However, the major
      challenge is to realize the equilibrium among the multifunction. Herein, a new
      attempt of fabricating superhydrophobic electrospun polyacrylonitrile
      (PAN)/polyurethane (PU)/titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanofibrous membranes has been
      tried, and the membranes exhibited multifunction of UV resistance, waterproofness
      and breathability by coating modification with 2-hydroxy-4-n-octoxybenzophenone
      (UV531) and fluorinated acrylic copolymer (FAC). TiO2 NPs as inorganic blocker
      and UV531 as organic absorber were utilized to impart the excellent double UV
      resistant function for the modified nanofibrous membranes. The hydrophobic
      coating with FAC endowed the pristine membranes with enhanced superhydrophobic
      wettability and the advancing contact angle was 152.1 degrees . Regulating the
      addition amount of TiO2 NPs, the UV531 and FAC concentration, the multiple
      functionalities of the modified PAN/PU/TiO2 were systemically optimized: robust
      tensile strength (14.6MPa), good ultraviolet protection factor of 1485, modest
      waterproofness (62kPa), and moisture breathability (12.9kgm-2 d-1). The
      equilibrium among the multifunction of the as-prepared membranes indicated their
      diverse possibilities can be used in various applications, including high
      altitude garments, protective clothing, covering materials, self-cleaning
      materials, and other medical products.

PMID- 28866460
TI  - Nitric oxide-sensing actuators for modulating structure in lipid-based liquid
      crystalline drug delivery systems.
AB  - Herein we report on the development of a nitric oxide-sensing lipid-based liquid
      crystalline (LLC) system specifically designed to release encapsulated drugs on
      exposure to NO through a stimulated phase change. A series of nitric oxide (NO)
      sensing lipids compatible with phytantriol and GMO cubic phases were designed and
      synthesized, and utilized in enabling nitric oxide-sensing LLC systems. The
      nitric oxide (NO)-sensing lipids react with nitric oxide, resulting in hydrolysis
      of these lipids and phase transition of the LLC system. Specifically, the N-3
      aminopyridinyl myristylamine (NAPyM)+phytantriol mixture formed a lamellar phase
      in excess aqueous environment. The NAPyM+phytantriol LLC responded to the nitric
      oxide gas as a chemical stimulus which triggers a phase transition from lamellar
      phase to inverse cubic and hexagonal phase. The nitric oxide-triggered phase
      transition of the LLC accelerated the release of encapsulated model drug from the
      LLC bulk phase, resulting in a 15-fold increase in the diffusion coefficient
      compared to the starting lamellar structure. The nitric oxide-sensing LLC system
      has potential application in the development of smart medicines to treat nitric
      oxide implicated diseases.

PMID- 28866461
TI  - A novel electrochemical sensor based on calixarene functionalized reduced
      graphene oxide: Application to simultaneous determination of Fe(III), Cd(II) and
      Pb(II) ions.
AB  - A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified by calixarene functionalized reduced
      graphene oxide (CA/RGO) has been fabricated and utilized in this study for
      simultaneous voltammetric detection of several metal ions, Fe(II), Cd(II) and
      Pb(II), in aqueous solution. The CA/RGO nanocomposite was characterized in
      surface and electrochemical properties using scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force
      microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
      (EIS). The CA/RGO coating significantly improves the sensitivity of
      electrochemical responses and separation of heavy metals. The electrochemical
      oxidation of Fe(III), Cd(II), and Pb(II) was performed by square wave voltammetry
      (SWV). The metal ions, Fe(III), Cd(II), and Pb(II), gave a linear relationship
      with their concentrations at 1.0*10-10-1.0*10-8M on the CA/RGO/GCE. The detection
      limits of the metal ions were found to be similar at 2.0*10-11M. A good recovery
      was also obtained for practical use of the CA/RGO/GCE in pharmaceutical
      formulation.

PMID- 28866462
TI  - A spectroscopic sensing platform for MARCKS protein monolayers.
AB  - We developed a highly sensitive silicon platform, suitable to assess the
      molecular organization of protein samples. Prototype platforms were obtained
      using different electrochemical protocols for the electrodeposition of Ag
      nanoparticles onto the hydrogenated silicon surface. A platform with high Surface
      Enhanced Raman Scattering efficiency was selected based on the surface coverage
      and the number density of particles size distribution. The performance of the
      platform was determined by studying the interaction of Myristoylated Alanine-Rich
      C Kinase Substrate (MARCKS) protein with the substrate according to its molecular
      organization. The chemical and structural characteristics of MARCKS molecules
      were examined under two configurations: i) a disordered distribution given by a
      MARCKS solution drop deposited onto the platform and, ii) a compact monolayer
      transferred to the platform by the Langmuir-Blodgett method. Raman spectra show
      vibrational bands of Phenylalanine and Lysine residues specific for the protein
      effector domain, and evidence the presence of alpha helix structure in both
      configurations. Moreover, we distinguished the supramolecular order between the
      compact monolayer and random molecular distribution. The platforms containing Ag
      nanoparticles are suitable for studies of protein structure and interactions,
      advancing a methodological strategy for our long term goal, which is to explore
      the interaction of proteins with model membranes.

PMID- 28866463
TI  - One-pot controlled synthesis of AuPd@Pd core-shell nanocrystals with enhanced
      electrocatalytic performances for formic acid oxidation and glycerol oxidation.
AB  - In this work, AuPd@Pd core-shell nanocrystals (AuPd@Pd NCs) were fabricated by a
      one-pot co-reduction approach, where theophylline-7-acetic acid (TAA) acted asa
      new structure-directing agent. The crystal structure and composition were mainly
      characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM), high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron
      microscopy (HAADF-STEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), together with X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The growth mechanism of AuPd@Pd NCs was
      investigated in detail. The obtained AuPd@Pd NCs exhibited superior catalytic
      characters for formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) and glycerol oxidation
      reaction (GOR) in contrast with commercial Pd black in alkaline media.

PMID- 28866464
TI  - Do Transurethral Treatments Increase the Complexity of Urethral Strictures?
AB  - PURPOSE: We examined the impact on urethral stricture complexity at urethroplasty
      of previous transurethral treatments such as dilation, urethrotomy and stenting,
      which are most commonly performed when treating male urethral stricture.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 45 males who
      had undergone transurethral treatments before urethroplasty. We compared
      urethrography findings at initial diagnosis with those at urethroplasty. Males
      with failed hypospadias repair, lichen sclerosis or a history of prior
      urethroplasty were excluded from analysis. We considered stricture complexity
      increased if the number and/or length of strictures on urethrography at
      urethroplasty was greater than that at initial diagnosis or false passage was
      newly identified. RESULTS: Of the patients 39 (87%), 32 (71%) and 13 (29%) had
      undergone urethral dilation, urethrotomy and urethral stenting, respectively, and
      39 (87%) had undergone repeat or multiple kinds of transurethral treatments.
      Stricture complexity was increased in 22 men (49%) while 7 (16%) required
      urethroplasty more complex than that anticipated from urethrography findings at
      initial diagnosis. Increased stricture complexity was significantly associated
      with a history of urethrotomy (p = 0.03), urethral stenting (p = 0.0002) and
      repeat transurethral treatments (p = 0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed that
      urethral stenting (p = 0.01) and repeat transurethral treatments (p = 0.01) were
      independent predictors of increased stricture complexity. CONCLUSIONS: Repeat
      transurethral treatments increase stricture complexity and are potentially
      counterproductive. Even a single application of temporary urethral stenting
      carries a high risk of complicating the stricture and requiring complex
      urethroplasty.

PMID- 28866465
TI  - Three-Dimensional Computerized Model Based on the Sonourethrogram: A Novel
      Technique to Evaluate Anterior Urethral Stricture.
AB  - PURPOSE: The sonourethrogram is a useful alternative to the traditional
      retrograde urethrogram to evaluate anterior urethral strictures. With the
      development of 3-dimensional reconstructive techniques 3-dimensional urethral
      imaging can provide more accurate and useful information to enable the surgeon to
      make the best surgical decisions. We evaluated the accuracy and efficacy of a 3
      dimensional reconstructed digital model of the urethra based on the
      sonourethrogram to assess anterior urethral disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      total of 50 patients with an anterior urethral stricture and 10 healthy
      volunteers were enrolled in this study from April 2014 to January 2017. All
      patients and volunteers underwent sonourethrogram and retrograde urethrogram.
      Three-dimensional urethral models were reconstructed based on the
      sonourethrogram. Stricture length and location on retrograde urethrogram or
      sonourethrogram based images were compared with those found at operation.
      RESULTS: The 3-dimensional digital model revealed the entire anterior urethra,
      including the navicular fossa, and the penile and bulbar parts. The
      semitransparent model clearly demonstrated the structure of the corpus spongiosum
      and inside the urethral lumen. Further information on spongiofibrosis could also
      be seen in the 3-dimensional digital model. There was no significant difference
      in stricture length or location in the 3-dimensional model compared with
      retrograde urethrogram imaging and actual surgical findings. However, the latest
      technique could only reconstruct the short segment of the anterior urethra due to
      the probe width limitation. CONCLUSIONS: The 3-dimensional computerized model
      based on the sonourethrogram is a novel and effective technique of evaluating
      anterior urethral strictures.

PMID- 28866466
TI  - Impact of Clinical Guidelines on Voiding Cystourethrogram Use and Vesicoureteral
      Reflux Incidence.
AB  - PURPOSE: To prevent over diagnosis and overtreatment of vesicoureteral reflux the
      2007 NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and 2011 AAP
      (American Academy of Pediatrics) guidelines recommended against routine voiding
      cystourethrograms in children presenting with first febrile urinary tract
      infections. The impact of these guidelines on clinical practice is unknown.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using an administrative claims database (ClinformaticsTM
      Data Mart) children who underwent voiding cystourethrogram studies or had a
      diagnosis of vesicoureteral reflux between 2001 and 2015 were identified. The
      cohort was divided into children age 0 to 2 and 3 to 10 years. Single and
      multiple group interrupted time series analyses (difference-in-difference) were
      performed with the guidelines as intervention points. The incidence of
      vesicoureteral reflux was compared across each period. RESULTS: Of the 51,649
      children who underwent voiding cystourethrograms 19,422 (38%) were diagnosed with
      vesicoureteral reflux. In children 0 to 2 years old voiding cystourethrogram use
      did not decrease after the 2007 NICE guidelines were announced (-0.37, 95% CI 
      1.50 to 0.77, p = 0.52) but did decrease significantly after the 2011 AAP
      guidelines were announced (-2.00, 95% CI -3.35 to -0.65, p = 0.004). Among
      children 3 to 10 years old voiding cystourethrogram use decreased during the
      entire study period. There was a decrease in the incidence of vesicoureteral
      reflux in both groups that mirrored patterns of voiding cystourethrogram use.
      CONCLUSIONS: The 2011 AAP guidelines led to a concurrent decrease in voiding
      cystourethrogram use and incidence of vesicoureteral reflux among children 0 to 2
      years old. Further studies are needed to assess the risks and benefits of
      reducing the diagnosis of vesicoureteral reflux in young children.

PMID- 28866467
TI  - CTA1: Purified and display onto gram-positive enhancer matrix (GEM) particles as
      mucosal adjuvant.
AB  - The A1 subunit of cholera toxin (CTA1) retains the adjuvant function of CT,
      without its toxic side effects, making the molecule a promising mucosal adjuvant.
      However, the methods required to obtain a pure product are both complicated and
      expensive, constricting its potential commercial applicability. Here, we fused
      the peptidoglycan binding domain (PA) to the C-terminus of CTA1, which enabled
      the fusion protein to be expressed by Bacillus subtilis, and secreted into the
      culture medium. CTA1 was then purified and displayed on GEM particles using a one
      step process, which resulted in the formation of CTA1-GEM complexes. Next, the
      CTA1-GEM complexes were used as an adjuvant to enhance the immune responses of
      mice to the influenza subunit vaccine. It was observed that the CTA1-GEM
      complexes enhanced specific systemic (IgG) and mucosal (IgA) immune responses
      against antigen, and induced cellular immune responses as well. The data
      presented here suggests that CTA1-GEM complexes can serve as a viable mucosal
      adjuvant.

PMID- 28866468
TI  - Topical silver diamine fluoride for dental caries arrest in preschool children: A
      randomized controlled trial and microbiological analysis of caries associated
      microbes and resistance gene expression.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Stopping Cavities Trial investigated effectiveness and safety of
      38% silver diamine fluoride in arresting caries lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The study was a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled superiority trial with
      2 parallel groups. The sites were Oregon preschools. Sixty-six preschool children
      with >=1 lesion were enrolled. Silver diamine fluoride (38%) or placebo (blue
      tinted water), applied topically to the lesion. The primary endpoint was caries
      arrest (lesion inactivity, Nyvad criteria) 14-21days post intervention. Dental
      plaque was collected from all children, and microbial composition was assessed by
      RNA sequencing from 2 lesions and 1 unaffected surface before treatment and at
      follow-up for 3 children from each group. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Average
      proportion of arrested caries lesions in the silver diamine fluoride group was
      higher (0.72; 95% CI; 0.55, 0.84) than in the placebo group (0.05; 95% CI; 0.00,
      0.16). Confirmatory analysis using generalized estimating equation log-linear
      regression, based on the number of arrested lesions and accounting for the number
      of treated surfaces and length of follow-up, indicates the risk of arrested
      caries was significantly higher in the treatment group (relative risk, 17.3; 95%
      CI: 4.3 to 69.4). No harms were observed. RNA sequencing analysis identified no
      consistent changes in relative abundance of caries-associated microbes, nor
      emergence of antibiotic or metal resistance gene expression. Topical 38% silver
      diamine fluoride is effective and safe in arresting cavities in preschool
      children. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The treatment is applicable to primary care
      practice and may reduce the burden of untreated tooth decay in the population.

PMID- 28866469
TI  - L-type VDCCs participate in behavioral-LTP and memory retention.
AB  - Although L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) have been reported to
      display different even contrary actions on cognitive functions and long-term
      potentiation (LTP) formation, there is little information regarding the role of L
      type VDCCs in behavioral LTP, a learning-induced LTP model, in the intact brain
      of freely behaving animals. Here we investigated the effects of verapamil, a non
      selective blocker of L-type VDCCs, on behavioral LTP and cognitive functions.
      Population spikes (PS) were recorded by using electrophysiological methods to
      examine the role of verapamil in behavioral LTP in the hippocampal dentate gyrus
      (DG) region. Y-maze assay was used to evaluate the effects of verapamil on
      learning and memory. Electron microscope was used to observe the changes on
      synaptic ultrastructural morphology in hippocampal DG area. We found that
      intrahippocampal verapamil treatments had no significant changes on the PS
      amplitude during a 90min recordings period. However, intrahippocampal
      applications of verapamil, including pre- or post-training, reduced behavioral
      LTP magnitude and memory retention but did not prevent the induction of
      behavioral LTP and the acquisition of learning. The saline group with behaving
      trainings showed obvious increases in the number of smile synapses, the length of
      active zones and the thickness of postsynaptic density as compared to the
      baseline group, but verapamil with pre-training treatment almost returned these
      changes to the baseline levels except for the synaptic interface curvature. In
      conclusion, our results suggest that L-type VDCCs may only contribute to the
      magnitude of behavioral LTP and the memory maintenance with an activity
      independent relationship. L-type VDCCs may be critical to new information long
      term storage rather than acquisition in hippocampus.

PMID- 28866470
TI  - Photosensitized enzyme deactivation and protein oxidation by axial-substituted
      phosphorus(V) tetraphenylporphyrins.
AB  - The activity for photodynamic therapy of water-soluble cationic porphyrins,
      tetraphenylporphyrin P(V) complexes, was investigated.
      Bis(cyclohexylmethoxy)P(V)tetraphenylporphyrin (DCHMP(V)TPP),
      dichloroP(V)tetraphenylporphyrin (Cl2P(V)TPP), and
      dimethoxyP(V)tetraphenylporphyrin (DMP(V)TPP) could cause the photosensitized
      deactivation of tyrosinase. The tryptophan residue of human serum albumin (HSA)
      and several kinds of amino acids could be damaged by these P(V)porphyrins under
      visible light irradiation. The photosensitized damage of these biomolecules was
      inhibited by sodium azide, a singlet oxygen (1O2) quencher, and enhanced in
      deuterium oxide, suggesting the contribution of 1O2. However, an excess amount of
      sodium azide did not completely inhibit the photosensitized damage. In addition,
      the redox potential measurements demonstrated the possibility of electron
      transfer from tryptophan and tyrosine to photoexcited P(V)porphyrins. These
      results suggest that electron transfer-mediated oxidation of amino acids
      contributes to the photosensitized protein and amino acid damage by these
      P(V)porphyrins. Specifically, Cl2P(V)TPP showed the highest photodamaging
      activity in the P(V)porphyrins used in this study. Oxidized products of amino
      acids by photoexcited P(V)porphyrins were analyzed with a liquid chromatography
      mass spectrometer. Because of the hypoxic condition of a tumor, photodynamic
      therapy through a 1O2-mediated mechanism should be restricted, and the electron
      transfer-mediated mechanism may improve the photodynamic effect. In the cases of
      these P(V)porphyrins, redox potential is the most important factor for
      photosensitized protein and amino acid oxidation through photoinduced electron
      transfer.

PMID- 28866471
TI  - Feature selection before EEG classification supports the diagnosis of Alzheimer's
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In many decision support systems, some input features can be marginal
      or irrelevant to the diagnosis, while others can be redundant among each other.
      Thus, feature selection (FS) algorithms are often considered to find relevant/non
      redundant features. This study aimed to evaluate the relevance of FS approaches
      applied to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) EEG-based diagnosis and compare the selected
      features with previous clinical findings. METHODS: Eight different FS algorithms
      were applied to EEG spectral measures from 22 AD patients and 12 healthy age
      matched controls. The FS contribution was evaluated by considering the leave-one
      subject-out accuracy of Support Vector Machine classifiers built in the datasets
      described by the selected features. RESULTS: The Filtered Subset Evaluator
      technique achieved the best performance improvement both on a per-patient basis
      (91.18% of accuracy) and on a per-epoch basis (85.29+/-21.62%), after removing
      88.76+/-1.12% of the original features. All algorithms found out that alpha and
      beta bands are relevant features, which is in agreement with previous findings
      from the literature. CONCLUSION: Biologically plausible EEG datasets could
      achieve improved accuracies with pre-processing FS steps. SIGNIFICANCE: The
      results suggest that the FS and classification techniques are an attractive
      complementary tool in order to reveal potential biomarkers aiding the AD clinical
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28866472
TI  - Second harmonic generation microscopy as a tool for the early detection of
      crystallization in spray dried dispersions.
AB  - Various techniques have been used to detect crystallization in amorphous solid
      dispersions (ASD). However, most of these techniques do not enable the detection
      of very low levels of crystallinity (<1%). The aim of the current study was to
      compare the sensitivity of second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy with
      powder X-ray diffraction (XRPD) in detecting the presence of crystals in low drug
      loading amorphous solid dispersions. Amorphous solid dispersions of the poorly
      water soluble compounds, flutamide (FTM, 15wt.% drug loading) and ezetimibe (EZT,
      30wt.% drug loading) with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose acetate succinate
      (HPMCAS) were prepared by spray drying. To induce crystallization, samples were
      subsequently stored at 75% or 82% relative humidity (RH) and 40 degrees C.
      Crystallization was monitored by XRPD and by SHG microscopy. Solid state nuclear
      magnetic resonance spectroscopy (ssNMR) was used to further investigate
      crystallinity in selected samples. For flutamide, crystals were detected by SHG
      microscopy after 8days of storage at 40 degrees C/82% RH, whereas no evidence of
      crystallinity could be observed by XRPD until 26days. Correspondingly, for FTM
      samples stored at 40 degrees C/75% RH, crystals were detected after 11days by SHG
      microscopy and after 53days by XRPD. The evolution of crystals, that is an
      increase in the number and size of crystalline regions, with time could be
      readily monitored from the SHG images, and revealed the formation of needle
      shaped crystals. Further investigation with scanning electron microscopy
      indicated an unexpected mechanism of crystallization, whereby flutamide crystals
      grew as needle-shaped projections from the surface of the spray dried particles.
      Similarly, EZT crystals could be detected at earlier time points (15days) with
      SHG microscopy relative to with XRPD (60days). Thus, SHG microscopy was found to
      be a highly sensitive method for detecting and monitoring the evolution of
      crystals formed from spray dried particles, providing much earlier detection of
      crystallinity than XRPD under comparable run times.

PMID- 28866473
TI  - The perception of fairness in infant care and mothers' postpartum depression.
AB  - This study investigates a potential causal effect of mothers' perceptions of the
      fairness of infant care on their postpartum depression. Based on the tenets of
      equity theory, it is hypothesized that, net of controls, mothers who see infant
      care as fairly apportioned between themselves and their husbands will be less
      depressed than others. We utilize data from a longitudinal study of a nonrandom
      sample of 178 heterosexual couples experiencing the birth of their first child
      together. The primary focus variable is the mothers' perception in the first
      couple of months postpartum that infant care is fair to them. Statistical
      analysis involved the careful chronological sequencing of response variable and
      controls, along with regression modeling using propensity scores. We find that a
      perception of fairness is associated with about a quarter of a standard deviation
      lower depressive symptomatology, controlling for key covariates. Depressive
      symptomatology is additionally elevated for mothers experiencing more pre-partum
      depression, and for those who more generally felt, before the birth, that they
      were overbenefiting in the marriage. This paper contributes to both equity theory
      and research on postpartum depression. In a scenario in which it is not practical
      or ethical to randomly assign people to fairness-in-infant-care conditions, we
      are able to utilize longitudinal data and a natural "experiment," along with
      propensity-score modeling to attempt to assess the causal impact of fairness in
      infant care on postpartum depression. The finding that fairness in this arena
      appears to reduce postpartum depression emphasizes the importance of encouraging
      father participation in this critical stage of parenting. Limitations of the
      study with respect to causal inference are also discussed.

PMID- 28866474
TI  - Access to occupational networks and ethnic variation of depressive symptoms in
      young adults in Sweden.
AB  - Social capital research has recognized the relevance of occupational network
      contacts for individuals' life chances and status attainment, and found distinct
      associations dependent on ethnic background. A still fairly unexplored area is
      the health implications of occupational networks. The current approach thus seeks
      to study the relationship between access to occupational social capital and
      depressive symptoms in early adulthood, and to examine whether the associations
      differ between persons with native Swedish parents and those with parents born in
      Iran and the former Yugoslavia. The two-wave panel comprised 19- and 23-year-old
      Swedish citizens whose parents were born in either Sweden, Iran or the former
      Yugoslavia. The composition of respondents' occupational networks contacts was
      measured with a so-called position generator. Depressive symptoms were assessed
      with a two-item depression screener. A population-averaged model was used to
      estimate the associations between depressive symptoms and access to occupational
      contact networks. Similar levels of depressive symptoms in respondents with
      parents born in Sweden and Yugoslavia were contrasted by a notably higher
      prevalence of these conditions in those with an Iranian background. After
      socioeconomic conditions were adjusted for, regression analysis showed that the
      propensity for depressive symptoms in women with an Iranian background increased
      with a higher number of manual class contacts, and decreased for men and women
      with Iranian parents with a higher number of prestigious occupational
      connections. The respective associations in persons with native Swedish parents
      and parents from the former Yugoslavia are partly reversed. Access to
      occupational contact networks, but also perceived ethnic identity, explained a
      large portion of the ethnic variation in depression. Mainly the group with an
      Iranian background seems to benefit from prestigious occupational contacts. Among
      those with an Iranian background, social status concerns and expected
      marginalization in manual class occupations may have contributed to their
      propensity for depressive symptoms.

PMID- 28866475
TI  - The spatial politics of place and health policy: Exploring Sustainability and
      Transformation Plans in the English NHS.
AB  - This paper explores how 'place' is conceptualised and mobilized in health policy
      and considers the implications of this. Using the on-going spatial reorganizing
      of the English NHS as an exemplar, we draw upon relational geographies of place
      for illumination. We focus on the introduction of 'Sustainability and
      Transformation Plans' (STPs): positioned to support improvements in care and
      relieve financial pressures within the health and social care system. STP
      implementation requires collaboration between organizations within 44 bounded
      territories that must reach 'local' consensus about service redesign under
      conditions of unprecedented financial constraint. Emphasising the continued
      influence of previous reorganizations, we argue that such spatialized practices
      elude neat containment within coherent territorial geographies. Rather than a
      technical process financially and spatially 'fixing' health and care systems,
      STPs exemplify post-politics-closing down the political dimensions of policy
      making by associating 'place' with 'local' empowerment to undertake highly
      resource-constrained management of health systems, distancing responsibility from
      national political processes. Relational understandings of place thus provide
      value in understanding health policies and systems, and help to identify where
      and how STPs might experience difficulties.

PMID- 28866476
TI  - Regulation of ERVs in pluripotent stem cells and reprogramming.
AB  - Recent advances in our understanding of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) regulation
      and its functional aspects have provided us with vast power to unravel its role
      in the host's genome. Co-evolutionary model of ERVs and Kruppel associated box
      Zinc Finger Proteins (KRAB-ZFPs) provides a deeper knowledge of how the genome is
      shaped during the course of evolution. However, the role of ERVs in normal
      cellular function still remains an enigma. Here we review studies in recent years
      with a focus on the role of ERVs in maintaining stemness and cell fate
      reprogramming, along with the recent discoveries of novel regulatory factors
      which have been shown to mediate ERV expression in both canonical and non
      canonical pathways.

PMID- 28866478
TI  - Correction to "Automatic Quality Assessment of Echocardiograms Using
      Convolutional Neural Networks: Feasibility on the Apical Four-Chamber View".
AB  - In the above paper [1], the first footnote should have indicated the following
      information: A. H. Abdi and C. Luong are joint first authors.

PMID- 28866477
TI  - Amphiphilic semiconducting polymer as multifunctional nanocarrier for
      fluorescence/photoacoustic imaging guided chemo-photothermal therapy.
AB  - Chemo-photothermal nanotheranostics has the advantage of synergistic therapeutic
      effect, providing opportunities for optimized cancer therapy. However, current
      chemo-photothermal nanotheranostic systems generally comprise more than three
      components, encountering the potential issues of unstable nanostructures and
      unexpected conflicts in optical and biophysical properties among different
      components. We herein synthesize an amphiphilic semiconducting polymer (PEG-PCB)
      and utilize it as a multifunctional nanocarrier to simplify chemo-photothermal
      nanotheranostics. PEG-PCB has a semiconducting backbone that not only serves as
      the diagnostic component for near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence and photoacoustic
      (PA) imaging, but also acts as the therapeutic agent for photothermal therapy. In
      addition, the hydrophobic backbone of PEG-PCB provides strong hydrophobic and pi
      pi interactions with the aromatic anticancer drug such as doxorubicin for drug
      encapsulation and delivery. Such a trifunctionality of PEG-PCB eventually results
      in a greatly simplified nanotheranostic system with only two components but
      multimodal imaging and therapeutic capacities, permitting effective NIR
      fluorescence/PA imaging guided chemo-photothermal therapy of cancer in living
      mice. Our study thus provides a molecular engineering approach to integrate
      essential properties into one polymer for multimodal nanotheranostics.

PMID- 28866479
TI  - Type-1 Diabetes Patient Decision Simulator for In Silico Testing Safety and
      Effectiveness of Insulin Treatments.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Type-1 diabetes (T1D) treatment requires exogenous insulin
      administrations finely tuned based on glucose monitoring to avoid
      hyper/hypoglycemia. The safety and effectiveness of insulin treatments is
      commonly assessed in clinical trials, which are time demanding and expensive.
      These limitations can be overtaken by in silico clinical trials (ISCT) that
      require realistic patient and treatment models. The aim is to develop a T1D
      patient decision simulator usable to perform reliable ISCT. METHODS: The T1D
      patient decision simulator was developed by connecting the UVA/Padova T1D model,
      which describes glucose, insulin, and glucagon kinetics, with modules describing
      glucose monitoring devices, like self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and
      continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), the patient's behavior in making treatment
      decisions, and insulin administration. The reliability of the simulator was
      assessed by comparing its predictions with data collected in 44 T1D subjects
      using the Dexcom G5 Mobile CGM sensor as an adjunct to the Bayer Contour Next USB
      SMBG device. RESULTS: Metrics like time spent in eu/hypo/hyperglycemia of
      simulated data well match those observed in subjects. In particular, mean time in
      euglycemia, mean time in hyperglycemia, and median time in hypoglycemia are
      61.75% versus 63.60% (p-value = 0.4825), 33.38% versus 33.40% (p -value =
      0.9950), and 3.17% versus 2.14% (p-value = 0.1134), respectively, in real versus
      simulated data. CONCLUSION: The proposed simulator can be used to perform
      credible ISCT in realistic insulin treatment scenarios. SIGNIFICANCE: The T1D
      patient decision simulator can be used to reliably assess novel insulin
      treatments, e.g., based on use of CGM only, in a realistic multiple-day scenario.

PMID- 28866480
TI  - Lung Ultrasound Surface Wave Elastography: A Pilot Clinical Study.
AB  - A lung ultrasound surface wave elastography (LUSWE) technique is developed to
      measure superficial lung tissue elastic properties. The purpose of this paper was
      to translate LUSWE into clinical studies for assessing patients with interstitial
      lung disease (ILD) and present the pilot data from lung measurements on 10
      healthy subjects and 10 patients with ILD. ILD includes multiple lung disorders
      in which the lung tissue is distorted and stiffened by tissue fibrosis. Chest
      radiography and computed tomography are the most commonly used techniques for
      assessing lung disease, but they are associated with radiation and cannot
      directly measure lung elastic properties. LUSWE provides a noninvasive and
      nonionizing technique to measure the elastic properties of superficial lung
      tissue. LUSWE was used to measure regions of both lungs through six intercostal
      spaces for patients and healthy subjects. The data are presented as wave speed at
      100, 150, and 200 Hz at the six intercostal spaces. As an example, the surface
      wave speeds are, respectively, 1.88 +/- 0.11 m/s at 100 Hz, 2.74 +/- 0.26 m/s at
      150 Hz, and 3.62 +/- 0.13 m/s at 200 Hz for a healthy subject in the upper right
      lung; this is in comparison to measurements from an ILD patient of 3.3 +/- 0.37
      m/s at 100 Hz, 4.38 +/- 0.33 m/s at 150 Hz, and 5.24 +/- 0.44 m/s at 200 Hz in
      the same lung space. Significant differences in wave speed between healthy
      subjects and ILD patients were found. LUSWE is a safe and noninvasive technique
      which may be useful for assessing ILD.

PMID- 28866481
TI  - Probabilistic Framework for the Characterization of Surfaces and Edges in Range
      Images, with Application to Edge Detection.
AB  - We develop a powerful probabilistic framework for the local characterization of
      surfaces and edges in range images. We use the geometrical nature of the data to
      derive an analytic expression for the joint probability density function (pdf)
      for the random variables used to model the ranges of a set of pixels in a local
      neighborhood of an image. We decompose this joint pdf by considering
      independently the cases where two real world points corresponding to two
      neighboring pixels are locally on the same real world surface or not. In
      particular, we show that this joint pdf is linked to the Voigt pdf and not to the
      Gaussian pdf as it is assumed in some applications. We apply our framework to
      edge detection and develop a locally adaptive algorithm that is based on a
      probabilistic decision rule. We show in an objective evaluation that this new
      edge detector performs better than prior art edge detectors. This proves the
      benefits of the probabilistic characterization of the local neighborhood as a
      tool to improve applications that involve range images.

PMID- 28866482
TI  - Robust Light Field Depth Estimation Using Occlusion-Noise Aware Data Costs.
AB  - Depth estimation is essential in many light field applications. Numerous
      algorithms have been developed using a range of light field properties. However,
      conventional data costs fail when handling noisy scenes in which occlusion is
      present. To address this problem, we introduce a light field depth estimation
      method that is more robust against occlusion and less sensitive to noise. Two
      novel data costs are proposed, which are measured using the angular patch and
      refocus image, respectively. The constrained angular entropy cost (CAE) reduces
      the effects of the dominant occluder and noise in the angular patch, resulting in
      a low cost. The constrained adaptive defocus cost (CAD) provides a low cost in
      the occlusion region, while also maintaining robustness against noise.
      Integrating the two data costs is shown to significantly improve the occlusion
      and noise invariant capability. Cost volume filtering and graph cut optimization
      are applied to improve the accuracy of the depth map. Our experimental results
      confirm the robustness of the proposed method and demonstrate its ability to
      produce high-quality depth maps from a range of scenes. The proposed method
      outperforms other state-of-the-art light field depth estimation methods in both
      qualitative and quantitative evaluations.

PMID- 28866483
TI  - A Multi-Modal, Discriminative and Spatially Invariant CNN for RGB-D Object
      Labeling.
AB  - While deep convolutional neural networks have shown a remarkable success in image
      classification, the problems of inter-class similarities, intra-class variances,
      the effective combination of multi-modal data, and the spatial variability in
      images of objects remain to be major challenges. To address these problems, this
      paper proposes a novel framework to learn a discriminative and spatially
      invariant classification model for object and indoor scene recognition using
      multi-modal RGB-D imagery. This is achieved through three postulates: 1) spatial
      invariance $-$ this is achieved by combining a spatial transformer network with a
      deep convolutional neural network to learn features which are invariant to
      spatial translations, rotations, and scale changes, 2) high discriminative
      capability $-$ this is achieved by introducing Fisher encoding within the CNN
      architecture to learn features which have small inter-class similarities and
      large intra-class compactness, and 3) multi-modal hierarchical fusion$-$ this is
      achieved through the regularization of semantic segmentation to a multi-modal CNN
      architecture, where class probabilities are estimated at different hierarchical
      levels (i.e., image- and pixel-levels), and fused into a Conditional Random Field
      (CRF)-based inference hypothesis, the optimization of which produces consistent
      class labels in RGB-D images. Extensive experimental evaluations on RGB-D object
      and scene datasets, and live video streams (acquired from Kinect) show that our
      framework produces superior object and scene classification results compared to
      the state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28866484
TI  - Image Visual Realism: From Human Perception to Machine Computation.
AB  - Visual realism is defined as the extent to which an image appears to people as a
      photo rather than computer generated. Assessing visual realism is important in
      applications like computer graphics rendering and photo retouching. However,
      current realism evaluation approaches use either labor-intensive human judgments
      or automated algorithms largely dependent on comparing renderings to reference
      images. We develop a reference-free computational framework for visual realism
      prediction to overcome these constraints. First, we construct a benchmark dataset
      of 2,520 images with comprehensive human annotated attributes. From statistical
      modeling on this data, we identify image attributes most relevant for visual
      realism. We propose both empirically-based (guided by our statistical modeling of
      human data) and deep convolutional neural network models to predict visual
      realism of images. Our framework has the following advantages: (1) it creates an
      interpretable and concise empirical model that characterizes human perception of
      visual realism; (2) it links computational features to latent factors of human
      image perception.

PMID- 28866485
TI  - Learning Joint-Sparse Codes for Calibration-Free Parallel MR Imaging.
AB  - The integration of compressed sensing and parallel imaging (CS-PI) has shown an
      increased popularity in recent years to accelerate magnetic resonance (MR)
      imaging. Among them, calibration-free techniques have presented encouraging
      performances due to its capability in robustly handling the sensitivity
      information. Unfortunately, existing calibration-free methods have only explored
      joint-sparsity with direct analysis transform projections. To further exploit
      joint-sparsity and improve reconstruction accuracy, this paper proposes to Learn
      joINt-sparse coDes for caliBration-free parallEl mR imaGing (LINDBERG) by
      modeling the parallel MR imaging problem as an - - minimization objective with an
      norm constraining data fidelity, Frobenius norm enforcing sparse representation
      error and the mixed norm triggering joint sparsity across multichannels. A
      corresponding algorithm has been developed to alternatively update the sparse
      representation, sensitivity encoded images and K-space data. Then, the final
      image is produced as the square root of sum of squares of all channel images.
      Experimental results on both physical phantom and in vivo data sets show that the
      proposed method is comparable and even superior to state-of-the-art CS-PI
      reconstruction approaches. Specifically, LINDBERG has presented strong capability
      in suppressing noise and artifacts while reconstructing MR images from highly
      undersampled multichannel measurements.

PMID- 28866486
TI  - Estimation of Basis Line-Integrals in a Spectral Distortion-Modeled Photon
      Counting Detector Using Low-Rank Approximation-Based X-Ray Transmittance
      Modeling: K-Edge Imaging Application.
AB  - Photon counting detectors (PCDs) provide multiple energy-dependent measurements
      for estimating basis line-integrals. However, the measured spectrum is distorted
      from the spectral response effect (SRE) via charge sharing, K-fluorescence
      emission, and so on. Thus, in order to avoid bias and artifacts in images, the
      SRE needs to be compensated. For this purpose, we recently developed a
      computationally efficient three-step algorithm for PCD-CT without contrast agents
      by approximating smooth X-ray transmittance using low-order polynomial bases. It
      compensated the SRE by incorporating the SRE model in a linearized estimation
      process and achieved nearly the minimum variance and unbiased (MVU) estimator. In
      this paper, we extend the three-step algorithm to K-edge imaging applications by
      designing optimal bases using a low-rank approximation to model X-ray
      transmittances with arbitrary shapes (i.e., smooth without the K-edge or
      discontinuous with the K-edge). The bases can be used to approximate the X-ray
      transmittance and to linearize the PCD measurement modeling and then the three
      step estimator can be derived as in the previous approach: estimating the x-ray
      transmittance in the first step, estimating basis line-integrals including that
      of the contrast agent in the second step, and correcting for a bias in the third
      step. We demonstrate that the proposed method is more accurate and stable than
      the low-order polynomial-based approaches with extensive simulation studies using
      gadolinium for the K-edge imaging application. We also demonstrate that the
      proposed method achieves nearly MVU estimator, and is more stable than the
      conventional maximum likelihood estimator in high attenuation cases with fewer
      photon counts.

PMID- 28866487
TI  - Motion Tracking of the Carotid Artery Wall From Ultrasound Image Sequences: a
      Nonlinear State-Space Approach.
AB  - The motion of the common carotid artery (CCA) wall has been established to be
      useful in early diagnosis of atherosclerotic disease. However, tracking the CCA
      wall motion from ultrasound images remains a challenging task. In this paper, a
      nonlinear state-space approach has been developed to track CCA wall motion from
      ultrasound sequences. In this approach, a nonlinear state-space equation with a
      time-variant control signal was constructed from a mathematical model of the
      dynamics of the CCA wall. Then, the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) was adopted to
      solve the nonlinear state transfer function in order to evolve the state of the
      target tissue, which involves estimation of the motion trajectory of the CCA wall
      from noisy ultrasound images. The performance of this approach has been validated
      on 30 simulated ultrasound sequences and a real ultrasound dataset of 103
      subjects by comparing the motion tracking results obtained in this study to those
      of three state-of-the-art methods and of the manual tracing method performed by
      two experienced ultrasound physicians. The experimental results demonstrated that
      the proposed approach is highly correlated with (intra-class correlation
      coefficient >= 0.9948 for the longitudinal motion and >= 0.9966 for the radial
      motion) and well agrees (the 95% confidence interval width is 0.8871 mm for the
      longitudinal motion and 0.4159 mm for the radial motion) with the manual tracing
      method on real data and also exhibits high accuracy on simulated data (0.1161 ~
      0.1260 mm). These results appear to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
      approach for motion tracking of the CCA wall.

PMID- 28866488
TI  - Radiation Dose Reduction in CT Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Using SMART-RECON.
AB  - In this paper, a newly developed statistical model-based image reconstruction
      [referred to as Simultaneous Multiple Artifacts Reduction in Tomographic
      RECONstruction (SMART-RECON)] is applied to low dose computer tomography (CT)
      myocardial perfusion imaging (CT-MPI). This method uses the nuclear norm of the
      spatial-temporal image matrix of the CT-MPI images as a regularizer, rather than
      a conventional spatial regularizer that incorporates image smoothness, edge
      preservation, or spatial sparsity into the reconstruction. In addition to
      providing the needed noise reduction for low-dose CT-MPI, SMART-RECON provides
      images with spatial resolution and noise power spectrum (NPS) properties, which
      are independent of contrast and dose levels. Both numerical simulations and in
      vivo animal studies were performed to validate the proposed method. In these
      studies, it was found that: 1) quantitative accuracy of perfusion maps in CT-MPI
      was well maintained for radiation dose level as low as 10 mAs per image frame,
      compared with the reference standard of 200 mAs for conventional filtered
      backprojection; 2) flow-occluded myocardium in the porcine heart was well
      delineated by SMART-RECON at 10 mAs per frame when compared with model-based
      image reconstruction using spatial total variation (TV) as the regularizer
      (referred to as TV-SIR) or spatial-temporal TV (ST-TV-SIR); the CT-MPI results
      were confirmed with positron-emission tomography imaging; 3) image sharpness in
      SMART-RECON images was nearly independent of image contrast level and radiation
      dose level, in stark contrast to TV-SIR and ST-TV-SIR, which displayed a strong
      dependence on both image contrast and radiation dose levels; and 4) the structure
      of the dose-normalized NPS for the SMART-RECON method did not depend on dose,
      while the TV-SIR and ST-TV-SIR NPS structure was dose-dependent.

PMID- 28866489
TI  - Simultaneous Ultrasonic Measurement of Thickness and Speed of Sound in Elastic
      Plates Using Coded Excitation Signals.
AB  - Layer thickness and the speed of sound are important parameters for
      nondestructive testing applications. If one of the parameters is known, the other
      one can be determined by simple time-of-flight (TOF) measurement of ultrasound.
      However, often these parameters are both unknown. In this contribution, we
      examine and adapt ultrasonic imaging techniques using coded excitation signals to
      simultaneously measure the thickness and the speed of sound of homogeneous
      elastic plates of unknown material. Good axial resolution is required to measure
      thin samples. We present a new approach for transmission signal conditioning to
      improve axial resolution. This conditioning consists of enhancing spectral
      components that are damped by the transducer prior to transmit. Due to the long
      duration of coded excitation signals, pulse compression techniques are required
      for TOF measurements. Common pulse compression filters are discussed, and
      appropriate filtering of the compression waveform is designed to keep the
      sidelobe level (SLL) acceptably low. An experimental assessment of the presented
      measurement techniques reveals that the signal conditioning substantially
      increases the axial resolution. However, a tapered Wiener filter should be used
      for the best tradeoff between SLL and axial resolution. We used the proposed
      method to measure different plates of steel, aluminum, and polymethylmethacrylate
      of various thicknesses, and the results show very good agreement with the
      reference values, which we obtained with a micrometer screw and by standard TOF
      measurement, respectively. The relative error for the plate thickness is smaller
      than 2.2% and that for the speed of sound is smaller than 3%. It is remarkable
      that plate thickness could be measured down to 60% of the wavelength.

PMID- 28866490
TI  - Hadamard-Encoded Multipulses for Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging.
AB  - The development of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging offers great
      opportunities for new ultrasound clinical applications such as myocardial
      perfusion imaging and abdominal lesion characterization. In CEUS imaging, the
      contrast agents (i.e., microbubbles) are utilized to improve the contrast between
      blood and tissue based on their high nonlinearity under low ultrasound pressure.
      In this paper, we propose a new CEUS pulse sequence by combining Hadamard-encoded
      multipulses (HEM) with fundamental frequency bandpass filter (i.e., filter
      centered on transmit frequency). HEM consecutively emits multipulses encoded by a
      second-order Hadamard matrix in each of the two transmission events (i.e., pulse
      echo events), as opposed to conventional CEUS methods which emit individual
      pulses in two separate transmission events (i.e., pulse inversion (PI), amplitude
      modulation (AM), and PIAM). In HEM imaging, the microbubble responses can be
      improved by the longer transmit pulse, and the tissue harmonics can be suppressed
      by the fundamental frequency filter, leading to significantly improved contrast
      to-tissue ratio (CTR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, the fast
      polarity change between consecutive coded pulse emissions excites strong
      nonlinear microbubble echoes, further enhancing the CEUS image quality. The
      spatial resolution of HEM image is compromised as compared to other microbubble
      imaging methods due to the longer transmit pulses and the lower imaging frequency
      (i.e., fundamental frequency). However, the resolution loss was shown to be
      negligible and could be offset by the significantly enhanced CTR, SNR, and
      penetration depth. These properties of HEM can potentially facilitate robust CEUS
      imaging for many clinical applications, especially for deep abdominal organs and
      heart.

PMID- 28866491
TI  - Fusion of Deep Learning and Compressed Domain Features for Content-Based Image
      Retrieval.
AB  - This paper presents an effective image retrieval method by combining high-level
      features from convolutional neural network (CNN) model and low-level features
      from dot-diffused block truncation coding (DDBTC). The low-level features, e.g.,
      texture and color, are constructed by vector quantization -indexed histogram from
      DDBTC bitmap, maximum, and minimum quantizers. Conversely, high-level features
      from CNN can effectively capture human perception. With the fusion of the DDBTC
      and CNN features, the extended deep learning two-layer codebook features is
      generated using the proposed two-layer codebook, dimension reduction, and
      similarity reweighting to improve the overall retrieval rate. Two metrics,
      average precision rate and average recall rate (ARR), are employed to examine
      various data sets. As documented in the experimental results, the proposed
      schemes can achieve superior performance compared with the state-of-the-art
      methods with either low-or high-level features in terms of the retrieval rate.
      Thus, it can be a strong candidate for various image retrieval related
      applications.

PMID- 28866492
TI  - Recovery of Lost Color and Depth Frames in Multiview Videos.
AB  - In this paper, we consider an integrated error concealment system for lost color
      frames and lost depth frames in multiview videos with depths. We first proposed a
      pixel-based color error-concealment method with the use of depth information.
      Instead of assuming that the same moving object in consecutive frames has minimal
      depth difference, as is done in a state-of-the-art method, a more realistic
      situation in which the same moving object in consecutive frames can be in
      different depths is considered. In the derived motion vector candidate set, we
      consider all the candidate motion vectors in the set, and weight the reference
      pixels by the depth differences to obtain the final recovered pixel. Compared
      with the two state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method has average peak
      signal-to-noise ratio gains of up to 8.73 and 3.98 dB, respectively. Second, we
      proposed an iterative depth frame error-concealment method. The initial recovered
      depth frame is obtained by depth-image-based rendering from another available
      view. The holes in the recovered depth frame are then filled in the proposed
      priority order. Preprocessing methods (depth difference compensation and
      inconsistent pixel removal) are performed to improve the performance. Compared
      with a method that uses the available motion vector in a color frame to recover
      the lost depth pixels, the hybrid motion vector extrapolation method, the
      inpainting method and the proposed method have gains of up to 4.31, 10.29, and
      6.04 dB, respectively. Finally, for the situation in which the color and the
      depth frames are lost at the same time, our two methods jointly perform better
      with a gain of up to 7.79 dB.

PMID- 28866493
TI  - Objective Quality Assessment of Image Retargeting by Incorporating Fidelity
      Measures and Inconsistency Detection.
AB  - The tremendous growth in mobile devices has resulted in huge generation and usage
      of digital images. Image quality assessment is thus an important issue for mobile
      media applications. In this paper, we focus on the quality evaluation of images
      generated by content-aware image retargeting, in which the reference and the
      distorted images are of different sizes. Through retargeting, many types of
      deformation inconsistency lead to shape distortion, deformation artifacts, and
      content information loss, worsening its perceptual quality. The deformation
      inconsistency occurs on different levels of the retargeted images. Limited by the
      accuracy of the alignment between the original and retargeted images, previous
      methods only focus on pixel-level and patch-level fidelity analyses and fail to
      detect deformation inconsistency. In this paper, we improve the alignment
      algorithm and propose a three-level representation of the retargeting process.
      Based on the analysis of this three-level representation, both fidelity measures
      and inconsistency detection are combined to determine the final retargeting
      quality. The proposed algorithm is validated on the public data sets RetargetMe
      and CUHK. Experimental results demonstrate that inconsistency detection
      contributes to accurately assessing the image retargeting perceptual quality.
      This inspires us to investigate more about deformation inconsistency to formulate
      the objective quality of image retargeting.

PMID- 28866494
TI  - Unifying the Video and Question Attentions for Open-Ended Video Question
      Answering.
AB  - Video question answering is an important task toward scene understanding and
      visual data retrieval. However, current visual question answering works mainly
      focus on a single static image, which is distinct from the dynamic and sequential
      visual data in the real world. Their approaches cannot utilize the temporal
      information in videos. In this paper, we introduce the task of free-form open
      ended video question answering. The open-ended answers enable wider applications
      compared with the common multiple-choice tasks in Visual-QA. We first propose a
      data set for open-ended Video-QA with the automatic question generation
      approaches. Then, we propose our sequential video attention and temporal question
      attention models. These two models apply the attention mechanism on videos and
      questions, while preserving the sequential and temporal structures of the guides.
      The two models are integrated into the model of unified attention. After the
      video and the question are encoded, the answers are generated wordwisely from our
      models by a decoder. In the end, we evaluate our models on the proposed data set.
      The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model.

PMID- 28866495
TI  - Background-Foreground Modeling Based on Spatiotemporal Sparse Subspace
      Clustering.
AB  - Background estimation and foreground segmentation are important steps in many
      high-level vision tasks. Many existing methods estimate background as a low-rank
      component and foreground as a sparse matrix without incorporating the structural
      information. Therefore, these algorithms exhibit degraded performance in the
      presence of dynamic backgrounds, photometric variations, jitter, shadows, and
      large occlusions. We observe that these backgrounds often span multiple
      manifolds. Therefore, constraints that ensure continuity on those manifolds will
      result in better background estimation. Hence, we propose to incorporate the
      spatial and temporal sparse subspace clustering into the robust principal
      component analysis (RPCA) framework. To that end, we compute a spatial and
      temporal graph for a given sequence using motion-aware correlation coefficient.
      The information captured by both graphs is utilized by estimating the proximity
      matrices using both the normalized Euclidean and geodesic distances. The low-rank
      component must be able to efficiently partition the spatiotemporal graphs using
      these Laplacian matrices. Embedded with the RPCA objective function, these
      Laplacian matrices constrain the background model to be spatially and temporally
      consistent, both on linear and nonlinear manifolds. The solution of the proposed
      objective function is computed by using the linearized alternating direction
      method with adaptive penalty optimization scheme. Experiments are performed on
      challenging sequences from five publicly available datasets and are compared with
      the 23 existing state-of-the-art methods. The results demonstrate excellent
      performance of the proposed algorithm for both the background estimation and
      foreground segmentation.

PMID- 28866496
TI  - Convex Multiview Semi-Supervised Classification.
AB  - In many practical applications, there are a great number of unlabeled samples
      available, while labeling them is a costly and tedious process. Therefore, how to
      utilize unlabeled samples to assist digging out potential information about the
      problem is very important. In this paper, we study a multiclass semi-supervised
      classification task in the context of multiview data. First, an optimization
      method named Parametric multiview semi-supervised classification (PMSSC) is
      proposed, where the built classifier for each individual view is explicitly
      combined with a weight factor. By analyzing the weakness of it, a new adapted
      weight learning strategy is further formulated, and we come to the convex
      multiview semi-supervised classification (CMSSC) method. Comparing with the
      PMSSC, this method has two significant properties. First, without too much loss
      in performance, the newly used weight learning technique achieves eliminating a
      hyperparameter, and thus it becomes more compact in form and practical to use.
      Second, as its name implies, the CMSSC models a convex problem, which avoids the
      local-minimum problem. Experimental results on several multiview data sets
      demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve better performances than recent
      representative methods and the CMSSC is preferred due to its good traits.

PMID- 28866497
TI  - Discriminant Analysis on Riemannian Manifold of Gaussian Distributions for Face
      Recognition With Image Sets.
AB  - To address the problem of face recognition with image sets, we aim to capture the
      underlying data distribution in each set and thus facilitate more robust
      classification. To this end, we represent image set as the Gaussian mixture model
      (GMM) comprising a number of Gaussian components with prior probabilities and
      seek to discriminate Gaussian components from different classes. Since in the
      light of information geometry, the Gaussians lie on a specific Riemannian
      manifold, this paper presents a method named discriminant analysis on Riemannian
      manifold of Gaussian distributions (DARG). We investigate several distance
      metrics between Gaussians and accordingly two discriminative learning frameworks
      are presented to meet the geometric and statistical characteristics of the
      specific manifold. The first framework derives a series of provably positive
      definite probabilistic kernels to embed the manifold to a high-dimensional
      Hilbert space, where conventional discriminant analysis methods developed in
      Euclidean space can be applied, and a weighted Kernel discriminant analysis is
      devised which learns discriminative representation of the Gaussian components in
      GMMs with their prior probabilities as sample weights. Alternatively, the other
      framework extends the classical graph embedding method to the manifold by
      utilizing the distance metrics between Gaussians to construct the adjacency
      graph, and hence the original manifold is embedded to a lower-dimensional and
      discriminative target manifold with the geometric structure preserved and the
      interclass separability maximized. The proposed method is evaluated by face
      identification and verification tasks on four most challenging and largest
      databases, YouTube Celebrities, COX, YouTube Face DB, and Point-and-Shoot
      Challenge, to demonstrate its superiority over the state-of-the-art.To address
      the problem of face recognition with image sets, we aim to capture the underlying
      data distribution in each set and thus facilitate more robust classification. To
      this end, we represent image set as the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) comprising a
      number of Gaussian components with prior probabilities and seek to discriminate
      Gaussian components from different classes. Since in the light of information
      geometry, the Gaussians lie on a specific Riemannian manifold, this paper
      presents a method named discriminant analysis on Riemannian manifold of Gaussian
      distributions (DARG). We investigate several distance metrics between Gaussians
      and accordingly two discriminative learning frameworks are presented to meet the
      geometric and statistical characteristics of the specific manifold. The first
      framework derives a series of provably positive definite probabilistic kernels to
      embed the manifold to a high-dimensional Hilbert space, where conventional
      discriminant analysis methods developed in Euclidean space can be applied, and a
      weighted Kernel discriminant analysis is devised which learns discriminative
      representation of the Gaussian components in GMMs with their prior probabilities
      as sample weights. Alternatively, the other framework extends the classical graph
      embedding method to the manifold by utilizing the distance metrics between
      Gaussians to construct the adjacency graph, and hence the original manifold is
      embedded to a lower-dimensional and discriminative target manifold with the
      geometric structure preserved and the interclass separability maximized. The
      proposed method is evaluated by face identification and verification tasks on
      four most challenging and largest databases, YouTube Celebrities, COX, YouTube
      Face DB, and Point-and-Shoot Challenge, to demonstrate its superiority over the
      state-of-the-art.

PMID- 28866498
TI  - Random Walks for Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Fusion in Framelet Domain.
AB  - A new framelet-based random walks (RWs) method is presented for synthetic
      aperture radar (SAR) image fusion, including SAR-visible images, SAR-infrared
      images, and Multi-band SAR images. In this method, we build a novel RWs model
      based on the statistical characteristics of framelet coefficients to fuse the
      high-frequency and low-frequency coefficients. This model converts the fusion
      problem to estimate the probability of each framelet coefficient being assigned
      each input image. Experimental results show that the proposed approach improves
      the contrast while preserves the edges simultaneously, and outperforms many
      traditional and state-of-the-art fusion techniques in both qualitative and
      quantitative analysis.

PMID- 28866499
TI  - What Would a Graph Look Like in this Layout? A Machine Learning Approach to Large
      Graph Visualization.
AB  - Using different methods for laying out a graph can lead to very different visual
      appearances, with which the viewer perceives different information. Selecting a
      "good" layout method is thus important for visualizing a graph. The selection can
      be highly subjective and dependent on the given task. A common approach to
      selecting a good layout is to use aesthetic criteria and visual inspection.
      However, fully calculating various layouts and their associated aesthetic metrics
      is computationally expensive. In this paper, we present a machine learning
      approach to large graph visualization based on computing the topological
      similarity of graphs using graph kernels. For a given graph, our approach can
      show what the graph would look like in different layouts and estimate their
      corresponding aesthetic metrics. An important contribution of our work is the
      development of a new framework to design graph kernels. Our experimental study
      shows that our estimation calculation is considerably faster than computing the
      actual layouts and their aesthetic metrics. Also, our graph kernels outperform
      the state-of-the-art ones in both time and accuracy. In addition, we conducted a
      user study to demonstrate that the topological similarity computed with our graph
      kernel matches perceptual similarity assessed by human users.

PMID- 28866500
TI  - MyBrush: Brushing and Linking with Personal Agency.
AB  - We extend the popular brushing and linking technique by incorporating personal
      agency in the interaction. We map existing research related to brushing and
      linking into a design space that deconstructs the interaction technique into
      three components: source (what is being brushed), link (the expression of
      relationship between source and target), and target (what is revealed as related
      to the source). Using this design space, we created MyBrush, a unified interface
      that offers personal agency over brushing and linking by giving people the
      flexibility to configure the source, link, and target of multiple brushes. The
      results of three focus groups demonstrate that people with different backgrounds
      leveraged personal agency in different ways, including performing complex tasks
      and showing links explicitly. We reflect on these results, paving the way for
      future research on the role of personal agency in information visualization.

PMID- 28866501
TI  - Imagining Replications: Graphical Prediction & Discrete Visualizations Improve
      Recall & Estimation of Effect Uncertainty.
AB  - People often have erroneous intuitions about the results of uncertain processes,
      such as scientific experiments. Many uncertainty visualizations assume
      considerable statistical knowledge, but have been shown to prompt erroneous
      conclusions even when users possess this knowledge. Active learning approaches
      been shown to improve statistical reasoning, but are rarely applied in
      visualizing uncertainty in scientific reports. We present a controlled study to
      evaluate the impact of an interactive, graphical uncertainty prediction technique
      for communicating uncertainty in experiment results. Using our technique, users
      sketch their prediction of the uncertainty in experimental effects prior to
      viewing the true sampling distribution from an experiment. We find that having a
      user graphically predict the possible effects from experiment replications is an
      effective way to improve one's ability to make predictions about replications of
      new experiments. Additionally, visualizing uncertainty as a set of discrete
      outcomes, as opposed to a continuous probability distribution, can improve recall
      of a sampling distribution from a single experiment. Our work has implications
      for various applications where it is important to elicit peoples' estimates of
      probability distributions and to communicate uncertainty effectively.

PMID- 28866502
TI  - Assessing the Graphical Perception of Time and Speed on 2D+Time Trajectories.
AB  - We empirically evaluate the extent to which people perceive non-constant time and
      speed encoded on 2D paths. In our graphical perception study, we evaluate nine
      encodings from the literature for both straight and curved paths. Visualizing
      time and speed information is a challenge when the x and y axes already encode
      other data dimensions, for example when plotting a trip on a map. This is
      particularly true in disciplines such as time-geography and movement analytics
      that often require visualizing spatio-temporal trajectories. A common approach is
      to use 2D+time trajectories, which are 2D paths for which time is an additional
      dimension. However, there are currently no guidelines regarding how to represent
      time and speed on such paths. Our study results provide InfoVis designers with
      clear guidance regarding which encodings to use and which ones to avoid; in
      particular, we suggest using color value to encode speed and segment length to
      encode time whenever possible.

PMID- 28866503
TI  - The Topology ToolKit.
AB  - This system paper presents the Topology ToolKit (TTK), a software platform
      designed for the topological analysis of scalar data in scientific visualization.
      While topological data analysis has gained in popularity over the last two
      decades, it has not yet been widely adopted as a standard data analysis tool for
      end users or developers. TTK aims at addressing this problem by providing a
      unified, generic, efficient, and robust implementation of key algorithms for the
      topological analysis of scalar data, including: critical points, integral lines,
      persistence diagrams, persistence curves, merge trees, contour trees, Morse-Smale
      complexes, fiber surfaces, continuous scatterplots, Jacobi sets, Reeb spaces, and
      more. TTK is easily accessible to end users due to a tight integration with
      ParaView. It is also easily accessible to developers through a variety of
      bindings (Python, VTK/C++) for fast prototyping or through direct, dependency
      free, C++, to ease integration into pre-existing complex systems. While
      developing TTK, we faced several algorithmic and software engineering challenges,
      which we document in this paper. In particular, we present an algorithm for the
      construction of a discrete gradient that complies to the critical points
      extracted in the piecewise-linear setting. This algorithm guarantees a
      combinatorial consistency across the topological abstractions supported by TTK,
      and importantly, a unified implementation of topological data simplification for
      multi-scale exploration and analysis. We also present a cached triangulation data
      structure, that supports time efficient and generic traversals, which self
      adjusts its memory usage on demand for input simplicial meshes and which
      implicitly emulates a triangulation for regular grids with no memory overhead.
      Finally, we describe an original software architecture, which guarantees memory
      efficient and direct accesses to TTK features, while still allowing for
      researchers powerful and easy bindings and extensions. TTK is open source (BSD
      license) and its code, online documentation and video tutorials are available on
      TTK's website [108].

PMID- 28866504
TI  - Data Visualization Saliency Model: A Tool for Evaluating Abstract Data
      Visualizations.
AB  - Evaluating the effectiveness of data visualizations is a challenging undertaking
      and often relies on one-off studies that test a visualization in the context of
      one specific task. Researchers across the fields of data science, visualization,
      and human-computer interaction are calling for foundational tools and principles
      that could be applied to assessing the effectiveness of data visualizations in a
      more rapid and generalizable manner. One possibility for such a tool is a model
      of visual saliency for data visualizations. Visual saliency models are typically
      based on the properties of the human visual cortex and predict which areas of a
      scene have visual features (e.g. color, luminance, edges) that are likely to draw
      a viewer's attention. While these models can accurately predict where viewers
      will look in a natural scene, they typically do not perform well for abstract
      data visualizations. In this paper, we discuss the reasons for the poor
      performance of existing saliency models when applied to data visualizations. We
      introduce the Data Visualization Saliency (DVS) model, a saliency model tailored
      to address some of these weaknesses, and we test the performance of the DVS model
      and existing saliency models by comparing the saliency maps produced by the
      models to eye tracking data obtained from human viewers. Finally, we describe how
      modified saliency models could be used as general tools for assessing the
      effectiveness of visualizations, including the strengths and weaknesses of this
      approach.

PMID- 28866505
TI  - Globe Browsing: Contextualized Spatio-Temporal Planetary Surface Visualization.
AB  - Results of planetary mapping are often shared openly for use in scientific
      research and mission planning. In its raw format, however, the data is not
      accessible to non-experts due to the difficulty in grasping the context and the
      intricate acquisition process. We present work on tailoring and integration of
      multiple data processing and visualization methods to interactively contextualize
      geospatial surface data of celestial bodies for use in science communication. As
      our approach handles dynamic data sources, streamed from online repositories, we
      are significantly shortening the time between discovery and dissemination of data
      and results. We describe the image acquisition pipeline, the pre-processing steps
      to derive a 2.5D terrain, and a chunked level-of-detail, out-of-core rendering
      approach to enable interactive exploration of global maps and high-resolution
      digital terrain models. The results are demonstrated for three different
      celestial bodies. The first case addresses high-resolution map data on the
      surface of Mars. A second case is showing dynamic processes, such as concurrent
      weather conditions on Earth that require temporal datasets. As a final example we
      use data from the New Horizons spacecraft which acquired images during a single
      flyby of Pluto. We visualize the acquisition process as well as the resulting
      surface data. Our work has been implemented in the OpenSpace software [8], which
      enables interactive presentations in a range of environments such as immersive
      dome theaters, interactive touch tables, and virtual reality headsets.

PMID- 28866506
TI  - Bubble Treemaps for Uncertainty Visualization.
AB  - We present a novel type of circular treemap, where we intentionally allocate
      extra space for additional visual variables. With this extended visual design
      space, we encode hierarchically structured data along with their uncertainties in
      a combined diagram. We introduce a hierarchical and force-based circle-packing
      algorithm to compute Bubble Treemaps, where each node is visualized using nested
      contour arcs. Bubble Treemaps do not require any color or shading, which offers
      additional design choices. We explore uncertainty visualization as an application
      of our treemaps using standard error and Monte Carlo-based statistical models. To
      this end, we discuss how uncertainty propagates within hierarchies. Furthermore,
      we show the effectiveness of our visualization using three different examples:
      the package structure of Flare, the S&P 500 index, and the US consumer
      expenditure survey.

PMID- 28866507
TI  - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Theoretical Framework for the Assessment of
      Continuous Colormaps.
AB  - A myriad of design rules for what constitutes a "good" colormap can be found in
      the literature. Some common rules include order, uniformity, and high
      discriminative power. However, the meaning of many of these terms is often
      ambiguous or open to interpretation. At times, different authors may use the same
      term to describe different concepts or the same rule is described by varying
      nomenclature. These ambiguities stand in the way of collaborative work, the
      design of experiments to assess the characteristics of colormaps, and automated
      colormap generation. In this paper, we review current and historical guidelines
      for colormap design. We propose a specified taxonomy and provide unambiguous
      mathematical definitions for the most common design rules.

PMID- 28866508
TI  - Screen-Space Normal Distribution Function Caching for Consistent Multi-Resolution
      Rendering of Large Particle Data.
AB  - Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are crucial to investigating important
      processes in physics and thermodynamics. The simulated atoms are usually
      visualized as hard spheres with Phong shading, where individual particles and
      their local density can be perceived well in close-up views. However, for large
      scale simulations with 10 million particles or more, the visualization of large
      fields-of-view usually suffers from strong aliasing artifacts, because the
      mismatch between data size and output resolution leads to severe under-sampling
      of the geometry. Excessive super-sampling can alleviate this problem, but is
      prohibitively expensive. This paper presents a novel visualization method for
      large-scale particle data that addresses aliasing while enabling interactive high
      quality rendering. We introduce the novel concept of screen-space normal
      distribution functions (S-NDFs) for particle data. S-NDFs represent the
      distribution of surface normals that map to a given pixel in screen space, which
      enables high-quality re-lighting without re-rendering particles. In order to
      facilitate interactive zooming, we cache S-NDFs in a screen-space mipmap (S-MIP).
      Together, these two concepts enable interactive, scale-consistent re-lighting and
      shading changes, as well as zooming, without having to re-sample the particle
      data. We show how our method facilitates the interactive exploration of real
      world large-scale MD simulation data in different scenarios.

PMID- 28866509
TI  - TopoAngler: Interactive Topology-Based Extraction of Fishes.
AB  - We present TopoAngler, a visualization framework that enables an interactive user
      guided segmentation of fishes contained in a micro-CT scan. The inherent noise in
      the CT scan coupled with the often disconnected (and sometimes broken) skeletal
      structure of fishes makes an automatic segmentation of the volume impractical. To
      overcome this, our framework combines techniques from computational topology with
      an interactive visual interface, enabling the human-in-the-Ioop to effectively
      extract fishes from the volume. In the first step, the join tree of the input is
      used to create a hierarchical segmentation of the volume. Through the use of
      linked views, the visual interface then allows users to interactively explore
      this hierarchy, and gather parts of individual fishes into a coherent sub-volume,
      thus reconstructing entire fishes. Our framework was primarily developed for its
      application to CT scans of fishes, generated as part of the ScanAllFish project,
      through close collaboration with their lead scientist. However, we expect it to
      also be applicable in other biological applications where a single dataset
      contains multiple specimen; a common routine that is now widely followed in
      laboratories to increase throughput of expensive CT scanners.

PMID- 28866510
TI  - Multiscale Visualization and Scale-Adaptive Modification of DNA Nanostructures.
AB  - We present an approach to represent DNA nanostructures in varying forms of
      semantic abstraction, describe ways to smoothly transition between them, and thus
      create a continuous multiscale visualization and interaction space for
      applications in DNA nanotechnology. This new way of observing, interacting with,
      and creating DNA nanostructures enables domain experts to approach their work in
      any of the semantic abstraction levels, supporting both low-level manipulations
      and high-level visualization and modifications. Our approach allows them to deal
      with the increasingly complex DNA objects that they are designing, to improve
      their features, and to add novel functions in a way that no existing single-scale
      approach offers today. For this purpose we collaborated with DNA nanotechnology
      experts to design a set of ten semantic scales. These scales take the DNA's
      chemical and structural behavior into account and depict it from atoms to the
      targeted architecture with increasing levels of abstraction. To create coherence
      between the discrete scales, we seamlessly transition between them in a well
      defined manner. We use special encodings to allow experts to estimate the
      nanoscale object's stability. We also add scale-adaptive interactions that
      facilitate the intuitive modification of complex structures at multiple scales.
      We demonstrate the applicability of our approach on an experimental use case.
      Moreover, feedback from our collaborating domain experts confirmed an increased
      time efficiency and certainty for analysis and modification tasks on complex DNA
      structures. Our method thus offers exciting new opportunities with promising
      applications in medicine and biotechnology.

PMID- 28866511
TI  - Robust Detection and Visualization of Jet-Stream Core Lines in Atmospheric Flow.
AB  - Jet-streams, their core lines and their role in atmospheric dynamics have been
      subject to considerable meteorological research since the first half of the
      twentieth century. Yet, until today no consistent automated feature detection
      approach has been proposed to identify jet-stream core lines from 3D wind fields.
      Such 3D core lines can facilitate meteorological analyses previously not
      possible. Although jet-stream cores can be manually analyzed by meteorologists in
      2D as height ridges in the wind speed field, to the best of our knowledge no
      automated ridge detection approach has been applied to jet-stream core detection.
      In this work, we -a team of visualization scientists and meteorologists-propose a
      method that exploits directional information in the wind field to extract core
      lines in a robust and numerically less involved manner than traditional 3D ridge
      detection. For the first time, we apply the extracted 3D core lines to
      meteorological analysis, considering real-world case studies and demonstrating
      our method's benefits for weather forecasting and meteorological research.

PMID- 28866512
TI  - The Interactive Visualization Gap in Initial Exploratory Data Analysis.
AB  - Data scientists and other analytic professionals often use interactive
      visualization in the dissemination phase at the end of a workflow during which
      findings are communicated to a wider audience. Visualization scientists, however,
      hold that interactive representation of data can also be used during exploratory
      analysis itself. Since the use of interactive visualization is optional rather
      than mandatory, this leaves a "visualization gap" during initial exploratory
      analysis that is the onus of visualization researchers to fill. In this paper, we
      explore areas where visualization would be beneficial in applied research by
      conducting a design study using a novel variation on contextual inquiry conducted
      with professional data analysts. Based on these interviews and experiments, we
      propose a set of interactive initial exploratory visualization guidelines which
      we believe will promote adoption by this type of user.

PMID- 28866513
TI  - Structuring Visualization Mock-Ups at the Graphical Level by Dividing the Display
      Space.
AB  - Mock-ups are rapid, low fidelity prototypes, that are used in many design-related
      fields to generate and share ideas. While their creation is supported by many
      mature methods and tools, surprisingly few are suited for the needs of
      information visualization. In this article, we introduce a novel approach to
      creating visualizations mock-ups, based on a dialogue between graphic design and
      parametric toolkit explorations. Our approach consists in iteratively subdividing
      the display space, while progressively informing each division with realistic
      data. We show that a wealth of mock-ups can easily be created using only
      temporary data attributes, as we wait for more realistic data to become
      available. We describe the implementation of this approach in a D3-based toolkit,
      which we use to highlight its generative power, and we discuss the potential for
      transitioning towards higher fidelity prototypes.

PMID- 28866514
TI  - Nonlinear Dot Plots.
AB  - Conventional dot plots use a constant dot size and are typically applied to show
      the frequency distribution of small data sets. Unfortunately, they are not
      designed for a high dynamic range of frequencies. We address this problem by
      introducing nonlinear dot plots. Adopting the idea of nonlinear scaling from
      logarithmic bar charts, our plots allow for dots of varying size so that columns
      with a large number of samples are reduced in height. For the construction of
      these diagrams, we introduce an efficient two-way sweep algorithm that leads to a
      dense and symmetrical layout. We compensate aliasing artifacts at high dot
      densities by a specifically designed low-pass filtering method. Examples of
      nonlinear dot plots are compared to conventional dot plots as well as linear and
      logarithmic histograms. Finally, we include feedback from an expert review.

PMID- 28866515
TI  - VISTILES: Coordinating and Combining Co-located Mobile Devices for Visual Data
      Exploration.
AB  - We present VISTILES, a conceptual framework that uses a set of mobile devices to
      distribute and coordinate visualization views for the exploration of multivariate
      data. In contrast to desktop-based interfaces for information visualization,
      mobile devices offer the potential to provide a dynamic and user-defined
      interface supporting co-located collaborative data exploration with different
      individual workflows. As part of our framework, we contribute concepts that
      enable users to interact with coordinated & multiple views (CMV) that are
      distributed across several mobile devices. The major components of the framework
      are: (i) dynamic and flexible layouts for CMV focusing on the distribution of
      views and (ii) an interaction concept for smart adaptations and combinations of
      visualizations utilizing explicit side-by-side arrangements of devices. As a
      result, users can benefit from the possibility to combine devices and organize
      them in meaningful spatial layouts. Furthermore, we present a web-based prototype
      implementation as a specific instance of our concepts. This implementation
      provides a practical application case enabling users to explore a multivariate
      data collection. We also illustrate the design process including feedback from a
      preliminary user study, which informed the design of both the concepts and the
      final prototype.

PMID- 28866516
TI  - Interactive Design and Visualization of Branched Covering Spaces.
AB  - Branched covering spaces are a mathematical concept which originates from complex
      analysis and topology and has applications in tensor field topology and geometry
      remeshing. Given a manifold surface and an -way rotational symmetry field, a
      branched covering space is a manifold surface that has an -to-1 map to the
      original surface except at the ramification points, which correspond to the
      singularities in the rotational symmetry field. Understanding the notion and
      mathematical properties of branched covering spaces is important to researchers
      in tensor field visualization and geometry processing, and their application
      areas. In this paper, we provide a framework to interactively design and
      visualize the branched covering space (BCS) of an input mesh surface and a
      rotational symmetry field defined on it. In our framework, the user can visualize
      not only the BCSs but also their construction process. In addition, our system
      allows the user to design the geometric realization of the BCS using mesh
      deformation techniques as well as connecting tubes. This enables the user to
      verify important facts about BCSs such as that they are manifold surfaces around
      singularities, as well as the Riemann-Hurwitz formula which relates the Euler
      characteristic of the BCS to that of the original mesh. Our system is evaluated
      by student researchers in scientific visualization and geometry processing as
      well as faculty members in mathematics at our university who teach topology. We
      include their evaluations and feedback in the paper.

PMID- 28866517
TI  - On the Treatment of Field Quantities and Elemental Continuity in FEM Solutions.
AB  - As the finite element method (FEM) and the finite volume method (FVM), both
      traditional and high-order variants, continue their proliferation into various
      applied engineering disciplines, it is important that the visualization
      techniques and corresponding data analysis tools that act on the results produced
      by these methods faithfully represent the underlying data. To state this in
      another way: the interpretation of data generated by simulation needs to be
      consistent with the numerical schemes that underpin the specific solver
      technology. As the verifiable visualization literature has demonstrated: visual
      artifacts produced by the introduction of either explicit or implicit data
      transformations, such as data resampling, can sometimes distort or even obfuscate
      key scientific features in the data. In this paper, we focus on the handling of
      elemental continuity, which is often only continuous or piecewise discontinuous,
      when visualizing primary or derived fields from FEM or FVM simulations. We
      demonstrate that traditional data handling and visualization of these fields
      introduce visual errors. In addition, we show how the use of the recently
      proposed line-SIAC filter provides a way of handling elemental continuity issues
      in an accuracy-conserving manner with the added benefit of casting the data in a
      smooth context even if the representation is element discontinuous.

PMID- 28866518
TI  - Dynamic Load Balancing Based on Constrained K-D Tree Decomposition for Parallel
      Particle Tracing.
AB  - We propose a dynamically load-balanced algorithm for parallel particle tracing,
      which periodically attempts to evenly redistribute particles across processes
      based on k-d tree decomposition. Each process is assigned with (1) a statically
      partitioned, axis-aligned data block that partially overlaps with neighboring
      blocks in other processes and (2) a dynamically determined k-d tree leaf node
      that bounds the active particles for computation; the bounds of the k-d tree
      nodes are constrained by the geometries of data blocks. Given a certain degree of
      overlap between blocks, our method can balance the number of particles as much as
      possible. Compared with other load-balancing algorithms for parallel particle
      tracing, the proposed method does not require any preanalysis, does not use any
      heuristics based on flow features, does not make any assumptions about seed
      distribution, does not move any data blocks during the run, and does not need any
      master process for work redistribution. Based on a comprehensive performance
      study up to 8K processes on a Blue Gene/Q system, the proposed algorithm
      outperforms baseline approaches in both load balance and scalability on various
      flow visualization and analysis problems.

PMID- 28866519
TI  - An Intelligent System Approach for Probabilistic Volume Rendering Using
      Hierarchical 3D Convolutional Sparse Coding.
AB  - In this paper, we propose a novel machine learning-based voxel classification
      method for highly-accurate volume rendering. Unlike conventional voxel
      classification methods that incorporate intensity-based features, the proposed
      method employs dictionary based features learned directly from the input data
      using hierarchical multi-scale 3D convolutional sparse coding, a novel extension
      of the state-of-the-art learning-based sparse feature representation method. The
      proposed approach automatically generates high-dimensional feature vectors in up
      to 75 dimensions, which are then fed into an intelligent system built on a random
      forest classifier for accurately classifying voxels from only a handful of
      selection scribbles made directly on the input data by the user. We apply the
      probabilistic transfer function to further customize and refine the rendered
      result. The proposed method is more intuitive to use and more robust to noise in
      comparison with conventional intensity-based classification methods. We evaluate
      the proposed method using several synthetic and real-world volume datasets, and
      demonstrate the methods usability through a user study.

PMID- 28866520
TI  - A Virtual Reality Visualization Tool for Neuron Tracing.
AB  - Tracing neurons in large-scale microscopy data is crucial to establishing a
      wiring diagram of the brain, which is needed to understand how neural circuits in
      the brain process information and generate behavior. Automatic techniques often
      fail for large and complex datasets, and connectomics researchers may spend weeks
      or months manually tracing neurons using 2D image stacks. We present a design
      study of a new virtual reality (VR) system, developed in collaboration with
      trained neuroanatomists, to trace neurons in microscope scans of the visual
      cortex of primates. We hypothesize that using consumer-grade VR technology to
      interact with neurons directly in 3D will help neuroscientists better resolve
      complex cases and enable them to trace neurons faster and with less physical and
      mental strain. We discuss both the design process and technical challenges in
      developing an interactive system to navigate and manipulate terabyte-sized image
      volumes in VR. Using a number of different datasets, we demonstrate that,
      compared to widely used commercial software, consumer-grade VR presents a
      promising alternative for scientists.

PMID- 28866521
TI  - How Do Ancestral Traits Shape Family Trees Over Generations?
AB  - Whether and how does the structure of family trees differ by ancestral traits
      over generations? This is a fundamental question regarding the structural
      heterogeneity of family trees for the multi-generational transmission research.
      However, previous work mostly focuses on parent-child scenarios due to the lack
      of proper tools to handle the complexity of extending the research to multi
      generational processes. Through an iterative design study with social scientists
      and historians, we develop TreeEvo that assists users to generate and test
      empirical hypotheses for multi-generational research. TreeEvo summarizes and
      organizes family trees by structural features in a dynamic manner based on a
      traditional Sankey diagram. A pixel-based technique is further proposed to
      compactly encode trees with complex structures in each Sankey Node. Detailed
      information of trees is accessible through a space-efficient visualization with
      semantic zooming. Moreover, TreeEvo embeds Multinomial Logit Model (MLM) to
      examine statistical associations between tree structure and ancestral traits. We
      demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of TreeEvo through an in-depth case
      study with domain experts using a real-world dataset (containing 54,128 family
      trees of 126,196 individuals).

PMID- 28866522
TI  - LDSScanner: Exploratory Analysis of Low-Dimensional Structures in High
      Dimensional Datasets.
AB  - Many approaches for analyzing a high-dimensional dataset assume that the dataset
      contains specific structures, e.g., clusters in linear subspaces or non-linear
      manifolds. This yields a trial-and-error process to verify the appropriate model
      and parameters. This paper contributes an exploratory interface that supports
      visual identification of low-dimensional structures in a high-dimensional
      dataset, and facilitates the optimized selection of data models and
      configurations. Our key idea is to abstract a set of global and local feature
      descriptors from the neighborhood graph-based representation of the latent low
      dimensional structure, such as pairwise geodesic distance (GD) among points and
      pairwise local tangent space divergence (LTSD) among pointwise local tangent
      spaces (LTS). We propose a new LTSD-GD view, which is constructed by mapping LTSD
      and GD to the axis and axis using 1D multidimensional scaling, respectively.
      Unlike traditional dimensionality reduction methods that preserve various kinds
      of distances among points, the LTSD-GD view presents the distribution of
      pointwise LTS ( axis) and the variation of LTS in structures (the combination of
      axis and axis). We design and implement a suite of visual tools for navigating
      and reasoning about intrinsic structures of a high-dimensional dataset. Three
      case studies verify the effectiveness of our approach.

PMID- 28866523
TI  - Uncertainty Visualization Using Copula-Based Analysis in Mixed Distribution
      Models.
AB  - Distributions are often used to model uncertainty in many scientific datasets. To
      preserve the correlation among the spatially sampled grid locations in the
      dataset, various standard multivariate distribution models have been proposed in
      visualization literature. These models treat each grid location as a univariate
      random variable which models the uncertainty at that location. Standard
      multivariate distributions (both parametric and nonparametric) assume that all
      the univariate marginals are of the same type/family of distribution. But in
      reality, different grid locations show different statistical behavior which may
      not be modeled best by the same type of distribution. In this paper, we propose a
      new multivariate uncertainty modeling strategy to address the needs of
      uncertainty modeling in scientific datasets. Our proposed method is based on a
      statistically sound multivariate technique called Copula, which makes it possible
      to separate the process of estimating the univariate marginals and the process of
      modeling dependency, unlike the standard multivariate distributions. The modeling
      flexibility offered by our proposed method makes it possible to design
      distribution fields which can have different types of distribution (Gaussian,
      Histogram, KDE etc.) at the grid locations, while maintaining the correlation
      structure at the same time. Depending on the results of various standard
      statistical tests, we can choose an optimal distribution representation at each
      location, resulting in a more cost efficient modeling without significantly
      sacrificing on the analysis quality. To demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed
      modeling strategy, we extract and visualize uncertain features like isocontours
      and vortices in various real world datasets. We also study various modeling
      criterion to help users in the task of univariate model selection.

PMID- 28866524
TI  - Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves.
AB  - In this paper, we present story curves, a visualization technique for exploring
      and communicating nonlinear narratives in movies. A nonlinear narrative is a
      storytelling device that portrays events of a story out of chronological order,
      e.g., in reverse order or going back and forth between past and future events.
      Many acclaimed movies employ unique narrative patterns which in turn have
      inspired other movies and contributed to the broader analysis of narrative
      patterns in movies. However, understanding and communicating nonlinear narratives
      is a difficult task due to complex temporal disruptions in the order of events as
      well as no explicit records specifying the actual temporal order of the
      underlying story. Story curves visualize the nonlinear narrative of a movie by
      showing the order in which events are told in the movie and comparing them to
      their actual chronological order, resulting in possibly meandering visual
      patterns in the curve. We also present Story Explorer, an interactive tool that
      visualizes a story curve together with complementary information such as
      characters and settings. Story Explorer further provides a script curation
      interface that allows users to specify the chronological order of events in
      movies. We used Story Explorer to analyze 10 popular nonlinear movies and
      describe the spectrum of narrative patterns that we discovered, including some
      novel patterns not previously described in the literature. Feedback from experts
      highlights potential use cases in screenplay writing and analysis, education and
      film production. A controlled user study shows that users with no expertise are
      able to understand visual patterns of nonlinear narratives using story curves.

PMID- 28866525
TI  - Priming and Anchoring Effects in Visualization.
AB  - We investigate priming and anchoring effects on perceptual tasks in
      visualization. Priming or anchoring effects depict the phenomena that a stimulus
      might influence subsequent human judgments on a perceptual level, or on a
      cognitive level by providing a frame of reference. Using visual class
      separability in scatterplots as an example task, we performed a set of five
      studies to investigate the potential existence of priming and anchoring effects.
      Our findings show that-under certain circumstances-such effects indeed exist. In
      other words, humans judge class separability of the same scatterplot differently
      depending on the scatterplot(s) they have seen before. These findings inform
      future work on better understanding and more accurately modeling human perception
      of visual patterns.

PMID- 28866526
TI  - LSTMVis: A Tool for Visual Analysis of Hidden State Dynamics in Recurrent Neural
      Networks.
AB  - Recurrent neural networks, and in particular long short-term memory (LSTM)
      networks, are a remarkably effective tool for sequence modeling that learn a
      dense black-box hidden representation of their sequential input. Researchers
      interested in better understanding these models have studied the changes in
      hidden state representations over time and noticed some interpretable patterns
      but also significant noise. In this work, we present LSTMVis, a visual analysis
      tool for recurrent neural networks with a focus on understanding these hidden
      state dynamics. The tool allows users to select a hypothesis input range to focus
      on local state changes, to match these states changes to similar patterns in a
      large data set, and to align these results with structural annotations from their
      domain. We show several use cases of the tool for analyzing specific hidden state
      properties on dataset containing nesting, phrase structure, and chord
      progressions, and demonstrate how the tool can be used to isolate patterns for
      further statistical analysis. We characterize the domain, the different
      stakeholders, and their goals and tasks. Long-term usage data after putting the
      tool online revealed great interest in the machine learning community.

PMID- 28866527
TI  - StreetVizor: Visual Exploration of Human-Scale Urban Forms Based on Street Views.
AB  - Urban forms at human-scale, i.e., urban environments that individuals can sense
      (e.g., sight, smell, and touch) in their daily lives, can provide unprecedented
      insights on a variety of applications, such as urban planning and environment
      auditing. The analysis of urban forms can help planners develop high-quality
      urban spaces through evidence-based design. However, such analysis is complex
      because of the involvement of spatial, multi-scale (i.e., city, region, and
      street), and multivariate (e.g., greenery and sky ratios) natures of urban forms.
      In addition, current methods either lack quantitative measurements or are limited
      to a small area. The primary contribution of this work is the design of
      StreetVizor, an interactive visual analytics system that helps planners leverage
      their domain knowledge in exploring human-scale urban forms based on street view
      images. Our system presents two-stage visual exploration: 1) an AOI Explorer for
      the visual comparison of spatial distributions and quantitative measurements in
      two areas-of-interest (AOIs) at city- and region-scales; 2) and a Street Explorer
      with a novel parallel coordinate plot for the exploration of the fine-grained
      details of the urban forms at the street-scale. We integrate visualization
      techniques with machine learning models to facilitate the detection of street
      view patterns. We illustrate the applicability of our approach with case studies
      on the real-world datasets of four cities, i.e., Hong Kong, Singapore, Greater
      London and New York City. Interviews with domain experts demonstrate the
      effectiveness of our system in facilitating various analytical tasks.

PMID- 28866528
TI  - Scatterplots: Tasks, Data, and Designs.
AB  - Traditional scatterplots fail to scale as the complexity and amount of data
      increases. In response, there exist many design options that modify or expand the
      traditional scatterplot design to meet these larger scales. This breadth of
      design options creates challenges for designers and practitioners who must select
      appropriate designs for particular analysis goals. In this paper, we help
      designers in making design choices for scatterplot visualizations. We survey the
      literature to catalog scatterplot-specific analysis tasks. We look at how data
      characteristics influence design decisions. We then survey scatterplot-like
      designs to understand the range of design options. Building upon these three
      organizations, we connect data characteristics, analysis tasks, and design
      choices in order to generate challenges, open questions, and example best
      practices for the effective design of scatterplots.

PMID- 28866529
TI  - Keeping Multiple Views Consistent: Constraints, Validations, and Exceptions in
      Visualization Authoring.
AB  - Visualizations often appear in multiples, either in a single display (e.g., small
      multiples, dashboard) or across time or space (e.g., slideshow, set of
      dashboards). However, existing visualization design guidelines typically focus on
      single rather than multiple views. Solely following these guidelines can lead to
      effective yet inconsistent views (e.g., the same field has different axes domains
      across charts), making interpretation slow and error-prone. Moreover, little is
      known how consistency balances with other design considerations, making it
      difficult to incorporate consistency mechanisms in visualization authoring
      software. We present a wizard-of-oz study in which we observed how Tableau users
      achieve and sacrifice consistency in an exploration-to-presentation visualization
      design scenario. We extend (from our prior work) a set of encoding-specific
      constraints defining consistency across multiple views. Using the constraints as
      a checklist in our study, we observed cases where participants spontaneously
      maintained consistent encodings and warned cases where consistency was
      overlooked. In response to the warnings, participants either revised views for
      consistency or stated why they thought consistency should be overwritten. We
      categorize participants' actions and responses as constraint validations and
      exceptions, depicting the relative importance of consistency and other design
      considerations under various circumstances (e.g., data cardinality, available
      encoding resources, chart layout). We discuss automatic consistency checking as a
      constraint-satisfaction problem and provide design implications for communicating
      inconsistencies to users.

PMID- 28866530
TI  - Considerations for Visualizing Comparison.
AB  - Supporting comparison is a common and diverse challenge in visualization. Such
      support is difficult to design because solutions must address both the specifics
      of their scenario as well as the general issues of comparison. This paper aids
      designers by providing a strategy for considering those general issues. It
      presents four considerations that abstract comparison. These considerations
      identify issues and categorize solutions in a domain independent manner. The
      first considers how the common elements of comparison-a target set of items that
      are related and an action the user wants to perform on that relationship-are
      present in an analysis problem. The second considers why these elements lead to
      challenges because of their scale, in number of items, complexity of items, or
      complexity of relationship. The third considers what strategies address the
      identified scaling challenges, grouping solutions into three broad categories.
      The fourth considers which visual designs map to these strategies to provide
      solutions for a comparison analysis problem. In sequence, these considerations
      provide a process for developers to consider support for comparison in the design
      of visualization tools. Case studies show how these considerations can help in
      the design and evaluation of visualization solutions for comparison problems.

PMID- 28866531
TI  - iTTVis: Interactive Visualization of Table Tennis Data.
AB  - The rapid development of information technology paved the way for the recording
      of fine-grained data, such as stroke techniques and stroke placements, during a
      table tennis match. This data recording creates opportunities to analyze and
      evaluate matches from new perspectives. Nevertheless, the increasingly complex
      data poses a significant challenge to make sense of and gain insights into.
      Analysts usually employ tedious and cumbersome methods which are limited to
      watching videos and reading statistical tables. However, existing sports
      visualization methods cannot be applied to visualizing table tennis competitions
      due to different competition rules and particular data attributes. In this work,
      we collaborate with data analysts to understand and characterize the
      sophisticated domain problem of analysis of table tennis data. We propose iTTVis,
      a novel interactive table tennis visualization system, which to our knowledge, is
      the first visual analysis system for analyzing and exploring table tennis data.
      iTTVis provides a holistic visualization of an entire match from three main
      perspectives, namely, time-oriented, statistical, and tactical analyses. The
      proposed system with several well-coordinated views not only supports correlation
      identification through statistics and pattern detection of tactics with a score
      timeline but also allows cross analysis to gain insights. Data analysts have
      obtained several new insights by using iTTVis. The effectiveness and usability of
      the proposed system are demonstrated with four case studies.

PMID- 28866532
TI  - SparseLeap: Efficient Empty Space Skipping for Large-Scale Volume Rendering.
AB  - Recent advances in data acquisition produce volume data of very high resolution
      and large size, such as terabyte-sized microscopy volumes. These data often
      contain many fine and intricate structures, which pose huge challenges for volume
      rendering, and make it particularly important to efficiently skip empty space.
      This paper addresses two major challenges: (1) The complexity of large volumes
      containing fine structures often leads to highly fragmented space subdivisions
      that make empty regions hard to skip efficiently. (2) The classification of space
      into empty and non-empty regions changes frequently, because the user or the
      evaluation of an interactive query activate a different set of objects, which
      makes it unfeasible to pre-compute a well-adapted space subdivision. We describe
      the novel SparseLeap method for efficient empty space skipping in very large
      volumes, even around fine structures. The main performance characteristic of
      SparseLeap is that it moves the major cost of empty space skipping out of the ray
      casting stage. We achieve this via a hybrid strategy that balances the
      computational load between determining empty ray segments in a rasterization
      (object-order) stage, and sampling non-empty volume data in the ray-casting
      (image-order) stage. Before ray-casting, we exploit the fast hardware
      rasterization of GPUs to create a ray segment list for each pixel, which
      identifies non-empty regions along the ray. The ray-casting stage then leaps over
      empty space without hierarchy traversal. Ray segment lists are created by
      rasterizing a set of fine-grained, view-independent bounding boxes. Frame
      coherence is exploited by re-using the same bounding boxes unless the set of
      active objects changes. We show that SparseLeap scales better to large, sparse
      data than standard octree empty space skipping.

PMID- 28866533
TI  - Instant Construction and Visualization of Crowded Biological Environments.
AB  - We present the first approach to integrative structural modeling of the
      biological mesoscale within an interactive visual environment. These complex
      models can comprise up to millions of molecules with defined atomic structures,
      locations, and interactions. Their construction has previously been attempted
      only within a non-visual and non-interactive environment. Our solution unites the
      modeling and visualization aspect, enabling interactive construction of atomic
      resolution mesoscale models of large portions of a cell. We present a novel set
      of GPU algorithms that build the basis for the rapid construction of complex
      biological structures. These structures consist of multiple membrane-enclosed
      compartments including both soluble molecules and fibrous structures. The
      compartments are defined using volume voxelization of triangulated meshes. For
      membranes, we present an extension of the Wang Tile concept that populates the
      bilayer with individual lipids. Soluble molecules are populated within
      compartments distributed according to a Halton sequence. Fibrous structures, such
      as RNA or actin filaments, are created by self-avoiding random walks. Resulting
      overlaps of molecules are resolved by a forced-based system. Our approach opens
      new possibilities to the world of interactive construction of cellular
      compartments. We demonstrate its effectiveness by showcasing scenes of different
      scale and complexity that comprise blood plasma, mycoplasma, and HIV.

PMID- 28866534
TI  - Abstractocyte: A Visual Tool for Exploring Nanoscale Astroglial Cells.
AB  - This paper presents Abstractocyte, a system for the visual analysis of astrocytes
      and their relation to neurons, in nanoscale volumes of brain tissue. Astrocytes
      are glial cells, i.e., non-neuronal cells that support neurons and the nervous
      system. The study of astrocytes has immense potential for understanding brain
      function. However, their complex and widely-branching structure requires high
      resolution electron microscopy imaging and makes visualization and analysis
      challenging. Furthermore, the structure and function of astrocytes is very
      different from neurons, and therefore requires the development of new
      visualization and analysis tools. With Abstractocyte, biologists can explore the
      morphology of astrocytes using various visual abstraction levels, while
      simultaneously analyzing neighboring neurons and their connectivity. We define a
      novel, conceptual 2D abstraction space for jointly visualizing astrocytes and
      neurons. Neuroscientists can choose a specific joint visualization as a point in
      this space. Interactively moving this point allows them to smoothly transition
      between different abstraction levels in an intuitive manner. In contrast to
      simply switching between different visualizations, this preserves the visual
      context and correlations throughout the transition. Users can smoothly navigate
      from concrete, highly-detailed 3D views to simplified and abstracted 2D views. In
      addition to investigating astrocytes, neurons, and their relationships, we enable
      the interactive analysis of the distribution of glycogen, which is of high
      importance to neuroscientists. We describe the design of Abstractocyte, and
      present three case studies in which neuroscientists have successfully used our
      system to assess astrocytic coverage of synapses, glycogen distribution in
      relation to synapses, and astrocytic-mitochondria coverage.

PMID- 28866535
TI  - Blinded with Science or Informed by Charts? A Replication Study.
AB  - We provide a reappraisal of Tal and Wansink's study "Blinded with Science", where
      seemingly trivial charts were shown to increase belief in drug efficacy,
      presumably because charts are associated with science. Through a series of four
      replications conducted on two crowdsourcing platforms, we investigate an
      alternative explanation, namely, that the charts allowed participants to better
      assess the drug's efficacy. Considered together, our experiments suggest that the
      chart seems to have indeed promoted understanding, although the effect is likely
      very small. Meanwhile, we were unable to replicate the original study's findings,
      as text with chart appeared to be no more persuasive - and sometimes less
      persuasive - than text alone. This suggests that the effect may not be as robust
      as claimed and may need specific conditions to be reproduced. Regardless, within
      our experimental settings and considering our study as a whole (), the chart's
      contribution to understanding was clearly larger than its contribution to
      persuasion.

PMID- 28866536
TI  - Decision Graph Embedding for High-Resolution Manometry Diagnosis.
AB  - High-resolution manometry is an imaging modality which enables the categorization
      of esophageal motility disorders. Spatio-temporal pressure data along the
      esophagus is acquired using a tubular device and multiple test swallows are
      performed by the patient. Current approaches visualize these swallows as
      individual instances, despite the fact that aggregated metrics are relevant in
      the diagnostic process. Based on the current Chicago Classification, which serves
      as the gold standard in this area, we introduce a visualization supporting an
      efficient and correct diagnosis. To reach this goal, we propose a novel decision
      graph representing the Chicago Classification with workflow optimization in mind.
      Based on this graph, we are further able to prioritize the different metrics used
      during diagnosis and can exploit this prioritization in the actual data
      visualization. Thus, different disorders and their related parameters are
      directly represented and intuitively influence the appearance of our
      visualization. Within this paper, we introduce our novel visualization, justify
      the design decisions, and provide the results of a user study we performed with
      medical students as well as a domain expert. On top of the presented
      visualization, we further discuss how to derive a visual signature for individual
      patients that allows us for the first time to perform an intuitive comparison
      between subjects, in the form of small multiples.

PMID- 28866537
TI  - CyteGuide: Visual Guidance for Hierarchical Single-Cell Analysis.
AB  - Single-cell analysis through mass cytometry has become an increasingly important
      tool for immunologists to study the immune system in health and disease. Mass
      cytometry creates a high-dimensional description vector for single cells by time
      of-flight measurement. Recently, t-Distributed Stochastic Neighborhood Embedding
      (t-SNE) has emerged as one of the state-of-the-art techniques for the
      visualization and exploration of single-cell data. Ever increasing amounts of
      data lead to the adoption of Hierarchical Stochastic Neighborhood Embedding
      (HSNE), enabling the hierarchical representation of the data. Here, the hierarchy
      is explored selectively by the analyst, who can request more and more detail in
      areas of interest. Such hierarchies are usually explored by visualizing
      disconnected plots of selections in different levels of the hierarchy. This poses
      problems for navigation, by imposing a high cognitive load on the analyst. In
      this work, we present an interactive summary-visualization to tackle this
      problem. CyteGuide guides the analyst through the exploration of hierarchically
      represented single-cell data, and provides a complete overview of the current
      state of the analysis. We conducted a two-phase user study with domain experts
      that use HSNE for data exploration. We first studied their problems with their
      current workflow using HSNE and the requirements to ease this workflow in a field
      study. These requirements have been the basis for our visual design. In the
      second phase, we verified our proposed solution in a user evaluation.

PMID- 28866538
TI  - Extracting and Retargeting Color Mappings from Bitmap Images of Visualizations.
AB  - Visualization designers regularly use color to encode quantitative or categorical
      data. However, visualizations "in the wild" often violate perceptual color design
      principles and may only be available as bitmap images. In this work, we
      contribute a method to semi-automatically extract color encodings from a bitmap
      visualization image. Given an image and a legend location, we classify the legend
      as describing either a discrete or continuous color encoding, identify the colors
      used, and extract legend text using OCR methods. We then combine this information
      to recover the specific color mapping. Users can also correct interpretation
      errors using an annotation interface. We evaluate our techniques using a corpus
      of images extracted from scientific papers and demonstrate accurate automatic
      inference of color mappings across a variety of chart types. In addition, we
      present two applications of our method: automatic recoloring to improve
      perceptual effectiveness, and interactive overlays to enable improved reading of
      static visualizations.

PMID- 28866539
TI  - Clique Community Persistence: A Topological Visual Analysis Approach for Complex
      Networks.
AB  - Complex networks require effective tools and visualizations for their analysis
      and comparison. Clique communities have been recognized as a powerful concept for
      describing cohesive structures in networks. We propose an approach that extends
      the computation of clique communities by considering persistent homology, a
      topological paradigm originally introduced to characterize and compare the global
      structure of shapes. Our persistence-based algorithm is able to detect clique
      communities and to keep track of their evolution according to different edge
      weight thresholds. We use this information to define comparison metrics and a new
      centrality measure, both reflecting the relevance of the clique communities
      inherent to the network. Moreover, we propose an interactive visualization tool
      based on nested graphs that is capable of compactly representing the evolving
      relationships between communities for different thresholds and clique degrees. We
      demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on various network types.

PMID- 28866540
TI  - Clustering Trajectories by Relevant Parts for Air Traffic Analysis.
AB  - Clustering of trajectories of moving objects by similarity is an important
      technique in movement analysis. Existing distance functions assess the similarity
      between trajectories based on properties of the trajectory points or segments.
      The properties may include the spatial positions, times, and thematic attributes.
      There may be a need to focus the analysis on certain parts of trajectories, i.e.,
      points and segments that have particular properties. According to the analysis
      focus, the analyst may need to cluster trajectories by similarity of their
      relevant parts only. Throughout the analysis process, the focus may change, and
      different parts of trajectories may become relevant. We propose an analytical
      workflow in which interactive filtering tools are used to attach relevance flags
      to elements of trajectories, clustering is done using a distance function that
      ignores irrelevant elements, and the resulting clusters are summarized for
      further analysis. We demonstrate how this workflow can be useful for different
      analysis tasks in three case studies with real data from the domain of air
      traffic. We propose a suite of generic techniques and visualization guidelines to
      support movement data analysis by means of relevance-aware trajectory clustering.

PMID- 28866541
TI  - Functional Decomposition for Bundled Simplification of Trail Sets.
AB  - Bundling visually aggregates curves to reduce clutter and help finding important
      patterns in trail-sets or graph drawings. We propose a new approach to bundling
      based on functional decomposition of the underling dataset. We recover the
      functional nature of the curves by representing them as linear combinations of
      piecewise-polynomial basis functions with associated expansion coefficients.
      Next, we express all curves in a given cluster in terms of a centroid curve and a
      complementary term, via a set of so-called principal component functions. Based
      on the above, we propose a two-fold contribution: First, we use cluster centroids
      to design a new bundling method for 2D and 3D curve-sets. Secondly, we deform the
      cluster centroids and generate new curves along them, which enables us to modify
      the underlying data in a statistically-controlled way via its simplified
      (bundled) view. We demonstrate our method by applications on real-world 2D and 3D
      datasets for graph bundling, trajectory analysis, and vector field and tensor
      field visualization.

PMID- 28866542
TI  - Skeleton-Based Scagnostics.
AB  - Scatterplot matrices (SPLOMs) are widely used for exploring multidimensional
      data. Scatterplot diagnostics (scagnostics) approaches measure characteristics of
      scatterplots to automatically find potentially interesting plots, thereby making
      SPLOMs more scalable with the dimension count. While statistical measures such as
      regression lines can capture orientation, and graph-theoretic scagnostics
      measures can capture shape, there is no scatterplot characterization measure that
      uses both descriptors. Based on well-known results in shape analysis, we propose
      a scagnostics approach that captures both scatterplot shape and orientation using
      skeletons (or medial axes). Our representation can handle complex spatial
      distributions, helps discovery of principal trends in a multiscale way, scales
      visually well with the number of samples, is robust to noise, and is automatic
      and fast to compute. We define skeleton-based similarity metrics for the visual
      exploration and analysis of SPLOMs. We perform a user study to measure the human
      perception of scatterplot similarity and compare the outcome to our results as
      well as to graph-based scagnostics and other visual quality metrics. Our skeleton
      based metrics outperform previously defined measures both in terms of closeness
      to perceptually-based similarity and computation time efficiency.

PMID- 28866543
TI  - DeepEyes: Progressive Visual Analytics for Designing Deep Neural Networks.
AB  - Deep neural networks are now rivaling human accuracy in several pattern
      recognition problems. Compared to traditional classifiers, where features are
      handcrafted, neural networks learn increasingly complex features directly from
      the data. Instead of handcrafting the features, it is now the network
      architecture that is manually engineered. The network architecture parameters
      such as the number of layers or the number of filters per layer and their
      interconnections are essential for good performance. Even though basic design
      guidelines exist, designing a neural network is an iterative trial-and-error
      process that takes days or even weeks to perform due to the large datasets used
      for training. In this paper, we present DeepEyes, a Progressive Visual Analytics
      system that supports the design of neural networks during training. We present
      novel visualizations, supporting the identification of layers that learned a
      stable set of patterns and, therefore, are of interest for a detailed analysis.
      The system facilitates the identification of problems, such as superfluous
      filters or layers, and information that is not being captured by the network. We
      demonstrate the effectiveness of our system through multiple use cases, showing
      how a trained network can be compressed, reshaped and adapted to different
      problems.

PMID- 28866544
TI  - Modeling Color Difference for Visualization Design.
AB  - Color is frequently used to encode values in visualizations. For color encodings
      to be effective, the mapping between colors and values must preserve important
      differences in the data. However, most guidelines for effective color choice in
      visualization are based on either color perceptions measured using large, uniform
      fields in optimal viewing environments or on qualitative intuitions. These
      limitations may cause data misinterpretation in visualizations, which frequently
      use small, elongated marks. Our goal is to develop quantitative metrics to help
      people use color more effectively in visualizations. We present a series of
      crowdsourced studies measuring color difference perceptions for three common mark
      types: points, bars, and lines. Our results indicate that peoples' abilities to
      perceive color differences varies significantly across mark types. Probabilistic
      models constructed from the resulting data can provide objective guidance for
      designers, allowing them to anticipate viewer perceptions in order to inform
      effective encoding design.

PMID- 28866545
TI  - Visual Diagnosis of Tree Boosting Methods.
AB  - Tree boosting, which combines weak learners (typically decision trees) to
      generate a strong learner, is a highly effective and widely used machine learning
      method. However, the development of a high performance tree boosting model is a
      time-consuming process that requires numerous trial-and-error experiments. To
      tackle this issue, we have developed a visual diagnosis tool, BOOSTVis, to help
      experts quickly analyze and diagnose the training process of tree boosting. In
      particular, we have designed a temporal confusion matrix visualization, and
      combined it with a t-SNE projection and a tree visualization. These visualization
      components work together to provide a comprehensive overview of a tree boosting
      model, and enable an effective diagnosis of an unsatisfactory training process.
      Two case studies that were conducted on the Otto Group Product Classification
      Challenge dataset demonstrate that BOOSTVis can provide informative feedback and
      guidance to improve understanding and diagnosis of tree boosting algorithms.

PMID- 28866546
TI  - Understanding the Relationship Between Interactive Optimisation and Visual
      Analytics in the Context of Prostate Brachytherapy.
AB  - The fields of operations research and computer science have long sought to find
      automatic solver techniques that can find high-quality solutions to difficult
      real-world optimisation problems. The traditional workflow is to exactly model
      the problem and then enter this model into a general-purpose "black-box" solver.
      In practice, however, many problems cannot be solved completely automatically,
      but require a "human-in-the-loop" to iteratively refine the model and give hints
      to the solver. In this paper, we explore the parallels between this interactive
      optimisation workflow and the visual analytics sense-making loop. We assert that
      interactive optimisation is essentially a visual analytics task and propose a
      problem-solving loop analogous to the sense-making loop. We explore these ideas
      through an in-depth analysis of a use-case in prostate brachytherapy, an
      application where interactive optimisation may be able to provide significant
      assistance to practitioners in creating prostate cancer treatment plans
      customised to each patient's tumour characteristics. However, current
      brachytherapy treatment planning is usually a careful, mostly manual process
      involving multiple professionals. We developed a prototype interactive
      optimisation tool for brachytherapy that goes beyond current practice in
      supporting focal therapy - targeting tumour cells directly rather than simply
      seeking coverage of the whole prostate gland. We conducted semi-structured
      interviews, in two stages, with seven radiation oncology professionals in order
      to establish whether they would prefer to use interactive optimisation for
      treatment planning and whether such a tool could improve their trust in the novel
      focal therapy approach and in machine generated solutions to the problem.

PMID- 28866547
TI  - Voila: Visual Anomaly Detection and Monitoring with Streaming Spatiotemporal
      Data.
AB  - The increasing availability of spatiotemporal data continuously collected from
      various sources provides new opportunities for a timely understanding of the data
      in their spatial and temporal context. Finding abnormal patterns in such data
      poses significant challenges. Given that there is often no clear boundary between
      normal and abnormal patterns, existing solutions are limited in their capacity of
      identifying anomalies in large, dynamic and heterogeneous data, interpreting
      anomalies in their multifaceted, spatiotemporal context, and allowing users to
      provide feedback in the analysis loop. In this work, we introduce a unified
      visual interactive system and framework, Voila, for interactively detecting
      anomalies in spatiotemporal data collected from a streaming data source. The
      system is designed to meet two requirements in real-world applications, i.e.,
      online monitoring and interactivity. We propose a novel tensor-based anomaly
      analysis algorithm with visualization and interaction design that dynamically
      produces contextualized, interpretable data summaries and allows for
      interactively ranking anomalous patterns based on user input. Using the "smart
      city" as an example scenario, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
      framework through quantitative evaluation and qualitative case studies.

PMID- 28866548
TI  - Interactive Dynamic Volume Illumination with Refraction and Caustics.
AB  - In recent years, significant progress has been made in developing high-quality
      interactive methods for realistic volume illumination. However, refraction -
      despite being an important aspect of light propagation in participating media -
      has so far only received little attention. In this paper, we present a novel
      approach for refractive volume illumination including caustics capable of
      interactive frame rates. By interleaving light and viewing ray propagation, our
      technique avoids memory-intensive storage of illumination information and does
      not require any precomputation. It is fully dynamic and all parameters such as
      light position and transfer function can be modified interactively without a
      performance penalty.

PMID- 28866549
TI  - BiDots: Visual Exploration of Weighted Biclusters.
AB  - Discovering and analyzing biclusters, i.e., two sets of related entities with
      close relationships, is a critical task in many real-world applications, such as
      exploring entity co-occurrences in intelligence analysis, and studying gene
      expression in bio-informatics. While the output of biclustering techniques can
      offer some initial low-level insights, visual approaches are required on top of
      that due to the algorithmic output complexity. This paper proposes a
      visualization technique, called BiDots, that allows analysts to interactively
      explore biclusters over multiple domains. BiDots overcomes several limitations of
      existing bicluster visualizations by encoding biclusters in a more compact and
      cluster-driven manner. A set of handy interactions is incorporated to support
      flexible analysis of biclustering results. More importantly, BiDots addresses the
      cases of weighted biclusters, which has been underexploited in the literature.
      The design of BiDots is grounded by a set of analytical tasks derived from
      previous work. We demonstrate its usefulness and effectiveness for exploring
      computed biclusters with an investigative document analysis task, in which
      suspicious people and activities are identified from a text corpus.

PMID- 28866550
TI  - Activity-Centered Domain Characterization for Problem-Driven Scientific
      Visualization.
AB  - Although visualization design models exist in the literature in the form of
      higher-level methodological frameworks, these models do not present a clear
      methodological prescription for the domain characterization step. This work
      presents a framework and end-to-end model for requirements engineering in problem
      driven visualization application design. The framework and model are based on the
      activity-centered design paradigm, which is an enhancement of human-centered
      design. The proposed activity-centered approach focuses on user tasks and
      activities, and allows an explicit link between the requirements engineering
      process with the abstraction stage-and its evaluation-of existing, higher-level
      visualization design models. In a departure from existing visualization design
      models, the resulting model: assigns value to a visualization based on user
      activities; ranks user tasks before the user data; partitions requirements in
      activity-related capabilities and nonfunctional characteristics and constraints;
      and explicitly incorporates the user workflows into the requirements process. A
      further merit of this model is its explicit integration of functional
      specifications, a concept this work adapts from the software engineering
      literature, into the visualization design nested model. A quantitative evaluation
      using two sets of interdisciplinary projects supports the merits of the activity
      centered model. The result is a practical roadmap to the domain characterization
      step of visualization design for problem-driven data visualization. Following
      this domain characterization model can help remove a number of pitfalls that have
      been identified multiple times in the visualization design literature.

PMID- 28866551
TI  - BASTet: Shareable and Reproducible Analysis and Visualization of Mass
      Spectrometry Imaging Data via OpenMSI.
AB  - Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a transformative imaging method that supports
      the untargeted, quantitative measurement of the chemical composition and spatial
      heterogeneity of complex samples with broad applications in life sciences,
      bioenergy, and health. While MSI data can be routinely collected, its broad
      application is currently limited by the lack of easily accessible analysis
      methods that can process data of the size, volume, diversity, and complexity
      generated by MSI experiments. The development and application of cutting-edge
      analytical methods is a core driver in MSI research for new scientific
      discoveries, medical diagnostics, and commercial-innovation. However, the lack of
      means to share, apply, and reproduce analyses hinders the broad application,
      validation, and use of novel MSI analysis methods. To address this central
      challenge, we introduce the Berkeley Analysis and Storage Toolkit (BASTet), a
      novel framework for shareable and reproducible data analysis that supports
      standardized data and analysis interfaces, integrated data storage, data
      provenance, workflow management, and a broad set of integrated tools. Based on
      BASTet, we describe the extension of the OpenMSI mass spectrometry imaging
      science gateway to enable web-based sharing, reuse, analysis, and visualization
      of data analyses and derived data products. We demonstrate the application of
      BASTet and OpenMSI in practice to identify and compare characteristic
      substructures in the mouse brain based on their chemical composition measured via
      MSI.

PMID- 28866552
TI  - Visualization Multi-Pipeline for Communicating Biology.
AB  - We propose a system to facilitate biology communication by developing a pipeline
      to support the instructional visualization of heterogeneous biological data on
      heterogeneous user-devices. Discoveries and concepts in biology are typically
      summarized with illustrations assembled manually from the interpretation and
      application of heterogenous data. The creation of such illustrations is time
      consuming, which makes it incompatible with frequent updates to the measured data
      as new discoveries are made. Illustrations are typically non-interactive, and
      when an illustration is updated, it still has to reach the user. Our system is
      designed to overcome these three obstacles. It supports the integration of
      heterogeneous datasets, reflecting the knowledge that is gained from different
      data sources in biology. After pre-processing the datasets, the system transforms
      them into visual representations as inspired by scientific illustrations. As
      opposed to traditional scientific illustration these representations are
      generated in real-time - they are interactive. The code generating the
      visualizations can be embedded in various software environments. To demonstrate
      this, we implemented both a desktop application and a remote-rendering server in
      which the pipeline is embedded. The remote-rendering server supports multi
      threaded rendering and it is able to handle multiple users simultaneously. This
      scalability to different hardware environments, including multi-GPU setups, makes
      our system useful for efficient public dissemination of biological discoveries.

PMID- 28866553
TI  - Do Convolutional Neural Networks Learn Class Hierarchy?
AB  - Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) currently achieve state-of-the-art accuracy
      in image classification. With a growing number of classes, the accuracy usually
      drops as the possibilities of confusion increase. Interestingly, the class
      confusion patterns follow a hierarchical structure over the classes. We present
      visual-analytics methods to reveal and analyze this hierarchy of similar classes
      in relation with CNN-internal data. We found that this hierarchy not only
      dictates the confusion patterns between the classes, it furthermore dictates the
      learning behavior of CNNs. In particular, the early layers in these networks
      develop feature detectors that can separate high-level groups of classes quite
      well, even after a few training epochs. In contrast, the latter layers require
      substantially more epochs to develop specialized feature detectors that can
      separate individual classes. We demonstrate how these insights are key to
      significant improvement in accuracy by designing hierarchy-aware CNNs that
      accelerate model convergence and alleviate overfitting. We further demonstrate
      how our methods help in identifying various quality issues in the training data.

PMID- 28866554
TI  - Applying Pragmatics Principles for Interaction with Visual Analytics.
AB  - Interactive visual data analysis is most productive when users can focus on
      answering the questions they have about their data, rather than focusing on how
      to operate the interface to the analysis tool. One viable approach to engaging
      users in interactive conversations with their data is a natural language
      interface to visualizations. These interfaces have the potential to be both more
      expressive and more accessible than other interaction paradigms. We explore how
      principles from language pragmatics can be applied to the flow of visual
      analytical conversations, using natural language as an input modality. We
      evaluate the effectiveness of pragmatics support in our system Evizeon, and
      present design considerations for conversation interfaces to visual analytics
      tools.

PMID- 28866555
TI  - Visualizing Big Data Outliers through Distributed Aggregation.
AB  - Visualizing outliers in massive datasets requires statistical pre-processing in
      order to reduce the scale of the problem to a size amenable to rendering systems
      like D3, Plotly or analytic systems like R or SAS. This paper presents a new
      algorithm, called hdoutliers, for detecting multidimensional outliers. It is
      unique for a) dealing with a mixture of categorical and continuous variables, b)
      dealing with big-p (many columns of data), c) dealing with big-n (many rows of
      data), d) dealing with outliers that mask other outliers, and e) dealing
      consistently with unidimensional and multidimensional datasets. Unlike ad hoc
      methods found in many machine learning papers, hdoutliers is based on a
      distributional model that allows outliers to be tagged with a probability. This
      critical feature reduces the likelihood of false discoveries.

PMID- 28866556
TI  - Understanding a Sequence of Sequences: Visual Exploration of Categorical States
      in Lake Sediment Cores.
AB  - This design study focuses on the analysis of a time sequence of categorical
      sequences. Such data is relevant for the geoscientific research field of
      landscape and climate development. It results from microscopic analysis of lake
      sediment cores. The goal is to gain hypotheses about landscape evolution and
      climate conditions in the past. To this end, geoscientists identify which
      categorical sequences are similar in the sense that they indicate similar
      conditions. Categorical sequences are similar if they have similar meaning
      (semantic similarity) and appear in similar time periods (temporal similarity).
      For data sets with many different categorical sequences, the task to identify
      similar sequences becomes a challenge. Our contribution is a tailored visual
      analysis concept that effectively supports the analytical process. Our visual
      interface comprises coupled visualizations of semantics and temporal context for
      the exploration and assessment of the similarity of categorical sequences.
      Integrated automatic methods reduce the analytical effort substantially. They (1)
      extract unique sequences in the data and (2) rank sequences by a similarity
      measure during the search for similar sequences. We evaluated our concept by
      demonstrations of our prototype to a larger audience and hands-on analysis
      sessions for two different lakes. According to geoscientists, our approach fills
      an important methodological gap in the application domain.

PMID- 28866557
TI  - ACTIVIS: Visual Exploration of Industry-Scale Deep Neural Network Models.
AB  - While deep learning models have achieved state-of-the-art accuracies for many
      prediction tasks, understanding these models remains a challenge. Despite the
      recent interest in developing visual tools to help users interpret deep learning
      models, the complexity and wide variety of models deployed in industry, and the
      large-scale datasets that they used, pose unique design challenges that are
      inadequately addressed by existing work. Through participatory design sessions
      with over 15 researchers and engineers at Facebook, we have developed, deployed,
      and iteratively improved ACTIVIS, an interactive visualization system for
      interpreting large-scale deep learning models and results. By tightly integrating
      multiple coordinated views, such as a computation graph overview of the model
      architecture, and a neuron activation view for pattern discovery and comparison,
      users can explore complex deep neural network models at both the instance- and
      subset-level. ACTIVIS has been deployed on Facebook's machine learning platform.
      We present case studies with Facebook researchers and engineers, and usage
      scenarios of how ACTIVIS may work with different models.

PMID- 28866558
TI  - SkyLens: Visual Analysis of Skyline on Multi-Dimensional Data.
AB  - Skyline queries have wide-ranging applications in fields that involve multi
      criteria decision making, including tourism, retail industry, and human
      resources. By automatically removing incompetent candidates, skyline queries
      allow users to focus on a subset of superior data items (i.e., the skyline), thus
      reducing the decision-making overhead. However, users are still required to
      interpret and compare these superior items manually before making a successful
      choice. This task is challenging because of two issues. First, people usually
      have fuzzy, unstable, and inconsistent preferences when presented with multiple
      candidates. Second, skyline queries do not reveal the reasons for the superiority
      of certain skyline points in a multi-dimensional space. To address these issues,
      we propose SkyLens, a visual analytic system aiming at revealing the superiority
      of skyline points from different perspectives and at different scales to aid
      users in their decision making. Two scenarios demonstrate the usefulness of
      SkyLens on two datasets with a dozen of attributes. A qualitative study is also
      conducted to show that users can efficiently accomplish skyline understanding and
      comparison tasks with SkyLens.

PMID- 28866559
TI  - SOMFlow: Guided Exploratory Cluster Analysis with Self-Organizing Maps and
      Analytic Provenance.
AB  - Clustering is a core building block for data analysis, aiming to extract
      otherwise hidden structures and relations from raw datasets, such as particular
      groups that can be effectively related, compared, and interpreted. A plethora of
      visual-interactive cluster analysis techniques has been proposed to date,
      however, arriving at useful clusterings often requires several rounds of user
      interactions to fine-tune the data preprocessing and algorithms. We present a
      multi-stage Visual Analytics (VA) approach for iterative cluster refinement
      together with an implementation (SOMFlow) that uses Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) to
      analyze time series data. It supports exploration by offering the analyst a
      visual platform to analyze intermediate results, adapt the underlying
      computations, iteratively partition the data, and to reflect previous analytical
      activities. The history of previous decisions is explicitly visualized within a
      flow graph, allowing to compare earlier cluster refinements and to explore
      relations. We further leverage quality and interestingness measures to guide the
      analyst in the discovery of useful patterns, relations, and data partitions. We
      conducted two pair analytics experiments together with a subject matter expert in
      speech intonation research to demonstrate that the approach is effective for
      interactive data analysis, supporting enhanced understanding of clustering
      results as well as the interactive process itself.

PMID- 28866560
TI  - Comparing Visual-Interactive Labeling with Active Learning: An Experimental
      Study.
AB  - Labeling data instances is an important task in machine learning and visual
      analytics. Both fields provide a broad set of labeling strategies, whereby
      machine learning (and in particular active learning) follows a rather model
      centered approach and visual analytics employs rather user-centered approaches
      (visual-interactive labeling). Both approaches have individual strengths and
      weaknesses. In this work, we conduct an experiment with three parts to assess and
      compare the performance of these different labeling strategies. In our study, we
      (1) identify different visual labeling strategies for user-centered labeling, (2)
      investigate strengths and weaknesses of labeling strategies for different
      labeling tasks and task complexities, and (3) shed light on the effect of using
      different visual encodings to guide the visual-interactive labeling process. We
      further compare labeling of single versus multiple instances at a time, and
      quantify the impact on efficiency. We systematically compare the performance of
      visual interactive labeling with that of active learning. Our main findings are
      that visual-interactive labeling can outperform active learning, given the
      condition that dimension reduction separates well the class distributions.
      Moreover, using dimension reduction in combination with additional visual
      encodings that expose the internal state of the learning model turns out to
      improve the performance of visual-interactive labeling.

PMID- 28866561
TI  - Graphiti: Interactive Specification of Attribute-Based Edges for Network Modeling
      and Visualization.
AB  - Network visualizations, often in the form of node-link diagrams, are an effective
      means to understand relationships between entities, discover entities with
      interesting characteristics, and to identify clusters. While several existing
      tools allow users to visualize pre-defined networks, creating these networks from
      raw data remains a challenging task, often requiring users to program custom
      scripts or write complex SQL commands. Some existing tools also allow users to
      both visualize and model networks. Interaction techniques adopted by these tools
      often assume users know the exact conditions for defining edges in the resulting
      networks. This assumption may not always hold true, however. In cases where users
      do not know much about attributes in the dataset or when there are several
      attributes to choose from, users may not know which attributes they could use to
      formulate linking conditions. We propose an alternate interaction technique to
      model networks that allows users to demonstrate to the system a subset of nodes
      and links they wish to see in the resulting network. The system, in response,
      recommends conditions that can be used to model networks based on the specified
      nodes and links. In this paper, we show how such a demonstration-based
      interaction technique can be used to model networks by employing it in a
      prototype tool, Graphiti. Through multiple usage scenarios, we show how Graphiti
      not only allows users to model networks from a tabular dataset but also
      facilitates updating a pre-defined network with additional edge types.

PMID- 28866562
TI  - Visualizing Dataflow Graphs of Deep Learning Models in TensorFlow.
AB  - We present a design study of the TensorFlow Graph Visualizer, part of the
      TensorFlow machine intelligence platform. This tool helps users understand
      complex machine learning architectures by visualizing their underlying dataflow
      graphs. The tool works by applying a series of graph transformations that enable
      standard layout techniques to produce a legible interactive diagram. To declutter
      the graph, we decouple non-critical nodes from the layout. To provide an
      overview, we build a clustered graph using the hierarchical structure annotated
      in the source code. To support exploration of nested structure on demand, we
      perform edge bundling to enable stable and responsive cluster expansion. Finally,
      we detect and highlight repeated structures to emphasize a model's modular
      composition. To demonstrate the utility of the visualizer, we describe example
      usage scenarios and report user feedback. Overall, users find the visualizer
      useful for understanding, debugging, and sharing the structures of their models.

PMID- 28866563
TI  - VIGOR: Interactive Visual Exploration of Graph Query Results.
AB  - Finding patterns in graphs has become a vital challenge in many domains from
      biological systems, network security, to finance (e.g., finding money laundering
      rings of bankers and business owners). While there is significant interest in
      graph databases and querying techniques, less research has focused on helping
      analysts make sense of underlying patterns within a group of subgraph results.
      Visualizing graph query results is challenging, requiring effective summarization
      of a large number of subgraphs, each having potentially shared node-values, rich
      node features, and flexible structure across queries. We present VIGOR, a novel
      interactive visual analytics system, for exploring and making sense of query
      results. VIGOR uses multiple coordinated views, leveraging different data
      representations and organizations to streamline analysts sensemaking process.
      VIGOR contributes: (1) an exemplar-based interaction technique, where an analyst
      starts with a specific result and relaxes constraints to find other similar
      results or starts with only the structure (i.e., without node value constraints),
      and adds constraints to narrow in on specific results; and (2) a novel feature
      aware subgraph result summarization. Through a collaboration with Symantec, we
      demonstrate how VIGOR helps tackle real-world problems through the discovery of
      security blindspots in a cybersecurity dataset with over 11,000 incidents. We
      also evaluate VIGOR with a within-subjects study, demonstrating VIGOR's ease of
      use over a leading graph database management system, and its ability to help
      analysts understand their results at higher speed and make fewer errors.

PMID- 28866564
TI  - Analyzing the Training Processes of Deep Generative Models.
AB  - Among the many types of deep models, deep generative models (DGMs) provide a
      solution to the important problem of unsupervised and semi-supervised learning.
      However, training DGMs requires more skill, experience, and know-how because
      their training is more complex than other types of deep models such as
      convolutional neural networks (CNNs). We develop a visual analytics approach for
      better understanding and diagnosing the training process of a DGM. To help
      experts understand the overall training process, we first extract a large amount
      of time series data that represents training dynamics (e.g., activation changes
      over time). A blue-noise polyline sampling scheme is then introduced to select
      time series samples, which can both preserve outliers and reduce visual clutter.
      To further investigate the root cause of a failed training process, we propose a
      credit assignment algorithm that indicates how other neurons contribute to the
      output of the neuron causing the training failure. Two case studies are conducted
      with machine learning experts to demonstrate how our approach helps understand
      and diagnose the training processes of DGMs. We also show how our approach can be
      directly used to analyze other types of deep models, such as CNNs.

PMID- 28866565
TI  - Podium: Ranking Data Using Mixed-Initiative Visual Analytics.
AB  - People often rank and order data points as a vital part of making decisions.
      Multi-attribute ranking systems are a common tool used to make these data-driven
      decisions. Such systems often take the form of a table-based visualization in
      which users assign weights to the attributes representing the quantifiable
      importance of each attribute to a decision, which the system then uses to compute
      a ranking of the data. However, these systems assume that users are able to
      quantify their conceptual understanding of how important particular attributes
      are to a decision. This is not always easy or even possible for users to do.
      Rather, people often have a more holistic understanding of the data. They form
      opinions that data point A is better than data point B but do not necessarily
      know which attributes are important. To address these challenges, we present a
      visual analytic application to help people rank multi-variate data points. We
      developed a prototype system, Podium, that allows users to drag rows in the table
      to rank order data points based on their perception of the relative value of the
      data. Podium then infers a weighting model using Ranking SVM that satisfies the
      user's data preferences as closely as possible. Whereas past systems help users
      understand the relationships between data points based on changes to attribute
      weights, our approach helps users to understand the attributes that might inform
      their understanding of the data. We present two usage scenarios to describe some
      of the potential uses of our proposed technique: (1) understanding which
      attributes contribute to a user's subjective preferences for data, and (2)
      deconstructing attributes of importance for existing rankings. Our proposed
      approach makes powerful machine learning techniques more usable to those who may
      not have expertise in these areas.

PMID- 28866566
TI  - Progressive Learning of Topic Modeling Parameters: A Visual Analytics Framework.
AB  - Topic modeling algorithms are widely used to analyze the thematic composition of
      text corpora but remain difficult to interpret and adjust. Addressing these
      limitations, we present a modular visual analytics framework, tackling the
      understandability and adaptability of topic models through a user-driven
      reinforcement learning process which does not require a deep understanding of the
      underlying topic modeling algorithms. Given a document corpus, our approach
      initializes two algorithm configurations based on a parameter space analysis that
      enhances document separability. We abstract the model complexity in an
      interactive visual workspace for exploring the automatic matching results of two
      models, investigating topic summaries, analyzing parameter distributions, and
      reviewing documents. The main contribution of our work is an iterative decision
      making technique in which users provide a document-based relevance feedback that
      allows the framework to converge to a user-endorsed topic distribution. We also
      report feedback from a two-stage study which shows that our technique results in
      topic model quality improvements on two independent measures.

PMID- 28866567
TI  - Clustervision: Visual Supervision of Unsupervised Clustering.
AB  - Clustering, the process of grouping together similar items into distinct
      partitions, is a common type of unsupervised machine learning that can be useful
      for summarizing and aggregating complex multi-dimensional data. However, data can
      be clustered in many ways, and there exist a large body of algorithms designed to
      reveal different patterns. While having access to a wide variety of algorithms is
      helpful, in practice, it is quite difficult for data scientists to choose and
      parameterize algorithms to get the clustering results relevant for their dataset
      and analytical tasks. To alleviate this problem, we built Clustervision, a visual
      analytics tool that helps ensure data scientists find the right clustering among
      the large amount of techniques and parameters available. Our system clusters data
      using a variety of clustering techniques and parameters and then ranks clustering
      results utilizing five quality metrics. In addition, users can guide the system
      to produce more relevant results by providing task-relevant constraints on the
      data. Our visual user interface allows users to find high quality clustering
      results, explore the clusters using several coordinated visualization techniques,
      and select the cluster result that best suits their task. We demonstrate this
      novel approach using a case study with a team of researchers in the medical
      domain and showcase that our system empowers users to choose an effective
      representation of their complex data.

PMID- 28866568
TI  - Open vs. Closed Shapes: New Perceptual Categories?
AB  - Effective communication using visualization relies in part on the use of viable
      encoding strategies. For example, a viewer's ability to rapidly and accurately
      discern between two or more categorical variables in a chart or figure is
      contingent upon the distinctiveness of the encodings applied to each variable.
      Research in perception suggests that color is a more salient visual feature when
      compared to shape and although that finding is supported by visualization
      studies, characteristics of shape also yield meaningful differences in
      distinctiveness. We propose that open or closed shapes (that is, whether shapes
      are composed of line segments that are bounded across a region of space or not)
      represent a salient characteristic that influences perceptual processing. Three
      experiments were performed to test the reliability of the open/closed category;
      the first two from the perspective of attentional allocation, and the third
      experiment in the context of multi-class scatterplot displays. In the first, a
      flanker paradigm was used to test whether perceptual load and open/closed feature
      category would modulate the effect of the flanker on target processing. Results
      showed an influence of both variables. The second experiment used a
      Same/Different reaction time task to replicate and extend those findings. Results
      from both show that responses are faster and more accurate when closed rather
      than open shapes are processed as targets, and there is more processing
      interference when two competing shapes come from the same rather than different
      open or closed feature categories. The third experiment employed three commonly
      used visual analytic tasks - perception of average value, numerosity, and linear
      relationships with both single and dual displays of open and closed symbols. Our
      findings show that for numerosity and trend judgments, in particular, that
      different symbols from the same open or closed feature category cause more
      perceptual interference when they are presented together in a plot than symbols
      from different categories. Moreover, the extent of the interference appears to
      depend upon whether the participant is focused on processing open or closed
      symbols.

PMID- 28866569
TI  - CasCADe: A Novel 4D Visualization System for Virtual Construction Planning.
AB  - Building Information Modeling (BIM) provides an integrated 3D environment to
      manage large-scale engineering projects. The Architecture, Engineering and
      Construction (AEC) industry explores 4D visualizations over these datasets for
      virtual construction planning. However, existing solutions lack adequate visual
      mechanisms to inspect the underlying schedule and make inconsistencies readily
      apparent. The goal of this paper is to apply best practices of information
      visualization to improve 4D analysis of construction plans. We first present a
      review of previous work that identifies common use cases and limitations. We then
      consulted with AEC professionals to specify the main design requirements for such
      applications. These guided the development of CasCADe, a novel 4D visualization
      system where task sequencing and spatio-temporal simultaneity are immediately
      apparent. This unique framework enables the combination of diverse analytical
      features to create an information-rich analysis environment. We also describe how
      engineering collaborators used CasCADe to review the real-world construction
      plans of an Oil & Gas process plant. The system made evident schedule
      uncertainties, identified work-space conflicts and helped analyze other
      constructability issues. The results and contributions of this paper suggest new
      avenues for future research in information visualization for the AEC industry.

PMID- 28866570
TI  - PhenoLines: Phenotype Comparison Visualizations for Disease Subtyping via Topic
      Models.
AB  - PhenoLines is a visual analysis tool for the interpretation of disease subtypes,
      derived from the application of topic models to clinical data. Topic models
      enable one to mine cross-sectional patient comorbidity data (e.g., electronic
      health records) and construct disease subtypes-each with its own temporally
      evolving prevalence and co-occurrence of phenotypes-without requiring aligned
      longitudinal phenotype data for all patients. However, the dimensionality of
      topic models makes interpretation challenging, and de facto analyses provide
      little intuition regarding phenotype relevance or phenotype interrelationships.
      PhenoLines enables one to compare phenotype prevalence within and across disease
      subtype topics, thus supporting subtype characterization, a task that involves
      identifying a proposed subtype's dominant phenotypes, ages of effect, and
      clinical validity. We contribute a data transformation workflow that employs the
      Human Phenotype Ontology to hierarchically organize phenotypes and aggregate the
      evolving probabilities produced by topic models. We introduce a novel measure of
      phenotype relevance that can be used to simplify the resulting topology. The
      design of PhenoLines was motivated by formative interviews with machine learning
      and clinical experts. We describe the collaborative design process, distill high
      level tasks, and report on initial evaluations with machine learning experts and
      a medical domain expert. These results suggest that PhenoLines demonstrates
      promising approaches to support the characterization and optimization of topic
      models.

PMID- 28866571
TI  - Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Evaluating Multidimensional
      Visualizations for Decision Support.
AB  - We explore how to rigorously evaluate multidimensional visualizations for their
      ability to support decision making. We first define multi-attribute choice tasks,
      a type of decision task commonly performed with such visualizations. We then
      identify which of the existing multidimensional visualizations are compatible
      with such tasks, and set out to evaluate three elementary visualizations:
      parallel coordinates, scatterplot matrices and tabular visualizations. Our method
      consists in first giving participants low-level analytic tasks, in order to
      ensure that they properly understood the visualizations and their interactions.
      Participants are then given multi-attribute choice tasks consisting of choosing
      holiday packages. We assess decision support through multiple objective and
      subjective metrics, including a decision accuracy metric based on the consistency
      between the choice made and self-reported preferences for attributes. We found
      the three visualizations to be comparable on most metrics, with a slight
      advantage for tabular visualizations. In particular, tabular visualizations allow
      participants to reach decisions faster. Thus, although decision time is typically
      not central in assessing decision support, it can be used as a tie-breaker when
      visualizations achieve similar decision accuracy. Our results also suggest that
      indirect methods for assessing choice confidence may allow to better distinguish
      between visualizations than direct ones. We finally discuss the limitations of
      our methods and directions for future work, such as the need for more sensitive
      metrics of decision support.

PMID- 28866572
TI  - A Utility-Aware Visual Approach for Anonymizing Multi-Attribute Tabular Data.
AB  - Sharing data for public usage requires sanitization to prevent sensitive
      information from leaking. Previous studies have presented methods for creating
      privacy preserving visualizations. However, few of them provide sufficient
      feedback to users on how much utility is reduced (or preserved) during such a
      process. To address this, we design a visual interface along with a data
      manipulation pipeline that allows users to gauge utility loss while interactively
      and iteratively handling privacy issues in their data. Widely known and discussed
      types of privacy models, i.e., syntactic anonymity and differential privacy, are
      integrated and compared under different use case scenarios. Case study results on
      a variety of examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

PMID- 28866573
TI  - Stable Treemaps via Local Moves.
AB  - Treemaps are a popular tool to visualize hierarchical data: items are represented
      by nested rectangles and the area of each rectangle corresponds to the data being
      visualized for this item. The visual quality of a treemap is commonly measured
      via the aspect ratio of the rectangles. If the data changes, then a second
      important quality criterion is the stability of the treemap: how much does the
      treemap change as the data changes. We present a novel stable treemapping
      algorithm that has very high visual quality. Whereas existing treemapping
      algorithms generally recompute the treemap every time the input changes, our
      algorithm changes the layout of the treemap using only local modifications. This
      approach not only gives us direct control over stability, but it also allows us
      to use a larger set of possible layouts, thus provably resulting in treemaps of
      higher visual quality compared to existing algorithms. We further prove that we
      can reach all possible treemap layouts using only our local modifications.
      Furthermore, we introduce a new measure for stability that better captures the
      relative positions of rectangles. We finally show via experiments on real-world
      data that our algorithm outperforms existing treemapping algorithms also in
      practice on either visual quality and/or stability. Our algorithm scores high on
      stability regardless of whether we use an existing stability measure or our new
      measure.

PMID- 28866575
TI  - TreePOD: Sensitivity-Aware Selection of Pareto-Optimal Decision Trees.
AB  - Balancing accuracy gains with other objectives such as interpretability is a key
      challenge when building decision trees. However, this process is difficult to
      automate because it involves know-how about the domain as well as the purpose of
      the model. This paper presents TreePOD, a new approach for sensitivity-aware
      model selection along trade-offs. TreePOD is based on exploring a large set of
      candidate trees generated by sampling the parameters of tree construction
      algorithms. Based on this set, visualizations of quantitative and qualitative
      tree aspects provide a comprehensive overview of possible tree characteristics.
      Along trade-offs between two objectives, TreePOD provides efficient selection
      guidance by focusing on Pareto-optimal tree candidates. TreePOD also conveys the
      sensitivities of tree characteristics on variations of selected parameters by
      extending the tree generation process with a full-factorial sampling. We
      demonstrate how TreePOD supports a variety of tasks involved in decision tree
      selection and describe its integration in a holistic workflow for building and
      selecting decision trees. For evaluation, we illustrate a case study for
      predicting critical power grid states, and we report qualitative feedback from
      domain experts in the energy sector. This feedback suggests that TreePOD enables
      users with and without statistical background a confident and efficient
      identification of suitable decision trees.

PMID- 28866574
TI  - Visual Exploration of Semantic Relationships in Neural Word Embeddings.
AB  - Constructing distributed representations for words through neural language models
      and using the resulting vector spaces for analysis has become a crucial component
      of natural language processing (NLP). However, despite their widespread
      application, little is known about the structure and properties of these spaces.
      To gain insights into the relationship between words, the NLP community has begun
      to adapt high-dimensional visualization techniques. In particular, researchers
      commonly use t-distributed stochastic neighbor embeddings (t-SNE) and principal
      component analysis (PCA) to create two-dimensional embeddings for assessing the
      overall structure and exploring linear relationships (e.g., word analogies),
      respectively. Unfortunately, these techniques often produce mediocre or even
      misleading results and cannot address domain-specific visualization challenges
      that are crucial for understanding semantic relationships in word embeddings.
      Here, we introduce new embedding techniques for visualizing semantic and
      syntactic analogies, and the corresponding tests to determine whether the
      resulting views capture salient structures. Additionally, we introduce two novel
      views for a comprehensive study of analogy relationships. Finally, we augment t
      SNE embeddings to convey uncertainty information in order to allow a reliable
      interpretation. Combined, the different views address a number of domain-specific
      tasks difficult to solve with existing tools.

PMID- 28866576
TI  - Visualizing Confidence in Cluster-Based Ensemble Weather Forecast Analyses.
AB  - In meteorology, cluster analysis is frequently used to determine representative
      trends in ensemble weather predictions in a selected spatio-temporal region,
      e.g., to reduce a set of ensemble members to simplify and improve their analysis.
      Identified clusters (i.e., groups of similar members), however, can be very
      sensitive to small changes of the selected region, so that clustering results can
      be misleading and bias subsequent analyses. In this article, we - a team of
      visualization scientists and meteorologists-deliver visual analytics solutions to
      analyze the sensitivity of clustering results with respect to changes of a
      selected region. We propose an interactive visual interface that enables
      simultaneous visualization of a) the variation in composition of identified
      clusters (i.e., their robustness), b) the variability in cluster membership for
      individual ensemble members, and c) the uncertainty in the spatial locations of
      identified trends. We demonstrate that our solution shows meteorologists how
      representative a clustering result is, and with respect to which changes in the
      selected region it becomes unstable. Furthermore, our solution helps to identify
      those ensemble members which stably belong to a given cluster and can thus be
      considered similar. In a real-world application case we show how our approach is
      used to analyze the clustering behavior of different regions in a forecast of
      "Tropical Cyclone Karl", guiding the user towards the cluster robustness
      information required for subsequent ensemble analysis.

PMID- 28866577
TI  - Beyond Tasks: An Activity Typology for Visual Analytics.
AB  - As Visual Analytics (VA) research grows and diversifies to encompass new systems,
      techniques, and use contexts, gaining a holistic view of analytic practices is
      becoming ever more challenging. However, such a view is essential for researchers
      and practitioners seeking to develop systems for broad audiences that span
      multiple domains. In this paper, we interpret VA research through the lens of
      Activity Theory (AT)-a framework for modelling human activities that has been
      influential in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. We first provide an
      overview of Activity Theory, showing its potential for thinking beyond tasks,
      representations, and interactions to the broader systems of activity in which
      interactive tools are embedded and used. Next, we describe how Activity Theory
      can be used as an organizing framework in the construction of activity
      typologies, building and expanding upon the tradition of abstract task taxonomies
      in the field of Information Visualization. We then apply the resulting process to
      create an activity typology for Visual Analytics, synthesizing a wide range of
      systems and activity concepts from the literature. Finally, we use this typology
      as the foundation of an activity-centered design process, highlighting both
      tensions and opportunities in the design space of VA systems.

PMID- 28866578
TI  - Bring It to the Pitch: Combining Video and Movement Data to Enhance Team Sport
      Analysis.
AB  - Analysts in professional team sport regularly perform analysis to gain strategic
      and tactical insights into player and team behavior. Goals of team sport analysis
      regularly include identification of weaknesses of opposing teams, or assessing
      performance and improvement potential of a coached team. Current analysis
      workflows are typically based on the analysis of team videos. Also, analysts can
      rely on techniques from Information Visualization, to depict e.g., player or ball
      trajectories. However, video analysis is typically a time-consuming process,
      where the analyst needs to memorize and annotate scenes. In contrast,
      visualization typically relies on an abstract data model, often using abstract
      visual mappings, and is not directly linked to the observed movement context
      anymore. We propose a visual analytics system that tightly integrates team sport
      video recordings with abstract visualization of underlying trajectory data. We
      apply appropriate computer vision techniques to extract trajectory data from
      video input. Furthermore, we apply advanced trajectory and movement analysis
      techniques to derive relevant team sport analytic measures for region, event and
      player analysis in the case of soccer analysis. Our system seamlessly integrates
      video and visualization modalities, enabling analysts to draw on the advantages
      of both analysis forms. Several expert studies conducted with team sport analysts
      indicate the effectiveness of our integrated approach.

PMID- 28866579
TI  - Orko: Facilitating Multimodal Interaction for Visual Exploration and Analysis of
      Networks.
AB  - Data visualization systems have predominantly been developed for WIMP-based
      direct manipulation interfaces. Only recently have other forms of interaction
      begun to appear, such as natural language or touch-based interaction, though
      usually operating only independently. Prior evaluations of natural language
      interfaces for visualization have indicated potential value in combining direct
      manipulation and natural language as complementary interaction techniques. We
      hypothesize that truly multimodal interfaces for visualization, those providing
      users with freedom of expression via both natural language and touch-based direct
      manipulation input, may provide an effective and engaging user experience.
      Unfortunately, however, little work has been done in exploring such multimodal
      visualization interfaces. To address this gap, we have created an architecture
      and a prototype visualization system called Orko that facilitates both natural
      language and direct manipulation input. Specifically, Orko focuses on the domain
      of network visualization, one that has largely relied on WIMP-based interfaces
      and direct manipulation interaction, and has little or no prior research
      exploring natural language interaction. We report results from an initial
      evaluation study of Orko, and use our observations to discuss opportunities and
      challenges for future work in multimodal network visualization interfaces.

PMID- 28866580
TI  - Data Through Others' Eyes: The Impact of Visualizing Others' Expectations on
      Visualization Interpretation.
AB  - In addition to visualizing input data, interactive visualizations have the
      potential to be social artifacts that reveal other people's perspectives on the
      data. However, how such social information embedded in a visualization impacts a
      viewer's interpretation of the data remains unknown. Inspired by recent
      interactive visualizations that display people's expectations of data against the
      data, we conducted a controlled experiment to evaluate the effect of showing
      social information in the form of other people's expectations on people's ability
      to recall the data, the degree to which they adjust their expectations to align
      with the data, and their trust in the accuracy of the data. We found that social
      information that exhibits a high degree of consensus lead participants to recall
      the data more accurately relative to participants who were exposed to the data
      alone. Additionally, participants trusted the accuracy of the data less and were
      more likely to maintain their initial expectations when other people's
      expectations aligned with their own initial expectations but not with the data.
      We conclude by characterizing the design space for visualizing others'
      expectations alongside data.

PMID- 28866581
TI  - Towards a Systematic Combination of Dimension Reduction and Clustering in Visual
      Analytics.
AB  - Dimension reduction algorithms and clustering algorithms are both frequently used
      techniques in visual analytics. Both families of algorithms assist analysts in
      performing related tasks regarding the similarity of observations and finding
      groups in datasets. Though initially used independently, recent works have
      incorporated algorithms from each family into the same visualization systems.
      However, these algorithmic combinations are often ad hoc or disconnected, working
      independently and in parallel rather than integrating some degree of
      interdependence. A number of design decisions must be addressed when employing
      dimension reduction and clustering algorithms concurrently in a visualization
      system, including the selection of each algorithm, the order in which they are
      processed, and how to present and interact with the resulting projection. This
      paper contributes an overview of combining dimension reduction and clustering
      into a visualization system, discussing the challenges inherent in developing a
      visualization system that makes use of both families of algorithms.

PMID- 28866582
TI  - Exploring Multivariate Event Sequences Using Rules, Aggregations, and Selections.
AB  - Multivariate event sequences are ubiquitous: travel history, telecommunication
      conversations, and server logs are some examples. Besides standard properties
      such as type and timestamp, events often have other associated multivariate data.
      Current exploration and analysis methods either focus on the temporal analysis of
      a single attribute or the structural analysis of the multivariate data only. We
      present an approach where users can explore event sequences at multivariate and
      sequential level simultaneously by interactively defining a set of rewrite rules
      using multivariate regular expressions. Users can store resulting patterns as new
      types of events or attributes to interactively enrich or simplify event sequences
      for further investigation. In Eventpad we provide a bottom-up glyph-oriented
      approach for multivariate event sequence analysis by searching, clustering, and
      aligning them according to newly defined domain specific properties. We
      illustrate the effectiveness of our approach with real-world data sets including
      telecommunication traffic and hospital treatments.

PMID- 28866583
TI  - Supporting Handoff in Asynchronous Collaborative Sensemaking Using Knowledge
      Transfer Graphs.
AB  - During asynchronous collaborative analysis, handoff of partial findings is
      challenging because externalizations produced by analysts may not adequately
      communicate their investigative process. To address this challenge, we developed
      techniques to automatically capture and help encode tacit aspects of the
      investigative process based on an analyst's interactions, and streamline explicit
      authoring of handoff annotations. We designed our techniques to mediate awareness
      of analysis coverage, support explicit communication of progress and uncertainty
      with annotation, and implicit communication through playback of investigation
      histories. To evaluate our techniques, we developed an interactive visual
      analysis system, KTGraph, that supports an asynchronous investigative document
      analysis task. We conducted a two-phase user study to characterize a set of
      handoff strategies and to compare investigative performance with and without our
      techniques. The results suggest that our techniques promote the use of more
      effective handoff strategies, help increase an awareness of prior investigative
      process and insights, as well as improve final investigative outcomes.

PMID- 28866584
TI  - Dynamic Influence Networks for Rule-Based Models.
AB  - We introduce the Dynamic Influence Network (DIN), a novel visual analytics
      technique for representing and analyzing rule-based models of protein-protein
      interaction networks. Rule-based modeling has proved instrumental in developing
      biological models that are concise, comprehensible, easily extensible, and that
      mitigate the combinatorial complexity of multi-state and multi-component
      biological molecules. Our technique visualizes the dynamics of these rules as
      they evolve over time. Using the data produced by KaSim, an open source
      stochastic simulator of rule-based models written in the Kappa language, DINs
      provide a node-link diagram that represents the influence that each rule has on
      the other rules. That is, rather than representing individual biological
      components or types, we instead represent the rules about them (as nodes) and the
      current influence of these rules (as links). Using our interactive DIN-Viz
      software tool, researchers are able to query this dynamic network to find
      meaningful patterns about biological processes, and to identify salient aspects
      of complex rule-based models. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we
      investigate a simulation of a circadian clock model that illustrates the
      oscillatory behavior of the KaiC protein phosphorylation cycle.

PMID- 28866585
TI  - TACO: Visualizing Changes in Tables Over Time.
AB  - Multivariate, tabular data is one of the most common data structures used in many
      different domains. Over time, tables can undergo changes in both structure and
      content, which results in multiple versions of the same table. A challenging task
      when working with such derived tables is to understand what exactly has changed
      between versions in terms of additions/deletions, reorder, merge/split, and
      content changes. For textual data, a variety of commonplace "diff" tools exist
      that support the task of investigating changes between revisions of a text.
      Although there are some comparison tools which assist users in inspecting
      differences between multiple table instances, the resulting visualizations are
      often difficult to interpret or do not scale to large tables with thousands of
      rows and columns. To address these challenges, we developed TACO, an interactive
      comparison tool that visualizes the differences between multiple tables at
      various levels of detail. With TACO we show (1) the aggregated differences
      between multiple table versions over time, (2) the aggregated changes between two
      selected table versions, and (3) detailed changes between the selected tables. To
      demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we show its application by means
      of two usage scenarios.

PMID- 28866586
TI  - EventThread: Visual Summarization and Stage Analysis of Event Sequence Data.
AB  - Event sequence data such as electronic health records, a person's academic
      records, or car service records, are ordered series of events which have occurred
      over a period of time. Analyzing collections of event sequences can reveal common
      or semantically important sequential patterns. For example, event sequence
      analysis might reveal frequently used care plans for treating a disease, typical
      publishing patterns of professors, and the patterns of service that result in a
      well-maintained car. It is challenging, however, to visually explore large
      numbers of event sequences, or sequences with large numbers of event types.
      Existing methods focus on extracting explicitly matching patterns of events using
      statistical analysis to create stages of event progression over time. However,
      these methods fail to capture latent clusters of similar but not identical
      evolutions of event sequences. In this paper, we introduce a novel visualization
      system named EventThread which clusters event sequences into threads based on
      tensor analysis and visualizes the latent stage categories and evolution patterns
      by interactively grouping the threads by similarity into time-specific clusters.
      We demonstrate the effectiveness of EventThread through usage scenarios in three
      different application domains and via interviews with an expert user.

PMID- 28866587
TI  - EdWordle: Consistency-Preserving Word Cloud Editing.
AB  - We present EdWordle, a method for consistently editing word clouds. At its heart,
      EdWordle allows users to move and edit words while preserving the neighborhoods
      of other words. To do so, we combine a constrained rigid body simulation with a
      neighborhood-aware local Wordle algorithm to update the cloud and to create very
      compact layouts. The consistent and stable behavior of EdWordle enables users to
      create new forms of word clouds such as storytelling clouds in which the position
      of words is carefully edited. We compare our approach with state-of-the-art
      methods and show that we can improve user performance, user satisfaction, as well
      as the layout itself.

PMID- 28866588
TI  - The Explanatory Visualization Framework: An Active Learning Framework for
      Teaching Creative Computing Using Explanatory Visualizations.
AB  - Visualizations are nowadays appearing in popular media and are used everyday in
      the workplace. This democratisation of visualization challenges educators to
      develop effective learning strategies, in order to train the next generation of
      creative visualization specialists. There is high demand for skilled individuals
      who can analyse a problem, consider alternative designs, develop new
      visualizations, and be creative and innovative. Our three-stage framework, leads
      the learner through a series of tasks, each designed to develop different skills
      necessary for coming up with creative, innovative, effective, and purposeful
      visualizations. For that, we get the learners to create an explanatory
      visualization of an algorithm of their choice. By making an algorithm choice, and
      by following an active-learning and project-based strategy, the learners take
      ownership of a particular visualization challenge. They become enthusiastic to
      develop good results and learn different creative skills on their learning
      journey.

PMID- 28866589
TI  - Revisiting Stress Majorization as a Unified Framework for Interactive Constrained
      Graph Visualization.
AB  - We present an improved stress majorization method that incorporates various
      constraints, including directional constraints without the necessity of solving a
      constraint optimization problem. This is achieved by reformulating the stress
      function to impose constraints on both the edge vectors and lengths instead of
      just on the edge lengths (node distances). This is a unified framework for both
      constrained and unconstrained graph visualizations, where we can model most
      existing layout constraints, as well as develop new ones such as the star shapes
      and cluster separation constraints within stress majorization. This improvement
      also allows us to parallelize computation with an efficient GPU conjugant
      gradient solver, which yields fast and stable solutions, even for large graphs.
      As a result, we allow the constraint-based exploration of large graphs with 10K
      nodes - an approach which previous methods cannot support.

PMID- 28866590
TI  - The Hologram in My Hand: How Effective is Interactive Exploration of 3D
      Visualizations in Immersive Tangible Augmented Reality?
AB  - We report on a controlled user study comparing three visualization environments
      for common 3D exploration. Our environments differ in how they exploit natural
      human perception and interaction capabilities. We compare an augmented-reality
      head-mounted display (Microsoft HoloLens), a handheld tablet, and a desktop
      setup. The novel head-mounted HoloLens display projects stereoscopic images of
      virtual content into a user's real world and allows for interaction in-situ at
      the spatial position of the 3D hologram. The tablet is able to interact with 3D
      content through touch, spatial positioning, and tangible markers, however, 3D
      content is still presented on a 2D surface. Our hypothesis is that visualization
      environments that match human perceptual and interaction capabilities better to
      the task at hand improve understanding of 3D visualizations. To better understand
      the space of display and interaction modalities in visualization environments, we
      first propose a classification based on three dimensions: perception,
      interaction, and the spatial and cognitive proximity of the two. Each technique
      in our study is located at a different position along these three dimensions. We
      asked 15 participants to perform four tasks, each task having different levels of
      difficulty for both spatial perception and degrees of freedom for interaction.
      Our results show that each of the tested environments is more effective for
      certain tasks, but that generally the desktop environment is still fastest and
      most precise in almost all cases.

PMID- 28866591
TI  - Active Reading of Visualizations.
AB  - We investigate whether the notion of active reading for text might be usefully
      applied to visualizations. Through a qualitative study we explored whether people
      apply observable active reading techniques when reading paper-based node-link
      visualizations. Participants used a range of physical actions while reading, and
      from these we synthesized an initial set of active reading techniques for
      visualizations. To learn more about the potential impact such techniques may have
      on visualization reading, we implemented support for one type of physical action
      from our observations (making freeform marks) in an interactive node-link
      visualization. Results from our quantitative study of this implementation show
      that interactive support for active reading techniques can improve the accuracy
      of performing low-level visualization tasks. Together, our studies suggest that
      the active reading space is ripe for research exploration within visualization
      and can lead to new interactions that make for a more flexible and effective
      visualization reading experience.

PMID- 28866593
TI  - Taking Word Clouds Apart: An Empirical Investigation of the Design Space for
      Keyword Summaries.
AB  - In this paper we present a set of four user studies aimed at exploring the visual
      design space of what we call keyword summaries: lists of words with associated
      quantitative values used to help people derive an intuition of what information a
      given document collection (or part of it) may contain. We seek to systematically
      study how different visual representations may affect people's performance in
      extracting information out of keyword summaries. To this purpose, we first create
      a design space of possible visual representations and compare the possible
      solutions in this design space through a variety of representative tasks and
      performance metrics. Other researchers have, in the past, studied some aspects of
      effectiveness with word clouds, however, the existing literature is somewhat
      scattered and do not seem to address the problem in a sufficiently systematic and
      holistic manner. The results of our studies showed a strong dependency on the
      tasks users are performing. In this paper we present details of our methodology,
      the results, as well as, guidelines on how to design effective keyword summaries
      based in our discoveries.

PMID- 28866592
TI  - HiPiler: Visual Exploration of Large Genome Interaction Matrices with Interactive
      Small Multiples.
AB  - This paper presents an interactive visualization interface-HiPiler-for the
      exploration and visualization of regions-of-interest in large genome interaction
      matrices. Genome interaction matrices approximate the physical distance of pairs
      of regions on the genome to each other and can contain up to 3 million rows and
      columns with many sparse regions. Regions of interest (ROIs) can be defined,
      e.g., by sets of adjacent rows and columns, or by specific visual patterns in the
      matrix. However, traditional matrix aggregation or pan-and-zoom interfaces fail
      in supporting search, inspection, and comparison of ROIs in such large matrices.
      In HiPiler, ROIs are first-class objects, represented as thumbnail-like
      "snippets". Snippets can be interactively explored and grouped or laid out
      automatically in scatterplots, or through dimension reduction methods. Snippets
      are linked to the entire navigable genome interaction matrix through brushing and
      linking. The design of HiPiler is based on a series of semi-structured interviews
      with 10 domain experts involved in the analysis and interpretation of genome
      interaction matrices. We describe six exploration tasks that are crucial for
      analysis of interaction matrices and demonstrate how HiPiler supports these
      tasks. We report on a user study with a series of data exploration sessions with
      domain experts to assess the usability of HiPiler as well as to demonstrate
      respective findings in the data.

PMID- 28866594
TI  - Wavelet-Based Visual Analysis of Dynamic Networks.
AB  - Dynamic networks naturally appear in a multitude of applications from different
      fields. Analyzing and exploring dynamic networks in order to understand and
      detect patterns and phenomena is challenging, fostering the development of new
      methodologies, particularly in the field of visual analytics. In this work, we
      propose a novel visual analytics methodology for dynamic networks, which relies
      on the spectral graph wavelet theory. We enable the automatic analysis of a
      signal defined on the nodes of the network, making viable the robust detection of
      network properties. Specifically, we use a fast approximation of a graph wavelet
      transform to derive a set of wavelet coefficients, which are then used to
      identify activity patterns on large networks, including their temporal
      recurrence. The coefficients naturally encode the spatial and temporal variations
      of the signal, leading to an efficient and meaningful representation. This
      methodology allows for the exploration of the structural evolution of the network
      and their patterns over time. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated
      using usage scenarios and comparisons involving real dynamic networks.

PMID- 28866595
TI  - A Possible Explanation of How High-Frequency Deep Brain Stimulation Suppresses
      Low-Frequency Tremors in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous
      system and one of its key symptoms is rest tremor. Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
      effectively suppresses rest tremor in Parkinson's disease. Despite being a
      successful treatment option, its underlying principle and the mechanism by which
      it attenuates tremors is not yet fully understood. Since existing methods for
      tuning DBS parameters are largely trial and error, understanding how DBS works
      can help to reduce time and costs, and could also ultimately lead to better
      treatment strategies for PD. In this paper, we set out to analyze how a high
      frequency stimulation applied through DBS can help reduce the low-frequency rest
      tremors observed in PD patients. We identify key elements in the sensorimotor
      loop (the feedback loop consisting of sensory feedbacks and motor responses) that
      play a role in the interaction of high-frequency DBS signal and the low-frequency
      tremor. Based on the analysis of these elements, we draw insights about the
      working of DBS and the role of frequency and the nature of stimulation. We verify
      these observations with numerical examples and a bench top experimental example.

PMID- 28866596
TI  - A 410-nW Efficient QRS Processor for Mobile ECG Monitoring in 0.18-MUm CMOS.
AB  - This paper proposes a low power and efficient QRS processor for real-time and
      continuous mobile ECG monitoring. The QRS detector contains the wavelet transform
      (WT), the modulus maxima pair identification (MMPI), and the R position
      modification (RPM). In order to reduce power consumption, we choose the Haar
      function as the mother wavelet of WT. It is implemented by an optimized FIR
      filter structure where none of the multiplier is used. The MMPI processes the
      wavelet coefficients at scale 24 and provides candidate R peak positions for the
      RPM. To improve the accuracy and robust performance, a number of modules have
      been designed in MMPI, including the preprocessing unit, the automatic threshold
      updating, and the decision state machine. The RPM is designed to eliminate
      digital time delay in wavelet transform and locate the R peak position precisely.
      Raw ECG signals and QRS detection results are output simultaneously. Fabricated
      in 0.18-MUm N-well CMOS 1P6M technology, the power consumption of this chip is
      only about 410 nW in 1 V voltage supply. Validated by all 48 sets of data in the
      MIT-BIH arrhythmia database, the sensitive and the positive prediction are 99.60%
      and 99.77% respectively.

PMID- 28866597
TI  - A Surface Acoustic Wave Pumped Lensless Microfluidic Imaging System for Flowing
      Cell Detection and Counting.
AB  - The future point-of-care diagnostics requires miniaturizing the existing bulky
      and expensive bioanalysis instruments, where lab-on-CMOS-chip-based technology
      can provide a promising solution. In this paper, we presented a surface acoustic
      wave (SAW) pumped lensless microfluidic imaging system for flowing cell detection
      and counting. Different from the previous lensless systems, which employ external
      bulky syringe pump for cell driven, the developed system directly integrates the
      SAW pump on the CMOS image sensor chip to drive the cell-containing microfluid.
      Moreover, an efficient temporal-differencing-based motion detection algorithm is
      proposed for continuous flowing cell detection and counting. Experimental results
      show that the SAW pump can drive the cells to flow at different driven powers,
      and also can keep the channel temperature below 40  degrees C so as not to harm
      the cells. The human bone marrow stromal cells flowing in the microfluidic
      channel can be automatically detected and counted with a low statistical error
      rate of -6.53%. The developed system thereby is competitive for point-of-care
      cell detection and counting application.

PMID- 28866598
TI  - A Magnetic Plethysmograph Probe for Local Pulse Wave Velocity Measurement.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We present the design and experimental validation of an arterial
      compliance probe with dual magnetic plethysmograph (MPG) transducers for local
      pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement. The MPG transducers (positioned at 23 mm
      distance apart) utilizes Hall-effect sensors and permanent magnets for arterial
      blood pulse detection. METHODS: The MPG probe was initially validated on an
      arterial flow phantom using a reference method. Further, 20 normotensive subjects
      (14 males, age = 24 +/- 3.5 years) were studied under two different physical
      conditions: 1) Physically relaxed condition, 2) Postexercise condition. Local PWV
      was measured from the left carotid artery using the MPG probe. Brachial blood
      pressure (BP) was measured to investigate the correlation of BP with local PWV.
      RESULTS: The proposed MPG arterial compliance probe was capable of detecting high
      fidelity blood pulse waveforms. Reliable local pulse transit time estimates were
      assessed by the developed measurement system. Beat-by-beat local PWV was measured
      from multiple subjects under different physical conditions. A profound increment
      was observed in the carotid local PWV for all subjects after exercise (average
      increment = 0.42 +/- 0.22 m/s). Local PWV values and brachial BP parameters were
      significantly correlated (r >= 0.72), except for pulse pressure (r = 0.42).
      CONCLUSION: MPG arterial compliance probe for local PWV measurement was
      validated. Carotid local PWV measurement, its variations due to physical exercise
      and correlation with BP levels were examined during the in vivo study.
      SIGNIFICANCE: A novel dual MPG probe for local PWV measurement and potential use
      in cuffless BP measurement.

PMID- 28866599
TI  - High-Throughput Separation of White Blood Cells From Whole Blood Using Inertial
      Microfluidics.
AB  - White blood cells (WBCs) constitute only about 0.1% of human blood cells, yet
      contain rich information about the immune status of the body; thus, separation of
      WBCs from the whole blood is an indispensable and critical sample preparation
      step in many scientific, clinical, and diagnostic applications. In this paper, we
      developed a continuous and high-throughput microfluidic WBC separation platform
      utilizing the differential inertial focusing of particles in serpentine
      microchannels. First, separation performance of the proposed method is
      characterized and evaluated using polystyrene beads in the serpentine channel.
      The purity of 10-MUm polystyrene beads is increased from 0.1% to 80.3% after two
      cascaded processes, with an average enrichment ratio of 28 times. Next, we
      investigated focusing and separation properties of Jurkat cells spiked in the
      blood to mimic the presence of WBCs in whole blood. Finally, separation of WBCs
      from human whole blood was conducted and separation purity of WBCs was measured
      by the flow cytometry. The results show that the purity of WBCs can be increased
      to 48% after two consecutive processes, with an average enrichment ratio of ten
      times. Meanwhile, a parallelized inertial microfluidic device was designed to
      provide a high processing flow rate of 288 ml/h for the diluted (*1/20) whole
      blood. The proposed microfluidic device can potentially work as an upstream
      component for blood sample preparation and analysis in the integrated
      microfluidic systems.

PMID- 28866600
TI  - A Review in Detection and Monitoring Gait Disorders Using In-Shoe Plantar
      Measurement Systems.
AB  - Gait is an important part of our life, as it affects many daily activities.
      Special footwear is fundamental to obtain an ergonomic gait and to extract data
      for analysis. The plantar foot pressure can be employed to detect many kinds of
      disorders, suggest improvements in treatments, rehabilitation tasks, patient
      monitoring, development of orthopedic devices, and other applications. In recent
      years, attention to this topic has grown and is reflected in many works issued in
      both commercial and academic groups, and has focused on the development of
      devices for foot plantar pressure measurement with applications in medicine,
      sports, and research. First works on this subject appeared around 1963 and have
      continuously evolved with emerging technologies. This paper reviews the reported
      developments in the field of footwear-embedded sensors for gait measurement,
      monitoring, diagnosis, and analysis in rehabilitation. Future work is proposed to
      improve the field of measurement of the footprint with electronic devices.

PMID- 28866601
TI  - Adaptive Neural Output-Feedback Control for a Class of Nonlower Triangular
      Nonlinear Systems With Unmodeled Dynamics.
AB  - This paper presents the development of an adaptive neural controller for a class
      of nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics and immeasurable states. An observer
      is designed to estimate system states. The structure consistency of virtual
      control signals and the variable partition technique are combined to overcome the
      difficulties appearing in a nonlower triangular form. An adaptive neural output
      feedback controller is developed based on the backstepping technique and the
      universal approximation property of the radial basis function (RBF) neural
      networks. By using the Lyapunov stability analysis, the semiglobally and
      uniformly ultimate boundedness of all signals within the closed-loop system is
      guaranteed. The simulation results show that the controlled system converges
      quickly, and all the signals are bounded. This paper is novel at least in the two
      aspects: 1) an output-feedback control strategy is developed for a class of
      nonlower triangular nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics and 2) the
      nonlinear disturbances and their bounds are the functions of all states, which is
      in a more general form than existing results.

PMID- 28866602
TI  - Deterministic Convergence for Learning Control Systems Over Iteration-Dependent
      Tracking Intervals.
AB  - This brief addresses the iterative learning control (ILC) problems for discrete
      time systems subject to iteration-dependent tracking time intervals. A modified
      class of P-type ILC algorithms is proposed by properly defining an available
      modified output, for which robust convergence analysis is performed with an
      inductive approach. It is shown that if a persistent full-learning property is
      ensured, then a necessary and sufficient convergence condition of ILC can be
      derived to reach the perfect output tracking objective though the tracking time
      interval is iteration-dependent. That is, the tracking of ILC for iteration
      dependent time intervals can be guaranteed in the same deterministic (not
      stochastic) convergence way as that of traditional ILC over a fixed time
      interval. Furthermore, the developed tracking results can be extended to admit
      iteration-dependent uncertainties in initial state and external disturbances.
      Simulation tests are also included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the
      modified P-type ILC.

PMID- 28866603
TI  - Boundary Control of 2-D Burgers' PDE: An Adaptive Dynamic Programming Approach.
AB  - In this paper, an adaptive dynamic programming-based near optimal boundary
      controller is developed for partial differential equations (PDEs) modeled by the
      uncertain Burgers' equation under Neumann boundary condition in 2-D. Initially,
      Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is derived in infinite-dimensional space.
      Subsequently, a novel neural network (NN) identifier is introduced to approximate
      the nonlinear dynamics in the 2-D PDE. The optimal control input is derived by
      online estimation of the value function through an additional NN-based forward-in
      time estimation and approximated dynamic model. Novel update laws are developed
      for estimation of the identifier and value function online. The designed control
      policy can be applied using a finite number of actuators at the boundaries. Local
      ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system is studied in detail using
      Lyapunov theory. Simulation results confirm the optimizing performance of the
      proposed controller on an unstable 2-D Burgers' equation.

PMID- 28866604
TI  - Scaled Group Consensus in Multiagent Systems With First/Second-Order Continuous
      Dynamics.
AB  - We investigate scaled group consensus problems of multiagent systems with
      first/second-order linear continuous dynamics. For a complex network consisting
      of two subnetworks with different physical quantities or task distributions, it
      is concerned with this case that the agents' states in one subnetwork converge to
      a consistent value asymptotically, while the states in the other subnetwork
      approach another value with a ratio of the former. For the case of the
      information exchange being directed, novel consensus protocols are designed for
      both first-order and second-order dynamics to solve the scaled group consensus
      problems. By utilizing algebra theory, graph theory, and Lyapunov stability
      theory, several necessary and sufficient conditions are established to guarantee
      the agents' states reaching the scaled group consensus asymptotically. Finally,
      several simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the
      theoretical results.

PMID- 28866605
TI  - Robust Distributed Predictive Control of Waterborne AGVs-A Cooperative and Cost
      Effective Approach.
AB  - Waterborne autonomous guided vessels (waterborne AGVs) moving over open waters
      experience environmental uncertainties. This paper proposes a novel cost
      effective robust distributed control approach for waterborne AGVs. The overall
      system is uncertain and has independent subsystem dynamics but coupling
      objectives and state constraints. Waterborne AGVs determine their actions in a
      parallel way, while still minimizing an overall cost function and respecting
      coupling constraints robustly by communicating within a neighborhood. Our first
      contribution is the proposal of the system robustness level for the cost
      effective robust distributed model predictive control (RDMPC) for waterborne
      AGVs. Cost-effective RDMPC models the price of robustness by explicitly
      considering uncertainty and system characteristics in a tube-based robust control
      framework. The second contribution is an efficient integrated branch & bound
      (B&B) and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMMs) algorithm for
      solving the cost-effective RDMPC problem. The algorithm exploits special ordered
      variable sets and combining branching criteria with intermediate ADMM results
      conducting smart search in B&B. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness
      of the proposed approach for cooperative distributed waterborne AGVs with cost
      effective robustness.

PMID- 28866606
TI  - Quantizer-Based Triggered Control for Chaotic Synchronization With Information
      Constraints.
AB  - This paper mainly focuses on synchronization of controlled drive-response systems
      under Lurie form through a limited channel. The main contribution of this paper
      is the quantizer-based triggered methodology proposed based on three coders. By
      exploring coder structure information and fusing quantization and trigger errors
      together, this strategy can reduce transmission burden while increase
      synchronization speed concurrently. And the final synchronization error can be
      bounded within a predetermined fixed value. According to the initial output of
      drive system, different coders are purposely designed. With the proposed trigger
      schemes, traditional binary coder with memory cannot achieve desired performance.
      Meanwhile, it is found that the static coder leads to satisfactory performance
      when initial drive system output is within limited region. Combining the
      advantages of the above two coders, a mixed coder is designed to overcome the
      shortcomings. Moreover, synchronization error and transmission bit rate are
      thoroughly discussed and Zeno behavior is radically prevented. Finally,
      simulations for two Chua's circuits are given to illustrate the validity of the
      proposed method.

PMID- 28866607
TI  - Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and
      association with summative performance.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: There are few studies on the value of authoring questions
      as a study method, the quality of the questions produced by students and student
      perceptions of student-authored question banks. Here we evaluate PeerWise, a
      widely used and free online resource that allows students to author, answer and
      discuss multiple-choice questions. STUDY DESIGN: We introduced two undergraduate
      medical student cohorts to PeerWise (n=603). We looked at their patterns of
      PeerWise usage; identified associations between student engagement and summative
      exam performance; and used focus groups to assess student perceptions of the
      value of PeerWise for learning. We undertook item analysis to assess question
      difficulty and quality. RESULTS: Over two academic years, the two cohorts wrote
      4671 questions, answered questions 606 658 times and posted 7735 comments.
      Question writing frequency correlated most strongly with summative performance
      (Spearman's rank: 0.24, p=<0.001). Student focus groups found that: (1) students
      valued curriculum specificity; and (2) students were concerned about student
      authored question quality. Only two questions of the 300 'most-answered'
      questions analysed had an unacceptable discriminatory value (point-biserial
      correlation <0.2). CONCLUSIONS: Item analysis suggested acceptable question
      quality despite student concerns. Quantitative and qualitative methods indicated
      that PeerWise is a valuable study tool.

PMID- 28866608
TI  - Medical research and audit skills training for undergraduates: an international
      analysis and student-focused needs assessment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Interpreting, performing and applying research is a key part of
      evidence-based medical practice, however, incorporating these within curricula is
      challenging. This study aimed to explore current provision of research skills
      training within medical school curricula, provide a student-focused needs
      assessment and prioritise research competencies. METHODS: A international, cross
      sectional survey of final year UK and Irish medical students was disseminated at
      each participating university. The questionnaire investigated research
      experience, and confidence in the Medical Education in Europe (MEDINE) 2
      consensus survey research competencies. RESULTS: Fully completed responses were
      received from 521 final year medical students from 32 medical schools (43.4%
      male, mean age 24.3 years). Of these, 55.3% had an additional academic
      qualification (49.5% Bachelor's degree), and 38.8% had been a named author on an
      academic publication. Considering audit and research opportunities and teaching
      experience, 47.2% reported no formal audit training compared with 27.1% who
      reported no formal research training. As part of their medical school course,
      53.4% had not performed an audit, compared with 29.9% who had not participated in
      any clinical or basic science research. Nearly a quarter of those who had
      participated in research reported doing so outside of their medical degree
      course. Low confidence areas included selecting and performing the appropriate
      statistical test, selecting the appropriate research method, and critical
      appraisal. Following adjustment, several factors were associated with increased
      confidence including previous clinical research experience (OR 4.21, 2.66 to
      6.81, P<0.001), additional degrees (OR 2.34, 1.47 to 3.75, P<0.001), and male
      gender (OR 1.90, 1.25 to 2.09, P=0.003). Factors associated with an increase in
      perceived opportunities included formal research training in the curriculum (OR
      1.66, 1.12 to 2.46, P=0.012), audit skills training in the curriculum (OR 1.52,
      1.03 to 2.26, P= 0.036) and research methods taught in a student selected
      component (OR 1.75, 1.21 to 2.54, P=0.003). DISCUSSION: Nearly one-third of
      students lacked formal training on undertaking research, and half of students
      lacked formal audit training and opportunities to undertake audit as part of
      their medical school course. The presence of research training in the cirriculum
      was associated with an increase in perceived opportunities to participate in
      MEDINE2 research competencies. Female gender and a lack of previous research
      experience were significant factors influencing confidence and participation in
      research.

PMID- 28866609
TI  - Estimation of the global burden of mesothelioma deaths from incomplete national
      mortality data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mesothelioma is increasingly recognised as a global health issue and
      the assessment of its global burden is warranted. OBJECTIVES: To descriptively
      analyse national mortality data and to use reported and estimated data to
      calculate the global burden of mesothelioma deaths. METHODS: For the study period
      of 1994 to 2014, we grouped 230 countries into 59 countries with quality
      mesothelioma mortality data suitable to be used for reference rates, 45 countries
      with poor quality data and 126 countries with no data, based on the availability
      of data in the WHO Mortality Database. To estimate global deaths, we extrapolated
      the gender-specific and age-specific mortality rates of the countries with
      quality data to all other countries. RESULTS: The global numbers and rates of
      mesothelioma deaths have increased over time. The 59 countries with quality data
      recorded 15 011 mesothelioma deaths per year over the 3 most recent years with
      available data (equivalent to 9.9 deaths per million per year). From these
      reference data, we extrapolated the global mesothelioma deaths to be 38 400 per
      year, based on extrapolations for asbestos use. CONCLUSIONS: Although the
      validity of our extrapolation method depends on the adequate identification of
      quality mesothelioma data and appropriate adjustment for other variables, our
      estimates can be updated, refined and verified because they are based on commonly
      accessible data and are derived using a straightforward algorithm. Our estimates
      are within the range of previously reported values but higher than the most
      recently reported values.

PMID- 28866610
TI  - Seasonality in oestrus and litter size in an assistance dog breeding colony in
      the United Kingdom.
AB  - Evidence of seasonality in oestrus in bitches within specialist breeding
      programmes, such as those for assistance dogs, may support colony management
      through tailoring the distribution of resources required for breeding throughout
      the year. However, at present there are conflicting data regarding seasonality in
      oestrus (and litter size) in domestic dogs. The primary objective of this study
      was to investigate seasonal variations in oestrus and litter size in a large
      assistance dog breeding colony in the UK in order to optimise colony management.
      The authors analysed the annual distribution of 3624 observations of oestrus
      collected from 568 brood bitches from January 2005 to June 2014. The authors also
      evaluated the relationship between month and litter size for 1609 litters
      observed during the same period. There was no evidence of regular seasonal
      variations in oestrus or litter size by meteorological season or month. The lack
      of seasonality in oestrus may be a function of dogs in the UK, particularly
      valuable breeding bitches, being exposed to fairly constant environmental
      conditions throughout the year as a consequence of artificial light and heating
      during the winter months. The authors' findings suggest that special
      consideration of the annual distribution of oestrus and litter size is
      unnecessary for the management of assistance dog breeding colonies similar to
      those in the UK.

PMID- 28866612
TI  - DNA repair-related functional assays for the classification of BRCA1 and BRCA2
      variants: a critical review and needs assessment.
AB  - Mutation of BRCA1 and BRCA2 is the most common cause of inherited breast and
      ovarian cancer. Genetic screens to detect carriers of variants can aid in cancer
      prevention by identifying individuals with a greater cancer risk and can
      potentially be used to predict the responsiveness of tumours to therapy.
      Frequently, classification cannot be performed based on traditional approaches
      such as segregation analyses, including for many missense variants, which are
      therefore referred to as variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Functional
      assays provide an important alternative for classification of BRCA1 and BRCA2
      VUS. As reviewed here, both of these tumour suppressors promote the maintenance
      of genome stability via homologous recombination. Thus, related assays may be
      particularly relevant to cancer risk. Progress in implementing functional assays
      to assess missense variants of BRCA1 and BRCA2 is considered here, along with
      current limitations and the path to more impactful assay systems. While
      functional assays have been developed to independently evaluate BRCA1 and BRCA2
      VUS, high-throughput assays with sufficient sensitivity to characterise the large
      number of identified variants are lacking. Additionally, because of relatively
      low conservation of certain domains of BRCA1, and of BRCA2, between humans and
      rodents, heterologous expression in rodent cells may have limited reliability or
      capacity to assess variants present throughout either protein. Moving forward, it
      will be important to perform assays in human cell lines with relevance to
      particular tumour types, and to strengthen risk predictions based on
      multifactorial statistical analyses that also include available data on
      cosegregation and tumour pathology.

PMID- 28866613
TI  - Uses and abuses of snack foods in child health.
AB  - Snack foods, though regarded as unhealthy, are widely eaten by children,
      particularly those with eating and feeding difficulties. This article outlines
      the ways in which paediatricians have traditionally made use of snack foods as
      incentives and then reviews the key nutritional and practical characteristics of
      commonly eaten snack foods, to allow practitioners to evaluate their role in the
      child's diet. Generally savoury snacks are preferable to sweet, while dry foods
      are preferable to drinks or semiliquid desserts. Many ostensibly healthy snacks
      are also rich in sugar or fat. Eaten in addition to other meals, snack foods may
      lead to obesity or else displace family foods, but the instant appeal of snack
      foods can be exploited to introduce young children to otherwise aversive
      sensations and tastes and can prove a useful path towards a more diverse future
      diet. If a reasonable variety of snack foods are taken, this will still form a
      fairly balanced, if non-ideal, diet.

PMID- 28866611
TI  - Missense variants in the chromatin remodeler CHD1 are associated with
      neurodevelopmental disability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The list of Mendelian disorders of the epigenetic machinery has
      expanded rapidly during the last 5 years. A few missense variants in the
      chromatin remodeler CHD1 have been found in several large-scale sequencing
      efforts focused on uncovering the genetic aetiology of autism. OBJECTIVES: To
      explore whether variants in CHD1 are associated with a human phenotype. METHODS:
      We used GeneMatcher to identify other physicians caring for patients with
      variants in CHD1. We also explored the epigenetic consequences of one of these
      variants in cultured fibroblasts. RESULTS: Here we describe six CHD1 heterozygous
      missense variants in a cohort of patients with autism, speech apraxia,
      developmental delay and facial dysmorphic features. Importantly, three of these
      variants occurred de novo. We also report on a subject with a de novo deletion
      covering a large fraction of the CHD1 gene without any obvious neurological
      phenotype. Finally, we demonstrate increased levels of the closed chromatin
      modification H3K27me3 in fibroblasts from a subject carrying a de novo variant in
      CHD1. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that variants in CHD1 can lead to diverse
      phenotypic outcomes; however, the neurodevelopmental phenotype appears to be
      limited to patients with missense variants, which is compatible with a dominant
      negative mechanism of disease.

PMID- 28866614
TI  - Use of Hirudo medicinalis in paediatric reconstructive surgery.

PMID- 28866615
TI  - Child maltreatment is associated with poor socioeconomic outcomes at 50 years of
      age.

PMID- 28866616
TI  - Antenatal betamethasone prevented respiratory distress syndrome in late preterm
      infants.

PMID- 28866617
TI  - Initial use of high-flow oxygen did not reduce duration of oxygen therapy in
      infants with bronchiolitis.

PMID- 28866618
TI  - Unusual cause of dyspnoea.
AB  - A 4-year-old boy was admitted to our department with fever, cough and dyspnoea,
      unresponsive to salbutamol and antibiotic therapy. He had previously contracted
      bronchiolitis at 20 days of life, followed by intermittent episodes of wheeze
      that never required hospitalisation and responded to short inhaled corticosteroid
      cycles. He had an atopic family history. On examination, he had dyspnoea,
      persistent cough with bronchospasm but normal oxygen saturations. Bloods showed
      elevated eosinophils (2004 uL), a slightly elevated C-reactive protein (1.5
      mg/dL) and total IgE (326 kU/L), and specific IgE was raised for various inhalant
      allergens (box). A chest X-ray was performed (figure 1).BoxPositive inhalant
      allergens Anthoxanthum odoratum Cynodon dactylon Dactylis glomerata
      Dermatophagoides farinae Dermatophagoides pteronissimus Holcus lanatus Poa
      pratensis Phleum pratense edpract;103/6/300/F1F1F1Figure 1Chest X-ray of the
      patient. QUESTIONS: 1. What does the chest X-ray in figure 1 show? interstitial
      pneumoniapneumothoraxlung atelectasis with mild mediastinal shiftdiffuse air
      trappingenlargement of right hilar lymph nodes 2. Given the clinical picture and
      the chest X-ray, what would your differential diagnosis include from the
      following? plastic bronchitis (PB)mycoplasma infectiontuberculosisforeign body
      aspirationlung perforation 3. Are any of these conditions not associated with a
      specific type of cast/PB? Fontan procedurehaemophilialymphatic
      abnormalitiesasthma and other allergic disorderssickle cell disease.

PMID- 28866619
TI  - Vaccine uptake in under 19s: NICE Quality Standard (QS 145) 2017.

PMID- 28866621
TI  - Randomised controlled trial to assess the effect of a Just-in-Time training on
      procedural performance: a proof-of-concept study to address procedural skill
      decay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A subset of high-risk procedures present significant safety threats
      due to their (1) infrequent occurrence, (2) execution under time constraints and
      (3) immediate necessity for patient survival. A Just-in-Time (JIT) intervention
      could provide real-time bedside guidance to improve high-risk procedural
      performance and address procedural deficits associated with skill decay.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a novel JIT intervention on transvenous
      pacemaker (TVP) placement during a simulated patient event. METHODS: This was a
      prospective, randomised controlled study to determine the effect of a JIT
      intervention on performance of TVP placement. Subjects included board-certified
      emergency medicine physicians from two hospitals. The JIT intervention consisted
      of a portable, bedside computer-based procedural adjunct. The primary outcome was
      performance during a simulated patient encounter requiring TVP placement, as
      assessed by trained raters using a technical skills checklist. Secondary outcomes
      included global performance ratings, time to TVP placement, number of critical
      omissions and System Usability Scale scores (intervention only). RESULTS: Groups
      were similar at baseline across all outcomes. Compared with the control group,
      the intervention group demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the
      technical checklist score (11.45 vs 23.44, p<0.001, Cohen's d effect size 4.64),
      the global rating scale (2.27 vs 4.54, p<0.001, Cohen's d effect size 3.76), and
      a statistically significant reduction in critical omissions (2.23 vs 0.68,
      p<0.001, Cohen's d effect size -1.86). The difference in time to procedural
      completion was not statistically significant between conditions (11.15 min vs
      12.80 min, p=0.12, Cohen's d effect size 0.65). System Usability Scale scores
      demonstrated excellent usability. CONCLUSION: A JIT intervention improved
      procedure perfromance, suggesting a role for JIT interventions in rarely
      performed procedures.

PMID- 28866622
TI  - Neurodevelopmental follow-up for high-risk neonates: current practice in Great
      Britain.

PMID- 28866620
TI  - Hepatic Hippo signaling inhibits protumoural microenvironment to suppress
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hippo signalling is a recently identified major oncosuppressive
      pathway that plays critical roles in inhibiting hepatocyte proliferation,
      survival and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) formation. Hippo kinase (Mst1 and
      Mst2) inhibits HCC proliferation by suppressing Yap/Taz transcription activities.
      As human HCC is mainly driven by chronic liver inflammation, it is not clear
      whether Hippo signalling inhibits HCC by shaping its inflammatory
      microenvironment. DESIGN: We have established a genetic HCC model by deleting
      Mst1 and Mst2 in hepatocytes. Functions of inflammatory responses in this model
      were characterised by molecular, cellular and FACS analysis, immunohistochemistry
      and genetic deletion of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (Mcp1) or Yap. Human
      HCC databases and human HCC samples were analysed by immunohistochemistry.
      RESULTS: Genetic deletion of Mst1 and Mst2 in hepatocytes (DKO) led to HCC
      development, highly upregulated Mcp1 expression and massive infiltration of
      macrophages with mixed M1 and M2 phenotypes. Macrophage ablation or deletion of
      Mcp1 in DKO mice markedly reduced hepatic inflammation and HCC development.
      Moreover, Yap removal abolished induction of Mcp1 expression and restored normal
      liver growth in the Mst1/Mst2 DKO mice. Finally, we showed that MCP1 is a direct
      transcription target of YAP in hepatocytes and identified a strong gene
      expression correlation between YAP targets and MCP-1 in human HCCs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Hippo signalling in hepatocytes maintains normal liver growth by suppressing
      macrophage infiltration during protumoural microenvironment formation through the
      inhibition of Yap-dependent Mcp1 expression, providing new targets and strategies
      to treat HCCs.

PMID- 28866623
TI  - Epidemiology, management and outcome of ultrashort bowel syndrome in infancy.
AB  - Ultrashort bowel syndrome (USBS) is a group of heterogeneous disorders where the
      length of small bowel is less than 10 cm or 10% of expected for the age. It is
      caused by massive loss of the gut which in the neonatal period can be a result of
      vanishing gastroschisis or surgical resection following mid-gut volvulus,
      jejunoileal atresia and/or extensive necrotising enterocolitis. The exact
      prevalence of USBS is not known although there is a clear trend towards
      increasing numbers because of increased incidence and improved survival. Long
      term parenteral nutrition (PN) is the mainstay of treatment and is best delivered
      by a multidisciplinary intestinal rehabilitation team. Promoting adaptation is
      vital to improving long-term survival and can be achieved by optimising feeds,
      reducing intestinal failure liver disease and catheter-related bloodstream
      infections. Surgical techniques that can promote enteral tolerance and hence
      improve outcome include establishing intestinal continuity and bowel lengthening
      procedures. The outcome for USBS is similar to patients with intestinal failure
      due to other causes and only a small proportion of children who develop
      irreversible complications of PN and will need intestinal transplantation. In
      this review, we will summarise the available evidence focusing particularly on
      the epidemiology, management strategies and outcome.

PMID- 28866624
TI  - Severe acquired subglottic stenosis in neonatal intensive care graduates: a case
      control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse current incidence and risk factors associated with severe
      acquired subglottic stenosis (SASGS) requiring surgical intervention in neonates.
      DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study. SETTING: Sole tertiary children's
      hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients who underwent surgical intervention for SASGS
      from January 2006 to December 2014. For each neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
      graduate with acquired SASGS, two controls were selected (matched for gestation
      and year of birth). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Incidences were calculated and
      cases and controls compared using conditional logistic regression analysis to
      identify risk factors for SASGS. RESULTS: Thirty-seven NICU graduates required
      surgical intervention for SASGS of whom 35 were <30-week gestation at birth. The
      incidence of SASGS in surviving children who had required ventilation in the
      neonatal period was 27/2913 (0.93%). Incidence was higher in infants <28-week
      gestation (24/623=3.8%) compared with infants >=28-week gestation (3/2290=0.13%;
      p=0.0001). On univariate analysis, risk factors for SASGS were: higher number of
      intubations (4 vs 2; p<0.001); longer duration ventilation (16 vs 9.5 days;
      p<0.001); unplanned extubation (45.7% vs 20.0%; p=0.007); traumatic intubation
      (34.3% vs 7.1%; p=0.003) and oversized endotracheal tubes (ETTs) (74.3% vs 42.9%;
      p=0.001). On multivariate analysis, risk factors for SASGS were: Sherman ratio
      >0.1 (adjusted OR (aOR) 6.40; 95% CI 1.65 to 24.77); more than five previous
      intubations (aOR 3.74; 95% CI 1.15 to 12.19); traumatic intubation (aOR 3.37; 95%
      CI 1.01 to 11.26). CONCLUSIONS: SASGS is a serious consequence of intubation for
      mechanical ventilation in NICU graduates, especially in preterm infants.
      Minimising trauma during intubations, avoiding recurrent extubation/reintubations
      and using appropriate sized ETTs may help prevent this serious complication.

PMID- 28866626
TI  - Sleep patterns in Parkinson's disease: direct recordings from the subthalamic
      nucleus.
AB  - Sleep is a fundamental homeostatic process, and disorders of sleep can greatly
      affect quality of life. Parkinson's disease (PD) is highly comorbid for a
      spectrum of sleep disorders and deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic
      nucleus (STN) has been reported to improve sleep architecture in PD. We studied
      local field potential (LFP) recordings in PD subjects undergoing STN-DBS over the
      course of a full-night's sleep. We examined the changes in oscillatory activity
      recorded from STN between ultradian sleep states to determine whether sleep-stage
      dependent spectral patterns might reflect underlying dysfunction. For this study,
      PD (n=10) subjects were assessed with concurrent polysomnography and LFP
      recordings from the DBS electrodes, for an average of 7.5 hours in 'off'
      dopaminergic medication state. Across subjects, we found conserved spectral
      patterns among the canonical frequency bands (delta 0-3 Hz, theta 3-7 Hz, alpha 7
      13 Hz, beta 13-30 Hz, gamma 30-90 Hz and high frequency 90-350 Hz) that were
      associated with specific sleep cycles: delta (0-3 Hz) activity during non-rapid
      eye movement (NREM) associated stages was greater than during Awake, whereas beta
      (13-30 Hz) activity during NREM states was lower than Awake and rapid eye
      movement (REM). In addition, all frequency bands were significantly different
      between NREM states and REM. However, each individual subject exhibited a unique
      mosaic of spectral interrelationships between frequency bands. Our work suggests
      that LFP recordings from human STN differentiate between sleep cycle states, and
      sleep-state specific spectral mosaics may provide insight into mechanisms
      underlying sleep pathophysiology.

PMID- 28866627
TI  - Autophagy and mitophagy elements are increased in body fluids of multiple
      sclerosis-affected individuals.

PMID- 28866628
TI  - Identifying paediatric sepsis: the difficulties in following recommended practice
      and the creation of our own pathway.

PMID- 28866625
TI  - Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for neurological diseases.
AB  - Neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica,
      chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and myasthenia gravis are
      leading causes of physical disability in people of working age. In the last
      decades significant therapeutic advances have been made that can ameliorate the
      disease course. Nevertheless, many affected will continue to deteriorate despite
      treatment, and the costs associated with disease-modifying drugs constitute a
      significant fiscal burden on healthcare in developed countries. Autologous
      haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a treatment approach that aims to
      ameliorate and to terminate disease activity. The erroneous immune system is
      eradicated using cytotoxic drugs, and with the aid of haematopoietic stem cells a
      new immune system is rebuilt. As of today, more than 1000 patients with multiple
      sclerosis have been treated with this procedure. Available data suggest that
      autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is superior to conventional
      treatment in terms of efficacy with an acceptable safety profile. A smaller
      number of patients with other neuroinflammatory conditions have been treated with
      promising results. Herein, current data on clinical effect and safety of
      autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for neurological disease are
      reviewed.

PMID- 28866629
TI  - Strategies to reduce line infections in a small child with homozygous familial
      hypercholesterolaemia who cannot yet receive LDL apheresis.
AB  - Patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia are optimally treated
      with low-density lipoprotein apheresis. Young patients who do not meet a weight
      threshold (25 kg) receive regular plasmapheresis. This approach may remove
      excessive immunoglobulins and vascular access set-up can be challenging. We
      report the case of a 4 year-old child who exhibited repeated septic infections (5
      in 6 months) and had recurrent access issues before two interventions were
      implemented: (1) the percutaneous central venous line was modified to two
      implanted paediatric ports, and (2) the patient started receiving two bags of
      Octaplasma at the end of each plasmapheresis treatment to account for the
      excessive loss of immunoglobulins. For the paediatric plasmapheresis access port,
      a 19-gauge Huber needle had to be used for the arterial port to prevent the
      collapse of the extension. These two simple changes have left the patient
      infection-free for 9 months.

PMID- 28866630
TI  - Primary osteoporosis in children.
AB  - Osteoporosis in childhood is uncommon, and it may be secondary to a spectrum of
      diverse conditions. Idiopathic juvenile osteoporosis is a primary osteoporosis of
      unknown aetiology present in previously well children and is a diagnosis of
      exclusion. We describe a 10-year-old prepubertal boy who presented with back pain
      of 1-week duration. His spinal X-ray showed generalised loss of vertebral body
      heights in keeping with osteoporosis. Endocrine and haematological work-up were
      normal. He was treated with vitamin D supplement and intravenous pamidronate.
      This case illustrates the general work-up and causes for paediatric osteoporosis,
      and the management for idiopathic juvenile osteoporosis.

PMID- 28866631
TI  - Association of gender-specific risk factors in metabolic and cardiovascular
      diseases: an NHANES-based cross-sectional study.
AB  - In the present cross-sectional study, based on National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey (NHANES, 2007-2010) cohorts, various risk factors for
      metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) were analyzed
      (n=12,153). The variables analyzed include, demographics, comorbidities
      associated with MetS or CVD, behavioral and dietary factors, while the primary
      endpoints were the prevalence of MetS and CVD. The prevalence of MetS and CVD was
      slightly higher in males as compared with females (42.50% and 7.65% vs 41.29% and
      4.13%, respectively). After controlling for confounding factors, advanced age,
      family history of diabetes mellitus (DM), overweight, and obesity were
      significantly associated with the likelihood of MetS, irrespective of gender
      differences. In males, the diagnosis of prostate cancer and regular smoking were
      additional risk factors of MetS, whereas, advanced age, family history of heart
      attack or angina, health insurance coverage, diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis or
      depression, obesity and low calorie intake were identified as risk factors for
      CVD. In addition to the above risk factors, higher physical activity and vitamin
      D insufficiency were also found to increase the risk of CVD in females.
      Furthermore, obesity was a higher risk factor for MetS than CVD. Emerging risk
      factors for CVD identified in this study has major clinical implications. Of
      interest is the correlation of higher physical activity and the risk of CVD in
      women and the role of depression and lower calorie intake in general population.

PMID- 28866632
TI  - Evaluation and characterization of monoclonal gammopathies using serum protein
      electrophoresis in a major urban population: one institution's experience.

PMID- 28866633
TI  - An ultrasound automated method for non-invasive assessment of carotid artery
      pulse wave velocity.
AB  - To validate the clinical applicability and feasibility of an automated ultrasound
      (US) method in measuring the arterial stiffness of patients with chronic
      inflammatory rheumatic diseases, comparing automated measurements performed by a
      rheumatologist without experience in vascular sonography with those obtained by a
      sonographer experienced in vascular US, using a standardized manual method.
      Twenty subjects affected by different chronic inflammatory rheumatic disorders
      were consecutively recruited. For each patient, the arterial stiffness of both
      common carotids was manually calculated. Subsequently, the measure of the pulse
      wave velocity (PWV) was obtained using an US device called Radio Frequency -
      Quality Arterial Stiffness (RF-QAS), provided by the same US system (ie, My Lab
      70 XVG, Esaote SpA, Genoa, Italy) equipped with a 4-13 MHz linear probe. The
      reliability comparison between the two US methods was calculated using the
      intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). ICC between the values obtained with
      the two methods for calculating the arterial stiffness resulted 0.789. A
      significant positive correlation between the two methods was also established
      with Pearson's (r=0.62, p<0.0001) and Spearman's analysis (r=0.66, p=0.001). A
      significant performance comparison was seen using Bland-Altman plot. The
      acquisition of the arterial stiffness parameter with the automated method
      required about 2 min for each patient. Clinical applicability of this US
      automated method to assess PWV at common carotid level by a rheumatologist is
      reliable and feasible in comparison with a conventional manual method.

PMID- 28866634
TI  - Quality of reporting of harms in randomised controlled trials of pharmacological
      interventions for rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The quality of reporting of harms data in randomised controlled
      trials (RCTs) has been reported to be suboptimal. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has
      seen a massive growth in novel pharmacotherapies in the last decade. OBJECTIVE:
      The aim of this study was to assess the quality of reporting of harms-related
      data in RCTs evaluating pharmacological interventions for RA according to the
      CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement on harms reporting
      extension. STUDY SELECTION: RCTs published between January 2011 and August 2016
      in the five highest impact factor journals in general medicine and two in
      rheumatology subject categories as per 2015 Journal Citation Reports were
      included. Reports of secondary, supplementary or exploratory analyses of RCTs and
      non-inferiority trials were excluded. Two reviewers independently extracted data
      using a structured, pilot-tested, 18-item questionnaire developed based on
      CONSORT harms extension recommendations. FINDINGS: 68 RCTs were included in the
      review. Out of a maximum harms reporting score of 18, the mean (SD) score was
      8.51 (3.5) (range=0-15). More than half (56.5%) of the RCTs reported <=50% of
      items and only three (4.3%) RCTs reported more than 70% (score >=14) of the
      items. Multilinear regression analyses found that region of trial origin
      (p=0.01), sample size (p=0.001) and whether the study was a long-term extension
      of a trial or not (p=0.04) were independent predictors associated with higher
      total harms reporting score. CONCLUSIONS: The adherence to CONSORT harms
      extension was poor in recently published RCTs of pharmacological interventions
      for RA. There is a need to improve quality of harms reporting in RCTs to allow
      transparent and balanced assessment of the benefit-risk ratio in clinical
      decision making.

PMID- 28866636
TI  - Transient aortitis documented by positron emission tomography in a case series of
      men and transgender women infected with syphilis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Syphilis infection persists globally contributing to preventable and
      treatable morbidity and mortality. How extensive early syphilis disseminates is
      unknown. To better understand the relationship between early syphilis infection
      and inflammation over time, our study enrolled six individuals recently infected
      with syphilis for sequential positron emission tomography (PET) scans. METHODS:
      We evaluated a case series of six individuals with high syphilis titres (two
      secondary, two early latent and two latent, unknown duration, but with high
      titre) who received sequential PET scans to assess inflammation over time and its
      response to treatment. RESULTS: At time of PET scan, four of the six individuals
      were co-infected with HIV. One of the four was not on antiretroviral therapy and
      three of the four were not virally suppressed (viral load of >400 copies/mL).
      Baseline rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titres ranged from 1:64 to 1:256 (four of the
      six participants had prior non-reactive RPR results). Five of the six
      participants had mild to intense hypermetabolic PET scan activity consistent with
      cervical (n=5), axillary (n=4), inguinal (n=5) and retroperitoneal (n=1)
      adenopathy. Mild hypermetabolic activity in the thoracic aortic wall, suggesting
      aortitis, was present among the same five participants and resolved within 30
      days for four of the five participants and 60 days for the other participant.
      However, widespread lymphadenopathy remained present in PET scans up to 3 months
      following treatment in two participants. We did not find any abnormal PET scan
      activity of the central nervous system. CONCLUSION: We found abnormal aortic wall
      PET scan activity suggesting aortitis to be common in a case series of patients
      with early syphilis. In research settings, PET scans may be a sensitive tool to
      monitor inflammation associated with syphilis.

PMID- 28866635
TI  - Acceptability and ease of use of mailed HPV self-collection among infrequently
      screened women in North Carolina.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Self-collection of cervico-vaginal samples for human papillomavirus
      (HPV) testing has the potential to make cervical cancer screening more accessible
      to underscreened women. We evaluated the acceptability and ease of use of home
      based HPV self-collection within a diverse population of low-income, infrequently
      screened women. METHODS: Participants were low-income women from North Carolina
      who had not received Pap testing in 4 or more years. Eligible women received a
      self-collection kit containing instructions and a brush for home-based sample
      collection. A total of 227 women returned a self-collected sample by mail and
      completed a questionnaire to assess their experiences with HPV self-collection.
      We described acceptability measures and used logistic regression to identify
      predictors of overall positive thoughts about the self-collection experience.
      RESULTS: Nearly all women were willing to perform HPV self-collection again (98%)
      and were comfortable receiving the self-collection kit in the mail (99%).
      Overall, 81% of participants reported positive thoughts about home-based self
      collection. Women with at least some college education and those who were
      divorced, separated or widowed were more likely to report overall positive
      thoughts. Aspects of self-collection that participants most commonly reported
      liking included convenience (53%), ease of use (32%) and privacy (23%). The most
      frequently reported difficulties included uncertainty that the self-collection
      was done correctly (16%) and difficulty inserting the self-collection brush
      (16%). CONCLUSIONS: Home-based self-collection for HPV was a highly acceptable
      screening method among low-income, underscreened women and holds the promise to
      increase access to cervical cancer screening in this high-risk population.

PMID- 28866637
TI  - Detection of human papillomavirus in urine among heterosexual men in relation to
      location of genital warts and circumcision status.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Human papillomavirus (HPV) surveillance is important to monitor the
      effectiveness of national HPV vaccination programmes. Positivity of HPV in urine
      in men varies with different sampling methods. We aimed to determine the
      positivity for detection of HPV-6/11 in urine samples among men in relation to
      the position of genital warts and circumcision status. METHOD: We analysed stored
      chlamydia-positive urine specimens in young heterosexual men aged less than 25
      years attending Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Australia, between 2004 and 2015,
      for HPV genotypes. Positivity of HPV-6/11 and high-risk genotypes were stratified
      according to the position of genital warts and circumcision status. Positivity of
      HPV-6/11 was calculated using diagnosis of warts as the gold standard. Warts were
      classified as proximal penile warts from suprapubic area to midshaft of penis,
      and distal penile warts from distal shaft of penis to meatus. RESULTS: Of the 934
      specimens, 253 (27.1%) men were positive for any HPV and 82 men (8.8%) had
      genital warts. The ORs of HPV-6/11 detection in urine were 4.63 (95% CI: 1.68 to
      12.78) and 40.20 (95% CI: 19.78 to 81.70) times higher among men who had proximal
      penile warts and distal penile warts, respectively, compared with men who did not
      have genital warts. Circumcised men were less likely to have high-risk HPV (OR
      0.31; 95% CI: 0.14 to 0.65) than uncircumcised men. Uncircumcised men were more
      likely to have distal penile warts than circumcised men (OR 8.22; 95% CI: 1.34 to
      337.46). CONCLUSION: Positivity of HPV-6/11 in urine increases greatly in men
      with distal penile warts. Circumcised men are less likely to have distal penile
      warts, any HPV or high-risk HPV detected. Urine is likely to be an alternative
      sampling method for HPV-6/11 surveillance programme in men in countries with low
      circumcision rates.

PMID- 28866638
TI  - Prediction of hyperperfusion phenomenon after carotid artery stenting and carotid
      angioplasty using quantitative DSA with cerebral circulation time imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperperfusion syndrome after carotid interventions has a low
      incidence but it can lead to morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the
      usefulness of quantitative DSA for predicting hyperperfusion phenomenon (HPP)
      after carotid artery stenting and angioplasty. METHODS: Thirty-three consecutive
      patients with carotid stenosis treated with carotid artery stenting or
      angioplasty between February 2014 and August 2016 were included. Color-coded
      digital subtraction angiograms showing the time to maximum contrast intensity of
      each image pixel were obtained from conventional DSA before and after procedures.
      The cerebral circulation time (CCT) was defined as the difference in the relative
      time to maximum intensity between arterial and venous regions of interest set on
      the angiograms. HPP was diagnosed straight after the procedure with qualitative
      123I-IMP single-photon emission CT (SPECT). Cut-off points for detecting HPP for
      preprocedural CCT and periprocedural change of CCT were assessed by receiver
      operating characteristic analysis using 123I-IMP SPECT as reference standard.
      RESULTS: 123I-IMP SPECT showed HPP in 4 of 33 patients. In these 4 patients,
      preprocedural prolongation of CCT (13.0+/-6.1 vs 7.2+/-1.3 s; p<0.001) was seen
      compared with patients without HPP as well as larger periprocedural changes of
      CCT (5.9+/-5.7 vs 0.5+/-1.3 s; p<0.001). The optimal cut-off points of
      preprocedural CCT and change of CCT for predicting HPP were 8.0 s (100%
      sensitivity, 69% specificity) and 3.2 s (75% sensitivity, 100% specificity),
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Preprocedural prolongation and greater periprocedural
      change of CCT are associated with the occurrence of HPP. Periprocedural
      evaluation of CCT may be useful for predicting HPP.

PMID- 28866639
TI  - Overexpression of miRNA-9 Generates Muscle Hypercontraction Through Translational
      Repression of Troponin-T in Drosophila melanogaster Indirect Flight Muscles.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding endogenous RNAs, typically 21-23
      nucleotides long, that regulate gene expression, usually post-transcriptionally,
      by binding to the 3'-UTR of target mRNA, thus blocking translation. The
      expression of several miRNAs is significantly altered during cardiac hypertrophy,
      myocardial ischemia, fibrosis, heart failure, and other cardiac myopathies.
      Recent studies have implicated miRNA-9 (miR-9) in myocardial hypertrophy.
      However, a detailed mechanism remains obscure. In this study, we have addressed
      the roles of miR-9 in muscle development and function using a genetically
      tractable model system, the indirect flight muscles (IFMs) of Drosophila
      melanogaster Bioinformatics analysis identified 135 potential miR-9a targets, of
      which 27 genes were associated with Drosophila muscle development. Troponin-T
      (TnT) was identified as major structural gene target of miR-9a. We show that
      flies overexpressing miR-9a in the IFMs have abnormal wing position and are
      flightless. These flies also exhibit a loss of muscle integrity and sarcomeric
      organization causing an abnormal muscle condition known as "hypercontraction."
      Additionally, miR-9a overexpression resulted in the reduction of TnT protein
      levels while transcript levels were unaffected. Furthermore, muscle abnormalities
      associated with miR-9a overexpression were completely rescued by overexpression
      of TnT transgenes which lacked the miR-9a binding site. These findings indicate
      that miR-9a interacts with the 3'-UTR of the TnT mRNA and downregulates the TnT
      protein levels by translational repression. The reduction in TnT levels leads to
      a cooperative downregulation of other thin filament structural proteins. Our
      findings have implications for understanding the cellular pathophysiology of
      cardiomyopathies associated with miR-9 overexpression.

PMID- 28866640
TI  - KinFin: Software for Taxon-Aware Analysis of Clustered Protein Sequences.
AB  - The field of comparative genomics is concerned with the study of similarities and
      differences between the information encoded in the genomes of organisms. A common
      approach is to define gene families by clustering protein sequences based on
      sequence similarity, and analyze protein cluster presence and absence in
      different species groups as a guide to biology. Due to the high dimensionality of
      these data, downstream analysis of protein clusters inferred from large numbers
      of species, or species with many genes, is nontrivial, and few solutions exist
      for transparent, reproducible, and customizable analyses. We present KinFin, a
      streamlined software solution capable of integrating data from common file
      formats and delivering aggregative annotation of protein clusters. KinFin
      delivers analyses based on systematic taxonomy of the species analyzed, or on
      user-defined, groupings of taxa, for example, sets based on attributes such as
      life history traits, organismal phenotypes, or competing phylogenetic hypotheses.
      Results are reported through graphical and detailed text output files. We
      illustrate the utility of the KinFin pipeline by addressing questions regarding
      the biology of filarial nematodes, which include parasites of veterinary and
      medical importance. We resolve the phylogenetic relationships between the species
      and explore functional annotation of proteins in clusters in key lineages and
      between custom taxon sets, identifying gene families of interest. KinFin can
      easily be integrated into existing comparative genomic workflows, and promotes
      transparent and reproducible analysis of clustered protein data.

PMID- 28866641
TI  - Extrathoracic hyperinflation.

PMID- 28866642
TI  - The quantitative link of lung clearance index to bronchial segments affected by
      bronchiectasis.
AB  - In adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), the lung clearance index (LCI)
      derived from the multiple breath washout relates to both acinar and conductive
      ventilation heterogeneity. The latter component predicts an association between
      LCI and the number of bronchial segments affected by bronchiectasis. Here, we
      experimentally demonstrated this association in patients with CF, and also
      examined an ancillary group of patients with non-CF bronchiectasis. We conclude
      that lung disease severity in terms of number of bronchial segments results in an
      associated LCI increase, likely constituting a portion of LCI that cannot be
      reversed by treatment in patients with CF lung disease.

PMID- 28866643
TI  - Influence of muscle mass in the assessment of lower limb strength in COPD:
      validation of the prediction equation.
AB  - Absence of established reference values limits application of quadriceps maximal
      voluntary contraction (QMVC) measurement. The impact of muscle mass inclusion in
      predictions is unclear. Prediction equations encompassing gender, age and size
      with (FFM+) and without (FFM-), derived in healthy adults (n=175), are presented
      and compared in two COPD cohorts recruited from primary care (COPD-PC, n=112) and
      a complex care COPD clinic (COPD-CC, n=189). Explained variance was comparable
      between the prediction models (R2: FFM+: 0.59, FFM-: 0.60) as were per cent
      predictions in COPD-PC (88.8%, 88.3%). However, fat-free mass inclusion reduced
      the prevalence of weakness in COPD, particularly in COPD-CC where 11.9% fewer
      were deemed weak.

PMID- 28866644
TI  - Functional phenotypes determined by fluctuation-based clustering of lung function
      measurements in healthy and asthmatic cohort participants.
AB  - RATIONALE: Asthma is characterised by inflammation and reversible airway
      obstruction. However, these features are not always closely related. Fluctuations
      of daily lung function contain information on asthma phenotypes, exacerbation
      risk and response to long-acting beta-agonists. OBJECTIVES: In search of
      subgroups of asthmatic participants with specific lung functional features, we
      developed and validated a novel clustering approach to asthma phenotyping, which
      exploits the information contained within the fluctuating behaviour of twice
      daily lung function measurements. METHODS: Forced expiratory volume during the
      first second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were prospectively measured
      over 4 weeks in 696 healthy and asthmatic school children (Protection Against
      Allergy - Study in Rural Environments (PASTURE)/EFRAIM cohort), and over 1 year
      in 138 asthmatic adults with mild-to-moderate or severe asthma (Pan-European
      Longitudinal Assessment of Clinical Course and BIOmarkers in Severe Chronic
      AIRway Disease (BIOAIR) cohort). Using enrichment analysis, we explored whether
      the method identifies clinically meaningful, distinct clusters of participants
      with different lung functional fluctuation patterns. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: In the PASTURE/EFRAIM dataset, we found four distinct clusters. Two
      clusters were enriched in children with well-known clinical characteristics of
      asthma. In cluster 3, children from a farming environment predominated, whereas
      cluster 4 mainly consisted of healthy controls. About 79% of cluster 3 carried
      the asthma-risk allele rs7216389 of the 17q21 locus. In the BIOAIR dataset, we
      found two distinct clusters clearly discriminating between individuals with mild
      to-moderate and severe asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Our method identified dynamic
      functional asthma and healthy phenotypes, partly independent of atopy and
      inflammation but related to genetic markers on the 17q21 locus. The method can be
      used for disease phenotyping and possibly endotyping. It may identify
      participants with specific functional abnormalities, potentially needing a
      different therapeutic approach.

PMID- 28866646
TI  - High-dose ustekinumab for severe childhood deficiency of interleukin-36 receptor
      antagonist (DITRA).

PMID- 28866645
TI  - Optimal methotrexate dose is associated with better clinical outcomes than non
      optimal dose in daily practice: results from the ESPOIR early arthritis cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although methotrexate (MTX) is the consensual first-line disease
      modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), substantial
      heterogeneity remains with its prescription and dosage, which are often not
      optimal. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the symptomatic and structural impact of optimal
      MTX dose in patients with early RA in daily clinical practice over 2 years.
      METHODS: Patients included in the early arthritis ESPOIR cohort who fulfilled the
      ACR-EULAR (American College of Rheumatology/European League against Rheumatism)
      criteria for RA and received MTX as a first DMARD were assessed. Optimal MTX dose
      was defined as >=10 mg/week during the first 3 months, with escalation to >=20
      mg/week or 0.3 mg/kg/week at 6 months without Disease Activity Score in 28 joints
      remission. Symptomatic and structural efficacy with and without optimal MTX dose
      was assessed by generalised logistic regression with adjustment for appropriate
      variables. RESULTS: Within the first year of follow-up, 314 patients (53%) with
      RA received MTX as a first DMARD (mean dose 12.2+/-3.8 mg/week). Only 26.4%
      (n=76) had optimal MTX dose. After adjustment, optimal versus non-optimal MTX
      dose was more efficient in achieving ACR-EULAR remission at 1 year (OR 4.28 (95%
      CI 1.86 to 9.86)) and normal functioning (Health Assessment Questionnaire <=0.5;
      OR at 1 year 4.36 (95% CI 2.03 to 9.39)), with no effect on radiological
      progression. Results were similar during the second year. CONCLUSION: Optimal MTX
      dose is more efficacious than non-optimal dose for remission and function in
      early arthritis in daily practice, with no impact on radiological progression
      over 2 years.

PMID- 28866648
TI  - Consensus-based recommendations for the use of biosimilars to treat
      rheumatological diseases.
AB  - The study aimed to develop evidence-based recommendations regarding the
      evaluation and use of biosimilars to treat rheumatological diseases. The task
      force comprised an expert group of specialists in rheumatology, dermatology and
      gastroenterology, and pharmacologists, patients and a regulator from ten
      countries. Four key topics regarding biosimilars were identified through a
      process of discussion and consensus. Using a Delphi process, specific questions
      were then formulated to guide a systematic literature review. Relevant English
      language publications through November 2016 were searched systematically for each
      topic using Medline; selected papers and pertinent reviews were examined for
      additional relevant references; and abstracts presented at the 2015 and 2016
      American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and European League Against Rheumatism
      (EULAR) annual scientific meetings were searched for those about biosimilars. The
      experts used evidence obtained from these studies to develop a set of overarching
      principles and consensus recommendations. The level of evidence and grade of
      recommendation were determined for each. By the search strategy, 490 references
      were identified. Of these, 29 full-text papers were included in the systematic
      review. Additionally, 20 abstracts were retrieved from the ACR and EULAR
      conference abstract databases. Five overarching principles and eight consensus
      recommendations were generated, encompassing considerations regarding clinical
      trials, immunogenicity, extrapolation of indications, switching between bio
      originators and biosimilars and among biosimilars, and cost. The level of
      evidence and grade of recommendation for each varied according to available
      published evidence. Five overarching principles and eight consensus
      recommendations regarding the evaluation and use of biosimilars to treat
      rheumatological diseases were developed using research-based evidence and expert
      opinion.

PMID- 28866647
TI  - Chemotaxis of Vdelta2 T cells to the joints contributes to the pathogenesis of
      rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the role of Vdelta2 T cells in the pathogenesis of
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Sixty-eight patients with RA, 21 patients
      with osteoarthritis and 21 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. All
      patients with RA fulfilled the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European
      League Against Rheumatism criteria for RA. Peripheral Vdelta2T population,
      chemokine receptor expression and proinflammatory cytokine secretion were
      quantified by flow cytometry. The infiltration of Vdelta2 T cells within the
      synovium was examined by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. The effect of
      tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)-6 on Vdelta2 T migration
      was determined by flow cytometry and transwell migration assay. RESULTS:
      Peripheral Vdelta2T cells, but not Vdelta1 T cells, were significantly lower in
      patients with RA, which was negatively correlated with disease activity gauged by
      Disease Activity Score in 28 joints. Vdelta2 T cells from RA accumulated in the
      synovium and produced high levels of proinflammatory cytokines including
      interferon-gamma and IL-17. Phenotypically, Vdelta2 T cells from RA showed
      elevated chemotaxis potential and expressed high levels of chemokine receptors
      CCR5 and CXCR3, which was driven by increased serum TNF-alpha through nuclear
      factor kappa B signalling. In vivo, TNF-alpha neutralising therapy dramatically
      downregulated CCR5 and CXCR3 on Vdelta2 T cells and repopulated the peripheral
      Vdelta2 T cells in patients with RA. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of TNF-alpha
      promoted CCR5 and CXCR3 expression in Vdelta2 T cells from RA, which potentially
      infiltrated into the synovium and played crucial roles in the pathogenesis of RA.
      Targeting Vdelta2 T cells might be a potential approach for RA.

PMID- 28866650
TI  - Patient self-testing and self-management of anticoagulation is safe and patients
      are satisfied with these programmes.

PMID- 28866649
TI  - Weight loss for overweight and obese individuals with gout: a systematic review
      of longitudinal studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Weight loss is commonly recommended for gout, but the magnitude of
      the effect has not been evaluated in a systematic review. The aim of this
      systematic review was to determine benefits and harms associated with weight loss
      in overweight and obese patients with gout. METHODS: We searched six databases
      for longitudinal studies, reporting the effect of weight loss in overweight/obese
      gout patients. Risk of bias was assessed using the tool Risk of Bias in Non
      Randomised Studies of Interventions. The quality of evidence was assessed using
      the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation. RESULTS:
      From 3991 potentially eligible studies, 10 were included (including one
      randomised trial). Interventions included diet with/without physical activity,
      bariatric surgery, diuretics, metformin or no intervention. Mean weight losses
      ranged from 3 kg to 34 kg. Clinical heterogeneity in study characteristics
      precluded meta-analysis. The effect on serum uric acid (sUA) ranged from -168 to
      30 MUmol/L, and 0%-60% patients achieving sUA target (<360 MUmol/L). Six out of
      eight studies (75%) showed beneficial effects on gout attacks. Two studies
      indicated dose-response relationship for sUA, achieving sUA target and gout
      attacks. At short term, temporary increased sUA and gout attacks tended to occur
      after bariatric surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The available evidence is in favour of
      weight loss for overweight/obese gout patients, with low, moderate and low
      quality of evidence for effects on sUA, achieving sUA target and gout attacks,
      respectively. At short term, unfavourable effects may occur. Since the current
      evidence consists of a few studies (mostly observational) of low methodological
      quality, there is an urgent need to initiate rigorous prospective studies
      (preferably randomised controlled trials). SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION:
      PROSPERO, CRD42016037937.

PMID- 28866651
TI  - Back pain in pregnancy among office workers: risk factors and its impact on
      quality of life.
AB  - Background Back pain is a common presenting complaint during pregnancy and it is
      often being considered as part of the pregnancy process. The purpose of the study
      is to investigate the prevalence of back pain in pregnancy, risk factors and its
      impact on the quality of life in pregnant women. Materials and methods Three
      hundred and fifty-eight pregnant women who attended the antenatal clinic in
      Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Centre were recruited in this cross
      sectional study from October 2011 until April 2012. The back pain was further
      classified into lumbar pain and posterior pelvic pain. The severity of back pain
      was assessed using visual analoque scale (VAS) and the functional limitation was
      assessed using the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire (ODQ). Result The prevalence
      of back pain in pregnancy was 84.6%. Occupation and previous history of back pain
      were associated with back pain in pregnancy. In terms of functional limitation
      disability, total ODQ score was statistically significant correlate with severity
      of pain (VAS score). Personal care, sitting, standing, sex life and social life
      were significantly affected. Conclusion The risk factors for back pain in
      pregnancy were type of occupation and history of back pain. The higher VAS score,
      the more ODQ will be affected. Personal care, sitting, standing, sex life and
      social life were significantly affected.

PMID- 28866652
TI  - The effects of high and low doses of folic acid on oxidation of protein levels
      during pregnancy: a randomized double-blind clinical trial.
AB  - Objective Oxidants include important active molecules which are created in the
      body and attack biological molecules especially lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic
      acids and proteins, and cause oxidation and various diseases in the body.
      Antioxidants existing in the body help to avoid the incidence of these injuries.
      Pregnant women are among those where oxidation of biological molecules may do
      irreparable damage to them and their embryos. So, the purpose of this study was
      to review the effect of folic acid with both high (5 mg/day) and low (0.5 mg/day)
      doses on the changes of oxidative protein in reducing plasma homocystein
      concentration during pregnancy. Materials and methods Forty-five pregnant women
      participated in this study. They were divided into two groups: group 1 included
      23 women who received 5 mg/day folic acid and group 2 included 23 women who took
      0.5 mg/day folic acid before pregnancy till the 36th week pregnancy. We measured
      the biochemical variables in the serum of pregnant women at the beginning and at
      the end of the study. Results Folic acid reduced plasma homocytein in both low
      and high dose groups (p = 0.035, p = 0.012, respectively). Also, the results
      showed that folic acid prescription led to reduce plasma level of carbonyl groups
      in both low and high dose groups (p = 0.01, p = 0.03, respectively). Furthermore,
      the results showed that there is no significant difference between two groups and
      folic acid affects both groups equally. Conclusion It is possible that folic acid
      administration can reduce plasma homocysteine and carbonyl levels during
      pregnancy in dose independent manner.

PMID- 28866653
TI  - Strategies for the construction of insect P450 fusion enzymes.
AB  - Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are ubiquitous enzymes with a broad
      substrate spectrum. Insect P450s are known to catalyze reactions such as the
      detoxification of insecticides and the synthesis of hydrocarbons, which makes
      them useful for many industrial processes. Unfortunately, it is difficult to
      utilize P450s effectively because they must be paired with cytochrome P450
      reductases (CPRs) to facilitate electron transfer from reduced nicotinamide
      adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). Furthermore, eukaryotic P450s and CPRs
      are membrane-anchored proteins, which means they are insoluble and therefore
      difficult to purify when expressed in their native state. Both challenges can be
      addressed by creating fusion proteins that combine the P450 and CPR functions
      while eliminating membrane anchors, allowing the production and purification of
      soluble multifunctional polypeptides suitable for industrial applications. Here
      we discuss several strategies for the construction of fusion enzymes combining
      insect P450 with CPRs.

PMID- 28866654
TI  - Hydroxylation and sulfation of sex steroid hormones in inflammatory liver.
AB  - Sex steroids, also known as gonadal steroids, are oxidized with hydroxylation by
      cytochrome P450, glucuronidation by UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, sulfation by
      sulfotransferase, andO-methylation by catechol O-methyltransferase. Thus, it is
      important to determine the process by which inflammation influences metabolism of
      gonadal hormones. Therefore, we investigated the mechanism of metabolic enzymes
      against high physiologic inflammatory responsein vivo to study their biochemical
      properties in liver diseases. In this study, C57BL/6N mice were induced with
      hepatic inflammation by diethylnitrosamine (DEN) exposure. We observed
      upregulation of Cyp19a1, Hsd17b1, Cyp1a1, Sult1e1 in the DEN-treated livers
      compared to the control-treated livers using real time PCR. Moreover, the
      increased Cyp19a1 and Hsd17b1 levels support the possibility that estrogen
      biosynthesis from androgens are accumulated during inflammatory liver diseases.
      Furthermore, the increased levels of Cyp1a1 and Cyp1b1 in the hydroxylation of
      estrogen facilitated the conversion of estrogen to 2- or 4-hydroxyestrogen,
      respectively. In addition, the substantial increase in the Sult1e1 enzyme levels
      could lead to sulfate conjugation of hydroxyestrogen. The present information
      supports the concept that inflammatory response can sequester sulfate conjugates
      from the endogenous steroid hormones and may suppress binding of sex steroid
      hormones to their receptors in the whole body.

PMID- 28866655
TI  - Multifunctional quantum dots and liposome complexes in drug delivery.
AB  - Incorporating both diagnostic and therapeutic functions into a single nanoscale
      system is an effective modern drug delivery strategy. Combining liposomes with
      semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) has great potential to achieve such dual
      functions, referred to in this review as a liposomal QD hybrid system (L-QD).
      Here we review the recent literature dealing with the design and application of L
      QD for advances in bio-imaging and drug delivery. After a summary of L-QD
      synthesis processes and evaluation of their properties, we will focus on their
      multifunctional applications, ranging from in vitro cell imaging to theranostic
      drug delivery approaches.

PMID- 28866657
TI  - A novel entry point for pedicle screw placement in the thoracic spine.
AB  - This study was aimed to introduce a novel entry point for pedicle screw fixation
      in the thoracic spine and compare it with the traditional entry point. A novel
      entry point was found with the aim of improving accuracy, safety and stability of
      pedicle screw technique based on anatomical structures of the spine. A total of
      76 pieces of normal thoracic CT images at the transverse plane and the thoracic
      pedicle anatomy of 6 cadaveric specimens were recruited. Transverse pedicle angle
      (TPA), screw length, screw placement accuracy rate and axial pullout strength of
      the two different entry point groups were compared. There were significant
      differences in the TPA, screw length, and the screw placement accuracy rate
      between the two groups (P<0.05). The maximum axial pullout strength of the novel
      entry point group was slightly larger than that of the traditional group.
      However, the difference was not significant (P>0.05). The novel entry point
      significantly improved the accuracy, stability and safety of pedicle screw
      placement. With reference to the advantages above, the new entry point can be
      used for spinal internal fixations in the thoracic spine.

PMID- 28866656
TI  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer therapy.
AB  - In recent years immune checkpoint inhibitors have garnered attention as being one
      of the most promising types of immunotherapy on the horizon. There has been
      particular focus on the immune checkpoint molecules, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte
      antigen-4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) which have been
      shown to have potent immunomodulatory effects through their function as negative
      regulators of T cell activation. CTLA-4, through engagement with its ligands B7-1
      (CD80) and B7-2 (CD86), plays a pivotal role in attenuating the activation of
      naive and memory T cells. In contrast, PD-1 is primarily involved in modulating T
      cell activity in peripheral tissues via its interaction with PD-L1 and PD-L2. The
      discovery of these negative regulators of the immune response was crucial in the
      development of checkpoint inhibitors. This shifted the focus from developing
      therapies that targeted activation of the host immune system against cancer to
      checkpoint inhibitors, which aimed to mediate tumor cell destruction through the
      removal of coinhibitory signals blocking anti-tumor T cell responses.

PMID- 28866658
TI  - Proteomic analysis of the dorsal spinal cord in the mouse model of spared nerve
      injury-induced neuropathic pain.
AB  - Peripheral nerve injury often causes neuropathic pain and is associated with
      changes in the expression of numerous proteins in the dorsal horn of the spinal
      cord. To date, proteomic analysis method has been used to simultaneously analyze
      hundreds or thousands of proteins differentially expressed in the dorsal horn of
      the spinal cord in rats or dorsal root ganglion of rats with certain type of
      peripheral nerve injury. However, a proteomic study using a mouse model of
      neuropathic pain could be attempted because of abundant protein database and the
      availability of transgenic mice. In this study, whole proteins were extracted
      from the ipsilateral dorsal half of the 4th-6th lumbar spinal cord in a mouse
      model of spared nerve injury (SNI)-induced neuropathic pain. In-gel digests of
      the proteins size-separated on a polyacrylamide gel were subjected to reverse
      phase liquid-chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization ion trap tandem
      mass spectrometry (MS/MS). After identifying proteins, the data were analyzed
      with subtractive proteomics using ProtAn, an in-house analytic program.
      Consequently, 15 downregulated and 35 upregulated proteins were identified in SNI
      mice. The identified proteins may contribute to the maintenance of neuropathic
      pain, and may provide new or valuable information in the discovery of new
      therapeutic targets for neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28866659
TI  - Profiles of metabolic gene expression in the white adipose tissue, liver and
      hypothalamus in leptin knockout (LepDeltaI14/DeltaI14 ) rats.
AB  - Leptin deficiency is principally linked to metabolic disorders. Leptin knockout
      (LepDeltaI14/DeltaI14) Sprague Dawley rats created by CRISPR/Cas9 is a new model
      to study metabolic disorders. We used a whole rat genome oligonucleotide
      microarray to obtain tissue-specific gene expression profiles of the white
      adipose tissue, liver and hypothalamus in LepDeltaI14/DeltaI14 and wild-type (WT)
      rats. We found 1,651 differentially expressed (enriched) genes in white adipose
      tissue, 916 in the liver, and 306 in the hypothalamus in the LepDeltaI14/DeltaI14
      rats compared to WT. Gene ontology category and KEGG pathway analysis of the
      relationships among differentially expressed genes showed that these genes were
      represented in a variety of functional categories, including fatty acid
      metabolism, molecular transducers and cellular processes. The reliability of the
      data obtained from microarray was verified by quantitative real-time PCR on 14
      representative genes. These data will contribute to a greater understanding of
      different metabolic disorders, such as obesity and diabetes.

PMID- 28866660
TI  - Generation of tryptophan hydroxylase 2 gene knockout pigs by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated
      gene targeting.
AB  - Unbalanced brain serotonin (5-HT) levels have implications in various behavioral
      abnormalities and neuropsychiatric disorders. The biosynthesis of neuronal 5-HT
      is regulated by the rate-limiting enzyme, tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2). In the
      present study, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat
      (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) system was used to target theTph2 gene in Bama
      mini pig fetal fibroblasts. It was found that CRISPR/Cas9 targeting efficiency
      could be as high as 61.5%, and the biallelic mutation efficiency reached at
      38.5%. The biallelic modified colonies were used as donors for somatic cell
      nuclear transfer (SCNT) and 10Tph2 targeted piglets were successfully generated.
      These Tph2 KO piglets were viable and appeared normal at the birth. However,
      their central 5-HT levels were dramatically reduced, and their survival and
      growth rates were impaired before weaning. TheseTph2 KO pigs are valuable large
      animal models for studies of 5-HT deficiency induced behavior abnomality.

PMID- 28866661
TI  - Observational Study of Perspectives of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients
      Concerning the Use of Corticosteroids.
AB  - AIM: We aimed to investigate the factors that make inflammatory bowel disease
      (IBD) patients more or less likely to be willing to take corticosteroids.
      METHODS: Respondents completed a questionnaire. The primary outcome was whether
      the respondents would or would not use corticosteroids again to treat their IBD.
      Three separate univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to examine
      which variables predicted willingness to take steroids, including specific side
      effects. RESULTS: Four hundred fifty three respondents (321 with Crohn's disease,
      115 with ulcerative colitis; mean age 40 years, 297 [66%] female) completed the
      questionnaire. Corticosteroid efficacy (OR 6.83, 95% CI 3.67-12.7), lack of
      previous negative side effects (OR 0.11, 95% CI 0.04-0.32), and positive side
      effects (OR 2.96, 95% CI 1.63-5.40) were associated with a willingness to use
      corticosteroids in the future. In multivariate analysis, weight gain (OR 0.53,
      95% CI 0.29-0.98) and hallucinations (OR 0.28, CI 0.09-0.89) were associated with
      an unwillingness to use corticosteroids again, whereas increased energy (OR 2.30,
      95% CI 1.20-4.42) was the only significant positive side effect in a multivariate
      model. CONCLUSIONS: Past experiences with corticosteroids influence whether
      patients will take corticosteroids again. Clinicians should enquire about side
      effects and positive psychological symptoms associated with corticosteroid use.

PMID- 28866663
TI  - Infections of Intrathecal Baclofen Delivery Systems and Ventriculoperitoneal
      Shunting Systems: Clinical Series Discussion.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The physiological interaction between the intrathecal baclofen
      (ITB) delivery system and the ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunting system in a
      patient who had both systems implanted has not been reported previously. The aim
      of our report is to evaluate the effect that one system's infection might have on
      the other. METHODS: Records of children who were followed at our institution
      between 2004 and 2015 for management of their ITB systems were reviewed. In this
      group, children who had VP shunts were identified, and those who had any of their
      ITB or VP systems infected were included. RESULTS: Out of 313 children managed
      with ITB therapy at our institution, 31 (24%) children had VP shunts. Two
      patients had infection in both systems, and 3 patients had infection in 1 system.
      CONCLUSION: This report suggests that if aspiration from both systems showed
      positive cultures, the treatment would be removal of both systems. If the
      primarily not infected system does not show positive cultures, it does not need
      to be removed. Close follow-up is recommended, and any sign of infection or
      malfunction of the primarily not infected device should be approached with a high
      level of suspicion.

PMID- 28866662
TI  - Serum CA19-9 Response Is an Early Predictive Marker of Efficacy of Regorafenib in
      Refractory Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Regorafenib improves survival in chemorefractory metastatic colorectal
      cancer (mCRC) patients. However, regorafenib induces various adverse events (AEs)
      that often impair patients' quality of life. Identification of early predictive
      markers of the efficacy is warranted. METHODS: We retrospectively examined 146
      consecutive mCRC patients who received regorafenib. Clinical parameters,
      including patient background, AEs, and changes in biochemical parameters until
      day 28, were evaluated to identify efficacy predictors. RESULTS: Median
      progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.1 months, and median overall survival was
      6.6 months. Major AEs in all cycles were hand-foot skin reaction, hypertension,
      and increased aspartate transaminase. We extracted 121 patients for prognostic
      analysis. In univariate analysis, decreased carcinoembryonic antigen (HR: 0.570,
      p = 0.012) and decreased carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) (HR: 0.422, p =
      0.0012) were identified as prognostic markers of PFS. Patients in whom serum CA19
      9 decreased after regorafenib exhibited significantly better PFS (median 3.7 vs.
      2.0 months, p = 0.004) than those in whom serum CA19-9 did not decrease.
      Multivariate analysis revealed early CA19-9 decrease as an independent predictive
      factor (HR: 0.415, 95% CI: 0.210-0.818, p = 0.011). CONCLUSION: Early response of
      CA19-9 may predict the efficacy of regorafenib. Additional studies are needed for
      external validation.

PMID- 28866665
TI  - The Look of the Devil: Multiple Cranial Neuropathies.
AB  - The sculpture of the devil on a portal of the Lichtenthal Abbey School in Baden
      Baden, Germany displays neurological pathology, possibly consistent with multiple
      cranial neuropathy. One of the main abnormalities is an exotropia strabismus, a
      feature rarely depicted in works of art portraying the devil.

PMID- 28866664
TI  - Smoking Trajectories during the Perinatal Period and Their Risk Factors: The
      Nationally Representative French ELFE (Etude Longitudinale Francaise Depuis
      l'Enfance) Birth Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In France, rates of perinatal smoking are among the highest
      worldwide; however, perinatal smoking trajectories and associated factors have
      still not been adequately researched. METHODS: Among women participating in the
      French nationally representative etude longitudinale francaise depuis l'enfance
      birth cohort (n = 15,540), perinatal smoking trajectories were estimated using
      group-based modelling. Associated characteristics were studied using multinomial
      logistic regression. RESULTS: Four trajectories were identified: non-smokers
      (59%), quitters (20%), persistent moderate (12%) and persistent heavy (9%)
      smokers. Older age, being native French, low socioeconomic position, persistent
      psychological difficulties and alcohol use in pregnancy, lack of social support,
      partner's smoking, mistimed pregnancy, and child formula feeding at birth were
      associated with persistent heavy smoking. Most of these factors were also
      associated, but to a lesser extent, with persistent moderate smoking, except for
      age and migrant status, which had opposite effects. Women who successfully lost
      weight prior to pregnancy had higher levels of quitting smoking. CONCLUSION:
      Women's long-term smoking trajectories vary in terms of initial tobacco
      consumption level but also in relation to socio-demographic, psychological,
      behavioral and partner characteristics. Health professionals in contact with
      pregnant smokers should address perceived risks and benefits of smoking,
      including partner's smoking and weight-gain concerns.

PMID- 28866666
TI  - The Cumulative Effects of the MYH7-V878A and CACNA1C-A1594V Mutations in a
      Chinese Family with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - AIMS: We investigated the pathogenesis of MYH7-V878A and CACNA1C-A1594V mutations
      in a Chinese family with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. METHODS: Clinical,
      electrocardiographic (ECG), echocardiographic, and cardiac magnetic resonance
      (CMR) examinations of members of a Chinese family were followed by exon and
      boarding intron analyses of 96 genes in the proband using second-generation
      sequencing. We confirmed the mutations by bidirectional Sanger sequencing in the
      members and in 300 healthy controls. RESULTS: We detected MYH7-V878A and CACNA1C
      A1594V mutations in this family. The members with both mutations showed inverted
      T-waves and ST-segment depression in ECG recordings, severe left ventricular (LV)
      hypertrophy in echocardiography, and myocardial fibrosis in CMR; subject II-11
      did not show late gadolinium enhancement. Among those with only the MYH7-V878A
      mutation, subject III-7 showed abnormal ECG recordings, asymmetric septal
      hypertrophy, and myocardial fibrosis, and subjects II-13 and III-15 showed some
      abnormal repolarization, borderline LV wall thickness, and normal CMR findings.
      Those with only the CACNA1C-A1594V mutation showed nearly normal readings in all
      examinations. The members with both mutations displayed more severe LV
      hypertrophy and elevated LV filling pressure than those with 1 or no mutation (p
      < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the pathogenesis of MYH7-V878A and
      CACNA1C-A1594V mutations may have a cumulative effect.

PMID- 28866667
TI  - A Modified Technique for the Transconjunctival and Sutureless External Drainage
      of Subretinal Fluid in Bullous Exudative Retinal Detachment Using a 24-G i.v.
      Catheter.
AB  - PURPOSE: To present the use of a 24-G Optiva(r) i.v. catheter for external
      drainage of subretinal fluid (SRF) in bullous exudative retinal detachment (RD).
      METHODS: Thirteen eyes with bullous exudative RD were included in our study. SRF
      drainage was accomplished via a transconjunctival scleral incision with a 24-G
      catheter followed by laser treatment, vitrectomy, or anti-VEGF treatment, as
      needed. Data on age, indications, visual acuities, the number of drainage times,
      drainage duration, complications, and fundoscopy were collected. RESULTS: Two
      females and 11 males, with a mean age of 4.2 +/- 2.7 years, were included.
      Surgical indications included exudative RD caused by Coats disease (12 eyes) and
      Sturge- Weber syndrome (1 eye). Successful drainage was achieved in all cases.
      The mean duration of the SRF drainage procedure was 63.5 +/- 16.9 s. Except for 1
      case of localized subretinal haemorrhage, no complications were noted.
      CONCLUSIONS: External drainage of SRF using a 24-G Optiva(r) i.v. catheter is
      safe, efficient, and useful.

PMID- 28866668
TI  - Emerging Roles of Kisspeptin in Sexual and Emotional Brain Processing.
AB  - The emergence of kisspeptin as a crucial regulator of the hypothalamo-pituitary
      gonadal (HPG) axis over the last 14 years has answered many questions as to the
      control of reproductive hormone secretion from the hypothalamus. More recently,
      the role of kisspeptin outside the HPG axis has received increasing attention in
      the hope of delineating the pathways linking various sensory and social
      behaviours to reproduction. These studies, in a range of species from zebrafish
      to humans, have identified a role for kisspeptin in behavioural networks related
      to reproduction including olfaction, audition, fear, anxiety, mood, and sexual
      arousal. The available evidence suggests that extrahypothalamic kisspeptin
      signalling encourages positive aspects of emotional and sexual brain processing
      in a presumed drive towards reproduction and ultimately maintenance of the
      species at a population level. In this review, we examine these studies, which
      collectively propose that kisspeptin may integrate sexual and emotional brain
      processing with the control of the HPG axis.

PMID- 28866669
TI  - Observational Monitoring of Patients with Aplastic Anemia and Low/Intermediate-1
      Risk of Myelodysplastic Syndromes Complicated with Iron Overload.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study focuses on the iron overload (IOL) of patients with
      transfused aplastic anemia (AA) or a low/intermediate-1 risk of myelodysplastic
      syndrome (MDS). METHODS: Ninety-two AA or MDS patients with IOL were
      prospectively recruited. Clinical data were collected every 6 months, and organ
      magnetic resonance imaging T2* values were collected annually. Patients with IOL
      were chelated. RESULTS: Serum ferritin was correlated with liver T2* and
      pancreatic T2* in the AA and MDS groups. Transfusion amounts were correlated with
      serum ferritin values, liver T2*, and pancreatic T2* in the AA group. At the 6
      month and 1-year evaluations, patients with sufficient chelation experienced
      significant decreases in serum ferritin, and those with decreased serum ferritin
      experienced an obvious increase in hemoglobin. At their 1-year-follow-up,
      patients with adequate chelation showed significant increases in hepatic T2*,
      cardiac T2*, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Patients with
      decreased serum ferritin (including those without chelation) experienced an
      increase in hemoglobin, hepatic T2*, cardiac T2*, and LVEF. CONCLUSION: The
      transfusion amount was more reliable at predicting IOL in patients with AA than
      in those with MDS. Adequate iron chelation can decrease serum ferritin levels and
      may improve hepatic T2*, cardiac T2*, and LVEF levels. A decrease in serum
      ferritin, even in the absence of chelation, may also benefit patients.

PMID- 28866670
TI  - Clinical Outcome for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia at the Age of 1 Year in the
      Era of Fetal Intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is an abnormal development of
      the diaphragm leading to high neonatal mortality and morbidity. Beyond the
      neonatal period, prospective data on overall long-term outcome in CDH survivors
      is scarce. In particular, for those treated with fetoscopic endoluminal tracheal
      occlusion (FETO), a promising new technique to increase survival chances for
      severe cases, the outcomes are even less documented. AIM: To prospectively
      document the clinical outcome of CDH at 1 year including FETO-treated infants in
      relation to ante- and postnatal variables. METHODS: A single-centre prospective
      clinical follow-up at 1 year of age included a standardised respiratory
      questionnaire. RESULTS: Thirty-four CDH survivors were included, 10 of which were
      FETO-treated infants. At 1 year, the median weight z score was -1.50
      (interquartile range [IQR]: -2.45 to -0.88) and 10/34 were "failure to thrive"
      (FTT) cases. Gastro-intestinal (GI) problems at 1 year were mainly related to
      gastro-oesophageal reflux (16/34) with a high need for tube feeding in the first
      year (9/34). Tachypnoea was present in 10/29 (34%) and 8/34 (24%) were on chronic
      inhaled medication. The median total respiratory symptom score was 20 (IQR: 13
      32) and correlated with the number of neonatal ventilation days (p = 0.048).
      Hospital re-admission occurred in 19/34 infants (56%), and was for respiratory
      problems in almost half of them (8/19). CONCLUSION: In this CDH cohort, morbidity
      at 1 year was determined more by GI problems and FTT than respiratory morbidity.
      The respiratory questionnaire may, however, have underestimated the respiratory
      morbidity since respondents had a 1-in-4 chance to have persistent tachypnoea and
      be on chronic inhalation therapy.

PMID- 28866671
TI  - Autoimmune Myelofibrosis: Clinical Features, Course, and Outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autoimmune myelofibrosis (AIMF) is an underrecognized cause of
      nonmalignant bone marrow fibrosis which occurs in the presence or absence of a
      defined systemic autoimmune disease. Patients with AIMF present with cytopenias
      and autoantibodies, and have a distinctive nonclonal myelofibrosis on bone marrow
      examination. AIMF is distinguished from primary myelofibrosis by the absence of
      splenomegaly, eosinophilia, or basophilia, and the absence of abnormal myeloid,
      erythroid, or megakaryocytic morphology. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study
      was to describe the clinical presentation and outcomes of patients with AIMF.
      METHODS: We conducted a single-institution, retrospective chart review of
      patients diagnosed with AIMF to investigate clinical presentations, therapies,
      and outcomes. RESULTS: Twelve patients with AIMF were identified with a mean
      follow-up of 5.8 years. All patients had detectable autoantibodies and the
      majority had concomitant autoimmune disorders. Four patients experienced a
      complete response of cytopenias and 3 patients experienced a partial response
      (PR) of cytopenias with immunosuppressive therapy. One patient achieved a PR
      following splenectomy. No patients were diagnosed with myeloproliferative
      neoplasms during the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: AIMF contributes to
      cytopenias in the subset of patients with various autoimmune disorders. The
      majority of patients with AIMF experience an improvement in cytopenias with
      immunosuppressive therapy.

PMID- 28866673
TI  - Does Remifentanil Have a Place for Sedation in the Case of Endotracheal
      Intubation or Minimally Invasive Surfactant Therapy in Neonates?

PMID- 28866672
TI  - Increased Mobilization of CD45+CD34+VLA-4+ Cells in Acute Viral Myocarditis
      Induced by Coxsackievirus B3.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Bone marrow-derived cells (BMCs) have recently been identified to
      play a vital role in repairing damaged myocardium; however, it is not known
      whether or not mobilization of BMCs is involved in the pathogenesis of acute
      viral myocarditis (VMC). Thus, we analyzed the expression of CD45+CD34+VLA-4+
      cells and vascular cell adhesion protein-1 (VCAM-1) in a murine model of acute
      VMC. METHODS: Male BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally infected with
      coxsackievirus B3 to establish acute VMC. The frequency of CD45+CD34+VLA-4+ cells
      in the heart, peripheral blood, and bone marrow was examined by flow cytometry 3,
      7, 14, and 28 days after injection. Cardiac VCAM-1 and pathology scores were
      determined by immunohistochemistry, and myocardial VCAM-1, IL-1beta, and TNF
      alpha were analyzed by RT-PCR and Western blot. RESULTS: In mice with acute VMC,
      the CD45+CD34+VLA-4+ cell population in the heart was significantly increased by
      day 7 and then decreased; in contrast, the CD45+CD34+VLA-4+ cell population
      decreased in the bone marrow and peripheral blood by day 3 and then increased.
      High expression of VCAM-1 was detected in the heart in parallel with
      CD45+CD34+VLA-4+ cell expression. CONCLUSIONS: In mice with acute VMC, VCAM-1
      induced CD45+CD34+VLA-4+ cell mobilization into the injured heart is involved in
      the repair of injured myocardium.

PMID- 28866674
TI  - Association of Serum Potassium with All-Cause Mortality in Patients with and
      without Heart Failure, Chronic Kidney Disease, and/or Diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between serum potassium, mortality, and conditions
      commonly associated with dyskalemias, such as heart failure (HF), chronic kidney
      disease (CKD), and/or diabetes mellitus (DM) is largely unknown. METHODS: We
      reviewed electronic medical record data from a geographically diverse population
      (n = 911,698) receiving medical care, determined the distribution of serum
      potassium, and the relationship between an index potassium value and mortality
      over an 18-month period in those with and without HF, CKD, and/or DM. We examined
      the association between all-cause mortality and potassium using a cubic spline
      regression analysis in the total population, a control group, and in HF, CKD, DM,
      and a combined cohort. RESULTS: 27.6% had a potassium <4.0 mEq/L, and 5.7% had a
      value >=5.0 mEq/L. A U-shaped association was noted between serum potassium and
      mortality in all groups, with lowest all-cause mortality in controls with
      potassium values between 4.0 and <5.0 mEq/L. All-cause mortality rates per index
      potassium between 2.5 and 8.0 mEq/L were consistently greater with HF 22%, CKD
      16.6%, and DM 6.6% vs. controls 1.2%, and highest in the combined cohort 29.7%.
      Higher mortality rates were noted in those aged >=65 vs. 50-64 years. In an
      adjusted model, all-cause mortality was significantly elevated for every 0.1
      mEq/L change in potassium <4.0 mEq/L and >=5.0 mEq/L. Diuretics and renin
      angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors were related to hypokalemia and
      hyperkalemia respectively. CONCLUSION: Mortality risk progressively increased
      with dyskalemia and was differentially greater in those with HF, CKD, or DM.

PMID- 28866676
TI  - The Hippocampus: Questions of Homology.

PMID- 28866677
TI  - Of Horse-Caterpillars and Homologies: Evolution of the Hippocampus and Its Name.
AB  - The hippocampus was first named in mammals based on the appearance of its gross
      morphological features, one end of it being fancied to resemble the head of a
      horse and the rest of it a silkworm, or caterpillar. A hippocampus, occupying the
      most medial part of the telencephalic pallium, has subsequently been identified
      in diverse nonmammalian taxa, but in which the "horse-caterpillar" morphology is
      lacking. While some strikingly similar functional similarities have been
      identified, questions of its homology ("sameness") across these taxa and about
      the very fundamental relationship of structure to function in central nervous
      system structures remain open. The hippocampal formation of amniotes participates
      in allocentric (external landmark) spatial navigation, memory, and attention to
      novel stimuli, and these functions generally are shared across amniotes despite
      variation in its morphological features. Substantially greater deviation in its
      morphology occurs in anamniotes, including amphibians and ray-finned fishes
      (actinopterygians), but its functions of allocentric spatial navigation and/or
      memory have been found to be preserved by studies in these taxa. Its shared
      functional roles cannot be used as evidence of structural homology, but given
      that other criteria indicate homology of the medial pallial derivative across
      these clades, the similar functions themselves may be regarded as homologous
      functions if they are based on the same cellular mechanisms and connections. The
      question arises as to whether the similar functions are performed by as yet
      undiscovered, shared morphological features or by different features that
      accomplish the same results via different mechanisms of neural function.

PMID- 28866675
TI  - SAVE-AMD: Safety of VEGF Inhibitors in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether intraocular treatment with vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors change systemic endothelial function (EF) in
      patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: In
      this prospective, randomized, 2-center, double-masked controlled interventional
      trial, patients with neovascular and dry AMD were enrolled. Eligible neovascular
      AMD patients received 2 intravitreal loading doses of either ranibizumab 0.5 mg
      or bevacizumab 1.25 mg at 4-week intervals and were subsequently followed every 4
      weeks and treated according to a pro re nata regime for up to 1 year. Patients
      with dry AMD served as controls. The primary endpoint was the change in EF
      assessed by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) after 2 months of treatment with VEGF
      inhibitors in patients with AMD compared to patients with dry AMD. FMD was
      assessed with B-mode high-resolution ultrasonography of the left brachial artery.
      RESULTS: 24 patients with neovascular AMD and 26 patients with dry ADM were
      included in the trial. Treatment with VEGF inhibitors did not significantly
      change FMD (from 4.7 +/- 2.4 to 3.9 +/- 1.9% after 8 weeks, p = 0.07, and to 5.1
      +/- 2.0% after 1 year; p = 0.93 vs. baseline, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: EF did
      not significantly differ between patients with neovascular AMD treated with
      intravitreal VEGF inhibition and patients with dry AMD.

PMID- 28866678
TI  - Comparative Contemplations on the Hippocampus.
AB  - The hippocampus in mammals is a morphologically well-defined structure, and so
      are its main subdivisions. To define the homologous structure in other vertebrate
      clades, using these morphological criteria has been difficult, if not impossible,
      since the typical mammalian morphology is absent. Although there seems to be
      consensus that the most medial part of the pallium represents the hippocampus in
      all vertebrates, there is no consensus on whether all mammalian hippocampal
      subdivisions are present in the derivatives of the medial pallium in all
      vertebrate groups. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential relevance of
      connections to define the hippocampus across vertebrates, with a focus on
      mammals, reptiles, and birds.

PMID- 28866679
TI  - Contribution of Genoarchitecture to Understanding Hippocampal Evolution and
      Development.
AB  - The hippocampal formation is a highly conserved structure of the medial pallium
      that works in association with the entorhinal cortex, playing a key role in
      memory formation and spatial navigation. Although it has been described in
      several vertebrates, the presence of comparable subdivisions across species
      remained unclear. This panorama has started to change in recent years thanks to
      the identification of some of the genes that regulate the development of the
      hippocampal formation in the mouse and help to delineate its subdivisions based
      on molecular features. Some of these genes have been used to try to identify
      subdivisions in chicken and lizards comparable to those of the mammalian
      hippocampal formation and the entorhinal cortex. Here, we review some of these
      data, which suggest the existence of fields comparable to the dentate gyrus, CA3,
      CA1, subiculum, as well as medial and lateral parts of the entorhinal cortex in
      all amniotes. We also analyze available data suggesting the existence of serial
      connections between these fields, speculate on the possible existence of auto
      associative loops in CA3, and discuss general principles governing the formation
      of the connections.

PMID- 28866680
TI  - On the Value of Reptilian Brains to Map the Evolution of the Hippocampal
      Formation.
AB  - Our ability to navigate through the world depends on the function of the
      hippocampus. This old cortical structure plays a critical role in spatial
      navigation in mammals and in a variety of processes, including declarative and
      episodic memory and social behavior. Intense research has revealed much about
      hippocampal anatomy, physiology, and computation; yet, even intensely studied
      phenomena such as the shaping of place cell activity or the function of
      hippocampal firing patterns during sleep remain incompletely understood.
      Interestingly, while the hippocampus may be a 'higher order' area linked to a
      complex cortical hierarchy in mammals, it is an old cortical structure in
      evolutionary terms. The reptilian cortex, structurally much simpler than the
      mammalian cortex and hippocampus, therefore presents a good alternative model for
      exploring hippocampal function. Here, we trace common patterns in the evolution
      of the hippocampus of reptiles and mammals and ask which parts can be profitably
      compared to understand functional principles. In addition, we describe a
      selection of the highly diverse repertoire of reptilian behaviors to illustrate
      the value of a comparative approach towards understanding hippocampal function.

PMID- 28866681
TI  - Reflections on the Structural-Functional Evolution of the Hippocampus: What Is
      the Big Deal about a Dentate Gyrus?
AB  - The vertebrate hippocampal formation has been central in discussions of
      comparative cognition, nurturing an interest in understanding the evolution of
      variation in hippocampal organization among vertebrate taxa and the functional
      consequences of that variation. Assuming some similarity between the medial
      pallium of extant amphibians and the hippocampus of stem tetrapods, we propose
      the hypothesis that the hippocampus of modern amniotes began with a medial
      pallium characterized by a relatively undifferentiated cytoarchitecture, more
      direct thalamic and olfactory sensory inputs, and a broad role in associative
      learning and memory processes that nonetheless included the map-like
      representation of space. From this modest beginning evolved the cognitively more
      specialized hippocampal formation of birds and the hippocampus of mammals with
      its confounding dentate gyrus. Much has been made of trying to identify a dentate
      homologue in birds, but there are compelling reasons to believe no such
      structural homologue/functional equivalent exists. The uniqueness of the
      mammalian dentate then raises the question of what might be the functional
      consequences of a hippocampus with a dentate compared to one without. One might
      be tempted to speculate that the presence of a dentate gyrus facilitates so
      called pattern separation, but birds with their suspected dentate-less
      hippocampus display excellent hippocampal-dependent pattern separation relying on
      space. Perhaps one consequence of a dentate is a hippocampus better designed to
      process a broader array of stimuli beyond space to more robustly support episodic
      memory. What is clear is that any meaningful reconstruction of hippocampal
      evolution and the eventual identification of any subdivisional homologies will
      require more data on the neurobiological and functional properties of the
      nonmammalian hippocampus, particularly those of amphibians and reptiles.

PMID- 28866682
TI  - Are There Place Cells in the Avian Hippocampus?
AB  - Birds possess a hippocampus that serves many of the same spatial and mnemonic
      functions as the mammalian hippocampus but achieves these outcomes with a
      dramatically different neuroanatomical organization. The properties of spatially
      responsive neurons in birds and mammals are also different. Much of the
      contemporary interest in the role of the mammalian hippocampus in spatial
      representation dates to the discovery of place cells in the rat hippocampus.
      Since that time, cells that respond to head direction and cells that encode a
      grid-like representation of space have been described in the rat brain. Research
      with homing pigeons has discovered hippocampal cells, including location cells,
      path cells, and pattern cells, that share some but not all properties of
      spatially responsive neurons in the rodent brain. We have recently used patterns
      of immediate-early gene expression, visualized by the catFISH method, to
      investigate how neurons in the hippocampus of brood-parasitic brown-headed
      cowbirds respond to spatial context. We have found cells that discriminate
      between different spatial environments and are re-activated when the same spatial
      environment is re-experienced. Given the differences in habitat and behaviour
      between birds and rodents, it is not surprising that spatially responsive cells
      in their hippocampus and other brain regions differ. The enormous diversity of
      avian habitats and behaviour offers the potential for understanding the general
      principles of neuronal representation of space.

PMID- 28866683
TI  - The Avian Hippocampal Formation and the Stress Response.
AB  - Though widely studied for its function in memory and navigation, the hippocampal
      formation (HF) in mammals also plays an important role in regulating the stress
      response. If this is an ancestral feature of the hippocampus, then it is likely
      that the avian HF plays a similar role. Indeed, the avian HF strongly expresses
      both mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors, and has indirect projections
      to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, which controls the
      hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Hippocampal lesions increase HPA
      activity, while electrical stimulation suppresses it. In addition, adult
      hippocampal neurogenesis in birds is reduced in response to different acute and
      chronic stressors, as it is in mammals. Because the mammalian hippocampus is
      functionally specialized along its septotemporal axis, with the temporal pole
      playing a more important role in the stress response, the hypothesis is put
      forward that a similar functional specialization exists in birds along the
      rostrocaudal hippocampal axis. Some, though not all, of the evidence supports a
      rostrocaudal functional gradient. The evidence for whether this is equivalent to
      the mammalian septotemporal organization is currently ambiguous at best and needs
      to be more extensively investigated.

PMID- 28866684
TI  - Functional Connectivity Pattern of the Internal Hippocampal Network in Awake
      Pigeons: A Resting-State fMRI Study.
AB  - In the last two decades, the avian hippocampus has been repeatedly studied with
      respect to its architecture, neurochemistry, and connectivity pattern. We review
      these insights and conclude that we unfortunately still lack proper knowledge on
      the interaction between the different hippocampal subregions. To fill this gap,
      we need information on the functional connectivity pattern of the hippocampal
      network. These data could complement our structural connectivity knowledge. To
      this end, we conducted a resting-state fMRI experiment in awake pigeons in a 7-T
      MR scanner. A voxel-wise regression analysis of blood oxygenation level-dependent
      (BOLD) fluctuations was performed in 6 distinct areas, dorsomedial (DM),
      dorsolateral (DL), triangular shaped (Tr), dorsolateral corticoid (CDL), temporo
      parieto-occipital (TPO), and lateral septum regions (SL), to establish a
      functional connectivity map of the avian hippocampal network. Our study reveals
      that the system of connectivities between CDL, DL, DM, and Tr is the functional
      backbone of the pigeon hippocampal system. Within this network, DM is the central
      hub and is strongly associated with DL and CDL BOLD signal fluctuations. DM is
      also the only hippocampal region to which large Tr areas are functionally
      connected. In contrast to published tracing data, TPO and SL are only weakly
      integrated in this network. In summary, our findings uncovered a structurally
      otherwise invisible architecture of the avian hippocampal formation by revealing
      the dynamic blueprints of this network.

PMID- 28866686
TI  - Meetings and Conferences.

PMID- 28866685
TI  - Relationship between Contrast-Enhanced CT and Clinicopathological Characteristics
      and Prognosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated the relationship between contrast-enhanced
      computed tomography (CECT) and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis
      of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: A total of 198 NSCLC patients
      admitted to Enze Hospital from February 2009 to July 2012 underwent pre-surgical
      CECT to investigate parameters such as tumor size, CECT enhancement, lymph node
      enlargement, and lymph node size. Chi-square and log-rank tests were used to
      analyze associations between CECT parameters and pathological features as well as
      correlations of CECT parameters with prognosis. A Cox proportional hazard model
      and logistic regression analysis were applied to identify independent risk
      factors for prognosis. RESULTS: Tumor size, CECT enhancement, and lymph node
      enlargement and size were related to degree of differentiation, TNM stage, and
      lymph node metastasis. Tumor size, lymph node enlargement and metastasis, lymph
      node size, and CECT enhancement were independent risk factors for NSCLC
      prognosis. Large tumors and lymph nodes, tumor enhancement, and enlarged and
      metastatic lymph nodes indicated a poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: Our study
      indicates that CECT features can be associated with clinicopathological
      characteristics and can predict the prognosis of patients with NSCLC.

PMID- 28866687
TI  - Editorial Board / Contents / Imprint.

PMID- 28866688
TI  - Alpha-Synuclein to the Rescue: Immune Cell Recruitment by Alpha-Synuclein during
      Gastrointestinal Infection.
AB  - Intraneuronal accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein in the central and
      peripheral nervous systems is strongly linked to Parkinson disease (PD) and other
      related synucleinopathies. In rare inherited forms of PD, point mutations or gene
      multiplications mediate the formation of alpha-synuclein protein aggregates.
      However, in most PD cases it is presumed that the combined effects of ageing and
      environmental factors drive the formation of alpha-synuclein aggregates. Despite
      advances regarding alpha-synuclein pathobiology, the normal functions of this
      protein and factors that regulate its expression are not well understood. We
      discuss a recent study reporting that viral infection induces alpha-synuclein
      expression in neurons of the gastrointestinal tract. Alpha-synuclein levels
      increased during norovirus infection in the duodenum of children. In an in vitro
      paradigm, monomeric and oligomeric alpha-synuclein acted as chemoattractants for
      neutrophils and monocytes, and promoted the maturation of dendritic cells. This
      suggests that alpha-synuclein facilitates immune responses to infection. We
      explore the possibility that intestinal infections, and associated inflammation,
      place individuals at increased risk of PD by increasing alpha-synuclein levels
      and promoting the formation of alpha-synuclein aggregates that propagate in a
      prion-like fashion via the vagal nerve to the brainstem.

PMID- 28866689
TI  - Reply to the Letter to the Editor "Does Remifentanil Have a Place for Sedation in
      the Case of Endotracheal Intubation or Minimally Invasive Surfactant Therapy in
      Neonates?"

PMID- 28866690
TI  - Molecular analysis of fragile X syndrome (FXS) among Malaysian patients with
      developmental disability.
AB  - Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder commonly found
      worldwide, caused by the silencing of fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene
      on the X-chromosome. Most of the patients lost FMR1 function due to an expansion
      of cytosine-guanine-guanine (CGG) repeat at the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) of
      the gene. The purpose of this study is to identify the prevalence of FXS and
      characterize the FMR1 gene CGG repeats distribution among children with
      developmental disability in Malaysia. Genomic DNA of 2201 samples from different
      ethnicities (Malays, Chinese, Indian and others) of both genders were PCR
      amplified from peripheral blood leukocytes based on specific primers at 5'UTR of
      FMR1 gene. Full mutations and mosaics were successfully identified by triple
      methylation specific PCR (ms-PCR) and subsequently verified with FragilEase kit.
      The findings revealed for the first time the prevalence of FXS full mutation in
      children with developmental disability in Malaysia was 3.5%, a slightly higher
      figure as compared to other countries. Molecular investigation also identified
      0.2% and 0.4% probands have permutation and intermediate alleles, respectively.
      The CGG repeats length observation showed 95% of patients had normal alleles
      within 11 to 44 CGG repeats; with 29 repeats found most common among Malays and
      Indians while 28 repeats were most common among Chinese. In conclusion, this is
      the first report of prevalence and characterisation of CGG repeats that reflects
      genetic variability among Malaysian ethnic grouping.

PMID- 28866691
TI  - Primary imatinib resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia patients in a developing
      country: BCR-ABL kinase domain mutations or BCR-ABL independent mechanisms?
AB  - Clinical resistance to imatinib (IM) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) carries
      adverse consequences. We investigated 22 CML patients who developed IM-resistance
      for BCR-ABL kinase domain (KD) mutations. The median follow-up for this study was
      101.9 months (range: 22.2 to 176.5 months) and the estimated mean overall
      survival was 150.87 months (95% CI: 130.0 to 171.0). Five out of 22 patients
      tested positive for BCR-ABL KD mutations: 2 had T315I, 2 had E255K and 1 had
      V289F mutations. Of the remaining 17 patients who did not harbor BCR-ABL KD
      mutations, 11 patients received nilotinib while the rest continued on IM. All 17
      achieved haematological remission but only 5 patients achieved complete
      cytogenetic remission, 4 of whom did so after switching to nilotinib. Our study
      shows that most of our IM-resistant patients do not test positive for BCR-ABL KD
      mutations by available testing methods and the role of second generation tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors remains undetermined. A critical analysis of the BCR-ABL KD
      mutations and the underlying mechanisms/ pathways of BCR-ABL independent IM
      resistance along with potential treatments in the horizon will be discussed.

PMID- 28866692
TI  - Frequency and molecular epidemiology of Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene in
      Staphylococcus aureus colonising HIV-infected patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV-infected patients pose a high risk of contracting skin and soft
      tissue infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Those who are colonized with
      methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) that carry Panton-Valentine leukocidin
      (PVL) are predisposed to severe infections that could lead to necrotic skin
      infections. However the association of S. aureus specifically methicillin
      sensitive S. aureus carrying PVL gene in HIV patients has not been widely
      reported. Here, we study the prevalence and the molecular epidemiology of PVL
      producing S. aureus in HIV-infected patients. METHODS: Swabs from four body sites
      of 129 HIV-infected patients were cultured for S. aureus and identified by
      standard microbiological procedures. The isolates were subjected to antimicrobial
      susceptibility testing by disk diffusion against penicillin, erythromycin,
      clindamycin, and cotrimoxazole. PCR was used to detect the PVL gene and genetic
      relationship between the isolates was determined by using pulse field gel
      electrophoresis. RESULTS: A total of 51 isolates of S. aureus were obtained from
      40 (31%) of the patients. The majority (43.1%) of the isolates were obtained from
      the anterior nares. Thirteen (25.5%) of all the isolates were resistant to more
      than one category of antibiotics, with one isolate identified as MRSA. Thirty
      eight (74.5%) isolates (including the MRSA isolate) carried PVL gene where the
      majority (44.7%) of these isolates were from the anterior nares. A dendogram
      revealed that the isolates were genetically diverse with 37 distinct pulsotypes
      clustered in 11 groups. CONCLUSION: S. aureus obtained from multiple sites of the
      HIV patients were genetically diverse without any clonality observed.

PMID- 28866693
TI  - A 15-year single centre retrospective study of antiphospholipid syndrome patients
      from Northern Malaysia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disorder
      characterised by thrombosis and/or pregnancy morbidity in the presence of
      antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) based on the Sydney criteria. We aimed to
      explore the clinico-laboratory features and treatment strategies of APS patients
      retrospectively. METHODOLOGY: The medical records of APS patients registered
      under Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (Kelantan state) between 2000 and 2015
      were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 17 APS subjects (age 40.7 +/- 12.8 years)
      including 11 primary (64.7%) and six secondary APS (35.3%) patients were
      identified. The follow-up period was 9.5 +/- 6.7 years with male:female ratio of
      1.0:4.7. Pregnancy morbidity was the most common clinical manifestation (11/14;
      78.6%) followed by recurrent venous thrombosis (10/17; 58.8%). For other clinical
      features, menorrhagia was the most frequently observed manifestation (4/14;
      28.6%) followed by aPLs-associated thrombocytopenia (4/17; 23.5%) and ovarian
      cyst (3/14; 21.4%). LA and aCL were positive in 94.1% (16/17) and 81.8% (9/11) of
      the patients, respectively. APTT value (76.7 +/- 17.0 sec) was significantly high
      (p < 0.05). Low intensity warfarin alone was successful to maintain target INR
      (2.0 - 3.0) and prevent recurrence of thrombosis. CONCLUSION: The tendency of
      pregnancy morbidity in this cohort of Malaysian Kelantanese APS patients was high
      compared to other previously reported APS cohorts. Low intensity warfarin was
      successful in preventing recurrence of thrombosis, however, APS women receiving
      long-term anticoagulants should be monitored for possible occurrence of
      menorrhagia and ovarian cysts.

PMID- 28866694
TI  - Determination of the 99th percentile upper reference limit for high-sensitivity
      cardiac troponin I in Malaysian population.
AB  - Introduction of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hscTn I) assays for routine
      clinical use in Malaysia requires determination of the 99th percentile upper
      reference limit (URL) for each assay to suit local context. Hence, this study
      aimed to determine the 99th percentile URL for hscTn I in the Malaysian
      population. A total of 250 (120 males and 130 females) healthy Malaysian blood
      donors aged 18 to 60 years old were recruited. Blood samples for hscTn I were
      measured using Abbott Diagnostics hscTn I assay on Architect i2000sr analyser.
      The 99th percentile was calculated using a non-parametric method and gender
      specific results were compared. The 99th percentile URL for hscTn I for the
      overall population was 23.7 ng/L, with gender specific values being 29.9 ng/L and
      18.6 ng/L for male and female, respectively. Females had significantly lower
      hscTn I compared to males. This study confirms the use of gender specific 99th
      percentile URL for hscTn I for clinical use in a multi-ethnic Malaysian
      population.

PMID- 28866696
TI  - Multiplex real-time RT-PCR assay for transfusion transmitted viruses in sero
      negative allogeneic blood donors: an experience from Southern Pakistan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Blood transfusion safety commences with healthy donor recruitment.
      The threat of transfusion transmitted infections is greatly minimized by
      serological tools but not entirely eliminated. Recently, nucleic-acid testing for
      blood donor screening has virtually eliminated this jeopardy. METHODS: This
      prospective study was conducted from February 2015 to February 2016. Samples from
      seronegative donors were run on multiplex assay (Cobas, S-201 system platform,
      Roche) in a batch of six [MP-NAT]. In case of reactive pool, tests were run on
      every individual sample [IDNAT]. RESULTS: Of 16957 donors, 16836 (99.2%) were
      replacement donors and the remaining 121 (0.7%) were voluntary donors, with a
      mean age of 29.09 +/- 7.04 years. After serologic screening of all 16957 donors,
      955 (5.6%) were found to be reactive; 291(1.71%) were reactive for hepatitis-B
      surface antigen, 361 (2.12%) for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), 14
      (0.08%) for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus, 287 (1.69%) for syphilis
      and 2 (0.01%) for malaria. 14 (0.08%) NAT reactive donors were identified after
      testing the 16002 seronegative donors, with an overall NAT yield of one
      reactivity out of 1143 blood donations; 10 donors for HBV-DNA (HBV NAT yield
      1:1600) and remaining 4 for HCV-RNA (HCV-NAT yield-1:4000). None were HIV
      positive. CONCLUSION: NAT has improved the safety attributes in blood products.
      Although the positivity rate for NAT testing is low but in view of the high
      prevalence of transfusion transmitted infections in our country, we recommend the
      parallel use of both serology and NAT screening of all donated blood.

PMID- 28866695
TI  - The value of Nottingham grade in breast cancer re-visited in the Sri Lankan
      setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the impact of Nottingham grade (NG) on breast
      cancer specific survival (BCSS) and recurrence free survival (RFS) of operable
      breast cancer (BC) patients presenting at different TNM stages in view of
      assessing the value of NG in prognostication of breast cancer in the Sri Lankan
      setting. METHOD: This retro-prospective study included a consecutive series of
      TNM stage I to III BC patients presented to our unit from 2006 to 2012. Data were
      collected through follow up visits, clinic and laboratory records. Grading and
      scoring of oestrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR) and human
      epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) expressions were done by a single
      investigator. Kaplan-Meier and Cox-regression models were used in the survival
      analysis. RESULTS: A total of 742 (NG1-12%; NG2-45%; NG3-43%) patients with a
      median follow up of 39.5 (range: 12 - 138) months were included. Five-year BCSS
      was 94%-NG1, 80%-NG2 and 72%-NG3 (p < 0.001). Five-year RFS was 86%-NG1, 75%-NG2
      and 67%-NG3 (p = 0.001). Only the lymph-node status (LNS) (p = 0.001) had an
      independent effect on the BCSS and RFS of NG3 patients. LNS (p = 0.001), PR (p =
      0.004) and Her2 (p < 0.001) independently affected the BCSS of NG2 patients. None
      of the factors considered had an effect on the BCSS/RFS of NG1 patients. A
      significant decrease in BCSS and RFS was seen with an increase in NG in the sub
      group of TNM stage III (p = 0.01 and 0.011). CONCLUSION: NG categorizes BC
      patients into prognostic groups with distinctly different survival outcomes. Sub
      categorization of TNM stage III by NG is suggested.

PMID- 28866697
TI  - Haematological parameters and screening tests of haemostasis in children with
      sepsis: results from a tertiary care centre in India.
AB  - Sepsis is a common cause of death in infants and children. Haemostatic
      abnormalities have been reported in such patients. There is scant information on
      the nature and frequency of these abnormalities in children especially from
      India. Our aim was to evaluate the nature and frequency of haematological and
      haemostatic abnormalities in children with sepsis. Fifty children between 1-10
      years of age admitted with sepsis and 50 age-matched, healthy controls were
      included in the study. Complete blood counts, examination of stained peripheral
      blood film, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT),
      plasma fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, liver function tests and serum creatinine
      were done in all patients and controls. Prolonged PT and APTT were seen in 9
      (18%) and 24 (48%) patients respectively. Plasma fibrinogen was decreased in 6%
      and increased in 8% patients. One or more haemostatic parameter was abnormal in
      35 (70%) patients and in all patients who died.

PMID- 28866698
TI  - Isolation by culture and PCR identification of LipL32 gene of pathogenic
      Leptospira spp. in wild rats of Kuala Lumpur.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A study was conducted to confirm the status of rats as the carrier of
      pathogenic leptospira in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. METHOD: A total of 140 urine
      samples were collected from trapped rats. These samples were cultured in EMJH
      enriched media and 18 of these samples (12.9%) were found to be positive when
      observed under x40 by dark field microscope. Genomic DNA was extracted from all
      the 18 native isolates for PCR. RESULT: All the 18 isolates generated the
      expected 786 base pair band when the set of primers known to amplify LipL32 gene
      were utilized. These results showed that the primers were suitable to be used for
      the identification of pathogenic leptospira from the 18 rat samples. CONCLUSION:
      The sequencing of the PCR products and BLAST analysis performed on each
      representative isolates confirmed the pathogenic status of all these native
      isolates as the LipL32 gene was detected in all the Leptospira isolates. This
      indicates that the rats are carriers of the pathogenic leptospira in the study
      area, and therefore are of public health importance.

PMID- 28866699
TI  - A sudden paediatric death due to hand, foot and mouth disease: the importance of
      vigilance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is caused by enteroviruses such
      as Coxsackie virus A16 (CVA16) and Enterovirus 71 (EV71). The diagnostic
      hallmarks are oral ulcers and maculo-papular or vesicular rash on the hands and
      feet. Severe form of this disease can lead to death due to neurological and
      cardiopulmonary complications. This case report aims to describe a fatal case of
      HFMD with minimal oral and skin manifestations. CASE REPORT: A four-year-old girl
      was brought to a hospital after suddenly becoming unresponsive at home. She had a
      history of fever and lethargy for three days prior to her demise. The patient,
      and f ive other children in her neighbourhood had been diagnosed to have HFMD at
      a local health clinic; the other children had recovered without complications.
      RESULTS: Autopsy revealed a few punctate, sub-epidermal vesicles measuring 1 to 2
      mm on the palm of her right hand and sole of the right foot, visible only with a
      magnifying glass. Internal examination revealed prominent nodularity at the oro-
      and hypopharynxes. The lungs were markedly congested and oedematous.
      Histopathology of the lung showed marked oedema and haemorrhage with mild
      pneumonic changes. Oedema with increase in macroglia and astrocytic proliferation
      were seen in the cerebral tissue, but no lymphocytic infiltration was evident.
      Enterovirus EV71 was detected by polymerase chain reaction in samples from the
      lung, cerebrospinal fluid and serum. The cause of death was given as HFMD
      complicated by pneumonia. CONCLUSION: Fatal HFMD may have minimal signs. A
      complete history, careful physical examination and relevant investigations lead
      to a diagnosis at post mortem examination. Awareness of the subtle signs and
      rapid deterioration associated with a fatal case of HFMD is a challenge to
      clinicians who encounter these cases.

PMID- 28866700
TI  - Synchronous papillary thyroid carcinoma and medullary thyroid carcinoma - a
      pitfall waiting to happen.
AB  - Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common thyroid carcinoma and is
      derived from thyroid follicular cells. In contrast, medullary thyroid carcinoma
      (MTC) is rare and originates from the parafollicular C-cells. Synchronous
      occurrence of these two carcinomas is uncommon and occurs as either discrete
      lesions or as a mixed lesion. The current case report describes a 50-year-old
      woman with synchronous multiple discrete MTC and PTC with lymph nodes metastasis.
      Pathologists and treating physicians should be aware of the synchronous
      coexistence of these entities to avoid possible misdiagnosis.

PMID- 28866702
TI  - A fatal gastric perforation secondary to ulcerated metastasis in undiagnosed
      breast cancer: pathological aspects and review of literature.
AB  - The authors describe a fatal case of gastric perforation secondary to an
      ulcerated metastasis in a woman with undiagnosed breast cancer. The 48-year-old
      woman, with no significant medical history, presented with weight loss,
      persistent dyspepsia and pain in the epigastric and mesogastric region. She was
      treated by her primary care physician with proton-pump inhibitors and
      antispasmodics. The following day she was found dead at her home. External
      examination showed a tumefaction in the lateral region of her left breast, near
      the axilla. Autopsy revealed 1000 ml of turbid, light-brown peritoneal fluid in
      the abdominal cavity and a perforated gastric wall. Histological examination of
      the breast mass showed an infiltrating, poorly-differentiated breast carcinoma.
      Microscopical analysis of the stomach wall revealed a perforated metastatic
      gastric ulcer. Immunohistochemistry was required to confirm the neoplastic
      involvement of the stomach due to metastatic breast cancer.

PMID- 28866701
TI  - p40 in metastatic pulmonary trophoblastic tumour: potential diagnostic pitfall on
      histopathology.
AB  - p40, one of the two isomers of p63, is nowadays widely used for diagnosis of
      squamous cell carcinoma, especially in subtyping non-small cell carcinoma on lung
      biopsies. We describe a case in which lung tumour was misdiagnosed as squamous
      cell carcinoma due to p40 immunopositivity. A 36-year-old lady presented with
      cough and left sided chest pain of 2 months duration. Chest imaging revealed a
      lesion in left lower lobe of the lung and biopsy was suggestive of squamous cell
      carcinoma. However, past history revealed amputation of great toe for non-healing
      discharging ulcer which on histopathology was diagnosed as choriocarcinoma. She
      also had a history of hysterectomy five years ago, details of which were not
      available. Post-amputation beta-hCG levels were high and she had been treated
      with multimodality chemotherapy for choriocarcinoma. She had good response to
      chemotherapy initially, however became resistant later on. Review of the lung
      biopsy in the light of the past history along with extensive literature review
      led to the final diagnosis of metastatic trophoblastic tumour to lung. Hence,
      awareness that p40 immunopositivity can be seen in trophoblastic tumours is
      essential to avoid misdiagnosis, especially in sites like the lung where squamous
      cell carcinoma is common.

PMID- 28866703
TI  - Clinical judgement perplexed by initially undisclosed use of herbal medicine and
      unexpected cross-reactivity of immunoassay.
AB  - We report a case of symptomatic bradycardia caused by consumption of a Chinese
      herbal medicine which was initially undisclosed to the attending emergency
      physician. The scientific name of the herb is Panax japonicus. Electrocardiogram
      revealed sinus bradycardia. Laboratory tests were normal except for the detection
      of a high serum digoxin level. Further interrogation of the patient eventually
      disclosed ingestion of the herb which, however, did not contain any digoxin.
      Other active ingredients in the herb include various types of ginsenoside. These
      are digoxin-like substances that had caused the observed false-positive detection
      of digoxin by fluorescence polarization immunoassay due to cross-reactivity. Our
      case-report provides an important insight about a blind-spot in the field of
      laboratory medicine (clinical pathology), namely, the false positive detection of
      digoxin due to crossreactivity in the immunoassay when we come across digoxin
      like substances in clinical scenarios, which has barely received attention in the
      medical literature. It also conveys a clear educational message that with full
      understanding of the laboratory methodology and its mechanistic rationale there
      are actually some tricks-of-the-trade that allow us to optimize the specificity
      of the biochemical tests and the treatment of digoxin-like substances overdose.

PMID- 28866704
TI  - Unexpected infant death secondary to a pulmonary infiltration due to acute
      myelocytic leukaemia.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) often presents with non-specific symptoms such as
      fatigue, anaemia or infection. Pulmonary involvement is uncommon in AML during
      the course of the disease and is usually caused by infection, haemorrhage,
      leukaemic pulmonary infiltrates and leukostasis. Lung localization of AML is very
      uncommon and potentially life threatening if not diagnosed and treated rapidly.
      The authors describe the sudden death of an asymptomatic five-month-infant
      because of a misdiagnosed lung localization of AML. Autopsy examination followed
      by histopathological studies showed an extensive leukostasis and extramedullary
      leukaemic infiltrating the lungs. Special stains and immunohistochemical studies
      revealed findings consistent with acute myelogenous leukaemia. This case suggests
      that underlying acute leukaemia should be considered as a cause of flu-like
      symptoms in infants. Medical personnel are urged to be alert to fever, sore
      throat, weakness and dyspnea that may be characteristic of serious systemic
      diseases.

PMID- 28866705
TI  - Familial antithrombin III deficiency in a Malay patient with massive thrombosis.
AB  - Patients with low antithrombin III (AT III) has increased risk for arteriovenous
      thromboembolic (TE) disease. We report a 28-year-old Malay lady who presented
      with spontaneous right calf pain and swelling of one week duration. She was on
      oral contraceptive pills and had a history of travelling for a long distance
      prior to the presentation. Her brother who was diagnosed with AT III deficiency
      had arterial thrombosis at a young age. She was diagnosed as having right
      popliteal vein thrombosis by ultrasound and treated with subcutaneous
      fondaparinux. While on treatment, she developed massive bilateral pulmonary
      embolism (PE). Thrombophilia study showed reduced AT III activity (38MUl/dl) and
      normal results for protein C, protein S, activated protein C resistance and lupus
      anticoagulant assays. This patient has heterozygous AT III deficiency added with
      significant acquired factors responsible for the TE events. Those with AT III
      deficiency may have resistance to heparin therapy and require higher doses of
      heparin.

PMID- 28866706
TI  - Extensive left ventricular, pulmonary artery, and pericardial metastasis from
      myxoid liposarcoma 16 years after the initial detection of the primary tumour: a
      case report and review of the literature.
AB  - Liposarcoma is regarded as the second most common soft tissue malignant tumour.
      Metastasis of liposarcoma to the heart is very rare, and to date, less than 40
      cases have been reported in the literature. We report a 46 year-old male with
      myxoid liposarcoma of the lower extremity who developed extensive metastasis to
      the left ventricle, pulmonary artery, and pericardium. The patient presented with
      acute symptoms of dyspnea 16 years after surgical resection of the primary
      tumour, and his dyspnea progressed to cardio-respiratory arrest within the first
      few days of hospital admission.

PMID- 28866707
TI  - A linking bridge between histopathological analysis and molecular assay in
      microbiology.
AB  - No abstract available.

PMID- 28866708
TI  - Quantitative Visualization of Dynamic Tracer Transportation in the Extracellular
      Space of Deep Brain Regions Using Tracer-Based Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND This study assessed an innovative tracer-based magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) system to visualize the dynamic transportation of tracers in
      regions of deep brain extracellular space (ECS) and to measure transportation
      ability and ECS structure. MATERIAL AND METHODS Gadolinium-diethylene triamine
      pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA) was the chosen tracer and was injected into the
      caudate nucleus and thalamus. Real-time dynamic transportation of Gd-DTPA in ECS
      was observed and the results were verified by laser scanning confocal microscopy.
      Using Transwell assay across the blood-brain barrier, a modified diffusion
      equation was further simplified. Effective diffusion coefficient D* and
      tortuosity lambda were calculated. Immunohistochemical staining and Western blot
      analysis were used to investigate the extracellular matrix contributing to ECS
      structure. RESULTS Tracers injected into the caudate nucleus were transported to
      the ipsilateral frontal and temporal cortices away from the injection points,
      while both of them injected into the thalamus were only distributed on site.
      Although the caudate nucleus was closely adjacent to the thalamus, tracer
      transportation between partitions was not observed. In addition, D* and the
      lambda showed statistically significant differences between partitions. ECS was
      shown to be a physiologically partitioned system, and its division is
      characterized by the unique distribution territory and transportation ability of
      substances located in it. Versican and Tenascin R are possible contributors to
      the tortuosity of ECS. CONCLUSIONS Tracer-based MRI will improve our
      understanding of the brain microenvironment, improve the techniques for local
      delivery of drugs, and highlight brain tissue engineering fields in the future.

PMID- 28866709
TI  - Artemether Regulates Chemosensitivity to Doxorubicin via Regulation of B7-H3 in
      Human Neuroblastoma Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND Artemether, originally used for malaria, exhibits potential
      therapeutic efficacy against several types of cancer, including gastric cancer,
      hepatocellular carcinoma, and gliomas. In this study, we investigated the role
      and mechanism of artemether on drug resistance of neuroblastoma cells. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS Cell viability and proliferation were determined by CCK-8 and EdU
      incorporation assay, respectively. Gene expression was measured by real-time PCR
      and Western blot analysis. RESULTS Our results revealed that artemether treatment
      remarkably inhibited the proliferation of neuroblastoma cell lines SH-SY5Y, SK-N
      SH, and SK-N-BE2. In addition, co-treatment of tumor cells with artemether and
      doxorubicin significantly reduced cell viability and DNA synthesis compared with
      doxorubicin-treated cells. On the molecular level, we found that combined
      treatment with artemether and doxorubicin suppressed the expression of B7-H3 both
      at the mRNA and protein levels. In addition, artemether failed to sensitize tumor
      cells to doxorubicin in SH-SY5Y cells overexpressing B7-H3. CONCLUSIONS
      Artemether-mediated inhibition of B7-H3 may contribute to doxorubicin sensitivity
      in neuroblastoma cells, suggesting that artemether could serve as a potential
      therapeutic option for neuroblastoma.

PMID- 28866710
TI  - Editorial.
AB  - no summary.

PMID- 28866711
TI  - ICD-11 - Draft diagnostic guidelines for mental disorders: A report for WPA
      Membership.
AB  - The 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) is
      scheduled for approval by the World Health Assembly in May 2018. The chapter on
      mental disorders is currently under development. A draft of the clinical
      descriptions and diagnostic guidelines for all the disorders has been produced by
      the relevant Working Groups. A simplified version of the diagnostic guidelines
      for some disorders (i.e., schizophrenia and other primary psychotic disorders,
      mood disorders, anxiety disorders, disorders specifically associated with stress,
      and feeding and eating disorders) has been made available for use in the field
      studies of the classification. For all the other sections of the chapter on
      mental disorders, a brief general definition and sometimes a description of some
      of the included disorders can be found on the ICD-11 beta platform. In the
      present article, we summarize the content of the various sections of the
      classification on the basis of the available documents, with the warning that
      some of the elements of these sections may still be subject to revision.

PMID- 28866712
TI  - A proposed new definition of mental health.
AB  - The authors propose a new approach to the definition of mental health, different
      than the definition proposed by the World Health Organization, which is
      established around issues of person's well-being and productivity. It is supposed
      to reflect the complexity of human life experience.

PMID- 28866713
TI  - Elevated hydroxylactam of hemopyrrole level in urine in perpetrators of extremely
      violent acts diagnosed with psychosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Hydroxylactam of hemopyrrole (HPL) is an abnormal side product of
      porphyrin biosynthetic pathway, which may have a devastating impact on the
      behavior. The link between an aggressive behavior and an increased HPL level was
      postulated in the 1960s. Further researches concerning HPL brought contrary
      results and did not clarify its function and possible role in the pathogenesis of
      aggression. In our research we hypothesize that a heightened level of HPL may
      correspond to an extreme aggressive behavior in subjects diagnosed with
      psychosis. METHODS: We performed an analysis of HPL level in urine samples,
      collected from 36 male subjects diagnosed with a mental illness who presented an
      extreme aggressive behavior. The control group included 22 male subjects, matched
      with age. RESULTS: The variable HPL/creatinine quotient differs significantly
      between the study group and the control group. CONCLUSIONS: We used successfully
      proprietary method for marking HPL level in urine, developed for the purposes of
      the project. The results of our study indicate that in a group of subjects with a
      history of an extreme aggressive behavior a corrected level of HPL may be
      elevated, compared to subject without history of extreme aggressive behavior.
      Further studies are needed to evaluate the reasons of HPL elevation and its
      clinical implications in this group of patients.

PMID- 28866714
TI  - Significance of personality disorders in the face of drop-outs from psychiatric
      hospitalizations. The case of selected psychiatric units.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The World Health Organization's estimations indicate that about 50%
      of patients in well-developed countries may not adhere to long-term therapies. In
      the field of psychiatry, drop-outs from psychiatric treatment are particularly
      important. Personality disorders are a significant part of this sphere. The aim
      of this research was to empirically verify the hypothesis regarding the relation
      between comorbid personality disorders and drop-outs from treatment among
      patients of psychiatric wards. METHODS: This study was a prospective cohort
      study. 110 patients, hospitalized in 3 different psychiatric wards, were
      included. Personality disorders were assessed with the Structured Clinical
      Interview For DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II). The research was financed
      by the Polish National Science Center (DEC-2011/01/N/NZ5/05364). RESULTS: The
      response rate was 89.1%. 72.56% of patients suffered from personality disorders
      (SCID-II) (among them the most prevalent were: personality disorder - not
      otherwise specified - 40.7% and borderline personality disorder - 12.38%; 22.95%
      of patients dropped out from treatment). However, occurrence of personality
      disorders was not relevant for those drop-outs. On the other hand, relationships
      at the level of certain criteria of borderline personality disorders and passive
      aggressive personality have been revealed. These relationships became stronger
      when considered from the perspective of differences in the organization of
      treatment at individual wards. CONCLUSIONS: Some personality disorders may play
      an important role in drop-outs from psychiatric treatment. Presented results
      require further research.

PMID- 28866715
TI  - The effect of vitamin D3 deficiency on the severity of depressive symptoms.
      Overview of current research.
AB  - Traditional methods of depression treatment with the use of pharmacotherapy with
      antidepressants have limited effectiveness. Biological, psychological and
      environmental causes of depressive disorders are known, but pathophysiology of
      depression has not been fully explained. Many factors and mechanisms play role in
      the pathophysiology of depression, one of which may be vitamin D3 deficiency.
      Deficiency or border level of vitamin D3 is fairly common in the general
      population and may occur even in one billion people globally. Epidemiological
      studies show that vitamin D3 or its metabolites do not reach an optimal level in
      most adults. Even lower than the optimal level may cause clinical symptoms and be
      one of the risk factors for depression. In the population of patients suffering
      from depressive disorders deficiency or insufficiency of vitamin D3 occur more
      frequently than in the general population. The use of vitamin D3in patients with
      depression may have antidepressant effect. Continuous supplementation may also
      reduce the risk of recurrence. This article is a review of literature on the
      possible impact of vitamin D3 deficiency on the prevalence of depression and
      antidepressant effect of the supplementation. Selection of articles was made by
      searching the Medline and PubMed databases using specific keywords: depression,
      vitamin D3 deficiency. Previous studies on the use of vitamin D3 and its role in
      prevention and treatment of depressive disorders included too small number of
      people to clearly assess the effectiveness and safety of supplementation used as
      adjunctive therapy to antidepressants, as well as and dose range which should be
      used.

PMID- 28866716
TI  - Blood serum concentrations of kynurenic acid in patients diagnosed with recurrent
      depressive disorder, depression in bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder
      treated with electroconvulsive therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to compare blood serum kynurenic
      acid (KYNA) concentrations measured before ECT and after 1, 6 and 12
      electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) sessions in patients with diagnoses of
      recurrent depressive disorder (RDD), depression in bipolar disorder (DBD) and
      schizoaffective disorder (SAD). METHODS: The study group comprised of 50 patients
      with ICD-10 diagnoses of RDD, DBD and SAD. Blood serum KYNA concentrations were
      determined and clinical assessment was performed using the MADRS and the GAF
      scale. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in blood serum KYNA levels
      between RDD, DBD and SAD patients treated with electroconvulsive therapy and
      healthy controls: 1) KYNA concentrations in DBD patients measured before ECT and
      after 12 ECT sessions were significantly lower than in the control group; 2) KYNA
      concentrations in the serum of RDD patients measured before ECT and after one and
      12 ECT sessions were significantly lower than in the control group, while those
      measured after 6 ECT session did not differ significantly from KYNA
      concentrations in healthy controls; 3) higher pre-treatment blood serum
      concentrations of KYNA in DBD patients correlated with a higher number of illness
      phases and poorer general functioning before treatment; 4) significant
      relationships were found between higher blood serum concentrations of KYNA in RDD
      patients after 1 ECT session and male gender, and between higher KYNA
      concentrations after 6 ECT sessions and increased depression and poorer
      functioning before treatment in those patients. CONCLUSIONS: Results show that
      KYNA concentrations in all diagnostic groups were lower before ECT (not
      statistically significant for the SAD group) and that there were no significant
      changes in those concentrations (compared with the baseline) during ECT.

PMID- 28866717
TI  - The serum concentration of copper in bipolar disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Some scientific reports indicate the changes in the concentration of
      serum copper in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), however the data are
      inconclusive. The aim of this study was to assess the concentration of copper in
      the blood serum of patients in various phases of BD compared to healthy
      volunteers, taking into consideration the specific clinical features, and the
      stage of illness. METHODS: The study enrolled 133 patients with a diagnosis of BD
      (type I, II and NOS), including 61 people in depressive episode, 23 in mania or
      hypomania and 49 in remission. The control group consisted of 50 people. Atomic
      absorption spectrometry was used to measure the concentration of copper. RESULTS:
      There were no statistically significant differences in the serum copper
      concentration between patients in various phases of BD (mania/hypomania,
      depression, remission), sub-types (Type I, Type II + NOS) or stages and healthy
      volunteers. However, serum copper concentrations in patients in stage 1 was
      significantly higher than in advanced stages (2+3+4), (beta = 0.22; p = 0.02).
      Serum copper concentration was also the higher, the later the age of onset was
      (beta = 0.33; p < 0.001), and the lower, the greater the number of illness
      episodes (beta = - 0.23; p = 0.02) (multiple regression model, adj R2 = 0.19, p =
      0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The dependencies demonstrated above may reflect
      pathophysiological processes that occur in the course of BD (e.g., inflammatory
      response and oxidative stress) with a different intensity depending on its stage.

PMID- 28866718
TI  - Hypersomnia and cognitive impairment in a patient with bipolar disorder - a case
      report.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common clinical problem that can
      have serious health consequences and complicate the course of mental disorders.
      It is estimated that the prevalence of sleep apnea in patients with bipolar
      disorder can be 21-47.5%. Some symptoms of OSA are the same as the symptoms of
      depression: daytime drowsiness, cognitive dysfunction, decreased drive, apathy,
      depressed mood, anhedonia. METHODS: We present a case of a patient whose
      depressive symptoms persisted despite repeated changes of pharmacological
      treatment and were exacerbated by severe sleep disorder. OSA was also the cause
      of serious respiratory complications and prolonged disorders of consciousness
      that occurred during ECT treatment. RESULTS: Based on test results of WatchPAT200
      and polysomnography, the diagnosis of severe sleep apnea was established and
      Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatment was introduced. Severe OSA
      led in this patient to almost total absence of REM sleep, a significant reduction
      of deep sleep as well as the reduction of total sleep time. CONCLUSIONS: The
      presence of daytime sleepiness, unremitting despite the modification of
      treatment, indicates the need for diagnostic screening for OSA, which can mimic
      some of the symptoms of depression, increase the risk of complications during
      anesthesia, and can be one of the causes of drug resistance. In addition to the
      negative impact of obstructive sleep apnea on the course of bipolar disorder, OSA
      also causes significant cognitive impairment in terms of attention and vigilance,
      long-term semantic and visual memory as well as visual-spatial and executive
      functions.

PMID- 28866719
TI  - Medical students and stigma of depression. Part I. Stigmatization of patients.
AB  - The stigmatization of the mentally ill is called the first barrier hampering
      their treatment and recovery: it leads to the rejection of such individuals,
      their discrimination and exclusion from participation in various areas of social
      life. It becomes particularly significant if the patients encounter this attitude
      among doctors, nurses and others healthcare professionals. The literature
      describes stigmatizing attitudes towards the mentally ill and it transpires that
      stigmatization and a negative approach can be found even among medical students,
      despite the fact that in the course of their studies they receive information on
      psychiatric disorders and their treatment. The attitude stigmatizing mental
      illnesses as presented by medical students may be related to their subsequent
      similar views as physicians, thus adversely affecting the quality of care offered
      to patients and cause self-stigmatization and its consequences. The paper
      presents a review of the literature on the stigmatization of patients suffering
      from depression by medical students and a review of the interventions proposed to
      date, as well as a discussion of their effectiveness.

PMID- 28866720
TI  - Medical students and stigma of depression. Part 2. Self-stigma.
AB  - Up to 30% of medical students suffer from depression. They have better access to
      healthcare, but still receive appropriate treatment less frequently than people
      with depression in the general population. Most of them do not seek medical help
      as depression is perceived as a stigmatizing disorder, which leads to self-stigma
      and hampers early diagnosis and treatment. Thus, self-stigma means less effective
      therapy, unfavorable prognosis and relapses. According to the literature, self
      stigma results in lowered self-esteem and is a major obstacle in the performance
      of social roles at work and in personal life. Stigmatization and self-stigma of
      depression among medical students are also associated with effects in their later
      professional life: they can lead to long-term consequences in the process of
      treating their patients in the future. Currently there are no unequivocal
      research results indicating the most effective ways of reducing stigmatization
      and self-stigma. It is necessary to educate about the symptoms and treatment of
      depression and to implement diverse intervention techniques to change behaviors
      and attitudes as early as possible.

PMID- 28866721
TI  - Progression of suicidal ideation to suicidal behavior from a perspective of
      selected suicidological models.
AB  - In clinical practice suicidal ideation (SI) is one of the most commonly
      encountered symptoms in patients with mental disorders. Such encounter calls for
      diligent evaluation of suicidal risk. Although the risk factors are widely known,
      accurate estimation of suicidal risk remains one of the most difficult and most
      important tasks that clinicians face - especially considering recently collected
      data showing increase in suicide prevalence in Poland. More thorough estimation
      of suicidal risk in patients with SI requires taking under consideration not only
      suicidal risk factors but also factors that are more specific for progression of
      SI to suicidal behaviors (SB). The review presented in this paper consists of a
      range of suicidological theories that allow to select a number of groups of
      factors and mechanisms that are most specific for progression of SI to SB. These
      groups include: (1) transgression of fear of causing harm and pain to oneself, as
      well as disintegration of other protective barriers such as (2) decline of social
      integration with others, feeling of being alienated or abandoned, decline of
      sense of belongingness, lack of social support, (3) resignation from family and
      social obligations, (4) dismissing cultural or religious norms, (5) rejection of
      life goals, values and aspirations that were appreciated earlier, (6) narrowing
      down in perceived alternatives for suicide, i.e., "tunnel vision", feelings of
      helplessness and powerlessness, (7) devising in details and accepting simple
      suicidal plan, especially when such plan is being consolidated through rehearsals
      and as if "automatized", (8) impulsiveness, (9) accumulation of aggression that
      may be vented out as suicide, and finally (10) accessibility of means to commit
      suicide.

PMID- 28866722
TI  - Changes in intensity of neurotic symptoms associated with reduction of suicidal
      ideation in patients who underwent psychotherapy in the day hospital for the
      treatment of neurotic and behavioral disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Analysis of associations between changes in the intensity of neurotic
      symptoms and reduction of suicidal ideation (SI) or lack of SI reduction, in
      patients who underwent a course of intensive psychotherapy conducted in
      integrative approach with predominance of psychodynamic approach in a day
      hospital. METHODS: Symptom Checklist KO"O" and Life Inventory completed by 461
      women and 219 men treated in the psychotherapeutic day hospital due to neurotic,
      behavioral or personality disorders between 2005-2013. During the qualification
      for the therapy 134 women and 80 men reported SI, of whom 84.3% and 77.5%
      respectively improved. RESULTS: The reduction of neurotic symptoms intensity was
      greater in patients of both genders who improved in terms of SI than in those who
      did not. This referred to global intensity of neurotic symptoms (OWK coefficient)
      in both genders (p<0.001), as well as to the majority of the neurotic symptoms
      subtypes in both genders (p<0.05): Phobic disorders, Other anxiety disorders,
      Obsessive-compulsive disorders, Conversions and dissociations, Autonomic
      disorders, Somatization disorders, Neurasthenia, Avoidance and dependence, Sexual
      dysfunctions, Dysthymia; and in case of women (p<0.05): Hypochondriasis,
      Depersonalization and derealization, Impulsiveness and histrionism and Non
      organic sleep disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The results show effectiveness and
      comprehensiveness of intensive psychotherapy as a treatment method that leads to
      improvement in terms of both SI and neurotic symptoms. This suggests that the
      applied therapy may be effective in preventing suicidality in this group of
      patients. The observed associations also point in favor of hypothesis on
      similarities in etiopathogenesis of and partly identical personality-related
      factors predisposing to SI and neurotic disorders.

PMID- 28866723
TI  - Resilience as a predicator of mental health of incarcerated women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Serving a prison sentence is an experience that bears the hallmarks
      of a trauma. Scientific findings on how people handle traumatic The aim of the
      following research was to analyze the way in which psychological resilience
      differentiates mental states of incarcerated women and to identify the predicator
      of mental well-being in this group.experiences show that there are numerous
      personal and social resources that allow for better adaptation. One of the
      concepts used to describe the process reflecting relatively good adaptation is
      psychological resilience. METHODS: The study included women incarcerated in the
      External Department of Czersk Penitentiary for juvenile female offenders who
      serve a prison sentence for the first time and penitentiary recidivists. The
      following scales were used in the research: the Resilience Measurement Scale -
      RMS-25 and the HADS-M scale, which allows to conduct a test for symptoms of
      depression. RESULTS: The results revealed crucial statistical correlations
      between the results of the resilience scale and results of the HADS-M. It was
      also found that the predicators of anxiety and depression in the study group are
      the level of personal coping skills and tolerance of negative emotions (RMS-25).
      Additionally, a crucial factor in predicting the state of anxiety is the number
      of years of imprisonment. The conducted regression analysis also showed that the
      level of personal coping skills and tolerance of negative emotions (RMS-25) as
      well as openness to new experiences and sense of humor (RMS-25) are essential
      predicators of the level of aggression. CONCLUSIONS: The concept of psychological
      resilience is significant in analyzing the differences in mental health of
      incarcerated women and may help to create conditions that are conducive to
      reducing negative effects of prisoners staying in conditions of institutional
      constraint.

PMID- 28866724
TI  - Dr. Karol de Beaurain - a psychiatrist's profile. Part 1.
AB  - The paper sets out to recall the profile of Karol de Beaurain, a psychiatrist who
      belonged to the circle of first Poles who used psychoanalysis in treatment. So
      far, dr Beaurain has been known from brief references in publications relating to
      the life and works of Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) whose psychoanalytic
      sessions he conducted between 1912 and 1913. De Beaurain was born in 1867 and
      studied medicine at Swiss universities (Zurich, Berne, Geneva) where he defended
      his doctoral thesis as well. He was prepared for the career of a health resort
      physician and when he returned to Poland, he settled down in Poronin where except
      for working as a district physician, he also engaged in social and cultural
      activities. Around 1910 his professional interest shifted towards psychiatry and
      psychotherapy. In the final months of 1911 he relocated to Zakopane where he
      opened a private practice for "neu-rotic diseases". At the same time he started
      treating patients with the use of psychoanalytic methods. The first part of the
      paper concerns the life of doctor de Beaurain from birth and the period of
      studies and preparation for his professional career until the time when he
      started his psychoanalytic work.

PMID- 28866725
TI  - Dr. Karol de Beaurain - a psychiatrist's profile. Part 2.
AB  - The paper sets out to recall the profile of Karol de Beaurain, a psychiatrist,
      who was one of first Poles to use the psychoanalytic method in treatment. So far,
      he has been mostly known as the one who was Witkacy's psychoanalyst. Stanislaw
      Ignacy Witkiewicz and Eugenia Dunin-Borkowska are the first patients who are
      known by their names and who received psychoanalytic treatment in the history of
      the Polish medicine. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz's letters and drawings
      originating from the psychoanalysis period served as a source of information
      about Witkacy's psychoanalysis. The paper illustrates dr Beaurain's fate during
      World War I when he was first a military doctor in Skoczow and then an assistant
      in prof. Piltz's Neurological-Psychiatric Clinic in Krakow where he actively
      participated in the creation of a multidimensional programme of war neurosis
      treatment. After the war finished, initially Beaurain stayed at his assistant
      post at the Psychiatric Clinic in Krakow but then in 1921 he relocated to the
      National Psychiatric Hospital in Dziekanka near Poznan. With his professional
      expertise he contributed to the strengthening of the Great Poland region
      psychiatry that had experienced qualified personnel shortages after the German
      qualified staff left. The growing numbers of patients and the overload of
      professional duties were probably the factors that led to dr. Beaurain's
      premature death while he was holding the position of the head physician at the
      National Psychiatric Hospital in Owinska in February 1927.

PMID- 28866726
TI  - Application of white blood cell SPECT/CT to predict remission after a 6 or 12
      week course of antibiotic treatment for diabetic foot osteomyelitis.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Diabetic foot osteomyelitis is a major risk factor for
      amputation. Medical treatment allows remission in 53-82% of cases. However, the
      optimal duration of antibiotic therapy remains controversial as a validated
      marker of osteomyelitis remission is lacking. The aim of this cohort study was to
      assess prospectively the remission rate of diabetic foot osteomyelitis medically
      treated using white blood cell (WBC)-single-photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) as a predictive marker of remission. METHODS:
      Individuals with diabetic foot osteomyelitis that was non-surgically treated
      between April 2014 and December 2015 were included. All participants were treated
      with antibiotics alone. WBC-SPECT/CT was performed at 6 weeks and antibiotic
      treatment discontinued if the clinical signs of soft-tissue infection had
      resolved and there was no abnormal uptake of labelled WBCs. Treatment was
      otherwise continued for a total of 12 weeks and then discontinued. For these
      individuals, another WBC-SPECT/CT was performed at 12 weeks. Remission was
      defined as the absence of recurrence of osteomyelitis at the same location at 1
      year. RESULTS: Forty-five individuals were included; overall remission rate was
      84% at 1 year. A 6 week course of antibiotics was used in 23 participants, 22 of
      whom were in remission at 1 year (96%); a 12 week course was used for 22
      participants, 16 of whom were in remission at 1 year (73%). Sensitivity of WBC
      SPECT/CT at 12 weeks was 100%, specificity 56%, positive predictive value 46% and
      negative predictive value 100%. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The study suggests
      that WBC-SPECT/CT could predict remission at the end of antibiotic treatment.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02927678.

PMID- 28866727
TI  - Long-term reliability of fractioned CO2 laser as a treatment for vulvovaginal
      atrophy (VVA) symptoms.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term effects of the
      fractional CO2 laser for the treatment of vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) symptoms.
      METHODS: Women presenting with VVA symptoms and meeting inclusion criterion were
      enrolled to fractioned CO2 laser therapy. Patient's satisfaction was measured on
      five-point Likert scale at 4 weeks and 6, 12, 18, 24 months after treatment by
      interview and clinical examination for vaginal livability. RESULTS: 184 patients
      constituted the final study group: 128 women were spontaneous menopause and 56
      were oncological menopause. 117 women were nulliparous and 36 had previous
      hysterectomy. 95.4% (172/184) of the patients declared that they were satisfied
      or very satisfied with the procedure at 4 weeks after treatment. At 6 months 92%
      (170/184) patients were satisfied; at 12 months 72% (118/162) were satisfied; at
      18 months 63% (60/94) were satisfied; at 24 months 25% (4/16) of patients
      answered they were still satisfied. We observed a decline in patient's
      satisfaction between 18 and 24 months after laser therapy. Data showed that the
      time interval from onset of menopause was a statistically significant factor (p <
      0.05) for treatment satisfaction in oncological group. CONCLUSION: Long-term data
      showed that the improvement of vaginal health may continue up to 24 months after
      fractional CO2 laser treatment although between 18 and 24 months benefits
      decline, and approximately 80% of women decide to start a new treatment cycle of
      laser applications.

PMID- 28866728
TI  - Electrochemical measurement of quantal exocytosis using microchips.
AB  - Carbon-fiber electrodes (CFEs) are the gold standard for quantifying the release
      of oxidizable neurotransmitters from single vesicles and single cells. Over the
      last 15 years, microfabricated devices have emerged as alternatives to CFEs that
      offer the possibility of higher throughput, subcellular spatial resolution of
      exocytosis, and integration with other techniques for probing exocytosis
      including microfluidic cell handling and solution exchange, optical imaging and
      stimulation, and electrophysiological recording and stimulation. Here we review
      progress in developing electrochemical electrode devices capable of resolving
      quantal exocytosis that are fabricated using photolithography.

PMID- 28866729
TI  - Experimental investigation on the vascular thermal response to near-infrared
      laser pulses.
AB  - Port wine stains (PWS) are congenital vascular malformations that progressively
      darken and thicken with age. To improve the effect of laser therapy in clinical
      practice, thermal response of blood vessel to a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser with
      controlled energy doses and pulse durations was evaluated using the dorsal skin
      chamber model. A total of 137 vessels with 30-300 MUm diameters were selected
      from the dorsal skin of the mouse to match those capillaries in port wine stains.
      Experimental results showed that the thermal response of blood vessels to 1064 nm
      laser irradiation can be classified as follows: vessel dilation, coagulation,
      constriction with decreased diameter, complete constriction, hemorrhage, and
      collagen damage with increasing laser radiant exposure. In most cases, that is,
      83 of 137 blood vessels (60.6%), Nd:YAG laser irradiation was characterized by
      complete constriction (immediate blood vessel disappearance). To reveal the
      possible damage mechanisms and evaluate blood vessel photocoagulation patterns,
      theoretical investigation using bioheat transfer equation was conducted in mouse
      skin with a depth of 1000 MUm. Complete constriction as the dominant thermal
      response as evidenced by uniform blood heating within the vessel lumen was noted
      in both experimental observation and theoretical investigation. To achieve the
      ideal clinical effect using the Nd:YAG laser treatment, the radiant exposure
      should not only be high enough to induce complete constriction of the blood
      vessels but also controlled carefully to avoid surrounding collagen damage. The
      short pulse duration of 1-3 ms is better than long pulse durations because
      hemorrhaging of small capillaries is occasionally observed postirradiation with
      pulse durations longer than 10 ms.

PMID- 28866731
TI  - Classification of Focal and Non Focal Epileptic Seizures Using Multi-Features and
      SVM Classifier.
AB  - Identifying epileptogenic zones prior to surgery is an essential and crucial step
      in treating patients having pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy.
      Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a significant measurement benchmark to assess
      patients suffering from epilepsy. This paper investigates the application of
      multi-features derived from different domains to recognize the focal and non
      focal epileptic seizures obtained from pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy patients
      from Bern Barcelona database. From the dataset, five different classification
      tasks were formed. Total 26 features were extracted from focal and non focal EEG.
      Significant features were selected using Wilcoxon rank sum test by setting p
      value (p < 0.05) and z-score (-1.96 > z > 1.96) at 95% significance interval.
      Hypothesis was made that the effect of removing outliers improves the
      classification accuracy. Turkey's range test was adopted for pruning outliers
      from feature set. Finally, 21 features were classified using optimized support
      vector machine (SVM) classifier with 10-fold cross validation. Bayesian
      optimization technique was adopted to minimize the cross-validation loss. From
      the simulation results, it was inferred that the highest sensitivity,
      specificity, and classification accuracy of 94.56%, 89.74%, and 92.15% achieved
      respectively and found to be better than the state-of-the-art approaches.
      Further, it was observed that the classification accuracy improved from 80.2%
      with outliers to 92.15% without outliers. The classifier performance metrics
      ensures the suitability of the proposed multi-features with optimized SVM
      classifier. It can be concluded that the proposed approach can be applied for
      recognition of focal EEG signals to localize epileptogenic zones.

PMID- 28866730
TI  - EGFR-targeted therapies in the post-genomic era.
AB  - Over 90% of head and neck cancers overexpress the epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR). In diverse tumor types, EGFR overexpression has been associated
      with poorer prognosis and outcomes. Therapies targeting EGFR include monoclonal
      antibodies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)
      inhibitors, and antisense gene therapy. Few EGFR-targeted therapeutics are
      approved for clinical use. The monoclonal antibody cetuximab is a Food and Drug
      Administration (FDA)-approved EGFR-targeted therapy, yet has exhibited modest
      benefit in clinical trials. The humanized monoclonal antibody nimotuzumab is also
      approved for head and neck cancers in Cuba, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, India,
      Ukraine, Ivory Coast, and Gabon in addition to nasopharyngeal cancers in China.
      Few other EGFR-targeted therapeutics for head and neck cancers have led to as
      significant responses as seen in lung carcinomas, for instance. Recent genome
      sequencing of head and neck tumors has helped identify patient subgroups with
      improved response to EGFR inhibitors, for example, cetuximab in patients with the
      KRAS-variant and the tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib for tumors harboring
      MAPK1E322K mutations. Genome sequencing has furthermore broadened our
      understanding of dysregulated pathways, holding the potential to enhance the
      benefit derived from therapies targeting EGFR.

PMID- 28866732
TI  - Gene Delivery in Neuro-Oncology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary
      malignant brain tumor in adults with a dismal prognosis despite aggressive
      multimodal management thus novel treatments are urgently needed. Gene therapy is
      a versatile treatment strategy being investigated in multiple cancers including
      GBM. In gene therapy, a variety of vectors or "carriers" are used to deliver
      genes designed for different anti-tumoral effects. Gene delivery vehicles and
      approaches to treatment will be addressed in this review. RECENT FINDINGS: The
      most commonly studied vectors are viral based, however, driven by advances in
      biomedical engineering, mesenchymal and neural stem cells, as well as multiple
      different types of nanoparticles have been developed to improve tumor tropism and
      also increase gene transfer into tumor cells. Different genes have been studied
      including suicide genes, which convert non-toxic prodrug into cytotoxic drug;
      immunomodulatory genes, which stimulate the immune system; and tumor suppressor
      genes which repair the defect that allow cells to divide unchecked. Gene therapy
      may be a promising treatment strategy in neuro-oncology as it is versatile and
      flexible due to the ability to tailor vectors and genes for specific therapeutic
      activity. Pre-clinical studies and clinical trials have demonstrated feasibility
      and safety of gene therapy; however, further studies are required to determine
      efficacy.

PMID- 28866733
TI  - Single-Base Resolution Mapping of 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Modifications in
      Hippocampus of Alzheimer's Disease Subjects.
AB  - Epigenetic modifications to cytosine have been shown to regulate transcription in
      cancer, embryonic development, and recently neurodegeneration. While cytosine
      methylation studies are now common in neurodegenerative research,
      hydroxymethylation studies are rare, particularly genome-wide mapping studies. As
      an initial study to analyze 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) in the Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) genome, reduced representation hydroxymethylation profiling (RRHP)
      was used to analyze more than 2 million sites of possible modification in
      hippocampal DNA of sporadic AD and normal control subjects. Genes with
      differentially hydroxymethylated regions were filtered based on previously
      published microarray data for altered gene expression in hippocampal DNA of AD
      subjects. Our data show significant pathways for altered levels of 5-hmC in the
      hippocampus of AD subjects compared to age-matched normal controls involved in
      signaling, energy metabolism, cell function, gene expression, protein
      degradation, and cell structure and stabilization. Overall, our data suggest a
      possible role for the dysregulation of epigenetic modifications to cytosine in
      late stage AD.

PMID- 28866734
TI  - The Retina of Osteopontin deficient Mice in Aging.
AB  - Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted glycosylated phosphoprotein that influences cell
      survival, inflammation, migration, and homeostasis after injury. As the role of
      OPN in the retina remains unclear, this study issue was addressed by aiming to
      study how the absence of OPN in knock-out mice affects the retina and the
      influence of age on these effects. The study focused on retinal ganglion cells
      (RGCs) and glial cells (astrocytes, Muller cells, and resident microglia) in 3-
      and 20-month-old mice. The number of RGCs in the retina was quantified and the
      area occupied by astrocytes was measured. In addition, the morphology of Muller
      cells and microglia was examined in retinal sections. The deficiency in OPN
      reduces RGC density by 25.09% at 3 months of age and by 60.37% at 20 months of
      age. The astrocyte area was also reduced by 51.01% in 3-month-old mice and by
      57.84% at 20 months of age, although Muller glia and microglia did not seem to be
      affected by the lack of OPN. This study demonstrates the influence of OPN on
      astrocytes and RGCs, whereby the absence of OPN in the retina diminishes the area
      occupied by astrocytes and produces a secondary reduction in the number of RGCs.
      Accordingly, OPN could be a target to develop therapies to combat
      neurodegenerative diseases and astrocytes may represent a key mediator of such
      effects.

PMID- 28866735
TI  - Implementation of Environmental Flows for Intermittent River Systems: Adaptive
      Management and Stakeholder Participation Facilitate Implementation.
AB  - Anthropogenic pressure on freshwater ecosystems is increasing, and often leading
      to unacceptable social-ecological outcomes. This is even more prevalent in
      intermittent river systems where many are already heavily modified, or human
      encroachment is increasing. Although adaptive management approaches have the
      potential to aid in providing the framework to consider the complexities of
      intermittent river systems and improve utility within the management of these
      systems, success has been variable. This paper looks at the application of an
      adaptive management pilot project within an environmental flows program in an
      intermittent stream (Tuppal Creek) in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. The
      program focused on stakeholder involvement, participatory decision-making, and
      simple monitoring as the basis of an adaptive management approach. The approach
      found that by building trust and ownership through concentrating on inclusiveness
      and transparency, partnerships between government agencies and landholders were
      developed. This facilitated a willingness to accept greater risks and unintended
      consequences allowing implementation to occur.

PMID- 28866736
TI  - Peroxynitrite scavenging by Campylobacter jejuni truncated hemoglobin P.
AB  - Truncated hemoglobins (trHb) are present in protozoa, cyanobacteria, nemertean,
      bacteria, algae, and plants. They are characterized by the 2-on-2 topology and
      are ordered in four phylogenetic groups (I or N, II or O, III or P, and IV or Q).
      Several functions have been attributed to trHbs including the inactivation of
      reactive nitrogen and oxygen species, permitting the survival of microorganisms
      in the host. Here, the kinetics of peroxynitrite scavenging by ferric
      Campylobacter jejuni truncated hemoglobin P [i.e., Cj-trHbP(III)] in the absence
      and presence of CO2, between pH 6.3 and 7.9, and 25.0  degrees C, is reported.
      Mixing the Cj-trHbP(III) solution with peroxynitrite solution brings about
      absorption spectral changes at 302 nm reflecting the disappearance of this
      endogenous toxicant and cytotoxic effector against pathogens. CO2 affects only
      the rate of spontaneous decay of peroxynitrite without affecting the scavenging
      activity of Cj-trHbP(III). Moreover, the Cj-trHbP(III)-mediated isomerization of
      peroxynitrite is facilitated at low pH, indicating that peroxynitrous acid is the
      reactive species. The high reactivity of Cj-trHbP(III) towards peroxynitrite has
      been ascribed to the peroxidase-like geometry of the metal center. To investigate
      the protective role of Cj-trHbP(III) against peroxynitrite-mediated nitration,
      the relative yield of nitro-L-tyrosine formed by the reaction of peroxynitrite
      with free L-tyrosine was determined. According to fast kinetics of peroxynitrite
      isomerization by Cj-trHbP(III), this 2-on-2 globin impairs L-tyrosine
      nitrosylation. Present data suggest that Cj-trHbP could help the survival of C.
      jejuni.

PMID- 28866737
TI  - A frailty index from common clinical and laboratory tests predicts increased risk
      of death across the life course.
AB  - A frailty index (FI) based entirely on common clinical and laboratory tests might
      offer scientific advantages in understanding ageing and pragmatic advantages in
      screening. Our main objective was to compare an FI based on common laboratory
      tests with an FI based on self-reported data; we additionally investigated if the
      combination of subclinical deficits with clinical ones increased the ability of
      the FI to predict mortality. In this secondary analysis of the 2003-2004 and 2005
      2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, 8888 individuals aged
      20+ were evaluated. Three FIs were constructed: a 36-item FI using self-reported
      questionnaire data (FI-Self-report); a 32-item FI using data from laboratory test
      values plus pulse and blood pressure measures (FI-Lab); and a 68-item FI that
      combined all items from each index (FI-Combined). The mean FI-Lab score was 0.15
      +/- 0.09, the FI-Self-report was 0.11 +/- 0.11 and FI-Combined was 0.13 +/- 0.08.
      Each index showed some typical FI characteristics (skewed distribution with long
      right tail, non-linear increase with age). Even so, there were fewer people with
      low frailty levels and a slower increase with age for the FI-Lab compared to the
      FI-Self-report. Higher frailty level was associated with higher risk of death,
      although it was strongest at older ages. Both FI-Lab and FI-Self-report remained
      significant in a combined model predicting death. The FI-Lab was feasible and
      valid, demonstrating that even subclinical deficit accumulation increased
      mortality risk. This suggests that deficit accumulation, from the subcellular to
      the clinically visible is a useful construct that may advance our understanding
      of the ageing process.

PMID- 28866738
TI  - Preparation and Photocatalytic Performance of Hollow Structure LiNb3O8
      Photocatalysts.
AB  - Hollow structure LiNb3O8 photocatalysts were prepared by a hydrothermal method
      assisting sintering process. The particles' aggregation to form hollow structures
      with obvious cavities can be attributed to the Li element volatilization during
      calcination process. All the LiNb3O8 powders show high photocatalytic efficiency
      of degradation of methylene blue (MB), especially for the sample calcined at 700 
      degrees C (LNO700), with only 3 h to completely decompose MB. The photo
      degradation of MB follows the pseudo-first-order kinetics, and the obtained first
      order rate is 0.97/h. The larger degradation rate of LNO700 can be attributed to
      its hollow structure which provides a larger specific surface area and more
      active sites to degrade the MB molecules. The cycling test of photo-degradation
      and adsorption of MB over LNO700 powder indicates that the hollow structure of
      the LiNb3O8 photocatalyst is stable and the LiNb3O8 photocatalyst is an efficient
      photocatalyst with good reusability, confirmed by the XRD and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy tests before and after photo-degradation of MB.

PMID- 28866739
TI  - Effect of Sodium Chloride on Surface-Associated Motility of Acinetobacter
      baumannii and the Role of AdeRS Two-Component System.
AB  - Acinetobacter baumannii is an important bacterial pathogen whose resistance to
      antibiotics is a growing concern worldwide. Among a wide array of resistance
      mechanisms displayed by A. baumannii, energy-dependent efflux of antibiotics by
      proteins belonging the resistance-nodulation-division family serves as an
      important one. AdeABC pump has been shown to be active in various clinical
      isolates. Regulation of this pump is controlled by the AdeRS two-component
      system. In this study, we show that the AdeRS system, in addition to modulating
      A. baumannii's antibiotic susceptibility, also plays a role in biofilm formation
      as well as surface-associated motility. We also show that AdeRS deletion mutant
      is more sensitive to saline stress. In particular, motility of A. baumannii
      ATCC17978 on agar surface is severely hampered at higher salt concentrations when
      AdeRS system is absent. Therefore, our study shows that AdeRS could be part of
      the A. baumannii adaptation strategy to salinity stress.

PMID- 28866740
TI  - Factor analysis of the SRS-22 outcome assessment instrument in patients with
      adult spinal deformity.
AB  - PURPOSE: Designed for patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, the SRS-22
      is now widely used as an outcome instrument in patients with adult spinal
      deformity (ASD). No studies have confirmed the four-factor structure (pain,
      function, self-image, mental health) of the SRS-22 in ASD and under different
      contexts. Factorial invariance of an instrument over time and in different
      languages is essential to allow for precise interpretations of treatment success
      and comparisons across studies. This study sought to evaluate the invariance of
      the SRS-22 structure across different languages and sub-groups of ASD patients.
      METHODS: Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 20 non-management
      items of the SRS-22 with data from 245 American English-, 428 Spanish-, 229
      Turkish-, 95 French-, and 195 German-speaking patients. Item loading invariance
      was compared across languages, age groups, etiologies, treatment groups, and
      assessment times. A separate sample of SRS-22 data from 772 American surgical
      patients with ASD was used for cross-validation. RESULTS: The factor structure
      fitted significantly better to the proposed four-factor solution than to a
      unifactorial solution. However, items 14 (personal relationships), 15 (financial
      difficulties), and 17 (days off work) consistently showed weak item loading
      within their factors across all language versions and in both baseline and follow
      up datasets. A trimmed SRS (16 non-management items) that used the four least
      problematic items in each of the four domains yielded better-fitting models
      across all languages, but equivalence was still not reached. With this shorter
      version there was equivalence of item loading with respect to treatment (surgery
      vs conservative), time of assessment (baseline vs 12 months follow-up), and
      etiology (degenerative vs idiopathic), but not age (< vs >=50 years). All
      findings were confirmed in the cross-validation sample. CONCLUSION: We recommend
      removal of the worst-fitting items from each of the four domains of the SRS
      instrument (items 3, 14, 15, 17), together with adaptation and standardization of
      other items across language versions, to provide an improved version of the
      instrument with just 16 non-management items.

PMID- 28866741
TI  - Remediation mechanisms of mercapto-grafted palygorskite for cadmium pollutant in
      paddy soil.
AB  - The immobilization agent was the key factor that determined the success of
      remediation of heavy metal polluted soil. In this study, mercapto-grafted
      palygorskite (MP) as a novel and efficient immobilization agent was utilized for
      the remediation of Cd-polluted paddy soil in pot trials, and the remediation
      mechanisms were investigated in the aspect of soil chemistry and plant physiology
      with different rice cultivars as model plants. Mercapto-grafted palygorskite at
      applied doses of 0.1-0.3% could reduce Cd contents of brown rice and straws of
      different cultivars significantly. Both reduced DTPA-extractable Cd contents in
      rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil and decreasing Cd contents in iron plaques
      on rice root surfaces confirmed that MP was an efficient immobilization agent for
      Cd pollutant in paddy soil. In the aspect of soil chemistry, the pH values of
      rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils had no statistical changes in the MP
      treatment groups, but their zeta potentials decreased obviously, indicating that
      MP could enhance the fixation or sorption of Cd on soil compositions. In the
      aspect of antioxidant system, MP could increase POD activity of rice roots
      significantly to alleviate the stress of Cd to roots, and resulted in the
      decrease of T-AOC, SOD, and CAT activities of rice roots of the selected
      cultivars. MP had no inhabitation or enhancement effects on TSH of rice roots but
      enhance the contents of MTs and NPT to binding Cd to complete detoxification
      process. MP as a novel and efficient immobilization agent could complete the
      remediation effects through soil chemistry and plant physiological mechanisms.

PMID- 28866742
TI  - CdS Nanoparticle-Modified alpha-Fe2O3/TiO2 Nanorod Array Photoanode for Efficient
      Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation.
AB  - In this work, we demonstrate a facile successive ionic layer adsorption and
      reaction process accompanied by hydrothermal method to synthesize CdS
      nanoparticle-modified alpha-Fe2O3/TiO2 nanorod array for efficient
      photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. By integrating CdS/alpha-Fe2O3/TiO2
      ternary system, light absorption ability of the photoanode can be effectively
      improved with an obviously broadened optical-response to visible light region,
      greatly facilitates the separation of photogenerated carriers, giving rise to the
      enhancement of PEC water oxidation performance. Importantly, for the designed
      abnormal type-II heterostructure between Fe2O3/TiO2, the conduction band position
      of Fe2O3 is higher than that of TiO2, the photogenerated electrons from Fe2O3
      will rapidly recombine with the photogenerated holes from TiO2, thus leads to an
      efficient separation of photogenerated electrons from Fe2O3/holes from TiO2 at
      the Fe2O3/TiO2 interface, greatly improving the separation efficiency of
      photogenerated holes within Fe2O3 and enhances the photogenerated electron
      injection efficiency in TiO2. Working as the photoanodes of PEC water oxidation,
      CdS/alpha-Fe2O3/TiO2 heterostucture electrode exhibits improved photocurrent
      density of 0.62 mA cm- 2 at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in
      alkaline electrolyte, with an obviously negatively shifted onset potential of 80
      mV. This work provides promising methods to enhance the PEC water oxidation
      performance of the TiO2-based heterostructure photoanodes.

PMID- 28866744
TI  - Basidiospores attach to the seed of Shorea leprosula in lowland tropical
      dipterocarp forest and form functional ectomycorrhiza on seed germination.
AB  - This research aimed to study the ectomycorrhiza formed by basidiospores attached
      to the outer surface of Shorea leprosula (Dipterocarpaceae) seed collected from a
      lowland tropical dipterocarp forest. Two groups of seeds were collected: control
      seeds collected from plastic net hanging 2 m above the ground and forest floor
      seeds collected on the forest floor. Before planting, 15 seeds from each group
      were observed for basidiospores attached to the seed. Ten of the 3-week-old S.
      leprosula seedlings of each group were individually grown in 1.5 kg of sterile
      zeolite for 8 months in a greenhouse. Pots were fertilized with MMN solution
      containing half the strength of phosphate. Fungal identity, ectomycorrhizal root
      tip colonization and anatomy, plant growth, and phosphate uptake were measured.
      The control seeds did not have basidiospores attached, whereas the forest floor
      seeds had 2 * 105 basidiospores of Tomentella. Bioassay test results indicate
      that the seedlings from the control seeds did not form ectomycorrhiza, whereas
      those seedlings from the forest floor seeds formed 3 morphotypes of
      ectomycorrhizae. Based on ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2 rDNA region analyses, the 3
      morphotypes belonged to Tomentella sp. HBT2, Tomentella sp. HBT4, and Scleroderma
      sp. HBS3. Root colonization percentage was above 70% for all three morphotypes.
      Root colonization in general increased plant growth and phosphate uptake. This is
      the first report of Tomentella basidiospores attached on the seed surface as a
      functional inoculum and of Tomentella ectomycorrhiza from dipterocarps lowland
      tropical forest.

PMID- 28866743
TI  - Effects of oral Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the cerebral processing of
      olfactory input in healthy non-addicted subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Considering the increasing acknowledgment of the human sense of smell
      as a significant component of the quality of life, olfactory drug effects gain
      potential clinical importance. A recent observation in a human experimental
      context indicated that Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) impaired the subject's
      performance in olfactory tests. To further analyze the role of THC in human
      olfaction, the present report addresses its effects on the central processing of
      olfactory stimuli. METHODS: Employing a placebo-controlled randomized crossover
      design, an oral dose of 20 mg THC was administered in 15 healthy volunteers. The
      central processing of olfactory input, consisting of short pulses of gaseous
      vanillin or hydrogen sulfide, and for comparison, of non-odorous but painful
      carbon dioxide, were investigated before and after administration of THC or
      placebo in a pharmacological functional magnet resonance imaging study. RESULTS:
      Following THC administration, the vanillin stimuli lost their pleasantness and
      became hedonically inert. This observation had its functional correlate in
      reduced stimulus-associated brain activations located in the left amygdala, the
      hippocampus and superior temporal pole (peak MNI coordinates x = - 27, y = - 1, z
      = - 26 mm p = 0.039). Differences in amygdala activations were significantly
      correlated with the corresponding differences in vanillin pleasantness (p =
      0.025). By contrast, no effects were observed on the perception of processing of
      H2S stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: The results support that THC induced a modulation of
      the central processing of olfactory input. The THC-induced reduction in the
      pleasantness of a pleasurable odor was accompanied by reduced activations in the
      limbic system. Results agree with previous observation of negative effects of
      cannabinoids on the human sense of smell and strengthen the evidence that THC
      based medications will be among drugs with olfactory side effects.

PMID- 28866745
TI  - Mortality and prognostic factors in idiopathic inflammatory myositis: a
      retrospective analysis of a large multicenter cohort of Spain.
AB  - The present study was undertaken to assess mortality, causes of death, and
      associated prognostic factors in a large cohort of patients diagnosed with
      idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) from Spain. A retrospective longitudinal
      study was carried out in 467 consecutive patients with IIM, identified from 12
      medical centers. Patients were classified as primary polymyositis, primary
      dermatomyositis (DM), overlap myositis, cancer-associated myositis (CAM), and
      juvenile idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. A total of 113 deaths occurred (24%)
      after a median follow-up time of 9.7 years. In the overall cohort, the 2-, 5-,
      and 10-year survival probabilities were 91.9, 86.7, and 77%, respectively. Main
      causes of death were infections and cancer (24% each). Multivariate model
      revealed that CAM (HR = 24.06), OM (HR = 12.00), DM (HR = 7.26), higher age at
      diagnosis (HR = 1.02), severe infections (HR = 3.66), interstitial lung disease
      (HR = 1.61), and baseline elevation of acute phase reactants (HR = 3.03) were
      associated with a worse prognosis, while edema of the hands (HR = 0.39), female
      gender (HR = 0.39), and longer disease duration (HR = 0.73) were associated with
      a better prognosis. The standardized mortality ratio was 1.56 (95% CI 1.28-1.87)
      compared to the Spanish general population. Our findings indicate that IIM has a
      high long-term mortality, with an excess of mortality compared to the Spanish
      population. A more aggressive therapy may be required in IIM patients presenting
      with poor predictive factors.

PMID- 28866746
TI  - Composting plant leachate treatment by a pilot-scale, three-stage, horizontal
      flow constructed wetland in central Iran.
AB  - Handling and treatment of composting leachate is difficult and poses major
      burdens on composting facilities. The main goal of this study was to evaluate
      usage of a three-stage, constructed wetland to treat leachate produced in Isfahan
      composting facility. A pilot-scale, three-stage, subsurface, horizontal flow
      constructed wetland, planted with vetiver with a flow rate of 24 L/day and a 15
      day hydraulic retention time, was used. Removal of organic matter, ammonia,
      nitrate, total nitrogen, suspended solids, and several heavy metals from Isfahan
      composting facility leachate was monitored over a 3-month period. Constructed
      wetland system was capable of efficiently removing BOD5 (87.3%), COD (74.5%),
      ammonia (91.5%), nitrate (87.9%), total nitrogen (87.8%), total suspended solids
      (85.5%), and heavy metals (ranging from 70 to 90%) from the composting leachate.
      High contaminant removal efficiencies were achieved, but effluent still failed to
      meet Iranian standards for treated wastewater. This study shows that although a
      three-stage horizontal flow constructed wetland planted with vetiver cannot be
      used alone to treat Isfahan composting facility leachate, but it has the
      potential to be used as a leachate pre-treatment step, along with another
      complementary method.

PMID- 28866747
TI  - Prognostic implication of NOTCH1 in early stage oral squamous cell cancer with
      occult metastases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the prognostic value of
      cancer stem cell markers, namely CD133, NANOG, and NOTCH1, in early stage oral
      squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred forty-four
      patients with early stage (cT1T2N0) OSCC were identified from a pre-existing
      database of patients with oral cancer. We examined the impact of the
      immunohistochemical expression of CD133, NANOG, and NOTCH1 in OSCC. Overall
      survival (OS) curves were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Predictors of
      outcome were identified using multivariate analysis. RESULTS: We found that
      CD133, NANOG, and NOTCH1 were significantly associated with lymph node
      metastasis, and NOTCH1 was also significantly associated with depth of invasion
      and locoregional recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: NOTCH1 was identified as an independent
      prognostic factor for OS. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: NOTCH1 might prove to be a useful
      indicator for high-risk patients with occult metastases from early stage OSCC.

PMID- 28866748
TI  - Early response of glutathione- and thioredoxin-dependent antioxidant defense
      systems to Tl(I)- and Tl(III)-mediated oxidative stress in adherent
      pheochromocytoma (PC12adh) cells.
AB  - Thallium (Tl) is a toxic heavy metal that causes oxidative stress both in vitro
      and in vivo. In this work, we evaluated the production of oxygen (ROS)- and
      nitrogen (RNS)-reactive species in adherent PC12 (PC12adh) cells exposed for 0.5
      6 h to Tl(I) or Tl(III) (10-100 uM). In this system, Tl(I) induced mostly H2O2
      generation while Tl(III) induced H2O2 and ONOO.- generation. Both cations
      enhanced iNOS expression and activity, and decreased CuZnSOD expression but
      without affecting its activity. Tl(I) increased MnSOD expression and activity but
      Tl(III) decreased them. NADPH oxidase (NOX) activity remained unaffected
      throughout the period assessed. Oxidant levels returned to baseline values after
      6 h of incubation, suggesting a response of the antioxidant defense system to the
      oxidative insult imposed by the cations. Tl also affected the glutathione
      dependent system: while Tl(III) increased glutathione peroxidase (GPx) expression
      and activity, Tl(I) and Tl(III) decreased glutathione reductase (GR) expression.
      However, GR activity was mildly enhanced by Tl(III). Finally, thioredoxin
      dependent system was evaluated. Only Tl(I) increased 2-Cys peroxiredoxins (2-Cys
      Prx) expression, although both cations increased their activity. Tl(I) increased
      cytosolic thioredoxin reductase (TrxR1) and decreased mitochondrial (TrxR2)
      expression. Tl(III) had a biphasic effect on TrxR1 expression and slightly
      increased TrxR2 expression. Despite of this, both cations increased total TrxR
      activity. Obtained results suggest that in Tl(I)-exposed PC12adh cells, there is
      an early response to oxidative stress mainly by GSH-dependent system while in
      Tl(III)-treated cells both GSH- and Trx-dependent systems are involved.

PMID- 28866749
TI  - The radiographically diagnosed adrenal myelolipoma: what do we really know?
AB  - PURPOSE: Adrenal myelolipomas are uncommon, benign tumors of the adrenal glands
      that are not routinely evaluated for autonomous hormone secretion or followed by
      repeat imaging, but may lead to retroperitoneal hemorrhage. Little is known about
      the natural history these tumors with the majority of previous publications being
      confined to case reports and small case series. METHODS: We reviewed the computed
      tomography (CT) reports of 62,279 patients evaluated at a tertiary referral
      center between 2002 and 2015 for the presence of an adrenal myelolipoma >1 cm in
      size. We then reviewed the CT imaging and patient charts to determine tumor size,
      growth, evidence of retroperitoneal hemorrhage, and endocrine dysfunction.
      RESULTS: We identified 150 (0.24%) patients with 155 radiographically diagnosed
      adrenal myelolipomas found on a CT scan during our study period. The median tumor
      size at discovery was 2.1 cm. Twelve (7.7%) tumors were >6 cm. Sixty-nine (46%)
      patients had a follow-up CT with a mean time interval between scans of 3.9 years.
      Eleven tumors (16%) grew over our follow-up period with a median growth rate of
      0.16 cm/year. No patient developed a retroperitoneal hemorrhage. Twenty (13%)
      patients underwent an evaluation for endocrine dysfunction. Three patients had
      evidence of hypercortisolism and one patient had primary aldosteronism.
      CONCLUSION: The majority of radiographically diagnosed adrenal myelolipomas found
      on abdominal CT imaging are small and slow growing. Retroperitoneal hemorrhage is
      uncommon, but the rate of associated endocrine dysfunction may be underestimated.

PMID- 28866750
TI  - Relationship Between Laryngeal Sensory Deficits, Aspiration, and Pneumonia in
      Patients with Dysphagia.
AB  - The laryngeal adductor reflex (LAR) is an airway protective reflex that manifests
      as a brief vocal fold closure in response to laryngeal stimulation. This study
      examined if the absence of the LAR in response to touch delivered by a
      laryngoscope is associated with penetration/aspiration or pneumonia in patients
      with dysphagia. Inpatients at a teaching hospital with clinical symptoms of
      dysphagia were recruited upon referral to the otolaryngology clinic for a
      swallowing evaluation. Otolaryngologists observed the status of secretions and
      touched each arytenoid with the tip of the laryngoscope. The patients were then
      asked to swallow 3-5 mL grape gelatin and 3-5 mL colored water. All procedures
      were video-recorded. Two independent raters noted absence/presence of the LAR and
      penetration/aspiration of pharyngeal secretions, gelatin, and water on the
      recorded videos. A diagnosis of pneumonia during the patient's entire hospital
      stay was determined by a review of the hospital's medical records. Statistical
      analyses were performed using Fisher's exact test. Sixty-one patients were
      included. Twenty-one patients (34.5%) did not exhibit the LAR. No association was
      found between the absent LAR and penetration or aspiration. There was, however, a
      significant association between an absence of the LAR and pneumonia development.
      Patients with an absent LAR had 6.8 times the odds of developing pneumonia as
      compared to those with a present LAR (OR 6.75; 95% CI 1.76-25.96; p < 0.01).
      Using the LAR as a marker of laryngeal sensory function appears to be valuable
      for identifying patients at high risk of pneumonia.

PMID- 28866751
TI  - Ultrasound variants of autoimmune thyroiditis in children and adolescents and
      their clinical implication in relation to papillary thyroid carcinoma
      development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) and papillary thyroid
      carcinoma (PTC) is rising in children and adolescents, and the coincidence of AIT
      and PTC is as high as 6.3-43%. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the ultrasound
      manifestation of AIT in relation to PTC development in paediatric patients.
      PATIENTS: 179 paediatric patients (133 females), mean (SD) age: 13.9 (3.03) years
      diagnosed with AIT and referred for ultrasound evaluation. Eight patients were
      diagnosed with PTC (6 females). METHODS: Retrospective analysis of thyroid
      ultrasound scans of patients diagnosed with AIT. Thyroid and autoimmune status
      was assessed based on TSH, fT4, fT3 and increased aTPO and/or aTG and/or TRAB
      levels. In patients with PTC, total thyroidectomy was performed. RESULTS:
      Analysis of thyroid US scans revealed that the following five ultrasound variants
      of AIT were observed in 179 patients: the most common in 35.2%-diffuse
      thyroiditis with hypoechogenic background and normoechogenic parenchyma, in 30.2%
      diffuse thyroiditis with irregular background, in 18.9% nodular variant with
      normoechogenic background, in 11.7%-micronodulations and in 3.9%-diffuse
      hypoechogenic background. Eight cases of PTC were diagnosed in nodular variant of
      AIT with normoechogenic irregular background. CONCLUSION: Patients with AIT and
      nodular variant with normoechogenic irregular background of the thyroid gland on
      US scans are in the risk group of developing PTC and should be followed up with
      regular neck US assessment.

PMID- 28866752
TI  - Altered Associations between Pain Symptoms and Brain Morphometry in the Pain
      Matrix of HIV-Seropositive Individuals.
AB  - Pain remains highly prevalent in HIV-seropositive (HIV+) patients despite their
      well-suppressed viremia with combined antiretroviral therapy. Investigating brain
      abnormalities within the pain matrix, and in relation to pain symptoms, in HIV+
      participants may provide objective biomarkers and insights regarding their pain
      symptoms. We used Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System
      (PROMIS(r)) pain questionnaire to evaluate pain symptoms (pain intensity, pain
      interference and pain behavior), and structural MRI to assess brain morphometry
      using FreeSurfer (cortical area, cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were
      evaluated in 12 regions within the pain matrix). Compared to seronegative (SN)
      controls, HIV+ participants had smaller surface areas in prefrontal pars
      triangularis (right: p = 0.04, left: p = 0.007) and right anterior cingulate
      cortex (p = 0.03) and smaller subcortical regions (thalamus: p <= 0.003
      bilaterally; right putamen: p = 0.01), as well as higher pain scores (pain
      intensity-p = 0.005; pain interference-p = 0.008; pain-behavior-p = 0.04).
      Furthermore, higher pain scores were associated with larger cortical areas,
      thinner cortices and larger subcortical volumes in HIV+ participants; but smaller
      cortical areas, thicker cortices and smaller subcortical volumes in SN controls
      (interaction-p = 0.009 to p = 0.04). These group differences in the pain
      associated brain abnormalities suggest that HIV+ individuals have abnormal pain
      responses. Since these abnormal pain-associated brain regions belong to the
      affective component of the pain matrix, affective symptoms may influence pain
      perception in HIV+ patients and should be treated along with their physical pain
      symptoms. Lastly, associations of lower pain scores with better physical or
      mental health scores, regardless of HIV-serostatus (p < 0.001), suggest adequate
      pain treatment would lead to better quality of life in all participants.

PMID- 28866753
TI  - Two new and one known species of Tergestia Stossich, 1899 (Trematoda:
      Fellodistomidae) with novel molecular characterisation for the genus.
AB  - Combined morphological and molecular analyses are employed to characterise three
      species of Tergestia Stossich, 1899 (Digenea: Fellodistomidae) from fishes of
      Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. Tergestia clonacantha Manter, 1963 is
      reported here for the first time from the halfbeak (Beloniformes: Hemiramphidae)
      species Arrhamphus sclerolepis krefftii (Steindachner), Hyporhamphus australis
      (Steindachner), H. quoyi (Valenciennes) and H. regularis ardelio (Whitley). Two
      new species, both infecting trevally (Perciformes: Carangidae) species, are
      described: T. maryae n. sp. from Alepes apercna Grant and T. henryi n. sp. from
      Pantolabus radiatus (MacLeay). Complete ITS2 and partial 28S ribosomal DNA data
      were generated for each of the new taxa. The three species differ from each other
      by 47-58 base pairs (bp) in the ITS2 rDNA region. Phylogenetic analysis of 28S
      rDNA supports Tergestia as a reliable generic concept, with our analyses showing
      that some species of the genus form a well-supported clade to the exclusion of
      all other fellodistomids for which sequence data are available.

PMID- 28866754
TI  - Opioid-associated iatrogenic withdrawal in critically ill adult patients: a
      multicenter prospective observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioids and benzodiazepines are frequently used in the intensive care
      unit (ICU). Regular use and prolonged exposure to opioids in ICU patients
      followed by abrupt tapering or cessation may lead to iatrogenic withdrawal
      syndrome (IWS). IWS is well described in pediatrics, but no prospective study has
      evaluated this syndrome in adult ICU patients. The objective of this study was to
      determine the incidence of IWS caused by opioids in a critically ill adult
      population. This multicenter prospective cohort study was conducted at two level
      1 trauma ICUs between February 2015 and September 2015 and included 54 critically
      ill patients. Participants were eligible if they were 18 years and older,
      mechanically ventilated and had received more than 72 h of regular intermittent
      or continuous intravenous infusion of opioids. For each enrolled patient and per
      each opioid weaning episode, presence of IWS was assessed by a qualified ICU
      physician or senior resident according to the 5th edition of Diagnostic and
      Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for opioid withdrawal. RESULTS:
      The population consisted mostly of males (74.1%) with a median age of 50 years
      (25th-75th percentile 38.2-64.5). The median ICU admission APACHE II score was 22
      (25th-75th percentile 12.0-28.2). The overall incidence of IWS was 16.7% (95% CI
      6-27). The median cumulative opioid dose prior to weaning was higher in patients
      with IWS (245.7 vs. 169.4 mcg/kg, fentanyl equivalent). Patients with IWS were
      also exposed to opioids for a longer period of time as compared to patients
      without IWS (median 151 vs. 125 h). However, these results were not statistically
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: IWS was occasionally observed in this very specific
      population of mechanically ventilated, critically ill ICU patients. Further
      studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results and identify risk
      factors.

PMID- 28866755
TI  - Effect of Microcystins on Proto- and Metazooplankton Is More Evident in
      Artificial Than in Natural Waterbodies.
AB  - The increasing proliferation of cyanobacterial blooms prolongs the impact of
      cyanobacteria on aquatic fauna, potentially altering trophic relationships. We
      hypothesized that any effect of dissolved microcystins (toxins produced by
      cyanobacteria) on plankton assemblages would be more evident in artificial
      reservoirs and ponds than in natural ones. The concentrations of dissolved
      microcystins in the waters we studied ranged widely from 0.07 to 0.81 MUg/L. We
      showed that the artificial ponds were subjected to more frequent and longer
      lasting harmful algal blooms. The plankton occurring in them were exposed to
      significantly higher concentrations of dissolved microcystins than those in
      natural oxbow lakes. Using a general linear model (GLM) regression, our study
      identified a significant relationship between dissolved microcystins and both the
      density and biomass of particular zooplankton groups (ciliates, rotifers,
      cladocerans, copepods). The density, biomass, and richness of the animal plankton
      were significantly lower in the artificial ponds than in the natural oxbow lakes.
      The impact of microcystins and the length of time that they remained in the water
      caused structural homogenization of the plankton.

PMID- 28866757
TI  - Levels of amyloid-beta-42 and CSF pressure are directly related in patients with
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Experimental data suggest that the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamic is involved
      in the clearance of beta-amyloid, a key event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD). At this regard no evidence still exists in vivo. In this study we
      explored the relationships between CSF pressure and AD pathology, as measured
      with CSF core biomarkers. We enrolled 16 patients with probable AD and 21
      controls, collecting demographics, clinical data, CSF opening pressure and CSF
      levels of beta-amyloid-42 fragment (Abeta42), total-tau (t-tau), phosphorylated
      tau-181 (p-tau), albumin and albumin ratio. Differences between the groups were
      calculated with non-parametric tests, while correlations among all parameters
      were separately calculated with Spearman's test in each group. The groups
      significantly differed in biomarkers' concentration with lower Abeta42, and
      higher t-tau and p-tau in AD patients. Moreover, CSF pressure was significantly
      lower in AD group (11.0 +/- 2.8 vs. 13.3 +/- 3.0 mmHg, p < 0.05) and directly
      correlated with Abeta42 levels (R = 0.512; p < 0.05), but not with other
      biomarkers or parameters. No significant correlations emerged for biomarkers in
      control group. AD patients exhibit low CSF pressure whose values are directly and
      selectively related to CSF Abeta42 levels. This interesting correlation may
      confirm in vivo the association between CSF dynamic and beta-amyloid metabolism
      occurring in AD.

PMID- 28866756
TI  - Unmet Needs in Systemic Sclerosis Understanding and Treatment: the Knowledge Gaps
      from a Scientist's, Clinician's, and Patient's Perspective.
AB  - Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a highly heterogeneous disease caused by a complex
      molecular circuitry. For decades, clinical and molecular research focused on
      understanding the primary process of fibrosis. More recently, the inflammatory,
      immunological and vascular components that precede the actual onset of fibrosis,
      have become a matter of increasing scientific scrutiny. As a consequence, the
      field has started to realize that the early identification of this syndrome is
      crucial for optimal clinical care as well as for understanding its pathology. The
      cause of SSc cannot be appointed to a single molecular pathway but to a multitude
      of molecular aberrances in a spatial and temporal matter and on the backbone of
      the patient's genetic predisposition. These alterations underlie the plethora of
      signs and symptoms which patients experience and clinicians look for, ultimately
      culminating in fibrotic features. To solve this complexity, a close interaction
      among the patient throughout its "journey," the clinician through its clinical
      assessments and the researcher with its experimental design, seems to be
      required. In this review, we aimed to highlight the features of SSc through the
      eyes of these three professionals, all with their own expertise and opinions.
      With this unique setup, we underscore the importance of investigating the role of
      environmental factors in the onset and perpetuation of SSc, of focusing on the
      earliest signs and symptoms preceding fibrosis and on the application of holistic
      research approaches that include a multitude of potential molecular alterations
      in time in an unbiased fashion, in the search for a patient-tailored cure.

PMID- 28866758
TI  - Modelling the Survival Outcomes of Immuno-Oncology Drugs in Economic Evaluations:
      A Systematic Approach to Data Analysis and Extrapolation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: New immuno-oncology (I-O) therapies that harness the immune system to
      fight cancer call for a re-examination of the traditional parametric techniques
      used to model survival from clinical trial data. More flexible approaches are
      needed to capture the characteristic I-O pattern of delayed treatment effects
      and, for a subset of patients, the plateau of long-term survival. OBJECTIVES:
      Using a systematic approach to data management and analysis, the study assessed
      the applicability of traditional and flexible approaches and, as a test case of
      flexible methods, investigated the suitability of restricted cubic splines (RCS)
      to model progression-free survival (PFS) in I-O therapy. METHODS: The goodness of
      fit of each survival function was tested on data from the CheckMate 067 trial of
      monotherapy versus combination therapy (nivolumab/ipilimumab) in metastatic
      melanoma using visual inspection and statistical tests. Extrapolations were
      validated using long-term data for ipilimumab. RESULTS: Modelled PFS estimates
      using traditional methods did not provide a good fit to the Kaplan-Meier (K-M)
      curve. RCS estimates fit the K-M curves well, particularly for the plateau phase.
      RCS with six knots provided the best overall fit, but RCS with one knot performed
      best at the plateau phase and was preferred on the grounds of parsimony.
      CONCLUSIONS: RCS models represent a valuable addition to the range of flexible
      approaches available to model survival when assessing the effectiveness and cost
      effectiveness of I-O therapy. A systematic approach to data analysis is
      recommended to compare the suitability of different approaches for different
      diseases and treatment regimens.

PMID- 28866759
TI  - Essential oils from Algerian species of Mentha as new bio-control agents against
      phytopathogen strains.
AB  - Chemical composition and antifungal activity of essential oils of Algerian Mentha
      species were studied. Chemical compositions of different Mentha species oils
      (Mentha rotundifolia, M. spicata, M. pulegium, and M. piperita) were investigated
      by capillary GC and GC/MS, and their antifungal activities were evaluated by
      means of paper disc diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)
      assays. In total, 98 components from all Mentha species were identified. All oils
      were rich in monoterpene-oxygenated components. In addition, we reported fumigant
      antifungal activity of Algerian Mentha essential oils against four fungi:
      Botrytis cinerea, Penicillium expansum, Monilinia laxa, and M. fructigena. All
      oils demonstrated very good inhibition especially against B. cinerea, M. laxa,
      and M. fructigena. Both Monilinia fungi were extremely sensitive to all Algerian
      Mentha oils, which suggests that Mentha essential oils have the potential to be
      used as bio-pesticides to protect fruit trees, such as apple and pear trees, and
      provides an alternative to chemical pesticides.

PMID- 28866760
TI  - Experimental Study on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of TiO2-Water
      Nanofluids in a Spirally Fluted Tube.
AB  - The flow and heat transfer characteristics of TiO2-water nanofluids with
      different nanoparticle mass fractions in a spirally fluted tube and a smooth tube
      are experimentally investigated at different Reynolds numbers. The effects of pH
      values and doses of dispersant agent on the stability of TiO2-water nanofluids
      are discussed. The effects of nanoparticle mass fractions and Reynolds numbers on
      Nusselt numbers and frictional resistance coefficients in the spirally fluted
      tube and the smooth tube are also investigated. It is found that TiO2-water
      nanofluids in the spirally fluted tube have a larger enhancement than that in the
      smooth tube. The heat transfer enhancement and the increase in frictional
      resistance coefficients of TiO2-water nanofluids in the spirally fluted tube and
      the smooth tube for laminar flow and turbulent flow are compared. It is found
      that there are a larger increase in heat transfer and a smaller increase in
      frictional resistance coefficients for turbulent flow than that for laminar flow
      of TiO2-water nanofluids in the spirally fluted tube. The comprehensive
      evaluations for the thermo-hydraulic performance of TiO2-water nanofluids in the
      smooth tube and spirally fluted tube are also discussed.

PMID- 28866761
TI  - T-protein is present in large excess over the other proteins of the glycine
      cleavage system in leaves of Arabidopsis.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: T-protein is present in large excess over the other proteins of
      the glycine cleavage system in leaves of Arabidopsis and therefore, exerts little
      control over the photorespiratory pathway. T-protein is the
      aminomethyltransferase of the glycine cleavage multienzyme system (GCS), also
      known as the glycine decarboxylase complex, and essential for photorespiration
      and one-carbon metabolism. Here, we studied what effects varying levels of the
      GCS T-protein would have on GCS activity, the operation of the photorespiratory
      pathway, photosynthesis, and plant growth. To this end, we examined Arabidopsis
      thaliana T-protein overexpression lines with up to threefold higher amounts of
      leaf T-protein as well as one knockdown mutant with about 5% residual leaf T
      protein and one knockout mutant. Overexpression did not alter photosynthetic CO2
      uptake and plant growth, and the knockout mutation was lethal even in the non
      photorespiratory environment of air enriched to 1% CO2. Unexpectedly in light of
      this very low T-protein content, however, the knockdown mutant was able to grow
      and propagate in normal air and displayed only some minor changes, such as a
      moderate glycine accumulation in combination with somewhat delayed growth.
      Neither overexpression nor the knockdown of T-protein altered the amounts of the
      other three GCS proteins, suggesting that the biosynthesis of the GCS proteins is
      not synchronized at this level. We also observed that the knockdown causes less T
      protein mostly in leaf mesophyll cells, but not so much in the vasculature, and
      discuss this phenomenon in light of the dual involvement of the GCS and hence T
      protein in plant metabolism. Collectively, this work shows that T-protein is
      present in large excess over the other proteins of the glycine cleavage system in
      leaves of Arabidopsis and therefore exerts little control over the
      photorespiratory pathway.

PMID- 28866762
TI  - Risk Factors for and Consequences of Substance Use in Post-Conflict Liberia: A
      Qualitative Study.
AB  - Substance use has a significant impact on post-conflict populations; however,
      little is known about this critical issue in Liberia. This study examined the
      current risk factors for and consequences of substance use in Monrovia, Liberia.
      In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 substance users and 21 key informants.
      Findings support that Liberia's civil war played a role in increasing substance
      use, but also that additional risk factors continue to generate substance use
      today. This study provides insights into the roles of civil war and additional
      risk factors for substance use in Liberia. Recommendations for substance use
      related policies and programs are provided.

PMID- 28866763
TI  - Bone Health is Maintained, While Fat Mass is Reduced in Pre-pubertal Children
      with Obesity Participating in a 1-Year Family-Centered Lifestyle Intervention.
AB  - Diet and physical activity (PA) influence bone health in children. This study
      tested whether increasing milk and milk products and weight-bearing types of PA
      favorably changed bone outcomes assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
      (DXA) and bone biomarkers in children with obesity participating in a 1-year
      family-centered lifestyle intervention. Children were randomized to one of three
      groups: Control (Ctrl; no intervention), Standard treatment (StnTx: two servings
      milk and milk products/day; meet PA guidelines plus weight-bearing PA three
      times/week), or Modified treatment (ModTx: four servings milk and milk
      products/day; meet PA guidelines plus daily weight-bearing PA). Baseline and 12
      month measurements included DXA scans for whole body (WB), lumbar spine (LS),
      lumbar lateral spine (LLS), and ultra-distal (UD) ulna + radius for bone mineral
      content (BMC), areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and BMD z-scores. Fat mass index
      (FMI), fat-free mass index (FFMI), and biomarkers of bone metabolism were
      assessed. Seventy-eight children 6-8 years old were recruited (mean body mass
      index for-age z-score: 3.3 +/- 1.2). Compared to baseline, all groups increased
      BMC of WB, LS, and LLS (p < 0.001), whereas only StnTx increased UD ulna + radius
      BMC at 12 months (p < 0.05). At 12 months, WB-BMD z-scores were significantly
      lower in Ctrl (p < 0.05), whereas WB and LLS aBMD increased in StnTx and ModTx (p
      < 0.001) but not in Ctrl. All groups increased FFMI (p < 0.001), while only Ctrl
      increased FMI (p < 0.001). Bone biomarkers did not change over time.
      Participating in a family-centered lifestyle intervention based on Canadian diet
      and PA guidelines maintained bone health in obese children.

PMID- 28866764
TI  - L-type calcium channels in exocytosis and endocytosis of chromaffin cells.
AB  - The coexistence of different subtypes of voltage-dependent calcium channels
      (VDCC) within the same chromaffin cell (CC) and the marked interspecies
      variability in the proportion of VDCC subtypes that are present in the
      plasmalemma of the CCs raises the question on their roles in controlling
      different physiological functions. Particularly relevant seems to be the role of
      VDCCs in the regulation of the exocytotic neurotransmitter release process, and
      its tightly coupled membrane retrieval (endocytosis) process since both are Ca2+
      dependent processes. This review is focused on the role of Ca2+ influx through L
      type VDCC in the regulation of these two processes. It is currently accepted that
      the different VDCC subtypes (i.e., T, L, N, P/Q, R) contribute to exocytosis
      proportionally to their density of expression and gating properties. However, the
      pattern of stimulation defines a preferential role of the different subtypes of
      VDCC on exocytosis and endocytosis. Thus, L-type channels seem to control
      catecholamine release induced by prolonged stimuli while fast exocytosis in
      response to short square depolarizing pulses or action potentials is mediated by
      Ca2+ entering CCs through P/Q channels. The pattern of stimulation also
      influences the endocytotic process, and thus, electrophysiological data suggest
      the sustained Ca2+ entry through slow-inactivating L-type channels could be
      responsible for the activation of fast endocytosis.

PMID- 28866765
TI  - The implementation of web-based cognitive rehabilitation in adult cancer
      survivors: examining participant engagement, attrition and treatment fidelity.
AB  - PURPOSE: Low engagement and high attrition are common challenges in web-based
      interventions. Typical measures of engagement reported in the literature are not
      meaningful for describing participant activity within the intervention and can be
      misleading. This research aimed to develop a more meaningful method of measuring
      engagement in an online cognitive rehabilitation program whilst monitoring
      treatment fidelity. METHODS: A pilot study and randomised controlled trial (RCT)
      were conducted. Data from 60 participants were analysed from three intervention
      groups: pilot cancer group, pilot non-cancer group and RCT cancer group. Groups
      completed the 4-week eReCog program comprised of four online modules. Engagement
      scores were calculated based on activities completed in each module. Attrition,
      interaction with the program facilitator and correlations with outcome measures
      were analysed. RESULTS: Overall engagement in the intervention was high. The non
      cancer group participated significantly less than the cancer groups (p = <
      0.001), whereby the percentage of activity items completed was 92, 87 and 78% in
      the pilot cancer, RCT cancer and pilot non-cancer groups, respectively. Attrition
      was higher in the pilot non-cancer group (24%) compared to the pilot cancer group
      (8%) and the RCT cancer group (16%). Total engagement was correlated with fewer
      prospective memory problems on instrumental activities of daily living (p =
      0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Measuring completed activities in online interventions
      appears a more meaningful measure of engagement than other conventional methods
      described in the literature and has the potential to increase treatment fidelity
      in web-based research.

PMID- 28866766
TI  - An Human-Computer Interactive Augmented Reality System for Coronary Artery
      Diagnosis Planning and Training.
AB  - In order to let the doctor carry on the coronary artery diagnosis and
      preoperative planning in a more intuitive and more natural way, and to improve
      the training effect for interns, an augmented reality system for coronary artery
      diagnosis planning and training (ARS-CADPT) is designed and realized in this
      paper. At first, a 3D reconstruction algorithm based on computed tomographic (CT)
      images is proposed to model the coronary artery vessels (CAV). Secondly, the
      algorithms of static gesture recognition and dynamic gesture spotting and
      recognition are presented to realize the real-time and friendly human-computer
      interaction (HCI), which is the characteristic of ARS-CADPT. Thirdly, a Sort
      First parallel rendering and splicing display subsystem is developed, which
      greatly expands the capacity of student users. The experimental results show
      that, with the use of ARS-CADPT, the reconstruction accuracy of CAV model is
      high, the HCI is natural and fluent, and the visual effect is good. In a word,
      the system fully meets the application requirement.

PMID- 28866767
TI  - The PARTHENON Clinical Development Program: the Role of Ticagrelor in Patients
      with Atherothrombotic Disease.
AB  - Although the rate of cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality has declined
      over the last decade, it is still the leading cause of mortality in the USA,
      accounting for over 1.4 million deaths annually. In addition, total direct
      (primarily hospital admissions) and indirect costs of CVD in the US is over $316
      billion annually and is expected to grow to over $918 billion by 2030. Much of
      the etiology of CVD is due to atherosclerosis and its thrombotic complications,
      and central to this is the role of platelets. Atherosclerosis is a systemic
      disease, with meaningful morbidity and mortality when present in the coronary,
      cerebral, or major peripheral arteries. The recommended antiplatelet therapy
      differs based on the vascular bed impacted, with the optimal antiplatelet therapy
      yet to be defined. The PARTHENON program is a series of completed and ongoing
      phase III clinical trials investigating the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor in
      atherosclerotic CVD in comparison with established antiplatelet therapy or
      placebo. The overall aim of the program is to determine if more potent
      antiplatelet therapy, with different pharmacology, may reduce cardiovascular
      events in patients with atherosclerotic disease.

PMID- 28866768
TI  - Providers' Response to Clinical Decision Support for QT Prolonging Drugs.
AB  - Commonly used drugs in hospital setting can cause QT prolongation and trigger
      life-threatening arrhythmias. We evaluate changes in prescribing behavior after
      the implementation of a clinical decision support system to prevent the use of QT
      prolonging medications in the hospital setting. We conducted a quasi-experimental
      study, before and after the implementation of a clinical decision support system
      integrated in the electronic medical record (QT-alert system). This system
      detects patients at risk of significant QT prolongation (QTc>500ms) and alerts
      providers ordering QT prolonging drugs. We reviewed the electronic health record
      to assess the provider's responses which were classified as "action taken" (QT
      drug avoided, QT drug changed, other QT drug(s) avoided, ECG monitoring,
      electrolytes monitoring, QT issue acknowledged, other actions) or "no action
      taken". Approximately, 15.5% (95/612) of the alerts were followed by a provider's
      action in the pre-intervention phase compared with 21% (228/1085) in the post
      intervention phase (p=0.006). The most common type of actions taken during pre
      intervention phase compared to post-intervention phase were ECG monitoring (8%
      vs. 13%, p=0.002) and QT issue acknowledgment (2.1% vs. 4.1%, p=0.03). Notably,
      there was no significant difference for other actions including QT drug avoided
      (p=0.8), QT drug changed (p=0.06) and other QT drug(s) avoided (p=0.3). Our study
      demonstrated that the QT alert system prompted a higher proportion of providers
      to take action on patients at risk of complications. However, the overall impact
      was modest underscoring the need for educating providers and optimizing clinical
      decision support to further reduce drug-induced QT prolongation.

PMID- 28866769
TI  - An Efficient and Reliable Assay for Investigating the Effects of Hypoxia/Anoxia
      on Drosophila.
AB  - Stroke is a leading cause of death worldwide. Up to one thousand potential drugs
      or interventions have been developed to treat stroke, out of which ~160 have gone
      on to clinical trials. However, none of them has been successful. New insights
      into the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ischemia-induced injury are needed
      for discovering new therapeutic targets. Recently, Drosophila has been used to
      uncover new hypoxia-related genes. In this study, we describe an efficient and
      reliable assay with a sophisticated apparatus for studying the effects of oxygen
      deprivation on flies. Using this assay, wild-type flies were exposed to an anoxic
      environment for varying lengths of time, then the cumulative death rate and
      mobility recovery were systematically analyzed. We found that anoxia for over one
      hour caused lethality. The cumulative death rate on day 5 after anoxia was
      linearly and positively correlated with the duration of anoxia, and reached 50%
      when the duration was 2.5 h-3 h. We also found that the mobility recovery in
      normoxia was slow, as the climbing ability remained largely unchanged 4 h-6 h
      after 2.5-h of anoxia. We suggest that 2.5 h-3 h of anoxia and 4 h-6 h of
      recovery before mobility analysis are appropriate for future use of the anoxia
      assay.

PMID- 28866770
TI  - Anti-coagulant activity of plants: mini review.
AB  - Medicinal plants have been used for treatment of human ailments since ancient
      times. Objective of this study is to document the effect of herbal drugs on
      anticoagulant therapy. The material for this review was taken mostly from PubMed
      and the Cochrane database of systematic reviews. Some other relevant references
      were collected from personal database of papers on anti-coagulant properties of
      plants. Literature review shows that many plants such as Thymus vulgaris,
      Cyamopsis tetragonoloba taub, Pulmonaria officinalis and Cinnamomum cassia etc
      have anti-coagulant activity. This review shows that medicinal plants should be
      prescribed with care to patients on anticoagulant therapy.

PMID- 28866771
TI  - Atomic force microscopy analysis of extracellular vesicles.
AB  - Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small vesicles ensuring transport of molecules
      between cells and throughout the body. EVs contain cell type-specific signatures
      and have been proposed as biomarkers in a variety of diseases. Their small size
      (<1 MUm) and biological and physical functions make them obvious candidates for
      therapeutic agents in immune therapy, vaccination, regenerative medicine and drug
      delivery. However, due to the complexity and heterogeneity of their origin and
      composition, the actual mechanism through which these vesicles exert their
      functions is still unknown and represents a great biomedical challenge. Moreover,
      because of their small dimensions, the quantification, size distribution and
      biophysical characterization of these particles are challenging and still subject
      to controversy. Here, we address the advantage of atomic force microscopy (AFM),
      for the characterization of isolated EVs. We review AFM imaging of EVs
      immobilized on different substrates (mica, glass) to identify the influence of
      isolation and deposition methods on the size distribution, morphology and
      mechanical properties of EVs.

PMID- 28866773
TI  - Chronic Testicular and Groin Pain: Pathway to Relief.
AB  - The management of patients suffering with chronic testicular and groin pain is
      very challenging. With increased awareness of men's health, more patients and
      clinicians are open to talk about this complex problem that affects over 100,000
      men/year. The pathogenesis of chronic orchialgia is still not clear, but there
      are several postulated theories. Treatment options include conservative medical
      therapy with NSAIDs, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and narcotics. Surgical
      options such as targeted microsurgical denervation and microcryoablation can
      provide permanent durable pain relief. The goal of this article is to review and
      discuss the management of patients with chronic orchialgia using currently
      available literature.

PMID- 28866772
TI  - The gymnastics of epigenomics in rice.
AB  - Epigenomics is represented by the high-throughput investigations of genome-wide
      epigenetic alterations, which ultimately dictate genomic, transcriptomic,
      proteomic and metabolomic dynamism. Rice has been accepted as the global staple
      crop. As a result, this model crop deserves significant importance in the rapidly
      emerging field of plant epigenomics. A large number of recently available data
      reveal the immense flexibility and potential of variable epigenomic landscapes.
      Such epigenomic impacts and variability are determined by a number of epigenetic
      regulators and several crucial inheritable epialleles, respectively. This article
      highlights the correlation of the epigenomic landscape with growth, flowering,
      reproduction, non-coding RNA-mediated post-transcriptional regulation, transposon
      mobility and even heterosis in rice. We have also discussed the drastic
      epigenetic alterations which are reported in rice plants grown from seeds exposed
      to the extraterrestrial environment. Such abiotic conditions impose stress on the
      plants leading to epigenomic modifications in a genotype-specific manner. Some
      significant bioinformatic databases and in silico approaches have also been
      explained in this article. These softwares provide important interfaces for
      comparative epigenomics. The discussion concludes with a unified goal of
      developing epigenome editing to promote biological hacking of the rice epigenome.
      Such a cutting-edge technology if properly standardized, can integrate genomics
      and epigenomics together with the generation of high-yielding trait in several
      cultivars of rice.

PMID- 28866774
TI  - Purine Biosynthesis Enzymes in Hippocampal Neurons.
AB  - Despite reports implicating disrupted purine metabolism in causing a wide
      spectrum of neurological defects, the mechanistic details of purine biosynthesis
      in neurons are largely unknown. As an initial step in filling that gap, we
      examined the expression and subcellular distribution of three purine biosynthesis
      enzymes (PFAS, PAICS and ATIC) in rat hippocampal neurons. Using immunoblotting
      and high-resolution light and electron microscopic analysis, we find that all
      three enzymes are broadly distributed in hippocampal neurons with pools of these
      enzymes associated with mitochondria. These findings suggest a potential link
      between purine metabolism and mitochondrial function in neurons and provide an
      impetus for further studies.

PMID- 28866776
TI  - 1H, 15N, 13C backbone resonance assignments of human phosphoglycerate kinase in a
      transition state analogue complex with ADP, 3-phosphoglycerate and magnesium
      trifluoride.
AB  - Human phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) is an energy generating glycolytic enzyme
      that catalyses the transfer of a phosphoryl group from 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate
      (BPG) to ADP producing 3-phosphoglycerate (3PG) and ATP. PGK is composed of two
      alpha/beta Rossmann-fold domains linked by a central alpha-helix and the active
      site is located in the cleft formed between the N-domain which binds BPG or 3PG,
      and the C-domain which binds the nucleotides ADP or ATP. Domain closure is
      required to bring the two substrates into close proximity for phosphoryl transfer
      to occur, however previous structural studies involving a range of native
      substrates and substrate analogues only yielded open or partly closed PGK
      complexes. X-ray crystallography using magnesium trifluoride (MgF3-) as a
      isoelectronic and near-isosteric mimic of the transferring phosphoryl group (PO3
      ), together with 3PG and ADP has been successful in trapping human PGK in a fully
      closed transition state analogue (TSA) complex. In this work we report the 1H,
      15N and 13C backbone resonance assignments of human PGK in the solution
      conformation of the fully closed PGK:3PG:MgF3:ADP TSA complex. Assignments were
      obtained by heteronuclear multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. In total, 97% of all
      backbone resonances were assigned in the complex, with 385 out of a possible 399
      residues assigned in the 1H-15N TROSY spectrum. Prediction of solution secondary
      structure from a chemical shift analysis using the TALOS-N webserver is in good
      agreement with the published X-ray crystal structure of this complex.

PMID- 28866777
TI  - Tetrahydroisoquinolines functionalized with carbamates as selective ligands of D2
      dopamine receptor.
AB  - A series of tetrahydroisoquinolines functionalized with carbamates is reported
      here as highly selective ligands on the dopamine D2 receptor. These compounds
      were selected by means of a molecular modeling study. The studies were carried
      out in three stages: first an exploratory study was carried out using combined
      docking techniques and molecular dynamics simulations. According to these
      results, the bioassays were performed; these experimental studies corroborated
      the results obtained by molecular modeling. In the last stage of our study, a
      QTAIM analysis was performed in order to determine the main molecular
      interactions that stabilize the different ligand-receptor complexes. Our results
      show that the adequate use of combined simple techniques is a very useful tool to
      predict the potential affinity of new ligands at dopamine D1 and D2 receptors. In
      turn the QTAIM studies show that they are very useful to evaluate in detail the
      molecular interactions that stabilize the different ligand-receptor complexes;
      such information is crucial for the design of new ligands.

PMID- 28866778
TI  - Systematic Review of the Costs and Benefits of Prescribed Cannabis-Based
      Medicines for the Management of Chronic Illness: Lessons from Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cannabis-based medicines (CBMs) may offer relief from symptoms of
      disease; however, their additional cost needs to be considered alongside their
      effectiveness. We sought to review the economic costs and benefits of prescribed
      CBMs in any chronic illness, and the frameworks used for their economic
      evaluation. METHODS: A systematic review of eight medical and economic databases,
      from inception to mid-December 2016, was undertaken. MeSH headings and text words
      relating to economic costs and benefits, and CBMs were combined. Study quality
      was assessed using relevant checklists and results were synthesised in narrative
      form. RESULTS: Of 2514 identified records, ten studies met the eligibility
      criteria, all for the management of multiple sclerosis (MS). Six contained
      economic evaluations, four studies reported utility-based quality of life, and
      one was a willingness-to-pay study. Four of five industry-sponsored cost-utility
      analyses for MS spasticity reported nabiximols as being cost-effective from a
      European health system perspective. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios per
      quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained for these five studies were L49,257
      (UK); L10,891 (Wales); ?11,214 (Germany); ?4968 (Italy); and dominant (Spain).
      Nabiximols for the management of MS spasticity was not associated with
      statistically significant improvements in EQ-5D scores compared with standard
      care. Study quality was moderate overall, with limited inclusion of both relevant
      societal costs and discussions of potential bias. CONCLUSIONS: Prescribed CBMs
      are a potentially cost-effective add-on treatment for MS spasticity; however,
      this evidence is uncertain. Further investment in randomised trials with in-built
      economic evaluations is warranted for a wider range of clinical indications.
      SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO Registration Number: CRD42014006370.

PMID- 28866775
TI  - A comparative review of viral entry and attachment during large and giant dsDNA
      virus infections.
AB  - Viruses enter host cells via several mechanisms, including endocytosis,
      macropinocytosis, and phagocytosis. They can also fuse at the plasma membrane and
      can spread within the host via cell-to-cell fusion or syncytia. The mechanism
      used by a given viral strain depends on its external topology and proteome and
      the type of cell being entered. This comparative review discusses the cellular
      attachment receptors and entry pathways of dsDNA viruses belonging to the
      families Adenoviridae, Baculoviridae, Herpesviridae and nucleocytoplasmic large
      DNA viruses (NCLDVs) belonging to the families Ascoviridae, Asfarviridae,
      Iridoviridae, Phycodnaviridae, and Poxviridae, and giant viruses belonging to the
      families Mimiviridae and Marseilleviridae as well as the proposed families
      Pandoraviridae and Pithoviridae. Although these viruses have several common
      features (e.g., topology, replication and protein sequence similarities) they
      utilize different entry pathways to infect wide-range of hosts, including humans,
      other mammals, invertebrates, fish, protozoa and algae. Similarities and
      differences between the entry methods used by these virus families are
      highlighted, with particular emphasis on viral topology and proteins that mediate
      viral attachment and entry. Cell types that are frequently used to study viral
      entry are also reviewed, along with other factors that affect virus-host cell
      interactions.

PMID- 28866779
TI  - Live attenuated enterovirus vaccine (OPV) is not associated with islet
      autoimmunity in children with genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes:
      prospective cohort study.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Animal and human studies have implied that enterovirus
      infections may modulate the risk of islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes. We
      set out to assess whether serial administration of live oral poliovirus vaccine
      (OPV) in early life can influence the initiation of islet autoimmunity in a
      cohort of genetically predisposed children. METHODS: OPV was administered to 64
      children and a further 251 children received inactivated poliovirus vaccine
      (IPV). The emergence of type 1 diabetes-associated autoantibodies in serum
      (autoantibodies to GAD, insulinoma-associated protein 2, insulin and islet cells)
      was monitored during prospective follow-up. Stool and serum samples were
      collected for enterovirus detection by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Administration of OPV
      increased enterovirus detected in stool samples from 11.3% to 38.9% (p < 0.001)
      during the first year of life. During the follow-up (median 11.0 years), at least
      one autoantibody was detected in 17.2% of children vaccinated with OPV and 19.1%
      with IPV (p = 0.723). At least two autoantibodies were observed in 3.1% and 6.8%
      of children, respectively (p = 0.384). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Replication of
      attenuated poliovirus strains in gut mucosa is not associated with an increased
      risk of islet autoimmunity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT02961595.

PMID- 28866780
TI  - Effects of modified biochar on rhizosphere microecology of rice (Oryza sativa L.)
      grown in As-contaminated soil.
AB  - Biochar was carbon-rich and generated by high-temperature pyrolysis of biomass
      under oxygen-limited conditions. Due to the limitations of surface functional
      groups and the weakness of surface activity in the field of environmental
      remediation, the raw biochar frequently was chemically modified to improve its
      properties with a new performance. In this study, a kind of high-efficiency and
      low-cost amino biochar modified by nano zero-valent iron (ABC/NZVI) was
      synthesized and applied to paddy soil contaminated with arsenic (As). Dynamic
      changes of soil properties, arsenic speciations and rhizosphere microbial
      communities have been investigated over the whole growth period of rice plants.
      Pot experiments revealed that the ABC/NZVI could decrease the arsenic
      concentration in rice straw by 47.9% and increase the content of nitrogen in rice
      straw by 47.2%. Proportion of Geobacter in soil with ABC/NZVI treatment increased
      by 175% in tillering period; while Nitrososphaera decreased by 61 and 20% in
      tillering and maturity, respectively, compared to that of control. ABC/NZVI
      promotes arsenic immobilization in rhizosphere soil and precipitation on root
      surface and reduces arsenic accumulation in rice. At the same time, ABC/NZVI
      would inhibit Nitrososphaera which is related to ammonia oxidation process, and
      it would have a promising potential as soil amendment to reduce nitrogen loss
      probably.

PMID- 28866781
TI  - Dispositional use of emotion regulation strategies and resting-state cortico
      limbic functional connectivity.
AB  - Neuroimaging functional connectivity (FC) analyses have shown that the negative
      coupling between the amygdala and cortical regions is linked to better emotion
      regulation in experimental settings. Nevertheless, no studies have examined the
      association between resting-state cortico-amygdalar FC and the dispositional use
      of emotion regulation strategies. We aim at assessing the relationship between
      the resting-state FC patterns of two different amygdala territories, with
      different functions in the emotion response process, and trait-like measures of
      cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Forty-eight healthy controls
      completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and underwent a resting
      state functional magnetic resonance imaging acquisition. FC maps of basolateral
      and centromedial amygdala (BLA/CMA) with different cortical areas were estimated
      with a seed-based approach, and were then correlated with reappraisal and
      suppression scores from the ERQ. FC between left BLA and left insula and right
      BLA and the supplementary motor area (SMA) correlated inversely with reappraisal
      scores. Conversely, FC between left BLA and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
      correlated directly with suppression scores. Finally, FC between left CMA and the
      SMA was inversely correlated with suppression. Top-down regulation from the SMA
      seems to account for the dispositional use of both reappraisal and suppression
      depending on the specific amygdala nucleus being modulated. In addition,
      modulation of amygdala activity from cingulate and insular cortices seem to also
      account for the habitual use of the different emotion regulation strategies.

PMID- 28866782
TI  - Can adnexal torsion be predicted by measuring plasma heat shock protein 70 level?
      An experimental study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of adnexal torsion on the plasma heat shock
      protein 70 level and to determine whether plasma heat shock protein 70 can be
      used in the adnexal torsion diagnosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-one
      nulligravid 3-month-old female Wistar albino rats were randomly and equally
      allocated into three groups: study group (ovarian torsion) (n = 7), laparotomy
      group (sham operation) (n = 7) and control group (received no special treatment)
      (n = 7). Ovarian torsion model was created by twisting the right adnexa two times
      around its pedicle and fixing over the lateral pelvis with 6.0 polyglactin
      absorbable surgical suture. Blood was sampled before and 12 h after operation to
      assess plasma heat shock protein 70 level. RESULTS: In the study group, the mean
      plasma heat shock protein 70 level was significantly higher than that in the
      laparotomy and control groups (1.75 +/- 0.25), (1.16 +/- 0.99), (1.19 +/- 0.11)
      ng/ml, respectively, P = 0.001), following 12 h of ovarian torsion. CONCLUSION: A
      significant increase in plasma heat shock protein 70 level in the study group
      indicates that plasma heat shock protein 70 level could be used as a serum marker
      in the early detection of adnexal torsion. However, further clinical and
      experimental studies of a larger size are required.

PMID- 28866783
TI  - What is the impact of stromal microinvasion on oncologic outcomes in borderline
      ovarian tumors? A multicenter case-control study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate clinicopathological characteristics and oncological
      outcome of women with microinvasive BOTs. METHODS: A retrospective multicenter
      case-control study was conducted on 902 patients with BOT, who underwent surgery
      from January 2002 to December 2015 at six participating gynecologic oncology
      centers from Turkey. Among 902 patients, 69 had microinvasive BOT. For every
      patient with microinvasive BOT, two controls were randomly selected from another
      database based on decade of age and stage of disease at diagnosis. The clinical
      pathological characteristics and oncological outcomes were compared between BOT
      patients with and without stromal microinvasion. Risk factors for poor
      oncological outcomes were investigated in a multivariate analysis model. Overall
      survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were estimated using the Kaplan
      Meier method. RESULTS: Patients with microinvasive BOT had a significantly higher
      rate of recurrence than patients without microinvasive BOT (17.4 vs 7.8%, OR
      3.55, %95 CI 1.091-11.59, p = 0.03). Stage at diagnosis (stage I versus II/III)
      and type of surgery (cystectomy versus others) were found as other significant
      prognostic factors for recurrence in multivariate analysis (OR 8.63, %95 CI 2.48
      29.9, p = 0.001 and OR 19.4, %95 CI 3.59-105.6, p = 0.001, respectively). Stromal
      microinvasion was found as a prognostic factor for significantly shorter DFS
      (26.7 vs 11.9 months, p = 0.031, log rank). However, there was no significant
      difference in OS between two groups (p = 0.99, log rank). CONCLUSION: Stromal
      microinvasion is significantly associated with decreased DFS. In addition, our
      study confirms that the risk of recurrence is higher in patients with
      microinvasive BOT.

PMID- 28866784
TI  - An outbreak in intravenous drug users due to USA300 Latin-American variant
      community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in France as early
      as 2007.
AB  - Intravenous drug users are at increased risk of Staphylococcus aureus infections.
      Most cases are related to clones prevalent in the community. We report an
      outbreak of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      infections that occurred from 2007 to 2009 in intravenous drug users and their
      close contacts in Northwestern France. Clinical and molecular investigations
      suggested that the clones were more similar than those usually isolated in the
      American continent although none of the patients traveled abroad or had contact
      with individuals who had traveled to the Americas. Then, a retrospective whole
      genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the strains
      isolated from the first case belong to the USA300 Latin-American variant clone,
      based on the absence of arginine catabolic mobile element (ACME), and the
      presence of copper and mercury resistance mobile element (COMER), a distinctive
      feature of the South American variant. Our study shows genetic evidence for
      introduction of this clone as early as 2007 in France. This report also
      illustrates the importance of genome sequencing to finely characterize and
      monitor the emergence of unexpected S. aureus clones among high-risk populations,
      especially when living in promiscuity.

PMID- 28866785
TI  - Preparation of PPy-Coated MnO2 Hybrid Micromaterials and Their Improved Cyclic
      Performance as Anode for Lithium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - MnO2@PPy core-shell micromaterials are prepared by chemical polymerization of
      pyrrole on the MnO2 surface. The polypyrrole (PPy) is formed as a homogeneous
      organic shell on the MnO2 surface. The thickness of PPy shell can be adjusted by
      the usage of pyrrole. The analysis of SEM, FT-IR, X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy (XPS), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), and XRD are used to
      confirm the formation of PPy shell. Galvanostatic cell cycling and
      electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are used to evaluate the
      electrochemical performance as anode for lithium-ion batteries. The results show
      that after formation of MnO2@PPy core-shell micromaterials, the cyclic
      performance as anode for lithium-ion batteries is improved. Fifty microliters of
      PPy-coated caddice-clew-like MnO2 has the best cyclic performances as has 620 mAh
      g-1 discharge specific capacities after 300 cycles. As a comparison, the
      discharge specific capacity of bare MnO2 materials falls to below 200 mAh g-1
      after 10 cycles. The improved lithium-storage cyclic stability of the MnO2@PPy
      samples attributes to the core-shell hybrid structure which can buffer the
      structural expansion and contraction of MnO2 caused by the repeated embedding and
      disengagement of Li ions and can prevent the pulverization of MnO2. This
      experiment provides an effective way to mitigate the problem of capacity fading
      of the transition metal oxide materials as anode materials for (lithium-ion
      batteries) LIBs.

PMID- 28866786
TI  - A pitfall of thoracoscopic thymectomy: a case with intraoperative and
      postoperative complications.
AB  - We have reported the usefulness of the subxiphoid approach in thymectomy.
      However, such a new operation method may have unknown complications that rarely
      occur. Surgeons cannot completely avoid intraoperative and postoperative
      complications. We report a case of intraoperative injury of the orifice of the
      left internal thoracic vein flowing to the left brachiocephalic vein and
      postoperative pericarditis following video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS)
      thymectomy. The innominate vein has been considered to be the vessel that is most
      frequently injured especially at the orifice of the thymic veins. We also suggest
      that the orifice of the left internal thoracic vein is the second dangerous
      location that requires special care. In addition, postoperative pericarditis
      occurred in this patient. Pericardial drainage was necessary. No additional
      complications have been found in the 9 months since the operation. Though VATS
      thymectomy using the subxiphoid approach is a safe and less-invasive operation,
      intraoperative and postoperative complications were possible to be occurred.

PMID- 28866787
TI  - Iron metabolism and its detection through MRI in parkinsonian disorders: a
      systematic review.
AB  - Iron deposition in the brain normally increase with age, but its accumulation in
      certain regions is observed in a number of neurodegenerative diseases including
      Parkinson's disease (PD) and other parkinsonisms. Whether iron overload leads to
      dopaminergic neuronal death in the SN of PD patients or is instead simply a by
      product of the neurodegenerative progression is still yet to be ascertained.
      Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive method to assess brain iron
      content in PD patients. In PD, accurate radiologic visualization of basal ganglia
      is required. Deep gray matter nuclei are well presented in T2- and T2*-weighted
      images. T2*-weighted gradient-echo (GRE) is widely used to assess calcifications
      and also for iron detection. On the other hand, new methods specifically designed
      for detecting iron-induced susceptibility differences can be further improved by
      sequences like susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI). In the present review, we
      aim to summarize the available data on brain iron deposition in PD.

PMID- 28866788
TI  - Enrichment of putatively damaging rare variants in the DYX2 locus and the reading
      related genes CCDC136 and FLNC.
AB  - Eleven loci with prior evidence for association with reading and language
      phenotypes were sequenced in 96 unrelated subjects with significant impairment in
      reading performance drawn from the Colorado Learning Disability Research Center
      collection. Out of 148 total individual missense variants identified, the
      chromosome 7 genes CCDC136 and FLNC contained 19. In addition, a region
      corresponding to the well-known DYX2 locus for RD contained 74 missense variants.
      Both allele sets were filtered for a minor allele frequency <=0.01 and high
      Polyphen-2 scores. To determine if observations of these alleles are occurring
      more frequently in our cases than expected by chance in aggregate, counts from
      our sample were compared to the number of observations in the European subset of
      the 1000 Genomes Project using Fisher's exact test. Significant P values were
      achieved for both CCDC136/FLNC (P = 0.0098) and the DYX2 locus (P = 0.012). Taken
      together, this evidence further supports the influence of these regions on
      reading performance. These results also support the influence of rare variants in
      reading disability.

PMID- 28866789
TI  - Population data and forensic efficiency of 21 autosomal STR loci included in AGCU
      EX22 amplification system in the Wanzhou Han population.
AB  - Autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs), widely distributed in the whole human
      genome, play an important role in personal identification and parentage testing.
      In this study, the allele frequencies and forensic efficiency parameters of 21
      autosomal STR loci included in the AGCU EX22 kit were obtained from 433 Chinese
      Han individuals residing in the Wanzhou District in the north of Chongqing
      Municipality, Southwest China. No deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was
      observed in all of the 21 STR loci. A total of 241 alleles were observed with
      allele frequencies ranging from 0.0011 to 0.5418. The cumulative power of
      discrimination and the cumulative probability of exclusion were
      0.9999999999999999999999999 and 0.999999996, respectively. The results of genetic
      distance, neighbor-joining tree, principal component plots, and multidimensional
      scaling analysis revealed that the Wanzhou Han had more genetic differences when
      compared with Kazakh and Uyghur populations from Xinjiang than other included
      reference populations. In summary, the results in forensic characteristic
      analyses indicated that the 21 STRs are highly polymorphic and can be served as a
      useful tool in forensic routine practices. The population comparison indicated
      that close geographic or ethnic origin groups had a strong genetic affinity with
      each other.

PMID- 28866790
TI  - Weekend surgical handover enhances early management of acute clinical changes
      using a red flag system.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recent implementation of the European Working Time Directive in
      Ireland has resulted in a change from thetraditional model of patient care to a
      system characterised by shift work among clinicians. Effective handover ofpatient
      information is essential for transfer of responsibility between clinicians and
      maintaining continuity of care. The weekend has been identified as a particularly
      vulnerable transition of patient care. AIMS AND METHODS: Our study aims to
      determine if implementing a formal face-to-face handover accompanied by an
      electronictemplate in our surgical department can improve the number of adverse
      events reported back to the primary teamafter a weekend on call. Data was
      collected over 12 weekends between February and May 2016. A list of adverseevents
      was established, and during an initial observation period of 6 weeks, we
      documented the number of adverseevents that were informally handed over. A 6-week
      intervention was then performed, involving a formal face-to-facehandover on
      Monday morning supported by an electronic patient census using a red-flag system
      to highlightpatients who experienced an adverse event over the weekend. RESULTS:
      Our results showed the mean number of adverse events recorded pre-intervention
      was 3.17 +/- 0.6 over the 6-week period. Following the introduction of weekend
      face-to-face handover, there was 147% increase in the number of adverse events
      recorded with a mean of 7.83 +/- 1.2. CONCLUSION: The introduction of a formal
      face-to-face weekend handover with a red-flag system resulted in increased
      reporting of patient adverse events, allowing earlier recognition and management.

PMID- 28866792
TI  - Principles of Need and the Aggregation Thesis.
AB  - Principles of need are constantly referred to in health care priority setting.
      The common denominator for any principle of need is that it will ascribe some
      kind of special normative weight to people being worse off. However, this common
      ground does not answer the question how a plausible principle of need should
      relate to the aggregation of benefits across individuals. Principles of need are
      sometimes stated as being incompatible with aggregation and sometimes
      characterized as accepting aggregation in much the same way as utilitarians do.
      In this paper we argue that if one wants to take principles of need seriously
      both of these positions have unreasonable implications. We then characterize and
      defend a principle of need consisting of sufficientarian elements as well as
      prioritarian which avoids these unreasonable implications.

PMID- 28866791
TI  - Comparing perceived effectiveness of FDA-proposed cigarette packaging graphic
      health warnings between sexual and gender minorities and heterosexual adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed nine graphic
      health warnings (GHWs) on cigarette packaging that were rated equally effective
      across racial/ethnic, education, or income groups of adult smokers. However, data
      on GHW effectiveness among sexual and gender minority (SGM) adults, who have
      higher smoking prevalence, are currently lacking. This study analyzed whether
      perceived effectiveness of GHWs differed by gender and sexual orientation.
      METHODS: Data came from a randomized experiment among 1,200 adults with an
      oversample from low socioeconomic status groups, conducted between 2013 and 2014
      in three Massachusetts communities. Participants viewed and rated the
      effectiveness of nine GHWs. Mixed effects regression models predicted perceived
      effectiveness with gender and sexual orientation, adjusting for repeated
      measurements, GHWs viewed, age, race, ethnicity, smoking status, and health
      status. RESULTS: Female heterosexuals rated GHWs as more effective than male
      heterosexual, lesbian, and transgender and other gender respondents. There was no
      significant difference between female and male heterosexuals versus gay, male
      bisexual, or female bisexual respondents. Differences by gender and sexual
      orientation were consistent across all nine GHWs. Significant correlates of
      higher perceived effectiveness included certain GHWs, older age, being African
      American (vs white), being Hispanic (vs non-Hispanic), having less than high
      school education (vs associate degree or higher), and being current smokers (vs
      non-smokers). CONCLUSIONS: Perceived effectiveness of GHWs was lower in certain
      SGM groups. We recommend further studies to understand the underlying mechanisms
      for these findings and investments in research and policy to communicate anti
      smoking messages more effectively to SGM populations.

PMID- 28866793
TI  - Accuracy of preoperative MRI to assess lateral neck metastases in papillary
      thyroid carcinoma.
AB  - Primary treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with lateral lymph node
      metastasis is surgery, but the extent of lateral neck dissection remains
      undefined. Preoperative imaging is used to guide the extent of surgery, although
      its sensitivity and specificity for defining the number and level of affected
      lymph nodes on the lateral neck is relatively modest. Our aim was to assess the
      role of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting the requisite
      levels of neck dissection in patients with regionally metastatic PTC, with a
      focus on Levels II and V. All patients with PTC and lateral neck metastasis who
      had undergone neck dissection at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and
      Neck Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland from 2013 to 2016
      and had a preoperative MRI available were retrospectively reviewed. A head and
      neck radiologist re-evaluated all MRIs, and the imaging findings were compared
      with histopathology after neck dissection. In the cohort of 39 patients,
      preoperative MRI showed concordance with histopathology for Levels II and V as
      follows: sensitivity of 94 and 67%, specificity of 20 and 91%, positive
      predictive value of 56 and 75%, and negative predictive value of 75 and 87%,
      respectively. In PTC, MRI demonstrated fairly high specificity and negative
      predictive value for Level V metastasis, and future studies are needed to verify
      our results to omit prophylactic dissection of this level. Routine dissection of
      Level II in patients with regionally metastatic PTC needs to be considered, as
      MRI showed low specificity.

PMID- 28866794
TI  - Predictors for hilar/intrapulmonary lymph node metastasis in discrete type of
      clinical N1 non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Accurate preoperative evaluation of lymph nodes can provide optimal
      treatment for patients. However, in patients with clinical N1 disease (cN1) non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), no suitable predictor has been identified for
      hilar/intrapulmonary lymph node metastasis (pathological N1 disease; pN1). The
      purpose of this study was to identify pN1 in cN1 NSCLC patients. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed the clinicoradiological features of 109 patients with a
      discrete type of cN1 NSCLC who had undergone complete resection at our
      institution from 2004 to 2015. The association between clinicoradiological
      variables and nodal status was analyzed to identify predictors for pN1. RESULTS:
      The cohort consisted of 77 males and 32 females, ranging in age from 39 to 84
      years. The breakdown by pathological N category was 40 (37%) pN0, 41 (38%) pN1,
      and 28 (25%) pN2 patients. Maximum lymph node diameter was identified as a
      significant predictor for pN1, with an odds ratio of 1.25 (P = 0.010). When
      limited to 63 patients who underwent positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) at
      our institution, the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the lymph node
      was an independent predictor, with an odds ratio of 1.91 with logistic regression
      analysis (P = 0.004). The size of lymph node and the SUVmax were significant
      factors for pN1, with optimal cut-off values of 13 mm and 4.28, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among the patients with cN1, maximum lymph node size and SUVmax of
      the FDG-PET were significant predictors for pN1.

PMID- 28866795
TI  - On the Processes Underlying the Relationship Between Alexithymia and Gambling
      Severity.
AB  - A great number of individuals with persistent problematic gambling behavior
      exhibit alexithymic tendencies, greater impulsivity, impaired working memory and
      poor mood. However, the relationship between these cognitive, affective and
      personality factors in problem gambling remains poorly understood. Our aim was to
      investigate multiple pathways of the alexithymia and problem gambling
      relationship. One hundred and six male subjects with different levels of gambling
      problem severity were recruited. Alexithymia, impulsivity and verbal working
      memory were evaluated, and their relationships to disordered gambling was
      examined by means of a path analysis. Results indicate that alexithymia is
      related to an increase in the severity of gambling indirectly, i.e., through
      distress severity. In addition, a rise of alexithymic tendencies was also
      associated with problem gambling severity through enhanced impulsivity that
      directly increased distress. Working memory capacity failed to significantly
      impact our path model. Overall, our findings contribute a new finding to the
      literature by highlighting the importance of alexithymia, in addition to
      impulsivity, in the understanding of gambling problem severity and its clinical
      course.

PMID- 28866796
TI  - The Role of Family for Youth Friendships: Examining a Social Anxiety Mechanism.
AB  - The quality of family relationships and youth friendships are intricately linked.
      Previous studies have examined different mechanisms of family-peer linkage, but
      few have examined social anxiety. The present study examined whether parental
      rejection and family climate predicted changes in youth social anxiety, which in
      turn predicted changes in friendship quality and loneliness. Possible
      bidirectional associations also were examined. Data for mothers, fathers, and
      youth (M age at Time 1 = 11.27; 52.3% were female) from 687 two-parent households
      over three time points are presented. Results from autoregressive, cross-lagged
      analyses revealed that father rejection (not mother rejection or family climate)
      at Time 1 (Fall of 6th Grade) predicted increased youth social anxiety at Time 2
      (Spring of 7th Grade), which in turn, predicted increased loneliness at Time 3
      (Spring of 8th Grade). The indirect effect of father rejection on loneliness was
      statistically significant. Mother rejection, father rejection, and a poor family
      climate were associated with decreased friendship quality and increased
      loneliness over time. Finally, there was some evidence of transactional
      associations between father rejection and youth social anxiety as well as between
      social anxiety and loneliness. This study's findings underscore the important
      role of fathers in youth social anxiety and subsequent social adjustment.

PMID- 28866798
TI  - Development of an Amperometric Biosensor Platform for the Combined Determination
      of L-Malic, Fumaric, and L-Aspartic Acid.
AB  - Three amperometric biosensors have been developed for the detection of L-malic
      acid, fumaric acid, and L -aspartic acid, all based on the combination of a
      malate-specific dehydrogenase (MDH, EC 1.1.1.37) and diaphorase (DIA, EC
      1.8.1.4). The stepwise expansion of the malate platform with the enzymes fumarate
      hydratase (FH, EC 4.2.1.2) and aspartate ammonia-lyase (ASPA, EC 4.3.1.1)
      resulted in multi-enzyme reaction cascades and, thus, augmentation of the
      substrate spectrum of the sensors. Electrochemical measurements were carried out
      in presence of the cofactor beta-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and the
      redox mediator hexacyanoferrate (III) (HCFIII). The amperometric detection is
      mediated by oxidation of hexacyanoferrate (II) (HCFII) at an applied potential of
      + 0.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl. For each biosensor, optimum working conditions were defined
      by adjustment of cofactor concentrations, buffer pH, and immobilization
      procedure. Under these improved conditions, amperometric responses were linear up
      to 3.0 mM for L-malate and fumarate, respectively, with a corresponding
      sensitivity of 0.7 MUA mM-1 (L-malate biosensor) and 0.4 MUA mM-1 (fumarate
      biosensor). The L-aspartate detection system displayed a linear range of 1.0-10.0
      mM with a sensitivity of 0.09 MUA mM-1. The sensor characteristics suggest that
      the developed platform provides a promising method for the detection and
      differentiation of the three substrates.

PMID- 28866797
TI  - Susceptibility of Euseius concordis (Mesostigmata: Phytoseiidae) to pesticides
      used in citrus production systems.
AB  - Euseius concordis (Chant) is an important predatory mite found in citrus
      orchards. The toxicity of 19 pesticides used in citrus orchards on biological and
      population parameters of this mite was assessed. Our results indicated that
      formetanate hydrochloride, dimethoate and phosmet were highly harmful (100%
      mortality) to E. concordis. Carbosulfan, diflubenzuron, fenpropathrin, gamma
      cyhalothrin, imidacloprid, lambda-cyhalothrin, lambda-cyhalothrin + thiamethoxam,
      mineral and vegetable oils, spinosad and thiamethoxam reduced the female's
      survival and/or fecundity, and were moderately harmful to E. concordis. Besides
      the acute toxicity, carbosulfan and formetanate hydrochloride were highly
      persistent [>30 days after spraying (DAS)]; dimethoate was moderately persistent
      (16-30 DAS); spinosad, gamma-cyhalothrin, lambda-cyhalothrin and lambda
      cyhalothrin + thiamethoxam were slightly persistent (5-15 DAS); and the other
      pesticides were considered to be short-lived (<5 DAS). All compounds except
      lambda-cyhalothrin and thiamethoxam increased the pre-oviposition period in the
      female offspring. Carbosulfan, deltamethrin, diflubenzuron, etofenprox,
      fenpropathrin, gamma-cyhalothrin, mineral and vegetable oils, pyriproxyfen and
      tebufenozide reduced offspring fecundity, whereas thiamethoxam increased the
      fecundity. Mineral and vegetable oils reduced female longevity of the predator
      mite. Regarding population effects, imidacloprid, lambda-cyhalothrin, lambda
      cyhalothrin + thiamethoxam and thiamethoxam led to an increase in net
      reproductive rate (R o ), intrinsic rate of increase (r), and finite rate of
      increase (lambda) of E. concordis. Diflubenzuron, etofenprox, and mineral and
      vegetable oils reduced R o , r and lambda. All pesticides except beta
      cypermethrin, fenpropathrin and imidacloprid reduced the mean generation time (T)
      of the predator. Therefore, semi-field and field studies are needed to assess the
      compatibility of these compounds with E. concordis before adoption in IPM
      programs.

PMID- 28866799
TI  - Intranasal Administration of TAT-Conjugated Lipid Nanocarriers Loading GDNF for
      Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder
      (ND), characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons, microglial activation,
      and neuroinflammation. Current available treatments in clinical practice cannot
      halt the progression of the disease. During the last few years, growth factors
      (GFs) have been raised as a promising therapeutic approach to address the
      underlying neurodegenerative process. Among others, glial cell-derived
      neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a widely studied GF for PD. However, its clinical
      use is limited due to its short half life, rapid degradation rate, and
      difficulties in crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Lately, intranasal
      administration has appeared as an alternative non-invasive way to bypass the BBB
      and target drugs directly to the central nervous system (CNS). Thus, the aim of
      this work was to develop a novel nanoformulation to enhance brain targeting in PD
      through nasal administration. For that purpose, GDNF was encapsulated into
      chitosan (CS)-coated nanostructured lipid carriers, with the surface modified
      with transactivator of transcription (TAT) peptide (CS-nanostructured lipid
      carrier (NLC)-TAT-GDNF). After the physiochemical characterization of
      nanoparticles, the in vivo study was performed by intranasal administration to a
      1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) mouse model of PD. The CS-NLC
      TAT-GDNF-treated group revealed motor recovery which was confirmed with
      immunohistochemistry studies, showing the highest number of tyrosine hydroxylase
      (TH+) fibers in the striatum and TH+ neuron levels in the substantia nigra.
      Moreover, ionizing calcium-binding adaptor molecule 1 immunohistochemistry was
      performed, revealing that CS-NLC-TAT-GDNF acts as a modulator on microglia
      activation, obtaining values similar to control. Therefore, it may be concluded
      that the intranasal administration of CS-NLC-TAT-GDNF may represent a promising
      therapy for PD treatment.

PMID- 28866800
TI  - Chronologic Age at Hospitalization for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Among Preterm
      and Term Infants in the United States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of
      hospitalization among infants in the United States, and the risk for RSV
      hospitalizations is greater for infants born preterm. Recent studies in preterm
      and term infants have shown that RSV hospitalization rates vary considerably
      depending on infant chronologic age. This study sought to aggregate the data
      available from published literature and from nationally representative databases
      of US infant hospitalizations to generate a composite description of the effect
      of young chronologic age on RSV hospitalizations among US preterm and term
      infants by individual month of age. METHODS: Data describing the relative
      incidence of RSV hospitalizations by individual month of chronologic age during
      the first year of life were obtained from recently published studies, the 2006
      2011 National Inpatient Sample databases, and the 2006 and 2009 Kids Inpatient
      Databases. RESULTS: All data sources showed that >=20% of infant RSV
      hospitalizations occurred in the second month of life and >50% and >75% of RSV
      hospitalizations were observed during the first 3 and 6 months of life,
      respectively. These findings were consistent for both preterm and term infants.
      CONCLUSION: Data from multiple sources demonstrate that the greatest risk of RSV
      hospitalization occurs during the first 6 months of life among US preterm and
      term infants. Strategies to prevent infant RSV hospitalizations should be
      targeted to infants during the first months of life. FUNDING: AstraZeneca.

PMID- 28866801
TI  - Recent advances in assays for the fragile X-related disorders.
AB  - The fragile X-related disorders are a group of three clinical conditions
      resulting from the instability of a CGG-repeat tract at the 5' end of the FMR1
      transcript. Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) and fragile X
      associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI) are disorders seen in carriers
      of FMR1 alleles with 55-200 repeats. Female carriers of these premutation (PM)
      alleles are also at risk of having a child who has an FMR1 allele with >200
      repeats. Most of these full mutation (FM) alleles are epigenetically silenced
      resulting in a deficit of the FMR1 gene product, FMRP. This results in fragile X
      Syndrome (FXS), the most common heritable cause of intellectual disability and
      autism. The diagnosis and study of these disorders is challenging, in part
      because the detection of alleles with large repeat numbers has, until recently,
      been either time-consuming or unreliable. This problem is compounded by the
      mosaicism for repeat length and/or DNA methylation that is frequently seen in PM
      and FM carriers. Furthermore, since AGG interruptions in the repeat tract affect
      the risk that a FM allele will be maternally transmitted, the ability to
      accurately detect these interruptions in female PM carriers is an additional
      challenge that must be met. This review will discuss some of the pros and cons of
      some recently described assays for these disorders, including those that detect
      FMRP levels directly, as well as emerging technologies that promise to improve
      the diagnosis of these conditions and to be useful in both basic and
      translational research settings.

PMID- 28866802
TI  - Effects of a High-Fat Diet on Adipose Tissue CD8+ T Cells in Young vs. Adult
      Mice.
AB  - T cells are involved in chronic inflammation of adipose tissue in obese
      conditions. However, the impact of age on the adipose T cells remains unknown. In
      this study, we investigated T cells in the white adipose tissue of young and
      adult mice. Obesity was induced in the mice using a high-fat diet (HFD) for 14
      weeks. The young mice were fed an HFD at 3 weeks old, and adult mice were fed the
      HFD at 12 weeks old. Relative to adult mice, the young mice gained less fat and
      exhibited better glucose tolerance. Their adipose tissue contained more CD8+ T
      cells and higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Young mice showed a larger
      increase in CD4+ T cells. The young and adult mice showed similar insulin
      tolerance. HFD reduced the colon muscle layer, which was more obvious in the
      young mice. These data suggested that young and adult mice exhibit different
      responses to an HFD in terms of adipose tissue, glucose tolerance, and the colon
      muscle layer. The increase in CD8+ T cells and CD4+ T cells, together with higher
      levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, suggested elevated inflammation in the
      presence of less fat gain in the young mice, which was unexpected. The
      significance of this inflammation remains unknown. We propose that inflammation
      might inhibit energy storage in the adipose tissue to provide more energy to the
      lean body mass in favor of growth in the young mice. The present study provides
      another example of the beneficial effect of inflammation in physiological
      conditions.

PMID- 28866804
TI  - Medical epistemology.

PMID- 28866803
TI  - Personalized ex vivo multiple peptide enrichment and detection of T cells
      reactive to multiple tumor-associated antigens in prostate cancer patients.
AB  - Personalized peptide vaccination is a promising immunotherapeutic approach in
      prostate cancer (PCa). We therefore examined whether an approach, utilizing
      personalized multiple peptide-mediated ex vivo enrichment with effector T cells
      reactive to multiple tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), could be employed as a
      basis for the development of T cell immunotherapy of PCa. In this study, we used
      the non-adherent fraction (lymphocytes) of cryopreserved peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells from a leukapheretic product of biochemically recurrent (BR, n
      = 14) and metastatic hormone-refractory (HR, n = 12) PCa patients. The
      lymphocytes were primed with a pool of mixed overlapping peptides derived from 6
      PCa TAAs-PSA, PAP, NY-ESO-1, MAGE-A1, MAGE-A3 and MAGE-A4. After 2 weeks of
      culture, the cells were stimulated with the peptides and T cell reactivity
      determined by externalization of CD107a. No TAAs-reactive effector T cells were
      detected in the patient's lymphocytes after their reconstitution. However,
      following their priming with the TAAs-derived peptides and 2-week culturing, the
      lymphocytes became enriched with polyclonal TAAs-reactive effector CD8+ T cells
      in 8 out of 14 BR and 5 out of 12 HR patients. No such reactive CD8+ T cells were
      detected in cultured lymphocytes without the peptide priming. Stimulation of the
      responding cultures with peptides derived from individual TAAs revealed a unique
      repertoire of the reactive CD8+ T cells. Our strategy revealed that the
      personalized multiple peptide-mediated ex vivo enrichment with multiple TAAs
      reactive T cells in the PCa patient's lymphocytes is a viable approach for
      development of T cell immunotherapy of PCa.

PMID- 28866805
TI  - Development of a tool to aid the radiologic technologist using augmented reality
      and computer vision.
AB  - This technical innovation describes the development of a novel device to aid
      technologists in reducing exposure variation and repeat imaging in computed and
      digital radiography. The device consists of a color video and depth camera in
      combination with proprietary software and user interface. A monitor in the x-ray
      control room displays the position of the patient in real time with respect to
      automatic exposure control chambers and image receptor area. The thickness of the
      body part of interest is automatically displayed along with a motion indicator
      for the examined body part. The aim is to provide an automatic measurement of
      patient thickness to set the x-ray technique and to assist the technologist in
      detecting errors in positioning and motion before the patient is exposed. The
      device has the potential to reduce the incidence of repeat imaging by addressing
      problems technologists encounter daily during the acquisition of radiographs.

PMID- 28866806
TI  - Potential of Mangrove-Associated Endophytic Fungi for Production of
      Carbohydrolases with High Saccharification Efficiency.
AB  - The endophytic fungi represent a potential source of microorganisms for enzyme
      production. However, there have been only few studies exploiting their potential
      for the production of enzymes of industrial interest, such as the
      (hemi)cellulolytic enzymatic cocktail required in the hydrolysis of
      lignocellulosic biomass. Here, a collection of endophytic fungi isolated from
      mangrove tropical forests was evaluated for the production of carbohydrolases and
      performance on the hydrolysis of cellulose. For that, 41 endophytic strains were
      initially screened using a plate assay containing crystalline cellulose as the
      sole carbon source and the selected strains were cultivated under solid-state
      fermentation for endoglucanase, beta-glucosidase, and xylanase enzyme
      quantification. The hydrolysis of a cellulosic material with the enzymes from
      endophytic strains of the Aspergillus genus resulted in glucose and conversion
      values more than twofold higher than the reference strains (Aspergillus niger F12
      and Trichoderma reesei Rut-C30). Particularly, the enzymes from strains A. niger
      56 (3) and A. awamori 82 (4) showed a distinguished saccharification performance,
      reaching cellulose conversion values of about 35% after 24 h. Linking hydrolysis
      performance to the screening steps played an important role towards finding
      potential fungal strains for producing enzymatic cocktails with high
      saccharification efficiency. These results indicate the potential of mangrove
      associated endophytic fungi for production of carbohydrolases with efficient
      performance in the hydrolysis of biomass, thus contributing to the implementation
      of future biorefineries.

PMID- 28866807
TI  - Association between lipoprotein(a) level and type 2 diabetes: no evidence for a
      causal role of lipoprotein(a) and insulin.
AB  - AIMS: Inverse relationships have been described between the largely genetically
      determined levels of serum/plasma lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], type 2 diabetes (T2D)
      and fasting insulin. Here, we aimed to evaluate the nature of these relationships
      with respect to causality. METHODS: We tested whether we could replicate the
      recent negative findings on causality between Lp(a) and T2D by employing the
      Mendelian randomization (MR) approach using cross-sectional data from three
      independent cohorts, Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II; n = 2012), LIFE-Adult (n =
      3281) and LIFE-Heart (n = 2816). Next, we explored another frequently discussed
      hypothesis in this context: Increasing insulin levels during the course of T2D
      disease development inhibits hepatic Lp(a) synthesis and thereby might explain
      the inverse Lp(a)-T2D association. We used two fasting insulin-associated
      variants, rs780094 and rs10195252, as instrumental variables in MR analysis of n
      = 4937 individuals from BASE-II and LIFE-Adult. We further investigated causality
      of the association between fasting insulin and Lp(a) by combined MR analysis of
      12 additional SNPs in LIFE-Adult. RESULTS: While an Lp(a)-T2D association was
      observed in the combined analysis (meta-effect of OR [95% CI] = 0.91 [0.87-0.96]
      per quintile, p = 1.3x10-4), we found no evidence of causality in the Lp(a)-T2D
      association (p = 0.29, fixed effect model) when using the variant rs10455872 as
      the instrumental variable in the MR analyses. Likewise, no evidence of a causal
      effect of insulin on Lp(a) levels was found. CONCLUSIONS: While these results
      await confirmation in larger cohorts, the nature of the inverse Lp(a)-T2D
      association remains to be elucidated.

PMID- 28866808
TI  - Chylomicrons stimulate incretin secretion in mouse and human cells.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Lipids are a potent stimulus for the secretion of glucagon-like
      peptide (GLP)-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP).
      Traditionally, this effect was thought to involve the sensing of lipid digestion
      products by free fatty acid receptor 1 (FFA1) and G-protein coupled receptor 119
      (GPR119) on the apical surface of enteroendocrine cells. However, recent evidence
      suggests that lipids may in fact be sensed basolaterally, and that fatty acid
      absorption and chylomicron synthesis may be a prerequisite for their stimulatory
      effect on gut peptide release. Therefore, we investigated the effect of
      chylomicrons on GLP-1 and GIP secretion in vitro. METHODS: The effect of
      chylomicrons on incretin secretion was investigated using GLUTag cells and
      duodenal cultures of both murine and human origin. The role of lipoprotein lipase
      (LPL) and FFA1 in GLUTag cells was assessed by pharmacological inhibition and
      small (short) interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown. The effect of
      chylomicrons on intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) was determined by
      imaging GLUTag cells loaded with Fura-2. In the primary setting, the
      contributions of FFA1 and GPR119 were investigated using L cell-specific Gpr119
      knockout cultures treated with the FFA1 antagonist GW1100. RESULTS: Chylomicrons
      stimulated GLP-1 release from GLUTag cells, and both GLP-1 and GIP secretion from
      human and murine duodenal cultures. Chylomicron-triggered GLP-1 secretion from
      GLUTag cells was largely abolished following lipase inhibition with orlistat or
      siRNA-mediated knockdown of Lpl. In GLUTag cells, both GW1100 and siRNA-mediated
      Ffar1 knockdown reduced GLP-1 secretion in response to chylomicrons, and,
      consistent with FFA1 Gq-coupling, chylomicrons triggered an increase in [Ca2+]i.
      However, LPL and FFA1 inhibition had no significant effect on chylomicron
      mediated incretin secretion in murine cultures. Furthermore, the loss of GPR119
      had no impact on GLP-1 secretion in response to chylomicrons, even in the
      presence of GW1100. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Chylomicrons stimulate incretin
      hormone secretion from GLUTag cells as well as from human and murine duodenal
      cultures. In GLUTag cells, the molecular pathway was found to involve LPL
      mediated lipolysis, leading to the release of lipid species that activated FFA1
      and elevated intracellular calcium.

PMID- 28866809
TI  - How radiation influences atherosclerotic plaque development: a biophysical
      approach in ApoE-/- mice.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is the development of lipid-laden plaques in arteries and is
      nowadays considered as an inflammatory disease. It has been shown that high doses
      of ionizing radiation, as used in radiotherapy, can increase the risk of
      development or progression of atherosclerosis. To elucidate the effects of
      radiation on atherosclerosis, we propose a mathematical model to describe
      radiation-promoted plaque development. This model distinguishes itself from other
      models by combining plaque initiation and plaque growth, and by incorporating
      information from biological experiments. It is based on two consecutive
      processes: a probabilistic dose-dependent plaque initiation process, followed by
      deterministic plaque growth. As a proof of principle, experimental plaque size
      data from carotid arteries from irradiated ApoE[Formula: see text] mice was used
      to illustrate how this model can provide insight into the underlying biological
      processes. This analysis supports the promoting role for radiation in plaque
      initiation, but the model can easily be extended to include dose-related effects
      on plaque growth if available experimental data would point in that direction.
      Moreover, the model could assist in designing future biological experiments on
      this research topic. Additional biological data such as plaque size data from
      chronically-irradiated mice or experimental data sets with a larger variety in
      biological parameters can help to further unravel the influence of radiation on
      plaque development. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first biophysical
      model that combines probabilistic and mechanistic modeling which uses
      experimental data to investigate the influence of radiation on plaque
      development.

PMID- 28866810
TI  - Reply to the letter "Nasal nitric oxide as biomarker in the evaluation and
      management of chronic rhino-sinusitis with nasal polyposis".

PMID- 28866811
TI  - Release of phosphorus from sewage sludge during ozonation and removal by
      magnesium ammonium phosphate.
AB  - The release rule of phosphorus from sewage sludge during ozonation and removal by
      the magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP) method were investigated. The results
      showed that the concentrations of total phosphorus in aqueous phase (TP(A)) and
      orthophosphate (PO43--P) in ozonized sludge supernatant rose obviously with
      increasing ozone dose when ozone dose was below 61.2 mg O3/gSS then almost kept
      constant. The TP(A) and PO43--P contents in the ozonized sludge supernatant were
      70.9 and 63.3 mg/L when ozone dose was 61.2 mg O3/gSS, respectively. Total
      phosphorus in the sludge solid (TP(S)) was mostly distributed in inorganic
      phosphorus (IP) (more than 81.5% of TP(S)), and non-apatite inorganic phosphorus
      (NAIP) was the major component of IP in the sludge (more than 78.7% of IP) during
      ozonation. The release contribution (RC) of IP to TP(A) accounted for over 73.9%.
      The optimized conditions for the removal of phosphorus from ozonized sludge
      supernatant were set at an initial Mg2+/PO43--P molar ratio of 1.8, pH 9.5, and
      reaction time of 5 min, under which the removal efficiencies of TP(A) and PO43--P
      were 43.1 and 52.2%, respectively.

PMID- 28866812
TI  - The pyramidalis-anterior pubic ligament-adductor longus complex (PLAC) and its
      role with adductor injuries: a new anatomical concept.
AB  - PURPOSE: Adductor longus injuries are complex. The conflict between views in the
      recent literature and various nineteenth-century anatomy books regarding
      symphyseal and perisymphyseal anatomy can lead to difficulties in MRI
      interpretation and treatment decisions. The aim of the study is to systematically
      investigate the pyramidalis muscle and its anatomical connections with adductor
      longus and rectus abdominis, to elucidate injury patterns occurring with adductor
      avulsions. METHODS: A layered dissection of the soft tissues of the anterior
      symphyseal area was performed on seven fresh-frozen male cadavers. The dimensions
      of the pyramidalis muscle were measured and anatomical connections with adductor
      longus, rectus abdominis and aponeuroses examined. RESULTS: The pyramidalis is
      the only abdominal muscle anterior to the pubic bone and was found bilaterally in
      all specimens. It arises from the pubic crest and anterior pubic ligament and
      attaches to the linea alba on the medial border. The proximal adductor longus
      attaches to the pubic crest and anterior pubic ligament. The anterior pubic
      ligament is also a fascial anchor point connecting the lower anterior abdominal
      aponeurosis and fascia lata. The rectus abdominis, however, is not attached to
      the adductor longus; its lateral tendon attaches to the cranial border of the
      pubis; and its slender internal tendon attaches inferiorly to the symphysis with
      fascia lata and gracilis. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates a strong direct
      connection between the pyramidalis muscle and adductor longus tendon via the
      anterior pubic ligament, and it introduces the new anatomical concept of the
      pyramidalis-anterior pubic ligament-adductor longus complex (PLAC). Knowledge of
      these anatomical relationships should be employed to aid in image interpretation
      and treatment planning with proximal adductor avulsions. In particular, MRI
      imaging should be employed for all proximal adductor longus avulsions to assess
      the integrity of the PLAC.

PMID- 28866813
TI  - Psychophysiological Reactivity in Couples During a Marital Interaction Task.
AB  - The ability to regulate our own physiological arousal when dealing with the
      emotional expression of our partner is crucial for satisfactory and stable
      intimate relationships. In previous physiological studies of marital
      interactions, researchers have found greater levels of psychophysiological
      arousal for members of the couple in conflictual interactions in comparison with
      positive interactions. Past researchers have established that intense and
      prolonged autonomic and neuroendocrine arousal during marital conflict can have
      negative consequences for mental and physical health. In this study we examined
      the physiological reactivity, as measured by skin conductance level, heart rate
      and cortisol levels, from both partners during a couple's interaction task
      consisting of a structured conversation about positive and negative aspects of
      their relationship. Participants were thirty-two heterosexual couples (N = 64) in
      a committed monogamous relationship with a minimum duration of one year. We found
      higher heart rate and cortisol levels during negative interaction condition when
      compared with the positive condition. Skin conductance was higher in the positive
      interaction condition, when compared with the negative interaction condition. In
      addition, we found a significant negative association between heart rate
      variability and autonomic arousal evoked by the interaction task. The
      implications of these findings for the effects of marital strain on health as
      well as for the design of risk-reducing interventions, namely biofeedback are
      discussed.

PMID- 28866814
TI  - From mechanisms to therapy: RNA processing's impact on human genetics.

PMID- 28866815
TI  - Low Power Consumption Substrate-Emitting DFB Quantum Cascade Lasers.
AB  - In the present work, an ultra-low power consumption substrate-emitting
      distributed feedback (DFB) quantum cascade laser (QCL) was developed. The
      continuous-wave (CW) threshold power dissipation is reduced to 0.43 W at 25 
      degrees C by shortening the cavity length to 0.5 mm and depositing high
      reflectivity (HR) coating on both facets. As far as we know, this is the recorded
      threshold power dissipation of QCLs in the same conditions. Single-mode emission
      was achieved by employing a buried second-order grating. Mode-hop free emission
      can be observed within a wide temperature range from 15 to 105  degrees C in CW
      mode. The divergence angles are 22.5o and 1.94o in the ridge-width direction and
      cavity-length direction, respectively. The maximum optical power in CW operation
      was 2.4 mW at 25  degrees C, which is sufficient to spectroscopy applications.

PMID- 28866816
TI  - Distinctively Expressed Cytokines by Three Different Inflammation Cells and Their
      Interaction with Keratinocytes in Wound Healing.
AB  - Inflammatory cells exert crucial influence on wound healing, while exploration is
      still desired to get further insight into the key factors that promote the
      process. In the present study, we performed comparative microarray data analysis
      of the three types of inflammatory cells isolated from skin wounds and focused on
      differentially expressed secreted factors. Gene Ontology enrichment and receptor
      analysis indicated that 11 genes of secreted factors in Ly6C+ inflammatory
      macrophages and 27 genes of secreted factors in neutrophils exhibited higher (>=
      5-fold) expression, and all these factors were considered as candidates with
      potentially important role in keratinocyte activation. Kyoto Encyclopedia of
      Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis revealed that TNF and IL17
      signaling pathways were activated by Ly6C+ inflammatory macrophages secreted
      cytokines, while TGF-beta, HIF-1, NF-kappaB, and Rap 1 signaling pathways and
      pathways regulating pluripotency of stem cells were highly involved with
      neutrophils secreted cytokines. Taking TNF as an example, the source of the
      cytokine and its impact on keratinocytes were verified by immunofluorescence,
      gene knockout mice, and quantitative phosphoproteomics. Collectively, this study
      has indicated distinctively expressed cytokines in three inflammatory cells,
      which is helpful in identifying key factors in inducing keratinocyte signaling
      and in wound healing.

PMID- 28866817
TI  - A Review on Current Status and Future Prospects of Winged Bean (Psophocarpus
      tetragonolobus) in Tropical Agriculture.
AB  - Winged bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC., is analogous to soybean in
      yield and nutritional quality, proving a valuable alternative to soybean in
      tropical regions of the world. The presence of anti-nutritional factors and high
      costs associated with indeterminate plant habit have been major concerns in this
      crop. But occurrence of good genetic variability in germplasm collections offers
      precious resources for winged bean breeding. However, lack of germplasm
      characterization is hindering such efforts. From a genomic standpoint, winged
      bean has been little studied despite rapid advancement in legume genomics in the
      last decade. Exploiting modern genomics/breeding approaches for genetic resource
      characterization and the breeding of early maturing, high yielding, determinate
      varieties which are disease resistant and free of anti-nutritional factors along
      with developing consumer friendly value-added products of local significance are
      great challenges and opportunities in the future that would boost cultivation of
      winged bean in the tropics. We review past efforts and future prospects towards
      winged bean improvement.

PMID- 28866818
TI  - Examining colorectal cancer survivors' surveillance patterns and experiences of
      care: a SEER-CAHPS study.
AB  - PURPOSE: We examined associations between experiences of care and adherence to
      surveillance guidelines among Medicare Fee-For-Service beneficiaries with
      colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Using linked data from the National Cancer
      Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End results (SEER) cancer registry
      program and the Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems
      (CAHPS(r)) patient experience surveys (SEER-CAHPS), we identified local/regional
      CRC survivors diagnosed in 1999-2009 aged 65+, who underwent surgical resection
      and completed a CAHPS survey <36 months of diagnosis. Adherence for a 3-year
      observation period was defined as receiving a colonoscopy; >=2 carcinoembryonic
      antigen (CEA) tests; and each year had >=2 office visits and >=1 computerized
      tomography test. RESULTS: Many of the 314 participants reported ratings of a 9 or
      10 out of 10 for overall care (55.4%), personal doctor (58.6%), health plan
      (59.6%), and specialist doctor (47.0%). Adherence to post-resection surveillance
      was 76.1% for office visits, 36.9% for CEA testing, 48.1% for colonoscopy, and
      10.3% for CT Imaging. Overall, 37.9% of the sample were categorized as non
      adherent (adhering to <=1 surveillance guideline). In multivariable models,
      ratings of personal doctor and specialist doctor were positively associated with
      adherence to office visits, and ratings of personal doctor were associated with
      adherence overall. CONCLUSIONS: Findings point to the potentially important role
      of patient-provider relationships in adherence to office visits for CRC
      surveillance. As adherence may increase survival among CRC survivors, further
      investigation is needed to identify specific components of this relationship that
      impact office visit adherence, and other potentially modifiable drivers of
      surveillance guidelines.

PMID- 28866819
TI  - Fluorescence in situ hybridization as prognostic predictor of tumor recurrence
      during treatment with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin therapy for intermediate- and high
      risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
AB  - A significant number of patients with intermediate- or high-risk bladder cancer
      treated with intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunotherapy are non
      responders to this treatment. Since we cannot predict in which patients BCG
      therapy will fail, markers for responders are needed. UroVysion(r) is a
      multitarget fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) test for bladder cancer
      detection. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether FISH can be used to
      early identify recurrence during treatment with BCG. In a multicenter,
      prospective study, three bladder washouts at different time points during
      treatment (t 0 = week 0, pre-BCG, t 1 = 6 weeks following TURB, t 2 = 3 months
      following TURB) were collected for FISH from patients with bladder cancer treated
      with BCG between 2008 and 2013. Data on bladder cancer recurrence and duration of
      BCG maintenance therapy were recorded. Thirty-six (31.6%) out of 114 patients
      developed a recurrence after a median of 6 months (range 2-32). No significant
      association was found between a positive FISH test at t 0 or t 1 and risk of
      recurrence (p = 0.79 and p = 0.29). A positive t 2 FISH test was associated with
      a higher risk of recurrence (p = 0.001). Patients with a positive FISH test 3
      months following TURB had a 4.0-4.6 times greater risk of developing a recurrence
      compared to patients with a negative FISH. Patients with a positive FISH test 3
      months following TURB and induction BCG therapy have a higher risk of developing
      tumor recurrence. FISH can therefore be a useful additional tool for physicians
      when determining a treatment strategy.

PMID- 28866820
TI  - Copper, Manganese, Zinc, and Cadmium in Tea Leaves of Different Types and Origin.
AB  - Concentrations of selected metals (Cu, Mn, Zn, Cd) in tea leaves were
      investigated. Samples included black, green, and other (red, white, yellow, and
      oolong) teas. They were purchased on a local market but they covered different
      countries of origin. Beverages like yerba mate, rooibos, and fruit teas were also
      included in the discussion. Metal determinations were performed using atomic
      absorption spectrometry. In black teas, Mn/Cd ratio was found to be significantly
      higher (48,091 +/- 35,436) vs. green (21,319 +/- 16,396) or other teas (15,692 +/
      8393), while Cd concentration was lower (31.4 +/- 18.3 MUg/kg) vs. other teas
      67.0 (67.0 +/- 24.4). Moreover, Zn/Cu and Cu/Cd ratios were, respectively, lower
      (1.1 +/- 0.2 vs. 2.2 +/- 0.5) and higher (1086 +/- 978 vs. 261 +/- 128) when
      comparing black teas with other teas. Intake of each metal from drinking tea was
      estimated based on the extraction levels reported by other authors. Contributions
      to recommended daily intake for Cu, Mn, and Zn were estimated based on the
      recommendations of international authorities. Except for manganese, tea is not a
      major dietary source of the studied elements. From the total number of 27
      samples, three have shown exceeded cadmium level, according to local regulations.

PMID- 28866821
TI  - Evaluating lipopolysaccharide-induced oxidative stress in bovine granulosa cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the capacity of bovine
      granulosa cells to generate reactive oxygen intermediates in response to
      lipopolysaccharide. We hypothesized that granulosa cells increase reactive oxygen
      intermediates in response to Gram-negative lipopolysaccharide in a similar manner
      to immune cells. METHODS: Bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells and granulosa
      cells were cultured in the presence of lipopolysaccharide. Oxidative stress was
      evaluated using the fluorescent marker dye CellROX, and oxidative stress-related
      genes were measured using real-time RT-PCR. RESULTS: As expected, peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells increased oxidative stress in response to
      lipopolysaccharide as measured by accumulation of the fluorescent marker dye
      CellROX. While granulosa cells demonstrate the capacity to increase accumulation
      of CellROX dye in response to a positive control menadione, lipopolysaccharide
      had no effect on accumulation of CellROX dye. The expression of GSR, SOD1, and
      SOD2 were variable in peripheral blood mononuclear cells treated with
      lipopolysaccharide but were consistently upregulated when co-incubated with the
      antioxidant, N-acetyl cysteine. The expression of oxidative stress-related genes
      was not altered in granulosa cells, with the exception of elevated SOD1 following
      lipopolysaccharide exposure in the absence of antioxidant. CONCLUSIONS: Combined,
      these data suggest that while reactive stress is important in pathogen killing
      and inflammation in immune cells, granulosa cells do not increase oxidative
      stress in response to lipopolysaccharide.

PMID- 28866822
TI  - Dutch Economic Value of Radium-223 in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer has
      changed with the introduction of radium-223, cabazitaxel, abiraterone and
      enzalutamide. To assess value for money, their cost effectiveness in patients
      with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer previously treated with
      docetaxel from the Dutch societal perspective was investigated. METHODS: A cost
      effectiveness analysis was conducted using efficacy, symptomatic skeletal-related
      event and safety data obtained from indirect treatment comparisons. Missing
      skeletal-related event data for cabazitaxel were conservatively assumed to be
      identical to radium-223. A Markov model combined these clinical inputs with Dutch
      specific resource use and costs for metastatic castration-resistant prostate
      cancer treatment from a societal perspective. Total quality-adjusted life-years
      and costs in 2017 euros were calculated over a 5-year (lifetime) time horizon.
      RESULTS: Radium-223 resulted in ?6092 and ?4465 lower costs and 0.02 and 0.01
      higher quality-adjusted life-years compared with abiraterone and cabazitaxel,
      respectively, demonstrating dominance of radium-223. Sensitivity analyses reveal
      a 64% (54%) chance of radium-223 being cost effective compared with abiraterone
      (cabazitaxel) at the informal ?80,000 willingness-to-pay threshold. Compared with
      enzalutamide, radium-223 resulted in slightly lower quality-adjusted life-years (
      0.06) and ?7390 lower costs, revealing a 61% chance of radium-223 being cost
      effective compared with enzalutamide. The lower costs of radium-223 compared with
      abiraterone and enzalutamide are driven by lower drug costs and prevention of
      expensive skeletal-related events. Compared with cabazitaxel, the lower costs of
      radium-223 are driven by lower costs of the drug, administration and adverse
      events. CONCLUSION: Radium-223 may be a less costly treatment strategy offering
      similar gains in health benefits compared with abiraterone, cabazitaxel and
      enzalutamide in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
      previously treated with docetaxel from the Dutch societal perspective.

PMID- 28866823
TI  - Neuroprotective Effects of Baicalein on Acrolein-induced Neurotoxicity in the
      Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic System of Rat Brain.
AB  - Elevated levels of acrolein, an alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde are detected in
      the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In the present study, the
      neuroprotective effect of baicalein (a phenolic flavonoid in the dried root of
      Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi) on acrolein-induced neurodegeneration of
      nigrostriatal dopaminergic system was investigated using local infusion of
      acrolein in the substantia nigra (SN) of rat brain. Systemic administration of
      baicalein (30 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly attenuated acrolein-induced elevations
      in 4-hydroxy-2-noneal (a product of lipid peroxidation), N-(3-formyl-3,4
      dehydropiperidino)lysine (a biomarker of acrolein-conjugated proteins), and heme
      oxygenase-1 levels (a redox-regulated protein) in the infused SN, indicating that
      baicalein inhibited acrolein-induced oxidative stress and protein conjugation.
      Furthermore, baicalein reduced acrolein-induced elevations in glial fibrillary
      acidic protein (a biomarker of activated astrocytes), ED-1 (a biomarker of
      activated microglia), and mature cathepsin B levels (a cysteine lysosomal
      protease), suggesting that baicalein attenuated acrolein-induced
      neuroinflammation. Moreover, baicalein attenuated acrolein-induced caspase 1
      activation (a pro-inflammatory caspase) and interleukin-1beta levels, indicating
      that baicalein prevented acrolein-induced inflammasome activation. In addition,
      baicalein significantly attenuated acrolein-induced caspase 3 activation (a
      biomarker of apoptosis) as well as acrolein-induced elevation in receptor
      interacting protein kinase (RIPK) 3 levels (an initiator of necroptosis),
      indicating that baicalein attenuated apoptosis and necroptosis. At the same time,
      baicalein mitigated acrolein-induced reduction in dopamine levels in the striatum
      ipsilateral to acrolein-infused SN. In conclusion, our data suggest that
      baicalein is neuroprotective via inhibiting oxidative stress, protein
      conjugation, and inflammation. Furthermore, baicalein prevents acrolein-induced
      program cell deaths, suggesting that baicalein is therapeutically useful for
      slowing PD progression.

PMID- 28866825
TI  - Platelet to lymphocyte ratio and red cell distribution width as prognostic
      factors for survival and recurrence in patients with oral cancer.
AB  - Although platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and red cell distribution width (RDW)
      have been reported as good predictors for survival outcomes in various cancers,
      there is limited data supporting these as reliable predictors in oral cancer.
      This study thus aimed to assess the prognostic value of PLR and RDW markers in
      predicting survival and recurrence rates in patients with oral cancer. The
      records of 374 oral cancer patients treated with curative intent over a 7-year
      period (2009-2015) were reviewed. Survival and recurrence outcomes were compared
      between those with low and high PLR (<=135 vs. >135) and those with low and high
      RDW (<=14.05 vs. >14.05) using hazard ratios (HR). The 5-year disease-specific
      survival was significantly higher and recurrence rate significantly lower among
      the low PLR group compared to the high PLR group (65.7 vs. 37.6%; p < 0.001 and
      34.4 and 57.5%; p < 0.001), respectively. There were no significant differences
      between the low and high RDW groups for disease-specific survival (53.6 vs.
      54.7%, p = 0.408) and recurrence (40.0% vs. 53.8%, p = 0.079). Multivariate
      analysis showed that PLR was associated with disease-specific survival (HR =
      2.05, p < 0.001) and recurrence (HR = 1.69, p < 0.005) after adjusting for other
      factors, but not RDW. High PLR shows promise as a prognostic predictor for poor
      survival and recurrence in patients with oral cancer, but further studies are
      required. RDW has no prognostic value on any outcome.

PMID- 28866826
TI  - Impact of pioglitazone regulatory withdrawal on antidiabetic drug use and health
      in diabetic patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: In 2011, pioglitazone was withdrawn from the French market owing to a
      potential risk of bladder cancer. This study aimed at assessing the impact of
      this pioglitazone withdrawal (PW) considering (i) trends in antidiabetic uses and
      (ii) changes in hospitalization/death rates in diabetic patients following PW.
      METHODS: We first considered the general population of the Echantillon
      Generaliste des Beneficiaires (EGB), a 1/97th representative sample of the French
      healthcare insurance system beneficiaries, for the 2010-2014 period. In this, for
      each non-insulinic antidiabetic drug class, changes within the numbers of monthly
      supplied drug units for 1000 subjects were studied through times series and
      Unobserved Component Models. Second, we identified from the EGB a cohort of
      patients who were delivered a non-insulinic antidiabetic between 01 April 2011
      and 01 August 2011 (date of PW). In this, post-withdrawal incidences of all-cause
      hospitalization and death were compared amongst pioglitazone users and non-users
      using proportional subdistribution hazards models. RESULTS: PW was accompanied by
      an increase in metformin (+ 11.7; 95% CI 1.1-22.3) and glinide (+ 11.0; 95% CI
      1.2-20.8) numbers of monthly supplied units for 1000 subjects. No significant
      change was found for GLP-1 agonists, DPP-4 inhibitors, sulphonylureas or alpha
      glucosidase inhibitors. In the cohort of non-insulinic antidiabetic users at the
      time of PW (1093 pioglitazone users, 17,900 non-users), being a pioglitazone user
      at PW was not associated with a subsequently higher rate of hospitalization.
      CONCLUSIONS: If PW was accompanied with significant changes in the use of some
      antidiabetics, no adverse impact of PW on hospitalization or death rates of
      diabetic type 2 patients was found.

PMID- 28866824
TI  - Oil body biogenesis and biotechnology in legume seeds.
AB  - The seeds of many legume species including soybean, Pongamia pinnata and the
      model legume Medicago truncatula store considerable oil, apart from protein, in
      their cotyledons. However, as a group, legume storage strategies are quite
      variable and provide opportunities for better understanding of carbon
      partitioning into different storage products. Legumes with their ability to fix
      nitrogen can also increase the sustainability of agricultural systems. This
      review integrates the cell biology, biochemistry and molecular biology of oil
      body biogenesis before considering biotechnology strategies to enhance oil body
      biosynthesis. Cellular aspects of packaging triacylglycerol (TAG) into oil bodies
      are emphasized. Enhancing seed oil content has successfully focused on the up
      regulation of the TAG biosynthesis pathways using overexpression of enzymes such
      as diacylglycerol acyltransferase1 and transcription factors such as WRINKLE1 and
      LEAFY COTYLEDON1. While these strategies are central, decreasing carbon flow into
      other storage products and maximizing the packaging of oil bodies into the
      cytoplasm are other strategies that need further examination. Overall there is
      much potential for integrating carbon partitioning, up-regulation of fatty acid
      and TAG synthesis and oil body packaging, for enhancing oil levels. In addition
      to the potential for integrated strategies to improving oil yields, the capacity
      to modify fatty acid composition and use of oil bodies as platforms for the
      production of recombinant proteins in seed of transgenic legumes provide other
      opportunities for legume biotechnology.

PMID- 28866827
TI  - Fistula Following Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Proposed Classification and
      Algorithm for Optimal Management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is an accepted restrictive
      procedure with a hormonal component. There is no definitive course of treatment
      for post-LSG fistula; it remains a feared complication. We aimed to classify post
      LSG fistulas and propose an algorithm to optimize their treatment. METHODS:
      Following primary and revisional LSG in obese patients, a retrospective
      observational study of fistulas was undertaken. Radiological studies were
      performed to identify anatomically distinct types of fistulas. An algorithm was
      elaborated for the classification and evolving treatment of each type of fistula.
      RESULTS: Twenty post-LSG fistulas were studied (13 [2.5%] from our center, 7
      referred) with a mean body mass index of 43.1 +/- 10.2 kg/m2 (32.0-76.0) and mean
      age of 33.1 +/- 11.4 years (20.0-56.0). In all cases, the clinically suspected
      diagnosis was radiologically confirmed by water-soluble upper gastrointestinal
      series and double-contrast abdomino-pelvic CT scan. Three anatomical fistula
      types were characterized: type I, a small leak with no collection; type II, a
      leak with associated intra-abdominal abscess; and type III, a leak with multiple
      internal or external abscesses, a complex fistula. In accord with our algorithm,
      patients without sepsis received conservative treatment initially; this was
      sufficient for type I leaks. Type II abscesses received internal or external
      percutaneous drainage, and in some cases, stenting or endoprosthesis. Surgery was
      reserved for failure of conservative options and type III fistula. In cases of
      sepsis, surgery was mandatory. CONCLUSION: A radiologically defined, anatomically
      based classification system and treatment algorithm proved effective in clinical
      management of post-LSG fistula.

PMID- 28866828
TI  - Association of the severity of diabetes-related complications with stage of
      breast cancer at diagnosis among elderly women with pre-existing diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study assessed the association between the severity of diabetes
      complications using diabetes complications severity index (DCSI) and stage of
      breast cancer (BC) at diagnosis among elderly women with pre-existing diabetes
      and incident BC. METHODS: Using Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results
      Medicare data, we identified women with incident BC during 2004-2011 and pre
      existing diabetes (N = 7729). Chi-square tests were used to test for group
      differences in stage of BC at diagnosis. Multinomial logistic regression was used
      to examine the associations between the severity of diabetes complications and
      stage of BC at diagnosis. RESULTS: Overall, women with a DCSI = 2 and a DCSI >= 3
      were more likely to be diagnosed at advanced stages as compared to those with no
      diabetes complications. In full adjusted association (after adding BC screening
      to the analysis model), the severity of diabetes complications was no longer an
      independent predictor of advanced stages at diagnosis. However, women with a DCSI
      = 2 were 26% more likely to be diagnosed at stage I (versus stage 0) of BC at
      diagnosis as compared to those without diabetes complications (OR 1.26, 95% CI
      1.03-1.53). CONCLUSION: The increased likelihood of having advanced-stage BC at
      diagnosis associated with severity of diabetes-related complications appears to
      be mediated by lower rates of breast cancer screening among elderly women with
      pre-existing diabetes complications. Therefore, reducing disparity in receiving
      breast cancer screening among elderly women with diabetes may reduce the risk of
      advanced-stage breast cancer diagnosis.

PMID- 28866829
TI  - An investigation of the prevalence of swallowing difficulties and impact on
      quality of life in patients with advanced lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dysphagia can occur in advanced lung cancer due to direct tumour
      invasion or nerve compression. Anti-cancer treatments and co-morbid conditions
      may also cause or compound dysphagic symptoms. Speech and language therapy (SLT),
      medical and surgical interventions are available to address dysphagic symptoms in
      patients with lung cancer, however, management options are not described in
      national guidelines. Given the potentially short prognoses for patients with lung
      cancer, the aim of care should be to reduce symptom burden and maximise quality
      of life (QOL). Central to that aim is the identification and treatment of
      swallowing difficulties. PURPOSE: This study sought to identify the prevalence
      and impact of dysphagia on QOL in patients with advanced lung cancer. METHODS: A
      single-site, prospective, exploratory study was undertaken. Previously validated
      patient-reported outcome measures of swallowing were used to identify the
      presence and impact of dysphagia on QOL: EAT-10 assessment and the SWAL-QOL
      assessment. RESULTS: Seventy-two participants were recruited with 18.1%
      identified as having dysphagia on completion of the EAT-10 assessment. On further
      evaluation using the SWAL-QOL, compromised quality of life was noted with
      increased fatigue and meal time duration, difficulties with food selection and
      reduced eating desire. Frequent throat clearing, coughing and perceived
      pharyngeal stasis were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Dysphagia is a potential symptom in
      advanced lung cancer which may impact QOL. Patients, carers and healthcare
      professionals should be aware of this so that early referral to SLT can be
      expedited. More robust prevalence and interventional studies are required to
      inform optimal management of this distressing condition.

PMID- 28866830
TI  - A transportation network for human ovarian tissue is indispensable to success for
      fertility preservation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of an ovarian
      tissue transportation network for fertility preservation (FP) for cancer patients
      in Japan. METHODS: PubMed was searched for papers on transportation of human
      ovarian tissue for FP. We analyzed population, area, number of cancer patients
      for ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC), quality control/assessment and safety,
      cost of a cryopreservation center for the building for 30 years, and medical fees
      of cancer patients (operation, cryopreservation, and storage of ovarian tissue).
      RESULTS: More than twenty babies have been born in Denmark and Germany through a
      transportation system. Up to 400 new patients a year need OTC. The fees for
      removal, cryopreservation, and storage for 5 years, and transplantation of
      ovarian tissue are around ?5,000, ?4,000, and ?5,000, respectively. It costs more
      than ?5 million to establish and maintain one cryopreservation center for 30
      years. If we have a few cryopreservation centers in Japan, we can cryopreserve
      400 patients' ovarian tissue per year by safer slow freezing and maintain quality
      control/assessment. We need to lighten the patients' burden for easy to use FP by
      a government subsidy and medical insurance coverage. CONCLUSIONS: This model has
      been termed the Danish model ("the woman stays - the tissue moves"). This is
      truly patient-centered medicine. We can have maximum effects with the minimum
      burden. A transportation network like those of Denmark and Germany is the best
      strategy for FP in Japan. It may be the best system for cancer patients, medical
      staff, and the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.

PMID- 28866831
TI  - Detection of a new species of torque teno mini virus from the gingival epithelium
      of patients with periodontitis.
AB  - We describe a novel species of torque teno mini virus called TTMV-204, which was
      isolated from the gingival epithelium of patients with periodontitis and
      characterized using viral metagenomics. The sequence of the full genome is 2824
      nt in length. Phylogenetic analysis and genetic analyses show classic
      Betatorquevirus species organization with less than 40% amino acid similarity in
      ORF1. The prevalence of TTMV-204 in the periodontitis patient population was
      18.75% (15/80), which was higher than in periodontally healthy individuals
      (10.00%, 10/80). However, the difference of the TTMV-204 prevalence between two
      groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.115). Further investigation is
      required to determine whether this new virus is associated with inflammation.

PMID- 28866832
TI  - Increased Levels of Brain Adrenomedullin in the Neuropathology of Alzheimer's
      Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the loss of synaptic contacts caused
      in part by cytoskeleton disruption. Adrenomedullin (AM) is involved in
      physiological functions such as vasodilation, hormone secretion, antimicrobial
      activity, cellular growth, and angiogenesis. In neurons, AM and related peptides
      are associated with some structural and functional cytoskeletal proteins, causing
      microtubule destabilization. Here, we describe the relationships between AM and
      other signs of AD in clinical specimens. Frontal cortex from AD patients and
      controls were studied for AM, acetylated tubulin, NCAM, Ox-42, and
      neurotransmitters. AM was increased in AD compared with controls, while levels of
      acetylated tubulin, NCAM, and neurotransmitters were decreased. Interestingly,
      increases in AM statistically correlated with the decrease in these markers.
      Furthermore, Ox42 overexpression in AD correlated with levels of AM. It is
      proposed that AD patients may have neural cytoskeleton failure associated with
      increase of AM levels, resulting in axon transport collapse and synaptic loss.
      These observations suggest that reducing AM expression may constitute a new
      avenue to prevent/treat AD.

PMID- 28866833
TI  - Voriconazole-induced periostitis deformans: serial imaging in a patient with ANCA
      vasculitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A 61-year-old with acute granulomatosis and polyangiitis developed
      Aspergillus fumigatus pneumonia after admission to the intensive care unit with a
      small bowel perforation. This occurred after immunosuppression (intravenous
      methylprednisolone, intravenous cyclophosphamide, and plasmapheresis) for his
      initial presentation with stage 3 acute kidney injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      mycologist recommended long-term treatment with voriconazole after initial
      recovery. RESULTS: After 7 months of treatment, the patient complained of joint
      pain and swelling in his hands. Radiographs, computed tomography, and single
      photon emission computed tomography appearances were consistent with periostitis.
      A diagnosis of Voriconazole-induced periostitis deformans was made and the
      voriconazole was stopped. Plasma fluoride level was 278 MUg/L (normal range < 50
      MUg/L). Discontinuation of voriconazole led to clinical improvement. CONCLUSIONS:
      Periostitis deformans due to fluorosis is a rare complication of voriconazole
      treatment. The imaging in our case is unusually dramatic. We were able to track
      the evolution of periosteal reactions over serial imaging.

PMID- 28866835
TI  - Comprehensive characterization of a major capsid protein derived from a
      documented GII.6 norovirus strain.
AB  - In this study, we successfully produced VLPs derived from full-length or chimeric
      VP1 of a documented GII.6 strain. Trypsin digestion of purified VLPs led to total
      cleavage of VP1, while the integrity of assembled VLPs was not affected. In vitro
      VLP-histo-blood group antigen (HBGA) binding and binding blockade assays
      indicated that trypsin digestion enhanced the binding of GII.6 VLPs to salivary
      HBGAs and that this binding could only be blocked by serum produced against a
      homologous strain. The data regarding the assembly, morphology and binding
      patterns of GII.6 NoV VLPs presented here might be useful for further study of
      GII.6 NoVs.

PMID- 28866834
TI  - Insulin and osteocalcin: further evidence for a mutual cross-talk.
AB  - PURPOSE: In the last few years, bone has been recognized as an endocrine organ
      that modulates glucose metabolism by secretion of osteocalcin, an osteoblast
      specific hormone, that influences fat deposition and blood sugar levels. To date,
      however, very few in vitro models have been developed to investigate, at the
      molecular levels, the relationship between glucose, insulin and osteocalcin. This
      study aims at covering this gap. METHODS: We studied osteogenic differentiation,
      osteocalcin gene expression, and osteblast-mediated insulin secretion, using
      cultured MG-63 human osteoblast-like cells that underwent glucotoxicity and
      insulin resistance. In addition, we investigated whether a correlation existed
      between hyperglycemia and/or insulin resistance and total osteocalcin serum
      concentrations in patients. RESULTS: While insulin and low glucose increased
      osteocalcin gene expression, disruption of insulin signaling in MG-63 osteoblasts
      and high glucose concentration in cell culture medium decreased osteocalcin gene
      transcription and reduced osteogenic differentiation. Concomitantly, insulin
      secretion was significantly impaired in rat INS-1 beta-cells treated with
      conditioned medium from insulin resistant MG-63 cells or cells exposed to high
      glucose concentrations. Also, chronic hyperglycemia, but not insulin resistance,
      inversely correlated with circulating osteocalcin levels in patients. CONCLUSION:
      Our results further support the existence of an endocrine axis between bone,
      where osteocalcin is produced, and pancreatic beta-cells, and add new insights
      into the molecular details of this relationship. These findings may contribute to
      the understanding of osteocalcin regulation and its role in metabolism.

PMID- 28866836
TI  - Colistin nephrotoxicity in the ICU: Is it different in the geriatric patients?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Most significant side effect of colistin therapy which is used for the
      treatment of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative infections is nephrotoxicity. Our
      aim was to investigate the differences of colistin nephrotoxicity between the
      geriatric age group (>=65 years) and the younger age group (<65 years) in
      critically ill medical intensive care unit (ICU) patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD:
      The medical records of the 76 patients who were taken colistin therapy due to
      multi-resistant Gram-negative infections between January 2010 and June 2014 in
      the our medical ICU were retrospectively investigated. Demographic
      characteristics, reasons for colistin use, daily colistin dose, duration of
      colistin use were recorded. Colistin-dependent renal dysfunction was evaluated
      according to the risk, injury, failure, loss and end-stage renal failure (RIFLE)
      criterias. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 65 (65.8% male).
      Nephrotoxicity was developed in 36 (47.4%) patients. Thirty-nine (51.3%) patients
      were in geriatric age group, 37 (48.7%) were in younger age group. In geriatric
      age group, the rates of male gender (53.8 vs 78.4%, p = 0.031), pulmonary (48.7
      vs 16.2%, p = 0.003) and cardiac diseases (71.8 vs 29.7%, p < 0.001), post
      nephrotoxicity BUN levels (p = 0.023) and urine output during nephrotoxicity (p =
      0.016) were higher than younger age group. Nephrotoxicity was developed in 22
      (56.4%) patients of geriatric age group, and in 14 (37.8%) patients in younger
      age group (p = 0.115). The presence of cardiac disease, renal pathology and high
      creatinin value on admission, daily amount of colistin per body mass, total
      amount of colistin, use of colistin for pulmonary infection, use of amphotericin
      and vasopressor on admission were found as risk factors for colistin
      nephrotoxicity development in all study group; the daily amount of colistin per
      body mass (risk ratio:0.41; 95% CI 0.19-0.89) and vasopressor use during
      hospitalization were found independent risk factors (risk ratio:13.54; 95% CI
      2.21-83.09). CONCLUSION: In our study, in geriatric patient group colistin
      nephrotoxicity was not different from the younger age group. In the ICU, the age
      for nephrotoxicity does not appear to be a point to be considered for the
      initiation of colistin.

PMID- 28866837
TI  - Oxidative environment causes molecular remodeling in embryonic heart-a
      metabolomic and lipidomic fingerprinting analysis.
AB  - Environmental factors including pollution affect human health, and the unifying
      factor in determining toxicity and pathogenesis for a wide array of environmental
      factors is oxidative stress. Here, we created the oxidative environment with 2,2
      azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) and consequent cardiac
      remodeling in chick embryos. The metabolite fingerprint of heart tissue was
      obtained from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis. The
      global lipidomic analysis was done using electrospray ionization coupled with
      tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) by precursor ion scanning and neutral loss
      scanning methods. Further, the fatty acid levels were quantified in AAPH-treated
      H9c2 cardiomyoblasts with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Lipidomic
      fingerprinting study indicated that majority of differentially expressed
      phospholipids species in heart tissue belonged to ether phosphatidylcholine (ePC)
      species, and we conclude that excess oxidative environment may alter the
      phospholipid metabolism at earlier stages of cardiac remodeling.

PMID- 28866838
TI  - The path to colour discrimination is S-shaped: behaviour determines the
      interpretation of colour models.
AB  - Most of our current understanding on colour discrimination by animal observers is
      built on models. These typically set strict limits on the capacity of an animal
      to discriminate between colour stimuli imposed by physiological characteristics
      of the visual system and different assumptions about the underlying mechanisms of
      colour processing by the brain. Such physiologically driven models were not
      designed to accommodate sigmoidal-type discrimination functions as those observed
      in recent behavioural experiments. Unfortunately, many of the fundamental
      assumptions on which commonly used colour models are based have been tested
      against empirical data for very few species and many colour vision studies solely
      rely on physiological measurements of these species for predicting colour
      discrimination processes. Here, we test the assumption of a universal principle
      of colour discrimination only mediated by physiological parameters using
      behavioural data from four closely related hymenopteran species, considering two
      frequently used models. Results indicate that there is not a unique function
      describing colour discrimination by closely related bee species, and that this
      process is independent of specific model assumptions; in fact, different models
      produce comparable results for specific test species if calibrated against
      behavioural data.

PMID- 28866839
TI  - Image-guided ablations in patients with thyroid tumors.

PMID- 28866840
TI  - Topography of the human acoustic radiation as revealed by ex vivo fibers micro
      dissection and in vivo diffusion-based tractography.
AB  - The acoustic radiation is a compact bundle of fibers conveying auditory
      information from the medial geniculate nucleus of the thalamus to the auditory
      cortex. Topographical knowledge of this bundle in primates is scarce and in vivo
      diffusion-based tractography reconstructions in humans remains challenging,
      especially with the most widely used MRI acquisition protocols. Therefore, the AR
      represents a notable anatomical omission in the neurobiological investigation of
      acoustic and linguistic functional mechanisms in humans. In this study, we
      combine blunt micro-dissections and advanced diffusion tractography methods to
      provide novel insights into the topographical anatomy of this bundle in humans.
      Evidences from ex vivo blunt micro-dissection in three human (two right)
      hemispheres are compared to the 3D profile of this bundle as reconstructed by
      tractography techniques in four healthy adult data sets provided by the Human
      Connectome Project. Both techniques show the unique trajectory of the AR, a
      transversal course from the midline to the lateral convexity of the posterior
      temporal lobe. Blunt dissections demonstrated three portions of this bundle that
      we defined as the genu, stem, and fan, revealing the intimate relationships that
      each of these components has with neighboring association and projection
      pathways. Probabilistic tractography and ultra-high b values provided results
      comparable to blunt micro-dissections and highlighted the main limitations in
      tracking the AR. This is, to our knowledge, the first ex vivo/in vivo integrated
      study providing novel and reliable information about the precise anatomy of the
      AR, which will be important for future investigations in the neuroscientific,
      clinical, and surgical field.

PMID- 28866841
TI  - In vivo uptake of iodine from a Fucus serratus Linnaeus seaweed bath: does
      volatile iodine contribute?
AB  - Seaweed baths containing Fucus serratus Linnaeus are a rich source of iodine
      which has the potential to increase the urinary iodide concentration (UIC) of the
      bather. In this study, the range of total iodine concentration in seawater (22
      105 ug L-1) and seaweed baths (808-13,734 ug L-1) was measured over 1 year. The
      seasonal trend shows minimum levels in summer (May-July) and maximum in winter
      (November-January). The bathwater pH was found to be acidic, average pH 5.9 +/-
      0.3. An in vivo study with 30 volunteers was undertaken to measure the UIC of 15
      bathers immersed in the bath and 15 non-bathers sitting adjacent to the bath.
      Their UIC was analysed pre- and post-seaweed bath and corrected for creatinine
      concentration. The corrected UIC of the population shows an increase following
      the seaweed bath from a pre-treatment median of 76 ug L-1 to a post-treatment
      median of 95 ug L-1. The pre-treatment UIC for both groups did not indicate
      significant difference (p = 0.479); however, the post-treatment UIC for both did
      (p = 0.015) where the median bather test UIC was 86 ug L-1 and the non-bather UIC
      test was 105 ug L-1. Results indicate the bath has the potential to increase the
      UIC by a significant amount and that inhalation of volatile iodine is a more
      significant contributor to UIC than previously documented.

PMID- 28866842
TI  - One-Pot Synthesis of Hierarchical Flower-Like Pd-Cu Alloy Support on Graphene
      Towards Ethanol Oxidation.
AB  - The synergetic effect of alloy and morphology of nanocatalysts play critical
      roles towards ethanol electrooxidation. In this work, we developed a novel
      electrocatalyst fabricated by one-pot synthesis of hierarchical flower-like
      palladium (Pd)-copper (Cu) alloy nanocatalysts supported on reduced graphene
      oxide (Pd-Cu(F)/RGO) for direct ethanol fuel cells. The structures of the
      catalysts were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray
      photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The as-synthesized Pd-Cu(F)/RGO nanocatalyst
      was found to exhibit higher electrocatalytic performances towards ethanol
      electrooxidation reaction in alkaline medium in contrast with RGO-supported Pd
      nanocatalyst and commercial Pd black catalyst in alkaline electrolyte, which
      could be attributed to the formation of alloy and the morphology of
      nanoparticles. The high performance of nanocatalyst reveals the great potential
      of the structure design of the supporting materials for the future fabrication of
      nanocatalysts.

PMID- 28866843
TI  - A Culturally Sensitive Approach to Large-Scale Prevention Studies: A Case Study
      of a Randomized Controlled Trial With Low-Income Latino Communities.
AB  - In response to U.S. federal mandates to increase the presence of underrepresented
      populations in prevention research, investigators have increasingly focused on
      using culturally sensitive research practices. However, scholars have rarely
      discussed these practices in terms of a larger culturally sensitive framework.
      Further, while the literature has explored how culturally sensitive approaches
      can be employed in a variety of methods, there has been little examination of how
      to incorporate such approaches into experimental designs. In this paper, we
      explain how we incorporated a culturally sensitive framework in a cluster
      randomized field trial with over 3000 predominantly low-income Latino families,
      utilizing an intervention designed to improve social relations and enhance family
      functioning. We offer conceptual and practical examples to guide other
      researchers who want to adopt a similar approach in their research designs. In
      addition, we discuss the benefits of forging local partnerships throughout the
      research process to ensure respect for racial and ethnic minorities participating
      in social and behavioral experimental studies. We conclude with practical
      considerations for utilizing a culturally sensitive framework to advance
      prevention programs, policies, and practices among underrepresented groups in
      order to achieve the ultimate goal of addressing the traditional
      underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in research.

PMID- 28866845
TI  - CORR Insights(r): What Should Define Preoperative Anemia in Primary THA?

PMID- 28866844
TI  - Generation and characterization of transgenic mouse mesenchymal stem cell lines
      expressing hIGF-1 or hG-CSF.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are promising tools in the fields of cell therapy
      and regenerative medicine. In addition to their differentiation potential, MSC
      have the ability to secrete bioactive molecules that stimulate tissue
      regeneration. Thus, the overexpression of cytokines and growth factors may
      enhance the therapeutic effects of MSC. Here we generated and characterized mouse
      bone marrow MSC lines overexpressing hG-CSF or hIGF-1. MSC lines overexpressing
      hG-CSF or hIGF-1 were generated through lentiviral vector mediated gene transfer.
      The expression of hG-CSF or hIGF-1 genes in the clones produced was quantified by
      qRT-PCR, and the proteins were detected in the cell supernatants by ELISA. The
      cell lines displayed cell surface markers and differentiation potential into
      adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes similar to the control MSC cell lines,
      indicating the conservation of their phenotype even after genetic modification.
      IGF-1 and G-CSF transgenic cells maintained immunosuppressive activity. Finally,
      we performed a comparative gene expression analysis by qRT-PCR array in the cell
      lines expressing hIGF-1 and hG-CSF when compared to the control cells. Our
      results demonstrate that the cell lines generated may be useful tools for cell
      therapy and are suitable for testing in disease models.

PMID- 28866846
TI  - MyHealthRecord in Australian Primary Health Care: An Attitudinal Evaluation
      Study.
AB  - Australia's investment in the national MyHealthRecord has not been successfully
      communicated to the myriad of stakeholder groups, resulting in negative
      perceptions about the system and serious consequences for the uptake of the
      MyHealthRecord. Local stakeholder attitudes and perceptions will be crucial in
      setting the scene for success or failure with MyHealthRecord. A survey was
      undertaken to identify primary healthcare provider perceptions of the
      MyHealthRecord system, and capture the perceived enablers and barriers for use of
      the MyHealthRecord system. Almost all (89%) of the twenty-seven (27) respondents
      had previously heard of the MyHealthRecord system prior to completing the survey.
      Enablers included a decrease in duplication of effort and an increase in
      continuity of care. However, concerns about the perceived impact on healthcare
      provider time, privacy, access controls, and the need for full participation will
      need to be managed if MyHealthRecord is to be successfully implemented. The
      MyHealthRecord system will only be perceived as trustworthy when there is full
      participation by healthcare organisations, providers, and consumers. If
      Australian consumers become participants in an opt-out approach, it will be a
      catalyst for participation by healthcare organisations and providers. Incentives
      to encourage MyHealthRecord participation need to be extended to all healthcare
      providers as healthcare provider attitudes are influential with consumers.
      Therefore MyHealthRecord training and education needs to be targeted towards
      healthcare providers. Research into the attitudes of the local healthcare
      provider cohort is valuable in creating a change management strategy for
      maximising local success.

PMID- 28866848
TI  - CORR Insights(r): Does Postoperative Glenoid Retroversion Affect the 2-Year
      Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes for Total Shoulder Arthroplasty?

PMID- 28866847
TI  - Successful conservative management of an anastomotic airway dehiscence at the
      left main bronchus following bilateral cadaveric lung transplantation.
AB  - There is a dearth of data on management of anastomotic airway dehiscence
      following lung transplantation. Herein we report a case of successful
      conservative management of an anastomotic airway dehiscence after cadaveric donor
      lung transplantation. A 41-year-old woman with primary ciliary dyskinesia
      underwent cadaveric bilateral lung transplantation without cardiopulmonary
      bypass. On the postoperative day 25, left pneumothorax developed and bronchoscopy
      demonstrated a localized anastomotic dehiscence at the left main bronchus. The
      dehiscence was managed with 2 weeks of pleural drainage and was completely
      covered with regenerated bronchial epithelium at 4 months after transplantation.
      There is no finding suggestive of significant stenosis at 4 years of follow-up.
      Our case suggested asymptomatic and localized anastomotic dehiscence does not
      always require endobronchial stent placement or re-operation. Multiple factors
      that may contribute to the successful conservative management were discussed in
      this article.

PMID- 28866849
TI  - Association of MSI2 Gene Polymorphism with Age-at-Onset of Schizophrenia in a
      Chinese Population.

PMID- 28866850
TI  - Can Biomarkers Help the Early Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease?
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease with progressive
      loss of dopamine neurons. PD patients usually manifest a series of motor and non
      motor symptoms. In order to provide better early diagnosis and subsequent disease
      modifying therapies for PD patients, there is an urgent need to identify
      sensitive and specific biomarkers. Biomarkers can be divided into four
      categories: clinical, imaging, biochemical, and genetic. Ideal biomarkers not
      only improve our understanding of PD pathogenesis and progression, but also
      provide benefits for early risk evaluation and clinical diagnosis of PD. Although
      many efforts have been made and several biomarkers have been extensively
      investigated, few if any have been found useful for early diagnosis. Here, we
      summarize recent developments in the discovered biomarkers of PD and discuss
      their merits and limitations for the early diagnosis of PD.

PMID- 28866852
TI  - Clinical and biochemical response to neridronate treatment in a patient with
      osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome (OPPG).
AB  - Osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome (OPPG) is a rare autosomal recessive syndrome
      characterized by juvenile-onset osteoporosis and ocular abnormalities due to a
      low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 (LRP5) gene mutation.
      Treatment with bisphosphonates, particularly with pamidronate and risedronate,
      has been reported to be of some efficacy in this condition. We report on a
      patient with OPPG due to an LRP5 gene mutation, who showed an encouraging
      response after a 36-month period of neridronate therapy. We report a case of a
      patient treated with bisphosphonates. Bisphosphonates should be administered in
      OPPG patients as a first-line therapy during early childhood.

PMID- 28866853
TI  - Changes of soil thermal and hydraulic regimes in the Heihe River Basin.
AB  - Soil thermal and hydraulic regimes are critical factors influencing terrestrial
      processes in cold regions. Collection of field data from frozen ground has
      occurred at point scales, but limited data exist that characterize changes of
      soil thermal and hydraulic regimes at the scale of the whole Heihe River Basin.
      This study uses a long-term regional climate model coupled with land surface
      model to investigate the soil thermal and hydraulic regime changes at a large
      spatial scale. It also explores potential factors, including the climate and non
      climate factors. Results show that there is significant variability in mean
      annual air temperature (MAAT) of about 0.47  degrees C/decade during 1980-2013. A
      time series of area-averaged mean annual soil temperature (MAST) over the whole
      Heihe River Basin shows a significant increase between 0.25 and 0.36  degrees
      C/decade during 1984-2013, with a net change of 0.9  degrees C. A trend of
      increasing wetness is found in soil moisture. Frozen days (FD) decreased
      significantly both in seasonally frozen ground (SFG) regions and permafrost
      regions, with a net change between 7 and 13 days during 1984-2013. Freezing index
      (FI) had a positive effect on FD, while thawing index (TI), MAAT, precipitation,
      and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) had a negative effect. These
      results are important to understand dynamic mechanisms of soil freeze/thaw
      cycles.

PMID- 28866851
TI  - Systematic transcriptome-wide analysis of mRNA-miRNA interactions reveals the
      involvement of miR-142-5p and its target (FOXO3) in skeletal muscle growth in
      chickens.
AB  - The goal of this study was to perform a systematic transcriptome-wide analysis of
      mRNA-miRNA interactions and to identify candidates involved in the interplay
      between miRNAs and mRNAs that regulate chicken muscle growth. We used our
      previously published mRNA (GSE72424) and miRNA (GSE62971) deep sequencing data
      from two-tailed samples [i.e., the highest (h) and lowest (l) body weights] of
      Recessive White Rock (WRR) and Xinghua (XH) chickens to conduct integrative
      analyses of the miRNA-mRNA interactions involved in chicken skeletal muscle
      growth. A total of 162, 15, 173, and 27 miRNA-mRNA pairs with negatively
      correlated expression patterns were identified in miRNA-mRNA networks constructed
      on the basis of the WRRh vs. XHh, WRRh vs. WRRl, WRRl vs. XHl, and XHh vs. XHl
      comparisons, respectively. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed that gene networks
      identified for the WRRh vs. XHh contrast were associated with developmental
      disorders. Importantly, the WRRh vs. XHh contrast miRNA-mRNA network was enriched
      in IGF-1 signaling pathway genes, including FOXO3. A dual-luciferase reporter
      assay showed that FOXO3 was a target of miR-142-5p. Furthermore, miR-142-5p
      overexpression significantly decreased FOXO3 mRNA levels and promoted the
      expression of growth-related genes. These data demonstrated that miR-142-5p
      targets FOXO3 and promotes growth-related gene expression and regulates skeletal
      muscle growth in chicken. Comprehensive analysis facilitated the identification
      of miRNAs and target genes that might contribute to the regulation of skeletal
      muscle development. Our results provide new clues for understanding the molecular
      basis of chicken growth.

PMID- 28866854
TI  - Health-Related Quality of Life and Oropharyngeal Dysphagia: A Systematic Review.
AB  - The negative impact of increased bolus modification on health-related quality of
      life (HRQoL) in persons with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) has been described in
      previous literature; however, findings may have been influenced by the severity
      of OD and underlying etiology. The current systematic review therefore aims to
      investigate the relationships between HRQoL and OD and to report on changes in
      HRQoL and OD following intervention. This review was conducted in accordance with
      the PRISMA statement. A systematic search of the literature was performed using
      PubMed and Embase. All available English publications up to February 2016 that
      reported on OD and HRQoL were included. Articles that studied OD arising from
      esophageal dysfunction or included less than 15 participants with OD, were
      excluded. Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. Inverse bidirectional
      relationships were found between decreased HRQoL and increased OD severity.
      Following intervention, changes were evident through improved HRQoL with
      decreased OD severity. The findings of this paper highlight the importance of
      targeting HRQoL in patients with OD. However, because of the heterogeneity in
      methodology, terminology, and assessment procedures used in the retrieved
      articles, the generalization of study results is limited. More research
      investigating the relationships between HRQoL and OD is needed. Future studies
      should implement study designs that lead to stronger levels of evidence, quantify
      the severity of OD and underlying diseases, use validated measures and less
      ambiguous terminology.

PMID- 28866856
TI  - Accuracy of Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) in Detecting
      Autism and Other Developmental Disorders in Community Clinics.
AB  - This study determined the accuracy of Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers
      (M-CHAT) in detecting toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other
      developmental disorders (DD) in community mother and child health clinics. We
      analysed 19,297 eligible toddlers (15-36 months) who had M-CHAT performed in 2006
      2011. Overall sensitivities for detecting ASD and all DD were poor but better in
      the 21 to <27 months and 27-36-month age cohorts (54.5-64.3%). Although positive
      predictive value (PPV) was poor for ASD, especially the younger cohort, positive
      M-CHAT helped in detecting all DD (PPV = 81.6%). This suggested M-CHAT for
      screening ASD was accurate for older cohorts (>21 months) and a useful screening
      tool for all DD.

PMID- 28866855
TI  - Associations between Prosocial and Problem Behavior from Early to Late
      Adolescence.
AB  - Though recent research has highlighted prosocial behavior as negatively
      associated with problem behavior during adolescence, we know little about how
      these variables might be associated longitudinally, whether there are
      bidirectional effects, and whether there might be different patterns of co
      occurrence of behaviors for different individuals. Thus, the current study
      examined relations between prosocial and problem behaviors in three different
      ways in an attempt to better understand these associations. Participants included
      500 adolescents recruited from a Northwestern state in the USA who took part in
      the study every year from age 12 to 18 (50% female, 67% European American).
      Growth curve analyses suggested that change in prosocial behavior was negatively
      associated with change in aggression and delinquency over time. A longitudinal
      panel model suggested that prosocial behavior and aggression were negatively
      associated bidirectionally, and that prosocial behavior was negatively associated
      with delinquency over time. Finally, mixture modeling conducted at ages 12, 15,
      and 18 revealed heterogeneity in the ways in which prosocial and problem
      behaviors co-occur. The discussion focuses on the complexity of interrelations
      between prosocial behavior and problem behavior across adolescence.

PMID- 28866857
TI  - Malachite Green and Crystal Violet Decolorization by Ganoderma lucidum and
      Pleurotus ostreatus Supernatant and by rGlLCC1 and rPOXA 1B Concentrates:
      Molecular Docking Analysis.
AB  - Laccases catalyze the oxidation of various aromatic organic compounds
      concomitantly with molecular oxygen reduction to water. Triphenylmethane dyes are
      synthetic compounds widely used in diverse industries. Their removal from
      effluents is difficult, due to their high degree of structural complexity; hence,
      their high concentration in effluents cause a negative impact on the environment.
      In the present work, molecular docking was used to evaluate interactions between
      rGlLCC1 or rPOXA 1B enzymes with Crystal Violet (CV) or Malachite Green (MG)
      dyes. In addition, removal tests of the two dyes were performed. Van der Waals
      interactions were obtained for only the CV dye for both GlLCC1 and POXA 1B
      enzymes. Nevertheless, in the GlLCC1 model, two pi-pi interactions were observed.
      For the MG dye only, Van der Waals interactions were obtained. Moreover, amino
      acid composition interacting in each model with each dye was similar. It is
      important to highlight that by molecular docking, none of the estimated ligand
      configurations generated hydrogen bonds. Thus, explaining the difficulty to
      degrade CV and MG. Regarding CV, maximum decolorization percentage was 23.6 +/-
      1.0% using Ganoderma lucidum supernatant and 5.0 +/- 0.5% with Pleurotus
      ostreatus supernatant. When using recombinant laccase enzyme concentrates,
      decolorization percentages were 9.9 +/- 0.1 and 7.5 +/- 1.0% for rGlLCC1 and
      rPOXA 1B, respectively. On the other hand, for the MG dye, maximum decolorization
      percentages were 52.1 +/- 5.1 and 2.3 +/- 0.2% using G. lucidum and P. ostreatus
      concentrates, respectively. Whereas with recombinant laccase enzymatic
      concentrates, values of 9.4 +/- 0.8% were obtained, with rGlLCC1, and 2.1 +/-
      0.1% when using rPOXA 1B. These findings represent an important step in
      bioremediation processes improvement and efficiency of industry-generated
      products, using environmentally friendly alternatives.

PMID- 28866858
TI  - Sensory, Physico-Chemical and Water Sorption Properties of Corn Extrudates
      Enriched with Spirulina.
AB  - This study compares the quality of extrudates made from corn grits with the
      addition of up to 8% of spirulina powder. The sensory properties (shape, color,
      aroma, taste and crispness), chemicals (content of water, protein, fat, ash,
      fiber, carbohydrates, carotenoids, chlorophyll and phycocyanin) and physical
      properties (color, water absorption index, expansion indices, texture and water
      sorption properties) were determined. It has been found that spirulina-enriched
      extrudates had slightly lower sensory scores, but the addition of spirulina
      improved their nutritional value. The contents of protein, ash, fiber and beta
      carotene increased in extrudates with 8% of spirulina by 34, 36, 140 and 1,260%,
      respectively. The increasing addition of spirulina caused a decrease in
      extrudates lightness, an increase in their greenness and yellowness accompanied
      by a decrease of expansion indices and an increase of softness. Only small
      differences were found in water sorption properties, suggesting a similar
      behavior of spirulina-enriched extrudates during storage.

PMID- 28866859
TI  - Toxin Gene Contents and Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Strains Against Two
      Sugarcane Borer Species, Diatraea saccharalis (F.) and D. flavipennella (Box).
AB  - Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) bears essential characteristics in the control
      of insect pests, such as its unique mode of action, which confers specificity and
      selectivity. This study assessed cry gene contents from Bt strains and their
      entomotoxicity against Diatraea saccharalis (F.) and Diatraea flavipennella (Box)
      (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). Bioassays with Bt strains were performed against
      neonates to evaluate their lethal and sublethal activities and were further
      analyzed by PCR, using primers to identify toxin genes. For D. saccharalis and D.
      flavipennella, 16 and 18 strains showed over 30% larval mortality in the 7th day,
      respectively. The LC50 values of strains for D. saccharalis varied from 0.08 *
      105 (LIIT-0105) to 4104 * 105 (LIIT-2707) spores + crystals mL-1. For D.
      flavipennella, the LC50 values of strains varied from 0.40 * 105 (LIIT-2707) to
      542 * 105 (LIIT-2109) spores + crystals mL-1. For the LIIT-0105 strain, which was
      the most toxic to D. saccharalis, the genes cry1Aa, cry1Ab, cry1Ac, cry1B, cry1C,
      cry1D, cry1F, cry1I, cry2Aa, cry2Ab, cry8, and cry9C were detected, whereas for
      the strain LIIT-2707, which was the most toxic to D. flavipennella, detected
      genes were cry1Aa, cry1Ab, cry1Ac, cry1B, cry1D, cry1F, cry1I, cry2Aa, cry2Ab,
      and cry9. The toxicity data and toxin gene content in these strains of Bt suggest
      a great variability of activity with potential to be used in the development of
      novel biopesticides or as source of resistance genes that can be expressed in
      plants to control pests.

PMID- 28866860
TI  - Protective Effects of Dietary Garlic Powder Against Cadmium-induced Toxicity in
      Sea Bass Liver: a Chemical, Biochemical, and Transcriptomic Approach.
AB  - To investigate the protective effect of garlic powder on cadmium-induced toxicity
      sea bass liver, juvenile fishes where maintained under three food diets (diet 1:
      normal without garlic supply, diet 2: 2% garlic powder; diet 3: 6% garlic
      powder). After 30 days of specific diets, each group was injected with 500 MUg kg
      1of Cd. The control group was the one fed with normal diet and not injected with
      Cd. Liver Cd, Zn, and Se loads was assessed after 1 and 3 days of Cd injections.
      Moreover, antioxidant enzymes activities termed as catalase, superoxide
      dismutase, and glutathione peroxydase as well as their gene expression levels
      were monitored. Finally, metallothionein protein accumulation and its gene
      expression regulation (MTa) were determined. In fish fed with 2 and 6% garlic
      powder, the amounts of Cd, Zn, and Se significantly increase in liver tissues.
      Two percent garlic powder specific diet reversed the Cd-induced inhibition of
      catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and gluthathione peroxydase (GPx) and
      restored the Cd-induced lipid peroxidation (MDA). The increase of liver
      metallothionein proteins as well as the MTa gene expression level under Cd
      influence was more pronounced in animals maintained for 30 days under garlic
      power 2% diet. Our data must be carefully considered in view of the garlic powder
      introduction in sea bass food composition at 2% since it is an efficient
      prevention against Cd-induced alterations.

PMID- 28866861
TI  - Effects of the Proton Pump Inhibitors Omeprazole and Pantoprazole on the
      Cytochrome P450-Mediated Metabolism of Venlafaxine.
AB  - : BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: An increasing trend in prescribing proton pump
      inhibitors (PPIs) inevitably increases the risk of unwanted drug-drug
      interactions (DDIs). The aim of this study was to uncover pharmacokinetic
      interactions between two PPIs-omeprazole and pantoprazole-and venlafaxine.
      METHODS: A therapeutic drug monitoring database contained plasma concentrations
      of venlafaxine and its active metabolite O-desmethylvenlafaxine. We considered
      three groups: a group of patients who received venlafaxine without confounding
      medications (non-PPI group, n = 906); a group of patients who were comedicated
      with omeprazole (n = 40); and a group of patients comedicated with pantoprazole
      (n = 40). Plasma concentrations of venlafaxine, O-desmethylvenlafaxine and active
      moiety (venlafaxine + O-desmethylvenlafaxine), as well as dose-adjusted plasma
      concentrations, were compared using non-parametrical tests. RESULTS: Daily doses
      of venlafaxine did not differ between groups (p = 0.949). The Mann-Whitney U test
      showed significantly higher plasma concentrations of active moiety, as well as
      venlafaxine and O-desmethylvenlafaxine, in both PPI groups [p = 0.023, p = 0.011,
      p = 0.026, +29% active moiety, +27% venlafaxine, +36% O-desmethylvenlafaxine
      (pantoprazole); p = 0.003, p = 0.039 and p < 0.001, +36% active moiety, +27%
      venlafaxine, +55% O-desmethylvenlafaxine (omeprazole)]. Significantly higher
      concentration-by-dose (C/D) values for venlafaxine and active moiety were
      detected in the pantoprazole group (p = 0.013, p = 0.006, respectively), while in
      the omeprazole group, C/D ratios for all three parameters-venlafaxine, O
      desmethylvenlafaxine and active moiety-were significantly higher (p = 0.021, p <
      0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Significantly higher plasma
      concentrations for all parameters (venlafaxine, O-desmethylvenlafaxine, active
      moiety) suggest clinically relevant inhibitory effects of both PPIs, most likely
      on the cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C19-mediated metabolism of venlafaxine. The
      findings might be the result of different degrees of CYP2C19 involvement,
      therefore the inhibition of CYP2C19 by both PPIs may lead to an increased
      metabolism via CYP2D6 to O-desmethylvenlafaxine.

PMID- 28866862
TI  - Acetylshikonin is a novel non-selective cytochrome P450 inhibitor.
AB  - Acetylshikonin is a biologically active compound with anti-cancer and anti
      inflammatory activity, which is isolated from the roots of Lithospermum
      erythrorhizoma. An inhibitory effect of acetylshikonin against CYP2J2 activity
      was discovered recently. Based on this result, this study was expanded to
      evaluate the inhibitory effects of acetylshikonin against nine different
      cytochrome P450 (P450) isoforms in human liver microsomes (HLMs) using substrate
      cocktails incubation assay. Acetylshikonin showed a strong inhibitory effect
      against all P450s tested with IC50 values of 1.4-4.0 MU m. Pre-incubation of
      acetylshikonin with HLMs and NADPH did not alter the inhibition potency,
      indicating that acetylshikonin is not a mechanism-based inhibitor. SKF-525A, a
      widely used non-specific P450 inhibitor, had no inhibitory activity against
      CYP1A2, 2A6, 2E1 and 2J2, while it showed an inhibitory effect against CYP2B6,
      CYP2C19 and 2D6 with IC50 values of 2.5, 3.6 and 0.5 MU m, respectively. Our
      findings indicate that acetylshikonin may be a novel general P450 inhibitor,
      which could replace SKF-525A.

PMID- 28866863
TI  - From transcriptional complexity to cellular phenotypes: Lessons from yeast.
AB  - Pervasive transcription has been reported in many eukaryotic organisms, revealing
      a highly interleaved transcriptome organization that involves thousands of coding
      and non-coding RNAs. However, to date, the biological impact of transcriptome
      complexity is still poorly understood. Here I will review how subtle variations
      of the transcriptome can lead to divergent cellular phenotypes by fine-tuning
      both its coding potential and regulation. I will discuss strategies that can be
      used to link molecular variations with divergent biological outcomes. Finally, I
      will explore the implication of transcriptional complexity for our understanding
      of gene expression in the context of cell-to-cell phenotypic variability.
      Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28866865
TI  - Increased levels of mitochondrial DNA copy number in patients with vitiligo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress is known to be involved in the pathogenesis of
      autoimmune diseases such as vitiligo. Evidence suggests that the human
      mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) is vulnerable to damage mediated by
      oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare peripheral
      blood mtDNAcn and oxidative DNA damage byproducts (8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine; 8
      OHdG) in patients with vitiligo and healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: The relative
      mtDNAcn and the oxidative damage (formation of 8-OHdG in mtDNA) of each sample
      were determined by real-time quantitative PCR. Blood samples were obtained from
      56 patients with vitiligo and 46 HCs. RESULTS: The mean mtDNAcn and the degree of
      mtDNA damage were higher in patients with vitiligo than in HCs. CONCLUSION: These
      data suggest that increase in mtDNAcn and oxidative DNA damage may be involved in
      the pathogenesis of vitiligo.

PMID- 28866864
TI  - The association between insulin resistance and atrial fibrillation: A cross
      sectional analysis from SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial).
AB  - It is unclear whether metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with atrial
      fibrillation (AF) in an older population with greater cardiovascular risk,
      including those with chronic kidney disease. The authors investigated the
      association between MetS and AF in participants in SPRINT (Systolic Blood
      Pressure Intervention Trial). MetS was defined based on the Modified Third
      National Cholesterol Education Program. The baseline prevalence rate for MetS was
      55%, while 8.2% of the participants had AF. In multivariate regression analyses,
      AF was not associated with presence of MetS in either chronic kidney disease or
      non-chronic kidney disease subgroups. Age, race, history of cardiovascular
      diseases, decreased triglycerides, decreased pulse pressure, and albuminuria
      remained significantly associated with AF risk. In contrast to the general
      population, MetS was not associated with AF in the older population with
      increased cardiovascular risk studied in SPRINT.

PMID- 28866867
TI  - Morphoea after using a cardiac loop monitor.

PMID- 28866866
TI  - Hospital and out-of-hospital mortality in 670 hypertensive emergencies and
      urgencies.
AB  - Long-term mortality in patients with acute severe hypertension is unclear. The
      authors aimed to compare short-term (hospital) and long-term (12 months)
      mortality in these patients. A total of 670 adults presenting for acute severe
      hypertension between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015, were included. A
      total of 57.5% were hypertensive emergencies and 66.1% were hospitalized: 98% and
      23.2% of those with hypertensive emergencies and urgencies, respectively (P =
      .001). Hospital mortality was 7.9% and was significantly higher for hypertensive
      emergencies (12.5% vs 1.8%, P = .001). At 12 months, 106 patients died (29.4%),
      mainly from hypertensive emergencies (38.9% vs 8.9%, P = .001). Median survival
      was 14 days for neurovascular emergencies and 50 days for cardiovascular
      emergencies. Patients with hypertensive emergencies or urgencies had bad long
      term prognosis. Short-term mortality is mainly caused by neurovascular
      emergencies, but cardiovascular emergencies are severe, with high mortality at 12
      months. These results justify better follow-up and treatment for these patients.

PMID- 28866869
TI  - Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC): A familial cluster of 3
      siblings.
AB  - Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) is a rare form of cyanotic
      congenital heart disease (CHD) that occurs when the pulmonary veins drain into a
      site other than the morphologic left atrium. As with other forms of CHD, TAPVC
      has been shown to cluster in families and is known to have genetic association.
      We report on a case series of familial TAPVC in three consecutive siblings. A
      combination of fetal echocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography, as well as
      cross-sectional imaging was utilized in the diagnosis as well as management of
      each sibling. The third sibling was subsequently found to have a partial deletion
      in chromosome 15q13.3, which has been rarely associated with other forms of
      congenital heart disease.

PMID- 28866868
TI  - The lncRNA HNF1A-AS1 is a negative prognostic factor and promotes tumorigenesis
      in osteosarcoma.
AB  - Recent studies have revealed that long noncoding RNA HNF1A-antisense 1 (HNF1A
      AS1) plays an important role in the development of several human malignancy
      entities. However, the expression and function of HNF1A-AS1 in the carcinogenesis
      and development of osteosarcoma remains unknown. In this study, we detected the
      HNF1A-AS1 levels in human osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines by quantitative
      real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and investigated its role in
      osteosarcoma by using in vitro assays. Our study showed that HNF1A-AS1 expression
      was significantly up-regulated in human osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines
      compared with their normal counterparts, and its expression level was positively
      correlated with the distance metastasis (P = 0.009) and tumour stage (P = 0.019).
      Moreover, Kaplan-Meier curves with the log-rank test showed that higher
      expression of HNF1A-AS1 conferred a significantly poorer survival and
      multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that HNF1A-AS1 was an
      independent risk factor of overall survival. In addition, the expression of HNF1A
      AS1 in serum is correlated with patients' status and receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated that HNF1A-AS1 could distinguish
      patients with osteosarcoma from healthy individuals (the area under curve 0.849,
      P < 0.001). Furthermore, in vitro knockdown of HNF1A-AS1 by siRNA significantly
      inhibited cell proliferation and G1 /S transition, and suppressed migration and
      invasion by reducing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program in
      osteosarcoma cells. Taken together, our data suggested that HNF1A-AS1 is a novel
      molecule involved in osteosarcoma progression, which may provide as a potential
      diagnostic, prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target.

PMID- 28866870
TI  - Secondary syphilis infection under treatment with ustekinumab.

PMID- 28866872
TI  - Abstracts from the Sixth Chinese Congress on Gerontology and Health Industry.

PMID- 28866871
TI  - Introduction of Abstracts to be Presented at the Sixth Chinese Congress on
      Gerontology and Health Industry.

PMID- 28866873
TI  - Carbon isotope fractionation by anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria in euxinic Lake
      Cadagno.
AB  - Anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria utilize ancient metabolic pathways to link
      sulfur and iron metabolism to the reduction of CO2 . In meromictic Lake Cadagno,
      Switzerland, both purple sulfur (PSB) and green sulfur anoxygenic phototrophic
      bacteria (GSB) dominate the chemocline community and drive the sulfur cycle. PSB
      and GSB fix carbon utilizing different enzymatic pathways and these fractionate C
      isotopes to different extents. Here, these differences in C-isotope fractionation
      are used to constrain the relative input of various anoxygenic phototrophs to the
      bulk community C-isotope signal in the chemocline. We sought to determine whether
      a distinct isotopic signature of GSB and PSB in the chemocline persists in the
      settling fraction and in the sediment. To answer these questions, we also sought
      investigated C-isotope fractionation in the water column, settling material, and
      sediment of Lake Cadagno, compared these values to C-isotope fractionation of
      isolated anoxygenic phototroph cultures, and took a mass balance approach to
      investigate relative contributions to the bulk fractionation signature. We found
      a large C-isotope fractionation between dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and
      particulate organic carbon (POC) in the Lake Cadagno chemocline. This large
      fractionation between the DIC and POC was also found in culture experiments
      carried out with anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria isolated from the lake. In the
      Lake Cadagno chemocline, anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria controlled the bulk C
      isotope fractionation, but the influence of GSB and PSB differed with season.
      Furthermore, the contribution of PSB and GSB to bulk C-isotope fractionation in
      the chemocline could be traced in the settling fraction and in the sediment.
      Taken together with other studies, such as lipid biomarker analyzes and
      investigations of other stratified lakes, these results offer a firmer
      understanding of diagenetic influences on bacterial biomass.

PMID- 28866874
TI  - Two-site evaluation of the diagnostic performance of the Sysmex XN Body Fluid
      (BF) module for cell count and differential in Cerebrospinal Fluid.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cellular analysis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) provides important
      diagnostic information in many pathological settings. The aim of this two-site
      study was to evaluate the Sysmex XN Body Fluid mode (XN-BF) for cell analysis of
      CSF compared to light microscopy (LM). METHODS: Two hundred and seven consecutive
      CSF samples were analyzed in parallel with XN-BF and LM. The study also included
      the estimation of the limit of blank (LoB), limit of detection (LoD), limit of
      quantitation (LoQ), carry-over and linearity of XN-BF module. RESULTS: LoQ of
      white blood cells (WBC) was 3*106  cells/L; linearity was good and carry-over
      negligible. XN-BF parameters were compared to LM for the following cell classes:
      total cells, WBC, polymorphonuclear (PMN), and mononuclear (MN) cells. The bias
      ranged from 1.3 to 15.2*106  cells/L. The receiver operating characteristics
      curve analysis for WBC showed an area under the curve of 0.98, and the global
      diagnostic agreement was 95% at a cutoff of 5*106  cells/L. CONCLUSIONS: XN-BF
      provides rapid and accurate counts in clinically relevant ranges of CSF values,
      thus providing a valuable alternative to conventional LM analysis. However,
      microscopic review remains advisable in samples with abnormal cell counts or high
      fluorescent (HF-BF) cell parameter exceeding 5*106  cells/L.

PMID- 28866875
TI  - Substance P and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide in the Glands of External
      Auditory Canal Skin.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The earwax (cerumen) that covers external auditory canal (EAC) skin
      contains a mixture of ceruminous and sebaceous gland substances, such as lipids,
      peptides, and proteins. The components secreted from the ceruminous gland that is
      a modified sweat gland form cerumen and contain several antimicrobial factors.
      Since substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), known as a
      secretagogue, have been found in sweat glands, our purpose was to determine the
      expression of SP and CGRP in the glands of EAC skin. METHODS: Sections of normal
      human EAC skins were immunostained for the presence of SP and CGRP using
      polyclonal antibodies. Immunoreactivity was detected using an avidin-biotin
      peroxidase complex method. RESULTS: SP staining was found in ceruminous gland
      acini and myoepithelial cells. But the SP staining was not found in the sebaceous
      glands and epidermal region. CGRP was strongly stained in the ceruminous gland
      and weakly in the sebaceous gland cells. Interestingly, most prominent staining
      of SP and CGRP was noted in the myoepithelial cells of the ceruminous gland.
      CONCLUSION: The findings in this study suggest that SP and CGRP are expressed in
      the glands of the EAC skin and secreted in the process of ceruminous gland
      secretion.

PMID- 28866876
TI  - Understanding the Chicago Classification: From Tracings to Patients.
AB  - Current parameters of the Chicago classification include assessment of the
      esophageal body (contraction vigour and peristalsis), lower esophageal sphincter
      relaxation pressure, and intra-bolus pressure pattern. Esophageal disorders
      include achalasia, esophagogastric junction outflow obstruction, major disorders
      of peristalsis, and minor disorders of peristalsis. Sub-classification of
      achalasia in types I, II, and III seems to be useful to predict outcomes and
      choose the optimal treatment approach. The real clinical significance of other
      new parameters and disorders is still under investigation.

PMID- 28866877
TI  - Occurrence and Source Effect of Novel Brominated Flame Retardants (NBFRs) in
      Soils from Five Asian Countries and Their Relationship with PBDEs.
AB  - This paper presents the first comprehensive survey of 19 novel brominated flame
      retardants (NBFRs) in soil samples collected among five Asian countries. High
      variability in concentrations of all NBFRs was found in soils with the geometric
      mean (GM) values ranging from 0.50 ng/g dry weight (dw) in Vietnam to 540 ng/g dw
      in the vicinity of a BFR manufacturer in China. In urban, rural, and background
      locations, the GM concentrations of ?19NBFRs decreased in the order of Japan >
      South Korea > China > India > Vietnam. Correlations among different NBFR
      compounds were positive and statistically significant (p < 0.05), suggesting that
      they originate from similar sources. Evidence for simultaneous application
      between polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and NBFRs were also noted.
      Principal component analysis of NBFR concentrations revealed specific pollution
      sources for different NBFRs coming from urban, BFR-related industrial, and e
      waste sites. For the first time, this study demonstrates a "point source
      fractionation effect" for NBFRs and PBDEs. The concentrations of all NBFRs and
      PBDEs were negatively and significantly correlated with the distance from BFR
      related industrial and e-waste regions. Positive and significant correlation
      between population density and NBFR concentrations in soils was identified. Our
      study revealed that the primary sources effects were stronger than the secondary
      sources effects in controlling the levels and distribution of NBFRs and PBDEs in
      soils in these five Asian countries.

PMID- 28866878
TI  - Design of Multifunctional Nanostructure for Ultrafast Extraction and Purification
      of Aflatoxins in Foodstuffs.
AB  - Aflatoxins (AFs) are a class of carcinogens, associated with liver cancers, that
      exist in foodstuffs. There are extremely low maximum limits of AFs in foodstuffs
      (0.025-20 MUg.kg-1). Quick and sensitive detection of such low concentration of
      AFs in foodstuffs is dominated by the efficiency and selectivity of the AF
      enrichment process, which is extremely challenging although substantial efforts
      have been made in recent decades. Here we design and synthesize a multilayer
      nanoarchitecture composed of a broad-spectrum aflatoxin monoclonal antibody
      shell, chitosan middle layer, and magnetic bead core (denoted AF-mAb/CTS/Fe3O4).
      The efficiency of AF-mAb/CTS/Fe3O4 in extracting AFs has been found to be more
      than 60 times higher than both conventional immunoaffinity chromatography and
      solid-phase extraction. Furthermore, the nanocomposite displays excellent
      selectivity and good reusability as well as outstanding efficiency. When coupled
      to ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry,
      this new nanoarchitecture enables us to probe six AFs at concentrations as low as
      0.003 MUg.kg-1 in foodstuffs with free matrix effects, which is nearly 10 times
      smaller than the regulated maximum tolerated does. It is believed that the new
      nanoarchitecture will provide an efficient and fast pathway to detect AFs in
      foodstuffs to protect human being from some critical liver cancers.

PMID- 28866879
TI  - Versatility of Prolyl Oligopeptidase B in Peptide Macrocyclization.
AB  - Cyclic peptides are promising compounds for new chemical biological tools and
      therapeutics due to their structural diversity, resistance to proteases, and
      membrane permeability. Amatoxins, the toxic principles of poisonous mushrooms,
      are biosynthesized on ribosomes as 35mer precursor peptides, which are ultimately
      converted to hydroxylated bicyclic octapeptides. The initial cyclization steps,
      catalyzed by a dedicated prolyl oligopeptidase (POPB), involves removal of the 10
      amino acid leader sequence from the precursor peptide and transpeptidation to
      produce a monocyclic octapeptide intermediate. The utility of POPB as a general
      catalyst for peptide cyclization was systematically characterized using a range
      of precursor peptide substrates produced either in E. coli or chemically.
      Substrates produced in E. coli were expressed either individually or in mixtures
      produced by codon mutagenesis. A total of 127 novel peptide substrates were
      tested, of which POPB could cyclize 100. Peptides of 7-16 residues were cyclized
      at least partially. Synthetic 25mer precursor peptide substrates containing
      modified amino acids including d-Ala, beta-Ala, N-methyl-Ala, and 4-hydroxy-Pro
      were also successfully cyclized. Although a phalloidin heptapeptide with all L
      amino acids was not cyclized, partial cyclization was seen when l-Thr at position
      #5 was replaced with the naturally occurring D amino acid. POPB should have broad
      applicability as a general catalyst for macrocyclization of peptides containing 7
      to at least 16 amino acids, with an optimum of 8-9 residues.

PMID- 28866880
TI  - A Multiaxial Molecular Ferroelectric with Highest Curie Temperature and Fastest
      Polarization Switching.
AB  - The classical organic ferroelectric, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), has
      attracted much attention as a promising candidate for data storage applications
      compatible with all-organic electronics. However, it is the low crystallinity,
      the large coercive field, and the limited thermal stability of remanent
      polarization that severely hinder large-scale integration. In light of that, we
      show a molecular ferroelectric thin film of [Hdabco][ReO4] (dabco = 1,4
      diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane) (1), belonging to another class of typical organic
      ferroelectrics. Remarkably, it displays not only the highest Curie temperature of
      499.6 K but also the fastest polarization switching of 100k Hz among all reported
      molecular ferroelectrics. Combined with the large remanent polarization values
      (~9 MUC/cm2), the low coercive voltages (~10 V), and the unique multiaxial
      ferroelectric nature, 1 becomes a promising and viable alternative to PVDF for
      data storage applications in next-generation flexible devices, wearable devices,
      and bionics.

PMID- 28866881
TI  - Ascaroside Profiling of Caenorhabditis elegans Using Gas Chromatography-Electron
      Ionization Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Nematodes such as the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans produce various
      homologous series of l-ascarylose-derived glycolipids called ascarosides, which
      include several highly potent signals in intra and interspecies communication as
      well as cross-kingdom interactions. Given their low concentrations and large
      number of structurally similar components, mass spectrometric screens based on
      high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) are commonly employed for ascaroside detection and
      quantification. Here, we describe a complementary gas chromatography-electron
      ionization mass spectrometry (GC-EIMS) screen that utilizes an ascarylose-derived
      K1-fragment ion signal at m/z 130.1 [C6H14OSi]+? to highlight known as well as
      yet unidentified ascaroside components in TMS-derivatized crude nematode
      exometabolome extracts. GC-EIMS-based ascaroside profiling of wild-type and
      mutant C. elegans facilitates the analysis of all basic ascarosides using the
      same ionization technique while providing excellent resolution for the complete
      homologous series with side chains ranging from 3 to 33 carbons. Combined
      screening for m/z 130.1 along with side chain-specific J1 [M - 173]+ and J2 [M -
      291]+ fragment ions, as well as additional characteristic marker ions from alpha
      cleavage, enables convenient structure assignment of ca. 200 components from wild
      type and peroxisomal beta-oxidation mutants including (omega - 1)-linked acyl,
      enoyl, beta-hydroxyacyl, and 2-ketoalkyl ascarosides along with their (omega)
      linked or alpha-methyl isomers and ethanolamide derivatives, as well as 2
      hydroxyalkyl ascarosides. Given the widespread availability of GC-MS and its
      increasing popularity in metabolomics, this method will promote the
      identification of ascarosides in C. elegans and other nematodes.

PMID- 28866882
TI  - Organophosphorus Flame Retardants and Plasticizers in Building and Decoration
      Materials and Their Potential Burdens in Newly Decorated Houses in China.
AB  - Organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) have been increasingly used in various
      building and decoration materials to fulfill fire safety standards since the
      phasing out of polybrominated diphenyl ethers. We determined OPFR concentrations
      in the most commonly used building and decoration materials available in local
      markets and online in China. The OPFR concentrations varied significantly, from
      14.78 ng/g (putty powder) to 9649000 ng/g (expanded polystyrene panel (EPS)).
      Relatively high concentrations of OPFRs were found in foam samples, followed by
      nonwoven and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) wallpaper, PVC pipes, sealing materials,
      boards, and paints. Low concentrations were found mostly in wall decoration
      powders, suggesting that no OPFRs had been added to these powders. Tris(1-chloro
      2-propyl) phosphate and tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate were the most
      detected halogenated OPFRs, while tri-n-butyl phosphate and tris(2-butoxyethyl)
      phosphate were the dominant nonhalogenated OPFRs, implying that they are commonly
      used in building and decoration materials. The estimated OPFR burden in interior
      decoration using nonwoven wallpaper was 330- and 2110-fold higher than that using
      latex paint and diatomite, respectively. The emission periods of OPFRs from
      nonwoven and PVC wallpaper may be greater than 13 years. We estimated that the
      total burden of OPFRs for decoration using wallpaper in newly decorated houses in
      China is ~63 t/y. Significantly higher concentrations of OPFRs in interior
      decoration materials, especially nonwoven wallpaper, pose potential health risks
      to the people using the buildings.

PMID- 28866883
TI  - Determination of Residual Concentration of Ionic Liquids with Different Anions
      and Alkyl-Chain Lengths in Water and Soil Samples.
AB  - Considering the wide synthesis and application of ionic liquids (ILs), the
      toxicity of ILs has recently gained growing attention. However, few studies
      focused on IL determination methods in environmental samples. In the present
      study, we implemented the determination methods for the 12 ILs with different
      chemical structures using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and
      ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometry. The optimum conditions for extraction of ILs
      from soil samples were also obtained by single-factor experiments and response
      surface methodology (RSM). The instrument detection limits (IDLs) reached 10-10
      g. Compared to the use of UV, HPLC had the standard curve with stronger
      correlation (R2 >= 0.999) and lower detection limit. We therefore used HPLC to
      detect the contents of ILs in water and soil samples. A standard adding method
      was used for the reliability test of the above methods. The average recovery in
      water samples was 90.46%-108.83%, and the coefficient of variation (CV) was 0.51%
      9.07%. The method detection limits (MDLs) were below 0.1 mg/L. The optimized IL
      extraction conditions in soil samples were as follows: The ratio of methanol and
      saturated ammonium chloride was 90:10, the ultrasonic time was 50 min, and the
      power was 350 W. The average recovery in soil samples was 70.39%-85.30%, and the
      CV was 0.50%-9.99%. The MDLs were below 1 mg/kg. These results using the
      aforementioned methods met the standards of residue analysis. The present study
      can provide scientific analysis methods and a basis for evaluation of the study
      of IL residues in environmental samples.

PMID- 28866884
TI  - Discerning Inter- and Intramolecular Vibrations of Sulfur Polyaromatic Compounds.
AB  - Thiophenes are an important class of molecules in fields as diverse as
      petrochemistry, molecular electronics, and optoelectronics. Thiophenic
      submolecular motifs are thought to play a role in molecular association and
      nanoaggregation phenomena in both pure materials and natural and synthetic
      mixtures. Vibrational (infrared and Raman) spectroscopy provides the means to
      characterize these species. In this work far-infrared photoacoustic and low
      frequency Raman spectra of a series of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
      containing sulfur have been measured and interpreted using DFT calculations based
      on a perturbational-variational method coupled with potential truncation. The
      approach and outcomes illustrate how inter- and intramolecular vibrations for
      thiophenic systems in single and multicomponent mixtures can be discriminated.
      This work offers the perspective to search the inter- and intramolecular
      signatures of the main submolecular motifs and heteroelements postulated as being
      present in the asphaltenes.

PMID- 28866885
TI  - Targeted Proteomic Analyses of Histone H4 Acetylation Changes Associated with
      Homologous-Recombination-Deficient High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinomas.
AB  - Approximately 20% of high-grade serous ovarian cancers are homologous
      recombination (HR)-deficient due to genetic and epigenetic mutations of HR
      pathway genes including the tumor suppressor genes BRCA1 and 2. HR deficiency
      (HRD) compromises cells' ability to efficiently repair DNA damage, but it also
      increases sensitivity to chemotherapeutic treatment strategies; however, not all
      ovarian cancer patients with HRD tumors exhibit positive responses to
      chemotherapy. Our previous iTRAQ-based comprehensive proteomic characterization
      of high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas found that lower levels of histone H4
      acetylation at Lys12 and Lys16 (H4-K12acK16ac) were associated with HRD tumors
      compared with non-HRD tumors. In the current study, we developed and validated an
      H4-K12acK16ac parallel-reaction-monitoring (PRM)-targeted mass-spectrometry-based
      assay to analyze acetylation changes of histone H4 and to determine the
      association of these changes with total H4, histone acetyltransferase, and
      histone deacetylase (HDAC) levels. Whereas the levels of H4 and histone
      acetyltransferases were stable irrespective of HRD status, the levels of histone
      H4 acetylation and one HDAC, HDAC6, were elevated in the HRD tumors. Relative H4
      acetylation levels were also analyzed by an antibody-based approach in additional
      ovarian tumors. It is possible that specific H4 acetylation at Lys12 and Lys16
      associated with HRD could inform chemotherapeutic treatment modalities to improve
      ovarian cancer patients' treatment response.

PMID- 28866886
TI  - Efficient Expression of Glutathione Peroxidase with Chimeric tRNA in Amber-less
      Escherichia coli.
AB  - The active center of selenium-containing glutathione peroxidase (GPx) is
      selenocysteine (Sec), which is is biosynthesized on its tRNA in organisms. The
      decoding of Sec depends on a specific elongation factor and a Sec Insertion
      Sequence (SECIS) to suppress the UGA codon. The expression of mammalian GPx is
      extremely difficult with traditional recombinant DNA technology. Recently, a
      chimeric tRNA (tRNAUTu) that is compatible with elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) has
      made selenoprotein expression easier. In this study, human glutathione peroxidase
      (hGPx) was expressed in amber-less Escherichia coli C321.DeltaA.exp using tRNAUTu
      and seven chimeric tRNAs that were constructed on the basis of tRNAUTu. We found
      that chimeric tRNAUTu2, which substitutes the acceptor stem and T-stem of tRNAUTu
      with those from tRNASec, enabled the expression of reactive hGPx with high
      yields. We also found that chimeric tRNAUTuT6, which has a single base change
      (A59C) compared to tRNAUTu, mediated the highest reactive expression of hGPx1.
      The hGPx1 expressed exists as a tetramer and reacts with positive cooperativity.
      The SDS-PAGE analysis of hGPx2 produced by tRNAUTuT6 with or without sodium
      selenite supplementation showed that the incorporation of Sec is nearly 90%. Our
      approach enables efficient selenoprotein expression in amber-less Escherichia
      coli and should enable further characterization of selenoproteins in vitro.

PMID- 28866887
TI  - Triplet Excited State of BODIPY Accessed by Charge Recombination and Its
      Application in Triplet-Triplet Annihilation Upconversion.
AB  - The triplet excited state properties of two BODIPY phenothiazine dyads (BDP-1 and
      BDP-2) with different lengths of linker and orientations of the components were
      studied. The triplet state formation of BODIPY chromophore was achieved via
      photoinduced electron transfer (PET) and charge recombination (CR). BDP-1 has a
      longer linker between the phenothiazine and the BODIPY chromophore than BDP-2.
      Moreover, the two chromophores in BDP-2 assume a more orthogonal geometry both at
      the ground and in the first excited state (87 degrees ) than that of BDP-1 (34-40
      degrees ). The fluorescence of the BODIPY moiety was significantly quenched in
      the dyads. The charge separation (CS) and CR dynamics of the dyads were studied
      with femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (kCS = 2.2 * 1011 s-1 and 2 *
      1012 s-1 for BDP-1 and BDP-2, respectively; kCR = 4.5 * 1010 and 1.5 * 1011 s-1
      for BDP-1 and BDP-2, respectively; in acetonitrile). Formation of the triplet
      excited state of the BODIPY moiety was observed for both dyads upon
      photoexcitation, and the triplet state quantum yield depends on both the linker
      length and the orientation of the chromophores. Triplet state quantum yields are
      13.4 and 97.5% and lifetimes are 13 and 116 MUs for BDP-1 and BDP-2,
      respectively. The spin-orbit charge transfer (SO-CT) mechanism is proposed to be
      responsible for the efficient triplet state formation. The dyads were used for
      triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) upconversion, showing an upconversion quantum
      yield up to 3.2%.

PMID- 28866888
TI  - Additive Capacity of [6]-Shogaol and Epicatechin To Trap Methylglyoxal.
AB  - Methylglyoxal (MGO), a reactive dicarbonyl species, is thought to contribute to
      the development of long-term pathological diabetes as a direct toxin or as an
      active precursor of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Trapping MGO by
      dietary phenols to inhibit the MGO induced AGE formation is an approach for
      alleviating diabetic complications. The present study investigated whether
      dietary compounds with different structures and active sites have the additive
      capacity to trap MGO. Ginger phenolic constituent [6]-shogaol and tea flavonoid (
      )-epicatechin were selected and tested under simulated physiological conditions,
      showing that they additively trapped about 41% MGO at a concentration of 10 MUM
      within 24 h. Furthermore, whether [6]-shogaol and epicatechin can retain their
      MGO trapping efficacy in vivo or a biotransformation limits their MGO trapping
      capacity remain virtually unknown. An acute mouse study was carried out by giving
      a single dose of [6]-shogaol, epicatechin, and the combination of both ([6]
      shogaol + epicatechin) through oral gavage. A mono-MGO adduct of [6]-shogaol was
      identified from [6]-shogaol and [6]-shogaol + epicatechin treated mice, and mono-
      and di-MGO adducts of epicatechin and its metabolite, 3'-O-methyl epicatichin,
      were detected in urine samples collected from epicatechin and [6]-shogaol +
      epicatechin treated mice. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating
      the additive MGO trapping efficacy of [6]-shogaol and epicatechin and that [6]
      shogaol and epicatechin retained their MGO trapping capacity in mice.

PMID- 28866891
TI  - Integration of hypnosis into pediatric palliative care.
AB  - At least 8 million children would need specialized pediatric palliative care
      (PPC) services annually worldwide, and of the more than 42,000 children and
      teenagers dying annually in the United States, at least 15,000 children would
      require PPC. Unfortunately, even in resource-rich countries the majority of
      children dying from serious advanced illnesses are suffering from unrelieved,
      distressing symptoms such as pain, dyspnea, nausea, vomiting, and anxiety. State
      of the art treatment and prevention of those symptoms requires employing multi
      modal therapies, commonly including pharmacology, rehabilitation, procedural
      intervention, psychology, and integrative modalities. This article describes the
      current practice of integrating hypnosis into advanced pain and symptom
      management of children with serious illness. Three case reports of children
      living with a life-limiting condition exemplify the effective use of this
      clinical modality to decrease distressing symptoms and suffering. Hypnosis for
      pediatric patients experiencing a life-limiting disease not only provides an
      integral part of advanced symptom management, but also supports children dealing
      with loss and anticipatory loss, sustains and enhances hope and helps children
      and adolescents live fully, making every moment count, until death.

PMID- 28866892
TI  - Plasma L-carnitine levels in terminally ill cancer patients receiving only
      palliative care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies indicated that plasma L-carnitine (LC) levels are
      significantly decreased during chemotherapy or chemoradiation and that LC
      supplementation can improve the fatigue score in some cancer patients. However,
      the LC levels in end-stage cancer patients treated only with palliative care
      remained unclear. The present study was performed to examine the plasma LC levels
      of terminally ill and hospitalized patients. METHODS: Twenty-one terminally ill
      cancer patients in our hospital, with expected survival of several months, were
      enrolled in the present study. Blood samples were taken for measurement of total,
      free, and acyl-LC. These values were compared with those in 22 chemo-naive cancer
      patients scheduled to receive cisplatin-containing chemotherapy as first-line
      therapy. We examined the relationships with body mass index, albumin and CRP
      levels, the presence of general fatigue, and body weight loss. RESULTS: Median
      survival in terminally ill cancer patients after enrollment was 38.5 days. Plasma
      concentrations of total, free, and acyl-LC in terminally ill cancer patients were
      59.5+/-16.0, 46.1+/-14.2, and 13.4+/-5.9 umol/L, respectively. These values were
      not significantly different from those in chemo-naive patients (58.3+/-18.1,
      48.7+/-16.3, and 9.6+/-3.3 umol/L, respectively). In addition, plasma LC levels
      in terminally ill patients showed no correlations with albumin or CRP values nor
      with other clinical parameters, such as fatigue or body weight loss. CONCLUSIONS:
      The present study suggested that plasma LC levels remain normal and its
      deficiency is not always common even in terminally ill and hospitalized
      palliative cancer patients.

PMID- 28866893
TI  - Why it's not OK for doctors to participate in executions.

PMID- 28866894
TI  - More chemo or home hospice? Narrative results from an N-of-1 trial.
AB  - Words matter. They have tremendous power to heal or hurt. And although the
      patients we care for in oncology and palliative medicine often die from, or
      despite, their neoplastic illness; caregivers and loved ones often hold onto the
      words that clinicians share with them during their times of struggle and grief.
      In this narrative, the author (as first person) reflects on some systemic
      challenges he faced in dealing with illness and loss when his father battled two
      distinct neoplastic processes. He explores the commonalities and differences that
      he experienced as a palliative care physician, and how that has guided his
      medical practice moving forward. Moreover, he shares his observations regarding
      breaking bad news, code status discussions, and transitioning to hospice-as a
      cautionary tale to all clinical providers that what we say to patients and
      families matters. He encourages clinicians to avoid losing sight of the power and
      responsibility we all have to provide optimal, patient-centered care.

PMID- 28866895
TI  - Attendance of older patients with bone metastases at a multidisciplinary bone
      metastases clinic: an 8-year experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone metastases clinic (BMC) is a multidisciplinary clinic where
      patients with bony metastases are assessed in conjunction by orthopedic surgery,
      radiation oncology, interventional radiology, and palliative medicine teams. The
      objective of the study was to determine the number of older adult (OA) referrals
      made to BMC and to examine their case dispositions. METHODS: Patients who were
      referred to the BMC from 2007 to 2015 were included in the study. Demographic
      information including gender, age, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), primary
      cancer site and reason for referral, as well as case dispositions were recorded
      for each patient. The proportion of OA attendance was calculated for each year
      from the total number of patient visits. OA attendance was defined as individuals
      >=65 years of age who attended the BMC, and non-OA patients were those <65 years
      of age. Descriptive statistics were employed. RESULTS: A total of 551 patients
      were included with a median age of 64 years. The median KPS was 70 for OA and 80
      for non-OA patients. OA attendance ranged per year from 42.5% to 58.7%. 14.1% of
      non-OA and 10.9% of OA patients were offered surgery. 62 patients in both cohorts
      (22.6% of OA and 22.4% of non-OA patients) were offered palliative radiation.
      CONCLUSIONS: From 2007 to 2015, OA patients comprised a significant proportion of
      referrals to the BMC. Younger patients were offered surgery slightly more often
      when compared to OA patients. Age did not appear to be a precluding factor for
      BMC referral or a deterrent in treatments offered.

PMID- 28866896
TI  - Hospitalizations in elderly glioblastoma patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elderly glioblastoma (GB) patients are at risk of hospitalizations
      due to the morbidity of the disease and possible treatment toxicity. METHODS: In
      this observational cohort study, 255 newly diagnosed GB patients age 65 years and
      older were included. Survival, emergency room visits and admissions to an acute
      care hospital were determined. Mean and median total health care costs were
      calculated. Risk factors for Emergency room visits and acute care hospital
      admissions were determined. RESULTS: Median overall survival was 6 months. The
      majority of patients (68%) had at least one visit to the emergency department and
      77% had at least one admission to acute care. The mean and median total costs
      (hospital, ambulatory, physician billing, other health care costs) per patient
      were $162,479.78 (CAN) and $125,511.00 (CAN), respectively. Treatment with
      radiation or treatment with radio-chemotherapy was associated with a relative
      risk (RR) of 2.31 (95% CI: 1.44-3.7; P=0.0005) and 2.19 (95% CI: 1.28-3.74;
      P=0.004), respectively for emergency department visits as compared to patients
      who were managed with comfort measures only. Patients with a baseline ECOG 0 had
      a RR of 1.71 (95% CI: 1.06-2.77; P=0.0289) and patients with baseline ECOG 1 had
      a RR of 1.49 (0.98-2.26; P=0.0623) for hospital admission as compared to patients
      with ECOG 4. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of elderly GB patients (particularly
      those with good baseline performance status who underwent active treatment)
      presented to the emergency department and had at least one admission to acute
      care.

PMID- 28866898
TI  - Olanzapine induced delirium-a "probable" adverse drug reaction.
AB  - Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic indicated for the treatment of
      schizophrenia and known to be effective in the management of delirium. In
      addition to its use for these indications olanzapine has also been used in the
      management of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting and otherwise difficult to
      control nausea and vomiting in palliative care settings. Although considered to
      be well tolerated with a lower incidence of extrapyramidal effects than first
      generation antipsychotics there are a small number of reports of olanzapine
      inducing delirium. Reported here are two cases of "probable" acute cognitive
      impairment following treatment of nausea with olanzapine. The cognitive
      impairment associated with olanzapine is probably mediated through its activity
      at cholinergic receptors a known risk factor for delirium particularly in the
      elderly.

PMID- 28866897
TI  - Superior target delineation for stereotactic body radiotherapy of bone metastases
      from renal cell carcinoma on MRI compared to CT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) there has been a treatment
      shift towards targeted therapy, which has resulted in improved overall survival.
      Therefore, there is a need for better local control of the tumor and its
      metastases. Image-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in bone metastases
      provides improved symptom palliation and local control. With the use of SBRT
      there is a need for accurate target delineation. The hypothesis is that MRI
      allows for better visualization of the extend of bone metastases in mRCC and will
      optimize the accuracy of tumor delineation for stereotactic radiotherapy
      purposes, compared with CT only. METHODS: From 2013 to 2016, patients who
      underwent SBRT for RCC bone metastases were included. A planning CT and MRI were
      performed in radiotherapy treatment position. Gross tumor volumes (GTV) in both
      CT and MRI were delineated. Contouring was performed by a radiation oncologist
      specialized in bone metastases and verified by a radiologist, based on local
      consensus contouring guidelines. In both CT and MRI, the GTV volumes, conformity
      index (CI) and distance between the centers of mass (dCOM) were compared.
      RESULTS: Nine patients with 11 RCC bone metastases were included. The GTV volume
      as defined on MRI was in all cases larger or at least as large as the GTV volume
      on CT. The median GTV volume on MRI was 33.4 mL (range 0.2-247.6 mL), compared to
      18.1 mL on CT (range 0.1-195.9) (P=0.013). CONCLUSIONS: Contouring of RCC bone
      metastases on MRI resulted in clinically relevant and statistically significant
      larger lesions (mean increase 41%) compared with CT. MRI seems to represent the
      extend of the GTV in RCC bone metastases more accurately. Contouring based on CT
      only could result in an underestimation of the actual tumor volume, which may
      cause underdosage of the GTV in SBRT treatment plans.

PMID- 28866899
TI  - Covered biliary stents with proximal bare stent extension for the palliation of
      malignant biliary disease: can we reduce tumour overgrowth rate?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Covered biliary stents have shown significant effectiveness in the
      palliative management of patients with malignant biliary disease due to
      prevention of tumour ingrowth. However, stent dysfunction may still occur due to
      growth of tumour at the borders of the covered stent (tumour overgrowth). The aim
      of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a bare extension in the
      prevention of tumour overgrowth when covered stents are used in the palliative
      treatment of malignant biliary strictures. METHODS: This is a prospective, single
      arm, cohort study. Twenty-two patients with inoperable malignant biliary
      strictures in the distal common bile duct (Bismuth I-II) and life expectancy more
      than 6 months were included in the study. The combination of a fully covered
      biliary stent and a bare proximal and distal extension was used in all cases. All
      patients were followed-up until death. Primary patency, survival, complication
      rates and dysfunction cause were assessed. RESULTS: Mean survival was 263.7 days
      (median 255, SD: 77.6). Mean patency was 240 days (median: 237, SD: 87). The
      primary patency rate at 3, 6 and 12 months was 90%, 86% and 86% respectively.
      Tumour inor overgrowth did not occur in any of the patients. Dysfunction due to
      sludge formation occurred in three cases; all three were treated with
      bilioplasty. CONCLUSIONS: The combined use of a covered biliary stent and a bare
      extension appears to be a very effective tool in the palliation of malignant
      biliary disease, offering long-term patency for patients with inoperable
      malignant distal common bile duct strictures and increasing the quality of life
      of such patients.

PMID- 28866900
TI  - Patient preference for stereotactic radiosurgery plus or minus whole brain
      radiotherapy for the treatment of brain metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Optimal management for limited, non-resectable brain metastases is an
      evolving area in radiation oncology. Previous data show no difference in survival
      between stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and SRS plus whole-brain radiotherapy
      (WBRT). Neurocognitive toxicities, treatment duration and tumor recurrence differ
      and therefore patient values play an important role in decision making. We aim to
      elicit patient preferences and understand factors important in deciding which
      treatment to pursue. METHODS: Patients were recruited from 2 centers in North
      America. Eligibility criteria included <=4 intracranial lesions and physician
      judgment that either treatment was appropriate. Those with prior treatment for
      brain metastases were excluded. A decision board presented the treatments and
      summarized evidence regarding disease control and toxicity. An option to either
      take an active or passive role was offered. If taking a passive role, treatment
      was left to the clinician. If an active role was taken, patients made a decision
      about whether to receive SRS alone, or in combination with WBRT. A debriefing
      questionnaire to rank important factors in decision making was then completed.
      Descriptive statistics summarized findings. RESULTS: A total of 23 patients were
      enrolled. The majority of patients were male (15/23; 65.2%), had primary lung
      cancer (15/23; 65.2%) and the mean age was 65.5 years. All patients took an
      active role in deciding their treatment. The majority of patients (21/23) chose
      to receive SRS alone. The highest ranked factors were quality of life (9.4/10),
      ability to maintain functional independence (9.3/10) and influence of treatment
      on survival (9.2/10). The least important factor was number of trips required to
      the cancer center (5.0/10). CONCLUSIONS: A patient centered approach to decision
      making in brain metastases is feasible. Most patients will take an active role in
      management if relevant information is presented in a clear, understandable
      manner. When informed, most patients prefer SRS alone rather than SRS + WBRT and
      identify quality of life, ability to maintain functional independence and
      influence of treatment on survival as highly important factors in making their
      decision.

PMID- 28866901
TI  - Anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms in palliative care: from neuro
      psychobiological response to stress, to symptoms' management with clinical
      hypnosis and meditative states.
AB  - Psychosomatic disorder is a condition in which psychological stresses adversely
      affect physiological (somatic) functioning to the point of distress. It is a
      condition of dysfunction or structural damage in physical organs through
      inappropriate activation of the involuntary nervous system and the biochemical
      response. In this framework, this review will consider anxiety disorders, from
      the perspective of the psychobiological mechanisms of vulnerability to extreme
      stress in severe chronic illnesses. Psychosomatic medicine is a field of
      behavioral medicine and a part of the practice of consultation-liaison
      psychiatry. Psychosomatic medicine in palliative care, integrates
      interdisciplinary evaluation and management involving diverse clinical
      specialties including psychiatry, psychology, neurology, internal medicine,
      allergy, dermatology, psychoneuroimmunology, psychosocial oncology and spiritual
      care. Clinical conditions where psychological processes act as a major factor
      affecting medical outcomes are areas where psychosomatic medicine has competence.
      Thus, the psychosomatic symptom develops as a physiological connected of an
      emotional state. In a state of rage or fear, for example, the stressed person's
      blood pressure is likely to be elevated and his pulse and respiratory rate to be
      increased. When the fear passes, the heightened physiologic processes usually
      subside. If the person has a persistent fear (chronic anxiety), however, which he
      is unable to express overtly, the emotional state remains unchanged, though
      unexpressed in the overt behavior, and the physiological symptoms associated with
      the anxiety state persist. This paper wants highlight how clinical hypnosis and
      meditative states can be important psychosocial and spiritual care, for the
      symptom management on neuro-psychobiological response to stress.

PMID- 28866902
TI  - Suicide in palliative care setting.

PMID- 28866903
TI  - Embracing the setting sun: provision of palliative care via a collaborative model
      between hospital and community for patients with intellectual disabilities.

PMID- 28866904
TI  - A selective review of medical cannabis in cancer pain management.
AB  - Insufficient management of cancer-associated chronic and neuropathic pain
      adversely affects patient quality of life. Patients who do not respond well to
      opioid analgesics, or have severe side effects from the use of traditional
      analgesics are in need of alternative therapeutic op-tions. Anecdotal evidence
      suggests that medical cannabis has potential to effectively manage pain in this
      patient population. This review presents a selection of representative clinical
      studies, from small pilot studies conducted in 1975, to double-blind placebo
      controlled trials conducted in 2014 that evaluated the efficacy of cannabinoid
      based therapies containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) for
      reducing cancer-associated pain. A review of literature published on Medline
      between 1975 and 2017 identified five clinical studies that evaluated the effect
      of THC or CBD on controlling cancer pain, which have been reviewed and
      summarised. Five studies that evaluated THC oil capsules, THC:CBD oromucosal
      spray (nabiximols), or THC oromucosal sprays found some evidence of cancer pain
      reduction associated with these therapies. A variety of doses ranging from 2.7
      43.2 mg/day THC and 0-40 mg/day CBD were administered. Higher doses of THC were
      correlated with increased pain relief in some studies. One study found that
      significant pain relief was achieved in doses as low as 2.7-10.8 mg THC in
      combination with 2.5-10.0 mg CBD, but there was conflicting evidence on whether
      higher doses provide superior pain relief. Some reported side effects include
      drowsiness, hypotension, mental clouding, and nausea and vomiting. There is
      evidence suggesting that medical cannabis reduces chronic or neu-ropathic pain in
      advanced cancer patients. However, the results of many studies lacked statistical
      power, in some cases due to limited number of study subjects. Therefore, there is
      a need for the conduct of further double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical
      trials with large sample sizes in order to establish the optimal dosage and
      efficacy of different cannabis-based therapies.

PMID- 28866905
TI  - Where is the value in care?

PMID- 28866906
TI  - End-of-life care for advanced dementia patients in residential care home-a Hong
      Kong perspective.
AB  - Dementia will become more common as the population ages. Advanced dementia should
      be considered as a terminal illnesses and end-of-life (EOL) care is very much
      needed for this disease group. Currently, the EOL services provided to this
      vulnerable group in Hong Kong, especially those living in residential care homes,
      is limited. The usual practice of residential care homes is to send older
      residents with advanced dementia to acute hospitals when they are sick,
      irrespective of their wish, premorbid status, diagnoses and prognosis. This may
      not accord with what the patients perceive to be a "good death". There are many
      barriers for older people to die in place, both at home and at the residential
      care home. In the community, to enhance EOL care to residential care home for the
      elderly (RCHE) residents, pilot EOL program had been carried out by some
      Community Geriatric Assessment Teams. Since 2015, the Hospital Authority funded
      program "Enhance Community Geriatric Assessment Team Support to End-of-life
      Patients in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly" has been started. In the
      program, advance care planning (ACP), Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary
      Resuscitation (DNACPR) (non-hospitalized) order will be established and the
      program will be expected to cover all clusters in Hong Kong by 2018/2019. In
      hospital setting, EOL clinical plan and EOL ward in geriatric step-down hospitals
      may be able to improve the quality of death of older patients. In Sep 2015, the
      Hospital Authority Guidelines on Life-Sustaining Treatment in the Terminally Ill
      was updated. Amongst other key EOL issues, careful (comfort) hand feeding was
      mentioned in the guideline. Other new developments include the possible
      establishment of enduring power of attorney for health care decision and
      enhancement of careful hand feeding amongst advanced dementia patients in RCHEs.

PMID- 28866907
TI  - Palliative radiotherapy, bone metastases, and global assessments in palliative
      care.

PMID- 28866908
TI  - High burden of coronary atherosclerosis in patients with a new diagnosis of type
      2 diabetes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to compare the presence, extent and
      composition of coronary plaques in asymptomatic patients with newly diagnosed
      type 2 diabetes to age- and sex-matched controls. METHODS: Patients with newly
      diagnosed (<1 year) type 2 diabetes ( n = 44) and controls ( n = 44) underwent
      contrast-enhanced coronary computed tomography angiography. Advanced plaque
      analysis including total plaque volume and volumes of plaque components
      (calcified plaque and non-calcified plaque, including low-attenuation [low
      density non-calcified plaque]) was performed using validated semi-automated
      software. RESULTS: Coronary artery calcification was more often seen in patients
      with type 2 diabetes (66%) versus controls (48%), p < 0.05. Both the absolute
      volume (median; interquartile range) of low-density non-calcified plaque (7.9
      mm3; 0-50.5 mm3 vs 0; 0-34.3 mm3, p < 0.05) and the increase in low-density non
      calcified plaque ratio in relation to total plaque volume ( tau = 0.5, p < 0.001)
      were significantly higher in patients with type 2 diabetes. More patients with
      type 2 diabetes had spotty calcification (31% vs 0%, p < 0.05). By multivariate
      analysis, the presence of any low-density non-calcified plaque was higher in
      males (odds ratio: 4.06, p < 0.05), who also demonstrated a larger low-density
      non-calcified plaque volume ( p < 0.001). The presence and extent of low-density
      non-calcified plaque increased with age, smoking, hypertension and
      hyperglycaemia, all p < 0.05. CONCLUSION: Asymptomatic patients with newly
      diagnosed type 2 diabetes had plaque features associated with increased
      vulnerability as compared with age- and sex-matched controls.

PMID- 28866909
TI  - The relationship between work, mental health, physical health, and fatigue in
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - To evaluate the relationship between work, mental health, physical health, and
      fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the data of 282 participants were
      drawn from baseline. The results of structural equation modeling showed that
      among rheumatoid arthritis patients, those who were engaged in occupational
      activity had lower levels of fatigue compared to those who did not work and that
      this relationship was mediated by better mental health, not by physical health.

PMID- 28866910
TI  - Factors associated with living situation among Alzheimer's caregivers in the
      south of Spain that affect the election of external support services.
AB  - Alzheimer's is a syndrome mainly suffered by women and the care they need is also
      mainly provided by other women. The aim of this paper is to describe the profile
      of users of professional support services and to find out if some socio
      demographic factors are linked with those elections. The study was conducted from
      January to June 2012 thanks to the cooperation of over 41 Alzheimer's
      Associations in Andalusia, in the south of Spain. A person trained by the main
      researcher (a social worker or a psychologist) completed the questionnaire during
      an interview with the caregiver. Seven hundred and seventy-eight questionnaires
      were analysed. Contrary to previous findings, the use of external services is not
      infrequent. The most commonly used services are Day Care Centres (22.4%) and
      Cognitive Workshops (19.2%), but Home Assistance Services are the most frequently
      used either alone or in combination with the other two (27.5%). A higher level of
      education increases the probability of choosing a nursing home. The two main
      factors for looking for external support are non-cohabitation and working outside
      the home. Among caregivers under 40 years old this is the main profile. Using no
      services or in low and medium intensity in service hours leads to informal
      caregivers being the main caregivers. The potential labour market for
      professional caring is reduced by a crowding-out effect. Employment reduces the
      chance of being a caregiver.

PMID- 28866911
TI  - Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD: A Randomized Clinical Trial in
      China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for adult ADHD, and
      booster sessions may improve long-term outcome. This study was designed to
      investigate the effects of group CBT and its booster sessions for Chinese adult
      patients with ADHD. METHOD: There were CBT only group ( n = 43), CBT +booster
      group ( n = 43), and control group with patients on the waiting list ( n = 22).
      The primary outcome was the score of the ADHD-Rating Scale (ADHD-RS). Secondary
      outcomes included emotion, executive function (EF), impulsivity, self-esteem, and
      life quality at 12th and 24th week. RESULTS: At 12th week, the score of ADHD-RS,
      EF, and impulsivity showed significant improvement in CBT +booster group
      comparing with control group. At 24th week, differences between CBT only group
      and CBT +booster group were not significant. CONCLUSION: CBT was effective for
      Chinese adult patients with ADHD. Booster sessions do not appear to provide
      additional benefits.

PMID- 28866912
TI  - Additional Abstracts for the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Society for
      Neural Therapy and Repair.

PMID- 28866913
TI  - Article Commentary: Cell Transplantation for Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Hype slang. n. 1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion. 2. Exaggerated
      or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material.
      (Source: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, third
      edition).

PMID- 28866918
TI  - Article Retraction.

PMID- 28866919
TI  - Transplants of Encapsulated Rat Choroid Plexus Cells Exert Neuroprotection in a
      Rodent Model of Huntington's Disease.
AB  - Choroid plexus (CP) epithelial cells secrete several neurotrophic factors and
      have been used in transplantation studies designed to impart neuroprotection
      against central nervous system (CNS) trauma. In the present study, CP was
      isolated from adult rats, encapsulated within alginate microcapsules, and
      transplanted unilaterally into the rat striatum. Three days later, unilateral
      injections of quinolinic acid (QA; 225 nmol) were made into the ipsilateral
      striatum to mimic the pathology observed in Huntington's disease (HD). After
      surgery, animals were tested for motor function using the placement test. Rats
      receiving CP transplants were significantly less impaired on this test. Nissl
      stained sections demonstrated that CP transplants significantly reduced the
      volume of the striatal lesion produced by QA. Quantitative analysis of striatal
      neurons further demonstrated that choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive, but
      not diaphorase-positive, neurons were protected by CP transplants. These data
      demonstrate that transplanted CP cells can be used to protect striatal neurons
      from excitotoxic damage and that the pattern of neuroprotection varies across
      specific neuronal populations.

PMID- 28866920
TI  - Multifunctional Pancreatic Islet Encapsulation Barriers Achieved via Multilayer
      PEG Hydrogels.
AB  - The diverse requirements for a successful islet encapsulation barrier suggest the
      benefit of a barrier system that presents differing functionalities to
      encapsulated cells and host cells. Initially, multifunctional hydrogels were
      synthesized via the sequential photopolymerization of PEG hydrogel layers, each
      with different isolated functionalities. The ability to achieve localized
      biological functionalities was confirmed by immunostaining of different entrapped
      antibodies within each hydrogel layer. Survival of murine islets
      macroencapsulated within the interior gel of two-layer hydrogel constructs was
      then assessed. Maintenance of encapsulated islet survival and function was
      observed within multilayer hydrogels over 28 days in culture. Additionally, the
      functionalization of the islet-containing interior PEG gel layer with cell-matrix
      moieties, with either 100 MUg/ml laminin or 5 mM of the adhesive peptide IKVAV
      found in laminin, resulted in increased insulin secretion from encapsulated
      islets similar to that in gels without an exterior hydrogel layer. Finally,
      through cell seeding experiments, the ability of an unmodified, exterior PEG
      layer to prevent interactions, and thus attachment, between nonencapsulated
      fibroblasts and entrapped ECM components within the interior PEG layer was
      demonstrated. Together the presented results support the potential of multilayer
      hydrogels for use as multifunctional islet encapsulation barriers that provide a
      localized biologically active islet microenvironment, while presenting an inert,
      immunoprotective exterior surface to the host environment, to minimize graft-host
      interactions.

PMID- 28866921
TI  - In Vivo Tracking of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Experimental Stroke.
AB  - To understand the fates of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) following
      transplantation into a rodent model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo),
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques were employed. hMSCs were labeled
      with ferumoxides (Feridex(r))-protamine sulfate complexes, which were visualized
      and examined by MRI up to 10 weeks following transplantation. Migration of the
      transplanted cells to the infarcted area was further confirmed by histological
      methods. We found that the hMSCs transplanted in MCAo models possess the capacity
      to migrate to the infarcted area extensively in both ipsilateral and
      contralateral injections, exhibiting a pathotropism. We also analyzed the
      detailed migration patterns of transplanted hMSCs. We speculate that the
      extensive migratory ability of hMSCs may represent a therapeutic potential for
      developing efficient cell transplantation strategies in stroke.

PMID- 28866922
TI  - Serum-Free Medium Provides a Clinically Relevant Method to Increase Olfactory
      Ensheathing Cell Numbers in Olfactory Mucosa Cell Culture.
AB  - There is much evidence to suggest that transplanted olfactory ensheathing cells
      may ameliorate the functional deficits associated with injuries to the nervous
      system, especially the spinal cord. For clinical implementation of this strategy
      it will be necessary to derive large numbers of these cells from an accessible
      and, preferably, autologous source, implying that olfactory mucosa would be
      ideal. Although olfactory ensheathing cells can be derived from olfactory mucosa,
      in routine culture conditions the proportion of these cells is unacceptably low
      for clinical purposes. This study compared the effect of culturing dissociated
      olfactory bulb and olfactory mucosa in two different media: one containing serum
      and one serum free. The results indicate that olfactory ensheathing cell
      proportion, and absolute cell numbers, is greatly increased in serum-free
      conditions. Further analysis suggests that serum-free medium has a differential
      effect on contaminating fibronectin-positive and p75-positive cells from
      olfactory bulb and olfactory mucosa. This study demonstrates that serum-free
      culture conditions provide a simple and useful means of deriving a sufficient
      number of olfactory ensheathing cells for transplantation and reveals a
      difference in biological behavior of the cells contained within olfactory bulb
      and olfactory mucosa.

PMID- 28866923
TI  - Recombinant AAV Viral Vectors Serotype 1, 2, and 5 Mediate Differential Gene
      Transfer Efficiency in Rat Striatal Fetal Grafts.
AB  - Intrastriatal grafts of fetal ganglionic eminences (GE) can reverse symptoms of
      striatal lesions in animal models of Huntington's disease. On the other hand,
      neurotrophic factors have been shown to protect host striatal neurons from
      ongoing degeneration. Neurotrophic gene transfer into GE prior to grafting could
      combine the benefits of striatal neuron replacement and in situ delivery of
      neurotrophic factors. Here we evaluate the potency of recombinant adeno
      associated viruses (rAAV) as vectors for gene delivery into rat embryonic (E15)
      GE using the eGFP reporter gene under the control of the strong cytomegalovirus
      (CMV) promoter. We observed a very efficient expression of the eGFP reporter gene
      in organotypic cultures of GE infected with rAAV serotype 1 from 4 days until at
      least 4 weeks postinfection. In contrast, transduction was low and absent when
      using serotype 2 and serotype 5 rAAV, respectively. Two months after
      transplantation of rAAV2/1-infected embryonic GE in adult rat striatum, more than
      20% of grafted cells expressed eGFP. The majority of transduced cells in the
      graft were neurons as indicated by colabeling of GFP-immunoreactive cells with
      the NeuN marker. Our study suggests that GE transduced by rAAV-serotype 1 vectors
      could be an interesting tool to mediate efficient expression of a gene coding a
      neurotrophic factor in Huntington's disease.

PMID- 28866924
TI  - Automated, High-Throughput Assays for Evaluation of Human Pancreatic Islet
      Function.
AB  - An important challenge in pancreatic islet transplantation in association with
      type 1 diabetes is to define automatic high-throughput assays for evaluation of
      human islet function. The physiological techniques presently used are amenable to
      small-scale experimental samples and produce descriptive results. The postgenomic
      era provides an opportunity to analyze biological processes on a larger scale,
      but the transition to high-throughput technologies is still a challenge. As a
      first step to implement high-throughput assays for the study of human islet
      function, we have developed two methodologies: multiple automated perifusion to
      determine islet hormone secretion and high-throughput kinetic imaging to examine
      islet cellular responses. Both technologies use fully automated devices that
      allow performing simultaneous experiments on multiple islet preparations. Our
      results illustrate that these technologies can be applied to study the functional
      status and explore the pharmacological profiles of islet cells. These
      methodologies will enable functional characterization of human islet preparations
      before transplantation and thereby provide the basis for the establishment of
      predictive tests for beta-cell potency.

PMID- 28866925
TI  - Concentration of Bone Marrow Total Nucleated Cells by a Point-of-Care Device
      Provides a High Yield and Preserves Their Functional Activity.
AB  - Stem and progenitor cell therapy is a novel strategy to enhance cardiovascular
      regeneration. Cell isolation procedures are crucial for the functional activity
      of the administered cellular product. Therefore, new isolation techniques have to
      be evaluated in comparison to the Ficoll isolation procedure as the current gold
      standard. Here we prospectively evaluated a novel point-of-care device (Harvest
      BMAC System) for the concentration of bone marrow total nucleated cells (TNC) in
      comparison to the Ficoll isolation procedure for bone marrow mononucleated cells
      (MNC). The yield in total numbers of TNC was 2.4-fold higher for Harvest compared
      to Ficoll. Despite significant differences in their cellular compositions, the
      colony-forming capacity was similar for both products. Intriguingly, the
      migratory capacity was significantly higher for the Harvest TNC (164 +/- 66%; p =
      0.007). In a mouse model of hind limb ischemia, the increase in blood flow
      recovery was similar between Harvest BM-TNC and Ficoll BM-MNC (0.53 +/- 0.20 vs.
      0.46 +/- 0.15; p = 0.88). However, adjustment of the injected cell number based
      on the higher yield of Harvest TNC resulted in a significant better recovery
      (0.64 +/- 0.16 vs. 0.46 +/- 0.15; p = 0.003). Cells concentrated by the Harvest
      point-of-care device show similar or greater functional activity compared to
      Ficoll isolation. However, the greater yield of cells and the wider range of cell
      types for the Harvest device may translate into an even greater therapeutic
      effect.

PMID- 28866926
TI  - Comparison of Successful and Unsuccessful Islet/Sertoli Cell Cotransplant Grafts
      in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Mice.
AB  - Sertoli cells (SC) protect islet allografts from immune destruction in diabetic
      rodents. In this study, we examined the difference between successful and
      rejected islet/SC cografts in order to further improve this procedure for optimal
      extension of islet allograft survival. We cotransplanted 500 BALB/c islets with 1
      8 million BALB/c SC under the kidney capsule of diabetic BALB/c, C3H-HeJ, and
      C57BL/6 mice. Cotransplantation of islets with up to 8 million SC was not
      detrimental to long-term islet graft function in syngeneic mice. However, large
      numbers of SC were detrimental to islet graft survival in allogeneic mice with
      the optimal dose for cotransplantation of 4 or 1 million SC in C3H-HeJ or C57BL/6
      mice, respectively. Examination of successful grafts, from euglycemic recipients,
      revealed the presence of SC arranged in tubule structures with islets surrounding
      these tubules. Cellular infiltrate in successful grafts revealed CD4 T cells and
      macrophages along the periphery and within the grafts, and very few CD8 T cells.
      Conversely, examination of unsuccessful grafts, harvested from hyperglycemic
      recipients at the time of rejection, revealed the presence of SC arranged
      randomly with islets adjacent to the Sertoli cells, when present, and massive CD4
      and CD8 T cell as well as macrophage cell infiltration. Prolongation of islet
      allograft survival appeared to be a function of SC transplant mass and recipient
      genetic background. A consequence of long-term graft acceptance is the formation
      of SC tubule structures, which may be an additional requirement for optimal
      protection of islet allografts.

PMID- 28866927
TI  - The TIM Family of Cosignaling Receptors: Emerging Targets for the Regulation of
      Autoimmune Disease and Transplantation Tolerance.
AB  - Currently, lifelong immune suppression regimens are required for solid organ and
      cellular transplantation and carry significant increased risk of infection,
      malignancy, and toxicity. For non-life-saving procedures such as islet
      transplantation, the risk/benefit ratio of lifelong immunosuppression versus
      benefit from transplantation requires even more careful balance. The search for
      specific agents to modulate the immune system without chronic immunosuppression
      is important for the broad application of islet transplantation. The T-cell
      immunoglobulin mucin (TIM) family is a distinct group of coreceptors that are
      differentially expressed on TH1 and TH2 cells, and have the potential to regulate
      both cytotoxic and humoral immune responses. Completed murine studies demonstrate
      Tim pathways may be important in the regulation of tolerance to self (auto),
      harmless (allergic), and transplant (allo) antigen; however, the potential impact
      of targeting Tim coreceptors has yet to be fully explored in transplantation
      tolerance induction or autoimmune disease. The current review examines the impact
      of Tim coreceptor targeting as an emerging therapeutic option for regulating
      autoimmune diseases and prevention of allograft rejection.

PMID- 28866929
TI  - Cell Therapy 2001: Introduction.

PMID- 28866928
TI  - Intravenously Administered Bone Marrow Cells Migrate to Damaged Brain Tissue and
      Improve Neural Function in Ischemic Rats.
AB  - Accumulated evidence suggests that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are capable
      of regenerating damaged tissue. This study evaluated whether intravenously
      (noninvasively) administered, GFP-labeled BMSCs would migrate into damaged brain
      tissue and improve neurological function after a stroke. Wistar rats were
      subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion. Twenty-four hours
      after injury, the rats received an IV injection of culture medium or BMSCs
      isolated from adult Wistar rats expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP). Two
      hours after injury and 1, 3, and 7 days after cell transplantation, neurological
      function was evaluated using a neurological severity scale. On day 7, the brain
      scar size was determined using tetrazolium chloride staining, and the implanted
      cells were identified using confocal microscopy. Immunohistochemistry was used to
      evaluate apoptosis and angiogenesis in the ischemic region, as well as the
      spatial distribution of the implanted BMSCs relative to the native neural cells.
      Implanted BMSCs migrated throughout the territory of the middle cerebral artery
      by 7 days after transplantation. Most implanted cells were located in the scar
      area and border zone of the ischemic region, and some expressed the neuronal
      marker NeuN. Rats receiving BMSC transplantation exhibited reduced scar size,
      limited apoptosis, and enhanced angiogenic factor expression and vascular density
      in the ischemic region relative to the control group, as well as significant
      improvements in the neurological severity scores. Intravenously administrated
      BMSCs facilitated the structural and functional recovery of neural tissue
      following ischemic injury, perhaps mediated by enhanced angiogenesis.

PMID- 28866930
TI  - Engineering of Human Hepatocyte Lines for Cell Therapies in Humans: Prospects and
      Remaining Hurdles.
AB  - Hepatocyte-based biological therapies are increasingly envisioned for temporary
      support in acute liver failure and provision of specific-liver functions in liver
      based metabolic deficiency. One of the hurdles to develop such therapies is
      severe shortage of human livers for hepatocyte isolation. To address the issue,
      we have focused on reversible immortalization of human hepatocytes. Such
      technology can allow rapid preparation of functional and uniform human
      hepatocytes. Here we present our strategy to construct transplantable human
      hepatocyte cell lines.

PMID- 28866941
TI  - Poly-L-Lysine Induces Fibrosis on Alginate Microcapsules via the Induction of
      Cytokines.
AB  - Alginate - poly-l-lysine (PLL) microcapsules can be used for transplantation of
      insulin-producing cells for treatment of type I diabetes. In this work we wanted
      to study the inflammatory reactions against implanted microcapsules due to PLL.
      We have seen that by reducing the PLL layer, less overgrowth of the capsule is
      obtained. By incubating different cell types with PLL and afterwards measuring
      cell viability with MTT, we found massive cell death at concentrations of PLL
      higher than 10 MUg/ml. Staining with annexin V and propidium iodide showed that
      PLL induced necrosis but not apoptosis. The proinflammatory cytokine, tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF), was detected in supernatants from monocytes stimulated
      with PLL. The TNF response was partly inhibited with antibodies against CD14,
      which is a well-known receptor for lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Bactericidal
      permeability increasing protein (BPI) and a lipid A analogue (B-975), which both
      inhibit LPS, did not inhibit PLL from stimulating monocytes to TNF production.
      This indicates that PLL and LPS bind to different sites on monocytes, but because
      they both are inhibited by a p38 MAP kinase inhibitor, they seem to have a common
      element in the signal transducing pathway. These results suggest that PLL may
      provoke inflammatory responses either directly or indirectly through its necrosis
      inducing abilities. By combining soluble PLL and alginate both the toxic and TNF
      inducing effects of PLL were reduced. The implications of these data are to use
      alginate microcapsules with low amounts of PLL for transplantation purposes.

PMID- 28866942
TI  - Remyelination of Demyelinated CNS Axons by Transplanted Human Schwann Cells: The
      Deleterious Effect of Contaminating Fibroblasts.
AB  - Areas of demyelination can be remyelinated by transplanting myelin-forming cells.
      Schwann cells are the naturally remyelinating cells of the peripheral nervous
      system and have a number of features that may make them attractive for cell
      implantation therapies in multiple sclerosis, in which spontaneous but limited
      Schwann cell remyelination has been well documented. Schwann cells can be
      expanded in vitro, potentially affording the opportunity of autologous
      transplantation; and they might also be spared the demyelinating process in
      multiple sclerosis. Although rat, cat, and monkey Schwann cells have been
      transplanted into rodent demyelinating lesions, the behavior of transplanted
      human Schwann cells has not been evaluated. In this study we examined the
      consequences of injecting human Schwann cells into areas of acute demyelination
      in the spinal cords of adult rats. We found that transplants containing
      significant fibroblast contamination resulted in deposition of large amounts of
      collagen and extensive axonal degeneration. However, Schwann cell preparations
      that had been purified by positive immunoselection using antibodies to human low
      affinity nerve growth factor receptor containing less than 10% fibroblasts were
      associated with remyelination. This result indicates that fibroblast
      contamination of human Schwann cells represents a greater problem than would have
      been appreciated from previous studies.

PMID- 28866943
TI  - Enhanced Survival of Porcine Neural Xenografts in Mice Lacking CD1d1, But No
      Effect of NK1.1 Depletion.
AB  - Transplantation of embryonic porcine neurons may restore neurological function in
      patients with Parkinson's disease, if immunological rejection could be prevented.
      This study was performed to investigate the role of natural killer cells (NK
      cells) and NK1.1+ T cells (NK T cells) in the rejection of neural xenografts. A
      cell suspension was prepared from the ventral mesencephalon of 26 - 27-day-old
      pig embryos, and 2 MUl was implanted in the right striata of mutant CD1d1 null
      (CD1.1-/-) mice, NK1.1-depleted mice, and controls. The CD1.1-/- mice are
      deficient in NK T cells and the antigen-presenting molecule CD1d1. Graft survival
      and host responses were determined immunohistochemically using markers for
      dopamine neurons, CD4-, CD8- cells, microglia, and macrophages. At 2 weeks, the
      grafts were significantly larger in CD1.1-/- mice, 0.09 +/- 0.02 MUl (mean +/-
      SEM), compared with controls, 0.05 +/- 0.01 MUl. There was no significant
      difference between NK1.1-depleted mice, 0.02 +/- 0.01 MUl, and controls. At 5
      weeks, two grafts were still present in the CD1-/- mice, whereas only scars
      remained in the controls and in the NK1.1-depleted mice. Immune reactions were
      strong at 2 weeks and less pronounced at 5 weeks in all groups. Microglial
      activation was lower in NK-depleted mice than in the controls at 2 weeks. In
      contrast to organ xenografting, NK1.1+ cells do not seem to be important
      mediators of the rejection of discordant cellular neural xenografts. However, our
      results suggest that the antigen-presenting molecule CD1d1 may be involved in the
      rejection process.

PMID- 28866944
TI  - Posterior Segment Approach for Subretinal Transplantation or Injection in the
      Canine Model.
AB  - A posterior segment approach for cell transplantation or injection into the
      subretinal space of the dog has been developed. Controlled penetration to the
      subretinal space was achieved using a 29-gauge injection cannula, either blunted
      or with a 30 degrees  sharpened bevel, and partially ensheathed with moveable
      plastic tubing. Depending on the injection volume used, the retina detached, and
      the fluid was reabsorbed within 1 - 3 weeks, although for smaller volumes the
      retina reattached within a matter of days. The optimal injection volume used was
      between 100 and 150 MUl, or two injections of 55 MUl each. By ophthalmoscopy
      following the surgery, it was possible to serially monitor the injection site and
      retinal bleb through fundus photography. Light microscopy demonstrates the
      distribution of stable, viable RPE cells in the subretinal space up to 6 months.
      The transplantation technique developed for the dog is atraumatic and free from
      any major surgical or clinical complications. It can be readily used to deliver
      cells or fluids to localized regions of the subretinal space.

PMID- 28866945
TI  - Influence of Donor Age on Mouse Islet Characteristics and Transplantation.
AB  - Old donor age has been considered as a risk factor and relative contraindication
      for transplantation. This study was designed to investigate the influence of
      donor age on islet characteristics and transplantation. Islets isolated from 8 (I
      A)-, 32 (I-B)-, or 64 (I-C)-week-old C57BL/6 mice were studied for number, size,
      insulin content, and secretion. After syngeneically transplanting 300 islets
      under the kidney capsule of strep-tozotocin-diabetic mice (R-A, R-B, and R-C,
      respectively), we measured recipients' metabolic parameters as well as the beta
      cell mass and insulin content of the graft. Eight-week-old donors had better
      glucose tolerance than 32- and 64-week-old donors. However, 64-week-old donors
      had more pancreatic insulin content than 8- and 32-week-old donors. I-B and I-C
      were greater in number, larger in size, and higher in insulin content than I-A.
      But perifusion study showed I-C secreted less insulin, albeit with a similar
      stimulation index compared with that of I-A and I-B. After transplantation, the
      fall of blood glucose in R-C was faster than that in R-A and R-B. At 12 weeks,
      the recipients' blood glucose, body weight, HbA1c, and the beta-cell mass and
      insulin content of the graft were comparable in all groups. However, R-C had
      better glucose tolerance than R-A. During follow-up, R-A and R-B maintained
      lifelong normoglycemia and their glucose tolerance did not deteriorate. These
      data indicate that islets isolated from donors with different ages have different
      characteristics and effects on transplantation. The islets isolated from aged
      donors are functioning well and can be a potential source for transplantation;
      however, because we transplanted a large islet mass from the aged donors, the
      role of the islet dose needs to be further clarified.

PMID- 28866946
TI  - Bridging a Patient with Acute Liver Failure to Liver Transplantation by the AMC
      Bioartificial Liver.
AB  - Recently a phase I clinical trial has been started in Italy to bridge patients
      with acute liver failure (ALF) to orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) by the
      AMC-bioartificial liver (AMC-BAL). The AMC-BAL is charged with 10 * 109 viable
      primary porcine hepatocytes isolated from a specified pathogen-free (SPF) pig.
      Here we report a patient with ALF due to acute HBV infection. This patient was
      treated for 35 h by two AMC-BAL treatments and was bridged to OLT. There was
      improvement of biochemical and clinical parameters during the treatment. No
      severe adverse events were observed during treatment and follow-up of 15 months
      after hospital discharge. Possible porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) activity
      could not be detected in the patient's blood or blood cells up to 12 months after
      treatment.

PMID- 28866947
TI  - Decellularized Native and Engineered Arterial Scaffolds for Transplantation.
AB  - More than 570,000 coronary artery bypass grafts are implanted each year, creating
      an important demand for small-diameter vascular grafts. For patients who lack
      adequate internal mammary artery or saphenous vein, tissue-engineered arteries
      may prove useful. However, the time needed to tissue engineer arteries (7 weeks
      or more) is too long for many patients. Decellularized cadaveric human arteries
      are another possible source of vascular conduit, but limited availability and the
      potential for disease transmission limit their widespread use. In contrast,
      decellularized tissue-engineered arteries could serve as grafts for immediate
      implantation, as scaffolds onto which patients' cells could be seeded, or as
      carriers for genetically engineered cells to aid cell transplantation. The goal
      of this study was to quantify the effects of decellularization on vascular matrix
      and mechanical properties. Specifically, we compared cellular elimination,
      extracellular matrix retention, and mechanical characteristics of porcine carotid
      arteries before and after treatment with three decellularization methods. In
      addition, for the first time, tissue-engineered arteries were decellularized.
      Decellularized native arteries were also used as a scaffold onto which vascular
      cells were seeded. These studies identified a decellularization method for native
      and engineered arteries that maximized cellular elimination, without greatly
      compromising mechanical integrity. We showed that engineered tissues could be
      decellularized, and demonstrated the feasibility of reseeding decellularized
      vessels with vascular cells.

PMID- 28866948
TI  - Characterization of Long-Term Survival of Syngeneic Hepatocytes in Rat
      Peritoneum.
AB  - Hepatocyte transplantation is a potential therapy for both acute and chronic
      hepatic insufficiency and also for treatment of inborn errors of metabolism
      affecting the liver. The peritoneum is one site for implantation and has several
      advantages: cells implanted there can be easily identified and observed, and it
      has a relatively large capacity. Long-term survival using "pure" hepatocytes in
      the peritoneum have been disappointing. We hypothesized that cotransplantation of
      hepatocytes with nonparenchymal cells would help maintain differentiated
      hepatocyte function. Rat liver cells transplanted intraperitoneally into August
      rats were sacrificed at 7 days, 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and analyzed for
      presence, basal proliferation, and functionality of hepatocytes. To demonstrate
      that ectopic hepatocytes remained susceptible to exogenous growth factors
      affecting cell proliferation, rats 9 and 12 months after transplantation were
      stimulated with tri-iodothyronine and KGF. Hepatocytes were identified 7 days to
      >12 months, by H&E and immunohistochemically, as ectopic islands in the omental
      fat. Functionality was confirmed by glycogen deposition. Basal proliferation in 7
      day rats was 28.0 +/- 10/1000 hepatocytes in ectopic islands (cf. 5.70 +/-
      2.7/1000 in recipient liver). Proliferation in ectopic islands was greater than
      host liver. Growth factor-stimulated proliferation in ectopic islands induced a
      70-fold increase in DNA synthesis. In conclusion, hepatocytes transplanted with
      nonparenchymal cells survive, proliferate, and function in the peritoneum of
      normal rats, and respond to exogenous growth stimuli. Their survival and
      proliferation in the presence of a normal functioning liver has implications for
      the potential use of the peritoneal site clinically for supplementation of liver
      function in metabolic disorders.

PMID- 28866949
TI  - Annexin A10 contributes to chronic constrictive injury-induced pain through
      activating ERK1/2 signalling in rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: The current study aims at investigating the downstream targets of spinal
      Annexin A10 in modulating neuropathic pain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Paw withdrawal
      latency and paw withdrawal threshold were measured to evaluate the pain
      associated behaviour in rats. The expression of spinal Annexin A10,
      phosphorylated-extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 and extracellular regulated
      kinase were detected by western blotting. The level of tumour necrosis factor
      alpha and interleukine-1beta was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA) kits. RESULTS: Chronic constrictive injury caused pain hypersensitivity
      in rats, along with increased expression of spinal Annexin A10, phosphorylated
      extracellular regulated kinase 1/2, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukine
      1beta in rats. Knockdown of spinal Annexin A10 suppressed the chronic
      constrictive injury-induced hyperalgesia, and inhibited the chronic constrictive
      injury-induced increased expression of phosphorylated-extracellular regulated
      kinase 1/2, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukine-1beta in the spinal
      cord. Inhibition of spinal extracellular regulated kinase activation decreased
      the release of tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukine-1beta, but did not
      change the increased expression of Annexin A10 caused by chronic constrictive
      injury. CONCLUSIONS: Annexin A10 contributed to the development of neuropathic
      pain by activating spinal extracellular regulated kinase signalling and the
      subsequent release of tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukine-1beta in the
      spinal cord.

PMID- 28866950
TI  - Can antioxidant's reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capacity contribute to
      aged seed recovery? Contrasting effect of melatonin, ascorbate and glutathione on
      germination ability of aged maize seeds.
AB  - It is well known that antioxidants such as AA (reduced ascorbate), glutathione
      (GSH) (reduced glutathione) and melatonin can delay seed ageing. Can they recover
      aged seed? Artificial aged maize seeds were obtained and their reduced
      germination rate (GR) and high lipid peroxidation were recorded. Exogenous
      melatonin was applied on these aged seeds and enhanced GR was observed. However,
      treatment with other antioxidants such as AA, GSH or DMTU (dimethyl thiourea) did
      not significantly improve or even reduce the GR of aged seeds. In addition,
      melatonin improved germination ability of theses aged seeds can be significantly
      impaired by DDC (diethyldithiocarbamic acid, a specific inhibitor of superoxide
      dismutase or superoxide dismutase (SOD)) and ATZ (aminotriazol, a specific
      inhibitor of catalase or CAT). In a further study, we found that melatonin but
      not other antioxidants (AA, GSH and DMTU) significantly induced CAT and SOD
      activities of aged seeds after imbibition. Accordingly, melatonin significantly
      reduced lipid peroxidation in aged seeds than that of other antioxidants. Taken
      together, these data suggest that melatonin induced antioxidant enzyme but not
      its direct reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capacity contributing to
      recovery of aged maize seeds.

PMID- 28866951
TI  - Best practices, new perspectives and the perfect emollient: optimizing the
      management of contact dermatitis.
AB  - Contact dermatitis (CD) is caused by environmental agents, irritants, and
      allergens that penetrate the epidermis and lead to inflammation. An intact skin
      barrier prevents penetration and is important in maintaining healthy skin.
      Classical diagnosis of CD is made using the patch test, and traditional treatment
      strategies for CD promote skin barrier integrity and resolve the inflammatory
      component of the condition. This can be achieved by using emollient-based
      therapy, which is most important for skin barrier repair, and in addition to
      topical glucocorticosteroids, which are used in severe cases of CD and are most
      effective in reducing inflammation. Preventative measures, such as irritant and
      allergen avoidance in the workplace, also play a pivotal role in effective CD
      management. Moreover, CD management necessitates a holistic approach that
      incorporates prevention, barrier repair, and inflammatory resolution to ensure
      optimized efficacy. It is also important to consider potential barriers to
      optimal management when evaluating individuals with CD, such as limited patient
      education or poor access to care. Finally, key literature and our own clinical
      practice experience have highlighted the value of patient preference, as well as
      safety, efficacy and simplicity, in building the perfect emollient.

PMID- 28866952
TI  - Optical flow and image segmentation analysis for noninvasive precise mapping of
      microwave thermal ablation in X-ray CT scans - ex vivo study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop image processing algorithms for noninvasive mapping of
      microwave thermal ablation using X-ray CT. METHODS: Ten specimens of bovine liver
      were subjected to microwave ablation (20-80 W, 8 min) while scanned by X-ray CT
      at 5 s intervals. Specimens were cut and manually traced by two observers. Two
      algorithms were developed and implemented to map the ablation zone. The first
      algorithm utilises images segmentation of Hounsfield units changes (ISHU). The
      second algorithm utilises radial optical flow (ROF). Algorithm sensitivity to
      spatiotemporal under-sampling was assessed by decreasing the acquisition rate and
      reducing the number of acquired projections used for image reconstruction in
      order to evaluate the feasibility of implementing radiation reduction techniques.
      RESULTS: The average radial discrepancy between the ISHU and ROF contours and the
      manual tracing were 1.04+/-0.74 and 1.16+/-0.79mm, respectively. When diluting
      the input data, the ISHU algorithm retained its accuracy, ranging from 1.04 to
      1.79mm. By contrast, the ROF algorithm performance became inconsistent at low
      acquisition rates. Both algorithms were not sensitive to projections reduction,
      (ISHU: 1.24+/-0.83mm, ROF: 1.53+/-1.15mm, for reduction by eight fold). Ablations
      near large blood vessels affected the ROF algorithm performance (1.83+/-1.30mm; p
      < 0.01), whereas ISHU performance remained the same. CONCLUSION: The two
      suggested noninvasive ablation mapping algorithms can provide highly accurate
      contouring of the ablation zone at low scan rates. The ISHU algorithm may be more
      suitable for clinical practice as it appears more robust when radiation dose
      reduction strategies are employed and when the ablation zone is near large blood
      vessels.

PMID- 28866953
TI  - Fake bad scale: the case of the missing construct, a response to Larrabee,
      Bianchini, Boone, and Rohling (2017).
AB  - The 'Commentary' of Drs. Larrabee, Bianchini, Boone, and Rohling (2017)
      attributes to us a view of the Fake Bad/Symptom Validity Scale (FBS/FBS-r) that
      is wholly erroneous, a view we do not hold and have never taken. In doing so, the
      authors have confused the thrust of our article with the assertions made in an
      earlier article which preceded publication of the FBS. This earlier article held
      that many physical and cognitive symptoms/complaints observed in personal injury
      plaintiffs are most parsimoniously understood as manifestations of the stresses
      that may routinely accompany plaintiffs' involvement in such litigation. In this
      response, I therefore, wish to clarify this misunderstanding and to elaborate
      upon several of the issues raised in our article.

PMID- 28866954
TI  - Are patients comprehending? A critical assessment of online patient educational
      materials.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the readability,
      understandability, suitability and actionability of online psoriasis patient
      educational materials. A secondary aim was to identify areas for improvement.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted an evaluation study to assess online
      psoriasis patient educational materials from the American Academy of Dermatology
      and National Psoriasis Foundation available in July 2017. We used two validated
      assessment tools specific to online healthcare materials. Outcomes were expressed
      as percentages, where higher percentages corresponded to higher quality
      materials. RESULTS: Overall, the educational materials had a mean
      understandability score (72.7%) that was understandable; a suitability score
      (58.8%) that was adequate; a reading grade level (10.5) that was not readable;
      and an actionability score (54.7%) that was not actionable. Areas of improvement
      include reading grade level, visual aids, word choice, specific steps for actions
      and cultural appropriateness. CONCLUSIONS: Online psoriasis patient educational
      materials are understandable and suitable, but they are written above the
      American Medical Association and National Institutes of Health's recommended 6th
      8th grade reading level and are not actionable. Materials can benefit from
      decreasing reading grade level, including more visual elements, incorporating
      more actionable items and being culturally inclusive.

PMID- 28866955
TI  - Cross-country analysis of faecal sludge dewatering.
AB  - Dewatering of faecal sludge (FS) is indispensable for adequate FS management.
      However, comprehensive knowledge is lacking on FS dewatering performance. This
      study compared the dewatering performance of FS from different countries and
      onsite sanitation technologies, to assess influential characteristics on
      dewatering, and to compare dewatering performance of FS with wastewater sludge.
      We collected 73 FS samples from septic tanks, lined pit latrines, unlined pit
      latrines and johkasou tanks in Uganda, Vietnam and Japan, and 18 samples of
      wastewater sludge in Switzerland. Capillary suction time (CST) and total solids
      (TS) of centrifuged sludge (%TSfinal) were determined as metrics of dewatering
      rate and dewaterability, respectively, together with relevant sludge
      characteristics. Data were analysed by bootstrapping comparison of median results
      of each sample category and by bootstrapping multiple regression analysis to
      quantify the relative importance of sludge characteristics on dewatering
      performance. Results showed that the dewatering rate was significantly different
      between FS from different technologies, whereas dewaterability was significantly
      different within the same technology. FS had a significantly lower dewatering
      rate than wastewater sludge. In contrast, FS dewaterability was greater than
      wastewater sludge. However, this could be attributed to higher concentrations of
      sand in FS. Electrochemical properties such as NH4-N and surface charge had the
      strongest correlation to dewatering rate, and solid properties such as sand
      content and total volatile solids to dewaterability. The results identify
      potential characteristics that could explain and predict the high variability of
      FS dewatering performance that is observed in the field.

PMID- 28866956
TI  - Youth experiences in accessing sexual healthcare services in Vietnam.
AB  - Poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes among youth are reflective of the
      many barriers members of this group face in accessing health services. This study
      provides an in-depth account of the unique challenges that young people face in
      accessing sexual healthcare services in Vietnam. We surveyed 130 men and women
      aged 18-24 years at two major reproductive health sites in Ho Chi Minh City. We
      identified and explored seven domains: health insurance status, modern
      contraception use, HIV/STI testing, cervical cancer screening, unintended
      pregnancy, reproductive coercion and the patient-provider relationship. Attitudes
      towards the national health insurance system suggest that it does not facilitate
      access to healthcare. Despite widespread and affordable services, fears,
      fallacies and fixed social mores created formidable barriers for unmarried youth
      to access sexual and reproductive health services in Vietnam.

PMID- 28866957
TI  - Nanocarriers for brain specific delivery of anti-retro viral drugs: challenges
      and achievements.
AB  - HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic and the deleterious effects of human
      immunodeficiency virus in the brain cannot be overlooked. Though the current anti
      retro viral therapy is able to reduce the virus load in the peripheral tissues of
      the body, the inability of the anti-retro viral drugs to cross the blood brain
      barrier, as such, limits its therapeutic effect in the brain. The development of
      newer, successful nanoparticulate drug delivery systems to enhance the
      feasibility of the anti-retro viral drugs to the brain, offers a novel strategy
      to treat the AIDS-related neuronal degradation. This review summarised the
      neuropathogenesis of neuroAIDS, the challenges and achievements made in the
      delivery of therapeutics across the BBB and the use of nanocarriers as a safe and
      effective way for delivering anti-retro viral drugs to the brain.

PMID- 28866958
TI  - Perinatal outcome of pregnancies complicated with extreme birth weights at term.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate whether an abnormal
      birthweight at term, either small for gestational age (SGA, < 5th centile for
      gestational age) or large for gestational age (LGA, > 95th centile for
      gestational age), is a risk factor for perinatal complications as compared with
      birthweight appropriate for gestational age (AGA). METHODS: A population-based
      retrospective cohort analysis of all singleton pregnancies delivered between 1991
      and 2014 at Soroka Medical Center. Congenital malformations and multiple
      pregnancies were excluded. A multivariable generalized estimating equation
      regression model was used to control for maternal clusters and other confounders.
      RESULTS: During the study period, 228,242 births met the inclusion criteria, of
      them 91% were AGA (n = 207,652), 4.7% SGA, and 4.3% LGA. SGA significantly
      increased the risk for perinatal mortality (aOR 5.6, 95%CI 4.5-6.8) and low 5-min
      Apgar scores (aOR 2.2, 95%CI 2.0-2.4), while LGA did not. SGA and LGA were both
      significant risk factors for cesarean delivery. LGA was significantly associated
      with shoulder dystocia and post-partum hemorrhage (aOR =13.6, 95%CI 10.9-17.0,
      and aOR 1.7, 95%CI 1.2-2.6, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Extreme birthweights at
      term are significantly associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. As
      opposed to SGA, LGA is not independently associated with perinatal mortality.

PMID- 28866959
TI  - A comparison of computerized adaptive testing and fixed-length short forms for
      the Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS-MTM).
AB  - BACKGROUND: New health status instruments can be administered by computerized
      adaptive test or short forms. The Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS
      MTM) is a self-report measure of mobility for prosthesis users with lower limb
      loss. This study used the PLUS-M to examine advantages and disadvantages of
      computerized adaptive test and short forms. OBJECTIVES: To compare scores
      obtained from computerized adaptive test to scores obtained from fixed-length
      short forms (7-item and 12-item) in order to provide guidance to researchers and
      clinicians on how to select the best form of administration for different uses.
      STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional, observational study. METHODS: Individuals with
      lower limb loss completed the PLUS-M by computerized adaptive test and short
      forms. Administration time, correlations between the scores, and standard errors
      were compared. RESULTS: Scores and standard errors from the computerized adaptive
      test, 7-item short form, and 12-item short form were highly correlated and all
      forms of administration were efficient. Computerized adaptive test required less
      time to administer than either paper or electronic short forms; however, time
      savings were minimal compared to the 7-item short form. CONCLUSION: Results
      indicate that the PLUS-M computerized adaptive test is most efficient, and
      differences in scores between administration methods are minimal. The main
      advantage of the computerized adaptive test was more reliable scores at higher
      levels of mobility compared to short forms. Clinical relevance Health-related
      item banks, like the Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS-MTM), can be
      administered by computerized adaptive testing (CAT) or as fixed-length short
      forms (SFs). Results of this study will help clinicians and researchers decide
      whether they should invest in a CAT administration system or whether SFs are more
      appropriate.

PMID- 28866960
TI  - Blood pressure effects of adiposity in non-overweight children aged 6-17 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is a well-established risk factor of elevated blood pressure;
      however, the relationships between normal weight status and the risk of
      hypertension and pre-hypertension are not clear. AIM: The aim of this study is to
      describe the blood pressure effects of adiposity in non-overweight children.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: In total, 588 097 non-overweight children aged 6-17 years
      were included from the National Surveys on Students' Constitution and Health. A
      non-linear relationship was found between age- and gender-standardised body mass
      index (BMI) z-score and pre-hypertension and hypertension, respectively. The odds
      ratios and 95% confidence intervals [ORs (95% CIs)] of pre-hypertension were 0.61
      (0.59-0.63), 0.67 (0.65-0.68), 0.83 (0.83-0.84), 1.00 (reference), 1.13 (1.12
      1.14), 1.18 (1.16-1.20) and 1.20 (1.18-1.22) for BMI z-scores of -1.2, -1.0, 
      0.5, 0 (reference), 0.5, 0.7 and 0.8, respectively. The ORs (95% CIs) of
      hypertension were 0.56 (0.54-0.58), 0.62 (0.61-0.64), 0.81 (0.80-0.82), 1.00
      (reference), 1.17 (1.16-1.18), 1.23 (1.22-1.5) and 1.27 (1.24-1.29) for BMI z
      scores of -1.2, -1.0, -0.5, 0 (reference), 0.5, 0.7 and 0.8, respectively. The
      above-mentioned associations were consistent in sub-group analysis by age, gender
      and height. CONCLUSIONS: Non-linear relationships of BMI z-scores with pre
      hypertension and hypertension were found in non-overweight children.
      Interventions to control blood pressure are also important in non-overweight
      children.

PMID- 28866961
TI  - Mathematical modelling of Pb2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Cr6+ and Cd2+ ions adsorption
      from a synthetic acid mine drainage onto chitosan derivative in a packed bed
      column.
AB  - Studies on the adsorption of toxic metal ions in batch mode using modified
      chitosan beads have been reported by several authors in literature; for large
      scale operations, packed bed column studies are performed to generate data that
      are directly applicable in real wastewater treatment. In this work, the
      application potential of chitosan derivative for the uptake of Pb2+, Cu2+, Ni2+,
      Zn2+, Cr6+, and Cd2+ ions from aqueous solution in a packed bed adsorption column
      was investigated. On this note, the adsorbent was characterized by Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning
      electron microscope (SEM); the effect of breakthrough parameters such as influent
      concentration, bed height, and feed flow rate was determined. The experimental
      data were fitted to mathematical column models, namely Bed Depth Service Time
      (BDST), Yoon-Nelson and Thomas model. The removal efficiency, breakthrough and
      exhaustion time increased with an increase in bed height but decreased with an
      increase in the flow rate and influent concentration. The mathematical models
      applied in this study were successful in describing experimental data. Desorption
      studies were performed with no loss in the mass of the beads, and the
      breakthrough and exhaustion time were found to be the same on reusing the beads.
      Abbreviations: Ch-b: chitosan coated bentonite; GXXB: grafted cross-linked
      chitosan beads; MMBB: multi metal binding biosorbent; PFOLG: panosized ferric
      oxide loaded glycidyl; MPSD: Marquardt's percent standard deviation.

PMID- 28866962
TI  - In situ provision of drinking water to grazing dairy cows improves milk
      production.
AB  - AIMS: To determine the effect of providing water within the area grazed by dairy
      cows on milk yield and quality, compared to requiring cows to walk to a distant
      water trough, on a dairy farm in the Pampa region of Argentina during summer.
      METHODS: Holstein dairy cows were allocated to two herds with similar parity,
      days in milk and milk production. They were grazed in one paddock that was
      divided in two, with a fixed water trough at one end. Cows were moved twice daily
      to grazing plots within the paddock. Control cows (n=66) could only access water
      from the fixed trough, whereas supplemented cows (n=67) also received water from
      a mobile trough within the grazing plot. Milk production of each cow, and water
      consumption of the two herds were measured daily over 62 days. Milk composition
      for each herd was determined weekly from Days 18 to 60 of the study, and grazing
      behaviour was observed between 08:00 and 16:00 hours on Days 11-15, 19-22 and 39
      43. RESULTS: Over the 62 days of the study, supplemented cows produced 1.39 (SE
      0.11) L/cow/day more milk than Control cows (p=0.027). Estimated mean daily water
      intake was 50.4 (SE 2.1) L/cow/day for supplemented cows and 58.2 (SE 2.7)
      L/cow/day for Control cows (p=0.004). Percentage total solids in milk was higher
      for supplemented (12.5 (SE 0.06)%) than Control (12.4 (SE 0.04)%) cows (p=0.047).
      During the periods of behavioural observation, a higher percentage of cows in the
      water supplemented than the Control herd were observed in the grazing area
      (p=0.012). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This preliminary study
      demonstrated that provision of water to dairy cows within the grazing plot was
      beneficial for milk production and composition, and may be associated with longer
      periods spent within the grazing area, during hot weather in the Pampa region of
      Argentina.

PMID- 28866963
TI  - A single-chamber microbial fuel cell for rapid determination of biochemical
      oxygen demand using low-cost activated carbon as cathode catalyst.
AB  - The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is widely used for the evaluation of water
      and wastewater quality. However, the conventional method to measure BOD is time
      consuming and requires complicated processes. In this study, a Microbial fuel
      cell (MFC)-based BOD sensor was developed by using low-cost activated carbon as
      the cathode catalyst. The sensor was calibrated with an aerated nutrient medium
      containing sodium acetate as the BOD source. When the sensor was operated with an
      external resistance of 1 K Omega, linear correlation (R2 = 0.9965) was obtained
      for BOD concentrations ranging from 80 to 1280 mg/L in a reaction time of 50 h.
      Besides acetate, glucose/glutamic acid (GGA) and ethanol could also be analyzed
      by the sensor. In a low concentration range (200 mg/L), the relationship between
      GGA solution concentration and output voltage was in accord with Monod growth
      kinetics.

PMID- 28866964
TI  - Effects of soy isoflavones on the concentration of hyaluronic acid in the vagina
      of type 1 diabetic rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of isoflavones and 17beta-estradiol on the
      vaginal epithelium extracellular matrix and hyaluronic acid (HA) in the diabetic
      rat model. METHODS: Sixty adult, virgin, female rats underwent ovariectomy, then
      randomization into six groups of ten animals each: GI, sham ovariectomized
      control animals; GII, sham ovariectomized control diabetic animals; GIII, control
      ovariectomized rats receiving propylene glycol vehicle; GIV, control
      ovariectomized diabetic animals receiving propylene glycol vehicle; GV, diabetic
      ovariectomized animals treated with soy isoflavones (150 mg/kg by gavage); GVI,
      ovariectomized diabetic rats treated with estrogen (17beta-estradiol, 10 mg/kg,
      subcutaneously). Treatment took place over 30 consecutive days. After euthanasia,
      a portion of the vagina was immersed in liquid nitrogen for RT-qPCR and Western
      blotting. Another portion was processed for paraffin embedding. Sections were
      stained with hematoxylin & eosin for histomorphometry and Picro Sirius Red for
      collagen quantification. RESULTS: Vaginal epithelium histomorphometry in GIII
      (15.3 +/- 1.1 um) and GIV (14.5 +/- 1.8 um) was thinner than in GV (41.3 +/- 1.5
      um) and GVI (74.3 +/- 1.6 um). There was an increase in collagen content in GV
      (84.1 +/- 1.2 um) and GVI (88.2 +/- 1.7 um). HA quantification was higher in GV
      (0.38 +/- 1.1 MUg/mg) and GVI (0.49 +/- 1.4 MUg/mg) when compared with GIII (0.12
      +/- 1.1 MUg/mg) and GIV (0.10 +/- 1.2 MUg/mg), p < 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Soy
      isoflavones increase hyaluronic acid concentration in the vagina of diabetic
      ovariectomized rats. Such findings might help to attenuate the effects of
      vulvovaginal atrophy in women.

PMID- 28866965
TI  - Perfusion with carbon monoxide does not affect extracellular glutamate in
      dialysates of the hippocampus of freely moving mice.
AB  - Carbon monoxide (CO) produces several neurological effects, including cognitive,
      mood, and behavioral disturbance. Glutamate is thought to play a particularly
      important role in learning and memory. Thus, the present study was aimed at
      investigating the local effect of CO on the glutamate level in the hippocampus of
      mice using in vivo reverse microdialysis. Mice were perfused with Ringer's
      solution (control) or CO (60-125 MUM) in Ringer's solution into the hippocampus
      via microdialysis probe. Dialysate samples were collected every 20 min, and then
      analyzed with high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to an
      electrochemical detector. The result revealed that the perfusion with CO had no
      significant effect on glutamate levels (p = 0.316) as compared to the control
      group. This finding does not support a local CO rise as the cause of the
      increased glutamate level in the hippocampus of mice.

PMID- 28866966
TI  - Construction of nanoscale liposomes loaded with melatonin via supercritical fluid
      technology.
AB  - Melatonin-loaded liposomes (MLL) were successfully prepared using rapid expansion
      of supercritical solution technology. The effects of supercritical pressure on
      encapsulation efficiency (EE) and average particle size were then analysed.
      Meanwhile, temperature, formation time and ethanol concentration in the products
      were studied and optimised based on the response surface methodology (RSM). An in
      vitro simulated digestion model was also established to evaluate the release
      performance of MLL. The results showed that 140 bar was the best pressure for
      maximising the EE value using RSM optimisation, reaching up to 82.2%. MLL
      characterisations were performed using analytic techniques including infrared
      spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, a laser scattering particle size
      analyser and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. The size distribution was
      uniform, with an average diameter of 66 nm. Stability tests proved that MLL
      maintained good preservation duration, and residual solvent experiments indicated
      that only 1.03% (mass ratio) of ethanol remained in the products. Simulated
      release experiments indicated the slow release feature in early digestive stages
      and more thorough characteristics in later stages of simulated digestion.

PMID- 28866968
TI  - Glycaemic control in diabetic ketoacidosis: Too much of a good thing?

PMID- 28866967
TI  - A humanisation approach for the management of Joint Hypermobility Syndrome/Ehlers
      Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility Type (JHS/EDS-HT).
AB  - Joint Hypermobility Syndrome/Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility Type (JHS/EDS
      HT) is a complex and multisystemic condition which significantly impacts on a
      person's health and well-being and is challenging for health professionals (HPs)
      to manage. People with JHS/EDS-HT and HPs recognise the individual nature and the
      complexities of the condition. There is a requirement to understand the condition
      within the context of the individual human dimensions of illness and healing. The
      aim of this paper is to explore the management of this condition using a
      theoretical model referred to as the Humanisation Framework.  It is suggested
      that using the philosophical dimensions of this framework will empower HPs and
      those with JHS/EDS-HT to work together to proactively manage this condition. The
      eight dimensions of the Humanisation Framework facilitate an experiential
      understanding of the person within their context and environment, providing a
      constructive adjunct to the evidence-based management of those with JHS/EDS-HT.
      The humanisation framework was developed for health and social care and uses the
      philosophy behind well-being and what makes well-being possible. This paper
      explores how HPs may use aspects of the framework to understand the condition and
      empower and motivate those with JHS/EDS-HT to be active participants in their own
      well-being.

PMID- 28866969
TI  - A scoping review of use of wearable devices to evaluate outcomes in survivors of
      critical illness.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Wearable devices using new technology may be a cost-effective method
      to assess functional outcomes in survivors of critical illness. Our primary
      objective was to review the extent to which wearable devices such as smartphones,
      pedometers, accelerometers and global positioning systems have been used to
      evaluate outcomes in survivors of an intensive care unit admission. DESIGN: We
      included studies of patients surviving an ICU admission and which measured
      outcomes using wearable devices. We performed a scoping review of studies found
      by searching the CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE and PubMed databases. RESULTS: The seven
      studies we identified were published in or after 2012 and were predominantly
      descriptive (n = 6) with one randomised controlled trial. All studies described
      outcomes in cohorts of relatively few participants (range, 11-51 participants).
      Duration to follow-up was mostly short, at a median time of 3 months after ICU
      discharge (range, in-hospital to 27 years). All studies used accelerometers to
      monitor patient movement: physical activity (n = 5), sleep quality (n = 1), and
      infant movement (n = 1). The accelerometers were bi-axial (n = 3), uni-axial (n =
      2) combined uni-axial (n = 1) and tri-axial (n = 1). Common outcomes evaluated
      were the number of participants walking for < 30 min/day, mean daily step count
      and walking speed. CONCLUSIONS: Wearable devices have infrequently been used to
      measure physical activity in survivors of critical illness and all identified
      studies were published recently, which suggests that the use of wearable devices
      for research may be increasing. To date, only accelerometry has been reported,
      and the wide variation in methodologies used and the outcomes measured limits
      synthesis of these data.

PMID- 28866970
TI  - Calprotectin as an early biomarker of bacterial infections in critically ill
      patients: an exploratory cohort assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calprotectin is the most abundant protein in the cytosolic fraction
      of neutrophils, and neutrophil degranulation is a major response to bacterial
      infections. OBJECTIVES: To assess the value of plasma calprotectin as an early
      marker of bacterial infections in critically ill patients and compare it with the
      corresponding values for procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) and white
      blood cell count (WBC). METHODS: We measured daily plasma calprotectin levels in
      110 intensive care unit patients using a newly developed turbidimetric assay run
      on clinical chemistry analysers. The likelihood of infection was determined
      according to the International Sepsis Forum criteria. RESULTS: Overall, 58
      patients (52.7%) developed a suspected or confirmed bacterial infection. Plasma
      calprotectin predicted such infections within 24 hours with an area under the
      receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC area) of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.68-0.89).
      The ROC area for calprotectin was significantly greater than the corresponding
      ROC areas for WBC (P < 0.001) and PCT (P = 0.02) but only marginally better than
      the ROC area for CRP (0.71; 95% CI, 0.68-0.89). CONCLUSION: Plasma calprotectin
      appears to be a useful early marker of bacterial infections in critically ill
      patients, with better predictive characteristics than WBC and PCT.

PMID- 28866971
TI  - Rapid response team calls that overlap in time: incidence, consequences and
      patient outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate overlap rapid response team (RRT) calls, factors
      associated with overlap calls, and their impact on RRT call times and patient
      outcomes. DESIGN AND SETTING: Review of prospectively collected, linked clinical
      and administrative datasets, at a public adult tertiary hospital during July 2013
      to May 2016. RESULTS: There were 11 669 RRT calls to 7223 patients, of which 10
      868 calls (93.1%) were to inpatients. The median number of daily calls was 12
      (interquartile range [IQR], 9-15 calls; range, 2-29 calls). The median number of
      daily calls per 1000 hospital admissions was 56.3 (IQR, 41.3- 78.9 calls/1000
      admissions; range, 8.3-231.5 calls/1000 admissions), and the median proportion of
      the day spent at RRT calls was 22.8% (IQR, 16.9%-30.5%). In total, 4575 (39.2%)
      calls overlapped. Overlap calls, compared with non-overlap calls, had similar
      patient characteristics, but a longer response time (4 min v 3 min; P < 0.001)
      and scene time (20 min v 34 min; P < 0.001). The daily number of calls correlated
      with the number of overnight-stay hospital admissions (r = 0.104; P = 0.001), but
      not with the total number of hospital admissions (r = -0.035; P = 0.258). The
      number of overlap calls correlated with the number of RRT calls (r = 0.786; P <
      0.001), and also correlated with the proportion of the day spent at RRT calls (r
      = 0.762; P < 0.001). Overlap calls, compared with non-overlap calls, were more
      likely to result in an ICU admission (484 calls [11.2%] v 571 calls [8.7%]; P <
      0.001). In contrast, efferent limb failure (815 calls [17.8%] v 1195 calls
      [16.8%]; P = 0.389) and hospital mortality (496 calls [19.3%] v 781 calls
      [19.6%]; P = 0.823) was similar for overlap and nonoverlap calls, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overlap RRT calls are common and influenced by overall RRT and
      hospital activity. They are more likely to be associated with longer response and
      scene times and unanticipated ICU admissions.

PMID- 28866972
TI  - Comparison of continous-wave Doppler ultrasound monitor and echocardiography to
      assess cardiac output in intensive care patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Continuous-wave Doppler (CWD) ultrasound through the left ventricular
      outflow tract is one modality used for non-invasive cardiac output measurement.
      The ultrasonic cardiac output monitor (USCOM) is a relatively new monitor which
      uses a small, transcutaneous ultrasound probe to measure cardiac output with CWD
      via the suprasternal window. It is faster and less complex to train new users
      than conventional echocardiography. In addition to stroke volume (SV), the USCOM
      can calculate stroke volume variation (SVV) and the Smith-Madigan inotropy index
      (SMII), which is an estimate of the pre-load independent contractility of the
      myocardium. OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of agreement between cardiac output
      measured with conventional echocardiography and with USCOM. METHODS: A
      prospective, observational, multicentre trial of patients admitted to the
      intensive care units of two hospitals. After excluding patients with aortic
      stenosis, any patient undergoing a clinically indicated echocardiogram also
      underwent a subsequent USCOM study for comparison. RESULTS: We enrolled 121
      patients in the study, with aortic stenosis the main reason for patient
      exclusion. Of the study patients, 63% were mechanically ventilated, 84% were in
      sinus rhythm, and the mean age of the study cohort was 66 years (SD, 17 years).
      There was a very strong correlation between SV as measured by the USCOM and by
      echocardiography. The mean difference in SV was 0.33 mL (SD, 5.62 mL), r2 =
      0.956, and Bland-Altman analysis confirmed no significant bias with acceptable
      limits of agreement between the methods. Patients who were fluid responsive had
      an SVV cut point on the receiver operating characteristic curve of 21%, and
      sensitivity and specificity of 95%. A low SMII (< 1.1 watts/m2) calculated with
      the USCOM did not correlate well with low cardiac output status, with a
      sensitivity of only 69%. CONCLUSIONS: SV (and thus cardiac output) measured using
      the USCOM correlated well with echocardiographic cardiac output measurement,
      which suggests that the USCOM could be a valuable haemodynamic tool for
      assessment of cardiac output and fluid responsiveness in critically ill patients
      if patients with aortic stenosis are excluded. Inotropy, as a parameter of low
      cardiac output, was not useful in this cohort of patients.

PMID- 28866973
TI  - Identification and assessment of potentially high-mortality intensive care units
      using the ANZICS Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation clinical registry.
AB  - PURPOSE: A hospital's highest-risk patients are managed in the intensive care
      unit. Outcomes are determined by patients' severity of illness, existing
      comorbidities and by processes of care delivered. The Australian and New Zealand
      Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation (CORE)
      manages a binational clinical registry to benchmark performance, and report and
      assess ICUs which appear to have worse outcomes than others. METHODS: A
      descriptive retrospective cohort study was undertaken to detail processes,
      outcomes, limitations and practical lessons learnt from monitoring ICU
      performance throughout Australia and New Zealand. All ICUs contributing to the
      ANZICS Adult Patient Database between 2009 and 2014 were included. A potential
      outlier ICU was defined as one with a statistically significantly higher
      standardised mortality ratio (SMR) than its peer group. RESULTS: There were 757
      188 admissions to 168 ICUs. Of these, 27 ICUs (16%) were identified as potential
      outlier ICUs at least once. Data quality problems led to inaccurate or
      artificially elevated SMRs at 16/27 ICUs. Variation in diagnostic casemix partly
      or completely explained the elevated SMR at 15/27 ICUs. At nine ICUs where data
      quality and casemix differences did not explain the elevated SMR, process-of-care
      problems were identified. CONCLUSIONS: A combination of routine monitoring
      techniques, statistical analysis and contextual interpretation of findings is
      required to ensure potential outlier ICUs are appropriately identified. This
      ensures engagement and understanding from clinicians and jurisdictional health
      departments, while contributing to the improvement of ICU practices throughout
      Australia and New Zealand.

PMID- 28866974
TI  - The Plasma-Lyte 148 v Saline (PLUS) study protocol: a multicentre, randomised
      controlled trial of the effect of intensive care fluid therapy on mortality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 0.9% sodium chloride (saline) is the most commonly administered
      resuscitation fluid on a global basis but emerging evidence suggests that its
      high chloride content may have important adverse effects. OBJECTIVE: To describe
      the study protocol for the Plasma- Lyte 148 v Saline study, which will test the
      hypothesis that in critically ill adult patients the use of Plasma-Lyte 148 (a
      buffered crystalloid solution) for fluid therapy results in different 90-day all
      cause mortality when compared with saline. DESIGN AND SETTING: We will conduct
      this multicentre, blinded, randomised controlled trial in approximately 50
      intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand. We will randomly assign 8800
      patients to either Plasma-Lyte 148 or saline for all resuscitation fluid,
      maintenance fluid and compatible drug dilution therapy while in the ICU for up to
      90 days after randomisation. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome is 90-day all
      cause mortality; secondary outcomes include mean and peak creatinine
      concentration, incidence of renal replacement therapy, incidence and duration of
      vasoactive drug treatment, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU and hospital
      length of stay, and quality of life and health services use at 6 months. RESULTS
      AND CONCLUSIONS: The PLUS study will provide high-quality data on the comparative
      safety and efficacy of Plasma-Lyte 148 compared with saline for resuscitation and
      compatible crystalloid fluid therapy in critically ill adult patients.

PMID- 28866975
TI  - Influence of changing endotracheal tube cuff management on antibiotic use for
      ventilator-associated pneumonia in a tertiary intensive care unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Routine deflation of the endotracheal tube (ETT) cuff of critically
      ill patients receiving MV is common in Australia and New Zealand. Literature
      about ventilatorassociated pneumonia (VAP) and antibiotic use rates with
      different ETT cuff maintenance practices is lacking. OBJECTIVE: To determine the
      impact of a change in ETT cuff maintenance from a minimal leak technique to
      pressure manometry on the administration of antibiotics for VAP. DESIGN, SETTING
      AND PARTICIPANTS: A prospective, pre- post observational study conducted in a
      metropolitan tertiary referral intensive care unit. We analysed data from 178
      patients receiving MV for > 48 hours during 13 weeks of minimal leak test ETT
      cuff technique (pre-intervention, n = 92) or 13 weeks of cuff pressure manometry
      (postintervention, n = 86), separated by 3 weeks' "wash-out". MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Primary outcome was the number of patients receiving antibiotics for
      the indication of VAP. Secondary outcomes were incidence of ventilatorassociated
      surveillance events, lengths of stay (LOSs) and mortality. RESULTS: Antibiotics
      were administered for VAP in 24 patients (26.1%) in the pre-intervention period
      compared with 11 post-intervention patients (12.8%). The univariate antibiotic
      administraion rate per 100 ventilation days was 15.3% (95% CI, 12.6%-18.4%) v
      6.8% (95% CI, 4.9%- 9.3%), and the incident rate ratio (IRR) was 0.45 (95% CI,
      0.31-0.64); P < 0.001). After adjustment for ventilation duration, IRR was 0.55
      (95% CI, 0.24-1.27); P = 0.160. The ventilator-associated complication incidence
      rate was lower in the post-intervention group (11.4% v 16.3%; IRR, 0.70 [95% CI,
      0.51-0.95]; P = 0.018). After adjustment for duration of MV, IRR was 0.66 (95%
      CI, 0.25-1.70); P = 0.387. Antibiotic administration for VAP was associated with
      increased ICU and hospital LOSs, but not with mortality. CONCLUSIONS: ETT cuff
      pressure manometry is associated with a reduced rate of antibiotic administration
      for a diagnosis of VAP compared with a minimal leak test technique.

PMID- 28866977
TI  - Intensity of early correction of hyperglycaemia and outcome of critically ill
      patients with diabetic ketoacidosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the impact of the intensity of early correction of
      hyperglycaemia on outcomes in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) admitted
      to the intensive care unit. METHODS: We studied adult patients with DKA admitted
      to 171 ICUs in Australia and New Zealand from 2000 to 2013. We used their blood
      glucose levels (BGLs) in the first 24 hours after ICU admission to determine
      whether intensive early correction of hyperglycemia to <= 180 mg/dL was
      independently associated with hypoglycaemia, hypokalaemia, hypo-osmolarity or
      mortality, compared with partial early correction to > 180 mg/dL as recommended
      by DKA-specific guidelines. RESULTS: Among 8553 patients, intensive early
      correction of BGL was applied to 605 patients (7.1%). A greater proportion of
      these patients experienced hypoglycaemia (20.2% v 9.1%; P < 0.001) and/or hypo
      osmolarity (29.4% v 22.0%; P < 0.001), but not hypokalaemia (16.7% v 15.6%; P =
      0.47). Overall, 11 patients (1.8%) in the intensive correction group and 112
      patients (1.4%) in the partial correction group died (P = 0.42). However, after
      adjustment for illness severity, partial early correction of BGL was
      independently associated with a lower risk of hypoglycaemia (odds ratio [OR],
      0.38; 95% CI, 0.30-0.48; P < 0.001), lower risk of hypo-osmolarity (OR, 0.80; 95%
      CI, 0.65-0.98; P < 0.03) and lower risk of death (OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.22-0.86; P
      = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In a large cohort of patients with DKA, partial early
      correction of BGL according to DKA-specific guidelines, when compared with
      intensive early correction of BGL, was independently associated with a lower risk
      of hypoglycaemia, hypo-osmolarity and death.

PMID- 28866976
TI  - A cross-sectional survey of Australian and New Zealand public opinion on methods
      totriage intensive care patients in an influenza pandemic.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: An influenza pandemic has the potential to overwhelm
      intensive care resources, but the views of the general public on how resources
      should be allocated in such a scenario were unknown. We aimed to determine
      Australian and New Zealand public opinion on how intensive care unit beds should
      be allocated during an influenza pandemic. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A
      postal questionnaire was sent to 4000 randomly selected registered voters; 2000
      people each from the Australian Electoral Commission and New Zealand Electoral
      Commission rolls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The respondents' preferred method to
      triage ICU patients in an influenza pandemic. Respondents chose from six methods:
      use a "first in, first served" approach; allow a senior doctor to decide; use pre
      determined health department criteria; use random selection; use the patient's
      ability to pay; use the importance of the patient to decide. Respondents also
      rated each of the triage methods for fairness. RESULTS: Australian respondents
      preferred that patients be triaged to the ICU either by a senior doctor (43.2%)
      or by pre-determined health department criteria (38.7%). New Zealand respondents
      preferred that triage be performed by a senior doctor (45.9%). Respondents from
      both countries perceived triage by a senior doctor and by pre-determined health
      department criteria to be fair, and the other four methods of triage to be
      unfair. CONCLUSION: In an influenza pandemic, when ICU resources would be
      overwhelmed, survey respondents preferred that ICU triage be performed by a
      senior doctor, but also perceived the use of pre-determined triage criteria to be
      fair.

PMID- 28866978
TI  - Peripheral venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for severe
      hyperlactataemia after cardiac surgery: a pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe hyperlactataemia in patients after cardiac surgery is
      associated with poor prognosis and implies possible splanchnic hypoperfusion.
      Peripheral venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (splanchnic ECMO) may
      be more effective at reducing lactic acidosis for these patients. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate whether splanchnic ECMO attenuates hyperlactataemia and liver enzyme
      release in these patients, despite them having a cardiac index > 2 L/min/m2 and a
      mixed venous oxygen saturation > 55%. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective
      matched case- control study of patients treated with splanchnic ECMO for
      hyperlactataemia. Seven patients who had had cardiac surgery were treated with
      splanchnic ECMO compared with seven matched control patients. RESULTS: We
      observed a mean decrease in lactate levels from 9.9 mmol/L (SD, 2.9 mmol/L) to
      1.4 mmol/L (SD, 0.6 mmol/L) in patients receiving 48 hours of splanchnic ECMO,
      compared with a mean of 10.4 mmol/L (SD, 2.8 mmol/L) to 4.4 mmol/L (SD, 5 mmol/L)
      during 48 hours in control patients (P < 0.0001). Normalisation of lactate levels
      (to < 2 mmol/L) was achieved within a mean of 16.3 hours (SD, 14.6 hours) with
      splanchnic ECMO, compared with 38.3 hours (SD, 23.8 hours) in the control group
      (P = 0.029). The median increase in alanine aminotransferase level with
      splanchnic ECMO was 68% (range, -84% to 2015%) compared with 158% (range: 0%
      6024%) (not significant) in control patients. CONCLUSION: In a selected cohort of
      patients who had had cardiac surgery with severe post-operative hyperlactataemia,
      despite an acceptable cardiac index and a mixed venous oxygen saturation,
      splanchnic ECMO appeared to reduce overall lactate levels and time to
      normalisation of lactataemia.

PMID- 28866979
TI  - Quantification of plasma phosphorylated tau to use as a biomarker for brain
      Alzheimer pathology: pilot case-control studies including patients with
      Alzheimer's disease and down syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is still a substantial unmet need for less invasive and lower
      cost blood-based biomarkers to detect brain Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology.
      This study is aimed to determine whether quantification of plasma tau
      phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-tau181) is informative in the diagnosis of AD.
      METHODS: We have developed a novel ultrasensitive immunoassay to quantify plasma
      p-tau181, and measured the levels of plasma p-tau181 in three cohorts. RESULTS:
      In the first cohort composed of 20 AD patients and 15 age-matched controls, the
      plasma levels of p-tau181 were significantly higher in the AD patients than those
      in the controls (0.171 +/- 0.166 pg/ml in AD versus 0.0405 +/- 0.0756 pg/ml in
      controls, p = 0.0039). The percentage of the subjects whose levels of plasma p
      tau181 exceeded the cut-off value (0.0921 pg/ml) was significantly higher in the
      AD group compared with the control group (60% in AD versus 16.7% in controls, p =
      0.0090). In the second cohort composed of 20 patients with Down syndrome (DS) and
      22 age-matched controls, the plasma concentrations of p-tau181 were significantly
      higher in the DS group (0.767 +/- 1.26 pg/ml in DS versus 0.0415 +/- 0.0710 pg/ml
      in controls, p = 0.0313). There was a significant correlation between the plasma
      levels of p-tau181 and age in the DS group (R2 = 0.4451, p = 0.0013). All of the
      DS individuals showing an extremely high concentration of plasma p-tau181 (> 1.0
      pg/ml) were older than the age of 40. In the third cohort composed of 8 AD
      patients and 3 patients with other neurological diseases, the levels of plasma p
      tau181 significantly correlated with those of CSF p-tau181 (R2 = 0.4525, p =
      0.023). CONCLUSIONS: We report for the first time quantitative data on the plasma
      levels of p-tau181 in controls and patients with AD and DS, and these data
      suggest that the plasma p-tau181 is a promising blood biomarker for brain AD
      pathology. This exploratory pilot study warrants further large-scale and well
      controlled studies to validate the usefulness of plasma p-tau181 as an urgently
      needed surrogate marker for the diagnosis and disease progression of AD.

PMID- 28866980
TI  - Parasitology should not be abandoned: data from outpatient parasitological
      testing in Guangdong, China.
AB  - Over the past six decades, the Chinese government made parasitoses with a high
      disease burden, including soil-transmitted nematode infections, malaria,
      leishmaniasis, filariasis, and schistosomiasis, a public health priority because
      they were seen to be crucial impediments to the development of rural areas. As a
      result, these debilitating parasitic diseases that used to be widely prevalent
      have been well controlled or eliminated. Consequently, less attention has been
      paid to parasitic infection during the rapid development of the economy,
      especially in developed areas. However, our investigations conducted in the
      parasitological laboratory of Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, Guangdong,
      China) show that emerging parasitic diseases still threaten many people's health,
      with 340 of 880 outpatients (38.6%) receiving a diagnosis of parasitic disease,
      among whom 201 (59.1%) had clonorchiasis and 120 (35.3%) had
      taeniasis/cysticercosis. Furthermore, our doctors are not equipped with
      sufficient parasitology knowledge because this discipline is not able to maintain
      attraction. Many parasitic infections that result in severe consequences are
      treatable and preventable, but the phenomena of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis
      are common and merit attention.

PMID- 28866981
TI  - Carpal spasm in a girl as initial presentation of celiac disease: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Celiac disease is an immune-mediated disorder elicited by ingestion
      of gluten in genetically susceptible persons. This disorder is characterized by
      specific histological changes of the small intestine mucosa resulting in
      malabsorption. This case was written up as it was an unusual and dramatic
      presentation of celiac disease. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 3-year
      old Albanian girl who presented at our clinic with carpal spasms and hand
      paresthesia. A physical examination at admission revealed a relatively good
      general condition and body weight of 10.5 kg (10 percentile). Carpal spasms and
      paresthesias of her extremities were present. Neuromuscular irritability was
      demonstrated by positive Chvostek and Trousseau signs. Blood tests showed severe
      hypocalcemia with a total serum calcium of 1.2 mmol/L (normal range 2.12 to 2.55
      mmol/L), ionized calcium of 0.87 (normal range 1.11 to 1.30 mmol/L), and 24-hour
      urine calcium excretion of 9.16 mmol (normal range female <6.2 mmol/day). Among
      other tests, screening for celiac disease was performed: antigliadin
      immunoglobulin A, anti-tissue transglutaminase, and anti-endomysial
      immunoglobulin A antibodies were positive. A duodenal biopsy revealed lymphocyte
      infiltration, crypt hyperplasia, and villous atrophy compatible with celiac
      disease grade IIIb according to the Marsh classification. Following the diagnosis
      of celiac disease, human leukocyte antigen typing was performed, giving a
      definite diagnosis of celiac disease. She was started on a gluten-free diet. Due
      to failure to follow a gluten-free diet, episodes of carpal spasms appeared
      again. Unfortunately, at the age of 7 years she presents with delayed
      psychophysical development. CONCLUSIONS: Although hypocalcemia is a common
      finding in celiac disease, hypocalcemic carpal spasm is a rare initial
      manifestation of the disease. Therefore, the possibility of celiac disease should
      be considered in patients with repeated carpal spasms that seem unduly difficult
      to treat. This should be evaluated even in the absence of gastrointestinal
      symptoms since hypocalcemia and its manifestation may present as initial symptoms
      of celiac disease even in young children.

PMID- 28866982
TI  - Protein profile of leprosy patients with plantar ulcers from the Eastern Amazon
      region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies investigating the nutritional status of patients with leprosy
      and plantar ulcers are sparse. Therefore, the objective of this study was to
      describe the protein profile of leprosy patients with plantar ulcers from the
      Eastern Amazon region. METHODS: A case record form was created for 75 patients
      with leprosy (31 with plantar ulcers and 44 without plantar ulcers) with the
      following data: sociodemographic characteristics, clinical form of leprosy,
      presence or absence of plantar ulcers, and nutritional assessment using
      anthropometry consisting of the measurement of body mass index, arm
      circumference, arm muscle circumference, and triceps skinfold. Levels of blood
      albumin, transferrin, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were also measured. Data
      regarding protein intake were obtained using a Food Frequency Questionnaire.
      RESULTS: Plantar ulcers occurred more frequently in male patients (67.7%),
      patients aged 40-49 years (mean +/- SD: 47.3 +/- 8.0 years), and patients
      receiving 300 or 600 USD (71.0%). The mean weight and height of patients were
      71.6 +/- 11.4 kg and 1.62 +/- 0.1 m, respectively. High levels of CRP were
      detected in 51.6% of leprosy patients with plantar ulcers and only 9.1% of
      patients without plantar ulcers (P < 0.001). Nutritional depletion of transferrin
      was observed in 14.3% of patients with paucibacillary leprosy and 44.3% of
      patients with multibacillary leprosy (P = 0.0447). Most patients had normal
      levels of serum albumin (74.2% with plantar ulcers and 77.3% without plantar
      ulcers). CONCLUSIONS: Most leprosy patients with plantar ulcers have normal
      levels of serum albumin and transferrin and high CRP levels, which indicates the
      presence of an inflammatory process. Our findings suggest the need to monitor
      patients with leprosy to prevent the occurrence of plantar ulcers and to provide
      adequate treatment for patients with existing plantar ulcers.

PMID- 28866983
TI  - Patterns of tsetse abundance and trypanosome infection rates among habitats of
      surveyed villages in Maasai steppe of northern Tanzania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Changes of land cover modify the characteristics of habitat, host
      vector interaction and consequently infection rates of disease causing agents. In
      this paper, we report variations in tsetse distribution patterns, abundance and
      infection rates in relation to habitat types and age in the Maasai Steppe of
      northern Tanzania. In Africa, Tsetse-transmitted trypanosomiasis negatively
      impacted human life where about 40 million people are at risk of contracting the
      disease with dramatic socio-economical consequences, for instance, loss of
      livestock, animal productivity, and manpower. METHODS: We trapped tsetse flies in
      dry and wet seasons between October 2014 and May 2015 in selected habitats across
      four villages: Emboreet, Loiborsireet, Kimotorok and Oltukai adjacent to
      protected areas. Data collected include number and species of tsetse flies caught
      in baited traps, PCR identification of trypanosome species and extraction of
      monitored Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from Moderate
      Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS). RESULTS: Our findings demonstrate the
      variation of tsetse fly species abundance and infection rates among habitats in
      surveyed villages in relation to NDVI and host abundance. Results have shown
      higher tsetse fly abundance in Acacia-swampy ecotone and riverine habitats for
      Emboreet and other villages, respectively. Tsetse abundance was inconsistent
      among habitats in different villages. Emboreet was highly infested with Glossina
      swynnertoni (68%) in ecotone and swampy habitats followed by G. morsitans (28%)
      and G. pallidipes (4%) in riverine habitat. In the remaining villages, the
      dominant tsetse fly species by 95% was G. pallidipes in all habitats. Trypanosoma
      vivax was the most prevalent species in all infected flies (95%) with few
      observations of co-infections (with T. congolense or T. brucei). CONCLUSIONS: The
      findings of this study provide a framework to mapping hotspots of tsetse
      infestation and trypanosomiasis infection and enhance the communities to plan for
      effective control of trypanosomiasis.

PMID- 28866984
TI  - Transmission of Opisthorchis viverrini, Schistosoma mekongi and soil-transmitted
      helminthes on the Mekong Islands, Southern Lao PDR.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prevalence of Opisthorchis viverrini, Schistosoma mekongi and soil
      transmitted helminths (STH) remains high in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao
      PDR), despite control efforts including mass-drug administration, education and
      communication campaigns. New approaches are required to advance helminth control.
      METHODS: An ecohealth study was conducted on two Mekong islands in Southern Laos.
      Demographic and behavioural data were collected by questionnaire. Human and
      animal reservoir stools were examined. Bithynia spp. and Neotricula aperta snails
      were examined using shedding. Fresh water fish were examined using digestion
      technique. Multivariate random-effects analysis was used to find risk factors
      associated with helminth infections. RESULTS: Human infection rates with O.
      viverrini, hookworm, S. mekongi, Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides and
      Taenia spp. were 60.7%, 44.1%, 22.2%, 4.1%, 0.6% and 0.1%, respectively. Heavy
      intensity infections were 4.2%, 3.6% and 1.8% for O. viverrini, S. mekongi and
      hookworm, respectively. O. viverrini and S. mekongi infection rates among dogs
      and cats were 25.0% and 14.7%, respectively. Of the cats tested, 53.1% were
      infected with O. viverrini. Prevalence of O. viverrini and S. mekongi in snails
      was 0.3% and 0.01%, respectively. Overall prevalence of O. viverrini infection in
      fresh water fish was 26.9%, with the highest infection rates occurring in Hampala
      dispa (87.1%), Cyclocheilichthys apogon (85.7%) and Puntius brevis (40.0%).
      Illiteracy and lower socioeconomic status increased the risk of O. viverrini
      infection, while those aged 10-16 years and possessing latrines at home were less
      likely to be infected. Household dogs and cats that consumed raw fish were
      significantly and positively associated with O. viverrini infection of the
      household members. For S. mekongi, children under 9 years old were exposed
      significantly to this infection, compared to older age groups. CONCLUSIONS: There
      is a pressing need to design and implement an integrated helminth control
      intervention on the Mekong Islands in southern Lao PDR. Given the highly dynamic
      transmission of O. viverrini, S. mekongi, STH and extended multiparasitism,
      annual mass-drug administration is warranted along with environmental
      modifications, health education and improved access to clean water and adequate
      sanitation to consolidate morbidity control and move towards elimination. TRAIL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: Our findings presented here are from a cross-sectional
      study, therefore, it has not been registered.

PMID- 28866985
TI  - Effects of cognitive remediation on negative symptoms dimensions: exploring the
      role of working memory.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent theories suggest that poor working memory (WM) may be the
      cognitive underpinning of negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia. In this
      study, we first explore the effect of cognitive remediation (CR) on two clusters
      of negative symptoms (i.e. expressive and social amotivation), and then assess
      the relevance of WM gains as a possible mediator of symptom improvement. METHOD:
      Data were accessed for 309 people with schizophrenia from the NIMH Database of
      Cognitive Training and Remediation Studies and a separate study. Approximately
      half the participants received CR and the rest were allocated to a control
      condition. All participants were assessed before and after therapy and at follow
      up. Expressive negative symptoms and social amotivation symptoms scores were
      calculated from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. WM was assessed with
      digit span and letter-number span tests. RESULTS: Participants who received CR
      had a significant improvement in WM scores (d = 0.27) compared with those in the
      control condition. Improvements in social amotivation levels approached
      statistical significance (d = -0.19), but change in expressive negative symptoms
      did not differ between groups. WM change did not mediate the effect of CR on
      social amotivation. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that a course of CR may
      benefit behavioural negative symptoms. Despite hypotheses linking memory problems
      with negative symptoms, the current findings do not support the role of this
      cognitive domain as a significant mediator. The results indicate that WM improves
      independently from negative symptoms reduction.

PMID- 28866986
TI  - Post-fall reporting in aged acute inpatient mental health units: an 18-month
      observational cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the high risk of falling for people with severe mental
      illness, there is limited falls research in mental health settings. Therefore,
      the objective of this observational cohort study was to conduct a focused post
      fall review of fall episodes within aged acute inpatient mental health units at
      one of Australia's largest publicly funded mental health organizations. METHODS:
      A post-fall reporting tool was developed to collect intrinsic and extrinsic fall
      risk factors among three aged acute mental health inpatient units over an 18
      month period. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted to describe
      fall risk factors and predictors of fall risk. RESULTS: There were a total of 115
      falls, of which the tool was used for 93 (80.9%) episodes. Falls occurred most
      often in consumer's bedroom/bathroom and were unwitnessed. Intrinsic risk factors
      were most often attributed to postural drop and losing balance during walking.
      However, that was in contrast to consumer's who self-reported feeling dizzy as
      the reason of the fall. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the cohort, future falls could be
      reduced by targeting those aged above 82 years, or with a diagnosis of dementia.
      Recurrent falls during admission could be reduced by targeting those with
      psychotic illness and males with a diagnosis of dementia. A clearer dialogue
      among consumers and clinical staff reporting about fall episodes may support
      future remedial interventions and inform programs to reduce fall risk and assist
      the challenge of describing unwitnessed falls in aged acute inpatient mental
      health settings.

PMID- 28866987
TI  - Helminth composition and prevalence of indigenous and invasive synanthropic murid
      rodents in urban areas of Gauteng Province, South Africa.
AB  - Although synanthropic rodents such as the indigenous species, Mastomys coucha,
      and the invasive species, Rattus norvegicus, R. rattus and R. tanezumi, are well
      known to be hosts to various micro- and macroparasites, their helminth parasite
      fauna is poorly studied in South Africa. In an attempt to remedy the situation,
      the aim of the present study was to investigate the helminth fauna of these
      sympatric rodent species, which were obtained from the informal settlements of
      Alexandra, Tembisa, Diepsloot and residential suburbs of Pretoria and
      Hammanskraal, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Helminths were recovered from the
      urinary bladder, liver and gastrointestinal tract and were identified
      morphologically and molecularly. The recovered nematodes were all rodent-specific
      and included Aspiculuris tetraptera, Eucoleus sp., Heterakis spumosa, Mastophorus
      muris, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, Protospirura sp., Strongyloides ratti,
      Syphacia obvelata, Syphacia muris, Trichuris sp. and Trichosomoides crassicauda.
      Syphacia obvelata, a commensal nematode of laboratory rodents, was recovered from
      indigenous M. coucha. Strobilar stages of cestodes recovered included Hymenolepis
      diminuta, Hymenolepis nana and Inermicapsifer madagascariensis. Recovered
      metacestodes were strobilocerci of Hydatigera taeniaeformis from all three
      invasive Rattus species and coenurostrobilocerci of Hydatigera parva from M.
      coucha. An acanthocephalan, Moniliformis moniliformis, was recovered from R.
      rattus only. All rodent species examined showed high helminth infection
      prevalence (>=70%) with equal or higher nematode than cestode prevalence.
      Mastomys coucha, however, showed significantly lower cestode prevalence than
      Rattus species where they co-occur. Interspecific transmission of helminths
      likely occurs between invasive and indigenous rodents, and these rodents harbour
      several helminths that have zoonotic implications.

PMID- 28866988
TI  - A new generation computerised metacognitive cognitive remediation programme for
      schizophrenia (CIRCuiTS): a randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive remediation (CR) is a psychological therapy, which improves
      cognitive and social functioning in people with schizophrenia. It is now being
      implemented within routine clinical services and mechanisms of change are being
      explored. We designed a new generation computerised CR programme, CIRCuiTS
      (Computerised Interactive Remediation of Cognition - a Training for
      Schizophrenia), to enhance strategic and metacognitive processing, with an
      integrated focus on the transfer of cognitive skills to daily living. This large
      trial tested its feasibility to be delivered in therapist-led and independent
      sessions, and its efficacy for improved cognitive and social functioning.
      METHODS: A two arm single blind randomised superiority trial comparing CIRCuiTS
      plus treatment-as-usual (TAU) with TAU alone in 93 people with a diagnosis of
      schizophrenia. Cognitive, social functioning and symptom outcomes were assessed
      at pre- and post-therapy and 3 months later. RESULTS: 85% adhered to CIRCuiTS,
      completing a median of 28 sessions. There were significant improvements in visual
      memory at post-treatment (p = 0.009) and follow-up (p = 0.001), and a trend for
      improvements in executive function at post-treatment (p = 0.056) in favour of the
      CIRCuiTS group. Community function was also differentially and significantly
      improved in the CIRCuiTS group at post-treatment (p = 0.003) but not follow-up,
      and was specifically predicted by improved executive functions. CONCLUSIONS:
      CIRCuiTS was beneficial for improving memory and social functioning. Improved
      executive functioning emerges as a consistent predictor of functional gains and
      should be considered an important CR target to achieve functional change. A
      larger-scale effectiveness trial of CIRCuiTS is now indicated.

PMID- 28866989
TI  - The mismatch between observational measures and residents' perspectives on the
      retail food environment: a mixed-methods approach in the Heart Healthy Hoods
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To gain a deeper understanding of the retail food environment by
      investigating similarities and differences between objective measures and
      residents' perspectives. DESIGN: The study incorporated Geographic Information
      System (GIS)-based measures, in-store surveys and the results from a larger
      photovoice project. We combined these data using a convergent parallel mixed
      methods approach. SETTING: We conducted this study in a low-income neighbourhood
      in Madrid (Spain) in 2016. SUBJECTS: We assessed healthy food availability,
      accessibility and affordability using GIS-based measures and in-store audits. We
      also analysed the photographs and discussions from twelve participants who
      engaged in a photovoice project on their food environment. RESULTS: Quantitative
      results depicted a widely served and highly accessible retail food environment,
      in which supermarkets scored highest in terms of healthy food availability (36.5
      out of 39) and 98.9 % of residents could access a healthy food store within a
      walking travel distance of less than 15 min. Qualitative results showed that
      participants preferred small local businesses over supermarkets, and revealed
      built environment obstacles for elderly residents. They also highlighted how the
      socio-economic context constrained residents' food choices. CONCLUSIONS: People's
      experienced retail food environment is different from the one quantitatively
      analysed. Results show the potential of using a mixed-methods approach to enrich
      food environment research and enhance public health interventions.

PMID- 28866990
TI  - Structural validity and internal consistency of the Qualidem in people with
      severe dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since its development, the Qualidem has had items that were
      considered unsuited for people with very severe dementia. This study attempted to
      investigate the applicability of all Qualidem items in people with all stages of
      dementia severity. METHODS: Four data sets that contained Qualidem observations
      on people with dementia were combined. Dementia severity was categorized based on
      the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), with a dichotomization of very severe
      dementia (GDS 7) and others (GDS 1-6). Unidimensional latent-trait models (Mokken
      scaling) were estimated to fit the Qualidem responses in the overall sample and
      the dichotomized groups. Scalability was assessed using coefficients of
      homogeneity (Loevinger's H), while reliability was assessed with Cronbach's alpha
      and rho. RESULTS: Combining the four databases resulted in 4,354 Qualidem
      measurements. The scalability of all scales was considered acceptable in the
      overall sample, as well is in the subgroups (all H > 0.3). Additionally, the
      reliability was good-excellent in the scales: "positive affect," "positive self
      image," "care relationship," and "negative affect." Reliability was questionable
      acceptable for "feeling at home," "social relations," "social isolation," and
      "restless tense behavior." Reliability was poor for "having something to do."
      CONCLUSIONS: Statistical considerations allow using all Qualidem items in all
      dementia stages. Future research should determine balance of statistical- versus
      conceptual-based reasoning in this academic debate.

PMID- 28866991
TI  - Bacillus iocasae sp. nov., isolated from Pacmanus hydrothermal field, Manus
      Basin.
AB  - A novel bacterial strain S36T was isolated from the deep-sea sediment collected
      from Pacmanus hydrothermal field, Manus Basin. The strain was Gram-stain
      positive, aerobic, rod-shaped, endospore-forming, and motile. It was able to grow
      at 16-50  degrees C, pH 6.0-10.0, and in the presence of 0-11 % (w/v) NaCl.
      Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain S36T
      was a member of genus Bacillus and shares the highest sequence identity with
      Bacillus herbersteinensis D-1,5aT (97.0 %). The value of DNA-DNA hybridization
      between strain S36T and B. herbersteinensis D-1,5aT was 22.8 %. The cell wall
      diagnostic diamino acid of strain S36T was meso-diaminopimelic acid and the polar
      lipid profile of strain S36T contained diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylethanolamine. The predominant respiratory
      quinine was MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15
      : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain S36T was 43.0 mol%. On the basis of
      phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization, and phenotypic characteristics, it
      was concluded that strain S36T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus,
      for which the name Bacillus iocasae sp. nov. was proposed. The type strain is
      S36T (=KCTC 33864T=DSM 104297T=CGMCC 1.16030T).

PMID- 28866992
TI  - Promicromonospora callitridis sp. nov., an endophytic actinobacterium isolated
      from the surface-sterilized root of an Australian native pine tree.
AB  - A new strain of the genus Promicromonospora, CAP94T, was isolated from the
      surface sterilized root of Callitrispreissii (Australian native pine tree). This
      strain was a Gram-stain-positive, aerobic actinobacterium with hyphae breaking up
      into fragments which were non-motile, rod-like, coccoid elements. Phylogenetic
      evaluation based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis placed this isolate as a
      member of the family Promicromonospora ceae, and most closely to
      Promicromonospora sukumoe NBRC 14650T (99.4 %), Promicromonospora kroppenstedtii
      DSM 19349T (99.2 %) and Promicromonosporaaerolata V54AT (99.1 %). Chemotaxonomic
      data including cell-wall components, major menaquinone and major fatty acids
      confirmed the affiliation of strain CAP94T to the genus Promicromonospora. The
      results of the phylogenetic analysis, including physiological and biochemical
      studies in combination with DNA-DNA hybridization, allowed the genotypic and
      phenotypic differentiation of strain CAP94T and the closest species with validly
      published names. The name proposed for the new species is Promicromonospora
      callitridis sp. nov. The type strain is CAP94T (=DSM 103339T=TBRC 6025T).

PMID- 28866993
TI  - Winogradskyella flava sp. nov., isolated from the brown alga, Sargassum
      fulvellum.
AB  - An aerobic, gliding and yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain SFD31T, was
      isolated from brown alga collected from the South Sea, Republic of Korea. Cells
      were Gram-stain-negative, and catalase- and oxidase-positive. The neighbour
      joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain
      SFD31T forms an independent lineage within the genus Winogradskyella. Strain
      SFD31T was related distantly to Winogradskyella echinorum KMM 6211T (97.9 %, 16S
      rRNA gene sequence similarity), Winogradskyellalitoriviva KMM 6491T (97.4 %),
      Winogradskyellapulchriflava EM106T (97.2 %) and Winogradskyellaeckloniae EC29T
      (96.9 %). The major fatty acids of strain SFD31T were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G,
      summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and unknown 13.565. The
      only isoprenoid quinone of the isolate was menaquinone 6. The major polar lipids
      were phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified
      lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain SFD31T was 36.0 mol%. Phenotypic
      characteristics distinguished strain SFD31T from the related species of the genus
      Winogradskyella. On the basis of the evidence presented in this study, a novel
      species, Winogradskyella flava sp. nov., is proposed for strain SFD31T (=KCTC
      52348T=JCM 31798T).

PMID- 28866994
TI  - Psychromarinibacter halotolerans gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from seawater of
      the Yellow Sea.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, motile, non-gliding, oxidase-positive,
      catalase-positive, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain YBW34T, was isolated
      from seawater from the bottom of the Yellow Sea at station H12 (-73m in depth).
      Growth occurred at 10-45  degrees C (optimum 28  degrees C), in the presence of 1
      12 % NaCl (w/v, optimum 4 %) and at pH 6.0-8.0 (optimum pH 7.0). The major fatty
      acids (>10 %) were C18 : 1 omega7c and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids comprised
      phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and three
      unidentified aminolipids. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10).
      The DNA G+C content of strain YBW34T was 64.2 mol%. The most closely related
      species was Tropicimonas isoalkanivorans JCM 14837T with 95.8 % sequence
      similarity in Alphaproteobacteria. It showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities
      of 93.03-95.49, 93.03-95.49 and 95.31-95.32 % to species of genera Rhodovulum,
      Lutimaribacter and Oceanicola, respectively. Nevertheless, strain YBW34T formed a
      distinct lineage in the trees which did not join the genera mentioned above in
      the phylogenetic dendrogram based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. The phenotypic,
      chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data indicated that strain YBW34T represents a
      novel genus and species, for which the name Psychromarinibacter halotolerans gen.
      nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YBW34T (=JCM 31462T=KCTC
      52366T=MCCC 1K03203T).

PMID- 28866995
TI  - Nocardioides taihuensis sp. nov., isolated from fresh water lake sediment.
AB  - A novel actinobacterial strain, designated X17T, was isolated from the sediment
      of Taihu Lake in China and its taxonomic position was investigated by using a
      polyphasic approach. The isolate formed milky-white colonies comprising aerobic,
      Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped cells. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S
      rRNA gene sequences revealed that the organism belonged to the genus Nocardioides
      and consistently formed a distinct cluster with Nocardioides agariphilus JCM
      16020T and Nocardioides islandensis MSL 26T, sharing 95.5 and 94.8 % 16S rRNA
      gene sequence similarities, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content was 69.9
      mol%. Chemotaxonomically, the isolate contained ll-diaminopimelic acid in the
      cell-wall peptidoglycan, MK-8 (H4) as the predominant menaquinone, and
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol as the
      polar lipids found in the cell wall. The major fatty acids were 18 : 1 omega9c
      (38.6 %), 16 : 0 iso (20.3 %), 15 : 0 iso (6.8 %) and 18 : 0 (5.8 %). Based on
      its physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic characteristics, the strain
      represents a novel species of the genus Nocardioides, for which the name
      Nocardioides taihuensis sp. nov. (type strain X17T=CGMCC 4.7318T=NBRC 112321T) is
      proposed.

PMID- 28866996
TI  - Novosphingobium ipomoeae sp. nov., isolated from a water convolvulus field.
AB  - A bacterial strain designated Tese-5T was isolated from a water convolvulus field
      in Taiwan and characterized using the polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain Tese
      5T was an aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium and
      formed bright yellow coloured colonies. Strain Tese-5T grew at 15-35  degrees C
      (optimum, 30  degrees C), with 0-1.0 % NaCl (optimum, 0-0.5 %) and at pH 5.5-7
      (optimum, pH 6). The major fatty acids (>10 %) of strain Tese-5T were C18 :
      1omega7c, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and C16 : 0.
      The polar lipid profile comprised phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine,
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine,
      phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine and sphingoglycolipid. The major polyamine was
      spermidine. The major isoprenoid quinone was Q-10. The DNA G+C content was 65.7
      mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain
      Tese-5T belonged to the genus Novosphingobium and showed the highest levels of
      sequence similarity to Novosphingobium chloroacetimidivorans BUT-14T and
      Novosphingobium mathurense SM117T (96.3 %). Phenotypic characteristics of the
      novel strain also differed from those of the closest-related species of the genus
      Novosphingobium. On the basis of the genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic
      data, strain Tese-5T represents a novel species in the genus Novosphingobium, for
      which the name Novosphingobium ipomoeaesp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is
      Tese-5T (=BCRC 80904T=LMG 28838T=KCTC 42656T).

PMID- 28866997
TI  - Kushneria konosiri sp. nov., isolated from the Korean salt-fermented seafood
      Daemi-jeot.
AB  - A halophilic bacterial strain, X49T, was isolated from the Korean traditional
      salt-fermented seafood Daemi-jeot. X49T was an obligately aerobic, Gram-stain
      negative, motile, oval or rod-shaped (0.5-1.0*1.2-3.2 um) bacterium. After 2 days
      of growth, colonies on Marine agar medium were orange and circular with entire
      margins. X49T growth was detected at 10-37  degrees C and pH 4.5-8.5 in the
      presence of 0-26 % (w/v) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain X49T was most
      similar to that of the type strain of Kushneria marisflavi SW32T and shared a
      sequence similarity of 94.7-98.6 % with type strains of species of the genus
      Kushneria. The predominant fatty acids were C16 : 0, C18 : 1omega7c and C12 : 0
      3OH. The major isoprenoid quinone was Q9 (93 %), and minor quinones were Q8 (4 %)
      and Q10 (3 %). The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine, two
      unidentified aminolipids, two unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified
      lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 59.1 mol%. The level of the ANI value
      between strain X49T and K. marisflavi SW32T, the most closely related species of
      the genus Kushneria, was 89.32 %. Based on the low ANI value, strain X49T and its
      reference strains represent genotypically distinct species. Based on this
      polyphasic taxonomic analysis, strain X49T represents a novel species of the
      genus Kushneria. The name Kushneria konosiri sp. nov. is proposed and the type
      strain is X49T (=KACC 14623T=JCM 16805T).

PMID- 28866998
TI  - Amylibacter cionae sp. nov., isolated from the sea squirt Ciona savignyi.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterial strain,
      designated H-12T, was isolated from a sea squirt (Ciona savignyi) collected from
      Tsingtao Port, Jiaozhou Bay, China, and its taxonomic position was investigated.
      Strain H-12T grew optimally at 25-30  degrees C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the
      presence of 3.0-4.0 % (w/v) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain H-12T
      exhibited the highest similarity to that of the type strain of Amylibacter
      marinus (95.3 %). A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene
      sequences revealed that strain H-12T clustered with the type strain of A.
      marinus. The predominant ubiquinone in strain H-12T was identified as Q-10. The
      major fatty acids of strain H-12T were C18 : 1omega7c and C18 : 1omega7c 11
      methyl. The major polar lipids detected in strain H-12T were
      phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, one
      unidentified aminolipid, two unidentified phospholipids and five unidentified
      lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain H-12T was 52.7 mol%. On the basis of
      phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic properties, strain H-12T is
      considered to represent a novel species within the genus Amylibacter, for which
      the name Amylibacter cionae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H-12T (=KCTC
      52581T=CGMCC 1.15880T).

PMID- 28866999
TI  - Caulobacter hibisci sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere of Hibiscus syriacus L.
      (Mugunghwa flower).
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, smooth, bright yellow-pigmented, aerobic, catalase- and
      oxidase-positive and rod-shaped bacterial strain was isolated from rhizosphere of
      Hibiscus syriacus L. (Mugunghwa flower) located in Kyung Hee University, Yongin,
      Gyeonggi, South Korea. Cells were dimorphic, non-motile or non-stalked, and
      motile by means of peritrichous flagellum. The strain, named THG-AG3.4T, grew at
      15-35  degrees C, at pH 6.5-9.0 and in the presence of 0-1.5 % (w/v) NaCl.
      Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain THG
      AG3.4T was most closely related to Caulobacter segnis ATCC 21756T (98.64 %
      similarity), Caulobacter vibrioides CB51T (98.57 %) and Caulobacter henricii ATCC
      15253T (97.41 %). The DNA G+C content of strain THG-AG3.4T was 64.0 mol%. In DNA
      DNA hybridization, the DNA-DNA relatedness between strain THG-AG3.4T and its
      closest phylogenetic neighbour was below 55.0 %. The predominant isoprenoid
      quinone detected in strain THG-AG3.4T was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10). The major polar
      lipids were found to be an unidentified lipid, two unidentified
      phosphoglycolipids, five unidentified glycolipids, eight unidentified aminolipids
      and phosphatidylglycerol. The major fatty acids were C16 : 0, summed feature 3
      (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1omega7c
      and/or C18 : 1omega6c). Thus, based on the report of the phenotypic, genotypic
      and phylogenetic characterization of strain THG-AG3.4T, it has been concluded
      that the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Caulobacter, for which
      the name Caulobacter hibisci sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is THG-AG3.4T
      (=KACC 18849T=CCTCC AB 2016077T).

PMID- 28867000
TI  - Desulfovibrio senegalensis sp. nov., a mesophilic sulfate reducer isolated from
      marine sediment.
AB  - Several strains of sulfate-reducing bacteria were isolated from marine sediments
      recovered from Hann Bay (Senegal). All were related to members of the genus
      Desulfovibrio. A strictly anaerobic, mesophilic and moderately halophilic strain
      designated BLaC1T was further characterized. Cells of strain BLaC1T stained Gram
      negative and were 0.5 um wide and 2-4 um long, motile, rod-shaped and non-spore
      forming. The four major fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 :
      0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. Growth was observed from 15 to 45  degrees C (optimum 40 
      degrees C) and at pH 5.5-8 (optimum pH 7.5). The salinity range for growth was 5
      65 g NaCl l-1 (optimum 30 g l-1). Yeast extract was required for growth. Strain
      BLaC1T was able to grow on lactate and acetate in the presence of sulfate as an
      electron acceptor. Sulfate, thiosulfate and sulfite could serve as terminal
      electron acceptors, but not fumarate, nitrate or elemental sulfur. The DNA G+C
      content was 55.8 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis assigned strain BLaC1T to
      the family Desulfovibrionaceae; its closest relative was Desulfovibrio oxyclinae
      DSM 19275T (93.7 % similarity). On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence
      comparisons and physiological characteristics, strain BLaC1T is proposed as
      representing a novel species of Desulfovibrio, with the name Desulfovibrio
      senegalensis sp. nov. The type strain is BLaC1T (=DSM 101509T=JCM 31063T).

PMID- 28867001
TI  - Microvirga indica sp. nov., an arsenite-oxidizing Alphaproteobacterium, isolated
      from metal industry waste soil.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-negative bacterium, strain S-MI1bT, belonging to the genus
      Microvirga was isolated from a metal industry waste soil sample in Pirangut
      village, Pune District, Maharashtra, India. Cells were non-spore-forming, small
      rod-shapes, motile and strictly aerobic with light-pink colonies. The strain grew
      in 0-7.0 % (w/v) NaCl and at 25-45  degrees C, with optimal growth at 40  degrees
      C. The predominant fatty acids detected were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 omega7c
      and/or C18 : 1 omega6c) and C19 : 0 cyclo omega8c. The predominant isoprenoid
      quinone was Q-10. The G+C content was 67.2 mol% and DNA-DNA relatedness values
      between strain S-MI1bTand Microvirga subterranea DSM 14364T and
      Microvirgaaerophila 5420S-12T were 53.9 and 54.8 %, respectively. Phylogenetic
      analysis, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, indicated that strain S-MI1bT is a
      member of the genus Microvirga, with greatest sequence similarities of 97.7 and
      97.4 % with M. subterranea DSM 14364T and M.aerophila 5420S-12T, respectively.
      Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain S-MI1bT forms a clade with the type
      strain of M. subterranea DSM 14364T, and was readily distinguishable from it due
      to various phenotypic characteristics. The combination of genotypic and
      phenotypic data suggests that the isolate represents a novel species of the genus
      Microvirga, for which the name Microvirga indica sp. nov. is proposed. The type
      strain is S-MI1bT (=NCIM-5595T=KACC 18792T=BCRC 80972T).

PMID- 28867002
TI  - Lactobacillus cerevisiae sp. nov., isolated from a spoiled brewery sample.
AB  - A Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated TUM BP
      140423000-2250T (=DSM 100836T=LMG 29073T), was isolated from spoiled beer. This
      bacterium did not form spores, and was catalase-negative and facultatively
      anaerobic. Its taxonomic position was determined in a polyphasic study. The 16S
      rRNA gene sequence similarity data showed that the strain belonged to the
      Lactobacillus genus with the nearest neighbours being Lactobacillus koreensis
      DCY50T (sequence similarity 99.5 %), Lactobacillus yonginensis THK-V8T (99.2 %)
      and Lactobacillus parabrevis LMG 11984T (98.7 %). Sequence comparisons of
      additional phylogenetic markers, pheS and rpoA, confirmed the 16S rRNA gene
      sequence tree topology. The maximum rpoA sequence similarity was 92.3 % with L.
      yonginensis THK-V8T. The DNA G+C content of the isolate was 50.0 mol%. The DNA
      DNA relatedness showed that strain TUM BP 140423000-2250T could be clearly
      distinguished from L. koreensis DCY 50T (30.8+/-0.4 %) and L. yonginensis THK-V8T
      (23.6+/-5.9 %). The major fatty acids were C18 : 1omega9c, summed feature 7
      (comprised of C19 : 0 cyclo omega10c/C19 : 1omega6c) and C16 : 0. Based on
      phenotypic and genotypic studies, the authors propose classifying the new isolate
      as a representative of a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, Lactobacillus
      cerevisiae sp. nov. The type strain is deposited at the Research Centre
      Weihenstephan for Brewing and Food Quality as TUM BP 140423000-2250T (=DSM
      100836T=LMG 29073T).

PMID- 28867003
TI  - Phreatobacter stygius sp. nov., isolated from pieces of wood in a lava cave and
      emended description of the genus Phreatobacter.
AB  - An aerobic, Gram-negative, catalase-positive, oxidase-positive bacterium,
      designated strain YC6-17T, was isolated from pieces of wood collected at the
      bottom of Youngcheon Cave in Jeju, Republic of Korea. Phylogenetic analyses based
      on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain YC6-17T formed a tight cluster
      with Phreatobacter oligotrophus DSM 25521T (98.1 % sequence similarity) and was
      distinctly separate from other taxa of the order Rhizobiales. Cells were motile
      rods and showed growth at 10-30  degrees C, pH 6-8 and 2 % NaCl. Colonies were
      smooth, circular, convex and pale yellow in colour. The predominant ubiquinone
      was Q-10. The predominant fatty acids were C18 : 1omega7c, 11-methyl-C18 :
      1omega7c, summed feature 3 and C16 : 0. The polar lipids were
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, two
      glycolipids and a lipid. The DNA G+C content was 64.4 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness
      between strain YC6-17T and the closest relative was 15.6+/-7.9 %. Based on
      combined data from phenotypic characterization and DNA-DNA hybridization as well
      as phylogenetic analysis, it was suggested that the isolate represents a novel
      species of the genus Phreatobacter, for which the name Phreatobacter stygius sp.
      nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain YC6-17T (=KCTC 52518T=DSM 103734T).

PMID- 28867004
TI  - General practitioner and registrar involvement in refugee health: exploring needs
      and perceptions.
AB  - Objective Despite the recognition that refugees should have equitable access to
      healthcare services, this presents considerable challenges, particularly in rural
      and regional areas. Because general practitioners (GPs) are critical to
      resettlement for refugees and play a crucial role in understanding their specific
      health and social issues, it is important to know more about the needs of
      GPs.Methods In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 GPs and GP registrars who
      trained with a New South Wales regional training provider with the aim of
      assessing the needs and attitudes of GPs in treating refugees and the perceived
      effect that refugees have on their practice.Results The interviews, while
      acknowledging well-recognised issues such as language and culture, also
      highlighted particular issues for rural and regional areas, such as employment
      and community support. International medical graduates identified with
      resettlement problems faced by refugees and are a potential resource for these
      patients. A need for greater information for GPs regarding services available to
      help manage refugees in rural and regional areas and greater access to those
      services was demonstrated.Conclusions Issues such as time, costs, language and
      culture were recognised as challenges in providing services for refugees. GPs
      highlighted particular issues for rural and regional areas in addressing refugee
      health, such as finding jobs, problems with isolation and the effect of lack of
      anonymity in such communities. These social factors have implications for the
      health of the refugees, especially psychological health, which is also challenged
      by poor resources.What is known about the topic? Providing refugees equitable
      access to healthcare services presents considerable challenges, particularly in
      rural and regional areas. Time, language and culture are commonly reported
      barriers in providing services for this population group.What does this paper
      add? There are particular issues for rural and regional areas in addressing
      refugee health, including finding jobs, problems with isolation and the effect of
      lack of anonymity in rural communities. These social factors have implications
      for the health of refugees, especially psychological health, which is also
      challenged by a paucity of services. The findings of this study suggest that
      international medical graduate doctors identified with resettlement problems
      faced by refugees and may be an important resource for these patients. This study
      highlights the awareness, empathy and positive attitudes of GPs in regional and
      rural areas in their approach to treating patients with a refugee background.What
      are the implications for practitioners? International medical graduates often
      identify with resettlement problems faced by refugees and are an important
      resource for these patients. A need for greater information for GPs regarding
      services available to help manage refugees in rural and regional areas and
      greater access to those services was demonstrated.

PMID- 28867005
TI  - Review and analysis of the Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program.
AB  - Objective The aim of the present study was to review and synthesise research on
      the Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program (MHNIP) to ascertain the benefits and
      limitations of this initiative for people with mental illness, general
      practitioners, mental health nurses and the wider community.Methods An electronic
      and manual search was made of the research literature for MHNIP in May 2017.
      Features of studies, including cohorts and findings, were tabulated and cross
      study patterns in program processes and outcomes were closely compared.Results
      Seventeen reports of primary research data have been released. Triangulation of
      data from different cohorts, regions and design show that the program has been
      successful on the primary objectives of increased access to primary mental health
      care, and has received positive feedback from all major stakeholders. Although
      the program has been broadly beneficial to consumer health, there are inequities
      in access for people with mental illness.Conclusions The MHNIP greatly benefits
      the health of people with mental illness. Larger and more representative sampling
      of consumers is needed, as well as intensive case studies to provide a more
      comprehensive and effective understanding of the benefits and limitations of the
      program as it evolves with the establishment of primary health networks.What is
      known about the topic? The MHNIP is designed to increase access to mental health
      care in primary care settings such as general practice clinics. Studies have
      reported favourable views about the program. However, research is limited and
      further investigation is required to demonstrate the strengths and limitations of
      the program.What does this paper add? All studies reviewed reported that the
      MHNIP had positive implications for people with severe and persistent mental
      illness. Qualitative research has been most prevalent for mental health nurse
      views and research on Health of the Nation Outcome Scale scores for recipients of
      the program. There is more research on system dimensions than on person-centred
      care. Mental health consumers, carers and families have been neglected in the
      establishment, engagement and evaluation of the MHNIP.What are the implications
      for practitioners? A more systematic, national-level research program into the
      MHNIP is required that is centred more on the experiences of people with mental
      illness.

PMID- 28867006
TI  - Anti-inflammatory treatment and risk of depression in 91,842 patients with acute
      coronary syndrome and 91,860 individuals without acute coronary syndrome in
      Denmark.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We examined if treatment with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), non-steroid
      anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), or statins after acute coronary syndrome (ACS)
      are associated with decreased risk of depression. METHOD: This register-based
      cohort study included all individuals with a first-time hospital admissions with
      an ACS diagnosis registered between January 2001 to December 2009 (N=91,842) and
      a comparable reference population without ACS (N=91,860). Information of ASA,
      NSAID, and statin use were retrieved from a national prescription register. The
      study population was followed for hospitalization with depression or receiving
      prescription of antidepressant medication for up to one year after ACS or study
      entry (early depression) or one to twelve years after ACS or study entry (late
      depression). RESULTS: ASA use after ACS was associated with decreased risk of
      early depression with hazard ratios (HR) of 0.89 (95% confidence interval 0.85
      0.93) but not with late depression 0.96 (0.90-1.01). The corresponding HRs for
      statin were 0.90 (0.86-0.94) and 0.86 (0.82-0.90). In the non-ACS population,
      statin use was not associated with neither early nor late depression (HRs 1.04
      (0.96-1.12) and 1.00 (0.95-1.06)), while ASA was associated with increased risk
      of late (HR 1.09 (1.04-1.14)) but not early depression (HR 1.03 (0.97-1.09)). In
      both populations, NSAID use was associated with increased risk of late but not
      early depression. CONCLUSION: Use of ASA or statins were associated with
      decreased risk of depression in ACS patients but not in individuals without ACS,
      while use of NSAID was associated with increased risk of late depression in both
      populations.

PMID- 28867007
TI  - The association between left ventricular global strain and coronary artery
      disease.

PMID- 28867008
TI  - Letter to "Clinical impact of admission hyperglycemia on in-hospital mortality in
      acute myocardial infarction patients" by Kim E J et al.

PMID- 28867009
TI  - Sex differences in the effect of diabetes mellitus on platelet reactivity and
      coronary thrombosis: From the Assessment of Dual Antiplatelet Therapy with Drug
      Eluting Stents (ADAPT-DES) study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether the consequences of diabetes mellitus (DM) are worse for
      women than for men treated with drug-eluting stents (DES) and antiplatelet
      therapy remain unclear. METHODS: Patients from the Assessment of Dual
      Antiplatelet Therapy With Drug-Eluting Stents study were stratified according to
      sex and DM status. We investigated the sex-specific effect of DM on high on
      clopidogrel platelet reactivity (HPR), defined as a P2Y12 reaction units >=208,
      and the adjusted association of DM on the 2-year risk for coronary thrombotic
      events (CTE), defined as spontaneous myocardial infarction or definite or
      probable stent thrombosis. RESULTS: Out of 8582 patients included in the study,
      829 were women with DM (9.6%) and 1954 were men with DM (16.2%). The prevalence
      of insulin-treated DM (ITDM) was greater in women (p<0.0001). By multivariable
      logistic regression, DM was associated with a greater likelihood of HPR that was
      uniform between sexes (pint=0.88). Following adjustment for baseline variables
      and HPR, in women a stepwise increase in risk for CTEs was observed in the
      transition from no DM to non-ITDM (NITDM) (adjusted hazard ratio [adjHR]: 1.31;
      95% CI: 0.78-2.18) to ITDM (adjHR: 2.69; 95% CI: 1.23-3.45). This increase in
      risk associated with subtypes of DM was of smaller magnitude in men (for NITDM,
      adjHR: 1.04; 95% CI: 0.77-1.39; for ITDM, adjHR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.05-2.03;
      pint=0.016). CONCLUSIONS: In a population treated with DES and antiplatelet
      therapy, the risk for CTE associated with DM seems to be greater in women and was
      independent of HPR.

PMID- 28867010
TI  - Mid-term clinical outcomes of ABSORB bioresorbable vascular scaffold versus
      everolimus-eluting stent for coronary bifurcation lesions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data regarding bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) use in coronary
      bifurcation lesions are limited. The aim of this study was to compare mid-term
      clinical outcomes of all-comer patients treated with BVS versus everolimus
      eluting stents (EES) for bifurcation lesions. METHODS: A total of 351 non-left
      main bifurcation lesions in 323 all-comer patients were treated either with BVS
      (166 bifurcations in 147 patients) or EES (185 bifurcations in 176 patients). The
      study endpoint was propensity-score adjusted target lesion failure (TLF) defined
      as the composite of cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction and
      clinically driven target lesion revascularization. RESULTS: Intravascular
      ultrasound and/or optical coherence tomography were more frequently utilized in
      the BVS group as compared to the EES one (89.8% versus 13.5%, p<0.001). In the
      BVS group, both predilation (97.6%) and postdilation (100%) of the main branch
      were performed in almost all-cases. Provisional single-stenting strategy was more
      frequently used in the BVS group (79.5% versus 68.1%, p=0.016). At the median
      follow-up of 698days, there was no significant difference in the propensity score
      adjusted analysis for TLF (HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 0.47 to 3.03, p=0.718). A similar
      result was obtained when performing propensity-score matched analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: BVS use for coronary bifurcation lesions in real world patients was
      associated with comparable TLF rates up to 2-year follow-up as compared to EES.
      The high incidence of intravascular imaging guidance, meticulous lesion
      preparation, and aggressive postdilation of BVS treated lesions may have played a
      role in achieving equivalence to EES.

PMID- 28867011
TI  - TAVR with mechanically expandable prostheses: Is balloon aortic valvuloplasty
      really necessary?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The fully retrievable and repositionable Lotus Valve System uses a
      unique mechanical expansion mechanism. Balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) is
      recommended before valve deployment. There are no studies focusing on feasibility
      and efficacy of Lotus Valve implantation without previous BAV. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: Thirty consecutive patients (63.3% female; mean age, 80+/-6.2years)
      underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the Lotus Valve
      without preparatory BAV. Mean baseline aortic valve area was 0.41+/-0.14cm2/m2;
      mean transvalvular gradient was 50.2+/-16.2mmHg. All patients were successfully
      implanted, with 96.6% device success (VARC-2 definition) and 0% intra-procedural
      mortality. Partial and full valve repositioning were performed in 11 (36.7%) and
      2 (6.7%) cases, respectively. Mean 30-day transprosthetic gradient was 11.3+/
      3.6mmHg, with an effective aortic orifice area of 1.0+/-0.2cm2/m2, and more than
      mild paravalvular leakage (PVL) in only one patient. At 30days, cardiac mortality
      was 3.3%, and 96.3% of subjects were NYHA Class I or II. The rate of life
      threatening bleeding was 10%; one patient experienced disabling stroke. Ten
      patients underwent new pacemaker implantation (38%). CONCLUSIONS: TAVR with the
      mechanically expandable Lotus Valve seems feasible without performing preparatory
      BAV. Valve hemodynamics at 30-days were favorable, and clinical outcomes were
      similar to studies employing routine preparatory BAV.

PMID- 28867012
TI  - To know the radiation dose and the fluoroscopy time of each cardiac procedure is
      of great importance.

PMID- 28867013
TI  - Alcohol and incident atrial fibrillation - A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whilst high levels of alcohol consumption are known to be associated
      with atrial fibrillation (AF), it is unclear if any level of alcohol consumption
      can be recommended to prevent the onset of the condition. The aim of this review
      is to characterise the association between chronic alcohol intake and incident
      AF. METHODS AND RESULTS: Electronic literature searches were undertaken using
      PubMed and Embase databases up to 1 February 2016 to identify studies examining
      the impact of alcohol on the risk of incident AF. Prospective studies reporting
      on at least three levels of alcohol intake and published in English were eligible
      for inclusion. Studies of a retrospective or case control design were excluded.
      The primary study outcome was development of incident AF. Consistent with
      previous studies, high levels of alcohol intake were associated with an increased
      incident AF risk (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.20-1.49, p<0.001). Moderate levels of alcohol
      intake were associated with a heightened AF risk in males (HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.04
      1.54, p=0.02) but not females (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.86-1.25, p=0.74). Low alcohol
      intake, of up to 1 standard drink (SD) per day, was not associated with AF
      development (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.85-1.06, p=0.37). CONCLUSIONS: Low levels of
      alcohol intake are not associated with the development of AF. Gender differences
      exist in the association between moderate alcohol intake and AF with males
      demonstrating greater increases in risk, whilst high alcohol intake is associated
      with a heightened AF risk across both genders.

PMID- 28867014
TI  - Atrial fibrillation as a risk factor for worse outcome in acute coronary
      syndrome.

PMID- 28867015
TI  - Is subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator testing effective and safe
      for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?

PMID- 28867016
TI  - Reply to: Is subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator testing
      effective and safe for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?

PMID- 28867017
TI  - Letter to the editor: "The frailty syndrome is associated with adverse health
      outcomes in very old patients with stable heart failure: A prospective study in
      six Spanish hospitals".

PMID- 28867018
TI  - Cardiac pericyte is promising target for ischemic heart diseases: Role of Notch3.

PMID- 28867019
TI  - A potential and novel therapeutic approach to ischemic heart diseases: Notch3.

PMID- 28867020
TI  - Skeletal muscle exercise training in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

PMID- 28867021
TI  - Pentraxin-3 and its further clinical implications in women with preeclampsia.

PMID- 28867022
TI  - Cardiac magnetic resonance evaluation of left ventricular functional,
      morphological, and structural features in children and adolescents vs. young
      adults with isolated left ventricular non-compaction.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the left ventricular (LV) functional, morphological, and
      structural features revealed by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in
      children/adolescents with isolated LV non-compaction (iLVNC), and to compare them
      with those observed in young adults with iLVNC and healthy controls. METHODS: 56
      subjects were included: 12 children/adolescents (mean age 15+/-3years, 75% male)
      and 20 young adults (mean age 35+/-7years, 75% male) with first diagnosis of
      iLVNC, 12 healthy children/adolescents (mean age 15+/-3years, 75% male) and 12
      healthy young adults (mean age 34+/-8years, 75% male). CMR with late gadolinium
      enhancement (LGE) imaging was performed to evaluate LV function, extent of LV
      trabeculation, and presence/extent of LV LGE, a surrogate of myocardial fibrosis.
      Tissue-tracking analysis was applied to assess LV global longitudinal (GLS),
      circumferential (GCS) and radial (GRS) strain. RESULTS: The extent of LVNC and
      the presence/extent of LV LGE in children/adolescents and young adults with iLVNC
      were similar. Compared to healthy subjects, young adults with iLVNC had
      significantly lower LVEF; conversely, no significant difference in this parameter
      was observed between children/adolescents with iLVNC and healthy subjects.
      However, compared to healthy subjects, LV strain parameters were lower in both
      children/adolescents and young adults with iLVNC. CONCLUSIONS: Complete
      phenotypic expression, subclinical impairment of myocardial deformation
      properties, and cardiac injury occur early in iLVNC patients, being already
      noticeable in the pediatric age group. The application of CMR myocardial
      deformation imaging permits earlier detection of LV functional impairment in
      children/adolescents with iLVNC, which would otherwise be missed with standard
      CMR imaging.

PMID- 28867023
TI  - Machine learning for prediction of 30-day mortality after ST elevation myocardial
      infraction: An Acute Coronary Syndrome Israeli Survey data mining study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Risk scores for prediction of mortality 30-days following a ST
      segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have been developed using a
      conventional statistical approach. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an array of machine
      learning (ML) algorithms for prediction of mortality at 30-days in STEMI patients
      and to compare these to the conventional validated risk scores. METHODS: This was
      a retrospective, supervised learning, data mining study. Out of a cohort of
      13,422 patients from the Acute Coronary Syndrome Israeli Survey (ACSIS) registry,
      2782 patients fulfilled inclusion criteria and 54 variables were considered.
      Prediction models for overall mortality 30days after STEMI were developed using 6
      ML algorithms. Models were compared to each other and to the Global Registry of
      Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) and Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI)
      scores. RESULTS: Depending on the algorithm, using all available variables,
      prediction models' performance measured in an area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve (AUC) ranged from 0.64 to 0.91. The best models performed
      similarly to the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score (0.87 SD
      0.06) and outperformed the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) score
      (0.82 SD 0.06, p<0.05). Performance of most algorithms plateaued when introduced
      with 15 variables. Among the top predictors were creatinine, Killip class on
      admission, blood pressure, glucose level, and age. CONCLUSIONS: We present a data
      mining approach for prediction of mortality post-ST-segment elevation myocardial
      infarction. The algorithms selected showed competence in prediction across an
      increasing number of variables. ML may be used for outcome prediction in complex
      cardiology settings.

PMID- 28867024
TI  - Impact of stroke volume assessment by integrating multi-detector computed
      tomography and Doppler data on the classification of aortic stenosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of low flow low gradient (LFLG) severe aortic stenosis
      (AS) may be overrated due to underestimation of stroke volume in two-dimensional
      (2D) echocardiography. The implications of 3D imaging on stroke volume
      calculation for AS classification have not been elucidated. Integrating multi
      detector computed tomography (MDCT) and Doppler data may improve diagnostic
      accuracy in patients with LFLG AS. METHODS: A total of 186 patients with severe
      AS evaluated for transcatheter aortic valve replacement were classified according
      to indexed stroke volume (SVI, cut-off 35mL/m2) and mean transaortic pressure
      gradient (cut-off 40mmHg). SVI was calculated using a) the biplane Simpson's
      method, b) left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) velocity time integral (VTI) and
      LVOT diameter determined by 2D echocardiography, or c) LVOT VTI and LVOT area
      planimetered by MDCT. RESULTS: SVI assessed by the biplane Simpson's method was
      smaller than that obtained from 2D echocardiography LVOT diameter (29.5+/-0.6 vs
      34.9+/-0.8mL/m2, p<0.001). The latter was smaller than SVI calculated by
      integrating MDCT and Doppler data (47.5+/-1.4mL/m2, p<0.001). LFLG and
      paradoxical LFLG severe AS were diagnosed in 42.5% and 27.4% of patients using
      the biplane Simpson's method, in 30.1% and 16.7% using 2D echocardiography LVOT
      diameter, and in 17.2% and 8.1% when integrating MDCT and Doppler data.
      CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of LFLG and paradoxical LFLG severe AS was
      overestimated by 2.5- and 3.4-fold based on 2D echocardiography alone.
      Integration of MDCT and Doppler data should be considered for stroke volume
      assessment in the classification of severe AS.

PMID- 28867025
TI  - Physical Activity in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: Challenges in
      Measurement and Motivation.

PMID- 28867026
TI  - Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Implantation Provides Effective Treatment.

PMID- 28867027
TI  - Macitentan in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Associated with Congenital Heart
      Defects.

PMID- 28867028
TI  - Corrigendum to 'National Heart Foundation of Australia & Cardiac Society of
      Australia and New Zealand: Australian Clinical Guidelines for the Management of
      Acute Coronary Syndromes 2016' Heart Lung and Circulation volume 25, (2016) 898 -
      952.
AB  - Please note that on p.929 in 5.2.2.7, paragraph 3, the dose of dabigatran should
      read as BD rather than daily. We regret any inconvenience that this may have
      caused.

PMID- 28867029
TI  - Spectraplakins, versatile roles in physiology and pathology.

PMID- 28867030
TI  - Protocadherins and other atypical cadherins.

PMID- 28867031
TI  - [Guidelines for the management of the cerebral arterial ischemic stroke in at
      term or near-term newborns].

PMID- 28867032
TI  - [Revelation of the circumstances of the accident vascular arterial ischemic brain
      in at term or near-term and referral].
AB  - The neonatal arterial ischemic stroke is an emergency. Recurrent focal seizures,
      generally occurring in the first 24-72 hours after birth, are the commonest first
      clinical signs. When neonatal arterial ischemic stroke is suspected, optimal
      initial management involves careful supportive care including treatment of
      clinical and frequent or prolonged subclinical seizures, correction of the
      possible metabolic disorders and their prevention. Contrary to hypoxic ischemic
      encephalopathy, therapeutic hypothermia is not indicated. This newborn requires
      emergent transfer to a neonatal intensive care unit for the confirmation of the
      diagnosis by means of a specialized neonatal transport team.

PMID- 28867033
TI  - [Recommendations for imaging neonatal ischemic stroke].
AB  - Neuroimaging is critical for the diagnosis of neonatal arterial ischemic stroke
      (NAIS) and for prognosis estimation. The purpose of this work is to define
      guidelines of clinical neuroimaging for the diagnosis of NAIS, for the
      optimization of the imaging timing and for the assessment of the prognostic value
      of each imaging technique. A systematic search of electronic databases (Medline
      via Pubmed) for studies whose title and abstract were focused on NAIS has been
      conducted. One hundred and ten articles were selected and their results were
      analyzed by three Senior Practitioners of pediatric radiology using common
      methodology for guidelines elaboration within the group of experts gathered by
      Scientific Societies in the field. MRI with a diffu si on-weighted sequence (DWI)
      and T1, T2, and T2*-weighted sequences must be performed in the case of suspected
      NAIS (no sedation is required). In the first hours after the injury, an acute
      ischemic lesion is characterized by a hypersignal on the diffusion-weighted
      sequence, with a decrease of the apparent coefficient of diffusion (ADC). The
      best time to evaluate the extent of the ischemic lesion is between day 2 and day
      4 after injury, when the ADC decrease reaches its nadir. In the acute phase, US
      may be useful as first imaging at the bedside to exclude other pathologies like
      large space-occupying hemorrhages, but its specific added value on NAIS diagnosis
      or prognosis assessment is very low. CT scan has no added value in NAIS, compared
      to MRI. Motor outcome is correlated with the extent of the lesion and with the
      presence of a definite injury of the corticospinal tract, which is well seen on
      the diffusion sequence at the acute stage. A secondary atrophy within the
      mesencephalon (cerebral peduncles) is tied in with a high risk of hemiplegia.
      Visual outcome is more often compromised in the case of lesions of the posterior
      cerebral artery territory.

PMID- 28867034
TI  - [Neonatal arterial ischemic stroke: Which thrombotic biological risk factors to
      investigate and which practical consequences?]
AB  - All biological risk factors that have been previously identified to increase the
      risk of thrombosis in adults, have also been studied in neonates with arterial
      Ischemic Stroke (NAIS), but most studies were retrospective and included
      relatively low numbers of affected children. We therefore could not suggest
      recommendations with a strong level of evidence and only expert proposals
      potentially useful for clinical practice will be presented in this text. Despite
      these limitations, the extensive analysis of published data supported that factor
      V Leiden (FVL) and increased levels of Lp(a) could be significant risk factors
      for NAIS. Importantly, these 2 risk factors cannot be considered as having
      provoked NAIS, and moreover, they do not influence the prognosis and the
      immediate treatment. However, since the FVL may have an impact for the
      prescription of a thromboprophylaxis when the neonate will become adult, to look
      for its presence in affected patients may be justified. For clinical practice,
      the following propositions can be applied: 1. Routine testing for thrombophilia
      (AT, PC PS deficiency, FV Leiden or FII20210A) or for detecting other biological
      risk factors such as antiphospholipid antibodies, high FVIII, homocystein or
      Lp(a) levels, MTHFR thermolabile variant, should not be considered in neonates
      with NAIS. 2. Testing for FV Leiden can be performed in case of documented family
      history of venous thromboembolic disease. 3. Testing neonates for the presence of
      antiphospholipid antibodies (APA) is mandatory in case of clinical events
      suggesting antiphospholipid syndrome in the mother (vascular thrombosis, and/or
      pregnancy morbidity). 4. Routine testing for thrombophilia is not proposed in
      both parents in case of early death of the neonate, apart from APA in the mother.

PMID- 28867035
TI  - [Neonatal arterial ischemic stroke in term or near-term newborns: prevalence and
      risk factors].
AB  - The general designation ischemic perinatal stroke includes several disease states
      that differ in pathophysiology, timing of occurrence and presentation. While it
      seems logical to assume that their prevalence and their risk factors depend
      primarily on the considered type of stroke, most studies used inconsistent
      definitions or included heterogeneous populations, which limits their accuracy.
      Given these biases, the French Society of Neonatology and the French Centre for
      Paediatric Stroke wished to update the knowledge in this domain, focusing on a
      specific form of perinatal stroke, i.e neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (NAIS)
      in term or near term newborns. A comprehensive analysis of published
      epidemiological data was dedicated to the following issues:Is the prevalence of
      NAIS well defined from epidemiological studies?What are the best recognized risk
      factors and is it possible to delineate a maternal and fetal population at risk
      for this condition?On July 31, 2015 a total of four hospitalized-based and five
      population-based studies, and six case-control studies were found. The
      conclusions are the following:The prevalence of NAIS in term or near term
      newborns varies from 6 to 17/100,000 live births (level of evidence 2). NAIS
      represents a half of total ischemic perinatal strokes (i.e. including those with
      delayed presentation as well) and one fourth of perinatal strokes (i.e. including
      cerebral haemorrhage stroke as well).Four sets of risk factors are consistent
      across different studies (level of evidence 3): (1) male sex, (2) obstetrical
      determinants (first pregnancy, caesarean section), and two peripartum
      complications: (3) intrapartum hypoxia and (4) materno-fetal/neonatal infection.
      Bacterial meningitis, cardiac disorders/procedures and invasive care such as
      extra-corporeal circulation carry a risk of NAIS as well.A registry could help
      refining epidemiological descriptive data. It could also be used to develop
      etiological studies focusing on pathophysiological hypotheses derived from the
      identified aforementioned risk factors.

PMID- 28867036
TI  - [Biological monitoring and other explorations in the acute phase of a neonatal
      arterial ischemic stroke (excluding hemostasis)].
AB  - Neonatal monitoring and other explorations required just after neonatal arterial
      ischemic stroke (NAIS) diagnosis remain elusive. This review attempts to propose
      guidelines on this topic. During neonatal period, three major contexts related to
      NAIS emerge: 1) Metabolic disorders including hypoglycemia; 2) Early post-natal
      infections; 3) Cardio-vascular anomalies. Different patient profiles have been
      defined (typical, atypical and at risk profiles). According to these profiles, a
      final decisional tree including biological monitoring and complementary
      explorations has been suggested to caregivers.

PMID- 28867037
TI  - [Place of EEG in the management of arterial ischemic stroke newborn].
AB  - The EEG has a key role in the management of neonatal seizures, which are the
      typical mode of revelation of neonatal ischemic stroke. The EEG should be started
      as soon as possible in case of suspected seizure. Some EEG features are evocative
      of neonatal stroke, typically asymmetry of background activity with the presence
      of focal spikes and focal seizures. The EEG should be prolonged and always
      associated with a video as pauci-symptomatic or subclinical seizures are
      frequent, including some status epilepticus. Video-EEG monitoring is therefore
      essential to judge the efficacy of anticonvulsant therapy. There is insufficient
      evidence so far to state if some EEG aspects are predictive of long-term
      cognitive and epileptic outcomes.

PMID- 28867038
TI  - [Therapeutic management of neonatal arterial cerebral infarction and
      neuroprotection perspectives].
AB  - Neonatal seizure related to stroke is a common diagnostic feature. Their
      treatment, although widely debated even today must be initiated in case of status
      epilepticus, clinical seizures of more than 5 minutes duration or short (> 30
      secondes) and repeated clinical seizures (2 or more per hour). The treatment of
      neonatal seizures is a challenge that remains only partially solved. It should
      take into account the etiology of seizures, type of brain lesions and
      clinical/electrical response to treatment after the first line treatment. It is
      based on using a single anti-epileptic at its maximum dosage, and if needed, on
      the association with another anti-epileptic drug with a different mechanism of
      action. Phenobarbital remains the most commonly used drug for initial treatment
      of neonatal seizures and for which the most clinical experience has been
      accumulated. The lack of randomized controlled trials makes difficult
      recommendations about the optimal duration of treatment, but most experts agree
      that once arrested seizures, the duration of treatment should be as short as
      possible because of its potential risk on the developing brain. Novel
      neuroprotective strategies for reducing impact of neonatal stroke or promoting
      brain repair remain for the moment the concept stage, pre-clinical or parcel
      clinical data.

PMID- 28867039
TI  - [Long term outcome of perinatal stroke].
AB  - Neonatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke (NAIS) affects 6-17 newborns on 100 000-birth
      term neonates, most of these children keeping long-term motor and cognitive
      impairments. Based on a literature review, the objectives of this paper are to
      describe motor and cognitive outcomes after a NAIS and to propose a consensual
      monitoring of these children to improve their management. About 30 % of children
      after a NAIS will develop a unilateral cerebral palsy requiring a management by a
      team with expertise in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Unlike adults,
      especially after a left NAIS, children will not present aphasia but between 50
      and 90 % will present disorders of speech and language in expression and/or
      reception. After NAIS, the global intellectual efficiency is usually preserved
      except when the size of the lesion is very important or when severe epilepsy
      occurs. Several studies are also in favor of vulnerability in visuospatial
      functions. To quantify impairments, activity limitations and participation
      restrictions resulting from this NAIS, early and at least yearly evaluations with
      reliable tools must be carried out systematically until puberty. A
      multidisciplinary team with a longitudinal follow-up, in all the different
      developmental dimensions, must conduct these evaluations in term of motor skills,
      cognitive impairment, behavior, autonomy, quality of life, and participation.
      Consequences on family functioning need to be evaluate in order to help children
      and family coping with this event.

PMID- 28867040
TI  - [Brain plasticity and early rehabilitative care for children after neonatal
      arterial cerebral infarction].
AB  - Currently, in the literature of the evidence based medicine, little data are
      available to confirm the benefit and the specific procedures of an early
      intervention for a neonatal arterial ischemic stroke. However, data about the
      effect of an early physical rehabilitation program on the cerebral plasticity,
      and preliminary results of clinical studies in children with cerebral palsy
      strongly suggest the benefit of an early rehabilitation with a multidisciplinary
      approach. The type of the rehabilitation and its frequency must be determined
      because a wide variability in the practices exists. A comprehensive care, of the
      children and his family is necessary to limit the orthopaedics but also the
      social consequences of a neonatal stroke.

PMID- 28867042
TI  - Correction to Lancet Glob Health 2015; 3: e316-23.

PMID- 28867041
TI  - Correction to Lancet Glob Health 2015; 3: e324-31.

PMID- 28867043
TI  - Genes, Brain, and Language: A brief introduction to the Special Issue.

PMID- 28867044
TI  - Letter in response to commentary by Small and Cronin.

PMID- 28867045
TI  - Response to letter by Grohskopf et al. in response to commentary by Small and
      Cronin.

PMID- 28867046
TI  - Peritoneal dialysis catheter placement as a mode of renal replacement therapy:
      Long-term results from a tertiary academic institution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peritoneal dialysis as a mode of renal replacement therapy still has
      not been embraced widely as an alternative to hemodialysis. Furthermore, there is
      marked variability in peritoneal dialysis catheter insertion techniques and
      perioperative management within the United States. After the publication of best
      demonstrated practices for peritoneal dialysis catheter placement, the
      utilization of peritoneal dialysis has increased significantly at our
      institution. We detail the long-term success of peritoneal dialysis catheter
      placement after the adoption of best-demonstrated practices. METHODS:
      Retrospective chart review was performed on all patients who underwent
      laparoscopic peritoneal dialysis catheter placement using the best-demonstrated
      practice technique from January 2005 through December 2015. Preoperative patient
      demographic information, intraoperative variables, 30-day morbidity and
      mortality, and long-term catheter durability outcomes were investigated. RESULTS:
      A total of 457 patients met inclusion criteria. Four (0.9%) patients experienced
      an immediate postoperative complication requiring return to the operating room.
      There were no perioperative mortalities. A total of 298 (65.2%) patients were
      available for long-term follow-up; 221 (74.2%) patients are still alive, 76
      (25.6%) patients are still undergoing peritoneal dialysis, 63 (21.1%) patients
      transitioned from peritoneal dialysis to hemodialysis, and 88 (29.5%) patients
      have undergone kidney transplantation. Based on Kaplan-Meier survival plots, 30%
      of patients will transition from peritoneal dialysis to hemodialysis after 5.5
      years of peritoneal dialysis and the median time from commencing peritoneal
      dialysis to kidney transplantation is 5.6 years. CONCLUSION: Based on our
      institutional data, the adoption of best-demonstrated practices should provide
      long-term and reliable access to the peritoneal cavity. We recommend the adoption
      of these techniques to facilitate long-term peritoneal dialysis catheter
      survival.

PMID- 28867047
TI  - Birth and Death of Histone mRNAs.
AB  - In metazoans, histone mRNAs are not polyadenylated but end in a conserved stem
      loop. Stem-loop binding protein (SLBP) binds to the stem-loop and is required for
      all steps in histone mRNA metabolism. The genes for the five histone proteins are
      linked. A histone locus body (HLB) forms at each histone gene locus. It contains
      factors essential for transcription and processing of histone mRNAs, and couples
      transcription and processing. The active form of U7 snRNP contains the HLB
      component FLASH (FLICE-associated huge protein), the histone cleavage complex
      (HCC), and a subset of polyadenylation factors including the endonuclease CPSF73.
      Histone mRNAs are rapidly degraded when DNA replication is inhibited by a 3' to
      5' pathway that requires extensive uridylation of mRNA decay intermediates.

PMID- 28867049
TI  - Nonsurgical Treatment of Ankle Arthritis.
AB  - Nonsurgical treatment of ankle arthritis can be a short-term fix or a long-term
      solution. An understanding of the biomechanics of the ankle is helpful in the
      successful use of orthotics and bracing. Pharmacologic and/or biologic treatments
      can be used exclusively or in concert with mechanical interventions to decrease
      pain, improve function, and potentially extend the life span of an arthritic
      ankle.

PMID- 28867050
TI  - Ankle Arthrodiastasis with Circular External Fixation for the Treatment of
      Posttraumatic Ankle Arthritis.
AB  - Ankle arthrodiastasis provides an alternative surgical treatment of the mild to
      moderate posttraumatic ankle arthritis. Ankle arthrodesis or ankle implant
      arthroplasty is usually reserved for the end-stage ankle arthritis and after
      conservative treatment options have been implicated for a long period of time.
      Ankle joint destructive procedures are often considered for the older and less
      active population with strict selected surgical criteria and prolonged
      rehabilitation. In either ankle joint-sparing or ankle destructive procedures,
      lower extremity deformity correction will need to be addressed before or at the
      time of index surgery for the overall patient's successful outcome.

PMID- 28867051
TI  - Arthroscopic Treatment of Ankle Arthritis.
AB  - Ankle arthritis can be broadly classified as primary arthritis (nontraumatic
      degeneration) or secondary arthritis (post-traumatic degeneration). A good
      understanding of the anatomic features and presentations associated with each
      will assist the surgeon in determining the best course of action for each
      patient. Many variations of both primary and secondary arthritis can be treated
      conservatively; however, there are many times when conservative therapy is not
      adequate. In these cases, ankle arthroscopy may be considered before a joint
      fusion or replacement. Here, the authors discuss the common types of ankle
      arthritis, their presentations, and treatment success with ankle arthroscopy.

PMID- 28867052
TI  - Supramalleolar Osteotomies.
AB  - Distal tibial malalignment can result from posttraumatic malunion, physeal
      disturbances, congenital or metabolic diseases, and degenerative arthritis.
      Malalignment leads to an altered load distribution across the joint leading to
      early ankle joint arthritis. If a substantial part of the joint is salvageable,
      ankle fusion or joint replacement is not always the best option. Realignment of
      the distal tibia with a joint-sparing supramalleolar osteotomy is a valuable
      procedure in correcting deformity at the distal tibia. The goal of a
      supramalleolar osteotomy is to restore axial alignment. Several studies have
      demonstrated the successes of the osteotomy in improving function and relieving
      pain.

PMID- 28867053
TI  - Osteochondral Autograft and Allograft Transplantation in the Talus.
AB  - Large, symptomatic, focal chondral, and osteochondral lesions of the ankle are
      treated with osteochondral autograft/allograft transplantation (OAT) procedure, a
      reconstructive bone grafting technique that uses one or more cylindrical
      osteochondral grafts from an area of low impact or allograft source and
      transplants them into the prepared defect site on the talus. This technique
      allows defects to be filled with mature, hyaline articular cartilage. Acute or
      chronic chondral or osteochondral lesions can be debilitating; provided here is a
      review of osteochondral autograft or allograft transplantation. OAT shows a trend
      toward greater longevity and durability and improved outcomes in high-demand
      patients.

PMID- 28867054
TI  - Advances in Ankle Cartilage Repair.
AB  - Repair of osteochondral lesions of the talus can be difficult. Smaller lesions
      respond well to simple arthroscopy and microfracture, whereas larger cystic
      lesions may require allograft talus replacement or ankle fusions. The lesions in
      between are more difficult to treat. Autologous chondrocyte implantation and
      matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte implantation have shown promising
      results. Future research may include new techniques, pharmacologic intervention,
      and cell-based therapies, and may be better served with prospective observational
      studies instead of costly randomized controlled studies. A representative example
      of arthroscopic implantation is given.

PMID- 28867056
TI  - Arthroscopic Ankle Arthrodesis: An Update.
AB  - Arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis provides an alternative to open techniques.
      Advancements in arthroscopic techniques and instrumentation have made the
      procedure easier to perform. Arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis has demonstrated
      faster rates of union, fewer complications, reduced postoperative pain, and
      shorter hospital stays. Sound surgical techniques, particularly with regard to
      joint preparation, are critical for success. Comorbidities such as increased body
      mass index, history of smoking, malalignment, and posttraumatic arthritis should
      be considered when contemplating arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis. Although total
      ankle replacement continues to grow in popularity, arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis
      remains a viable alternative for management of the end-stage arthritic ankle.

PMID- 28867048
TI  - Signaling and Gene Regulatory Networks in Mammalian Lens Development.
AB  - Ocular lens development represents an advantageous system in which to study
      regulatory mechanisms governing cell fate decisions, extracellular signaling,
      cell and tissue organization, and the underlying gene regulatory networks.
      Spatiotemporally regulated domains of BMP, FGF, and other signaling molecules in
      late gastrula-early neurula stage embryos generate the border region between the
      neural plate and non-neural ectoderm from which multiple cell types, including
      lens progenitor cells, emerge and undergo initial tissue formation. Extracellular
      signaling and DNA-binding transcription factors govern lens and optic cup
      morphogenesis. Pax6, c-Maf, Hsf4, Prox1, Sox1, and a few additional factors
      regulate the expression of the lens structural proteins, the crystallins.
      Extensive crosstalk between a diverse array of signaling pathways controls the
      complexity and order of lens morphogenetic processes and lens transparency.

PMID- 28867055
TI  - Open Ankle Arthrodesis.
AB  - First described in 1879, ankle arthrodesis is a procedure that has undergone
      significant advancements not only in technique but also in technology and
      fixation. Surgeon preference has often dictated those changes with regard to
      incisional approaches, fixation methods, and use of bone graft and biologics but
      one constant has always remained: open ankle arthrodesis is a predictable, time
      tested procedure with consistent results when performed in appropriate patients.
      This article highlights the changes that have occurred since the introduction of
      this procedure and provides a brief overview of the preferred technique.

PMID- 28867057
TI  - Current Concepts Regarding Total Ankle Replacement as a Viable Treatment Option
      for Advanced Ankle Arthritis: What You Need to Know.
AB  - Much of the current literature suggests that total ankle replacement (TAR) is no
      longer an inferior or fringe treatment for advanced ankle arthritis compared with
      ankle fusion, but rather a viable option for recalcitrant arthritic ankle
      pathology in the correct patient population. In this article, current concepts
      associated with successful outcomes for TAR are discussed with an emphasis on
      ankle joint anatomy and biomechanics, preoperative planning and patient
      selection, understanding pathomechanics and soft tissue balancing, as well as the
      surgeon's learning curve.

PMID- 28867058
TI  - Complex Total Ankle Arthroplasty.
AB  - Total ankle arthroplasty is a viable surgical technique for the treatment of end
      stage degenerative joint disease. With continued advancement in prosthetic
      design, refined surgical techniques, and improved outcomes, the indications for
      total ankle replacement have expanded to include cases of increasing complexity.
      With meticulous preoperative planning and exacting execution, many frontal plane
      deformities and cases of avascular necrosis can now be successfully addressed at
      the time of prosthesis implantation or in a staged procedure.

PMID- 28867059
TI  - Revision Total Ankle Arthroplasty.
AB  - With total ankle arthroplasty, documented complications can be categorized
      chronologically into intraoperative, postoperative, and late complications.
      Factors such as patient selection, surgeon experience, implant features, and
      prosthetic device selection can influence functional outcomes as well as
      incidence of complications. Even with impeccable surgical technique and optimal
      patient selection, complications that require revision may still arise and the
      most common complications with revision solutions are discussed in this article.

PMID- 28867060
TI  - Surgical Complications of Ankle Joint Arthrodesis and Ankle Arthroplasty
      Procedures.
AB  - Total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) and ankle arthrodesis (AA) are complicated
      surgeries that carry a learning curve with them. Complications are an aspect of
      all surgeries that must be considered. Surgeons must be prepared to handle these
      complications. The most important things are early identification and treatment
      of these complications. Treating complications is a combination of medicines,
      conservative measures, and most importantly surgical intervention. Recent studies
      have shown a decrease in complications of TAA and AA over the past 10 years.
      Carefully identifying the complications early and treating patients right away
      are imperative to increasing the outcomes for these patients.

PMID- 28867061
TI  - The Evolution of Arthritis Treatment in the Foot and Ankle: A Change in the Gold
      Standard?

PMID- 28867062
TI  - Home-based delivery of XR-NTX in youth with opioid addiction.
AB  - Early experience with relapse prevention medications in the treatment of opioid
      addiction in youth has been positive, but barriers to effectiveness and broader
      adoption have included problems with adherence and retention, and lack of
      evidence or consensus about implementation. In particular there is relatively
      little known about either the effectiveness of extended release naltrexone (XR
      NTX) in youth, or optimal models of care for its delivery. The purpose of this
      study is to report on a pilot initiative to improve the effectiveness of XR-NTX
      by delivering doses at home with assertive outreach to patients enrolled in a
      community treatment outpatient program. This is a naturalistic case series based
      on retrospective chart abstractions of 14 young adults (mean age=20.5), who
      enrolled in the pilot program, and in particular, the 9 who received home-based
      doses of XR-NTX. They are compared to a historical group of patients (n=21) prior
      to the pilot, who were referred to receive standard clinic-based doses of XR-NTX.
      Home-based administration was viewed favorably by patients and families. Although
      the small sample size is not amenable to statistical analysis, patients in the
      home based group, compared to the historical clinic-based group, received a
      greater number of doses overall and over 16 weeks of treatment, had longer
      retention, and attended similar numbers of clinic-based counseling sessions.
      These preliminary findings suggest that home-based delivery of XR-NTX and
      assertive outreach are feasible and promising in this critical target population,
      may compare favorably to clinic-based treatment as usual, and should be explored
      further in more rigorous evaluations.

PMID- 28867063
TI  - Preface to the proceedings of the Workshop on Eosinophils in Allergy and Related
      Diseases 2016.

PMID- 28867064
TI  - Increased DNA Methylation of ABCB1, CYP2D6, and OPRM1 Genes in Newborn Infants of
      Methadone-Maintained Opioid-Dependent Mothers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether in utero opioid exposure, which has been linked
      to adverse neurodevelopmental and social outcomes, is associated with altered DNA
      methylation of opioid-related genes at birth. STUDY DESIGN: Observational cohort
      study of 21 healthy methadone-maintained opioid-dependent mother-infant dyads
      consecutively delivered at >36 weeks of gestation, and 2 comparator groups:
      smoking, "deprived" opioid-naive mother-infant dyads (n = 17) and nonsmoking,
      "affluent" opioid-naive mother-infant dyads (n = 15). DNA methylation of ABCB1,
      CYP2D6, and OPRM1 genes for mothers and babies was determined from buccal swabs.
      Plasma methadone concentrations were additionally measured for methadone
      maintained opioid-dependent mothers. RESULTS: DNA methylation for ABCB1 and
      CYP2D6 was similar in opioid-naive infants compared with their mothers, but was
      less for OPRM1 (3 +/- 1.6% vs 8 +/- 1%, P < .0005). Opioid-exposed newborns had
      similar DNA methylation to their mothers for all genes studied and greater
      methylation of ABCB1 (18 +/- 4.8% vs 3 +/- 0.5%), CYP2D6 (92 +/- 1.2% vs 89 +/-
      2.4%), and OPRM1 (8 +/- 0.3% vs 3 +/- 1.6%) compared with opioid-naive newborns
      (P < .0005 for all 3 genes). Infant DNA methylation was not related to birth
      weight, length of hospital stay, maternal smoking, dose or plasma concentration
      of methadone at delivery, or postcode of residence. CONCLUSIONS: In utero
      exposure to opioids is associated with increased methylation of opioid-related
      genes in the newborn infant. It is not clear whether these findings are due to
      opioid exposure per se or other associated lifestyle factors.

PMID- 28867066
TI  - Pathogen imaging applications.

PMID- 28867065
TI  - Prenatal Risk Factors for PHACE Syndrome: A Study Using the PHACE Syndrome
      International Clinical Registry and Genetic Repository.
AB  - The cause of PHACE syndrome is unknown. In a study of 218 patients, we examined
      potential prenatal risk factors for PHACE syndrome. Rates of pre-eclampsia and
      placenta previa in affected individuals were significantly greater than in the
      general population. No significant risk factor differences were detected between
      male and female subjects.

PMID- 28867067
TI  - Corrigendum to: "Prunetin signals via G protein coupled receptor, GPR30:
      stimulation of adenylyl cyclase and cAMP-mediated activation of MAPK signaling
      induces Runx2 expression in osteoblasts to promote bone regeneration" [J Nutr
      Biochem 2015; 26 (12): 1491-501].

PMID- 28867069
TI  - Reply by Authors.

PMID- 28867068
TI  - Retraction notice to "Polysaccharide from Angelica sinensis ameliorates high-fat
      diet and STZ-induced hepatic oxidative stress and inflammation in diabetic mice
      by activating Sirt1-AMPK pathway" [JNB 43 (2017) 88-97].

PMID- 28867070
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28867071
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28867072
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28867074
TI  - Association of covered metallic stents with cholecystitis and stent migration in
      malignant biliary stricture.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: ERCP with self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) placement
      provides reliable and durable relief of malignant biliary obstruction. Our
      objective was to compare efficacy and adverse outcomes between uncovered SEMSs
      (USEMSs) and covered SEMSs (CSEMSs). METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was
      performed of all consecutive patients who underwent ERCP with SEMS placement for
      the management of a malignant bile duct stricture. Comparative analyses on
      clinical success, patency duration, stent dysfunction, and adverse outcomes were
      performed. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify
      factors associated with stent dysfunction. RESULTS: Six hundred forty-five
      patients underwent SEMS placement for the management of malignant bile duct
      stricture from 2008 to 2016. CSEMSs and USEMSs had similar rates of clinical
      success in relief of bile duct obstruction (93.0% vs 92.1%, respectively; P =
      .69) and patency duration (546.7 vs 557.9 days, P = .14). Among those with an
      intact gallbladder, the incidence of acute cholecystitis was higher in the CSEMS
      group compared with the USEMS group (7.8% vs 1.2%; P < .001). In the
      multivariable analysis, CSEMS use was associated with increased risk of stent
      migration (hazard ratio, 10.7; 95% confidence interval, 4.1-27.7). CONCLUSIONS:
      CSEMSs and USEMSs have similar clinical success rates and patency durations in
      management of malignant bile duct stricture. CSEMSs, however, are associated with
      increased rates of migration and cholecystitis. Comparable efficacy and superior
      safety profile of USEMSs render a compelling argument for its place as the
      preferred choice of SEMSs in the management of malignant biliary stricture.

PMID- 28867073
TI  - Metal stents versus plastic stents for the management of pancreatic walled-off
      necrosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Endoscopic transluminal drainage of symptomatic walled-off
      necrosis (WON) is a good management option, although the optimal choice of
      drainage site stent is unclear. We performed a systematic review and meta
      analysis to compare metal stents (MSs) and plastic stents (PSs) in terms of WON
      resolution, likelihood of resolution after 1 procedure, and adverse events.
      METHODS: An expert librarian queried several databases to identify studies that
      assessed WON management, and selection was according to a priori criteria.
      Publication bias, heterogeneity, and study quality were evaluated with the
      appropriate tools. We performed single and 2-arm meta-analyses for noncomparative
      and comparative studies using event rate random-effects model and odds ratio
      (OR)/difference in means, respectively. RESULTS: We included 41 studies involving
      2213 patients. In 2-arm study meta-analysis, WON resolution was more likely with
      MSs compared with PSs (OR, 2.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.7-4.6; P < .001).
      Resolution with a single endoscopic procedure was similar between stents (47% vs
      44%), although for those cases requiring more than 1 intervention, the MS group
      had fewer interventions, favored by a mean difference of -.9 procedures (95% CI, 
      1.283 to -.561). In single-arm study meta-analysis, when compared with PSs, MS
      use was associated with lower bleeding (5.6% vs 12.6%; P = .02), a trend toward
      lower perforation and stent occlusion (2.8% vs 4.3%, P = .2, and 9.5% vs 17.4%, P
      = .07), although with higher migration (8.1% vs 5.1%; P = .1). CONCLUSION:
      Evidence suggests that MSs are superior for WON resolution, with fewer bleeding
      events, trend toward less occlusion and perforation rate, but increased migration
      rate compared with PSs.

PMID- 28867075
TI  - Isolation of new ligands for orphan receptor MRGPRX1-hemorphins LVV-H7 and VV-H7.
AB  - The human MAS-related G protein-coupled receptor X1 (MRGPRX1) is a member of the
      GPCR family. The receptor is primate specific and expressed in the sensory
      neurons of dorsal root ganglion and trigeminal ganglion, where it is considered
      to be involved in the pain perception. The MRGPRX1 has unusual binding mechanism,
      as it is activated by several different ligands as well as several different
      fragments of precursor proteins. Thus, we hypothesize that it is activated by
      several unknown compounds as well since the receptor is still classified as
      orphan. Here, we describe the isolation of two novel endogenous ligands for the
      MRGPRX1 from human platelet preparation. The isolated ligands are hemoglobin beta
      chain fragments, known members of the hemorphin family.

PMID- 28867076
TI  - Paleoclimate determines diversification patterns in the fossorial snake family
      Uropeltidae Cuvier, 1829.
AB  - Understanding how and why diversification rates vary across evolutionary time is
      central to understanding how biodiversity is generated and maintained. Recent
      mathematical models that allow estimation of diversification rates across time
      from reconstructed phylogenies have enabled us to make inferences on how
      biodiversity copes with environmental change. Here, we explore patterns of
      temporal diversification in Uropeltidae, a diverse fossorial snake family. We
      generate a time-calibrated phylogenetic hypothesis for Uropeltidae and show a
      significant correlation between diversification rate and paleotemperature during
      the Cenozoic. We show that the temporal diversification pattern of this group is
      punctuated by one rate shift event with a decrease in diversification and
      turnover rate between ca. 11Ma to present, but there is no strong support for
      mass extinction events. The analysis indicates higher turnover during periods of
      drastic climatic fluctuations and reduced diversification rates associated with
      contraction and fragmentation of forest habitats during the late Miocene. Our
      study highlights the influence of environmental fluctuations on diversification
      rates in fossorial taxa such as uropeltids, and raises conservation concerns
      related to present rate of climate change.

PMID- 28867078
TI  - The 11th International Food Data Conference (IFDC).

PMID- 28867077
TI  - Characteristics of patients with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus dual
      infection in a Western European country: Comparison with monoinfected patients.
AB  - : The epidemiology of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV)
      infections is continuously evolving. Updated data on dual HBV and HCV infection
      are still needed. AIMS: To assess the main characteristics of patients with HBV
      and HCV dual infection, to compare these with those of patients infected with
      either HBV or HCV and, among patients with dual infection, to assess fibrosis
      according to HCV replication. METHODS: Data of 23 patients with dual infection
      were compared to data from 92 age and sex-matched HBV or HCV monoinfected
      patients. RESULTS: Patients with dual infection were more often immigrants from
      Africa or Asia than HCV or HBV patients (52% vs. 20% and 22%, respectively,
      P=0.01). Intravenous drug use was the route of transmission in 22% of patients
      with dual infection, which was less frequent than in HCV patients (41%) but more
      frequent than in HBV patients (0%). Extensive fibrosis or cirrhosis was as
      frequent among dual-infected patients as among those with HCV or chronic
      hepatitis B infection (19% vs. 29% vs. 14%, respectively, P=0.4), even when
      fibrosis stage was reported considering the duration of infection. In dual
      infected patients, the prevalence of extensive fibrosis or cirrhosis was similar
      in patients with and without detectable HCV RNA (18% vs. 20%). CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with HBV and HCV dual infection were more often immigrants from Africa
      or Asia and had similar fibrosis stages than HCV or HBV monoinfected patients. In
      patients with dual infection, extensive fibrosis or cirrhosis was not associated
      with HCV replication.

PMID- 28867079
TI  - The New Zealand Food Composition Database: A useful tool for assessing New
      Zealanders' nutrient intake.
AB  - A country-specific food composition databases is useful for assessing nutrient
      intake reliably in national nutrition surveys, research studies and clinical
      practice. The New Zealand Food Composition Database (NZFCDB) programme seeks to
      maintain relevant and up-to-date food records that reflect the composition of
      foods commonly consumed in New Zealand following Food Agricultural Organisation
      of the United Nations/International Network of Food Data Systems (FAO/INFOODS)
      guidelines. Food composition data (FCD) of up to 87 core components for
      approximately 600 foods have been added to NZFCDB since 2010. These foods include
      those identified as providing key nutrients in a 2008/09 New Zealand Adult
      Nutrition Survey. Nutrient data obtained by analysis of composite samples or are
      calculated from analytical data. Currently >2500 foods in 22 food groups are
      freely available in various NZFCDB output products on the website:
      www.foodcomposition.co.nz. NZFCDB is the main source of FCD for estimating
      nutrient intake in New Zealand nutrition surveys.

PMID- 28867080
TI  - Dietary nutritional profile and phenolic compounds consumption in school children
      of highlands of Argentine Northwest.
AB  - The objective of this work was to assess dietary patterns and consumption of
      phenolic compounds from fruits and vegetables byschoolchildren of high altitude
      regions from northwest of Argentina. A nutritional survey including food
      frequency consumption, 24-h dietary recall and anthropometric measurements was
      applied to 241 children from 6 to 12years old. The amounts of the different
      classes of phenolic compounds were established from Food Composition Tables
      available in phenol-explorer website. Statistics analyses were performed using
      IBM SPSS 20.0. Nutritional status assessment showed underweight (2.2%), low
      weight (12.7%), overweight (12.7%) and obesity (7.4%). Mean intake of phenolic
      compounds was 412mg/day. Most consumed foods were infusions and sugar products,
      consumption of vegetables, fruits and dairy products were low compared to
      recommendations for this age. Considering that polyphenols have protective health
      effects, its low consumption could be a risk of development of chronic non
      communicable diseases.

PMID- 28867081
TI  - Is sodium and potassium content of commonly consumed processed packaged foods a
      cause of concern?
AB  - Processed foods are the major contributors towards sodium intake thereby pre
      disposing individuals towards risk of Diet Related Non-communicable Diseases (DR
      NCDs). There is paucity of data on sodium and potassium content of processed
      packaged foods in India. The sodium and potassium content of the most commonly
      consumed processed packaged foods (n=154) was analyzed by AOAC 969.23 method
      using Flame Photometer. Highest analyzed mean sodium content was found in soups
      (4823+/-1674mg/100g, range=3220 to 8000mg/100g) while the potassium content was
      highest in chips with a mean of 778+/-260mg/100g and ranged between 360 and
      1220mg/100g. A higher potassium to sodium ratio is desirable for good health,
      however only 20% of the analyzed products were found to have the same. Therefore,
      there is a need to monitor the sodium and potassium content of the processed
      packaged foods and to reformulate the products to bring about favorable potassium
      to sodium ratio.

PMID- 28867082
TI  - A methodology to compile food metrics related to diet sustainability into a
      single food database: Application to the French case.
AB  - The holistic approach required to assess diet sustainability is hindered by lack
      of comprehensive databases compiling relevant food metrics. Those metrics are
      generally scattered in different data sources with various levels of aggregation
      hampering their matching. The objective was to develop a general methodology to
      compile food metrics describing diet sustainability dimensions into a single
      database and to apply it to the French context. Each step of the methodology is
      detailed: indicators and food metrics identification and selection, food list
      definition, food matching and values assignment. For the French case, nutrient
      and contaminant content, bioavailability factors, distribution of dietary
      intakes, portion sizes, food prices, greenhouse gas emission, acidification and
      marine eutrophication estimates were allocated to 212 commonly consumed generic
      foods. This generic database compiling 279 metrics will allow the simultaneous
      evaluation of the four dimensions of diet sustainability, namely health,
      economic, social and environmental, dimensions.

PMID- 28867083
TI  - USDA's National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP) produces high-quality
      data for USDA food composition databases: Two decades of collaboration.
AB  - For nearly 20years, the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP) has
      expanded and improved the quantity and quality of data in US Department of
      Agriculture's (USDA) food composition databases (FCDB) through the collection and
      analysis of nationally representative food samples. NFNAP employs statistically
      valid sampling plans, the Key Foods approach to identify and prioritize foods and
      nutrients, comprehensive quality control protocols, and analytical oversight to
      generate new and updated analytical data for food components. NFNAP has allowed
      the Nutrient Data Laboratory to keep up with the dynamic US food supply and
      emerging scientific research. Recently generated results for nationally
      representative food samples show marked changes compared to previous database
      values for selected nutrients. Monitoring changes in the composition of foods is
      critical in keeping FCDB up-to-date, so that they remain a vital tool in
      assessing the nutrient intake of national populations, as well as for providing
      dietary advice.

PMID- 28867084
TI  - The contribution of processed pork meat products to total salt intake in the
      diet.
AB  - Consumption of processed meats is reported to be the second largest contributor
      to total dietary sodium intake. This study aims to describe the contribution of
      commonly consumed processed pork products to total salt intake. A large variation
      was found in the sodium content between similar products. Sodium content
      (mg/100g) for bacon ranged from 558 to 1570, russians from 762 to 1403, viennas
      from 480 to 1340 and ham from 696 to 1360 respectively. When converting sodium
      content from 100g to serving size, different products contributed the most sodium
      to the diet. A serving size of brawn (125g uncooked) will contribute on average
      983mg sodium to total sodium intake. Pork bangers will contribute the lowest
      amount of sodium (~400mg) to the diet (~4% of RDI). Reported daily intake are
      smaller than indicated serving sizes and the contribution of processed meat to
      sodium intake can be predicted to be lesser than expected.

PMID- 28867085
TI  - A systematic review of food composition tools used for determining dietary
      polyphenol intake in estimated intake studies.
AB  - Translating food intake data into phytochemical outcomes is a crucial step in
      investigating potential health benefits. The aim of this review was to examine
      the tools for determining dietary-derived polyphenol intakes for estimated intake
      studies. Published studies from 2004 to 2014 reporting polyphenol food
      composition information were sourced with 157 studies included. Six polyphenol
      subclasses were identified. One quarter of studies (n=39) reported total
      flavonoids intake with 27% reporting individual flavonoid compounds. Assessing
      multiple compounds was common with approximately 10% of studies assessing seven
      (n=13), six (n=12) and five (n=14) subclasses of polyphenol. There was no pattern
      between reported flavonoids compounds and subclass studied. Approximately 60% of
      studies relied on publicly accessible food composition data to estimate dietary
      polyphenols intake with 33% using two or more tools. This review highlights the
      importance of publicly accessible composition databases for estimating polyphenol
      intake and provides a reference for tools available globally.

PMID- 28867086
TI  - Biochemical and nutritional characterization of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.)
      haustorium.
AB  - Study was conducted to determine the biochemical constituents in coconut (Cocos
      nucifera L.) haustorium, a spongy tissue formed during coconut germination.
      Results indicated that 100g of dried coconut haustorium contained 1.05+/-0.2%
      ash, 44.2+/-4.6% soluble sugar, 24.5+/-3.2% starch, 5.50+/-0.3% protein, 1.99+/
      0.9% fat, 5.72+/-0.4% soluble dietary fibre, 20.3+/-1.9% insoluble dietary fibre,
      and 146+/-14.3mg phenolics. Mineral profiling showed that it contained 145+/-8.6,
      104+/-9.6, 33.9+/-8.2, 30.9+/-1.9, 9.45+/-2.1, 0.292+/-0.1, 2.53+/-0.2 and 1.20+/
      0.1mg of K, Mg, Ca, P, Mn, Cu, Fe and Zn, respectively. Antioxidant activity
      assay indicated that 100g haustorium was equivalent to 1918+/-173, 170+/-20.4,
      72.8+/-14.7 and 860+/-116mg of Trolox as measured by CUPRAC, FRAP, DPPH and ABTS,
      respectively. Amino acid score indicated that methionine+cysteine (57.6%),
      phenylalanine+tyrosine (32.6%), leucine (45.7%) and isoleucine (68%) are found
      less in haustorium. Further studies needed in developing nutritionally balanced
      formulations using coconut haustorium, which will be useful for lactose
      intolerant children.

PMID- 28867087
TI  - Advances in food composition tables in Japan-Standard Tables Of Food Composition
      in Japan - 2015 - (Seventh Revised Edition).
AB  - The latest version of the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan-2015-
      comprises the main food composition table (Standard Tables of Food Composition in
      Japan-2015-[Seventh revised Edition)) and three supplementary books. The
      supplementary books are Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan - 2015 -
      (Seventh Revised Edition) - Amino Acids -, Standard Tables of Food Composition in
      Japan - 2015 - (Seventh Revised Edition) - Fatty Acids - and Standard Tables of
      Food Composition in Japan - 2015 - (Seventh Revised Edition) - Available
      Carbohydrates, Polyols and Organic Acids-. We believe understanding these food
      composition tables can give greater insight into Japan's gastronomic culture and
      changes in eating habits. We expect them to play important roles as part of the
      East Asia food composition tables.

PMID- 28867088
TI  - Effects of processing methods on nutrient and antinutrient composition of yellow
      yam (Dioscorea cayenensis) products.
AB  - There is dearth of documented information on nutrient retention of Dioscorea
      cayenensis products. This study was carried out to evaluate effects of processing
      methods on nutrient and antinutrient retention of yellow yam products. Fresh
      Dioscorea cayenensis tubers were purchased from Bodija market in Ibadan, peeled,
      cut into small pieces, divided into nine portions. One portion was treated as raw
      sample, and others processed into local delicacies. All nine samples were
      analysed for proximate, mineral, vitamin and antinutrient composition using AOAC
      methods. Data were analysed using ANOVA at p=0.05. Raw yam contained 66.79g
      moisture, 2.62g crude protein, 0.27g lipid, 0.17g fibre, 0.63g ash, 29.69g
      carbohydrates, 262.30mg potassium, 61.53mg magnesium, 0.79mg iron, 0.39mg zinc,
      and yielded 108.26kcal energy with insignificant vitamin content/100g edible
      portion. Processing significantly improved macronutrients and energy content with
      significant reduction in all antinutrients of products (p<0.05). The yam products
      can serve as staple source of energy to consumers.

PMID- 28867089
TI  - FoodCASE: A system to manage food composition, consumption and TDS data.
AB  - Food and nutrition scientists, nowadays, need to manage an increasing amount of
      data regarding food composition, food consumption and Total Diet Studies (TDS).
      The corresponding datasets can contain information about several thousand
      different foods, in different versions from different studies. FoodCASE is a
      system that has been developed to manage these different datasets. It also
      support flexible means of linking between datasets and generally provide support
      for the different processes involved in the acquisition, management and
      processing of data. In this paper, the most important concepts to implement
      existing guidelines and standards for proper food data management are presented,
      as well as different use cases of data import and proofs of concepts
      demonstrating the ability to manage data in FoodCASE.

PMID- 28867090
TI  - Nutrients and natural toxic substances in commonly consumed Jerusalem artichoke
      (Helianthus tuberosus L.) tuber.
AB  - This study determined nutrients, chemical contaminants, (insecticide residues and
      heavy metals), and natural toxic substances (nitrate, nitrite, cyanide, oxalate,
      phytate, and trypsin inhibitor) in tubers of Jerusalem artichokes-Kaentawan in
      the Thai language-grown in four major provinces in Thailand. They were purchased,
      prepared, homogenized, and freeze-dried for further analysis using standard
      methods. All Kaentawan samples contained considerable amounts of fructans and
      dietary fiber (15.4+/-0.2gand3.2+/-0.8g/100gfresh weight [FW], respectively), as
      well as potassium and iron (339+/-61and0.32+/-0.05mg/100gFW, respectively). All
      samples had very low amounts of insecticide residues (37 compounds), cyanide, and
      trypsin inhibitor, as well as Pb, Cd, nitrate, and nitrite (0.82+/-0.09, 0.10+/
      0.02, 1.9-17.5, and 0.01-0.24mgkg-1FW, respectively), in addition to oxalate and
      phytate (14+/-9and0.17+/-0.02mg/100gFW, respectively). This study's data can be
      used for food composition databases and for safety consumption.

PMID- 28867091
TI  - Food synergies for improving bioavailability of micronutrients from plant foods.
AB  - Plant foods are endowed with micronutrients but an understanding of
      bioavailability is essential in countries primarily dependent on plant based
      foods. Bioavailability depends majorly on food synergies. This review examines
      the nature of certain food synergies and methods to screen and establish it as a
      strategy to control micronutrient deficiency in the populations. Strong evidence
      on the synergistic effect of inclusion of vitamin C rich fruits and non
      vegetarian foods in enhancing the bioavailability of iron has been demonstrated.
      Fat is found to be synergistic for vitamin A absorption. Red wine and protein
      have been explored for zinc absorption and effect of fat has been studied for
      vitamin D. Methods for screening of bioavailability, and biomarkers to
      demonstrate the synergistic effects of foods are required. Translation of food
      synergy as a strategy requires adaptation to the context and popularization of
      intelligent food synergies.

PMID- 28867092
TI  - Development, features and application of DIET ASSESS & PLAN (DAP) software in
      supporting public health nutrition research in Central Eastern European Countries
      (CEEC).
AB  - In order to meet growing public health nutrition challenges in Central Eastern
      European Countries (CEEC) and Balkan countries, development of a Research
      Infrastructure (RI) and availability of an effective nutrition surveillance
      system are a prerequisite. The building block of this RI is an innovative tool
      called DIET ASSESS & PLAN (DAP), which is a platform for standardized and
      harmonized food consumption collection, comprehensive dietary intake assessment
      and nutrition planning. Its unique structure enables application of national food
      composition databases (FCDBs) from the European food composition exchange
      platform (28 national FCDBs) developed by EuroFIR (http://www.eurofir.org/) and
      in addition allows communication with other tools. DAP is used for daily menu
      and/or long-term diet planning in diverse public sector settings, foods
      design/reformulation, food labelling, nutrient intake assessment and calculation
      of the dietary diversity indicator, Minimum Dietary Diversity-Women (MDD-W). As a
      validated tool in different national and international projects, DAP represents
      an important RI in public health nutrition epidemiology in the CEEC region.

PMID- 28867093
TI  - The nutritional composition of Zespri(r) SunGold Kiwifruit and Zespri(r) Sweet
      Green Kiwifruit.
AB  - The composition of kiwifruit is important for understanding the nutritional value
      of kiwifruit for consumption. Our aim was to develop a reference nutritional
      composition profile for a gold-fleshed kiwifruit Zespri(r) SunGold Kiwifruit and
      a green-fleshed kiwifruit Zespri(r) Sweet Green Kiwifruit. Ten representative
      single-replicate (10 growers) samples, each containing 40 fruit, were prepared
      for both kiwifruit varieties. Samples were analysed for macronutrients, minerals,
      and vitamins. The analytical results reveal that the nutrient composition of
      SunGold and Sweet Green are largely similar to other commercially available
      kiwifruits. However, a key difference is the elevated levels of vitamin C in
      SunGold (161mg/100g edible flesh) and Sweet Green, (150mg/100g), compared to
      85mg/100g commonly found for the green 'Hayward' variety. Levels of dietary
      fibre, potassium, vitamin E, and folate are similar to other commercial kiwifruit
      Zespri(r) Gold Kiwifruit ('Hort16A') and Green Kiwifruit ('Hayward'), confirming
      kiwifruit as a good source of these nutrients.

PMID- 28867094
TI  - Antioxidant properties of selected fruit cultivars grown in Sri Lanka.
AB  - Extracts of twenty locally available Sri Lankan fruits were analysed for 2,2
      diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, ferrous reducing
      antioxidant power (FRAP), total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content
      (TFC) and vitamin C content. The results showed that gooseberry (Phyllanthus
      emblica 'local') exhibited the highest DPPH scavenging activity (111.25mg
      ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity (AEAC)/g), FRAP (1022.05MUmol
      FeSO4/g), TPC (915.7mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100g), TFC (873.2mg catechin
      equivalents (CE)/100g) and vitamin C (136.8mg ascorbic acid equivalents
      (AAE)/100g), respectively. Sugar apple (Annona squamosa 'local') and star fruit
      (Averrhoa carambola 'Honey Sweet') obtained the second and third highest
      antioxidant activities in terms of rankings of FRAP, DPPH activities, TPC, TFC
      and vitamin C content. Strong correlation between vitamin C, TPC and TFC with
      FRAP and DPPH showed their contribution to antioxidant capacity. Among the
      selected fruits, underutilized fruit cultivar gooseberry showed the highest
      overall antioxidant potential.

PMID- 28867095
TI  - Detection of aflatoxin M1 in milk using spectroscopy and multivariate analyses.
AB  - Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), a potentially carcinogenic compound, is found in milk
      obtained from animals that consume contaminated feed. Spectra of bovine milk,
      spiked with AFM1 (0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.1MUg/l) were acquired using
      attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrometer.
      Spectra revealed significant differences among pure and AFM1 spiked samples in
      spectral regions 1800-650cm-1 and 3689-3499cm-1, which may be attributed to
      complex chemical structure of AFM1. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed
      clear clustering of samples (p?0.05). The models could successfully classify
      (>86%) and detect even 0.02MUg/l AFM1 in milk (p?0.05) using SIMCA. AFM1 was best
      predicted in wavenumber range of 1800-650cm-1 with coefficient of determination
      (R2) of 0.99 and 0.98, for calibration and validation, respectively, using
      partial least square (PLS) regression. The study indicated feasibility of ATR
      FTIR spectroscopy and chemometrics in rapid detection and quantification of AFM1
      in milk.

PMID- 28867096
TI  - The role of traditional foods in food-based dietary guidelines - A South African
      case study on maas (cultured milk).
AB  - With the revision of the South African food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) a
      new guideline specifically recommending the daily consumption of dairy products
      including maas (cultured milk) was introduced. This paper aims to evaluate the
      relevance of including maas as a traditional food product in the FBDGs. It was
      found that maas is a culturally relevant and traditional food product in South
      Africa. The nutrient profile of maas has changed notably over time since the
      first nutrient analysis was performed in 1995. The health benefits of maas,
      together with its popularity and its cultural relevance as part of the South
      African diet, make maas a suitable traditional food product to be included in the
      South African FBDGs.

PMID- 28867097
TI  - Nutritional composition in relation to glycemic potential of popular Indian rice
      varieties.
AB  - Diabetes, a chronic hyperglycemic disorder, is a public health concern in India.
      High glycemic carbohydrate foods are linked to higher risk of diabetes. The
      chemical composition and in vivo glycemic potential of popular Indian rice
      varieties namely Jaya, Lalat, NDR-97, PR-113, Salivahana, Sasyasree, Savithri,
      Tellahamsa, Triguna, Varalu and one hybrid DRRH-3, having wide agronomical and
      grain morphological features were studied. Nutrient composition varied
      prominently among different varieties. Resistant starch (RS) content (2.03-2.91%)
      correlated negatively with the glycemic index (GI) (r=-0.674; p<=0.05) and
      contributed for 45.5% of GI variability. Lalat, an aromatic traditional rice
      variety, with 2.91% RS and 27.9% amylose was the only one eliciting low GI of 50
      and glycemic load (GL) of 13 while the rest exhibited GI ranging from 70 by
      Savitri to 80 by Salivahana. Identification of Lalat as a low GI variety is of
      significance in the dietary prevention and management of diabetes.

PMID- 28867098
TI  - The nutrient content of selected South African lamb and mutton organ meats
      (offal).

PMID- 28867099
TI  - EuroFIR Guideline on calculation of nutrient content of foods for food business
      operators.
AB  - This paper presents a Guideline for calculating nutrient content of foods by
      calculation methods for food business operators and presents data on compliance
      between calculated values and analytically determined values. In the EU,
      calculation methods are legally valid to determine the nutrient values of foods
      for nutrition labelling (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). However, neither a
      specific calculation method nor rules for use of retention factors are defined.
      EuroFIR AISBL (European Food Information Resource) has introduced a Recipe
      Calculation Guideline based on the EuroFIR harmonized procedure for recipe
      calculation. The aim is to provide food businesses with a step-by-step tool for
      calculating nutrient content of foods for the purpose of nutrition declaration.
      The development of this Guideline and use in the Czech Republic is described and
      future application to other Member States is discussed. Limitations of
      calculation methods and the importance of high quality food composition data are
      discussed.

PMID- 28867100
TI  - Biodiversity of Andean potatoes: Morphological, nutritional and functional
      characterization.
AB  - Andean potatoes (Solanum tuberosum andigenum) are a staple food for Andean
      population; there is great biodiversity but only few varieties are cultivated
      nowadays. In order to contribute to biodiversity conservation of Andean potatoes,
      information about their morphological, nutritional and functional characteristics
      was generated. In gene bank (INTA-Balcarce), varieties collected from regional
      producers were preserved. Forty-four genotypes were multiplied and characterized.
      Morphological characteristics; proximate composition and functional compounds
      were analyzed. Cluster analysis separated them into 3 groups according to
      distinguishing characteristics, which define industrial or nutritional
      applications. Group 2 was characterized by higher content of macronutrients and
      Group 3 with the highest antioxidant activity, both would be advisable for direct
      consumption. Genotype CS 1418 had big size and oval form so it could be destined
      to potato chips industry. Knowledge on nutritional and functional properties of
      genotypes contributes to promoting the cultivation depending on properties and
      also to preserve biodiversity.

PMID- 28867101
TI  - Capsaicinoids, amino acid and fatty acid profiles in different fruit components
      of the world hottest Naga king chilli (Capsicum chinense Jacq).
AB  - The world hottest Naga king chilli is cultivated and consumed in Northeast India.
      Capsaicinoids, amino acids and fatty acids were studied in fruit and fruit
      components of Naga king chilli. Capsaicinoid content was increased in each
      ripening stage and maximum level was observed at red color fruits. Total protein
      and fat content of placenta was 19.41 and 20.36% respectively. Capsaicinoids of
      placenta (7.35+/-2.241%) was higher followed by seed (3.83+/-1.358%) and pericarp
      (2.91+/-0.667%). Similarly, essential amino acid content was also higher in
      placenta compared to other components. Amino acid score ranged from 37 to 38 with
      cystine and methionine as limiting amino acid. Low level of palmitic, stearic and
      alpha-linolenic acid and very high level of linoleic acid were found in seeds.
      Total polyunsaturates of seeds were higher followed by whole fruit. Naga king
      chilli is unique due to its high capsaicinoid content and it offers potential
      crop for the future exploitation.

PMID- 28867102
TI  - Chemical composition and antioxidant activities of some indigenous spices
      consumed in Nigeria.
AB  - The chemical compositions and antioxidant capacities of seven spices consumed in
      Southern Nigeria were determined. They were purchased from majors markets in the
      study area. Edible portions of the spices were ground into fine powder and their
      nutrient and phytochemical compositions determined using standard methods.
      Antioxidant activity were determined on aqueous extract using standard assays,
      namely, 1,1-diphenyl-2picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical ability and ferric
      reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP). The spices were rich in macro-and micro
      nutrients. Ricinodendron heudelotii had the highest protein (30.6%) and fat
      (24.6%) contents. Tetrapleura tetraptera had the least fat content. The total
      phenol, flavonoid and vitamin C contents differed significantly (p<0.001) from
      each other. Aframomum citratum had the highest amount of total phenol, flavonoid
      and DPPH scavenging ability, while Afrostyrax lepidophyllus had the best FRAP.
      The spices have good nutrient profile and antioxidant potentials. Their increased
      consumption is recommended and use as functional foods needs to be exploited.

PMID- 28867103
TI  - Recipe standardization, nutrient composition and sensory evaluation of waterleaf
      (Talinum triangulare) and wild spinach (Gnetum africanum) soup "afang" commonly
      consumed in South-south Nigeria.
AB  - One hundred recipes of waterleaf and wild spinach soup (afang) consumed among the
      Ibibios in South-south Nigeria were collected through interview and questionnaire
      from indigenous homemakers and food sellers, harmonized, standardized, prepared
      and their nutrient content calculated. Mean weights of ingredients were
      calculated to obtain the control recipe. Major ingredients in the soup were
      analyzed chemically. Edible portions, retention factors to be applied in recipe
      calculation were determined. Sensory evaluation was conducted on five of the most
      preferred recipes on a nine-point hedonic scale. Edible coefficients of major
      foods ranged between 0.32 and 0.95. Significant changes (p<0.05) in nutrients
      were observed between raw and cooked ingredients and recipes. Afang soup had
      67.9% moisture; protein, 12.7% and energy, 169kcal. Fat contributed 57% of the
      total energy. Consumption of adequate quantities of afang soup will contribute
      substantially to Recommended Nutrient Intake of protein and micronutrients which
      will further increase with additional fish/meat.

PMID- 28867104
TI  - The bioavailability of iron, zinc, protein and vitamin A is highly variable in
      French individual diets: Impact on nutrient inadequacy assessment and relation
      with the animal-to-plant ratio of diets.
AB  - Nutritional adequacy depends on nutrient intakes and bioavailability which
      strongly varies with the plant- or animal-origin of foods. The aim was to
      estimate iron, zinc, protein and vitamin A bioavailability from individual diets,
      and investigate its relation with the animal-to-plant ratio (A/P) of diets.
      Bioavailability was estimated in 1899 French diets using diet-based algorithms or
      food-group specific conversion factors. Nutrient inadequacy was estimated based
      on i) bioavailability calculated in each individual diet and ii) average
      bioavailability assumed for Western-diets. Mean iron absorption, zinc absorption,
      protein quality and beta-carotene conversion factor were 13%, 30%, 92%, and 17:1,
      respectively. Bioavailability displayed a high variability between individual
      diets, poorly explained by their A/P. Using individual bioavailability led to
      different inadequacy prevalence than with average factors assumed for Western
      diets. In this population, the A/P does not seem sufficient to predict nutrient
      bioavailability and the corresponding recommended intakes. Nutritional adequacy
      should be assessed using bioavailability accounting for individual diets
      composition.

PMID- 28867105
TI  - Study on evaluation of starch, dietary fiber and mineral composition of cookies
      developed from 12 sorghum cultivars.
AB  - The study aimed to identify best cultivars suitable for sorghum cookies
      accordingly nutrient and mineral compositions were evaluated. Protein and fat
      content of cookies were ranged from 5.89+/-0.04 to 8.27+/-0.21% and 21.03+/-0.01
      to 23.08+/-0.03% respectively. The starch content of cookie ranged between
      47.06+/-0.01 and 42.15+/-0.03% and dietary fiber was reported highest in CSH14
      (9.27+/-0.01%). The highest Mg (56.24+/-0.03mg/100g) P (255.54+/-0.03mg/100g),
      and K (124.26+/-0.02mg/100g) content were found in C43 cultivar. CSV18R was
      reported highest iron content (1.23+/-0.01mg/100g). The sensory scores for
      overall acceptability of cookies were highest in CSH23, CSH13R and CSV18R
      cultivars which are rich in dietary fiber and minerals. Normally the hybrids are
      high yielders and the grain price/qt is 20% lower than varieties. It is implied
      the raw material costs of two identified cultivars (CSH23 & CSH13R) would help
      the industry to reduce overall cost of production and offer a better profit
      margins over the varieties.

PMID- 28867106
TI  - Application of dietary fiber method AOAC 2011.25 in fruit and comparison with
      AOAC 991.43 method.
AB  - AOAC 2011.25 method enables the quantification of most of the dietary fiber (DF)
      components according to the definition proposed by Codex Alimentarius. This study
      aimed to compare the DF content in fruits analyzed by the AOAC 2011.25 and AOAC
      991.43 methods. Plums (Prunus salicina), atemoyas (Annona x atemoya), jackfruits
      (Artocarpus heterophyllus), and mature coconuts (Cocos nucifera) from different
      Brazilian regions (3 lots/fruit) were analyzed for DF, resistant starch, and
      fructans contents. The AOAC 2011.25 method was evaluated for precision, accuracy,
      and linearity in different food matrices and carbohydrate standards. The DF
      contents of plums, atemoyas, and jackfruits obtained by AOAC 2011.25 was higher
      than those obtained by AOAC 991.43 due to the presence of fructans. The DF
      content of mature coconuts obtained by the same methods did not present a
      significant difference. The AOAC 2011.25 method is recommended for fruits with
      considerable fructans content because it achieves more accurate values.

PMID- 28867107
TI  - Fatty acid profile of edible oils and fats consumed in India.
AB  - A total 320 samples of edible oils and fats (Oils-236; Vanaspati- 45; Ghee-39)
      were sampled from 107 sampling sites in India and were evaluated for their fatty
      acid profile. This is the first comprehensive report on fatty acids profile of
      fats & oil commonly consumed in India. Every variety of edible oil showed its own
      unique fatty acid profile with significant variation within each individual fatty
      acid. Pure safflower oil exhibited the highest total TPUFA (76.78%) while the
      highest TSFA was noticed for coconut oil (90.84%). High level of erucic acid in
      the range of 48.5 to 54.2% was observed in mustard oil.. Groundnut and rice bran
      oils showed TPUFA/TSFA ratio closer to WHO recommended value. Several vanaspati
      samples exhibited trans fatty acid beyond the permitted limit while trace amount
      of the same was also detected in ghee.

PMID- 28867108
TI  - The important role of food composition in policies and programmes for better
      public health: A South African case study.
AB  - Most governments have committed to the set of Sustainable Development Goals
      established by the United Nations (UN) to be achieved by 2030. Subsequently the
      governments have drafted, or are in process of drafting, policies and programmes
      which aim to answer to these global requests. South Africa provides a unique case
      study: despite economic growth, undernutrition has not improved when compared to
      other industrialised nations, while at the same time, diet-related non
      communicable diseases and obesity have exponentially increased. Access to healthy
      food is a constitutional right of all South Africans, and towards increasing food
      security and improving population health, various policies, programmes and
      regulations have been developed and implemented by the government to rectify the
      situation. The paper presents an overview of food composition within these public
      health policies, programmes and regulations and unpacks the important role of
      accurate food composition data.

PMID- 28867109
TI  - Proton Pump Inhibitor-related Mortality: Let Us Not Be Dead Wrong.

PMID- 28867110
TI  - PET/Computed Tomography Scanning and Precision Medicine: Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - Esophageal cancer commonly has a poor prognosis, which requires an accurate
      diagnosis and early treatment to improve outcome. Other modalities for staging,
      such as endoscopic ultrasound imaging and computed tomography (CT) scans, have a
      role in diagnosis and staging. However, PET with fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxy-d
      glucose/CT (FDG PET/CT) scanning allows for improved detection of distant
      metastatic disease and can help to prevent unnecessary interventions that would
      increase morbidity. FDG PET/CT scanning is valuable in the neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy assessment and predicting survival outcomes subsequent to surgery.
      FDG PET/CT scanning detects recurrent disease and metastases in follow-up.

PMID- 28867111
TI  - Molecular Imaging and Precision Medicine in Uterine and Ovarian Cancers.
AB  - Gynecologic cancer is a heterogeneous group of diseases both functionally and
      morphologically. Today, PET coupled with computed tomography (PET/CT) or PET/MR
      imaging play a central role in the precision medicine algorithm of patients with
      gynecologic malignancy. In particular, PET/CT and PET/MR imaging are molecular
      imaging techniques that not only are useful tools for initial staging and
      restaging but provide anatomofunctional insight and can serve as predictive and
      prognostic biomarkers of response in patients with gynecologic malignancy.

PMID- 28867113
TI  - Precision Medicine and PET-Computed Tomography in Pediatric Malignancies.
AB  - Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET-computed tomography (CT) plays a
      significant role in diagnosis, staging, therapy selection, and therapy assessment
      of multiple pediatric malignancies and facilitating precision medicine delivery
      in pediatric patients. In patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, interim fludeoxyglucose
      18F-FDG PET/CT is highly sensitive and specific for predicting survival and
      multiple trials with FDG PET/CT-based adaptive therapies are currently ongoing.
      It is superior to iodine-131 metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG) scintigraphy and
      bone scintigraphy for detecting metastases in neuroblastoma patients and sarcoma
      patients. It may predict histologic differentiation and neoadjuvant therapy
      assessment in Wilms tumor.

PMID- 28867112
TI  - PET-Computed Tomography and Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma and
      Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors.
AB  - 18F-FDG PET/CT has been described as an accurate tool for initial diagnosis of
      pancreatic adenocarcinoma. It differentiates benign from malignant causes;
      detects local and, especially, distant spread of disease; and is a very good
      predictor of patient prognosis. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are rare tumors
      that originate from the islet cells of the pancreas. Currently, 68Ga-DOTA-labeled
      somatostatin analogs are considered the best modality for detection of well
      differentiated neuroendocrine tumors. 18F-FDG PET/CT has a role in patients with
      poorly differentiated tumors. Recent studies have demonstrated improved survival
      in patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors treated with radiolabeled
      somatostatin analogs.

PMID- 28867114
TI  - PET/Computed Tomography and Precision Medicine: Gastric Cancer.
AB  - Gastric cancer is a disease with low survival rates and high morbidity, requiring
      accurate and prompt diagnosis and treatment. Although limited in the evaluation
      of the primary tumor as such, the metabolic information of primary tumors in an
      18F-FDG PET/CT study can assist in surgical and treatment planning and
      differentiating gastric cancers. It detects nodal disease with good specificity
      and positive predictive value, thus enabling appropriate therapy for individual
      patients. It provides valuable information about distant metastases, altering
      therapy decisions. It has reasonably good performance in detecting recurrent
      disease and in the follow-up of patients.

PMID- 28867116
TI  - Precision Medicine and PET/Computed Tomography in Cardiovascular Disorders.
AB  - PET/computed tomography (CT) can evaluate the metabolic and anatomic involvement
      of a variety of inflammatory, infectious, and malignant cardiovascular disorders.
      PET/CT is useful in evaluating coronary vasculature, hibernating myocardium,
      cardiac sarcoidosis, cardiac amyloidosis, cerebrovascular disease, acute aortic
      syndromes, cardiac and vascular neoplasms, cardiac and vascular infections, and
      vasculitis. Novel targeted radiopharmaceutical agents and novel use of
      established techniques show promise in diagnosing and monitoring cardiovascular
      diseases.

PMID- 28867115
TI  - Precision Medicine and PET/Computed Tomography in Melanoma.
AB  - Recent advances in genomic profiling and sequencing of melanoma have provided new
      insights into the development of the basis for molecular biology to more
      accurately subgroup patients with melanoma. The development of novel mutation
      targeted and immunomodulation therapy as a major component of precision oncology
      has revolutionized the management and outcome of patients with metastatic
      melanoma. PET imaging plays an important role in noninvasively assessing the
      tumor biological behavior, to guide individualized treatment and assess response
      to therapy. This review summarizes the recent genomic discoveries in melanoma in
      the era of targeted therapy and their implications for functional PET imaging.

PMID- 28867117
TI  - PET/Computed Tomography and Precision Medicine: Musculoskeletal Sarcoma.
AB  - Skeletal and soft tissue sarcomas need early and accurate diagnosis, staging, and
      treatment for optimal outcome. 18F-FDG PET/computed tomography (CT) is indicated
      in staging of patients with high-grade sarcomas and acts as a surrogate marker of
      histopathologic grade, guiding biopsy to most aggressive portion of the tumor.
      Pretherapy and posttherapy 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters are reliable
      indicators of survival in patients with sarcoma with an important role in
      posttreatment response assessment, enabling the treatment plan to be modified in
      nonresponders. 18F-FDG PET/CT is particularly useful in the evaluation of
      molecular targeted therapies, which induce metabolic change before structural
      change.

PMID- 28867118
TI  - The Role of PET/MR Imaging in Precision Medicine.
AB  - Fluorodeoxyglucose PET and PET/computed tomography have gained acceptance in the
      evaluation of disease. Nontargeted tracers have been used in the diagnosis of
      certain malignancies but may not be sensitive or specific enough to become
      standard of care. Newer targeted PET tracers have been developed that target
      disease-specific biomarkers, and allow accurate and sensitive detection of
      disease. Combined with the capabilities of MR imaging to evaluate soft tissue,
      precision imaging with PET/MR imaging can change the diagnosis. This article
      discusses specific areas in which precision imaging with nontargeted and targeted
      diagnostic agents can change the diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28867119
TI  - Precision Medicine and PET/Computed Tomography: Emerging Themes for Future
      Clinical Practice.

PMID- 28867120
TI  - How does one detect scientific fraud - but avoid false accusations?

PMID- 28867121
TI  - Hierarchical signaling transduction of the immune and muscle cell crosstalk in
      muscle regeneration.
AB  - The muscle regeneration is a complicated bioprocess that involved in many cell
      types, including necrotic muscle cells, satellite cells, mesenchymal cells,
      pericytes, immune cells, and other cell types present at the injury site. Immune
      cells involved in both innate and adaptive immune responses regulate the progress
      of muscle regeneration. In this review, we discussed the roles of different
      immune cells in muscle regeneration. The immune cells regulate muscle
      regeneration through cytokine production, cell-cell contacts, and general immune
      environment regulation. We also describe the current known mechanism of how
      immune cells regulating muscle regeneration.

PMID- 28867122
TI  - Sexual dimorphism in dermatoglyphic traits and fluctuating asymmetry in
      Bulgarians from northeast Bulgaria.
AB  - In parallel with the development of dermatoglyphics as a method of
      identification, data have been accumulated on the characteristics of fingerprints
      related to sex and ethnic origin which make up the statistical basis of this
      study. The aims of the present study are to determine phenotype variations in the
      asymmetry of dermatoglyphics in both sexes within the scope of the entire hand
      skin ridge system; to investigate correlations between the phenotypes; and, to
      assess the fluctuating asymmetry among the Bulgarian population from the region
      of northwest Bulgaria. The sample consists of 894 unrelated, clinically healthy
      individuals (480 females and 414 males) aged 18-50 years, who live in towns and
      villages in the northwest provinces. Finger and palmar prints were collected
      using rolled print (inked) method. Twenty dermatoglyphics variables of fingers
      and hands, separately for right and left hands and jointly for both hands, were
      statistically assessed. The material was processed by SPSS 12 software. The
      results of the present study show distinctive sexual differences. Higher values
      in males are recorded in finger ridge counts, the Furuhata and Cummins indices,
      the palm ridge counts and the overall ridge counts in all interdigital areas.
      Males have higher frequency values in patterns Hy, Th/III and Th/IV.

PMID- 28867123
TI  - Comparison of Outcomes in Patients Having Acute Myocardial Infarction With Versus
      Without Sickle-Cell Anemia.
AB  - Sickle-cell disease (SCD) affects millions worldwide. Sickle-cell anemia (SCA),
      the most severe form of this disease, is the most common inherited blood disorder
      in the United States. There are limited data on the incidence, clinical
      characteristics, and outcomes of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in these
      patients. Using data from the National Inpatient Sample database, we matched
      cases (AMI with SCA) with controls (AMI without SCA) in a 1:1 ratio for age,
      gender, race, and year of admission. We compared both groups in terms of clinical
      characteristics and inpatient outcomes and performed a logistic regression with
      mortality as the primary outcome. Using weighted samples, we also described
      trends of SCA in the general population of patients with AMI. Of the 2,386,657
      admissions with AMI, SCA was reported in 501 (0.02%) patients, and 495 were
      successfully matched to controls. Patients with SCA were less likely to have risk
      factors for coronary artery disease than those without SCA. Patients with SCA
      were more likely to develop pneumonia, respiratory failure, and acute renal
      failure, and require mechanical ventilation, hemodialysis for acute renal failure
      and blood transfusion. In-hospital mortality was significantly higher in patients
      with SCA. In a multivariate analysis, SCA was an independent predictor of
      mortality (odds ratio 3.49; 95% confidence interval 1.99 to 6.12; p = < .001). In
      conclusion, myocardial infarction occurs in patients with SCA at a relatively
      early age. These patients do not typically have the traditional risk factors for
      the acute coronary syndrome. Mortality in these patients is significantly higher
      in age-, gender-, and race-matched controls.

PMID- 28867124
TI  - Effect of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease on In-Hospital and Long-Term Outcomes
      in Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a risk factor for coronary artery
      disease. We investigated the effect of NAFLD grade on in-hospital and long-term
      outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The
      study group consisted of 360 patients with STEMI. The patients were classified
      according to the grade of the NAFLD using ultrasonography. Based on this
      classification, all patients were divided into 4 subgroups as grade 0 (no fatty
      liver disease), grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3. Hierarchical logistic regression
      and Cox proportional regression analysis were used to establish the relation
      between NAFLD grade and outcomes. In-hospital mortality for grade 0, 1, 2, and 3
      NAFLDs were 4.7%, 8.3%, 11.3%, and 33.9%, respectively. Three-year mortality for
      grade 0, 1, 2, and 3 NAFLDs were 5.6%, 7.8%, 9.5%, and 33.3%, respectively. In
      the multivariable hierarchical logistic regression analysis, in-hospital
      mortality risks were higher for patients with grade 3 NAFLD (odds ratio 4.2). In
      a multivariable Cox proportional regression analysis, the mortality risk was
      higher for patients with grade 3 NAFLD (hazard ratio 4.0). In conclusion, in
      patients with STEMI, the presence of NAFLD is associated with unfavorable
      clinical outcomes. Among these patients, grade 3 NAFLD had the highest mortality
      rates. The present study supports NAFLD screening in patients with STEMI.

PMID- 28867125
TI  - Comparison of Benefit of Successful Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for
      Chronic Total Occlusion in Patients With Versus Without Reduced (<=40%) Left
      Ventricular Ejection Fraction.
AB  - Successful recanalization of chronic total occlusions (CTO) has been associated
      with improved survival. Data on outcomes in patients with left ventricular (LV)
      systolic dysfunction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for CTO,
      however, are scarce. Between January 2005 and December 2013, a total of 2,002
      consecutive patients undergoing elective CTO percutaneous coronary intervention
      at a tertiary care center were divided into patients with (LV ejection fraction
      <= 40%) and without (LV ejection fraction > 40%) LV systolic dysfunction as
      defined by transthoracic echocardiography. The primary end point was all-cause
      mortality. Median follow-up was 2.6 (1.1 to 3.1) years. A total of 348 (17.4%)
      patients had LV dysfunction. All-cause mortality was higher in patients with LV
      dysfunction (30.2%) than in those with normal LV function (8.2%, p <0.001), and
      associations remained significant after adjustment for baseline differences
      (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 3.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.57 to 4.47, p
      <0.001). Successful CTO recanalization was independently associated with reduced
      all-cause mortality, with similar relative risk reductions in both the preserved
      (6.6% vs 16.9%, adjusted HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.70, p <0.001) and the reduced
      LV function groups (26.2% vs 45.2%, adjusted HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.98, p =
      0.04, interaction p = 0.28). In conclusion, irrespective of LV function,
      successful CTO recanalization is associated with a clear survival benefit.

PMID- 28867126
TI  - Early Ventricular Tachycardia or Fibrillation in Patients With ST Elevation
      Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention and
      Impact on Mortality and Stent Thrombosis (from the Harmonizing Outcomes with
      Revascularization and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction Trial).
AB  - The prevalence and impact of early ventricular arrhythmias (ventricular
      tachycardia [VT]/ventricular fibrillation [VF]) occurring before mechanical
      revascularization for acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)
      treated with percutaneous coronary intervention are poorly understood. We sought
      to investigate the association between early VT/VF and long-term clinical
      outcomes using data from the Harmonizing Outcomes with Revascularization and
      Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction trial. Among 3,602 patients with STEMI, 108
      patients (3.0%) had early VT/VF. Baseline clinical characteristics were similar
      in patients with versus without early VT/VF. Patients with early VT/VF had
      shorter symptom-to-balloon times and lower left ventricular ejection fraction and
      underwent more frequent thrombectomy compared with patients without early VT/VF.
      Adjusted 3-year rates of all-cause death (15.7% vs 6.5%; adjusted hazard ratio
      2.62, 95% confidence interval 1.48 to 4.61, p <0.001) and stent thrombosis (13.7%
      vs 5.7%; adjusted hazard ratio 2.74, 95% confidence interval 1.52 to 4.93, p
      <0.001) were significantly higher in patients with early VT/VF compared with
      patients without early VT/VF. In conclusion, in the Harmonizing Outcomes with
      Revascularization and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction trial, VT/VF
      occurring before coronary angiography and revascularization in patients with
      STEMI was strongly associated with increased 3-year rates of death and stent
      thrombosis. Further investigation into the mechanisms underlying the increased
      risk of early stent thrombosis in patients with early VT/VF is required.

PMID- 28867127
TI  - Utilization of Standard and Target-Specific Oral Anticoagulants Among Adults in
      the United Kingdom With Incident Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - New oral anticoagulants (OACs) and updated risk stratification have the potential
      to improve the quality of care for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). To
      describe the time from AF diagnosis to the initiation of an OAC, characteristics
      associated with treatment, and the incidence of switching OACs, we conducted this
      retrospective cohort study of 23,018 adults with incident AF receiving care
      between 2010 and 2014 in 647 primary care practices participating in the United
      Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink. In patients with moderate to high
      stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc >= 2), the median time from diagnosis to OAC initiation
      decreased from 10 to 2 months. Among 980 at very low stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc =
      0), 29% received OAC prescriptions after 90 days. Being prescribed an OAC was
      associated with a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (relative risk
      1.3); severe dementia or psychosis was most associated with not being prescribed
      an OAC (relative risk 0.3). After 1 year, the risk of OAC switching was higher
      for patients initiating dabigatran (19%) than warfarin (6%), rivaroxaban (8%), or
      apixaban (9%). The prescribing of OACs in moderate-to-high-risk patients in the
      United Kingdom increased annually; 1/3 of very low-risk patients were prescribed
      OACs contrary to guidance. In conclusion, future research should refine decision
      making tools to minimize the unwanted effects of underutilization and
      overutilization of OACs.

PMID- 28867128
TI  - Severely Impaired Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients With Recently
      Decompensated Systolic Heart Failure.
AB  - Hospital admission for decompensated heart failure marks a critical inflection
      point in a patient's health. Despite the improvement in signs or symptoms during
      hospitalization, patients have a high likelihood of readmission, reflecting a
      lack of resolution of the underlying condition. Surprisingly, no studies have
      characterized the cardiorespiratory fitness of such patients. Fifty-two patients
      (38 [73%] male, age 57 [52 to 65] years, left ventricular ejection fraction 31%
      [24 to 38]) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing 4 (1 to 10) days after
      hospital discharge, when stable and without overt signs of volume overload.
      Transthoracic Doppler echocardiography, measurement of N-terminal pro-B
      natriuretic peptide, and quality of life were also assessed. Aerobic exercise
      capacity was severely reduced: peak oxygen consumption (pVO2) was 14.1 (11.2 to
      16.3) ml/kg/min. Ventilatory inefficiency as indicated by the minute ventilation
      carbon dioxide production relation (VE/VCO2 slope) >30 and oxygen uptake
      efficiency slope <2.0 was noted in 41 (77%) and 39 (75%) patients, respectively.
      Forty-five (87%) patients had 1 of 2 high-risk features (pVO2 < 14 ml/kg/min or
      VE/VCO2 >30). Perceived functional capacity, measured by the Duke Activity Status
      Index, was also severely reduced and correlated with pVO2. N-terminal pro-B
      natriuretic peptide levels and early transmitral velocity/early mitral annulus
      velocity (E/e') ratio at echocardiography showed a modest correlation with lower
      pVO2. In conclusion, patients with recently decompensated systolic heart failure
      demonstrate severe impairment in cardiorespiratory fitness, severely limiting
      quality of life.

PMID- 28867129
TI  - Frequency of Cholesterol Crystals in Culprit Coronary Artery Aspirate During
      Acute Myocardial Infarction and Their Relation to Inflammation and Myocardial
      Injury.
AB  - Cholesterol crystals (CCs) have been associated with plaque rupture through
      mechanical injury and inflammation. This study evaluated the presence of CCs
      during acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and associated myocardial injury,
      inflammation, and arterial blood flow before and after percutaneous coronary
      intervention. Patients presenting with AMI (n = 286) had aspiration of culprit
      coronary artery obstruction. Aspirates were evaluated for crystal content, size,
      composition, and morphology by scanning electron microscopy, crystallography, and
      infrared spectroscopy. These were correlated with inflammatory biomarkers,
      cardiac enzymes, % coronary stenosis, and Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction
      (TIMI) blush and flow grades. Crystals were detected in 254 patients (89%) and
      confirmed to be cholesterol by spectroscopy. Of 286 patients 240 (84%) had CCs
      compacted into clusters that were large enough to be measured and analyzed.
      Moderate to extensive CC content was present in 172 cases (60%). Totally occluded
      arteries had significantly larger CC clusters than partially occluded arteries (p
      <0.05). Patients with CC cluster area >12,000 um2 had significantly elevated
      interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) levels (p <0.01), were less likely to have TIMI
      blush grade of 3 (p <0.01), and more likely to have TIMI flow grade of 1 (p
      <0.01). Patients with recurrent AMI had smaller CC cluster area (p <0.04), lower
      troponin (p <0.02), and IL-1beta levels (p <0.04). Women had smaller CC clusters
      (p <0.04). Macrophages in the aspirates were found to be attached to CCs.
      Coronary artery aspirates had extensive deposits of CCs during AMI. In
      conclusion, presence of large CC clusters was associated with increased
      inflammation (IL-1beta), increased arterial narrowing, and diminished reflow
      following percutaneous coronary intervention.

PMID- 28867130
TI  - Follow-up to Age 4 Years of Treatment of Type 1 Retinopathy of Prematurity
      Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection versus Laser: Fluorescein Angiographic
      Findings.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare structural outcome at age 4 years of eyes treated with
      intravitreal injection of bevacizumab with fellow eyes treated with conventional
      laser photoablation in type 1 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). DESIGN: Single,
      randomized, controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS: All inborn babies with type 1 zone 1
      ROP at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Catholic University, Rome, from
      September 1, 2009, to March 31, 2012. METHODS: In 21 infants (42 eyes), 1 eye was
      randomized to receive an intravitreal injection of 0.5 mg bevacizumab; the fellow
      eye underwent conventional laser photoablation. Digital retinal imaging and
      fluorescein angiography (FA) were performed at an average of 4 years after
      treatment in follow-up after these studies performed at treatment and 9 months.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Fluorescein angiograms were examined by 2 experts to
      document retinal and choroidal findings. RESULTS: Among the 20 bevacizumab
      treated eyes available at 4 years of age, all showed abnormalities at the
      periphery (avascular area, vessel leakage, shunts, abnormal vessel branching, and
      tangles) or the posterior pole (hyperfluorescent lesions, absence of foveal
      avascular zone). These lesions were not observed in the majority of the lasered
      eyes. Among the 19 laser-treated eyes, leakage was noted in 1 eye, shunts and
      tangles were noted in 3 eyes, and macular abnormalities were noted in 3 eyes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Fluorescein angiography has shown potentially serious and long-term
      ocular effects that are present more commonly after treatment with bevacizumab
      for acute-phase ROP than after laser.

PMID- 28867131
TI  - Posterior Vitreous Detachment and the Posterior Hyaloid Membrane.
AB  - PURPOSE: Despite posterior vitreous detachment being a common ocular event
      affecting most individuals in an aging population, there is little consensus
      regarding its precise anatomic definition. We investigated the morphologic
      appearance and molecular composition of the posterior hyaloid membrane to
      determine whether the structure clinically observed enveloping the posterior
      vitreous surface after posterior vitreous detachment is a true basement membrane
      and to postulate its origin. Understanding the relationship between the vitreous
      (in both its attached and detached state) and the internal limiting membrane of
      the retina is essential to understanding the cause of rhegmatogenous retinal
      detachment and vitreoretinal interface disorders, as well as potential future
      prophylactic and treatment strategies. DESIGN: Clinicohistologic correlation
      study. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-six human donor globes. METHODS: Vitreous bodies
      identified to have posterior vitreous detachment were examined with phase
      contrast microscopy and confocal microscopy after immunohistochemically staining
      for collagen IV basement membrane markers, in addition to extracellular proteins
      that characterize the vitreoretinal junction (fibronectin, laminin) and vitreous
      gel (opticin) markers. The posterior retina similarly was stained to evaluate the
      internal limiting membrane. Findings were correlated to the clinical appearance
      of the posterior hyaloid membrane observed during slit-lamp biomicroscopy after
      posterior vitreous detachment and compared with previously published studies.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morphologic appearance and molecular composition of the
      posterior hyaloid membrane. RESULTS: Phase-contrast microscopy consistently
      identified a creased and distinct glassy membranous sheet enveloping the
      posterior vitreous surface, correlating closely with the posterior hyaloid
      membrane observed during slit-lamp biomicroscopy in patients with posterior
      vitreous detachment. Immunofluorescent confocal micrographs demonstrated the
      enveloping membranous structure identified on phase-contrast microscopy to show
      positive stain results for type IV collagen. Immunofluorescence of the residual
      intact internal limiting membrane on the retinal surface also showed positive
      stain results for type IV collagen. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study
      provide immunohistochemical evidence that the posterior hyaloid membrane is a
      true basement membrane enveloping the posterior hyaloid surface. Because this
      membranous structure is observed only after posterior vitreous detachment, the
      results of this study indicate that it forms part of the internal limiting
      membrane when the vitreous is in its attached state.

PMID- 28867132
TI  - Symbiont dynamics during thermal acclimation using cnidarian-dinoflagellate model
      holobionts.
AB  - Warming oceans menace reef ecosystems by disrupting symbiosis between cnidarians
      and Symbiodinium zooxanthellae, thus triggering bleach episodes. Temperature
      fluctuations promote adjustments in physiological variables and symbiont
      composition, which can cause stress responses, but can also yield adaptation if
      fitter host-symbiont homeostasis are achieved. To understand such processes
      manipulative studies are required, but many reef-building cnidarians pose
      limitations to experimental prospects. We exposed Exaiptasia anemones to Gradual
      Thermal Stress (GTS) and Heat Shock (HS) exposures and monitored chlorophyll and
      symbiont dynamics to test the phenotypic plasticity of these photosynthetic
      holobionts. GTS enhanced chlorophyll concentrations and decreased Symbiodinium
      proliferation. A recovery period after GTS returned chlorophyll to lower
      concentrations and symbiont divisions to higher rates. HS triggered a stress
      response characterized by intense symbiont declines through degradation and
      expulsion, algal compensatory proliferation, and chlorophyll accumulation.
      Anemones pre-exposed to GTS displayed more acute signs of symbiont paucity after
      HS, demonstrating that recurrent stress does not always induce bleaching
      resistance. Our study is the first documenting Symbiodinium C and D, along with
      the predominant Clade B1 in Exaiptasia anemones. C subclades found in outdoor
      specimens faded under laboratory exposures. Clade D emerged after HS treatments,
      and especially after GTS pre-exposure. This highlights the thermotolerance of D
      subclades found in E. pallida and shows that bleaching-recovery can involve
      shifts of background symbiont phylotypes. This study enlightens the capability of
      Exaiptasia anemones to acclimate to gradually increased temperatures, and
      explores into how thermal history influences in subsequent stress tolerance in
      symbiotic cnidarians.

PMID- 28867134
TI  - Experimental study on titanium wire drawing with ultrasonic vibration.
AB  - Titanium and its alloys have been widely used in aerospace and biomedical
      industries, however, they are classified as difficult-to-machine materials. In
      this paper, ultrasonic vibration is imposed on the die to overcome the
      difficulties during conventional titanium wire drawing processes at the room
      temperature. Numerical simulations were performed to investigate the variation of
      axial stress within the contacting region and study the change of the drawing
      stress with several factors in terms of the longitudinal amplitude and frequency
      of the applied ultrasonic vibration, the diameter reduction ratio, and the
      drawing force. An experimental testing equipment was established to measure the
      drawing torque and rotational velocity of the coiler drum during the wire drawing
      process. The result indicates the drawing force increases with the growth of the
      drawing velocity and the reduction ratio, whether with or without vibrations.
      Application of either form of ultrasonic vibrations contributes to the further
      decrease of the drawing force, especially the longitudinal vibration with larger
      amplitude. SEM was employed to detect the surface morphology of the processed
      wires drawn under the three circumstances. The surface quality of the drawn wires
      with ultrasonic vibrations was apparently improved compared with those using
      conventional method. In addition, the longitudinal and torsional composite
      vibration was more effective for surface quality improvement than pure
      longitudinal vibration, however, at the cost of weakened drawing force reduction
      effect.

PMID- 28867133
TI  - Natural marine bacteria as model organisms for the hazard-assessment of consumer
      products containing silver nanoparticles.
AB  - Scarce information is available regarding the fate and toxicology of engineered
      silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the marine environment, especially when compared
      to other environmental compartments. Hence, the antibacterial activity of the NM
      300 AgNPs (OECD programme) and a household product containing colloidal AgNPs
      (Mesosilver) was investigated using marine bacteria, pure cultures and natural
      mixed populations (microcosm approach). Bacterial susceptibility to AgNPs was
      species-specific, with Gram negative bacteria being more resistant than the Gram
      positive species (NM-300 concentration used ranged between 0.062 and 1.5 mg L-1),
      and the Mesosilver product was more toxic than the NM-300. Bacterial viability
      and the physiological status (O2 uptake measured by respirometry) of the
      microbial community in the microcosm was negatively affected at an initial
      concentration of 1 mg L-1 NM-300. The high chloride concentrations in the
      media/seawater led to the formation of silver-chloro complexes thus enhancing
      AgNP toxicity. We recommend the use of natural marine bacteria as models when
      assessing the environmental relevant antibacterial properties of products
      containing nanosilver.

PMID- 28867135
TI  - Adsorption of sulfamethoxazole and sulfapyridine antibiotics in high organic
      content soils.
AB  - Many antibiotics, including sulfonamides, are being frequently detected in soil
      and groundwater. Livestock waste is an important source of antibiotic pollution,
      and sulfonamides may be present along with organic-rich substances. This study
      aims to investigate the sorption reaction of two sulfonamides, sulfamethoxazole
      (SMZ) and sulfapyridine (SPY) in two organic-rich sorbents: a commercial peat
      soil (38.41% carbon content) and a composted manure (24.33% carbon content).
      Batch reactions were conducted to evaluate the impacts of pH (4.5-9.5) and
      background ions (0.001 M-0.1 M CaCl2) on their sorption. Both linear partitioning
      and Freundlich sorption isotherms fit the reaction well. The n values of
      Freundlich isotherm were close to 1 in most conditions suggesting that the
      hydrophobic partition is the major adsorption mechanism. In terms of SMZ, Kd
      declined with increases in the pH. SPY has a pyridine group that is responsible
      for adsorption at high pH values, and thus, no significant trend between Kd and
      pH was observed. At high pH ranges, SPY sorption deviated significantly from
      linear partitioning. The results suggested the sorption mechanism of these two
      sulfonamide antibiotics tended to be hydrophobic partitioning under most of the
      experimental conditions, especially at pH values lower than their corresponding
      pKa2. The fluorescence excitation emission matrix and dissolved organic carbon
      leaching test suggested composted manure has higher fulvic acid organics and that
      peat soil has higher humus-like organics. Small organic molecules showed stronger
      affinity toward sulfonamide antibiotics and cause the composted manure to exhibit
      higher sorption capacity. Overall, this study suggests that the chemical
      structure and properties of sulfonamides antibiotics and the type of organic
      matter in soils will greatly influence the fate and transport of these
      contaminants into the environment.

PMID- 28867136
TI  - Prostascore: A Simplified Tool for Predicting Outcomes among Patients with
      Treatment-naive Advanced Prostate Cancer.
AB  - AIMS: To develop and internally validate a new simplified model 'prostascore' to
      help predict the outcomes of treatment-naive patients with advanced prostate
      cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Through the SEER*Stat program, the Surveillance,
      Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database was queried for eligible records
      spanning the period from 2010 to 2013. The resulting group of patients was
      equally divided into two sets: training group (to guide model development) and
      validation group (to validate the model prediction). Multivariate analysis for
      the candidate prognostic factors (extent of extra-prostatic disease, prostate
      specific antigen [PSA] level and grade) was conducted through a Cox proportional
      model. Prostascore was then calculated for each patient. Cancer-specific and
      overall survival analyses according to prostascore were conducted through Kaplan
      Meier analysis/Log-rank testing. RESULTS: In total, 8727 patients with treatment
      naive advanced prostate cancer and complete baseline data were identified in the
      period from 2010 to 2013. The following factors were associated with better
      cancer-specific survival in the training set (isolated regional nodal disease,
      lower PSA level and lower grade group; P < 0.0001). After assignment of a
      prostascore for each patient, cancer-specific survival was compared according to
      the score. Pairwise comparisons between all different scores were conducted. For
      cancer-specific survival evaluation according to the prostascore model, P values
      for pairwise comparisons among different score points were significant (P < 0.05)
      in the validation set. CONCLUSION: Prostascore is an easy and reliable tool for
      predicting the outcomes of patients with treatment-naive advanced prostate
      cancer. Further validation within the context of other treatment settings and
      population-based cohorts is recommended.

PMID- 28867137
TI  - Invasion Science in the Developing World: A Response to Ricciardi et al.

PMID- 28867138
TI  - Winning Arguments: Coexistence Not Competition: A Reply to Saul et al.

PMID- 28867140
TI  - Channel 7-7 PMR: A Radio Communication Initiative in Mountain-Related Emergencies
      in Spain.

PMID- 28867139
TI  - Bite Wounds Caused by a Wild Boar: A Case Report.
AB  - A 74-year-old man was attacked by a wild boar while on his way home from his farm
      in the daytime in winter 2017 on the rural Izu peninsula. He did not provoke the
      boar; however, hunters were hunting animals in the mountains near the farm around
      the same time. The boar bit his left leg, and the man fell to the ground. The
      boar continued biting the man's left leg, and the man delivered a few kicks to
      the boar's face with his right leg. The boar then bit his right foot and ran
      away. The man was taken to a hospital, and a physical examination revealed 3 bite
      wounds on his left leg and right foot. The wounds were irrigated with sterilized
      saline and closed with sutures under local anesthesia. He received antibiotics
      and a tetanus toxoid booster. The next day, his wounds were found to be infected,
      and pus was drained from them. After these treatments, his wounds healed
      successfully. Animal bite wounds are frequently contaminated. Accordingly, in
      addition to early proper wound treatment, close observation of the wound is
      required for both the early detection of any signs of infection and early medical
      intervention, including appropriate drainage of pus and irrigation as necessary.

PMID- 28867141
TI  - Spatial Clustering of de Novo Missense Mutations Identifies Candidate
      Neurodevelopmental Disorder-Associated Genes.
AB  - Haploinsufficiency (HI) is the best characterized mechanism through which
      dominant mutations exert their effect and cause disease. Non-haploinsufficiency
      (NHI) mechanisms, such as gain-of-function and dominant-negative mechanisms, are
      often characterized by the spatial clustering of mutations, thereby affecting
      only particular regions or base pairs of a gene. Variants leading to
      haploinsufficency might occasionally cluster as well, for example in critical
      domains, but such clustering is on the whole less pronounced with mutations often
      spread throughout the gene. Here we exploit this property and develop a method to
      specifically identify genes with significant spatial clustering patterns of de
      novo mutations in large cohorts. We apply our method to a dataset of 4,061 de
      novo missense mutations from published exome studies of trios with intellectual
      disability and developmental disorders (ID/DD) and successfully identify 15 genes
      with clustering mutations, including 12 genes for which mutations are known to
      cause neurodevelopmental disorders. For 11 out of these 12, NHI mutation
      mechanisms have been reported. Additionally, we identify three candidate ID/DD
      associated genes of which two have an established role in neuronal processes. We
      further observe a higher intolerance to normal genetic variation of the
      identified genes compared to known genes for which mutations lead to HI. Finally,
      3D modeling of these mutations on their protein structures shows that 81% of the
      observed mutations are unlikely to affect the overall structural integrity and
      that they therefore most likely act through a mechanism other than HI.

PMID- 28867142
TI  - Exonic Mosaic Mutations Contribute Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - Genetic risk factors for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have yet to be fully
      elucidated. Postzygotic mosaic mutations (PMMs) have been implicated in several
      neurodevelopmental disorders and overgrowth syndromes. By leveraging whole-exome
      sequencing data on a large family-based ASD cohort, the Simons Simplex
      Collection, we systematically evaluated the potential role of PMMs in autism
      risk. Initial re-evaluation of published single-nucleotide variant (SNV) de novo
      mutations showed evidence consistent with putative PMMs for 11% of mutations. We
      developed a robust and sensitive SNV PMM calling approach integrating
      complementary callers, logistic regression modeling, and additional heuristics.
      In our high-confidence call set, we identified 470 PMMs in children, increasing
      the proportion of mosaic SNVs to 22%. Probands have a significant burden of
      synonymous PMMs and these mutations are enriched for computationally predicted
      impacts on splicing. Evidence of increased missense PMM burden was not seen in
      the full cohort. However, missense burden signal increased in subcohorts of
      families where probands lacked nonsynonymous germline mutations, especially in
      genes intolerant to mutations. Parental mosaic mutations that were transmitted
      account for 6.8% of the presumed de novo mutations in the children. PMMs were
      identified in previously implicated high-confidence neurodevelopmental disorder
      risk genes, such as CHD2, CTNNB1, SCN2A, and SYNGAP1, as well as candidate risk
      genes with predicted functions in chromatin remodeling or neurodevelopment,
      including ACTL6B, BAZ2B, COL5A3, SSRP1, and UNC79. We estimate that PMMs
      potentially contribute risk to 3%-4% of simplex ASD case subjects and future
      studies of PMMs in ASD and related disorders are warranted.

PMID- 28867143
TI  - Text4baby Influenza Messaging and Influenza Vaccination Among Pregnant Women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pregnant women are at risk for severe influenza-related
      complications; however, only 52% reported receiving an influenza vaccination
      during the 2013-2014 influenza season. Text4baby, a free national text service,
      provides influenza vaccination education and reminders to pregnant women. This
      study examined reported influenza vaccination during pregnancy among Text4baby
      participants who reported receiving influenza messages and women who reported
      never participating in Text4baby. METHODS: Opt-in Internet Panel Surveys (April
      2013 and 2014) of pregnant women collected demographic and other characteristics;
      influenza vaccination knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; and Text4baby
      participation. Women aged 18-49 years, pregnant anytime from October to January
      (N=3,321) were included. Text4baby influenza message recallers reported receiving
      Text4baby influenza messages during their current/most recent pregnancy (n=377).
      Text4baby non-participants reported never receiving Text4baby messages (n=2,824).
      Multivariable logistic regression was performed (2014-2016) controlling for
      demographic and other characteristics, high-risk conditions, and provider
      recommendation and offer to vaccinate. Adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) were
      calculated. Random sampling was assumed for this non-probability sample. RESULTS:
      Text4baby recallers were more likely than non-participants to report influenza
      vaccination regardless of receipt of provider recommendation and/or offer to
      vaccinate (provider recommendation/offer APR=1.29, 95% CI=1.21, 1.37, provider
      recommendation/no offer APR=1.52, 95% CI=1.07, 2.17). Among women receiving
      neither a provider recommendation nor offer to vaccinate, Text4baby recallers
      were more than three times as likely to report influenza vaccination compared
      with non-participants (APR=3.39, 95% CI=2.03, 5.67). CONCLUSIONS: Text4baby
      status was associated with higher influenza vaccination, especially among women
      whose provider did not recommend or offer the vaccine. Encouraging Text4baby
      enrollment may help ensure influenza vaccination is given to protect mothers and
      infants.

PMID- 28867144
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28867145
TI  - Author Reply.

PMID- 28867146
TI  - Research methods must find ways of accommodating clinical reality, not ignoring
      it: the need for pragmatic trials.

PMID- 28867147
TI  - LMO1 Synergizes with MYCN to Promote Neuroblastoma Initiation and Metastasis.
AB  - A genome-wide association study identified LMO1, which encodes an LIM-domain-only
      transcriptional cofactor, as a neuroblastoma susceptibility gene that functions
      as an oncogene in high-risk neuroblastoma. Here we show that dbetah promoter
      mediated expression of LMO1 in zebrafish synergizes with MYCN to increase the
      proliferation of hyperplastic sympathoadrenal precursor cells, leading to a
      reduced latency and increased penetrance of neuroblastomagenesis. The transgenic
      expression of LMO1 also promoted hematogenous dissemination and distant
      metastasis, which was linked to neuroblastoma cell invasion and migration, and
      elevated expression levels of genes affecting tumor cell-extracellular matrix
      interaction, including loxl3, itga2b, itga3, and itga5. Our results provide in
      vivo validation of LMO1 as an important oncogene that promotes neuroblastoma
      initiation, progression, and widespread metastatic dissemination.

PMID- 28867148
TI  - Variation, Indispensability, and Masking in the M protein.
AB  - The M protein is the major surface-associated virulence factor of group A
      Streptococcus (GAS) and an antigenically variable target of host immunity. How
      selection pressures to escape immune recognition, maintain indispensable
      functions, and mask vulnerabilities have shaped the sequences of the >220M
      protein types is unclear. Recent experiments have shed light on this question by
      showing that, hidden within the antigenic variability of many M protein types,
      are sequence patterns conserved for recruiting human C4b-binding protein (C4BP).
      Other host factors may be recruited in a similar manner by conserved but hidden
      sequence patterns in the M protein. The identification of such patterns may be
      applicable to the development of a GAS vaccine.

PMID- 28867149
TI  - Establishing the role of rare coding variants in known Parkinson's disease risk
      loci.
AB  - Many common genetic factors have been identified to contribute to Parkinson's
      disease (PD) susceptibility, improving our understanding of the related
      underlying biological mechanisms. The involvement of rarer variants in these loci
      has been poorly studied. Using International Parkinson's Disease Genomics
      Consortium data sets, we performed a comprehensive study to determine the impact
      of rare variants in 23 previously published genome-wide association studies
      (GWAS) loci in PD. We applied Prix fixe to select the putative causal genes
      underneath the GWAS peaks, which was based on underlying functional similarities.
      The Sequence Kernel Association Test was used to analyze the joint effect of
      rare, common, or both types of variants on PD susceptibility. All genes were
      tested simultaneously as a gene set and each gene individually. We observed a
      moderate association of common variants, confirming the involvement of the known
      PD risk loci within our genetic data sets. Focusing on rare variants, we
      identified additional association signals for LRRK2, STBD1, and SPATA19. Our
      study suggests an involvement of rare variants within several putatively causal
      genes underneath previously identified PD GWAS peaks.

PMID- 28867150
TI  - [Consensus on Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography of the Brazilian
      Society of Anesthesiology and the Department of Cardiovascular Image of the
      Brazilian Society of Cardiology].
AB  - Through the Life Cycle of Intraoperative Transesophageal Echocardiography
      (ETTI/SBA) the Brazilian Society of Anesthesiology, together with the Department
      of Cardiovascular Image of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (DIC/SBC),
      createded a task force to standardize the use of intraoperative transesophageal
      echocardiography by Brazilian anesthesiologists and echocardiographers based on
      scientific evidence from the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists/American
      Society of Echocardiography (SCA/ASE) and the Brazilian Society of Cardiology.

PMID- 28867151
TI  - [Axillary local anesthetic spread after the thoracic interfacial ultrasound block
      - a cadaveric and radiological evaluation].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral opioid analgesics have been used for management of peri- and
      postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing axillary dissection. The axillary
      region is a difficult zone to block and does not have a specific regional
      anesthesia technique published that offers its adequate blockade. METHODS: After
      institutional review board approval, anatomic and radiological studies were
      conducted to determine the deposition and spread of methylene blue and local
      anesthetic injected respectively into the axilla via the thoracic inter-fascial
      plane. Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies were then conducted in 15 of 34
      patients scheduled for unilateral breast surgery that entailed any of the
      following: axillary clearance, sentinel node biopsy, axillary node biopsy, or
      supernumerary breasts, to ascertain the deposition and time course of spread of
      solution within the thoracic interfascial plane in vivo. RESULTS: Radiological
      and cadaveric studies showed that the injection of local anesthetic and methylene
      blue via the thoracic inter-fascial plane, using ultrasound guide technique,
      results in reliable deposition into the axilla. In patients, the injection of the
      local anesthetic produced a reliable axillary sensory block. This finding was
      supported by Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies that showed hyper-intense signals
      in the axillary region. CONCLUSIONS: These findings define the anatomic
      characteristics of the thoracic interfascial plane nerve block in the axillary
      region, and underline the clinical potential of this novel nerve block.

PMID- 28867152
TI  - Cognitive and affective empathy among adolescent siblings of children with a
      physical disability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study is a continuation of research on possible psychosocial
      benefits resulting from exposure to sibling with disability present in the family
      system. The issue seems to be especially important in Poland because of growing
      number of children with a disability and inconsistent results of previously
      performed studies. OBJECTIVE: The main aim of this study was to examine the
      differences in the intensity of cognitive and affective empathy in adolescents
      who either have or do not have siblings with physical disability. The authors
      hypothesized that the increased exposure to individual with disability should
      result in positive attitude towards such people and this tendency should be
      manifested in elevated empathy and compassion. METHODS: The study was carried out
      between September and November 2016. To meet the goals set to the study, a sample
      of 292 students from public middle and high schools were assessed using self
      report demographic questionnaire and measure of empathy (IRI). The participants
      were between 13 and 19 years old. Among them 128 had a disabled sibling (Group T)
      and 164 constituted a comparative group (Group C). Interpretation of results is
      based on descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Participants having a disabled sibling
      showed significantly higher scores related both to cognitive and affective
      empathy. Some significant differences were also noted in relation to
      participants' gender and age. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to individuals with physical
      disability in family context may facilitate development of positive psychosocial
      traits including elevated empathy and compassion in nondisabled siblings. Data
      analysis also showed significantly greater empathic and altruistic tendencies in
      females that in males.

PMID- 28867153
TI  - Rethinking informal payments by patients in Europe: An institutional approach.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to explain informal payments by patients to healthcare
      professionals for the first time through the lens of institutional theory as
      arising when there are formal institutional imperfections and asymmetry between
      norms, values and practices and the codified formal laws and regulations.
      Reporting a 2013 Eurobarometer survey of the prevalence of informal payments by
      patients in 28 European countries, a strong association is revealed between the
      degree to which formal and informal institutions are unaligned and the propensity
      to make informal payments. The association between informal payments and formal
      institutional imperfections is then explored to evaluate which structural
      conditions might reduce this institutional asymmetry, and thus the propensity to
      make informal payments. The paper concludes by exploring the implications for
      tackling such informal practices.

PMID- 28867154
TI  - Could serum S100B be a predictor of neuronal damage and clinical poor outcomes
      associated with the use of synthetic cannabinoids? S100B to predict neuronal
      damage of SC in the ED.
AB  - AIM: This study aims to evaluate the serum S100B levels to predict neuronal
      damage and poor clinical outcomes associated with the use of synthetic
      cannabinoids. METHOD: Thirty patients identified as synthetic cannabinoid users
      and 30 healthy controls were included in the study. S100B levels were compared
      between healthy controls and synthetic cannabinoid users. The following were
      considered to be composite outcomes: the need for endotracheal intubation,
      incidence of seizures, the need for intensive care unit admission, and in
      hospital mortality. Clinical and laboratory findings associated with composite
      clinical outcomes were examined. RESULTS: The mean S100B level was 19.3 (95% CI:
      17.7 to 21.4) pg/mL in patients who use synthetic cannabinoid, and 15.9 (95% CI:
      15 to 16.9) pg/mL in the controls; mean df: -3.6 (95% CI: -5.6 to -1.6). In
      patients with and without composite clinical outcomes, the mean S100B level
      measured 24.5 (95% CI: 21.2 to 27.9) pg/mL and 17.4 (95% CI: 15.8 to 18.4) pg/mL,
      respectively; mean df: -7.4 (95% CI: -10.2 to -4.6). With the cut-off value for
      S100B set at 20pg/mL based on the highest sensitivity, the sensitivity,
      specificity, PPV, and NPV for S100B were 89.9%, 52.0%, 44.4%, and 91.9%,
      respectively; odds ratio: 13.2, 95% CI (2.1 to 28.1). CONCLUSION: Our data
      suggest that serum S100B levels are elevated in patients using synthetic
      cannabinoids. These results show that S100B can help clinicians stratify risk or
      may have a role in excluding those with neuronal damage.

PMID- 28867155
TI  - The boundaries of fetal cardiac intervention: Expand or tighten?
AB  - Fetal cardiac intervention (FCI) is a relatively new and continually evolving
      field, and, for select cardiac defects, offers the potential to alter the
      progression of the disease and improve outcomes. It is a procedure that requires
      a collaborative effort between maternal-fetal medicine, interventional cardiology
      and fetal echo/ultrasound specialists, as well as fetal and maternal
      anesthesiologists, nursing specialists, and social workers. This article reviews
      the most recently reported data and advances in FCI. Currently, FCI is most
      frequently performed in fetuses with severe aortic stenosis (AS) with evolving
      hypoplastic left heart syndrome (eHLHS), established HLHS with intact or highly
      restrictive atrial septum (IAS), and pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular
      septum (PA-IVS) with evolving hypoplastic right heart syndrome (eHRHS). The goal
      of FCI for eHLHS and eHRHS is to promote a postnatal biventricular circulation
      with, theoretically, the potential for better long-term outcomes. In HLHS with
      IAS the aim is to improve survival. Contemporary data for FCI demonstrate limited
      maternal risks and improving technical success. With experience, FCI in severe AS
      with eHLHS has shown improved rates of biventricular outcome and early survival.
      Limited data for PA-IVS show promise for improving postnatal biventricular
      outcomes; however, for HLHS with IAS, FCI has yet to clearly demonstrate improved
      survival. FCI has an evolving role in the management of congenital heart defects.
      Ongoing analysis of disease progression, patient selection and postnatal
      outcomes, in conjuncture with technologic innovations and a multicenter
      collaborative approach, is essential as the field expands.

PMID- 28867156
TI  - [Sexual risk behaviours and PAP testing in university women vaccinated against
      human papillomavirus].
AB  - AIM: To estimate the association between the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine
      and sexual risk behaviour, as well as the participation in the Cervical Cancer
      Screening Program (CCSP). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. LOCATION: School of
      Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Law, and School of Economics and Business
      (University of Oviedo). PARTICIPANTS: Female university students. MAIN
      MEASUREMENTS: Information was collected about contraceptive methods, sexual
      behaviours, HPV knowledge, and participation in the CCSP. Furthermore,
      proportions and odds ratio (OR) were estimated with their corresponding 95%
      confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: Approximately two-thirds (67.7%) of the
      sample was vaccinated against HPV, and 216 women (65.3%) were sexually active.
      Barrier contraceptive methods were used by 67.6% during their current intimate
      relationships, being less frequent in non-vaccinated women (54.9% vs. 75.4% in
      vaccinated female students) (P=.002). The risk of having at least one sexual risk
      behaviour was higher in non-vaccinated women: OR2.29 (95%CI: 1.29-4.07). In
      addition, the probability of having a PAP test within the CCSP was higher in non
      vaccinated women: OR2.18 (95%CI: 1.07-4.47). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      sexual risk behaviours in non-vaccinated women is elevated, and it is related to
      the lack of use of barrier contraceptive methods. The vaccination against HPV
      could affect sexual behaviours and the participation in the CCSP. Therefore, the
      information received by young people about contraceptive methods, sexually
      transmitted diseases, and cancer prevention should be reinforced.

PMID- 28867157
TI  - [Fine-tuning of antithrombotic therapy in patients with non-valvular atrial
      fibrillation. The AFINVA register].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether antithrombotic treatment (ATT) in patients with
      non-valvular atrial fibrillation in a health area complies with the
      recommendations of current clinical guidelines. DESIGN: Prospective observational
      study. LOCATION: Primary Health Care Centres and Cardiology Department of a
      Health Department of the Valencian Community, Spain. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 505
      patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation were included in the study. MAIN
      MEASUREMENTS: ATT was deemed to be inappropriate in patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc
      score >=1 and who were not under oral anticoagulation, in patients treated with
      antivitaminK drugs, and poor control of oral anticoagulation, or with
      antiplatelet therapy inappropriately associated with anticoagulation, and in
      patients on ATT with a CHA2DS2-VASc score=0. RESULTS: The median age was 77.4+/
      10years. The ATT was considered inadequate in 58% of cases. Factors independently
      associated with inadequate ATT were age (OR: 1.02 [1-1.04]; P=.029),
      hypothyroidism (OR: 1.98 [1.14-3.43]; P=.015), ischaemic heart disease (OR: 1.3
      [1.15-2.59]; P=.008) and paroxysmal non-valvular AF (OR: 2.11 [1.41-3.17];
      P<.0001). CONCLUSIONS: These data underline the high prevalence of inadequate ATT
      in daily practice, as well its different causes.

PMID- 28867158
TI  - Acylglycerol Kinase: Mitochondrial Protein Transport Meets Lipid Biosynthesis.
AB  - The carrier translocase (TIM22 complex) inserts hydrophobic proteins into the
      mitochondrial inner membrane. Recently, the acylglycerol kinase (AGK) mutated in
      Sengers syndrome was identified as a novel subunit of the human TIM22 complex.
      This finding reveals an exciting link between mitochondrial protein and lipid
      biogenesis.

PMID- 28867160
TI  - Children with nocturnal enuresis and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A
      separate entity?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is ongoing debate about whether nocturnal enuresis (NE) is
      affected by the presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in
      children. Clarifying this relationship could categorize them as a separate
      entity, potentially requiring a different management from enuretic children
      without ADHD. AIMS: To study whether (1) children with ADHD exhibited greater
      severity of enuresis and associated voiding symptoms compared with children
      without ADHD, (2) whether there was a difference in enuretic response to
      treatment between children with/without ADHD, (3) whether previously prescribed
      medication for ADHD affected severity of enuresis or voiding symptoms, and
      response to treatment. METHODS: Data on all consecutive children seen with
      primary NE and ADHD and age- and gender-matched children with NE without ADHD
      over the course of 2 years were extracted from our database. Controls were
      identified using a random number generator to choose patients within each
      age/gender group. Changes in Dysfunctional Voiding Scoring System (DVSS) and
      Bristol scores were assessed before and after treatment for NE using repeated
      measures ANOVAs. Number of weekly wet nights was compared between the groups
      before and after the treatment of enuresis. Children with more than a 50%
      decrease in number of wet nights per week were categorized as responding to
      treatment. RESULTS: Compared with controls, ADHD children (N = 95) had
      significantly more severe voiding symptoms, NE and constipation (Table). No
      significant differences were found between children on ADHD medication (63.2%)
      and those who were not on ADHD medication (36.8%) on any of the demographic and
      pre-treatment clinical parameters. Similar enuretic response rates to behavioral
      modification alone were seen in both study (13.5%) and control (12.8%) groups (p
      = 0.73). Response to pharmacological treatment was seen in nine patients with
      ADHD (42.9%) and in six (20.7%) controls, with pharmacological intervention being
      significantly more effective than behavioral modification for patients with ADHD
      (p = 0.012). Additionally, no difference was found between ADHD patients on and
      off ADHD medication in terms of response to enuresis treatment. CONCLUSION: In
      children with primary NE, the presence of ADHD was associated with more severe
      NE, voiding symptoms and constipation. The severity of voiding symptoms and/or NE
      was unrelated to the use of stimulant medication. The response to behavioral
      modification was comparable in both groups. However, patients with ADHD were
      significantly more responsive to medication for NE compared with behavioral
      modification, indicating a possible benefit for earlier pharmacological treatment
      for enuresis in this population subgroup.

PMID- 28867159
TI  - New Insights into the Nuclear Imaging Phenotypes of Cluster 1 Pheochromocytoma
      and Paraganglioma.
AB  - Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs) belong to the family of neural crest
      cell-derived neoplasms. In up to 70% of cases they are associated with germline
      and somatic mutations in 15 well-characterized PPGL driver or fusion genes. PPGLs
      can be grouped into three main clusters, where cluster 1 includes PPGLs
      characterized by a pseudohypoxic signature. Although cluster 1 tumors share
      several common features, they exhibit unique behaviors. We present here unique
      insights into the imaging phenotypes of cluster 1 PPGLs based on glucose uptake,
      catecholamine metabolism, and somatostatin receptor expression. Recent data
      suggest that succinate is a major player in the imaging phenotype of succinate
      dehydrogenase-deficient PPGLs. This review emphasizes the emerging stromal cell
      succinate interaction and highlights new perspectives in PPGL theranostics.

PMID- 28867161
TI  - Hyaluronidase Injection in the Vocal Folds for Vocal Hemorrhage, Reinke Edema,
      and Hyaluronic Acid Overinjection: A Novel Application in the Larynx.
AB  - Hyaluronidase (HAase) injection into the vocal folds is an off-label use of an
      enzyme for liquefaction of hyaluronic acid (HA). HAase injection was performed in
      14 cases in 13 patients. Office and operative injections of HAase were performed.
      The indications were five cases of overinjection of HA, six cases of Reinke edema
      and polypoid corditis, and three cases of acute vocal hemorrhage with early
      fusiform polyp formation. All the patients tolerated the HAase without
      complications. Significant voice improvements were noted between pre- and
      postinjection procedures as evaluated by a self-rating of voice by the Voice
      Handicap Index-10. A marked decrement in the mass on the side of the injection of
      HAase was noted in all groups successfully injected upon viewing by
      videostroboscopy. HAase prevented an additional operative phonosurgery in 10
      patients. In conclusion, HAase injection can be used in the vocal folds with good
      effect in patients. The indications are polypoid corditis with overproduction of
      HA, acute vocal hemorrhage, and correction of iatrogenic HA overinjection.

PMID- 28867162
TI  - DCTN1 variation in pathologically-confirmed PSP and CBD tauopathy.

PMID- 28867163
TI  - Tongue tremor as a manifestation of atypical Parkinsonism treated with coaxial
      deep brain stimulation of thalamus and subthalamic area.

PMID- 28867164
TI  - Venom Peptides: Improving Specificity in Cancer Therapy.
AB  - Venom peptides (VPs) exhibit high specificity and selectivity towards cancer
      cells, with effects on cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and angiogenesis,
      as well as modulating immune responses. Studying VPs can help the design of more
      specific peptide drugs for targeted cancer therapy.

PMID- 28867165
TI  - Antitumor Antibodies Can Drive Therapeutic T Cell Responses.
AB  - The classical view of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against tumor
      associated antigens (TAAs) is that their mechanism of action is dominated by
      signal blocking or the cytotoxicity of Fc-driven innate immune effector
      functions. We review here a mounting body of evidence that anti-TAA mAbs are
      capable of profoundly synergizing with T cell-directed immunotherapies such as
      checkpoint blockade and adoptive cell therapy. Two key components account for
      this synergy: (i) a self-vaccinal effect mediated by dendritic cells (DCs); and
      (ii) an inflammatory repolarization of the tumor microenvironment. Efficient
      exploitation of these mechanisms has tremendous therapeutic potential.

PMID- 28867167
TI  - Pediatric Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukemia: Multitasking Fusion Proteins and
      Oncogenic Cooperations.
AB  - Pediatric leukemia presents specific clinical and genetic features from adult
      leukemia but the underpinning mechanisms of transformation are still unclear.
      Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) is the malignant accumulation of
      progenitors of the megakaryocyte lineage that normally produce blood platelets.
      AMKL is diagnosed de novo, in patients showing a poor prognosis, or in Down
      syndrome (DS) patients with a better prognosis. Recent data show that de novo
      AMKL is primarily associated with chromosomal alterations leading to the
      expression of fusions between transcriptional regulators. This review highlights
      the most recurrent genetic events found in de novo pediatric AMKL patients and,
      based on recent functional analyses, proposes a mechanism of leukemogenesis
      common to de novo and DS-AMKL.

PMID- 28867166
TI  - Targeting Inflammation to Improve Tumor Drug Delivery.
AB  - Inefficient delivery of drugs is a main cause of chemotherapy failure in
      hypoperfused tumors. To enhance perfusion and drug delivery in these tumors, two
      strategies have been developed: vascular normalization, aiming at normalizing
      tumor vasculature and blood vessel leakiness, and stress alleviation, aiming at
      decompressing tumor vessels. Vascular normalization is based on anti-angiogenic
      drugs, whereas stress alleviation is based on stroma-depleting agents. We present
      here an alternative approach to normalize tumor vasculature, taking into account
      that malignant tumors tend to develop at sites of chronic inflammation. Similarly
      to tumor vessel leakiness, inflammation is also characterized by vascular
      hyperpermeability. Therefore, testing the ability of anti-inflammatory agents,
      such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or inflammation resolution
      mediators, as an alternative means to increase tumor drug delivery might prove
      promising.

PMID- 28867168
TI  - The Unfolded Protein Response in Immunogenic Cell Death and Cancer Immunotherapy.
AB  - The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a conserved pathway that is stimulated
      when endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis is disturbed or lost. Accumulating
      evidence indicates that chronic activation of the UPR supports the main hallmarks
      of cancer by favoring cancer cell-autonomous and nonautonomous processes, which
      ultimately foster the immunosuppressive and protumorigenic microenvironment.
      However, certain forms of therapy-induced ER stress can elicit immunogenic cancer
      cell death (ICD), which enables the release of key immunostimulatory or danger
      signals, eventually driving efficient antitumor immunity. In this review, after a
      brief discussion of the interplay between ER stress and protumorigenic
      inflammation, we review the relevance of therapy-mediated ER stress pathways in
      evoking ICD and how they could be used to optimize current immunotherapy
      approaches against cancer.

PMID- 28867171
TI  - Correction in the Article by Kirchhof et al. "2016 ESC Guidelines for the
      Management of Atrial Fibrillation Developed in Collaboration With EACTS". Rev Esp
      Cardiol. 2017;70:50.e1-e84.

PMID- 28867170
TI  - Assessment of pit latrines in a peri-urban community in KwaZulu-Natal (South
      Africa) as a source of antibiotic resistant E. coli strains.
AB  - Due to the frequent use of antibiotics and recurring illnesses related to
      multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in South Africa, we determined if MDR
      Escherichia coli were present in pit latrine fecal sludge samples obtained from a
      peri-urban community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The abundance of E. coli in
      pit latrine samples was established using a most probable number (MPN) method
      with species confirmation done using biochemical tests and polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR). Forty-four randomly selected E. coli pit latrine isolates were
      further characterized, using the European committee on antimicrobial
      susceptibility testing (EUCAST) disk diffusion method to establish antibiotic
      resistance profiles for these E. coli isolates. The resulting MPN values for E.
      coli ranged from one to 6.2 log10 MPN per gram of fresh pit latrine fecal sludge.
      While only 3 out of 44 E. coli pit latrine isolates showed no resistance to any
      of the 12 tested antibiotics, most isolates were resistant to two or more
      antibiotics. The majority of isolates showed resistance to at least one of the
      two tested aminoglycosides, one isolate showed resistance to the carbapenem
      ertapenem, and although resistance was not detected for tigecycline four pit
      latrine E. coli isolates showed intermediate resistance to this antibiotic.
      However, about 14% of the E. coli pit latrine isolates were categorized as MDR,
      all of which showed resistance to four or more antibiotics. The presence of MDR
      E. coli strains in pit latrine samples demonstrates that these facilities are
      potential sources for MDR bacteria.

PMID- 28867169
TI  - Nitric Oxide: The Forgotten Child of Tumor Metabolism.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) is a signaling molecule with pleiotropic physiological roles in
      normal cells and pathophysiological roles in cancer. NO synthetase expression and
      NO synthesis are linked to altered metabolism, neoplasticity, invasiveness,
      chemoresistance, immune evasion, and ultimately to poor prognosis of cancer
      patients. Exogenous NO in the microenvironment facilitates paracrine signaling,
      mediates immune responses, and triggers angiogenesis. NO regulates
      posttranslational protein modifications, S-nitrosation, and genome-wide
      epigenetic modifications that can have both tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressing
      effects. We review mechanisms that link NO to cancer hallmarks, with a
      perspective of co-targeting NO metabolism with first-line therapies for improved
      outcome. We highlight the need for quantitative flux analysis to study NO in
      tumors.

PMID- 28867172
TI  - Untreated unruptured aneurysm: Natural history at long-term.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although the diagnosis of unruptured intracranial
      aneurysm (IA) has become more frequent, its natural history and management still
      remain controversial. A better comprehension of its evolution could optimize our
      therapeutic strategies. The aim of our study was to evaluate, in a cohort of
      patients with untreated unruptured IA based on the proposition of
      multidisciplinary staff meetings, the proportion of bleeding, death and
      cardiovascular events during a long-term prospective follow-up. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This longitudinal study concerned a series of patients with unruptured
      IA collected over a period of 8 years (2006-2014) identified from a prospectively
      collected database including all patients with unruptured IA discussed during
      multidisciplinary staff meetings in the neurosurgery department at Rouen
      University Hospital. Clinical endpoints were the rupture rate, incidence of death
      or occurrence of noticeable pathological event defined by any event leading to
      death, admission to the intensive care unit or challenging the vital prognosis.
      RESULTS: After a mean follow-up delay of 46.9+/-18.7 months, the IA remained
      stable in 73 patients (98.6%) out of 74. The rate of rupture per aneurysm year of
      follow-up was 0.3%, the rate of cardiovascular events was 2.1% and the death rate
      was 2.8% per year of follow-up. DISCUSSION: In this study, we emphasize the
      important incidence of adverse events in these patients, which has to be taken
      into account before proposing a prophylactic IA exclusion. The low incidence of
      IA rupture confirmed the decision of conservative treatment made during a
      multidisciplinary staff meeting.

PMID- 28867174
TI  - Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression.

PMID- 28867173
TI  - Different processing of CAPA and pyrokinin precursors in the giant mealworm
      beetle Zophobas atratus (Tenebrionidae) and the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis
      grandis (Curculionidae).
AB  - Capa and pyrokinin (pk) genes in hexapods share a common evolutionary origin.
      Using transcriptomics and peptidomics, we analyzed products of these genes in two
      beetles, the giant mealworm beetle (Zophobas atratus; Tenebrionidae) and the boll
      weevil (Anthonomus grandis grandis; Curculionidae). Our data revealed that even
      within Coleoptera, which represents a very well-defined group of insects, highly
      different evolutionary developments occurred in the neuropeptidergic system.
      These differences, however, primarily affect the general structure of the
      precursors and differential processing of mature peptides and, to a lesser
      degree, the sequences of the active core motifs. With the differential processing
      of the CAPA-precursor in Z. atratus we found a perfect example of completely
      different products cleaved from a single neuropeptide precursor in different
      cells. The CAPA precursor in abdominal ganglia of this species yields primarily
      periviscerokinins (PVKs) whereas processing of the same precursor in
      neurosecretory cells of the subesophageal ganglion results in CAPA-tryptoPK and a
      novel CAPA-PK. Particularly important was the detection of that CAPA-PK which has
      never been observed in the CNS of insects before. The three different types of
      CAPA peptides (CAPA-tryptoPK, CAPA-PK, PVK) each represent potential ligands
      which activate different receptors. In contrast to the processing of the CAPA
      precursor from Z. atratus, no indications of a differential processing of the
      CAPA precursor were found in A. g. grandis. These data suggest that rapid
      evolutionary changes regarding the processing of CAPA precursors were still going
      on when the different beetle lineages diverged. The sequence of the single known
      PVK of A. g. grandis occupies a special position within the known PVKs of insects
      and might serve asa basis to develop lineage-specific peptidomimetics capable of
      disrupting physiological processes regulated by PVKs.

PMID- 28867175
TI  - Thrombo-hemorrhagic liability in children with congenital heart diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The precise mechanisms of the increased incidence of hemostatic
      abnormalities in congenital heart disease (CHD) have not been determined. The aim
      of the study was to evaluate some indicators of activation of platelets and
      vascular endothelial cells in patients with CHD, evaluation of bleeding liability
      of these patients, and correlation with the clinical presentation of these
      patients. METHODS: This work was carried out on 20 patients with cyanotic
      congenital heart diseases (CCHD), 20 patients with acyanotic congenital heart
      diseases (ACHD), and 20 healthy children who served as the control group, aged
      between 1 and 10years. All were subjected to full clinical examination, complete
      blood count, oxygen saturation, echocardiography, bleeding and coagulation times,
      PT, PTT, FDPs, plasma soluble P-selectin, E-selectin, and platelet factor 4
      (PF4). RESULTS: There was significant prolongation of PT and PTT, and there was a
      significant lowering of platelet counts. These results were obtained in CCHD and
      ACHD, but were more significant in CCHD patients. There was a significant
      elevation in PF4 (55.0+/-25.5ng/mL), P-selectin (128.9+/-42.44ng/dL), and E
      selectin (9461.5+/-1701.24pg/mL) levels in children with CCHD as compared to
      those with ACHD (PF4, 21+/-7.94ng/mL; P-selectin, 80.1+/-13.2ng/mL; E-selectin,
      7969.6+/-2127.5pg/mL), and significant increase in both groups when compared to
      the control group (PF4, 8.1+/-4.7ng/mL; P-selectin, 27.83+/-9.73ng/mL; E
      selectin, 6750.00+/-3204.00pg/mL). There was a significant negative correlation
      between oxygen saturation, plasma P-selectin (r=-0.865), E-selectin (r=-0.401),
      and PF4 (r=-0.792) in patients with CCHD. CONCLUSION: Patients with CHD-both
      cyanotic and acyanotic-have variable degrees of increased liability for both
      thrombosis and hemorrhage that represents some sort of adaptation to preserve
      hemostasis and to protect these patients against the clinical presentation of
      both thrombosis and bleeding. This is to say that CHD patients have their own
      point of balance between thrombogenicity and bleeding liability. Wide-scale
      studies are needed to detect the normal levels of different thrombohemorrhagic
      parameters of these patients.

PMID- 28867176
TI  - A Study Demonstrating the Quantitative Relationship Between Internal Thoracic
      Artery Length and Free Flow.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The left internal thoracic artery (LITA) is the most commonly used
      arterial bypass conduit in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients and
      inadequate LITA flow can result in an increase in morbidity and mortality. In
      this study, we evaluated the effect of excision of the distal spasmodic segment
      of the LITA on the free flow in CABG patients. METHODS: This study consisted of
      47 patients who underwent elective CABG performed with or without other cardiac
      surgery, between July 2015 and December 2015. Excised LITA length was shorter
      than 15mm in group 1, between 15mm and 30mm in group 2 and longer than 30mm in
      group 3. Left ITA free flow was measured for 60seconds into a container before
      and after the distal LITA excision. The inter-measurement differences were
      calculated for the three groups. Thereafter, the comparison was performed in
      terms of free flow difference amongst the three groups. RESULTS: The mean
      difference of LITA free flow was 27.6+/-22.7ml/minute in group 1, 35.4+/
      26.7ml/minute in group 2, and 52.6+/-26.1ml/minute in group 3. There were
      significant differences in terms of free flow difference between the groups
      (p=0.008). Also, differences were statistically significant in group 1 versus
      group 3 (p=0.003) and group 2 versus group 3 (p=0.038) in the intergroup
      comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: The distal part of the LITA has more spasmodic
      potential than other segments. This spasm may result in low flow of LITA grafts.
      Therefore, an as long as possible excision of the distal LITA segment may be
      required to avoid the spasmodic effect.

PMID- 28867177
TI  - Postoperative Lung Torsion With Retained Viability: The Presentation and Surgical
      Indications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We review our experience with postoperative lung torsion with
      retained viability. METHODS: A total of 2165 patients underwent pulmonary
      resection (lobectomy or segmentectomy) at our institution between 1 January,
      1986, and 31 March, 2017. Eight (0.3%, six males and two females: median age, 68
      years) had lung torsion with retained viability. RESULTS: The right upper lobe
      was resected in seven patients, while the left upper segment was resected in one
      patient. The lung torsion with retained viability was the right middle lobe in
      seven patients and the left lingular segment in one patient. A bronchoscopic
      examination was performed in four patients to diagnose the pulmonary torsion;
      however, it demonstrated no specific findings. Subsequently, computed tomography
      (CT) was performed in all the patients, and lung torsion was diagnosed in all the
      patients based on the CT findings. None of the patients showed any symptoms when
      lung torsion was diagnosed in them. The diagnosis of pulmonary torsion was made
      at a median of 4 days (range, 1-22 days) after the initial surgery. Six patients
      underwent detorsion of the affected lung, while one patient had a lobectomy, and
      one patient received conservative management. The lungs of all patients in which
      detorsion was performed adequately re-expanded. Frequent pneumonia in the viable
      torsed lung was diagnosed as a cause of death in the one patient who received
      conservative management. CONCLUSION: The timely decision to follow a surgical
      approach for lung torsion with retained viability can lead to a satisfactory
      outcome.

PMID- 28867178
TI  - Associations of ERAP1 coding variants and domain specific interaction with HLA
      C*06 in the early onset psoriasis patients of India.
AB  - Interferon-gamma-induced aminopeptidase ERAP1 trims peptides within the
      endoplasmic reticulum so that they can be loaded onto MHC class I and presented
      to the CD8+ T-cells. ERAP1 association and its interaction with HLA-C*06 is
      controversial across different populations. We have investigated the association
      and possible functional role of non-synonymous SNPs at different exons of ERAP1
      (rs26653: Arg127Pro, rs30187: Lys528Arg and rs27044: Gln730Glu) and their
      interactions with HLA-C*06 in psoriasis. Significant associations of HLA-C*06
      (OR=5.47, P<2.2*10-16), rs30187 (OR 1.35, P=7.4*10-4) and rs27044 (OR=1.24,
      P=5.8*10-3) were observed. All three ERAP1 SNPs showed significant association
      only for HLA-C*06 positive patients, while rs30187 and rs27044 showed significant
      association only for early onset patients (rs30187: OR=1.47, P=9.6*10-5; rs27044:
      OR=1.36, P=3.3*10-4). No differential expression of ERAP1 was observed either
      between paired uninvolved and involved skin tissues of psoriasis patients or
      between non-risk and risk variants in the involved skin. Significant epistatic
      interaction was observed between HLA-C*06 and the SNP (rs27044) located at the
      peptide-binding cavity of ERAP1. Evolutionary conservation analysis among mammals
      showed confinement of Lys528 and Gln730 within highly conserved regions of ERAP1
      and suggested the possible detrimental effect of this allele in ERAP1 regulation.

PMID- 28867179
TI  - RAGE maintains high levels of NFkappaB and oncogenic Kras activity in pancreatic
      cancer.
AB  - Oncogenic KRas activity is central to several cancer types including pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) but has been determined to be "undruggable". Recent
      studies have indicated that oncogenic KRas is not constitutively active but
      relies on a feed-forward stimulatory mechanism involving NFkappaB mediated
      inflammation. In the current study, we investigated the role of the receptor for
      advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) in maintaining oncogenic signaling in
      PDAC. We observed that there was a shift in the levels of specific RAGE isoforms
      and altered cellular localization in PDAC. Furthermore, inhibition of RAGE using
      a pharmacological antagonist, FPS-ZM1, or a blocking antibody, decreased
      phosphorylation of IKBalpha and inhibited Erk activity down-stream of Kras in
      PDAC cell lines. In vivo, inhibition of RAGE using FPS-ZM1 reduced the growth of
      PDAC syngeneic orthotopic xenografts and prolonged survival. These data indicate
      that RAGE plays a central role in maintaining inflammatory signaling in PDAC that
      benefits tumor growth. These observations support the development of approaches
      to inhibit the carcinogenic actions of Kras indirectly by blocking the mechanisms
      which maintain its activity.

PMID- 28867180
TI  - Lactoferrin promotes autophagy via AMP-activated protein kinase activation
      through low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1.
AB  - Lactoferrin (LF) is a multifunctional, iron-binding glycoprotein in mammalian
      secretions, such as breast milk, and has several beneficial effects for human
      health. However, how these effects are exerted at the cellular level is still
      largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of LF on autophagy
      activity in NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblasts. LF from bovine milk was found to increase
      LC3-I to LC3-II conversion and LC3-positive cytosolic punctate structures because
      of increased autophagy flux. Knockdown of the putative LF receptor low-density
      receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) completely abolished LC3 conversion in cells by
      LF treatment. Moreover, exposure to LF increased the phosphorylation levels of
      AMPK in cells, and treatment of dorsomorphin, a pharmacological inhibitor of AMPK
      signaling, attenuated LC3 conversion by LF. Therefore, we concluded that the
      beneficial effects of LF might be due to an increase of autophagy activity via
      AMPK signaling through the LRP1 receptor. These findings provide a novel insight
      into the physiological role of LF for the maintenance of cellular and tissue
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28867181
TI  - Insulin upregulates GRIM-19 and protects cardiac mitochondrial morphology in type
      1 diabetic rats partly through PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.
AB  - Insulin is involved in the development of diabetic heart disease and is important
      in the activities of mitochondrial complex I. However, the effect of insulin on
      cardiac mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase
      (ubiquinone) 1 subunit of retinoic-interferon-induced mortality 19 (GRIM-19) has
      not been characterized. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of
      insulin on the mitochondrial GRIM-19 in the hearts of rats with streptozotocin
      (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes. Protein changes of GRIM-19 were evaluated by
      western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain
      reaction. Furthermore, the effects of insulin on mitochondrial complex I were
      detected in HeLa cells and H9C2 cardiac myocytes. During the development of
      diabetic heart disease, the cardiac function did not change within the 8 weeks,
      but the mitochondrial morphology was altered. The hearts from the rats with STZ
      induced diabetes exhibited reduced expression of GRIM-19. Prior to the overt
      cardiac dilatation, mitochondrial alterations were already present. Following
      subcutaneous insulin injection, it was demonstrated that GRIM-19 protein was
      altered, as well as the mitochondrial morphology. The phosphoinositide 3-kinase
      inhibitor LY294002 had an effect on insulin signaling in H9C2 cardiacmyocytes,
      and decreased the level of GRIM-19 by half compared with that in the insulin
      group. The results indicate that insulin is essential for the control of cardiac
      mitochondrial morphology and the GRIM-19 expression partly via PI3K/AKT signaling
      pathways.

PMID- 28867183
TI  - Indomethacin inhabits the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway and protects severe acute
      pancreatitis in mice.
AB  - Clinical studies have confirmed that indomethacin (Indo) can reduce the incidence
      and severity of post-endoscopicretrogradecholangio-pancreatography pancreatitis
      (PEP) effectively. However, the role of Indo on severe acute pancreatitis (SAP)
      is not clear. In the present study, we aimed to explore the effects of Indo
      treatment on SAP model induced by caerulein combined with lipopolysaccharide.
      After intraperitoneal injection of Indo in mice, both the severity of SAP and the
      serum levels of amylase, lipase, and proinflammatory cytokines were decreased.
      Furthermore, the mRNA and protein levels of NLRP3 inflammasome pathway (NLRP3,ASC
      and IL-1beta) in pancreatic tissues were down-regulated. In vitro experiments, by
      isolating the pancreatic acinar cells (PACs) from mice, we found that Indo
      significantly reduced lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) excretion, increased the cell
      activity, and inhibited the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway of PACs. Taken together,
      our data showed that Indo could protect pancreatic acinar cell from injury by
      inhabiting NLRP3 pathway and decreased the severity of SAP accordingly.

PMID- 28867182
TI  - Deficiency of KLF4 compromises the lung function in an acute mouse model of
      allergic asthma.
AB  - Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways and the mechanisms are
      not fully understood. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a
      heterogeneous group of monocytes, granulocyte and myeloid cells at early stage of
      differentiation. They possess phenotypic plasticity and regulate airway
      inflammation. We recently reported that Kruppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) regulates
      MDSC differentiation into fibrocytes, emerging effectors in chronic inflammation.
      However, the role of KLF4 in asthma is not known. Thymic stromal lymphopoietin
      (TSLP) is an epithelial cell-derived cytokine and a key initiator of allergic
      airway inflammation. Given the fact that TSLP promotes Th2 cytokine production
      that increases MDSC differentiation into fibrocytes, we postulate that KLF4
      regulates asthma in a TSLP-dependent manner. In this study, we utilized a model
      of allergic asthma with ovalbumin challenge (OVA). We found that upon OVA
      treatment the wild type mice had increased MDSC infiltration into the lung, up
      regulation of KLF4 and TSLP gene expression, and higher levels of Th2 cytokines
      including IL4 and IL13. Consistently, lack of KLF4 expression in monocytes and
      lung epithelial cells resulted in decreased TSLP expression and lower levels of
      Th2 cytokines in mice, and fibrocyte generation was compromised. KLF4 deficiency
      in these cells also led to decreased airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), a cardinal
      feature of asthma, as assessed by whole body plethysmography. Moreover, lung
      fibrosis as measured by trichome staining was attenuated and the population of
      CD45 + COL1A1+ fibrocytes was diminished in this setting. Together, our results
      suggest that KLF4 regulates asthma development in a TSLP- and fibrocyte-dependent
      manner.

PMID- 28867184
TI  - Crystal structure and thermodynamic dissection of chitin oligosaccharide binding
      to the LysM module of chitinase-A from Pteris ryukyuensis.
AB  - We determined the crystal structure of a LysM module from Pteris ryukyuensis
      chitinase-A (PrLysM2) at a resolution of 1.8 A. Structural and binding analysis
      of PrLysM2 indicated that this module recognizes chitin oligosaccharides in a
      shallow groove comprised of five sugar-binding subsites on one side of the
      molecule. The free energy changes (DeltaGr degrees ) for binding of (GlcNAc)6,
      (GlcNAc)5, and (GlcNAc)4 to PrLysM2 were determined to be -5.4, -5,4 and -4.6
      kcal mol-1, respectively, by ITC. Thermodynamic dissection of the binding
      energetics of (GlcNAc)6 revealed that the driving force is the enthalpy change
      (DeltaHr degrees  = -11.7 +/- 0.2 kcal/mol) and the solvation entropy change (
      TDeltaSsolv degrees  = -5.9 +/- 0.6 kcal/mol). This is the first description of
      thermodynamic signatures of a chitin oligosaccharide binding to a LysM module.

PMID- 28867185
TI  - Effects of two-dimensional materials on human mesenchymal stem cell behaviors.
AB  - Graphene, a typical two-dimensional (2D) material, is known to affect a variety
      of stem cell behaviors including adhesion, spreading, growth, and
      differentiation. Here, we report for the first time the effects of four different
      emerging 2D materials on human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSCs).
      Graphene oxide (GO), molybdenum sulfide (MoS2), tungsten sulfide (WS2), and boron
      nitride (BN) were selected as model two-dimensional materials and were coated on
      cell-culture substrates by a drop-casting method. Acute toxicity was not observed
      with any of the four different 2D materials at a low concentration range (<5
      MUg/ml). Interestingly, the 2D material-modified substrates exhibited a higher
      cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation when compared with a non-treated (NT)
      substrate. Remarkably, in the case of differentiation, the MoS2-, WS2-, and BN
      modified substrates exhibited a better performance in terms of guiding the
      adipogenesis of hADMSCs when compared with both NT and GO-modified substrates,
      based on the mRNA expression level (qPCR) and amount of lipid droplets (ORO
      staining). In contrast, the osteogenesis was found to be most efficiently induced
      by the GO-coated substrate (50 MUg/mL) among all 2D-material coated substrates.
      In summary, 2D materials could act as favorable sources for controlling the stem
      cell growth and differentiation, which might be highly advantageous in both
      biomedical research and therapy.

PMID- 28867186
TI  - Dietary beta-conglycinin prevents acute ethanol-induced fatty liver in mice.
AB  - Alcoholic fatty liver is the earliest stage of alcohol-induced liver disease
      leading to liver cirrhosis. beta-Conglycinin, one of the soy proteins, is known
      to prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver, hyperlipidemia and obesity. Therefore, we
      examined whether beta-conglycinin feeding has an effect on the prevention of
      acute ethanol-induced fatty liver in mice. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed with 20
      energy% beta-conglycinin or casein for 4 weeks prior to ethanol administration
      and were then given ethanol or glucose, as a control, by gavage. Ethanol
      significantly increased liver triglyceride (TG) in mice fed casein due to the
      activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma2, a nuclear
      transcription factor known for regulating lipid metabolism and de novo
      lipogenesis. The liver TG of ethanol-administered beta-conglycinin-fed mice was
      significantly lower than that in those fed casein, although ethanol increased the
      amount of liver TG in mice fed beta-conglycinin. The increased levels of
      PPARgamma2 protein and its target gene CD36 in response to an ethanol were not
      observed in mice fed beta-conglycinin. Moreover, beta-conglycinin decreased the
      basal expression of de novo lipogenesis-related genes such as stearoyl-CoA
      desaturase-1, and therefore, the expressions of these genes were lower in the
      ethanol-administered beta-conglycinin-fed mice than in the casein-fed mice. In
      conclusion, beta-conglycinin supplementation appears to prevent the development
      of fatty liver in mice caused by ethanol consumption via the suppression of
      alcohol-induced activation of PPARgamma2 and the downregulation of the basal
      expression of de novo lipogenesis.

PMID- 28867187
TI  - Irisin stimulates cell proliferation and invasion by targeting the PI3K/AKT
      pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Irisin is a newly identified myokine that may be cancer-associated, and its
      impact on liver cancer is unclear. To understand the roles of irisin in liver
      cancer, we investigated its effect in HepG2 and SMCC7721 hepatocellular carcinoma
      cells, and the underlying mechanisms. We determined irisin levels in liver
      tissues and serum samples obtained from patients by using real-time polymerase
      chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Irisin levels in cancerous
      livers were significantly upregulated compared with those in control livers, but
      serum irisin levels remained unchanged. Additionally, we evaluated the effects of
      different concentrations of human recombinant modified and active (glycosylated)
      irisin (IM) or human recombinant nonmodified irisin (INM) on cell migration,
      proliferation, viability, and invasiveness. CCK8, transwell, and scratching
      assays demonstrated that irisin significantly increased cell proliferation,
      invasion, and migration through activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway. Irisin
      induced cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were blocked by a PI3K
      inhibitor (LY294002). Irisin also decreased the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin in
      HepG2 cells. These data indicate that increased irisin levels may have protective
      roles in liver cancer cells through partial activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway,
      which may facilitate liver cancer progression and decrease the sensitivity to
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28867188
TI  - Disruption of the hydrogen bonding network determines the pH-induced non
      fluorescent state of the fluorescent protein ZsYellow by protonation of Glu221.
AB  - Many fluorescent proteins (FPs) exhibit fluorescence quenching at a low pH. This
      pH-induced non-fluorescent state of an FP serves as a useful indicator of the
      cellular pH. ZsYellow is widely used as an optical marker in molecular biology,
      but its pH-induced non-fluorescent state has not been characterized. Here, we
      report the pH-dependent spectral properties of ZsYellow, which exhibited the pH
      induced non-fluorescence state at a pH below 4.0. We determined the crystal
      structures of ZsYellow at pH 3.5 (non-fluorescence state) and 8.0 (fluorescence
      state), which revealed the cis-configuration of the chromophore without pH
      induced isomerization. In the non-fluorescence state, Arg95, which is involved in
      stabilization of the exited state of the chromophore, was found to more loosely
      interact with the carbonyl oxygen atom of the chromophore when compared to the
      interaction at pH 8.0. In the fluorescence state, Glu221, which is involved in
      the hydrogen bonding network around the chromophore, stably interacted with Gln42
      and His202. By contrast, in the non-fluorescence state, the protonated conserved
      Glu221 residue exhibited a large conformational change and was separated from
      His202 by 5.46 A, resulting in breakdown of the hydrogen bond network. Our
      results provide insight into the critical role of the conserved Glu221 residue
      for generating the pH-induced non-fluorescent state.

PMID- 28867189
TI  - Modified high-throughput quantification of plasma microRNAs in heparinized
      patients with coronary artery disease using heparinase.
AB  - Heparin, a widely used anticoagulant in cardiovascular diseases, is notorious for
      its inhibitory effect on qRT-PCR-based detection. Heparinase I could degrade
      heparin in RNA. qRT-PCR-based TaqMan Low Density Array (TLDA) technology is
      commonly used for circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) profiling analysis. However, the
      effect of heparin contamination on inhibition of miRNAs TLDA amplification, as
      well as the method for removing heparin during this process, are not yet well
      investigated. We obtained the plasma RNA samples from patients undergoing
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) before and after heparinization (n =
      26). We found that heparin suppressed the miRNAs amplification by ~8 cycles in
      the TLDA assay, which was absolutely reversed after treating the RNA samples with
      heparinase I using the components from TLDA reverse transcription system. We
      further observed that heparin inhibited the miRNAs amplification by ~4 cycles in
      the qRT-PCR assay, which was also reversed by heparinase I using the similar
      method. Furthermore, we demonstrated that plasma miR-92a and miR-155 were
      differentially expressed in the patients undergoing PCI tested by TLDA assay,
      which was validated by qRT-PCR. In conclusion, we present a simple method for the
      removal of heparin with heparinase I, and for the subsequent successful miRNAs
      TLDA or RT-qPCR amplification.

PMID- 28867190
TI  - Modulation of RAB5A early endosome trafficking in response to KRas mediated
      macropinocytic fluxes in pancreatic cancer cells.
AB  - KRAS is the key mutated gene in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Emerging
      evidence indicates that KRas modulates endocytic uptake. The present study aimed
      to explore the fate of early endosomal trafficking under the control of KRas
      expression in PDAC. Surprisingly, PANC-1 cells lacking KRas exhibited
      significantly enlarged early and late endosomes containing internalized dextran
      and epidermal growth factor. Endosome enlargement was accompanied by reduced
      endosomal degradation. Both KRas silencing and lysosomal blockade caused an
      upregulation of the master regulator of early endosome biogenesis, RAB5A, which
      is likely responsible for the expansion of the early endosomal compartment,
      because simultaneous KRAS/RAB5A knockdown abolished endosome enlargement. In
      contrast, early endosome shrinkage was seen in MIA PaCa-2 cells despite RAB5A
      upregulation, indicating that distinct KRas-modulated responses operate in
      different metabolic subtypes of PDAC. In conclusion, mutant KRAS promotes
      endosomal degradation in PDAC cell lines, which is impaired by KRAS silencing.
      Moreover, KRAS silencing activates RAB5A upregulation and drives PDAC subtype
      dependent modulation of endosome trafficking.

PMID- 28867191
TI  - Aging-related mitochondrial dysfunction facilitates the occurrence of serious
      arrhythmia after myocardial infarction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During aging a mosaic of normal cells and cells with mitochondrial
      deficiency develops in various tissues including the heart. Whether this
      contributes to higher susceptibility for arrhythmia following myocardial
      infarction (MI) is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Myocardial cryoinfarction was
      performed in 12-month-old transgenic mice with accelerated accumulation of
      deletions in mitochondrial DNA. Occurrence and pathogenesis of arrhythmia was
      investigated after two weeks. Holter-ECG recordings revealed higher rates of
      premature ventricular complexes (incidence > 10/24 h: 100% vs. 20%; p = 0.048)
      and more severe spontaneous arrhythmia during stress test in mutant mice with MI
      as compared to control mice with MI. Mice with mitochondrial dysfunction
      exhibited longer spontaneous AV-blocks (467 +/- 26 ms vs. 377 +/- 24 ms; p =
      0.013), an increased probability for induction of ventricular tachycardia during
      in vivo electrophysiological investigation (22% vs. 9%; p = 0.044), and a reduced
      conduction velocity in the infarct borderzone (38.5 +/- 0.5 cm/s vs. 55.3 +/- 0.9
      cm/s; p = 0.001). Furthermore, mutant mice exhibited a significant reduction of
      the phospho-Cx43/Cx43 ratio in right (0.59 +/- 0.04 vs. 0.85 +/- 0.01; p = 0.027)
      and left ventricular myocardium (0.72 +/- 0.01 vs. 0.86 +/- 0.02; p = 0.023).
      CONCLUSIONS: Aging-related cardiac mosaic respiratory chain dysfunction
      facilitates the occurrence of spontaneous and inducible cardiac arrhythmia after
      myocardial infarction and is associated with slowing of electrical impulse
      propagation in the infarct borderzone.

PMID- 28867192
TI  - Apigenin inhibits d-galactosamine/LPS-induced liver injury through upregulation
      of hepatic Nrf-2 and PPARgamma expressions in mice.
AB  - Apigenin is a natural flavonoid compound widely distributed in a variety of
      vegetables, medicinal plants and health foods. This study aimed to examine the
      protective effect of apigenin against d-galactosamine (D-GalN)/lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS)-induced mouse liver injury and to investigate the potential biochemical
      mechanisms. The results showed that after oral administration of apigenin 100-200
      mg/kg for 7 days, the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate
      aminotransferase were decreased, and the severity of liver injury was alleviated.
      Importantly, apigenin pretreatment increased the levels of hepatic nuclear factor
      erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf-2) and peroxisome proliferator-activated
      receptor gamma (PPARgamma) protein expressions as well as superoxide dismutase,
      catalase, glutathione S-transferase and glutathione reductase activities,
      decreased the levels of hepatic nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) protein
      expression and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. These findings demonstrated that
      apigenin could prevent the D-GalN/LPS-induced liver injury in mice, and its
      mechanisms might be associated with the increments of Nrf-2-mediated
      antioxidative enzymes and modulation of PPARgamma/NF-kappaB-mediated
      inflammation.

PMID- 28867193
TI  - TRIM25 is associated with cisplatin resistance in non-small-cell lung carcinoma
      A549 cell line via downregulation of 14-3-3sigma.
AB  - Lung cancer, in particular, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is the leading
      cause of cancer-related mortality. Cis-Diamminedichloroplatinum (cisplatin, CDDP)
      as first-line chemotherapy for NSCLC, but resistance occurs frequently. We
      previously reported that Tripartite motif protein 25 (TRIM25) was highly
      expressed in cisplatin-resistant human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells (A549/CDDP)
      in comparison with its parental A549 cells. Herein, we take a further step to
      demonstrate the association of TRIM25 and cisplatin resistance and also the
      underlying mechanisms. Knockdown of TRIM25 by RNA interference in A549/CDDP cells
      decreased half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values and promoted
      apoptosis in response to cisplatin, whereas overexpression of TRIM25 had opposite
      effects. More importantly, we found that concomitant knockdown of 14-3-3sigma and
      TRIM25 absolutely reversed the decreased MDM2, increased p53, increased cleaved
      Capsese3 and decreased IC50 value induced by knockdown of TRIM25 individually,
      suggesting that TRIM25 mediated cisplatin resistance primarily through
      downregulation of 14-3-3sigma. Our results indicate that TRIM25 is associated
      with cisplatin resistance and 14-3-3sigma-MDM2-p53 signaling pathway is involved
      in this process, suggesting targeting TRIM25 may be a potential strategy for the
      reversal of cisplatin resistance.

PMID- 28867194
TI  - Identification of an argpyrimidine-modified protein in human red blood cells from
      schizophrenic patients: A possible biomarker for diseases involving carbonyl
      stress.
AB  - Argpyrimidine (ARP) is an advanced glycation end product thought to be generated
      from a reaction between methylglyoxal and arginine residues in proteins. In this
      study, we observed marked accumulation of an approximately 56 kD protein,
      reactive to anti-ARP antibodies, in the red blood cells (RBCs) of some patients
      with refractory schizophrenia. This ARP-modified protein was purified from the
      blood of schizophrenic patients and identified as selenium binding protein 1
      (SBP1) by LC-MS/MS. This is the first report of ARP-modified proteins
      accumulating in RBCs of patients with diseases involving carbonyl stress. We also
      observed high accumulation of ARP-modified SBP1 in the RBCs of patients with
      chronic kidney disease. Therefore, this modified protein may be a novel marker of
      carbonyl stress.

PMID- 28867195
TI  - Simultaneous targeting PI3K and PERK pathways promotes cell death and improves
      the clinical prognosis in esophageal squamous carcinoma.
AB  - PI3K pathway is an important anti-tumor target, but its effect and mechanism is
      not clear in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). By analysis of the Cancer
      Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets, we found that PI3Ks level were significantly
      upregulated in human esophageal cancer tissues compared with that in non-cancer
      tissues. The alteration of PI3K can significantly affect the overall patient
      survival in ESCC but not in esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). We found that the
      classic PI3K inhibitor LY294002 obviously inhibited the canonical mammalian
      target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway and restrained the growth of ESCC with less
      toxicity to normal cells. Besides, LY294002 inhibited noncanonical PKR-like ER
      kinase (PERK)/elF2alpha/ATF4 pathway as well. Both siRNA and the small molecule
      inhibitor GSK2656157 against PERK/elF2alpha/ATF4 pathway can significantly
      inhibit the growth of ESCC. More importantly, GSK2656157 aggravated the
      inhibitory effect of LY294002 on cell growth, colony formation, and apoptosis
      induction of ESCC. In addition of dual high expression of PI3K and PERK pathways
      in the ESCC patients, the difference of overall survival (OS) was more
      significant than using PI3K alone. These results indicated that dual targeting of
      PI3K and PERK pathways might improve clinical prognosis and enhance the treatment
      of ESCC patients.

PMID- 28867196
TI  - A novel phenylphthalimide derivative, pegylated TC11, improves pharmacokinetic
      properties and induces apoptosis of high-risk myeloma cells via G2/M cell-cycle
      arrest.
AB  - Despite the development of new drugs for multiple myeloma (MM), the prognosis of
      MM patients with high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities such as t (4; 14) and del17p
      remains poor. We reported that a novel phenylphthalimide derivative, TC11,
      induced apoptosis of MM cells in vitro and in vivo, and TC11 directly bound to
      alpha-tubulin and nucleophosmin-1 (NPM1). However, TC11 showed low water
      solubility and poor pharmacokinetic properties. Here we synthesized a water
      soluble TC11-derivative, PEG(E)-TC11, in which HOEtO-TC11 is pegylated with PEG
      through an ester bond, and we examined its anti-myeloma activity. We observed
      that PEG(E)-TC11 and its hydrolyzed product, HOEtO-TC11, induced G2/M arrest and
      the apoptosis of MM cells. Intraperitoneal administration of PEG(E)-TC11 to
      xenografted mice revealed improved pharmacokinetic properties and significantly
      delayed tumor growth. TC11 and its derivatives did not bind to cereblon (CRBN),
      which is a responsible molecule for thalidomide-induced teratogenicity. These
      results suggest that PEG(E)-TC11 is a good candidate drug for treating high-risk
      MM.

PMID- 28867197
TI  - Litter size determines the number of melanin-concentrating hormone neurons in the
      medial preoptic area of Sprague Dawley lactating dams.
AB  - Melanin-concentrating hormone [MCH] is an important neuromodulator related to
      motivated behaviors. The MCH-containing neurons are mainly located in the lateral
      hypothalamic area, zona incerta, and incerto-hypothalamic area. In the medial
      preoptic area [MPOA], a key region for the regulation of maternal behavior, Pmch
      mRNA expression and MCH synthesis can be detected exclusively during the
      lactation period. As litter size affects different parameters of maternal
      physiology, the aim of this study was to verify whether litter size can modulate
      the number of MCH-containing neurons in the MPOA of lactating rats. The dams were
      divided into the following groups: postpartum day 12, 15, or 19, with a large,
      small or reduced litter. Our results show that the number of MCH-immunoreactive
      neurons in the MPOA is positively correlated with the number of pups in the
      litter and that artificially reducing the number of pups can also decrease the
      number of MCH-immunoreactive neurons in the MPOA.

PMID- 28867198
TI  - The emerging role of pore forming proteins in cell biology and development.

PMID- 28867199
TI  - Alternative polyadenylation in the regulation and dysregulation of gene
      expression.
AB  - Transcriptional control shapes a cell's transcriptome composition, but it is RNA
      processing that refines its expression. The untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA
      are hotspots for regulatory control. Features in these can impact mRNA stability,
      localisation and translation. Here we describe how alternative cleavage and
      polyadenylation can change mRNA fate by changing the length of its 3'UTR.

PMID- 28867200
TI  - Application of X-Ray Sensors for In-line and Noninvasive Monitoring of Mass Flow
      Rate in Continuous Tablet Manufacturing.
AB  - The progress in continuous downstream manufacturing of oral solid doses demands
      effective real-time process management, with monitoring at its core. This study
      evaluates the feasibility of using a commercial sensor to measure the mass flow
      rate of the particulates, a critical process variable in continuous
      manufacturing. The sensor independently measures X-ray attenuation and cross
      correlation velocimetry of particulate flow in real time. Steady-state flow rates
      of blends comprised primarily of acetaminophen and microcrystalline-cellulose are
      monitored using the sensor, with simultaneous weighing scale measurements, to
      calibrate the sensor and investigate the measurement accuracy. The free-fall flow
      measurement of the powder and granule blends in a conduit is linearly
      proportional to the X-ray attenuation. Relative standard deviations of ~3%-7% for
      1 s monitoring are observed and a measurement error of approximately 5% suggests
      the usability of the sensor for real-time monitoring. The sensor measurement is
      robust for operational variations in composition, addition of lubricant or
      glidant and reuse of material for PAT tool calibration. The measurement relative
      standard deviations depend on particulate flow dynamics at the sensor location.
      This requires experimental evaluation for a given material at the sensor
      location, to capture the flow dynamics of the particulate stream through the
      sensor.

PMID- 28867201
TI  - The Influence of Mannitol Hemihydrate on the Secondary Drying Dynamics of a
      Protein Formulation: A Case Study.
AB  - The objective of this research was to study the atypical secondary drying
      dynamics observed during the freeze-drying of a formulation consisting of
      mannitol, disaccharide, and sodium chloride, where "bursts" of water vapor
      release were observed during secondary drying as detected by comparative pressure
      measurement. "Thief" samples were removed at the end of primary drying and during
      secondary drying as the shelf temperature was increased in a stepwise fashion.
      These samples were examined by X-ray powder diffraction and thermal analysis.
      From the X-ray powder diffraction data, we determined that mannitol crystallized
      predominantly as its hemihydrate. The physical state of mannitol changed from the
      hemihydrate form to anhydrous forms during secondary drying. Investigation of the
      effect of excipients on mannitol crystallization demonstrated that sodium
      chloride (at 225 mM, 1.3% w/v) had the greatest influence on hemihydrate
      crystallization, followed by trehalose and sucrose. However, only negligible
      hemihydrate formation was observed when mannitol was freeze-dried either by
      itself or in the presence of 150 mM sodium chloride and no hemihydrate in the
      presence of 75 mM sodium chloride. In general, a combination of a disaccharide
      and sodium chloride promoted the hemihydrate formation to a greater extent than
      the individual components. Comparative pressure measurement was demonstrated to
      be an effective tool to monitor mannitol hemihydrate dehydration during secondary
      drying.

PMID- 28867202
TI  - A Neural Basis for Contagious Yawning.
AB  - Contagious yawning, in which yawning is triggered involuntarily when we observe
      another person yawn, is a common form of echophenomena-the automatic imitation of
      another's words (echolalia) or actions (echopraxia) [1]. The neural basis for
      echophenomena is unknown; however, it has been proposed that it is linked to
      disinhibition of the human mirror-neuron system [1-4] and hyper-excitability of
      cortical motor areas [1]. We investigated the neural basis for contagious yawning
      using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Thirty-six adults viewed video
      clips that showed another individual yawning and, in separate blocks, were
      instructed to either resist yawning or allow themselves to yawn. Participants
      were videoed throughout and their yawns or stifled yawns were counted. We used
      TMS to quantify motor cortical excitability and physiological inhibition for each
      participant, and these measures were then used to predict the propensity for
      contagious yawning across participants. We demonstrate that instructions to
      resist yawning increase the urge to yawn and alter how yawns are expressed (i.e.,
      full versus stifled yawns) but do not alter the individual propensity for
      contagious yawning. By contrast, TMS measures of cortical excitability and
      physiological inhibition were significant predictors of contagious yawning and
      accounted for approximately 50% of the variability in contagious yawning. These
      data demonstrate that individual variability in the propensity for contagious
      yawning is determined by cortical excitability and physiological inhibition in
      the primary motor cortex.

PMID- 28867203
TI  - Warming by 1 degrees C Drives Species and Assemblage Level Responses in
      Antarctica's Marine Shallows.
AB  - Forecasting assemblage-level responses to climate change remains one of the
      greatest challenges in global ecology [1, 2]. Data from the marine realm are
      limited because they largely come from experiments using limited numbers of
      species [3], mesocosms whose interior conditions are unnatural [4], and long-term
      correlation studies based on historical collections [5]. We describe the first
      ever experiment to warm benthic assemblages to ecologically relevant levels in
      situ. Heated settlement panels were used to create three test conditions: ambient
      and 1 degrees C and 2 degrees C above ambient (predicted in the next 50 and 100
      years, respectively [6]). We observed massive impacts on a marine assemblage,
      with near doubling of growth rates of Antarctic seabed life. Growth increases far
      exceed those expected from biological temperature relationships established more
      than 100 years ago by Arrhenius. These increases in growth resulted in a single
      "r-strategist" pioneer species (the bryozoan Fenestrulina rugula) dominating
      seabed spatial cover and drove a reduction in overall diversity and evenness. In
      contrast, a 2 degrees C rise produced divergent responses across species growth,
      resulting in higher variability in the assemblage. These data extend our ability
      to expand, integrate, and apply our knowledge of the impact of temperature on
      biological processes to predict organism, species, and ecosystem level ecological
      responses to regional warming.

PMID- 28867204
TI  - Formation and Shaping of the Antirrhinum Flower through Modulation of the CUP
      Boundary Gene.
AB  - Boundary domain genes, expressed within or around organ primordia, play a key
      role in the formation, shaping, and subdivision of planar plant organs, such as
      leaves. However, the role of boundary genes in formation of more elaborate 3D
      structures, which also derive from organ primordia, remains unclear. Here we
      analyze the role of the boundary domain gene CUPULIFORMIS (CUP) in formation of
      the ornate Antirrhinum flower shape. We show that CUP expression becomes cleared
      from boundary subdomains between petal primordia, most likely contributing to
      formation of congenitally fused petals (sympetally) and modulation of growth at
      sinuses. At later stages, CUP is activated by dorsoventral genes in an
      intermediary region of the corolla. In contrast to its role at organ boundaries,
      intermediary CUP activity leads to growth promotion rather than repression and
      formation of the palate, lip, and characteristic folds of the closed Antirrhinum
      flower. Intermediary expression of CUP homologs is also observed in related
      sympetalous species, Linaria and Mimulus, suggesting that changes in boundary
      gene activity have played a key role in the development and evolution of diverse
      3D plant shapes.

PMID- 28867205
TI  - Collective Growth in a Small Cell Network.
AB  - Theoretical studies suggest that many of the emergent properties associated with
      multicellular systems arise already in small networks [1, 2]. However, the number
      of experimental models that can be used to explore collective dynamics in well
      defined cell networks is still very limited. Here we focus on collective cell
      behavior in the female germline cyst in Drosophila melanogaster, a
      stereotypically wired network of 16 cells that grows by ~4 orders of magnitude
      with unequal distribution of volume among its constituents. We quantify
      multicellular growth with single-cell resolution and show that proximity to the
      oocyte, as defined on the network, is the principal factor that determines cell
      size; consequently, cells grow in groups. To rationalize this emergent pattern of
      cell sizes, we propose a tractable mathematical model that depends on
      intercellular transport on a cell lineage tree. In addition to correctly
      predicting the divergent pattern of cell sizes, this model reveals allometric
      growth of cells within the network, an emergent property of this system and a
      feature commonly associated with differential growth on an organismal scale [3].

PMID- 28867206
TI  - Evolution of Vocal Diversity through Morphological Adaptation without Vocal
      Learning or Complex Neural Control.
AB  - The evolution of complex behavior is driven by the interplay of morphological
      specializations and neuromuscular control mechanisms [1-3], and it is often
      difficult to tease apart their respective contributions. Avian vocal learning and
      associated neural adaptations are thought to have played a major role in bird
      diversification [4-8], whereas functional significance of substantial
      morphological diversity of the vocal organ remains largely unexplored. Within the
      most species-rich order, Passeriformes, "tracheophones" are a suboscine group
      that, unlike their oscine sister taxon, does not exhibit vocal learning [9] and
      is thought to phonate with tracheal membranes [10, 11] instead of the two
      independent sources found in other passerines [12-14]. Here we show tracheophones
      possess three sound sources, two oscine-like labial pairs and the unique tracheal
      membranes, which collectively represent the largest described number of sound
      sources for a vocal organ. Birds with experimentally disabled tracheal membranes
      were still able to phonate. Instead of the main sound source, the tracheal
      membranes constitute a morphological specialization, which, through interaction
      with bronchial labia, contributes to different acoustic features such as spectral
      complexity, amplitude modulation, and enhanced sound amplitude. In contrast,
      these same features arise in oscines from neuromuscular control of two labial
      sources [15-17]. These findings are supported by a modeling approach and provide
      a clear example for how a morphological adaptation of the tracheophone vocal
      organ can generate specific, complex sound features. Morphological specialization
      therefore constitutes an alternative path in the evolution of acoustic diversity
      to that of oscine vocal learning and complex neural control.

PMID- 28867207
TI  - Lesions of the Head Direction Cell System Increase Hippocampal Place Field
      Repetition.
AB  - A central tenet of systems neuroscience is that the mammalian hippocampus
      provides a cognitive map of the environment. This view is supported by the
      finding of place cells, neurons whose firing is tuned to specific locations in an
      animal's environment, within this brain region. Recent work, however, has shown
      that these cells repeat their firing fields across visually identical maze
      compartments [1, 2]. This repetition is not observed if these compartments face
      different directions, suggesting that place cells use a directional input to
      differentiate otherwise similar local environments [3, 4]. A clear candidate for
      this input is the head direction cell system. To test this, we disrupted the head
      direction cell system by lesioning the lateral mammillary nuclei and then
      recorded place cells as rats explored multiple, connected compartments, oriented
      in the same or in different directions. As shown previously, we found that place
      cells in control animals exhibited repeated fields in compartments arranged in
      parallel, but not in compartments facing different directions. In contrast, the
      place cells of animals with lesions of the head direction cell system exhibited
      repeating fields in both conditions. Thus, directional information provided by
      the head direction cell system appears essential for the angular disambiguation
      by place cells of visually identical compartments.

PMID- 28867208
TI  - Inter-adipocyte Adhesion and Signaling by Collagen IV Intercellular
      Concentrations in Drosophila.
AB  - Sheet-forming Collagen IV is the main component of basement membranes, which are
      planar polymers of extracellular matrix underlying epithelia and surrounding
      organs in all animals. Adipocytes in both insects and mammals are mesodermal in
      origin and often classified as mesenchymal. However, they form true tissues where
      cells remain compactly associated. Neither the mechanisms providing this tissue
      level organization nor its functional significance are known. Here we show that
      discrete Collagen IV intercellular concentrations (CIVICs), distinct from
      basement membranes and thicker in section, mediate inter-adipocyte adhesion in
      Drosophila. Loss of these Collagen-IV-containing structures in the larval fat
      body caused intercellular gaps and disrupted continuity of the adipose tissue
      layer. We also found that Integrin and Syndecan matrix receptors attach
      adipocytes to CIVICs and direct their formation. Finally, we show that Integrin
      mediated adhesion to CIVICs promotes normal adipocyte growth and prevents
      autophagy through Src-Pi3K-Akt signaling. Our results evidence a surprising non
      basement membrane role of Collagen IV in non-epithelial tissue morphogenesis
      while demonstrating adhesion and signaling functions for these structures.

PMID- 28867209
TI  - Identification and molecular profiling of DC-SIGN-like from big belly seahorse
      (Hippocampus abdominalis) inferring its potential relevancy in host immunity.
AB  - Dendritic-cell-specific ICAM-3-grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN) is a C-type lectin
      that functions as a pattern recognition receptor by recognizing pathogen
      associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). It is also involved in various events of
      the dendritic cell (DC) life cycle, such as DC migration, antigen capture and
      presentation, and T cell priming. In this study, a DC-SIGN-like gene from the big
      belly seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis (designated as ShDCS-like) was identified
      and molecularly characterized. The putative, complete ORF was found to be 1368 bp
      in length, encoding a protein of 462 amino acids with a molecular mass of 52.6
      kDa and a theoretical isoelectric point of 8.26. The deduced amino acid sequence
      contains a single carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD), in which six conserved
      cysteine residues and two Ca2+-binding site motifs (QPN, WND) were identified.
      Based on pairwise sequence analysis, ShDCS-like exhibits the highest amino acid
      identity (94.6%) and similarity (97.4%) with DC-SIGN-like counterpart from tiger
      tail seahorse Hippocampus comes. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that ShDCS
      like mRNA is transcribed universally in all tissues examined, but with abundance
      in kidney and gill tissues. The basal mRNA expression of ShDCS-like was modulated
      in blood cell, kidney, gill and liver tissues in response to the stimulation of
      healthy fish with lipopolysaccharides (LPS), Edwardsiella tarda, or Streptococcus
      iniae. Moreover, recombinant ShDCS-like-CRD domain exhibited detectable
      agglutination activity against different bacteria. Collectively, these results
      suggest that ShDCS-like may potentially involve in immune function in big belly
      seahorses.

PMID- 28867210
TI  - Membrane transporter research in times of countless structures.
AB  - Structural biology has advanced our understanding of membrane proteins like no
      other scientific discipline in the past two decades and the number of high
      resolution membrane transporter structures solved by X-ray crystallography has
      increased exponentially over this time period. Currently, single particle cryo-EM
      is in full swing due to a recent resolution revolution and permits for structural
      insights of proteins that were refractory to crystallization. It is foreseeable
      that multiple structures of many human transporters will be solved in the coming
      five years. Nevertheless, many scientifically important questions remain
      unanswered despite of available structures, as is illustrated in this article at
      the example of multidrug efflux pumps and ABC transporters. Structure-function
      studies likely continue to be a supporting pillar of membrane transporter
      research. However, there is a trend towards the "integrated structural
      biologist", whose research focusses on a biological question and who closely
      collaborates with other research groups specialized in spectroscopy techniques or
      molecular dynamics simulation. Future membrane protein research requires joint
      efforts from specialists of various disciplines to finally work towards a
      molecular understanding of membrane transport in the context of the living cell.
      This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Beyond the Structure-Function
      Horizon of Membrane Proteins edited by Ute Hellmich, Rupak Doshi and Benjamin
      McIlwain.

PMID- 28867211
TI  - Autophagy inhibitors suppress environmental particulate matter-induced airway
      inflammation.
AB  - Particulate matter (PM) is a significant risk factor for airway injury. We have
      recently demonstrated a pivotal role of autophagy in mediating PM-induced airway
      injury. In the present study, we examined the possible effects of autophagy
      inhibitors spautin-1 and 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) in protection of PM-induced
      inflammatory responses. We observed that PM triggered autophagy in human
      bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells and in mouse airways. Spautin-1 or 3-MA
      inhibited PM-induced expression of inflammatory cytokines in HBE cells, and
      decreased the neutrophil influx and proinflammatory cytokines induced by PM in
      vivo. We further illustrated that autophagy inhibitors suppressed the
      inflammation responses via inhibition of the nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) pathway.
      Thus, this study shows a paradigm that autophagy inhibitors effectively decrease
      the PM-induced airway inflammation via suppressing the NF-kB pathway, which may
      provide novel preventive and/or protective approaches for PM-related airway
      injury.

PMID- 28867212
TI  - miR-124 downregulates BACE 1 and alters autophagy in APP/PS1 transgenic mice.
AB  - One role of BACE 1 (Beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1) is to
      cleave the sequential amyloid precursor protein (APP) into beta-Amyloid (Abeta),
      the accumulation of which is an important participant in the formation of the
      amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our
      previous study showed BACE 1, the potential functional downstream target of miR
      124, to be connected to cell death in AD cell models. Recent studies have shown
      that autophagy is altered in AD, however, as to whether miR-124 is involved in
      this alteration is not clear. In this study, 7-month-old APP/PS1 transgenic mice
      were transfected with miR-124 lentiviral vectors, injected bilaterally into the
      dentate gyrus (DG) of mice hippocampi. Following 7 days of recovery, both
      behavior and biochemical pathology tests were implemented. The results
      demonstrated learning ability improvement and specific AD pathology alleviation.
      Meanwhile there was down-regulation of Bcl-2 to Bax ratio expression, increase in
      Beclin-1 and decreases in expression of LC3II, Atg5 and p62/SQSTMl. In view of
      this, we hypothesis that miR-124 conducts its neuroprotective effect through BACE
      1 by regulation of autophagic pathways.

PMID- 28867213
TI  - Transgenerational pancreatic impairment with Igf2/H19 epigenetic alteration
      induced by p,p'-DDE exposure in early life.
AB  - The hypothesis of fetal origins indicates that exposures in early development
      could induce epigenetic modifications in the male germ-line, affecting the
      susceptibility of adult-onset disease for generations. p,p'-DDE, the primary
      metabolite of persistent organochlorine pesticide DDT, is highly correlated with
      impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and a strong contributing factor to type 2
      diabetes. In our previous study, ancestral p,p'-DDE exposure could induce
      transgenerational impaired male fertility with sperm Igf2 hypomethylation. It is
      still unknown whether this germline epigenetic defect would affect the somatic
      tissue endocrine pancreas. Gestating F0 generation females were exposed to p,p'
      DDE from gestation day 8 to 15. The F1 male offspring were mated with female to
      produce F2 progeny. F3 generation was obtained by intercrossing the control and
      treated male and female of F2 generation and divided as C?-C?, DDE?-DDE?, DDE?-C?
      and C?-DDE?. Results indicated that F1 offspring in p,p'-DDE group exhibited
      impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), abnormal insulin secretion, beta-cell
      dysfunction and altered Igf2 and H19 expression induced by Igf2/H19
      hypomethylation, which could be transferred to the F3 offspring through the male
      germ line. IGT and abnormal insulin secretion were more obvious in males than
      those in females. Ancestral p,p'-DDE exposure could induce transgenerational
      pancreatic impairment with Igf2/H19 epigenetic defect.

PMID- 28867214
TI  - Lithium chloride inhibits StAR and progesterone production through GSK-3beta and
      ERK1/2 signaling pathways in human granulosa-lutein cells.
AB  - Lithium chloride (LiCl) is a widely-used medication to treat neurological
      disorders that has undesirable side effects on the female reproductive system. It
      has been show that LiCl can inhibit ovarian folliculogenesis, promote follicle
      atresia and suppress steroid hormone production in rodents. However, the effects
      of LiCl on human ovarian steroidogenesis remain completely unknown. In this
      study, both primary and immortalized human granulosa-lutein (hGL) cells were used
      to investigate the effects of LiCl on progesterone production and its related
      enzyme expression as well as the underlying mechanisms. Our results showed that
      LiCl significantly down-regulated the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein
      (StAR) expression and subsequent progesterone production in hGL cells.
      Additionally, LiCl induced the phosphorylation of GSK-3beta and ERK1/2 but not
      AKT or CREB. Knockdown of endogenous GSK-3beta or inhibition of ERK1/2 partially
      reversed LiCl-induced down-regulation of StAR. Furthermore, by using dual
      inhibition approaches, the results showed that both GSK-3beta and ERK1/2
      signaling mediated the regulatory effect of LiCl on StAR expression. Our findings
      deepen our understanding of the pathological effects and the underlying molecular
      mechanisms of how lithium might affect the female reproductive system.

PMID- 28867215
TI  - Development of a questionnaire to evaluate asthma control in Japanese asthma
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The asthma control questionnaires used in Japan are Japanese
      translations of those developed outside Japan, and have some limitations; a
      questionnaire designed to optimally evaluate asthma control levels for Japanese
      may be necessary. The present study was conducted to validate the Japan Asthma
      Control Survey (JACS) questionnaire in Japanese asthma patients. METHODS: A total
      of 226 adult patients with mild to severe persistent asthma were enrolled and
      responded to the JACS questionnaire, asthma control questionnaire (ACQ), and Mini
      asthma quality of life questionnaire (Mini AQLQ) at Weeks 0 and 4. The
      reliability, validity, and sensitivity/responsiveness of the JACS questionnaire
      were evaluated. RESULTS: The intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were
      within the range of 0.55-0.75 for all JACS scores, indicating
      moderate/substantial reproducibility. For internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha
      coefficients ranged from 0.76 to 0.92 in total and subscale scores, which were
      greater than the lower limit of internal consistency. As for factor validity, the
      cumulative contribution ratio of four main factors was 0.66. For criterion
      related validity, the correlation coefficients between the JACS total score and
      ACQ5, ACQ6, and Mini AQLQ scores were -0.78, -0.78, and 0.77, respectively,
      showing a significant correlation (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The JACS
      questionnaire was validated in terms of reliability and validity. It will be
      necessary to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy measured by the JACS questionnaire
      and calculate cutoff values for the asthma control status in a higher number of
      patients. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN000016589.

PMID- 28867216
TI  - The effect of phosphorylation on the salt-tolerance-related functions of the
      soybean protein PM18, a member of the group-3 LEA protein family.
AB  - Enzymatically driven post-translated modifications (PTMs) usually happen within
      the intrinsically disordered regions of a target protein and can modulate variety
      of protein functions. Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are a family of
      the plant intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Despite their important roles
      in plant stress response, there is currently limited knowledge on the presence
      and functional and structural effects of phosphorylation on LEA proteins. In this
      study, we identified three phosphorylation sites (Ser90, Tyr136, and Thr266) in
      the soybean PM18 protein that belongs to the group-3 LEA proteins. In yeast
      expression system, PM18 protein increased the salt tolerance of yeast, and the
      phosphorylation of this protein further enhanced its protective function. Further
      analysis revealed that Ser90 and Tyr136 are more important than Thr266, and these
      two sites might work cooperatively in regulating the salt resistance function of
      PM18. The circular dichroism analysis showed that PM18 protein was disordered in
      aqueous media, and phosphorylation did not affect the disordered status of this
      protein. However, phosphorylation promoted formation of more helical structure in
      the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or trifluoroethanol (TFE).
      Furthermore, in dedicated in vitro experiments, phosphorylated PM18 protein was
      able to better protect lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) from the inactivation induced
      by the freeze-thaw cycles than its un- or dephosphorylated forms. All these data
      indicate that phosphorylation may have regulatory effects on the stress-tolerance
      related function of LEA proteins. Therefore, further studies are needed to shed
      more light on functional and structural roles of phosphorylation in LEA proteins.

PMID- 28867218
TI  - Editor's perspectives - September 2017.

PMID- 28867217
TI  - In utero and lactational exposure to metformin induces reproductive alterations
      in male rat offspring.
AB  - Metformin (MET) is prescribed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and
      gestational diabetes. Although MET crosses the placenta, it is considered safe
      throughout gestation. However, it has been shown in humans that maternal exposure
      to MET increases sex hormone binding globulin levels in newborns, and in rats it
      decreases the testosterone concentration at gestational day (GD) 16.5. Therefore,
      the present study evaluated if maternal exposure to MET could interfere with
      reproductive parameters of male offspring. Wistar female rats were treated with
      MET 293mg/kg/day, by gavage from GD0 to GD21 (METG) or GD0 until lactational day
      (LD) 21 (METGL) and the control groups received water. Sexual behavior of male
      offspring was affected in both MET groups. However, a decrease in the sperm count
      was observed only in METGL group. These results suggest that MET exposure induced
      alterations in reproductive parameters of male offspring in adulthood depending
      on exposure time.

PMID- 28867219
TI  - A short note on a present-day benthic recovery status in the formerly heavily
      polluted Idefjord (Sweden/Norway).
AB  - Idefjord (Skagerrak, North Sea) has had a long pollution history due to a heavy
      exposure to effluents from sawmills and pulp and paper industry, which had a
      detrimental effect on fjord life. Earlier we presented a paper on the pollution
      history and benthic recovery in the fjord by studying sediment geochemistry (TOC
      and heavy metals) and benthic foraminifera in the sediment cores taken in the
      inner and the outer Idefjord. At that stage the foraminiferal (~benthic recovery)
      record was limited to years 2000 (inner fjord) and 2002 (outer fjord), in
      contrast to pollutant data reaching all the way up to 2014. In this short note we
      extend the foraminiferal record to year 2014 and fill the gap in the benthic
      recovery in the inner and the outer fjord over the last 12years. The results show
      that both inner and outer fjord inlets currently undergo a steady benthic
      recovery reflected in comeback of transitional and pre-pollution benthic
      foraminiferal species after 2000-2002 and towards 2014. The recovery is also
      supported by increasing faunal diversity, low dominance and since 2000-2002 re
      appearance of calcareous foraminiferal species (Bulimina marginata, Elphidium
      spp., Epistominella vitrea, Hyalinea balthica and Lagena spp), which all
      disappeared during the period of maximum effluent discharges. At the same time,
      detection of opportunistic newcomers (e.g. Stainforthia fusiformis) and
      persisting absence of some transitional species such as Ammoscalaria tenuimargo
      suggests a recolonization by foraminiferal population with a different species
      composition as compared to the original pre-pollution community either due to
      changed environmental conditions or/and increased competition.

PMID- 28867220
TI  - A bibliometric analysis of global research in Oropouche.

PMID- 28867221
TI  - Measles and more: Apps, blogs and clips on measles outbreaks and vaccination.

PMID- 28867222
TI  - Inter-airway structural heterogeneity interacts with dynamic heterogeneity to
      determine lung function and flow patterns in both asthmatic and control simulated
      lungs.
AB  - Asthma is a disease involving both airway remodelling (e.g. thickening of the
      airway wall) and acute, reversible airway narrowing driven by airway smooth
      muscle contraction. Both of these processes are known to be heterogeneous, and in
      this study we consider a new theoretical model which considers the interactions
      of both mechanisms: structural heterogeneity (variation in airway remodelling)
      and dynamic heterogeneity (emergent variation in airway narrowing and flow). By
      integrating both types of inter-airway heterogeneity in a full human lung
      geometry, we are able to draw several insights regarding the mechanisms
      underlying observed ventilation heterogeneity. We show that: (1) bimodal
      ventilation distributions are driven by paradoxical contraction/dilation patterns
      for airways of all sizes; (2) structural heterogeneity differences between
      asthmatic and control subjects significantly influences resulting lung function,
      and observed ventilation heterogeneity patterns; and (3) individual airway
      dilation probabilities are uncorrelated with prior airway remodelling of that
      airway.

PMID- 28867223
TI  - Protein-protein interaction site predictions with minimum covariance determinant
      and Mahalanobis distance.
AB  - Protein-protein interaction site (PPIS) prediction must deal with the diversity
      of interaction sites that limits their prediction accuracy. Use of proteins with
      unknown or unidentified interactions can also lead to missing interfaces. Such
      data errors are often brought into the training dataset. In response to these two
      problems, we used the minimum covariance determinant (MCD) method to refine the
      training data to build a predictor with better performance, utilizing its ability
      of removing outliers. In order to predict test data in practice, a method based
      on Mahalanobis distance was devised to select proper test data as input for the
      predictor. With leave-one-validation and independent test, after the Mahalanobis
      distance screening, our method achieved higher performance according to Matthews
      correlation coefficient (MCC), although only a part of test data could be
      predicted. These results indicate that data refinement is an efficient approach
      to improve protein-protein interaction site prediction. By further optimizing our
      method, it is hopeful to develop predictors of better performance and wide range
      of application.

PMID- 28867224
TI  - Optional interactions and suspicious behaviour facilitates trustful cooperation
      in prisoners dilemma.
AB  - In evolutionary game theory interactions between individuals are often assumed
      obligatory. However, in many real-life situations, individuals can decide to opt
      out of an interaction depending on the information they have about the opponent.
      We consider a simple evolutionary game theoretic model to study such a scenario,
      where at each encounter between two individuals the type of the opponent
      (cooperator/defector) is known with some probability, and where each individual
      either accepts or opts out of the interaction. If the type of the opponent is
      unknown, a trustful individual accepts the interaction, whereas a suspicious
      individual opts out of the interaction. If either of the two individuals opt out
      both individuals remain without an interaction. We show that in the prisoners
      dilemma optional interactions along with suspicious behaviour facilitates the
      emergence of trustful cooperation.

PMID- 28867225
TI  - Laser microdissection hyphenated with high performance gel permeation
      chromatography-charged aerosol detector and ultra performance liquid
      chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry for histochemical analysis of
      polysaccharides in herbal medicine: Ginseng, a case study.
AB  - This study establishes a new combinatorial approach for histochemical analysis of
      polysaccharides in herbal medicines using laser microdissection followed by high
      performance gel permeation chromatography coupled with charged aerosol detector
      and ultra-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated with triple quadrupole
      mass spectrometry. Ginseng was employed as a study model. Tissue-specific
      qualitative and quantitative characterization of ginseng polysaccharides was
      performed by determining their molar masses and monosaccharide compositions in
      three macro-dissected parts (rhizome, main and branched roots) and five micro
      dissected tissues (cork, cortex, xylem, phloem and resin canal). The results
      showed that ginseng "flesh" (xylem, phloem and resin canal) contained more
      polysaccharides with larger molecular weights and higher ratios of glucose
      residue, whereas ginseng "skin" (cork and cortex) had fewer polysaccharides with
      smaller molecular weights and higher ratios of non-glucose constituents (e.g.
      galacturonic acid, galactose, arabinose and rhamnose). These findings suggested
      that the polysaccharides of the "flesh" were predominantly starch-like glucans,
      while those of the "skin" were of a higher proportion of acidic pectins. The
      revealed histologic distribution and accumulation pattern of ginseng
      polysaccharides contributes to the scientific understanding of ginseng regarding
      the biosynthesis and transportation of polysaccharides, medicinal quality
      evaluation as well as empirical clinical application.

PMID- 28867226
TI  - Structural analysis of a sulfated galactan from the tunic of the ascidian
      Microcosmus exasperatus and its inhibitory effect of the intrinsic coagulation
      pathway.
AB  - Several bioactive sulfated galactans have been isolated from the tunic of
      different species of ascidians. The biological activity of this kind of
      polysaccharides has been related with the presence and position of sulfate
      groups, and by the chemical composition of this kind of polysaccharides. A
      sulfated galactan (1000RS) was isolated from the tunic of the Brazilian ascidia
      Microcosmus exasperatus through proteolytic digestion, ethanol precipitation,
      dialysis and freeze-thaw cycles. Homogeneity and molecular weight were estimated
      by using size exclusion chromatography. Monosaccharide composition and type of
      linkage were assessed by Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and the
      sulfate content was quantified through gelatin/BaCl2 method. These experiments
      along with NMR and FTIR analysis allowed to claim that the galactan backbone is
      mainly composed of 4-linked alpha-l-Galp units. In addition, they permitted to
      establish that some of the galactose residues are sulfated at the 3-position.
      This sulfated polysaccharide, which has an average molecular mass of 439.5kDa,
      presents anticoagulant effect in a dose-dependent manner through the inhibition
      of the intrinsic coagulation pathway.

PMID- 28867227
TI  - Improving the stability of chondroitinase ABC I via interaction with gold
      nanorods.
AB  - Chondroitinase ABC I (cABC I) cleaves glycosaminoglycan chains which are
      responsible for most of the inhibition of axon regrowth in spinal cord injury.
      The application of chondroitinase ABC I (cABC I) in damaged nervous tissue is
      found to prune glycosaminoglycan chains of proteoglycans and facilitate axon
      regeneration. However, a limiting factor for such application is the enzyme's
      instability. In this study, the structure and activity of cABC I have been
      investigated upon interaction with various concentrations of Gold nanorods. The
      enzyme preserved its major activity with increase in substrate affinity in the
      presence of the nanostructures. Analysis of circular dichroism spectropolarimetry
      data showed that secondary structural content of the enzyme slightly increased.
      The complex form of the enzyme also showed higher storage stability. Fluorescence
      studies indicated that enzyme obtained more rigidity in its structure. Taking
      higher stability of enzyme upon interaction, result of this investigation
      interaction paves the way for utilizing tiny plasmonic nanostructures for
      fruitful applications in biomedicine.

PMID- 28867228
TI  - Chitosan-titanium dioxide-glucantime nanoassemblies effects on promastigote and
      amastigote of Leishmania major.
AB  - The purpose of the present study was to design nanoassemblies of chitosan
      titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with glucantime for using
      their synergistic effects and enhancing the toxic effects of glucantime on
      Leishmania parasites. The nanoassemblies were prepared by electrostatic
      interactions and optimized by a response surface central composite design. The
      effects of glucantime, chitosan and TiO2 NPs amounts were studied on the particle
      size, zeta potential, loading efficiency, and release efficiency of drug from
      nanoassemblies. The conjugation of TiO2/chitosan-glucantime was verified by UV
      spectroscopy and changes in surface charge of NPs. The anti-promastigots effect
      of glucantime loaded in TiO2/chitosan nanoassemblies was studied by tripan blue
      dye test and their anti-amastigotes effect by counting the average number of
      parasites per infected J774 macrophages in 100 cells. The optimized formulation
      obtained by using 12.5mg glucantime, 25mg chitosan and 6mg TiO2 NPs. Although
      TiO2 NPs alone were effective more than negative control in reduction of
      promastigots and amastigotes but they didn't show significant difference compared
      with free glucantime (p>0.05). However, at the concentration of 50MUg/mL and
      after 72h exposure nanoassemblies decreased the proliferation of L. major
      promastigotes and amastigotes 13 and 4-fold, respectively compared with
      glucantime alone.

PMID- 28867229
TI  - Efficient removal of anionic dye (Congo red) by dialdehyde microfibrillated
      cellulose/chitosan composite film with significantly improved stability in dye
      solution.
AB  - A novel composite film with efficient removal of anionic dye (Congo red) was
      developed using chitosan and dialdehyde microfibrillated cellulose nano fibrils.
      Microfibrillated cellulose with three dimensional network structure was prepared
      from microcrystalline cellulose by high-pressure homogenization. Then it was
      surface modified by periodate to prepare dialdehyde microfibrillated cellulose
      (DAMFC). DAMFC/chitosan composite films were prepared by solvent-casting. During
      the compounding of DAMFC with chitosan, a Schiff base was formed through the
      reaction between the aldehyde groups of DAMFC and amino groups of chitosan. A
      giant network structure was therefore formed. The addition of DAMFC resulted in
      remarkably increased adsorption capacity of the chitosan material as well as
      drastically improved stability in dye solution. The adsorption performance was
      investigated with respect to pH, temperature, contact time, and the initial dye
      concentration. The possible adsorption mechanism was proposed. Various isotherm
      models have been used to fit the data, and kinetic parameters were evaluated.

PMID- 28867230
TI  - Studies on structure and antioxidant properties of a heteroglycan isolated from
      wild edible mushroom Lentinus sajor-caju.
AB  - A water-soluble heteroglycan (PS-I) isolated from the aqueous extract of a wild
      edible mushroom Lentinus sajor-caju showed average molecular weight ~1.79*105Da.
      The structure of the polysaccharide was determined using chemical and 1D/2D NMR
      experiments. Acid hydrolysis indicated the presence of d-glucose, d-galactose, d
      mannose, and l-fucose in a molar ratio of nearly 4:4:1:1 respectively. The
      presence of terminal Fucp, terminal Galp, (1->3)-Glcp, (1->6)-Galp, (1->6)-Glcp,
      (1->4,6)-Galp, and (1->2,4)-Manp moieties were established from methylation
      analysis. The chemical and NMR analyses indicated that the PS-I was a
      heteroglycan composed of a repeating unit with backbone chain of three (1->6)
      alpha-d-galactopyranosyl residues, two (1->6)-beta-d-glucopyranosyl residues, one
      (1->4)-alpha-d-mannopyranosyl residue, and two (1->3)-beta-d-glucopyranosyl
      residues where one (1->6)-alpha-d-galactopyranosyl residue was branched at O-4
      position with terminal alpha-l-fucopyranosyl residue and (1->4)-alpha-d
      mannopyranosyl residue was branched at O-2 position with terminal alpha-d
      galactopyranosyl residue and the structure was proposed as; The PS-I is a
      moderate antioxidant compound which showed DPPH radical scavenging activity,
      hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging property, reducing
      power, and ferrous ion chelating ability.

PMID- 28867231
TI  - Protective effects of polysaccharide from Dendrobium nobile against ethanol
      induced gastric damage in rats.
AB  - Dendrobium nobile is a medicinal herb in traditional China and Southeast Asian
      countries. Employing a rat model of ethanol-induced gastric ulcer, we examined
      the protective effect of polysaccharide (JCP) extracted from Dendrobium nobile
      and explored the related mechanisms. Oral administration with 100mg/kg and
      300mg/kg body weight JCP for days can significant prevent the formation of
      gastric ulcer. Moreover, JCP pretreatment could alleviate ethanol-induced
      histological damage, antioxidant activities, the level of epidermal growth
      factor, gastric concentration of prostaglandin E, and regulate the signaling
      pathways of mitogen-activated protein kinases and matrix metalloproteinases. This
      study investigated the ethanol-induced gastric ulcer protective effect of JCP for
      the first time, and elucidated that the protective mechanisms.

PMID- 28867232
TI  - New composite materials prepared by calcium phosphate precipitation in
      chitosan/collagen/hyaluronic acid sponge cross-linked by EDC/NHS.
AB  - Nowadays, fabrication of composite materials based on biopolymers is a rising
      field due to potential for bone repair and tissue engineering application.
      Blending of different biopolymers and incorporation of inorganic particles in the
      blend can lead to new materials with improved physicochemical properties and
      biocompatibility. In this work 3D porous structures called scaffolds based on
      chitosan, collagen and hyaluronic acid were obtained through the lyophilization
      process. Scaffolds were cross-linked by EDC/NHS. Infrared spectra for the
      materials were made, the percentage of swelling, scaffolds porosity and density,
      mechanical parameters, thermal stability were studied. Moreover, the scaffolds
      were used as matrixes for the calcium phosphate in situ precipitation. SEM images
      were taken and EDX analysis was carried out for calcium and phosphorous content
      determination in the scaffold. In addition, the adhesion and proliferation of
      human osteosarcoma SaOS-2 cells was examined on obtained scaffolds. The results
      showed that the properties of 3D composites cross-linked by EDC/NHS were altered
      after the addition of 1, 2 and 5% hyaluronic acid. Mechanical parameters, thermal
      stability and porosity of scaffolds were improved. Moreover, calcium and
      phosphorous were found in each kind of scaffold. SEM images showed that the
      precipitation was homogeneously carried in the whole volume of samples.
      Attachment of SaOS-2 cells to all modified materials was better compared to
      unmodified control and proliferation of these cells was markedly increased on
      scaffolds with precipitated calcium phosphate. Obtained materials can provide the
      support useful in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28867233
TI  - Preparation and biocompatibility of crosslinked poly(3-hydroxyundecenoate).
AB  - A sticky polymer, poly(3-hydroxyundecenoate) (PHU), was produced by Pseudomonas
      oleovorans when nonanoate and undecenoate were used as carbon sources.
      Crosslinked PHU (CL-PHU) was prepared by heating using benzoyl peroxide as a
      crosslinker. According to the degree of crosslinking in the polymer, three types
      of CL-PHU were prepared: CL-PHU50, CL-PHU60 and CL-PHU70. Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning
      calorimetry results suggested that crosslinking of PHU was successfully achieved
      by heat, which increased the crosslinking density and decreased stiffness and
      flexibility of the polymer. Water contact angle measurements revealed no
      differences of hydrophilicity as the crosslinking density. Slight morphological
      changes of CL-PHU film surfaces were observed by atomic force microscopy. Chinese
      hamster ovary cells were used to investigate the biocompatibility of CL-PHU films
      using poly(l-lactide) surfaces as control. Surface properties of the film, such
      as roughness and adhesive force, enhanced the adhesion and proliferation of cells
      on the films. CL-PHU might be useful for cell compatible biomedical applications.

PMID- 28867235
TI  - Optimization of angelica sinensis polysaccharide-loaded Poly (lactic-co
      glycolicacid) nanoparticles by RSM and its immunological activity in vitro.
AB  - In this study, angelica sinensis polysaccharide (ASP) was encapsulated into the
      Poly (lactic-co-glycolicacid) (PLGA) to constitute the ASP-PLGA. The aim of the
      study is to obtain optimal encapsulation efficiency of ASP-PLGA by optimizing the
      preparation conditions and investigate the immunological enhancement activity of
      ASP-PLGA. To obtain the optimal processing parameters, the parameters, such as
      the ratio of organic phase (o) to internal water phase (w1), the ratio of
      external water phase (w2) to organic phase (o) and the concentration of Pluronic
      F68 (F68) (w/v) were examined through response surface methodology (RSM). The
      optimum preparation conditions of ASP-PLGA for maximizing encapsulation
      efficiency (EE) was as follows:ratio of organic phase (o) to internal water phase
      (w1) at 10:1, ratio of external water phase (w2) to organic phase (o) at 11:1,
      the concentration of F68 at 0.8% and the experimental EE 67.89+/-0.48% was
      achieved. In addition, the results showed that ASP-PLGA could significantly
      promote the lymphocytes proliferation and increase the ratio of CD4+ to CD8+ T
      cells compared with ASP and blank PLGA. This study provided strong evidence that
      the immunological enhancement of ASP was significantly improved through
      establishing a drug delivery system with PLGA.

PMID- 28867234
TI  - Structural studies and nociceptive activity of a native lectin from Platypodium
      elegans seeds (nPELa).
AB  - A native lectin (nPELa), purified from seeds of the species Platypodium elegans,
      Dalbergieae tribe, was crystallized and structurally characterized by X-ray
      diffraction crystallography and bioinformatics tools. The obtained crystals
      diffracted to 1.6A resolution, and nPELa structure were solved through molecular
      substitution. In addition, nPELa has a metal binding site and a conserved
      carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) similar to other Dalbergieae tribe lectins,
      such as PAL (Pterocarpus angolensis) and CTL (Centrolobium tomentosum). Molecular
      docking analysis indicated high affinity of this lectin for different mannosides,
      mainly trimannosides, formed by alpha-1,3 or alpha-1,6 glycosidic bond, as
      evidenced by the obtained scores. In addition, molecular dynamics simulations
      were performed to demonstrate the structural behavior of nPELa in aqueous
      solution. In solution, nPELa was highly stable, and structural modifications in
      its carbohydrate recognition site allowed interaction between the lectin and the
      different ligands. Different modifications were observed during simulations for
      each one of the glycans, which included different hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic
      interactions through changes in the relevant residues. In addition, nPELa was
      evaluated for its nociceptive activity in mice and was reported to be the first
      lectin of the Dalbergieae tribe to show CRD-dependent hypernociceptive activity.

PMID- 28867236
TI  - The Refractory Endometrium is Still Refractory.

PMID- 28867237
TI  - [Neurosyphilis: A retrospective study of 13 cases at Strasbourg University
      Hospital].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: After a decade of constant decline, the number of syphilis cases has
      been steadily increasing since the 2000s, particularly in HIV infected patients.
      Neurosyphilis is a rare manifestation of this sexually transmitted disease for
      which we performed a retrospective study and analyzed clinical manifestations.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed retrospectively all the neurosyphilis cases
      admitted to Strasbourg University Hospital between 2004 and 2014. We included and
      analyzed 13 patients admitted during this period who met the diagnostic criteria
      for neurosyphilis. RESULTS: Nine of 13 patients had isolated visual
      manifestations; three (23.1%) experienced posterior uveitis, two (15.4%),
      panuveitis, and 4 (30.8%) had papillitis. Out of five patients (38.5%) who were
      HIV positive, three (60%) had a CD4 cell count above 400/mm3 at the time of
      diagnosis of neurosyphilis. All patients received parenteral penicillin G or
      cephalosporin, and 5/13 (38.5%) received systemic corticotherapy. CONCLUSION:
      Ophthalmologists appear as key players in the identification, management and
      follow-up of neurosyphilis, since ocular findings are key diagnostic features in
      these patients.

PMID- 28867238
TI  - Energy evaluation of low-level control in UAVs powered by lithium polymer
      battery.
AB  - Nowadays, the energetic cost of flying in electric-powered UAVs is one of the key
      challenges. The continuous evolution of electrical energy storage sources is
      overcome by the great amount of energy required by the propulsion system.
      Therefore, the on-board energy is a crucial factor that needs to be further
      analyzed. In this work, different control strategies applied to a generic UAV
      propulsion system are considered and a lithium polymer battery dynamic model is
      included as the propulsion system energy source. Several simulations are carried
      out for each control strategy, and a quantitative evaluation of the influence of
      each control law over the actual energy consumed by the propulsion system is
      reported. This energy, which is delivery by the battery, is next compared against
      a well-known control-effort-based index. The results and analysis suggest that
      conclusions regarding energy savings based on control effort signals should be
      drawn carefully, because they do not directly represent the actual consumed
      energy.

PMID- 28867239
TI  - Pole-placement Predictive Functional Control for under-damped systems with real
      numbers algebra.
AB  - This paper presents the new algorithm of PP-PFC (Pole-placement Predictive
      Functional Control) for stable, linear under-damped higher-order processes. It is
      shown that while conventional PFC aims to get first-order exponential behavior,
      this is not always straightforward with significant under-damped modes and hence
      a pole-placement PFC algorithm is proposed which can be tuned more precisely to
      achieve the desired dynamics, but exploits complex number algebra and linear
      combinations in order to deliver guarantees of stability and performance.
      Nevertheless, practical implementation is easier by avoiding complex number
      algebra and hence a modified formulation of the PP-PFC algorithm is also
      presented which utilises just real numbers while retaining the key attributes of
      simple algebra, coding and tuning. The potential advantages are demonstrated with
      numerical examples and real-time control of a laboratory plant.

PMID- 28867240
TI  - New strategies for targeting and treatment of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of bacterial infection in humans, and has
      been notoriously able to acquire resistance to a variety of antibiotics. An
      example is methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), which despite having been
      initially associated with clinical settings, now is one of the key causative
      agents of community-acquired infections. Antibiotic resistance in S. aureus
      involves mechanisms ranging from drug efflux to increased expression or mutation
      of target proteins, and this has required innovative approaches to develop novel
      treatment methodologies. This review provides an overview of the major mechanisms
      of antibiotic resistance developed by S. aureus, and describes the emerging
      alternatives being sought to circumvent infection and proliferation, including
      new generations of classic antibiotics, synergistic approaches, antibodies, and
      targeting of virulence factors.

PMID- 28867241
TI  - Targeted nanomedicine for cancer therapeutics: Towards precision medicine
      overcoming drug resistance.
AB  - Intrinsic anticancer drug resistance appearing prior to chemotherapy as well as
      acquired resistance due to drug treatment, remain the dominant impediments
      towards curative cancer therapy. Hence, novel targeted strategies to overcome
      cancer drug resistance constitute a key aim of cancer research. In this respect,
      targeted nanomedicine offers innovative therapeutic strategies to overcome the
      various limitations of conventional chemotherapy, enabling enhanced selectivity,
      early and more precise cancer diagnosis, individualized treatment as well as
      overcoming of drug resistance, including multidrug resistance (MDR). Delivery
      systems based on nanoparticles (NPs) include diverse platforms enabling a
      plethora of rationally designed therapeutic nanomedicines. Here we review NPs
      designed to enhance antitumor drug uptake and selective intracellular
      accumulation using strategies including passive and active targeting, stimuli
      responsive drug activation or target-activated release, triggered solely in the
      cancer cell or in specific organelles, cutting edge theranostic multifunctional
      NPs delivering drug combinations for synergistic therapy, while facilitating
      diagnostics, and personalization of therapeutic regimens. In the current paper we
      review the recent findings of the past four years and discuss the advantages and
      limitations of the various novel NPs-based drug delivery systems. Special
      emphasis is put on in vivo study-based evidences supporting significant
      therapeutic impact in chemoresistant cancers. A future perspective is proposed
      for further research and development of complex targeted, multi-stage responsive
      nanomedical drug delivery systems for personalized cancer diagnosis and
      efficacious therapy.

PMID- 28867243
TI  - A mechanopharmacology approach to overcome chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly chemoresistant malignancy.
      This chemoresistant phenotype has been historically associated with genetic
      factors. Major biomedical research efforts were concentrated that resulted in the
      identification of subtypes characterized by specific genetic lesions and gene
      expression signatures that suggest important biological differences. However, to
      date, these distinct differences could not be exploited for therapeutic
      interventions. Apart from these genetic factors, desmoplasia and tumor
      microenvironment have been recognized as key contributors to PDAC
      chemoresistance. However, while several strategies targeting tumor-stroma have
      been explored including drugs against members of the Hedgehog family, they failed
      to meet the expectations in the clinical setting. These unsatisfactory clinical
      results suggest that, an important link between genetics and the influence of
      tumor microenvironment on PDAC chemoresistance remains to be elucidated. In this
      respect, mechanobiology is an emerging multidisciplinary field that encompasses
      cell and developmental biology as well as biophysics and bioengineering. Herein
      we provide a comprehensive overview of the key players in pancreatic cancer
      chemoresistance from the perspective of mechanobiology, and discuss novel
      experimental avenues such as elastic micropillar arrays that could provide fresh
      insights for the development of mechanobiology-targeted therapeutic approaches
      (know as mechanopharmacology) to overcome anticancer drug resistance in
      pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28867244
TI  - Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors versus angiotensin II receptor blockers
      in acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients with diabetes
      mellitus undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is an important factor of adverse
      cardiovascular events in acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)
      patients. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors is associated
      with improved clinical outcomes, however, there are limited data comparing the
      effectiveness of two different RAAS inhibitors in STEMI patients with DM
      undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents
      (DES). METHODS: A total of 3811 eligible STEMI patients with DM were enrolled in
      Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR). They were stratified into two
      groups: Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) group (n=2691) and
      angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) group (n=1120). To adjust baseline
      confounding factors, we performed propensity score matching (PSM) analysis and
      evaluated individual and composite major clinical outcomes between the two groups
      up to 2years. RESULTS: After PSM, a total of 1049 well-matched pairs were
      generated. Baseline clinical, angiographic and procedural characteristics were
      well-balanced between the two groups. The incidence of death, recurrent
      myocardial infarction (MI), revascularization and major adverse cardiac events
      (MACE) were not significantly different between the two groups up to 2years,
      CONCLUSION: In the present study, ACEI and ARB showed comparable effectiveness
      and safety on individual and composite clinical outcomes in STEMI patients with
      DM who underwent successful PCI with DES at least up to 2years.

PMID- 28867242
TI  - Can microbial cells develop resistance to oxidative stress in antimicrobial
      photodynamic inactivation?
AB  - Infections have been a major cause of disease throughout the history of humans on
      earth. With the introduction of antibiotics, it was thought that infections had
      been conquered. However, bacteria have been able to develop resistance to
      antibiotics at an exponentially increasing rate. The growing threat from multi
      drug resistant organisms calls for intensive action to prevent the emergence of
      totally resistant and untreatable infections. Novel, non-invasive, non-antibiotic
      strategies are needed that act more efficiently and faster than current
      antibiotics. One promising alternative is antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation
      (APDI), an approach that produces reactive oxygen species when dyes and light are
      combined. So far, it has been questionable if bacteria can develop resistance
      against APDI. This review paper gives an overview of recent studies concerning
      the susceptibility of bacteria towards oxidative stress, and suggests possible
      mechanisms of the development of APDI-resistance that should at least be
      addressed. Some ways to potentiate APDI and also to overcome future resistance
      are suggested.

PMID- 28867245
TI  - Proposal of a novel clinical score to predict heart failure incidence in long
      term survivors of acute coronary syndromes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: HF remains a frequent complication following MI and adversely
      affects prognosis. The objective of this study was to identify predictors of HF
      following MI and to design a risk score for its prediction. METHODS:
      Retrospective study of all consecutive patients admitted for MI. Primary end
      point was time to incident HF. Patients with previous history of HF were
      excluded. Death was modelled as competing risk. RESULTS: 5737 patients were
      included. Mean age was 66.32+/-12.80. During a median follow-up of 47.0months
      (23.0-73.0), 686 patients (12%) developed HF. Age, diabetes mellitus, peripheral
      artery disease, renal insufficiency, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
      persistent atrial fibrillation, haemoglobin, troponin peak, diuretic at
      admission, ventricular function, and revascularization were independent
      predictors for HF development. According to this multivariate regression
      analysis, we developed a novel score that allows for the identification of
      patients at high (>=16), medium (9-15) and low risk (<9) for HF development, with
      an AUC of 0.77 (IC 95%, 0.76-0.78; p=0.008). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical comorbidities
      were determinant for the development of HF following MI. A simple score
      effectively categorize patients into low, intermediate, and high-risk. This could
      be important in order to intensify medical treatment or consider additional
      interventions.

PMID- 28867246
TI  - Response to the Letter to the Editor regarding ''Statistical verification on the
      effect of hearing loss on speech-evoked auditory brainstem response''.

PMID- 28867247
TI  - Yin Yang-1 suppresses pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell proliferation and
      tumor growth by regulating SOX2OT-SOX2 axis.
AB  - The transcription regulator Yin Yang-1 (YY1) serves as a tumor suppressor in
      pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, the function of YY1 in
      proliferation of PDAC cells remains to be clarified. In this study, we found that
      overexpression of YY1 suppressed proliferation and decreased the expression of
      long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) SOX2OT and its potential target gene SOX2 in PDAC
      cells. Luciferase reporter, electrophoretic mobility shift (EMSA), and chromatin
      immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays revealed binding of YY1 to the SOX2OT promoter.
      Moreover, YY1 suppressed PDAC cell proliferation through SOX2OT transcriptional
      inhibition and subsequent decreased SOX2 expression. In addition, YY1 expression
      was statistically negatively correlated with SOX2OT and SOX2 expression in PDAC
      tissues and lower level expression of SOX2OT predicted better outcome in PDAC
      patients. These results confirmed the anti-proliferation effect of YY1 on PDAC
      cells, which was associated with SOX2 down-regulation in a SOX2OT-dependent
      mechanism. Although other undiscovered mechanisms may be involved in the YY1
      mediated tumor suppression role, the present study suggests that SOX2OT may act
      as a tumor promotor in PDAC and may represent a valuable diagnostic and
      therapeutic target.

PMID- 28867248
TI  - Roles of RNA methylation by means of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in human cancers.
AB  - Reversible methylation by means of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent
      internal modification in mammalian mRNA. This RNA chemical mark is created by
      proteins that are m6A "writers" and can be reversed by proteins that are m6A
      "erasers" (i.e., demethylases). Some other proteins serving as "readers" can
      recognize m6A-containing mRNA and regulate downstream molecular mechanisms
      accordingly. Although m6A bases in RNA perform critical functions in important
      biological processes, their roles in cancer biology and cancer stem cells remain
      largely unknown. In this review, we focus on the m6A-associated mechanisms and
      modification landscapes in several major malignant tumors. Global and detailed
      analyses were both conducted on relevant high-throughput sequencing data.
      Possible interventions against m6A demethylases are also explored in this review,
      which may be advantageous for the treatment of m6A related cancers.

PMID- 28867250
TI  - Extensor Retinaculum Reconstruction Using the Wide-Awake Approach.
AB  - De Quervain tenosynovitis is often treated by simple release of the first
      compartment. However, patients can suffer from persistent postoperative problems,
      including "clumsy" use of the thumb, as a result of redislocation or bowstringing
      of the extensor pollicis brevis/abductor pollicis longus tendons or irritation of
      the superficial branch of the radial nerve. Here we describe our method for first
      compartment reconstruction, in which the flaps are sutured after double-flap
      incision of the compartment. Because the tendons can become recompressed or
      redislocate if the sutures are too tight or loose, respectively, we achieve
      proper tension by suturing the flaps with the patient fully awake, under local
      anesthesia, and without a tourniquet. This allows the patient to actively move
      the thumb during the procedure, in turn enabling the surgeon to confirm the
      presence or absence of dislocation or stenosis. We describe the details of the
      local anesthesia, compartment incision and reconstruction, and how to avoid
      disturbing the superficial branch of the radial nerve in patients with de
      Quervain tenosynovitis during surgery. These procedures can be broadly applied
      without the need for specialized equipment and can be used for a variety of
      different procedures in which intraoperative surgical judgment is required to
      optimize function.

PMID- 28867249
TI  - Night Orthosis After Surgical Correction of Dupuytren Contractures: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the role of night orthosis use after surgical correction of
      Dupuytren contracture. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED,
      OTSeeker, and CENTRAL for articles published from inception of the databases to
      August 2015. Assessment was undertaken by 2 independent reviewers (O.A.S. and
      S.A.). Methodological quality of randomized controlled trials was assessed using
      the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Newcastle-Ottawa instrument. RESULTS:
      Seven studies met the standard for inclusion in this review. A total of 659
      patients across these 7 studies were included in the analysis, with follow-up
      ranging from 3 to 72 months. None of the included studies assessed recurrence.
      The analysis revealed no significant improvement in range of motion of hand
      joints for patients who received a static night orthosis after Dupuytren surgery
      compared with patients without an orthosis. Similarly, no differences were found
      in patient-reported functional status across the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: The
      current literature does not appear to support the use of static night orthosis in
      addition to hand therapy after surgical correction of Dupuytren contracture. TYPE
      OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic IV.

PMID- 28867251
TI  - Dorsal Plate Fixation of Scapular Fracture.
AB  - Scapular fractures are uncommon injuries. When they occur, they are usually
      treated nonsurgically. However, certain indications remain for operative
      intervention for the treatment of these injuries. In this article, we review some
      operative indications as well as the surgical technique. We present a case to
      demonstrate the indications and surgical technique of treatment. As with most
      surgical approaches, technique is critical to minimize morbidity and maximize
      functional outcome. Using these techniques, operative management of scapular
      fractures can be successful.

PMID- 28867252
TI  - Genetics of human autoimmunity: From genetic information to functional insights.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of risk variants
      associated with human autoimmune diseases. Recent evidence suggests that a
      substantial portion of them affect gene expression in specific cell types. To
      obtain the functional insights of GWAS findings, comprehensive characterization
      of genetic variants in human genome is a key task. In parallel with GWAS, many
      researches in functional genomics have been conducted in the past decade, and our
      understandings of cell type-specific gene regulatory system have been
      substantially improved. In this review, we will introduce the main research
      topics in functional genomics, and explain their utility to understand biological
      mechanisms of autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28867254
TI  - The sneaking ligand approach for cell type-specific modulation of intracellular
      signalling pathways.
AB  - Small molecules interfering with intracellular signalling pathways are used in
      the treatment of multiple diseases including RA. However, small molecules usually
      affect signalling in most cell types, not only in those which need to be
      targeted. This general inhibition of signalling pathways causes often adverse
      effects, which could be avoided by cell type-specific inhibitors. For cell-type
      specific modulation of signal transduction, we developed the sneaking ligand
      fusion proteins (SLFPs). SLFPs contain three domains: (1) the binding domain
      mediating cell type-specific targeting and endocytosis; (2) the endosomal release
      sequence releasing the effector domain into the cytoplasm; (3) the effector
      domain modulating signalling. Using our SLFP NF-kappaB inhibitor termed SLC1 we
      demonstrated that cell-type-specific modulation of intracellular signalling
      pathways is feasible, that endothelial NF-kappaB activation is critical for
      arthritis and peritonitis and that SLFPs help to identify disease-relevant
      pathways in defined cell types. Hence, SLFPs may improve risk-benefit ratios of
      therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28867255
TI  - Editorial overview: Membranes.

PMID- 28867253
TI  - Estrogen decreases tight junction protein ZO-1 expression in human primary gut
      tissues.
AB  - Females have a higher prevalence of most autoimmune diseases; however, the
      mechanism is unknown. In this study, we examined the expression of tight junction
      protein zonula occludens 1 (ZO-1) and estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha/beta in human
      primary gut tissues by immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and qPCR. The
      expression of ZO-1 and ER-beta but not ER-alpha was present in both male and
      female gut tissues. There was no sex difference in ER-beta expression, but ZO-1
      expression was decreased in females compared to males. In vitro, estrogen
      treatment decreased ZO-1 mRNA and protein expression, ZO-1 promoter activity, IL
      6 production, and NF-kappaB activation in human primary gut tissues or the Caco-2
      cells, but increased the ER-beta expression in Caco-2 cells. Consistently, plasma
      IL-6 levels in females were reduced relative to males in vivo. Our finding
      indicates that estrogen may play a role in gut tight junction expression and
      permeability.

PMID- 28867256
TI  - Timing of Intubation in Acute Respiratory Failure Associated With Sepsis: A Mixed
      Methods Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze bedside clinicians' perspectives regarding the decision
      process to optimize timing of intubation in sepsis-associated acute respiratory
      failure. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This mixed methods study was conducted from
      March 1, 2015, through June 30, 2016. Using qualitative research methods, factors
      that influenced variability in the decision to intubate were organized into
      categories and used to build a theoretical explanatory model grounded in current
      practice variance. All coding schemes were independently reviewed for accuracy
      and consistency. Themes and findings were then refined with member checking by
      feedback from individuals and from an anonymous questionnaire until saturation
      was achieved. RESULTS: The practice of intubation varied according to 3 domains:
      (1) patient factors included the nature of the acute illness, comorbidities,
      clinical presentation, severity, trajectory, and values and preferences; (2)
      clinician factors included background, training, experience, and practice style;
      and (3) system factors included workload, policies and protocols, hierarchy,
      communications, culture, and team dynamics. In different contexts, intubation was
      considered early (elective), just in time (urgent), or late (rescue). The initial
      assessment, initial decision, and reassessment mattered. CONCLUSION: Recognizing
      that the variability in both the decision to intubate and its timing depends on
      many factors, and not on clinical criteria alone, should render the clinician
      more attentive to the eventual progression of the acute respiratory failure.

PMID- 28867257
TI  - Oropharyngeal candidiasis prevalence among HIV-infected patients at the teaching
      hospital of Treichville (Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire).
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study was to determine the mycological profile
      of oropharyngeal candidiasis among HIV-infected patients from Internal Medicine,
      Infectious and Tropical Diseases, and Pneumo-Phthisiology Diseases departments of
      the Teaching Hospital of Treichville in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on patients with lesions
      suggestive of oropharyngeal candidiasis from October 2010 to April 2011. Oral
      swabs were cultured, and Candida species were identified using a germ tube test,
      a chlamydospore formation assay, and the API 20C system. RESULTS: A total of 286
      patients were included, among whom 99.1% were infected with HIV. The prevalence
      of oropharyngeal candidiasis was 79.4% (CI95%=74.4-83.8). Five different species
      of Candida were identified, with the predominant species being Candida albicans
      (95.2%). Most affected patients were female (54.6%, P<0.0001) between the ages of
      30 and 45 (78.4%, P<0.0001). The most lesion types observed were thrush (87.8%).
      Patients infected with HIV1 (95.6%), with a primary school level of education
      (52.8%), under antiretroviral therapy (88.5%) and with tuberculosis as an
      associated pathology (62.5%) were the most commonly affected. Patients were
      mostly under ART first line treatment (86.4%) and at the beginning of the
      treatment (86.4%). CONCLUSION: Oropharyngeal candidiasis is frequent among HIV
      infected patients. Better and early management of this vulnerable population
      should allow for a reduction in the high prevalence observed.

PMID- 28867258
TI  - Risk factors for suboptimal drug concentration of posaconazole oral suspension in
      patients with hematologic malignancy.
AB  - Absorption of posaconazole oral suspension is influenced by several factors
      including diet, medications, and mucosal integrity. However, there are few
      prospective data about which is the most important modifiable factor in routine
      clinical practice. We prospectively analyzed clinical risk factors associated
      with low posaconazole trough concentrations in 114 patients receiving anticancer
      chemotherapy due to acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome who
      received posaconazole oral suspension. In multivariate analyses, risk factors for
      drug level<500ng/mL included low calorie intake, mucositis>=grade 2, H2 blocker
      famotidine and proton-pump inhibitor. The only significant risk factor for drug
      level<700ng/mL was famotidine use (adjusted relative risk, 3.18; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.07-9.11; P=0.038). In conclusion, medication of H2 blocker famotidine
      should be cautious in patients with hematologic malignancy receiving posaconazole
      suspension.

PMID- 28867259
TI  - Early and Late CNS Inflammation in Alzheimer's Disease: Two Extremes of a
      Continuum?
AB  - In 1990 it was reported that individuals receiving NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs) showed a markedly reduced prevalence of Alzheimer's disease
      (AD) compared to the overall population. Large epidemiological studies
      corroborated this assertion and provoked numerous prospective AD clinical trials
      with a variety of NSAIDs, all of which demonstrated lack of efficacy. It is
      postulated that the explanation for the success of NSAIDS in preventing AD onset
      when given at preclinical stages, and for their failure when administered after
      AD clinical presentation, lies in the changing nature of central nervous system
      (CNS) inflammation in the decades-long continuum of AD pathology. Early disease
      aggravating CNS inflammation might start decades before the presentation of
      severe cognitive impairments or dementia, and the nature of this process will co
      evolve with the neuropathological progression from preclinical to clinical AD
      stages. This early CNS inflammation should be considered a promising therapeutic
      target as we continue searching for an unequivocal diagnosis of AD preclinical
      stages.

PMID- 28867260
TI  - Screening for ADHD in adults with cystic fibrosis: Prevalence, health-related
      quality of life, and adherence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: International guidelines recommend depression and anxiety screening
      in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF), but Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity
      Disorder (ADHD) remains understudied. METHODS: Adults with CF (n=53) were
      screened using the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale-v1.1 Symptom Checklist (ASRS
      v1.1), Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire-Revised (CFQ-R), and a self-report measure
      of treatment adherence. RESULTS: Elevated ADHD symptoms on the ASRS-v1.1 screener
      were reported by 15% of participants. Self-reported adherence, Body Mass Index in
      kg/m2 (BMI), and Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second, Percent Predicted
      (FEV1%pred) did not differ between participants with vs. without elevated ADHD
      scores. Three CFQ-R scales, Physical Functioning, Role Functioning, and
      Respiratory Symptoms, were significantly lower in participants with elevated ADHD
      screens (unadjusted p<0.05). This difference remained statistically significant
      for the Role Functioning and Respiratory Symptoms scales following correction for
      multiple comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: The highly specific screening tool ASRS-v1.1
      can ascertain previously undetected ADHD symptoms in adults with CF. ADHD was
      substantially more prevalent than expected in this population. Elevated ASRS-v1.1
      screens correlated with poorer Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in some
      domains, but not with BMI, FEV1%pred, or self-reported CF treatment adherence.
      Additional research will elucidate the impact of ADHD and its treatment on HRQoL,
      CF self-care and health outcomes.

PMID- 28867261
TI  - Histologically Proven Myocardial Carcinoid Metastases: The Value of Multimodality
      Imaging.
AB  - We present a case of a patient with intramyocardial metastases from a carcinoid
      tumor. These findings were detected using cardiovascular magnetic resonance
      imaging, with functional metabolic activity analyzed using nuclear imaging and
      confirmed by histologic findings at surgical biopsy. This case highlights the
      value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and the importance of
      multimodality imaging.

PMID- 28867262
TI  - Persistent Hypoxemia After Acute Myocardial Infarction: An Unexpected Culprit.
AB  - Hypoxemia after myocardial infarction (MI) is usually explained by common
      culprits, including congestive heart failure, pre-existing lung disease, and
      pulmonary infection. We report a case of a 60-year-old woman who experienced
      severe persistent hypoxemia caused by a patent foramen ovale in the setting of
      anterior MI complicated by a contained left ventricular rupture.

PMID- 28867263
TI  - Effects of Hyperthyroidism on Coronary Artery Disease: A Computed Tomography
      Angiography Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Changes in thyroid hormone concentration can negatively affect the
      cardiovascular system. Subclinical hyperthyroidism has been linked to an increase
      of cardiovascular heart disease, however, clinical effects and significance are
      still uncertain. Therefore, we analyzed coronary computed tomography
      angiographies of patients with overt and subclinical hyperthyroidism for
      quantitative parameters and plaque morphology. METHODS: Seven hundred forty-four
      (47.1% female) patients who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography
      were stratified into 3 groups: 51 patients with overt, 74 patients with
      subclinical hyperthyroidism, and 619 patients with euthyroidism. Analysis
      included grades of stenosis (no stenosis = 0, mild < 50%, intermediate 50%-70%,
      or high-grade > 70%) and plaque types (noncalcified, mixed, and calcified),
      segment involvement score (SIS), noncalcified SIS, and high-risk plaque features
      (napkin ring sign, low attenuation plaque, spotty calcifications, positive
      remodelling). RESULTS: Patients with overt and subclinical hyperthyroidism had
      more high-grade stenoses (39.2% vs 37.8% vs 24.2%; P = 0.007) and a higher
      coronary calcium score (456.5 vs 199.5 vs 155.9; P < 0.0001). Also, a total
      higher plaque burden has been found (SIS: 3.3 vs 3.2 vs 2.2; P < 0.0001;
      noncalcified SIS (1.2 vs 1.1 vs 0.6; P < 0.0001)). Patients with overt
      hyperthyroidism, followed by those with subclinical hyperthyroidism, had the most
      high-risk plaque features: napkin ring (21.6% vs 9.5% vs 6.0%, P < 0.0001), low
      attenuation plaque (35.3% vs 27% vs 8.7%, P < 0.0001), spotty calcification
      (35.3% vs 18.9% vs 19.1%, P = 0.02), and positive remodelling (37.3% vs 37.8% vs
      25.5%, P = 0.02). After a mean follow-up of 168 months, significantly more
      revascularizations were documented for hyperthyroid patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism showed more high-grade
      coronary stenoses, plaque burden, and high-risk plaque features than patients
      with euthyroidism, which indicates that an increase of thyroid hormones might
      lead to coronary vascular degeneration and plaque instability.

PMID- 28867264
TI  - Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators in Sudden Cardiac Death Survivors: Are We
      Doing All We Can?

PMID- 28867265
TI  - Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Implantation Rates After Out of Hospital
      Cardiac Arrest: Are the Rates Guideline-Concordant?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical practice guidelines recommend implantable cardioverter
      defibrillators (ICDs) for the secondary prevention of sudden death after a
      cardiac arrest not from a reversible cause, but "real world" implantation rates
      are not well described. METHODS: Adults with out of hospital cardiac arrest
      attended by Emergency Medical Services are captured in the Toronto Regional
      RescuNET database. We analyzed those who survived to hospital discharge and
      collected data on age, sex, initial rhythm, ST-elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) on presenting electrocardiogram (ECG), in-hospital revascularization,
      neurologic status (Modified Rankin Scale [MRS]) at discharge, and admission
      hospital type. To estimate 'indicated' ICD implantation rates, "likely ICD
      eligible" patients were defined as having an initial shockable rhythm, no STEMI
      on presenting ECG, no revascularization, and good neurologic status (MRS 0-3).
      "Not likely ICD-eligible" patients were defined as having a STEMI on presenting
      ECG, revascularization, or poor neurologic status (MRS 4-5). RESULTS: In the 1238
      adults (2011-2014) analyzed, the overall ICD implantation rate was 23.9%. Two
      hundred fifty-six patients were "likely ICD-eligible," of whom 146 (57.0%)
      received an ICD. The implantation rate for "not likely ICD-eligible" patients was
      16.7% (112 of 670). ICD eligibility could not be determined for 312 patients, of
      whom 38 (12.2%) received an ICD. Admission to a hospital with ICD implantation
      facilities was associated with a higher probability of ICD implantation (odds
      ratio, 2.85; 95% confidence interval, 1.40-5.82). CONCLUSIONS: Postcardiac arrest
      ICD implantation rates in eligible patients are lower than expected.
      Implementation strategies to monitor guideline adherence after out of hospital
      cardiac arrest are warranted.

PMID- 28867266
TI  - Low SIRT3 expression contributes to tumor progression, development and poor
      prognosis in human pancreatic carcinoma.
AB  - SIRT3, an important mitochondrial protein, may act as either an oncogene or tumor
      suppressor depending on the tumor-type. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the expression of SIRT3 in pancreatic carcinoma (PC) and its clinical association
      in PC patients. Immunohistochemistry was adopted to investigate the expression of
      SIRT3 in cancer and corrresponding adjacent non-cancer tissues across 79 patients
      with PC. The log-rank test and Cox hazard model were used to estimate the
      relationship between SIRT3 expression and prognosis. The staining results
      revealed that SIRT3 negative expression was more common in cancer tissues than in
      adjacent non-cancer tissues (P<0.001). Chi-square tests indicated that the
      expression of SIRT3 correlated with T status (p<0.001) and tumor stage (p=0.013).
      Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that negative SIRT3 expression is linked to a poor
      prognosis in PC patients. Multivariate analysis identified SIRT3 expression as an
      independent predictor for PC outcome both in the whole cohort and several
      subgroups of PC patients. Our results indicate that down-regulated SIRT3 may
      contribute to tumor progression and gloomy prognosis in PC patients and may sever
      as a novel prognostic marker.

PMID- 28867268
TI  - Control of HIV epidemic: improve access to testing and ART.

PMID- 28867269
TI  - Easing Concerns About the Low FODMAP Diet in Patients With Irritable Bowel
      Syndrome.

PMID- 28867270
TI  - Is a Biosimilar Interchangeable With an Originator?

PMID- 28867267
TI  - Testing and linkage to HIV care in China: a cluster-randomised trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multistage, stepwise HIV testing and treatment procedures can result
      in lost opportunities to provide timely antiretroviral therapy (ART). Incomplete
      engagement of patients along the care cascade translates into high preventable
      mortality. We aimed to identify whether a structural intervention to streamline
      testing and linkage to HIV health care would improve testing completeness, ART
      initiation, and viral suppression and reduce mortality. METHODS: We did a cluster
      randomised, controlled trial in 12 hospitals in Guangxi, China. All hospitals
      were required to be level 2A county general hospitals and ART delivery sites. We
      selected the 12 most similar hospitals in terms of structural characteristics,
      past patient caseloads, and testing procedures. Hospitals were randomly assigned
      (1:1) to either the One4All intervention or standard of care. Hospitals were
      randomised in a block design and stratified by the historical rate of testing
      completeness of the individual hospital during the first 6 months of 2013. We
      enrolled patients aged 18 years or older who were identified as HIV-reactive
      during screening in study hospitals, who sought inpatient or outpatient care in a
      study hospital, and who resided in the study catchment area. The One4All strategy
      incorporated rapid, point-of-care HIV screening and CD4 counts, and in-parallel
      viral load testing, to promote fast and complete diagnosis and staging and
      provide immediate ART to eligible patients. Participants in control hospitals
      received standard care services. All enrolled patients were assessed for the
      primary outcome, which was testing completeness within 30 days, defined as
      completion of three required tests and their post-test counselling. Safety
      assessments were hospital admissions for the first 90 days and deaths up to 12
      months after enrolment. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number
      NCT02084316. FINDINGS: Between Feb 24 and Nov 25, 2014, we enrolled 478 patients
      (232 in One4All, 246 in standard of care). In the One4All group, 177 (76%) of 232
      achieved testing completeness within 30 days versus 63 (26%) of 246 in the
      standard-of-care group (odds ratio 19.94, 95% CI 3.86-103.04, p=0.0004). Although
      no difference was observed between study groups in the number of hospital
      admissions at 90 days, by 12 months there were 65 deaths (28%) in the in the
      One4All group compared with 115 (47%) in the standard-of-care group (Cox
      proportional hazard ratio 0.44, 0.19-1.01, p=0.0531). INTERPRETATION: Our study
      provides strong evidence for the benefits of a patient-centred approach to
      streamlined HIV testing and treatment that could help China change the trajectory
      of its HIV epidemic, and help to achieve the goal of an end to AIDS. FUNDING: US
      National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network and China's National
      Health and Family Planning Commission.

PMID- 28867271
TI  - Maximizing the Diagnostic Yield of Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle
      Aspiration Biopsy.

PMID- 28867272
TI  - ROCKing the Field of Intestinal Fibrosis or Between a ROCK and a Hard Place?

PMID- 28867274
TI  - Enhanced Reprocessing of Duodenoscopes: Is Doing More Better?

PMID- 28867275
TI  - Risk for Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Hepatitis C Virus Antiviral Therapy With
      Direct-Acting Antivirals: Case Closed?

PMID- 28867276
TI  - Pediatric Liver Transplantation: An Asymmetrical War for Access to Livers.

PMID- 28867277
TI  - Progress in PD-1-based Immunotherapy: New Mechanistic Insight May Provide
      Expanded Hope for Application to Colon and Gastrointestinal Cancers.

PMID- 28867278
TI  - Disparities Among Gastrointestinal Disorders in Research Funding From the
      National Institutes of Health.

PMID- 28867279
TI  - Investigating hominin carnivory in the Okote Member of Koobi Fora, Kenya with an
      actualistic model of carcass consumption and traces of butchery on the elbow.
AB  - Previous zooarchaeological analysis at Koobi Fora indicates that Okote Member
      hominins were the primary agents of bone assemblage formation, gained early
      access to large and small mammal flesh, and consumed both high- and low-ranked
      carcass parts. The discovery of additional butchered specimens prompted the re
      analysis presented here of three large and well-preserved zooarchaeological
      assemblages from the Okote member, GaJi14, FwJj14N and FwJj14S, to revisit
      paleoecological hypotheses about tool-assisted carnivory. Cow and goat limb
      butchery documenting the skeletal location of cut marks created by skinning,
      defleshing, and disarticulation was used to build an actualistic model to infer
      hominin consumption of distinct carcass resources. Archaeological specimens were
      assigned to early (defleshing limbs), middle (defleshing ribs, viscera,
      vertebrae, and head) and late (metapodial tendon removal, element
      disarticulation, long bone fragmentation) carcass consumption stages, and the
      incidence of these butchery behaviors was examined for specimens and minimum
      number of element and individual aggregates. Elbow specimens, where traces of
      defleshing, disarticulation, and percussion co-occur, offer a sequential view of
      carcass consumption behaviors that is free from fragmentation bias.
      Classification trees populated with actualistic data were used to identify
      defleshing and disarticulation cut mark clusters on archaeological elbow portions
      by their location, cut mark count, median length, and median cross-sectional
      width. Actualistically-informed configurational analysis offers high-resolution
      behavioral reconstruction of the butchered sub-assemblage and should be
      integrated with assemblage-scale zooarchaeological methods. These experiments
      highlight the bias for detecting butchery traces of early carcass access, because
      defleshing cut marks are abundant and introduced to dense midshaft portions,
      whereas disarticulation cut marks are rare and occur on epiphyseal portions,
      which are often deleted by density-mediated destruction. Butchery trace
      interpretation across multiple analytical scales confirms a flexible carnivorous
      paleoecological role for Okote hominins that included primary and secondary
      access to carcass resources from large and small mammals.

PMID- 28867280
TI  - Interaction between childhood maltreatment on immunogenetic risk in depression:
      Discovery and replication in clinical case-control samples.
AB  - Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent disorder with moderate
      heritability. Both MDD and interpersonal adversity, including childhood
      maltreatment, have been consistently associated with elevated inflammatory
      markers. We investigated interaction between exposure to childhood maltreatment
      and extensive genetic variation within the inflammation pathway (CRP, IL1b, IL-6,
      IL11, TNF, TNFR1, and TNFR2) in relation to depression diagnosis. The discovery
      RADIANT sample included 262 cases with recurrent DSM-IV/ICD-10 MDD, and 288
      unaffected controls. The replication Munster cohort included 277 cases with DSM
      IV MDD, and 316 unaffected controls. We identified twenty-five single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) following multiple testing correction that interacted with
      childhood maltreatment to predict depression in the discovery cohort. Seven SNPs
      representing independent signals (rs1818879, rs1041981, rs4149576, rs616645,
      rs17882988, rs1061622, and rs3093077) were taken forward for replication. Meta
      analyses of the two samples presented evidence for interaction with rs1818879
      (IL6) (RD=0.059, SE=0.016, p<0.001), with the replication Munster sample
      approaching statistical significance in analyses restricted to recurrent MDD and
      controls following correction for multiple testing (q=0.066). The CRP locus
      (rs3093077) showed a similar level of evidence for interaction in the meta
      analysis (RD=0.092, SE=0.029, p=0.002), but less compelling evidence in the
      replication sample alone (recurrent MDD q=0.198; all MDD q=0.126). Here we
      present evidence suggestive of interaction with childhood maltreatment for novel
      loci in IL-6 (rs1818879) and CRP (rs3093077), increasing risk of depression.
      Replication is needed by independent groups, targeting these specific variants
      and interaction with childhood maltreatment on depression risk.

PMID- 28867282
TI  - TRIF contributes to epileptogenesis in temporal lobe epilepsy during TLR4
      activation.
AB  - Increasing evidence indicates that inflammatory processes play a crucial role in
      the etiopathology of epilepsy and seizure disorders. The Toll/IL-1R domain
      containing adapter-inducing IFN-beta (TRIF) activated several transcriptions
      leading to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the central nervous
      system, which suggests a potential role for TRIF in the epileptogenesis of
      epilepsy. In this study, we investigated the roles of TRIF in human and mice
      epileptogenic tissues. Western blot and immunohistochemistry assays showed that
      the expression of TRIF was significantly upregulated in neurons and glial cells
      in both human epileptic tissues and mouse models, and positively correlated with
      seizure frequency. TRIF expression positively correlated with high-mobility group
      box 1 (HMGB1) expression. In TRIF-deficient mice, electroencephalograms displayed
      a significant decrease in seizure frequency and duration time, while KA induced
      seizures compared with wild-type (WT) mice. The number and duration time of
      spontaneous seizures were also decreased in the chronic KA-induced TRIF-deficient
      mouse models. In TLR4-deficient hippocampal neurons and mouse models, TRIF
      expression was lower compared with WT mice during HMGB1 and KA stimulation.
      Meanwhile, in KA-induced TRIF-deficient mouse models, microglia activation was
      significantly suppressed; pro-inflammatory factors including IL-1beta, TNF-alpha,
      iNOS, HMGB1 and IFN-beta were reduced; and the survival of the neurons in the
      hippocampus increased compared with WT mice. Our findings suggested that TRIF may
      be involved in the epileptogenesis of temporal lobe epilepsy, which would make it
      a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of epilepsy.

PMID- 28867281
TI  - Childhood victimization and inflammation in young adulthood: A genetically
      sensitive cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Childhood victimization is an important risk factor for later immune
      related disorders. Previous evidence has demonstrated that childhood
      victimization is associated with elevated levels of inflammation biomarkers
      measured decades after exposure. However, it is unclear whether this association
      is (1) already detectable in young people, (2) different in males and females,
      and (3) confounded by genetic liability to inflammation. Here we sought to
      address these questions. METHOD: Participants were 2232 children followed from
      birth to age 18years as part of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin
      Study. Childhood victimization was measured prospectively from birth to age
      12years. Inflammation was measured through C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in
      dried blood spots at age 18years. Latent genetic liability for high inflammation
      levels was assessed through a twin-based method. RESULTS: Greater exposure to
      childhood victimization was associated with higher CRP levels at age 18 (serum
      equivalent means were 0.65 in non-victimized Study members, 0.74 in those exposed
      to one victimization type, and 0.81 in those exposed to poly-victimization;
      p=0.018). However, this association was driven by a significant association in
      females (serum-equivalent means were 0.75 in non-victimized females, 0.87 in
      those exposed to one type of victimization, and 1.19 in those exposed to poly
      victimization; p=0.010), while no significant association was observed in males
      (p=0.19). Victimized females showed elevated CRP levels independent of latent
      genetic influence, as well as childhood socioeconomic status, and waist-hip ratio
      and body temperature at the time of CRP assessment. CONCLUSION: Childhood
      victimization is associated with elevated CRP levels in young women, independent
      of latent genetic influences and other key risk factors. These results strengthen
      causal inference about the effects of childhood victimization on inflammation
      levels in females by accounting for potential genetic confounding.

PMID- 28867283
TI  - Kynurenic acid is reduced in females and oral contraceptive users: Implications
      for depression.
AB  - The incidence of depression is approximately 2-fold greater in women than men but
      the biological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. One
      potential mechanism that has been understudied is immune function, which is
      modulated by sex hormones and differs considerably between males and females. The
      immune-regulating kynurenine pathway previously has been implicated in the
      pathogenesis of mood disorders. In particular, a decreased ratio of
      neuroprotective (kynurenic acid; KynA) to neurotoxic (3-hydroxykynurenine; 3HK
      and quinolinic acid; QA) kynurenine pathway metabolites has been reported in
      several mood disorder subtypes. Yet there is a paucity of research investigating
      sex differences in the kynurenine pathway in the context of depression.
      Similarly, oral contraceptive (OC) use has been shown to be a risk factor for
      depression but to our knowledge this epidemiological relationship has not been
      considered within the framework of immune dysfunction. Here, we compared the
      concentrations of c-reactive protein (CRP) and kynurenine pathway metabolites in
      a combined sample of subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar
      disorder (BD), and healthy controls (HC) comprising 130 men and 350 women. CRP
      was measured in a CLIA-certified hospital laboratory. Kynurenine metabolites were
      quantified using high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass
      spectrometry. Estradiol and progesterone were quantified with the Mesoscale
      Discovery (MSD) platform. After controlling for diagnosis, age, sex, BMI,
      analysis batch, and self-reported childhood trauma we found that women had
      significantly lower KynA/3HK and KynA/QA ratios than men, and that these results
      were driven by a decrease in KynA. There was no significant difference between
      males and females in the concentration of CRP. Further, women taking OC showed
      significantly higher levels of CRP and lower ratios of KynA/3HK and KynA/QA
      compared with women on no form of contraception. Moreover, among women using OC,
      progesterone concentrations were positively correlated with KynA, KynA/3HK, and
      KynA/QA. Although preliminary, our results indicate that on average, healthy
      women show the same pattern of kynurenine pathway metabolism as that observed in
      subjects with depression. This finding raises the possibility that a reduction in
      KynA concentrations in women may constitute a vulnerability factor that partly
      explains the higher incidence of depression in females. Further, the significant
      association between OC use and reduced KynA as well as increased CRP, could
      conceivably partially account for the epidemiological association between OC use
      and depression. Nonetheless, because of the cross-sectional nature of this study,
      these hypotheses need to be more rigorously tested with longitudinal designs
      and/or large epidemiological studies.

PMID- 28867284
TI  - CRP polymorphisms and DNA methylation of the AIM2 gene influence associations
      between trauma exposure, PTSD, and C-reactive protein.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies have implicated inflammatory processes in the
      pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). C-reactive protein (CRP)
      is a widely-used measure of peripheral inflammation, but little is known about
      the genetic and epigenetic factors that influence blood levels of C-reactive
      protein (CRP) in individuals with PTSD. METHODS: Participants were 286 U.S.
      military veterans of post-9/11 conflicts (57% with current PTSD). Analyses
      focused on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CRP gene and DNA
      methylation at cg10636246 in AIM2-a locus recently linked to CRP levels through
      results from a large-scale epigenome-wide association study. RESULTS: PTSD was
      positively correlated with serum CRP levels with PTSD cases more likely to have
      CRP levels in the clinically-elevated range compared to those without a PTSD
      diagnosis. Multivariate analyses that controlled for white blood cell
      proportions, genetic principal components, age and sex, showed this association
      to be mediated by methylation at the AIM2 locus. rs3091244, a functional SNP in
      the CRP promoter region, moderated the association between lifetime trauma
      exposure and current PTSD severity. Analyses also revealed that the top SNPs from
      the largest genome-wide association study of CRP conducted to date (rs1205 and
      rs2794520) significantly interacted with PTSD to influence CRP levels.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide new insights into genetic and epigenetic
      mechanisms of inflammatory processes in the pathophysiology of PTSD and point to
      new directions for biomarker identification and treatment development for
      patients with PTSD.

PMID- 28867285
TI  - Mating in the Closest Living Relatives of Animals Is Induced by a Bacterial
      Chondroitinase.
AB  - We serendipitously discovered that the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri induces
      sexual reproduction in one of the closest living relatives of animals, the
      choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta. Although bacteria influence everything from
      nutrition and metabolism to cell biology and development in eukaryotes, bacterial
      regulation of eukaryotic mating was unexpected. Here, we show that a single V.
      fischeri protein, the previously uncharacterized EroS, fully recapitulates the
      aphrodisiac-like activity of live V. fischeri. EroS is a chondroitin lyase;
      although its substrate, chondroitin sulfate, was previously thought to be an
      animal synapomorphy, we demonstrate that S. rosetta produces chondroitin sulfate
      and thus extend the ancestry of this important glycosaminoglycan to the
      premetazoan era. Finally, we show that V. fischeri, purified EroS, and other
      bacterial chondroitin lyases induce S. rosetta mating at environmentally relevant
      concentrations, suggesting that bacteria likely regulate choanoflagellate mating
      in nature.

PMID- 28867286
TI  - Load Adaptation of Lamellipodial Actin Networks.
AB  - Actin filaments polymerizing against membranes power endocytosis, vesicular
      traffic, and cell motility. In vitro reconstitution studies suggest that the
      structure and the dynamics of actin networks respond to mechanical forces. We
      demonstrate that lamellipodial actin of migrating cells responds to mechanical
      load when membrane tension is modulated. In a steady state, migrating cell
      filaments assume the canonical dendritic geometry, defined by Arp2/3-generated 70
      degrees  branch points. Increased tension triggers a dense network with a
      broadened range of angles, whereas decreased tension causes a shift to a sparse
      configuration dominated by filaments growing perpendicularly to the plasma
      membrane. We show that these responses emerge from the geometry of branched
      actin: when load per filament decreases, elongation speed increases and
      perpendicular filaments gradually outcompete others because they polymerize the
      shortest distance to the membrane, where they are protected from capping. This
      network-intrinsic geometrical adaptation mechanism tunes protrusive force in
      response to mechanical load.

PMID- 28867288
TI  - Geography of Genetics and Genomics Research Funding in Africa.
AB  - An estimated U.S. $300 billion is spent each year on medical research. What
      proportion of this goes to genomics and genetics research in Africa? Until
      recently, this type of question was nearly impossible to answer. The World RePORT
      database, sponsored by the Heads of International Research Organizations (HIRO)
      and managed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provides a first attempt
      at answering questions on the distribution of research funding by geography and
      research organization. In this journal issue on the Human Heredity and Health in
      Africa (H3Africa), we explore the geography of biomedical research funding in the
      genomics field with special emphasis on Africa. Using World RePORT, we identified
      185 research projects in genetics and genomics in Africa in 2015 with total
      funding exceeding U.S. $216 million. These numbers are likely incomplete and more
      efforts at collating data from funder organizations is needed. A comprehensive
      snapshot of funders' portfolios will be invaluable to research investigators and
      policy makers in the identification of research gaps and analysis of allocation
      priorities to facilitate evidence-based decision-making for public-research
      funding organizations.

PMID- 28867287
TI  - Dynamic Control of X Chromosome Conformation and Repression by a Histone H4K20
      Demethylase.
AB  - Chromatin modification and higher-order chromosome structure play key roles in
      gene regulation, but their functional interplay in controlling gene expression is
      elusive. We have discovered the machinery and mechanism underlying the dynamic
      enrichment of histone modification H4K20me1 on hermaphrodite X chromosomes during
      C. elegans dosage compensation and demonstrated H4K20me1's pivotal role in
      regulating higher-order chromosome structure and X-chromosome-wide gene
      expression. The structure and the activity of the dosage compensation complex
      (DCC) subunit DPY-21 define a Jumonji demethylase subfamily that converts
      H4K20me2 to H4K20me1 in worms and mammals. Selective inactivation of demethylase
      activity eliminates H4K20me1 enrichment in somatic cells, elevates X-linked gene
      expression, reduces X chromosome compaction, and disrupts X chromosome
      conformation by diminishing the formation of topologically associating domains
      (TADs). Unexpectedly, DPY-21 also associates with autosomes of germ cells in a
      DCC-independent manner to enrich H4K20me1 and trigger chromosome compaction. Our
      findings demonstrate the direct link between chromatin modification and higher
      order chromosome structure in long-range regulation of gene expression.

PMID- 28867289
TI  - A New Age for African-Driven Genomics Research: Human Heredity and Health in
      Africa (H3Africa).

PMID- 28867290
TI  - Modified adductor sling technique: A surgical therapy for patellar instability in
      skeletally immature patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to open femoral physis the therapy of patellar instability in
      skeletally immature patients is challenging. We developed a modified surgical
      technique of the 'Adductor-Sling-Approach' by Sillanpaa. The purpose of this
      study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of the operative technique and to
      analyse the reasons for failure. METHODS: Thirty 'modified adductor sling'
      reconstructions in 28 patients were included in the study. From 2010 to 2016
      modified adductor sling reconstruction was performed by looping the gracilis or
      semitendinosus tendon around the adductor magnus tendon and attaching it at the
      medial facet of the patella. Clinical outcome was retrospectively evaluated at a
      mean follow up of 25.6months (range 12-43). The evaluation also included
      subjective International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), Lysholm Score,
      Kujala Score and Tegner Activity Score. RESULTS: The average age at the time of
      operation was 15.10years (range 11-17). Eighty-seven percent of the patients, who
      underwent the modified adductor sling technique, gained a stable patella and
      excellent results in postoperative scores. Recurrent dislocation occurred in four
      of 30 cases (13%). Analysis showed that possible reasons for failure of the
      tendon graft could be maltracking of the patella due to patella alta, trochlear
      dysplasia or an elevated tibial tuberosity to trochlear groove distance.
      CONCLUSION: The modified adductor sling technique for MPFL reconstruction in
      children and adolescents showed elevated redislocation rates. Only in absence of
      additional patellofemoral maltracking, caused by elevated tibial tubercle to
      trochlear groove distance (>15mm), patella alta or especially severe trochlear
      dysplasia, the modified adductor sling technique could be recommended.

PMID- 28867291
TI  - Cancer recurrence after solid organ transplantation: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - Solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR) with a pre-transplant malignancy (PTM)
      have been thought to be at high risk of cancer recurrence. However, recent
      population-based studies report cancer recurrence rates in SOTR similar to those
      of non-transplant patients. A systematic search was performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE,
      and Cochrane Library to identify studies reporting cancer recurrence in SOTR with
      PTM. Quality assessment was performed using a validated tool for assessing the
      quality of an observational study with no control group designed by the Institute
      of Health Economics. Overall and site-specific recurrence rates per person-year
      were pooled using generalized linear random/mixed-effects meta-analysis models
      and an exact likelihood approach based on a binomial and Poisson distribution.
      Meta-regressions, subgroup and sensitivity meta-analyses were used to explore
      sources of heterogeneity. Fifty-seven eligible studies were identified and 39
      were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled recurrence rate was 1.6 (95% CI
      1.0-2.6) per 100 person-year for all studies, and 1.1 (95% CI 0.5-2.7) when
      restricted to population-based studies. The recurrence rate was higher for kidney
      (2.4 per 100 person-year, 95% CI 1.0-5.6) compared with liver (1.0 per 100 person
      year, 95% CI 0.4-2.6), and cardiothoracic recipients (1.3 per 100 person-year,
      95% CI 0.6-2.7). Time from cancer diagnosis to transplantation (TCT) <= 5 years
      was associated with greater risk of cancer recurrence compared to TCT > 5 years
      (risk ratio: 2.80, 95% CI 1.12-7.01). In conclusion, the risk of cancer
      recurrence in recipients with PTM is considerably lower than historic reports
      used to establish recommendations for listing patients with PTM. Evidence to
      support minimum cancer remission times before transplantation is limited.

PMID- 28867292
TI  - Single-Molecule Imaging Reveals How Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 Initiates DNA Break Repair.
AB  - DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair is essential for maintaining our genomes.
      Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 (MRN) and Ku70-Ku80 (Ku) direct distinct DSB repair pathways,
      but the interplay between these complexes at a DSB remains unclear. Here, we use
      high-throughput single-molecule microscopy to show that MRN searches for free DNA
      ends by one-dimensional facilitated diffusion, even on nucleosome-coated DNA.
      Rad50 binds homoduplex DNA and promotes facilitated diffusion, whereas Mre11 is
      required for DNA end recognition and nuclease activities. MRN gains access to
      occluded DNA ends by removing Ku or other DNA adducts via an Mre11-dependent
      nucleolytic reaction. Next, MRN loads exonuclease 1 (Exo1) onto the free DNA ends
      to initiate DNA resection. In the presence of replication protein A (RPA), MRN
      acts as a processivity factor for Exo1, retaining the exonuclease on DNA for long
      range resection. Our results provide a mechanism for how MRN promotes homologous
      recombination on nucleosome-coated DNA.

PMID- 28867293
TI  - Global Inhibition with Specific Activation: How p53 and MYC Redistribute the
      Transcriptome in the DNA Double-Strand Break Response.
AB  - In response to stresses, cells often halt normal cellular processes, yet stress
      specific pathways must bypass such inhibition to generate effective responses. We
      investigated how cells redistribute global transcriptional activity in response
      to DNA damage. We show that an oscillatory increase of p53 levels in response to
      double-strand breaks drives a counter-oscillatory decrease of MYC levels. Using
      RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of newly synthesized transcripts, we found that p53
      mediated reduction of MYC suppressed general transcription, with the most highly
      expressed transcripts reduced to a greater extent. In contrast, upregulation of
      p53 targets was relatively unaffected by MYC suppression. Reducing MYC during the
      DNA damage response was important for cell-fate regulation, as counteracting MYC
      repression reduced cell-cycle arrest and elevated apoptosis. Our study shows that
      global inhibition with specific activation of transcriptional pathways is
      important for the proper response to DNA damage; this mechanism may be a general
      principle used in many stress responses.

PMID- 28867294
TI  - The RNA m6A Reader YTHDF2 Is Essential for the Post-transcriptional Regulation of
      the Maternal Transcriptome and Oocyte Competence.
AB  - YTHDF2 binds and destabilizes N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-modified mRNA. The extent
      to which this branch of m6A RNA-regulatory pathway functions in vivo and
      contributes to mammalian development remains unknown. Here we find that YTHDF2
      deficiency is partially permissive in mice and results in female-specific
      infertility. Using conditional mutagenesis, we demonstrate that YTHDF2 is
      autonomously required within the germline to produce MII oocytes that are
      competent to sustain early zygotic development. Oocyte maturation is associated
      with a wave of maternal RNA degradation, and the resulting relative changes to
      the MII transcriptome are integral to oocyte quality. The loss of YTHDF2 results
      in the failure to regulate transcript dosage of a cohort of genes during oocyte
      maturation, with enrichment observed for the YTHDF2-binding consensus and
      evidence of m6A in these upregulated genes. In summary, the m6A-reader YTHDF2 is
      an intrinsic determinant of mammalian oocyte competence and early zygotic
      development.

PMID- 28867296
TI  - Device-assisted transdermal drug delivery.
AB  - Transdermal drug delivery is a prospective drug delivery strategy to complement
      the limitations of conventional drug delivery systems including oral and
      injectable methods. This delivery route allows both convenient and painless drug
      delivery and a sustained release profile with reduced side effects. However,
      physiological barriers in the skin undermine the delivery efficiency of
      conventional patches, limiting drug candidates to small-molecules and lipophilic
      drugs. Recently, transdermal drug delivery technology has advanced from
      unsophisticated methods simply relying on natural diffusion to drug releasing
      systems that dynamically respond to external stimuli. Furthermore, physical
      barriers in the skin have been overcome using microneedles, and controlled
      delivery by wearable biosensors has been enabled ultimately. In this review, we
      classify the evolution of advanced drug delivery strategies based on generations
      and provide a comprehensive overview. Finally, the recent progress in advanced
      diagnosis and therapy through customized drug delivery systems based on real-time
      analysis of physiological cues is highlighted.

PMID- 28867295
TI  - Asthma Outcomes and Management During Pregnancy.
AB  - Asthma during pregnancy poses a common, increasingly prevalent threat to the
      health of women and their children. The present article reviews recent insights
      gained from the epidemiology of asthma during pregnancy, demonstrating the many
      short- and long-term risks to mother and fetus incurred by poorly controlled
      maternal asthma. We further discuss emerging evidence that active management of
      asthma during pregnancy can positively influence and perhaps completely mitigate
      these poor outcomes. Recent high-quality trials examining best methods for asthma
      treatment are reviewed and synthesized to offer an evidence-based pathway for
      comprehensive treatment of asthma in the outpatient setting. Safe and effective
      medications, as well as nonpharmacologic interventions, for asthma during
      pregnancy are discussed, and treatment options for related conditions of
      pregnancy, including depression, rhinitis, and gastroesophageal reflux, are
      presented. Throughout, we emphasize that an effective treatment strategy relies
      on a detailed patient evaluation, patient education, objective measurement of
      asthma control, and frequent and supportive follow-up. The cardiovascular and
      respiratory physiology of pregnancy is reviewed, as well as its implications for
      the management of patients with asthma, including patients requiring intubation
      and mechanical ventilation. For the situation when outpatient asthma management
      has failed, an approach to the critically ill pregnant patient with status
      asthmaticus is detailed. Multidisciplinary teams that include pulmonary
      specialists, obstetricians, primary care providers, nurses, pharmacists, and
      asthma educators improve the care of pregnant women with asthma.

PMID- 28867297
TI  - Nomogram to predict non-home discharge following pancreaticoduodenectomy in a
      national cohort of patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the development of pathways to enhance recovery and discharge
      to home, a significant proportion of patients are discharged to inpatient
      facilities after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). The aim of this study was to
      determine the rate of non-home discharge (NHD) following PD in a national cohort
      of patients and to develop predictive nomograms for NHD. METHODS: The National
      Surgical Quality Improvement Program was used to construct and validate pre- and
      postoperative nomograms for NHD following PD. RESULTS: A total of 6856 patients
      who underwent PD were identified, of which 927 (13.5%) had an NHD. The
      independent preoperative predictors of NHD were being female, older age, higher
      BMI, low serum albumin, >10% weight loss, ASA class III/IV, and being diagnosed
      with a bile duct/ampullary neoplasm or neuroendocrine tumor. A preoperative
      nomogram was constructed with a concordance index of 0.77. When postoperative
      variables were added to the model, the concordance index increased to 0.82. The
      postoperative predictors of NHD were return to the operating room, length of stay
      of >=14 days, and any inpatient complications. CONCLUSIONS: These nomograms could
      be useful risk assessment tools to predict NHD after PD and therefore facilitate
      patient counseling and improve resource utilization and discharge planning.

PMID- 28867299
TI  - Solute concentration at a well in non-Gaussian aquifers under constant and time
      varying pumping schedule.
AB  - Our study is keyed to the analysis of the interplay between engineering factors
      (i.e., transient pumping rates versus less realistic but commonly analyzed
      uniform extraction rates) and the heterogeneous structure of the aquifer (as
      expressed by the probability distribution characterizing transmissivity) on
      contaminant transport. We explore the joint influence of diverse (a) groundwater
      pumping schedules (constant and variable in time) and (b) representations of the
      stochastic heterogeneous transmissivity (T) field on temporal histories of solute
      concentrations observed at an extraction well. The stochastic nature of T is
      rendered by modeling its natural logarithm, Y=lnT, through a typical Gaussian
      representation and the recently introduced Generalized sub-Gaussian (GSG) model.
      The latter has the unique property to embed scale-dependent non-Gaussian features
      of the main statistics of Y and its (spatial) increments, which have been
      documented in a variety of studies. We rely on numerical Monte Carlo simulations
      and compute the temporal evolution at the well of low order moments of the solute
      concentration (C), as well as statistics of the peak concentration (Cp),
      identified as the environmental performance metric of interest in this study. We
      show that the pumping schedule strongly affects the pattern of the temporal
      evolution of the first two statistical moments of C, regardless the nature
      (Gaussian or non-Gaussian) of the underlying Y field, whereas the latter
      quantitatively influences their magnitude. Our results show that uncertainty
      associated with C and Cp estimates is larger when operating under a transient
      extraction scheme than under the action of a uniform withdrawal schedule. The
      probability density function (PDF) of Cp displays a long positive tail in the
      presence of time-varying pumping schedule. All these aspects are magnified in the
      presence of non-Gaussian Y fields. Additionally, the PDF of Cp displays a bimodal
      shape for all types of pumping schemes analyzed, independent of the type of
      heterogeneity considered.

PMID- 28867298
TI  - Transcriptional and epigenetic analyses of the DMD locus reveal novel cis-acting
      DNA elements that govern muscle dystrophin expression.
AB  - The dystrophin gene (DMD) is the largest gene in the human genome, mapping on the
      Xp21 chromosome locus. It spans 2.2Mb and accounts for approximately 0,1% of the
      entire human genome. Mutations in this gene cause Duchenne and Becker Muscular
      Dystrophy, X-linked Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and other milder muscle phenotypes.
      Beside the remarkable number of reports describing dystrophin gene expression and
      the pathogenic consequences of the gene mutations in dystrophinopathies, the full
      scenario of the DMD transcription dynamics remains however, poorly understood.
      Considering that the full transcription of the DMD gene requires about 16h, we
      have investigated the activity of RNA Polymerase II along the entire DMD locus
      within the context of specific chromatin modifications using a variety of
      chromatin-based techniques. Our results unveil a surprisingly powerful
      processivity of the RNA polymerase II along the entire 2.2Mb of the DMD locus
      with just one site of pausing around intron 52. We also discovered epigenetic
      marks highlighting the existence of four novel cis-DNA elements, two of which,
      located within intron 34 and exon 45, appear to govern the architecture of the
      DMD chromatin with implications on the expression levels of the muscle dystrophin
      mRNA. Overall, our findings provide a global view on how the entire DMD locus is
      dynamically transcribed by the RNA pol II and shed light on the mechanisms
      involved in dystrophin gene expression control, which can positively impact on
      the optimization of the novel ongoing therapeutic strategies for
      dystrophinopathies.

PMID- 28867300
TI  - Percolation characteristics of solvent invasion in rough fractures under miscible
      conditions.
AB  - Surface roughness and flow rate effects on the solvent transport under miscible
      conditions in a single fracture are studied. Surface replicas of seven different
      rocks (marble, granite, and limestone) are used to represent different surface
      roughness characteristics each described by different mathematical models
      including three fractal dimensions. Distribution of dyed solvent is investigated
      at various flow rate conditions to clarify the effect of roughness on convective
      and diffusive mixing. After a qualitative analysis using comparative images of
      different rocks, the area covered by solvent with respect to time is determined
      to conduct a semi-quantitative analysis. In this exercise, two distinct zones are
      identified, namely the straight lines obtained for convective (early times) and
      diffusive (late times) flow. The bending point between these two lines is used to
      point the transition between the two zones. Finally, the slopes of the straight
      lines and the bending points are correlated to five different roughness
      parameters and the rate (Peclet number). It is observed that both surface
      roughness and flow rate have significant effect on solvent spatial distribution.
      The largest area covered is obtained at moderate flow rates and hence not only
      the average surface roughness characteristic is important, but coessentially
      total fracture surface area needs to be considered when evaluating fluid
      distribution. It is also noted that the rate effect is critically different for
      the fracture samples of large grain size (marbles and granite) compared to
      smaller grain sizes (limestones). Variogram fractal dimension exhibits the
      strongest correlation with the maximum area covered by solvent, and display
      increasing trend at the moderate flow rates. Equations with variogram surface
      fractal dimension in combination with any other surface fractal parameter coupled
      with Peclet number can be used to predict maximum area covered by solvent in a
      single fracture, which in turn can be utilized to model oil recovery, waste
      disposal, and groundwater contamination processes in the presence of fractures.

PMID- 28867302
TI  - Comparison of the efficiency of different newcastle disease virus reverse
      genetics systems.
AB  - Rescue of negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses ((-)ssRNA virus), generally
      requires the handling of a large number of plasmids to provide the virus genome
      and essential components for gene expression and genome replication. This
      constraint probably renders reverse genetics of (-)ssRNA virus more complex and
      less efficient. Some authors have shown that the fewer the plasmids, the more
      efficient reverse genetics is for segmented RNA virus. However, it is not clear
      if the same applies for (-)ssRNA, such as Newcastle disease virus (NDV). To
      address this issue, six variants of NDV reverse genetic systems were established
      by cloning combinations of NP, P and L genes, mini-genome or full-genome in 4, 3,
      2 and 1 plasmid. In terms of mini-genome and full-genome rescue, we showed that
      only the 2-plasmid system, assembling three support plasmids together, was able
      to improve the rescue efficiency over that of the conventional 4-plasmid system.
      These results may help establish and/or improve reverse genetics for other
      mononegaviruses.

PMID- 28867304
TI  - Pharmaconutrition with intravenous selenium in intensive care: Back to basics?

PMID- 28867303
TI  - Treatment with a GLP-1R agonist over four weeks promotes weight loss-moderated
      changes in frontal-striatal brain structures in individuals with mood disorders.
AB  - Cognitive deficits are a core feature across psychiatric disorders. Emerging
      evidence indicates that metabolic pathways are highly relevant for the substrates
      and phenomenology of the cognitive domain. Herein, we aimed to determine the
      effects of liraglutide, a GLP-1R agonist, on brain structural/volumetric
      parameters in adults with a mood disorder. This is the secondary analysis of a 4
      week, pilot, proof-of-concept, open-label study. Participants (N=19) exhibiting
      impairments in executive function with either major depressive disorder (MDD) or
      bipolar disorder (BD) were recruited. Liraglutide 1.8mg/day was added as an
      adjunct to existing pharmacotherapy. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      scanning was obtained at baseline and endpoint. Results showed that at endpoint
      there was significant weight loss (mean: 3.15%; p<0.001). Changes in frontal and
      striatal volumes were significantly correlated with changes in body mass index
      (BMI), indicating the weight loss was associated with volume increase in most
      regions (e.g. r=-0.561, p=0.042 in the left superior frontal area). After
      adjusting for intracranial volume, age, gender, and BMI, we observed significant
      changes from baseline to endpoint in multiple regions (e.g. RR: 1.011, p=0.049 in
      the left rostral middle frontal area). Changes in regional volumes were
      associated with improvement in executive function (e.g. r=0.698, p=0.003 for the
      right superior frontal area). Adjunctive liraglutide results in clinically
      significant weight loss, with corresponding improvement in cognitive function;
      changes in cognitive function were partially moderated by changes in brain
      morphometry, underscoring the interrelationship between weight and brain
      structure/function.

PMID- 28867305
TI  - The effect of hospital teaching status on outcomes in bariatric surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies have shown conflicting effects of resident involvement on
      outcomes after laparoscopic bariatric surgery. Resident involvement may be a
      proxy for a teaching environment in which multiple factors affect patient
      outcomes. However, no study has examined outcomes of laparoscopic bariatric
      surgery based on hospital teaching status. OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes after
      laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy
      (LSG) between teaching hospitals (THs) and nonteaching hospitals (NTHs). SETTING:
      Retrospective review of a national database in the United States. METHODS: The
      Nationwide Inpatient Sample database (2011-2013) was reviewed for obese patients
      who underwent LRYGB or LSG. Patient demographic characteristics and outcomes were
      analyzed according to hospital teaching status. Primary outcome measures included
      risk-adjusted inpatient mortality and serious morbidity. RESULTS: We analyzed
      32,449 LRYGBs and 26,075 LSGs. There were 35,160 (60.1%) cases performed at THs
      and 23,364 (39.9%) cases performed at NTHs. At THs, the distribution of LRYGB
      versus LSG cases was 20,461 (58.2%) versus 14,699 (41.8%), respectively; at NTHs,
      the distribution was 11,988 (51.3%) versus 11,376 (48.7%), respectively. For
      LRYGB, there were no significant differences between THs versus NTHs in mortality
      (AOR 1.14; P = 0.99), but there was an increase in odds of serious morbidity at
      THs (AOR 1.36; P<0.001). For LSG, there were no significant differences between
      THs versus NTHs for mortality (AOR 1.15; P = 0.99) or serious morbidity (AOR
      1.03; P = 0.99). CONCLUSIONS: There is an association between THs and increased
      serious morbidity for LRYGB, but hospital teaching status has no effect on
      morbidity or mortality after LSG. Further research is warranted to elucidate the
      reasons for these associations.

PMID- 28867306
TI  - Comment on: Fat mass, fat-free mass, and resting metabolic rate in weight-stable
      sleeve gastrectomy patients compared with weight-stable nonoperated subjects.

PMID- 28867301
TI  - Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease as a Nexus of Metabolic and Hepatic Diseases.
AB  - NAFLD is closely linked with hepatic insulin resistance. Accumulation of hepatic
      diacylglycerol activates PKC-epsilon, impairing insulin receptor activation and
      insulin-stimulated glycogen synthesis. Peripheral insulin resistance indirectly
      influences hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism by increasing flux of substrates
      that promote lipogenesis (glucose and fatty acids) and gluconeogenesis (glycerol
      and fatty acid-derived acetyl-CoA, an allosteric activator of pyruvate
      carboxylase). Weight loss with diet or bariatric surgery effectively treats
      NAFLD, but drugs specifically approved for NAFLD are not available. Some new
      pharmacological strategies act broadly to alter energy balance or influence
      pathways that contribute to NAFLD (e.g., agonists for PPAR gamma, PPAR
      alpha/delta, FXR and analogs for FGF-21, and GLP-1). Others specifically inhibit
      key enzymes involved in lipid synthesis (e.g., mitochondrial pyruvate carrier,
      acetyl-CoA carboxylase, stearoyl-CoA desaturase, and monoacyl- and diacyl
      glycerol transferases). Finally, a novel class of liver-targeted mitochondrial
      uncoupling agents increases hepatocellular energy expenditure, reversing the
      metabolic and hepatic complications of NAFLD.

PMID- 28867307
TI  - [Cardiological vision of functional exploration during exercise].

PMID- 28867308
TI  - [Use of endobronchial ultrasound in the management of cryptogenic haemoptysis].
AB  - Currently about 50% of cases of haemoptysis are thought to be cryptogenic.
      Haemorrhage from the pulmonary arterial system is rare and usually due to
      aneurysms or pseudoaneurysms, the radiological diagnosis of which is often
      difficult. We report here the case of a patient admitted with a heavy haemoptysis
      in whom the thoracic CT scan did not reveal the diagnosis. Bronchoscopy with
      endobronchial ultrasound showed a vascular malformation of a branch of the
      pulmonary artery allowing a radiological embolisation. This case underlines the
      importance of bronchoscopy and the role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of
      haemoptysis, considered ideopathic, complicating vascular malformations.

PMID- 28867309
TI  - B-cell activating factor BAFF reflects patients' immunological risk profile after
      kidney transplantation.
AB  - The B-cell activating factor BAFF plays an important role in the development and
      maturation of B-lymphocytes, which can contribute to the generation of donor
      specific antibodies and thus may influence graft function and graft survival.
      Inconsistent data on the role of BAFF levels after renal transplantation for the
      formation of donor-specific antibodies and the contribution for allograft
      rejection exist. The aim of the current study was to determine to what extent the
      degree of pre-immunization is reflected by each patient's BAFF levels before
      transplantation and in the follow-up. Furthermore, the impact of BAFF on
      allograft rejection frequency as well as severity and resulting allograft
      function over time was analyzed. Additionally, the impact of viral infections on
      BAFF levels after transplantation - as a potential confounder - was examined. For
      this purpose, a group of pre-sensitized patients (PRA>0%, (52+/-24% on average),
      n=40) was compared with non-sensitized patients (PRA=0%, n=62) and in a
      subsequent analysis stratification in accordance to the detected BAFF level was
      performed. Pre-sensitized patients had significantly higher BAFF levels before
      transplantation and suffered significantly more often from early steroid
      resistant, mainly antibody-mediated rejections. A result which was confirmed also
      in highly sensitized patients with PRA levels >50%. Additionally, in the follow
      up patients with either rising BAFF levels over time or BAFF levels above the
      median also had significantly more often antibody mediated rejections.
      Additionally, patients with BAFF levels above detected median even displayed
      impaired creatinine values as well as an induced eGFR slope up to month 48 after
      transplantation. The occurrence of viral infections (CMV, BKV) was only an
      additional influencing factor in the absence of concomitant allograft rejections.
      Therefore, the B-cell proliferation factor BAFF appears not only to reflect the
      immunological risk profile of patients in the context of kidney transplantation,
      it may possibly be further developed as a predictor of patients with an increased
      risk profile for subsequent allograft rejection and impaired allograft function.

PMID- 28867310
TI  - Effects of Patients' Affect on Adverse Procedural Events during Image-Guided
      Interventions.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess how a patient's affect on presentation relates to the
      likelihood of adverse events during their subsequent interventional image-guided
      procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A secondary analysis was performed of an
      existing dataset from a clinical trial with 230 patients who underwent
      percutaneous peripheral vascular and renal interventions and who had completed
      the positive affect (PA) negative affect (NA) schedule (PANAS) before their
      procedures. Summary PANAS scores were split over the median and used to classify
      the participants into those with high vs low PA and high vs low NA. Associations
      between affect and the absence or presence of adverse medical events were
      examined by two-sided Fisher exact tests. RESULTS: Patients with high baseline NA
      were significantly more likely to have adverse events during their procedures
      than those with low baseline NA (18% vs 8%; P = .030). High baseline PA was not
      associated with a significantly higher frequency of subsequent adverse events
      compared with low PA (15% vs 9%; P = .23). Patients with high NA requested and
      received significantly more sedative and opioid agents than those with low NA
      (2.0 vs 1.0 units requested [P = .0009]; 3.0 vs 1.0 units received [P = .0004]).
      PA levels did not affect medication use. CONCLUSIONS: High NA, but not PA, was
      associated with an increased likelihood of adverse events. Improving patients' NA
      before procedures seems a more suitable target than attempting to boost PA to
      improve the procedural experience.

PMID- 28867311
TI  - Distal technologies and type 1 diabetes management.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes requires intensive self-management to avoid acute and long-term
      health complications. In the past two decades, substantial advances in technology
      have enabled more effective and convenient self-management of type 1 diabetes.
      Although proximal technologies (eg, insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors,
      closed-loop and artificial pancreas systems) have been the subject of frequent
      systematic and narrative reviews, distal technologies have received scant
      attention. Distal technologies refer to electronic systems designed to provide a
      service remotely and include heterogeneous systems such as telehealth, mobile
      health applications, game-based support, social platforms, and patient portals.
      In this Review, we summarise the empirical literature to provide current
      information about the effectiveness of available distal technologies to improve
      type 1 diabetes management. We also discuss privacy, ethics, and regulatory
      considerations, issues of global adoption, knowledge gaps in distal technology,
      and recommendations for future directions.

PMID- 28867312
TI  - Models of Mortality and Morbidity in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: An Analysis
      of a Singapore Neurotrauma Database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Current prognostic models for traumatic brain injury (TBI) are
      developed from diverse historical data sets. We aimed to construct a
      prognostication tool for patients with severe TBI, as this group would benefit
      most from an accurate model. METHODS: Model development was based on a cohort of
      300 patients with severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale score <=8) consecutively
      admitted to a neurosurgical intensive care unit at the National Neuroscience
      Institute (NNI), Singapore, between February 2006 and December 2009. We analyzed
      prospectively collected data of admission characteristics using univariate and
      multivariate logistic regressions to predict 14-day and 6-month mortality and 6
      month unfavorable outcome. Comparison with Corticosteroid Randomization After
      Significant Head Injury (CRASH) and Mission for Prognosis and Analysis of
      Clinical Trials in TBI (IMPACT) models was done using Akaike information
      criterion. RESULTS: Two prediction models, NNI Clinical (age, Glasgow Coma Scale
      score, pupillary reactivity) and NNI+ (NNI Clinical model with addition of
      obliteration of third ventricle or basal cisterns, presence of subdural
      hemorrhage, hypoxia, and coagulopathy), were derived from this data set. Both
      models predicted well across 3 outcome measures with area under the curve values
      of 0.84-0.91, with adequate calibration. Comparison with CRASH and IMPACT models
      showed better performance by both derived models with lower Akaike information
      criterion and higher area under the curve values. CONCLUSIONS: Two accurate
      prognostic models, NNI Clinical and NNI+, were developed from our cohort of
      patients with severe TBI. Both models are specific to severe TBI and could be
      better alternatives to current available models. External validation is required
      to assess performance of models in a different setting.

PMID- 28867313
TI  - Residual Deformity After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion for Unstable
      Hangman's Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a commonly used
      surgery for unstable hangman's fractures. This study investigated the rate of
      residual deformity after ACDF for these fractures and the effect of residual
      deformity on clinical and radiologic outcomes. METHODS: A retrospective analysis
      of 28 patients with unstable hangman's fractures treated with ACDF was
      undertaken. The angulation and anterior translation between C2-C3 were measured
      on lateral radiographs at the time of admission, after skull traction, in the
      initial postoperative period, and at final follow-up. Residual deformity after
      surgery was defined as significant angulation (>=6 degrees ) and/or translation
      (>=3 mm). Patients were divided into 2 groups: with and without residual
      deformity. Follow-up evaluation included clinical and radiologic outcomes.
      RESULTS: Mean follow-up time was 22 months. The group with residual deformity
      included 7 patients with an angulation of >=11 degrees  and/or translation of >=4
      mm after skull traction. The remaining 21 patients without residual deformity had
      an angulation of <11 degrees  and translation of <4 mm after skull traction. Neck
      pain and neurologic deficits improved significantly in all patients after
      surgery. No significant changes of alignment of middle and lower cervical
      vertebrae were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Residual deformity after ACDF for unstable
      hangman's fractures is not rare, and it seems to have no significant effect on
      clinical outcome during short-term follow-up. A severe deformity between C2-C3
      after skull traction may be a predictor of residual deformity.

PMID- 28867314
TI  - Prognostic Factors and Comparison of Conservative Treatment, Percutaneous
      Vertebroplasty, and Open Surgery in the Treatment of Spinal Metastases from Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spinal metastases from lung cancer could result in life-threatening
      consequences. Few studies report the prognostic factors and compare different
      treatments in patients with spinal metastases from lung cancer. METHODS: From
      2005 to 2014, we retrospectively reviewed and studied 140 patients with spinal
      metastases from lung cancer according to different treatments. To estimate
      overall survival and identify prognostic factors for survival, the Kaplan-Meier
      method and Cox regression analysis were adopted. In addition, the Kaplan-Meier
      method was used to compare different treatments for overall survival. RESULTS:
      All patients in a conservative group and a percutaneous vertebroplasty group died
      at a median survival time of 7 months for both groups. As for patients in the
      open-surgery group, 42 patients died at a median of 11 months, and 7 patients who
      were still alive at the time of this study were followed for a median of 29
      months. Multivariate analysis suggested that better survival was significantly
      associated with American Spinal Injury Association grade D/E on admission,
      American Spinal Injury Association grade E after surgery, Eastern Cooperative
      Oncology Group performance status 1-2, and adjuvant radiation therapy in all 3
      groups. In addition, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the overall survival rate
      of the open-surgery group (14.3%) was better than that of conservative group (0%)
      and the percutaneous vertebroplasty group (0%). CONCLUSIONS: A better overall
      survival outcome might be achieved by a series of comprehensive and
      individualized treatments and personalized treatment.

PMID- 28867316
TI  - Endoscopic Endonasal Surgery for Treatment of Pituitary Apoplexy: 16 Years of
      Experience in a Specialized Pituitary Center.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Symptomatic pituitary apoplexy is a rare but life-threatening
      condition caused by sudden hemorrhage or infarction of a pituitary adenoma. In
      the current study, we aim to evaluate the clinical presentation, management, and
      clinical outcomes in a cohort of patients who were treated for this condition in
      our center in the last 16 years. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis
      of all patients who underwent endoscopic endonasal surgery for treatment of
      symptomatic pituitary apoplexy between 2001 and 2016 in our center. RESULTS: A
      total of 39 patients were included in the study, mean age of 54.9 years (range,
      18-70 years) and mean follow-up 5.1 years (range, 0.6-16 years). Most of the
      patients had nonfunctioning adenomas (32 patients). Headache (89%), visual
      impairment (79%), and hypopituitarism (86%) were the most common preoperative
      findings. Surgical treatment led to gross total resection in 31 patients (79.4%).
      During follow-up, visual fields and oculomotor improvement was observed in 23
      (74.1%) and 21 (67.7%) of the patients, respectively. Intractable headache also
      improved in all patients. Hypopituitarism was present in 77% of patients after
      surgery. In this series, no cerebrospinal fluid leak, vascular injury, or
      infection was observed. There was no postoperative mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The
      endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach is an effective modality to treat
      pituitary apoplexy with a high rate of success and minimal risk in selected
      cases. Although reversion of preoperative visual deficits is often observed,
      hormonal deficits tend to persist, and require long-term hormonal therapy, even
      after successful endoscopic endonasal surgical resection.

PMID- 28867315
TI  - Soluble Fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and Risk of Cerebral Vasospasm After
      Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The molecular mechanisms underlying cerebral vasospasm and delayed
      cerebral ischemia (DCI) after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) are
      incompletely understood. We hypothesized that circulating antiangiogenic factors,
      such as soluble Fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and soluble transforming
      growth factor beta coreceptor, soluble endoglin (sEng), are important markers of
      their pathophysiology. METHODS: We performed a prospective study in patients with
      aSAH and measured cerebrospinal fluid and serum levels of sFlt-1 and sEng on
      postbleed day 1 and 6 and correlated levels with incidence and severity of
      cerebral vasospasm and DCI. RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients with aSAH were
      enrolled in the study. Severe angiographic vasospasm was present in 14.8% of
      patients and DCI occurred in 33.3%. Serum sFlt1 levels were increased on
      postbleed day 6 in patients who developed vasospasm. However, on postbleed day 1,
      there were no differences in patients who developed vasospasm. Increased serum
      sFlt-1 levels on postbleed day 1 were found to predict the development of severe
      angiographic vasospasm with an area under the curve of 0.818 with an optimal
      cutoff value of 95 pg/mL. Alterations in sFlt1 were not associated with DCI.
      Serum and cerebrospinal fluid sEng levels did not correlate with vasospasm or
      DCI. CONCLUSIONS: Serum levels of sFlt-1 are increased in patients with aSAH who
      are at risk for severe vasospasm. Further studies with larger sample sizes are
      needed to evaluate whether sFlt-1 levels may predict onset of severe vasospasm
      and DCI.

PMID- 28867317
TI  - Extensive Mirror-Image Neurofibromas of Entire Spine Resulting in Spastic
      Tetraplegia.
AB  - Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is associated with increased incidence of spinal tumors
      including neurofibromas. The majority of NF1-associated spine neurofibromas are
      asymptomatic; however, a minority of patients will experience neurologic symptoms
      that can range from mild paresthesia, radiculopathy, myelopathy, and focal
      weakness to quadriplegia in extreme cases. We present a 21-year-old male
      diagnosed with NF1 in infancy and followed for multiple mirror-image
      neurofibromas involving the entire spine. He was asymptomatic until age 14 when
      he developed neck pain and progressive tetraplegia with magnetic resonance
      imaging showing severe cord compression secondary to bilateral C2 neurofibromas.
      Emergent cervical decompression was performed at C1-C3 along with debulking of
      bilateral neurofibromas. Postoperatively he regained full strength with no signs
      of myelopathy several years postoperatively. This case demonstrates a dramatic
      neuroimaging finding and emphasizes the potential for significant neurologic
      deterioration in previously asymptomatic NF1 patients, highlighting the need for
      long-term follow-up.

PMID- 28867318
TI  - Regression of Recurrent High-Grade Glioma with Temozolomide, Dexamethasone, and
      Levetiracetam: Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment options for recurrent glioma of the brain include
      chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and palliation. Temozolomide appears to be
      effective in patients with recurrent high-grade gliomas. CASE DESCRIPTION: A
      middle-aged woman presented with a high-grade glioma of corpus callosum. The
      tumor, a grade 3 anaplastic oligodendroglioma, was excised, and chemoradiotherapy
      was administered. The patient presented with significant recurrence 5 years
      later. Repeat surgery and radiation were suggested but refused. She was given
      temozolomide and dexamethasone intermittently, and levetiracetam was continued.
      Magnetic resonance imaging performed at 10-month follow-up showed 90% remission.
      CONCLUSIONS: There are a few reports in the literature of similar response to
      temozolomide and levetiracetam. Similar reports give more hope in the treatment
      of recurrent high grade glioma.

PMID- 28867320
TI  - Complete Reversibility of the Chiari Type II Malformation After Postnatal Repair
      of Myelomeningocele.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: It was believed that Chiari type II malformation (CM-II) was always
      present in a myelomeningocele (MMC). In fact, it is associated in about 80% of
      cases. Improvement of the hindbrain herniation after prenatal closure of MMC has
      challenged the idea that this condition was irreversible. Only 2 studies report
      ascent of the cerebellar tonsil after postnatal closure. This work aimed to study
      a large group of patients with MMC who benefited from a postnatal repair to
      evaluate the rate of long-term total reversibility of CM-II. METHODS: Sixty-one
      patients were included. Mean time of follow-up was 8.1 years. The presence of CM
      II after closure of the MMC was assessed on the most recent brain scan available
      for each patient. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients (77%) had a CM-II at birth
      (confirmed before the MMC repair). There was a significant correlation between
      the level of the malformation and the presence of a CM-II at birth (P = 0.003).
      After MMC closure, only 28 (45.9%) patients had a remaining CM-II. The
      reversibility rate was 40.4%. The reversibility was higher in lower level
      malformations (P = 0.004). The number of patients treated for hydrocephalus was
      significantly higher in the group of patients with remaining CM-II (P = 0.004).
      Only 11.5% of the children needed surgery for a symptomatic CM-II. CONCLUSIONS:
      MMC is not always associated with CM-II. The outcome of CM-II has improved.
      Postnatal closure can reverse the CM-II. This must be kept in mind when analyzing
      the result of prenatal series.

PMID- 28867319
TI  - Transfer of Learning from Practicing Microvascular Anastomosis on Silastic Tubes
      to Rat Abdominal Aorta.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Learning to perform microvascular anastomosis is difficult. Laboratory
      practice models using artificial vessels are frequently used for this purpose.
      However, the efficacy of such practice models has not been objectively assessed
      for the performance of microvascular anastomosis during live surgical settings.
      This study was conducted to assess the transfer of learning from practicing
      microvascular anastomosis on tubes to anastomosing rat abdominal aorta. METHODS:
      Ten surgeons without any experience in microvascular anastomosis were randomly
      assigned to an experimental or a control group. Both groups received didactic and
      visual training on end-to-end microvascular anastomosis. The experimental group
      received 24 sessions of hands-on training on microanastomosis using Silastic
      tubes. Next, both groups underwent recall tests on weeks 1, 2, and 8 after
      training. The recall test consisted of completing an end-to-end anastomosis on
      the rat's abdominal aorta. Anastomosis score, the time to complete the
      anastomosis, and the average time to place 1 stitch on the vessel perimeter were
      compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the
      experimental group did significantly better in terms of anastomosis score, total
      time, and per-stitch time. The measured variables showed stability and did not
      change significantly between the 3 recall tests. CONCLUSION: The skill of
      microvascular anastomosis is transferred from practicing on Silastic tubes to
      rat's abdominal aorta. Considering the relative advantages of Silastic tubes to
      live rodent surgeries, such as lower cost and absence of ethical issues, our
      results support the widespread use of Silastic tubes in training programs for
      microvascular anastomosis.

PMID- 28867321
TI  - Cytotoxic and Apoptogenic Effects of Cyanidin-3-Glucoside on the Glioblastoma
      Cell Line.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most prevalent and aggressive
      primary cerebral tumor. The median survival time is 15 months despite maximum
      treatment because the tumor is resistant to most therapeutic modalities. Several
      studies have indicated chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activity of cyanidin
      3-glucoside (C3G) as an anthocyanin component. We aimed to illustrate the
      cytotoxic and apoptogenic effects of C3G in the U87 cell line (human GBM cell
      line). METHODS: Cytotoxic activity was evaluated using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol
      2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide tetrazolium assay after treatment with C3G
      at different concentrations in the U87 cell line. Cisplatin was used as a
      positive control for 24 and 48 hours. The percentage of apoptotic cells was
      determined using an Annexin V/propidium iodide assay, and the expression of bax,
      bcl2, and p53 genes was assessed using real-time polymerase chain reaction.
      RESULTS: Treatment of U87 cells with 40 MUg/mL of C3G resulted in 32% apoptotic
      cells after 24 hours. To further confirm that C3G treatment induced apoptosis in
      U87 cells, RNA expression of bax, bcl2, and p53 genes was investigated after
      treatment. Real-time polymerase chain reaction indicated that the expression of
      bax and p53 increased, whereas the expression of bcl2 decreased. CONCLUSIONS: C3G
      had an apoptogenic effect in the GBM cell line. New information regarding the
      therapeutic effects of C3G in GBM could ultimately lead to the production of new
      drugs.

PMID- 28867322
TI  - Recurrent Bleeding After Perimesencephalic Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perimesencephalic hemorrhage (PMH) is a type of subarachnoid
      hemorrhage with excellent long-term outcomes. Only 1 well-documented case of in
      hospital rebleeding after PMH is described in the literature, which occurred
      after initiating antithrombotic treatment because of myocardial ischemia. We
      describe a patient with PMH without antithrombotic treatment who had 2 episodes
      of recurrent bleeding on the day of ictus. To validate the radiologic findings,
      we conducted a case-control study. Six neuroradiologists and 2 neuroradiology
      fellows performed a blinded assessment of serial unenhanced head computed
      tomography (CT) scans of 8 patients with a perimesencephalic bleeding pattern (1
      index patient, 6 patients with PMH, 1 patient with perimesencephalic bleeding
      pattern and basilar artery aneurysm) to investigate a potential increase in
      amount of subarachnoid blood. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 56-year-old woman with a
      perimesencephalic bleeding pattern and negative CT angiography had 2 episodes
      after the onset headache with a sudden increase of the headache. Blinded
      assessment of serial head CT scans of 8 patients with a perimesencephalic
      bleeding pattern identified the patient who was clinically suspected to have 2
      episodes of recurrent bleeding to have an increased amount of subarachnoid blood
      on 2 subsequent CT scans. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent bleeding after PMH may also
      occur in patients not treated with antithrombotics. Even after early rebleeding,
      the prognosis of PMH is excellent.

PMID- 28867323
TI  - Endoscopic Middle Cranial Fossa Reconstruction with a Subtemporal Keyhole.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skull base reconstruction is an essential technique for repairing
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage. A reliable method for middle cranial fossa
      (MCF) reconstruction with minimal invasiveness has not been reported. An initial
      case of endoscopic MCF reconstruction with a subtemporal keyhole is described.
      CASE DESCRIPTION: A 57-year-old man developed severe meningitis and was diagnosed
      with spontaneous CSF leakage from bone defects on the tegmen tympani. Endoscopic
      MCF reconstruction with a subtemporal keyhole was carried out. Three skin
      incisions, including 1 subtemporal incision for a subtemporal keyhole and 2
      temporal line incisions on the superior temporal line, were made, and a 0-degree
      endoscope was introduced into the subcutaneous space. The deep temporal fascia
      (DTF) was bluntly dissected and separated from the superficial temporal fascia
      and the temporal muscle, and the DTF was incised to shape a pedicled flap under
      endoscopic view. Blood supply to the pedicled DTF flap was confirmed with
      indocyanine green angiography. A subtemporal keyhole was then made, and a 30
      degree endoscope was used to explore the extradural space of the MCF floor,
      visualizing the bone defects on the tegmen tympani. The vascularized DTF flap
      passed easily through the subtemporal keyhole and adequately overlaid the bone
      defects. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful, and the CSF leakage
      disappeared without mastication problems. CONCLUSIONS: This purely endoscopic
      technique using a vascularized DTF flap provided reliable MCF reconstruction
      through a subtemporal keyhole. This technique is also expected to be applicable
      for MCF reconstruction after subtemporal keyhole surgery for skull base tumors.

PMID- 28867324
TI  - Surgical Management and Outcomes of Intracranial Chondromas: a Single-Center Case
      Series of 66 Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Management of intracranial chondromas (ICDs) is difficult. This study
      aims to propose a tailored management strategy based on our management of ICDs.
      METHODS: A retrospective review was performed in 66 patients who received
      surgical operations at our institute. Clinical charts and radiographs were
      reviewed, follow-up was performed, and adverse factors for progression-free
      survival (PFS) and overall survival were evaluated. RESULTS: The preoperative and
      postoperative Karnofsky performance status was 81.8 and 72.3, respectively. The
      mean tumor size was 3.5 cm. Gross total resection was achieved in 15 patients
      (22.7%). Six patients (10.3%) received postoperative radiation. After a mean
      follow-up duration of 85.5 months, recurrence occurred to 15 patients (28.8%)
      with surgery alone, and no recurrence was observed in patients receiving
      postoperative radiotherapy. Six patients (10.3%) died due to tumor progression.
      The risk factors affecting the PFS included age <33 years (hazard rate [HR]
      6.876; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.599-29.560; P = 0.010), tumor size >=3.1 cm
      (HR 6.138; 95% CI 1.259-29.926; P = 0.025), tumor with evident atypia/mitotic
      activity (HR 4.672; 95% CI 1.352-16.152; P = 0.015), and partial resection (HR
      12.841; 95% CI 3.004-54.896; P = 0.001). In all patients, the PFS rate was 75% at
      5 years and 64% at 10 years; in addition, the overall survival rate was 93% at 5
      years and 83% at 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: The therapeutic strategy for ICDs should
      be individualized and should consider preoperative variables. Gross total
      resection was attempted if the tumors were resectable; otherwise, subtotal
      resection was an alternative. In patients with partial resection and evident
      atypia/mitotic activity, consultation with an oncologist for radiotherapy was
      recommended.

PMID- 28867325
TI  - Neuroprotective Effects of Valproic Acid in a Rat Model of Cauda Equina Injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Histone deacetylase inhibitors, including valproic acid (VPA), are
      promising therapeutic interventions in neurological disorders and play an
      important role in synaptic activity and neuronal function. METHODS: A total of 30
      rats were randomly allocated to 3 groups: sham, control, and VPA. The rats in the
      VPA and control groups received laminectomy at the L4 level of the vertebrae and
      silicone gel implantation into the epidural spaces L5 and L6. Rats in the sham
      group only received laminectomy at the L4 level of vertebrae without any
      implantation. VPA (300 mg/kg in saline) was administered 2 hours before the
      surgery. After the surgery, the VPA group received further VPA injections at 300
      mg/kg twice a day for 1 week. The same volume of saline was injected in the
      control group. Neurobehavioral tests using the Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan scale
      and the oblique board test were performed for 1 week starting at 2 hours before
      surgery up to day 7 after surgery. At day 7 after surgery, tissues from the
      compressed cauda equina (L5-L6) were subjected to hematoxylin and eosin, luxol
      fast blue, or immunofluorescence staining, whereas the terminal deoxynucleotidyl
      transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick-end label assay staining was performed
      on the tissue from the dorsal root ganglions and the lumbar segment of the spinal
      cord proximal to the compressed cauda equina (L5-L6). RESULTS: The behavioral
      results suggested a significant improvement in the lower limb motor function in
      the VPA group compared with controls (P < 0.05). Furthermore, histologic
      assessment revealed a significant reduction in nerve fibers showing Wallerian
      degeneration and demyelinating lesions in the VPA group, in addition to an
      increased myelination compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick-end label assay
      staining revealed a significant decrease in the number of apoptotic neurons in
      the spinal cord anterior horn and dorsal root ganglions in the VPA group compared
      with controls (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrated that VPA could
      alleviate cauda equina injury, reduce apoptotic cells, and improve motor
      recovery, suggesting a neuroprotective effect in acute cauda equina syndrome.

PMID- 28867326
TI  - Decompressive Cranioplasty in a Patient with Osteopetrosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteopetrosis is a heterogeneous group of uncommon congenital
      disorders that causes bony sclerosis and remodeling. Patients who are symptomatic
      can show significant neurologic consequences with the involvement of cranial
      nerves and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure (ICP). CASE DESCRIPTION:
      We report an unusual case of a 26-year-old woman with an autosomal-dominant type
      of osteopetrosis who presented with headache and severe visual deterioration,
      both attributed to increased ICP. A hemicranioplasty was preformed, resulting in
      the resolution of her symptoms of ICP and stabilization of her vision.
      Postoperative imaging showed expansion of the ventricles and the subarachnoid
      spaces with an improvement of the associated cerebellar herniation. CONCLUSIONS:
      In conclusion, in patients with symptomatic osteopetrosis, cranioplasty can be
      considered as an option to treat high ICP-related symptoms.

PMID- 28867327
TI  - On Protecting Young People's Brains.

PMID- 28867328
TI  - The Volume of the Third Ventricle as a Prognostic Marker for Shunt Dependency
      After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hydrocephalus is a common sequelae of aneurysmal subarachnoid
      hemorrhage (aSAH). However, in daily routine it is difficult to predict a
      patient's need for ventricular shunt placement in the course of the disease.
      OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify radiologic predictors for
      development of a shunt-dependent hydrocephalus after aSAH. METHODS: A cohort of
      217 patients with aSAH with adequate pretreatment computed tomography (CT)
      imaging was retrospectively reviewed. All variables, including demographic data,
      treatment, and initial CT imaging were gathered and grading was performed using
      Hunt and Hess, Graeb, LeRoux, and modified Fisher scores. Analysis of the
      radiographic parameters consisted of straight measurement and three-dimensional
      volumetry using manual segmentation. Univariate and multivariate statistical
      analyses were performed to identify predictive parameters. RESULTS: Of 217
      patients, 36 (17.5%) required a ventricular shunt (VS). A receiver operating
      characteristic analysis between the volume of the third ventricle and shunt
      dependent hydrocephalus showed a significant cutoff at a volume of 2.3 cm3 with a
      4.3-fold higher risk for shunt dependency (P < 0.001). However, the treatment
      modality and classification according to the mentioned scores were not associated
      with the need for VS after aSAH. In univariate and multivariate analysis, the
      volume of the third ventricle on admission remained a significant prognostic
      marker for the need of a VS. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the volume of the
      third ventricle in the initial CT is a strong predictor for shunt dependency
      after aSAH.

PMID- 28867329
TI  - Patchy Parasitized Skin Governs Leishmania donovani Transmission to Sand Flies.
AB  - Doehl et al. have combined empirical data with computer simulation to demonstrate
      that RAG-2 mice intravenously infected with Leishmania donovani form
      heterogeneous skin parasite patches that govern infectiousness to sand flies.
      This model provides a much-needed tool to explore the relevance of asymptomatic
      and symptomatic visceral leishmaniasis patients as infection reservoirs.

PMID- 28867330
TI  - Silencing of juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase gene (Nljheh) enhances short wing
      formation in a macropterous strain of the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens.
AB  - The rice brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens, is an important migratory pest in
      many rice planting areas of Asia. The typical wing dimorphism of N. lugens gives
      them flexibility to adapt to different environmental cues. As an important
      hormone in the insect's endocrine regulation, juvenile hormone (JH) has
      previously been shown to participate in the wing morph determination of N.
      lugens. In this paper, we investigated the possible wing morph determination
      roles of two JH metabolic enzymes, JH esterase (JHE) and JH epoxide hydrolase
      (JHEH). A 1957-bp full-length cDNA sequence encoding JHEH in N. lugens (NlJHEH)
      was first cloned from a hemipteran insect. Except for an uncertain transmembrane
      segment prediction, the deduced 454-amino-acid sequence of Nljheh has all of the
      conserved domains of JHEHs such as the H147GWP150, Tyr293 and Tyr368 motif
      corresponding to the oxyanion hole and the residues Asp222, Glu398, and His425 in
      the catalytic triad. qRT-PCR results showed that both Nljhe and Nljheh had
      different expression timeframes between a predominantly brachypterous strain (BS)
      and a macropterous strain (MS) of N. lugens, indicating that these two enzymes
      may participate in wing dimorphism regulation in brown planthopper. Silencing
      Nljheh expression by dsRNA injection enhanced short wing formation in the
      macropterous strain of N. lugens, while the brachypterizing individuals were
      mainly females. Compared to the dsgfp injection control, silencing Nljhe had no
      brachypterizing effect. Our results indicated that NlJHEH plays an important role
      in the wing morph determination of N. lugens.

PMID- 28867331
TI  - Reference ranges for serum S100B neuroprotein specific to infants under four
      months of age.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Minor head traumatisms are a common reason for consultation in
      paediatric emergency departments. The diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries
      involves performing a cranial computed tomography (CCT), associated with a risk
      of cancer due to the radiation. The serum S100B is an effective biomarker used to
      reduce reliance on CCT. While reference ranges have been determined, the limited
      number of cases regarding infants less than 4months of age has not allowed this
      biomarker to be used with this age group. Our study aimed to determine reference
      ranges for serum S100B based on a larger number of infants from birth to 4months
      of age. METHODS: Three centres included infants coming to the hospital for whom
      blood samples were taken. These samples were analysed to determine the upper
      reference values based on the 95th percentile. RESULTS: 135 samples were
      analysed. The upper reference value was 0.51MUg/L for children aged 0 to 4months.
      There was no effect of the gender. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides serum S100B
      reference ranges based on the largest group of neurologically healthy 0 to 4
      month-old infants analysed to date. Reliable reference values of S100B for
      children are now determined. It is the first step towards validation of
      thresholds for studies integrating S100B into a clinical decision rule for MHT in
      children.

PMID- 28867332
TI  - Editorial overview: Paleovirology: the genomic fossil record, and consequences of
      ancient viral infections.

PMID- 28867333
TI  - Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever: "What is not sought is not found".

PMID- 28867334
TI  - Antihypertensive overtreatment in people 80 years old and older.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To study the proportion of patients older than 80 years
      old with hypertension and pharmacological overtreatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Cross-sectional simulation study, including 281 patients older than 80 years old
      of primary prevention, randomly selected, with good control of hypertension
      (systolic blood pressure<150mmHg, diastolic blood pressure<90mmHg), treated with
      a maximum of 3 medications. Overtreatment was considered if at least one
      medication could be removed and good control persisted, calculating how the blood
      pressure would raise with Law's meta-analysis, which estimates blood pressure
      reductions by pre-treatment levels, number and dose of medications. RESULTS: The
      average age was 85.3 years (64.8% women). A percentage of 33.6 were taking one
      medication, 46.3% 2 and 22.1% 3, with the most prescribed being thiazides
      (69.4%), ACE inhibitors (51.3%), ARBs (23.4%), calcium antagonists (21%) and beta
      blockers (19.6%). Overtreatment was 90.7%, with 2 medications being able to be
      removed in 63.1% of cases and 3 in 43.1%. Polypharmacy (OR 2.47; 95% CI 1.07
      5.69; P=.033) was associated with a greater likely removal of at least one
      medication. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of patients with overtreatment is high.
      Changing good control criteria could contribute to a reasoned deprescription.

PMID- 28867335
TI  - Home blood pressure vs. clinic blood pressure measurement-based follow up in type
      ii diabetics: Effect on 24-h ambulatory BP and albuminuria. Randomised trial.
AB  - BAKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of two strategies of blood
      pressure (BP) measurement-based follow-up in hypertension and albuminuria
      control. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Multicentre, prospective, randomised, open trial
      with a parallel-group design. Nineteen primary care centres and a hospital clinic
      participated. Adult type 2 diabetics with systolic BP >=140mmHg without relevant
      renal disease were randomised to one of two follow-up strategies: 1) standard
      follow up, with a clinic BP target <140/90mmHg and 2) self-monitoring home BP
      (SMHBP)-based follow up, with a BP target <135/85mmHg. Biochemical standard blood
      variables, albuminuria, and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring were performed at
      entry, 12 and 24 months. The main outcome measurement was 24-h ambulatory
      systolic BP variation. Albuminuria change was analysed as a secondary outcome.
      RESULTS: 116 patients were analysed (mean age: 66.8 years). Mean systolic
      ambulatory 24- h BP change in two years was 3.9mmHg (95% CI 1.8-6.1). We did not
      find significant differences between both groups (p=0.706). Similarly, no
      differences were found when we compared other ambulatory BP values. Initial
      albuminuria was similar in both groups and did not significantly changed
      throughout the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: In type 2 diabetics without relevant
      nephropathy a SMHBP- based follow up was equivalent to a standard clinic-based BP
      follow up in BP and albuminuria control.

PMID- 28867336
TI  - Plasmatic levels of N-terminal pro-atrial natriuretic peptide in preeclamptic
      patients and healthy normotensive pregnant women.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To compare plasma N-terminal pro-atrial natriuretic
      peptide concentrations in preeclamptic patients and healthy normotensive pregnant
      women. METHODS: A cases-controls study was done with 180 patients at Hospital
      Central Dr. Urquinaona, Maracaibo, Venezuela, that included 90 preeclamptic
      patients (group A; cases) and 90 healthy normotensive pregnant women selected
      with the same age and body mass index similar to group A (group B; controls).
      Blood samples were collected one hour after admission and prior to administration
      of any medication in group A to determine plasma N-terminal pro-atrial
      natriuretic peptide and other laboratory parameters. RESULTS: Plasma N-terminal
      pro-atrial natriuretic peptide concentrations in group A (mean 1.01 [0.26] pg/mL)
      showed a significant difference when compared with patients in group B (mean 0.55
      [0.07] pg/mL; P<.001]. There was no significant correlation with systolic and
      diastolic blood pressure values in preeclamptic patients (P=ns). A cut-off value
      of 0.66ng/mL had an area under the curve of 0.93, sensitivity of 87.8%,
      specificity of 83.3%, a positive predictive value of 84.0% and a negative
      predictive value of 87.2%, with a diagnostic accuracy of 85.6%. CONCLUSION:
      Preeclamptic patients have significantly higher concentrations of plasma N
      terminal pro-atrial natriuretic peptide compared with healthy normotensive
      pregnant women, with high predictive values for diagnosis.

PMID- 28867337
TI  - Ethics in clinical research: Contributions of the new version of the Council for
      International Organizations of Medical Sciences guidelines.

PMID- 28867338
TI  - Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor encephalitis due to ovarian teratoma.

PMID- 28867339
TI  - Multimodal neural correlates of cognitive control in the Human Connectome
      Project.
AB  - Cognitive control is a construct that refers to the set of functions that enable
      decision-making and task performance through the representation of task states,
      goals, and rules. The neural correlates of cognitive control have been studied in
      humans using a wide variety of neuroimaging modalities, including structural MRI,
      resting-state fMRI, and task-based fMRI. The results from each of these
      modalities independently have implicated the involvement of a number of brain
      regions in cognitive control, including dorsal prefrontal cortex, and frontal
      parietal and cingulo-opercular brain networks. However, it is not clear how the
      results from a single modality relate to results in other modalities. Recent
      developments in multimodal image analysis methods provide an avenue for answering
      such questions and could yield more integrated models of the neural correlates of
      cognitive control. In this study, we used multiset canonical correlation analysis
      with joint independent component analysis (mCCA + jICA) to identify multimodal
      patterns of variation related to cognitive control. We used two independent
      cohorts of participants from the Human Connectome Project, each of which had data
      from four imaging modalities. We replicated the findings from the first cohort in
      the second cohort using both independent and predictive analyses. The independent
      analyses identified a component in each cohort that was highly similar to the
      other and significantly correlated with cognitive control performance. The
      replication by prediction analyses identified two independent components that
      were significantly correlated with cognitive control performance in the first
      cohort and significantly predictive of performance in the second cohort. These
      components identified positive relationships across the modalities in neural
      regions related to both dynamic and stable aspects of task control, including
      regions in both the frontal-parietal and cingulo-opercular networks, as well as
      regions hypothesized to be modulated by cognitive control signaling, such as
      visual cortex. Taken together, these results illustrate the potential utility of
      multi-modal analyses in identifying the neural correlates of cognitive control
      across different indicators of brain structure and function.

PMID- 28867341
TI  - Phase-synchronization-based parcellation of resting state fMRI signals reveals
      topographically organized clusters in early visual cortex.
AB  - Resting-state fMRI is widely used to study brain function and connectivity.
      However, interpreting patterns of resting state (RS) fMRI activity remains
      challenging as they may arise from different neuronal mechanisms than those
      triggered by exogenous events. Currently, this limits the use of RS-fMRI for
      understanding cortical function in health and disease. Here, we examine the phase
      synchronization (PS) properties of blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals
      obtained during visual field mapping (VFM) and RS with 7T fMRI. This data-driven
      approach exploits spatiotemporal covariations in the phase of BOLD recordings to
      establish the presence of clusters of synchronized activity. We find that, in
      both VFM and RS data, selecting the most synchronized neighboring recording sites
      identifies spatially localized PS clusters that follow the topographic
      organization of the visual cortex. However, in activity obtained during VFM, PS
      is spatially more extensive than in RS activity, likely reflecting stimulus
      driven interactions between local responses. Nevertheless, the similarity of the
      PS clusters obtained for RS and stimulus-driven fMRI suggest that they share a
      common neuroanatomical origin. Our finding justifies and facilitates direct
      comparison of RS and stimulus-evoked activity.

PMID- 28867340
TI  - BDNF Val66Met polymorphism tunes frontolimbic circuitry during affective
      contextual learning.
AB  - Adaptive learning impairments are common in cognitive and behavioral disorders,
      but the neurogenetic mechanisms supporting human affective learning are poorly
      understood. We designed a higher-order contextual learning task in which healthy
      participants genotyped for the Val66Met polymorphism of the brain derived
      neurotropic factor gene (BDNF) were required to choose the member of a picture
      pair most congruent with the emotion in a previously-viewed facial expression
      video in order to produce an advantageous monetary outcome. Functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (fMRI) identified frontolimbic blood oxygenation level
      dependent (BOLD) reactivity that was associated with BDNF Val66Met genotype
      during all three phases of the learning task: aversive and reward-predictive
      learning, contextually-challenging decision-making, and choice-related monetary
      loss-avoidance and gain outcomes. Relative to Val homozygotes, Met carriers
      showed attenuated ventromedial prefrontal response to predictive affective cues,
      dorsolateral prefrontal signaling that depended on decision difficulty, and
      enhanced ventromedial prefrontal reactivity that was specific to loss-avoidance.
      These findings indicate that the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with
      functional tuning of behaviorally-relevant frontolimbic circuitry, particularly
      involving the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, during higher-order learning.

PMID- 28867342
TI  - Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for cosmetics-related substances: New
      database, thresholds, and enrichment of chemical space.
AB  - A new dataset of cosmetics-related chemicals for the Threshold of Toxicological
      Concern (TTC) approach has been compiled, comprising 552 chemicals with 219, 40,
      and 293 chemicals in Cramer Classes I, II, and III, respectively. Data were
      integrated and curated to create a database of No-/Lowest-Observed-Adverse-Effect
      Level (NOAEL/LOAEL) values, from which the final COSMOS TTC dataset was
      developed. Criteria for study inclusion and NOAEL decisions were defined, and
      rigorous quality control was performed for study details and assignment of Cramer
      classes. From the final COSMOS TTC dataset, human exposure thresholds of 42 and
      7.9 MUg/kg-bw/day were derived for Cramer Classes I and III, respectively. The
      size of Cramer Class II was insufficient for derivation of a TTC value. The
      COSMOS TTC dataset was then federated with the dataset of Munro and colleagues,
      previously published in 1996, after updating the latter using the quality control
      processes for this project. This federated dataset expands the chemical space and
      provides more robust thresholds. The 966 substances in the federated database
      comprise 245, 49 and 672 chemicals in Cramer Classes I, II and III, respectively.
      The corresponding TTC values of 46, 6.2 and 2.3 MUg/kg-bw/day are broadly similar
      to those of the original Munro dataset.

PMID- 28867343
TI  - Assessment of clinical symptoms in household contacts of confirmed pertussis
      cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We assessed the value of the clinical symptoms included in the case
      definition of pertussis in household contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases.
      METHODS: A prospective epidemiological study was made in two Spanish regions.
      Household contacts were identified for each confirmed case reported during 2012
      and 2013. Two clinical samples were taken to determine the presence or absence of
      Bordetella pertussis by culture or real-time PCR. Clinical variables, age and
      vaccination status were recorded. Positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR,
      NLR) were estimated for each symptom. RESULTS: 2852 household contacts of 688
      confirmed cases were reported. 178 household contacts with clinical symptoms were
      analyzed: 150 were laboratory confirmed and 28 were not. The clinical symptom
      with the highest PLR in comparison with the NLR was paroxysmal cough(PLR 4.76;
      95% CI 1.91-11.87 and NLR 0.37; 95% CI 0.28-0.49). The contrast between the PLR
      and NLR was especially important for persons aged <18 years (PLR 7.08; 95% CI
      1.10-45.74 and NLR 0.32; 95% CI 0.21-0.49). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical symptoms of
      pertussis are poor predictors of pertussis disease, independently of the
      vaccination status. Differences were observed between persons aged <18 years and
      adults. To adopt the appropriate treatment and control measures, rapid laboratory
      confirmation by PCR of all household contacts of confirmed cases who present any
      clinical symptoms compatible with pertussis should be recommended.

PMID- 28867344
TI  - NK Cell Alloreactivity against KIR-Ligand-Mismatched HLA-Haploidentical Tissue
      Derived from HLA Haplotype-Homozygous iPSCs.
AB  - HLA haplotype-homozygous (HLA-homo) induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are
      being prepared to be used for allogeneic transplantation of regenerated tissue
      into recipients carrying an identical haplotype in one of the alleles (HLA
      hetero). However, it remains unaddressed whether natural killer (NK) cells
      respond to these regenerated cells. HLA-C allotypes, known to serve as major
      ligands for inhibitory receptors of NK cells, can be classified into group 1 (C1)
      and group 2 (C2), based on their binding specificities. We found that the T cells
      and vascular endothelial cells regenerated from HLA-homo-C1/C1 iPSCs were killed
      by specific NK cell subsets from a putative HLA-hetero-C1/C2 recipient. Such
      cytotoxicity was canceled when target cells were regenerated from iPSCs
      transduced with the C2 gene identical to the recipient. These results clarify
      that NK cells can kill regenerated cells by sensing the lack of HLA-C expression
      and further provide the basis for an approach to prevent such NK cell-mediated
      rejection responses.

PMID- 28867345
TI  - A PITX3-EGFP Reporter Line Reveals Connectivity of Dopamine and Non-dopamine
      Neuronal Subtypes in Grafts Generated from Human Embryonic Stem Cells.
AB  - Development of safe and effective stem cell-based therapies for brain repair
      requires an in-depth understanding of the in vivo properties of neural grafts
      generated from human stem cells. Replacing dopamine neurons in Parkinson's
      disease remains one of the most anticipated applications. Here, we have used a
      human PITX3-EGFP embryonic stem cell line to characterize the connectivity of
      stem cell-derived midbrain dopamine neurons in the dopamine-depleted host brain
      with an unprecedented level of specificity. The results show that the major A9
      and A10 subclasses of implanted dopamine neurons innervate multiple,
      developmentally appropriate host targets but also that the majority of graft
      derived connectivity is non-dopaminergic. These findings highlight the promise of
      stem cell-based procedures for anatomically correct reconstruction of specific
      neuronal pathways but also emphasize the scope for further refinement in order to
      limit the inclusion of uncharacterized and potentially unwanted cell types.

PMID- 28867346
TI  - Germline Stem Cell Activity Is Sustained by SALL4-Dependent Silencing of Distinct
      Tumor Suppressor Genes.
AB  - Sustained spermatogenesis in adult males and fertility recovery following germ
      cell depletion are dependent on undifferentiated spermatogonia. We previously
      demonstrated a key role for the transcription factor SALL4 in spermatogonial
      differentiation. However, whether SALL4 has broader roles within spermatogonia
      remains unclear despite its ability to co-regulate genes with PLZF, a
      transcription factor required for undifferentiated cell maintenance. Through
      development of inducible knockout models, we show that short-term integrity of
      differentiating but not undifferentiated populations requires SALL4. However,
      SALL4 loss was associated with long-term functional decline of undifferentiated
      spermatogonia and disrupted stem cell-driven regeneration. Mechanistically, SALL4
      associated with the NuRD co-repressor and repressed expression of the tumor
      suppressor genes Foxl1 and Dusp4. Aberrant Foxl1 activation inhibited
      undifferentiated cell growth and survival, while DUSP4 suppressed self-renewal
      pathways. We therefore uncover an essential role for SALL4 in maintenance of
      undifferentiated spermatogonial activity and identify regulatory pathways
      critical for germline stem cell function.

PMID- 28867347
TI  - Functional Enterospheres Derived In Vitro from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.
AB  - Intestinal organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are
      valuable in vitro research models that enable simplified access to human
      gastrointestinal tissues. Here, we report the in vitro generation of
      enterospheres (hEnS) from hPSC-derived gastrointestinal epithelial precursors.
      hEnS are cystic spheroids with a simple uniform structure composed entirely of
      intestinal epithelium. hEnS express markers of mature brush border cells and
      share a transcriptome profile similar to that of more mature intestinal
      organoids. Modulation of signaling cues enables control of hEnS growth and
      differentiation, including long-term propagation. We show that hEnS can be
      exploited for functional studies: hEnS display an innate immune response when
      treated with enteric pathogens, and transgenic modification of hEnS with a
      fluorescence cell-cycle reporter enables hEnS-forming stem cell enrichment. Our
      work establishes hEnS as an accessible and tractable in vitro modeling system for
      studying human gastrointestinal biology.

PMID- 28867349
TI  - Engineering Escherichia coli membrane phospholipid head distribution improves
      tolerance and production of biorenewables.
AB  - Economically competitive microbial production of biorenewable fuels and chemicals
      is often impeded by toxicity of the product to the microbe. Membrane damage is
      often identified as a major mechanism of this toxicity. Prior efforts to
      strengthen the microbial membrane by changing the phospholipid distribution have
      largely focused on the fatty acid tails. Herein, a novel strategy of phospholipid
      head engineering is demonstrated in Escherichia coli. Specifically, increasing
      the expression of phosphatidylserine synthase (+pssA) was found to significantly
      increase both the tolerance and production of octanoic acid, a representative
      membrane-damaging solvent. Tolerance of other industrially-relevant inhibitors,
      such as furfural, acetate, toluene, ethanol and low pH was also increased. In
      addition to the increase in the relative abundance of the phosphoethanolamine
      (PE) head group in the +pssA strain, there were also changes in the fatty acid
      tail composition, resulting in an increase in average length, percent
      unsaturation and decreased abundance of cyclic rings. This +pssA strain had
      significant changes in: membrane integrity, surface potential, electrochemical
      potential and hydrophobicity; sensitivity to intracellular acidification; and
      distribution of the phospholipid tails, including an increase in average length
      and percent unsaturation and decreased abundance of cyclic rings. Molecular
      dynamics simulations demonstrated that the +PE membrane had increased resistance
      to penetration of ethanol into the hydrophobic core and also the membrane
      thickness. Further hybrid models in which only the head group distribution or
      fatty acid tail distribution was altered showed that the increase in PE content
      is responsible for the increase in bilayer thickness, but the increased
      hydrophobic core thickness is due to altered distribution of both the head groups
      and fatty acid tails. This work demonstrates the importance of consideration of
      the membrane head groups, as well as a modeling approach, in membrane engineering
      efforts.

PMID- 28867348
TI  - Cellular Computations Underlying Detection of Gaps in Sounds and Lateralizing
      Sound Sources.
AB  - In mammals, acoustic information arises in the cochlea and is transmitted to the
      ventral cochlear nuclei (VCN). Three groups of VCN neurons extract different
      features from the firing of auditory nerve fibers and convey that information
      along separate pathways through the brainstem. Two of these pathways process
      temporal information: octopus cells detect coincident firing among auditory nerve
      fibers and transmit signals along monaural pathways, and bushy cells sharpen the
      encoding of fine structure and feed binaural pathways. The ability of these cells
      to signal with temporal precision depends on a low-voltage-activated K+
      conductance (gKL) and a hyperpolarization-activated conductance (gh). This 'tale
      of two conductances' traces gap detection and sound lateralization to their
      cellular and biophysical origins.

PMID- 28867350
TI  - Health Disparities in Adolescent Bariatric Surgery: Nationwide Outcomes and
      Utilization.
AB  - PURPOSE: Bariatric surgery represents an appropriate treatment for adolescent
      severe obesity, but its utilization remains low in this patient population. We
      studied the impact of race and sex on preoperative characteristics, outcomes, and
      utilization of adolescent bariatric surgery. METHODS: Retrospective analysis
      (2007-2014) of adolescent bariatric surgery using the Bariatric Outcomes
      Longitudinal Database, a national database that collects bariatric surgical care
      data. We assessed the relationships between baseline characteristics and outcomes
      (weight loss and remission of obesity-related conditions [ORCs]). Using the
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and U.S. census data, we
      calculated the ratio of severe obesity and bariatric procedures among races and
      determined the ratio of ratios to assess for disparities. RESULTS: About 1,539
      adolescents underwent bariatric surgery. Males had higher preoperative body mass
      index (BMI; 51.8 +/- 10.5 vs. 47.1 +/- 8.7, p < .001) and higher rates of
      obstructive sleep apnea and dyslipidemia. Blacks had higher preoperative BMI
      (52.4 +/- 10.6 vs. 47.3 +/- 8.3; 48.7 +/- 8.8; 48.2 +/- 12.1 kg/m2; whites,
      Hispanics, and others, respectively p < .001) and higher rates of hypertension,
      obstructive sleep apnea, and asthma. Weight loss and ORCs remission rates did not
      differ between sexes or races after accounting for the rate of severe obesity in
      each racial group. White adolescents underwent bariatric surgery at a higher
      proportion than blacks and Hispanics (2.5 and 2.3 times higher, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative characteristics vary according to race and sex. Race
      and sex do not impact 12-month weight loss or ORC's remission rates. Minority
      adolescents undergo bariatric surgery at lower-than-expected rates.

PMID- 28867351
TI  - Body Mass Index z-Scores and Weight Status Predict Conduct Disorder Symptoms in
      Adolescents.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of the study was to examine whether baseline body mass index
      (BMI) z-scores and weight status predicted conduct disorder (CD) symptoms in 368
      adolescents (15-17 years). METHODS: Participants in the 10th and 11th grades
      completed self-report questionnaires at baseline and at a 2-year follow-up.
      Baseline BMI z-scores and weight status were derived from self-reports of height
      and weight. CD symptoms were assessed using a symptom checklist. Covariates
      included baseline demographics, depressive symptoms, alcohol consumption, drug
      use, and a retrospective report of CD symptoms before age 15 years. RESULTS: A
      cubic association was observed between baseline BMI z-scores and follow-up CD
      symptoms (p = .047), such that a positive association emerged only among
      adolescents with BMI z-scores of greater than ~1.5. Adolescents who were obese at
      baseline reported more follow-up CD symptoms than nonoverweight adolescents (p =
      .008). Higher baseline BMI z-scores were associated with increased odds of
      endorsing probable CD at follow-up (p's < .03). Obese adolescents were more
      likely to report the presence of probable CD at follow-up than overweight and
      nonoverweight adolescents (p's <= .01). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that
      nutritional status, particularly high BMI z-scores and obese weight status, may
      contribute to elevated CD symptoms during adolescence, which should be dually
      addressed in screening and intervention efforts.

PMID- 28867352
TI  - Health Concerns of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth and Their Parents
      Upon Presentation to a Transgender Clinic.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to determine the frequency of specific
      health concerns identified by transgender and gender nonconforming patients and
      their parents at initial clinic visit. METHODS: Checklists were developed in an
      iterative process and distributed to both patients and parents at their initial
      visit to a transgender clinic. Retrospective chart review and secondary data
      analyses were performed to determine the number of items endorsed, frequency with
      which each item was endorsed, and provider domain of each item endorsed:
      physician, social work, or both physician and social work. RESULTS: Checklists
      were collected from 118 patients and 103 parents. Patients endorsed a mean of 8.4
      concerns (range 0-22) and parents 7.9 concerns (range 0-20). The most commonly
      endorsed patient concerns included use of gender-affirming hormones, steps for
      transition, gender-affirming surgery, restroom/dressing room use, and legal
      issues. Common parent concerns included general resources, child safety at
      school, acute mental health concerns, restroom/dressing room use, and steps for
      transition. Of the concerns endorsed by patients, 44% were in the social work
      domain, 37% in the physician domain, and 19% in both the social work and
      physician domain. Of the concerns endorsed by parents, 40% were in the social
      work domain, 31% in the physician domain, and 29% in the social work and
      physician domain. CONCLUSIONS: Although patients and parents had similar numbers
      of concerns, they primarily focused on different topics. Youth were more
      interested in hormones and transition, while parents were more interested with
      transition and acceptance. Many concerns for both patients and parents fell
      within the social work domain.

PMID- 28867353
TI  - Cessation of Injecting and Preceding Drug Use Patterns Among a Prospective Cohort
      of Street-Involved Youth.
AB  - PURPOSE: Injection drug use is prevalent among street-involved youth, but
      patterns of cessation are poorly described. We identified drug use patterns
      preceding injection cessation among street-involved youth. METHODS: From
      September 2005 to May 2015, we collected data from the At-Risk Youth Study, a
      prospective cohort of street-involved youth in Vancouver, Canada, and limited the
      sample to actively injecting youth. The primary outcome was cessation of
      injecting self-reported at semiannual follow-up visits. We used Cox regression to
      identify drug use patterns preceding cessation. RESULTS: Among 383 youth, 65%
      were male, mean age was 22.3 (standard deviation, 2.5; range, 15-30) years, and
      171 (45%) ceased injecting for 6 months or more (crude incidence density 22 per
      100 person-years; 95% confidence interval [CI], 19-26). Youth who ceased were
      less likely to have injected daily (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR], .40; 95% CI, .28
      .56), injected heroin (AHR, .40; 95% CI, .29-.56), or injected crystal
      methamphetamine (AHR, .43; 95% CI, .31-.59) before cessation. Noninjection heroin
      use was positively associated with injection cessation (AHR, 1.52; 95 CI, 1.12
      2.08). Addiction treatment was not associated with cessation. At the time of
      cessation, 101 (59%) youth continued to use "hard" noninjection drugs such as
      heroin and crystal methamphetamine. CONCLUSIONS: Periods of injection cessation
      were common but frequently accompanied by ongoing noninjection drug use. Findings
      indicate that trajectories of injection drug use among youth are complex and
      highlight the need to further explore relationships between ongoing noninjection
      drug use and injection cessation.

PMID- 28867354
TI  - Development of a simple and economical diagnostic test for canine leishmaniasis.
AB  - Visceral leishmaniasis is a public health problem worldwide. The early diagnosis
      in dogs is crucial, since they are an epidemiologically relevant reservoir of the
      disease. The aim of a field study is to early identify the disease allowing rapid
      intervention to reduce its effects. We propose an immunoagglutination test as a
      visual in situ method for diagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis. Latex
      protein complexes were sensitized by covalent coupling of a chimeric recombinant
      antigen of Leishmania spp. onto polystyrene latex with carboxyl functionality.
      The reaction time and the antigen concentration under which the
      immunoagglutination assay shows greater discrimination between the responses of a
      positive control serum and a negative control serum were determined. Then, the
      latex-protein complexes were evaluated as a visual diagnostic tool with a panel
      of 170 sera. The test may be read between 2 and 5 min and can be performed even
      using sera with elevated concentration of lipids, bilirubin or with variable
      percentage of hemolysis. The sensitivity, the specificity and the diagnostic
      accuracy were 78%; 100% and >80%, respectively. The visual immunoagglutination
      test is of potential application as a method for field studies because it shows
      results in less than 5 min, it is easy to implement and does not require
      sophisticated equipment.

PMID- 28867355
TI  - The relationship between physical activity and vitamin D status in postpartum
      lactating and formula-feeding women.
AB  - Existing research shows an association between physical activity levels and
      vitamin D status in the elderly, men, women, children, and adolescent
      populations. This association has not yet been investigated in postpartum women.
      We hypothesized that based on the relationship between vitamin D and physical
      activity found in other populations, greater physical activity levels in
      postpartum women will be associated with higher serum 25(OH)D levels. A post hoc
      analysis of 286 postpartum women with self reported physical activity data from
      the America on the Move survey, and measured circulating serum 25(OH)D (measured
      by RIA) as an indicator of vitamin D status, was gathered at baseline (4-6 weeks
      postpartum), 4 months, and 7 months postpartum. The data were analyzed using SAS
      9.4 (Cary, NC). 39.9% of women at visit 1 (baseline), 52.8% of women at visit 4
      (month 4), and 55.9% of women at visit 7 (month 7) were meeting the NIH
      recommendation of 150min of moderate intensity (3-6 METs) physical activity per
      week. Significant differences were seen in physical activity by race (p=0.007).
      Caucasians were more likely to meet the standard recommendation than African
      Americans or Hispanics. Using multiple regression models to examine associations
      between duration of physical activity and 25(OH)D concentration, controlling for
      race, BMI, feeding type, and METs, it was found that at visit 1, an increase in
      physical activity was associated with an increase in 25(OH)D of 1.3nmol/L
      (p=0.03) and achieving at least 2.5h/wk of physical activity had a trending
      association with an increase in 25(OH)D of 7.23nmol/L (p=.05). At visit 4 (also
      controlling for treatment group and sun exposure) achieving at least 1.5h/wk of
      physical activity was associated with an increase in 25(OH)D of 11.73nmol/L
      (p=.04). By visit 7, no association between physical activity and maternal
      25(OH)D was observed. In a repeated measures, mixed model analysis predicting
      maternal 25(OH)D during the study, achieving at least the recommended 150min per
      week of physical activity (>2.5h) was not significantly associated with vitamin D
      status (pNS). While no definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding precise
      levels of physical activity influencing 25(OH)D levels in postpartum women, the
      data suggest that increased activity during the first 4 months after birth is
      associated with improved vitamin D status. Additional research is needed because
      of the inconsistency seen at visit 7.

PMID- 28867356
TI  - Relationship of SULT1A1 copy number variation with estrogen metabolism and human
      health.
AB  - Human cytosolic sulfotransferase 1A1 (SULT1A1) is considered to be one of the
      most important SULT isoforms for metabolism, detoxification, and carcinogenesis.
      This theory is driven by observations that SULT1A1 is widely expressed in
      multiple tissues and acts on a wide range of phenolic substrates. SULT1A1 is
      subject to functional common copy number variation (CNV) including deletions or
      duplications. However, it is less clear how SULT1A1 CNV impacts health and
      disease. To better understand the biological role of SULT1A1 in human health, we
      genotyped CNV in 14,275 Marshfield Clinic patients linked to an extensive
      electronic health record. Since SULT1A1 is linked to steroid metabolism, select
      serum steroid hormones were measured in 100 individuals with a wide spectrum of
      SULT1A1 CNV genotypes. Furthermore, comprehensive phenome-wide association
      studies (PheWAS) were conducted using diagnostic codes and clinical text data.
      For the first time, individuals homozygous null for SULT1A1 were identified in a
      human population. Thirty-six percent of the population carried >2 copies of
      SULT1A1 whereas 4% had <=1 copy. Results indicate SULT1A1 CNV was negatively
      correlated with estrone-sulfate to estrone ratio predominantly in males (E1S/E1;
      p=0.03, r=-0.21) and may be associated with increased risk for common allergies.
      The effect of SULT1A1 CNV on circulating estrogen metabolites was opposite to the
      predicted CNV-metabolite trend based on enzymatic function. This finding, and the
      potential association with common allergies reported herein, warrants future
      studies.

PMID- 28867357
TI  - Serum prolidase enzyme activity in obese subjects and its relationship with
      oxidative stress markers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between increased serum enzyme activity of prolidase
      and increased rate of collagen turnover in the arterial wall has been asserted in
      previous studies. Collagen reflects much of the strength to the connective tissue
      involved in the arterial wall. Atherosclerosis is very common vessel disease and
      oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the etiopathogenesis. Our objective was
      to examine the serum enzyme activity of prolidase and its possible relationships
      with oxidative stress parameters in obese subjects. METHODS: Our present study
      was conducted 27 obese subjects and 26 age-matched healthy control subjects. The
      serum enzyme activity of prolidase in all study population was evaluated
      spectrophotometrically. Oxidative stress levels in obese subjects were analyzed
      with total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total oxidant status (TOS) as well as
      oxidative stress index (OSI). RESULTS: Obese subjects have higher serum TOS and
      OSI indicators as well as prolidase activity than those in control subjects (for
      all; p<0.001). Moreover, obese subjects have lower levels of TAC than in those in
      healthy subjects (p<0.001). In the Pearson's correlation analysis, enzyme
      activity of prolidase was positively related with TOS (p<0.001, r=0.529) and OSI
      (p<0.001, r=0.519) as well as BMI (p<0.001, r=0.692) and inversely related with
      TAC (p<0.05, r=-0.405) in obese subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Increased serum prolidase
      activity and decreased antioxidant levels are likely to be a results of increased
      of oxidative stress levels in obese subjects. The significantly correlation
      between increased oxidative stress and increased prolidase activity may play a
      pivotal role in etiopathogenesis of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases in
      obese subjects.

PMID- 28867358
TI  - Radiation-Induced Large Vessel Cerebral Vasculopathy in Pediatric Patients With
      Brain Tumors Treated With Proton Radiation Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the incidence, time to
      development, imaging patterns, risk factors, and clinical significance of large
      vessel cerebral vasculopathy in pediatric patients with brain tumors treated with
      proton radiation therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A retrospective study was
      performed on 75 consecutive pediatric patients with primary brain tumors treated
      with proton radiation therapy. Radiation-induced large vessel cerebral
      vasculopathy (RLVCV) was defined as intracranial large vessel arterial stenosis
      or occlusion confirmed on magnetic resonance angiography, computed tomographic
      angiography, catheter angiography, or a combination of these within an anatomic
      region with previous exposure to proton beam therapy and not present before
      radiation therapy. Clinical records were used to determine the incidence, timing,
      radiation dose to the large vessels, and clinical significance associated with
      the development of large vessel vasculopathy in these patients. RESULTS: RLVCV
      was present in 5 of 75 (6.7%) patients and included tumor pathologic features of
      craniopharyngioma (n=2), ATRT (n=1), medulloblastoma (n=1), and anaplastic
      astrocytoma (n=1). The median time from completion of radiation therapy to
      development was 1.5 years (mean, 3.0 years; range, 1.0-7.5 years). Neither mean
      age at the time of radiation therapy (5.1 years) nor mean radiation therapy dose
      to the large vessels (54.5 Gy) was a statistically significant risk factor. Four
      of the 5 patients with RLVCV presented with acute stroke and demonstrated
      magnetic resonance imaging evidence of acute infarcts in the expected vascular
      distributions. Angiography studies demonstrated collateral vessel formation in
      only 2 of the patients with RLVCV. No patients demonstrated acute hemorrhage or
      aneurysm. Two patients were treated with pial synangiomatosis surgery.
      CONCLUSIONS: RLVCV can occur in pediatric patients with brain tumors treated with
      proton radiation therapy. Further studies are necessary to determine potential
      risk factors for large vessel vasculopathy with proton radiation therapy in
      comparison with conventional photon radiation therapy.

PMID- 28867359
TI  - Novel heterozygous NOTCH3 pathogenic variant found in two Chinese patients with
      CADASIL.
AB  - NOTCH3 mutations have been described to cause cerebral autosomal dominant
      arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). Here,
      we report 2 CADASIL patients from a Chinese family. Whole genome sequencing was
      performed on the two CADASIL patients. The novel variant c.128G>C in exon 2 of
      NOTCH3 was identified and confirmed through PCR-Sanger sequencing (Human Genome
      Variation Society nomenclature: HGVS: NOTCH3 c.128G>C; p.Cys43Ser). The
      heterozygous NOTCH3 variant cause a cysteine to serine substitution at codon 43.
      According to the variant interpretation guideline of American College of Medical
      Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), this variant was classified as "pathogenic". Other
      variants in HTRA1, COL4A1 and COL4A2 were also found, they were classified as
      "benign".

PMID- 28867360
TI  - The use of TMZ embedded hydrogels for the treatment of orthotopic human glioma
      xenografts.
AB  - The current treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is limited by the
      restricted arsenal of agents which effectively cross the blood brain barrier
      (BBB). For example, only a fraction of temozolomide (TMZ) administered
      systemically is available for therapeutic effect because of the BBB and the
      instability of TMZ under physiologic conditions. A novel approach to overcome
      this obstacle is to bypass the BBB and locally deliver chemotherapeutic agents
      directly to the tumor mass. We have explored the loading of TMZ into a novel
      hydrogel matrix, which can be delivered in liquid form and then solidifies in
      situ and releases chemotherapy as the matrix dissolves. Here, we tested the
      effect of amphiphilic diblock copolypeptide hydrogels (DCHs) of 180-poly-lysine
      and 20-poly-leucine (K180L20) on TMZ using Glioblastoma models. In both the in
      vitro model, which involved treatment of a human glioblastoma GSC line suspended
      as neurospheres, and in vivo using an orthotopic glioma xenograft mouse model, we
      found that K180L20 could safely enhance the efficacy of TMZ. This technique may
      offer the opportunity to 'coat' the inner lining of the cavity following glioma
      resection with a slow-release TMZ and potentially decrease recurrence. Future
      studies in larger animals are needed to delineate this effect.

PMID- 28867361
TI  - Diphtheric encephalitis and brain neuroimaging features.
AB  - We report a rare case of paediatric diphtheria complicated with encephalitis. A 6
      year-old boy who did not receive his scheduled diptheria-tetanus-pertusis
      vaccination presented with one episode of generalised convulsive seizure. His
      illness was preceded by a 3day history of fever associated with enlarged
      exudative tonsils with a pseudomembrane. He was commenced on intravenous
      penicillin and oral erythromycin. However, he developed progressive
      encephalopathy with focal neurological deficit which required intubation on day 5
      of illness. Throat swab polymerase chain reaction for diphtheria toxin A and B
      were positive and diphtheria antitoxin was given. Magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) of brain showed T2-weighted hyperintensities over the anterior cingulate
      gyri, insular cortex and cerebellum. This is the first reported MRI finding of
      diphtheric encephalitis. Our report highlights the importance of neuroimaging in
      diagnosing diphtheric encephalitis particularly in cases with unremarkable
      cerebrospinal findings.

PMID- 28867362
TI  - Riluzole-induced recurrent pancreatitis.
AB  - Riluzole is the only drug approved for the treatment of patients with Amyotrophic
      Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). It is well tolerated, being the most frequent adverse
      effects asthenia, nausea and reversible increase of liver enzymes levels. Severe
      adverse effects are extremely rare. We report for the first time, two patients
      with sporadic limb-onset ALS who developed recurrent acute pancreatitis (AP),
      with portal vein thrombosis as complication, during treatment with riluzole. We
      suggest that AP should be considered asa probable rare and severe side effect of
      treatment with riluzole in patients with ALS. We believe that in patients who
      develop AP during treatment with riluzole, its withdrawn may prevent recurrent AP
      and should be discussed with patients.

PMID- 28867363
TI  - Methoxetamine produces rapid and sustained antidepressant effects probably via
      glutamatergic and serotonergic mechanisms.
AB  - Depression afflicts around 16% of the world's population, making it one of the
      leading causes of disease burden worldwide. Despite a number of antidepressants
      available today, the delayed onset time and low remission rate of these
      treatments are still a major challenge. The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor
      antagonist ketamine has shown to produce rapid and sustained antidepressant
      effects and has paved the way for a new generation of glutamate-based
      antidepressants. Methoxetamine (MXE) is a ketamine analogue that acts as an NMDA
      receptor antagonist and a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. However, no studies have
      evaluated the antidepressant effects of MXE. Here, we assessed whether MXE
      produces antidepressant effects and explored possible mechanisms underlying its
      effects. Mice were treated with MXE (2.5, 5, or 10 mg/kg) and their behavior was
      evaluated 30 min and 24 h later in an array of behavioral experiments used for
      screening antidepressant drugs. A separate group of mice were treated with NBQX,
      an alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor
      antagonist, or ketanserin, a 5HT2 receptor antagonist, before MXE (5 mg/kg)
      administration in the forced swimming test (FST). We also investigated the effect
      of MXE on glutamatergic- and serotonergic-related genes in the mouse hippocampus
      using quantitative real-time PCR. MXE produced antidepressant effects 30 min
      after treatment that persisted for 24 h. Both NBQX and ketanserin blocked the
      antidepressant effects of MXE in the FST. MXE also altered hippocampal
      glutamatergic- and serotonergic gene expressions. These results suggest that MXE
      has rapid and sustained antidepressant effects, possibly mediated by the
      glutamatergic and serotonergic system.

PMID- 28867365
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28867366
TI  - Assessment of saliva, hair and toenails as biomarkers of low level exposure to
      manganese from drinking water in children.
AB  - We evaluated hair, toenails, and saliva (whole and supernatant) as biomarkers of
      exposure to manganese (Mn) in 274 school age children (6-13 years) consuming well
      water in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. Mn concentrations in tap water
      ranged from <0.03 to 1046MUgL-1 (geometric mean 5.96MUgL-1). The geometric mean
      of Mn intake resulting from the consumption of water was 0.25 (0-34.95) MUg kg
      1day-1. Both Mn concentration in water and Mn intake were significantly
      correlated with Mn in hair (r=0.60 and r=0.53, respectively), Mn in toenail
      (r=0.29 and r=0.37 respectively) and to a lesser extent with Mn in saliva
      supernatant (r=0.14 and r=0.18, respectively). Mn in whole saliva did not
      correlate with Mn in water or Mn intake. Both Mn in hair and Mn in toenail
      allowed to discriminate the most exposed group from the least exposed group,
      based on Mn in water and Mn intake from water. In this group of children with low
      level Mn exposure, Mn concentrations in hair, and toenails reflected reasonably
      well Mn exposure from drinking water, whereas Mn content in saliva correlated
      less strongly.

PMID- 28867367
TI  - Clinical analysis of the approximate, 3-dimensional, biological effective dose
      equation in multiphase treatment plans.
AB  - A multiphase, approximate biological effective dose (BEDA) equation was
      introduced because most treatment planning systems (TPS) are incapable of
      calculating the true BED (BEDT). This work investigates the accuracy and
      precision of the multiphase BEDA relative to the BEDT in clinical cases. Ten
      patients with head and neck cancer and 10 patients with prostate cancer were
      studied using their treatment plans from Pinnacle3 9.2 (Philips Medical,
      Fitchburg, WI). The organs at risk (OARs) that were studied are the normal brain,
      left and right optic nerves, optic chiasm, spinal cord, brainstem, bladder, and
      rectum. BEDA and BEDT distributions were calculated using MATLAB 2010b
      (MathWorks, Natick, MA) and analyzed on a voxel basis for percent error, percent
      error volume histograms (PEVHs), Pearson correlation coefficient, and Bland
      Altman analysis. The maximum BED values that were calculated using the BEDA and
      BEDT methods were also analyzed. BEDA was found to always underestimate BEDT. The
      accuracy and precision of BEDA distributions varied between the organs: for optic
      chiasm and brainstem, 50% of the patients had an overall BEDA percent error of
      <1%; for left and right optic nerves, rectum, and bladder, 60% to 70% of the
      patients had an overall BEDA percent error of <1%; and for normal brain and
      spinal cord, 80% of the patients had an overall BEDA percent error of <1%. BEDA
      distributions had maximum errors ranging from 2% to 11%, with the 11% error
      occurring for bladder. BEDA produced much more accurate maximum BED values with
      adjacent organs such as normal brain, bladder, and rectum. This study has shown
      that BEDA can calculate BED distributions with acceptable accuracy under certain
      circumstances. However, its consistency and accuracy strongly depend on the dose
      distributions of the different treatment phases. One should be cautious when
      using BEDA.

PMID- 28867368
TI  - Plant ESCRT Complexes: Moving Beyond Endosomal Sorting.
AB  - The endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery is an
      ancient system that deforms membrane and severs membrane necks from the inside.
      Extensive evidence has accumulated to demonstrate the conserved functions of
      plant ESCRTs in multivesicular body (MVB) biogenesis and MVB-mediated membrane
      protein sorting. In addition, recent exciting findings have uncovered unique
      plant ESCRT components and point to emerging roles for plant ESCRTs in non
      endosomal sorting events such as autophagy, cytokinesis, and viral replication.
      Plant-specific processes, such as abscisic acid (ABA) signaling and chloroplast
      turnover, provide further evidence for divergences in the functions of plant
      ESCRTs during evolution. We summarize the multiple roles and current working
      models for plant ESCRT machinery and speculate on future ESCRT studies in the
      plant field.

PMID- 28867364
TI  - Cell-based and pharmacological neurorestorative therapies for ischemic stroke.
AB  - Ischemic stroke remains one of most common causes of death and disability
      worldwide. Stroke triggers a cascade of events leading to rapid neuronal damage
      and death. Neuroprotective agents that showed promise in preclinical experiments
      have failed to translate to the clinic. Even after decades of research, tPA
      remains the only FDA approved drug for stroke treatment. However, tPA is
      effective when administered 3-4.5 h after stroke onset and the vast majority of
      stroke patients do not receive tPA therapy. Therefore, there is a pressing need
      for novel therapies for ischemic stroke. Since stroke induces rapid cell damage
      and death, neuroprotective strategies that aim to salvage or replace injured
      brain tissue are challenged by treatment time frames. To overcome the barriers of
      neuroprotective therapies, there is an increasing focus on neurorestorative
      therapies for stroke. In this review article, we provide an update on
      neurorestorative treatments for stroke using cell therapy such as bone marrow
      derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs), human umbilical cord blood cells
      (HUCBCs) and select pharmacological approaches including Minocycline and
      Candesartan that have been employed in clinical trials. This review article
      discusses the present understanding of mechanisms of neurorestorative therapies
      and summarizes ongoing clinical trials. This article is part of the Special Issue
      entitled 'Cerebral Ischemia'.

PMID- 28867369
TI  - [Oral anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation: What is the guideline for using new
      drugs?]
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess whether there are differences between atrial fibrillation
      (AF) patients initiating new direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOAC) therapy and
      vitamin K antagonist (VKA) therapy in an emergency service. METHODS: Descriptive,
      observational, prospective study. We enrolled patients with AF who were visited
      in a hospital emergency service over one year. RESULTS: This study included 492
      patients with AF, and 189 subjects received anticoagulant therapy, 104 with VKA
      (55%), and 85 with DOAC (45%). The VKA group: mean age 76.1 years, male 50.9% and
      female 49.1%, CHA2DS2-VASc mean 3.2+/-1.3 points, and a HAS-BLED mean of 1.9+/
      0.8 points. The DOAC group: mean age 73.4 years, male 37.6% and female 63.3%,
      CHA2DS2-VASc mean 3.1+/-1.6 points, and a HAS-BLED mean of 1.7+/-0.8 points. On
      analysing the medical history, 17.3% of patients in the VKA group had a previous
      stroke, and 13.5% significant valve disease, as well as 7.1 and 1.2% of patients,
      respectively, in the DOAC group. In the analysis of the DOAC types, 24.2% of
      patients in the dabigatran group had a previous stroke, 22.7% in the rivaroxaban
      group had ischaemic heart disease. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with AF who start on
      treatment in emergency services with VKA or with DOAC show a similar profile of
      age, gender, CHA2DS2-VASc score, and HAS-BLED score. The patients with a history
      of valvular or ischaemic heart disease received more VKA than DOAC. When the
      patient has a history of stroke, the DOAC more used is dabigatran, and in
      patients with ischaemic heart disease it is preferred to give rivaroxaban.

PMID- 28867370
TI  - Transport mechanism of chitosan-N-acetylcysteine, chitosan oligosaccharides or
      carboxymethyl chitosan decorated coumarin-6 loaded nanostructured lipid carriers
      across the rabbit ocular.
AB  - To facilitate the hydrophobic drugs modeled by coumarin-6 (Cou-6) acrossing the
      cornea to the anterior chamber of the rabbit eye, chitosan (CS) derivatives
      including chitosan-N-acetyl-l-cysteine (CS-NAC), chitosan oligosaccharides (COS)
      and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) modified nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs)
      were designed and characterized. We found that, with similar size distribution
      and positivecharges, different CS derivatives based on NLCs led to distinctive
      delivery performance. In vivo precorneal retention study on rabbits revealed that
      these CS derivatives coating exhibited a stronger resistant effect than Cou-6 eye
      drops and Cou-6-NLC (P<0.05), moreover, the AUC(0-infinity), Cmax and MRT(0
      infinity) of them followed the sequence of CMCS-Cou-6-NLC<COS-Cou-6-NLC<CS-NAC
      Cou-6-NLC. Confocal laser fluorescence microscopy (CLSM) for in vitro corneal
      penetration study showed that COS-, and CS-NAC-coated NLCs penetrated through the
      whole corneal epithelium barrier (about 40MUm), while CMCS failed to
      significantly enhance the intraocular drug penetration as expected, displayed a
      negligible fluorescence at 30MUm deep. In addition, penetration through the
      intact cornea was achieved and the penetration levels through the ocular tissues
      were increased thoroughly for the COS and CS-NAC coating ones compared with CMCS
      NLC (P<0.05), and successfully reduced the conjunctival-to-corneal permeability
      ratio (ratio(C-S/C)) thus resulted in a higher bioavailability, which was
      confirmed by ex vivo fluorescence imaging on ocular tissues. In summary, CS-NAC
      NLC and COS-NLC are promising ocular drug delivery systems to achieve prolonged
      precorneal retention, higher corneal permeability and enhanced ocular
      bioavailability. And comparatively speaking, CS-NAC-NLC possesses the highest
      potential for ocular drug delivery.

PMID- 28867371
TI  - The suture retention test, revisited and revised.
AB  - A systematic investigation of the factors affecting the suture retention test is
      performed. The specimen width w and the distance a of the suture bite from the
      specimen free edge emerge as the most influential geometrical parameters. A
      conservative approach for the quantification of suture retention strength is
      identified, based on the use of a camera to monitor the incipient failure and
      detect the instant of earliest crack propagation. The corresponding critical
      force, called break starting strength, is extremely robust against test parameter
      variations and its dependence on the specimen geometry becomes negligible when
      a>= 2mm and w>= 10mm. Comparison of suture retention and mode I crack opening
      tests reveals a linear correlation between break starting strength and tearing
      energy. This suggests that the defect created by the needle and the load applied
      by the suture thread lead to a fracture mechanics problem, which dominates the
      initiation of failure.

PMID- 28867372
TI  - Key themes and future prospects in translational multiple system atrophy
      research.
AB  - Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorder
      with a highly variable clinical presentation. Unfortunately, there exists no
      effective therapy that can improve the course of the disease and symptomatic
      treatment options remain limited. Although significant progress in research has
      improved our understanding of MSA, knowledge gaps still remain. Thus, a global
      network focusing on different research areas is required to face this fatal
      disease.

PMID- 28867373
TI  - Etelcalcetide (AMG 416), a peptide agonist of the calcium-sensing receptor,
      preserved cortical bone structure and bone strength in subtotal nephrectomized
      rats with established secondary hyperparathyroidism.
AB  - Sustained elevation of parathyroid hormone (PTH) is catabolic to cortical bone,
      as evidenced by deterioration in bone structure (cortical porosity), and is a
      major factor for increased fracture risk in chronic kidney disease (CKD).
      Etelcalcetide (AMG 416), a novel peptide agonist of the calcium-sensing receptor,
      reduces PTH levels in subtotal nephrectomized (Nx) rats and in hemodialysis
      patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) in clinical studies; however,
      effects of etelcalcetide on bone have not been determined. In a rat model of
      established SHPT with renal osteodystrophy, etelcalcetide or vehicle was
      administered by subcutaneous (s.c.) injection to subtotal Nx rats with elevated
      PTH (>750pg/mL) once per day for 6weeks. Sham-operated rats receiving vehicle
      (s.c.) served as non-SHPT controls. Prior to treatment, significant increases in
      serum creatinine (2-fold), blood urea nitrogen (BUN, 3-fold), PTH (5-fold),
      fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23; 13-fold) and osteocalcin (12-fold) were
      observed in SHPT rats compared to non-SHPT controls. Elevations in serum
      creatinine and BUN were unaffected by treatment with vehicle or etelcalcetide. In
      contrast, etelcalcetide significantly decreased PTH, FGF23 and osteocalcin,
      whereas vehicle treatment did not. Cortical bone porosity increased and bone
      strength decreased in vehicle-treated SHPT rats compared to non-SHPT controls.
      Cortical bone structure improved and energy to failure was significantly greater
      in SHPT rats treated with etelcalcetide compared to vehicle. Mineralization lag
      time and marrow fibrosis were significantly reduced by etelcalcetide. In
      conclusion, etelcalcetide reduced bone turnover, attenuated mineralization defect
      and marrow fibrosis, and preserved cortical bone structure and bone strength by
      lowering PTH in subtotal Nx rats with established SHPT.

PMID- 28867374
TI  - Automatic registration of 2D histological sections to 3D microCT volumes:
      Trabecular bone.
AB  - Histomorphometry and microCT are the two dominant imaging techniques to study
      bone structure and quality to evaluate repair, regeneration, and disease. These
      two methods are complementary; where histology provides highly resolved tissue
      properties on a cellular level in 2D, microCT provides spatial information of
      bone micro-structure in 3D. For this reason, both of these modalities are
      commonly used in bone studies. As it is not trivial to combine the images of
      these two modalities, the two methods are typically applied to different
      specimens within a study. However, we believe that applying both imaging
      modalities to the same specimen with a suitable fusion strategy may further
      strengthen the value of each modality. Therefore, we propose a registration
      method to align 2D histology slices with a 3D microCT volume, without any prior
      knowledge of the sectioning direction. In a preprocessing step, bone is extracted
      from both images. Then, we use a strategy for initializing potential locations,
      and an iterative approach for searching for an ideal fitting plane using Radon
      based rigid transforms and feature-based affine alignments. The algorithm was
      tested and validated with simulated and real data. For the latter, microCT images
      of trabecular bone with 76 corresponding histological sections acquired from
      decalcified and calcified specimens were used. The registration resulted in 94.7%
      acceptable solutions as defined by a registration orientation error of less than
      3 degrees . Average registration accuracy of the acceptable results was 0.6
      degrees , leading to a target registration error for our method of 106.3MUm,
      computed based on landmarks annotated by an observer. This corresponds roughly to
      10pixels in the images; although, the relation to actual visible structures that
      provide the features to register, is arguably more relevant.

PMID- 28867375
TI  - Calcified plaque modification alters local drug delivery in the treatment of
      peripheral atherosclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calcific atherosclerosis is a major challenge to intraluminal drug
      delivery in peripheral artery disease (PAD). OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the effects
      of orbital atherectomy on intraluminal paclitaxel delivery to human peripheral
      arteries with substantial calcified plaque. METHODS: Diagnostic angiography and 3
      D rotational imaging of five fresh human lower limbs revealed calcification in
      all main arteries. The proximal or distal segment of each artery was treated
      using an orbital atherectomy system (OAS) under simulated blood flow and
      fluoroscopy. Explanted arterial segments underwent either histomorphometric
      assessment of effect or tracking of 14C-labeled or fluorescent-labeled
      paclitaxel. Radiolabeled drug quantified bulk delivery and fluorescent label
      established penetration of drug over finer spatial domain in serial microscopic
      sections. Results were interpreted using a mathematical model of binding
      diffusion mediated arterial drug distribution. RESULTS: Lesion composition
      affected paclitaxel absorption and distribution in cadaveric human peripheral
      arteries. Pretreatment imaging calcium scores in control femoropopliteal arterial
      segments correlated with a log-linear decline in the bulk absorption rate
      constant of 14C-labeled, declining 5.5-fold per calcified quadrant (p=0.05, n=7).
      Compared to controls, OAS-treated femoropopliteal segments exhibited 180MUm
      thinner intima (p<0.001), 45% less plaque calcification, and 2 log orders higher
      paclitaxel bulk absorption rate-constants. Correspondingly, fluorescent
      paclitaxel penetrated deeper in OAS-treated femoropopliteal segments compared to
      controls, due to a 70% increase in diffusivity (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These data
      illustrate that calcified plaque limited intravascular drug delivery, and
      controlled OAS treatment of calcific plaques resulted in greater drug
      permeability and improved adjunct drug delivery to diseased arteries.

PMID- 28867376
TI  - A non-internalizing antibody-drug conjugate based on an anthracycline payload
      displays potent therapeutic activity in vivo.
AB  - Antibody-drug conjugates are generally believed to crucially rely on
      internalization into cancer cells for therapeutic activity. Here, we show that a
      non-internalizing antibody-drug conjugate, based on the F16 antibody specific to
      the alternatively spliced A1 domain of tenascin-C, mediates a potent therapeutic
      activity when equipped with the anthracycline PNU159682. The peptide linker,
      connecting the F16 antibody in IgG format at a specific cysteine residue to the
      drug, was stable in serum but could be efficiently cleaved in the subendothelial
      extracellular matrix by proteases released by the dying tumor cells. The results
      indicate that there may be a broader potential applicability of non-internalizing
      antibody-drug conjugates for cancer therapy than what had previously been
      assumed.

PMID- 28867377
TI  - Ultrasound-induced mild hyperthermia improves the anticancer efficacy of both
      Taxol(r) and paclitaxel-loaded nanocapsules.
AB  - We study the influence of ultrasound on paclitaxel-loaded nanocapsules in vitro
      and in vivo. These nanocapsules possess a shell of poly(dl-lactide-co-glycolide)
      poly(ethylene glycol) (PLGA-PEG) and a liquid core of perfluorooctyl bromide
      (PFOB). In vitro experiments show that mechanical effects such as cavitation are
      negligible for nanocapsules due to their small size and thick and rigid shell. As
      the mechanical effects were unable to increase paclitaxel delivery, we focused on
      the thermal effects of ultrasound in the in vivo studies. A focused ultrasound
      sequence was therefore optimized in vivo under magnetic resonance imaging
      guidance to obtain localized mild hyperthermia with high acoustic pressure.
      Ultrasound-induced mild hyperthermia (41-43 degrees C) was then tested in vivo in
      a subcutaneous CT-26 colon cancer murine model. As hyperthermia is applied, an
      inhibition of tumor growth for both paclitaxel-loaded nanocapsules and the
      commercial formulation of paclitaxel, namely Taxol(r) have been observed
      (p<0.05). Ultrasound-induced mild hyperthermia at high acoustic pressure appears
      as an interesting strategy to enhance cytotoxic efficacy locally.

PMID- 28867379
TI  - Staged hybrid repair of mega aortic syndrome: Good...but not great.

PMID- 28867380
TI  - Homemade fenestrated stent-graft for thoracic endovascular aortic repair of zone
      2 aortic lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this retrospective analysis was to evaluate the outcomes of
      homemade fenestrated stent-grafts for thoracic endovascular aortic repair of zone
      2 aortic lesions. METHODS: From November 2013 to January 2017, 24 patients
      underwent thoracic endovascular aortic repair with left subclavian artery
      revascularization using a homemade fenestrated stent-graft to preserve the
      patency of the left subclavian artery. Elective cases accounted for 54% (n = 13)
      of the sample. Indications included acute complicated type B aortic dissection (n
      = 9), degenerative aneurysm (n = 9), penetrating aortic ulcer (n = 5), and
      intramural hematoma (n = 1). Routine postoperative follow-up imaging with
      computed tomography angiography was performed to assess thoracic endovascular
      aortic repair and left subclavian artery fenestration patency and endoleak.
      RESULTS: Median duration for stent-graft modification was 16 minutes (range, 14
      17 minutes). The technical success rate was 100%. One patient had a distal type I
      endoleak requiring additional stent-graft placement. One patient had partial
      coverage of the left common carotid artery requiring left common carotid artery
      stenting. One patient had a stroke without permanent sequelae (4.1%). Overall
      mortality was 0%. All left subclavian arteries were patent. Two type III
      endoleaks required additional left subclavian artery covered stent placement. One
      type II endoleak is currently observed. During a mean follow-up of 13.2 +/- 2
      months, there were no conversions to open surgical repair, aortic rupture,
      paraplegia, or retrograde dissection. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a homemade
      fenestrated stent-graft for thoracic endovascular aortic repair of zone 2 aortic
      lesions is both feasible and effective for left subclavian artery
      revascularization during thoracic endovascular aortic repair involving a spectrum
      of thoracic aortic pathology. Durability concerns will need to be assessed in
      additional studies with long-term follow-up.

PMID- 28867378
TI  - Autologous fat transplants to deliver glitazone and adiponectin for
      vasculoprotection.
AB  - The insulin sensitizing glitazone drugs, rosiglitazone (ROS) and pioglitazone
      (PGZ) both have anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory effects and induce
      adipose tissue (fat) to produce the vaso-protective protein adiponectin. Stenosis
      due to intimal hyperplasia development often occurs after placement of
      arteriovenous synthetic grafts used for hemodialysis. This work was performed to
      characterize the in vitro and in vivo effects of ROS or PGZ incorporation in fat
      and to determine if fat/PGZ depots could decrease vascular hyperplasia
      development in a porcine model of hemodialysis arteriovenous graft stenosis.
      Powdered ROS or PGZ (6-6000MUM) was mixed with fat explants and cultured. Drug
      release from fat was quantified by HPLC/MS/MS, and adiponectin and monocyte
      chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) levels in culture media were measured by ELISA. The
      effect of conditioned media from the culture of fat with ROS or PGZ on i)
      platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB)-stimulated proliferation of human
      venous smooth muscle cells (SMC) was measured by a DNA-binding assay, and ii)
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced human monocyte release of tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNFalpha) was assessed by ELISA. In a porcine model, pharmacokinetics of
      PGZ from fat depots transplanted perivascular to jugular vein were assessed by
      HPLC/MS/MS, and retention of the fat depot was monitored by MRI. A porcine model
      of synthetic graft placed between carotid artery and ipsilateral jugular vein was
      used to assess effects of PGZ/fat depots on vascular hyperplasia development.
      Both ROS and PGZ significantly induced the release of adiponectin and inhibited
      release of MCP-1 from the fat. TNF production from monocytes stimulated with LPS
      was inhibited 50-70% in the presence of media conditioned by fat alone or fat and
      either drug. The proliferation of SMC was inhibited in the presence of media
      conditioned by fat/ROS cultures. Fat explants placed perivascular to the external
      jugular vein were retained, as confirmed by MRI at one week after placement. PGZ
      was detected in the fat depot, in the external jugular vein wall and in adjacent
      tissue at clinically relevant levels, whereas levels in plasma were below
      detection. External jugular vein exposed to fat incorporated with PGZ had
      increased adiponectin expression compared to vein exposed to fat alone. However,
      the development of hyperplasia within the arteriovenous synthetic grafts was
      unchanged by treatment with fat/PGZ depots compared to no treatment.

PMID- 28867381
TI  - Using the National Cancer Database to create a scoring system that identifies
      patients with early-stage esophageal cancer at risk for nodal metastases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Endoscopic resection is gaining popularity as a treatment for early
      stage esophageal adenocarcinoma, particularly for T1a tumors. The goal of this
      study was to create a scoring system to reflect the risk of nodal metastases in
      early-stage esophageal adenocarcinoma to be used after endoscopic resection to
      better individualize treatment. METHODS: The National Cancer Database was queried
      for patients with T1a or T1b esophageal adenocarcinoma who underwent
      esophagectomy. We identified variables affecting nodal metastases using
      multivariable logistic regression, which we then used to create a scoring system.
      We stratified the model for T1a or T1b tumors, tested model discrimination, and
      validated the models by refitting in 1000 bootstrap samples. C-statistics greater
      than 0.7 were considered relevant. RESULTS: We identified 1283 patients with T1a
      or T1b tumors; 146 had nodal metastases (11.4%). Tumor category (pT1a vs pT1b),
      grade, and size and the presence of angiolymphatic invasion significantly
      affected the risk of nodal metastases. We assigned points to each variable and
      added them to get a risk score. In patients with T1a tumors, less than 3% of
      patients with a risk score of 3 or less had nodal metastases, whereas 16.1% of
      patients with a risk score of 5 or greater had nodal metastases. In patients with
      T1b tumors, less than 5% of patients with a risk score of 2 or less had nodal
      metastases, whereas 41% of patients with a score of 6 or greater had nodal
      metastases (c-statistic = 0.805). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed scoring system seems
      to be useful in discriminating risk of nodal metastases in patients with T1a or
      T1b esophageal adenocarcinoma and may be useful in directing patients who
      received endoscopic resection to esophagectomy or careful follow-up.

PMID- 28867382
TI  - Diaphragm plication: When and why to do it.

PMID- 28867383
TI  - Protective effects of kinetin against aluminum chloride and D-galactose induced
      cognitive impairment and oxidative damage in mouse.
AB  - Increasing evidence indicates that aluminum exposure and oxidative stress play
      crucial roles in the initiation and development of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      Aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and d-galactose (d-gal) combined treatment of mice is
      considered as an easy and cheap way to obtain an animal model of AD. Kinetin is a
      plant cytokinin, which is also reported to exert neuro-protective effects in vivo
      and in vitro. Thus, in this study, neuro-protective effects of kinetin were
      investigated in an AD model of mice induced by AlCl3 and d-gal. The Morris water
      maze (MWM) test was performed to directly evaluate neuro-protective effects of
      kinetin on the memory and spatial learning abilities, while the histopathological
      changes were examined by hematoxylin and eosin (H & E) staining method. To
      further investigate mechanisms involved, Al content in cortex and hippocampus was
      determined. In addition, related detection kits were used to determine
      acetylcholine (ACh) content and activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE).
      Activities of anti-oxidative enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD),
      catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and the content of heme
      oxygenase-1 (HO-1) were also measured. Besides, the content of oxidative damage
      bio-markers including 8-iso-prostaglandin F (8-iso-PGF), advanced glycation end
      products (AGEs) and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) were determined by ELISA
      kits. Finally, the distribution of beta-amyloid protein 1-42 (Abeta1-42) was
      detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC), while the expression levels of
      amyloidogenic proteins including beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), beta
      secretase, gamma-secretase and Abeta1-42 were detected by western blotting (WB)
      method. Results showed that kinetin improved performance in MWM test, attenuated
      histopathological changes, reduced Al level in cortex and hippocampus, increased
      ACh content and decreased AChE activity. In addition, kinetin elevated activities
      of anti-oxidative enzymes and reduced the levels of oxidative damage biomarkers
      in AD model of mice. Furthermore, kinetin also increased the content of HO-1, and
      inhibited the distribution of Abeta1-42 and the expressions of amyloidogenic
      proteins (APP, beta-secretase, gamma-secretase and Abeta1-42) in brain tissue of
      AD mice. Our results indicate that kinetin has neuro-protective effects on the AD
      model of mice induced by AlCl3 and d-gal, suggesting that kinetin may be a
      candidate drug for treatment of AD.

PMID- 28867385
TI  - Olfactory conditioned same-sex partner preference in female rats: Role of ovarian
      hormones.
AB  - The dopamine D2-type receptor agonist quinpirole (QNP) facilitates the
      development of conditioned same-sex partner preference in males during
      cohabitation, but not in ovariectomized (OVX) females, primed with estradiol
      benzoate (EB) and progesterone (P). Herein we tested the effects of QNP on OVX,
      EB-only primed females. Females received a systemic injection (every four days)
      of either saline (Saline-conditioned) or QNP (QNP-conditioned) and then cohabited
      for 24h with lemon-scented stimulus females (CS+), during three trials. In test 1
      (female-female) preference was QNP-free, and females chose between the CS+ female
      and a novel female. In test 2 (male-female) they chose between the CS+ female and
      a sexually experienced male. In test 1 Saline-conditioned females displayed more
      hops & darts towards the novel female, but QNP-conditioned females displayed more
      sexual solicitations towards the CS+ female. In test 2 Saline-conditioned females
      displayed a clear preference for the male, whereas QNP-conditioned females
      displayed what we considered a bisexual preference. We discuss the effect of
      dopamine and ovarian hormones on the development of olfactory conditioned same
      sex preference in females.

PMID- 28867384
TI  - Downregulations of TRPM8 expression and membrane trafficking in dorsal root
      ganglion mediate the attenuation of cold hyperalgesia in CCI rats induced by
      GFRalpha3 knockdown.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cold hyperalgesia is an intractable sensory abnormality commonly seen
      in peripheral neuropathies. Although glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor
      family receptor alpha3 (GFRalpha3) is required for the formation of pathological
      cold pain has been revealed, potential transduction mechanism is poorly
      elucidated. We have previously demonstrated the contribution of enhanced activity
      of transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) to cold hyperalgesia in
      neuropathic pain using a rat model of chronic constriction injury (CCI) to the
      sciatic nerve. Recently, the enhancement of TRPM8 activity is attributed to the
      increased TRPM8 plasma membrane trafficking. In addition, TRPM8 can be sensitized
      by the activation of GFRalpha3, leading to increased cold responses in vivo. The
      aim of this study was to investigate whether GFRalpha3 could influence cold
      hyperalgesia of CCI rats via modulating TRPM8 expression and plasma membrane
      trafficking in dorsal root ganglion (DRG). METHODS: Mechanical allodynia, cold
      and heat hyperalgesia were measured on 1day before CCI and the 1st, 4th, 7th,
      10th and 14th day after CCI. TRPM8 total expression and membrane trafficking as
      well as GFRalpha3 expression in DRG were detected by immunofluorescence and
      western blot. Furthermore, GFRalpha3 small interfering RNA (siRNA) was
      intrathecally administrated to reduce GFRalpha3 expression in DRG, and the
      effects of GFRalpha3 knockdown on CCI-induced behavioral sensitization as well as
      TRPM8 total expression and membrane trafficking in both mRNA and protein levels
      were investigated, and the change in coexpression of TRPM8 with GFRalpha3 was
      also evaluated. Then, the effect of GFRalpha3 activation with artemin on pain
      behavior of CCI rats pretreated with the selective TRPM8 antagonist RQ-00203078
      was observed. RESULTS: Here we found that TRPM8 total expression and plasma
      membrane trafficking as well as GFRalpha3 expression in DRG were initially
      increased on the 4th day after CCI, and maintained at the peak level from the
      10th to the 14th day, which entirely conformed with the induction and maintenance
      of behavioral-reflex facilitation following CCI. The coexpression of TRPM8 with
      GFRalpha3, which was mainly located in peptidergic C-fibers DRG neurons, was also
      increased after CCI. Downregulation of GFRalpha3 protein in DRG attenuated CCI
      induced cold hyperalgesia without affecting mechanical allodynia and heat
      hyperalgesia, and reduced the upregulations of TRPM8 total expression and plasma
      membrane trafficking as well as coexpression of TRPM8 with GFRalpha3 induced by
      CCI. Additionally, the inhibition of TRPM8 abolished the influence of GFRalpha3
      activation on cold hyperalgesia after CCI. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate
      that GFRalpha3 knockdown specially inhibits cold hyperalgesia following CCI via
      decreasing the expression level and plasma membrane trafficking of TRPM8 in DRG.
      GFRalpha3 and its downstream mediator, TRPM8, represent a new analgesia axis
      which can be further exploited in sensitized cold reflex under the condition of
      chronic pain.

PMID- 28867386
TI  - ALDH7A1 is a protein that protects Atlantic salmon against Aeromonas salmonicida
      at the early stages of infection.
AB  - Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDHs) belong to a super-family of detoxifying proteins
      and perform a significant role in developing epithelial homeostasis, protecting
      cells from toxic aldehydes and drug resistance. However, the activity and
      function of these detoxifying proteins remain unknown, especially in fish. In our
      research, we aimed to study functions of aldehyde dehydrogenase 7A1 (ALDH7A1) in
      Atlantic salmon infected by Aeromonas salmonicida. Recombinant ALDH7A1 (rALDH7A1)
      was verified by SDS-PAGE and western blot. The molecular mass of the deduced
      amino acid sequence of rALDH7A1 is 58.9 kDa with an estimated pI of 7.09. Only a
      low complexity region (141yvegvgevqeyvdv153) without a signal peptide existed in
      rALDH7A1. Results of ELISA indicated that rALDH7A1 exhibited apparent binding
      activities with A. salmonicida and its expression was highest in fish kidney. A
      Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) assay in kidneys confirmed that fish in this experiment
      were authentically infected and bacterial loads in rALDH7A1-adminsitered fish
      were significantly reduced at an early stage of infection. Meanwhile, we found
      the mRNA expression of NF-kbeta, P-38 MAPK, caspase-3 and TNF-alpha were mainly
      up-regulated at 72 h in the kidneys and livers of highly infected fish injected
      with rALDH7A1, and the same variation trend existed in fish spleens at 12 h.
      Consistent with these observations, neutralization experiments in vivo indicated
      that rALDH7A1 could obviously reduce the death rate compared to the BSA and
      control group. Taken together, we concluded that rALDH7A1 could act in host
      immune defense against bacterial infection and decrease the mortality rate of
      Atlantic salmon at early stages of infection with A. salmonicida.

PMID- 28867388
TI  - Using Engineered Bacteria to Characterize Infection Dynamics and Antibiotic
      Effects In Vivo.
AB  - Synthetic biology has focused on engineering microbes to synthesize useful
      products or to serve as living diagnostics and therapeutics. Here we utilize a
      host-derived Escherichia coli strain engineered with a genetic toggle switch as a
      research tool to examine in vivo replicative states in a mouse model of chronic
      infection, and to compare in vivo and in vitro bacterial behavior. In contrast to
      the effect of antibiotics in vitro, we find that the fraction of actively
      dividing bacteria remains relatively high throughout the course of a chronic
      infection in vivo and increases in response to antibiotics. Moreover, the
      presence of non-dividing bacteria in vivo does not necessarily lead to an
      antibiotic-tolerant infection, in contrast to expectations from in vitro
      experiments. These results demonstrate the utility of engineered bacteria for
      querying pathogen behavior in vivo, and the importance of validating in vitro
      studies of antibiotic effects with in vivo models.

PMID- 28867387
TI  - Deciphering the Origin and Evolution of Hepatitis B Viruses by Means of a Family
      of Non-enveloped Fish Viruses.
AB  - Hepatitis B viruses (HBVs), which are enveloped viruses with reverse-transcribed
      DNA genomes, constitute the family Hepadnaviridae. An outstanding feature of HBVs
      is their streamlined genome organization with extensive gene overlap. Remarkably,
      the ~1,100 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding the envelope proteins is fully
      nested within the ORF of the viral replicase P. Here, we report the discovery of
      a diversified family of fish viruses, designated nackednaviruses, which lack the
      envelope protein gene, but otherwise exhibit key characteristics of HBVs
      including genome replication via protein-primed reverse-transcription and
      utilization of structurally related capsids. Phylogenetic reconstruction
      indicates that these two virus families separated more than 400 million years ago
      before the rise of tetrapods. We show that HBVs are of ancient origin, descending
      from non-enveloped progenitors in fishes. Their envelope protein gene emerged de
      novo, leading to a major transition in viral lifestyle, followed by co-evolution
      with their hosts over geologic eras.

PMID- 28867389
TI  - Legionella pneumophila Modulates Mitochondrial Dynamics to Trigger Metabolic
      Repurposing of Infected Macrophages.
AB  - The intracellular bacteria Legionella pneumophila encodes a type IV secretion
      system (T4SS) that injects effector proteins into macrophages in order to
      establish and replicate within the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV). Once
      generated, the LCV interacts with mitochondria through unclear mechanisms. We
      show that Legionella uses both T4SS-independent and T4SS-dependent mechanisms to
      respectively interact with mitochondria and induce mitochondrial fragmentation
      that ultimately alters mitochondrial metabolism. The T4SS effector MitF, a Ran
      GTPase activator, is required for fission of the mitochondrial network. These
      effects of MitF occur through accumulation of mitochondrial DNM1L, a GTPase
      critical for fission. Furthermore mitochondrial respiration is abruptly halted in
      a T4SS-dependent manner, while T4SS-independent upregulation of cellular
      glycolysis remains elevated. Collectively, these alterations in mitochondrial
      dynamics promote a Warburg-like phenotype in macrophages that favors bacterial
      replication. Hence the rewiring of cellular bioenergetics to create a replication
      permissive niche in host cells is a virulence strategy of L. pneumophila.

PMID- 28867390
TI  - Capillary moving-boundary isotachophoresis with electrospray ionization mass
      spectrometric detection and hydrogen ion used as essential terminator:
      Methodology for sensitive analysis of hydroxyderivatives of s-triazine herbicides
      in waters.
AB  - Capillary isotachophoresis (ITP) is an electrophoretic technique offering high
      sensitivity due to permanent stacking of the migrating analytes. Its combination
      with electrospray-ionization mass-spectrometric (ESI-MS) detection is limited by
      the narrow spectrum of ESI-compatible components but can be compensated by
      experienced system architecture. This work describes a methodology for sensitive
      analysis of hydroxyderivatives of s-triazine herbicides, based on implementation
      of the concepts of moving-boundary isotachophoresis and of H+ as essential
      terminating component into cationic ITP with ESI-MS detection. Theoretical
      description of such kind of system is given and equations for zone-related
      boundary mobilities are derived, resulting in a much more general definition of
      the effective mobility of the terminating H+ zone than used so far. Explicit
      equations allowing direct calculation for selected simple systems are derived.
      The presented theory allows prediction of stacking properties of particular
      systems and easy selection of suitable electrolyte setups. A simple ESI
      compatible system composed of acetic acid and ammonium with H+ and ammonium as a
      mixed terminator was selected for the analysis of 2-hydroxyatrazine and 2
      hydroxyterbutylazine, degradation products of s-triazine herbicides. The proposed
      method was tested with direct injection without any sample pretreatment and
      provided excellent linearity and high sensitivity with limits of detection below
      100ng/L (0.5nM). Example analyses of unspiked and spiked drinking and river water
      are shown.

PMID- 28867391
TI  - Are there differences in lipid peroxidation and immune biomarkers between major
      depression and bipolar disorder: Effects of melancholia, atypical depression,
      severity of illness, episode number, suicidal ideation and prior suicide
      attempts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is evidence that major depression (MDD) and bipolar disorder
      (BD) are accompanied by activated immune & oxidative (I&O) pathways. METHODS: To
      compare I&O biomarkers between MDD and BD we assessed serum levels of
      thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS; a lipid peroxidation marker),
      soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R), sIL-6R, IL-alpha, sIL-1R antagonist (sIL
      1RA), tumor necrosis factor receptor 60kDa/80kDa (sTNFR60/R80) in 114 MDD and 133
      BD patients, and 50 healthy controls. We computed z-unit weighted indices
      reflecting the 5 cytokine receptor levels (zCytR), cell-mediated immunity (zCMI)
      and I&O pathways (zCMI+TBARS). RESULTS: There are no significant differences in
      biomarkers between MDD and BD. BD/MDD with atypical features is characterized by
      increased sIL-6R and TBARS, whereas melancholia is associated with higher TBARS
      and lower sTNFR60 levels. Severity of illness, as measured with the Hamilton
      Depression Rating Scale, is correlated with increased sIL-6R, sTNFR80, TBARS,
      zCytR and zCMI+TBARS. The number of episodes the year prior to blood sampling is
      positively associated with sTNFR80, TBARS, zCMI, zCMI+TBARS, while number of
      hospitalizations is positively associated with sIL-1RA. Prior suicidal attempts
      are associated with increased sIL-1RA, IL-1alpha, zCMI, TBARS and zCMI+TBARS,
      while TBARS is associated with current suicidal ideation. CONCLUSIONS: There are
      no I&O biomarker differences between MDD and BD. Atypical depression is
      associated with increased IL-6 trans-signaling and lipid peroxidation. Severity
      of depression, number of episodes and suicidal attempts are associated with
      activated I&O pathways. Increased TBARS is the single best predictor of BD/MDD,
      atypical depression, melancholia and current suicidal ideation.

PMID- 28867392
TI  - Effects of alprazolam treatment on anxiety-like behavior induced by color
      stimulation in adult zebrafish.
AB  - It has been reported that the use of certain stimuli can lead to anxiety-like
      behavior in zebrafish. Moreover, visual stimulation of zebrafish is becoming a
      popular tool. Here we evaluated the effects of six colors combinations and
      alprazolam, a benzodiazepine which is widely used in the treatment of anxiety
      disorders, on the behavior of adult zebrafish in a two-chambered apparatus, which
      chambers were illuminated by red/yellow, green/blue, red/green, green/yellow,
      red/blue and blue/yellow light. The following parameters were measured: time
      spent in the zone, number of entries to the zone, time of freezing, distance
      traveled and average speed in the zone. We report that the adult zebrafish spent
      more time in the red zone compared to yellow or green as well as in the yellow or
      blue compared to green. The zebrafish displayed a concomitant increase in time
      freezing in the red zone compared to yellow or green as well as in the yellow or
      blue compared to green. Moreover, average speed was decreased in the red zone
      compared to yellow or green and in the yellow zone compared to green. Treatment
      with alprazolam significantly affected the behavior of the zebrafish, e.g.,
      following alprazolam administration time spent in the zone and time freezing were
      longer in the green zone than in red. Based on these observations, we suggest
      that light color combinations could be effective to manipulate zebrafish behavior
      and could be useful in neuropsychopharmacological studies, perhaps to study
      anxiety-like behavior and the effects of anxiolytic agents.

PMID- 28867393
TI  - Reprint of "Epidemiology of brucellosis, Q Fever and Rift Valley Fever at the
      human and livestock interface in northern Cote d'Ivoire".
AB  - Northern Cote d'Ivoire is the main livestock breeding zone and has the highest
      livestock cross-border movements in Cote d'Ivoire. The aim of this study was to
      provide updated epidemiological data on three neglected zoonotic diseases, namely
      brucellosis, Q Fever and Rift Valley Fever (RVF). We conducted three-stage cross
      sectional cluster surveys in livestock and humans between 2012 and 2014 in a
      random selection of 63 villages and a sample of 633 cattle, 622 small ruminants
      and 88 people. We administered questionnaires to capture risk factors and
      performed serological tests including the Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), Brucella
      spp. indirect and competitive ELISAs, Coxiella burnetii indirect ELISA and RVF
      competitive ELISA. The human seroprevalence for Brucella spp. was 5.3%. RBPT
      positive small ruminants tested negative by the indirect ELISA. The
      seroprevalence of Brucella spp. in cattle adjusted for clustering was 4.6%.
      Cattle aged 5-8 years had higher odds of seropositivity (OR=3.5) than those aged
      <=4years. The seropositivity in cattle was associated with having joint hygromas
      (OR=9), sharing the pastures with small ruminants (OR=5.8) and contact with
      pastoralist herds (OR=11.3). The seroprevalence of Q Fever was 13.9% in cattle,
      9.4% in sheep and 12.4% in goats. The seroprevalence of RVF was 3.9% in cattle,
      2.4% in sheep and 0% in goats. Seropositive ewes had greater odds (OR=4.7) of
      abortion than seronegative ones. In cattle, a shorter distance between the night
      pens and nearest permanent water bodies was a protective factor (OR=0.1). The
      study showed that the exposure to the three zoonoses is rather low in northern
      Cote d'Ivoire. Within a One Health approach, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness
      of control measures should be assessed for an integrated control.

PMID- 28867394
TI  - Reprint of "Modelling the influence of temperature and rainfall on malaria
      incidence in four endemic provinces of Zambia using semiparametric Poisson
      regression".
AB  - Although malaria morbidity and mortality are greatly reduced globally owing to
      great control efforts, the disease remains the main contributor. In Zambia, all
      provinces are malaria endemic. However, the transmission intensities vary mainly
      depending on environmental factors as they interact with the vectors. Generally
      in Africa, possibly due to the varying perspectives and methods used, there is
      variation on the relative importance of malaria risk determinants. In Zambia, the
      role climatic factors play on malaria case rates has not been determined in
      combination of space and time using robust methods in modelling. This is critical
      considering the reversal in malaria reduction after the year 2010 and the
      variation by transmission zones. Using a geoadditive or structured additive
      semiparametric Poisson regression model, we determined the influence of climatic
      factors on malaria incidence in four endemic provinces of Zambia. We demonstrate
      a strong positive association between malaria incidence and precipitation as well
      as minimum temperature. The risk of malaria was 95% lower in Lusaka (ARR=0.05,
      95% CI=0.04-0.06) and 68% lower in the Western Province (ARR=0.31, 95% CI=0.25
      0.41) compared to Luapula Province. North-western Province did not vary from
      Luapula Province. The effects of geographical region are clearly demonstrated by
      the unique behaviour and effects of minimum and maximum temperatures in the four
      provinces. Environmental factors such as landscape in urbanised places may also
      be playing a role.

PMID- 28867395
TI  - Nanoformulated copper/zinc superoxide dismutase exerts differential effects on
      glucose vs lipid homeostasis depending on the diet composition possibly via
      altered AMPK signaling.
AB  - Evidence suggests that superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) promotes glucose vs lipid
      metabolism depending on the diet type. We recently reported that nanoformulated
      SOD1 (Nano) improved lipid metabolism without altering glucose homeostasis in
      high-fat (HF) diet-fed mice. Here, we sought to determine the effects and
      potential mechanisms of Nano in modulating glucose and lipid homeostasis in mice
      fed a normal chow diet (CD) vs HF diet. Mice were fed a CD or a HF diet (45%) for
      10 wk and injected with Nano once every 2 days for 15 days. The fasting glucose
      level was lower (P < 0.05) in CD + Nano-treated mice compared to control.
      Conversely, blood glucose was not altered but serum triglycerides were lower in
      HF + Nano-treated mice. Genes involved in fatty acid synthesis were reduced by
      Nano in the skeletal muscle of CD but not of HF diet-fed mice. Adenosine
      monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which promotes both glucose and
      lipid metabolism depending on the fuel availability, is activated by Nano in CD
      fed mice. Moreover, Nano increased phosphorylation of ACC, a downstream target of
      AMPK, in both CD and HF diet-fed mice. Nano increased mitochondrial respiration
      in C2C12 myocytes in the presence of glucose or fatty acid, and this effect is
      inhibited by Compound C, an AMPK inhibitor. Our data suggest that Nano promotes
      glucose and lipid metabolism in CD and HF diet-fed mice, respectively, and this
      effect is mediated partly via AMPK signaling.

PMID- 28867396
TI  - The Healthy Hearts and Kidneys (HHK) study: Design of a 2*2 RCT of technology
      supported self-monitoring and social cognitive theory-based counseling to engage
      overweight people with diabetes and chronic kidney disease in multiple lifestyle
      changes.
AB  - Patients with complex chronic diseases usually must make multiple lifestyle
      changes to limit and manage their conditions. Numerous studies have shown that
      education alone is insufficient for engaging people in lifestyle behavior change,
      and that theory-based behavioral approaches also are necessary. However, even the
      most motivated individual may have difficulty with making lifestyle changes
      because of the information complexity associated with multiple behavior changes.
      The goal of the current Healthy Hearts and Kidneys study was to evaluate,
      different mobile health (mHealth)-delivered intervention approaches for engaging
      individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and concurrent chronic kidney disease
      (CKD) in behavior changes. Participants were randomized to 1 of 4 groups,
      receiving: (1) a behavioral counseling, (2) technology-based self-monitoring to
      reduce information complexity, (3) combined behavioral counseling and technology
      based self-monitoring, or (4) baseline advice. We will determine the impact of
      randomization assignment on weight loss success and 24-hour urinary excretion of
      sodium and phosphorus. With this report we describe the study design, methods,
      and approaches used to assure information security for this ongoing clinical
      trial. Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT02276742.

PMID- 28867398
TI  - Visual and ocular motor outcomes in children with posterior fossa tumors.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe the clinical characteristics and visual and ocular motor
      outcomes of a large cohort of pediatric patients treated for tumors of the
      posterior cranial fossa. METHODS: The medical records of all patients with
      posterior fossa tumors evaluated by the ophthalmology services at two large
      tertiary care academic hospitals between 2005 and 2011 were reviewed
      retrospectively. Data abstracted for each study patient included demographic
      information, presenting signs and symptoms, pathologic diagnosis, and results of
      the most recent ophthalmology examination. RESULTS: A total of 139 patients were
      included. Visual outcomes were categorized as "good" (bilateral acuity of 20/20
      20/40) in 101 patients (72.7%), "fair" (<20/40-20/200 in one or both eyes) in 12
      patients (8.6%), or "poor" (<20/200 in one or both eyes) in 9 patients (6.5%).
      Patients with medulloblastoma and ependymoma had a significantly greater risk of
      a poor or fair visual outcome than those with juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma
      (both P < 0.05), independent of age and sex. Thirty-two patients (23.0%)
      developed nystagmus, and 59 patients (42.4%) developed strabismus. Twenty-four
      patients (17.3%) underwent eye muscle surgery for persistent strabismus.
      CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients had good visual outcomes, although ocular
      motor abnormalities were common. Tumor type was a significant risk factor for
      permanent vision loss.

PMID- 28867397
TI  - Factors associated with atypical postoperative drift following surgery for
      consecutive exotropia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the associations of clinical and surgical factors with
      atypical postoperative drift following surgery for consecutive exotropia.
      METHODS: A total of 66 patients with consecutive exotropia (>=10Delta at
      distance), after historical surgery for esotropia were retrospectively identified
      at a tertiary medical center. All patients underwent unilateral lateral rectus
      recession (on adjustable suture) with medial rectus advancement and/or resection.
      Immediate postoperative target angle was 4Delta-10Delta of esotropia at distance,
      anticipating mild postoperative exodrift. Actual postoperative drift was
      calculated as change in distance deviation from immediately postadjustment to 6
      weeks. Typical drift was defined as 0Delta-9Delta of exodrift. Excessive exodrift
      was defined as >=10Delta. Esodrift was defined as 1Delta or more. Univariate and
      multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate for associations
      with a wide range of clinical and surgical factors. RESULTS: Overall there was a
      median exodrift (4Delta, quartiles 0Delta-10Delta). Of the 66 patients, 18 (27%)
      showed excessive exodrift; 15 (23%), esodrift. In multiple logistic analyses,
      larger preoperative distance exodeviation was associated with excessive exodrift
      (P = 0.01), and non-normal medial rectus attachment status (abnormal [stretched
      scar, pseudo-tendon], attached to pulley, or behind pulley) was associated with
      esodrift (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of patients show atypical
      drift following unilateral surgery for consecutive exotropia, with larger
      preoperative distance exodeviation associated with exodrift and non-normal medial
      rectus muscle status with esodrift. Knowing these associations may help when
      counseling patients regarding surgical outcomes.

PMID- 28867399
TI  - Neuro-oculo-cutaneous cavernous hemangiomas: a CCM1 mutation-associated
      phakomatosis.
AB  - Evaluation for intracranial lesions in a patient with retinal cavernous
      hemangiomas is vital for early recognition of this heritable and potentially life
      threatening disease. We report a case of a highly penetrant but variably
      expressed form of cerebral cavernous malformation syndrome with cerebral,
      cutaneous, and retinal cavernomas in a family found to harbor a nonsense mutation
      of the CCM1 gene.

PMID- 28867400
TI  - Looking to the future: Introducing palliative care in the cardiorespiratory
      population.

PMID- 28867402
TI  - Plasmodium simium: a Brazilian focus of anthropozoonotic vivax malaria?

PMID- 28867401
TI  - Outbreak of human malaria caused by Plasmodium simium in the Atlantic Forest in
      Rio de Janeiro: a molecular epidemiological investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malaria was eliminated from southern and southeastern Brazil over 50
      years ago. However, an increasing number of autochthonous episodes attributed to
      Plasmodium vivax have recently been reported from the Atlantic Forest region of
      Rio de Janeiro state. As the P vivax-like non-human primate malaria parasite
      species Plasmodium simium is locally enzootic, we performed a molecular
      epidemiological investigation to determine whether zoonotic malaria transmission
      is occurring. METHODS: We examined blood samples from patients presenting with
      signs or symptoms suggestive of malaria as well as from local howler monkeys by
      microscopy and PCR. Samples were included from individuals if they had a history
      of travel to or resided in areas within the Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest, but
      not if they had malaria prophylaxis, blood transfusion or tissue or organ
      transplantation, or had travelled to known malaria endemic areas in the preceding
      year. Additionally, we developed a molecular assay based on sequencing of the
      parasite mitochondrial genome to distinguish between P vivax and P simium, and
      applied this assay to 33 cases from outbreaks that occurred in 2015, and 2016.
      FINDINGS: A total of 49 autochthonous malaria cases were reported in 2015-16.
      Most patients were male, with a mean age of 44 years (SD 14.6), and 82% lived in
      urban areas of Rio de Janeiro state and had visited the Atlantic Forest for
      leisure or work-related activities. 33 cases were used for mitochondrial DNA
      sequencing. The assay was successfully performed for 28 samples, and all were
      shown to be P simium, indicative of zoonotic transmission of this species to
      human beings in this region. Sequencing of the whole mitochondrial genome of
      three of these cases showed that P simium is most closely related to P vivax
      parasites from South America. The malaria outbreaks in this region were caused by
      P simium, previously considered to be a monkey-specific malaria parasite, related
      to but distinct from P vivax, and which has never conclusively been shown to
      infect people before. INTERPRETATION: This unequivocal demonstration of zoonotic
      transmission, 50 years after the only previous report of P simium in people,
      leads to the possibility that this parasite has always infected people in this
      region, but that it has been consistently misdiagnosed as P vivax because of an
      absence of molecular typing techniques. Thorough screening of local non-human
      primates and mosquitoes (Anopheline) is required to evaluate the extent of this
      newly recognised zoonotic threat to public health and malaria elimination in
      Brazil. FUNDING: Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de
      Rio de Janeiro, The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological
      Development (CNPq), JSPS Grant-in-Aid for scientific research, Secretary for
      Health Surveillance of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Global Fund, Fundacao de
      amparo a pesquisa do estado de Minas Gerais (Fapemig), and PRONEX Program of the
      CNPq.

PMID- 28867403
TI  - Optimization of the monitoring of landfill gas and leachate in closed
      methanogenic landfills.
AB  - Monitoring of the gas and leachate parameters in a closed landfill is a long-term
      activity defined by national legislative worldwide. Serbian Waste Disposal Law
      defines the monitoring of a landfill at least 30 years after its closing, but the
      definition of the monitoring extent (number and type of parameters) is
      incomplete. In order to define and clear all the uncertainties, this research
      focuses on process of monitoring optimization, using the closed landfill in
      Zrenjanin, Serbia, as the experimental model. The aim of optimization was to find
      representative parameters which would define the physical, chemical and
      biological processes in the closed methanogenic landfill and to make this process
      less expensive. Research included development of the five monitoring models with
      different number of gas and leachate parameters and each model has been processed
      in open source software GeoGebra which is often used for solving optimization
      problems. The results of optimization process identified the most favorable
      monitoring model which fulfills all the defined criteria not only from the point
      of view of mathematical analyses, but also from the point of view of environment
      protection. The final outcome of this research - the minimal required parameters
      which should be included in the landfill monitoring are precisely defined.

PMID- 28867404
TI  - Manure from biochar, bentonite and zeolite feed supplemented poultry: Moisture
      retention and granulation properties.
AB  - Feeding treatments were imposed in two feeding trials involving Cobb broiler and
      Bond Brown layer birds. Three feed additives (biochar, bentonite and zeolite)
      were supplied at four rates (0, 1, 2 and 4% w/w) in feed, as previously
      considered in the context of animal production, was considered in the context of
      Excreta chemical and water retention properties and granulation characteristics
      of decomposed excreta (manure) were characterised. At field capacity (- 0.01
      MPa), manure produced from control and 4% bentonite diets contained significantly
      (p = 0.001) more water (at 1.93 and 2.44% v/v water, respectively) than zeolite
      and biochar treatments. Manure mesoporosity was significantly (p = 0.015) higher
      in 2 and 4% bentonite treatments than other feed additives. Fresh excreta from
      layer birds on the control diet contained 6% w/dw N and 35% C, which was
      decreased to 2.6% N and 28% C after decomposition, with C:N ratio changing from
      5.9 to 12.1. Ammonia loss was higher from biochar and zeolite manures than
      control or bentonite, associated with higher pH in the biochar and zeolite
      manures. More N was unaccounted from bentonite manure than other treatments,
      presumably lost as N2O or N2, a result linked to its higher moisture content and
      its enhanced rate of denitrification. The highest proportion of granules in the
      size class desired for fertilizer spreading was achieved using decomposed manure
      from the 1 and 2% w/w biochar treatments of the broiler trial, and 1 and 2%
      zeolite and 4% biochar treatments of the layer trial. Thus the feed amendments
      improved poultry manure in specific ways.

PMID- 28867405
TI  - Attitudes of Chinese community members and psychiatrists towards forensic
      psychiatric assessments.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Chinese community
      members and psychiatrists towards forensic psychiatric assessments. A
      questionnaire designed to record attitudes toward the current forensic
      psychiatric assessment procedures and the disposal of mentally ill offenders was
      developed and distributed via a mobile App. A total of 134 community members and
      132 psychiatrists voluntarily completed the questionnaire. Most of responders
      agreed that the department of public-security has the right to apply for a
      forensic psychiatric assessment but should not be held solely by that department.
      Community members were less significantly confident in the validation of forensic
      psychiatric opinions than were the psychiatrists. A significantly higher
      proportion of community members than psychiatrists considered that offenders
      judged Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD) should be
      punished as would be sane people. In addition, only a minority of responders
      supported that NCRMD should not be held criminally responsible. Our results
      indicate that both groups have comments on the current distribution of right of
      startup of forensic psychiatric assessments. Compared to psychiatrists, community
      members have lower confidence in the validation of forensic psychiatric
      assessment and have stricter attitudes toward the disposal of offenders with
      psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28867406
TI  - Self-reported sleep problems among the elderly: A latent class analysis.
AB  - The present study utilized a person-centered approach to examine the different
      profiles of problem sleepers in a community sample of elderly. In addition, this
      study also explores how demographic and psychiatric variables may be related to
      these different profiles of sleep problems. A total of 515 participants (Mean age
      = 67 years, SD = 5) were administered self-report measures of sleep problems,
      depression and anxiety. Among them, 230 who reported significant problems in any
      of five selected sleep components were entered into a latent class analysis. The
      remaining 285 participants were assigned to a comparison control group. The
      profiles of 'inadequate sleep', 'disturbed sleep', 'trouble falling asleep' and
      'multiple problems' were identified. The 'multiple problems' group had
      significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety relative to the control
      group. Regression analyses indicated that these different profiles had
      contributed to a significant increase in variance explained in anxiety but not
      depression levels, on top of the severity of sleep problems and demographic
      variables. Although sleep problems occur among the elderly with considerable
      heterogeneity, they can generally be classified into four different profiles.
      Furthermore, the inclusion of sleep problem profiles can significantly enhance
      the prediction of anxiety symptoms.

PMID- 28867407
TI  - Childhood adversities and clinical symptomatology in first-episode psychosis.
AB  - In addition to severe traumatic experiences, milder, more common childhood
      adversities reflecting psychosocial burden may also be common in people with
      psychotic disorders and have an effect on symptomatology and functioning. We
      explored eleven negative childhood experiences and their influence on clinical
      symptoms among young adults with first-episode psychosis (FEP, n = 75) and
      matched population controls (n = 51). Individuals with FEP reported more
      adversities than controls. Specifically serious conflicts within the family,
      bullying at school, maternal mental health problems, and one's own and parents'
      serious illness during childhood were experienced by the patients more often than
      by controls. In the FEP group, the severity of adversity was associated with
      increased anxiety, manic, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but not with the
      severity of positive psychotic symptoms. Adversity produced a more pronounced
      effect on symptoms in male patients than in female patients. To conclude, in line
      with earlier studies of more chronic psychosis, a majority of the participants
      with FEP reported exposure to childhood adversities, with the FEP group reporting
      more adversities than controls. High levels of mood and anxiety symptoms in
      patients with FEP may be related to cumulative exposure to childhood adversities.
      This should be taken into account in the treatment for FEP.

PMID- 28867408
TI  - Associations between a history of traumatic brain injuries and conduct disorder
      during youth in a population sample of Canadian adults.
AB  - This study describes the association between history of traumatic brain injury
      (TBI) and childhood symptoms of conduct disorder (CD). Data were based on
      telephone interviews with 6048 respondents derived from the 2011-2013 cycles of a
      representative cross-sectional survey of adults aged 18+ years in Ontario,
      Canada. TBI was defined as loss of consciousness for at least 5min or overnight
      hospitalization due to injury symptoms. Symptoms of CD before 15 years of age
      were assessed using five items based on the DSM-IV. Adults who reported a history
      of TBI reported odds 3 times higher for possible CD before 15 years of age. Odds
      remained significant even when age, sex, marital status, income, and education
      were statistically controlled. The nature of this data precludes determining if
      TBI occurred before or following CD symptoms. Nonetheless, the co-occurrence of a
      history of TBI with symptoms of CD supports the recommendation that practitioners
      be vigilant in assessing the history of both CD and TBI when diagnosing and
      treating one of these conditions. These findings do not exclude the possibility
      that TBI during childhood or youth may be interfering with brain development and
      could co-occur with conduct behaviors in both the short and long term.

PMID- 28867409
TI  - What characteristics are associated with earlier onset of first depressive
      episodes: A 16-year follow-up of a national population-based cohort.
AB  - This study examined characteristics associated with earlier onset of first
      depressive episodes. A nationally representative Canadian sample was randomly
      selected and followed from 1994 to 2011. At baseline complete data on depression
      history (Yes/No) and related diseases was available for 12,227 study subjects.
      Proportional hazard models were used. Meta-analyses were also applied to sync
      results across studies. Being younger, a woman, a Caucasian, a regular smoker,
      and having a chronic disease were significantly associated with the expedited
      trajectory for the onset of the first depressive episode. People were at the
      greater risk of having earlier onset of first depressive episodes at the 2-year
      follow-up (p < 0.001), with the risk declining after four years (p < 0.001).
      Women and men had different sets of characteristics associated with earlier onset
      of first depressive episodes. In meta-analyses, those having a chronic disease
      (HRpooled = 1.31) and being a woman (HRpooled = 1.43) were more likely to have
      earlier onset of first depressive episodes. This study provides solid evidence on
      the timing effect of these characteristics on first depressive episodes.
      Approaches focused on these identified risk characteristics should be prioritized
      to reduce the risk and postpone the onset of major depressive episode.

PMID- 28867410
TI  - Boar variability in sperm cryo-tolerance after cooling of semen in different long
      term extenders at various temperatures.
AB  - This study investigated individual boar variability in the quality of pre-freeze
      (PF) and post-thaw (PT) semen cooled in different long-term (LT) extenders and
      for different holding times (HT). Sperm rich fractions were diluted with
      Androhep(r) Plus (AHP), Androstar(r) Plus (ASP), Safecell(r) Plus (SCP) and
      TRIXcell(r) Plus (TCP) extenders, stored for 2h at 17 degrees C (HT 1) and
      additionally for 24h at 10 degrees C (HT 2) and the samples were subsequently
      evaluated and frozen. Besides the analysis of CASA sperm variables, mitochondrial
      membrane potential (MMP), plasma membrane integrity (PMI), normal apical ridge
      (NAR) acrosome integrity, and viability (YO-PRO-1-/PI-) of sperm were assessed in
      the PF and PT semen. Results indicated that boar, extender and HT group affected
      the sperm quality characteristics. There were great variations in PMOT and the
      sperm motion patterns of the PF semen among the boars. Differences in the HT
      groups of the PF semen, with respect to the sperm membrane integrity, were less
      marked among the boars. Consistent variations in TMOT and PMOT in the PT semen
      were observed among the boars, being greater in the HT 2 group. Most of the CASA
      analyzed sperm motion patterns were greater in the HT 2 group of the PT semen.
      Furthermore, sperm MMP, PMI and viability were greater in the HT 2 group of the
      PT semen in most of the boars, while consistent differences were observed among
      the boars for sperm NAR acrosome integrity in either HT group. The significant
      effect of the cryopreservation process on the sperm membrane proteome was evident
      from the number of protein bands, detected in the electrophoretic profiles of
      sperm of the HT 1 and HT 2 groups. The electrophoretic profiles of the PF and PT
      semen among boars with poor and good semen freezability, however, differed with
      respect to the abundance and types of sperm membrane-associated proteins. The
      overall results of this study provided evidence that there are differences among
      boars in response to the different cooling regimens, and that cooling of extended
      semen for a 24-h period at 10 degrees C modulated the functions of sperm in an
      extender-dependent manner, rendering the cells less susceptible to cryo-induced
      damage. It is suggested that the findings of this study have the potential to
      improve the technology of boar semen cryopreservation.

PMID- 28867411
TI  - Toxic shock syndrome in paediatric thermal injuries: A case series and systematic
      literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a rare, but potentially life
      threatening complication of thermal injuries in children. The study objective was
      to systematically review the literature on paediatric TSS after burns or scalds,
      and describe our experience with this condition in Switzerland. METHODS: All
      tertiary paediatric healthcare centres managing burns and scalds in Switzerland
      were inquired. A systematic literature review was performed using EMBASE (1947
      2016), MEDLINE (1946-2016), Web of Science (1900-2016) and Google Scholar in
      October 2016. Data on patient characteristics, symptoms, laboratory parameters,
      management and outcome were extracted from paper and electronic patient charts.
      Descriptive statistics were performed. RESULTS: The literature review revealed 25
      articles describing 59 cases observed in 10 countries (UK, USA, Hungary, Austria,
      Sweden, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Spain, Switzerland) from 1985 to 2016. The
      patient age ranged from 8 months to 8 years at the time point of TSS-diagnosis.
      The injured total body surface area ranged from <1% to 41%. Forty-one patients
      suffered from scalds, 6 from burns and in 12 cases the type of injury was not
      specified. The TSS-diagnosis was made 1-7days after thermal injury. Nineteen
      children underwent admission to the Intensive Care Unit. Six children died from
      TSS. In Switzerland, we identified 11 consecutive cases between 07/2001 and
      06/2011 (median age 15 months, range 9 months-14 years; 9 male, 2 female; 3
      burns, 8 scalds; 7% median total body surface area (TBSA), range 2-30%).
      Diagnosis of TSS was made on day 5 after injury in median (range 3-34 days).
      Eight of eleven patients received intensive care. Survivors (10/11) suffered no
      long-term sequelae besides scars. One 13-month old boy died 3days after a 7%-TBSA
      scald. CONCLUSIONS: Toxic shock syndrome is an important complication of
      paediatric burns in Switzerland and several other countries world-wide. Diagnosis
      and management remain challenging. Awareness among treating clinicians is crucial
      for a favourable outcome.

PMID- 28867412
TI  - Somatosensory amplification - An old construct from a new perspective.
AB  - The paper reviews and summarizes the history and the development of somatosensory
      amplification, a construct that plays a substantial role in symptom reports.
      Although the association with negative affect has been supported by empirical
      findings, another key elements of the original concept (i.e. body hypervigilance
      and the tendency of focusing on mild body sensations) have never been
      appropriately addressed. Recent findings indicate that somatosensory
      amplification is connected with phenomena that do not necessarily include
      symptoms (e.g. modern health worries, or expectations of symptoms and medication
      side effects), and also with the perception of external threats. In conclusion,
      somatosensory amplification appears to refer to the intensification of perceived
      external and internal threats to the integrity of the body ("somatic threat
      amplification") rather than amplification of perceived or actual bodily events
      only. Practical implications of this new approach are also discussed.

PMID- 28867413
TI  - Vagal withdrawal and psychological distress during ventilator weaning and the
      related outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the associations between changes in autonomic
      nervous system (ANS) function, psychological status during the mechanical
      ventilation (MV) weaning process, and weaning outcomes. METHODS: In this
      prospective study, we recruited 67 patients receiving MV for >24h at a medical
      center in northern Taiwan. Patients' ANS function, represented by heart rate
      variability (HRV), the rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI), anxiety, fear, and
      dyspnea, was repeatedly measured 10min before and 30min after undergoing a
      weaning trial. Forty-nine patients capable of sustaining a 2-h weaning trial were
      successfully weaned. RESULTS: Compared with the failed group, the success group
      showed significantly smaller decreases in high-frequency HRV (HRV-HF) and smaller
      increases in RSBI (per 10 breaths/min/L), fear, dyspnea, and anxiety in response
      to the weaning trial (odds ratio [OR]=2.19, 0.81, 0.69, 0.66, and 0.77,
      respectively; p<0.05). Multivariate analyses revealed that low-frequency HRV
      before weaning (OR=2.32; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.13-4.78, p=0.02), changes
      in HRV-HF (OR=3.33; 95% CI=1.18-9.44, p=0.02), and psychological fear during the
      weaning process (OR=0.50; 95% CI=0.27-0.92, p=0.03) were three independent
      factors associated with 2-h T-piece weaning success. CONCLUSIONS: ANS responses
      and psychological distress during weaning were associated with T-piece weaning
      outcomes and may reflect the need for future studies to utilize these factors to
      guide weaning processes and examine their impact on outcomes.

PMID- 28867414
TI  - Is the practice of yoga or meditation associated with a healthy lifestyle?
      Results of a national cross-sectional survey of 28,695 Australian women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between yoga/meditation practice and
      health behavior in Australian women. METHODS: Women aged 19-25years, 31-36years,
      and 62-67years from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH)
      were surveyed regarding smoking, alcohol or drug use, physical activity and
      dietary behavior; and whether they practiced yoga/meditation on a regular basis.
      Associations of health behaviors with yoga/meditation practice were analyzed
      using multiple logistic regression modelling. RESULTS: 11,344, 8200, and 9151
      women aged 19-25years, 31-36years, and 62-67years, respectively, were included of
      which 29.0%, 21.7%, and 20.7%, respectively, practiced yoga/meditation. Women
      practicing yoga/meditation were significantly more likely to report at least
      moderate physical activity levels (OR=1.50-2.79), to follow a vegetarian (OR=1.67
      3.22) or vegan (OR=2.26-3.68) diet, and to report the use of marijuana (OR=1.28
      1.89) and illicit drugs in the last 12 months (OR=1.23-1.98). CONCLUSIONS:
      Yoga/meditation practice was associated with higher physical activity levels, a
      higher likelihood of vegetarian or vegan diet use, and a higher likelihood of
      drug use. While health professionals should keep the potential vulnerability of
      yoga/meditation practitioners to drug use in mind, the positive associations of
      yoga/meditation with a variety of positive health behaviors warrant its
      consideration in preventive medicine and healthcare.

PMID- 28867415
TI  - Gender differences in mental and physical health conditions in U.S. veterans:
      Results from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterize gender differences in the prevalence of mental and
      physical health conditions and evaluate the moderating effect of assaultive
      trauma on risk for these conditions in a nationally representative sample of male
      and female U.S. veterans. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were analyzed from 3157
      U.S. veterans from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study.
      Multivariable logistic regression analyses assessed gender differences in health
      outcomes and evaluated physical and sexual trauma as possible moderators of these
      outcomes. RESULTS: Compared to male veterans, female veterans had higher
      prevalence estimates of lifetime posttraumatic stress (OR=3.33) and lifetime and
      current major depressive (ORs=2.10 and 2.76, respectively) disorders, and
      lifetime histories of arthritis, migraine headaches, and osteoporosis (ORs
      ranging 2.14-9.74), but lower prevalence estimates of lifetime nicotine
      dependence (OR=0.46), lifetime and current alcohol use (ORs=0.19 and 0.36,
      respectively) and lifetime drug use (OR=0.39) disorders, and lifetime histories
      of diabetes, heart attack, and high blood pressure (ORs ranging 0.05-0.49). The
      elevation in risk associated with physical and sexual assault was greater for
      males than females for numerous health conditions (but greater for females for
      posttraumatic stress disorder). CONCLUSIONS: Results provide a comprehensive
      assessment and characterization of gender differences in mental and physical
      health conditions and risk conferred by assaultive trauma for certain conditions
      in U.S. veterans.

PMID- 28867416
TI  - Negative affect as mediator between emotion regulation and medically unexplained
      symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research on emotion regulation (ER) in medically unexplained physical
      symptoms (MUS) is rare. PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to compare ER skills
      between MUS-patients without comorbid depression, MUS-patients with comorbid
      depression (MUS+MDD), patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and healthy
      controls. Additionally, we examined the mediating effect of depression and
      anxiety on the relationship between ER and somatization. METHODS: The Emotion
      Regulation Skills Questionnaire (ERSQ) and other self-report measures were
      completed by 138 MUS-patients, 114 MUS+MDD-patients, 106 MDD-patients, and 100
      healthy controls. Multiple mediation analyses were applied to investigate the
      role of depression and anxiety as potential mediators. RESULTS: A MANCOVA and
      post-hoc test with age, sex and education as covariates indicated that ER skills
      of the MUS-group were lower than the controls (p<0.001-p=0.047), but higher than
      the MDD- and MUS+MDD-group (p<0.001-p=0.042). ER skills of the MDD-group and
      MUS+MDD-group did not differ (p=0.78-p=0.99), but were lower than controls
      (p<0.001-p=0.011). In the MUS-groups depression and anxiety had a mediating
      effect on the relationship between ER and somatization (b=-0.23, 95% bias
      corrected CI: -0.30, -0.17). The direct effect of ER on somatization was no
      longer significant when controlling for the mediating variables (b=0.07,
      p=0.083). CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that patients with MUS+MDD have higher
      deficits in ER skills than MUS patients without MDD. Additionally, deficits in ER
      in MUS-patients are influenced by depression and anxiety. This indicates that MUS
      patients with comorbid mental disorders might benefit from an emotion regulation
      training.

PMID- 28867418
TI  - Predicting grief intensity after recent perinatal loss.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Perinatal Grief Intensity Scale (PGIS) was developed for clinical
      use to identify and predict intense grief and need for follow-up after perinatal
      loss. This study evaluates the validity of the PGIS via its ability to predict
      future intense grief based on a PGIS score obtained early after a loss. METHODS:
      A prospective observational study was conducted with 103 international, English
      speaking women recruited at hospital discharge or via the internet who
      experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death within the previous
      8weeks. Survey data were collected at baseline using the PGIS and the Perinatal
      Grief Scale (PGS). Follow-up data on the PGS were obtained 3months later. Data
      analysis included descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, receiver operating
      characteristic curve analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS:
      Cronbach's alphas were >=0.70 for both instruments. PGIS factor analysis yielded
      three factors as predicted, explaining 57.7% of the variance. The optimal cutoff
      identified for the PGIS was 3.535. No difference was found when the ability of
      the PGIS to identify intense grief was compared to the PGS (p=0.754). The PGIS
      was not inferior to the PGS (AUC=0.78, 95% CI 0.68-0.88, p<0.001) in predicting
      intense grief at the follow-up. A PGIS score>=3.53 at baseline was associated
      with increased grief intensity at Time 2 (PGS: OR=1.97, 95% CI 1.59-2.34,
      p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The PGIS is comparable to the PGS, has a lower response
      burden, and can reliably and validly predict women who may experience future
      intense grief associated with perinatal loss.

PMID- 28867417
TI  - Increased psychiatric morbidity in women with complete androgen insensitivity
      syndrome or complete gonadal dysgenesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Knowledge concerning mental health outcomes is important to optimize
      the health of individuals with disorders or differences of sex development (DSD).
      Thus, the aim of this study was to estimate if the prevalence of psychiatric
      morbidity in adult women diagnosed with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome
      (CAIS) or complete gonadal dysgenesis (46,XY GD and 46,XX GD) differs from that
      in women with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) or age-matched population
      controls. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Karolinska
      University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, and included 33 women with different
      DSDs: 20 CAIS, 6 46,XY GD, 7 46,XX GD, 21 women with POI and 61 population
      derived controls. Psychiatric morbidity was assessed using the Mini International
      Neuropsychiatric Interview plus (MINI+). To complement the MINI+, three self
      report questions were used to evaluate current and previous psychiatric history.
      Results are presented as p values and estimated risks (odds ratio [OR], 95%
      confidence intervals [CI]) of psychiatric conditions among women with CAIS or GD
      in comparison with women with POI and age-matched population-derived controls.
      RESULTS: Twenty-eight of the 33 women (85%) with CAIS or GD met the criteria for
      at least one psychiatric disorder according to the MINI+, with depression and
      anxiety disorders being most common. This was significantly higher compared with
      population controls (52%) (OR 5.1, 95% CI 1.7-14.9), but not compared to women
      with POI, who had a high frequency of psychiatric diagnoses (76%). CONCLUSION:
      The increased psychiatric morbidity in women with CAIS and GD highlights the need
      for clinical awareness of the psychiatric vulnerability in these patients.

PMID- 28867419
TI  - Increased incidence of psychiatric disorders in immune-mediated inflammatory
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although psychiatric comorbidity is known to be more prevalent in
      immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) than in the general population, the
      incidence of psychiatric comorbidity in IMID is less understood, yet incidence is
      more relevant for understanding etiology. METHODS: Using population-based
      administrative (health) data, we conducted a retrospective cohort study over the
      period 1989-2012 in Manitoba, Canada. We identified 19,572 incident cases of IMID
      including 6119 persons with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), 3514 persons with
      multiple sclerosis (MS), 10,206 persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and
      97,727 age-, sex- and geographically-matched controls. After applying validated
      case definitions, we estimated the incidence of depression, anxiety disorder,
      bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in each of the study cohorts. Using negative
      binomial regression models, we tested whether the incidence rate of psychiatric
      comorbidity was elevated in the individual and combined IMID cohorts versus the
      matched cohorts, adjusting for sex, age, region of residence, socioeconomic
      status and year. RESULTS: The relative incidence of depression (incidence rate
      ratio [IRR] 1.71; 95%CI: 1.64-1.79), anxiety (IRR 1.34; 95%CI: 1.29-1.40),
      bipolar disorder (IRR 1.68; 95%CI: 1.52-1.85) and schizophrenia (IRR 1.32; 95%CI:
      1.03-1.69) were elevated in the IMID cohort. Depression and anxiety affected the
      MS population more often than the IBD and RA populations. CONCLUSIONS:
      Individuals with IMID, including IBD, MS and RA are at increased risk of
      psychiatric comorbidity. This increased risk appears non-specific as it is seen
      for all three IMIDs and for all psychiatric disorders studied, implying a common
      underlying biology for psychiatric comorbidity in those with IMID.

PMID- 28867420
TI  - A comparative prospective cohort study of women following childbirth: Mothers of
      low birthweight infants at risk for elevated PTSD symptoms.

PMID- 28867421
TI  - DSM-5 illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder: Comorbidity,
      correlates, and overlap with DSM-IV hypochondriasis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the reliability, validity and utility of DSM-5 illness
      anxiety disorder (IAD) and somatic symptom disorder (SSD), and explore their
      overlap with DSM-IV Hypochondriasis in a health anxious sample. METHODS:
      Treatment-seeking patients with health anxiety (N=118) completed structured
      diagnostic interviews to assess DSM-IV Hypochondriasis, DSM-5 IAD, SSD, and
      comorbid mental disorders, and completed self-report measures of health anxiety,
      comorbid symptoms, cognitions and behaviours, and service utilization. RESULTS:
      IAD and SSD were more reliable diagnoses than Hypochondriasis (kappa estimates:
      IAD: 0.80, SSD: 0.92, Hypochondriasis: 0.60). 45% of patients were diagnosed with
      SSD, 47% with IAD, and 8% with comorbid IAD/SSD. Most patients with IAD
      fluctuated between seeking and avoiding care (61%), whereas care-seeking (25%)
      and care-avoidant subtypes were less common (14%). Half the sample met criteria
      for DSM-IV Hypochondriasis; of those, 56% met criteria for SSD criteria, 36% for
      IAD, and 8% for comorbid IAD/SSD. Compared to IAD, SSD was characterized by more
      severe health anxiety, somatic symptoms, depression, and higher health service
      use, and higher rates of major depressive disorder, panic disorder and
      agoraphobia. CONCLUSIONS: DSM-5 IAD and SSD classifications reliably detect more
      cases of clinically significant health anxiety than DSM-IV Hypochondriasis. The
      differences between IAD and SSD appear to be due to severity. Future research
      should explore the generalizability of these findings to other samples, and
      whether diagnostic status predicts treatment response and long-term outcome.

PMID- 28867422
TI  - Serum albumin levels and depression in people living with Human Immunodeficiency
      Virus infection: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lower serum albumin levels and depression are common among HIV
      infected persons. High serum albumin levels may provide protection against
      depression through its defensive role in inflammation and infection. We tested
      the hypothesis of an independent relationship between serum albumin levels and
      depressive symptoms in a cohort of HIV-infected persons. METHODS: A cross
      sectional survey was conducted among 310 HIV-infected persons (176 men and 134
      women) aged 20-60years residing in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The bromocresol
      green method was used to measure serum albumin levels and the Beck Depression
      Inventory method was used to measure depressive symptoms, with a cut off score of
      20 or higher indicating likely depression. The relationship between serum albumin
      levels and depressive symptoms was assessed using both multiple linear regression
      analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis, with adjustment for
      sociodemographic, cardiovascular, life-style, and HIV-related clinical and
      treatment confounding factors. RESULTS: Serum albumin levels were inversely
      associated with depressive symptoms scores (beta for 1 unit change in serum
      albumin levels: beta=-3.91; p=0.001) for the total participant sample. This
      inverse association was significant in both men (beta=-3.93; p=0.009) and women
      (beta=-4.47; p=0.03). A significantly decreased risk of depression was observed
      among participants with the highest serum albumin levels, with odds ratio and 95%
      CI for those with >5.0g/dL versus <4.0g/dL of 0.22 (0.06-0.80) (p=0.01).
      CONCLUSION: Serum albumin levels were inversely associated with depressive
      symptoms scores in HIV-infected persons.

PMID- 28867423
TI  - Comparing the Patient Health Questionnaire - 15 and the Somatic Symptom Scale - 8
      as measures of somatic symptom burden.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Patient Health Questionnaire - 15 (PHQ-15) and the Somatic Symptom
      Scale - 8 (SSS-8) are self-report measures which assess somatic symptom burden.
      The present study investigates whether the two measures are comparable in terms
      of their psychometric properties and estimates of symptom burden. METHOD: Item
      characteristics, reliability, symptom severity and construct validity with regard
      to other relevant psychological, health-related quality of life and disability
      measures were compared for the PHQ-15m and the SSS-8 in 294 primary care patients
      who participated in a randomized comparative effectiveness trial targeting pain
      and mood symptoms. RESULTS: The reliabilities of the PHQ-15m and the SSS-8 were
      alpha=0.66 and alpha=0.72, respectively. Both measures were highly correlated
      (r=0.79). All item characteristics were comparable and both instruments showed
      the same pattern of correlations with instruments measuring depression, anxiety,
      pain, quality of life and impairment (r=0.25 to 0.53). A 1-point score increase
      (worsening of somatic symptoms) on either instrument resulted in a 3.7% to 3.9%
      increase in the number of disability days reported for the last four weeks. Using
      the same severity thresholds (5: low, 10: medium, 15: high), both measures
      identified nearly identical subgroups of patients with regard to health-related
      quality of life and disability. CONCLUSION: The PHQ-15m and the SSS-8 are
      comparable measures in terms of reliability and validity and severity
      classifications. These findings are in line with previous results and support the
      use of the SSS-8 as a valuable and short alternative to the original PHQ-15 in
      settings with limited assessment time.

PMID- 28867424
TI  - Psychosocial and behavioral factors in acetaminophen-related acute liver failure
      and liver injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Acetaminophen overdoses result in nearly 500 deaths annually and a
      much larger number of hospitalizations. Suicidal overdoses are exceeded in number
      in the United States by unintentional overdoses. We evaluated clinical,
      demographic and psychosocial factors among unintentional and intentional overdose
      patients whose acetaminophen (APAP) toxicity had resulted in acute liver failure.
      We hypothesized that APAP overdose patients would be more likely to suffer from
      behavioral health issues and display higher impulsivity scores than the general
      population. METHODS: Within 4days of admission and initial recovery of alertness,
      we administered a detailed questionnaire that included questions on APAP intake
      (e.g., dose taken, intent, other substances ingested), the Mini International
      Neuropsychiatric Interview modules on depression, alcohol use, substance use, and
      pain disorders and The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11. RESULTS: The group
      included 44 intentional (single time point ingestions with the intent to self
      harm) and 51 unintentional (multiple time point ingestions to manage pain or
      other condition) APAP patients enrolled in the Acute Liver Failure Study Group
      registry between 2007 and 2013. Both groups were characterized by similar
      frequencies of chronic pain, depressive symptoms at time of ingestion and alcohol
      and substance use disorders, all at higher rates than the general population.
      Overall, APAP patients scored higher than the general population for Non-planning
      aspects of impulsivity, with no apparent differences between other impulsivity
      scores or between intentional and unintentional APAP patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      Depression, mismanagement of problematic chronic pain, frequent substance abuse,
      and increased impulsivity appear to provide the substrate for many APAP
      overdoses.

PMID- 28867425
TI  - The association between substantiated childhood maltreatment, asthma and lung
      function: A prospective investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asthma reflects multiple and likely complex causal pathways. We
      investigate the possibility that childhood maltreatment is one such causal
      pathway. Childhood maltreatment can be interpreted as a form of early life
      adversity and like other life adversities may predict a range of negative health
      outcomes, including asthma. METHODS: A total of 3762 young adults (52.63% female)
      from the Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP)
      participated in this study. MUSP is a prospective Australian birth cohort study
      of mothers consecutively recruited during their first antenatal clinic visit at
      Brisbane's Mater Hospital from 1981 to 1983. The study followed both mother-child
      dyads to the age of 21years after birth. Participants reported whether they had
      been diagnosed by a physician with asthma by the 21-year follow-up. Trained
      research assistants also performed gender- and height-standardized lung function
      tests using a Spirobank G spirometer system attached to a laptop computer. We
      linked this dataset with data obtained from the child protection services and
      which comprised all substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment in the MUSP
      cohort. Substantiations of childhood maltreatment included children in an age
      range of 0-14years. RESULTS: The experience of any childhood maltreatment,
      particularly emotional abuse, was independently associated with self-reported
      physician-diagnosed asthma by the 21-year follow-up. The association was no
      longer significant after adjustment for a range of confounders and covariates in
      neglected children. Childhood maltreatment, including multiple events, was not
      associated with lung function in adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood
      maltreatment, including emotional abuse, was associated with lifetime ever
      asthma. This was in contrast to the absence of an association with objective
      measures of lung function. More research is indicated on the effect of childhood
      maltreatment on lung function using objective measures. In the meantime, there
      should be a greater awareness of the potential impact of childhood maltreatment
      on the potential to develop asthma, as well as of the possibility that asthma in
      adulthood may precede childhood maltreatment.

PMID- 28867426
TI  - Alexithymia as a health risk and resilience factor.

PMID- 28867427
TI  - Prevalence and effectiveness of psychiatric treatments for patients with IBD: A
      systematic literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and
      depression, has been found in people with Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis
      compared to the general population. Nowadays, international guidelines advocate
      psychotherapy and psycho-pharmacological treatments as playing an important role
      in IBD care. The main goal of this systematic literature review was summarize the
      evidence on the utilization and effectiveness of treatments for depression and
      anxiety in persons with IBD. METHODS: A systematic literature review was
      conducted using three different electronic databases: MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and
      EMBASE to identify studies reporting the prevalence and efficacy of psycho
      pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments for IBD. A quality appraisal was
      conducted using several scales as appropriate for each study design. A narrative
      synthesis was also performed. RESULTS: Forty-three studies were included.
      Although a high rate of psychoactive drug use was found in people with IBD, a low
      proportion of IBD patients have access to psychiatric referral. 1/3 of the
      studies found that psychotherapy was effective for improving the quality of life,
      perception of stress, anxiety and depression as well as disease. Antidepressants
      proved effective in reducing disease activity, gastrointestinal symptoms, anxiety
      and depression. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that psychiatric treatment should
      be implemented in IBD care. However, further studies are needed to confirm the
      findings of our systematic review.

PMID- 28867428
TI  - Epidemiological evaluation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 in a pregnant
      population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) is a commonly used 2
      item screening tool for depressive symptoms among pregnant women in primary care
      settings. However, its validity has not been assessed for large-scale
      epidemiological studies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide an
      epidemiological evaluation of the PHQ-2 among pregnant women. METHOD: A total of
      3033 pregnant women participating in the PRegnancy and Infant DEvelopment Study
      completed the PHQ-2 as well as the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale-Depression
      (HADS-D) or the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) three times throughout
      pregnancy. The validity of the PHQ-2 was assessed with the HADS-D/EDS as
      reference standard. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity of the PHQ-2 were 69-84%
      and 79-84%, respectively. The positive predictive values (range 19-26%) were
      substantially lower than the negative predictive values (96-99%). CONCLUSION:
      Despite the relatively high number of false-positive screens, initial screening
      for depression by two questions only may enhance routine evaluation of depressive
      symptoms among pregnant women.

PMID- 28867429
TI  - Comparison of sodium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide pretreatments of giant reed
      for enhanced enzymatic digestibility and methane production.
AB  - NaOH pretreatment with leachate reuse and Ca(OH)2 pretreatment were compared for
      improved enzymatic digestibility and biogas production from giant reed, a
      promising energy crop. The NaOH pretreatment with leachate reuse increased
      glucose yields during enzymatic hydrolysis by 2.6-fold, and methane yields during
      anaerobic digestion by 1.4- to 1.6-fold. However, NaOH pretreatment had a
      negative net benefit (i.e., revenue from increased energy production minus
      chemical cost). Pretreatment with 7-20% Ca(OH)2 not only improved glucose yield
      and methane yield by up to 2.3-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively, but also obtained
      a net benefit of $1.1-5.8/tonne dry biomass. Thus, Ca(OH)2 pretreatment was shown
      to be more feasible than NaOH pretreatment for biogas production from giant reed.

PMID- 28867430
TI  - Thoughts About Journals, Altruism, Impact Factors, Marijuana, and the Physician
      Labeling Rule.

PMID- 28867431
TI  - Race and postoperative complications following urologic cancer surgery: An ACS
      NSQIP analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Racial disparities in complication rates have been demonstrated for a
      variety of surgical procedures. We hypothesized that African American (AA)
      patients experience higher postoperative complication rates than whites following
      urologic oncology procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients in American College
      of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program who underwent radical
      prostatectomy (RP), radical or partial nephrectomy (RN/PN), and radical
      cystectomy (RC) between 2005 and 2013 were included. Complications were grouped
      as minor (Clavien I-II), major (Clavien III-IV), or death (Clavien V). A 30-day
      complication rates and disparities in preoperative comorbidity burden were
      compared by race. After adjustment for comorbidity burden, multivariable logistic
      regression was performed to test the association between race and risk of
      complication. RESULTS: Of 38,642 patients included in the analysis, 90% were
      white and 10% were AA. In unadjusted analysis, there were no significant
      differences in complication rates between AA and white patients for any Clavien
      grade in the procedures queried (RP: P = 0.07; RN/PN: P = 0.70; RC: P = 0.12).
      After controlling for a higher comorbidity burden among AA patients, AA race was
      again not independently associated with 30-day postoperative complications for RP
      (odds ratio [OR] = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.92-1.29), RN/PN (OR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.84
      1.13), or RC (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 0.84-1.43). CONCLUSION: Despite a higher
      comorbidity burden, AA patients in American College of Surgeons National Surgical
      Quality Improvement Program are not at increased risk of 30-day postoperative
      complications following major urologic cancer surgery. These findings suggest
      that comorbidity burden, as opposed to race, is most strongly associated with the
      risk of postoperative complications. To minimize perioperative risk, clinicians
      should strive to preoperatively optimize medical comorbidities in all patients
      undergoing urologic cancer surgery.

PMID- 28867432
TI  - Use of administrative data for comparative effectiveness research in the
      treatment of non-prostate genitourinary malignancies.
AB  - Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is imperative for objective and balanced
      assessment of treatment outcomes. CER that uses administrative databases (AD-CER)
      affords unique opportunities for large scale data analyses that potentially
      transcend limitations of small institutional datasets. Prostate cancer has
      received much attention from the AD-CER research community, whereas non-prostate
      genitourinary malignancies are less well-studied. The objective of this article
      is to review the currently available AD-CER that has been published in the non
      prostate genitourinary malignancies space.

PMID- 28867434
TI  - Avery D. Weisman, M.D.

PMID- 28867433
TI  - Epidemiology of Back Pain in Young and Middle-Aged Adults: A Longitudinal
      Population Cohort Survey From Age 27-50 Years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Back pain is extremely common and a huge burden for both individuals
      and health care services. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to determine the prevalence and
      incidence of lumbar and cervical back pain over 23 years and to quantify
      associations with concomitant disorders. METHODS: Data on lumbar and cervical
      back pain, and mental disorders from the Zurich study, collected between 1986
      (age men: 27/women: 28 years) and 2008 (age 49/50) were analyzed. Epidemiological
      parameters were representative rates for the general population. Associations
      were quantified by odds ratios (ORs). RESULTS: Of 499 subjects, 68.9% ever
      experienced lumbar pain and 60.7% ever experienced cervical back pain; the 23
      year prevalences were 66.9% and 54.9% and the 23-year incidences 52.3% and 48.9%
      for lumbar and cervical back pain, respectively. Annual prevalences varied
      between 28.4% and 47.2% for lumbar and 18.3% and 54.7% for cervical back pain;
      the corresponding annual incidences varied by 5.8-13.3% (lumbar) and 7.8-12.6%
      (cervical). Lumbar back pain was significantly associated with cardiovascular
      disease (OR = 4.58), obesity (OR = 3.99), asthma spectrum (OR = 5.76),
      tranquillizer dependence (OR = 5.84), and other comorbidities (ORs = 1.47-3.27).
      Significant associations with cervical back pain were observed for specific
      phobia (OR = 5.10), panic attacks (OR = 4.79), and other comorbidities (ORs =
      1.61-2.62). CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the refinement of
      epidemiological data on lumbar and cervical back pain. Some associations with
      treatable disorders were high, which may offer hope for the indirect management
      of lumbar and cervical back pain.

PMID- 28867435
TI  - Inhaled corticosteroids and pneumonia risk - Revised knowledge.

PMID- 28867436
TI  - Effects of diosmetin on nine cytochrome P450 isoforms, UGTs and three drug
      transporters in vitro.
AB  - Diosmetin (3', 5, 7-trihydroxy-4'-methoxyflavone), a natural flavonoid from
      traditional Chinese herbs, has been used in various medicinal products because of
      its anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, estrogenic and anti-inflammatory
      activity. However, flavonoids could affect the metabolic enzymes and cause drug
      drug interactions (DDI), reducing the efficacy of co-administered drugs and
      potentially resulting in serious adverse reactions. To evaluate its potential to
      interact with co-administered drugs, the IC50 value of phase I cytochrome P450
      enzymes (CYPs), phase II UDP-glucuronyltransferases (UGTs) and hepatic uptake
      transporters (organic cation transporters (OCTs), organic anion transporter
      polypeptides (OATPs) and Na+-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptides (NTCPs))
      were examined in vitro by LC-MS/MS. Diosmetin showed strong inhibition of CYP1A2
      in a concentration-dependent manner. The intensity of the inhibitory effect was
      followed by CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19 and CYP2E1. For CYP2A6, CYP2B6, CYP2D6 and
      CYP3A4, diosmetin was found to have no significant inhibitory effects, and the
      induction effect on CYPs was not significant. For UGTs, diosmetin had a minimal
      inhibitory effect. In addition, the inhibitory effects of diosmetin on OATP and
      OCT1 were weak, and it had little effect on NTCP. This finding indicated that
      drug-drug interactions induced by diosmetin may occur through co-administration
      of drugs metabolized by CYP1A2.

PMID- 28867437
TI  - Quinacrine induces the apoptosis of human leukemia U937 cells through FOXP3/miR
      183/beta-TrCP/SP1 axis-mediated BAX upregulation.
AB  - Quinacrine, which is clinically used as an antimalarial drug, has anti-cancer
      activity. However, mechanism underlying its cytotoxic effect remains to be
      completely elucidated. In the present study, we investigated the cytotoxic effect
      of quinacrine on human leukemia U937 cells. Quinacrine-induced apoptosis of U937
      cells was accompanied with ROS generation, mitochondrial depolarization, and BAX
      upregulation. Quinacrine-treated U937 cells showed ROS-mediated p38 MAPK
      activation and ERK inactivation, which in turn upregulated FOXP3 transcription.
      FOXP3-mediated miR-183 expression decreased beta-TrCP mRNA stability and
      suppressed beta-TrCP-mediated SP1 degradation, thus increasing SP1 expression in
      U937 cells. Upregulated SP1 expression further increased BAX expression. BAX
      knock-down attenuated quinacrine-induced mitochondrial depolarization and
      increased the viability of quinacrine-treated cells. Together, our data indicate
      that quinacrine-induced apoptosis of U937 cells is mediated by mitochondrial
      alterations triggered by FOXP3/miR-183/beta-TrCP/SP1 axis-mediated BAX
      upregulation.

PMID- 28867438
TI  - Neuromuscular paralysis by the basic phospholipase A2 subunit of crotoxin from
      Crotalus durissus terrificus snake venom needs its acid chaperone to concurrently
      inhibit acetylcholine release and produce muscle blockage.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Crotoxin (CTX), a heterodimeric phospholipase A2 (PLA2)
      neurotoxin from Crotalus durissus terrificus snake venom, promotes irreversible
      blockade of neuromuscular transmission. Indirect electrophysiological evidence
      suggests that CTX exerts a primary inhibitory action on transmitter exocytosis,
      yet contribution of a postsynaptic action of the toxin resulting from nicotinic
      receptor desensitization cannot be excluded. Here, we examined the blocking
      effect of CTX on nerve-evoked transmitter release measured directly using
      radioisotope neurochemistry and video microscopy with the FM4-64 fluorescent dye.
      EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Experiments were conducted using mice phrenic-diaphragm
      preparations. Real-time fluorescence video microscopy and liquid scintillation
      spectrometry techniques were used to detect transmitter exocytosis and nerve
      evoked [3H]-acetylcholine ([3H]ACh) release, respectively. Nerve-evoked
      myographic recordings were also carried out for comparison purposes. KEY RESULTS:
      Both CTX (5MUg/mL) and its basic PLA2 subunit (CB, 20MUg/mL) had biphasic effects
      on nerve-evoked transmitter exocytosis characterized by a transient initial
      facilitation followed by a sustained decay. CTX and CB reduced nerve-evoked
      [3H]ACh release by 60% and 69%, respectively, but only the heterodimer, CTX,
      decreased the amplitude of nerve-evoked muscle twitches. CONCLUSION AND
      IMPLICATIONS: Data show that CTX exerts a presynaptic inhibitory action on ACh
      release that is highly dependent on its intrinsic PLA2 activity. Given the high
      safety margin of the neuromuscular transmission, one may argue that the
      presynaptic block caused by the toxin is not enough to produce muscle paralysis
      unless a concurrent postsynaptic inhibitory action is also exerted by the CTX
      heterodimer.

PMID- 28867439
TI  - Mixed-methods investigation of women's experiences with second-trimester abortion
      care in the Midwest and Northeast United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE(S): We studied women's experiences seeking and receiving second
      trimester abortion care in two geographically and legislatively different
      settings to inform ways to improve abortion care access and services. STUDY
      DESIGN: We conducted in-depth interviews with women who obtained second-trimester
      abortion care. Themes from the interviews were then used to inform a self
      administered survey, which was completed by 108 women who received second
      trimester abortion care in the Northeast and Midwest. We calculated descriptive
      statistics and used chi-squared and t-tests to compare responses. RESULTS: We
      interviewed eight women and surveyed 108 women. Most interviewees and 65.2% of
      survey respondents reported difficulties accessing care. Although most interview
      and survey respondents had insurance, a slight majority reported difficulty
      funding care. All interviewees and 57.9% of survey respondents reported positive
      experiences with providers, with many interviewees and 62.0% of survey
      respondents saying their abortion care was better than their usual health care.
      Most interviewees and 75.8% of survey respondents reported pain as low to
      moderate, and the majority of participants reported it was the same or less than
      expected. Knowledge about abortion restrictions was low. Most interviewees and
      68.4% survey respondents disagreed with restrictions on insurance coverage of
      abortion. Common recommendations to improve experiences were to ensure travel and
      financial support and to decrease wait times at clinics. There were few regional
      differences among outcomes. CONCLUSION(S): Women seeking second-trimester
      abortion in these locations reported positive abortion experiences. However, they
      had to overcome significant obstacles to obtain care. IMPLICATIONS: This is the
      first study to systematically research women's second-trimester care experiences
      in two different regions of the United States. Regardless of location, women
      experienced barriers due to policies that impose gestational age restrictions,
      limit provider availability (consequently increasing wait times), and increase
      costs. Policy change to reduce these barriers is critical to improve access to
      and experiences with second trimester abortion care.

PMID- 28867440
TI  - Etonogestrel implant migration to the vasculature, chest wall, and distant body
      sites: cases from a pharmacovigilance database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical outcomes of etonogestrel implant patients with
      migration to the vasculature, chest wall and other distant body sites
      spontaneously reported to the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event
      Reporting System (FAERS) database. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a standardized
      Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) query in the FAERS database
      (through November 15, 2015), with reports coded with one or more MedDRA preferred
      terms that indicate complications with device placement or migration of the
      device from the original site of insertion to the vasculature, chest wall and
      other distant body sites. We excluded any cases previously described in the
      medical literature. RESULTS: We identified 38 cases of pronounced etonogestrel
      implant migration. Migration locations included the lung/pulmonary artery (n=9),
      chest wall (n=1), vasculature at locations other than the lung/pulmonary artery
      (n=14) and extravascular migrations (n=14) to other body sites (e.g., the axilla
      and clavicle/neck line/shoulder). The majority of cases were asymptomatic and
      detected when the patient desired implant removal; however, seven cases reported
      symptoms such as pain, discomfort and dyspnea in association with implant
      migration. Three cases also describe pulmonary fibrosis and skin reactions as a
      result of implant migration to the vasculature, chest wall and other distant body
      sites. Sixteen cases reported surgical removal in an operating room setting.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our FAERS case series demonstrates etonogestrel implant migration to
      the vasculature, chest wall and other body sites distant from the site of
      original insertion. IMPLICATIONS STATEMENT: As noted by the sponsor in current
      prescribing information, a key determinant in the risk for etonogestrel
      contraceptive implant migration appears to be improper insertion technique.
      Although migration of etonogestrel implants to the vasculature is rare, awareness
      of migration and education on proper insertion technique may reduce the risk.

PMID- 28867441
TI  - Tweeting PP: an analysis of the 2015-2016 Planned Parenthood controversy on
      Twitter.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We analyzed Twitter tweets and Twitter-provided user data to give
      geographical, temporal and content insight into the use of social media in the
      Planned Parenthood video controversy. METHODOLOGY: We randomly sampled the full
      Twitter repository (also known as the Firehose) (n=30,000) for tweets containing
      the phrase "planned parenthood" as well as group-defining hashtags "#defundpp"
      and "#standwithpp." We used demographic content provided by the user and word
      analysis to generate charts, maps and timeline visualizations. Chi-square and t
      tests were used to compare differences in content, statistical references and
      dissemination strategies. RESULTS: From July 14, 2015, to January 30, 2016,
      1,364,131 and 795,791 tweets contained "#defundpp" and "#standwithpp,"
      respectively. Geographically, #defundpp and #standwithpp were disproportionally
      distributed to the US South and West, respectively. Word analysis found that
      early tweets predominantly used "sensational" words and that the proportion of
      "political" and "call to action" words increased over time. Scatterplots revealed
      that #standwithpp tweets were clustered and episodic compared to #defundpp.
      #standwithpp users were more likely to be female [odds ratio (OR) 2.2, confidence
      interval (CI) 2.0-2.4] and have fewer followers (median 544 vs. 1578, p<.0001).
      #standwithpp and #defundpp did not differ significantly in their usage of data in
      tweets. #defundpp users were more likely to link to websites (OR 1.8, CI 1.7-1.9)
      and to other online dialogs (mean 3.3 vs. 2.0 p<.0001). CONCLUSION: Social media
      analysis can be used to characterize and understand the content, tempo and
      location of abortion-related messages in today's public spheres. Further research
      may inform proabortion efforts in terms of how information can be more
      effectively conveyed to the public. IMPLICATIONS: This study has implications for
      how the medical community interfaces with the public with regards to abortion. It
      highlights how social media are actively exploited instruments for information
      and message dissemination. Researchers, providers and advocates should be
      monitoring social media and addressing the public through these modern channels.

PMID- 28867442
TI  - Does information about abortion safety affect Texas voters' opinions about
      restrictive laws? A randomized study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective was to assess whether information about abortion safety
      and awareness of abortion laws affect voters' opinions about medically
      unnecessary abortion regulations. STUDY DESIGN: Between May and June 2016, we
      randomized 1200 Texas voters to receive or not receive information describing the
      safety of office-based abortion care during an online survey about abortion laws
      using simple random assignment. We compared the association between receiving
      safety information and awareness of recent restrictions and beliefs that
      ambulatory surgical center (ASC) requirements for abortion facilities and
      hospital admitting privileges requirements for physicians would make abortion
      safer. We used Poisson regression, adjusting for political affiliation and views
      on abortion. RESULTS: Of 1200 surveyed participants, 1183 had complete data for
      analysis: 612 in the information group and 571 in the comparison group. Overall,
      259 (46%) in the information group and 298 (56%) in the comparison group believed
      that the ASC requirement would improve abortion safety (p=.008); 230 (41%) in the
      information group and 285 (54%) in the comparison group believed that admitting
      privileges would make abortion safer (p<.001). After multivariable adjustment,
      the information group was less likely to report that the ASC [prevalence ratio
      (PR): 0.82; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72-0.94] and admitting privileges
      requirements (PR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.65-0.88) would improve safety. Participants who
      identified as conservative Republicans were more likely to report that the ASC
      (82%) and admitting privileges requirements (83%) would make abortion safer if
      they had heard of the provisions than if they were unaware of them (ASC: 52%;
      admitting privileges: 47%; all p<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Informational statements
      reduced perceptions that restrictive laws make abortion safer. Voters' prior
      awareness of the requirements also was associated with their beliefs.
      IMPLICATIONS: Informational messages can shift scientifically unfounded views
      about abortion safety and could reduce support for restrictive laws. Because
      prior awareness of abortion laws does not ensure accurate knowledge about their
      effects on safety, it is important to reach a broad audience through early
      dissemination of information about new regulations.

PMID- 28867443
TI  - Association of Hormonal Contraception with depression in the postpartum period.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Studies have demonstrated an association between hormonal
      contraception use with subsequent depression and antidepressant use. This
      association has not been assessed among postpartum women. STUDY DESIGN: This
      study is a secondary analysis of insurance records from 75,528 postpartum women
      enrolled in the US military medical system, who delivered between October 2012
      and September 2014. Our analyses excluded women who used antidepressants or had a
      diagnosis of depression in the 24months prior to delivery. We assessed the
      relationship of hormonal contraception use with subsequent antidepressant use or
      diagnosis with depression in the first 12months postpartum using Cox proportional
      hazards regression, with a time dependent covariate measuring exposure to
      hormonal contraception. RESULTS: Antidepressants were prescribed to 7.8% of women
      and 5.0% were diagnosed with depression. In multivariable analysis adjusting for
      demographics, both antidepressant use and diagnosis with depression were
      associated with: younger age, lower socioeconomic status, and a history of
      military service. Compared to women with no hormonal contraceptive use, use of
      etonogestrel containing contraception was associated with a higher risk of
      antidepressant use (Implant: adjHR:1.22(95%CI:1.06-1.41), p<0.001; Ring:1.45(1.16
      1.80), p=0.001). Use of norethindrone-only pills was associated with a lower risk
      of antidepressant use (0.58(0.52-0.64), p<0.001) and depression diagnosis
      (0.56(0.49-0.64), p<0.001). Use of a levonorgestrel intrauterine system was
      associated with a lower risk of depression diagnoses (0.65(0.52-0.82), p<0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The risk of major depression diagnosis and antidepressant use in the
      postpartum period varies with the type of hormonal contraception used. Further
      research is required to describe the mechanisms of these relationships.

PMID- 28867444
TI  - Use of Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Ultrasonography for Identifying
      Nonpalpable Axillae Metastases in Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The metastasis of axillary lymph node (ALNs) is a critical step in
      the initial cancer staging of newly diagnosed breast cancer (BC) patients.
      Various imaging modalities can enhance the sensitivity of clinical examination in
      assessing the ALN status. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We enrolled 135 patients with BC,
      confirmed via histopathology, including 4 bilateral BC cases. A total of 139
      ipsilateral ALNs adjacent to the breast lesion were examined via physical
      examination, ultrasonography (US), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); of
      these, 100 were nonpalpable ALNs, as determined by experienced breast surgeons
      and physicians. The relative size parameters on MRI and US images were recorded.
      Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted, and the area
      under the ROC curve (AUC) was compared. RESULTS: Of 139 ALNs, 67 (48%) were
      malignant and 72 (52%) were benign on pathological examination. In all of the
      ALNs, the US short diameter appeared to be the most discriminative quantitative
      measurement for detecting positive findings (AUC, 0.854). In nonpalpable ALNs as
      well, the US short diameter exhibited the greatest discriminability (AUC, 0.746).
      However, the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional parameters on MRI did not exhibit
      any significant differences between the enrolled and nonpalpable ALNs (P > .05).
      CONCLUSION: The shortest diameter on US exhibited better discriminative ability
      than MRI for predicting positive ALNs in nonpalpable axillae. Moreover, the 2
      dimensional and 3-dimensional parameters on MRI did not differ in terms of
      discriminability.

PMID- 28867445
TI  - Changing Natural History of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Metastatic to the Brain
      in the Era of New Targeted Therapies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given the wide adoption of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2
      (HER2)-targeted therapies for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, we studied
      the natural history of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer brain metastases
      (BCBM) over time. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with HER2-positive BCBM
      identified from a prospectively maintained database at the University of North
      Carolina were divided into 3 cohorts by year of BCBM diagnosis. Cohorts were
      selected by year of HER2-targeted therapy US Food and Drug Administration
      approval. Overall survival (OS), time to first metastasis, time to BCBM, and BCBM
      survival were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Associations between OS after
      BCBM and clinical variables were assessed by Cox proportional hazards regression
      models. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-three patients were identified. Median age
      was 51 years, and 58% were white and 31% African American. OS from initial breast
      cancer diagnosis improved over time: 3.6 years (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.8
      6.1) in the 1998-2007 cohort, 6.6 years (95% CI, 4.5-8.6) in the 2008-2012
      cohort, and 7.6 years (95% CI, 4.4-9.6) in the 2013-2015 cohort (P = .05). While
      time from initial diagnosis to first metastasis did not differ (P = .12), time to
      BCBM increased over time (2.6 years [95% CI, 1.3-3.5] for 1998-2007; 2.6 years
      [95% CI, 2.1-4.3] for 2008-2012, and 3.3 years [95% CI, 2.2-6] for 2013-2015; P =
      .05). Although OS from BCBM did not significantly differ by cohort, patients who
      received HER2-targeted therapy after BCBM had a prolonged OS (2.1 years [95% CI,
      1.6-2.6] vs. 0.65 years [95% CI, 0.4-1.3]; P = .001). CONCLUSION: OS from initial
      breast cancer diagnosis significantly improved over time for patients with HER2
      positive breast cancer who develop BCBM, now exceeding 7 years; survival from
      BCBM diagnosis may now exceed 2 years.

PMID- 28867447
TI  - Quality Improvement Efforts in Radical Cystectomy: From Prehab to Rehab.

PMID- 28867446
TI  - European Association of Urology Guidelines on Upper Urinary Tract Urothelial
      Carcinoma: 2017 Update.
AB  - CONTEXT: The European Association of Urology (EAU) Guidelines Panel on Upper
      Urinary Tract Urothelial Carcinoma (UTUC) has prepared updated guidelines to aid
      clinicians in the current evidence-based management of UTUC and to incorporate
      recommendations into clinical practice. OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of the
      EAU guidelines on UTUC as an aid to clinicians. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The
      recommendations provided in the current guidelines are based on a thorough review
      of available UTUC guidelines and articles identified following a systematic
      search of Medline. Data on urothelial malignancies and UTUC were searched using
      the following keywords: urinary tract cancer; urothelial carcinomas; upper
      urinary tract, carcinoma; renal pelvis; ureter; bladder cancer; chemotherapy;
      ureteroscopy; nephroureterectomy; adjuvant treatment; instillation; recurrence;
      risk factors; and survival. References were weighted by a panel of experts.
      EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Owing to the rarity of UTUC, there are insufficient data to
      provide strong recommendations (ie, grade A). However, the results of recent
      multicentre studies are now available, and there is a growing number of
      retrospective articles in UTUC. The 2017 tumour, node, metastasis (TNM)
      classification is recommended. Recommendations are given for diagnosis and risk
      stratification, as well as for radical and conservative treatment; prognostic
      factors are also discussed. A single postoperative dose of intravesical mitomycin
      after radical nephroureterectomy reduces the risk of bladder tumour recurrence.
      Kidney-sparing management should be offered as a primary treatment option to
      patients with low-risk tumours and two functional kidneys. CONCLUSIONS: These
      guidelines contain information on the management of individual patients according
      to a current standardised approach. Urologists should take into account the
      specific clinical characteristics of each patient when determining the optimal
      treatment regimen, based on the proposed risk stratification of these tumours.
      PATIENT SUMMARY: Urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract is rare, but
      because 60% of these tumours are invasive at diagnosis; appropriate diagnosis and
      management is most important. We present recommendations based on current
      evidence for optimal management.

PMID- 28867448
TI  - Moisture-induced phase separation and recrystallization in amorphous solid
      dispersions.
AB  - Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) are often dissolved in polymeric
      matrices to control the gastrointestinal dissolution and to stabilize the
      amorphous state of the API. During the pharmaceutical development of new
      formulations, stability studies via storage at certain temperature and relative
      humidity (RH) have to be carried out to verify the long-term thermodynamic
      stability of these formulations against unwanted recrystallization and moisture
      induced amorphous-amorphous phase separation (MIAPS). This study focuses on
      predicting the MIAPS of API/polymer formulations at elevated RH. In a first step,
      the phase behavior of water-free formulations of ibuprofen (IBU) and felodipine
      (FEL) combined with the polymers poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), poly(vinyl
      acetate) (PVAC) and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate) (PVPVA64) was
      determined experimentally by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The phase
      behavior of these water-free formulations was modeled using the Perturbed-Chain
      Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT). Based on this, the API solubility
      and MIAPS in the above-mentioned formulations at humid conditions was predicted
      in perfect agreement with the results of two-year lasting stability studies at 25
      degrees C/0% RH and 40 degrees C/75% RH. MIAPS was predicted and also
      experimentally found for the FEL/PVP, FEL/PVPVA64 and IBU/PVP formulations,
      whereas MIAPS was neither predicted nor measured for the IBU/PVPVA64 system and
      PVAC-containing formulations. It was thus shown that the results of time
      consuming long-term stability tests can be correctly predicted via thermodynamic
      modeling with PC-SAFT.

PMID- 28867449
TI  - Advances in intravesical drug delivery systems to treat bladder cancer.
AB  - Chemotherapeutic agents administered intravesically to treat bladder cancer have
      limited efficacy due to periodic dilution and wash-out during urine formation and
      elimination. This review describes the pathophysiology, prevalence and staging of
      bladder cancer, and discusses several formulation strategies used to improve drug
      residence within the bladder. These include the use of amphiphilic copolymers,
      mucoadhesive formulations, hydrogels, floating systems, and liposomes. Various in
      vitro and in vivo models recently employed for intravesical drug delivery studies
      are discussed. Some of the challenges that have prevented the clinical use of
      some promising formulations are identified.

PMID- 28867450
TI  - Modeling of the burst release from PLGA micro- and nanoparticles as function of
      physicochemical parameters and formulation characteristics.
AB  - A substantial drug release from poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) micro- and
      nanoparticles can occur in the first hours of immersion, which is referred to as
      burst release. A strong burst release (when not intentional) is to be avoided as
      it decreases the efficacy of the treatment and could be dangerous to the host. In
      this work we analyze the total amount of drug released during burst and
      respective kinetics in relation to formulations characteristics, experimental
      conditions and drug molecular properties in 154 drug release experiments with 41
      different drugs by partial least squares (PLS) and decision tree regression. The
      model created enables to quantify to which degree the physicochemical parameters
      control the burst release from PLGA particles. Our analysis shows that the amount
      of drug released during burst is mostly influenced by the formulation
      characteristics and the synthesis parameters, whereas the drug release kinetics
      is also influenced by the molecular properties of the drug. The variables that
      significantly influence the amount and kinetics of the burst release are
      discussed in detail and compared with findings from other researchers. The final
      regression models are shown to predict the release profile of a new drug, opening
      the possibility to be applied to systematically manipulate the burst release by
      means of designing an optimized drug delivery system.

PMID- 28867451
TI  - Postprandial triglyceride responses and endothelial function in prediabetic first
      degree relatives of patients with diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Only a few studies have reported on postprandial lipid responses and
      endothelial function in prediabetic subjects. None of the study has compared role
      of familial predisposition in determining postprandial endothelial dysfunction
      and postprandial hypertriglyceridemia in subjects with prediabetes. OBJECTIVE:
      The objective was to study the postprandial triglyceride (PPTG) responses and
      endothelial function in prediabetic first-degree relatives of patients with
      diabetes. METHODS: Thirty-nine subjects were recruited on the basis of oral
      glucose tolerance test into 3 groups: group 1, prediabetic subjects who had a
      first-degree relative with diabetes; group 2, prediabetic subjects without family
      history of diabetes; and group 3, normal glucose tolerance subjects without
      family history of diabetes. Oral fat challenge test was performed in all study
      subjects and PPTG responses were measured up to 8 hours. Postprandial endothelial
      function after 4 hours of fat challenge was estimated by flow-mediated dilation.
      RESULTS: Postprandial endothelial dysfunction was greatest in group 1 and
      significantly higher in group 1 compared with group 2 (P < .001) and group 2
      compared with group 3 (P < .001). PPTG responses (TG-AUC, TG-peak, TG-6 hour, and
      TG-8 hour) were significantly higher in group 1 compared with groups 2 and 3.
      However, they were similar between groups 2 and 3. Endothelial function showed
      significant negative correlation with TG-6 hour and TG-8 hour. CONCLUSION:
      Prediabetic subjects respond to fat challenge with a greater degree of TG
      response and endothelial dysfunction compared with normal glucose tolerance
      subjects especially if they have a first-degree relative with diabetes. This may
      contribute to enhanced cardiovascular risk reported in prediabetic individuals.

PMID- 28867452
TI  - The role of osteoprotegerin in the crosstalk between vessels and bone: Its
      potential utility as a marker of cardiometabolic diseases.
AB  - Among the numerous molecules that are being studied for their potential utility
      as biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases, much interest has been shown in the
      superfamily of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptors. Members of this family
      include osteoprotegerin (OPG) and its ligands, which are receptor activators of
      nuclear factor kappaB ligand (RANKL) and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand
      (TRAIL). These signals may be expressed and regulated, and their functions could
      be involved in several physiological and pathological processes. The relationship
      between bone regulatory proteins and vascular biology has attracted attention,
      and it has been suggested that OPG may mediate vascular calcification and
      cardiometabolic diseases. OPG is steadily released from vascular endothelial
      cells in response to inflammatory stimuli, suggesting that it plays a modulatory
      role in vascular injury, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. Vascular
      calcification, a hallmark of atherosclerosis, is similar to bone remodeling. It
      is an actively regulated mechanism that includes both inductive and inhibitory
      processes. There is a temporal link between the development of osteoporosis and
      vascular calcification, which is particularly marked in post-menopausal women and
      the elderly. The precise nature of the link between bone metabolism, vascular
      calcification and cardiovascular disease is largely unknown but increasing
      evidence suggests that the triad of RANK/RANKL/OPG may be important in the
      initiation of various diseases. An increased release of OPG is associated with
      increased cardiovascular risk and it is suggested that increased OPG levels
      resulting from vascular damage correspond to a protective mechanism. Circulating
      OPG levels could be used as independent biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in
      patients with acute or chronic cardiometabolic disease and thus an improved
      prognosis.

PMID- 28867453
TI  - The effect of indocyanine green loaded on a novel nano-graphene oxide for high
      performance of photodynamic therapy against Enterococcus faecalis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently developed photodynamic therapy (PDT) has gained attention
      for achieving effective root canal disinfection. Using an optimized nontoxic
      photosensitizer (PS), such as indocyanine green (ICG), is an imperative part of
      this technique. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to improve ICG
      photodynamic properties through incorporation of ICG into nano-graphene oxide
      (NGO) in order to produce NGO-ICG as a new PS and also to assess the
      antimicrobial effects of NGO-ICG against Enterococcus faecalis after photodynamic
      therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: NGO-ICG was synthesized based on oxidation of
      graphite flakes and direct loading of ICG onto NGO. NGO-ICG formation was
      confirmed using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning
      Electron Microscopy (SEM), and UV-vis spectrometry. The antimicrobial and anti
      biofilm potential of NGO-ICG-PDT against E. faecalis was assessed via colony
      forming unit and crystal violet assays, respectively. RESULTS: FT-IR, SEM and UV
      vis spectrometry confirmed successful synthesis of NGO-ICG containing 200MUg/mL
      of ICG. NGO-ICG-PDT at an energy density of 31.2J/cm2 showed a significant
      reduction (2.81 log) in the count of E. faecalis (P<0.05). NGO-ICG-PDT
      significantly reduced the biofilm formation ability of E. faecalis up to 99.4%
      (P<0.05). The overall antimicrobial and anti-biofilm potential of NGO-ICG-PDT was
      higher than PDT based on ICG (1000MUg/mL) (47% and 21%, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: Because NGO-ICG-PDT showed a significant reduction in the number and
      biofilm formation ability of E. faecalis at low ICG concentrations (200MUg/mL),
      it could be a new approach to adjuvant treatment of endodontic infections.

PMID- 28867454
TI  - Cetuximab with radiotherapy as an alternative treatment for advanced squamous
      cell carcinoma of the temporal bone.
AB  - The prognosis of advanced temporal bone cancer is poor, because complete surgical
      resection is difficult to achieve. Chemoradiotherapy is one of the available
      curative treatment options; however, its systemic effects on the patient restrict
      the use of this treatment. A 69-year-old female (who needed peritoneal dialysis)
      presented at our clinic with T4 left external auditory canal cancer and was
      treated with cetuximab plus radiotherapy (RT). The primary lesion showed complete
      response. The patient is currently alive with no evidence of disease two years
      after completion of the treatment and does not show any late toxicity. This is
      the first advanced temporal bone cancer patient treated with RT plus cetuximab.
      Cetuximab plus RT might be a treatment alternative for patients with advanced
      temporal bone cancer.

PMID- 28867455
TI  - Role of adjuvant radiotherapy in FIGO stage IIIC endometrial carcinoma: Treatment
      outcomes and prognostic factors in 52 irradiated patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To retrospectively review the postoperative radiotherapy treatment
      outcomes and the prognostic factors for the International Federation of
      Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IIIC endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: Fifty
      two patients who were newly diagnosed and previously untreated FIGO stage IIIC
      endometrial carcinoma over a 33-year period (September 1983 to April 2015) were
      retrospectively reviewed. They had received radical surgery followed by adjuvant
      radiotherapy with or without adjuvant chemotherapy. Those excluded patients had
      initial distant metastasis disease, palliative intent or incomplete adjuvant
      radiotherapy. Different subgroups of the stage III patients were compared
      statistically in terms of their rates of overall survival (OS), loco-regional
      recurrence-free survival (LRRFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS).
      RESULTS: The median follow up duration was 51.5 months (range, 5-298). The loco
      regional recurrence was found in 4 patients and distant metastasis in 15
      patients. Comparing stage IIIC1 vs. IIIC2 patients, their 5-year OS were 69.9%
      vs. 55% (p = 0.0954), LRRFS 90.3% vs. 94.4% (p = 0.6151), and DMFS 82.5% vs.
      53.3% (p = 0.0080). The FIGO stage was a significant factor for DMFS (hazard
      ratio [HR], 5.440, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.379-21.451, p = 0.0155),
      but only marginal for OS (HR, 2.137, 95% CI 0.930-4.913, p = 0.0738). The ECOG
      performance status was marginal significant for DMFS (HR, 4.777, 95% CI 0.976
      23.378, p = 0.0536). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant radiotherapy decreased loco-regional
      recurrence and had good local control in FIGO stage IIIC endometrial carcinoma.
      The stage IIIC2 patients showed a greater tendency of distant metastases and
      poorer overall survival rate when compared to patients of stage IIIC1.

PMID- 28867456
TI  - Antimicrobial activity of bitespiramycin, a new genetically engineered macrolide.
AB  - The antimicrobial activity of bitespiramycin (BT) against Chlamydia trachomatis
      (Ct), Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cp), Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu), and Mycoplasma
      pneumoniae (Mp), was compared with those of azithromycin (AZM) and
      acetylspiramycin (AT-SP) in vitro. Furthermore, the anti-Mp activities of BT and
      AZM were evaluated in a hamster model. The activities of BT in vitro were similar
      to those of AZM but were more effective than those of AT-SP. BT effectively
      inhibited Mp infection at a dose of 200mg/kg in a hamster model.

PMID- 28867457
TI  - Natural protective immunity against grass pollen allergy is maintained by a
      diverse spectrum of response types.

PMID- 28867459
TI  - Reimbursement of radiotherapy in Germany.
AB  - Reimbursement of radiotherapy in Germany is mainly based on a certain fixed fee
      for treatment planning and patient set up in addition to payment per fraction.
      This applies to outpatient care for patients with public health insurance or
      private health insurance. Payment per fraction has a considerable influence on
      reimbursement of inpatients as well. The advantage of payment per fraction is the
      simplicity and transparency. The disadvantage is an inadequate reimbursement for
      new treatment modalities like hypofractionation or stereotactic body
      radiotherapy.

PMID- 28867458
TI  - Allergen sensitization in a birth cohort at midchildhood: Focus on food component
      IgE and IgG4 responses.

PMID- 28867460
TI  - [Doses to organs at risk in conformational radiotherapy and stereotaxic
      irradiation: The heart].
AB  - Radiation therapy of breast cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, lung cancer and others
      thoracic irradiations induce an ionizing radiation dose to the heart. Irradiation
      of the heart, associated with patient cardiovascular risk and cancer treatment
      induced cardiotoxicity, increase cardiovascular mortality. The long survival
      after breast or Hodgkin lymphoma irradiation requires watching carefully late
      treatment toxicity. The over-risk of cardiac events is related to the dose
      received by the heart and the irradiated cardiac volume. The limitation of
      cardiac irradiation should be a priority in the planning of thoracic
      irradiations. Practices have to be modified, using modern techniques to approach
      of the primary objective of radiotherapy which is to optimize the dose to the
      target volume, sparing healthy tissues, in this case the heart. We have reviewed
      the literature on cardiac toxicity induced by conformational tridimensional
      radiation therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy or stereotactic body
      radiation therapy, in order to evaluate the possibilities to limit
      cardiotoxicity. Finally, we summarise the recommendations on dose constraints to
      the heart and coronary arteries.

PMID- 28867461
TI  - The Development of Practice Guidelines for a Palliative Care Multidisciplinary
      Case Conference.
AB  - CONTEXT: In Ontario, we identified that few hospitals have developed multi
      disciplinary case conferences or forums for discussion of patients with
      palliative care issues. OBJECTIVE: We describe the process of creating a province
      wide standards document for palliative care multidisciplinary case conferences
      (pMCCs). METHODS: A provincial survey and a multidisciplinary cancer conference
      symposium identified pMCCs as a priority. A literature search focusing on pMCCs
      and their implementation was completed as well as a current state assessment
      (survey and interviews) to understand challenges with existing pMCCs in Ontario.
      A working group was then assembled to draft a recommendation report that was
      finalized by an expert panel. RESULTS: A total of 22 articles were identified and
      10 were used by the working group to create a framework for the pMCC guideline.
      The current state assessment identified substantial variability in pMCC structure
      and function. The expert panel made recommendations about meeting format
      (multidisciplinary discussion encouraged), frequency (at least every two weeks),
      type of cases to present, attendees (palliative care, nursing, primary care,
      social work, and community nursing), provider roles and responsibilities, and
      institutional requirements (pMCC coordinator, meeting room and videoconference
      capability). All patients (not just those with cancer) with palliative care needs
      were to be discussed at the pMCC, and pMCCs should serve as a crucial link
      between the hospital and community. CONCLUSION: We have described the process of
      creating the first pMCC guideline. A key component of this guideline is that
      pMCCs should serve as a link between the hospital and community.

PMID- 28867462
TI  - Use of cone beam computed tomography to assess significant imaging findings
      related to mandibular third molar impaction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to identify risk factors for pathoses related
      to mandibular third molars observed in cone beam computed tomography. STUDY
      DESIGN: Cone beam computed tomography volumes of 410 mandibular third molars were
      assessed by 3 observers, according to the angulation and position of the third
      molar in relation to the second molar. In addition, pathoses (marginal bone loss,
      resorption of the second molar, increased follicular space and lingual bone
      perforation) were assessed. Logistic regression analyses were used to test
      whether the angulation and position of the third molar were risk factors for
      pathoses. RESULTS: On average, 41% of second molars had resorption;
      mesioangulated (odds ratio [OR] 11-107; P < .001) and horizontally positioned (OR
      13-120; P < .001) third molars located cervically at the second molar (OR 2-3; P
      < .027) significantly increased the risk. On average, 49% of second molars had
      marginal bone loss; mesioangulated (OR 16-85; P < .001) and horizontally
      positioned (OR 61-573; P < .001) third molars increased the risk. For the third
      molar, an increased follicular space was seen in 25% of cases; distal (OR 5-9; P
      < .001) and vertical positions (OR 5; P < .002) increased the risk. Lingual bone
      perforation was not related to a specific angulation. CONCLUSIONS: Specific
      angulations of the mandibular third molar are risk factors for marginal bone loss
      and resorption of the second molar.

PMID- 28867463
TI  - Oral lichen sclerosus-a review of clinical presentation, treatment, and clinical
      outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the disease involvement,
      treatment and response, and malignant potential of oral lichen sclerosus (LS).
      STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a review of the literature of 37 cases of oral LS. We
      looked specifically for the following data: patient demographic characteristics,
      disease involvement, treatment, response to treatment, duration of follow-up,
      symptoms, risk factors for oral malignancy, and malignant transformation.
      RESULTS: The most common area of oral involvement included the labial mucosa
      (67.6%). Of patients with oral LS, 38.5% reported symptoms, and 35.1% exhibited
      extraoral manifestations. Patients were less likely to receive treatment when
      asymptomatic (62.5%) than when symptomatic (80%). Topical steroids were more
      efficacious (66.7%) compared with other treatments. Risk factors for malignancy
      were found in 25% of patients. No patient had malignant transformation of oral
      lesions at follow-up (mean follow-up 22.1 months; median 12 months). CONCLUSIONS:
      More data and longer follow-up are required to determine the long-term clinical
      outcomes of oral LS.

PMID- 28867464
TI  - Is cone beam computed tomography accurate for postoperative evaluation of
      implants? An in vitro study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of cone beam
      computed tomography (CBCT) for evaluation of the bone-implant interface in
      comparison with periapical radiography. STUDY DESIGN: Titanium implants were
      inserted in 74 bovine rib blocks in intimate contact with bone walls and with a
      gap of 0.125 mm (simulating failure in the osseointegration process). Periapical
      radiographs were taken with conventional film, and CBCT scans were acquired with
      i-CAT (0.2 mm and 0.125 mm voxel) and Kodak (0.2 mm and 0.076 mm voxel) units.
      Three examiners evaluated the images using a 5-point scale. Diagnostic accuracy
      was analyzed through sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
      Intra- and interexaminer agreements were analyzed through Kendall's concordance
      test. RESULTS: Intra- and interexaminer agreements showed satisfactory results.
      The greatest accuracy was observed with conventional radiography (AUC = 0.963; CI
      95% = 0.891-0.993). I-CAT 0.125-mm images showed good accuracy (AUC = 0.885; CI
      95% = 0.790-0.947), with no significant difference compared with conventional
      radiography. Kodak images had high specificity and low sensitivity, presenting
      more false-negative results. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional radiography showed the
      highest accuracy for assessment of the bone-implant interface. However, CBCT (i
      CAT; 0.125-mm voxel), if available or if performed for preoperative assessment of
      another implant site, may provide similar accuracy.

PMID- 28867465
TI  - Effect of gum chewing on ameliorating ileus following colorectal surgery: A meta
      analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chewing gum, as an alternative to sham feeding, had
      been shown to hasten the recovery of gut function following abdominal surgery.
      However, conclusions remained contradictory. We sought to conduct an updated meta
      analysis to evaluate the efficacy of gum chewing in alleviating ileus following
      colorectal surgery. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library
      Databases through February 2017 to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
      evaluating the efficacy of the additional use of chewing gum following colorectal
      surgery. After screening for inclusion, data extraction, and quality assessment,
      meta-analysis was conducted by the Review Manager 5.3 software. The outcomes of
      interest were the time to first flatus, time to first bowel movement, length of
      hospital stay, and some clinically relevant parameters. We also performed
      subgroup analyses according to the type of surgical approaches or on trials that
      adopted enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol or sugared gum. RESULTS:
      A total of 18 RCTs, involving 1736 patients, were included. Compared with
      standardized postoperative care, Chewing gum resulted in a shorter passage to
      first flatus [WMD = -8.81, 95%CI: (-13.45, -4.17), P = 0.0002], earlier recovery
      of bowel movement [WMD = -16.43, 95%CI: (-22.68, -10.19), P < 0.00001], and a
      reduction in length of hospital stay [WMD = -0.89, 95%CI: (-1.72, -0.07), P =
      0.03]. Chewing gum was also associated with a lower risk of postoperative ileus
      [OR = 0.41, 95%CI: (0.23, 0.73), P = 0.003]. No evidence of significant
      advantages in overall postoperative complication, nausea, vomiting, bloating,
      readmission and reoperation towards the addition of chewing gum was observed.
      Subgroup analyses all favored gum chewing. However, the findings are hampered by
      the significant heterogeneity between trials. CONCLUSIONS: Based on current
      evidence, chewing gum offers an inexpensive, well-tolerated, safe and effective
      method to ameliorate ileus following colorectal surgery. However, tightly
      controlled, randomized and considerably larger multicenter trials are warranted
      to further validate our findings.

PMID- 28867466
TI  - Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the lung in a patient with nonspecific
      interstitial pneumonia.

PMID- 28867467
TI  - Systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of leflunomide and
      methotrexate in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy and side effects of methotrexate and
      leflunomide in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as the first disease
      modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD). METHODS: We performed a systematic review
      and meta-analysis of clinical studies that included patients who took
      methotrexate, leflunomide, placebo or another DMARD for RA treatment. A
      systematic review yielded 1971 articles from databases; once completely reviewed,
      73 trials that completed inclusion criteria were selected. In structured
      workshops for discussion and assessment of each article, 6 could be meta-analyzed
      for the primary and secondary outcomes: achievement of American College of
      Rheumatology (ACR) 20 and its core set components; and change of serum C-reactive
      protein (CRP) levels, Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-Di),
      liver enzyme aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase ratio, new
      gastrointestinal (GI) side effects and infections. RESULTS: A total of 1984
      patients were included: 986 took leflunomide and 998 methotrexate. The
      probability of achieving ACR 20 had an odds ratio (OR) of 0.88 (95% confidence
      interval [CI] 0.74, 1.06) with a trend toward favoring methotrexate; reduction of
      the swollen joint count was greater for methotrexate: mean difference=0.82 (95%CI
      0.24, 1.39); tender joint count, physician global assessment, HAQ-Di, and serum
      CRP levels revealed no significant difference between groups. Increased liver
      enzymes were more frequent in the leflunomide group, OR=0.38 (95%CI 0.27, 0.53),
      and new GI complaints were more common with methotrexate (OR=1.44; 95%CI 1.17,
      1.79). There was no difference in the incidence of non-severe infections.
      CONCLUSION: Leflunomide used as the first DMARD in RA seemed to be as efficacious
      as methotrexate; only the reduction of swollen joint count was more marked for
      methotrexate. Leflunomide was linked to a greater increase in liver enzymes, but
      there were fewer GI complaints.

PMID- 28867468
TI  - Lipidation of BmAtg8 is required for autophagic degradation of p62 bodies
      containing ubiquitinated proteins in the silkworm, Bombyx mori.
AB  - p62/Sequestosome-1 (p62/SQSTM1, hereafter referred to as p62) is a major adaptor
      that allows ubiquitinated proteins to be degraded by autophagy, and Atg8 homologs
      are required for p62-mediated autophagic degradation, but their relationship is
      still not understood in Lepidopteran insects. Here it is clearly demonstrated
      that the silkworm homolog of mammalian p62, Bombyx mori p62 (Bmp62), forms p62
      bodies depending on its Phox and Bem1p (PB1) and ubiquitin-associated (UBA)
      domains. These two domains are associated with Bmp62 binding to ubiquitinated
      proteins to form the p62 bodies, and the UBA domain is essential for the binding,
      but Bmp62 still self-associates without the PB1 or UBA domain. The p62 bodies in
      Bombyx cells are enclosed by BmAtg9-containing membranes and degraded via
      autophagy. It is revealed that the interaction between the Bmp62 AIM motif and
      BmAtg8 is critical for the autophagic degradation of the p62 bodies.
      Intriguingly, we further demonstrate that lipidation of BmAtg8 is required for
      the Bmp62-mediated complete degradation of p62 bodies by autophagy. Our results
      should be useful in future studies of the autophagic mechanism in Lepidopteran
      insects.

PMID- 28867469
TI  - TmSR-C, scavenger receptor class C, plays a pivotal role in antifungal and
      antibacterial immunity in the coleopteran insect Tenebrio molitor.
AB  - Scavenger receptors (SRs) constitute a family of membrane-bound receptors that
      bind to multiple ligands. The SR family of proteins is involved in removing
      cellular debris, oxidized low-density lipoproteins, and pathogens. Specifically,
      class C scavenger receptors (SR-C) have also been reported to be involved in
      phagocytosis of gram-positive and -negative bacteria in Drosophila and viruses in
      shrimp. However, reports are unavailable regarding the role of SR-C in antifungal
      immune mechanisms in insects. In this study, a full-length Tenebrio molitor SR-C
      (TmSR-C) sequence was obtained by 5'- and 3'-Rapid amplification of cDNA ends
      polymerase chain reaction (RACE-PCR). The TmSR-C full-length cDNA comprised 1671
      bp with 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions of 23- and 107-bp, respectively. TmSR-C
      encodes a putative protein of 556 amino acid residues that is constitutively
      expressed in all tissues of late instar larvae and 2-day-old adults, with the
      highest transcript levels observed in hemocytes of larvae and adults. TmSR-C mRNA
      showed a 2.5-fold and 3-fold increase at 24 and 6 h after infection with Candida
      albicans and beta-glucan, respectively. Immunoassay with TmSR-C polyclonal
      antibody showed induction of the putative protein in the cytosols of hemocytes at
      3 h after inoculation of C. albicans. RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene
      silencing and phagocytosis assays were used to understand the role of TmSR-C in
      antifungal immunity. Silencing of TmSR-C transcripts reduced the survivability of
      late instar larvae at 2 days post-inoculation of C. albicans, Escherichia coli,
      or Staphylococcus aureus. Furthermore, in TmSR-C-silenced larvae, there was a
      decline in the rate of microorganism phagocytosis. Taken together, results of
      this study suggest that TmSR-C plays a pivotal role in phagocytosing not only
      fungi but also gram-negative and -positive bacteria in T. molitor.

PMID- 28867470
TI  - Collateral Circulation in Chronic Aortic Occlusive Disease.

PMID- 28867471
TI  - Commentary to "Outcome After Turndown for Elective Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
      Surgery".

PMID- 28867472
TI  - Symmetrical Peripheral Gangrene.

PMID- 28867473
TI  - Commentary on "Follow-up on Small Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Using Three
      Dimensional Ultrasound: Volume Versus Diameter".

PMID- 28867474
TI  - Fecal immunological blood test is more appealing than the guaiac-based test for
      colorectal cancer screening.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The reasons for participation in fecal immunological testing (FIT) of
      subjects who were previously non-respondents to guaiac fecal occult blood testing
      (g-FOBT) have not been assessed. POPULATION AND METHODS: We aimed to determine
      the reasons for current compliance with FIT among non-responders to g-FOBT,
      termed "converts?, in a French district. A questionnaire was returned by 170
      converts aged from 55 to 75 years (response rate 75.2% after exclusions).
      RESULTS: The major barriers to participation in screening with g-FOBT were test
      related: the test was perceived as complicated (24%) and it required three
      consecutive stools (28%). Among the test-related major determinants of FIT
      compliance was the perception that the test was less complicated than previous
      test (30%) and that a unique stool sample was required (29%). Among the non-test
      related major determinants of FIT compliance were the perception that the general
      practitioner was more convincing (31%) and the feeling to be more concerned
      because of age (21%). The reasons for compliance among converts did not differ
      according to age, sex, and rural or urban residence. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      demonstrated that the simplicity of FIT and the endorsement of practitioners were
      both major motivations for FIT compliance among non-respondents in at least two
      previous consecutive campaigns.

PMID- 28867475
TI  - Fibroblast growth factor 15 deficiency increases susceptibility but does not
      improve repair to acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice.
AB  - The leading cause of acute liver failure (ALF) is hepatotoxicity from
      acetaminophen (APAP) overdose. However, limited options are available to treat
      this ALF so stimulating liver regeneration maybe a potential treatment. Our
      previous study has shown that fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15) plays a crucial
      role in liver regeneration, but the roles of FGF15 in liver injury and repair
      following APAP-overdose are unknown. In this study, treatment of FGF15 knockout
      (KO) male mice with APAP at 200, 250, or 300mg/kg significantly increased the
      degree of liver injury compared to wild type (WT) mice. To determine the effects
      of FGF15 deficiency on liver repair following APAP overdose, a similar degree of
      liver injury was first obtained 24h after treatment of WT and Fgf15 KO mice with
      APAP at different dosage. Fgf15 KO mice did not differ from WT mice in liver
      repair following similar degree of liver injury. In conclusion, we showed that
      FGF15 deficiency renders mice more susceptible to APAP-induced liver injury but
      did not seem to affect liver repair or regeneration. This study suggests that in
      contrast to the critical role that FGF15 plays in promoting liver regeneration
      following partial hepatectomy, this intestine factor is less involved in liver
      repair after APAP-induced liver injury.

PMID- 28867476
TI  - Using scenarios and personas to enhance the effectiveness of heuristic usability
      evaluations for older adults and their care team.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Using heuristics to evaluate user experience is a common methodology
      for human-computer interaction studies. One challenge of this method is the
      inability to tailor results towards specific end-user needs. This manuscript
      reports on a method that uses validated scenarios and personas of older adults
      and care team members to enhance heuristics evaluations of the usability of
      commercially available personal health records for homebound older adults.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our work extends the Chisnell and Redish heuristic
      evaluation methodology by using a protocol that relies on multiple expert reviews
      of each system. It further standardizes the heuristic evaluation process through
      the incorporation of task-based scenarios. RESULTS: We were able to use the
      modified version of the Chisnell and Redish heuristic evaluation methodology to
      identify potential usability challenges of two commercially available personal
      health record systems. This allowed us to: (1) identify potential usability
      challenges for specific types of users, (2) describe improvements that would be
      valuable to all end-users of the system, and (3) better understand how the
      interactions of different users may vary within a single personal health record.
      CONCLUSIONS: The methodology described in this paper may help designers of
      consumer health information technology tools, such as personal health records,
      understand the needs of diverse end-user populations. Such methods may be
      particularly helpful when designing systems for populations that are difficult to
      recruit for end-user evaluations through traditional methods.

PMID- 28867477
TI  - Research priority setting in Barrett's oesophagus and gastro-oesophageal reflux
      disease.
AB  - The incidence of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and Barrett's oesophagus is
      increasing. Barrett's oesophagus is the main precursor to oesophageal
      adenocarcinoma, which has a poor prognosis. In view of the vast potential burden
      of these diseases on patients and health-care resources, there is a real need to
      define and focus research efforts. This priority setting exercise aimed to
      produce a list of the top ten uncertainties in the field that reflect the
      priorities of patients and health-care providers. We adopted the robust and
      transparent methodologies previously outlined by the James Lind Alliance. This
      qualitative approach firstly involves an ideas gathering survey that, once
      distilled, generates a longlist of research uncertainties. These uncertainties
      are then prioritised via an interim ranking survey and a final workshop to
      achieve consensus agreement. The initial 629 uncertainties, generated from a
      survey of 170 individual respondents (47% professional, 53% non-professional) and
      one workshop, were narrowed down to the final top ten uncertainties of priority
      for future research. These priorities covered a range of issues, including a need
      for improved patient risk stratification, alternative diagnostic and surveillance
      tests, efficacy of a dedicated service for Barrett's oesophagus, cost
      effectiveness and appropriateness of current surveillance, advances in
      development of non-drug treatments for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, safety
      of long-term drug treatment, and questions regarding the durability and role of
      different endoscopic therapies for dysplastic Barrett's oesophagus. This is the
      first patient-centred assessment of priorities for researchers in this chronic
      disease setting. We hope that recognition and dissemination of these results will
      shape the future direction of research and translate into meaningful gains for
      patients.

PMID- 28867478
TI  - Hemidesmosomal linker proteins regulate cell motility, invasion and
      tumorigenicity in oral squamous cell carcinoma derived cells.
AB  - BPAG1e and Plectin are hemidesmosomal linker proteins which anchor intermediate
      filament proteins to the cell surface through beta4 integrin. Recent reports
      indicate that these proteins play a role in various cellular processes apart from
      their known anchoring function. However, the available literature is
      inconsistent. Further, the previous study from our laboratory suggested that
      Keratin8/18 pair promotes cell motility and tumor progression by deregulating
      beta4 integrin signaling in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) derived cells.
      Based on these findings, we hypothesized that linker proteins may have a role in
      neoplastic progression of OSCC. Downregulation of hemidesmosomal linker proteins
      in OSCC derived cells resulted in reduced cell migration accompanied by
      alterations in actin organization. Further, decreased MMP9 activity led to
      reduced cell invasion in linker proteins knockdown cells. Moreover, loss of these
      proteins resulted in reduced tumorigenic potential. SWATH analysis demonstrated
      upregulation of N-Myc downstream regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) in linker proteins
      downregulated cells as compared to vector control cells. Further, the defects in
      phenotype upon linker proteins ablation were rescued upon loss of NDRG1 in linker
      proteins knockdown background. These data together indicate that hemidesmosomal
      linker proteins regulate cell motility, invasion and tumorigenicity possibly
      through NDRG1 in OSCC derived cells.

PMID- 28867479
TI  - Combining 2D angiogenesis and 3D osteosarcoma microtissues to improve
      vascularization.
AB  - Angiogenesis is now well known for being involved in tumor progression,
      aggressiveness, emergence of metastases, and also resistance to cancer therapies.
      In this study, to better mimic tumor angiogenesis encountered in vivo, we used 3D
      culture of osteosarcoma cells (MG-63) that we deposited on 2D endothelial cells
      (HUVEC) grown in monolayer. We report that endothelial cells combined with tumor
      cells were able to form a well-organized network, and that tubule-like structures
      corresponding to new vessels infiltrate tumor spheroids. These vessels presented
      a lumen and expressed specific markers as CD31 and collagen IV. The combination
      of 2D endothelial cells and 3D microtissues of tumor cells also increased
      expression of angiogenic factors as VEGF, CXCR4 and ICAM1. The cell environment
      is the key point to develop tumor vascularization in vitro and to be closer to
      tumor encountered in vivo.

PMID- 28867480
TI  - Vagus nerve stimulation produces a hippocampal formation theta rhythm in
      anesthetized rats.
AB  - Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been used for years to treat patients with drug
      resistant epilepsy. In the present study, the effect of different stimulation
      protocols of VNS on the hippocampal formation (HPC) type II theta field
      potentials were evaluated in anesthetized rats. The following theta parameters
      were analysed: power, frequency and duration of theta epochs. We documented for
      the first time the presence of HPC type II theta in response to the application
      of VNS. A VNS-induced theta rhythm appeared in different experimental protocols
      and, depending on the current intensity, could occur directly during VNS (brief
      effect) or after vagal stimulation (delayed effect), using lower intensity
      stimuli.

PMID- 28867481
TI  - Lesions of the central amygdala and ventromedial medulla reduce bladder
      hypersensitivity produced by acute but not chronic foot shock.
AB  - Both acute and chronic stress has been shown to exacerbate symptoms of chronic
      visceral pain conditions such as interstitial cystitis. Studies using animal
      models support these findings in that both acute and chronic exposure to foot
      shock-induced stress (FS) augment nociceptive reflex responses to urinary bladder
      distension (UBD). Only a few studies have examined the neural substrates
      mediating these phenomena and it is not clear whether acute and chronic stress
      engage the same or different substrates to produce bladder hypersensitivity. The
      present studies examined the role of two important central nervous system
      structures - the amygdala (AMG) and the ventromedial medulla (VMM) - in
      mediating/modulating hypersensitivity evoked by acute versus chronic FS using
      responses to graded UBD in adult, female Sprague-Dawley rats. Bladder
      hypersensitivity produced by acute FS was significantly reduced by either
      bilateral central AMG or VMM lesions using measures generated by graded UBD, but
      these lesions had no significant effects using the same measures on bladder
      hyperalgesia produced by chronic FS. Our findings provide evidence that neural
      substrates underlying bladder hypersensitivity produced by chronic stress differ
      from those produced by acute stress. These findings suggest that while the AMG
      and VMM participate in pain processing during periods of limited exposure to
      stress, prolonged stress may recruit a new set of neural substrates not initially
      activated by acute exposure to stress.

PMID- 28867483
TI  - Construction of a versatile expression library for all human single-pass
      transmembrane proteins for receptor pairings by high throughput screening.
AB  - Interactions between protein ligands and receptors play crucial roles in cell
      cell signalling. Most of the human cell surface receptors have been identified in
      the post-Human Genome Project era but many of their corresponding ligands remain
      unknown. To facilitate the pairing of orphan receptors, 2762 sequences encoding
      all human single-pass transmembrane proteins were selected for inclusion into a
      mammalian-cell expression library. This expression library, consisting of all the
      individual extracellular domains (ECDs), was constructed as a Fab fusion for each
      protein. In this format, individual ECD can be produced as a soluble protein or
      displayed on cell surface, depending on the applied heavy-chain Fab
      configuration. The unique design of the Fab fusion concept used in the library
      led to not only superior success rate of protein production, but also versatile
      applications in various high-throughput screening paradigms including protein
      protein binding assays as well as cell binding assays, which were not possible
      for any other existing expression libraries. The protein library was screened
      against human coagulation factor VIIa (FVIIa), an approved therapeutic for the
      treatment of hemophilia, for binding partners by AlphaScreen and ForteBio assays.
      Two previously known physiological ligands of FVIIa, tissue factor (TF) and
      endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) were identified by both assays. The cell
      surface displayed library was screened against V-domain Ig suppressor of T-cell
      activation (VISTA), an important immune-checkpoint regulator. Immunoglobulin
      superfamily member 11 (IgSF11), a potential target for cancer immunotherapy, was
      identified as a new and previously undescribed binding partner for VISTA. The
      specificity of the binding was confirmed and validated by both fluorescence
      activated cell sorting (FACS) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assays in
      different experimental setups.

PMID- 28867484
TI  - Secondary cerebral abscess of an ischemic stroke treated by thrombectomy.

PMID- 28867485
TI  - Mechanisms of action of cannabidiol in adoptively transferred experimental
      autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
AB  - Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the most important compounds in Cannabis sativa,
      lacks psychotropic effects, and possesses a high number of therapeutic properties
      including the amelioration of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).
      The aim of this study was to analyse the relative efficacy of CBD in adoptively
      transferred EAE (at-EAE), a model that allows better delineation of the effector
      phase of EAE. Splenocytes and lymph nodes from mice with actively induced EAE
      were cultured in the presence of MOG35-55 and IL-12 and inoculated
      intraperitoneally in recipient female C57BL/6J mice. The effects of CBD were
      evaluated using clinical scores and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the
      central nervous system, the extent of cell infiltration, axonal damage,
      demyelination, microglial activation and cannabinoid receptors expression was
      assessed by immunohistochemistry. Lymph cell viability, apoptosis, oxidative
      stress and IL-6 production were measured in vitro. Preventive intraperitoneal
      treatment with CBD ameliorated the clinical signs of at-EAE, and this improvement
      was accompanied by a reduction of the apparent diffusion coefficient in the
      subiculum area of the brain. Inflammatory infiltration, axonal damage, and
      demyelination were reduced, and cannabinoid receptor expression was modulated.
      Incubation with CBD decreased encephalitogenic cell viability, increasing early
      apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decreasing IL-6 production. The
      reduction in viability was not mediated by CB1, CB2 or GPR55 receptors. CBD
      markedly improved the clinical signs of at-EAE and reduced infiltration,
      demyelination and axonal damage. The CBD-mediated decrease in the viability of
      encephalitogenic cells involves ROS generation, apoptosis and a decrease in IL-6
      production and may contribute to the therapeutic effect of this compound.

PMID- 28867482
TI  - Neurochemical differences between target-specific populations of rat dorsal raphe
      projection neurons.
AB  - Serotonin (5-HT)-containing neurons in the dorsal raphe (DR) nucleus project
      throughout the forebrain and are implicated in many physiological processes and
      neuropsychiatric disorders. Diversity among these neurons has been characterized
      in terms of their neurochemistry and anatomical organization, but a clear sense
      of whether these attributes align with specific brain functions or terminal
      fields is lacking. DR 5-HT neurons can co-express additional neuroactive
      substances, increasing the potential for individualized regulation of target
      circuits. The goal of this study was to link DR neurons to a specific functional
      role by characterizing cells according to both their neurotransmitter expression
      and efferent connectivity; specifically, cells projecting to the medial
      prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a region implicated in cognition, emotion, and
      responses to stress. Following retrograde tracer injection, brainstem sections
      from Sprague-Dawley rats were immunohistochemically stained for markers of
      serotonin, glutamate, GABA, and nitric oxide (NO). 98% of the mPFC-projecting
      serotonergic neurons co-expressed the marker for glutamate, while the markers for
      NO and GABA were observed in 60% and less than 1% of those neurons, respectively.
      To identify potential target-specific differences in co-transmitter expression,
      we also characterized DR neurons projecting to a visual sensory structure, the
      lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). The proportion of serotonergic neurons co
      expressing NO was greater amongst cells targeting the mPFC vs LGN (60% vs 22%).
      The established role of 5-HT in affective disorders and the emerging role of NO
      in stress signaling suggest that the impact of 5-HT/NO co-localization in DR
      neurons that regulate mPFC circuit function may be clinically relevant.

PMID- 28867486
TI  - YAP/TAZ Orchestrate VEGF Signaling during Developmental Angiogenesis.
AB  - Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a major driver of blood vessel
      formation. However, the signal transduction pathways culminating in the
      biological consequences of VEGF signaling are only partially understood. Here, we
      show that the Hippo pathway effectors YAP and TAZ work as crucial signal
      transducers to mediate VEGF-VEGFR2 signaling during angiogenesis. We demonstrate
      that YAP/TAZ are essential for vascular development as endothelium-specific
      deletion of YAP/TAZ leads to impaired vascularization and embryonic lethality.
      Mechanistically, we show that VEGF activates YAP/TAZ via its effects on actin
      cytoskeleton and that activated YAP/TAZ induce a transcriptional program to
      further control cytoskeleton dynamics and thus establish a feedforward loop that
      ensures a proper angiogenic response. Lack of YAP/TAZ also results in altered
      cellular distribution of VEGFR2 due to trafficking defects from the Golgi
      apparatus to the plasma membrane. Altogether, our study identifies YAP/TAZ as
      central mediators of VEGF signaling and therefore as important regulators of
      angiogenesis.

PMID- 28867488
TI  - Quaking RNA-Binding Proteins Control Early Myofibril Formation by Modulating
      Tropomyosin.
AB  - Skeletal muscle contraction is mediated by myofibrils, complex multi-molecular
      scaffolds structured into repeated units, the sarcomeres. Myofibril structure and
      function have been extensively studied, but the molecular processes regulating
      its formation within the differentiating muscle cell remain largely unknown. Here
      we show in zebrafish that genetic interference with the Quaking RNA-binding
      proteins disrupts the initial steps of myofibril assembly without affecting early
      muscle differentiation. Using RNA sequencing, we demonstrate that Quaking is
      required for accumulation of the muscle-specific tropomyosin-3 transcript,
      tpm3.12. Further functional analyses reveal that Tpm3.12 mediates Quaking control
      of myofibril formation. Moreover, we identified a Quaking-binding site in the 3'
      UTR of tpm3.12 transcript, which is required in vivo for tpm3.12 accumulation and
      myofibril formation. Our work uncovers a Quaking/Tpm3 pathway controlling de novo
      myofibril assembly. This unexpected developmental role for Tpm3 could be at the
      origin of muscle defects observed in human congenital myopathies associated with
      tpm3 mutation.

PMID- 28867487
TI  - Arp2/3 Complex Is Required for Macrophage Integrin Functions but Is Dispensable
      for FcR Phagocytosis and In Vivo Motility.
AB  - The Arp2/3 complex nucleates branched actin, forming networks involved in
      lamellipodial protrusion, phagocytosis, and cell adhesion. We derived primary
      bone marrow macrophages lacking Arp2/3 complex (Arpc2-/-) and directly tested its
      role in macrophage functions. Despite protrusion and actin assembly defects,
      Arpc2-/- macrophages competently phagocytose via FcR and chemotax toward CSF and
      CX3CL1. However, CR3 phagocytosis and fibronectin haptotaxis, both integrin
      dependent processes, are disrupted. Integrin-responsive actin assembly and
      alphaM/beta2 integrin localization are compromised in Arpc2-/- cells. Using an in
      vivo system to observe endogenous monocytes migrating toward full-thickness ear
      wounds we found that Arpc2-/- monocytes maintain cell speeds and directionality
      similar to control. Our work reveals that the Arp2/3 complex is not a general
      requirement for phagocytosis or chemotaxis but is a critical driver of integrin
      dependent processes. We demonstrate further that cells lacking Arp2/3 complex
      function in vivo remain capable of executing important physiological responses
      that require rapid directional motility.

PMID- 28867489
TI  - Optomechanical devices for deep plasma cancer proteomics.
AB  - Most of the cancer deaths could be avoided by early detection of the tumor when
      it is confined to its primary site and it has not metastasized. To this aim, one
      of the most promising strategies is the discovery and detection of protein
      biomarkers shed by the young tumor to the bloodstream. Proteomic technologies,
      mainly mass spectrometry and multiplexed immunoassays, have rapidly developed
      during last years with improved limits of detection and multiplexing capability.
      Unfortunately, these developments together major investments and large
      international efforts have not resulted into new useful protein biomarkers. Here,
      we analyze the potential and limitations of current proteomic technologies for
      detecting protein biomarkers released into circulation by the tumor. We find that
      these technologies can hardly probe the deepest region of the plasma proteome, at
      concentrations below the pg/mL level, where protein biomarkers for early cancer
      detection may exist. This clearly indicates the need of incorporating novel
      ultrasensitive techniques to the proteomic tool-box that can cover the
      inaccessible regions of the plasma proteome. We here propose biological detectors
      based on nanomechanical systems for discovery and detection of cancer protein
      biomarkers in plasma. We review the modes of operation of these devices, putting
      our focus on recent developments on nanomechanical sandwich immunoassays and
      nanomechanical spectrometry. The first technique enables reproducible
      immunodetection of proteins at concentrations well below the pg/mL level, with a
      limit of detection on the verge of 10 ag/mL. This technology can potentially
      detect low abundance tumor-associated proteins in plasma at the very early stages
      of the tumor. The second technique enables the identification of individual
      intact proteins by two physical coordinates, the mass and stiffness, instead of
      the mass-to-charge ratio of the protein constituents. This technology enormously
      simplifies the identification of proteins and it can provide useful information
      on interactions and posttranslational modifications, that otherwise is lost in
      mass spectrometry.

PMID- 28867490
TI  - Theoretical evaluation of ADMET properties for coumarin derivatives as compounds
      with therapeutic potential.
AB  - Coumarins have received a considerable attention in the last three decades as the
      lead structures for the discovery of orally administrated chemotherapeutics.
      Despite of the large amounts of in vitro activity information, relatively a
      little is known about their bioavailability in vivo. This paper presents an
      evaluation of drug-likeness of 31 coumarin derivatives on the basis of Lipinski's
      rule of five, and computed ADMET parameters (adsorption, distribution,
      metabolism, elimination and toxicity). Nine compounds which were predicted as
      showing the cardiotoxicity, were examined as hERG K+ channel blockers using in
      silico approach. Additionally, an impact of the acetyl group at benzene ring on
      pharmacokinetic profile was scrutinized for the tested coumarin derivatives. None
      of the analyzed coumarins violated the Lipinski's rule of five for orally
      administered drugs, and all tested compounds will remain in the qualitative
      likelihood of crossing the blood-brain barrier. 7-O-Alkilaminocoumarins showed no
      hepatotoxicity, but introduction of the nitrile or the amidine groups increased
      the levels of the hepatoxicity markers. Computed parameters of toxicity revealed
      cardiotoxic potency of twenty-five tested compounds. The proposed hERG K+ channel
      binding simulations helped in the understanding the molecular basis of coumarins
      cardiotoxicity. The presented theoretical studies explained some aspects of
      coumarin pharmacokinetics and identified the positive effect of the acetoxy
      substituent on the tested parameters.

PMID- 28867491
TI  - The prenylated phenolic natural product isoglycycoumarin is a highly selective
      probe for human cytochrome P450 2A6.
AB  - Prenylated phenolic compounds are an important class of bioactive natural
      products. One major in vivo metabolic pathway of these compounds is hydroxylation
      at terminal methyl of the isoprenyl group. This study aims to identify the P450
      isozyme catalyzing this metabolic reaction. In human liver microsomes, 16 out of
      24 screened compounds could be metabolized into their hydroxylated derivatives.
      Chemical inhibition assays using 11 isozyme specific inhibitors indicated the
      hydroxylation reactions of 12 compounds were primarily catalyzed by cytochrome
      P450 2A6 (CYP2A6). In particular, CYP2A6 was the major enzyme participating in
      the metabolism of isoglycycoumarin (IGCM). The product of IGCM was obtained and
      identified as licopyranocoumarin (4"-hydroxyl isoglycycoumarin) using NMR
      spectroscopic analysis. The Km values for human liver microsomes and recombinant
      human CYP2A6 were 7.98 and 10.14MUM, respectively. According to molecular docking
      analysis, the catalytic mechanism may involve cyclized isoprenyl group of IGCM
      entering the active cavity of CYP2A6. These results demonstrate that IGCM could
      serve as an ideal isozyme selective probe to evaluate CYP2A6 activities.

PMID- 28867492
TI  - 7th European rotavirus biology conference, Cork/Ireland, 18-21 June 2017.

PMID- 28867493
TI  - Taking the defensive: Immune control of Zika virus infection.
AB  - ZIKV is a neurotropic mosquito-borne flavivirus that has recently emerged in the
      Americas and is a pathogen of significant public health concern across the world.
      ZIKV was first isolated in Uganda in 1947 and remained dormant in Africa and Asia
      for decades, with sporadic outbreaks characterized by a mild self-limiting
      disease in humans. The emergence of ZIKV in the Americas corresponded with
      enhanced disease severity and congenital Zika syndrome, a phenotype characterized
      by severe microcephaly, brain anomalies, ocular anomalies, congenital
      contractures and neurological impairments. In less than two years, a collective
      effort led by the scientific research community has uncovered many new facets to
      the once rarely discussed ZIKV. In this review, we highlight the known immune
      parameters that correlate with protective immunity to ZIKV infection, including
      pattern recognition receptors, interferons, humoral and cell-mediated responses,
      as well as countermeasures utilized by ZIKV to inhibit host antiviral immune
      responses.

PMID- 28867494
TI  - Targeting human breast cancer cells by an oncolytic adenovirus using microRNA
      targeting strategy.
AB  - MicroRNA-targeting strategy is a promising approach that enables oncolytic
      viruses to replicate in tumor cells but not in normal cells. In this study, we
      targeted adenoviral replication toward breast cancer cells by inserting ten
      complementary binding sites for miR-145-5p downstream of E1A gene. In addition,
      we evaluated the effect of increasing miR-145 binding sites on inhibition of
      virus replication. Ad5-control and adenoviruses carrying five or ten copies of
      miR145-5p target sites (Ad5-5miR145T, Ad5-10miR145T) were generated and
      inoculated into MDA-MB-453, BT-20, MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines and human
      mammary epithelial cells (HMEpC). Titer of Ad5-10miR145T in HMEpC was
      significantly lower than Ad5-control titer. Difference between the titer of these
      two viruses at 12, 24, 36, and 48h after infection was 1.25, 2.96, 3.06, and 3.77
      log TCID50. No significant difference was observed between the titer of both
      adenoviruses in MDA-MB-453, BT-20 and MCF-7 cells. The infectious titer of
      adenovirus containing 10 miR-145 binding sites in HMEpC cells at 24, 36, and 48h
      post-infection was 1.7, 2.08, and 4-fold, respectively, lower than the titer of
      adenovirus carrying 5 miR-145 targets. Our results suggest that miR-145-targeting
      strategy provides selectivity for adenovirus replication in breast cancer cells.
      Increasing the number of miRNA binding sites within the adenoviral genome confers
      more selectivity for viral replication in cancer cells.

PMID- 28867496
TI  - Draft genome sequence of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus
      IPK_TSA25 harbouring a Staphylococcus aureus plasmid, pS0385-1.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Staphylococcus haemolyticus is the second most frequently isolated
      coagulase-negative staphylococci from blood cultures. Moreover, multidrug
      resistance associated with the genome flexibility of S. haemolyticus has been
      increasingly reported worldwide. Here we report the draft genome sequence of
      multidrug-resistant S. haemolyticus IPK_TSA25 isolated from a building surface in
      South Korea. METHODS: Genomic DNA of S. haemolyticus IPK_TSA25 was sequenced
      using the PacBio RS II sequencing platform. Generated reads were assembled using
      PacBio SMRT Analysis 2.3.0. The draft genome was annotated and antibiotic
      resistance genes were identified. RESULTS: The genome of 2517398bp contains
      various antibiotic resistance genes associated with resistance to beta-lactams,
      aminoglycosides and macrolides. Genome analysis also revealed chromosomal
      integration of the full-length Staphylococcus aureus plasmid pS0385-1 containing
      a tetracycline resistance gene. CONCLUSIONS: The genome sequence reported in this
      study will provide valuable information to understand the flexibility of the S.
      haemolyticus genome, which facilitates acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes
      and contributes to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance by this emerging
      pathogen.

PMID- 28867495
TI  - Healthcare Policy Statement on the Utility of Coronary Computed Tomography for
      Evaluation of Cardiovascular Conditions and Preventive Healthcare: From the
      Health Policy Working Group of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.
AB  - The rising cost of healthcare is prompting numerous policy and advocacy
      discussions regarding strategies for constraining growth and creating a more
      efficient and effective healthcare system. Cardiovascular imaging is central to
      the care of patients at risk of, and living with, heart disease. Estimates are
      that utilization of cardiovascular imaging exceeds 20 million studies per year.
      The Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT), alongside Rush University Medical
      Center, and in collaboration with government agencies, regional payers, and
      industry healthcare experts met in November 2016 in Chicago, IL to evaluate
      obstacles and hurdles facing the cardiovascular imaging community and how they
      can contribute to efficacy while maintaining or even improving outcomes and
      quality. The summit incorporated inputs from payers, providers, and patients'
      perspectives, providing a platform for all voices to be heard, allowing for a
      constructive dialogue with potential solutions moving forward. This article
      outlines the proceedings from the summit, with a detailed review of past hurdles,
      current status, and potential solutions as we move forward in an ever-changing
      healthcare landscape.

PMID- 28867498
TI  - The triumph of HIV treatment: another new antiretroviral.

PMID- 28867497
TI  - Bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide versus dolutegravir,
      abacavir, and lamivudine for initial treatment of HIV-1 infection (GS-US-380
      1489): a double-blind, multicentre, phase 3, randomised controlled non
      inferiority trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) are recommended
      components of initial antiretroviral therapy with two nucleoside reverse
      transcriptase inhibitors. Bictegravir is a novel, potent INSTI with a high in
      vitro barrier to resistance and low potential as a perpetrator or victim of
      clinically relevant drug-drug interactions. We aimed to assess the efficacy and
      safety of bictegravir coformulated with emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide
      as a fixed-dose combination versus coformulated dolutegravir, abacavir, and
      lamivudine. METHODS: We did this double-blind, multicentre, active-controlled,
      randomised controlled non-inferiority trial at 122 outpatient centres in nine
      countries in Europe, Latin America, and North America. We enrolled HIV-1 infected
      adults (aged >=18 years) who were previously untreated (HIV-1 RNA >=500 copies
      per mL); HLA-B*5701-negative; had no hepatitis B virus infection; screening
      genotypes showing sensitivity to emtricitabine, tenofovir, lamivudine, and
      abacavir; and an estimated glomerular filtration rate of 50 mL/min or more.
      Participants were randomly assigned (1:1), via a computer-generated allocation
      sequence (block size of four), to receive coformulated bictegravir 50 mg,
      emtricitabine 200 mg, and tenofovir alafenamide 25 mg or coformulated
      dolutegravir 50 mg, abacavir 600 mg, and lamivudine 300 mg, with matching
      placebo, once daily for 144 weeks. Randomisation was stratified by HIV-1 RNA
      (<=100 000 copies per mL, >100 000 to <=400 000 copies per mL, or >400 000 copies
      per mL), CD4 count (<50 cells per MUL, 50-199 cells per MUL, or >=200 cells per
      MUL), and region (USA or ex-USA). Investigators, participants, and study staff
      giving treatment, assessing outcomes, and collecting data were masked to group
      assignment. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants with plasma
      HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies per mL at week 48, as defined by the US Food and
      Drug Administration snapshot algorithm, with a prespecified non-inferiority
      margin of -12%. All participants who received one dose of study drug were
      included in primary efficacy and safety analyses. This trial is registered with
      ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02607930. FINDINGS: Between Nov 13, 2015, and July
      14, 2016, we randomly assigned 631 participants to receive coformulated
      bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide (n=316) or coformulated
      dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine (n=315), of whom 314 and 315 patients,
      respectively, received at least one dose of study drug. At week 48, HIV-1 RNA
      less than 50 copies per mL was achieved in 92.4% of patients (n=290 of 314) in
      the bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide group and 93.0% of
      patients (n=293 of 315) in the dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine group
      (difference -0.6%, 95.002% CI -4.8 to 3.6; p=0.78), demonstrating non-inferiority
      of bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide to dolutegravir,
      abacavir, and lamivudine. No individual developed treatment-emergent resistance
      to any study drug. Incidence and severity of adverse events was mostly similar
      between groups except for nausea, which occurred less frequently in patients
      given bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide than in those given
      dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine (10% [n=32] vs 23% [n=72]; p<0.0001).
      Adverse events related to study drug were less common with bictegravir,
      emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide than with dolutegravir, abacavir, and
      lamivudine (26% [n=82] vs 40% [n=127]), the difference being driven by a higher
      incidence of drug-related nausea in the dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine
      group (5% [n=17] vs 17% [n=55]; p<0.0001). INTERPRETATION: At 48 weeks,
      coformulated bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide achieved
      virological suppression in 92% of previously untreated adults and was non
      inferior to coformulated dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine, with no
      treatment-emergent resistance. Bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir
      alafenamide was safe and well tolerated with better gastrointestinal tolerability
      than dolutegravir, abacavir, and lamivudine. Because coformulated bictegravir,
      emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide does not require HLA B*5701 testing and
      provides guideline-recommended treatment for individuals co-infected with HIV and
      hepatitis B, this regimen might lend itself to rapid or same-day initiation of
      therapy in the clinical setting. FUNDING: Gilead Sciences.

PMID- 28867499
TI  - Coformulated bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide versus
      dolutegravir with emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, for initial treatment
      of HIV-1 infection (GS-US-380-1490): a randomised, double-blind, multicentre,
      phase 3, non-inferiority trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) coadministered with two
      nucleoside or nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are recommended
      as first-line treatment for HIV, and coformulated fixed-dose combinations are
      preferred to facilitate adherence. We report 48-week results from a study
      comparing initial HIV-1 treatment with bictegravir-a novel INSTI with a high in
      vitro barrier to resistance and low potential as a perpetrator or victim of
      clinically relevant drug interactions-coformulated with the NRTI combination
      emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide as a fixed-dose combination to
      dolutegravir administered with coformulated emtricitabine and tenofovir
      alafenamide. METHODS: In this randomised, double-blind, multicentre, placebo
      controlled, non-inferiority trial, HIV-infected adults were screened and enrolled
      at 126 outpatient centres in 10 countries in Australia, Europe, Latin America,
      and North America. Participants were previously untreated adults (HIV-1 RNA >=500
      copies per mL) with estimated glomerular filtration rate of at least 30 mL/min.
      Chronic hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C co-infection was allowed. We randomly
      assigned participants (1:1) to receive oral fixed-dose combination bictegravir 50
      mg, emtricitabine 200 mg, and tenofovir alafenamide 25 mg or dolutegravir 50 mg
      with coformulated emtricitabine 200 mg and tenofovir alafenamide 25 mg, with
      matching placebo, once a day for 144 weeks. Investigators, participants, study
      staff, and those assessing outcomes were masked to treatment group. All
      participants who received at least one dose of study drug were included in
      primary efficacy and safety analyses. The primary endpoint was the proportion of
      participants with plasma HIV-1 RNA of less than 50 copies per mL at week 48 (US
      Food and Drug Administration snapshot algorithm), with a prespecified non
      inferiority margin of -12%. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov,
      number NCT02607956. FINDINGS: Between Nov 11, 2015, and July 15, 2016, 742
      participants were screened for eligibility, of whom 657 were randomly assigned to
      treatment (327 with bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide fixed
      dose combination [bictegravir group] and 330 with dolutegravir plus emtricitabine
      and tenofovir alafenamide [dolutegravir group]). 320 participants who received
      the bictegravir regimen and 325 participants who received the dolutegravir
      regimen were included in the primary efficacy analyses. At week 48, HIV-1 RNA <50
      copies per mL was achieved in 286 (89%) of 320 participants in the bictegravir
      group and 302 (93%) of 325 in the dolutegravir group (difference -3.5%, 95.002%
      CI -7.9 to 1.0, p=0.12), showing non-inferiority of the bictegravir regimen to
      the dolutegravir regimen. No treatment-emergent resistance to any study drug was
      observed. Incidence and severity of adverse events were similar between groups,
      and few participants discontinued treatment due to adverse events (5 [2%] of 320
      in the bictegravir group and 1 [<1%] 325 in the dolutegravir group). Study drug
      related adverse events were less common in the bictegravir group than in the
      dolutegravir group (57 [18%] of 320 vs 83 [26%] of 325, p=0.022). INTERPRETATION:
      At 48 weeks, virological suppression with the bictegravir regimen was achieved
      and was non-inferior to the dolutegravir regimen in previously untreated adults.
      There was no emergent resistance to either regimen. The fixed-dose combination of
      bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide was safe and well tolerated
      compared with the dolutegravir regimen. FUNDING: Gilead Sciences Inc.

PMID- 28867500
TI  - Review of combinations of experimental and computational techniques to identify
      and understand genes involved in innate immunity and effector-triggered defence.
AB  - The innate immune system includes a first layer of defence that recognises
      conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns that are essential for microbial
      fitness. Resistance (R) gene-based recognition of pathogen effectors, which
      function in modulation or avoidance of host immunity, activates a second layer of
      plant defence. In this review, experimental and computational techniques are
      considered to improve understanding of the plant immune system. Biocomputation
      contributes to discovery of the molecular genetic basis of host resistance
      against pathogens. Sequenced genomes have been used to identify R genes in
      plants. Resistance gene enrichment sequencing based on conserved protein domains
      has increased the number of R genes with nucleotide-binding site and leucine-rich
      repeat domains. Network analysis will contribute to an improved understanding of
      the innate immune system and identify novel genes for partial disease resistance.
      Machine learning algorithms are expected to become important in defining aspects
      of the immune system that are less well characterised, including identification
      of R genes that lack conserved protein domains.

PMID- 28867501
TI  - Stem cell transplantation for Huntington's diseases.
AB  - Therapeutic approaches based on stem cells have received considerable attention
      as potential treatments for Huntington's disease (HD), which is a fatal,
      inherited neurodegenerative disorder, caused by progressive loss of GABAergic
      medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the striatum of the forebrain. Transplantation of
      stem cells or their derivatives in animal models of HD, efficiently improved
      functions by replacing the damaged or lost neurons. In particular, neural stem
      cells (NSCs) for HD treatments have been developed from various sources, such as
      the brain itself, the pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), and the somatic cells of the
      HD patients. However, the brain-derived NSCs are difficult to obtain, and the
      PSCs have to be differentiated into a population of the desired neuronal cells
      that may cause a risk of tumor formation after transplantation. In contrast,
      induced NSCs, derived from somatic cells as a new stem cell source for
      transplantation, are less likely to form tumors. Given that the stem cell
      transplantation strategy for treatment of HD, as a genetic disease, is to replace
      the dysfunctional or lost neurons, the correction of mutant genes containing the
      expanded CAG repeats is essential. In this review, we will describe the methods
      for obtaining the optimal NSCs for transplantation-based HD treatment and the
      differentiation conditions for the functional GABAergic MSNs as therapeutic
      cells. Also, we will discuss the valuable gene correction of the disease stem
      cells by the CRISPR/Cas9 system for HD treatment.

PMID- 28867502
TI  - Continuous liquid feeding: New method to study pesticides toxicity in Drosophila
      melanogaster.
AB  - Fly fruit Drosophila melanogaster (DM) has been extensively employed as an in
      vivo model system to study pesticides toxicity. Pesticide administration to the
      fly traditionally involves feeding in an agar-gelled feed fly's medium (AM).
      However, AM method has several limitations such as uncertainty regarding the
      bioavailability and amount of pesticides ingested. And also high manipulation of
      the treated flies. We developed a new method of exposure the flies to pesticides,
      called Continuous Liquid Feeding (CLF). This method successfully delivers food to
      the flies at much higher concentrations than the AM method, and requires little
      manipulation of flies under treatment.

PMID- 28867503
TI  - A generic approach for simultaneous measurements of total antibody and cleavable
      antibody-conjugated drug by LC/MS/MS.
AB  - The current industry practice for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) bioanalysis
      includes quantification of total antibody and antibody-conjugated drug. Here, we
      report a novel 2-in-1 approach for measuring total antibody and protease
      cleavable conjugated drug Monomethyl Auristatin E (MMAE) concurrently. This
      allows for the determination of the DAR (Drug Antibody Ratio) for in vivo
      samples, with a 3-orders linear range based on total antibody concentration from
      0.1 to 100 MUg/mL. Our generic, concurrent method has been cross-validated with
      the previously established methods in an animal study. This novel approach is
      applicable to all human IgG1 ADCs with papain cleavable conjugated drug in
      preclinical studies.

PMID- 28867504
TI  - College tanning behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and intentions: A systematic
      review of the literature.
AB  - Despite well-established links between exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR)
      and skin cancer, UVR-based tanning behaviors persist among college students.
      Understanding tanning motivations, perceptions, barriers, and demographic
      characteristics of this population is critical to modifying these behaviors, but
      is limited by variability in study design, sample size, and outcomes measured in
      the current literature. To help clarify the tanning behaviors of this population
      and provide a concise reference for future studies, this review examines existing
      reports to determine the comparability of tanning behaviors across multiple U.S.
      college populations. A systematic review of the literature was performed in July
      2016 to identify studies investigating tanning behaviors among U.S. college
      students. Twenty-three studies met inclusion criteria. High rates of indoor
      tanning (IT) and outdoor tanning (OT) were found among college students. Key
      motivators included appearance, emotion, health perceptions, and the influence of
      parents, peers, and the media. Misconceptions regarding skin protection, low
      rates of sun protective behaviors, and tanning dependence were barriers against
      safe UVR exposure. Understudied demographic factors may account for variance in
      observed tanning behaviors, emphasizing the need for standardization efforts to
      consistently identify trends associated with geographical region, age, year in
      college, and sex. The findings presented in this review reaffirm that college
      students are at high risk for tanning-associated skin cancer, emphasizing the
      critical need for effective, targeted interventions. Improved interventions will
      reduce the burden of skin cancer within this group, ultimately contributing to
      longer, healthier lives.

PMID- 28867505
TI  - Dose-response in a high density three-dimensional liver device with real-time
      bioenergetic and metabolic flux quantification.
AB  - Real-time dose-response curves for fructose have been non-invasively determined
      in primary rat hepatocyte alginate spheroids cultured in a NMR-compatible
      fluidized-bed bioreactor. Using 13C-labeled glucose and glycine culture medium,
      fructose dose was compared to glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis rate using
      13C NMR spectroscopy, and to ATP and fructose-1-phosphate concentration using 31P
      NMR spectroscopy. A highly efficient multicoaxial perfusion system maintains high
      density 3-D hepatocyte cultures, permitting 13C and 31P NMR spectral time courses
      with 1min time points. The perfusion system was turned off to demonstrate its
      efficiency and effect on the metabolites. Within 16min, glycogen plummeted,
      lactate became the largest 13C-glucose metabolite via anaerobic glycolysis, while
      glutathione was the largest 13C-glycine metabolite. ATP depletion and fructose-1
      phosphate formation demonstrated a dose response with a 3h EC50 of 19mM+/-8.9mM
      and 17.4mM+/-3.7mM, respectively. Computational modeling of mass transfer
      corroborated experimental results and helped determine the optimal bioreactor
      loading densities, oxygen concentration, and perfusion rates to maintain
      physiologically-relevant nutrient levels. The total bioreactor plus perfusion
      loop has a dead volume of 2ml, and contains 5 million hepatocytes. Due to the non
      invasive measurements, there is a reduction of animal tissue by an order-of
      magnitude, depending on the number of time points in an experiment. This dynamic
      flux approach may have generic utility for dose-response studies monitoring
      multiple metabolic reactions in other primary mammalian cells, such as human,
      that have strict oxygen demands.

PMID- 28867506
TI  - Gait disturbance and lower limb pain in a patient with PIK3CA-related disorder.
AB  - Post-zygotic activating mutations in PIK3CA and other genes encoding members of
      PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway have been found in various overgrowth syndromes that have
      been grouped together as PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum (PROS). We report a
      female patient with gait disturbance, leg pain, isolated macrodactyly of the
      foot, and mild intellectual disability. Imaging of the lower limb showed a
      lipoblastoma of the right thigh. A mosaic gain-of-function mutation in the
      catalytic domain of PIK3CA (c.3140 A > G; p.His1047Arg) was detected in the
      adipose tissue and in skin cultured fibroblasts from the macrodactyly but not in
      blood. The leg pain and the severe walking disturbance improved slightly over
      time and serial MRI of the lower limbs suggested that the size of the
      lipoblastoma relative to the lower limb muscles or to the whole lower limb was
      unchanged as consequence of limb growth. This case report illustrates that pain
      and gait disturbance can be features of PROS and highlights the need of better
      knowledge about the natural history of the disease.

PMID- 28867507
TI  - Immunization of mice with Borrelia burgdorferi lp54 gene encoded recombinant
      proteins does not provide protection against tick transmitted infectious
      challenge.
AB  - The Borrelia burgdorferi outer surface membrane proteins BBA65, BBA66, BBA69,
      BBA70, and BBA73 were tested for their ability to confer protection against B.
      burgdorferi infection challenge. Mice were immunized with recombinant forms of
      the proteins singly or in combinations. Following initial protein inoculation and
      booster injections, seroconversion was confirmed prior to B. burgdorferi
      challenge by tick bite. Despite mice having high antibody titers for each
      antigen, no significant protections against the challenge infections were
      observed. These results demonstrate that these recombinant proteins were not
      protective and reflects the challenges confronted to identify effective novel
      vaccine candidates for Lyme disease.

PMID- 28867509
TI  - Do It Fast: Immediate Functional Testing of Membrane Pumps Expressed into
      Nanodiscs.

PMID- 28867508
TI  - Influenza epidemiology and immunization during pregnancy: Final report of a World
      Health Organization working group.
AB  - From 2014 to 2017, the World Health Organization convened a working group to
      evaluate influenza disease burden and vaccine efficacy to inform estimates of
      maternal influenza immunization program impact. The group evaluated existing
      systematic reviews and relevant primary studies, and conducted four new
      systematic reviews. There was strong evidence that maternal influenza
      immunization prevented influenza illness in pregnant women and their infants,
      although data on severe illness prevention were lacking. The limited number of
      studies reporting influenza incidence in pregnant women and infants under six
      months had highly variable estimates and underrepresented low- and middle-income
      countries. The evidence that maternal influenza immunization reduces the risk of
      adverse birth outcomes was conflicting, and many observational studies were
      subject to substantial bias. The lack of scientific clarity regarding disease
      burden or magnitude of vaccine efficacy against severe illness poses challenges
      for robust estimation of the potential impact of maternal influenza immunization
      programs.

PMID- 28867511
TI  - Glutamine and citrulline concentrations reflect nitric oxide synthesis in the
      human nervous system.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although citrulline is produced by nitric oxide (NO) synthase upon
      activation of the NMDA glutamate receptor, nitrite and nitrate (NOx)
      concentration is considered the best marker of NO synthesis, as citrulline is
      also metabolised by other enzymes. This study analyses the correlation between
      human cerebrospinal fluid NOx and citrulline concentrations in order to determine
      the extent to which citrulline reflects NO synthesis and glutamatergic
      neurotransmission. METHODS: Participants were patients with acute neurological
      diseases undergoing lumbar puncture (n=240). NOx and amino acid concentrations
      were determined by HPLC. RESULTS: NOx concentrations did not vary significantly
      where infection (p=0,110) or inflammation (p=0,349) were present. Multiple
      regression analysis showed that NOx concentration was correlated with glutamine
      (r=-0,319, p<0,001) and citrulline concentrations (r=0,293, p=0,005) but not with
      the citrulline/arginine ratio (r=-0,160, p=0,173). ANCOVA confirmed that NOx
      concentration was correlated with citrulline concentration (F=7,6, p=0,007) but
      not with the citrulline/arginine ratio (F=2,2, p=0,136), or presence of infection
      (F=1,8, p=0,173) or inflammation (F=1,4, p=0,227). No association was found
      between NOx and arginine or glutamate concentrations. CONCLUSION: The results
      suggest that CSF citrulline concentration reflects NOx synthesis to some extent,
      despite the contribution of other metabolic pathways. In addition, this study
      shows that glutamine is an important modulator of NO synthase activity, and that
      arginine and glutamate are not correlated with NOx.

PMID- 28867512
TI  - Comment on: "The outcomes of overlay myringoplasty: Endoscopic versus microscopic
      approach".

PMID- 28867513
TI  - Clinical and Prognostic Implications of Methods and Partition Values Used to
      Assess Left Atrial Volume by Two-Dimensional Echocardiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 2015 American Society of Echocardiography/European Association of
      Cardiovascular Imaging recommendations for chamber quantification suggest new
      abnormality threshold and severity partition values for left atrial (LA) volume
      that are equally valid for the biplane method of disk (MOD) summation and the
      area-length method (ALM). However, they have never been clinically validated.
      Thus, we compared the clinical and prognostic impact of LA volume assessed by MOD
      and ALM by using both the 2015 and 2005 abnormality thresholds. METHODS: In a
      retrospective study of 467 patients with sinus rhythm and various cardiac
      conditions (median age 61 years, 68% men), maximal LA volumes were measured with
      MOD and ALM. Patients were followed for 3.7 +/- 1.1 years to record both all
      cause mortality and cardiac death. RESULTS: Applying the 2015 cutoff values, 21%
      of patients with dilated LA according to the 2005 recommendations were
      reclassified as normal. Severity of LA dilatation was reclassified in 48%
      (222/467) patients. ALM provided significantly larger LA volumes than MOD (41
      [32; 58] mL/m2 vs 39 [30; 55] mL/m2; P = .0150), reclassifying 18% (84/467) of
      patients. Patients who died had larger LA volumes measured with both MOD (57 [38;
      77] mL/m2 vs 37 [30; 51] mL/m2; P < .0001) and ALM (58 [40; 82] mL/m2 vs 40 [32;
      54] mL/m2; P < .0001). Regardless of the method used, LA volume was a significant
      factor associated with mortality, with both the 2015 and 2005 cutoff values
      providing similar prognostic power. CONCLUSIONS: The use of 2015 partition values
      and different methods of LA volume measurement leads to significant changes in
      patients' clinical profiles. LA enlargement is an important prognostic indicator
      independent of cutoff values and methods used. Care should be taken to ensure
      consistent measurements and interpretation of two-dimensional echocardiography LA
      volume during patient follow-up.

PMID- 28867514
TI  - How Accurate Is Rapid Antigen Testing for Group A Streptococcus in Children With
      Pharyngitis?

PMID- 28867515
TI  - Morphometric parameters of the optic disc in normal and glaucomatous eyes based
      on time-domain optical coherence tomography image analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Assessment of optic disc morphology is essential in
      diagnosis and management of visual impairment. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate associations between optic disc morphometric parameters, i.e., size and
      shape, and age, gender, and ocular axial length in normal and glaucomatous eyes
      based on time-domain optical coherence tomography image analysis. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: It was a case-control study of 998 normal and 394 eyes with primary open
      angle glaucoma that underwent an ophthalmological examination and time-domain
      optical coherence topography scanning. Areas and shapes of the disc, cup, and
      neuroretinal rim were analyzed. RESULTS: The shape of the optic disc did not
      differ between the study groups, i.e., normal and glaucomatous case groups, but
      the disc area of the primary open angle glaucoma group was significantly larger.
      The shape of the small disc was significantly different, but the shape of the
      medium and the large disc did not differ between the study groups. The central
      area of the disc, i.e., cup area was significantly larger in the case group and
      its shape was significantly different between the study groups. No significant
      differences in the area of the cup and its shape, nerve fibers on the edge of the
      disc, i.e., neuroretinal rim area, were found between the study groups of the
      small discs. There were significant associations between age, gender, and ocular
      axial length and morphometric parameters of the optic disc. CONCLUSIONS:
      Informative results with regard to the size and shape due to various ocular
      characteristics between the healthy control group and patients suffering with
      primary open angle glaucoma were obtained. Both study groups were significant in
      size, which makes the findings interesting and important contribution in the
      field.

PMID- 28867516
TI  - Modelling the neuromotor abnormalities of psychotic illness: Putative mechanisms
      and systems dysfunction.
AB  - Limitations in access to antipsychotic-naive patients and in the incisiveness of
      studies that can be conducted on them, together with the inevitability of
      subsequent antipsychotic treatment, indicate an enduring role for animal models
      that can inform on the pathobiology of neuromotor abnormalities in schizophrenia
      and related psychotic illness. This review focusses particularly on genetically
      modified mouse models that involve genes associated with risk for schizophrenia
      and with mechanisms implicated in the neuromotor abnormalities evident in
      psychotic patients, as well as developmental models that seek to mirror the
      trajectory, phenomenology and putative pathophysiology of psychotic illness. Such
      abnormalities are inconsistent and subtle in mice mutant for some schizophrenia
      risk genes but more evident for others. The phenotype of dopaminergic and
      glutamatergic mutants indicates the involvement of these mechanisms, informs on
      the roles of specific receptor subtypes, and implicates the interplay of cortical
      and subcortical processes. Developmental models suggest a criticality in the
      timing of early adversity for diversity in the relative emergence of
      psychological symptoms vis-a-vis neuromotor abnormalities in the overall
      psychosis phenotype. These findings elaborate current concepts of dysfunction in
      a neuronal network linking the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus and
      cerebellum. Both findings in model systems and clinical evidence converge in
      indicating that any distinction between 'psychomotor' and 'neuromotor'
      abnormality is artificial and arbitrary due to a unitary origin in
      developmentally determined systems/network dysfunction that underlies the
      lifetime trajectory of psychotic illness.

PMID- 28867517
TI  - Schizophrenia and creativity: A meta-analytic review.
AB  - The present study investigated the relationship between creativity and
      schizophrenia with a 3-level multilevel meta-analytic approach. Analyses with 200
      effect sizes obtained from 42 studies found a mean effect size of r=-0.324, 95%CI
      [-0.42, -0.23]. Further analyses focused on moderators and indicated that the
      relationship between schizophrenia and creativity is moderated by type of
      creativity measure, the content of creativity measure, the severity of
      schizophrenia, and patient status. The negative mean effect size was stronger
      with semantic-category or verbal-letter fluency tasks than the divergent thinking
      or associational measures. Performance on verbal measures of creativity was
      significantly lower than the nonverbal measures. When effect sizes were compared
      at different levels of severity, a stronger and more negative mean effect size
      was obtained at chronic schizophrenia than acute and early onset levels. Studies
      that involved inpatients had a significantly higher (more negative) mean effect
      size than those involving outpatients. When these findings are considered along
      with previous meta-analyses on the link between creativity and psychoticism and
      schizotypy, creativity and psychopathology seem to have an inverted-U
      relationship. A mild expression of schizophrenia symptoms may support creativity
      but a full demonstration of the symptoms undermines it.

PMID- 28867518
TI  - Personality traits in recent-onset-of-psychosis patients compared to a control
      sample by gender.
AB  - Personality traits in recent onset of psychosis (ROP) patients are an under
      researched area. Our aim was to examine clinical and clinically significant
      personality traits in ROP patients compared with a healthy control sample by
      gender. Data were obtained from 94 ROP patients and a control sample matched in
      gender and age. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory and a sociodemographic
      scale were used. T for independent samples, U-Mann-Whitney and Fisher tests were
      applied to make comparisons. All personality traits were significantly higher in
      ROP than control participants in the general sample, except histrionic,
      narcissistic, and compulsive traits which were higher in controls. Clinically
      significant schizoid, avoidant, dependent and antisocial personality traits were
      more common in the ROP than the control participants. However, histrionic
      clinically significant trait was more common in the control sample. In relation
      to the males and female samples, more significant differences were found in the
      male sample in comparison to their control counterparts than in the female
      sample. These results highlight the importance of the study of clinical
      personality traits in patients with ROP and the importance of viewing these
      differences in relation to gender because of the possible therapeutic
      implications.

PMID- 28867519
TI  - Striatal dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected first
      degree relatives.
AB  - Despite empirical findings showing that patients with schizophrenia and their
      unaffected first-degree relatives have deficits in processing monetary
      incentives, it is unclear whether similar deficits could be demonstrated for
      affective incentives. Twenty-six patients with schizophrenia and 26 age and
      gender matched healthy controls; 23 unaffected first-degree relatives and 23
      matched healthy controls were recruited to complete a Monetary Incentive Delay
      (MID) task and an Affective Incentive Delay (AID) task in a 3-Tesla MRI scanner.
      Hypoactivation in the dorsal striatum when anticipating monetary incentives were
      found in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected first-degree relatives
      compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia showed
      hyperactivation in the ventral striatum when receiving both monetary and
      affective incentives. These findings suggest that disorganized striatal function,
      regardless of incentive types, may be present in patients with schizophrenia and
      before the onset of illness in their first-degree unaffected relatives.

PMID- 28867520
TI  - Comparison of the iAssist Handheld Guidance System to Conventional Instruments
      for Mechanical Axis Restoration in Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent advances in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) include an
      intelligent instrument system designed to provide intraoperative guidance to
      reduce mechanical alignment errors. Internal position-sensing technology is
      integrated into microelectronic pods that attach to cutting blocks. The purpose
      of this prospective, randomized study was to determine whether this iAssist
      system enables the surgeon to make more accurate bone resections and better
      restore the mechanical axis compared to conventional instruments in TKA. METHODS:
      We randomized patients undergoing TKA into 2 groups. Group I (n = 25) underwent
      TKA assisted by the iAssist guidance system, group II (n = 25) underwent TKA
      using conventional instruments. Preoperative and postoperative mechanical axes
      were measured from full-length lower extremity radiographs to evaluate alignment.
      Additional surgical parameters were also assessed, including tourniquet time and
      blood loss. RESULTS: Patient demographics and preoperative mechanical axis
      alignments were similar between the groups. Postoperatively, 4.0% of patients had
      greater than 3 degrees  of tibial or femoral component mal-alignment in the
      guidance-assisted cohort, compared with 36.0% in the conventional group (P <
      .05). Additionally, group I showed significant improvement in variance seen in
      both the femoral mechanical axis (1.65 degrees  +/- 0.17 degrees  vs 2.23 degrees
      +/- 0.33 degrees , P < .005) and tibial mechanical axis (1.28 degrees  +/- 0.13
      degrees  vs 1.71 degrees  +/- 0.24 degrees , P < .005) compared to group II.
      There were no significant differences in tourniquet time (P = .86) or blood loss
      (P = .39) between groups. CONCLUSION: Use of the iAssist system in TKA results in
      an improved postoperative mechanical axis and decreased alignment variability
      compared to conventional instruments, without significantly increasing operative
      time.

PMID- 28867521
TI  - Vacuolar ATPase in phago(lyso)some biology.
AB  - Many eukaryotic cells ingest extracellular particles in a process termed
      phagocytosis which entails the generation of a new intracellular compartment, the
      phagosome. Phagosomes change their composition over time and this maturation
      process culminates in their fusion with acidic, hydrolase-rich lysosomes. During
      the maturation process, degradation and, when applicable, killing of the cargo
      may ensue. Many of the events that are pathologically relevant depend on strong
      acidification of phagosomes by the 'vacuolar' ATPase (V-ATPase). This protein
      complex acidifies the lumen of some intracellular compartments at the expense of
      ATP hydrolysis. We discuss here the roles and importance of V-ATPase in
      intracellular trafficking, its distribution, inhibition and activities, its role
      in the defense against microorganisms and the counteractivities of pathogens.

PMID- 28867522
TI  - Do amyloid structures formed by Staphylococcus aureus phenol-soluble modulins
      have a biological function?
AB  - Phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs) are alpha-helical, amphipathic peptides that have
      multiple functions in staphylococcal physiology and virulence. Recent research
      has suggested that PSMs form amyloid fibrils and amyloids are involved in PSM
      mediated phenotypes such as cytolysis and biofilm stability. While we observed
      PSM amyloid formation using electron microscopy and dye assays, there were no
      apparent differences in the production of extracellular fibrous material between
      a PSM-deficient strain and the isogenic wild-type strain. Furthermore, we
      detected no correlation between cytolytic or pro-inflammatory activities with the
      propensity of PSM derivatives to form amyloids. In addition, we propose a model
      based on our finding of non-specific attachment of PSMs to DNA, which we here
      report results in resistance to DNase digestion, explaining previous findings on
      PSM-mediated biofilm stability without the necessity to assume amyloid
      involvement. Collectively, our results indicate that PSM amyloid formation may
      not be of major relevance for known key biological functions of PSMs.
      Intriguingly, however, we found that amyloid-forming capacity of PSMalpha3 allows
      almost no amino acid exchanges, suggesting importance of amyloid formation in
      possibly yet unknown functions of PSMs.

PMID- 28867523
TI  - Drip-and-Ship Thrombolytic Therapy for Acute Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neuroendovascular therapy is a common treatment for patients with
      acute ischemic stroke of the anterior circulation who fail to respond to
      recombinant tissue plasminogen activator. However, although most hospitals can
      provide recombinant tissue plasminogen activator therapy, many cannot perform
      neuroendovascular therapy. Thus, use of a drip-and-ship treatment-liaison system
      allowing recombinant tissue plasminogen activator-treated patients to be
      transferred to facilities offering neuroendovascular therapy is important.
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 16 drip-and-ship patients transferred to our
      hospital for additional neuroendovascular therapy after they received intravenous
      recombinant tissue plasminogen activator at prior hospitals between June 2009 and
      March 2017. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 68 +/- 17 years. Ten patients had
      cardiogenic embolism and 6 had atherothrombosis. Additional neuroendovascular
      therapy was performed in 14 patients. Median National Institute of Health Stroke
      Scale and diffusion-weighted image-Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed
      Tomography Scores before recombinant tissue plasminogen activator therapy were 14
      and 8, respectively. Occluded or stenotic lesions of the cerebral arteries were
      detected by magnetic resonance angiography in the internal carotid artery (n =
      4), middle cerebral artery (n = 10), and basilar artery (n = 3) (1 patient had
      tandem lesions). Mean intervals from onset-to-recombinant tissue plasminogen
      activator, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator-to-our hospital (door), door
      to-puncture, and onset-to-recanalization were 166, 65, 32, and 334 minutes,
      respectively. No patients showed symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage.
      CONCLUSIONS: Magnetic resonance imaging/angiography performed in previous
      hospitals allows initiation of reperfusion therapy immediately after transfer.
      Thus, drip-and-ship plus neuroendovascular therapy is a safe and useful system
      for treatment of patients with acute infarcts.

PMID- 28867524
TI  - Severity of White Matter Lesions Correlates with Subcortical Diffusion-Weighted
      Imaging Abnormalities and Predicts Stroke Risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The severity of white matter lesions (WMLs) has been
      strongly linked to small-vessel diseases or lacunar infarction. The present study
      aimed to investigate the correlation between severity of WMLs and distribution of
      diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) hyperintensities, and to explore whether the
      severity of WMLs is an independent neuroimaging predictor of stroke risk after
      transient symptoms with infarction (TSI). METHODS: We evaluated the presence and
      severity of WMLs on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences using the age
      related white matter changes scale and the location and size of hyperintensities
      on DWI sequences, respectively, in a prospective cohort study of TSI patients.
      The primary end point was recurrent stroke within 90 days. RESULTS: A total of
      191 consecutive TSI patients were eligible for inclusion in the present analysis.
      The average age of the patients was 57.3 +/- 12.8 years. DWI abnormalities
      occurred more often in the deep white matter with increasing severity of WMLs (P
      < .001). During 90-day follow-up, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that recurrent
      stroke was correlated to the severity of WMLs (P = .01). The Cox proportional
      hazards model revealed that WMLs were predictive of recurrent stroke (hazard
      ratio, 1.748; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-2.634; P = .008). CONCLUSIONS: Severe
      WMLs were correlated with DWI hyperintensities in the deep white matter in TSI
      patients and contributed to an increased risk of recurrent stroke.

PMID- 28867525
TI  - A customised digitally engineered solution for fixed dental rehabilitation in
      severe bone deficiency: A new innovative line extension in implant dentistry.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Numerous procedures including soft and hard tissue reconstructions
      are necessary to allow for final implant-borne dental rehabilitation in patients
      with severe alveolar atrophy or resected jaws. In these cases, customised
      digitally engineered patient solutions for fixed or removable dental
      rehabilitation provide an innovative line extension to conventional implant
      dentistry. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A wax-up was performed on plaster models that
      were scanned by 3D laser. The generated stereolithographic files were then fused
      with the preoperative 3D imaging data. The individualised "dental" patient
      solutions were designed digitally and comprised a skeletonised anchorage system
      and a suprastructure connection system. Insertion of the implants was performed
      on an outpatient basis. Conventional implant-supported prosthodontic
      rehabilitation was performed. RESULTS: This digital planning algorithm can be
      applied to manufacture individualised patient solutions. Similar to conventional
      implant-supported dentures, these implants can be equipped with individual
      suprastructure connection systems for internal conical connection, ball-retained
      attachment, and external conical (telescopic) connection. CONCLUSIONS: In
      patients with severe atrophy or resected jaws, particularly following ablative
      tumour surgery, customised digitally engineered solutions allow for an
      innovative, less invasive line extension to conventional implant dentistry. When
      conventional implant dentistry reaches its limits, they still offer a strategy
      for implant-borne dental rehabilitation.

PMID- 28867527
TI  - Is babesiosis the most common transfusion transmitted infection in the United
      States of America? The answer is not simple!

PMID- 28867528
TI  - Corrigendum to 'U.S. Population Data for 29 Autosomal STR Loci' [Forensic Sci.
      Int. Genet. 7 (2013) e82-e83].

PMID- 28867526
TI  - From Original Antigenic Sin to the Universal Influenza Virus Vaccine.
AB  - Antibody responses are essential for protection against influenza virus
      infection. Humans are exposed to a multitude of influenza viruses throughout
      their lifetime and it is clear that immune history influences the magnitude and
      quality of the antibody response. The 'original antigenic sin' concept refers to
      the impact of the first influenza virus variant encounter on lifelong immunity.
      Although this model has been challenged since its discovery, past exposure, and
      likely one's first exposure, clearly affects the epitopes targeted in subsequent
      responses. Understanding how previous exposure to influenza virus shapes antibody
      responses to vaccination and infection is critical, especially with the prospect
      of future pandemics and for the effective development of a universal influenza
      vaccine.

PMID- 28867529
TI  - One hundred and forty five total laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomies: A single
      centre experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy (LPD) remains one of the most
      challenging minimal invasive operations today. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between
      January 2007 and December 2016, 197 patients were scheduled for LPD but 162
      patients (from January 2007 to July 2016) were analysed in this cohort series.
      RESULTS: Total LPD concerned for 162 patients (five patients did not undergo PD
      and 12 underwent conversion): standard LPD in 104 patients (66%), and
      laparoscopic pylorus-preserving PD in 41 patients (26%). Median operative time
      was 415 (240-765) min. Median blood loss was 200 (50-2100) ml. Twelve patients
      required blood transfusion. Clinically relevant pancreatic fistula (ISGPF grades
      B and C) occurred in 21 (13%) patients: 16 (10.0%) grade B, and 5 (3%) grade C.
      Grades B and C delayed gastric emptying occurred in five patients each. Grades B
      and C post-pancreatectomy bleeding occurred in 9 (5.7%) and 3 (1.9%) patients,
      respectively. LPD was performed for 18 (11.4%) benign and 139 (88.5%) malignant
      lesions. Superior mesenteric and/or portal vein involvement required major venous
      resection in eight patients. The 90-day mortality 5.0%. The median overall
      survival for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was 22.5 months. CONCLUSION:
      Morbidity and mortality for LPD are comparable to open procedures rates in the
      literature. Laparoscopic major venous resection is feasible and safe.

PMID- 28867530
TI  - Clinical and microbiological profile of diabetic foot ulcer patients in a
      tertiary care hospital.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the clinical and microbiological profile of diabetic foot ulcer
      patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital. METHODOLOGY: This study recruited
      120 diabetic foot ulcer patients of all grade. Their medical records were
      evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS: We found that median age of patient was
      60(52, 67.75) years. 68.3% of patients were males. Median duration of diabetes
      mellitus was 15(10, 20) years. Mean HbA1C and fasting glucose was 10.3+/-2.3 and
      167.6+/-52.42 respectively. Neuropathy (35%) and peripheral vascular disease
      (23.3%) was major micro vascular and macro vascular complication associated.
      Different locations of ulcers were toe (23.3%), sole (20%), dorsum (18.3%), shin
      (16.6%), heel (13.3%), and ankle (8.3%). Bacterial infection was seen in 81.66%
      patients out of which 23.3% had poly microbial infection. CONCLUSION: Diabetic
      foot ulcer patient had poor blood glucose control with elevated HbA1C and fasting
      blood glucose level. Neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease, hypertension
      were major complications. Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa were
      common infecting bacteria.

PMID- 28867531
TI  - [Acute management of ischemic stroke in 2017].
AB  - Acute management of ischemic stroke is a burning topic in 2017 since stroke
      represents the leading cause of acquired handicap in adults. Over the last past
      years, major improvement took place, especially with the demonstration of the
      efficacy of mechanical thrombectomy, thus needing to better organize care
      pathways, and optimize access to neurologists and interventional neuroradiology
      platforms. Intensive care stroke units remain the pivotal place of patients'
      management. A multidisciplinary coordination is required, with continuous
      teaching of all the actors involved in stroke management, so as to increase the
      number of patients who could benefit from available active treatments.

PMID- 28867532
TI  - [Eosinophilia heralding the diagnosis of eosinophilic fasciitis (Shulman's
      disease)].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Eosinophilic fasciitis or Shulman's disease is characterized, in
      its typical form, by palpable thickening of the skin and soft tissues, blood
      hypereosinophilia and fascia lesions. We hereby report a case of eosinophilic
      fasciitis in which hypereosinophilia preceded for several months the clinical
      signs of fasciitis. CASE REPORT: A 64-year-old woman, with a history of Little's
      syndrome with motor disability, was admitted in internal medicine for
      eosinophilia. For almost three months, no origin to the eosinophilia was found.
      The secondary onset of an edema and pain located on four limbs led to the
      diagnosis of eosinophilic fasciitis. Muscle magnetic resonance imaging was
      supportive and the muscle histological analysis confirmed the diagnosis of
      eosinophilic fasciitis. Treatment with steroids induced a rapid normalization of
      the eosinophilia and edema. CONCLUSION: In this case report, eosinophilia was
      preceding the clinical cutaneous signs that led to the diagnosis of eosinophilic
      fasciitis. It is likely to believe that myalgias, frequently found in the onset
      of eosinophilic fasciitis, may have been hidden by the history of infantile
      encephalopathy. The diagnosis of eosinophilic fasciitis must be kept in mind of
      physicians in the investigation of an eosinophilia, even though cutaneous signs
      are lacking.

PMID- 28867533
TI  - [Primary intestinal lymphangiectasia (Waldmann's disease)].
AB  - Primary intestinal lymphangiectasia (PIL), Waldmann's disease, is a rare disorder
      of unknown etiology characterized by dilated intestinal lacteals leading to lymph
      leakage into the small-bowel lumen and responsible for protein-losing enteropathy
      leading to lymphopenia, hypoalbuminemia and hypogammaglobulinemia. PIL is
      generally diagnosed before 3 years of age but may be diagnosed in older patients.
      The main symptom is bilateral lower limb edema. Edema may be moderate to severe
      including pleural effusion, pericarditis or ascites. Protein-losing enteropathy
      is confirmed by the elevated 24-h stool alpha1-antitrypsin clearance and
      diagnosis by endoscopic observation of intestinal lymphangiectasia with the
      corresponding histology of biopsies. Videocapsule endoscopy may be useful when
      endoscopic findings are not contributive. Several B-cell lymphomas of the
      gastrointestinal tract or with extra-intestinal localizations were reported in
      PIL patients. A long-term strictly low-fat diet associated with medium-chain
      triglyceride and liposoluble vitamin supplementation is the cornerstone of PIL
      medical management. Octreotide, a somatostatin analog, have been proposed with an
      inconsistent efficacy in association with diet. Surgical small-bowel resection is
      useful in the rare cases with segmental and localized intestinal
      lymphangiectasia. A prolonged clinical and biological follow-up is recommended.

PMID- 28867534
TI  - [Vitamin K antagonist-induced necrotic leg ulcer, without protein C and S
      deficiencies].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients treated by vitamin K antagonists (VKA) represent 1% of the
      population in France. We report a case of atypical necrotic leg ulcers induced by
      VKA. CASE REPORT: A 84-year-old woman was referred to our dermatology department
      because of necrotic leg ulcers that developed for the past 5weeks, and appeared
      spontaneously after the introduction of a VKA, fluindione. The etiological
      assessment was non contributive, in particular the search for thrombophilic
      factors. The skin biopsy found an aspect compatible with pyoderma gangrenosum.
      The outcome was favorable after discontinuing the fluindione and the switch to
      apixaban. A complete healing was obtained in 5months. CONCLUSION: We report an
      original case of necrotic leg ulcers induced by VKA without deficit of protein C
      or S, with a pyoderma like histology. Reported cases of ulcers induced by VKA are
      uncommon and the physiopathology is not well known. The involvement of VKA should
      be evoked in case of necrotic leg ulcer without specific etiology found.

PMID- 28867536
TI  - Nitric oxide and CaMKII: Critical steps in the cardiac contractile response To
      IGF-1 and swim training.
AB  - Cardiac adaptation to endurance training includes improved contractility by a non
      yet clarified mechanism. Since IGF-1 is the main mediator of the physiological
      response to exercise, we explored its effect on cardiac contractility and the
      putative involvement of nitric oxide (NO) and CaMKII in control and swim-trained
      mice. IGF-1 increased cardiomyocyte shortening (128.1+/-4.6% vs. basal; p?0.05)
      and accelerated relaxation (time to 50% relengthening: 49.2+/-2.0% vs. basal;
      p?0.05), effects abrogated by inhibition of: AKT with MK-2206, NO production with
      the NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor L-NAME and the specific NOS1 inhibitor
      nitroguanidine (NG), and CaMKII with KN-93. In agreement, an increase in NO in
      response to IGF-1 (133.8+/-2.2%) was detected and prevented by both L-NAME and NG
      but not KN-93, suggesting that CaMKII activation was downstream NO. In addition,
      we determined CaMKII activity (P-CaMKII) and phosphorylation of its target, Thr17
      PLN. IGF-1, by a NO-dependent mechanism, significantly increased both (227.2+/
      29.4% and 145.3+/-5.4%, respectively) while no changes in the CaMKII
      phosphorylation site of ryanodine receptor were evident. The improvement in
      contractility induced by IGF-1 was associated with increased Ca2+ transient
      amplitude, rate of decay and SR content. Interestingly, this response was absent
      in cardiomyocytes from transgenic mice that express a CaMKII inhibitory peptide
      (AC3-I strain). Moreover, AC3-I mice subjected to swim training did develop
      physiological cardiac hypertrophy but not the contractile adaptation. Therefore,
      we conclude that NO-dependent CaMKII activation plays a critical role in the
      improvement in contractility induced by IGF-1 and exercise training.
      Interestingly, this pathway would not contribute to the adaptive hypertrophy.

PMID- 28867535
TI  - Innate Lymphoid Cell Immunometabolism.
AB  - Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are tissue-resident "first responders" of the immune
      system that function to protect epithelial barriers against pathogens and
      maintain tissue homeostasis. However, because ILCs are finely tuned to
      perturbations within tissue microenvironments, they can also contribute to host
      pathology when upstream activating signals are dysregulated. Recent work has
      demonstrated that the crosstalk between ILCs and their environment has a
      significant impact on host metabolism in health and disease. In this brief
      review, we summarize recent studies that demonstrate the ability of ILCs to
      influence tissue and systemic metabolism, as well as how ILC biology can be
      regulated by environmental changes in host metabolism. We also highlight studies
      showing how ILC-intrinsic metabolism influences their activation, proliferation,
      and homeostasis. Finally, this review discusses the challenges and open questions
      in the rapidly expanding field of immunometabolism.

PMID- 28867537
TI  - Thermal injury of the skin induces G-CSF-dependent attenuation of EPO-mediated
      STAT signaling and erythroid differentiation arrest in mice.
AB  - Inflammation-mediated impairment of erythropoiesis plays a central role in the
      development of the anemia of critical illness (ACI). ACI develops despite
      elevation of endogenous erythropoietin (EPO), does not respond to exogenous
      erythropoietin (EPO) supplementation, and contributes significantly to
      transfusion requirements in burned patients. We have reported previously that the
      reduction of red blood cell mass in the bone marrow of a burn-injured ACI mouse
      model is granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) dependent. Given that
      elevated G-CSF levels also have been associated with lower hemoglobin levels and
      increased transfusion requirements in trauma victims, we postulated that G-CSF
      mediates postburn EPO resistance. In ACI mice, we found that bone marrow
      erythroid differentiation, viability, and proliferation are impaired after
      thermal injury of the skin. These changes in the marrow were associated with
      attenuated phosphorylation of known EPO-responsive signaling nodes, signal
      transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) Y694 and STAT3 S727, in bone
      marrow erythroid cells and developed despite highly elevated levels of endogenous
      EPO. Severely blunted STAT5 Y694 phosphorylation in bone marrow erythroid cells
      after exogenous EPO supplementation confirmed that EPO signaling was impaired in
      ACI mice. Importantly, parenteral administration of anti-G-CSF largely rescued
      postburn bone marrow erythroid differentiation arrest and EPO signaling in
      erythroid cells. Together, these data provide strong evidence for a role for G
      CSF in the development of ACI after burn injury through suppression of EPO
      signaling in bone marrow erythroid cells.

PMID- 28867538
TI  - Attention bias modification reduces neural correlates of response monitoring.
AB  - The error-related negativity (ERN) is an electrophysiological response to errors.
      Individual differences in the ERN have been posited to reflect sensitivity to
      threat and linked with risk for anxiety disorders. Attention bias modification is
      a promising computerized intervention that has been shown to decrease threat
      biases and anxiety symptoms. In the present study, we examined the impact of a
      single session of attention bias modification, relative to a control task, on the
      neural correlates of response monitoring, including the ERN, correct response
      negativity (CRN), and their difference (i.e., the ERN - CRN or DeltaERN). The
      final sample included 60 participants who first completed a flanker task to
      elicit the ERN and CRN, and were then randomly assigned to attention bias
      modification (n=30) or a control task (n=30). After completing the attention bias
      modification or control task, participants completed the same flanker task to
      again elicit the ERN and CRN. Among participants who completed attention bias
      modification training, the ERN, CRN, and DeltaERN decreased from the pre- to post
      training assessment. In contrast, in participants who completed the control task,
      the CRN, ERN, and DeltaERN did not differ between the pre- and post-training
      assessment. The presents study suggests that a single session of attention bias
      modification reduces neural correlates of response monitoring, including error
      related brain activity. These results also support attention bias modification as
      a potential mechanistic-based intervention for the prevention and treatment of
      anxiety pathology.

PMID- 28867539
TI  - Fear acquisition and liking of out-group and in-group members: Learning bias or
      attention?
AB  - The present study explores the notion of an out-group fear learning bias that is
      characterized by facilitated fear acquisition toward harm-doing out-group
      members. Participants were conditioned with two in-group and two out-group faces
      as conditioned stimuli. During acquisition, one in-group and one out-group face
      was paired with an aversive shock whereas the other in-group and out-group face
      was presented without shock. Psychophysiological measures of fear conditioning
      (skin conductance and pupil size) and explicit and implicit liking exhibited
      increased differential responding to out-group faces compared to in-group faces.
      However, the results did not clearly indicate that harm-doing out-group members
      were more readily associated with fear than harm-doing in-group members. In
      contrast, the out-group face not paired with shock decreased conditioned fear and
      disliking at least to the same extent that the shock-associated out-group face
      increased these measures. Based on these results, we suggest an account of the
      out-group fear learning bias that relates to an attentional bias to process in
      group information.

PMID- 28867540
TI  - Finding hidden treasures in old drugs: the challenges and importance of licensing
      generics.
AB  - Identifying new indications for existing drugs creates new therapeutic options
      while bypassing much of the costs and time involved with bringing a new drug to
      market. The rediscovery of a generic drug, however, is a challenging pursuit
      because there is no formal regulatory approach and a lack of economic interest by
      pharmaceutical companies. This played a part in the re-registration of
      thioguanine as a rescue drug for the treatment of patients with inflammatory
      bowel disease in The Netherlands. In this article, we aim to underline the
      importance of drug rediscovery, the difficulties of this procedure in Europe and
      we attempt to suggest conceivable solutions.

PMID- 28867541
TI  - miR-107-mediated decrease of HMGCS2 indicates poor outcomes and promotes cell
      migration in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Mitochondrial 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase (HMGCS2) has been
      implicated in human cancers, but its role and clinical significance in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown. Here, we show that HMGCS2 is
      downregulated and exhibits antimetastatic potential in HCC. Low expression of
      HMGCS2 was associated with poor tumor differentiation, vascular invasion and
      worse overall and disease-free survivals in two independent cohorts consisting of
      743 cases. In vitro data demonstrated HMGCS2 overexpression suppressed, whereas
      HMGCS2 silence promoted HCC cell migration via Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
      (EMT) process and the activation of ERK/c-Jun signaling pathway. Inhibition of
      ERK phosphorylation by PD098059 markedly attenuated the malignant phenotypes
      mediated by HMGCS2 siRNA. Furthermore, miR-107 was identified as an upstream
      regulator of HMGCS2 via directly targeting the 3'-UTR of HMGCS2 mRNA.
      Collectively, our findings suggest HMGCS2 serve as a promising prognostic
      biomarker and exert anti-tumor activity towards HCC, and therefore provide a
      potential target for HCC clinical intervention.

PMID- 28867542
TI  - Use Only as Directed.

PMID- 28867543
TI  - Clinical outcomes of hypofractionated radiation therapy for choroidal metastases:
      Symptom palliation, tumor control, and survival.
AB  - PURPOSE: External beam radiation therapy (RT) is an effective palliative
      treatment for patients with choroidal metastases and is aimed at preserving
      vision and obtaining local tumor control. Delivery of 30 to 40 Gy in 2-Gy daily
      fractions is a standard approach at many centers. This study reports the outcomes
      of a hypofractionated schedule of 20 Gy in 5 fractions in this palliative
      setting. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We conducted a retrospective review of patients
      who were treated with RT (20 Gy in 5 fractions) for choroidal metastases between
      January 1999 and November 2012. The primary outcome measures were change in
      visual acuity and tumor response. Secondary outcomes included toxicities of RT,
      tumor control, and overall survival (OS) from diagnosis of choroidal metastases.
      Univariate and multivariable Cox regression modeling was used to investigate the
      predictors for OS. RESULTS: Fifty-five patients with 71 affected eyes were
      included. Decreased vision was the presenting symptom in 43 eyes (61%). Visual
      acuity improved from a median of 20/70 at baseline to 20/40 at last follow-up and
      remained stable or improved in 56 eyes (80%). Tumor regression was observed in 64
      eyes (91%) with complete response in 47 eyes (67%). Local progression occurred in
      4 eyes (6%). The median survival after diagnosis of choroidal metastases was 13
      months. No acute complications were observed in 49 patients (89%). Mild acute
      toxicities included transitory dryness in 5 patients and episcleritis in 1
      patient. Cataracts, retinopathy, optic neuropathy, pigmentary maculopathy, and
      neovascular glaucoma developed in 4 eyes (6%), 1 eye, 7 eyes (10%), 5 eyes (7%),
      and 1 eye, respectively. No variables were statistically significantly associated
      with OS. CONCLUSIONS: A short fractionation schedule of 20 Gy in 5 fractions is a
      well-tolerated treatment that effectively preserves vision and gains local tumor
      control for many patients with choroidal metastases. This hypofractionated
      approach would help reduce the burden of a longer treatment course in this
      palliative patient population.

PMID- 28867544
TI  - Standardization of radiation therapy dose for locally advanced non-small cell
      lung cancer through changes to a lung cancer clinical pathway in a large,
      integrated comprehensive cancer center network.
AB  - PURPOSE: The results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0617, which
      randomized patients with stages IIIA/IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to
      definitive chemoradiation therapy to 60 Gy versus 74 Gy, demonstrated a
      detrimental survival impact with high-dose radiation therapy. We evaluated the
      impact of changes to a provider-driven clinical pathway (CP) guiding management
      of NSCLC on practice throughout our cancer center network. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      In 2001, we implemented a CP for management of stage IIIA/IIIB NSCLC with
      definitive chemoradiation therapy. In 2013, the CP for NSCLC was amended
      (amendment 1) to allow a dose range of 60 to 74 Gy. The CP was amended (amendment
      2) in January 2016 to specify a dose range of 60 to 70 Gy. Higher doses were
      considered off-pathway and subject to peer review. Data from decisions entered
      from 2012 to 2016 were obtained. RESULTS: From 2012 until publication of RTOG
      0617 in February 2015, the median prescription dose was 66 Gy delivered in 1.8 to
      2.1 Gy fractions. Doses <=66 Gy were prescribed for 52% of patients. From
      February 2015 to September 2016, the median prescription dose was 60 Gy, and 91%
      of prescription doses were <=66 Gy. After amendment 2, 99% of decisions were <=66
      Gy. Dose <=66 Gy was associated with treatment following publication of 0617 (P <
      .001) and treatment after amendment 2 (P < .001). On multivariable analysis,
      treatment after amendment 2 was associated with dose <=66 Gy (odds ratio, 9.9;
      95% confidence interval, 5.2-19.0; P < .001). The percentage of lung receiving 20
      Gy was lower following publication of 0617 (P < .001). There was no difference in
      the percentage of heart receiving 40 Gy. CONCLUSIONS: CPs eliminate variations in
      practice that lead to inferior outcomes. Recognizing that our CP for definitive
      treatment of patients with locally advanced NSCLC allowed heterogeneous dose
      prescriptions, we modified the CP based on the publication of RTOG 0617. We found
      that the CP was a tool to ensure patients receive evidence-based care across a
      large cancer center network.

PMID- 28867545
TI  - Never too old: A single-institution experience of stereotactic body radiation
      therapy for patients 90 years and older with early stage lung cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report on the patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics of
      patients aged 90 years or older who were treated with lung stereotactic body
      radiation therapy (SBRT) for early stage lung cancer and the resulting clinical
      outcomes. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We surveyed our institutional review board
      approved prospective lung SBRT data registry for patients aged 90 years or older
      who were treated for early stage lung cancer to determine the rates of local
      failure, progression-free survival, and overall survival as well as treatment
      related toxicity. RESULTS: For the 2004 to 2016 time period, 19 patients (of a
      total of 1268 lung SBRT cases) were identified. The median age at treatment was
      91.6 years (range, 90-97 years). Most patients were female (52.6%) and former
      smokers (78.9%). The median tumor size was 2.1 cm (range, 1.5-5.4 cm). Tissue was
      obtained for diagnosis in 68.4% of patients, with the predominant histology being
      adenocarcinoma (42.2%). Six patients (31.6%) had central lesions. The median
      follow-up for all patients was 17.3 months. The median SBRT schedule was 50 Gy in
      5 fractions over 5 consecutive days and was used in 9 cases (47.4%). The median
      pre-SBRT and 6-month post-SBRT pulmonary testing showed that the forced
      expiratory volume in one second, as the percent predicted, was 81.9 and 84.5 and
      the diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide, as the percent
      predicted, was 66.5 and 67, respectively. No grade 3 or higher toxicities were
      observed. The 2-year rates of local failure, progression-free survival, and
      overall survival were 5.6%, 48.6%, and 47.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Lung
      SBRT appears to be safe and effective in nonagenarians with stage I lung cancer.
      The absence of high-grade toxicities and mortality warrants its consideration as
      the primary curative modality in this population.

PMID- 28867546
TI  - Reirradiation of thoracic cancers with intensity modulated proton therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Reirradiation of thoracic malignancies is a treatment challenge, with
      concerns for toxicity and the inability to deliver definitive doses. Intensity
      modulated proton therapy (IMPT) may allow safe delivery of a higher dose of
      radiation to the tumor while minimizing toxicities. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      Between 2011 and 2016, 27 patients who received IMPT for reirradiation of
      thoracic malignancies with definitive intent were retrospectively analyzed.
      Patients were included if they received a prior thoracic radiation course. All
      doses were recalculated to an equivalent dose in 2-Gy fractions (EQD2). Patients
      received IMPT to a median dose of 66 EQD2 Gy (range, 43.2-84 Gy) for recurrence
      of thoracic cancer (93%) or sequentially after a course of thoracic stereotactic
      ablative radiation therapy (7%). RESULTS: Twenty-two patients (81%) were treated
      for non-small cell lung cancer. The median time to reirradiation was 29.5 months.
      At a median follow-up for all patients of 11.2 months (25.9 surviving patients),
      the median overall survival was 18.0 months, with a 1-year overall survival of
      54%. Four patients (15%) experienced an in-field local failure (LF), with a 1
      year freedom from LF rate of 78%. The 1-year freedom from locoregional failure
      and 1-year progression-free survival rates were 61% and 51%, respectively.
      Patients who received 66 EQD2 Gy or higher had improved 1-year freedom from LF
      (100% vs 49%; P = .013), 1-year freedom from locoregional failure (84% vs 23%; P
      = .035), and 1-year progression-free survival (76% vs 14%; P = .050).
      Reirradiation was well tolerated, with only 2 patients (7%) experiencing late
      grade 3 pulmonary toxicity, and none with grade 3 or higher esophagitis. There
      were no grade 4-5 toxicities. CONCLUSIONS: These data represent the largest
      series of patients treated with IMPT for definitive reirradiation of thoracic
      cancers. They demonstrate that IMPT provided durable local control with minimal
      toxicity and suggest that higher doses may improve outcomes.

PMID- 28867547
TI  - Stereotactic radiosurgery for treatment of multiple brain metastases: Remembering
      to spare the hippocampus?: In Regard to Zhang et al.

PMID- 28867548
TI  - Treatment of bilateral breast cancer and regional nodes using an opposed lateral
      beam arrangement.

PMID- 28867549
TI  - The upper and lower segments of subscapularis muscle have different roles in
      glenohumeral joint functioning.
AB  - Subscapularis muscle is divided into two independent segments, upper and lower
      (USUB and LSUB), but the role of each segment in glenohumeral functioning is
      unclear. We compared the electromyographic (EMG) activity of USUB and LSUB during
      a variety of shoulder movements, with and without an external translation force.
      Intramuscular electrodes were inserted in USUB and LSUB segments of 20 adults
      without pathology and EMG activity was measured in stabilization trials (with and
      without an anterior or posterior directed force at the humerus and isometric
      rotations) and two shoulder positions (shoulder neutral, abduction). Maximal
      voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) trials were performed in abduction,
      internal and external rotation of the shoulder. In MVIC trials, USUB showed
      higher activity during internal rotation (p=0.03), whereas LSUB showed higher
      activity during external rotation (p<0.01). In stabilization trials, the
      interaction effects were significant for muscle segment*condition (p<0.01), and
      approached significance for muscle segment*position (p=0.06). In the neutral
      position, the pattern of activity for LSUB was similar to USUB. In the abducted
      position the LSUB, unlike USUB, was more active during external rotation (p=0.06)
      and also showed increased activity in response to the posterior directed force at
      the humerus (p=0.04). Our results suggest that USUB primarily acts asan agonist
      for internal rotation. In contrast LSUB was particularly active in external
      rotation in the abducted position and demonstrated increased EMG activity in
      response to the posteriorly directed force at the humerus in that position,
      suggesting more of a role in glenohumeral stabilization.

PMID- 28867551
TI  - Stable Positioning of Unc13 Restricts Synaptic Vesicle Fusion to Defined Release
      Sites to Promote Synchronous Neurotransmission.
AB  - Neural information processing depends on precisely timed, Ca2+-activated synaptic
      vesicle exocytosis from release sites within active zones (AZs), but molecular
      details are unknown. Here, we identify that the (M)Unc13-family member Unc13A
      generates release sites and show the physiological relevance of their restrictive
      AZ targeting. Super-resolution and intravital imaging of Drosophila neuromuscular
      junctions revealed that (unlike the other release factors Unc18 and Syntaxin-1A)
      Unc13A was stably and precisely positioned at AZs. Local Unc13A levels predicted
      single AZ activity. Different Unc13A portions selectively affected release site
      number, position, and functionality. An N-terminal fragment stably localized to
      AZs, displaced endogenous Unc13A, and reduced the number of release sites, while
      a C-terminal fragment generated excessive sites at atypical locations, resulting
      in reduced and delayed evoked transmission that displayed excessive facilitation.
      Thus, release site generation by the Unc13A C terminus and their specific AZ
      localization via the N terminus ensure efficient transmission and prevent
      ectopic, temporally imprecise release.

PMID- 28867550
TI  - Neurotransmitter Switching Regulated by miRNAs Controls Changes in Social
      Preference.
AB  - Changes in social preference of amphibian larvae result from sustained exposure
      to kinship odorants. To understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of this
      neuroplasticity, we investigated the effects of olfactory system activation on
      neurotransmitter (NT) expression in accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) interneurons
      during development. We show that protracted exposure to kin or non-kin odorants
      changes the number of dopamine (DA)- or gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)-expressing
      neurons, with corresponding changes in attraction/aversion behavior. Changing the
      relative number of dopaminergic and GABAergic AOB interneurons or locally
      introducing DA or GABA receptor antagonists alters kinship preference. We then
      isolate AOB microRNAs (miRs) differentially regulated across these conditions.
      Inhibition of miR-375 and miR-200b reveals that they target Pax6 and Bcl11b to
      regulate the dopaminergic and GABAergic phenotypes. The results illuminate the
      role of NT switching governing experience-dependent social preference. VIDEO
      ABSTRACT.

PMID- 28867553
TI  - Cepstral analysis of normal and pathological voice in Spanish adults. Smoothed
      cepstral peak prominence in sustained vowels versus connected speech.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: In recent years, the use of cepstral measures for
      acoustic evaluation of voice has increased. One of the most investigated
      parameters is smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPs). The objectives of this
      paper are to establish the usefulness of this acoustic measure in the objective
      evaluation of alterations of the voice in Spanish and to determine what type of
      voice sample (sustained vowels or connected speech) is the most sensitive in
      evaluating the severity of dysphonia. METHOD: Forty subjects participated in this
      study 40, 20 controls and 20 with dysphonia. Two voice samples were recorded for
      each subject (one sustained vowel/a/and four phonetically balanced sentences) and
      the CPPs was calculated using the Praat programme. Three raters perceptually
      evaluated the voice sample with the Grade parameter of GRABS scale. RESULTS:
      Significantly lower values were found in the dysphonic voices, both for/a/(t[38]=
      4.85, P<.000) and for phrases (t[38] = 5,75, P<.000). In relation to the type of
      voice sample most suitable for evaluating the severity of voice alterations, a
      strong correlation was found with the acoustic-perceptual scale of CPPs
      calculated from connected speech (rs = -0.73) and moderate correlation with that
      calculated from the sustained vowel (rs = -0,56). CONCLUSION: The results of this
      preliminary study suggest that CPPs is a good measure to detect dysphonia and to
      objectively assess the severity of alterations in the voice.

PMID- 28867552
TI  - Connexin 43-Mediated Astroglial Metabolic Networks Contribute to the Regulation
      of the Sleep-Wake Cycle.
AB  - Astrocytes produce and supply metabolic substrates to neurons through gap
      junction-mediated astroglial networks. However, the role of astroglial metabolic
      networks in behavior is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that perturbation of
      astroglial networks impairs the sleep-wake cycle. Using a conditional Cre-Lox
      system in mice, we show that knockout of the gap junction subunit connexin 43 in
      astrocytes throughout the brain causes excessive sleepiness and fragmented
      wakefulness during the nocturnal active phase. This astrocyte-specific genetic
      manipulation silenced the wake-promoting orexin neurons located in the lateral
      hypothalamic area (LHA) by impairing glucose and lactate trafficking through
      astrocytic networks. This global wakefulness instability was mimicked with viral
      delivery of Cre recombinase to astrocytes in the LHA and rescued by in vivo
      injections of lactate. Our findings propose a novel regulatory mechanism critical
      for maintaining normal daily cycle of wakefulness and involving astrocyte-neuron
      metabolic interactions.

PMID- 28867554
TI  - Characterization of atrazine binding to dissolved organic matter of soil under
      different types of land use.
AB  - Atrazine is widely used in agriculture. In this study, dissolved organic matter
      (DOM) from soils under four types of land use (forest (F), meadow (M), cropland
      (C) and wetland (W)) was used to investigate the binding characteristics of
      atrazine. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrix-parallel factor (EEM-PARAFAC)
      analysis, two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) and Stern-Volmer
      model were combined to explore the complexation between DOM and atrazine. The EEM
      PARAFAC indicated that DOM from different sources had different structures, and
      humic-like components had more obvious quenching effects than protein-like
      components. The Stern-Volmer model combined with correlation analysis showed that
      log K values of PARAFAC components had a significant correlation with the
      humification of DOM, especially for C3 component, and they were all in the same
      order as follows: meadow soil (5.68)>wetland soil (5.44)>cropland soil
      (5.35)>forest soil (5.04). The 2D-COS further confirmed that humic-like
      components firstly combined with atrazine followed by protein-like components.
      These findings suggest that DOM components can significantly influence the
      bioavailability, mobility and migration of atrazine in different land uses.

PMID- 28867555
TI  - Lexical access in semantic variant PPA: Evidence for a post-semantic contribution
      to naming deficits.
AB  - The most salient clinical symptom of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia
      (PPA) is a profound and pervasive anomia. These patients' naming impairments have
      been shown to reflect in large part a domain-general deterioration of conceptual
      knowledge that impacts both linguistic and non-linguistic processing. However, it
      is possible that post-semantic stages of lexical access may also contribute to
      naming deficits. To clarify the stages at which lexical access breaks down in
      semantic variant PPA, eleven French-speaking patients were asked to name objects,
      and were then queried for semantic, lexical-syntactic, and word form information
      pertaining to the items they could not name. Specifically, our goal was to
      determine whether patients can access intermediate representations known as
      lemmas, which mediate the arbitrary mapping between semantic representations and
      word forms (phonological and orthographic forms). The French language was chosen
      for this study because nouns in French are marked for grammatical gender, a
      prototypical type of lexical-syntactic information, represented at the level of
      the lemma. Access to word form information is also dependent on lemma access
      under some theoretical views. We found that six of the eleven patients showed
      partial access to either lexical-syntactic properties of unnamed items
      (grammatical gender), word form information (initial letter), or both. Access to
      these types of information suggests that a lemma has been retrieved, implying a
      breakdown at the post-semantic stage of word form retrieval. Our results suggest
      that although degraded conceptual knowledge is the main cause of naming deficits
      in semantic variant PPA, in some patients, a post-semantic component also
      contributes to the impairment.

PMID- 28867556
TI  - Neoantigen Vaccines Pass the Immunogenicity Test.
AB  - Neoantigens arising from tumor-specific genomic alterations constitute authentic
      non-self antigens and represent a new class of targets for cancer immunotherapy.
      Recent reports on various vaccine platforms targeting neoantigens suggest a basis
      for precision therapies customized to each patient's tumor mutational profile.

PMID- 28867557
TI  - Imaging the spatial distribution of radiofrequency field, sample and temperature
      in MAS NMR rotor.
AB  - We investigate using nutation experiments the spatial distribution of
      radiofrequency (rf) field, sample, temperature and cross-polarization transfer
      efficiency in 1.3 mm rotor. First, two-dimensional (2D) 1H nutation experiments
      on silicone thin cylinders in the presence of B0 field gradient generated by shim
      coils are used to image the spatial distribution of rf field inside the rotor.
      These experiments show that the rf field is asymmetrical with respect to the
      center of the rotor. Moreover, they show the large inhomogeneity that still
      remains across the sample when using spacers, and that even in this case, the rf
      field close to the drive cap is decreased to ca. only 20% of its maximum value.
      Such 2D nutation experiment in the presence of B0 field gradient are also
      employed to demonstrate the migration of adamantane sample from the center of the
      rotor to its ends during Magic-Angle Spinning (MAS). Furthermore, 2D 1H nutation
      experiments on nickelocene exhibiting temperature-dependent isotropic chemical
      shift provides insights into the temperature distribution inside rotor. Finally
      three-dimensional (3D) 1H -> 13C Cross-Polarization under MAS (CPMAS) nutation
      experiment indicates that only nuclei subject to the largest rf field contribute
      to the CPMAS transfer, when using rf field of constant amplitude on both
      channels. Such high selectivity allows the determination of accurate dipolar
      coupling constants in the Cross-Polarization with Variable Contact (CP-VC)
      experiment under fast MAS, at the expense of low sensitivity. Conversely when
      using ramped-amplitude on the 1H channel during the CPMAS transfer, nuclei
      subject to smaller rf field contributes to the transfer, which increases the
      sensitivity of CPMAS experiment but does not allow an accurate determination of
      dipolar coupling constants using CP-VC experiment.

PMID- 28867558
TI  - Dose-volume histogram analysis of brainstem necrosis in head and neck tumors
      treated using carbon-ion radiotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate the relationship between brainstem
      necrosis and dose-volume histograms in patients with head and neck tumors after
      carbon-ion radiotherapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We evaluated 85 patients with head
      and neck tumors who underwent carbon-ion radiotherapy and were followed-up for
      >=12months. Brainstem necrosis was evaluated using the Common Terminology
      Criteria for Adverse Events (version 4.0). RESULTS: The median follow-up was
      24months, and four patients developed grade 1 brainstem necrosis, with 2-year and
      3-year cumulative rates of 2.8% and 6.5%, respectively. Receiver operating
      characteristic curve analysis revealed the following significant cut-off values:
      a maximum brainstem dose of 48Gy (relative biological effectiveness [RBE]), D1cm3
      of 27Gy (RBE), V40Gy (RBE) of 0.1cm3, V30Gy (RBE) of 0.7cm3, and V20Gy (RBE) of
      1.4cm3. Multivariate analysis revealed that V30Gy (RBE) was most significantly
      associated with brainstem necrosis. The 2-year cumulative rates were 33% and 0%
      for V30Gy (RBE) of >=0.7cm3 and <0.7cm3, respectively (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The
      present study indicated that the dose constraints might help minimize brainstem
      necrosis after carbon-ion radiotherapy.

PMID- 28867559
TI  - Fighting back against the dilution of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment.

PMID- 28867560
TI  - Prevalence and characteristics of opioid-related deaths involving alcohol in
      Ontario, Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While it is well known that patients receiving opioids should refrain
      from alcohol consumption, little is known about the involvement of alcohol in
      opioid-related deaths. METHODS: We conducted a population-based analysis of
      opioid-related deaths in Ontario with and without alcohol involvement between
      1993 and 2013, and reported rates overall and stratified by manner of death. We
      compared the characteristics of individuals who died of an opioid overdose based
      on the presence or absence of alcohol involvement. RESULTS: The rate of opioid
      related deaths increased 288% from 11.9 per million (95% confidence interval (CI)
      9.8-13.9 per million) in 1993-46.2 per million (95% CI 42.6-49.8 per million) in
      2013. The rate of opioid-related deaths without alcohol involvement increased
      388% from 7.4 per million to 36.1 per million, while deaths involving alcohol
      increased by 125% from 4.5 per million to 10.1 per million. Therefore, although
      the annual number of opioid-related deaths involving alcohol rose, the proportion
      of opioid-related deaths involving alcohol declined from 37.8% in 1993-21.9% by
      2013. Generally, opioid-related deaths involving alcohol were less likely to
      involve other central nervous system depressants, and more likely to occur among
      men and those with a history of alcohol use disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Although the
      relative contribution of alcohol in opioid-related deaths has declined, 1 in 5
      fatal opioid overdoses still involved alcohol in 2013. Our findings highlight the
      ongoing need for targeted messaging around risks of opioids alone, and in
      combination with alcohol and other CNS depressants.

PMID- 28867561
TI  - Depressive Symptoms and Low Sexual Desire after Radical Prostatectomy: Early and
      Long-Term Outcomes in a Real-Life Setting.
AB  - PURPOSE: We assessed the rate and predictors of depressive symptoms and impaired
      sexual desire in patients who underwent open or robot-assisted radical
      prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 811 patients completed IIEF
      (International Index of Erectile Function) and BDI (Beck Depression Inventory)
      preoperatively, and 6, 12, 24 and 36 months postoperatively. Rates and predictors
      of depressive symptoms and impaired sexual desire were assessed with descriptive
      statistics and logistic regression models. RESULTS: We analyzed data on 416
      patients treated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and 395 who underwent
      open radical prostatectomy. Overall the incidence of patients with postoperative
      BDI scores suggestive of depressive symptoms ranged between 26.3% at 6 months and
      36.7% at 36 months. BDI scores were significantly higher in open than in robot
      assisted radical prostatectomy cases at every analyzed postoperative time point
      (all p <0.01). Patients treated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy showed
      higher IIEF-EF (Erectile Function) domain scores and a greater proportion of them
      experienced erectile function recovery at each time point compared to those
      treated with open radical prostatectomy (all p <0.005). Postoperatively the rate
      of impaired sexual desire ranged between 40.9% at 6 months and 34.1% at 24
      months. IIEF-SD (Sexual Domain) scores were significantly lower in open radical
      prostatectomy cases at every followup (all p <0.02). Age, open radical
      prostatectomy and postoperative erectile dysfunction were independent predictors
      of BDI scores and impaired sexual desire. CONCLUSIONS: One of 3 men surgically
      treated for prostate cancer still report depressive symptoms months after
      surgery. Patients who undergo robot-assisted radical prostatectomy reported lower
      depressive symptoms than those treated with open radical prostatectomy. Sexual
      desire was highly affected after radical prostatectomy with greater impairment
      reported by patients who underwent open radical prostatectomy.

PMID- 28867562
TI  - Long-Term Antitumor Activity and Safety of Enzalutamide Monotherapy in Hormone
      Naive Prostate Cancer: 3-Year Open Label Followup Results.
AB  - PURPOSE: A phase 2 study of enzalutamide monotherapy in patients with hormone
      naive prostate cancer demonstrated high prostate specific antigen response rates
      at 25 weeks, 1 year and 2 years with minimal effects on total body bone mineral
      density and favorable safety. In this followup analysis we evaluated enzalutamide
      antitumor activity and safety at 3 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a single arm
      analysis 67 patients with hormone naive prostate cancer and noncastrate
      testosterone (230 ng/dl or greater) received enzalutamide 160 mg per day orally
      until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point was the
      prostate specific antigen response (80% or greater decline from baseline).
      RESULTS: No patients discontinued treatment during year 3. Of 42 patients with
      prostate specific antigen assessments at 3 years 38 (90.5%, 95% CI 77.4-97.3)
      maintained a prostate specific antigen response. Of 26 patients with metastases
      at baseline 17 (65.4%) had a complete or partial response as the best overall
      response during 3 years. In patients who completed the 3-year visit minimal mean
      changes from baseline were observed in total body bone mineral density or bone
      mineral density of the femoral neck, trochanter, spine L1-L4 or forearm (range 
      2.7% to -0.1%). At 3 years total body fat had increased a mean of 16.5%, total
      lean body mass had decreased a mean of -6.5% and global health status had
      minimally decreased from baseline. Common adverse events were gynecomastia,
      fatigue, hot flush and nipple pain. CONCLUSIONS: Enzalutamide antitumor activity
      was maintained in patients with hormone naive prostate cancer at 3 years. Overall
      bone mineral density, global health status and safety results were similar to
      those at 2 years.

PMID- 28867563
TI  - Expression and activation of Daphnia pulex Caspase-3 are involved in regulation
      of aging.
AB  - Death-mediating proteases such as Caspases have been implicated in aging.
      Remarkably, active Caspase-3 can trigger widespread damage and degeneration,
      playing a key role in causing cell death. In order to explore the relationship
      between Caspase-3 and aging in Daphnia pulex, we cloned and analyzed the full
      length cDNA sequence of its Caspase-3 gene. Both mRNA expression and activity of
      D. pulex Caspase-3 increased with age. Moreover, different forms of Caspase-3
      appeared with aging. The expression of casp3-L was higher and decreased with age,
      while that of casp3-S was weak and increased with age, consistent with the trend
      in Caspase-3 activity. Mhc mRNA expression declined over time and was negatively
      correlated with age and Caspase-3. In situ hybridization results showed that
      Caspase-3 mRNA was expressed in different growth and reproduction stages, and its
      expression levels in embryos and larva were lower than that in adult D. pulex.
      Western blot analysis revealed the presence of Caspase-3 in the form of zymogens
      with a molecular weight of ~36kDa. Overall, this study explored age-associated
      gene regulation to provide a basis for the molecular mechanism of D. pulex
      reproductive conversion.

PMID- 28867564
TI  - Different histories of two highly variable LTR retrotransposons in sunflower
      species.
AB  - In the Helianthus genus, very large intra- and interspecific variability related
      to two specific retrotransposons of Helianthus annuus (Helicopia and SURE)
      exists. When comparing these two sequences to sunflower sequence databases
      recently produced by our lab, the Helicopia family was shown to belong to the
      Maximus/SIRE lineage of the Sirevirus genus of the Copia superfamily, whereas the
      SURE element (whose superfamily was not even previously identified) was
      classified as a Gypsy element of the Ogre/Tat lineage of the Metavirus genus.
      Bioinformatic analysis of the two retrotransposon families revealed their genomic
      abundance and relative proliferation timing. The genomic abundance of these
      families differed significantly among 12 Helianthus species. The ratio between
      the abundance of long terminal repeats and their reverse transcriptases suggested
      that the SURE family has relatively more solo long terminal repeats than does
      Helicopia. Pairwise comparisons of Illumina reads encoding the reverse
      transcriptase domain indicated that SURE amplification may have occurred more
      recently than that of Helicopia. Finally, the analysis of population structure
      based on the SURE and Helicopia polymorphisms of 32 Helianthus species evidenced
      two subpopulations, which roughly corresponded to species of the Helianthus and
      Divaricati/Ciliares sections. However, a number of species showed an admixed
      structure, confirming the importance of interspecific hybridisation in the
      evolution of this genus. In general, these two retrotransposon families
      differentially contributed to interspecific variability, emphasising the need to
      refer to specific families when studying genome evolution.

PMID- 28867565
TI  - Molecular mapping and genetic analysis of a QTL controlling spike formation rate
      and tiller number in wheat.
AB  - Spike formation rate (SR), which is based on maximum tiller number per unit area
      and spike number per unit area, is an important yield-related trait in wheat.
      Increasing the spike formation rate reduces growth competition and wastage of
      photosynthate from ineffective tillers. Unfortunately, research studies involving
      quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for wheat spike formation rate are
      limited. In the present study, a set of 371 recombinant inbreed line (RIL)
      population, which were derived from 1BL/LRS wheat-rye translocation lines CN18
      and T1208, was analysed by simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Genetic analysis
      showed that a stable and major QTL (QSR.sicau-4D) for spike formation rate was
      localized to chromosome 4D and explained 18.24% and 24.48% of the observed
      phenotypic variance in 2015 and 2016, respectively. This QTL was closely linked
      to SSR marker Xcfd23, and the genetic distance between the flank markers was
      3.28cM. Furthermore, QSR.sicau-4D might be a novel pleiotropic QTL, which also
      controlled maximum tiller number per unit area (QMTN.sicau-4D) and tiller number
      during pre-winter per unit area (QTNW.sicau-4D). The marker Xcfd23 associated
      with SR may be utilized in marker-assisted selection in wheat breeding.

PMID- 28867566
TI  - Activity analysis of LTR12C as an effective regulatory element of the RAE1 gene.
AB  - Ribonucleic acid export 1 (RAE1) plays an important role in the export of mature
      mRNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Long terminal repeats (LTRs) became
      integrated into the human genome during primate evolution. One such repeat
      element, LTR12C, lies within a predicted regulatory region located upstream of
      the RAE1 gene. We examined the transcriptional activity of LTR12C by using the
      luciferase assay, and showed that the tandem repeat region (TRR) located within
      LTR12C was required for its regulatory function. A bioinformatics analysis
      revealed that the LTR12C element had multiple transcription factor binding sites
      specific for nuclear transcription factor Y (NF-Y), and the promoter activity of
      LTR12C was significantly decreased after NF-Y knockdown. Additionally, we
      discovered novel data indicating that LTR12C was initially inserted into the
      gorilla genome. Taken together, our results reveal that the TRR of LTR12C has
      powerful regulatory activity due to its NF-Y binding sites, and the integration
      of the LTR12C element into the primate genome during evolution may have affected
      RAE1 transcription.

PMID- 28867567
TI  - Epilepsy & Behavior in social media: Top published papers in 2016.

PMID- 28867568
TI  - Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures in patients with surgically treated temporal
      lobe epilepsy: Presurgical and de novo postsurgical occurrence.
AB  - Whether occurring before or after an epilepsy surgery, psychogenic nonepileptic
      seizures (PNES) impact treatment options and quality of life of patients with
      epilepsy. We investigated the frequency of pre- and postsurgical PNES, and the
      postsurgical Engel and psychiatric outcomes in patients with drug-resistant
      temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). We reviewed 278 patients with mean age at surgery
      of 37.1+/-12.4years. Postsurgical follow-up information was available in 220
      patients, with average follow-up of 4years. Nine patients (9/278 or 3.2%) had
      presurgical documented PNES. Eight patients (8/220 or 3.6%) developed de novo
      PNES after surgery. Pre- and postsurgery psychiatric comorbidities were similar
      to the patients without PNES. After surgery, in the group with presurgical PNES,
      five patients were seizure-free, and three presented persistent PNES. In the
      group with de novo postsurgery PNES, 62.5% had Engel II-IV, and 37.5% had Engel
      I. All presented PNES at last follow-up. Presurgical video-EEG monitoring is
      crucial in the diagnosis of coexisting PNES. Patients presenting presurgical PNES
      and drug-resistant TLE should not be denied surgery based on this comorbidity, as
      they can have good postsurgical epilepsy and psychiatric outcomes. Psychogenic
      nonepileptic seizures may appear after TLE surgery in a low but noteworthy
      proportion of patients regardless of the Engel outcome.

PMID- 28867569
TI  - Quality of life one year after epilepsy surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of surgery for medically intractable epilepsy was to achieve
      seizure freedom and improve overall quality of life (QOL) in patients. This
      investigation looked at changes in QOL one year after epilepsy surgery and the
      relationship of changes to mood, language, and seizure outcomes. METHOD:
      Depressive symptoms, QOL, and naming were measured in 25 patients with temporal
      lobe epilepsy before and one year after dominant temporal lobe resection. The
      Quality of Life in Epilepsy-89 (QOLIE-89), Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II),
      and Boston Naming Test (BNT) were used, respectively, and seizure outcome was
      reported according to the Engel classifications. Minimum clinically important
      differences (MCID) and reliable change indices (RCI) were used to assess the
      proportion of patients who achieved meaningful improvement or worsening in the
      respective areas of functioning, and the relationship between outcomes was
      evaluated. Changes on the 17 individual items of the QOLIE-89 were also assessed.
      RESULTS: Overall, there was a significant improvement in QOL, reduction in
      depressive symptoms, and decline in naming one year after surgery. Positive
      clinically important improvement in QOL was achieved in 76% of patients,
      meaningful reduction of depressive symptoms was achieved in 20%, and clinically
      important naming declines were observed in 48% of the cohort. Sixteen patients
      were seizure-free one year after surgery, but there was no significant
      correlation between changes in QOL and seizure outcome, depressive symptoms, or
      naming. CONCLUSION: The results in the reported cohort of patients showed that
      surgical treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy in the dominant hemisphere resulted
      in clinically meaningful improvement in overall QOL and declines in naming but no
      significant reduction of mood disturbance.

PMID- 28867570
TI  - Epilepsy Foundation of the Netherlands (Stichting Epilepsie Instellingen
      Nederland [SEIN]), Heemstede and Zwolle, The Netherlands.

PMID- 28867571
TI  - Epilepsy Center Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany.

PMID- 28867572
TI  - Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interaction of hydroalcoholic extract of
      Ocimum sanctum with valproate.
AB  - For effective control of seizures, antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are administered at
      higher dose which is associated with several adverse effects. This study
      envisaged antiepileptic and neuroprotective potential of Tulsi, a commonly used
      herb for its immunomodulatory property. The optimal dose of Ocimum sanctum
      hydroalcoholic extract (OSHE) was determined using maximal electroshock seizure
      (MES)- and pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizure models in Wistar rats (200
      250g) after administering OSHE (200-1000mg/kg) orally for 14days. For interaction
      study, OSHE optimal dose in combination with maximum and submaximal therapeutic
      doses of valproate was administered for 14days. Serum levels of valproate were
      estimated using HPLC for pharmacokinetic study. For pharmacodynamic interaction,
      antiepileptic effect on above seizure models, neurobehavioral effect using Morris
      water maze, passive avoidance and elevated plus maze tests, and antioxidant
      capacity were assessed. Ocimum sanctum hydroalcoholic extract 1000mg/kg was found
      to be optimal providing 50% protection against both MES- and PTZ-induced
      seizures. Combination of OSHE with valproate did not alter antiepileptic efficacy
      of valproate significantly. However, the combination showed better memory
      retention potential in neurobehavioral tests and protection against oxidative
      stress compared with valproate-alone-treated groups. Pharmacokinetic parameters
      did not reveal any significant change in combination group compared with
      valproate alone. Ocimum, although having per se antiepileptic action, did not
      affect antiepileptic action of valproate in combination. However, combination
      treatment has an edge over valproate alone-better neurobehavioral function and
      reduced oxidative stress-predicting adjuvant potential of Ocimum in epilepsy
      treatment.

PMID- 28867573
TI  - The Saxon Epilepsy Center Kleinwachau, Radeberg, Germany.

PMID- 28867574
TI  - Decline in word-finding: The objective cognitive finding most relevant to
      patients after mesial temporal lobe epilepsy surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the following: i) the
      objective impairment in neuropsychological tests that were associated with the
      subjective perception of cognitive function decline in Brazilian patients who
      underwent mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) surgery and ii) the predictive
      variables for those impaired objective neuropsychological tests. METHODS: Forty
      eight adults with MTLE (27 right HS and 23 male) were divided according to their
      perception of changes (Decline or No-decline) of cognitive function domain of the
      QOLIE-31 questionnaire applied before and 1year after the ATL. The mean (SD) of
      changes in the raw score difference of the neuropsychological tests before and
      after the ATL was compared between Decline and No-decline groups. Receiver
      Operating Characteristic curves, sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values
      were used to assess the optimum cutoff points of neuropsychological test score
      changes to predict patient-reported subjective cognitive decline. KEY FINDINGS:
      Six (12.5%) patients reported a perception of cognitive function decline after
      ATL. Among the 25 cognitive tests analyzed, only changes in the Boston Naming
      Test (BNT) were associated with subjective cognitive decline reported by
      patients. A reduction of >=8 points in the raw score of BNT after surgery had 91%
      of sensitivity and 45% specificity for predicting subjective perception of
      cognitive function decline by the patient. Left side surgery and age older than
      40years were more associated with an important BNT reduction with overall
      accuracy of 91.7%, 95% predictive ability for no impairment, and 75% for
      impairment of cognitive function. SIGNIFICANCE: Impairment in word-finding seems
      to be the objective cognitive finding most relevant to Brazilian patients after
      mesial temporal lobe epilepsy surgery. Similar to American patients, the side of
      surgery and age are good predictors for no decline in the BNT, but shows a lower
      accuracy to predict its decline. If replicated in other populations, the results
      may have wider implications for the surgical management of patients with drug
      resistant MTLE.

PMID- 28867575
TI  - Filadelfia, Danish Epilepsy Center, Dianalund, Denmark.

PMID- 28867576
TI  - Neurocysticercosis-related epilepsy.

PMID- 28867577
TI  - Biological properties of cardiac mesenchymal stem cells in rats with diabetic
      cardiomyopathy.
AB  - : Cardiomyopathy is a major outcome in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and
      contributes to the high morbidity/mortality observed in this disease. AIMS: To
      evaluate several biological properties of cardiac mesenchymal stem cells (cMSCs)
      in a rat model of streptozotocin-induced DM with concomitant diabetic
      cardiomyopathy. MAIN METHODS: After 10weeks of DM induction, diabetic and control
      rats were assessed using ECG and ventricular hemodynamics monitoring. Then, the
      hearts were excised and processed for histology and for extracting non
      cardiomyocytic cells. A pool of these cells was plated for a colony forming units
      fibroblasts (CFU-F) assay in order to estimate the number of cMSCs. The remaining
      cells were expanded to assess their proliferation rate as well as their
      osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation ability. KEY FINDINGS: DM rats
      presented intense hyperglycemia and changes in ECG, LV hemodynamic, cardiac mass
      index and fibrosis, indicating presence of DCM. The CFU-F assay revealed a higher
      number of cardiac CFU-Fs in DM rats (10.4+/-1.1CFU-F/105 total cells versus 7.6+/
      0.7CFU-F/105 total cells in control rats, p<0.05), which was associated with a
      significantly higher proliferative rate of cMSCs in DM rats. In contrast, cMSCs
      from DM rats presented a lower capacity to differentiate into both osteogenic
      (20.8+/-4.2% versus 10.1+/-1.0% in control rats, p<0.05) and adipogenic lineages
      (4.6+/-1.0% versus 1.3+/-0.5% in control rats, p<0.05). SIGNIFICANCE: The
      findings suggest, for the first time, that in chronic DM rats with overt DCM,
      cMSCs increase in number and exhibit changes in several functional properties,
      which could be implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28867578
TI  - Streptozotocin-induced hippocampal astrogliosis and insulin signaling malfunction
      as experimental scales for subclinical sporadic Alzheimer model.
AB  - AIMS: Insulin signaling malfunction has recently been suggested as a preliminary
      event involved in the etiology of Sporadic Alzheimer's disease (SAD). In order to
      develop insulin resistance-related SAD model, rats were treated with
      streptozotocin, intracerebroventricularly (icv-STZ). Nevertheless, given the lack
      of knowledge regarding sub-clinical stages of SAD, the current challenging issue
      is establishing a practical pre-clinical SAD model. Despite some proposed
      mechanisms, such as insulin malfunction, neuroinflammation, and gliosis, icv-STZ
      mechanism of action is not fully understood yet and Streptozotocin-induced rat
      model of Alzheimer has still major shortcomings. MAIN METHODS: Using three STZ
      doses (0.5, 1, and 3mg/kg) and three testing time (short-term, medium-term and
      long-term), we sought the best dose of STZ in order to mimic the characteristic
      feature of sAD in rats. So, we conducted a series of fifteen-week follow-up
      cognitive and non-cognitive studies. Besides, IR, tau and ChAT mRNA levels were
      measured, along with histological analysis of astrocyte, dark neuron numbers, and
      pyramidal layer thickness, in order to compare the effects of different doses of
      icv-STZ. KEY FINDINGS: STZ 3mg/kg caused cognitive and insulin signaling
      disturbance from the very first testing-time. STZ1-injected animals, however,
      showed an augmented hippocampal astrocyte numbers in a short time; they, also,
      were diagnosed with disturbed insulin signaling in medium-term post icv-STZ
      injection. Moreover, behavioral, molecular and histological impairments induced
      by 0.5mg/kg icv-STZ were slowly progressing in comparison to high doses of STZ.
      SIGNIFICANCE: STZ1 and 0.5mg/kg-treated animals are, respectively, suggested as a
      suitable experimental model of MCI, and sub-clinical stage.

PMID- 28867579
TI  - SOCS2 exacerbates myocardial injury induced by ischemia/reperfusion in diabetic
      mice and H9c2 cells through inhibiting the JAK-STAT-IGF-1 pathway.
AB  - AIMS: This study aimed to investigate potential candidates and molecular
      mechanisms of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury (MIRI) in type 2
      diabetes mellitus. MAIN METHODS: Type 2 diabetic and myocardial I/R mouse models
      were established with a high fat-diet (HFD) for 24weeks and subjecting to global
      ischemia/reperfusion for 1h/3h, respectively. Microarray analysis was applied to
      screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the hearts of these mice.
      Moreover, H9c2 cells were treated with high glucose (HG) and/or hypoxia and
      reoxygenation (H/R). Subsequently, the expression of suppressor of cytokine
      signaling 2 (SOCS2) was knocked down by siRNA followed by the above treatments.
      Then, the cell lipid peroxidation and apoptosis-related indicators
      (malondialdehyde, MDA, and lactate dehydrogenase, LDH, cleaved-caspase-3; glucose
      regulated protein 78, GRP78;), Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and
      activators of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway-related proteins (p-JAK2 and
      p-STAT5b) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were detected. KEY FINDINGS:
      The mRNA levels of selected DEGs, such as Angptl4, Gadd45b, Rnf122 and SOCS2,
      showed a high degree of correlation with the microarray data. In addition, the
      levels of SOCS2, caspase-3, GRP78, LDH and MDA were increased, while the IGF-1
      level was down-regulated in cells treated with HG and/or H/R compared to
      untreated cells (p<0.05). However, SOCS2 knockdown elevated the expression levels
      of IGF-1, p-JAK2 and p-STAT5b, as well as caspase-3, GRP78, LDH and MDA.
      SIGNIFICANCE: This research suggests that overexpressed SOCS2 might exacerbates
      MIRI in type 2 diabetes mellitus by inhibiting the expression of IGF-1 via the
      JAK-STAT signaling pathway.

PMID- 28867580
TI  - Ethanol potentiates heat response in the carotid artery via TRPV1.
AB  - AIM: Ethanol is one of the most widely used recreational drugs in the world. At
      high concentrations, it can induce carotid artery vasoconstriction. Hyperthermia
      potentiates its effects resulting in carotid artery vasoconstriction at any
      concentration. The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between
      ethanol and heating and to understand the underlying mechanisms leading to their
      synergistic effect. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Isometric tension of rabbit carotid
      artery ring segments suspended in organ baths filled with Krebs solution was
      recorded. Different concentrations of ethanol were examined at 37 degrees C and
      during temperature elevation to39-43 degrees C. Capsaicin and capsazepine were
      used to examine the mechanism of action of ethanol. KEY FINDINGS: Ethanol induced
      contraction at 37 degrees C when the concentration reached 100mM. Contraction was
      observed at any concentration at higher temperatures. Ethanol potentiated heat
      induced contraction. Capsaicin, the vanilloid receptor subtype1 (TRPV1) agonist,
      potentiated the vasoconstriction due to heating. While capsazepine, TRPV1
      antagonist, abolished the effect of ethanol and its potentiation of heating
      induced contraction, but it did not abolish the heating effect. SIGNIFICANCE:
      Ethanol's mechanism of action and its effect on heating induced-vasoconstriction
      of the carotid artery is being mediated by TRPV1. The combination of ethanol and
      hyperthermia can lead to a synergistic effect on carotid vasoconstriction. This
      effect may induce brain damage and heat stroke. Development of new drugs act as
      TRPV1 antagonist can be used to prevent these fatal effects.

PMID- 28867581
TI  - High pressure balloon dilatation of the ureterovesical junction in primary
      obstructive megaureter: Infectious morbidity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study is to investigate the infectious
      morbidity associated with high-pressure balloon dilatation (HPBD) and an
      indwelling double J stent, in primary obstructive megaureter. METHODS: We
      reviewed the cases of 12 patients undergoing endoscopic treatment for primary
      obstructive megaureter from January 2012 to January 2015. The characteristics of
      the infection and data concerning the patient and the intervention were analyzed.
      RESULTS: The frequency of preoperative urinary tract infection (UTI) was 58%. The
      procedure was feasible in 100% of cases. Two patients required a second
      dilatation. One patient underwent Cohen's ureteral reimplantation after failure
      of the second dilatation. The frequency of postoperative UTI was 25%. All these
      infections occurred in patients with a double J stent. None of the patients had
      UTI after stent removal. None of the patients developed postoperative
      vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) after HPBD. CONCLUSION: Endoscopic balloon dilatation
      has been shown to have good short- mid- and long-term outcomes. In our
      experience, the morbidity of this procedure mostly results from infections,
      exclusively related to the use of a double J stent. The placement of a double J
      stent has a significant medical and economic impact. A definitive decision about
      the utility of double J stents will require studies of further dilatation without
      the placement of a double J stent. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28867582
TI  - [Pathological findings of visible and non-visible tumors on multiparametric
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) prior to radical prostatectomy].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As urologists are questioned about the overtreatment of localized
      prostate cancer, multiparametric MRI can diagnose significant prostate cancer
      thanks to targeted biopsies. However, some tumors cannot be detected by MRI. What
      are the pathological characteristics of those tumors? MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      have selected 144 consecutive patients treated with radical prostatectomy for
      clinically localized prostate cancer diagnosed on systematic and targeted
      biopsies (Koelis(r)) according to multiparametric MRI findings. On MRI, each
      suspicious area was graded according to the PI-RADS score v1.0. On radical
      prostatectomy specimen, tumor foci with a Gleason score greater than 3+3 and/or a
      tumor volume greater than 0,5cm3 were considered significant. The grade-four
      tumoral volume was calculated by multiplying the tumoral volume by grade 4
      tumoral percentage. RESULTS: Two hundred and seventy seven tumors were
      identified. A hundred and thirty nine were non-visible on MRI. They had a
      significantly lower volume (0.15cm3 versus 1.45cm3, P<0.0001) and a Gleason score
      significantly lower (P<0.0001) than apparent tumors. 17.3% of non-apparent tumors
      were significant. Moreover, the grade-four tumoral volume of significant non
      apparent tumors was significantly lower than that of significant apparent tumors
      (0.11cm3 versus 0.66cm3, P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Non-apparent prostate tumors on
      multiparametric MRI have a Gleason score, a tumor volume - and consequently - a
      grade 4 tumor volume significantly lower than apparent tumors. LEVEL OF PROOF: 4.

PMID- 28867583
TI  - [Hybrid operating room: For what?]
AB  - Hybrid operating rooms (HOR) are rooms that mix interventional radiology and
      surgical equipments. They are usually used in heart, vascular, orthopedic and
      neurosurgery, and make it possible to consider new minimally invasive procedures
      in urology. Thanks to these, we developed a new partial nephrectomy technique
      without renal pedicle clamping and without ischemia. Renal cancer is now
      diagnosed at localized stage in most of the cases, and its treatment is mostly
      based on nephron sparing surgery. However, the hemorrhagic character of this
      intervention requires a renal pedicle clamping whose long-term consequences on
      renal function are discussed. It also exposes to a classical complication: the
      renal artery pseudoaneurysm. Therefore, we developed a new laparoscopic partial
      nephrectomy technique without clamping or approach of renal pedicle, by a
      selective embolization of tumor vessels through an endovascular route,
      immediately before the surgery. HOR allowed the combination of the two procedures
      in the same time and space unit. Tumor staining by Bleu Patente also aids the
      surgeon in its spotting. HOR allow a new approach in localized renal cancer
      management, and should be used in many other urologic surgeries in years to come.
      They represent a technological advancement by combining interventional
      radiologists and surgeons' expertise.

PMID- 28867584
TI  - Coalition for Global Clinical Surgical Education: The Alliance for Global
      Clinical Training.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Assessment of the effect of the collaborative relationship between the
      high-income country (HIC) surgical educators of the Alliance for Global Clinical
      Training (Alliance) and the low-income country surgical educators at the
      Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences/Muhimbili National Hospital
      (MUHAS/MNH), Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on the clinical global surgery training of
      the HIC surgical residents participating in the program. DESIGN: A retrospective
      qualitative analysis of Alliance volunteer HIC faculty and residents' reports,
      volunteer case lists and the reports of Alliance academic contributions to
      MUHAS/MNH from 2012 to 2017. In addition, a survey was circulated in late 2016 to
      all the residents who participated in the program since its inception. RESULTS:
      Twelve HIC surgical educators provided rotating 1-month teaching coverage at
      MUHAS/MNH between academic years 2012 and 2017 for a total of 21 months. During
      the same time period 11 HIC residents accompanied the HIC faculty for 1-month
      rotations. HIC surgery residents joined the MUHAS/MNH Department of Surgery, made
      significant teaching contributions, performed a wide spectrum of "open
      procedures" including hand-sewn intestinal anastomoses. Most had had either no or
      limited previous exposure to hand-sewn anastomoses. All of the residents
      commented that this was a maturing and challenging clinical rotation due to the
      complexity of the cases, the limited resources available and the ethical and
      emotional challenges of dealing with preventable complications and death in a
      resource constrained environment. CONCLUSIONS: The Alliance provides an effective
      clinical global surgery rotation at MUHAS/MNH for HIC Surgery Departments wishing
      to provide such an opportunity for their residents and faculty.

PMID- 28867585
TI  - Protein phosphorylation and its role in the regulation of Annexin A2 function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Annexin A2 (AnxA2) is a multifunctional protein involved in
      endocytosis, exocytosis, membrane domain organisation, actin remodelling, signal
      transduction, protein assembly, transcription and mRNA transport, as well as DNA
      replication and repair. SCOPE OF REVIEW: The current knowledge of the role of
      phosphorylation in the functional regulation of AnxA2 is reviewed. To provide a
      more comprehensive treatment of this topic, we also address in depth the
      phosphorylation process in general and discuss its possible conformational
      effects. Furthermore, we discuss the apparent limitations of the methods used to
      investigate phosphoproteins, as exemplified by the study of AnxA2. MAJOR
      CONCLUSIONS: AnxA2 is subjected to complex regulation by post-translational
      modifications affecting its cellular functions, with Ser11, Ser25 and Tyr23
      representing important phosphorylation sites. Thus, Ser phosphorylation of AnxA2
      is involved in the recruitment and docking of secretory granules, the regulation
      of its association with S100A10, and sequestration of perinuclear,
      translationally inactive mRNP complexes. By contrast, Tyr phosphorylation of
      AnxA2 regulates its role in actin dynamics and increases its association with
      endosomal compartments. Modification of its three main phosphorylation sites is
      not sufficient to discriminate between its numerous functions. Thus, fine-tuning
      of AnxA2 function is mediated by the joint action of several post-translational
      modifications. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: AnxA2 participates in malignant cell
      transformation, and its overexpression and/or phosphorylation is associated with
      cancer progression and metastasis. Thus, tight regulation of AnxA2 function is an
      integral aspect of cellular homeostasis. The presence of AnxA2 in cancer cell
      derived exosomes, as well as the potential regulation of exosomal AnxA2 by
      phosphorylation or other PTMs, are topics of great interest.

PMID- 28867586
TI  - Application of cation-modified sulfur nanoparticles as an efficient sorbent for
      separation and preconcentration of carbamazepine in biological and pharmaceutical
      samples prior to its determination by high-performance liquid chromatography.
AB  - A simple and rapid solid phase extraction procedure using a mini-column packed
      with modified sulfur nanoparticles as a new, efficient and reusable sorbent has
      been developed for the preconcentration of carbamazepine prior to its
      determination by high performance liquid chromatography. This method is based on
      the retention of carbamazepine by modified sulfur nanoparticles which are quite
      efficient for fast adsorption and desorption of carbamazepine. An HPLC system
      including C18, 250*4.6mm column, methanol-acidic water (pH=2.6 by acetic acid)
      (60:40) as mobile phase and UV detector (lambda=276nm) was used. The effects of
      multiple experimental conditions such as the effect of pH, type and volume of
      buffer, type and volume of eluent, sample and eluent flow rate, sorbent amount
      and interfering ions, on the analytical performance of the method were
      investigated. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.5-200ngmL-1 and
      LOD of the proposed method was found to be 0.16ngmL-1. The procedure was
      successfully applied for the determination of carbamazepine in pharmaceutical
      samples, human plasma and breast milk.

PMID- 28867587
TI  - Cerebellar pathology in childhood-onset vs. adult-onset essential tremor.
AB  - Although the incidence of ET increases with advancing age, the disease may begin
      at any age, including childhood. The question arises as to whether childhood
      onset ET cases manifest the same sets of pathological changes in the cerebellum
      as those whose onset is during adult life. We quantified a broad range of
      postmortem features (Purkinje cell [PC] counts, PC axonal torpedoes, a host of
      associated axonal changes [PC axonal recurrent collateral count, PC thickened
      axonal profile count, PC axonal branching count], heterotopic PCs, and basket
      cell rating) in 60 ET cases (11 childhood-onset and 49 adult-onset) and 30
      controls. Compared to controls, childhood-onset ET cases had lower PC counts,
      higher torpedo counts, higher heterotopic PC counts, higher basket cell plexus
      rating, and marginally higher PC axonal recurrent collateral counts. The median
      PC thickened axonal profile count and median PC axonal branching count were two
      to five times higher in childhood-onset ET than controls, but the differences did
      not reach statistical significance. Childhood-onset and adult-onset ET had
      similar PC counts, torpedo counts, heterotopic PC counts, basket cell plexus
      rating, PC axonal recurrent collateral counts, PC thickened axonal profile count
      and PC axonal branching count. In conclusion, we found that childhood-onset and
      adult-onset ET shared similar pathological changes in the cerebellum. The data
      suggest that pathological changes we have observed in the cerebellum in ET are a
      part of the pathophysiological cascade of events in both forms of the disease and
      that both groups seem to reach the same pathological endpoints at a similar age
      of death.

PMID- 28867588
TI  - Light deprivation produces distinct morphological orchestrations on RGCs and
      cortical cells in a depressive-like YFP-H mouse model.
AB  - Neural physiological functions and synaptic changes underlying the pathogenesis
      of depression have obtained great achievements. However, neuronal morphological
      changes under a depressive state have not been well understood yet. Here a
      depressive-like YFP-H transgenic mouse model was produced by light deprivation
      (LD), and morphological changes of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and primary
      visual and auditory cortical layer 5 pyramidal cells (L5PCs) were investigated.
      Three distinct RGC subtypes were identified based on soma- and dendritic field
      (DF) size. RGA cells were highlighted by large soma and medium-sized to large DF.
      RGB cells were characterized by small- to medium-sized soma and small- to medium
      sized DF. RGC cells were typical of small- to medium-sized soma and large DF. LD
      showed cell-type-specific morphological orchestrations on RGCs and predominantly
      promoted the dendritic growth of RGA cells, leaving no significant effect on RGB
      and RGC cells. LD produced a consistently suppressed effect on the morphology of
      primary visual and auditory cortical L5PCs. LD enhanced the dendritic spine
      density of primary visual cortical L5PCs, implying a compensation mechanism
      underlying morphological changes in individual cortical L5PCs. The increased
      morphological complexity of RGA cells and the simplified morphology of cortical
      L5PCs suggest a broad range of neuronal morphological "cross-modal plasticity"
      among different brain areas. Our observations in morphological changes of RGCs
      and cortical L5PCs under a depressive-like state will provide some insights into
      the pathogenesis of depression at a single neuronal morphological level.

PMID- 28867589
TI  - Maternal swimming exercise during pregnancy attenuates anxiety/depressive-like
      behaviors and voluntary morphine consumption in the pubertal male and female rat
      offspring born from morphine dependent mothers.
AB  - This study was designed to examine whether maternal swimming exercise during
      pregnancy would attenuate prenatally morphine-induced anxiety, depression and
      voluntary consumption of morphine in the pubertal male and female rat offspring.
      Pregnant rats during the development of morphine dependence were allowed to swim
      (30-45min/d, 3days per a week) on gestational days 11-18. Then, the pubertal male
      and female rat offspring were tested for the elevated plus-maze (EPM), sucrose
      preference test (SPT) and voluntary morphine consumption using a two-bottle
      choice (TBC) paradigm. The results showed that male and female rat offspring born
      of the swimmer morphine-dependent mothers exhibited an increase in EPM open arm
      time and entries, higher levels of sucrose preference than their sedentary
      control mothers. Voluntary consumption of morphine was less in the male and
      female rat offspring born of the swimmer morphine-dependent mothers as compared
      with their sedentary control mothers during three periods of the intake of drug.
      Thus, swimming exercise in pregnant morphine dependent mothers decreased anxiety,
      depressive-like behavior and also the voluntary morphine consumption in the
      pubertal male and female offspring, which may prevent prenatally morphine-induced
      behavioral sensitization in offspring.

PMID- 28867590
TI  - Grip force control and hand dexterity are impaired in individuals with diabetic
      peripheral neuropathy.
AB  - Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) affects the sensory function of the hands
      and, consequently, may negatively impact hand dexterity, maximum grip strength
      (GSMax), and hand grip force (GF) control during object manipulation. The aims of
      this study were to examine and compare the GF control during a simple holding
      task as well as GSMax and hand dexterity of individuals with DPN and healthy
      controls. Ten type 2 diabetic individuals diagnosed with DPN and ten age- and
      gender-matched healthy controls performed two traditional timed hand dexterity
      tests (i.e., nine-hole peg test and Jebsen-Taylor hand function test), a GSMax
      test, and a GF control test (i.e., hold a instrumented handle). The results
      indicated that individuals with DPN and controls produced similar GSMax. However,
      individuals with DPN took longer to perform the hand dexterity tests and set
      lower safety margin (exerted lower GF) than controls when holding the handle. The
      findings showed that mild to moderate DPN did not significantly affect maximum
      hand force generation, but does impair hand dexterity and hand GF control, which
      could impair the performance of daily living manipulation tasks and put them in
      risk of easily dropping handheld objects.

PMID- 28867592
TI  - Prevalence of Cryptosporidium species and subtypes in paediatric oncology and non
      oncology patients with diarrhoea in Jordan.
AB  - Cryptosporidiosis is a protozoan parasitic disease which affects human and
      animals worldwide. In adult immunocompetent individuals, cryptosporidiosis
      usually results in acute and self-limited diarrhoea; however, it can cause life
      threatening diarrhoea in children and immunocompromised individuals. In the
      present study, we compared the prevalence of Cryptosporidium species and gp60
      subtypes amongst paediatric oncology patients with diarrhoea (n=160) from King
      Hussein Medical Centre for Cancer in Jordan, and non-oncology paediatric patients
      with diarrhoea (n=137) from Al-Mafraq paediatric hospital. Microscopy results
      using modified acid fast staining identified a significantly (p<=0.05) higher
      prevalence of Cryptosporidium in paediatric oncology patients with diarrhoea
      (14.4% - 23/160), compared to non-oncology paediatric patients with diarrhoea
      only (5.1% - 7/137). With the exception of one sample, all microscopy-positive
      samples (n=29) and an additional 3/30 microscopy-negative controls were typed to
      species and subtype level at the 18S and gp60 loci, respectively. All
      Cryptosporidium positives were typed as C. parvum. Of the 22 typed
      Cryptosporidium positives from the paediatric oncology patients, 21 were subtyped
      as IIaA17G2R1 and one as IIaA16G2R1 C. parvum subtypes. The 7 typed positives
      from the paediatric patients from Al-Mafraq hospital were subtyped as IIaA17G2R1
      (n=5) and IIaA16G2R1 (n=2). The 3 additional positives from the 30 microscopy
      negative control samples were subtyped as IIaA17G2R1. The high prevalence of the
      IIaA17G2R1 subtype, particularly amongst oncology patients, suggests that an
      outbreak of cryptosporidiosis may have been occurring in oncology patients during
      the collection period (April to December, 2016). New therapies for
      cryptosporidiosis in immunocompromised patients are urgently required.

PMID- 28867591
TI  - Heteromeric TRPV4/TRPC1 channels mediate calcium-sensing receptor-induced nitric
      oxide production and vasorelaxation in rabbit mesenteric arteries.
AB  - Stimulation of calcium-sensing receptors (CaSR) by increasing the external
      calcium concentration (Ca2+]o) induces endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation
      through nitric oxide (NO) production and activation of intermediate Ca2+
      activated K+ currents (IKCa) channels in rabbit mesenteric arteries. The present
      study investigates the potential role of heteromeric TRPV4-TRPC1 channels in
      mediating these CaSR-induced vascular responses. Immunocytochemical and proximity
      ligation assays showed that TRPV4 and TRPC1 proteins were expressed and co
      localised at the plasma membrane of freshly isolated endothelial cells (ECs). In
      wire myography studies, increasing [Ca2+]o between 1 and 6mM induced
      concentration-dependent relaxations of methoxamine (MO)-induced pre-contracted
      tone, which were inhibited by the TRPV4 antagonists RN1734 and HC067047, and the
      externally-acting TRPC1 blocking antibody T1E3. In addition, CaSR-evoked NO
      production in ECs measured using the fluorescent NO indicator DAF-FM was reduced
      by RN1734 and T1E3. In contrast, [Ca2+]o-evoked perforated-patch IKCa currents in
      ECs were unaffected by RN1734 and T1E3. The TRPV4 agonist GSK1016790A (GSK)
      induced endothelium-dependent relaxation of MO-evoked pre-contracted tone and
      increased NO production, which were inhibited by the NO synthase inhibitor L
      NAME, RN1734 and T1E3. GSK activated 6pS cation channel activity in cell-attached
      patches from ECs which was blocked by RN1734 and T1E3. These findings indicate
      that heteromeric TRPV4-TRPC1 channels mediate CaSR-induced vasorelaxation through
      NO production but not IKCa channel activation in rabbit mesenteric arteries. This
      further implicates CaSR-induced pathways and heteromeric TRPV4-TRPC1 channels in
      regulating vascular tone.

PMID- 28867593
TI  - Brucella suis biovar 2 multi locus sequence type ST16 in wild boars (Sus scrofa)
      from Abruzzi region, Italy. Introduction from Central-Eastern Europe?
AB  - Porcine brucellosis occurs in many countries where pigs are farmed, often
      representing an underrated problem. B. suis biovar 2 is the most common isolate
      in Europe, with high prevalence reported in wild boars in which it is generally
      isolated in the absence of gross lesions. In the last five years, we tested for
      Brucella spp. 389 lymph nodes of wild boars collected during hunting seasons or
      during necropsy procedures. In this paper, we describe the first case of
      isolation of B. suis biovar 2 from a wild boar aborted foetus, and we analyse the
      genomic relationships with B.suis biovar 2 strains isolated in the past five
      years in Abruzzi Region, Central Italy. The genetic fingerprint revealed that the
      isolates under study belong to the MLST ST16 and to the MLVA11 Gt 57, similar to
      the Central-Eastern European strains. Massive restocking (for hunting purpose) of
      wild boars from Eastern Europe have been done since 1950 in Italy contributing to
      the increasing of population size and distribution, as well as to the
      interbreeding between these foreign breeds and the local population. The
      contamination of pastures with infected material such as aborted wild boars
      foetuses can increase the risk of transmission of Brucella among wild and
      domestic animals. The contact of B. suis with domestic ruminants may also cause
      serological reactions to brucellosis serological testing, and even unapparent
      infection, thus hampering the efforts made in the brucellosis eradication
      campaign.

PMID- 28867594
TI  - Serotype and MLST-based inference of population structure of clinical
      Streptococcus pneumoniae from invasive and noninvasive pneumococcal disease.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important human pathogen causing various diseases.
      In this study, S. pneumoniae from invasive (IPD) and noninvasive pneumococcal
      disease (NIPD) were studied by serotype and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) for
      population structure characteristics. A total of 169 clinical S. pneumoniae,
      containing 63 IPD and 106 NIPD strains, were analyzed. 19F, 19A, 6A, 6B, 1, 14
      and 23F were the dominant serotypes in both IPD and NIPD strains. By MLST, 169
      strains were divided into 85 sequence types (STs) with an index of discrimination
      (IOD) value of 0.9606. The seven predominant STs were ST271, ST320, ST876,
      ST3173, ST236, ST81 and ST342, which were mainly associated with serotypes 19F,
      19A, 14, 6A, 19F, 1, and 1/23F, respectively. The 63 IPD strains were divided
      into 20 serotypes (IOD=0.9135) and 44 STs (IOD=0.9795); the 106 NIPD strains were
      divided into 16 serotypes (IOD=0.8334) and 49 STs (IOD=0.9430). In conclusion,
      the serotypes and ST distribution of IPD and NIPD strains analyzed in this study
      are similar to the profiles observed in other cities of China, suggesting that
      the clinical S. pneumoniae isolates were derived from clones generally
      circulating in China. The strains showed a variety of serotypes and STs, and the
      IPD strains showed higher serotype and genetic diversity than NIPD strains.

PMID- 28867595
TI  - Mitochondrial Ferredoxin Determines Vulnerability of Cells to Copper Excess.
AB  - The essential micronutrient copper is tightly regulated in organisms, as
      environmental exposure or homeostasis defects can cause toxicity and
      neurodegenerative disease. The principal target(s) of copper toxicity have not
      been pinpointed, but one key effect is impaired supply of iron-sulfur (FeS)
      clusters to the essential protein Rli1 (ABCE1). Here, to find upstream FeS
      biosynthesis/delivery protein(s) responsible for this, we compared copper
      sensitivity of yeast-overexpressing candidate targets. Overexpression of the
      mitochondrial ferredoxin Yah1 produced copper hyper-resistance. 55Fe turnover
      assays revealed that FeS integrity of Yah1 was particularly vulnerable to copper
      among the test proteins. Furthermore, destabilization of the FeS domain of Yah1
      produced copper hypersensitivity, and YAH1 overexpression rescued Rli1
      dysfunction. This copper-resistance function was conserved in the human
      ferredoxin, Fdx2. The data indicate that the essential mitochondrial ferredoxin
      is an important copper target, determining a tipping point where plentiful copper
      supply becomes excessive. This knowledge could help in tackling copper-related
      diseases.

PMID- 28867596
TI  - Relationship between aluminum stress and caffeine biosynthesis in suspension
      cells of Coffea arabica L.
AB  - Toxicity by aluminum is a growth-limiting factor in plants cultivated in acidic
      soils. This metal also promotes signal transduction pathways leading to the
      biosynthesis of defense compounds, including secondary metabolites. In this
      study, we observed that Coffea arabica L. cells that were kept in the dark did
      not produce detectable levels of caffeine. However, irradiation with light and
      supplementation of the culture medium with theobromine were the best conditions
      for cell maintenance to investigate the role of aluminum in caffeine
      biosynthesis. The addition of theobromine to the cells did not cause any changes
      to cell growth and was useful for the bioconversion of theobromine to caffeine.
      During a short-term AlCl3-treatment (500MUM) of C. arabica cells kept under light
      irradiation, increases in the caffeine levels in samples that were recovered from
      both the cells and culture media were evident. This augmentation coincided with
      increases in the enzyme activity of caffeine synthase (CS) and the transcript
      level of the gene encoding this enzyme (CS). Together, these results suggest that
      actions by Al and theobromine on the same pathway lead to the induction of
      caffeine biosynthesis.

PMID- 28867597
TI  - Overexpression of suppressors of cytokine signaling 1 regulate the proliferation
      and differentiation of rat-derived neural stem cells.
AB  - Neural stem cells are a reliable resource in various neural tissue repair and
      neurodegenerative diseases. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that Suppressor
      of cytokine signaling proteins (SOCS) was involved in the nervous system
      development. The universality and diversity of SOCS also suggested their
      important roles in neurogenesis and nerve regeneration. In this study, we
      employed a lentiviral vector to investigate the impacts of overexpression SOCS1
      on the proliferation and differentiation of rat-derived NSCs. Cells infected with
      LV-EGFP-SOCS1 showed a prominent increased cell number, diameter, and metabolic
      activity compared with other groups. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed the
      proportion of cells positive for microtubule associated protein-2 (MAP2) or
      myelin basic protein (MBP) was significantly increased in LV-EGFP-SOCS1 group
      while the proportion of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells in
      LV-EGFP-SOCS1 group was significantly decreased compare to LV-EGFP and PBS group.
      Moreover, Western blot results were consistent with immunofluorescence results
      which indicated that overexpression of SOCS1 could promote neuronal and
      oligodendrocyte differentiations of NSCs but inhibit astrocyte differentiation of
      NSCs. In conclusion, our findings provided evidence that SOCS1 could promote the
      proliferation of NSCs and affect the differentiation of NSCs, providing a
      potential target for NSCs transplantation strategies.

PMID- 28867598
TI  - Intracranial and hierarchical perspective on dietary plasticity in mammals.
AB  - The effect of dietary properties on craniofacial form has been the focus of
      numerous functional studies, with increasingly more work dedicated to the
      importance of phenotypic plasticity. As bone is a dynamic tissue, morphological
      variation related to differential loading is well established for many
      masticatory structures. However, the adaptive osteogenic response of several
      cranial sites across multiple levels of bony organization remains to be
      investigated. Here, rabbits were obtained at weaning and raised for 48 weeks
      until adulthood in order to address the naturalistic influence of altered loading
      on the long-term development of masticatory and non-masticatory elements.
      Longitudinal data from micro-computed tomography (MUCT) scans were used to test
      the hypothesis that variation in cortical bone formation and biomineralization in
      masticatory structures is linked to increased stresses during oral processing of
      mechanically challenging foods. It was also hypothesized that similar parameters
      for neurocranial structures would be minimally affected by varying loads as this
      area is characterized by low strains during mastication and reduced hard-tissue
      mechanosensitivity. Hypotheses were supported regarding bone formation for
      maxillomandibular and neurocranial elements, though biomineralization trends of
      masticatory structures did not mirror macroscale findings. Varying osteogenic
      responses in masticatory elements suggest that physiological adaptation, and
      corresponding variation in skeletal performance, may reside differentially at one
      level of bony architecture, potentially affecting the accuracy of behavioral and
      in silico reconstructions. Together, these findings underscore the complexity of
      bone adaptation and highlight functional and developmental variation in
      determinants of skull form.

PMID- 28867599
TI  - The postoperative venous thromboembolism (TREVO) study - risk and case mortality
      by surgical specialty.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Venous thromboembolism, risk of which is increased
      in surgical patients, is a preventable cause of morbidity and death. The primary
      objective of this study was to estimate the incidence of symptomatic
      postoperative venous thromboembolism in adults at a tertiary university hospital,
      overall and by surgical specialty. The secondary objective was to analyze
      severity of and mortality from thromboembolic events. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective study to identify cases of in-hospital postoperative venous
      thromboembolism, encoded by the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth
      Revision, according to the Joint Commission International criteria. Adult
      patients admitted for surgery in 2008-2012 were included. RESULTS: Among 67 635
      hospitalizations, 90 cases of postoperative symptomatic venous thromboembolism
      were identified, corresponding to an incidence of 1.33/1000 admissions (95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.1-1.6/1000). Neurosurgery had the highest risk
      (4.07/1000), followed by urological surgery and general surgery (p<0.001). There
      were 50 cases of pulmonary embolism, 11 of which were fatal. Of the 90 cases,
      12.2% occurred under neuraxial anesthesia and 55.1% in patients with American
      Society of Anesthesiology III physical status. At least 37.7% of patients with
      events received a prophylactic dose of injectable anticoagulant postoperatively.
      The overall risk decreased from 2008 to 2012. Venous thromboembolism-associated
      mortality during hospitalization was 21.1% (95% CI 13.6-30.4). CONCLUSIONS: The
      incidence of postoperative symptomatic venous thromboembolism was 1.33/1000.
      Neurosurgery showed the greatest risk. Mortality was 21.1%.

PMID- 28867600
TI  - Mission (almost) impossible.

PMID- 28867601
TI  - Hydralazine vs nifedipine for acute hypertensive emergency in pregnancy: a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of good quality evidence regarding the best
      therapeutic option for acute control of blood pressure during acute hypertensive
      emergency of pregnancy. OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare the efficacy of
      intravenously administered hydralazine and oral nifedipine for acute blood
      pressure control in acute hypertensive emergency of pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: In
      this double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, pregnant women (>=24 weeks
      period of gestation) with sustained increase in systolic blood pressure of >=160
      mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure of >=110 mm Hg were randomized to receive
      intravenous hydralazine injection in doses of 5, 10, 10, and 10 mg and a placebo
      tablet or oral nifedipine (10 mg tablet up to 4 doses) and intravenous saline
      injection every 20 minutes until the target blood pressure of 150 mm Hg systolic
      and <=100 mm Hg diastolic was achieved. Crossover treatment was administered if
      the initial treatment failed. The primary outcome of the study was time necessary
      to achieve target blood pressure. The secondary outcomes were the number of
      dosages required, adverse maternal and neonatal effects, and perinatal outcome.
      RESULTS: From December 2014 through September 2015, we enrolled 60 patients. The
      median time to achieve target blood pressure was 40 minutes in both groups
      (intravenous hydralazine and oral nifedipine) (interquartile interval 5 and 40
      minutes, respectively, P = .809). The median dose requirement in both groups was
      2 (intravenous hydralazine and oral nifedipine) (interquartile range 1 and 2
      doses, respectively, P = .625). Intravenous hydralazine was associated with
      statistically significantly higher occurrence of vomiting (9/30 vs 2/30,
      respectively, P = .042). No serious adverse maternal or perinatal side effects
      were witnessed in either group. CONCLUSION: Both intravenous hydralazine and oral
      nifedipine are equally effective in lowering of blood pressure in acute
      hypertensive emergency of pregnancy.

PMID- 28867602
TI  - A phase-3, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the effectiveness and safety
      of single oral doses of secnidazole 2 g for the treatment of women with bacterial
      vaginosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A novel single oral dose granule formulation of secnidazole 2 g, a 5
      nitroimidazole with a longer half-life (~17 hours) than metronidazole (~8 hours),
      is being developed to treat bacterial vaginosis. OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate
      the effectiveness and safety of single-dose secnidazole 2 g compared to placebo
      for the treatment of women with bacterial vaginosis. STUDY DESIGN: In all, 189
      women with bacterial vaginosis were randomized 2:1 to receive a single oral dose
      of secnidazole 2 g (N = 125) or matched placebo (N = 64) at 21 centers in the
      United States. The primary endpoint was the proportion of clinical outcome
      responders, defined as those with: (1) normal vaginal discharge; (2) negative 10%
      potassium hydroxide whiff test; and (3) <20% clue cells of total epithelial cell
      count on microscopic examination of the vaginal wet mount, using saline at the
      test of cure/end of study visit (study days 21-30). Secondary efficacy analyses
      included clinical cure rates, defined as: (1) responders with normal discharge or
      abnormal discharge not consistent with bacterial vaginosis after treatment; (2)
      negative potassium hydroxide whiff tests; and (3) clue cells <20% assessed at the
      interim visit (study days 7-14), and test of cure/end of study (study days 21
      30). In addition, based on the 2016 US Food and Drug Administration draft
      guidance, patients with baseline Nugent scores 7-10 were evaluated for clinical
      cure using the following clinical assessments on study days 7-14: (1) resolution
      of the abnormal vaginal discharge; (2) a negative potassium hydroxide whiff test;
      and (3) clue cells <20%. The study was designed and powered to demonstrate the
      efficacy of single-dose secnidazole 2 g compared to placebo; safety and
      tolerability were also assessed. Due to a prespecified institutional review board
      approved protocol calling for withdrawal of randomized, treated patients with a
      Nugent score <4 or with a separate sexually transmitted infection, this modified
      intent-to-treat population was the primary analysis population. Statistical
      comparisons used a stratified Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test with a .05 level of
      significance (2-sided). RESULTS: Single-dose secnidazole 2 g was superior to
      placebo for the primary and all secondary efficacy measures in the modified
      intent-to-treat population, with clinical outcome responder rates of 53.3%
      (57/107) vs 19.3% (11/57; P < .001). Clinical cure rates, based on an alternate
      definition of responder, which accounted for resolution of abnormal discharge
      consistent with bacterial vaginosis, were consistent with the clinical outcome
      responder rate analysis (58.9% vs 24.6%; P < .001) for single-dose secnidazole 2
      g vs placebo. Clinical cure rates based on the 2016 US Food and Drug
      Administration guidance were 64.0% vs 26.4% for single-dose secnidazole 2 g vs
      placebo. Based on the investigator's clinical assessment at the test of cure/end
      of study visit, significantly more patients receiving single-dose secnidazole 2 g
      vs placebo required no additional bacterial vaginosis treatment (68.0% [68/100]
      vs 29.6% [16/54]; P < .001). Adverse events considered by the investigator to be
      related to study drug occurred in only 20.0% of single-dose secnidazole 2 g
      treated patients vs 10.9% of placebo patients, and they included diarrhea (4.0%
      vs 1.6%), headache (4.0% vs 3.1%), nausea (4.8% vs 1.6%), and vulvovaginal
      candidiasis (4.0% vs 3.1%). CONCLUSION: Single-dose secnidazole 2 g was superior
      to placebo on all primary and secondary outcomes and was well tolerated; these
      results support its role for the treatment of women with bacterial vaginosis.

PMID- 28867603
TI  - Molecular Signatures for Tumor Classification: An Analysis of The Cancer Genome
      Atlas Data.
AB  - Cancer classification in the clinic is primarily based on histological analysis
      in the proper clinical context, often supplemented by immunohistochemical and
      molecular studies. Recent genomic studies have shown the potential of integrated
      multiomics platforms for molecular classification. We performed unsupervised
      analyses of molecular platforms in The Cancer Genome Atlas data (n = 6,216
      samples) in comparison with tumor type. Our data showed that mRNA signatures and
      DNA methylation signatures mapped to histological diagnosis with high accuracy
      (95% and 88%, respectively) as individual platforms. The accuracy of mRNA
      signatures alone for classification and subtype identification was comparable to
      accuracies reported in the previously published Pan-Cancer 12 analysis. When
      combined, mRNA and methylation revealed a set of outliers for which the mRNA- and
      methylation-based molecular signatures concordantly differed from the original
      histological diagnosis. A subset remained consistent as outliers after using
      alternative classification and clustering algorithms and analysis of an
      independent molecular platform (miRNA). Overall, our results indicate that
      unsupervised approaches with individual genomic platforms, especially gene
      expression and DNA methylation, provide substantial classification information
      and identify occasional outlier cases in which the molecular signature is
      distinct from signatures expected for a given histological diagnosis.
      Identification of cases in which the molecular signature correlates with a
      specific histology that differs from initial impressions may prompt
      reconsideration of tumor classification in specific cases.

PMID- 28867604
TI  - Characterization and Genomic Localization of a SMAD4 Processed Pseudogene.
AB  - Like many clinical diagnostic laboratories, the Yorkshire Regional Genetics
      Service undertakes routine investigation of cancer-predisposed individuals by
      high-throughput sequencing of patient DNA that has been target-enriched for genes
      associated with hereditary cancer. Accurate diagnosis using such reagents
      requires alertness regarding rare nonpathogenic variants that may interfere with
      variant calling. In a cohort of 2042 such cases, we identified 5 that initially
      appeared to be carriers of a 95-bp deletion of SMAD4 intron 6. More detailed
      analysis indicated that these individuals all carried one copy of a SMAD4
      processed gene. Because of its interference with diagnostic analysis, we
      characterized this processed gene in detail. Whole-genome sequencing and
      confirmatory Sanger sequencing of junction PCR products were used to show that in
      each of the 5 cases, the SMAD4 processed gene was integrated at the same position
      on chromosome 9, located within the last intron of the SCAI gene. This rare
      polymorphic processed gene therefore reflects the occurrence of a single
      ancestral retrotransposition event. Compared to the reference SMAD4 mRNA sequence
      NM_005359.5 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide), the 5' and 3' untranslated
      regions of the processed gene are both truncated, but its open reading frame is
      unaltered. Our experience leads us to advocate the use of an RNA-seq aligner as
      part of diagnostic assay quality assurance, since this allows recognition of
      processed pseudogenes in a comparatively facile automated fashion.

PMID- 28867605
TI  - High-Throughput and Sensitive Quantification of Circulating Tumor DNA by
      Microfluidic-Based Multiplex PCR and Next-Generation Sequencing.
AB  - Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has potential to serve as a biomarker for
      noninvasive monitoring of treatment response and disease progression. However,
      broad clinical applicability of ctDNA has been limited by the low sensitivity,
      throughput, and patient coverage offered by existing ctDNA detection methods.
      Herein, we report the adaptation and characterization of the microfluidics
      multiplex PCR sequencing technology for high-throughput and sensitive
      quantitation of ctDNA. A multiplex PCR preamplification step was developed and
      incorporated into the microfluidics multiplex PCR sequencing work flow to enable
      low-input ctDNA analysis with enhanced sensitivity. An empirical bayesian model
      was developed to characterize both position and substitution-associated system
      errors specific to this platform and provided a tailored approach to greatly
      enhance the confidence and accuracy of variant calling for ctDNA analysis.
      Clinical validation of this platform for ctDNA mutation detection demonstrated an
      overall sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 100% when using mutation calls in
      the matched tumor tissues as a benchmark. Finally, we established an early proof
      of concept of clinical utility of this ctDNA work flow for monitoring disease
      progression using clinical trial samples. Our novel ctDNA work flow provides a
      high-throughput and sensitive platform that can be implemented in clinical trials
      for mutation detection and disease monitoring from plasma ctDNA.

PMID- 28867607
TI  - Tanshinone IIA ameliorates apoptosis of myocardiocytes by up-regulation of miR
      133 and suppression of Caspase-9.
AB  - To explore the potential protective effect of Tanshinone IIA on myocardial cell
      apoptosis and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms. The rat heart cell
      H9c2 was treated by either H2O2 or doxorubicin (DOX) to mimic oxidative stress
      and DNA damage conditions in vivo. Cell growth was monitored by optical
      microscope observation or CCK-8 counting kit. The relative expression of miR-133
      and U6 snoRNA was semi-quantitated by RT-PCR or real-time PCR. Cell apoptosis was
      analyzed by flow cytometry with Annexin V/PI double staining. The microRNA
      binding sites were predicted by online bioinformatics tools. The regulatory
      effect of miR-133 on caspase-9 was measured by luciferase reporter assay.
      Apoptosis pathway factors were analyzed by immunoblotting. Our data demonstrated
      that Tanshinone IIA significantly ameliorated myocardial apoptosis induced by
      either H2O2 or DOX. The protective effect was likely mediated by up-regulation of
      miR-133. We further identified Caspase-9 as the target of miR-133. Tanshinone IIA
      treatment significantly reversed down-regulation of miR-133 under harsh
      conditions and in turn suppressed evoking of Caspase-9 and related apoptotic
      effectors, which consequently contributed to the improvement of myocardial
      injury. In conclusion, Tanshinone IIA ameliorated myocardial apoptosis via
      restoration of miR-133 and suppression Caspase-9 signaling cascade, which
      underlies its well-proven clinical benefit and warrants larger scale clinical
      applications.

PMID- 28867606
TI  - Similar precipitated withdrawal effects on intracranial self-stimulation during
      chronic infusion of an e-cigarette liquid or nicotine alone.
AB  - The FDA recently extended their regulatory authority to electronic cigarettes
      (ECs). Because the abuse liability of ECs is a leading concern of the FDA, animal
      models are urgently needed to identify factors that influence the relative abuse
      liability of these products. The ability of tobacco products to induce nicotine
      dependence, defined by the emergence of anhedonia and other symptoms of nicotine
      withdrawal following cessation of their use, contributes to tobacco abuse
      liability. The present study compared the severity of precipitated withdrawal
      during chronic infusion of nicotine alone or nicotine-dose equivalent
      concentrations of three different EC refill liquids in rats, as indicated by
      elevations in intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) thresholds (anhedonia-like
      behavior). Because these EC liquids contain constituents that may enhance their
      abuse liability (e.g., minor alkaloids), we hypothesized that they would be
      associated with greater withdrawal effects than nicotine alone. Results indicated
      that the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist mecamylamine precipitated
      elevations in ICSS thresholds in rats receiving a chronic infusion of nicotine
      alone or EC liquids (3.2mg/kg/day, via osmotic pump). Magnitude of this effect
      did not differ between formulations. Our findings indicate that nicotine alone is
      the primary CNS determinant of the ability of ECs to engender dependence.
      Combined with our previous findings that nicotine alone and these EC liquids do
      not differ in other preclinical addiction models, these data suggest that product
      standards set by the FDA to reduce EC abuse liability should primarily target
      nicotine, other constituents with peripheral sensory effects (e.g. flavorants),
      and factors that influence product appeal (e.g., marketing).

PMID- 28867608
TI  - Activation of PPARgamma inhibits HDAC1-mediated pulmonary arterial smooth muscle
      cell proliferation and its potential mechanisms.
AB  - The downstream targets of histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) mediation of platelet
      derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cell
      (PASMC) proliferation are still unclear, and it is also unknown whether
      activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma)
      modulates HDAC1 and its down-stream targets in PASMCs. The present study aims to
      address these issues. Our results showed that PDGF dose- and time-dependently
      induced PASMC proliferation, and this was accompanied by an increase of HDAC1 and
      cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) protein expression as well as a reduction of
      microRNA-124 (miR-124). Pre-silencing of HDAC1 with small interfering RNA (siRNA)
      abolished PDGF-induced miR-124 down-regulation, CDK4 protein up-regulation, and
      PASMC proliferation. In addition, over-expression of miR-124 reversed CDK4
      protein elevation and PASMC proliferation caused by PDGF. We further found that
      pre-incubation of PASMCs with pioglitazone, an agonist of PPARgamma receptors,
      significantly increased PPARgamma expression and activity, and blocked PDGF
      stimulated cell proliferation by regulating HDAC1-mediated miR-124 and CDK4
      expression. Our study indicates that HDAC1/miR-124/CDK4 axis plays an important
      role in PDGF-induced PASMC proliferation, and activation of PPARgamma inhibits
      PASMC proliferation by acting on HDAC1 pathway.

PMID- 28867609
TI  - AMPK attenuates ventricular remodeling and dysfunction following aortic banding
      in mice via the Sirt3/Oxidative stress pathway.
AB  - Although recent findings have suggested that AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)
      exerts inhibitory effects on cardiac remodeling secondary to hypertension, the
      mechanism and optimal duration of treatment remain unknown. Mice with descending
      aortic banding (AB) or subjected to sham operation received subcutaneous
      injection of either AICAR (0.5mgg-1day-1) or vehicle over 4 week periods. At the
      end of 4 week treatment, left ventricular (LV) remodeling and function were
      evaluated with histological analysis and echocardiography. Collagen deposition
      within the LV myocardium was detected with Masson's trichrome staining. Collagen
      I, Collagen III, Smad 2, Smad 3, NOX2, NOX4 and Sirt3 (an important antioxidant
      factor) within the LV tissue were also evaluated. Compared with the sham group,
      the vehicle-treated AB group exhibited significant elevations in cardiac
      remodeling and heart failure, characterized by an increase in LV weight relative
      to body weight, an increase in the area of collagen deposition, an increase in LV
      end-diastolic diameter, an increase in mitral E inflow velocity to mitral A
      inflow velocity and increases in the gene expressions of the fibrosis markers
      Collagen I, III and Smad 2, 3 mRNA and decreases in EF and fractional shortening.
      AMPK attenuate the cardiac remodeling parameters and improve cardiac function.
      Moreover, the expressions of NOX2, NOX4 were significantly elevated in vehicle
      treated AB group. AMPK was able to significantly inhibit NOX2, NOX4 expression,
      while activate Sirt3 expression. AMPK significantly attenuated hypertension
      induced Ventricular remodeling and dysfunction, which may be mediated by the
      Sirt3/Oxidative stress signaling pathway.

PMID- 28867610
TI  - Muscle Lim Protein and myosin binding protein C form a complex regulating muscle
      differentiation.
AB  - Muscle Lim Protein (MLP) is a protein with multiple functional roles in striated
      muscle physiology and pathophysiology. Herein, we demonstrate that MLP directly
      binds to slow, fast, and cardiac myosin-binding protein C (MyBP-C) during
      myogenesis, as shown by yeast two-hybrid and a range of protein-protein
      interaction assays. The minimal interacting domains involve MLP inter-LIM and
      MyBP-C [C4]. The interaction is sensitive to cytosolic Ca2+ concentrations
      changes and to MyBP-C phosphorylation by PKA or CaMKII. Confocal microscopy of
      differentiating myoblasts showed MLP and MyBP-C colocalization during myoblast
      differentiation. Suppression of the complex formation with recombinant MyBP-C
      [C4] peptide overexpression, inhibited myoblast differentiation by 65%.
      Suppression of both MLP and MyBP-C expression in myoblasts by siRNA revealed
      negative synergistic effects on differentiation. The MLP/MyBP-C complex modulates
      the actin activated myosin II ATPase activity in vitro, which could interfere
      with sarcomerogenesis and myofilaments assembly during differentiation. Our data
      demonstrate a critical role of the MLP/MyBP-C complex during early myoblast
      differentiation. Its absence in muscles with mutations or aberrant expression of
      MLP or MyBP-C could be directly implicated in the development of cardiac and
      skeletal myopathies.

PMID- 28867611
TI  - ErbB3 interacts with Hrs and is sorted to lysosomes for degradation.
AB  - The ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases mediates activation of a wide
      network of signaling pathways. ErbB3 has weak kinase activity, but its six
      docking sites for the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase make it an
      important contributor to proliferative signaling. ErbB3 has a relatively short
      half-life but the exact mechanisms controlling its turnover are unclear as
      contradictory reports exist. ErbB-mediated signaling is, however, negatively
      regulated by endocytosis of the receptors, followed by either recycling or
      degradation. Our previous studies showed that ErbB3 can be endocytosed and
      degraded in the absence of its ligand heregulin. However, binding of heregulin
      increased the degradation rate. In the current study we have investigated in more
      detail the trafficking and degradation of ErbB3 in the presence or absence of
      heregulin. We report that ErbB3 is internalized by clathrin-mediated endocytosis
      both in the presence and absence of heregulin. Moreover, we show that both
      proteasomal and lysosomal activity regulate ErbB3 degradation. Although steady
      state expression of ErbB3 is regulated by proteasomal activity to a large extent,
      probably linked to a previously identified ER-localized quantity control, the
      results indicate that internalization, both constitutive and ligand-induced,
      causes lysosomal degradation of ErbB3. Furthermore, we show that ErbB3 interacts
      with the ESCRT-0 subunit Hrs both in the presence and absence of heregulin. This
      indicates an ESCRT-mediated sorting of ErbB3 to late endosomes and lysosomes, and
      in line with this we show that impaired ESCRT function leads to an endosomal
      accumulation of ErbB3.

PMID- 28867612
TI  - Achieving a Graded Immune Response: BTK Adopts a Range of Active/Inactive
      Conformations Dictated by Multiple Interdomain Contacts.
AB  - Capturing the functionally relevant forms of dynamic, multidomain proteins is
      extremely challenging. Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a kinase essential for B
      and mast cell function, has stubbornly resisted crystallization in its full
      length form. Here, nuclear magnetic resonance and hydrogen-deuterium exchange
      mass spectrometry show that BTK adopts a closed conformation in dynamic
      equilibrium with open, active conformations. BTK lacks the phosphotyrosine
      regulatory tail of the SRC kinases, yet nevertheless achieves a phosphotyrosine
      independent C-terminal latch. The unique proline-rich region is an internal "on"
      switch pushing the autoinhibited kinase toward its active state. Newly identified
      autoinhibitory contacts in the BTK pleckstrin homology domain are sensitive to
      phospholipid binding, which induces large-scale allosteric changes. The
      multiplicity of these regulatory contacts suggests a clear mechanism for gradual
      or "analog" kinase activation as opposed to a binary "on/off" switch. The
      findings illustrate how previously modeled information for recalcitrant full
      length proteins can be expanded and validated with a convergent multidisciplinary
      experimental approach.

PMID- 28867613
TI  - High-Resolution Cryo-EM Maps and Models: A Crystallographer's Perspective.
AB  - The appearance of ten high-resolution cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) maps of
      proteins, ribosomes, and viruses was compared with the experimentally phased
      crystallographic electron density maps of four proteins. We found that maps
      calculated at a similar resolution by the two techniques are quite comparable in
      their appearance, although cryo-EM maps, even when sharpened, seem to be a little
      less detailed. An analysis of models fitted to the cryo-EM maps indicated the
      presence of significant problems in almost all of them, including incorrect
      geometry, clashes between atoms, and discrepancies between the map density and
      the fitted models. In particular, the treatment of the atomic displacement (B)
      factors was meaningless in almost all analyzed cryo-EM models. Stricter cryo-EM
      structure deposition standards and their better enforcement are needed.

PMID- 28867614
TI  - Targeting Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase to Accelerate Drug Discovery against Malaria,
      Leishmaniasis, Toxoplasmosis, Cryptosporidiosis, and Coccidiosis.
AB  - Developing anti-parasitic lead compounds that act on key vulnerabilities are
      necessary for new anti-infectives. Malaria, leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis,
      cryptosporidiosis and coccidiosis together kill >500,000 humans annually. Their
      causative parasites Plasmodium, Leishmania, Toxoplasma, Cryptosporidium and
      Eimeria display high conservation in many housekeeping genes, suggesting that
      these parasites can be attacked by targeting invariant essential proteins. Here,
      we describe selective and potent inhibition of prolyl-tRNA synthetases (PRSs)
      from the above parasites using a series of quinazolinone-scaffold compounds. Our
      PRS-drug co-crystal structures reveal remarkable active site plasticity that
      accommodates diversely substituted compounds, an enzymatic feature that can be
      leveraged for refining drug-like properties of quinazolinones on a per parasite
      basis. A compound we termed In-5 exhibited a unique double conformation, enhanced
      drug-like properties, and cleared malaria in mice. It thus represents a new lead
      for optimization. Collectively, our data offer insights into the structure-guided
      optimization of quinazolinone-based compounds for drug development against
      multiple human eukaryotic pathogens.

PMID- 28867615
TI  - Structure of the Human Mitochondrial Ribosome Studied In Situ by Cryoelectron
      Tomography.
AB  - Mitochondria maintain their own genome and its corresponding protein synthesis
      machine, the mitochondrial ribosome (mitoribosome). Mitoribosomes primarily
      synthesize highly hydrophobic proteins of the inner mitochondrial membrane.
      Recent studies revealed the complete structure of the isolated mammalian
      mitoribosome, but its mode of membrane association remained hypothetical. In this
      study, we used cryoelectron tomography to visualize human mitoribosomes in
      isolated mitochondria. The subtomogram average of the membrane-associated human
      mitoribosome reveals a single major contact site with the inner membrane,
      mediated by the mitochondria-specific protein mL45. A second rRNA-mediated
      contact site that is present in yeast is absent in humans, resulting in a more
      variable association of the human mitoribosome with the inner membrane. Despite
      extensive structural differences of mammalian and fungal mitoribosomal structure,
      the principal organization of peptide exit tunnel and the mL45 homolog remains
      invariant, presumably to align the mitoribosome with the membrane-embedded
      insertion machinery.

PMID- 28867616
TI  - The Mammalian Proteasome Activator PA28 Forms an Asymmetric alpha4beta3 Complex.
AB  - The heptameric proteasome activator (PA) 28alphabeta is known to modulate class I
      antigen processing by docking onto 20S proteasome core particles (CPs). The exact
      stoichiometry and arrangement of its alpha and beta subunits, however, is still
      controversial. Here we analyzed murine PA28 complexes regarding structure and
      assembly. Strikingly, PA28alpha, PA28beta, and PA28alphabeta preparations form
      heptamers, but solely PA28alpha and PA28alphabeta associate with CPs. Co
      expression of alpha and beta yields one unique PA28alphabeta species with an
      unchangeable subunit composition. Structural data on PA28alpha, PA28beta, and
      PA28alphabeta up to 2.9 A resolution reveal a PA28alpha4beta3 complex with an
      alternating subunit arrangement and a single alpha-alpha interface. Differential
      scanning fluorimetry experiments and activity assays classify PA28alpha4beta3 as
      most stable and most active, indicating that this assembly might represent the
      physiologically relevant species. Together, our data resolve subunit composition
      and arrangement of PA28alphabeta and clarify how an asymmetric heptamer can be
      assembled from two highly homologous subunits.

PMID- 28867617
TI  - Total reference air kerma can accurately predict isodose surface volumes in
      cervix cancer brachytherapy. A multicenter study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To demonstrate that V60 Gy, V75 Gy, and V85 Gy isodose surface volumes
      can be accurately estimated from total reference air kerma (TRAK) in cervix
      cancer MRI-guided brachytherapy (BT). METHODS AND MATERIALS: 60 Gy, 75 Gy, and 85
      Gy isodose surface volumes levels were obtained from treatment planning systems
      (VTPS) for 239 EMBRACE study patients from five institutions treated with various
      dose rates, fractionation schedules and applicators. An equation for estimating
      VTPS from TRAK was derived. Furthermore, a surrogate Point A dose (Point A*) was
      proposed and tested for correlation with V75 Gy. RESULTS: Predicted volumes Vpred
      = 4965 (TRAK/dref) 3/2 + 170 (TRAK/dref) - 1.5 gave the best fit to VTPS. The
      difference between VTPS and predicted volumes was 0.0% +/- 2.3%. All volumes were
      predicted within 10%. The prediction was valid for (1) high-dose rate and pulsed
      dose rate, (2) intracavitary vs. intracavitary/interstitial applicators, and (3)
      tandem-ring, tandem-ovoid, and mold. Point A* = 14 TRAK was converted to total
      EQD2 and showed high correlation with V75 Gy. CONCLUSIONS: TRAK derived Isodose
      surface volumes may become a tool for assessment of treatment intensity.
      Furthermore, surrogate Point A* doses can be applied for both intracavitary and
      intracavitary/interstitial BT and can be used to compare treatments across
      fractionation schedules.

PMID- 28867618
TI  - Leucine responsive regulatory protein is involved in methionine metabolism and
      polyamine homeostasis in acetic acid bacterium Komagataeibacter europaeus.
AB  - The leucine responsive regulatory protein (Lrp) is a global transcription factor
      that regulates the expression of genes involved in amino acid metabolism. To
      identify metabolic pathways and related genes under the control of Lrp in the
      acetic acid bacterium Komagataeibacter europaeus, the Kelrp null mutant
      (KGMA7110), which requires supplementation of all 20 amino acids for normal
      growth, was cultivated in minimal media containing or lacking particular amino
      acids. The results confirmed that KGMA7110 was auxotrophic for methionine and its
      catabolites S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and spermidine (SPD). Quantitative reverse
      transcription PCR analysis revealed lower metK (SAM synthetase) and mdtI (SPD
      efflux pump) expression in KGMA7110 than in wild-type KGMA0119. By contrast,
      these genes were significantly up-regulated in the Kelrp mutant lacking the
      putative C-terminal ligand-sensing domain (KGMA7203), indicating abnormal
      regulation of target genes by the KeLrp variant in KGMA7203. KGMA7110 (0.69+/
      0.27 MUM) and KGMA7203 (4.90+/-0.61 MUM) excreted lower and higher quantities of
      SPD, respectively, than KGMA0119 (2.28+/-0.26 MUM). This was attributed to
      imbalanced carbon flow caused by Kelrp disruption that respectively attenuated
      and stimulated metK and mdtI expression. These findings indicate that KeLrp plays
      a key role in SAM biosynthesis and intracellular polyamine homeostasis in K.
      europaeus.

PMID- 28867619
TI  - Effect of sub-MIC of vancomycin and clindamycin alone and in combination with
      ceftazidime on Clostridium difficile surface layer protein A (slpA) gene
      expression.
AB  - Clostridium difficile (C.difficile) infection is often established in the
      presence of antibiotics and probably antibiotics can influence surface layer
      protein A (slpA) expression as a colonization factor. The aim of this study is to
      evaluate the effect of vancomycin (VAN), clindamycin (CLI) alone and in
      combination with ceftazidime (CAZ) on slpA gene expression to determine whether
      such antibiotics can have any effect on slpA expression. About ~106 CFU/mL was
      inoculated to medium containing an appropriate concentration of antibiotics alone
      and in combination. After 24 and 48 h incubation under anaerobic condition, 3 mL
      of culture was excluded and centrifuged in 8000 * g per 3 min. The pellet was
      washed and used for RNA extraction. The RNA extraction, Dnase I treatment and
      cDNA synthesis was performed by RNA extraction, Dnase I, and cDNA synthesis kits,
      respectively. The real-time PCR were carried out by sybrGreen methods and data
      were analyzed based on comparative DeltaDeltaCT. All antibiotics alone and in
      combination, except VAN/CAZ in clinical isolate, decreased the level of slpA gene
      expression in the 24-h incubation. While the expression profile of slpA was
      different in the 48-h incubation period. The VAN and CLI decreased the slpA
      expression, although the template of expression is closed to control medium. CAZ
      alone and in combination increased slpA expression. C. difficile may down
      regulate slpA expression in the early stages of growth in sub-inhibitory
      concentration of antibiotics. But, over time C. difficile increases or over
      expresses the slpA expression level. Consequently C. difficile binds strongly to
      epithelial cells and continues to survive in the presence of sub-MIC
      concentration of antibiotics. This effect is observed especially with regard to
      CAZ and probably other third generation cephalosporins or in combination therapy
      with VAN or CLI, which are prescribed in the clinic. CAZ can interfere with the
      anti-down regulatory feature of VAN, CLI, and maybe other antibiotics.

PMID- 28867620
TI  - Complete genome sequence analysis of the fish pathogen Flavobacterium columnare
      provides insights into antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity related genes.
AB  - We analyzed here the complete genome sequences of a highly virulent
      Flavobacterium columnare Pf1 strain isolated in our laboratory. The complete
      genome consists of a 3,171,081 bp circular DNA with 2784 predicted protein-coding
      genes. Among these, 286 genes were predicted as antibiotic resistance genes,
      including 32 RND-type efflux pump related genes which were associated with the
      export of aminoglycosides, indicating inducible aminoglycosides resistances in F.
      columnare. On the other hand, 328 genes were predicted as pathogenicity related
      genes which could be classified as virulence factors, gliding motility proteins,
      adhesins, and many putative secreted proteases. These genes were probably
      involved in the colonization, invasion and destruction of fish tissues during the
      infection of F. columnare. Apparently, our obtained complete genome sequences
      provide the basis for the explanation of the interactions between the F.
      columnare and the infected fish. The predicted antibiotic resistance and
      pathogenicity related genes will shed a new light on the development of more
      efficient preventional strategies against the infection of F. columnare, which is
      a major worldwide fish pathogen.

PMID- 28867621
TI  - Genetic variation among Clostridium perfringens isolated from food and faecal
      specimens in Lagos.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium which
      is commonly present in the gastrointestinal tract of man and animals and causes
      enteritic diseases in animals and food poisoning in humans. Previous studies have
      looked at the epidemiological relationship between C. perfringens isolates from
      outbreak source. In this study, the genetic diversity of C. perfringens strains
      from non-outbreak food and faecal specimens was investigated for epidemiological
      purposes. METHODS: We analyzed thirty-eight (38) Clostridium perfringens strains
      isolated from food and faecal specimens in Lagos State. Bacterial identification
      was done using colonial morphology, Gram stain reaction, conventional biochemical
      tests and PCR. Genetic analysis was performed using arbitrary primed polymerase
      chain reaction (AP-PCR) technique with oligonucleotide primer of random sequences
      (OPA-3) to determine the genetic diversity of C. perfringens. The distance
      between the different bands produced were analyzed using numerical taxonomy and
      multivariate system software (NTSYS). RESULTS: Seventeen (44.7%) C. perfringens
      strains showed at least one polymorphic DNA patterns when genotyped. However,
      this method identified polymorphisms among the C. perfringens species from which
      four genetic groups (1, 2, 3 and 4) were established. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      suggest that there may be faecal contamination of food products and similar
      clones of Clostridium perfringens may be incriminated.

PMID- 28867622
TI  - Association of IFNG gene polymorphisms with pulmonary tuberculosis but not with
      spinal tuberculosis in a Chinese Han population.
AB  - Spinal tuberculosis (STB) is an extrapulmonary form of tuberculosis (TB) caused
      by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which accounts for around 2% of all TB cases
      and can lead to spine degeneration. It is widely accepted that host genetic
      factors participate in the pathogenesis of active TB, but the factors controlling
      which TB form will manifest after Mtb infection remain unknown. We hypothesized
      that a genetic difference may exist between the development of STB and pulmonary
      tuberculosis (PTB). Here, three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the
      IFNG gene (rs2069718), IRGM gene (rs10065172), and MBL2 gene (rs11003125) were
      genotyped among 183 PTB patients, 177 STB patients, and 360 healthy controls from
      the Chinese Han population. We found that rs2069718 genotypes were significantly
      associated with PTB (TT, p = 0.007; CT, p = 0.008) but not STB, and the TT
      genotype (p = 0.046) of rs2069718 were less common in PTB than in STB. In
      contrast, neither PTB nor STB were found to be associated with rs10065172 and
      rs11003125. Overall, we found a difference in the rs2069718 genetic distribution
      between the STB and PTB patients in a Chinese Han population. The rs2069718 TT
      genotype was associated with a protective role in PTB but not STB development
      during active Mtb infection.

PMID- 28867623
TI  - Colonization, resistance to bile, and virulence properties of Escherichia coli
      strains: Unusual characteristics associated with biliary tract diseases.
AB  - Escherichia coli is the species that is most frequently isolated from bile of
      patients with biliary tract diseases. This study was aimed to investigate any
      association between resistance and virulence properties of these isolates with
      occurrence of the diseases. A total of 102 bile samples were obtained from
      patients subjected to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography for
      different biliary diseases. Clinical data were collected and culture of the bile
      samples was done on selective media. Resistance of characterized Escherichia coli
      isolates to deoxycholate sodium (0-7%) and nineteen antibiotics was determined
      and PCR using 16 pairs of primers targeting stx1, stx2, exhA, eae, bfp, agg,
      pcvd432, lt, st, ipaH, pic, pet, ast, set, sen, and cdtB genes was done. Our
      results showed a statistically significant association between E. coli
      colonization and existence of common bile duct and gallbladder stones (p value
      0.028). Out of the 22 E. coli strains (22/102) multidrug resistance phenotype was
      present in 95.45%. None of the strains belonged to common E. coli pathotypes.
      However, bfp + EhxA-hly, bfp + astA, bfp + EhxA-hly + pic, and EhxA-hly + pic +
      astA, bfp, and astA genotypes were detected in these strains. bfp (7/22, 31.8%)
      and astA (5/22, 22.7%) were among most frequent virulence factors in these
      strains. Results of this study showed significant association between
      colonization of E. coli and choledocholithiasis. Unusual existence of virulence
      gene combinations in these strains and their resistance to DOC and multiple
      classes of antibiotics could be considered as possible causes of their
      persistence in this harsh microenvironment.

PMID- 28867624
TI  - Effect of aminoglycosides on the pathogenic characteristics of microbiology.
AB  - Infections caused by pathogen remain to be one of the most important global
      health issues, and scientists are devoting themselves to seeking effective
      treatments. Aminoglycoside antibiotics are one kind of widely used antibiotics
      because of the good efficiency and broad antimicrobial-spectrum. However, it
      causes some unexpected effects on the pathogenic characteristics of microbiology
      during the treatment, such as drug resistance and biofilm promotion. Drug
      resistance is partly due to antibiotics abuse. Simultaneously, aminoglycoside is
      documented to make divergent effects on biofilm based on their concentrations.
      Here, we review the mechanism of drug resistance caused by long-term use of
      aminoglycoside antibiotics, the effects of antibiotic concentration on biofilm
      formation and the negative effects on intestinal flora to provide theoretical
      supports for rational use of antibiotics.

PMID- 28867625
TI  - Inhibition of cervical cancer cell metastasis by benzothiazole through up
      regulation of E-cadherin expression.
AB  - The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of benzothiazole on the
      invasive and metastasis potential of HeLa DH cervical cancer cells and the
      underlying mechanism. HeLa DH cervical cells were cultured with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
      and 30 MUM concentrations of benzothiazole for 48 h. Benzothiazole treatment did
      not induce any cytotoxic effect on HeLa DH cells after 48 h of incubation. The
      results from wound healing assay revealed that migration potential of HeLa DH
      cells was reduced to 4% on treatment with 20 MUM concentration of benzithiazole
      compared to 99% in the control cells. The invasion potential of HeLa DH cells was
      reduced to 13% on treatment with 20 MUM concentration of benzithiazole.
      Inhibition of HeLa DH cell migration was also significantly (p < 0.002) higher in
      the benzithiazole treated cell cultures compared to the control cells. HeLa DH
      cervical cancer cells on treatment with various concentrations of benzithiazole
      for 48 h showed a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the expression of E-cadherin
      in a dose dependent manner. Among the various concentrations of benzithiazole
      used, western blot assay revealed that the increase in E-cadherin was maximum at
      20 MUM. Analysis of the levels of mRNA corresponding to E-cadherin by RT-qPCR
      showed significant increase in HeLa DH cervical cancer cells on treatment with 20
      MUM concentration of benzithiazole. Thus benzithiazole treatment suppresses the
      invasive and metastasis potential of HeLa DH cervical cells through upregulation
      of E-cadherin expression. Therefore, benzithiazole has a potential to be used for
      the treatment of cervical cancer.

PMID- 28867626
TI  - Enhanced cytopathic effect of Japanese encephalitis virus strain SA14-14-2:
      Probable association of mutation in amino acid of its envelope protein.
AB  - Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a mosquito-borne viral disease. It is a global
      public health concern since it causes an acute encephalitis syndrome (AES). A
      large number of JE/AES cases are reported to occur in areas with established or
      developing JE vaccination program. Partial vaccine coverage and emergence of new
      variants of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) might be playing an important role.
      The envelope protein (E) of JEV is a major antigenic determinant and responsible
      for immunogenic responses as well as membrane fusion and virion assembly. In the
      present study, we have characterized the JEV live attenuated vaccine strain SA14
      14-2 in baby hamster kidney cells (BHK-21). The vaccine strain showed enhanced
      replication following its passage in BHK-21 cells. Nucleotide sequence analysis
      of the E protein gene of the cell-culture adapted vaccine strain showed an
      important point mutation. The mutation in the E protein gene was identical to its
      wild-type parent strain SA14. This study suggests the possibility of reversion
      mutation and exaltation of vaccine strains following adaptation in the host
      cells.

PMID- 28867627
TI  - Effect of organic acids on biofilm formation and quorum signaling of pathogens
      from fresh fruits and vegetables.
AB  - Organic acids are known to be used as food preservatives due to their
      antimicrobial potential. This study evaluated the ability of three organic acids,
      namely, acetic acid, citric acid and lactic acid to manage E. coli and Salmonella
      sp. from fresh fruits and vegetables. Effect of these organic acids on biofilm
      forming ability and anti-quorum potential was also investigated. The effect of
      organic acids on inactivation of E. coli and Salmonella sp. on the surface of a
      selected vegetable (cucumber) was determined. The minimum inhibitory
      concentration of the organic acids were found to be 1.5, 2 and 0.2% in E. coli
      while it was observed to be 1, 1.5 and 1% in Salmonella sp. for acetic, citric
      and lactic acids respectively. Maximum inhibition of biofilm formation was
      recorded at 39.13% with lactic acid in E. coli and a minimum of 22.53% with
      citric acid in Salmonella sp. EPS production was affected in E. coli with lactic
      acid showing reduction by 13.42% while citric acid and acetic acid exhibited only
      6.25% and 10.89% respectively. Swimming and swarming patterns in E. coli was
      notably affected by both acetic and lactic acids. Lactic and acetic acids showed
      higher anti-quorum sensing (QS) potential when compared to citric acid. 2% lactic
      acid showed a maximum inhibition of violacein production by 37.7%. Organic acids
      can therefore be used as potential quorum quenching agents in food industry. 2%
      lactic acid treatment on cucumber demonstrated that it was effective in
      inactivating E. coli and Salmonella sp. There was 1 log reduction in microbial
      count over a period of 6 days after the lactic acid treatment. Thus, organic
      acids can act as effective potential sanitizers in reducing the microbial load
      associated with fresh fruits and vegetables.

PMID- 28867628
TI  - Molecular and phenotypic characterization of endophytic bacteria isolated from
      sulla nodules.
AB  - In the current study, bacterial diversity was investigated in root nodules of
      Sulla pallida and Sulla capitata. The isolates were analyzed on the basis of
      their phenotypic and molecular characteristics. The phylogenetic analysis based
      on 16S rRNA and housekeeping genes (recA and atpD) showed that the isolated
      bacteria related to Sinorhizobium, Neorhizobium, Phyllobacterium, Arthrobacter,
      Variovorax and Pseudomonas genera. This is the first report of Neorhizobium genus
      associated with Hedysarum genus. Phenotypically, all strains tolerate the
      elevated temperature of 40  degrees C, and salt stress at a concentration of 2%.
      In addition, the isolates failed to induce nodulation on their original host; and
      the symbiotic genes could not be amplified, suggesting that these strains are
      endophytic bacteria.

PMID- 28867629
TI  - A nanobiosensing method based on force measurement of antibody-antigen
      interaction for direct detection of enterovirus 71 by the chemically modified
      atomic force microscopic probe.
AB  - Hand, Foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common disease with high infectivity for
      children, and enterovirus 71 (EV71) is one of the main pathogens to cause the
      type of illness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose a rapid and
      effective technique for detecting EV71 directly based on the mechanism of
      biological intermolecular force by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). At first,
      we coated EV71 particles on the mica surface and made the EV71 antibodies (anti
      EV71) fixed on the AFM tip by means of several chemical procedures. Then, AFM
      chemically modified tip was applied to measure the unbinding forces between EV71
      and anti-EV71 by contact mode. Finally, by using AFM imaging calculating
      software, the EV71 particle size (mean+/-SD) was 31.36+/-3.87 nm (n = 200) and
      this result was concordance with previous literature. Besides, the force (mean+/
      SD) between EV71 antigen and antibody complex was 336.9+/-64.7 pN. The force
      (mean+/-SD) between anti-EV71 and non-specific specimens was 47.1+/-15.1 pN and
      was significantly smaller (P < 0.05). Apparently, the results show that we can
      precisely identify EV71 infection among the samples by measuring the force
      magnitude and observing the occurrence of EV71/anti-EV71 unbinding events.
      Therefore, the combination of AFM system and the chemically modified tip has the
      potential to be a rapid and effective method for detecting EV71 directly.

PMID- 28867630
TI  - Indole reduces the expression of virulence related genes in Vibrio splendidus
      pathogenic to sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus.
AB  - Indole is a metabolite of tryptophan that can be synthesized by various bacteria.
      In the present study, production of indole by Vibrio splendidus Vs was determined
      using Kovac's reagent, and m/z was further determined by HPLC-MS. Extracellular
      indole reached a maximum concentration of 160 MUM, when OD600 of V. splendidus Vs
      was approximately 0.9. In addition, glucose could reduce indole level, and 1%
      (m/v) glucose could reduce the mRNA level of tnaA, the gene encoding
      tryptophanase, down to 0.2%. To investigate the effects of indole on the mRNA
      levels of virulence related genes of V. splendidus Vs, mRNA levels of vsm, vsh
      and ABC respectively related to protease activity, haemolytic activity and ABC
      transporter ATP-binding protein were determined. Exogenous indole supplemented at
      a concentration of 125 MUMU could respectively down regulate the mRNA level of
      vsm, vsh and ABC to 16%, 13% and 11%. Meanwhile, indole could alter the
      expressions of immune related gene in Apostichopus japonicus. When coelomocytes
      were co-cultured with exogenous indole at a concentration of 125 MUMU, the mRNA
      level of Ajp105 and AjLBP/BPI1, were up regulated by 1.6-fold and 2.1-fold,
      respectively. Combined all the results in our study suggested that indole could
      alter the expressions of the virulence related genes in pathogenic V. splendidus
      Vs as well as the immune related genes in A. japonicus.

PMID- 28867631
TI  - The apoptotic impact of nisin as a potent bacteriocin on the colon cancer cells.
AB  - Nisin is a polycyclic peptide containing 34 amino acids produced by Lactococcus
      lactis during fermentation. Recently, researchers considered nisin as an
      anticancer peptide. Herein, the authors aim to evaluate the nisin effects on the
      apoptosis stimulation in the colon cancer cell line. The SW480 cells were exposed
      to discrepant concentrations of nisin and the cell viability as well as the
      expression of bcl-2 and bax genes and proteins were surveyed by the MTT assay,
      Real-Time PCR and western blotting method, respectively. Furthermore, the
      Ethidium bromide/Acridine orange staining was performed to visualize apoptotic
      cells. 4000, 3000, 2500 and 2000 MUg/ml of nisin led to significant anti
      proliferative impact and augmentation apoptotic index (bax/bcl-2 ratio) both at
      mRNA and protein levels (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the apoptotic impacts were
      demonstrated after Ethidium bromide/Acridine orange (EB/AO) staining to have a
      dose dependent manner. Our outcome suggested that nisin could induce apoptosis
      via intrinsic pathways and lead to cancerous cell death.

PMID- 28867632
TI  - Extraction, isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds from chloroform
      extract of Carica papaya seed and it's in vivo antibacterial potentiality in
      Channa punctatus against Klebsiella PKBSG14.
AB  - The relative efficacy of the isolated pure compound, extracted from Carica papaya
      seed has been tested against live fish, Channa punctatus infected with pathogenic
      strains of KlebsiellaPKBSG14 (gene bank accession no.KJ162158) at a dose of 0.75
      CFU/ml in vivo. The isolated compound has been characterized by chromatography
      and mass spectroscopy studies using FTIR, 1HNMR and 13c NMR to identify as well
      as to determine the nature of the pure compound. This study revealed the
      extracted biological molecule is oleic acid, a long chained saturated fatty acid
      (LFAs) with a molecular formula C18H34O2. Later this compound was analyzed for
      its efficacy as an antibacterial agent in vivo through cytotoxicological and
      genotoxicological assays. A dose of 0.5 mg/kg and 1 mg/kg b.w of isolated pure
      oleic acid has been tested and it showed effective result in regard to DNA
      fragmentation, comet tail length and toxicity biomarkers like ROS generation. The
      results of in vivo studies showed similar effects on spleen cells with regard to
      cell viability by PI staining, cell cycle analysis and also Annexin-FITC assay.
      Thus, the overall results suggest that oleic acid increases drug bioavailability
      and thereby has a better chemo-preventive action against bacterial infection in
      vivo.

PMID- 28867633
TI  - Borrelia burgdorferi basic membrane protein A could induce chemokine production
      in murine microglia cell line BV2.
AB  - Lyme neuroborreliosis is a nervous system infectious disease caused by Borrelia
      burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi). It has been demonstrated that cytokines induced by
      B. burgdorferi are related to Lyme neuroborreliosis. Microglia is known as a key
      player in the immune responses that occur within the central nervous system. In
      response to inflammation, it will be activated and generate cytokines and
      chemokines. Experiments in vitro cells have showed that B. Burgdorferi membrane
      protein A (BmpA), a major immunogen of B. Burgdorferi, could induce Lyme
      arthritis and stimulate human and murine lymphocytes to produce inflammatory
      cytokines. In our study, the murine microglia BV2 cell line was used as a cell
      model to explore the stimulating effects of recombinant BmpA (rBmpA); Chemokine
      chip, ELISA and QPCR technology were used to measure the production of chemokines
      from microglial cells stimulated by rBmpA. Compared with the negative control
      group, CXCL2, CCL22, and CCL5 concentrations in the cell supernatant increased
      significantly after the rBmpA stimulation; the concentration of these chemokines
      increased with rBmpA concentration increasing; the mRNA expression levels of
      chemokines (CXCL2, CCL22, and CCL5) in murine BV2 cells increased significantly
      with 10 MUg/mL and 20 MUg/mL rBmpA stimulation; CXCL13 was not change after the
      rBmpA stimulation. Our study shows that chemokines, such as CXCL2, CCL22, and
      CCL5 were up-regulated by the rBmpA in the BV2 cells. The production of
      chemokines in Lyme neuroborreliosis may be mainly from microglia cells and the
      rBmpA may be closely related with the development of Lyme neuroborreliosis.

PMID- 28867634
TI  - Two potential uses for silver nanoparticles coated with Solanum nigrum unripe
      fruit extract: Biofilm inhibition and photodegradation of dye effluent.
AB  - Silver nanoparticle was green synthesized involving the unripe fruit extracts of
      Solanum nigrum (Sn-AgNPs). The synthesized Sn-AgNPs was bio-physically
      characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). UV-Vis
      recorded the absorbance spectra at 443 nm. XRD analysis clearly demonstrated the
      crystalline nature of Sn-AgNPs with Bragg's reflection peaks at 111, 200, 220 and
      311 lattice planes. The FTIR spectrum of Sn-AgNPs showed strong bands at 3432,
      1555, 1455, 862 and 406 cm-1 which corresponds at O-H, C-H, C-C, C-OH and C-N
      groups respectively. TEM exhibited the spherical shape of Sn-AgNPs with particle
      size between 20 and 30 nm. The antibacterial effects of Sn-AgNPs were tested on
      clinically important biofilm forming Gram positive (Bacillus pumulis and
      Enterococcus faecalis) and Gram negative (Proteus vulgaris and Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus) bacteria. The greater inhibition of B. pumulis and E. faecalis
      was observed at 100 MUg mL-1 of Sn-AgNPs compared to P. vulgaris and V.
      parahaemolyticus. The biofilm inhibition potential of Sn-AgNPs was greater
      against Gram positive bacteria than that of Gram negative bacteria. Furthermore,
      Sn-AgNPs effectively degraded the industrial effluent methyl orange dye by
      photocatalysis. It is concluded that Sn-AgNPs could be used as an effective
      therapeutics against the biofilm of clinically important bacteria. The green
      synthesized Sn-AgNPs can be employed to degrade dye effluents and prevent
      environmental pollution as well.

PMID- 28867635
TI  - Effect of human placental extract in the management of biofilm mediated drug
      resistance - A focus on wound management.
AB  - Management of infectious wounds, particularly chronic wounds and burn injuries,
      is a matter of global concern. Worldwide estimates reveal that, billions of
      dollars are being spent annually for the management of such chronic ailments.
      Evidently, bacterial biofilms pose a greater problem in the effective management
      of infection in chronic wounds, since most of the currently available antibiotics
      are unable to act on the microorganisms residing inside the protected environment
      of the biofilms. Accordingly, in the present study, we have attempted to evaluate
      the anti-biofilm properties of human placental extract (PLX) and also other
      virulence factors that are mediated via the quorum sensing (QS) signalling
      system. PLX is well known for its anti inflammatory action and it has been shown
      earlier some anti microbial and enzymatic activity also. PLX was found to produce
      significant inhibition of biofilm formation and also decreased the levels of
      pyoverdin and pyocyanin. The microscopic analysis (both light microscopy and
      atomic force microscopy) of biofilms was also used for substantiating the
      findings from spectrophotometric (crystal violet estimation) and fluorescence
      analysis (resazurin uptake). PLX pre-treatment decreased the hydrophobicity of
      gram-positive and gram negative cells, indicating the effect of placental extract
      on adherence property of planktonic cell, serving as an indicator for its
      antibiofilm effect on microorganisms. The reduced extracellular DNA (eDNA)
      content in biofilm matrix following treatment with PLX also indicates the
      effectiveness of placenta extract on bacterial adherence, which in turn serves as
      evidence substantiating the antibiofilm effects of the PLX. Furthermore, PLX was
      also found to be significantly effective in the in vitro wound biofilm model.
      Thus the present study, the first of its kind with PLX, establishes the
      therapeutic benefit of the same particularly in infected wounds, opening up newer
      avenue for further exploration.

PMID- 28867636
TI  - Characterization of vaginal microbiota of endometritis and healthy sows using
      high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene.
AB  - Endometritis is one of major challenges in reproduction infections caused by
      bacteria in sows. Understanding of the vaginal bacterial community between
      endometritis and healthy sows serves as a critical step to develop more effective
      ways to improve reproduction ability in pig industry. The aim of the present
      study is to evaluate and compare the vaginal microbiota of endometritis and
      healthy sows using high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene. The main
      bacterium found at the phylum level were Firmicutes (60.88% vs. 45.86%),
      Proteobacteria (20.45% vs. 32.19%) and Bacteroidetes (9.19% vs. 12.99%) for
      healthy and endometritis sows, respectively. Most notable difference at the
      phylum level was the Proteobacteria which occupied high abundance in the
      endometritis sows but less abundance in the healthy sows. At the genus level, the
      highest abundant were Bacillus (27.13% vs. 16.15%), Paenibacillus (14.78% vs.
      8.92%), Alkaliphilus (3.99% vs. 2.87%) and Cronobacter (4.04% vs. 2.37%), in
      healthy and endometritis sows, respectively. Notable differences were Escherichia
      Shigella, Bacteroides, Fusobacterium and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 which were
      more abundant in the endometritis than the healthy sows respectively. The present
      results for the first time demonstrate vaginal microbial community of sows and
      indicate that endometritis affected the vaginal microbiota of sow.

PMID- 28867638
TI  - Zebrafish: A promising in vivo model for assessing the delivery of natural
      products, fluorescence dyes and drugs across the blood-brain barrier.
AB  - The blood brain barrier (BBB) is the network of capillaries that controls the
      passage of substances from the blood into the brain and other parts of the
      central nervous system (CNS). As this barrier is the major obstacle for drug
      delivery into CNS, a credible BBB model is very necessary to assess the BBB
      permeability of novel neuroactive compounds including thousands of bioactive
      compounds which have been extracted from medicinal plants and have the potential
      for the treatment of CNS diseases. Increasing reports indicated that zebrafish
      has emerged as a timely, reproducible model for BBB permeability assessment. In
      this review, the development and functions of the BBB in zebrafish, such as its
      anatomical morphology, tight junctions, drug transporters and enzyme expression,
      are compared with those in mammals. The studies outlined in this review describe
      the utilization of the zebrafish as a BBB model to investigate the permeability
      and distribution of fluorescent dyes and drugs. Particularly, this review focuses
      on the use of zebrafish to evaluate the delivery of natural products and
      nanosized drug delivery systems across the BBB. Due to the highly conserved
      nature of both the structure and function of the BBB between zebrafish and
      mammals, zebrafish has the potential to be developed as a model for assessing and
      predicting the permeability of BBB to novel compounds.

PMID- 28867637
TI  - Sinomenine-induced histamine release-like anaphylactoid reactions are blocked by
      tranilast via inhibiting NF-kappaB signaling.
AB  - Zhengqing Fengtongning (ZQFTN), the pharmaceutical preparation of sinomenine
      (SIN) derived from the medicinal plant Sinmenium acutum, is well-known in China
      as an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, its histamine
      release anaphylactoid reactions (HRARs) occur often in some patients. Therefore,
      it is desirable to establish effective clinical protocols to manage such HRARs.
      In the study, rat models with systemic HRARs and local HRARs of the skin were
      established. The level of vascular permeability and mast cell numbers was
      determined by quantitative analysis using Evans blue dye and histological assays.
      The levels of histamine, leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and IL-33 in plasma were detected
      by UHPLC-SPE-MS, ELISA and immunohistochemistry assays, respectively. The results
      demonstrated that SIN significantly induced both systemic and local HRARs in
      rats, showing significant decrease of body temperature, increases in vascular
      permeability in skin, injury of lung tissues and mast cell infiltration and IL-33
      expression in skin and lung tissues. Mechanistic study showed that tranilast
      could prevent SIN-triggered HRARs via inhibition of H1 receptor gene expression
      and NF-kappaB signaling. Our findings provide evidence that mast cell membrane
      stabilizers and H1 receptor blockers effectively prevent SIN-induced HRARs, and
      cromolyn, cetirizine and tranilast can be used in the clinic for the management
      of HRARs induced by ZQFTN.

PMID- 28867639
TI  - Animal models of pulmonary arterial hypertension: A systematic review and meta
      analysis of data from 6126 animals.
AB  - Numerous animal models of pulmonary hypertension are currently available. A
      systematic review and meta-analysis was performed of a number of experimental
      studies of disease induction based on several animal models. A meta-analysis was
      performed of 291 publications discussing the efficacy of 611 interventions to
      introduce disease pulmonary hypertension in 6126 animals. A meta-regression
      analysis was done to assess the effect of prolonged periods of disease induction
      on the outcomes. A random-effects meta-analysis was used to assess the impact of
      study characteristics and seek evidence of publication bias. A more pronounced
      worsening in hemodynamics or right ventricle hypertrophy was observed in animals
      exposed to Sugen combined with hypoxia, or left pneumonectomy followed by
      monocrotaline. Chronic hypoxia induced the poorest, but the most stable, response
      to disease induction with regard to elevated hemodynamic parameters, right
      ventricle hypertrophy and wall thickening. The greatest elevation of right
      ventricle systolic pressure was observed in animals exposed to isoflurane and the
      weakest to chloral hydrate. This result was true for different animal models and
      lengths of induction of pulmonary hypertension. Publication bias was found for
      all the crucial parameters. Development of pulmonary hypertension depends on the
      choice of animal model. Classic models, especially these related to chronic
      hypoxia, provoke a less severe response with regard to poorer hemodynamics and
      myocardial hypertrophy. The outcome of disease development can be strongly
      determined by the duration of induction, detailed experimental conditions and
      anesthesia procedure.

PMID- 28867640
TI  - Development and Validation of a Teaching Module for Echocardiographic Scoring of
      Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Wilkins score and commissural calcification scores predict
      outcomes after percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty. However, many
      cardiologists are inadequately trained in their application-both in the United
      States where the incidence of rheumatic heart disease has fallen and in rheumatic
      heart disease endemic countries where training infrastructure is weak.
      OBJECTIVES: This study sought to develop a computer-based educational module
      teaching 2 scoring systems for rheumatic mitral stenosis and to validate the
      module among cardiology fellows in the United States and Uganda. METHODS: We
      developed a module organized into 3 sets of 10 echocardiograms each. The module
      was completed by 13 cardiology fellows from 2 academic centers in the United
      States and 1 in Uganda. Subject answers were compared with a score assigned by 2
      experts in echocardiography. The primary outcome was change in subjects' accuracy
      from set 1 to set 3, measured by mean absolute deviation from expert scores.
      Secondary outcomes included change in interoperator variability and individual
      subject bias from set 1 to set 3. RESULTS: The mean absolute deviations from
      expert scores in sets 1 and 3 were 2.09 and 1.82 for the Wilkins score (possible
      score range 0 to 16) and 1.13 and 0.94 for the commissural calcification score
      (possible score range 0 to 4). The change from set 1 to set 3 was statistically
      significant only for 1 of the Wilkins component scores (leaflet calcification, p
      < 0.001.) No change was seen in the interoperator variability. Individual subject
      bias in assigning the total Wilkins score was reduced from set 1 to set 3.
      CONCLUSIONS: Use of this module has the potential to enhance the training of
      cardiologists in the echocardiographic assessment of mitral stenosis. Modified
      versions of this module or similar ones should be tested in targeted populations
      of cardiology trainees with the most exposure to mitral stenosis interventions.

PMID- 28867641
TI  - A comparison of the management of blunt splenic injury in children and young
      people-A New South Wales, population-based, retrospective study.
AB  - : The importance and safety of non-operative management (NOM) of Blunt Splenic
      Injury (BSI) has been established in children and adults over recent decades.
      However, studies have shown higher operation rates in adults. There is
      international evidence that when children are managed in adult centres, operation
      rates are higher while adolescents in paediatric centres, are operated on in line
      with paediatric guidelines. This difference between children and young adults,
      and the factors responsible, have not been examined in New South Wales (NSW).
      OBJECTIVE: To use NSW hospital and mortality data to compare the characteristics
      of BSI in patients aged 0-16 to those aged 17-25, and determine factors related
      to operative management (OM) and splenic salvage in each group. METHODS: Patients
      age 0-25 between July 2000 and December 2011, with a diagnosis of BSI, were
      identified in the NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection, and linked to deaths data
      from Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages and Bureau of Statistics. Operation
      rate was compared between the two groups. Univariable analysis was used to
      determine factors associated with OM. Multivariable logistic regression with
      stepwise elimination was then performed to determine likelihood of OM according
      to age group, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: 1986 cases were
      identified, with 422 (21.2%) managed operatively - 101/907 children (11.1%)
      and321/1079 (29.7%)young adults(p<0.001). Of these, 59 (58%) children underwent
      splenectomy compared with 233 (73%) young adults (p<0.001). OM increased
      significantly after the age of 12 (p=0.03), and the percentage almost tripled in
      the teenage years, coinciding with a higher proportion admitted to adult centres.
      OM doubled again in young adults(p<0.001), all of whom were managed away from
      paediatric centres. On multivariable analysis, factors significantly associated
      with operation included age over 16 (OR 2.82, 95%CI 2.10-3.81), splenic injury
      severity, associated thoracic, liver, pancreatic and hollow viscus injury, and
      blood transfusion. CONCLUSION: While Paediatric Surgeons have wholeheartedly
      adopted non-operative management, away from paediatric centres, it is possible
      children and young people in NSW are undergoing operation unnecessarily. Further
      evaluation of the surgeon attitudes and institutional factors involved in the
      management of injured children and young people within the broad NSW trauma
      system is required.

PMID- 28867642
TI  - Phonomyography as a non-invasive continuous monitoring technique for muscle
      ischemia in an experimental model of acute compartment syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In acute compartment syndrome (ACS), clinicians have difficulty
      diagnosing muscle ischemia provoked by increased intra-compartmental pressure in
      a timely and non-invasive manner. Phonomyography records the acoustic signal
      produced by muscle contraction. We hypothesize that alterations in muscle
      contraction caused by muscle ischemia can be detected with phonomyography,
      serving as a potential non-invasive technique in the detection of ACS. METHODS:
      The left hind limb of 15 Sprague-Dawley rats was submitted to a reversible
      ischemic model of limb injury for 30min and 1, 2, 4, 6h (3 rats in each group).
      The right limb served as control. Phonomyography microphones were placed over the
      posterior calf of both limbs and the sciatic nerve was stimulated percutaneously
      at 10-min intervals to evaluate muscle contraction. Histopathological analysis of
      muscles and nerves biopsies was performed and correlation was made between
      duration of injury, phonomyography output and degree of muscle and nerve
      necrosis. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decrease in the
      phonomyography signal output in the ischemic limb that correlated with the
      duration of ischemia and histological findings of muscle and nerve necrosis. The
      phonomyography signal decrease and histological findings were respectively: 55.5%
      (n=15;p=0.005) with rare muscle and nerve necrosis at 30min, 65.6% (n=12;p=0.005)
      with 5-10% muscle necrosis at 1h, 68.4% (n=9;p=0.015) with 100% muscle necrosis
      and little nerve damage at 2h, 72.4% (n=6;p=0.028) with 100% muscle necrosis and
      severe nerve damage at 4h, and 92.8% (n=3;p=0.109) with 100% muscle necrosis and
      severe nerve degeneration at 6h. CONCLUSION: Changes in phonomyography signal are
      observed in early ischemic injury prior to the onset of nerve or muscle necrosis.
      Therefore, phonomyography could serve as a non-invasive technique to detect early
      ischemic muscle changes in acute compartment syndrome. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The
      detection of abnormal muscle contraction in a timely fashion and non-invasive
      manner is of interest in clinical settings where the presence of ischemia is not
      easy to diagnose.

PMID- 28867643
TI  - Subtrochanteric fractures of the femur. Treatment with locking intramedullary
      nailing. An experience without C-Arc. The guide-wire stopping method for verify
      distal locking is described.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the results of treatment of subtrochanteric fracture with
      interlocked intramedullary nail and describe a technical for accurate and secure
      verification of distal locking position when we do surgery without arc-C.
      METHODS: A case series where was reviewed the results in 49 patients with
      subtrochanteric fracture and treated locking intramedullary nailing. The AO and
      Russell-Taylor Classification were used. The statistic procedure was done with
      SPSS program. The traumatic hip scale of Sander et al. was used for final
      evaluation. Technical for doing distal locking is detailed. RESULTS: This series
      evaluated 49 patients: 35 male and 14 female patients. The mean age was 36 years
      old (range: 18-86 years). Traffic accidents and gunshot wounds were injury forms
      most frequent. There were not transoperative complications. The surgical time was
      between 90 and 120min (mean: 108min). The mean follow-up was 24 months (range: 18
      36 months). According to Sanders score, it was reported 22 excellent results, 20
      good results and 7 regular results. All distal locking procedures were
      successfully performed. CONCLUSION: Although this series consists in a few
      numbers of patients, we recommend the placement of interlocked intramedullary
      nail (Closs-MB Bioimpianti(r) and Orthosintese(r)) in subtrochanteric fractures.
      This device allows placement of distal locking through the insertion frame with
      safety and precision, even in surgery rooms without arc-C. The guide-wire
      stopping method allows the verification of distal locking in an objective,
      accurate, safe and reproducible way.

PMID- 28867644
TI  - Fracture-related infection: A consensus on definition from an international
      expert group.
AB  - Fracture-related infection (FRI) is a common and serious complication in trauma
      surgery. Accurately estimating the impact of this complication has been hampered
      by the lack of a clear definition. The absence of a working definition of FRI
      renders existing studies difficult to evaluate or compare. In order to address
      this issue, an expert group comprised of a number of scientific and medical
      organizations has been convened, with the support of the AO Foundation, in order
      to develop a consensus definition. The process that led to this proposed
      definition started with a systematic literature review, which revealed that the
      majority of randomized controlled trials in fracture care do not use a
      standardized definition of FRI. In response to this conclusion, an international
      survey on the need for and key components of a definition of FRI was distributed
      amongst all registered AOTrauma users. Approximately 90% of the more than 2000
      surgeons who responded suggested that a definition of FRI is required. As a final
      step, a consensus meeting was held with an expert panel. The outcome of this
      process led to a consensus definition of FRI. Two levels of certainty around
      diagnostic features were defined. Criteria could be confirmatory (infection
      definitely present) or suggestive. Four confirmatory criteria were defined:
      Fistula, sinus or wound breakdown; Purulent drainage from the wound or presence
      of pus during surgery; Phenotypically indistinguishable pathogens identified by
      culture from at least two separate deep tissue/implant specimens; Presence of
      microorganisms in deep tissue taken during an operative intervention, as
      confirmed by histopathological examination. Furthermore, a list of suggestive
      criteria was defined. These require further investigations in order to look for
      confirmatory criteria. In the current paper, an overview is provided of the
      proposed definition and a rationale for each component and decision. The
      intention of establishing this definition of FRI was to offer clinicians the
      opportunity to standardize clinical reports and improve the quality of published
      literature. It is important to note that the proposed definition was not designed
      to guide treatment of FRI and should be validated by prospective data collection
      in the future.

PMID- 28867645
TI  - 5-Fluorouracil induces inflammation and oxidative stress in the major salivary
      glands affecting salivary flow and saliva composition.
AB  - This study aimed to elucidate the effect of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on the
      histological aspects of the major salivary glands, salivary flow and saliva
      composition using an established oral mucositis model in hamsters. Oral mucositis
      was induced by two intraperitoneal administrations of 5-FU in two consecutive
      days (60 and 40mg/kg), followed by cheek pouch mucosa scratch, on day 4. The
      Pilocarpine-stimulated salivary flow was measured 4 and 10days after the first 5
      FU injection. Salivary glands were harvested for histopathological analysis,
      measurement of inflammatory cells, quantification of pro-inflammatory cytokines
      (TNF-alpha and IL-1beta), investigation of cell death and cell proliferation.
      Oxidative stress and oxidative defense system were also investigated in the
      salivary gland tissues using MDA (malondialdehyde), nitrite, non-protein
      sulfhydryl groups (NP-SH), SOD (superoxide dismutase) and CAT (catalase). In
      addition, the CAT and lysozyme activities and the IgA and SOD levels were
      evaluated in the saliva samples. 5-FU significantly reduced the pilocarpine
      stimulated salivary flow rate on the 4th experimental day, associated with an
      increase in the SOD levels in saliva. Recovery of the salivary flow and SOD were
      observed on day 10, when an increase in the saliva lysozyme levels was detected.
      In addition, 5-FU promoted vacuolization in parotid (P) and periductal edema in
      submandibular (SM) gland, combined with an increase in the inflammatory cells
      influx, mostly observed on the 4th day in SM gland and on 4th and 10th days in P.
      Oxidative stress was found mostly on day 10 in SM, SL and P glands, associated
      with release of proinflammatory cytokines, observed in SM and SL glands, but not
      in P. 5-FU induces an inflammatory response in the major salivary glands, most
      observed ten days after its first injection, which may contribute to the major
      salivary glands hypofunction, leading to alterations in the salivary flow rate
      and composition.

PMID- 28867646
TI  - The MCU complex in cell death.
AB  - During the 60s, the notion that positively charged Ca2+ ions are rapidly
      accumulated in energized mitochondria has been first established. In the
      following decades, mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis was shown to control cell
      metabolism, cell survival and other cell-specific functions through different
      mechanism. However, the molecular identity of the molecules controlling this
      process remained a mystery until just few years ago, when both mitochondrial Ca2+
      uptake and release systems were genetically dissected. This finally opened the
      possibility to develop genetic model to directly test the contribution of
      mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis to cellular functions. Although the picture is
      still far from being clear, we here summarize and critically evaluate the current
      knowledge on how mitochondrial Ca2+ handling controls cell death.

PMID- 28867648
TI  - Tendon injury and repair - A perspective on the basic mechanisms of tendon
      disease and future clinical therapy.
AB  - : Tendon is an intricately organized connective tissue that efficiently transfers
      muscle force to the bony skeleton. Its structure, function, and physiology
      reflect the extreme, repetitive mechanical stresses that tendon tissues bear.
      These mechanical demands also lie beneath high clinical rates of tendon
      disorders, and present daunting challenges for clinical treatment of these
      ailments. This article aims to provide perspective on the most urgent frontiers
      of tendon research and therapeutic development. We start by broadly introducing
      essential elements of current understanding about tendon structure, function,
      physiology, damage, and repair. We then introduce and describe a novel paradigm
      explaining tendon disease progression from initial accumulation of damage in the
      tendon core to eventual vascular recruitment from the surrounding synovial
      tissues. We conclude with a perspective on the important role that biomaterials
      will play in translating research discoveries to the patient. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: Tendon and ligament problems represent the most frequent
      musculoskeletal complaints for which patients seek medical attention. Current
      therapeutic options for addressing tendon disorders are often ineffective, and
      the need for improved understanding of tendon physiology is urgent. This
      perspective article summarizes essential elements of our current knowledge on
      tendon structure, function, physiology, damage, and repair. It also describes a
      novel framework to understand tendon physiology and pathophysiology that may be
      useful in pushing the field forward.

PMID- 28867647
TI  - Inhibitory effects of melatonin on titanium particle-induced inflammatory bone
      resorption and osteoclastogenesis via suppression of NF-kappaB signaling.
AB  - : Wear debris-induced peri-implant osteolysis challenges the longevity of
      implants. The host response to wear debris causes chronic inflammation, promotes
      bone resorption, and impairs bone formation. We previously demonstrated that
      melatonin enhances bone formation and attenuates wear debris-induced bone loss in
      vivo. However, whether melatonin inhibits chronic inflammation and bone
      resorption at sites of wear debris-induced osteolysis remains unclear. In this
      study, we examined the potential inhibitory effects of melatonin on titanium
      particle-induced inflammatory osteolysis in a murine calvarial model and on RANKL
      induced osteoclastic formation in bone marrow-derived macrophages. We found that
      the exogenous administration of melatonin significantly inhibited wear debris
      induced bone resorption and the expression of inflammatory cytokines in vivo.
      Additionally, melatonin inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation, F
      actin ring formation, and osteoclastic resorption in a concentration-dependent
      manner in vitro. We also showed that melatonin blocked the phosphorylation of
      IkappaB-alpha and p65, but not IKKalpha, and significantly inhibited the
      expression of NFATc1 and c-Fos. However, melatonin had no effect on MAPK or
      PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. These results provide novel mechanistic insight into
      the anti-inflammatory and anti-bone resorptive effects of melatonin on wear
      debris-induced bone loss and provide an evidence-based rationale for the
      protective effects of melatonin as a treatment for peri-implant osteolysis.
      STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Wear debris-induced chronic inflammation, osteoclastic
      activation and osteoblastic inhibition have been identified as critical factors
      of peri-implant bone loss. We previously demonstrated that melatonin, a bioactive
      indolamine secreted mainly by the pineal gland, activates Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling pathway and enhances bone regeneration at osteolytic site in vivo. In
      the current study, we further demonstrated that melatonin significantly
      suppresses wear debris-induced bone resorption and inflammatory cytokine
      expression in vivo. In addition, melatonin inhibits receptor activator of nuclear
      factor kappa-B ligand induced osteoclast formation and osteoclastic bone
      resorption in vitro. Meanwhile, we found that melatonin mediates its anti
      inflammation and anti-bone resorption effects by abrogating nuclear factor kappa
      B activation. These results further support the protective effects of melatonin
      on wear debris-induced peri-implant bone loss, and strongly suggest that
      melatonin could be considered as a potential candidate for the prevention and
      treatment of wear debris-induced osteolysis and subsequent aseptic loosening.

PMID- 28867649
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of arginine-NIPAAm hybrid hydrogel as wound
      dressing: In vitro and in vivo study.
AB  - : A multi-functional hybrid hydrogel P(M-Arg/NIPAAm) with temperature response,
      anti-protein adsorption and antibacterial properties was prepared and applied as
      wound dressing. The hydrogel was carried out by free radical copolymerization of
      methacrylate arginine (M-Arg) and N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAm) monomers using
      N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide as a crosslinker, and ammonium persulfate/N,N,N', N'
      tetramethylethylenediamine as the redox initiator. To endow the antimicrobial
      property, chlorhexidine diacetate (CHX) was preloaded into the hydrogel and
      polyhexamethylene guanidine phosphate (PHMG) was grafted on the hydrogel surface,
      respectively. The antimicrobial property of two series of hydrogels was evaluated
      and compared. The successful synthesis of M-Arg, PHMG and hydrogels was proved by
      13C NMR, 1H NMR and FTIR spectroscopy. The hydrogel morphology characterized by
      scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the homogeneous porous and
      interconnected structures of the hydrogels. The swelling, protein adsorption
      property, in vitro release of CHX, antimicrobial assessment, cell viability as
      well as in vivo wound healing in a mouse model were studied. The results showed
      the nontoxicity and antimicrobial P(M-Arg/NIPAAm) hydrogel accelerated the full
      thickness wound healing process and had the potential application in wound
      dressing. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Despite the zwitterionic characteristic and
      biocompatible property of arginine based hydrogels, the brittle behavior and non
      transparency still remain as a significant problem for wound dressing.
      Furthermore promoting the antibacterial property of the zwitterionic hydrogel is
      also necessary to prevent the bacterial colonization and subsequent wound
      infection. Therefore, we created a hybrid hydrogel combined methacrylate arginine
      (M-Arg) and N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAm). NIPAAm improves transparency and
      mechanical property as well as acts as a temperature-response drug release
      system. Additionally, chlorhexidine (CHX) was preloaded into the hydrogels and
      polyhexamethylene guanidine phosphate (PHMG) was grafted on the hydrogel surface,
      respectively, which make the hydrogel useful as a favorable antibacterial
      dressing. The hybrid hydrogel has a combination effect of biocompatibility,
      environmentally responsive transformation behavior, biodegradability, anti
      protein adsorption and antimicrobial properties. This report proposes the
      preparation of P(M-Arg/NIPAAm) hydrogel that has a great potential for wound
      healing.

PMID- 28867650
TI  - A postoperative anti-adhesion barrier based on photoinduced imine-crosslinking
      hydrogel with tissue-adhesive ability.
AB  - : Postoperative adhesion is a serious complication that can further lead to
      morbidity and/or mortality. Polymer anti-adhesion barrier material provides an
      effective precaution to reduce the probability of postoperative adhesion.
      Clinical application requires these materials to be easily handled,
      biocompatible, biodegradable, and most importantly tissue adherent to provide
      target sites with reliable isolation. However, currently there is nearly no
      polymer barrier material that can fully satisfy these requirements. In this
      study, based on the photoinduced imine-crosslinking (PIC) reaction, we had
      developed a photo-crosslinking hydrogel (CNG hydrogel) that composed of o
      nitrobenzyl alcohol (NB) modified carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-NB) and glycol
      chitosan (GC) as an anti-adhesion barrier material. Under light irradiation, CMC
      NB generated aldehyde groups which subsequently reacted with amino groups
      distributed on GC or tissue surface to form a hydrogel barrier that covalently
      attached to tissue surface. Rheological analysis demonstrated that CNG hydrogel
      (30mg/mL polymer content) could be formed in 30s upon light irradiation. Tissue
      adhesive tests showed that the tissue adhesive strength of CNG hydrogel (30mg/mL)
      was about 8.32kPa-24.65kPa which increased with increasing CMC-NB content in CNG
      hydrogel. Toxicity evaluation by L929 cells demonstrated that CNG hydrogel was
      cytocompatible. Furthermore, sidewall defect-cecum abrasion model of rat was
      employed to evaluate the postoperative anti-adhesion efficacy of CNG hydrogel.
      And a significantly reduction of tissue adhesion (20% samples with low score
      adhesion) was found in CNG hydrogel treated group, compared with control group
      (100% samples with high score adhesion). In addition, CNG hydrogel could be
      degraded in nearly 14days and showed no side effect on wound healing. These
      findings indicated that CNG hydrogel can effectively expanded the clinical
      treatments of postoperative tissue adhesion. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: In this
      study, a tissue adhesive photo-crosslinking hydrogel (CNG) was developed based on
      photo-induced imine crosslinking reaction (PIC) for postoperative anti-adhesion.
      CNG hydrogel showed the features of easy and convenient operation, fast and
      controllable gelation, suitable gel strength, good biocompatibility, and most
      importantly strong tissue adhesiveness. Therefore, it shows very high performance
      to prevent postoperative tissue adhesion. Overall, our study provides a more
      suitable hydrogel barrier material that can overcome the shortcomings of current
      barriers for clinical postoperative anti-adhesion.

PMID- 28867651
TI  - Effects of cavity reconstruction on morbidity and quality of life after canal
      wall down tympanomastoidectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Canal wall down tympanomastoidectomy is commonly used to treat
      advanced chronic otitis media or cholesteatoma. The advantages of canal wall down
      mastoidectomy are excellent exposure for disease eradication and postoperative
      control of residual disease; its disadvantages include the accumulation of debris
      requiring life-long otological maintenance and cleaning, continuous ear drainage,
      fungal cavity infections, and the occurrence of dizziness and vertigo by changing
      temperature or pressure. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether cavity-induced problems
      can be eliminated and patient comfort can be increased with mastoid cavity
      reconstruction. METHODS: In total, 11 patients who underwent mastoid cavity
      reconstruction between March 2013 and June 2013 comprised the study group, and 11
      patients who had dry, epithelialized CWD cavities were recruited as the control
      group. The study examined three parameters: epithelial migration, air caloric
      testing, and the Glasgow Benefit Inventory. Epithelial migration, air caloric
      testing, and the Glasgow Benefit Inventory were evaluated in the study and
      control groups. RESULTS: The epithelial migration rate was significantly faster
      in study group (1.63+/-0.5mm/week) than control group (0.94+/-0.37mm/week)
      (p=0.003, p<0.05). The mean slow component velocity of nystagmus of the study
      group (13.33+/-5.36 degrees /s) was significantly lower when compared to control
      group (32.11+/-9.12 degrees /s) (p=0.018). The overall the Glasgow Benefit
      Inventory score was -7.21, and the general subscale, physical and social health
      scores were -9.71, -21.09, and +20.35, respectively in the control group. These
      were +33.93, +35.59, +33.31, and +29.61, respectively in the study group. All but
      the social health score improved significantly (0.007, 0.008, 0.018, and 0.181,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Cavity reconstruction improves epithelial migration,
      normalizes caloric responses and increases the quality of life. Thus, cavity
      rehabilitation eliminates open-cavity-induced problems by restoring the
      functional anatomy of the ear.

PMID- 28867652
TI  - The neuropsychology and neurobiology of late-onset schizophrenia and very-late
      onset schizophrenia-like psychosis: A critical review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The current review discusses neuropsychological profiles and the
      longitudinal course of cognitive dysfunction in Late Onset Schizophrenia (LOS)
      and Very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis (VLOSLP), and attempts to
      clarify its neurobiological underpinnings. METHOD: A systematic literature search
      resulted in 29 publications describing original research on the neuropsychology
      of LOS/VLOSLP and 46 studies focussing on neurobiology. RESULTS: Although mildly
      progressive cognitive impairment is usually present, only a subgroup of
      LOS/VLOSLP develops dementia during a 10-year follow-up succeeding the onset of
      psychosis. This coincides with the absence of neuropathological evidence for
      neurodegeneration in many cases. Cognitive deterioration is characterized by
      deficits in (working) memory, language, psychomotor speed and executive
      functioning. Underlying neurobiological changes encompass white matter pathology,
      increased ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) with coinciding atrophy and hypo
      metabolism of frontal, temporal and subcortical areas. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple
      changes in neurobiology and cognition contributing to LOS/VLOSLP may reflect
      stress-related accelerated brain aging rather than neurodegenerative pathology.
      Their involvement in the onset of illness, however, might be inversely
      proportional to pre-existing (psychosocial and/or genetic) vulnerability to
      psychosis.

PMID- 28867653
TI  - Comprehensive review: Computational modelling of schizophrenia.
AB  - Computational modelling has been used to address: (1) the variety of symptoms
      observed in schizophrenia using abstract models of behavior (e.g. Bayesian models
      - top-down descriptive models of psychopathology); (2) the causes of these
      symptoms using biologically realistic models involving abnormal neuromodulation
      and/or receptor imbalance (e.g. connectionist and neural networks - bottom-up
      realistic models of neural processes). These different levels of analysis have
      been used to answer different questions (i.e. understanding behavioral vs.
      neurobiological anomalies) about the nature of the disorder. As such, these
      computational studies have mostly supported diverging hypotheses of
      schizophrenia's pathophysiology, resulting in a literature that is not always
      expanding coherently. Some of these hypotheses are however ripe for revision
      using novel empirical evidence. Here we present a review that first synthesizes
      the literature of computational modelling for schizophrenia and psychotic
      symptoms into categories supporting the dopamine, glutamate, GABA, dysconnection
      and Bayesian inference hypotheses respectively. Secondly, we compare model
      predictions against the accumulated empirical evidence and finally we identify
      specific hypotheses that have been left relatively under-investigated.

PMID- 28867654
TI  - Preterm behavioral epigenetics: A systematic review.
AB  - Behavioral epigenetics is revealing new pathways that lead individuals from early
      adversity exposures to later-in-life detrimental outcomes. Preterm birth
      constitutes one of the major adverse events in human development. Preterm infants
      are hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they are
      exposed to life-saving yet pain-inducing procedures and to protective care. The
      application of behavioral epigenetics to the field of preterm studies (i.e.,
      Preterm Behavioral Epigenetics, PBE) is rapidly growing and holds promises to
      provide valid insights for research and clinical activity. Here, the evidence of
      the epigenetic correlates of prenatal adversities, NICU-related environment and
      development of preterm infants is systematically reviewed. The findings suggest
      that a number of prenatal adverse (e.g., maternal depression and stress) and post
      natal (e.g., NICU-related pain-related stress) events affect the developmental
      trajectories of preterm infants and children via epigenetic alterations of
      imprinted and stress-related genes. Nonetheless, the potential epigenetic
      vestiges of early care and protective interventions in NICU have not been
      investigated yet and this represents a fascinating challenge for future PBE
      research.

PMID- 28867655
TI  - Cosmetic genital surgery in children and adolescents.
AB  - Clinicians are faced with increasing requests for female cosmetic genital surgery
      and prominent amongst these is labiaplasty. The implications of labiaplasty in
      adolescence are explored with emphasis on what is known about normal genital
      appearances, pubertal development, anatomy and physiology and the options for
      surgical intervention including risks and implications. Faced with what is known
      to date on female cosmetic genital surgery then such interventions should be
      avoided in adolescence in the absence of defined medical indications until at
      least the age of 18 years.

PMID- 28867656
TI  - Possible Contribution of Fibrocytes to Increased Type I Collagen Synthesis during
      the Early Stage of Dermal Wound Repair in Human Skin.

PMID- 28867657
TI  - Imbalance of Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Complexes in the Epidermis Induces
      Severe Skin Inflammation.
AB  - Accumulation of large-scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions and chronic,
      subclinical inflammation are concomitant during skin aging, thus raising the
      question of a causal link. To approach this, we generated mice expressing a
      mutant mitochondrial helicase (K320E-TWINKLE) in the epidermis to accelerate the
      accumulation of mtDNA deletions in this skin compartment. Mice displayed low
      amounts of large-scale deletions and a dramatic depletion of mtDNA in the
      epidermis and showed macroscopic signs of severe skin inflammation. The mtDNA
      alterations led to an imbalanced stoichiometry of mitochondrial respiratory chain
      complexes, inducing a unique combination of cytokine expression, causing a severe
      inflammatory phenotype, with massive immune cell infiltrates already before
      birth. Altogether, these data unraveled a previously unknown link between an
      imbalanced stoichiometry of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes and
      skin inflammation and suggest that severe respiratory chain dysfunction, as
      observed in few cells leading to a mosaic in aged tissues, might be involved in
      the development of chronic subclinical inflammation.

PMID- 28867658
TI  - Identification and characterization of a potent and biologically-active PDE4/7
      inhibitor via fission yeast-based assays.
AB  - We previously constructed a collection of fission yeast strains that express
      various mammalian cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDEs) and developed a
      cell-based high throughput screen (HTS) for small molecule PDE inhibitors. Here
      we describe a compound, BC54, that is a selective inhibitor of enzymes from the
      cAMP-specific PDE4 and PDE7 families. Consistent with the biological effect of
      other PDE4 and PDE7 inhibitors, BC54 displays potent anti-inflammatory properties
      and is superior to a combination of rolipram (a PDE4 inhibitor) and BRL50481 (a
      PDE7A inhibitor) for inducing apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
      cells. We further exploited PKA-regulated growth phenotypes in fission yeast to
      isolate two mutant alleles of the human PDE4B2 gene that encode enzymes
      possessing single amino acid changes that confer partial resistance to BC54. We
      confirm this resistance to both BC54 and rolipram via yeast-based assays and, for
      PDE4B2T407A, in vitro enzyme assays. Thus, we are able to use this system for
      both chemical screens to identify biologically-active PDE inhibitors and
      molecular genetic studies to characterize the interaction of these molecules with
      their target enzymes. Based on its potency, selectivity, and effectiveness in
      cell culture, BC54 should be a useful tool to study biological processes
      regulated by PDE4 and PDE7 enzymes.

PMID- 28867659
TI  - t-Darpp stimulates protein kinase A activity by forming a complex with its RI
      regulatory subunit.
AB  - t-Darpp is the truncated form of the dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein
      of 32kDa (Darpp-32) and has been demonstrated to confer resistance to
      trastuzumab, a Her2-targeted anticancer agent, via sustained signaling through
      the phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway and
      activation of protein kinase A (PKA). The mechanism of t-Darpp-mediated PKA
      activation is poorly understood. In the PKA holoenzyme, when the catalytic
      subunits are bound to regulatory subunits RI or RII, kinase activity is
      inhibited. We investigated PKA activity and holoenzyme composition in cell lines
      overexpressing t-Darpp (SK.tDp) or a T39A phosphorylation mutant (SK.tDpT39A), as
      well as an empty vector control cell line (SK.empty). We also evaluated protein
      protein interactions between t-Darpp and PKA catalytic (PKAc) or regulatory
      subunits RI and RII in those cell lines. SK.tDp cells had elevated PKA activity
      and showed diminished association of RI with PKAc, whereas SK.tDpT39A cells did
      not have these properties. Moreover, wild type t-Darpp associates with RI.
      Concurrent expression of Darpp-32 reversed t-Darrp's effects on PKA holoenzyme
      state, consistent with earlier observations that Darpp-32 reverses t-Darpp's
      activation of PKA. Together, t-Darpp phosphorylation at T39 seems to be crucial
      for t-Darpp-mediated PKA activation and this activation appears to occur through
      an association with RI and sequestering of RI away from PKAc. The t-Darpp-RI
      interaction could be a druggable target to reduce PKA activity in drug-resistant
      cancer.

PMID- 28867660
TI  - Effects of smear layer removal agents on the physical properties and
      microstructure of mineral trioxide aggregate cement.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of QMix (Dentsply Sirona), 7% maleic acid (MA),
      and 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) on the microhardness, flexural
      strength and microstructure of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA; ProRoot MTA,
      Dentsply Sirona). METHODS: Forty MTA specimens were divided into four groups: [I]
      QMix [II] 7% MA [III] 17% EDTA and [IV] distilled water (control). After
      treatment with 5mL of the respective solution for 1min, the specimens were tested
      for microhardness using a Knoop hardness tester. Forty additional specimens were
      similarly treated and evaluated for the flexural strength using a universal
      testing machine. For microstructure evaluation, MTA specimens were treated in a
      similar manner and examined by X-ray diffractometry and scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM). RESULTS: For microhardness, there were no differences between
      distilled water, QMix and EDTA groups. However, MTA exposed to distilled water
      had higher microhardness than MA. When compared with QMix and EDTA, MA had lower
      microhardness; there was no difference between EDTA and QMix. For flexural
      strength, distilled water group had higher flexural strength than the other
      agents. There were no differences between EDTA vs MA and EDTA vs QMix. Specimens
      treated with QMix had higher flexural strength than MA. X-ray diffraction
      indicated that EDTA inhibited hydration of MTA. For SEM, all the tested agents
      altered the microstructure of MTA when compared to distilled water. CONCLUSION:
      MA had more detrimental effect on the physical properties of MTA and EDTA was
      more detrimental to the hydration of MTA. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The present
      study highlights the effect of newer chelating agents on the physical properties
      and microstructure of MTA. Preventing the deterioration of MTA is important for
      its long term success in endodontic procedures.

PMID- 28867661
TI  - Influence of specimens' geometry and materials on the thermal stresses in dental
      restorative materials during thermal cycling.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Thermal cycling is widely used to simulate the aging of restorative
      materials corresponding to the changes of temperature in the oral cavity.
      However, test parameters present in literature vary considerably, which prevents
      comparison between different reports. The aim of this work is to assess the
      influence of the specimens' geometry and materials on the thermal stresses
      developed during thermal cycling tests. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Finite elements
      method was used to simulate the conditions of thermal cycling tests for three
      different sample geometries: a three-points bending test sample, a cylinder rod
      and more complex shape of a restoration crown. Two different restorative systems
      were considered: all-ceramic (zirconia coupled with porcelain) and metal-ceramic
      (CoCrMo alloy coupled with porcelain). The stress state of each sample was
      evaluated throughout the test cycle. RESULTS: The results show that the sample
      geometry has great influence on the stress state, with difference of up to 230%
      in the maximum stress between samples of the same composition. The location of
      maximum stress also changed from the interface between materials to the external
      wall. CONCLUSIONS: Maximum absolute stress values were found to vary between 2
      and 4MPa, which might not be critical even for ceramics. During multi-cycle
      testing these stresses would cause different fatigue in various locations. The
      zirconia-based specimens and zirconia-based restoration (crown) exhibited the
      most similar stress states. Thus it might be recommended to use these geometries
      for fast screening of the materials for this type of restorations. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: The selection of specimens' geometry and materials should be
      carefully considered when aging conditions close to clinical ones want to be
      simulated.

PMID- 28867663
TI  - High-density peptide microarray exploration of the antibody response in a rabbit
      immunized with a neurotoxic venom fraction.
AB  - Polyvalent snakebite antivenoms derive their therapeutic success from the ability
      of their antibodies to neutralize venom toxins across multiple snake species.
      This ability results from a production process involving immunization of large
      mammals with a broad suite of toxins present in venoms. As a result of
      immunization with this wide range of toxins, many polyvalent antivenoms have a
      high degree of cross-reactivity to similar toxins in other snake venoms - a cross
      reactivity which cannot easily be deconvoluted. As a proof of concept, we aimed
      at exploring the opposite scenario by performing a high-throughput evaluation of
      the extent of cross-reactivity of a polyclonal mixture of antibodies that was
      raised against only a single snake venom fraction. For this purpose, a venom
      fraction containing short neurotoxin 1 (SN-1; Uniprot accession number P01416,
      three-finger toxin (3FTx) family), which is the medically most important toxin
      from the notorious black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), was employed. Following
      immunization of a rabbit, a specific polyclonal antibody response was confirmed
      by ELISA and immunodiffusion. Subsequently, these antibodies were investigated by
      high-density peptide microarray to reveal linear elements of recognized epitopes
      across 742 3FTxs and 10 dendrotoxins. This exploratory study demonstrates in a
      single immunized animal that cross-reactivity between toxins of high similarity
      may be difficult to obtain when immunizing with a single 3FTx containing venom
      fraction. Additionally, this study explored the influence of employing different
      lengths of peptides in high-density peptide microarray experiments for
      identification of toxin epitopes. Using 8-mer, 12-mer, and 15-mer peptides, a
      single linear epitope element was identified in SN-1 with high precision.

PMID- 28867662
TI  - High interindividual variability in urinary fosfomycin concentrations in healthy
      female volunteers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Fosfomycin is increasingly being prescribed for treatment of
      uncomplicated urinary tract infections in an era of emerging drug resistance.
      Surprisingly, little is known of the urinary concentrations of fosfomycin and its
      interindividual variation after the standard single 3-g oral dose. We aimed to
      gain more insight into urinary fosfomycin pharmacokinetics to evaluate its
      effectiveness. METHODS: Three grams of fosfomycin trometamol was administered to
      40 healthy female volunteers with an estimated mean glomerular filtration rate of
      >90 mL/min/1.73m2. Urine samples were collected from every urination during 48
      hours, and then twice daily for up to 7 days. Time, volume, and pH were recorded.
      Concentrations were quantified with UPLC-MS/MS. Effectiveness was evaluated based
      on urinary concentrations and the target MIC of E. coli, the most common
      uropathogen. RESULTS: A high interindividual variability was found. Peak
      concentration was 1982.0 +/- 1257.4 mg/L, urinary half-life 12.4 +/- 5.7 hours,
      and excretion rate over 48 hours 29.9 +/- 7.1 mg/h. Recovery was 44.5 +/- 12.6%
      after 48 hours and 47.0 +/- 10.4% after 7 days. Concentrations remained above the
      EUCAST breakpoint of 32 mg/L in 100% of the volunteers over the first 24 hours,
      67.5% for 48 hours, and 30% for 72 hours. A high urinary output was associated
      with low urinary concentrations and consequently reduced time > MIC, AUC0
      7days/MIC, and Cmax/MIC values. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable interindividual
      variability observed in the pharmacokinetics of fosfomycin signifies a risk for
      inadequate drug exposure in a significant proportion of the population. The
      current dosing regimen should therefore be reevaluated.

PMID- 28867664
TI  - Reliability and Validity of Subjective Measures of Aerobic Intensity in Adults
      With Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To systematically synthesize and appraise research regarding test
      retest reliability or criterion validity of subjective measures for assessing
      aerobic exercise intensity in adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). DATA SOURCES:
      Electronic databases (Pubmed, PsychINFO, SPORTDiscus, EMBASE, and CINAHL) were
      searched from inception to January 1, 2016. STUDY SELECTION: Studies involving at
      least 50% of participants with SCI who performed an aerobic exercise test that
      included measurement of subjective and objective intensity based on test-retest
      reliability or criterion validity protocols. DATA EXTRACTION: Characteristics
      were extracted on study design, measures, participants, protocols, and results.
      Each study was evaluated for risk of bias based on strength of the study design
      and a quality checklist score (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of
      health Measurement INstruments [COSMIN]). DATA SYNTHESIS: The 7 eligible studies
      (1 for reliability, 6 for validity) evaluated overall, peripheral and/or central
      ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) on a scale of 6-20 (RPE 6-20). No eligible
      studies were identified for other subjective intensity measures. The evidence for
      reliability and validity were synthesized separately for each measure and were
      assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation
      (GRADE). Overall, very low GRADE confidence ratings were established for
      reliability and validity evidence generalizable to the entire population with SCI
      and various upper-body and lower-body modalities. There was low confidence for
      the evidence showing that overall RPE 6-20 has acceptable validity for adults
      with SCI and high fitness levels performing moderate to vigorous-intensity upper
      body aerobic exercise. CONCLUSIONS: Health care professionals and scientists need
      to be aware of the very low to low confidence in the evidence, which currently
      prohibits a strong clinical recommendation for the use of subjective measures for
      assessing aerobic exercise intensity in adults with SCI. However, a tentative,
      conditional recommendation regarding overall RPE 6-20 seems applicable, depending
      on participants' fitness level as well as the exercise intensity and modality
      used. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA.

PMID- 28867666
TI  - Unilateral Lower Extremity Pain Due to Malignancy Managed With Cordotomy: A Case
      Report.
AB  - : Cancer pain management is comprehensive, and it generally begins with
      pharmacotherapy in a step-wise approach per analgesic guidelines established
      decades ago by the World Health Organization. This analgesic ladder involves the
      prescribing of co-analgesics, adjuvants, and opioids, with each step depending on
      pain severity. Although the majority of cancer pain responds to this strategy,
      there exist patients who do not respond adequately or experience significant side
      effects or intolerance to pain medications. It is in these patients whom
      clinicians consider interventional approaches. One approach to manage unremitting
      unilateral malignant pain includes evaluation for cordotomy, which is an approach
      that has been effective in such cases. We present a patient with breast cancer
      metastatic to the pelvis, with associated severe pelvic and right lower limb
      pain. Due to progressive disease, her pain worsened despite aggressive opioid
      dose escalations. She ultimately underwent percutaneous left anterolateral
      cervical cordotomy for malignant right leg pain, resulting in complete resolution
      of leg pain. We propose that, in select patients with neoplasm-related pain,
      cordotomy may prove very effective. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V.

PMID- 28867665
TI  - Pharmacogenomic Variability of Oral Baclofen Clearance and Clinical Response in
      Children With Cerebral Palsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pharmacogenomic variability can contribute to differences in
      pharmacokinetics and clinical responses. Pediatric patients with cerebral palsy
      with genetic variations have not been studied for these potential differences.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the genetic sources of variation in oral baclofen
      clearance and clinical responses. DESIGN: Pharmacogenomic add-on study to
      determine variability in oral baclofen clearance and clinical responses. SETTING:
      Multicenter study based in academic pediatric cerebral palsy clinics.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 49 patients with cerebral palsy who had participated in
      an oral baclofen pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic study. METHODS OR INTERVENTIONS:
      Of 53 participants in a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic trial, 49 underwent
      genetic analysis of 307 key genes and 4535 single-nucleotide polymorphisms
      involved in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
      Associations between genotypes and phenotypes of baclofen disposition (weight
      corrected and allometrically scaled clearance) and clinical endpoints
      (improvement from baseline in mean hamstring Modified Tardieu Scale scores from
      baseline for improvement of R1 spastic catch) were determined by univariate
      analysis with correction for multiple testing by false discovery rate. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Primary outcome measures were the genotypic and phenotypic
      variability of oral baclofen in allometrically scaled clearance and change in the
      Modified Tardieu Scale angle compared to baseline. RESULTS: After univariate
      analysis of the data, the SNP of ABCC9 (rs11046232, heterozygous AT versus the
      reference TT genotype) was associated with a 2-fold increase in oral baclofen
      clearance (mean 0.51 +/- standard deviation 0.05 L/h/kg for the AT genotype
      versus 0.25 +/- 0.07 L/h/kg for the TT genotype, adjusted P < .001). Clinical
      responses were associated with decreased spasticity by Modified Tardieu Scale in
      allelic variants with SNPs ABCC12, SLC28A1, and PPARD. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic
      variation in ABCC9 affecting oral baclofen clearance highlights the need for
      continued studies of genetic polymorphisms to better characterize variable drug
      response in children with cerebral palsy. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in
      ABCC12, SLC28A1, and PPARD were associated with varied responses, which warrants
      further investigation to determine their effect on spasticity. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      II.

PMID- 28867667
TI  - Long-Term Effects of Orthoses Use on the Changes of Foot and Ankle Joint Motions
      of Children With Spastic Cerebral Palsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Orthoses commonly are prescribed to children with cerebral palsy (CP)
      to provide foot correction and to improve ambulatory function. Immediate effects
      of ankle foot orthosis (AFOs) have been investigated, but long-term kinematic
      effects are lacking clinical evidence. OBJECTIVE: To determine changes in 3
      dimensional ankle and foot segment motion in pediatric patients with CP between
      initial and follow-up visits (18-month average time differences) in both barefoot
      gait and gait with their AFO. We also investigated intravisit changes between
      barefoot and AFO gait. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. SETTING: Children's
      Hospital of Wisconsin, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Medical College of
      Wisconsin. PATIENTS: A total of 23 children with CP, mean age 10.5 years (6.2
      18.1 years) were clinically prescribed either a solid ankle foot orthotic (SAFO),
      hinged ankle foot orthotic (HAFO), or supramalleolar orthotic. METHODS: Holes
      were cut in the study orthoses so that electromagnetic markers could be directly
      placed on the skin. A 6-foot segment model was used. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS:
      Kinematic and kinetic data were recorded for each patient's initial and follow-up
      visit (18-month follow-up average, 15-20 months range). RESULTS: For the SAFO
      group (gait with AFO), a significant decrease in dorsiflexion was found between
      the initial and third visit (P = .008). Furthermore, the SAFO group (barefoot
      gait) had an increased eversion at the midfoot for most of the gait cycle (P <
      .008). Sagittal forefoot range of motion was reduced for all 3 groups between the
      barefoot and AFO groups. CONCLUSION: The use of AFOs long term either maintained
      or improved foot deformities or dysfunction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II.

PMID- 28867668
TI  - MRI protocol optimization for quantitative DCE-MRI of the spine.
AB  - PURPOSE: In this study we systematically investigated different Dynamic Contrast
      Enhancement (DCE)-MRI protocols in the spine, with the goal of finding an optimal
      protocol that provides data suitable for quantitative pharmacokinetic modelling
      (PKM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 13 patients referred for MRI of the spine, DCE
      MRI of the spine was performed with 2D and 3D MRI protocols on a 3T Philips
      Ingenuity MR system. A standard bolus of contrast agent (Dotarem - 0.2ml/kg body
      weight) was injected intravenously at a speed of 3ml/s. Different techniques for
      acceleration and motion compensation were tested: parallel imaging, partial
      Fourier imaging and flow compensation. The quality of the DCE MRI images was
      scored on the basis of SNR, motion artefacts due to flow and respiration, signal
      enhancement, quality of the T1 map and of the arterial input function, and
      quality of pharmacokinetic model fitting to the extended Tofts model. RESULTS:
      Sagittal 3D sequences are to be preferred for PKM of the spine. Acceleration
      techniques were unsuccessful due to increased flow or motion artefacts. Motion
      compensating gradients failed to improve the DCE scans due to the longer echo
      time and the T2* decay which becomes more dominant and leads to signal loss,
      especially in the aorta. The quality scoring revealed that the best method was a
      conventional 3D gradient-echo acquisition without any acceleration or motion
      compensation technique. The priority in the choice of sequence parameters should
      be given to reducing echo time and keeping the dynamic temporal resolution below
      5s. Increasing the number of acquisition, when possible, helps towards reducing
      flow artefacts. In our setting we achieved this with a sagittal 3D slab with 5
      slices with a thickness of 4.5mm and two acquisitions. CONCLUSION: The proposed
      DCE protocol, encompassing the spine and the descending aorta, produces a
      realistic arterial input function and dynamic data suitable for PKM.

PMID- 28867669
TI  - COnstrained Data Extrapolation (CODE): A new approach for high definition
      vascular imaging from low resolution data.
AB  - PURPOSE: To introduce a new approach to reconstruct high definition vascular
      images using COnstrained Data Extrapolation (CODE) and evaluate its capability in
      estimating vessel area and stenosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: CODE is based on the
      constraint that the full width half maximum of a vessel can be accurately
      estimated and, since it represents the best estimate for the width of the object,
      higher k-space data can be generated from this information. To demonstrate the
      potential of extracting high definition vessel edges using low resolution data,
      both simulated and human data were analyzed to better visualize the vessels and
      to quantify both area and stenosis measurements. The results from CODE using one
      fourth of the fully sampled k-space data were compared with a compressed sensing
      (CS) reconstruction approach using the same total amount of data but spread out
      between the center of k-space and the outer portions of the original k-space to
      accelerate data acquisition by a factor of four. RESULTS: For a sufficiently high
      signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) such as 16 (8), we found that objects as small as 3
      voxels in the 25% under-sampled data (6 voxels when zero-filled) could be used
      for CODE and CS and provide an estimate of area with an error <5% (10%). For
      estimating up to a 70% stenosis with an SNR of 4, CODE was found to be more
      robust to noise than CS having a smaller variance albeit a larger bias.
      Reconstruction times were >200 (30) times faster for CODE compared to CS in the
      simulated (human) data. CONCLUSION: CODE was capable of producing sharp sub-voxel
      edges and accurately estimating stenosis to within 5% for clinically relevant
      studies of vessels with a width of at least 3pixels in the low resolution images.

PMID- 28867670
TI  - Reduced distortion artifact whole brain CBF mapping using blip-reversed non
      segmented 3D echo planar imaging with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling.
AB  - PURPOSE: To implement and evaluate interleaved blip-up, blip-down, non-segmented
      3D echo planar imaging (EPI) with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling
      (pCASL) and post-processing for reduced susceptibility artifact cerebral blood
      flow (CBF) maps. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 3D EPI non-segmented acquisition with a
      pCASL labeling sequence was modified to include alternating k-space coverage
      along phase encoding direction (referred to as "blip-reversed") for alternating
      dynamic acquisitions of control and label pairs. Eight volunteers were imaged on
      a 3T scanner. Images were corrected for distortion using spatial shifting
      transformation of the underlying field map. CBF maps were calculated and compared
      with maps obtained without blip reversal using matching gray matter (GM) images
      from a high resolution 3D scan. Additional benefit of using the correction for
      alternating blip-up and blip-down acquisitions was assessed by comparing to
      corrected blip-up only and corrected blip-down only CBF maps. Matched Student t
      test of overlapping voxels for the eight volunteers was done to ascertain
      statistical improvement in distortion. RESULTS: Mean CBF value in GM for the
      eight volunteers from distortion corrected CBF maps was 50.8+/-9.9ml/min/100 gm
      tissue. Corrected CBF maps had 6.3% and 4.1% more voxels in GM when compared with
      uncorrected blip up (BU) and blip down (BD) images, respectively. Student t-test
      showed significant reduction in distortion when compared with blip-up images and
      blip-down images (p<0.001). When compared with corrected BU and corrected BD only
      CBF maps, BU and BD corrected maps had 2.3% and 1% more voxels (p=0.006 and 0.04,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: Pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling with non
      segmented 3D EPI acquisition using alternating blip-reversed k-space traversal
      and distortion correction provided significantly better matching GM CBF maps. In
      addition, employing alternating blip-reversed acquisitions during pCASL
      acquisition resulted in statistically significant improvement over corrected blip
      up and blip-down CBF maps.

PMID- 28867671
TI  - The development and optimisation of 3D black-blood R2* mapping of the carotid
      artery wall.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop and optimise a 3D black-blood R2* mapping sequence for
      imaging the carotid artery wall, using optimal blood suppression and k-space view
      ordering. METHODS: Two different blood suppression preparation methods were used;
      Delay Alternating with Nutation for Tailored Excitation (DANTE) and improved
      Motion Sensitive Driven Equilibrium (iMSDE) were each combined with a three
      dimensional (3D) multi-echo Fast Spoiled GRadient echo (ME-FSPGR) readout. Three
      different k-space view-order designs: Radial Fan-beam Encoding Ordering (RFEO),
      Distance-Determined Encoding Ordering (DDEO) and Centric Phase Encoding Order
      (CPEO) were investigated. The sequences were evaluated through Bloch simulation
      and in a cohort of twenty volunteers. The vessel wall Signal-to-Noise Ratio
      (SNR), Contrast-to-Noise Ratio (CNR) and R2*, and the sternocleidomastoid muscle
      R2* were measured and compared. Different numbers of acquisitions-per-shot (APS)
      were evaluated to further optimise the effectiveness of blood suppression.
      RESULTS: All sequences resulted in comparable R2* measurements to a conventional,
      i.e. non-blood suppressed sequence in the sternocleidomastoid muscle of the
      volunteers. Both Bloch simulations and volunteer data showed that DANTE has a
      higher signal intensity and results in a higher image SNR than iMSDE. Blood
      suppression efficiency was not significantly different when using different k
      space view orders. Smaller APS achieved better blood suppression. CONCLUSION: The
      use of blood-suppression preparation methods does not affect the measurement of
      R2*. DANTE prepared ME-FSPGR sequence with a small number of acquisitions-per
      shot can provide high quality black-blood R2* measurements of the carotid vessel
      wall.

PMID- 28867673
TI  - BMP7 dose-dependently stimulates proliferation and cadherin-11 expression via ERK
      and p38 in a murine metanephric mesenchymal cell line.
AB  - BMP7 is expressed in ureteric buds and cap mesenchyme of the fetal kidney,
      mediating branching morphogenesis and survival and priming of metanephric
      mesenchyme. Although dose-dependent effects of BMP7 in collecting duct cells have
      been reported, studies in metanephric mesenchymal cells are lacking. We examined
      the effects of BMP7 on MAP kinase activation, proliferation, and expression of
      cadherins in a metanephric mesenchymal cell line MS7 by thymidine incorporation,
      immunoblot analysis, and quantitative real-time PCR The levels of phosphorylated
      ERK (P-ERK) and phosphorylated p38 (P-p38) were not altered at 10 min, 1 h, and 6
      h with low-dose BMP7 (0.25 nmol/L), but were increased at 24 h. At 24 h, P-ERK
      was increased with low-dose BMP7, but not by intermediate- (1 nmol/L) or high
      dose (10 nmol/L) BMP7, whereas p38 was activated by intermediate-dose BMP7. Cell
      proliferation of MS7 was significantly increased by low- and intermediate-dose
      BMP7 and decreased by high-dose BMP7. A p38 inhibitor SB203580 5 MUmol/L or a MEK
      inhibitor PD98059 5 MUmol/L abolished BMP7-stimulated proliferation. Expression
      of cadherin-11, an adhesion molecule known to promote cell migration and
      compaction, was upregulated by intermediate-dose BMP7. BMP7-induced cadherin-11
      expression was inhibited by cotreatment with SB203580 and PD98059. Finally, in
      metanephroi cultured with siRNA for cadherin-11, the number and thickness of cap
      mesenchyme were reduced. In conclusion, BMP7 exerts differential effects
      depending on the concentration; it may expand mesenchymal cells in the stroma
      where BMP7 concentration is low and may upregulate cadherin-11 promoting
      condensation around the tip of ureteric buds.

PMID- 28867674
TI  - Acute changes in extracellular volume fraction in skeletal muscle monitored by
      23Na NMR spectroscopy.
AB  - In this article, we induced acute changes in extracellular volume fraction in
      skeletal muscle tissue and compared the sensitivity of a standard 1H T2 imaging
      method with different 23Na-NMR spectroscopy parameters within acquisition times
      compatible with clinical investigations. First, we analyzed the effect of a short
      ischemia on the sodium distribution in the skeletal muscle. Then, the lower leg
      of 21 healthy volunteers was scanned under different vascular filling conditions
      (vascular draining, filling, and normal condition) expected to modify exclusively
      the extracellular volume. The first experiment showed no change in the total
      sodium content during a 15 min ischemia, but the intracellular weighted 23Na
      signal slowly decreased. For the second part, significant variations of total
      sodium content, sodium distribution, and T1 and T2* of 23Na signal were observed
      between different vascular filling conditions. The measured sodium distribution
      correlates significantly with sodium T1 and with the short and long T2*
      fractions. In contrast, significant changes in the proton T2w signal were
      observed only in three muscles. Altogether, the mean T2w signal intensity of all
      muscles as well as their mean T2 did not vary significantly with the
      extracellular volume changes. In conclusion, at the expense of giving up spatial
      resolution, the proposed 23Na spectroscopic method proved to be more sensitive
      than standard 1H T2 approach to monitor acute extracellular compartment changes
      within muscle tissue.

PMID- 28867675
TI  - Resting sympathetic activity is associated with the sympathetically mediated
      component of energy expenditure following a meal.
AB  - Individuals with high plasma norepinephrine (NE) levels at rest have a smaller
      reduction in resting energy expenditure (REE) following beta-adrenergic blockade.
      If this finding extends to the response to a meal, it could have important
      implications for the role of the sympathetic nervous system in energy balance and
      weight gain. We hypothesized high muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) would
      be associated with a low sympathetically mediated component of energy expenditure
      following a meal. Fourteen young, healthy adults completed two visits randomized
      to continuous saline (control) or intravenous propranolol to achieve systemic
      beta-adrenergic blockade. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity and REE were measured
      (indirect calorimetry) followed by a liquid mixed meal (Ensure). Measures of
      energy expenditure continued every 30 min for 5 h after the meal and are reported
      as an area under the curve (AUC). Sympathetic support of energy expenditure was
      calculated as the difference between the AUC during saline and beta-blockade
      (AUCPropranolol-AUCSaline, beta-REE) and as a percent (%) of control
      (AUCPropranolol/AUCSaline * 100). beta-REE was associated with baseline
      sympathetic activity, such that individuals with high resting MSNA (bursts/100
      heart beats) and plasma NE had the greatest sympathetically mediated component of
      energy expenditure following a meal (MSNA: beta-REE R = -0.58, P = 0.03; %REE R =
      -0.56, P = 0.04; NE: beta-REE R = -0.55, P = 0.0535; %REE R = -0.54, P = 0.0552).
      Contrary to our hypothesis, high resting sympathetic activity is associated with
      a greater sympathetically mediated component of energy expenditure following a
      liquid meal. These findings may have implications for weight maintenance in
      individuals with varying resting sympathetic activity.

PMID- 28867680
TI  - Coexistence of a Double-Chambered Right Ventricle With Ebstein-Like Anomaly and
      Right Ventricular Apical Hypoplasia - Usefulness of Multimodality Imaging.

PMID- 28867677
TI  - C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) is a key receptor for chicken primordial
      germ cell migration.
AB  - In mammals, germ cells originate outside of the developing gonads and follow a
      unique migration pattern through the embryonic tissue toward the genital ridges.
      Many studies have attempted to identify critical receptors and factors involved
      in germ cell migration. However, relatively few reports exist on germ cell
      receptors and chemokines that are involved in germ cell migration in avian
      species. In the present study, we investigated the specific migratory function of
      C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) in chicken primordial germ cells (PGCs).
      We induced loss-of-function via a frameshift mutation in the CXCR4 gene in
      chicken PGCs using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat
      CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) genome editing. The migratory capacity
      of CXCR4 knockout PGCs was significantly reduced in vivo after transplantation
      into recipient embryos. However, CXCR4-expressing somatic cell lines, such as
      chicken DT40 and DF1, failed to migrate into the developing gonads, suggesting
      that another key factor(s) is necessary for targeting and settlement of PGCs into
      the genital ridges. In conclusion, we show that CXCR4 plays a critical role in
      the migration of chicken germ cells.

PMID- 28867679
TI  - A 2-base insertion in exon 5 is a common mutation of the TP53 gene in dogs with
      histiocytic sarcoma.
AB  - Canine histiocytic sarcoma (HS) is a malignancy originating from the histiocytic
      cell lineage and characterized by poor response to chemotherapy and short
      survival time. Mutation of the TP53 gene and its association with poor prognosis
      has been reported in several canine tumors. However, the mutation of this gene
      has not been investigated in canine HS. The aim of this study was to examine a
      TP53 gene mutation in dogs with HS. Aberrations of the TP53 gene were examined by
      polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism analysis and
      DNA sequence analysis, revealing mutations of the TP53 gene in 12 (46%) of 26
      dogs affected by HS. The incidence of the TP53 gene mutation was relatively high
      in canine HS compared with other canine tumors. Among these mutations, 10 of 12
      dogs (83%) with a TP53 gene mutation harbored the same mutation: a 2-base (AT)
      insertion in exon 5, resulting in the introduction of a stop codon
      (c.446_447insAT, p.Tyr150SerfsX8). Further studies are needed to examine the
      functional change due to the mutation and its association with the pathogenesis
      of canine HS.

PMID- 28867678
TI  - Effects of zinc supplementation on Shiga toxin 2e-producing Escherichia coli in
      vitro.
AB  - Swine edema disease is caused by Shiga toxin (Stx) 2e-producing Escherichia coli
      (STEC). Addition of highly concentrated zinc formulations to feed has been used
      to treat and prevent the disease, but the mechanism of the beneficial effect is
      unknown. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of
      highly concentrated zinc formulations on bacterial growth, hemolysin production,
      and an Stx2e release by STEC in vitro. STEC strain MVH269 isolated from a piglet
      with edema disease was cultured with zinc oxide (ZnO) or with zinc carbonate
      (ZnCO3), each at up to 3,000 ppm. There was no effect of zinc addition on
      bacterial growth. Nonetheless, the cytotoxic activity of Stx2e released into the
      supernatant was significantly attenuated in the zinc-supplemented media compared
      to that in the control, with the 50% cytotoxic dose values of 163.2 +/- 12.7,
      211.6 +/- 33.1 and 659.9 +/- 84.2 after 24 hr of growth in the presence of ZnO,
      ZnCO3, or no supplemental zinc, respectively. The hemolytic zones around colonies
      grown on sheep blood agar supplemented with zinc were significantly smaller than
      those of colonies grown on control agar. Similarly, hemoglobin absorbance after
      exposure to the supernatants of STEC cultures incubated in sheep blood broth
      supplemented with zinc was significantly lower than that resulting from exposure
      to the control supernatant. These in vitro findings indicated that zinc
      formulations directly impair the factors associated with the virulence of STEC,
      suggesting a mechanism by which zinc supplementation prevents swine edema
      disease.

PMID- 28867676
TI  - A Varroa destructor protein atlas reveals molecular underpinnings of
      developmental transitions and sexual differentiation.
AB  - Varroa destructor is the most economically damaging honey bee pest, weakening
      colonies by simultaneously parasitizing bees and transmitting harmful viruses.
      Despite these impacts on honey bee health, surprisingly little is known about its
      fundamental molecular biology. Here, we present a Varroa protein atlas crossing
      all major developmental stages (egg, protonymph, deutonymph, and adult) for both
      male and female mites as a web-based interactive tool
      (http://foster.nce.ubc.ca/varroa/index.html). We used intensity-based label-free
      quantitation to find 1,433 differentially expressed proteins across developmental
      stages. Enzymes for processing carbohydrates and amino acids were among many of
      these differences as well as proteins involved in cuticle formation. Lipid
      transport involving vitellogenin was the most significantly enriched biological
      process in the foundress (reproductive female) and young mites. In addition, we
      found that 101 proteins were sexually regulated and functional enrichment
      analysis suggests that chromatin remodeling may be a key feature of sex
      determination. In a proteogenomic effort, we identified 519 protein-coding
      regions, 301 of which were supported by two or more peptides and 169 of which
      were differentially expressed. Overall, this work provides a first-of-its-kind
      interrogation of the patterns of protein expression that govern the Varroa life
      cycle and the tools we have developed will support further research on this
      threatening honey bee pest.

PMID- 28867672
TI  - Phagocytosis and Inflammation: Exploring the effects of the components of E
      cigarette vapor on macrophages.
AB  - E-cigarettes are perceived as harmless; however, evidence of their safety is
      lacking. New data suggests E-cigarettes discharge a range of compounds capable of
      physiological damage to users. We previously established that cigarette smoke
      caused defective alveolar macrophage phagocytosis. The present study compared the
      effect E-cigarette of components; E-liquid flavors, nicotine, vegetable
      glycerine, and propylene glycol on phagocytosis, proinflammatory cytokine
      secretion, and phagocytic recognition molecule expression using differentiated
      THP-1 macrophages. Similar to CSE, phagocytosis of NTHi bacteria was
      significantly decreased by E-liquid flavoring (11.65-15.75%) versus control
      (27.01%). Nicotine also decreased phagocytosis (15.26%). E-liquid, nicotine, and
      E-liquid+ nicotine reduced phagocytic recognition molecules; SR-A1 and TLR-2. IL
      8 secretion increased with flavor and nicotine, while TNFalpha, IL-1beta, IL-6,
      MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta, and MCP-1 decreased after exposure to most flavors and
      nicotine. PG, VG, or PG:VG mix also induced a decrease in MIP-1alpha and MIP
      1beta We conclude that E-cigarettes can cause macrophage phagocytic dysfunction,
      expression of phagocytic recognition receptors and cytokine secretion pathways.
      As such, E-cigarettes should be treated with caution by users, especially those
      who are nonsmokers.

PMID- 28867682
TI  - Surgical Outcomes of Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting for Acute Coronary
      Syndrome - Based on the Japan Adult Cardiovascular Surgery Database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to clarify the current use and outcomes of
      coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) based on
      the Japan Adult Cardiovascular Surgery Database (JACVSD) in stratified risk
      categories, and also to provide guidance on selection of optimal surgical
      strategies for ACS.Methods and Results:From January 2008 through December 2012,
      7,867 isolated CABG procedures for ACS were identifiedfrom the JACVSD. Patients
      were stratified into 3 subgroups (<2%, 2-9.9%, >=10%) according to preoperative
      risk estimations based on this database. Off- and on-pump CABG surgical outcomes
      were evaluated in each subgroup. Off-pump CABG (OPCAB) was the predominant
      surgical strategy in all subgroups. The proportion of on-pump beating CABG
      increased in the higher-risk groups. Although average observed mortality rates
      were compatible with preoperative estimated risk in all subgroups, those after
      OPCAB were significantly lower in the medium (2-9.9%) risk group with lower
      incidence of major complications. In the low (<2%) and high (>=10%) risk groups,
      observed mortality rates did not show statistically significant differences
      between off- and on-pump CABG. CONCLUSIONS: In this study in Japan, OPCAB was
      mainly performed in patients with ACS, particularly those with estimated risk
      <10%, with lower mortality rates, whereas on-pump beating CABG was selected for
      higher-risk patients with ACS, with reasonable mortality rates.

PMID- 28867681
TI  - Effect of Intensive and Standard Pitavastatin Treatment With or Without
      Eicosapentaenoic Acid on Progression of Coronary Artery Calcification Over 12
      Months - Prospective Multicenter Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of lipid-lowering agents on progression of coronary artery
      calcification (CAC) remains unclear. We evaluated the effects of pitavastatin 2
      mg/day (PIT2), pitavastatin 4 mg/day (PIT4), and PIT2 combined with
      eicosapentaenoic acid (PIT2+EPA) on CAC progression.Methods and Results:This
      prospective multicenter study in Japan included patients with an Agatston score
      of 1-999, hypercholesterolemia, and no evidence of cardiovascular disease.
      Patients were allocated into PIT2, PIT4, or PIT2+EPA groups. The primary outcome
      was the annual percent change in Agatston score in all patients. In total, 156
      patients who had multi-detector row computed tomography without any artifacts
      were included in the primary analysis. Pitavastatin did not significantly reduce
      the annual progression rate of the Agatston score (40%; 95% CI: 19-61%). The
      annual progression rate of Agatston score in the PIT2 group was not significantly
      different from that in the PIT4 group (34% vs. 42%, respectively; P=0.88) or the
      PIT2+EPA group (34% vs. 44%, respectively; P=0.80). On post-hoc analysis the
      baseline ratio of low- to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was a significant
      predictor of non-progression of Agatston score by pitavastatin (OR, 2.17; 95% CI:
      1.10-44.12; P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Pitavastatin does not attenuate progression of
      CAC. Intensive pitavastatin treatment and standard treatment with EPA does not
      reduce progression of CAC compared with standard treatment.

PMID- 28867683
TI  - MicroRNA-134 Promotes the Development of Atherosclerosis Via the ANGPTL4/LPL
      Pathway in Apolipoprotein E Knockout Mice.
AB  - AIMS: Atherosclerosis is the most common cause of cardiovascular disease, such as
      myocardial infarction and stroke. Previous study revealed that microRNA (miR)-134
      promotes lipid accumulation and proinflammatory cytokine secretion through
      angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4)/lipid lipoprotein (LPL) signaling in THP-1
      macrophages. METHODS: ApoE KO male mice on a C57BL/6 background were fed a high
      fat/high-cholesterol Western diet, from 8 to 16 weeks of age. Mice were divided
      into four groups, and received a tail vein injection of miR-134 agomir, miR-134
      antagomir, or one of the corresponding controls, respectively, once every 2 weeks
      after starting the Western diet. After 8 weeks we measured aortic
      atherosclerosis, LPL Activity, mRNA and protein levels of ANGPTL4 and LPL, LPL/
      low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein 1 Complex Formation,
      proinflammatory cytokine secretion and lipid levels. RESULTS: Despite this
      finding, the influence of miR-134 on atherosclerosis in vivo remains to be
      determined. Using the well-characterized mouse atherosclerosis model of
      apolipoprotein E knockout, we found that systemic delivery of miR-134 agomir
      markedly enhanced the atherosclerotic lesion size, together with a significant
      increase in proinflammatory cytokine secretion and peritoneal macrophages lipid
      contents. Moreover, overexpression of miR-134 decreased ANGPTL4 expression but
      increased LPL expression and activity in both aortic tissues and peritoneal
      macrophages, which was accompanied by increased formation of LPL/low-density
      lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 complexes in peritoneal macrophages.
      However, an opposite effect was observed in response to miR-134 antagomir.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that miR-134 accelerates atherogenesis by
      promoting lipid accumulation and proinflammatory cytokine secretion via the
      ANGPTL4/LPL pathway. Therefore, targeting miR-134 may offer a promising strategy
      for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28867686
TI  - Impact of fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome on incident type 2 diabetes;
      a population based cohort study.
AB  - Fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are both shown to increase the
      risk of type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate the combined
      effect of fatty liver and MetS on incident diabetes. In this cohort study of
      17,810 participants, fatty liver was diagnosed by abdominal ultrasonography and
      MetS was defined by a joint interim statement. We divided the participants into
      four groups according to the presence of fatty liver and/or MetS. Type 2 diabetes
      was defined as HbA1c >=6.5%, fasting plasma glucose >=7.0 mmol/L or treatment for
      diabetes. During the follow up examination (median 5.1 years), 804 participants
      developed diabetes. Compared with non-MetS without fatty liver, hazard ratios
      (HR) for incident diabetes after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking
      status, exercise habit, alcohol consumption, family history of diabetes logarithm
      of alanine aminotransferase and fasting plasma glucose, were as follow: 2.35 (95
      % CI 1.91-2.89, p<0.001) in non-MetS with fatty liver, 1.70 (95% CI 1.30-2.20,
      p<0.001) in MetS without fatty liver, and 2.33 (95% CI 1.85-2.94, p<0.001) in
      MetS with fatty liver. In addition, adjusted HRs for incident diabetes compared
      with MetS without fatty liver were 1.39 (95% CI 1.07-1.80, p=0.012) in non-MetS
      with fatty liver and 1.38 (95% CI 1.07-1.79, p=0.013) in MetS with fatty liver.
      Fatty liver affects more on the risk of incident diabetes than MetS. To prevent
      the further risk of diabetes, we should pay more attention to fatty liver.

PMID- 28867687
TI  - Rapid exacerbation of renal function after administration of hydroxyethyl starch
      in a dog.
AB  - Hydroxyethyl starches (HES) are commonly used synthetic colloidal solution in
      veterinary medicine. Despite of possible adverse effect to kidney injury in
      human, there is no report about nephrotoxic effects of HES in dogs. HES was
      administered to a Golden retriever (4-year-old, intact male) with ascites in
      order to increase plasma osmolality. Initially, the dog was mild azotemic,
      however, kidney function was rapidly deteriorated after several days of HES
      administration. Finally, histopathological examination revealed remarkable
      osmotic nephrosis. In the case reported herein, acute kidney injury was
      remarkably developed after HES administration. Clinical and histopathologic
      findings of acute kidney injury support nephrotoxic effects of HES to a dog.

PMID- 28867685
TI  - Analysis of fecal short chain fatty acid concentration in miniature dachshunds
      with inflammatory colorectal polyps.
AB  - Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) play an important role in the maintenance of
      colonic homeostasis, and their depletion has been reported in various
      gastrointestinal disorders. Inflammatory colorectal polyps (ICRPs) are a recently
      recognized disease specific to miniature dachshunds (MDs), and fecal dysbiosis
      with a reduction of SCFA-producing bacteria has been reported with this disease.
      Therefore, this study was performed based on the hypothesis that a reduced SCFA
      concentration associates with the development of ICRPs. We recruited 11 ICRP
      affected MDs and 25 control MDs. Their fecal SCFA concentrations and bacterial
      proportions were quantified using high performance liquid chromatography and
      quantitative real-time PCR, respectively. The feces of ICRP-affected MDs
      contained lower amounts of propionic acid and lower proportions of
      Bifidobacterium than the feces of control MDs. Furthermore, fecal proportions of
      Bifidobacterium, Firmicutes and Lactobacillus exhibited significant positive
      correlations with fecal concentrations of total SCFAs and/or propionic acid;
      fecal Escherichia coli proportions correlated negatively with fecal
      concentrations of total SCFAs, as well as acetic, propionic and butyric acid.
      This result indicates an association between fecal dysbiosis and fecal SCFA
      concentrations; these phenomena may contribute to ICRP pathogenesis in MDs.
      Potential therapeutic targeting of the reduced propionic acid concentration using
      probiotics, prebiotics or SCFA enemas merits further study.

PMID- 28867689
TI  - ANGPTL2 - A New Causal Player in Accelerating Heart Disease Development in the
      Aging.
AB  - In parallel with the increase in the number of elderly people worldwide, the
      number of patients with heart disease is also rapidly increasing. Of the heart
      diseases, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and heart failure (HF) are strongly
      associated with adverse health outcomes that decrease productivity in later
      years. Recently, ANGPTL2, a secreted glycoprotein and member of the angiopoietin
      like protein family, has received attention as a causal player in the development
      of CVD and HF. Prolonged ANGPTL2 autocrine/paracrine signaling in vascular tissue
      leads to chronic inflammation and pathologic tissue remodeling, accelerating CVD
      development. Excess ANGPTL2 autocrine/paracrine signaling induced in the
      pathologically stressed heart accelerates cardiac dysfunction by decreasing
      myocardial energy metabolism. Conversely, ANGPTL2 inactivation in vascular tissue
      and the heart delays development or progression of CVD and HF, respectively.
      Moreover, there is increased evidence for an association between elevated
      circulating ANGPTL2 levels and CVD and HF. Interestingly, ANGPTL2 expression is
      also associated with cellular senescence, which may promote premature aging and
      development of aging-associated diseases, including CVD and HF. Overall, ANGPTL2
      autocrine/paracrine signaling is a new factor in accelerating heart disease
      development in the aging. Here, we focus on current topics relevant to ANGPTL2
      function in heart disease.

PMID- 28867688
TI  - Aminoglycoside susceptibility of Pasteurella multocida isolates from bovine
      respiratory infections in China and mutations in ribosomal protein S5 associated
      with high-level induced spectinomycin resistance.
AB  - Twenty-three isolates of Pasteurella multocida were tested for susceptibility to
      six aminoglycoside agents and screened by polymerase chain reaction for the
      presence of aminoglycoside resistance genes. In addition, mutations in the
      resistance-determining region of strains showing a high level of induced
      resistance to spectinomycin strains were examined. Susceptibility testing showed
      that all of the isolates were resistant to at least two types of aminoglycosides,
      and that the most effective antimicrobial was spectinomycin. The resistance genes
      aphA1, strB and aacA4 were present in all 23 isolates. In the three induced
      spectinomycin-resistant strains, a 9-bp deletion in rpsE that encodes ribosomal
      protein S5 was detected.

PMID- 28867684
TI  - Neutralizing epitopes of RSV and palivizumab resistance in Japan.
AB  - Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is one of the most important viral pathogen
      related to acute lower respiratory infection in young children. The virus surface
      envelope contains the G, F, and SH proteins as spike proteins. The F protein is
      considered to be a major antigenic target for the neutralizing (NT) epitope as
      only the F protein is essential for cell infection among the three viral envelope
      proteins, and it is more highly conserved than the G protein. Recently, four
      antigenic targets related to NT activity have been reported;site I, site II, site
      IV, and site zero (0). Site II is the target for palivizumab used throughout the
      world to suppress severe RSV infection as passive immunity in high-risk children
      since 1998. Under the recent conditions in which indications for palivizumab
      administered subjects are being expanded, palivizumab-resistant mutations have
      been confirmed overseas in children with RSV infection, although they remain
      infrequent. Therefore, continuous genetic analysis of the palivizumab-binding
      region of the F protein is necessary. In addition, as vaccine development
      progresses, RSV infection control is expected to improve greatly over the next
      decade.

PMID- 28867691
TI  - Huge Metastatic Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Occupying the Right Ventricle.

PMID- 28867690
TI  - Effects of Calcium-Channel Blocker Benidipine-Based Combination Therapy on
      Cardiac Events - Subanalysis of the COPE Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Combination Therapy of Hypertension to Prevent Cardiovascular
      Events (COPE) trial was conducted to compare the effects of regimens combining
      the dihydropyridine calcium-channel blocker benidipine with each of 3 secondary
      agent types (an angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB), a beta-blocker and a
      thiazide) in Japanese hypertensive outpatients who did not achieve target blood
      pressure (<140/90 mmHg) with benidipine 4 mg/day alone. The analysis included
      3,293 patients (ARB, 1,110; beta-blocker, 1,089; thiazide, 1,094) with a median
      follow-up of 3.61 years. The main results of the COPE trial demonstrated that the
      incidences of hard cardiovascular composite endpoints and fatal or non-fatal
      strokes were significantly higher in the benidipine/beta-blocker group than in
      the benidipine/thiazide group.Methods and Results:We further evaluated the
      treatment effects on different cardiac events among the 3 benidipine-based
      regimens.We observed a total of 50 cardiac events, 4.2 per 1000 person-years. The
      incidences of total cardiac events and each cardiac event were similarly low
      among the 3 treatment groups. Unadjusted and multi-adjusted hazard ratios for
      total cardiac events showed no significant difference among the 3 treatment
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: This subanalysis of the COPE trial demonstrated that blood
      pressure-lowering regimens combining benidipine with an ARB, beta-blocker or
      thiazide diuretic were similarly effective for the prevention of cardiac events
      in Japanese hypertensive outpatients.

PMID- 28867692
TI  - Chinese Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Volume 37, Number 7,
      July 25, 2017.

PMID- 28867696
TI  - Convergent Synthesis of Fused Ring Systems in Large Polycyclic Ethers.
AB  - This article reviews our studies on the oxiranyl anion-based, [X+2+Y]-type
      convergent strategy for the synthesis of polycyclic ether natural products. The
      strategy is noteworthy for its flexibility, which allows for the generation of
      different-sized fused ring systems based on a ring expansion reaction. For a
      precise understanding of this key ring expansion, we first focused on the
      reaction mechanism, in which an equatorial attack of TMS-diazomethane was
      determined to be the crucial step. In the later part of this review, the
      application of our oxiranyl anion-based strategy to large fused ring systems is
      described. The advantageous flexibility is highlighted in the divergent synthesis
      of five octacyclic ethers involving the CDEFGHIJ-ring skeleton of yessotoxin and
      its ring-modified analogs. Total synthesis of gymnocin-A was achieved using the
      oxiranyl anion convergent strategy, which furnished its large system of fourteen
      contiguous ether rings.

PMID- 28867694
TI  - Development of Biologically Active Compounds on the Basis of Phosphonic and
      Phosphinic Acid Functionalities.
AB  - Phosphonic and phosphinic acids, especially alpha-heteroatom-substituted ones,
      possess unique structural and physical features which enable them to act as
      hydrotically stable analogs to biological phosphates in biological processes.
      They also act as mimetics in the transition state of the protease-induced
      hydrolysis of dipeptides. The first half of this review focuses on selected new
      synthetic methods developed by our research group for the stereoselective
      synthesis of alpha-heteroatom-substituted phosphonic and phosphinic acid
      derivatives, including modified nucleotide analogs and phosphinyl dipeptide
      isosteres. In the latter half, this review summarizes the utility of
      difluoromethylenephosphonic acids and phosphonic acid esters in the development
      of enzyme inhibitors against protein tyrosine phosphatases, sphingomyelinases,
      purine nucleoside phosphorylases and thrombin. The enzyme inhibitors developed
      were used as probes to elucidate signal transductions and the mechanisms of
      enzyme actions. The findings of the studies are briefly described.

PMID- 28867695
TI  - Development of a Prodrug of Levofloxacin to Avoid Chelation with Al3+ and of
      Pemetrexed Dimedoxomil Esters for Oral Administration.
AB  - An ethoxycarbonyl 1-ethyl hemiacetal ester of levofloxacin (LVFX-EHE) avoids
      insoluble chelate formation with metal-containing drugs in the intestinal tract
      and is rapidly hydrolyzed to the parent drug. Furthermore, the minimum inhibitory
      concentration confirms that LVFX-EHE is less likely to cause pseudomembranous
      colitis because of less susceptibility to normal intestinal bacteria flora.
      Pemetrexed dimedoxomil, the prodrug of pemetrexed, was synthesized via reaction
      with medoxomil bromide after modification of L-glutamate with the tert
      butyloxycarbonyl protecting group (BOC), followed by hydrolysis of the BOC moiety
      with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in CH2Cl2 at a temperature of 0 degrees C for 2
      h. A serum pemetrexed concentration of >2 MUg/mL was observed after oral
      administration of pemetrexed dimedoxomil at a dose of 60 mg/kg to rats.

PMID- 28867693
TI  - Mild thyroid peroxidase deficiency caused by TPO mutations with residual
      activity: Correlation between clinical phenotypes and enzymatic activity.
AB  - Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) deficiency, caused by biallelic TPO mutations, is a well
      established genetic form of congenital hypothyroidism (CH). More than 100
      patients have been published, and the patients have been diagnosed mostly in the
      frame of newborn screening (NBS) programs. Correlation between clinical
      phenotypes and TPO activity remains unclear. Here, we report clinical and
      molecular findings of two unrelated TPO mutation-carrying mildly hypothyroid
      patients. The two patients were born at term after an uneventful pregnancy and
      delivery, and were NBS negative. They sought medical attention due to goiter at
      age 8 years. Evaluation of the thyroid showed mild elevation of serum TSH levels,
      normal or slightly low serum T4 levels, high serum T3 to T4 molar ratio, high
      serum thyroglobulin levels, and high thyroidal 123I uptake. We performed next
      generation sequencing-based genetic screening, and found that one patient was
      compound heterozygous for two novel TPO mutations (p.Asp224del; c.820-2A>G), and
      the other was homozygous for a previously known mutation (p.Trp527Cys). In vitro
      functional analyses using HEK293 cells showed that the two amino acid-altering
      mutations (p.Asp224del and p.Trp527Cys) caused partial loss of the enzymatic
      activity. In conclusion, we report that TPO mutations with residual activity are
      associated with mild TPO deficiency, which is clinically characterized by marked
      goiter, mild TSH elevation, high serum T3 to T4 molar ratio, and high serum
      thyroglobulin levels. Our findings illuminate the hitherto under-recognized
      correlation between clinical phenotypes and residual enzymatic activity among
      patients with TPO deficiency.

PMID- 28867697
TI  - Studies of Neuronal Gene Regulation Controlling the Molecular Mechanisms
      Underlying Neural Plasticity.
AB  - The regulation of the development and function of the nervous system is not
      preprogramed but responds to environmental stimuli to change neural development
      and function flexibly. This neural plasticity is a characteristic property of the
      nervous system. For example, strong synaptic activation evoked by environmental
      stimuli leads to changes in synaptic functions (known as synaptic plasticity).
      Long-lasting synaptic plasticity is one of the molecular mechanisms underlying
      long-term learning and memory. Since discovering the role of the transcription
      factor cAMP-response element-binding protein in learning and memory, it has been
      widely accepted that gene regulation in neurons contributes to long-lasting
      changes in neural functions. However, it remains unclear how synaptic activation
      is converted into gene regulation that results in long-lasting neural functions
      like long-term memory. We continue to address this question. This review
      introduces our recent findings on the gene regulation of brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor and discusses how regulation of the gene participates in long
      lasting changes in neural functions.

PMID- 28867698
TI  - Meta-analysis on the Influence of Antifungal Spectrum on Effectiveness of
      Empirical Antifungal Therapy for Febrile Neutropenia.
AB  - We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the influence of antifungal spectrum
      on the effectiveness and adverse events of empirical antifungal therapy for
      febrile neutropenia. We searched PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials (Central), and identified randomized controlled trials
      reporting mortality, efficacy, adverse events, and hepatic and renal dysfunction.
      Five trials assessed the efficacy and adverse events of agents with antifungal
      spectrum covering and those not covering Aspergillus. There were no differences
      in mortality [risk ratio (RR); 0.79, 95% confidence interval (Cl); 0.60-1.02],
      efficacy ratio (RR; 1.01, 95%Cl; 0.91-1.12), adverse event ratio (RR; 0.23,
      95%Cl; 0.04-1.23), and hepatic dysfunction ratio (RR; 0.81, 95%Cl; 0.59-1.12)
      between two groups. Antifungals with no activity against Aspergillus were
      associated with lower renal dysfunction ratio (RR; 0.27, 95%Cl; 0.10-0.71). Five
      trials compared agents with antifungal spectrum covering versus those not
      covering Mucor. There were no difference in mortality (RR; 1.24, 95%Cl; 0.98
      1.57), efficacy ratio (RR; 1.09, 95%Cl; 0.91-1.30), and hepatic dysfunction ratio
      (RR; 0.98, 95%Cl; 0.66-1.45) between two groups. Antifungals with no activity
      against Mucor were associated with lower adverse event ratio (RR; 0.60, 95%Cl;
      0.47-0.77) and renal dysfunction ratio (RR; 0.25, 95%Cl; 0.13-0.49). Presence or
      absence of activity against Aspergillus or Mucor is not associated with mortality
      or efficacy ratio. Amphotericin B with activity against Aspergillus and Mucor has
      a higher adverse event ratio. Depending on the case, selection of antifungal
      drugs considering efficacy and side effects is necessary.

PMID- 28867699
TI  - Frequency of Acute Kidney Injury Caused by Tazobactam/Piperacillin in Patients
      with Pneumonia and Chronic Kidney Disease: A Retrospective Observational Study.
AB  - Tazobactam/piperacillin (TAZ/PIPC) is a combination antibiotic frequently used
      to treat pneumonia. It has recently been reported that TAZ/PIPC worsens renal
      function in patients with existing renal impairment. Creatinine clearance is
      generally between 10 and 40 mL/min in Japanese patients, so TAZ/PIPC is given at
      a dose of 2.25 g three times daily or 4.5 g twice daily. If pneumonia is severe
      or intractable, the dose frequency may be increased to 2.25 g four times daily
      and 4.5 g three times daily. We examined the effect of these different dosing
      regimens on renal function. We studied a cohort of 57 patients with impaired
      renal function hospitalized with pneumonia and treated with TAZ/PIPC between
      January 2015 and November 2016. Patients were classified into four groups
      according to TAZ/PIPC dose: 2.25 g three times daily (Group A); 2.25 g four times
      daily (B); 4.5 g twice daily (C) and 4.5 g three times daily (D). We examined the
      frequency of acute kidney injury (AKI) and treatment effectiveness. In Groups A,
      B, C and D, AKI occurred in 5.6%, 0.0%, 25.0% and 38.5% of patient. In groups C
      and D, hydration and dose reduction were required to address early signs of
      impending AKI. Our findings suggest that the higher TAZ/PIPC dose of 4.5 g was
      responsible for the decline in renal function, even if the dose frequency was
      reduced.

PMID- 28867700
TI  - Increase of Anti-oxidative Capacity during Differentiation of 3T3-L1
      Preadipocytes into Adipocytes.
AB  - Cells have developed ingenious defense mechanisms in response to oxidative
      stress. Here, we evaluated changes in anti-oxidative capacity during
      differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes into adipocytes. When 3T3-L1
      preadipocytes were treated with H2O2 (0.10-2.0 mM) for 21 h, cell viability
      decreased in response to H2O2 concentration, with an LD50 of approximately 0.35
      mM H2O2. In the cells undergoing differentiation at 2 and 6 d, LD50 increased to
      1.0 and >2.0 mM H2O2, respectively. These results indicate that resistance to
      oxidative stress dramatically increased with progression of differentiation of
      preadipocytes into adipocytes. Catalase activity and GSH content increased in the
      differentiated cells at 6 d, whereas superoxide dismutase and glutathione
      peroxidase activities were slightly lower in adipocytes than in preadipocytes.
      Moreover, knockdown of catalase or depletion of intracellular GSH enhanced the
      sensitivity to H2O2. When GSH was added to the cells depleted of intracellular
      GSH, the antioxidant capacity recovered. Autophagy was increased in
      differentiated adipocytes but was not affected by H2O2 treatment. Therefore,
      these results suggest that the increase in intracellular catalase activity and
      GSH content played a role in the increased anti-oxidative capacity of
      differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

PMID- 28867701
TI  - A Metabolic Study on the Biochemical Effects of Chiral Illegal Drugs in Rats
      Using 1H-NMR Spectroscopy.
AB  - Considering the pharmacological effects of chiral drugs, enantiopure drugs may
      differ from their racemic mixture formulation in efficacy, potency, or adverse
      effects. Levomethorphan (LVM) and Dextromethorphan (DXM) act on the central
      nervous system and exhibit different pharmacological features. LVM, the l
      stereoisomer of methorphan, shows many similarities to opiates such as heroin,
      morphine and codeine, including the potential for addiction, while the d
      stereoisomer, DXM, does not have the same opioid effect. In the present study,
      NMR-based metabolomics were performed on the urine of rats treated with these
      stereoisomers, and showed significant differences in metabolic profiles. In urine
      within 24 h after treatment of these samples, levels of citrate, 2-oxoglutarate,
      creatine, and dimethylglycine were higher in LVM-treated rats than in DXM-treated
      rats. While urinary levels of hippurate and creatinine gradually increased over
      72 h in DXM-treated rats, these metabolites were decreased in the urine by 48-72
      h after treatment with LVM. The levels of these changed metabolites may provide
      the first evidence for different cellular responses to the metabolism of
      stereoisomers.

PMID- 28867702
TI  - Relationship between Hydrogen-bond Conditions of Surface Adsorbed Water and
      Interparticle Binding Force on Pharmaceutical Tablets.
AB  - Influence of water contents to the pharmaceutical tablet strength is known
      empirically, and participation of hydrogen bonding force among adsorbed water
      molecules has been presumed. However, the detailed mechanisms of hydrogen bonding
      phenomena have not been reported. In this study, the hydrogen bonds states of the
      surface adsorbed waters on the excipient particles of the tablets were focused
      upon, and the relationship to the interparticle binding force determined by the
      Rumpf equation was discussed using a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR). As for the
      results, NIR peaks of OH groups of surface water were shifted by a humidity
      change, and the degrees of the peak shifts correlated to interparticle binding
      force.

PMID- 28867703
TI  - Patient Preference for Aggressive Medication Therapies with Potentially Stronger
      Adverse Drug Reactions Revealed Using a Scenario-based Survey.
AB  - Some patients do not inform healthcare professionals of adverse drug reactions
      (ADRs) because they fear termination of aggressive medication therapies.
      Preferences for aggressive medication therapies may differ between patients and
      pharmacists. The goal of this study was to estimate whether pharmacists were able
      to accurately assess patient preference for aggressive medication therapies with
      potentially stronger ADRs. A cross-sectional study was conducted of hospitalized
      patients (35 to 74 years of age) receiving oral medications for a chronic disease
      or systemic chemotherapy at three hospitals in Japan. We estimated the extent of
      agreement between patient responses and pharmacist predictions using a scenario
      based investigation (1) to examine the choice between an aggressive medication
      therapy and the standard therapy, and (2) to assess increased life expectancy as
      a result of aggressive medication therapy. The extent of agreement was estimated
      using the kappa statistic. Of 113 patients, 43 (38.1%) chose the aggressive
      medication therapy. Pharmacists correctly predicted the choice of 25 (58.1%) of
      these patients [kappa 0.32 (95% confidence interval 0.15-0.50)]. Of 111 patients,
      42 (37.8%) expected one additional life expectancy year. However, pharmacists
      predicted that as many as 36 (85.7%) of these patients would require more years
      of added life expectancy before choosing an aggressive medication therapy [kappa
      0.24 (0.08-0.40)]. Agreement between patients and pharmacists on the choice of
      aggressive medication therapy was generally poor. Pharmacists should make an
      effort to identify patients who might prefer more aggressive medication therapies
      with potentially stronger ADRs in order to minimize ADR risk.

PMID- 28867704
TI  - Evaluation of Retinal Function in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats by Using
      the Electroretinography and Immunohistochemistry Methods.
AB  - Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat (STZ rat) was used in many studies for the
      diabetic mellitus. In this study, we demonstrated whether the electroretinograms
      (ERG) was changed in the retina of STZ rats. In addition, we investigated the
      histopathological alteration in the retina of STZ rats by using the immunological
      method. The 100 mg/kg of STZ was injected continuously for 2 d (100 mg/kg*2). The
      insulin level was decreased, and the glucose level was enhanced 14 d after the
      injection of STZ. Moreover, the levels of a-wave, b-wave and OP amplitude were
      decreased in the rat at 14 d after the injection of STZ. Although, the damage and
      apoptosis was not observed in the retinal ganglion cell of STZ rats by the
      immunological experiment using the phospho-H2A.X and cleaved caspase-3, the
      distance between cell and cell was increased in both of outer- and inner- nuclear
      (granule) layer in retina of STZ rats. In conclusion, we showed that the enhanced
      thickening in retina was caused by the injection of excessive STZ. The thickening
      in retina of STZ rats may lead to the dysfunction of retina, resulting in the
      decrease in ERG. These findings provide significant information that can be used
      in the design of a model of diabetic retinopathy.

PMID- 28867707
TI  - Development of Batch and Flow Immobilized Catalytic Systems with High Catalytic
      Activity and Reusability.
AB  - My mission in catalysis research is to develop highly active and reusable
      supported catalytic systems in terms of fundamental chemistry and industrial
      application. For this purpose, I developed three types of highly active and
      reusable supported catalytic systems. The first type involves polymeric base
      supported metal catalysts: Novel polymeric imidazole-Pd and Cu complexes were
      developed that worked at the mol ppm level for a variety of organic
      transformations. The second involves catalytic membrane-installed microflow
      reactors: Membranous polymeric palladium and copper complex/nanoparticle
      catalysts were installed at the center of a microtube to produce novel catalytic
      membrane-immobilized flow microreactor devices. These catalytic devices mediated
      a variety of organic transformations to afford the corresponding products in high
      yield within 1-38 s. The third is a silicon nanowire array-immobilized palladium
      nanoparticle catalyst. This device promoted a variety of organic transformations
      as a heterogeneous catalyst. The Mizoroki-Heck reaction proceeded with 280 mol
      ppb (0.000028 mol%) of the catalyst, affording the corresponding products in high
      yield.

PMID- 28867706
TI  - Secondhand Smoking Is Associated with Poor Mental Health in Korean Adolescents.
AB  - In Korea, the prevalence of depression is increasing in adolescents and the most
      common cause of death of adolescents has been reported as suicide. At a time of
      increasing predicament of mental health of adolescents, there are few studies on
      whether secondhand smoking is associated with mental health in adolescents. The
      objective of this study was to determine whether exposure to secondhand smoke is
      associated with mental health-related variables, such as depression, stress, and
      suicide, in Korean adolescents. Data from the eleventh Korea youth risk behavior
      web-based survey, a nationally representative survey of 62,708 participants
      (30,964 males and 31,744 females), were analyzed. For students of aged 12 to 18
      years, extensive data including secondhand smoking, mental health,
      sociodemographic variables, and physical health were collected. Chi-square
      analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis and ordered logistic regression
      analysis were performed to estimate the association and dose-response relation
      between secondhand smoking and mental health. Compared with the non-exposed
      group, the odds ratios (OR) of depression, stress, suicidal ideation, suicidal
      planning and suicidal attempt in the secondhand smoking exposed group were 1.339,
      1.192, 1.303, 1.437 and 1.505, respectively (all P < 0.001). When subjects were
      classified into two secondhand smoke exposure groups, with increasing secondhand
      smoking experience, higher was the OR for each mental health related variable, in
      a dose-response relation. Our findings suggest that secondhand smoking is
      associated with poor mental health such as depression, stress, and suicide,
      showing a dose-response relation in Korean adolescents.

PMID- 28867705
TI  - Validating the Effectiveness of Switching the Vancomycin TDM Analysis Software
      Based on the Predictive Accuracy.
AB  - Based on the predictive performance in our previous study, we switched the
      therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) analysis software for dose setting of
      vancomycin (VCM) from "Vancomycin MEEK TDM analysis software Ver2.0" (MEEK) to
      "SHIONOGI-VCM-TDM ver.2009" (VCM-TDM) in January 2015. In the present study, our
      aim was to validate the effectiveness of the changing VCM TDM analysis software
      in initial dose setting of VCM. The enrolled patients were divided into two
      groups, each having 162 patients in total, who received VCM with the initial dose
      set using MEEK (MEEK group) or VCM-TDM (VCM-TDM group). We compared the rates of
      attaining the therapeutic range (trough value; 10-20 MUg/mL) of serum VCM
      concentration between the groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was
      performed to confirm that changing the VCM TDM analysis software was an
      independent factor related to attaining the therapeutic range. Switching the VCM
      TDM analysis software from MEEK to VCM-TDM improved the rate of attaining the
      therapeutic range by 21.6% (MEEK group: 42.6% vs. VCM-TDM group: 64.2%, p<0.01).
      Patient age >=65 years, concomitant medication (furosemide) and the TDM analysis
      software used VCM-TDM were considered to be independent factors for attaining the
      therapeutic range. These results demonstrated the effectiveness of switching the
      VCM TDM analysis software from MEEK to VCM-TDM for initial dose setting of VCM.

PMID- 28867708
TI  - Substrate Specific Silver(I)-Catalyzed Cycloisomerization of Diene Involving
      Alkyl Rearrangements: Syntheses of 1,2,5,6-Tetrahydrocuminic Acid, p-Menth-3-en-7
      ol, and p-Menth-3-en-7-al.
AB  - The novel cationic Ag(I)-catalyzed cycloisomerization, which is associated with
      alkyl rearrangements, from dimethyl 2-allyl-2-prenylmalonate (1) to dimethyl 4
      isopropylcyclohex-3-ene-1,1-dicarboxylate (2) has been developed. Derivatization
      from the diester 2 into the diol 3 and its X-ray crystallographic analysis
      determined the structure. The mechanisms of the novel reaction were investigated
      by isotopic experiments, which supported the unusual alkyl shifts. In addition,
      the product 2 was used for the total syntheses of three natural products, 1,2,5,6
      tetrahydrocuminic acid (12), p-menth-3-en-7-ol (13), and p-menth-3-en-7-al (14)
      in short steps.

PMID- 28867710
TI  - Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Oxindole-Based Chalcones as Small
      Molecule Inhibitors of Melanogenic Tyrosinase.
AB  - The enzyme tyrosinase regulates melanogenesis and skin hyperpigmentation by
      converting L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) into dopaquinone, a key step in
      the melanin biosynthesis. The present work deals with design and synthesis of
      various oxindole-based chalcones as monophenolase and diphenolase activity
      inhibitors of tyrosinase. Among the screened compounds, 4-hydroxy-3
      methoxybenzylidene moiety bearing chalcone (7) prepared by one pot reaction of
      oxindole and vanillin displayed the highest activity against tyrosinase with
      IC50s of 63.37 and 59.71 uM in monophenolase and diphenolase activity assays,
      respectively. In molecular docking studies, chalcone 7 also showed the highest
      binding affinity towards the enzyme tyrosinase while exhibiting the lowest
      estimated free energy of binding, among all the ligands docked.

PMID- 28867709
TI  - Neuroprotective Effect of Corydalis ternata Extract and Its Phytochemical
      Quantitative Analysis.
AB  - The tubers of Corydalis ternata have been used to treat cardiovascular diseases
      such as hypertension and cardiac arrhythmia. Its active components have
      anticholinesterase, antiamnesic, and anti-inflammatory activities, and analgesic
      effects. In the present study, we performed quantitative analyses of the two
      components of C. ternata, coptisine and berberine, using HPLC. A 70% ethanol
      extract of C. ternata was prepared and the two components were separated using a
      C-18 analytical column on a gradient solvent system of acetonitrile and 0.1%
      (v/v) aqueous trifluoroacetic acid. Recordings were performed at a UV wavelength
      of 265 nm for two standard components. The established analytical method showed
      high linearity (correlation coefficient (r)=1.0000) and proper precision (0.49
      3.88%), accuracy (97.88-102.7%), and recovery (95.12-103.79%) for two standard
      components. The amount of the coptisine and berberine was 4.968+/-0.089 mg/g and
      3.73+/-0.075 mg/g, respectively. In addition, we investigated the effects of
      coptisine and berberine on acetylcholinesterase activity and amyloid-beta
      aggregation, which are major biomarkers of dementia. Coptisine and berberine
      decreased acetylcholinesterase activity in a dose-dependent manner (IC50=0.74 and
      0.48 uM, respectively). The C. ternata extract exerted an antioxidant activity by
      stimulating the radical scavenging activity of 2,2'-azino-bis(3
      ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), but not 2,2-diphenyl-1
      picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Furthermore, the C. ternata extract reversed the hydrogen
      peroxide-induced death of HT22 hippocampal cells, indicating its neuroprotective
      effect. Our results suggest the potential of C. ternata as a therapeutic agent
      against dementia via the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase activity and neuronal
      cell death.

PMID- 28867711
TI  - Four New Lignans and IL-2 Inhibitors from Magnoliae Flos.
AB  - Four new lignans, a furofuran lignan medioresinol B (10) and three
      tetrahydrofuran lignans kobusinol C (16), 7'-methoxy magnostellin A (21), and
      mangnostellin D (23), along with 19 known lignans, were isolated from the flower
      buds of Magnolia biondii PAMP. The structures of the isolates were elucidated
      using spectroscopic analysis, mainly one- and two-dimensional NMR, high
      resolution-MS, and circular dichroism techniques as well as Mosher's
      esterification method. The anti-allergic effects of the isolated compounds were
      evaluated by analyzing the inhibition of interleukin-2 (IL-2) expression in
      Jurkat T-cells. Compounds 11-14 reduced IL-2 expression in a dose-dependent
      manner.

PMID- 28867713
TI  - Stereo-Selective Preparation of Teneraic Acid, trans-(2S,6S)-Piperidine-2,6
      dicarboxylic Acid, via Anodic Oxidation and Cobalt-Catalyzed Carbonylation.
AB  - Teneraic acid (piperidine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid) is a naturally occurring imino
      acid that comprises three stereoisomers due to its two asymmetric centers at C2
      and C6. The configuration of natural teneraic acid is reported to correspond to
      trans-(2S,6S). However, a few studies are focused on the stereospecific synthesis
      of trans-(2S,6S)-teneraic acid. The present study investigates a convenient
      synthetic method that includes regiospecific anodic oxidation and stereospecific
      cobalt-catalyzed carbonylation to obtain trans-(2S,6S)-teneraic acid. Methyl (S)
      N-benzoyl-alpha-methoxypipecolate, the key intermediate that displays a structure
      that corresponds to an intermediate (N-alpha-hydroxyalkyl amide) of
      intramolecular amidocarbonylation, was obtained via an anodic oxidation of methyl
      (S)-N-benzoylpipecolate. Subsequently, cobalt-catalyzed carbonylation converted
      the methyl (S)-N-benzoyl-alpha-methoxypipecolate to trans-(2S,6S)-N-benzoyl
      teneraic acid dimethyl ester in good optical purity (>95% enantiomeric excess
      (ee)) and modest yield (63%). Finally, de-protection occurred via acidic
      hydrolysis to obtain trans-(2S,6S)-teneraic acid. The stereochemistry of
      synthesized teneraic acid was confirmed as corresponding to trans-(2S,6S) by
      comparing its physical properties with those of a cis-meso-isomer and those of a
      trans-(2S,6S)-isomer that were reported in previous studies.

PMID- 28867712
TI  - Effect of the External Lubrication Method for a Rotary Tablet Press on the
      Adhesion of the Film Coating Layer.
AB  - External lubrication is a useful method which reduces the adhesion of powder to
      punches and dies by spraying lubricants during the tableting process. However, no
      information is available on whether the tablets prepared using an external
      lubrication system can be applicable for a film coating process. In this study,
      we evaluated the adhesion force of the film coating layer to the surface of
      tablets prepared using an external lubrication method, compared with those
      prepared using internal lubrication method. We also evaluated wettability,
      roughness and lubricant distribution state on the tablet surface before film
      coating, and investigated the relationship between peeling of the film coating
      layer and these tablet surface properties. Increasing lubrication through the
      external lubrication method decreased wettability of the tablet surface. However,
      no change was observed in the adhesion force of the film coating layer. On the
      other hand, increasing lubrication through the internal lubrication method,
      decreased both wettability of the tablet surface and the adhesion force of the
      film coating layer. The magnesium stearate distribution state on the tablet
      surface was assessed using an X-ray fluorescent analyzer and lubricant
      agglomerates were observed in the case of the internal lubrication method.
      However, the lubricant was uniformly dispersed in the external lubrication
      samples. These results indicate that the distribution state of the lubricant
      affects the adhesion force of the film coating layer, and external lubrication
      maintained sufficient lubricity and adhesion force of the film coating layer with
      a small amount of lubricant.

PMID- 28867714
TI  - Ethereal C-O Bond Cleavage Mediated by Ni(0)-Ate Complex: A DFT Study.
AB  - Density functional theory calculations were performed to explore the mechanism of
      Ni-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions involving organo-lithium and -zinc reagents
      through ethereal C-O bond cleavage. Based on this work, together with our
      previous mechanistic study on etheric Kumada-Tamao reaction, we identify and
      characterize a novel catalytic cycle for cross-coupling mediated by Ni(0)-ate
      complex.

PMID- 28867717
TI  - Effects of Tripterygium wilfordii Induction Therapy to IgA Nephropathy Patients
      with Heavy Proteinuria.
AB  - Although some new drugs have been developed, Tripterygium wilfordii HOOK F.
      (TWHF) has the merits of relatively lower price and fewer side effects.
      Unfortunately, the efficacy and safety of the TWHF (especially dosage 120 mg/d)
      in the immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy (IgAN) are still lacking. A cohort
      study including 49 IgAN patients with heavy proteinuria who received induction
      therapy was undertaken. Patients were divided into three groups: Prednisone
      (PRE), conventional-dose TWHF (CTW) and double-dose TWHF (DTW). The clinical
      features, laboratory data, histological manifestations and outcomes of the groups
      were compared. We found that urinary protein excretion and rates of elevated n
      acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and retinol binding protein (RBP) were
      prominent in all groups. Neither histopathological changes nor the rates of renal
      insufficiency were significantly different among groups. Patients in the PRE
      (69.2%) and DTW groups (87.5%) achieved complete remission; none of the CTW group
      did. Furthermore, the total remission rate of the DTW group was substantially
      higher than that of the CTW group. The degree of hypoproteinemia, improved
      considerably in the PRE and DTW groups. Treatment was well tolerated in all
      patients, and no serious adverse events were observed. Our findings suggested
      that induction therapy with double dose TWHF significantly improved response
      rates in IgAN patients with heavy proteinuria, and did not considerably increase
      side effects.

PMID- 28867715
TI  - New Iridoids from Scrophularia ningpoensis.
AB  - Five new compounds including five iridoids (1-5) and six known compounds were
      isolated from the rhizomes of Scrophularia ningpoensis. Their structures were
      determined by extensive NMR and IR, MS spectroscopic data analyses. The anti
      inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, and cytotoxic activities of the isolated
      compounds were evaluated. Compound 11 exhibited significant inhibitory effects on
      lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 macrophage cells.

PMID- 28867716
TI  - Identification of Characteristic Phenolic Constituents in Mousouchiku Extract
      Used as Food Additives.
AB  - Mousouchiku extract is prepared from the bamboo-sheath of Phyllostachys
      heterocycla MITF. (Poaceae), and is registered as a food manufacturing agent in
      the List of Existing Food Additives in Japan. This study describes the
      chromatographic evaluation of characteristic components of this extract to obtain
      the chemical data needed for standardized specifications. We isolated 12 known
      compounds from this extract: 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid,
      trans-p-coumaric acid, trans-ferulic acid, N,N'-diferuloylputrescine, 4'
      hydroxypropiophenone, beta-arbutin, tachioside, isotachioside, 3,4'
      dihydroxypropiophenone 3-O-glucoside, koaburaside, and (+)-lyoniresinol 9'-O
      glucoside. Moreover, a new propiophenone glycoside, propiophenone 4'-O-(6-beta-D
      xylosyl)-beta-D-glucoside (propiophenone 4'-O-primeveroside), was isolated. The
      structure of each isolated compound was elucidated based on NMR and MS data or
      direct HPLC comparisons with authentic samples. Among the isolates, (+)
      lyoniresinol 9'-O-glucoside was found to be the major ingredients of the extract
      as observed using HPLC analysis. However, 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone, which
      is considered the main constituent of mousouchiku extract, was only detected as a
      trace constituent and not isolated in this study.

PMID- 28867719
TI  - ER Stress and Disease: Toward Prevention and Treatment.
AB  - Secretory and membrane proteins are synthesized in ribosomes, then mature in the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER), but if ER function is impaired, immature defective
      proteins accumulate in the ER. This situation is called ER stress: in response, a
      defensive mechanism called the unfolded protein response (UPR) is activated in
      cells to reduce the defective proteins. During the UPR, the ER transmembrane
      sensor molecules inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), activating transcription
      factor 6 (ATF6), and RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR)-like ER kinase (PERK) are
      activated, stress signals are transduced to the outside of the ER, and various
      cell responses, including gene induction, occur. In ER-associated degradation
      (ERAD), one type of UPR, defective proteins are eventually expelled from the ER
      and degraded in the cytoplasm through the ubiquitin proteasome system. Since ER
      stress has been reported to have relationships with neurodegenerative diseases,
      diabetes, metabolic syndromes, and cancer, it is the focus of increased attention
      from the perspectives of elucidating pathogenic mechanisms, and in the
      development of therapeutics.

PMID- 28867720
TI  - Chronic Rapamycin Treatment Improved Metabolic Phenotype but Inhibited Adipose
      Tissue Browning in High-Fat Diet-Fed C57BL/6J Mice.
AB  - Rapamycin (Rap) has been demonstrated to affect lipid metabolism through
      stimulating lipolysis, inhibiting de novo lipogenesis and reducing adiposity. In
      the present study, we investigated rapamycin exposure's influence on adipose
      tissue browning in high-fat diet-induced fatty mice. Four-week old C57BL/6J mice
      were fed normal chow or high-fat diet for a period of 6 weeks and then divided
      into three groups: (1) Nor group: mice fed with normal chow; (2) high fat diet
      (HFD) group: fatty mice fed with high-fat diet; (3) Rap group: high-fat diet-fed
      fatty mice treated intragastrically with rapamycin at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg per day
      for 5 weeks. Body weights and food intakes of the mice were recorded weekly. At
      the end of the study, blood samples were collected for glucose, lipid and insulin
      evaluations. Adipose tissues were weighed and lipid contents were monitored.
      Moreover, real-time PCR and Western blotting were applied to detect the
      expression levels of beige and brown fat marker genes in white adipose tissue
      (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). Our data demonstrated that Rap exposure
      significantly ameliorated metabolic defects including hyperglycaemia,
      dyslipidaemia and insulin resistance in the fatty mice. Furthermore, Rap
      treatment led to decreased tissue weights and lipid contents both in WAT and BAT.
      Remarkably, expression levels of BAT marker genes including uncoupling protein-1
      (UCP-1), cell death-inducing DNA fragmentation factor-alpha-like effector A
      (CIDEA), PR-domain containing protein-16 (PRDM16) and peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1alpha) were significantly down
      regulated in Rap-treated fatty mice. This report demonstrates Rap exposure is
      capable of inhibiting adipose tissue browning in high-fat diet-induced fatty
      mice, and provides evidence for deeper understanding of Rap's influence on lipid
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28867721
TI  - Inhibitory Effect of Oxethazaine on Midazolam Metabolism in Rats.
AB  - There have been few reports concerning to the drug-drug interactions (DDIs) with
      OTC drugs although an increase in the use of OTC drugs in recent years. This
      current study was conducted to clarify the DDIs through CYP3A inhibition by
      oxethazaine (OXZ), an antacid available as an OTC drug. Midazolam (MDZ) was used
      as a probe drug for CYP3A activity. In an in vivo study, a single oral dose of
      OXZ (50 mg/kg) was administered to rats 30, 60, or 120 min before oral MDZ
      administration (15 mg/kg). Serum concentrations of MDZ were analyzed by HPLC, and
      its pharmacokinetic parameters were compared with a water-treated control group.
      The inhibitory effect of OXZ on MDZ 1'-hydroxylation (MDZ 1'-OH) activity was
      investigated in vitro using rat liver and intestinal microsomes. Pretreatment of
      OXZ 120 min before MDZ administration significantly increased the area under the
      serum concentration-time curve (AUC0-infinity) of MDZ six-fold compared to the
      control group without a change in elimination half-life (t1/2). In contrast, OXZ
      pretreatment 30 or 60 min before MDZ administration did not show any remarkable
      change in MDZ pharmacokinetic parameters. The in vitro study showed that OXZ
      inhibited MDZ 1'-OH activity in a concentration-dependent manner both in liver
      and intestinal microsomes. These results suggested that OXZ increases serum MDZ
      concentration presumably by the inhibition of liver and/or intestinal CYP3A
      activity. OXZ was predicted to cause the DDIs mediated by CYP3A inhibition,
      although this effect depended on the dose interval.

PMID- 28867718
TI  - Role of mast cells in bronchial contraction in nonallergic obstructive lung
      pathology.
AB  - The role of mast cells in contractile bronchial smooth muscle activity has been
      evaluated in a model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease induced in rats
      that were intermittently exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for 60 days. Starting
      from the 31st day, one group of rats inhaled sodium cromoglycate before exposure
      to NO2 to stabilize mast cell membranes. The second group (control) was not
      treated. Isometric smooth muscle contraction was analysed in isolated bronchial
      samples in response to nerve and smooth muscle stimulation. Histological analysis
      revealed large numbers of mast cells in lung tissue of COPD model rats. The
      inhibition of mast cell degranulation by sodium cromoglycate prevented the
      development of nerve-stimulated bronchial smooth muscle hyperactivity in COPD
      model rats. Histamine or adenosine-induced hyperactivity on nerve stimulation was
      also inhibited by sodium cromoglycate in bronchial smooth muscle in both control
      and COPD model rats. This suggests that the mechanism of contractile activity
      enhancement of bronchial wall smooth muscle cells may be mediated through the
      activation of resident mast cells transmembrane adenosine receptors resulting in
      their partial degranulation, with the released histamine acting upon histamine H1
      receptors which trigger reflex pathways via intramural ganglion neurons.

PMID- 28867723
TI  - The Inhibitory Effect of Telmisartan on the Metabolism of Arachidonic Acid by
      CYP2C9 and CYP2C8: An in Vitro Study.
AB  - Epoxyeicosatorienoic acids (EETs) are generated from arachidonic acid (AA) by
      CYPs. EETs comprise four regioisomers (14,15-, 11,12-, 8,9-, and 5,6-EET). EETs
      show potent physiological effects, including vasodilation, anti-inflammation,
      myocardial preconditioning, and anti-platelet aggregation effects. We recently
      demonstrated that telmisartan, one of angiotensin II receptor blockers, inhibits
      AA metabolism by CYP enzymes, including CYP2C8, CYP2C9, and CYP2J2. We conducted
      studies of AA metabolism using recombinant CYP enzymes to estimate the inhibition
      constant and the type of inhibition by telmisartan of CYP2C9 and CYP2C8. The
      contribution ratio (CR) of each CYP enzyme was investigated using human liver
      microsomes. Dixon and Lineweaver-Burk plots indicated that telmisartan is a mixed
      inhibitor of both CYP2C9 and CYP2C8; telmisartan did not show a time-dependent
      inhibition toward these CYP enzymes. Based on the CRs, both CYP2C9 and CYP2C8 are
      the key enzymes in the metabolism of AA in the human liver. Uptake of telmisartan
      in the liver by organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP) 1B3 and the non
      linear metabolism in gastrointestinal tract augment the potential of the drug to
      inhibit the CYP enzymes in the liver.

PMID- 28867722
TI  - The Standardized Extract of Juniperus communis Alleviates Hyperpigmentation in
      Vivo HRM-2 Hairless Mice and in Vitro Murine B16 Melanoma Cells.
AB  - In European folk medicine, the fruits of Juniperus communis are used in the
      treatment of skin-related disorders such as skin infection, itching, and
      psoriasis. Previously, we reported that the EtOAc fraction of J. communis (EAJC)
      contained tyrosinase inhibition properties in vitro non-cellular experiment. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate anti-melanogenic effect of standardized EAJC on
      a hyperpigmentation animal model. Therapeutic effects of EAJC toward skin
      hyperpigmentation were confirmed by both in vivo experiment and in vitro cell
      based assay. Skin depigmenting effect was detected by topical treatment of EAJC
      for 11 d to HRM-2 melanin-possessing hairless mice. Histologic findings including
      significantly decreased melanin depositions could be observed in dorsal skin
      samples of EAJC-treated group. In addition, the EAJC (50 ug/mL) attenuated
      melanin production through down-regulation of tyrosinase activity and protein
      expression in B16 murine melanoma cells. According to the phytochemical analysis,
      EAJC was found to contain hypolaetin-7-O-beta-D-xylopyranoside and
      isoscutellarein-7-O-beta-D-xylopyranoside as main components. Hypolaetin-7-O-beta
      D-xylopyranoside was responsible for the skin-lightening effect of EAJC by
      reducing the number of melanocytes in dorsal skins of HRM-2 mice. The present
      study provided direct experimental evidence for skin-lightening effect of EAJC in
      UV-irradiated hairless mouse model. Therapeutic attempts with the J. communis
      might be useful in the management of skin pigmentation-related diseases.

PMID- 28867724
TI  - Justicia procumbens Extract (DW2008) Selectively Suppresses Th2 Cytokines in
      Splenocytes and Ameliorates Ovalbumin-Induced Airway Inflammation in a Mouse
      Model of Asthma.
AB  - DW2008 is an anhydrous ethanol extract of Justicia procumbens produced by Dong
      Wha Pharmaceutical, Inc., Co. as a candidate anti-asthmatic drug. In this study,
      DW2008 selectively reduced T helper 2 (Th2) cytokines in mouse splenocytes and
      ameliorated ovalbumin-induced airway inflammation by downregulating pulmonary
      infiltration of differential inflammatory cells and Th2 cytokines more than a
      decoction or ethanol extract of J. procumbens did in a mouse asthma model. DW2008
      also significantly inhibited airway hyperresponsiveness and reduced the thickness
      of the airway epithelium. HPLC analysis showed that the major peaks (justicidin A
      and B) of DW2008 were higher than those of the other extracts. Justicidin A and B
      significantly suppressed Th2 cytokine levels in mouse spleen cells and exhibited
      a protective effect in ovalbumin-induced airway inflammation. Our findings
      indicate that DW2008 effectively inhibits allergic airway inflammatory reactions
      and airway hyperresponsiveness in a mouse model of asthma, suggesting its
      potential as an anti-asthmatic agent.

PMID- 28867727
TI  - Influence of Japanese Regulatory Action on Denosumab-Related Hypocalcemia Using
      Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report Database.
AB  - The anti-receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) antibody,
      Denosumab (DEN), was approved in April 2012 in Japan, but a Dear Healthcare
      Professional Letter of Rapid Safety Communication was released in September, 2012
      by the regulatory authority because of the severe hypocalcemia risks. Currently,
      the effectiveness of this regulatory action has not been evaluated and,
      therefore, this study aimed to assess its impact on DEN-induced hypocalcemia
      using the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database (JADER). The case reports
      from April 2012 to September 2014 were collected from the JADER, which included
      151642 adverse events for the primary suspected drugs. The reporting odds ratio
      (ROR) of hypocalcemia as a signal of the target adverse event was analyzed for
      DEN and zoledronic acid (ZOL, a reference drug). Changes in RORs were compared
      between the pre- (Pre, April 2012 to September 2012) and post- (Post 1, October
      2012 to September 2013 and Post 2, October 2013 to September 2014) periods of the
      regulatory action. A decrease in the hypocalcemia ROR was observed for DEN in the
      post-periods, especially Post 2. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed
      a significant decrease in hypocalcemia signal in Post 1 (p=0.0306 vs. Pre) and
      Post 2 (p=0.0054 vs. Pre). ZOL caused no significant changes in ROR of
      hypocalcemia, and none of the drugs caused ROR changes in jaw osteonecrosis (a
      reference adverse event). This study suggests that the regulatory action against
      hypocalcemia in DEN effectively decreased hypocalcemia signal. Further studies
      using medical information databases are needed to confirm this result.

PMID- 28867726
TI  - Short Chain Fatty Acid Acetate Protects against Ethanol-Induced Acute Gastric
      Mucosal Lesion in Mice.
AB  - Short chain fatty acids acetate and propionate have been demonstrated protective
      function in the intestinal mucosa. However, their impact on gastric mucosa has
      not yet been elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the potential
      protective effects of acetate and propionate against ethanol-induced gastric
      mucosal lesion and the underlying mechanism in mice. ICR mice were orally treated
      with acetate and propionate, respectively, 30 min prior to the establishment of
      gastric mucosal injury model by challenge with absolute ethanol. The gastric
      samples were collected for the detection of oxidative, inflammatory and apoptotic
      related parameters. Acetate, but not propionate, attenuated the severity of
      gastric mucosal damage as evidenced by the gross changes of gastric mucosa,
      pathological aberrations. Acetate alleviated oxidative stress as shown by the
      increase in glutathione (GSH) content and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities,
      and the decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) level. The elevated concentrations of
      interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and IL-6, and the
      activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) p65 by ethanol stimulation was
      also reduced by acetate. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory factors, IL-4, LXA4 and
      IL-10, were up-regulated in acetate treated group. With respect to gastric
      mucosal apoptosis, acetate suppressed caspase-3 activity and BAX expression in
      favor of cell survival. These favorable actions were maybe associated with up
      regulation of the gastric MUC5AC, the key defense factor of gastric mucosal
      system. These findings accentuate the gastroprotective actions of acetate in
      ethanol-induced gastric injury which were mediated via concerted multi-prolonged
      actions, including suppression of gastric oxidation, inflammation and apoptosis
      and promotion of MUC5AC expression.

PMID- 28867728
TI  - Development of a High-Throughput Assay for Inhibitors of the Polo-Box Domain of
      Polo-Like Kinase 1 Based on Time-Resolved Fluorescence Energy Transfer.
AB  - Although enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technology has been widely
      accepted for binding assays against the polo-box domain (PBD) of polo-like kinase
      1 (Plk1), these assays have a limitation-related heterogeneous procedure, such as
      multiple incubations and washing steps to apply high-throughput screenings
      (HTSs). In the present study, a Plk1-PBD binding assay based on time-resolved
      fluorescence energy transfer (TR-FRET) was developed for HTS of PBD-binding
      inhibitors. The TR-FRET-based Plk1-PBD binding assay is sensitive and robust and
      can be miniaturized into the 384-well plate-based format. Compared with the ELISA
      based Plk1-PBD binding assay (Z' factor, 0.53; signal-to-background ratio, 4.19),
      the TR-FRET-based Plk1-PBD binding assay improved the Z' factor (0.72) and signal
      to-background ratio (8.16). Using TR-FRET based Plk1-PBD binding assay, pilot
      library screening of 1019 natural compounds was conducted and five hit compounds
      such as haematoxylin, verbascoside, menadione, lithospermic acid and (1,3
      dioxolo[4,5-g]isoquinolinium 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-4-methoxy-6,6-dimethyl-5-[2-oxo-2
      (2-pyridinyl)ethyl]-iodide) (DITMD) were identified as Plk1-PBD inhibitor. In a
      functional assay to validate the hit compounds, five hit compounds exhibited
      suppression of HeLa cells proliferation. These results suggest that TR-FRET-based
      Plk1-PBD binding assay can be applied for an efficient and less time-consuming
      HTS of compound libraries.

PMID- 28867725
TI  - Wound Healing Effect of Slightly Acidic Electrolyzed Water on Cutaneous Wounds in
      Hairless Mice via Immune-Redox Modulation.
AB  - Acidic electrolyzed water is an innovative sanitizer having a wide-spectrum of
      applications in food industry, and healthcare industry but little is known on its
      effect and mechanism in wound healing. The study was conducted to identify the
      effect and mechanism of slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) on cutaneous
      wounds in hairless mice. SAEW (pH: 5-6.5, oxidation reduction potential: 800 mV,
      chlorine concentration: 25 ppm) was prepared through electrolysis of water and
      was applied to the wounds of hairless mice three times a day for seven days.
      Wound size, immune response and oxidative stress were explored and compared to
      conventional agents such as Betadine and alcohol. We found that SAEW-treated
      group showed the highest wound reduction percentage (p<0.01). Antioxidant
      activities such as glutathione peroxidase, catalase and myeloperoxidase
      activities of SAEW group surpassed the total reactive oxygen species in skin.
      Nuclear factor erythroid-2-related-factor-2 and aryl hydrocarbon receptor were
      upregulated in SAEW group. Further, SAEW recruited the production of
      intracellular calcium and promoted its utilization for faster healing. In line,
      SAEW treatment decreased pro-inflammatory cytokines [interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL
      6, keratinocyte chemoattractant, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha] in serum. Other
      hallmarks of wound healing, matrixmetalloproteinases (MMP)1 and MMP9 were also
      upregulated. Collectively, our study indicates that SAEW is effective in wound
      healing of hairless mice via immune-redox modulation, and heals better/faster
      than conventional agents.

PMID- 28867730
TI  - Up-Regulation of the Voltage-Gated KV2.1 K+ Channel in the Renal Arterial
      Myocytes of Dahl Salt-Sensitive Hypertensive Rats.
AB  - Salt-sensitive hypertension induces renal injury via decreased blood flow in the
      renal artery (RA), and ion channel dysfunction in RA myocytes (RAMs) may be
      involved in the higher renal vascular resistance. We examined the effects of
      several voltage-gated K+ (KV) channel blockers on the resting tension in
      endothelium-denuded RA strips and delayed-rectifier K+ currents in RAMs of Dahl
      salt-sensitive hypertensive rats (Dahl-S) fed with low- (Dahl-LS) and high-salt
      diets (Dahl-HS). The tetraethylammonium (TEA)-induced contraction in RA strips
      were significantly larger in Dahl-HS than Dahl-LS. Correspondingly, TEA-sensitive
      KV currents were significantly larger in the RAMs of Dahl-HS than Dahl-LS. Among
      the TEA-sensitive KV channel subtypes, the expression levels of KV2.1 transcript
      and protein were significantly higher in the RA of Dahl-HS than Dahl-LS, while
      those of KV1.5, KV7.1, and KV7.4 transcripts was comparable in two groups. KV2.1
      currents detected as the guangxitoxin-1E-sensitive component were larger in the
      RAMs of Dahl-HS than Dahl-LS. These suggest that the up-regulation of the KV2.1
      channel in RAMs may be involved in the compensatory mechanisms against decreased
      renal blood flow in salt-sensitive hypertension.

PMID- 28867729
TI  - Comparison of Clinical Advantage between Topiroxostat and Febuxostat in
      Hemodialysis Patients.
AB  - To determine the response of hemodialysis (HD) patients to topiroxostat after a
      switch from febuxostat, we evaluated the efficacy, tolerability, and serum
      concentration of topiroxostat in HD patients after the switch. In this 16-month
      prospective observational study, we assessed the serum uric acid (UA) levels,
      other laboratory data, and serum topiroxostat concentrations of 10 HD patients
      who had been receiving febuxostat at a dose of 10 mg/d for over 1 year. No
      statistical difference was observed between the tolerability index at baseline
      and 16 months after the switch to topiroxostat. Serum UA after the switch in all
      patients (attained serum UA levels of <=6 mg/dL) was 5.6+/-1.7 mg/dL (60%) at
      baseline, 4.9+/-0.5 mg/dL (100%) at 6 months and 5.7+/-0.4 mg/dL (50%) at 16
      months (p=0.25), respectively. In patients with baseline serum UA levels >6
      mg/dL, serum UA was significantly reduced at 6 and 16 months compared with
      baseline. Minimum serum concentrations of serum topiroxostat were lower than the
      limit of quantification (<25 ng/mL). Our results indicate that a switch from
      febuxostat 10 mg/d to topiroxostat 40 mg/d might reduce serum UA levels, with no
      change in other clinical laboratory data over the long term. These effects were
      more frequent in patients with high serum UA levels. Furthermore, topiroxostat
      therapy was more cost effective than febuxostat therapy. Thus, topiroxostat
      therapy could be a better treatment option for HD patients who develop high serum
      UA levels after febuxostat 10 mg/d administration.

PMID- 28867731
TI  - FOXA1 Induces E-Cadherin Expression at the Protein Level via Suppression of Slug
      in Epithelial Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important process during
      embryonic development and tumor progression by which adherent epithelial cells
      acquire mesenchymal properties. Forkhead box protein A1 (FOXA1) is a
      transcriptional regulator preferentially expressed in epithelial breast cancer
      cells, and its expression is lost in mesenchymal breast cancer cells. However,
      the implication of this biased expression of FOXA1 in breast cancer is not fully
      understood. In this study, we analyzed the involvement of FOXA1 in EMT
      progression in breast cancer, and found that stable expression of FOXA1 in the
      mesenchymal breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells strongly induced the epithelial marker
      E-cadherin at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, stable expression of
      FOXA1 was found to reduce the mRNA and protein expression of Slug, a repressor of
      E-cadherin expression. FOXA1 knockdown in the epithelial breast cancer MCF7 cells
      reduced E-cadherin protein expression without decreasing its mRNA expression. In
      addition, FOXA1 knockdown in MCF7 cells up-regulated Slug mRNA and protein
      expression. Notably, similar to FOXA1 knockdown, stable expression of Slug in
      MCF7 cells reduced E-cadherin protein expression without decreasing its mRNA
      expression. Taken together, these results suggest that although FOXA1 can induce
      E-cadherin mRNA expression, it preferentially promotes E-cadherin expression at
      the protein level by suppressing Slug expression in epithelial breast cancer, and
      that the balance of this FOXA1-Slug axis regulates EMT progression.

PMID- 28867732
TI  - Comparison between Antiemetic Effects of Palonosetron and Granisetron on
      Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Japanese Patients Treated with R
      CHOP.
AB  - In the present study, the antiemetic effect of palonosetron, not combined with
      dexamethasone and aprepitant, on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting was
      evaluated in patients with malignant lymphoma receiving first-line rituximab,
      cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) therapy, and
      was compared to that of granisetron. A total of 74 patients with non-Hodgkin
      lymphoma were included in this study (April 2007 to December 2015). Palonosetron
      (0.75 mg) or granisetron (3 mg) was intravenously administered before R-CHOP
      therapy. The proportions of patients with complete response (CR) during the
      overall (0-120 h after the start of R-CHOP therapy), acute (0-24 h) and delayed
      (24-120 h) phases were evaluated. CR was defined as no vomiting and no use of
      antiemetic rescue medication. A total of 32 and 42 patients were treated with
      palonosetron and granisetron, respectively. The CR rate in the palonosetron group
      was significantly higher than that in the granisetron group during the delayed
      phase (90.6 and 61.9%, respectively; p=0.007). Logistic regression analysis
      showed that use of palonosetron improved the CR rate during the delayed phase,
      compared to use of granisetron. Female sex, age less than 60 years, no habitual
      alcohol intake, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG
      PS) score of 1 were significant risk factors associated with non-CR. The findings
      of this study suggested the superiority of palonosetron to granisetron, without
      accompanying dexamethasone and aprepitant, for chemotherapy-induced nausea and
      vomiting in patients with malignant lymphoma.

PMID- 28867733
TI  - 13C-Acetic Acid Breath Test Monitoring of Gastric Emptying during Disease
      Progression in Diabetic Rats.
AB  - Gastric motility disturbance is commonly found in long-standing hyperglycemia.
      Both delayed and rapid gastric emptying has been reported in diabetes. However,
      very few studies have followed the changes in gastric emptying during disease
      progression in diabetes because of technical limitations. 13C-Acetic acid breath
      test is a validated method which is non-invasive and can be used repeatedly or
      serially to evaluate gastric emptying changes in animal. We investigated the
      gastric emptying changes in different stages of diabetes using 13C-acetic acid
      breath test, as well as its related mechanisms involving interstitial cells of
      Cajal (ICCs), and stem cell factor (SCF) in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.
      The results showed that gastric emptying was accelerated at the early stage (12
      weeks of diabetes) whereas intramuscular ICCs (ICC-IM) networks were not
      different from normal group. At long-term stage (28 weeks of diabetes), gastric
      emptying had returned to normal pattern with no delayed. ICC-IM networks were
      decreased in the diabetic group compared to 12th weeks, and were lower than in
      the normal group at the same time point. SCF levels were constantly high in the
      diabetic group than in the normal group. This result indicated that 13C-acetic
      acid breath test is useful to track the alteration in gastric emptying during
      disease progression. The change of gastric emptying was not found to be
      significantly associated with ICC-IM. Elevated SCF may help to preserve ICC-IM,
      especially in the early phase of diabetes.

PMID- 28867734
TI  - Curcumin beta-D-Glucuronide Plays an Important Role to Keep High Levels of Free
      Form Curcumin in the Blood.
AB  - Curcumin, a polyphenol derived from the rhizome of the naturally occurring plant
      Curcuma longa, has various pharmacological actions such as antioxidant and anti
      inflammatory effects. In this paper, we evaluated the role of its internal
      metabolite, curcumin beta-D-glucuronide (curcumin monoglucuronide, CMG), by
      investigating curcumin kinetics and metabolism in the blood. Firstly, we orally
      administered highly bioavailable curcumin to rats to elucidate its kinetics, and
      observed not only the free-form of curcumin, but also, curcumin in a conjugated
      form, within the portal vein. We confirmed that curcumin is conjugated when it
      passes through the intestinal wall. CMG, one of the metabolites, was then orally
      administered to rats. Despite its high aqueous solubility compared to free-form
      curcumin, it was not well absorbed. In addition, CMG was injected intravenously
      into rats in order to assess its metabolic behavior in the blood. Interestingly,
      high levels of free-form curcumin, thought to be sufficiently high to be
      pharmacologically active, were observed. The in vivo antitumor effects of CMG
      following intravenous injection were then evaluated in tumor-bearing mice with
      the HCT116 human colon cancer cell line. The tumor volume within the CMG group
      was significantly less than that of the control group. Moreover, there was no
      significant loss of body weight in the CMG group compared to the control group.
      These results suggest that CMG could be used as an anticancer agent without the
      serious side effects that most anticancer agents have.

PMID- 28867735
TI  - Effects of Ascorbyl-2-phosphate Magnesium on Human Keratinocyte Toxicity and
      Pathological Changes by Sorafenib.
AB  - Hand-foot skin reaction is recognized as one of the most common adverse events
      related to multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitors, but an effective prevention
      method has not been identified. The chief aim of this study was to find a
      mechanism-based preventive method for the skin toxicity induced by sorafenib
      using vitamin C derivatives. The effects of ascorbyl-2-phosphate magnesium (P-VC
      Mg) on the molecular and pathological changes induced by sorafenib were
      investigated in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. The cell growth inhibition and
      apoptotic effects of sorafenib were attenuated by P-VC-Mg. Moreover, P-VC-Mg
      inhibited the decrease of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3
      (STAT3) phosphorylation and the expression of apoptosis suppressors treated by
      sorafenib. HaCaT cells transfected with the STAT3 dominant-negative form
      (STAT3DN) and STAT3 small interfering RNA (siRNA) combined with P-VC-Mg did not
      exhibit the attenuation of cell growth inhibition. Interestingly, after exposure
      to sorafenib in a three dimensional (3D) skin model assay, the basal layer was
      significantly thickened and the granular and spinous layers became thinner. In
      contrast, after exposure to sorafenib with P-VC-Mg, the thickness of the basal,
      granular, and spinous layers was similar to that of the control image. These
      findings suggest that P-VC-Mg attenuates sorafenib-induced apoptosis and
      pathological changes in human keratinocyte cells and in the 3D skin model
      mediated by the maintenance of STAT3 activity.

PMID- 28867736
TI  - Triterpenoids Isolated from Alnus japonica Inhibited LPS-Induced Inflammatory
      Mediators in HT-29 Cells and RAW264.7 Cells.
AB  - Alnus japonica (Betulaceae) is a broad-leaved tree easily found in damp regions
      within the mountains of Korea and Japan. Four triterpenoids (1-4) from the fruits
      of A. japonica, including the newly isolated 3beta-hydroxy-lanost-9(11),23(24)
      dien-25,26-diol (3), inhibited the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced expression of
      the chemotactic cytokine interleukin (IL)-8 and nitric oxide (NO) production in
      HT-29 colon epithelial cells and RAW264.7 macrophages, respectively. Among these
      triterpenoids, compound 4, which showed the most potent inhibitory activity,
      effectively down-regulated LPS-induced protein expression of inducible nitric
      oxide synthase (iNOS) in RAW264.7 cells and in HT-29 cells. Also, compound 4
      concentration-dependently inhibited the levels of LPS-induced pro-inflammatory
      cytokines, IL-1beta and IL-6 in macrophage cells. These triterpenoids isolated
      from A. japonica fruits are thought to contribute to the anti-inflammatory
      activities of macrophage and colon epithelial cells, which are important for
      regulating the colon immune system. They are expected to be potential candidates
      for therapeutic agents against inflammatory bowel disease.

PMID- 28867737
TI  - Fluorescence Analysis of the Mitochondrial Effect of a Plasmalemmal Na+/Ca2+
      Exchanger Inhibitor, SEA0400, in Permeabilized H9c2 Cardiomyocytes.
AB  - We investigated the effect on mitochondrial Ca2+ of SEA0400, an inhibitor of the
      Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) which reduces mitochondrial Ca2+ overload during
      myocardial ischemia, in digitonin-permeabilized H9c2 cells expressing the
      mitochondrial-targeted Ca2+ indicator, yellow cameleon 3.1. The elevation of
      mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration caused by an increase in extramitochondrial Ca2+
      concentration was inhibited by carbonyl cyanide p-(trifluoromethoxy)
      phenylhydrazone (FCCP) or ruthenium red, but enhanced by CGP-37157, a
      mitochondrial NCX inhibitor. SEA0400 had no effect on mitochondrial Ca2+ under
      normal and ischemic conditions. Thus, the mitochondria-protective effects of
      SEA0400 could be explained by inhibition of plasmalemmal NCX but not
      mitochondrial NCX.

PMID- 28867740
TI  - Investigation on the Interactions between Various Drugs and Aojiru (Green Juice)
      Using a Simple Centrifugation Method.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the interactions between various
      drugs and aojiru (green juice), a popular health food in Japan, using a simple
      centrifugation method. The mixture of drug solution and aojiru suspension was
      gently shaken and centrifuged. The drug concentration in the supernatant fluid
      was then determined by HPLC. The concentration of rhodamine 123 (Rho-123), a
      model compound, in the supernatant fluid significantly decreased after mixing
      with aojiru, indicating extensive binding of Rho-123 to the insoluble components
      of aojiru. When administered into rat small intestinal loops together with
      aojiru, the plasma Rho-123 concentrations became much smaller than those when
      administered alone. This result strongly suggested that a strong interaction
      observed in vitro was well reflected in modulated absorption. Among seven drugs
      tested, chlorpromazine and imipramine exerted binding properties to aojiru
      similar to or greater than Rho-123. As a small part of both Rho-123 and
      imipramine was released when the aojiru precipitate was resuspended, their
      binding to aojiru was considered to be tight. The binding of diltiazem,
      fexofenadine, glibenclamide, metformin, and norfloxacin to aojiru was much weaker
      or almost negligible compared with that of chlorpromazine and imipramine. The
      present results suggest that aojiru can decrease the intestinal absorption of
      some clinically relevant drugs through tight binding in the small intestine and
      that the present centrifugation method is useful for predicting in vivo
      interactions between drugs and aojiru.

PMID- 28867741
TI  - Inhibitory Potency of Marketed Drugs for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease
      on PEPT1.
AB  - We investigate the inhibitory effect of marketed drugs for treatment of
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's
      disease (CD) on the uptake transporters of peptide transporter 1 (PEPT1), which
      are up-regulated under the inflamed condition. The uptake transport of
      glycylsarcosine, a typical substrate for PEPT1, was reduced to 60% only by 5
      aminosalicylate at the clinically relevant concentration among tested marketed
      drugs in PEPT1 transfected HEK293 cell lines. These findings suggest that the
      inhibition of PEPT1, which were up-regulated in inflamed or non-inflamed site on
      UC and CD patients, contribute to the clinical effect of commercially available
      drugs for IBD patients through the inhibition of uptake of antigenic
      proinflammatory oligopeptides such as formyl-methionine (Met)-leucine (Leu)
      phenylalanine (Phe) via PEPT1.

PMID- 28867742
TI  - Effect of Infectious Diseases on the Pathogenesis of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and
      Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis.
AB  - Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are severe
      cutaneous adverse drug reactions. Recent studies have revealed that the
      prevalence of SJS/TEN is associated with genetic backgrounds, such as
      polymorphisms in human leukocyte antigens (HLAs). However, non-genetic factors
      contributing to the etiology of SJS/TEN are largely unknown. This study aimed to
      assess the involvement of concurrent infection on the pathological states of
      SJS/TEN, examining the severity of cutaneous symptoms and ocular involvement as
      well as the time to onset in drug-induced SJS/TEN patients. We recruited 257
      Japanese SJS/TEN patients from June 2006 to September 2013 through a nationwide
      case collection network and participating hospitals and reviewed the clinical
      information including patient backgrounds, primary disease and medication status.
      Association between infection and pathological states of SJS/TEN was assessed
      using univariate and multivariate analyses. The concurrent infectious group of
      SJS/TEN patients showed a significantly higher rate of exhibiting severer
      dermatological and ophthalmological phenotypes and an earlier onset of SJS/TEN
      than the non-infectious group. Our results suggest that the infection could be a
      risk factor to cause severer symptoms and earlier onset of SJS/TEN.

PMID- 28867739
TI  - Inhibitory Effects of Juices Prepared from Individual Vegetables on CYP3A4
      Activity in Recombinant CYP3A4 and LS180 Cells.
AB  - Human intestinal absorption and drug metabolism vary to a large extent among
      individuals. For example, CYP3A4 activity has large individual variation that
      cannot be attributed to only genetic differences. Various flavonoids in
      vegetables, such as kaempferol and quercetin, possess inhibitory effects, and
      some vegetable and fruit juices have also been found to inhibit CYP3A4 activity.
      Therefore, differences in daily intake of flavonoid-containing vegetables may
      induce individual variation in intestinal bioavailability. To identify a
      vegetable that strongly inhibits CYP3A4, we investigated the effects of juices,
      prepared from individual vegetables, on CYP3A4 activity using recombinant CYP3A4
      and LS180 cells in this study. Nine vegetable juices (cabbage, Japanese radish,
      onion, tomato, eggplant, carrot, Chinese cabbage, green pepper, and lettuce),
      were prepared and recombinant CYP3A4 and LS180 cells were used for evaluation of
      CYP3A4 activity. Metabolism to 6beta-hydroxytestosterone by recombinant CYP3A4
      was strongly inhibited by cabbage, onion, and green pepper juices, and cabbage
      and green pepper juices significantly inhibited CYP3A4 activity in a
      preincubation time-dependent manner. In addition, CYP3A4 activity in LS180 cells
      was significantly inhibited by cabbage and onion juices. In conclusion, this
      study showed that juices prepared from some individual vegetables could
      significantly inhibit CYP3A4 activity. Therefore, variation in the daily intake
      of vegetables such as cabbage and onion may be one of the factors responsible for
      individual differences in intestinal bioavailability.

PMID- 28867738
TI  - Characterization of beta-Estradiol 3-Glucuronidation in Rat Brain.
AB  - beta-Estradiol is conjugated by uridine 5'-diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase
      (UGT) 1A to 3-glucuronide in the human liver. UGT1A has been found in the brain;
      therefore, UGT1A may be involved in beta-estradiol 3-glucuronidation in the
      brain. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the beta-estradiol 3
      glucuronidation reaction in the rat brain. beta-Estradiol 3-glucuronidation was
      detected in eight rat brain regions (cerebellum, frontal cortex, parietal cortex,
      piriform cortex, hippocampus, medulla oblongata, striatum, and thalamus). beta
      Estradiol 3-glucuronidation in the cerebellum was fitted to the Hill equation
      (S50=8.0 uM, n=1.1). In inhibition experiments, beta-estradiol 3-glucuronidation
      was inhibited to 73.6% in the cerebellum by 50 uM bilirubin, whereas it was
      reduced to 20.5% with 5 uM bilirubin in the liver. Unlike in the liver, Ugt1a1
      may not be the main isoform catalyzing this glucuronidation in the brain.
      Serotonin and acetaminophen at 10 mM inhibited glucuronidation to 1.17 and 25.5%,
      respectively, in the cerebellum. In induction experiments, the administration of
      beta-naphthoflavone, carbamazepine, and phenobarbital did not increase beta
      estradiol 3-glucuronidation in the brain except for phenobarbital in the
      striatum. In addition, beta-estradiol 3-glucuronidation was not correlated with
      serotonin or acetaminophen glucuronidation in the brain, suggesting that Ugt1a6
      and Ugt1a7 are not major isoforms of beta-estradiol 3-glucuronidation in the rat
      brain. In the present study, although we were unable to identify the isoform
      responsible for beta-estradiol 3-glucuronidation, we confirmed that beta
      estradiol could be metabolized to glucuronide in the brain under a different
      metabolic profile from that in the liver.

PMID- 28867743
TI  - Effects of Capsaicin Coadministered with Eicosapentaenoic Acid on Obesity-Related
      Dysregulation in High-Fat-Fed Mice.
AB  - Obesity-induced inflammation contributes to the development of metabolic
      disorders such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and
      cardiovascular disease. In this study, we investigated whether the combination of
      eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and capsaicin could protect against high-fat diet
      (HFD)-induced obesity and related metabolic disorders. The experiments were
      performed using male C57BL/6J mice that were fed one of the following diets for
      10 weeks: standard chow (5.3% fat content) (normal group), a HFD (32.0% fat
      content) (HFD group), or a HFD supplemented with either 4% (w/w) EPA (EPA group)
      or a combination of 4% (w/w) EPA and 0.01% (w/w) capsaicin (EPA+Cap group). Our
      results indicated that the body, fat and liver tissue weights and levels of serum
      glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase were
      significantly higher in HFD group mice than in normal group mice (p<0.05 in all
      cases). However, the body and fat tissue weights and serum glucose levels and
      homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance were significantly lower in
      EPA+Cap group mice group than in HFD and EPA group mice (p<0.05 in all cases).
      Thus, our study suggests that the combination of EPA and capsaicin might be
      beneficial for delaying the progression of obesity-related metabolic
      dysregulation and subsequent complications.

PMID- 28867744
TI  - Limited Azithromycin Localization to Rabbit Meibomian Glands Revealed by LC-MS
      Based Bioanalysis and DESI Imaging.
AB  - Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is the leading cause of dry eye, and although
      it affects approximately 4% of the population, treatment options remain limited.
      Topical azithromycin is one of the most promising pharmacological agents because
      of its multiple mechanisms of action and long sustainability. Azithromycin is
      frequently used as an off-label medication in the U.S. However, although
      azithromycin is presumed to act directly on meibomian gland cells, the mechanisms
      of action that contribute to its clinical efficacy remain unclear because no
      studies using a pharmacokinetic approach have been performed. Therefore, we aimed
      to clarify whether topical azithromycin reaches the meibomian glands sufficiently
      to generate a biological effect. We measured azithromycin concentrations in
      rabbit meibomian glands collected using a recently developed method. Moreover, we
      also visualized the azithromycin micro-distribution using desorption electrospray
      ionization (DESI) imaging. Azithromycin concentration in the meibomian glands
      reached only 0.8 ug/g tissue following a single application of a 1% azithromycin
      ophthalmic solution and was 1000-fold lower than the concentration in
      conjunctival epithelium. Similarly, no signal was observed in the meibomian
      glands on DESI images. Our results clearly demonstrated that topical azithromycin
      had limited access to the meibomian glands and was predominantly distributed in
      ocular surface tissues such as the palpebral conjunctiva and lid margins. These
      findings provide new insight into the clinical responses to topical azithromycin
      therapy and will aid in the further development of effective drugs with more
      suitable pharmacokinetic properties.

PMID- 28867745
TI  - Non-toxic Level of Acetaminophen Potentiates Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced
      Hepatotoxicity in Mice.
AB  - A wide range of medications are routinely used to maintain and improve human
      health. Hence, it is essential that we understand and predict adverse effects
      caused by the combined use of multiple medications. In the present study, we
      investigated whether the combination of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and
      acetaminophen (APAP) had a detrimental effect on the liver. Mice injected with
      APAP (100 mg/kg) showed no significant changes in hepatic injury markers (alanine
      aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase), histopathological findings, pro
      inflammatory cytokine levels, or hepatic oxidative stress. In contrast, a single
      injection of CCl4 (15 mg/kg) led to a significant increase in hepatic injury, in
      addition to an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine levels and oxidative stress.
      Co-administration of APAP and CCl4 resulted in exacerbation of these hepatic
      injuries. Our results suggest that a non-toxic dose of APAP has the potential to
      increase CCl4-induced liver damage and oxidative stress.

PMID- 28867746
TI  - Modulation of Unfolded Protein Response by Methylmercury.
AB  - Methylmercury (MeHg) results in cell death through endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      stress. Previously, we reported that MeHg induces S-mercuration at cysteine 383
      or 386 in protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), and this modification induces the
      loss of enzymatic activity. Because PDI is a key enzyme for the maturation of
      nascent protein harboring a disulfide bond, the disruption in PDI function by
      MeHg results in ER stress via the accumulation of misfolded proteins. However,
      the effects of MeHg on unfolded protein response (UPR) sensors and their
      signaling remain unclear. In the present study, we show that UPR is regulated by
      MeHg. We found that MeHg specifically attenuated inositol-requiring enzyme 1alpha
      (IRE1alpha)-x-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) branch, but not the protein kinase RNA
      like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) and activating transcriptional factor 6
      (ATF6) branches. Treatment with GSK2606414, a specific PERK inhibitor,
      significantly inhibited MeHg-induced cell death. These findings suggest that MeHg
      exquisitely regulates UPR signaling involved in cell death.

PMID- 28867747
TI  - Involvement of Carrier-Mediated Transport at the Blood-Cerebrospinal Fluid
      Barrier in Spermine Clearance from Rat Brain.
AB  - Spermine is the end-product in the polyamine biosynthetic pathway, and its excess
      accumulation induces neuroexcitatory responses and neurotoxicity. The purpose of
      this study was to elucidate the involvement of transport systems at the brain
      barriers in the clearance of spermine. In vivo rat spermine elimination from
      brain parenchyma across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF) barrier (BCSFB) was assessed by intracerebral and
      intracerebroventricular administration techniques, respectively. To characterize
      spermine transport at the BCSFB, a transport study using rat choroid plexus was
      performed. After the intracerebral microinjection of [3H]spermine, no time
      dependent decrease in [3H]spermine in the ipsilateral cerebrum was observed,
      suggesting the low contribution of the BBB to spermine clearance from the brain.
      In contrast, the [3H]spermine concentration in the CSF after
      intracerebroventricular administration was time-dependently decreased with an
      elimination rate constant of 0.352 min-1, and the elimination clearance of
      [3H]spermine was 6.6-fold greater than that of [14C]D-mannitol, reflecting bulk
      flow of the CSF. This [3H]spermine elimination was attenuated by co
      administration of unlabeled excess spermine, indicating carrier-mediated
      elimination of spermine from the CSF. [3H]Spermine transport into the choroid
      plexus was strongly inhibited by unlabeled spermine, other polyamines (spermidine
      and putrescine), and organic cation transporter substrates such as corticosterone
      and 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium. However, other substrates/inhibitors for organic
      cation transporters (decynium-22 and tetraethylammonium) had little effect.
      Consequently, our study indicates that transporting molecules at the BCSFB,
      distinct from typical organic cation transporters, are involved in spermine
      clearance from the CSF.

PMID- 28867748
TI  - Higher incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in some regions in the world confers
      for interplay between genetic factors and external stimuli.
AB  - Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a rare variety of head and neck cancers. The
      risk factors include three major causes: genetic factors, viral infection, and
      environmental and dietary factors. The types of NPC show strong ethnic and
      geographic variations. The keratinizing and non-keratinizing types are prevalent
      in the lower incidence regions like North America and Europe; whereas the
      undifferentiated type is mostly found in the regions with higher incidences like
      China, North Africa, Arctic, and Nagaland of North-East India. These suggest a
      possible major role of the internal genetic factors for generation and promotion
      of this disease. Viral infections might accelerate the process of carcinogenesis
      by helping in cellular proliferation and loss of apoptosis. Diet and other
      environmental factors promote these neoplastic processes and further progression
      of the disease occurs.

PMID- 28867749
TI  - Nanoemulsion: A suitable nanodelivery system of clove oil for anesthetizing Nile
      tilapia.
AB  - Clove oil ethanolic solution (CL-EtOH) have always been used for fish anesthesia.
      However, ethanol causes major side effect of fish hypersensivity. In this study,
      clove oil loaded nanoemulsion (CLN) was developed in order to enhance water
      miscibility of clove oil without using ethanol in the preparations. The obtained
      CLN was characterized in terms of droplet size, size distribution expressed as
      polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential. The anesthetic effect of CLN in
      comparison with CL-EtOH on Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia) was investigated.
      The results showed that the best CLN was composed of 20% w/w clove oil and 15%
      w/w polysorbate 20. This CLN has internal droplet size of 63.2 +/- 1.0 nm, PDI of
      0.31 +/- 0.04, and zeta potential of - 30.3 +/- 8.1 mV. GC-MS analysis indicated
      that eugenol was the main compound in clove oil. It was found that the induction
      time to anesthesia for Nile tilapia that received this CLN was shorter than that
      received CL-EtOH at the same eugenol concentration. The results of this study
      showed the potential of nanoemulsion on water miscible and efficacy enhancing of
      clove oil without using ethanol. The obtained CLN from this study is a promising
      formulation for fish aquaculture where fish sedation is required.

PMID- 28867750
TI  - Effects of Alpinia galanga oil on anesthesia and stress reduction in Oreochromis
      niloticus.
AB  - Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia) is one widely cultured fish in Thailand.
      Handling processes and transportation causes high stress in Nile tilapia. This
      study explores anesthetic effect and stress reduction of Alpinia galanga oil
      (AGO) on Nile tilapia. The anesthetic activity was evaluated by the time for fish
      induction to anesthesia and full recovery. It was found that the suitable dose of
      AGO that caused desirable anesthesia of Nile tilapia was 700 mg/L. This dose gave
      induction and recovery times of approximately 257 and 438 sec, respectively.
      Blood glucose and plasma cortisol of the fish anesthetized with AGO showed nearly
      normal levels indicating that the fish stress during handling was not increased.
      Study on loading densities of fish mimicked general fish transportation and
      showed that loading density of fish was a crucial factor on fish stress. The
      highest water quality was found in the lowest loading density of fish. Water
      containing AGO at a concentration of 150 mg/L showed significantly higher
      potential for reducing fish activity and water improvement than without AGO.
      Therefore, AGO is a promising natural edible plant oil for anesthesia in Nile
      tilapia.

PMID- 28867751
TI  - T-786C variation in the promoter sequence of human eNOS gene markedly influences
      its expression level.
AB  - This study investigated the role of the T-786C polymorphism (SNP) in the 5'
      flanking sequence of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene (eNOS) on its
      expression level in vascular endothelium with the ultimate goal of shedding more
      light on the mechanisms by which genetic variations of eNOS might affect the
      vascular level of nitric oxide (NO). Sequences in the 5'-flanking region of eNOS
      gene were PCR-amplified using genomic DNA templates isolated from blood samples
      collected from cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. Two sequence-versions
      carrying the same SNP site were used; a short (345 bp) and an extended one (1,594
      bp), numbered relative to the translational start site. All sequences were cloned
      into a promoter-less vector (pGL3-basic), which carries the firefly luciferase
      gene as a reporter. Genotyping of the T-786C polymorphism was performed using
      Sanger sequencing of the insert region. Luminescence levels were then recorded 24
      48 h after transfecting human endothelial cell line (EA.hy926). Three genotypes
      were identified in the subject samples; TT, TC, or CC. The highest expression
      levels associated with the TT genotype, followed by the TC genotype, then the CC
      genotype. The extended sequence version produced higher expression levels
      compared to the shorter version. Our results provide evidence that the T allele
      at the T-786C SNP site of the eNOS gene results in increased expression of the
      enzyme, and consequently might provide a protective mechanism from CVD. The
      extended promoter sequence of eNOS resulted in higher expression of the gene,
      suggesting the presence of some essential binding sites for transcription
      enhancing proteins.

PMID- 28867752
TI  - Genotyping of CYP2C9 and VKORC1 polymorphisms predicts south Indian patients with
      deep vein thrombosis as fast metabolizers of warfarin/acenocoumarin.
AB  - Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a life-threatening disease. Warfarin and
      acenocoumarol are anticoagulants used to treat DVT and vary among individuals in
      terms of treatment response/toxicity. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in
      CYP2C9 and VKORC1 play a role in the pharmacokinetics and dynamics of warfarin
      and acenocoumarol and they determine the efficacy of treatment by controlling
      drug clearance in treated individuals. The aim of the current study was to
      genotype the critical SNPs of CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genes in a south Indian
      population in order to understand the metabolizer phenotype of patients with DVT.
      CYP2C9 (rs1799853, rs1057910, rs1057909, rs28371686) and VKORC1 (rs9923231) SNPs
      were genotyped in 124 cases of DVT. Genomic regions of these SNPs from genomic
      DNA were amplified with PCR and directly sequenced using Sanger sequencing except
      for the SNP rs1799853, which was detected using Sau96I restriction endonuclease
      based digestion of variant alleles. Among south Indian patients with DVT, 6.5%
      (8/124) had the rs1799853 SNP of CYP2C9 and 11% (14/124) had the rs1057910 SNP
      while 16% (20/124) had the rs9923231 SNP of VKORC1 which were associated with the
      response to warfarin treatment. None of the patients tested positive for poor
      drug metabolizing genotypes of the CYP2C9 gene and only 1.6% of the south Indian
      population was sensitive to warfarin treatment. Genotyping results suggest that a
      relatively greater amount of the therapeutic drug is required to achieve/maintain
      the international normalized ratio (INR) in south Indian patients with DVT.

PMID- 28867754
TI  - Sushi repeat-containing protein X-linked 2 promotes angiogenesis through the
      urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor dependent integrin
      alphavbeta3/focal adhesion kinase pathways.
AB  - Sushi repeat-containing protein X-linked 2 (SRPX2) is a newly identified
      chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan that is markedly elevated in multiple solid
      tumors. It is also suggested that SRPX2 is associated with angiogenesis. A
      conditioned medium of SRPX2 overexpressing colorectal cancer (CRC) cells and
      SRPX2 recombinant protein was used to evaluate the effect of secretory SRPX2 on
      the angiogenesis ability of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and
      the involved molecular mechanisms. It was revealed that the activity of SRPX2 is
      dependent on the urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor and cooperation of
      the integrin alphavbeta3 co-receptor. Subsequent studies showed that both
      PI3K/Akt and Ras/MAPK pathways and phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase is
      involved in the intracellular signaling pathway of SRPX2/uPAR. This study
      suggests that SRPX2 promotes angiogenesis of HUVECs through the cooperation of
      the uPAR and integrin/FAK pathway.

PMID- 28867753
TI  - The alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor positive allosteric modulator
      attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced activation of hippocampal IkappaB and CD11b
      gene expression in mice.
AB  - We have reported that 3a,4,5,9b-tetrahydro-4-(1-naphthalenyl)-3H
      cyclopentan[c]quinoline-8-sulfonamide (TQS), alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine
      receptor (nAChR) positive allosteric modulator (PAM) reduces lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS)-induced hyperalgesia and allodynia in mice. The objective of the present
      study was to determine the effects of TQS on LPS-induced activation of
      hippocampal inhibitor of kappaB (IkappaB) and cluster of differentiation 11b
      (CD11b) gene expression involving hyperalgesia and allodynia in mice. We also
      examined the effects of TQS on microglial phenotype following LPS administration.
      Pretreatment of TQS (4 mg/kg) reduced the expressions of IkappaB and CD11b mRNA.
      Pretreatment of methyllycaconitine (3 mg/kg), an alpha7 nAChR antagonist,
      reversed TQS-induced decrease in IkappaB and CD11b mRNA expressions in the
      hippocampus indicating the involvement of alpha7 nAChR. In addition, TQS (4
      mg/kg) reversed the LPS-induced microglial morphological changes. These results
      suggest that TQS reduces LPS-induced IkappaB and CD11b gene expression and
      microglial activation associated with hyperalgesia and allodynia by targeting
      microglial alpha7 nAChR in the hippocampus.

PMID- 28867755
TI  - Successful treatment of three patients with organizing pneumonia associated with
      rheumatoid arthritis using clarithromycin and prednisolone.
AB  - Macrolides have anti-inflammatory effects and have been used to treat diffuse
      panbronchiolitis, bronchiectasis, and cystic fibrosis. Lately, several cases of
      cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) and radiotherapy-related organizing
      pneumonia (OP) that were successfully treated with macrolides considering their
      anti-inflammatory effects were reported. We report three cases of OP associated
      with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) successfully treated with clarithromycin (CAM) and
      prednisolone (PSL). Case 1: A 70-year-old woman suffering from RA was admitted
      with cough and severe dyspnea. She was diagnosed with OP associated with RA on
      the basis of computed tomography (CT) findings and transbronchial lung biopsy
      results. She was successfully treated with PSL and cyclosporine A. At the
      exacerbation of OP, she was successfully treated with CAM and PSL. Case 2: A 74
      year-old man suffering from COP visited our department with arthralgia and
      articular swellings. He was diagnosed with RA, which was thought to be associated
      with OP. He was successfully treated with CAM and PSL. Case 3: A 54-year-old man
      suffering from RA presented with an exacerbation of arthralgia and articular
      swellings and cough. He was diagnosed with OP associated with RA on the basis of
      CT findings. He was successfully treated with CAM and PSL. The present cases
      suggest that CAM and PSL treatment may be effective in some cases of OP
      associated with RA.

PMID- 28867756
TI  - Successful treatment with clarithromycin and/or tacrolimus for two patients with
      polymyalgia rheumatica.
AB  - Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is an inflammatory rheumatic disease in the elderly.
      Glucocorticoids (GCs) remain the mainstay of treatment. GC therapy usually
      dramatically improves the clinical picture, but approximately one-third of
      patients experience disease recurrence when the dose is reduced. Moreover, long
      term use of GCs causes adverse reactions. Macrolide antibiotics have anti
      inflammatory action. Several recent studies have reported the successful
      treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and PMR treated using clarithromycin
      (CAM), a macrolide, because of its anti-inflammatory action. Tacrolimus (TAC) has
      been indicated as a treatment for RA in patients who failed to respond to
      methotrexate. Recently, a case of RA was successfully treated using CAM and TAC
      according to one report. Reported here are two cases of PMR treated using CAM
      and/or TAC. Case 1: A 73-year-old man suffering from PMR was successfully treated
      with prednisolone (PSL) and CAM. Because his muscle pain disappeared, CAM was
      discontinued. However, the pain returned after that discontinuation, so CAM was
      successfully administered again. Case 2: An 83-year-old man suffering from PMR
      was successfully treated with PSL and CAM. Because muscle pain disappeared, the
      CAM dosage was halved. The pain returned after the dosage was reduced, so the CAM
      dosage was successfully resumed and the PSL dosage was reduced. When the PSL
      dosage was reduced, muscle pain recurred. Because the PSL and CAM dosages were
      not successfully increased, TAC was also administered and was found to be
      effective at treating muscle pain. These two cases suggest that CAM and/or TAC
      are effective at treating PMR.

PMID- 28867757
TI  - Visual field improvement in non-arteritic posterior ischemic optic neuropathy in
      a patient treated with intravenous prostaglandin E1 and steroids.
AB  - Non-arteritic posterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NA-PION) is a disorder of
      reduced blood flow to the retrobulbar optic nerve. There is usually an acute loss
      of visual acuity and field. Previous studies have noted an improvement in visual
      acuity and in ocular and retrobulbar blood flow with the use of a potent
      vasodilator of the microcirculation, prostaglandin E1 (PGE1), and steroids. The
      current report describes immediate improvement in the visual fields and visual
      acuity in a patient with NA-PION treated with intravenous PGE1 and steroids 66
      hours after onset. An 89-year-old white female was first seen in December 2016
      with a sudden loss of vision in the right eye. After a complete eye exam and
      visual fields, the patient was diagnosed with NA-PION. Treatment was immediately
      started with steroids and intravenous PGE1. This was repeated once again the next
      morning. Visual acuity in the right eye improved from 1/10 + 1 to 7/10 + 3 at 5
      days. The mean deviation of the visual field improved from - 7.10 decibels (dB)
      with a central scotoma of - 22 dB to - 2.97 dB with a central scotoma of - 19 dB.
      After 2 weeks, her visual acuity was 7/10 + 1 and visual field testing of the
      right eye revealed a mean deviation of - 2.54 dB with a central scotoma of - 9
      dB. The left eye was unchanged. In cases of NA-PION, PGE1 and steroids should be
      considered to immediately restore blood flow to help improve visual acuity and
      visual fields.

PMID- 28867758
TI  - Catalytic Ethanol Dehydration to Ethylene over Nanocrystalline chi- and gamma
      Al2O3 Catalysts.
AB  - The study is aimed to investigate the combination of nanocrystalline gamma- and
      chi- alumina that displays the attractive chemical and physical properties for
      the catalytic dehydration of ethanol. The correlation between the acid density
      and ethanol conversion was observed. The high acid density apparently results in
      high catalytic activity, especially for the equally mixed gamma- and chi- phase
      alumina (G50C50). In order to obtain a better understanding on how different
      catalysts would affect the ethylene yield, one of the most powerful techniques
      such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed. Hence, the
      different O 1s surface atoms can be identified and divided into three types
      including lattice oxygen (O, 530.7 eV), surface hydroxyl (OH, 532.1 eV) and
      lattice water (H2O, 532.9 eV). It was remarkably found that the large amount of O
      1s surface atoms in lattice water can result in increased ethylene yield. In
      summary, the appearance of metastable chi-alumina structure exhibited better
      catalytic activity and ethylene yield than gamma- alumina. Thus, the introduction
      of metastable chi- alumina structure into gamma- alumina enhanced catalytic
      activity and ethylene yield. As the result, it was found that the G50C50 catalyst
      exhibits the ethylene yield (80%) at the lowest reaction temperature ca. 250
      degrees C among other catalysts.

PMID- 28867759
TI  - Development and Optimization of Orally and Topically Applied Liquid Crystal Drug
      Formulations.
AB  - Liquid crystal (LC)-forming lipids represent an important class of biocompatible
      amphiphiles and their application extends to cosmeceutical, dietary, and
      pharmaceutical technologies. In the present study, we aimed to develop strategies
      for designing and optimizing oral and topical LC formulations by evaluating their
      in vitro and in vivo drug absorption performances. C17-Monoglycerol ester (MGE)
      was used as a LC-forming lipid. p-Amino benzoic acid, methyl PABA, ethyl PABA,
      and sodium fluorescein were selected as drug models with different physiochemical
      properties. Various oral and topical LC formulations were designed based on
      changes in the LC forming lipid contents in the formulations and entrapped with
      different physiochemical properties of the drugs. The LC phase structures were
      evaluated using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The drug-release profiles
      from LC formulations were determined using a dialysis membrane method. In vivo
      oral absorption of LC formulations was conducted in Wistar rats. Furthermore, the
      skin penetration of drugs from LC formulations was investigated by in vitro skin
      permeation studies. As a result, although the release profile was influenced by
      changes in MGE concentration, it was more dramatically influenced by changes in
      the physiochemical properties of the entrapped drugs. Drug absorption after oral
      and topical administration of LC formulations was dramatically affected by the
      concentration of MGE. The concentration of LC-forming lipid and the
      physiochemical properties of entrapped drugs are key issues for good performance
      of the LC formulations in various pharmaceutical applications. The present
      results could enable researchers to manipulate LC formulation approaches intended
      to improve the oral absorption and skin permeation of drugs.

PMID- 28867760
TI  - In vitro Study of Serial Changes to Carmustine Wafers (Gliadel) with MR Imaging
      and Computed Tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: Implantation of carmustine wafers (Gliadel) in vivo is accompanied by
      characteristic serial changes on MRI and CT, such as transient hyperintensity of
      the wafers on T1-weighted images (T1WIs) and considerable gas accumulation in
      surgical resection cavities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate intrinsic
      imaging changes to carmustine wafers in vitro. METHODS: Three phantoms simulating
      a surgical resection cavity were constructed. Each contained either a carmustine
      wafer fixed with oxidized regenerated cellulose and fibrin sealant, an unfixed
      carmustine wafer, or a fixed polyethylene control disk, immersed in phosphate
      buffered saline. Image acquisition of the phantoms was performed on MRI and CT
      until 182 days after construction. The radiological appearances of the object in
      each phantom were assessed by visual evaluation and quantification of the region
      of interest. The volume of gas around the objects at 24 h after constructing the
      phantoms was also measured. RESULTS: The carmustine wafers showed low signal
      intensities on T1WIs and T2-weighted images (T2WIs), and high densities on CT
      images at 24 h. The signal intensities and CT densities gradually approximated
      those of saline over a period of months. However, the carmustine wafers never
      showed hyperintensity on T1WIs in vitro. The fixed carmustine wafer showed slower
      radiological changes, as compared to the unfixed wafer. The gas volume around the
      fixed carmustine wafer was greater than that around the fixed control disk.
      CONCLUSION: Changes to the carmustine wafers probably reflected penetration of
      fluid inside and degradation of the hydrophobic matrix. Reported transient
      hyperintensity of wafers on T1WIs in vivo is regarded as the result of biological
      reactions, whereas the initial production of gas is considered as an intrinsic
      characteristic of wafers.

PMID- 28867762
TI  - Development and Validation of HPLC-DAD and UHPLC-DAD Methods for the Simultaneous
      Determination of Guanylhydrazone Derivatives Employing a Factorial Design.
AB  - Guanylhydrazones are molecules with great pharmacological potential in various
      therapeutic areas, including antitumoral activity. Factorial design is an
      excellent tool in the optimization of a chromatographic method, because it is
      possible quickly change factors such as temperature, mobile phase composition,
      mobile phase pH, column length, among others to establish the optimal conditions
      of analysis. The aim of the present work was to develop and validate a HPLC and
      UHPLC methods for the simultaneous determination of guanylhydrazones with
      anticancer activity employing experimental design. Precise, exact, linear and
      robust HPLC and UHPLC methods were developed and validated for the simultaneous
      quantification of the guanylhydrazones LQM10, LQM14, and LQM17. The UHPLC method
      was more economic, with a four times less solvent consumption, and 20 times less
      injection volume, what allowed better column performance. Comparing the empirical
      approach employed in the HPLC method development to the DoE approach employed in
      the UHPLC method development, we can conclude that the factorial design made the
      method development faster, more practical and rational. This resulted in methods
      that can be employed in the analysis, evaluation and quality control of these new
      synthetic guanylhydrazones.

PMID- 28867761
TI  - SMAD2 Inactivation Inhibits CLDN6 Methylation to Suppress Migration and Invasion
      of Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - The downregulation of tight junction protein CLDN6 promotes breast cancer cell
      migration and invasion; however, the exact mechanism underlying CLDN6
      downregulation remains unclear. CLDN6 silence is associated with DNA
      methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) mediated DNA methylation, and DNMT1 is regulated by
      the transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta)/SMAD pathway. Therefore, we
      hypothesized that TGFbeta/SMAD pathway, specifically SMAD2, may play a critical
      role for CLDN6 downregulation through DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) mediated
      DNA methylation. To test this hypothesis, we blocked the SMAD2 pathway with
      SB431542 in two human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and SKBR-3). Our results
      showed that treatment with SB431542 led to a decrease of DNMT1 expression and the
      binding activity for CLDN6 promoter. The methylation level of CLDN6 promoter was
      decreased, and simultaneously CLDN6 protein expression increased. Upregulation of
      CLDN6 inhibited epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and reduced the
      migration and invasion ability of both MCF-7 and SKBR-3 cells. Furthermore,
      knocked down of CLDN6 abolished SB431542 effects on suppression of EMT associated
      gene expression and inhibition of migration and invasion. Thus, we demonstrated
      that the downregulation of CLDN6 is regulated through promoter methylation by
      DNMT1, which depends on the SMAD2 pathway, and that CLDN6 is a key regulator in
      the SMAD2/DNMT1/CLDN6 pathway to inhibit EMT, migration and invasion of breast
      cancer cells.

PMID- 28867763
TI  - Utilization of Fishery Processing By-Product Squid Pens for alpha-Glucosidase
      Inhibitors Production by Paenibacillus sp.
AB  - The supernatants (the solution part received after centrifugation) of squid pens
      fermented by four species of Paenibacillus showed potent inhibitory activity
      against alpha-glucosidases derived from yeast (79-98%) and rats (76-83%). The
      inhibition of acarbose-a commercial antidiabetic drug, used against yeast and rat
      alpha-glucosidases-was tested for comparison; it showed inhibitory activity of
      64% and 88%, respectively. Other chitinolytic or proteolytic enzyme-producing
      bacterial strains were also used to ferment squid pens, but no inhibition
      activity was detected from the supernatants. Paenibacillus sp. TKU042, the most
      active alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (aGI)-producing strain, was selected to
      determine the optimal cultivation parameters. This bacterium achieved the highest
      aGI productivity (527 ug/mL) when 1% squid pens were used as the sole
      carbon/nitrogen source with a medium volume of 130 mL (initial pH 6.85) in a 250
      mL flask (48% of air head space), at 30  degrees C for 3-4 d. The aGI
      productivity increased 3.1-fold after optimization of the culture conditions.
      Some valuable characteristics of Paenibacillus aGIs were also studied, including
      pH and thermal stability and specific inhibitory activity. These microbial aGIs
      showed efficient inhibition against alpha-glucosidases from rat, yeast, and
      bacteria, but weak inhibition against rice alpha-glucosidase with IC50 values of
      362, 252, 189, and 773 ug/mL, respectively. In particular, these aGIs showed
      highly stable activity over a large pH (2-13) and temperature range (40-100 
      degrees C). Various techniques, including: Diaoin, Octadecylsilane opened
      columns, and preparative HPLC coupled with testing bioactivity resulted in
      isolating a main active compound; this major inhibitor was identified as
      homogentisic acid (HGA). Notably, HGA was confirmed as a new inhibitor, a non
      sugar-based aGI, and as possessing stronger activity than acarbose with IC50, and
      maximum inhibition values of 220 MUg/mL, 95%, and 1510 MUg/mL, 65%, respectively.
      These results suggest that squid pens, an abundant and low-cost fishery
      processing by-product, constitute a viable source for the production of
      antidiabetic materials via fermentation by strains of Paenibacillus. This
      fermented product shows promising applications in diabetes or diabetes related to
      obesity treatment due to their stability, potent bioactivity, and efficient
      inhibition against mammalian enzymes.

PMID- 28867764
TI  - Fluorescent Polymer Incorporating Triazolyl Coumarin Units for Cu2+ Detection via
      Planarization of Ict-Based Fluorophore.
AB  - A novel fluorescent polymer with pendant triazolyl coumarin units was synthesized
      through radical polymerization. The polymer showed reasonable sensitivity and
      selectivity towards Cu2+ in acetonitrile in comparison to other tested metal ions
      with a significant quenching effect on fluorescence and blue shifting in the
      range of 20 nm. The blue shift was assigned to the conformation changes of the
      diethylamino group from the coumarin moiety which led to planarization of the
      triazolyl coumarin units. The possible binding modes for Cu2+ towards the polymer
      were determined through the comparison of the emission responses of the polymer,
      starting vinyl monomer and reference compound, and the triazole ring was
      identified as one of the possible binding sites for Cu2+. The detection limits of
      the polymer and vinyl monomer towards Cu2+ were determined from fluorescence
      titration experiments and a higher sensitivity (35 times) was observed for the
      polymer compared with its starting monomer.

PMID- 28867765
TI  - Breakfast Cereal Consumption and Obesity Risk amongst the Mid-Age Cohort of the
      Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.
AB  - Obesity affects 27.5% of Australian women. Breakfast cereal consumption has been
      proposed to be protective against obesity. This study investigated the
      association of breakfast cereal consumption with the risk of developing obesity
      (Body Mass Index (BMI) >= 30 kg/m2) over 12 years among mid-age participants in
      the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Dietary data were
      obtained at S3 and obesity incidence at S4-S7. Women were excluded if: dietary
      data were incomplete, energy intake was <4500 or >20,000 kJ/day, or they reported
      being overweight or obese at S3. Logistic regressions with discrete time survival
      analysis investigated the association between breakfast cereal intake and
      incident obesity and were adjusted for: area of residency, income, smoking,
      physical activity, hypertension, dietary intakes and a discrete measure of time.
      There were 308 incident cases of obesity. Any breakfast cereal intake was not
      associated with incident obesity (Odds Ratio (OR): 0.92; p = 0.68). Oat-based
      cereal (OR: 0.71; p = 0.01), muesli (OR: 0.57; p = 0.00) and All-Bran (OR: 0.62;
      p = 0.01) intakes were associated with a significant reduction in obesity risk.
      Among this cohort, muesli on its own, or as part of oat-based cereals, and All
      Bran, were associated with a reduction in obesity. This effect may be due to
      particular characteristics of these cereal eaters, but the relationship warrants
      further investigation.

PMID- 28867766
TI  - Impact of Dietary Protein and Gender on Food Reinforcement.
AB  - Recent evidence suggests that increasing dietary protein may alter reward-driven
      eating behavior. However, the link between protein and food reinforcement is not
      known. We sought to determine the extent to which increasing dietary protein
      alters food reinforcement in healthy adults. In a randomized crossover study, 11
      women (age = 25 +/- 7 years; Body Mass Index (BMI) = 21 +/- 2 kg/m2) and 10 men
      (age = 22 +/- 2 years; BMI = 24 +/- 2 kg/m2) consumed normal (15%) and high (30%)
      protein meals. Food reinforcement was assessed using a computer-based choice task
      (operant responding with concurrent log2(x) reinforcement schedules) 4 h after
      lunch. We found that food reinforcement was greater in men than women (p < 0.05)
      and greater for sweet than savory snack foods (p < 0.02). Gender interacted with
      dietary protein level (p = 0.03) and snack food type (p < 0.0001). Specifically,
      we found that increasing dietary protein decreased the reinforcing value of
      savory foods in women. The reinforcing value for sweet foods did not interact
      with dietary protein or gender. These results demonstrate the differential
      effects of dietary protein on the reinforcing value for energy-dense, highly
      palatable snack foods.

PMID- 28867771
TI  - GPS Satellite Orbit Prediction at User End for Real-Time PPP System.
AB  - This paper proposed the high-precision satellite orbit prediction process at the
      user end for the real-time precise point positioning (PPP) system. Firstly, the
      structure of a new real-time PPP system will be briefly introduced in the paper.
      Then, the generation of satellite initial parameters (IP) at the sever end will
      be discussed, which includes the satellite position, velocity, and the solar
      radiation pressure (SRP) parameters for each satellite. After that, the method
      for orbit prediction at the user end, with dynamic models including the Earth's
      gravitational force, lunar gravitational force, solar gravitational force, and
      the SRP, are presented. For numerical integration, both the single-step Runge
      Kutta and multi-step Adams-Bashforth-Moulton integrator methods are implemented.
      Then, the comparison between the predicted orbit and the international global
      navigation satellite system (GNSS) service (IGS) final products are carried out.
      The results show that the prediction accuracy can be maintained for several
      hours, and the average prediction error of the 31 satellites are 0.031, 0.032,
      and 0.033 m for the radial, along-track and cross-track directions over 12 h,
      respectively. Finally, the PPP in both static and kinematic modes are carried out
      to verify the accuracy of the predicted satellite orbit. The average root mean
      square error (RMSE) for the static PPP of the 32 globally distributed IGS
      stations are 0.012, 0.015, and 0.021 m for the north, east, and vertical
      directions, respectively; while the RMSE of the kinematic PPP with the predicted
      orbit are 0.031, 0.069, and 0.167 m in the north, east and vertical directions,
      respectively.

PMID- 28867767
TI  - Arid1b Haploinsufficiency Causes Abnormal Brain Gene Expression and Autism
      Related Behaviors in Mice.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with core
      symptoms that include poor social communication, restricted interests, and
      repetitive behaviors. Several ASD mouse models exhibit impaired social
      interaction, anxiety-like behavior, and elevated perseveration. Large-scale whole
      exome sequencing studies identified many genes putatively associated with ASD.
      Like chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 8 (CHD8), the most frequently
      mutated gene in individuals with ASD, the candidate gene AT-rich interaction
      domain 1B (ARID1B) encodes a chromatin remodeling factor. Arid1b heterozygous
      knockout (hKO) mice exhibited ASD-like traits related to social behavior,
      anxiety, and perseveration, in addition to associated features reported in some
      cases of ASD, such as reduced weight, impaired motor coordination, and
      hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus was present in 5 of 91 hKO mice, while it was not
      observed in wild-type littermates (0 of 188). Genome-wide gene expression
      patterns in Arid1b hKO mice were similar to those in ASD patients and Chd8
      haploinsufficient mice, an ASD model, and to developmental changes in gene
      expression in fast-spiking cells in the mouse brain. Our results suggest that
      Arid1b haploinsufficiency causes ASD-like phenotypes in mice.

PMID- 28867776
TI  - Multi Ray Model for Near-Ground Millimeter Wave Radar.
AB  - A quasi-optical multi-ray model for a short-range millimeter wave radar is
      presented. The model considers multi-path effects emerging while multiple rays
      are scattered from the target and reflected to the radar receiver. Among the
      examined scenarios, the special case of grazing ground reflections is analyzed.
      Such a case becomes relevant when short range anti-collision radars are employed
      in vehicles. Such radars operate at millimeter wavelengths, and are aimed at the
      detection of targets located several tens of meters from the transmitter.
      Reflections from the road are expected to play a role in the received signal
      strength, together with the direct line-of-sight beams illuminated and scattered
      from the target. The model is demonstrated experimentally using radar operating
      in the W-band. Controlled measurements were done to distinguish between several
      scattering target features. The experimental setup was designed to imitate
      vehicle near-ground millimeter wave radars operating in vehicles. A comparison
      between analytical calculations and experimental results is made and discussed.

PMID- 28867773
TI  - Analysis of Differences in Phenology Extracted from the Enhanced Vegetation Index
      and the Leaf Area Index.
AB  - Remote-sensing phenology detection can compensate for deficiencies in field
      observations and has the advantage of capturing the continuous expression of
      phenology on a large scale. However, there is some variability in the results of
      remote-sensing phenology detection derived from different vegetation parameters
      in satellite time-series data. Since the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and the
      leaf area index (LAI) are the most widely used vegetation parameters for remote
      sensing phenology extraction, this paper aims to assess the differences in
      phenological information extracted from EVI and LAI time series and to explore
      whether either index performs well for all vegetation types on a large scale. To
      this end, a GLASS (Global Land Surface Satellite Product)-LAI-based phenology
      product (GLP) was generated using the same algorithm as the MODIS (Moderate
      Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)-EVI phenology product (MLCD) over China
      from 2001 to 2012. The two phenology products were compared in China for
      different vegetation types and evaluated using ground observations. The results
      show that the ratio of missing data is 8.3% for the GLP, which is less than the
      22.8% for the MLCD. The differences between the GLP and the MLCD become stronger
      as the latitude decreases, which also vary among different vegetation types. The
      start of the growing season (SOS) of the GLP is earlier than that of the MLCD in
      most vegetation types, and the end of the growing season (EOS) of the GLP is
      generally later than that of the MLCD. Based on ground observations, it can be
      suggested that the GLP performs better than the MLCD in evergreen needleleaved
      forests and croplands, while the MLCD performs better than the GLP in shrublands
      and grasslands.

PMID- 28867770
TI  - Peri-Urbanism in Globalizing India: A Study of Pollution, Health and Community
      Awareness.
AB  - This paper examines the intersection between environmental pollution and people's
      acknowledgements of, and responses to, health issues in Karhera, a former
      agricultural village situated between the rapidly expanding cities of New Delhi
      (India's capital) and Ghaziabad (an industrial district in Uttar Pradesh). A
      relational place-based view is integrated with an interpretive approach,
      highlighting the significance of place, people's emic experiences, and the
      creation of meaning through social interactions. Research included surveying 1788
      households, in-depth interviews, participatory mapping exercises, and a review of
      media articles on environment, pollution, and health. Karhera experiences both
      domestic pollution, through the use of domestic waste water, or gandapani, for
      vegetable irrigation, and industrial pollution through factories' emissions into
      both the air and water. The paper shows that there is no uniform articulation of
      any environment/health threats associated with gandapani. Some people take
      preventative actions to avoid exposure while others do not acknowledge health
      implications. By contrast, industrial pollution is widely noted and frequently
      commented upon, but little collective action addresses this. The paper explores
      how the characteristics of Karhera, its heterogeneous population, diverse forms
      of environmental pollution, and broader governance processes, limit the potential
      for citizen action against pollution.

PMID- 28867769
TI  - Transgenic Cotton Plants Expressing the HaHR3 Gene Conferred Enhanced Resistance
      to Helicoverpa armigera and Improved Cotton Yield.
AB  - RNA interference (RNAi) has been developed as an efficient technology. RNAi
      insect-resistant transgenic plants expressing double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that is
      ingested into insects to silence target genes can affect the viability of these
      pests or even lead to their death. HaHR3, a molt-regulating transcription factor
      gene, was previously selected as a target expressed in bacteria and tobacco
      plants to control Helicoverpa armigera by RNAi technology. In this work, we
      selected the dsRNA-HaHR3 fragment to silence HaHR3 in cotton bollworm for plant
      mediated-RNAi research. A total of 19 transgenic cotton lines expressing HaHR3
      were successfully cultivated, and seven generated lines were used to perform
      feeding bioassays. Transgenic cotton plants expressing dsHaHR3 were shown to
      induce high larval mortality and deformities of pupation and adult eclosion when
      used to feed the newly hatched larvae, and 3rd and 5th instar larvae of H.
      armigera. Moreover, HaHR3 transgenic cotton also demonstrated an improved cotton
      yield when compared with controls.

PMID- 28867772
TI  - Detection of Tetrodotoxin Shellfish Poisoning (TSP) Toxins and Causative Factors
      in Bivalve Molluscs from the UK.
AB  - Tetrodotoxins (TTXs) are traditionally associated with the occurrence of tropical
      Pufferfish Poisoning. In recent years, however, TTXs have been identified in
      European bivalve mollusc shellfish, resulting in the need to assess prevalence
      and risk to shellfish consumers. Following the previous identification of TTXs in
      shellfish from southern England, this study was designed to assess the wider
      prevalence of TTXs in shellfish from around the coast of the UK. Samples were
      collected between 2014 and 2016 and subjected to analysis using HILIC-MS/MS.
      Results showed the continued presence of toxins in shellfish harvested along the
      coast of southern England, with the maximum concentration of total TTXs reaching
      253 ug/kg. TTX accumulation was detected in Pacific oysters (Crassostreagigas),
      native oysters (Ostreaedulis) common mussels (Mytilusedulis) and hard clams
      (Mercenariamercenaria), but not found in cockles (Cerastodermaedule), razors
      (Ensis species) or scallops (Pectenmaximus). Whilst the highest concentrations
      were quantified in samples harvested during the warmer summer months, TTXs were
      still evident during the winter. An assessment of the potential causative factors
      did not reveal any links with the phytoplankton species Prorocentrumcordatum,
      instead highlighting a greater level of risk in areas of shallow, estuarine
      waters with temperatures above 15  degrees C.

PMID- 28867775
TI  - Remote Marker-Based Tracking for UAV Landing Using Visible-Light Camera Sensor.
AB  - Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are commonly known as drones, have proved
      to be useful not only on the battlefields where manned flight is considered too
      risky or difficult, but also in everyday life purposes such as surveillance,
      monitoring, rescue, unmanned cargo, aerial video, and photography. More advanced
      drones make use of global positioning system (GPS) receivers during the
      navigation and control loop which allows for smart GPS features of drone
      navigation. However, there are problems if the drones operate in heterogeneous
      areas with no GPS signal, so it is important to perform research into the
      development of UAVs with autonomous navigation and landing guidance using
      computer vision. In this research, we determined how to safely land a drone in
      the absence of GPS signals using our remote maker-based tracking algorithm based
      on the visible light camera sensor. The proposed method uses a unique marker
      designed as a tracking target during landing procedures. Experimental results
      show that our method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art object trackers
      in terms of both accuracy and processing time, and we perform test on an embedded
      system in various environments.

PMID- 28867777
TI  - Poverty and Child Behavioral Problems: The Mediating Role of Parenting and
      Parental Well-Being.
AB  - The detrimental impact of poverty on child behavioral problems is well
      established, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship are less well
      known. Using data from the Families in Germany Study on parents and their
      children at ages 9-10 (middle childhood), this study extends previous research by
      examining whether or not and to what extent different parenting styles and
      parents' subjective well-being explain the relationship between poverty and child
      behavior problems. The results show that certain parenting styles, such as
      psychological control, as well as mothers' life satisfaction partially mediate
      the correlation between poverty and child behavioral problems.

PMID- 28867778
TI  - Nurse Perceptions of Artists as Collaborators in Interprofessional Care Teams.
AB  - Increased attention is being given to interprofessional collaboration in
      healthcare, which has been shown to improve patient satisfaction, patient safety,
      healthcare processes, and health outcomes. As the arts and artists are being more
      widely incorporated into healthcare settings throughout the world, professional
      artists are contributing to interprofessional care teams. A secondary directed
      content analysis of interviews with 31 nurses on a medical-surgical care unit
      investigated the roles and impacts of professional artists on the
      interprofessional care team. The investigation utilized established domains of
      interprofessional care, including values and ethics, roles and responsibilities,
      interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork, and created the domain
      of quality of care. Findings suggest that artists are valued by nurses as members
      of the interprofessional care team, that they enhance the provision of patient
      centered care, and that they improve quality of care by providing holistic
      dimensions of caring, including cognitive and social engagement, and meaningful
      interaction. The presence of artists on interprofessional teams provides a cost
      effective and welcome resource for clinical staff and builds a culture in which
      creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration are more highly valued and
      activated.

PMID- 28867774
TI  - Intrachromosomal Rearrangements in Rodents from the Perspective of Comparative
      Region-Specific Painting.
AB  - It has long been hypothesized that chromosomal rearrangements play a central role
      in different evolutionary processes, particularly in speciation and adaptation.
      Interchromosomal rearrangements have been extensively mapped using chromosome
      painting. However, intrachromosomal rearrangements have only been described using
      molecular cytogenetics in a limited number of mammals, including a few rodent
      species. This situation is unfortunate because intrachromosomal rearrangements
      are more abundant than interchromosomal rearrangements and probably contain
      essential phylogenomic information. Significant progress in the detection of
      intrachromosomal rearrangement is now possible, due to recent advances in
      molecular biology and bioinformatics. We investigated the level of
      intrachromosomal rearrangement in the Arvicolinae subfamily, a species-rich taxon
      characterized by very high rate of karyotype evolution. We made a set of region
      specific probes by microdissection for a single syntenic region represented by
      the p-arm of chromosome 1 of Alexandromys oeconomus, and hybridized the probes
      onto the chromosomes of four arvicolines (Microtus agrestis, Microtus arvalis,
      Myodes rutilus, and Dicrostonyx torquatus). These experiments allowed us to show
      the intrachromosomal rearrangements in the subfamily at a significantly higher
      level of resolution than previously described. We found a number of paracentric
      inversions in the karyotypes of M. agrestis and M. rutilus, as well as multiple
      inversions and a centromere shift in the karyotype of M. arvalis. We propose that
      during karyotype evolution, arvicolines underwent a significant number of complex
      intrachromosomal rearrangements that were not previously detected.

PMID- 28867780
TI  - Litter Accumulation and Nutrient Content of Roadside Plant Communities in Sichuan
      Basin, China.
AB  - It is widely recognized that feedbacks exist between plant litter and plant
      community species composition, but this relationship is difficult to interpret
      over heterogeneous conditions typical of modified environments such as roadways.
      Given the need to expedite natural recovery of disturbed areas through
      restoration interventions, we characterized litter accumulation and nutrient
      content (i.e., organic carbon, total N, and P) and quantified their association
      with key plant species. Plant species cover and litter characteristics were
      sampled at 18 successional forest plant communities along major roadways in
      Sichuan Basin, western China. Variation in litter across communities was assessed
      with principal component analysis (PCA) and species with the highest correlation
      to PCA axes were determined with Pearson's r coefficients. Plant communities with
      the longest time since road construction (i.e., 70 years) were distinctly
      different in litter total N and organic carbon compared to plant communities with
      a shorter disturbance history. We encountered 59 plant species across sampling
      plots, but only four rare species (i.e., frequency < 5) were strongly correlated
      with litter characteristics (p < 0.01); none of which were the most abundant
      where they occurred. These results highlight the importance of site-specific
      factors (i.e., geographic location, disturbance age) regulating plant litter
      across heavily disturbed landscapes and how litter characteristics and rare plant
      species are correlated.

PMID- 28867779
TI  - Identification and Analysis of Amygdalin, Neoamygdalin and Amygdalin Amide in
      Different Processed Bitter Almonds by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS and HPLC-DAD.
AB  - Processing is a traditional pharmacy technology based on traditional Chinese
      medicine theory. The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) ingredients should be
      processed before being used as a medicine. Processed bitter almonds are widely
      used in the clinic in TCM for the treatment of cough and asthma. In this work the
      amygdalin profile of three producing areas in China was determined, with respect
      to three differently processed bitter almond products: raw, stir-fried and
      scalded. Identification of the compounds was done by using high performance
      liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC
      ESI-MS/MS). Results indicated that amygdalin, neoamygdalin and amygdalin amide
      were identified in the different processed bitter almonds. Meanwhile, amygdalin
      was used as a standard to calculate the quantification of amygdalin and the
      concentration ratio of neoamygdalin and total amygdalin by HPLC-DAD. The data
      suggested that composition of amygdalin isomers in bitter almonds was influenced
      by the processing method. It also gives a new understanding of the processing
      principle of bitter almonds. Moreover, the classification of different processed
      bitter almonds can be achieved on the basis of amygdalin isomers levels.

PMID- 28867768
TI  - Keratinocyte Differentiation-Dependent Human Papillomavirus Gene Regulation.
AB  - Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) cause diseases ranging from benign warts to
      invasive cancers. HPVs infect epithelial cells and their replication cycle is
      tightly linked with the differentiation process of the infected keratinocyte. The
      normal replication cycle involves an early and a late phase. The early phase
      encompasses viral entry and initial genome replication, stimulation of cell
      division and inhibition of apoptosis in the infected cell. Late events in the HPV
      life cycle include viral genome amplification, virion formation, and release into
      the environment from the surface of the epithelium. The main proteins required at
      the late stage of infection for viral genome amplification include E1, E2, E4 and
      E5. The late proteins L1 and L2 are structural proteins that form the viral
      capsid. Regulation of these late events involves both cellular and viral
      proteins. The late viral mRNAs are expressed from a specific late promoter but
      final late mRNA levels in the infected cell are controlled by splicing,
      polyadenylation, nuclear export and RNA stability. Viral late protein expression
      is also controlled at the level of translation. This review will discuss current
      knowledge of how HPV late gene expression is regulated.

PMID- 28867782
TI  - The Canadian Atlas of Child and Youth Injury: Mobilizing Injury Surveillance Data
      to Launch a National Knowledge Translation Tool.
AB  - Child and youth injury prevention research in Canada has lagged behind other
      Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, despite existing
      surveillance systems and longitudinal data. A critical need to improve access to
      the available data, as well as need to tailor its display and interpretation, was
      identified by injury prevention stakeholders involved in research, policy, and
      practice. The Canadian Atlas of Child and Youth Injury Prevention ("the Atlas")
      was developed to address this need. Following a series of iterative consultation
      meetings and a pilot testing session, the Atlas was scaled up with national data.
      Two testing sessions were held to evaluate the tools. The Atlas is comprised of
      three main components: data, indicators, and visualizations. The accessibility of
      the dashboard is enhanced by customization of data visualizations and data
      outputs to suit the user's needs. Overall feedback indicated that the tools were
      easy to use, and that the interface was intuitive and visually appealing. The
      Canadian Atlas of Child and Youth Injury Prevention provides readily accessible
      information to injury prevention practitioners, policy makers and researchers,
      helping to chart pathways to success in improving the child and youth injury
      prevention system in Canada.

PMID- 28867783
TI  - The Mouse Papillomavirus Infection Model.
AB  - The mouse papillomavirus (MmuPV1) was first reported in 2011 and has since become
      a powerful research tool. Through collective efforts from different groups,
      significant progress has been made in the understanding of molecular,
      virological, and immunological mechanisms of MmuPV1 infections in both
      immunocompromised and immunocompetent hosts. This mouse papillomavirus provides,
      for the first time, the opportunity to study papillomavirus infections in the
      context of a small common laboratory animal for which abundant reagents are
      available and for which many strains exist. The model is a major step forward in
      the study of papillomavirus disease and pathology. In this review, we summarize
      studies using MmuPV1 over the past six years and share our perspectives on the
      value of this unique model system. Specifically, we discuss viral pathogenesis in
      cutaneous and mucosal tissues as well as in different mouse strains, immune
      responses to the virus, and local host-restricted factors that may be involved in
      MmuPV1 infections and associated disease progression.

PMID- 28867786
TI  - Proposal and Evaluation of BLE Discovery Process Based on New Features of
      Bluetooth 5.0.
AB  - The device discovery process is one of the most crucial aspects in real
      deployments of sensor networks. Recently, several works have analyzed the topic
      of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device discovery through analytical or simulation
      models limited to version 4.x. Non-connectable and non-scannable undirected
      advertising has been shown to be a reliable alternative for discovering a high
      number of devices in a relatively short time period. However, new features of
      Bluetooth 5.0 allow us to define a variant on the device discovery process, based
      on BLE scannable undirected advertising events, which results in higher
      discovering capacities and also lower power consumption. In order to characterize
      this new device discovery process, we experimentally model the real device
      behavior of BLE scannable undirected advertising events. Non-detection packet
      probability, discovery probability, and discovery latency for a varying number of
      devices and parameters are compared by simulations and experimental measurements.
      We demonstrate that our proposal outperforms previous works, diminishing the
      discovery time and increasing the potential user device density. A mathematical
      model is also developed in order to easily obtain a measure of the potential
      capacity in high density scenarios.

PMID- 28867785
TI  - Patch-Clamp Recording from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived
      Cardiomyocytes: Improving Action Potential Characteristics through Dynamic Clamp.
AB  - Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) hold great
      promise for studying inherited cardiac arrhythmias and developing drug therapies
      to treat such arrhythmias. Unfortunately, until now, action potential (AP)
      measurements in hiPSC-CMs have been hampered by the virtual absence of the inward
      rectifier potassium current (IK1) in hiPSC-CMs, resulting in spontaneous activity
      and altered function of various depolarising and repolarising membrane currents.
      We assessed whether AP measurements in "ventricular-like" and "atrial-like" hiPSC
      CMs could be improved through a simple, highly reproducible dynamic clamp
      approach to provide these cells with a substantial IK1 (computed in real time
      according to the actual membrane potential and injected through the patch-clamp
      pipette). APs were measured at 1 Hz using perforated patch-clamp methodology,
      both in control cells and in cells treated with all-trans retinoic acid (RA)
      during the differentiation process to increase the number of cells with atrial
      like APs. RA-treated hiPSC-CMs displayed shorter APs than control hiPSC-CMs and
      this phenotype became more prominent upon addition of synthetic IK1 through
      dynamic clamp. Furthermore, the variability of several AP parameters decreased
      upon IK1 injection. Computer simulations with models of ventricular-like and
      atrial-like hiPSC-CMs demonstrated the importance of selecting an appropriate
      synthetic IK1. In conclusion, the dynamic clamp-based approach of IK1 injection
      has broad applicability for detailed AP measurements in hiPSC-CMs.

PMID- 28867781
TI  - Low Docosahexaenoic Acid, Dihomo-Gamma-Linolenic Acid, and Arachidonic Acid
      Levels Associated with Long-Term Mortality in Patients with Acute Decompensated
      Heart Failure in Different Nutritional Statuses.
AB  - The clinical significance of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in acute
      decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in various nutritional statuses remains
      unclear. For this study, we enrolled 267 patients with ADHF admitted to the
      cardiac intensive care unit at Juntendo University hospital between April 2012
      and March 2014. The association between long-term mortality, the geriatric
      nutritional risk index (GNRI), and levels of PUFAs, including eicosapentaenoic
      acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA), and
      arachidonic acid (AA) was investigated. The median age was 73 (64-82) years, and
      mortality was 29% (62 patients). The event-free survival rates for all-cause
      death were higher in patients with high PUFA levels or GNRI than in those with
      low PUFA levels or GNRI (p < 0.05 for all). In particular, high DGLA in the low
      GNRI group and high DHA or AA in the high-GNRI group were associated with high
      event-free survival (p < 0.05 for all). After accounting for confounding
      variables, DHA, DGLA, and AA, but not EPA, were associated with long-term
      mortality (p < 0.01 for all). This study concludes that in patients with ADHF,
      decreased levels of DHA, DGLA, and AA are independently associated with long-term
      mortality in the various nutritional statuses.

PMID- 28867787
TI  - Iodine Intakes of Victorian Schoolchildren Measured Using 24-h Urinary Iodine
      Excretion.
AB  - Mandatory fortification of bread with iodized salt was introduced in Australia in
      2009, and studies using spot urine collections conducted post fortification
      indicate that Australian schoolchildren are now replete. However an accurate
      estimate of daily iodine intake utilizing 24-h urinary iodine excretion (UIE
      MUg/day) has not been reported and compared to the estimated average requirement
      (EAR). This study aimed to assess daily total iodine intake and status of a
      sample of primary schoolchildren using 24-h urine samples. Victorian primary
      school children provided 24-h urine samples between 2011 and 2013, from which
      urinary iodine concentration (UIC, MUg/L) and total iodine excretion (UIE,
      MUg/day) as an estimate of intake was determined. Valid 24-h urine samples were
      provided by 650 children, mean (SD) age 9.3 (1.8) years (n = 359 boys). The mean
      UIE of 4-8 and 9-13 year olds was 94 (48) and 111 (57) MUg/24-h, respectively,
      with 29% and 26% having a UIE below the age-specific EAR. The median (IQR) UIC
      was 124 (83,172) MUg/L, with 36% of participants having a UIC < 100 MUg/L. This
      convenience sample of Victorian schoolchildren were found to be iodine replete,
      based on UIC and estimated iodine intakes derived from 24-h urine collections,
      confirming the findings of the Australian Health Survey.

PMID- 28867790
TI  - Development of Embedded EM Sensors for Estimating Tensile Forces of PSC Girder
      Bridges.
AB  - The tensile force of pre-stressed concrete (PSC) girders is the most important
      factor for managing the stability of PSC bridges. The tensile force is induced
      using pre-stressing (PS) tendons of a PSC girder. Because the PS tendons are
      located inside of the PSC girder, the tensile force cannot be measured after
      construction using conventional NDT (non-destructive testing) methods. To monitor
      the induced tensile force of a PSC girder, an embedded EM (elasto-magnetic)
      sensor was proposed in this study. The PS tendons are made of carbon steel, a
      ferromagnetic material. The magnetic properties of the ferromagnetic specimen are
      changed according to the induced magnetic field, temperature, and induced stress.
      Thus, the tensile force of PS tendons can be estimated by measuring their
      magnetic properties. The EM sensor can measure the magnetic properties of
      ferromagnetic materials in the form of a B (magnetic density)-H (magnetic force)
      loop. To measure the B-H loop of a PS tendon in a PSC girder, the EM sensor
      should be embedded into the PSC girder. The proposed embedded EM sensor can be
      embedded into a PSC girder as a sheath joint by designing screw threads to
      connect with the sheath. To confirm the proposed embedded EM sensors, the
      experimental study was performed using a down-scaled PSC girder model. Two
      specimens were constructed with embedded EM sensors, and three sensors were
      installed in each specimen. The embedded EM sensor could measure the B-H loop of
      PS tendons even if it was located inside concrete, and the area of the B-H loop
      was proportionally decreased according to the increase in tensile force.
      According to the results, the proposed method can be used to estimate the tensile
      force of unrevealed PS tendons.

PMID- 28867788
TI  - High Throughput Identification of Antimicrobial Peptides from Fish
      Gastrointestinal Microbiota.
AB  - Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a group of small peptides, which are secreted
      by almost all creatures in nature. They have been explored in therapeutic and
      agricultural aspects as they are toxic to many bacteria. A considerable amount of
      work has been conducted in analyzing 16S and metagenomics of the gastrointestinal
      (GI) microbiome of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). However, these datasets
      are still untapped resources. In this present study, a homologous search was
      performed to predict AMPs from our newly generated metagenome of grass carp. We
      identified five AMPs with high similarities to previously reported bacterial
      toxins, such as lantibiotic and class II bacteriocins. In addition, we observed
      that the top abundant genus in the GI microbiota of the grass carp was generally
      consistent with the putative AMP-producing strains, which are mainly from
      Lactobacillales. Furthermore, we constructed the phylogenetic relationship of
      these putative AMP-producing bacteria existing in the GI of grass carp and some
      popular commercial probiotics (commonly used for microecologics), demonstrating
      that they are closely related. Thus, these strains have the potential to be
      developed into novel microecologics. In a word, we provide a high-throughput way
      to discover AMPs from fish GI microbiota, which can be developed as alternative
      pathogen antagonists (toxins) for microecologics or probiotic supplements.

PMID- 28867784
TI  - The Complex Interplay between DNA Injury and Repair in Enzymatically Induced
      Mutagenesis and DNA Damage in B Lymphocytes.
AB  - Lymphocytes are endowed with unique and specialized enzymatic mutagenic
      properties that allow them to diversify their antigen receptors, which are
      crucial sensors for pathogens and mediators of adaptive immunity. During
      lymphocyte development, the antigen receptors expressed by B and T lymphocytes
      are assembled in an antigen-independent fashion by ordered variable gene segment
      recombinations (V(D)J recombination), which is a highly ordered and regulated
      process that requires the recombination activating gene products 1 & 2 (RAG1,
      RAG2). Upon activation by antigen, B lymphocytes undergo additional
      diversifications of their immunoglobulin B-cell receptors. Enzymatically induced
      somatic hypermutation (SHM) and immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR)
      improves the affinity for antigen and shape the effector function of the humoral
      immune response, respectively. The activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)
      enzyme is crucial for both SHM and CSR. These processes have evolved to both
      utilize as well as evade different DNA repair and DNA damage response pathways.
      The delicate balance between enzymatic mutagenesis and DNA repair is crucial for
      effective immune responses and the maintenance of genomic integrity. Not
      surprisingly, disturbances in this balance are at the basis of lymphoid
      malignancies by provoking the formation of oncogenic mutations and chromosomal
      aberrations. In this review, we discuss recent mechanistic insight into the
      regulation of RAG1/2 and AID expression and activity in lymphocytes and the
      complex interplay between these mutagenic enzymes and DNA repair and DNA damage
      response pathways, focusing on the base excision repair and mismatch repair
      pathways. We discuss how disturbances of this interplay induce genomic
      instability and contribute to oncogenesis.

PMID- 28867791
TI  - The Non-Linear Relationship between BMI and Health Care Costs and the Resulting
      Cost Fraction Attributable to Obesity.
AB  - This study aims to analyse the non-linear relationship between Body Mass Index
      (BMI) and direct health care costs, and to quantify the resulting cost fraction
      attributable to obesity in Germany. Five cross-sectional surveys of cohort
      studies in southern Germany were pooled, resulting in data of 6757 individuals
      (31-96 years old). Self-reported information on health care utilisation was used
      to estimate direct health care costs for the year 2011. The relationship between
      measured BMI and annual costs was analysed using generalised additive models, and
      the cost fraction attributable to obesity was calculated. We found a non-linear
      association of BMI and health care costs with a continuously increasing slope for
      increasing BMI without any clear threshold. Under the consideration of the non
      linear BMI-cost relationship, a shift in the BMI distribution so that the BMI of
      each individual is lowered by one point is associated with a 2.1% reduction of
      mean direct costs in the population. If obesity was eliminated, and the BMI of
      all obese individuals were lowered to 29.9 kg/m2, this would reduce the mean
      direct costs by 4.0% in the population. Results show a non-linear relationship
      between BMI and health care costs, with very high costs for a few individuals
      with high BMI. This indicates that population-based interventions in combination
      with selective measures for very obese individuals might be the preferred
      strategy.

PMID- 28867789
TI  - Multiple Antibiotic-Resistant, Extended Spectrum-beta-Lactamase (ESBL)-Producing
      Enterobacteria in Fresh Seafood.
AB  - Members of the family Enterobacteriaceae include several human pathogens that can
      be acquired through contaminated food and water. In this study, the incidence of
      extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing enterobacteria was investigated
      in fresh seafood sold in retail markets. The ESBL-positive phenotype was detected
      in 169 (78.60%) isolates, with Escherichia coli being the predominant species
      (53), followed by Klebsiella oxytoca (27), and K. pneumoniae (23). More than 90%
      of the isolates were resistant to third generation cephalosporins, cefotaxime,
      ceftazidime, and cefpodoxime. Sixty-five percent of the isolates were resistant
      to the monobactam drug aztreonam, 40.82% to ertapenem, and 31.36% to meropenem.
      Resistance to at least five antibiotics was observed in 38.46% of the isolates.
      Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analysis of ESBL-encoding genes detected blaCTX,
      blaSHV, and blaTEM genes in 76.92%, 63.3%, and 44.37% of the isolates,
      respectively. Multiple ESBL genes were detected in majority of the isolates. The
      recently discovered New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase gene (blaNDM-1) was detected
      in two ESBL+ isolates. Our study shows that secondary contamination of fresh
      seafood with enteric bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics may implicate
      seafood as a potential carrier of antibiotic resistant bacteria and emphasizes an
      urgent need to prevent environmental contamination and dissemination of such
      bacteria.

PMID- 28867792
TI  - Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitory Activity of Components Isolated from Apios
      americana Medik.
AB  - A new compound 1, 5-methoxy-2,5,7,4'-tetrahydroxy-coumaronochromone, along with
      seven known compounds (2-8), were isolated from Apios americana using open column
      chromatography. Their structures were established based on an analysis of 1D and
      2D NMR, and MS spectra. Among these, two compounds 1 and 2 showed inhibitory
      activity on soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) at a concentration below 50 MUM. The
      respective competitive (1) and mixed (2) inhibitors were revealed to have Ki
      values of 21.0 +/- 0.8 and 14.5 +/- 1.5 MUM, based on the Dixon plot. The
      potential inhibitor (2) was visually presented in a predicted binding pose in the
      receptor by molecular docking. Additionally, molecular dynamics were performed
      for a detailed understanding of their complex by Gromacs 4.6.5 package.

PMID- 28867794
TI  - Understanding Adolescents' Categorisation of Animal Species.
AB  - Categorisations are a means of investigating cognitive maps. The present study,
      for the first time, investigates adolescents' spontaneous categorisation of 34
      animal species. Furthermore, explicit evaluations of 16 selected animals in terms
      of their perceived utility and likeability were analysed. 105 British
      adolescents, 54% female, mean age 14.5 (SD = 1.6) participated in the study.
      Results of multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques indicate 3-dimensional data
      representation regardless of gender or age. Property fittings show that affect
      and perceived utility of animals explain two of the MDS dimensions, and hence
      partly explain adolescents' categorisation. Additionally, hierarchical cluster
      analyses show a differentiation between farm animals, birds, pet animals, and
      wild animals possibly explaining MDS dimension 3. The results suggest that
      utility perceptions predominantly underlie adolescents' categorisations and
      become even more dominant in older adolescents, which potentially has an
      influence on attitudes to animals with implications for animal welfare,
      conservation, and education.

PMID- 28867795
TI  - Development and Validation of a Reproducible and Label-Free Surface Plasmon
      Resonance Immunosensor for Enrofloxacin Detection in Animal-Derived Foods.
AB  - This study describes the development of a reproducible and label-free surface
      plasmon resonance (SPR) immunosensor and its application in the detection of
      harmful enrofloxacin (ENRO) in animal-derived foods. The experimental parameters
      for the immunosensor construction and regeneration, including the pH value (4.5),
      concentration for coating ENRO-ovalbumin conjugate (ENRO-OVA) (100 MUg.mL-1),
      concentration of anti-ENRO antibody (80 nM) and regeneration solution (0.1 mol.L
      1 HCl) were evaluated in detail. With the optimized parameters, the proposed SPR
      immunosensor obtained a good linear response to ENRO with high sensitivity (IC50:
      3.8 ng.mL-1) and low detection limit (IC15: 1.2 ng.mL-1). The proposed SPR
      immunosensor was further validated to have favorable performances for ENRO
      residue detection in typical animal-derived foods after a simple matrix
      pretreatment procedure, as well as acceptable accuracy (recovery: 84.3-96.6%),
      precision (relative standard deviation (n = 3): 1.8-4.6%), and sensitivity (IC15
      <= 8.4 ng.mL-1). Each SPR chip for analysis can be reused at least 100 times with
      good stability and the analysis cycle containing the steps of sample
      uploading/chip regeneration/baseline recovery can be completed within 6 min (one
      cycle) and auto-operated by a predetermined program. These results demonstrated
      that the proposed SPR immunosensor provided an effective strategy for accurate,
      sensitive, and rapid detection for ENRO residue, which has great potential for
      routine analysis of large numbers of samples for measuring different types of
      compounds.

PMID- 28867796
TI  - Evaluating the Tensile Properties of Aluminum Foundry Alloys through Reference
      Castings-A Review.
AB  - The tensile properties of an alloy can be exploited if detrimental defects and
      imperfections of the casting are minimized and the microstructural
      characteristics are optimized through several strategies that involve die design,
      process management and metal treatments. This paper presents an analysis and
      comparison of the salient characteristics of the reference dies proposed in the
      literature, both in the field of pressure and gravity die-casting. The specimens
      produced with these reference dies, called separately poured specimens, are
      effective tools for the evaluation and comparison of the tensile and physical
      behaviors of Al-Si casting alloys. Some of the findings of the present paper have
      been recently developed in the frame of the European StaCast project whose
      results are complemented here with some more recent outcomes and a comprehensive
      analysis and discussion.

PMID- 28867793
TI  - Diet, Gut Microbiome and Epigenetics: Emerging Links with Inflammatory Bowel
      Diseases and Prospects for Management and Prevention.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) represent a growing public health concern due
      to increasing incidence worldwide. The current notion on the pathogenesis of IBD
      is that genetically susceptible individuals develop intolerance to dysregulated
      gut microflora (dysbiosis) and chronic inflammation develops as a result of
      environmental triggers. Among the environmental factors associated with IBD, diet
      plays an important role in modulating the gut microbiome, influencing epigenetic
      changes, and, therefore, could be applied as a therapeutic tool to improve the
      disease course. Nevertheless, the current dietary recommendations for disease
      prevention and management are scarce and have weak evidence. This review
      summarises the current knowledge on the complex interactions between diet,
      microbiome and epigenetics in IBD. Whereas an overabundance of calories and some
      macronutrients increase gut inflammation, several micronutrients have the
      potential to modulate it. Immunonutrition has emerged as a new concept putting
      forward the importance of vitamins such as vitamins A, C, E, and D, folic acid,
      beta carotene and trace elements such as zinc, selenium, manganese and iron.
      However, when assessed in clinical trials, specific micronutrients exerted a
      limited benefit. Beyond nutrients, an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern as a
      complex intervention approach has become popular in recent years. Hence,
      exclusive enteral nutrition in paediatric Crohn's disease is the only nutritional
      intervention currently recommended as a first-line therapy. Other nutritional
      interventions or specific diets including the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD),
      the low fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyol
      (FODMAP) diet and, most recently, the Mediterranean diet have shown strong anti
      inflammatory properties and show promise for improving disease symptoms. More
      work is required to evaluate the role of individual food compounds and complex
      nutritional interventions with the potential to decrease inflammation as a means
      of prevention and management of IBD.

PMID- 28867797
TI  - Flavonoid-Rich Extract of Paulownia fortunei Flowers Attenuates Diet-Induced
      Hyperlipidemia, Hepatic Steatosis and Insulin Resistance in Obesity Mice by AMPK
      Pathway.
AB  - The flavonoid-rich extract from Paulownia fortunei flowers (EPF) has been
      reported to prevent obesity and other lipid metabolism disease. However, the
      mechanism of its protective effects is not yet clear. The objective of this study
      was to investigate molecular factors involved in the hypoglycemic and
      hypolipidemic effects of EPF in obese mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Male h ICR
      (Institute of Cancer Research) mice were fed a HFD containing or not containing
      the EPF (50 or 100 mg/kg) for eight weeks. EPF reduced body weight gain, lipid
      accumulation in livers and levels of lipid, glucose and insulin in plasma as well
      as reduced insulin resistance as compared with the HFD group. EPF significantly
      decreased serum aminotransferase activity of the HFD group. We observed that EPF
      administration significantly increased the level of AMP-activated kinase (AMPK)
      phosphorylation and prevented fat deposits in livers and HepG2 cells, but these
      effects were blocked by compound C (an AMPK inhibitor). The protective effects of
      EPF were probably associated with the decrease in HMGCR, SREBP-1c and FAS
      expressions and the increase in CPT1 and phosphor-IRS-1 expressions. Our results
      suggest that EPF might be a potential natural candidate for the treatment and/or
      prevention of overweight and hepatic and metabolic-related alterations induced by
      HFD.

PMID- 28867798
TI  - Vitamin C Status and Cognitive Function: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Vitamin C plays a role in neuronal differentiation, maturation, myelin formation
      and modulation of the cholinergic, catecholinergic, and glutaminergic systems.
      This review evaluates the link between vitamin C status and cognitive
      performance, in both cognitively intact and impaired individuals. We searched the
      PUBMED, SCOPUS, SciSearch and the Cochrane Library from 1980 to January 2017,
      finding 50 studies, with randomised controlled trials (RCTs, n = 5), prospective
      (n = 24), cross-sectional (n = 17) and case-control (n = 4) studies. Of these, 36
      studies were conducted in healthy participants and 14 on cognitively impaired
      individuals (including Alzheimer's and dementia). Vitamin C status was measured
      using food frequency questionnaires or plasma vitamin C. Cognition was assessed
      using a variety of tests, mostly the Mini-Mental-State-Examination (MMSE). In
      summary, studies demonstrated higher mean vitamin C concentrations in the
      cognitively intact groups of participants compared to cognitively impaired
      groups. No correlation between vitamin C concentrations and MMSE cognitive
      function was apparent in the cognitively impaired individuals. The MMSE was not
      suitable to detect a variance in cognition in the healthy group. Analysis of the
      studies that used a variety of cognitive assessments in the cognitively intact
      was beyond the scope of this review; however, qualitative assessment revealed a
      potential association between plasma vitamin C concentrations and cognition. Due
      to a number of limitations in these studies, further research is needed,
      utilizing plasma vitamin C concentrations and sensitive cognitive assessments
      that are suitable for cognitively intact adults.

PMID- 28867799
TI  - Could Pomegranate Juice Help in the Control of Inflammatory Diseases?
AB  - Fruits rich in polyphenols, such as pomegranates, have been shown to have health
      benefits relating to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Using
      data obtained from PubMed and Scopus, this article provides a brief overview of
      the therapeutic effects of pomegranate on chronic inflammatory diseases (CID)
      such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), metabolic
      and cardiovascular disorders, and other inflammatory-associated conditions, with
      an emphasis on fruit-derived juices. Most studies regarding the effects of
      pomegranate juice have focused on its ability to treat prostate cancer, diabetes,
      and atherosclerosis. However, pomegranate juice has shown therapeutic potential
      for many other illnesses. For instance, a small number of human clinical trials
      have highlighted the positive effects of pomegranate juice and extract
      consumption on cardiovascular health. The beneficial effects of pomegranate
      components have also been observed in animal models for respiratory diseases, RA,
      neurodegenerative disease, and hyperlipidaemia. Furthermore, there exists strong
      evidence from rodent models suggesting that pomegranate juice can be used to
      effectively treat IBD, and as an anti-inflammatory agent to treat CID. The
      effects of pomegranate intake should be further investigated by conducting larger
      and more well-defined human trials.

PMID- 28867800
TI  - Ciguatoxins Evoke Potent CGRP Release by Activation of Voltage-Gated Sodium
      Channel Subtypes NaV1.9, NaV1.7 and NaV1.1.
AB  - Ciguatoxins (CTXs) are marine toxins that cause ciguatera fish poisoning, a
      debilitating disease dominated by sensory and neurological disturbances that
      include cold allodynia and various painful symptoms as well as long-lasting
      pruritus. Although CTXs are known as the most potent mammalian sodium channel
      activator toxins, the etiology of many of its neurosensory symptoms remains
      unresolved. We recently described that local application of 1 nM Pacific
      Ciguatoxin-1 (P-CTX-1) into the skin of human subjects induces a long-lasting,
      painful axon reflex flare and that CTXs are particularly effective in releasing
      calcitonin-gene related peptide (CGRP) from nerve terminals. In this study, we
      used mouse and rat skin preparations and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays
      (ELISA) to study the molecular mechanism by which P-CTX-1 induces CGRP release.
      We show that P-CTX-1 induces CGRP release more effectively in mouse as compared
      to rat skin, exhibiting EC50 concentrations in the low nanomolar range. P-CTX-1
      induced CGRP release from skin is dependent on extracellular calcium and sodium,
      but independent from the activation of various thermosensory transient receptor
      potential (TRP) ion channels. In contrast, lidocaine and tetrodotoxin (TTX)
      reduce CGRP release by 53-75%, with the remaining fraction involving L-type and T
      type voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC). Using transgenic mice, we revealed
      that the TTX-resistant voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) NaV1.9, but not NaV1.8
      or NaV1.7 alone and the combined activation of the TTX-sensitive VGSC subtypes
      NaV1.7 and NaV1.1 carry the largest part of the P-CTX-1-caused CGRP release of
      42% and 34%, respectively. Given the contribution of CGRP to nociceptive and itch
      sensing pathways, our findings contribute to a better understanding of sensory
      symptoms of acute and chronic ciguatera that may help in the identification of
      potential therapeutics.

PMID- 28867801
TI  - An Unusual Dimeric Inhibitor of Acetylcholinesterase: Cooperative Binding of
      Crystal Violet.
AB  - Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is an essential enzyme that terminates cholinergic
      transmission by a rapid hydrolysis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. AChE is
      an important target for treatment of various cholinergic deficiencies, including
      Alzheimer's disease and myasthenia gravis. In a previous high throughput
      screening campaign, we identified the dye crystal violet (CV) as an inhibitor of
      AChE. Herein, we show that CV displays a significant cooperativity for binding to
      AChE, and the molecular basis for this observation has been investigated by X-ray
      crystallography. Two monomers of CV bind to residues at the entrance of the
      active site gorge of the enzyme. Notably, the two CV molecules have extensive
      intermolecular contacts with each other and with AChE. Computational analyses
      show that the observed CV dimer is not stable in solution, suggesting the
      sequential binding of two monomers. Guided by the structural analysis, we
      designed a set of single site substitutions, and investigated their effect on the
      binding of CV. Only moderate effects on the binding and the cooperativity were
      observed, suggesting a robustness in the interaction between CV and AChE. Taken
      together, we propose that the dimeric cooperative binding is due to a rare
      combination of chemical and structural properties of both CV and the AChE
      molecule itself.

PMID- 28867803
TI  - Palladium-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Coupling: An Efficient Synthetic Strategy for
      the Construction of the Quinoline Core.
AB  - Palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling is an efficient synthetic strategy
      for the construction of quinoline scaffolds, a privileged structure and prevalent
      motif in many natural and biologically active products, in particular in marine
      alkaloids. Thus, quinolines and 1,2-dihydroquinolines can be selectively obtained
      in moderate-to-good yields via intramolecular C-H alkenylation reactions, by
      choosing the reaction conditions. This methodology provides a direct method for
      the construction of this type of quinoline through an efficient and atom
      economical procedure, and constitutes significant advance over the existing
      procedures that require preactivated reaction partners.

PMID- 28867804
TI  - FVIIa-sTF and Thrombin Inhibitory Activities of Compounds Isolated from
      Microcystis aeruginosa K-139.
AB  - The rise of bleeding and bleeding complications caused by oral anticoagulant use
      are serious problems nowadays. Strategies that block the initiation step in blood
      coagulation involving activated factor VII-tissue factor (fVIIa-TF) have been
      considered. This study explores toxic Microcystis aeruginosa K-139, from Lake
      Kasumigaura, Ibaraki, Japan, as a promising cyanobacterium for isolation of fVIIa
      sTF inhibitors. M. aeruginosa K-139 underwent reversed-phase solid-phase
      extraction (ODS-SPE) from 20% MeOH to MeOH elution with 40%-MeOH increments,
      which afforded aeruginosin K-139 in the 60% MeOH fraction; micropeptin K-139 and
      microviridin B in the MeOH fraction. Aeruginosin K-139 displayed an fVIIa-sTF
      inhibitory activity of ~166 uM, within a 95% confidence interval. Micropeptin K
      139 inhibited fVIIa-sTF with EC50 10.62 uM, which was more efficient than
      thrombin inhibition of EC50 26.94 uM. The thrombin/fVIIa-sTF ratio of 2.54 in
      micropeptin K-139 is higher than those in 4-amidinophenylmethane sulfonyl
      fluoride (APMSF) and leupeptin, when used as positive controls. This study proves
      that M. aeruginosa K-139 is a new source of fVIIa-sTF inhibitors. It also opens a
      new avenue for micropeptin K-139 and related depsipeptides as fVIIa-sTF
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28867806
TI  - How Stress Treatments Influence the Performance of Biodegradable Poly(Butylene
      Succinate)-Based Copolymers with Thioether Linkages for Food Packaging
      Applications.
AB  - Biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS)-based random copolymers containing
      thioether linkages (P(BSxTDGSy)) of various compositions have been investigated
      and characterized from the gas barrier, thermal, and mechanical point of view,
      after food contact simulants or thermal and photoaging processes. Each stress
      treatment was performed on thin films and the results obtained have been compared
      to the same untreated film, used as a standard. Barrier properties with different
      gases (O2 and CO2) were evaluated, showing that the polymer chemical composition
      strongly influenced the permeability behavior. The relationships between the
      diffusion coefficients (D) and solubility (S) with polymer composition were also
      investigated. The results highlighted a correlation between polymer chemical
      structure and treatment. Gas transmission rate (GTR) mainly depending on the
      performed treatment, as GTR increased with the increase of TDGS co-unit amount.
      Thermal and mechanical tests allowed for the recording of variations in the
      degree of crystallinity and in the tensile properties. An increase in the
      crystallinity degree was recorded after contact with simulant liquids and aging
      treatments, together with a molecular weight decrease, a slight enhancement of
      the elastic modulus and a decrement of the elongation at break, proportional to
      the TDGS co-unit content.

PMID- 28867805
TI  - Cytotoxic Activity of Origanum Vulgare L. on Hepatocellular Carcinoma cell Line
      HepG2 and Evaluation of its Biological Activity.
AB  - The potential of plant essential oils (EOs) in anticancer treatment has recently
      received many research efforts to overcome the development of multidrug
      resistance and their negative side effects. The aims of the current research are
      to study (i) the cytotoxic effect of the crude EO extracted from Origanum vulgare
      subsp hirtum and its main constituents (carvacrol, thymol, citral and limonene)
      on hepatocarcinoma HepG2 and healthy human renal cells HEK293; (ii) the
      antibacterial and phytotoxic activities of the above EO and its main
      constituents. Results showed that cell viability percentage of treated HepG2 by
      EO and its main constituents was significantly decreased when compared to
      untreated cells. The calculated inhibition concentration (IC50) values for HepG2
      were lower than healthy renal cells, indicating the sort of selectivity of the
      studied substances. Citral is not potentially recommended as an anticancer
      therapeutic agent, since there are no significant differences between IC50 values
      against both tested cell lines. Results showed also that oregano EO and its main
      constituents have a significant antibacterial activity and a moderate phytotoxic
      effect. The current research verified that oregano EO and its main constituents
      could be potentially utilized as anticancer therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28867802
TI  - Design of Artificial Riboswitches as Biosensors.
AB  - RNA aptamers readily recognize small organic molecules, polypeptides, as well as
      other nucleic acids in a highly specific manner. Many such aptamers have evolved
      as parts of regulatory systems in nature. Experimental selection techniques such
      as SELEX have been very successful in finding artificial aptamers for a wide
      variety of natural and synthetic ligands. Changes in structure and/or stability
      of aptamers upon ligand binding can propagate through larger RNA constructs and
      cause specific structural changes at distal positions. In turn, these may affect
      transcription, translation, splicing, or binding events. The RNA secondary
      structure model realistically describes both thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of
      RNA structure formation and refolding at a single, consistent level of modelling.
      Thus, this framework allows studying the function of natural riboswitches in
      silico. Moreover, it enables rationally designing artificial switches, combining
      essentially arbitrary sensors with a broad choice of read-out systems.
      Eventually, this approach sets the stage for constructing versatile biosensors.

PMID- 28867807
TI  - Synthesis of Glycosides by Glycosynthases.
AB  - The many advances in glycoscience have more and more brought to light the crucial
      role of glycosides and glycoconjugates in biological processes. Their major
      influence on the functionality and stability of peptides, cell recognition,
      health and immunity and many other processes throughout biology has increased the
      demand for simple synthetic methods allowing the defined syntheses of target
      glycosides. Additional interest in glycoside synthesis has arisen with the
      prospect of producing sustainable materials from these abundant polymers.
      Enzymatic synthesis has proven itself to be a promising alternative to the
      laborious chemical synthesis of glycosides by avoiding the necessity of numerous
      protecting group strategies. Among the biocatalytic strategies, glycosynthases,
      genetically engineered glycosidases void of hydrolytic activity, have gained much
      interest in recent years, enabling not only the selective synthesis of small
      glycosides and glycoconjugates, but also the production of highly functionalized
      polysaccharides. This review provides a detailed overview over the glycosylation
      possibilities of the variety of glycosynthases produced until now, focusing on
      the transfer of the most common glucosyl-, galactosyl-, xylosyl-, mannosyl-,
      fucosyl-residues and of whole glycan blocks by the different glycosynthase enzyme
      variants.

PMID- 28867808
TI  - Approaches for Studying Autophagy in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy) is an intracellular
      degradative process, well conserved among eukaryotes. By engulfing cytoplasmic
      constituents into the autophagosome for degradation, this process is involved in
      the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Autophagy induction triggers the
      formation of a cup-shaped double membrane structure, the phagophore, which
      progressively elongates and encloses materials to be removed. This double
      membrane vesicle, which is called an autophagosome, fuses with lysosome and forms
      the autolysosome. The inner membrane of the autophagosome, along with engulfed
      compounds, are degraded by lysosomal enzymes, which enables the recycling of
      carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleotides, and lipids. In response to various
      factors, autophagy can be induced for non-selective degradation of bulk
      cytoplasm. Autophagy is also able to selectively target cargoes and organelles
      such as mitochondria or peroxisome, functioning as a quality control system. The
      modification of autophagy flux is involved in developmental processes such as
      resistance to stress conditions, aging, cell death, and multiple pathologies. So,
      the use of animal models is essential for understanding these processes in the
      context of different cell types throughout the entire lifespan. For almost 15
      years, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has emerged as a powerful model to
      analyze autophagy in physiological or pathological contexts. This review presents
      a rapid overview of physiological processes involving autophagy in Caenorhabditis
      elegans, the different assays used to monitor autophagy, their drawbacks, and
      specific tools for the analyses of selective autophagy.

PMID- 28867809
TI  - Revisiting the Latency of Uridine Diphosphate-Glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs)-How
      Does the Endoplasmic Reticulum Membrane Influence Their Function?
AB  - Uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) are phase 2 conjugation
      enzymes mainly located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of the liver and many
      other tissues, and can be recovered in artificial ER membrane preparations
      (microsomes). They catalyze glucuronidation reactions in various aglycone
      substrates, contributing significantly to the body's chemical defense mechanism.
      There has been controversy over the last 50 years in the UGT field with respect
      to the explanation for the phenomenon of latency: full UGT activity revealed by
      chemical or physical disruption of the microsomal membrane. Because latency can
      lead to inaccurate measurements of UGT activity in vitro, and subsequent
      underprediction of drug clearance in vivo, it is important to understand the
      mechanisms behind this phenomenon. Three major hypotheses have been advanced to
      explain UGT latency: compartmentation, conformation, and adenine nucleotide
      inhibition. In this review, we discuss the evidence behind each hypothesis in
      depth, and suggest some additional studies that may reveal more information on
      this intriguing phenomenon.

PMID- 28867810
TI  - Longitudinal Study-Based Dementia Prediction for Public Health.
AB  - The issue of public health in Korea has attracted significant attention given the
      aging of the country's population, which has created many types of social
      problems. The approach proposed in this article aims to address dementia, one of
      the most significant symptoms of aging and a public health care issue in Korea.
      The Korean National Health Insurance Service Senior Cohort Database contains
      personal medical data of every citizen in Korea. There are many different medical
      history patterns between individuals with dementia and normal controls. The
      approach used in this study involved examination of personal medical history
      features from personal disease history, sociodemographic data, and personal
      health examinations to develop a prediction model. The prediction model used a
      support-vector machine learning technique to perform a 10-fold cross-validation
      analysis. The experimental results demonstrated promising performance (80.9% F
      measure). The proposed approach supported the significant influence of personal
      medical history features during an optimal observation period. It is anticipated
      that a biomedical "big data"-based disease prediction model may assist the
      diagnosis of any disease more correctly.

PMID- 28867812
TI  - Design and Analysis of the Measurement Characteristics of a Bidirectional
      Decoupling Over-Constrained Six-Dimensional Parallel-Mechanism Force Sensor.
AB  - The measurement of large forces and the presence of errors due to dimensional
      coupling are significant challenges for multi-dimensional force sensors. To
      address these challenges, this paper proposes an over-constrained six-dimensional
      force sensor based on a parallel mechanism of steel ball structures as a
      measurement module. The steel ball structure can be subject to rolling friction
      instead of sliding friction, thus reducing the influence of friction. However,
      because the structure can only withstand unidirectional pressure, the application
      of steel balls in a six-dimensional force sensor is difficult. Accordingly, a new
      design of the sensor measurement structure was designed in this study. The static
      equilibrium and displacement compatibility equations of the sensor prototype's
      over-constrained structure were established to obtain the transformation
      function, from which the forces in the measurement branches of the proposed
      sensor were then analytically derived. The sensor's measurement characteristics
      were then analysed through numerical examples. Finally, these measurement
      characteristics were confirmed through calibration and application experiments.
      The measurement accuracy of the proposed sensor was determined to be 1.28%, with
      a maximum coupling error of 1.98%, indicating that the proposed sensor
      successfully overcomes the issues related to steel ball structures and provides
      sufficient accuracy.

PMID- 28867811
TI  - Development and Evaluation of Topical Gabapentin Formulations.
AB  - Topical delivery of gabapentin is desirable to treat peripheral neuropathic pain
      conditions whilst avoiding systemic side effects. To date, reports of topical
      gabapentin delivery in vitro have been variable and dependent on the skin model
      employed, primarily involving rodent and porcine models. In this study a variety
      of topical gabapentin formulations were investigated, including Carbopol(r)
      hydrogels containing various permeation enhancers, and a range of proprietary
      bases including a compounded Lipoderm(r) formulation; furthermore microneedle
      facilitated delivery was used as a positive control. Critically, permeation of
      gabapentin across a human epidermal membrane in vitro was assessed using Franz
      type diffusion cells. Subsequently this data was contextualised within the wider
      scope of the literature. Although reports of topical gabapentin delivery have
      been shown to vary, largely dependent upon the skin model used, this study
      demonstrated that 6% (w/w) gabapentin 0.75% (w/w) Carbopol(r) hydrogels
      containing 5% (w/w) DMSO or 70% (w/w) ethanol and a compounded 10% (w/w)
      gabapentin Lipoderm(r) formulation were able to facilitate permeation of the
      molecule across human skin. Further pre-clinical and clinical studies are
      required to investigate the topical delivery performance and pharmacodynamic
      actions of prospective formulations.

PMID- 28867813
TI  - Application of Dynamic Analysis in Semi-Analytical Finite Element Method.
AB  - Analyses of dynamic responses are significantly important for the design,
      maintenance and rehabilitation of asphalt pavement. In order to evaluate the
      dynamic responses of asphalt pavement under moving loads, a specific
      computational program, SAFEM, was developed based on a semi-analytical finite
      element method. This method is three-dimensional and only requires a two
      dimensional FE discretization by incorporating Fourier series in the third
      dimension. In this paper, the algorithm to apply the dynamic analysis to SAFEM
      was introduced in detail. Asphalt pavement models under moving loads were built
      in the SAFEM and commercial finite element software ABAQUS to verify the accuracy
      and efficiency of the SAFEM. The verification shows that the computational
      accuracy of SAFEM is high enough and its computational time is much shorter than
      ABAQUS. Moreover, experimental verification was carried out and the prediction
      derived from SAFEM is consistent with the measurement. Therefore, the SAFEM is
      feasible to reliably predict the dynamic response of asphalt pavement under
      moving loads, thus proving beneficial to road administration in assessing the
      pavement's state.

PMID- 28867814
TI  - Identification of Potential High-Risk Habitats within the Transmission Reach of
      Oncomelania hupensis after Floods Based on SAR Techniques in a Plane Region in
      China.
AB  - Schistosomiasis japonica is an infectious disease caused by Schistosoma
      japonicum, and it remains endemic in China. Flooding is the main hazard factor,
      as it causes the spread of Oncomelania hupensis, the only intermediate host of
      Schistosoma japonicum, thereby triggering schistosomiasis outbreaks. Based on
      multi-source real-time remote sensing data, we used remote sensing (RS)
      technology, especially synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and geographic information
      system (GIS) techniques to carry out warning research on potential snail habitats
      within the snail dispersal range following flooding. Our research result
      demonstrated: (1) SAR data from Sentinel-1A before and during a flood were used
      to identify submerged areas rapidly and effectively; (2) the likelihood of snail
      survival was positively correlated with the clay proportion, core area standard
      deviation, and ditch length but negatively correlated with the wetness index,
      NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), elevation, woodland area, and
      construction land area; (3) the snail habitats were most abundant near rivers and
      ditches in paddy fields; (4) the rivers and paddy irrigation ditches in the
      submerged areas must be the focused of mitigation efforts following future
      floods.

PMID- 28867815
TI  - Determinants of FDI Localization in China: A County-Level Analysis for the
      Pharmaceutical Industry.
AB  - Foreign direct investments (FDIs) have been widely recognized as a crucial
      feature of the Chinese industrial development process. Over the past decades,
      China has been attracting huge amounts of inward FDIs as a consequence of both
      spontaneous market dynamics and place-based preferential policies at the sub
      national level. However, the Chinese market exhibits large dissimilarities in
      terms of FDI localization across territories that are worth investigating at a
      more disaggregated level. In this regards, our study explores the determinants of
      attraction of inward FDIs in China, at the county level. It focuses on the
      pharmaceutical industry and attempts to assess whether factors related to
      location advantages, agglomeration dynamics, information cost effects and
      environmental regulation costs affect foreign firms' localization choices as well
      as invested amounts in that location. By means of discrete choice models, our
      paper confirms the findings of the prevalent literature about the positive
      effects of location advantages on pharmaceutical FDI attraction. Different from
      our expectations, a higher proportion of foreign enterprises do not stimulate
      significant effects on FDI localization, while preferential policies and sectoral
      agglomeration are positively correlated with the localization of pharmaceutical
      foreign firms. Finally, our results suggest that investing firms tend to avoid
      areas with strict environment regulation.

PMID- 28867816
TI  - Dairy Product Consumption Interacts with Glucokinase (GCK) Gene Polymorphisms
      Associated with Insulin Resistance.
AB  - Dairy product intake and a person's genetic background have been reported to be
      associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). The objective of this study
      was to examine the interaction between dairy products and genes related to T2D on
      glucose-insulin homeostasis parameters. A validated food frequency questionnaire,
      fasting blood samples, and glucokinase (GCK) genotypes were analyzed in 210
      healthy participants. An interaction between rs1799884 in GCK and dairy intake on
      the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance was identified. Secondly,
      human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) were grown in a high-glucose medium
      and incubated with either 1-dairy proteins: whey, caseins, and a mixture of whey
      and casein; and 2-four amino acids (AA) or mixtures of AA. The expression of GCK
      related genes insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) and fatty acid synthase (FASN)
      was increased with whey protein isolate or hydrolysate. Individually, leucine
      increased IRS-1 expression, whereas isoleucine and valine decreased FASN
      expression. A branched-chain AA mixture decreased IRS-1 and FASN expression. In
      conclusion, carriers of the A allele for rs1799884 in the GCK gene may benefit
      from a higher intake of dairy products to maintain optimal insulin sensitivity.
      Moreover, the results show that whey proteins affect the expression of genes
      related to glucose metabolism.

PMID- 28867817
TI  - Vesico-Adnexal Fistula Treated with Transurethral Embolization Under Fluoroscopic
      Guidance.
AB  - BACKGROUND Vesico-adnexal fistulae are rare. Potential causes of such fistulae
      include infection, endometriosis, and iatrogenic causes following pelvic
      surgeries. To the best of our knowledge, only 3 cases of vesico-adnexal fistulae
      have been reported, and all these patients were treated surgically by removing
      the involved adnexa, excising the fistulous duct, and suturing the bladder. We
      describe the first case of vesico-adnexal fistula that developed after pelvic
      surgery, and it was successfully treated by transurethral embolization under
      fluoroscopic guidance. CASE REPORT Our patient was a 27-year-old woman with a
      history of hysterectomy. She presented to our institution with urethral discharge
      and a recurrent urinary tract infection. The cystogram showed a fistula tract
      connecting the urinary bladder and left adnexal cystic cavity. She was treated
      conservatively with antibiotics and prolonged Foley catheterization to allow for
      spontaneous closure of the fistula; however, conservative management failed. The
      patient was successfully treated with transurethral embolization of the tract
      under fluoroscopic guidance. CONCLUSIONS In such a rare scenario with limited
      treatment options, interventional radiology offers an alternative minimally
      invasive treatment strategy.

PMID- 28867818
TI  - Knowledge and Awareness of Cervical Cancer, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and HPV
      Vaccine Among HPV-Infected Chinese Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND It is important to understand the knowledge that various groups of a
      population have about cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) and their
      attitudes toward HPV vaccination, as it will ultimately influence their decision
      making for or against the acceptability of vaccines and other preventive methods.
      This study was designed to determine the level of knowledge and awareness about
      cervical cancer, HPV, and the HPV vaccine among Chinese women in Yunnan province.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS A survey was conducted in Yunnan province by the Laboratory
      of Molecular Virology in collaboration with the Yunnan First People's Hospital in
      Feb 2015. A total of 388 women were recruited and asked to participate in a
      questionnaire-based interview that collected information related to their
      awareness and knowledge about: (1) cervical cancer, (2) HPV and HPV vaccine and
      willingness to have their children receive vaccination, and (3) demographic
      characteristics. RESULTS A total of 388 HPV-positive women were included; 300/388
      (73.3%) were Han, and 88/388 (22.7%) were other ethnicities. Overall, 204/388
      (52.6%) of the women were aware of cervical cancer, with a significant difference
      between Han women and women of other ethnic groups (168/388, 56.0% and 36/88,
      40.9%; P=0.015). Overall, 26.5% of the women were aware of the role of HPV in
      cervical cancer; 29.0% of the Han women and 18.2% of women of other ethnic groups
      were aware of this role of HPV (P=0.05). The knowledge that HPV infection leads
      to cervical cancer was higher among Han women (29.0%) compared to women of other
      ethnicities (18.2%). Knowledge about the HPV vaccine was very low in all ethnic
      groups, but the Han women were more willing to allow their children to be
      vaccinated before they become sexually active. A similar difference has also been
      found in women from various regions. CONCLUSIONS Although level of awareness and
      knowledge about cervical cancer was moderate, knowledge and awareness of HPV and
      the HPV vaccine was very low. Targeted communication is very important among
      populations in which knowledge gaps exist in order to promote dialogue about the
      vaccine among patients and their healthcare providers.

PMID- 28867820
TI  - Microbiome: The microbiota maintains oxygen balance in the gut.

PMID- 28867821
TI  - The Exposome: A New Frontier for Education.
AB  - The historic debate of nature vs. nurture has emerged as a central yin-yang of
      contemporary health and disease research. The Human Genome Project provided the
      capability to define the nature of an individual by one's genetic sequence. But
      tools are not available to sequence lifelong exposures (i.e., the nurture of an
      individual). Many believe that nurture has an even greater role than genetics in
      determining lifelong success, health, and well-being. In contemporary
      terminology, the cumulative measure of environmental influences and associated
      biological responses throughout the life span is termed the "exposome." This
      includes all external exposures from the environment, diet, behavior, societal
      influences and infections, and also cumulative biological responses to exposures
      and endogenous processes. Pursuit of a Human Exposome Project is a vision worthy
      of our youth: development of strategies and tools will require the brightest and
      most imaginative. Incorporation of the exposome into education curricula will
      foster discussion, development of interest, improvement of skills, and promotion
      of critical thinking to prepare students for civically engaged lives, ongoing
      study, and future career opportunities. The long-term vision is that sequencing
      the exposome will support better understanding of healthful and harmful lifelong
      exposures and lead to improved opportunity for the health and prosperity of all.

PMID- 28867822
TI  - Detection of Buckminsterfullerene emission in the diffuse interstellar medium.
AB  - Emission of fullerenes in their infrared vibrational bands has been detected in
      space near hot stars. The proposed attribution of the diffuse interstellar bands
      at 9577 and 9632 A to electronic transitions of the buckminsterfullerene cation
      (i.e. [Formula: see text]) was recently supported by new laboratory data,
      confirming the presence of this species in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM).
      In this letter, we present the detection, also in the diffuse ISM, of the 17.4
      and 18.9 MUm emission bands commonly attributed to vibrational bands of neutral
      C60. According to classical models that compute the charge state of large
      molecules in space, C60 is expected to be mostly neutral in the diffuse ISM. This
      is in agreement with the abundances of diffuse C60 we derive here from
      observations. We also find that C60 is less abundant in the diffuse ISM than in
      star-forming regions, supporting the theory that C60 can be formed in these
      regions.

PMID- 28867823
TI  - Studying Sex: A Content Analysis of Sexuality Research in Counseling Psychology.
AB  - Using a sex positive framework, the authors conducted a 61-year (1954-2015)
      content analysis of sexuality research in the flagship counseling psychology
      journals, the Journal of Counseling Psychology and The Counseling Psychologist.
      Given counseling psychology's core strengths- and multiculturalism-related
      values, this study aimed to uncover which human sexuality topics were published
      most, whether publications aligned with a sex positive, neutral, or negative
      discourse, what methodologies were used, and differences in how populations were
      investigated across race. Researchers used an integrative approach to content
      analysis and human coding (Neuendorf, 2011). Results highlighted that out of 188
      articles meeting criteria, a slight majority (38.05%) focused on sexual
      orientation, identity, and minorities topics. Only 4.78% utilized a sex-positive
      perspective. Quantitative and conceptual pieces were most published, and
      publications disproportionately focused on primarily White populations. When
      people of color were included, the discourse was sex negative. Implications for
      research and practice are discussed.

PMID- 28867824
TI  - Faecal-wood biomass co-combustion and ash composition analysis.
AB  - Fuel blending is a widely used approach in biomass combustion, particularly for
      feedstocks with low calorific value and high moisture content. In on-site
      sanitation technologies, fuel blending is proposed as a pre-treatment requirement
      to reduce moisture levels and improve the physiochemical properties of raw faeces
      prior to drying. This study investigates the co-combustion performance of wood
      dust: raw human faeces blends at varying air-to-fuel ratios in a bench-scale
      combustor test rig. It concludes with ash composition analyses and discusses
      their potential application and related problems. The study shows that a 50:50
      wood dust (WD): raw human faeces (FC) can reduce moisture levels in raw human
      faeces by ~40% prior to drying. The minimum acceptable blend for treating moist
      faeces without prior drying at a combustion air flow rate of 14-18 L/min is 30:70
      WD: FC. For self-sustained ignition and flame propagation, the minimum combustion
      temperature required for conversion of the fuel to ash is ~400  degrees C. The
      most abundant elements in faecal ash are potassium and calcium, while elements
      such as nickel, aluminium and iron are in trace quantities. This suggests the
      potential use of faecal ash as a soil conditioner, but increases the tendency for
      fly ash formation and sintering problems.

PMID- 28867819
TI  - Gliding motility powers invasion and egress in Apicomplexa.
AB  - Protozoan parasites have developed elaborate motility systems that facilitate
      infection and dissemination. For example, amoebae use actin-rich membrane
      extensions called pseudopodia, whereas Kinetoplastida are propelled by
      microtubule-containing flagella. By contrast, the motile and invasive stages of
      the Apicomplexa - a phylum that contains the important human pathogens Plasmodium
      falciparum (which causes malaria) and Toxoplasma gondii (which causes
      toxoplasmosis) - have a unique machinery called the glideosome, which is composed
      of an actomyosin system that underlies the plasma membrane. The glideosome
      promotes substrate-dependent gliding motility, which powers migration across
      biological barriers, as well as active host cell entry and egress from infected
      cells. In this Review, we discuss the discovery of the principles that govern
      gliding motility, the characterization of the molecular machinery involved, and
      its impact on parasite invasion and egress from infected cells.

PMID- 28867825
TI  - "Epidemiological Follow-up 15 Years After Presumably False Diagnoses of Breast
      Cancer" - A Statement by the German Senology Society.

PMID- 28867826
TI  - Comment on the Article "Epidemiological Follow-up 15 Years After the Breast
      Cancer Scandal in Essen" (Hauth et al.).

PMID- 28867827
TI  - Application of a Two-Sinker Densimeter for Phase-Equilibrium Measurements: A New
      Technique for the Detection of Dew Points and Measurements on the (Methane +
      Propane) System.
AB  - We explore a novel method for determining the dew-point density and dew-point
      pressure of fluid mixtures and compare it to traditional methods. The (p, rho, T,
      x) behavior of three (methane + propane) mixtures was investigated with a two
      sinker magnetic suspension densimeter over the temperature range of (248.15 to
      293.15) K; the measurements extended from low pressures into the two-phase
      region. The compositions of the gravimetrically prepared mixtures were (0.74977,
      0.50688, and 0.26579) mole fraction methane. We analyzed isothermal data by: (1)
      a "traditional" analysis of the intersection of a virial fit of the (p vs. rho)
      data in the single-phase region with a linear fit of the data in the two-phase
      region; and (2) an analysis of the adsorbed mass on the sinker surfaces. We
      compared these to a traditional isochoric experiment. We conclude that the
      "adsorbed mass" analysis of an isothermal experiment provides an accurate
      determination of the dew-point temperature, pressure, and density. However, a two
      sinker densimeter is required.

PMID- 28867828
TI  - The spectral invariant approximation within canopy radiative transfer to support
      the use of the EPIC/DSCOVR oxygen B-band for monitoring vegetation.
AB  - EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) is a 10-channel spectroradiometer
      onboard DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) spacecraft. In addition to the
      near-infrared (NIR, 780 nm) and the 'red' (680 nm) channels, EPIC also has the O2
      A-band (764+/-0.2 nm) and B-band (687.75+/-0.2 nm). The EPIC Normalized
      Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is defined as the difference between NIR and
      'red' channels normalized to their sum. However, the use of the O2 B-band instead
      of the 'red' channel mitigates the effect of atmosphere on remote sensing of
      surface reflectance because O2 reduces contribution from the radiation scattered
      by the atmosphere. Applying the radiative transfer theory and the spectral
      invariant approximation to EPIC observations, the paper provides supportive
      arguments for using the O2 band instead of the red channel for monitoring
      vegetation dynamics. Our results suggest that the use of the O2 B-band enhances
      the sensitivity of the top-of-atmosphere NDVI to the presence of vegetation.

PMID- 28867830
TI  - Effects of mine strata thermal behavior and mine initial temperatures on mobile
      refuge alternative temperature.
AB  - Federal regulations require the installation of refuge alternatives (RAs) in
      underground coal mines. Mobile RAs have a limited ability to dissipate heat, and
      heat buildup can lead to a life-threatening condition as the RA internal air
      temperature and relative humidity increase. The U.S. National Institute for
      Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) performed heat testing on a 10-person tent
      type training RA and contracted ThermoAnalytics Inc. to develop a validated
      thermal simulation model of the tested RA. The model was used to examine the
      effects of the constant mine strata temperature assumption, initial mine air
      temperature, initial mine strata surface temperature (MSST), initial mine strata
      temperature at depth (MSTD) and mine strata thermal behavior on RA internal air
      temperature using 117 W (400 Btu/h) of sensible heat input per simulated miner.
      For the studied RA, when the mine strata temperature was treated as a constant,
      the final predicted RA internal air temperature was 7.1 degrees C (12.8 degrees
      F) lower than it was when the mine strata thermal behavior was included in the
      model. A 5.6 degrees C (10.0 degrees F) increase in the initial MSST resulted in
      a 3.9 degrees C (7.1 degrees F) increase in the final RA internal air
      temperature, whereas a 5.6 degrees C (10 degrees F) increase in the initial MSTD
      yielded a 1.4 degrees C (2.5 degrees F) increase in the final RA internal air
      temperature. The results indicate that mine strata temperature increases and mine
      strata initial temperatures must be accounted for in the physical testing or
      thermal simulations of RAs.

PMID- 28867829
TI  - pH-Responsive Schizophrenic Diblock Copolymers Prepared by Polymerization-Induced
      Self-Assembly.
AB  - Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is used for the highly convenient and
      efficient preparation of ampholytic diblock copolymer nanoparticles directly in
      acidic aqueous solution. Cationic nanoparticles comprising a protonated polyamine
      stabilizer block and a hydrophobic polyacid core-forming block are formed at pH
      2. Micelle inversion occurs at pH 10 to produce anionic nanoparticles with an
      ionized polyacid stabilizer block and a hydrophobic polyamine core-forming block.
      Macroscopic precipitation occurs at around pH 6-7, which lies close to the
      isoelectric point of this ampholytic diblock copolymer. Incorporation of
      fluorescein and rhodamine dye labels into the acid and amine blocks,
      respectively, leads to dual-color bifluorescent self-reporting pH-responsive
      nanoparticles.

PMID- 28867831
TI  - Quick fixes to improve workers' health: Results using engineering assessment
      technology.
AB  - Personal respirable dust sampling and the evaluation of control technologies have
      been providing exposure information to the mining industry but not necessarily in
      a way that shows how technology can be integrated to provide organizational
      support and resources for workers to mitigate dust sources on site. In response,
      the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) used
      previously developed Helmet-CAM technology to design and engage in a
      behavioral/engineering cooperative intervention to initiate and enhance mine site
      conversations about the risks and potential occurrences of respirable silica dust
      exposures on the job as well as provide impetus and solutions for mitigating
      higher sources of dust. The study involved 48 workers from five mine sites, who
      agreed to participate between April 2015 and September 2016. Using the Helmet-CAM
      in this series of longitudinal interventions revealed several exposure trends in
      respirable silica dust sources and, in many cases, simple quick-fix strategies to
      reduce their sources. This paper focuses on several specific identified sources
      of dust that were elevated but could be reduced through basic engineering fixes,
      low-cost resources, and supportive communication from management to remind and
      engage workers in protective work practices.

PMID- 28867832
TI  - Elderly and technology tools: a fuzzyset qualitative comparative analysis.
AB  - The number of senior citizens is growing globally and governments are striving to
      find innovative solutions to deal with complex care demands of this part of the
      population. Technology has been an answer to this situation; however, it is very
      important that the elderly accept and actually use the technology. This paper
      empirically tests the senior technology acceptance model using the fsQCA method
      to analyse data with a sample of 811 seniors aged 60 and over living in Sweden.
      The results revealed that the necessary conditions for high "perceived ease of
      use" and "perceived usefulness" are gerontechnology self-efficacy,
      gerontechnology anxiety, and cognitive abilities; however, each of these is not
      sufficient on its own. Self-reported health conditions and physical function also
      play a peripheral role in achieving the desired outcome. Theoretical and
      managerial implications are discussed at the end of the paper.

PMID- 28867833
TI  - A recommendation for applied researchers to substantiate the claim that ordinal
      variables are the product of underlying bivariate normal distributions.
AB  - A simulation study was carried out to study the behaviour of the polychoric
      correlation coefficient in data not compliant with the assumption of underlying
      continuous variables. Such data can produce relatively high estimated polychoric
      correlations (in the order of .62). Applied researchers are prone to accept these
      artefacts as input for elaborate modelling (e.g., structural equation models) and
      inferences about reality justified by sheer magnitude of the correlations. In
      order to prevent this questionable research practice, it is recommended that in
      applications of the polychoric correlation coefficient, data is tested with
      goodness-of-fit of the BND, that such statistic is reported in published
      applications, and that the polychoric correlation is not applied when the test is
      significant.

PMID- 28867834
TI  - Estimation of leaf area index and its sunlit portion from DSCOVR EPIC data:
      Theoretical basis.
AB  - This paper presents the theoretical basis of the algorithm designed for the
      generation of leaf area index and diurnal course of its sunlit portion from
      NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard NOAA's Deep Space
      Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). The Look-up-Table (LUT) approach implemented in the
      MODIS operational LAI/FPAR algorithm is adopted. The LUT, which is the heart of
      the approach, has been significantly modified. First, its parameterization
      incorporates the canopy hot spot phenomenon and recent advances in the theory of
      canopy spectral invariants. This allows more accurate decoupling of the
      structural and radiometric components of the measured Bidirectional Reflectance
      Factor (BRF), improves scaling properties of the LUT and consequently simplifies
      adjustments of the algorithm for data spatial resolution and spectral band
      compositions. Second, the stochastic radiative transfer equations are used to
      generate the LUT for all biome types. The equations naturally account for
      radiative effects of the three-dimensional canopy structure on the BRF and allow
      for an accurate discrimination between sunlit and shaded leaf areas. Third, the
      LUT entries are measurable, i.e., they can be independently derived from both
      below canopy measurements of the transmitted and above canopy measurements of
      reflected radiation fields. This feature makes possible direct validation of the
      LUT, facilitates identification of its deficiencies and development of
      refinements. Analyses of field data on canopy structure and leaf optics collected
      at 18 sites in the Hyytiala forest in southern boreal zone in Finland and
      hyperspectral images acquired by the EO-1 Hyperion sensor support the theoretical
      basis.

PMID- 28867835
TI  - Asymmetric Synthesis of All-Carbon Quaternary Spirocycles via a Catalytic
      Enantioselective Allylic Alkylation Strategy.
AB  - Rapid access to enantioenriched spirocycles possessing a 1,4-dicarbonyl moiety
      spanning an all-carbon quaternary stereogenic spirocenter was achieved using a
      masked bromomethyl vinyl ketone reagent. The developed protocol entails an
      enantioselective palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation reaction followed by a
      one-pot unmasking/RCM sequence that provides access to the spirocyclic compounds
      in good yields and selectivities.

PMID- 28867837
TI  - Syphilis screening and treatment: integration with HIV services.

PMID- 28867838
TI  - Addressing vulnerability of pregnant refugees.

PMID- 28867839
TI  - Public health round-up.

PMID- 28867841
TI  - Promoting evidence-based health care in Africa.
AB  - Countries with major public health challenges do not always base their health
      care decisions on the best available scientific evidence. Charles Shey Wiysonge
      tells Fiona Fleck how he and his colleagues are trying to change that.

PMID- 28867840
TI  - Providing family planning services to women in Africa.
AB  - Access to contraceptives in Africa has not increased at the same pace as
      elsewhere in the world. Some African nations are investing in family planning
      services to reduce fertility rates, improve economic development and their
      population's health. Tatum Anderson reports.

PMID- 28867842
TI  - Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and hospitalization of children for pneumonia: a
      time-series analysis, South Africa, 2006-2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of immunization with pneumococcal conjugate
      vaccines on all-cause pneumonia hospitalizations among children in Soweto, South
      Africa. METHODS: We used data collected at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in
      Soweto between 2006 and 2014 - i.e. before and after April 2009, when a
      pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was first included in South Africa's routine
      immunization programme. Using a Bayesian generalized seasonal autoregressive
      moving-average model and the data collected in 2006-2008, we estimated the
      numbers of children that would have been hospitalized for pneumonia between 2010
      and 2014 if no pneumococcal conjugate vaccines had been used. These estimates
      were then compared with the corresponding numbers of hospitalizations observed.
      FINDINGS: Between 2006 and 2014, 26 778 children younger than five years -
      including 3388 known to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -
      were admitted to the study hospital for pneumonia. We estimated that, for the
      children known to be infected with HIV and for the other children, pneumococcal
      conjugate vaccines reduced the numbers of hospitalizations for pneumonia in 2014
      by 33% (50% credible interval, CrI: 6 to 52) and 39% (50% CrI: 24 to 50),
      respectively. In the study hospital in 2012-2014, as a result of immunizations
      with these vaccines, there were an estimated 3100 fewer pneumonia
      hospitalizations of children younger than five years. CONCLUSION: In our study
      hospital, following the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines into the
      national immunization programme, there were significant reductions in pneumonia
      hospitalizations among children.

PMID- 28867844
TI  - A guide to aid the selection of diagnostic tests.
AB  - In recent years, a wide range of diagnostic tests has become available for use in
      resource-constrained settings. Accordingly, a huge number of guidelines,
      performance evaluations and implementation reports have been produced. However,
      this wealth of information is unstructured and of uneven quality, which has made
      it difficult for end-users, such as clinics, laboratories and health ministries,
      to determine which test would be best for improving clinical care and patient
      outcomes in a specific context. This paper outlines a six-step guide to the
      selection and implementation of in vitro diagnostic tests based on Medecins Sans
      Frontieres' practical experience: (i) define the test's purpose; (ii) review the
      market; (iii) ascertain regulatory approval; (iv) determine the test's diagnostic
      accuracy under ideal conditions; (v) determine the test's diagnostic accuracy in
      clinical practice; and (vi) monitor the test's performance in routine use. Gaps
      in the information needed to complete these six steps and gaps in regulatory
      systems are highlighted. Finally, ways of improving the quality of diagnostic
      tests are suggested, such as establishing a model list of essential diagnostics,
      establishing a repository of information on the design of diagnostic studies and
      improving quality control and postmarketing surveillance.

PMID- 28867843
TI  - Estimated economic impact of vaccinations in 73 low- and middle-income countries,
      2001-2020.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the economic impact likely to be achieved by efforts to
      vaccinate against 10 vaccine-preventable diseases between 2001 and 2020 in 73 low
      and middle-income countries largely supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
      METHODS: We used health impact models to estimate the economic impact of
      achieving forecasted coverages for vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae
      type b, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus, Japanese encephalitis, measles,
      Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A, rotavirus, rubella, Streptococcus pneumoniae
      and yellow fever. In comparison with no vaccination, we modelled the costs -
      expressed in 2010 United States dollars (US$) - of averted treatment,
      transportation costs, productivity losses of caregivers and productivity losses
      due to disability and death. We used the value-of-a-life-year method to estimate
      the broader economic and social value of living longer, in better health, as a
      result of immunization. FINDINGS: We estimated that, in the 73 countries,
      vaccinations given between 2001 and 2020 will avert over 20 million deaths and
      save US$ 350 billion in cost of illness. The deaths and disability prevented by
      vaccinations given during the two decades will result in estimated lifelong
      productivity gains totalling US$ 330 billion and US$ 9 billion, respectively.
      Over the lifetimes of the vaccinated cohorts, the same vaccinations will save an
      estimated US$ 5 billion in treatment costs. The broader economic and social value
      of these vaccinations is estimated at US$ 820 billion. CONCLUSION: By preventing
      significant costs and potentially increasing economic productivity among some of
      the world's poorest countries, the impact of immunization goes well beyond
      health.

PMID- 28867845
TI  - A data platform to improve rabies prevention, Sri Lanka.
AB  - PROBLEM: In Sri Lanka, rabies prevention initiatives are hindered by fragmented
      and delayed information-sharing that limits clinicians' ability to follow
      patients and impedes public health surveillance. APPROACH: In a project led by
      the health ministry, we adapted existing technologies to create an electronic
      platform for rabies surveillance. Information is entered by trained clinical
      staff, and both aggregate and individual patient data are visualized in real
      time. An automated short message system (SMS) alerts patients for vaccination
      follow-up appointments and informs public health inspectors about incidents of
      animal bites. LOCAL SETTING: The platform was rolled out in June 2016 in four
      districts of Sri Lanka, linking six rabies clinics, three laboratories and the
      public health inspectorate. RELEVANT CHANGES: Over a 9-month period, 12 121
      animal bites were reported to clinics and entered in the registry. Via secure
      portals, clinicians and public health teams accessed live information on
      treatment and outcomes of patients started on post-exposure prophylaxis (9507) or
      receiving deferred treatment (2614). Laboratories rapidly communicated the
      results of rabies virus tests on dead mammals (328/907 positive). In two pilot
      districts SMS reminders were sent to 1376 (71.2%) of 1933 patients whose contact
      details were available. Daily SMS reports alerted 17 public health inspectors to
      bite incidents in their area for investigation. LESSONS LEARNT: Existing
      technologies in low-resource countries can be harnessed to improve public health
      surveillance. Investment is needed in platform development and training and
      support for front-line staff. Greater public engagement is needed to improve
      completeness of surveillance and treatment.

PMID- 28867846
TI  - Integrated morbidity management for lymphatic filariasis and podoconiosis,
      Ethiopia.
AB  - PROBLEM: Lymphatic filariasis and podoconiosis are the major causes of tropical
      lymphoedema in Ethiopia. The diseases require a similar provision of care, but
      until recently the Ethiopian health system did not integrate the morbidity
      management. APPROACH: To establish health-care services for integrated
      lymphoedema morbidity management, the health ministry and partners used existing
      governmental structures. Integrated disease mapping was done in 659 out of the
      817 districts, to identify endemic districts. To inform resource allocation,
      trained health extension workers carried out integrated disease burden
      assessments in 56 districts with a high clinical burden. To ensure standard
      provision of care, the health ministry developed an integrated lymphatic
      filariasis and podoconiosis morbidity management guideline, containing a
      treatment algorithm and a defined package of care. Experienced professionals on
      lymphoedema management trained government-employed health workers on integrated
      morbidity management. To monitor the integration, an indicator on the number of
      lymphoedema-treated patients was included in the national health management
      information system. LOCAL SETTING: In 2014, only 24% (87) of the 363 health
      facilities surveyed provided lymphatic filariasis services, while 12% (44)
      provided podoconiosis services. RELEVANT CHANGES: To date, 542 health workers
      from 53 health centres in 24 districts have been trained on integrated morbidity
      management. Between July 2013 and June 2016, the national health management
      information system has recorded 46 487 treated patients from 189 districts.
      LESSONS LEARNT: In Ethiopia, an integrated approach for lymphatic filariasis and
      podoconiosis morbidity management was feasible. The processes used could be
      applicable in other settings where these diseases are co-endemic.

PMID- 28867848
TI  - Regulating the stem cell industry: needs and responsibilities.

PMID- 28867847
TI  - Monetary incentives for provision of syphilis screening, Yunnan, China.
AB  - PROBLEM: Early detection of syphilis-infected people followed by effective
      treatment is essential for syphilis prevention and control. APPROACH: Starting in
      2010 the local health authority in Yunnan province, China, developed a network of
      670 service sites for syphilis testing, diagnosis and treatment or for testing
      only with referral for further diagnosis and treatment. Point-of-care tests for
      syphilis and syphilis interventions were integrated into the existing human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and control programme. To improve the
      syphilis services, a pay-for-performance scheme was introduced in which providers
      were paid for testing and treating patients. LOCAL SETTING: Yunnan province is
      the region hardest hit by HIV infection and disproportionately burdened with
      syphilis cases in China. RELEVANT CHANGES: The proportion of attendees at
      voluntary counselling and testing clinics who were tested for syphilis increased
      from 46.2% (32 877/71 162) in 2010 to 98.2% (68 012/69 259) in 2015. Syphilis
      infected cases treated with the recommended therapy increased from 26.6%
      (264/993) in 2010 to 82.5% (453/549) in 2015 at designated testing, diagnosis and
      treatment sites. LESSONS LEARNT: The strategy greatly increased the uptake of
      syphilis testing and treatment among people at risk. Introduction of point-of
      care tests for syphilis increased coverage of the testing services. Introduction
      of a pay-for-performance scheme seemed to motivate health-care providers to
      undertake syphilis intervention services.

PMID- 28867849
TI  - Heavy Metal Uptake by Herbs. V. Metal Accumulation and Physiological Effects
      Induced by Thiuram in Ocimum basilicum L.
AB  - Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is extensively cultivated as either an important
      spice and food additive or a source of essential oil crucial for the production
      of natural phenylpropanoids and terpenoids. It is frequently attacked by fungal
      diseases. The aim of the study was to estimate the impact of thiuram contact time
      on the uptake of manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, and lead by
      Ocimum basilicum L. The relevant plant physiological parameters were also
      investigated. Two farmland soils typical for the Polish rural environment were
      used. Studies involved soil analyses, bioavailable, and total forms for all
      investigated metals, chlorophyll content, and gas exchange. Atomic absorption
      spectrometry was used to determine concentration of all elements. Analysis of
      variance proved hypothesis that thiuram treatment of basil significantly
      influences metal transfer from soil and their concentration in roots and
      aboveground parts. This effect is mostly visible on the 14th day after the
      fungicide administration. Thiuram modifies mycoflora in the rhizosphere zone and
      subsequently affects either metal uptake from the soil environment or their
      further migration within the basil plant. Notable, those changes are more evident
      for basil planted in mineral soil as compared to organic soil with higher
      buffering capacity.

PMID- 28867850
TI  - Audiovisual perceptual learning with multiple speakers.
AB  - One challenge for speech perception is between-speaker variability in the
      acoustic parameters of speech. For example, the same phoneme (e.g. the vowel in
      "cat") may have substantially different acoustic properties when produced by two
      different speakers and yet the listener must be able to interpret these disparate
      stimuli as equivalent. Perceptual tuning, the use of contextual information to
      adjust phonemic representations, may be one mechanism that helps listeners
      overcome obstacles they face due to this variability during speech perception.
      Here we test whether visual contextual cues to speaker identity may facilitate
      the formation and maintenance of distributional representations for individual
      speakers, allowing listeners to adjust phoneme boundaries in a speaker-specific
      manner. We familiarized participants to an audiovisual continuum between /aba/
      and /ada/. During familiarization, the "b-face" mouthed /aba/ when an ambiguous
      token was played, while the "D-face" mouthed /ada/. At test, the same ambiguous
      token was more likely to be identified as /aba/ when paired with a stilled image
      of the "b-face" than with an image of the "D-face." This was not the case in the
      control condition when the two faces were paired equally with the ambiguous
      token. Together, these results suggest that listeners may form speaker-specific
      phonemic representations using facial identity cues.

PMID- 28867851
TI  - Linking pesticides and human health: a geographic information system (GIS) and
      Landsat remote sensing method to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure.
AB  - Accurate pesticide exposure estimation is integral to epidemiologic studies
      elucidating the role of pesticides in human health. Humans can be exposed to
      pesticides via residential proximity to agricultural pesticide applications
      (drift). We present an improved geographic information system (GIS) and remote
      sensing method, the Landsat method, to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure
      through matching pesticide applications to crops classified from temporally
      concurrent Landsat satellite remote sensing images in California. The image
      classification method utilizes Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
      values in a combined maximum likelihood classification and per-field (using
      segments) approach. Pesticide exposure is estimated according to pesticide
      treated crop fields intersecting 500 m buffers around geocoded locations (e.g.,
      residences) in a GIS. Study results demonstrate that the Landsat method can
      improve GIS-based pesticide exposure estimation by matching more pesticide
      applications to crops (especially temporary crops) classified using temporally
      concurrent Landsat images compared to the standard method that relies on
      infrequently updated land use survey (LUS) crop data. The Landsat method can be
      used in epidemiologic studies to reconstruct past individual-level exposure to
      specific pesticides according to where individuals are located.

PMID- 28867852
TI  - Risk and Emotion Among Healthy Volunteers in Clinical Trials.
AB  - Theorized as objective or constructed, risk is recognized as unequally
      distributed across social hierarchies. Yet the process by which social forces
      shape risk and risk emotions remains unknown. The pharmaceutical industry depends
      on healthy individuals to voluntarily test early-stage, investigational drugs in
      exchange for financial compensation. Emblematic of risk in late modernity, Phase
      I testing is a rich site for examining how class and race shape configurations of
      emotion and risk. Using interview data from 178 healthy trial participants, this
      article examines emotion and risk as mutually constituting processes linked to
      biographical context and social structure. Biographical events like economic
      insecurity and incarceration influence how risk is felt by providing comparative
      experiences of felt risk and felt benefits. Such events, in turn, are structured
      by class-based and racial inequalities, linking class and race positions to
      primary emotional experiences of risk.

PMID- 28867854
TI  - Predatory Conferences in the Field of Ayurveda and Alternative Medicine: Need for
      Quality Checks.

PMID- 28867855
TI  - An Open Label, Randomized, Comparative, Parallel Group, Multicenter, Prospective,
      Interventional, Clinical Study to Evaluate Efficacy and Safety of
      "AHPL/AYTOP/0113" in Comparison with "Framycetin Sulphate Cream" in Acute Wounds.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The main objective of the present study was to assess efficacy and
      safety of AHPL/AYTOP/0113 cream, a polyherbal formulation in comparison with
      Framycetin sulphate cream in acute wounds. METHODOLOGY: It was an open label,
      randomized, comparative, parallel group and multi-center clinical study. Total 47
      subjects were randomly assigned to Group-A (AHPL/AYTOP/0113 cream) and 42
      subjects were randomly assigned to Group-B (Framycetin sulphate cream). All the
      subjects were advised to apply study drug, thrice daily for 21 days or up to
      complete wound healing (whichever was earlier). All the subjects were called for
      follow up on days 2, 4, 7, 10, 14, 17 and 21 or up to the day of complete wound
      healing. Data describing quantitative measures are expressed as mean +/- SD.
      Comparison of variables representing categorical data was performed using Chi
      square test. RESULTS: Group-A subjects took significantly less (P < 0.05) i.e.,
      (mean) 7.77 days than (mean) 9.87 days of Group-B subjects for wound healing. At
      the end of the study, statistically significant better (P < 0.05) results were
      observed in Group-A than Group-B in mean wound surface area, wound healing
      parameters and pain associated with wound. Excellent overall efficacy and
      tolerability was observed in subjects of both the groups. No adverse event or
      adverse drug reaction was noted in any subject of both the groups. CONCLUSION:
      AHPL/AYTOP/0113 cream proved to be superior to Framycetin sulphate cream in
      healing of acute wounds.

PMID- 28867853
TI  - Are rash impulsive and reward sensitive traits distinguishable? A test in young
      adults.
AB  - Adolescents and young adults are characterized as prone to risky behavior with a
      wide range of traits identified as predictors of individual differences in this
      behavior. Here we test a crucial difference between traits that reflect rash
      impulsivity, the tendency to engage in risky behavior without consideration of
      consequences, versus reward sensitivity, the tendency to be attracted to novel
      and rewarding experience. To test the validity of this distinction, we examined
      the factorial structure of eight risk-related traits in a sample of 899 18 to 22
      year-olds. We predicted that rash impulsive traits would be separable in
      structure from reward sensitive traits and would uniquely predict relatively
      maladaptive risk-taking (e.g., drug use). In addition, we predicted that reward
      sensitive traits would be related to both adaptive (e.g., entering competitions)
      and maladaptive risk behaviors. Results revealed a factorial structure that
      distinguished these traits, with rash impulsive and reward sensitive traits
      uniquely predictive of different forms of risk-taking. The results suggest that
      it is possible to distinguish traits that reflect these two forms of risk-taking
      with implications for the measurement and interpretation of risk propensities in
      youth.

PMID- 28867856
TI  - Physicochemical Screening and Shelf Life Evaluation of Kunkumadi Ghrta Prepared
      using Kesara and Nagakesara.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Kunkumadi Ghrta (KG) is an Ayurvedic formulation commonly
      recommended in skin disorders, especially Mukhadusika (Acne vulgaris). Kesara
      (stigma of Crocus sativus Linn.) is a prime ingredient in the formulation.
      However, due to high cost and increased adulteration in Kesara, 'Nagakesara'
      (Mesua ferrea Linn.) is suggested by Ayurvedic experts as a substitute.
      Nagakesara is relatively lower in cost and possesses similar therapeutic
      attributes to that of Kesara. Recent studies have established standard
      manufacturing procedures and clinical efficacies of Kesarayukta (with Kesara)
      Kunkumadi Ghrta (KKG) and Nagakesara yukta (with Nagakesara) Kunkumadi Ghrta
      (NKG) in Mukhadusika. In spite of wide utility of KG in Ayurvedic practice, no
      published work on its shelf life is available so far. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To
      establish the physicochemical profile and evaluate the shelf life of KKG and NKG.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total three batches of KKG and NKG each were prepared in
      the laboratory by adopting Ayurvedic classical guidelines and the findings were
      systematically recorded. Comparative differences in organoleptic characters
      (colour, odour, taste, touch) and values of different physicochemical parameters
      (Ash value, pH value, Total solid content, Specific gravity, Refractive index,
      Loss on drying, Acid value, Iodine value, Saponification value, Peroxide value
      and Rancidity tests) of raw materials [herbal ingredients, Go Ghrta, Murcchita
      Ghrta (MG)] as well as finished products (KKG and NKG) were recorded. Long term
      (real time) shelf life testing was carried out at the intervals i.e., at 0, 3, 6,
      9 and 16 months. High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis of
      samples was also carried out. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The average percentage loss
      in final product was 10.18% in KKG and 7.58% in NKG. The shelf life of MG, KKG
      and NKG is 16 months. After 16 months, Go Ghrta showed negative rancidity test,
      while MG, KKG and NKG showed positive rancidity, indicative of onset of
      deterioration after 16 months. Present findings validate the Ayurvedic principles
      stipulating medicated Ghrta to have a shelf life of 16 months. Chromatographic
      study showed few differences between KKG and NKG samples. Data obtained by
      present study may be considered as standard for future researches.

PMID- 28867858
TI  - Evaluation of Cyavanaprasa on Health and Immunity related Parameters in Healthy
      Children: A Two Arm, Randomized, Open Labeled, Prospective, Multicenter, Clinical
      Study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Cyavanaprasa (CP) is an Ayurvedic immune booster formulation that
      confers vigor and vitality while delaying the ageing process. Benefits of CP have
      been studied widely in adult population. OBJECTIVES: Current study assessed
      beneficial effects of CP on health and immunity related parameters in healthy
      children. METHODS: This study was a 6 month long two armed, randomized, open
      labeled, prospective clinical study. School going healthy children between ages
      of 5-12 years were randomized to receive orally daily either CP (approx. 6 g)
      followed by a cup of milk (100 - 200 ml) or cup of milk only twice a day while
      continuing with their normal/routine diet. Results were analyzed based on number
      of episodes, severity, duration of illness (infections and allergies) and number
      of absent days due to illness during the study duration and changes in levels of
      energy, physical fitness, strength, stamina and quality of life in children which
      were recorded in subject diary by their parents/Legally Acceptable Representative
      (LAR). RESULTS: 702 participants were randomized, out of which 627 completed the
      study (CP n = 313; Control n = 314). Results of immunity (episodes of infections
      or allergy related conditions) showed more than 2 times protection from immunity
      related illness in CP Group as compared to the control. CP also showed better
      percentage improvement in energy levels, physical fitness, strength, stamina and
      quality of life assessed through KIDSCREEN QOL-27 questionnaires in children.
      CONCLUSION: Regular consumption of CP for a period of six months could
      significantly improve immunity, energy levels, physical fitness, strength,
      stamina and quality of life in school going healthy children. STUDY REGISTRATION:
      Clinical Trail Registry of India vide CTRI/2015/02/005574, Dated 24 February
      2015.

PMID- 28867857
TI  - Ethnopharmacological based Evaluation of Anogeissus pendula Edgew Extracts for
      Antioxidant and Hepatoprotective Potential.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anogeissus pendula has various reported ethnomedicinal uses and is
      reported to contain phenolic compounds which have antioxidant potential. AIM: The
      present study was undertaken to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant potential and
      in vivo hepatoprotective activity along with the oxidative stress parameters of
      stem bark and leaves of Anogeissus pendula for the first time. SETTINGS AND
      DESIGN: Albino rats were divided into seven groups of six animals each. Healthy
      control (Group I) and toxic control (Group II) received the vehicle. Group III,
      IV, V, VI and VII were treated with silymarin (100 mg/kg body weight, orally) and
      two hydro-alcoholic extracts i.e., APB (stem bark) and APL (leaves) at doses of
      200 and 400 mg/kg b. w., orally, respectively. Hepatotoxicity was induced by
      allyl alcohol. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Albino Wistar rats of either sex between 8
      12 weeks old were used. The plant parts were collected from Sawai Madhopur
      (Rajasthan, India) and extracted with hydro-alcoholic solvent to get two extracts
      i.e., APB (stem bark) and APL (leaves) which were investigated for the in vitro
      antioxidant potential through DPPH radical and H2O2 scavenging assay along with
      in vivo hepatoprotective potential through allyl alcohol induced hepatotoxicity.
      STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Statistical comparisons between different groups were done
      by using one-way ANOVA followed by the Bonferroni test. P < 0.05 was considered
      significant. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: APB showed more potent activity than APL in
      case of in vitro antioxidant potential with IC50 of 44.29 MUg/ml in DPPH radical
      scavenging activity and 53.09 MUg/ml in hydrogen peroxide scavenging assay. Both
      the extracts revealed antioxidant and hepatoprotective potentials in a dose
      dependent manner but more significant results were obtained in case of APB at 400
      mg/kg. More amounts of phytoconstituents might be the reason behind the more
      significant activity of extract of stem bark than that of the leaves.

PMID- 28867859
TI  - Pharmacognostical and Phytochemical Studies of Helleborus niger L Root.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Helleborus niger L (Ranunculaceae) is used Ayurvedic and Unani
      systems and other herbal medicine systems. The roots of H. niger have a good
      medicinal value. AIMS: To conduct a pharmacognostical and phytochemical study of
      H. niger. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The pharmacognostical studies on roots including
      parameters such as taxonomical, macroscopic, microscopic characters, physico
      chemical, ultra-violet analysis and phytochemical studies are established.
      RESULTS: Macroscopically, the roots are brownish-black in colour, cylindrical in
      shape, feeble odour, slightly acrid taste with irregularly branched.
      Microscopically the root showed the presence of epidermis, air-chambers, fissure
      periderm, periderm, inner cortex, pith, phloem, xylem, vessels and xylem vessels.
      Microscopic examination of the powder showed the presence of parenchyma cells,
      parenchyma mass, periderm, cell inclusion, laticifer, lateral wall pith,
      perforation, xylem bundle and xylem elements. Ultra-violet and ordinary light
      analyses with different reagents were conducted to identify the drug in powder
      form. Physico-chemical evaluation established, Ash values - Total, acid
      insoluble, water soluble and sulphated ash values were 7.3%, 4.1%, 3.7% and 5.2%,
      respectively. Extractive values - Alcohol soluble, water soluble and ether
      soluble extractive values were 22.8%, 7.4% and 5.6%, respectively. Loss on drying
      was 3.3%. Preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of
      carbohydrate, glycoside, saponins, flavonoid, phytosterols, tannins and phenolic
      compounds. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study can serve as a valuable resource
      of pharmacognostic and phytochemical information. This will serve as appropriate,
      standards for discovery of this plant material in future investigations and
      applications and also contribute towards establishing pharmacopoeial standards.

PMID- 28867861
TI  - Effect of Integrative Naturopathy and Yoga in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis
      Associated with Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension.
AB  - A 54-year old married woman was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2002,
      essential hypertension in 2008, type-2 diabetes in 2011 and gangrene over 2nd toe
      of right foot. She underwent conventional management in private hospitals. Her
      symptoms, began with moderate to severe pain associated with swelling, stiffness
      (more in the morning) in multiple joints especially over small joints. In July
      2014 she visited our college hospital with the complaints of pain, mild swelling
      and stiffness over multiple joints associated with poor quality of sleep (QOS)
      and quality of life (QOL). Subject received integrative Naturopathy and Yoga
      therapies (INYT) with conventional medicine daily for 10-days. After 10-days,
      improvements in pain, blood sugar, depression, anxiety, stress, QOS, QOL, blood
      analysis with normal blood pressure (BP) was observed. This suggests that INYT
      could be considered as an adjuvant to conventional medicine in RA associated with
      type-2 diabetes and essential hypertension.

PMID- 28867860
TI  - Ayurvedic Management of Recurrent Abortions due to Uterine Fibroid.
AB  - Uterine fibroids are present in 30-70% of women of reproductive age. Uterine
      fibroids distort the uterine cavity. Therefore there is consensus of a negative
      impact on both the clinical pregnancy and delivery rates.[2] In addition, studies
      have also reported an increased risk of spontaneous miscarriage with submucosal
      fibroids. In biomedicine, myomectomy is considered the treatment of choice and
      Assisted Reproductive Technology is advised to overcome infertility. In Harita
      Samhita treatment is given for recurrent abortion (Garbhasravi). In this study,
      considering pitta dosa and altered uterine receptivity (ksetra dusti) as
      causative factors, purgation (virecana karma) was done, enema (yoga basti) was
      given after post purgation protocol (samsarjana karma). After body purification
      (sodhana), garbhasthapaka drugs were given to the patient for one month. Patient
      conceived in the second month with this treatment. In Antenatal Care, haematinics
      and calcium supplements and month wise Ayurvedic medication (Masanumasika kasaya)
      were given for nine months. Elective caesarean section as done after GA 38 weeks
      (USG) followed by inj. Wymesone 8 mg. The procedure uneventful. Thus proving
      Ayurvedic management of recurrent abortion due to uterine fibroid. It is cost
      effective and improves and normalises uterine receptive environment.

PMID- 28867862
TI  - Good Pharmacovigilance Practice: Accountability of Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical
      Companies.

PMID- 28867863
TI  - Does stimulating various coping strategies alleviate loneliness? Results from an
      online friendship enrichment program.
AB  - Loneliness stems from a mismatch between the social relationships one has and
      those one desires. Loneliness often has severe consequences for individuals and
      society. Recently, an online adaptation of the friendship enrichment program
      (FEP) was developed and tested to gain insight in its contribution to the
      alleviation of loneliness. Three loneliness coping strategies are introduced
      during the program: network development, adapting relationship standards, and
      reducing the importance of the discrepancy between actual and desired
      relationships. Data were collected among 239 participants aged 50-86. Loneliness
      was measured four times using a multi-item scale, and on various days with a
      single, direct question. Loneliness assessed with the scale declined during and
      after the program. Scores on loneliness assessed for a specific day, however, are
      more ambiguous. Despite the immediate positive effect of conducting assignments,
      we did not observe a decline in the single loneliness item score over the course
      of the program. The online FEP seems to reduce loneliness in general, but these
      effects are not visible on today's loneliness. Nevertheless, the online
      intervention to reduce loneliness is a valuable new contribution to the
      collection of loneliness interventions.

PMID- 28867864
TI  - Stability of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG incorporated in edible films: Impact of
      anionic biopolymers and whey protein concentrate.
AB  - The incorporation of probiotics and bioactive compounds, via plasticised thin
      layered hydrocolloids, within food products has recently shown potential to
      functionalise and improve the health credentials of processed food. In this
      study, choice of polymer and the inclusion of whey protein isolate was evaluated
      for their ability to stabalise live probiotic organisms. Edible films based on
      low (LSA) and high (HSA) viscosity sodium alginate, low esterified amidated
      pectin (PEC), kappa-carrageenan/locust bean gum (kappa-CAR/LBG) and gelatine
      (GEL) in the presence or absence of whey protein concentrate (WPC) were shown to
      be feasible carriers for the delivery of L. rhamnosus GG. Losses of L. rhamnosus
      GG throughout the drying process ranged from 0.87 to 3.06 log CFU/g for the
      systems without WPC, losses were significantly reduced to 0 to 1.17 log CFU/g in
      the presence of WPC. Storage stability (over 25d) of L. rhamnosus GG at both
      tested temperatures (4 and 25  degrees C), in descending order, was kappa-CAR/LBG
      > HSA > GEL > LSA = PEC. In addition, supplementation of film forming agents with
      WPC led to a 1.8- to 6.5-fold increase in shelf-life at 4  degrees C (calculated
      on the WHO/FAO minimum requirements of 6 logCFU/g), and 1.6-4.3-fold increase at
      25  degrees C. Furthermore probiotic films based on HSA/WPC and kappa-CAR/LBG/WPC
      blends had both acceptable mechanical and barrier properties.

PMID- 28867865
TI  - Mowing exacerbates the loss of ecosystem stability under nitrogen enrichment in a
      temperate grassland.
AB  - 1. Global reactive nitrogen (N) is projected to further increase in the coming
      years. Previous studies have demonstrated that N enrichment weakens the temporal
      stability of the ecosystem and the primary productivity through decreased
      biodiversity and species asynchrony. Mowing is a globally common practise in
      grasslands; and infrequent mowing can maintain or increase plant diversity under
      N enrichment conditions. However, it is unclear how infrequent mowing affects
      ecosystem stability in the face of N enrichment. 2. By independently manipulating
      the frequency (twice vs. monthly additions per year) and rate (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3,
      5, 10, 15, 20, and 50 g N m-2 year-1) of NH4NO3 inputs and mowing (unmown vs.
      mown) over 3 years (2011-2013) in a temperate grassland of northern China, we
      aimed to examine the interactive effects of N enrichment and mowing on ecosystem
      stability. 3. The results show that mowing maintained a positive relationship
      between species richness and ecosystem stability despite N addition, but that it
      exacerbated the negative effects of N addition on ecosystem stability. Mowing
      increased mean primary productivity and plant species richness, but it also
      increased the synchrony of population fluctuations and the variability of primary
      productivity under N enrichment, thereby contributing to a decline in the
      ecosystem stability. 4. Thus, our study reveals that infrequent mowing can buffer
      the negative effects of N enrichment on biodiversity to some extent and further
      increase the primary productivity, but it exacerbates the loss of ecosystem
      stability with N enrichment, thereby threatening local and/or semiarid regional
      food security.

PMID- 28867866
TI  - Comparative investigation of stimulus-evoked rod outer segment movement and
      retinal electrophysiological activity.
AB  - Transient retinal phototropism (TRP) has been observed in rod photoreceptors
      activated by oblique visible light flashes. Time-lapse confocal microscopy and
      optical coherence tomography (OCT) revealed rod outer segment (ROS) movements as
      the physical source of TRP. However, the physiological source of TRP is still not
      well understood. In this study, concurrent TRP and electroretinogram (ERG)
      measurements disclosed a remarkably earlier onset time of the ROS movements (<=10
      ms) than that (~38 ms) of the ERG a-wave. Furthermore, low sodium treatment
      reversibly blocked the photoreceptor ERG a-wave, which is known to reflect
      hyperpolarization of retinal photoreceptors, but preserved the TRP associated rod
      OS movements well. Our experimental results and theoretical analysis suggested
      that the physiological source of TRP might be attributed to early stages of
      phototransduction, before the hyperpolarization of retinal photoreceptors.

PMID- 28867868
TI  - Inter-comparison of Low-cost Sensors for Measuring the Mass Concentration of
      Occupational Aerosols.
AB  - Low-cost sensors are effective for measuring the mass concentration of ambient
      aerosols and secondhand smoke in homes, but their use at concentrations relevant
      to occupational settings has not been demonstrated. We measured the
      concentrations of four aerosols (salt, Arizona road dust, welding fume, and
      diesel exhaust) with three types of low-cost sensors (a DC1700 from Dylos and two
      commodity sensors from Sharp), an aerosol photometer, and reference instruments
      at concentrations up to 6500 MUg/m3. Raw output was used to assess sensor
      precision and develop equations to compute mass concentrations. EPA and NIOSH
      protocols were used to assess the mass concentrations estimated with low-cost
      sensors compared to reference instruments. The detection efficiency of the DC1700
      ranged from 0.04% at 0.1 MUm to 108% at 5 MUm, as expected, although
      misclassification of fine and coarse particles was observed. The raw output of
      the DC1700 had higher precision (lower coefficient of variation, CV = 7.4%) than
      that of the two sharp devices (CV = 25% and 17%), a finding attributed to
      differences in manufacturer calibration. Aerosol type strongly influenced sensor
      response, indicating the need for on-site calibration to convert sensor output to
      mass concentration. Once calibrated, however, the mass concentration estimated
      with low-cost sensors was highly correlated with that of reference instruments
      (R2=0.99). These results suggest that the DC1700 and Sharp sensors are useful in
      estimating aerosol mass concentration for aerosols at concentrations relevant to
      the workplace.

PMID- 28867867
TI  - Computer-Assisted Adjuncts for Aneurysmal Morphologic Assessment: Toward More
      Precise and Accurate Approaches.
AB  - Neurosurgeons currently base most of their treatment decisions for intracranial
      aneurysms (IAs) on morphological measurements made manually from 2D angiographic
      images. These measurements tend to be inaccurate because 2D measurements cannot
      capture the complex geometry of IAs and because manual measurements are variable
      depending on the clinician's experience and opinion. Incorrect morphological
      measurements may lead to inappropriate treatment strategies. In order to improve
      the accuracy and consistency of morphological analysis of IAs, we have developed
      an image-based computational tool, AView. In this study, we quantified the
      accuracy of computer-assisted adjuncts of AView for aneurysmal morphologic
      assessment by performing measurement on spheres of known size and anatomical IA
      models. AView has an average morphological error of 0.56% in size and 2.1% in
      volume measurement. We also investigate the clinical utility of this tool on a
      retrospective clinical dataset and compare size and neck diameter measurement
      between 2D manual and 3D computer-assisted measurement. The average error was 22%
      and 30% in the manual measurement of size and aneurysm neck diameter,
      respectively. Inaccuracies due to manual measurements could therefore lead to
      wrong treatment decisions in 44% and inappropriate treatment strategies in 33% of
      the IAs. Furthermore, computer-assisted analysis of IAs improves the consistency
      in measurement among clinicians by 62% in size and 82% in neck diameter
      measurement. We conclude that AView dramatically improves accuracy for
      morphological analysis. These results illustrate the necessity of a computer
      assisted approach for the morphological analysis of IAs.

PMID- 28867869
TI  - Porous Polyurethane Foam for Use as a Particle Collection Substrate in a
      Nanoparticle Respiratory Deposition Sampler.
AB  - Porous polyurethane foam was evaluated to replace the eight nylon meshes used as
      a substrate to collect nanoparticles in the Nanoparticle Respiratory Deposition
      (NRD) sampler. Cylindrical (25-mm diameter by 40-mm deep) foam with 110 pores per
      inch was housed in a 25-mm-diameter conductive polypropylene cassette cowl
      compatible with the NRD sampler. Pristine foam and nylon meshes were evaluated
      for metals content via elemental analysis. The size-selective collection
      efficiency of the foam was evaluated using salt (NaCl) and metal fume aerosols in
      independent tests. Collection efficiencies were compared to the nanoparticulate
      matter (NPM) criterion and a semi-empirical model for foam. Changes in collection
      efficiency and pressure drop of the foam and nylon meshes were measured after
      loading with metal fume particles as measures of substrate performance.
      Substantially less titanium was found in the foam (0.173 MUg sampler-1) compared
      to the nylon mesh (125 MUg sampler-1), improving the detection capabilities of
      the NRD sampler for titanium dioxide particles. The foam collection efficiency
      was similar to that of the nylon meshes and the NPM criterion (R2 = 0.98, for
      NaCl), although the semi-empirical model underestimated the experimental
      efficiency (R2 = 0.38). The pressure drop across the foam was 8% that of the
      nylon meshes when pristine and changed minimally with metal fume loading (~ 19
      mg). In contrast, the pores of the nylon meshes clogged after loading with ~ 1 mg
      metal fume. These results indicate that foam is a suitable substrate to collect
      metal (except for cadmium) nanoparticles in the NRD sampler.

PMID- 28867870
TI  - Effect of an edge at cup rim on contact stress during micro-separation in ceramic
      on-ceramic hip joints.
AB  - Alumina ceramic total hip joint bearings have shown superior wear properties. The
      joint bearing may undergo adverse conditions such as micro-separation causing
      head contact on the cup rim. As a transition, an edge is formed between the cup
      bearing and the rim. The aim of this study was to predict the effect of the edge
      on contact stresses in order to better understand the mechanisms of wear. A
      finite element contact model was developed under the conditions of the head
      displacements 0.5-2 mm and vertical loads 0.5-3 kN. The edge contact produced the
      most severe stresses capable of causing elevated wear and damage to ceramic
      bearings. The study shows that the bearing design should be considered in
      association with clinical conditions to eliminate severe stress.

PMID- 28867871
TI  - Mapping regional risks from climate change for rainfed rice cultivation in India.
AB  - Global warming is predicted to increase in the future, with detrimental
      consequences for rainfed crops that are dependent on natural rainfall (i.e. non
      irrigated). Given that many crops grown under rainfed conditions support the
      livelihoods of low-income farmers, it is important to highlight the vulnerability
      of rainfed areas to climate change in order to anticipate potential risks to food
      security. In this paper, we focus on India, where ~ 50% of rice is grown under
      rainfed conditions, and we employ statistical models (climate envelope models
      (CEMs) and boosted regression trees (BRTs)) to map changes in climate suitability
      for rainfed rice cultivation at a regional level (~ 18 * 18 km cell resolution)
      under projected future (2050) climate change (IPCC RCPs 2.6 and 8.5, using three
      GCMs: BCC-CSM1.1, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, and HadGEM2-ES). We quantify the occurrence of
      rice (whether or not rainfed rice is commonly grown, using CEMs) and rice extent
      (area under cultivation, using BRTs) during the summer monsoon in relation to
      four climate variables that affect rice growth and yield namely ratio of
      precipitation to evapotranspiration (PER), maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmax
      and Tmin ), and total rainfall during harvesting. Our models described the
      occurrence and extent of rice very well (CEMs for occurrence, ensemble AUC =
      0.92; BRTs for extent, Pearson's r = 0.87). PER was the most important predictor
      of rainfed rice occurrence, and it was positively related to rainfed rice area,
      but all four climate variables were important for determining the extent of rice
      cultivation. Our models project that 15%-40% of current rainfed rice growing
      areas will be at risk (i.e. decline in climate suitability or become completely
      unsuitable). However, our models project considerable variation across India in
      the impact of future climate change: eastern and northern India are the locations
      most at risk, but parts of central and western India may benefit from increased
      precipitation. Hence our CEM and BRT models agree on the locations most at risk,
      but there is less consensus about the degree of risk at these locations. Our
      results help to identify locations where livelihoods of low-income farmers and
      regional food security may be threatened in the next few decades by climate
      changes. The use of more drought-resilient rice varieties and better irrigation
      infrastructure in these regions may help to reduce these impacts and reduce the
      vulnerability of farmers dependent on rainfed cropping.

PMID- 28867872
TI  - Investigation of the influence of oxygen plasma on supported silver
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Silver deposition precursor molecule
      trimethylphosphine(hexafluoroacetylacetonato)silver(I) [(hfac)AgP(CH3)3] was used
      to deposit silver onto water-modified (hydroxyl-terminated) solid substrates. A
      silicon wafer was used as a model flat surface, and water-predosed ZnO nanopowder
      was investigated to expand the findings to a common substrate material for
      possible practical applications. Following the deposition, oxygen plasma was used
      to remove the remaining organic ligands on a surface and to investigate its
      effect on the morphology of chemically deposited silver nanoparticles and films.
      A combination of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques including electron
      microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to confirm the change in
      the morphology of the deposited material consistent with Ostwald ripening as a
      result of plasma treatment. Particle agglomeration was observed on the surfaces,
      and the deposited metallic silver was oxidized to Ag2O following plasma
      treatment. The fluorine-containing ligands were completely removed. This result
      suggests that chemical vapor deposition can be used to deposit silver in a very
      controlled manner onto a variety of substrates using different topography methods
      and that the post-treatment with oxygen plasma is effective in preparing
      materials deposited for potential practical applications.

PMID- 28867874
TI  - Neuromechanics and Pathophysiology of Diffuse Axonal Injury in Concussion.
AB  - Our research on concussion-induced axonal injury may lead to identification of
      biomarkers that enable noninvasive diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28867875
TI  - SCALING LIMITS OF A MODEL FOR SELECTION AT TWO SCALES.
AB  - The dynamics of a population undergoing selection is a central topic in
      evolutionary biology. This question is particularly intriguing in the case where
      selective forces act in opposing directions at two population scales. For
      example, a fast-replicating virus strain outcompetes slower-replicating strains
      at the within-host scale. However, if the fast-replicating strain causes host
      morbidity and is less frequently transmitted, it can be outcompeted by slower
      replicating strains at the between-host scale. Here we consider a stochastic ball
      and-urn process which models this type of phenomenon. We prove the weak
      convergence of this process under two natural scalings. The first scaling leads
      to a deterministic nonlinear integro-partial differential equation on the
      interval [0, 1] with dependence on a single parameter, lambda. We show that the
      fixed points of this differential equation are Beta distributions and that their
      stability depends on lambda and the behavior of the initial data around 1. The
      second scaling leads to a measure-valued Fleming-Viot process, an infinite
      dimensional stochastic process that is frequently associated with a population
      genetics.

PMID- 28867873
TI  - New Developments in Cardiac Arrest Management.

PMID- 28867876
TI  - Novel nuclear barcode regions for the identification of flatfish species.
AB  - The development of an efficient seafood traceability framework is crucial for the
      management of sustainable fisheries and the monitoring of potential substitution
      fraud across the food chain. Recent studies have shown the potential of DNA
      barcoding methods in this framework, with most of the efforts focusing on using
      mitochondrial targets such as the cytochrome oxidase 1 and cytochrome b genes. In
      this article, we show the identification of novel targets in the nuclear genome,
      and their associated primers, to be used for the efficient identification of
      flatfishes of the Pleuronectidae family. In addition, different in silico methods
      are described to generate a dataset of barcode reference sequences from the ever
      growing wealth of publicly available sequence information, replacing, where
      possible, labour-intensive laboratory work. The short amplicon lengths render the
      analysis of these new barcode target regions ideally suited to next-generation
      sequencing techniques, allowing characterisation of multiple fish species in
      mixed and processed samples. Their location in the nucleus also improves
      currently used methods by allowing the identification of hybrid individuals.

PMID- 28867877
TI  - Scientific Responsibility and Development.

PMID- 28867878
TI  - Childhood Maltreatment and Health Impact: The Examples of Cardiovascular Disease
      and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Adults.
AB  - Child maltreatment is associated with increased risk for an array of mental and
      physical health problems. We reviewed studies examining associations of child
      maltreatment, assessed either alone or in combination with other adversities,
      with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Type 2 Diabetes. PubMed was searched for
      relevant studies until December, 2015. Forty publications met inclusion criteria.
      Consistent positive associations were noted across a range of childhood
      adversities. Child maltreatment was associated with CVD (myocardial infarction,
      stroke, ischemic heart disease, coronary heart disease) in 91.7% of studies, with
      diabetes in 88.2% of studies, and with blood pressure/hypertension in 61.5% of
      studies. Inclusion of mental disorders tended to attenuate associations. Sex
      related differences were under-examined. Implications for future research and
      intervention efforts are discussed.

PMID- 28867879
TI  - Uterus Transplant: Does It Have Legs?

PMID- 28867880
TI  - Calcium: A Nutrient in Pregnancy.

PMID- 28867881
TI  - Influence of Research on Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
AB  - Clinical research is a type of biomedical research conducted to aid and support
      the development of knowledge wherein there is involvement of patient. One of the
      key duties of healthcare professionals is to involve in research and change
      existing practice, when there is robust evidence in favour of new strategies that
      can have better patient care. Knowledge derived from research and experience may
      be of little value unless it is put into practice. Evidence-based medicine (EBM)
      is the diligent, clear, and wise use of current best research evidence in making
      decisions about clinical care of patients. The practice of EBM is incorporating
      clinician's expertise with the best available clinical evidence from research. It
      leads to improved patient outcomes and promote critical thinking and reflective
      practice. Effective research utilization can enhance policy decisions, resource
      allocation for programmes, and decisions about how to deliver those services.

PMID- 28867882
TI  - Visibility of Strings After Postplacental Intracesarean Insertion of CuT380A and
      Cu375 Intrauterine Contraceptive Device: A Randomized Comparative Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the incidence of visible strings after postplacental
      intracesarean insertion of Cu375 and CuT380A intrauterine contraceptive devices
      (IUD). METHODS: This was a prospective, randomized comparative study. A total of
      100 women fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria underwent postplacental
      intracesarean insertion of either Cu375 IUD or CuT380A IUD. Women were followed
      up at 1, 6 weeks and 3 months after IUD insertion and were questioned about IUD
      expulsion or removal at each visit. The cervix was inspected to visualize the IUD
      strings. Data were analyzed by Chi-square test. RESULTS: At 6-week follow-up,
      97.9% women in group A versus 41.7% women in group B had strings visible at the
      cervical os and at 3 months 100% women in group A versus only 47.9% women in
      group B (p < 0.001) had visible strings of IUD. CONCLUSION: Both Cu375 and
      CuT380A IUD are safe postpartum method of contraception but Cu375 if used for
      intracesarean IUD insertion increases the incidence of visible IUD strings.
      Hence, it avoids radiological investigations and invasive procedures at follow-up
      visits required to locate the IUD when strings are not visible. CTRI No.
      CTRI/2015/09/006221.

PMID- 28867883
TI  - Examining the Use of Magnesium Sulfate to Treat Pregnant Women with Preeclampsia
      and Eclampsia: Results of a Program Assessment of Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC)
      Training in India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to examine rates of magnesium sulfate
      utilization by emergency obstetric care trainees to treat preeclampsia-eclampsia
      in India. Secondarily, structural barriers are identified which limit the use of
      magnesium sulfate, highlighting limitations of emergency obstetric care training,
      which is a commonly implemented intervention in resource-poor settings. METHODS:
      Trainees' curriculum specified magnesium sulfate treatment for eclampsia and
      severe preeclampsia. Case records were analyzed for preeclampsia-eclampsia
      diagnosis, magnesium sulfate utilization, delivery route, and maternal and
      neonatal outcomes from 13,238 reported deliveries between 2006 and 2012 across 75
      district hospitals in 12 Indian states. RESULTS: Of 1320 cases of preeclampsia
      eclampsia, 322 (24.4%) had eclampsia. Magnesium sulfate was given to 12.9% of
      preeclamptic and 54.3% of eclamptic women, with lower usage rates in rural
      communities. Among the 1308 women with preeclampsia-eclampsia, only 24 deaths
      occurred (1.8%). In contrast, among the 17,179 women without preeclampsia
      eclampsia, there were 95 reported deaths (0.6%). Both maternal mortality ratios
      were found to be much higher than the Millennium Development Goal target of
      0.15%. Magnesium sulfate administration was associated with a higher death rate
      in preeclamptic but not eclamptic women, representing possible confounding by
      severity. CONCLUSION: To optimize resources spent on emergency obstetric care
      training, the consistent availability of magnesium sulfate should be improved in
      India. Increasing drug availability, implementing clinical guidelines around its
      administration, and training health-care providers on the identification and
      treatment of preeclampsia-eclampsia could lead to notable improvements in
      maternal and infant mortality.

PMID- 28867884
TI  - Comparison of Diagnostic Accuracy of Non-fasting DIPSI and HbA1c with Fasting WHO
      Criteria for Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To compare diagnostic accuracy of non-fasting DIPSI and HbA1c with
      fasting WHO 1999 as gold standard for diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus
      (GDM). METHODS: Pregnant women attending antenatal clinic underwent a 2-h 75-gm
      GCT in non-fasting state (DIPSI). HbA1c was also determined at the same sitting.
      A 2-h 75-gm GCT was repeated for all women after 72 h in a fasting state (WHO
      criteria). GDM was diagnosed if plasma glucose was >=140 mg/dl by either test or
      if HbA1C >=6%. RESULTS: Of the 800 women evaluated, 51 were diagnosed as GDM by
      WHO criteria, 63 by DIPSI, and 40 by HbA1c. The sensitivity of DIPSI test with
      respect to WHO 1999 was 98.04% and specificity 98.26%. The diagnostic accuracy
      was 98.25%. The area under the ROC curve for DIPSI was 0.988 (p < 0.001) (95%
      confidence interval: 0.960-1.000). The sensitivity of HbA1c with respect to WHO
      GTT was 47.06%, specificity 97.86%, and diagnostic accuracy 94.63%. The ROC curve
      between WHO GTT and HbA1c covered an area of 0.805 (p < 0.01) (95% confidence
      interval: 0.731-0.879). CONCLUSIONS: Non-fasting DIPSI criteria had high
      diagnostic accuracy compared to gold-standard WHO GTT and can be an effective and
      practical alternative to the latter. HbA1c had a low sensitivity although the
      specificity was good and therefore is not a suitable test for screening GDM.

PMID- 28867885
TI  - Serious Visual (Ocular) Complications in Pre-eclampsia and Eclampsia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Complete loss of vision is an uncommon ocular complication of pre
      eclampsia/eclampsia. The conditions which lead to visual loss in pre-eclampsia
      include cortical blindness, retinal detachment, retinal vascular thrombosis and
      optic nerve atrophy. OBJECTIVES: The objective was to describe the cause,
      clinical course and prognosis in blindness complicating pre-eclampsia.
      METHODOLOGY: This is a prospective observational study conducted at the Govt.
      Hospital for Women and Children, Chennai, from January 2006 to December 2010.
      Sixteen women who were diagnosed with blindness complicating pre-eclampsia were
      analysed for the cause of blindness, clinical details and prognosis. RESULTS: The
      incidence of blindness among women with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia was 0.17%.
      The cause of visual loss was cortical blindness in 14 patients and retinal
      detachment in two patients. Blindness manifested predominantly in the intrapartum
      and postpartum period in 13/16 cases (81.25%). Seven patients (43.75%) suffered
      from severe pre-eclampsia, and nine patients (56.25%) suffered from eclampsia.
      HELLP syndrome, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and anaemia were seen in two
      patients each. Seven patients also presented with motor deficits. CT scan imaging
      showed cortical vein thrombosis in five cases, arterial infarcts in two cases,
      widespread hypodense areas in the occipito-parietal region in six cases. In
      patients with cortical blindness, recovery of vision occurred within 10 days.
      CONCLUSION: Cortical blindness and retinal detachment are rare complications of
      pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. The prognosis is usually good especially with
      cortical blindness where the loss of vision is transient. The mainstay of
      management is effective treatment of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia along with
      termination of pregnancy.

PMID- 28867886
TI  - Study of Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on the Clinical, Hormonal and
      Metabolic Profile of the PCOS Women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Insulin resistance is one of the most common features of polycystic
      ovary syndrome, and some studies suggest that vitamin D deficiency may have role
      in insulin resistance. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of vitamin D
      supplementation on the clinical, hormonal and metabolic profile of the PCOS
      women. STUDY DESIGN: Randomized, placebo-controlled, interventional, double-blind
      study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PCOS women were evaluated and enrolled after
      considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were randomized by block
      randomization with sealed envelope system done in two groups. In the study group
      (n = 25), patients were supplemented with vitamin D 60,000 IU weekly for 12
      weeks, whereas control group (n = 25) was given placebo weekly for the same
      period. Both the groups were compared pre- and post-supplementation for variables
      like clinical profile, biochemical profile and metabolic profile. Statistical
      analysis was performed by the SPSS program for Windows, version 10.1 (SPSS,
      Chicago, IL). RESULT: In the study (n = 50), PCOS patients were enrolled; 34
      patients (68%) were vitamin D deficient (<=20 ng/ml) out of which 10 patients
      (29%) were severely deficient (<10 ng/ml). Twelve patients (24%) were vitamin D
      insufficient showing high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the PCOS women.
      The difference in mean serum fasting glucose pre- and post-supplementation of
      vitamin D in study group was found to be statistically significant with p value
      of 0.041. There was significant difference seen in insulin resistance (IR) (2.38
      +/- 4.88-1.00 +/- 0.58, p = 0.003), serum fasting insulin (10.34 +/- 20.00-5.00
      +/- 3.25, p = 0.021), and increase in insulin sensitivity determined by QUICKI
      (0.37 +/- 0.04-0.394 +/- 0.009, p = 0.001) after supplementation with vitamin D.
      CONCLUSION: The study concluded that there was a beneficial effect of vitamin D
      supplementation on ovulatory dysfunctions and blood pressure. Post
      supplementation, there were decrease in insulin resistance and increase in
      insulin sensitivity. In the study decreased serum fasting insulin level and
      fasting blood sugar after vitamin D supplementation suggest underlying role of
      vitamin D in glucose homeostasis.

PMID- 28867887
TI  - Unilateral Versus Bilateral Laparoscopic Ovarian Drilling Using Thermal Dose
      Adjusted According to Ovarian Volume in CC-Resistant PCOS, A Randomized Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of unilateral laparoscopic
      ovarian drilling versus bilateral laparoscopic ovarian drilling with thermal dose
      adjusted according to ovarian volume in clomiphene citrate (CC)-resistant PCOS
      patients in terms of endocrine changes, menstrual cycle resumption, ovulation and
      pregnancy rates. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in the Department
      of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zagazig university hospitals. One hundred CC
      resistant PCOS patients were divided into two groups. Group (I) (50 patients)
      underwent unilateral laparoscopic ovarian drilling with thermal dose adjusted
      according to ovarian volume (60 J/cm3 of ovarian tissue), and group (II) (50
      patients) underwent bilateral laparoscopic ovarian drilling using the same
      previously mentioned thermal dose. Endocrinal changes and menstrual cycle
      resumption were assessed within 8 weeks postoperatively, but the ovulation and
      pregnancy rates were estimated after 6-month follow-up period. RESULTS: There was
      no statistically significant difference between the two groups as regards
      demographic data (p > 0.05). As regards menstruation cycle resumption (62.5 vs.
      81%) (p = 0.047), total ovulation rate (54.2 vs. 78.7%) (p = 0.011) and
      cumulative pregnancy rate (33.3 vs. 55.3%) (p = 0.031), there was statistically
      significant difference between both groups. After drilling, there were highly
      statistically significant decrease in the mean serum levels of luteinizing
      hormone (LH) and significant decrease in the mean serum levels of testosterone in
      both groups. Mean serum level of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) did not
      change significantly in both groups after drilling. CONCLUSION: Bilateral
      laparoscopic ovarian drilling with thermal dose adjusted according to ovarian
      volume is more effective than the right-sided unilateral technique with thermal
      dose adjusted according to ovarian volume in terms of menstrual cycle resumption,
      ovulation and cumulative pregnancy rates in CC-resistant PCOS patients.

PMID- 28867889
TI  - Massive Maternal Haemorrhage: A Rare Case of Ruptured Uterine Varix.
AB  - Haemoperitoneum anytime during pregnancy is a rare but catastrophic event. With
      advancement in antenatal and intrapartum care, the maternal survival has improved
      manyfold. Management involves immediate resuscitation with volume correction
      followed by surgery, mostly laparotomy. This case is of a booked primigravida,
      with otherwise uneventful pregnancy, who suffered a massive haemoperitoneum. On
      laparotomy, the only cause found was a small uterine varix on the posterior
      uterine surface. The patient survived after multiple transfusions, but it led to
      a fresh stillborn baby. Immediate action is the only answer to improving maternal
      and foetal survival.

PMID- 28867888
TI  - Efficacy of Combined Cabergoline and Metformin Compared to Metformin Alone on
      Cycle Regularity in Patients with Polycystic Ovarian Disease with
      Hyperprolactinemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common reproductive disorder.
      Increasing serum prolactin in these patients could be detected in both follicular
      and luteal phase of the normal and stimulated cycles. Hyperprolactinemia affects
      the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis causing anovulation and abnormal uterine
      bleeding. In this study, the efficacy of combined cabergoline and metformin
      therapy was compared to metformin therapy alone in patients with PCOS on the body
      mass index, androgen profile and menstrual cycle regulation. METHODS: Two hundred
      and fifty patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) with increased serum
      prolactin were randomly allocated into two groups: group (1) received oral
      metformin tablet 1000 mg per day and cabergoline 0.5 g tablet weekly for 3 months
      as a case group, and group (2) received oral metformin tablet 1000 mg per day and
      a placebo tablet weekly for 3 months as the control group (n = 123). Body mass
      index (BMI), menstrual cycle regularity, serum testosterone, serum prolactin and
      dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) level were compared before and after
      treatment in both groups. RESULTS: There was significant decrease in body mass
      index and improvement of androgenic profile in both groups after treatment. In
      group (1), there was significant improvement in cycle regularity and significant
      decrease in serum prolactin level post-treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The use of
      cabergoline in addition to metformin had more favorable effect on cycle
      regularity and prolactin level in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome with
      hyperprolactinemia than the use of metformin alone.

PMID- 28867890
TI  - An Unusual Case of Vaginal Bleeding in an 18-Year-Old Female.

PMID- 28867891
TI  - Easy Balloon: The Easiest to Assemble Condom Balloon Uterine Tamponade for
      Primary Level of Health Care Centres.

PMID- 28867892
TI  - Self-Medication for Abortion: Safety Issues.

PMID- 28867893
TI  - Incubating Integrative Medicine in India through PMO's Atal Incubator Scheme of
      Niti Aayog.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Incubation centers are considered important tools to advance in a
      field of activity with multidisciplinary approach. The idea of incubation emerged
      long time back but it is actively pursued by funding agencies as a medium to
      propel community development. India's fast developing economy had limited tryst
      with Integrative Medicine until Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, role
      modelled for Yoga in Chandigarh on the occasion of International Yoga Day.
      Integrative Medicine is a growing field and widely accepted as a cost-effective
      problem solving method that simplifies the management of incurable and complex
      disorders where modern medicine has little to offer. SUMMARY: Development of
      integrative medicine health incubator is the key to development of
      multidisciplinary program that offers to reduce the cost of healthcare, out of
      pocket expenses and emphasizes on preventive healthcare as means to achieve a
      healthy population in a developing country like India. KEY MESSAGE: Incubation
      center may become practical solution for many health problems in singular
      platform for healthier society by integrating traditional and modern medicine.

PMID- 28867894
TI  - Policy Research for Assessment of Quality Assurance Practices in Skill
      Development of Doctoral Programs in Medical Institutes.

PMID- 28867895
TI  - Estrous Cycle Phase-Dependent Changes in Anxiety- and Depression-Like Profiles in
      the Late Adolescent Wistar-Kyoto Rat.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Depression often manifests during adolescence when the development
      and networking of social and emotional brain areas is being influenced by
      hormones. The Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rat has been proposed as an animal model of
      adolescent depression with various face, construct, and predictive validities for
      clinical depression having been established. PURPOSE: The influence of the
      estrous cycle on anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in female adolescents may
      be tested out further using this model. METHODS: Female adolescent WKY rats were
      tested for anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze and
      forced swim test (FST) during different phases of the estrous cycle with inbred,
      age-, and phase-matched Wistar rats as controls. RESULTS: Wistars in proestrus
      estrus demonstrated reduced anxiety levels. WKY also demonstrated increased open
      arm time and entries and closed arm time, but less than Wistars, and as closed
      arm entries remained unaffected, it did not translate into a lowering of the
      anxiety levels. Risk taking and risk assessment behaviors were not affected by
      estrous phases in WKY, though exploratory behavior was reduced in proestrus
      estrus. In Wistars, increased risk taking and decreased risk assessment behaviors
      were observed during proestrus-estrus. Increased immobility in the FST,
      indicative of learned helplessness was not influenced by phase in the WKY, which
      was at variance with Wistars that demonstrated phase-specific differences.
      CONCLUSION: Results indicate a masking effect of indicative hormones in this
      putative model of adolescent depression, with implications for an unravelling of
      the steroid milieu in predisposed adolescent depression and for taking phase
      specific time windows into account for therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28867896
TI  - Neonatal Lipopolysaccharide Infection Causes Demyelination and Behavioral
      Deficits in Adult and Senile Rat Brain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal bacterial infections have been reported to cause white
      matter loss, although studies concerning the influence of infection on the
      expression of myelin and aging are still in their emerging state. PURPOSE: The
      present study aimed to investigate the effects of perinatal lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS) exposure on the myelination at different age points using histochemical and
      immunocytochemical techniques and the relative motor coordination. METHODS: A rat
      bacterial infection model was established by exposing the neonatal rats with LPS
      (0.3 mg/kg body weight, i.p., on postnatal day (PND) 3 followed by a booster at
      PND 5) and its impact was studied on the myelination and motor coordination in
      young, adult, and senile rats. RESULTS: The results obtained suggest that the
      administration of LPS induces demyelination, predominantly in cortex and corpus
      callosum. Low expression level of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) was
      observed at all time points, with prominence at 12, 18, and 24 months of age. In
      addition, reduced staining with luxol fast blue stain was also recorded in the
      experimentals. With the increasing demyelination and declining motor ability, LPS
      exposure also seemed to accelerate normal aging symptoms. CONCLUSION: There is a
      direct correlation of myelin damage and poor motor coordination with age. This
      would provide a better incite to understand inflammation-associated demyelinating
      changes in age-associated neurodegenerative disorders. Since, no long-term
      studies on behavioral impairments caused by LPS-induced demyelination in the
      central nervous system has been reported so far, this work would help in the
      better understanding of the long-term pathological effects of bacterial-induced
      demyelination.

PMID- 28867897
TI  - Extrapyramidal Symptoms Probably Related to Risperidone Treatment: A Case Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atypical antipsychotics, like risperidone purportedly, score over
      their typical counterparts in terms of their lower propensity toward producing
      extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). However, recent studies have furnished evidence to
      the contrary. Hereby, we present a case series implicating risperidone as the
      causative agent for EPS. METHODS: As a part of the pharmacovigilance programme of
      India, the authors have assessed 10 physician-reported cases of EPS among the
      1,830 patients who were prescribed risperidone within the time period of January
      2012-December 2014 in a tertiary care hospital in South India. Causality,
      severity, and preventability assessments of adverse reaction were done as per
      Naranjo's, Hartwig's, and Thornton'scale respectively. RESULTS: Of the 10 cases,
      a dose-dependent occurrence of EPS was noted in all and the time duration for
      development of EPS ranged from 1 week to 2 years. Four patients developed EPS at
      a dose of 6-8 mg, 4 developed at a dose of 4-6 mg, and the remaining 2 developed
      at 2 and 1 mg. CONCLUSION: A strong temporal correlation between risperidone and
      EPS was noted in all cases. High doses produced EPS early, whereas moderate to
      low doses produced EPS at a later date. Thus, cautious use and close monitoring
      are warranted in the chronic use of risperidone.

PMID- 28867898
TI  - Cortical Oligodendrocytes in Kaolin-Induced Hydrocephalus in Wistar Rat: Impact
      of Degree and Duration of Ventriculomegaly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oligodendrocytes are critical to the function of the brain. They
      generate the myelin sheath which ensures saltatory conduction, which is a more
      energy saving and efficient means of axonal impulse transmission.
      Ventriculomegaly results in neuronal degeneration and astrogliosis. PURPOSE: The
      effect of the degree of ventriculomegaly on oligodendrocyte in kaolin-induced
      hydrocephalus and the timeline have not been extensively documented, hence this
      study. METHODS: A total of 81 rats that were 3 weeks old were divided into 4
      groups each consisting of control and experimental subgroups. Kaolin suspension
      was intracisternally injected to induce hydrocephalus and the animal sacrificed
      post-induction at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks. Two 1-mm-thick coronal slices at optic
      chiasma level were fixed in 10% buffered formal-saline and Karnovsky's fixative
      for light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The former
      slices were processed and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for glial density,
      cortical thickness, and oligodendrocyte evaluations. Subcortical white matter
      region of the latter were processed by conventional techniques for TEM. RESULTS:
      Compared with their corresponding control rats, thickness of the dorsolateral
      cortex was significantly reduced across the 2-4 week post-induction (WPI), glial
      density was significantly increased in the mild and moderate ventriculomegaly
      subgroups 1 WPI but only in mild ventriculomegaly subset 2 WPI. In the 4 WPI
      group, there was significant increase in glial density across the 3
      ventriculomegaly subsets. Early hydropic changes of oligodendrocytes were noted
      in the inner pyramidal layer mostly in the 4 WPI experimental rats. Dilation of
      the endoplasmic reticulum precedes that of mitochondria, while mitochondrial
      crista disruption was noted in the 3 and 4 WPI rats. The nuclear membrane of the
      oligodendrocytes was progressively deformed from the 2nd to 4th WPI. CONCLUSION:
      This study reported degenerative changes of oligodendrocytes and its organelles
      in kaolin-induced hydrocephalus. Degeneration was worse with duration and in the
      deep cortical layers.

PMID- 28867899
TI  - Homology Modeling and Protein Interaction Map of CHRNA7 Neurogenesis Protein.
AB  - CHRNA7 is a neurodevelopmental protein involved in differentiation and
      neurogenesis, which is also named as nicotinic acetylcholine receptors,
      cholinergic receptor, nicotinic, alpha 7 (neuronal). The protein encoded by this
      gene forms a homo-oligomeric channel. It is a major component of brain nicotinic
      receptors displays that are blocked by and sensitive to alpha-bungarotoxin.
      Studies reports involvement of CHRNA7 protein in different neurological diseases.
      Non-availability of 3-dimensional (3D) structure leads the study toward structure
      3D prediction along with its interaction analysis. The current paper is focused
      on the structure prediction through homology modeling of CHRNA7 along with
      binding site prediction using Schrodinger software suite. In continuation of the
      study, protein-protein interaction analysis is carried out by using string
      database. Tertiary structure along with binding sites was obtained, and
      visualized CHRAN7 protein have interaction with CHRNA protein family along with
      JAK2, AKT1, PICK1 protein that are involved in neurological disease. Structure
      formation analysis is an important aspect of proteomics studies. Hence, this
      predicted structure can be used for further advance studies and drug designing.
      Protein interaction analysis shows that CHRNA7 protein also interact with AKT1
      protein which regulate neuronal differentiation and development, that signifies
      the role of CHRNA7 protein in neurological diseases.

PMID- 28867900
TI  - Diagnostic Markers of Autoimmune Neuropathological Diseases.

PMID- 28867901
TI  - Primary Intracranial Extraskeletal Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma: Clinical Mimicry
      as Glomus Jugulare.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extraskeletal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma (ESMCS) is an unusual
      pathologic variant of chondrosarcoma. There are no specific clinicoradiographic
      parameters to distinguish it from other intracranial pathologies. The diagnosis
      can be established only on the basis of histopathology, which may pose
      significant challenges in certain unusual locations. PURPOSE: In this case, we
      discuss the pitfalls in diagnosis, management, and major characteristics of ESMCS
      with a review of current literature. METHODS AND RESULTS: A 47-year-old female
      patient presented with a jugular foramen tumor which was misdiagnosed as glomus
      jugulare tumor for which she received primary gamma knife radiosurgery at 2
      instances. But unfortunately, the patient died because of the increase in size of
      the lesion associated with necrosis. Autopsy analysis revealed a highly cellular
      tumor, rich in sarcomatous cells, and well-differentiated cartilages consistent
      with ESMCS. CONCLUSION: A definite preoperative diagnosis of ESMCS is crucial
      though difficult especially when located at complex sites like jugular foramen
      and clinicoradiological mimicry. The most crucial step in the management of ESMCS
      is accurate diagnosis with critical evaluation of clinical, radiological, and
      histopathological parameters and realization of highly variable clinical course
      of the disease.

PMID- 28867903
TI  - Hand Surgeons-More Need of the Hour.

PMID- 28867902
TI  - Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Presenting as Abducens Nerve Palsy Secondary to
      Cavernous Sinus Lesion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We report a 61-year-old who presented with a right-sided abducens
      nerve palsy secondary to a middle cranial fossa adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC)
      extending into the cavernous sinus. PURPOSE: This case represents a unique
      presentation of intracranial ACC with a large middle cranial fossa mass and only
      a small extracranial component. METHODS: Review of the literature was undertaken
      to identify cases of intracranial ACC and their range of presentations. RESULTS:
      Our results show that this is the first reported case of an ACC presenting mostly
      as an intracranial mass with an isolated cranial nerve lesion. CONCLUSION: Our
      case highlights the importance of a broad differential diagnosis, particularly in
      circumstances where there are atypical features of lesions on radiographic
      imaging.

PMID- 28867904
TI  - Versatility of Free Cutaneous Flaps for Upper Extremity Soft Tissue
      Reconstruction.
AB  - The goals of upper extremity soft tissue reconstruction should go well beyond
      providing coverage and restoring function. As the field of reconstructive
      microsurgery has evolved, free cutaneous flaps (FCFs) are gaining wider
      application. The advantages of FCF include minimizing donor-site morbidity by
      preserving the muscle and fascia, improving versatility of flap design, and
      superior aesthetic results. This review highlights the application of
      anterolateral thigh, superficial circumflex iliac artery, deep inferior
      epigastric perforator, superficial inferior epigastric artery, and flow-through
      flaps for reconstruction of upper extremity defects. These flaps share several
      qualities in common: well-concealed donor sites, preservation of major arteries
      responsible of providing inflow to distal extremity, and potential for a two-team
      approach (donor and recipient sites). While the choice of flaps should be decided
      based on individual patient and defect characteristics, FCF should be considered
      as excellent options to achieve the goals of upper extremity reconstruction.

PMID- 28867905
TI  - Motor Examination in the Diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
AB  - The relative importance and use of motor evaluation to diagnose carpal tunnel
      syndrome (CTS) is not clear. Because the ulnar nerve is not affected in CTS, we
      evaluated comparing the strength of the median-nerve innervated muscles to the
      ulnar innervated muscles in the same patient, through manual muscle testing (MMT)
      and a handheld dynamometer. Our purpose was to evaluate whether this method,
      which takes into account patient-dependent factors that would affect both groups
      of muscles equally, can provide better assessment of CTS. A retrospective case
      control review of MMT and dynamometer-measured strength for CTS was performed.
      The study was performed retrospectively but prior to surgery or other treatment.
      There were 28 cases (CTS) and 14 controls (without CTS). Positive nerve
      conduction tests defined cases. MMT of the thenar musculature was found to be
      unreliable as a test for CTS. Comparisons to ulnar nerve innervated muscle
      strength did not improve sensitivity or specificity of the MMT examination. Use
      of the dynamometer improved sensitivity and specificity of motor testing in CTS
      over MMT. Motor evaluation is important for the diagnosis of CTS, but further
      study is warranted, specifically to define the method of motor evaluation and
      delineate the subgroup of patients (predominantly thenar motor presentation) that
      would benefit most from motor testing and motor-focused treatment.

PMID- 28867906
TI  - Open Carpal Tunnel Release Outcomes: Performed Wide Awake versus with Sedation.
AB  - Background  Carpal tunnel release (CTR) is the most common surgery of the hand,
      and interest is growing in performing it under local anesthesia without
      tourniquet. To better understand differences, we hypothesized that patients
      undergoing CTR under wide-awake local anesthesia with no tourniquet (WALANT)
      versus sedation (monitored anesthesia care [MAC]) would not result in a
      difference in outcome. Methods  Consecutive cases of electrodiagnostically
      confirmed open CTR across multiple surgeons at a single center were prospectively
      enrolled. Data included demographic data, visual analog scale, Levine-Katz carpal
      tunnel syndrome scale, QuickDASH questionnaire, customized Likert questionnaire,
      and complications. Results  There were 81 patients enrolled in the WALANT group
      and 149 patients in the MAC group. There were no reoperations in either group or
      any epinephrine-related complications in the WALANT group. Disability and symptom
      scores did not differ significantly between WALANT and sedation groups at 2 weeks
      or 3 months. Average postoperative QuickDASH, Levine-Katz, and VAS pain scales
      were the same in both groups. Both groups of patients reported high levels of
      satisfaction at 91 versus 96% for the WALANT versus MAC groups, respectively ( p 
      > 0.05). Patients in each group were likely to request similar anesthesia if they
      were to undergo surgery again. Conclusion  Patients undergoing open CTR
      experienced similar levels of satisfaction and outcomes with either the WALANT or
      MAC techniques. There was no statistically significant difference between either
      group relative to the tested outcome measures. These data should facilitate
      surgeons and patients' choosing freely between WALANT and MAC techniques relative
      to complications and outcomes.

PMID- 28867907
TI  - Preemptive Analgesia in Thumb Basal Joint Arthroplasty: Immediate Postoperative
      Pain with Preincision versus Postincision Local Anesthesia.
AB  - Purpose  Currently no guidelines exist for the timing of the injection of
      anesthetics in surgeries performed under general anesthesia to minimize
      postoperative pain. To better understand the role of timing of the injection of
      local anesthesia in hand surgery performed under general anesthesia, we evaluated
      the effect of pre- versus postincisional local analgesic injection on immediate
      postoperative pain experience. We hypothesize that the preincisional (preemptive)
      injection will result in decreased immediate postoperative pain experience and
      analgesic use when compared with postincisional injection. Methods  Consecutive
      cases of thumb basal joint arthroplasty performed over a 4-year period were
      retrospectively reviewed. During the first half of the study period, the surgical
      site was infiltrated with 0.5% bupivacaine at the completion of surgery following
      closure. During the second half of the study period, the surgical site was
      infiltrated with 0.5% bupivacaine prior to skin incision. Data collected included
      patient demographics, immediate postoperative recovery room (PACU) pain scores,
      and postoperative opioid consumption in morphine equivalents. Results  Two-tailed
      t -test identified no significant difference between the pre- and postincision
      cohorts relative to PACU entrance pain scores and time spent in the PACU. PACU
      exit pain scores were significantly lower in the preincision cohort. The mean
      PACU pain score was also significantly lower in the preincision cohort. PACU
      opioid consumption, converted into morphine equivalents, was found to be 211 mg
      in the preincision versus 299 mg in the postincision cohort. Conclusion  The
      preincisional (preemptive) injection of local anesthesia was found to result in
      lower pain scores during and upon exit of the PACU as compared with the
      postclosure group. In addition, the preincision cohort also trended toward lower
      opioid consumption while in the PACU. Consideration should be given to the
      routine use of preincision injection of local anesthesia to maximize pain relief
      in a multimodal pain strategy in hand surgical patients. Level of Evidence 
      Therapeutic level III.

PMID- 28867908
TI  - Using the Rasch Model to Develop a Measure of Participation Capturing the Full
      Range of Participation Characteristics for the Patients with Hand Injuries.
AB  - Objective  The purpose of this paper was to report on the first step in the
      development of a new instrument to measure participation including the full range
      of its characteristics. Methods  The 30-item participation behavior questionnaire
      (PBQ) was developed from four main sources (a literature review of the theatrical
      basis of participation, available participation measures, and interviews with
      patients and experts about participation). Item selection and the reliability and
      validity of the measure were explored using Rasch measurement modeling for
      analysis. Participants  A total of 404 individuals referred to rehabilitation
      after hand, wrist, or upper extremity surgery to reduce impairment from trauma,
      at least 2 months post-injury. Results  An initial pool of 100 items; reflecting
      14 characteristics of participation was initially reduced to 91 items after
      review by 15 participation experts and then further reduced to 30 items by three
      rounds of Rasch analysis removing misfitting items. The final PBQ has a person
      reliability of 0.91 with separation of 3.22, indicating it can reliably
      differentiate four levels of participation. There are no misfitting items and the
      instrument is unidimensional. All 14 characteristics of participation were
      retained in the PBQ, and none of the 30 items refer specifically to upper
      extremity issues. Conclusion  The 30 participation behavior items of the PBQ show
      promise of being a psychometrically sound measure of participation. Further
      research is needed to validate the PBQ in samples of people with a range of other
      disabilities.

PMID- 28867909
TI  - Survival Rate of Limb Replantation in Different Age Groups.
AB  - Revascularization of damaged limbs/digits is technically feasible, but
      indications for surgical replantation remain controversial. The authors analyzed
      the survival rate of upper limb amputations and the associated factors in
      different age groups. They grouped 371 limb/digit amputees (average age, 44
      years; range, 2-85 years) treated in their hospital during the past 10 years into
      three groups based on age (young, <= 15 years, n  = 12; adult, 16-64 years, n  =
      302; elderly, >= 65 years, n  = 57) and analyzed their injury type (extent of
      injury and stump status), operation method, presence of medical complications
      (Charlson comorbidity index), and survival rate. There were 168 replantations,
      and the overall replantation survival rate was 93%. The Charlson comorbidity
      index of the replantation patients was 0 in 124 cases; 1 in 32; 2 in 9; and 3 in
      3, but it did not show any significant difference in survival rate after
      replantation. Eight elderly patients (14%) did not opt for replantation. Younger
      patients tended to undergo replantation, but they had lower success rates due to
      their severe injury status. The results of this study show that the survival rate
      of replantation in elderly patients is equal to that in adults. Stump evaluation
      is important for survival, but the presence of medical complications is not
      associated with the overall survival rate.

PMID- 28867910
TI  - Hook Plate Fixation for the Thumb Ulnar Collateral Ligament Fracture-Avulsion.
AB  - During a taekwondo competition, a 20-year-old female competitor injured her left
      thumb. There was pain, swelling, and tenderness at the ulnar side of the
      metacarpophalangeal joint. Plain radiography demonstrated an avulsion fracture
      with a small-size fragment at the base of the proximal phalanx. A mini hook plate
      was used to repair the lesion. The patient was satisfied with the results and
      returned to her sports activities after 2 months.

PMID- 28867911
TI  - Prolonged Bleeding after a Single Leech Application in Pediatric Hand Surgery.
AB  - Use of the medicinal leech in microsurgery is common place for venous
      decongestion and can be associated with the need for transfusion over time and
      multiple applications. Here the authors present a case of profound, ongoing, life
      threatening bleeding after a single leech application in pediatric microscopic
      surgery. There are no reports of such profound bleeding in the literature, and
      this case serves as a warning of the need for close surveillance in this subset
      of patients.

PMID- 28867912
TI  - Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforator Free Flaps for Use in Complicated Groin Wound
      Repair: A Case Report of Severe Groin Scar Contracture and Review of Pedicled and
      Free Flaps in Groin Wound Repair.
AB  - The use of pedicled and free flaps for tissue transfer and coverage has become a
      common practice in modern plastic surgery. An area that presents considerable
      challenge for tissue coverage is the groin. Defects in this area are complicated
      by issues such as prior surgery; scar contracture; extension of the defect beyond
      the borders of the groin; radiation damage; high probability of infection; and
      involvement of vital underlying structures, the genitalia, and perineal and
      perianal area. Therefore, the choice of donor site and flap usage is often
      difficult. Multiple methods of tissue transfer closure have been reported in the
      literature for repair of such defects and are reviewed in the following text.
      Here the authors present the case of a 30-year-old Caucasian woman born with a
      congenital giant hairy nevus of her left lower back, buttock, posterior thigh,
      and flank, who underwent wide local excision and skin grafting as a newborn.
      After several operations, the closure broke down and was left to heal by
      secondary intention. She has since developed excessive scar tissue leading to
      pain with ambulation secondary to scar contracture involving her labia majora. In
      this report, the wound was repaired with a free DIEP flap with excellent result
      and resolution of all symptoms.

PMID- 28867913
TI  - The Adipofascial Nerve Patch as an Alternative to Grafting in Partial Transection
      of a Peripheral Nerve.

PMID- 28867914
TI  - An Unusual Case of Posterolateral Rotatory Instability of the Elbow.

PMID- 28867915
TI  - Optimizing the Sequence of Zone 1 Extensor Tendon Repair.

PMID- 28867916
TI  - A Method to Facilitate "Nonsticking" of Regular Bipolar Forceps.
AB  - Electrosurgery using a bipolar cautery is very common, especially in surgical
      fields with surrounding vital structures. However, the tissue tends to stick to
      the bipolar forceps due to the heat cautery, which makes the tips stick together.
      When forceps tips are stuck to the cauterized tissue, surgeons have to spend time
      separating the tips. Also, when surgeons separate the tips, a cauterized bleeder
      may rebleed. Some bipolar forceps with nonstick coatings have been developed to
      reduce the sticking problem. However, for some surgeons or institutes, these
      nonstick bipolar forceps may be unavailable. The authors describe an easy method
      to reduce the occurrence of sticking forceps tips if regular bipolar forceps are
      used.

PMID- 28867917
TI  - Identifying Associations Between Brain Imaging Phenotypes and Genetic Factors via
      A Novel Structured SCCA Approach.
AB  - Brain imaging genetics attracts more and more attention since it can reveal
      associations between genetic factors and the structures or functions of human
      brain. Sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) is a powerful bi-multivariate
      association identification technique in imaging genetics. There have been many
      SCCA methods which could capture different types of structured imaging genetic
      relationships. These methods either use the group lasso to recover the group
      structure, or employ the graph/network guided fused lasso to find out the network
      structure. However, the group lasso methods have limitation in generalization
      because of the incomplete or unavailable prior knowledge in real world. The
      graph/network guided methods are sensitive to the sign of the sample correlation
      which may be incorrectly estimated. We introduce a new SCCA model using a novel
      graph guided pairwise group lasso penalty, and propose an efficient optimization
      algorithm. The proposed method has a strong upper bound for the grouping effect
      for both positively and negatively correlated variables. We show that our method
      performs better than or equally to two state-of-the-art SCCA methods on both
      synthetic and real neuroimaging genetics data. In particular, our method
      identifies stronger canonical correlations and captures better canonical loading
      profiles, showing its promise for revealing biologically meaningful imaging
      genetic associations.

PMID- 28867918
TI  - Occupational Health and Safety in Ethiopia: A review of Situational Analysis and
      Needs Assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current rapid economic development has brought changes in
      workplaces in developing countries, including Ethiopia. The organization of
      occupational health and safety services is not yet resilient enough to handle the
      growing demands for workers' health in the context of industrialization. There is
      limited information on the gaps and needs of occupational health services in
      workplaces in Ethiopia. OBJECTIVES: The present review article describes the
      existing profile of occupational safety and health services in Ethiopia and
      identifies the current gaps and needs in the services. METHODS: Secondary data
      sources were reviewed using a structured checklist to explore the status of
      occupational safety, health services and related morbidity. Local literature was
      consulted in order to describe the type and prevalence of work related hazards,
      patterns of industries and of workforce. Published articles were searched in
      Google, Google scholar, PUBMED, and HINARI databases. Relevant heads of
      stakeholder organizations and experts were interviewed to verify the gaps that
      were synthesized using desk review. RESULTS: Ethiopia is an agrarian country that
      is industrializing rapidly with a focus on construction, manufacturing, mining,
      and road infrastructure. An estimated work force of about two million is
      currently engaged in the public and private sectors. Males constitute the
      majority of this workforce. Most of the workforce has basic primary education.
      Commonly observed hazards in the workplace include occupational noise and dust of
      various types in manufacturing sectors and chemical exposures in the flower
      industry. Injury in both the agriculture and the manufacturing sectors is another
      workplace hazard commonly observed in the country. A lack of information made
      assessing workplace exposures in detail difficult. The prevalence of noise
      exposure was found to be high with the potential to seriously impact hearing
      capacity. Exposure to dust in textile and cement factories greatly exceeded
      international permissible limits. There is a high level of workplace injuries
      that often leads to an extended loss of productive working days. Occupational
      safety and health services were found to be inadequately organized. There is
      limited practice in exposure assessment and monitoring. This happens to be true
      despite the existing favorable environment in areas of policies and regulations.
      CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: There is a severe scarcity of peer-reviewed
      literature related to workplace exposures and their impact on workplace health
      and safety. Limited adequately skilled manpower is available. The internal
      infrastructural capacity is weak and cannot help to identify and assess hazards
      in the workplace. Monitoring system and laboratory investigation is limited
      despite the presence of favorable policy and regulatory frameworks. Addressing
      these gaps is of immediate concern.

PMID- 28867919
TI  - Review of Climate Change and Health in Ethiopia: Status and Gap Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This review assessed Ethiopia's existing situation on issues related
      to the environment, climate change and health, and identifies gaps and needs that
      can be addressed through research, training, and capacity building. METHODS: The
      research was conducted through a comprehensive review of available secondary data
      and interviewing key informants in various national organizations involved in
      climate change adaptation and mitigation activities. RESULTS: Climate change
      related health problems, such as mortality and morbidity due to floods and heat
      waves, vector-borne diseases, water-borne diseases, meningitis, and air pollution
      related respiratory diseases are increasing in Ethiopia. Sensitive systems such
      as agriculture, health, and water have been affected, and the effects of climate
      change will continue to magnify without the right adaptation and mitigation
      measures. Currently, research on climate change and health is not adequately
      developed in Ethiopia. Research and other activities appear to be fragmented and
      uncoordinated. As a result, very few spatially detailed and methodologically
      consistent studies have been made to assess the impact of climate in the country.
      There has often been a lack of sufficient collaboration among organizations on
      the planning and execution of climate change and health activities, and the lack
      of trained professionals who can perform climate change and health-related
      research activities at various levels. CONCLUSION: Firstly, there is a lack of
      organized structure in the various organizations. Secondly, there is inadequate
      level of inter-sectoral collaboration and poor coordination and communication
      among different stakeholders. Thirdly, there are no reliable policy guidelines
      and programs among organizations, agencies and offices that target climate change
      and health. Fourth, the existing policies fail to consider the gender and
      community-related dimensions of climate change. Fifth, the monitoring and
      evaluation efforts exerted on climate change and health activities are not strong
      enough to address the climate change and health issues in the country.

PMID- 28867920
TI  - Health Effects of Environmental Exposures, Occupational Hazards and Climate
      Change in Ethiopia: Synthesis of Situational Analysis, Needs Assessment and the
      Way Forward.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The burden of diseases caused by environmental and occupational
      health hazards and the effects of global climate change are of growing concerns
      in Ethiopia. However, no adequate information seems to be available on the
      current situation. This means there is a critical gap in research, policy
      framework and implementation in the country. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper
      was to synthesize evidence from a systematic situational analysis and needs
      assessment to help establish a hub for research and training on three major
      themes and their related policy frameworks: air pollution and health,
      occupational health and safety and climate change and health. METHODS: The
      methods used in this work include a systematic review of secondary data from peer
      reviewed literature, thesis reports from academia, government and national
      statistical reports. Limited primary data based on key informant interviews held
      with major stakeholders were also used as sources of data. FINDINGS: Exposures to
      high levels of indoor and outdoor air pollutants were found to be major sources
      of public health challenges. Lack of occupational safety and health due to
      agricultural activities and exposure to industries was found to be substantial.
      Worse is the growing fear that climate change will pose increasingly significant
      multidimensional challenges to the environment and public health. Across all
      three areas of focus, there was a paucity of information on local scientific
      evidence. There is also very limited trained skilled manpower and physical
      infrastructure to monitor the environment and enforce regulatory guidelines.
      Research, policy frameworks and regulatory mechanisms were among the cross
      cutting issues that needed urgent attention. CONCLUSIONS: Critical gaps were
      observed in research and training across the three themes. Also, there is a
      limitation in implementing the link between policy and related regulations in the
      environment and health.

PMID- 28867921
TI  - Nanogels as a Basis for Network Construction.
AB  - Reactive nanogels with diverse chemical and physical compositions were
      synthesized using solution free radical polymerization. Conventional monomer
      resins show a reduction in polymerization shrinkage and stress as well as
      improved bond strength when nanogels are used as a filler. Nanogels dispersed in
      inert solvent at appropriate concentrations form macroscopic networks with
      chemical compositions that are not directly available from the starting monomers.

PMID- 28867922
TI  - General Bahr-Esseen inequalities and their applications.
AB  - We study the Bahr-Esseen inequality. We show that the Bahr-Esseen inequality
      holds with exponent p if it holds with exponent [Formula: see text] for the
      truncated and centered random variables. The Bahr-Esseen inequality is also true
      if the truncated random variables are acceptable. We then apply the results to
      obtain weak and strong laws of large numbers and complete convergence.

PMID- 28867923
TI  - On the spectral norms of r-circulant matrices with the biperiodic Fibonacci and
      Lucas numbers.
AB  - In this paper, we present new upper and lower bounds for the spectral norms of
      the r-circulant matrices [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] whose
      entries are the biperiodic Fibonacci and biperiodic Lucas numbers, respectively.
      Finally, we obtain lower and upper bounds for the spectral norms of Kronecker and
      Hadamard products of Q and L matrices.

PMID- 28867924
TI  - Estimating the Size of a Large Network and its Communities from a Random Sample.
AB  - Most real-world networks are too large to be measured or studied directly and
      there is substantial interest in estimating global network properties from
      smaller sub-samples. One of the most important global properties is the number of
      vertices/nodes in the network. Estimating the number of vertices in a large
      network is a major challenge in computer science, epidemiology, demography, and
      intelligence analysis. In this paper we consider a population random graph G =
      (V, E) from the stochastic block model (SBM) with K communities/blocks. A sample
      is obtained by randomly choosing a subset W ? V and letting G(W) be the induced
      subgraph in G of the vertices in W. In addition to G(W), we observe the total
      degree of each sampled vertex and its block membership. Given this partial
      information, we propose an efficient PopULation Size Estimation algorithm, called
      PULSE, that accurately estimates the size of the whole population as well as the
      size of each community. To support our theoretical analysis, we perform an
      exhaustive set of experiments to study the effects of sample size, K, and SBM
      model parameters on the accuracy of the estimates. The experimental results also
      demonstrate that PULSE significantly outperforms a widely-used method called the
      network scale-up estimator in a wide variety of scenarios.

PMID- 28867925
TI  - Adolescent Physiological and Behavioral Patterns of Emotion Dysregulation Predict
      Multisystemic Therapy Response.
AB  - This study examined whether physiological and behavioral indicators of emotion
      dysregulation assessed over the course of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) were
      related to treatment response. Participants were 180 ethnically diverse
      adolescents (n=120 males), ranging in age from 12 to 17 years. Treatment response
      was assessed through therapist report and official arrest records. Changes in
      cortisol reactivity and changes in scores on a behavioral dysregulation subscale
      of the Child Behavior Checklist were used as indicators of emotion dysregulation.
      Hierarchical linear modeling analyses examined whether a less favorable treatment
      response was associated with cortisol reactivity measures (a) collected early in
      treatment and (b) over the course of treatment, as well as with behavioral
      reports of emotion dysregulation reported (c) early in treatment, and (d) over
      the course of treatment. Sex was explored as a moderator of these associations.
      Results indicated that both cortisol and behavioral indices of emotion
      dysregulation early in treatment and over the course of therapy predicted
      treatment responsiveness. This relationship was moderated by sex: girls were more
      likely to evidence a pattern of increasing emotion regulation prior to successful
      therapy response. The results lend further support to the notion of incorporating
      emotion regulation techniques into treatment protocols for delinquent behavior.

PMID- 28867926
TI  - Quantum dot light emitting devices for photomedical applications.
AB  - While OLEDs have struggled to find a niche lighting application that can fully
      take advantage of their unique form factors as thin, flexible, lightweight and
      uniformly large-area luminaire, photomedical researchers have been in search of
      low-cost, effective illumination devices with such form factors that could
      facilitate widespread clinical applications of photodynamic therapy (PDT) or
      photobiomodulation (PBM). Although existing OLEDs with either fluorescent or
      phosphorescent emitters cannot achieve the required high power density at the
      right wavelength windows for photomedicine, the recently developed ultrabright
      and efficient deep red quantum dot light emitting devices (QLEDs) can nicely fit
      into this niche. Here, we report for the first time the in-vitro study to
      demonstrate that this QLED-based photomedical approach could increase cell
      metabolism over control systems for PBM and kill cancerous cells efficiently for
      PDT. The perspective of developing wavelength-specific, flexible QLEDs for two
      critical photomedical fields (wound repair and cancer treatment) will be
      presented with their potential impacts summarized. The work promises to generate
      flexible QLED-based light sources that could enable the widespread use and
      clinical acceptance of photomedical strategies including PDT and PBM.

PMID- 28867927
TI  - Sarcopenia and the New ICD-10-CM Code: Screening, Staging, and Diagnosis
      Considerations.

PMID- 28867928
TI  - Improving Veteran Access to Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus Infection: Addressing
      social issues and treatment barriers significantly increases access to HCV care,
      and many veterans successfully start therapy with the help of additional support
      staff.

PMID- 28867929
TI  - Statistical Learning of Multiple Structures by 8-Month-Old Infants.

PMID- 28867930
TI  - MR Safe Robot, FDA Clearance, Safety and Feasibility Prostate Biopsy Clinical
      Trial.
AB  - Compatibility of mechatronic devices with the MR environment has been a very
      challenging engineering task. After over a decade of developments, we report the
      successful translation to clinical trials of our MR Safe robot technology. MrBot
      is a 6-degree-of-freedom, pneumatically actuated robot for transperineal prostate
      percutaneous access, built exclusively of electrically nonconductive and
      nonmagnetic materials. Its extensive pre-clinical tests have been previously
      reported. Here, we present the latest technology developments, an overview of the
      regulatory protocols, and technically related results of the clinical trial. The
      FDA has approved the MrBot for the biopsy trial, which was successfully performed
      in 5 patients. With no trajectory corrections, and no unsuccessful attempts to
      target a site, the robot achieved an MRI based needle targeting accuracy of 2.55
      mm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first robot approved by the FDA for
      the MR environment. The results confirm that it is possible to perform safe and
      accurate robotic manipulation in the MRI scanner, and the development of MR Safe
      robots is no longer a daunting technical challenge.

PMID- 28867931
TI  - Targeted next-generation sequencing analysis identifies novel mutations in
      families with severe familial exudative vitreoretinopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) is a genetically and
      clinically heterogeneous disease, characterized by failure of vascular
      development of the peripheral retina. The symptoms of FEVR vary widely among
      patients in the same family, and even between the two eyes of a given patient.
      This study was designed to identify the genetic defect in a patient cohort of ten
      Chinese families with a definitive diagnosis of FEVR. METHODS: To identify the
      causative gene, next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based target capture sequencing
      was performed. Segregation analysis of the candidate variant was performed in
      additional family members by using Sanger sequencing and quantitative real-time
      PCR (QPCR). RESULTS: Of the cohort of ten FEVR families, six pathogenic variants
      were identified, including four novel and two known heterozygous mutations. Of
      the variants identified, four were missense variants, and two were novel
      heterozygous deletion mutations [LRP5, c.4053 DelC (p.Ile1351IlefsX88); TSPAN12,
      EX8Del]. The two novel heterozygous deletion mutations were not observed in the
      control subjects and could give rise to a relatively severe FEVR phenotype, which
      could be explained by the protein function prediction. CONCLUSIONS: We identified
      two novel heterozygous deletion mutations [LRP5, c.4053 DelC (p.Ile1351IlefsX88);
      TSPAN12, EX8Del] using targeted NGS as a causative mutation for FEVR. These
      genetic deletion variations exhibit a severe form of FEVR, with tractional
      retinal detachments compared with other known point mutations. The data further
      enrich the mutation spectrum of FEVR and enhance our understanding of genotype
      phenotype correlations to provide useful information for disease diagnosis,
      prognosis, and effective genetic counseling.

PMID- 28867932
TI  - A DNA dot hybridization model for molecular diagnosis of parasitic keratitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Developing a DNA dot hybridization model for diagnosing parasitic
      keratitis. METHODS: Newly designed oligonucleotide probes for detecting
      Acanthamoeba and microsporidia were tested with target reference strains of
      Acanthamoeba (n = 20) and microsporidia (n = 3), and non-target microorganisms,
      including bacteria (n = 20) and fungi (n = 20). These probes, which had passed
      the preliminary tests, were then assembled as a parasite dot hybridization (PDH)
      model for assessing 33 clinical samples from patients with clinically suspected
      Acanthamoeba and microsporidia keratitis, including eight positives for
      Acanthamoeba, 13 positives for microsporidia, and 12 negatives for both
      pathogens. RESULTS: Two probes for detecting Acanthamoeba and two for detecting
      microsporidia passed the tests using target and non-target strains and then were
      assembled in the PDH model. For clinical samples, one Acanthamoeba-positive
      sample (proved with pathology) was falsely negative according to the PDH assay.
      The sensitivity and specificity of the PDH assay for diagnosing Acanthamoeba
      keratitis were 87.5% and 100%, respectively, while the sensitivity and
      specificity for diagnosing microsporidia keratitis were 100%. The infectious
      agent of all clinical samples of microsporidia keratitis was identified as
      Vittaforma corneae with DNA sequencing, while those of Acanthamoeba keratitis
      were caused by four species of Acanthamoeba, with Acanthamoeba castellanii found
      in four samples (50%, 4/8). CONCLUSIONS: The PDH model has the potential to be a
      molecular assay for diagnosing Acanthamoeba and microsporidia keratitis. However,
      a prospective clinical study might be needed before the model is adopted in
      routine clinical practice.

PMID- 28867933
TI  - Anxiety disorders: a review of current literature.
AB  - Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric disorders. There is a high
      comorbidity between anxiety (especially generalized anxiety disorders or panic
      disorders) and depressive disorders or between anxiety disorders, which renders
      treatment more complex. Current guidelines do not recommend benzodiazepines as
      first-line treatments due to their potential side effects. Selective serotonin
      reuptake inhibitors and selective serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors
      are recommended as first-line treatments. Psychotherapy, in association with
      pharmacotherapy, is associated with better efficacy. Finally, a bio-psycho-social
      model is hypothesized in anxiety disorders.

PMID- 28867935
TI  - The history of generalized anxiety disorder as a diagnostic category.
AB  - From the 19th century into the 20th century, the terms used to diagnose
      generalized anxiety included "pantophobia" and "anxiety neurosis." Such terms
      designated paroxysmal manifestations (panic attacks) as well as interparoxysmal
      phenomenology (the apprehensive mental state). Also, generalized anxiety was
      considered one of numerous symptoms of neurasthenia, a vaguely defined illness.
      Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) appeared as a diagnostic category in the third
      edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in
      1980, when anxiety neurosis was split into GAD and panic disorder. The distinct
      responses these two disorders had to imipramine therapy was one reason to
      distinguish between the two. Since the revised DSM-III (DSM-III-R), worry about a
      number of life circumstances has been gradually emphasized as the distinctive
      symptom of GAD. Thus, a cognitive aspect of anxiety has become the core criterion
      of GAD. The validity of GAD as an independent category has been questioned from
      DSM-III up to preparation of DSM-5. Areas of concern have included the difficulty
      to establish clear boundaries between GAD and (i) personality dimensions, (ii)
      other anxiety-spectrum disorders, and (iii) nonbipolar depression. The National
      Institute of Mental Health has recently proposed the Research Domain Criteria
      (RDoC), a framework destined to facilitate biological research into the etiology
      of mental symptoms. Within the RDoC framework, generalized anxiety might be
      studied as a dimension denominated "anxious apprehension" that would typically
      fit into the research domain called "negative valence systems" and the more
      specific construct termed "potential threat."

PMID- 28867934
TI  - Treatment of anxiety disorders.
AB  - Anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder/agoraphobia,
      social anxiety disorder, and others) are the most prevalent psychiatric
      disorders, and are associated with a high burden of illness. Anxiety disorders
      are often underrecognized and undertreated in primary care. Treatment is
      indicated when a patient shows marked distress or suffers from complications
      resulting from the disorder. The treatment recommendations given in this article
      are based on guidelines, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews of randomized
      controlled studies. Anxiety disorders should be treated with psychological
      therapy, pharmacotherapy, or a combination of both. Cognitive behavioral therapy
      can be regarded as the psychotherapy with the highest level of evidence. First
      line drugs are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin
      norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. Benzodiazepines are not recommended for
      routine use. Other treatment options include pregabalin, tricyclic
      antidepressants, buspirone, moclobemide, and others. After remission, medications
      should be continued for 6 to 12 months. When developing a treatment plan,
      efficacy, adverse effects, interactions, costs, and the preference of the patient
      should be considered.

PMID- 28867936
TI  - Cultural aspects of anxiety disorders in India.
AB  - Cultural factors have influenced the presentation, diagnoses, and treatment of
      anxiety disorders in India for several centuries. This review covers the
      antecedents, prevalence, phenomenology, and treatment modalities of anxiety
      disorders in the Indian cultural context. It covers the history of the depiction
      of anxiety in India and the concept of culture in the classification of anxiety
      disorders, and examines the cultural factors influencing anxiety disorders in
      India. We review the prevalence and phenomenology of various disorders, such as
      generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety, and phobic
      disorder, as well as culture-specific syndromes such as dhat and koro in India.
      Finally, the review examines the wide range of therapeutic modalities practiced
      in India, such as faith healing, psychotherapy, ayurveda, psychopharmacology,
      Unani medicine, homeopathy, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. We conclude by
      emphasizing the significance of cultural factors in making relevant diagnoses and
      offering effective and holistic treatments to individuals with anxiety disorders.

PMID- 28867937
TI  - Epidemiology of anxiety disorders: from surveys to nosology and back.
AB  - On the basis of epidemiological survey findings, anxiety disorders are the most
      prevalent mental disorders around the world and are associated with significant
      comorbidity and morbidity. Such surveys rely on advances in psychiatric nosology
      and may also contribute usefully to revisions of the nosology. There are a number
      of questions at the intersection of psychiatric epidemiology and nosology. This
      review addresses the following: What is the prevalence of anxiety disorders and
      how do we best explain cross-national differences in prevalence estimates? What
      are the optimal diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders, and how can
      epidemiological data shed light on this question? What are the comorbidities of
      anxiety disorders, and how do we best understand the high comorbidities seen in
      these conditions? What is the current treatment gap for anxiety disorders, and
      what are the implications of current understandings of psychiatric epidemiology
      and nosology for policy-making relevant to anxiety disorders? Here, we emphasize
      that anxiety disorders are the most prevalent of the psychiatric conditions, and
      that rather than merely contrasting cross-national prevalence in anxiety
      disorders, it is more productive to delineate cross-national themes that emerge
      about the epidemiology of these conditions. We discuss that optimizing diagnostic
      criteria for anxiety disorders is an iterative process to which epidemiological
      data can make a crucial contribution. Additionally, high comorbidity in anxiety
      disorders is not merely artefactual; it provides key opportunities to explore
      pathways to mental disorders and to intervene accordingly. Finally, work on the
      epidemiology and nosology of anxiety disorders has provided a number of important
      targets for mental health policy and for future integrative work to move between
      bench and bedside, as well as between clinic and community.

PMID- 28867938
TI  - Environmental transmission of generalized anxiety disorder from parents to
      children: worries, experiential avoidance, and intolerance of uncertainty.
AB  - Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) runs in families. Building on recent
      theoretical approaches, this review focuses on potential environmental pathways
      for parent-to-child transmission of GAD. First, we address child acquisition of a
      generalized pattern of fearful/anxious and avoidant responding to potential
      threat from parents via verbal information and via modeling. Next, we address how
      parenting behaviors may contribute to maintenance of fearful/anxious and avoidant
      reactions in children. Finally, we consider intergenerational transmission of
      worries as a way of coping with experiential avoidance of strong negative
      emotions and with intolerance of uncertainty. We conclude that parents with GAD
      may bias their children's processing of potential threats in the environment by
      conveying the message that the world is not safe, that uncertainty is
      intolerable, that strong emotions should be avoided, and that worry helps to cope
      with uncertainty, thereby transmitting cognitive styles that characterize GAD.
      Our review highlights the need for research on specific pathways for parent-to
      child transmission of GAD.

PMID- 28867939
TI  - Biological markers of generalized anxiety disorder.
AB  - Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent and highly disabling mental
      health condition; however, there is still much to learn with regard to pertinent
      biomarkers, as well as diagnosis, made more difficult by the marked and common
      overlap of GAD with affective and anxiety disorders. Recently, intensive research
      efforts have focused on GAD, applying neuroimaging, genetic, and blood-based
      approaches toward discovery of pathogenetic and treatment-related biomarkers. In
      this paper, we review the large amount of available data, and we focus in
      particular on evidence from neuroimaging, genetic, and neurochemical measurements
      in GAD in order to better understand potential biomarkers involved in its
      etiology and treatment. Overall, the majority of these studies have produced
      results that are solitary findings, sometimes inconsistent and not clearly
      replicable. For these reasons, they have not yet been translated into clinical
      practice. Therefore, further research efforts are needed to distinguish GAD from
      other mental disorders and to provide new biological insights into its
      pathogenesis and treatment.

PMID- 28867940
TI  - Genetics of generalized anxiety disorder and related traits.
AB  - This review serves as a systematic guide to the genetics of generalized anxiety
      disorder (GAD) and further focuses on anxiety-relevant endophenotypes, such as
      pathological worry fear of uncertainty, and neuroticism. We inspect clinical
      genetic evidence for the familialityl heritability of GAD and cross-disorder
      phenotypes based on family and twin studies. Recent advances of linkage studies,
      genome-wide association studies, and candidate gene studies (eg, 5-HTT, 5-HT1A,
      MAOA, BDNF) are outlined. Functional and structural neuroimaging and
      neurophysiological readouts relating to peripheral stress markers and
      psychophysiology are further integrated, building a multilevel disease framework.
      We explore etiologic factors in gene-environment interaction approaches
      investigating childhood trauma, environmental adversity, and stressful life
      events in relation to selected candidate genes (5-HTT, NPSR1, COMT, MAOA, CRHR1,
      RGS2), Additionally, the pharmacogenetics of selective serotonin reuptake
      inhibitor/serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor treatment are summarized (5
      HTT, 5-HT2A, COMT, CRHR1). Finally, GAD and trait anxiety research challenges and
      perspectives in the field of genetics, including epigenetics, are discussed.

PMID- 28867941
TI  - Affective neuroimaging in generalized anxiety disorder: an integrated review.
AB  - Affective neuroimaging has contributed to our knowledge of generalized anxiety
      disorder (GAD) through measurement of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)
      responses, which facilitate inference on neural responses to emotional stimuli
      during task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this article,
      the authors provide an integrated review of the task-based affective fMRI
      literature in GAD. Studies provide evidence for variable presence and
      directionality of BOLD abnormalities in limbic and prefrontal regions during
      reactivity to, regulation of, and learning from emotional cues. We conclude that
      understanding the sources of this variability is key to accelerating progress in
      this area. We propose that the cardinal symptom of GAD-worry-predominantly
      reflects stimulus-independent mental processes that impose abnormal, inflexible
      functional brain configurations, ie, the overall pattern of information transfer
      among behaviorally relevant neural circuits at a given point in time. These
      configurations that are inflexible to change from the incoming flux of
      environmental stimuli may underlie inconsistent task-based findings.

PMID- 28867942
TI  - Behavioral methods to study anxiety in rodents.
AB  - Stress is a precipitating factor for anxiety-related disorders, which are among
      the leading forms of psychiatric illness and impairment in the modern world.
      Rodent-based behavioral tests and models are widely used to understand the
      mechanisms by which stress triggers anxiety-related behaviors and to identify new
      treatments for anxiety-related disorders. Although substantial progress has been
      made and many of the key neural circuits and molecular pathways mediating stress
      responsiveness have been characterized, these advances have thus far failed to
      translate into fundamentally new treatments that are safer and more efficacious
      in humans. The purpose of this article is to describe methods that have been
      historically used for this type of research and to highlight new approaches that
      align with recent conceptualizations of disease symptomatology and that may
      ultimately prove to be more fruitful in facilitating the development of improved
      therapeutics.

PMID- 28867944
TI  - Cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety.
AB  - As a form of therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is more than a mere
      "toolbox." CBT allows us to better understand how the human mind is functioning
      because it is based on neuroscience and experimental and scientific psychology.
      At the beginning, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
      was "nontheoretical," but nowadays (the most recent version being DSM-5), it is
      increasingly based on CBT paradigms (with the insertion of important notions such
      as cognitions and behaviors). This Brief Report presents what we currently know
      about generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and how we can treat this condition by
      nonpharmaceutical means. In the last few years, GAD theories have evolved,
      becoming more precise about the cognitive functioning of GAD sufferers. Here, we
      look at current theoretical models and the main techniques of therapeutic care,
      as well as the advances in research about the "transdiagnostic" process and GAD
      in childhood. CBT is an effective treatment for GAD, typically leading to
      reductions in worry, and a study has shown that such therapy is equal to
      pharmaceutical treatment and more effective 6 months after study completion.

PMID- 28867945
TI  - Genetic, Biochemical, Nutritional and Antimicrobial Characteristics of
      Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)?Grown in Istria.
AB  - This study characterises the genetic variability of local pomegranate (Punica
      granatum L.) germplasm from the Slovenian and Croatian areas of Istria. The
      bioactive components and antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of ethanol and
      water extracts of different parts of pomegranate fruit were also determined,
      along with their preliminary nutritional characterisation. Twenty-six different
      genotypes identified with microsatellite analysis indicate the great diversity of
      pomegranate in Istria. The pomegranate fruit ethanol extracts represent rich
      sources of phenolic compounds (mean value of the mass fraction in exocarp and
      mesocarp expressed as gallic acid is 23 and 16 mg/g, respectively). The ethanol
      extracts of pomegranate exocarp and mesocarp showed the greatest antimicrobial
      activity against Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis, Rhodotorula
      mucilaginosa, Exophiala dermatitidis and Staphylococcus aureus, and the same
      water extracts against S. aureus and Escherichia coli. To the best of our
      knowledge, this study represents the first report of the characterisation of
      pomegranate genetic resources from Istria at different levels, including the
      molecular, chemical, antimicrobial and nutritional properties.

PMID- 28867946
TI  - Recombinant Xylanase from Bacillus tequilensis BT21: Biochemical Characterisation
      and Its Application in the Production of Xylobiose from Agricultural Residues.
AB  - Bacterial strain Bacillus tequilensis BT21 isolated from marine sediments was
      found to produce extracellular xylanase. The xynBT21 gene encoding xylanase
      enzyme was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The gene encoded a protein
      consisting of 213 amino acid residues with calculated molecular mass of 23.3 kDa.
      Purified recombinant xylanase had optimum activity at 60  degrees C and pH=6. The
      enzyme was highly stable in alkaline pH, at pH=7 it remained 100% active for 24
      h, while its activity increased at pH=8 and 9 during incubation. B. tequilensis
      BT21 xylanase had alkaline pI of 9.4 and belongs to glycosyl hydrolase family 11.
      The mode of action of XynBT21 on beechwood xylan and xylooligosaccharides was
      studied. It hydrolysed xylooligosaccharides and beechwood xylan yielding mainly
      xylobiose (X2) with a small amount of xylose (X1), indicating that XynBT21 was
      probably an endo-acting xylanase. Enzymatic hydrolysis using wheat bran as a
      substrate revealed that xylanase reported here has the potential to produce
      xylobiose from wheat bran. Xylooligosaccharides, especially xylobiose, have
      strong bifidogenic properties and are increasingly used as a prebiotic. This is
      the first report that describes this novel xylanase enzyme from marine B.
      tequilensis BT21 used for the release of xylobiose from wheat bran.

PMID- 28867943
TI  - Oxytocin and social functioning.
AB  - Social anxiety is a form of anxiety characterized by continuous fear of one or
      more social or performance situations. Although multiple treatment modalities
      (cognitive behavioral therapy, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors/selective
      norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, benzodiazepines) exist for social anxiety,
      they are effective for only 60% to 70% of patients. Thus, researchers have looked
      for other candidates for social anxiety treatment. Our review focuses on the
      peptide oxytocin as a potential therapeutic option for individuals with social
      anxiety. Animal research both in nonprimates and primates supports oxytocin's
      role in facilitation of prosocial behaviors and its anxiolytic effects. Human
      studies indicate significant associations between social anxiety and oxytocin
      receptor gene alleles, as well as social anxiety and oxytocin plasma levels. In
      addition, intranasal administration of oxytocin in humans has favorable effects
      on social anxiety symptomology. Other disorders, including autism, schizophrenia,
      and anorexia, have components of social anxiety in their pathophysiology. The
      therapeutic role of oxytocin for social dysfunction in these disorders is
      discussed.

PMID- 28867947
TI  - Lactobacillus casei Encapsulated in Soy Protein Isolate and Alginate
      Microparticles Prepared by Spray Drying.
AB  - This article presents a novel formulation for preparation of Lactobacillus casei
      01 encapsulated in soy protein isolate and alginate microparticles using spray
      drying method. A response surface methodology was used to optimise the
      formulation and the central composite face-centered design was applied to study
      the effects of critical material attributes and process parameters on viability
      of the probiotic after microencapsulation and in simulated gastrointestinal
      conditions. Spherical microparticles were produced in high yield (64%), narrow
      size distribution (d50=9.7 um, span=0.47) and favourable mucoadhesive properties,
      with viability of the probiotic of 11.67, 10.05, 9.47 and 9.20 log CFU/g after
      microencapsulation, 3 h in simulated gastric and intestinal conditions and four
      month cold storage, respectively. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
      confirmed the probiotic stability after microencapsulation, while differential
      scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetry pointed to high thermal stability of
      the soy protein isolate-alginate microparticles with encapsulated probiotic.
      These favourable properties of the probiotic microparticles make them suitable
      for incorporation into functional food or pharmaceutical products.

PMID- 28867948
TI  - Biogas Production from Brewer's Yeast Using an Anaerobic Sequencing Batch
      Reactor.
AB  - Renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly important in the beverage and
      food industries. In the brewing industry, a significant percentage of the used
      raw materials finishes the process as secondary resource or waste. The research
      on the anaerobic digestion of brewer's yeast has been scarce until recent years.
      One of the reasons for this is its use as a secondary resource in the food
      industry and as cattle feed. Additionally, market value of brewer's yeast is
      higher than its energy value. Due to the increase of energy prices, brewer's
      yeast has become of interest as energy substrate despite its difficult
      degradability in anaerobic conditions. The anaerobic co-digestion of brewer's
      yeast and anaerobically treated brewery wastewater was studied using a pilot
      scale anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) seeded with granular biomass. The
      experiments showed very good and stable operation with an organic loading rate of
      up to 8.0 kg/(m3.day), and with a maximum achieved organic loading rate of 13.6
      kg/(m3.day) in a single cycle. A specific biogas productivity of over 0.430 m3/kg
      of the total chemical oxygen demand (COD) inserted, and total COD removal
      efficiencies of over 90% were achieved. This study suggests that the brewer's
      yeast can be successfully digested in an ASBR without adverse effects on the
      biogas production from brewer's yeast/wastewater mixtures of up to 8% (by
      volume). By using the brewer's yeast in the ASBR process, the biogas production
      from brewery wastewater could be increased by 50%.

PMID- 28867949
TI  - Hybrid Drying of Carrot Preliminary Processed with Ultrasonically Assisted
      Osmotic Dehydration.
AB  - In this paper the kinetics of osmotic dehydration of carrot and the influence of
      this pretreatment on the post-drying processes and the quality of obtained
      products are analysed. Osmotic dehydration was carried out in the aqueous
      fructose solution in two different ways: with and without ultrasound assistance.
      In the first part of the research, the kinetics of osmotic dehydration was
      analysed on the basis of osmotic dewatering rate, water loss and solid gain.
      Next, the effective time of dehydration was determined and in the second part of
      research samples were initially dehydrated for 30 min and dried. Five different
      procedures of drying were established on the grounds of convective method
      enhanced with microwave and infrared radiation. The influence of osmotic
      dehydration on the drying kinetics and final product quality was analysed. It was
      found that it did not influence the drying kinetics significantly but positively
      affected the final product quality. Negligible influence on the drying kinetics
      was attributed to solid uptake, which may block the pores, hindering heat and
      mass transfer. It was also concluded that the application of microwave and/or
      infrared radiation during convective drying significantly influenced the kinetics
      of the final stage of drying. A proper combination of aforementioned techniques
      of hybrid drying allows reducing the drying time. Differences between the
      particular dehydration methods and drying schedules were discussed.

PMID- 28867950
TI  - Extracellular Alkaline Lipase from a Novel Fungus?Curvularia sp. DHE 5:
      Optimisation of Physicochemical Parameters, Partial Purification and
      Characterisation.
AB  - Thirty isolated fungal strains were screened for lipase production using Phenol
      Red plates, containing tributyrin as lipidic substrate, and a novel fungus
      identified genetically as Curvularia sp. DHE 5 was found as the most prominent
      strain. Various agro-industrial substrates were evaluated as inert supports for
      lipase production in solid-state fermentation. The highest yield of lipase
      ((83.4+/-2.2) U/g on dry mass basis) was reported with wheat bran medium after
      seven days of fermentation at pH=7.0, temperature of 30  degrees C, 70% moisture
      content, inoculum size of 1.27.107 spore/mL and 2% olive oil as an inducer.
      Supplementation of the medium with 0.05% KCl as an ion source further increased
      lipase production to (88.9+/-1.2) U/g on dry mass basis. The enzyme was partially
      purified through ammonium sulphate fractionation (40%) followed by dialysis, and
      its optimum pH and temperature were reported at 8.0 and 50  degrees C,
      respectively, with remarkable pH and thermal stability.

PMID- 28867951
TI  - Brewery Waste Reuse for Protease Production by Lactic ?Acid Fermentation.
AB  - This study evaluated the use of three solid brewery wastes: brewer's spent grain,
      hot trub and residual brewer's yeast, as alternative media for the cultivation of
      lactic acid bacteria to evaluate their potential for proteolytic enzyme
      production. Initially, a mixture experimental design was used to evaluate the
      effect of each residue, as well as different mixtures (with the protein content
      set at 4%) in the enzyme production. At predetermined intervals, the solid and
      liquid fractions were separated and the extracellular proteolytic activity was
      determined. After selecting the best experimental conditions, a second
      experiment, factorial experimental design, was developed in order to evaluate the
      protein content in the media (1 to 7%) and the addition of fermentable sugar
      (glucose, 1 to 7%). Among the wastes, residual yeast showed the highest potential
      for the production of extracellular enzymes, generating a proteolytic extract
      with 2.6 U/mL in 3 h. However, due to the low content of the fermentable sugars
      in the medium, the addition of glucose also had a positive effect, increasing the
      proteolytic activity to 4.9 U/mL. The best experimental conditions of each
      experimental design were reproduced for comparison, and the enzyme content was
      separated by ethanol precipitation. The best medium produced a precipitated
      protein with proteolytic activity of 145.5 U/g.

PMID- 28867952
TI  - Production of gamma-Decalactone by Yeast Strains under ?Different Conditions.
AB  - gamma-Decalactone is a flavour compound that when obtained by biotechnological
      production using microorganisms is classified as natural. The aim of this study
      is to evaluate various conditions for gamma-decalactone production by tropical
      yeast strains Yarrowia lipolytica CCMA 0242 and Lindnera saturnus CCMA 0243. The
      growth of and gamma-decalactone production by Y. lipolytica CCMA 0242 were higher
      in castor oil than in glycerol. gamma-Decalactone production in single batch or
      fed-batch fermentation did not differ significantly. The gamma-decalactone
      production by L. saturnus CCMA 0243 was better at initial pH=5, while the
      production by Y. lipolytica CCMA 0242 was better at initial pH=6. The yeast L.
      saturnus CCMA 0243 produced more gamma-decalactone than Y. lipolytica CCMA 0242
      under the same fermentation conditions. The crude glycerol was not an alternative
      substrate for gamma-decalactone production by Y. lipolytica CCMA 0242. Castor oil
      at volume fraction of 30% showed better results as a substrate. The strain L.
      saturnus CCMA 0243 showed better results of gamma-decalactone production. This
      yeast species can be considered an alternative producer of gamma-decalactone in
      biotechnological processes.

PMID- 28867953
TI  - Tween(r) 20-Enhanced Bioreduction of Acetophenones ?Promoted by Daucus carota
      Root.
AB  - The effect of surfactants on the bioreduction of acetophenones mediated by carrot
      (Daucus carota) root was investigated. Among the tested surfactants, Tween(r) 20
      slightly improved the conversion. The amount of surfactant was optimised, and the
      presented methodology was applied to other substituted acetophenones, which led
      to the preparation of their respective optically enriched 1-phenylethanols with
      high conversion levels and high enantioselectivities.

PMID- 28867954
TI  - Evaluation of Solasonine Content and Expression Patterns ?of SGT1 Gene in
      Different Tissues of Two Iranian Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) Genotypes.
AB  - Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is one of the most consumed vegetables in the
      world. The eggplant glycoalkaloids (GAs) are toxic secondary metabolites that may
      have detrimental effects on human health, particularly if the magnitudes of GAs
      are higher than the recommended food safety level (200 mg per kg of fresh mass).
      In this study, the content of solasonine compound and the expression patterns of
      solasodine galactosyltransferase (SGT1) gene were assessed in different tissues
      (mature leaves, flower buds, young, mature, and physiologically ripe fruits) of
      two Iranian eggplant genotypes (D1 and J10) under field conditions. The maximum
      mass fraction of solasonine in D1 was detected in flower buds (135.63 ug/g),
      followed by leaf (113.29 ug/g), physiologically ripe fruit (74.74 ug/g), young
      fruit (61.33 ug/g), and mature fruit (21.55 ug/g). Comparing both genotypes, the
      genotype of bitter fruits (J10) contained higher mass fraction of solasonine, as
      one of the main factors for producing bitter flavour of the plant. Regarding the
      expression profiles of SGT1, in both genotypes, the activity of the gene was
      increased nearly parallel with the concentration of solasonine. In the J10
      genotype, transcript level of the gene was significantly higher than the genotype
      of sweet fruits (D1). Although both D1 and J10 genotypes are possibly
      recommendable for human food consumption, D1 is more suitable for daily diet.

PMID- 28867955
TI  - Effect of Microwave-Assisted Extraction on the Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant
      Capacity of Blackthorn Flowers.
AB  - This research was undertaken to investigate the influence of extraction
      parameters during microwave-assisted extraction on total phenolic content, total
      flavonoids, total hydroxycinnamic acids and total flavonols of blackthorn flowers
      as well as to evaluate the antioxidant capacity by two different methods (2,2
      diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging capacity and ferric reducing
      antioxidant power assays). The investigated extraction parameters were: solvent
      type and volume fraction of alcohol in solvent (50 and 70% aqueous solutions of
      ethanol and methanol), extraction time (5, 15 and 25 min) and extraction
      temperature (40, 50 and 60  degrees C) controlled by microwave power of 100, 200
      and 300 W. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to evaluate the
      differences at a 95% confidence level (p<=0.05). The obtained results show that
      aqueous solution of ethanol was more appropriate solvent for extraction of
      phenolic compounds (total flavonoids, total hydroxycinnamic acids and total
      flavonols) than aqueous solution of methanol. The amount of phenolic compounds
      was higher in 70% aqueous solution of ethanol or methanol, while higher
      antioxidant capacity was observed in 50% aqueous solution of methanol. Higher
      temperature of extraction improved the amount of phenolic compounds and also
      antioxidant capacity determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical
      scavenging capacity assay. Extensive duration of extraction (15- to 25-minute
      interval) has a significant effect only on the increase of total phenolic
      content, while specific phenolic compound content and antioxidant capacity were
      the highest when microwave extraction time of 5 min was applied.

PMID- 28867957
TI  - Synthesis of the Galactosyl Derivative of Gluconic Acid With the
      Transglycosylation Activity of beta-Galactosidase.
AB  - Bionic acids are bioactive compounds demonstrating numerous interesting
      properties. They are widely produced by chemical or enzymatic oxidation of
      disaccharides. This paper focuses on the galactosyl derivative of gluconic acid
      as a result of a new method of bionic acid synthesis which utilises the
      transglycosylation properties of beta-galactosidase and introduces lactose as a
      substrate. Products obtained in such a process are characterised by different
      structures (and, potentially, properties) than those resulting from traditional
      oxidation of disaccharides. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of
      selected parameters (concentration and ratio of substrates, dose of the enzyme,
      time, pH, presence of salts) on the course of the reaction carried out with the
      enzymatic preparation Lactozym, containing beta-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces
      lactis. Research has shown that increased dry matter content in the baseline
      solution (up to 50%, by mass per volume) and an addition of NaCl contribute to
      higher yield. On the other hand, reduced content of the derivative is a result of
      increased pH from 7.0 to 9.0 and an addition of magnesium and manganese salts.
      Moreover, exceeding the beta-galactosidase dose over approx. 35 000 U per 100 g
      of lactose also leads to reduced yield of the process. The most favourable molar
      ratio of sodium gluconate to lactose is 2.225:0.675. Depending on the conditions
      of the synthesis, the product concentration ranged between 17.3 and 118.3 g/L of
      the reaction mixture, which corresponded to the mass fraction of 6.64-23.7% of
      dry matter. The data obtained as a result of the present study may be useful for
      designing an industrial process.

PMID- 28867956
TI  - MEGGASENSE - The Metagenome/Genome Annotated Sequence Natural Language Search
      Engine: A Platform for ?the Construction of Sequence Data Warehouses.
AB  - The MEGGASENSE platform constructs relational databases of DNA or protein
      sequences. The default functional analysis uses 14 106 hidden Markov model (HMM)
      profiles based on sequences in the KEGG database. The Solr search engine allows
      sophisticated queries and a BLAST search function is also incorporated. These
      standard capabilities were used to generate the SCATT database from the predicted
      proteome of Streptomyces cattleya. The implementation of a specialised metagenome
      database (AMYLOMICS) for bioprospecting of carbohydrate-modifying enzymes is
      described. In addition to standard assembly of reads, a novel 'functional'
      assembly was developed, in which screening of reads with the HMM profiles occurs
      before the assembly. The AMYLOMICS database incorporates additional HMM profiles
      for carbohydrate-modifying enzymes and it is illustrated how the combination of
      HMM and BLAST analyses helps identify interesting genes. A variety of different
      proteome and metagenome databases have been generated by MEGGASENSE.

PMID- 28867958
TI  - Relationships Between Bioactive Compound Content and?the Antiplatelet and
      Antioxidant Activities of Six Allium Vegetable Species.
AB  - Allium sp. vegetables are widely consumed for their characteristic flavour.
      Additionally, their consumption may provide protection against cardiovascular
      disease due to their antiplatelet and antioxidant activities. Although
      antiplatelet and antioxidant activities in Allium sp. are generally recognised,
      comparative studies of antiplatelet and antioxidant potency among the main Allium
      vegetable species are lacking. Also, the relationship between organosulfur and
      phenolic compounds and these biological activities has not been well established.
      In this study, the in vitro antiplatelet and antioxidant activities of the most
      widely consumed Allium species are characterised and compared. The species total
      organosulfur and phenolic content, and the HPLC profiles of 11 phenolic compounds
      were characterised and used to investigate the relationship between these
      compounds and antiplatelet and antioxidant activities. Furthermore, antiplatelet
      activities in chives and shallot have been characterised for the first time. Our
      results revealed that the strongest antiplatelet agents were garlic and shallot,
      whereas chives had the highest antioxidant activity. Leek and bunching onion had
      the weakest both biological activities. Significantly positive correlations were
      found between the in vitro antiplatelet activity and total organosulfur (R=0.74)
      and phenolic (TP) content (R=0.73), as well as between the antioxidant activity
      and TP (R=0.91) and total organosulfur content (R=0.67). Six individual phenolic
      compounds were associated with the antioxidant activity, with catechin,
      epigallocatechin and epicatechin gallate having the strongest correlation values
      (R>0.80). Overall, our results suggest that both organosulfur and phenolic
      compounds contribute similarly to Allium antiplatelet activity, whereas
      phenolics, as a whole, are largely responsible for antioxidant activity, with
      broad variation observed among the contributions of individual phenolic
      compounds.

PMID- 28867959
TI  - Structural features and seismotectonic implications of coseismic surface ruptures
      produced by the 2016 Mw 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake.
AB  - Field investigations and analyses of satellite images and aerial photographs
      reveal that the 2016 Mw 7.1 (Mj 7.3) Kumamoto earthquake produced a ~40-km
      surface rupture zone striking NE-SW on central Kyushu Island, Japan. Coseismic
      surface ruptures were characterized by shear faults, extensional cracks, and mole
      tracks, which mostly occurred along the pre-existing NE-SW-striking Hinagu
      Futagawa fault zone in the southwest and central segments, and newly identified
      faults in the northeast segment. This study shows that (i) the Hinagu-Futagawa
      fault zone triggered the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake and controlled the spatial
      distribution of coseismic surface ruptures; (ii) the southwest and central
      segments were dominated by right-lateral strike-slip movement with a maximum in
      site measured displacement of up to 2.5 m, accompanied by a minor vertical
      component. In contrast, the northeast segment was dominated by normal faulting
      with a maximum vertical offset of up to 1.75 m with a minor horizontal component
      that formed graben structures inside Aso caldera; (iii) coseismic rupturing
      initiated at the jog area between the Hinagu and Futagawa faults, then propagated
      northeastward into Aso caldera, where it terminated. The 2016 Mw 7.1 Kumamoto
      earthquake therefore offers a rare opportunity to study the relationships between
      coseismic rupture processes and pre-existing active faults, as well as the
      seismotectonics of Aso volcano.

PMID- 28867960
TI  - Estimating the upper limit of prehistoric peak ground acceleration using an in
      situ, intact and vulnerable stalagmite from Plavecka priepast cave (Detrekoi
      zsomboly), Little Carpathians, Slovakia-first results.
AB  - Earthquakes hit urban centres in Europe infrequently, but occasionally with
      disastrous effects. Obtaining an unbiased view of seismic hazard (and risk) is
      therefore very important. In principle, the best way to test probabilistic
      seismic hazard assessments (PSHAs) is to compare them with observations that are
      entirely independent of the procedure used to produce PSHA models. Arguably, the
      most valuable information in this context should be information on long-term
      hazard, namely maximum intensities (or magnitudes) occurring over time intervals
      that are at least as long as a seismic cycle. The new observations can provide
      information of maximum intensity (or magnitude) for long timescale as an input
      data for PSHA studies as well. Long-term information can be gained from intact
      stalagmites in natural caves. These formations survived all earthquakes that have
      occurred over thousands of years, depending on the age of the stalagmite. Their
      'survival' requires that the horizontal ground acceleration (HGA) has never
      exceeded a certain critical value within that time period. Here, we present such
      a stalagmite-based case study from the Little Carpathians of Slovakia. A
      specially shaped, intact and vulnerable stalagmite in the Plavecka priepast cave
      was examined in 2013. This stalagmite is suitable for estimating the upper limit
      of horizontal peak ground acceleration generated by prehistoric earthquakes. The
      critical HGA values as a function of time going back into the past determined
      from the stalagmite that we investigated are presented. For example, at the time
      of Joko event (1906), the critical HGA value cannot have been higher than 1 and
      1.3 m/s2 at the time of the assumed Carnuntum event (~340 AD), and 3000 years
      ago, it must have been lower than 1.7 m/s2. We claimed that the effect of Joko
      earthquake (1906) on the location of the Plavecka priepast cave is consistent
      with the critical HGA value provided by the stalagmite we investigated. The
      approach used in this study yields significant new constraints on the seismic
      hazard, as tectonic structures close to Plavecka priepast cave did not generate
      strong earthquakes in the last few thousand years. The results of this study are
      highly relevant given that the two capitals, Vienna and Bratislava, are located
      within 40 and 70 km of the cave, respectively.

PMID- 28867961
TI  - Potential immunotoxic effects of trichloroethylene-induced IV allergic reaction
      in renal impairment.
AB  - Trichloroethylene (TCE) is known to induce allergic contact dermatitis and
      subsequent occupational medicamentosa-like dermatitis (OMLD) with multi-system
      injuries, including liver, kidney, and skin injuries. However, the mechanisms
      underlying immune system dysfunction that result in organ injury have not yet
      been clearly elucidated. In the present study, we measured the levels of secreted
      cytokines by effect or T cells in TCE-treated guinea pigs to better understand
      the contribution of allergic disorders in renal injuries. We immunized guinea
      pigs with trichloroethylene using the Guinea Pig Maximization Test (GPMT) and
      scored the inflammation on the guinea pigs' skin. The kidney function and ultra
      structural changes in the kidneys were detected using biochemical methods and
      electron microscopy. The deposition of cytokines was determined using
      immunohistochemistry. The sensitization rate was 63.16% in the TCE-sensitized
      groups. The electron microscopy results showed tubular epithelial cell
      mitochondrial swelling, vacuolar degeneration, and atrophy of the microvillus in
      the sensitized groups. A high degree of cytokine deposition was observed in the
      renal tubular proximal epithelial cells in the TCE-sensitized groups. As observed
      in this study, the variation in the level of immune system activation not only
      indicates that TCE can largely magnify the immune reaction but also suggests a
      potential role of immune dysfunction in renal impairment.

PMID- 28867963
TI  - Phase space of modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity.
AB  - We investigate the evolution of non-vacuum Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker
      (FLRW) spacetimes with any spatial curvature in the context of Gauss-Bonnet
      gravity. The analysis employs a new method which enables us to explore the phase
      space of any specific theory of this class. We consider several examples,
      discussing the transition from a decelerating into an acceleration universe
      within these theories. We also deduce from the dynamical equations some general
      conditions on the form of the action which guarantee the presence of specific
      behaviours like the emergence of accelerated expansion. As in f(R) gravity, our
      analysis shows that there is a set of initial conditions for which these models
      have a finite time singularity which can be an attractor. The presence of this
      instability also in the Gauss-Bonnet gravity is to be ascribed to the fourth
      order derivative in the field equations, i.e., is the direct consequence of the
      higher order of the equations.

PMID- 28867964
TI  - Weights and importance in composite indicators: Closing the gap.
AB  - Composite indicators are very popular tools for assessing and ranking countries
      and institutions in terms of environmental performance, sustainability, and other
      complex concepts that are not directly measurable. Because of the stakes that
      come with the media attention of these tools, a word of caution is warranted. One
      common misconception relates to the effect of the weights assigned to indicators
      during the aggregation process. This work presents a novel series of tools that
      allow developers and users of composite indicators to explore effects of these
      weights. First, the importance of each indicator to the composite is measured by
      the nonlinear Pearson correlation ratio, estimated by Bayesian Gaussian
      processes. Second, the effect of each indicator is isolated from that of other
      indicators using regression analysis, and examined in detail. Finally, an
      optimisation procedure is proposed which allows weights to be fitted to agree
      with pre-specified values of importance. These three tools together give
      developers considerable insight into the effects of weights and suggest
      possibilities for refining and simplifying the aggregation. The added value of
      these tools are shown on three case studies: the Resource Governance Index, the
      Good Country Index, and the Water Retention Index.

PMID- 28867962
TI  - Vaccine research and development: tuberculosis as a global health threat.
AB  - One of the aims of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Millennium Development
      Goals (MDG) is to reduce the number of cases of tuberculosis (TB) infection by
      the year 2015. However, 9 million new cases were reported in 2013, with an
      estimated 480,000 new cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)
      globally. Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the most available and currently used
      candidate vaccine against tuberculosis; it prevents childhood TB, but its
      effectiveness against pulmonary TB in adults and adolescents is disputed. To
      achieve the goal of the WHO MDG, the need for a new improved vaccine is of
      primary importance. This review highlights several articles that have reported
      vaccine development. There are about 16 TB vaccines in different phases of
      clinical trials at the time of writing, which include recombinant
      peptide/protein, live-attenuated and recombinant live-attenuated,
      protein/adjuvant, viral-vectored, and immunotherapeutic vaccine. Further studies
      in reverse vaccinology and massive campaigns on vaccination are needed in order
      to achieve the target for TB eradication by 2050.

PMID- 28867965
TI  - Play as third space between home and school: Bridging cultural discourses.
AB  - This article examines play as a conceptual third space that serves as a bridge
      between home and school discourses. Using sociocultural theories and an
      interpretivist framework, 19 immigrant mothers and their children in Canada were
      interviewed about their play experiences at home and in preschools. The findings
      reveal that children and teachers utilise play as third space in various ways.
      Although there is some cultural dissonance experienced by children, this study
      illustrates ways that children use play as a bridge between home and school and
      explores strategies that teachers use in supporting children's use of play as
      third space. As children navigate these two cultural sites, they accumulate funds
      of knowledge and life experiences, which then meet, interact and perhaps fuse
      together in the conceptual third space. The conclusion proposes that 'play as
      third space' can be used as a conceptual framework for educators and
      practitioners to support children's transition from home to school and assist
      children who experience discontinuities.

PMID- 28867966
TI  - Investigation of the Evolution of Crystal Size and Shape during Temperature
      Cycling and in the Presence of a Polymeric Additive Using Combined Process
      Analytical Technologies.
AB  - Crystal size and shape can be manipulated to enhance the qualities of the final
      product. In this work the steady-state shape and size of succinic acid crystals,
      with and without a polymeric additive (Pluronic P123) at 350 mL, scale is
      reported. The effect of the amplitude of cycles as well as the heating/cooling
      rates is described, and convergent cycling (direct nucleation control) is
      compared to static cycling. The results show that the shape of succinic acid
      crystals changes from plate- to diamond-like after multiple cycling steps, and
      that the time required for this morphology change to occur is strongly related to
      the type of cycling. Addition of the polymer is shown to affect both the final
      shape of the crystals and the time needed to reach size and shape steady-state
      conditions. It is shown how this phenomenon can be used to improve the design of
      the crystallization step in order to achieve more efficient downstream operations
      and, in general, to help optimize the whole manufacturing process.

PMID- 28867967
TI  - Achalasia.

PMID- 28867969
TI  - An Overview of Achalasia and Its Subtypes.
AB  - Achalasia is one of the most studied esophageal motility disorders. However, the
      pathophysiology and reasons that patients develop achalasia are still unclear.
      Patients often present with dysphagia to solids and liquids, regurgitation, and
      varying degrees of weight loss. There is significant latency prior to diagnosis,
      which can have nutritional implications. The diagnosis is suspected based on
      clinical history and confirmed by esophageal high-resolution manometry testing.
      Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is necessary to rule out potential malignancy that can
      mimic achalasia. Recent data presented in abstract form suggest that patients
      with type II achalasia may be most likely, and patients with type III achalasia
      may be least likely, to report weight loss compared to patients with type I
      achalasia. Although achalasia cannot be permanently cured, palliation of symptoms
      is possible in over 90% of patients with the treatment modalities currently
      available (pneumatic dilation, Heller myotomy, or peroral endoscopic myotomy).
      This article reviews the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management options
      in patients with achalasia, as well as potential insights into histopathologic
      differences and nutritional implications of the subtypes of achalasia.

PMID- 28867968
TI  - Advances and Future Directions in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related
      deaths worldwide. Liver transplant is considered the gold standard for curative
      therapy for HCC when patients are not candidates for surgical resection or
      ablation. Because a subset of patients with HCC have a survival rate with liver
      transplantation that is comparable to that of cirrhotic patients without tumors,
      the organ allocation system allows for increased priority for transplant in
      potential recipients within the Milan criteria. With the recent change in the
      Model for End-Stage Liver Disease exception point allocation, patients with HCC
      will now need to wait at least 6 months before being awarded extra points. This
      extension leads to increased time on the transplant waiting list and underscores
      the importance of locoregional therapy to contain the tumor burden. Fortunately,
      there has been significant progress in therapy for HCC in the past few decades,
      namely due to advances in interventional radiology, radiotherapy, and expanded
      surgical and transplant criteria. Recent advances in immunotherapy also provide
      promising options for patients who are not candidates for other therapies. This
      article highlights the major therapeutic options for HCC, including surgical
      resection, liver transplant, thermal and nonthermal ablation, chemoembolization,
      radiotherapy, and systemic chemotherapy, as well as discusses the evidence
      supporting these approaches.

PMID- 28867971
TI  - Treatment of Alcoholic Liver Disease.

PMID- 28867970
TI  - Occurrence and Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Successful Direct
      Acting Antiviral Therapy for Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection.
AB  - Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has generally been associated with a
      slightly increased risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). For the
      past several decades, most patients with chronic HCV cirrhosis have been treated
      with pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapies, which were known to achieve
      sustained virologic response (SVR) but also carried their own side effects and
      toxicities. The recent implementation of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatments
      revealed an increased efficacy in difficult-to-treat populations and higher
      adherence rates given the all-oral nature of the regimens. However, while these
      regimens are excellent in terms of improving the side-effect profile and
      achieving SVR at a higher rate and in a shorter time frame than interferon and
      ribavirin, some researchers are now discovering an increased rate of de novo and
      recurrent HCC in patients with HCV cirrhosis compared to interferon treatment
      protocols. Although other studies were not able to reproduce similar findings,
      the question as to the role of DAA therapy in HCC occurrence after achieving SVR
      in patients with HCV cirrhosis continues to persist. Possible theories as to the
      mechanisms behind tumor relapse after DAA therapy include alterations of
      immunosurveillance and gene expression, a protective and antineoplastic effect
      from inflammation secondary to chronic HCV infection that is then abolished with
      DAA therapy, and delay in radiographic identification of previously undetectable
      tumors. This article reviews the current literature regarding concern for the
      possible increase of HCC after DAA therapy.

PMID- 28867972
TI  - Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy for the Management of Esophageal Disorders.

PMID- 28867973
TI  - Vaccination of Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28867974
TI  - The Effect of Digital Health Technology on Patient Care and Research.

PMID- 28867976
TI  - Health Maintenance in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28867977
TI  - GASTRO-HEP News.

PMID- 28867975
TI  - Serous Microcystic Adenoma of the Pancreas.

PMID- 28867978
TI  - When Not to Pouch: Important Considerations for Patient Selection for Ileal Pouch
      Anal Anastomosis.
AB  - Ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the preferred surgical treatment for
      patients who undergo colectomy and wish to avoid a permanent ileostomy. The
      overall outcomes are positive, with an improved quality of life and stable long
      term pouch retention. However, certain conditions or disease states may be at a
      higher risk of pouch dysfunction or failure. For example, obese patients have an
      increased risk for postoperative complications. In addition, women with a history
      of obstetric complications and elderly patients with a history of sphincter
      damage or dysfunction may be at an increased risk for postoperative incontinence,
      although quality-of-life indices do not necessarily correlate with incontinence
      scores. Advanced age itself is not a contraindication to pouch surgery, and
      elderly patients can be considered for IPAA based on individual functionality and
      comorbidities. Pelvic radiation may lead to pouch dysfunction. Finally, patients
      with Crohn's disease and indeterminate colitis may have increased complications
      with IPAA, but highly specific patient selection leads to good rates of pouch
      retention. This article examines several clinical scenarios that require careful
      thought prior to considering IPAA.

PMID- 28867979
TI  - Approach to Incomplete Colonoscopy: New Techniques and Technologies.
AB  - Colonoscopy is the most widely used screening modality for the detection and
      removal of colon polyps and for the prevention of colorectal cancer. To identify
      all colon lesions and reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, it is important to
      perform a complete colonoscopy. The success of screening colonoscopy depends upon
      several parameters, including bowel preparation and adenoma detection rate.
      Incomplete colonoscopy rates vary from 4% to 25% and are associated with higher
      rates of interval proximal colon cancer. This article reviews the potential
      causes of and preventive measures for incomplete colonoscopy, as well as
      techniques and technologies that may improve the rate of complete colonoscopy.

PMID- 28867981
TI  - Review of Regorafenib for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

PMID- 28867980
TI  - The Enigma of Hepatitis E Virus.
AB  - Globally, hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the most common cause of acute viral
      hepatitis. HEV is endemic in many developing countries, yet it is far more common
      in industrialized, nonendemic countries than previously recognized. Nonetheless,
      HEV remains poorly characterized and is frequently unidentified or misdiagnosed
      by clinicians. Manifestation of disease, source of infection, and route of
      transmission vary by HEV genotype and epidemiology in endemic and nonendemic
      settings worldwide. HEV infection can be acute or chronic, further complicating
      the presentation, diagnosis, prognosis, and natural history of disease. However,
      accurate identification and diagnosis of HEV has important implications for
      patient management, disease control, prevention efforts, and characterization of
      mechanisms of transmission and epidemiology. Acute HEV infection is rarely
      diagnosed in industrialized, nonendemic countries; however, recent seroprevalence
      data collected using modern, highly sensitive testing assays demonstrate a
      surprisingly high prevalence of anti-HEV antibodies in these settings, suggesting
      common subclinical or unrecognized infection. These data suggest widespread
      underestimation of the global burden, population seroprevalence, and importance
      of HEV infection. Enhanced capacity for disease recognition, accurate diagnosis,
      and clinical awareness are critical to improving the management and reducing the
      burden of HEV infection worldwide.

PMID- 28867982
TI  - Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration Vs Fine-Needle Biopsy.

PMID- 28867983
TI  - Health Maintenance Assessment for Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28867984
TI  - Management of Autoimmune Hepatitis in Pregnant Women.

PMID- 28867985
TI  - Acetic Acid Chromoendoscopy in the Setting of Neoplastic Barrett Esophagus.

PMID- 28867987
TI  - Remote sensing monitoring of land restoration interventions in semi-arid
      environments with a before-after control-impact statistical design.
AB  - Restoration interventions to combat land degradation are carried out in arid and
      semi-arid areas to improve vegetation cover and land productivity. Evaluating the
      success of an intervention over time is challenging due to various constraints
      (e.g. difficult-to-access areas, lack of long-term records) and the lack of
      standardised and affordable methodologies. We propose a semi-automatic
      methodology that uses remote sensing data to provide a rapid, standardised and
      objective assessment of the biophysical impact, in terms of vegetation cover, of
      restoration interventions. The Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is
      used as a proxy for vegetation cover. Recognising that changes in vegetation
      cover are naturally due to environmental factors such as seasonality and inter
      annual climate variability, conclusions about the success of the intervention
      cannot be drawn by focussing on the intervention area only. We therefore use a
      comparative method that analyses the temporal variations (before and after the
      intervention) of the NDVI of the intervention area with respect to multiple
      control sites that are automatically and randomly selected from a set of
      candidates that are similar to the intervention area. Similarity is defined in
      terms of class composition as derived from an ISODATA classification of the
      imagery before the intervention. The method provides an estimate of the magnitude
      and significance of the difference in greenness change between the intervention
      area and control areas. As a case study, the methodology is applied to 15
      restoration interventions carried out in Senegal. The impact of the interventions
      is analysed using 250-m MODIS and 30-m Landsat data. Results show that a
      significant improvement in vegetation cover was detectable only in one third of
      the analysed interventions, which is consistent with independent qualitative
      assessments based on field observations and visual analysis of high resolution
      imagery. Rural development agencies may potentially use the proposed method for a
      first screening of restoration interventions.

PMID- 28867986
TI  - Ecdysteroids: production in plant in vitro cultures.
AB  - Ecdysteroids are secondary metabolites, widely distributed in the animal and
      plant kingdoms. They have a wide range of pharmacological effects in vertebrates,
      including mammals, most of which are beneficial for humans. Therefore, they have
      become compounds of interest for the pharmaceutical industry due to their
      adaptogenic, anabolic, hypoglycaemic, hypocholesterolaemic and antimicrobial
      activities, which are still being researched. Nowadays, ecdysteroids are present
      as active ingredients in bodybuilding supplements. Because of their complex
      structures, their chemical synthesis seems unprofitable and impractical. Due to
      high content of ecdysteroids in many plants, they are primarily obtained by
      extraction of the plant material. Plant in vitro cultures provide an alternative
      source of these compounds, helping to avoid problems associated with field
      production-such as variable yield or dependence on environmental factors, as well
      as limited availability of natural resources. Plant cell and tissue cultures may
      be suggested as alternatives for the production of plant biomass rich in
      pharmaceutically active ecdysteroids. Moreover, the use of common
      biotechnological strategies, such as elicitation or precursor feeding, may
      further increase the yield and improve production of these compounds. In this
      paper, we describe general information about ecdysteroids: their structure,
      biosynthesis, distribution, role in plants, and we review recent studies on
      micropropagation of ecdysteroid-producing plants and cell cultures, and potential
      ability of ecdysteroids enhancement in in vitro cultures.

PMID- 28867988
TI  - Identification of weak and gender specific effects in a short 3 weeks
      intervention study using barley and oat mixed linkage beta-glucan dietary
      supplements: a human fecal metabolome study by GC-MS.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mixed-linkage (1->3),(1->4)-beta-d-glucans (BG) reduce cholesterol
      level and insulin response in humans. Despite this, their role in human
      metabolism and a mode of action remains largely unknown. OBJECTIVES: To
      investigate the effects of three structurally different BG on human fecal
      metabolome in a full cross-over intervention using GC-MS metabolomics. METHODS:
      Over three weeks of intervention, young healthy adults received food supplemented
      with BG from oat, two different BG from barley or a non-fiber control in a full
      cross-over design. Untargeted metabolomics and short chain fatty acid analysis
      was performed on day three fecal samples. ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis
      was applied to partition the data variation according to the study design, and
      PLS-DA was used to select most discriminative metabolite markers. RESULTS:
      Univariate and multivariate data analysis revealed a dominating effect of inter
      individual variances followed by a gender effect. Weak effects of BG intake were
      identified including an increased level of gamma-amino-butyrate and palmitoleic
      acid in males and a decreased level of enterolactone in females. Barley and oat
      derived BG were found to influence the human fecal metabolome differently. Barley
      BG increased the relative level of formate in males and isobutyrate, isovalerate,
      2-methylbutyrate in females. In total 15, 3 and 11 human fecal metabolites were
      significantly different between control vs. BG, control vs. oat BG, and barley BG
      vs. oat BG, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study show that human fecal metabolome
      largely reflects individual (~28% variation) and gender (~15% variation)
      differences, whereas the treatment effect of the BG (~8% variation) only
      manifests in a few key metabolites (primarily by the metabolites: d-2
      aminobutyric acid, palmitoleic acid, linoleic acid and 11-eicosenoic acid).

PMID- 28867990
TI  - ECG Parameters for Malignant Ventricular Arrhythmias: A Comprehensive Review.
AB  - Many studies showed electrocardiogram (ECG) parameters are useful for predicting
      fatal ventricular arrhythmias (VAs). However, the studies have several
      shortcomings. Firstly, all studies lack of effective way to present behavior of
      various ECG parameters prior to the occurrence of the VAs. Secondly, they also
      lack of discussion on how to consider the parameters as abnormal. Thirdly, the
      reports do not include approaches to increase the detection accuracy for the
      abnormal patterns. The purpose of this study is to address the aforementioned
      issues. It identifies ten ECG parameters from various sources and then presents a
      review based on the identified parameters. From the review, it has been found
      that the increased risk of VAs can be represented by presence and certain
      abnormal range of the parameters. The variation of parameters range could be
      influenced by either gender or age. This study also has discovered the facts that
      averaging, outliers elimination and morphology detection algorithms can
      contribute to the detection accuracy.

PMID- 28867991
TI  - Video Voiding Device for Diagnosing Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction in Men.
AB  - We introduce a novel diagnostic Visual Voiding Device (VVD), which has the
      ability to visually document urinary voiding events and calculate key voiding
      parameters such as instantaneous flow rate. The observation of the urinary
      voiding process along with the instantaneous flow rate can be used to diagnose
      symptoms of Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction (LUTD) and improve evaluation of LUTD
      treatments by providing subsequent follow-up documentations of voiding events
      after treatments. The VVD enables a patient to have a urinary voiding event in
      privacy while a urologist monitors, processes, and documents the event from a
      distance. The VVD consists of two orthogonal cameras which are used to visualize
      urine leakage from the urethral meatus, urine stream trajectory, and its break-up
      into droplets. A third, lower back camera monitors a funnel topped cylinder where
      urine accumulates that contains a floater for accurate readings regardless of the
      urine color. Software then processes the change in level of accumulating urine in
      the cylinder and the visual flow properties to calculate urological parameters.
      Video playback allows for reexamination of the voiding process. The proposed
      device was tested by integrating a mass flowmeter into the setup and
      simultaneously measuring the instantaneous flow rate of a predetermined voided
      volume in order to verify the accuracy of VVD compared to the mass flowmeter. The
      VVD and mass flowmeter were found to have an accuracy of +/-2 and +/-3% relative
      to full scale, respectively. A VVD clinical trial was conducted on 16 healthy
      male volunteers ages 23-65.

PMID- 28867992
TI  - Analysis of Locking Self-Taping Bone Screws for Angularly Stable Plates.
AB  - Paper focuses on biomechanics, specifically on locking cortical bone screws in
      angularly stable plates used for the treatment of bone fractures in the medical
      fields of traumatology and orthopaedics. During extraction of titanium-alloy
      implants, problems are encountered in an effort to loosen some locking bone
      screws from the locking holes of an angularly stable plate and the subsequent
      stripping of the internal hexagon of the screw head. The self-locking of the
      screw-plate threaded joint was verified by calculation and the effect of the
      angle of the thread on the head of the locking cortical bone screw on self
      locking was evaluated. The magnitude of the torque, causing the stripping of the
      internal hexagon (the Inbus type head) of a locking cortical bone screw with a
      shank diameter of 3.5 mm from Ti6Al4 V titanium alloy to ISO 5832-3, was
      determined experimentally. Also, it was experimentally found that the rotation of
      the screwdriver end with a hexagonal tip inside the locking cortical bone screw
      head during stripping of the internal hexagon causes strain of the screw head
      perimeter and thereby an increase of thread friction. The effect of tightening
      torque on the possibility of loosening of the locking cortical bone screw from
      the locking hole of an angularly stable plate was assessed experimentally. From
      the evaluation of five alternative shapes of locking cortical bone screw heads in
      terms of the acting stress and generated strains, it follows that the best screw
      is the screw with the Torx type head, which demonstrates the lowest values of
      reduced stress and equivalent plastic strain. Based on experiments and
      simulations the authors recommend that all global producers of locking cortical
      bone screws for locking holes of angularly stable plates use the Torx type heads,
      and not heads of the Inbus type or the Square, PH, PZ types.

PMID- 28867989
TI  - Exhaled breath analysis: a review of 'breath-taking' methods for off-line
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The potential of exhaled breath sampling and analysis has long
      attracted interest in the areas of medical diagnosis and disease monitoring. This
      interest is attributed to its non-invasive nature, access to an unlimited sample
      supply (i.e., breath), and the potential to facilitate a rapid at patient
      diagnosis. However, progress from laboratory setting to routine clinical practice
      has been slow. Different methodologies of breath sampling, and the consequent
      difficulty in comparing and combining data, are considered to be a major
      contributor to this. To fulfil the potential of breath analysis within clinical
      and pre-clinical medicine, standardisation of some approaches to breath sampling
      and analysis will be beneficial. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review is to
      investigate the heterogeneity of breath sampling methods by performing an in
      depth bibliometric search to identify the current state of art in the area. In
      addition, the review will discuss and critique various breath sampling methods
      for off-line breath analysis. METHODS: Literature search was carried out in
      databases MEDLINE, BIOSIS, EMBASE, INSPEC, COMPENDEX, PQSCITECH, and SCISEARCH
      using the STN platform which delivers peer-reviewed articles. Keywords searched
      for include breath, sampling, collection, pre-concentration, volatile. Forward
      and reverse search was then performed on initially included articles. The breath
      collection methodologies of all included articles was subsequently reviewed.
      RESULTS: Sampling methods differs between research groups, for example regarding
      the portion of breath being targeted. Definition of late expiratory breath varies
      between studies. CONCLUSIONS: Breath analysis is an interdisciplinary field of
      study using clinical, analytical chemistry, data processing, and metabolomics
      expertise. A move towards standardisation in breath sampling is currently being
      promoted within the breath research community with a view to harmonising analysis
      and thereby increasing robustness and inter-laboratory comparisons.

PMID- 28867995
TI  - Does Spatial Navigation Have a Blind-Spot? Visiocentrism Is Not Enough to Explain
      the Navigational Behavior Comprehensively.

PMID- 28867993
TI  - Impact of Prefrontal Theta Burst Stimulation on Clinical Neuropsychological
      Tasks.
AB  - Theta burst stimulation (TBS) protocols hold high promise in neuropsychological
      rehabilitation. Nevertheless, their ability to either decrease (continuous, cTBS)
      or increase (intermittent, iTBS) cortical excitability in areas other than the
      primary motor cortex, and their consistency modulating human behaviors with
      clinically relevant tasks remain to be fully established. The behavioral effects
      of TBS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) are particularly
      interesting given its involvement in working memory (WM) and executive functions
      (EF), often impaired following frontal brain damage. We aimed to explore the
      ability of cTBS and iTBS to modulate WM and EF in healthy individuals, assessed
      with clinical neuropsychological tests (Digits Backward, 3-back task, Stroop
      Test, and Tower of Hanoi). To this end, 36 participants were assessed using the
      four tests 1 week prior to stimulation and immediately following a single session
      of either cTBS, iTBS, or sham TBS, delivered to the left dlPFC. No significant
      differences were found across stimulation conditions in any of the clinical
      tasks. Nonetheless, in some of them, active stimulation induced significant
      pre/post performance modulations, which were not found for the sham condition.
      More specifically, sham stimulation yielded improvements in the 3-back task and
      the Color, Color-Word, and Interference Score of the Stroop Test, an effect
      likely caused by task practice. Both, iTBS and cTBS, produced improvements in
      Digits Backward and impairments in 3-back task accuracy. Moreover, iTBS increased
      Interference Score in the Stroop Test in spite of the improved word reading and
      impaired color naming, whereas cTBS decreased the time required to complete the
      Tower of Hanoi. Differing from TBS outcomes reported for cortico-spinal measures
      on the primary motor cortex, our analyses did not reveal any of the expected
      performance differences across stimulation protocols. However, if one considers
      independently pre/post differences for each individual outcome measure and task,
      either one or both of the active protocols appeared to modulate WM and EF. We
      critically discuss the value, potential explanations, and some plausible
      interpretations for this set of subtle impacts of left dlPFC TBS in humans.

PMID- 28867994
TI  - An Antioxidant Screen Identifies Candidates for Protection of Cochlear Hair Cells
      from Gentamicin Toxicity.
AB  - : Reactive oxygen species are important elements in ototoxic damage to hair cells
      (HCs), appearing early in the damage process. Higher levels of natural
      antioxidants are positively correlated with resistance to ototoxins and many
      studies have shown that exogenous antioxidants can protect HCs from damage. While
      a very wide variety of antioxidants with different characteristics and
      intracellular targets exist, most ototoxicity studies have focused upon one or a
      few well-characterized compounds. Relatively little research has attempted to
      determine the comparative efficacy of large variety of different antioxidants.
      This has been in part due to the lack of translation between cell culture and in
      vivo measures of efficacy. To circumvent this limitation, we used an in vitro
      assay based on micro-explants from the basal and middle turns of the neonatal
      mouse organ of Corti to screen a commercial redox library of diverse antioxidant
      compounds for their ability to protect mammalian HCs from a high dose of the
      ototoxic antibiotic gentamicin. The library included several antioxidants that
      have previously been studied as potential treatments for HC damage, as well as
      many antioxidants that have never been applied to ototoxicity. The micro-explants
      were treated with 200 MUM gentamicin alone, gentamicin plus one of three dosages
      of a redox compound, the highest dosage of compound alone, or were untreated. HC
      counts were determined before the gentamicin insult and at 1, 2, and 3 days
      afterward to evaluate the HC survival. From a total of 81 antioxidant compounds,
      13 exhibited significant protection of HCs. These included members of a variety
      of antioxidant classes with several novel antioxidants, not previously tested on
      HCs, appearing to alleviate the damaging gentamicin effect. Some compounds
      previously shown to be protective of HCs were correspondingly protective in this
      in vitro screen, while others were not. Finally, one of the three pro-oxidant
      compounds included in the library as well as six antioxidants exhibited evidence
      of toxicity in the absence of gentamicin. The results demonstrate the wide
      variability in the ability of antioxidants to protect HCs from high-dose
      gentamicin damage, and identify promising candidate leads for further study as
      potential drug targets. HIGHLIGHTS: * A medium-throughput assay based on micro
      explants of the organ of Corti was developed to screen mammalian cochlear hair
      cells for protection from damage by ototoxins.* Eighty one antioxidants and 3 pro
      oxidants were evaluated for hair cell protection from high-dose gentamicin.*
      Thirteen antioxidants were significantly protective, while 6 proved to be
      damaging.* The use of a common assay permitted an evaluation of the relative
      capacity of different antioxidants for the protection of hair cells.

PMID- 28867996
TI  - Neural Signatures of Rational and Heuristic Choice Strategies: A Single Trial ERP
      Analysis.
AB  - In multi-attribute choice, people use heuristics to simplify decision problems.
      We studied the use of heuristic and rational strategies and their
      electrophysiological correlates. Since previous work linked the P3 ERP component
      to attention and decision making, we were interested whether the amplitude of
      this component is associated with decision strategy use. To this end, we recorded
      EEG when participants performed a two-alternative choice task, where they could
      acquire decision cues in a sequential manner and use them to make choices. We
      classified participants' choices as consistent with a rational Weighted Additive
      rule (WADD) or a simple heuristic Take The Best (TTB). Participants differed in
      their preference for WADD and TTB. Using a permutation-based single trial
      approach, we analyzed EEG responses to consecutive decision cues and their
      relation to the individual strategy preference. The preference for WADD over TTB
      was associated with overall higher signal amplitudes to decision cues in the P3
      time window. Moreover, the preference for WADD was associated with similar P3
      amplitudes to consecutive cues, whereas the preference for TTB was associated
      with substantial decreases in P3 amplitudes to consecutive cues. We also found
      that the preference for TTB was associated with enhanced N1 component to cues
      that discriminated decision alternatives, suggesting very early attention
      allocation to such cues by TTB users. Our results suggest that preference for
      either WADD or TTB has an early neural signature reflecting differences in
      attentional weighting of decision cues. In light of recent findings and
      hypotheses regarding P3, we interpret these results as indicating the involvement
      of catecholamine arousal systems in shaping predecisional information processing
      and strategy selection.

PMID- 28867997
TI  - Autism Spectrum Disorder Related Functional Connectivity Changes in the Language
      Network in Children, Adolescents and Adults.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability with global
      implication. Altered brain connectivity in the language network has frequently
      been reported in ASD patients using task-based functional magnetic resonance
      imaging (fMRI) compared to typically developing (TD) participants. Most of these
      studies have focused on a specific age group or mixed age groups with ASD. In the
      current study, we investigated age-related changes in functional connectivity
      related measure, degree centrality (DC), in the language network across three age
      groups with ASD (113 children, 113 adolescents and 103 adults) using resting
      state fMRI data collected from the autism brain imaging data exchange repository.
      We identified regions with significant group-wise differences between ASD and TD
      groups for three age cohorts using DC based on graph theory. We found that both
      children and adolescents with ASD showed decreased DC in Broca's area compared to
      age-matched TD groups. Adults with ASD showed decreased DC in Wernicke's area
      compared to TD adults. We also observed increased DC in the left inferior
      parietal lobule (IPL) and left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) for children with ASD
      compared to TD children and for adults with ASD compared to TD adults,
      respectively. Overall, functional differences occurred in key language processing
      regions such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal gyrus
      (STG) related to language production and comprehension across three age cohorts.
      We explored correlations between DC values of our findings with autism diagnostic
      observation schedule (ADOS) scores related to severity of ASD symptoms in the ASD
      group. We found that DC values of the left IFG demonstrated negative correlations
      with ADOS scores in children and adolescents with ASD. The left STG showed
      significant negative correlations with ADOS scores in adults with ASD. These
      results might shed light on the language network regions that should be further
      explored for prognosis, diagnosis, and monitoring of ASD in three age groups.

PMID- 28867999
TI  - Time-Varying Networks of Inter-Ictal Discharging Reveal Epileptogenic Zone.
AB  - The neuronal synchronous discharging may cause an epileptic seizure. Currently,
      most of the studies conducted to investigate the mechanism of epilepsy are based
      on EEGs or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recorded during the ictal
      discharging or the resting-state, and few studies have probed into the dynamic
      patterns during the inter-ictal discharging that are much easier to record in
      clinical applications. Here, we propose a time-varying network analysis based on
      adaptive directed transfer function to uncover the dynamic brain network patterns
      during the inter-ictal discharging. In addition, an algorithm based on the time
      varying outflow of information derived from the network analysis is developed to
      detect the epileptogenic zone. The analysis performed revealed the time-varying
      network patterns during different stages of inter-ictal discharging; the
      epileptogenic zone was activated prior to the discharge onset then worked as the
      source to propagate the activity to other brain regions. Consistence between the
      epileptogenic zones detected by our proposed approach and the actual
      epileptogenic zones proved that time-varying network analysis could not only
      reveal the underlying neural mechanism of epilepsy, but also function as a useful
      tool in detecting the epileptogenic zone based on the EEGs in the inter-ictal
      discharging.

PMID- 28867998
TI  - Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy:
      Insights from Combined Recording Studies.
AB  - Although blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance
      imaging (fMRI) is a widely available, non-invasive technique that offers
      excellent spatial resolution, it remains limited by practical constraints imposed
      by the scanner environment. More recently, functional near infrared spectroscopy
      (fNIRS) has emerged as an alternative hemodynamic-based approach that possesses a
      number of strengths where fMRI is limited, most notably in portability and higher
      tolerance for motion. To date, fNIRS has shown promise in its ability to shed
      light on the functioning of the human brain in populations and contexts
      previously inaccessible to fMRI. Notable contributions include infant
      neuroimaging studies and studies examining full-body behaviors, such as exercise.
      However, much like fMRI, fNIRS has technical constraints that have limited its
      application to clinical settings, including a lower spatial resolution and
      limited depth of recording. Thus, by combining fMRI and fNIRS in such a way that
      the two methods complement each other, a multimodal imaging approach may allow
      for more complex research paradigms than is feasible with either technique alone.
      In light of these issues, the purpose of the current review is to: (1) provide an
      overview of fMRI and fNIRS and their associated strengths and limitations; (2)
      review existing combined fMRI-fNIRS recording studies; and (3) discuss how their
      combined use in future research practices may aid in advancing modern
      investigations of human brain function.

PMID- 28868000
TI  - Fiberweb: Diffusion Visualization and Processing in the Browser.
AB  - Data visualization is one of the most important tool to explore the brain as we
      know it. In this work, we introduce a novel browser-based solution for medical
      imaging data visualization and interaction with diffusion-weighted magnetic
      resonance imaging (dMRI) and tractography data: Fiberweb. It uses a recent
      technology, WebGL, that has yet to be fully explored for medical imaging
      purposes. There are currently very few software tools that allow medical imaging
      data visualization in the browser, and none of these tools support efficient data
      interaction and processing, such as streamlines selection and real-time
      deterministic and probabilistic tractography (RTT). With Fiberweb allowing these
      types of interaction, it is no longer the case. We show results of the
      visualization of medical imaging data, and demonstrate that our new RTT
      probabilistic algorithm can compare to a state of the art offline algorithm.
      Overall, Fiberweb pushes the boundary of interaction combined with scientific
      visualization, which opens great perspectives for quality control and
      neurosurgical navigation on browser-based mobile and static devices.

PMID- 28868001
TI  - Efficacy and Tolerability of Polyphenon E in "Difficult-to-Treat" Multiple
      Genital Warts in an HIV-Positive Male Subject.
AB  - A 55-year-old man, nonsmoker, with a HIV-positive history came to our attention
      in February 2017. He was on treatment with StribildTM, 1 capsule daily (150 mg
      elvitegravir, 150 mg cobicistat, 200 mg emtricitabine, and 245 mg tenofovir
      disoproxil). The CD4+/CD8+ cellular count was 326/uL (normal values: 404-1,612);
      the CD3+/CD8+ cellular count was 819/uL (normal values: 220-1,219). The CD4/CD8
      ratio was 0.40 (normal value: >1). Several typical genital wart lesions were
      present at the penis shaft and at the level of the neck and the corona of glans.
      These lesions were present for 2 years. Several cryotherapy sessions (a total of
      10 procedures) had been performed with partial success. At the initial visit a
      total of 5 lesions were present. Treatment with topical Polyphenon E 10% 3 times
      a day was prescribed and started. After 1 month of treatment the lesions were
      reduced to 2. Treatment was very well tolerated. After 8 weeks of treatment no
      more lesions were observed and therefore a complete clearance was obtained. Local
      tolerability was evaluated to be very good by the patient.

PMID- 28868002
TI  - Scabies Associated with Granulomatous Dermatitis.
AB  - Scabies is a relatively common parasitic infection, which has sometimes been
      associated with the formation of granuloma annulare. We report the case of an 86
      year-old female who developed a non-necrotizing granulomatous dermatitis after a
      scabies infestation. This case highlights the importance of considering scabies
      in the differential diagnosis when granulomatous dermatitis is noted
      histologically that cannot be explained by other causes.

PMID- 28868003
TI  - Wells' Syndrome Successfully Treated with Colchicine.
AB  - Eosinophilic cellulitis is an uncommon, inflammatory and chronic disorder of
      unknown etiology. Corticosteroids are currently considered as the first-line
      treatment but they are not without significant disadvantages such as
      contraindications in steroid-resistant cases and patients with frequent
      recurrences. We report a patient suffering from Wells' syndrome with a 24-year
      history of symptomatic and generalized skin lesions. After consultation in our
      department, treatment with colchicine 1 mg/day was prescribed resulting in large
      clinical improvement. No side effects have been recorded. To our knowledge, this
      is an original disease approach. Although small, our clinical experience supports
      the inclusion of colchicine in the drug armamentarium when treating patients
      suffering from Wells' syndrome. Indeed, its excellent safety profile makes it
      very attractive for patients with frequent recurrent episodes who need secure
      options for the medium- and long-term disease control.

PMID- 28868004
TI  - A Disease-Modifying Approach for Advanced Hidradenitis Suppurativa (Regimen with
      Metformin, Liraglutide, Dapsone, and Finasteride): A Case Report.
AB  - Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a challenging skin disease with limited
      therapeutic options. Obesity and metabolic syndrome are being increasingly
      implicated and associated with younger ages and greater metabolic severity. A 19
      year-old female with an 8-year history of progressively debilitating cicatricial
      HS disease presented with obesity, profound anemia, leukocytosis, increased
      platelet count, hypoalbuminemia, and elevated liver enzymes. A combination of
      metformin, liraglutide, levonorgestrel-ethinyl estradiol, dapsone, and
      finasteride was initiated. Acute antibiotic use for recurrences and flares could
      be slowly discontinued. Over the course of 3 years on this regimen, the liver
      enzymes normalized in 1 year, followed in2 years by complete resolution of the
      majority of the hematological and metabolic abnormalities. The sedimentation rate
      reduced from over 120 to 34 mm/h. She required 1 surgical intervention for
      perianal disease after 9 months on the regimen. Flares greatly diminished in
      intensity and duration, with none in the past 6 months. Right axillary lesions
      have completely healed with residual disease greatly reduced. Chiefly abdominal
      lesions are persistent. She was able to complete high school from home, start a
      job, and resume a normal life. Initial weight loss of 40 pounds was not
      maintained. The current regimen is being well tolerated and continued.

PMID- 28868005
TI  - Extrafacial Granuloma Faciale: A Case Report and Brief Review.
AB  - Granuloma faciale (GF) is a rare, inflammatory, cutaneous disorder of unknown
      aetiology. It presents clinically as one or several well-circumscribed violaceous
      papules, plaques, and nodules almost exclusively confined to the facial region.
      Rarely, extrafacial lesions can occur, most often on sun-exposed sites. We report
      a case of extrafacial GF in a 63-year-old male with indolent lymphoma, who
      presented with plaques involving the right preauricular region and left posterior
      axilla. The clinical and histopathological findings were consistent with GF. Our
      case highlights the importance of performing skin biopsies in patients with
      persistent erythematous plaques and nodules, particularly to exclude important
      malignant and granulomatous differential diagnoses.

PMID- 28868006
TI  - Sweet's Syndrome Arising in a Scar.
AB  - Acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis (Sweet's syndrome) is an uncommon
      inflammatory cutaneous disorder. It presents with lesions which are tender,
      erythematous, edematous papules and under histologic examination show dense
      neutrophilic infiltration of the dermis. These lesions are often accompanied by
      leukocytosis and fever. This paper reports a unique case of acute febrile
      neutrophilic dermatosis presenting as a Koebner response to a linear scar.

PMID- 28868007
TI  - The Use of Intralesional Steroids in a Case of Localized Pemphigus Foliaceus.
AB  - A 37-year-old South-Asian male presented to our clinic with a crusty, verrucous
      like, scaly plaque of the left ala of the nose. After ruling out infectious and
      other epidermal bullous diseases, we finalized a diagnosis of localized pemphigus
      foliaceus, an exceptionally rare disorder with only 15 cases reported in the
      literature to date. The hyperkeratotic lesions responded favorably to a 3-week
      regimen of triamcinolone ointment and a onetime intralesional triamcinolone 2.5
      mg/mL injection.

PMID- 28868008
TI  - Epidermolytic Acanthoma on Fingers, Mimicking Flat Warts.
AB  - Epidermolytic acanthoma (EA) is a benign cutaneous condition. It is characterized
      by warty or flat-topped, keratotic papules that show epidermolytic hyperkeratosis
      in histology. EA has been described to occur in various locations, namely the
      trunk, face, and genitoscrotal area. However, it has not been previously reported
      to involve the palmar area. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first
      reported case of EA involving the palms and fingers.

PMID- 28868009
TI  - Good Tolerance to Full-Dose Crizotinib in a Patient with Anaplastic Lymphoma
      Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Rearranged Lung Adenocarcinoma and Preexisting Renal
      Impairment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Crizotinib is an approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor in the treatment
      of advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer patients with anaplastic lymphoma
      receptor tyrosine kinase (ALK) rearrangement. Renal dysfunction after crizotinib
      administration was recently reported, but the physiopathological explanation and
      the safety in patients with preexisting renal dysfunction are still not clear.
      CASE PRESENTATION: A 44-year-old female and current smoker was diagnosed with a
      stage IV lung adenocarcinoma and treated with five lines of chemotherapy during a
      4-year period of time. While she developed symptomatic tumor progression with
      deterioration of her performance status and renal dysfunction after these five
      lines of treatment, we discovered that her lung cancer was ALK-rearranged. We
      therefore proposed a treatment with full-dose crizotinib despite the renal
      impairment (creatinine clearance: 33 mL/min/1.73 m2) of unknown origin. A renal
      function worsening occurred after the initiation of crizotinib but we did not
      reduce the dose as recommended and this did not induce further deterioration.
      During the 15 months under crizotinib, the patient had a good general status, no
      clinically noticeable side effect, and a stable renal dysfunction, which even
      improved after the initial worsening and almost returned to the baseline (pre
      crizotinib) status. CONCLUSION: This case report suggests that full-dose
      crizotinib may be continued even in patients with severe renal dysfunction and
      deterioration at treatment initiation, in parallel to careful follow-up of renal
      function and particular attention to avoid the use of concomitant nephrotoxic
      drugs.

PMID- 28868010
TI  - Clinical Benefit from Trametinib in a Patient with Appendiceal Adenocarcinoma
      with a GNAS R201H Mutation.
AB  - We report the case of a patient with appendiceal adenocarcinoma with mucinous
      peritoneal carcinomatosis who was treated with trametinib upon identification of
      a GNAS R201H mutation by comprehensive genomic profiling. The molecular pathology
      of appendiceal neoplasms is reviewed, and the mechanistic basis underlying the
      clinical benefit as well as the subsequent course on trametinib that were
      observed in this patient are discussed.

PMID- 28868011
TI  - Esophagobronchial Fistula in a Patient with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Lung:
      A Case Report.
AB  - A 73-year-old man was referred to our hospital after a 2-week history of bloody
      sputum and cough. Computed tomography (CT) images of the chest showed a mass
      grouped with mediastinal lymph nodes, and bronchoscopy showed a projecting mass
      in the right main bronchus. After a transbronchial biopsy, the patient was
      diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma (T4N2M0 stage IIIB). The patient was
      treated with systemic chemotherapy, consisting of cisplatin (40 mg/m2, days 1 and
      8) and docetaxel (30 mg/m2, days 1 and 8), and concurrent thoracic irradiation at
      a daily dose of 2 Gy. On day 35 of treatment, the patient complained of a sore
      throat and cough. A CT of the chest showed punctate low-attenuation foci between
      the esophagus and bronchus. Gastrointestinal endoscopy and bronchoscopy
      demonstrated a fistula in the middle intrathoracic esophagus and the left main
      bronchus. The patient's symptoms gradually improved, and the fistula was closed
      after the suspension of chemoradiotherapy. Radiotherapy was resumed and completed
      on day 82. However, on day 108, he developed a fever and cough, and a tumor with
      fistula was revealed in the right main bronchus. He had an esophageal stent
      inserted, but he later died of sudden hemoptysis.

PMID- 28868013
TI  - Efficacy of Paclitaxel in a Patient with Inoperable Pulmonary Vein
      Leiomyosarcoma.
AB  - Pulmonary vein leiomyosarcoma is extremely rare and has a poor prognosis.
      Surgical resection with a wide margin seems to offer the only chance of cure. The
      role of adjuvant therapy is controversial, and the exact efficacy of chemotherapy
      has not been observed. In this report, we present an 18-year-old male patient
      with pulmonary vein leiomyosarcoma in whom the use of paclitaxel (PAX) proved to
      be effective. Because the tumor originated from the left superior pulmonary vein
      and diffused into the left atrial wall and the junction of the right superior
      pulmonary vein and left atrium, the en bloc excision of the tumor was impossible.
      The first-line chemotherapy, including ifosfamide, doxorubicin, and dacarbazine,
      in conjugation with radiation therapy could not demonstrate any effect on the
      tumor size. However, the following PAX-containing regimen provided complete
      regression of the tumor. After PAX-based high-dose chemotherapy with autologous
      peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, the patient showed complete remission
      for 2 years. Although he suffered metastatic recurrences and died 4 years after
      the onset of symptoms, our patient's clinical course clearly reveals the efficacy
      of PAX.

PMID- 28868012
TI  - Treatment of Primary and Metastatic Multifocal Mucosal Melanoma of the Oral
      Cavity with Imatinib.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mucosal melanoma of the oral cavity is a rare entity and accounts for
      less than 1-3% of all melanomas. Contrary to cutaneous melanoma, primary oral
      melanoma more commonly harbors mutations in c-KIT. METHODS: A 64-year-old man
      presented with asymptomatic, multiple, brown-to-black macules in the oral cavity.
      A biopsy was taken and histopathology exhibited mucosal melanoma. In molecular
      analysis, a c-KIT mutation was proven and a CT scan revealed pulmonary
      metastases. Due to the multifocality of the lesions, the metastases, and the
      mutation status, a therapy with imatinib was initiated. RESULTS: After 1 year of
      therapy, progressive disease in the lung was noticed. Therefore, the therapy was
      switched to a PD-1 antagonist and a CTL-4 antibody. CONCLUSIONS: Our case
      suggests that imatinib may be considered as first-line treatment for both locally
      advanced and distant primary multifocal oral melanoma, for which surgery or
      radiotherapy of the primary tumor is impossible.

PMID- 28868015
TI  - Chronic Oxaliplatin-Based Chemotherapy in a Primary Ampullary Adenocarcinoma
      Patient without Significant Peripheral Neuropathy: Case Report and Literature
      Review.
AB  - Peripheral neuropathy is the most common dose-limiting toxicity associated with
      oxaliplatin. We report on a 61-year-old female patient with advanced primary
      ampullary adenocarcinoma who received 35 cycles of FOLFIRINOX (5-fluorouracil,
      irinotecan, and oxaliplatin) chemotherapy. The patient has tolerated this
      treatment without developing significant peripheral neuropathy.

PMID- 28868014
TI  - First-Line Treatment with Carboplatin plus nab-Paclitaxel and Maintenance
      Monotherapy with nab-Paclitaxel for a Thymic Carcinoma: A Case Report.
AB  - Thymic carcinomas are rare malignant tumors, located in the anterior mediastinum.
      For the treatment of these carcinomas, several chemotherapy regimens have been
      suggested, including carboplatin plus paclitaxel. However, because of the rarity
      of these tumors, the standard chemotherapy regimen has not yet been established.
      Here, we report a case of thymic carcinoma that responded to first-line
      carboplatin plus nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) therapy
      with continuation maintenance nab-paclitaxel monotherapy. A 78-year-old male
      presented to a hospital with the chief complaint of dyspnea. Cardiomegaly was
      detected on chest X-ray scans, and marked pericardial effusion was observed by
      echocardiography. Chest computed tomography scans revealed the presence of a
      mediastinal mass, pericardial thickening, and pericardial effusion. The serum
      levels of the tumor marker CYFRA 21-1 (cytokeratin-19 fragment) were elevated.
      Eventually, he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the thymus, which
      was staged as cT4N3M0 or stage IV (according to the tumor-node-metastasis
      classification). Chemotherapy with carboplatin on day 1 and nab-paclitaxel on
      days 1, 8, and 15, every 4 weeks was initiated. After the administration of 4
      cycles of this regimen, the tumor diameter appeared reduced, and the serum CYFRA
      21-1 levels were normalized. After a 1-month interval, the serum CYFRA 21-1
      levels increased again; therefore, maintenance nab-paclitaxel monotherapy was
      initiated. At the end of the treatment, the patient experienced a progression
      free survival of 10.3 months. Carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel may be an
      appropriate alternative first-line treatment for thymic carcinomas. Additionally,
      maintenance nab-paclitaxel monotherapy may prolong the progression-free survivals
      of patients with thymic carcinomas.

PMID- 28868016
TI  - Relapsed Multiple Myeloma Presenting as Intracranial Plasmacytoma and Malignant
      Pericardial Effusion following Recent Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation.
AB  - Although rare, both central nervous system and pericardial involvement of myeloma
      have been well described in the literature. Their simultaneous occurrence in
      relapsed disease, however, has not been previously reported. This case describes
      a 54-year-old female who was treated for high-risk multiple myeloma with
      multiregimen chemotherapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
      Four months after transplant, she was found to have relapsed disease manifesting
      as an extraosseous, intracranial plasmacytoma and simultaneous malignant
      pericardial effusion. Her disease characteristics, treatment course, radiologic
      and pathologic findings are described in detail, and we review the previous
      literature to determine the various aspects of her disease that may have
      contributed to her aggressive clinical course.

PMID- 28868017
TI  - Natural Killer Cell Lymphoblastic Leukaemia/Lymphoma: Case Report and Review of
      the Recent Literature.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cell lymphoblastic leukaemia/lymphoma is a rare haemopoietic
      tumour currently defined in the 2008 WHO classification under the category of
      acute leukaemias of ambiguous lineage. A diagnosis of this type of leukaemia is
      considered in cases expressing CD56 along with immature T-cell-associated markers
      such as CD2 and CD7 with absence of B-cell and myeloid markers; in addition,
      blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell leukaemia should be excluded. Prior to 2008,
      these precursor NK cell lymphoblastic leukaemias/lymphomas were categorized as
      myeloid/NK cell acute leukaemia with a phenotype identical to acute myeloid
      leukaemia with minimal differentiation. While the new classification has merit in
      having excluded myeloid expression, there is still persistent confusion in the
      literature and on a practical level with regard to precursor NK cell neoplasms.
      There is a paucity of recent case reports in the literature after the new WHO
      classification of this neoplasm. Due to the rarity of this neoplasm, an accurate
      pathological diagnosis is often difficult. In this article, we describe a case of
      precursor NK cell lymphoblastic leukaemia/lymphoma presenting with unique
      morphological features and conflicting immunophenotypes. We also review all case
      reports of this neoplasm after the WHO 2008 classification.

PMID- 28868018
TI  - Spinal Cord Compression Secondary to Metastatic Sinonasal Undifferentiated
      Carcinoma.
AB  - Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is a rare malignancy of the upper
      airways and anterior skull base that carries a poor prognosis. The tumor is known
      to be invasive into the surrounding structures of the skull base and brain. To
      date, there is only one existing case report documenting drop metastasis to the
      intradural extramedullary spinal cord. To the best of our knowledge, we present
      the second case of metastatic SNUC to the spine. This report describes a 59-year
      old male with a history of head and neck SNUC who presented with thoracic back
      pain and bilateral lower extremity paresis. Neuroimaging demonstrated an
      extradural thoracic mass with severe spinal cord compression. The patient
      underwent thoracic laminectomy and fusion for decompression of the spinal cord
      and internal stabilization. The pathology returned as SNUC. The patient was
      subsequently lost to follow-up from our institution. Metastatic SNUC is rare. We
      discuss the relevant clinical imaging and review the literature. Such a
      malignancy portends a very poor prognosis.

PMID- 28868019
TI  - Cystoid Macular Edema during Treatment with Paclitaxel and Bevacizumab in a
      Patient with Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - We present a case of a metastatic breast cancer patient with cystoid macular
      edema (CME) occurring during treatment with paclitaxel and bevacizumab. She had a
      history of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and partial mastectomy plus axillary lymph
      node dissection for stage IIB left-breast cancer. Twenty-four months later, she
      was diagnosed with multiple bone metastases and underwent chemotherapy with
      paclitaxel and bevacizumab. Thirty-three months after the initiation of the
      chemotherapy, she noticed bilateral blurred vision. The retinal thickening with
      macular edema was observed by optical coherence tomography, resulting in a
      diagnosis of CME. With cessation of paclitaxel and administrating ocular
      instillation of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, her macular edema
      gradually reduced and disappeared in a month. While CME caused by chemotherapy is
      very rare, taxane may cause ocular adverse events such as CME. It is important to
      urge patients to consult an ophthalmologist promptly when they have visual
      complaints during taxane chemotherapy.

PMID- 28868020
TI  - Erdheim-Chester Disease: The Importance of Information Integration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare non-Langerhans cell
      histiocytosis disorder that utilizes the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK pathway. It has a highly
      variable clinical presentation, where virtually any organ can be involved, thus
      having the potential of posing a great diagnostic challenge. Over half of the
      reported cases have the BRAF V600E mutation and have shown a remarkable response
      to vemurafenib. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe herein a patient with a history of
      stroke-like symptoms and retroperitoneal fibrosis that on initial pathology
      raised the possibility of IgG4-related disease. However, the patient was
      refractory to high-dose steroids and progressed further, developing an epicardial
      soft tissue mass and recurrent neurological symptoms. Integration of the above
      findings with new information at another hospital about a radiological history of
      symmetrical lower extremities long bone lesions raised the differential diagnosis
      of ECD. Molecular analysis of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue of both of
      the patient's retroperitoneal biopsies (the second one of which had shown a small
      focus of foamy histiocytes, CD68+/CD1a-) was positive for BRAF mutation,
      confirming the diagnosis of ECD. The patient demonstrated a dramatic and
      sustained metabolic response to vemurafenib on follow-up positron emission
      tomography scans. CONCLUSION: This case highlights the need for developing a high
      index of suspicion for presentations of retroperitoneal fibrosis that could
      represent IgG4-related disease but fail to respond to steroids. When unusual
      multisystem involvement occurs, one should consider a diagnosis of a rare
      histiocytosis. Vemurafenib appears to be an effective treatment for even advanced
      cases of both ECD and Langerhans histiocytosis bearing the BRAF V600E mutation.

PMID- 28868021
TI  - A Case of Recurrent Breast Cancer Identified by Pulmonary Tumor Thrombotic
      Microangiopathy.
AB  - Pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM) is a rare, cancer-related,
      pulmonary complication that causes hypoxia and pulmonary hypertension. We report
      on a 42-year-old woman who was diagnosed with recurrent breast cancer that was
      detected due to the presence of PTTM. Eleven months after surgery for
      heterochronous bilateral cancer of the left breast, she developed progressive
      dyspnea but computerized tomography showed no pulmonary thromboembolism, and a
      transthoracic echocardiography revealed mild pulmonary hypertension. She was
      diagnosed with PTTM by cytology from pulmonary artery catheterization and
      perfusion lung scintigraphy. Also, the patients complained of back pain after
      admission, bone scintigraphy showed multiple bone metastases. Despite the early
      diagnosis of PTTM, her platelet count decreased, her performance status rapidly
      deteriorated, and her dyspnea worsened. Thus, we could not treat her with
      chemotherapy. She died due to respiratory failure 19 days after admission. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first report of recurrent breast cancer
      identified by the manifestation of PTTM. Although PTTM is a rare phenomenon, it
      should be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute dyspnea or pulmonary
      hypertension in patients with breast cancer. Furthermore, upon diagnosis, the
      patient should be referred to a cardiologist as soon as possible.

PMID- 28868022
TI  - Successful Yttrium-90 Microsphere Radioembolization for Hepatic Metastases of
      Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Prostate cancer is the most common solid tumor malignancy worldwide with an
      estimated 180,000 new cases of prostate cancer and 26,000 deaths in the USA in
      2016. Although significant advances in the treatment of prostate cancer have
      recently been made, the treatment of metastatic disease remains a challenge. With
      visceral metastases marking more advanced tumor stages, liver involvement is
      associated with the worst prognosis. So far, no locoregional treatment regimens
      for the management of liver metastases of prostatic cancer exist. Herein, we
      report for the first time a successful treatment of hepatic metastases of
      prostatic cancer using radioembolization with selective intra-arterial
      administration of Yttrium-90 resin microspheres.

PMID- 28868023
TI  - Next-Generation Sequencing in Order to Better Characterize a BRCA Variant of
      Uncertain Significance.
AB  - BRCA germline mutations are the most common predisposing factor in familial
      breast-ovarian cancer syndrome families. However, many screened patients are
      identified as harboring BRCA variants of uncertain significance (VUS), rather
      than carrying deleterious germline mutations [Calo et al.: Cancers 2010; 2:1644
      1660]. While such VUSs are typically reclassified as benign polymorphisms, this
      may occur years after the VUS is first identified [Murray et al.: Genet Med 2011;
      13; 998-1005]. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of BRCA is nearly always the
      gatekeeper event in inherited BRCA-related breast cancer and LOH of BRCA is rare
      in sporadic cancers [Osorio et al.: Int J Cancer 2002; 99:305-309]. Here, we
      describe a patient identified as carrying a germline BRCA VUS. Tumor next
      generation sequencing (NGS) demonstrated a very high mutation allelic frequency
      for that BRCA VUS, consistent with LOH. This case illustrates that since BRCA LOH
      is the typical mechanism of transformation in inherited BRCA-related breast
      cancers, NGS might be used to suggest that the BRCA VUS is actually cancer
      predisposing in a particular family. As a result, this may help patients make
      more informed decisions regarding screening and prophylactic therapy, long before
      official reclassification of the VUS occurs.

PMID- 28868024
TI  - Isolated Splenic Metastasis from Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Case Report and
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - Metastases to the spleen are rare but have been reported for different tumor
      entities, including breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, ovarian
      cancer, and melanoma. As an isolated event, splenic metastasis from non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is exceedingly rare. Until now, only 28 cases have been
      reported in the medical literature. We report the case of a 66-year-old woman
      with NSCLC (adenocarcinoma) who presented with a synchronous, isolated splenic
      metastasis. Operative removal of both primary tumor and metastasis was not
      possible due to multiple comorbidities. Therefore, treatment was limited to
      combined systemic chemotherapy and simultaneous radiation of the primary tumor,
      which led to partial remission of the disease. Isolated metastasis to the spleen
      in NSCLC has been reported only 28 times in the medical literature, most often in
      male patients with right-sided lung tumors, most of which were adenocarcinomas.
      The majority of patients were asymptomatic with respect to splenic metastasis.
      About half of the reported cases were isolated metachronous splenic metastases.
      Splenectomy seems to confer a survival advantage. We review the pertinent medical
      literature.

PMID- 28868025
TI  - The Effectiveness of Trastuzumab Combined with Sequential Chemotherapy for
      Metastatic Gastric Carcinoma with Overexpression of HER2.
AB  - Metastatic gastric carcinoma is a mortal disease with a median survival of barely
      10 months. An approximate 20% of the cases overexpress HER2, and among them, the
      combination of chemotherapy with trastuzumab is actually the first-line
      palliative treatment. However, after progression, sequential strategies of
      chemotherapy while maintaining trastuzumab have been barely researched. We report
      the case of a patient with a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma in the gastroesophageal
      junction with overexpression of HER2, in stage IV, treated with sequential
      chemotherapy and trastuzumab, who survived more than 5 years during the
      metastatic phase maintaining a good quality of life.

PMID- 28868026
TI  - Ultrasound-Guided Transoral Videolaryngoscopic Surgery for Retropharyngeal Lymph
      Node Metastasis of Papillary Thyroid Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic-assisted transoral surgery, including transoral robotic
      surgery for metastatic retropharyngeal lymph node (RPN) from well-differentiated
      thyroid cancer, has been reported to reduce the complications resulting from
      transcervical and transmandibular approaches. However, the narrow working space
      and difficulty identifying RPN are problematic. To solve these issues, several
      studies have used intraoperative ultrasound in endoscopic-assisted transoral
      surgery. However, the type of ultrasonography suitable for this purpose remains
      unclear. CASE PRESENTATION: A 60-year-old female with thyroid papillary carcinoma
      (T4aN1bM0) initially underwent total thyroidectomy and paratracheal and selective
      neck dissections (D2a), with resectional management of recurrent laryngeal nerve,
      trachea, and esophagus. Three years later, she was diagnosed with left
      retropharyngeal and upper mediastinal lymph node metastases of papillary thyroid
      cancer. Transoral videolaryngoscopic surgery was performed with a combination of
      ultrasonography with a flexible laparoscopic transducer manipulated with forceps
      for identifying RPN intraoperatively. Due to the transducer's small size and
      thin, flexible cable, the transducer interrupted the procedure in spite of the
      narrowness of oral cavity. RPN was resected completely without adverse events.
      CONCLUSION: We performed intraoperative ultrasound-guided endoscopic transoral
      surgery for metastatic RPN from papillary thyroid cancer and achieved complete
      resection as well as preservation of swallowing function.

PMID- 28868027
TI  - Recurrent Meningioma of the Cervical Spine, Successfully Treated with Liposomal
      Doxorubicin.
AB  - There is no standard systemic treatment for persons with recurrent meningioma who
      have exhausted surgery and radiation options. Liposomal doxorubicin is a
      cytotoxic chemotherapy which is sustainable and tolerable, with activity against
      a range of solid tumors. There exists one reported case of metastatic meningioma
      effectively treated with liposomal doxorubicin. We report a second case. Our
      patient, a 35-year-old man with recurrent meningioma compressing the cervical
      spinal cord received liposomal doxorubicin for 22 months with clinical
      improvement, minimal toxicity, and slow regression of his tumor. He is well and
      without progression 18 months after stopping chemotherapy and 4 years after his
      last progression event.

PMID- 28868028
TI  - Primary Cystic Pleuropulmonary Synovial Sarcoma Presenting as Recurrent
      Pneumothorax.
AB  - Primary pleuropulmonary synovial sarcomas are quite rare, representing 0.1-0.5%
      of all pulmonary malignancies. We report an entirely cystic monophasic synovial
      sarcoma in a 25-year-old male who presented with recurrent pneumothorax and no
      evidence of a mass lesion on imaging. The purpose of this case report is to
      increase awareness of neoplasms clinically presenting as a pneumothorax with no
      imagining evidence of a mass-forming lesion and emphasize the significance of
      fluorescent in situ hybridization testing in nontypical synovial sarcoma cases.

PMID- 28868029
TI  - Thrombosis of the Vein of Galen: Pitfalls, Metamorphosis, and Paroxysmal
      Sympathetic Hyperactivity.
AB  - Isolated thrombosis of the vein of Galen is a rare and serious entity with few
      cases reported in the literature. We report the case of a previously healthy 18
      year-old male who was admitted after developing headache and subsequently
      worsening mental status, requiring endotracheal intubation for airway protection.
      During his admission he developed symptoms of severe paroxysmal sympathetic
      hyperactivity and posturing. The computed tomography and magnetic resonance
      imaging of the brain showed bilateral thalamic lesions. The magnetic resonance
      angiography and digital arteriography revealed a thrombosis of the deep cerebral
      venous system (vein of Galen). We call attention to a case with rapid symptom
      progression and specific radiological findings, with atypical clinical course,
      characterized by paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity, but with good clinical
      functional outcome.

PMID- 28868030
TI  - Association of Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome and Transient Apical
      Ballooning Syndrome (Takotsubo): First Case Report of a Man and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An association of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome
      (PRES) and takotsubo is rare. We present the first case of a male patient. CASE
      REPORT: A 69-year-old man presented to the hospital in a persistent comatose
      state following a generalized tonic-clonic seizure with high blood pressure. The
      electrocardiogram revealed transient left bundle branch block. Troponin and BNP
      were elevated. Cardiac ultrasound showed large apical akinesia with altered left
      ventricular ejection fraction, and the left ventriculogram showed characteristic
      regional wall motion abnormalities involving the mid and apical segments. Brain
      MRI showed bilateral, cortical, and subcortical vasogenic edema predominant in
      the posterior right hemisphere. The lumbar puncture and cerebral angiography were
      normal. Paraclinical abnormalities were reversible within 2 weeks with a clinical
      recovery in 3 months, confirming the takotsubo and the PRES diagnoses.
      DISCUSSION: Several theories hypothesize the underlying pathophysiology of
      takotsubo or PRES. Circulating catecholamines are up to 3 times higher in
      patients with takotsubo causing impaired microcirculation and apical hypokinesia.
      An association of both takotsubo and asthma crisis and PRES and asthma crisis
      underlines the role of catecholamines in the occurrence of these disorders.
      CONCLUSION: Early recognition of this rare association, in which heart and
      neurological damage may require rapid intensive care support, is needed.

PMID- 28868031
TI  - Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography: Employing a Novel Technique for
      Investigation in Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease and describe the
      imaging findings by means of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
      METHODS: Medical and ophthalmological history, ophthalmological examination,
      laboratory evaluation, B-scan ultrasonography, fluorescein and indocyanine
      angiography, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) were performed at baseline,
      as well as OCTA. RESULTS: A 50-year-old healthy female presented with decreased
      vision in both eyes. A Topcon DRI OCT Triton Plus swept source OCT system was
      used to visualize and evaluate the retinal and choroidal vascular plexus. Patchy
      and confluent dark areas in the superficial and deep retinal capillary plexus and
      choriocapillaris corresponded to areas of hypoperfusion, analyzed as areas of
      ischemia. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPORTANCE: VKH disease is characterized by ocular,
      neurological, and integumentary findings in its complete form. We present a case
      of incomplete disease in a 50-year-old female evaluated by means of OCTA which is
      a novel technique that provides depth-resolved images of the retina and choroidal
      microvasculature without dye injection that allows better visualization and
      detailed evaluation of the retinal and choroidal vascular plexus.

PMID- 28868032
TI  - Spironolactone for Secondary Central Serous Chorioretinopathy: A Challenge
      Rechallenge Case.
AB  - Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is potentially sight-threatening and has
      been associated with corticosteroid use. CSCR secondary to steroid use can
      sometimes be challenging to treat, especially if continuing steroid use is
      medically necessary. In this case report we demonstrate the efficacy of
      spironolactone as an effective agent in countering CSCR secondary to steroid use.
      This challenge-rechallenge case may be helpful to clinicians in delineating a
      treatment paradigm for these patients.

PMID- 28868033
TI  - Sturge-Weber Syndrome Associated with Monolateral Ocular Melanocytosis, Iris
      Mammillations, and Diffuse Choroidal Haemangioma.
AB  - We present the case of a 12-year-old boy with Sturge-Weber syndrome and ocular
      melanocytosis who presented with bilateral naevus flammeus of the face and
      hyperpigmentation of the right iris associated with ipsilateral iris
      mammillations. The patient had glaucoma and a diffuse choroidal haemangioma of
      the right eye. Optical coherence tomography of the anterior segment confirmed
      iris hyper-pigmentation and did not show abnormalities of the chamber angle
      structures. B-scan ultrasonography and enhanced depth imaging optical coherence
      tomography were performed and showed a marked difference in thickness and
      reflectance between the right and left choroid. Visual field examinations with
      perimetry showed early defects in the right eye. Peripapillary optical coherence
      imaging showed borderline values of retinal nerve fibre layer thickness reduction
      in the right eye. Sturge-Weber syndrome associated with ocular melanocytosis and
      iris mammillations is an extremely rare condition. This paper highlights the role
      of multi-imaging methods in the enhanced evaluation of rare diseases towards
      choosing the most appropriate management strategies and improving the follow-up
      of patients over time.

PMID- 28868034
TI  - Correction of High Astigmatism after Penetrating Keratoplasty with Toric
      Multifocal Intraocular Lens Implantation.
AB  - After penetrating keratoplasty (PK), high astigmatism is often induced, being
      frequently about 4-6 dpt. According to the entity and typology of astigmatism,
      different methods of correction can be used. Selective suture removal, relaxing
      incisions, wedge resections, compression sutures, photorefractive keratectomy,
      and laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis can reduce corneal astigmatism and
      ametropia, but meanwhile they can cause a reduction in the corneal integrity and
      cause an over- or undercorrection. In case of moderate-to-high regular
      astigmatisms, the authors propose a toric multifocal intraocular lens (IOL)
      implantation to preserve the corneal integrity (especially in PK after herpetic
      corneal leukoma keratitis). We evaluated a 45-year-old patient who at the age of
      30 was subjected to PK in his left eye due to corneal leukoma herpetic keratitis,
      which led to high astigmatism (7.50 dpt cyl. 5 degrees ). The patient was
      subjected to phacoemulsification and customized toric multifocal IOL implantation
      in his left eye. The correction of PK-induced residual astigmatism with a toric
      IOL implantation is an excellent choice but has to be evaluated in relation to
      patient age, corneal integrity, longevity graft, and surgical risk. It seems to
      be a well-tolerated therapeutic choice and with good results.

PMID- 28868035
TI  - A Novel Stress-Diathesis Model to Predict Risk of Post-operative Delirium:
      Implications for Intra-operative Management.
AB  - Introduction: Risk assessment for post-operative delirium (POD) is poorly
      developed. Improved metrics could greatly facilitate peri-operative care as costs
      associated with POD are staggering. In this preliminary study, we develop a novel
      stress-diathesis model based on comprehensive pre-operative psychiatric and
      neuropsychological testing, a blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) carbon dioxide (CO2) stress test, and high fidelity
      measures of intra-operative parameters that may interact facilitating POD.
      Methods: The study was approved by the ethics board at the University of Manitoba
      and registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02126215. Twelve patients were
      studied. Pre-operative psychiatric symptom measures and neuropsychological
      testing preceded MRI featuring a BOLD MRI CO2 stress test whereby BOLD scans were
      conducted while exposing participants to a rigorously controlled CO2 stimulus.
      During surgery the patient had hemodynamics and end-tidal gases downloaded at 0.5
      hz. Post-operatively, the presence of POD and POD severity was comprehensively
      assessed using the Confusion Assessment Measure -Severity (CAM-S) scoring
      instrument on days 0 (surgery) through post-operative day 5, and patients were
      followed up at least 1 month post-operatively. Results: Six of 12 patients had no
      evidence of POD (non-POD). Three patients had POD and 3 had clinically
      significant confusional states (referred as subthreshold POD; ST-POD) (score >=
      5/19 on the CAM-S). Average severity for delirium was 1.3 in the non-POD group,
      3.2 in ST-POD, and 6.1 in POD (F-statistic = 15.4, p < 0.001). Depressive
      symptoms, and cognitive measures of semantic fluency and executive
      functioning/processing speed were significantly associated with POD. Second level
      analysis revealed an increased inverse BOLD responsiveness to CO2 pre-operatively
      in ST-POD and marked increase in the POD groups when compared to the non-POD
      group. An association was also noted for the patient population to manifest
      leucoaraiosis as assessed with advanced neuroimaging techniques. Results provide
      preliminary support for the interacting of diatheses (vulnerabilities) and intra
      operative stressors on the POD phenotype. Conclusions: The stress-diathesis model
      has the potential to aid in risk assessment for POD. Based on these initial
      findings, we make some recommendations for intra-operative management for
      patients at risk of POD.

PMID- 28868037
TI  - BH3 Mimetics for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Despite improved diagnostic and therapeutic intervention, advanced prostate
      cancer (PC) remains incurable. The acquired resistance of PC cells to current
      treatment protocols has been traced to apoptosis resistance based on the
      upregulation of anti-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family. The use of BH3
      mimetics, mimicking pro-apoptotic activator or sensitizer proteins of the
      intrinsic apoptotic pathway, is therefore a promising treatment strategy. The
      present review gives an overview of preclinical and clinical studies with pan-
      and specific BH3 mimetics as sensitizers for cell death and gives an outlook how
      they could be effectively used for the therapy of advanced PC in future.

PMID- 28868036
TI  - Baicalin Alleviates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Liver Inflammation in Chicken by
      Suppressing TLR4-Mediated NF-kappaB Pathway.
AB  - As a kind of potent stimulus, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has the ability to cause
      cell damage by activating toll-like receptor(TLR)4, then nuclear factor kappa B
      (NF-kappaB) translocates into the nucleus and changes the expression of related
      inflammatory genes. Baicalin is extracted from Radix Scutellariae, which
      possesses anti-inflammation, antioxidant and antibacterial properties. However,
      the effects of it on LPS-induced liver inflammation have not been fully
      elucidated. This study aims to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of
      Baicalin on the LPS-induced liver inflammation and its underlying molecular
      mechanisms in chicken. The results of histopathological changes, serum
      biochemical analysis, NO levels and myeloperoxidase activity showed that Baicalin
      pretreatment ameliorated LPS-induced liver inflammation. ELISA and qPCR assays
      showed that Baicalin dose-dependently suppressed the production of IL-1beta, IL
      6, and TNF-alpha. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of inducible nitric oxide
      synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were significantly decreased by
      Baicalin. TLR4 is an important sensor in LPS infection. Molecular studies showed
      that the expression of TLR4 was inhibited by Baicalin pretreatment. In addition,
      Baicalin pretreatment inhibited NF-kB signaling pathway activation. All results
      demonstrated the protective effects of Baicalin pretreatment against LPS-induced
      liver inflammation in chicken via negative regulation of inflammatory mediators
      through the down-regulation of TLR4 expression and the inhibition of NF-kB
      activation.

PMID- 28868038
TI  - Quantitative Comparison of Effects of Dofetilide, Sotalol, Quinidine, and
      Verapamil between Human Ex vivo Trabeculae and In silico Ventricular Models
      Incorporating Inter-Individual Action Potential Variability.
AB  - Background:In silico modeling could soon become a mainstream method of pro
      arrhythmic risk assessment in drug development. However, a lack of human-specific
      data and appropriate modeling techniques has previously prevented quantitative
      comparison of drug effects between in silico models and recordings from human
      cardiac preparations. Here, we directly compare changes in repolarization
      biomarkers caused by dofetilide, dl-sotalol, quinidine, and verapamil, between in
      silico populations of human ventricular cell models and ex vivo human ventricular
      trabeculae. Methods and Results:Ex vivo recordings from human ventricular
      trabeculae in control conditions were used to develop populations of in silico
      human ventricular cell models that integrated intra- and inter-individual
      variability in action potential (AP) biomarker values. Models were based on the
      O'Hara-Rudy ventricular cardiomyocyte model, but integrated experimental AP
      variability through variation in underlying ionic conductances. Changes to AP
      duration, triangulation and early after-depolarization occurrence from
      application of the four drugs at multiple concentrations and pacing frequencies
      were compared between simulations and experiments. To assess the impact of
      variability in IC50 measurements, and the effects of including state-dependent
      drug binding dynamics, each drug simulation was repeated with two different IC50
      datasets, and with both the original O'Hara-Rudy hERG model and a recently
      published state-dependent model of hERG and hERG block. For the selective hERG
      blockers dofetilide and sotalol, simulation predictions of AP prolongation and
      repolarization abnormality occurrence showed overall good agreement with
      experiments. However, for multichannel blockers quinidine and verapamil,
      simulations were not in agreement with experiments across all IC50 datasets and
      IKr block models tested. Quinidine simulations resulted in overprolonged APs and
      high incidence of repolarization abnormalities, which were not observed in
      experiments. Verapamil simulations showed substantial AP prolongation while
      experiments showed mild AP shortening. Conclusions: Results for dofetilide and
      sotalol show good agreement between experiments and simulations for selective
      compounds, however lack of agreement from simulations of quinidine and verapamil
      suggest further work is needed to understand the more complex
      electrophysiological effects of these multichannel blocking drugs.

PMID- 28868039
TI  - Relaxin-2 in Cardiometabolic Diseases: Mechanisms of Action and Future
      Perspectives.
AB  - Despite the great effort of the medical community during the last decades,
      cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide, increasing
      their prevalence every year mainly due to our new way of life. In the last years,
      the study of new hormones implicated in the regulation of energy metabolism and
      inflammation has raised a great interest among the scientific community regarding
      their implications in the development of cardiometabolic diseases. In this
      review, we will summarize the main actions of relaxin, a pleiotropic hormone that
      was previously suggested to improve acute heart failure and that participates in
      both metabolism and inflammation regulation at cardiovascular level, and will
      discuss its potential as future therapeutic target to prevent/reduce
      cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28868041
TI  - Self-esteem Modulates the P3 Component in Response to the Self-face Processing
      after Priming with Emotional Faces.
AB  - The self-face processing advantage (SPA) refers to the research finding that
      individuals generally recognize their own face faster than another's face; self
      face also elicits an enhanced P3 amplitude compared to another's face. It has
      been suggested that social evaluation threats could weaken the SPA and that self
      esteem could be regarded as a threat buffer. However, little research has
      directly investigated the neural evidence of how self-esteem modulates the social
      evaluation threat to the SPA. In the current event-related potential study, 27
      healthy Chinese undergraduate students were primed with emotional faces (angry,
      happy, or neutral) and were asked to judge whether the target face (self, friend,
      and stranger) was familiar or unfamiliar. Electrophysiological results showed
      that after priming with emotional faces (angry and happy), self-face elicited
      similar P3 amplitudes to friend-face in individuals with low self-esteem, but not
      in individuals with high self-esteem. The results suggest that as low self-esteem
      raises fears of social rejection and exclusion, priming with emotional faces
      (angry and happy) can weaken the SPA in low self-esteem individuals but not in
      high self-esteem individuals.

PMID- 28868042
TI  - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
      for Treating Panic Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - Objective: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective intervention for
      patients with panic disorder (PD). From a theoretical perspective, Eye Movement
      Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy could also be useful in the
      treatment of PD because: (1) panic attacks can be experienced as life
      threatening; (2) panic memories specific to PD resemble traumatic memories as
      seen in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and (3) PD often develops following
      a distressing life event. The primary objective of this Randomized Controlled
      Trial (RCT), was to compare EMDR therapy with CBT for PD and determine whether
      EMDR is not worse than CBT in reducing panic symptoms and improving Quality Of
      Life (QOL). Methods: Two-arm (CBT and EMDR) parallel RCT in patients with PD (N =
      84). Patients were measured at baseline (T1), directly after the last therapy
      session (T2), and 3 months after ending therapy (T3). Non-inferiority testing
      (linear mixed model with intention-to-treat analysis) was applied. Patients were
      randomly assigned to 13 weekly 60-min sessions of CBT (N = 42) or EMDR therapy (N
      = 42). Standard protocols were used. The primary outcome measure was severity of
      PD at T3, as measured with the Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ), the
      Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ), and the Mobility Inventory (MI). The
      secondary outcome measure was QOL, as measured with the World Health Organization
      Quality of Life short version (WHOQOL-Bref), at T3. Results: The severity of PD
      variables ACQ and BSQ showed non-inferiority of EMDR to CBT, while MI was
      inconclusive (adjusted analyses). Overall QOL and general health, Psychological
      health, Social relationships, and Environment showed non-inferiority of EMDR to
      CBT, while Physical health was inconclusive. Conclusion: EMDR therapy proved to
      be as effective as CBT for treating PD patients. Trial Registration: Dutch Trial
      Register, Nr. 3134
      http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=3134.

PMID- 28868043
TI  - Metabolomics Profiling As a Diagnostic Tool in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex disease with a multifaceted
      pathophysiology. Impairment of energy metabolism is a key component of secondary
      insults. This phenomenon is a consequence of multiple potential mechanisms
      including diffusion hypoxia, mitochondrial failure, and increased energy needs
      due to systemic trauma responses, seizures, or spreading depolarization. The
      degree of disturbance in brain metabolism is affected by treatment interventions
      and reflected in clinical patient outcome. Hence, monitoring of these secondary
      events in peripheral blood will provide a window into the pathophysiological
      course of severe TBI. New methods for assessing perturbation of brain metabolism
      are needed in order to monitor on-going pathophysiological processes and thus
      facilitate targeted interventions and predict outcome. Circulating metabolites in
      peripheral blood may serve as sensitive markers of pathological processes in TBI.
      The levels of these small molecules in blood are less dependent on the integrity
      of the blood-brain barrier as compared to protein biomarkers. We have recently
      characterized a specific metabolic profile in serum that is associated with both
      initial severity and patient outcome of TBI. We found that two medium-chain fatty
      acids, octanoic and decanoic acids, as well as several sugar derivatives are
      significantly associated with the severity of TBI. The top ranking peripheral
      blood metabolites were also highly correlated with their levels in cerebral
      microdialyzates. Based on the metabolite profile upon admission, we have been
      able to develop a model that accurately predicts patient outcome. Moreover,
      metabolomics profiling improved the performance of the well-established clinical
      prognostication model. In this review, we discuss metabolomics profiling in
      patients with severe TBI. We present arguments in support of the need for further
      development and validation of circulating biomarkers of cerebral metabolism and
      for their use in assessing patients with severe TBI.

PMID- 28868044
TI  - Merkel Cell Carcinoma with Distant Metastasis to the Clivus Causing Symptoms
      Mimicking Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an uncommon but highly malignant neuroendocrine
      tumor of the skin. MCC can metastasize, but involvement of the central nervous
      system is rare. Here, we report a case of rapidly progressing metastatic MCC to
      the clivus and bilateral cavernous sinus in an immunocompromised patient. This
      case is unique in that it is the first case report showing MCC metastasis to the
      clivus from a distant site. It also demonstrates that a MCC metastasis can
      masquerade with symptoms of Tolosa-Hunt syndrome. A literature review on MCC with
      CNS metastasis is presented.

PMID- 28868040
TI  - Novel Psychoactive Substances-Recent Progress on Neuropharmacological Mechanisms
      of Action for Selected Drugs.
AB  - A feature of human culture is that we can learn to consume chemical compounds,
      derived from natural plants or synthetic fabrication, for their psychoactive
      effects. These drugs change the mental state and/or the behavioral performance of
      an individual and can be instrumentalized for various purposes. After the
      emergence of a novel psychoactive substance (NPS) and a period of experimental
      consumption, personal and medical benefits and harm potential of the NPS can be
      estimated on evidence base. This may lead to a legal classification of the NPS,
      which may range from limited medical use, controlled availability up to a
      complete ban of the drug form publically accepted use. With these measures,
      however, a drug does not disappear, but frequently continues to be used, which
      eventually allows an even better estimate of the drug's properties. Thus, only in
      rare cases, there is a final verdict that is no more questioned. Instead, the
      view on a drug can change from tolerable to harmful but may also involve the new
      establishment of a desired medical application to a previously harmful drug.
      Here, we provide a summary review on a number of NPS for which the
      neuropharmacological evaluation has made important progress in recent years. They
      include mitragynine ("Kratom"), synthetic cannabinoids (e.g., "Spice"),
      dimethyltryptamine and novel serotonergic hallucinogens, the cathinones
      mephedrone and methylone, ketamine and novel dissociative drugs, gamma
      hydroxybutyrate, gamma-butyrolactone, and 1,4-butanediol. This review shows not
      only emerging harm potentials but also some potential medical applications.

PMID- 28868046
TI  - A Novel Saccadic Strategy Revealed by Suppression Head Impulse Testing of
      Patients with Bilateral Vestibular Loss.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We examined the eye movement response patterns of a group of patients
      with bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) during suppression head impulse testing.
      Some showed a new saccadic strategy that may have potential for explaining how
      patients use saccades to recover from vestibular loss. METHODS: Eight patients
      with severe BVL [vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gains less than 0.35 and absent
      otolithic function] were tested. All patients were given the Dizziness Handicap
      Inventory and questioned about oscillopsia during abrupt head movements. Two
      paradigms of video head impulse testing of the horizontal VOR were used: (1) the
      classical head impulse paradigm [called head impulse test (HIMPs)]-fixating an
      earth-fixed target during the head impulse and (2) the new complementary test
      paradigm-fixating a head-fixed target during the head impulse (called SHIMPs).
      The VOR gain of HIMPs was quantified by two algorithms. RESULTS: During SHIMPs
      testing, some BVL patients consistently generated an inappropriate covert
      compensatory saccade during the head impulse that required a corresponding large
      anti-compensatory saccade at the end of the head impulse in order to obey the
      instructions to maintain gaze on the head-fixed target. By contrast, other BVL
      patients did not generate this inappropriate covert saccade and did not exhibit a
      corresponding anti-compensatory saccade. The latencies of the covert saccade in
      SHIMPs and HIMPs were similar. CONCLUSION: The pattern of covert saccades during
      SHIMPs appears to be related to the reduction of oscillopsia during abrupt head
      movements. BVL patients who did not report oscillopsia showed this unusual
      saccadic pattern, whereas BVL patients who reported oscillopsia did not show this
      pattern. This inappropriate covert SHIMPs saccade may be an objective indicator
      of how some patients with vestibular loss have learned to trigger covert saccades
      during head movements in everyday life.

PMID- 28868045
TI  - Primary Blast-Induced Changes in Akt and GSK3beta Phosphorylation in Rat
      Hippocampus.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to blast from improvised explosive devices has
      been a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in recent conflicts in Iraq and
      Afghanistan. However, the mechanisms of primary blast-induced TBI are not well
      understood. The Akt signal transduction pathway has been implicated in various
      brain pathologies including TBI. In the present study, the effects of simulated
      primary blast waves on the phosphorylation status of Akt and its downstream
      effector kinase, glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK3beta), in rat hippocampus,
      were investigated. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (350-400 g) were exposed to a
      single pulse shock wave (25 psi; ~7 ms duration) and sacrificed 1 day, 1 week, or
      6 weeks after exposure. Total and phosphorylated Akt, as well as phosphorylation
      of its downstream effector kinase GSK3beta (at serine 9), were detected with
      western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. Results showed that Akt
      phosphorylation at both serine 473 and threonine 308 was increased 1 day after
      blast on the ipsilateral side of the hippocampus, and this elevation persisted
      until at least 6 weeks postexposure. Similarly, phosphorylation of GSK3beta at
      serine 9, which inhibits GSK3beta activity, was also increased starting at 1 day
      and persisted until at least 6 weeks after primary blast on the ipsilateral side.
      In contrast, p-Akt was increased at 1 and 6 weeks on the contralateral side,
      while p-GSK3beta was increased 1 day and 1 week after primary blast exposure. No
      significant changes in total protein levels of Akt and GSK were observed on
      either side of the hippocampus at any time points. Immunohistochemical results
      showed that increased p-Akt was mainly of neuronal origin in the CA1 region of
      the hippocampus and once phosphorylated, the majority was translocated to the
      dendritic and plasma membranes. Finally, electrophysiological data showed that
      evoked synaptic N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activity was significantly
      increased 6 weeks after primary blast, suggesting that increased Akt
      phosphorylation may enhance synaptic NMDA receptor activation, or that enhanced
      synaptic NMDA receptor activation may increase Akt phosphorylation.

PMID- 28868047
TI  - In Premature Newborns Intraventricular Hemorrhage Causes Cerebral Vasospasm and
      Associated Neurodisability via Heme-Induced Inflammasome-Mediated Interleukin-1
      Production and Nitric Oxide Depletion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) occurs in 60-70% of neonates
      weighing 500-750 g and 10-20% of those weighing 1,000-1,500 g. All forms of IVH
      have been associated with neurocognitive deficits. Both subarachnoid and IVHs
      have been associated with delayed vasospasm leading to neurological deficits.
      Pathways linking hemoglobin release from blood clots to vasospasm include heme
      induced activation of inflammasomes releasing interleukin-1 (IL-1) that can cause
      calcium dependent and independent vasospasm. Free hemoglobin is a potent
      scavenger of nitric oxide (NO). Depletion of NO, a potent endogenous vasodilator,
      has been associated with features of vasospasm. HYPOTHESIS: In premature
      newborns, IVH causes cerebral vasospasm and associated neurodisability via heme
      induced increased inflammasome-mediated IL-1 production and NO depletion.
      CONFIRMATION OF HYPOTHESIS AND IMPLICATIONS: This hypothesis could be confirmed
      in the IVH animal model with visualization of any associated vasospasm by
      angiography and in newborns with IVH by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography and
      correlation with cerebrospinal fluid IL-1 and NO metabolite levels. Confirmation
      of the role of heme in activation of inflammasomes causing IL-1 production and NO
      binding could be achieved by measuring the effect of heme scavenging
      interventions on IL-1 levels and levels of NO metabolites. In addition to removal
      of the accumulated blood of an IVH by drainage, irrigation, and fibrinolytic
      therapy intrathecal application of vasodilators and heme scavenging agents like
      haptoglobin and haemopexin and systemic treatment with inhibitors of
      inflammasomes like telmisartan could be used to prevent and treat cerebral
      vasospasm, and thus reduce the risk of associated brain injury in premature
      neonates.

PMID- 28868048
TI  - Extracellular Vesicles from Adipose Tissue-A Potential Role in Obesity and Type 2
      Diabetes?
AB  - Adipose tissue plays a key role in the development of insulin resistance and its
      pathological sequelae, such as type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease. Dysfunction in the adipose tissue response to storing excess fatty acids
      as triglyceride can lead to adipose tissue inflammation and spillover of fatty
      acids from this tissue and accumulation of fatty acids as lipid droplets in
      ectopic sites, such as liver and muscle. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are
      released from adipocytes and have been proposed to be involved in
      adipocyte/macrophage cross talk and to affect insulin signaling and transforming
      growth factor beta expression in liver cells leading to metabolic disease.
      Furthermore EV produced by adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSC)
      can promote angiogenesis and cancer cell migration and have neuroprotective and
      neuroregenerative properties. ADSC EVs have therapeutic potential in vascular and
      neurodegenerative disease and may also be used to target specific functional
      miRNAs to cells. Obesity is associated with an increase in adipose-derived EV
      which may be related to the metabolic complications of obesity. In this review,
      we discuss our current knowledge of EV produced by adipose tissue and the
      potential impact of adipose tissue-derived EV on metabolic diseases associated
      with obesity.

PMID- 28868049
TI  - Identification of Secondary Metabolite Gene Clusters in the Pseudovibrio Genus
      Reveals Encouraging Biosynthetic Potential toward the Production of Novel
      Bioactive Compounds.
AB  - Increased incidences of antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of pan
      resistant 'superbugs' have provoked an extreme sense of urgency amongst
      researchers focusing on the discovery of potentially novel antimicrobial
      compounds. A strategic shift in focus from the terrestrial to the marine
      environment has resulted in the discovery of a wide variety of structurally and
      functionally diverse bioactive compounds from numerous marine sources, including
      sponges. Bacteria found in close association with sponges and other marine
      invertebrates have recently gained much attention as potential sources of many of
      these novel bioactive compounds. Members of the genus Pseudovibrio are one such
      group of organisms. In this study, we interrogate the genomes of 21 Pseudovibrio
      strains isolated from a variety of marine sources, for the presence, diversity
      and distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). We expand on results
      obtained from antiSMASH analysis to demonstrate the similarity between the
      Pseudovibrio-related BGCs and those characterized in other bacteria and
      corroborate our findings with phylogenetic analysis. We assess how domain
      organization of the most abundant type of BGCs present among the isolates (Non
      ribosomal peptide synthetases and Polyketide synthases) may influence the
      diversity of compounds produced by these organisms and highlight for the first
      time the potential for novel compound production from this genus of bacteria,
      using a genome guided approach.

PMID- 28868050
TI  - Biofilm Formation by Pseudallescheria/Scedosporium Species: A Comparative Study.
AB  - Pseudallescheria/Scedosporium species are medically important fungi that are
      present in soil and human impacted areas and capable of causing a wide spectrum
      of diseases in humans. Although little is known about their pathogenesis, their
      growth process and infection routes are very similar to those of Aspergillus
      species, which grow as biofilms in invasive infections. All nine strains tested
      here displayed the ability to grow as biofilms in vitro and to produce a dense
      network of interconnected hyphae on both polystyrene and the surfaces of central
      venous catheters, but with different characteristics. Scedosporium boydii and S.
      aurantiacum clinical isolates were able to form biofilms faster than the
      corresponding environmental strains, as evidenced in kinetic assays for S. boydii
      and CLSM for S. aurantiacum. Biofilms formed by Pseudallescheria/Scedosporium
      species had significantly higher resistance to the class of antifungal azole than
      was observed in planktonic cells, indicating a protective role for this
      structure. In addition, the clinical S. aurantiacum isolate that formed the most
      robust biofilms was also more virulent in a larvae Galleria mellonella infection
      model, suggesting that the ability to form biofilms enhances virulence in
      Pseudallescheria/Scedosporium species.

PMID- 28868051
TI  - Distinct Seasonal Patterns of Bacterioplankton Abundance and Dominance of Phyla
      alpha-Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria in Qinhuangdao Coastal Waters Off the
      Bohai Sea.
AB  - Qinhuangdao coastal waters in northern China are heavily impacted by
      anthropogenic and natural activities, and we anticipate a direct influence of the
      impact on the bacterioplankton abundance and diversity inhabiting the adjacent
      coastal areas. To ascertain the anthropogenic influences, we first evaluated the
      seasonal abundance patterns and diversity of bacterioplankton in the coastal
      areas with varied levels of natural and anthropogenic activities and then
      analyzed the environmental factors which influenced the abundance patterns.
      Results indicated distinct patterns in bacterioplankton abundance across the warm
      and cold seasons in all stations. Total bacterial abundance in the stations
      ranged from 8.67 * 104 to 2.08 * 106 cells/mL and had significant (p < 0.01)
      positive correlation with total phosphorus (TP), which indicated TP as the key
      monitoring parameter for anthropogenic impact on nutrients cycling.
      Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria were the most abundant phyla in the Qinhuangdao
      coastal waters. Redundancy analysis revealed significant (p < 0.01) influence of
      temperature, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a on the spatiotemporal abundance
      pattern of alpha-Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria groups. Among the 19 identified
      bacterioplankton subgroups, alpha-Proteobacteria (phylum Proteobacteria) was the
      dominant one followed by Family II (phylum Cyanobacteria), representing 19.1
      55.2% and 2.3-54.2% of total sequences, respectively. An inverse relationship (r
      = -0.82) was observed between the two dominant subgroups, alpha-Proteobacteria
      and Family II. A wide range of inverse Simpson index (10.2 to 105) revealed
      spatial heterogeneity of bacterioplankton diversity likely resulting from the
      varied anthropogenic and natural influences. Overall, our results suggested that
      seasonal variations impose substantial influence on shaping bacterioplankton
      abundance patterns. In addition, the predominance of only a few cosmopolitan
      species in the Qinhuangdao coastal wasters was probably an indication of their
      competitive advantage over other bacterioplankton groups in the degradation of
      anthropogenic inputs. The results provided an evidence of their ecological
      significance in coastal waters impacted by seasonal inputs of the natural and
      anthropogenic matter. In conclusion, the findings anticipate future development
      of effective indicators of coastal health monitoring and subsequent management
      strategies to control the anthropogenic inputs in the Qinhuangdao coastal waters.

PMID- 28868052
TI  - High-Resolution Microbiome Profiling for Detection and Tracking of Salmonella
      enterica.
AB  - 16S rRNA community profiling continues to be a useful tool to study microbiome
      composition and dynamics, in part due to advances in next generation sequencing
      technology that translate into reductions in cost. Reliable taxonomic
      identification to the species-level, however, remains difficult, especially for
      short-read sequencing platforms, due to incomplete coverage of the 16S rRNA gene.
      This is especially true for Salmonella enterica, which is often found as a low
      abundant member of the microbial community, and is often found in combination
      with several other closely related enteric species. Here, we report on the
      evaluation and application of Resphera Insight, an ultra-high resolution
      taxonomic assignment algorithm for 16S rRNA sequences to the species level. The
      analytical pipeline achieved 99.7% sensitivity to correctly identify S. enterica
      from WGS datasets extracted from the FDA GenomeTrakr Bioproject, while
      demonstrating 99.9% specificity over other Enterobacteriaceae members. From low
      diversity and low-complexity samples, namely ice cream, the algorithm achieved
      100% specificity and sensitivity for Salmonella detection. As demonstrated using
      cilantro and chili powder, for highly complex and diverse samples, especially
      those that contain closely related species, the detection threshold will likely
      have to be adjusted higher to account for misidentifications. We also demonstrate
      the utility of this approach to detect Salmonella in the clinical setting, in
      this case, bloodborne infections.

PMID- 28868053
TI  - Inherent Immunogenicity or Lack Thereof of Pluripotent Stem Cells: Implications
      for Cell Replacement Therapy.
AB  - Donor-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer opportunities for
      personalized cell replacement therapeutic approaches due to their unlimited self
      renewal potential and ability to differentiate into different somatic cells. A
      significant progress has been made toward generating iPSC lines that are free of
      integrating viral vectors, development of xeno-free culture conditions, and
      differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) into functional somatic cell
      lineages. Since donor-specific iPSC lines are genetically identical to the
      individual, they are expected to be immunologically matched and these iPSC lines
      and their cellular derivatives are not expected to be immunologically rejected.
      However, studies in mouse models, utilizing rejection of teratomas as a model,
      have claimed that syngenic iPSC lines, especially the iPSC lines derived with
      integrating viral vectors, could be inherently immunogenic. This manuscript
      reviews current understanding of inherent immunogenicity of PSC lines, especially
      that of the human iPSC lines and their cellular derivatives, and strategies to
      overcome it.

PMID- 28868055
TI  - Investigation of the Influence of Leaf Thickness on Canopy Reflectance and
      Physiological Traits in Upland and Pima Cotton Populations.
AB  - Many systems for field-based, high-throughput phenotyping (FB-HTP) quantify and
      characterize the reflected radiation from the crop canopy to derive phenotypes,
      as well as infer plant function and health status. However, given the
      technology's nascent status, it remains unknown how biophysical and physiological
      properties of the plant canopy impact downstream interpretation and application
      of canopy reflectance data. In that light, we assessed relationships between leaf
      thickness and several canopy-associated traits, including normalized difference
      vegetation index (NDVI), which was collected via active reflectance sensors
      carried on a mobile FB-HTP system, carbon isotope discrimination (CID), and
      chlorophyll content. To investigate the relationships among traits, two distinct
      cotton populations, an upland (Gossypium hirsutum L.) recombinant inbred line
      (RIL) population of 95 lines and a Pima (G. barbadense L.) population composed of
      25 diverse cultivars, were evaluated under contrasting irrigation regimes, water
      limited (WL) and well-watered (WW) conditions, across 3 years. We detected four
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) and significant variation in both populations for
      leaf thickness among genotypes as well as high estimates of broad-sense
      heritability (on average, above 0.7 for both populations), indicating a strong
      genetic basis for leaf thickness. Strong phenotypic correlations (maximum r = 
      0.73) were observed between leaf thickness and NDVI in the Pima population, but
      not the RIL population. Additionally, estimated genotypic correlations within the
      RIL population for leaf thickness with CID, chlorophyll content, and nitrogen
      discrimination ([Formula: see text] = -0.32, 0.48, and 0.40, respectively) were
      all significant under WW but not WL conditions. Economically important fiber
      quality traits did not exhibit significant phenotypic or genotypic correlations
      with canopy traits. Overall, our results support considering variation in leaf
      thickness as a potential contributing factor to variation in NDVI or other canopy
      traits measured via proximal sensing, and as a trait that impacts fundamental
      physiological responses of plants.

PMID- 28868054
TI  - Therapeutic Antibodies against Intracellular Tumor Antigens.
AB  - Monoclonal antibodies are among the most clinically effective drugs used to treat
      cancer. However, their target repertoire is limited as there are relatively few
      tumor-specific or tumor-associated cell surface or soluble antigens.
      Intracellular molecules represent nearly half of the human proteome and provide
      an untapped reservoir of potential therapeutic targets. Antibodies have been
      developed to target externalized antigens, have also been engineered to enter
      into cells or may be expressed intracellularly with the aim of binding
      intracellular antigens. Furthermore, intracellular proteins can be degraded by
      the proteasome into short, commonly 8-10 amino acid long, peptides that are
      presented on the cell surface in the context of major histocompatibility complex
      class I (MHC-I) molecules. These tumor-associated peptide-MHC-I complexes can
      then be targeted by antibodies known as T-cell receptor mimic (TCRm) or T-cell
      receptor (TCR)-like antibodies, which recognize epitopes comprising both the
      peptide and the MHC-I molecule, similar to the recognition of such complexes by
      the TCR on T cells. Advances in the production of TCRm antibodies have enabled
      the generation of multiple TCRm antibodies, which have been tested in vitro and
      in vivo, expanding our understanding of their mechanisms of action and the
      importance of target epitope selection and expression. This review will summarize
      multiple approaches to targeting intracellular antigens with therapeutic
      antibodies, in particular describing the production and characterization of TCRm
      antibodies, the factors influencing their target identification, their advantages
      and disadvantages in the context of TCR therapies, and the potential to advance
      TCRm-based therapies into the clinic.

PMID- 28868057
TI  - Selenium-Induced Toxicity Is Counteracted by Sulfur in Broccoli (Brassica
      oleracea L. var. italica).
AB  - Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for humans. Increasing Se content in
      food crops offers an effective approach to enhance the consumption of Se in human
      diets. A thoroughly understanding of the effects of Se on plant growth is
      important for Se biofortification in food crops. Given that Se is an analog of
      sulfur (S) and can be toxic to plants, its effect on plant growth is expected to
      be greatly affected by S nutrition. However, this remains to be further
      understood. Here, we evaluated the influence of Se treatments on broccoli
      (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica) growth when S was withheld from the growth
      nutrient solution. We found that Se was highly toxic to plants when S nutrition
      was poor. In contrast to Se treatments with adequate S nutrition that slightly
      reduced broccoli growth, the same concentration of Se treatments without S
      supplementation dramatically reduced plant sizes. Higher Se toxicity was observed
      with selenate than selenite under low S nutrition. We examined the bases
      underlying the toxicity. We discovered that the high Se toxicity in low S
      nutrition was specifically associated with an increased ratio of Se in proteins
      verse total Se level, enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species, elevated
      lipid peroxidation causing increased cell membrane damage, and reduced
      antioxidant enzyme activities. Se toxicity could be counteracted with increased
      supplementation of S, which is likely through decreasing non-specific integration
      of Se into proteins and altering the redox system. The present study provides
      information for better understanding of Se toxicity and shows that adequate S
      nutrition is important to prevent Se toxicity during biofortification of crops by
      Se fertilization.

PMID- 28868056
TI  - A Combined Association Mapping and Linkage Analysis of Kernel Number Per Spike in
      Common Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).
AB  - Kernel number per spike (KNPS) in wheat is a key factor that limits yield
      improvement. In this study, we genotyped a set of 264 cultivars, and a RIL
      population derived from the cross Yangmai 13/C615 using the 90 K wheat iSelect
      SNP array. We detected 62 significantly associated signals for KNPS at 47 single
      nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci through genome-wide association analysis of
      data obtained from multiple environments. These loci were on 19 chromosomes, and
      the phenotypic variation attributable to each one ranged from 1.53 to 39.52%.
      Twelve (25.53%) of the loci were also significantly associated with KNPS in the
      RIL population grown in multiple environments. For example, BS00022896_51-2ATT ,
      BobWhite_c10539_201-2DAA , Excalibur_c73633_120-3BGG , and Kukri_c35508_426-7DTT
      were significantly associated with KNPS in all environments. Our findings
      demonstrate the effective integration of association mapping and linkage analysis
      for KNPS, and underpin KNPS as a target trait for marker-assisted selection and
      genetic fine mapping.

PMID- 28868058
TI  - Melatonin Enhances Phenolics Accumulation Partially via Ethylene Signaling and
      Resulted in High Antioxidant Capacity in Grape Berries.
AB  - This study assessed the primary impacts of exogenous melatonin (MT) treatment on
      grape berry metabolism. Exogenous MT treatment increased the endogenous MT
      content and modified berry ripening. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that the
      processes of polyphenol metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism and ethylene
      biosynthesis and signaling were the three most significantly altered biological
      processes upon MT treatment. Further experiments verified that MT treatment
      increased the contents of total anthocyanins, phenols, flavonoids and
      proanthocyanidins in berries. Additionally, the contents of 18 of the 22 detected
      individual phenolic compounds were enhanced by MT treatment; particularly, the
      resveratrol content was largely increased concomitantly with the up-regulation of
      STS gene expression. Meanwhile, MT treatment enhanced the antioxidant capacity of
      berries. On the other hand, it was indicated that ethylene participated in the
      regulation of polyphenol metabolism and antioxidant capacity under MT treatment
      in grape berries. In summary, MT enhances the polyphenol content and antioxidant
      capacity of grape berries partially via ethylene signaling.

PMID- 28868059
TI  - Integrating Early Transcriptomic Responses to Rhizotoxins in Rice (Oryza sativa.
      L.) Reveals Key Regulators and a Potential Early Biomarker of Cadmium Toxicity.
AB  - As sessile organisms, plants were constantly challenged with biotic and abiotic
      stresses. Transcriptional activation of stress-responsive genes is a crucial part
      of the plant adaptation to environmental changes. Here, early response of rice
      root to eight rhizotoxic stressors: arsenate, copper, cadmium, mercury, chromate,
      vanadate, ferulic acid and juglone, was analyzed using published microarray data.
      There were 539 general stress response (GSR) genes up-regulated under all eight
      treatments, including genes related to carbohydrate metabolism, phytohormone
      balance, and cell wall structure. Genes related to transcriptional coactivation
      showed higher Ka/Ks ratio compared to the other GSR genes. Network analysis
      discovered complicated interaction within GSR genes and the most connected
      signaling hubs were WRKY53, WRKY71, and MAPK5. Promoter analysis discovers
      enriched SCGCGCS cis-element in GSR genes. Moreover, GSR genes tend to be
      intronless and genes with shorter total intron length were induced in a higher
      level. Among genes uniquely up-regulated by a single stress, a
      phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase kinase (PPCK) was identified as a candidate
      biomarker for detecting cadmium contamination. Our findings provide insights into
      the transcriptome dynamics of molecular response of rice to different rhizotoxic
      stress and also demonstrate potential use of comparative transcriptome analysis
      in identifying a novel potential early biomarker.

PMID- 28868060
TI  - Absorption Kinetics and Subcellular Fractionation of Zinc in Winter Wheat in
      Response to Nitrogen Supply.
AB  - Nitrogen (N) is critical for zinc (Zn) absorption into plant roots; this in turn
      allows for Zn accumulation and biofortification of grain in winter wheat
      (Triticum aestivum L.), an important food crop. However, little is known about
      root morphology and subcellular Zn distribution in response to N treatment at
      different levels of Zn supply. In this study, two nutrient solution culture
      experiments were conducted to examine Zn accumulation, Zn absorption kinetics,
      root morphology, and Zn subcellular distribution in wheat seedlings pre-cultured
      with different N concentrations. The results showed positive correlations between
      N and Zn concentrations, and N and Zn accumulation, respectively. The findings
      suggested that an increase in N supply enhanced root absorption and the root-to
      shoot transport of Zn. Nitrogen combined with the high Zn (Zn10) treatment
      increased the Zn concentration and consequently its accumulation in both shoots
      and roots. The maximum influx rate (Vmax), root length, surface area, and volume
      of 14-d-old seedlings, and root growth from 7 to 14 d in the medium N (N7.5)
      treatment were higher, but the Michaelis constant (Km) and minimum equilibrium
      concentrations (Cmin) in this treatment were lower than those in the low (N0.05)
      and high (N15) N treatments, when Zn was supplied at a high level (Zn10).
      Meanwhile, there were no pronounced differences in the above root traits between
      the N0.05Zn0 and N7.5Zn10 treatments. An increase in N supply decreased Zn in
      cell walls and cell organelles, while it increased Zn in the root soluble
      fraction. In leaves, an increase in N supply significantly decreased Zn in cell
      walls and the soluble fraction, while it increased Zn in cell organelles under Zn
      deficiency, but increased Zn distribution in the soluble fraction under medium
      and high Zn treatments. Therefore, a combination of medium N and high Zn
      treatments enhanced Zn absorption, apparently by enhancing Zn membrane transport
      and stimulating root development in winter wheat. An increase in N supply was
      beneficial in terms of achieving a balanced distribution of Zn subcellular
      fractions, thus enhancing Zn translocation to shoots, while maintaining normal
      metabolism.

PMID- 28868062
TI  - Genetic Mapping of the Leaf Number above the Primary Ear and Its Relationship
      with Plant Height and Flowering Time in Maize.
AB  - The leaf number above the primary ear (LA) is a major contributing factor to
      plant architecture in maize. The yield of leafy maize, which has extra LA
      compared to normal maize, is higher than normal maize in some regions. One major
      concern is that increasing LA may be accompanied by increased plant height and/or
      flowering time. Using an F2:3 population comprising 192 families derived from a
      leafy maize line and a normal maize line, an association population comprising
      437 inbred maize lines, and a pair of near-isogenic maize lines, we mapped the
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with LA and assessed its genetic
      relationship with flowering time and plant height. Ten QTL with an additive and
      dominant effect, 18 pairs of interacting QTL in the F2:3 population and seventeen
      significant SNPs in the association population were detected for LA. Two major
      QTL, qLA3-4 and qLA7-1, were repeatedly detected and explained a large proportion
      of the phenotypic variation. The qLA3-4 was centered on lfy1, which is a dominant
      gene underlying extra leaves above the ear in leafy maize. Four LA QTL were found
      to overlap with flowering time and/or plant height, which suggested that these
      QTL might have a pleiotropic effect. The pleiotropy of the lfy1 locus on LA,
      flowering time and plant height were validated by near-isogenic line analysis.
      These results enhance our understanding of the genetic architecture affecting
      maize LA and the development of maize hybrids with increased LA.

PMID- 28868063
TI  - A Rapid and Efficient Method to Obtain Photosynthetic Cell Suspension Cultures of
      Arabidopsis thaliana.
AB  - Photosynthetic cell suspension cultures are a useful experimental system to
      analyze a variety of physiological processes, bypassing the structural complexity
      of the plant organism in toto. Nevertheless, cell cultures containing functional
      chloroplasts are quite difficult to obtain, and this process is usually laborious
      and time-consuming. In this work a novel and rapid method to set up
      photosynthetic cell suspension cultures from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana
      was developed. The direct germination of Arabidopsis seeds on a sucrose
      containing agarized culture medium supplemented with 0.25 MUg/ml 6
      benzylaminopurine and 0.5 MUg/ml 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid caused the
      straightforward formation of green calli at the level of seedling hypocotyls. The
      subsequent transfer of these calli in liquid culture medium containing the same
      concentrations of phytohormones and gradually decreasing sucrose levels allowed
      for the establishment of chloroplast-containing cell suspension cultures,
      containing functional chloroplasts, in a much faster way than previously
      described procedures. Pulse amplitude modulation analyses, measurements of oxygen
      evolution and electron transport rate, together with confocal and electron
      microscopy observations, confirmed the photosynthetic efficiency of these cell
      suspension cultures. The described procedure lends itself as a simple and
      effective way to obtain a convenient tool for a wide array of structural and
      functional studies on chloroplasts.

PMID- 28868061
TI  - Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of NRAMP Family Genes in
      Soybean (Glycine Max L.).
AB  - The NRAMP (natural resistance-associated macrophage protein) family of genes has
      been widely characterized in organisms ranging from bacteria to yeast, plants,
      mice, and humans. This gene family plays vital roles in divalent metal ion
      transport across cellular membranes. As yet, comprehensive analysis of NRAMP
      family genes has not been reported for soybean. In this study, bioinformatics
      analysis was conducted to identify 13 soybean NRAMP genes, along with their gene
      structures, phylogenetic relationships, and transmembrane domains. Expression
      analysis suggests that GmNRAMP genes function in numerous tissues and development
      stages. Moreover, soybean NRAMP genes were differentially regulated by
      deficiencies of N, P, K, Fe, and S, along with toxicities of Fe, Cu, Cd, and Mn.
      These results indicate that GmNRAMP genes function in many nutrient stress
      pathways, and might be involved in crosstalk among nutrient stress pathways.
      Subcellular localization analysis in Arabidopsis protoplasts confirmed the
      tonoplast or plasma membrane localization of selected soybean NRMAP proteins.
      Protein-protein interaction analysis found that the networks of three GmNRAMP
      proteins which putatively interact with nodulin-like proteins, almost distinct
      from the network that is common to the other 10 soybean NRAMP proteins.
      Subsequent qRT-PCR results confirmed that these three GmNRMAP genes exhibited
      enhanced expression in soybean nodules, suggesting potential functions in the
      transport of Fe or other metal ions in soybean nodules. Overall, the systematic
      analysis of the GmNRAMP gene family reported herein provides valuable information
      for further studies on the biological roles of GmNRAMPs in divalent metal ion
      transport in various soybean tissues under numerous nutrient stresses and soybean
      rhizobia symbiosis.

PMID- 28868065
TI  - Control of Glyphosate-Resistant Common Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) in
      Glufosinate-Resistant Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr].
AB  - Common ragweed emerges early in the season in Nebraska, USA and is competitive
      with soybean; therefore, preplant herbicides are important for effective control.
      Glyphosate has been used as a preplant control option; however, confirmation of
      glyphosate-resistant (GR) common ragweed in Nebraska necessitates evaluating
      other herbicide options. The objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate the
      efficacy of preplant (PP) herbicides followed by (fb) glufosinate alone or in
      tank-mixture with imazethapyr, acetochlor, or S-metolachlor applied post
      emergence (POST) for control of GR common ragweed in glufosinate-resistant
      soybean; (2) their effect on common ragweed density, biomass, and soybean yield;
      and (3) the partial economics of herbicide programs. A field experiment was
      conducted in a grower's field infested with GR common ragweed in Gage County,
      Nebraska, USA in 2015 and 2016. Preplant herbicide programs containing
      glufosinate, paraquat, 2,4-D, dimethenamid-P, cloransulam-methyl, or high rates
      of flumioxazin plus chlorimuron-ethyl provided 90-99% control of common ragweed
      at 21 d after treatment (DAT). The aforementioned PP herbicides fb a POST
      application of glufosinate alone or in tank-mixture with imazethapyr, acetochlor,
      or S-metolachlor controlled GR common ragweed 84-98% at soybean harvest, reduced
      common ragweed density (<=20 plants m-2) and biomass by >=93%, and secured
      soybean yield 1,819-2,158 kg ha-1. The PP fb POST herbicide programs resulted in
      the highest gross profit margins (US$373-US$506) compared to PP alone (US$91) or
      PRE fb POST programs (US$158). The results of this study conclude that effective
      and economical control of GR common ragweed in glufosinate-resistant soybean is
      achievable with PP fb POST herbicide programs.

PMID- 28868064
TI  - Hydrogen Peroxide Is Involved in beta-Cyclodextrin-hemin Complex-Induced Lateral
      Root Formation in Tomato Seedlings.
AB  - Although previous results showed that beta-cyclodextrin-hemin complex (beta-CDH)
      could induce tomato lateral root (LR) formation, the corresponding downstream
      messengers are still not fully understood. In this report, similar to the
      inducing effects of exogenously applied hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), we discovered
      that beta-CDH elicited RBOH1 transcript upregulation, endogenous H2O2
      accumulation, and thereafter tomato LR development. Above responses were
      sensitive to dimethylthiourea (DMTU) and ascorbic acid (AsA), two membrane
      permeable scavengers of H2O2, showing that accumulation of H2O2 and LR formation
      were significantly blocked. The test with diphenyleneiodonium (DPI; the inhibitor
      of NADPH oxidase) revealed that H2O2 mainly produced by NADPH oxidase, might be
      involved in LR formation triggered by beta-CDH. qPCR combined with
      pharmacological and anatomical analyses showed that beta-CDH-modulated several
      marker genes responsible for LR formation, such as CYCA3;1, CYCA2;1, CYCD3;1, and
      CDKA1 (four cell cycle regulatory genes), ARF7 and RSI-1 (two auxin signaling
      genes), LAX3 (an auxin influx carrier), IAA14 (encoding a member of the Aux/IAA
      protein family), PIN3 and PIN7 (two auxin efflux carriers), isocitrate
      dehydrogenase [NADP], NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase 1, and L-ascorbate oxidase
      homolog genes (two reactive oxygen species-associated genes and one LR formation
      related gene), were causally related to above H2O2 signaling. Particularly,
      representative proteins related to H2O2 metabolism and lateral rooting, were
      specifically induced in beta-CDH-treated tomato seedlings. Overall, the results
      clearly suggested a vital role of H2O2 in the beta-CDH-induced tomato LR
      formation, and beta-CDH-elicited H2O2-related target proteins responsible for LR
      formation might be, at least partially, regulated at transcriptional and
      translational levels.

PMID- 28868066
TI  - Distinguishing Depressive Pseudodementia from Alzheimer Disease: A Comparative
      Study of Hippocampal Volumetry and Cognitive Tests.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Depressive pseudodementia (DPD) is a condition which may
      develop secondary to depression. The aim of this study was to contribute to the
      differential diagnosis between Alzheimer disease (AD) and DPD by comparing the
      neurocognitive tests and hippocampal volume. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who
      met criteria of AD/DPD were enrolled in the study. All patients were assessed
      using the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS), clock-drawing test, Stroop test, Benton
      Facial Recognition Test (BFRT), Boston Naming Test, Mini-Mental State Examination
      (MMSE), and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Hippocampal volume was measured by
      importing the coronal T1-weighted magnetic resonance images to the Vitrea 2
      workstation. RESULTS: A significant difference was found between the AD and DPD
      groups on the WMS test, clock-drawing test, Stroop test, Boston Naming Test,
      MMSE, GDS, and left hippocampal volume. A significant correlation between BFRT
      and bilateral hippocampal volumes was found in the AD group. No correlation was
      found among parameters in DPD patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that
      evaluation of facial recognition and left hippocampal volume may provide more
      reliable evidence for distinguishing DPD from AD. Further investigations combined
      with functional imaging techniques including more patients are needed.

PMID- 28868067
TI  - Cerebrospinal Fluid Apolipoprotein E Levels in Delirium.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Delirium and the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele are risk
      factors for late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD), but the connection is unclear.
      We looked for an association. METHODS: Inpatients with delirium (n = 18) were
      compared with LOAD outpatients (n = 19), assaying blood and cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) using multiplex ELISA. RESULTS: The patients with delirium had a higher
      Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) score (5.6 +/- 1.2 vs. 0.0 +/- 0.0; p < 0.001)
      and Delirium Index (13.1 +/- 4.0 vs. 2.9 +/- 1.2; p = 0.001) but a lower Mini
      Mental State Examination (MMSE) score (14.3 +/- 6.8 vs. 20.8 +/- 4.6; p = 0.003).
      There was a reduction in absolute CSF apolipoprotein E level during delirium
      (median [interquartile range]: 9.55 MUg/mL [5.65-15.05] vs. 16.86 MUg/mL [14.82
      20.88]; p = 0.016) but no differences in apolipoprotein A1, B, C3, H, and J.
      There were no differences in blood apolipoprotein levels, and no correlations
      between blood and CSF apolipoprotein levels. CSF apolipoprotein E correlated
      negatively with the CAM score (r = -0.354; p = 0.034) and Delirium Index (r = 
      0.341; p = 0.042) but not with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation
      (APACHE) index, or the MMSE or Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in
      the Elderly (IQCODE). CONCLUSION: Reduced CSF apolipoprotein E levels during
      delirium may be a mechanistic link between two important risk factors for LOAD.

PMID- 28868068
TI  - Assessing Capacity in the Elderly: Comparing the MoCA with a Novel Computerized
      Battery of Executive Function.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Clinicians are increasingly being asked to provide their opinion
      on the decision-making capacity of older adults, while validated and widely
      available tools are lacking. We sought to identify an online cognitive screening
      tool for assessing mental capacity through the measurement of executive function.
      METHODS: A mixed elderly sample of 45 individuals, aged 65 years and older, were
      screened with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the modified Cambridge
      Brain Sciences Battery. RESULTS: Two computerized tests from the Cambridge Brain
      Sciences Battery were shown to provide information over and above that obtained
      with a standard cognitive screening tool, correctly sorting the majority of
      individuals with borderline MoCA scores. CONCLUSIONS: The brief computerized
      battery should be used in conjunction with standard tests such as the MoCA in
      order to differentiate cognitively intact from cognitively impaired older adults.

PMID- 28868070
TI  - Coronary heart disease incidence and competing risks: an important issue.

PMID- 28868069
TI  - Urinary Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin as a Predictor of Acute Kidney
      Injury, Severe Kidney Injury, and the Need for Renal Replacement Therapy in the
      Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent attempts were made to identify early indicators of acute
      kidney injury (AKI) in order to accelerate treatment and hopefully improve
      outcomes. This study aims to assess the value of urinary neutrophil gelatinase
      associated lipocalin (uNGAL) as a predictor of AKI, severe AKI, and the need for
      renal replacement therapy (RRT). METHODS: We conducted a prospective study and
      included adults admitted to our intensive care unit (ICU) at King Abdulaziz
      University Hospital (KAUH), between May 2012 and June 2013, who had at least 1
      major risk factor for AKI. They were followed up throughout their hospital stay
      to identify which potential characteristics predicted any of the above 3
      outcomes. We collected information on patients' age and gender, the Acute
      Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation, version II (APACHE II) score, the
      Sepsis-Related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, serum creatinine and
      cystatin C levels, and uNGAL. We compared ICU patients who presented with any of
      the 3 outcomes with others who did not. RESULTS: We included 75 patients, and
      among those 21 developed AKI, 18 severe AKI, and 17 required RRT. Bivariate
      analysis revealed intergroup differences for almost all clinical variables (e.g.,
      patients with AKI vs. patients without AKI); while multivariate analysis
      identified mean arterial pressure as the only predictor for AKI (p < 0.001) and
      the SOFA score (p = 0.04) as the only predictor for severe AKI. For RRT, day 1
      maximum uNGAL was the stronger predictor (p < 0.001) when compared to admission
      diagnosis (p = 0.014). Day 1 and day 2 maximum uNGAL levels were good and
      excellent predictors for future RRT, but only fair to good predictors for AKI and
      severe AKI. CONCLUSIONS: Maximum urine levels of uNGAL measured over the first
      and second 24 h of an ICU admission were highly accurate predictors of the future
      need for RRT, however less accurate at detecting early and severe AKI.

PMID- 28868071
TI  - Verapamil and vasospastic angina: underuse in the elderly population.

PMID- 28868072
TI  - Usefulness of coronary flow reserve measured by transthoracic coronary Doppler
      ultrasound in the elderly.

PMID- 28868073
TI  - Antithrombotic treatment tailoring and risk score evaluation in elderly patients
      diagnosed with an acute coronary syndrome.
AB  - Age is an important prognostic factor in the outcome of acute coronary syndromes
      (ACS). A substantial percentage of patients who experience ACS is more than 75
      years old, and they represent the fastest-growing segment of the population
      treated in this setting. These patients present different patterns of responses
      to pharmacotherapy, namely, a higher ischemic and bleeding risk than do patients
      under 75 years of age. Our aim was to identify whether the currently available
      ACS ischemic and bleeding risk scores, which has been validated for the general
      population, may also apply to the elderly population. The second aim was to
      determine whether the elderly benefit more from a specific pharmacological
      regimen, keeping in mind the numerous molecules of antiplatelet and
      antithrombotic drugs, all validated in the general population. We concluded that
      the GRACE (Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events) risk score has been
      extensively validated in the elderly. However, the CRUSADE (Can Rapid risk
      stratification of Unstable angina patients Suppress ADverse outcomes with Early
      implementation of the ACC/AHA Guidelines) bleeding score has a moderate
      correlation with outcomes in the elderly. Until now, there have not been head-to
      head scores that quantify the ischemic versus hemorrhagic risk or scores that use
      the same end point and timeline (e.g., ischemic death rate versus bleeding death
      rate at one month). We also recommend that the frailty score be considered or
      integrated into the current existing scores to better quantify the overall
      patient risk. With regard to medical treatment, based on the subgroup analysis,
      we identified the drugs that have the least adverse effects in the elderly while
      maintaining optimal efficacy.

PMID- 28868074
TI  - Update on pharmacological treatment of acute coronary syndrome without persistent
      ST segment elevation myocardial infarction in the elderly.
AB  - The increase in cardiovascular disease prevalence with ageing has been attributed
      to several age-related changes such as changes in the vascular wall elasticity,
      the coagulation and haemostatic system and endothelial dysfunction, among other
      causes. There is a 50% increased mortality risk per 10-year increase in age
      starting at 65 years old. Here, we aimed to discuss pharmacological treatment in
      acute coronary syndrome (ACS) without persistent ST segment elevation myocardial
      infarction in the elderly. The main aim of ACS treatment in elderly people is at
      preventing ischemia, myocardial damage and complications. A meta-analysis
      suggests that invasive revascularization therapy is probably most useful in older
      patients. Dual antiplatelet therapy is currently the standard of care post-ACS.
      Platelet P2Y12 inhibitors are among the most commonly used medications worldwide,
      due to their established benefits in the treatment and prevention of arterial
      thrombosis. The main recommendation is to tailor antithrombotic treatment,
      considering body weight, renal function (Class I, level C) and careful evaluation
      of life expectancy, comorbidities, risk/benefit profile, quality of life and
      frailty when invasive strategies are considered (Class IIa, level A) on top of
      the different recommendations given for a general non ST elevation ACS
      population. It is obvious that potent P2Y12 inhibitors will continue to play an
      important role in pharmacological treatment for elderly ACS patients in the
      future.

PMID- 28868075
TI  - Determinants of invasive strategy in elderly patients with non-ST elevation
      myocardial infarction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knowledge gaps across literature prevent current guidelines from
      providing the profile of elderly patients most likely to derive benefit from
      invasive strategy (IS) in non ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI).
      Furthermore, the benefit of IS in a real-world elderly population with NSTEMI
      remains unclear. The aims of this study were to determine factors that lead the
      cardiologist to opt for an IS in elderly patients with NSTEMI, and to assess the
      impact of IS on the 6-month all-cause mortality. METHODS: This multicenter
      prospective study enrolled all consecutive patients aged >= 75 years old who
      presented a NSTEMI and were hospitalized in cardiology intensive care unit
      between February 2014 and February 2015. Patients were compared on the basis of
      reperfusion strategy (invasive or conservative) and living status at six months,
      in order to determine multivariate predictors of the realization of an IS and
      multivariate predictors of 6-month mortality. RESULTS: A total of 141 patients
      were included; 87 (62%) underwent an IS. The strongest independent determinants
      of IS were younger age [odds ratio (OR): 0.85, 95%-confidence interval (CI): 0.78
      0.92; P < 0.001) and lower "Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatric" number of
      categories score (OR: 0.83, 95%CI: 0.73-0.95; P = 0.002). IS was not
      significantly associated with 6-month survival (OR: 0.80, 95%CI: 0.27-2.38; P =
      0.69). CONCLUSIONS: In real-world elderly patients with NSTEMI, younger patients
      with fewer comorbidities profited more often from an IS. However, IS did not
      modify 6-month all-cause mortality.

PMID- 28868076
TI  - Glycation of high-density lipoprotein triggers oxidative stress and promotes the
      proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), high-density lipoprotein (HDL)
      impairs its anti-atherogenic properties and even develops to a pro-inflammatory
      and pro-atherogenic phenotype because of abnormal compositions and modifications.
      In this study, we examined the effects and the related mechanisms of glycation of
      HDL on the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs).
      METHODS & RESULTS: Glycated HDL (G-HDL) was modified with D-glucose (25 mmol/L)
      in vitro. Diabetic HDL (D-HDL) was isolated from T2DM patients. Rat VSMCs were
      isolated from the thoracic aortas. Human VSMCs were obtained from ScienCell
      Research Laboratories. Alpha-actin was detected through immunofluorescence. VSMC
      proliferation was assayed by Cell Count. VSMC migration was determined by
      transwell chamber and scratch-wound assay. Intracellular reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) was detected based on ROS-mediated 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCFH-DA)
      fluorescence. Compared to native HDL (N-HDL), G-HDL remarkably promoted VSMC
      proliferation and migration in the dose and time-dependent manners. In addition,
      G-HDL enhanced ROS generation in VSMCs. However, the ROS scavenger, N
      acetylcysteine, efficiently decreased ROS production and subsequently inhibited
      the proliferation of VSMCs induced by G-HDL. Similarly, D-HDL from T2DM patients
      also promoted ROS release and VSMC proliferation and migration. CONCLUSIONS: HDL
      either glycated in vitro or isolated from T2DM patients triggered VSMC
      proliferation, migration, and oxidative stress. These results might partly
      interpret the higher morbidity of cardiovascular disease in T2DM patients.

PMID- 28868077
TI  - Acute myocardial infarction in patients of nephrotic syndrome: a case series.

PMID- 28868078
TI  - Clinical features of aortic dissection associated with Takayasu's arteritis.

PMID- 28868079
TI  - Two case of preoperative bridging therapy for patients undergoing non-cardiac
      surgery after coronary stent implantation.

PMID- 28868080
TI  - Effect of Living Arrangement on the Health Status of Elderly in India: Findings
      from a national cross sectional survey.
AB  - Epidemiological studies show strong association between lack/inadequate family
      support with increased mortality and poor health among the elderly. This study
      examined the effect of living arrangement on elderly health status by analysing
      the data of 39,694 persons aged 60 and above included in India's second National
      Family Health Survey conducted in 1998-1999. Results indicate that elderly who
      are living alone are likely to suffer more from both chronic illnesses, such as
      asthma and tuberculosis, and acute illnesses, such as malaria and jaundice, than
      those elderly who are living with their family, even after controlling for the
      effects of a number of socio-economic, demographic, environmental and behavioural
      confounders. The findings have important programme and policy implications for
      countries such as India, which has the second largest elderly population in the
      world. There is a strong need for the implementation of specific public support
      systems and health care strategies focused on the elderly population in general
      and elderly living alone in particular.

PMID- 28868082
TI  - The Influence of Tai Chi Exercise on Proprioception in Patients with Knee
      Osteoarthritis: Results from a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: Previous long-term observational studies found that Tai Chi
      practitioners had better knee-joint proprioceptive acuity versus controls in an
      older population. We evaluated the effects of Tai Chi for knee-joint
      proprioception in knee osteoarthritis (OA) in a randomized controlled trial.
      METHODS: We randomized 40 eligible individuals (age > 55, BMI <= 40 kg/m2 with
      knee pain on most days of the previous month and tibiofemoral OA (K/L grade >=2)
      to Tai Chi (10 modified forms from classical Yang style) or to an attention
      control (stretching and wellness education). The 60 minute intervention sessions
      occurred twice-weekly for 12 weeks. The knee joint proprioception was measured
      using a BiometricsTM electrogoniometer with an ADU301 angle display unit during
      each assessment visit. Three test angles (30, 45 and 60 degrees) were evaluated
      with each subject in a sitting position taken as neutral (0 degrees). The mean
      error (absolute angle error) between the actual and replicated angles was
      calculated for each of the three test angles. The Tai Chi and control groups were
      compared by intention-to-treat using t-tests. RESULTS: The participants had a
      mean age of 65 y (SD 7.8), a mean disease duration of 10 y (SD 7.6), a mean BMI
      of 30.0 kg/m2 (SD 4.8), and median K/L grade 4; 75% were female, 70% were white.
      The participants in the Tai Chi intervention exhibited significantly improved
      proprioception at 30 degrees, but not at 45 or 60 degrees, at 12 weeks. Patients
      who continued Tai Chi practice after 12 weeks also reported no significant
      improvements in knee proprioception at 24 and 48 weeks. CONCLUSION: Tai Chi
      appears to be beneficial for knee proprioception in people with severe knee OA at
      a 30 degree test angle immediately following 12 weeks of practice. However, we
      were unable to demonstrate that Tai Chi has any long-term effects on knee
      proprioception, nor were we able to find any effects on proprioception at larger
      test angles (45 and 60 degrees). Standardized and reproducible measures for knee
      proprioception should be explored in future research.

PMID- 28868081
TI  - Cognitive Performance in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder vs Healthy
      Controls: A Neuropsychological Investigation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cognitive impairment may affect patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD)
      beyond the acute episodes, qualifying as a potential endophenotype. However,
      which cognitive domains are specifically affected in euthymic patients with BD
      and the potential influence of confounding factors (e.g., age and concomitant
      pharmacological treatment) are still a matter of debate. The present study was,
      therefore, conducted to assess cognitive performance across specific domains in
      euthymic bipolar patients, not older than 50 years (to avoid potential age
      related bias) versus healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: A cognitive task battery,
      including the Wisconsin Card Test, Span Attention Test, Tower of London, Trail
      Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Matrices Scores and N-Back, was administered to
      62 subjects (30 bipolar patients and 32 matched HCs) and differences between the
      groups analyzed. RESULTS: Bipolar patients performed significantly worse than HCs
      in the Span Forward task, in the expression of Verbal Fluency Test (Category) and
      in the N-Back task (all p<.05), with marginal differences between BD I and BD II
      patients. CONCLUSION: The present study pointed out significant differences in
      terms of cognitive performance between euthymic bipolar patients and HCs,
      supporting the notion that specific cognitive functions may remain impaired even
      after the resolution of the acute episodes in subjects suffering from BD. Future
      studies on larger samples are warranted to confirm the present results and
      further explore potential differences in cognitive impairment across specific
      bipolar subtypes.

PMID- 28868083
TI  - Complex forearm deformities: operative strategy in posttraumatic pathology.
AB  - Complex posttraumatic forearm deformities have a significant impact on the
      integrity of the upper extremity leading to pain, instability in both the
      proximal and/or distal radioulnar articulation, and reduced range of forearm
      motion. Corrective osteotomy or more advanced procedures for malunited fractures
      or other posttraumatic deformities of the upper extremity, especially in the
      forearm are challenging procedures. In this review we will discuss the essential
      aspects of anatomy and pathomechanics, clinical and radiological assessment and
      the pathway from preoperative planning to the actual deformity correction
      surgery, either with one-stage correction or using gradual lengthening with
      external fixation ("callotasis techniques") and finally the functional outcome we
      can expect for our patients. In addition we will analyze the modern computer
      assisted techniques available to date.

PMID- 28868084
TI  - Statistical and histological analysis of tumors of the upper extremity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumors of the upper extremity are common and usually benign. The most
      commonly diagnosed are ganglion cysts: specific, non-neoplastic swellings
      localized mostly around the wrist. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this retrospective
      study was to determine the proportion of various types of nonganglionic hand
      tumors operated on at the authors' institution in 2014. METHODS: A total of 246
      patients, 141 women (57 %) and 105 men (43 %), with a mean age of 53 years and
      with tumorsof the upper extremity, were identified and treated in the authors'
      institution in 2014. RESULTS: Almost half of the lesions were localized in the
      fingers (n = 119, 48 %), followed by the wrist (n=49, 20 %), metacarpus (n = 40,
      16 %), and more proximal parts (n = 38, 16 %). The time between the patients
      noticing the lesion and surgery was a mean of 4 years (range, 1 month to 30
      years). The most common lesion was giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath (n = 58,
      23 %), followed by lipoma (n = 40, 16 %), epidermal cyst (n = 23, 9 %),
      enchondroma (n=16, 6 %), hemangioma (n = 14, 6 %), fibroma (n = 11, (4 %), glomus
      tumor (n = 10, (4 %), and rheumatoid nodule (n = 10, (4 %). Two cases of
      malignant fibrosarcoma were identified incidentally. CONCLUSION: A brief review
      of the literature is made referring to the data presented here.

PMID- 28868085
TI  - Revision of reversed shoulder arthroplasty: Is a reoperation possible?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As the number of reversed shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) procedures
      increases, the revision rate will also increase. In case of severe bone
      insufficiency, instability or infection of the primary RSA, revision to another
      RSA is preferable but not always possible. Hemiarthroplasty (HA), spacers and
      resection arthroplasty (RA) have been described in this indication. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Between 2004 and 2016, 20 shoulders in 19 patients were treated at Ghent
      University Hospital for failed revision of RSA. Nine received a megahead
      prosthesis, a spacer was implanted in 6, and 5 underwent RA. RESULTS: Indications
      for implantation of a megahead prosthesis were loosening RSA (n = 5), infection
      (n = 4), dislocation (n = 1) and nerve irritation (n = 1). Improvement of range
      of motion was observed. Anterosuperior migration of the prosthesis was noted in 2
      patients. Another 2 patients were ultimately revised to RSA. Seven permanent
      spacers were implanted for infection, of which 2 remain in place till today. The
      other 5 were revised to RSA. Of the 5 patients treated with RA, 3 were revised
      further on to RSA, resulting in pain relief and regain of function. DISCUSSION:
      Our study shows that a megahead prosthesis has better functional results than RA,
      but is inferior to RSA. Due to increasing surgical experience and improving
      technique, 9 patients could ultimately be reconverted to another RSA. A review of
      current literature is presented. In HA and RA, the functional results are poor,
      and pain relief is uncertain. Results of spacers are variable and can be
      satisfactory. Arthrodesis is a last resort. CONCLUSION: In our case series study,
      a hemiarthroplasty can be performed in case of failure of RSA. However, the
      results are inferior to another RSA.

PMID- 28868086
TI  - Subacromial spacer implantation for massive rotator cuff tears: Clinical outcome
      of arthroscopically treated patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Massive rotator cuff tears (MRCT) can be treated arthroscopically by
      partial reconstruction, tenotomy/tenodesis of the long head of the biceps, and
      debridement. A new treatment option is the additional implantation of a
      biodegradable spacer (InSpace Balloon(r); ISB) into the subacromial space, which
      reduces subacromial shear forces to keep the humeral head centered in the
      glenoid. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical outcome of patients
      with MRCT who were treated arthroscopically with or without an additional ISB.
      METHODS: The clinical outcome of patients treated with conventional arthroscopic
      techniques (n = 11, group A, partial repair, biceps tenotomy, and debridement)
      and that of patients treated with a supplementary ISB (n = 12, group B) was
      retrospectively analyzed. Preoperatively and postoperatively, shoulder function
      was assessed with the Constant and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES)
      scores. At follow-up after a mean of 22 months, patients filled out a
      questionnaire about their subjective satisfaction. RESULTS: Preoperative shoulder
      function was lower in patients treated with an ISB (ASES score: group A, 59.1;
      group B, 31.5; Constant score: group A, 60.7; group B, 36.8). At follow-up, both
      groups had improved shoulder function (Constant score: group A, 60.7-77.6; p <
      0.001; group B, 36.8-69.5; p < 0.001; ASES score: group A, 59.1-88.6; p < 0.001;
      group B, 31.5-85.7; p < 0.001). Patients in both groups were subjectively
      satisfied with their outcome. CONCLUSION: The ISB is a feasible treatment option
      for MRCT, providing subjective pain relief and improved shoulder function.
      Further studies with larger patient collectives and longer follow-up are needed
      to confirm whether it is a safe and cost-effective treatment.

PMID- 28868088
TI  - Chondral defects of the glenohumeral joint: Long-term outcome after
      microfracturing of the shoulder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An increasing number of young patients are diagnosed with chondral
      lesions. Minimally invasive surgical techniques are important in order to delay
      progression of the early stages of osteoarthritis and the need for total joint
      replacement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients (n = 32) who had received
      microfracturing of the shoulder were retrospectively enrolled, of whom 5 had
      received shoulder replacements after a mean time of 47 months. Of these patients,
      23 completed the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) and Constant
      Murley Scores in addition to an additional subjective questionnaire. Patients
      were then clinically examined and received x-ray analysis of the operated
      shoulder. Data from an additional 4 patients were acquired by telephone
      interview. RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 105 months. Of the included patients,
      13/27 patients reported no pain, 12/27 patients moderate pain. Of these 12, 6/27
      reported pain only at night and 3/27 only during rest. Concerning the outcome of
      surgery, 19/27 patients were "satisfied" or "very satisfied". There was a
      statistically significant increase in internal rotation, but no further
      differences in the range of motion pre- and postoperatively. Patients without any
      signs of osteoarthritis before surgery showed statistically significantly better
      outcomes. There was a statistically significant increase in radiological signs of
      osteoarthrosis in pre- versus postoperative patients. Patients with bipolar
      lesions showed statistically significantly poorer Subjective Shoulder Value (SSV)
      results. CONCLUSION: Even though microfracturing does not prevent radiographic
      progression, microfracture of the glenohumeral joint might be worth considering
      as part of a treatment regimen for younger patients who may not yet be treated
      with arthroplasty.

PMID- 28868087
TI  - Use of shoulder pacemaker for treatment of functional shoulder instability: Proof
      of concept.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional shoulder instability (polar type III) is caused by
      underactivity of rotator cuff and periscapular muscles, which leads to
      subluxation or dislocation during shoulder movement. While surgical treatment has
      shown no benefits, aggravates pain, and frequently diminishes function even
      further, conservative treatment is often ineffective as well. OBJECTIVES: The aim
      was to investigate the effectiveness of a "shoulder pacemaker" device that
      stimulates underactive muscles in patients with functional instability during
      shoulder movement in order to re-establish glenohumeral stability. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Three patients with unsuccessfully treated functional shoulder
      instability causing pain, emotional stress, as well as limitations during daily
      activities and sports participation were enrolled in this pilot project. The
      device was used to stimulate the external rotators of the shoulder and retractors
      of the scapula. Pain level, subjective shoulder instability, range of motion,
      visible aberrant muscle activation, and signs of dislocation were compared when
      the device was switched on and off. RESULTS: No changes were observed when the
      device was attached but switched off. When the device was switched on, all
      patients were able to move their arms freely without pain, discomfort, or
      subjective or objective signs of instability. All patients rated this as an
      excellent experience and volunteered to train further with the device. No
      complications were observed. CONCLUSION: The electric stimulation of hypoactive
      rotator cuff and periscapular muscles by means of the shoulder pacemaker
      successfully re-establishes stability in patients with functional shoulder
      instability during the time of application.  VIDEO ONLINE: The online version of
      this article (doi: 10.1007/s11678-017-0399-z) contains the video: "The Shoulder
      Pacemaker: treatment of functional shoulder instability with pathological muscle
      activation pattern". Video by courtesy of P. Moroder, M. Minkus, E. Bohm, V.
      Danzinger, C. Gerhardt and M. Scheibel, Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin 2017,
      all rights reserved.

PMID- 28868089
TI  - Humeral bone grafting in stemless shoulder arthroplasty.

PMID- 28868090
TI  - Post-processing reproducibility of the structural characteristics of the common
      carotid artery in a Flemish population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Common carotid artery (CCA) intima-media thickness (IMT), lumen
      diameter, and maximum plaque thickness were assessed on ultrasound images. The
      objective of the study was to evaluate the intra- and inter-reader
      reproducibility of the measurements following a standardised protocol. METHODS:
      Two readers performed the off-line measurements on B-mode ultrasound images of
      the distal CCA, in a randomly selected subset (n = 60) from a Flemish population
      cohort (FLEMENGHO). We calculated the coefficient of variation, the interclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC) and reproducibility according to the Bland-Altman
      method. RESULTS: The intra-reader bias for the measurements of left and right
      side CCA IMT were -0.003 +/- 0.04 mm (p = 0.55) and 0.01 +/- 0.04 mm (p = 0.03),
      respectively. The intra-reader bias of the lumen diameter was -0.04 +/- 0.25 mm
      (p = 0.27) for the left and 0.02 +/- 0.22 mm (p = 0.45) for the right side. The
      measurements for the maximum plaque thickness showed no intra-reader differences
      with bias 0.07 +/- 0.2 mm (p = 0.26) for the left and -0.03 +/- 0.2 mm (p = 0.55)
      for the right side. The inter-reader analysis showed good reproducibility for the
      left and right side CCA IMT with bias 0.004 +/- 0.06 mm (p = 0.57) and -0.008 +/-
      0.05 mm (p = 0.19), respectively, but the lumen diameter measurements showed
      inter-reader differences, with bias 0.17 +/- 0.27 mm (p < 0.0001) for the left
      and 0.10 +/- 0.21 mm (p = 0.0006) for the right side. The inter-reader bias for
      the maximum plaque thickness were 0.07 +/- 0.2 mm (p = 0.21) and -0.1 +/- 0.4 mm
      (p = 0.26) for the left and right side, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results
      demonstrated a reliable reproducibility of carotid wall structural measurements,
      allowing for an adequate further analysis of the entire population cohort.

PMID- 28868091
TI  - Non-invasive Raman Spectroscopy and Quantitative Real-Time PCR Distinguish Among
      Undifferentiated Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Redifferentiated Nucleus
      Pulposus Cells and Chondrocytes In Vitro.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most common cause of lower back pain is the pathological
      degeneration of the nucleus pulposus (NP). Promising NP regeneration strategies
      involving human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) would require specific markers to
      confirm successful differentiation into the NP lineage and to distinguish the
      articular cartilage (AC). OBJECTIVE: We sought specific NP mRNA markers that are
      upregulated in native NP cells but not in dedifferentiated NP cells,
      undifferentiated hMSCs or chondrocytes. We also considered the suitability of non
      invasive Raman spectroscopy to distinguish among these classes of cells. METHOD:
      We used quantitative real-time PCR and Raman spectroscopy to analyse
      undifferentiated hMSCs in monolayers and embedded in hydrogels, and compared the
      results with dedifferentiated and redifferentiated human NP and AC cells.
      RESULTS: The redifferentiation of NP cells induced the expression of annexin A3
      (ANXA3), collagen type II (COL2) and proteoglycan mRNAs, whereas the
      redifferentiation of AC cells only induced proteoglycan expression.
      Redifferentiated NP cells expressed higher levels of ANXA3, COL2, paired box 1
      (PAX1) and OCT4 mRNA than redifferentiated AC cells. Redifferentiated NP cells
      and undifferentiated hMSC-TERT cells expressed similar amount of OCT4 mRNA,
      indicating that only ANXA3, COL2 and PAX1 are promising markers for
      redifferentiated NP cells. Raman spectra clearly differed among the three cell
      types and highlighted their differentiation status. CONCLUSION: We recommend
      ANXA3, COL2 and PAX1 as markers to determine the success of hMSC-based
      differentiation to regenerate NP cells. Raman spectroscopy can be used to
      determine cell type and differentiation status especially in the context of
      clinical trials.

PMID- 28868092
TI  - The Spectrum of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) in Saudi Arabia: Prime Time
      for Patient FH Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a life-threatening inherited
      condition. Untreated patients have the risk to develop raised plasma levels of
      cholesterol, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). If diagnosed and
      treated early in life, the pathological consequences due to atherosclerosis could
      be avoided and patients with FH can have an anticipated normal life. Mounting
      evidence suggests that FH is underdiagnosed and undertreated in all populations.
      The underlying molecular basis of FH is the presence of mutations in one or more
      genes in the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), apolipoprotein B (APOB) or
      proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9). However, their prevalence is
      largely unknown in Saudi Arabia but given the high rates of consanguinity, the
      prevalence appears to be higher. Furthermore, the high prevalence of obesity and
      diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia increases the vascular disease burden in FH
      cases by adding additional CVD risk factors. OBJECTIVE: This article explores the
      spectrum of FH-causing mutations in the highly consanguineous Saudi community,
      the need for establishing the Saudi FH registry, the challenges in creating gene
      databases, and cascade screening. CONCLUSION: The establishment of FH registry
      and genetic testing should raise awareness not only among healthcare
      professionals, but the general population as well. It also helps to provide the
      best treatment regimen in a cost effective manner to this under-recognised
      population of FH patients.

PMID- 28868095
TI  - A Mechanistic Account of Wide Computationalism.
AB  - The assumption that psychological states and processes are computational in
      character pervades much of cognitive science, what many call the computational
      theory of mind. In addition to occupying a central place in cognitive science,
      the computational theory of mind has also had a second life supporting
      "individualism", the view that psychological states should be taxonomized so as
      to supervene only on the intrinsic, physical properties of individuals. One
      response to individualism has been to raise the prospect of "wide computational
      systems", in which some computational units are instantiated outside the
      individual. "Wide computationalism" attempts to sever the link between
      individualism and computational psychology by enlarging the concept of
      computation. However, in spite of its potential interest to cognitive science,
      wide computationalism has received little attention in philosophy of mind and
      cognitive science. This paper aims to revisit the prospect of wide
      computationalism. It is argued that by appropriating a mechanistic conception of
      computation wide computationalism can overcome several issues that plague initial
      formulations. The aim is to show that cognitive science has overlooked an
      important and viable option in computational psychology. The paper marshals
      empirical support and responds to possible objections.

PMID- 28868094
TI  - Pressure Ulcer Risk Evaluation in Critical Patients: Clinical and Social
      Characteristics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers increase hospital stays and treatment costs due to
      their complications. Therefore, recognizing factors that contribute to pressure
      ulcer risk are important to patient safety. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the
      association between the scores of the Waterlow, Braden, and Norton scales and
      clinical and social characteristics in critically ill patients. METHOD: A cross
      sectional study of 78 patients in an adult intensive care unit of a university
      hospital in Northeastern Brazil was conducted from July to December 2015. Data
      included social and clinical information and the risk factors of the Braden,
      Norton and Waterlow scales. Data were analysed by the descriptive and inferential
      statistics. RESULTS: Most of the participants were female, adults and elderly
      people with brown skin colour, low education levels and insufficient income. Most
      of them showed a high risk for developing pressure ulcers using the three
      evaluated scales. Age, smoking status, diabetes and hypertension were associated
      with scores on the Waterlow, Braden and Norton scales. CONCLUSION: Age, use of
      the tobacco, diabetes and hypertension were associated with the risk of pressure
      ulcers in ICU patients.

PMID- 28868093
TI  - On the Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Drug-Induced Gingival Overgrowth.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gingival overgrowth has been linked to multiple factors such as
      adverse drug effects, inflammation, neoplastic processes, and hereditary gingival
      fibromatosis. Drug-induced gingival overgrowth is a well-established adverse
      event. In early stages, this gingival enlargement is usually located in the area
      of the interdental papilla. Histologically, there is an increase in the different
      components of the extracellular matrix. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this manuscript is
      to describe and analyze the different cellular and molecular agents involved in
      the pathogenesis of Drug-induced gingival overgrowth. METHOD: A literature search
      of the MEDLINE/PubMed database was conducted to identify the mechanisms involved
      in the process of drug-induced gingival overgrowth, with the assistance of a
      research librarian. We present several causal hypotheses and discuss the advances
      in the understanding of the mechanisms that trigger this gingival alteration.
      RESULTS: In vitro studies have revealed phenotypic cellular changes in
      keratinocytes and fibroblasts and an increase of the extracellular matrix with
      collagen and glycosaminoglycans. Drug-induced gingival overgrowth confirms the
      key role of collagenase and integrins, membrane receptors present in the
      fibroblasts, due to their involvement in the catabolism of collagen. The three
      drug categories implicated: calcineuron inhibitors (immunosuppressant drugs),
      calcium channel blocking agents and anticonvulsant drugs appear to present a
      multifactorial pathogenesis with a common molecular action: the blockage of the
      cell membrane in the Ca2+/Na+ ion flow. The alteration of the uptake of cellular
      folic acid, which depends on the regulated channels of active cationic transport
      and on passive diffusion, results in a dysfunctional degradation of the
      connective tissue. Certain intermediate molecules such as cytokines and
      prostaglandins play a role in this pathological mechanism. The concomitant
      inflammatory factor encourages the appearance of fibroblasts, which leads to
      gingival fibrosis. Susceptibility to gingival overgrowth in some fibroblast
      subpopulations is due to phenotypic variability and genetic polymorphism, as
      shown by the increase in the synthesis of molecules related to the response of
      the gingival tissue to inducing drugs. The authors present a diagram depicting
      various mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of drug-induced gingival
      overgrowth. CONCLUSION: Individual predisposition, tissue inflammation, and
      molecular changes in response to the inducing drug favor the clinical
      manifestation of gingival overgrowth.

PMID- 28868096
TI  - Are there Special Mechanisms of Involuntary Memory?
AB  - Following the precedent set by Dorthe Berntsen's 2009 book, Involuntary
      Autobiographical Memory, this paper asks whether the mechanisms responsible for
      involuntarily recollected memories are distinct from those that are responsible
      for voluntarily recollected ones. Berntsen conjectures that these mechanisms are
      largely the same. Recent work has been thought to show that this is mistaken, but
      the argument from the recent results to the rejection of Berntsen's position is
      problematic, partly because it depends on a philosophically contentious view of
      voluntariness. Berntsen herself shares this contentious view, but the defenders
      of her position can easily give it up. This paper explains how and why they
      should.

PMID- 28868097
TI  - Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Spontaneous Large Animal Model of Human
      HCM.
AB  - Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common disease in pet cats, affecting 10
      15% of the pet cat population. The similarity to human HCM, the rapid progression
      of disease, and the defined and readily determined endpoints of feline HCM make
      it an excellent natural model that is genotypically and phenotypically similar to
      human HCM. The Maine Coon and Ragdoll cats are particularly valuable models of
      HCM because of myosin binding protein-C mutations and even higher disease
      incidence compared to the overall feline population. The cat overcomes many of
      the limitations of rodent HCM models, and can provide enhanced translation of
      information from in vitro and induced small animal models to human clinical
      trials. Physicians and veterinarians working together in a collaborative and
      interdisciplinary approach can accelerate the discovery of more effective
      treatments for this and other cardiovascular diseases affecting human and
      veterinary patients.

PMID- 28868098
TI  - Does Right Ventricular Dysfunction Predict Mortality in Hemodynamically Stable
      Patients With Acute Pulmonary Embolism?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is directly responsible for 100,000
      deaths annually. Right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) on admission is considered a
      poor prognostic factor in these patients, though existing evidence of its
      significance in predicting mortality in hemodynamically stable patients is still
      unclear. We attempted to clarify this association by doing a retrospective
      review. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records of
      hemodynamically stable patients older than 18 years of age with APE who were
      admitted to a tertiary care hospital in rural Upstate New York from July 2014 to
      July 2016. One hundred thirty-four patients were reviewed in two groups: patients
      who presented with computed tomography (CT) or echocardiographic evidence of RVD,
      and those without RVD. To identify differences in mortality between the two
      groups, the Chi-square/Fisher's exact test and t-tests were used. All variables
      with P < 0.2 in the initial analysis were included in a stepwise multivariable
      logistic regression model to predict RVD. RESULTS: No statistically significant
      difference was found in 30-day mortality between the groups (7.8% in RVD and 5.3%
      in no RVD, P = 0.563). The overall prevalence of RVD was found to be 57%
      (77/134). Troponin elevation (53.2% in RVD group vs. 19.3 in the no RVD group
      with P < 0.01) and central location of thrombus (53.1% vs. 32.1% with P = 0.016)
      were more prevalent in RVD group. A marginally significant difference was found
      in length of hospital stay among those with RVD versus no RVD (7.13 days vs. 5.46
      days; P = 0.061). The multivariable analysis shows that the odds of RVD were
      greater for patients with elevated troponin levels (odds ratio = 7.8).
      CONCLUSION: There was no difference in 30-day mortality in hemodynamically stable
      patients with APE having RVD compared to patients with no RVD. On the basis of
      this study, we do not suggest the routine use of systemic fibrinolysis in
      hemodynamically stable patients with radiographic evidence of RVD alone.

PMID- 28868099
TI  - Relationship Between Hemorheology Assessed Using Microchannel Array Flow Analyzer
      and Kidney Function in Hypertensive Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kidney function is known to be closely associated with the
      pathogenesis of hypertension. In contrast, hemorheology assessed using
      microchannel array flow analyzer (MC-FAN) has demonstrated the significance of
      cardiovascular risk factors in recent clinical studies. The present cross
      sectional study aimed to clarify the relationship between hemorheology assessed
      by MC-FAN and kidney function in hypertensive patients from the perspective of
      primary prevention of cardiovascular events. METHODS: In total, 453 outpatients
      undergoing treatment for hypertension (176 men and 277 women; mean age +/-
      standard deviation: 65 +/- 13 years) with no history of cardiovascular disease
      were enrolled. Whole blood passage time (WBPT) was measured using MC-FAN as a
      marker of hemorheology, and the relationships with various clinical parameters
      including kidney function were examined. RESULTS: A significant correlation was
      observed between WBPT and the parameters of kidney function such as estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (r = -0.14, P < 0.01), urinary albumin excretion (r =
      0.40, P < 0.001), and renal resistive index (r = 0.44, P < 0.001). Furthermore,
      multivariate analysis demonstrated urinary albumin excretion, renal resistive
      index, skin autofluorescence, derivatives of reactive oxygen metabolites, and
      hematocrit as independent variables for WBPT as a subordinate factor.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study indicate that hemorheology assessed
      by the MC-FAN is significantly associated with markers of kidney function, such
      as albuminuria and increased renovascular resistance, in hypertensive patients.

PMID- 28868100
TI  - Safety and Feasibility of Transcatheter Interruption of Ruptured Sinus of
      Valsalva Aneurysm Using the Cocoon Duct Occluder: Immediate Results and Mid-Term
      Follow-Up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited data are available regarding safety and feasibility of
      transcatheter interruption of ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm (RSOVA) using
      the Cocoon duct occluder (CDO) with immediate and mid-term follow-up result.
      METHODS: Transcatheter closure (TCC) was successfully done among eight patients,
      whereas five cases, not amenable to TCC, were referred for surgical correction
      among 13 consecutive patients of RSOVA at LPS Institute of Cardiology, Kanpur
      between January 2010 and March 2015. RESULTS: Their mean age was 26.1 +/- 6.9
      years. Sites of rupture were from right coronary sinus (RCS) to right atrium (RA)
      in one (12.5%), right ventricle in one (12.5%), and non-coronary sinus to RA in
      six patients (75%). The defects (9 - 17 mm) were closed by CDO (12/10 - 20/18 mm)
      with 100% procedural success. During follow-up (9 - 26 months), there was no
      residual shunt, progression of AR, infective endocarditis or device embolization.
      CONCLUSION: TCC of RSOVA appears to be a safe and feasible alternative to
      surgical therapy, with high technical success and excellent mid-term follow-up.

PMID- 28868101
TI  - Chest Pain Due to Pericardial Effusion as Initial Presenting Feature of
      Rheumatoid Arthritis: Case Report and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Pericardial effusions are not uncommon in rheumatoid arthritis (RA); however,
      they are rarely the presenting symptom of the disease. We describe a 55-year-old
      female who presented to the emergency department with complaints of chest pain
      and dyspnea on exertion. Initial workup revealed a medium-sized pericardial
      effusion. The wide spectrum of etiologies, including infectious and non
      infectious disease, was explored. Eventually, after ruling out an array of
      disease states, rheumatologic workup was positive for RA. The initial
      presentation in our case was atypical due to absence of small joint polyarthritis
      and other common symptoms of RA. In difficult cases, extensive workup including
      laboratory tests, electrocardiography, echocardiography and imaging studies can
      aid in narrowing the causes of pericardial effusion. This case demonstrates that
      pericardial effusion could be an early presenting feature of RA, even in the
      absence of more common symptoms, and should be considered in differential
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28868102
TI  - A Novel Electrocardiographic Sign of an ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction-Equivalent: De Winter Syndrome.
AB  - Patients with de Winter syndrome, also termed anterior ST-segment elevation
      myocardial infarction (STEMI)-equivalent, represent 2% of all patients with acute
      anterior myocardial infarctions admitted to emergency departments (EDs). STEMI
      equivalents do not present with classical electrocardiogram (ECG) changes but
      exhibit a critical stenosis of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary
      artery. This is under-recognized by clinicians and is therefore associated with
      high morbidity and mortality. Here, we report a rare case of a novel, typical,
      STEMI-equivalent ECG pattern without obvious ST-segment elevation in a 34-year
      old female who presented to our ED with substantial chest pain and a large,
      acute, transmural anterior myocardial infarction caused by acute occlusion of the
      LAD coronary artery. However, she presented as a non-STEMI case. A definite
      diagnosis of de Winter syndrome was made on the basis of clinical and ECG
      findings.

PMID- 28868103
TI  - Ischemic Stroke in a Patient With Quadricuspid Aortic Valve and Patent Foramen
      Ovale.
AB  - Quadricuspid aortic valve (QAV) is a rare congenital aortic valve abnormality. It
      is less common as compared to bicuspid or unicuspid aortic valve abnormality. QAV
      causes aortic regurgitation usually in the fifth to sixth decade of life. We
      present a rare case of a female patient with cryptogenic stroke due to a QAV and
      a patent foramen ovale (PFO). The patient underwent transcatheter closure of PFO,
      as there was no clear indication for surgery for her valve. Surgical removal
      remains the method of choice for the treatment of the QAV before left ventricular
      decompensation occurs.

PMID- 28868104
TI  - Parvovirus B19 Myocarditis of Fulminant Evolution.
AB  - Myocarditis is an inflammation of the myocardium. Clinical presentation ranges
      from non-specific systematic symptoms to fulminant collapse and sudden death.
      Sudden death occurs at rates of 8.6-12% and cardiomyopathy at 9%. In active
      myocarditis, there is inflammatory cellular infiltrate with myocardial necrosis.
      The disease is distinguished by clinical presentation in fulminant and non
      fulminant myocarditis. We present a rare case of a parvovirus B19-induced
      fulminant viral myocarditis in a young female. The patient presented with acute
      onset heart failure mimicking a myocardial infarction, followed by non-specific
      symptoms that had been misdiagnosed as urinary tract infection.

PMID- 28868105
TI  - Primary Fusiform Superior Vena Cava Aneurysm.
AB  - Superior vena cava (SVC) aneurysms are rare mediastinal vascular lesions. We
      report a case of a 42-year-old female, who presented to the outpatient department
      with features suggestive of lower respiratory tract infection. Chest X-ray showed
      abnormal contour and widening of right border of mediastinum. Computed tomography
      (CT) thorax revealed fusiform aneurysmal ectasia of SVC measuring 4.5 * 5.5 * 8.9
      cm without internal thrombosis or dissecting flap. Management options include
      observation with follow-up and in some cases anticoagulation and surgical
      excision may be considered. The general consensus is that fusiform variety can be
      managed conservatively in view of the low risk of complications. The saccular
      aneurysms may need to be managed with anticoagulation therapy or surgically in
      view of the possible risk for thrombus formation and pulmonary embolism. Since in
      our case it was an asymptomatic primary fusiform SVC aneurysm, patient was
      advised for conservative management and follow-up.

PMID- 28868106
TI  - Monitoring bacterial biofilms with a microfluidic flow chip designed for imaging
      with white-light interferometry.
AB  - There is a need for imaging and sensing instrumentation that can monitor
      transitions in a biofilm structure in order to better understand biofilm
      development and emergent properties such as anti-microbial resistance. Herein, we
      describe the design, manufacture, and use of a microfluidic flow cell to
      visualize the surface structure of bacterial biofilms with white-light
      interferometry (WLI). The novel imaging chip enabled the use of this non
      disruptive imaging method for the capture of high resolution three-dimensional
      profile images of biofilm growth over time. The fine axial resolution (3 nm) and
      the wide field of view (>1 mm by 1 mm) enabled the detection of biofilm formation
      as early as 3 h after inoculation of the flow cell with a live bacterial culture
      (Pseudomonas fluorescens). WLI imaging facilitated the monitoring of the early
      stages of biofilm development and subtle variations in the structure of mature
      biofilms. Minimally-invasive imaging enabled the monitoring of biofilm structure
      with surface metrology metrics (e.g., surface roughness). The system was used to
      observe a transition in the biofilm structure that occurred in response to
      exposure to a common antiseptic. In the future, WLI and the biofilm imaging cell
      described herein may be used to test the effectiveness of biofilm-specific
      therapies to combat common diseases associated with biofilm formation such as
      cystic fibrosis and periodontitis.

PMID- 28868107
TI  - A simple and reusable bilayer membrane-based microfluidic device for the study of
      gradient-mediated bacterial behaviors.
AB  - We have developed a user-friendly microfluidic device for the study of gradient
      mediated bacterial behaviors, including chemotaxis. This device rapidly
      establishes linear concentration gradients by exploiting solute diffusion through
      porous membranes in the absence of convective flows. As such, the gradients are
      created rapidly and can be sustained for long time periods (e.g., hours),
      sufficient to evaluate cell phenotype. The device exploits a unique simple
      bilayer configuration that enables rapid setup and quick reproducible
      introduction of cells. Its reusability represents an additional advantage in that
      it need not be limited to settings with microfluidics expertise. We have
      successfully demonstrated the applicability of this tool in studying the
      chemotactic response of Escherichia coli to glucose. When coupled with our recent
      Python program, quantified metrics such as speed, ratio of tumble to run, and
      effective diffusivity can be obtained from slow frame rate videos. Moreover, we
      introduce a chemotaxis partition coefficient that conveniently scores swimming
      behavior on the single-cell level.

PMID- 28868108
TI  - Integrated dielectrophoretic and surface plasmonic platform for million-fold
      improvement in the detection of fluorescent events.
AB  - We present an integrated dielectrophoretic (DEP) and surface plasmonic technique
      to quantify ~1 pM of fluorescent molecules in low conductivity buffers. We have
      established a DEP force on target molecules to bring those molecules and place
      them on the nanometallic structures (hotspots) for quantification through surface
      plasmonic effects. Our results show that the DEP is capable of placing the
      fluorescent molecules on the hotspots, which are depicted as a significant
      reduction in the fluorescence lifetime of those molecules. To efficiently
      integrate the DEP and plasmonic effects, we have designed and utilized pearl
      shaped interdigitated electrodes (PIDEs) in experiments. These electrodes
      generate 2-3 times higher DEP force than traditional interdigitated electrodes.
      Therefore, high-throughput assays can be developed. The nanometallic structures
      were strategically fabricated in the periphery of PIDEs for smooth integration of
      DEP and plasmonic detection. With the introduction of DEP, about 106-fold
      improvement was achieved over existing plasmonic-based detection. Therefore, this
      simple addition to the existing surface plasmonic-based detection will enable the
      disease related protein detection.

PMID- 28868109
TI  - Rapid evaporation-driven chemical pre-concentration and separation on paper.
AB  - Airflow-enhanced evaporation is investigated as a method for rapid chemical
      preconcentration on a thin porous substrate. The mechanism is described by
      combining 1D models of capillary rise, chromatography, and pervaporation
      concentration. It is shown that the effective length of the column can be shorter
      than its actual length, allowing concentrate to be held at a stagnation point and
      then released for separation, and that the Peclet number, which determines the
      concentration performance, is determined only by the substrate properties. The
      differential equations are solved dynamically, and it is shown that faster
      concentration can be achieved during capillary filling. Experiments are carried
      out using chromatography paper in a ducted airflow, and concentration is
      quantified by optical imaging of water-soluble food dyes. Good agreement with the
      model is obtained, and concentration factors of ~100 are achieved in 10 min using
      Brilliant Blue FCF. Partial separation of Brilliant Blue from Tartrazine is
      demonstrated immediately following concentration, on a single unpatterned
      substrate. The mechanism may provide a method for improving the sensitivity of
      lab-on-paper devices.

PMID- 28868110
TI  - Erratum: "Quick chip assay using locked nucleic acid modified epithelial cell
      adhesion molecule and nucleolin aptamers for the capture of circulating tumor
      cells" [Biomicrofluidics 9(5), 054110 (2015)].
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1063/1.4930983.].

PMID- 28868111
TI  - S-1 induced hepatic steatosis in patients with pancreatic cancer: Retrospective
      analysis.
AB  - AIM: To determine whether S-1 induces hepatic steatosis in patients being treated
      for pancreatic cancer. METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated 22 patients
      who received oral S-1 as a first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer between
      January 2008 and July 2015 at the Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital. Patients
      underwent abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans before chemotherapy and within
      3 mo from the start of treatment. CT numbers of the liver and spleen were
      measured before and after S-1 administration. Steatosis was diagnosed when the
      ratio of the CT number of the liver to that of the spleen (liver/spleen ratio)
      was < 0.9. RESULTS: Median patient age was 68 years (range, 48-85 years), and
      median body mass index was 21 kg/m2 (range, 18-27 kg/m2). Of the 22 patients, six
      (27%) regularly consumed alcohol, and five (23%) had liver metastases. The mean
      ratio of CT number of the liver to the spleen was significantly higher before
      administration of S-1 (1.27 vs 1.09, P = 0.012) compared with after. Of the 22
      patients, five (23%) had hepatic steatosis and 17 (77%) did not. The pretreatment
      demographic and clinical characteristics of these two groups showed no
      significant differences. The relationship between liver/spleen ratio and alanine
      transaminase activity in these patients. A statistically significant inverse
      correlation was observed (r = -0.417, P < 0.027). CONCLUSION: Of the 22 patients
      with pancreatic cancer, five (23%) experienced S-1 induced hepatic steatosis.
      Care should be taken during S-1 treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28868112
TI  - Does the discrepancy in histologic differentiation between a forceps biopsy and
      an endoscopic specimen necessitate additional surgery in early gastric cancer?
AB  - AIM: To investigate the clinicopathological variables in early gastric cancer
      (EGC) patients in relation to differentiation discrepancy. METHODS: The data of
      265 specimens from 240 patients with EGC, who had undergone radical operation at
      Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital from 2010 to 2015, were retrospectively
      analyzed. We evaluated clinical, endoscopic, and histopathological data according
      to histological discrepancy. RESULTS: Clinically significant discrepancy rate
      showed the difference in differentiated type (well and moderately differentiated)
      and undifferentiated type (poorly differentiated and signet ring cell) between
      endoscopic biopsies and postoperative specimens was 9.4% (25/265). There were no
      differences in tumor location, size, gross pattern, and number of biopsies.
      Specimens having histological discrepancy showed more submucosal invasion (72.0%
      vs 49.6%, P = 0.033) and lymph node involvement (24.0% vs 7.9%, P = 0.009) than
      specimens having non-discrepancy. The rate of a positive epidermal growth factor
      receptor status was higher in specimens having discrepancy than in specimens
      having non-discrepancy (81.0% vs 55.4%, P = 0.035). CONCLUSION: The discordance
      of histologic differentiation is associated with higher submucosal invasion and
      lymph node metastases in EGC. Patients have histological discrepancy may require
      additional surgical treatments.

PMID- 28868113
TI  - Gastric xanthoma is a predictive marker for metachronous and synchronous gastric
      cancer.
AB  - AIM: To investigate predictive markers for metachronous and synchronous gastric
      cancer (GC), which can develop after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD).
      METHODS: A total of 352 patients underwent ESD for early GC at NTT West Osaka
      Hospital between June 2006 and February 2016. Exclusion criteria were as follows:
      Remnant stomach, unknown Helicobacter pylori status, and endoscopic observation
      of the whole stomach outside our hospital. We analyzed data from 192 patients
      comprising 109 patients with solitary GC (Group A) and 83 with metachronous and
      synchronous GC (Group B). We retrospectively investigated the clinicopathological
      and endoscopic characteristics, and endoscopic risk score as predictive markers
      for GC. RESULTS: The median age of Group B [72 years (interquartile range 63-78)]
      was significantly higher than that of Group A [66 years (interquartile range 61
      74), respectively, P = 0.0009]. The prevalence of intestinal metaplasia in Group
      B tended to be higher than that in Group A (57.8% vs 45.0%, P = 0.08). The
      prevalence of gastric xanthoma (GX) in Group B was significantly higher than that
      in Group A (54.2% vs 32.1%, P = 0.003). The atrophy score in Group B was
      significantly higher than that in Group A (P = 0.005). Multivariate analysis
      revealed that higher age and the presence of GX were independently related to
      metachronous and synchronous GC [OR = 1.04 (1.01-1.08), P = 0.02; and OR = 2.11
      (1.14-3.99), P = 0.02, respectively]. CONCLUSION: The presence of GX is a useful
      predictive marker for metachronous and synchronous GC.

PMID- 28868114
TI  - Impact of tumour histological subtype on chemotherapy outcome in advanced
      oesophageal cancer.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the impact of histology on outcome in advanced oesophageal
      cancer treated with first-line fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy. METHODS:
      Individual patient data were pooled from three randomised phase III trials of
      fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy +/- platinum/anthracycline in patients with
      advanced, untreated gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma
      (SCC) randomised between 1994 and 2005. The primary endpoint was overall survival
      of oesophageal cancer patients according to histology. Secondary endpoints were
      response rates and a toxicity composite endpoint. RESULTS: Of the total 1836
      randomised patients, 973 patients (53%) were eligible (707 patients with gastric
      cancer were excluded), 841 (86%) had adenocarcinoma and 132 (14%) had SCC. There
      was no significant difference in survival between patients with adenocarcinoma
      and SCC, with median overall survivals of 9.5 mo vs 7.6 mo (HR = 0.85, 95%CI:
      0.70-1.03, P = 0.09) and one-year survivals of 38.8% vs 28.2% respectively. The
      overall response rate to chemotherapy was 44% for adenocarcinoma vs 33% for SCC
      (P = 0.01). There was no difference in the frequency of the toxicity composite
      endpoint between the two groups. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference
      in survival between adenocarcinoma and SCC in patients with advanced oesophageal
      cancer treated with fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy despite a trend for worse
      survival and less chemo-sensitivity in SCC. Tolerance to treatment was similar in
      both groups. This analysis highlights the unmet need for SCC-specific studies in
      advanced oesophageal cancer and will aid in the design of future trials of
      targeted agents.

PMID- 28868115
TI  - Catching and Correcting Unreported, Under-Reported Accidents (Near-Misses) among
      Healthcare Provider in Thailand.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Latent errors in an incident reporting system pose threats to
      accident and near-miss prevention in hospitals. The aims of this study were to
      gain insight into the incident reporting system by exploring and investigating
      the refinement of unreported and under-reported (near-miss) patterns and by
      estimating under-reported annual hospital accidents over three months in one
      hospital. METHODS: Sequential mixed-method research was undertaken using both
      qualitative and quantitative approaches. 120 health care providers were selected
      from 13 departments of a selected study hospital. Self-reported questionnaires,
      information from annual reports and focus group interviews among stakeholders
      were employed. Based on a quantitative mixed-model approach, estimation of lost
      cases from near-miss incidents was made. RESULTS: In 2015, 20% of accidents had
      been reported to the hospital center while under-reported accidents and near-miss
      incidents by self-report over 3 months equaled 18% and 25.9%, respectively.
      Recent trends were positive, driven by changing values about incident reporting.
      However, confusion and fear still remain among practitioners about near-miss
      reporting due to old beliefs. This study confirms that incident reporting needs
      improvement so that there is an enhanced organizational culture of safety, raised
      awareness for individual reporting, and recovery of lost cases using mixed-model
      estimation of near-misses.

PMID- 28868117
TI  - Thiadiazoles: the appropriate pharmacological scaffolds with leishmanicidal and
      antimalarial activities: a review.
AB  - Leishmaniasis and malaria are serious public health problems in tropical and sub
      tropical regions worldwide. Development of drug-resistant strains has disrupted
      efforts to control the spread of these diseases in the world. The conventional
      antiparasitic chemotherapy still suffers from side effects and drug resistance.
      Therefore, the development of novel antimalarial and leishmanicidal drugs remains
      a critical topic to combat against these diseases. Five-membered heterocyclic
      systems have possessed antiparasitic activity such as thiadiazole scaffold which
      is a prevalent and an important heterocyclic ring. For this purpose, the authors
      introduce a series of synthetic thiadiazole derivatives with antileishamanial
      activity. Also, the authors searched a number of sources and articles to find
      thiadiazole derivatives with antileishamnial and antimalarial activity. Then all
      of the findings were reviewed. 5-nitroheteroaryl-1,3,4-Thiadiazole derivatives
      with different substituents at position 2 of the thiadiazole ring (8, 10-11)
      presented the best antileishmanial activity with low toxicity compared with
      reference drug. Also, 1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-sulfonamide derivative (18) showed
      excellent inhibitory activity against pfCA as a special enzyme in Plasmodium
      falciparum. Thiadiazole scaffold has the suitable physicochemical and
      pharmacokinetic properties and still stays as a therapeutic target for the
      development of a novel lead in the medicinal chemistry. Therefore, the current
      review provides a brief summary of medicinal chemistry of thiadiazole ring and
      introduces novel leads possessing this nucleus with antimalarial and
      antileishmanial activities.

PMID- 28868116
TI  - Bio-effectiveness of the main flavonoids of Achillea millefolium in the
      pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders- a review.
AB  - The Achillea millefolium L. (Yarrow) is a common herb which is widely being used,
      worldwide. Achillea is being used for treatment of many disorders since
      centuries. It is considered safe for supplemental use and flavonoids such as
      kaempferol, luteolin and apigenin are of main constituents present in Achillea.
      Most of both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of this herb have been
      attributed to its flavonoid content. Oxidative and inflammatory processes play
      important roles in pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Present review was
      aimed to review the latest literature evidences regarding application of Achillea
      and/or its three main flavonoid constituents on epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease,
      multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and stroke.

PMID- 28868118
TI  - Effects of left prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation on the
      acquisition of contextual and cued fear memory.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have shown that transcranial
      direct current stimulation, as a non-invasive neuromodulatory technique, beyond
      regional effects can modify functionally interconnected remote cortical and
      subcortical areas. In this study, we hypothesized that the induced changes in
      cortical excitability following the application of cathodal or anodal tDCS over
      the left frontal cortex as pre-training would affect functional connectivity in
      resting-state circuits of fear memory and consequently could improve or disturb
      the acquisition of fear memory. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to evaluate the
      polarity-dependent effects of tDCS on the acquisition of fear memory and the
      functional connectivity, we applied left prefrontal anodal or cathodal
      stimulation at 200 MUA for one session to healthy mice for the durations of 20
      and 30 min prior to fear conditioning. RESULTS: Our results revealed that the
      administration of left prefrontal anodal (for both 20 and 30 min durations) and
      cathodal (at 30 min duration) tDCS impaired the acquisition of both contextual
      and cued fear memory. In addition, we did not observe a direct correlation
      between stimulation duration and the efficacy of tDCS on the acquisition of
      contextual and cued fear memory. CONCLUSION: In this study, the impairments of
      both contextual and cued memory further confirmed the previous studies reporting
      that the administration of transcranial stimulation would affect the activity of
      deeper structures like amygdala and hippocampus as the main components of the
      fear memory circuit in acquisition, storage, and expression of the memory.

PMID- 28868119
TI  - Coumarin derivatives bearing benzoheterocycle moiety: synthesis, cholinesterase
      inhibitory, and docking simulation study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficiency of a novel series of coumarin
      derivatives bearing benzoheterocycle moiety as novel cholinesterase inhibitors.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Different 7-hydroxycoumarin derivatives were synthesized
      via Pechmann or Knoevenagel condensation and conjugated to different
      benzoheterocycle (8-hydroxyquinoline, 2-mercaptobenzoxazole or 2
      mercaptobenzimidazole) using dibromoalkanes 3a-m: Final compounds were evaluated
      against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) by Ellman's
      method. Kinetic study of AChE inhibition and ligand-protein docking simulation
      were also carried out for the most potent compound 3b. RESULTS: Some of the
      compounds revealed potent and selective activity against AChE. Compound 3b
      containing the quinoline group showed the best activity with an IC50 value of
      8.80 MUM against AChE. Kinetic study of AChE inhibition revealed the mixed-type
      inhibition of the enzyme by compound 3b. Ligand-protein docking simulation also
      showed that the flexibility of the hydrophobic five carbons linker allows the
      quinoline ring to form pi-pi interaction with Trp279 in the PAS. CONCLUSION: We
      suggest these synthesized compounds could become potential leads for AChE
      inhibition and prevention of AD symptoms.

PMID- 28868120
TI  - Novel cilostamide analogs, phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitors, produce positive
      inotropic but differential lusitropic and chronotropic effects on isolated rat
      atria.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Recently, we showed that some new synthetic compounds structurally
      related to cilostamide (4-(1,2-dihydro-2-oxoquinolin-6-hydroxy)- N-cyclohexyl-N
      methylbutanamide), a selective phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3) inhibitor, produce
      inotropic effect comparable to that of IBMX (3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine), a non
      selective PDE inhibitor, but with differential chronotropic effect. In this
      investigation, we compared the pharmacological effects of these compounds as
      potential cardiotonic agents using the spontaneously beating atria model.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In each experiment, rats were treated with reserpine. The
      atrium was isolated and mounted in an organ bath. We assessed chronotropic and
      inotropic effects using cumulative log concentration-response curves of
      isoprenaline alone or in combination of each test-compound. RESULTS: Majority of
      test compounds augment atria contraction force (ACF) significantly but with
      different potencies on atrium contraction rate. Cilostamide, MCPIP ([4-(4-methyl
      piperazin-1-yl)-4-oxobutoxy)-4-methylquinolin-2(1H)-one]), methyl carbostyril
      compounds- (mc1), mc2 and mc5 increased the isoprenaline effect on ACF
      synergistically. But, mc6 failed to potentiate the effect of isoprenalin; mc3 and
      mc4 did not increase ACF, which may be because of their higher hydrophilic
      nature. It was interesting that mc2, alone or in combination with isoprenaline,
      produced the highest inotropic effect while it did not affect the basal
      contraction rate and almost blocked the isoprenaline chronotropic effect.
      CONCLUSION: Combination of mc2 with isoprenaline had synergistic effect on
      inotropic effect, but this combination reduced isoprenaline chronotropic effect;
      therefore, these effects cannot be related to reducing B-adrenergic receptors
      activity. These compounds showed different effects; probably all of them were not
      mediated via PDE3 inhibition and other mechanisms are involving.

PMID- 28868121
TI  - Melatonin upregulates ErbB1 and ErbB4, two primary implantation receptors, in pre
      implantation mouse embryos.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluated the effects of melatonin on early embryo competence and
      the expression rate of the primary implantation receptors (ErbB1 and ErbB4).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two-cell mouse embryos were cultured in 3 groups: simple
      media, melatonin-treated (10-9 M melatonin) and Luzindole-treated (10-9 M
      luzindole). Then, the rate of ErbB1 and ErbB4 gene and protein expression, the
      level of intracellular ROS, antioxidant capacity, and also the number of cells
      were evaluated and compared with the fourth group in vivo developed blastocysts
      (control group). RESULTS: We concluded that melatonin significantly up-regulated
      the ErbB1 and ErbB4 gene and protein expression, decreased intracellular ROS,
      increased the total antioxidant capacity, and also elevated the cell numbers in
      the melatonin-treated group compared with the other groups (P<= 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: The use of melatonin may be a helpful factor in improving the embryo
      quality and enhancing the expression of ErbB1 and ErbB4, two important
      implantation-related genes and proteins.

PMID- 28868122
TI  - Allicin attenuates tunicamycin-induced cognitive deficits in rats via its
      synaptic plasticity regulatory activity.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To illuminate the functional effects of allicin on rats with
      cognitive deficits induced by tunicamycin (TM) and the molecular mechanism of
      this process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 200-250 g male SD rats were divided into
      three groups at random: control group (n=12), TM group (5 MUl, 50 MUM, ICV,
      n=12), and allicin treatment group (180 mg/kg/d with chow diet, n=12). After 16
      weeks of allicin treatment, the learning ability and memory were tested using
      novel object recognition (NOR) testing on rats with 72 hr TM treatment (5 MUl, 50
      MUM, ICV); meanwhile, the variation of field excitatory postsynaptic potential
      (fEPSP) in the Schaffer Collateral (SC)-CA1 synapse was detected by extracellular
      electrophysiological recordings and the morphology of dendritic spine was
      observed by Golgi staining as well as detecting several synaptic plasticity
      related proteins by Western blot. RESULTS: The density of dendritic spine was
      increased significantly in allicin-treated groups and the correspondence slope of
      fEPSP in TM-induced cognitive deficits group was enhanced and expression of
      synaptophysin and glutamate receptor-1(GluR1) in hippocampal neurons was up
      regulated. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that allicin plays an important role
      in synaptic plasticity regulation. These finding showed that allicin could be
      used as a pharmacologic treatment in TM-induced cognitive deficits.

PMID- 28868123
TI  - Orthotopic liver transplantation from cardiac death donors in the mouse: a new
      model and evaluation of cardiac death time.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The goal of this research was to develop a mouse orthotopic liver
      transplantation (LTx) model from donor-after-cardiac-death (DCD) grafts.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mice were randomly assigned to the experimental group or
      the sham group. The mice in the experimental group were divided into three groups
      according to the warm ischemia time (WIT) of liver graft: normal LTx, WIT 30
      minute (min) +LTx and WIT 45 min +LTx. The descending aorta was clamped using a
      miniature aortic clamp to simulate cardiac arrest in the DCD grafts.
      Subsequently, the grafts were orthotopically transplanted into C57BL/6 mice. The
      7-day survival rate, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), inducible nitric oxide
      synthase (iNOS), interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA level, tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNF-alpha) mRNA level, as well as hepatic pathologic alterations were observed.
      RESULTS: The 7-day survival rate was markedly lower in the WIT 45 min+LTx group
      than that in the normal LTx group (25% versus 100%, P-value<0.05), with no
      significant difference between the WIT 30 min +LTx and normal LTx group (75%
      versus 100%, P-value>0.05). Serum ALT level of WIT 45 min+LTx group was markedly
      higher than that of normal LTx and WIT 30 min+LTx group (P-value<0.01). There
      were significant differences in necrosis and apoptosis among the three groups (P
      value<0.05). The expression of iNOS, IL-6 mRNA and TNF-alpha mRNA in WIT 45 min
      +LTx group all increased significantly compared with the normal LTx and WIT 30
      min+LTx group. CONCLUSION: The DCD LTx model is feasible in the mouse and would
      provide many advantages for biomedical research on LTx from DCD grafts.

PMID- 28868124
TI  - Neuroprotective role of curcumin on the hippocampus against the structural and
      serological alterations of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in Sprague Dawely
      rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Diabetes mellitus causes impaired memory and cognitive functions. The
      hippocampus plays a key role in memory and learning. Curcumin attenuates diabetic
      nephropathy in vivo. Curcumin has shown a neurogenic effect and cognition
      enhancing potential in aged rats. The aim of this study is to evaluate the
      possible protective role of curcumin on the histological and serological changes
      of the hippocampus in diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty albino rats
      were divided into four groups, ten rats each. Group 1 control rats, group 2 rats
      received curcumin orally (200 mg/kg/day for six weeks), group 3 rats were
      injected intraperitoneally with streptozotocin (STZ) (100 mg/kg, single dose),
      group 4 received a single injection of STZ and received curcumin orally for six
      weeks. Paraffin sections of hippocampus were prepared and stained with
      hematoxylin and eosin stain, and immnunohistochemical staining for GFAP and
      caspase-3. Morphometrical and statistical analyses were performed. Glycemic
      status and parameters of oxidative stress was measured. RESULTS: Examination of
      hippocampus of diabetic rats showed disorganization of small pyramidal cells in
      CA1, many cellular losses in the pyramidal cells of CA3, many degenerated granule
      cells in the dentate gyrus. GFAP positive astrocyte and caspase-3 positive neuron
      counts were significantly increased. There were significant serum glucose
      elevation and significant lowered levels of oxidative stress parameters as
      compared to control rats. Curcumin administration improved the structural and
      serological alterations of the hippocampus with significant reduction in serum
      glucose level. CONCLUSION: Curcumin ameliorates the deterious effect of diabetes
      on the hippocampus through its antioxidant, antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory
      efficacies.

PMID- 28868125
TI  - Restoration of correct splicing in IVSI-110 mutation of beta-globin gene with
      antisense oligonucleotides: implications and applications in functional assay
      development.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The use of antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) to restore normal
      splicing by blocking the recognition of aberrant splice sites by the spliceosome
      represents an innovative means of potentially controlling certain inherited
      disorders affected by aberrant splicing. Selection of the appropriate target site
      is essential in the success of an AO therapy. In this study, in search for a
      splice model system to facilitate the evaluation of AOs to redirect defective
      splicing of IVSI-110 beta-globin intron, an EGFP-based IVSI-110 specific cellular
      reporter assay system has been developed and a number of AOs were tested in this
      cellular splicing assay. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A recombinant plasmid (pEGFP/I
      110) carrying the EGFP gene interrupted by a mutated human beta-globin intron 1
      (IVSI-110) was developed and transfected into K562 cells. A number of AOs with a
      2'-O-methyl oligoribonucleotide (2'-O-Me) backbone system were systematically
      tested in this cellular splicing assay. RESULTS: The mutation in the intron
      causes aberrant splicing of EGFP pre-mRNA, preventing translation of EGFP;
      however, treatment of the cells with specific concentration of a sequence
      specific 2'-O-Me AO targeted to the aberrant splice site induced correct splicing
      and resulted in restoring of EGFP activity. CONCLUSION: This cellular splicing
      assay provides a novel functional assay system in assessing the cellular delivery
      efficiency of AOs and therapeutic effect of AOs in restoration of aberrant
      splicing.

PMID- 28868126
TI  - Repeated systemic administration of the cinnamon essential oil possesses anti
      anxiety and anti-depressant activities in mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to evaluate the putative antidepressant and
      anti-anxiety effects of the cinnamon essential oil when administered acute (for 3
      doses) and sub-acute (for 14 days) to mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In an acute
      experimental study, forced swim test (FST) was conducted to evaluate the
      antidepressant-like behavior of animals treated with the intraperitoneal (IP)
      essential oil of cinnamon in triple doses (0.5, 1, and 2 mg/kg). In a sub-acute
      study (14 days in 24-hr intervals) antidepressant-like effects of essential oil
      (0.5, 1, and 2 mg/kg) with the same route were assessed in FST and tail
      suspension test (TST). Anti-anxiety and motor activities were evaluated using
      elevated plus-maze (EPM) and open field tests, respectively. Determination of
      different constituents within the sample oil was via gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. RESULTS: Repetitive administration of cinnamon
      essential oil (0.5, 1, 2 mg/kg) during 14 days significantly decreased the time
      of immobility in both FST and TST as compared to the control group. Mice treated
      with oil at the dose of 2 mg/kg spent a longer time and had more entries into the
      open arms of EPM as compared with the vehicle-treated ones. According to GC-MS
      analysis, 46 chemical compounds were identified in the studied cinnamon essential
      oil with the main constituent being trans-cinnamaldehyde (87.32%). CONCLUSION:
      Cinnamon essential oil might be used as an adjunctive therapy in improving
      symptoms of depressive and anxiety disorders. However, dose-response effects need
      further evaluation. Trans-cinnamaldehyde might be responsible for the beneficial
      effect observed.

PMID- 28868127
TI  - Mori cortex prevents kidney damage through inhibiting expression of inflammatory
      factors in the glomerulus in streptozocin-induced diabetic rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: It has been widely reported that Mori cortex extract (MCE) is used
      for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in traditional medicine. The present study
      was designed to investigate its mechanism of action in the treatment of diabetic
      nephropathy (DN). We assessed whether MCE preventive treatment ameliorates kidney
      damage in high-fat diet and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 2 diabetic rats.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were fed a high-fat diet and injected with STZ. MCE
      was given to rats daily at 10 g/kg. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) and postprandial
      plasma glucose were measured. Blood and urine biochemical parameters, renal
      tissue morphology, and inflammation were investigated. RESULTS: Prevention with
      MCE significantly decreased FBG and homoeostasis model assessment (HOMA) of IR
      (HOMA-IR) levels and increased insulin levels in diabetic rats. MCE prevention
      significantly decreased levels of KW/BW, BUN, Cr, and 24 hr urinary protein. MCE
      inhibited glomerular basement membrane thickening, tubular epithelial cell
      hypertrophy, and glomerular capillary dilation. MCE also prevented the
      disappearance of bowman's space and renal tubular lumen and decreased collagen
      deposition in rat kidney. Moreover, MCE reduced the levels of inflammatory
      factors (MCP-1 and TNF-alpha) and fibrosis factors (collagen IV and fibronectin).
      CONCLUSION: MCE prevents DN through inhibition of inflammation and fibrosis in a
      rat model. It might provide a safe and effective way to prevent DN.

PMID- 28868128
TI  - Design of peptides interfering with iron-dependent regulator (IdeR) and
      evaluation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth inhibition.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      (Mtb), stayed a global health thread with high mortality rate. Since TB has a
      long-term treatment, it leads high risk of drug resistant development, and there
      is an urgent to find new drugs. The aim of this study was designing new
      inhibitors for a new drug target, iron dependent regulator, IdeR. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Based on the interaction most populated amino acids of IdeR to the
      related gene operators, 50 short peptides were modeled. Bonding affinity of short
      peptides toward DNA were studied by docking. Top 10 best predicted bonding
      affinity were selected. DNA binding assay, microplate alamar blue assay, colony
      counting, quantitative real time- PCR (qRT-PCR) of IdeR corresponding genes, cell
      wall-associated mycobactin and whole-cell iron estimation were done to prove the
      predicted mechanism of in silico potent constructs. RESULTS: Amongst the 10
      synthesized short peptide candidates, glycine-valine-proline-glycine (GVPG) and
      arginine-proline-arginine (RPR) inhibited Mtbin vitro at 200 MUM concentration.
      qRT-PCR showed mbtB 58-fold over expression that resulted in Mtb growth
      inhibition. Cell wall-associated mycobactin and whole-cell iron estimation
      confirmed the results of qRT-PCR. CONCLUSION: We introduced two new lead
      compounds to inhibit Mtb that are promising for the development of more potent
      anti-tubercular therapies.

PMID- 28868129
TI  - Does the human immune system ever really become "senescent"?
AB  - Like all somatic tissues, the human immune system changes with age. This is
      believed to result in an increased frequency of, and susceptibility to,
      infectious disease and to contribute to a wide range of non-communicable age
      associated diseases in later life, especially cancer, cardiovascular disease, and
      autoimmunity. The majority of studies addressing immune ageing has been cross
      sectional, but limited longitudinal studies are contributing to a better
      understanding of age-associated changes, as opposed to differences, and their
      clinical relevance. However, intriguing differences are emerging that implicate
      highly context-dependent immune ageing processes, mitigating against current
      generalisations concerning human immunosenescence and indicating the necessity
      for detailed comparisons of different populations, even those that would appear
      quite similar at first glance.

PMID- 28868130
TI  - Bacterial lipids: powerful modifiers of the innate immune response.
AB  - The innate immune system serves as a first line of defense against microbial
      pathogens. The host innate immune response can be triggered by recognition of
      conserved non-self-microbial signature molecules by specific host receptor
      proteins called Toll-like receptors. For bacteria, many of these molecular
      triggers reside on or are embedded in the bacterial membrane, the interface
      exposed to the host environment. Lipids are the most abundant component of
      membranes, and bacteria possess a unique set of lipids that can initiate or
      modify the host innate immune response. Bacterial lipoproteins, peptidoglycan,
      and outer membrane molecules lipoteichoic acid and lipopolysaccharide are key
      modulators of the host immune system. This review article will highlight some of
      the research emerging at the crossroads of bacterial membranes and innate
      immunity.

PMID- 28868132
TI  - Comprehensive comparison of Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore Technologies
      and their applications to transcriptome analysis.
AB  - Background: Given the demonstrated utility of Third Generation Sequencing
      [Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)] long reads
      in many studies, a comprehensive analysis and comparison of their data quality
      and applications is in high demand. Methods: Based on the transcriptome
      sequencing data from human embryonic stem cells, we analyzed multiple data
      features of PacBio and ONT, including error pattern, length, mappability and
      technical improvements over previous platforms. We also evaluated their
      application to transcriptome analyses, such as isoform identification and
      quantification and characterization of transcriptome complexity, by comparing the
      performance of PacBio, ONT and their corresponding Hybrid-Seq strategies
      (PacBio+Illumina and ONT+Illumina). Results: PacBio shows overall better data
      quality, while ONT provides a higher yield. As with data quality, PacBio performs
      marginally better than ONT in most aspects for both long reads only and Hybrid
      Seq strategies in transcriptome analysis. In addition, Hybrid-Seq shows superior
      performance over long reads only in most transcriptome analyses. Conclusions:
      Both PacBio and ONT sequencing are suitable for full-length single-molecule
      transcriptome analysis. As this first use of ONT reads in a Hybrid-Seq analysis
      has shown, both PacBio and ONT can benefit from a combined Illumina strategy. The
      tools and analytical methods developed here provide a resource for future
      applications and evaluations of these rapidly-changing technologies.

PMID- 28868133
TI  - Achieving good adherence to inhaled corticosteroids after weighing canisters of
      asthmatic children.
AB  - Background: The metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) currently available for inhaled
      corticosteroid delivery do not offer an integrated dose counter; therefore, it is
      difficult to evaluate adherence of patients. The present authors developed a
      linear regression equation using canister weight to calculate the number of doses
      actuated from the MDIs. This study aimed to assess medical adherence after the
      integration of regular weighing of the canisters into the routine service. 
      Methods: A cohort study was carried out between May 2013 and April 2014. Children
      aged less than 8 years with a diagnosis of asthma were recruited. The duration of
      adherence assessment was 24 weeks. Participants had a regular schedule every 8
      weeks to obtain a new FLIXOTIDE(r) 125 inhaler. Parents were asked to collect the
      discarded MDI canisters, which were then weighed by a laboratory scale. The
      weight of each canister was replaced in the regression equation to calculate the
      number of doses actuated from the MDIs.  Results: A total of 52 asthmatic
      children participated in the study. The median age was 52.7 months. At the end of
      24 weeks, 44, 33, and 23 discarded MDI canisters were collected from visits 1, 2,
      and 3, respectively. The median percentages of adherence were 96.8%, 96.3%, and
      96.3%, respectively. In 11 discarded canisters (11%), the remaining medication
      was more than 30% of the labeled doses. Approximately 90% of the participants had
      no asthma exacerbation during 24-week study period.  Conclusion: High adherence
      rates were achieved after integration of canister weighing into the asthma care
      service.

PMID- 28868131
TI  - Circulating tumor cells: silent predictors of metastasis.
AB  - Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) were added to the arsenal of clinical testing in
      2004 for three cancer types: metastatic breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.
      CTCs were found to be an independent prognostic indicator of survival for these
      three diseases. Multiple enrichment/isolation strategies have been developed and
      numerous assay applications have been performed using both single and pooled
      captured/enriched CTCs. We have reviewed the isolation techniques and touched on
      many analyses. The true utility of a CTC is that it acts as a "silent" predictor
      of metastatic disease. The mere presence of a single CTC is an indication that
      disease has spread from the primary site. Comments and suggestions have been set
      forth for CTCs and cell-free DNA to be used as a screening panel for the early
      detection of disease recurrence and metastatic spread, providing the opportunity
      for early intervention with curative intent to treat metastatic disease.

PMID- 28868134
TI  - Arkas: Rapid reproducible RNAseq analysis.
AB  - The recently introduced Kallisto pseudoaligner has radically simplified the
      quantification of transcripts in RNA-sequencing experiments.  We offer cloud
      scale RNAseq pipelines Arkas-Quantification, which deploys Kallisto for parallel
      cloud computations, and Arkas-Analysis, which annotates the Kallisto results by
      extracting structured information directly from source FASTA files with per
      contig metadata and calculates the differential expression and gene-set
      enrichment analysis on both coding genes and transcripts. The biologically
      informative downstream gene-set analysis maintains special focus on Reactome
      annotations while supporting ENSEMBL transcriptomes. The Arkas cloud
      quantification pipeline includes support for custom user-uploaded FASTA files,
      selection for bias correction and pseudoBAM output. The option to retain
      pseudoBAM output for structural variant detection and annotation provides a
      middle ground between de novo transcriptome assembly and routine quantification,
      while consuming a fraction of the resources used by popular fusion detection
      pipelines.  Illumina's BaseSpace cloud computing environment, where these two
      applications are hosted, offers a massively parallel distributive quantification
      step for users where investigators are better served by cloud-based computing
      platforms due to inherent efficiencies of scale.

PMID- 28868135
TI  - Improved deconvolution of very weak confocal signals.
AB  - Deconvolution is typically used to sharpen fluorescence images, but when the
      signal-to-noise ratio is low, the primary benefit is reduced noise and a smoother
      appearance of the fluorescent structures. 3D time-lapse (4D) confocal image sets
      can be improved by deconvolution. However, when the confocal signals are very
      weak, the popular Huygens deconvolution software erases fluorescent structures
      that are clearly visible in the raw data. We find that this problem can be
      avoided by prefiltering the optical sections with a Gaussian blur. Analysis of
      real and simulated data indicates that the Gaussian blur prefilter preserves
      meaningful signals while enabling removal of background noise. This approach is
      very simple, and it allows Huygens to be used with 4D imaging conditions that
      minimize photodamage .

PMID- 28868136
TI  - The menstrual cycle affects recognition of emotional expressions: an event
      related potential study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have investigated the relationship between behavioral
      changes and the menstrual cycle in female subjects at a reproductive age. The
      present study investigated the relationship between the menstrual cycle and
      emotional face recognition by measuring the N170 component of ERPs. METHODS: We
      measured N170 of twelve women in both follicular phase and late luteal phase who
      were presented with human facial expressions as stimuli (happy and angry).
      RESULTS: In the follicular phase, participants showed a significantly larger
      response to happy male facial expressions. In the late luteal phase, participants
      had longer reaction times to all emotional stimuli, and a significantly reduced
      response to happy faces, especially happy male facial expressions (P<0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the menstrual cycle modulates early visual
      cognitive processing, and highlight the importance of considering the menstrual
      cycle phase in studies that investigate emotion and cognition.

PMID- 28868137
TI  - Case Report: Nicolau syndrome due to etofenamate injection.
AB  - Nicolau syndrome, also known as embolia cutis medicomentosa, is a rare
      complication characterized by tissue necrosis that occurs after injection of
      drugs. The exact pathogenesis is uncertain, but there are several hypotheses,
      including direct damage to the end artery and cytotoxic effects of the drug.
      Severe pain in the immediate postinjection period and purplish discoloration of
      the skin with reticulate pigmentary pattern is characteristic of this syndrome.
      Diagnosis is mainly clinical and there is no standard treatment for the disease.
      Etofenamate is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and a non-selective
      cyclooxygenase inhibitor. Cutaneous adverse findings caused by etofenamate are
      uncommon. Herein, we present a case with diagnosis of Nicolau syndrome due to
      etofenamate injection, which is a rare occurrence.

PMID- 28868138
TI  - Analytical challenges of untargeted GC-MS-based metabolomics and the critical
      issues in selecting the data processing strategy.
AB  - Background: A challenge of metabolomics is data processing the enormous amount of
      information generated by sophisticated analytical techniques. The raw data of an
      untargeted metabolomic experiment are composited with unwanted biological and
      technical variations that confound the biological variations of interest. The art
      of data normalisation to offset these variations and/or eliminate experimental or
      biological biases has made significant progress recently. However, published
      comparative studies are often biased or have omissions. Methods: We investigated
      the issues with our own data set, using five different representative methods of
      internal standard-based, model-based, and pooled quality control-based
      approaches, and examined the performance of these methods against each other in
      an epidemiological study of gestational diabetes using plasma. Results: Our
      results demonstrated that the quality control-based approaches gave the highest
      data precision in all methods tested, and would be the method of choice for
      controlled experimental conditions. But for our epidemiological study, the model
      based approaches were able to classify the clinical groups more effectively than
      the quality control-based approaches because of their ability to minimise not
      only technical variations, but also biological biases from the raw data.
      Conclusions: We suggest that metabolomic researchers should optimise and justify
      the method they have chosen for their experimental condition in order to obtain
      an optimal biological outcome.

PMID- 28868139
TI  - The choice between surgical scrubbing and sterile covering before or after
      induction of anaesthesia: A prospective study.
AB  - Background: Day surgery is increasing, and safe and effective logistics are
      sought. One part of the in-theatre logistics commonly discussed is whether
      surgical scrub and sterile covering should be done before or after induction of
      anaesthesia. The aim of the present study was to compare the impact of surgical
      scrub and sterile covering before vs. after the induction of anaesthesia in male
      patients scheduled for open hernia repair.    Methods: This is a prospective
      randomised study. Sixty ASA 1-3 patients scheduled for open hernia repair were
      randomised to surgical scrub and sterile covering before or after induction of
      anaesthesia; group "awake" and group "anaesthetised", respectively. Patients and
      theatre nurses were asked about their experiences and willingness to have the
      same logistics on further potential surgeries, through a survey provided before
      post-surgery. Duration of anaesthesia, surgery, theatre time, recovery room stay
      and time to discharge was studied. Results: There was no difference in the
      patients' assessment of quality of care, and only one patient in the awake group
      would prefer to be anaesthetised on a future procedure. All nurses found pre
      anaesthesia scrubbing acceptable as routine. The duration of anaesthesia was
      shorter and doses of propofol and remifentanil were reduced by 10 and 13%,
      respectively, in the awake group. Time in recovery area was significantly reduced
      in the awake group (p<0.05), but time to discharge was not different. Conclusion:
      Surgical scrub and sterile covering before the induction of anaesthesia can be
      done safely and without jeopardising patients' quality of care.

PMID- 28868140
TI  - Bioconductor workflow for single-cell RNA sequencing: Normalization,
      dimensionality reduction, clustering, and lineage inference.
AB  - Novel single-cell transcriptome sequencing assays allow researchers to measure
      gene expression levels at the resolution of single cells and offer the
      unprecendented opportunity to investigate at the molecular level fundamental
      biological questions, such as stem cell differentiation or the discovery and
      characterization of rare cell types. However, such assays raise challenging
      statistical and computational questions and require the development of novel
      methodology and software. Using stem cell differentiation in the mouse olfactory
      epithelium as a case study, this integrated workflow provides a step-by-step
      tutorial to the methodology and associated software for the following four main
      tasks: (1) dimensionality reduction accounting for zero inflation and over
      dispersion and adjusting for gene and cell-level covariates; (2) cell clustering
      using resampling-based sequential ensemble clustering; (3) inference of cell
      lineages and pseudotimes; and (4) differential expression analysis along
      lineages.

PMID- 28868141
TI  - We need a NICE for global development spending.
AB  - With aid budgets shrinking in richer countries and more money for healthcare
      becoming available from domestic sources in poorer ones, the rhetoric of value
      for money or improved efficiency of aid spending is increasing. Taking healthcare
      as one example, we discuss the need for and potential benefits of (and obstacles
      to) the establishment of a national institute for aid effectiveness. In the case
      of the UK, such an institute would help improve development spending decisions
      made by DFID, the country's aid agency, as well as by the various multilaterals,
      such as the Global Fund, through which British aid monies is channelled. It could
      and should also help countries becoming increasingly independent from aid build
      their own capacity to make sure their own resources go further in terms of health
      outcomes and more equitable distribution. Such an undertaking will not be easy
      given deep suspicion amongst development experts towards economists and arguments
      for improving efficiency. We argue that it is exactly because needs matter that
      those who make spending decisions must consider the needs not being met when a
      priority requires that finite resources are diverted elsewhere. These chosen
      unmet needs are the true costs; they are lost health. They must be considered,
      and should be minimised and must therefore be measured. Such exposition of the
      trade-offs of competing investment options can help inform an array of old and
      newer development tools, from strategic purchasing and pricing negotiations for
      healthcare products to performance based contracts and innovative financing tools
      for programmatic interventions.

PMID- 28868142
TI  - Recent advances in understanding and treating chronic granulomatous disease.
AB  - A number of recent advances have been made in the epidemiology and treatment of
      chronic granulomatous disease. Several reports from developing regions describe
      the presentations and progress of local populations, highlighting complications
      due to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccination. A number of new reports describe
      complications of chronic granulomatous disease in adult patients, as more
      survivors reach adulthood. The complications experienced by X-linked carriers are
      particularly highlighted in three new reports, confirming that infection and
      inflammatory or autoimmune conditions are more common and severe than previously
      recognised. Finally, definitive treatment with haematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation and gene therapy is reviewed.

PMID- 28868143
TI  - Recent advances in understanding basophil functions in vivo.
AB  - Basophils are mainly known as pro-inflammatory effector cells associated with
      allergy and helminth infections. Although they were identified over 130 years
      ago, their in vivo functions are still poorly understood. New insights into
      basophil development and function have been gained by the development of various
      transgenic mouse lines and staining techniques to detect and purify these cells
      from different organs. Several studies over the past few years have identified
      unexpected functions for basophils, including immunomodulatory properties and
      interactions with other immune cells. Here, I summarize and discuss the main
      findings.

PMID- 28868145
TI  - Co-delivery of paclitaxel and cisplatin with biocompatible PLGA-PEG nanoparticles
      enhances chemoradiotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer models.
AB  - Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with paclitaxel (PTX) and cisplatin (CP) is part of the
      standard of care for patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC). Despite the high treatment intensity, many patients still develop local
      recurrence after treatment. Thus, there is a strong need to further improve CRT
      for lung cancer. One strategy is to co-deliver cytotoxic chemotherapy agents
      using biocompatible nanoparticles (NPs) which can limit off-target tissue
      toxicity and improve therapeutic efficacy. Herein, we report the development of
      dual-drug loaded nanoformulations that improve the efficacy of CRT for NSCLC by
      co-encapsulation of cisplatin (CP) and PTX in PLGA-PEG NPs. Mice bearing NSCLC
      xenografts given the dual-drug loaded NPs during CRT showed greater inhibition of
      tumor growth than free drug combinations or combinations of single-drug loaded
      NPs. These results indicate that using a NP co-delivery strategy for this common
      CRT regimen may improve clinical responses in NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28868144
TI  - Inhibition of IL-17A by secukinumab shows no evidence of increased Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis infections.
AB  - Secukinumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that selectively neutralizes
      interleukin-17A (IL-17A), has been shown to have significant efficacy in the
      treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing
      spondylitis. Blocking critical mediators of immunity may carry a risk of
      increased opportunistic infections. Here we present clinical and in vitro
      findings examining the effect of secukinumab on Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      infection. We re-assessed the effect of secukinumab on the incidence of acute
      tuberculosis (TB) and reactivation of latent TB infection (LTBI) in pooled safety
      data from five randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 clinical
      trials in subjects with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. No cases of TB were
      observed after 1 year. Importantly, in subjects with a history of pulmonary TB
      (but negative for interferon-gamma release and receiving no anti-TB medication)
      or positive for latent TB (screened by interferon-gamma release assay and
      receiving anti-TB medication), no cases of active TB were reported. Moreover, an
      in vitro study examined the effect of the anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNFalpha) antibody adalimumab and secukinumab on dormant M. tuberculosis H37Rv
      in a novel human three-dimensional microgranuloma model. Auramine-O, Nile red
      staining and rifampicin resistance of M. tuberculosis were measured. In vitro,
      anti-TNFalpha treatment showed increased staining for Auramine-O, decreased Nile
      red staining and decreased rifampicin resistance, indicative of mycobacterial
      reactivation. In contrast, secukinumab treatment was comparable to control
      indicating a lack of effect on M. tuberculosis dormancy. To date, clinical and
      preclinical investigations with secukinumab found no evidence of increased M.
      tuberculosis infections.

PMID- 28868146
TI  - A hydrogel sealant for the treatment of severe hepatic and aortic trauma with a
      dissolution feature for post-emergent care.

PMID- 28868147
TI  - Intra-body microwave communication through adipose tissue.
AB  - The human body can act as a medium for the transmission of electromagnetic waves
      in the wireless body sensor networks context. However, there are transmission
      losses in biological tissues due to the presence of water and salts. This Letter
      focuses on lateral intra-body microwave communication through different
      biological tissue layers and demonstrates the effect of the tissue thicknesses by
      comparing signal coupling in the channel. For this work, the authors utilise the
      R-band frequencies since it overlaps the industrial, scientific and medical radio
      (ISM) band. The channel model in human tissues is proposed based on
      electromagnetic simulations, validated using equivalent phantom and ex-vivo
      measurements. The phantom and ex-vivo measurements are compared with simulation
      modelling. The results show that electromagnetic communication is feasible in the
      adipose tissue layer with a low attenuation of ~2 dB per 20 mm for phantom
      measurements and 4 dB per 20 mm for ex-vivo measurements at 2 GHz. Since the
      dielectric losses of human adipose tissues are almost half of ex-vivo tissue, an
      attenuation of around 3 dB per 20 mm is expected. The results show that human
      adipose tissue can be used as an intra-body communication channel.

PMID- 28868148
TI  - Automatic disease diagnosis using optimised weightless neural networks for low
      power wearable devices.
AB  - Low-power wearable devices for disease diagnosis are used at anytime and
      anywhere. These are non-invasive and pain-free for the better quality of life.
      However, these devices are resource constrained in terms of memory and processing
      capability. Memory constraint allows these devices to store a limited number of
      patterns and processing constraint provides delayed response. It is a challenging
      task to design a robust classification system under above constraints with high
      accuracy. In this Letter, to resolve this problem, a novel architecture for
      weightless neural networks (WNNs) has been proposed. It uses variable sized
      random access memories to optimise the memory usage and a modified binary TRIE
      data structure for reducing the test time. In addition, a bio-inspired-based
      genetic algorithm has been employed to improve the accuracy. The proposed
      architecture is experimented on various disease datasets using its software and
      hardware realisations. The experimental results prove that the proposed
      architecture achieves better performance in terms of accuracy, memory saving and
      test time as compared to standard WNNs. It also outperforms in terms of accuracy
      as compared to conventional neural network-based classifiers. The proposed
      architecture is a powerful part of most of the low-power wearable devices for the
      solution of memory, accuracy and time issues.

PMID- 28868149
TI  - Speech reconstruction using a deep partially supervised neural network.
AB  - Statistical speech reconstruction for larynx-related dysphonia has achieved good
      performance using Gaussian mixture models and, more recently, restricted
      Boltzmann machine arrays; however, deep neural network (DNN)-based systems have
      been hampered by the limited amount of training data available from individual
      voice-loss patients. The authors propose a novel DNN structure that allows a
      partially supervised training approach on spectral features from smaller data
      sets, yielding very good results compared with the current state-of-the-art.

PMID- 28868150
TI  - Electrocardiograph signal denoising based on sparse decomposition.
AB  - Noise in ECG signals will affect the result of post-processing if left untreated.
      Since ECG is highly subjective, the linear denoising method with a specific
      threshold working well on one subject could fail on another. Therefore, in this
      Letter, sparse-based method, which represents every segment of signal using
      different linear combinations of atoms from a dictionary, is used to denoise ECG
      signals, with a view to myoelectric interference existing in ECG signals.
      Firstly, a denoising model for ECG signals is constructed. Then the model is
      solved by matching pursuit algorithm. In order to get better results, four kinds
      of dictionaries are investigated with the ECG signals from MIT-BIH arrhythmia
      database, compared with wavelet transform (WT)-based method. Signal-noise ratio
      (SNR) and mean square error (MSE) between estimated signal and original signal
      are used as indicators to evaluate the performance. The results show that by
      using the present method, the SNR is higher while the MSE between estimated
      signal and original signal is smaller.

PMID- 28868151
TI  - Motion artefact removals for wearable ECG using stationary wavelet transform.
AB  - Wearable Electrocardiogram (ECG) is attracting much attention in daily healthcare
      applications. From the viewpoint of long-term use, it is desired that the
      electrodes are non-contact with the human body. In this study, the authors
      propose an algorithm using the stationary wavelet transform (SWT) to remove
      motion artefact superimposed on ECG signal when using non-contact capacitively
      coupling electrodes. The authors evaluate the effect on motion artefact removal
      of this algorithm by applying it to various ECG signals with motion artefacts
      superimposed. As a result, the correlation coefficients of ECG signals with
      respect to the clean ones have been improved from 0.71 to 0.88 on median before
      and after motion artefact removal, which demonstrates the validity of the
      proposed SWT-based algorithm.

PMID- 28868152
TI  - Dedicated real-time monitoring system for health care using ZigBee.
AB  - Real-time monitoring systems (RTMSs) have drawn considerable attentions in the
      last decade. Several commercial versions of RTMS for patient monitoring are
      available which are used by health care professionals. Though they are working
      satisfactorily on various communication protocols, their range, power
      consumption, data rate and cost are really bothered. In this study, the authors
      present an efficient embedded system based wireless health care monitoring system
      using ZigBee. Their system has a capability to transmit the data between two
      embedded systems through two transceivers over a long range. In this, wireless
      transmission has been applied through two categories. The first part which
      contains Arduino with ZigBee will send the signals to the second device, which
      contains Raspberry with ZigBee. The second device will measure the patient data
      and send it to the first device through ZigBee transceiver. The designed system
      is demonstrated on volunteers to measure the body temperature which is clinically
      important to monitor and diagnose for fever in the patients.

PMID- 28868153
TI  - Role for 2D image generated 3D face models in the rehabilitation of facial palsy.
AB  - The outcome for patients diagnosed with facial palsy has been shown to be linked
      to rehabilitation. Dense 3D morphable models have been shown within the computer
      vision to create accurate representations of human faces even from single 2D
      images. This has the potential to provide feedback to both the patient and
      medical expert dealing with the rehabilitation plan. It is proposed that a
      framework for the creation and measuring of patient facial movement consisting of
      a hybrid 2D facial landmark fitting technique which shows better accuracy in
      testing than current methods and 3D model fitting.

PMID- 28868154
TI  - SMARCD1 regulates senescence-associated lipid accumulation in hepatocytes.
AB  - Previously, we have identified 16 senescence-associated genes by a subtractive
      proteomic analysis using presenescent and senescent human fibroblast cells, TIG
      1. The aim of this study was to clarify the role of SMARCD1, one of the
      identified genes, also known as BAF60a, in hepatic senescence. SMARCD1 is a
      member of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex family, and regulates the
      transcription of target genes through the alterations of chromatin structure. We
      demonstrated that the reduced expression of SMARCD1 triggers cellular senescence
      and induces the accumulation of lipids, suggesting that SMARCD1 acts as a
      mediator in these processes. Furthermore, palmitic acid treatment and high-fat
      diet led to a significant reduction of SMARCD1 expression, and consequently
      induced cellular senescence and lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells and mouse
      liver, respectively. The results obtained here suggest that dietary nutrient
      associated impaired expression of SMARCD1 triggers cellular senescence and lipid
      accumulation, indicating a potential application of SMARCD1 in the prevention of
      lifestyle-related diseases.

PMID- 28868156
TI  - Post-traumatic syringomyelia with holocord involvement: a case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Syringomyelia is a disorder in which a cyst, or syrinx, develops
      within the spinal cord. Historically, syringomyelia in post-traumatic spinal cord
      injury has been uncommon; however, its diagnosis has been increasing due to the
      advances in medical technology. Syringomyelia that involves the entire spinal
      cord, or holocord, is rare after traumatic spinal cord injury, with only a few
      cases reported in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 57
      year-old male who had a motorcycle accident 30 years ago resulting in a spinal
      cord injury, who presented a rapid decline in the function of his left upper
      extremity. Imaging studies were reviewed to reveal an expansive T2 hyperintense
      intramedullary spinal cord lesion from C1 inferiorly to the conus medullaris. The
      patient underwent a T6-T7 laminectomy for the placement of a syringosubarachnoid
      shunt. The patient was then transferred to acute inpatient rehabilitation where
      he underwent an intense course of therapy for 3 weeks while being monitored
      closely by physiatrists. DISCUSSION: The patient was able to make significant
      recovery and was successfully discharged home. There are a limited number of
      reports published about post-traumatic holocord syringomyelia. It is important to
      recognize this diagnosis during follow-up visits with spinal cord injury
      patients.

PMID- 28868157
TI  - Response to 'Foix-Alajouanine is another differential diagnosis in longitudinal
      myelitis thought to be a case of multiple sclerosis or neuromyelitis optica'.

PMID- 28868155
TI  - Missense-depleted regions in population exomes implicate ras superfamily
      nucleotide-binding protein alteration in patients with brain malformation.
AB  - Genomic sequence interpretation can miss clinically relevant missense variants
      for several reasons. Rare missense variants are numerous in the exome and
      difficult to prioritise. Affected genes may also not have existing disease
      association. To improve variant prioritisation, we leverage population exome data
      to identify intragenic missense-depleted regions (MDRs) genome-wide that may be
      important in disease. We then use missense depletion analyses to help prioritise
      undiagnosed disease exome variants. We demonstrate application of this strategy
      to identify a novel gene association for human brain malformation. We identified
      de novo missense variants that affect the GDP/GTP-binding site of ARF1 in three
      unrelated patients. Corresponding functional analysis suggests ARF1 GDP/GTP
      activation is affected by the specific missense mutations associated with
      heterotopia. These findings expand the genetic pathway underpinning neurologic
      disease that classically includes FLNA. ARF1 along with ARFGEF2 add further
      evidence implicating ARF/GEFs in the brain. Using functional ontology, top MDR
      containing genes were highly enriched for nucleotide-binding function, suggesting
      these may be candidates for human disease. Routine consideration of MDR in the
      interpretation of exome data for rare diseases may help identify strong genetic
      factors for many severe conditions, infertility/reduction in reproductive
      capability, and embryonic conditions contributing to preterm loss.

PMID- 28868158
TI  - Near miss for big red: a unique case of penetrating glass injury of the thoracic
      spine and posterior mediastinum.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A 42-year-old female with no significant comorbidities presented to
      our care with a penetrating glass injury to her mid-thoracic spine after falling
      backwards onto a table. CASE PRESENTATION: A large fragment of glass was
      protruding from her spine, and multi-planar computed tomography imaging revealed
      protrusion through the thoracic spinal vertebrae with the glass shards located 2
      mm from the aortic lumen. The management of this patient posed several
      challenges, including initial care of the patient, evaluation of potentially
      affected structures and the appropriate sequence of therapeutic interventions.
      After multidisciplinary discussion, our trauma, thoracic and neurosurgical teams
      formulated a diagnostic workup and two-step surgical approach to address her
      injuries. DISCUSSION: Here we present the approach used by our team to
      successfully manage this type of injury. We hope this case report represents a
      platform for future discussion on best management approaches in patients
      presenting with the low-velocity penetrating thoracic, spinal and posterior
      mediastinal trauma.

PMID- 28868159
TI  - The effects of residential dual diagnosis treatment on alcohol abuse.
AB  - This multi-center study of dual diagnosis (DD) programs involved 804 residential
      patients with co-occurring alcohol and mental health disorders. The Addiction
      Severity Index was administered at admission and at one, six, and 12 months after
      discharge. Repeated measures analysis showed the intoxication rate per month
      stabilized between months six and 12 with 68% still in remission and an 88% mean
      reduction from baseline (F = 519, p < .005). A comparison between patients with
      and without weekly relapse produced significant differences in hospitalization
      (odds ratio 11.3:1; 95% C.I., 5.5 to 23.2). Eight ANCOVAs used mean intoxication
      days per month after discharge as the outcome variable, pre-admission
      intoxication days per month as a covariate, and eight variables associated with
      relapse (e.g. depression) as factors. Patients with these factors at admission
      did not have significantly higher intoxication rates after discharge than
      patients without them. This suggests that these DD programs successfully
      integrated treatment of both disorders and explained their effectiveness. Co
      occurring DSM IV mood disorders such as anxiety and depression as well as drug
      abuse involving opioids or cocaine fell between 66 and 95% at months one, six,
      and twelve.

PMID- 28868160
TI  - Analyses of Impact of Needle Surface Properties on Estimation of Needle
      Absorption Spectrum: Case Study with Coniferous Needle and Shoot Samples.
AB  - Leaf scattering spectrum is the key optical variable that conveys information
      about leaf absorbing constituents from remote sensing. It cannot be directly
      measured from space because the radiation scattered from leaves is affected by
      the 3D canopy structure. In addition, some radiation is specularly reflected at
      the surface of leaves. This portion of reflected radiation is partly polarized,
      does not interact with pigments inside the leaf and therefore contains no
      information about its interior. Very little empirical data are available on the
      spectral and angular scattering properties of leaf surfaces. Whereas canopy
      structure effects are well understood, the impact of the leaf surface reflectance
      on estimation of leaf absorption spectra remains uncertain. This paper presents
      empirical and theoretical analyses of angular, spectral, and polarimetric
      measurements of light reflected by needles and shoots of Pinus koraiensis and
      Picea koraiensis species. Our results suggest that ignoring the leaf surface
      reflected radiation can result in an inaccurate estimation of the leaf absorption
      spectrum. Polarization measurements may be useful to account for leaf surface
      effects because radiation reflected from the leaf surface is partly polarized,
      whereas that from the leaf interior is not.

PMID- 28868161
TI  - Reconstructing Historical VOC Concentrations in Drinking Water for
      Epidemiological Studies at a U.S. Military Base: Summary of Results.
AB  - A U.S. government health agency conducted epidemiological studies to evaluate
      whether exposures to drinking water contaminated with volatile organic compounds
      (VOC) at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were associated
      with increased health risks to children and adults. These health studies required
      knowledge of contaminant concentrations in drinking water-at monthly intervals
      delivered to family housing, barracks, and other facilities within the study
      area. Because concentration data were limited or unavailable during much of the
      period of contamination (1950s-1985), the historical reconstruction process was
      used to quantify estimates of monthly mean contaminant-specific concentrations.
      This paper integrates many efforts, reports, and papers into a synthesis of the
      overall approach to, and results from, a drinking-water historical reconstruction
      study. Results show that at the Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant (WTP)
      reconstructed (simulated) tetrachloroethylene (PCE) concentrations reached a
      maximum monthly average value of 183 micrograms per liter (MUg/L) compared to a
      one-time maximum measured value of 215 MUg/L and exceeded the U.S. Environmental
      Protection Agency's current maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 MUg/L during the
      period November 1957-February 1987. At the Hadnot Point WTP, reconstructed
      trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations reached a maximum monthly average value of
      783 MUg/L compared to a one-time maximum measured value of 1400 MUg/L during the
      period August 1953-December 1984. The Hadnot Point WTP also provided contaminated
      drinking water to the Holcomb Boulevard housing area continuously prior to June
      1972, when the Holcomb Boulevard WTP came on line (maximum reconstructed TCE
      concentration of 32 MUg/L) and intermittently during the period June 1972
      February 1985 (maximum reconstructed TCE concentration of 66 MUg/L). Applying the
      historical reconstruction process to quantify contaminant-specific monthly
      drinking-water concentrations is advantageous for epidemiological studies when
      compared to using the classical exposed versus unexposed approach.

PMID- 28868162
TI  - Cigarette Smoke Alters the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche.
AB  - Effects of tobacco smoke on hematologic derangements have received little
      attention. This study employed a mouse model of cigarette smoke exposure to
      explore the effects on bone marrow niche function. While lung cancer is the most
      widely studied consequence of tobacco smoke exposure, other malignancies,
      including leukemia, are associated with tobacco smoke exposure. Animals received
      cigarette smoke exposure for 6 h/day, 5 days/week for 9 months. Results reveal
      that the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) pool size is reduced by
      cigarette smoke exposure. We next examined the effect of cigarette smoke exposure
      on one supporting cell type of the niche, the mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs).
      Smoke exposure decreased the number of MSCs. Transplantation of naive HSPCs into
      irradiated mice with cigarette smoke exposure yielded fewer numbers of engrafted
      HSPCs. This result suggests that smoke-exposed mice possess dysfunctional niches,
      resulting in abnormal hematopoiesis. Co-culture experiments using MSCs isolated
      from control or cigarette smoke-exposed mice with naive HSPCs in vitro showed
      that MSCs from cigarette smoke-exposed mice generated marked expansion of naive
      HSPCs. These data show that cigarette smoke exposure decreases in vivo MSC and
      HSC number and also increases pro-proliferative gene expression by cigarette
      smoke-exposed MSCs, which may stimulate HSPC expansion. These results of this
      investigation are clinically relevant to both bone marrow donors with a history
      of smoking and bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients with a history of smoking.

PMID- 28868165
TI  - Serum Vitamin D Level at ICU Admission and Mortality.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays a major role in the
      regulation of bone and calcium metabolism and has effects on the immune and
      cardiovascular systems. Vitamin D deficiency is commonly seen in the general
      population as well as in critically ill patients and is reported to be associated
      with increased mortality and morbidity. Our aim was to determine the relationship
      between vitamin D level at ICU admission and mortality. METHODS: A total of 491
      patients admitted to the ICU between January 2014 and January 2015 were evaluated
      retrospectively. The patients who were under 18 years old, had elective surgery,
      or whose serum vitamin D levels and outcomes were unknown were excluded. The
      patient's age, gender, APACHE II score, number of organ dysfunction, serum
      vitamin D level at ICU admission and outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: Vitamin D
      level was low (<25 ng dL-1) in 166 (77.1%) of the patients. In non-survivor
      patients, APACHE II score and the number of organ dysfunction were significantly
      higher than the survivor patients (p<0.001 and p<0.001). There was a negative
      correlation between vitamin D level and APACHE II score (r2=0.04, p=0.006). In
      multivariate analyses, the likelihood of mortality was increased 9.8-fold (range
      4.2-17.6) and 8.9-fold (range 3.9-14.1) with an APACHE II score >=24 and the
      number of organ dysfunction >=2, respectively (p<0.001 and p<0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Vitamin D deficiency is commonly seen in intensive care patients. Although it is
      not an independently decisive factor for mortality, it might be related with poor
      clinical status at ICU admission. The APACHE II score and number of organ
      dysfunction are still important parameters for increased mortality.

PMID- 28868164
TI  - WHO Needs High FIO2?
AB  - World Health Organization and the United States Center for Disease Control have
      recently recommended the use of 0.8 FIO2 in all adult surgical patients
      undergoing general anaesthesia, to prevent surgical site infections. This
      recommendation has arisen several discussions: As a matter of fact, there are
      numerous studies with different results about the effect of FIO2 on surgical site
      infection. Moreover, the clinical effects of FIO2 are not limited to infection
      control. We asked some prominent authors about their comments regarding the
      recent recommendations.

PMID- 28868163
TI  - New insights into the vitamin D requirements during pregnancy.
AB  - Pregnancy represents a dynamic period with physical and physiological changes in
      both the mother and her developing fetus. The dramatic 2-3 fold increase in the
      active hormone 1,25(OH)2D concentrations during the early weeks of pregnancy
      despite minimal increased calcium demands during that time of gestation and which
      are sustained throughout pregnancy in both the mother and fetus suggests an
      immunomodulatory role in preventing fetal rejection by the mother. While there
      have been numerous observational studies that support the premise of vitamin D's
      role in maintaining maternal and fetal well-being, until recently, there have
      been few randomized clinical trials with vitamin D supplementation. One has to
      exhibit caution, however, even with RCTs, whose results can be problematic when
      analyzed on an intent-to-treat basis and when there is high non-adherence to
      protocol (as if often the case), thereby diluting the potential good or harm of a
      given treatment at higher doses. As such, a biomarker of a drug or in this case
      "vitamin" or pre-prohormone is better served. For these reasons, the effect of
      vitamin D therapies using the biomarker circulating 25(OH)D is a far better
      indicator of true "effect." When pregnancy outcomes are analyzed using the
      biomarker 25(OH)D instead of treatment dose, there are notable differences in
      maternal and fetal outcomes across diverse racial/ethnic groups, with improved
      health in those women who attain a circulating 25(OH)D concentration of at least
      100 nmol.L-1 (40 ng.mL-1). Because an important issue is the timing or initiation
      of vitamin D treatment/supplementation, and given the potential effect of vitamin
      D on placental gene expression and its effects on inflammation within the
      placenta, it appears crucial to start vitamin D treatment before placentation
      (and trophoblast invasion); however, this question remains unanswered. Additional
      work is needed to decipher the vitamin D requirements of pregnant women and the
      optimal timing of supplementation, taking into account a variety of lifestyles,
      body types, baseline vitamin D status, and maternal and fetal vitamin D receptor
      (VDR) and vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) genotypes. Determining the role of
      vitamin D in nonclassical, immune pathways continues to be a challenge that once
      answered will substantiate recommendations and public health policies.

PMID- 28868166
TI  - Day-Time Isoflurane Administration Suppresses Circadian Gene Expressions in Both
      the Brain and a Peripheral Organ, Liver.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of light and
      administration time of isoflurane on circadian gene expression in the brains and
      liver tissues of rats kept in light-dark cycle. METHODS: Seventy two 15-days-old
      rats pups were divided into four groups. All animals were exposed to 1.5%
      concentration of isoflurane or to 6 L min-1 O2 for six hours between Zeitgeber
      Time (ZT) 0-ZT06 (day-time administration) or ZT12-ZT18 (night-time
      administration). Rats were sacrificed after six hours of anaesthesia with four
      hour time intervals. Total RNA was isolated from brains and liver tissues.
      Circadian gene expression was examined using quantitative real-time Reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: BMAL1, CLOCK, PER2 and
      CRY2 gene expression levels were markedly suppressed after day-time anaesthesia
      in the both brain and liver, but night-time administration caused only temporary
      suppression of gene expression. CONCLUSION: The effect of isoflurane on the
      circadian clock is time-dependent, and administered isoflurane anaesthesia at
      night had minimal effect on clock gene expression. Additionally, when the treated
      animals were kept in a regular light-dark cycle, isoflurane-induced phase shift
      was not observed, possibly because of the light.

PMID- 28868167
TI  - Comparing the Effects of Combined General/Epidural Anaesthesia and General
      Anaesthesia on Serum Cytokine Levels in Radical Cystectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Surgical stress combined with general anaesthesia (GA) suppresses the
      immune system and leads to cancer cell growth and premature metastasis in major
      oncological interventions. Epidural analgesia decreases the need for inhalation
      agents and opioids during surgery by suppressing sympathetic and neuroendocrine
      responses in the postoperative period. This study aimed to compare the effects of
      combined general/epidural anaesthesia (GEA)+patient-controlled epidural analgesia
      (PCEA) and GA+IV patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) on serum tumour necrosis
      factor-alpha TNF-alpha), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) and interferon-gamma (IFN
      gamma) levels in patients undergoing radical cystectomy. METHODS: Sixty-five
      patients were enrolled in this prospective study. Patients were randomly enrolled
      to the GEA group, i.e., combined GEA+ PCEA (0.1% bupivacaine+1 MUg mL-1
      fentanyl), and the GA group, namely combined GA+IV PCA (0.03 mg mL-1 morphine).
      To evaluate the cytokine response, blood samples were collected at preoperative,
      postoperative 1st and 24th hours. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant
      difference in serum TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IFN-gamma levels between groups GA
      and GEA at preoperative and postoperative 1st hour and 24th hour. Total
      remifentanil consumption was significantly lower and length of hospital stay was
      significantly shorter in the GEA group than in the GA group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION:
      There is no difference between two anaesthesia methods in terms of serum cytokine
      levels; however, combined GEA+PCEA technique appeared to be superior to GA+IV PCA
      because of lower intraoperative narcotic analgesic consumption and shorter
      hospital stay.

PMID- 28868168
TI  - Validity of Pulse Pressure Variation (PPV) Compared with Stroke Volume Variation
      (SVV) in Predicting Fluid Responsiveness.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Static monitors for assessing the fluid status during major surgeries
      and in critically ill patients have been gradually replaced by more accurate
      dynamic monitors in modern-day anaesthesia practice. Pulse pressure variation
      (PPV) and systolic pressure variation (SPV) are the two commonly used dynamic
      indices for assessing fluid responsiveness. METHODS: In this prospective
      observational study, 50 patients undergoing major surgeries were monitored for
      PPV and SPV: after the induction of anaesthesia and after the administration of
      500 mL of isotonic crystalloid bolus. Following the fluid bolus, patients with a
      cardiac output increase of more than 15% were classified as responders and those
      with an increase of less than 15% were classified as non-responders. RESULTS:
      There were no significant differences in the heart rate (HR), mean arterial
      pressure (MAP), PPV, SVV, central venous pressure (CVP) and cardiac index (CI)
      between responders and non-responders. Before fluid bolus, the stroke volume was
      significantly lower in responders (p=0.030). After fluid bolus, MAP was
      significantly higher in responders but there were no significant changes in HR,
      CVP, CI, PPV and SVV. In both responders and non-responders, PPV strongly
      correlated with SVV before and after fluid bolus. CONCLUSION: Both PPV and SVV
      are useful to predict cardiac response to fluid loading. In both responders and
      non-responders, PPV has a greater association with fluid responsiveness than SVV.

PMID- 28868169
TI  - Relieving Pain After Arthroscopic Knee Surgery: Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve
      Block or Adductor Canal Block?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the analgesic effects of femoral nerve block (FNB) and
      adductor canal block (ACB) after arthroscopic knee surgery. METHODS: This was a
      prospective randomised clinical trial that enrolled 92 patients undergoing
      arthroscopic knee surgery. Ultrasound-guided FNB or ACB was performed immediately
      after surgery for pain relief. Visual analogue scale (VAS) scores and modified
      sedation-agitation scale (SAS) were recorded and analysed immediately following
      block and at 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours. The satisfaction level was also evaluated
      using a Likert-based patient questionnaire. RESULTS: VAS scores decreased to
      4.1+/-0.8 from 5.6+/-1.2 immediately after any nerve block, and within 3 hours,
      they continued to decrease to 2.0+/-0.6 in the FNB group and 3.4+/-1.0 in the ACB
      group (P=0.014). More patients in the FNB group were satisfied with the quality
      of the pain control compared to the ACB group. Additionally, patients in the ACB
      group required more supplemental analgesia compared to the FNB group. CONCLUSION:
      This study demonstrated that patients with FNB had denser analgesia after
      arthroscopic knee surgery and had less analgesic requirement compared with ACB.
      Greater satisfaction scores also reflected superior analgesia in patients
      receiving FNB.

PMID- 28868170
TI  - Clinical Experiences with the FRONT Formula for Pre-Operative Airway Assessment
      and Documentation: a Multi-Centre Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The prediction of difficult airway is one of the most important
      challenges before general anaesthesia. This study aimed to assess the clinical
      usefulness of the FRONT score, a recently developed scoring system to predict and
      document airway difficulties. METHODS: This multi-centre, inter-observer,
      prospective and double-blinded study included 976 patients from two university
      centres. The pre-operative evaluation of the patients was performed by a pre
      operative team of anaesthesiologists (team A) who evaluated and scored the
      expected difficulty of airway management. An intra-operative team of evaluators
      (team B) working independently of team A, performed the actual instrumentation of
      the airway and scored the actual findings. Both teams used the FRONT scoring
      system and worked independently of each other to ensure blinded assessments. The
      statistical analysis of the pre- and intra-operative FRONT scores was performed
      in an off-line blinded manner. RESULTS: Our results show a fair and promising
      association between pre-operative composite FRONT score and that observed at the
      induction phase (Spearman=0.43). Among the score components, the best correlation
      was observed for the F and R components (kappa=0.44 and 0.36, respectively), and
      the worse correlation was observed for the O and T components (kappa=0.25 and
      0.24, respectively). CONCLUSION: The FRONT formula for the prediction and
      documentation of the airway status is a simple and effective method for assessing
      and defining airway management difficulties. Further prospective studies are
      required to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the system.

PMID- 28868171
TI  - Complication of Peribulbar Block: Brainstem Anaesthesia.
AB  - Peribulbar block is used to obtain anaesthesia and akinesia of the eye by
      injecting a local anaesthetic around the musclecone. A patient scheduled for
      cataract surgery received peribulbar block with 6 mL of 2% lidocaine
      hydrochloride. Following the injection, confusion, hypotension and dilatation of
      the contralateral pupil rapidly progressed to loss of consciousness and
      respiratory arrest. The patient was intubated and mechanically ventilated for 30
      min. The patient regained her consciousness, was extubated and transferred to the
      intensive care unit for further follow-up. Although brainstem anaesthesia because
      of peribulbar block is very rare, this procedure should be performed with
      complete monitorisation and resuscitation equipment.

PMID- 28868172
TI  - Unique Liver Disease of Pregnancy Requiring Anaesthesia Support: A Case with
      Severe Hyperemesis Gravidarum.
AB  - Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is one of the common unique liver diseases that
      occurs during pregnancy. Mild cases can be spontaneously resolved in time but
      severe cases usually require supportive medical treatment to relieve symptoms.
      Moreover, differential diagnosis may be required in severe cases that manifest
      with persistent nausea-vomiting, dehydration and weight loss refractory to
      treatment. Thus, to rule out any gastrointestinal pathology, this case was
      referred to the outpatient anaesthesia clinic after the first unsuccessful awake
      endoscopy attempt without sedation. Therefore, anaesthetic support for endoscopy
      of a pregnant woman with severe HG was presented in this case report.

PMID- 28868173
TI  - Analysis of the Alarms From a Blood Purification Machine During Continuous
      Haemodiafiltration.

PMID- 28868174
TI  - Comment on: Comparison of Intraabdominal and Trocar Site Local Anaesthetic
      Infiltration Efficacy on Postoperative Analgesia After Laparoscopic
      Cholecystectomy.

PMID- 28868175
TI  - Re: Comment on: Comparison of Intraabdominal and Trocar Site Local Anaesthetic
      Infiltration on Postoperative Analgesia After Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

PMID- 28868176
TI  - Passive Smoking Also Affects Recovery from Anaesthesia.

PMID- 28868177
TI  - Re: Passive Smoking Also Affects Recovery from Anaesthesia.

PMID- 28868178
TI  - A 45-Year-Old Woman with Acute Interstitial Pneumonia (Hamman-Rich Syndrome).

PMID- 28868179
TI  - Fatty liver without a large "belly": Magnified review of non-alcoholic fatty
      liver disease in non-obese patients.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is well described as a common cause of
      chronic liver disease, mostly in the obese population. It refers to a spectrum of
      chronic liver disease that starts with simple steatosis than progresses to
      nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and cirrhosis in patients without significant
      alcohol consumption. NAFLD in the non-obese population has been increasingly
      reported and studied recently. The pathogenesis of nonobese NAFLD is poorly
      understood and is related to genetic predisposition, most notably patatin-like
      phospholipase domain-containing 33 G allele polymorphism that leads to
      intrahepatic triglyceride accumulation and insulin resistance. Non-obese NAFLD is
      associated with components of metabolic syndrome and, especially, visceral
      obesity which seems to be an important etiological factor in this group. Dietary
      factors and, specifically, a high fructose diet seem to play a role.
      Cardiovascular events remain the main cause of mortality and morbidity in NAFLD,
      including in the non-obese population. There is not enough data regarding
      treatment in non-obese NAFLD patients, but similar to NAFLD in obese subjects,
      lifestyle changes that include dietary modification, physical activity, and
      weight loss remain the mainstay of treatment.

PMID- 28868180
TI  - Acute and chronic hepatobiliary manifestations of sickle cell disease: A review.
AB  - Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a common hemoglobinopathy which can affect multiple
      organ systems in the body. Within the digestive tract, the hepatobiliary system
      is most commonly affected in SCD. The manifestations range from benign
      hyperbilirubinemia to overt liver failure, with the spectrum of acute clinical
      presentations often referred to as "sickle cell hepatopathy". This is an umbrella
      term referring to liver dysfunction and hyperbilirubinemia due to intrahepatic
      sickling process during SCD crisis leading to ischemia, sequestration and
      cholestasis. In this review, we detail the pathophysiology, clinical presentation
      and biochemical features of various acute and chronic hepatobiliary
      manifestations of SCD and present and evaluate existing evidence with regards to
      management of this disease process. We also discuss recent advances and
      controversies such as the role of liver transplantation in sickle cell
      hepatopathy and highlight important questions in this field which would require
      further research. Our aim with this review is to help increase the understanding,
      aid in early diagnosis and improve management of this important disease process.

PMID- 28868181
TI  - Oral spore-based probiotic supplementation was associated with reduced incidence
      of post-prandial dietary endotoxin, triglycerides, and disease risk biomarkers.
AB  - AIM: To determine if 30-d of oral spore-based probiotic supplementation could
      reduce dietary endotoxemia. METHODS: Apparently healthy men and women (n = 75)
      were screened for post-prandial dietary endotoxemia. Subjects whose serum
      endotoxin concentration increased by at least 5-fold from pre-meal levels at 5-h
      post-prandial were considered "responders" and were randomized to receive either
      placebo (rice flour) or a commercial spore-based probiotic supplement [Bacillus
      indicus (HU36), Bacillus subtilis (HU58), Bacillus coagulans, and Bacillus
      licheniformis, and Bacillus clausii] for 30-d. The dietary endotoxemia test was
      repeated at the conclusion of the supplementation period. Dietary endotoxin (LAL)
      and triglycerides (enzymatic) were measured using an automated chemistry
      analyzer. Serum disease risk biomarkers were measured using bead-based multiplex
      assays (Luminex and Milliplex) as secondary, exploratory measures. RESULTS: Data
      were statistically analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and a P < 0.05. We
      found that spore-based probiotic supplementation was associated with a 42%
      reduction in endotoxin (12.9 +/- 3.5 vs 6.1 +/- 2.6, P = 0.011) and 24% reduction
      in triglyceride (212 +/- 28 vs 138 +/- 12, P = 0.004) in the post-prandial period
      Placebo subjects presented with a 36% increase in endotoxin (10.3 +/- 3.4 vs 15.4
      +/- 4.1, P = 0.011) and 5% decrease in triglycerides (191 +/- 24 vs 186 +/- 28, P
      = 0.004) over the same post-prandial period. We also found that spore-based
      probiotic supplementation was associated with significant post-prandial
      reductions in IL-12p70 (24.3 +/- 2.2 vs 21.5 +/- 1.7, P = 0.017) and IL-1beta
      (1.9 +/- 0.2 vs 1.6 +/- 0.1, P = 0.020). Compared to placebo post
      supplementation, probiotic subject had less ghrelin (6.8 +/- 0.4 vs 8.3 +/- 1.1,
      P = 0.017) compared to placebo subjects. CONCLUSION: The key findings of the
      present study is that oral spore-based probiotic supplementation reduced symptoms
      indicative of "leaky gut syndrome".

PMID- 28868182
TI  - Assessment of serum angiogenic factors as a diagnostic aid for small bowel
      angiodysplasia in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and anaemia.
AB  - AIM: To assess the use of serum levels of angiopoietin-1 (Ang1), Ang2 and tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) as predictive factors for small bowel
      angiodysplasia (SBA). METHODS: Serum samples were collected from patients
      undergoing capsule endoscopy for any cause of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding
      (OGIB) or anaemia. Based on small bowel findings patients were divided into 3
      groups: (1) SBA; (2) other bleeding causes; and (3) normal, according to
      diagnosis. Using ELISA technique we measured serum levels of Ang1, Ang2 and
      TNFalpha and compared mean and median levels between the groups based on small
      bowel diagnosis. Using receiver operator curve analysis we determined whether any
      of the factors were predictive of SBA. RESULTS: Serum samples were collected from
      a total of 120 patients undergoing capsule endoscopy for OGIB or anaemia: 40 with
      SBA, 40 with other causes of small bowel bleeding, and 40 with normal small bowel
      findings. Mean and median serum levels were measured and compared between groups;
      patients with SBA had significantly higher median serum levels of Ang2 (3759
      pg/mL) compared to both other groups, with no significant differences in levels
      of Ang1 or TNFalpha based on diagnosis. There were no differences in Ang2 levels
      between the other bleeding causes (2261 pg/mL) and normal (2620 pg/mL) groups.
      Using Receiver Operator Curve analysis, an Ang2 level of > 2600 pg/mL was found
      to be predictive of SBA, with an area under the curve of 0.7. Neither Ang1 or
      TNFalpha were useful as predictive markers. CONCLUSION: Elevations in serum Ang2
      are specific for SBA and not driven by other causes of bleeding and anaemia.
      Further work will determine whether Ang2 is useful as a diagnostic or prognostic
      marker for SBA.

PMID- 28868183
TI  - Effect of replenishment of vitamin D on survival in patients with decompensated
      liver cirrhosis: A prospective study.
AB  - AIM: To assess the vitamin D (VD) deficiency as a prognostic factor and effect of
      replenishment of VD on mortality in decompensated cirrhosis. METHODS: Patients
      with decompensated liver cirrhosis were screened for serum VD levels. A total of
      101 VD deficient patients (< 20 ng/mL) were randomly enrolled in two groups:
      Treatment group (n = 51) and control group (n = 50). Treatment group received VD
      treatment in the form of intramuscular cholecalciferol 300000 IU as loading dose
      and 800 IU/d oral as maintenance dose along with 1000 mg oral calcium
      supplementation. The VD level, clinical parameters and survival of both the
      groups were compared for 6-mo. RESULTS: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (VDD)
      in decompensated CLD was 84.31%. The mean (SD) age of the patients in the
      treatment group (M:F: 40:11) and control group (M:F: 37:13) were 46.2 (+/- 14.93)
      years and 43.28 (+/- 12.53) years, respectively. Baseline mean (CI) VD (ng/mL) in
      control group and treatment group were 9.15 (8.35-9.94) and 9.65 (8.63-10.7),
      respectively. Mean (CI) serum VD level (ng/mL) at 6-mo in control group and
      treatment group were 9.02 (6.88-11.17) and 29 (23-35), respectively. Over the
      period of time the VD, calcium and phosphorus level was improved in treatment
      group compared to control group. There was non-significant trend seen in greater
      survival (69% vs 64%; P > 0.05) and longer survival (155 d vs 141 d; P > 0.05) in
      treatment group compared to control group. VD level had no significant
      association with mortality (P > 0.05). In multivariate analysis, treatment with
      VD supplement was found significantly (P < 0.05; adjusted hazard ratio: 0.48)
      associated with survival of the patients over 6-mo. CONCLUSION: VD deficiency is
      very common in patients of decompensated CLD. Replenishment of VD may improve
      survival in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis.

PMID- 28868184
TI  - Multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B: Differential increase in enteric nerve subgroups
      in muscle and mucosa.
AB  - Multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B (MEN2B) is a rare syndrome caused by an
      activating mutation of the RET gene, leading to enteric gangliomatosis. This
      child presented with constipation at 1-mo old, was diagnosed with MEN2B by rectal
      biopsy at 4 mo, had thyroidectomy at 9 mo and a colectomy at 4 years. We studied
      the extent of neuronal and nerve fibre proliferation and which classes of enteric
      nerves are affected by examining the colon with multiple neuronal antibodies.
      Resected transverse colon was fixed, frozen, sectioned and processed for
      fluorescence immunohistochemistry labelling with antibodies against TUJ1, Hu,
      ChAT, NOS, VIP, SP and CGRP and cKit. Control transverse colon was from the
      normal margin of Hirschsprung (HSCR) colon (4-year-old) and a child with familial
      adenomatous polyposis (FAP, 12 year). Myenteric ganglia were increased in size to
      as wide as the circular muscle. There was a large increase in nerve cells and
      nerve fibres. ChAT-, NOS-, VIP- and SP-immunoreactive nerve fibres all increased
      in the myenteric ganglia. NOS-IR nerves preferentially increased in the muscle,
      while VIP and SP increased in submucosal ganglia and mucosal nerve fibres. The
      density of ICC was normal. RET overactivation in MEN2B lead to a large increase
      in intrinsic nerve fibres in the myenteric and submucosal ganglia, with a
      relative increase in NOS-IR nerve fibres in the circular muscle and VIP and SP in
      the submucosal ganglia and mucosa. The changes were associated with severe
      constipation resulting in colectomy at 4 years.

PMID- 28868185
TI  - T2 vertebrectomy with combined anterior and posterior arthrodesis for treatment
      of a solitary plasmacytoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Plasma cell neoplasmas are a heterogenous group of neoplastic tumor
      lesions occurring secondary to disordered proliferation of cells from a monocyte
      lineage. Plasmacytoma is a rare lesion that accounts for 5% of all plasma cell
      neoplasms. The current recommended treatment for solitary plasmacytoma is
      moderate dose radiation therapy. For patients who are suffering from axial back
      pain, spinal instability, radiculopathy, or bowel/bladder dysfunction secondary
      to spinal cord compression, surgical intervention with spinal decompression and
      stabilization can be used as an adjuvant to radiation therapy. CASE DESCRIPTION:
      We report a patient who presented with worsening axial and bilateral upper
      extremity pain. He was found to have a locally aggressive tumor involving the
      vertebral body of T2. After a repeat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a
      computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy, the diagnosis of a solitary plasmacytoma
      was confirmed. It destroyed over 90% of the T2 vertebral body, resulted in 22
      degrees  of local kyphosis, and caused spinal cord compression. The tumor was
      treated with a T2 vertebrectomy, posterior arthrodesis from C5-T4, and anterior
      arthrodesis from T1-3. CONCLUSIONS: Solitary plasmacytomas of the vertebral
      bodies are difficult lesions to treat secondary to their location and risk of
      neurologic compromise. Surgical intervention with tumor resection and adjuvant
      chemotherapy or radiation is the recommended treatment option.

PMID- 28868186
TI  - Salvage gamma knife radiosurgery in the management of dysembryoplastic
      neuroepithelial tumors: Long-term outcome in a single-institution case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNT/DNET) are rare
      epileptogenic tumors. Microsurgery remains the best treatment option, although
      case reports exist on the use of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) in selected
      cases. We investigated the long-term outcome of GKRS-treated DNTs at our
      institution in the context of current diagnostic and treatment options. CASE
      DESCRIPTIONS: We conducted a retrospective review of three consecutive adult
      patients (>=18 years) treated with salvage GKRS between 2002 and 2010 at
      Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. The case series was
      supplemented by a review of current literature. A 20-year-old male underwent
      subtotal resection (STR) in 1997 and 2002 of DNT resulting in temporary control
      of intractable epilepsy despite antiepileptic drug treatment (AED). Long-term
      seizure control was obtained after GKRS of two separate residual DNT components
      along the surgical margin (2005 and 2010). A 27-year-old male undergoing gross
      total resection of the contrast-enhancing portion of a DNT (1999) resulted in
      temporary control of intractable epilepsy despite AEDs; lasting clinical control
      of seizures was achieved in 2002 after GKRS of a small, recurrent DNT component.
      A 28-year-old male underwent STR of DNT (1994 and 2004) resulting in temporary
      control of intractable epilepsy. Lasting seizure control was gained after GKRS of
      a residual tumor (2005). CONCLUSION: GKRS as performed in our series was
      effective in terms of tumor and seizure control. No adverse radiation effects
      were recorded. Prospective studies are warranted to establish the role of GKRS in
      the treatment of DNTs.

PMID- 28868188
TI  - Impact of body mass index on 30-day outcomes after spinopelvic fixation surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases associated with
      degenerative spinal disease. There is limited evidence regarding the short-term
      outcome of patients with elevated BMI following spinopelvic fixation surgery.
      METHODS: We used the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality
      Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database from 2013 to 2014. Inclusion criteria
      included: adults, aged 18 and older, who underwent all-cause spinopelvic fixation
      surgery. Primary outcome measures were 30-day readmission, reoperation, and major
      complication rates. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effect of
      elevated body mass index (BMI) on 30-day outcome. RESULTS: A total of 618
      patients met inclusion criteria stratified into levels of BMI: 11.2% were Class 2
      obese and 10.3% were Class 3 obese. Significant differences were found between
      the classes for the incidence of revision surgery, reoperations, and deep wound
      infections. However, there were no significant increases in readmissions and
      major complications rates, and only Class 3 obese patients had significantly
      higher odds of reoperation than those who were not obese. CONCLUSION: Significant
      differences between all classes of obesity regarding revision surgery,
      reoperation, and deep wound infection rates were found. Class 3 obese patients
      had significantly higher odds of reoperation, most likely attributed to the
      greater number/severity of preoperative comorbidities.

PMID- 28868187
TI  - Tumor cerebri: Metastatic renal cell carcinoma with dural venous sinus
      compression leading to intracranial hypertension; a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC), also known as idiopathic intracranial
      hypertension (IIH), is a condition associated with increased intracranial
      pressure (ICP) in the absence of radiographic findings such as mass lesions or
      cerebral edema. CASE DESCRIPTION: We describe a case of progressive headache and
      visual disturbances attributed to PTC that resulted from subacute superior
      sagittal sinus (SSS) stenosis by a metastatic tumor. CONCLUSIONS: Venous outflow
      obstruction often presents with an acute symptomatology including infarcts,
      hemorrhages, and seizures, but only rarely does it cause the progressive
      development of raised ICP. The sinister presentation of our patient's pathology
      stemmed from local mass effect caused by a tumor that has hitherto not been
      reported to cause intracranial hypertension (IH) and was best elucidated using
      magnetic resonance venography (MRV).

PMID- 28868189
TI  - Spontaneous rupture of a secondary pituitary abscess causing acute
      meningoencephalitis: Case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pituitary abscess (PA) is an uncommon finding that is rarely
      diagnosed preoperatively. If not properly treated it is associated with high
      morbidity and mortality rates. Nowadays standard diagnostic procedures allow
      early detection and successful treatment of this lesion in a high number of cases
      and mortality has been significantly reduced in recent years. PA arising de novo
      in a healthy gland are defined as primary, whereas those complicating a pre
      existing disease of the hypophysis are called secondary abscesses. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: We present a case of a secondary PA mimicking a large pituitary
      adenoma extending in the nasal cavity, which was wrongly diagnosed as such. The
      abscess showed an unexpected evolution in 48 h from presentation due to a sudden,
      extensive intracranial leakage of pus. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, it is rare
      to find PA showing a rapid evolution like this, and in the literature only one
      previous case of a PA not reaching medical or surgical therapy was reported. In
      that case, hypothalamus involvement was identified as the cause of death. This
      should be the first case reported of a spontaneous PA rupture causing acute
      meningoencephalitis. Along with a short review of the literature on the major
      features of PA, we also tried to identify some features which could be supportive
      of a diagnosis of secondary PA.

PMID- 28868190
TI  - Upward migration and peroral extrusion of a peritoneal shunt catheter: Case
      report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various complications after ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt surgery
      have been reported, but peroral extrusion of peritoneal catheter is an extremely
      rare complication, and only 20 cases have been reported since 1987. The
      pathophysiology still remains unclear and the management is challenging. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: A 5-year-old boy presented with a catheter coming out of his mouth.
      The boy had a posterior fossa tumor surgery and had VP shunt insertion 1 year
      earlier. Clinical signs and imaging studies showed that the distal end of the
      catheter had perforated the gaster and migrated upward and extruded through the
      mouth. Emergency removal of the shunt and proper treatment were done and he made
      uneventful recovery. CONCLUSION: Peroral extrusion of VP shunt is extremely rare.
      Clinicians should be aware of this complication. With early diagnosis and proper
      management, the prognosis for good recovery is excellent, with only two deaths
      being reported in the literature. Complication of shunt extrusion is difficult to
      avoid, but knowing the risk factors, pathophysiology and proper management will
      decrease the morbidity and mortality of such cases.

PMID- 28868191
TI  - Solitary aneurysm of the filum terminale artery: A case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We report a rare case of aneurysmal dilatation of filum terminale
      artery after resection of filum terminal myxopapillary ependymoma. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: The authors report a rare aneurysmal dilatation of the filum
      terminale artery following removal of a filum terminal myxopapillary ependymoma
      in a 10-year-old male. The patient presented with 6-month history of increasing
      back pain without a focal neurological deficit. Magnetic resonance (MR) showed an
      intradural filum terminale lesion that was completely excised. Three months
      later, the MR again revealed a lesion involving the filum terminale. During the
      second surgery, however, an aneurysmal dilation of the filum artery was found,
      which was coagulated and resected. Following the secondary surgery, the patient's
      symptoms gradually resolved, and he remains intact. CONCLUSION: Although rare, a
      true aneurysm after spinal surgery should be considered among the differential
      diagnostic consideration in the region of the filum terminale.

PMID- 28868192
TI  - Giant cavernous carotid aneurysm causing pituitary dysfunction: Pituitary
      function recovery with high-flow bypass.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Giant internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysms extending into the
      sellar region, mimicking pituitary tumors, and causing pituitary dysfunction are
      relatively rare. Open surgery or endovascular treatment can treat these
      aneurysms, but achieving recovery of endocrine function is difficult. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: A 56-year-old man presented with giant aneurysm of the ICA causing
      pituitary impairment, leading to disturbance of consciousness due to
      hyponatremia. High-flow bypass from the cervical external carotid artery to the
      middle cerebral artery and ligation of the ICA at the cervical portion were
      performed. One year after the operation, his pituitary function recovered well;
      he was followed up as an outpatient without hormonal replacement therapy for 8
      years after the operation. CONCLUSION: Giant ICA aneurysm causing pituitary
      dysfunction is relatively rare, but it is important to consider in the
      differential diagnosis for hypopituitarism. Treatment with high-flow bypass using
      radial artery graft can achieve both prevention of aneurysm rupture and recovery
      of pituitary function.

PMID- 28868193
TI  - Cervical cancer metastasis to the brain: A case report and review of literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intracranial metastasis from cervical cancer is a rare occurrence.
      METHODS: In this study we describe a case of cervical cancer metastasis to the
      brain and perform an extensive review of literature from 1956 to 2016, to
      characterize clearly the clinical presentation, treatment options, molecular
      markers, targeted therapies, and survival of patients with this condition.
      RESULTS: An elderly woman with history of cervical cancer in remission, presented
      2 years later with a right temporo-parietal tumor, which was treated with surgery
      and subsequent stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to the resection cavity. She then
      returned 5 months later with a second solitary right lesion; she again underwent
      surgery and SRS to the resection cavity with no signs of recurrence 6 months
      later. According to the reviewed literature, the most common clinical
      presentation included females with median age of 48 years; presenting symptoms
      such as headache, weakness/hemiplegia/hemiparesis, seizure, and altered mental
      status (AMS)/confusion; multiple lesions mostly supratentorially located; poorly
      differentiated squamous cell carcinoma; and additional recurrences at other
      sites. The best approach to treatment is a multimodal plan, consisting of SRS or
      whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for solitary brain metastases followed by
      chemotherapy for systemic disease, surgery and WBRT for solitary brain lesions
      without systemic disease, and SRS or WBRT followed by chemotherapy for palliative
      care. The overall prognosis is poor with a mean and median survival time from
      diagnosis of brain metastasis of 7 and 4.6 months, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Future efforts through large prospective randomized trials are warranted to
      better describe the clinical presentation and identify more effective treatment
      plans.

PMID- 28868194
TI  - Spinal epidural hematoma mimicking subarachnoid hemorrhage: A case study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH) is a rare spinal cord
      disorder requiring urgent diagnosis and prompt treatment to prevent irreversible
      neurological damage. Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), usually presenting with
      headache and neck stiffness, is also a worldwide neurosurgical emergency. In this
      case study, a patient on clopidogrel presented with an SSEH mimicking a
      spontaneous SAH. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 74-year-old female presented with severe
      headache and neck pain which ultimately attributed to a cervicothoracic SSEH
      resulting in cord compression. Notably, there was a long delay in establishing
      the diagnosis of SSEH as her symptoms mimicked a SAH. Although the patient
      ultimately underwent spinal surgery followed by intense rehabilitation, the
      diagnostic delay resulted in a poor neurological outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      with spontaneous cervicothoracic epidural hematomas may occasionally present with
      symptoms of severe headache and neck pain/stiffness mimicking an SAH. Long
      diagnostic delays in establishing SSEH may result in irreversible cord damage.

PMID- 28868195
TI  - Spontaneous resolved cervical spine epidural hematoma: A case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cervical spine epidural hematomas (CSEH) are rare, and surgical
      intervention is typically required. Here, we present the rare case of a CSEH
      resulting from chiropractic manipulation successfully treated conservatively.
      CASE DESCRIPTION: A 44-year-old female with cervical myelopathy presented with a
      mild quadriparesis following manipulation by a chiropractor. Although magnetic
      resonance (MR) documented a CSEH, the lesion was treated nonsurgically as the
      patient refused operative intervention. Four days later, the patient demonstrated
      spontaneous improvement. Furthermore, the 1-month post manipulation cervical MR
      showed resolution of the CSEH mass effect, and her myelopathy fully resolved.
      CONCLUSION: Few studies document the efficacy of conservative treatment of CSEH.
      In this case, a patient with cervical myelopathy presented with a mild
      quadriparesis following chiropractic manipulation. Although MR documented a CSEH,
      she refused surgery, but fortunately improved neurologically within the next 4
      days and was intact within 1 postoperative month. We recommend performing more
      powerful studies with large sample size to better define criteria for
      conservative vs. surgical treatment of CSEH.

PMID- 28868196
TI  - Novel approach to continuous neurophysiological monitoring during surgery of
      peripheral nerve tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) with nerve action
      potential (NAP) can be useful during peripheral nerve surgery. However, current
      methodologies are not optimized for continuous recording of the NAP. The use of
      newer electrodes may make it possible to more conveniently obtain continuous
      recordings of the NAP during surgery. METHODS: After localizing the nerve of
      interest and dissecting it from the adjacent soft tissue, two APS(r) (Automatic
      Periodic Stimulation) electrodes, originally designed for stimulation of the
      vagus nerve during thyroid surgery, are placed on the nerve on either sides of
      the tumor for stimulation and recording using two subdermal electroencephalogram
      (EEG) needles as anode and reference, respectively. Both monopolar and bipolar
      recordings can be used as appropriate. Anesthesia regime comprised sevoflurane or
      total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA). No muscle relaxant after intubation, local
      anesthesia, or blood pressure cuff is used during the surgery. RESULTS: Twelve
      patients (6 male, 6 female) with peripheral nerve tumors (motor, sensitive, or
      mixed nerves) or tumors affecting the peripheral nerves were monitored in our
      center since 2014 (mean age: 50 years; 28-79). In 10 patients, the NAP was
      monitored without experiencing any changes from the beginning till the end of the
      surgery; in these patients, no postoperative deficit was adverted. In the last 2
      patients, who departed from a complete neurological deficit, no NAP was recorded
      at the baseline or during the surgery, and they did not experience any
      neurological improvement. CONCLUSION: The vagus nerve stimulation electrodes open
      new possibilities in peripheral nerve IONM. We have used them for continuous
      monitoring without additional problems with the traditional probes.

PMID- 28868197
TI  - Combined simultaneous transcranial and endoscopic endonasal resection of
      sphenoorbital meningioma extending into the sphenoid sinus, pterygopalatine
      fossa, and infratemporal fossa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sphenoorbital meningiomas are surgically challenging because of their
      nature to extend to adjacent structures. Here, we describe a case of recurrent
      sphenoorbital meningioma extending into the sphenoid sinus, pterygopalatine
      fossa, and infratemporal fossa, which was resected using combined simultaneous
      transcranial and endoscopic endonasal approaches. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 62-year-old
      man who had 15 years earlier undergone partial resection of a left sphenoorbital
      meningioma presented with a 1-year history of progressive proptosis of the left
      eye. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a Gd-enhancing tumor occupying the
      left sphenoid wing and orbital lateral wall and extending into extracranial
      structures such as the sphenoid sinus, pterygopalatine fossa, and infratemporal
      fossa as well as adjacent structures such as the cavernous sinus and superior
      orbital fissure (SOF). Based on the MRI findings of tumor extension into the
      sphenoid sinus with broad continuity, the risk of postoperative cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF) leakage through the large defect in the sphenoid sinus was considered
      high. Subtotal resection using combined simultaneous transzygomatic and
      endoscopic endonasal approaches was performed, leaving residual tumor in the
      cavernous sinus and SOF. The large skull base defect between the middle fossa and
      sphenoid sinus was covered with a free graft of fascia lata from the transcranial
      side and with a vascularized nasoseptal flap from the endonasal side. No CSF
      rhinorrhea and no neurological deficits developed postoperatively. CONCLUSION:
      Combined simultaneous transcranial and endoscopic endonasal approaches may become
      a safe and feasible alternative for sphenoorbital meningioma with a large skull
      base defect penetrating to the paranasal sinus.

PMID- 28868199
TI  - Intradural angiomatous meningioma arising from a thoracic nerve root.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spinal intradural meningiomas that arise purely from a nerve root
      without dural attachments are extremely rare. Spinal meningiomas arise from
      arachnoidal cap cells in the spinal canal, and growth of these tumors exerts
      pressure on the spinal cord and nerve roots. CASE DESCRIPTION: A patient
      presented with a lesion at the T3-T4 level that resembled a schwannoma on
      magnetic resonance imaging. During surgery, the tumor originated from a spinal
      nerve root. Pathologically, it was an angiomatous meningioma (AM). CONCLUSIONS:
      In a review of the literature, we discuss the pathogenesis and surgical strategy
      for diagnosing and treating these extremely rare AM lesions.

PMID- 28868198
TI  - Malignant squamous cell carcinoma arising in a previously resected
      cerebellopontine angle epidermoid.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malignant squamous cell differentiation of an epidermoid cyst can
      carry a significantly poor prognosis and very little is known about this entity.
      CASE DESCRIPTION: We present the case of a 35-year-old lady, with primary
      malignant squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) arising from a previously partially
      resected cerebellopontine angle epidermoid cyst almost 5 years after initial
      resection. We also review the relevant literature. CONCLUSION: The imaging
      findings, histopathology, and management of a malignant SCC arising from a benign
      epidermoid cyst are discussed with recommendation for increased surveillance and
      follow-up, even for classically accepted benign lesions.

PMID- 28868200
TI  - The open access video collection project "Hernesniemi's 1001 and more
      microsurgical videos of Neurosurgery": A legacy for educational purposes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurosurgical educational programs and courses are helpful to improve
      the quality of training. Moreover, nowadays, online activities may represent a
      very useful tool to globally enhance neurosurgical education. The "Hernesniemi's
      1001 and more microneurosurgical videos" project aims to show the microsurgical
      style developed by the senior author and his TEAMs in more than 40 years of
      experience. METHODS: More than 1100 high-definition videos of microneurosurgical
      operations performed by the senior author were carefully edited. These videos
      illustrate the philosophy of "simple, clean, fast and preserving the normal
      anatomy" while offering a step by step guide of different neurosurgical
      procedures. RESULTS: All the aforementioned material is well organized in an
      electronic videobook, freely available in Surgical Neurology International. The
      book also includes comments of great current neurosurgeons and writings of the
      authors and editors. CONCLUSION: We are sure that our project will be able to
      instill in and spread across the neurosurgical community the microneurosurgical
      style of the senior author, thus representing an efficient educational tool for
      surgeons all around the world.

PMID- 28868201
TI  - Never say never again: A bone graft infection due to a hornet sting, thirty-nine
      years after cranioplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cranioplasty (CP) is a widespread surgical procedure aimed to restore
      skull integrity and physiological cerebral hemodynamics, to improve neurological
      functions and to protect the underlying brain after a life-saving decompressive
      craniectomy (DC). Nevertheless, CP is still burdened by surgical complications,
      among which early or late graft infections are the most common outcome
      threatening ones. CASE DESCRIPTION: We report the case of 48-year-old man
      admitted to our neurosurgical unit because of a painful right frontal swelling
      and 1-week purulent discharge from a cutaneous fistula. He had been undergone
      frontal CP because of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when he was 9-year-old.
      Since then, his medical history has been being unremarkable without any surgical
      or infective complication of the graft for 39 years, until he was accidentally
      stung by a hornet in the frontal region. After the CT scan and laboratory
      findings had evidenced a probable infection of the graft, the patient was treated
      by vancomycin and cefepime before he underwent surgical revision of its former
      CP, with the removal of the graft and the debridement of the surgical field.
      Subsequent bacteriological tests revealed Staphylococcus aureus as causal agent
      of that infection. CONCLUSION: This case illustrates an anecdotal example of very
      late CP infection, due to an unpredictable accident. Due to lack of consensus on
      risk factors and on conservative or surgical strategy in case of graft infection,
      we aimed to share our surgical experience.

PMID- 28868202
TI  - A thoracic vertebral localization of a metastasized cutaneous Merkel cell
      carcinoma: Case report and review of literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare neuroendocrine skin tumor,
      which may be related to sun exposure. It can metastasize to lungs, liver and
      bone, leading to severe morbidity and mortality. Vertebral metastases from MCC
      are rare. The authors report the tenth case in the literature, a 59-year-old
      patient with MCC, which was primarily localized in the scalp, and later provoked
      distant metastasis to the thoracic spinal column. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 59-year-old
      woman was admitted at our Unit of Neurosurgery with a 4-month history of
      progressive and severe dorsal back pain, without neurological signs. The patient
      had been surgically treated for a recidivated MCC in the occipital region in
      2007, 2011, and 2013. (In 2013, the surgical treatment also included lateral
      cervical lymph node dissection). Chemotherapy and radiotherapy had come after the
      treatments. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the dorsal spine showed
      metastatic vertebral involvement with cord impingement of the T7-T8 levels. A
      total body CT scan revealed lungs and liver metastases, besides vertebral
      district. After a multidisciplinary consult a palliative surgery was decided and
      a posterior dorsal approach was employed: Radiofrequency (RF) thermoablation was
      followed by the injection of cement of T7 and T8 and transpedicle fixation T5-T9.
      The postoperative course was uneventful and followed by a further adjuvant
      therapy. CONCLUSION: Spinal metastases from MCC are described in literature only
      exceptionally. The clinical course is presented, along with a review of
      literature.

PMID- 28868203
TI  - Titanium versus polyetheretherketone implants for vertebral body replacement in
      the treatment of 77 thoracolumbar spinal fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Titanium and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) implants have been used in
      spinal surgery with low rejection rates. Compared to titanium, PEEK has many
      advantages, including a density more similar to that of bone, radiolucency, and a
      lack of artifacts in computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI). In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of PEEK cages as an
      alternative to titanium for bone fusion after fractures of the thoracolumbar
      spine. We also propose a classification to the impaction index. METHODS: We
      evaluated 77 patients with fractures of the thoracic or lumbar spine who were
      treated by anterior fixation with titanium cages (TeCorp(r)) in 46 (59.7%)
      patients or PEEK (Verte-stak(r)) in 31 (40.3%) patients from 2006 to 2012
      (Neurological Hospital of Lyon). RESULTS: The titanium group achieved 100%
      fusion, and the PEEK group achieved 96.3% fusion. The titanium systems correlated
      with higher impact stress directed toward the lower and upper plateaus of the
      fused vertebrae; there were no nonunions for those treated with titanium group.
      Nevertheless, there was only one in the PEEK group. There was no significant
      difference in the pain scale outcomes for patients with +/-10 degrees of the
      sagittal angle. Statistically, it is not possible to associate the variation of
      sagittal alignment or the impaction with symptoms of pain. The complication rate
      related to the implantation of cages was low. CONCLUSIONS: Titanium and PEEK are
      thus equally effective options for the reconstruction of the anterior column.
      PEEK is advantageous because its radiolucency facilitates the visualization of
      bone bridges.

PMID- 28868204
TI  - Impact of low coagulation factor XIII activity in patients with chronic subdural
      hematoma associated with cerebrospinal fluid hypovolemia: A retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebrospinal fluid hypovolemia (CSFH) is sometimes associated with
      chronic subdural hematomas (CSHs). Affected patients often develop enlargement
      and recurrence of the CSH, even if appropriate treatments such as epidural blood
      patch (EBP) and/or burr-hole surgery for the CSH are performed. This situation
      may lead to subclinical coagulopathy, including low coagulation factor XIII
      (CFXIII) activity. We retrospectively analyzed whether CFXIII activity was
      involved in the development of CSHs and post-treatment exacerbation of CSHs in
      patients with CSFH. METHODS: We diagnosed CSFH by radioisotope (RI), magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) findings, and CSH by CT
      and/or MRI findings. The plasma CFXIII activity was assessed on admission. All
      patients with CSFH initially received conservative treatments. When these
      treatments were ineffective, the patients underwent EBP and/or CSH surgery
      according to previously reported therapeutic strategies. RESULTS: Among 206
      patients with CSFH, 19 developed CSHs. Fourteen patients with a thin hematoma
      underwent EBP and three with a thick hematoma underwent CSH surgery immediately
      after EBP on the same day. We were unable to diagnose two patients with CSFH at
      the time of admission, and one of these two patients underwent repeated CSH
      surgery before obtaining the correct diagnosis. Seven patients (36.8%) developed
      CSH exacerbation after the treatment. The CFXIII activity was significantly lower
      in patients with than without a CSH (42.1% vs. 12.8%, respectively; P = 0.003).
      The CFXIII activity was significantly lower in patients with than without post
      treatment CSH exacerbation (P = 0.046). All five patients with low CFXIII
      activity who developed CSH exacerbation received intravenous injection of CFXIII
      and had no recurrence of CSH after the additional treatment. CONCLUSION: In
      patients with CSFH, low CFXIII activity is one of the risk factors for both the
      development of a CSH and the post-treatment exacerbation CSH.

PMID- 28868205
TI  - Moving in and Out: Dispersion of Cells in Self-Generated Gradients.
AB  - Migrating cells can influence the direction of their own migration by
      metabolizing chemoattractants present in their environment. This is illustrated
      by the dispersal of melanoma cells, which break down lysophosphatidic acid and
      generate a gradient with increasing concentrations of lysophosphatidic acid
      distant from the tumor. Melanoma cells can then disperse away from the tumor as
      they migrate in the self-generated lysophosphatidic acid gradient. Thus,
      dispersal of tumor cells during invasion of the surrounding stroma might be
      driven by chemotaxis of cells along self-generated chemoattractant gradients.

PMID- 28868206
TI  - A Hybrid Algorithm for Non-negative Matrix Factorization Based on Symmetric
      Information Divergence.
AB  - The objective of this paper is to provide a hybrid algorithm for non-negative
      matrix factorization based on a symmetric version of Kullback-Leibler divergence,
      known as intrinsic information. The convergence of the proposed algorithm is
      shown for several members of the exponential family such as the Gaussian,
      Poisson, gamma and inverse Gaussian models. The speed of this algorithm is
      examined and its usefulness is illustrated through some applied problems.

PMID- 28868207
TI  - Host non-inflammatory neutrophils mediate the engraftment of bioengineered
      vascular networks.
AB  - Notwithstanding remarkable progress in vascular network engineering, implanted
      bioengineered microvessels largely fail to form anastomoses with the host
      vasculature. Here, we demonstrate that implants containing assembled human
      vascular networks (A-Grafts) fail to engraft due to their inability to engage non
      inflammatory host neutrophils upon implantation into mice. In contrast,
      unassembled vascular cells (U-Grafts) readily engage alternatively polarized
      neutrophils, which in turn serve as indispensable mediators of vascular assembly
      and anastomosis. The depletion of host neutrophils abrogated vascularization in U
      Grafts, whereas an adoptive transfer of neutrophils fully restored
      vascularization in myeloid-depleted mice. Neutrophil engagement was regulated by
      secreted factors and was progressively silenced as the vasculature matured.
      Exogenous addition of factors from U-Grafts reengaged neutrophils and enhanced
      revascularization in A-Grafts, a process that was recapitulated by blocking Notch
      signaling. Our data suggest that the pro-vascularization potential of neutrophils
      can be harnessed to improve the engraftment of bioengineered tissues.

PMID- 28868208
TI  - Pedicled Latissimus Dorsi Flap for Shoulder Soft-Tissue Reconstruction After
      Excision of a Musculoskeletal Neoplasm.

PMID- 28868209
TI  - Oral Glycine and Sodium Thiosulfate for Lethal Cyanide Ingestion.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Accidental or intentional cyanide ingestion is an-ever present danger.
      Rapidly acting, safe, inexpensive oral cyanide antidotes are needed that can
      neutralize large gastrointestinal cyanide reservoirs. Since humans cannot be
      exposed to cyanide experimentally, we studied oral cyanide poisoning in rabbits,
      testing oral sodium thiosulfate with and without gastric alkalization. SETTING:
      University research laboratory. SUBJECTS: New Zealand white rabbits.
      INTERVENTIONS: Seven animal groups studied; Groups 1-5 received high dose oral
      NaCN (50 mg, >LD100) and were treated immediately with oral (via nasogastric
      tube): 1) saline, 2) glycine, 3) sodium thiosulfate or 4) sodium thiosulfate and
      glycine, or 5) after 2 min with intramuscular injection of sodium nitrite and
      sodium thiosulfate plus oral sodium thiosulfate and glycine. Groups 6-7 received
      moderate dose oral NaCN (25 mg, LD70) and delayed intramuscular 6) saline or 7)
      sodium nitrite-sodium thiosulfate. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All animals in
      the high dose NaCN group receiving oral saline or glycine died very rapidly, with
      a trend towards delayed death in glycine-treated animals; saline versus glycine
      treated animals died at 10.3+3.9 and 14.6+5.9 min, respectively (p=0.13). In
      contrast, all sodium thiosulfate-treated high dose cyanide animals survived
      (p<0.01), with more rapid recovery in animals receiving both thiosulfate and
      glycine, compared to thiosulfate alone (p<0.03). Delayed intramuscular treatment
      alone in the moderate cyanide dose animals increased survival over control
      animals from 30% to 71%. Delayed treatment in high dose cyanide animals was not
      as effective as immediate treatment, but did increase survival time and rescued
      29% of animals (p<0.01 versus cyanide alone). CONCLUSIONS: Oral sodium
      thiosulfate with gastric alkalization rescued animals from lethal doses of
      ingested cyanide. The combination of oral glycine and sodium thiosulfate may have
      potential for treating high dose acute cyanide ingestion and merits further
      investigation. The combination of systemic and oral therapy may provide further
      options.

PMID- 28868210
TI  - Stroke Investigative Research and Education Network: Public Outreach and
      Engagement.
AB  - Stroke is becoming a leading cause of disability and death, and a major public
      health concern in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The Stroke Investigative Research and
      Education Network (SIREN) seeks to comprehensively characterize the genomic,
      sociocultural, economic, and behavioral risk factors for stroke and to build
      effective teams for research to address and decrease the burden of stroke and
      other non-communicable diseases in SSA. One of the first steps to address this
      goal was to effectively engage the communities that suffer high burdens of
      disease in SSA. This paper describes the process of SIREN project's community
      engagement activities in Ghana and Nigeria. The aims of community engagement (CE)
      within SIREN are to: i) elucidate information about knowledge, attitudes,
      beliefs, and practices (KABP) about stroke and its risk factors from individuals
      of African ancestry in SSA; ii) educate the community about stroke and ways to
      decrease disabilities and deaths from stroke; and iii) recruit 3000 control
      research subjects to participate in a case-control stroke study. CE focused on
      three-pronged activities-constitution and interaction with Community Advisory
      Board (CABs), Focus Group Discussions (n=27) and community education and outreach
      programs (n=88). FGDs and outreach programs indicate that knowledge of stroke, as
      well as risk factors and follow-up evidence-based care is limited and often late.
      Almost all indicated that genetic testing could help health provider's better
      treat stroke and help scientists better understand the causes of stroke. Over
      7000 individuals have received education on cardiovascular risk factors and about
      5,000 have been screened for cardiovascular risk factors during the outreaches.
      The CE core within SIREN is a first of its kind public outreach engagement
      initiative to evaluate and address perceptions about stroke and genomics by
      patients, caregivers, and local leaders in SSA and has implications as a model
      for assessment in other high stroke risk populations.

PMID- 28868212
TI  - High-Density Mapping of Brain Slices using a Large Multi-Functional High-Density
      CMOS Microelectrode Array System.
AB  - We present a CMOS-based high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) system that
      enables high-density mapping of brain slices in-vitro with multiple readout
      modalities. The 4.48*2.43 mm2 array consists of 59,760 micro-electrodes at 13.5
      um pitch (5487 electrodes/mm2). The overall system features 2048 action
      potential, 32 local-field-potential and 32 current recording channels, 32
      impedance-measurement and 28 neurotransmitter-detection channels and 16
      voltage/current stimulation channels. The system enables real-time and label-free
      monitoring of position, size, morphology and electrical activity of brain slices.

PMID- 28868211
TI  - Considerations When Using Predictive Equations to Estimate Energy Needs Among
      Older, Hospitalized Patients: A Narrative Review.
AB  - The aim of this narrative review was to summarize the accuracy of predictive
      equations used to estimate energy expenditure in older, hospitalized adults. More
      than 50% of patients admitted to intensive care units are older adults. Currently
      accepted prediction equations used to determine energy intake in the older,
      hospitalized patient were not specifically developed for the aging population.
      Rates of multimorbidity, polypharmacy and malnutrition, conditions that influence
      energy expenditure, are higher in older adults compared to younger adults. For
      these reasons, current equations may not accurately assess energy needs in this
      population. As the evidence demonstrating the importance of nutritional
      supplementation in older, hospitalized adults grows, more accurate energy
      assessment methods that account for age-related conditions are needed to predict
      nutritional requirements.

PMID- 28868213
TI  - Geochemical characterization of Lucaogou Formation and its correlation of tight
      oil accumulation in Jimsar Sag of Junggar Basin, Northwestern China.
AB  - With the constant consumption of conventional oil and gas resources,
      unconventional oil and gas resources with great resource potential such as tight
      oil have gradually been valued and become the new exploration area. Jimsar Sag is
      the key tight oil exploration and development block in Junggar Basin of
      Northwestern China. Based on the data sets of geology, oil production test,
      logging, rock thin section, and geochemistry of Permian Lucaogou Formation (LCG),
      we studied the geochemical characteristics of hydrocarbon source rocks and their
      relation to the tight oil accumulation. Organic matter abundance of source rocks
      is high, the types of organic matter are mainly type I and type II, and the
      organic matter maturation is in the low mature stage to mature stage. Results of
      oil source correlation showed that the crude oil of sweet spots was mainly
      derived from the source rocks in the interior of the sweet spots. The LCG tight
      oil is mainly distributed in the plane where the source rocks have great
      thickness and the TOC is higher than 3.5%. It shows that the source rocks have
      obvious controlling on the occurrence and accumulation of tight oil.

PMID- 28868214
TI  - Allelic variation at high-molecular weight and low-molecular weight glutenin
      subunit genes in Moroccan bread wheat and durum wheat cultivars.
AB  - Glutenin is a major protein fraction contributing to the functional properties of
      gluten and dough. The glutenin constitutes 30-40% of the protein in wheat flour
      and about half of that in gluten. It is essential to identify correct glutenin
      alleles and to improve wheat quality by selecting alleles that exert favorable
      effects. Moroccan wheat cultivars are unique in West Asia and North Africa
      region, since many of them possess resistance to Hessian fly, a pest, which is
      becoming important in other countries in the region. Hence, these cultivars are
      being used as donor for the resistance in the breeding program. Here, we
      determine the allelic variation in high-molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW
      GS) and low-molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) in Moroccan cultivars of
      bread and durum wheat using the gene-specific PCR markers. In 20 cultivars of
      bread wheat, 9 different allele variants were detected at HMW-GS and 13 different
      allele variants were detected at LMW-GS, in which the alleles Glu-A1b (2*), Glu
      B1i (17 + 18), Glu-B1c (7*/7 + 9), Glu-D1d (5 + 10), Glu-A3c, Glu-B3 h, and Glu
      D3b were the most frequents. In 26 cultivars of durum wheat, less allelic
      variation was found: seven different allele variants at HMW-GS and six different
      allele variants at LMW-GS were identified, in which the major alleles were Glu
      A1c (null), Glu-B1b (7 + 8), Glu-B1e (20), Glu-A3c, and Glu-B3d. The mean value
      of the genetic diversity for the glutenin loci was 0.502 in bread wheat and 0.449
      in durum wheat. Most of the glutenin alleles carried by Moroccan bread wheat
      cultivars impart good bread-making quality. Most of the durum wheat glutenin
      alleles were related to low strength dough or poor quality and need to be
      improved. To improve quality of Moroccan durum wheat, essentially, Glu-A1c and
      Glu-B3d alleles of the genes should be replaced with the better alleles through
      breeding.

PMID- 28868215
TI  - RAPD and ISSR marker assessment of genetic diversity in Citrullus colocynthis
      (L.) Schrad: a unique source of germplasm highly adapted to drought and high
      temperature stress.
AB  - Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. (Cucurbitaceae) shows high levels of variation
      in fruit color, fruit stripe pattern, seed coat color, and size. Thirty-eight
      accessions of C. colocynthis plants from different parts of semi-arid Rajasthan
      were collected and genetic diversity was assessed using random-amplified
      polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Out of 65
      RAPD decamer primers, 50 primers produced 549 scorable bands of which 318 were
      polymorphic. Polymorphic banding patterns with the number of amplified fragments
      varied from 5 (OPA-08 and OPF-9) to 19 (OPT-20) in the molecular size range of
      150-6000 bp. Percent polymorphism ranged from 22.2% (OPA-09) to 83.3% (OPE-12)
      with 55.14% polymorphism. Out of the 20 ISSR primers screened, 13 primers
      produced 166 amplification products, of which 99 were polymorphic. The number of
      bands amplified per primer varied between 9 (UBC-807, 802) and 16 (UBC-803, 812)
      with average band size between 250 and 4000 bp. Percent polymorphism ranged from
      45.4% (UBC-815) to 73.3% (UBC-814) with 65.05% polymorphism. Dendrogram
      constructed on the basis of RAPD + ISSR polymorphism separated the accessions
      into four distinct clusters at 72% variation with Jaccard's similarity
      coefficient ranging from minimum 0.64 to 0.95. The matrices for RAPD and ISSR
      were also compared using Mantel's test and obtained correlation value (r =
      0.7947). Discriminating power of RAPD and ISSR markers was assessed by
      calculating polymorphic information content, multiplex ratio, marker index, and
      resolving power. Approx. 50% RAPD and ISSR markers showed PIC value and
      heterozygosity (H) >= 0.50, indicating marker as informative. The primers that
      showed higher polymorphism had higher RP, MR, and MI values.

PMID- 28868216
TI  - Molecular and phytochemical analysis of wild type and olive cultivars grown under
      Saudi Arabian environment.
AB  - This study aimed to assess genetic variability at molecular and phytochemical
      levels among the four most commonly grown olive cultivars and the wild-type olive
      of Saudi Arabia. Sixty-six and 80 amplicons were generated from 9 random
      amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR)
      primers, each, producing an average of 95.9 and 86.44% polymorphism for the two
      markers, respectively. The PIC values were 82.2% for the RAPD and 85.4% for the
      ISSR markers and the discrimination power for both the markers was 11.1%. The
      UPGMA cluster analysis based on the RAPD and ISSR data resulted in the
      aggregation of cultivars and wild accession with a good bootstrapping value
      according to their origin. Furthermore, a total of 199 compounds were identified
      in the cultivars based on peak area, retention time, and molecular formula using
      GC-MS analyses of methanolic and ethanolic extracts. These compounds were
      classified according to their chemical class; most of them were fatty acids,
      alcoholic compounds, carboxylic acids, aldehydes, heterocyclic compounds,
      ketones, alkanes, and phenols. Genetic and phytochemical distances were
      significantly correlated, based on the Mantel test. The Saudi wild accession also
      had high numbers of fatty acids and their esters, and can be used in breeding
      programs for generating new genotypes with interesting characters.

PMID- 28868217
TI  - Simultaneous saccharification and viscosity reduction of cassava pulp using a
      multi-component starch- and cell-wall degrading enzyme for bioethanol production.
AB  - In this study, an efficient ethanol production process using simultaneous
      saccharification and viscosity reduction of raw cassava pulp with no prior high
      temperature pre-gelatinization/liquefaction step was developed using a crude
      starch- and cell wall-degrading enzyme preparation from Aspergillus aculeatus
      BCC17849. Proteomic analysis revealed that the enzyme comprised a complex mixture
      of endo- and exo-acting amylases, cellulases, xylanases, and pectina ses
      belonging to various glycosyl hydrolase families. Enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency
      was dependent on the initial solid loading in the reaction. Reduction in mixture
      viscosity was observed with a rapid decrease in complex viscosity from 3785 to
      0.45 Pa s with the enzyme dosage of 2.19 mg/g on a dried weight basis within the
      first 2 h, which resulted from partial destruction of the plant cell wall fiber
      and degradation of the released starch granules by the enzymes as shown by
      scanning electron microscopy. Saccharification of cassava pulp at an initial
      solid of 16% (w/v) in a bench-scale bioreactor resulted in 736.4 mg glucose/g,
      which is equivalent to 82.92% glucose yield based on the total starch and glucan
      in the substrate, after 96 h at 40  degrees C. Simultaneous saccharification and
      fermentation of cassava pulp by Saccharomyces cerevisiae with the uncooked
      enzymatic process led to a final ethanol concentration of 6.98% w/v, equivalent
      to 96.7% theoretical yield based on the total starch and cellulose content. The
      results demonstrated potential of the enzyme for low-energy processing of cassava
      pulp in biofuel industry.

PMID- 28868218
TI  - Optimization of the secretory expression of recombinant human C-reactive protein
      in Pichia pastoris.
AB  - Human C-reactive protein (CRP), a classical human acute-phase plasma protein, is
      not only a sensitive systemic inflammatory marker but also an independent risk
      predictor of cardiovascular diseases. However, existing heterologous expression
      systems for expressing CRP is not efficient and cost-effective for large-scale
      industrial production of CRP to meet the growing market demand for CRP. This
      study aims to improve the secretion of recombinant CRP by Pichia pastoris via
      optimizing signal peptides, promoters and carbon sources. The CRP genes with
      encoding four different signal peptides were designed and synthesized. The genes
      were cloned into pPICZalphaA or pPICZ B, respectively via splicing by overlap
      extension polymerase chain reaction (SOE-PCR) technology and expressed in P.
      pastoris X-33, regulated by the alcohol oxidase I promoter (pAOX1). The CRP led
      by the alpha-mating factor secretion signal peptide (alpha-MF) was secreted at
      the highest level in these signal peptides. Then, a constitutive construct and
      expression of the CRP genes were achieved by switching to the glyceraldehyde-3
      phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (pGAP). Subsequently, different carbon sources
      and at different concentrations were used to further improve the secretion of
      CRP. The expression of CRP with the alpha-MF driven by the pGAP gave the highest
      yield of secreted CRP, about 3 mg/l of culture on the optimized culture
      conditions. The purified recombinant CRP exhibited good immunoreactivity
      determined by ELISA with anti-human CRP monoclonal antibody. The efficient
      engineering strategy established in this work might provide potential uses in
      large-scale industrial production of human CRP in the future.

PMID- 28868220
TI  - Evaluation of stress effects of copper oxide nanoparticles in Brassica napus L.
      seedlings.
AB  - Rapid growth of nanotechnology has enabled the production and use of engineered
      nanoparticles (ENPs) in several industries as well as in agriculture areas. This
      has raised ecotoxicological concerns due to the release of ENPs to the
      environment. In the present study, we investigated the effects of interactions of
      copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) on physiological, biochemical, and molecular
      indices in seedlings of an important oil seed crop Brassica napus L. The
      seedlings were treated with 0, 20, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 500 mg/L of CuO NPs for
      14 days in half-strength semi-solid Murashige and Skoog medium. The CuO NPs
      treatment significantly reduced shoot and root growth as well as plant biomass.
      Shortening and thickening of primary and lateral roots and inhibition of lateral
      root growth was observed at higher concentrations. An increase in reactive oxygen
      species generation, and malondialdehyde accumulation was observed. Histochemical
      staining of roots with propidium iodide and aniline blue indicated cell death and
      callose formation in roots. Transcriptional modulation of genes related to
      oxidative stress viz. CuZn superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate
      peroxidase was observed. Element content analysis showed an increase in Cu
      content and decrease in Fe, Mn, and Zn contents. Overall, exposure to CuO NPs
      caused oxidative injury, cell death, callose formation, and decreased the micro
      nutrient contents in B. napus seedlings.

PMID- 28868219
TI  - Appraisal of biochemical classes of radioprotectors: evidence, current status and
      guidelines for future development.
AB  - The search for efficient radioprotective agents to protect from radiation-induced
      toxicity, due to planned or accidental radiation exposure, is still ongoing
      worldwide. Despite decades of research and development of widely different
      biochemical classes of natural and derivative compounds, a safe and effective
      radioprotector is largely unmet. In this comprehensive review, we evaluated the
      evidence for the radioprotective performance of classical thiols, vitamins,
      minerals, dietary antioxidants, phytochemicals, botanical and bacterial
      preparations, DNA-binding agents, cytokines, and chelators including adaptogens.
      Where radioprotection was demonstrated, the compounds have shown moderate dose
      modifying factors ranging from 1.1 to 2.7. To date, only few compounds found way
      to clinic with limited margin of dose prescription due to side effects. Most of
      these compounds (amifostine, filgratism, pegfilgrastim, sargramostim, palifermin,
      recombinant salmonella flagellin, Prussian blue, potassium iodide) act primarily
      via scavenging of free radicals, modulation of oxidative stress, signal
      transduction, cell proliferation or enhance radionuclide elimination. However,
      the gain in radioprotection remains hampered with low margin of tolerance. Future
      development of more effective radioprotectors requires an appropriate nontoxic
      compound, a model system and biomarkers of radiation exposure. These are
      important to test the effectiveness of radioprotection on physiological tissues
      during radiotherapy and field application in cases of nuclear eventualities.

PMID- 28868221
TI  - The persistence and performance of phosphate-solubilizing Gluconacetobacter
      liquefaciens qzr14 in a cucumber soil.
AB  - The persistence and performance of plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPMs)
      in soil are considered critical features for effectiveness, yet they are poorly
      understood. Here, we investigated the colonization and activity of a new PGPM,
      phosphate-solubilizing Gluconacetobacter liquefaciens qzr14, in a pot culture
      experiment using cucumber as test crop for 20 days. The number of G. liquefaciens
      and bacterial diversity in the rhizosphere and bulk soil were monitored by real
      time PCR and DGGE, respectively. Soil phosphorus and cucumber biomass were also
      examined. G. liquefaciens qzr14 effectively colonized the rhizosphere soil
      (bacterial density ranging from 2.70 * 108 to 1.18 * 109 copies per gram dry
      soil). G. liquefaciens qzr14 inoculation had significantly positive effects on
      bacterial diversity (BD) of the rhizosphere and bulk soil and the ratio of
      soluble phosphorus to total phosphorus (SP/TP). The number of G. liquefaciens in
      the rhizosphere soil was significantly related to SP/TP and the BD of the
      rhizosphere and bulk soil. BD in rhizosphere soil was significantly related to
      SP/TP and BD in bulk soil. Based on the results of correlation analysis, we
      inferred that the introduced G. liquefaciens qzr14 effectively colonized the
      rhizosphere of cucumber, and then expanded its bacterial community by
      solubilizing soil phosphorus. The expanded bacterial communities might promote
      cucumber growth by some new functions.

PMID- 28868222
TI  - Linkage disequilibrium based association mapping of micronutrients in common bean
      (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): a collection of Jammu & Kashmir, India.
AB  - Micronutrient deficiencies are of major concern in human health and plant
      metabolism. Iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), iodine (I), selenium (Se) are regarded as
      micronutrients having major impact on human health. More than 50% of populations
      mainly from developing countries are suffering from one or the other
      micronutrient malnutrition. Ensuring adequate supply of these micronutrients
      through diet consisting of staple foods, such as common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris
      L.) is must. Here, we evaluated common bean genotypes that were collected from
      various regions of Jammu and Kashmir, India for Fe, Zn and protein contents and
      used SSRs to identify the markers associated with these traits. We found
      significant variation among genotypes for Fe, Zn and protein contents. Genotype
      R2 was having 7.22 mg 100 g-1 of Fe content, genotype K15 with 1.93 mg 100 g-1 of
      Zn content and genotype KS6 with 31.6% of protein content. Diversity study was
      done using both cluster and structure based approach. Further, association
      mapping analysis using General Linear Method (GLM) approach was done to identify
      SSRs associated with accumulation of Fe, Zn and protein. 13 SSRs were identified
      that significantly (p < 0.05) showed association with Fe, Zn and protein contents
      in common bean. The markers associated with Fe were located on chromosome no. 2,
      5, 6, 7, 9 and 10, markers associated with Zn were located on chromosome no. 1,
      3, 5, 7 and 10 whereas only one marker located on chromosome no. 4 was found
      associated with protein content. These findings will provide potential
      opportunity to improve Fe and Zn concentrations in common bean, through molecular
      breeding.

PMID- 28868223
TI  - Enzymatic saccharification of seaweeds into fermentable sugars by xylanase from
      marine Bacillus sp. strain BT21.
AB  - Enzymatic hydrolysis of seaweed biomass was studied using xylanase produced from
      marine bacteria Bacillus sp. strain BT21 through solid-state fermentation of
      wheat bran. Three types of seaweeds, Ahnfeltia plicata, Padina tetrastromatica
      and Ulva lactuca, were selected as representatives of red, brown, and green
      seaweeds, respectively. Seaweed biomass was pretreated with hot water. The
      efficiency of pretreated biomass to release reducing sugar by the action of
      xylanase as well as the type of monosaccharide released during enzyme
      saccharification of seaweed biomass was studied. It was seen that pretreated
      biomass of seaweed A. plicata, U. lactuca, and P. tetrastroma, at 121  degrees C
      for 45 min, followed by incubation with 50 IU xylanase released reducing sugars
      of 233 +/- 5.3, 100 +/- 6.1 and 73.3 +/- 4.1 ug/mg of seaweed biomass,
      respectively. Gas chromatography analysis illustrated the release of xylose,
      glucose, and mannose during the treatment process. Hot water pre-treatment
      process enhanced enzymatic conversion of biomass into sugars. This study revealed
      the important role of xylanase in saccharification of seaweed, a promising
      feedstock for third-generation bioethanol production.

PMID- 28868224
TI  - Characterization of Acanthosicyos horridus and Citrullus lanatus seed oils: two
      melon seed oils from Namibia used in food and cosmetics applications.
AB  - The physicochemical characteristics, fatty acid, tocopherol, stigmasterol, beta
      sitosterol, and 1H NMR profiles of Citrullus lanatus and Acanthosicyos horridus
      melon seed oils were determined and compared among different extraction methods
      (cold pressing, traditional, and Soxhlet). The oil content was 40.2 +/- 3.45 and
      37.8 +/- 7.26% for C. lanatus and A. horridus, respectively. Significant
      differences (p < 0.05) were observed among the different extraction methods in
      the characteristics studied. Physicochemical characteristics of the melon seed
      oils were saponification value, 180.48-189.86 mg KOH/g oil; iodine value, 108.27
      118.62 g I2/100 g oil; acid value, 0.643-1.63 mg KOH/g oil; peroxide value; 1.69
      2.98 mequiv/kg oil; specific gravity, 0.901-0.922; and refractive indices, 1.4676
      1.4726. The dominant tocopherol was gamma-tocopherol with total tocopherol in the
      range 27.61-74.39 mg/100 g. The dominant fatty acid was linoleic acid in the
      range 52.57-56.96%. The favorable oil yield, physicochemical characteristics,
      tocopherol, and fatty acid composition have the potential to replace or improve
      major commercial vegetable oils and to be used for various applications in the
      food industry and nutritive medicines.

PMID- 28868226
TI  - Recurrent gastric ulcer and cholangitis caused by ectopic drainage of the bile
      duct into the stomach.
AB  - We report a case of recurrent gastritis with pyloric stenosis and cholangitis due
      to a rare variation in bile duct anatomy. A 72-year-old female patient showed
      recurrent gastral ulcers and biliary colic with cholangitis caused by gallstones
      in the main bile duct with an ectopic orifice in the prepyloric region and
      concurrent inflammatory pyloric stenosis. After temporarily successful endoscopic
      treatment with stenting and pyloric dilatation, the patient suffered from
      recurrent cholangitis. Finally, the abnormal biliary anatomy required surgical
      treatment with biliodigestive anastomosis.

PMID- 28868225
TI  - Pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma infiltrating thoracic spine in a 59-year-old female
      patient: Case report.
AB  - Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) represents a malignant tumor of skeletal muscle cells
      arising from rhabdomyoblasts. RMS represents the most common soft tissue sarcoma
      in children. In adults it is uncommon and accounts for less than 1% of all
      malignant solid tumors. While treatment protocols are well known for children,
      there is no standardized regimen in adults. This is one reason, why the outcome
      in adults is worse than in children. We present the case of a 59-year-old female
      patient with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma (PRMS) infiltrating the thoracic spine.
      Multimodality treatment was performed including en-bloc resection, adjuvant
      multidrug chemotherapy and radiation beam therapy. The patient was tumor free and
      had no relapse within 6 month follow-up.

PMID- 28868227
TI  - A case of severe acute necrotizing pancreatitis in a 38-year-old woman postpartum
      due to a parathyroid adenoma.
AB  - Lethal necrotizing pancreatitis postpartum due to primary hyperparathyroidism
      caused by a parathyroid adenoma can be considered as a rarity. Due to the
      unspecific clinical signs and uncommonness this disorder may be overseen very
      easily. The reported case illustrates the very importance of early diagnosis of
      this endocrine disorder in pregnancy in order to avoid a lethal course.

PMID- 28868228
TI  - Large thoracic defect due to shotgun violation - surgical emergency management.
AB  - Shotgun injuries from a short distance (<3 m) may cause massive bleeding and
      tissue destruction. Only immediate aggressive (surgical) therapy prevents lethal
      outcome. We report about a 27-year-old patient, who was wounded on the left chest
      wall by a straight-cut shotgun from a short distance. In cases of this special
      traumatic pattern damage control measures are necessary. The measures should take
      place in preclinical emergency management (by the on-site emergency physician).
      We report about the emergency management from admission to our hospital and the
      following surgical treatment until discharge from the hospital.

PMID- 28868229
TI  - A Very Unlikely Finding in a Male Child: Urethral Prolapse.
AB  - Urethral prolapse is a disease of prepubertal black girls and postmenopausal
      women with an unknown cause. It may be congenital in origin or an acquired
      condition. It has never been reported in males. We report a 10-year-old Caucasian
      boy who presented because of recurrent right undescended testis. He had been
      operated on for bilateral undescended testes 7 years ago in another hospital, and
      circumcision was done during the same operation. The boy complained of a weak
      urinary stream during voiding. The physical examination was consistent with
      recurrent right undescended testis. Penile examination showed a circumferential
      urethral prolapse around the meatus. The urethral meatal appearance was apparent
      right after the circumcision. An orchiopexy operation as well as circumferential
      excision of the perimeatal urethral tissue with primary repair was done. The
      pathological examination of the specimen revealed keratinized stratified squamous
      epithelium consistent with urethral mucosa. The postoperative course was
      uneventful, and the patient urinates normally at the 8 postoperative month with a
      normal uroflowmetry study. This is the first report of urethral prolapse in a
      male. Because circumcision is a widely employed practice in many cultures, it is
      unlikely to be a predisposing factor. It is a benign condition that can be cured
      with simple resection and anastomosis.

PMID- 28868230
TI  - Sternal Fracture in Children: Diagnosis by Ultrasonography.
AB  - Because of its subcutaneous location, the sternum can be examined sonographically
      using a linear scanner. We report about two children who experienced blunt chest
      trauma. Anterior-posterior chest X-rays were normal. Ultrasonic imaging confirmed
      a fracture of the sternum with dorsal displacement of the distal fragment (by
      0.97 cm) in the first child and a transverse fracture of the body of the sternum
      without displacement in the second child. In both children, pericardial effusion
      was excluded by sonography. The displaced fracture of the sternum was confirmed
      by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which ruled out concomitant injuries of the
      soft tissues adjacent to the sternum. Both sternum fractures were managed
      nonoperatively. These cases serve to emphasize the importance of sonography that
      represents an ionizing radiation free, noninvasive, efficient, and safe imaging
      modality to diagnose fractures of the sternum in children while also enabling the
      assessment of the pericardium.

PMID- 28868231
TI  - Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging to Evaluate Bowel Lesions in Neonates with NEC.
AB  - Background  Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most frequent surgical
      emergency in newborns. Intestinal ischemia is considered a factor that precedes
      the development of NEC lesions. Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) can be used
      to assess tissue microcirculation. We evaluated if LSCI may help to detect
      intestinal regions with reduced microcirculation in NEC. Case Report  A male
      patient (gestational age, 26 [3/7] weeks; birth weight, 600 g) showed clinical
      signs of NEC 28 days after birth. X-ray revealed pneumatosis intestinalis and
      portal gas. Laparotomy showed NEC lesions with signs of transmural ischemia in
      the terminal ileum and cecum. Surgical resection lines (RLs) were marked,
      followed by LSCI measurements and resection of the bowel between the two RLs.
      Post hoc LSCI analyses were conducted on both sides of the proximal and distal
      RL. Low-flux values, indicating reduced microcirculation, were found in the
      macroscopically assessed necrotic bowel at the proximal RL, whereas higher flux
      values, indicating sufficient microcirculation, were found in the macroscopically
      assessed normal bowel. Discussion  This study is the first description of intra
      abdominal use of LSCI to evaluate tissue microcirculation in relation to NEC
      lesions. LSCI could be a valuable tool to distinguish between ischemic and
      nonischemic bowel in neonates undergoing surgery for NEC.

PMID- 28868232
TI  - Penile Reconstruction with Skin Grafts and Dermal Matrices: Indications and
      Management.
AB  - Introduction  The penis eventually needs specific cutaneous coverage in the
      context of reconstructive procedures following trauma or congenital anomalies.
      Local flaps are the first choice but are not always available after multiple
      previous procedures. In these cases, skin graft and dermal matrices should be
      considered. Materials and Methods  This study was a retrospective review of the
      past 4 years of four patients with severe loss of penile shaft skin who underwent
      skin reconstruction. Dermal matrices and skin grafts were utilized. Dermal
      matrices were placed for a median of 4.5 weeks (3.0-6.0 weeks). The skin graft
      was harvested from the inner thigh region for split-thickness skin graft (STSG)
      and the inguinal region for full-thickness skin graft (FTSG). Results  The four
      patients presented with complete loss of skin in the penile shaft. One patient
      had a vesical exstrophy, one had a buried penis with only one corpus cavernosum,
      one had a wide congenital lymphedema of the genitalia, and one had a lack of skin
      following circumcision at home. They underwent reconstruction with three patients
      undergoing split-thickness skin graft; two dermal matrices; and one full
      thickness graft, respectively, thereby achieving a good cosmetic and functional
      result. There were no complications, and all the patients successfully accepted
      the graft. Conclusion  Dermal matrices and skin grafts may serve as effective
      tools in the management of severe penile skin defects unable to be covered with
      local flaps.

PMID- 28868233
TI  - Intestinal Perforation during the Stabilization Period in a Preterm Infant with
      Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.
AB  - Background  Delayed surgery after stabilization of infants with congenital
      diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is an accepted strategy. However, the evidence
      favoring delayed versus immediate surgical repair is limited. We present an
      extremely rare case of a very low-birth-weight infant with prenatally diagnosed
      left-sided CDH and unexpected transmural bowel perforations developing within the
      postnatal stabilization period. Case Report  A neonate born at 31st week of
      gestation with a birth weight of 1,470 g with antenatally diagnosed left-sided
      CDH presented with bowel dilation leading to transmural bowel perforations on the
      2nd day of life. Meconium pleuroperitonitis resulted in severe systemic
      inflammatory response syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, multiple organ failure,
      and death. Conclusion  In neonates with CDH deteriorating under standard
      postnatal management, intestinal perforation, and early surgical intervention
      should be considered.

PMID- 28868234
TI  - How gambling harms experienced by Pacific people in New Zealand amplify when they
      are culture-related.
AB  - Pacific people in New Zealand are a minority ethnic population identified in
      national prevalence studies as having the highest risk of developing gambling
      problems. As earlier studies identified some links between culture and gambling
      for this population, our study aimed to deepen understanding of these links and
      their role in explaining the disproportionate gambling harms experienced by
      Pacific people. To achieve this aim we employed intersectionality as a
      theoretical framework to explore the culture-gambling intersection for this
      population group. We analysed data from a subset of focus groups conducted for a
      broad study of gambling harms in New Zealand. The subset was selected based on
      the presence of individuals knowledgeable about Pacific people's gambling
      behaviours, including staff from Pacific problem gambling treatment services who
      provided examples from a cultural perspective. We identified themes at a latent
      level via an interpretive process to identify underlying cultural contexts of
      gambling harms. Findings indicated that whilst harms experienced by Pacific
      people were similar to those identified amongst the general population, the
      cultural contexts in which some harms manifested were complex. This paper
      contributes to the existing knowledge base about gambling harms for Pacific
      people in relation to six culture-gambling intersecting themes that emerged from
      the data: collectivism, gift-giving, gambling-based fundraising, patriarchy,
      beliefs about blessings, and sports celebrities. Findings are discussed in
      relation to the current knowledge of gambling and conceptualisations of gambling
      harm within Pacific communities. Implications for culturally appropriate harm
      minimisation strategies and prevention interventions for this population are
      suggested.

PMID- 28868236
TI  - Management Strategies and Outcomes for VHL-related Craniospinal
      Hemangioblastomas.
AB  - Hemangioblastomas are rare and benign tumors accounting for less than 2% of all
      central nervous system (CNS) tumors. The vast majority of hemangioblastomas occur
      sporadically, whereas a small number of cases, especially in younger patients,
      are associated with Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome. It is thought that loss of
      tumor suppressor function of the VHL gene results in stabilization of hypoxia
      inducible factor alpha with downstream activation of cellular proliferative and
      angiogenic genes that promote tumorigenesis. VHL-related hemangioblastomas
      predominantly occur in the cerebellum and spine. Lesions are often diagnosed on
      contrast-enhanced craniospinal MRIs, and the diagnosis of VHL occurs through
      assessment for germline VHL mutations. Surgical resection remains the primary
      treatment modality for symptomatic or worrisome lesions, with excellent local
      control rates and neurological outcomes. Stereotactic radiotherapy can be
      employed in patients who are deemed high risk for surgery, have multiple lesions,
      or have non-resectable lesions. Given the tendency for development of either new
      or multiple lesions, close radiographic surveillance is often recommended for
      asymptomatic lesions.

PMID- 28868235
TI  - Design of Injectable Materials to Improve Stem Cell Transplantation.
AB  - Stem cell-based therapies are steadily gaining traction for regenerative medicine
      approaches to treating disease and injury throughout the body. While a
      significant body of work has shown success in preclinical studies, results often
      fail to translate in clinical settings. One potential cause is the massive
      transplanted cell death that occurs post injection, preventing functional
      integration with host tissue. Therefore, current research is focusing on
      developing injectable hydrogel materials to protect cells during delivery and to
      stimulate endogenous regeneration through interactions of transplanted cells and
      host tissue. This review explores the design of targeted injectable hydrogel
      systems for improving the therapeutic potential of stem cells across a variety of
      tissue engineering applications with a focus on hydrogel materials that have
      progressed to the stage of preclinical testing.

PMID- 28868237
TI  - Examining the relationship between burnout and empathy in healthcare
      professionals: A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Empathy and burnout are two related yet distinct constructs that are
      relevant to clinical healthcare staff. The nature of their relationship is
      uncertain and this review aimed to complete a rigorous, systematic exploration of
      the literature investigating the relationship between burnout and empathy in
      healthcare staff. DESIGN: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with
      the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)
      guidance. DATA SOURCES: Search terms (Burnout OR Burn-out OR "Burn out") AND
      (Empathy OR Empath*) enabled identification of studies investigating burnout and
      empathy in healthcare staff, using five electronic data bases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO,
      CINAHL Plus, PubMed, and SCOPUS). Manual searching amongst reference lists of
      eligible articles was also completed. REVIEW METHODS: Databases were searched for
      studies published in the English language, from inception to February 2017. Key
      inclusion criteria were: 1) participants who were nurses or medical
      professionals, 2) full written manuscript in English, 3) use of the Maslach
      Burnout Inventory to assess burnout and a standardized outcome measure for
      empathy, 4) quantitative methodology exclusively. RESULTS: Ten eligible studies
      were reviewed. Of those, seven were conducted in countries where English was not
      the first language. Eight of the studies provided empirical support for a
      negative relationship between empathy and burnout. One study provided support for
      a positive relationship between burnout and empathy. One study reported
      contradictory evidence with positive and negative correlations between different
      subscales of the empathy and burnout measures. In general, the quality of the
      studies was assessed to be good. However, some of the studies failed to provide
      information pertaining to sample size, with the reporting of data less than
      adequate from one study. CONCLUSIONS: There was consistent evidence for a
      negative association between burnout and empathy. This review avoided a common
      English-speaking country bias of some areas of the literature. Given that all of
      the studies reviewed were cross sectional, further research is necessary to
      establish causality.

PMID- 28868238
TI  - MiR-9 Promotes Apoptosis Via Suppressing SMC1A Expression in GBM Cell Lines.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Glioblastomas multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant brain cancer,
      which presented vast genomic variation with complicated pathologic mechanism.
      METHOD: MicroRNA is a delicate post-transcriptional tuner of gene expression in
      the organisms by targeting and regulating protein coding genes. MiR-9 was
      reported as a significant biomarker for GBM patient prognosis and a key factor in
      regulation of GBM cancer stem cells. To explore the effect of miR-9 on GBM cell
      growth, we over expressed miR-9 in U87 and U251 cells. The cell viability
      decreased and apoptosis increased after miR-9 overexpression in these cells. To
      identify the target of miR-9, we scanned miR-9 binding site in the 3'UTRs region
      of expression SMC1A (structural maintenance of chromosomes 1A) genes and designed
      a fluorescent reporter assay to measure miR-9 binding to this region. Our results
      revealed that miR-9 binds to the 3'sUTR region of SMC1A and down-regulated SMC1A
      expression. RESULT: Our results indicated that miR-9 was a potential therapeutic
      target for GBM through triggering apoptosis of cancer cells.

PMID- 28868239
TI  - Is the association between offspring intelligence and parents' educational
      attainment influenced by schizophrenia or mood disorder in parents?
AB  - Results from twin, family, and adoption studies all suggest that general
      intelligence is highly heritable. Several studies have shown lower premorbid
      intelligence in individuals before the onset of both mood disorders and
      psychosis, as well as in children and adolescents at genetic high risk for
      developing schizophrenia. Based on these findings, we aim to investigate if the
      association between educational achievement in parents and intelligence in their
      offspring is influenced by schizophrenia or mood disorder in parents. In a large
      population-based sample of young adult male conscripts (n = 156,531) the presence
      of a mental disorder in the parents were associated with significantly lower
      offspring scores on a test of general intelligence, the Borge Priens Prove (BPP),
      and higher educational attainment in parents was significantly associated with
      higher BPP test scores in offspring. A significant interaction suggested that the
      positive association between maternal education and offspring intelligence was
      stronger in offspring of mothers with schizophrenia compared to the control group
      (p = 0.03). The associations between parental education and offspring
      intelligence are also observed when restricting the sample to conscripts whose
      parents are diagnosed after 30 years of age. In conclusion, findings from this
      study show a more positive effect of education on offspring intelligence in
      mothers with schizophrenia compared to mothers from the control group. This
      effect could have both environmental and genetic explanations.

PMID- 28868240
TI  - JAK3-mediated phosphorylation of EZH2: a novel mechanism of non-canonical EZH2
      activation and oncogenic function.

PMID- 28868241
TI  - Targeting cancer with tumor-specific therapeutic strategies-metabolic
      reprogramming beyond the Warburg effect.

PMID- 28868243
TI  - Highly active antiretroviral therapy dysregulates proliferation and
      differentiation of human pre-adipocytes.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the mechanism(s) by which potential effects of multi-drug
      highly-active antiretroviral therapy contributes to lipodystrophy syndrome.
      METHODS: Preadipocytes from healthy donors were assessed for proliferation and
      differentiation in the presence of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
      (NRTIs), nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), and protease
      inhibitors (PIs) individually and in combination. Effects on proliferation were
      assessed with a 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide
      assay and effects on differentiation were assessed from glycerol-3-phosphate
      dehydrogenase (GP DH) activity and quantitation of Oil Red O staining for
      intracellular lipid. Data were analyzed with a randomized block ANOVA with post
      hoc Fisher's Least Significant Difference test. RESULTS: Preadipocyte
      proliferation was inhibited by a combination of NNRTI + NRTI (14% at 48 h, P <
      0.001) and PI + NRTI (19% at 48 h, P < 0.001) with additional suppression when
      ritonavir (RTV) was added (26% at 48 h). The drug combination of atazanavir (ATV)
      + RTV + emtricitabine (FTC) + tenofovir (TDF) had the greatest inhibitory effect
      on proliferation at 48 h. Preadipocyte differentiation was most significantly
      reduced by the efavirenz + FTC + TDF assessed either by GPDH activity (64%) or
      lipid accumulation (39%), P < 0.001. Combining NRTIs with a PI (ATV + FTC + TDF)
      significantly suppressed differentiation (GPDH activity reduced 29%, lipid
      accumulation reduced by 19%, P < 0.01). This effect was slightly greater when a
      boosting amount of RTV was added (ATV + FTC + TDF + RTV, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Although combination antiretroviral therapy is clinically more efficacious than
      single drug regimens, it also has a much greater inhibitory effect on
      preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation.

PMID- 28868242
TI  - Additional attention to combination antiretroviral therapy-related lipodystrophy.
AB  - The occurrence of lipodystrophy in patients taking anti-human immunodeficiency
      virus (HIV) medications is a serious problem as it is irreversible even after
      drug withdrawal. Although it was first recognized in patients taking proteinase
      inhibitors, other types of anti-HIV agents can also cause lipodystrophy. In a
      recent publication by Jones et al entitled "Highly active antiretroviral therapy
      dysregulates proliferation and differentiation of human pre-adipocytes" in World
      Journal of Virology, it was reported that simultaneous treatment of human
      subcutaneous adipocytes with anti-HIV drugs with different mechanisms of action
      synergistically exerted anti-adipogenesis effects in vitro, warning us to take
      utmost care in every case receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART).
      For elucidation of the molecular basis for cART-related lipodystrophy, multi
      faceted approaches should be taken, based on a deeper understanding of the
      development and organization of adipose tissues.

PMID- 28868244
TI  - Poor Quality Embryos Hamper the Development of High Quality Ones.

PMID- 28868245
TI  - Isolation, Culture and Characterization of Human Sertoli Cells by Flow Cytometry:
      Development of Procedure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The sertoli cells in the testis create unique and safe environment to
      protect seminiferous tubules from auto antigens and invading pathogens. These
      cells produce the survival factor of the blood-testis barrier and produce special
      materials such as androgen binding proteins and contribute to the coordinated
      action of spermatogenesis. Given that the sertoli cells play an essential role in
      spermatogenesis and the lack of these cells leads to the disruption of
      spermatogenesis, it is necessary to investigate the behavior and performance of
      these cells. To achieve this goal, the cells must first be extracted. The aim of
      this study was to develop a procedure to isolate, culture, and characterize human
      sertoli cells. METHODS: In order to isolate the sertoli cells of azoospermia
      patients who underwent (testicular sperm extraction) TESE surgery, washing up and
      multi_stage enzyme digestion of single cells, culture on petri dishes impregnated
      with datura stramonium lectin agglutinin (DSA) were done and then the cells were
      passaged for several times and isolated. For more purification, flow cytometry
      method with FSH receptor antibody was used. Immunocytochemistry assays and Elisa
      test for identification of these cells were employed. RESULTS: The purification
      method resulted in more than 97% purity. The nature of sertoli cells was
      confirmed by morphology evaluation, detecting anti-mullerian hormone in sertoli
      cell culture media and the presence of FSH receptor on sertoli cells. CONCLUSION:
      This study introduced and applied a method to isolate, culture, and purify human
      sertoli cells with high purity which made possible further researches on these
      cells.

PMID- 28868246
TI  - Antimicrobial Properties of Amniotic and Chorionic Membranes: A Comparative Study
      of Two Human Fetal Sacs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is evidence of antibacterial properties of human chorioamniotic
      layer. However, the distinctive contribution of its individual parts, amniotic
      and chorionic membranes, to these effects is still unknown. The aim of present
      study was comparison of the antibacterial effects between amniotic and chorionic
      membranes. METHODS: Chorioamniotic layer was removed from placenta belonging to
      43 healthy mothers whose infants were delivered by caesarean section. Their
      amniotic and chorionic fetal tissues were manually peeled in sterile conditions.
      The antibacterial effects of all membrane samples were evaluated on 8 standard
      strains of bacterial collection using disk diffusion method on bacteriologic
      media. Results of bacterial growth inhibition in the presence of amniotic or
      chorionic membranes were measured and recorded as median+/-IQR. For data analysis
      and statistical comparison of samples, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-test
      were applied using SPSS (v. 18). RESULTS: Amniotic and chorionic membranes
      significantly showed different level of growth inhibitory effects on 8 bacterial
      strains including seven pathogens: E. coli, Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella
      pneumonia, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus,
      Shigella flexneri and one probiotic: Lactobacillus plantarum (p=0.018 and
      p<0.001, respectively). The number of bacterial growth inhibition zones around
      chorionic membranes was more than of what found around amniotic membranes.
      CONCLUSION: The superiority of antibacterial effects of the chorionic membrane
      compared with the amniotic membrane can represent the key role of maternal part
      in placenta in protecting the fetus against possible infections. The
      antimicrobial effect of amniotic and chorionic membranes is significantly
      different on various bacteria.

PMID- 28868247
TI  - Vitrification Increased Vacuolization of Human Spematozoa: Application of MSOME
      Technology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sperm vitrification is a technique of ice and cryoprotectant free
      cryopreservation by direct plunging of sperm suspension into liquid nitrogen
      (LN2). The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of cryoprotectant
      free-vitrification on human sperm fine structure by MSOME technology and the
      fertility potential by zona binding assay (ZBA). METHODS: 20 normo-ejaculates
      were prepared by swim up technique, and supernatants were divided into two parts
      of fresh and vitrified groups. For vitrification, sperm was dropped into LN2.
      Sperm motility, morphology, viability and MSOME were evaluated for each sample.
      In MSOM morphologically normal sperm (class 1), <=2 small vacuoles (class 2), and
      one large vacuole or >2 small vacuoles (class 3) were evaluated. Also, fertility
      potential was evaluated by zona binding assay. Data was analyzed using paired t
      test or Willcoxon's test and p-value <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS:
      Vitrification significantly reduced both progressive motility, viability and
      morphology. Also, normal morphology of spermatozoa decreased significantly after
      vitrification. In MSOME evaluation, normal motile spermatozoa (Class 1) decreased
      from 23.00+/-12.44 to 16.00.56+/-10.79 after vitrification (p=0.008). Although
      spermatozoa classes 2 and 3 were increased, the difference was not significant.
      Moreover, fertility potential of motile spermatozoa was reduced after
      vitrification (9.0+/-13.87 vs. 13.40+/-22.73; p=0.07). CONCLUSION: Vitrification
      increased the rate of vacuolization in motile sperm head. Therefore, MSOME
      technology is recommended for assessment of sperm fine morphology in ICSI program
      used cryopreserved spermatozoa.

PMID- 28868248
TI  - The Window of Implantation Is Closed by Estrogen via Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1
      Pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The opening and closing of the implantation window is important for
      successful pregnancy in eutherians. The recent study demonstrated that the window
      of uterine receptivity was prepared by the sole action of progesterone in mice,
      but the mechanism to close the window remained to be elucidated. METHODS: The
      pregnant mice were ovariectomized on the evening on the third day of pregnancy
      with a single injection of medroxyprogesterone acetate to induce delayed
      implantation (DI). Several treatments were applied to DI mice. The uterine
      receptivity after treatment was assessed by examining cell proliferation in the
      uterine luminal epithelium (LE). The gene expressions in the endometrium were
      investigated by RNA-seq. The p<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Cell
      proliferation in the LE ceased only when the window of implantation was open.
      Estrogen (E2) stimulated cell proliferation in the LE rendered the uterus
      refractory. The high throughput gene expression analysis by RNA-Seq showed that
      the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) pathway was the candidate to close the
      implantation window under E2. In vivo administration of IGF1 to delayed
      implantation mice resulted in proliferation in the LE cells. CONCLUSION: This
      study demonstrated that the window of uterine receptivity was closed by E2, which
      was mediated by the IGF1 pathway.

PMID- 28868249
TI  - Should Subclinical Hypothyroidism Be an Exclusion Criterion for the Diagnosis of
      Polycystic Ovary Syndrome?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to examine whether patients with
      subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) should be excluded before making a diagnosis of
      polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS: Seven hundred sixteen patients, 462
      with true PCOS, 31 with PCOS-SCH, and 223 normal cycling women were enrolled.
      Clinical, metabolic, and hormonal parameters among the groups were investigated.
      Continuous variables were compared by one-way analysis of variance. Proportions
      were compared using Z test. Fisher test was used to compare categorical
      variables. Simple correlation was performed using Spearman's coefficient.
      Correlation between thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and dependent variables
      were performed using backward multiple regression. The significance level was set
      at 0.05. RESULTS: True polycystic ovary and polycystic ovary with subclinical
      hypothyroidism patients presented similar anthropometrical parameters. C-peptide
      was higher in polycystic ovary patients than in the other groups (p=0.014).
      Prevalence of glucose intolerance (p=0.186) and insulin resistance (p=0.293) was
      not statistically different in polycystic ovary and polycystic ovary with
      subclinical hypothyroidism. TSH levels showed positive correlation with lean body
      mass (p=0.032), total cholesterol (p=0.046, insulin (p=0.048) and prolactin
      (p=0.047). Backward multiple regression model retained TC, insulin, and PRL as
      predictors of TSH levels (p=0.011). CONCLUSION: Anthropometric parameters and
      ovary morphology were similar in both PCOS and PCOS-with-SCH patients. Regarding
      hormones, only C-peptide was higher in PCOS group. TSH correlated with total
      cholesterol, insulin, and prolactin. Before PCOS diagnosis, the exclusion
      criterion thyroid dysfunction should be standardized and subclinical
      hypothyroidism should not exclude a diagnosis of PCOS.

PMID- 28868251
TI  - Maternal and Fetal Tuberous Sclerosis: Do We Know Enough as an Obstetrician?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberous sclerosis, also known as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC),
      is a rare genetic condition that mainly causes hamartomas to develop in different
      parts of the body. TSC, an autosomal dominant trait with variable penetrance, can
      adversely affect maternal and fetal outcome. CASE PRESENTATION: In this paper, a
      case of maternal and fetal tuberous sclerosis having fetal cardiac rhabdomyoma
      detected in utero at 26 weeks was reported who subsequently had fetal demise at
      31 weeks. CONCLUSION: Tuberous sclerosis is a rare genetic condition that mainly
      causes development of hamartomas. In tuberous sclerosis, a cardiac rhabdomyoma is
      the only sign that can be detected prenatally. In maternal tuberous sclerosis,
      fetal ECHO is advisable after 24 weeks. A pregnancy complicated by maternal or
      fetal tuberous sclerosis deserves careful observation and the fetus should
      undergo prenatal fetal Doppler echocardiography and if possible magnetic
      resonance imaging for evaluation of other fetal structures including brain and
      renal parenchyma, so that parents can be counseled regarding its future
      prognostic implications. Tuberous sclerosis can lead to poor fetal outcome
      including intrauterine fetal death; hence regular antenatal follow up is
      required. Genetic counseling is recommended for couples who have a family history
      of tuberous sclerosis and who want to have children. Prenatal diagnosis is
      available for families with a known gene mutation or history of this condition.

PMID- 28868250
TI  - The Relationship Between Uterine Artery two-dimensional Color Doppler Measurement
      and Pregnancy Outcome: A Prospective Observational Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of uterine blood
      flow parameters measured by uterine artery two-dimensional (2D)-power color
      doppler (PCD) ultrasound in predicting fertility outcomes in women undergoing IVF
      ET cycles. METHODS: In this prospective observational study, a total of 188
      infertile women who underwent IVF-ET cycles were investigated. Uterine artery 2D
      PD measurements were taken during early follicular phase and on day of trigger.
      Pulsatility Index (PI), Resistant Index (RI), Peak Systolic Velocity (PSV), and
      Systolic/Diastolic ratio (S/D) were measured. Statistical correlation was sought
      between the doppler parameters and fertility outcomes. RESULTS: The pregnancy
      rate was 40.43% (76/188). The women who conceived (n= 76) (Group A) were found to
      have mean age of 31.2+/-3.9 years whereas the non-pregnant group of women (n=112)
      (Group B) had mean age of 31.45+/-4.25 years. The mean PI measurements
      subsequently during early follicular phase and on the day of hCG trigger between
      group A and group B were comparable (2.09+/-1.15 versus 1.9+/-0.95; p=0.385 and
      1.86+/-1.12 versus 2.03+/-1.0; p=0.192, respectively). No significant changes in
      the uterine artery PSV values and S/D values and RI were noted during the cycle.
      CONCLUSION: Uterine artery doppler evaluation in women undergoing IVF cycles was
      not predictive of the pregnancy outcomes.

PMID- 28868252
TI  - The Importance of Fertility Preservation Counseling in Patients with Gynecologic
      Cancer.

PMID- 28868253
TI  - Relationships between Regional Radiation Doses and Cognitive Decline in Children
      Treated with Cranio-Spinal Irradiation for Posterior Fossa Tumors.
AB  - Pediatric posterior fossa tumor (PFT) survivors who have been treated with
      cranial radiation therapy often suffer from cognitive impairments that might
      relate to IQ decline. Radiotherapy (RT) distinctly affects brain regions involved
      in different cognitive functions. However, the relative contribution of regional
      irradiation to the different cognitive impairments still remains unclear. We
      investigated the relationships between the changes in different cognitive scores
      and radiation dose distribution in 30 children treated for a PFT. Our exploratory
      analysis was based on a principal component analysis (PCA) and an ordinary least
      square regression approach. The use of a PCA was an innovative way to cluster
      correlated irradiated regions due to similar radiation therapy protocols across
      patients. Our results suggest an association between working memory decline and a
      high dose (equivalent uniform dose, EUD) delivered to the orbitofrontal regions,
      whereas the decline of processing speed seemed more related to EUD in the
      temporal lobes and posterior fossa. To identify regional effects of RT on
      cognitive functions may help to propose a rehabilitation program adapted to the
      risk of cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28868255
TI  - Resection of Gliomas with and without Neuropsychological Support during Awake
      Craniotomy-Effects on Surgery and Clinical Outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During awake craniotomy for tumor resection, a neuropsychologist (NP)
      is regarded as a highly valuable partner for neurosurgeons. However, some centers
      do not routinely involve an NP, and data to support the high influence of the NP
      on the perioperative course of patients are mostly lacking. OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in clinical outcomes
      between patients who underwent awake craniotomy with and without the attendance
      of an NP. METHODS: Our analysis included 61 patients, all operated on for
      resection of a presumably language-eloquent glioma during an awake procedure. Of
      these 61 cases, 47 surgeries were done with neuropsychological support (NP
      group), whereas 14 surgeries were performed without an NP (non-NP group) due to a
      language barrier between the NP and the patient. For these patients,
      neuropsychological assessment was provided by a bilingual resident. RESULTS: Both
      groups were highly comparable regarding age, gender, preoperative language
      function, and tumor grades (glioma WHO grades 1-4). Gross total resection (GTR)
      was achieved more frequently in the NP group (NP vs. non-NP: 61.7 vs. 28.6%, P =
      0.04), which also had shorter durations of surgery (NP vs. non-NP: 240.7 +/- 45.7
      vs. 286.6 +/- 54.8 min, P < 0.01). Furthermore, the rate of unexpected tumor
      residuals (estimation of the intraoperative extent of resection vs. postoperative
      imaging) was lower in the NP group (NP vs. non-NP: 19.1 vs. 42.9%, P = 0.09), but
      no difference was observed in terms of permanent surgery-related language
      deterioration (NP vs. non-NP: 6.4 vs. 14.3%, P = 0.48). CONCLUSION: We need
      professional neuropsychological evaluation during awake craniotomies for removal
      of presumably language-eloquent gliomas. Although these procedures are routinely
      carried out with an NP, this is one of the first studies to provide data
      supporting the NP's crucial role. Despite the small group size, our study shows
      statistically significant results, with higher rates of GTR and shorter durations
      of surgery among patients of the NP group. Moreover, our data emphasize the
      common problem of language barriers between the surgical and neuropsychological
      team and patients requiring awake tumor resection.

PMID- 28868256
TI  - Multiparametric MRI and [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography
      Imaging Is a Potential Prognostic Imaging Biomarker in Recurrent Glioblastoma.
AB  - PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: Multiparametric advanced MR and [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)
      positron emission tomography (PET) imaging may be important biomarkers for
      prognosis as well for distinguishing recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) from
      treatment-related changes. METHODS/MATERIALS: We retrospectively evaluated 30
      patients treated with chemoradiation for GBM and underwent advanced MR and FDG
      PET for confirmation of tumor progression. Multiparametric MRI and FDG-PET
      imaging metrics were evaluated for their association with 6-month overall (OS)
      and progression-free survival (PFS) based on pathological, radiographic, and
      clinical criteria. RESULTS: 17 males and 13 females were treated between 2001 and
      2014, and later underwent FDG-PET at suspected recurrence. Baseline FDG-PET and
      MRI imaging was obtained at a median of 7.5 months [interquartile range (IQR) 3.7
      12.4] following completion of chemoradiation. Median follow-up after FDG-PET
      imaging was 10 months (IQR 7.2-13.0). Receiver-operator characteristic curve
      analysis identified that lesions characterized by a ratio of the SUVmax to the
      normal contralateral brain (SUVmax/NB index) >1.5 and mean apparent diffusion
      coefficient (ADC) value of <=1,400 * 10-6 mm2/s correlated with worse 6-month OS
      and PFS. We defined three patient groups that predicted the probability of tumor
      progression: SUVmax/NB index >1.5 and ADC <=1,400 * 10-6 mm2/s defined high-risk
      patients (n = 7), SUVmax/NB index <=1.5 and ADC >1,400 * 10-6 mm2/s defined low
      risk patients (n = 11), and intermediate-risk (n = 12) defined the remainder of
      the patients. Median OS following the time of the FDG-PET scan for the low,
      intermediate, and high-risk groups were 23.5, 10.5, and 3.8 months (p < 0.01).
      Median PFS were 10.0, 4.4, and 1.9 months (p = 0.03). Rates of progression at 6
      months in the low, intermediate, and high-risk groups were 36, 67, and 86% (p =
      0.04). CONCLUSION: Recurrent GBM in the molecular era is associated with highly
      variable outcomes. Multiparametric MR and FDG-PET biomarkers may provide a
      clinically relevant, non-invasive and cost-effective method of predicting
      prognosis and improving clinical decision making in the treatment of patients
      with suspected tumor recurrence.

PMID- 28868257
TI  - Serum miRNAs as Biomarkers for the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Thyroid Cancer: A
      Comprehensive Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy and
      accounts for 1% of cancers. In recent years, there has been much interest in the
      feasibility of using miRNAs or miRNA panels as biomarkers for the diagnosis of
      thyroid cancer. miRNAs are noncoding RNAs with 21-23 nucleotides that are highly
      conserved during evolution. They have been proposed as regulators of gene
      expression, apoptosis, cancer, and cell growth and differentiation. METHODS: The
      Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Google Scholar, PubMed (NLM), LISTA
      (EBSCO), and Web of Science were searched. RESULTS: The serum level of miRNAs
      (miRNA-375, 34a, 145b, 221, 222, 155, Let-7, 181b) can be used as molecular
      markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid cancer in the serum samples of
      patients with thyroid glands. CONCLUSIONS: Given that most common methods for the
      screening of thyroid cancer cannot detect the disease in its early stages,
      identifying miRNAs that are released in the bloodstream during the gradual
      progression of the disease is considered a key method in the early diagnosis of
      thyroid cancers.

PMID- 28868254
TI  - Mitochondria-Associated Membranes As Networking Platforms and Regulators of
      Cancer Cell Fate.
AB  - The tight cross talk between two essential organelles of the cell, the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria, is spatially and functionally
      regulated by specific microdomains known as the mitochondria-associated membranes
      (MAMs). MAMs are hot spots of Ca2+ transfer between the ER and mitochondria, and
      emerging data indicate their vital role in the regulation of fundamental
      physiological processes, chief among them mitochondria bioenergetics,
      proteostasis, cell death, and autophagy. Moreover, and perhaps not surprisingly,
      it has become clear that signaling events regulated at the ER-mitochondria
      intersection regulate key processes in oncogenesis and in the response of cancer
      cells to therapeutics. ER-mitochondria appositions have been shown to dynamically
      recruit oncogenes and tumor suppressors, modulating their activity and protein
      complex formation, adapt the bioenergetic demand of cancer cells and to regulate
      cell death pathways and redox signaling in cancer cells. In this review, we
      discuss some emerging players of the ER-mitochondria contact sites in mammalian
      cells, the key processes they regulate and recent evidence highlighting the role
      of MAMs in shaping cell-autonomous and non-autonomous signals that regulate
      cancer growth.

PMID- 28868258
TI  - Thyroid Autoimmunity and Thyroid Cancer: Review Focused on Cytological Studies.
AB  - The association between Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) and papillary thyroid
      carcinoma (PTC) has been originally suggested by retrospective pathological
      studies and has recently been re-evaluated and proposed on the basis of several
      fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) studies. In FNAC studies, the association
      between HT and PTC is based on the comparison of anti-thyroid autoantibodies
      (ATA) (anti-thyroperoxidase [TPOAb] and anti-thyroglobulin [TgAb]), thyroid
      function (TSH), and cytology with histology of thyroid nodules and lymphocytic
      thyroid infiltration (LTI) of operated thyroid glands. Most of the pathological
      studies found a high prevalence rate of PTC in HT. In most FNAC studies, the risk
      ratio of PTC in HT patients was evaluated using multivariate statistical
      analysis: increased TSH levels represented the main and common independent risk
      factor of malignancy, although it resulted not consistently related to HT. On the
      other hand, several studies provided a positive relationship between ATA and PTC,
      particularly with TgAb. Two recent FNAC studies from the same referral center
      clearly demonstrated an independent risk for thyroid malignancy conferred by both
      TPOAb and TgAb, confirming the role of increased TSH levels, and found a
      significant association between PTC and ATA and diffuse LTI at histology. These
      studies are consistent with the hypothesis that autoimmune thyroid inflammation
      and increased serum TSH concentration may be involved in thyroid tumor growth.
      The complex relationship between HT and PTC, which involves
      immunological/hormonal pathogenic links, needs to be further investigated with
      prospective studies.

PMID- 28868260
TI  - TPOAb and Thyroid Function Are Not Associated with Breast Cancer Outcome:
      Evidence from a Large-Scale Study Using Data from the Taxotere as Adjuvant
      Chemotherapy Trial (TACT, CRUK01/001).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Small-scale studies correlated the presence of thyroid autoimmunity
      with both improved or worsened breast cancer outcome. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to
      clarify this association in a large cohort using the phase III, randomized,
      controlled Taxotere as Adjuvant Chemotherapy Trial (TACT, CRUK01/001). METHODS:
      TACT women >18 years old with node-positive or high-risk node-negative early
      breast cancer (pT1-3a, pN0-1, M0), with stored plasma (n = 1,974), taken 15.5
      (median; IQR 7.0-24.0) months after breast surgery were studied. Patients had
      also received chemotherapy (100%), radiotherapy (1,745/1,974; 88.4%), hormonal
      therapy (1,378/ 1,974; 69.8%), or trastuzumab (48/1,974; 2.4%). History of
      thyroid diseases and/or related treatments was not available. The prognostic
      significance of autoantibodies to thyroid peroxidase (TPOAb; positive >=6 kIU/L),
      free-thyroxine and thyrotropin (combined: euthyroid, hypothyroid, hyperthyroid)
      was evaluated for disease-free survival (DFS), overall-survival (OS), and time-to
      recurrence (TTR), with Cox regression models in univariate and multivariable
      analyses. The extended median follow-up was 97.5 months. RESULTS: No difference
      in DFS was found by TPOAb status (unadjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.97, 95%CI: 0.78
      1.19; p = 0.75) and/or thyroid function (unadjusted HR [hypothyroid vs.
      euthyroid]: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.79-1.68; p = 0.46; unadjusted HR [hyperthyroid vs.
      euthyroid]: 1.14, 95% CI: 0.82-1.61; p = 0.44). Similar results were obtained for
      OS, TTR, multivariable analyses, when TPOAb titre by tertiles was considered, and
      in a subgroup of 123 patients with plasma collected before adjuvant treatments.
      CONCLUSIONS: No evidence for a prognostic role of TPOAb and/or thyroid function
      in moderate-to-high-risk early breast cancer was found in the largest and longest
      observational study to date.

PMID- 28868259
TI  - Radioiodine Ablation following Thyroidectomy for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer:
      Literature Review of Utility, Dose, and Toxicity.
AB  - Management recommendations for differentiated thyroid cancer are evolving. Total
      thyroidectomy is the backbone of curative-intent therapy, with radioiodine
      ablation (RAI) of the thyroid remnant routinely performed, in order to facilitate
      serologic surveillance and reduce recurrence risk. Several single-institution
      series have identified patient subsets for whom recurrence risk is sufficiently
      low that RAI may not be indicated. Further, the appropriate dose of RAI specific
      to variable clinicopathologic presentations remains poorly defined. While recent
      randomized trials demonstrated equivalent thyroid remnant ablation rates between
      low- and high-dose RAI, long-term oncologic endpoints remain unreported. While
      RAI may be employed to facilitate surveillance following total thyroidectomy,
      cancer recurrence risk reduction is not demonstrated in favorable-risk patients
      with tumor size <=1 cm without high-risk pathologic features. When RAI is
      indicated, in patients without macroscopic residual disease or metastasis, the
      evidence suggests that the rate of successful remnant ablation following total
      thyroidectomy is equivalent between doses of 30-50 mCi and doses >=100 mCi, with
      fewer acute side effects; however, in the setting of subtotal thyroidectomy or
      when preablation diagnostic scan uptake is >2%, higher doses are associated with
      improved ablation rates. Historical series demonstrate conflicting findings of
      long-term cancer control rates between dose levels; long-term results from modern
      series have yet to be reported. For high-risk patients, including those with
      positive surgical margins, gross extrathyroidal extension, lymph node
      involvement, subtotal thyroidectomy, or >5% uptake, higher-dose RAI therapy
      appears to provide superior rates of ablation and cancer control.

PMID- 28868261
TI  - Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Is Not Associated with Thyroid Hormone Levels
      and Hypothyroidism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether hypothyroidism is related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
      (NAFLD) is unclear. Thyroid dysfunction is closely related with components of
      metabolic syndrome. Given the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome,
      several studies have investigated the association between NAFLD and thyroid
      dysfunction and have demonstrated inconsistent results. Thus, we conducted a
      systematic review and meta-analysis to better characterize the association
      between NAFLD and thyroid dysfunction. METHODS: MEDLINE and Embase were searched
      through July 2016. The primary outcome was the association between NAFLD and
      subclinical, overt, and overall hypothyroidism. The secondary outcome was the
      difference in thyroid hormone levels (free triiodothyronine [FT3], free thyroxine
      [FT4], or thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH]) between NAFLD patients and non-NAFLD
      controls. Pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% CI were calculated using a random
      effects model. All continuous data are summarized as the mean difference along
      with 95% CI. RESULTS: Data were extracted from 14 studies involving 7,191 NAFLD
      patients and 30,003 controls. NAFLD was not associated with subclinical, overt,
      or overall hypothyroidism compared with non-NAFLD controls. Patients who had
      NAFLD did not show a significant difference in FT3, FT4, or TSH compared with non
      NAFLD controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis demonstrates no significant
      association between NAFLD and subclinical, overt, or overall hypothyroidism, and
      we also found no significant difference in thyroid hormone levels between
      participants with and without NAFLD.

PMID- 28868262
TI  - A Cervical Schwannoma Masquerading as a Thyroid Nodule.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We present a case of a cervical schwannoma, likely originating from
      the pharyngeal plexus of the vagal nerve. The lesion masqueraded as a thyroid
      nodule and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assisted in preoperative diagnosis.
      We review the radiographic characteristics of nerve sheath tumors on MRI as well
      as the diagnostic cytologic stains which can enhance the possibility of a correct
      preoperative diagnosis. CASE: We describe a 60-year-old female with dysphagia and
      a neck mass consistent with a nodular goiter. The patient's history, diagnostic
      images, cytology, pathology, and surgical management are presented and analyzed.
      The preoperative diagnosis of a cervical schwannoma was suspected by the use of
      MRI which led to additional specialized cytologic stains. CONCLUSION: Pharyngeal
      wall schwannomas are important to consider in the differential diagnosis of
      thyroid nodules when fine needle aspiration cytology indicates cells of neural
      origin. Imaging by MRI can assist in identifying lesions of neural origin
      masquerading as thyroid nodules.

PMID- 28868263
TI  - Next Generation Sequencing and Association Studies in Familial Nonmedullary
      Thyroid Carcinoma: Let's Choose Appropriate Controls.

PMID- 28868264
TI  - The Role of Long Non Coding RNAs in the Repair of DNA Double Strand Breaks.
AB  - DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are abrasions caused in both strands of the DNA
      duplex following exposure to both exogenous and endogenous conditions. Such
      abrasions have deleterious effect in cells leading to genome rearrangements and
      cell death. A number of repair systems including homologous recombination (HR)
      and non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) have been evolved to minimize the fatal
      effects of these lesions in cell. The role of protein coding genes in regulation
      of these pathways has been assessed previously. However, a number of recent
      studies have focused on evaluation of non-coding RNAs participation in DNA
      repair. We performed a computerized search of the Medline/ Pubmed databases with
      key words: DNA repair, homologous recombination, non-homologues end joining and
      long non-coding RNA (LncRNA). The existing data highlight the role of long non
      coding RNAs in DSB repair as well as dysregulation in their expression which
      would lead to pathological conditions such as cancer. The specific mechanism of
      their contribution in DNA repair pathways has been elucidated for a few of them.
      LncRNAs participate in several steps of DNA repair pathways and regulate the
      expression of key components of these pathways including p53 tumor suppressor
      gene.

PMID- 28868265
TI  - MeDIP Real-Time qPCR has the Potential for Noninvasive Prenatal Screening of
      Fetal Trisomy 21.
AB  - This study aimed to verify the reliability of the 7 tissue differentially
      methylated regions used in the methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) real-
      time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time qPCR) based approach of
      fetal DNA in maternal blood to diagnosis of fetal trisomy 21. Forty pregnant
      women with high risk pregnancy who were referred after first or second trimester
      screening tests, were selected randomly. For each sample whole DNA extraction
      (mother and fetus), fragmentation of DNA, immunoprecipitation of methylated DNA
      and real- time qPCR using 7 primer pairs was performed. D-value for each sample
      was calculated using the following formula D = -4.908+ 0.254 XEP1+ 0.409 XEP4+
      0.793 XEP5+ 0.324 XEP6+ 0.505 XEP7+ 0.508 XEP9+ 0.691 XEP12. In all normal cases,
      D value was negative, while it was positive in all trisomy cases. Therefore, all
      normal and trisomy 21 cases were classified correctly which correspond to 100%
      specificity and 100% sensitivity for this method. The MeDIP real-time qPCR method
      has provided the opportunity for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal trisomy
      21 to be potentially employed into the routine practice of diagnostic
      laboratories.

PMID- 28868266
TI  - Evaluation of Placental mir-155-5p and Long Non-coding RNA sONE Expression in
      Patients with Severe Pre-eclampsia.
AB  - It has been well documented that preeclampsia (PE) has a common etiological
      background, but little is known about its linkage at the molecular level.Non-
      coding RNAs are critical posttranscriptional regulators ofgene expression. This
      study was performed to determine whether PE is associated with alterations in
      placental non-coding RNAs expression. MicroRNA (miR)-155-5p and long non-coding
      RNA (lnc)sONE expression, in placentas collected sequentially from 59 patients
      with PE and 40 normotensive pregnancies were measured using real-time PCR.The
      relationship between miR-155-5p and lncsONE expressions was analyzed
      statistically. miR-155-5p expression was increased (fold change =1.6, P=0.04),
      while lncsONE expression was not significantly changed (fold change =1.1,
      P=0.68), in placentas from patients compared with control group.miR-155-5p was
      upregulated in placentas from patients with PE and may have influenced eNOS
      expression. These findings indicate that miRNA-155-5p may be involved in PE
      pathogenesis and could be a potential biomarker for this disease.

PMID- 28868267
TI  - Analysis of Two CDKN2B-AS Polymorphisms in Relation to Coronary Artery Disease
      Patients in North of Iran.
AB  - Coronary artery disease (CAD) including myocardial infarction (MI) as its
      complication, is one of the most common heart diseases worldwide and also in
      Iran, with extremely elevated mortality. CAD is a multifactorial disorder. Twin
      and family studies at different loci have demonstrated that genetic factors have
      an important role in the progression of CAD. Many studies have reported a
      significant association of CDKN2B-AS, also known as ANRIL which is located within
      the p15, p16, p14 gene cluster at 9p21 locus, with cardiovascular diseases as
      well as many other diseases like diabetes and cancers. This study investigated
      two polymorphisms rs10757274 and rs1333042 of CDKN2B-AS gene at 9p21 locus. 205
      subjects, comprising 102 controls and 103 CAD patients were genotyped by TaqMan
      probe real time PCR technique and haplotypes were examined. This study confirmed
      the association of rs10757274 variants with CAD in Iranian patients (P= 0.003)
      but genotype and allele distributions of CAD and control groups showed no
      significant association for the rs1333042. However, frequency of the [G;G]
      haplotype of these two SNPs was significantly higher in CAD group (P= 0.0002,
      Odds Ratio = 3.1, 95% CI = 1.7-5.7). Our finding suggests that [G; G] haplotype
      of rs10757274 and rs1333042 may be considered as a genetic risk factor for
      susceptibility to CAD in Iranian patients.

PMID- 28868268
TI  - Effect of Concentrated Apple Extract on Experimental Colitis Induced by Acetic
      Acid.
AB  - Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) play a crucial role in
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) exacerbating the chronic inflammatory process.
      Endogenous and diet antioxidants can neutralize these compounds. The apple is
      widely consumed, with several antioxidant activity compounds. The present study
      evaluated the effects of concentrated apple extract (CAE) in acetic acid induced
      colitis. 29 Wistar male rats were randomized into 5 groups. G1-Sham/saline
      solution, G2-CAE/control, G3-acetic acid/control, G4-curative- CAE treatment and
      G5-preventive-CAE treatment. Eight days later, the animals were euthanized and
      the colonic segment resected for macroscopic and histological analysis. Gene
      expression was evaluated for inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS),
      cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), catalase and copper and zinc superoxide dismutase
      (CuZnSOD) by quantitative real time PCR, while protein expression was assessed
      for iNOS, COX-2 and 8-hydroxy-20-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) via
      immunohistochemistry. The groups G3, G4 and G5 had weight loss, while G5 had
      weight increase at the end of the experiment. The treatment with CAE reduced the
      macroscopic and microscopic injury, decreased iNOS mRNA expression and increased
      CuZnSOD mRNA expression in animals with induced acetic acid-colitis. The findings
      of the present study suggest that CAE treatment exerts an antioxidant role by
      downregulating iNOS and upregulating CuZnSOD.

PMID- 28868269
TI  - Determination of Bacteriocin Genes and Antibacterial Activity of Lactobacillus
      Strains Isolated from Fecal of Healthy Individuals.
AB  - Lactobacillus species play a major role in gastrointestinal (GI) tract function,
      intestinal microbiota balance, and the immune system activity by exerting a
      strong activity against many intestinal pathogens. The aim of this study was to
      isolate Lactobacillus species from fecal samples, investigate their antimicrobial
      properties, and characterize their bacteriocin encoding genes. 48 fecal samples
      were grown in MRS broth and then MRS agar. The colonies grown in MRS agar were
      selected and identified by PCR. 72 Lactobacillus species were obtained from 434
      lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains. Approximately 40% of all Lactobacillus
      isolates had antimicrobial activity against one or more microorganisms and 17.4%
      of them were active against all four indicator bacteria. The frequency of
      bacteriocin encoding genes were 5 (6.9%), 3 (4.1%) and 5 (6.9%) for Gassericin A,
      Plantaricin S and Laf operon, respectively. pH alteration had no effect on
      antibacterial activity, but in the alkaline range these activities were reduced
      and the strains showed the highest antibacterial activity after 48 h incubation.
      These data indicate that the majority of isolates were susceptible to GI tract or
      belonged to other bacterial forms such as viable but nonculturable (VBNC). The
      detection of bacteriocin encoding genes in about only 6% of all Lactobacillus
      isolates seems to be due to the existence of many other bacteriocin encoding
      genes in Lactobacillus species which were not tested. Further study of the
      bacteriocin gene clusters, types, subtypes and the probiotic effect of these
      strains will contribute to a better characterization of these isolates.

PMID- 28868270
TI  - Torque Teno Virus (TTV) Among beta-Thalassemia and Haemodialysis Patients in
      Mazandaran Province (North of Iran).
AB  - Torque Teno virus (TTV) is a transfusion transmitted virus that seems to be
      involved in several complications such as acute respiratory diseases, liver
      diseases, AIDS, cancer, and autoimmune reactions. In the present study the
      frequency of TTV was investigated among beta- thalassemia (BT) and haemodialysis
      (HD) patients (high risk patients for TTV) in Mazandaran province, Iran. DNA was
      extracted from the serum of 82 BT and 100 HD patients, and nested PCR method was
      applied to detect TTV DNA. The aspartate transaminase(AST) and alanine
      transaminase (ALT) enzyme levels in BT patients were measured using photometric
      assay. The mean age of BT and HD patients as 23.4+/-5.4 and 48.8+/-8.2 years,
      respectively. 21% of HD and 26.8% of BT patients were infected with TTV,
      respectively. The frequency of TTV was not significantly different between two
      groups of patients and there was no significant correlation between sex and TTV
      infection. The mean AST and ALT levels in TTV positive BT patients was not
      significantly higher than TTV negative cases. The present study showed that TTV
      prevalence in BT patients with recurrent blood transfusion was not significantly
      higher than HD patients. The investigation of TTV prevalence in healthy
      individuals is recommended to identify if transfusion or dialysis is associated
      with higher TTV infection. Besides, although TTV infection did not change the AST
      and ALT enzymes in BT patients, the liver involvement may still exist in these
      patients.

PMID- 28868271
TI  - Prenatal Diagnosis of Mosaic Tetrasomy 18p in a Case without Sonographic
      Abnormalities.
AB  - Small supernumerary marker chromosomes (sSMC) are still a major problem in
      clinical cytogenetics as they cannot be identified or characterized unambiguously
      by conventional cytogenetics alone. On the other hand, and perhaps more
      importantly in prenatal settings, there is a challenging situation for counseling
      how to predict the risk for an abnormal phenotype, especially in cases with a de
      novo sSMC. Here we report on the prenatal diagnosis of a mosaic tetrasomy 18p due
      to presence of an sSMC in a fetus without abnormal sonographic signs. For a 26
      year-old, gravida 2 (para 1) amniocentesis was done due to consanguineous
      marriage and concern for Down syndrome, based on borderline risk assessment.
      Parental karyotypes were normal, indicating a de novo chromosome aberration of
      the fetus. FISH analysis as well as molecular karyotyping identified the sSMC as
      an i(18)(pter->q10:q10->pter), compatible with tetrasomy for the mentioned
      region. Cordocentesis was done due to normal sonography and the results from
      amniocentesis were confirmed. The parents opted for pregnancy termination and
      post mortem examination now noted, low anterior hairline, large philtrum, low-set
      posteriorly rotated malformed ears with prominent antihelix, lower limbs joint
      contracture and digital anomalies, including long and narrow toes with
      clinodactyly of the 1st and 5th toes and postaxial polydactyly of one hand. De
      novo i(18p) can be considered as a special case in the sense that the major
      relevant phenotypes mentioned for it, i.e. feeding difficulties, abnormalities in
      muscle tone and developmental/mental retardation, cognitive and behavioral
      characteristics, recurrent otitis media and seizures, are mostly postnatal. This
      emphasizes the necessity to determine the nature of a de novo euchromatic marker
      chromosome, especially in cases with normal ultrasound result and the suitability
      of a cordocentesis in order to better predicting the pregnancy outcome and
      parental counseling.

PMID- 28868272
TI  - Readiness for Radiological and Nuclear Events among Emergency Medical Personnel.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among medical providers, even though radiological and nuclear events
      are recognized as credible threats, there is a lack of knowledge and fear about
      the medical consequences among medical personnel which could significantly affect
      the treatment of patients injured and/or contaminated in such scenarios. This
      study was conducted to evaluate the relative knowledge, willingness to respond,
      and familiarity with nuclear/radiological contamination risks among U.S. and
      Japanese emergency medical personnel. METHODS: An institutional review board
      approved anonymous paper survey was distributed at various medical and disaster
      conferences and medicine courses in Japan and in the U.S. The surveys were
      written in Japanese and English and collected information on the following four
      categories: generalized demographics, willingness to manage, knowledge of
      disaster systems, and contamination risks. RESULTS: A total of 418 surveys were
      completed and collected. Demographics showed that physicians and prehospital
      responders were the prevalent survey responders. The majority of responders,
      despite self-professed disaster training, were still very uncomfortable with and
      unaware how to respond to a radiological/nuclear event. CONCLUSION: Despite some
      educational coverage in courses and a limited number of disaster events, it is
      concluded that there is a lack of comfort and knowledge regarding nuclear and
      radiological events among the medical community. It is recommended that
      considerable development and subsequent distribution is needed to better educate
      and prepare the medical community for inevitable upcoming radiological/nuclear
      events.

PMID- 28868273
TI  - Obesity, Underweight, and Smoking Are Associated with Worse Cardiorespiratory
      Fitness in Finnish Healthy Young Men: A Population-Based Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity and smoking are strongly associated with worse
      cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). Most previous studies that have examined the
      association of body composition with CRF have neither assessed non-linearity nor
      separately examined the effects of underweight. Thus, very little is known on how
      underweight affects CRF. Possible joint effects of obesity and smoking on CRF
      have not been adequately explored. AIMS: We examined the association between body
      mass index (BMI) and smoking with CRF in 1,629 Finnish army conscripts. We
      focused on non-linear effects of BMI in order to assess the importance of
      underweight. We also examined whether the cooccurrence of obesity and smoking
      potentiates their deleterious effects on CRF. METHODS: We used the Cooper's 12
      minute run test (12MR) to measure CRF. The 12MR score was analyzed as continuous
      (linear, polynomial, and restricted cubic spline regression) and categorical. In
      categorical analyses, we used binary logistic regression with the 12MR score in
      two groups (low = lowest quintile vs. intermediate/high = quintiles 2-5) and
      multinomial logistic regression with the 12MR score in three groups (low = lowest
      quintile, intermediate = quintiles 2 and 3, and high = quintiles 4 and 5).
      RESULTS: Non-linearity in the spline model was statistically significant (p <
      0.001). In addition, the non-linear models had a clearly better fit than the
      linear one in terms of Akaike Information Criterion and R-squared values. There
      was a statistically significant interaction between smoking and BMI (p < 0.01).
      In the categorical analysis, overweight/obese regular smokers were at a
      particularly high risk of not achieving high CRF. CONCLUSION: In healthy young
      men, not only overweight/obesity but also underweight may be associated with
      worse CRF. This provides a potential mechanism for the previously reported
      association between underweight and increased mortality. The cooccurrence of
      overweight/obesity and regular smoking may have a deleterious effect on CRF.

PMID- 28868274
TI  - Advancing Physical Therapy Practice through Curriculum Revision: The Malawi
      Experience.
AB  - Challenged health systems are a motivation for health education reform. Although
      resources-limited areas cover our planet, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest
      disease burden, yet the lowest health-care provider and medical school density of
      any region in the world. Malawi is among the most under-resourced countries in
      the world. While much of the data focus on dental, medical, and psychiatric
      service provision, physical therapists are also in short supply. Among the
      barriers to achieving the recommended standards for physical therapist education,
      African physiotherapists (the term for "physical therapists" in Africa) identify
      limited training opportunities, limited research education, and limited resources
      and funding. The purpose of this article is to describe an international
      partnership for strengthening the Malawian physiotherapist workforce capacity
      through curriculum revision in the Department of Physiotherapy at the University
      of Malawi's College of Medicine.

PMID- 28868275
TI  - Recurrent Orbital Solitary Fibrous Tumor in a 12-Year-Old.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the clinical features and pathology of orbital solitary
      fibrous tumors and present a case of a recurrence in a 12-year-old boy. METHODS:
      Case Report. RESULTS: A 12-year-old boy presented to our institution with double
      vision in upgaze for 6 months. Examination revealed 3 mm of left-sided proptosis,
      hypoglobus, and -3 impairment of supraduction. Magnetic resonance imaging of the
      orbits showed an avidly enhancing mass within the superolateral aspect of the
      orbit. Biopsy revealed a solitary fibrous tumor with STAT6 and CD34 positivity.
      Positron emission tomography-computed tomography was negative for metastatic
      disease. The tumor underwent excision. However, 4 months postoperatively, imaging
      revealed changes consistent with recurrence. A repeat lateral orbitotomy with
      orbital rim marginotomy was performed with complete gross excision of the tumor.
      The patient remains tumor-free 22 months after reoperation. CONCLUSION: Orbital
      solitary fibrous tumor rarely occurs in the pediatric population. Despite initial
      complete gross tumor excision, this case represents the youngest individual with
      a recurrence to the authors' knowledge. This case of rapid recurrence may have
      been due to tumor seeding at the time of initial biopsy or other factors. This
      case increases the known spectrum of orbital solitary fibrous tumors.

PMID- 28868276
TI  - Uveal Melanoma Regression after Brachytherapy: Relationship with Chromosome 3
      Monosomy Status.
AB  - AIM: The objective was to evaluate the relationship between the regression rate
      of ciliary body melanoma and choroidal melanoma after brachytherapy and
      chromosome 3 monosomy status. METHODS: We conducted a prospective and consecutive
      case series of patients who underwent biopsy and brachytherapy for
      ciliary/choroidal melanoma. Tumor biopsy performed at the time of radiation
      plaque placement was analyzed with fluorescence in situ hybridization to
      determine the percentage of tumor cells with chromosome 3 monosomy. The
      regression rate was calculated as the percent change in tumor height at months 3,
      6, and 12. The relationship between regression rate and tumor location, initial
      tumor height, and chromosome 3 monosomy (percentage) was assessed by univariate
      linear regression (R version 3.1.0). RESULTS: Of the 75 patients included in the
      study, 8 had ciliary body melanoma, and 67 were choroidal melanomas. The mean
      tumor height at the time of diagnosis was 5.2 mm (range: 1.90-13.00). The
      percentage composition of chromosome 3 monosomy ranged from 0-20% (n = 35) to 81
      100% (n = 40). The regression of tumor height at months 3, 6, and 12 did not
      statistically correlate with tumor location (ciliary or choroidal), initial tumor
      height, or chromosome 3 monosomy (percentage). CONCLUSION: The regression rate of
      choroidal melanoma following brachytherapy did not correlate with chromosome 3
      monosomy status.

PMID- 28868277
TI  - Extramedullary Relapse of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Presenting as a Large Serous
      Retinal Detachment.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: To describe the rare presentation of a large, unilateral, serous
      retinal detachment as an extramedullary manifestation of acute myelogenous
      leukemia (AML) recurrence without bone marrow or central nervous system
      involvement after more than 1 year of follow-up. METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: A
      teenage patient with AML, previously treated with multiple courses of systemic
      chemotherapy, radiation, and bone marrow transplant, presented with acute vision
      loss. Ophthalmic workup revealed a large, unilateral, bullous, serous retinal
      detachment. Ultimately, he underwent subretinal fluid biopsy, which was found to
      be positive for leukemic blast cells. Cytologic markers matched his initial bone
      marrow biopsy, and therefore were diagnostic of extramedullary AML relapse.
      CONCLUSIONS: Leukemia can cause various ophthalmic manifestations. Autopsy
      studies suggest that choroidal infiltration is relatively common, but clinical
      progression to serous retinal detachment is quite uncommon. Furthermore, serous
      retinal detachment is generally shallow, posterior, and much more often reported
      in acute lymphocytic leukemia. The ophthalmologist plays a critical role in
      identifying leukemic ocular involvement. This case demonstrates the potential for
      ocular biopsy to secure the diagnosis of extramedullary relapse in order to
      initiate prompt treatment and systemic workup.

PMID- 28868278
TI  - Conjunctival Melanoma during Pregnancy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe the clinical and histopathological features of a
      conjunctival melanoma (CM) during early pregnancy. PROCEDURES: A 37-year-old, 20
      week pregnant primigravida was referred to the Sheffield Ocular Oncology Service
      with a rapidly growing lesion arising from the right superior conjunctival
      fornix, noted from the first trimester of pregnancy. This was associated with
      pain and bloody discharge. Incisional biopsy confirmed the clinical suspicion of
      invasive CM. She was treated by primary surgical excision and cryotherapy under
      local anaesthesia. RESULTS: Histology of the excised specimen showed an invasive
      malignant melanoma with surrounding in situ conjunctival changes arising from a
      naevus. The melanoma was 10.5 mm thick, focally necrotic, and had a mitotic count
      of 11/mm2 focally. The patient responded well to surgical treatment. She gave
      birth to a healthy boy, and the placenta showed no evidence of metastatic
      melanoma. There has been no recurrence or distant metastasis during 5 years of
      follow-up. CONCLUSION: CM during pregnancy is extremely rare. Because of possible
      transformation to malignant melanoma, we recommend close monitoring of females
      known to have pigmented conjunctival lesions of the conjunctiva during pregnancy.

PMID- 28868279
TI  - Dural Arteriovenous Fistula Presenting with Purely Contralateral Ophthalmic
      Manifestations.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case of dural arteriovenous fistula presenting with purely
      contralateral ophthalmic manifestations. DESIGN: Interventional case report.
      RESULTS: A 70-year-old male presenting with right-sided proptosis, injection, and
      choroidal effusions with a completely quiet fellow eye was found to have a left
      sided dural arteriovenous fistula. After recognition on cerebral angiography,
      successful endovascular embolization was achieved, along with complete resolution
      of the contralateral ocular signs. CONCLUSIONS: Entirely unilateral ocular signs
      suggestive of an intracranial arteriovenous fistula may herald the presence of a
      contralateral vascular lesion.

PMID- 28868280
TI  - Optic Disc Pyogenic Granuloma.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this paper was to report a rare presentation of adenoid cystic
      carcinoma. METHOD: This is a case report presenting clinical, radiographic, and
      histopathologic findings. RESULTS: A 72-year-old female with no reported ocular
      symptoms was found to have an incidental right orbital mass on imaging.
      Additional studies revealed multiple liver lesions, which were biopsied and found
      to be consistent with adenoid cystic carcinoma. She was then referred to the
      ophthalmology service, where ocular examination demonstrated 2.5 mm of right
      proptosis with elevation and abduction deficits. Diplopia could be elicited in
      extreme upgaze and right lateral gaze. An excisional biopsy of the orbital mass
      was performed, with histopathology confirming the diagnosis of primary adenoid
      cystic carcinoma of the lacrimal gland, thereby also supporting the initial
      suspicion that the hepatic adenoid cystic carcinoma lesions represented
      metastases. CONCLUSION: The authors describe a rare presentation of adenoid
      cystic carcinoma of the lacrimal gland, initially asymptomatic, with metastatic
      lesions restricted to the liver at the time of diagnosis. Three previous cases of
      adenoid cystic carcinoma with isolated metastatic hepatic lesions at the time of
      diagnosis have been reported; all of these cases localized the primary tumor to
      the salivary glands.

PMID- 28868281
TI  - Multiple Pigmented Conjunctival Lesions following Intravitreal Injections in a
      Patient with Uveal Melanoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: This paper reports a case of pigmented conjunctival lesions after
      intravitreal injections in a patient who received brachytherapy for uveal
      melanoma. METHODS: Clinical and histopathological examination of the pigmented
      conjunctival lesions was performed. RESULTS: A 57-year-old male who was treated
      with brachytherapy for uveal melanoma developed radiation retinopathy. Following
      intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections, 2
      pigmented conjunctival spots appeared at the injection sites. After excision of
      the lesions, histopathology showed pigment-loaded macrophages, with no signs of
      active tumour cells. CONCLUSION: Two conjunctival lesions that appeared following
      uveal melanoma brachytherapy and anti-VEGF injections were excised under
      suspicion of tumour seeding. Histopathology, however, showed aggregates of
      pigment-loaded macrophages.

PMID- 28868282
TI  - Growth of Uveal Melanoma following Intravitreal Bevacizumab.
AB  - PURPOSE: Typically treatment of large melanomas (by Collaborative Ocular Melanoma
      Study criteria) is restricted to enucleation, due to size constraints for plaque
      brachytherapy. Because primary and metastatic uveal melanoma cells are inhibited
      by bevacizumab (an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor), this prospective
      study evaluated the impact of intravitreal bevacizumab on large uveal melanomas
      that were destined for enucleation. Size reduction by bevacizumab would
      potentially salvage these eyes by making them eligible for treatment with plaque
      brachytherapy. PROCEDURES: Two patients with large uveal melanoma were each
      treated with one intravitreous injection of bevacizumab (1.25 mg/0.05 mL).
      RESULTS: Both tumors displayed paradoxical growth 1 week following the injection,
      with confirmed growth 1 week later (increase from baseline of 1.1 mm in one eye
      and 3.1 mm in the other eye). Both eyes were enucleated and monosomy 3 and
      vasculogenic mimicry patterns were identified in both tumors. At 9 years follow
      up, both patients were alive and metastasis free. CONCLUSION: These patients
      demonstrate that neoadjuvant intravitreous bevacizumab does not decrease the size
      of large uveal melanomas and may, in fact, result in their paradoxical growth.
      This observation supports a cautious approach in the use of intravitreous
      bevacizumab for uveal melanoma, particularly in the neoadjuvant setting.

PMID- 28868283
TI  - Uveal Ganglioneuroma due to Germline PTEN Mutation (Cowden Syndrome) Presenting
      as Unilateral Infantile Glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Uveal ganglioneuroma is a rare tumor that usually occurs in association
      with neurofibromatosis type 1. Here, we present a rare case of a uveal
      ganglioneuroma leading to a diagnosis of the tumor predisposition condition
      Cowden syndrome. PROCEDURES: A 5-year-old girl with unilateral refractory
      glaucoma secondary to diffuse iris and choroidal thickening developed a blind,
      painful eye. Enucleation was performed, and histopathology revealed infiltration
      of the entire uveal tract by neoplastic spindle cells containing admixed ganglion
      cells diagnostic of uveal ganglioneuroma. Targeted next-generation sequencing of
      510 cancer-associated genes was performed on tumor tissue and peripheral blood.
      RESULTS: A germline nonsense mutation in the PTEN gene was found, accompanied by
      loss of heterozygosity in the tumor. A diagnosis of Cowden syndrome was made, for
      which the family sought genetic counseling and initiated the recommended cancer
      screening. CONCLUSIONS: A novel association is found between uveal ganglioneuroma
      and Cowden syndrome, emphasizing the value of genetic tissue testing in managing
      patients with rare ocular tumors.

PMID- 28868284
TI  - Eye Salvage with Combination of Intravitreal and Intracameral Melphalan Injection
      for Recurrent Retinoblastoma with Anterior Chamber Involvement: Report of a Case.
AB  - AIMS: Herein we report successful eye salvage following combined intravitreal and
      intracameral administration of melphalan for anterior chamber recurrence of
      retinoblastoma. METHODS: A 12-month-old boy was referred with a sporadic
      bilateral retinoblastoma staged as group D and V in the right eye and group E and
      V in the left eye. Treatment initially involved 6 cycles of 3 drugs followed by
      focal treatments. The left eye was enucleated. Three months after the end of
      systemic chemotherapy, multiple recurrent lesions were noted in the ciliary body
      and the anterior chamber. A series of intravitreal (IVT) and intracameral (IC)
      injections of melphalan combined with a 7th cycle of systemic chemotherapy was
      performed. The therapeutic schedule alternated: week A an IVT of melphalan (30
      MUg/0.1 mL) for a total of 4 versus week B IC injections of melphalan (15
      MUg/0.05 mL) 4 IC in total. Each injection was preceded by an anterior chamber.
      Cryotherapy to the injection punctures was systematically performed. RESULTS:
      Rapidly, iris and ciliary body nodules regressed completely based on clinical and
      ultrasound biomicroscopic examinations. After 3 years of follow-up, the patient
      has shown no evidence of recurrence. CONCLUSION: In our patient, combined IVT and
      IC administration of melphalan proved highly efficacious in eradicating the
      ciliary body and anterior chamber disease and salvage of his one remaining
      functional eye.

PMID- 28868286
TI  - Clinical and Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Appearance of Optic
      Disc Melanocytoma: A New Classification and Differentiation from Pigmented
      Choroidal Lesions.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this paper was to compare the features of both the classic,
      darkly pigmented and the atypical, more lightly pigmented optic disc melanocytoma
      with those of pigmented choroidal lesions. METHODS: We analyzed the spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) features of 9 eyes with optic disc
      melanocytoma and compared them with those of choroidal melanoma and nevus.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We identified 2 categories of SD-OCT findings in optic
      disc melanocytoma: (a) type 1, the typical, prominent, hyperpigmented lesion with
      SD-OCT findings of a hyperreflective, disorganized overlying retina and a
      posterior hyporeflective shadow, and (b) the less common, atypical, minimally
      pigmented type 2 lesion overlaid by a relatively well-organized retina that lacks
      a posterior hyporeflective shadow. Choroidal lesions were characterized by tumor
      confined beneath the clearly visible hyperreflective line of the photoreceptor
      and retinal pigment epithelium, with minimal disorganization of the overlying
      retina.

PMID- 28868285
TI  - Systemic BRAF/MEK Inhibitors as a Potential Treatment Option in Metastatic
      Conjunctival Melanoma.
AB  - AIM: In this review, we outline similarities between conjunctival and skin
      melanoma as well as the effectiveness of combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in
      melanoma, and discuss the applicability of these agents in conjunctival melanoma.
      METHODS: The study provides a PubMed literature review. RESULTS: Conjunctival
      melanoma and skin melanoma are genetically and phenotypically related. Both
      tumors typically harbor BRAF mutations in more than 50% of cases. New targeted
      therapies in metastatic skin melanoma include selective inhibition of BRAF and
      MEK. Combined BRAF/MEK inhibition has revolutionized the treatment of metastatic
      skin melanoma, significantly improving patients' prognoses. While these new
      substances have been investigated extensively in the treatment of skin melanoma,
      comparable studies in conjunctival melanoma do not exist owing to the rarity of
      the malignancy. CONCLUSIONS: The application of combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in
      metastatic or unresectable conjunctival melanoma shows great potential for
      improving patients' prognoses. Future studies are needed to investigate the
      assumed benefit.

PMID- 28868287
TI  - Intracameral Chemotherapy (Melphalan) for Aqueous Seeding in Retinoblastoma:
      Bicameral Injection Technique and Related Toxicity in a Pilot Case Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The anterior chamber has been shown by pharmacokinetic studies to
      represent a sanctuary never achieving a tumoricidal dose with the present
      administration routes, such as systemic, intra-arterial, or intravitreal
      injections. METHOD: A novel intracameral chemotherapy technique is described to
      control aqueous seeding in a pilot unilateral group E retinoblastoma case with
      primary aqueous seeding. Anterior segment toxicity was carefully monitored.
      RESULTS: Control of the retinal tumor and vitreous seeding was achieved by intra
      arterial and intravitreal chemotherapies. Sterilization of the aqueous was
      achieved after a first cycle of 7 melphalan injections in the anterior chamber,
      but relapse was noted 3.5 months later. This relapse was finally controlled with
      a second cycle of 6 intracameral injections targeting the posterior chamber.
      Corneal endothelial cell density remained stable over the injection period.
      Heterochromia and a progressive cataract developed, which required cataract
      surgery. At 5 years' follow-up, the patient is tumor free with normal vision
      (20/20 in both eyes), full binocularity, and no metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: The
      present bicameral injection technique appears to be safe and effective with
      limited toxicity. Melphalan-induced side effects were noted on the iris and lens
      but with no impact on the final visual function.

PMID- 28868288
TI  - Uveal Melanoma with Histopathologic Intratumoral Heterogeneity Associated with
      Gene Expression Profile Discordance.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case of intratumoral gene expression profile discordance in
      a malignant uveal melanoma, associated with intratumoral heterogeneity based upon
      histopathologic features. METHODS: The clinical history, fundus findings, imaging
      and histopathologic features, and DecisionDx-UM gene expression profile results
      (Castle Biosciences, Inc., Phoenix, AZ, USA) of the tumor were reviewed. RESULTS:
      A trans-retinal fine-needle aspiration biopsy was performed for a thin, pigmented
      choroidal tumor in a 33-year-old man. Cells obtained from this biopsy were tested
      using the DecisionDx-UM gene expression profile test and the tumor was classified
      as class 1A. Cytology confirmed melanoma. The patient subsequently elected to
      undergo enucleation. On microscopic examination of the globe, the tumor was
      composed primarily of spindle B cells, but had a focal area composed of
      epithelioid cells. This portion of the tumor was subsequently tested and
      demonstrated a class 1B gene expression profile. CONCLUSION: Intratumoral
      discordance in gene expression profile results has been described in uveal
      melanomas. Here we demonstrate that this discordance may be associated in some
      cases with intratumoral heterogeneity based upon histopathologic features.

PMID- 28868289
TI  - Pathophysiological Mechanisms in Sclerosing Skin Diseases.
AB  - Sclerosing skin diseases represent a large number of distinct disease entities,
      which include systemic sclerosis, localized scleroderma, and scleredema
      adultorum. These pathologies have a common clinical appearance and share
      histological features. However, the specific interplay between cytokines and
      growth factors, which activate different mesenchymal cell populations and
      production of different extracellular matrix components, determines the
      biomechanical properties of the skin and the clinical features of each disease. A
      better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these events is prerequisite
      for developing novel targeted therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28868290
TI  - Coffee with High but Not Low Caffeine Content Augments Fluid and Electrolyte
      Excretion at Rest.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low levels of caffeine ingestion do not induce dehydration at rest,
      while it is not clear if larger doses do have an acute diuretic effect. The aim
      of the present investigation was to examine the acute effect of low and high
      levels of caffeine, via coffee, on fluid balance in habitual coffee drinkers (at
      least one per day) at rest. METHODS: Ten healthy adults (eight males and two
      females; age: 27 +/- 5 years, weight: 89.5 +/- 14.8 kg, height: 1.75 +/- 0.08 m,
      and body mass index: 29.1 +/- 4.4 kg m-2) ingested 200 mL of water (W), coffee
      with low caffeine (3 mg kg-1, LCAF), or coffee with high caffeine (6 mg kg-1,
      HCAF) on three respective separate occasions. All sessions were performed at
      09:00 in the morning in a counterbalanced, crossover manner, at least 5 days
      apart. Subjects remained in the laboratory while urine samples were collected
      every 60 min for 3 h post ingestion. RESULTS: Absolute caffeine consumption was
      269 +/- 45 and 537 +/- 89 mg for the LCAF and HCAF, respectively. Coffee
      ingestion at the HCAF trial induced greater diuresis during the 3-h period (613
      +/- 101 mL, P < 0.05), when compared to W (356 +/- 53 mL) and LCAF (316 +/- 38
      mL). In addition, cumulative urinary osmotic excretion was significantly greater
      in the HCAF (425 +/- 92 mmol, P < 0.05), as compared to the W (249 +/- 36 mmol)
      and LCAF (177 +/- 16 mmol) trials. CONCLUSION: The data indicate that caffeine
      intake of 6 mg kg-1 in the form of coffee can induce an acute diuretic effect,
      while 3 mg kg-1 do not disturb fluid balance in healthy casual coffee drinking
      adults at rest.

PMID- 28868291
TI  - Rare Renal Diseases Can Be Used as Tools to Investigate Common Kidney Disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevention and slowing of chronic kidney disease still represent
      major challenges in nephrology. To this end, a major contribution may come from
      the extensive knowledge on the molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of
      rare kidney diseases, since it is now possible to shed light on several aspects
      of these pathologies thanks to the introduction of new technologies, including
      next-generation sequencing. SUMMARY: In steroid-resistant nephrotic patients, a
      genetic background has been demonstrated in both children and adults;
      individualized mutations have been correlated with glomerular filtration barrier
      alterations. In addition, studies on genetic tubulopathies expressing
      hypertensive phenotypes can provide useful information for a correct diagnostic
      and therapeutic approach in patients with essential hypertension and a poor
      responsiveness to therapy. KEY MESSAGE: This review deals with the pathogenesis
      of rare glomerular diseases and tubulopathies associated with hypertension,
      highlighting the importance of the study of rare diseases to better understand
      the molecular basis of more common and complex disorders leading to end-stage
      renal disease.

PMID- 28868292
TI  - Hereditary Podocytopathies in Adults: The Next Generation.
AB  - Idiopathic nephrotic syndrome may have two underlying mechanisms: either (1) an
      alteration of the immune system resulting in the production of a putative
      circulating factor of glomerular permeability; or (2) mutations in the structural
      genes of the glomerular filtration barrier in which case patients are typically
      multidrug resistant and do not recur after transplantation. The latter forms have
      been recently recognized as "hereditary podocytopathies." In the past few years,
      positional cloning approaches that allow the identification of gene mutations
      underlying diseases whose pathophysiology is unknown and animal models have
      helped decipher the pathophysiological mechanisms of the glomerular filtration
      process. Recently, the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques has
      greatly facilitated the identification of numerous novel causative genes in
      hereditary podocytopathies. Moreover, it has revealed mutations in unexpected
      genes and has widened the phenotypes associated with podocyte gene mutations. The
      list of genes mutated in hereditary podocytopathies is constantly evolving and
      consists to date of more than 40 genes. However, the most recently identified
      genes are extremely rarely mutated and may concern only a couple of families
      worldwide. These discoveries provided crucial insight into the pathophysiological
      mechanisms linking podocyte proteins to kidney function. This review will focus
      on monogenic podocytopathies affecting adult patients.

PMID- 28868293
TI  - The Kidney in Bardet-Biedl Syndrome: Possible Pathogenesis of Urine Concentrating
      Defect.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ciliopathies are a growing number of disorders caused by
      mutations in genes involved in the function of the primary cilium. Bardet-Biedl
      syndrome (BBS) belongs to this group of disorders. In this setting, kidney
      dysfunction is highly variable, and urine concentrating defect, a common feature
      of multiple ciliopathies, has been described as the most frequent defect. Here we
      review the mechanism of urine concentration and describe the possible mechanism
      underling this defect in ciliopathies and especially BBS, based on the current
      body of literature. SUMMARY: Active Na+ absorption along the thick ascending limb
      of the loop of Henle (TAL) is critical for generating the corticomedullary
      osmotic gradient, and the countercurrent anatomical arrangement of the 2 branches
      of the loop of Henle enhances this gradient. The vasa recta, paralleling the loop
      of Henle, operate into the countercurrent mechanism, minimizing washout of
      solutes from the interstitium. Final water reabsorption is mediated by the
      aquaporin 2 (AQP2) water channels along the distal nephron, and it is under
      hormonal control. Several studies demonstrated that hyposthenuria in BBS patients
      relies on kidney resistance to desmopressin, suggesting a renal origin. We
      recently showed that the majority of hyposthenuric BBS patients have also a
      defect regarding maximal urine dilution. Independent studies showed that BBS10
      deficiency caused AQP2 mistrafficking in vitro; accordingly, we demonstrated
      impaired urinary AQP2 excretion in BBS patients with combined concentrating and
      diluting defect. Whether receptor signaling pathways or downstream events cause
      AQP2 deregulation is still unclear. In addition, reduced urinary uromodulin
      excretion in BBS patients opens the possibility that TAL dysfunction may also
      play a pathogenic role. KEY MESSAGE: Impaired water handling in BBS is associated
      with AQP2 mistrafficking. The potential role of additional factors, such as the
      dissipation of the medullary osmotic gradient due to TAL dysfunction and/or
      structural anomalies, remains to be elucidated.

PMID- 28868294
TI  - Integration of Proteomics and Metabolomics in Exploring Genetic and Rare
      Metabolic Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inherited metabolic disorders or inborn errors of metabolism are
      caused by deficiency of enzymatic activities in the catabolism of amino acids,
      carbohydrates, or lipids. These disorders include aminoacidopathies, urea cycle
      defects, organic acidemias, defects of oxidation of fatty acids, and lysosomal
      storage diseases. Inborn errors of metabolism constitute a significant proportion
      of genetic diseases, particularly in children; however, they are individually
      rare. Clinical phenotypes are very variable, some of them remain asymptomatic,
      others manifest metabolic decompensation in neonatal age, and others encompass
      mental retardation at later age. The clinical manifestation of these disorders
      can involve different organs and/or systems. Some disorders are easily managed if
      promptly diagnosed and treated, whereas in other cases neither diet, vitamin
      therapy, nor transplantation appears to prevent multi-organ impairment. SUMMARY:
      Here, we discuss the principal challenges of metabolomics and proteomics in
      inherited metabolic disorders. We review the recent developments in mass
      spectrometry-based proteomic and metabolomic strategies. Mass spectrometry has
      become the most widely used platform in proteomics and metabolomics because of
      its ability to analyze a wide range of molecules, its optimal dynamic range, and
      great sensitivity. The fast measurement of a broad spectrum of metabolites in
      various body fluids, also collected in small samples like dried blood spots, have
      been facilitated by the use of mass spectrometry-based techniques. These
      approaches have enabled the timely diagnosis of inherited metabolic disorders,
      thereby facilitating early therapeutic intervention. Due to its analytical
      features, proteomics is suited for the basic investigation of inborn errors of
      metabolism. Modern approaches enable detailed functional characterization of the
      pathogenic biochemical processes, as achieved by quantification of proteins and
      identification of their regulatory chemical modifications. KEY MESSAGE: Mass
      spectrometry-based "omics" approaches most frequently used to study the molecular
      mechanisms underlying inherited metabolic disorders pathophysiology are
      described.

PMID- 28868295
TI  - Urinary Mitochondrial DNA Level as a Biomarker of Acute Kidney Injury Severity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of acute
      kidney injury (AKI). The urinary mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) level was previously
      shown to predict renal function recovery in AKI following cardiac surgery.
      Herein, we determine whether urinary mtDNA is a marker of severity and predictor
      of recovery in AKI due to other etiologies. METHODS: We recruited 107 AKI
      patients. The urinary mtDNA level was measured, the severity of AKI was
      quantified, and patients were followed for 90 days. RESULTS: The urinary mtDNA
      level had modest but statistically significant correlations with the peak serum
      creatinine level (Spearman's r = -0.248, p = 0.010) and the duration of hospital
      stay (r = -0.217, p = 0.025). Patients who required temporary dialysis also
      tended to have higher urinary mtDNA levels than those without dialysis (22.6 +/-
      4.5 vs. 24.9 +/- 5.7 cycles, p = 0.06). There was no definite relation between
      the urinary mtDNA level and renal function recovery. CONCLUSION: The urinary
      mtDNA level is a marker of AKI severity, as reflected by its significant
      correlation with the peak serum creatinine level, duration of hospital stay, and
      probably the need for temporary dialysis. Our result suggests that urinary mtDNA
      has the potential to serve as a biomarker of AKI.

PMID- 28868296
TI  - Hemodialysis Arteriovenous Access Occlusion Using the Amplatzer Vascular Plug in
      Patients with Intractable Arm Edema.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Vascular occlusion of hemodialysis arteriovenous access (AVA) using
      an Amplatzer vascular plug (AVP; St. Jude Medical, St. Paul, MN, USA) is an
      arising and alternative practice in selected patients; however, few reported
      cases can be found in the literature. Herein, we report on our experience with
      endovascular treatment of complicated AVA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From September
      2015 to December 2016, 3 patients at our clinic underwent an occlusion of
      hemodialysis AVA with 2 different Amplatzer vascular plugs: 2 patients with type
      II and 1 patient with type IV. Of these, 1 patient was treated for an autologous
      radiocephalic fistula, the second patient was treated for an autologous
      brachiocephalic fistula located at the elbow, and the third was, instead, treated
      for a radiocephalic forearm fistula. The reason for closing the AVA in all
      patients was due to the presence of dialysis-associated steal syndrome with
      critical hand ischemia and intractable ipsilateral edema. RESULTS: All AVAs were
      treated using an AVP. No plug migration, access revascularization, persistent
      ischemia, nor other complications were observed. CONCLUSION: This report suggests
      that the use of AVP for embolization of complicated AVA is a safe and reasonable
      alternative to open surgery in selected patients.

PMID- 28868297
TI  - A Toddler Presenting with Pulmonary Renal Syndrome.
AB  - Pulmonary renal syndrome refers to an association of pulmonary and glomerular
      disease and includes disorders, such as the ANCA-associated vasculitides, anti
      glomerular basement membrane antibody disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and
      IgA vasculitis (Henoch-Schonlein purpura). We present the medical history of a 26
      month-old boy with an extensive purpuric rash, involving the limbs, trunk, and
      face, who developed clinically significant pulmonary hemorrhage and renal
      involvement. Rapid recognition of this rare but potentially life-threatening
      condition is crucial. In this report, we discuss the differential diagnosis,
      diagnostic studies, and treatment options to consider when facing a young child
      presenting with a pulmonary renal syndrome.

PMID- 28868298
TI  - Case Report of Spontaneous Remission of Biopsy-Proven Idiopathic Immune Complex
      Mediated Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis.
AB  - Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is a histopathologic diagnosis
      causing microscopic hematuria, nephrotic range proteinuria, and chronic renal
      failure. Current understanding divides pathogenesis into two broad categories:
      immune complex mediated and complement mediated (now termed C3 glomerulopathy).
      The term idiopathic immune complex-mediated MPGN would apply to a patient without
      an identifiable source of immune complex production and no evidence of C3
      glomerulopathy. Presented is a patient with idiopathic immune complex mediated
      MPGN and her clinical course. The patient opted for conservative therapy with
      losartan, carvedilol, chlorthalidone, and atorvastatin. Nephrotic range
      proteinuria of 8.7 g per day resolved over 5 months, with improvement of serum
      from 3.3 to 1.2 mg/dL. Remission continues at follow-up 21 months after biopsy.
      For idiopathic immune complex-mediated MPGN, resorting to empiric
      immunosuppression therapy may not be the best option. As this patient
      demonstrates, a conservative approach of blood pressure control with anti-renin
      angiotensin agents, control of lipids, and watchful follow-up can be successful.

PMID- 28868299
TI  - Tubuloreticular Inclusions in the Absence of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and HIV
      Infection: A Report of Three Pediatric Cases.
AB  - Tubuloreticular inclusions (TRIs) are subcellular structures located within the
      cisternae of endoplasmic reticulum. Formation of TRIs has been linked to the
      exposure of excess interferon (IFN), either from endogenous or exogenous sources.
      In renal disease, TRIs have been most commonly associated with systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE), and human immunodeficiency virus-associated nephropathy
      (HIVAN). Case reports of patients with renal biopsies showing TRIs without
      underlying SLE or HIV are infrequent in adults, and to our knowledge none have
      been reported in children. We report 3 pediatric cases in which the renal biopsy
      showed TRIs on electron microscopy without underlying SLE or HIV infection. The
      first patient presented at 2 years of age with nephrotic syndrome and renal
      failure. His renal biopsy revealed focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and TRIs.
      The second patient presented at 6 months of age with infantile nephrotic
      syndrome, and his renal biopsy revealed membranous glomerulopathy and TRIs. The
      last patient presented at 4 years of age with acute kidney injury of unclear
      etiology leading to chronic kidney disease. Her biopsy revealed acute and chronic
      tubulointerstitial nephritis with TRIs. Despite extensive evaluation in all 3
      patients, including testing for HIV infection and SLE, we could not identify an
      underlying etiology to explain the presence of TRIs. In conclusion, renal biopsy
      with TRIs in the absence of underling SLE and HIV remains obscure. We propose a
      possible role for excess IFN triggered by an abnormal immune response to common
      viral infections in the formation of TRIs and renal injury.

PMID- 28868300
TI  - AA Amyloidosis and Atypical Familial Mediterranean Fever with Exon 2 and 3
      Mutations.
AB  - A 54-year-old Japanese man presented with recurrent abdominal pain, fever lasting
      >5 days, and renal failure. AA amyloidosis was proven by renal and gastric
      biopsy. Symptoms subsided with the administration of colchicine, but a subsequent
      recurrence of symptoms did not respond to colchicine. Mediterranean fever gene
      (MEFV) analysis showed that he was heterozygous for mutations in exon 2
      (E148Q/R202Q) and exon 3 (P369S/R408Q), although he had none of the exon 10
      mutations known to be closely related to AA amyloidosis. He did not respond to
      infliximab, but tocilizumab therapy was successful. The present case is a rare
      report of AA amyloidosis associated with familial Mediterranean fever in Japan.

PMID- 28868301
TI  - Dynamic Lumbosacral Magnetic Resonance Imaging in a Dog with Tethered Cord
      Syndrome with a Tight Filum Terminale.
AB  - A 1-year and 11-month- old English Cocker Spaniel was evaluated for clinical
      signs of progressive right pelvic limb lameness and urinary incontinence.
      Neurological examination was suggestive of a lesion localized to the L4-S3 spinal
      cord segments. No abnormalities were seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      performed in the dog in dorsal recumbency and the hips in a neutral position and
      the conus medullaris ended halfway the vertebral body of L7. An MRI of the hips
      in extended and flexed positions demonstrated minimal displacement of the conus
      medullaris in the cranial and caudal directions, respectively. Similar to the
      images in neutral position, the conus medullaris ended halfway the vertebral body
      of L7 in both the extended and flexed positions. In comparison, an MRI of the
      hips in neutral, extended, and flexed positions performed in another English
      Cocker Spaniel revealed obvious cranial displacement of the conus medullaris with
      the hips in extension and caudal displacement with hips in flexion. A standard
      dorsal lumbosacral laminectomy was performed. Visual inspection of the vertebral
      canal revealed excessive caudal traction on the conus medullaris. After
      sectioning the distal aspect of the filum terminale, the conus medullaris
      regained a more cranial position. A neurological examination 4 weeks after
      surgery revealed clinical improvement. Neurological examinations at 2, 4, 7, and
      12 months after surgery did not reveal any abnormalities, and the dog was
      considered to be clinically normal. Tethered cord syndrome with a tight filum
      terminale is a very rare congenital anomaly and is characterized by an abnormally
      short and inelastic filum terminale. Therefore, this disorder is associated with
      abnormal caudal traction on the spinal cord and decreased physiological
      craniocaudal movements of the neural structures within the vertebral canal.
      Although further studies are necessary to evaluate and quantify physiological
      craniocaudal movement of the spinal cord and conus medullaris in neurologically
      normal dogs, the results of this report suggest further exploration of dynamic
      MRI to demonstrate decreased craniocaudal displacement of the conus medullaris in
      dogs with tethered cord syndrome with a tight filum terminale.

PMID- 28868302
TI  - Electrolyte Disturbances Are Associated with Non-Survival in Dogs-A Multivariable
      Analysis.
AB  - Electrolyte disorders have been individually associated with mortality in small
      populations of dogs and cats with specific conditions, but the associations and
      interactions between electrolyte disturbances and outcome have not been evaluated
      in a large, heterogeneous population. It was hypothesized that abnormalities of
      sodium, chloride, potassium, and calcium concentrations would be independently
      and proportionately associated with death from natural causes and with all-cause
      mortality in dogs. An electronic database containing 33,117 electrolyte profiles
      was constructed to retrospectively assess the association between disorders of
      sodium, potassium, corrected chloride, and ionized calcium concentrations with
      non-survival and with death excluding euthanasia by multivariable modeling. A
      second database containing 11,249 records was used to validate the models
      constructed from the first database. All four electrolytes assessed had non
      linear U-shaped associations with case fatality rates, wherein concentrations
      clustered around the reference interval had the lowest case fatality rates, while
      progressively abnormal concentrations were associated with proportionately
      increased risk of non-survival (AUROC 0.624) or death (AUROC 0.678).
      Multivariable modeling suggested that these electrolyte disturbances were
      associated with non-survival and with death from natural causes independent of
      each other. This study suggests that measurement of electrolyte concentrations is
      an important component of the assessment of dogs in emergency rooms or intensive
      care units. Future studies should focus on confirming these associations in a
      prospective manner accounting for disease severity.

PMID- 28868304
TI  - Treatment of sepsis: What is the antibiotic choice in bacteremia due to
      carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae?
AB  - Sepsis is one of the major challenges of today. Although gram-positive bacteria
      related infections are more prevalent in hospital setting, the highest mortality
      rate is associated with gram-negative microorganisms especially
      Enterobacteriaceae. Enterobacteriaceae, including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella
      spp., Proteus spp., Enterobacter spp. and Serratia spp. Resistance to beta
      lactams in Enterobacteriaceae is primarily attributed to the production of B
      lactamase enzymes with subsequent antibiotic hydrolysis and to a lesser extent by
      alteration of efflux pump or porins expression. Carbapenem resistant
      Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and Acinetobacter baumannii are the most notorious
      pathogens due to the high incidence of morbidity and mortality especially in the
      immunocompromised patients in the intensive care unit. The most appropriate
      antimicrobial therapy to treat CRE is still controversial. Combination therapy is
      preferred over monotherapy due to its broad-spectrum coverage of micro-organisms,
      due to its synergetic effect and to prevent development of further resistance.
      Current suggested therapies for CRE resistance as well as promising antibiotics
      that are currently under investigation for winning the war against the emerging
      CRE resistance are reviewed and discussed.

PMID- 28868305
TI  - Vertebroplasty and delayed subdural cauda equina hematoma: Review of literature
      and case report.
AB  - Vertebroplasy is considered an alternative and effective treatment of painful
      oncologic spine disease. Major complications are very rare, but with high
      morbidity and occur in less than 1% of patients who undergo vertebroplasty.
      Spinal subdural hematoma (SDH) is an extremely rare complication, usual
      developing within 12 h to 24 h after the procedure. We report the case of a
      tardive SDH in an oncologic patient who underwent VP for Myxoid Liposarcoma
      metastasis. Trying to explain the pathogenesis, we support the hypothesis that
      both venous congestion of the vertebral venous plexus of the vertebral body and
      venous congestion due to a traumatic injury can provoke SDH. To our best
      knowledge, only 4 cases of spinal subdural hematoma following a transpedicular
      vertebroplasty have been previously described in International literature and
      only one of them occurred two weeks after that surgical procedures. Percutaneous
      verteboplasty is a well-known treatment of pain oncologic spine disease, used to
      provide pain relief and improvement of quality life and is considered a simple
      surgical procedure, involving a low risk of complications, but related to high
      morbidity, such as SDH. Therefore it has to be performed by experienced and
      skilled surgeons, that should also recognize possible risk factors, making SDH
      more risky.

PMID- 28868306
TI  - Pseudotumoral acute cerebellitis associated with mumps infection in a child.
AB  - Pseudotumoral cerebellitis in childhood is an uncommon presentation of
      cerebellitis mimicking a brain tumor. It often follows an inflammatory or
      infectious event, particularly due to varicella virus. Patients could have a wide
      clinical spectrum on presentation. Some patients may be asymptomatic or present
      at most with mild cerebellar signs, whereas others may suffer severe forms with
      brainstem involvement and severe intracranial hypertension mimicking tumor
      warranting surgical intervention. Imaging techniques especially multimodal
      magnetic resonance imaging represent an interesting tool to differentiate between
      posterior fossa tumors and acute cerebellitis. We describe a case of
      pseudotumoral cerebellitis in a 6-year-old girl consequent to mumps infection and
      review the literature on this rare association.

PMID- 28868307
TI  - Atlanto-axial langerhans cell histiocytosis in a child presented as torticollis.
AB  - Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare condition mostly seen in children
      and adolescents. Eosinophilic granuloma (EG) is one of its three clinical
      entities and is considered as a benign osteolytic lesion. Many reports of
      patients with spine histiocytosis are well documented in the literature but it is
      not the case of atlantoaxial localization. We report here a new observation of
      atlantoaxial LCH in a 4-year-old boy revealed by persistent torticollis. He was
      successfully treated with systemic chemotherapy and surgery. Inter-body fusion
      packed by autologous iliac bone was performed with resolution of his symptoms. It
      is known that conservative treatment is usually sufficient and surgery should be
      reserved for major neurologic defects in spine EG. In atlantoaxial lesion,
      surgical treatment should be frequently considered.

PMID- 28868303
TI  - Adjuvants to local anesthetics: Current understanding and future trends.
AB  - Although beneficial in acute and chronic pain management, the use of local
      anaesthetics is limited by its duration of action and the dose dependent adverse
      effects on the cardiac and central nervous system. Adjuvants or additives are
      often used with local anaesthetics for its synergistic effect by prolonging the
      duration of sensory-motor block and limiting the cumulative dose requirement of
      local anaesthetics. The armamentarium of local anesthetic adjuvants have evolved
      over time from classical opioids to a wide array of drugs spanning several groups
      and varying mechanisms of action. A large array of opioids ranging from morphine,
      fentanyl and sufentanyl to hydromorphone, buprenorphine and tramadol has been
      used with varying success. However, their use has been limited by their adverse
      effect like respiratory depression, nausea, vomiting and pruritus, especially
      with its neuraxial use. Epinephrine potentiates the local anesthetics by its
      antinociceptive properties mediated by alpha-2 adrenoreceptor activation along
      with its vasoconstrictive properties limiting the systemic absorption of local
      anesthetics. Alpha 2 adrenoreceptor antagonists like clonidine and
      dexmedetomidine are one of the most widely used class of local anesthetic
      adjuvants. Other drugs like steroids (dexamethasone), anti-inflammatory agents
      (parecoxib and lornoxicam), midazolam, ketamine, magnesium sulfate and
      neostigmine have also been used with mixed success. The concern regarding the
      safety profile of these adjuvants is due to its potential neurotoxicity and
      neurological complications which necessitate further research in this direction.
      Current research is directed towards a search for agents and techniques which
      would prolong local anaesthetic action without its deleterious effects. This
      includes novel approaches like use of charged molecules to produce local
      anaesthetic action (tonicaine and n butyl tetracaine), new age delivery
      mechanisms for prolonged bioavailability (liposomal, microspheres and
      cyclodextrin systems) and further studies with other drugs (adenosine,
      neuromuscular blockers, dextrans).

PMID- 28868309
TI  - Aortic Root Reconstruction with a New Dacron Graft Featuring Prefabricated
      Coronary Side Branches: Lessons Learned from the Cabrol Procedure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronary button reimplantation can represent a technical challenge of
      aortic root reconstruction that can be associated with significant morbidity and
      mortality. With the goal of simplifying coronary reimplantation and reducing the
      incidence of related complications, we designed a new Dacron graft with
      prefabricated coronary branches to minimize coronary artery mobilization and
      prevent the potential mechanical complications of reattachment to the body of the
      graft. METHODS: Between June 2010 and May 2012, we implanted the graft in eight
      patients (six males, two females) ranging in age from 42-68 years (mean, 54
      years). Six procedures were modified Bentall reconstructions, and two procedures
      were valve-sparing root replacements using the reimplantation technique. RESULTS:
      There were no complications and no morbidity or mortality related to coronary
      reattachment. All patients were alive and doing well at a mean follow-up of 26
      months (range, 17-38 months). At an extended mean follow-up of 42 months (range,
      25-56 months), one patient died of stroke-related complications. No radiologic or
      clinical evidence of impairment of coronary perfusion was identified in any
      patient. CONCLUSIONS: The use of this new graft model may simplify the technique
      of root reconstruction and potentially lower the incidence of mechanical
      complications related to coronary button reimplantation.

PMID- 28868308
TI  - Phosphodiesterases 3 and 4 Differentially Regulate the Funny Current, If, in
      Mouse Sinoatrial Node Myocytes.
AB  - Cardiac pacemaking, at rest and during the sympathetic fight-or-flight response,
      depends on cAMP (3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate) signaling in sinoatrial
      node myocytes (SAMs). The cardiac "funny current" (If) is among the cAMP
      sensitive effectors that drive pacemaking in SAMs. If is produced by
      hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-sensitive (HCN) channels. Voltage
      dependent gating of HCN channels is potentiated by cAMP, which acts either by
      binding directly to the channels or by activating the cAMP-dependent protein
      kinase (PKA), which phosphorylates them. PKA activity is required for signaling
      between beta adrenergic receptors (betaARs) and HCN channels in SAMs but the
      mechanism that constrains cAMP signaling to a PKA-dependent pathway is unknown.
      Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) hydrolyze cAMP and form cAMP signaling domains in other
      types of cardiomyocytes. Here we examine the role of PDEs in regulation of If in
      SAMs. If was recorded in whole-cell voltage-clamp experiments from acutely
      isolated mouse SAMs in the absence or presence of PDE and PKA inhibitors, and
      before and after betaAR stimulation. General PDE inhibition caused a PKA
      independent depolarizing shift in the midpoint activation voltage (V1/2) of If at
      rest and removed the requirement for PKA in betaAR-to-HCN signaling. PDE4
      inhibition produced a similar PKA-independent depolarizing shift in the V1/2 of
      If at rest, but did not remove the requirement for PKA in betaAR-to-HCN
      signaling. PDE3 inhibition produced PKA-dependent changes in If both at rest and
      in response to betaAR stimulation. Our results suggest that PDE3 and PDE4
      isoforms create distinct cAMP signaling domains that differentially constrain
      access of cAMP to HCN channels and establish the requirement for PKA in signaling
      between betaARs and HCN channels in SAMs.

PMID- 28868311
TI  - Occlusive Shrinkage of Ovation Endograft Presenting as Acute Lower Limb Ischemia:
      Effective Endovascular Management.
AB  - The aim of this report is to describe the imaging and successful treatment of an
      acute shrinkage of the Ovation Abdominal Stent Graft System. The Ovation Prime
      system utilizes a polymer-filled sealing ring that is cast in situ at the margin
      of the aneurysm; however, the residual endograft inner volume after ring filling
      may reduce volume and graft flow. Nevertheless, there are no reports about severe
      complications using the Ovation Prime system. A 75-year-old male presented to our
      hospital for acute lower limb ischemia. The patient reported a previous endograft
      for abdominal aortic aneurysm 1 month previously, which utilized the Ovation
      device. Computed tomography (CT) angiography demonstrated a critical narrowing of
      the endograft at the site of the proximal sealing rings. We decided on urgent
      treatment, delivering a covered stent graft (CP STENT NUMEDTM). Intraoperative
      intravascular ultrasound showed effective compaction of the proximal rings. Nine
      month follow-up with CT angiography demonstrated good patency without ring recoil
      of the endograft. This is the first report of endovascular treatment for an acute
      and symptomatic shrinkage of proximal rings in the Ovation trivascular endograft.
      Angiographic and intravascular ultrasound findings showed that covered stenting
      is effective and that the ring polymer is safely moldable.

PMID- 28868313
TI  - Page for the General Public.

PMID- 28868312
TI  - A Case of Primary Aortoduodenal Fistula and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in a
      Patient with Chronic Q Fever.
AB  - A 70-year-old man was successfully treated for an aortoduodenal fistula
      originating from a Q fever-related abdominal aortic aneurysm. He had no known
      history of contact with cattle or sheep. Although the combination of abdominal
      aortic aneurysm and aortoduodenal fistula is rare, one should be suspicious of Q
      fever infection as the causative agent, and additional medical treatment should
      be initiated.

PMID- 28868314
TI  - Cause of Death Following Surgery for Acute Type A Dissection: Evidence from the
      Canadian Thoracic Aortic Collaborative.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery confers the best chance of survival following acute Type A
      dissection (ATAD), yet perioperative mortality remains high. Although
      perioperative risk factors for mortality have been described, information on the
      actual causes of death is sparse. In this study, we aimed to characterize the
      inciting events causing death during surgical repair of ATAD. METHODS: Nine
      centers participated in the study. We included all patients who died following
      surgical repair for ATAD between January 2007 and December 2013. An aortic
      surgeon at each site determined the primary cause of death from seven
      predetermined categories: cardiac, stroke, hemorrhage, other organ ischemia
      (peripheral, renal, or visceral), multiorgan failure, sepsis, or other causes.
      Additional characteristics and variables were analyzed to delineate potential
      modifiable factors for mortality. RESULTS: Of the 692 surgeries for ATAD, there
      were 123 deaths (17.8% mortality rate). Mean age at death was 66 years. Events
      contributing to death were: cardiac (25%), stroke (22%), hemorrhage (21%),
      multiorgan failure (12%), other organ ischemia (11%), sepsis (4%), and other
      causes (5%). Neurologic injury at presentation was a predictor of stroke as the
      inciting cause of death (p = 0.04). Peripheral, renal, or visceral ischemia at
      presentation was highly predictive of death due to these presenting ischemic
      conditions (p = 0.004). We found no associations between cardiogenic shock,
      tamponade, or cardiopulmonary bypass duration and cardiac death. CONCLUSION:
      Operative mortality for ATAD remains high in Canada. Nearly 70% of deaths arise
      from cardiac failure, stroke, or hemorrhage. Therefore, novel surgical, hybrid,
      and endovascular strategies should target these three areas.

PMID- 28868310
TI  - Genes Associated with Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Dissection: An Update and
      Clinical Implications.
AB  - Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is a lethal disease, with a natural history of
      enlarging progressively until dissection or rupture occurs. Since the discovery
      almost 20 years ago that ascending TAAs are highly familial, our understanding of
      the genetics of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD) has increased
      exponentially. At least 29 genes have been shown to be associated with the
      development of TAAD, the majority of which encode proteins involved in the
      extracellular matrix, smooth muscle cell contraction or metabolism, or the
      transforming growth factor-beta signaling pathway. Almost one-quarter of TAAD
      patients have a mutation in one of these genes. In this review, we provide a
      summary of TAAD-associated genes, associated clinical features of the
      vasculature, and implications for surgical treatment of TAAD. With the widespread
      use of next-generation sequencing and development of novel functional assays, the
      future of the genetics of TAAD is bright, as both novel TAAD genes and variants
      within the genes will continue to be identified.

PMID- 28868316
TI  - A Rare and Late Complication After Left Ventricular Assist Device Explantation.
AB  - Late complications can arise after explantation of a left ventricular assist
      device. We report the case of a patient who presented at the age of 19 years with
      peri-partum cardiomyopathy and was initially managed with a biventricular support
      device, which was subsequently upgraded to an ambulatory left ventricular assist
      device. This was successfully explanted after myocardial recovery via a minimally
      invasive approach 7 months later. The patient re-presented 5 years following
      explantation with hemoptysis. At redo sternotomy, a 10-cm remnant of the outflow
      graft was found to be eroding the surface of the right lung. The conduit was
      excised and the stump oversewn. Eleven months later, she presented again with
      hemoptysis, and a pseudo-aneurysm was identified on the computed tomography scan.
      She underwent urgent open repair with peripheral cannulation and deep hypothermic
      total circulatory arrest. The Dacron stump was found to be partially dehisced,
      leaving a 2-3 cm defect in the ascending aorta. The defect was repaired with a
      bovine pericardial patch. The patient made a good recovery and was successfully
      discharged.

PMID- 28868315
TI  - Impact of Thoracic Endovascular Repair on Pulsatile Aortic Strain in Acute Type B
      Aortic Dissection: Preliminary Results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) on
      pulsatile aortic strain remains undetermined in patients with Type B aortic
      dissection (TBAD). Therefore, we quantified pulsatile aortic strain in TBAD
      patients and control subjects. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed two TBAD
      patients from our database with cardiac-gated computed tomography angiography
      imaging available before and after TEVAR and two control subjects (67- and 76
      year-old males). Patient 1 (54-year-old female) presented with acute TBAD, and
      Patient 2 (55-year-old male) had Marfan syndrome and ruptured acute TBAD. Custom
      developed software was used to compute aortic length, diameter, and area during
      the cardiac cycle. Pulsatile strain was calculated as systolic increments of
      length and circumference divided by corresponding diastolic values. RESULTS:
      Before TEVAR, pulsatile longitudinal strain of the thoracic aorta was lower in
      TBAD patients (1.4-1.7%) than in control subjects (2.1-4.5%). After TEVAR,
      pulsatile longitudinal strain increased proximal to the stent-graft by 65% in the
      arch of Patient 1 and by 70% in the ascending aorta of Patient 2. Pulsatile
      circumferential strain was elevated in false lumen patency (4.4-6.2%) compared
      with thrombosed false lumen (1.4-2.1%) or control subjects (0.9-3.3%). Following
      TEVAR, circumferential measurements within stented segments were deemed
      unreliable due to artifacts. CONCLUSIONS: TEVAR led to a considerable increase of
      pulsatile longitudinal strain proximal to the stent-grafts, and TBAD was
      associated with longitudinally stiffer aortas, which may be part of the
      pathophysiology of TEVAR-related complications such as retrograde dissection and
      aneurysmal dilatation. These preliminary data call for larger prospective
      studies.

PMID- 28868317
TI  - Aorto-Cutaneous Fistula and False Aneurysm of the Ascending Aorta Five Years
      after its Prosthetic Replacement for Stanford Type A Acute Aortic Dissection.
AB  - Aorto-cutaneous fistula and false aneurysm of the ascending aorta in patients who
      previously underwent Stanford Type A acute aortic dissection are rare and severe
      complications. Surgical correction remains a demanding challenge. In a case of
      false aneurysm rupture during redo sternotomy, selective cannulation of the right
      axillary and left carotid arteries allowed an efficient method of cerebral
      perfusion.

PMID- 28868318
TI  - Complete Shrinkage of the Obliterated False Lumen After Open and Endovascular
      Chronic Aortic Dissection Stanford Type A Repair.
AB  - A 48-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with chronic aortic dissection
      Stanford Type A. His diagnosis was confirmed by chest multi-detector computed
      tomography (CT). The patient underwent combined (i.e., hybrid) open and
      endovascular repair (frozen elephant trunk) in a one-stage operation with
      moderate hypothermic circulatory arrest and antegrade cerebral perfusion. His
      postoperative course was uneventful, and he was discharged home on postoperative
      day 9. At 2-year follow-up, chest CT angiography revealed complete shrinkage of
      the obliterated false lumen in the distal aortic arch and descending thoracic
      aorta.

PMID- 28868319
TI  - Management of Iatrogenic Injury to the Inferior Vena Cava and Right Common Iliac
      Artery for Drainage of Psoas Abscess.
AB  - Iatrogenic simultaneous inferior vena cava (IVC) and iliac vessel injury is a
      rare entity. Ligation of the IVC in a life-threatening situation is well reported
      in the literature. Our case demonstrates that such a clinical situation requires
      optimization of fluid volume and management of sequelae such as deep vein
      thrombosis.

PMID- 28868320
TI  - Page for the General Public.

PMID- 28868321
TI  - List of Upcoming Meetings.

PMID- 28868322
TI  - Viability and Tissue Quality of Cartilage Flaps From Patients With
      Femoroacetabular Hip Impingement: A Matched-Control Comparison.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chondrolabral damage is commonly observed in patients with cam-type
      femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Chondral flap reattachment has recently been
      proposed as a possible preservation technique. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: The purpose of
      this study was to determine the viability and tissue quality of chondral flaps
      from patients with FAI at the time of arthroscopy. It was hypothesized that
      chondral flaps from patients with cam lesions of the hip would exhibit less
      viability and greater tissue degeneration than would those of a matched control
      group. STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. METHODS: Patients with
      cam-type FAI who were treated with hip arthroscopy between 2014 and 2016 were
      asked to participate in this study. The cartilage lesions were localized and
      classified intraoperatively according to Beck classification. A chondral flap
      (study group) and a cartilage sample (control group) were obtained from each
      patient for histologic evaluation. Cellular viability and tissue quality were
      examined and compared in both groups. Cellular viability was determined with
      live/dead staining, and tissue quality was evaluated using safranin O/fast green,
      hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, and immunohistochemistry for collagen II.
      Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) grading was used for
      quality assessment, and Image J software was used to calculate the percentage of
      tissue viability and Col II stain. RESULTS: A total of 10 male patients with a
      mean age of 38.4 years (range, 30-55 years) were enrolled. All chondral flaps
      were classified as Beck grade 4. The mean cellular viability of the chondral
      flaps was reduced (54.6% +/- 25.6%), and they were found to be degenerated (OARSI
      grade, 4 +/- 1.27). Control samples also had reduced viability (38.8% +/- 30.3%)
      and were degenerative (OARSI grade, 3.5 +/- 1.38). There was no statistically
      significant intergroup difference for viability (P = .203) or OARSI grade (P =
      .645), nor was there an intragroup correlation between viability and OARSI grade
      (P > .05). A significant negative correlation (r = -0.9, P = .035) was found
      between OARSI grade and collagen II percentage scale in 5 selected samples.
      CONCLUSION: Despite appearing normal macroscopically, the chondral flaps from
      patients with cam-type FAI displayed loss of viability and tissue degeneration.
      In addition, control samples obtained away from the injury area also displayed
      cartilage damage and degeneration. Careful consideration should be taken when
      attempting to reattach the chondral flap.

PMID- 28868323
TI  - Fetal Alcohol Exposure: The Common Toll.
AB  - Alcohol has always been present in human life, and currently it is estimated that
      50% of women of childbearing age consume alcohol. It has become increasingly
      clear over the last years that alcohol exposure during fetal development can have
      detrimental effects on various organ systems, and these effects are exerted by
      alcohol through multiple means, including effects on free radical formation,
      cellular apoptosis, as well as gene expression. Fetal alcohol exposure can lead
      to a spectrum of short term as well as long-term problems, with Fetal Alcohol
      Syndrome being on the more severe end of that spectrum. This syndrome is morbid,
      yet preventable, and is characterized by midfacial hypoplasia, thin upper lip,
      widely spaced small eyes, long smooth philtrum and inner epicanthal folds. Other
      findings include growth restriction as well as various neurodevelopmental
      abnormalities. This article is the first comprehensive review combining the
      molecular as well as the gross physiological and anatomical effects of alcohol
      exposure during pregnancy on various organ systems in the body. Our knowledge of
      these various mechanisms is crucial for our understanding of how alcohol exposure
      during fetal development can lead to its detrimental effects.

PMID- 28868324
TI  - From structure to structural dynamics: Ahmed Zewail's legacy.
AB  - In this brief tribute to Ahmed Zewail, we highlight and place in the historical
      context, several of the major achievements that he and his colleagues have made
      in Femtochemistry (of which he was the principal instigator) and his introduction
      of ultrafast electron scattering, diffraction, microscopy and spectroscopy. By
      achieving a sub-picosecond temporal resolution, coupled with a picometer spatial
      resolution, he revolutionised our understanding of the corpus of chemical,
      physical, biological and materials science systems.

PMID- 28868325
TI  - Active control of bright electron beams with RF optics for femtosecond
      microscopy.
AB  - A frontier challenge in implementing femtosecond electron microscopy is to gain
      precise optical control of intense beams to mitigate collective space charge
      effects for significantly improving the throughput. Here, we explore the flexible
      uses of an RF cavity as a longitudinal lens in a high-intensity beam column for
      condensing the electron beams both temporally and spectrally, relevant to the
      design of ultrafast electron microscopy. Through the introduction of a novel
      atomic grating approach for characterization of electron bunch phase space and
      control optics, we elucidate the principles for predicting and controlling the
      phase space dynamics to reach optimal compressions at various electron densities
      and generating conditions. We provide strategies to identify high-brightness
      modes, achieving ~100 fs and ~1 eV resolutions with 106 electrons per bunch, and
      establish the scaling of performance for different bunch charges. These results
      benchmark the sensitivity and resolution from the fundamental beam brightness
      perspective and also validate the adaptive optics concept to enable delicate
      control of the density-dependent phase space structures to optimize the
      performance, including delivering ultrashort, monochromatic, high-dose, or
      coherent electron bunches.

PMID- 28868326
TI  - Evolution of Vertebrate Solute Carrier Family 9B Genes and Proteins (SLC9B):
      Evidence for a Marsupial Origin for Testis Specific SLC9B1 from an Ancestral
      Vertebrate SLC9B2 Gene.
AB  - SLC9B genes and proteins are members of the sodium/lithium hydrogen antiporter
      family which function as solute exchangers within cellular membranes of mammalian
      tissues. SLC9B2 and SLC9B1 amino acid sequences and structures and SLC9B-like
      gene locations were examined using bioinformatic data from several vertebrate
      genome projects. Vertebrate SLC9B2 sequences shared 56-98% identity as compared
      with ~50% identities with mammalian SLC9B1 sequences. Sequence alignments, key
      amino acid residues and conserved predicted transmembrane structures were also
      studied. Mammalian SLC9B2 and SLC9B1 genes usually contained 11 or 12 coding
      exons with differential tissue expression patterns: SLC9B2, broad tissue
      distribution; and SLC9B1, being testis specific. Transcription factor binding
      sites and CpG islands within the human SLC9B2 and SLC9B1 gene promoters were
      identified. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that SLC9B1 originated in an
      ancestral marsupial genome from a SLC9B2 gene duplication event.

PMID- 28868327
TI  - Near-Field Optical Drilling of Sub-lambda Pits in Thin Polymer Films.
AB  - Under UV illumination, polymer films can undergo chain scission and contract.
      Using this effect, tightly focused laser light is shown to develop runaway near
      field concentration that drills sub-100 nm pits through a thin film. This
      subwavelength photolithography can be controlled in real time by monitoring laser
      scatter from the evolving holes, allowing systematic control of the void
      diameter. Our model shows how interference between the substrate and film
      together with near-field focusing by the evolving crevice directs this formation
      and predicts minimum pit sizes in films of 100 nm thickness on gold substrates.
      The smallest features so far are 60 nm diameter pits using 447 nm light focused
      onto polystyrene through a *100 objective (NA = 0.8). Such arrays of pits can be
      easily used as masks for fabricating more complex nanostructures, such as
      plasmonic nanostructures and biomicrofluidic devices. This demonstration shows
      the potential for harnessing near-field feedback in optical direct-writing for
      nanofabrication.

PMID- 28868328
TI  - Creating a RAW264.7 CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Wide Library.
AB  - The bacterial clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)
      Cas9 genome editing tools are used in mammalian cells to knock-out specific genes
      of interest to elucidate gene function. The CRISPR-Cas9 system requires that the
      mammalian cell expresses Cas9 endonuclease, guide RNA (gRNA) to lead the
      endonuclease to the gene of interest, and the PAM sequence that links the Cas9 to
      the gRNA. CRISPR-Cas9 genome wide libraries are used to screen the effect of each
      gene in the genome on the cellular phenotype of interest, in an unbiased high
      throughput manner. In this protocol, we describe our method of creating a CRISPR
      Cas9 genome wide library in a transformed murine macrophage cell-line (RAW264.7).
      We have employed this library to identify novel mediators in the caspase-11 cell
      death pathway (Napier et al., 2016); however, this library can then be used to
      screen the importance of specific genes in multiple murine macrophage cellular
      pathways.

PMID- 28868329
TI  - Active Cdk5 Immunoprecipitation and Kinase Assay.
AB  - Cdk5 activity is regulated by the amounts of two activator proteins, p35 and p39
      (Tsai et al., 1994; Zheng et al., 1998; Humbert et al., 2000). The p35-Cdk5 and
      p39-Cdk5 complexes have differing sensitivity to salt and detergent
      concentrations (Hisanaga and Saito, 2003; Sato et al., 2007; Yamada et al., 2007;
      Asada et al., 2008). Cdk5 activation can be directly measured by
      immunoprecipitation of Cdk5 with its bound activator, followed by a Cdk5 kinase
      assay. In this protocol, buffers for cell lysis and immunoprecipitation are
      intended to preserve both p35- and p39-Cdk5 complexes to assess total Cdk5
      activity. Cells are lysed and protein concentration is determined in the post
      nuclear supernatant. Cdk5 is immunoprecipitated from equal amounts of total
      protein between experimental groups. Washes are then performed to remove
      extraneous proteins and equilibrate the Cdk5-activator complexes in the kinase
      buffer. Cdk5 is then incubated with histone H1, a well-established in vitro
      target of Cdk5, and [gamma-32P]ATP. Reactions are resolved by SDS-PAGE and
      transferred to membranes for visualization of H1 phosphorylation and immunoblot
      of immunoprecipitated Cdk5 levels. We have used this assay to establish p39 as
      the primary activator for Cdk5 in the oligodendroglial lineage. However, this
      assay is amenable to other cell lineages or tissues with appropriate adjustments
      made to lysis conditions.

PMID- 28868330
TI  - Aldicarb-induced Paralysis Assay to Determine Defects in Synaptic Transmission in
      Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Aldicarb treatment causes an accumulation of acetylcholine in the synaptic cleft
      of the neuromuscular junction, resulting in sustained muscle activation and
      eventually paralysis. Aldicarb-induced paralysis assay is an easy and fast method
      to determine whether synaptic transmission of a C. elegans mutant of interest is
      altered. This assay is based on the correlation of the rate of neurotransmitter
      release with the rate of paralysis. In this protocol, we describe a method for
      simultaneously assessing the aldicarb sensitivity of animals with different
      genotypes.

PMID- 28868331
TI  - Mass Spectrometry-based in vitro Assay to Identify Drugs that Influence Cystine
      Solubility.
AB  - Cystinuria is a rare genetic disorder characterized by recurrent, painful kidney
      stones, primarily composed of cystine, the dimer of the amino acid cysteine
      (Sumorok and Goldfarb, 2013). Using a mouse model of cystinuria, we have recently
      shown that administration of drugs that increase cystine solubility in the urine
      can be a novel therapeutic strategy for the clinical management of the disease
      (Zee et al., 2017). There is a large unmet need in the field for developing new
      drugs for cystinuria. To that end, here we describe a simple in vitro cystine
      solubility assay that is amenable for screening compounds to identify potential
      drugs that may influence cystine solubility. The assay includes preparing a
      supersaturated solution of cystine, incubating this solution with drug(s) of
      choice, and finally using high pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) to quantify the amount of cystine precipitated under
      various conditions.

PMID- 28868332
TI  - Primary Culture System for Germ Cells from Caenorhabditis elegans Tumorous
      Germline Mutants.
AB  - The Caenorhabditis elegans germ line is an important model system for the study
      of germ stem cells. Wild-type C. elegans germ cells are syncytial and therefore
      cannot be isolated in in vitro cultures. In contrast, the germ cells from
      tumorous mutants can be fully cellularized and isolated intact from the mutant
      animals. Here we describe a detailed protocol for the isolation of germ cells
      from tumorous mutants that allows the germ cells to be maintained for extended
      periods in an in vitro primary culture. This protocol has been adapted from
      Chaudhari et al., 2016.

PMID- 28868333
TI  - Rapid Profiling Cell Cycle by Flow Cytometry Using Concurrent Staining of DNA and
      Mitotic Markers.
AB  - The flow cytometric quantitation of DNA content by DNA-binding fluorochrome,
      propidium iodide (PI) is the most widely used method for cell cycle analysis.
      However, the commonly used methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive and are
      incompatible with staining of mitotic markers by fluorescent-labeled antibodies.
      Here, we report an optimized simple protocol for rapid and simultaneous analysis
      of characteristic mitotic phosphorylated proteins and DNA content, permitting the
      quantification of cells in mitosis, G1, S and G2 stage in a single assay. The
      protocol detailed here employs detergent-based hypotonic solution to rapidly
      permeabilize cells and allows simultaneous staining of DNA with PI and mitotic
      marker, phospho-Histone H3, with specific antibody within 20 min. The protocol
      requires only inexpensive and commercial available reagents and also enables a
      rapid and complete analysis of cell cycle profile.

PMID- 28868334
TI  - Loading of Extracellular Vesicles with Chemically Stabilized Hydrophobic siRNAs
      for the Treatment of Disease in the Central Nervous System.
AB  - Efficient delivery of oligonucleotide therapeutics, i.e., siRNAs, to the central
      nervous system represents a significant barrier to their clinical advancement for
      the treatment of neurological disorders. Small, endogenous extracellular vesicles
      were shown to be able to transport lipids, proteins and RNA between cells,
      including neurons. This natural trafficking ability gives extracellular vesicles
      the potential to be used as delivery vehicles for oligonucleotides, i.e., siRNAs.
      However, robust and scalable methods for loading of extracellular vesicles with
      oligonucleotide cargo are lacking. We describe a detailed protocol for the
      loading of hydrophobically modified siRNAs into extracellular vesicles upon
      simple co-incubation. We detail methods of the workflow from purification of
      extracellular vesicles to data analysis. This method may advance extracellular
      vesicles-based therapies for the treatment of a broad range of neurological
      disorders.

PMID- 28868335
TI  - Fundamental Bounds for Sequence Reconstruction from Nanopore Sequencers.
AB  - Nanopore sequencers are emerging as promising new platforms for high-throughput
      sequencing. As with other technologies, sequencer errors pose a major challenge
      for their effective use. In this paper, we present a novel information theoretic
      analysis of the impact of insertion-deletion (indel) errors in nanopore
      sequencers. In particular, we consider the following problems: (i) for given
      indel error characteristics and rate, what is the probability of accurate
      reconstruction as a function of sequence length; (ii) using replicated extrusion
      (the process of passing a DNA strand through the nanopore), what is the number of
      replicas needed to accurately reconstruct the true sequence with high
      probability? Our results provide a number of important insights: (i) the
      probability of accurate reconstruction of a sequence from a single sample in the
      presence of indel errors tends quickly (i.e., exponentially) to zero as the
      length of the sequence increases; and (ii) replicated extrusion is an effective
      technique for accurate reconstruction. We show that for typical distributions of
      indel errors, the required number of replicas is a slow function
      (polylogarithmic) of sequence length - implying that through replicated
      extrusion, we can sequence large reads using nanopore sequencers. Moreover, we
      show that in certain cases, the required number of replicas can be related to
      information-theoretic parameters of the indel error distributions.

PMID- 28868336
TI  - Long-Term Outcomes of Gastric Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection: Focus on
      Metachronous and Non-Curative Resection Management.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is an effective treatment
      for gastric superficial neoplasms and curative in 80-85% of the patients. The
      aims of this study were to identify risk factors for non-curative resection and
      metachronous development, and to evaluate patient management and outcome after
      non-curative resection. METHODS: In this single-centre study, the outcome of
      consecutive patients submitted to gastric ESD was assessed during a minimum
      follow-up of 18 months. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression
      were performed to identify risk factors. RESULTS: ESD was performed in 194
      lesions (164 patients) between 2005 and 2014. The median follow-up was 40 months.
      En bloc and complete resection rates were 95.3 and 93.8%, respectively. Male sex,
      larger tumor size, longer procedural time, and more advanced histology were
      associated with a non-curative resection (p < 0.05), but only carcinoma detected
      in biopsies before resection was identified as a significant risk factor on
      multivariate analysis. Metachronous lesions occurred in 18.4%, and the incidence
      rate was 4.7 lesions/100 person-years. Older age at diagnosis was identified as
      the only predictor of metachronous development in logistic regression. In the non
      curative resection group, survival did not differ between patients allocated to
      surveillance and those submitted to gastrectomy; 75% of gastrectomy specimens
      showed no residual lesion. CONCLUSIONS: The risk factors identified for non
      curative resection help to improve patient selection and patient information.
      Older patients had an increased risk for the development of metachronous lesions.
      In patients with non-curative resections, individualized patient management and
      surveillance seems to be an adequate option in selected cases.

PMID- 28868337
TI  - The adolescent brain at risk for substance use disorders: a review of functional
      MRI research on motor response inhibition.
AB  - Youth with family history (FH+) of substance use disorders (SUDs) are at
      increased risk for developing SUDs. Similarly, childhood attention deficit
      hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered to be a risk factor for developing
      SUDs. Recent research has suggested a close association between SUDs and impaired
      inhibitory control. As such, it is crucial to examine common and distinct neural
      alterations associated with inhibitory control in these at-risk groups,
      particularly prior to the initiation of heavy substance use. This paper reviews
      the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature of inhibitory control
      in these two at-risk youth populations (FH+ and ADHD), specifically considering
      studies that used motor response inhibition tasks (Go/No-Go or Stop Signal).
      Across the selected fMRI studies, we discovered no common alteration in the at
      risk groups, but found neural alterations specific to each at-risk group. In FH+
      youth and youth who transitioned into heavy substance use, blunted activation in
      the lateral part of the frontal pole (FP-lat) was most reliably observed.
      Importantly, longitudinal studies indicate that the blunted FP-lat activation may
      predict later SUDs, irrespective of the presence of FH+. In regards to ADHD,
      blunted activation was observed in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
      (dACC) and left caudate. Of note, similar blunted dACC activation was also
      reported by one FH+ study, and thus, we cannot preclude a possibility that the
      right dACC activity may be a potential common alteration in both at-risk groups,
      particularly given a limited number of FH+ studies in the current review.
      Research challenges remain, and large-scale, longitudinal efforts will help
      determine the neurobiological markers predictive of SUDs among at-risk
      adolescents, including those with FH+, as well as those with ADHD and other
      psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28868338
TI  - The role of literacy in the association between educational attainment and
      depressive symptoms.
AB  - There is a consistent association between education and depressive symptoms, but
      research on the mechanisms to explain this association remains limited. No study
      has formally evaluated the extent to which the association between education and
      depressive symptoms is mediated through a foundational skill such as literacy.
      Inverse odds ratio weighting (IORW) was used to estimate total, natural direct,
      and natural indirect effects in examining literacy as a mediator of the
      association between education and depressive symptoms. Health and Retirement
      Study participants born in the U.S. between 1900 and 1947 were interviewed
      biennially for up to 12 years (N = 16,718). Literacy was assessed with a brief
      vocabulary measure. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 8-item Centers
      for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. Decomposition estimates were
      derived using regression analyses of repeated measures of depressive symptoms.
      Standard errors were obtained using a nonparametric bootstrap with the individual
      as the independent unit to account for dependence of observations within an
      individual. In a large cohort of older Americans, a one standard deviation
      difference in educational attainment (~ 3 years) was associated with a 0.35-point
      decrement in CES-D score (95% CI: -0.38, -0.32). This decrement represents a 0.22
      standard deviation difference in depressive symptoms. Using IORW, the estimated
      effect of education on depressive symptoms mediated through literacy was -0.10
      (95% CI: -0.18, -0.01), which represents 28% of the total effect. Education
      confers many benefits; as demonstrated by this study for depressive symptoms, one
      important benefit is literacy.

PMID- 28868339
TI  - Low-frequency and low-intensity ultrasound irradiation to the forearm improves an
      index of arterial stiffness in subjects with type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The arterial pressure-volume index (API) is a non-invasive assessment
      of arterial stiffness, and is suggested as a useful predictor of future
      cardiovascular events. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects
      of low-frequency and low-intensity ultrasound applied to the forearm for 10 min
      on the API in Japanese subjects with type 2 diabetes and hypertension. METHODS:
      We examined the effects of low-frequency and low-intensity ultrasound (800 kHz,
      25 mW/cm2) applied to the forearm for 10 min on the API, blood pressure (BP) and
      pulse rate in 40 Japanese subjects (13 men and 27 women; mean age +/- SE, 70 +/-
      2 years) with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, who had the API > 30 and systolic
      BP > 140 mmHg at a clinic visit. We also examined the effects of the ultrasound
      irradiation for 10 min on the API, BP and pulse rate in 33 Japanese subjects (11
      men and 22 women; mean age +/- SE, 65 +/- 2 years) with type 2 diabetes and
      hypertension, who had the API > 30 and systolic BP (SBP) < 140 mmHg. RESULTS: The
      API, systolic BP and pulse rate in the ultrasound treatment group was
      significantly lower than the baseline values in the subjects who had the API > 30
      and either the baseline of systolic BP > 140 mmHg or systolic BP < 140 mmHg.
      CONCLUSIONS: The low-frequency and low-intensity ultrasound irradiation to the
      forearm for 10 min might be useful as a preventive application for arterial
      stiffness in subjects with type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

PMID- 28868340
TI  - E-Selectin and SDF-1 regulate metastatic trafficking of breast cancer cells
      within the bone.
AB  - E-selectin is a key mediator of breast cancer cell (BCC) metastatic entry into
      the bone and stromal-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) is a critical molecular anchor for
      BCCs within discrete pro-dormancy bone marrow (BM) niches. Small-molecule
      inhibitors blocked metastatic entry and mobilized established disease from BM,
      suggesting a new treatment strategy to prevent breast cancer relapse.

PMID- 28868341
TI  - Flick the cancer stem cells' switch to turn cancer off.
AB  - Tumors are organized in a cellular hierarchy with a population of cancer stem
      cell (CSC) driving cancer progression and resistance to treatment. Recently, we
      identified miR-600 as a bimodal switcher that balances breast CSC-fate from a
      self-renewing to a differentiation state, with a direct impact on tumor
      progression.

PMID- 28868342
TI  - PSMA redirects MAPK to PI3K-AKT signaling to promote prostate cancer progression.
AB  - Increased Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen expression promotes tumor
      progression in prostate epithelium by dysregulating the beta1-integrin/type I
      insulin-like growth factor receptor axis, resulting in a shift in signaling from
      the less aggressive mitogen-activated protein kinase-extracellular signal
      regulated kinases 1 and 2 pathway to the pro-survival protein kinase
      B(AKT)/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway.

PMID- 28868343
TI  - Disentangling PTEN-cooperating tumor suppressor gene networks in cancer.
AB  - We have recently performed a whole-body, genome-wide screen in mice using a
      single-copy inactivating transposon for the identification of Pten (phosphatase
      and tensin homolog)-cooperating tumor suppressor genes (TSGs). We identified
      known and putative TSGs in multiple cancer types and validated the functional and
      clinical relevance of several promising candidates for human prostate cancer.

PMID- 28868344
TI  - Early detection of the aflatoxin B1 mutational fingerprint: A diagnostic tool for
      liver cancer.
AB  - Using duplex-consensus sequencing technology, we recently identified the
      characteristic high-resolution mutational spectrum of the liver carcinogen
      aflatoxin B1 in a mouse model, many months before aflatoxin-induced tumors are
      detectable. The diagnostic power of this spectrum is then demonstrated by
      accurately identifying, among the sequenced human liver tumors, the subset of
      cancers associated with aflatoxin B1 exposure.

PMID- 28868345
TI  - Deregulated MITF sumoylation: A route to melanoma.
AB  - Metastatic melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer. Extraordinary breakthroughs
      have been recently achieved in the treatment of the disease,1 leading to
      objective increase in patient survival. However, early detection of potential
      dangerous melanocytic lesions remains the best strategy to avoid metastatic
      dissemination, which is still the main cause of death in melanoma patients. In
      2011, our team identified a germline mutation in microphthalmia-associated
      transcription factor (MITFE318K ) that predisposes carriers to melanoma.
      Recently, we demonstrated that this mutation interfered with oncogene-induced
      senescence, one of the first events that should be overcome to allow melanoma
      development. Therefore, our works provide important clues on the early steps of
      melanomagenesis and as such might be useful for prevention or early therapeutic
      interventions in at risk-patients.

PMID- 28868346
TI  - Heterogeneity among Lgr5-positive colon stem cells.
AB  - Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5) is considered
      a representative marker of intestinal stem cells from both non-tumor and tumor
      tissues. However, it remains unclear whether all or only a fraction of Lgr5
      positive cells behave as stem cells. Recently, we reported that Lgr5-positive
      cells from non-tumor and tumor tissues can be classified into overlapping yet
      distinct groups and that the tumor-specific groups are associated with
      tumorigenic capability, suggesting that these cells could represent targets for
      therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28868347
TI  - Major effect of transcytosis on nano drug delivery to pancreatic cancer.
AB  - We demonstrated that activated transcytosis is a major mechanism to complement
      the classic enhanced permeability and retention effect in pancreatic cancer. This
      was achieved by using an iRGD peptide that triggers transcytosis pathway at the
      tumor site. Co-administration of unconjugated iRGD substantially improved the
      effect of the chemotherapeutics delivering nanocarrier, and resulted in survival
      improvement in mice. Since the iRGD effect is commensurate with neuropilin-1
      expression on tumor vasculature, it is necessary to contemplate a personalized
      approach to implement this technology.

PMID- 28868348
TI  - Targeting pseudokinase TRIB3 brings about a new therapeutic option for acute
      promyelocytic leukemia.
AB  - Pseudokinase tribbles (Trib) family, Trib1 and Trib2, but not Trib3, act as
      oncogene to drive acute leukemia by destabilizing the myeloid transcription
      factor CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBPalpha) and inhibiting myeloid
      differentiation. A recent study identifies pseudokinase TRIB3 as an important
      factor in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) progression and therapy resistance.
      Targeting TRIB3 may provide a novel therapeutic approach for APL.

PMID- 28868349
TI  - Tumor-initiating CD49f cells are a hallmark of chemoresistant triple negative
      breast cancer.
AB  - Taxanes are mainstay treatment of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients
      but resistance often develops. Using TNBC patient-derived orthoxenografts (PDX)
      we have recently discovered that a CD49f+ chemoresistant population with tumor
      initiating ability is present in sensitive tumors and expands in tumors that have
      acquired resistance. Importantly, sensitivity to taxanes is recovered after long
      term drug interruption. The characterization of this chemoresistant CD49f+ cells
      provides a unique opportunity to identify novel targets for the treatment of
      chemoresistant TNBC.

PMID- 28868350
TI  - The answer's in the tail: MYC mRNA has a metabolic sensor that supports cancer
      chemoresistance.
AB  - Our recent study shows that the translation of MYC mRNA (mRNA) is controlled by
      its 3' untranslated region (UTR) in a process that depends on the availability of
      glutamine and levels of cellular nucleotides. Metabolic feedback protects cells
      from a lethal glutamine addiction and may compromise metabolic targeting of
      glutamine metabolism.

PMID- 28868351
TI  - The cell-of-origin dictates the genomic landscape of breast cancers.
AB  - Aberrant cell proliferation induced by activated oncogenes triggers oxidative
      stress and uncontrolled DNA replication, promoting genomic instability. We
      recently reported that human mammary stem cells exhibit the unique capacity to
      withstand an oncogenic activation by dint of an anti-oxidant program driven by
      the ZEB1 transcription factor. This pre-emptive program prevents the onset of
      chromosomal instability, leading to the development of tumors with unique
      pathological features.

PMID- 28868353
TI  - Dual epigenetic modifiers for cancer therapy.
AB  - Epigenetic drug discovery is an emerging strategy for the treatment of cancer and
      other pathologies. Here, we discuss our recent discovery of first-in-class dual
      reversible inhibitors of the histone methyltransferase activity of G9a/EHMT2 and
      DNA methyltransferases showing in vivo efficacy in human tumors. Current and
      future investigation lines are presented.

PMID- 28868352
TI  - SWI/SNF tumor suppressor gene PBRM1/BAF180 in human clear cell kidney cancer.
AB  - Mutations within chromatin modulating protein complexes have dominated the novel
      cancer gene landscape. However, little is known about how individual aberrations
      contribute to cancer formation. A novel Pbrm1 kidney cancer mouse model examining
      the role of Pbrm1 provides much needed clue concerning how SWI/SNF complexes
      might function as tumor suppressors.

PMID- 28868354
TI  - Differential dynamic microscopy of bidisperse colloidal suspensions.
AB  - Research tasks in microgravity include monitoring the dynamics of constituents of
      varying size and mobility in processes such as aggregation, phase separation, or
      self-assembly. We use differential dynamic microscopy, a method readily
      implemented with equipment available on the International Space Station, to
      simultaneously resolve the dynamics of particles of radius 50 nm and 1 MUm in
      bidisperse aqueous suspensions. Whereas traditional dynamic light scattering
      fails to detect a signal from the larger particles at low concentrations,
      differential dynamic microscopy exhibits enhanced sensitivity in these conditions
      by accessing smaller wavevectors where scattering from the large particles is
      stronger. Interference patterns due to scattering from the large particles induce
      non-monotonic decay of the amplitude of the dynamic correlation function with the
      wavevector. We show that the position of the resulting minimum contains
      information on the vertical position of the particles. Together with the simple
      instrumental requirements, the enhanced sensitivity of differential dynamic
      microscopy makes it an appealing alternative to dynamic light scattering to
      characterize samples with complex dynamics.

PMID- 28868356
TI  - On/off switchable electronic conduction in intercalated metal-organic frameworks.
AB  - The electrical properties of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) have attracted
      attention for MOF as electronic materials. We report on/off switchable electronic
      conduction behavior with thermal responsiveness in intercalated MOF (iMOF) with
      layered structure, 2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate dilithium, which was previously
      reported as a reversible Li-intercalation electrode material. The I-V response of
      the intercalated sample, which was prepared using a chemically reductive
      lithiation agent, exhibits current flow with sufficiently high electronic
      conductivity, even though it displays insulating characteristics in the pristine
      state. Calculations of band structure and electron hopping conduction indicate
      that electronic conduction occurs in the two-dimensional pi-stacking naphthalene
      layers when the band gap is decreased to 0.99 eV and because of the formation of
      an anisotropic electron hopping conduction pathway by Li intercalation. The
      structure exhibiting electronic conductivity remains stable up to 200 degrees C
      and reverts to an insulating structure, without collapsing, at 400 degrees C,
      offering the potential for a shutdown switch for battery safety during thermal
      runaway or for heat-responsive on/off switching electronic devices.

PMID- 28868357
TI  - THE ENDOCRINOPATHIES OF MALE ANOREXIA NERVOSA: CASE SERIES.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious disorder with associated morbidity
      and mortality, most commonly diagnosed in females. Existing literature on male
      anorexia is sparse, and a review of the endocrine effects of AN in males has not
      previously been published. Our objective is to highlight the clinical
      characteristics of AN in males as a routinely overlooked cause of multiple
      endocrinopathies and systemic illness in hospitalized patients. METHODS: We
      present 4 cases (2 cases at The Mount Sinai Hospital; 2 cases at Long Island
      Jewish Hospital) of young men with hormonal dysfunction due to underlying AN.
      Pertinent de-identified data were collected from a chart review of cases seen on
      the endocrinology consult service at both hospitals. Institutional Review Board
      approval was not required for an observational report of the cases presented.
      RESULTS: Four young men with AN demonstrated evidence of multiple systemic
      complications from severe caloric and protein malnutrition. Varying degrees of
      endocrinopathies were present, including hypogonadotropic hypogonadism,
      hypercortisolemia, and nonthyroidal illness syndrome, resulting in bradycardia,
      gastroparesis, hypothermia, acute systolic heart failure, and erectile
      dysfunction. Ages at diagnosis were 20, 24, 23, and 20 years, with mean age 21.75
      years. Most of the clinical effects from these endocrinopathies resolved with
      improved caloric intake and nutrition, although symptoms of hypogonadism
      persisted. CONCLUSION: This small case series highlights the importance of AN as
      a potential cause of multiple endocrinopathies in males. The heterogeneous
      presentations and varying degrees of clinical manifestations in our cohort
      emphasize the challenge in diagnosis. Increased awareness of AN in males is
      vital, as its prevalence is likely underestimated and appropriate diagnosis and
      treatment can ameliorate the metabolic dysfunction in a majority of cases.
      Further studies on males with eating disorders are needed to help guide
      diagnostic and therapeutic decisions.

PMID- 28868358
TI  - GLYCOGENIC HEPATOPATHY: A COMPLICATION OF UNCONTROLLED DIABETES.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe a case of hepatomegaly and elevated transaminases in a
      patient with glycogenic hepatopathy (GH) as a complication of uncontrolled
      diabetes. METHODS: Clinical, laboratory, and pathological information are
      described. RESULTS: An 18-year-old male with uncontrolled type 1 diabetes and
      recurrent diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) presented with abdominal distention and
      severe hyperglycemia. Physical examination revealed massive hepatomegaly.
      Laboratory evaluation showed anion-gap metabolic acidosis, ketonuria, and
      markedly elevated aspartate and alanine amino transaminases (AST = 1,162 IU/L and
      ALT = 598 IU/L, respectively). Despite resolution of DKA with insulin infusion,
      transaminases continued to increase (peak AST = 3,725 U/L, ALT = 1,049 U/L) with
      no signs of liver failure (normal coagulation profile and albumin level).
      Abdominal ultrasonography revealed an enlarged liver with moderate echogenicity,
      consistent with steatosis. Extensive evaluation for causes of hepatitis including
      toxic, autoimmune, genetic, and infectious diseases was unrevealing. Liver biopsy
      showed no signs of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), such as fibrosis,
      steatosis, or portal inflammation. However, swollen hepatocytes with glycogen
      accumulation consistent with GH were seen. CONCLUSION: GH can present as
      hepatomegaly and elevated liver transaminases in patients with uncontrolled
      diabetes. Clinicians should consider GH in patients with uncontrolled diabetes
      after ruling out other common causes. Liver ultrasound cannot differentiate this
      condition from the more commonly seen NAFLD. Although liver biopsy remains a gold
      standard, evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging may be considered as a less
      invasive alternative in the appropriate clinical setting.

PMID- 28868355
TI  - Stability of gene expression in human T cells in different gravity environments
      is clustered in chromosomal region 11p15.4.
AB  - In the last decades, a plethora of in vitro studies with living human cells
      contributed a vast amount of knowledge about cellular and molecular effects of
      microgravity. Previous studies focused mostly on the identification of gravity
      responsive genes, whereas a multi-platform analysis at an integrative level,
      which specifically evaluates the extent and robustness of transcriptional
      response to an altered gravity environment was not performed so far. Therefore,
      we investigated the stability of gene expression response in non-activated human
      Jurkat T lymphocytic cells in different gravity environments through the
      combination of parabolic flights with a suborbital ballistic rocket and 2D
      clinostat and centrifuge experiments, using strict controls for excluding all
      possible other factors of influence. We revealed an overall high stability of
      gene expression in microgravity and identified olfactory gene expression in the
      chromosomal region 11p15.4 as particularly robust to altered gravity. We
      identified that classical reference genes ABCA5, GAPDH, HPRT1, PLA2G4A, and
      RPL13A were stably expressed in all tested gravity conditions and platforms,
      while ABCA5 and GAPDH were also known to be stably expressed in U937 cells in all
      gravity conditions. In summary, 10-20% of all transcripts remained totally
      unchanged in any gravitational environment tested (between 10-4 and 9 g), 20-40%
      remained unchanged in microgravity (between 10-4 and 10-2 g) and 97-99% were not
      significantly altered in microgravity if strict exclusion criteria were applied.
      Therefore, we suppose a high stability of gene expression in microgravity.
      Comparison with other stressors suggests that microgravity alters gene expression
      homeostasis not stronger than other environmental factors.

PMID- 28868359
TI  - Immune Mediator Pharmacogenomics: TCL1A SNPs and Estrogen-Dependent Regulation of
      Inflammation.
AB  - This review describes the important functional implications of TCL1A single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered during pharmacogenomic studies of
      aromatase inhibitor-induced musculoskeletal adverse events that were subsequently
      shown to influence the expression of cytokines, chemokines, toll-like receptors
      (TLR), and NF-kappaB in a SNP and estrogen-dependent fashion. Functional genomic
      studies of these SNPs led to the discovery of novel mechanisms that may
      contribute to disease pathophysiology and which may also increase our
      understanding of pharmacogenomic aspects of regulation of the expression of
      inflammatory mediators. Specifically, TCL1A expression was induced by estrogens
      in a SNP-dependent fashion, resulting in downstream effects on the expression of
      immune mediators that included IL17RA, IL17A, CCR6, CCL20 TLR2, TLR7, TLR9, TLR10
      and NF-kappaB. These observations have potential implications for inflammatory
      diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis-a disease for which two thirds of patients
      are women. Strikingly, this genomic phenomenon could be "reversed" by estrogen
      receptor antagonist treatment-once again in a SNP-dependent, i.e., in a
      pharmacogenomic fashion. Specifically, differential SNP-dependent effects on
      estrogen receptor binding to estrogen response elements before and after estrogen
      receptor blockade might be associated with mechanisms underlying the SNP genotype
      and estrogen-dependent regulation of TCL1A and the expression of downstream
      immune mediators. Furthermore, this SNP and estrogen-dependent phenotypic
      response could be "reversed" by SERM treatment. These observations could
      potentially open the way to understand, predict and even pharmacologically
      manipulate the expression of selected immune mediators in a SNP-dependent
      fashion.

PMID- 28868360
TI  - GE - A New Path!

PMID- 28868361
TI  - Evaluating Disability in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Step Forward for Improved
      Care.

PMID- 28868362
TI  - Disability in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Translation to Portuguese and
      Validation of the "Inflammatory Bowel Disease - Disability Score".
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has a physical, psychological and
      social impact, often compromising the patient's ability to perform daily
      activities. Recently a new measurement for disability in IBD was developed. The
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease-Disability Score (IBD-DS) comprises the following
      domains: mobility, self-care, major daily life activities, gastrointestinal
      related problems, mental health and interaction with the environment. The aim of
      our study was to translate to Portuguese and to validate the IBD-DS. METHODS:
      Eighty-five patients, 55 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 30 with ulcerative colitis
      (UC), completed the Portuguese version of the IBD-DS and the short inflammatory
      bowel disease questionnaire (SIBDQ-10 questions). Disease activity was assessed
      using the Harvey-Bradshaw (HB) for CD and partial Mayo score (pMayo) for UC.
      Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation between the
      IBD-DS and SIBDQ. The Student's t-test was used to compare the mean of IBD-DS
      between active and inactive disease. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS
      21.0 and the statistical level of significance (alpha) was established at 5%.
      RESULTS: In our study, a significant negative correlation between the IBD-DS and
      the SIBDQ was observed (r = -0.858, p < 0.001 for CD and r = -0.933, p < 0.001
      for UC). There was a statistically significant difference of the mean of IBD-DS
      between inactive vs. active disease (93.78 vs. 117.57, p = 0.016 for CD and 78.96
      vs. 137.14, p < 0.001 for UC). CONCLUSION: The Portuguese version of the
      inflammatory bowel disease-disability score has a strong correlation with
      patients' quality of life and clinical disease activity and was shown to be a
      valid tool to measure disability in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

PMID- 28868363
TI  - Polyglandular Syndrome Type III and Severe Peripheral Neuropathy: An Unusual
      Association.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Polyglandular syndrome is characterized by the association of
      autoimmune, organ-specific, endocrine and non-endocrine diseases. OBJECTIVE: To
      present a case of polyglandular syndrome type III (b) accompanied by pernicious
      anemia and autoimmune thyroiditis. METHOD: Report the clinical case of a young
      patient that developed progressive and disabling peripheral neuropathy framework,
      triggered by vitamin B12 deficiency. DISCUSSION: It was proven that atrophic
      gastritis with positive intrinsic anti-factor was responsible for the framework
      of pernicious anemia, which in turn dangerously reduced the serum levels of
      vitamin B12, leading to myelopathy. There was a progressive neurological
      improvement after parenteral cyanocobalamin replacement, keeping the patient at
      ambulatory, under maintenance therapy. CONCLUSION: The importance of suspecting
      on polyglandular syndrome in the presence of autoimmune frameworks is important,
      especially those involving diabetes, thyroiditis, atrophic gastritis, pernicious
      anemia, vitiligo, among others.

PMID- 28868364
TI  - Hepatic Actinomycosis.
AB  - Actinomycosis is a rare disorder caused by an anaerobic gram-positive bacillus
      (Actinomyces), predominantly by the Actinomyces israelii species. Only 20% of
      cases show an abdominal manifestation, the appendix and ileocecal valve being the
      most frequent locations. Definitive diagnosis is based on microbiological
      cultures, microscopy or macroscopy examination. Nevertheless, histological
      examination of the percutaneous biopsy and blood microbiological cultures are
      rarely positives. Preoperative diagnosis is hampered by the lack of specific
      clinical and imaging manifestations, which often mimic malignancy. The rate of
      preoperative diagnosis is less than 10%, however, the outcome is excellent, with
      a low mortality rate. The authors describe the case of a patient who was
      diagnosed with primary hepatic actinomycosis only by a histological examination
      of the surgical specimen of left hepatectomy extended to segments V and VIII, for
      suspected malignant lesion. This case demonstrates the difficulties in diagnosing
      hepatic actinomycosis.

PMID- 28868365
TI  - The Clinical Significance of Autoantibodies in Hepatitis C Patients Submitted to
      Interferon Treatment.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus is associated with several immune-mediated phenomena, presented
      usually as extra-hepatic hepatitis C manifestations. A predisposition to
      autoimmunity associated with the presence of baseline autoantibodies has been
      demonstrated in interferon mediated autoimmune diseases. We report a male
      patient, 34 years old, with genotype 1, chronic hepatitis C (hepatitis C viremia
      1.432.463 UI/mL) and family history of psoriasis. He had high levels of
      transaminases and immunology showed positive antinuclear antibodies (1/320) and
      anti-smooth-muscle antibodies, with elevated immunoglobulin G (1740 mg/dL). Liver
      biopsy revealed a F1/2 Metavir score, histologic activity index of 3 and mild
      piecemeal necrosis. Antiviral treatment was started with peg-interferon alpha2a
      180 mcg plus ribavirin 1200 mg, and the patient had rapid virologic response,
      normalization of transaminases, negativation of antinuclear antibodies positivity
      and decrease of immunoglobulin levels. However, at week 22, he developed
      psoriatic-like eczema and arthritis with functional limitation. Due to suspicion
      of latent psoriatic arthritis not previously diagnosed, he was started on
      methotrexate 10 mg/weekly with improvement of psoriatic plaques, arthritis and
      functional limitation. Patient achieved sustained virologic response, with normal
      transaminases and no significant changes in immunology. Post-treatment median
      hepatic elastography was 3.6 kPa. Autoimmunity in hepatitis C infection is not
      limited to surrogate autoantibody seropositivity, but may embrace the full
      spectrum of autoimmune disorders.

PMID- 28868366
TI  - Accidental Ingestion of Dentistry Material - Report of Cases and Challenges from
      the Pediatrician Point of View.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Aspiration or ingestion of foreign bodies may occur during dental
      procedures. Diagnosis and management of these accidents is sometimes challenging.
      The authors present a small series of clinical cases. CASE 1: Adolescent observed
      due to suspected accidental bracket ingestion, not visible on x-ray, removed by
      upper digestive endoscopy. CASE 2: Adolescent observed after accidental ingestion
      of a dental file. Conflicting results in image exams and absence of object
      progression led to enteroscopy for extraction. CASE 3: Adolescent observed due to
      accidental ingestion of a surgical blade, visualized on image study but not
      accessible by endoscopy, resulting in latter spontaneous elimination. DISCUSSION:
      Image study is frequently useful when metallic object ingestion is suspected, but
      has some limitations. In some cases, mucosal protections must be used during
      removal procedures. Prevention of such accidents is the best approach, using
      appropriate protections to secure airway and digestive tract during dental
      procedures.

PMID- 28868367
TI  - A Case of Obstructive Jaundice.

PMID- 28868368
TI  - Gastric Mixed Adenoneuroendocrine Carcinoma.

PMID- 28868369
TI  - Sloughing Esophagitis: A Rare Cause of Dysphagia.

PMID- 28868370
TI  - Single-balloon Enteroscopy Assisted Endoscopic Retrograde
      Cholangiopancreatography with the Rendezvous Technique.

PMID- 28868371
TI  - Inactive Carriers of Hepatitis B Virus: A Never Ending Story.

PMID- 28868372
TI  - Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection of Early Gastric Cancer: Yes, We Need to
      Calculate Procedure Times!

PMID- 28868373
TI  - Hepatitis B Virus Inactive Carriers: Which Follow-up Strategy?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The natural history of patients with inactive hepatitis B virus
      (HBV) is still unclear, persisting doubts about the optimal management of these
      patients. AIM: To evaluate the long-term outcome in a cohort of hepatitis B
      inactive carriers. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study in a cohort of 100
      HBV inactive carriers (categorized after quarterly determinations of serum ALT
      and HBV DNA over one year) and analyzed the results of serial determinations of
      HBV DNA and alanine transaminase (ALT). The HBV DNA was quantified by Cobas
      TaqMan(r). We used the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient to evaluate the
      correlation between the serum ALT and HBV DNA. RESULTS: We studied 100 HBV
      inactive carriers (53% females, mean age 48.7 +/- 13.8 years, range 16-77 year).
      Vertical transmission was identified in 18%. The mean follow-up time was 4.6 +/-
      2.5 (2-13) years. Two patients had transient elevation of ALT (alcohol and
      drugs). We observed clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in four
      patients (4%) and biological and virological reactivation in 10% (from the 4th
      year of follow-up). Mild lesions were found in the 12 patients in whom liver
      biopsy was performed; genotypes A and D predominated. Viral load and serum ALT
      levels were unremarkable in 90% of the patients. There was no significant
      correlation (p > 0.05) between the values of ALT and HBV DNA throughout the
      follow-up. CONCLUSION: The management strategy, using both patterns of
      biochemical and virologic activity, seems adequate. The lack of correlation
      between the values of ALT and HBV DNA caveat its effectiveness and the stability
      of the levels of HBV DNA and ALT in most patients suggests that the prognosis of
      the inactive carriers, when defined accurately, is mostly benign. Further
      studies, including ones with new tests available, are needed to standardize and
      improve the management of this group of patients.

PMID- 28868374
TI  - Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection of Gastric Superficial Lesions: Predictors for
      Time of Procedure in a Portuguese Center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), an endoscopic technique used
      for treatment of gastric superficial lesions, has been gaining importance on
      western countries. Procedural times have an impact on various outcomes. AIM: To
      define which factors from patients, lesions and procedure can predict longer
      procedural times. METHODS: In a cohort of 127 lesions resected by ESD with IT
      knife, after using needle-knife for submucosal layer access, by experienced
      gastroenterologists, characteristics from the patient (age, gender, presence of
      co-morbidities, usage and suspension of anti-platelet drugs and general physical
      condition), lesion (size, histopathological diagnosis at biopsy, location,
      macroscopic type and submucosal invasion) and procedure (adverse events) were
      retrospectively analyzed for its impact on time of procedure. Univariate and
      multivariate analysis were performed. RESULTS: Lesions larger than 20 mm (p <
      0.001), on the upper third of the stomach (p = 0.035) and with an ASA score of 3
      (p = 0.031) were considered influential factors for a longer procedure time and
      specifically for a time of procedure longer than 90 min. Existence of intra
      procedure adverse events was also a predictor for a procedure time >90 min.
      Lesion's size >20 mm and location in the upper third were independently
      associated with a procedure time longer than 90 min (OR 4.91 [95%CI 2.29-10.50]
      and OR 18.26 [95%CI 2.02-164.78], respectively). CONCLUSION: The time of
      procedure of ESD for gastric superficial lesions is influenced by size of lesion
      (>20 mm) and location (upper third of stomach), which predict a time longer than
      90 min. This can be useful for better management of workflow, operation, training
      of teams and anesthesic procedures.

PMID- 28868375
TI  - A Large Gastric Inflammatory Fibroid Polyp.
AB  - Inflammatory fibroid polyp (IFP) is an unusual benign gastrointestinal
      subepithelial tumor (SET). The endosonographic (EUS) features of IFPs were
      sporadically reported on imaging tips or small case series study. However, the
      differential diagnosis and optimal treatment of gastric IFP is still challenging.
      We report an unusual case of a large erosioned and prolapsing gastric submucosal
      lesion, presenting primarily with obstructive symptoms ("ball valve syndrome")
      and anemia. On EUS examination, a 50 mm SET in the distal antrum was seen, with
      hypoechoic but heterogeneous echo-pattern, located in the second and third
      sonographic layers of the gastric wall (deep mucosal and submucosal). The fourth
      (muscle) layer was intact; no peri-lesional adenopathies were identified. A
      decision was made to proceed to endoscopic treatment because of the mentioned
      symptoms. Histopathologic evaluation of the resected specimen with
      immunohistochemical staining was consistent with the diagnosis of IFP. IFP rarely
      reach these large dimensions or cause symptoms. Despite its benign etiology,
      endoscopic resection was important in both establishing a histologic diagnosis
      and treatment. EUS was crucial in the differential diagnosis. The literature
      concerning IFP is also reviewed.

PMID- 28868376
TI  - Portal Hypertensive Biliopathy: An Infrequent Cause of Biliary Obstruction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Biliary obstruction is usually caused by choledocholithiasis.
      However, in some circumstances, alternative or concurring unusual ethiologies
      such as portal hypertensive biliopathy (PHB) must be considered. CLINICAL CASE:
      We present the case of a 36-year-old female complaining of jaundice and pruritus.
      Liver function tests were compatible with biliary obstruction and the ultrasound
      scan of the abdomen showed dilatation of the intrahepatic biliary ducts, a
      dilated common bile duct (CBD) and biliary calculi. The computed tomography of
      the abdomen revealed a portal cavernoma encasing the CBD. DISCUSSION: Portal
      cavernoma, the hallmark of extrahepatic portal venous obstruction, can cause PHB.
      When symptomatic, chronic cholestasis is present if a dominant stricture exists
      whereas biliary pain and acute cholangitis occur when choledocholithiasis
      prevails. Management must be individualized and usually includes endoscopic
      therapy to address choledocholithiasis and shunt surgery for definitive
      treatment.

PMID- 28868377
TI  - Schwannoma-A Rare Subepithelial Lesion of the Colon.
AB  - Schwannoma is a benign tumor arising from Schwann cells that form the neural
      sheath. Primary schwannoma of the colon is rare and a few cases have been
      reported. We report a case of schwannoma of the colon and present the
      differential diagnosis that must be considered in the evaluation of colonic
      subepithelial lesions.

PMID- 28868378
TI  - Pneumoperitoneum after Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy.

PMID- 28868379
TI  - Perforated Rectal Haematoma Induced by a Cleansing Enema Tip.

PMID- 28868380
TI  - Incidental Diagnosis of Mantle Lymphoma Made by Sigmoidoscopy.

PMID- 28868381
TI  - A New Method for Distal Repositioning of a Misplaced Esophageal Stent.

PMID- 28868382
TI  - Preoperative Aerobic Capacity - Is There a Role for Routine Evaluation in Liver
      Transplantation?

PMID- 28868383
TI  - Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome System (BAROS): Toward the Uniform
      Assessment of Bariatric Surgery Outcomes.

PMID- 28868384
TI  - Pre-Transplant Aerobic Capacity and Prolonged Hospitalization After Liver
      Transplantation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with end stage liver disease (ESLD) referred for liver
      transplantation (LT) are forwarded to pulmonary evaluation before being operated.
      ESLD is associated with muscle wasting, reduced exercise tolerance and aerobic
      capacity. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the association between aerobic capacity (AC),
      liver disease severity and postoperative LT outcomes in a series of LT candidates
      in a university affiliated hospital in Brazil. METHODS: Pre-LT oxygen uptake at
      peak (pre-VO2peak), liver disease severity, and early pos-LT outcomes such as
      length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, <5 and >=5 days and hospitalization,
      <20 and >=20 days and postoperative mortality were compared. Pre-VO2peak was
      measured through the cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Severity of liver
      disease was estimated by the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD)
      categorization into MELD < 18 and MELD >= 18 groups. Student's t-test was used to
      compare these groups. A logistic regression model was built to verify the effect
      of those variables on the length of ICU stay, length of hospitalization and
      postoperative mortality. RESULTS: A total of 47 patients were include in
      analysis. Pre-VO2peak was similar to that of healthy sedentary individuals (75 +/
      18%) and worse in the MELD >= 18 group as compared to the MELD < 18 group (19.51
      +/- 7.87 vs 25.21 +/- 8.76 mL/kg/min, respectively; p = 0.048). According to the
      multivariate analysis, only a lower pre-VO2peak (<20.09 +/- 4.83 mL/kg/min) was
      associated to a greater length of hospitalization (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In LT
      candidates, a reduced pre-VO2peak may predict a higher risk of greater pos-LT
      length of hospitalization. The length of ICU stay and postoperative mortality
      were not associated with variables studied. This finding should be evaluated in
      other studies before making specific recommendations about a routine use of CPET
      in LT candidates.

PMID- 28868385
TI  - Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Patients from Goias, Brazil, Using the BAROS
      Method - A Preliminary Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As obesity is currently a major public health problem, bariatric
      surgery has been widely indicated due to the difficulties involved in the
      clinical management of obese adults. OBJECTIVES: Assess the quality-of-life (QOL)
      of patients who had undergone Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) in the State of
      Goias, Brazil, where as yet no studies have been published on the QOL of patients
      who underwent bariatric surgery. METHODS: A retrospective study, using the
      Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome System (BAROS), was carried out in
      Goiania and Rio Verde, Goias, Brazil, with 50 over 18-year-old patients of both
      genders, who had undergone RYGB and had at least three months of postoperative
      time. RESULTS: Before RYGB, 48% of the individuals were classified as morbidly
      obese. Average weight and body mass index (BMI) of the 50 patients interviewed
      were 119.37 +/- 18.44 kg and 43.54 +/- 5.33 kg/m2, respectively. By contrast,
      after the RYGB these parameters decreased significantly to 78.01 +/- 11.06 kg and
      28.46 +/- 3.61 kg/m2, respectively, mainly from the 3rd to 85th month of
      postoperative time (p < 0.0001). As well as that, 78% reported having presented
      preoperative comorbidities, especially hypertension (44%), rheumatism (34%),
      dyslipidemia (24%) and diabetes (20%). However, after surgery, the resolution
      rates were 77, 24, 100 and 100%, respectively, for these same clinical
      conditions. In terms of QOL, some patients reported feeling better (8%) or much
      better (92%) after RYGB. The outcome of the BAROS method for those patients was
      classified as fair (2%), good (8%), very good (24%) and excellent (66%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results indicated that RYGB could be a successful
      surgical procedure to promote satisfactory and sustained reduction in the body
      measurements of morbidly obese patients from Goias, Brazil. Furthermore, the
      final BAROS score showed improvements in associated comorbidity and also in the
      QOL of these patients.

PMID- 28868386
TI  - New Trends in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory disease of
      the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In the past decade a shift in the treatment
      paradigm of IBD has ensued. The availability of drugs capable of inducing mucosal
      healing, combined with the recognition that IBD is not an intermittent disease,
      but rather a progressive one causing bowel damage and disability, led us to a
      more stringent strategy. Tailored therapy with more aggressive treatment in high
      risk patients, treating beyond symptoms, intervening early before damage occurs,
      optimizing therapeutic regimens, and actively pursuing sustained remission and
      sustained control of inflammation are strategies that are slowly being
      incorporated in our clinical practice. Furthermore, new drugs targeting different
      immunological pathways, such as vedolizumab, have recently been approved and
      therefore more therapeutic resources for patients failing anti-tumour necrosis
      factor alpha (anti-TNFalpha) agents will be available. The future years look
      promising for IBD. Hopefully the new trends in IBD management, combined with new
      drugs, will make possible to change the course of disease and provide better
      therapy and quality of life for patients suffering from this disabling disease.

PMID- 28868388
TI  - Panniculitis - A Rare Manifestation of Acute Pancreatitis.
AB  - Pancreatic panniculitis is a rare skin disorder that occurs in 2-3% of pancreatic
      diseases, mostly associated with acute or chronic pancreatitis. Its
      pathophysiology is still unclear, but the release of pancreatic enzymes in
      circulation can be responsible for this disorder. The typical histological
      features are adipocyte necrosis with neutrophils infiltrate and typical "ghost
      cells". Its treatment, clinical course and prognosis are usually related with the
      pancreatic disease. We present a case of a 39-year-old man who presented with
      fever, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting after a copious alcohol ingestion.
      Acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis was diagnosed. 9 days after admission he
      developed tender erythematous subcutaneous nodules, whose biopsy was consistent
      with pancreatic panniculitis. There was clinical and laboratory improvement with
      supportive treatment as well as skin nodules regression. Although pancreatic
      panniculitis is a rare condition, physicians must be aware of it to avoid delay
      in the diagnosis.

PMID- 28868389
TI  - Meckel's Diverticulum: A Rare Cause of Overt Obscure Gastrointestinal Bleeding in
      an Adult Male.

PMID- 28868387
TI  - The Importance of Alternative Diagnostic Modalities in the Diagnosis of Small
      Bowel Tumors After a Negative Capsule Endoscopy.
AB  - Capsule endoscopy is widely accepted as the preferred diagnostic test in the
      evaluation of small bowel diseases, especially in the setting of obscure
      gastrointestinal bleeding. It has revolutionized small bowel examination and has
      improved the detection of small bowel tumors. However, small bowel tumors are
      sometimes missed by capsule endoscopy. Furthermore, there are several recent
      reports comparing capsule endoscopy with other diagnostic modalities, such as
      double balloon enteroscopy and CT/RM enterography, that challenge the reportedly
      high negative predictive value of capsule endoscopy in detecting small bowel
      tumors. We report the case of a patient with overt obscure gastrointestinal
      bleeding due to a gastrointestinal stromal tumor diagnosed by CT enterography
      after two negatives capsule endoscopies. This case shows that capsule endoscopy
      may overlook significant life threatening lesions and highlights the importance
      of using other diagnostic modalities after a negative capsule endoscopy,
      especially in patients with a high index of suspicion for small bowel tumoral
      pathology or persistent/recurrent bleeding.

PMID- 28868391
TI  - Hematochezia in a Patient with Renal Failure and Hyperkalemia.

PMID- 28868390
TI  - Rapid Progression of Multifocal Hepatic Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma.

PMID- 28868392
TI  - Secondary Aortoesophageal Fistula Due to Thoracic Aortic Stent Graft: Is There a
      Role for Endoscopic Intervention?

PMID- 28868393
TI  - Burkitt's Lymphoma Diagnosed by Colonoscopy in Immunocompetent Patient.

PMID- 28868394
TI  - The Vanishing Frontiers of Therapeutic Enteroscopy.

PMID- 28868395
TI  - Genetic Variations and Gastric Cancer Risk.

PMID- 28868396
TI  - Endoscopic Mucosal Resection of Jejunal Polyps using Double-Balloon Enteroscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are only two single case reports describing double-balloon
      enteroscopy (DBE)-assisted endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) of the jejunum. The
      aim of this case series was to evaluate the feasibility and utility of DBE
      assisted EMR in patients with familial and non-familial jejunal polyps. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: Observational, open-label, retrospective, single-arm case series in
      two hospitals. RESULTS: Eight patients underwent DBE assisted jejunal EMR. Median
      age of patients was 42 years (range 24-62 years), male: female ratio 1.5:1. DBE
      was done through the antegrade (i.e. oral) route in all patients. Four patients
      had FAP; two had Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, one had a sporadic adenoma and one had a
      bleeding jejunal polyp, which on histological examination turned out to be
      lipoma. 3/8 underwent piece-meal EMR. No immediate adverse events occurred.
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first case series presenting the technical details,
      feasibility and outcomes of EMR of the small bowel. EMR of the jejunum is
      feasible and safe during DBE.

PMID- 28868398
TI  - Imagiological Diagnosis of Gastrointestinal Diseases - Diagnostic Criteria of
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of neoplastic
      morbidity and mortality worldwide, and despite recent treatment advances, the
      prognosis remains dismal, with a 5-year mortality rate of 85%. The surveillance
      and timely diagnosis is therefore of crucial importance in order to improve
      survival rates and alleviate the health burden imposed by the HCC. Previously,
      HCC diagnosis warranted liver biopsy, an invasive process with limited diagnostic
      accuracy. In the past 15 years, HCC diagnosis based solely on imaging criteria
      was accepted by all the major national and international guidelines, and is now
      widely employed across the globe. Current European guidelines for the HCC
      diagnosis support the use of both dynamic contrasted computer tomography as well
      as magnetic resonance imaging for the non-invasive diagnosis of HCC for nodules
      >1 cm in a cirrhotic liver. The non-invasive diagnosis of HCC depends on
      radiological hallmarks, such as homogeneous contrast uptake during the arterial
      phase and wash-out during the venous and late phases, but while such tumoral
      behaviour is frequent in nodules >2 cm, high-end equipment and superior expertise
      is often needed for the correct diagnosis of early HCC. Nevertheless, the
      accuracy of imaging techniques for the diagnosis of HCC is permanently improving,
      and supports the progressively reduced need for liver biopsy during liver nodule
      workout in a cirrhotic liver.

PMID- 28868397
TI  - Association Between IL-4 and IL-6 Expression Variants and Gastric Cancer Among
      Portuguese Population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Multiple studies have reported strong associations between
      Helicobacter pylori (Hp) inflammation and gastric cancer (GC) development.
      Altered expressions of pro/anti-inflammatory cytokines have a crucial role in Hp
      and GC proliferation. Although there are many studies related to cytokines
      polymorphisms involvement in GC risk, the role of Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and
      Interleukin-6 (IL-6) in gastric inflammation process is not yet clarified. AIM:
      This study aimed to investigate the impact of common IL-4 and IL-6 polymorphisms
      in GC development risk among Portuguese population. METHODS: A total of 100 GC
      biopsies (50 with intestinal type, IGC, 50 with diffuse type, DGC) and 50 chronic
      gastritis cases, used as control group, were included in this case-control study.
      IL-4 and IL-6 common polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-SSP, using commercially
      available kits. RESULTS: IL-4 low producer genotypes, IL-4-590TT (OR = 6.7; 95%
      CI 1.4-32.4) and IL-4-1098GG (OR = 4.4; 95% CI 1.7-16.9) were found associated
      with IGC and DGC, respectively. We also verified that IL-4 TTT haplotype was
      linked with both IGC (OR = 5.8; 95% CI 2.3-14.4) and DGC (OR = 2.3; 95% CI 1.0
      5.5) groups. Concerning IL-6 results, IL-6-174CG genotype showed a higher
      prevalence among IGC cases (OR = 7.3; 95% CI 2.7-20.3), and IL-6-174CC (OR = 3.8;
      95% CI 1.7-8.7) showed upper prevalence within DGC subjects. Finally, IL-6
      174/nt565CG haplotype showed a significant association with both IGC (OR = 7.3;
      95% CI 2.7-20.3) and DGC (OR = 7.9; 95% CI 4.2-14.9). CONCLUSION: IL-6 and IL-4
      expression variants seem to have an important role in GC risk mechanisms. This
      study provides preliminary evidence that IL-4 and IL-6 polymorphisms, although
      not directly linked to the disease, may be useful tools in the study of this
      multifactorial disease.

PMID- 28868400
TI  - Upper Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage as an Unexpected Feature of Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma.

PMID- 28868401
TI  - Duodenal and Colonic Metastases of Ovarian Neoplasm.

PMID- 28868399
TI  - Endoscopic Ultrasound in the Diagnosis and Staging of Pancreatic Cancer.
AB  - Pancreatic cancer is one of the digestive cancers with the poorest prognosis, so
      an early and correct diagnosis is of utmost importance. With the development of
      new therapeutic options an accurate staging is essential. Endoscopic
      ultrasonography (EUS) has a major role in all stages of the management of these
      patients. EUS has a high accuracy in the diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma
      and the possibility to perform fine-needle aspiration/biopsy (FNA/FNB) increases
      the diagnostic yield of EUS. There is still no consensus on the several technical
      aspects of FNA, namely on the rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE), the diameter and
      type of needle, the number of passes and the use of stylet and suction. Contrast
      enhanced EUS (CE-EUS) and EUS elastography (EUS-E) have been used in recent years
      as an adjunct to EUS-FNA. Given the higher sensitivity of these techniques a
      negative cytology by EUS-FNA should not exclude malignancy when CE-EUS and/or EUS
      E are suggestive of pancreatic neoplasia. EUS remains one of the main methods in
      the staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, namely to further evaluate patients
      with non-metastatic disease that appears resectable on initial imaging. EUS is
      crucial for an accurate preoperative evaluation of pancreatic cancer which is
      essential to choose the correct management strategy. The possibility to obtain
      samples from suspicious lesions or lymph nodes, by means of EUS-guided fine
      needle aspiration as well as the use of contrast-enhanced and elastography, makes
      EUS an ideal modality for the diagnosis and staging of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28868402
TI  - Aspiration of Capsule Endoscopy.

PMID- 28868403
TI  - Duodenal Variceal Bleeding Successfully Treated by Endoscopic N-butyl-2
      cyanoacrylate Injection.

PMID- 28868404
TI  - A Challenge, an Ambition.

PMID- 28868405
TI  - Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection in the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Superficial
      Lesions: Follow the Guidelines!

PMID- 28868406
TI  - Predictors of Severity and In-Hospital Mortality for Acute Pancreatitis: Is There
      Any Role for C-Reactive Protein Determination in the First 24 Hours?

PMID- 28868407
TI  - Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection for Gastrointestinal Superficial Lesions:
      Initial Experience in a Single Portuguese Center.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a minimally invasive
      organ-sparing endoscopic technique which allows en bloc resection of premalignant
      and early malignant lesions of the gastrointestinal tract regardless of size. In
      spite of the promising results, mainly from Japanese series, ESD is still not
      being widely used in western countries. This study aims to report the
      feasibility, safety and effectiveness of ESD technique for treating premalignant
      and early malignant gastrointestinal (GI) lesions (esophagus, gastric and rectum)
      in a Portuguese center. PATIENT AND METHODS: From December 2011 to November 2014,
      34 GI lesions were treated by ESD. The location, en bloc and pathological
      complete resection (R0) rates, procedure time, complications and local recurrence
      were retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: From 34 resected lesions, 18 were
      gastric (GL), 15 were rectal (RL) and one esophageal (EL). En bloc resection for
      each location was 17/18 (94%), 11/15 (73%) and 1/1 respectively. R0 was achieved
      in 16/18 (89%) GL, 9/15 (60%) RL and 1/1 EL. Mean resection time was 67 min for
      GL, 142 min for RL and 40 min for EL. Complications included immediate (6%) and
      delayed (3%) minor bleeding but no perforation. One local residual lesion from a
      RL was reported in the follow-up, effectively treated with an endoscopic
      technique. Disease-specific survival was 100% over a mean follow-up period of 14
      months. CONCLUSION: ESD has shown to be a safe and feasible resection method,
      achieving high R0, low recurrence and complication rates. Our results are similar
      to those reported in other international series.

PMID- 28868408
TI  - C-Reactive Protein at 24 Hours after Hospital Admission may have Relevant
      Prognostic Accuracy in Acute Pancreatitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: C-reactive protein (CRP) and Bedside Index for Severity in Acute
      Pancreatitis (BISAP) have been used in early risk assessment of patients with AP.
      OBJECTIVES: We evaluated prognostic accuracy of CRP at 24 hours after hospital
      admission (CRP24) for in-hospital mortality (IM) in AP individually and with
      BISAP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 134
      patients with AP from a Portuguese hospital in 2009-2010. Prognostic accuracy
      assessment used area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC),
      continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination
      improvement (IDI). RESULTS: Thirteen percent of patients had severe AP, 26%
      developed pancreatic necrosis, and 7% died during index hospital stay. AUCs for
      CRP24 and BISAP individually were 0.80 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65-0.95)
      and 0.77 (95% CI 0.59-0.95), respectively. No patients with CRP24 <60 mg/l died
      (P = 0.027; negative predictive value 100% (95% CI 92.3-100%)). AUC for BISAP
      plus CRP24 was 0.81 (95% CI 0.65-0.97). Change in NRInonevents (42.4%; 95% CI,
      24.9-59.9%) resulted in positive overall NRI (31.3%; 95% CI, -36.4% to 98.9%),
      but IDInonevents was negligible (0.004; 95% CI, -0.007 to 0.014). CONCLUSIONS:
      CRP24 revealed good prognostic accuracy for IM in AP; its main role may be the
      selection of lowest risk patients.

PMID- 28868410
TI  - Neuroendocrine Rectal Tumors: Main Features and Management.
AB  - The incidence of neuroendocrine tumors of the rectum has been increasing in the
      last decades, partly due to improved investigation. They are mostly well
      differentiated small tumors with a rather good overall prognosis. In the last few
      years, some aspects of neuroendocrine tumors have been evolving. In 2010, the
      World Health Organization proposed a new classification, indicating that these
      tumors, as a category, should be considered malignant. Afterwards the European
      Neuroendocrine Tumor Society published their guidelines for the management of
      colorectal neoplasms. Treatment algorithm is mainly based on tumor size and
      grading and, in general, well-differentiated rectal tumors <2 cm can be
      endoscopically resected. Endorectal ultrasound plays a particularly important
      role by accurately assessing tumor size and depth of invasion prior to resection.
      There are no specific recommendations on the optimal endoscopic resection method,
      but data from recent studies suggests that modified endoscopic mucosal resection
      techniques and endoscopic submucosal dissection have superior complete resection
      rates.

PMID- 28868409
TI  - Management of Patients with Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Syndromes.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most important causes of death in the
      world. Hereditary CRC is found in 5-10% of CRC patients. In this review, we will
      focus on the major forms of hereditary CRC and their management according to the
      most recent literature available.

PMID- 28868411
TI  - Finding a Needle in a Haystack: The Diagnosis of a Rectal Neuroendocrine Tumor by
      Transrectal Prostate Biopsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prostate biopsy, usually performed by a transrectal approach, is
      executed when there is a suspicion of prostate cancer. Neuroendocrine tumors
      (NETs) are epithelial neoplasms with predominant neuroendocrine differentiation
      and only 19% of them are localized in the rectum. CASE REPORT: The authors
      describe a 73-year-old man without a significant past medical history that
      underwent a prostate biopsy because of urinary complaints and elevated serum
      levels of prostate specific antigen. The histology revealed a well-differentiated
      NET characterized as a low-grade tumor (G1). A total colonoscopy revealed a 5 mm
      sessile rectal polyp and in the splenic flexure a sessile lesion with central
      ulceration with 5 cm with histological features compatible with an
      adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSION: This is the first case reported in the literature of
      a rectal NET diagnosed by transrectal prostate biopsy. This case is particularly
      unique because the diagnosis of the NET lead to the subsequent timely detection
      of a colonic adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28868413
TI  - Endoscopic Ultrasound and Anal Pain: The Key to Diagnosis.

PMID- 28868412
TI  - Anal Pain and Constipation - Beyond the Obvious.

PMID- 28868414
TI  - Left-Sided Portal Hypertension: A Clinical Challenge.

PMID- 28868415
TI  - Left-Sided Portal Hypertension: A Sinister Entity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sinistral, or left-sided, portal hypertension (SPH) is a rare
      entity, with multiple potential causes. Gastrointestinal variceal bleeding and
      hypersplenism are its' major clinical manifestations. The main aim of the present
      study is to summarize the clinical features of patients with SPH. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients with present
      or previous diagnosis of SHP, observed in a Gastroenterology Department, in a
      period of 2 years. Patients with clinical, radiological or laboratory alterations
      suggestive of cirrhosis were excluded. Causes of SPH, clinical manifestations and
      outcomes were registered. Potential factors associated with gastrointestinal
      bleeding were analyzed. RESULTS: In the study period a total of 22 patients (male
      - 17; mean age - 59.6 +/- 10.6 years) with SHP were included. Clinical
      manifestations were: asymptomatic/unspecific abdominal pain (n = 14);
      gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 8). Eleven (50%) patients had increased
      aminotransferases, GGT and/or alkaline phosphatase although liver function was
      normal in all of them. Causes of SPH were chronic pancreatitis (n = 7), acute
      pancreatitis (n = 7), pancreatic cancer (n = 4), pancreatic surgery (n = 3) and
      arteriovenous malformation (n = 1). All patients had gastric and/or esophageal
      varices and seven had splenomegaly. Five (22.7%) had thrombocytopenia, associated
      with hypersplenism. Five patients (22.7%) were submitted to endoscopic treatment
      and eight were submitted to splenic artery embolization and/or splenectomy. There
      were no cases of variceal rebleeding and two patients died. Patients without
      liver enzymes elevation had a higher probability of gastrointestinal bleeding
      (87.5% vs. 28.6%; p = 0.024). CONCLUSIONS: Acute and chronic pancreatitis are the
      major causes of SHP. Gastrointestinal bleeding is the most important clinical
      manifestation and patients without liver enzyme elevation seem more prone to
      bleed. Specific treatment is seldom performed or needed.

PMID- 28868416
TI  - Systematic Review of the Relation Between Intestinal Microbiota and Toll-Like
      Receptors in the Metabolic Syndrome: What Do We Know So Far?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Metabolic syndrome is an emerging problem in developed countries
      and presents itself as a potential threat worldwide. The role of diabetes,
      dyslipidaemia and hepatic steatosis as pivotal components of the metabolic
      syndrome is well known. However, their common persistent chronic inflammation and
      its potential cause still elude. This systematic review aims to present evidence
      of the mechanisms that link the intestinal microbioma, innate immunity and
      metabolic syndrome. METHODS: A comprehensive research was made using PubMed
      database and 35 articles were selected. RESULTS: We found that metabolic syndrome
      is associated to increased levels of innate immunity receptors, namely, Toll-like
      receptors, both in intestine and systemically and its polymorphisms may change
      the risk of metabolic syndrome development. Microbioma dysbiosis is also present
      in metabolic syndrome, with lower prevalence of Bacteroidetes and increased
      prevalence of Firmicutes populations. The data suggest that the link between
      intestinal microbiota and Toll-like receptors can negatively endanger the
      metabolic homeostasis. CONCLUSION: Current evidence suggests that innate immunity
      and intestinal microbiota may be the hidden link in the metabolic syndrome
      development mechanisms. In the near future, this can be the key in the
      development of new prophylactic and therapeutic strategies to treat metabolic
      syndrome patients.

PMID- 28868417
TI  - Leaping Forward in the Treatment of Clostridium Difficile Infection: Update in
      2015.
AB  - In recent years, significant advances in the treatment of Clostridium difficile
      infection (CDI) have risen. We review the most relevant updated recommendations
      in the current standard of care of CDI and discuss emerging therapies, including
      antibiotic, alternative therapies (probiotics, toxin-binding resins,
      immunotherapy) and new data on fecal transplantation. Upcoming surgical options
      and other rescue therapies for severe refractory disease are also addressed.
      Although oral metronidazole is a first-line therapy for non-severe CDI, emerging
      data have demonstrated its inferiority relatively to vancomycin, particularly in
      the setting of recurrent and/or severe infection. After a CDI recurrence for the
      first time, fidaxomicin has been shown to be associated with lower likelihood of
      CDI recurrence compared to vancomycin. Fecal transplantation is now strongly
      recommended for multiple recurrent CDI and may have a role in refractory disease.
      Oral, frozen stool capsules may simplify fecal transplantation in the future,
      with preliminary promising results. Diverting loop ileostomy combined with
      colonic lavage is a potential alternative to colectomy in severe complicated CDI.
      Potential alternative therapies requiring further investigation include toxin
      binding resins and immunotherapy.

PMID- 28868419
TI  - Duodenal Subepithelial Lesion? An Unexpected Endoscopic Ultrasound Finding.

PMID- 28868420
TI  - Unusual Retained Rectal Foreign Body.

PMID- 28868418
TI  - Nutrition in Chronic Liver Disease.
AB  - Protein-calorie malnutrition is a transversal condition to all stages of chronic
      liver disease. Early recognition of micro or macronutrient deficiencies is
      essential, because the use of nutritional supplements reduces the risk of
      complications. The diet of patients with chronic liver disease is based on a
      standard diet with supplements addition as necessary. Restrictions may be harmful
      and should be individualized. Treatment management should aim to maintain an
      adequate protein and caloric intake and to correct nutrient deficiencies. The
      large majority of patients with grade I/II hepatic encephalopathy can tolerate a
      regular diet. Protein restriction can aggravate malnutrition and is not
      recommended, except in cases of hepatic encephalopathy unresponsive to optimized
      therapy.

PMID- 28868421
TI  - Brunner's Gland Hamartoma - A Rare Cause of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding.

PMID- 28868422
TI  - RDW as a Surrogate Marker for Active Crohn's Disease: Potential Utility.

PMID- 28868423
TI  - Real-Time Elastography in the Assessment of Advanced Fibrosis in Chronic
      Hepatitis C: Is It Here to Stay?

PMID- 28868424
TI  - Can Red Cell Distribution Width Be Used as a Marker of Crohn's Disease Activity?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recently, it has been suggested an association between red cell
      distribution width (RDW) and Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI), but its use
      is not yet performed in daily clinical practice. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether
      RDW can be used as a marker of Crohn's disease (CD) activity. METHODS: This was a
      cross-sectional study including patients with CD, observed consecutively in an
      outpatient setting between January 1st and September 30th 2013. Blood cell
      indices, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein were
      measured. CD activity was determined by CDAI (active disease if CDAI >= 150).
      Associations were analyzed using logistic regression (SPSS version 20). RESULTS:
      119 patients (56% female) were included in the study with a mean age of 47 years
      (SD 15.2). Twenty patients (17%) had active disease. The median RDW was 14.0 (13
      15). There was an association between RDW and disease activity (p = 0.044). After
      adjustment for age and gender, this association remained consistent (OR 1.20, 95%
      CI 1.03-1.39, p = 0.016). It was also found that the association between RDW and
      disease activity was independent of hemoglobin and ESR (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.08
      1.72, p = 0.01) and of biologic therapy (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.37, p = 0.017). A
      RDW cutoff of 16% had a specificity and negative predictive value for CDAI >= 150
      of 88% and 86%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In this study, RDW proved to be an
      independent and relatively specific marker of CD activity. These results may
      contribute to the implementation of this simple parameter, in clinical practice,
      aiming to help therapeutic decisions.

PMID- 28868425
TI  - Diagnostic Performance of Real-Time Elastography in the Assessment of Advanced
      Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis C.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Since liver fibrosis index (LFI) was developed by Fujimoto
      et al., real-time elastography (RTE) has become a promising non-invasive
      technique to assess fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). The aims of this study
      were to compare the diagnostic performance of RTE versus laboratory tests to
      predict advanced fibrosis (METAVIR scoring system: F >= 3) in patients with CHC,
      using liver biopsy (LB) as the reference standard; and to evaluated the impact of
      patient anthropometric features on RTE histogram acquisition. METHODS: This
      prospective study included 37 patients with CHC scheduled for LB. Aspartate
      aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransferase (AST) ratio, AST/platelet ratio
      index (APRI), and Fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) were calculated from recent (<=6
      months) laboratory data. RTE was performed by two independent operators blind to
      each other' findings and to LB results, using Hitachi HI-VISION Avius ultrasound
      system. According to Hitachi RTE software, liver elasticity was evaluated through
      the LFI. Percutaneous ultrasound-assisted LB was performed in the same day of
      RTE. All LB specimens were analyzed by an expert pathologist blind to RTE
      results. Hepatic fibrosis was staged according to METAVIR scoring system. The
      diagnostic performance of the LFI, AST/ALT ratio, APRI and FIB-4 for predicting
      advanced fibrosis was assessed using area under receiver-operating characteristic
      curve (AUROC), sensitivity, specificity, positive-predictive and negative
      predictive (NPV) values. RESULTS: Thirty-seven LB were performed without
      complications. The distribution according to METAVIR scoring system was F0-1 in
      13 patients (35%), F2 in 13 (35%), F3 in 9 (25%) and F4 in 2 (5%). Thirty-seven
      RTE procedures were performed. Histogram acquisition was successfully achieved in
      32 patients (86%). Abdominal wall thickness >=23 mm was associated with no
      histogram acquisition (p = 0.018). Using the optimal cut-off value of 2.38, the
      AUROC for the LFI was 0.73. The AUROC for the AST/ALT ratio, APRI and FIB-4 were
      0.62, 0.79, and 0.82, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The LFI calculated by RTE showed
      a very good diagnostic performance to predict advanced fibrosis in CHC, with
      remarkable sensitivity and NPV (both 100%).

PMID- 28868426
TI  - Biopsies in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: When and How.
AB  - Gastrointestinal endoscopy and the acquisition of tissue samples are essential
      for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases of the digestive system.
      However, given the differences between the recommendations and the clinical
      practice, the inexorable increase of requests for endoscopic examinations and the
      financial burden associated with it, it is crucial that we concentrate on the
      challenge that endoscopic biopsies represent. In this review we describe the
      available evidence in the literature, including the more recent published
      guidelines, on when or not to perform endoscopic biopsies in upper and lower
      endoscopy, focusing on the precise diagnosis of the most common gastrointestinal
      diseases that motivate endoscopic examinations and on the rational use of
      available resources without compromising proper management of patients.

PMID- 28868427
TI  - Contrast-Enhanced Cross Sectional Imaging and Capsule Endoscopy: New Perspectives
      for a Whole Picture of the Small Bowel.
AB  - Small bowel evaluation is a challenging task and has been revolutionized by high
      quality contrasted sectional imaging (CT enterography - CTE) and magnetic
      resonance enterography (MRE) as well as by small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE).
      The decision of which technique to employ during the investigation of small bowel
      diseases is not always simple or straightforward. Moreover, contraindications may
      preclude the use of these techniques in some patients, and although they are
      noninvasive procedures, may present with various complications. SBCE plays a
      crucial role in the investigation of both obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and
      Crohn's disease, but it is also useful for surveillance of patients with Peutz
      Jeghers syndrome, while CTE is very accurate in small bowel tumours and in
      established Crohn's Disease, and its use in patients presenting with
      gastrointestinal bleeding is increasing. MRE, an expensive and not widely
      available technique, is essential for the study of patients with Crohn's Disease,
      and presents an attractive alternative to SBCE in Peutz-Jeghers syndrome
      surveillance. These diagnostic modalities are often not competitive but
      synergistic techniques. Knowing their characteristics, strengths and limitations,
      indications, contraindications and potential complications, as well as the
      adaptation to local availability and expertise, is essential to better select
      which procedures to perform in each patient, both safely and effectively, in
      order to optimize management and improve patient outcomes.

PMID- 28868428
TI  - Endoscopic Scores for Evaluation of Crohn's Disease Activity at Small Bowel
      Capsule Endoscopy: General Principles and Current Applications.
AB  - The small bowel is affected in the vast majority of patients with Crohn's Disease
      (CD). Small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) has a very high sensitivity for the
      detection of CD-related pathology, including early mucosal lesions and/or those
      located in the proximal segments of the small bowel, which is a major advantage
      when compared with other small bowel imaging modalities. The recent guidelines of
      European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and European Crohn's and
      Colitis Organisation (ECCO) advocate the use of validated endoscopic scoring
      indices for the classification of inflammatory activity in patients with CD
      undergoing SBCE, such as the Lewis Score or the Capsule Endoscopy Crohn's Disease
      Activity Index (CECDAI). These scores aim to standardize the description of
      lesions and capsule endoscopy reports, contributing to increase inter-observer
      agreement and enabling a stratification of the severity of the disease. On behalf
      of the Grupo de Estudos Portugues do Intestino Delgado (GEPID) - Portuguese Small
      Bowel Study Group, we aimed to summarize the general principles and clinical
      applications of current endoscopic scoring systems for SBCE in the setting of CD,
      covering the topic of suspected CD as well as the evaluation of disease extent
      (with potential prognostic and therapeutic impact), evaluation of mucosal healing
      in response to treatment and evaluation of post-surgical recurrence in patients
      with previously established diagnosis of CD.

PMID- 28868429
TI  - Impacted Foreign Body Causing Acute Malignant Colonic Obstruction.
AB  - Malignant colorectal obstruction is a serious complication of advanced cancers.
      The obstruction can be caused by colorectal cancer, adjacent organ cancer or
      distant metastases. Rectal metastases from gastric cancer are rare. Foreign body
      ingestion is not a rare event and the majority of them causes no symptoms or
      complications. Nevertheless, they are likely to stop at any narrowing or
      angulation of the intestinal lumen. The authors describe a rare clinical
      presentation of an impacted foreign body in a pathological narrowing secondary to
      rectal metastasis of a gastric neoplasia that caused an acute malignant colonic
      obstruction. After endoscopic removal of the foreign body, there was complete
      resolution of symptoms avoiding surgery or palliative stenting. This case report
      highlights the need of careful inspection of colonic malignant strictures before
      stenting to exclude other causes of colonic obstructions, as an impacted foreign
      body.

PMID- 28868430
TI  - Endoscopic Treatment of Early Gastric Obstruction After Sleeve Gastrectomy:
      Report of Two Cases.
AB  - Morbid obesity is an epidemic and complex disease which imposes a
      multidisciplinary approach. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy has become a frequent
      procedure given its efficacy and safety compared to other surgical options.
      However, it isn't free from complications. Lax gastric fixation or incorrect
      positioning of the stomach during surgery can result in early gastric outlet
      obstruction caused by a volvulus-like mechanism by rotation of the stomach around
      its anatomic axes. This report refers to two cases of post sleeve gastric torsion
      resulting in persisting vomiting after initiating oral intake. The diagnosis was
      confirmed by upper gastrointestinal-contrast study and gastroscopy. In both
      cases, a fully covered self-expandable metallic stent was inserted which prompted
      the gastric lumen to become permeable resulting in symptomatic resolution. The
      stents were removed endoscopically after two and three months. Beyond more than
      three years of follow-up, the patients remain asymptomatic and no recurring
      "stenosis" was noticed. In these cases the use of fully covered self-expandable
      metallic stents demonstrated to be effective and safe in the treatment of post
      sleeve gastric torsion.

PMID- 28868431
TI  - Trichobezoar - A Rare Cause of Abdominal Mass and Gastric Outlet Obstruction.
AB  - The authors present the clinical case of a 14-year old girl with weight loss,
      anorexia, epigastric abdominal pain and postprandial vomiting with 5 months
      duration. There was a background of trichophagia for 2 years without evidence of
      alopecia or psychiatric history. The physical examination revealed an epigastric
      mass motionless, stony, with poorly defined limits, painful on palpation and
      about 7 cm diameter. Abdominal ultrasonography showed thickening of the gastric
      wall and antrum with gastric distension. The abdominal tomography scan and
      endoscopic examination revealed the presence of a bulky trichobezoar occupying
      almost the entire gastric lumen. It was decided to undergo gastrotomy and
      extraction of the bezoar. The postoperative period was uneventful.

PMID- 28868432
TI  - Gelatinous Ascites: A Characteristic Finding of a Rare Entity.

PMID- 28868433
TI  - Fistulizing Gastric GIST.

PMID- 28868434
TI  - To Stent or Not to Stent in Colorectal Cancer: That is Still the Question in
      Gastroenterology!

PMID- 28868435
TI  - Sprue-Like Enteropathy Associated With Olmesartan: A New Kid on the Enteropathy
      Block.

PMID- 28868436
TI  - Acute Treatment of Malignant Colorectal Occlusion: Real Life Practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Colorectal cancer presents itself as acute bowel occlusion in 10
      40% of patients. There are two main therapeutic approaches: urgent surgery and
      endoluminal placement self-expandable metallic stents (SEMS). AIMS AND METHODS:
      This study intended to better clarify the risk/benefit ratio of the above
      mentioned approaches. We conducted a retrospective longitudinal multicenter
      study, including 189 patients with acute malignant colorectal occlusion,
      diagnosed between January 2005 and March 2013. RESULTS: Globally (85 patients -
      35 bridge-to-surgery and 50 palliative), SEMS's technical success was of 94%.
      Palliative SEMS had limited clinical success (60%) and were associated with 40%
      of complications. SEMS occlusion (19%) was the most frequent complication,
      followed by migration (9%) and bowel perforation (7%). Elective surgery after
      stenting was associated with a higher frequency of primary anastomosis (94% vs.
      76%; p = 0.038), and a lower rate of colostomy (26% vs. 55%; p = 0.004) and
      overall mortality (31% vs. 57%; p = 0.02). However, no significant differences
      were identified concerning postoperative complications. Regarding palliative
      treatment, no difference was found in the complications rate and overall
      mortality between SEMS and decompressive colostomy/ileostomy. In this SEMS
      subgroup, we found a higher rate of reinterventions (40% vs. 5%; p = 0.004) and a
      longer hospital stay (14, nine vs. seven, three days; p = 0.004). CONCLUSION:
      SEMS placement as a bridge-to-surgery should be considered in the acute treatment
      of colorectal malignant occlusion, since it displays advantages regarding primary
      anastomosis, colostomy rate and overall mortality. In contrast, in this study,
      palliative SEMS did not appear to present significant advantages when compared to
      decompressive colostomy.

PMID- 28868437
TI  - Reevaluation of Self-Expanding Metal Stents as a Bridge to Surgery for Acute Left
      Sided Malignant Colonic Obstruction: Six Years Experience.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) as a bridge to surgery have been
      used as an alternative for acute malignant left-sided colonic obstruction.
      However, the benefits are uncertain. The European Society of Gastrointestinal
      Endoscopy no longer recommends their use in patients with low surgical risk
      because of the risk of tumor recurrence. METHODS: Patients admitted for acute
      malignant left-sided colonic obstruction who underwent SEMS as a bridge to
      elective surgery or urgent surgery were retrospectively evaluated. Postoperative
      morbidity/mortality, stent complications and survival were recorded. Our aim was
      to compare the outcome between preoperative SEMS and direct emergent surgery in
      acute left-sided malignant colonic obstruction. RESULTS: 42 patients were
      included (SEMS group: 27 and surgery group: 15). There were no differences
      between groups in relation to age, ASA classification and tumor stage. The
      technical success of SEMS was 88.9% and the clinical success was 85.2%. There
      were three SEMS related perforations. In the surgery group, the stoma rate was
      higher (86.7% vs 25.9%, p < 0.001) and there was a trend for a lower length of
      hospital stay (18.9 days vs 26.3 days, p = 0.051). SEMS verses surgery group:
      There were no differences in the rate of temporary stoma (57.1% vs 61.5%, p =
      0.84), definitive stoma (42.8% vs 38.5%, p = 0.84), success of primary
      anastomosis (86.7% vs 66.7%, p = 0.22) and Clavien-Dindo classification (>=III:
      36% vs 58.2% p = 0.24). Overall survival at 1/5 years was identical in the two
      groups 100%/56% in the SEMS group vs 93%/43% in the surgery group, p = 0.14), as
      well as tumor recurrence at 3/5 years (24%/50% vs 20%/36% respectively, p =
      0.68). CONCLUSIONS: SEMS are associated with a lower overall stoma rate and a
      higher primary anastomosis rate. However, there are no differences in
      complications, overall survival and recurrence between the groups.

PMID- 28868438
TI  - The Role of Emergency Endoscopy in Small Bowel Bleeding: A Review.
AB  - There is no consensus on the timing and management of emergency overt obscure
      gastrointestinal bleeding. Emergency capsule endoscopy and balloon-assisted
      enteroscopy have a high diagnostic and therapeutic yield in these situations.
      Most lesions detected by small bowel endoscopy are amenable to endoscopic
      haemostasis, although some lesions still require surgery or interventional
      radiology. The management of these patients is varied, and doubt persists about
      which technique should be preferred as first-line treatment. This narrative
      review analyses the usefulness and impact of small bowel endoscopic techniques in
      the emergency setting for severe overt obscure gastrointestinal bleeding.

PMID- 28868439
TI  - Olmesartan-Induced Enteropathy: An Unusual Cause of Villous Atrophy.
AB  - We report a case of a 63-year-old-man presenting with chronic diarrhea and weight
      loss while on olmesartan treatment for hypertension. Investigation showed
      multiple nutritional deficiencies associated with diffuse intestinal villous
      atrophy. Serologies for celiac disease were negative and other causes of villous
      atrophy were excluded. Olmesartan as a precipitant agent was suspected and
      withdrawn. Clinical improvement occurred in days with no need for other
      therapeutic measures. Follow-up at three months showed clinical remission and
      almost complete recovery of intestinal atrophy. Olmesartan is an angiotensin
      receptor blocker commonly prescribed for the management of hypertension.
      Spruelike enteropathy associated with this drug is a recently described entity
      with few cases reported. It presents with chronic diarrhea and intestinal villous
      atrophy and should be included in its differential diagnosis. This case intends
      to alert clinicians for the possibility of this event in a patient on treatment
      with this drug.

PMID- 28868440
TI  - Enteropathy Associated with Olmesartan.
AB  - The recognition of an enteropathy caused by olmesartan is recent. It was first
      described in 2012 by the Mayo Clinic, which presented 22 clinical cases.
      Olmesartan is a highly prescribed drug and the differential diagnosis of a sprue
      like enteropathy is very wide, so it is important to be aware of this pathology.
      We report a case of a 67-years-old man, with arterial hypertension under
      treatment with olmesartan, with a 4-months history of diarrhea and weight lost.
      He was admitted three times in our Department during this period of time. An
      initial diagnosis was made of lymphocytic colitis but he did not respond to
      treatment with corticosteroids. There was a high suspicion of celiac disease, so
      the patient started a gluten-free diet but still there were no symptomatic
      changes. The patient underwent several blood and imaging tests which were
      negative. Due to the suspicion of an enteropathy caused by drugs, olmesartan was
      stopped and the patient showed a significant improvement of his symptoms. The
      exact pathophysiology of this entity remains to be elucidated. It may affect all
      gastrointestinal tract and mimic a refractory celiac disease as well as a
      lymphocytic colitis due to similar symptoms and histology. It is expected more
      cases like this in the future due to high use of olmesartan in current clinical
      practice. So, it is important to all gastroenterologists to be aware of this
      pathology and take it into consideration when putting together a differential
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28868441
TI  - Olmesartan-Induced Sprue Like Enteropathy.
AB  - Chronic diarrhoea is a common clinical problem in gastroenterology practice and
      often it is difficult to diagnose the cause. Villous atrophy is not specific and
      the rarer possibility of drug-induced enteritis should always be considered.
      Olmesartan has recently been described as a cause of drug-induced enteropathy
      characterized by chronic diarrhoea and varying degrees of duodenal mucosa atrophy
      resembling celiac disease. We describe two cases of sprue-like enteropathy in
      patients treated with olmesartan for arterial hypertension several years before
      the onset of symptoms. Patients presented severe diarrhoea and significant weight
      loss, and both had histological evidence of intestinal villous atrophy. The
      clinical signs completely resolved after drug withdrawal. Olmesartan-induced
      enteropathy is a new clinical entity that must be included in the differential
      diagnosis of villous atrophy with negative celiac serology. The clinical and
      histological alterations easily and completely resolve after drug
      discontinuation, restoring quality of life to patients and avoiding unnecessary
      investigation.

PMID- 28868442
TI  - Refractory Celiac Disease Type II: A Case Report that Demonstrates the Diagnostic
      and Therapeutic Challenges.
AB  - Refractory celiac disease is an uncommon but serious complication of celiac
      disease. We describe a case of a severe refractory celiac disease type II,
      complicated with ulcerative jejunoileitis, in a 68 years old female, unresponsive
      to consecutive treatments with budesonide, prednisolone, cladribine and
      autologous stem cell transplantation. The patient maintained severe malnutrition,
      advanced osteoporosis, anaemia, vitamin deficiencies and hydro-electrolytic
      imbalances, necessitating consecutive hospitalizations for total parenteral
      nutrition. The patient also developed life-threatening complications, namely
      respiratory and urinary septic shock and also episodes of haemorrhagic shock
      secondary to ulcerative jejunoileitis. The progression to enteropathy associated
      T-cell lymphoma was never demonstrated, but the patient died 7 years after the
      diagnosis due to a septic shock secondary to a nosocomial pneumonia and
      osteomyelitis related to a spontaneous hip fracture. This case highlights the
      difficulties in the diagnostic process, therapeutic management and surveillance
      of this rare condition associated with very poor prognosis.

PMID- 28868443
TI  - Intraluminal Duodenal ("Windsock") Diverticulum: A Rare Cause of Gastrointestinal
      Bleeding.

PMID- 28868444
TI  - Extensive Esophageal Ulceration in a Renal Transplant Patient.

PMID- 28868445
TI  - Successful Endoscopic Removal of a Kerh-Tube Placed in an Iatrogenic Esophageal
      Perforation: Push to Pull.

PMID- 28868446
TI  - GE - Into the Future.

PMID- 28868447
TI  - A Bugs Battle on Behalf of the Liver.

PMID- 28868448
TI  - Acute or Recurrent Abdominal Pain: The Eyes Can Only See What the Mind Knows!

PMID- 28868449
TI  - Microbiota Modulation With Synbiotic Decreases Liver Fibrosis in a High Fat
      Choline Deficient Diet Mice Model of Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gut microbiota may play a role in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
      (NASH). Previous studies showed that prebiotics and probiotics might halt the
      progression of steatohepatitis. AIM: To clarify the potential effect of Synbiotic
      2000(r)Forte (Synb) in preventing or ameliorating diet induced steatohepatitis,
      particularly in fibrosis progression and how this intervention correlates with
      gut microbiota composition and endotoxinemia. METHODS: Twenty-seven C57BL/6 mice
      were divided into three groups: chow diet (CD, n = 7); high-fat choline deficient
      diet (HFCD, n = 10) and HFCD diet supplemented with Synbiotic 2000(r)Forte (four
      probiotic strains and four prebiotics mixture) (HFCD + Synb, n = 10). At 6 and 18
      weeks, blood samples (lipopolysaccharides assay - LPS), cecal feaces (gut
      microbiota) and liver tissue (histology) were collected for analysis. RESULTS:
      Both HCFD diet mice developed steatohepatitis with ballooning at 6 and 18 weeks,
      opposite to CD. Comparison of histological scores in HFCD and HFCD + Synb, at 6
      and 18 weeks showed no significant difference regarding steatosis, inflammation,
      or ballooning. Evaluating fibrosis with Sirius Red, and degree of smooth-muscle
      cell activation, HFCD mice had significantly more fibrosis; addition of Synb
      significantly reduced fibrosis at 6 weeks and 18 weeks. Serum endotoxin levels
      were similarly increased in HFCD and HFCD + Synb at week 6; however at week 18
      HFCD + Synb had significantly lower endotoxin levels than HFCD. Gut microbiota of
      HFCD vs CD, showed no significant differences regarding the phyla Firmicutes and
      Bacteroidetes, either at 6 or 18 weeks; Proteobacteria increased at 6 week (3.3)
      and 18 week (7.5), while the addition of Synb resulted in a decrease at week 18 (
      3.90). Fusobacteria markedly increase at week 18 (10.0), but less so with the
      addition of Synb (5.2). CONCLUSION: Synbiotic 2000(r)Forte is able to modulate
      the mouse gut microbiota reducing the degree of fibrosis while simultaneously
      decreasing endotoxemia.

PMID- 28868452
TI  - Isolated Visceral Angioedema Induced by Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor.
AB  - Visceral angioedema is a rare complication of therapy with angiotensin-converting
      enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Clinical presentation includes nausea, vomiting,
      abdominal pain and diarrhea. Early detection of this entity can prevent recurrent
      episodes and unnecessary invasive procedures, including surgery. This article
      describes a 46-year-old-woman who presented to the emergency department with
      abdominal pain, associated with nausea and vomiting. She had been taking ramipril
      for 15 days. A computed tomography was performed which revealed thickening of a
      jejunal segment, with submucosal edema. ACE inhibitor-associated angioedema was
      suspected and the medication was discontinued, with resolution of symptoms in 48
      h. After 7 months of follow-up, the patient is asymptomatic. Despite of its
      rarity, ACE inhibitor-induced small-bowel angioedema should be included in the
      differential diagnosis when patients receiving ACE inhibitor therapy present with
      abdominal complaints.

PMID- 28868451
TI  - Anti-TNF Withdrawal in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - The introduction of the anti-tumor necrosis factoralpha agents (anti-TNFalpha) in
      clinical practice has greatly advanced the treatment of inflammatory bowel
      disease. The use of these medications results in durable remission in a subset of
      patients, preventing surgery and hospitalizations. However, there are some
      concerns about safety and costs associated with their long-term use. Therefore,
      anti-TNF withdrawal has emerged as an important consideration in clinical
      practice. Herein our goal was to discuss the available evidence about anti
      TNFalpha discontinuation in IBD that could inform the clinician on the expected
      rates of relapse, the potential predictors of relapse, as well the response to re
      treatment.

PMID- 28868453
TI  - Visceral Angioedema Induced by Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitor: Case
      Report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Intestinal angioedema is a rare adverse effect of angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors. CLINICAL CASE: A 42-year old woman presented to the
      Emergency Department complaining of diffuse abdominal pain, predominantly in the
      right quadrants, with no other associated symptoms. She had been started on
      perindopril plus indapamide 72 h before the admission for arterial hypertension.
      There was no other relevant background. Physical examination suggested peritoneal
      irritation on the lower quadrants of the abdomen and right flank. Laboratory
      tests were relevant for mild leukocytosis. Abdomen ultrasound and contrast
      enhanced computed tomography scan showed moderate amount of fluid in the pelvic
      excavation and small intestine wall thickening. She was admitted for observation.
      Once the hypothesis of intestinal angioedema was admitted, angiotensin converting
      enzyme inhibitor was withheld and no other-directed therapy was instituted.
      Within 24 h she showed clinical, analytic and imaging improvement, thus
      supporting this diagnosis. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of intestinal angioedema
      induced by angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor can be challenging and time
      consuming due to its rarity and nonspecific symptoms, which may lead to
      underdiagnosis of this entity.

PMID- 28868450
TI  - Endoscopic Management of Foreign Bodies in the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract: An
      Evidence-Based Review Article.
AB  - Gastrointestinal foreign bodies (FB) are comprised of food bolus impaction and
      intentionally or unintentionally ingested or inserted true FB. Food bolus
      impaction and true FB ingestion represent a recurrent problem and a true
      challenge in gastrointestinal endoscopy. More than 80-90% of the ingested true FB
      will pass spontaneously through the gastrointestinal tract without complications.
      However, in 10-20% of the cases an endoscopic intervention is deemed necessary.
      True FB ingestion has its greatest incidence in children, psychiatric patients
      and prisoners. On the other hand, food bolus impaction typically occurs in the
      elderly population with an underlying esophageal pathology. The most serious
      situations, with higher rates of complications, are associated with prolonged
      esophageal impaction, ingestion of sharp and long objects, button batteries and
      magnets. Physicians should recognize early alarm symptoms, such as complete
      dysphagia, distressed patients not able to manage secretions, or clinical signs
      of perforation. Although many papers are yearly published regarding this subject,
      our knowledge is mainly based on case-reports and retrospective series. Herein,
      the authors summarize the existing evidence and propose an algorithm for the best
      approach to FB ingestion.

PMID- 28868454
TI  - Groove Pancreatitis with Biliary and Duodenal Stricture: An Unusual Cause of
      Obstructive Jaundice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Groove pancreatitis is an uncommon cause of chronic pancreatitis
      that affects the groove anatomical area between the head of the pancreas,
      duodenum, and common bile duct. CLINICAL CASE: A 67-year-old man with frequent
      biliary colic and an alcohol consumption of 30-40 g/day was admitted to the
      hospital complaining of jaundice and pruritus. Laboratory analysis revealed
      cholestasis and the ultrasound scan showed intra-hepatic biliary ducts
      dilatation, middle third cystic dilatation of common bile duct, enlarged Wirsung
      and pancreatic atrophy. The magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography showed
      imaging findings compatible with groove pancreatitis. An
      esophagogastroduodenoscopy later excluded duodenal neoplasia. He was submitted to
      a Roux-en-Y cholangiojejunostomy because of common bile duct stricture. Five
      months later a gastrojejunostomy was performed due to a duodenal stricture. The
      patient remains asymptomatic during follow-up. DISCUSSION: Groove pancreatitis is
      a benign cause of obstructive jaundice, whose main differential diagnosis is
      duodenal or pancreatic neoplasia. When this condition causes duodenal or biliary
      stricture, surgical treatment can be necessary.

PMID- 28868455
TI  - A Rare Cause of Proximal Intestinal Obstruction.

PMID- 28868457
TI  - Pediatric Crohn's Disease and Surgery: Another Tool for the Treatment of a
      Complex Disease.

PMID- 28868456
TI  - Massive Gastrointestinal Bleeding from an Ectopic Varix in a Non-Cirrhotic
      Patient: Angiographic Approach Following Endoscopic Treatment Failure.

PMID- 28868458
TI  - Iatrogenic Perforations During Colonoscopy In a Portuguese Population: A Study
      Including In and Out-Of-Hospital Procedures.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The risk of iatrogenic perforations in colonoscopy is not
      negligible. Experience with endoscopic closure of perforations is increasing and
      new devices for this purpose are being released, making endoscopy a therapeutic
      option. National data regarding iatrogenic perforations is scarce and the burden
      of iatrogenic perforations in out-hospital procedures is poorly characterized in
      the literature. OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of iatrogenic perforations rate during
      colonoscopy, their characteristics, management and prognosis. METHODS:
      Retrospective study of all patients with perforations secondary to in-hospital
      and non-hospital colonoscopies treated in a tertiary hospital between 01-01-2006
      and 01-10-2014. Demographic, endoscopic, radiological and therapeutic data were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Fifty-three perforations were identified, 20 occurring in
      colonoscopies performed in non-hospital environment (45% with therapeutic
      procedures) and 33 occurring in-hospital procedures (73% in therapeutic
      colonoscopies; representing 0.12% of all colonoscopies carried out in-hospital).
      Patients: male in 56%, average age of 71 years, history of previous
      abdominopelvic surgery in 31% and diverticulosis in 10%. Colonoscopy: elective in
      93%, under deep sedation in 21%, with less than excellent/good bowel preparation
      in 56%. A resident was the first performer in 10 cases. Perforations: average
      size of 21 mm (4-130 mm), diagnosed during the procedure in 51% of cases and
      occurred in rectum-sigmoid transition in 58.5%. Regarding therapeutics, all
      patients with perforation occurring in non-hospital colonoscopies were managed by
      surgery. Concerning treatment of those in our unit: 2-conservative, 12-endoscopic
      (10 successfully), 21-surgical (including the 2 cases with failure of the
      endoscopic approach). Comparing endoscopic treatment (n = 10, G1) versus surgery
      (n = 21; G2): perforation size - 9 mm (G1) versus 28 mm (G2); perforation
      location - 7/10 in rectum-sigmoid (G1) versus 8/21 in rectum-sigmoid and 10/21
      transverse/ascending colon/hepatic angle (G2). Morbidity: 1 infection in G1 and
      13 complications in G2 (infection, hemorrhage, fistula). Mortality: no deaths in
      G1 and 2 deaths at 30 days due to septic shock in G2. CONCLUSION: Perforations in
      colonoscopy are rare in our clinical practice. Endoscopic closure was effective,
      though limited to perforations found during the procedure. The mortality was
      relatively low and endoscopic management did not seem to worsen it. An additional
      effort is necessary in order to detect perforations during colonoscopy.

PMID- 28868459
TI  - Surgery in Pediatric Crohn Disease: Case Series from a Single Tertiary Referral
      Center.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a recognized increase of lifelong surgery risk in Crohn
      disease (CD). Outcome data concerning surgery in children, particularly in the
      biological era, are limited. AIM: To characterize the clinical profile and the
      clinical outcome in children and adolescents with CD who underwent surgical
      intervention, in a single tertiary referral center. METHODS: Retrospective, cross
      sectional study, including pediatric patients with CD undergoing intra-abdominal
      surgery in the last 11 years. RESULTS: Included eight of 50 CD total patients
      (16%); six female; median age at CD diagnosis of 12.0 years; Paris
      classification: (a) location: ileocolonic (5), colonic (1), upper disease (1),
      ileocolonic/upper disease (1); (b) behavior: stricturing (4), nonstricturing
      nonpenetrating (2), penetrating (1), both penetrating and stricturing disease
      (1); growth delay (2). Six children received thiopurines, five mesalazine, three
      corticosteroids and four anti-TNF therapy, preoperatively. Surgery followed
      diagnosis by a median of 2.9 years. Median PCDAI at the time of surgery was 35.0.
      Elective surgery was performed in six patients and emergency surgery in two,
      without major complications. Five children received anti-TNF and three
      thiopurines post-operatively. Within the follow-up period (median 1.7 years),
      relapse occurred in one child (3.2 years after intervention); the remaining seven
      patients persist in clinical remission. Median PCDAI in the last evaluation was
      6.3. Weight and height recovery was observed in seven patients, at last follow
      up. CONCLUSION: Surgical treatment of CD is a valid alternative in selected
      cases, contributing to the resolution of acute complications and maintenance of
      remission, allowing disease-free interval and nutritional recovery.

PMID- 28868461
TI  - Disseminated Tuberculosis in an Immunocompetent Patient: The Answer is in the
      Liver.
AB  - Tuberculosis, a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
      may invade all organs but mainly affect the lungs. We report a case of
      disseminated tuberculosis with hepatic, pericardial and pleural involvement and a
      review of the relevant literature. A 64-year-old Portuguese male was admitted
      with epigastric and right upper quadrant pain associated with low grade fever,
      fatigue, nausea, anorexia, weight loss (6 kg) and mild jaundice. A chest X-ray
      showed cardiomegaly and a computed tomographic scan of the thorax and abdomen
      revealed a mild left pleural effusion, a thickened pericardium with signs of
      incipient calcification and hepatomegaly. The echocardiogram suggested the
      diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis. Liver biopsy revealed granulomatous
      lesions with central caseating necrosis. Tuberculosis is usually associated with
      atypical clinical manifestations. Imaging examination combined with
      histopathological features, a high index of clinical suspicion and improvement
      with antibacilar therapeutic are necessary to confirm a diagnosis, especially in
      the cases of extrapulmonary tuberculosis.

PMID- 28868460
TI  - Large Colorectal Lesions: Evaluation and Management.
AB  - In the last years, a distinctive interest has been raised on large polypoid and
      non-polypoid colorectal tumors, and specially on flat neoplastic lesions >=20 mm
      tending to grow laterally, the so called laterally spreading tumors (LST). Real
      or virtual chromoendoscopy, endoscopic ultrasound or magnetic resonance should be
      considered for the estimation of submucosal invasion of these neoplasms. Lesions
      suitable for endoscopic resection are those confined to the mucosa or selected
      cases with submucosal invasion <=1000 MUm. Polypectomy or endoscopic mucosal
      resection remain a first-line therapy for large colorectal neoplasms, whereas
      endoscopic submucosal dissection in high-volume centers or surgery should be
      considered for large LSTs for which en bloc resection is mandatory.

PMID- 28868462
TI  - Mucosal Prolapse Polyp Mimicking Rectal Malignancy: A Case Report.
AB  - Mucosal prolapse polyps (MPPs) are rare inflammatory lesions that are part of the
      mucosal prolapse syndrome. We present the case of a 40-year-old male with history
      of constipation referred to our institution with suspected rectal malignancy due
      to hematochezia and a palpable rectal mass. Colonoscopy revealed a 25 mm wide
      lesion suggestive of subepithelial origin but with marked erythema and erosion in
      the mucosa. Crypt dilatation and distortion, mixed inflammatory infiltrate and
      fibrosis were apparent on histological evaluation after bite-on-bite biopsies.
      Due to the initial suspicion of malignancy, resection was decided after
      discussion with the patient. However, due to non-elevation partial resection was
      performed allowing the diagnosis of MPP. Hematochezia ceased after obstipation
      treatment and endoscopic follow-up showed maintenance of the lesion with the same
      characteristics except for reduced dimension. MPP may mimic neoplastic lesions
      and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of rectal masses. History,
      endoscopy and histological characteristics are all necessary and important in the
      diagnosis of MPP.

PMID- 28868464
TI  - Genital Ischemia in a Patient Under Terlipressin Therapy.

PMID- 28868463
TI  - Caustic Esophageal Stenosis: A Case Report of Endoscopic Dilation With a Dynamic
      Stent.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The management of esophageal strictures has evolved from surgical
      treatment to the endoscopic dilation and, more recently, esophageal stenting.
      CLINICAL CASE: We describe a case of a two-year-old boy with a double stenosis of
      the esophagus resulting from accidental ingestion of strong alkaline liquid.
      After several unsuccessful endoscopic dilations for three years and even topical
      mitomicin, it was decided to place a dynamic stent developed by the Digestive
      Surgery and Endoscopic Unit of the Bambino Gesu Hospital, Rome. The stent is a
      custom silicon device built coaxially on a nasogastric tube that is inserted
      after stricture dilations, by endoscopic guidance, and then fixed outside the
      nose. The device was removed after seven weeks with good clinical outcome (no
      dysphagia more than a year of follow-up). CONCLUSION: This case confirms that the
      dynamic stent is a simple device that may avoid aggressive surgical substitution
      in cases of refractory strictures.

PMID- 28868465
TI  - Endoscopic View of Embolization Coil in a Duodenal Ulcer.

PMID- 28868466
TI  - Obstructive Jaundice Due to Foreign Body in the Bile Duct: An Unusual Finding.

PMID- 28868467
TI  - Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Portuguese Data in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients on
      Antiviral Therapy and Treatment Results With Sorafenib.

PMID- 28868468
TI  - Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients on Third Generation
      Nucleos(t)ides Analogs: Risk Factors and Performance of a Risk Score.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence, risk factors
      and the performance of baseline REACH-B risk score in a Portuguese chronic
      hepatitis B (CHB) population on antiviral therapy. METHODS: Retrospective study
      of CHB patients who were treated with tenofovir or entecavir for at least 12
      months. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify factors associated with
      HCC. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the cumulative incidence of HCC
      at 1, 3 and 5 years on therapy. The performance of the REACH-B score at baseline
      was assessed. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty patients initiated nucleos(t)ide
      analogs (NUC) therapy (age, 47 +/- 14 years-old; 83 male; 11% had cirrhosis; 71%
      tenofovir; 73% HBeAg-negative; 61% treatment-naive). After a median time under
      NUC of 39 months, 9 patients (7.5%) developed HCC. The calculated cumulative
      incidence rates of HCC at 1, 3 and 5 years on therapy were 5.1%, 7.3% and 8.8%,
      respectively. Independent predictors for HCC occurrence: age and cirrhosis at
      baseline. Diagnostic accuracy of baseline REACH-B score in predicting HCC
      development: AUC 0.738, 95%CI: 0.521-0.955. The cutoff value of 8 points had a
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value
      of 75%, 52%, 6% and 98%, respectively in predicting HCC occurrence during
      therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Older age and cirrhosis at baseline were independent
      predictors for HCC development. Discriminatory performance of baseline REACH-B
      score was limited.

PMID- 28868469
TI  - Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment With Sorafenib: Real-Life Evaluation of
      Prognostic Factors and a Practical Clue for Patient Management.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sorafenib chemotherapy is the first-line therapy for patients with
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in an advanced stage. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate prognostic factors of survival in HCC patients treated with sorafenib,
      in real-life clinical practice. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective study of HCC
      patients who initiated treatment with sorafenib, following assessment and
      indication from the multidisciplinary group. RESULTS: There were included 36
      patients, mostly male (89%) and with a mean age of 65 years. The main etiologies
      were chronic hepatitis C (44%) and alcoholic liver disease (36%). Twenty patients
      (56%) were classified as Child-Pugh A and 16 patients (44%) as Child-Pugh B. Half
      of the patients group were staged as BCLC C and the remaining as BCLC B.
      Significant adverse events were observed in 15 patients (42%) and were associated
      with longer survival (21.5 vs. 3.2 months, p < 0.001). The most frequent adverse
      events were diarrhea and palmar-plantar syndrome. Median survival was 17.3 months
      for Child-Pugh A versus 3.2 months for Child-Pugh B patients (p = 0.001). Within
      Child-Pugh A, median OS was 21.5 months for BCLC B patients and 15.7 months for
      BCLC C patients (p = 0.001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The main prognostic
      factors beyond Child-Pugh class and BCLC stage included the occurrence of
      significant adverse events. Being related to increased time of exposure to the
      drug, it points out the need of dose reducing instead of discontinuation whenever
      significant adverse events occur.

PMID- 28868470
TI  - Treating Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia - When Argon Therapy Is Not Enough.
AB  - Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) is a capillary-type vascular malformation
      of the gastric antrum and an infrequent cause of chronic gastrointestinal blood
      loss and iron deficiency anemia. The authors describe a case report of GAVE in a
      female cirrhotic patient presenting with severe symptomatic iron deficiency
      anemia. After failure of argon plasma coagulation (APC), the patient was treated
      with endoscopic band ligation (EBL) with resolution of anemia, without new
      episodes of rebleeding and no need for further hospitalizations or transfusion
      requirements. Even though APC is the current treatment of choice for GAVE
      recurrence-free survival at one year is achieved in less than 50% of the patients
      and failed therapy has been described in up to 14% of the patients. EBL has been
      reported to be a relatively easy technique for GAVE therapy and has been shown to
      be safe and effective with lower complication rates in comparison with APC. This
      technique may in the future be used as the initial endoscopic treatment to
      eradicate GAVE.

PMID- 28868471
TI  - Cystic Pancreatic Lymphangioma - Diagnostic Role of Endoscopic Ultrasound.
AB  - Pancreatic cystic lymphangiomas are rare benign lesions that arise from lymphatic
      vessels, accounting for less than 0.2% of all pancreatic cysts. Typically it is
      asymptomatic and discovery occurs during imaging exams for non-pancreatic
      disease. In the past, a definite diagnosis was made through surgery, with
      complete resection of all tumoral tissue to prevent recurrence. Nowadays, the
      development of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) made it possible to identify these
      cysts combining morphologic ultrasound features, macroscopic aspirated fluid
      appearance, biochemical and cytological evaluation of the sample. We report two
      cases of cystic pancreatic lymphangioma diagnosed through EUS, allowing
      conservative management without surgery. These cases show that cystic pancreatic
      lymphangioma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cystic
      pancreatic lesions and that EUS is an important tool for their recognition.

PMID- 28868473
TI  - Colonic Intussusception Caused by Colonic Lipoma.

PMID- 28868472
TI  - Tracheitis - A Rare Extra-Intestinal Manifestation of Ulcerative Colitis in
      Children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Inflammatory bowel disease may cause both intestinal and
      extraintestinal manifestations. Respiratory symptoms in ulcerative colitis are
      rare and tracheal involvement is exceedingly rare in children. CASE 1: Sixteen
      year-old female with a 4-week-complaint of abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, fever
      and cough. The investigation was consistent with the diagnosis of concomitant
      ulcerative colitis/coinfection to Escherichia coli. On day 4 respiratory signs
      persisted so azithromycin and inhaled corticosteroids were added. By day 6 she
      progressed to respiratory failure and was diagnosed with necrotic tracheitis so
      started on intravenous steroids with fast clinical improvement. CASE 2: Twelve
      year-old male adolescent with ulcerative colitis and sclerosing cholangitis
      started dry cough and throat pain 10 days after diagnosis. Laboratory
      investigations showed increased inflammatory signs and normal chest X-ray. He
      started treatment with azithromycin without clinical improvement and on day five
      he presented dyspnea and fever. Laryngeal fibroscopy suggested tracheitis and so
      systemic steroids where added with fast clinical and analytic improvement.
      DISCUSSION: Tracheitis should be suspected if there are persistent respiratory
      symptoms even when exams are normal. Early recognition and early treatment are
      essential for a good prognosis preventing progression to respiratory failure.

PMID- 28868474
TI  - Kaposi's Sarcoma - An Unusual Cause of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding.

PMID- 28868475
TI  - Idiopathic Pneumatosis Intestinalis, Radiological and Endoscopic Images.

PMID- 28868476
TI  - The Lymphoma Hidden in Actinomycosis.

PMID- 28868477
TI  - Intestinal Obstruction Due to Malrotation of Midgut and Right Paraduodenal
      Hernia.

PMID- 28868478
TI  - Small Bowel GIST: Clinical Presentation as Intussusception and Obscure Bleeding.

PMID- 28868479
TI  - Skin Metastases: The Visible Face of a Disastrous Unusual Finding.

PMID- 28868480
TI  - Self-Expandable Metal Stent as a Bridge to Surgery for Obstructing Colonic
      Cancer: Still a Hot Topic for Debate.

PMID- 28868481
TI  - The Role of Endoscopic Ultrasound in the Diagnostic Assessment of Subepithelial
      Lesions of the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The identification of subepithelial lesions is a relatively
      frequent finding at endoscopy however their natural history is not well known.
      Our aim was to analyze the role of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in the diagnostic
      approach of subepithelial lesions of the upper gastrointestinal tract. METHODS:
      Retrospective study which included 324 patients undergoing upper radial EUS for
      evaluation of subepithelial lesions from 2008 to 2014. The EUS features,
      presumptive diagnosis and management decision were analyzed. RESULTS: 324
      patients included, 60% with gastric subepithelial lesions, 28% oesophageal and
      12% from the duodenum. Based on EUS features the presumptive diagnosis was: 25%
      gastrointestinal stromal tumor, 21% lipoma, 19% leiomyoma, 17% pancreatic rest,
      7% submucosa cysts, 1% granular cell tumors, 1% carcinoids, 1% mucosa lesions and
      8% not defined. After EUS the suggested approach was no follow-up in 45%, follow
      up with re-examination with EUS in 35% and additional tissue sampling or
      endoscopic/surgical resection in 20%. The latter was based on EUS features of
      risk at the diagnosis (53%), such as size >=2 cm, hypoechogenicity,
      heterogeneity, lobulation, calcifications, cystic component and regional
      adenopathies; impossibility to define a presumptive diagnosis (39%) or EUS
      features change at follow-up (8%). The combination of multiple features
      correlated with a higher probability of this recommended strategy (p < 0.001), in
      100% when 4 or more features were present. Among the 33 patients who underwent
      fine needle aspiration, in 66% the result was inconclusive. During follow-up,
      none of the patients who were managed with surveillance radial EUS presented
      complications. CONCLUSION: EUS is the method of choice in the study of
      subepithelial lesions of the upper gastrointestinal tract, in most cases defining
      a diagnosis. The need for a definitive diagnosis or therapeutic approaches can be
      based on ultrasound risk features, presented, in the majority, at presentation.
      This study shows that EUS is capable of safely and accurately define those
      subepithelial lesions that can be managed only with surveillance ultrasound while
      waiting for better results with fine needle aspiration.

PMID- 28868482
TI  - Self-Expandable Metal Stents for Colorectal Cancer: From Guidelines to Clinical
      Practice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Colonic self-expandable metal stent placement is widely used for
      palliation of obstructive colorectal cancer. The European recommendations for
      stent placement as a bridge to elective surgery in obstructive colorectal cancer
      were recently reviewed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and
      safety of stent placement in obstructive colorectal cancer and to discuss these
      recent guidelines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Demographic characteristics, procedure
      indications, complications and final outcome in patients with obstructive
      colorectal cancer who underwent endoscopic stent placement between January 2012
      and June 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed
      with SPSS V22. RESULTS: Thirty-six patients were included, 20 (56%) women, mean
      age 70.6 +/- 10.9 years. Stent placement as a bridge to elective surgery was
      performed in 75% (n = 27) of patients and with palliation intent in 25% (n = 9).
      In 94% (n = 34) of procedures, technical and clinical success was achieved. A
      total of eleven (11%) complications were observed: 2 migrations and 9
      perforations. No procedure related death was recorded. When stents were placed as
      a bridge to surgery, average time between endoscopic procedure and surgery was
      11.7 +/- 9.4 days (excluding three patients who underwent neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy). Six perforations were recorded in this group: one overt and five
      silent (three during surgery and two after histopathological examination of the
      resected specimen). Twenty-one patients underwent adjuvant chemotherapy. During
      the follow-up period of 14.7 +/- 10.9 months recurrence was observed in five
      patients. None of the recurrence occurred in the group of patients with
      perforation. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, stent placement was an effective
      procedure in obstructive colorectal cancer. It was mainly used as a bridge to
      elective surgery. However, a significant rate of silent perforation was observed,
      which may compromise the oncological outcome of these potentially curable
      patients. Prospective real life studies are warranted for a better definition of
      actual recommendations.

PMID- 28868483
TI  - Ampullary Metastasis From Breast Cancer: A Rare Cause of Obstructive Jaundice.
AB  - Breast cancer is the most common tumor in women and the first cause of death for
      malignancy in the female. Bile ducts are not among the common sites of metastasis
      from breast cancer. Few cases of obstructive jaundice due to metastatic breast
      cancer have been described in the literature and they mostly resulted from
      widespread liver metastases that eventually involved the bile ducts. We report an
      exceptional case of ampullary metastasis in the absence of liver metastases.
      Sporadic reports have been published about the involvement of the ampulla by
      breast cancer metastasis. This case emphasizes the need to consider this
      diagnosis in women presenting with obstructive jaundice, especially when there is
      a clinical possibility of breast cancer.

PMID- 28868484
TI  - Acute Hepatitis in the DRESS Syndrome.
AB  - Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome is a
      severe, idiosyncratic reaction characterized by diffuse maculopapular rash,
      facial edema, lymphadenopathy, fever, eosinophilia and/or other leukocyte
      abnormalities, and involvement of internal organs as liver, kidney, heart and
      lung. Diagnosing this entity is specifically complicated due to the multiplicity
      of organs involved. DRESS syndrome must be recognized promptly and the causative
      drug withdrawn in order to improve patient outcomes. Indeed, it is a potentially
      life-threatening condition, with a reported mortality between 5 and 20%. We
      describe a case of a 22-year old woman admitted to our hospital with acute
      diffuse, pruritic rash associated with crampy abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea
      and fever three weeks after starting sulfasalazine therapy. Initially, laboratory
      parameters revealed normal white blood cell count and normal liver enzymes, but
      during hospitalization, eosinophilia developed and liver enzymes, including
      transaminases and cholestatic parameters, dramatically increased. The diagnostic
      of DRESS syndrome was made and sulfasalazine was withdrawn and as there were
      signs of disease severity, systemic corticotherapy was initiated, with gradually
      improvement of the rash and symptoms resolution. The patient was discharged home
      after thirty days of hospitalization.

PMID- 28868486
TI  - Giant Pancreatic Cyst: An Unusual Entity.

PMID- 28868485
TI  - Drug-Induced Acute Pancreatitis and Pseudoaneurysms: An Ominous Combination.
AB  - Rupture of pseudoaneurysms is rare but can be life-threatening complications of
      acute or chronic pancreatitis, usually due to enzymatic digestion of vessel walls
      crossing peripancreatic fluid collections. We report the case of a 40 year-old
      female, with multisystemic lupus and anticoagulated for prior thrombotic events,
      admitted for probable cyclosporine-induced acute pancreatitis. Hemodynamic
      instability occurred due to abdominal hemorrhage from two pseudoaneurysms inside
      an acute peri-pancreatic collection. Selective angiography successfully embolized
      the gastroduodenal and pancreatoduodenal arteries. The hemorrhage recurred two
      weeks later and another successful embolization was performed and the patient
      remains well to date. The decision to restart anticoagulants and to suspend
      cyclosporine was challenging and required a multidisciplinary approach. Despite
      rare, bleeding from a pseudoaneurysm should be considered when facing a patient
      with pancreatitis and sudden signs of hemodynamic instability.

PMID- 28868487
TI  - Upper Gastrointestinal Kaposi's Sarcoma in an HIV-Infected Patient.

PMID- 28868488
TI  - Small Bowel Stricture Mimicking Megacolon in a Patient with Crohn's Disease.

PMID- 28868489
TI  - Liver Abscess Associated Sepsis Caused by Fish Bone Ingestion.

PMID- 28868490
TI  - Two Synchronous Pseudoinvasive Adenomas: Twice the Caution?

PMID- 28868491
TI  - Polidocanol Injection for the Treatment of Rectal Ulcer with Large Vessel After
      Hemorrhoidal Band Ligation.

PMID- 28868492
TI  - Unusual Endoscopic Removal of a Curious Foreign Body.

PMID- 28868493
TI  - Ulcerous Esophagitis in a Young Immunocompetent Patient.

PMID- 28868494
TI  - Small Bowel Obstruction Seven Years After Video Capsule Retention.

PMID- 28868495
TI  - Sprue-Like Enteropathy Associated with Olmesartan: An Unrecognized Emerging Drug
      Induced Enteropathy?

PMID- 28868497
TI  - Influence of Hematocrit and Total-Spot Volume on Performance Characteristics of
      Dried Blood Spots for Newborn Screening.
AB  - Dried blood spots (DBS) have been used in newborn screening (NBS) tests for over
      50 years. The Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program (NSQAP) at the Centers
      for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted studies to assess the
      individual impacts of hematocrit and total-spot volume on characteristics of DBS
      samples. Per-punch serum volumes decreased 27%, RBC volumes more than doubled,
      absorption times increased over 300%, and spot diameters decreased marginally
      between the hematocrits of 40% to 65%. Per-punch serum and RBC volumes decreased
      logarithmically with lowering total-spot volumes. Patient hematocrit is an
      uncontrollable variable and inevitably affects the resulting punch from a DBS
      sample. It may be possible, though, to identify samples that fall outside of an
      acceptable range by noting certain physical characteristics of the DBS.

PMID- 28868498
TI  - Non-derivatized Assay for the Simultaneous Detection of Amino Acids,
      Acylcarnitines, Succinylacetone, Creatine, and Guanidinoacetic Acid in Dried
      Blood Spots by Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency is an autosomal recessive
      genetic disorder which results in global developmental delay and intellectual
      disability. There is evidence that early treatment prevents intellectual
      disability and seizures. GAMT deficiency is now being discussed as a potential
      addition to the U.S. Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP); the availability
      of suitable screening methods must be considered. A neonatal screening
      derivatized method to quantify creatine (CRE) and guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) in
      dried blood spots by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has been described. Its key
      feature is the ability to detect CRE and GAA in the same extract generated from
      neonatal DBS during amino acids (AA) and acylcarnitines (AC) analysis. More
      laboratories are adopting non-derivatized MS/MS screening methods. We describe an
      improved, non-derivatized DBS extraction and MS/MS analytical method (AAAC-GAMT)
      which incorporates quantitation of CRE and GAA into routine analysis of amino
      acids, acylcarnitines, and succinylacetone. The non-derivatized AAAC-GAMT method
      performs comparably to the stand-alone GAMT and non-derivatized AAAC screening
      methods, evidencing its potential suitability for high-throughput GAMT neonatal
      screening.

PMID- 28868496
TI  - Pancreatic mitochondrial complex I exhibits aberrant hyperactivity in diabetes.
AB  - It is well established that NADH/NAD+ redox balance is heavily perturbed in
      diabetes, and the NADH/NAD+ redox imbalance is a major source of oxidative stress
      in diabetic tissues. In mitochondria, complex I is the only site for NADH
      oxidation and NAD+ regeneration and is also a major site for production of
      mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS). Yet how complex I responds to the
      NADH/NAD+ redox imbalance and any potential consequences of such response in
      diabetic pancreas have not been investigated. We report here that pancreatic
      mitochondrial complex I showed aberrant hyperactivity in either type 1 or type 2
      diabetes. Further studies focusing on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes
      indicate that complex I hyperactivity could be attenuated by metformin. Moreover,
      complex I hyperactivity was accompanied by increased activities of complexes II
      to IV, but not complex V, suggesting that overflow of NADH via complex I in
      diabetes could be diverted to ROS production. Indeed in diabetic pancreas, ROS
      production and oxidative stress increased and mitochondrial ATP production
      decreased, which can be attributed to impaired pancreatic mitochondrial membrane
      potential that is responsible for increased cell death. Additionally, cellular
      defense systems such as glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, sirtuin 3, and NQO1
      were found to be compromised in diabetic pancreas. Our findings point to the
      direction that complex I aberrant hyperactivity in pancreas could be a major
      source of oxidative stress and beta cell failure in diabetes. Therefore,
      inhibiting pancreatic complex I hyperactivity and attenuating its ROS production
      by various means in diabetes might serve as a promising approach for anti
      diabetic therapies.

PMID- 28868499
TI  - The future of robotics.

PMID- 28868500
TI  - Epidemiology and economics of nephrolithiasis.
AB  - Nephrolithiasis is a disease common in both the Western and non-Western world.
      Several population based studies have demonstrated a rising prevalence and
      incidence of the disease over the last several decades. Recurrence occurs
      frequently after an initial stone event. The influence of diet on the risk of
      nephrolithiasis is important, particularly dietary calcium and fluid intake. An
      increasing intake of dietary calcium and fluid are consistently associated with a
      reduced risk of incident nephrolithiasis in both men and women. Increasing
      evidence suggests that nephrolithiasis is associated with systemic diseases like
      obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Nephrolithiasis places a
      significant burden on the health care system, which is likely to increase with
      time.

PMID- 28868501
TI  - The role of metastasis-directed therapy and local therapy of the primary tumor in
      the management of oligometastatic prostate cancer.
AB  - Oligometastasis has been proposed as an intermediate stage of cancer spread
      between localized disease and widespread metastasis. Oligometastatic malignancy
      is now being diagnosed more frequently as the result of improvements in
      diagnostic modalities such as functional imaging. The importance of
      oligometastasis in managing metastatic prostate cancer is that it is possible to
      treat with a curative aim by metastasis-directed or local therapy in selected
      patients. Many studies have shown that these aggressive treatments lead to
      improved survival in other oligometastatic malignancies. However, few studies
      have shown definitive benefits of metastasis-directed or local therapy in
      oligometastatic prostate cancer. Review of the available studies suggests that
      stereotactic radiotherapy (RT) of metastatic lesions in oligorecurrent disease is
      a feasible and safe modality for managing oligometastatic prostate cancer. Also,
      stereotactic RT can delay the start of androgen deprivation therapy. Many
      retrospective studies of metastatic prostate cancer have shown that patients
      undergoing local therapy seem to have superior overall and cancer-specific
      survival compared with patients not receiving local therapy. Ongoing prospective
      randomized trials would be helpful to evaluate the role of local therapy in
      oligometastatic prostate cancer.

PMID- 28868502
TI  - Analysis of closed medical litigation in urology.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to provide a descriptive understanding
      of the characteristics of malpractice litigation related to urology by examining
      court cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 6,074 court cases related to
      medical malpractice litigation filed between 2005 and 2010 were received from the
      Lower Courts, the Appellate Courts, and the Supreme Court of Korea. Of the
      received cases, 34 urology-related civil proceedings were analyzed. The following
      information was compiled and investigated from the cases: background, age and sex
      of patient, categorization of the defendant, opinion of the court, amount claimed
      and awarded in damages, type of medical treatment involved, and negative effects
      resulting from the medical accident. RESULTS: The average amount in damages paid
      out to plaintiffs in this research was 27,186,504+/-32,371,008 Korean won (KRW)
      (range, 1,000,000-100,000,000 KRW). A total of 9 of the 34 analyzed cases (26.5%)
      ruled in favor of the plaintiff, with all 9 cases involving a surgery. An
      analysis of the surgery sites further revealed that the penis was the most
      frequently litigated over site of surgery, making up 14 of the 35 sites (40.0%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Information regarding urology malpractice lawsuits should be made
      available to help prevent further disputes and litigation. Continuous efforts
      must be expended in the prevention of accidents and disputes, alongside research
      into urology-related cases beyond 2010. Extensive cause analysis and recurrence
      prevention methods must also be researched to enhance overall patient safety.

PMID- 28868503
TI  - Does T1- and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging give value-added than
      bone scintigraphy in the follow-up of vertebral metastasis of prostate cancer?
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of limited Magnetic Resonance (MR) images
      including T1- and diffusion-weighted image (DWI) for monitoring vertebral
      metastasis in patients with prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From July
      2014 to November 2016, patients diagnosed with spinal metastasis from prostate
      cancer using 99mTc bone scintigraphy were enrolled. Regardless of the primary
      local therapy, the changes in spinal metastasis were followed up using bone scan
      and biparametric MR (T1+DWI). All tests were followed up for more than 3 months.
      RESULTS: Among the 14 follow-ups of 10 patients, 6 and 10 (including all
      progressed cases on bone scan) follow-ups were determined to show progressive
      disease using bone scan and biparametric MR, respectively. Otherwise, we could
      have predicted neurologic sequela earlier using biparametric MR. Examination time
      for biparametric MR was 15 minutes, and it was 4 hours for bone scan,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although bone scan has been considered the standard
      test for bony metastasis in men with prostate cancer, limited MR including T1 and
      DWI has an additional benefit in monitoring spinal metastasis in patients who are
      already diagnosed as having spinal metastasis. The limited MR is more sensitive
      in detecting progressive disease. In addition, it can reduce neurologic
      complications caused by spinal metastasis.

PMID- 28868504
TI  - Patient-reported quality of life recovery curves after robotic prostatectomy are
      similar across body mass index categories.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the impact of body mass index (BMI) on postoperative recovery
      curve of urinary and sexual function after robotic-assisted laparoscopic
      prostatectomy (RALP). We hypothesized that overweight and obese men have
      different recovery curves than normal weight men. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      reviewed preoperative and postoperative surveys from 691 men who underwent RALP
      from 2004-2014 in an integrated healthcare delivery system. Survey instruments
      included: sexual health inventory for men (SHIM), urinary behavior, leakage, and
      incontinence impact questionnaire (IIQ). A repeated measures analysis with
      autoregressive covariance structure was employed with linear splines with 2 knots
      for the time factor. We fit unadjusted and adjusted models and stratified by BMI
      (under/normal weight, overweight, and obese). Adjusted models included age,
      race/ethnicity, smoking status, diabetes, operation length, prostate-specific
      antigen, pathologic stage, nerve-sparing status, and surgery year. RESULTS: Mean
      age was 59 years. Most men were overweight (43%) and obese (42%). There were no
      significant differences in mean baseline SHIM, urinary behavior, leakage, and IIQ
      scores by BMI category. All groups had initial steep declines in urinary and
      sexual function in the first 3 months after RALP. There were no significant
      differences in postoperative urinary and sexual function score curves by BMI
      category. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of urinary and sexual function recovery was
      similar across all BMI categories. Overweight and obese men may be counseled that
      urinary and sexual function recovery curves after surgery is similar to that of
      normal weight men.

PMID- 28868505
TI  - Radiological noninvasive assessment of ureteral stone impaction into the ureteric
      wall: A critical evaluation with objective radiological parameters.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the predictive value of certain radiological parameters for
      an objective asssessment of the presence of ureteral stone impaction. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Seventy-nine patients with a single proximal ureteral stones were
      retrieved from the departmental database. Both clinical and particularly
      radiological data of all cases were well evaluated on this aspect. In addition to
      the time period between the first colic attack and definitive management;
      diameter of proximal ureter and renal pelvis, longitudinal and transverse stone
      size, Hounsfied unit (HU) of the stone and lastly ureteral wall thickness at the
      impacted stone site were all carefully evaluated and noted. RESULTS: Patients had
      a single proximal ureteral stone. While mean age of the cases was ranged 20 to 78
      years; mean stone size was 15.62+/-4.26 mm. Evaluation of our data demonstrated
      that although there was a statistically significant correlation between ureteral
      wall thickness and patients age, transverse diameter of the stone, ureteral
      diameter just proximal to the stone, renal pelvic diameter and the duration of
      renal colic attacks; no correlation could be demonstrated between patients sex
      and the HU of the stone. CONCLUSIONS: Prediction of the presence and degree of
      proximal ureteral stone impaction is a challenging issue and our data indicated a
      highly significant correlation between ureteral wall thickness and the some
      certain radiological as well as clinical parameters evaluated which will give an
      objective information about the presence of impaction which may in turn be
      helpful in the follow-up and also management plans of such calculi.

PMID- 28868506
TI  - Ultrasound-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy: Advantages and limitations.
AB  - PURPOSE: The use of ultrasound in percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) has not
      been shown to translate to better clinical and stone outcomes. To compare the
      operative outcomes, postoperative outcomes and complication rates of ultrasound
      guided access PCNL (USGA-PCNL) versus fluoroscopy-guided access PCNL (FGA-PCNL).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 184 consecutive patients who underwent PCNL
      from July 2008 to September 2014 were identified from our PCNL database. Seventy
      two patients underwent USGA-PCNL and 112 FGA-PCNL. RESULTS: The patients were
      similar in age, sex, race, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status
      classification, mean largest stone diameters, side of PCNL, number of stones and
      the degree of hydronephrosis between both groups. There were higher rates of
      upper pole (5.6% vs. 3.6%), mid pole (8.3% vs. 2.7%) and multiple pole punctures
      (4.2% vs. 0%) in USGA-PCNL compared to FGA-PCNL (p=0.027). There was no
      difference in the stone free rates of both groups in univariate analysis. Those
      who had FGA-PCNL were 2.26 (95% confidence interval, 1.09-4.75; p=0.029) times
      more likely to require a second-look procedure compared to USGA-PCNL on
      univariate analysis but not on multivariate analysis. There were no differences
      in Clavien-Dindo complications. No patient in the USGA-PCNL group experienced
      organ injuries during puncture compared to 1 patient in the FGA-PCNL group who
      had pneumothorax requiring urgent chest tube insertion. CONCLUSIONS: The use of
      ultrasonography to guide access puncture during PCNL eliminates the risk of
      inadvertent organ injuries. Similar operative and stone outcomes show that the
      learning curve for USGA is minimal compared to conventional FGA.

PMID- 28868507
TI  - Evaluation of the incidence and risk factors associated with persistent frequency
      in interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and the efficacy of antimuscarinic
      treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the incidence and risk factors associated with persistent
      urinary frequency, and to evaluate the efficacy of antimuscarinic treatment.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS)
      patients complaining of persistent urinary frequency despite improved pain were
      evaluated. Before initial conventional treatment, each patient completed a
      voiding diary and symptom questionnaires. After conventional treatment, patients
      were divided according to the presence of pain and frequency. Improved pain was
      defined as lesser than 3 points in visual analogue scale, and persistent urinary
      frequency as >10 times/d. Risk factors for persistent frequency were identified
      through multivariate analysis. The efficacy of antimuscarinic treatment was
      assessed by the mean change of frequency. RESULTS: Of 171 IC/BPS patients treated
      with conventional therapy, 132 had improved pain after 3 months, but 72 had
      persistent frequency (72 of 132, 54.5%). Patients with persistent frequency had
      lower voided volume (p=0.008), lower maximal flow rate (p<0.001), lower maximal
      bladder capacity (p=0.003), and more frequent micturition (p<0.001) at baseline
      compared to those with improved frequency. Patients who took antimuscarinic
      agents showed slightly decreased urinary frequency, from 14.6 times/d to 13.5
      times/d (p=0.438) after 3 months of medication. No patients showed more than a
      20% decrease in frequency with antimuscarinics. CONCLUSIONS: About half of the
      patients with IC/BPS showed persistent frequency, with poor voiding function
      identified as a risk factor; antimuscarinic treatment was not effective in these
      patients.

PMID- 28868508
TI  - Can men with prostates sized 80 mL or larger be managed conservatively?
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the long-term clinical outcomes of men with large prostate
      sizes of 80 mL and greater who were managed conservatively. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed men with prostate sizes of 80 mL and greater
      from our electronic hospital database. Clinical parameters such as age,
      International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL) scoring, serum
      prostate-specific antigen (PSA), uroflowmetry variables, and transabdominal
      ultrasound findings were evaluated. These parameters were compared at entry to
      our study and at the patient's latest follow-up visit. RESULTS: For the 50 men
      included in our analysis, mean age was 68 years, median PSA was 9.9 ng/mL, and
      median prostate volume was 94 mL. Seven men underwent upfront prostate surgery,
      whereas the other 43 were managed conservatively, predominantly with
      pharmacotherapy (98%). Only serum PSA, QoL scores, and postvoid residual urine
      demonstrated a significant reduction at the end of a median follow-up period of
      62 months. Fourteen men (33%) were considered to have progressed clinically, with
      8 experiencing retention of urine and 6 having symptomatic deterioration. Of the
      35 men who were still receiving conservative treatment at the end of the follow
      up period, 24 men (69%) had a peak flow rate of 10 mL/s or greater, a QoL score
      of 3 or less, and mild to moderate (IPSS, 0-19) symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      the incidence of clinical progression in men with prostate sizes of 80 mL and
      greater is high, there is still a role for conservative management with
      pharmacotherapy.

PMID- 28868509
TI  - "Targeted" prophylaxis: Impact of rectal swab culture-directed prophylaxis on
      infectious complications after transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance among patients
      undergoing transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate biopsy and the impact of
      rectal swab culture-directed antibiotic prophylaxis on postbiopsy infectious
      complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We prospectively analyzed all patients
      undergoing TRUS-guided prostate biopsy from April 2013 to February 2015.
      Antibiotic prophylaxis was tailored to the results of rectal swab cultures. If
      the organism was fluoroquinolone-sensitive, oral ciprofloxacin 500 mg with
      tinidazole 600 mg was prescribed. If the organism was fluoroquinolone-resistant,
      then a culture-directed antibiotic was prescribed. In both cases the antibiotic
      was continued for 3 days. All patients were followed for 14 days after biopsy to
      record infectious complications. RESULTS: A total of 247 patients were included,
      and Escherichia coli was isolated on rectal swab cultures in 99.5% of the
      patients. Of these, 41.7% harbored fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli.
      Piperacillin/tazobactam was the most common culture-directed antibiotic
      prescribed (59.3%), with amoxicillin/clavulanic being the second most common
      (25.5%) for the fluoroquinolone-resistant group. Only 2 patients (0.9%) developed
      postbiopsy fever and none had sepsis. CONCLUSIONS: Colonization of rectal flora
      with fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli was seen in 40% of men undergoing prostate
      biopsy. Targeted prophylaxis, which uses the results of prebiopsy rectal swab
      culture to direct antibiotic prophylaxis, results in low rates of postbiopsy
      infections.

PMID- 28868510
TI  - Retroperitoneal fibrosis-clinical presentation and outcome analysis from
      urological perspective.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study clinical presentation, laboratory results, imaging findings and
      treatment options and outcomes of retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF). To determine
      whether it follows the same natural course and response to treatment in the Asian
      population as in the Western world. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical records of
      patients diagnosed with RPF on imaging and histopathology between February 2010
      and April 2016 were reviewed. RESULTS: Of the 21 patients analyzed, mean age at
      presentation was 50.81 years. The male to female ratio was 0.9:1. Pain was most
      common presenting complaint (95.23% cases), almost 85% cases were idiopathic and
      rests were postradiation induced. The median creatinine level was 1.8 mg/dL. The
      mean erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was 53.2 mm/h. Hydronephrosis was
      present in all patients and 47.6% had atrophic kidneys. Diffuse retroperitoneal
      mass was present in 61.1%. Ureterolysis with lateralization, omental wrapping or
      gonadal pedicle wrap was done in 17 cases. Two patients underwent uretero
      ureterostomy. One patient underwent ileal replacement of ureter, and one ileal
      conduit. Eighteen patients received concurrent medical treatment, 11 were given
      tamoxifen, 2 steroids (Prednisolone), and five were given both. Of the 20
      patients with follow-up, 70% had complete symptomatic relief; ESR improvement was
      seen in 77.8%. Follow-up ultrasound showed resolved and decreased hydronephrosis
      in 20% and 55% respectively. One patient had treatment failure and 17.65% had
      disease recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: RPF is a rare disease with varied presentation
      and outcomes. The male to female ratio may be equal in Asians and smoking could
      be lesser contributing factor. More Asian cohort studies are required to support
      same.

PMID- 28868511
TI  - Optimization of urinary dipstick pH: Are multiple dipstick pH readings reliably
      comparable to commercial 24-hour urinary pH?
AB  - PURPOSE: Accurate measurement of pH is necessary to guide medical management of
      nephrolithiasis. Urinary dipsticks offer a convenient method to measure pH, but
      prior studies have only assessed the accuracy of a single, spot dipstick. Given
      the known diurnal variation in pH, a single dipstick pH is unlikely to reflect
      the average daily urinary pH. Our goal was to determine whether multiple dipstick
      pH readings would be reliably comparable to pH from a 24-hour urine analysis.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Kidney stone patients undergoing a 24-hour urine
      collection were enrolled and took images of dipsticks from their first 3 voids
      concurrently with the 24-hour collection. Images were sent to and read by a study
      investigator. The individual and mean pH from the dipsticks were compared to the
      24-hour urine pH and considered to be accurate if the dipstick readings were
      within 0.5 of the 24-hour urine pH. The Bland-Altman test of agreement was used
      to further compare dipstick pH relative to 24-hour urine pH. RESULTS: Fifty-nine
      percent of patients had mean urinary pH values within 0.5 pH units of their 24
      hour urine pH. Bland-Altman analysis showed a mean difference between dipstick pH
      and 24-hour urine pH of -0.22, with an upper limit of agreement of 1.02 (95%
      confidence interval [CI], 0.45-1.59) and a lower limit of agreement of -1.47 (95%
      CI, -2.04 to -0.90). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that urinary dipstick based pH
      measurement lacks the precision required to guide medical management of
      nephrolithiasis and physicians should use 24-hour urine analysis to base their
      metabolic therapy.

PMID- 28868512
TI  - CORRIGENDUM: Correction of the Figure. Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy has
      lower biochemical recurrence than laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: Systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 152 in vol. 58.].

PMID- 28868513
TI  - Evaluation of Renal Blood Flow in Chronic Kidney Disease Using Arterial Spin
      Labeling Perfusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is known to be associated with reduced
      renal blood flow. However, data to-date in humans is limited. METHODS: In this
      study, non-invasive arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI data was acquired in 33
      patients with diabetes and stage-3 CKD, and 30 healthy controls. RESULTS: A
      significantly lower renal blood flow both in cortex (108.4+/-36.4 vs. 207.3+/
      41.8; p<0.001, d=2.52) and medulla (23.2+/-8.9 vs. 42.6+/-15.8; p<0.001, d=1.5)
      was observed. Both cortical (rho=0.67, p<0.001) and medullary (rho=0.62, p<0.001)
      blood flow were correlated with eGFR, and cortical blood flow was found to be
      confounded by age and BMI. However, in a subset of subjects that were matched for
      age and BMI (n=6), the differences between CKD and control subjects remained
      significant both in cortex (107.4+/-42.8 vs. 187.51+/-20.44; p=0.002) and medulla
      (15.43+/-8.43 vs. 39.18+/-11.13; p=0.002). A threshold value to separate healthy
      and CKD was estimated to be Cor_BF=142.9 and Med_BF=24.1. CONCLUSION: These
      results support the use of ASL in the evaluation of renal blood flow in patients
      with moderate level of CKD. Whether these measurements can identify subjects at
      risk of progressive CKD requires further longitudinal follow-up.

PMID- 28868514
TI  - CD161 Expression on Mucosa-Associated Invariant T Cells is Reduced in HIV
      Infected Subjects Undergoing Antiretroviral Therapy Who Do Not Recover CD4+ T
      Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mucosa-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are a recently identified
      class of innate-like T cells that are involved in the mucosal immune response.
      MAIT cells are characterized by expression of TCR Valpha7.2 and CD161. In HIV
      infection, there is a profound early loss of MAIT cells from the circulation that
      never fully recovers, even after prolonged viral control with antiretroviral
      therapy (ART). METHODS: We analyzed PBMCs from fresh whole blood from HIV
      negative or ART-treated HIV-positive donors with full (Immune Success) or
      impaired (Immune Failure) CD4+ T- cell recovery by flow cytometry for T-cell
      markers, TCR Valpha7.2, and CD161. The PBMCs were cultured with or without TCR
      mediated stimulation, and CD161 expression was assessed on Valpha7.2+ T cells.
      Interferon-gamma (IFNgamma) production was assessed by intracellular cytokine
      staining. RESULTS: We found a decrease in the percentage of CD3+ T cells that
      expressed CD161 and the percentage of Valpha7.2+ T cells that expressed CD161, in
      HIV-infected individuals. We also found a significant increase in the percentage
      of T cells that were Valpha7.2+CD161- in immune failure compared to controls,
      accompanied by an increase in the percentage of Valpha7.2+CD161- T cells that
      express CD8+ in donors with immune failure, but not immune success. After TCR
      stimulation in vitro, Valpha7.2+ T cells reduced expression of CD161, yet
      Valpha7.2+CD161- cells from immune failure donors retained the ability to express
      IFNgamma on stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that in immune failure
      patients, the reduction in peripheral MAIT cells is due, at least in part, to a
      loss in CD161 expression, and is not merely the result of trafficking into
      mucosal tissues or cell death. These CD161- cells retain their function.

PMID- 28868515
TI  - Comparison of wildfire smoke estimation methods and associations with
      cardiopulmonary-related hospital admissions.
AB  - Climate forecasts predict an increase in frequency and intensity of wildfires.
      Associations between health outcomes and population exposure to smoke from
      Washington 2012 wildfires were compared using surface monitors, chemical-weather
      models, and a novel method blending three exposure information sources. The
      association between smoke particulate matter <=2.5 MUm in diameter (PM2.5) and
      cardiopulmonary hospital admissions occurring in Washington from 1 July to 31
      October 2012 was evaluated using a time-stratified case-crossover design.
      Hospital admissions aggregated by ZIP code were linked with population-weighted
      daily average concentrations of smoke PM2.5 estimated using three distinct
      methods: a simulation with the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry
      (WRF-Chem) model, a kriged interpolation of PM2.5 measurements from surface
      monitors, and a geographically weighted ridge regression (GWR) that blended
      inputs from WRF-Chem, satellite observations of aerosol optical depth, and kriged
      PM2.5. A 10 MUg/m3 increase in GWR smoke PM2.5 was associated with an 8%
      increased risk in asthma-related hospital admissions (odds ratio (OR): 1.076, 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 1.019-1.136); other smoke estimation methods yielded
      similar results. However, point estimates for chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease (COPD) differed by smoke PM2.5 exposure method: a 10 MUg/m3 increase
      using GWR was significantly associated with increased risk of COPD (OR: 1.084,
      95%CI: 1.026-1.145) and not significant using WRF-Chem (OR: 0.986, 95%CI: 0.931
      1.045). The magnitude (OR) and uncertainty (95%CI) of associations between smoke
      PM2.5 and hospital admissions were dependent on estimation method used and
      outcome evaluated. Choice of smoke exposure estimation method used can impact the
      overall conclusion of the study.

PMID- 28868517
TI  - Chart review versus an automated bioinformatic approach to assess real-world
      crizotinib effectiveness in ALK-positive NSCLC.

PMID- 28868516
TI  - Analysis of Human Endogenous Retrovirus Expression in Multiple Sclerosis Plaques.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are
      associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis. The objective of this study
      was to broadly evaluate the expression of HERV core (GAG) and envelope (ENV)
      genes in diseased brain white matter samples from MS patients compared to normal
      controls. METHODS: Twenty-eight HERV GAG and 88 ENV gene sequences were
      retrieved, classified by phylogeny, and grouped into clades. Consensus qPCR
      primers were designed for each clade, and quantitative PCR was performed on 33 MS
      and 9 normal control frozen brain samples. MS samples included chronic
      progressive (n=5), primary progressive (n=4), secondary progressive (n=14),
      relapsing remitting (n=3) and unclassified confirmed MS cases (n=7). The levels
      of GAG and ENV RNA within each of the samples were quantitated and normalized
      using the neuronal reference gene RPL19. Expression differences were analyzed for
      MS vs control. RESULTS: Expression of GAG clades 1A, 3B, and 3C mapping to HERV-E
      and HERV-K were significantly increased compared to controls, while GAG clade 3A
      expression was decreased. Expression of HERV ENV clades 2, 3A, 3B, mapping to
      RTVL, HERV-E and HERV-K and MSRV (HERV-W), were significantly increased in the MS
      group. However, the relative expression differences between the MS and control
      groups were small, differing less than 1.5-fold. CONCLUSION: Expression of GAG
      and ENV mapping to HERV-E, RTVL and HERV-K10 families were significantly
      increased in the MS group. However, the relative expression differences between
      the MS and control groups were small, differing less than 1.5-fold. These results
      indicate that the expression of HERV GAG and ENV regions do not differ greatly
      between MS and controls in these frozen brain samples.

PMID- 28868518
TI  - Associations of alpha-thalassemia and BCL11A with stroke in Nigerian, United
      States, and United Kingdom sickle cell anemia cohorts.
AB  - Alpha-thalassemia and the BCL11A rs1427407 T allele are commonly observed in
      sickle cell anemia (SCA) patients and are associated with reduced hemolysis and
      higher hemoglobin F levels, respectively. We investigated whether a high-risk
      genetic profile, defined as SCA patients who did not inherit either alpha
      thalassemia or the BCL11A rs1427407 T allele, had stronger associations with
      clinical and laboratory variables than the individual genetic components in the
      University of Ibadan cohort (n=249). We then replicated our findings in SCA
      cohorts from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)(n=260) and Walk
      Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension and Sickle cell disease with Sildenafil
      Therapy (Walk-PHaSST)(n=387). High-risk was associated with higher reticulocytes
      (15.0% vs. 7.8%, P=0.08) and stroke history (6% vs. 1%, P=0.02) than standard
      risk patients and these associations were more significant than the individual
      genetic components in the University of Ibadan cohort. These findings were
      replicated in high-risk patients from UIC and Walk-PHaSST for reticulocytes (UIC:
      13.5% vs. 11.8%, P=0.03; Walk-PHaSST: 9.6% vs. 8.2%, P=0.0003) and stroke history
      (UIC: 32% vs. 22%, P=0.07; Walk-PHaSST: 14% vs. 7%, P=0.01). On combined
      analysis, high-risk had strong associations with increased markers of hemolysis
      (hemoglobin beta= -0.29, 95%CI: -0.50 to -0.09; P=0.006; reticulocyte% beta=2.29,
      95%CI: 1.31 to 3.25; P=1x10-5) and stroke history (OR=2.0, 95%CI: 1.3 to 3.0;
      P=0.0002), but no association with frequent vaso-occlusive crises (>=3/year). A
      high-risk genetic profile is associated with increased hemolysis and stroke
      history in three independent cohorts. This profile may help identify patients to
      prioritize for hydroxyurea and for closer monitoring strategies for stroke.

PMID- 28868519
TI  - Dynamic Change of Transcription Pausing through Modulating NELF Protein Stability
      Regulates Granulocytic Differentiation.
AB  - The NELF complex is a metazoan-specific factor essential for establishing
      transcription pausing. Although NELF has been implicated in cell fate regulation,
      the cellular regulation of NELF and its intrinsic role in specific lineage
      differentiation remains largely unknown. Using mammalian hematopoietic
      differentiation as a model system, here we identified a dynamic change of NELF
      mediated transcription pausing as a novel mechanism regulating hematopoietic
      differentiation. We found a sharp decrease of NELF protein abundance upon
      granulocytic differentiation and a subsequent genome-wide reduction of
      transcription pausing. This loss of pausing coincides with activation of
      granulocyte-affiliated genes and diminished expression of progenitor markers.
      Functional studies revealed that sustained expression of NELF inhibits
      granulocytic differentiation, whereas NELF depletion in progenitor cells leads to
      premature differentiation towards the granulocytic lineage. Our results thus
      uncover a previously unrecognized regulation of transcription pausing by
      modulating NELF protein abundance to control cellular differentiation.

PMID- 28868520
TI  - Family Dynamics May Influence an Individual's Substance Use Abstinence Self
      Efficacy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous work on substance use suggests the influence of family
      dynamics on emotion regulation. OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the role of
      family in substance use recovery. It is of importance to examine whether conflict
      with various family members influences an individual's abstinence self-efficacy.
      METHODS: We examined individual abstinence self-efficacy scores and lifetime
      conflict with mother, father, and siblings in a sample of 200 women who had been
      justice involved. RESULTS: We found that conflict with mother was the best
      predictor of abstinence self-efficacy compared to conflict with father and
      conflict with siblings. Individuals who indicated having conflict with mother
      over their lifetime had lower confidence that they could abstain from use in
      potentially emotionally triggering situations. CONCLUSIONS/IMPORTANCE: These
      findings suggest that family dynamics, specifically lifetime conflict with
      mother, do play a role in an individual's confidence to regulate emotions in high
      risk relapse situations without turning to substances. Limitations include using
      abstinence self-efficacy as a proxy for emotion regulation and not directly
      measuring emotion regulation. Examining family relationships may be especially
      important in the treatment of women in recovery from substance use.

PMID- 28868521
TI  - An Out-of-Core GPU based dimensionality reduction algorithm for Big Mass
      Spectrometry Data and its application in bottom-up Proteomics.
AB  - Modern high resolution Mass Spectrometry instruments can generate millions of
      spectra in a single systems biology experiment. Each spectrum consists of
      thousands of peaks but only a small number of peaks actively contribute to
      deduction of peptides. Therefore, pre-processing of MS data to detect noisy and
      non-useful peaks are an active area of research. Most of the sequential noise
      reducing algorithms are impractical to use as a pre-processing step due to high
      time-complexity. In this paper, we present a GPU based dimensionality-reduction
      algorithm, called G-MSR, for MS2 spectra. Our proposed algorithm uses novel data
      structures which optimize the memory and computational operations inside GPU.
      These novel data structures include Binary Spectra and Quantized Indexed Spectra
      (QIS). The former helps in communicating essential information between CPU and
      GPU using minimum amount of data while latter enables us to store and process
      complex 3-D data structure into a 1-D array structure while maintaining the
      integrity of MS data. Our proposed algorithm also takes into account the limited
      memory of GPUs and switches between in-core and out-of-core modes based upon the
      size of input data. G-MSR achieves a peak speed-up of 386x over its sequential
      counterpart and is shown to process over a million spectra in just 32 seconds.
      The code for this algorithm is available as a GPL open-source at GitHub at the
      following link: https://github.com/pcdslab/G-MSR.

PMID- 28868522
TI  - Primary Care Provider Management of Congenital Hypothyroidism Identified Through
      Newborn Screening.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess Primary Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH) management patterns
      and feasibility of providing long-term care for patients with CH identified
      through newborn screening by Primary Care Providers (PCPs) in California and
      Hawaii. STUDY DESIGN: A survey was mailed to all physicians (N=823) listed as the
      referral doctor for confirmed patients with CH identified through newborn
      screening programs in both states between 01/01/2009-12/31/2013. Information was
      collected on CH management patterns, barriers to providing care, and knowledge on
      CH treatment. Descriptive statistics and bivariate logistic regression results
      were reported. RESULTS: 206 PCPs completed the survey. Among these, 78% currently
      have patients with CH and 91% indicated willingness to provide long-term care to
      new patients with CH. Among PCPs currently caring for patients with CH, 17%
      managed CH by themselves with limited assistance from endocrinologists; 63% were
      involved in managing CH but endocrinologists played a larger role than PCPs; 19%
      were not involved in CH care. Only 49% of PCPs correctly answered questions
      regarding recommended follow-up frequencies and 23% knew the correct age for a
      trial off levothyroxine for suspected transient CH. Top two perceived barriers to
      providing long-term care included "need guidance or support from
      endocrinologists" (61%) and "not familiar with CH treatment guidelines" (28%).
      CONCLUSION: The majority of PCPs surveyed are willing to provide long-term care
      to patients with CH, but need support from endocrinologists and increased
      knowledge about current treatment guidelines.

PMID- 28868523
TI  - Design Features in Games for Health: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Expert
      Perspectives.
AB  - Games for health (G4H) aim to improve health outcomes and encourage behavior
      change. While existing theoretical frameworks describe features of both games and
      health interventions, there has been limited systematic investigation into how
      disciplinary and interdisciplinary stakeholders understand design features in
      G4H. We recruited 18 experts from the fields of game design, behavioral health,
      and games for health, and prompted them with 16 sample games. Applying methods
      including open card sorting and triading, we elicited themes and features (e.g.,
      real-world interaction, game mechanics) around G4H. We found evidence of
      conceptual differences suggesting that a G4H perspective is not simply the sum of
      game and health perspectives. At the same time, we found evidence of convergence
      in stakeholder views, including areas where game experts provided insights about
      health and vice versa. We discuss how this work can be applied to provide
      conceptual tools, improve the G4H design process, and guide approaches to
      encoding G4H-related data for large-scale empirical analysis.

PMID- 28868524
TI  - Divergent Specificity Development of IgG1 and IgG4 Autoantibodies in Endemic
      Pemphigus Foliaceus (Fogo Selvagem).
AB  - We have shown that although the IgG response in fogo selvagem (FS) is mainly
      restricted to desmoglein (Dsg) 1, other keratinocyte cadherins are also targeted
      by FS patients and healthy control subjects living in the endemic region of Limao
      Verde, Brazil (endemic controls). Evaluating nonpathogenic IgG1 and pathogenic
      IgG4 subclass responses to desmosomal proteins may reveal important differences
      between pathogenic and nonpathogenic responses, and how these differences relate
      to the pathogenic IgG4 response and resultant FS. In this study, we tested by
      ELISA >100 sera from each FS patient, endemic control, and nonendemic control for
      IgG1 and IgG4 autoantibodies to keratinocyte cadherins besides Dsg1. IgG1 and
      IgG4 subclass responses in endemic controls are highly correlated between Dsg1
      and other keratinocyte cadherins. This correlation persists in the IgG1 response
      among FS patients, but diminishes in IgG4 response, suggesting that IgG1 binds
      highly conserved linear epitopes among cadherins, whereas IgG4 binds mainly
      specific conformational epitopes on Dsg1. A confirmatory test comparing serum
      samples of 11 individuals before and after their FS onset substantiated our
      findings that IgG1 recognizes primarily linear epitopes on Dsg1 both before and
      after disease onset, whereas IgG4 recognizes primarily linear epitopes before
      disease onset, but recognizes more conformational epitopes on Dsg1 after the
      onset of disease. This study may provide a mechanism by which a specificity
      convergence of the IgG4 response to unique Dsg1 epitopes, most likely
      conformational pathogenic epitopes, leads to the onset of FS disease.

PMID- 28868526
TI  - Programs to Recruit and Retain a More Diverse Workforce in Biomedical Sciences
      Research.
AB  - To improve overall healthcare and to reduce health disparities, efforts must
      focus on increasing the diversity of personnel trained in the biomedical
      sciences. Here, we describe the development, implementation, and relative
      outcomes of three pipeline training programs in biomedical sciences research
      designed to increase workforce diversity institutionally, regionally, and
      nationally. We report on their effectiveness in improving the recruitment and
      retention of underrepresented minorities with the long-term goal of remedying
      health inequities and disparities.

PMID- 28868525
TI  - Potential Contributions of the Tobacco Nicotine-Derived Nitrosamine Ketone to
      White Matter Molecular Pathology in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is associated with long-term
      deficits in cognitive and motor functions. Previous studies linked
      neurodevelopmental abnormalities to increased oxidative stress and white matter
      hypotrophy. However, similar effects occur with low-dose nitrosamine exposures,
      alcohol abuse correlates with cigarette smoking, and tobacco smoke contains
      tobacco-specific nitrosamines, including NNK. HYPOTHESIS: Tobacco smoke exposure
      is a co-factor in FASD. DESIGN: Long Evans rat pups were i.p. administered
      ethanol (2 g/kg) on postnatal days (P) 2, 4, 6 and/or NNK (2 mg/kg) on P3, P5,
      and P7 to simulate third trimester human exposures. Oligodendroglial myelin
      associated, neuroglial, and relevant transcription factor mRNA transcripts were
      measured using targeted PCR arrays. RESULTS: Ethanol and NNK differentially
      altered the expression of immature and mature oligodendroglial, neuronal and
      astrocytic structural and plasticity-associated, and various transcription factor
      genes. NNK's effects were broader and more pronounced than ethanol's, and
      additive or synergistic effects of dual exposures impacted expression of all four
      categories of genes investigated. CONCLUSION: Developmental exposures to alcohol
      and NNK (via tobacco smoke) contribute to sustained abnormalities in brain white
      matter structure and function via distinct but overlapping alterations in the
      expression of genes that regulate oligodendrocyte survival, maturation and
      function, neuroglial structural integrity, and synaptic plasticity. The results
      support the hypothesis that smoking may contribute to brain abnormalities
      associated with FASD.

PMID- 28868527
TI  - Alterations of Cholesterol Metabolism in Inflammation-Induced Atherogenesis.
AB  - Vascular inflammation is central to the pathogenesis of the atherosclerotic
      lesion. In the setting of hypercholesterolemia, vascular inflammation accelerates
      the accumulation of cholesterol within arterial smooth muscle cells, macrophages,
      and other immune cells. In disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and thrombosis, a
      myriad of interactions between sterol metabolites and inflammatory mediators
      exacerbate cholesterol deposition in the vessel wall, leading to the well-known
      consequences of stroke, transient ischemic attack, myocardial infarction, and
      peripheral vascular insufficiency. This review highlights emerging concepts in
      the regulation of cholesterol synthesis, the lipolytic enzymes involved in
      cholesterol utilization, and the therapies that successfully modulate vascular
      inflammation. In addition, developments relating to the role of inflammasomes in
      the management of cholesterol-mediated inflammation are discussed.

PMID- 28868528
TI  - The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network Access to Parks
      Indicator: A National County-Level Measure of Park Proximity.
AB  - Parks and recreation departments and public health organizations both work to
      improve the well-being of their communities. Measuring residential proximity to
      parks could be a specific area of shared interest, given that proximity to parks
      is needed for walking access, and the use of parks is, in turn, associated with
      many physical, social, and mental health benefits. The CDC's publicly available
      National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (NEPHTN) Access to Parks
      Indicator (API) focuses on one major component of access, residential proximity
      to parks. The API uses a commercial parks database and U.S. Census data to
      estimate the number and percentage of individuals in the U.S. that live within a
      half-mile of a park boundary, a measure commonly used to represent park
      proximity. The API is calculated at the state and county levels and is available
      for all states and counties in the U.S. Using estimates from the API, we examined
      the distribution of residential proximity to parks by geography and
      race/ethnicity. Additionally, we evaluated differences in park proximity by
      rural/urban status of counties. In 2010, 39% of the total U.S. population lived
      within a half-mile of a park. This percentage varied widely between states,
      ranging from 9% in West Virginia to 67% in Hawaii and 88% in the District of
      Columbia (DC). Park proximity was lowest among non-Hispanic whites (34.2%) and
      highest among individuals belonging to the non-Hispanic other race category
      (52.0%). Metropolitan counties had the highest percentage of residents living
      within a half-mile of a park (43.3%); the percentage was lower in non
      metropolitan counties adjacent to a metropolitan county (15.0%) and non
      metropolitan counties not adjacent to a metropolitan county (18.5%). Park
      proximity was higher in metropolitan counties with a larger population size and
      in non-metropolitan counties with a higher degree of urbanization. The NEPHTN
      Access to Parks Indicator provides an opportunity to understand park proximity in
      counties and states throughout the U.S., including identifying disparities that
      may exist between population subgroups and comparing geographic areas. Parks and
      recreational professionals can use this information to compare their county or
      state to other geographic areas and, in combination with local data on parks
      within their jurisdiction, inform decisions to improve the distribution of parks
      and the well-being of their communities.

PMID- 28868529
TI  - The Development of the Mother-Infant Mutualistic Screening Scale.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The integrity of a mother-infant dyad is essential for the proper
      development of maternal behavior and infant growth/ development. At present,
      there is a lack of objective approaches to monitor mother-infant behavioral
      exchanges. OBJECTIVES: This is an exploratory prospective study designed to
      evaluate the Mother-Infant Mutualistic Screening Scale (MIMSS), a novel
      observational tool focused on monitoring the mutual/ reciprocal sensitivity and
      responsiveness that mother and infant express toward one another's behaviors/
      actions during the obligatory setting of daily meal times. METHODS: Mother-infant
      interactions were assessed from videotaped feeding sessions conducted under
      recurrent naturalistic observations. Data were collected from 27 mother-preterm
      infant singleton dyads at 6 and 12 month corrected age (CA). Four levels of MIMSS
      are defined: Level I - both mother and infant are not responsive (NR) to one
      another's actions; Level II - mother is not responsive (NR) to infant, but infant
      is responsive (R) to mother; Level III - mother is responsive (R) to infant, but
      infant is not responsive (NR) to mother; Level IV - both mother and infant are
      responsive (R) to one another. RESULTS: Inter- and intra-rater reliability
      between two raters was 93% and >= 85%, respectively. At 6 and 12 month CA, 78%
      and 81% of the dyads were at a MIMSS Level IV, respectively. A change in mother
      infant reciprocal behavioral responses or MIMSS levels was observed in 9 of the
      dyads between these two ages. No association was observed between MIMSS levels
      and infant growth/ development as monitored by percentile Weight, Length, and
      Weight by Length at both corrected ages. CONCLUSIONS: The MIMSS is easy to use
      with high inter- and intra-rater reliabilities. With the ability to differentiate
      between mother and infant reciprocal behavioral responses toward one another's
      actions, MIMSS can help health professionals assess the quality of mother-infant
      interactions and identify the partner(s) who may benefit from individualized
      assistance. Although MIMSS uses mealtime as a recurrent setting, it offers a
      conceptual frame work for evaluating co-regulatory processes under different
      contexts.

PMID- 28868530
TI  - Addressing Health Disparities in Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28868531
TI  - A Control Theory Model of Smoking.
AB  - We present a heuristic control theory model that describes smoking under
      restricted and unrestricted access to cigarettes. The model is based on the
      allostasis theory and uses a formal representation of a multiscale opponent
      process. The model simulates smoking behavior of an individual and produces both
      short-term ("loading up" after not smoking for a while) and long-term smoking
      patterns (e.g., gradual transition from a few cigarettes to one pack a day). By
      introducing a formal representation of withdrawal- and craving-like processes,
      the model produces gradual increases over time in withdrawal- and craving-like
      signals associated with abstinence and shows that after 3 months of abstinence,
      craving disappears. The model was programmed as a computer application allowing
      users to select simulation scenarios. The application links images of brain
      regions that are activated during the binge/intoxication, withdrawal, or craving
      with corresponding simulated states. The model was calibrated to represent
      smoking patterns described in peer-reviewed literature; however, it is generic
      enough to be adapted to other drugs, including cocaine and opioids. Although the
      model does not mechanistically describe specific neurobiological processes, it
      can be useful in prevention and treatment practices as an illustration of drug
      using behaviors and expected dynamics of withdrawal and craving during
      abstinence.

PMID- 28868533
TI  - PET-based bisBODIPY photosensitizers for highly efficient excited triplet state
      and singlet oxygen generation: tuning photosensitizing ability by dihedral
      angles.
AB  - Herein, four covalent BODIPY heterodimers that differ by dihedral angles were
      shown to be highly efficient excited triplet state (T1) photosensitizers (PSs)
      for singlet oxygen formation with a quantum yield (PhiDelta) of up to 0.94 as
      compared to their respective monomers, which had only negligible PhiDelta of ca.
      0.060. More interestingly, these PSs generate T1via charge recombination
      mechanism rather than traditional inter-system crossing. The photosensitizing
      ability of dimers is easily tuned by either the dihedral angle (between the two
      linked BODIPYs) or solvent polarity. Laser flash photolysis, time-resolved and
      steady state fluorescence, quantum chemical calculation, as well as thermodynamic
      analysis were employed to study the associated photophysical process to reveal
      the T1 formation mechanism: photo-induced electron transfer (PET) followed by
      charge recombination. Due to its heavy-atom-free nature, polarity selectivity,
      high efficiency, and easy tunability, this PET-based PS and its mechanism are
      very useful in developing new PS for photodynamic therapy of tumors,
      photobiology, and organic photochemistry.

PMID- 28868532
TI  - [Ocular Surface Reconstruction with Cultivated Limbal Epithelial Cells in Limbal
      Stem Cell Deficiency: One-year Follow-up Results].
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the 1-year follow-up results of cultivated limbal epithelial
      cell (CLEC) transplantation in unilateral limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD).
      MATERIAL AND METHOD: One-year follow-up results of five unilateral LSCD patients
      who had undergone CLEC transplantation were evaluated. Parameters for this
      evaluation were: fluorescein staining of ocular surface, corneal vascularization
      and status of epithelium with slit lamp, and visual acuity. 1.5-mm limbal biopsy
      was performed from the superior limbus of the healthy eyes, broke into two equal
      pieces, expanded on human amniotic membrane (hAM) and inserts for 14 days until
      getting 20 mm in size. CLECs on hAMs were used directly, and cells on inserts
      were used after detachment procedure. The symblepharon and pannus tissues were
      removed, superficial keratectomy was performed. CLEC on hAMs were transplanted
      with the epithelial side up onto the bare corneal stroma, sutured to the
      conjunctiva with 10-0 nylon sutures. Free CLEC layer from insert was placed on
      hAM as a second layer, additional hAM was used as a protective layer all over
      other tissues. RESULTS: Median age was 44.4 years (14-71). The etiology was
      chemical burn in all patients. Median duration of symptoms was 10 years (2-18),
      median follow-up period was 12.6 (12-12.5) months. Preoperative best corrected
      visual acuities (BCVA) were light perception in three patients, counting fingers
      at 50 cm in one patient and 3/10 in one patient. Visions were improved in all
      patients. Postoperative BCVA 12 months after the surgery were between counting
      fingers at 3 meters to 6/10. There was a temporary hemorrhage between the two
      layers of hAMs in one patient at the early postoperative period. Peripheral
      corneal vascularization has occurred in three patients, in patient corneal
      vascularization has reached to the paracentral area. DISCUSSION: CLEC
      transplantation is an efficient treatment option for unilateral LSCD in mid-long
      term.

PMID- 28868534
TI  - Importance of the alignment of polar pi conjugated molecules inside carbon
      nanotubes in determining second-order non-linear optical properties.
AB  - We employed density functional theory (DFT) calculations with dispersion
      corrections to investigate energetically preferred alignments of certain p,p'
      dimethylaminonitrostilbene (DANS) molecules inside an armchair (m,m) carbon
      nanotube (n * DANS@(m,m)), where the number of inner molecules (n) is no greater
      than 3. Here, three types of alignments of DANS are considered: a linear
      alignment in a parallel fashion and stacking alignments in parallel and
      antiparallel fashions. According to DFT calculations, a threshold tube diameter
      for containing DANS molecules in linear or stacking alignments was found to be
      approximately 1.0 nm. Nanotubes with diameters smaller than 1.0 nm result in the
      selective formation of linearly aligned DANS molecules due to strong confinement
      effects within the nanotubes. By contrast, larger diameter nanotubes allow DANS
      molecules to align in a stacking and linear fashion. The type of alignment
      adopted by the DANS molecules inside a nanotube is responsible for their second
      order non-linear optical properties represented by their static
      hyperpolarizability (beta0 values). In fact, we computed beta0 values of DANS
      assemblies taken from optimized n * DANS@(m,m) structures, and their values were
      compared with those of a single DANS molecule. DFT calculations showed that beta0
      values of DANS molecules depend on their alignment, which decrease in the
      following order: linear alignment > parallel stacking alignment > antiparallel
      stacking alignment. In particular, a linear alignment has a beta0 value more
      significant than that of the same number of isolated molecules. Therefore, the
      linear alignment of DANS molecules, which is only allowed inside smaller diameter
      nanotubes, can strongly enhance their second-order non-linear optical properties.
      Since the nanotube confinement determines the alignment of DANS molecules, a
      restricted nanospace can be utilized to control their second-order non-linear
      optical properties. These DFT findings can assist in the design of nanotube-based
      materials exhibiting stronger non-linear optical properties.

PMID- 28868535
TI  - Configurable microfluidic platform for investigating therapeutic delivery from
      biomedical device coatings.
AB  - Advanced biomedical device coatings have shown significant promise in delivery of
      therapeutics (e.g., small-molecule drugs, proteins) for a wide range of medical
      interventions ranging from targeted cancer therapy to management of
      atherosclerosis. In order to accelerate the development of such coatings, there
      is a need for tools to investigate the loading capacity and release kinetics with
      high temporal resolution and in a variety of physiological conditions. To address
      this need, we report a microfluidic platform, where the coating on a substrate
      can be mounted onto the microchannel and the device can be configured in two
      physiologically-relevant modes: (i) flow-mode allows for monitoring the release
      from the coating in contact with a liquid flowing at a specific rate, modeling
      the case of a drug-eluting stent. (ii) Static-mode, where the channel is filled
      with a stationary gel, mimics the case of drug-eluting brain implant. We
      demonstrate the utility of the platform with a fluorescein-loaded nanoporous gold
      coating and monitor in real-time the release kinetics both under deionized water
      infusion and an agarose gel-filled channel via fluorescence microscopy coupled to
      a LabVIEW-based interface.

PMID- 28868536
TI  - Using molecular vibrations to probe exciton delocalization in films of perylene
      diimides with ultrafast mid-IR spectroscopy.
AB  - Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy in the mid-infrared was used to directly probe
      the delocalization of excitons in two different perylenediimide (PDI) derivatives
      that are predicted to preclude the formation of excimers, which can act as trap
      sites for excited state energy in organic semiconductors. We identified
      vibrational modes within the conjugated C-C stretch modes of PDI molecules whose
      frequencies reported the interactions of molecules within delocalized excitonic
      states. The vibrational linewidths of these modes, which we call intermolecular
      coordinate coupled (ICC) modes, provided a direct probe of the extent of exciton
      delocalization among the PDI molecules, which was confirmed using X-ray
      diffraction and electro-absorption spectroscopy. We show that a slip-stacked
      geometry among the PDI molecules in their crystals promotes delocalized charge
      transfer (CT) excitons, while localized Frenkel excitons tend to form in crystals
      with helical, columnar stacking geometries. Because all molecules possess
      vibrational modes, the use of ultrafast mid-infrared spectroscopy to measure ICC
      vibrational modes offers a new approach to examine exciton delocalization in a
      variety of small molecule electron acceptors for optoelectronic and organic
      photovoltaic applications.

PMID- 28868537
TI  - Alternating current electrothermal modulated moving contact line dynamics of
      immiscible binary fluids over patterned surfaces.
AB  - In this paper, we report the results of our numerical study on incompressible
      flow of a binary system of two immiscible fluids in a parallel plate capillary
      using alternating current electrothermal kinetics as the actuation mechanism for
      flow. The surfaces of the capillary are wetted with two different alternating
      wettability patches. The dynamic motion of the interface of the two fluids is
      tracked using a phase-field order parameter-based approach. The results exhibit a
      stick-slip behavior involving acceleration and deceleration of the interface due
      to the interplay of electrothermal (Coulomb and dielectric) and surface tension
      forces. Controlling the interface motion through effective tuning of the chemical
      characteristics of the surfaces and forcing parameters was explored in detail.
      Finally, we were able to find a critical value of the dimensionless strength of
      the alternating current electrothermal force above which the interface "breaks",
      resulting in the formation of isolated droplets. These results have the potential
      to improve fundamental understanding and design optimization of various
      biomedical and physiological systems that involve flow of two or more immiscible
      fluids over chemically wetted surfaces.

PMID- 28868538
TI  - Radicals derived from acetaldehyde and vinyl alcohol.
AB  - Vinyl alcohol and acetaldehyde are isoelectronic products of incomplete butanol
      combustion. Along with the radicals resulting from the removal of atomic hydrogen
      or the hydroxyl radical, these species are studied here using ab initio methods
      as complete as coupled cluster theory with single, double, triple, and
      perturbative quadruple excitations [CCSDT(Q)], with basis sets as large as cc
      pV5Z. The relative energies provided herein are further refined by including
      corrections for relativistic effects, the frozen core approximation, and the Born
      Oppenheimer approximation. The effects of anharmonic zero-point vibrational
      energies are also treated. The syn conformer of vinyl alcohol is predicted to be
      lower in energy than the anti conformer by 1.1 kcal mol-1. The alcoholic hydrogen
      of syn-vinyl alcohol is found to be the easiest to remove, requiring 84.4 kcal
      mol-1. Five other radicals are also carefully considered, with four conformers
      investigated for the 1-hydroxyvinyl radical. Beyond energetics, we have conducted
      an overhaul of the spectroscopic literature for these species. Our results also
      provide predictions for fundamental modes yet to be reported experimentally. To
      our knowledge, the nu3 (3076 cm-1) and nu4 (2999 cm-1) C-H stretches for syn
      vinyl alcohol and all but one of the vibrational modes for anti-vinyl alcohol
      (nu1-nu14) are yet to be observed experimentally. For the acetyl radical, nu6
      (1035 cm-1), nu11 (944 cm-1), nu12 (97 cm-1), and accounting for our changes to
      the assignment of the 1419.9 cm-1 experimental mode, nu10 (1441 cm-1), are yet to
      be observed. We have predicted these unobserved fundamentals and reassigned the
      experimental 1419.9 cm-1 frequency in the acetyl radical to nu4 rather than to
      nu10. Our work also strongly supports reassignment of the nu10 and nu11
      fundamentals of the vinoxy radical. We suggest that the bands assigned to the
      overtones of these fundamentals were in fact combination bands. Our findings may
      be useful in constructing improved combustion models of butanol and in
      spectroscopically characterizing these molecules further.

PMID- 28868539
TI  - Simple contact mechanics model of the vertebrate cartilage.
AB  - We study a simple contact mechanics model of the vertebrate cartilage, which
      includes (bulk) osmotic effects. The surface roughness power spectrum of a pig
      cartilage is obtained from the measured surface topography. Using the Reynolds
      equations with fluid flow factors, calculated using the Persson contact mechanics
      theory and the Bruggeman effective medium theory, we show how the area of contact
      and the average interfacial separation change with time. We found that in most
      cases the contact area percolates, resulting in islands of confined fluid which
      carry most of the external load. Most importantly, we find that the pressure in
      the area of real contact is nearly independent of the external load, and well
      below 1 MPa. This allows the surfaces in the area of "real contact", to be
      separated (at nanometer range separation distance) by osmotic repulsion,
      resulting in a very small (breakloose) friction force observed even after a long
      time of stationary contact.

PMID- 28868540
TI  - Synthesis of circular and triangular gold nanorings with tunable optical
      properties.
AB  - This communication describes a robust wet-chemical synthetic strategy for the
      preparation of monodispersed circular and triangular gold nanorings. The
      localized surface plasmon resonance of the nanorings can be tuned by controlling
      the outer diameter and ridge thickness of the nanorings.

PMID- 28868541
TI  - Photoinduced dimerization of a photosensory DNA-binding protein EL222 and its LOV
      domain.
AB  - EL222 is a blue light sensor protein consisting of a light-oxygen-voltage (LOV)
      domain (EL-LOV domain) at the N-terminus and a helix-turn-helix DNA-binding
      domain at the C-terminus. EL222 acts as a light dependent transcriptional factor.
      The photochemical reactions of EL222 and the light sensing properties of the LOV
      domain were investigated. Concentration dependent experiments revealed that the
      EL-LOV domain is in equilibrium between the dimer and the monomer in the dark
      state, and the main photoreaction is the dimerization reaction between a monomer
      in the ground state and that in the excited state. The equilibrium constant and
      the intrinsic rate constants of dimerization were determined. EL222 was found to
      also exhibit photoinduced dimerization even in the absence of target DNA,
      although the yield of the reaction was low (~0.08 compared with that of the EL
      LOV domain). This observation suggests that there are inhomogeneous
      conformations, open and closed types, of EL222 in solution.

PMID- 28868542
TI  - Iodine-doped sumanene and its application for the synthesis of
      chalcogenasumanenes and silasumanenes.
AB  - The synthesis of an iodine-doped sumanene, which represents the first example of
      halogen-doped buckybowls, is described. Pristine trithiasumanene, trisilasumanene
      and the hitherto unknown parent triselenasumanene, three interesting
      heterobuckybowls with significant synthetic challenges, were efficiently prepared
      from the iodine-doped sumanene through non-pyrolytic conditions. This work
      demonstrates the high potential of hypervalent iodines embedded in extended pi
      conjugated systems for the synthesis of novel curved and planar polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons.

PMID- 28868543
TI  - Capture of Xe and Ar atoms by quantized vortices in 4He nanodroplets.
AB  - We present a computational study, based on time-dependent Density Functional
      theory, of the real-time interaction and trapping of Ar and Xe atoms in
      superfluid 4He nanodroplets either pure or hosting quantized vortex lines. We
      investigate the phase-space trajectories of the impurities for different initial
      conditions and describe in detail the complex dynamics of the droplets during the
      capture of the impurities. We show that the interaction of the incoming atom with
      the vortex core induces large bending and twisting excitations of the vortex core
      lines, including the generation of helical Kelvin waves propagating along the
      vortex core. We have also calculated the stationary configurations of a 4He
      droplet hosting a 6-vortex array whose cores are filled with Ar atoms. As
      observed in recent experiments, we find that doping adds substantial rigidity to
      the system, such that the doped vortex array remains stable, even at low values
      of the angular velocities where the undoped vortices would otherwise be pushed
      towards the droplet surface and be expelled.

PMID- 28868544
TI  - Photoinduced reversible spin-state switching of an FeIII complex assisted by a
      halogen-bonded supramolecular network.
AB  - The organization of a molecular FeIII complex embedded in a halogen-bonded 2D
      network is chemically tuned to trigger temperature- and light-induced spin-state
      switching. We attribute the associated magnetic properties and the unprecedented
      photoswitching effect to the optimized structural confinement provided by the
      presence of the supramolecular host framework.

PMID- 28868545
TI  - Topological vacancies in spherical crystals.
AB  - Understanding geometric frustration of ordered phases in two-dimensional
      condensed matter on curved surfaces is closely related to a host of scientific
      problems in condensed matter physics and materials science. Here, we show how two
      dimensional Lennard-Jones crystal clusters confined on a sphere resolve geometric
      frustration and form pentagonal vacancy structures. These vacancies, originating
      from the combination of curvature and physical interaction, are found to be
      topological defects and they can be further classified into dislocational and
      disclinational types. We analyze the dual role of these crystallographic defects
      as both vacancies and topological defects, illustrate their formation mechanism,
      and present the phase diagram. The revealed dual role of the topological
      vacancies may find applications in the fabrication of robust nanopores. This work
      also shows the promising potential of exploiting richness in both physical
      interactions and substrate geometries to create new types of crystallographic
      defects, which have strong connections with the design of crystalline materials.

PMID- 28868546
TI  - Enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of rhenium(i) complexes by
      encapsulation in light-harvesting soft nanotubes.
AB  - Dye-assembled soft nanotubes with controlled-diameter nanochannels functioned as
      light-harvesting antennae to strongly enhance the photocatalytic activity of
      Re(i) complexes encapsulated in their nanochannels.

PMID- 28868547
TI  - Investigation of a common gene expression signature in gastrointestinal cancers
      using systems biology approaches.
AB  - According to GLOBOCAN 2012, the incidence and the mortality rate of colorectal,
      stomach and liver cancers are the highest among the total gastrointestinal (GI)
      cancers. Here we aimed to find the common genes and pathways that are
      simultaneously deregulated in these three malignancies using systems biology
      approaches. Here we conducted a differential expression analysis on high-quality
      gene expression datasets of gastric cancer (GC), colorectal cancer (CRC) and
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To address the inter gene correlations that were
      neglected in differential expression studies, we also applied differential co
      expression analysis on the understudied datasets. The common significant
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among the three cancers were used for
      further regulatory and PPI network construction. In parallel the regulatory roles
      of miRNAs and lncRNAs in the common DEGs were investigated. 23 common DEGs were
      detected between GC, CRC and HCC. Two cases of potential feed forward loops were
      identified in the constructed TF-target regulatory network, indicating the
      probable cross-talk between biological pathways. The result of a vulnerability
      test on the common PPI network resulted in the finding of three candidates, the
      simultaneous targeting of which will disintegrate the main parts of the network.
      The results of the differential co-expression study led to the identification of
      respectively 7 and 1 common differentially co-expressed pairs of genes between GC
      and CRC and between CRC and HCC. The results of the differential expression study
      introduced new common players in CRC, GC and HCC and provided better insights
      into the molecular characteristics of these GI malignancies. Moreover, we
      concluded that differential co-expression studies are an essential complement for
      differential expression studies that just take single differentially expressed
      genes into account.

PMID- 28868549
TI  - Progress in bio-inspired sacrificial bonds in artificial polymeric materials.
AB  - Mimicking natural structures has been highly pursued in the fabrication of
      synthetic polymeric materials due to its potential in breaking the bottlenecks in
      mechanical properties and extending the applications of polymeric materials.
      Recently, it has been revealed that the energy dissipating mechanisms via
      sacrificial bonds are among the important factors which account for strong and
      tough attributes of natural materials. Great progress in synthesis of polymeric
      materials consisting of sacrificial bonds has been achieved. The present review
      aims at (1) summarizing progress in the mechanics and chemistry of sacrificial
      bond bearing polymers, (2) describing the mechanisms of sacrificial bonds in
      strengthening/toughening polymers based on studies by single-molecule force
      spectroscopy, chromophore incorporation and constitutive laws, (3) presenting
      synthesis methods for sacrificial bonding including dual-crosslink, dual/multiple
      network, and sacrificial interfaces, (4) discussing the important advances in
      engineering sacrificial bonding into hydrogels, biomimetic structures and
      elastomers, and (5) suggesting future works on molecular simulation,
      viscoelasticity, construction of sacrificial interfaces and sacrificial bonds
      with high dissociative temperature. It is hoped that this review will provide
      guidance for further development of sacrificial bonding strategies in polymeric
      materials.

PMID- 28868550
TI  - Calculation and experimental measurement of paramagnetic NMR parameters of
      phenolic oximate Cu(ii) complexes.
AB  - We present a strategy for predicting the unusual 1H and 13C shifts in NMR spectra
      of paramagnetic bisoximato copper(ii) complexes using DFT. We demonstrate good
      agreement with experimental measurements, although 1H-13C correlation spectra
      show that a combined experimental and theoretical approach remains necessary for
      full assignment.

PMID- 28868551
TI  - Cavitation to fracture transition in a soft solid.
AB  - When a soft solid such as rubber, gel and soft tissue is subject to hydrostatic
      tension, a small cavity inside the solid expands. For a neo-Hookean solid, when
      the hydrostatic tension approaches a critical value: 2.5 times its shear modulus,
      the initially small cavity can expand unboundedly. Such a phenomenon is usually
      referred to as cavitation instability in soft solids. Several recent experiments
      have shown that fractures may occur in the material when the hydrostatic tension
      is far below the critical value. In this article, we study a spherical cavity
      with a ring crack on its wall and inside a neo-Hookean elastomer subject to
      hydrostatic tension. We compute the energy release rate associated with the
      extension of the ring crack, for both pressure-control and (cavity) volume
      control loading modes. We find that for the pressure-control mode, the energy
      release rate increases with the increase of the crack size as well as the
      magnitude of pressure; for the (cavity) volume-control mode, with a fixed cavity
      volume, the energy release rate increases with the increase of the crack size
      when the crack is short; the energy release rate maximizes for an intermediate
      crack size, and decreases with the increase of crack size when the crack is long.
      The results obtained in this article may be helpful for understanding cavitation
      to-fracture transition in soft solids subject to different loading conditions.

PMID- 28868548
TI  - Developing antineoplastic agents that target peroxisomal enzymes: cytisine-linked
      isoflavonoids as inhibitors of hydroxysteroid 17-beta-dehydrogenase-4 (HSD17B4).
AB  - Cytisine-linked isoflavonoids (CLIFs) inhibited PC-3 prostate and LS174T colon
      cancer cell proliferation by inhibiting a peroxisomal bifunctional enzyme. A pull
      down assay using a biologically active, biotin-modified CLIF identified the
      target of these agents as the bifunctional peroxisomal enzyme, hydroxysteroid
      17beta-dehydrogenase-4 (HSD17B4). Additional studies with truncated versions of
      HSD17B4 established that CLIFs specifically bind the C-terminus of HSD17B4 and
      selectively inhibited the enoyl CoA hydratase but not the d-3-hydroxyacyl CoA
      dehydrogenase activity. HSD17B4 was overexpressed in prostate and colon cancer
      tissues, knocking down HSD17B4 inhibited cancer cell proliferation, suggesting
      that HSD17B4 is a potential biomarker and drug target and that CLIFs are
      potential probes or therapeutic agents for these cancers.

PMID- 28868552
TI  - Synthesis of ribosyl-ribosyl-adenosine-5',5'',5'''(triphosphate)-the naturally
      occurring branched fragment of poly(ADP ribose).
AB  - Poly-adenosine diphosphate ribose (PAR) is a branched biopolymer that occurs as a
      result of post-translational modification of proteins. In 1981 Miwa et al.
      determined the structure of enzymatically prepared branched PAR. We present the
      first synthesis of the same branched PAR fragment and have shown by NMR that the
      structure proposed by Miwa is correct.

PMID- 28868554
TI  - Highly flexible and transparent dielectric elastomer actuators using silver
      nanowire and carbon nanotube hybrid electrodes.
AB  - We demonstrate a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) with a high areal strain
      value of 146% using hybrid electrodes of silver nanowires (AgNWs) and single
      walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The addition of a very small amount of SWCNTs
      (~35 ng mm-2) to a highly resistive AgNW network resulted in a remarkable
      reduction of the electrode sheet resistance by three orders, increasing the
      breakdown field by 183% and maximum strain, while maintaining the reduction of
      optical transmittance within 11%. The DEA based on our transparent and
      stretchable hybrid electrodes can be easily fabricated by a simple vacuum
      filtration and transfer process of the electrode film on a pre-strained
      dielectric elastomer membrane. We expect that our approach will be useful in the
      future for fabricating stretchable and transparent electrodes in various soft
      electronic devices.

PMID- 28868555
TI  - Validation of density functionals for pancake-bonded pi-dimers; dispersion is not
      enough.
AB  - pi-Stacking pancake bonding between radicals poses special challenges to density
      functional theories (DFTs) due to their shorter than van der Waals contact
      distances, their multireference singlet ground states and the concurrently
      important dispersion interactions. We examined over 50 DFTs including 22 with
      dispersion corrections on four different pi-dimerized pancake-bonded systems
      exploring the performances of these DFTs in the very short intermolecular contact
      regime. We examined crucial energetic as well as geometric parameters against
      available high-level multireference average quadratic coupled cluster (MR-AQCC)
      results. Overall we did not find an omnipotent DFT applicable for all four
      pancake-bonded pi-dimers. However, some DFTs were found to perform well for each
      individual system: M05-2X and PBE0-MBD are the only DFTs that work well for the
      phenalenyl pi-dimer; BLYP is the only appropriate DFT for the 1,2,4,6
      thiatriazine pi-dimer; O3LYP works best on the double pancake-bonded 1,3,2,4,6
      dithiatriazine pi-dimer with a few acceptable ones and MN15L is the best method
      for K+TCNE- pi-dimer in addition to a few acceptable ones. We believe our
      findings can deliver insights towards the design and characterization of the
      pancake-bond based materials and the development of new DFTs.

PMID- 28868553
TI  - Origins of the enhanced affinity of RNA-protein interactions triggered by RNA
      phosphorodithioate backbone modification.
AB  - The well-characterized interaction between the MS2 coat protein and its cognate
      RNA hairpin was used to evaluate changes in affinity as a result of
      phosphorodithioate (PS2) replacing phosphate by biolayer interferometry (BLI). A
      structure-based analysis of the data provides insights into the origins of the
      enhanced affinity of RNA-protein interactions triggered by the PS2 moiety.

PMID- 28868556
TI  - The electronic properties of three popular high spin complexes [TM(acac)3, TM =
      Cr, Mn, and Fe] revisited: an experimental and theoretical study.
AB  - The occupied and unoccupied electronic structures of three high spin TM(acac)3
      (TM = Cr, Mn, and Fe) complexes (I, II, and III, respectively) were studied by
      revisiting their literature vapour-phase He(i) and, when available, He(ii)
      photoemission (PE) spectra and by means of original near-edge X-ray absorption
      fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopic data recorded at the O K-edge (OK-edge) and
      TM L2,3-edges (TML2,3-edges). The assignments of the vapour-phase He(i)/He(ii) PE
      spectra were guided by the results of spin-unrestricted non-relativistic Slater
      transition state calculations, while the OK-edge and TML2,3-edge spectroscopic
      pieces of evidence were analysed by exploiting the results of spin-unrestricted
      scalar-relativistic time-dependent density functional theory (DFT) and DFT/ROCIS
      calculations, respectively. Although the actual symmetry (D3, in the absence of
      any Jahn-Teller distortion) of the title molecules allowed an extensive mixing
      between TM t2g-like and eg-like atomic orbitals, the use of the Nalewajski-Mrozek
      TM-O bond multiplicity index combined with a thorough analysis of the ground
      state (GS) outcomes allowed the assessment of the TM-O bond weakening associated
      with the progressive TM 3d-based eg-like orbital filling. The experimental
      information provided by OK-edge spectra was rather poor; nevertheless, the
      combined use of symmetry, orbitals and spectra allowed us (i) to rationalise
      minor differences characterizing spectral features along the series, (ii) to
      quantify the contribution provided by the ligand-to-metal-charge-transfer (LMCT)
      excitations to the different spectral features, and (iii) to recognize the t2g
      /eg-like nature of the TM 3d-based orbitals involved in LMCT transitions. As far
      as the TML2,3-edge spectra and the DFT/ROCIS results were concerned, the lowest
      lying I,IIL3 spectral features included states having either the GS spin
      multiplicity (S(I) = 3/2, S(II) = 2) or, at higher excitation energies (EEs),
      states with DeltaS = +/-1. In contrast to that, only states with DeltaS = 0, -1
      significantly contributed to the IIIL3 spectral pattern. Along the whole series,
      the L3 higher EE side was systematically characterized by states involving TM2p 
      > pi4 MLCT excitations; as such, coupled-single excitations with DeltaS = 0 were
      involved in I and II, while single MLCT TM2p -> pi4 transitions with DeltaS = -1
      were involved in III.

PMID- 28868557
TI  - Latest advances in supercapacitors: from new electrode materials to novel device
      designs.
AB  - Notably, many significant breakthroughs for a new generation of supercapacitors
      have been reported in recent years, related to theoretical understanding,
      material synthesis and device designs. Herein, we summarize the state-of-the-art
      progress toward mechanisms, new materials, and novel device designs for
      supercapacitors. Firstly, fundamental understanding of the mechanism is mainly
      focused on the relationship between the structural properties of electrode
      materials and their electrochemical performances based on some in situ
      characterization techniques and simulations. Secondly, some emerging electrode
      materials are discussed, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent
      organic frameworks (COFs), MXenes, metal nitrides, black phosphorus, LaMnO3, and
      RbAg4I5/graphite. Thirdly, the device innovations for the next generation of
      supercapacitors are provided successively, mainly emphasizing flow
      supercapacitors, alternating current (AC) line-filtering supercapacitors, redox
      electrolyte enhanced supercapacitors, metal ion hybrid supercapacitors, micro
      supercapacitors (fiber, plane and three-dimensional) and multifunctional
      supercapacitors including electrochromic supercapacitors, self-healing
      supercapacitors, piezoelectric supercapacitors, shape-memory supercapacitors,
      thermal self-protective supercapacitors, thermal self-charging supercapacitors,
      and photo self-charging supercapacitors. Finally, the future developments and key
      technical challenges are highlighted regarding further research in this thriving
      field.

PMID- 28868558
TI  - Delayed release singlet oxygen sensitizers based on pyridone-appended porphyrins.
AB  - A new type of porphyrin photosensitizer capable of generating singlet oxygen upon
      irradiation, storing it through binding to pyridone subunits, followed by slow
      release at 20-40  degrees C, is reported. The timescale of singlet oxygen release
      can be varied depending on the pyridone group substitution pattern, forming
      endoperoxides of different stabilities. Modified tetra- and octa-substituted
      pyridone-porphyrins showed solubility in water, allowing for straightforward
      delivery into cells. The effect of delayed singlet oxygen formation due to
      endoperoxide decomposition was demonstrated on cancer cells in vitro.

PMID- 28868559
TI  - Anharmonic vibrational effects in linear and two-dimensional electronic spectra.
AB  - For the description of vibrational effects in electronic spectra, harmonic
      vibrations are a convenient and widespread model. However, spectra of larger
      organic molecules in solution usually exhibit signs of vibrational anharmonicity,
      as revealed by deviation from the mirror image symmetry between linear absorption
      and emission spectra of the harmonic case. For perylene and terylene, two
      molecules with rigid Pi-electron systems and strong vibrational-electronic
      coupling, we employ a simple but effective theoretical model, which introduces
      cubic anharmonicity in the potentials of electronic surfaces. Vibrational
      anharmonicity is then readily quantified based on the experimentally measured
      peak ratio of the first vibronic progression peaks in linear absorption and
      emission. This method is straightforward but not applicable if emission from the
      initially excited state is short lived. For such a case, we employ two
      dimensional electronic spectroscopy in the visible as a comprehensive time
      resolved technique for the experimental determination of the vibrational
      anharmonicity of pinacyanol iodide, a solvated dye molecule exhibiting ultrafast
      excited state isomerization. We show that the ratio between certain cross peak
      amplitudes in two-dimensional electronic spectra is a direct measure of
      vibrational anharmonicity.

PMID- 28868560
TI  - Nickel-catalyzed direct C-H trifluoroethylation of heteroarenes with
      trifluoroethyl iodide.
AB  - A highly selective nickel-catalyzed C-H trifluoroethylation of heteroarenes was
      developed with the assistance of a monodentate directing group. This protocol
      provides efficient access to various trifluoroethyl-substituted heteroarenes,
      including indoles, pyrroles, furans, and thiophenes, with commercially available
      CF3CH2I as an alkylation reagent. This robust catalytic procedure is scalable and
      tolerates a broad range of functional groups. Moreover, multifluoroalkylation of
      indoles is also viable.

PMID- 28868561
TI  - Aqueous-solution-processable metal oxides for high-performance organic and
      perovskite solar cells.
AB  - Poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is a
      widely utilized hole-transporting material (HTM) in planar photovoltaic devices,
      such as organic solar cells (OSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However,
      the hygroscopic nature of PEDOT:PSS aqueous dispersions may restrict their future
      application. Therefore, it is necessary to develop other effective and stable
      HTMs to achieve high-performance photovoltaic devices. Herein, we demonstrate a
      facile route to deposit solution-processed MoO3, GeO2, V2O5 and CrO3 thin films
      as hole-transporting layers by directly dissolving their commercial powders in
      deionized water. Among these, the solution-processed V2O5 (sV2O5) film exhibited
      the highest work function of 5.2 eV, and the best hydrophobicity, with a contact
      angle of 77.2 degrees . The sV2O5-based OSCs and PSCs presented power conversion
      efficiencies (PCEs) of 8.36% and 14.13%, respectively. Notably, the PEDOT:PSS
      V2O5 composite HTM based device obtained a maximum PCE of 18.03% with a Voc
      exceeding 1.0 V. These aqueous-solution-processed HTMs have potential
      applications in green and low-cost photovoltaic devices by virtue of their simple
      and ecofriendly preparations.

PMID- 28868562
TI  - Analyses of sizable ZFS and magnetic tensors of high spin metallocomplexes.
AB  - The fictitious spin-1/2 Hamiltonian approach is the putative method to analyze
      the fine-structure/hyperfine ESR spectra of high spin metallocomplexes having
      sizable zerofield splitting (ZFS), thus giving salient principal g-values far
      from around g = 2 without explicitly providing their ZFS parameters in most
      cases. Indeed, the significant departure of the g-values from g = 2 is indicative
      of the occurrence of their high spin states, but naturally they never agree with
      true g-values acquired by quantum chemical calculations such as sophisticated DFT
      or ab initio MO calculations. In this work, we propose facile approaches to
      determine the magnetic tensors of high spin metallocomplexes having sizable ZFS,
      instead of performing advanced high-field/high-frequency ESR spectroscopy. We
      have revisited analytical expressions for the relationship between effective g
      values and true principal g-values for high spins. The useful analytical formulas
      for the geff-gtrue relationships are given for S's up to 7/2. The genuine Zeeman
      perturbation formalism gives the exact solutions for S = 3/2, and for higher S's
      it is much more accurate than the pseudo-Zeeman perturbation approach documented
      so far (A. Abragam and B. Bleaney, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of Transition
      Metal Ions, 1970; J. R. Pilbrow, J. Magn. Reson., 1978, 31, 479; F. Trandafir et
      al., Appl. Magn. Reson., 2007, 31, 553; M. Fittipaldi et al., J. Phys. Chem. B,
      2008, 112, 3859), in which the E(Sx2 - Sy2) term is putatively treated to the
      second order. To show the usefulness of the present approach, we exploit
      FeIII(Cl)OEP (S = 5/2) (OEP: 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethylporphyrin) and CoIIOEP
      (S = 3/2) well magnetically diluted in the diamagnetic host crystal lattice of
      NiIIOEP. The advantage of single-crystal ESR spectroscopy lies in the fact that
      the molecular information on the principal axes of the magnetic tensors is
      crucial in comparing with reliable theoretical results. In high spin states of
      metallocomplexes with sizable ZFS in pseudo-octahedral symmetry, their fine
      structure ESR transitions for the principal z-axis orientation appear in the
      lower field far from g = 2 at the X-band, disagreeing with the putative intuitive
      picture obtained using relevant ESR spectroscopy. A ReIII,IV dinuclear complex in
      a mixed valence state exemplifies the cases, whose fine-structure/hyperfine ESR
      spectra of the neat crystals have been analyzed in their principal-axis system.
      The DFT-based/ab initio MO calculations of the magnetic tensors for all the high
      spin entities in this work were carried out.

PMID- 28868563
TI  - Current progress in black phosphorus materials and their applications in
      electrochemical energy storage.
AB  - Recently, a new two-dimensional material, single- or few-layered black phosphorus
      (BP), has attracted considerable attention for applications in electronics,
      optoelectronics, and batteries due to its unique properties, including large
      specific surface area, anisotropy, and tunable and direct band gaps. In
      particular, contributions to electrochemical energy storage devices, such as
      lithium and sodium ion batteries and supercapacitors, have emerged. However,
      critical issues remain to be explored before scaled-up commercial production of
      BP, such as preparation, stability, and performance. Herein, we present the first
      review of recent progress in BP-based electrochemical energy storage device. The
      preparation and electrochemical properties of black phosphorus, recent advances,
      potential challenges, and relevant perspectives in electrochemical energy
      storage, and the potential of BP are discussed in this work.

PMID- 28868564
TI  - Nanoconfinement greatly speeds up the nucleation and the annealing in single-DNA
      collapse.
AB  - Manipulating and measuring single-molecule dynamics and reactions in nanofluidics
      is a rapidly growing field with broad applications in developing new
      biotechnologies, understanding nanoconfinement effects in vivo, and exploring new
      phenomena in confinement. In this work, we investigate the kinetics of DNA
      collapse in nanoslits using single T4-DNA (165.6 kbp) and lambda-DNA (48.5 kbp),
      with particular focus on the measurement of the nucleation and annealing times.
      Fixing the ethanol concentration at 35% and varying the slit height from 2000 to
      31 nm, the nucleation time dramatically decreases from more than 1 hour to a few
      minutes or less. The increased collapsed rate results from the larger free energy
      experienced by coiled DNA in confinement relative to compacted DNA. Our results
      also shed light on other conformational transitions in confinement, such as
      protein folding.

PMID- 28868566
TI  - "Bone Morphogenic Protein augmentation for long bone healing" response to
      "Clinical need for bone morphogenetic protein".
AB  - We take advantage of the comments of Dr. Vukicevic et al. to clarify that the
      study focus did not include other diseases and locations than long bones; in this
      light, the articles that Dr. Vukicevic mentioned could not be selected. We would
      like to recognize the key contribution of Urist and the nice tribute of the
      International Orthopaedics heritage section on the BMPs discovery. While we could
      not refer to the latter, published after our search, we put emphasis on the steps
      of important discoveries that made BMPs available for clinical use, a road that
      started in 1965, when Urist showed that new bone formation could be induced by
      demineralized bone matrix, later identified as BMPs, and purified in the next
      three decades. In the past years, BMPs have been studied in several pre-clinical
      models. As this was not the focus of this systematic clinical review, only some
      pre-clinical papers were cited, aiming at underlining important aspects, such as
      the relationship between dosage and bone formation and the delivery material,
      which could influence BMPs release and effect, key factors requiring further
      studies to optimize BMPs augmentation, as mentioned in the discussion. While our
      article does not present the methodological strength of a meta-analysis, and
      while it was not possible to summarize the entire extensive literature on BMPs,
      we hope that our review could be useful to summarize the available evidence in
      terms of both BMPs augmentation potential and complications for the treatment of
      long bones affected by fractures, non-union, and osteonecrosis.

PMID- 28868565
TI  - Comparison of the Amplification Refractory Mutation System, Super Amplification
      Refractory Mutation System, and Droplet Digital PCR for T790 M Mutation Detection
      in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer after Failure of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor
      Treatment.
AB  - Plasma mutation detection has the advantages of non-invasiveness and
      accessibility. Here, we evaluated three methods, the amplification refractory
      mutation system (ARMS), second-generation ARMS (SuperARMS), and droplet digital
      PCR (ddPCR), to assess their concordance and feasibility for the detection of
      mutations in plasma samples. Non-small lung cancer patients with stage IIIB/IV
      that were resistant to epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor
      (EGFR-TKI) treatment were enrolled. Blood samples were collected within 14 days
      after TKI resistance. Each sample was simultaneously assessed by the three
      methods. In total, 169 patients were enrolled; 54.4% were female, 72.2% were
      diagnosed with stage IV disease; and 97.6% had adenocarcinoma. T790 M mutations
      were detected in 42 (24.8%) of the 169 samples using ARMS, one of which carried
      the T790 M alone, 22 that also encoded exon 19 deletions, and 19 with L858R
      mutations. For the SuperARMS assay, 59 (34.9%) samples exhibited the T790 M
      mutation, and 110 (65.1%) showed no detectable T790 M mutation. ddPCR showed that
      61 (36.1%) samples contained the T790 M mutation, whereas 108 (63.9%) were not
      positive. T790 M abundance ranged from 0.04% to 38.2%. The median T790 M
      abundance was 0.15% for total samples and 2.98% for T790 M mutation samples. The
      overall concordance was 78.7% (133/169) among ARMS, SuperARMS, and ddPCR.
      Compared with patients with stage III disease, patients with stage IV disease
      exhibited a higher T790 M mutation detection rate (28.7% vs. 14.9% by ARMS; 37.7%
      vs. 27.7% by SuperARMS; and 41.8% vs. 21.3% by ddPCR). Liquid biopsy showed
      promise and has the advantages of non-invasiveness and accessibility. T790 M
      detection based on circulating tumor DNA showed high concordance. Compared with
      non-digital platforms, ddPCR showed higher sensitivity and provided both
      frequency and abundance information, which might be important for treatment
      decisions.

PMID- 28868567
TI  - Gait analysis of patients with an off-the-shelf total knee replacement versus
      customized bi-compartmental knee replacement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Newer TKR designs have been introduced to the market with the aim
      of overcoming common sizing problems with older TKR designs. Furthermore, since a
      sizable percentage of patients with OA present with disease limited to the
      medial/lateral knee compartment in addition to the patellofemoral joint, for
      whom, a customized bi-compartmental knee replacement (BKR) is available as a
      treatment option. To date, there is very little information regarding knee
      strength and mechanics during gait for patients implanted with these modern TKR
      and BKR designs. The purpose of the study was to evaluate knee strength and
      mechanics during walking for patients with either a modern off the shelf TKR or a
      customized BKR and compare these findings to a cohort of healthy controls.
      METHODS: Twelve healthy controls, eight BKR, and nine TKR patients participated
      in the study. Maximal isometric knee strength was evaluated. 3D kinematic and
      kinetic analyses were conducted for level walking. RESULTS: The TKR knee
      exhibited less peak extensor torque when compared to, both the BKR and control
      limbs (p < 0.05). The TKR knee had less extensor moment at stance than both the
      BKR and control knees (p < 0.05). Both the BKR and control knees displayed larger
      internal rotation at stance than that of the TKR knee (p < 0.05). DISCUSSION AND
      CONCLUSION: This study suggests that, for patients that exhibit isolated OA of
      the tibiofemoral joint, using a customized BKR implant is a viable treatment
      option and may contribute to superior mechanical advantages.

PMID- 28868568
TI  - Referral to cancer genetic counseling: do migrant status and patients'
      educational background matter?
AB  - Participation rates in cancer genetic counseling differ among populations, as
      patients with a lower educational background and migrant patients seem to have
      poorer access to it. We conducted a study to determine the present-day
      educational level and migrant status of counselees referred to cancer genetic
      counseling. We assessed personal characteristics and demographics of 731 newly
      referred counselees. Descriptive statistics were used to describe these
      characteristics. The results show that about 40% of the counselees had a high
      educational level and 89% were Dutch natives. Compared to the Dutch population,
      we found a significant difference in educational level (p = < 0.01) and migrant
      status (p = < 0.001). This suggests disparities in cancer genetic counseling and
      as a result of that, suboptimal care for vulnerable groups. Limited health
      literacy is likely to pose a particular challenge to cancer genetic counseling
      for counselees with a lower education or a migrant background. Our study points
      to considerable scope for improvement in referring vulnerable groups of patients
      for cancer genetic counseling.

PMID- 28868569
TI  - Genetic analysis of 12 X-STR loci in the Serbian population from Vojvodina
      Province.
AB  - The analysis of 12 X-STR loci included in the Investigator(r) Argus X-12 kit was
      performed on a sample of 325 unrelated persons from Vojvodina Province, Republic
      of Serbia. No significant differences were observed in the allele frequencies in
      males and females. Heterozygosity values among the studied loci ranged from 67.62
      to 94.28%. All loci in female individuals were consistent with the Hardy-Weinberg
      equilibrium test. The combined power of discrimination values in male and female
      individuals was 0.9999999994 and 0.999999999999999, respectively. The combined
      mean exclusion chance was 0.999998 in deficiency cases, 0.9999999977 in normal
      trio cases, and 0.9999994 in duo cases. Loci DXS10135 and DXS10101 were found to
      be most polymorphic. The haplotype diversity was found to be greater than 0.993
      for all linkage groups. The exact test for pairwise linkage disequilibrium for
      the 12 loci in the male samples showed significant linkage disequilibrium for the
      DXS10103-DXS10101 and DXS10134-DXS10146 pairs of loci. The results from the
      current study confirmed that the panel of 12 X-STR loci is highly polymorphic and
      informative and can be implemented as a powerful tool in deficient paternity
      testing and kinship analysis, as well as a useful complement tool of autosomal
      short tandem repeats (STRs) in forensic investigation. Population differentiation
      analyses indicated significant differences in genetic structure between the
      Serbian population and the geographically and ethno-linguistically distant
      populations, while genetic homogeneity was present in populations with similar
      geographic origin.

PMID- 28868570
TI  - Effects of pH, initial Pb2+ concentration, and polyculture on lead remediation by
      three duckweed species.
AB  - Various geographical duckweed isolates have been developed for phytoremediation
      of lead. The Pb2+ removal efficiency of Lemna aequinoctialis, Landoltia punctata,
      and Spirodela polyrhiza was investigated in monoculture and polyculture at
      different levels of pH and initial Pb2+ concentrations. L. aequinoctialis was not
      sensitive to the tested pH but significantly affected by initial Pb2+
      concentration, whereas synergistic effect of pH and initial Pb2+ concentration on
      removal efficiency of L. punctata and S. polyrhiza was found. Although the
      majority of polycultures showed median removal efficiency as compared to
      respective monocultures, some of the polycultures achieved higher Pb2+ removal
      efficiencies and can promote population to remove Pb2+. Besides, the three
      duckweed strains could be potential candidates for Pb2+ remediation as compared
      to previous reports. Conclusively, this study provides useful references for
      future large-scale duckweed phytoremediation.

PMID- 28868571
TI  - Erratum to: comparison between inflammation-related markers in peri-implant
      crevicular fluid and clinical parameters during osseointegration in edentulous
      jaws.

PMID- 28868572
TI  - Upregulation of Treg-Related Genes in Addition with IL6 Showed the Significant
      Role for the Distant Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - T helper 17 (Th17) and T regulatory (Treg) cytokines appear to be contributing
      greatly to colorectal cancer (CRC) development and progression. The aim of the
      current study was to investigate the expression of Foxp3; IL10; TGFB1; IL17A; IL6
      and NOS2 genes in tumor tissue, regional positive lymph nodes and distant
      metastasis obtained from 26 patients with advanced CRC. Quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was performed for mRNA detection by TaqMan gene
      expression assay. In distant metastasis, IL6 was strongly expressed, over 7.5
      fold, followed by Treg-related genes Foxp3; IL10 and TGFB1 in contrast to IL17A
      and NOS2. The similar pattern of expression was observed in positive regional
      lymph node in addition to significant down-regulation of NOS2 (RQ = 0.287; p =
      0.011) and a trend for the elevation of IL17A. In tumor tissue, Fopx3 was
      significantly upregulated and Foxp3 mRNA positively correlated with TGFB1 in all
      investigated tissue types. In tumor tissue, expression of IL17A was correlated
      with NOS2 (r = 0.68; p = 0.005), while in distant metastasis IL10 was in strong
      relation with TGFB1 and IL6. In addition, a reverse correlation between IL6 and
      NOS2 (r = -0.66; p = 0.009), was observed in distant metastasis. The simultaneous
      expression of given Treg and Th17-related genes found both in the primary tumor
      and in the regional lymph nodes appears to provide suitable microenvironment
      sufficient for promoting metastatic growth. The upregulation of Foxp3; IL10,
      TGFB1 and IL6 might be a transcriptional profile hallmark for colorectal
      metastases.

PMID- 28868573
TI  - Phase I dose escalation and pharmacokinetic study on the nanoparticle formulation
      of polymeric micellar paclitaxel for injection in patients with advanced solid
      malignancies.
AB  - Background Polymeric micellar paclitaxel (PM-paclitaxel) is a novel Cremophor EL
      free, nanoparticle-encapsulated paclitaxel formulation administered through
      intravenous injection. The primary objective of this phase I trial was to
      determine the first cycle dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) and maximum tolerated
      dose (MTD) of PM-paclitaxel. Secondary objectives included the evaluation of the
      safety, antitumor activity, and pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of PM-paclitaxel in
      patients with advanced malignancies. Methods The PM-paclitaxel dose was escalated
      from 175 mg/m2 (level 1) to 435 mg/m2 (level 5). PM-paclitaxel was intravenously
      administered to patients for 3 h without premedication on day 1 of a 21-day
      cycle. Results Eighteen patients with confirmed advanced malignancies received PM
      paclitaxel. DLT included grade 4 neutropenia (four patients) and grade 3 numbness
      (one patient), which occurred in one of the six patients who received 300 mg/m2
      (level 3) PM-paclitaxel and all three patients who were treated with 435 mg/m2 PM
      paclitaxel. Thus, the MTD of PM-paclitaxel was determined as 390 mg/m2 (level 4).
      Acute hypersensitive reactions were not observed. Partial response was observed
      in six of 18 patients (33.3%), three of whom had prior exposure to paclitaxel
      chemotherapy. The peak concentration and area under the curve values of
      paclitaxel increased with increasing dosage, indicating that PM-paclitaxel
      exhibits linear PKs. Conclusions PM-paclitaxel showed high MTD without additional
      toxicity, and exhibited desirable antitumor activity. The recommended dose of PM
      paclitaxel for phase II study is 300 mg/m2.

PMID- 28868574
TI  - Racial minority group interest in direct-to-consumer genetic testing: findings
      from the PGen study.
AB  - There is little information regarding direct-to-consumer (DTC) personal genetic
      testing (PGT) in non-White racial minorities. Using a web-based survey, we
      compared the pretest interests and attitudes toward DTC-PGT of racial minority
      and White DTC-PGT customers of 23andMe and Pathway Genomics using chi-square
      tests and multinomial regression. Data were available for 1487 participants (1389
      White, 44 Black, and 54 Asian). Survey responses were similar across racial
      groups, although a greater proportion of Blacks compared to Whites reported being
      "very interested" in genetic information related to traits (91.9 vs. 70.8%, p =
      0.009). A greater proportion of Asians compared to Whites reported that a "very
      important" consideration for pursuing DTC-PGT was limited information about their
      family health history (58.0 vs. 37.5%, p = 0.002). While a number of significant
      differences between groups were observed in unadjusted analyses, they did not
      remain significant after adjustment. This study provides a preliminary view of
      the interests for purchasing DTC-PGT among customers with racial minority
      backgrounds.

PMID- 28868575
TI  - Co-contaminant effects on ofloxacin adsorption onto activated carbon, graphite,
      and humic acid.
AB  - Given their voluminous application, significant amounts of fluoroquinolones are
      discharged into the environment through wastewater effluent. Adsorption has been
      shown to be a critical process controlling the environmental behaviors of
      fluoroquinolones. Competition between ofloxacin (OFL) and naphthalene
      (NAP)/bisphenol A (BPA) and their adsorption on activated carbon (AC), graphite
      (GP), and humic acid (HA) were investigated. The suppressed adsorption of OFL was
      observed on AC and GP, but not on HA, by NAP or BPA. Moreover, for AC, the
      competition by NAP was slightly stronger than that by BPA. However, for GP, the
      competition with BPA was higher than that with NAP. These observations indicate
      that competitive adsorption of OFL with respect to NAP/BPA depends on the degree
      of overlap of adsorption sites, as interpreted by the following: (i) AC can
      provide overlapping adsorption sites for OFL, BPA, and NAP, which include non
      specific adsorption sites, such as hydrophobic sites, pi-pi interactions, and
      micropore filling; (ii) pi-pi interactions and hydrogen bonding might be
      responsible for the strong competitive adsorption between BPA and OFL on GP; and
      (iii) OFL adsorbs on HA through specific adsorption force-electrostatic
      attraction, with which NAP and BPA cannot compete.

PMID- 28868576
TI  - Choice between delayed food and immediate opioids in rats: treatment effects and
      individual differences.
AB  - RATIONALE: Addiction involves maladaptive choice behavior in which immediate drug
      effects are valued more than delayed nondrug rewards. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: To
      model this behavior and extend our earlier work with the prescription opioid
      oxycodone, we allowed rats to choose between immediate intravenous delivery of
      the short-acting opioid remifentanil and delayed delivery of highly palatable
      food pellets. Treatment drugs were tested on a baseline where remifentanil was
      preferred over food. RESULTS: Treatment with a high dose of the opioid antagonist
      naltrexone decreased but did not reverse the preference for remifentanil.
      Treatment with the serotonin 5-HT2C agonist lorcaserin decreased remifentanil and
      food self-administration nonselectively. Across conditions in which the
      alternative to delayed food was either a moderate dose of oxycodone, a moderate
      or high dose of remifentanil, a smaller more immediate delivery of food, or
      timeout with no primary reinforcement, choice was determined by both the length
      of the delay and the nature of the alternative option. Delayed food was
      discounted most steeply when the alternative was a high dose of remifentanil,
      which was preferred over food when food was delayed by 30 s or more. Within
      subject comparisons showed no evidence for trait-like impulsivity or sensitivity
      to delay across these conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Choice was determined more by the
      current contingencies of reinforcement than by innate individual differences.
      This finding suggests that people might develop steep delay-discounting functions
      because of the contingencies in their environment, and it supports the use of
      contingency management to enhance the relative value of delayed nondrug
      reinforcers.

PMID- 28868577
TI  - X-chromosomal STR-based genetic structure of Sichuan Tibetan minority ethnicity
      group and its relationships to various groups.
AB  - The X-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) with more informative than
      autosomal STRs in some complicated biological relationships identification due to
      its specific mode of genetic transmission can be used as a complementary tool in
      forensic case practices. In this study, we presented the population genetic data
      of 19 X-STRs, consisting of DXS10174, DXS10075, DXS10079, DXS101, DXS10101,
      DXS10103, DXS10134, DXS10135, DXS10148, DXS10159, DXS10162, DXS10164, DXS6789,
      DXS6809, DXS7132, DXS7423, DXS7424, DXS8378, and HPRTB loci, in a sample of 235
      individuals of Tibetan nationality from Sichuan province, Southwest China. All 19
      X-STR loci were consistent with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The results showed
      that the combined power of discrimination in females and males are
      0.999999999999999999997 and 0.9999999999997, respectively. In addition, the mean
      paternity exclusion chances based on the formula of MECKruger, MECKishida, and
      MECDesmarais as well as MECDesmarais Duo are 0.99999991, 0.9999999999924,
      0.9999999999929, and 0.999999985, respectively. In summary, our findings
      suggested that the AGCU X19 kit can be considered to serve as a high polymorphic
      information tool for forensic identification and kinship testing in the Sichuan
      Tibetan population. Furthermore, population genetic structure investigation
      between Sichuan Tibetan population and other 19 populations using PCA, MDS, and
      phylogenetic tree illustrated that significant genetic difference was observed
      between the Sichuan Tibetan and Malay, as well as the Xinjiang Uyghur population.

PMID- 28868578
TI  - Management of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors.
AB  - Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) of the lung are divided into 4 major types: small
      cell lung cancer (SCLC), large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), atypical
      carcinoid (AC) or typical carcinoid (TC). Each classification has distinctly
      different treatment paradigms, making an accurate initial diagnosis essential.
      The inconsistent clinical presentation of this disease, however, makes this
      difficult. The objective of this manuscript is to detail the diagnosis and
      management of the well differentiated pulmonary carcinoid (PC) tumors. A
      multidisciplinary approach to work up and treatment should be utilized for each
      patient. A multimodal radiological work-up is used for diagnosis, with contrast
      enhanced CT predominantly utilized and functional imaging techniques. A
      definitive diagnosis is based on tissue findings. Surgical management remains the
      mainstay of therapy and can be curative. In those with advanced disease, medical
      treatments consist of somatostatin analog (SSA) therapy, targeted therapy,
      chemotherapy or peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. SSAs are the standard of
      care in those with metastatic NETs, using either Octreotide long acting
      repeatable (LAR) or lanreotide as reasonable options, despite a scarcity of
      prospective data in PCs. Targeted therapies consist of everolimus which is
      approved for use in PCs, with various studies showing mixed results with other
      targeted agents. Additionally, radionuclide therapy may be used and has been
      shown to increase survival and to reduce symptoms in some studies. Prospective
      trials are needed to determine other strategies that may be beneficial in PCs as
      well as sequencing of therapy. Successful diagnosis and optimal treatment relies
      on a multidisciplinary approach in patients with lung NETs. Clinical trials
      should be used in appropriate patients.

PMID- 28868580
TI  - Quantitative sequence characterization for repetitive DNA content in the
      supernumerary chromosome of the migratory locust.
AB  - Repetitive DNA is a major component in most eukaryotic genomes but is ignored in
      most genome sequencing projects. Here, we report the quantitative composition in
      repetitive DNA for a supernumerary (B) chromosome, in the migratory locust
      (Locusta migratoria), by Illumina sequencing of genomic DNA from B-carrying and B
      lacking individuals and DNA obtained from a microdissected B chromosome, as well
      as the physical mapping of some elements. B chromosome DNA of 94.9% was
      repetitive, in high contrast with the 64.1% of standard (A) chromosomes. B
      chromosomes are enriched in satellite DNA (satDNA) (65.2% of B-DNA), with a
      single satellite (LmiSat02-176) comprising 55% of the B. Six satDNAs were
      visualized by FISH on the B chromosome, and the only A chromosome carrying all
      these satellites was autosome 9, pointing to this chromosome, along with autosome
      8 (which shares histone genes with the B) as putative ancestors of the B
      chromosome. We found several transposable elements (TEs) showing nucleotidic
      variation specific to B-carrying individuals, which was also present in B
      carrying transcriptomes. Remarkably, an interstitial region of the B chromosome
      included a 17 kb chimera composed of 29 different TEs, suggesting reiterative TE
      insertion in this B chromosome region.

PMID- 28868579
TI  - Bacillus safensis with plant-derived smoke stimulates rice growth under saline
      conditions.
AB  - Salinity is a worldwide environmental problem of agricultural lands. Smoke and
      plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) are individually used to improve plant
      growth, but the combined effects of these have not been studied yet under saline
      conditions. The combined effect of plant growth-promoting bacteria Bacillus
      safensis and plant-derived smoke Cymbopogon jwarancusa was studied under
      different salinity level as 50, 100, and 150 mM on rice (cv. Basmati-385). Smoke
      dilutions of C. jwarancusa (C-500 and C-1000) and bacterial culture of B.
      safensis were used to soak seeds for 10 h. It was observed that the salt
      concentration decreases the germination percentage, vegetative growth, ion
      contents (K+ and Ca2+), and photosynthetic pigments (Chl "a," Chl "b," and
      carotene) while an increase occurred in Na+, total soluble protein (TSP),
      proline, total soluble sugar, catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) contents. The
      combined effect of B. safensis and smoke primed seeds increased the germination
      percentage, seedling growth, ion contents (K+, Ca2+), and photosynthetic pigments
      (Chl "a," Chl "b," carotene) and reduced the Na+ ion content, total soluble
      protein, proline content, total soluble sugar, CAT, and POD activity by lowering
      the drastic effect of salt stress. It was concluded that combined effect of smoke
      and PGPR is more effective than individual effect.

PMID- 28868581
TI  - In human brain ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) immunoreactivity is strongly
      expressed in a small number of nitrergic neurons.
AB  - There is recent evidence for ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) expression in adult
      human brain. We decided to immunocytochemically map OTC throughout brain, and to
      further characterize OTC-immunopositive neurons. By using double immunolabeling
      technique for OTC and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) OTC protein
      expression was revealed in a small subset of nitrergic (nNOS) neurons. Since
      citrulline (the reaction product of OTC) enhances the bioavailability of L
      arginine, the substrate of nNOS, it is conceivable that OTC activity supports NO
      production in nitrergic neurons.

PMID- 28868582
TI  - Still sour about lactic acidosis years later: role of metformin in heart failure.
AB  - Metformin remains a widely-used, first-line pharmacotherapy agent for patients
      with type 2 diabetes mellitus because of its efficacy, mild side effects, and
      affordability.However, use of this medication has traditionally been shunned by
      clinicians in patient populations that are considered at risk of lactic acidosis,
      such as those with heart failure. The underutilization of metformin can largely
      be attributed to the historical stigma of its biguanide predecessor, phenformin,
      and its association with lactic acidosis. Despite various studies finding low
      rates of lactic acidosis and the United States Federal Drug Administration's
      subsequent removal of heart failure from metformin's contraindication labeling in
      2006, this oral hypoglycemic remains underutilized in this patient population. In
      addition to reports of the safe use of metformin in the heart failure population,
      a multitude of studies have also additionally suggested a modest reduction in
      mortality and morbidity. Metformin's role should be strongly reconsidered in the
      armamentarium of diabetes management in heart failure patients.

PMID- 28868583
TI  - Von Willebrand factor protects against acute CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity through
      phospho-p38 MAPK signaling pathway inhibition.
AB  - The blood glycoprotein von Willebrand factor (vWF) is involved in coagulopathy
      and inflammation; however, its role in the pathogenesis of acute liver failure,
      as suggested by its higher expression levels in such patients, remains unknown.
      In this study, vWF-knockout (KO) mice showed more severe carbon tetrachloride
      (CCl4)-induced liver injury than wild-type mice. Patients with acute liver injury
      also showed elevated vWF protein activity and expression in liver tissues, as
      compared to healthy individuals. Using the mouse model and cultured human
      umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), CCl4 was found to directly increase
      vWF protein expression through interaction with the highly expressed vWF
      receptor, GPIbalpha. Microarray analysis revealed that the genes showing the most
      differential expression in response to CCl4-induced liver injury and vWF
      deficiency were related to the MAPK signaling pathway. Subsequent inhibition of
      vWF protein activity in HUVECs led to activation of the MAPK signal pathway and
      elevated production of FGL2, and treatment with a phospho-p38 inhibitor
      suppressed the CCl4-induced production of FGL2. Exposure of liver sinusoidal
      endothelial cells isolated from the vWF-KO acute liver injury model mice to
      phospho-p38 inhibitor also decreased FGL2 expression. The vWF/GPIbalpha axis
      plays a protective role against development of acute liver injury by attenuating
      FGL2 production through the MAPK signaling pathway. Collectively, these data
      provide insight into the pathogenesis of acute liver injury and a potential novel
      strategy for its treatment.

PMID- 28868584
TI  - Urgent Care Centre's: "Urgent Need of the Hour?"

PMID- 28868585
TI  - Spectrum of ANCA-Associated Vasculitis.

PMID- 28868586
TI  - The Correlation Between Inferior Vena Cava Diameter Measured by Ultrasonography
      and Central Venous Pressure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To find a correlation between inferior vena cava (IVC) diameters, IVC
      compressibility index (CI) and central venous pressure (CVP). METHODS:
      Prospective observational study was done at pediatric intensive care unit (PICU)
      of Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital (KSCH). Fifty children aged 5-18 y,
      presenting with shock were enrolled for the study. IVC diameters, CI and relevant
      clinical data were noted at enrollment, 30 min, 1 h, 6 h, and 12 h. Central line
      was placed at the time of admission. RESULTS: Of 50 children enrolled, 28 were
      boys, with a mean age of 11 y. More than 80% of cases were diagnosed as septic
      shock. Mean maximum and minimum IVC diameter of 8.3 +/- 2 mm and 3.7 +/- 1.7 mm,
      respectively CI 58.2 +/- 7% and CVP of 5.4 +/- 1.5 cm of H2O was observed at
      admission. CVP and IVC diameters showed a serial improvement with treatment; CI
      showed a serial decrease with treatment. Heart rate (HR) and systolic blood
      pressure (SBP) also showed a serial improvement at 12 h (p < 0.05). CVP showed a
      positive correlation with IVC diameter (r +0.312; p < 0.05), and a negative
      correlation with CI (r -0.343; p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Effective fluid
      resuscitation improves IVC diameters with a decrease in CI. IVC diameter has a
      positive correlation to CVP and CI has a negative correlation to CVP.

PMID- 28868587
TI  - Preparation, characterization and toxicity evaluation of amphotericin B loaded
      MPEG-PCL micelles and its application for buccal tablets.
AB  - Oral candidiasis or thrush is a fungal infection due to Candida albicans, causing
      discomfort in areas inside mouth or tongue. The clinical application of
      antifungal reagent amphotericin B (AMB), which is believed to offer a better
      treatment for oral candidiasis, is greatly compromised by its toxicities (mainly
      nephrotoxicity) and poor solubility. In order to overcome these issues, we
      characterized AMB-loaded MPEG-PCL micelles in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the
      antifungal activities of AMB/MPEG-PCL micelles-loaded buccal tablet were also
      evaluated in vitro. We found that micelles system could significantly improve the
      solubility of AMB yet reduce the overall toxicity, while the buccal tablet system
      is capable to suppress C. albicans biofilm formation. Furthermore, the toxicity
      of the buccal tablet system is also reduced compared with other standard
      preparations. Therefore, the prepared tablet with AMB-loaded MPEG-PCL micelles as
      oral topical preparations has the potential to improve current treatment of
      superficial oral C. albicans infections.

PMID- 28868588
TI  - Maternal vitamin D and offspring trabecular bone score.
AB  - : No studies have explored the relationship with maternal vitamin D (25(OH)D) in
      pregnancy and offspring trabecular bone score (TBS). Our data suggest that
      maternal 25(OH)D in early pregnancy, but not late, may be associated with
      offspring TBS in boys. These data act as hypothesis-generating findings for
      confirmation in larger, longer-term studies. INTRODUCTION: Trabecular bone score
      (TBS), a novel tool derived from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), reflects
      the microarchitecture of the vertebrae. It has been shown to predict fracture
      independent of standard DXA parameters in adult populations. Previously, we
      demonstrated that maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) during pregnancy
      is associated with offspring bone mineral content at age 11 years. However,
      associations with TBS have not been explored, thus we aimed to determine
      associations between maternal 25(OH)D and offspring TBS. METHODS: Data were
      collected from the Vitamin D in Pregnancy (VIP) study. Venous blood samples were
      taken at recruitment and at 28-32 weeks' gestation. Maternal 25(OH)D was measured
      by radioimmunoassay. Offspring (n = 195, n = 181 with complete measures)
      underwent spine DXA (GE Lunar), at age 11 years (median = 10.9 (IQR 10.9-11.4)).
      TBS was calculated using TBS iNsight software. RESULTS: Offspring of mothers with
      sufficient 25(OH)D levels (>=50 nmol/L) at recruitment had a higher TBS (1.363
      vs. 1.340, p = 0.04). In multivariable linear regression models, after adjustment
      for child relative lean mass, sex and pubertal stage, a 10 nmol/L increase in
      maternal 25(OH)D was associated with a 0.005 (95% CI 0.000, 0.010, p = 0.04)
      increase in TBS. However when stratified by sex (p for interaction = 0.16), the
      association was significant in boys, but not girls. There were no associations
      with TBS and maternal 25(OH)D at 28-32 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: We speculate that
      maternal 25(OH)D in early pregnancy may be associated with TBS in offspring at
      age 11 in boys. These hypothesis-generating findings warrant confirmation with
      larger interventional and long-term follow-up studies.

PMID- 28868589
TI  - Heavy metals in the soils and plants from a typical restored coal-mining area of
      Huainan coalfield, China.
AB  - This study was conducted to pursue the heavy metals in the soil and plants of a
      typical restored coal-mining area, China. The average concentrations of Cu, Zn,
      Cr, Ni, and Pb in soil were 26.4, 76.1, 188.6, 34.3, and 50.2 mg kg-1,
      respectively, implying a significant accumulation of Cr, Ni, and Pb compared with
      the background values. Contamination factor indicates that the soil underwent
      none to medium pollution by Cu and Zn, medium to strong by Cr, none to strong by
      Pb, and medium pollution by Ni while the pollution load index means that the soil
      was subjected to intermediate contamination. Based on the critical threshold
      values to protect the plants, the investigated metals were unable to affect the
      plants. One-way ANOVA analysis shows that Cu, Zn, and Pb in plants varied with
      plant tissues. Cu-Cr, Cu-Ni, Zn-Ni, Zn-Pb, Cr-Ni, and Ni-Pb pairs had significant
      positive correlation both in soil and in plants due to the similar soil
      characteristics and plant physiologies. Correspondence analysis indicates that Pb
      was more likely to be accumulative in stems and leaves. In addition, the levels
      of Cu and Cr in plant followed an order of roots > stems > leaves; Zn and Ni
      leaves >= stems > roots; and Pb followed stems >= leaves > roots. Generally, this
      study suggests that the plants like Ligustrum lucidum Aiton and Weigela
      hortensis, which are capable of accumulating Cr, Ni, and Pb, should be the
      predominant species in the studied area.

PMID- 28868590
TI  - Effect of culturing temperatures on cadmium phytotoxicity alleviation by biochar.
AB  - Biochar produced from rice straw at 400  degrees C (RS400) was prepared to
      determine its alleviating effect on Cd phytotoxicity to wheat seedlings under
      different cultivation temperatures and pH. A hydroponic system (pH 4.3) and a
      loam soil slurry system were designed to respectively simulate acidic and neutral
      soil condition, and cultivation at increasing temperatures (20, 25, and 30 
      degrees C) were performed to evaluate the greenhouse effect. The root and shoot
      elongation and the Cd concentration in root and solution were measured;
      furthermore, batch experiments for Cd adsorption were undertaken. An increasing
      inhibition of the root by Cd addition was observed at increasing temperatures.
      The inhibition rate was 50.50 and 20.80% in hydroponic system and slurry system
      at 25  degrees C, respectively; however, the corresponding inhibition rates of
      root were significantly decreased to 25.5 and 3.5% with addition of RS400. This
      is mainly attributed to the reduction of Cd migration into the roots by RS400,
      which decreased Cd bioavailability. The mechanism behind the reduced Cd
      bioavailability is attributed to the Cd adsorption and the strong buffering
      capacity of acidity by RS400. Therefore, biochar could be a potential amendment
      for the remediation of Cd-contaminated soil even at increasing culturing
      temperatures.

PMID- 28868591
TI  - Early CT scanning in the emergency department in patients with penetrating
      injuries: does it affect outcome?
AB  - BACKGROUND: To be a level I trauma center in the Netherlands a computed
      tomography (CT) scanner in the emergency department (ED) is considered desirable,
      as it is presumed that this optimizes the diagnostic process and that therapy can
      be directed based on these findings. Aim of this study was to assess the effects
      of implementing a CT scanner in the ED on outcomes in patients with penetrating
      injuries. METHODS: In this retrospective descriptive study, patients with
      penetrating injuries (shot and/or stab wounds), presented between 2000 and 2014
      were analysed using the hospital's electronic database, and data from the West
      Netherlands trauma registry and the financial department. RESULTS: 405 patients
      were included: performing a CT scan upon arrival increased significantly from
      26.7 to 67.0% (p = 0.00) after implementation of a CT scanner in the ED, with the
      mean cost of a CT being 96.85 euros. Overall mortality decreased from 6.9 to
      3.7%, although not statistically significant. Intensive care unit admission (ICU
      admission) and median hospital length of stay (H-LOS) decreased from 30.9 to
      24.5% resp. 3.2 to 1.8 days (p <= 0.05). Overall mortality, adjusted for injury
      severity score (ISS), revised trauma score (RTS), and types of injuries, did not
      change significantly. CONCLUSION: Patients with penetrating injuries more often
      received a CT scan on admission after implementation of a CT scanner in the ED.
      Early CT scanning is useful since it significantly reduces ICU-admissions and
      decreases H-LOS. It is a cheap and non-invasive diagnostic tool with significant
      clinical impact, resulting in directed treatment, and improvement of outcomes.

PMID- 28868592
TI  - Early stage primary cranial vault lymphoma in a 50-year-old man: presenting as
      only sclerosis and mimicking osteoma.

PMID- 28868593
TI  - Mutation in the AGK gene in two siblings with unusual Sengers syndrome.
AB  - Sengers syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder caused by lack
      of acylglycerol kinase due to mutations in the AGK gene. It is characterized by
      congenital cataract, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myopathy and lactic acidosis.
      Two clinical forms have been described: a severe neonatal form, and a more benign
      form displaying exercise intolerance. We describe two siblings with congenital
      cataract, cardiomyopathy, hypotonia, intellectual disability and lactic acidosis.
      Whole exome sequencing revealed a homozygous c.1035dup mutation in the two
      siblings, supporting a diagnosis of Sengers syndrome. Our patients presented an
      intermediate form with intellectual deficiency, an unusual feature in Sengers
      syndrome. This permitted a prenatal diagnosis for a following pregnancy.

PMID- 28868594
TI  - Chain of events analysis for a scuba diving fatality.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A scuba diving fatality usually involves a series of related events
      culminating in death. Several studies have utilised a chain of events-type
      analysis (CEA) to isolate and better understand the accident sequence in order to
      facilitate the creation of relevant countermeasures. The aim of this research was
      to further develop and better define a process for performing a CEA to reduce
      potential subjectivity and increase consistency between analysts. METHODOLOGY: To
      develop more comprehensive and better-defined criteria, existing criteria were
      modified and a template was created and tested using a CEA. Modifications
      comprised addition of a category for pre-disposing factors, expansion of criteria
      for the triggers and disabling agents present during the incident, and more
      specific inclusion criteria to better encompass a dataset of 56 fatalities. Four
      investigators (raters) used both the previous criteria and this template, in
      randomly assigned order, to examine a sample of 13 scuba diver deaths. Individual
      results were scored against the group consensus for the CEA. Raters' agreement
      consistency was compared using the Index of Concordance and intra-class
      correlation coefficients (ICC). RESULTS: The template is presented. The index of
      concordance between the raters increased from 62% (194/312) using the previous
      criteria to 82% (257/312) with use of this template indicating a substantially
      higher inter-rater agreement when allocating criteria. The agreement in scoring
      with and without template use was also quantified by ICC which were generally
      graded as low, illustrating a substantial change in consistency of scoring before
      and after template use. CONCLUSION: The template for a CEA for a scuba diving
      fatality improves consistency of interpretation between users and may improve
      comparability of diving fatality reports.

PMID- 28868595
TI  - Heat deactivation of the stonefish Synanceia horrida venom - implications for
      first-aid management.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of temperature and hot water immersion
      time on neutralising venom lethality of the Australian estuarine stonefish
      (Synanceia horrida). DESIGN: Depths of the spines were measured while venom was
      extracted from S. horrida individuals. The venom was then exposed to temperatures
      of 4 degrees C, 37.0 degrees C, 40.1 degrees C, 42.3 degrees C, 45.0 degrees C,
      47.7 degrees C, 55.2 degrees C, and 60.0 degrees C for either five or 20 minutes
      incubation periods. Venom samples were added to cultured human cardiomyocytes and
      cell viability curves were produced using the ACEA's xCELLigence real-time cell
      monitoring system. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Determination of venom lethality on
      cardiomyocytes at a range of temperatures. RESULTS: The average depth of the
      spine required to go into a victims' flesh before the venom gland compressed and
      expelled venom was 18 mm. Cardiomyocytes exposed to heat-treated venom for five
      minutes required higher temperatures to neutralise 99% of the venom, namely 44.6
      degrees C in comparison to 42.1 degrees C with an incubation time of 20 minutes.
      CONCLUSION: This study supports the use of hot water immersion therapy in the
      treatment of S. horrida stings. It is suggested that due to the depth of the
      puncture wound longer incubation times should be sought to allow heat to
      penetrate the deeper portions of the dermis and effectively begin venom
      deactivation.

PMID- 28868596
TI  - Decompressing rescue personnel during Australian submarine rescue operations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Personnel rescuing survivors from a pressurized, distressed Royal
      Australian Navy (RAN) submarine may themselves accumulate a decompression
      obligation, which may exceed the bottom time limits of the Defense and Civil
      Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM) Air and In-Water Oxygen Decompression
      tables (DCIEM Table 1 and 2) presently used by the RAN. This study compared DCIEM
      Table 2 with alternative decompression tables with longer bottom times: United
      States Navy XVALSS_DISSUB 7, VVAL-18M and Royal Navy 14 Modified tables. METHODS:
      Estimated probability of decompression sickness (PDCS), the units pulmonary
      oxygen toxicity dose (UPTD), the volume of oxygen required and the total
      decompression time were calculated for hypothetical single and repetitive
      exposures to 253 kPa air pressure for various bottom times and prescribed
      decompression schedules. RESULTS: Compared to DCIEM Table 2, XVALSS_DISSUB 7
      single and repetitive schedules had lower estimated PDCS, which came at the cost
      of longer oxygen decompressions. For single exposures, DCIEM schedules had PDCS
      estimates ranging from 1.8% to 6.4% with 0 to 101 UPTD and XVALSS_DISSUB 7
      schedules had PDCS of less than 3.1%, with 36 to 350 UPTD. CONCLUSIONS: The
      XVALSS_DISSUB 7 table was specifically designed for submarine rescue and, unlike
      DCIEM Table 2, has schedules for the estimated maximum required bottom times at
      253 kPa. Adopting these tables may negate the requirement for saturation
      decompression of rescue personnel exceeding DCIEM limits.

PMID- 28868597
TI  - Decompressing recompression chamber attendants during Australian submarine rescue
      operations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Inside chamber attendants rescuing survivors from a pressurised,
      distressed submarine may themselves accumulate a decompression obligation which
      may exceed the limits of Defense and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine
      tables presently used by the Royal Australian Navy. This study assessed the
      probability of decompression sickness (PDCS) for medical attendants supervising
      survivors undergoing oxygen-accelerated saturation decompression according to the
      National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 17.11 table. METHODS:
      Estimated probability of decompression sickness (PDCS), the units pulmonary
      oxygen toxicity dose (UPTD) and the volume of oxygen required were calculated for
      attendants breathing air during the NOAA table compared with the introduction of
      various periods of oxygen breathing. RESULTS: The PDCS in medical attendants
      breathing air whilst supervising survivors receiving NOAA decompression is up to
      4.5%. For the longest predicted profile (830 minutes at 253 kPa) oxygen breathing
      at 30, 60 and 90 minutes at 132 kPa partial pressure of oxygen reduced the air
      breathing-associated PDCS to less than 3.1 %, 2.1% and 1.4% respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: The probability of at least one incident of DCS among attendants,
      with consequent strain on resources, is high if attendants breathe air throughout
      their exposure. The introduction of 90 minutes of oxygen breathing greatly
      reduces the probability of this interruption to rescue operations.

PMID- 28868598
TI  - Turkish recreational divers: a comparative study of their demographics, diving
      habits, health and attitudes towards safety.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Turkey, scuba diving has become more popular and accessible in
      the past decade and there has been a commensurate rise in the number of certified
      divers. This new generation of recreational divers has not been described in
      detail previously. The aim of this study was to profile this group, while
      investigating any gender differences and making comparisons with the global
      diving community. METHODS: Turkish dive club members and diving forum/blog
      readers were invited to complete an online questionnaire investigating their
      demography, medical issues and diving history and habits. RESULTS: The
      questionnaire was completed by 303 female and 363 male divers. Significant
      differences were found between the sexes in terms of demographics, diving
      experience and attitudes toward safety. Previous or ongoing medical conditions
      were reported by 100 female divers and 141 males. Only 29% of females and 22% of
      males had been examined by a physician trained to conduct assessments of fitness
      to dive. Female divers did not report problems while diving during menstruation
      or while taking oral contraceptives. There was no significant difference in the
      occurrence of decompression sickness (DCS) and DCS-like symptoms between the
      sexes. CONCLUSION: This is the largest study to date conducted on recreational
      divers in Turkey and so carries some value. It profiles their physical and
      behavioral attributes as well as differences in diving practices between the
      sexes in Turkey. Our findings should have implications for medical screening and
      dive training standards.

PMID- 28868599
TI  - Diving with pre-existing medical conditions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This is the second report based on a survey of Divers Alert Network
      Asia-Pacific (DAN AP) members who dive with cardiovascular and respiratory
      conditions and diabetes. It examines the medical management of the divers'
      conditions, any diving modifications used to mitigate the risk and outcomes.
      METHODOLOGY: An online cross-sectional survey was sent to 833 divers who had
      declared a targeted medical condition when applying for DAN AP membership between
      July 2009 and August 2013. RESULTS: Two-hundred-and-sixty-eight respondents (32%)
      provided sufficient information on their conditions to be included in the
      analyses. These included ischaemic heart disease (31), arrhythmias (20), cardiac
      septal defects (31), other cardiac conditions (10), hypertension (127), diabetes
      (25), asthma (40) and pneumothorax (5). Forty-nine per cent had sought specialist
      diving medical advice about their condition and 23% reported modifying their
      diving practices to mitigate their risk. The cohort had completed 183,069 career
      dives, 57,822 of these since being diagnosed with their medical condition. There
      were 27 individuals who reported having decompression illness (25 of whom were
      subsequently diagnosed with a persistent foramen ovale), and two individuals who
      experienced an arrhythmia during diving. CONCLUSIONS: Some DAN AP members are
      diving with medical conditions which could potentially impact the safety of their
      diving. A minority modified their diving practices to mitigate the risk of their
      condition and approximately half sought specialist diving medical advice. The
      incidence of diving-related problems precipitated by known and managed pre
      existing health conditions seems low but further studies of larger cohorts and
      incorporating fatality data would be necessary to confirm this. These results are
      limited by the 32% response rate and potential for bias towards selection of
      those most careful with their health.

PMID- 28868600
TI  - A pleural vacuum relief device for pleural drain unit use in the hyperbaric
      environment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: When a standard water-seal pleural drain unit (PDU) is used under
      hyperbaric conditions there are scenarios where excessive negative intrapleural
      pressure (IPP) and/or fluid reflux can be induced, risking significant morbidity.
      We developed and tested a pleural vacuum relief (PVR) device which automatically
      manages these risks, whilst allowing more rapid hyperbaric pressure change rates.
      METHODS: The custom-made PVR device consists of a one-way pressure relief valve
      connected in line with a sterile micro filter selected for its specific flow
      capacity. The PVR device is designed for connection to the patient side sampling
      port of a PDU system, allowing inflow of ambient air whenever negative pressure
      is present, creating a small, controlled air leak which prevents excessive
      negative pressure. The hyperbaric performance of a Pleur-Evac A-6000 intercostal
      drain was assessed with and without this added device by measuring simulated IPP
      with an electronic pressure monitor connected at the patient end of the PDU. IPP
      readings were taken at 10, 15, 20 and 30 cmH2O of suction (set on the drain unit)
      at compression rates of 10, 30, 60, 80, 90 and 180 kPa.min-1 to a pressure of 280
      kPa. RESULTS: At any compression rate of > 10 kPa.min-1, the negative IPP
      generated by the Pleur-Evac A-6000 alone was excessive and resulted in back flow
      through the PDU water seal. By adding the PVR device, the generated negative IPP
      remains within a clinically acceptable range, allowing compression rates of at
      least 30 kPa.min-1 with suction settings up to -20 cmH2O during all phases of
      hyperbaric treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The PDU PVR device we have developed works
      well, minimising attendant workload and automatically avoiding the excessive
      negative IPPs that can otherwise occur. This device should only be used with
      suction.

PMID- 28868601
TI  - Periorbital emphysema after a wet chamber dive.
AB  - Although periorbital emphysema (PE) is commonly associated with orbital
      fractures, it may develop without any fracture or significant trauma in
      circumstances such as post-surgery, infection, forceful nose blowing, sneezing,
      and weight lifting. We report on a healthy military diver who developed PE
      following a wet chamber dive. A diagnosis of PE secondary to sinus barotrauma was
      reached. He was treated conservatively without medication and his symptoms
      recovered completely within 10 days. To the best of our knowledge, only five
      cases of diving-related PE have been reported in the literature. Analysis of
      these cases and ours revealed that facial trauma, repeated forceful Valsalva
      manoeuvres and recent upper respiratory tract infection are probable risk factors
      for diving-related PE.

PMID- 28868602
TI  - Ruptured tympanic membrane from underwater impact with an Atlantic salmon, Salmo
      salar.
AB  - An unusual case of tympanic membrane rupture in a diver due to impact from an
      Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar is described. The diver was treated conservatively
      and the injury fully healed by eight weeks after which the diver successfully
      returned to diving. The author contends that the appearances of such traumatic
      perforations differ from barotrauma in divers secondary to ear clearing problems
      on descent.

PMID- 28868603
TI  - Proliferative retinopathy during hyperbaric oxygen treatment.
AB  - A 43-year-old male with type 2 diabetes mellitus, treated with insulin for 28
      years and with an HbA1c of 7.9% six months prior, suffered from bilateral plantar
      ulcers refractory to specialised wound care. He underwent a planned 40 sessions
      of hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) at 243 kPa for 90 minutes. Consent was
      given for this report. The patient's ophthalmic history included bilateral
      proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) identified on routine diabetic eye
      screening three years previously. This was treated with pan-retinal
      photocoagulation (PRP). Three months before starting HBOT, he underwent
      phacoemulsification and intra-ocular lens insertion of his left eye, having had
      the same procedure done to his right eye a year prior, without complication. He
      was reviewed again one week prior to his first HBOT and fundoscopy confirmed non
      proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) without evidence of PDR. The patient
      had a routine follow up by the ophthalmologist following his fifth HBOT when
      fundoscopic examination revealed pre-retinal haemorrhage, a form of PDR, in his
      left eye. This was treated with PRP at the time. His visual acuity, 6/9
      bilaterally, had not changed, nor did he describe any changes in his visual field
      despite these findings. He was seen three weeks later (following 12 further HBOT)
      when fundoscopy showed worsening proliferative changes, this time in both eyes.
      Bevacizumab was injected at the time and fill-in PRP performed the following
      week. His visual acuity remained unchanged in both eyes. At this point, HBOT was
      withheld to allow the proliferative phase of the patients' retinopathy to remit.
      The potentially adverse effects of hyperbaric oxygen to the retinal vasculature
      of diabetic patients was postulated in 1994 following a similar experience,
      albeit without a baseline fundoscopic examination. In particular, the concern was
      of accelerating the proliferative process of retinopathy with subsequent
      irreversible loss of vision. Thereafter, routine screening and treatment of all
      diabetic patients for PDR was adopted at our facility. Until now, there have been
      no further cases of NPDR evolving into PDR at three-month review following HBOT.
      Indeed, a brief literature search using the terms "retinopathy", "complications",
      "adverse effects", "vitreous", "hemorrhage", "haemorrhage", "hyperbaric" and
      "oxygen" has not found any other cases described. In a double blind, randomised
      trial (meeting abstract only) of 15 diabetic patients with both NPDR and PDR,
      patients in neither the HBOT (243 kPa for 90 min) nor the control arm had
      evidence of neovascularisation nor worsening of their proliferative retinopathy
      at three-month follow up. The significance of PDR following cataract surgery has
      also been considered. A review article consistently found that NPDR progression
      occurred in up to a third of such patients. Despite this, there were no cases of
      NPDR progressing to PDR at 12-month follow up. Whether this patient's sudden
      progression to PDR was related to HBOT, recent cataract surgery or another
      unknown factor is unclear. However, the temporal relationship to 17 HBOT is
      difficult to explain and appears more rapid than available data regarding
      vascular regrowth in wound healing would suggest.

PMID- 28868604
TI  - The tick-derived rBmTI-A protease inhibitor attenuates the histological and
      functional changes induced by cigarette smoke exposure.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Smoking is the main risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease development and cigarette smoke (CS) exposure is considered an important
      approach to reproduce in rodents this human disease. We have previously shown
      that in an elastase-induced model of emphysema, the administration of a protease
      inhibitor (rBmTI-A) prevented and attenuated tissue destruction in mice. Thus, in
      this study we aimed to verify the effects of rBmTI-A administration on the
      physiopathological mechanisms of CS-induced emphysema. METHODS: Mice (C57BL/6)
      were exposed to CS or room air for 12 weeks. In this period, 3 nasal
      instillations of rBmTI-A inhibitor or its vehicle were performed. After
      euthanasia, respiratory mechanics were evaluated and lungs removed for analysis
      of mean linear intercept, volume proportion of collagen and elastic fibers,
      density of polymorphonuclear cells, macrophages, and density of positive cells
      for MMP-12, MMP-9, TIMP-1 and gp91phox. RESULTS: The rBmTI-A administration
      improved tissue elastance, decreased alveolar enlargement and collagen fibers
      accumulation to control levels and attenuated elastic fibers accumulation in
      animals exposed to CS. There was an increase of MMP-12, MMP-9 and macrophages in
      CS groups and the rBmTIA only decreased the number of MMP-12 positive cells.
      Also, we demonstrated an increase in gp91phox in CS treated group and in TIMP-1
      levels in both rBmTI-A treated groups. CONCLUSION: In summary, the rBmTI-A
      administration attenuated emphysema development by an increase of gp91phox and
      TIMP-1, accompanied by a decrease in MMP-12 levels.

PMID- 28868605
TI  - Development of digastric muscles in human foetuses: a review and findings in the
      flexor digitorum superficialis muscle.
AB  - The digastricus and omohyoideus muscles are digastric muscles with two muscle
      bellies. An insertion tendon of the posterior belly becomes an intermediate
      tendon in digastricus muscles, whereas a single band-like muscle in omohyoideus
      muscles may later be interrupted by an intermediate tendon, possibly due to
      muscle cell death caused by mechanical stress. In human foetuses, an intermediate
      tendon provides the temporal origins of the tensor veli palatini and tensor
      tympani muscles. Some reptiles, including snakes, carry multiple series of
      digastric-like axial muscles, in which each intersegmental septum is likely to
      become an intermediate tendon. These findings indicate that many pathways are
      involved in the development of digastric muscles. A review of these morphologies
      suggested that the flexor digi-torum superficialis (FDS) muscle was a digastric
      muscle, although the intermediate tendon may not be visible in the surface view
      in adults. The present observations support the hypothesis that the proximal
      anlage at the elbow develops into a deep muscle slip to a limited finger, while
      the distal anlage at the wrist develops into the other slips. The findings
      suggest that, in the FDS muscle, the proximal and distal bellies of the embryonic
      digastric muscle fuse together to form a laminar structure, in which muscle slips
      accumulate from the palmar to the deep side of the forearm. (Folia Morphol 2018;
      77, 2: 362-370).

PMID- 28868606
TI  - The influence of post-fixation on visualising vimentin in the retina using
      immunofluorescence method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-fixation of sections is especially required for cryostat
      sections of fresh frozen tissues. Vimentin is an intermediate filament in both
      fibrillary and non-fibrillary form, expressed in Muller's cells and astrocytes of
      the retina. Our aim was to determine the best post-fixation method for
      visualising vimentin in archival mouse eyes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used an
      archival mouse eye, slightly pre-fixed with paraformaldehyde and stored at -80
      degrees C for 4 years. We tried three fixatives (pa-raformaldehyde [PFA],
      alcohol/acetic acid [AAA] and methanol) for post-fixation of eye sections.
      RESULTS: We showed that post-fixation alters the labelling properties of vimentin
      expressed in the retina. In the sections with no post-fixation, vimentin
      positivity was observed in and around the nuclei in non-fibrillary form. In PFA
      post-fixed sections, the vimentin in the retina was not observed as fibrils.
      Positivity was observed in the nuclei and in perinuclear regions of the cells. In
      AAA post-fixed sections, positive labelling was observed around the nuclei as
      fibrils. In methanol post-fixed sections, labelling was observed around the
      nuclei as fibrils. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that post-fixation with AAA is more
      convenient for immunofluorescent labelling of vimentin in the retina for slightly
      PFA pre-fixed and long-term stored retina. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 246-252).

PMID- 28868608
TI  - Incidental imaging findings of congenital rib abnormalities - a case series and
      review of developmental concepts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital rib abnormalities are found in approximately 2% of the
      general population. Usually, they occur in isolation and are rarely symptomatic,
      but they can also be associated with other malformations. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We reviewed imaging examinations performed over a period of 2 years (2014-2015),
      enabling us to identify isolated rib abnormalities in 6 adult patients. RESULTS:
      The case series consisted in 3 cases with bilateral cervical ribs and 1 case each
      with bifid rib, costal fusion and rib pseudarthrosis. In all patients, the costal
      anomalies were discovered incidentally. All rib malformations were detected at
      thoracic radiography, except for the rib pseudarthrosis, which was identified at
      computed tomography (CT) scan. Differential diagnosis was made between cer-vical
      ribs and abnormalities of the C7 transverse process and of the first rib, while
      the other costal malformations were distinguished from tumoural, traumatic or
      inflammatory lesions of the chest wall, lung and pleura. Considering the existing
      knowledge on rib development, we suggest a classification of the most common
      types of rib malformations in three categories: (I) results of homeotic
      transforma-tion, referring to numerical aberrations; (II) segmentation errors,
      including costal fusion and bridging; (III) anomalies of resegmentation,
      resulting in bifid ribs. CONCLUSIONS: It is important that radiologists are
      familiarised with the imaging features of rib abnormalities, since these
      anomalies can be misinterpreted as lesions with different implications. We are
      convinced that the developmental classification proposed in this paper can
      contribute to a better understanding of this pathology. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77,
      2: 386-392).

PMID- 28868609
TI  - How automated image analysis techniques help scientists in species identification
      and classification?
AB  - Identification of taxonomy at a specific level is time consuming and reliant upon
      expert ecologists. Hence the demand for automated species identification incre
      ased over the last two decades. Automation of data classification is primarily
      focussed on images while incorporating and analysing image data has recently
      become easier due to developments in computational technology. Research ef-forts
      on identification of species include specimens' image processing, extraction of
      identical features, followed by classifying them into correct categories. In this
      paper, we discuss recent automated species identification systems, mainly for
      categorising and evaluating their methods. We reviewed and compared different
      methods in step by step scheme of automated identification and classification
      systems of species images. The selection of methods is influenced by many
      variables such as level of classification, number of training data and complexity
      of images. The aim of writing this paper is to provide researchers and scientists
      an extensive background study on work related to automated species
      identification, focusing on pattern recognition techniques in building such
      systems for biodiversity studies. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 179-193).

PMID- 28868610
TI  - Examination of foramen tympanicum: an anatomical study using cone-beam computed
      tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The foramen tympanicum (FT) is an osseous dehiscence of the temporal
      bone and usually closes by the age of 5 years. The foramen is located
      posteromedial to the temporomandibular joint and anteroinferior of the external
      auditory canal. The aim of this study is to define the prevalence, location and
      size of the foramen. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively examined 200 cone
      beam computed tomography (CBCT) images (400 ears). We used a CBCT dental imaging
      system (GALILEOS, Sirona Dental Systems, Bensheim, Germany) working at 15-30 mA
      and 98 kV. We noted size and location (unilateral and bilateral) of the present
      FT. RESULTS: Foramen tympanicum was determined in 11.5% of 200 patients (they had
      FT at least on one side of the head). This was bilateral in 5 (2.5%) patients.
      Prevalence of the FT was significintly higher in females (8%) than in males
      (3.5%). FT was found more frequently on the left side (7.5%) than on the right
      side (4%). Mean axial diameter was 1.13 mm (range 0.23-4.43 mm), and mean
      sagittal diameter was 1.44 mm (range 0.22-3.99 mm). CONCLUSIONS: Considering that
      FT was present in 11.75% of patients, radiologists and clinicians should be aware
      of the possible presence of this defect. It is known that this developmental
      dehiscence may cause herniation of temporomandibular joint, formation of salivary
      otorrhea, and spread of tumour or infection to the infratemporal fossa from
      external auditory canal. This study showed that CBCT may be preferred for imaging
      these conditions. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 335-339).

PMID- 28868611
TI  - Simvastatin exerts antiproliferative and differentiating effects on MG63
      osteoblast-like cells: Morphological and immunocytochemical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Current evidence suggests that statins exert an
      anabolic effect on bone and may therefore impact on osteogenic differentiation
      and proliferation. These effects can be useful for their use in guided bone
      regeneration. The objective of this study was to determine the in vitro effects
      of simvastatin on the differentiation and proliferation of MG63 human osteoblast
      tumor cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS: MG63 human osteosarcoma cells were cultured in
      the presence of simvastatin or solvent alone for 72 hours, and their
      proliferation was assessed by MTT assay. Cells from the culture were prepared for
      light, transmission and scanning electron microscopy studies. immunocytochemical
      was used to analyze the differentiation and proliferation markers Musashi-1, Ki
      67, CD56 and CD44. RESULTS: Cultured MG63 control cells showed spheroid
      morphology with numerous secretion vesicles accumulated on the surface, observing
      no cytoplasmic projections with intercellular connections. However, cells
      cultured with simvastatin had a polygonal and spindle-shaped morphology, with
      cytoplasmic projections that interconnected cells. There were numerous microvilli
      like filamentous projections on the surface with no defined pattern. At 72 hours
      of culture, CD56, Ki-67 and Musashi-1 expression was significantly reduced (P <
      .001) in simvastatin-treated cells. CD44 expression was intense in both groups
      and was not affected by simvastatin treatment. CONCLUSION: MG63 cells cultured
      with simvastatin for 72 hours undergo morphological and surface changes.
      Simvastatin treatment exerts antiproliferative and differentiating effects on
      these cells as well as promoting recovery of cellular homeostasis.

PMID- 28868612
TI  - The Volume-Outcome Relationship Revisited: Practice Indeed Makes Perfect.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the causal effect of a hospital's experience with treating
      hip fractures (volume) on patient treatment outcomes. DATA SOURCES: We use a full
      sample of administrative data from German hospitals for 2007. The data provide
      detailed information on patients and hospitals. We also reference the hospitals'
      addresses and the zip codes of patients' place of residence. STUDY DESIGN: We
      apply an instrumental variable approach to address endogeneity concerns due to
      reverse causality and unobserved patient heterogeneity. As instruments for case
      volume, we use the number of potential patients and number of other hospitals in
      the region surrounding each hospital. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Our results indicate
      that after applying an instrumental variables (IV) regression of volume on
      outcome, volume significantly increases quality. CONCLUSIONS: We provide evidence
      for the practice-makes-perfect hypothesis by showing that volume is a driving
      factor for quality.

PMID- 28868613
TI  - Is Good Enough for Our Peers Good Enough for Policy Makers?

PMID- 28868614
TI  - Resveratrol in the foodomics era: 1:25,000.
AB  - Resveratrol is probably the most investigated plant secondary metabolite ever. An
      epidemiological study known as the French paradox showed a correlation between
      red wine intake and low mortality due to coronary heart diseases, and the red
      wine substance resveratrol was claimed to play a key role. Since then, several
      hundred resveratrol studies have been conducted to demonstrate its antioxidant
      and other beneficial properties. In the foodomics era, considering a complex
      foodome including over 25,000 substances that make up the human diet, it appears
      to be outdated to pursue the hunt for biological activities one function/compound
      at a time. First, nature is multivariate, and the effect of any one molecule will
      have to be modulated by its carrying matrix, its bioavailability, and synergies
      with other molecules. Second, a large number of targeted studies have the
      tendency to become biased, as they tend to retain only the data that the
      researchers think are relevant and thus increase the chances of spurious
      correlations. In this concise review, we retrace the research toward a more
      inductive, holistic, and multivariate path.

PMID- 28868616
TI  - Kinematic evaluation of penetration and aspiration in laryngeal elevating and
      descending periods.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: It is important to evaluate swallowing movements by dividing them
      into periods of laryngeal closure and release. The purpose of this study was to
      evaluate penetration-aspiration (PA) according to human pathophysiology and to
      identify the factors for predicting PA. STUDY DESIGN: Case-control study.
      METHODS: Eighty-one patients with complaints of dysphagia caused by various
      etiologies were enrolled in this study. Videofluoroscopic swallowing studies were
      conducted, and the spatial and temporal factors were analyzed by computer
      assisted motion analysis. RESULTS: The initiation of laryngeal vestibule closure
      in the laryngeal elevating period and its duration in the laryngeal descending
      period were significant factors for evaluating PA. CONCLUSION: A knowledge of the
      delay of laryngeal vestibule closure in the laryngeal elevating period and its
      short duration in the laryngeal descending period could make it easier to
      evaluate the risk of PA. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3b. Laryngoscope, 128:806-811, 2018.

PMID- 28868617
TI  - Prophylactic immunization with human papillomavirus vaccines induces oral
      immunity in mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although it has been shown that prophylactic vaccination can induce
      genital immunity, there is inadequate information on human papillomavirus (HPV)
      vaccine-induced oral immunity, which is of particular interest due to HPV
      associated oropharyngeal malignancies and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis.
      Therefore, we assessed the efficacy of various HPV vaccines against oral HPV
      pseudovirus (PsV) infection in mice. STUDY DESIGN: Preclinical scientific
      investigation. METHODS: C57BL/6 mice were vaccinated three times at 2-week
      intervals with either Gardasil (Merck, Kenilworth, NJ) (50 uL intramuscular
      injection) or a candidate pan-HPV L2 vaccine with alum adjuvant (25 ug
      subcutaneous injection). Additional mice were immunized with passive transfer of
      either Gardasil (Merck) human antisera or nonimmunized sera (100 uL
      intraperitoneal injection). All vaccinated and naive control mice were then
      challenged with HPV16 E6E7 luciferase PsV in the oral mucosa. Visualization of
      HPV PsV infection was monitored through in vivo luciferase imaging. RESULTS: Oral
      luciferase-expressing HPV16 PsV infection was not detected in Gardasil (Merck),
      L2 vaccine, and Gardasil (Merck) antisera-immunized mice, whereas robust
      luciferase expression was observed in all control mice. An in vitro
      neutralization assay from sera of Gardasil-vaccinated (Merck) mice confirmed that
      vaccine efficacy was due to neutralizing antibodies. CONCLUSION: Oral HPV16 PsV
      infection in mice was completely prevented with all methods of prophylactic HPV
      immunization. These findings provide preliminary evidence that human vaccines
      induce protection against oral HPV infection, which has significant public health
      implications for HPV-associated oropharyngeal malignancies. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      NA. Laryngoscope, 128:E16-E20, 2018.

PMID- 28868618
TI  - Reduction of [11 C]CO2 to [11 C]CO using solid supported zinc.
AB  - A new method for the reduction of no-carrier-added [11 C]carbon dioxide into [11
      C]carbon monoxide ([11 C]CO) is described, in which the reductant (zinc) is
      supported on fused silica particles. Using this setup, which allows for a
      reduction temperature (485 degrees C) well above the melting point for zinc (420
      degrees C), radiochemical yields of up to 96% (decay-corrected) were obtained. A
      slight decrease in radiochemical yield was observed upon repeated [11 C]CO
      productions (93 +/- 3%, n = 20). The methodology is convenient and efficient and
      provides a straightforward path to no-carrier-added production of [11 C]CO.

PMID- 28868619
TI  - Contact lens technology to 2020 and beyond: a review of recent patent literature.
AB  - Contact lenses have been a common means of vision correction for more than half a
      century. Recent developments raise the possibility that the next several years
      will see the range of applications in which they are used broaden considerably,
      with an associated expansion in both the number and type of individuals who
      consider them to be a valuable option. To describe this new landscape, a review
      of recent patent submissions covering the period 1 January 2014 to 1 February
      2017 was undertaken. The results show that in the main, areas where contact
      lenses will be applied include drug delivery, visual augmentation and biosensing.

PMID- 28868620
TI  - An oblique bitoric rigid contact lens fitting for the management of lens
      subluxation in Marfan syndrome.

PMID- 28868615
TI  - Mechanisms of weight loss and improved metabolism following bariatric surgery.
AB  - Bariatric surgery is increasingly recognized as one of the most effective
      interventions to help patients achieve significant and sustained weight loss, as
      well as improved metabolic and overall health. Unfortunately, the cellular and
      physiological mechanisms by which bariatric surgery achieves weight loss have not
      been fully elucidated, yet are critical to understanding the central role of the
      intestinal tract in whole-body metabolism and to developing novel strategies for
      the treatment of obesity. In this review, we provide an overview of potential
      mechanisms contributing to weight loss, including effects on regulation of energy
      balance and both central and peripheral nervous system regulation of appetite and
      metabolism. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the gastrointestinal tract,
      including alterations in bile acid physiology, secretion of intestinally derived
      hormones, and the microbiome, as a potent mediator of improved metabolism in
      postbariatric patients.

PMID- 28868621
TI  - Aerosols: A Sustainable Route to Functional Materials.
AB  - Sustainability is an increasingly important topic in the design and manufacture
      of materials, with the need to reduce the environmental impact of producing
      materials being of paramount significance. A competing interest to this is the
      ability to produce functional materials in large volumes from a fast, on-line
      process, which can be integrated easily into existing industrial setups. Herein,
      we present aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) routes to advanced
      functional materials. We will show that by careful design of precursors and
      manipulation of deposition conditions, it is possible to achieve high
      sustainability whilst maintaining fast growth rates and large scale production of
      thin film functional materials.

PMID- 28868622
TI  - Proliferation inhibition of cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells using drugs
      screened by integrating a metabolic model and transcriptomic data.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: If screening to find effective drugs is possible, the inhibition of
      proliferation using existing drugs can be a practical strategy to control the
      drug resistance of cancer. Development of a system-oriented strategy to find
      effective drugs was the main aim of this research. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An
      algorithm (transcriptional regulated flux balance analysis [TRFBA]) integrating a
      generic human metabolic model with transcriptomic data was used to identify genes
      affecting the growth of drug-resistant cancer cells. Drugs that inhibit
      activation of the target genes were found and their effect on the proliferation
      was experimentally evaluated. RESULTS: Experimental assessments demonstrated that
      TRFBA improves the prediction of cancer cell growth in comparison with previous
      algorithms. The algorithm was then used to propose the system-oriented strategy
      to search drugs effective in limiting the growth rate of the cisplatin-resistant
      A2780 epithelial ovarian cancer cell. Experimental evaluations resulted in the
      selection of azathioprine, terbinafine, hydralazine and sodium valproate that
      appropriately inhibit the proliferation of resistant cancer cells while minimally
      affecting normal cells. Furthermore, experimental data indicate that the selected
      drugs are synergistic and can be used in combination therapies. CONCLUSIONS: The
      proposed strategy was successful to identify drugs effective on the viability of
      resistant cancer cells. This strategy can enhance the potency of treatments for
      drug-resistant cancer cells and provides the possibility of using existing drugs.

PMID- 28868623
TI  - Short-term language switching training tunes the neural correlates of cognitive
      control in bilingual language production.
AB  - The present study investigated how language switching experience would modulate
      the neural correlates of cognitive control involved in bilingual language
      production. A group of unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals undertook an 8-day
      cued picture naming training during which they named pictures in either of their
      languages based on visually presented cues. Participants' brain activation was
      scanned before and after the training in the same task. Behavioral results
      revealed a significant training effect such that switch costs were reduced after
      training. fMRI results showed that after training, activation of brain areas
      associated with cognitive control including the anterior cingulated cortex and
      the caudate was reduced. Besides, the activation reduction in the left dorsal
      anterior cingulated cortex positively correlated with the reduction in switch
      costs in response time and this training effect could be transferred to untrained
      stimuli. These findings suggest that neural correlates of cognitive control,
      especially that of the conflict monitoring process, in bilingual language
      production could be modulated by short-term language switching training. Hum
      Brain Mapp 38:5859-5870, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28868624
TI  - Employment insecurity and employees' health in Denmark.
AB  - We use register data for Denmark (IDA) merged with the Danish Work Environment
      Cohort Survey (1995, 2000, and 2005) to estimate the effect of perceived
      employment insecurity on perceived health for a sample of Danish employees. We
      consider two health measures from the SF-36 Health Survey Instrument: a vitality
      scale for general well-being and a mental health scale. We first analyse a
      summary measure of employment insecurity. Instrumental variables-fixed effects
      estimates that use firm workforce changes as a source of exogenous variation show
      that 1 additional dimension of insecurity causes a shift from the median to the
      25th percentile in the mental health scale and to the 30th in that of
      energy/vitality. It also increases by about 6 percentage points the probability
      to develop severe mental health problems. Looking at single insecurity dimensions
      by naive fixed effects, uncertainty associated with the current job is important
      for mental health. Employability has a sizeable relationship with health and is
      the only insecurity dimension that matters for the energy and vitality scale.
      Danish employees who fear involuntary firm internal mobility experience worse
      mental health.

PMID- 28868625
TI  - Competency-based assessment in surgeon-performed head and neck ultrasonography: A
      validity study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Head and neck ultrasonography (HNUS) increasingly is used as a point
      of-care diagnostic tool by otolaryngologists. However, ultrasonography (US) is a
      very operator-dependent image modality. Hence, this study aimed to explore the
      diagnostic accuracy of surgeon-performed HNUS and to establish validity evidence
      for an objective structured assessment of ultrasound skills (OSAUS) used for
      competency-based assessment. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective experimental study.
      METHODS: Six otolaryngologists and 11 US novices were included in a standardized
      test setup for which they had to perform focused HNUS of eight patients suspected
      for different head and neck lesions. Their diagnostic accuracy was calculated
      based on the US reports, and two blinded raters assessed the video-recorded US
      performance using the OSAUS scale. RESULTS: The otolaryngologists obtained a high
      diagnostic accuracy on 88% (range 63%-100%) compared to the US novices on 38%
      (range 0-63%); P < 0.001. The OSAUS score demonstrated good inter-case
      reliability (0.85) and inter-rater reliability (0.76), and significant
      discrimination between otolaryngologist and US novices; P < 0.001. A strong
      correlation between the OSAUS score and the diagnostic accuracy was found
      (Spearman's rho, 0.85; P < P 0.001), and a pass/fail score was established at
      2.8. CONCLUSION: Strong validity evidence supported the use of the OSAUS scale to
      assess HNUS competence with good reliability, significant discrimination between
      US competence levels, and a strong correlation of assessment score to diagnostic
      accuracy. An OSAUS pass/fail score was established and could be used for
      competence-based assessment in surgeon-performed HNUS. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA.
      Laryngoscope, 128:1346-1352, 2018.

PMID- 28868626
TI  - Columnar Lithium Metal Anodes.
AB  - The rechargeable lithium metal anode is of utmost importance for high-energy
      density batteries. Regulating the deposition/dissolution characteristics of Li
      metal is critical in both fundamental researches and practical applications. In
      contrast to gray Li deposits featured with dendritic and mossy morphologies,
      columnar and uniform Li is herein plated on lithium-fluoride (LiF)-protected
      copper (Cu) current collectors. The electrochemical properties strongly depended
      on the microscale morphologies of deposited Li, which were further embodied as
      macroscale colors. The as-obtained ultrathin and columnar Li anodes contributed
      to stable cycling in working batteries with a dendrite-free feature. This work
      deepens the fundamental understanding of the role of LiF in the nucleation/growth
      of Li and provides emerging approaches to stabilize rechargeable Li metal anodes.

PMID- 28868627
TI  - Hydroxyurea prescription, availability and use for children with sickle cell
      disease in Italy: Results of a National Multicenter survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The number of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) has increased
      in Italy in the past decade due to immigration. In spite of the established
      efficacy of hydroxyurea (HU) in childhood, population-based data regarding its
      prescription and effectiveness come mainly from studies performed in adults or
      outside Europe. POPULATION AND METHODS: The Hydroxyurea in SCD: A Large Nation
      wide Cohort Study from Italy was a retrospective cohort study of adult and
      pediatric patients with SCD attending 32 centers. Pediatric data are analyzed
      separately. RESULTS: Out of 504 children followed in 11 centers, 206 (40%) were
      on HU (194 SS/Sbeta degrees , 12 SC/Sbeta+); 74% came from Sub-Saharian Africa
      and 18% from Europe. HU therapy indications for SS/Sbeta degrees  patients were
      as follows: 57% painful vaso-occlusive crisis, acute chest syndrome or both, 24%
      anemia, 8% anemia, and other reasons (the majority had Hb <= 8-8.5 g/dl,
      revealing scarce acceptance of low Hb values by pediatric hematologist). Mean
      starting dose was 15.5 mg/kg, and dose at full regimen was 17.1 mg/kg. Mean age
      at HU therapy was 7.68 years, although it was lower for SS/Sbeta degrees 
      patients. Only 10% started HU before 3 years. In 92%, 500 mg capsule was used; in
      6%, the galenic was used; and in 2%, 100 mg tablet was used. Significant
      reduction of clinical events and inpatients admissions, with improvement in
      hematological parameters, was observed for SS/Sbeta degrees  patients and a trend
      toward improvement for SC/Sbeta+ patients was also observed. CONCLUSIONS: HU
      effectiveness is demonstrated in a national cohort of children with SCD living in
      Italy, even at a lower dose than recommended, revealing good adherence to a
      treatment program by a socially vulnerable group of patients such as immigrants.

PMID- 28868629
TI  - AFM Imaging of Hybridization Chain Reaction Mediated Signal Transmission between
      Two DNA Origami Structures.
AB  - Signal transfer is central to the controlled exchange of information in biology
      and advanced technologies. Therefore, the development of reliable, long-range
      signal transfer systems for artificial nanoscale assemblies is of great
      scientific interest. We have designed such a system for the signal transfer
      between two connected DNA nanostructures, using the hybridization chain reaction
      (HCR). Two sets of metastable DNA hairpins, one of which is immobilized at
      specific points along tracks on DNA origami structures, are polymerized to form a
      continuous DNA duplex, which is visible using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Upon
      addition of a designed initiator, the initiation signal is efficiently
      transferred more than 200 nm from a specific location on one origami structure to
      an end point on another origami structure. The system shows no significant loss
      of signal when crossing from one nanostructure to another and, therefore, has the
      potential to be applied to larger multi-component DNA assemblies.

PMID- 28868628
TI  - Ovarian cancer stem cells promote tumour immune privilege and invasion via CCL5
      and regulatory T cells.
AB  - Emerging evidence indicates a link between the increased proportion of regulatory
      T cells (Tregs ) and reduced survival in patients who have been diagnosed with
      cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been indicated to play a vital role in
      tumour initiation, drug resistance and recurrence. However, the relationship
      between Tregs and CSCs remains largely unknown. Here, we sorted out ovarian
      cancer stem-like side population (SP) cells and CD133+ cells to investigate the
      influence of ovarian CSCs on Tregs . Among the various immune-related molecules
      that we assessed, C-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5) was the most elevated in
      ovarian CSCs relative to that in the non-CSCs. The expression of its receptor, C
      C motif chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), was also increased on the surface of Tregs
      in ovarian cancer patients. This receptor-ligand expression profile indicated
      that ovarian CSCs recruit Tregs via CCL5-CCR5 interactions. We further assessed
      the expression of interleukin (IL)-10 in Tregs cultured with different cancer
      cells. Tregs cultured in conditioned medium (CM) from ovarian CD133+ cells
      expressed a higher level of IL-10 than Tregs cultured in CM from CD133- cells,
      indicating that Tregs exert pronounced immune-inhibitory functions in CSC-rich
      environments. Furthermore, co-culture with ovarian cancer cell lines induced the
      expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) in Tregs which, in turn, enhanced
      the degradation of the extracellular matrix and enabled the invasion of tumour
      cells, thereby facilitating tumour metastasis. For the first time, to our
      knowledge, our findings describe the relationship between ovarian CSCs and Tregs
      , and demonstrated that these two cell populations co-operate to promote tumour
      immune tolerance and enhance tumour progression.

PMID- 28868630
TI  - A model-based conditional power assessment for decision making in randomized
      controlled trial studies.
AB  - Conditional power based on summary statistic by comparing outcomes (such as the
      sample mean) directly between 2 groups is a convenient tool for decision making
      in randomized controlled trial studies. In this paper, we extend the traditional
      summary statistic-based conditional power with a general model-based assessment
      strategy, where the test statistic is based on a regression model. Asymptotic
      relationships between parameter estimates based on the observed interim data and
      final unobserved data are established, from which we develop an analytic model
      based conditional power assessment for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian data. The
      model-based strategy is not only flexible in handling baseline covariates and
      more powerful in detecting the treatment effects compared with the conventional
      method but also more robust in controlling the overall type I error under certain
      missing data mechanisms. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by
      extensive simulation studies and illustrated with an application to a clinical
      study.

PMID- 28868631
TI  - Finite element analysis of customized implant in mandibular reconstruction after
      tumor resection with and without using customized surgical osteotomy guide.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this work was to compare different 12 cases (3 patients *
      4 cases = 12 cases) with varying gaps between implant and bone by analyzing the
      effect of these gaps on implant and screws using FEM. METHODS: In each patient's
      case 1 using CSOG and in case 2, 3, and 4 without using CSOG tumor cutting was
      done. Hence in each patient zero gaps at case 1 and overcutting at case 2, 3, and
      4 have obtained at different locations. RESULTS: FEM results reveal that in each
      patient's case 4 (maximum gap) was more susceptible to loosening of the screws
      due to higher strains (37%) and implant failure due to higher stress (28%)
      concentration under the same loading conditions when compared with case 1 (zero
      gap). CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals that mandibular reconstruction with implant
      placement using CSOG can significantly enhance the stability and safety of the
      implant.

PMID- 28868632
TI  - Intellectually disabled and addicted: a call for evidence based tailor-made
      interventions.

PMID- 28868633
TI  - A 5-year randomized trial on the safety and efficacy of pimecrolimus in atopic
      dermatitis: a critical appraisal.
AB  - AIM: The PETITE study (Sigurgeirsson et al.) aimed to compare safety and efficacy
      of pimecrolimus 1% cream (PIM) and low-to-medium-potency topical corticosteroids
      (TCS) in children with mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis (AD). SETTING AND
      DESIGN: Participants of this 5-year drug-company sponsored multicentre, open
      label, parallel-group trial were recruited between April 2004 and October 2005.
      No details are reported regarding the study sites. STUDY EXPOSURE: Infants aged
      >= 3 to < 12 months with mild-to-moderate AD were randomly assigned in a 1 : 1
      ratio to receive either PIM or a low- or medium-potency TCS cream/ointment for 5
      years. No information on specific TCS products used was provided. The topical
      treatment was applied twice daily 'until complete AD clearance or for as long as
      allowed by the label of the specific TCS', and was reinitiated at the occurrence
      of first signs and symptoms of AD flares. In the PIM group, exacerbations not
      controlled by PIM were treated with short-term TCSs. OUTCOMES: Adverse events
      (AEs) and serious AEs (SAEs) were recorded 'during clinic visits'. In a
      proportion of the patients, various immunological assessments including antibody
      titres to common vaccine antigens, immunoglobulin levels, B and T lymphocyte cell
      counts, and T-cell proliferation tests were performed. The children's growth was
      assessed by measuring height and weight. AD severity was measured using the
      Investigator Global Assessment (IGA) score and the percentage of the total body
      surface area affected. No specific information was provided on the number and
      scheduling of study visits. Primary outcomes were the incidence of AEs 'of
      primary clinical interest' and those with a crude incidence of >= 5% in either
      treatment group. Secondary outcome was 'long-term efficacy' defined as IGA <= 1
      at week 3 and year 5. RESULTS: Patients in the PIM group experienced
      significantly more AEs [bronchitis (P = 0.02), infected eczema (P <= 0.001),
      impetigo (P = 0.045), nasopharyngitis (P = 0.04)]. No significant differences
      were seen for the other AEs. The overall incidence of SAEs was slightly higher
      for PIM (20.5% vs. 17.3%; P = 0.046). The proportion of participants with IGA <=
      1 at year 5 was 88.7% for PIM and 92.3% for TCS, a success rate difference of
      3.6% (95% confidence interval 0.8-6.4) favouring TCS. CONCLUSIONS: Sigurgeirsson
      et al. conclude that the long-term management of mild-to-moderate AD in children
      with both TCS and PIM is safe, and that PIM has similar efficacy to TCS. Further,
      they conclude that their data support the use of PIM as a first-line treatment of
      mild-to-moderate AD in children.

PMID- 28868634
TI  - Effects of video-feedback intervention on harmonious parent-child interaction and
      sensitive discipline of parents with intellectual disabilities: A randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study tested whether video-feedback intervention based on
      attachment and coercion theory increased harmonious parent-child interaction and
      sensitive discipline of parents with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline
      intellectual functioning. METHODS: Observer ratings of video-recorded structured
      interaction tasks at home formed pretest, post-test, and 3-month follow-up
      outcome data in a randomized controlled trial with 85 families. Repeated measures
      analyses of variance and covariance were conducted to test for the intervention
      effect and possible moderation by IQ and adaptive functioning. RESULTS: The
      intervention effect on harmonious parent-child interaction was conditional on
      parental social adaptive behaviour at pretest, with lower adaptive functioning
      associated with stronger intervention benefit at post-test and follow-up compared
      to care as usual. Intervention effects were not conditional on parental IQ.
      Intervention effects for sensitive discipline were not found. CONCLUSION:
      Although the video-feedback intervention did not affect observed parenting for
      the average parent, it may benefit interaction between children and parents with
      lower parental adaptive functioning.

PMID- 28868635
TI  - Usefulness of the lymphocyte positional parameters in the Sysmex XN haematology
      analyser in lymphoproliferative disorders and mononucleosis syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The lymphocyte positional parameters included in Sysmex XN have
      been suggested as useful means to differentiate lymphoproliferative disorders
      (LPD), mononucleosis syndrome (MNS) and other lymphocytoses. METHODS: We
      evaluated Sysmex XN analysers, which supply 6 lymphocyte positional parameters
      that can be measured in the WDF scattergram: LY-X, LY-Y, LY-Z, LY-WX, LY-WY and
      LY-WZ. RESULTS: We collected 301 samples from normal controls, polyclonal
      lymphocytosis, MNS and LPD. MNS and monoclonal expansion of T granular lymphocyte
      (T-GL) diagnostic groups accumulated higher numbers of significant differences in
      the mean values in comparison with the other groups. We propose a new algorithm
      that can differentiate T-GL cases from other diagnostic groups with an SE of
      67.5%, an SP of 98.2%, a PPV of 87.1% and an NPV of 94.3%. Another algorithm
      showed its efficiency to differentiate MNS cases from other diagnostic groups
      with an SE of 63.6%, an SP of 97.5%, a PPV of 70.0% and an NPV of 96.7%. In 38.5%
      of all cases, the analyser did not generate any morphologic flag. Abnormal
      results in lymphocyte positional parameters were useful to detect 72.5% of these
      samples. CONCLUSION: The lymphocyte positional parameters provided by Sysmex XN
      analysers are useful to differentiate expansions of T-GLs from other LPD and to
      differentiate MNS cases from other diagnostic groups. In addition, these
      parameters are very useful for detecting changes in the lymphocytes that make it
      necessary to review blood smears in samples without morphological flagging.

PMID- 28868636
TI  - Plasma levels of haemostatic factors in patients with pulmonary embolism on
      admission and seven months later.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: With the exception of D-dimer, not much is known about the plasma
      levels of haemostatic factors during acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) compared
      to their basic levels in a stable phase. The goal of this study was to examine
      how plasma levels of factor V, VIII, XIIIa, von Willebrand factor antigen
      (vWF:Ag), fibrinogen, thrombomodulin evolve from the point of diagnosis of acute
      VTE to the end of standard treatment period. METHODS: Sixty-three consecutive
      patients (mean 57, range 18-86 years, 33 females) with acute pulmonary embolism
      (PE) were included. Laboratory samples were collected upon arrival (acute phase)
      and seven months later (stable phase). Fifteen similar aged individuals served as
      controls. RESULTS: Plasma levels of factor XIIIa (87.5% vs 117.7%, P < .001) and
      soluble thrombomodulin (36.6 vs 47.5 ng/L, P < .001) were lower, whereas plasma
      levels of vWF:Ag (2.66 vs 2.01 IU/mL, P < .001) and fibrinogen (4.3 vs 3.9 g/L, P
      < .05) were higher on admission compared to the stable phase. In the stable
      phase, vWF:Ag (2.01 vs 1.43 IU/mL, P < .01) and soluble thrombomodulin (47.5 vs
      38.0 ng/mL, P < .05), but not FXIIIa levels, were higher in PE patients compared
      to healthy controls. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the concept of FXIIIa
      consumption during acute phase of VTE by showing its intraindividual
      normalization during the follow-up. vWF:Ag, known to be associated with the risk
      of VTE, was constantly elevated in the majority of the patients. Soluble
      thrombomodulin levels were lower in acute phase compared to stable phase, a
      finding which significance needs to be evaluated in the future.

PMID- 28868637
TI  - Clinical performance of self-assembling peptide P11 -4 in the treatment of
      initial proximal carious lesions: A practice-based case series.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical performance of
      self-assembling peptide P11 -4 on non-cavitated initial proximal carious lesions
      12 months after treatment. METHODS: Twenty-six patients, aged between 18 and 65
      years, with 35 carious lesions were included in this practice-based,
      uncontrolled, prospective case series. The opacity and size of the proximal
      lesions were evaluated visually at baseline and at day 360 using standardized
      single-tooth or bite-wing and digital-subtraction radiography. Pairwise
      evaluation of images was carried out in a randomized and blinded manner with
      respect to the time point. RESULTS: Twelve months after treatment of the proximal
      carious lesions, the visual evaluation showed a predominant shift toward
      regression of the initial lesions. Radiographic assessment yielded regression of
      the caries in 17 of 28 cases; four of 28 were regarded as unchanged, and seven of
      28 lesions showed progression of the carious lesion. Combined assessment of
      clinical radiographs and digital subtraction radiographs confirmed the
      radiographic assessment, with 20 of 28 lesions showing total or partial
      regression, four unchanged, and four progressing. CONCLUSION: Radiographic and
      digital subtraction analyses suggest that initial proximal carious lesions can
      regress after treatment with P11 -4, but additional factors might influence the
      overall treatment outcome.

PMID- 28868638
TI  - A Simple Local Correlation Energy Functional for Spherically Confined Atoms from
      ab Initio Correlation Energy Density.
AB  - We propose a simple method of calculating the electron correlation energy density
      ec (r) and the correlation potential Vc (r) from second-order Moller-Plesset
      amplitudes and its generalization for the case of a configuration interaction
      wavefunction, based on Nesbet's theorem. The correlation energy density obtained
      by this method for free and spherically confined Be and He atoms was employed to
      fit a local analytical density functional based on Wigner's functional. The
      functional is capable of producing a strong increase in the correlation energy
      with decreasing confined radius for the Be atom.

PMID- 28868639
TI  - Advanced immunocapture of milk-borne Salmonella by microfluidic magnetically
      stabilized fluidized bed.
AB  - The success of microfluidic immunocapture based on magnetic beads depends
      primarily on a sophisticated microscale separation system and on the quality of
      the magnetic immunosorbent. A microfluidic chip containing a magnetically
      stabilized fluidized bed (MUMSFB), developed for the capture and on-chip
      amplification of bacteria, was recently described by Pereiro et al.. The present
      work shows the thorough development of anti-Salmonella magnetic immunosorbents
      with the optimal capture efficiency and selectivity. Based on the corresponding
      ISO standards, these parameters have to be high enough to capture even a few
      cells of bacteria in a proper aliquot of sample, e.g. milk. The selection of
      specific anti-Salmonella IgG molecules and the conditions for covalent bonding
      were the key steps in preparing an immunosorbent of the desired quality. The
      protocol for immunocapturing was first thoroughly optimized and studied in a
      batchwise arrangement, and then the carrier was integrated into the MUMSFB chip.
      The combination of the unique design of the chip (guaranteeing the collision of
      cells with magnetic beads) with the advanced immunosorbent led to a Salmonella
      cell capture efficiency of up to 99%. These high values were achieved repeatedly
      even in samples of milk differing in fat content. The rate of nonspecific capture
      of Escherichia coli (i.e. the negative control) was only 2%.

PMID- 28868640
TI  - Finding "hard to find" literature on hard to find groups: A novel technique to
      search grey literature on refugees and asylum seekers.
AB  - There is a lack of information on how to execute effective searches of the grey
      literature on refugee and asylum seeker groups for inclusion in systematic
      reviews. High-quality government reports and other grey literature relevant to
      refugees may not always be identified in conventional literature searches. During
      the process of conducting a recent systematic review, we developed a novel
      strategy for systematically searching international refugee and asylum seeker
      related grey literature. The approach targets governmental health departments and
      statistical agencies, who have considerable access to refugee and asylum seeker
      populations for research purposes but typically do not publish findings in
      academic forums. Compared to a conventional grey literature search strategy, our
      novel technique yielded an eightfold increase in relevant high-quality grey
      sources that provided valuable content in informing our review. Incorporating a
      search of the grey literature into systematic reviews of refugee and asylum
      seeker research is essential to providing a more complete view of the evidence.
      Our novel strategy offers a practical and feasible method of conducting
      systematic grey literature searches that may be adaptable to a range of research
      questions, contexts, and resource constraints.

PMID- 28868641
TI  - Synthesis and Magnetic Properties of Trioxytriphenylamine Dimers in their
      Di(radical cationic) States.
AB  - Three structural isomers of trioxytriphenylamine (TOT) dimers, 4,4'''
      bis(2,2':6',2":6",6-trioxytriphenylamine) (4), 3,3'''-bis(2,2':6',2":6",6
      trioxytriphenylamine) (5), and 3,4'''-bis(2,2':6',2":6",6-trioxytriphenylamine)
      (6), have been prepared and their electronic and magnetic properties in their
      di(radical cationic) states have been investigated. These di(radical cationic)
      species can be handled under ambient conditions because of their high stability
      under aerated conditions even in solution. The X-ray crystal structure analysis
      demonstrated that the TOT moieties of all the di(radical cation)s have planar
      structures similar to that of the parent TOT radical cation 3+ . The UV/Vis
      spectra of the di(radical cation)s show characteristic absorptions depending on
      the connecting pattern. Thus, in the long-wavelength region (600-900 nm), 42+
      exhibits strong and broad characteristic absorptions, whereas compounds 52+ and
      62+ exhibit weak absorptions. Notably, in the 450-600 nm region, 52+ displays
      very similar absorptions (with twice the intensity) to 3+ , whereas small
      differences were observed for 62+ . Finally, we investigated in detail the
      magnetic properties of the corresponding di(radical cation)s by electron spin
      resonance spectroscopy and magnetic susceptibility measurements, which indicated
      intramolecular exchange interactions with a singlet ground state and a large
      singlet-triplet (S-T) gap for 42+ , a singlet ground state and a small S-T gap
      for 52+ , and a triplet ground state for 62+ .

PMID- 28868642
TI  - Assessing risk of bias in randomized controlled trials of methylphenidate for
      children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
AB  - To test how reliable the tool recommend by Cochrane Collaboration for assessing
      risk of bias systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials is in the context
      of methylphenidate for children and adolescents with attention deficit
      hyperactivity disorder. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate a
      unidimensional model for the 7 indicators, applied to 184 Randomized Clinical
      Trial (RCTs) within a 2015 Cochrane systematic review titled "Methylphenidate for
      children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder." A
      unidimensional model resulted in excellent adequacy indices, but only 2
      indicators had very high factor loadings and low measurement errors. In terms of
      content, the 7 indicators showed poor reliability (omega = 0.642); however, the
      set of indicators was precise in evaluating studies with a high amount of bias
      risk. The Cochrane model of risk of bias as it is, exhibited good fit indices but
      the majority of the items were not reliable to adequately capture risk of bias in
      the context of clinical trials of methylphenidate for ADHD.

PMID- 28868643
TI  - Comparison of radiography and computed tomography to evaluate fractures of the
      canine tarsus.
AB  - Detection and accurate classification of traumatic tarsal fractures are important
      for identifying cases requiring surgical intervention. The aim of this
      prospective, experimental, methods comparison study was to directly compare the
      accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of tarsal computed tomography (CT), ten
      view and two-view digital radiographs for detecting traumatic fractures of the
      canine tarsus. The working hypothesis was that tarsal fractures would be detected
      with higher accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity using CT imaging compared to
      radiography, and a ten-view would be superior to a two-view radiographic study.
      Ten cadaver hind limbs of medium to large dogs received a CT scan and ten-view
      radiographic study before and after induction of fractures with a hydraulic
      press. All bones included in the radiographic images were assessed for fractures
      by two observers and gross dissection was used as the gold standard. The two-view
      radiographic study (dorsoplantar, lateromedial) was created from the ten-view
      study and reviewed 2 years later. All limbs sustained fractures, the most common
      locations were the talus and calcaneus (n = 7). The sensitivity of CT was greater
      than ten-view radiographic study (77% vs. 57%), while the specificity was similar
      (97% vs. 98%). The sensitivity and specificity of the ten-view and two-view
      radiograph studies were similar (57% vs. 55%; both 98%). Computed tomography
      images were reassessed postdissection to determine if failure to identify
      fractures resulted from observer error. Overall, CT was better than radiography
      for detecting fractures of the canine tarsus, however there was little
      improvement with ten-view compared to two-view radiographic studies.

PMID- 28868645
TI  - Parallel trade of pharmaceuticals: The Danish market for statins.
AB  - This paper investigates and quantifies the impact of parallel trade in markets
      for pharmaceuticals. The paper develops a structural model of demand and supply
      using data on price, sales, and the characteristics of statins in Denmark and
      simulates outcomes under a complete ban of parallel imports, keeping other
      regulatory schemes unchanged. There are two sets of key results. The first set
      focuses on price effects. On average, prices increase more in markets where the
      molecule has lost patent protection; wholesale prices for both generic and
      original products increase after competition from parallel importers is removed,
      but the final price paid by consumers (after deducting reimbursement) increases
      more for original products than for generics because most changes in wholesale
      prices are absorbed by the prevailing reimbursement rules. The second set of
      results reports the effects on market participants. My model takes into
      consideration consumers' preferences, allowing them to substitute between
      products. Prohibiting parallel imports induces consumers to substitute towards
      original products for which they have stronger preferences. In sum, banning
      parallel imports leads to (a) an increase in variable profits for original
      producers and a decrease for generic firms, (b) an increase in governmental
      health-care expenditures, and (c) a decrease in the welfare of Danish patients
      and firms.

PMID- 28868644
TI  - Plant-like bacterial expansins play contrasting roles in two tomato vascular
      pathogens.
AB  - Expansin proteins, which loosen plant cell walls, play critical roles in normal
      plant growth and development. The horizontal acquisition of functional plant-like
      expansin genes in numerous xylem-colonizing phytopathogenic bacteria suggests
      that bacterial expansins may also contribute to virulence. To investigate the
      role of bacterial expansins in plant diseases, we mutated the non-chimeric
      expansin genes (CmEXLX2 and RsEXLX) of two xylem-inhabiting bacterial pathogens,
      the Actinobacterium Clavibacter michiganensis ssp. michiganensis (Cmm) and the
      beta-proteobacterium Ralstonia solanacearum (Rs), respectively. The Cmm
      DeltaCmEXLX2 mutant caused increased symptom development on tomato, which was
      characterized by more rapid wilting, greater vascular necrosis and abundant
      atypical lesions on distant petioles. This increased disease severity correlated
      with larger in planta populations of the DeltaCmEXLX2 mutant, even though the
      strains grew as well as the wild-type in vitro. Similarly, when inoculated onto
      tomato fruit, DeltaCmEXLX2 caused significantly larger lesions with larger
      necrotic centres. In contrast, the Rs DeltaRsEXLX mutant showed reduced virulence
      on tomato following root inoculation, but not following direct petiole
      inoculation, suggesting that the RsEXLX expansin contributes to early virulence
      at the root infection stage. Consistent with this finding, DeltaRsEXLX attached
      to tomato seedling roots better than the wild-type Rs, which may prevent mutants
      from invading the plant's vasculature. These contrasting results demonstrate the
      diverse roles of non-chimeric bacterial expansins and highlight their importance
      in plant-bacterial interactions.

PMID- 28868646
TI  - Long-term pulmonary disease among Swiss childhood cancer survivors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary diseases are potentially severe late complications of
      childhood cancer treatment that increase mortality risk among survivors. This
      nationwide study assesses the prevalence and incidence of pulmonary diseases in
      long-term childhood cancer survivors (CCS) and their siblings, and quantifies
      treatment-related risks. METHODS: As part of the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor
      Study, we studied CCS who were diagnosed between 1976 and 2005 and alive at least
      5 years after diagnosis. We compared prevalence of self-reported pulmonary
      diseases (pneumonia, chest wall abnormalities, lung fibrosis, emphysema) between
      CCS and their siblings, calculated cumulative incidence of pulmonary diseases
      using the Kaplan-Meier method, and determined risk factors using multivariable
      logistic regression. RESULTS: CCS reported more pneumonias (10% vs. 7%, P =
      0.020) and chest wall abnormalities (2% vs. 0.4%, P = 0.003) than siblings.
      Treatment with busulfan was associated with prevalence of pneumonia (odds ratio
      [OR] 4.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-14.9), and thoracic surgery was
      associated with chest wall abnormalities and lung fibrosis (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.6
      10.7 and OR 6.3, 95% CI 1.7-26.6). Cumulative incidence of any pulmonary disease
      after 35 years of follow-up was 21%. For pneumonia, the highest cumulative
      incidence was seen in CCS treated with both pulmotoxic chemotherapy and
      radiotherapy to the thorax (23%). CONCLUSION: This nationwide study in CCS found
      an increased risk for pulmonary diseases, especially pneumonia, while still
      young, which indicates that CCS need long-term pulmonary follow-up.

PMID- 28868647
TI  - Symplastic epididymal leiomyoma with bizarre cytology.

PMID- 28868648
TI  - Improvement of Electrochemical Water Oxidation by Fine-Tuning the Structure of
      Tetradentate N4 Ligands of Molecular Copper Catalysts.
AB  - Two copper complexes, [(L1)Cu(OH2 )](BF4 )2 [1; L1=N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-bis(pyridin
      2-ylmethyl)-1,2-diaminoethane] and [(L2)Cu(OH2 )](BF4 )2 [2, L2=2,7-bis(2
      pyridyl)-3,6-diaza-2,6-octadiene], were prepared as molecular water oxidation
      catalysts. Complex 1 displayed an overpotential (eta) of 1.07 V at 1 mA cm-2 and
      an observed rate constant (kobs ) of 13.5 s-1 at eta 1.0 V in pH 9.0 phosphate
      buffer solution, whereas 2 exhibited a significantly smaller eta (0.70 V) to
      reach 1 mA cm-2 and a higher kobs (50.4 s-1 ) than 1 under identical test
      conditions. Additionally, 2 displayed better stability than 1 in controlled
      potential electrolysis experiments with a faradaic efficiency of 94 % for O2
      evolution at 1.58 V, when a casing tube was used for the Pt cathode. A possible
      mechanism for 1- and 2-catalyzed O2 evolution reactions is discussed based on the
      experimental evidence. These comparative results indicate that fine-tuning the
      structures of tetradentate N4 ligands can bring about significant change in the
      performance of copper complexes for electrochemical water oxidation.

PMID- 28868650
TI  - Joint Meeting of the Federation of European Physiological Societies and the
      Austrian Physiological Society with Participation of the Czech, French, Italian,
      Slovak, Slovenian, Swiss and Turkish Physiological Societies, Vienna, Austria,
      September 13th-15th, 2017.

PMID- 28868649
TI  - Microscopic findings in EUS-guided fine needle (SharkCore) biopsies with type 1
      and type 2 autoimmune pancreatitis.
AB  - The International Consensus Diagnostic Criteria (ICDC) for the diagnosis of
      autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) include the histological criterion that is based on
      either pancreatic core needle biopsies (CNBs) or surgical specimens. However,
      CNBs are difficult to obtain by endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). EUS fine-needle
      aspiration (EUS-FNA) cytology is usually not sufficient for the diagnosis of AIP,
      but may sometimes contain tissue microfragments. Another approach is EUS-guided
      histological fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB), using needles such as the SharkCore or
      ProCore needle. Published data regarding EUS-guided SharkCore FNB for the
      diagnosis of AIP are lacking. We aimed to describe our histological findings in
      one type 1 and two type 2 AIP patients who underwent EUS SharkCore FNB. The EUS
      FNBs of two patients fulfilled the histological level 2 ICDC for type 1 AIP or
      type 2 AIP. The EUS-FNB of one patient fulfilled the histological level 1 ICDC
      for type 2 AIP. The tissue cylinders and fragments measured 55, 28 and 17 mm in
      total. At least histological level 2 ICDC were fulfilled in all cases, and our
      findings regarding the utility of EUS SharkCore FNB for the diagnosis of AIP are
      therefore promising, but further studies based on larger numbers of patients are
      warranted.

PMID- 28868651
TI  - The effects of preterm birth on visual development.
AB  - Children born very preterm are at a greater risk of abnormal visual and
      neurological development when compared to children born at full term. Preterm
      birth is associated with retinopathy of prematurity (a proliferative retinal
      vascular disease) and can also affect the development of brain structures
      associated with post-retinal processing of visual information. Visual deficits
      common in children born preterm, such as reduced visual acuity, strabismus,
      abnormal stereopsis and refractive error, are likely to be detected through
      childhood vision screening programs, ophthalmological follow-up or optometric
      care. However, routine screening may not detect other vision problems, such as
      reduced visual fields, impaired contrast sensitivity and deficits in cortical
      visual processing, that may occur in children born preterm. For example, visual
      functions associated with the dorsal visual processing stream, such as global
      motion perception and visuomotor integration, may be impaired by preterm birth.
      These impairments can continue into adolescence and adulthood and may contribute
      to the difficulties in learning (particularly reading and mathematics),
      attention, behaviour and cognition that some children born preterm experience.
      Improvements in understanding the mechanisms by which preterm birth affects
      vision will inform future screening and interventions for children born preterm.

PMID- 28868652
TI  - Challenges of treatment of acutely ill patients enrolled in a managed alcohol
      program.

PMID- 28868653
TI  - Metabonomic analysis of serum reveals antifatigue effects of Yi Guan Jian on
      fatigue mice using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.
AB  - Yi Guan Jian (YGJ), one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines,
      has been reported to possess significant antifatigue effects. However, the
      mechanisms underlying its antifatigue effects remain largely unresolved. In this
      study, a metabonomics approach, involving gas chromatography coupled to mass
      spectrometry and a multivariate statistical technique, was developed to estimate
      the extent to which YGJ alleviated the exhausting swimming-induced fatigue of
      mice. High-dose treatment with YGJ significantly extended the swimming time of
      fatigued mice. Significant alterations of metabolites involving amino acids,
      organic acids and carbohydrates were observed in the serum of fatigued mice,
      which were reversed by YGJ treatment while biochemical indexes returned to
      normal. These metabolic changes suggest that the antifatigue effect of YGJ is
      associated with the impairement of amino acid, organic acids and carbohydrates.
      It also appears that YGJ can induce significant metabolic alterations independent
      of the exhausting swimming-induced metabolic changes. The significantly altered
      metabolites induced by YGJ intervention include l-2-amino-acetoacetate, taurine,
      fumaric acid, malic acid, oxoadipic acid and l-aspartate, all of which are
      associated with antifatigue properties. This suggests that YGJ exerts
      chemopreventive effects via antifatigue mechanisms.

PMID- 28868655
TI  - Hydrosulfonylation Reaction with Arenesulfonyl Chlorides and Tetrahydrofuran:
      Conversion of Terminal Alkynes into Cyclopentylmethyl Sulfones.
AB  - An efficient and simple radical chain reaction to convert terminal alkynes into
      arenesulfonylmethylcyclopentanes is described. The reaction involves a radical
      addition-translocation-cyclization process and necessitates solely the use of
      readily available arenesulfonyl chlorides in tetrahydrofuran. Interestingly, this
      radical-mediated C-H activation process took place with a high level of retention
      of configuration when an enantiomerically pure starting material was used.

PMID- 28868654
TI  - Impact of the OATP1B1 c.521T>C single nucleotide polymorphism on the
      pharmacokinetics of exemestane in healthy post-menopausal female volunteers.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: OATP1B1 mediates the transport of a diverse range of
      amphiphilic organic compounds that include bile acids, steroid conjugates and
      hormones. This retrospective pharmacogenetic study was conducted to assess the
      impact of the OATP1B1 c.521T>C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on the
      pharmacokinetics of the steroidal aromatase inhibitor drug exemestane in healthy
      volunteers. METHODS: Exemestane (25 mg) was administered orally to 14 healthy
      post-menopausal women. All of the 14 subjects were sampled for pharmacokinetic
      (PK) analyses and retrospectively genotyped for OATP1B1 c.521T>C (rs 4149056).
      RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Of the 14 subjects enrolled in the study, five were
      carriers of the minor C allele (OATP1B1 c.521TC+CC) and the remaining nine were
      carriers of the OATP1B1 c.521TT genotype. PK was assessed over 8 hours post
      dosing. Our results showed statistically significant differences (P=.04) in the
      plasma exemestane AUC0-8 between the OATP1B1 genotype groups. Our data also
      showed statistically significant differences (P=.04) in the plasma AUC0-8 of 17
      hydroexemestane (the major biologically active metabolite) between the OATP1B1
      genotype groups. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the OAPTP1B1
      c.521T>C SNP may influence exemestane pharmacokinetics in humans.

PMID- 28868657
TI  - Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Architectures Derived from Surface-Mounted Metal
      Organic Framework Membranes for Enhanced Electrocatalysis.
AB  - Inspired by the rapid development of metal-organic-framework-derived materials in
      various applications, a facile synthetic strategy was developed for fabrication
      of 3D hierarchical nanoarchitectures. A surface-mounted metal-organic framework
      membrane was pyrolyzed at a range of temperatures to produce catalysts with
      excellent trifunctional electrocatalytic efficiencies for the oxygen reduction,
      hydrogen evolution, and oxygen evolution reactions.

PMID- 28868656
TI  - Paradoxical prognostic impact of TERT promoter mutations in gliomas depends on
      different histological and genetic backgrounds.
AB  - AIMS: The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical significance of
      telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations in gliomas. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: We used DNA sequencing data to analyze 887 gliomas for TERT promoter
      mutations based on histological and genetic backgrounds. TERT promoter mutations
      were detected in 39.6% of low-grade gliomas, 40.3% of anaplastic gliomas, 44.7%
      of primary glioblastomas, 29.4% of secondary glioblastomas, and in 29.7% of
      Proneural, 38.6% of Neural, 41.8% of Classical, and 41.6% of Mesenchymal
      subtypes. Frequency of C250T mutation in recurrent gliomas was approximately half
      that in newly diagnosed gliomas. TERT exhibited improved prognosis when co
      occurred with isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) and 1p19q alteration, but
      experienced inverse survival in the Mesenchymal subtype or tumor protein p53
      (TP53) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) alteration. Furthermore, the
      five subtypes were classified based on the prognostic impact of the TERT mutation
      with different genetic backgrounds of glioma. CONCLUSION: We describe the TERT
      promoter mutation spectrum according to the histological, genetic, and molecular
      subtypes of glioma, which may aid in glioma subtype classification and have
      clinical implications.

PMID- 28868658
TI  - Bisoprolol-induced thrombocytopenia: A case report.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Thrombocytopenia, not associated with bone marrow
      primary disease, is a common clinical problem. The possibility of drug-induced
      thrombocytopenia must be considered, especially in hospitalized patients. Drugs
      can cause thrombocytopenia by several mechanisms including direct bone marrow or
      other organ toxicity, and immune reactions. CASE DESCRIPTION: We describe a
      patient presenting with thrombocytopenia likely related to bisoprolol. WHAT IS
      NEW AND CONCLUSION: We report a case of bisoprolol-induced thrombocytopenia which
      resolved with drug discontinuation and steroid therapy. We review the mechanisms
      involved in drug-induced immune thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28868659
TI  - Evaluating the heat-aggression hypothesis: The role of temporal and social
      factors in predicting baseball related aggression.
AB  - We examined the role that season progression and social threats play in the heat
      aggression hypothesis within Major League Baseball put forward by Reifman,
      Larrick, and Fein (1991). Box score data from 38,870 Major League Baseball games
      between the years of 2000 and 2015 was used to test the heat-aggression
      relationship, while accounting for temporal and social factors that may be
      simultaneously exerting influence on player behavior. Controlling for a number of
      other variables, we observed that the effect of temperature on aggressive
      behavior is partially contingent on the point of the season in which the game
      took place. Aggressive behavior was also more likely to occur when teams played
      divisional (compared to league and inter-league) rivals, however this
      relationship was contingent on season progression. We provide potential boundary
      conditions relating to the heat-aggression relationship, indicating this may not
      be a ubiquitous phenomenon.

PMID- 28868660
TI  - In vivo whole-blood T2 versus HbO2 calibration by modulating blood oxygenation
      level in the femoral vein through intermittent cuff occlusion.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the feasibility of estimating calibration constants (K
      and T2o ) in vivo for converting whole-blood T2 to blood hemoglobin oxygen
      saturation (HbO2 ) according to the Luz-Meiboom model, 1/T2=1/T2o+K(1-HbO2)2,
      where K and T2o are relaxivity and transverse relaxation time of fully saturated
      blood, respectively. METHODS: A range of HbO2 values was achieved in the
      superficial femoral vein with intermittent cuff occlusion in seven healthy adults
      (four males) to establish a calibration curve between blood T2 and HbO2 at 1.5T.
      HbO2 was derived via MR susceptometry, a technique previously validated, and the
      transverse relaxation time was quantified with an optimized T2 -prepared balanced
      steady-state free precession pulse sequence. To evaluate the accuracy of the in
      vivo calibration method, T2 and HbO2 were quantified in the superior sagittal
      sinus in six additional subjects and compared with susceptometry. RESULTS: Two
      sets of gender-specific calibration constants were derived, one for each gender
      corresponding to hematocrits of 0.47 +/- 0.02 for males and 0.38 +/- 0.01 for
      females, yielding K/T2o  = 41 Hz/260 ms and 26 Hz/280 ms, respectively. The in
      vivo calibration returned physiologically plausible superior sagittal sinus SvO2
      values (65 +/- 5% HbO2 ), and there was no significant difference between the
      results from the two methods (average difference -0.3% HbO2 ). CONCLUSION: The
      results show feasibility of performing in vivo calibration for converting whole
      blood T2 to HbO2 . The proposed approach bypasses the involved and cumbersome
      processes associated with in vitro calibration. Magn Reson Med 79:2290-2296,
      2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

PMID- 28868661
TI  - Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Long-Term Intermittent Self-Catheterization with
      Hydrophilic-Coated and Uncoated Catheters in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury in
      Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the cost effectiveness of disposable, hydrophilic-coated
      catheters in Japan. METHODS: A Markov decision model previously applied in a
      European study was used to evaluate the cost effectiveness of intermittent self
      catheterization (ISC) with hydrophilic-coated catheters in Japanese spinal cord
      injury (SCI) patients suffering from chronic urinary retention from a lifetime
      perspective. To adjust the model to a Japanese setting, relevant Japanese data
      regarding the baseline risk of urinary tract infection (UTI), the average age at
      onset of SCI, costs, and general mortality were extracted from published
      literature, national statistics, or the opinions of Japanese experts. The direct
      medical costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and life years gained (LYG)
      were calculated from the payers' perspective. An annual discount rate of 2% was
      applied to both the costs and the effects. RESULTS: The incremental cost of
      hydrophilic-coated catheters was 1 279 886 yen (US$ 10 578 at an exchange rate of
      US$ 1 = 121 yen) per SCI patient, but they yielded an additional 0.334 QALYs and
      0.781 LYG compared with uncoated catheters. The incremental cost-effectiveness
      ratio (ICER) of hydrophilic-coated catheters vs. uncoated catheters was 3 826 351
      yen/QALY (US$ 31 623/QALY) gained and 1 639 562 yen/LYG (US$ 13 550/LYG).
      CONCLUSIONS: The ICER of 3.8 million yen (US$ 31 405) falls well within the
      Japanese societal willingness to pay per QALY gained; therefore, hydrophilic
      coated catheters can be considered highly cost-effective in Japan compared with
      uncoated catheters. However, because of the lack of relevant studies, a number of
      key parameters could not be based on Japanese data, and further research among
      people with SCI in Japan is recommended.

PMID- 28868663
TI  - Coping and Help-Seeking Behaviors for Management of Urinary Incontinence.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the coping strategies and help-seeking behaviors of women
      and men with urinary incontinence (UI). METHODS: In cross-sectional study, 156
      women and 106 men Turkish with UI were interviewed using a questionnaire covering
      29 questions. RESULTS: It was determined that 50.6% of women and 34.0% of men
      seek help in first for treatment of UI. Forty eight percent of men consulted a
      physician in the first 6 months after the UI occurred, 44.9% of women consulted a
      physician 2-5 years later after the UI occurred. Coping behaviors of both groups
      for management of the UI were as follows: keeping feet warm, performing hot
      application to perineum, reducing the amount of daily drinking water, using pad,
      cloth pads, restricting physical activity, refraining from social life and
      praying etc. CONCLUSIONS: While women mostly do not prefer to seek medical advice
      for UI, men tend to go to doctors more often than women. Except for treatment
      seeking behaviors, both men and women are practicing coping methods for the
      management of UI such as going frequently to the toilet, keeping feet warm, hot
      application to perineum etc.

PMID- 28868664
TI  - Profile of consumers and their partners of a perinatal and infant mental health
      (PIMH) service in Australia.
AB  - The perinatal period is a time of great vulnerability for many women, in
      particular those with a range of psychosocial vulnerabilities and mental health
      risk factors. This paper outlines the psychosocial and mental health profile of
      consumers and their partners of a perinatal and infant mental health (PIMH)
      service in Australia. To establish the consumer profile, we analysed client
      vulnerabilities and demographical information maintained over a 6-year period for
      406 consumers. Consumer information, including mental health problems,
      psychosocial vulnerabilities and demographical information, was entered into a
      standalone database by the allocated clinicians upon service allocation and
      throughout treatment. The women accepted by PIMH presented with an average of
      nine different vulnerabilities. Frequently endorsed risk factors included
      depression (72.66%), anxiety (71.43%), comorbid depression and anxiety (58.13%),
      self-harm (past, 7.88%, present, 16.26%), a history of family mental health
      issues (39.66%), childhood trauma (57.88%), limited support (68.84%),
      relationship conflict with partners (38.92%) and financial stress (47.29%). The
      women's partners also presented with a range of vulnerabilities, in particular
      childhood trauma (34.11%) and mental health issues (30.81%). This study
      contributes to our understanding of the profile of vulnerable women in the
      perinatal period, and in particular contributes to the literature by highlighting
      that in addition to depression, anxiety, self-harm and trauma are also
      significant in PIMH service delivery.

PMID- 28868665
TI  - The impact of the non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like
      nuclear feature terminology in the routine diagnosis of thyroid tumours.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to the recent proposal of the non-invasive follicular thyroid
      neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear feature (NIFTP) category, the authors
      analyse the state of the art in the challenging diagnosis of follicular thyroid
      neoplasms in routine practice. METHODS AND RESULTS: A consecutive series of 200
      histological diagnoses, with complete cytological correlation, was analysed
      following the introduction of the NIFTP definition. The study was conducted in a
      general hospital with a high prevalence of thyroid benign nodules that accounted
      for approximately 60% of surgically-treated nodules. The significant incidence of
      the new NIFTP category was 7%. Concurrently, a gradual decrease of the follicular
      variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (fvPTC) was observed (3.5%). When
      evaluating the FNA biopsies within the NIFTP group, despite the systematic
      evaluation of nuclear crowding, enlargement, irregularities and clearing, the
      final cytological class was often indeterminate for malignancy (Thy3/III-IV,
      71%). At histology, the application of the semiquantitative NIFTP score for the
      evaluation of the PTC-like nuclear features was able to discriminate benign
      lesions (score 0/1) from fvPTC (score 2/3). A certain degree of overlapping still
      persisted between NIFTP and fvPTC (score 2) or between NIFTP and benign lesions
      (score 1). CONCLUSIONS: In the routine evaluation of FNA biopsies, the presence
      of subtle and questionable PTC-like nuclear features still remains a
      controversial aspect of the diagnostic workflow. Given that the NIFTP category
      was introduced to stratify the low-risk group of thyroid tumours more precisely,
      pathologists should force themselves to apply the nuclear score rigorously and to
      classify cases assigned a score of 1 as benign proliferations.

PMID- 28868667
TI  - Preparation of novel deuterated cyclosporin A standards for quantitative LC-MS
      analysis.

PMID- 28868666
TI  - Interactions among symbionts operate across scales to influence parasite
      epidemics.
AB  - Parasite epidemics may be influenced by interactions among symbionts, which can
      depend on past events at multiple spatial scales. Within host individuals,
      interactions can depend on the sequence in which symbionts infect a host,
      generating priority effects. Across host individuals, interactions can depend on
      parasite phenology. To test the roles of parasite interactions and phenology in
      epidemics, we embedded multiple cohorts of sentinel plants, grown from seeds with
      and without a vertically transmitted symbiont, into a wild host population, and
      tracked foliar infections caused by three common fungal parasites. Within hosts,
      parasite growth was influenced by coinfections, but coinfections were often
      prevented by priority effects among symbionts. Across hosts, parasite phenology
      altered host susceptibility to secondary infections, symbiont interactions and
      ultimately the magnitude of parasite epidemics. Together, these results indicate
      that parasite phenology can influence parasite epidemics by altering the sequence
      of infection and interactions among symbionts within host individuals.

PMID- 28868668
TI  - Green and Chamomile Teas, but not Acarbose, Attenuate Glucose and Fructose
      Transport via Inhibition of GLUT2 and GLUT5.
AB  - SCOPE: High glycaemic sugars result in blood-glucose spikes, while large doses of
      post-prandial fructose inundate the liver, causing an imbalance in energy
      metabolism, both leading to increased risk of metabolic malfunction and type 2
      diabetes. Acarbose, used for diabetes management, reduces post-prandial
      hyperglycaemia by delaying carbohydrate digestion. METHODS AND RESULTS: Chamomile
      and green teas both inhibited digestive enzymes (alpha-amylase and maltase)
      related to intestinal sugar release, as already established for acarbose.
      However, acarbose had no effect on uptake of sugars using both differentiated
      human Caco-2 cell monolayers and Xenopus oocytes expressing human glucose
      transporter-2 (GLUT2) and GLUT5. Both teas effectively inhibited transport of
      fructose and glucose through GLUT2 inhibition, while chamomile tea also inhibited
      GLUT5. Long term incubation of Caco-2/TC7 cells with chamomile tea for 16 h or 4
      days did not enhance the observed effects, indicating that inhibition is acute.
      Sucrase activity was directly inhibited by green tea and acarbose, but not
      chamomile. CONCLUSION: These findings show that chamomile and green teas are
      potential tools to manage absorption and metabolism of sugars with efficacy
      against high sugar bolus stress inflicted, for example, by high fructose syrups,
      where the drug acarbose would be ineffective.

PMID- 28868669
TI  - Attributes of Bio-Oss(r) and Moa-Bone(r) graft materials in a pilot study using
      the sheep maxillary sinus model.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of this pilot study was to characterize surface
      morphology and to evaluate resorption and osseous healing of two deproteinated
      bovine bone graft materials after sinus grafting in a large animal model.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Surfaces of a novel particulate bovine bone graft, Moa
      Bone(r) were compared with Bio-Oss(r) using scanning electron microscopy. Six
      sheep then had maxillary sinus grafting bilaterally, covered with BioGide(r) .
      Grafted maxillae were harvested after 4, 6 and 12 weeks. Healing was described
      for half of each site using resin-embedded ground sections. For the other half,
      paraffin-embedded sections were examined using tartrate resistant acid
      phosphatase staining for osteoclast activity, runt-related transcription factor2
      immunohistochemistry for pre-osteoblasts and osteoblasts and proliferating cell
      nuclear antigen for proliferative cells. RESULTS: Moa-Bone(r) had a smoother,
      more porous fibrous structure with minimal globular particles compared with Bio
      Oss(r) . After 4 weeks, woven bone formed on both grafts and the Moa-Bone(r)
      particles also showed signs of resorption. After 12 weeks, Moa-Bone(r) continued
      to be resorbed, however Bio-Oss(r) did not; both grafts were surrounded by
      maturing lamellar bone. Moa-Bone(r) was associated with earlier evidence of runt
      related transcription factor 2-positive cells. Moa-Bone(r) but not Bio-Oss(r) was
      associated with strong tartrate resistant acid phosphatase-positive osteoclasts
      on the graft surface within resorption lacunae at both 4 and 6 weeks post
      grafting. CONCLUSION: Both materials supported osseous healing and maturation
      without inflammation. Moa-Bone(r) showed marked osteoclast activity after 4 and 6
      weeks and demonstrated positive attributes for grafting, if complete remodeling
      of the graft within the site is desired. Further optimization of Moa-Bone(r) for
      maxillofacial applications is warranted.

PMID- 28868670
TI  - Practising drinking, practising health.

PMID- 28868671
TI  - The Oxidation of Hydrophobic Aromatic Substrates by Using a Variant of the P450
      Monooxygenase CYP101B1.
AB  - The cytochrome P450 monooxygenase CYP101B1, from a Novosphingobium bacterium is
      able to bind and oxidise aromatic substrates but at a lower activity and
      efficiency than norisoprenoids and monoterpenoid esters. Histidine 85 of CYP101B1
      aligns with tyrosine 96 of CYP101A1, which, in the latter enzyme forms the only
      hydrophilic interaction with its substrate, camphor. The histidine residue of
      CYP101B1 was mutated to phenylalanine with the aim of improving the activity of
      the enzyme for hydrophobic substrates. The H85F mutant lowered the binding
      affinity and activity of the enzyme for beta-ionone and altered the oxidation
      selectivity. This variant also showed enhanced affinity and activity towards
      alkylbenzenes, styrenes and methylnaphthalenes. For example the rate of product
      formation for acenaphthene oxidation was improved sixfold to 245 nmol per nmol
      CYP per min. Certain disubstituted naphthalenes and substrates, such as
      phenylcyclohexane and biphenyls, were oxidised with lower activity by the H85F
      variant. Variants at H85 (A and G) designed to introduce additional space into
      the active site so as to accommodate these larger substrates did not improve the
      oxidation activity. As the H85F mutant of CYP101B1 improved the oxidation of
      hydrophobic substrates, this residue is likely to be in the substrate binding
      pocket or the access channel of the enzyme. The side chain of the histidine might
      interact with the carbonyl groups of the favoured norisoprenoid substrates of
      CYP101B1.

PMID- 28868672
TI  - Comment on 'Small sample GEE estimation of regression parameters for longitudinal
      data'.
AB  - In longitudinal studies, the generalized estimating equation (GEE) estimator of
      the parameters of a marginal model is known to be consistent even if the working
      intra-subject covariance matrix is incorrectly specified. Recently, a small
      sample correction for the bias of the GEE estimator has been proposed. We show
      that this correction formula relies on the correct specification of the working
      intra-subject covariance matrix. We provide a revised formula that is valid under
      misspecification and develop the R package 'BCgee' to ease the practical use of
      the formula. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28868673
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28868674
TI  - A new species of Astyanax (Characiformes: Characidae) from Dolina Agua Milagrosa,
      Rio Paraguai basin, Mato Grosso, Brazil.
AB  - A new species of Astyanax is described from the upper Rio Paraguai basin, Mato
      Grosso State, Brazil. The new species can be distinguished from congeners by
      having the body intensely yellowish in life (v. silvery, reddish or lightly
      yellow) and by morphometric and meristics traits. Astyanax dolinae n. sp. cannot
      be assigned to any of the Astyanax species complex currently recognized for the
      genus. It is only known from the Dolina Agua Milagrosa, a karstic sinkhole lake,
      entirely fed by groundwater, surrounded by Cerrado, the savannah-like vegetation
      of central South America.

PMID- 28868675
TI  - Can We Develop a Permanent Pulsatile Rotary Blood Pump? Yes, We Can.
AB  - Active U.S. participation in the development of artificial heart technology began
      in 1966 with the award of six contracts. Since that beginning, and continuing to
      this day, we have been asking the same question, "Can we develop a system to take
      the place of a natural heart?" There are four formidable barriers that must be
      overcome before success can be achieved: technological development (Can the
      system perform as designed?); economic challenges (Can we finance the
      development?); regulatory hurdles (Can we get it approved for general use?); and
      acceptance (Will it be used, and will society accept it for what it is?). After
      30 years, all but the last barrier has been overcome.

PMID- 28868676
TI  - A Ferrofluidic Seal Specially Designed for Rotary Blood Pumps.
AB  - One of the key technologies required for rotary blood pumps is sealing of the
      motor shaft. A ferrofluidic seal was developed for an axial flow pump. The seal
      body was composed of a plastic magnet and two pole pieces. This seal was formed
      by injecting ferrofluid into the gap between the pole pieces and the motor shaft.
      To contain the ferrofluid in the seal and to minimize the possibility of
      ferrofluid making contact with blood, a shield with a small cavity was provided
      on the pole piece. Sealing pressure of the seal was measured. The sealing
      pressure was maintained at more than 23.3 kPa (175 mm Hg) for a motor speed up to
      11,000 rpm. The specially designed ferrofluidic seal for sealing out liquids is
      useful for axial flow blood pumps.

PMID- 28868677
TI  - Biventricular Bypass with Oxygenation for Postcardiotomy Ventricular Failure.
AB  - Between January 1984 and March 1995, biventricular bypass (BVB) with oxygenation
      was used in 17 patients for postcardiotomy ventricular failure at the Heart
      Institute of Japan, Tokyo Women's Medical College. Of the 17 patients, 12 (70.6%)
      were weaned from the circulatory support, and 8 (47.1%) were discharged from the
      hospital. The time interval from the end of cardiopulmonary bypass to the start
      of BVB was significantly shorter in weaned patients than in unweaned patients.
      The duration on support also has been shortened significantly in the last 6
      years, compared with the earlier 6 years. Causes of death were severe heart
      failure or ventricular arrhythmia in 6 patients and multiple organ failure in 3
      patients. These results suggest that early application and timely weaning from
      biventricular bypass with oxygenation might be the effective circulatory support
      of choice for treatment of postcardiotomy ventricular failure.

PMID- 28868678
TI  - Hemodynamic System Analysis of Intraarterial Microaxial Pumps In Vitro and In
      Vivo.
AB  - Because of the lack of a sophisticated pump management system, the performance of
      the Hemopump in patients cannot be assessed successfully. To clarify the
      interrelationship between an intravascular nonpulsatile pump and a pulsating
      ventricle, an in vitro study was set up under controlled conditions. Before these
      in vitro experiments, a series of in vivo experiments were performed in sheep
      using Hp31 cannulae. As anticipated, the resulting pulsatile pump flow was a
      function of the momentary pressure difference across the pump. This varying pump
      flow showed a significant flow loop hysteresis, indicating that the pressure
      difference across the pump is not the only parameter governing momentary pump
      flow of a rotary pump operating at constant speed in a pulsatile environment.
      Furthermore, flow in the Hp31 was significantly influenced by the inflow
      situation, blood supply, size of the ventricular cavity, and shape and position
      of the inflow cannula within the ventricle. Pulsatile flow conditions with good
      as well as impaired inflow into the pump were accordingly simulated in vitro to
      verify the in vivo measurements, to characterize the various inflow conditions,
      and to discuss methods of improved pump management. As a result of the in vivo
      and in vitro experiments, one can rely on the measurement of nonpulsatile in
      vitro flow and pressure differences across the pump to characterize the momentary
      pump flow for good inflow conditions into the pump. For these situations, the
      flow hysteresis produced, caused by fluid inertia within the pump and cannula,
      can be neglected. In contrast, for an impaired inflow situation, the calculated
      pump flow based on pressure difference measurements can be misleading.
      Consequently, an improved pump management system is required to adjust the pump
      speed, the pump performance, to any kind of impaired inflow.

PMID- 28868679
TI  - Transcutaneous Energy Transfer with Voltage Regulation for Rotary Blood Pumps.
AB  - Rotary blood pumps often require a constant operating voltage. To meet this
      requirement and to eliminate the need for percutaneous leads, a voltage-regulated
      transcutaneous energy transfer (TET) system has been developed. Voltage
      regulation is achieved by using a transcutaneous infrared feedback control loop
      operating on a 890 nanometer (nm) wavelength. In vitro testing of the system
      developed has shown that output voltage can be maintained to within 0.2 V of
      nominal (14.5 V) for delivered powers up to 50 watts (W) and coil separations of
      between 3 and 10 mm. Power transfer efficiencies were determined to be from 68%
      to 72% over the tested range of coil separations and output currents from 1.5 to
      3.6 amperes (A). This system has demonstrated acceptable performance in
      regulating output voltage while transferring power inductively without using
      percutaneous connections. By integrating this type of TET system with an
      implanted rotary blood pump, the quality of life for the device recipient could
      be improved.

PMID- 28868680
TI  - Numerical Simulation of Nonpulsatile Left Ventricular Bypass.
AB  - A computer simulation was carried out to investigate the influence of
      nonpulsatile left ventricular assistance on hemodynamics. A simulation circuit
      was constructed to represent the circulatory system. A source of current was
      added to denote the nonpulsatile blood pump. The left and right ventricles were
      replaced by variable compliances. Left heart failure was simulated by decreasing
      the amount of compliance change of the left ventricle. We introduced a
      pulsatility indicator (PI) to clarify the pulsatility characteristics in the
      hemodynamics; this PI was defined as the ratio of the pulse pressure (PP) to the
      mean aortic pressure (AoP). When nonpulsatile bypass flow increased, the mean
      AoP, tension time index (TTI), and diastolic pressure time index (DPTI)
      increased, and cardiac output, PP, and PI decreased. When assisted flow increased
      with the constant total flow rate, the mean AoP and DPTI changed little; the PP,
      TTI, and PI decreased, and the endocardial viability rate increased. The PI would
      be helpful in evaluating the effect of pulsatility.

PMID- 28868682
TI  - Role of the BioMedicus Pump and Distal Aortic Perfusion in Thoracoabdominal
      Aortic Aneurysm Repair.
AB  - We reviewed the role of the BioMedicus pump in the reduction of neurologic
      complications following the repair of Type 1 and Type 2 thoracoabdominal aortic
      aneurysms. Since 1991, we have used several different methods for the repair of
      thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms including simple cross-clamping, selective use
      of the BioMedicus pump, cardiopulmonary bypass with or without profound
      hypothermia, and most recently, distal aortic perfusion using the BioMedicus pump
      combined with cerebral spinal fluid drainage. This latter method has been the
      most promising in rectifying the side effects of aortic clamping and in providing
      the time necessary for thorough thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. On our
      service, the ongoing study of the BioMedicus pump and distal aortic perfusion in
      conjunction with cerebral spinal fluid drainage has shown that these adjuncts can
      extend the tolerance of the spinal cord to ischemia and lower the overall rate of
      neurologic complications for Type 1 and Type 2 thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm
      repairs to a rate of 5% (early results) and 3% (late results). We highly
      recommend distal aortic perfusion using the BioMedicus pump combined with
      cerebral spinal fluid drainage for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

PMID- 28868681
TI  - Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation as a Bridge to Cardiac Transplantation in
      Children.
AB  - The feasibility and efficacy of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a
      bridge to cardiac transplantation was examined in 6 pediatric patients who
      suffered irreversible myocardial failure after undergoing surgery for congenital
      heart defects. The mean time of ECMO support was 260.5 h, range, 101-402 h. Three
      patients underwent transplantation, 2 of whom are long-term survivors.
      Progressive hypotension as a result of capillary leak syndrome precluded further
      ECMO support in the other 3 patients. Overall, 2 of the 6 patients survived.
      Major complications were encountered in 4 patients including bleeding in 2, a
      seizure in 1, and renal failure in 3, 2 of whom recovered renal function after
      transplantation. Infection did not occur in any of the 6 patients. Exchanging
      ECMO components was performed with no difficulties; these exchanges included a
      centrifugal pump once for 2 patients and a membrane oxygenator once for 3
      patients. Our results indicate that ECMO can safely keep critically ill pediatric
      transplant candidates alive for more than 1 week with a low incidence of multiple
      organ failure.

PMID- 28868683
TI  - Clinical Application of a Newly Developed Autoflow Control System for the Terumo
      Centrifugal Pump: From External Control to Built-in Direct Control.
AB  - We have developed an autoflow control system for the Terumo Capiox centrifugal
      pump, the SP-101. First, we made an external control system regulated by a
      personal computer through a serial communications line. Although an in vivo
      experiment using a goat showed excellent performance in regulating the flow, a
      communication error that caused an abrupt and instantaneous flow fluctuation was
      noted occasionally. Therefore, we incorporated a check-sum function to solve this
      problem. After this improvement, 5 patients safely underwent cardiopulmonary
      bypass using a pump having this autoflow control. As the next step for more
      practical usage, we developed a built-in autoflow control system in which the
      control device is entirely incorporated into the console without a communications
      line. This system demonstrated better response and reliability than the external
      control system and was applied successfully in 3 patients. In conclusion, this
      autoflow mode will expand the usage of centrifugal pumps through improved
      handling.

PMID- 28868685
TI  - A Magnetically Suspended and Hydrostatically Stabilized Centrifugal Blood Pump.
AB  - A magnetically suspended centrifugal blood pump intended for application as a
      long-term implantable ventricular assist device has been built and tested. The
      rotor is freely suspended in the blood by magnetic and hydrostatic restoring
      forces. This design obviates the need for bearings and shaft seals, and
      eliminates the problems of reliability and thrombogenicity associated with them.
      The positional stability and hydrodynamic performance of the pump has been
      characterized in vitro at flows of up to 10 L/min at physiologic pressures.
      Radial position control is realized by an analog electronic feedback control
      system. The pressure distribution in the fluid surrounding the rotor provides
      dynamic control in the axial direction with no active feedback. Rotor excursion
      is less than 50 microns (MU) when the housing receives an impulse peaking at an
      acceleration of 40 g or upon sudden blockage of the flow. In vitro blood
      measurements indicate an acceptable level of hemolysis compared with that of a
      standard centrifugal pump.

PMID- 28868687
TI  - The Cleveland Clinic Rotodynamic Pump Program.
AB  - The Cleveland Clinic Foundation has developed a unique rotodynamic blood pump for
      future use as a permanent implant. This pump is small (2.5 +/- 2.5 inches) and
      requires an electric input power of 7 watts to produce 5 L/min of blood flow
      against 100 mm Hg at 3,000 rpm. Initial in vivo testing has confirmed in vitro
      function and shown low hemolysis. Endurance bench testing has exceeded 12 months
      of continuous function. This pump is the basis of an innovative ventricular
      assist system in which power is supplied by a tranocutaneous electrical
      transmission system, and pacer technology is used for both control logic and
      telemetry functions. The resulting system will be completed and tested under an
      NHLBI contract during the next 5 years.

PMID- 28868686
TI  - Controller for an Axial Flow Blood Pump.
AB  - A rotary blood pump inherently provides only one noninvasive "observable'"
      parameter (motor current) and allows for only one "controllable" parameter (pump
      speed). To maintain the systemic circulation properly, the pump speed must be
      controlled to sustain appropriate outlet Hows and perfusion pressure while
      preventing pulmonary damage caused by extremes in preload. Steady-state data were
      collected at repeated intervals during chronic trials of the Nimbus AxiPump
      (Nimbus, Inc., Rancho Cordova, California, U.S.A.) in sheep (n = 7) and calves (n
      = 12). For each data set, the pump speed was increased at increments of 500 rpm
      until left ventricular and left atrial emptying was observed by left atrial
      pressure diminishing to zero. The effect of decreasing preload was evaluated
      perioperatively by inferior vena cava occlusion at a constant pump speed. Fourier
      analysis established a relationship between changes in the pump preload and the
      power spectra of the pump current waveform. Based on these results, a control
      method was devised to avoid ventricular collapse and maintain the preload within
      a physiologic range. The objective of this controller is the minimization of the
      second and third harmonic of the periodic current waveform. This method is
      intended to provide a noninvasive regulation of the pump by eliminating the need
      for extraneous transducers.

PMID- 28868688
TI  - ISRP Presidential Address: Is It Really Possible To Support or Replace a Human
      Heart with a Mechanical Pump-a Human Heart-with all its Historical,
      Philosophical, and Emotional Importance?

PMID- 28868689
TI  - Development of a Pivot Bearing Supported Sealless Centrifugal Pump for
      Ventricular Assist.
AB  - Since 1991, in our laboratory, a pivot bearing-supported, sealless, centrifugal
      pump has been developed as an implantable ventricular assist device (VAD). For
      this application, the configuration of the total pump system should be relatively
      small. The C1E3 pump developed for this purpose was anatomically compatible with
      the small-sized patient population. To evaluate an-tithrombogenicity, ex vivo 2
      week screening studies were conducted instead of studies involving an
      intracorpore-ally implanted VADs using calves. Five paracorporeal LVAD studies
      were performed using calves for longer than 2 weeks. The activated clotting time
      (ACT) was maintained at approximately 250 s using heparin. All of the devices
      demonstrated trouble-free performances over 2 weeks. Among these 5 studies, 3
      implantations were subjected to 1-month system validation studies. There were no
      device-induced thrombus formations inside the pump housing, and plasma-free
      hemoglobin levels in calves were within the normal range throughout the
      experiment (35, 34, and 31 days). There were no incidents of system malfunction.
      Subsequently, the mass production model was fabricated and yielded a normalized
      index of hemolysis of 0.0014, which was comparable to that of clinically
      available pumps. The wear life of the impeller bearings was estimated at longer
      than 8 years. In the next series of in vivo studies, an implantable model of the
      C1E3 pump will be fabricated for longer term implantation. The pump-actuator will
      be implanted inside the body; thus the design calls for substituting plastic for
      metallic parts.

PMID- 28868690
TI  - Can We Develop a Nonpulsatile Permanent Rotary Blood Pump? Yes, We Can.
AB  - For many years, it was thought that nonpulsatile perfusion produced physiological
      and circulatory abnormalities. Since 1977, Yukihiko Nose and his colleagues have
      challenged this misconception. Toward that end, they did show that if a 20%
      higher blood flow uses more than that required for a pulsatile blood pump, then
      there would be no circulatory or physiological abnormalities. These experimental
      findings confirm that there is no difference in clinical outcome using either a
      pulsatile or nonpulsatile blood pump. Furthermore, the nonpulsatile rotary blood
      pump demonstrates efficient and reliable performance in various clinical
      situations. The nonpulsatile blood pump is a simple and reliable design that is
      manufactured easily and that has several desirable features. There is no need to
      incorporate heart valves, which are the most thrombogenic and blood trauma
      inducing component. A continuous flow pump does not require a large orifice
      inflow conduit and proves to be easier to implant in patients with minimal damage
      to the myocardium. There is no need to incorporate a compliance volume-shifting
      device, which is essential for a pulsatile blood pump. The nonpulsatile device is
      a continuous blood pumping system; therefore, the control system is simpler and
      more reliable than that of a pulsatile pump. Because of the rotary blood pump's
      structure, only one moving part is necessary for the blood-pumping motion. By
      using durable components for this moving part, a durable system becomes possible.
      Because the electrical motor operates continuously, the on-and-off motion
      required for a pulsatile pump is not necessary; therefore, it is a more efficient
      and durable system. Thus, this group is working on the development of a
      nonpulsatile blood pump as a permanently implantable assist device. To achieve
      this goal, it is necessary to incorporate seven features into the system: small
      size, atraumatic features, antithrombogenic features, antiinfection features, a
      simple and durable design, and low energy requirement with easy controllability.

PMID- 28868691
TI  - A Teaspoon Pump for Pumping Blood with High Hydraulic Efficiency and Low
      Hemolysis Potential.
AB  - Virtually all blood pumps contain some kind of rubbing, sliding, closely moving
      machinery surfaces that are exposed to the blood being pumped. These valves,
      internal bearings, magnetic bearing position sensors, and shaft seals cause most
      of the problems with blood pumps. The original teaspoon pump design prevented the
      rubbing, sliding machinery surfaces from contacting the blood. However, the
      hydraulic efficiency was low because the blood was able to "slip around" the
      rotating impeller so that the blood itself never rotated fast enough to develop
      adequate pressure. An improved teaspoon blood pump has been designed and tested
      and has shown acceptable hydraulic performance and low hemolysis potential. The
      new pump uses a nonrotating "swinging" hose as the pump impeller. The fluid
      enters the pump through the center of the swinging hose; therefore, there can be
      no fluid slip between the revolving blood and the revolving impeller. The new
      pump uses an impeller that is comparable to a flexible garden hose. If the free
      end of the hose were swung around in a circle like half of a jump rope, the fluid
      inside the hose would rotate and develop pressure even though the hose impeller
      itself did not "rotate"; therefore, no rotating shaft seal or internal bearings
      are required.

PMID- 28868692
TI  - Tandem Operation of a Turbo Blood Pump (BP-80-Type Centrifugal Pump) to Reduce
      Hemolysis.
AB  - When operating turbo blood pumps in tandem, the strength of shear stress is
      reduced, but the exposure duration of the stress is increased. The purpose of
      this experiment was to compare the degree of contribution of these two factors on
      hemolysis as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the tandem operation of
      turbo blood pumps. Tandem operation of two Bio-pumps (BP-80; Medtronics Bio
      medicus, Inc., Eden Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.A.) were compared with single
      operation of a BP-80 in in vitro hemolysis tests in three different driving
      conditions, that is, pumping heads of 200, 350, and 500 mm Hg under a pump flow
      rate of 5 L/min. The Allen's hemolytic indexes of the tandem operation at pumping
      heads of 200, 350, and 500 mm Hg were 0.014, 0.020, and 0.080 mg/dl,
      respectively. The hemolytic indexes of the single operation at pumping heads of
      200, 350, and 500 mm Hg were 0.014, 0.056, and 0.12 mg/dl, respectively. These
      results indicate that tandem operation is a useful method of reducing hemolysis
      with the BP-80 under high pumping heads and that the effect on hemolysis of
      exposure to higher shear stresses may be more serious than that of longer
      durations of exposure to shear stress in turbo blood pumps.

PMID- 28868693
TI  - Findlay Implantable Two-Stage Centrifugal Pump.
AB  - The Findlay centrifugal pump is unique in its two-stage pumping mechanisms and in
      its complementary interrelationship of the stages to each other and to the exit
      system, and it forms an extremely efficient unit. The first stage is a lift force
      pump as an inlet. The second and major stage is a shear force pump. Twenty-six
      prototypes, many multiply modified, have been hand fabricated, and most have had
      classic pump function analyses. Six pumps have demonstrated minimal hemolysis
      (3.5-5 h). At modest rotation speeds, it pumps water up to 10 L/min. Forty-four
      acute studies in normal dogs have been performed with the Findlay pump in a
      ventricular assist system. Blood flows through the pump ranged from 1.2 to 4.5
      L/min. The conclusion is that the Findlay pump has the ability to operate with
      low blood damage, performs at acceptable rotational speed with reasonable
      hydraulic and mechanical efficiency, and is small and implantable.

PMID- 28868694
TI  - Development of a Centrifugal Pump with Improved Antithrombogenicity and Hemolytic
      Property for Chronic Circulatory Support.
AB  - A centrifugal pump with a unique structure has been developed for chronic
      support. The pump is driven by a magnetic coupling and has no rotating shaft, no
      seal around the rotating part, and a balancing hole at the center of the impeller
      and the thrust bearing. The pump was improved in stepwise fashion to realize good
      antithrombogenicity and low hemolysis. The first pump, the National
      Cardiovascular Center (NCVC)-O, had an impeller with 4 rectangular and curved
      vanes; 6 triangularly shaped curved vanes were employed in the second model, the
      NCVC-1, to reduce trauma to the blood. In the third design, the NCVC-2, the
      central hole was enlarged, and the thrust bearing shoulder was rounded so that
      blood washing was enhanced around the impeller; stream lines also were smoothed
      for improved antithrombogenicity. The hemolytic property of the device was
      evaluated in vitro with heparinized fresh goat blood; hemolysis indexes of the
      NCVC-0, -1, and -2 were 0.05, 0.01, and 0.006 g per 100 L, respectively.
      Antithrombogenicity of the pumps was examined in animal experiments as a left
      heart bypass device in goats weighing 52-75 kg. Six NCVC-0 pumps were driven for
      14 to 33 (22.0 +/- 7.6) days in goats receiving the antiplatelet drug cilostazol
      orally. Four NCVC-I pumps ran for 1 to 80 (28.5 +/- 30.6) days with the same drug
      regimen in 2 cases and with no anticoagulation therapy in 2 cases. After 3
      preliminary 1-week tests of NCVC-2 pumps in animals, the pump was installed in 3
      goats; 2 pumps were still running on the 182nd and 58th pumping day.
      Intracorporeal implantation also was attempted successfully. The results indicate
      that this pump has promising features for chronic support although longer term
      and additional evaluations are necessary.

PMID- 28868695
TI  - Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics Techniques to Blood Pumps.
AB  - Present-day computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques can be used to analyze
      the behavior of fluid flow in a variety of pumps. CFD can be a powerful tool
      during the design stage for rapid virtual prototyping of different designs,
      analyzing performance parameters, and making design improvements. Computational
      flow solutions provide information such as the location and size of stagnation
      zones and the local shear rate. These parameters can be correlated to the extent
      of hemolysis and thrombus formation and are critical to the success of a blood
      pump. CFD-ACE, an advanced commercial CFD code developed by CFD Research
      Corporation, has been applied to fluid flows in rotary machines, such as axial
      flow pumps and inducers. Preprocessing and postprocessing tools for efficient
      grid generation and advanced graphical flow visualization are integrated
      seamlessly with CFD-ACE. The code has structured multiblock grid capability, non
      Newtonian fluid treatment, a variety of turbulence models, and an Eulerian
      Lagrangian particle tracking model. CFD-ACE has been used successfully to study
      the flow characteristics in an axial flow blood pump. An unstructured flow solver
      that greatly automates the process of grid generation and speeds up the flow
      simulation is under development.

PMID- 28868696
TI  - Greetings from the Honorary President of the International Society of Rotary
      Blood Pumps.

PMID- 28868697
TI  - A New Supportive Method for Aortic Aneurysm Surgery: Centrifugal Left Heart
      Bypass Combined with an Oxygenator and a Heat Exchanger.
AB  - A new supportive method of centrifugal left heart bypass with oxygenation was
      performed in 25 patients and compared with standard left heart bypass in 45
      patients. Femoro-femoral bypass was selected in another 6 patients because of the
      presence of a left atrial adhesion. Intraoperative complications related to
      standard left heart bypass, hypoxia, hypothermia, and ventricular fibrillation,
      were eliminated by using this method. This supportive method maintained good
      hemodynamics and improved the surgical result of extended thoracoabdominal aortic
      replacement. Hospital deaths decreased from 6.7% to 3.2%.

PMID- 28868699
TI  - Clinical Experience of Percutaneous Cardiopulmonary Support.
AB  - Recently, percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS) combined with femoro
      femoral bypass without reservoir has become valued because of its quick and easy
      application. We developed a fully preconnected compact integrated cardiopulmonary
      bypass (CPB) unit (priming volume of 250 ml) with a blind pore membrane
      oxygenator (Kuraray Menox) for PCPS. From 1990 to 1995, PCPS was performed in 49
      patients of whom 26 were weaned from support. In most cases, we applied this CICU
      in patients with no active bleeding (22 patients); in patients with active
      bleeding (n = 13), we used Medtron-ic's heparin-bonded close chest support pack
      (CCSP). Of these, PCPS was performed uneventfully for 2 h (median) in 8 elective
      cases; all of these patients were weaned or were switched to a left ventricular
      assist system (LVAS). In 8 urgent cases, such as those with low cardiac output
      syndrome, PCPS was performed for 4 days (median), 1 was weaned, and 2 CICU were
      cases switched to other procedures. In 32 cases of shock, 5 CICU patients were
      weaned, and 3 of them survived. Eight patients including 5 CICU patients and 1
      CCSP patient were switched to operation or LVAS, and 2 CICU patients remain
      alive. From these data, PCPS has been shown to support the patient's circulation
      in the acute phase and earn time to switch to operation or LVAS; the quick and
      easy set-up of the CICU can improve the clinical results. The use of the
      Medtronic device broadened the indication for PCPS. The CCSP enlarged the
      indication of PCPS but could not improve the results. To improve the results, a
      heparin-bonded surface is desired.

PMID- 28868698
TI  - Clinical Experience with the Nikkiso Centrifugal Pump.
AB  - The Nikkiso HPM-15 is a minimally sized centrifugal pump. Preliminary results
      regarding clinical use of this pump for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) procedures
      have been reported previously. Recently, we have managed some additional cases
      using a newly developed controller. This article reports our clinical experiences
      with the use of this pump. We have managed 23 cases with a Nikkiso centrifugal
      pump. Twenty-two patients underwent CPB and 1 patient with fulminant viral
      myocarditis underwent percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS). With this
      pump, the circuit was extremely easy to prepare and deaeration was achieved
      readily. Hemodynamics during CPB and PCPS were stable in all cases. The increase
      in serum-free hemoglobin levels during CPB with this pump was as low as that seen
      in preliminary tests. A decrease in the platelet count was observed after the
      initiation of CPB with this pump; however, platelet counts returned to
      preoperative values 7 days after surgery. Moreover, urine output during CPB with
      this pump was as high as that seen in preliminary tests. No abnormalities in
      renal or liver function occurred during CPB. It appears that this new centrifugal
      pump is safe and easy to operate, and we conclude that it is useful for CPB and
      PCPS.

PMID- 28868700
TI  - Clinical Use of Centrifugal Pumps and the Roller Pump in Open Heart Surgery: A
      Comparative Evaluation.
AB  - Centrifugal pumps have been used widely as the main pump in open heart surgery to
      reduce damage to blood elements and to reduce the activation of the coagulation
      system. The purpose of this study was the evaluation and comparison of the
      effects of two types of centrifugal pumps and of one type of roller pump on blood
      elements, the coagulation system, complements, and immunoglobulins. Two types of
      centrifugal pumps (Lifestream; St. Jude Medical, Chelmsford, Massachusetts; and
      BP-80; Medtronic, BioMedicus, Inc., Eden Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.A.) and one
      roller pump (Mera Co.) were used separately as the main pump for cardio-pulmonary
      bypass (CPB) in 29 patients. Platelet counts, lactate dehydrogenase, antithrombin
      III, thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), complements (C3, C4, and CH50) and
      immunoglobulins G, A, and M values were measured before and after CPB and
      compared. Values, except those for TAT, showed no significant difference among
      the three groups. The TAT values increased less in each of the centrifugal pump
      groups than in the roller pump group. This finding suggests that thrombin
      synthesis might be suppressed by the use of a centrifugal pump.

PMID- 28868701
TI  - A Calf Model for Left Ventricular Centrifugal Mechanical Assist.
AB  - The increased use of centrifugal mechanical assist (CMA) for treatment of
      refractory postcardiotomy cardiogenic shock highlights the need for experimental
      testing to improve clinical results. This report describes the preoperative
      conditioning, anesthetic and surgical technique, and postoperative management of
      a reliable calf model refined in this laboratory for in vivo sub-chronic (96 h)
      testing of CMA. Holstein bull calves (2 to 3 months old; mean body weight, 78 kg;
      n = 35) were instrumented for left ventricular CMA; 4 of these calves were sham
      operated controls. Anesthetic recovery and postoperative restraint were
      accomplished in a specially designed crate to which each calf was preconditioned
      extensively. Younger calves were more readily conditioned and more tolerant of
      postoperative restraint than older calves. One calf died of ventricular
      fibrillation in-traoperatively. One calf that had been heparinized developed
      uncontrollable hemothorax and died 12 h postoperatively. One calf prematurely
      dislodged his aortic cannula 15 h postoperatively and exsanguinated. Six calves
      developed pelvic limb paresis or paralysis because of lumbar spinal cord
      thromboembolism by 36 h postoperatively, and 3 of these calves were sacrificed by
      42 h postoperatively. Fifteen calves required sedation in the first 12 h after
      the operation. Tachycardia associated with bottle feeding occurred in 15 calves.
      Second-degree atrioventricular block was noted frequently during deep relaxation.
      Postmortem examination demonstrated the absence of surgical wound and distant
      infection, security of cannulae in all but the calf that prematurely dislodged
      the aortic cannula, absence of thrombus formation at cannu-lation sites, and
      presence of thromboembolism in 51% of the calves. The incidence of thromboembolic
      lesions was not influenced by the need for chemical restraint, by the occurrence
      of feeding-associated tachycardia, or by the presence of atrioventricular block.
      There were no thromboembolic lesions in any of the sham-operated controls.

PMID- 28868702
TI  - Clinical Comparative Study of Cardiopulmonary Bypass with Nikkiso and BioMedicus
      Centrifugal Pumps.
AB  - The Nikkiso centrifugal pump was evaluated in elective adult open heard surgery
      in comparison with the BioMedicus pump. Ten patients using the Nikkiso pump
      (Group N), and 10 patients using the BioMedicus pump (Group B) were examined for
      (or to determine) hemato-biologic parameters and patient outcome data as well as
      pump controllability. During cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), both pumps maintained
      systemic perfusion satisfactorily without any mechanical adverse event. Rotation
      speed of the Nikkiso centrifugal pump (3,580 +/- 100 rpm) was significantly
      higher than that of the BioMedicus pump (3,170 +/- 100 rpm; p < 0.05) whereas
      changes in free plasma hemoglobin, platelet count, blood urea nitrogen, and
      creatinine levels showed no significant differences between the two groups. Urine
      output in Group N for 30 min after the initiation of CPB (7.10 +/- 1.50 ml/kg/h)
      was significantly higher than that in Group B (3.23 +/- 0.46 ml/kg/h; p < 0.05).
      Patient outcome data were similar in both groups, such as duration of intensive
      care unit stay, hospital stay, postoperative intubation time, amount of
      postoperative bleeding, and amount of blood transfused. These equivalent results
      with the BioMedicus pump suggested that the Nikkiso pump can be used in open
      heart surgery as a reliable and atraumatic CPB pump.

PMID- 28868703
TI  - The Heart-Hemopump Interaction: A Study of Hemopump Flow as a Function of Cardiac
      Activity.
AB  - The Hemopump is a useful left ventricular assist device. Because it is a rotary
      blood pump, the pump performance is not constant and is dependent on the cardiac
      cycle. We measured the static flow delivered by the pump at varying pressure
      heads (DeltaP) in a mock circulation. These data are compared to the pump
      performance in vivo. On the basis of these results, 5 sheep were instrumented for
      continuous Hemopump flow measurement as well as left ventricular and aortic
      pressure measurements. The Hemopump flow was relayed instantaneously to the
      pressure head. Low filling and ventricular failing (through intravenous
      administration of a beta-blocker) conditions were applied. The in vivo measured
      flows also are pressure head dependent, but the flow curve shows hysteresis
      resulting in a loop during each cardiac cycle. The in vivo peak flows (AP = 0)
      are similar to the in vitro data. The in vivo means flows (A 50 mm Hg) are
      similar to the in vitro data for the lower pump speeds but are less than that at
      the higher pump speeds (3.74 +/- 0.55 L/min in vivo at Speed 7 versus 4.6 L/min
      in vitro). Low filling interrupts the AP-flow loop and reduces flow. In the
      failing ventricle, AP increases and flow is reduced. The cannula leaks and
      results in aortic insufficiency (0.36 +/- 0.05 L/min) when the pump is turned
      off. Several conclusions have been drawn from these tests: Cardiac activity is
      beneficial for the pump performance as well as when the aortic pressure curve is
      nonpulsatile; the longer the systolic phase, the higher the pump flow; the pump
      should never be turned off in clinical use; and filling is important for the
      pump's performance.

PMID- 28868705
TI  - Summary of the Third Congress of the International Society for Rotary Blood
      Pumps, Houston, Texas, U.S.A., 1995.

PMID- 28868704
TI  - Effect of Pulsatile and Nonpulsatile Assist on Heart and Kidney Microcirculation
      with Cardiogenic Shock.
AB  - To estimate microcirculation of the heart and kidney in pulsatile and
      nonpulsatile-assisted circulation, a comparison study was done using a swine
      model. Acute myocardial infarction was made by ligation of the left coronary
      artery branches. After cardiogenic shock, animals were divided into 3 groups as
      follows: Group C (n = 6), no assist provided; Group NP (n = 6), assisted by a
      nonpulsatile pump (Bio-Medicus BP-80); Group P (n = 6), supported by a pulsatile
      pump (Nippon Zeon). Left coronary artery flow, endocardial and epicardial
      regional flows, and renal cortex and medulla tissue blood flows were measured.
      Left coronary artery flow and endocardial and epicardial tissue blood flows
      decreased in cardiogenic shock, and they recovered to the control level soon
      after support in both Group N and Group P. Renal medulla and cortex tissue blood
      flows decreased in cardiogenic shock, and these flows did not recover in either
      Group N or P. However, cortex blood flow in Group P did improve, but it did not
      improve in Group N. These results suggested that pulsatile assist was more
      effective than nonpulsatile assist for microcirculation after cardiogenic shock
      to avoid deterioration of major organ functions.

PMID- 28868706
TI  - Comparative Hemolysis Study of Clinically Available Centrifugal Pumps.
AB  - Centrifugal pumps have become important devices for cardiopulmonary bypass and
      circulatory assistance. Five types of centrifugal pumps are clinically available
      in Japan. To evaluate the blood trauma caused by centrifugal pumps, a comparative
      hemolysis study was performed under identical conditions. In vitro hemolysis test
      circuits were constructed to operate the BioMedicus BP-80 (Medtronic,
      BioMedicus), Sams Delphin (Sarns/3M Healthcare), Isoflow (St. Jude Medical
      [SJM]), HPM-15 (Nikkiso), and Capiox CX-SP45 (Terumo). The hemolysis test loop
      consisted of two 1.5 m lengths of polyvinyl chloride tubing with a 3/8 -inch
      internal diameter, a reservoir with a sampling port, and a pump head. All pumps
      were set to flow at 6 L/min against the total pressure head of 120 mm Hg.
      Experiments were conducted simultaneously for 6 h at room temperature (21o C)
      with fresh bovine blood. Blood samples for plasma-free hemoglobin testing were
      taken, and the change in temperature at the pump outlet port was measured during
      the experiment. The mean pump rotational speeds were 1,570, 1,374, 1,438, 1,944,
      and 1,296 rpm, and the normalized indexes of hemolysis were 0.00070, 0.00745,
      0.00096, 0.00066, 0.00090 g/100 L for the BP-80, Sarns, SJM, Nikkiso, and Terumo
      pumps, respectively. The change in temperature at the pump outlet port was the
      least for the Nikkiso pump (1.8o C) and the most with the SJM pump (3.8o C). This
      study showed that there is no relationship between the pump rotational speed
      (rpm) and the normalized index of hemolysis in 5 types of centrifugal pumps. The
      pump design and number of impellers could be more notable factors in blood
      damage.

PMID- 28868707
TI  - Characteristics of a Blood Pump Combining the Centrifugal and Axial Pumping
      Principles: The Spiral Pump.
AB  - Two well-known centrifugal and axial pumping principles are used simultaneously
      in a new blood pump design. Inside the pump housing is a spiral impeller, a
      conically shaped structure with threads on the surface. The worm gears provide an
      axial motion of the blood column through the threads of the central cone. The
      rotational motion of the conical shape generates the centrifugal pumping effect
      and improves the efficiency of the pump without increasing hemolysis. The
      hydrodynamic performance of the pump was examined with a 40% glycerin-water
      solution at several rotation speeds. The gap between the housing and the top of
      the thread is a very important factor: when the gap increases, the hydrodynamic
      performance decreases. To determine the optimum gap, several in vitro hemolysis
      tests were performed with different gaps using bovine blood in a closed circuit
      loop under two conditions. The first simulated condition was a left ventricular
      assist device (LVAD) with a flow rate of 5 L/min against a pressure head of 100
      mm Hg, and the second was a cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) simulation with a flow
      rate of 5 L/min against 350 mm Hg of pressure. The best hemolysis results were
      seen at a gap of 1.5 mm with the normalized index of hemolysis (NIH) of 0.0063 +/
      0.0020 g/100 L and 0.0251 +/- 0.0124 g/100 L (mean +/- SD; n = 4) for LVAD and
      CPB conditions, respectively.

PMID- 28868708
TI  - Pharmacologically Induced Heart Failure for the Evaluation of Circulatory
      Assistance.
AB  - For the evaluation of the hemodynamic interaction between the natural heart and
      an assist device, a reversible pharmacological model based on the channel blocker
      Verapamil under hyperkalemia, was developed for deterioration of left ventricular
      function. Four calves weighing 70-90 kg underwent standard implantation for left
      atrioaortal assist (BioMedicus, BP-80), pump anesthesia (oxygen/isoflurane [1%];
      8 mg/kg of BW/h keta-mine), and of ventricular demand pacing at 120 bpm. Left
      atrial pressure (LAP), ventricular pressure (LVP), aortic pressure (AoP),
      pulmonary arterial (Qpulm) pressures, and graft flow (Qgraft) were monitored. The
      hemodynamic effects of anesthetic overdose (2% Isoflurane) were compared with
      those of Verapamil (Isoptin: 0.2 mg/kg BW/h 5 mmol/kg of BW/h of KC1) medication.
      Both regimens caused a decrease in AoP to <=50%. For Isoflurane, a slight
      reduction in cardiac output (CO) of 10% at a nearly constant LAP and a strong
      decrease of the peripheral resistance (Rperi) of 35% could be seen where Isoptin
      caused a significant reduction in CO of 40% at an increased LAP (+ 25%) and
      changes in Rperi of <10%. Because the vascular tonus remains nearly constant, the
      hemodynamic effects are controllable and reversible (antagonized with calcium
      chloride); thus we conclude that Verapamil administration under hyperkalemia
      conditions is a proper model for mimicking congestive heart failure with low
      systemic side effects.

PMID- 28868709
TI  - Prototype Continuous Flow Ventricular Assist Device Supported on Magnetic
      Bearings.
AB  - This article describes a prototype continuous flow pump (CFVAD2) fully supported
      in magnetic bearings. The pump performance was measured in a simulated adult
      human circulation system. The pump delivered 6 L/min of flow at 100 mm Hg of
      differential pressure head operating at 2,400 rpm in water. The pump is totally
      supported in 4 magnetic bearings: 2 radial and 2 thrust. Magnetic bearings offer
      the advantages of no required lubrication and large operating clearances. The
      geometry and other properties of the bearings are described. Bearing parameters
      such as load capacity and current gains are discussed. Bearing coil currents were
      measured during operation in air and water. The rotor was operated in various
      orientations to determine the actuator current gains. These values were then used
      to estimate the radial and thrust forces acting on the rotor in both air and
      water. Much lower levels of force were found than were expected, allowing for a
      very significant reduction in the size of the next prototype. Hemolysis levels
      were measured in the prototype pump and found not to indicate damage to the blood
      cells.

PMID- 28868710
TI  - Wear-Resistant, Hemocompatible Ti-Nb-Zr and Zr-Nb Alloys to Improve Blood Pump
      Design and Performance.
AB  - Over the past several years, we have developed novel titanium-niobium-zirconium
      (Ti-Nb-Zr) alloys to address the long-term performance needs of orthopedic
      implants. The unique properties of these alloys also render them promising
      candidates for blood pumps. These properties include excellent biocompatibility
      in combination with high strength and toughness, and low elastic modulus (low
      stiffness). Additionally, these metal alloys are readily hot or cold worked into
      complex shapes including wire, foil, tubing, and bar. They are readily machined
      and polished, and they can be surface oxidized to form a hard, wear-resistant,
      low-friction ceramic surface layer. In this diffusion-hardened condition, oxygen
      also hardens the underlying metal to optimize the bone between the ceramic oxide
      surface and the tough metal substrate. Unlike metal surfaces, oxidative wear,
      which can alter surface energy, friction, and hemocompatibility, does not occur.
      Consequently, the combined benefits of a stable, wear-resistant, low-friction
      ceramic surface layer with the toughness, strength, formability, and thermal
      conductivity of metal may provide improvements in the design and performance of
      blood pumps and peripheral graft and percutaneous (power) components of the pump.

PMID- 28868711
TI  - Prediction of Hemolysis in Turbulent Shear Orifice Flow.
AB  - This study proposes a method of predicting hemolysis induced by turbulent shear
      stress (Reynolds stress) in a simplified orifice pipe flow. In developing
      centrifugal blood pumps, there has been a serious problem with hemolysis at the
      impeller or casing edge; because of flow separation and turbulence in these
      regions. In the present study, hemolysis caused by turbulent shear stress must
      occur at high shear stress levels in regions near the edge of an orifice pipe
      flow. We have computed turbulent shear flow using the low-Reynolds number k 
      epsilon model. We found that the computed turbulent shear stress near the edge
      was several hundreds times that of the laminar shear stress (molecular shear
      stress). The peak turbulent shear stress is much greater than that obtained in
      conventional hemolysis testing using a viscometer apparatus. Thus, these high
      turbulent shear stresses should not be ignored in estimating hemolysis in this
      blood flow. Using an integrated power by shear force, it is optimimal to
      determine the threshold of the turbulent shear stress by comparing computed
      stress levels with those of hemolysis experiments of pipe orifice blood flow.

PMID- 28868712
TI  - Relationship Between Pump Speed Design and Hemolysis in an Axial Flow Blood Pump.
AB  - In an attempt to reduce the hemolysis caused by axial flow blood pumps, we
      investigated whether the specific speed should be kept within the standard
      engineering range or whether pump speed should be minimized, thus making the
      specific speed beyond the standard range. Four pumps with 11.8 mm diameter
      impellers were designed to accommodate a flow of 5 L/min and a head of 100 mm Hg.
      The pumps were tested at 4 speeds: A, 14,000; B, 18,000; C, 22,000; and D, 26,000
      rpm. Pump performance data were obtained, and the maximum point of total pump
      efficiency was found for each pump. The maximum efficiencies were A, 50%; B, 58%;
      C, 52%; and D, 53%. The specific speed of each pump recorded at the maximum
      efficiency point was calculated as A, 899; B, 954; C, 1,218; and D, 1,951 rpm.
      Hemolytic tests were performed with fresh goat blood in a closed, mock-loop
      circuit. Hemolytic indexes were A, 0.036; B, 0.22; C, 0.35; and D, 0.66. We have
      concluded that decreased hemolysis is correlated with a lower pump speed and that
      the specific speed for the lowest pump speed is less than the standard range.
      Having a specific speed outside the standard range was not correlated with
      reduced total pump efficiency.

PMID- 28868713
TI  - Coronary Microcirculation During Left Heart Bypass with a Centrifugal Pump.
AB  - To estimate coronary microcirculation during left heart bypass (LHB), we
      performed an experimental comparison study of LHB and intraaortic balloon pumping
      (1ABP). LHB was performed with a BioMedicus BP-80 pump supporting half of the
      flow of cardiac output whereas the IABP was pumped in a 1:1 mode for cardiogenic
      shock in a swine model. Coronary circulations were analyzed by electromagnetic
      flowmeter, pulsed Doppler velocimeter, and laser Doppler flowmeter. Left
      ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) was reduced significantly by LHB.
      Although there was no significant difference in epicardial flow between the LHB
      and IABP groups, endocardial flow was increased significantly by LHB. In the LHB
      group, the systolic reverse wave of the coronary velocity called a myocardial
      invalid circulation was reduced remarkably. There was a significant inverse
      correlation between endocardial flow and LVEDP. These results suggested that LHB
      was more effective for myocardial microcirculation than was IABP.

PMID- 28868714
TI  - Evolution Toward the Development of Totally Implantable Rotary Blood Pumps.

PMID- 28868715
TI  - Effects of Surface Roughness on Mechanical Hemolysis.
AB  - Previous in vitro hemolysis test results showed that an inlet taper or a round
      corner in the leading edge of a stenotic connector played an important role in
      the reduction of hemolysis. However, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis
      of these results indicated that the shear rate and hemolysis level were not
      always related to each other. Then, further research was performed, focusing on
      the effects of surface roughness on hemolysis. The results thus far can be
      summarized as threefold. First, the rate of hemolysis occurring at an abrupt
      change in the stenotic section was different if the longitudinal length of the
      stenosis was changed. The level of plasma-free hemoglobin after 6 h of
      circulation was decreased from 280 mg/dl to 70 mg/dl when the longitudinal length
      was shortened from 15 mm to 1 mm. Second, a comparison of hemolysis rates in
      identical stenotic connectors with differing surface roughness (Ra = 0.45 and
      1.35 u.m) revealed that a smooth surface achieved as much as an 80% reduction in
      the rate of hemolysis. Third, the in vitro hemolysis results obtained were
      further defined through CFD analysis.

PMID- 28868716
TI  - Basic Performance of a Miniature Intraventricular Axial Pump.
AB  - A miniature intraventricular axial pump for left ventricular (LV) support is
      under development. This pump was designed for placement in the LV cavity by
      insertion through the LV apex with the outlet located at the ascending aorta via
      the aortic valve. The basic hydro-dynamic characteristics represented as a
      relationship between pump head (H) and flow (Q) showed a negative linear
      relationship under a constant head. This characteristic was generally the same as
      that obtained by other axial rotation pumps. However, the actual H-Q relationship
      was represented as anticlockwise "loops" caused by the contraction of the natural
      LV. The comparative in vitro data on these H-Q loops showed that the shape of the
      loops was changed drastically by the connecting condition between the pump and
      natural cardiovascular system.

PMID- 28868717
TI  - Estimating Mechanical Blood Trauma in a Centrifugal Blood Pump: Laser Doppler
      Anemometer Measurements of the Mean Velocity Field.
AB  - A laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) was used to obtain the mean velocity and the
      Reynolds stress fields in the inner channels of a well-known centrifugal vaneless
      pump (Bio-pump). Effects of the excessive flow resistance against which an
      occlusive pump operates in some surgical situations, such as cardiopulmonary
      bypass, are illustrated. The velocity vector field obtained from LDA measurements
      reveals that the constraint-forced vortex provides pumping action in a restricted
      area in the core of the pump. In such situations, recirculating zones dominate
      the flow and consequently increase the damage to blood cells and raise the risk
      of thrombus formation in the device. Reynolds normal and shear stress fields were
      obtained in the entry flow for the channel formed by two rotating cones to
      illustrate the effects of flow disturbances on the potential for blood cell
      damage.

PMID- 28868718
TI  - Using Hybrid Magnetic Bearings to Completely Suspend the Impeller of a
      Ventricular Assist Device.
AB  - Clinically available blood pumps and those under development suffer from poor
      mechanical reliability and poor biocompatibility related to anatomic fit,
      hemolysis, and thrombosis. To alleviate these problems concurrently in a long
      term device is a substantial challenge. Based on testing the performance of a
      prototype, and on our judgment of desired characteristics, we have configured an
      innovative ventricular assist device, the CF-VAD4, for long-term use. The design
      process and its outcome, the CFVAD4 system configuration, is described. To
      provide unprecedented reliability and biocompatibility, magnetic bearings
      completely suspend the rotating pump impeller. The CFVAD4 uses a combination of
      passive (permanent) and active (electric) magnetic bearings, a mixed flow
      impeller, and a slotless 3-phase brushless DC motor. These components are shaped,
      oriented, and integrated to provide a compact, implantable, pancake-shaped unit
      for placement in the left upper abdominal quadrant of adult humans.

PMID- 28868719
TI  - New Method of Evaluating Sublethal Damage to Erythrocytes by Blood Pumps.
AB  - We recently proposed a new concept, the total destruction time of erythrocytes,
      to indicate sublethal damage to erythrocytes by blood pumps. In this article,
      results of additional experiments concerning this new concept are reported. Five
      paired in vitro hemolysis tests with bovine blood were conducted using a cone
      type centrifugal pump (Group A) and an impeller-type pump (Group B). A total
      pressure head of 100 mm Hg was applied. The factors evaluated were the normalized
      index of hemolysis and the total destruction time, or the pumping duration,
      required to raise the level of the plasma-free hemoglobin to 50% of the total
      hemoglobin. The morphologic change of the erythrocytes also was analyzed. The
      percentage of crenated cells was calculated from blood smear specimens 1 min
      after starting the pumps and 2 h before the total destruction time of Group A in
      each experiment. Although there was no statistical difference in the normalized
      index of hemolysis between the two groups, the total destruction time of Group A
      erythrocytes was significantly shorter than that of Group B (18.9 +/- 4.5 h and
      33.7 +/- 9.9 h in Group A and group B, respectively; p < 2). The rate of crenated
      erythrocytes was higher in Group A than in Group B at a point 2 h before the
      total destruction time of Group A. The total destruction time values seem to
      define a good method for establishing sublethal traumatic damage to erythrocytes
      in blood pumps.

PMID- 28868720
TI  - Comparison of Centrifugal and Roller Pump Hemolysis Rates at Low Flow.
AB  - We compared in vitro rates of hemolysis for a recently developed centrifugal pump
      with a conventional roller pump (10-10-00; Stockert, Munich, Germany). Flow rates
      of 0.3 L/min and 1 L/min and a pressure of 200 mm Hg were chosen to simulate
      conditions during neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). There was
      no significant difference in hemolysis rates between centrifugal and roller pumps
      (p = 0.57) nor between high and low flow (p = 0.86). The centrifugal pump caused
      no more blood trauma than the roller pump at the low-flow/high-pressure
      conditions required for neonatal ECMO. The Nikkiso pump is superior to roller
      pumps in size and priming volume (25 ml) and may permit development of a smaller
      and simpler ECMO system.

PMID- 28868721
TI  - Experiences of Postcardiotomy Assist: Pneumatic Ventricular Assist Device or
      Venoarterial Bypass with Percutaneous Cardiopulmonary Support.
AB  - From October 1982 to the present, 16 patients have been supported by a pneumatic
      ventricular assist device (VAD). Since April 1990, we have introduced a
      venoarterial bypass (VAB) with percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS)
      system. This PCPS system was used in 12 patients. The long-term survival rate of
      PCPS cases (41%) was much better than that of VAD cases (19%). The main cause of
      death in VAD cases was multiple organ failure (MOF). Although VAB was initiated
      more recently than VAD, the duration on support was longer in the VAD group than
      in the VAB group. Because of the longer support duration and the presence of many
      patients with MOF, coagulopathy deteriorated more readily in the VAD group than
      in the VAB group. In the case of postcardiotomy cardiopulmonary bypass weaning or
      low-output syndrome (LOS), the VAB with PCPS system should be applied first under
      intraaortic balloon pumping assist because of its simplicity and low cost.
      Thereafter, VAD should be applied in cases refractory to VAB support.

PMID- 28868722
TI  - Subchronic Use of the St. Jude Centrifugal Pump as a Mechanical Assist Device in
      Calves.
AB  - The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of the St. Jude
      Lifestream centrifugal pump on hemodynamic and hematologic parameters and the
      incidence of postmortem findings in a subchronic ex vivo left ventricular assist
      animal model. Five calves were implanted with the pump as a left ventricular
      assist device (left atrial to thoracic aorta bypass) and studied for 96 h of
      continuous pumping under identical conditions. Heparin (100 IU/kg) was
      administered only in the initial saline pump prime. Throughout the protocol, mean
      arterial and central venous pressures averaged 102.1 +/- 4.6 and 3.4 +/- 2.2 mm
      Hg, respectively. Pump flow was 47.8 +/- 8.4 ml/kg/min at a mean pump speed of
      1,676.3 +/- 106.1 rpm. No clinical abnormalities or mechanical malfunctions
      attributable to the pump were detected during the 96 h of continuous pumping for
      each calf. Mean plasma-free hemoglobin after 96 h was 3.9 +/- 3.7 u, mol/L (p =
      0.337 compared to baseline). At post mortem, renal infarctions were detected in 1
      calf. No other pump-associated lesions were detected in any of the other calves.
      We have concluded that the St. Jude Lifestream centrifugal pump functions
      reliably during 96 h of continuous left heart bypass in a calf model.

PMID- 28868724
TI  - Study of Secondary Flow in Centrifugal Blood Pumps Using a Flow Visualization
      Method with a High-Speed Video Camera.
AB  - Four pump models with different vane configurations were evaluated with flow
      visualization techniques using a high-speed video camera. These models also were
      evaluated through in vivo hemolysis tests using bovine blood. The impeller having
      the greatest fluid velocity relative to the impeller, the largest velocity
      variance, and the most irregular local flow patterns in the flow passage caused
      the most hemolysis. Even if the pumps were operated at almost the same speed
      (rpm) at the same output, the impeller showing more irregular flow patterns had a
      statistically greater rate of hemolysis. This fact confirms that the existence of
      local irregular flow patterns in a centrifugal blood pump deteriorates its
      hemolytic performance. Thus, to optimize the design of the pump, it is very
      important to examine the secondary flow patterns in the centrifugal blood pump in
      detail using flow visualization with a high-speed video camera.

PMID- 28868723
TI  - Less Blood Damage in the Impeller Centrifugal Pump: A Comparative Study with the
      Roller Pump in Open Heart Surgery.
AB  - A centrifugal pump with an impeller (Nikkiso Centrifugal Pump, Model HPM15;
      Nikkiso Co. Ltd.) was applied to cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in 14 patients who
      underwent elective coronary artery bypass grafting. Serum hemoglobin level,
      platelet count, and serum p-thromboglobulin (pTG) level were measured during CPB.
      The results were compared with those obtained in a comparative roller pump (RP)
      group (n = 10). There was no difference in the time on CPB between the NP (109
      min) and RP (121 min) groups. The serum pTG level (ng/ ml) was lower in the NP
      group than in the RP group (obtained 90 min after the initiation of CPB). The
      plasma-free hemoglobin level also was lower in the NP group than in the RP group
      (obtained 90 min after the initiation of CPB, 120 min after the initiation of
      CPB, immediately after the termination of CPB, 3 h after termination of CPB; p <
      0.01). There was no significant difference in platelet depletion. The HPM15 pump
      showed excellent hemodynamic performance with less blood trauma compared with the
      roller pump in its clinical application to open heart surgery.

PMID- 28868725
TI  - Subchronic Centrifugal Mechanical Assist in an Unheparinized Calf Model.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine whether the major centrifugal pumps
      currently in use in the United States (Medtronic, BioMedicus BioPump and Carmeda
      coated BioPump, Sams 3M centrifugal pump, and St. Jude Medical Lifestream) could
      function as left mechanical assist devices in the subchronic (72 h) unheparinized
      calf model. Calves were instrumented for left atrial to aorta ex vivo assist, and
      the pump flow was set at 3.5 +/- 0.4 L/min. Two calves (Sarns 3M and St. Jude)
      survived 72 h of pumping without clinical complications. The other 2 calves died
      at 62 and 66 h (Medtronic Bio-Pump and Carmeda-coated BioPump, respectively);
      both had pelvic limb paralysis. The seal of the Sarns 3M pump head ruptured after
      approximately 36 h of pumping and required replacement. On postmortem
      examination, pump-associated thromboembolic lesions were detected in 3 of the 4
      calves in one or more of the following organs: kidney, pancreas, abomasum,
      duodenum, ileum, spleen, and lumbar spinal cord. The calf with the Sarns 3M pump
      had no discernable lesions. Because of the clinical abnormalities and postmortem
      lesions in the unheparinized calf model, it was suggested that anticoagulation is
      necessary for conducting centrifugal mechanical assist studies in calves using
      presently available technology.

PMID- 28868726
TI  - Evaluation of the Wear of the Pivot Bearing in the Gyro C1E3 Pump.
AB  - To estimate the lifetime of the pivot bearing system of the sealless centrifugal
      Gyro C1E3 pump, pivot bearing wear phenomena of the C1E3 were studied. The pivot
      bearing system consisted of a male and female pivot made of ceramics and
      ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), respectively. First, many
      pumping tests were performed with the C1E3 under various pumping conditions, and
      the effects of impeller position and fluid on wear were analyzed. Through these
      preliminary tests, it was found that the wear progress of the pivot bearing
      consisted of initial wear and stationary wear. Most of this initial wear is
      caused by the plastic deformation of the polyethylene female pivot. It also was
      observed that bovine blood was almost comparable to water in its effect on the
      stationary wear rate at the same rotational speed. Based on these results, a long
      term pumping test was performed with the C1E3, and initial and stationary wear
      rates were determined. At the same time, the maximal loosening distance (LDmax)
      (permissible total wear) of the C1E3 was determined experimentally from hemolytic
      and hydraulic performance perspectives. By using experimentally determined
      parameters the lifetime of the pivot bearing system of the C1E3 pump was
      estimated for various pumping conditions. The lifetime of the pivot bearing
      system of the C1E3 was typically 10 years for right ventricular assist, 8 years
      for left ventricular assist, and 5 years for cardiopulmonary bypass.

PMID- 28868727
TI  - Fluctuations of the Hemodynamic Derivatives During Left Ventricular Assistance
      Using Oscillated Blood Flow.
AB  - To analyze the autonomic nervous system during left heart bypass with a vibrating
      flow pump (VFP), fluctuations in hemodynamic derivatives were evaluated by the
      spectral analysis method using fast fourier transform methodology. After the left
      pleural cavity was opened through the fourth intercostal space under general
      anesthesia, a VFP was implanted as the left heart bypass device in chronic animal
      experiments using 3 healthy adult goats. Hemodynamic parameters with and without
      VFP assistance were recorded on magnetic tape in awake animals and were analyzed
      by computer through an analog to digital convertor. Power spectral analysis was
      performed on a beat-to-beat basis for the evaluation of the fluctuations. During
      left heart bypass with the VFP, Mayer wave fluctuations were decreased
      significantly although respiratory waves were not changed significantly. These
      results suggest that sympathetic nervous system modulation was changed under the
      influences of the left heart bypass with VFP. By using this analysis methodology,
      truly physiologic ventricular assistance may be achieved.

PMID- 28868728
TI  - High-Resolution Fluorescent Particle-Tracking Flow Visualization within an
      Intraventricular Axial Flow Left Ventricular Assist Device.
AB  - Flow visualization is typically applied in blood pump development to both confirm
      the design expectations and identify regions that may be predisposed to blood
      element deposition and trauma. Rotary pumps, in particular, place high demands on
      the technique chosen to visualize the flow given the limited visual accessibility
      of the flow path and the high impeller speeds. Fluorescent image-tracking
      velocimetry currently is used at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to
      visualize flow accurately inside of these pumps both qualitatively and
      quantitatively. Flow patterns under steady conditions within an intraventricular
      axial flow, left ventricular assist pump (prototype No. 7, SUN Medical Technology
      Research Corporation, Nagano, Japan) were investigated using this technique. The
      flow fields at the impeller-stator interface and at the pump outlet were given
      specific attention. This allowed the assessment of the fluid dynamics throughout
      the hydrodynamic design limits of the pump.

PMID- 28868729
TI  - Greetings from the Honorary Congress President of the International Society for
      Rotary Blood Pumps.

PMID- 28868730
TI  - Macromolecule mapping of the brain using ultrashort-TE acquisition and reference
      based metabolite removal.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a practical method for mapping macromolecule distribution in
      the brain using ultrashort-TE MRSI data. METHODS: An FID-based chemical shift
      imaging acquisition without metabolite-nulling pulses was used to acquire
      ultrashort-TE MRSI data that capture the macromolecule signals with high signal
      to-noise-ratio (SNR) efficiency. To remove the metabolite signals from the
      ultrashort-TE data, single voxel spectroscopy data were obtained to determine a
      set of high-quality metabolite reference spectra. These spectra were then
      incorporated into a generalized series (GS) model to represent general metabolite
      spatiospectral distributions. A time-segmented algorithm was developed to back
      extrapolate the GS model-based metabolite distribution from truncated FIDs and
      remove it from the MRSI data. Numerical simulations and in vivo experiments have
      been performed to evaluate the proposed method. RESULTS: Simulation results
      demonstrate accurate metabolite signal extrapolation by the proposed method given
      a high-quality reference. For in vivo experiments, the proposed method is able to
      produce spatiospectral distributions of macromolecules in the brain with high SNR
      from data acquired in about 10 minutes. We further demonstrate that the high
      dimensional macromolecule spatiospectral distribution resides in a low
      dimensional subspace. This finding provides a new opportunity to use subspace
      models for quantification and accelerated macromolecule mapping. Robustness of
      the proposed method is also demonstrated using multiple data sets from the same
      and different subjects. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is able to obtain
      macromolecule distributions in the brain from ultrashort-TE acquisitions. It can
      also be used for acquiring training data to determine a low-dimensional subspace
      to represent the macromolecule signals for subspace-based MRSI. Magn Reson Med
      79:2460-2469, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in
      Medicine.

PMID- 28868731
TI  - Modulating Crystallinity of Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Photocatalytic Oxidation
      of Alcohols.
AB  - Exploiting efficient photocatalysts with strengthened structure for solar-driven
      alcohol oxidation is of great significance. The photocatalytic performance of
      graphitic carbon nitrides can be considerably promoted by modulating its
      crystallinity. Results confirmed that a high crystallinity accelerates the
      separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers, thus providing more
      free charges for photoredox reactions. More importantly, the high crystallinity
      facilitated the adsorption of benzyl alcohol and desorption of benzaldehyde and
      simultaneously lowered the energy barrier for O2 activation. As a result, the
      crystalline carbon nitride exhibited a roughly twelvefold promotion with respect
      to the normal carbon nitride. The remarkable enhancement of activity can be
      attributed to the synergistic effects of increased electron-hole separation and
      increased surface reaction kinetics. These findings will open up new
      opportunities to modulate the structure of polymers for a wide variety of organic
      reactions.

PMID- 28868732
TI  - Morphology quiz: Renal disease and cytopathology.

PMID- 28868734
TI  - A Supplement to TRANSFUSION Abstract Presentations from the AABB Annual Meeting
      San Diego, CA, October 7-10, 2017.

PMID- 28868733
TI  - National study of parental confidence in general practitioners.
AB  - AIM: To assess a national sample of Australian parental confidence in general
      practitioner (GP) care for illness and injury for their children. METHODS: Cross
      sectional, internet-based survey of a national, representative sample of parents
      of children birth - 17 years in Australia was used. Purposeful recruitment was
      used to achieve a national, representative sample of 2100 Australian parents,
      reflective of demographic and geographic distribution based on census data.
      Parents were asked to indicate their degree of confidence in a GP to handle
      medical problems as well as their preference for, and use of, paediatric
      speciality care for their children. RESULTS: Fewer than half of parents (44%)
      reported that they were completely confident in a GP to provide general care as
      defined as 'can handle almost all general health issues for my child'. A slightly
      greater proportion of parents (56%) were completely confident in a GP to provide
      care for minor injuries, defined as injuries not requiring an X-ray. Greater
      confidence in general care was seen among parents >40 years of age and those
      whose GP is always bulk billed. CONCLUSIONS: Parental confidence in GPs is an
      important issue. Our findings that fewer than half of parents are completely
      confident in their GP to provide general care to their child may be an
      influencing factor on current health-care utilisation trends. The potential
      implications of low parental confidence in GPs are greater numbers of emergency
      department presentations for children with lower urgency conditions and increased
      referrals of children for specialty care.

PMID- 28868736
TI  - Case of peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified, presenting
      dyshidrosis-like eruptions as the first clinical manifestation.

PMID- 28868735
TI  - Micronuclei and other erythrocyte nuclear abnormalities in fishes from the Great
      Lakes Basin, USA.
AB  - Biological markers (biomarkers) sensitive to genotoxic and mutagenic
      contamination in fishes are widely used to identify exposure effects in aquatic
      environments. The micronucleus assay was incorporated into a suite of indicators
      to assess exposure to genotoxic and mutagenic contamination at five Great Lakes
      Areas of Concern (AOCs), as well as one non-AOC (reference) site. The assay
      allowed enumeration of micronuclei as well as other nuclear abnormalities for
      both site and species comparisons. Erythrocyte abnormality data was also compared
      to skin and liver tumor prevalence and hepatic transcript abundance. Erythrocyte
      abnormalities were observed at all sites with variable occurrence and severity
      among sites and species. Benthic-oriented brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) and
      white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) expressed lower rates of erythrocyte
      abnormalities, but higher rates of skin and liver neoplasms, when compared to
      pelagic-oriented largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) or smallmouth bass
      (Micropterus dolomieu) at the same site. The reduced erythrocyte abnormalities,
      increased transcript abundance associated with Phase I and II toxicant responsive
      pathways, and increased neoplastic lesions among benthic-oriented taxa may
      indicate the development of contaminant resistance of these species to more acute
      effects. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:570-581, 2017. (c) 2017 This article is a U.S.
      Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Environmental and
      Molecular Mutagenesis published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of
      Environmental Mutagen Society.

PMID- 28868737
TI  - Response to "An unbalanced study that lacks power: a caution about IPTAS".

PMID- 28868738
TI  - Evidence for a more restrictive hematocrit trigger for neonates with respiratory
      failure requiring ECMO.

PMID- 28868740
TI  - An unbalanced study that lacks power: a caution about IPTAS.

PMID- 28868741
TI  - It's time to step up to the plate and BAT.

PMID- 28868742
TI  - A life-threatening transfusion reaction.

PMID- 28868743
TI  - Partial D in an obstetrical patient presenting as a mixed field on Rh typing.

PMID- 28868744
TI  - A putative spermidine synthase interacts with flagellar switch protein FliM and
      regulates motility in Helicobacter pylori.
AB  - The flagellar motor is an important virulence factor in infection by many
      bacterial pathogens. Motor function can be modulated by chemotactic proteins and
      recently appreciated proteins that are not part of the flagellar or chemotaxis
      systems. How these latter proteins affect flagellar activity is not fully
      understood. Here, we identified spermidine synthase SpeE as an interacting
      partner of switch protein FliM in Helicobacter pylori using pull-down assay and
      mass spectrometry. To understand how SpeE contributes to flagellar motility, a
      speE-null mutant was generated and its motility behavior was evaluated. We found
      that deletion of SpeE did not affect flagellar formation, but induced clockwise
      rotation bias. We further determined the crystal structure of the FliM-SpeE
      complex at 2.7 A resolution. SpeE dimer binds to FliM with micromolar binding
      affinity, and their interaction is mediated through the beta1' and beta2' region
      of FliM middle domain. The FliM-SpeE binding interface partially overlaps with
      the FliM surface that interacts with FliG and is essential for proper flagellar
      rotational switching. By a combination of protein sequence conservation analysis
      and pull-down assays using FliM and SpeE orthologues in E. coli, our data suggest
      that FliM-SpeE association is unique to Helicobacter species.

PMID- 28868745
TI  - Improved clonality detection in B-cell lymphoma using a semi-nested modification
      of the BIOMED-2 PCR assay for IGH rearrangement: A paraffin-embedded tissue
      study.
AB  - The BIOMED-2 PCR protocol for targeting the IGH gene is widely employed for
      detecting clonality in B-cell malignancies. Unfortunately, the detection of
      clonality with this method is not very sensitive when paraffin sections are used
      as a DNA source. To increase the sensitivity, we devised a semi-nested
      modification of a JH consensus primer. The clonality detection rates of three
      assays were compared: the standard BIOMED-2, BIOMED-2 assay followed by BIOMED-2
      re-amplification, and BIOMED-2 assay followed by semi-nested BIOMED-2. We tested
      more than 100 cases using paraffin-embedded tissues of various B-cell lymphomas,
      and found that the clonality detection rates with the above three assays were
      63.9%, 79.6%, and 88.0%, respectively. While BIOMED-2 re-amplification was
      significantly more sensitive than the standard BIOMED-2, the semi-nested BIOMED-2
      was significantly more sensitive than both the standard BIOMED-2 and BIOMED-2 re
      amplification. An increase in sensitivity was observed in all lymphoma subtypes
      examined. In conclusion, tumor clonality may be detected in nearly 90% of B-cell
      lymphoma cases with semi-nested BIOMED-2. This ancillary assay may be useful when
      the standard BIOMED-2 fails to detect clonality in histopathologically suspected
      B-cell lymphomas.

PMID- 28868746
TI  - Corrigendum.
AB  - In Pathology International vol 62 iss 1, the authors would like to draw the
      reader's attention to the error: On page 28, College of Veterinary Medicine,
      Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea was not included as an affiliation for
      author, Jun Won Park. The corrected author affiliation list is: Hee Seok Lee,1 *
      Jun Won Park,1,4 * Oleg Chertov,2 Simona Colantonio,2 John T. Simpson,2 Matthew
      J. Fivash,3 Chong Woo Yoo,1 Geon Kook Lee,1 Jae Ill Zo,1 Heung Tae Kim1 and Hark
      Kyun Kim11 National Cancer Center, Goyang, Korea and 2 Protein Chemistry
      Laboratory Advanced Technology Program, SAIC-Frederick, Inc. and 3 Data
      Management Systems Inc., National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick,
      Maryland, USA and 4 College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University,
      Seoul, Korea The authors apologize for this error and any confusion it may have
      caused.

PMID- 28868747
TI  - A case of mucin-producing urothelial-type adenocarcinoma of the prostate showing
      immunoreactivity for NKX3.1, a specific marker of prostatic tissue.

PMID- 28868748
TI  - Egg cases of the graytail skate Bathyraja griseocauda and the cuphead skate
      Bathyraja scaphiops from the south-west Atlantic Ocean.
AB  - Egg cases of Bathyraja griseocauda were larger (140-142 mm in length) than those
      of Bathyraja scaphiops (88-90 mm in length) and their surface was relatively
      smooth, without denticles, prickles or any ornamentation. Egg cases of B.
      scaphiops had a relative coarse surface, covered with prickles of similar size.
      An identification key for the all described egg cases from Bathyraja occurring in
      the south-west Atlantic Ocean is provided.

PMID- 28868749
TI  - Molecular and morphological analyses revealed a cryptic species of dojo loach
      Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Cypriniformes: Cobitidae) in Japan.
AB  - Although it has been reported that populations of the Japanese dojo loach
      Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Cypriniformes: Cobitidae) belong to two distinct
      mitochondrial (mt)DNA (Type I and Type II), the taxonomic status of the species
      remains unresolved. To address this question, nuclear DNA and morphological
      analyses were performed on M. anguillicaudatus population in the Nakaikemi
      Wetland, where Type I and Type II lineages are sympatric. Results suggest the
      existence of a cryptic species (Type I) within the Japanese dojo loach.

PMID- 28868750
TI  - Life in a bubble: the role of the labyrinth organ in determining territory,
      mating and aggressive behaviours in anabantoids.
AB  - The anabantoids are a group of c. 137 species of air-breathing freshwater fishes
      found in Africa and southern Asia. All anabantoids have a pair of suprabranchial
      chambers that each house an air-breathing organ known as the labyrinth apparatus:
      a complex bony structure lined with thin, highly vascularised respiratory
      epithelium. The labyrinth apparatus allows anabantoids to extract oxygen from air
      and is a morpho-physiological innovation that has had a dramatic influence on the
      behaviour of these fishes. Air-breathing influences a wide range of anabantoid
      behaviours, including territorial displays, courtship and breeding and parental
      care and also equips these fishes to persist in hypoxic and polluted water. These
      traits also make anabantoids successful invaders of novel habitats, a global
      problem compounded by their popularity in the aquarium trade. By reviewing the
      functionality and evolution of air breathing in anabantoids, this review aims to
      examine the role of the labyrinth apparatus in modulating behaviour within this
      group. The anabantoids are a fascinating group and have often been cited as a
      model organism due to the stereotypical and easily identifiable behaviours that
      they adopt during social interactions. They also provide a unique opportunity to
      further our understanding about how fishes adapt their behaviour in response to
      an extreme environment, whilst limited by their own physiological constraints.

PMID- 28868752
TI  - Severe cutaneous aluminum reaction to quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine
      treated with cyclosporin.

PMID- 28868751
TI  - Reductive Coupling of Acrylates with Ketones and Ketimines by a Nickel-Catalyzed
      Transfer-Hydrogenative Strategy.
AB  - Nickel-catalyzed coupling of benzyl acrylates with activated ketones and imines
      provides gamma-butyrolactones and lactams, respectively. The benzyl alcohol
      byproduct released during the lactonization/lactamization event is relayed to the
      next cycle where it serves as the reductant for C-C bond formation. This strategy
      represents a conceptually unique approach to transfer-hydrogenative C-C bond
      formation, thus providing examples of reductive heterocyclizations where hydrogen
      embedded within an alcohol leaving group facilitates turnover.

PMID- 28868754
TI  - Size does matter: what is the corneo-limbal diameter?
AB  - This review surveys available literature for corneal and limbal dimensions. With
      modern scleral lenses, these measures have become central to determining the
      overall size of a lens for satisfactory fitting. In general, published values are
      not based on a definition of what is being measured. In addition, the most widely
      accepted average corneal diameter measurement, 11.7 * 10.6 mm, emanates from one
      source published more than 50 years ago. This value was not based on a
      measurement but appears to be the cumulative impression of measurements from
      seven studies conducted between 67 and 127 years ago. Furthermore, in most
      instances, if at all stated, quoted measures are based on horizontal visible iris
      diameter, providing limited acknowledgement of limbal width and its inclusion as
      part of the corneal diameter. The corneo-scleral sulcus from one side to the
      other has been measured, giving a larger diameter, but may include at least part
      of the limbus. More objective measurements are possible with modern ophthalmic
      instrumentation but the lack of structural definition and low magnification
      resolution with these techniques raises concerns with the accuracy of the
      results. Measurement of the horizontal visible iris diameter does not include the
      limbal width, which means that the horizontal visible iris diameter is an
      underestimate of the true corneo-limbal diameter. This review concludes that the
      width of the limbus has been neither structurally defined nor accurately measured
      and that there is a need for the development of new protocols for determining the
      dimensions of the average cornea and limbus. It is predicted that more accurate
      measures will indicate that to vault across cornea with limbus and provide
      excellent comfort, the average cornea will need a lens to have a diameter of 16.0
      mm or larger.

PMID- 28868753
TI  - A "spaghetti sign" in feline abdominal radiographs predicts spleno-systemic
      collateral circulation.
AB  - A well-defined, tortuous, and tubular soft tissue opaque structure has been
      observed within the left mid abdominal cavity in digital radiographs of some
      cats. Authors hypothesized that this radiographic "spaghetti sign" is a predictor
      for spleno-systemic collateral circulation. The purpose of this multicenter,
      retrospective, descriptive study was to further characterize radiographic
      "spaghetti signs" in a group of cats and compare these signs with results of
      ultrasonography or computed tomography (CT). A multiinstitutional database was
      reviewed for radiographic reports describing the presence of a tubular tortuous
      structure within the left abdominal cavity of feline patients. Patients were
      included if additional abdominal ultrasound or CT studies were available. Imaging
      studies and medical records were retrieved and reviewed by a board-certified
      veterinary radiologist, and characteristics were recorded. Eighteen cats met the
      inclusion criteria. The presence of a tortuous vessel consistent with spleno
      systemic collateral circulation was observed by ultrasonography or CT
      examinations in all patients with a "spaghetti sign" on abdominal radiographs.
      All patients were spayed females. One cat showed ultrasonographic imaging
      features consistent with portal hypertension. In conclusion, findings supported
      the hypothesis that a radiographic "spaghetti sign" is a predictor of spleno
      systemic collateral circulation in feline patients and should be distinguished
      from other signs such as focal loss of serosal detail or a space occupying
      lesion.

PMID- 28868755
TI  - Matrix-Metalloproteinase-2 Predicts Arteriovenous Fistula Failure in Hemodialysis
      Patients.
AB  - In hemodialysis patients the principal cause of arteriovenous fistula dysfunction
      is stenosis. Matrix-metalloproteinase-2 is implicated in the pathophysiological
      mechanism of stenosis development. Our study tried to assess the clinical impact
      of this protease on arteriovenous fistula survival. Seventy-nine prevalent
      dialysis patients with functional arteriovenous fistulas were included in the
      study. The presence of stenosis and the serum levels of matrix-metalloproteinase
      2 were determined at the beginning of the study. The patency of the arteriovenous
      fistulas was followed- up for two years. In multivariate regression; matrix
      metalloproteinase-2 was a significant predictor of vascular access loss (HR =
      1.104, 95%CI 1.033-1.179, P = 0.003). Patients with a level of matrix
      metalloproteinase-2 lower than 50 ng/mL had a better survival of the
      arteriovenous fistulas. Matrix-metalloproteinase-2 was an even stronger predictor
      of fistula failure in the stenosis group (HR = 1.076, 95%CI 1.027-1.127, P =
      0.002). In our study matrix-metalloproteinase-2 has a predictive value for
      arteriovenous fistula failure.

PMID- 28868756
TI  - The contribution of microbial biotechnology to economic growth and employment
      creation.
AB  - Our communication discusses the profound impact of bio-based economies - in
      particular microbial biotechnologies - on SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and
      sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for
      all. A bio-based economy provides significant potential for improving labour
      supply, education and investment, and thereby for substantially increasing the
      demographic dividend. This, in turn, improves the sustainable development of
      economies.

PMID- 28868757
TI  - Depression in early adolescence: Contributions from relational aggression and
      variation in the oxytocin receptor gene.
AB  - Interpersonal stress arising from relational aggression (RA)-the intentional
      effort to harm others via rejection and exclusion-may increase risk for
      depression in youth. Biological vulnerabilities related to the hormone oxytocin,
      which affects social behavior and stress responses, may exacerbate this risk. In
      a community sample of 307 youth (52% female; age range = 10-14 years), we tested
      whether (1) the association between RA and subsequent depressive symptoms was
      mediated through social problems and (2) a single nucleotide polymorphism
      (rs53576) in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) moderated this indirect
      association between RA and depression, where GG homozygotes are predicted to be
      more sensitive to the effects of social problems than A-allele carriers. Youth
      reported RA and depressive symptoms were measured using a structured interview
      and a questionnaire, respectively. DNA was extracted from saliva collected with
      Oragene kits. Consistent with the interpersonal theory of depression, the
      association between relational aggression and subsequent depressive symptoms was
      mediated by social problems. This indirect effect was further moderated by
      rs53576 genotype, such that GG homozygotes showed a stronger mediation effect
      than A-carriers. These results suggest that rs53576 variants confer vulnerability
      for depression within the context of interpersonal risk factors, such that youth
      with the GG genotype may be particularly sensitive to the social consequences
      resulting from RA.

PMID- 28868758
TI  - Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is not a predominant feature in
      Ewing sarcomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor engagement on T cells by its
      ligand programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is a key mechanism of immune
      escape, and antibody blockade of the interaction has emerged as an effective
      immunotherapeutic strategy in some cancers. The role and relevance of the PD-1
      checkpoint in Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is not yet understood. PROCEDURE: Here, we
      investigated expression of PD-L1 and PD-1 in EwS by immunohistochemistry analysis
      of pretherapeutic tumor biopsies and in tumor xenografts following treatment with
      human T cells engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) against the
      tumor-associated antigen GD2 . PD-L1 surface expression in EwS cell lines was
      assessed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: PD-L1 expression was not detectable on tumor
      cells in any of the 60 EwS biopsies. Infiltrating PD-L1 positive T cells were
      found in one tumor, and four biopsies contained PD-1-positive T cells. Of 13 EwS
      cell lines, none constitutively expressed PD-L1 on the cell surface. Interferon
      gamma cytokine stimulation induced upregulation of the ligand on all cell lines.
      Adoptive therapy with CAR gene-modified T cells in a mouse model did not induce
      PD-L1 expression in EwS xenografts despite tumor infiltration with PD-1+ CD3+ T
      cells. CONCLUSIONS: EwS cells can upregulate PD-L1 under inflammatory conditions,
      but do not express the ligand in the pretherapeutic tumor microenvironment or
      postexposure to CAR T cells. PD-1 checkpoint blockade alone is thus unlikely to
      evoke potent immune responses against EwS. Identification of the relevant immune
      evasion strategies in EwS will be vital for the development of effective immune
      targeting strategies.

PMID- 28868759
TI  - From Food Waste to Efficient Bifunctional Nonprecious Electrocatalyst.
AB  - Synergy between graphitic nanocarbon, obtainable from food waste through cracking
      of biomethane, and iron oxide nanoparticles provides access to efficient
      bifunctional electro catalysts. Dissolution of potassium-intercalated graphitic
      nanocarbons yields graphenide solutions with calibrated, small lateral size
      reduced graphenes that are used subsequently as reducing agents of iron metal
      salts. This results in the strong binding of small size (2-5 nm) nanoparticles on
      the carbon framework homogeneously within the composite material, accessibility
      of the catalytic centers, and good conductivity provided by the underlying carbon
      framework. The iron oxide nanocarbon electrocatalyst performances are highlighted
      by the overall overpotential of approximately 1 V needed to reach the benchmark
      threshold of 10 mA cm-2 for the oxygen reduction reaction and the particular
      activity towards oxygen evolution reaction (eta~0.4 V at 10 mA cm-2 ), comparable
      to that of the precious RuO2 and IrO2 catalysts. This iron oxide/nanocarbon
      electrocatalyst is versatile, remarkably active, stable, and truly sustainable.

PMID- 28868760
TI  - Cannabis use among two national samples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      tobacco smokers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: There is a concern that cannabis use is an important
      barrier to reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking. We investigate
      the associations of cannabis use and tobacco smoking and quitting in two large
      national samples. DESIGN AND METHODS: The 2012-2013 National Aboriginal and
      Torres Strait Islander Health Survey was a national stratified random household
      survey conducted between April 2012 and February 2013, and included 2580 adult
      Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smokers. The Talking About The Smokes
      Project interviewed a national quota sample of 1301 Aboriginal and Torres Strait
      Islander adult smokers between August 2013 and August 2014. Both surveys asked
      about tobacco smoking and quitting, cannabis use and socio-demographic factors.
      RESULTS: Both surveys estimated that cannabis use is common among Aboriginal and
      Torres Strait Islander smokers (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
      Health Survey: 32%, Talking About The Smokes: 24%). Both surveys found a higher
      prevalence of cannabis use among smokers who were male, younger, unemployed or
      who more frequently consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in a day. However, the
      two surveys provided inconsistent evidence about whether cannabis use is
      associated with not quitting smoking tobacco. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: We did
      not find consistent evidence in this setting that cannabis use is an obstacle to
      quitting tobacco smoking. Nevertheless, we would still recommend that clinicians
      counselling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tobacco smokers about quitting
      talk about cannabis use because its use is common and almost all mix it with
      tobacco.

PMID- 28868761
TI  - Relationship between the retinacula cutis and sagging facial skin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sagging skin is one of the most concerning esthetic issues for
      elderly individuals. Although reduced skin elasticity has been reported as the
      cause of sagging skin, a loss of skin elasticity alone is insufficient to explain
      sagging facial skin. This study investigated the mechanisms underlying sagging
      skin, with a focus on the subcutaneous network of collagenous fibers known as the
      retinacula cutis (RC). METHODS: To evaluate the structure of the RC
      noninvasively, tomographic images of the face were obtained using magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI). The RC was identified by comparing MRI results with
      histological specimens of human skin. A descriptive scale was used to evaluate
      the degree of sagging, and a device equipped with a 6-mm-diameter probe was used
      to measure the elasticity of deeper skin layers and evaluate the physical
      properties of the skin. RESULTS: The density of RC in subcutaneous tissue
      correlated negatively with sagging scores and positively with elasticity.
      CONCLUSION: These results imply that a sparse RC structure contributes to a
      reduction in the elasticity of subcutaneous tissue, resulting in a greater degree
      of sagging facial skin. These findings are expected to contribute to the
      understanding of the mechanisms underlying sagging skin.

PMID- 28868762
TI  - Repairing Nanoparticle Surface Defects.
AB  - Solar devices based on semiconductor nanoparticles require the use of conductive
      ligands; however, replacing the native, insulating ligands with conductive metal
      chalcogenide complexes introduces structural defects within the crystalline
      nanostructure that act as traps for charge carriers. We utilized atomically thin
      semiconductor nanoplatelets as a convenient platform for studying, both
      microscopically and spectroscopically, the development of defects during ligand
      exchange with the conductive ligands Na4 SnS4 and (NH4 )4 Sn2 S6 . These defects
      can be repaired via mild chemical or thermal routes, through the addition of L
      type ligands or wet annealing, respectively. This results in a higher-quality,
      conductive, colloidally stable nanomaterial that may be used as the active film
      in optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28868763
TI  - Cascade Reductive Etherification of Bioderived Aldehydes over Zr-Based Catalysts.
AB  - An efficient one-pot catalytic cascade sequence has been developed for the
      production of value-added ethers from bioderived aldehydes. Etherification of 5
      (hydroxymethyl)furfural with different aliphatic alcohols over acidic Zr
      montmorillonite (Zr-Mont) catalyst produced a mixture of 5-(alkoxymethyl)furfural
      and 2-(dialkoxymethyl)-5-(alkoxymethyl)furan. The latter was selectively
      converted back into 5-(alkoxymethyl)furfural by treating it with water over the
      same catalyst. The synthesis of 2,5-bis(alkoxymethyl)furan was achieved through a
      cascade sequence involving etherification, transfer hydrogenation, and re
      etherification over a combination of acidic Zr-Mont and the charge-transfer
      hydrogenation catalyst [ZrO(OH)2 ]. This catalyst combination was further
      explored for the cascade conversion of 2-furfuraldehyde into 2
      (alkoxymethyl)furan. The scope of this strategy was then extended for the
      reductive etherification of lignin-derived arylaldehydes to obtain the respective
      benzyl ethers in >80 % yield. Additionally, the mixture of Zr-Mont and ZrO(OH)2
      does not undergo mutual destruction, which was proved by recycling experiments
      and XRD analysis. Both the catalysts were thoroughly characterized using BET,
      temperature-programmed desorption of NH3 and CO2 , pyridine-FTIR, XRD,
      inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy techniques.

PMID- 28868764
TI  - The role of increased glucose on neurovascular dysfunction in patients with the
      metabolic syndrome.
AB  - Metabolic syndrome (MetS) causes autonomic alteration and vascular dysfunction.
      The authors investigated whether impaired fasting glucose (IFG) is the main cause
      of vascular dysfunction via elevated sympathetic tone in nondiabetic patients
      with MetS. Pulse wave velocity, muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), and
      forearm vascular resistance was measured in patients with MetS divided according
      to fasting glucose levels: (1) MetS+IFG (blood glucose >=100 mg/dL) and (2) MetS
      IFG (<100 mg/dL) compared with healthy controls. Patients with MetS+IFG had
      higher pulse wave velocity than patients with MetS-IFG and controls (median 8.0
      [interquartile range, 7.2-8.6], 7.3 [interquartile range, 6.9-7.9], and 6.9
      [interquartile range, 6.6-7.2] m/s, P=.001). Patients with MetS+IFG had higher
      MSNA than patients with MetS-IFG and controls, and patients with MetS-IFG had
      higher MSNA than controls (31+/-1, 26+/-1, and 19+/-1 bursts per minute; P<.001).
      Patients with MetS+IFG were similar to patients with MetS-IFG but had higher
      forearm vascular resistance than controls (P=.008). IFG was the only predictor
      variable of MSNA. MSNA was associated with pulse wave velocity (R=.39, P=.002)
      and forearm vascular resistance (R=.30, P=.034). In patients with MetS, increased
      plasma glucose levels leads to an adrenergic burden that can explain vascular
      dysfunction.

PMID- 28868765
TI  - Cleft lip and palate with lip pits and ankyloblepharon.

PMID- 28868766
TI  - Increased doses of inhaled corticosteroids during home management of asthma flare
      ups do not reduce the need for systemic steroids.

PMID- 28868768
TI  - Antibiotic prophylaxis for infective endocarditis: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.

PMID- 28868767
TI  - Use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy in Young People Entering Custody in New South
      Wales, Australia.

PMID- 28868769
TI  - Cleft lip and palate with lip pits and ankyloblepharon.

PMID- 28868770
TI  - Efficacy of World Health Organization Guideline in Facility-Based Reduction of
      Mortality in Severely Malnourished Children From Low and Middle Income Countries.

PMID- 28868771
TI  - Coeliac disease and psychological symptoms.

PMID- 28868772
TI  - Unusual Presentation of an Odontogenic Cyst in a Child.

PMID- 28868773
TI  - Deliberate salt poisoning.

PMID- 28868774
TI  - Children in research.

PMID- 28868775
TI  - Clinical analysis of the factors that influence disease progression of
      differentiated thyroid carcinoma in children.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the factors that influence disease progression of paediatric
      patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. METHODS: A total of 34 patients
      under 18 years of age with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (32 papillary and 2
      follicular; 9 males and 25 females; 19 cases younger than 15 years old and 15
      cases 15-18 years old) treated in our department from June 2009 to August 2015
      were retrospectively reviewed. All of the patients underwent a total
      thyroidectomy or near-total thyroidectomy, central node dissection and/or lateral
      neck dissection, radioactive iodine treatment and thyroid-stimulating hormone
      suppressive therapy. A univariate analysis was conducted by log-rank to evaluate
      the factors that influenced progression-free survival of differentiated thyroid
      carcinoma in these patients. RESULTS: The median progression-free survival time
      of all patients was 23 months, ranging from 4 to 72 months. Progression of
      pulmonary metastatic disease was observed in two cases, a recurrence in the
      thyroid bed was found in one case, and thyroglobulin significantly increased in
      four cases. In the univariate analysis, the factor that influenced progression
      free survival of differentiated thyroid carcinoma was multifocality (P = 0.040),
      and independently, age, gender, tumour size, pathological type, degree of
      infiltration, lymph node metastasis and pulmonary metastasis had no significant
      influence on progression-free survival (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Multifocality was
      the factor that influenced the progression-free survival of differentiated
      thyroid carcinoma patients under 18 years of age.

PMID- 28868776
TI  - Ten tips for young (and old) doctors.

PMID- 28868777
TI  - The Racp Evolve General Paediatrics List.

PMID- 28868779
TI  - Survival comparison of patients with cystic fibrosis in Canada and the USA.

PMID- 28868778
TI  - Seizures and chorioretinal lacunae in an infant.

PMID- 28868780
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Sleep Duration and Obesity in Children: Fixed Effect Model or
      Random Effect Model?

PMID- 28868781
TI  - Long-term outcomes for large for gestational age infants born at term.
AB  - AIM: Large for gestational age (LGA) babies have increased risks for short-term
      outcomes such as shoulder dystocia, neonatal hypoglycaemia and longer hospital
      stay. Little is known of long-term health, development and educational outcomes
      of LGA babies. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term health,
      mortality, development and educational outcomes for infants born LGA at term.
      METHODS: A population-based record linkage study of live singletons born at term
      (37-41 weeks of gestation) in New South Wales, Australia, from 2001 to 2006.
      RESULTS: This study compared 49 439 LGA (>90th percentile for birthweight,
      gestational age and sex) and 400 418 appropriate size for gestational age (AGA;
      10th-90th percentile) infants. LGA infants had increased risk of birth and
      neonatal outcomes and hospitalisations, for brachial plexus injury after the
      neonatal period, and for all causes from 1 to 5 years of age. There were no
      differences in mortality up to 5 years of age or hospitalisations for type 1
      diabetes in childhood. LGA infants had lower rates of developmental vulnerability
      (in kindergarten) and showed a significant trend (chi2 for trend <0.0001) to
      fewer low scores and more high scores in reading and numeracy (in Year 3)
      compared with AGA. After adjusting for potential confounders, only the relative
      risk for higher reading scores was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: LGA
      infants show positive long-term health, development and educational outcomes.
      Concerns for LGA infants still remain in the perinatal period as a result of
      birth trauma; however, these complications usually do not persist in postnatal
      and early childhood.

PMID- 28868783
TI  - Seizures and chorioretinal lacunae in an infant.

PMID- 28868782
TI  - Successful Use of Enzyme Replacement Therapy in Infantile Hypophosphatasia.

PMID- 28868784
TI  - Direct fitness benefits explain mate preference, but not choice, for similarity
      in heterozygosity levels.
AB  - Under sexual selection, mate preferences can evolve for traits advertising
      fitness benefits. Observed mating patterns (mate choice) are often assumed to
      represent preference, even though they result from the interaction between
      preference, sampling strategy and environmental factors. Correlating fitness with
      mate choice instead of preference will therefore lead to confounded conclusions
      about the role of preference in sexual selection. Here we show that direct
      fitness benefits underlie mate preferences for genetic characteristics in a
      unique experiment on wild great tits. In repeated mate preference tests, both
      sexes preferred mates that had similar heterozygosity levels to themselves, and
      not those with which they would optimise offspring heterozygosity. In a
      subsequent field experiment where we cross fostered offspring, foster parents
      with more similar heterozygosity levels had higher reproductive success, despite
      the absence of assortative mating patterns. These results support the idea that
      selection for preference persists despite constraints on mate choice.

PMID- 28868785
TI  - Incomplete initial nutation diffusion imaging: An ultrafast, single-scan approach
      for diffusion mapping.
AB  - PURPOSE: Diffusion MRI is confounded by the need to acquire at least two images
      separated by a repetition time, thereby thwarting the detection of rapid dynamic
      microstructural changes. The issue is exacerbated when diffusivity variations are
      accompanied by rapid changes in T2 . The purpose of the present study is to
      accelerate diffusion MRI acquisitions such that both reference and diffusion
      weighted images necessary for quantitative diffusivity mapping are acquired in a
      single-shot experiment. METHODS: A general methodology termed incomplete initial
      nutation diffusion imaging (INDI), capturing two diffusion contrasts in a single
      shot, is presented. This methodology creates a longitudinal magnetization
      reservoir that facilitates the successive acquisition of two images separated by
      only a few milliseconds. The theory behind INDI is presented, followed by proof
      of-concept studies in water phantom, ex vivo, and in vivo experiments at 16.4 and
      9.4 T. RESULTS: Mean diffusivities extracted from INDI were comparable with
      diffusion tensor imaging and the two-shot isotropic diffusion encoding in the
      water phantom. In ex vivo mouse brain tissues, as well as in the in vivo mouse
      brain, mean diffusivities extracted from conventional isotropic diffusion
      encoding and INDI were in excellent agreement. Simulations for signal-to-noise
      considerations identified the regimes in which INDI is most beneficial.
      CONCLUSIONS: The INDI method accelerates diffusion MRI acquisition to single-shot
      mode, which can be of great importance for mapping dynamic microstructural
      properties in vivo without T2 bias. Magn Reson Med 79:2198-2204, 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- 28868787
TI  - Cytological diagnostic clues in poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinomas of
      the breast: Streaming arrangement, necrotic background, nucleolar enlargement and
      cannibalism of cancer cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a rare histological type of breast
      cancer. The cytological diagnosis of non-keratinising, poorly differentiated SCC
      is often difficult, and distinguishing it from invasive ductal carcinoma or
      apocrine carcinoma (AC) is especially challenging. We aimed to define the
      diagnostic cytological features of poorly differentiated SCC of the breast.
      METHODS: We studied the cytological findings of poorly differentiated SCC (n=10)
      and compared them to those of IDC (n=15) and AC (n=14). The following six
      cytological features were evaluated: streaming arrangement, nucleolar
      enlargement, dense nuclei, cannibalism, atypical keratinocytes and necrotic
      background. RESULTS: SCC exhibited significantly higher frequencies of streaming
      arrangement (70% vs 6.7%, P=.002), nucleolar enlargement (80% vs 27%, P=.02), and
      necrotic background (80% vs 36%, P=.002) than invasive ductal carcinoma. The
      detection of two or three of these features yielded a higher sensitivity (80%)
      and specificity (93%) for the diagnosis of SCC. Streaming arrangement (70% vs 0%,
      P<.001), cannibalism (60% vs 0%, P=.002), and a necrotic background (80% vs 36%,
      P=.047) were all significantly more frequent in SCC than in AC. When
      distinguishing SCC from AC, the presence of two or three of these features
      yielded a high sensitivity (80%) and specificity (100%). CONCLUSIONS: Cytological
      features such as a streaming arrangement, a necrotic background, nucleolar
      enlargement and cannibalism are useful indicators for the diagnosis of SCC of the
      breast. As such, greater attention should be paid to these morphological features
      in daily clinical practice.

PMID- 28868786
TI  - Effect of Formamidinium/Cesium Substitution and PbI2 on the Long-Term Stability
      of Triple-Cation Perovskites.
AB  - Altering cation and anion ratios in perovskites has proven an excellent means of
      tuning the perovskite properties and enhancing the performance. Recently,
      methylammonium/formamidinium/cesium triple-cation mixed-halide perovskites have
      demonstrated efficiencies up to 22 %. Similar to the widely explored
      methylammonium lead halide, excess PbI2 is added to these perovskite films to
      enhance their performances. The excess PbI2 is known to be beneficial for the
      performance. However, its impact on stability is less well known. Triple-cation
      perovskites deploy excess PbI2 up to 8 %. Thus, it is imperative to analyze the
      role of excess PbI2 in the degradation kinetics. In this study, the amount of
      PbI2 in the triple-cation perovskite films is varied and the degradation kinetics
      monitored by X-ray diffraction and optical absorption spectroscopy. The inclusion
      of excess PbI2 is shown to adversely affect the stability of the material. Faster
      degradation kinetics are observed for samples with higher PbI2 contents. However,
      samples with excess PbI2 also showed superior properties such as enhanced grain
      sizes and better optical absorption. Thus, careful management of the PbI2
      quantity is required to obtain better stability and alternative pathways should
      be explored to achieve better device performance rather than adding excess PbI2 .

PMID- 28868788
TI  - Constructing arabinofuranosidases for dual arabinoxylan debranching activity.
AB  - Enzymatic conversion of arabinoxylan requires alpha-L-arabinofuranosidases able
      to remove alpha-L-arabinofuranosyl residues (alpha-L-Araf) from both mono- and
      double-substituted D-xylopyranosyl residues (Xylp) in xylan (i.e., AXH-m and AXH
      d activity). Herein, SthAbf62A (a family GH62 alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase with
      AXH-m activity) and BadAbf43A (a family GH43 alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase with AXH
      d3 activity), were fused to create SthAbf62A_BadAbf43A and BadAbf43A_SthAbf62A.
      Both fusion enzymes displayed dual AXH-m,d and synergistic activity toward
      native, highly branched wheat arabinoxylan (WAX). When using a customized
      arabinoxylan substrate comprising mainly alpha-(1 -> 3)-L-Araf and alpha-(1 -> 2)
      L-Araf substituents attached to disubstituted Xylp (d-2,3-WAX), the specific
      activity of the fusion enzymes was twice that of enzymes added as separate
      proteins. Moreover, the SthAbf62A_BadAbf43A fusion removed 83% of all alpha-L
      Araf from WAX after a 20 hr treatment. 1 H NMR analyses further revealed
      differences in SthAbf62A_BadAbf43 rate of removal of specific alpha-L-Araf
      substituents from WAX, where 9.4 times higher activity was observed toward d
      alpha-(1 -> 3)-L-Araf compared to m-alpha-(1 -> 3)-L-Araf positions.

PMID- 28868789
TI  - The phenylephrine concentration-response relationship for blood pressure after
      nasal delivery in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intranasal phenylephrine is commonly used to vasoconstrict the nasal
      mucosa, reducing bleeding associated with nasotracheal intubation or endoscopic
      sinus surgery. There are few data quantifying either absorption pharmacokinetics
      or phenylephrine concentration effect on blood pressure in children. METHODS:
      Published observations of plasma concentration and blood pressure changes after
      phenylephrine nasal administration (0.1 mL kg-1 , 0.25% or 0.5%) in children (n =
      52, 2-12 years, 10-40 kg) were pooled with those in adults (23-81 years) given
      phenylephrine 2.5% (n = 10) and 10% (n = 10) eyedrops. Further pharmacokinetic
      (PK) data were available from healthy volunteers given oral phenylephrine 10 mg
      alone, with blood for concentration assay taken at 5, 15, 30, 45 minutes and 1,
      2, 3, 6 hours (n = 28). Intravenous time-concentration data were available from
      four healthy volunteers given phenylephrine 1 mg and who had blood taken for
      assay on 17 occasions over the subsequent 4 hours. Data were analyzed using an
      integrated pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) model using nonlinear mixed
      effects models. Allometry, scaled to a 70-kg person, was used for PK size
      standardization. Effect was described using an EMAX model. RESULTS: A two
      compartment model was used to fit PK data while an additional compartment, linked
      by an equilibration half-time (T1/2 keo), was used to describe effect. PK
      parameter estimates for the nasal formulation were clearance (CL) 160 L h-1 ,
      central volume of distribution (V1) 13.3 L, intercompartment clearance (Q) 25.3 L
      h-1 , peripheral volume of distribution (V2) 225 L, absorption half-time (Tabs)
      6.2 minutes, absorption lag time (Tlag) 1.5 minutes, and bioavailability (F)
      0.183. Bioavailability and absorption of the ophthalmic solution were
      concentration dependent (F 0.13, Tabs 5.5 minutes for 2.5% solution; F 0.15, Tabs
      9.6 minutes for 10% solution). Absorption of the oral formulation was slow (Tabs
      48 minutes) with poor bioavailability (F 0.0128). The pediatric PD interrogation
      revealed a baseline mean arterial pressure of 60 mm Hg, a maximum effect (EMAX )
      of 25 mm Hg, and an EC50 of 10.3 MUg L-1 . The effect on vasculature was
      immediate and T1/2 keo was not estimable. CONCLUSION: Absorption of phenylephrine
      through the nasal mucosa was rapid and similar to the ophthalmic formulation.
      Bioavailability was also similar to the ophthalmic formulation. The maximum
      effect (EMAX ) in children was half that in adults (EMAX 50 mm Hg).

PMID- 28868791
TI  - Predicting hemispheric dominance for language production in healthy individuals
      using support vector machine.
AB  - We used a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier to assess hemispheric pattern
      of language dominance of 47 individuals categorized as non-typical for language
      from their hemispheric functional laterality index (HFLI) measured on a sentence
      minus word-list production fMRI-BOLD contrast map. The SVM classifier was trained
      at discriminating between Dominant and Non-Dominant hemispheric language
      production activation pattern on a group of 250 participants previously
      identified as Typicals (HFLI strongly leftward). Then, SVM was applied to each
      hemispheric language activation pattern of 47 non-typical individuals. The
      results showed that at least one hemisphere (left or right) was found to be
      Dominant in every, except 3 individuals, indicating that the "dominant" type of
      functional organization is the most frequent in non-typicals. Specifically, left
      hemisphere dominance was predicted in all non-typical right-handers (RH) and in
      57.4% of non-typical left-handers (LH). When both hemisphere classifications were
      jointly considered, four types of brain patterns were observed. The most often
      predicted pattern (51%) was left-dominant (Dominant left-hemisphere and Non
      Dominant right-hemisphere), followed by right-dominant (23%, Dominant right
      hemisphere and Non-Dominant left-hemisphere) and co-dominant (19%, 2 Dominant
      hemispheres) patterns. Co-non-dominant was rare (6%, 2 Non-Dominant hemispheres),
      but was normal variants of hemispheric specialization. In RH, only left-dominant
      (72%) and co-dominant patterns were detected, while for LH, all types were found,
      although with different occurrences. Among the 10 LH with a strong rightward
      HFLI, 8 had a right-dominant brain pattern. Whole-brain analysis of the right
      dominant pattern group confirmed that it exhibited a functional organization
      strictly mirroring that of left-dominant pattern group. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5871
      5889, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28868792
TI  - Circular interpretation of regression coefficients.
AB  - The interpretation of the effect of predictors in projected normal regression
      models is not straight-forward. The main aim of this paper is to make this
      interpretation easier such that these models can be employed more readily by
      social scientific researchers. We introduce three new measures: the slope at the
      inflection point (bc ), average slope (AS) and slope at mean (SAM) that help us
      assess the marginal effect of a predictor in a Bayesian projected normal
      regression model. The SAM or AS are preferably used in situations where the data
      for a specific predictor do not lie close to the inflection point of a circular
      regression curve. In this case bc is an unstable and extrapolated effect. In
      addition, we outline how the projected normal regression model allows us to
      distinguish between an effect on the mean and spread of a circular outcome
      variable. We call these types of effects location and accuracy effects,
      respectively. The performance of the three new measures and of the methods to
      distinguish between location and accuracy effects is investigated in a simulation
      study. We conclude that the new measures and methods to distinguish between
      accuracy and location effects work well in situations with a clear location
      effect. In situations where the location effect is not clearly distinguishable
      from an accuracy effect not all measures work equally well and we recommend the
      use of the SAM.

PMID- 28868790
TI  - Insulin regulation of gluconeogenesis.
AB  - The coordinated regulation between cellular glucose uptake and endogenous glucose
      production is indispensable for the maintenance of constant blood glucose
      concentrations. The liver contributes significantly to this process by altering
      the levels of hepatic glucose release, through controlling the processes of de
      novo glucose production (gluconeogenesis) and glycogen breakdown
      (glycogenolysis). Various nutritional and hormonal stimuli signal to alter
      hepatic gluconeogenic flux, and suppression of this metabolic pathway during the
      postprandial state can, to a significant extent, be attributed to insulin. Here,
      we review some of the molecular mechanisms through which insulin modulates
      hepatic gluconeogenesis, thus controlling glucose production by the liver to
      ultimately maintain normoglycemia. Various signaling pathways governed by insulin
      converge at the level of transcriptional regulation of the key hepatic
      gluconeogenic genes PCK1 and G6PC, highlighting this as one of the focal
      mechanisms through which gluconeogenesis is modulated. In individuals with
      compromised insulin signaling, such as insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes,
      insulin fails to suppress hepatic gluconeogenesis, even in the fed state; hence,
      an insight into these insulin-moderated pathways is critical for therapeutic
      purposes.

PMID- 28868794
TI  - Canine demodicosis: a retrospective study of a veterinary hospital population in
      California, USA (2000-2016).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Demodex spp. are cutaneous mites that cause clinical disease when
      present in increased numbers. There is an association in some dogs with
      underlying systemic disease or immunosuppressive medications.
      HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Retrospective study to document breed predisposition,
      identify any concurrent diseases or underlying immunosuppressive conditions, and
      to determine the frequency of demodicosis recurrence after treatment completion.
      ANIMALS: There were 431 dogs with demodicosis presented to a veterinary teaching
      hospital in California, USA, from 2000 to 2016. METHODS: Inclusion in this study
      required a diagnosis of demodicosis based on direct demonstration of the mite.
      Records were reviewed for signalment, disease history, potential underlying
      aetiologies, diagnosed concurrent diseases, medications and demodicosis
      treatment. Analyses were performed to evaluate for potential breed
      predispositions and because of the large number of dogs with allergic dermatoses,
      analyses for this diagnosis as a disease associated with demodicosis was also
      performed. E-mailed surveys and follow-up telephone calls were used to assess for
      information about disease recurrence. RESULTS: The pit bull terrier group and
      West Highland white terrier, based on calculated odds ratio, were breeds
      predisposed to developing demodicosis. For dogs with demodicosis, allergic
      dermatoses was an associated disease. Relapse or recurrence of disease after
      treatment was uncommon, affecting 11% of the dogs with long-term follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS/CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This study identified, in dogs attending the
      institution based in California, USA, breed predilections for canine demodicosis
      and associated concomitant diseases. It also revealed a low occurrence of disease
      relapse, recurrence or persistence.

PMID- 28868793
TI  - Chronic steroid-response pancytopenia and increased bone density due to
      thromboxane synthase deficiency.
AB  - Diagnosis of bone marrow failure (BMF) disorders is challenging but essential for
      optimal patient management. Here, we report a young adult from nonconsanguineous
      parents with progressive pancytopenia since childhood, bone pain, increased bone
      density, and haphazard ossification replacing hematopoiesis within the bone
      marrow. Sequencing revealed two novel biallelic variants of unknown significance
      within the thromboxane A synthase gene, TBXAS1 (c.266T > C; c.989T > C),
      bioinformatically predicted to disrupt the protein. TBXAS1 mutations result in
      Ghosal hematodiaphyseal dysplasia (OMIM 231095), the autosomal recessive syndrome
      associated with abnormal bone structure and BMF. Identification of the genetic
      defect prompted steroid therapy leading to resolution of symptoms.

PMID- 28868795
TI  - Ultra-Low Doses of Naltrexone Enhance the Antiallodynic Effect of Pregabalin or
      Gabapentin in Neuropathic Rats.
AB  - Preclinical Research Treatment of neuropathic pain is an area of largely unmet
      medical need. Pregabalin and gabapentin are anticonvulsants widely used for the
      treatment of neuropathic pain. Unfortunately, these drugs are only effective in
      50-60% of the treated patients. In addition, both drugs have substantial side
      effects. Several studies have reported that ultralow doses of opioid receptor
      antagonists can induce analgesia and enhance the analgesic effect of opioids in
      rodents and humans. The objective of the present study was to assess the
      antiallodynic synergistic interaction between gabapentinoids and naltrexone in
      rats. Oral administration of pregabalin (ED50  = 2.79 +/- 0.16 mg/kg) or
      gabapentin (ED50  = 21.04 +/- 2.87 mg/kg) as well as intrathecal naltrexone (ED50
      = 0.11 +/- 0.02 ng) reduced in a dose-dependent manner tactile allodynia in
      rats. Maximal antiallodynic effects (~100%) were reached with 30 mg/kg of
      pregabalin, 300 mg/kg of gabapentin or 0.5 ng of naltrexone. Co-administration of
      pregabalin or gabapentin and naltrexone in a fixed-dose ratio (1:1) remarkably
      reduced spinal nerve ligation-induced tactile allodynia showing a synergistic
      interaction. The data indicate that combinations of pregabalin or gabapentin and
      ultra-low doses of naltrexone are able to reduce tactile allodynia in neuropathic
      rats with lower doses that those used when drugs are given individually and with
      an improved side effects profile. Drug Dev Res 78 : 371-380, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28868797
TI  - Effect of blood contamination on the compressive strength of three calcium
      silicate-based cements.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of human blood exposure on
      the compressive strength of various calcium silicate-based cements. Two hundred
      and eighty-eight customised cylindrical moulds were randomly divided into three
      groups according to material used: ProRoot MTA, Biodentine or CEM cement (n =
      96). Each group was divided into two subgroups according to exposure conditions:
      PBS or blood. Then, the compressive strength of the specimens was measured after
      6 h, 24 h, 72 h and 7 days. The compressive strength of CEM cement could not be
      measured after 6 and 24? h regardless of the exposure conditions nor could the
      compressive strength of 6 h blood-exposed ProRoot MTA. The compressive strength
      of blood-exposed ProRoot MTA was only significantly lower after 6 h, but no
      difference was seen at other time intervals. Blood exposed did adversely affected
      the compressive strength of Biodentine. The compressive strength of all groups
      significantly increased over time (P < 0.005).

PMID- 28868796
TI  - IgE autoreactivity in bullous pemphigoid: eosinophils and mast cells as major
      targets of pathogenic immune reactants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by
      tense blisters that are usually preceded by urticarial eruptions. Affected
      patients exhibit IgG and/or IgE autoantibodies against BP180 and/or BP230. Their
      relative importance in disease pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated.
      OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to provide a better characterization of the
      circulating and tissue-resident IgE in patients with BP at the serological,
      structural and functional levels. METHODS: Sera (n = 19) and skin (n = 33) from
      patients with BP were analysed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and
      immunofluorescence, respectively. RESULTS: The results obtained show that many
      patients with BP exhibit elevated IgE levels in the serum and in the skin. In the
      skin, it is very rarely and only sparsely found along the basement membrane zone,
      but is prominently present on mast cells and eosinophils. At least a portion of
      these IgE antibodies are BP-specific, as evidenced by serum ELISA and by the
      colocalization of BP180 and FcepsilonRI-bound IgE on mast cells and/or
      eosinophils. An important role of these immune reactants can be inferred from our
      additional finding that cross-linking of IgE, derived from BP sera, on
      FcepsilonRI-expressing rat basophils with BP180 results in robust degranulation
      of these cells. CONCLUSIONS: We propose the existence of a disease pathway
      alternative to IgG and complement that may well be responsible for some of the
      clinical features of this autoimmune disease.

PMID- 28868799
TI  - Low mitochondrial diversity in native Italian pig breeds is consistent with the
      occurrence of strong population bottlenecks.

PMID- 28868798
TI  - Feeding frequency in infancy and dental caries in childhood: a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Feeding patterns in infancy are plausible contributors to dental
      caries later in childhood, yet relatively few cohort studies have examined
      potential dietary risk factors at this age. This study aimed to investigate the
      associations between feeding frequency at age 12 months and caries prevalence at
      age 3 years. METHODS: In this prospective birth cohort of 345 Brazilian children,
      all foods and drinks consumed at age 12 months, including bottle-use and
      breastfeeding, were recorded using two 24-hour infant dietary recalls with
      mothers. The prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) and severe ECC (S-ECC) at
      age 38 months were compared in groups defined according to 12-month feeding
      frequency, using regression models to adjust for sociodemographic characteristics
      and total carbohydrate intake. RESULTS: Independent of other variables, compared
      with children with infrequent bottle-use and breastfeeding at 12 months, at 38
      months the ECC prevalence was 1.8-times higher in children breastfed more than
      three times/day (P = 0.001), 1.4-times higher in children bottle-fed more than
      three times/day (P = 0.07) and 1.5-times higher with combined high frequency of
      bottle and breastfeeding together (P = 0.04), but the association with
      consumption of other foods or drinks more than five times/day [risk ratio (RR) =
      1.2; P = 0.10] was not statistically significant. Prevalence of S-ECC was
      significantly associated with frequent breastfeeding (RR = 2.4; P < 0.001) and
      with greater frequency of consumption of other foods or drinks (RR = 1.7, P =
      0.001). CONCLUSIONS: High-frequency feeding in late infancy, including both
      bottle use and breastfeeding, were positively associated with dental caries in
      early childhood, suggesting possible early-life targets for caries prevention.

PMID- 28868800
TI  - Clinical characteristics of laryngeal versus nonlaryngeal amyloidosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Amyloidosis represents a heterogeneous group of disorders
      marked by abnormal protein formation and deposition. Laryngeal amyloidosis is
      rare and classically thought to remain isolated with little risk of systemic
      involvement or associated malignancy. This study sought to further characterize
      differences in clinical characteristics between patients with laryngeal and
      nonlaryngeal amyloidosis. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study.
      METHODS: The Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment was
      searched to identify patients with biopsy-confirmed laryngeal amyloidosis and
      patients with amyloidosis without laryngeal involvement on endoscopy. Mann
      Whitney U and chi2 tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Of 865
      patients treated for amyloidosis between 1996 and 2016, 22 (2.5%) patients with
      biopsy-proven laryngeal amyloidosis were identified. An additional 22 patients
      with amyloidosis of a different organ and negative laryngoscopy-and therefore
      without laryngeal amyloidosis-were identified as controls. Compared to these
      controls with nonlaryngeal amyloidosis, patients with laryngeal amyloidosis were
      younger (mean age 52.8 years vs. 68.4 years, P < .0006), and 18% had additional
      organ involvement. Immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis was the most common
      subtype in both groups of patients. Eighty-six percent of patients with laryngeal
      amyloidosis required surgical excision, and of these patients, over 30% required
      multiple excisions. CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant rate (18%) of multiorgan
      involvement in patients with laryngeal amyloidosis, which contradicts
      conventional concepts that this is an isolated disorder. This finding could have
      a significant impact on the evaluation and management of patients with laryngeal
      amyloidosis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3b. Laryngoscope, 128:670-674, 2018.

PMID- 28868801
TI  - Exciting news about the 2016 Impact Factor and JOPM performance.

PMID- 28868802
TI  - Case of lymph node primary perivascular epithelioid cell tumor associated with
      leukoderma.

PMID- 28868803
TI  - Epidemiology of contact lens-induced infiltrates: an updated review.
AB  - Corneal infiltrative events (CIEs) are well established as a risk associated with
      soft contact lens wear. The incidence of symptomatic CIEs during extended soft
      lens wear ranges from 2.5 to six per cent; when asymptomatic CIEs are included,
      the incidence can be as high as 20-25 per cent. In daily soft lens wear, the
      annual incidence of symptomatic CIEs is about three per cent. There are various
      accepted methods of categorising CIEs, and a scoring system based on clinical
      signs and symptoms is a good approach to grade severity. Lens-related risk
      factors include extended wear, silicone hydrogel material, the use of
      multipurpose solutions, bacterial bioburden and reusable lenses. Recent studies
      report that daily disposable lenses reduce the risk of CIEs.

PMID- 28868805
TI  - Formation of Palladium eta2 -Bound Chalcogenoketones across a Pd+ -C- Bond.
AB  - A series of chalcogen analogues encompassing a ketone and chalcogenoketones
      [{PC(=E)P}Pd(PMe3 )] (E=O, S, Se, Te) was generated from a nucleophilic palladium
      carbene compound, [{PC(sp2 )P}Pd(PMe3 )] ([PC(sp3 )HP]=bis[2
      (diisopropylphosphino)-phenyl]methyl, iPr2 P-C6 H4 -CH-C6 H4 -PiPr2 ). The thio-,
      seleno-, and telluroketone were all synthesized by means of an atom transfer from
      the respective chalcogens. The ketone analogue, however, required the use of
      nitrobenzene or nitrosobenzene as the oxygen-atom transfer agent.

PMID- 28868804
TI  - Prevalence and socioeconomic characteristics of alcohol disorders among men and
      women in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.
AB  - There is growing concern about alcohol problems in low- and middle-income
      countries. More research is required, particularly among the younger generation.
      The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of alcohol disorders and
      associated socioeconomic characteristics among young men and women living in the
      Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. This was a cross-sectional population-based
      study of 977 participants (52% male and 48% female) aged 18-40, the majority of
      whom lived in low-income areas. Data collection was carried out in 2012 by
      trained fieldworkers. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (DSM-IV)
      was used to investigate the prevalence of alcohol dependence (increased tolerance
      to alcohol, failed attempt to cut down, risk of physical and mental effects) and
      alcohol abuse (harmful use, consistent intoxication, risk behaviour, physically
      hazardous, social problems). A high 12-month prevalence of alcohol dependence was
      found (26.5% in total; 39.0% among men and 19.1% among women) as well as of
      alcohol abuse (9% in total; 19.0% among men and 6.0% among women). Few
      socioeconomic differences emerged among the men, except older men (OR 1.94, CI
      1.11-3.42) and those supported by social grants (OR 2.28, CI 1.06-4.93), who
      presented higher odd ratios for alcohol dependence than the reference groups.
      Among the women, more differences emerged: women who were widowed/single (OR
      2.35, CI 1.20-4.62), had no education (OR 3.41, CI 1.04-11.21), had a low income
      (OR 3.26, CI 1.55-6.80) and had no social support from friends when ill presented
      higher odd ratios (OR 1.73, CI 1.07-2.80). In the adjusted model, marital status
      and low income remained statistically significant. With regard to alcohol abuse,
      fewer socioeconomic differences emerged. Interventions need to address the early
      onset of alcohol misuse in order to meet both current needs and long-standing
      mental and physical illness.

PMID- 28868806
TI  - Validity of maximum isometric tongue pressure as a screening test for physical
      frailty: Cross-sectional study of Japanese community-dwelling older adults.
AB  - AIM: Maximum isometric tongue pressure (MIP) seems to have a diagnostic value for
      oral phase dysphagia. The present study aimed to examine the association between
      MIP and frailty, and to assess the screening validity of MIP for physical
      frailty. METHODS: We carried out a cross-sectional study, and enrolled
      participants aged >=60 years from Japanese national medical check-ups in 2015 and
      2016. The Fried frailty phenotype model was used. We analyzed odds ratios (OR)
      and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of physical frailty using one standard
      deviation increments of tongue pressure. Receiver operating characteristic curves
      were obtained to predict physical frailty using MIP values. RESULTS: Out of 1603
      participants, 968 were categorized as non-frail, 605 as pre-frail and 30 as
      frail. In logistic regression analysis, one standard deviation increment of MIP
      significantly differentiated frail and pre-frail: the OR for frail with one
      standard deviation increment in MIP was 0.37 (95% CI 0.26-0.54, P < 0.001), and
      the OR for pre-frail was 0.63 (95% CI 0.57-0.70, P < 0.001). The area under the
      receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting frailty with MIP score was
      as high as 0.776 (95% CI 0.689-0.862). A point of MIP 35 kPa had a sensitivity of
      90.0%, specificity of 40.4%, a positive likelihood ratio of 1.5 and a negative
      likelihood ratio of 0.2 for predicting frailty. CONCLUSIONS: MIP performance is
      independently associated with frailty. MIP also can be used as a simple screening
      tool for frailty. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 240-249.

PMID- 28868807
TI  - Correlates of concealment behavior among couples coping with cancer: Actor
      partner model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Contextual self-concealment in the psychooncology literature has been
      found to be associated with elevated distress. The current study aimed to
      understand the dyadic relationships of an individual's perception of spousal
      support and dispositional perspective-taking with own and partner's levels of
      self-concealment behavior, among couples coping with cancer. METHODS: A subsample
      of 61 heterosexual couples coping with cancer was taken from a large-scale cross
      sectional study. Patients and their spouses independently completed measures of
      perceived spousal support, perspective-taking, and contextual self-concealment.
      Dyadic data were analyzed by using the actor-partner interdependence model both
      for couples in which the woman was the patient and also for couples in which the
      man was the patient. RESULTS: Perceived spousal support negatively predicted
      contextual self-concealment, regardless of gender and role. Implications of
      perspective-taking for concealment behavior were dependent on role and gender. A
      female patient's perspective-taking was associated with a reduction in her own
      and her spouse's concealment behavior. A male spouse's perspective-taking was
      associated with an increase in his own and his spouse's concealment behavior. A
      female spouse's perspective-taking negatively predicted patient's concealment
      behavior, but not her own. CONCLUSIONS: Findings stress the important roles
      played by spousal support and perspective-taking in communication patterns
      between couples affected by cancer. Although the perception of support from one's
      spouse seems to reduce the need to conceal cancer-related issues, interventions
      that focus on couples' communication should address the differential implications
      of perspective-taking, as they can lead to either more or less self-concealment
      among couples, depending on role and gender.

PMID- 28868808
TI  - Biphasic Synergistic Gel Materials with Switchable Mechanics and Self-Healing
      Capacity.
AB  - A fabrication strategy for biphasic gels is reported, which incorporates high
      internal-phase emulsions. Closely packed micro-inclusions within the elastic
      hydrogel matrix greatly improve the mechanical properties of the materials. The
      materials exhibit excellent switchable mechanics and shape-memory performance
      because of the switchable micro- inclusions that are incorporated into the
      hydrogel matrix. The produced materials demonstrated a self-healing capacity that
      originates from the noncovalent effect of the biphasic heteronetwork. The
      aforementioned characteristics suggest that the biphasic gels may serve as ideal
      composite gel materials with validity in a variety of applications, such as soft
      actuators, flexible devices, and biological materials.

PMID- 28868809
TI  - Color Tuning in Garnet Oxides: The Role of Tetrahedral Coordination Geometry for
      3 d Metal Ions and Ligand-Metal Charge Transfer (Band-Gap Manipulation).
AB  - We explored garnet-structured oxide materials containing 3d transition-metal ions
      (e.g., Co2+ , Ni2+ , Cu2+ , and Fe3+ ) for the development of new inorganic
      colored materials. For this purpose, we synthesized new garnets, Ca3 Sb2 Ga2
      ZnO12 (I) and Ca3 Sb2 Fe2 ZnO12 (II), that were isostructural with Ca3 Te2 Zn3
      O12 . Substitution of Co2+ , Ni2+ , and Cu2+ at the tetrahedral Zn2+ sites in I
      and II gave rise to brilliantly colored materials (different shades of blue,
      green, turquoise, and red). The materials were characterized by optical
      absorption spectroscopy and CIE chromaticity diagrams. The Fe3+ -containing
      oxides showed band-gap narrowing (owing to strong sp-d exchange interactions
      between Zn2+ and the transition-metal ion), and this tuned the color of these
      materials uniquely. We also characterized the color and optical absorption
      properties of Ca3 Te2 Zn3-x Cox O12 (0<x<=2.0) and Cd3 Te2 Zn3-x Cox O12
      (0<x<=1.0), which display brilliant blue and green-blue colors, respectively. The
      present work brings out the role of the distorted tetrahedral coordination
      geometry of transition-metal ions and ligand-metal charge transfer (which is
      manifested as narrowing of the band gap) in producing brilliantly colored garnet
      based materials.

PMID- 28868810
TI  - Five-year follow-up of the endothelial progenitor cell capturing stent versus the
      paxlitaxel-eluting stent in de novo coronary lesions with a high risk of coronary
      restenosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the long-term safety and clinical efficacy of the Genous
      endothelial progenitor cell capturing stent (ECS) compared with the TAXUS Liberte
      paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) in lesions with a high risk of restenosis.
      BACKGROUND: Instead of the use of cytotoxic or cytostatic drugs in drug-eluting
      stents, a "pro-healing" approach in ECS may overcome impeded healing response due
      to delayed functional endothelialization of the stent struts. METHODS: In the
      prospective, randomized TRIAS pilot study 193 patients with coronary artery
      lesions carrying a high risk of restenosis were included (ECS: n = 98, PES: n =
      95). The primary focus of this analysis was target vessel failure (TVF) at 5
      years. Dual antiplatelet therapy was prescribed for >=1 month after ECS and for
      >=6 months after PES. RESULTS: At 5 years follow-up, no significant differences
      were found in TVF (ECS 24% vs. PES 29%, risk difference 95% confidence interval
      (RDCI) -17.3% to 7.4%). Between 2 and 5 years after the index procedure, low
      numbers of TVF were observed in ECS compared with PES (ECS 4% vs. PES 16%, RDCI 
      20.8% to -2.3%). There was no definite stent thrombosis in ECS compared with four
      patients in the PES group. CONCLUSION: This is the first randomized study
      providing very long-term clinical efficacy and safety of the ECS in lesions
      carrying a high risk of restenosis. At 5 years follow-up, TVF rates in ECS group
      are numerically lower compared with PES due to an increase of events between 2
      and 5 years after the index procedure.

PMID- 28868811
TI  - The distribution of total vitamin B12, holotranscobalamin, and the active vitamin
      B12 fraction in the first 5 weeks postpartum.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Total vitamin B12 levels decrease significantly during pregnancy
      and recover to normal values within 8-week postpartum. Holotranscobalamin
      (holoTC) reflects the active part of vitamin B12 and has been shown to remain
      constant during pregnancy and postpartum. A mechanism of redistribution of
      vitamin B12 is suggested, with a shift toward holoTC if there is insufficient
      total vitamin B12 available. Our objective was to examine vitamin B12 deficiency
      and the active vitamin B12 fraction in postpartum women. METHODS: Total vitamin
      B12 and holoTC were measured in 171 women within 48 hours (T0) and at 5 weeks
      (T5) postpartum. Vitamin B12 deficiency was defined as total vitamin B12 < 180
      pmol/L or holoTC <32 pmol/L. The active vitamin B12 fraction was defined as
      holoTC/total vitamin B12. RESULTS: Without intervention, vitamin B12 deficiency
      based on both serum total vitamin B12 and holoTC changed from 75% and 60%, to
      respectively 10% and 6% at T5. The fraction of active vitamin B12 was significant
      higher in vitamin B12 deficient women at both time points and across time (P <
      .0001 and P = .002). A high fraction of active vitamin B12 was only present in
      women with total vitamin B12 deficiency at T0. At T5, no high vitamin B12
      fraction was found. CONCLUSION: The changes in total vitamin B12 levels seem to
      be based on a physiological changes rather than vitamin B12 deficiency. The
      results of this study confirm the hypothesis that a shift toward the metabolic
      active vitamin B12 (holoTC) occurs in women with insufficient available total
      vitamin B12.

PMID- 28868812
TI  - Application of three hygrometers under different skin conditions in dogs: dry,
      moist and haired skin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hydration is one parameter of skin barrier function. The Skicon
      200EX(r) and Corneometer CM825(r) are hygrometers used to measure skin hydration
      in humans based on different measurement methods. The ASA-MX3(r) is a hygrometer
      used to obtain measurements at haired skin sites in humans.
      HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To validate three hygrometers to measure skin dryness in
      dogs. ANIMALS: Six clinically normal research dogs. METHODS: In vivo evaluation
      of three hygrometers for three different skin types was performed. Measurement of
      hydration was performed at five different regional sites. Dry and moist skin were
      induced by treatment with a sorbent and petrolatum, respectively, and
      measurements were collected for 120 min. Skin sites with three different hair
      lengths were evaluated to determine whether hair would interfere with hydration
      measurements. RESULTS: All three hygrometers obtained measurements at the
      nonhaired skin sites, except the ASA-MX3(r) hygrometer at the ear site. At the
      dry skin sites the Skicon-200EX(r) hygrometer detected a significant decrease of
      water content for longer than the other devices. At the moist skin sites the
      Corneometer CM825(r) and ASA-MX3(r) hygrometers showed a significant increase in
      water content. The ASA-MX3(r) hygrometer was the only device that could obtain
      measurements at sites with hair. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The Skicon
      200EX(r) hygrometer was the most sensitive for detecting skin dryness, whereas
      the Corneometer CM825(r) and ASA-MX3(r) hygrometers detected an emollient effect.
      Only the ASA-MX3(r) could provide measurements at the haired sites. This study
      may assist in the selection of a hygrometer based on the purpose of use.

PMID- 28868813
TI  - Insomnia in nursing students and related factors: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the factors affecting insomnia in
      nursing students. METHODS: This study was conducted with 379 nursing students,
      studying at a university in western Anatolia/Turkey between 2014 and 2015 as a
      descriptive and cross-sectional analytic study. Data of the survey were collected
      using the Personal Inquiry Form, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia
      Severity Index, Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory, and a
      self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: The Insomnia Severity Index score for
      the students is 11.51 +/- 5.04 on average. It was found that as anxiety and
      depression increased, the Insomnia Severity Index score for the students also
      increased and there was a weak positive correlation. Also, a moderate positive
      correlation between sleep quality and insomnia severity was found. Significant
      correlations were found between some of the socio-demographic characteristics
      (lower socio-economic situation, irregular bedtime, and smoking) and insomnia,
      sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. CONCLUSION: Anxiety, depression,
      irregular bedtime, and lower socio-economic situation are factors that make
      falling asleep difficult.

PMID- 28868814
TI  - Exposure to secondhand smoke, exclusive breastfeeding and infant adiposity at age
      5 months in the Healthy Start study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infant adiposity may be influenced by several environmental risk
      factors, but few studies have explored these interactions. OBJECTIVE: To examine
      the interaction between exposure to secondhand smoke and breastfeeding
      exclusivity on adiposity at age 5 months. METHODS: We studied 813 mother
      offspring pairs from the longitudinal Healthy Start study. Fat mass and fat-free
      mass were measured by air displacement plethysmography. Linear regression
      analyses were used to estimate the association between household smokers (none,
      any) with fat mass, fat-free mass, percent fat mass, weight-for-age z-score,
      weight-for-length z-score and BMI-for-age z-score as separate outcomes.
      Interaction terms between household smokers and breastfeeding exclusivity (<5
      months, >=5 months) were added to separate models. RESULTS: The combination of
      exposure to secondhand smoke and a lack of exclusive breastfeeding was associated
      with increased adiposity at age 5 months. For example, within the not exclusively
      breastfed strata, exposure to secondhand smoke was associated with increased fat
      mass (0.1 kg; 95% CI: 0.0-0.2; P = 0.05). Conversely, within the exclusively
      breastfed strata, there was virtually no difference in fat mass between exposed
      and non-exposed infants (coefficient: -0.1; 95% CI: -0.3-0.1; P = 0.25).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings may inform new public health strategies with potential
      relevance for both smoking cessation and obesity prevention.

PMID- 28868815
TI  - The Role of the Urologist in Men's Health.

PMID- 28868816
TI  - Hypertension and Male Fertility.
AB  - As the age of paternity rises in the developed world, issues of chronic disease
      may affect prospective fathers. Given the high prevalence of hypertension,
      researchers have begun to explore the relationship between hypertensive disease
      and male fertility. The current literature suggests an association between
      hypertension and semen quality. The use of various antihypertensive medications
      has also been linked to impaired semen parameters, making it difficult to discern
      whether the association exists with hypertension or its treatment. Further
      investigation is warranted to determine whether the observed associations are
      causal.

PMID- 28868817
TI  - Incidence of De Novo Erectile Dysfunction after Urethroplasty: A Prospective
      Observational Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: De novo erectile dysfunction (ED) is a known complication after
      urethroplasty. Incidence and natural history of de novo ED after urethroplasty is
      underreported. We assessed the incidence of de novo ED after urethroplasty.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consecutive consenting urethroplasty (n=48) patients aged
      21 to 50 years from February 2014 to July 2016 with normal preoperative erectile
      function as determined by an International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5)
      score >=22 were included and interviewed at 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: In
      patients with anterior stricture (n=40), substitution urethroplasty (SU) was
      performed in 22 patients (55.0%) and end-to-end anastomotic urethroplasty (EEAU)
      in 18 patients (45.0%). Their mean IIEF-5 score was 24.15+/-0.8 preoperatively,
      20.10+/-4.2 at 3 months (p<0.001), 22.70+/-2.3 at 6 months (p=0.0012), and
      23.70+/-1.7 at 12 months (p=0.03), showing a recovery of erectile function with
      time. All 8 patients with pelvic fracture urethral injury (PFUI) underwent
      progressive perineal urethroplasty. Their mean IIEF score was 24.0+/-1.2
      preoperatively, 18.8+/-5.4 at 3 months (p=0.002), 20.9+/-3.5 at 6 months
      (p=0.37), and 22.0+/-1.5 at 12 months (p=0.427). The incidence of ED was similar
      at 1 year postoperatively between patients with anterior stricture and PFUI and
      between patients who underwent EEAU or SU for anterior stricture. CONCLUSIONS:
      Incidence of ED at 1 year after PFUI is similar to that after surgery for
      anterior stricture in patients with normal preoperative erectile function. Among
      the cases of anterior stricture, recovery was better with SU at 3 months and was
      similar between SU and EEAU at 1 year.

PMID- 28868818
TI  - Evaluation of Impact of Voiding Posture on Uroflowmetry Parameters in Men.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of voiding position on uroflowmetry parameters
      and to assess its potential clinical implications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      conducted a prospective study from 2013 to 2015 and included men between 18 and
      77 years old who were either healthy volunteers with an International Prostate
      Symptom Score (IPSS) <=7 or men with benign prostate enlargement that were on
      alpha-blocker medication and had an IPSS <10. Participants underwent uroflowmetry
      and post-void residual urine (PVRU) measurements twice, once in a sitting
      position and once in a standing position. The participants were divided into 4
      groups based on age (35 years or younger, 36 to 50 years, 51 to 60 years, and
      older than 60 years). RESULTS: A total of 740 men with a mean age of 40.35 years
      were evaluated. There was no significant difference in uroflowmetry parameters
      until the age of 50 years between the voiding positions. However, in those older
      than 50 years, PVRU volume was significantly lower in the sitting position than
      the standing position, whereas voiding time was significantly higher in the
      sitting position than the standing position. Other uroflowmetry parameters,
      including maximal and average urine flow rates, were non-significant.
      CONCLUSIONS: The voiding position plays an important role in the uroflowmetry
      parameters of elderly men. Voiding in the sitting position was found to be
      optimal for elderly men, whereas the role of the voiding position in healthy
      young men could not be determined. More research is needed to further study this
      issue.

PMID- 28868819
TI  - Erectile Dysfunction in Men with and without Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in
      Nigeria.
AB  - PURPOSE: Much attention has been focused in recent decades on the effects of
      erectile dysfunction (ED) secondary to lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS),
      potentially underestimating its effects in men without LUTS. This study aimed to
      compare the prevalence and predictors of ED in men with and without LUTS.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire
      was administered to 303 patients between January 2014 and June 2016. Within this
      sample, 147 patients with LUTS (cases) were compared to 156 men without LUTS who
      were matched for age, level of education, and occupation (controls). RESULTS: The
      mean age was 66.03+/-9.64 years and 65.78+/-8.61 years for the cases and
      controls, respectively. The prevalence of ED was 64.6% and 73.7% (odds ratio
      [OR], 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94~2.51) in the case cohort and
      controls, respectively (p=0.086). There was no difference in the prevalence of
      impaired erectile function (p=0.067), impaired orgasmic function (p=0.108),
      impaired sexual desire (p=0.291), impaired intercourse satisfaction (p=0.869), or
      impaired overall satisfaction (p=0.191). Multivariate logistic regression
      analysis showed that being currently employed was a significant predictor of ED
      both in men with LUTS (OR, 8.08; 95% CI, 1.51~9.27; p=0.004) and in men without
      LUTS (OR, 7.00; 95% CI, 1.49~14.51; p=0.008). Being married only predicted for
      impaired EF in men without LUTS (OR, 6.34; 95% CI, 1.40~15.20; p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: ED was not found to be more prevalent in men with LUTS. Being
      employed was a predictor of ED in both groups of men, while being married was
      also a predictor of ED in men without LUTS.

PMID- 28868820
TI  - Loupe-Assisted Vasovasostomy Using a Prolene Stent: A Simpler Vasectomy Reversal
      Technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: Microsurgical vasovasostomy is associated with high patency and
      pregnancy rates, but is difficult and requires significant effort and time to
      learn. Therefore, we assessed a simplified loupe-assisted vasovasostomy method
      using a Prolene stent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of 82 patients
      who underwent loupe-assisted vasovasostomy with a Prolene stent by a single
      surgeon between January 2004 and December 2015 were reviewed. The association
      between the vasal obstructive interval (VOI) and the success rate was evaluated.
      RESULTS: The average age at the time of vasovasostomy was 39.8 years (range,
      29~57 years). The mean VOI was 6.6 years (range, 1~19 years). The mean operation
      time was 87.0 minutes (range, 55.0~140.0 minutes). The overall patency and
      natural pregnancy rates were 90.2% and 45.1%, respectively. The success rate
      decreased as time after vasectomy increased (odds ratio, 0.869; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.760~0.993; p=0.039). The cases were divided into 2 groups according
      to the mean VOI: group A (>7 years) and group B (<=7 years), with 31 cases
      (37.8%) and 51 cases (62.2%), respectively. The patency and pregnancy rates of
      group A were 80.6% and 51.6%, respectively, while those of group B were 96.1% and
      41.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Loupe-assisted vasovasostomy using a Prolene
      stent is a safe and effective method.

PMID- 28868821
TI  - Paraffin Granuloma Associated with Buried Glans Penis-Induced Sexual and Voiding
      Dysfunction.
AB  - A paraffinoma is a type of inflammatory lipogranuloma that develops after the
      injection of an artificial mineral oil, such as paraffin or silicon, into the
      foreskin or the subcutaneous tissue of the penis for the purpose of penis
      enlargement, cosmetics, or prosthesis. The authors experienced a case of macro
      paraffinoma associated with sexual dysfunction, voiding dysfunction, and pain
      caused by a buried glans penis after a paraffin injection for penis enlargement
      that had been performed 35 years previously. Herein, this case is presented with
      a literature review.

PMID- 28868823
TI  - Depression and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

PMID- 28868822
TI  - The Effectiveness of Green Tea or Green Tea Extract on Insulin Resistance and
      Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Green tea or green tea extract (GT/GTE) has been demonstrated to reduce insulin
      resistance and improve glycemic control. However, evidence for this health
      beneficial effect is inconsistent. This systematic review evaluated the effect of
      GT/GTE on insulin resistance and glycemic control in people with pre
      diabetes/type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, AMED, Web of
      Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched up to April 2017 for randomised
      controlled trials of participants with pre-diabetes or T2DM, where the
      intervention was GT/GTE. Meta-analysis was performed to assess the standardised
      mean difference (SMD) in biomarkers of insulin resistance and glycemic control
      between GT/GTE and placebo groups. Six studies (n=382) were pooled into random
      effects meta-analysis. Overall, no differences were found between GT/GTE and the
      placebo for glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c: SMD, -0.32; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], -0.86 to 0.23), homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA
      IR: SMD, 0.10; 95% CI, -0.17 to 0.38), fasting insulin (SMD, -0.25; 95% CI, -0.64
      to 0.15), and fasting glucose (SMD, -0.10; 95% CI, -0.50 to 0.30). No evidence
      support the consumption of GT/GTE could reduce the levels of HbA1c, HOMA-IR,
      fasting insulin, or fasting glucose in people with pre-diabetes/T2DM. However,
      the studies included were small and of varying quality.

PMID- 28868824
TI  - Comparison of Glucose Area Under the Curve Measured Using Minimally Invasive
      Interstitial Fluid Extraction Technology with Continuous Glucose Monitoring
      System in Diabetic Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is reported to be a useful
      technique, but difficult or inconvenient for some patients and institutions. We
      are developing a glucose area under the curve (AUC) monitoring system without
      blood sampling using a minimally invasive interstitial fluid extraction
      technology (MIET). Here we evaluated the accuracy of interstitial fluid glucose
      (IG) AUC measured by MIET in patients with diabetes for an extended time interval
      and the potency of detecting hyperglycemia using CGM data as a reference.
      METHODS: Thirty-eight inpatients with diabetes undergoing CGM were enrolled. MIET
      comprised a pretreatment step using a plastic microneedle array and glucose
      accumulation step with a hydrogel patch, which was placed on two sites from 9:00
      AM to 5:00 PM or from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. IG AUC was calculated by accumulated
      glucose extracted by hydrogel patches using sodium ion as standard. RESULTS: A
      significant correlation was observed between the predicted AUC by MIET and CGM in
      daytime (r=0.76) and nighttime (r=0.82). The optimal cutoff for the IG AUC value
      of MIET to predict hyperglycemia over 200 mg/dL measured by CGM for 8 hours was
      1,067.3 mg.hr/dL with 88.2% sensitivity and 81.5% specificity. CONCLUSION: We
      showed that 8-hour IG AUC levels using MIET were valuable in estimating the blood
      glucose AUC without blood sampling. The results also supported the concept of
      using this technique for evaluating glucose excursion and for screening
      hyperglycemia during 8 hours in patients with diabetes at any time of day.

PMID- 28868825
TI  - Effects of High-Dose alpha-Lipoic Acid on Heart Rate Variability of Type 2
      Diabetes Mellitus Patients with Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy in Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetic cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is one of the important
      complications of diabetes. It is characterized by reduced heart rate variability
      (HRV). METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter
      trial, 75 patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group (n=41)
      received alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) at an oral dose of 600 mg/day for the first 12
      weeks and then 1,200 mg/day for the next 12 weeks. The other group (n=34)
      received placebo treatment for 24 weeks. CAN was assessed by measuring HRVs in
      people with diabetes. RESULTS: Most of the baseline measures for HRVs were
      similar between the ALA and placebo groups. Although there were no statistically
      significant HRV changes in the ALA group compared to the placebo group after 24
      weeks of trial, we found a positive tendency in some of the HRV parameters of the
      ALA group. The standard deviations of normal-to-normal RR intervals in the
      standing position increased by 1.87 ms in the ALA group but decreased by -3.97 ms
      in the placebo group (P=0.06). The power spectrum of the low frequency (LF) band
      in the standing position increased by 15.77 ms2 in the ALA group, whereas it
      declined by -15.04 ms2 in the placebo group (P=0.08). The high frequency/LF ratio
      in the upright position increased by 0.35 in the ALA group, whereas it declined
      by -0.42 in the placebo group (P=0.06). There were no differences between the two
      groups regarding rates of adverse events. CONCLUSION: Although a slight
      improvement tendency was seen in HRV in the ALA group, there were no
      statistically significant HRV changes in the ALA group compared to the placebo
      group after 24 weeks of trial. However, the high oral dose of ALA was well
      tolerated.

PMID- 28868826
TI  - Determinants of Long-Term Durable Glycemic Control in New-Onset Type 2 Diabetes
      Mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long-term durable glycemic control is a difficult goal in the
      management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We evaluated the factors
      associated with durable glycemic control in a real clinical setting. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 194 new-onset, drug-naive
      patients with T2DM who were diagnosed between January 2011 and March 2013, and
      were followed up for >2 years. Glycemic durability was defined as the maintenance
      of optimal glycemic control (glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c] <7.0%) for 2 years
      without substitution or adding other glucose-lowering agents. Clinical factors
      and glycemic markers associated with glycemic durability were compared between
      two groups: a durability group and a non-durability group. RESULTS: Patients in
      the durability group had a higher baseline body mass index (26.1 kg/m2 vs. 24.9
      kg/m2) and lower HbA1c (8.6% vs. 9.7%) than the non-durability group. The initial
      choice of glucose-lowering agents was similar in both groups, except for insulin
      and sulfonylureas, which were more frequently prescribed in the non-durability
      group. In multiple logistic regression analyses, higher levels of education,
      physical activity, and homeostasis model assessment of beta-cell function (HOMA
      beta) were associated with glycemic durability. Notably, lower HbA1c (<7.0%) at
      baseline and first follow-up were significantly associated with glycemic
      durability (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 7.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.51 to
      22.3) (adjusted OR, 9.27; 95% CI, 1.62 to 53.1, respectively), after adjusting
      for confounding variables including the types of glucose-lowering agents.
      CONCLUSION: Early achievement of HbA1c level within the glycemic target was a
      determinant of long-term glycemic durability in new-onset T2DM, as were higher
      levels of education, physical activity, and HOMA-beta.

PMID- 28868827
TI  - Depression and Mortality in People with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, 2003 to 2013: A
      Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous reports have demonstrated a bidirectional relationship
      between depression and diabetes mellitus (DM), accentuating a need for more
      intensive depression screening in DM patients. There is a relative paucity of
      data on the mortality of depressed DM patients in Korea. METHODS: Retrospective
      data from January 2003 to December 2013 were collected for adult type 2 diabetes
      mellitus (T2DM) patients older than 30 years using the National Health
      Information database maintained by the Korean National Health Insurance Service
      (NHIS). Demographic characteristics were analyzed with descriptive statistics,
      and the annual prevalence of depression was estimated. Mortality rates and hazard
      ratios for each age group (stratified into six age groups) of patients diagnosed
      with T2DM in 2003 were estimated using a Cox proportional hazard method, with the
      Kaplan-Meier cumulative survival curve showing the overall survival rates
      according to the T2DM status until the given year of 2013. RESULTS: The annual
      prevalence of depression was consistently higher in T2DM group from 2003 to 2013.
      The mortality hazard ratio was higher in the depressed in all age groups, and the
      risk was higher in male groups and in younger-aged groups. CONCLUSION: Depression
      was significantly associated with a high mortality risk in T2DM patients; hence,
      a more systematic surveillance of T2DM patients to identify risk factors for
      depression might contribute significantly to reducing mortality risk in this
      group of patients.

PMID- 28868828
TI  - In Vitro Effect of Fatty Acids Identified in the Plasma of Obese Adolescents on
      the Function of Pancreatic beta-Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The increase in circulating free fatty acid (FFA) levels is a major
      factor that induces malfunction in pancreatic beta-cells. We evaluated the effect
      of FFAs reconstituted according to the profile of circulating fatty acids found
      in obese adolescents on the viability and function of the murine insulinoma cell
      line (mouse insulinoma [MIN6]). METHODS: From fatty acids obtained commercially,
      plasma-FFA profiles of three different youth populations were reconstituted:
      obese with metabolic syndrome; obese without metabolic syndrome; and normal
      weight without metabolic syndrome. MIN6 cells were treated for 24 or 48 hours
      with the three FFA profiles, and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, cell
      viability, mitochondrial function and antioxidant activity were evaluated.
      RESULTS: The high FFA content and high polyunsaturated omega6/omega3 ratio,
      present in plasma of obese adolescents with metabolic syndrome had a toxic effect
      on MIN6 cell viability and function, increasing oxidative stress and decreasing
      glucose-dependent insulin secretion. CONCLUSION: These results could help to
      guide nutritional management of obese young individuals, encouraging the increase
      of omega-3-rich food consumption in order to reduce the likelihood of
      deterioration of beta-cells and the possible development of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus.

PMID- 28868829
TI  - Factors Associated with Improved Glycemic Control by Direct-Acting Antiviral
      Agent Treatment in Egyptian Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with Chronic
      Hepatitis C Genotype 4.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with
      type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was first reported in 1994. Little is known about
      the effect of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) on glycemic control in T2DM
      patients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the factors associated
      with improved glycemic control (IGC) by DAA treatment in Egyptian T2DM patients
      with chronic HCV genotype 4 infection. METHODS: This study included 460 T2DM
      patients with chronic HCV genotype 4 infection. Four hundred patients received
      DAAs and 60 patients did not receive DAAs. Patients with sustained virological
      response after 3 months of DAAs (378 patients) were allocated into two groups:
      first group included 292 patients (77.2%) with IGC and second group included 86
      patients (22.8%) with non-improved glycemic control (NIGC). RESULTS: In IGC
      group, 78 patients (26.7%) needed to decrease the dose of antidiabetic treatment.
      There were no significant differences between IGC and NIGC groups as regards age,
      sex, and body mass index. The percentage of patients with positive family history
      of T2DM, those with Child B class and duration of T2DM were significantly higher
      in NIGC group compared to IGC. CONCLUSION: Diabetic patients receiving DAAs
      should be closely monitored for reduction of antidiabetic drugs especially
      insulin and sulfonylurea to avoid hypoglycemic events. Improvement of glycemic
      control with DAAs is more in patients without family history of T2DM, short
      duration of diabetes mellitus, and mild liver disease.

PMID- 28868830
TI  - Letter: The Effect of 12 Weeks Aerobic, Resistance, and Combined Exercises on
      Omentin-1 Levels and Insulin Resistance among Type 2 Diabetic Middle-Aged Women
      (Diabetes Metab J 2017;41:205-12).

PMID- 28868831
TI  - Response: The Effect of 12 Weeks Aerobic, Resistance, and Combined Exercises on
      Omentin-1 Levels and Insulin Resistance among Type 2 Diabetic Middle-Aged Women
      (Diabetes Metab J 2017;41:205-12).

PMID- 28868832
TI  - Combined Cataract Extraction With Pars Plana Vitrectomy and Metallic Intraocular
      Foreign Body Removal Through Sclerocorneal Tunnel Using a Novel "Magnet
      Handshake" Technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the outcomes of combined cataract extraction with pars plana
      vitrectomy (PPV) and metallic intraocular foreign body (IOFB) removal through a
      sclerocorneal tunnel using the "magnetic handshake" technique. DESIGN: A
      retrospective review. METHODS: Retrospective review of case records of 14
      patients from 2010 to 2016 with metallic IOFB and traumatic cataract was
      performed. Cataract extraction was combined with PPV. Two intraocular magnets
      (IOMs) introduced through 20-gauge vitrectomy port and sclerocorneal tunnel
      helped achieve safe delivery of IOFB outside the globe by the "magnetic
      handshake" technique. RESULTS: All patients were males with a mean age of 33.04
      years. A final best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/60 or better was noted
      in 10 (71.42%) of 14 patients. Final reattachment with more than 1 surgery was
      achieved in 13 (92.85%) patients. Postoperative complications included retinal
      detachment (RD) and phthisis bulbi in 1 (14.28%) patient each. CONCLUSIONS:
      Combined cataract extraction with PPV and metallic IOFB removal through
      sclerocorneal tunnel using the "magnet handshake" technique gives good visual and
      surgical outcomes.

PMID- 28868833
TI  - Evaluation of Interleukin-17 and Interleukin-23 in Pterygium:
      Immunohistochemistry Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the interleukin-17 (IL-17) and interleukin-23 (IL-23)
      positive cell counts between pterygium and normal conjunctiva. DESIGN: A case
      control study. METHODS: This study received ethical approval (NMRR Research ID
      23957) and informed consent was obtained from all participants. It involved 20
      participants with 20 samples of pterygium and 20 samples of normal conjunctiva
      that were obtained from the same eye of each participant. All the participants
      underwent history taking, slit lamp examination, and pterygium excision surgery.
      Both samples underwent immunohistochemistry procedure. Pretreatment procedure was
      conducted using heat-induced epitope retrieval with PT link, subsequently
      followed by EnVision FLEX staining procedure and incubation with anti-IL-17
      antibody and anti-IL-23 antibody. Slides were examined in high-power fields
      (400x) for both samples in 3 different fields. Total positive stained cell counts
      in all 3 fields with IL-17 and IL-23 between pterygium and normal conjunctiva
      were analyzed by using Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: IL-17 positive cell
      counts for normal conjunctiva showed mean 196.10 +/- 80.487 but for pterygium was
      331.10 +/- 108.416. As for IL-23, the mean for positive cell counts for normal
      conjunctiva was 62.10 +/- 33.462 and IL-23 positive cell counts for pterygium
      showed mean 102.95 +/- 41.378. Both IL-17 and IL-23 were significantly increased
      in pterygium compared with normal conjunctiva (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Both IL
      17 and IL-23 were found to be significantly higher in the pterygium group than in
      the normal conjunctiva group with P < 0.001 by Wilcoxon signed rank test.

PMID- 28868834
TI  - Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis: Could It Be Related to Cell-Mediated Immunity
      Defect in Response to Candida Antigen?
AB  - Background: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is a common cause of
      morbidity affecting millions of women worldwide. Patients with RVVC are thought
      to have an underlying immunologic defect. This study has been established to
      evaluate cell-mediated immunity defect in response to candida antigen in RVVC
      cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our cross-sectional study was performed in 3 groups
      of RVVC patients (cases), healthy individuals (control I) and known cases of
      chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) (control II). Patients who met the
      inclusion criteria of RVVC were selected consecutively and were allocated in the
      case group. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and labeled with
      CFSE and proliferation rate was measured in exposure to candida antigen via flow
      cytometry. RESULTS: T lymphocyte proliferation in response to candida was
      significantly lower in RVVC cases (n=24) and CMC patients (n=7) compared to
      healthy individuals (n=20, <0.001), but no statistically significant difference
      was seen between cases and control II group (P>0.05). Family history of primary
      immunodeficiency diseases (PID) differed significantly among groups (P=0.01),
      RVVC patients has family history of PID more than control I (29.2 vs. 0%,
      P=0.008) but not statistically different from CMC patients (29.2 vs. 42.9%,
      P>0.05). Prevalence of atopy was greater in RVVC cases compared to healthy
      individuals (41.3 vs. 15%, P=0.054). Lymphoproliferative activity and vaginal
      symptoms were significantly different among RVVC cases with and without allergy
      (P=0.01, P=0.02). CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed that T cells do not actively
      proliferate in response to Candida antigen in some RVVC cases. So it is concluded
      that patients with cell-mediated immunity defect are more susceptible to
      recurrent fungal infections of vulva and vagina. Nonetheless, some other cases of
      RVVC showed normal function of T cells. Further evaluations showed that these
      patients suffer from atopy. It is hypothesized that higher frequency of VVC in
      patients with history of atopy might be due to allergic response in mucocutaneous
      membranes rather than a functional impairment in immune system components.

PMID- 28868835
TI  - Association of CYP1A1*2A Polymorphism with Idiopathic Non-Obstructive Azoospermia
      in A South Indian Cohort.
AB  - Background: Infertility is the inability of a couple to conceive after one and a
      half years of unprotected sex. Male infertility, which accounts for almost half
      of infertility cases, is considered as a major problem all over the world. The
      aim of this study was to investigate the association of CYP1A1 polymorphisms with
      idiopathic non-obstructive azoospermia in a South Indian cohort. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: An experimental study was conducted with idiopathic nonobstructive
      azoospermia. A total of 120 infertile and 80 fertile samples were collected, and
      DNA was then extracted from all samples. The CYP1A1*2A polymorphism genotyping
      was carried out by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment
      length polymorphism (RFLP). RESULTS: The genotype distribution of CYP1A1*2A
      polymorphism showed significant difference between patients and controls.
      Moreover, the CC genotype was associated with decreased risk of idiopathic non
      obstructive azoospermia in comparison with the TT and TC genotypes. CONCLUSION:
      The current experimental study identified that the CT genotype of CYP1A1*2A
      polymorphism may contribute to the pathogenesis of male infertility in the South
      Indian population.

PMID- 28868836
TI  - Comparative Expression Analysis of HSP70, HSP90, IL-4, TNF, KITLG and KIT
      receptor Gene between Varicocele-Induced and Non-Varicocele Testes of Dog.
AB  - Background: This study was designed to create an experimental varicocele model by
      a simple surgical procedure in dog with minimum invasion and to investigate the
      effect of varicocele-induced infertility on the expression of six related genes
      (HSP90, HSP70, IL- 4, TNF, KITLG and KIT receptor). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this experimental study, the proximal part of the pampiniform plexus of dog
      testes was partially occluded without abdominal incision which was confirmed by
      venographic examination. To evaluate varicocele in its acute form, dogs were
      castrated after 15 days and testes were dissected. Histopathologic evaluation was
      undertaken and the relative expression of the six genes was assessed by
      quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Microscopic
      changes showed tubule degeneration. The Johnson score was significantly decreased
      in the varicocele testes when compared with non-varicocele testes. Expressions of
      HSP90, TNF, KITLG and the KIT-receptor gene were significantly downregulated
      (P=0.029, 0.047, 0.004 and 0.035 respectively) in varicocele-induced testes while
      HSP70 was upregulated (P=0.018). IL-4 did not show differential expression
      (P=0.377). CONCLUSION: We conclude that partial occlusion of the proximal part of
      the pampiniform plexus induces varicocele in the testis of dog. Differential
      expression of the mentioned genes may be responsible for the pathophysiology of
      varicocele and related subfertility.

PMID- 28868837
TI  - Physically Active Men Show Better Semen Parameters than Their Sedentary
      Counterparts.
AB  - Background: The quality of semen depends upon several factors such as
      environment, life style, physical activity, age, and occupation. The aim of this
      study was to analyze and compare the conventional and functional semen parameters
      in men practicing vigorous physical activity to those of sedentary men. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, semen samples of 17
      physically active men and 15 sedentary men were collected for analysis. Semen
      analysis was performed according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
      guidelines, while functional parameters were evaluated by flow cytometry.
      RESULTS: Results showed that several semen parameters (semen volume, viability,
      progressive motility, total motility, normal morphology, and moribund cells) were
      superior in the physically active group in comparison with the sedentary group.
      Semen parameters such as viability, progressive motility and total motility, as
      well as the percentage of moribund spermatozoa were significantly different
      between both groups. However, sperm DNA damage, lipid peroxidation and
      mitochondrial potential were not significantly different among the groups.
      CONCLUSION: Nevertheless, the physical activity shows better semen parameters
      than sedentary group. Taken together, our results demonstrate that regular
      physical activity has beneficial impact in sperm fertility parameters and such a
      life style can enhance the fertility status of men.

PMID- 28868839
TI  - Effect of Grape Seed Extract on Lipid Profile and Expression of Interleukin-6 in
      Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Wistar Rat Model.
AB  - Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common but complex endocrine
      disorder and is the major cause of anovulation and consequent subfertility. In
      this study the effect of grape seed extract (GSE) on triglyceride (TG), total
      cholesterol (TC), highdensity lipoprotein-cholestrol (HDL-C), low-density
      lipoprotein-cholestrol (LDL-C) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in PCOS Wistar rats were
      assessed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this experimental study, 84 adult female
      Wistar rats were divided into 7 groups (n=12) including control (intact), Sham
      (estradiol valerate solvent injection), control PCOS and 4 experimental PCOS
      groups. To induce the syndrome, a single subcutaneous injection of 2 mg estradiol
      valerate was applied. In experimental groups, PCOS rats were treated with
      different doses of 50, 75, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight (BW) GSE by
      intraperitoneal injection for 10 consecutive days. After harvesting blood serum,
      TG was measured by Glycerol-3-phosphate Oxidase-Peoxidase (GPOPAP), TC by
      Cholesterol Oxidase-Peroxidase (CHOD-PAP), and HDL-C by sedimentation method, LDL
      C by Friedwald calculation and IL-6 by ELISA method. The serum values of each
      parameter were analyzed using one-way ANOVA at P<=0.05. RESULTS: In all
      experimental groups significant decrease of visceral fat was obvious as compared
      with control PCOS group. LDL-C, TC and IL-6 levels in experimental groups,
      particularly at dose of 50 mg/kg of GSE, were significantly decreased as compared
      with PCOS group. However, HDL-C levels were not significantly changed.
      CONCLUSION: According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that GSE
      with its effects on serum TC, LDL-C and IL-6 could reduce the effects of
      dyslipidemia and inflammation in PCOS rats and improve systemic symptoms of PCOS.

PMID- 28868838
TI  - Aluminium-Induced Oxidative Stress, Apoptosis and Alterations in Testicular
      Tissue and Sperm Quality in Wistar Rats: Ameliorative Effects of Curcumin.
AB  - Background: Reproductive toxicity is a major challenge associated with aluminum
      (Al) exposure. No studies have evaluated the possible effects of curcumin (CUR)
      on Al-induced reproductive dysfunction. Therefore, this study investigated the
      effects of CUR treatment on Al-induced reproductive damage. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this experimental study, 40 male Wistar rats were allocated to the
      five groups (n=8) based on the treatment they received: no treatment (control),
      solvent [dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or distilled water], CUR 10 mg/kg body weight
      (BW), Al chloride 10 mg/kg BW, and CUR+Al chloride (10 mg/kg BW/each alone).
      Treatments were performed by intraperitoneal (IP) injections for 28 days. The
      left testis was assessed for histopathological analysis as well as the incidence
      of germ cell apoptosis. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the
      Tukey's test was used. P<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Significant
      reductions in body and testis weight; plasma testosterone and luteinizing hormone
      levels; sperm count, motility, morphology, and viability; germinal epithelium
      thickness; seminiferous tubules diameter; as well as, superoxide dismutase
      activity were observed in rats treated with Al. Moreover, Al exposure caused
      significant increments in the lumen diameter of tubules, terminal
      deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive cells and
      malondialdehyde (MDA) levels compared to the control group. However, in rats
      receiving CUR+Al, CUR significantly reversed the adverse effects of Al on testis
      and sperm quality. No significant differences in follicle-stimulating hormone
      (FSH) levels and nuclear diameter of spermatogonia were detected among all
      groups. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that Al causes reproductive dysfunction
      by creating oxidative damage. CUR, on the other hand, reduces the toxic effects
      of Al and improves the antioxidant status and sperm quality in male rats.

PMID- 28868840
TI  - Predicting Implantation Outcome of In Vitro Fertilization and Intracytoplasmic
      Sperm Injection Using Data Mining Techniques.
AB  - Background: In vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection
      (ICSI) are two important subsets of the assisted reproductive techniques, used
      for the treatment of infertility. Predicting implantation outcome of IVF/ICSI or
      the chance of pregnancy is essential for infertile couples, since these
      treatments are complex and expensive with a low probability of conception.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the data of 486 patients
      were collected using census method. The IVF/ICSI dataset contains 29 variables
      along with an identifier for each patient that is either negative or positive.
      Mean accuracy and mean area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curve are calculated for the classifiers. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and
      negative predictive values, and likelihood ratios of classifiers are employed as
      indicators of performance. The state-of-art classifiers which are candidates for
      this study include support vector machines, recursive partitioning (RPART),
      random forest (RF), adaptive boosting, and one-nearest neighbor. RESULTS: RF and
      RPART outperform the other comparable methods. The results revealed the areas
      under the ROC curve (AUC) as 84.23 and 82.05%, respectively. The importance of
      IVF/ICSI features was extracted from the output of RPART. Our findings
      demonstrate that the probability of pregnancy is low for women aged above 38.
      CONCLUSION: Classifiers RF and RPART are better at predicting IVF/ICSI cases
      compared to other decision makers that were tested in our study. Elicited
      decision rules of RPART determine useful predictive features of IVF/ICSI. Out of
      20 factors, the age of woman, number of developed embryos, and serum estradiol
      level on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration are the three
      best features for such prediction.

PMID- 28868841
TI  - Factors that Influence The Occurrence of Multiple Pregnancies after
      Intracytoplasmic Injection Cycles with Two or Three Fresh Embryo Transfers.
AB  - Background: Multiple pregnancies are an important complication of assisted
      reproductive technology (ART). The present study aims to indentify the risk
      factors for multiple pregnancies independent of the number of transferred
      embryos. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study reviewed the medical
      records of patients who underwent intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles
      in Royan Institute between October 2011 and January 2012. We entered 12 factors
      that affected the number of gestational sacs into the poisson regression (PR)
      model. Factors were obtained from two study populations-cycles with double embryo
      transfer (DET) and cycles that transferred three embryos (TET). We sought to
      determine the factors that influenced the number of gestational sacs. These
      factors were entered into multivariable logistic regression (MLR) to identify
      risk factors for multiple pregnancies. RESULTS: A total of 1000 patients referred
      to Royan Institute for ART during the study period. We included 606 eligible
      patients in this study. PR analysis demonstrated that the quality of transferred
      embryos and woman's age had a significant effect on the number of observed sacs
      in patients who underwent ICSI with DET. There was no significant predictive
      variable for multiple pregnancies according to MLR analysis. Our findings
      demonstrated that both regression models (PR and MLR) had the same outputs. A
      significant relation existed between age and fertilization rate with multiple
      pregnancies in patients who underwent ICSI with TET. CONCLUSION: Single embryo
      transfer (SET) should be considered with the remaining embryos cryopreserved to
      prevent multiple pregnancies in women younger than 35 years of age who undergo
      ICSI cycles with high fertilization rates and good or excellent quality embryos.
      However, further prospective studies are necessary to evaluate whether SET in
      women with these risk factors can significantly decrease multiple pregnancies and
      improve cycle outcomes.

PMID- 28868842
TI  - Effect of Marital Relationship Enrichment Program on Marital Satisfaction,
      Marital Intimacy, and Sexual Satisfaction of Infertile Couples.
AB  - Background: Infertile couples only think of having children during their sexual
      intercourse, and their constant concern about this issue increases their stress
      level. Psychosocial and social stress leads to decreased life satisfaction,
      increased marital problems, and reduced sexual confidence. This study aims to
      determine the effect of enrichment program on marital and sexual satisfaction as
      well as marital intimacy among infertile couples. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 50 infertile couples in
      2013 in Hamedan. The marital relationship enrichment program was taught to the
      experimental group during seven 90 minutes sessions. Enrich marital satisfaction,
      Linda Berg sexual satisfaction, and marital intimacy questionnaires were
      completed by both groups in 3 pretest steps immediately after the end of training
      sessions, and 8 weeks later. The results were analyzed in STATA11 software using
      t test, Chi-square, ANCOVA, RM-ANOVA, and Bonferroni post-hoc test. To check the
      data normality, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used. P<0.05 was considered
      significant. RESULTS: Comparison of mean scores related to pretest on the one
      hand and immediately after the test in 8 week later on the other hand showed
      marital relationship enrichment program significantly increased marital and
      sexual satisfaction (P<0.001). Also, mean score of marital intimacy immediately
      after the test (P=0.04) and 8 weeks after the test (P<0.001) significantly
      increased in comparison with the pretest under the influence of the program.
      CONCLUSION: Enrichment training can increase marital intimacy and also marital
      and sexual satisfaction in infertile couples (Registration Number:
      IRCT201604299014N97).

PMID- 28868843
TI  - Correlation of The Etiology of Infertility with Life Satisfaction and Mood
      Disorders in Couples who Undergo Assisted Reproductive Technologies.
AB  - Background: This study compared common psychological symptoms and life
      satisfaction in husbands and wives according to infertility diagnosis. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We conducted this cross-sectional study on 248 infertile couples
      between November 1, 2014 and February 28, 2015 at Royan Institute, Tehran, Iran.
      Participants answered three questionnaires. First, they completed a demographic
      questionnaire followed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS, 14
      item self-report instrument) composed of two sub-scales: anxiety (HADS-A) and
      depression (HADS-D). Participants also completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale
      (SLWS) comprised of 5 items. Both our questionnaires were validated for the
      Iranian population. RESULTS: In couples with male factor infertility, wives had a
      significantly higher mean score for anxiety compared to their husbands (P<0.001).
      When the cause of infertility was female factor, the wives appeared significantly
      more anxious (P<0.001) and depressed (P=0.004) than their husbands. Male
      patients, those with unknown and female factors, expressed greater satisfaction
      with life compared to other male patients (P=0.022). Significantly greater
      depression existed among the couples in which the wives' educational levels was
      above their husbands (P=0.045). CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that when the
      infertility etiology was male factor, female factors or unexplained, wives showed
      significantly higher anxiety than their husbands. In couples diagnosed with
      female factor infertility, wives showed significantly more depression than their
      husbands.

PMID- 28868844
TI  - Desired Numbers of Children, Fertility Preferences and Related Factors among
      Couples Who Referred to Pre-Marriage Counseling in Alborz Province, Iran.
AB  - Background: The Islamic Republic of Iran has experienced a dramatic decrease in
      fertility rates in the past three decades. One of the main issues in the field of
      fertility is the couple's preferences and the desire to bear children. This study
      aimed to determine desired number of children, fertility preference, and related
      factors among people referring pre-marriage counseling to clarify their presumed
      behavior in case of fertility. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a
      descriptive analytic cross-sectional survey, conducted during 8 months. The
      participants were 300 couples came to pre-marriage counseling centers of two
      health centers of Karaj and asked to complete a 22 items questionnaire about of
      demographic characteristics, participants' interest, preference about fertility,
      and economic situation. RESULTS: Majority of the males were between the ages of
      20-30 years (66.6%) while majority of the females were below 25 years of age
      (57%). About 17 percent of men and 22.3 percent of women stated that they want to
      have 1 child and equally 52.7 percent of men and 52.7 percent of women wanted to
      have 2 children. The only factor that contributed to the female participant's
      decision for a desirable number of children was the number of siblings that they
      have. In male participants with an increasing age at marriage and aspiration for
      higher educational level, the time interval between marriage and the birth of the
      first child has increased. There was a convergence in desired number of children
      in male and female participants. CONCLUSION: Majority of the participants express
      their desire to have only one or two children in future but in considering the
      fact that what one desires does not always come into reality, the risk of reduced
      fertility is generally present in the community. Appropriate policies should be
      implemented in order to create a favorable environment for children.

PMID- 28868845
TI  - Tehran Survey of Potential Risk Factors for Multiple Births.
AB  - Background: The multiple pregnancy incidence is increasing worldwide. This
      increased incidence is concerning to the health care system. This study aims to
      determine the frequency of multiple pregnancy and identify factors that affect
      this frequency in Tehran, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study
      included 5170 mothers in labor between July 6-21, 2015 from 103 hospitals with
      Obstetrics and Gynecology Wards. The questionnaire used in this study consisted
      of five parts: demographic characteristics; information related to pregnancy;
      information related to the infant; information regarding the multiple pregnancy;
      and information associated with infertility. We recruited 103 trained midwives to
      collect data related to the questionnaire from eligible participants through an
      interview and medical records review. Frequencies and odds ratios (OR) for the
      association between multiple pregnancy and the selected characteristics (maternal
      age, economic status, history of multiple pregnancy in first-degree relatives,
      and reproductive history) were computed by multiple logistic regression. Stata
      software, version 13 (Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA) was used for all
      statistical analyses. RESULTS: Multiple pregnancy had a prevalence of 1.48% [95%
      confidence interval (CI): 1.19-1.85]. After controlling for confounding
      variables, we observed a significant association between frequency of multiple
      pregnancy and mother's age (OR=1.04, 95% CI: 1.001-1.09, P=0.044), assisted
      reproductive technique (ART, OR=6.11, 95% CI: 1.7- 21.97, P=0.006), and history
      of multiple pregnancy in the mother's family (OR=5.49, 95% CI: 3.55-9.93,
      P=0.001). CONCLUSION: The frequency of multiple pregnancy approximated results
      reported in previous studies in Iran. Based on the results, we observed
      significantly greater frequency of multiple pregnancy in older women, those with
      a history of ART, and a history of multiple pregnancy in the mother's family
      compared to the other variables.

PMID- 28868846
TI  - Personhood and Moral Status of The Embryo: It's Effect on Validity of Surrogacy
      Contract Revocation according to Shia Jurisprudence Perspective.
AB  - Background: One of the most controversial issues related to the human embryo is
      the determination of the moment when an embryo is considered a human being and
      acquires a moral status. Although personhood and moral status are frequently
      mentioned in medical ethics, they are considered interdisciplinary as concepts
      that shape the debate in medical law (fiqh) since their consequences are
      influential in the way which the parents and other individuals behave towards the
      embryo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This analytical-descriptive research gathered
      relevant data in a literature search. After a description of the fundamentals and
      definitions, we subsequently analyzed juridical texts and selected one of the
      viewpoints that regarded the surrogacy contract revocation. RESULTS: The
      surrogacy contract is a contract based upon which two sides (infertile couple and
      surrogate mother) involved in making the contract are obligated to fulfill its
      terms. Therefore, contract revocation can be surveyed from three perspectives:
      mutual revocation (iqala), legal unilateral wills (khiar al-majlis, khiar al
      ayb), and contractual wills (khiar al-shart). CONCLUSION: Revocation of a
      surrogacy contract either by the genetic parents, surrogate or the fertility
      clinic is allowed by Muslim jurists only when the embryo lacks personhood. Based
      on Islamic teachings, the termination of a surrogacy contract in and after the
      sixteenth week of pregnancy, when the embryo acquires a human soul (ensoulment),
      is not allowed. However religious thought emphasizes the moral status of the
      fetus before the sixteenth week and states that optional termination of the
      surrogacy contract is not permitted while the fetus becomes a human being.

PMID- 28868847
TI  - Fertility Preservation in Iranian Cancer Patients: A Continuing Neglect.

PMID- 28868848
TI  - [Inheritance and innovation of traditional processing technology of Chinese
      medicine].
AB  - To discuss the inheritance and innovation study of Chinese medicine processing
      technology from three aspects: inheritance, standardization and industrial
      innovation development, propose "three lacks" in inheritance, "six lacks of
      standardization, and one lack of unity" in standardization, and "three
      emphasizing and three despising aspects" in industrial innovation, and propose
      feasible solutions for the above mentioned problems, providing a good foundation
      for inheritance and innovation of Chinese medicine processing.

PMID- 28868849
TI  - [Advance on chemical compounds of Tibetan medicinal plants of Aconitum genus].
AB  - It was estimated that about 60 species and 15 varieties of genus Aconitum are
      distributed in China.These plants contain various kinds of chemical compounds,
      and the main compounds are diterpenoid alkaloids. In addition, there are
      flavonoids, phenolic acid and others.So far, phytochemical studies showed 339
      compounds.This paper summarized the chemical compounds to provide the theoretical
      basis for the use of Tibetan medicinal plants of Aconitum genus.

PMID- 28868850
TI  - [Application of drug-target prediction technology in network pharmacology of
      traditional Chinese medicine].
AB  - In recent years, network pharmacology has been developed rapidly, and especially,
      the concept of "network target" has brought a new era in the field of traditional
      Chinese medicine (TCM). The integrity and systematicness emphasized in network
      pharmacology comply with the characteristics of holistic view and treatment in
      Chinese medicine. It can provide deeper insights into the underlying mechanisms
      of TCM theories, including the illustration on action mechanism of Chinese
      medicine, selection of pharmacodynamic materials and the combination principles
      of various Chinese herbs, etc. Therefore, this theory is more suitable for TCM
      academic characteristics and practical conditions. The key problem in network
      pharmacology is how to efficiently and quickly identify the interactions between
      large amounts of drugs and target proteins. As an efficient and high throughput
      way, drug-target prediction technology can reduce costs, quickly predict the
      component targets, and provide foundation for the application of TCM network
      pharmacology. In view of the large amount of compounds and target databases,
      different prediction methods and technologies have been developed, and used to
      predict the drug-target interactions. Many virtual screening technologies have
      been successfully applied to network pharmacology. Based on different prediction
      principles, drug-target prediction technology can be generally divided into four
      types: ligand-based prediction, receptor-based prediction, machine learning and
      combined prediction. In this paper, we are going to review the prediction methods
      of drug-target interactions and give acomprehensive elaboration of their
      application in network pharmacology of TCM, hoping to provide beneficial
      references for various Chinese medicine researchers.

PMID- 28868851
TI  - [Evaluation for heavy metal pollution of soil and herb from main producing area
      of Phellodendron amurense in China].
AB  - In order to evaluate the heavy metal potential pollution of soil and medicinal
      materials in main producing area of Phellodendron amurense, we collected 32 soil
      samples and 32 herb samples from northeast and north of China covering four
      provinces. In this study, the detection of heavy metal contents was conducted by
      ICP emission spectroscopy and atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The results
      showed that the soil from all areas of Ph amurense generally reached the national
      standard. As, Hg, Cr, Cd, Pb and Cu content of herb samples met the requirtment
      of the national standard except Hg content exceeding standard slight in a few
      samples. The reason of excessive Hg was the ability of Hg accumulation in Ph.
      amurense and atmospheric environment was polluted. So, national standard and Good
      Agricultural Practice (GAP) must be carried out severely in Ph. amurense
      resources production.

PMID- 28868852
TI  - [Identification of Notopterygium seeds using DNA barcoding method].
AB  - In order to guarantee the species correction of Notopterygium seeds, a molecular
      identification method with ITS2 as DNA barcode has been verified. In this study,
      27 samples of Notopterygium seeds were collected from the main producing area of
      Notopterygium. The morphological characteristics of the Notopterygium seeds were
      firstly surveyed. Then the DNA extraction, PCR amplification, DNA sequencing and
      DNA assembly were carried out. The species identification for a Notopterygium
      seed was implemented through distance method, NJ-tree method and the DNA
      barcoding system for traditional Chinese medicine (www.tcmbarcode.cn). The
      results showed that the seeds of N. incisum and N. franchetii had similar
      morphological characteristics and were difficult to distinguish clearly based on
      morphological descriptions. With the results of molecular identification, 24
      samples were genuine including 13 N. incisum seeds samples and 11 N. franchetii
      genuine seeds samples. In conclusion, DNA barcode technology can accurately and
      efficiently identify the species of Notopterygium seeds. Furthermore, this study
      will provide a new method for germplasm resources identification of medicinal
      materials and supplies some guidelines for establishing Chinese herbal seeds and
      seedlings quality standards.

PMID- 28868853
TI  - [In vitro autotetraploid induction and analysis on DNA methylation diversity of
      Platycodon grandiflorum].
AB  - In order to investigate the epigenetic variations between diploid and
      autotetraploid of Platycodon grandiflorus. The diploid buds of P. grandiflorus
      were soaked in the mixture of different concentration colchicines and 0.002 g*mL 
      1 dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO).The identification of autotetraploid plants were
      based on morphological characteristics, chromosome number and flow cytometry. And
      then the level and pattern of DNA methylation explored by using the technology of
      methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP).The result demonstrated that
      the buds soaked in 0.2% colchicines and 0.002 g*mL -1 DMSO solution for 12 h was
      ideal conditions to induce autotetraploid of P. grandiflorus, with induction rate
      of 32.0%.The diploid and tetraploid plants existed distinctly differences in
      morphological indexes.Totally,1 586 bands were amplified by 20 pairs of selective
      primers, of which 764 and 822 bands were detected in diploid and autotetraploid
      respectively. The total methylation ratio,full methylation ratio and
      hemimethylated ratio were 91.25%,61.25% and 30.65% in diploid of P.
      grandiflorus,respectively.However,the total methylation ratio,full methylation
      ratio and hemimethylated ratio of autotetraploid of P. grandiflorus were
      86.13%,54.38% and 31.75%, respectively. Compared with diploid, the genomic DNA
      total methylate ratio and full methylation ratio of autotetration plants
      decreased by 6.02% and 7.14%.But the hemimethylated ratio of autotetraploid was
      higher than that of diploid, which more than 1.6%. All this results indicated
      that DNA methylation patterns have adjusted during the polyploidy process..

PMID- 28868854
TI  - [Progress on molecular biology of Isaria farinosa, pathogen of host of
      Ophiocordyceps sinensis during the artificial culture].
AB  - Isaria farinosa is the pathogen of the host of Ophiocordyceps sinensis. The
      present research has analyzed the progress on the molecular biology according to
      the bibliometrics, the sequences (including the gene sequences) of I. farinosa in
      the NCBI. The results indicated that different country had published different
      number of the papers, and had landed different kinds and different number of the
      sequences (including the gene sequences). China had published the most number of
      the papers, and had landed the most number of the sequences (including the gene
      sequences). America had landed the most numbers of the function genes. The main
      content about the pathogen study was focus on the biological controlling. The
      main content about the molecular study concentrated on the phylogenies
      classification. In recent years some protease genes and chitinase genes had been
      researched. With the increase of the effect on the healthy of O. sinensis, and
      the whole sequence and more and more pharmacological activities of I. farinosa
      being made known to the public, the study on the molecular biology of the I.
      farinosa would be deeper and wider.

PMID- 28868855
TI  - [International research trends of pharmacognosy on molecular level --based on
      analysis of SCI literature].
AB  - The techniques and methods of molecular biology have been widely applied in
      pharmacognosy fields. International development trends of pharmacognosy studies
      on molecular level were analyzed by bibliometric methods using the SCIE database
      on Web of Science, the literature distribution, national distribution, agency
      distribution, periodicals distribution, and hot research topics were described
      using multivariate statistical analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis
      method,etc. The number of international pharmacognosy literature on molecular
      level is increasing year by year. USA, China and Japan have close cooperation,
      and focus on molecular identification and genetic diversity. Chinese scientists
      issued high-impact factor journals papers and high citations amount in the
      international forefront. The international pharmacognosy research on molecular
      level has developed rapidly. Chinese research has a significant influence.The
      molecular mechanism of the formation of Dao-di Herbs may become the next hotspot.

PMID- 28868856
TI  - [Analysis of different dosage forms of Xiasangju granules on fingerprints and
      models using high performance liquid chromatography].
AB  - To establish the fingerprints of Xiasangju granules (with sugar and non-sugar
      forms) by HPLC, and provide reference for their identification and effective
      quality control. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was used to
      collect the fingerprints of 20 batches of non-sugar Xiasangju granules and 34
      batches of sugar type Xiasangju granules. Their main different components were
      classified and screened by mode identification methods (principal component
      analysis, PCA, and orthogonal partial least squares discriminate analysis, OPLS
      DA). The principal components were identified by comparing with reference
      standards. The fingerprints of Xiasangju granules (sugar type and non-sugar type)
      were established. PCA could not fully classify the two types of granules, while
      OPLS-DA could obviously classify these two different types of Xiasangju granules.
      Six components showed greatest difference between two types of granules,
      including salviaflaside, luteoloside and linarin. The developed mode
      identification method is helpful to control the overall quality of Xiasangju
      granules, and it provides an effective approach to quality evaluation.

PMID- 28868857
TI  - [Near infrared spectrum monitoring of scale up process for macroporous resin
      purification of Grardeniae extract].
AB  - To establish a fast detection method during the purifying process of the extracts
      from Grardeniae using macroporous resin based on near infrared spectroscopy.
      First, the ethanol eluent was collected from the purification process of small
      size sample; and near infrared (NIR) spectrum was collected. Then the content of
      the geniposide was determined by HPLC method, and partial least squares (PLS)
      method was used to establish the quantitative model to predict the content of
      geniposide by NIR spectrum. This model was used to supervise the changes of
      geniposide concentrations in ethanol eluent during medium scale process.
      Experimental results showed that the NIR small scale model can accurately predict
      the concentrations of geniposide in the production process of medium scale.
      However, with the proceeding of batch processes, the prediction performance of
      the model was decreased, so model updating method was employed to maintain the
      model. After twice updates, the NIR quantitative model can accurately predict the
      concentrations of the geniposide during medium scale process. Therefore, through
      model updates, the established NIR quantitative model can be applied in different
      scales of macroporous resin purification processes, to improve the data
      utilization efficiency of small scale process and save the cost of rebuilding the
      quantitative model of medium scale.

PMID- 28868858
TI  - [Quality comparison andstructural characteristics of material basic composition
      of Danshen injection from different manufacturers].
AB  - HPLC was used to analyze the chromatographic fingerprints and determine the
      contents of tanshinol, protocatechuic acid, protocatechuic aldehyde, caffeic
      acid, isoferulic acid, lithospermic acid, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B,
      salvianolic acid A, and salvianolic acid C in Danshen injection from 10 different
      manufacturers. The significant differences of phenolic compounds in Danshen
      injection from ten manufacturers were investigated by using F test. The results
      showed that the similarity degree of Danshen injection from ten manufacturers was
      above 0.9 and there was significant difference in mass fraction of phenolic
      compounds between the samples from different manufacturers. The analysis of mass
      fraction of effective phenolic components and their structural ratios in Danshen
      injection from the different manufacturers showed significant differences,
      indicating that the Danshen injection available in market had different curative
      effects and with significant differences in structural ratios.

PMID- 28868859
TI  - [Preparation and in vitro dissolution of magnolol solid dispersion].
AB  - In this study, solid dispersion system of magnolol in croscarmellose sodium was
      prepared by using the solvent evaporation method, in order to increase the drug
      dissolution. And its dissolution behavior, stability and physical characteristics
      were studied. The solid dispersion was prepared with magnolol and croscarmellose
      sodium, with the proportion of 1?5, the in vitro dissolution of magnolol solid
      dispersion was up to 80.66% at 120 min, which was 6.9 times of magnolol. The
      results of DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), IR (infra-red) spectrum and
      SEM (scanning electron microscopy) showed that magnolol existed in solid
      dispersion in an amorphous form. After an accelerated stability test for six
      months, the drug dissolution and content in magnolol solid dispersion showed no
      significant change. So the solid dispersion prepared with croscarmellose sodium
      as the carrier can remarkably improve the stability and dissolution of magnolol.

PMID- 28868860
TI  - [Optimization of flash-type extraction technology of alisol B 23-acetate from
      Alismatis Rhizoma by response surface methodology].
AB  - Response surface methodology was used to optimize and obtain the optimal flash
      type extraction technology of alisol B 23-acetate from Alismatis Rhizoma. With
      the extraction rate of alisol B 23-acetate as an indicator, single-factor test
      was used to investigate the effect of ethanol volume fraction, liquid-solid
      ratio, extraction times and extracting time on the extraction rate of alisol B 23
      acetate.The results were combined with Box-Benhnken design and response surface
      analysis to optimize the technology parameters for extraction process of
      Alismatis Rhizoma and obtain the optimal flash-type extraction technology under
      the following conditions: ethanol volume fraction 80%, liquid-solid ratio 12?1,
      extraction 4 times, 114 s/time. Flash-type extraction technology of alisol B 23
      acetate by response surface methodology is stable, time-saving, efficient, and
      with the advantages of room temperature extraction and no component damage, so it
      can be used for massive production.

PMID- 28868862
TI  - [Studies on chemical constituents of rhizomes of Smilax trinervula].
AB  - The chemical constituents were separated and purified from the 70% ethanol
      extract of Smilax trinervulaby various chromatographic methods including silica
      gel, Sephadex LH-20, MCI and preparative HPLC. Their structures were obtained and
      identified by analysis of the spectroscopic data. Compounds 1-11 were separated
      from this genus for the first time. Compound 12 was obtained from S. trinervula
      for the first time.

PMID- 28868861
TI  - [A new biflavone from needles of Taxus canadensis].
AB  - The presentstudy is to investigate the chemical constituents of needles of Taxus
      canadensis. The constituent was isolated by various chromatographic methods, and
      the chemical structure was elucidated on the basis of spectral analysis. A new
      biflavone was isolated and identified as 3"'-hydroxy-4"', 7
      dimethylamentoflavone.

PMID- 28868863
TI  - [Chemical constituents from medical and edible plants of Rosa roxburghii].
AB  - Rosa roxburghii, a kind of the medical and edible plants belonging to the
      Rosaceae family, is widely distributed in the southwest districts of China,
      especially Guizhou province. Now, by reason of the extensive bioactivities, the
      plant is widely used in the field of food, health product, drug, and so on. In
      the course of our continuing search for the bioactive constituents, thirteen
      compounds were isolated from R. roxburghii, and their structures were determined
      on the basis of physicochemical property, spectroscopic data and comparison with
      the literatures, as 2-oxo pomolic acid(1), 1beta-hydroxyeuscaphic acid(2),
      euscaphic acid(3), arjunic acid(4), tormentic acid(5), kaiiichigeside F1(6),
      rosamultin(7), arjunetin(8), 2alpha, 3alpha, 19alpha-trihydroxy-olean-12-en-28
      oic acid 28-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside(9), 2alpha, 3alpha, 19alpha, 24
      tetrahydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic-acid 28-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester(10),
      pyrogallic acid (11), daucosterol(12), and 1, 2-decanediol(13). Compounds 9 and
      10 were firstly obtained from Rosaceae family, and compounds 1,4,5,9-11,13 were
      isolated from this plant for the first time.

PMID- 28868864
TI  - [Research on certified reference material of emodin in rhubarb and its alcohol
      extract, water extract].
AB  - The certified reference materials (CRMs) of emodin in rhubarb and its alcohol
      extract, water extract were developed by using quantity transfer technology from
      single chemical composition to the complex systems. The CRM of emodin was used
      for quantity transfer, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method
      was used to determine the contents of emodin in different matrix composition. By
      establishing mathematical model and calculating the parts of uncertainty, the
      uncertainty values were finally gotten. CRMs of emodin in rhubarb, alcohol
      extract and water extract were accomplished. The content values of emodin were
      0.40% +/-0.03%, 1.15%+/-0.18%, 0.16%+/-0.08% (k=2,P=0.95), respectively. The
      established method for quantity transfer has successfully solved the technical
      problems that the value of active ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine
      can't be traced to SI units. The series of CRMs are assigned as grade primary
      reference materials, which are useful for quality control of the emodin content,
      also provide the accurate and reliable CRM, materials standard and standard
      methods.

PMID- 28868865
TI  - [Analysis on characteristic constituents of crude Aconitum carmichaelii in
      different regions based on UPLC-Q-TOF-MS].
AB  - As a representative variety of hypertoxic herbs, aconite has a very high
      medicinal value but certain security risks. With the advance of urbanization and
      industrial transfer and upgrading, traditional geo-authentic regions and emerging
      regions have gradually coexisted. However, there are significant differences in
      the geographical distribution, ecological environment and growing cycle in these
      areas, which may cause intraspecific variations in chemical components, and then
      affect herb quality and clinical efficacy. Furthermore, there was still lack of
      in-depth study on characteristic constituents of aconite genuineness. In this
      paper, an UPLC-Q-TOF-MS was used to investigate the chemical ingredients in
      Jiangyou aconite, Hanzhong aconite, Butuo aconite and Weishan aconite. The
      results suggested that using unsupervised PCA method, Jiangyou aconite was
      similar with Hanzhong aconite in chemical ingredients, but significantly
      different from ones in emerging regions. Using PLS-DA method, seven
      characteristic constituents were identified, in which Butuo aconite and Weishan
      aconite had higher contents of mesaconitine and fuziline, while Jiangyou aconite
      and Hanzhong aconite had higher contents of hypaconitine, neoline, carmichaeline,
      and songorine. Based on basic toxicity of each ingredient, we can find that
      hypaconitine and mesaconitine were the key toxicity factors to distinguish
      Jiangyou aconite, Butuo aconite, and Weishan aconite. The toxicity of geo
      authentic Jiangyou aconite was lower than that of Butuo aconite and Weishan
      aconite. The lower toxicity in geo-authentic Jiangyou aconite was beneficial for
      ensuring clinical drug safety, which may be one of the important reasons for the
      formation of genuine aconite. These results provide new reference data to reveal
      the formation mechanism of genuine aconite from the perspective of plant
      secondary metabolite diversity.

PMID- 28868866
TI  - [Mechanism of geniposide in improving free fatty acid metabolism in rats with non
      alcoholic fatty liver disease].
AB  - To observe the effect of geniposide on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),
      and discuss the mechanism of geniposide for NAFLD from the aspect of free fatty
      acid, forty healthy Wistar male rats were randomly divided into normal group,
      model group, geniposide and Xuezhikang group. The rats in normal group were fed
      with normal diets, and the rats in other 3 groups were given with high-fat diet
      for 8 weeks to induce the NAFLD models. From the week 5 to end of week 8, the
      rats in geniposide and Xuezhikang group were intervened with corresponding
      medicines. The body weight, liver wet weight, and fat weight of the rats were
      recorded. Visual and pathological changes in hepatic tissues were observed with
      HE staining. The contents of TG, FFA, FAS, AMPK, ACCase and Malonyl-CoA in
      hepatic tissue, contents of CHO and LDL-C in serum and activities of AST and ALT
      in serum were detected by using corresponding methods. The results showed that
      the body weight, liver wet weight, and fat weight of the rats, CHO, LDL-C, ALT
      and AST levels in serum, TG, FFA, FAS, ACCase and Malonyl-CoA levels in hepatic
      tissues of the rats in model group were significantly higher than those in normal
      group (P<0.01), while AMPK activity was significantly lower than that of the
      normal group (P<0.01), with obvious visual and pathological steatosis in hepatic
      tissues, and inflammatory injury occurred in model group. Compared with the model
      group, body weight of the rat, fat weight, levels of FFA in hepatic tissues, ALT
      and AST activities in serum, liver wet weight, TG, FAS, ACCase and Malonyl-CoA
      levels were significantly decreased in geniposide group (P<0.01), while the AMPK
      activity in hepatic tissues was significantly increased (P<0.05),with improvement
      in visual and pathological performance. Compared with the model group, liver wet
      weight, fat weight, TG and FFA levels in hepatic tissues, and LDL-C level in
      serum were significantly decreased in Xuezhikang group (P<0.05). Compared with
      Xuezhikang group, the body weight of rat, fat weight and FFA level in hepatic
      tissues were significantly lower in geniposide group (P<0.01), but with no
      significant difference in other aspects. These findings indicated that geniposide
      was highly effective in improving the pharmacological effect of NAFLD induced by
      high-fat diet, and the mechanism was achieved through AMPK-ACCase-Malonyl-CoA-FFA
      axis.

PMID- 28868868
TI  - [Effects of ginseng, notoginseng, and Chuanxiong Rhizoma extracts on cytoskeleton
      protein of replicative senescence vascular smooth muscle cells].
AB  - To observe the effect of extracts of ginseng, notoginseng, and Chuanxiong Rhizome
      on the cytoskeleton protein F-actin and G-actin of the replicative senescence
      vascular smooth muscle cells, with human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMC) as
      the research object, and the replicative senescence 9th generation cells as the
      senescence models, the experiment was divided into youth group (5th generation
      cells), model group (9th generation cells), Chinese medicine low dose group (100
      mg*L-1), middle dose group (200 mg*L-1), and high dose group (400 mg*L-1) and
      resveratrol group (10 MUmol*L-1). The intervention time was 48 h. beta
      Galactosidase specific staining method was used to calculate the ratio of blue
      dyeing cells. CCK-8 method was used to detect the cells proliferation. The flow
      cytometry was used to analyze the cell cycle. Immunofluorescent staining was used
      to observe morphological changes of F-actin and G-actin. The western blot assay
      was used to determine the expression of F-actin protein. Compared with the model
      group, the Chinese medicine groups and resveratrol group significantly reduced
      the number of blue dyeing cells, improved the ability of cells proliferation,
      reduced the number of cells in G0/G1 phase, increased the number of cells in S
      phase, and reduced the protein expression of F-actin and the formation of stress
      fibers, with obvious intervention effect and statistically significant
      difference. Therefore, the replicative senescence vascular smooth muscle cells
      can be used as the models for senescence research, with significant changes in
      morphology and protein expression of cytoskeleton protein F-actin and G-actin in
      the process of cells aging. The extracts of ginseng, notoginseng, and Chuanxiong
      Rhizome have obvious intervention effect on F-actin and G-actin, and it might be
      indirectly associated with delaying the aging of blood vessels.

PMID- 28868867
TI  - [Apoptosis mechanism of taxol combined with resveratrol on human laryngeal
      carcinoma Hep-2 cells].
AB  - Laryngeal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the respiratory
      tumors, and its incidence ranks second highest in the respiratory tumors.
      Resveratrol (Res) is a kind of polyphenols, which can inhibit nucleotides can
      inhibit the growth of liver cancer cells, gastric cancer cells, pancreatic cells
      and other tumor cells by inhibiting ribonucleotide reductase in the cells. Taxol
      (Tax) is a kind of secondary metabolites of Taxus chinensis, which has anti-tumor
      activity for breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and other tumors by
      inhibiting cellular microtubule depolymerization. But at present the effects of
      resveratrol combined with taxol on human laryngeal carcinoma cell strain Hep-2
      and their underlying molecular mechanisms are rarely reported. After human
      laryngeal cancer cell Hep-2 cells were processed with resveratrol (Res) and taxol
      (Tax), CCK-8 assay was used to evaluate the effect of these two herbs on the
      proliferation of cancer cells; AO/PI staining and JC-1 were used to detect Hep-1
      cells apoptosis; the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, PARP, TRIB3, and XIAP genes was
      detected by real time quantitative PCR; the activity of caspase-3 and caspase-8
      was determined with quantitative fluorescence method. The experimental results
      showed that compared with Tax, Res medication alone, joint group significantly
      enhanced inhibition of Hep-2 cells activity, decreased the dosage of Tax,
      increased the expression of Bax and PARP, TRIB3, reduced the expression of the
      Bcl-2 and XIAP, and promoted the activity of caspase-3 and caspase-8. The test
      results showed that compared with the single medication, combined group could
      significantly increase the inhibitory effect on Hep-2 cells, significantly reduce
      Tax dosage, increase expressions of Bax, PARP, TRIB3, reduce expressions of Bcl
      2, XIAP, and promote activity of caspase-3, caspase-8. This indicated apoptosis
      of human laryngeal carcinoma cell strain Hep-2 may be induced with Res, Tax, and
      the combination of these two herbs by mitochondria pathway. It provides valuable
      clue for further research on combination of Res and Tax for the treatment of
      laryngeal cancer, and expanding the combined application of Res and Tax.

PMID- 28868869
TI  - [Evaluation of nephrotoxicity induced by total terpenoids from Alismatis Rhizoma
      on HK-2 cells in vitro and its induction of apoptosis].
AB  - To evaluate the nephrotoxicity of total terpenoids from Alismatis Rhizoma on
      human kidney proximal tubular cells (HK-2), explore the iraction in inducing
      apoptosis of HK-2 cells, and provide reference for the research of controversial
      nephrotoxicity of total terpenoids from Alismatis Rhizoma, HK-2 cells were used
      and cells viability was measured by MTT colorimetric method. An assessment of
      cells apoptosis was also conducted by using flow cytometry. Meanwhile western
      blot assay was used to detect the protein expressions of caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bcl
      xl, Kim-1, clusterin and TFF-3. At last, q-PCR was used to detect the mRNA
      expressions of caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bcl-xl, Kim-1, clusterin and TFF-3. The flow
      cytometry results showed that cells apoptosis rate was (37.48+/-1.76)%, (26.91+/
      1.91)% and (25.61+/-2.05)% respectively after treating with total terpenoids
      (6.25*10-5, 3.125*10-5, 1.562 5*10-5 g*mL-1). Western blot results showed that
      Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl protein levels were significantly decreased after treating with
      total terpenoids (6.25*10-5, 3.125*10-5, 1.562 5*10-5 g*mL-1), while the protein
      expression of caspase-3 was significantly increased. q-PCR results were the same
      with western blot results, that mRNA expressions of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl were
      significantly decreased while mRNA expression of caspase-3 was significantly
      increased after treating with total terpenoids (6.25*10-5, 3.125*10-5, 1.562 5*10
      5 g*mL-1). Western blot results and q-PCR results showed that both mRNA and
      protein expressions of Kim-1, clusterin and TFF-3 were significantly increased
      after treating with total terpenoids from Alismatis Rhizoma (6.25*10-5, 3.125*10
      5, 1.562 5*10-5 g*mL-1). HK-2 cells in vitro evaluation results showed that,
      total terpenoids from Alismatis Rhizoma may have nephrotoxicity effect, but
      further study is still needed for verification; meanwhile, they could induce HK-2
      cells apoptosis, providing basis for nephrotoxicity study and safe application of
      Alismatis Rhizoma.

PMID- 28868870
TI  - [Inhibitory effect of ilexpernoside C from Ilex pernyi on aggregated LDL-induced
      foam cells formation].
AB  - The aggregation of macrophage-derived foam cells on vascular wall is considered
      to be a main cause of atherosclerosis. In the present study, we evaluated the
      inhibitory effect of the compound ilexpernoside C (IC1) extracted from Ilex
      pernyi (Aquifoliaceae) on foam cell formation in THP-1 macrophages cells which
      were induced by low density lipoproteins aggregates (LDL aggregates). Results
      showed that IC1 could significantly inhibit the formation of foam cells. The
      analysis on related receptors of foam cells indicated that IC1 could
      significantly decrease the expression of low density lipoprotein-related receptor
      1(LRP1). Therefore, these findings indicated that IC1 inhibited the formation of
      foam cells by inhibiting endocytosis of macrophages, thus it may act as a
      potential anti-atherosclerotic agent.

PMID- 28868871
TI  - [Inhibitory effect of different species of hydroxygenkwanin on UGTs and UGT1A1
      activities].
AB  - To predit the mechanism of metabolic drug-drug interactions of hydroxygenkwanin
      with other drugs, we investigated the inhibition inhibitory effect of
      hydroxygenkwanin on UGTs and UGT1A1 activities of different liver microsomes. In
      the present study, 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and beta-estradiol were elected as
      substrates to determine activities of UGTs and UGT1A1 by UV and HPLC,
      respectively. The results showed that, hydroxygenkwanin significantly inhibited
      UGTs activity in rat, mouse and human liver microsomes. UGT1A1 activity was
      inhibited by hydroxygenkwanin to varying degrees, with IC50 about 190, 10.93,
      20.07, 76.31 MUmol*L-1 in mouse liver microsome(MLM), rat liver microsome (RLM)
      and recombinant UGT1A1, and human liver microsome (HLM), respectively. The
      inhibition types were competitive inhibition (RLM, HLM) and linear mixed-typed
      linear inhibition (recombinant UGT1A1). The order for the inhibitory intensity
      was RLM>rUGT1A1>HLM>MLM. In conclusion, hydroxygenkwanin has an inhibitory effect
      on UGTs and UGT1A1 activities of different liver microsomes, with differences in
      species, indicating its potential drug interactions based on UGT1A1 enzyme. This
      study aims to provide a reliable experimental basis for its further research and
      development of hydroxygenkwanin, and provide theoretical reference for the clinic
      drug combination research.

PMID- 28868872
TI  - [HTRF-based high-throughput PGE2 release prohibition model and application in
      discovering traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients].
AB  - Prostaglandin (PG) E2 is an active substance in pathological and physiological
      mechanisms, such as inflammation and pain. The in vitro high-throughput assay for
      screening the inhibitors of reducing PEG2 production is a useful method for
      finding out antiphlogistic and analgesic candidates. The assay was based on LPS
      induced PGE2 production model using a homogeneous time-resolved
      fluorescence(HTRF) PGE2 testing kit combined with liquid handling automation and
      detection instruments. The critical steps, including the cell density
      optimization and IC50 values determination of a positive compound, were taken to
      verify the stability and sensibility of the assay. Low intra-plate, inter-plate
      and day-to-day variability were observed in this 384-well, high-throughput format
      assay. Totally 5 121 samples were selected from the company's traditional Chinese
      medicine(TCM) material base library and used to screen PGE2 inhibitors. In this
      model, the cell plating density was 2 000 cells for each well; the average IC50
      value for positive compounds was (7.3+/-0.1) MUmol; the Z' factor for test plates
      was more than 0.5 and averaged at 0.7. Among the 5 121 samples, 228 components
      exhibited a PGE2 production prohibition rate of more than 50%, and 23 components
      exhibited more than 80%. This model reached the expected standards in data
      stability and accuracy, indicating the reliability and authenticity of the
      screening results. The automated screening system was introduced to make the
      model fast and efficient, with a average daily screening amount exceeding 14 000
      data points and provide a new model for discovering new anti-inflammatory and
      analgesic drug and quickly screening effective constituents of TCM in the early
      stage.

PMID- 28868873
TI  - [Regulations of berberine on gene expression of BMP4 transcriptional pathways to
      improve visceral white adipose tissues insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic
      hamsters].
AB  - To study the effects of berberine on the gene mRNA expressions of BMP4
      transcriptional pathways and brown/white adipose tissue conversion
      transcriptional pathways in visceral white adipose tissues(VWAT) in type 2
      diabetic hamsters and explore the relevant mechanisms. The obese insulin
      resistant hamster model were induced by using high-fat diet, and then the type 2
      diabetic hamster model was created through injection with low-dose streptozotocin
      in the obese insulin-resistant hamster model. After the modeling, the hamsters
      were randomly divided into normal control, obese insulin-resistant, type 2
      diabetic and berberine-treated diabetic groups. After the nine-week treatment,
      real-time quantitative PCR was used to measure the changes in gene mRNA
      expressions of VWAT BMP4 transcriptional pathways, brown/white adipose tissue
      conversion transcriptional pathways and their target genes in different groups.
      The results showed that the gene mRNA expressions of BMP4, BMPRII, BMPRlA, Smad1,
      Smad5, Smad8, p38/MAPK, ATF2, PRDM16, C/EBPbeta, PGC1alpha, PPARgamma and brown
      adipose tissue-specific genes was decreased and that of Smad6, Smurf1 and white
      adipose tissue-specific genes was increased in VWAT of model hamsters. Treatment
      with berberine regulated BMP4 transcriptional pathways and brown adipose tissue
      transcriptional pathways and induced the gene mRNA expression of brown adipose
      tissue-specific genes in VWAT to develop browning gene phenotype of white adipose
      tissues, and then improved fat-induced insulin resistance. These findings
      indicated that BMP4 transcriptional pathways involved in the formation of fat
      induced visceral white adipose tissues insulin resistance (FIVWATIR) and the
      browning molecular mechanism of white adipose tissues induced by berberine.

PMID- 28868874
TI  - [LC-LTQ-Orbitrap analysis on chemical constituents in Scrophulariae Radix extract
      and their metabolites in rat plasma].
AB  - Chemical constituents in extract of Scrophulariae Radix and their metabolites in
      rat plasma after oral administration were identified by HPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap.
      Samples were separated by a Venusil MP C18 column using a binary gradient
      elution. The information on the total ion chromatogram, the extraction
      chromatogram and the mass spectrogram in a negative mode were synthetically
      analyzed by comparing the retention time, MS and MS/MS spectra with literature
      data and some of reference standards to conduct a qualitative study on
      constituents of Radix Scrophulariae extract in vivo and in vitro. Totally 37
      compounds from Scrophularia ningpoensis extract were detected including 12
      iridoid glycosides, 20 phenylpropanoids and 5 unknown compounds. In vivo,
      harpagide, harpagoside and angoroside C were confirmed to enter into the blood in
      prototype forms. Besides, another 2 prototype compounds and 2 metabolites were
      detected in rat plasma after oral administration of S. ningpoensis extract. The
      results are beneficial for the determination of bioactive substances of S.
      ningpoensis and significant for further studies on S. ningpoensis.

PMID- 28868875
TI  - [Data mining analysis of regularity of formulas containing Salviae Miltiorrhizae
      Radix et Rhizoma-Carthami Flos medicin pair in Dictionary of Chinese Medicine
      Prescription].
AB  - In this study, formulas containing Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma
      Carthami Flos in the database of Dictionary of Chinese Medicine Prescription
      (DCMP) were extracted by using traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support
      system (TCMISS). The drugs pairs and formula composition rules were analyzed with
      data mining methods, such as association rules, improved mutual information
      method and complex system entropy clustering. Totally 39 formulas were included
      in this study and involved 280 Chinese medicines. The top 5 Chinese medicines
      most frequently used were Danggui (Angelica sinensis), Chuanxiong (Ligusticum
      chuanxiong), Xiangfu (Cyperi Rhizoma), Baishao(Radix Paeoniae Alba),
      Taoren(Prunus persica) and Shengdihuang (Radix Rehmanniae Recens). Six core
      medicinal pairs were obtained through clustering analysis, namely Danshen
      (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma)-Xiangfu (Cyperi Rhizoma)-Honghua
      (Carthami Flos), Danshen (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma)-Baishao (Radix
      Paeoniae Alba)-Honghua (Carthami Flos), Danshen (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et
      Rhizoma)-Danggui (A. sinensis)-Xiagnfu (Cyperi Rhizoma)-Honghua (Carthami Flos),
      Danshen (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma)-Danggui (A. sinensis)-Baishao
      (Radix Paeoniae Alba)-Honghua (Carthami Flos), Honghua (Carthami Flos)-Danshen
      (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma)-Baishao (Radix Paeoniae Alba)-Danggui
      (A. sinensis), Danshen (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma)-Baishao (Radix
      Paeoniae Alba)-Honghua (Carthami Flos)-Danggui (A. sinensis). The support degree
      was set at 11 (38.46%), with a confidence coefficient of 80%, and then 38
      associated pairs were screened. These results suggested that Salviae
      Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Carthami Flos is often combined with herbs for
      activating blood and promoting circulation of qi to treat gynecopathy, stasis
      blood pain syndrome, stroke and other syndromes.

PMID- 28868876
TI  - [Effect of Quyu Huatan decoction on lipid metabolism and hormone levels of
      patients with polycystic ovary syndrome].
AB  - To study the effect of prescription for removing blood stasis and resolving
      phlegm on lipid metabolism and hormone levels of patients with polycystic ovary
      syndrome. Totally 93 cases of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome treated in
      our hospital from March 2013 to July 2014 were randomly divided into control
      group and observation group. The observation group was treated by oral
      administration of Quyu Huatan decoction, while the control group was treated with
      metformin. The result indicated that the total effective rate of the observation
      group was significantly higher than that of the control group(chi2=632, P<0.05).
      After treatment, the score of syndrome for traditional Chinese medicine in the
      observation group was significantly lower than the control
      group(t=13.865,P<0.05). After treatment, the levels of TG, BMI, TC in the
      observation group were significantly lower than the control group(P<0.05), and
      the difference of HDL between the two groups were not significantly. After
      treatment, the levels of FSH, LH and T in the observation group were
      significantly lower than those in the control group(P<0.05). After treatment, FBG
      and INS in the two groups were significantly decreased(P<0.05); the FBG in the
      observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group(t=3.981,
      P<0.05), and the INS level in the observation group was significantly higher than
      that in the control group(t=6.472, P<0.05). In this study, we can find that the
      Quyu huatan decoction for removing blood stasis and resolving phlegm has a better
      clinical efficacy in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome. It not only
      ameliorates the secretion of variety sex hormone, but also regulates the body's
      metabolism of glucose and lipid, so it is worth clinical promotion and
      application.

PMID- 28868877
TI  - [Meta-analysis on effect of Shenfu injection in treating angina pectoris].
AB  - To systematically evaluate the efficiency and safety of Shenfu injection in
      treating patients with angina pectoris. Retrievals were made in Embase, Pubmed,
      Cochrane Library, Clinical Trials.gov, CNKI, CBM, VIP and Wanfang (before
      September 2015) for randomized or semi-randomized controlled trials reporting
      data of Shenfu injection in the adjuvant treatment of angina pectoris. The
      quality of included trials was evaluated according to tool evaluation at
      cochrane.org. STATA version 12.0 was applied for Meta analysis after quality
      assessment of included studies. Finally, a total of 17 studies, including 16
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 1 controlled clinical trial (CCT)
      involving 1 309 patients, met the inclusion criteria, of which 659 patients
      received Shenfu injection treatment. Meta-analysis results showed that Shenfu
      injection treatment group significantly improved angina pectoris symptoms
      (OR=3.38, 95%CI: 2.47-4.64, P=0.000) and ischemic ST-T changes in
      electrocardiogram (OR=3.30, 95%CI: 2.22-4.90, P=0.000), compared with control
      group. In the Meta-regression analysis, the average age of patients was
      positively correlated with the improved clinical (beta=0.17) and
      electrocardiogram (beta=1.15) efficacies. Major complication rate of Shenfu
      injection was 3.4%, and no serious adverse events were reported. Current clinical
      evidence in this study proved that Shenfu injection could significantly improve
      clinical symptoms and ECG ischemic changes for angina pectoris patients, with a
      good safety.

PMID- 28868878
TI  - [Spleen, liver and kidney-strengthening formula combined with polyethylene glycol
      interferon in treatment of chronic hepatitis B].
AB  - To observe the clinical efficacy of spleen, liver and kidney-strengthening
      formula combined with polyethylene glycol interferon in the treatment of HBeAg
      positive chronic hepatitis B(HP-HBV).One hundred and twenty-six patients with HP
      HBV, who were treated in the hospital from June 2012 to December 2014, were
      selected and injected with polyethylene glycol interferon alpha-2a(or alpha-2b).
      The treatment course for the patients lasted for 24 weeks. Base on the level of
      HBV-DNA, patients are divided into response group and poor response group.
      According to random number table, the poor response group were randomized into
      control group and test group. Patients in the control group were injected with
      polyethylene glycol interferon alpha-2a(or alpha-2b), and patients in the test
      group were treated with spleen, liver and kidney-strengthening formula combined
      with polyethylene glycol interferon. Clinical efficacies of the 2 groups were
      observed, and changes in the level of HBeAg, ALT and HBV-DNA were observed before
      treatment and at the 24th week after treatment, and virological and serological
      response, biochemical responses, integral clinical symptoms and signs, adverse
      reactions were observed after 48 weeks of treatment.After 24 weeks of treatment,
      the response group was significantly better than the poor response group in
      HBeAg, ALT and the level of HBV-DNA(P<0.05). After 48 weeks of treatment, there
      was statistical significance in HBV-DNA negative conversion rate, HBeAg negative
      conversion rate between the 2 groups(P<0.05), and the test group was better in
      the two indicators. And the test group was significantly lower than the control
      group in clinical symptoms and signs score at the 48th week after
      treatment(P<0.05), with a significantly lower adverse reaction rate than the
      control group(P<0.05).Combination of spleen, liver and kidney-strengthening
      formula and polyethylene glycol interferon alpha-2a was effective and safe in the
      treatment of chronic hepatitis B, and so worth promoting in clinic.

PMID- 28868879
TI  - [Framework on drug interactions between herbal medicine and western medicine:
      building I/II/III class pathways of interactions].
AB  - Combined use of Chinese medicine and western medicine is one of the hot spots in
      the domestic medical and academic fields for many years. There are lots of
      involved reports and studies on interaction problems due to combined used of
      Chinese medicine and western medicine, however, framework understanding is still
      rarely seen, affecting the clinical rationality of drug combinations. Actually,
      the inference ideas of drug interactions in clinical practice are more extensive
      and practical, and the overall viewpoint and pragmatic idea are the important
      factors in evaluating the rationality of clinical drug combinations. Based on
      above points, this paper systemically analyzed the existing information and
      examples, deeply discuss the embryology background (environment and action
      mechanism of interactions), and principally divided the interactions into three
      important and independent categories. Among the three categories, the first
      category (Iapproach) was defined as the physical/chemical reactions after direct
      contact in vivo or in vitro, such as the combination of Chinese medicine
      injections and western medicine injections (in vitro), combination of bromide and
      Chinese medicines containing cinnabar (in vivo). The evaluation method for such
      interactions may be generalized theory of Acid-Base reaction. The second category
      (II approach) was defined as the interactions through the pharmacokinetic process
      including absorption (such as the combination of aspirin and Huowei capsule),
      distribution (such as the combination of artosin and medicinal herbs containing
      coumarin), metabolism (such as the combination of phenobarbital and glycyrrhiza)
      and excretion (such as the combination of furadantin and Crataegi Fructus). The
      existing pharmacokinetic theory can act as the evaluation method for this type of
      interaction. The third category (III approach) was defined as the
      synergy/antagonism interactions by pharmacological effects or biological
      pathways. The combination of warfarin and Salvia miltiorrhiza is an example for
      synergy interaction, while the combination of guanethidine and ephedra is an
      example for anatagonism interaction. The repeated application of Chinese and
      western medicine compound preparations and same type of western medicine also
      belongs to this approach. The receptor competition theory under the view of the
      overall pathways might act as the evaluation method for this type of
      interactions. Above all, the research framework on interactions between Chinese
      medicine and western medicine was proposed, providing overall thinking and
      support for the essential study on combined application of Chinese medicine and
      western medicine.

PMID- 28868880
TI  - [Application of "Fu Yang and activating blood circulation" in treatment of
      unstable angina pectoris patients].
AB  - Coronary heart disease(CHD) has become a major public health problem in the
      world, while the unstable angina (UA) is one of an important type. Hypofunction
      of yang qi in chest and cardiac blood stasis has been considered as the basic
      pathogenesis of UA.According to the deficiency of yang and blood stasis run
      through the process of CHD, fu yang and activating blood circulation could be
      main treatment. Wenxin decoction which has the function of fu yang and activating
      blood circulation, not only can effectively improve the symptoms of angina
      pectoris, the ischemic ECG, but also can significantly improve blood rheology,
      blood lipids and so on. So deepening the theory of "fu yang and activating blood
      circulation" and the application of "Wenxin decoction" in the treatment of UA
      would have an important clinical value for improving the therapeutic efficacy of
      CHD.

PMID- 28868881
TI  - [Current status and sustainable development countermeasures of Anoectochilus
      roxburghii].
AB  - The current status of the domestic manufacturing and sales markets of
      Anoectochilus roxburghii were investigated and analyzed in the study. Some
      problems in the A. roxburghii industry were revealed and a variety of sustainable
      development countermeasures were also proposed. The main problems of A.
      roxburghii industry are the lack of protection for wild resources, the lag in the
      speed of variety breeding, the insufficient research on the quality systems, the
      low level of industry and product innovation capability, as well as the
      relatively low market cognition and brand competence. Therefore, strengthening
      the protection for breeding resources, establishing a dynamic monitoring system,
      promoting the variety breeding, constructing a propagation system for improved
      varieties, enhancing the quality of medicinal herbs, accelerating the adjustment
      of product structure, upgrading the industry technology, strengthening brand
      competence and expanding the market, will be the effective methods to realize the
      sustainable development of A. roxburghii industry.

PMID- 28868883
TI  - Lysosomal-Targeted Two-Photon Fluorescent Probe to Sense Hypochlorous Acid in
      Live Cells.
AB  - A two-photon reversible fluorescent probe L1 was designed and synthesized. The
      fluorescence intensity of the probe solution was strong, while the fluorescence
      of the solution was obviously quenched and the color of the solution was changed
      after the addition of hypochlorous acid, indicating this is "naked-eye sensor"
      for the detection of HClO. The probe showed great selectivity for hypochlorous
      acid over other reactive oxygen species (ROS) and anions. Fluorescence titration
      experiments showed that the probe has a low detection limit of 0.674 MUM. Because
      of a morpholine group introduced to the naphathalimide framework, probe L1 was
      successfully applied to detect intracellular HClO in lysosome.

PMID- 28868882
TI  - Graphene-Titanium Interfaces from Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
AB  - Unraveling the physical and chemical properties of graphene-metal contacts is a
      key step toward the development of graphitic electronic nanodevices. Although
      many studies have revealed the way that various metals interact with graphene,
      few have described the structure and behavior of large pieces of graphene-metal
      nanostructures under different conditions. Here, we present the first classical
      molecular dynamics study of graphene-titanium (G-Ti) structures, with and without
      substrates. Physical and chemical properties of equilibrium structures of G-Ti
      interfaces with different amounts of titanium coverage are investigated. Adhesion
      of Ti films on graphene is shown to be enhanced by the vacancies in graphene or
      the electrostatic influence of substrates. The dynamics of pristine G-Ti
      structures at different temperatures on planar and nonplanar substrates are
      investigated, and the results show that G-Ti interfaces are thermally stable,
      that is, not prone to any reaction toward the formation of titanium carbide.

PMID- 28868884
TI  - Effects of Free Energy and Solvent on Rates of Intramolecular Electron Transfer
      in Organic Radical Anions.
AB  - Rates of intramolecular electron transfer from a 1,1'-biphenylyl radical anion to
      six different acceptors on an androstane scaffold are examined with the aid of a
      theory that was developed recently to include effects of vibrational relaxations
      and dephasing. The electronic-interaction matrix element and other parameters
      needed for the theory are obtained by quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical
      simulations of the reactions in five solvents ranging from iso-octane to
      methyltetrahydrofuran. Intramolecular vibrational modes that are coupled to
      electron transfer are resolved in simulations in iso-octane and cyclohexane. The
      energies and coupling factors for these modes allow extension of the theory to
      incorporate transitions to and from excited vibrational levels. The calculated
      rates of electron transfer agree well with experimental measurements from the
      literature, except for reactions in which excited electronic states of the
      products become important.

PMID- 28868885
TI  - Cobalt/Copper-Cocatalyzed Synthesis of Imidazo[1,2-a:3,4-a']dipyridiniums from 2H
      [1,2'-Bipyridin]-2-ones and 2-Bromoacetophenones.
AB  - A cobalt/copper-cocatalyzed facile synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a:3,4
      a']dipyridiniums from 2H-[1,2'-bipyridin]-2-ones and 2-bromoacetophenones is
      presented. This strategy provides an alternative to the imidazo[1,2-a:3,4
      a']dipyridinium synthesis by employing readily available substrates and a simple
      procedure, which would render this method potentially useful in organic
      synthesis.

PMID- 28868887
TI  - Controllable Preparation of CuFeMnO4 Nanospheres as a Novel Multifunctional
      Affinity Probe for Efficient Adsorption and Selective Enrichment of Low-Abundance
      Peptides and Phosphopeptides.
AB  - A facile solvothermal method for the synthesis of multifunctional magnetic
      CuFeMnO4 nanospheres affinity probe (NSAP) with controllable morphology and size
      was developed for the first time. The CuFeMnO4 nanospheres combine the brilliant
      features of Cu2+, Fe3+, and Mn2+ ions, so their multifunction performances are
      embodied by strong coordination to carboxyl and amine groups of peptides (Cu2+
      and Fe3+), special affinity to phosphate groups of phosphopeptides (Fe3+ and
      Mn2+), and high magnetic responsiveness in a magnetic field. Their potential as
      an affinity probe was evaluated for highly effective enrichment, rapid magnetic
      separation of low-abundance peptides (neutral condition), and effective selective
      capture of phosphopeptides (acid condition) from various complex biosamples.
      Notably, CuFeMnO4 NSAP was explored for highly selective capture and isolation of
      phosphopeptides from A549 cells after exposure to ZnO nanoparticles for different
      times. Consequently, we put forward a new nanospinel ferrite-based protocol here
      to analyze and identify the phosphoproteins/phosphopeptides involved in cellular
      signaling pathways in response to exogenous stimulation.

PMID- 28868886
TI  - Gastrointestinal Absorption and Metabolic Dynamics of Jujuboside A, A Saponin
      Derived from the Seed of Ziziphus jujuba.
AB  - Jujuboside A (JuA), an active saponin, is responsible for the anxiolytic and
      sedative effects of Zizyphi Spinosae Semen (ZSS). In this study, the
      gastrointestinal absorption and metabolic dynamics of JuA were investigated in
      vivo and in vitro. The results showed that the bioavailability was 1.32% in rats,
      indicating only a trace amount of JuA was able to be absorbed. Further
      investigation revealed that its poor bioavailability was not caused by
      malabsorption but by the metabolic process. JuA was hydrolyzed largely in the
      stomach before being absorbed into the different parts of the intestine
      (especially duodenum and colon), and the gastric environment played a vital role
      in this process. Furthermore, the metabolites, jujuboside B (JuB) and
      jujubogenin, exhibited significant effects on the expression and activation of
      gamma-amino-butyric acid A (GABA(A)) receptors. Our findings demonstrate that the
      metabolites of the saponin, not the original molecule, should be responsible for
      the specific bioactivities.

PMID- 28868888
TI  - Selective Micellar Extraction of Ultratrace Levels of Uranium in Aqueous Samples
      by Task Specific Ionic Liquid Followed by Its Detection Employing Total
      Reflection X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry.
AB  - A task specific ionic liquid (TSIL) bearing phosphoramidate group, viz., N
      propyl(diphenylphosphoramidate)trimethylammonium
      bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, was synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR,
      13C NMR, 31P NMR, and IR spectroscopies, elemental (C H N S) analysis, and
      electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Using this TSIL a cloud point
      extraction (CPE) or micelle mediated extraction procedure was developed for
      preconcentration of uranium (U) in environmental aqueous samples. Total
      reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry was utilized to determine the
      concentration of U in the preconcentrated samples. In order to understand the
      mechanism of the CPE procedure, complexation study of the TSIL with U was carried
      out by isothermal calorimetric titration, liquid-liquid extraction, 31P NMR and
      IR spectroscopies, and ESI-MS. The developed analytical technique resulted in
      quantitative extraction efficiency of 99.0 +/- 0.5% and a preconcentration factor
      of 99 for U. The linear dynamic range and method detection limit of the procedure
      were found to be 0.1-1000 ng mL-1 and 0.02 ng mL-1, respectively. The CPE
      procedure was found to tolerate a higher concentration of commonly available
      interfering cations and anions, especially the lanthanides. The developed
      analytical method was validated by determining the concentration of U in a
      certified reference material, viz., NIST SRM 1640a natural water, which was found
      to be in good agreement at a 95% confidence limit with the certified value. The
      method was successfully applied to the U determination in three natural water
      samples with <=4% relative standard deviation (1sigma).

PMID- 28868889
TI  - Recruiting Practices for Change Initiatives Is Hard: Findings From EvidenceNOW.
AB  - Engaging primary care practices in initiatives designed to enhance quality,
      reduce costs, and promote safety is challenging as practices are already
      participating in numerous projects and mandated programs designed to improve care
      delivery and quality. Recruiters must expand their recruitment tools to engage
      today's practices in quality improvement. Using grant proposals, online diaries,
      observational site visits, and interviews with key stakeholders, the authors
      identify successful practice recruitment strategies in the EvidenceNOW
      initiative, which aimed to recruit approximately 1500 small- to medium-sized
      primary care practices. Recruiters learned they needed to articulate how
      participation in EvidenceNOW aligned with other initiatives and could help
      practices succeed with federal and state initiatives, recognition programs, and
      existing or future payment requirements. Recruiters, initiative leaders, and
      funders must now consider how their efforts align with ongoing initiatives to
      successfully recruit and engage practices, ease practice burden, and encourage
      participation in efforts that support practice transformation.

PMID- 28868890
TI  - Autoimmunity, Autonomic Neuropathy, and the HPV Vaccination: A Vulnerable
      Subpopulation.

PMID- 28868891
TI  - Anticholinergic burden in older inpatients on psychotropic medication: do we
      care?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This quality activity explored the prescribing patterns in an Older
      Persons Mental Health Inpatient Unit in order to establish whether the
      Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden Scale (ACB Scale) score on admission was
      reviewed to minimise anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB) while maintaining
      therapeutic effects. METHODS: A retrospective electronic chart review of 50
      discharged patients for any documented ACB review by the treating team, as well
      as the ACB Scale scores on admission and discharge. FINDINGS: ACB was rarely
      considered. On average, the total ACB Scale scores on admission and discharge
      were high. At the time of discharge, the proportion of patients on at least one
      anticholinergic medication had significantly increased, and only 10% of patients
      were on no anticholinergic medication. Approximately 50% of patients had an
      increased ACB Scale score by discharge as opposed to only 8% who had reduced
      scores. CONCLUSIONS: Anticholinergic polypharmacy should be minimised when
      prescribing to the elderly population to reduce potential anticholinergic burden.

PMID- 28868893
TI  - Five-Year Multicenter Study of Clinical Tests of Neonatal Purulent Meningitis.
AB  - This study aimed to provide more data support for early diagnosis and treatment
      of neonatal purulent meningitis through retrospective analysis of its clinical
      diagnosis and treatment, pathogen distribution, and drug resistance in 5 third
      class A hospitals in Southwest and Northwest China from January 2011 to December
      2015. It was found that both the positive rates of blood and cerebrospinal fluid
      culture were low, and Escherichia coli should be the main pathogenic bacteria.
      Drug-resistant strains with varying degrees to the third generation of
      cephalosporin antibiotics have appeared currently.

PMID- 28868894
TI  - A Pilot Study of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Delivered via
      Telehealth Technology.
AB  - Significant barriers exist in access to evidence-based, trauma-focused treatment
      among youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, those living in rural
      areas, and belonging to a racial and ethnic minority group, despite the high
      prevalence rates of trauma exposure among these underserved groups. The present
      study is proof-of-concept pilot of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy
      (TF-CBT) delivered to underserved trauma-exposed youth ( N = 15) via telehealth
      technology (i.e., via one-on-one videoconferencing), aimed at addressing barriers
      in access to TF treatment. This pilot study provides preliminary evidence of the
      ability to successfully deliver TF-CBT via a telehealth delivery format. Results
      demonstrated clinically meaningful symptom change posttreatment (large effect
      sizes for youth-reported ( d = 2.93) and caregiver-reported ( d = 1.38) reduction
      in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms), with no treatment attrition (0%
      dropout). These findings are promising in showing treatment effects that are
      comparable with TF-CBT delivered in an in-person, office-based setting and an
      important first step in determining how to best address the mental health needs
      of trauma-exposed youth with barriers in access to care.

PMID- 28868892
TI  - Home-based pulmonary rehabilitation for people with COPD: A qualitative study
      reporting the patient perspective.
AB  - This study aimed to document the perspective of patients with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) who underwent home-based pulmonary rehabilitation (HBPR)
      in a clinical trial. In this qualitative study, open-ended questions explored
      participants' views regarding HBPR. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were
      analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Major themes from interviews
      included the positive impact of HBPR on physical fitness, breathing and mood.
      Participants valued the flexibility and convenience of the programme.
      Participants also highlighted the importance of social support received, both
      from the physiotherapist over the phone and from family and friends who
      encouraged their participation. Reported challenges were difficulties in
      initiating exercise, lack of variety in training and physical incapability. While
      most participants supported the home setting, one participant would have
      preferred receiving supervised exercise training at the hospital. Participants
      also reported that HBPR had helped establish an exercise routine and improved
      their disease management. This study suggests that people with COPD valued the
      convenience of HBPR, experienced positive impacts on physical fitness and
      symptoms and felt supported by their community and programme staff. This highly
      structured HBPR model may be acceptable to some people with COPD as an
      alternative to centre-based pulmonary rehabilitation.

PMID- 28868895
TI  - In-Law Preferences in China and in Cyprus: Differences and Similarities.
AB  - Across different times and cultures, parents exercise considerable influence over
      their children's mate choices. When they do so, parents are looking for specific
      traits in a prospective daughter- and son-in-law. Using a sample of 674 parents,
      the current research investigated in-law preferences in China. Participants rated
      88 different traits, which were clustered in 10 different preference domains. In
      law preferences were found to be contingent on the sex of the in-law and the sex
      of the parent. The data from the current study were compared with data from a
      different study which took place in the Republic of Cyprus. It was found that
      preferences varied in the two samples, but specific cultural differences were
      identified. It was also found that for both samples, the 10 different domains
      clustered in two supra-domains. The first supra-domain, where personality traits
      clustered, was preferred more by both Chinese and Greek-Cypriot parents than the
      second domain, where the rest of the traits clustered.

PMID- 28868896
TI  - Stock Photographs Do Not Comply With Infant Safe Sleep Guidelines.
AB  - We evaluated images in popular stock photography websites for adherence with
      American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for safe infant sleep practices.
      Three top stock photo websites were used to collect photographs generated from
      key phrases. All images depicting an infant sleep environment were analyzed for
      consistency with AAP guidelines. Descriptive statistics, chi-square and z test of
      proportions, were conducted. A total of 1233 of 1947 stock photographs showed
      sleeping infants on a flat surface. In all, 627 (50.8%) photographs showed the
      infant in the supine position and 79 (5%) of all infant sleep environments were
      adherent with AAP recommendations. Bedding inconsistent with safe sleep
      recommendations was identified in 1133 images (71.3%), with blankets noted in
      49.5%. Images depicting sleeping infants on stock photography sites do not
      routinely adhere to AAP recommendations. Media messages inconsistent with health
      care messages create confusion and misinformation about infant sleep safety and
      may lead inadvertently to unsafe practices.

PMID- 28868897
TI  - Recurrent Sterile Abscesses After Immunization With Aluminum-Adjuvant Based
      Vaccines.

PMID- 28868899
TI  - Rate of Change of Premeal Glucose Measured by Continuous Glucose Monitoring
      Predicts Postmeal Glycemic Excursions in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes:
      Implications for Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with type 1 diabetes routinely utilize a single premeal
      fingerstick glucose to determine premeal insulin doses. Continuous glucose
      monitoring (CGM) provides much richer glycemic trend information, including
      glycemic slope (GS). How to incorporate this information into dosing decisions
      remains an open question. METHODS: We examined the relationship between premeal
      GS and postmeal glycemic excursions in 240 individuals with type 1 diabetes
      receiving CGM augmented insulin pump therapy. Over 23.5 million CGM values were
      synchronized with 264 500 meals. CGM values were integrated 2 hours premeal to
      compute GS and 2 hours postmeal to compute glycemic excursion outcomes. Postmeal
      hyperglycemia (integrated CGM glucose >180 mg/dL*hr) and postmeal hypoglycemic
      events (any CGM glucose < 70 mg/dL) were tabulated according to positive/negative
      premeal GS and according to GS bins commonly displayed as rate-of-change arrows
      on CGM devices. RESULTS: Positive versus negative premeal GS was associated with
      a 2.28-fold (95% CI 2.25-2.32) risk of postmeal hyperglycemia. Negative versus
      positive premeal GS was associated with a 2.36-fold (95% CI 2.25-2.43) increase
      in one or more postprandial hypoglycemic events. Premeal GS in the bin currently
      displayed as "no change" on existing CGM devices (-1 to 1 mg/dL/min), conferred a
      1.82-fold (95% CI 1.79-1.86) risk of postprandial hyperglycemia when positive and
      a 2.06-fold (95% CI 1.99-2.15) increased risk of postprandial hypoglycemia when
      negative. CONCLUSION: Premeal GS predicts postmeal glycemic excursions and may
      help inform insulin dosing decisions. Rate-of-change arrows on existing devices
      obscure clinically actionable glycemic trend information from CGM users.

PMID- 28868898
TI  - The tumour suppressor CDKN2A/p16INK4a regulates adipogenesis and bone marrow
      dependent development of perivascular adipose tissue.
AB  - The genomic CDKN2A/B locus, encoding p16INK4a among others, is linked to an
      increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Obesity is a risk
      factor for both cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. p16INK4a is a cell
      cycle regulator and tumour suppressor. Whether it plays a role in adipose tissue
      formation is unknown. p16INK4a knock-down in 3T3/L1 preadipocytes or p16INK4a
      deficiency in mouse embryonic fibroblasts enhanced adipogenesis, suggesting a
      role for p16INK4a in adipose tissue formation. p16INK4a-deficient mice developed
      more epicardial adipose tissue in response to the adipogenic peroxisome
      proliferator activated receptor gamma agonist rosiglitazone. Additionally,
      adipose tissue around the aorta from p16INK4a-deficient mice displayed enhanced
      rosiglitazone-induced gene expression of adipogenic markers and stem cell
      antigen, a marker of bone marrow-derived precursor cells. Mice transplanted with
      p16INK4a-deficient bone marrow had more epicardial adipose tissue compared to
      controls when fed a high-fat diet. In humans, p16INK4a gene expression was
      enriched in epicardial adipose tissue compared to other adipose tissue depots.
      Moreover, epicardial adipose tissue from obese humans displayed increased
      expression of stem cell antigen compared to lean controls, supporting a bone
      marrow origin of epicardial adipose tissue. These results show that p16INK4a
      modulates epicardial adipose tissue development, providing a potential
      mechanistic link between the genetic association of the CDKN2A/B locus and
      cardiovascular disease risk.

PMID- 28868900
TI  - Natural resistance of Sri Lankan village chicken to Salmonella gallinarum
      infection.
AB  - 1. An experiment was conducted to compare the natural resistance of an indigenous
      breed of local village chickens to Salmonella gallinarum with two commercial
      breeds: ISA Brown and ISA White layers under experimental conditions. 2. A total
      of 72 chickens from each of these breeds were randomly distributed to 4 pens to
      provide equal numbers of two replicate pens maintained as infected and control
      (uninfected). All chickens in infected groups were inoculated orally with 1 * 108
      CFU (1 ml dose) of a field isolate of S. gallinarum, at the age of 8 and 16 weeks
      given over 5 consecutive days. Growth performance, clinical signs, gross
      pathological lesions and antibody responses were measured. 3. A significantly
      higher mortality was observed in the brown layers compared with the white layers,
      and clinical signs and mortality were absent in village chickens. However, a
      large number of birds with gross lesions and high antibody titres were detected
      in village chickens, indicating that birds had the disease subclinically.
      Commercial breeds had a significantly higher body weight, feed intake and feed
      conversion efficiency. 4. There was a significantly lower proportion of positive
      reactors in village chickens in the whole-blood agglutination test (35%) compared
      to brown (100%) and white (90%) layers even after the second inoculation.
      Uninfected birds were negative in all groups. The indirect enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay confirmed these observations. 5. These results suggest that
      the indigenous breed had superior natural resistance to S. gallinarum than the
      commercial breeds.

PMID- 28868901
TI  - Assessment and biomonitoring indoor environment of buildings.
AB  - Ensuring hygiene and health protection is one of the basic construction
      requirements. Such requirements are examined when commissioning new constructions
      and examining defects in constructions already in use. One substantial defect is
      biocorrosion which represents a synergistic process with a complex variety of
      factors. It is caused by biochemical manifestations of various micro-organisms
      (micromycetes). Micromycetes producing mycotoxins therefore play an important
      role regarding the so-called 'Sick Building Syndrome' that has become a global
      problem nowadays. The case study presented here aims to demonstrate the
      effectiveness of the diagnostic methods used in assessing the presence of
      micromycetes in a building's internal atmosphere and on the internal surfaces of
      a construction built using traditional construction methods. The methodology of
      comparing methods is based on their effectiveness, taking into account the
      identification of type and intensity of micromycetes presence in the air and on
      the material surfaces in the monitored areas.

PMID- 28868902
TI  - Differences Between Sleep Logs and Actigraphy Combined With
      Electroencephalography in Adults With Sleep Disturbances.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Actigraphy plus single-channel electroencephalography (EEG) has a
      high agreement with polysomnography and is considered a simple method for
      monitoring sleep at home. No studies, however, have evaluated its agreement with
      sleep logs. PURPOSE: A sleep log was compared to a single-channel EEG in adults
      with sleep disturbances. The determinants of the agreement between the two
      recording methods were explored. METHOD: This prospective comparison substudy
      included 71 participants aged 22-67 years sampled from a previous study of
      nonpharmacological therapy for sleep disturbances. The participants concurrently
      used a sleep log and a single-channel EEG machine for 6 days to measure their
      sleep at home. Total sleep time (TST) and sleep onset latency (SOL) were
      compared. RESULTS: Correlations between measurements were .43 for TST ( p < .001)
      and .30 ( p < .01) for SOL. Bland-Altman analysis revealed that the mean bias
      between methods was 81.54 min (standard deviation [ SD] = 66.72 min) for TST and
      5.58 min ( SD = 25.38 min) for SOL. SDs for both TST and SOL were higher for the
      sleep log than for EEG. A multivariate linear regression model demonstrated that
      age (standardized coefficient beta = .42, p = .001) was a significant predictor
      of the mean difference in SOL measurements, accounting for 13.7% of the total
      variance in the mean difference. CONCLUSION: Sleep log and single-channel EEG
      sleep measures are distinct from one another, and age predicts the mean level of
      disagreement between the two measures in adults with sleep disturbances.

PMID- 28868903
TI  - Toward 90-90-90: identifying those who have never been tested for HIV and
      differences by sex in Lesotho.
AB  - To reach HIV epidemic control it is important to ensure that those who have never
      been tested access HIV testing and counseling (HTC) particularly in the context
      of a generalized HIV epidemic. Using data from the 2014 Lesotho Demographic
      Health Survey bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to
      determine the associations between never tested for HIV and key socio-cognitive
      characteristics by sex. Marginal probabilities at the means were calculated for
      the socio-cognitive variables for men and women to ascertain the magnitude of the
      differences in the likelihood of never being tested by sex. We stratified by
      gender and controlled for age, education, religion, marital status, place of
      residence, and years circumcised (for men only). Results indicate that more men
      than women have never been tested (chi2 = 461.16, p < 0.001); and, among men,
      acceptance of gender based violence (Odds ratio [OR]: 1.44, p < 0.001), holding
      discriminatory attitudes (OR: 1.50, p < 0.001), and not having basic HIV
      prevention knowledge (OR: 1.53, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with
      never being tested. The likelihood of never being tested among those who had
      these three socio-cognitive characteristics was much higher among men (0.56, p <
      0.001) than women (0.20, p < 0.001). Given the strong sex differential, there is
      an urgent need for strategies specifically targeting men in order to effectively
      promote HTC uptake among them. Additionally, results suggest that those
      strategies should integrate strategies to address GBV acceptance, HIV prevention
      knowledge, and HIV discrimination or link men to programs addressing these.

PMID- 28868904
TI  - The Dynamics of Catastrophic and Impoverishing Health Spending in Indonesia: How
      Well Does the Indonesian Health Care Financing System Perform?
AB  - Our study examines the incidence and intensity of catastrophic and impoverishing
      health spending in Indonesia. A panel data set was used from 4 waves of the
      Indonesian Family Life Surveys 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2007. Catastrophic health
      expenditure was measured by calculating the ratio of out-of-pocket payments to
      household income. Then, we calculated poverty indicators as a measure of
      impoverishing spending in the health care financing system. Head count,
      overshoot, and mean positive overshoot for each given threshold in 2000 were
      lower than other surveyed periods; otherwise, fraction headcount in 2007 of
      households were the higher. Between 1993 and 2007, the percentage of households
      in poverty decreased, both in gross and net of health payments. However, in each
      year, the percentages of households in poverty using net health payments were
      higher than the gross. The estimates of poverty gap, normalized poverty gap, and
      normalized mean positive gap decreased across the survey periods. The health care
      financing system performance has shown positive evidence for financial protection
      offerings. A sound relationship between improvements of health care financing
      performance and the existing health reform demonstrated a mutual reinforcement,
      which should be maintained to promote equity and fairness in health care
      financing in Indonesia.

PMID- 28868905
TI  - Hope, recovery and symptoms: the importance of hope for people living with severe
      mental illness.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Hope is an important part of recovery from severe mental illness. Our
      aim was to assess hope and its correlation with symptoms in people living with
      severe mental illness. METHODS: We used validated questionnaires to assess hope,
      social isolation, quality of life and symptoms among 60 people living with severe
      mental illness. RESULTS: Hope scores were significantly lower than those reported
      for many community groups. There was a negative association between psychiatric
      symptoms and levels of hope. CONCLUSIONS: Some people living with enduring severe
      mental illness in the Australian community feel hopeless. Being hopeful and
      initiating recovery are evidently difficult when symptoms remain severe.
      Appropriate acknowledgement and support for patients and their families is
      required.

PMID- 28868906
TI  - Therapeutic application of contrast ultrasound in ST elevation myocardial
      infarction: Role in coronary thrombosis and microvascular obstruction.
AB  - In the past few decades, cardiac ultrasound has become a widely available, easy
      to-use diagnostic tool in many scenarios in acute cardiac care. The introduction
      of microbubbles extended its diagnostic value. Not long thereafter, several
      investigators explored the therapeutic potential of contrast ultrasound on
      thrombus dissolution. Despite large improvements in therapeutic options, acute ST
      elevation myocardial infarction remains one of the main causes of mortality and
      morbidity in the western world. The therapeutic effect of contrast ultrasound on
      thrombus dissolution might prove to be a new, effective treatment strategy in
      this group of patients. With the recent publication of human studies scrutinising
      the therapeutic options of ultrasound and microbubbles in ST elevation myocardial
      infarction, we have entered a new stage in this area of research. This
      therapeutic effect is based on biochemical effects both at macrovascular and
      microvascular levels, of which the exact working mechanisms remain to be
      elucidated in full. This review will give an up-to-date summary of our current
      knowledge of the therapeutic effects of contrast ultrasound and its potential
      application in the field of ST elevation myocardial infarction, along with its
      future developments.

PMID- 28868907
TI  - New Device for Intrinsic Hand Muscle Strength Measurement: An Alternative to
      Strain Gauge Handheld Dynamometer.
AB  - An accurate measurement of intrinsic hand muscle strength (IHMS) is required by
      clinicians for effective clinical decision-making, diagnosis of certain diseases,
      and evaluation of the outcome of treatment. In practice, the clinicians use
      Intrins-o-meter and Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer for IHMS measurement. These
      are quite bulky, expensive, and possess poor interobserver reliability (37-52%)
      and sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to develop an alternative
      lightweight, accurate, cost-effective force measurement device with a simple
      electronic circuit and test its suitability for IHMS measurement. The device was
      constructed with ketjenblack/deproteinized natural rubber sensor, 1-MOmega
      potential divider, and Arduino Uno through the custom-written software. Then, the
      device was calibrated and tested for accuracy and repeatability within the force
      range of finger muscles (100 N). The 95% limit of agreement in accuracy from 
      1.95 N to 2.06 N for 10 to 100 N applied load and repeatability coefficient of +/
      1.91 N or 6.2% was achieved. Furthermore, the expenditure for the device
      construction was around US$ 53. For a practical demonstration, the device was
      tested among 16 participants for isometric strength measurement of the ulnar
      abductor and dorsal interossei. The results revealed that the performance of the
      device was suitable for IHMS measurement.

PMID- 28868908
TI  - [One year persistence of free and fixed dose combinations of
      perindopril/amlodipine].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In management of hypertension patient adherence is one of the most
      important factors. In hypertension the cardiovascular risk reduction can be
      reached only by prolonged and effective pharmacotherapy. AIM: To evaluate the
      persistence of one-year treatment of free and fixed-dose combination of
      perindopril/amlodipine in hypertension. METHOD: Information from the National
      Health Insurance of Hungary prescriptions database on pharmacy claims between
      October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013 was analysed. Authors identified patients
      who filled prescriptions for free and fixed-dose combination of
      perindopril/amlodipine, prescribed for the first time for hypertension. Patients
      have not received antihypertensive therapy with similar active substances during
      the one year before. Apparatus of survival analysis was used, where "survival"
      was the time to abandon the medication. As it was available to month precision,
      discrete time survival analysis was applied. RESULTS: 109,248 patients met the
      inclusion criteria. Combination antihypertensive therapy with
      perindopril/amlodipine was started with a free or a fixed-dose combination of
      these agents in 19,365 and 89,883 patients, respectively. One year persistence
      rate in patients taking perindopril/amlodipine as a free combination was 27.15%,
      whereas it was 46.89% in those on the fixed-dose combination. Mean duration of
      persistence was 177.6 days in patients on the perindopril/amlodipine free,
      whereas 245.7 days on fixed-dose combination. Actual rate of discontinuation was
      approximately twice higher with the treatment of free, compared with the use of
      the fixed-dose combination (hazard ratio =1.94 [95% CI: 1.91-1.98], p<0.001). Orv
      Hetil. 2017; 158(36): 1421-1425.

PMID- 28868909
TI  - [Recognizing complicated grief from a doctor's point of view].
AB  - By reviewing two bereavement support group cases I wish to demonstrate the
      important role a doctor, also receptive of his patients' non-verbal signals, has
      in the early recognition of complicated grief and halted grief process. Doctors
      are aware of individual traumas and destinies, and general practitioners are
      familiar with the details of their patients' life and home circumstances, could
      be catalysts for the continuation of the halted grief process. They discover the
      real cause of trauma behind several psychosomatic symptoms. For professionals
      working with bereavement support groups and meeting a number of different
      manifestations of the experience of absence and loss in people facing complicated
      grief (by its former, stigmatizing term: pathological or distorted grief),
      synchronizing the work of such heterogeneous groups of people, who have diverse
      loss history and individual (grief) habitus, is a real professional challenge. In
      such a work process the activity of doctors and health care workers can be
      supportive and could facilitate progress. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(36): 1426-1431.

PMID- 28868910
TI  - [Orbital compartment syndrome. The most frequent cause of blindness following
      facial trauma].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although orbital compartment syndrome is a rare condition, it is
      still the most common cause of blindness following simple or complicated facial
      fractures. Its pathomechanism is similar to the compartment syndrome in the limb.
      Little extra fluid (blood, oedema, brain, foreign body) in a non-space yielding
      space results with increasingly higher pressures within a short period of time.
      Unless urgent surgical intervention is performed the blocked circulation of the
      central retinal artery will result irreversible ophthalmic nerve damage and
      blindness. Aim, material and method: A retrospective analysis of ten years, 2007
      2017, in our hospital among those patients referred to us with facial-head trauma
      combined with blindness. RESULTS: 571 patients had fractures involving the orbit.
      23 patients become blind from different reasons. The most common cause was
      orbital compartment syndrome in 17 patients; all had retrobulbar haematomas as
      well. 6 patients with retrobulbar haematoma did not develop compartment syndrome.
      Compartment syndrome was found among patient with extensive and minimal fractures
      such as with large and minimal haematomas. Early lateral canthotomy and
      decompression saved 7 patients from blindness. CONCLUSION: We can not predict and
      do not know why some patients develop orbital compartment syndrome. Compartment
      syndrome seems independent from fracture mechanism, comminution, dislocation,
      amount of orbital bleeding. All patients are in potential risk with midface
      fractures. We have a high suspicion that orbital compartment syndrome has been
      somehow missed out in the recommended textbooks of our medical universities and
      in the postgraduate trainings. Thus compartment syndrome is not recognized.
      Teaching, training and early surgical decompression is the only solution to save
      the blind eye. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(36): 1410-1420.

PMID- 28868911
TI  - [Geza Sas (1937-2017)].

PMID- 28868913
TI  - [Biopsychosocially informed therapy of symptoms related to premature ovarian
      failure].
AB  - The basic legal conditions for pursuing medical activities in Hungary require
      that psychologists be employed at certain somatic departments. In the Hungarian
      medical practice, however, attitudes recognizing the potential role of
      psychological factors in the course of diseases are not widely present. The
      modern psychosomatic approach to healing includes biological, psychological and
      social factors that may predispose one to, precipitate or perpetuate a medical
      condition. This case study of a 35-year-old woman reports on a therapy in which
      the symptoms were indicative of both premature ovarian failure and anxiety,
      influencing each other in a bidirectional way. Therapy also included
      interventions on physical (hormonal therapy, Jacobson's progressive relaxation
      technique) and psychological levels (cognitive behavioral interventions). This
      case management is an example for how physician-psychologist collaboration serves
      the best interests of patients. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(36): 1432-1435.

PMID- 28868914
TI  - [Comparison of laparoscopic and open radical hysterectomies in the surgical
      treatment of cervical cancer].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancer is one of the most common causes of death among
      women with malignant tumours. The two most common ways of surgical technique of
      early stage cervical cancer is the laparoscopy and the laparotomy. AIM: Our aim
      was to compare the intra- and postoperative results of total laparoscopic radical
      hysterectomy and abdominal radical hysterectomy. METHOD: Ten nerve sparing
      laparoscopic and 11 abdominal radical hysterectomies were performed from June
      2016 until June 2017 because of early stage cervical cancer. Results were
      analysed retrospectively. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between
      the two groups in the length of the operation, in blood loss and in intra- and
      postoperative complications. Significantly more lymph nodes were harvested by
      abdominal surgery and the length of hospitalisation was significantly shorter in
      the laparoscopy group. CONCLUSION: Results of total laparoscopic radical
      hysterectomy are comparable and not worse than abdominal radical hysterectomy.
      Laparoscopic way may have a priority because of the general advantages of
      laparoscopic surgery in the surgical treatment of early stage cervical cancer.
      Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(36): 1403-1409.

PMID- 28868915
TI  - Detection of Subclinical Peripheral Artery Ischemia in Healthy Male Smokers by an
      Ankle-Brachial Index After Exercise: Sasayama Study.
AB  - We investigated the relationship between smoking and the risk of nonnormal
      (<=0.99) ankle-brachial index (ABI) at rest and after ankle plantar flexion
      exercise in healthy male community dwellers. A cross-sectional study was
      performed including 228 Japanese men aged 40 to 64 years without a history of
      cardiovascular diseases. Participants were classified as never, ex-, and current
      smokers. We estimated the multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for nonnormal
      ABI of ex- and current smokers in relation to never smokers after adjusting for
      age and other confounding factors. At rest, the prevalence of nonnormal ABI was
      not significantly different by smoking status. After exercise, the prevalence of
      nonnormal ABI increased from 1.8% to 11.5% in ex-smokers and from 3.8% to 17.0%
      in current smokers, while the prevalence did not significantly change in never
      smokers. The multivariate-adjusted OR for nonnormal ABI after ankle plantar
      flexion exercise, in relation to never smokers, was 3.85 (95% confidence interval
      [CI]: 0.79-18.9) for ex-smokers and 6.97 (95% CI: 1.32-36.7) for current smokers.
      Our results suggest that ABI after ankle plantar flexion exercise is useful for
      early detection of subclinical peripheral artery ischemia in male smokers without
      typical symptoms.

PMID- 28868916
TI  - Peripheral Artery Disease: To Screen or Not Screen, That Is the Question!

PMID- 28868917
TI  - Mutuality and heart failure self-care in patients and their informal caregivers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart failure is a progressive condition characterized by frequent
      hospitalizations for exacerbated symptoms. Informal family caregivers may help
      patients improve self-care, which may in turn reduce hospitalizations. However,
      little is known about how mutuality, defined as the quality of the patient
      caregiver relationship, and caregiver burden affect self-care. OBJECTIVE: This
      study examines the associations among mutuality, patient self-care confidence
      (beliefs in abilities to engage in self-care behaviors) and maintenance
      (behaviors such as medication adherence, activity, and low salt intake),
      caregiver confidence in and maintenance of patient care, and caregiver perceived
      burden. METHODS: This study used cross-sectional baseline data from a multi-site
      randomized clinical trial of a symptom and psychosocial care intervention.
      Patient-caregiver dyads ( N=99) completed self-report surveys of mutuality and
      self-care confidence and maintenance, and caregivers completed a measure of
      caregiver burden. Path analysis, with actor (effects within a person) partner
      (effects across the dyad) interdependence model paths and regression models were
      used to examine the associations among mutuality, caregiver burden, and self
      care. RESULTS: The majority of patients ( M age=66, 21% female) and caregivers (
      M age=57, 81% female) were spouses (60%). The path model demonstrated significant
      actor effects; patients and caregivers with better mutuality were more confident
      in patient self-care ( p<.05). Partner effects were not significant. Regression
      models indicated that caregivers with greater mutuality reported less perceived
      burden ( p<.01). CONCLUSIONS: Mutuality in patient-caregiver dyads is associated
      with patient self-care and caregiver burden and may be an important intervention
      target to improve self-care and reduce hospitalizations.

PMID- 28868918
TI  - Successful use of palliative inotrope therapy in end-stage cardiac ATTR
      amyloidosis.

PMID- 28868919
TI  - Three new kavalactone dimers from Piper methysticum (kava).
AB  - Three new dimeric kavalactones, designated as diyangonins A-C (1-3), along with
      two known analogs were isolated from the roots of Piper methysticum. Their
      structures were elucidated by means of extensive analysis of their 1D, 2D NMR,
      and mass spectroscopic data. All these dimers possess a skeleton featuring a
      cyclobutane ring connecting two kavalactone units in head-to-tail or head-to-head
      mode. Compounds 1-5 were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against human
      tumor cell lines.

PMID- 28868921
TI  - The dual task effect on gait in adults with intellectual disabilities: is it
      predictive for falls?
AB  - PURPOSE: Falling is an important health issue in adults with intellectual
      disabilities. Their cognitive and motor limitations may result in difficulties
      with dual tasking (walking and talking), which increases fall risk. Therefore, we
      assessed the dual task effect on gait in adults with intellectual disabilities,
      if this dual task effect is predictive for falls, and if this is more predictive
      than regular walking. METHOD: Gait characteristics of 31 adults with intellectual
      disabilities without Down syndrome were assessed with the GAITRite at comfortable
      speed and during dual tasking (conversation). Falls were collected over a three
      month follow-up period. RESULTS: During dual tasking, participants walked slower,
      with a lower cadence, increased stride time, and shorter stride lengths. They
      spend less time in swing and single support phase than at comfortable speed. Also
      swing and single support time became more variable. The dual task effect and
      walking at comfortable speed were not predictive for falls, although medium
      effect sizes were found. CONCLUSIONS: Dual tasking affects gait in adults with
      intellectual disabilities. This is an important finding for safe community
      participation, and must be considered while interacting with adults with
      intellectual disabilities during daily activities. Possible negative consequences
      of distractors should be kept in mind. More research is needed to better
      understand the predictive value of gait for falls. Implications for
      Rehabilitation Having a conversation while walking affects the gait pattern of
      adults with intellectual disabilities, possible negative consequences of
      distractors should be kept in mind. The dual task effect on the width of the gait
      pattern and stride time variability had the largest effect sizes with future
      falls, this potential relationship should be kept in mind in clinical practice.
      The dual task effect on gait is important to consider with regard to safe
      community participation. Future studies are needed to better understand the
      predictive value of gait for falls, and for cutoff points to be used in clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28868920
TI  - Albidosides H and I, two new triterpene saponins from the barks of Acacia albida
      Del. (Mimosaceae).
AB  - Two new triterpene saponins, albidosides H (1) and I (2), along with the three
      known saponins were isolated from the barks of Acacia albida. Their structures
      were elucidated on the basis of extensive 1D- and 2D-NMR studies and mass
      spectrometry. Albidosides H (1) and I (2) were assayed for their cytotoxicity
      against HeLa and HL60 cells using MTT method.

PMID- 28868922
TI  - Second-Look Arthroscopic Evaluation and Clinical Outcome After Supramalleolar
      Osteotomy for Medial Compartment Ankle Osteoarthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiologic
      outcomes of medial compartment ankle osteoarthritis after supramalleolar
      osteotomy (SMO) without the bone marrow stimulation procedure and confirm
      cartilage recovery by second-look arthroscopy. METHODS: Twenty-two ankles that
      were followed for more than 1 year after SMO were retrospectively reviewed.
      Visual analog scale pain scores and American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society
      ankle-hindfoot scores were used for functional evaluations. The tibial anterior
      surface angle and tibial lateral surface angle were measured on radiographs, and
      ankle osteoarthritis was classified by Takakura stage. Among the 22 patients, 21
      underwent ankle arthroscopy prior to SMO, and second-look arthroscopy was
      performed in 16 patients 1 year postoperatively. Tibiotalar cartilage
      regeneration was evaluated according to the modified Outerbridge classification
      for the 14 patients who had undergone SMO without the bone marrow stimulation
      procedure. RESULTS: The mean visual analog scale and American Orthopaedic Foot &
      Ankle Society scores significantly improved from 6.5 preoperatively to 1.1
      postoperatively and from 60.7 preoperatively to 87.1 postoperatively,
      respectively ( P < .05). The mean tibial anterior surface and tibial lateral
      surface angles significantly improved from 83.5 degrees  and 76.9 degrees 
      preoperatively to 93.8 degrees  and 80.2 degrees  postoperatively, respectively (
      P < .05). All preoperative Takakura stage IIIa cases and IIIb case improved to
      postoperative stage II. On second-look arthroscopy, cartilage regeneration of the
      medial compartment of the tibiotalar joint was observed in 12 of 14 patients
      (85%), whereas cartilage deterioration was not observed in any patient.
      CONCLUSIONS: SMO without the bone marrow stimulation procedure for medial ankle
      osteoarthritis demonstrated cartilage regeneration in the medial tibiotalar joint
      in most patients by second-look arthroscopy, as well as satisfactory clinical and
      radiologic outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, case series.

PMID- 28868923
TI  - Two thymol derivatives from the flower buds of Lonicera japonica and their
      antibacterial activity.
AB  - A new monoterpenoid, 7-acetyl-8,9-dihydroxy thymol (1), together with a known one
      7,8-dihydroxy-9-buyryl thymol (2), were isolated from the dried flower buds of
      Lonicera japonica Thunb. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of
      extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic data analyses. The potential antibacterial
      effects of these compounds on Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli,
      Micrococcus luteus, and Bacillus cereus were evaluated. Interestingly, both
      compounds 1 and 2 exhibited significant antibacterial activities with IC50 values
      range from 27.64 +/- 2.26 to 128.58 +/- 13.26 MUg/mL.

PMID- 28868924
TI  - Is instrument-free molecular detection possible?

PMID- 28868925
TI  - Structural changes in S. epidermidis biofilms after transmission between
      stainless steel surfaces.
AB  - Transmission is a main route for bacterial contamination, involving bacterial
      detachment from a donor and adhesion to receiver surfaces. This work aimed to
      compare transmission of an extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) producing and
      a non-EPS producing Staphylococcus epidermidis strain from biofilms on stainless
      steel. After transmission, donor surfaces remained fully covered with biofilm,
      indicating transmission through cohesive failure in the biofilm. Counter to the
      numbers of biofilm bacteria, the donor and receiver biofilm thicknesses did not
      add up to the pre-transmission donor biofilm thickness, suggesting more compact
      biofilms after transmission, especially for non-EPS producing staphylococci.
      Accordingly, staphylococcal density per unit biofilm volume had increased from
      0.20 to 0.52 MUm-3 for transmission of the non-EPS producing strain under high
      contact pressure. The EPS producing strain had similar densities before and after
      transmission (0.17 MUm-3). This suggests three phases in biofilm transmission:
      (1) compression, (2) separation and (3) relaxation of biofilm structure to its
      pre-transmission density in EPS-rich biofilms.

PMID- 28868926
TI  - A novel chloro-substituted pentenamide from the fruiting bodies of Amanita
      virgineoides.
AB  - One unusual chloro-substituted pentenamide, (3R)-4-chloro-3-hydroxy-4-pentenamide
      (1), together with 11 known compounds (2-12) were isolated from the fruiting
      bodies of Amanita virgineoides. The structure of 1 including the absolute
      configuration was characterized by extensive spectroscopic analyses and quantum
      calculation. Compound 1 displayed no obvious activity against herpes simplex
      virus (HSV), human enterovirus 71 (EV71) or coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3).

PMID- 28868927
TI  - Measuring a critical stress for continuous prevention of marine biofouling
      accumulation with aeration.
AB  - When cleaning the hull of a ship, significant shear stresses are needed to remove
      established biofouling organisms. Given that there exists a link between the
      amount of time that fouling accumulates and the stress required to remove it, it
      is not surprising that more frequent grooming requires less shear stress. Yet, it
      is unclear if there is a minimum stress needed to prevent the growth of
      macrofouling in the limit of continuous grooming. This manuscript shows that
      single bubble stream aeration provides continuous grooming and prevents
      biofouling accumulation in regions where the average wall stress exceeds ~0.01
      Pa. This value was found by comparing observations of biofouling growth from
      field studies with complementary laboratory measurements that probe the
      associated flow fields. These results suggest that aeration and other continuous
      grooming systems must exceed a wall stress of 0.01 Pa to prevent macrofouling
      accumulation.

PMID- 28868928
TI  - Xanthones isolated from Gentianella acuta and their protective effects against
      H2O2-induced myocardial cell injury.
AB  - In the present study, two new xanthones, (5'S,8'S)-1,3,5,8-tetrahydroxyxanthone(7
      >2')-1,3,5,8-tetrahydroxy-5',6',7',8'-tetrahydroxanthone (1), 5-hydroxy-3,4,6
      trimethoxyxanthone-1-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2), and eight known xanthones (3
      10) were isolated from the whole plants of Gentianella acuta. Their structures
      were identified by the spectroscopic analyses (HR-ESI-MS, and 1D and 2D NMR).
      Meanwhile, cell-protective effects against H2O2-induced H9c2 cardiomyocyte injury
      and cytotoxic activities of compounds 1-10 were also determined.

PMID- 28868929
TI  - Voices and Views of Congolese Refugee Women: A Qualitative Exploration to Inform
      Health Promotion and Reduce Inequities.
AB  - Refugees have recently been thrust into the spotlight worldwide. The strikingly
      negative rhetoric currently surrounding refugees calls for increased action from
      public health educators. In 2016, the largest proportion of refugees to the
      United States came from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This presents the
      opportunity to explore health needs as Congolese refugees resettle in the United
      States, with women taking priority due to health disparities linked to gender
      based discrimination, trauma, sexual and gender-based violence, lower literacy
      rates, and less access to learning English. Insight into experiences of Congolese
      women in the United States is critical for the proactive development of
      socioculturally relevant health promotion rather than reaction interventions once
      health inequities are exacerbated. Therefore, to better understand perceptions
      and experiences of Congolese women in Indianapolis related to health and health
      care, a community-based participatory research study with an anthropological
      approach was conducted in collaboration with a refugee resettlement agency
      utilizing photovoice and semistructured interviews. Sixteen women participated in
      six photovoice sessions and home-based interviews. Selected photos, photo
      stories, and interview transcripts were analyzed using ethnographic content
      analysis. Major themes were health care system issues, social support, and daily
      experiences of health. Findings provide needed insight into the sociocultural
      context of health for Congolese refugees in the United States for both health
      educators and resettlement agencies. Findings also revealed specific priority
      areas for culturally tailoring health education and assets on which to build when
      promoting health for this population. Additionally, lessons were learned about
      the power of an anthropological, community-based participatory research approach
      to qualitative research for promoting health equity.

PMID- 28868931
TI  - Emerging inhaled long-acting beta-2 adrenoceptor agonists for the treatment of
      COPD.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), characterized by
      persistent and partially reversible airflow obstruction, is a leading cause of
      morbidity and mortality worldwide. Long-acting inhaled bronchodilators form the
      backbone for the maintenance therapy for this disease. The ultra-long-acting
      beta2-agonists (ultra-LABAs) represent novel pharmacologic agents with
      interesting potential benefits as stand-alone therapy or in combination with
      other therapies for the treatment of COPD. Areas covered: In this review, we will
      focus newly developed ultra-LABAs, describing currently available evidence of
      their clinical effect and safety, their comparison relative to older long-acting
      beta2-agonists, and their potential niche in the maintenance treatment of COPD.
      We also provide an overview of the current landscape of available LABAs, and
      discuss the present understanding of the disease, and suggest possible future
      directions for COPD therapy. Expert opinion: Ultra-LABAs are pivotal
      bronchodilators in the maintenance therapy of COPD as monotherapy or in
      combination with other agents. Their long-acting effect permits once daily dosing
      and their improved delivery using novel devices and their safety profile
      represent an important advancement in management of this disease.

PMID- 28868932
TI  - The development and feasibility of an online aphasia group intervention and
      networking program - TeleGAIN.
AB  - PURPOSE: Aphasia group therapy offers many benefits, however people with aphasia
      report difficulty accessing groups and speech-language pathologists are faced
      with many challenges in providing aphasia group therapy. Telerehabilitation may
      offer an alternative service delivery option. An online aphasia group therapy
      program - Telerehabilitation Group Aphasia Intervention and Networking (TeleGAIN)
      - has been developed according to the guidelines of the Medical Research Council
      (MRC) framework for complex interventions. The purpose of this paper is to
      describe the development of TeleGAIN and the results of a pilot trial to
      determine feasibility and acceptability. METHOD: The development of TeleGAIN was
      informed through literature reviews in relevant topic areas, consideration of
      expert opinion and application of the social cognitive theory. TeleGAIN was then
      modelled through a feasibility pilot trial with four people with aphasia. RESULT:
      TeleGAIN appeared to be feasible and acceptable to participants and able to be
      implemented as planned. Participant satisfaction with treatment was high and
      results suggested some potential for improvements in language functioning and
      communication-related quality of life. CONCLUSION: TeleGAIN appeared to be
      feasible and acceptable, however the study highlighted issues related to
      technology, clinical implementation and participant-specific factors that should
      be addressed prior to a larger trial.

PMID- 28868930
TI  - Multicomponent synthesis of some new (1S,4S)-2,5-diazabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane
      dithiocarbamates and their in vitro anti-proliferative activity against CaSki,
      MDA-MB-231 and SK-Lu-1 tumour cells as apoptosis inducing agents without
      necrosis.
AB  - Identification of a new class of antitumor agent capable to induce apoptosis
      without triggering necrotic cell death event is challenging. The present
      communication describes the multicomponent synthesis of seven new (1S,4S)-2,5
      diazabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-dithiocarbamates and their in vitro antiproliferative
      activity on cervical cancer cell line (CaSki), breast cancer cell line (MDA
      MB231), lung cancer cell line (SK-Lu-1) and human lymphocytes. Among the
      synthesized dithiocarbamates, compound 9e displayed significant antiproliferative
      activity without inducing any necrotic cell death (both on tumour cells and
      lymphocytes) and induced apoptosis in tumor cells by the caspase dependent
      apoptotic pathway. The compound 9e also exhibited greater tumor selectivity than
      human lymphocytes. In silico ADME predictions revealed that compound 9e has the
      potential to be developed as a drug candidate. Rapid chemical modifications of
      this lead are thus highly necessary for further investigation as a drug like
      safer antitumor candidate and also to achieve compounds with better activity
      profile.

PMID- 28868933
TI  - Comparison of vacuum and non-vacuum urine tubes for urinary sediment analysis.
AB  - Urine collection systems with aspiration system for vacuum tubes are becoming
      increasingly common for urinalysis, especially for microscopic examination of the
      urine. In this study, we aimed to examine whether vacuum aspiration of the urine
      sample has any adverse effect on sediment analysis by comparing results from
      vacuum and non-vacuum urine tubes. The study included totally 213 urine samples
      obtained from inpatients and outpatients in our hospital. Urine samples were
      collected to containers with aspiration system for vacuum tubes. Each sample was
      aliquoted to both vacuum and non-vacuum urine tubes. Urinary sediment analysis
      was performed using manual microscope. Results were evaluated using chi-square
      test. Comparison of the sediment analysis results from vacuum and non-vacuum
      urine tubes showed that results were highly concordant for erythrocyte, leukocyte
      and epithelial cells (gamma values 1, 0.997, and 0.994, respectively; p < .001).
      Results were also concordant for urinary casts, crystals and yeast (kappa values
      0.815, 0.945 and 1, respectively; p < .001). The results show that in urinary
      sediment analysis, vacuum aspiration has no adverse effect on the cellular
      components except on casts.

PMID- 28868934
TI  - Business model framework applications in health care: A systematic review.
AB  - It has proven to be a challenge for health care organizations to achieve the
      Triple Aim. In the business literature, business model frameworks have been used
      to understand how organizations are aligned to achieve their goals. We conducted
      a systematic literature review with an explanatory synthesis approach to
      understand how business model frameworks have been applied in health care. We
      found a large increase in applications of business model frameworks during the
      last decade. E-health was the most common context of application. We identified
      six applications of business model frameworks: business model description,
      financial assessment, classification based on pre-defined typologies, business
      model analysis, development, and evaluation. Our synthesis suggests that the
      choice of business model framework and constituent elements should be informed by
      the intent and context of application. We see a need for harmonization in the
      choice of elements in order to increase generalizability, simplify application,
      and help organizations realize the Triple Aim.

PMID- 28868935
TI  - Risk-reduction and treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a common adverse
      effect of several chemotherapeutic agents, has a significant impact on quality of
      life and may even compromise treatment efficacy, requiring chemotherapy dose
      reduction or discontinuation. CIPN is predominantly related with sensory rather
      than motor symptoms and the most common related cytotoxic agents are platinum
      compounds, taxanes and vinca alkaloids. CIPN symptoms may resolve after treatment
      cessation, but they can also be permanent and continue for years. Areas covered:
      We present an overview of CIPN pathophysiology, clinical assessment, prevention
      and treatment identified through a Pubmed search. Expert commentary: No
      substantial progress has been made in the last few years within the field of
      prevention and/or treatment of CIPN, in spite of remarkable efforts. Continuous
      research could expand our knowledge about chemotherapeutic-specific neuropathic
      pathways and eventually lead to the conception of innovative and targeted agents
      for the prevention and/or treatment of this debilitating chemotherapy adverse
      effect.

PMID- 28868936
TI  - Perceptions of Using Sit-to-Stand Desks in a Middle School Classroom.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of sit-to-stand desks in
      a middle school classroom. Participants used sit-to-stand desks during health
      class. Momentary time sampling was used for physical activity and behavioral
      observations. Results indicate students sat 37%, stood 59%, and walked 4% of the
      time. Misbehaviors occurred 4% of the observed period. The following themes
      emerged: focus, freedom, distractions, and design. Sit-to-stand desks appear to
      encourage standing during instruction while simultaneously limiting misbehaviors.
      Students indicated some distractions but were generally positive toward desk
      implementation and suggested they supported learning behaviors. The teacher
      echoed most of the student themes.

PMID- 28868938
TI  - Exploring and explaining the "Santa Claus effect": cross-sectional study of
      jollity in 21 European countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Christmas "is the season to be jolly" but, despite many recent
      studies of happiness and wellbeing, the population distribution of jollity is
      unknown. AIMS: To assess levels of jollity across Europe, hypothesising the
      existence of a "Santa Claus effect" whereby Mr. Claus, a long-established
      resident of Scandinavia, increases jollity through his social network. METHODS:
      Cross-sectional analysis of data from 37 966 participants in the European Society
      Survey (Round 7, 2014/2015) across 21 European countries. RESULTS: Jollity has
      independent associations with satisfaction with health and income, male gender,
      younger age, and country of residence. Each one-point increase in satisfaction
      with health (on a 5-point scale) corresponds to a 0.79-point increase in jollity
      (23-point scale); each one-point increase in satisfaction with income (4-point
      scale) corresponds to a 0.76-point increase in jollity. Switzerland is the
      jolliest country in Europe. CONCLUSIONS: The jolliest European is likely to be a
      young Swiss male who is satisfied with his income and health. If there is a Santa
      Claus effect acting to increase jollity, it probably acts not just in Scandinavia
      but across Mr. Claus's broad network of contacts and admirers in many countries.

PMID- 28868937
TI  - Ameliorative effect of nicotine exposure on insulin resistance is accompanied by
      decreased cardiac glycogen synthase kinase-3 and plasminogen activator inhibitor
      1 during oral oestrogen-progestin therapy.
AB  - CONTEXT: Cigarette smoking is considered to be a major risk factor for the
      development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Oestrogen-progestin combined
      oral contraceptive (COC) use has been associated with adverse cardiometabolic
      events. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that nicotine would ameliorate insulin
      resistance (IR) that is accompanied by decreased cardiac glycogen synthase kinase
      3 (GSK-3) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). METHODS: Female Wistar
      rats received (po) low-(0.1 mg/kg) or high-nicotine (1.0 mg/kg) with or without
      COC containing 5.0 ug levonorgestrel plus 1.0 ug ethinylestradiol daily for 8
      weeks. RESULTS: Data showed that COC treatment or nicotine exposure led to IR,
      glucose deregulation, atherogenic dyslipidemia, increased corticosterone,
      aldosterone, cardiac and circulating GSK-3 values and PAI-1. However, these
      effects with the exception of corticosterone and aldosterone were ameliorated in
      COC + nicotine-exposed rats. CONCLUSION: Amelioration of IR induced by COC
      treatment is accompanied by decreased circulating PAI-1, cardiac PAI-1 and GSK-3
      instead of circulating aldosterone and corticosterone.

PMID- 28868939
TI  - Characterization of a suboptimal IVF population and clinical outcome after two
      IVF cycles.
AB  - The number of oocytes retrieved in in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles is an
      independent factor influencing pregnancy rate (PR), and optimal number of oocytes
      would be between 10 and 15. This has led to the hypothesis that the
      identification of a suboptimal group of responders beforehand (4-9 oocytes
      retrieved) would allow physicians to optimize their PR. A retrospective
      observational study counting on 735 women doing an IVF treatment in our center
      was performed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze the
      relationship between anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and antral follicle count
      (AFC), within suboptimal and optimal responders. We also analyzed the outcome of
      those patients with an estimated high probability of having an optimal response
      and the second cycles of those who did not get pregnant in the first cycle to
      observe the main significant traits that made them change from one group of
      responders to the other. Main results are that suboptimal responders account for
      almost half of our patients. Ovarian reserve markers (AMH and AFC) are
      significantly different in optimal and suboptimal responders, even when adjusted
      by age. There is a significant difference in the cumulative PR between both
      groups. Interestingly, 18.9% shifted from suboptimal to optimal response, and
      36.9% from optimal to suboptimal.

PMID- 28868940
TI  - Vigilance on use of drugs, herbal products, and food supplements during
      pregnancy: focus on fosfomycin.
AB  - PURPOSE: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is defined as a common bacterial infection
      that can lead to significant morbidity such as stricture, fistula, abscess
      formation, bacteremia, sepsis, pyelonephritis, and kidney dysfunction with a
      mortality rates reported of 1% in men and 3% in women because of development of
      pyelonephritis. UTIs are more common in women and the 33% of them require
      antimicrobials treatment for at least one episode by the age of 24 years. UTIs
      are the most common infections observed during pregnancy and up to 30% of mothers
      with not treated asymptomatic bacteriuria may develop acute pyelonephritis which
      consequently can be associated to adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. All
      bacteriuria in pregnancy should be treated with antimicrobial treatments being
      safe for both the mother and the fetus. Approximately one every four women
      receives prescription of antibiotic treatment during pregnancy, nearly 80% of all
      the prescription medications during gestation. The use of fosfomycin to treat
      cystitis in pregnancy generally considered safe and effective. Even though use on
      antibiotics for urinary tract infections is considered generally safe for the
      fetus and mothers, this opinion is not based on specific studies monitoring the
      relationship of among urinary infections, consumption of antibiotics, and
      pregnancy outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: On this basis we decided to analyze
      data from the database of our multicenter study PHYTOVIGGEST, reporting data from
      5362 pregnancies, focusing on use of fosfomycin. Principal outcomes of pregnancy
      in women treated with fosfomycin were taken into consideration. RESULTS: Women
      who have been treated with urinary antibiotics during the pregnancy were 183.
      With respect to the total number of pregnancies of our sample, these women
      represented the percentage of 3.49% (187/5362). Analysis of different outcomes of
      pregnancy such as gestational age, neonatal weight, and neonatal Apgar index did
      not show any significant difference. At the same time, analysis of data of
      pregnancy complicancies (such as urgent cesarean delivery, use of general
      anesthesia, need to induce labor) did not show any difference in women taking
      fosfomycin during pregnancy and those not taking it. CONCLUSIONS: Our data, based
      on a large number of pregnancies, confirm the safety use of fosfomycin use in
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28868942
TI  - MYC immunohistochemical and cytogenetic analysis are required for identification
      of clinically relevant aggressive B cell lymphoma subtypes.
AB  - Accurate subclassification of aggressive B cell lymphomas (ABCLs) requires
      integration of morphologic, immunohistochemical (IHC), and cytogenetic
      information. Optimal strategies have not been well defined for diagnosis of high
      grade B cell lymphoma with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements (HGBLwR) and
      double expressor lymphomas with MYC and BCL2 protein overexpression. One hundred
      and eighty seven ABCLs were investigated with complete IHC and FISH analysis.
      Morphologic and IHC analysis was insufficient to identify clinically relevant
      HGBLwR. Approximately, 75% of cases classified as HGBLwR showed conventional
      DLBCL morphologic features. Fourteen percent of MYC-rearranged cases were
      negative by IHC. Conversely, 60% of cases positive for MYC by IHC did not
      demonstrate a MYC rearrangement. Analysis by FISH without MYC and BCL2 IHC would
      miss 41 cases of double expressor lymphoma. Complete IHC and FISH analysis is
      recommended in the evaluation of all ABCLs.

PMID- 28868941
TI  - Do rhomboid flaps provide more elongation than Z-plasty flaps? An experimental
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: A Z-plasty flap is one of the most widely used geometric
      relaxation methods to release contracture bands. A rhomboid flap is a lesser used
      geometric relaxation method than a Z-plasty flap. This study aimed to determine
      the length and rate of elongation provided by rhomboid and Z-plasty flaps.
      METHODS: Bilateral contracture bands were created in the inguinal skins of rats.
      A rhomboid flap was planned for the right side of the inguinal region, and a
      single Z-plasty flap was planned for the left side. The length and rate of
      elongation provided by the two flaps were calculated after completing the
      procedures and were compared using Student's t-test. RESULTS: Experimental
      contracture bands disappeared in both the inguinal regions after creating
      rhomboid and Z-plasty flaps. The mean postoperative elongation of the contracture
      band was 1.4 +/- 0.119 and 2.47 +/- 0.281 cm using the rhomboid and Z-plasty
      flaps, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p < .001).
      CONCLUSION: Z-plasty flaps provide more elongation than rhomboid flaps and also
      appear to be better options for releasing linear contracture bands. However,
      rhomboid flaps may be used as alternatives when Z-plasty flaps cannot be used and
      in regions such as the axilla, genital region, nipple-areola, where their
      distortion effects should be avoided.

PMID- 28868943
TI  - Evaluation of pro-oxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) and its association with
      inflammatory cytokines in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
AB  - Chronic low-grade inflammation has been suggested as a key contributor of the
      pathogenesis and development of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). To investigate
      the association between oxidative stress status and inflammatory cytokines in
      follicular fluid of 21 PCOS women compared to 21 women with normal ovarian
      function who underwent intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. Concentration of IL-6,
      IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-alpha was measured using sandwich ELISA. Oxidative stress
      was examined by measuring total oxidant status (TOS), malondialdehyde (MDA),
      total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and thiol groups. PCOS women had an elevated
      concentration of MDA and TOS compared to controls. Levels of TAC and thiol groups
      were lower in PCOS compared to controls. PCOS patients had a higher concentration
      of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-alpha compared to controls. Concentration of IL-10 was
      lower in PCOS compared to controls. Significant correlations were found between
      MDA and TOS concentration with TNF-alpha and between IL-6 and MDA, IL-8 and TAC,
      IL-10 and TOS levels and also between IL-10 and TAC levels. TAC and thiol groups
      were negatively correlated with TNF-alpha. Increased oxidative stress in PCOS is
      associated with inflammation which is closely linked. Inflammation can induce
      production of inflammatory cytokines in this syndrome and directly stimulates
      excess ovarian androgen production.

PMID- 28868944
TI  - Prehypertension in early versus late pregnancy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hypertensive disorders play a significant role in maternal
      morbidity and mortality. Limited data on prehypertension (preHTN) in pregnancy
      exist. We examine the risk of adverse outcomes in patients with preHTN in early
      (<20 weeks) versus late pregnancy (>20 weeks). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Retrospective cohort study of singleton gestations between August 2013 and June
      2014. Patients were divided based on when they had the highest blood pressure in
      pregnancy, as defined per the Joint National Committee 7 (JNC-7). Groups were
      compared using chi2, Fisher's exact, Student's t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test
      with p < .05 used as significance. RESULTS: There were 125 control, 95 early
      preHTN, 136 late preHTN, and 21 chronic hypertension (CHTN). Early preHTN had an
      increased risk of pregnancy-related hypertension (PRH) (OR 12.26, p < .01) and
      composite adverse outcomes (OR 2.32, p < .01). Late preHTN had an increased risk
      for PRH (OR 4.39, p = .02) compared with normotensive and decreased risk for PRH
      (OR 0.26, p = .02), and composite adverse outcomes (OR 0.379, p = .04) compared
      with CHTN. Compared with late preHTN, early preHTN had more PRH (OR 2.85, p <
      .01), and composite adverse outcomes (OR 1.68, p = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Early
      prehypertension increases the risk of adverse obstetrical outcomes. Other than an
      increased risk of PRH, patients with late prehypertension have outcomes similar
      to normotensive women.

PMID- 28868945
TI  - Social phobia, depression and eating disorders during middle adolescence:
      longitudinal associations and treatment seeking.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Longitudinal associations between social phobia (SP), depression and
      eating disorders (EDs), and the impact of antecedent SP and depression on
      subsequent treatment seeking for EDs have rarely been explored in prospective
      adolescent population studies. AIM: We aimed to examine these associations in a
      large-scale follow-up study among middle adolescents. METHOD: We surveyed 3278
      Finnish adolescents with a mean age of 15 years for these disorders. Two years
      later, 2070 were reached and again surveyed for psychopathology and treatment
      seeking. Longitudinal associations between the self-reported disorders and
      treatment-seeking patterns for self-acknowledged ED symptoms were examined in
      multivariate analyses, controlling for SP/depression comorbidity and relevant
      socioeconomic covariates. RESULTS: Self-reported anorexia nervosa (AN) at age 15
      years predicted self-reported depression at age 17 years. Furthermore, self
      reported SP at age 15 years predicted not seeking treatment for bulimia nervosa
      (BN) symptoms, while self-reported depression at age 15 years predicted not
      seeking treatment for AN symptoms during the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS:
      Adolescents with AN should be monitored for subsequent depression. Barriers
      caused by SP to help seeking for BN, and by depression for AN, should be
      acknowledged by healthcare professionals who encounter socially anxious and
      depressive adolescents, especially when they present with eating problems.

PMID- 28868947
TI  - Structural and discriminant validity of the tripartite model of mental well
      being: differential relationships with the big five traits.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The tripartite model of mental well-being offers a comprehensive
      account of the nature of mental well-being. According to this model, mental well
      being is composed of three distinct yet related dimensions of subjective
      (hedonic), psychological and social well-being. AIMS: The present study
      investigated the structural and discriminant validity of the three well-being
      factors. METHODS: A large American sample (N = 2732) was used. Data were analyzed
      using both Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation
      Modeling (ESEM). RESULTS: It was found that the well-being variables loaded on
      three separate factors, indicating that the tripartite model was consistent with
      the data. Discriminant validity was further evidenced by moderate correlations
      between the latent factors, and differential relationships with the Big Five
      personality traits. ESEM proved to be a more appropriate approach for analyzing
      the data given the presence of cross-loadings. CONCLUSIONS: These results support
      adequate structural and discriminant validity for the dimensions of the
      tripartite model.

PMID- 28868946
TI  - Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms and risk of polycystic ovary syndrome in
      South Indian women.
AB  - Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder of
      reproductive age women. Emerging evidence suggests that Vitamin D Receptor (VDR)
      might be a causal factor for characteristics associated with PCOS such as obesity
      and type 2 diabetes. Present study investigated association between VDR gene BsmI
      A/G (rs1544410), ApaI A/C (rs7975232) and TaqI T/C (rs731236) single nucleotide
      polymorphisms and PCOS risk in South Indian women. Genotyping of VDR gene SNPs
      was carried out in PCOS patients (n = 95) and controls (n = 130) by PCR-RFLP
      method and confirmed by sequencing analysis. Haplotype frequencies for multiple
      loci and the standardized disequilibrium coefficient (D') for pairwise linkage
      disequilibrium (LD) were assessed by Haploview software. Results showed
      significantly increased frequencies of BsmI G/G (p = .0197), ApaI C/C (p = .048),
      TaqI C/C (p = .044) genotypes and BsmI G (p = .0181), ApaI C (p = .0092), TaqI C
      (p = .0066) alleles in patients compared to controls. In addition, the frequency
      of the 'BsmI G, ApaI C, TaqI C' haplotype was also significantly elevated in
      patients (p = .0087). In conclusion, the VDR gene BsmI A/G ApaI A/C TaqI T/C and
      haplotype may constitute an inheritable risk factor for PCOS in South Indian
      women.

PMID- 28868948
TI  - The effects of baicalein or baicalin on the colloidal stability of ZnO
      nanoparticles (NPs) and toxicity of NPs to Caco-2 cells.
AB  - Recent study suggested that the presence of phytochemicals in food could interact
      with nanoparticles (NPs) and consequently reduce the toxicity of NPs, which has
      been attributed to the antioxidant properties of phytochemicals. In this study,
      we investigated the interactions between ZnO NPs and two flavonoids baicalein
      (Ba) or baicalin (Bn) as well as the influence of the interactions on the
      toxicity of ZnO NPs to Caco-2 cells. The antioxidant properties of Ba and Bn were
      confirmed by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2'-azino-bis(3
      ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) assays, with Ba being stronger.
      However, the presence of Ba or Bn did not significantly affect cytotoxicity,
      intracellular superoxide or release of inflammatory cytokines of Caco-2 cells
      after ZnO NP exposure. When Ba was present, the cellular viability of Caco-2
      cells after exposure to ZnO NPs was slightly increased, associated with a modest
      decrease of intracellular Zn ions, but these effects were not statistically
      different. Ba was more effective than Bn at changing the hydrodynamic sizes, Zeta
      potential and UV-Vis spectra of ZnO NPs, which indicated that Ba might increase
      the colloidal stability of NPs. Taken together, the results of the present study
      indicated that the anti-oxidative phytochemical Ba might only modestly protected
      Caco-2 cells from the exposure to ZnO NPs associated with an insignificant
      reduction of the accumulation of intracellular Zn ions. These results also
      indicated that when assessing the combined effects of NPs and phytochemicals to
      cells lining gastrointestinal tract, it might be necessary to evaluate the
      changes of colloidal stability of NPs altered by phytochemicals.

PMID- 28868949
TI  - Cytokine profile in gingival crevicular fluid and plasma of patients with
      aggressive periodontitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the content of cytokines in gingival
      crevicular fluid (GCF) as well as in plasma of Sudanese patients with aggressive
      periodontitis (AgP) and healthy controls (HC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nineteen
      AgP patients and 19 HC were included. The mean probing pocket depth and clinical
      attachment level of the GCF sampled sites in patients were both >=5 mm. The GCF
      and plasma levels of 27 cytokines were determined using 27-multiplex fluorescent
      bead-based immunoassays. Ratios were calculated among cytokines of the T-helper
      cell subsets Th1 and Th2. Descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U-test and
      Spearman's rho rank correlation coefficient analysis were used. RESULTS:
      Interferon-gamma was the only cytokine found in significantly lower levels in GCF
      of patients compared with HC. Levels of interleukin (IL)-10, IL-13, IL-1Ra,
      monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), regulated on activation normal T-cell
      expressed and secreted (RANTES), granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF),
      and granulocyte-macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF) were significantly lower in plasma of AgP
      compared with HC. The ratios of Th1:Th2 in GCF and Treg:Th17 in plasma were
      significantly lower in AgP. CONCLUSIONS: The lower levels of cytokines detected
      systemically in plasma of AgP patients may have an impact on the immune response.
      The lower ratio of Th1:Th2 cytokines in GCF samples of AgP patients suggests a
      role for Th2 at the local site of disease.

PMID- 28868951
TI  - Experiences of flourishing and languishing during the first year at university.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The theoretical framework utilised in the current study included
      Keyes's mental health continuum, as well as the dimensions of emotional,
      psychological and social well-being. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore
      students experiences of flourishing and languishing during their first year at
      university. METHODS: A nominal group technique was utilised in order to obtain
      data regarding the experiences of 22 first-year students and was thereafter
      analysed by means of thematic analysis. RESULTS: Various dimensions of emotional,
      psychological and social well-being were highlighted as essential in experiencing
      either flourishing or languishing during students first year at university.
      Although students experienced both flourishing and languishing, it is evident
      that students are more vulnerable to languishing during the beginning of their
      university career. Facing the big unknown, being confronted with practical
      difficulties, finding academics overwhelming, experiencing social isolation and
      being a victim of crime were prominent. Students however, learn to flourish when
      they achieve academic mastery, experience personal growth and independence and
      secure a social support system. CONCLUSIONS: The first year is seen as
      fundamental to student success at university, therefore the promotion of mental
      health during this year can be valuable in ensuring flourishing experiences
      during students' academic journey.

PMID- 28868950
TI  - Comparison of serum inflammatory cytokine concentrations in familial
      Mediterranean fever and rheumatoid arthritis patients.

PMID- 28868952
TI  - An fMRI study of the effects on normal language areas when acupuncturing the
      Tongli (HT5) and Xuanzhong (GB39) acupoints.
AB  - Objective Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis of the effects of
      acupuncturing the Tongli (HT5) and Tongli (HT5)-Xuanzhong (GB39) acupoints on the
      normal language areas with a view to providing a theoretical basis for using
      acupuncture to treat patients with aphasia. Methods This study enrolled healthy
      volunteers. The following acupoints were stimulated: right Tongli (HT5), right
      Tongli (HT5)-Xuanzhong (GB39), right Tongli (HT5) sham acupuncture, left Tongli
      (HT5), and left Tongli (HT5)-Xuanzhong (GB39) acupoints. Acupuncture stimulation
      was delivered whilst fMRI scanning of the brain was undertaken. Results Ten
      healthy volunteers (five males) were included in this study (mean age 44.5 +/-
      2.5 years; range 40-55 years). Based on the statistical analyses, only
      acupuncturing the right Tongli (HT5) acupoint resulted in activation of multiple
      regions of the bilateral cerebral hemisphere that were closely related to the
      language regions. The right Tongli (HT5) stimulation had a laterality index of
      0.0952; with the activated voxels on the left side language-related areas being
      greater than those on the right side. Conclusions Acupuncturing the right Tongli
      (HT5) acupoint results in activation of the bilateral language-related areas, so
      this acupoint might be useful for the acupuncture treatment of aphasia caused by
      cerebral infarction.

PMID- 28868954
TI  - Mutational frequencies of CD79B and MYD88 vary greatly between primary testicular
      DLBCL and gastrointestinal DLBCL.

PMID- 28868953
TI  - Preparation, characterization and in vitro evaluation of epsilon-polylysine
      loaded polymer blend microparticles for potential pancreatic cancer therapy.
AB  - Peptide active ingredients show great promise regarding the treatment of various
      health-endangering diseases. It is reported that L-lysine inhibits the
      proliferation of several tumour lines in vitro and in vivo. However, proteins and
      peptide drugs possess certain disadvantages such as in vivo instability and short
      biological half-life. On the grounds that drug delivery systems can overcome a
      wide spectrum of bioactive compounds issues, a biopolymeric blend-based
      microparticulated system capable of delivering epsilon-polylysine (PLL) was
      developed. PLL-loaded poly((L)Lactic acid)/poly(D,L-Lactide)-co-poly(ethylene
      glycol)-based microparticles (PLL-PB-MPs) were prepared and fully characterised
      exhibiting a narrow size distribution (1.2 +/- 0.12 um), high loading efficiency
      (81%) and improved thermal stability (Td from 250  degrees C to 291  degrees C).
      The cytotoxicity and antiproliferative effect of PLL-PB-MPs in pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma cell lines BxPC3 and MIA PaCa-2 were confirmed. Due to their
      physicochemical and biopharmaceutical properties, PB-MPs constitute a promising
      carrier to deliver bioactive peptides.

PMID- 28868955
TI  - Neurogenetics of Drosophila circadian clock: expect the unexpected.
AB  - Daily biological rhythms (i.e. circadian) are a fundamental part of animal
      behavior. Numerous reports have shown disruptions of the biological clock in
      neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. In the latter case, only recently we have
      gained insight into the molecular mechanisms. After 45 years of intense study of
      the circadian rhtythms, we find surprising similarities among species on the
      molecular clock that governs biological rhythms. Indeed, Drosophila is one of the
      most widely used models in the study of chronobiology. Recent studies in the
      fruit fly have revealed unpredicted roles for the clock machinery in different
      aspects of behavior and physiology. Not only the central pacemaker cells do have
      non-classical circadian functions but also circadian genes work in other cells
      and tissues different from central clock neurons. In this review, we summarize
      these new evidences. We also recapitulate the most basic features of Drosophila
      circadian clock, including recent data about the inputs and outputs that connect
      the central pacemaker with other regions of the brain. Finally, we discuss the
      advantages and drawbacks of using natural versus laboratory conditions.

PMID- 28868956
TI  - Intracytoplasmic filamentous inclusions and IGHV rearrangements in a patient with
      chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

PMID- 28868957
TI  - Development of the SOSS-D: a scale to measure stigma of occupational stress and
      burnout in medical doctors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Occupational stress and burnout are highly prevalent among doctors,
      with stigma identified as a barrier to help-seeking in this population. However,
      there has been a lack of a standardised tool to measure stigma of occupational
      stress and burnout among doctors. AIMS: The aim of the current study was to
      develop and investigate the psychometric properties of the Stigma of Occupational
      Stress Scale for Doctors (SOSS-D). METHOD: An online questionnaire package was
      completed by 200 (38 male, 162 female) doctors. Participants completed measures
      relating to help-seeking intentions, general stigma, and the SOSS-D. RESULTS:
      Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to refine the scale to an 11-item version.
      The analysis revealed a three-factor structure, which explained 63.4% of
      variance. Factors related to perceived structural stigma, personal stigma and
      perceived other stigma. The internal consistency, convergent, discriminant and
      criterion validity of the scale were supported. CONCLUSIONS: The SOSS-D may
      assist educators and mental health professionals in measuring and assessing the
      efficacy of interventions designed to reduce stigma. As such, it is anticipated
      that the SOSS-D will be a useful instrument for understanding and addressing
      stigma of occupational stress and burnout among medical doctors, to improve help
      seeking behaviours in this population.

PMID- 28868959
TI  - Association between psychological and self-assessed health status and smartphone
      overuse among Korean college students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies suggest that subjective health status is closely
      related to various behavioral addictions, but there are few studies on smartphone
      overuse. AIM: This study investigated the associations between psychological and
      subjective health conditions and smartphone overuse in Korean college students.
      METHOD: A total of 608 college students participated in this study. We
      investigated the perceived psychological factors, such as stress, depression
      symptoms and suicidal ideation. Overall health status was evaluated with self
      assessed items, including usual health condition and EuroQol-visual analog scales
      (EQ-VAS) score. Smartphone overuse was evaluated as the Korean Smartphone
      Addiction Proneness Scale. RESULTS: Students with psychotic anxiety (i.e. stress,
      depression and suicidal ideation) showed significant associations with smartphone
      overuse, indicating an approximately twofold increased risk compared to those
      without psychological anxiety (all p < 0.05). Students who reported feeling that
      their usual health is not good were more likely to overuse smartphones than those
      who are in good health (OR = 1.98; 95% CI = 1.22-3.21). The EQ-VAS score, which
      indicates current self-assessed health status, also showed a similar result with
      general health status (OR = 2.14; 95% CI = 1.14-4.02). CONCLUSION: Negative
      conditions in self-perceived emotional or overall health condition are associated
      with the increased likelihood of smartphone overuse in Korean college students.

PMID- 28868958
TI  - Selective in vitro anti-melanoma activity of ursolic and oleanolic acids.
AB  - Products of natural origin have become important agents in the treatment of
      cancer, and the active principles of natural sources could be used in combination
      with chemotherapeutic agents to increase their effects and to minimize their
      toxicity. Oleanolic (OA) and ursolic (UA) acids are intensely studied for their
      promising anticancer potential. The aim of this study was focused on the in vitro
      toxicological effects induced by UA and OA human mesenchymal stem cells and on
      melanoma, one of the most frequent cancers whose incidence is increasing every
      year. The two compounds were tested for their cytotoxic, cell cycle arrest and
      pro-apoptotic effects on melanoma cells (A375 and B164A5) and mesenchymal stem
      cells. UA exerted a cytotoxic effect in a dose-dependent manner on melanoma
      cells, while OA's activity has been shown to be low or moderate. Both compounds
      produced alterations of the cell cycle, arresting cells in the G0/G1 phase.
      Furthermore, UA induced significant apoptosis through the bcl-2 genes family
      pathway, with the decrease of the bcl-2 gene expression. The two compounds
      exerted selective effects on melanoma cells with no effects on human mesenchymal
      stem cells. The presented results reveal the anticancer potential of UA on
      melanoma cells, with no detectable toxicity on the mesenchymal stem cells.

PMID- 28868960
TI  - E-Pain Reporter: A Digital Pain and Analgesic Diary for Home Hospice Care.
AB  - Informal hospice caregivers play a key role in managing patients' pain at home,
      but lack of adherence to doctor-prescribed analgesic regimens and medication
      errors are significant barriers to truly effective pain management. A digital
      pain diary may improve caregiver management of pain at home; however, most
      digital pain tools available today were developed without input from patients or
      caregivers. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to develop a digital pain
      application (1) for hospice caregivers to record patient pain and analgesic use
      and (2) for nurses to monitor administration of analgesics by caregivers. Using
      advisory group methods, nurse case managers (n = 6), and informal caregivers (n =
      3) helped us to convert a paper-based pain and analgesic diary into a digital
      format-the e-PAIN Reporter-and to refine the application. The e-PAIN Reporter
      provides information on patient pain assessment and pain management and reports
      to nurses in real time. Further testing is now needed to determine (1) the
      feasibility of using the e-PAIN Reporter and (2) its effectiveness in improving
      pain management for hospice patients.

PMID- 28868962
TI  - Prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium and other sexually transmitted infections
      causing urethritis among high-risk heterosexual male patients in Estonia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of sexually transmitted
      infections (STI, including Mycoplasma genitalium, Chlamydia trachomatis,
      Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis) among high-risk heterosexual male
      patients and to clarify their potency to cause complaints and inflammation.
      METHODS: The study group included 825 men (18.0-49.5 y) consulting andrologist at
      Tartu University Hospital (Estonia) due to subjectively perceived risk of STI.
      Patients completed STI risk behaviour questionnaire. First voided urine was
      analysed for white blood cells and STIs. RESULTS: In total 193 (23.4%) patients
      were positive for one or multiple STI. The prevalence of C. trachomatis, M.
      genitalium, N. gonorrhoeae, T. vaginalis and combined STI was 14.3%, 4.4%, 2.7%,
      0.7% and 1.3%, respectively. N. gonorrhoeae had the highest potency to generate
      inflammatory reaction in first voided urine (100%) followed by C. trachomatis
      (72.0%), M. genitalium (63.9%) and T. vaginalis (33.3%). N. gonorrhoeae and T.
      vaginalis caused the highest mean number of complaints while half of T. vaginalis
      cases and nearly fifth of M. genitalium and C. trachomatis cases were
      asymptomatic. CONCLUSIONS: C. trachomatis has the highest prevalence among
      Estonian high-risk men but M. genitalium holds an important second place.
      Prevalence of combined STIs is low. N. gonorrhoeae has the highest potency to
      generate urethral inflammation followed by C. trachomatis and M. genitalium. The
      highest number of complaints is also associated with N. gonorrhoeae while half of
      T. vaginalis cases and nearly a fifth of M. genitalium and C. trachomatis cases
      are asymptomatic.

PMID- 28868963
TI  - Prolonged hospitalization, primary refractory disease, performance status and age
      are prognostic factors for survival in patients with diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma and transformed indolent lymphoma undergoing autologous stem cell
      transplantation.
AB  - In patients with relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), high-dose
      chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is standard
      treatment. Here, we aim to identify factors associated with survival in patients
      undergoing ASCT. A total of 369 patients with relapsed DLBCL undergoing ASCT from
      2000 to 2012 were identified in the Danish National Lymphoma Registry.
      Information on clinical and socioeconomic factors was obtained from medical
      records and national registries. Factors associated with survival were assessed
      using a Cox's proportional hazards model. Median overall survival was 6.8 years,
      median progression-free survival was 2.6 years, and treatment-related mortality
      at Day 100 was 6%. Factors associated with a significant adverse impact on
      survival were age, primary refractory disease, prolonged hospitalization during
      salvage treatment, and performance status >0 prior to conditioning therapy.
      Reconsideration of ASCT for those patients may be required in order to select the
      right patients for this toxic procedure.

PMID- 28868961
TI  - Serotonin-gated inward currents are three times more frequent in rat hairy skin
      sensory afferents than in those innervating the skeletal muscle.
AB  - Tight whole-cell patch clamp was performed in 191 DiI (1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3'3'
      tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate) retrogradely labeled rat sensory
      afferents from skin shoulders ( n = 93) and biceps femoris muscles ( n = 98). 5
      HT-gated inward currents were evoked with 50-uM serotonin (5-HT; 5
      hydroxytryptamine), and their frequency and current densities were compared
      between skin and skeletal muscle sensory afferents. To evaluate if 5-HT-gated
      inward currents coexist with other ligand-gated currents, the skin and skeletal
      muscle sensory afferents were also sequentially exposed to external solution at
      pH 6.8, ATP (50 uM), and capsaicin (1 uM). 5-HT evoked inward currents in 72% (67
      of 93) of hairy skin sensory afferents and in only 24% (24 of 98) of skeletal
      muscle sensory afferents, and this difference was statistically significant ( p <
      0.0000, chi-square test). The current densities obtained in hairy skin and
      skeletal muscle sensory afferents were not significantly different. They were 
      45.8 +/- 7.7 and -32.4 +/- 10.5 pA/pF, respectively (mean +/- SEM, p < 0.30734).
      These results indicate that 5-HT-gated inward currents are three times more
      frequently evoked in small- to medium-sized sensory afferents (25-40 um)
      innervating the hairy skin than on those innervating the skeletal muscle. When
      cells were gathered in two clusters, the difference was four times larger in the
      small-sized cluster (25-32 um) and two times larger in the medium-sized cluster
      (33-40 um). The results can be explained if the superficial somatic (cutaneous)
      nociceptive system is more exposed than the deep somatic nociceptive system
      (musculoskeletal) to physical and chemical stimuli inducing 5-HT-mediated
      inflammatory pain.

PMID- 28868965
TI  - The effects of UDP-sugars, UDP and Mg2+on uridine diphosphate
      glucuronosyltransferase activity in human liver microsomes.
AB  - 1. The UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) enzymes are important in the metabolism,
      elimination and detoxification of many xenobiotics and endogenous compounds. As
      extrapolation of in vitro kinetics of drug metabolizing enzymes to predict in
      vivo clearance rates becomes more sophisticated, it is important to ensure proper
      optimization of enzyme assays. The luminal location of the enzyme active site
      (i.e. latency), and the complexity of UGT kinetics, results in consistent under
      prediction of clearance of drugs metabolized by glucuronidation. 2. We examined
      inhibition of UGT activity in alamethicin-disrupted human liver microsomes (HLM)
      by uridine diphosphate (UDP), a UGT reaction product, and its reversal by Mg2+
      ions. We also determined whether UDP-sugars other than the co-substrate UDP
      glucuronic acid (UDP-GlcA) affected glucuronidation. 3. We show that other UDP
      sugars do not significantly influence glucuronidation. We also demonstrate that
      UDP inhibits HLM UGT activity and that this is reversed by including Mg2+ in the
      assay. The Mg2+ effect can be offset using EDTA, and is dependent on the
      concentration of UDP-GlcA in the assay. 4. We propose that formation of a Mg2+
      UDP complex prevents UDP from affecting the enzyme. Our results suggest that 5 mM
      UDP-GlcA and 10 mM Mg2+ be used for UGT assays in fully disrupted HLM.

PMID- 28868964
TI  - Poly-epsilon-caprolactone/chitosan nanoparticles provide strong adjuvant effect
      for hepatitis B antigen.
AB  - AIM: This work aims to investigate the adjuvant effect of poly-epsilon
      caprolactone/chitosan nanoparticles (NPs) for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)
      and the plasmid DNA encoding HBsAg (pRC/CMV-HBs). METHODS: Both antigens were
      adsorbed onto preformed NPs. Vaccination studies were performed in C57BL/6 mice.
      Transfection efficiency was investigated in A549 cell line. RESULTS: HBsAg
      adsorbed NPs generated strong anti-HBsAg IgG titers, mainly of IgG1 isotype, and
      induced antigen-specific IFN-gamma and IL-17 secretion by spleen cells. The
      addition of pRC/CMV-HBs to the HBsAg-adsorbed NPs inhibited IL-17 secretion but
      had minor effect on IFN-gamma levels. Lastly, pRC/CMV-HBs-loaded NPs generated a
      weak serum antibody response. CONCLUSION: Poly-epsilon-caprolactone/chitosan NPs
      provide a strong humoral adjuvant effect for HBsAg and induce a Th1/Th17-mediated
      cellular immune responses worth explore for hepatitis B virus vaccination.

PMID- 28868966
TI  - Core-shell hybrid nanostructured delivery platforms for advanced RNAi
      therapeutics.
AB  - AIM: Study was aimed at combining the advantages of nonclassical RNAi-triggering
      oligonucleotides with nanoparticle-based advanced delivery platforms for
      developing efficient therapeutic systems. MATERIALS & METHODS: We utilized a core
      shell hybrid nanostructured platform for effectively delivering nonclassical RNAi
      triggers, namely long double stranded interfering RNA and tripodal interfering
      RNA. Core-shell structure was prepared by stably anchoring thiol-modified
      cationic polymer on the surface of growing crystal gold (Au) seeds, and the
      resulting particles were further complexed with nonclassical RNAi candidates via
      electrostatic interactions. RESULTS: Our studies clearly demonstrated that the
      unique combination of nonclassical RNAi structures with an advanced core-shell
      hybrid nanostructured platform is an effective module for advanced RNAi-based
      therapeutic development.

PMID- 28868967
TI  - Optimization of toluene removal over W-doped TiO2 nano-photocatalyst under
      visible light irradiation.
AB  - This study outlines the optimization of photocatalytic degradation of toluene by
      W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles under visible light irradiation. Experiments were
      carried out based on the central composite design (CCD) methodology. W-TiO2
      nanoparticles were synthesized with various tungsten contents at different
      calcination temperatures by the sol-gel method. The nanoparticles'
      characteristics were determined using appropriate techniques such as field
      emission scanning electron microscopy, particle size analysis, X-ray diffraction
      and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The effect of different operational
      conditions of coating mass, initial toluene concentration, and exposure time on
      the toluene removal efficiency was investigated. Result showed that tungsten has
      a fundamental role in improving the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 under visible
      light, as well as improving its photoactivity under UV irradiation by decreasing
      the rate of electron/hole charge recombination. Analysis of the obtained data on
      toluene removal with a CCD approach illustrated that the quadratic model can
      effectively predict the toluene removal with coefficient of determination of R2 =
      0.862. Tungsten content and exposure time affect the toluene removal efficiency
      more than other factors. Results showed that maximum toluene removal efficiency
      slightly depends on the initial concentration of toluene. At the initial toluene
      concentration of 4000 ppm, the optimum values of the calcination temperature,
      tungsten content, coating mass, and exposure time were 500 degrees C, 0.52 wt%,
      11.7 g/m2, and 8 h, respectively, with 59% removal of toluene.

PMID- 28868968
TI  - Can regenerative medicine and nanotechnology combine to heal wounds? The search
      for the ideal wound dressing.
AB  - Skin is the outermost covering of the human body and at the same time the largest
      organ comprising 15% of body weight and 2 m2 surface area. Skin plays a key role
      as a barrier against the outer environment depending on its thickness, color and
      structure, which differ from one site to another. The four major types of
      problematic wounds include ulcers (diabetic, venous, pressure) and burn wounds.
      Developing novel dressings helps us to improve the wound healing process in
      difficult patients. Recent advances in regenerative medicine and nanotechnology
      are revolutionizing the field of wound healing. Antimicrobial activity, exogenous
      cell therapy, growth factor delivery, biodegradable and biocompatible matrix
      construction, all play a role in hi-tech dressing design. In the present review,
      we discuss how the principles of regenerative medicine and nanotechnology can be
      combined in innovative wound dressings.

PMID- 28868969
TI  - The impact of physical activity and sex differences on intraindividual
      variability in inhibitory performance in older adults.
AB  - It is well-known that processing speed and executive functions decline with
      advancing age. However, physical activity (PA) has a positive impact on cognitive
      performances in aging, specifically for inhibition. Less is known concerning
      intraindividual variability (iiV) in reaction times. This study aims to
      investigate the influence of PA and sex differences on iiV in inhibitory
      performance during aging. Healthy adults were divided into active and sedentary
      groups according to PA level. To analyse iiV in reaction times, individual mean,
      standard deviation and the ex-Gaussian parameters were considered. An interaction
      between activity level and sex was revealed, sedentary females being slower and
      more variable than sedentary men. No sex differences were found in the active
      groups. These results indicate that the negative impact of sedentariness on
      cognitive performance in older age is stronger for females. The present findings
      underline the need to consider sex differences in active aging approaches.

PMID- 28868972
TI  - Realizing the therapeutic potential of rare earth elements in designing
      nanoparticles to target and treat glioblastoma.
AB  - The prognosis of brain cancer glioblastoma (GBM) is poor, and despite intense
      research, there have been no significant improvements within the last decade.
      This stasis implicates the need for more novel therapeutic investigation. One
      such option is the use of nanoparticles (NPs), which can be beneficial due to
      their ability to penetrate the brain, overcome the blood-brain barrier and take
      advantage of the enhanced permeation and retention effect of GBM to improve
      specificity. Rare earth elements possess a number of interesting natural
      properties due to their unique electronic configuration, which may prove
      therapeutically advantageous in an NP formulation. The underexplored exciting
      potential for rare earth elements to augment the therapeutic potential of NPs in
      GBM treatment is discussed in this review.

PMID- 28868971
TI  - Mucoadhesive solid lipid microparticles for controlled release of a
      corticosteroid in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment.
AB  - AIM: Therapeutic efficacy of pulmonary diseases is often limited and drug
      delivery systems offer new solutions to clinical problems. Solid lipid
      microparticles (SLMs) are suggested as systems for the delivery of therapeutics
      to the lung as, because of their size, they are able to deposit into secondary
      bronchi. MATERIALS & METHODS: Here, we describe two novel different SLMs using
      chitosan and alginate such as mucoadhesive polymers and we also studied their
      biocompatibility and their effectiveness compared with the free drug in
      controlling senescence and inflammatory processes in cigarette smoke extracts.
      RESULTS: Data reported show that fluticasone propionate (FP)-loaded SLMs are more
      effective than FP alone in controlling oxidative stress. CONCLUSION: The
      therapeutic approach using FP-loaded microparticles could be a promising strategy
      for the treatment of the chronic inflammatory pulmonary diseases.

PMID- 28868973
TI  - Key compounds contributing to the fruity aroma characterization in Japanese raw
      soy sauce.
AB  - In order to clarify the aroma characteristics of raw soy sauce (RS), the
      application of gas chromatography-olfactometry analysis to the aroma concentrate
      from a RS revealed 76 aroma peaks, of which 25 peaks showed fruit-like aromas.
      Furthermore, the head space aromatic compounds of RS were analyzed with 32 peaks
      detected. Ethyl 2-methylpropanoate, ethyl butanoate, ethyl 2-methylbutanoate,
      ethyl 3-methylbutanoate, and ethyl 4-methylpentanoate were detected with higher
      flavor dilution factor (FD factor) than other aroma compounds by aroma extract
      dilution analysis. Quantitative analysis suggested that these compounds were
      common in all RS samples tested in this study, and were present at higher
      concentrations than their perception thresholds. The concentrations and the FD
      factors of these compounds were significantly decreased during the heating of the
      RS. Fruitiness is one of the key aroma characteristics of RS and the ethyl esters
      identified in this study are the key components contributing to this distinct
      aroma.

PMID- 28868970
TI  - The use of nanoparticulates to treat breast cancer.
AB  - Breast cancer is a major ongoing public health issue among women in both
      developing and developed countries. Significant progress has been made to improve
      the breast cancer treatment in the past decades. However, the current clinical
      approaches are invasive, of low specificity and can generate severe side effects.
      As a rapidly developing field, nanotechnology brings promising opportunities to
      human cancer diagnosis and treatment. The use of nanoparticulate-based platforms
      overcomes biological barriers and allows prolonged blood circulation time,
      simultaneous tumor targeting and enhanced accumulation of drugs in tumors.
      Currently available and clinically applicable innovative nanoparticulate-based
      systems for breast cancer nanotherapies are discussed in this review.

PMID- 28868975
TI  - Attachment representations of school-aged Korean children: comparing family
      drawing and narrative assessments in a clinical and a community sample.
AB  - This study explored the links between two different methods of assessing
      children's attachment representations, a narrative task (the Manchester
      Attachment Story Task, MCAST) and a drawing task (the Family Drawing Task, FDT),
      in a clinical sample of 51 and a community sample of 45 Korean children aged 7-9.
      In both samples, attachment classifications derived from the MCAST were related
      to attachment classifications and global ratings derived from the FDT. In
      addition, rates of insecure attachment determined by MCAST classifications and by
      FDT global scales indicative of insecure attachment were higher in the clinical
      sample than the community sample. Variations in attachment patterns for these
      Korean samples are discussed in relation to Korean child-rearing customs. Results
      of this study contribute to the cross-cultural validation of both of these
      instruments, as well as extending our understanding of patterns of attachment in
      Korea from infancy to middle childhood.

PMID- 28868974
TI  - Brain Changes Following Executive Control Training in Older Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While older adults are able to attend to goal-relevant information,
      the capacity to ignore irrelevant or distracting information declines with
      advancing age. This decline in selective attention has been associated with poor
      modulation of brain activity in sensory cortices by anterior brain regions
      implicated in cognitive control. OBJECTIVE: Here we investigated whether
      participation in an executive control training program would result in improved
      selective attention and associated functional brain changes in a sample of
      healthy older adults (N = 24, age 60-85 years). METHODS: Participants were
      enrolled in a goal-oriented attentional self-regulation (GOALS) program (n = 11)
      or a brain health education workshop as an active control condition (n = 13). All
      participants performed a working memory task requiring attention to or
      suppression of visual stimuli based on goal-relevance during functional magnetic
      resonance imaging. RESULTS: We observed a pattern of enhanced activity in right
      frontal, parietal and temporal brain regions from pre- to posttraining in the
      GOALS intervention group, which predicted the selectivity of subsequent memory
      for goal-relevant stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Executive control training in older
      adults alters functional activity in brain regions associated with attentional
      control, and selectively predicts behavioral outcome.

PMID- 28868976
TI  - New insight into the fouling behavior of hydrophobic and hydrophilic
      polypropylene membranes in integrated membrane bioreactors.
AB  - To investigate the effect of hydrophobic and hydrophilic polypropylene hollow
      fiber membranes (PPHFMs) applied in membrane bioreactors (MBR), the fouling
      behaviors of membrane surfaces and pores have been tested. The structural and
      morphological features on the membrane surface were characterized using
      attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field
      emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscope, energy dispersive
      X-ray spectroscopy and laser granularity distribution analysis. The results
      showed that significantly more polysaccharide, protein and inorganic ingredients
      were accumulated in the original membrane compared to the hydrophilic membrane.
      Furthermore, it was found that the pore size influenced the particle distribution
      and accumulation, such that smaller pore size membranes tended to contain fewer
      pollutants and a narrow size distribution. Under a constant flux of 11.5 L/m2 h,
      the transmembrane pressure (TMP) varied narrowly between 38 and 53 KPa. Alongside
      this, a relatively hydrophilic membrane (PP-g-AA) showed the characteristics of
      lower TMP in comparison to hydrophobic membranes (PP). Indeed, the flux recovery
      was 30% higher than those of the original PPHFM. This investigation broadens our
      understanding of membrane modifying and fouling behavior in integrated MBRs.

PMID- 28868977
TI  - Family members' and best friend's smoking influence on adolescent smoking differs
      between Eastern Finland and Russian Karelia.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to find out whether family members' (mother,
      father, siblings) and best friend's smoking is related to 9th grade pupils' daily
      smoking in Eastern Finland and in the Pitkaranta district, in the Republic of
      Karelia, Russia, and whether these relations have changed in these two culturally
      very different neighbourhood countries from 1995 to 2013. METHODS: Data comprised
      four cross-sectional studies in all schools of the Pitkaranta region and selected
      schools in Eastern Finland. In data analyses, structural equation modelling
      techniques were used. RESULTS: Our findings showed that best friend's smoking had
      the strongest influence on adolescents' smoking in both countries and study years
      (p < .01). The relations among family members were highly different between
      Pitkaranta and Eastern Finland, particularly in 2013. CONCLUSIONS: Results
      suggest that health promotion in schools should take into account cultural
      impacts and pay special attention to pupils who have family members and friends
      who smoke.

PMID- 28868978
TI  - Biotransformation of chromium (VI) in liquid effluents by resistant bacteria
      isolated from the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, in Argentina.
AB  - The aims of this investigation were to evaluate the bacterial resistance to zinc,
      copper, chromium (VI) and lead in surface water streams from Buenos Aires,
      Argentina; to select a chromium-resistant strain able to remove the metal in
      batch process and to evaluate the potential of this strain to remove chromium
      (VI) in liquid effluents. Bacterial resistance to the metals was evaluated by
      determining the minimal inhibitory concentration. The kinetic of chromium (VI)
      removal by one of the resistant strains was studied in nutrient broth with 50 and
      100 mg L-1 of the metal, as well as an effluent from an electroplating industry.
      High resistance to all the metals under study was observed in the bacterial
      communities of the Matanza-Riachuelo basin. A chromium-resistant strain was
      isolated and identified as Microbacterium sp. It was able to remove 50 and 100 mg
      L-1 of Cr (VI) in 36 and 66 h respectively, with efficiency higher than 99%.
      Experiments with liquid effluents showed the ability of the strain to transform
      150 mg L-1 of the metal in 84 h, with efficiency higher than 99%. These results
      show the potential of this native strain for the treatment of liquid effluents
      that contain chromium (VI).

PMID- 28868979
TI  - Ethical public health issues for the use of informal PrEP.
AB  - This article presents the phenomenon of the use of informal pre-exposure
      prophylaxis (PrEP), also known colloquially as 'wild PrEP'. The related ethical
      public health issues of the use of informal PrEP are discussed. From the approach
      of an ethical framework of risk reduction in public health, the main objective of
      this article is to encourage health-related practices and policies that do not
      stop the informal access to PrEP, but rather promote the wellbeing of users by
      providing them with the necessary knowledge and resources related to PrEP and HIV
      prevention (i.e. getting regularly tested for HIV if one is to take PrEP). As
      each country has its own policies with respect to PrEP and access to healthcare
      services, this article does not explore specific locations but rather highlights
      different global ethical key points on how to approach the use of informal PrEP
      with the goal of promoting HIV prevention among individuals at high risk for HIV
      infection.

PMID- 28868980
TI  - Nanoparticle-based strategies for cancer immunotherapy and immunodiagnostics.
AB  - Although recent successes in clinical trials are strengthening research focused
      on cancer immunology, the poor immunogenicity and off-target side effects of
      immunotherapeutics remain major challenges in translating these promising
      approaches to clinically feasible therapies in the treatment of a large range of
      tumors. Nanotechnology offers target-based approaches, which have shown
      significant improvements in the rapidly advancing field of cancer immunotherapy.
      Here, we first discuss the chemical and physical features of nanoparticulate
      systems that can be tuned to address the anticancer immune response, and then
      review recent, key examples of the exploited strategies, ranging from
      nanovaccines to NPs revising the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment, up to
      immunotherapeutic multimodal NPs. Finally, the paper concludes by identifying the
      promising and outstanding challenges the field of emerging nanotechnologies is
      facing for cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28868981
TI  - Spectroscopic and molecular docking approaches for the investigation of molecular
      interactions between herbicide sulfosulfuron and bovine serum albumin.

PMID- 28868982
TI  - Professors Amiram Eldor and Yaakov Matzner. In Memory of Two Dear Friends and
      Colleagues.

PMID- 28868983
TI  - Zebrafish: from genes and neurons to circuits, behavior and disease.

PMID- 28868984
TI  - The New Kidney Donor Allocation System and Implications for Anesthesiologists.
AB  - Given potential disparity and limited allocation of deceased donor kidneys for
      transplantation, a new federal kidney allocation system was implemented in 2014.
      Donor organ function and estimated recipient survival in this system has
      implications for perioperative management of kidney transplant recipients. Early
      analysis suggests that many of the anticipated goals are being attained. For
      anesthesiologists, implications of increased dialysis duration and burdens of end
      stage renal disease include increased cardiopulmonary disease, challenging fluid,
      hemodynamic management, and central vein access. With no recent evidence to guide
      anesthesia care within this new system, we describe the kidney allocation system,
      summarize initial data, and briefly review organ systems of interest to
      anesthesiologists. As additional invasive and echocardiographic monitoring may be
      indicated, one consideration may be development of a dedicated anesthesiology
      team experienced in management and monitoring of complex patients, in a similar
      manner as has been done for liver transplant recipients.

PMID- 28868985
TI  - Use of two commercial caprine arthritis-encephalitis immunoenzymatic assays for
      screening of arthritic goats.
AB  - Roughly one-fourth of goats infected with small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV)
      develop caprine arthritis-encephalitis (CAE). We compared the profile of antibody
      response to surface glycoprotein (SU), and combined transmembrane glycoprotein
      and capsid protein (TM/CA) in SRLV-infected arthritic and asymptomatic goats, and
      determined the ability of 2 commercial ELISAs to distinguish between arthritic
      and asymptomatic goats. We used sera from 312 SRLV-seropositive dairy goats in a
      whole-virus ELISA; 222 were collected from arthritic goats and 90 from apparently
      healthy goats. Sera were screened with a competitive inhibition ELISA based on SU
      antigen (SU-ELISA) and an indirect ELISA based on TM and CA antigens (TM/CA
      ELISA). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were prepared for both
      ELISAs, and areas under the ROC curves (AUC) were compared. The proportion of
      goats with antibody response stronger to SU antigen than to TM/CA antigen was
      significantly higher among arthritic than asymptomatic goats (58.1% vs. 28.9%; p
      < 0.001). Antibody response to SU antigen was a good predictor of the arthritic
      form of CAE: AUC for SU-ELISA was 89.7% (95% CI: 85.2%, 94.2%), compared to 59.3%
      (95% CI: 51.9%, 66.8%) for TM/CA-ELISA ( p < 0.001). With the cutoff set at
      percentage of inhibition of 56%, SU-ELISA had sensitivity of 86.9% (95% CI:
      81.9%, 90.7%) and specificity of 84.4% (95% CI: 75.6%, 90.5%) in discriminating
      between arthritic and asymptomatic goats.

PMID- 28868986
TI  - Evaluation of design alternatives for sewing scissors with respect to hand
      performance, discomfort and usability.
AB  - The effects of three re-designed models of sewing scissors on hand performance
      measures, discomfort and usability were investigated, and the results were
      compared with those of conventional scissors. Adjustments were made to the
      scissors handle with emphasis on more neutral wrist postures (bent handle - model
      A), correction of the thumb's position and movements (model B) and reducing
      hand/finger discomfort (model C) while working with the tool. The results showed
      some improvements in hand performance, muscular effort, usability and discomfort
      with model B compared to the conventional model. Better hand performance and
      usability and lower discomfort were recorded with model C compared to the
      conventional model. The results suggest that the correction of the thumb's
      position and movement (model B) or even reduced hand/finger discomfort (model C)
      are perhaps more important considerations in scissors design than improved wrist
      posture (model A) for improving users' performance and usability of the tool.

PMID- 28868987
TI  - TMJ symptoms reduce chewing amplitude and velocity, and increase variability.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The null hypothesis was that mandibular amplitude, velocity, and
      variability during gum chewing are not altered in subjects with temporomandibular
      joint (TMJ) internal derangements (ID). METHODS: Thirty symptomatic subjects with
      confirmed ID consented to chew gum on their left and right sides while being
      tracked by an incisor-point jaw tracker. A gender and age matched control group
      (p > 0.67) volunteered to be likewise recorded. Student's t-test compared the ID
      group's mean values to the control group. RESULTS: The control group opened wider
      (p < 0.05) and chewed faster (p < 0.05) than the ID group. The mean cycle time of
      the ID group (0.929 s) was longer than the control group (0.751 s; p < 0.05) and
      more variable (p < 0.05). DISCUSSION: The ID group exhibited reduced amplitude
      and velocity but increased variability during chewing. The null hypothesis was
      rejected. Further study of adaptation to ID by patients should be pursued.

PMID- 28868988
TI  - Effects of resistance-guided high intensity interval functional electrical
      stimulation cycling on an individual with paraplegia: A case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) are more than
      twice as likely to develop and die from cardio-metabolic diseases as compared to
      able-bodied. This increased risk is thought to be in part due to accelerated
      muscle atrophy and reduced blood flow through sublesional arteries. Thus,
      strategies to recondition paralyzed skeletal muscles may help reduce cardio
      metabolic disease risk. The purpose of this case report was to examine the impact
      of a novel, resistance-guided, high intensity interval training functional
      electrical stimulation (RG-HIIT-FES) cycling program on cardio-metabolic health
      in people with chronic SCI. CASE DESCRIPTION: One adult female with chronic T10
      SCI. INTERVENTION: A novel RG-HIIT-FES cycling program three times per week for
      10 weeks. Measures of body composition and cardio-metabolic health (vascular
      endothelial function of the brachial artery via flow-mediated dilation) and HbA1c
      blood values were performed at baseline and following completion of the RG-HIIT
      FES program. OUTCOMES: Total body lean mass and legs lean mass increased 2.8% and
      5.3% respectively while vastus lateralis thickness increased by 59.5%. Reactive
      hyperemia and flow mediated dilation change in brachial artery diameter increased
      by 11.1% and 147.7% following the program, respectively. HbA1c level changed
      minimally (5 to 4.9%). DISCUSSION: This case report suggests that RG-HIIT-FES
      cycling was an effective strategy to improve lean mass, and systemic vascular
      endothelial health in an individual with chronic SCI.

PMID- 28868989
TI  - Ergonomics investigation for orientation of the handles of wood routers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Improperly designed hand tools not only expose workers to potential
      health risks but also hamper their productivity. This study tries to improve the
      ergonomics of wood routing tasks, suggesting better handle orientations for hand
      held wood routers. METHODS: Seven different handle combinations were tested over
      two routing tasks (beading and dado) with regard to perceived discomfort,
      electromyography (EMG) of biceps brachii and extensor carpi radialis brevis and
      hand-arm vibrations (HAV). RESULTS: Handles with 30 degrees  and 60 degrees 
      inclinations were found more comfortable than previous 90 degrees  handle
      inclinations for routing tasks. Perceived discomfort in the dado task was found
      to be significantly higher than in the beading task (p < 0.001); EMG activity
      also supported this observation. However, EMG data showed no significant
      difference for the different handles used in the study. No worthwhile reduction
      was obtained in HAV levels for the modified wooden handles compared to initial
      plastic handles. Relevance to industry. The ergonomic intervention in wood
      routers described in this article will contribute to the existing knowledge of
      ergonomics of handle design and will aid the designers/engineers to design such
      tool handles that may reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal
      disorders/hand-arm vibration syndrome in workers using wood routers.

PMID- 28868991
TI  - Sequence-dependent dynamical instability of the human prion protein: a
      comparative simulation study.
AB  - The present study aimed to explore the most probable regions of the human prion
      protein backbone for which the initial steps of conformational transitions as a
      result of intrinsic and extrinsic perturbing factors on the protein structure can
      be assigned. A total of 0.3-MUs molecular dynamics simulations on several analog
      structures of the protein have been performed. To mimic the impact of the
      extrinsic and intrinsic destructive parameters on the dynamical characteristics
      of the protein, mild acidic conditions and R208H mutation have been simulated.
      The findings indicated that distribution of conformational flexibilities along
      the protein chain was almost independent of the induced perturbing factors, and
      was mostly centralized on certain distinct parts of the structure comprising
      residues 132-145 and 187-203. Analyses also revealed that the segment comprising
      residues 187-203 may be considered as a peptide sequence, possessing high
      potential to start the initial steps of conformational rearrangements due to the
      induced physicochemical alterations. Sequence alignment and molecular dynamics
      data also revealed that segment 178-203 prefers to accommodate in extended
      structures rather than alpha-helices. Region 178-203 may be considered as a
      peptide switch capable of initiating the conformational transitions due to the
      introduced modifications and perturbing parameters.

PMID- 28868990
TI  - The effects of whole body vibration on pulse wave velocity in men with chronic
      spinal cord injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A pilot study to evaluate the therapeutic potential of 40 weeks of
      passive standing with whole body vibration (PS-WBV) on central and peripheral
      arterial stiffness among men with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). METHODS:
      Consenting participants were pre-screened to ensure safe participation. Fifteen
      individuals with chronic SCI were enrolled to participate in PS-WBV sessions
      three times per week for 40 weeks on a modified WAVE platform custom-fitted with
      an EASYStand 5000. Knee angle was set at 160 degrees , and vibration parameters
      were 45Hz frequency and 0.7mm displacement. Each 45-minute session of PS-WBV
      training was intermittent (60 seconds on and 120 seconds off). Aortic and leg
      pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured at baseline, mid-point (20 weeks) and exit
      (40 weeks). RESULTS: Nine males (age 41+/-11 years, American Spinal Injury
      Association Impairment Scale A-D, neurological level of injury T4-T10, years post
      injury 12+/-8 years) completed the intervention. Aortic PWV was collected on n=7
      at exit, and leg PWV was collected on n=6 at exit. No changes over time were
      found for either aortic PWV (P = 0.46) or leg PWV (P = 0.54). One possible study
      related serious adverse event occurred during study intervention: the development
      of a grade III pressure sore on the right proximal anterior shin (n=1).
      CONCLUSION: Forty weeks of PS-WBV in adults with SCI did not result in an
      observable change in arterial stiffness.

PMID- 28868992
TI  - Validity of Self-Reported Birth Weight: Results from a Norwegian Twin Sample.
AB  - The association between birth weight and later life outcomes is of considerable
      interest in life-course epidemiology. Research often relies on self-reported
      measures of birth weight, and its validity is consequently of importance. We
      assessed agreement between self-reported birth weight and official birth records
      for Norwegian twins born 1967-1974. The intraclass correlation between self
      reported birth weight and register-based birth weight was 0.91 in our final
      sample of 363 twins. It could be expected that 95% of self-reported birth-weight
      values will deviate from official records within a maximum of +446 grams and a
      minimum of -478 grams - around a mean deviation of 16 grams. Self-reported birth
      weight had a sensitivity of 0.78-0.89 and a positive predictive value of 0.59
      0.85, and an overall weighted kappa of 0.71. We further assessed agreement by
      conducting two linear regression models where we respectively regressed self
      reported birth weight and register-based birth weight on adult body mass index, a
      known association. The two models were not significantly different; however,
      there were different levels of significance in parameter estimates that warrant
      some caution in using self-reported birth weight. Reliability of self-reported
      birth weight was also assessed, based on self-reports in another sample of twins
      born 1935-1960 who had reported their birth weight in two questionnaires 34 years
      apart. The intraclass correlation was 0.86, which indicates a high degree of
      reliability. In conclusion, self-reported birth weight, depending on context and
      age when birth weight was reported, can be cautiously used.

PMID- 28868993
TI  - STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT THROUGHOUT HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: AN EXAMPLE FROM
      PALLIATIVE CARE.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Internationally, funders require stakeholder involvement throughout
      health technology assessment (HTA). We report successes, challenges, and lessons
      learned from extensive stakeholder involvement throughout a palliative care case
      study that demonstrates new concepts and methods for HTA. METHODS: A 5-step
      "INTEGRATE-HTA Model" developed within the INTEGRATE-HTA project guided the case
      study. Using convenience or purposive sampling or directly / indirectly
      identifying and approaching individuals / groups, stakeholders participated in
      qualitative research or consultation meetings. During scoping, 132 stakeholders,
      aged >= 18 years in seven countries (England, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands,
      Norway, Lithuania, and Poland), highlighted key issues in palliative care that
      assisted identification of the intervention and comparator. Subsequently
      stakeholders in four countries participated in face-face, telephone and / or
      video Skype meetings to inform evidence collection and / or review assessment
      results. An applicability assessment to identify contextual and implementation
      barriers and enablers for the case study findings involved twelve professionals
      in the three countries. Finally, thirteen stakeholders participated in a mock
      decision-making meeting in England. RESULTS: Views about the best methods of
      stakeholder involvement vary internationally. Stakeholders make valuable
      contributions in all stages of HTA; assisting decision making about
      interventions, comparators, research questions; providing evidence and insights
      into findings, gap analyses and applicability assessments. Key challenges exist
      regarding inclusivity, time, and resource use. CONCLUSION: Stakeholder
      involvement is feasible and worthwhile throughout HTA, sometimes providing unique
      insights. Various methods can be used to include stakeholders, although
      challenges exist. Recognition of stakeholder expertise and further guidance about
      stakeholder consultation methods is needed.

PMID- 28868994
TI  - Fine-temporal forecasting of outbreak probability and severity: Ross River virus
      in Western Australia.
AB  - Health warnings of mosquito-borne disease risk require forecasts that are
      accurate at fine-temporal resolutions (weekly scales); however, most forecasting
      is coarse (monthly). We use environmental and Ross River virus (RRV) surveillance
      to predict weekly outbreak probabilities and incidence spanning tropical, semi
      arid, and Mediterranean regions of Western Australia (1991-2014). Hurdle and
      linear models were used to predict outbreak probabilities and incidence
      respectively, using time-lagged environmental variables. Forecast accuracy was
      assessed by model fit and cross-validation. Residual RRV notification data were
      also examined against mitigation expenditure for one site, Mandurah 2007-2014.
      Models were predictive of RRV activity, except at one site (Capel). Minimum
      temperature was an important predictor of RRV outbreaks and incidence at all
      predicted sites. Precipitation was more likely to cause outbreaks and greater
      incidence among tropical and semi-arid sites. While variable, mitigation
      expenditure coincided positively with increased RRV incidence (r 2 = 0.21). Our
      research demonstrates capacity to accurately predict mosquito-borne disease
      outbreaks and incidence at fine-temporal resolutions. We apply our findings,
      developing a user-friendly tool enabling managers to easily adopt this research
      to forecast region-specific RRV outbreaks and incidence. Approaches here may be
      of value to fine-scale forecasting of RRV in other areas of Australia, and other
      mosquito-borne diseases.

PMID- 28868996
TI  - Comparison of the Luminex NxTAG respiratory pathogen panel and a multiplex in
      house real-time PCR panel for the detection of respiratory viruses in symptomatic
      patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the Luminex NxTAG respiratory pathogen panel (NxTAG RPP) for
      the detection of respiratory viruses in clinical samples from patients with the
      symptoms of respiratory infection. METHODOLOGY: The NxTAG RPP was compared to an
      in-house multiplex real-time PCR panel (LDT) for the detection of respiratory
      viruses in 314 clinical samples from patients with the symptoms of respiratory
      infection. RESULTS: Thirty-one samples were negative in both tests and 193
      samples contained a single virus that was detected in both tests. Polymicrobial
      infections were detected in 74 samples, with 268 samples overall having
      concordant results in both assays, and there were a total of 51 discordant
      results in 44 samples. Two samples were invalid in the NxTAG RPP assay and were
      excluded from the final analysis. The overall agreement between the NxTAG RPP and
      LDT was very high, as indicated by the Kappa coefficients, which ranged from 0.85
      for metapneumovirus up to 0.96 for RSV A, and the overall percentage agreement
      values of 96.2 % for enterovirus/rhinovirus and 100 % for influenza A, influenza
      B, PIV 4 and RSV B. CONCLUSION: The NxTAG RPP is a sensitive and specific test
      for the detection of respiratory viruses and the high sample throughput and low
      hands-on time make the NxTAG RPP assay suitable for screening clinical samples
      for respiratory pathogens.

PMID- 28868995
TI  - Central line-associated bloodstream infections in Australian ICUs: evaluating
      modifiable and non-modifiable risks in Victorian healthcare facilities.
AB  - Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in intensive care units
      (ICUs) result in poor clinical outcomes and increased costs. Although frequently
      regarded as preventable, infection risk may be influenced by non-modifiable
      factors. The objectives of this study were to evaluate organisational factors
      associated with CLABSI in Victorian ICUs to determine the nature and relative
      contribution of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Data captured by the
      Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society regarding ICU-admitted patients
      and resources were linked to CLABSI surveillance data collated by the Victorian
      Healthcare Associated Infection Surveillance System between 1 January 2010 and 31
      December 2013. Accepted CLABSI surveillance methods were applied and
      hospital/patient characteristics were classified as 'modifiable' and 'non
      modifiable', enabling longitudinal Poisson regression modelling of CLABSI risk.
      In total, 26 ICUs were studied. Annual CLABSI rates were 1.72, 1.37, 1.00 and
      0.93/1000 CVC days for 2010-2013. Of non-modifiable factors, the number of non
      invasively ventilated patients standardised to total ICU bed days was found to be
      independently associated with infection (RR 1.07; 95% CI 1.01-1.13; P = 0.030).
      Modelling of modifiable risk factors demonstrated the existence of a policy for
      mandatory ultrasound guidance for central venous catheter (CVC) localisation (RR
      0.51; 95% CI 0.37-0.70; P < 0.001) and increased number of sessional specialist
      full-time equivalents (RR 0.52; 95% CI 0.29-0.93; P = 0.027) to be independently
      associated with protection against infection. Modifiable factors associated with
      reduced CLABSI risk include ultrasound guidance for CVC localisation and
      increased availability of sessional medical specialists.

PMID- 28868997
TI  - DNA microarray assay and real-time PCR as useful tools for studying the
      respiratory tract Mycoplasma populations in young dairy calves.
AB  - PURPOSE: With more than 120 species, the genus Mycoplasma is one of the largest
      taxa in the class Mollicutes, a group of micro-organisms that are characterized
      by apparent simplicity and to which important animal pathogens belong.
      Mycoplasmabovis is the most frequently identified pathogenic Mycoplasma in
      cattle; however, the prevalence of other Mycoplasma species living in calves'
      airways is poorly understood. The aim of this work was to characterize the
      respiratory tract mycoplasma populations in calves on one of the largest dairy
      farms in Italy using a real-time PCR assay and a DNA microarray assay.
      METHODOLOGY: A total of 49 nasal swabs and 49 trans-tracheal aspirations from non
      vaccinated veal calves were analysed. Genomic DNA was extracted from the samples
      and then tested using a real-time PCR targeting the oppD gene of M. bovis and a
      DNA microarray that was able to identify more than 70 Mycoplasma species.
      RESULTS: Forty-two out of 49 calves tested positive for Mycoplasma spp. (85.7 %).
      None of the samples tested positive for M. bovis. A majority (73.5 %) of the 98
      samples tested positive for M. dispar, while 8 samples tested positive for M.
      bovirhinis (8.2 %). CONCLUSION: Our results expand our knowledge regarding the
      diversity of Mycoplasma populations in the respiratory airways of very young veal
      calves and add data regarding M. bovis prevalence in the Italian cattle
      population. However, the importance of these species in the respiratory diseases
      of calves still remains to be determined.

PMID- 28868998
TI  - Conexibacter stalactiti sp. nov., isolated from stalactites in a lava cave and
      emended description of the genus Conexibacter.
AB  - A Gram-positive, strictly aerobic, non-sporulating, motile, rod-shaped bacterium,
      designated YC2-25T, was isolated from pieces of stalactites collected from a lava
      cave in Jeju, Republic of Korea. Colonies were circular, smooth, convex and cream
      to light yellow in colour. A neighbour-joining tree based on 16S rRNA gene
      sequences indicated that the organism belonged to the genus Conexibacter with the
      closest relatives being Conexibacter woesei (99.0 % sequence similarity) and
      Conexibacter arvalis (98.8 %). Meso-Diaminopimelic acid was the diagnostic
      diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The predominant menaquinone was MK
      7(H4). The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, two
      phospholipids and four lipids. The predominant fatty acid was C18 : 1omega9c. The
      DNA G+C content was 70.3 %. On the basis of distant phenotypic characteristics
      and DNA-DNA hybridization data, strain YC2-25T (=KCTC 39840T=DSM 103719T)
      represents a novel species of the genus Conexibacter, for which the name
      Conexibacter stalactiti sp. nov. is proposed.

PMID- 28868999
TI  - Phylogenetically distant clade of Nostoc-like taxa with the description of
      Aliinostoc gen. nov. and Aliinostoc morphoplasticum sp. nov.
AB  - Nostoc is a complex and tough genus to differentiate, and its morphological
      plasticity makes it taxonomically complicated. Its cryptic diversity and almost
      no distinguishable morphological characteristics make this genus incredibly
      heterogeneous to evaluate on taxonomic scales. The strain NOS, isolated from a
      eutrophic water body, is being described as a new genus Aliinostoc with the
      strain showing motile hormogonia with gas vesicles as an atypical feature, which
      is currently considered as the diacritical feature of the genus but should be
      subjected to critical evaluation in the near future. The phylogenetic placement
      of Aliinostoc along with some other related sequences of Nostoc clearly separated
      this clade from Nostoc sensu stricto with high bootstrap support and robust
      topology in all the methods tested, thus providing strong proof of the taxa being
      representative of a new genus which morphologically appears to be Nostoc-like.
      Subsequent phylogenetic assessment using the rbcL, psbA, rpoC1 and tufA genes was
      done with the aim of facilitating future multi-locus studies on the proposed
      genus for better taxonomic clarity and resolution. Folding of the 16S-23S
      internal transcribed spacer region and subsequent comparisons with members of the
      genera Nostoc, Anabaena, Aulosira, Cylindrospermum, Sphaerospermopsis,
      Raphidiopsis, Desmonostoc and Mojavia gave entirely new secondary structures for
      the D1-D1' and box-B helix. Clear and separate clustering from Nostoc sensu
      stricto supports the establishment of Aliinostoc gen. nov. with the type species
      being Aliinostoc morphoplasticum sp. nov. in accordance with the International
      Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants.

PMID- 28869000
TI  - Similarities in intracellular transport of plant viral movement proteins BMB2 and
      TGB3.
AB  - The cell-to-cell transport of many plant viruses through plasmodesmata requires
      viral movement proteins (MPs) encoded by a 'triple gene block' (TGB) and termed
      TGB1, TGB2 and TGB3. TGB3 is a small integral membrane protein that contains
      subcellular targeting signals and directs both TGB2 and the helicase domain
      containing TGB1 protein to plasmodesmata-associated structures. Recently, we
      described a 'binary movement block' (BMB) coding for two MPs, BMB1 and BMB2. The
      BMB2 protein associates with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes, accumulates at
      plasmodesmata-associated membrane bodies and directs the BMB1 helicase to these
      structures. TGB3 transport to cell peripheral bodies was previously shown to
      bypass the secretory pathway and involve a non-conventional mechanism. Here, we
      provide evidence that the intracellular transport of both poa semilatent virus
      TGB3 and hibiscus green spot virus BMB2 to plasmodesmata-associated sites can
      occur via lateral translocation along the ER membranes. Agrobacterium-mediated
      transient co-expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves revealed that green
      fluorescent protein (GFP)-fused actin-binding domains of Arabidopsis fimbrin
      (ABD2-GFP) and mouse talin (TAL-GFP) inhibited the subcellular targeting of TGB3
      and BMB2 to plasmodesmata-associated bodies, which resulted in TGB3 and BMB2
      accumulation in the cytoplasm in association with aberrant ER structures.
      Inhibition of COPII budding complex formation by the expression of a dominant
      negative mutant of the small GTPase Sar1 had no detectable effect on BMB2
      subcellular targeting, which therefore could occur without exit from the ER in
      COPII transport vesicles. Collectively, the presented data support the current
      view that plant viral MPs exploit the ER:actin network for their intracellular
      transport.

PMID- 28869001
TI  - m6A RNA methylation, a new hallmark in virus-host interactions.
AB  - The role of m6A methylation of RNA has remained elusive for decades, but recent
      technological advances are now allowing the mapping of the m6A methylation
      landscape at nucleotide level. This has spurred an explosion in our understanding
      of the role played by RNA epigenetics in RNA biology. m6A modifications have been
      tied to almost every aspect of the mRNA life cycle and it is now clear that RNA
      virus genomes are subject to m6A methylation. These modifications play various
      roles in the viral replication cycle. This review will summarize recent
      breakthroughs concerning m6A RNA modification and their implications for cellular
      and viral RNAs.

PMID- 28869002
TI  - Mycobacterium eburneum sp. nov., a non-chromogenic, fast-growing strain isolated
      from sputum.
AB  - A polyphasic study was undertaken to establish the taxonomic position of a non
      chromogenic, rapidly growing Mycobacterium strain that had been isolated from
      sputum. The strain, CECT 8775T, has chemotaxonomic and cultural properties
      consistent with its classification in the genus Mycobacterium and was
      distinguished from the type strains of closely related mycobacterial species,
      notably from Mycobacterium paraense DSM 46749T, its nearest phylogenetic
      neighbour, based on 16S rRNA, hsp65 and rpoB gene sequence data. These organisms
      were also distinguished by a broad range of chemotaxonomic and phenotypic
      features and by a digital DNA-DNA relatedness value of 22.8 %. Consequently, the
      strain is considered to represent a novel species of Mycobacterium for which the
      name Mycobacterium eburneum sp. nov is proposed; the type strain is X82T (CECT
      8775T=DSM 44358T).

PMID- 28869003
TI  - Pleomorphobacterium xiamenense Yin et al. 2013 is a later heterotypic synonym of
      Oceanicella actignis Albuquerque et al. 2012.
AB  - Pleomorphobacterium xiamenense CLWT was compared with Oceanicella actignis PRQ
      67T to examine the taxonomic relationship between the two organisms. The 16S rRNA
      gene sequence comparison showed that the two strains had 99.9 % sequence
      similarity. Phylogenetic analysis showed the two strains formed an independent
      tight cluster, distinctly branching from the closely related species in the
      family Rhodobacteraceae. Whole genomic comparison between the two strains
      revealed a digital DNA-DNA hybridization estimate of 88.4 % and average
      nucleotide identity of 98.8 %, strongly supporting that the two strains
      represented a single species. In addition, neither strain displayed any striking
      difference in biochemical characteristics, fatty acid composition, and polar
      lipid profile. According to priority, Pleomorphobacterium xiamenense is
      reclassified as a later heterotypic synonym of Oceanicella actignis based on the
      phylogenetic relationship, whole genomic comparison, fatty acid composition and
      polar lipid profile, and other phenotypic and biochemical properties.

PMID- 28869004
TI  - Performance assessment of urine flow cytometry (UFC) to screen urines to reflex
      to culture in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed hosts.
AB  - PURPOSE: Urine flow cytometry (UFC) is an automated method to quantify bacterial
      and white blood cell (WBC) counts. We aimed to determine whether a threshold for
      these parameters can be set to use UFC as a sensitive screen to predict which
      urine samples will subsequently grow in culture. METHODOLOGY: Urines submitted to
      our microbiology laboratory at a tertiary care centre from 22 July 2015-17
      February 2016 underwent UFC (Sysmex UF-1000i) analysis, regular urinalysis and
      urine culture. Positive urine cultures were defined as growth >=104 c.f.u. ml-1
      of organisms associated with urinary tract infections. The correlation of UFC
      bacterial and WBC counts with urine culture was assessed using receiver operating
      characteristics curves. The sensitivity (SN), specificity (SP), negative
      predictive values (NPVs), positive predictive values (PPVs) and false negative
      rate (FNR) were calculated at various thresholds in immunocompetent and
      immunosuppressed patients. RESULTS: A total of 15 046 urine specimens were
      submitted, of which 14 908 were analysable in the study. The average time to UFC
      result from receipt in the laboratory was 0.76 h (+/-1.04). The test performance
      at a set threshold of UFC bacteria >=20 or WBC >5 was: SN=96.0 %, SP=39.2 %,
      PPV=47.0 %, NPV=94.5 % and FNR=4.0 %. This threshold eliminates 26 % of urine
      cultures. Immunosuppressed hosts had a lower sensitivity of 90.6 % and a higher
      FNR of 9.4 %. CONCLUSIONS: UFC is a rapid and sensitive method to screen out
      urine samples that will subsequently be negative and to reflex urines to culture
      that will subsequently grow. UFC results are available within 1 h from receipt
      and enable the elimination of culture when the set threshold is not met.

PMID- 28869007
TI  - [Kronisk infektion efter traumatisk sar].

PMID- 28869005
TI  - Human interactome of the influenza B virus NS1 protein.
AB  - NS1 proteins of influenza A and B viruses share limited sequence homology, yet
      both are potent manipulators of host cell processes, particularly interferon
      (IFN) induction. Although many cellular partners are reported for A/NS1, only a
      few (e.g. PKR and ISG15) have been identified for B/NS1. Here, affinity
      purification and mass spectrometry were used to expand the known host interactome
      of B/NS1. We identified 22 human proteins as new putative targets for B/NS1,
      validating several, including DHX9, ILF3, YBX1 and HNRNPC. Consistent with two
      RNA-binding domains in B/NS1, many of the identified factors bind RNA and some
      interact with B/NS1 in an RNA-dependent manner. Functional characterization of
      several B/NS1 interactors identified SNRNP200 as a potential positive regulator
      of host IFN responses, while ILF3 exhibited dual roles in both IFN induction and
      influenza B virus replication. These data provide a resource for future
      investigations into the mechanisms underpinning host cell modulation by influenza
      B virus NS1.

PMID- 28869006
TI  - Amisulpride augmentation in clozapine-unresponsive schizophrenia (AMICUS): a
      double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised trial of clinical effectiveness and
      cost-effectiveness.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When treatment-refractory schizophrenia shows an insufficient
      response to a trial of clozapine, clinicians commonly add a second antipsychotic,
      despite the lack of robust evidence to justify this practice. OBJECTIVES: The
      main objectives of the study were to establish the clinical effectiveness and
      cost-effectiveness of augmentation of clozapine medication with a second
      antipsychotic, amisulpride, for the management of treatment-resistant
      schizophrenia. DESIGN: The study was a multicentre, double-blind, individually
      randomised, placebo-controlled trial with follow-up at 12 weeks. SETTINGS: The
      study was set in NHS multidisciplinary teams in adult psychiatry. PARTICIPANTS:
      Eligible participants were people aged 18-65 years with treatment-resistant
      schizophrenia unresponsive, at a criterion level of persistent symptom severity
      and impaired social function, to an adequate trial of clozapine monotherapy.
      INTERVENTIONS: Interventions comprised clozapine augmentation over 12 weeks with
      amisulpride or placebo. Participants received 400 mg of amisulpride or two
      matching placebo capsules for the first 4 weeks, after which there was a clinical
      option to titrate the dosage of amisulpride up to 800 mg or four matching placebo
      capsules for the remaining 8 weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome
      measure was the proportion of 'responders', using a criterion response threshold
      of a 20% reduction in total score on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.
      RESULTS: A total of 68 participants were randomised. Compared with the
      participants assigned to placebo, those receiving amisulpride had a greater
      chance of being a responder by the 12-week follow-up (odds ratio 1.17, 95%
      confidence interval 0.40 to 3.42) and a greater improvement in negative symptoms,
      although neither finding had been present at 6-week follow-up and neither was
      statistically significant. Amisulpride was associated with a greater side effect
      burden, including cardiac side effects. Economic analyses indicated that
      amisulpride augmentation has the potential to be cost-effective in the short term
      [net saving of between L329 and L2011; no difference in quality-adjusted life
      years (QALYs)] and possibly in the longer term. LIMITATIONS: The trial under
      recruited and, therefore, the power of statistical analysis to detect significant
      differences between the active and placebo groups was limited. The economic
      analyses indicated high uncertainty because of the short duration and relatively
      small number of participants. CONCLUSIONS: The risk-benefit of amisulpride
      augmentation of clozapine for schizophrenia that has shown an insufficient
      response to a trial of clozapine monotherapy is worthy of further investigation
      in larger studies. The size and extent of the side effect burden identified for
      the amisulpride-clozapine combination may partly reflect the comprehensive
      assessment of side effects in this study. The design of future trials of such a
      treatment strategy should take into account that a clinical response may be not
      be evident within the 4- to 6-week follow-up period usually considered adequate
      in studies of antipsychotic treatment of acute psychotic episodes. Economic
      evaluation indicated the need for larger, longer-term studies to address
      uncertainty about the extent of savings because of amisulpride and impact on
      QALYs. The extent and nature of the side effect burden identified for the
      amisulpride-clozapine combination has implications for the nature and frequency
      of safety and tolerability monitoring of clozapine augmentation with a second
      antipsychotic in both clinical and research settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: EudraCT
      number 2010-018963-40 and Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN68824876. FUNDING: This
      project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health
      Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health
      Technology Assessment; Vol. 21, No. 49. See the NIHR Journals Library website for
      further project information.

PMID- 28869008
TI  - [Faecal microbiota transplantation for the treatment of bowel disease].
AB  - Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the transferral of faeces from a
      healthy donor to a patient with a disease linked to disturbances in the gut
      microbiota. The treatment has been implemented at several hospitals in Denmark,
      and banks with frozen donor stool material have been established. The effect of
      FMT for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection is well-documented. FMT cannot
      be recommended for routine clinical use for inflammatory bowel disease and
      irritable bowel syndrome because of lack of data from clinical trials.

PMID- 28869009
TI  - [Hemifacial atrophy treated with lipofilling].
AB  - Autologous lipofilling is a relatively new method of reconstructing congenital
      and acquired soft tissue defects. However, long-term results are unpredictable
      due to varying survival rate of the fat graft, and additional treatments are
      often required. We present a case of a 53-year-old woman who had a right
      hemifacial soft tissue deficit and received lipofilling twice with no
      complications and satisfactory cosmetic results. We consider conventional
      lipofilling to be safe and viable for facial soft tissue augmentation.

PMID- 28869010
TI  - [Simultaneous intestinal tuberculosis and adenocarcinoma].
AB  - Intestinal tuberculosis is a rare diagnosis, which may often be mistaken for mb.
      Crohn or cancer. We present a case of a 57-year-old man, who was diagnosed with
      intestinal tuberculosis. Due to increased abdominal pain, a computed tomography
      was performed, revealing a growing sigmoidal tumour, and the biopsies taken
      showed an adenocarcinoma. Further histological tests revealed no spread of
      cancer, and the patient could receive curative surgery. While intestinal
      tuberculosis can appear similar to colon cancer, it may also as in this case be
      an intercurrent disease.

PMID- 28869011
TI  - [Nutrition and dietary supplement in chronic inflammatory bowel diesease].
AB  - Nutrition and food items may improve or worsen symptoms in Crohn's disease and
      ulcerative colitis. Protein malnutrition and vitamin and mineral deficiencies are
      common, particularly deficiency of iron and vitamin D. Dietary fibres and omega-3
      fatty acids are safe, but no evidence supports their use as treatment. The use of
      probiotics is not encouraged in patients with Crohn's disease, but it may
      maintain remission in ulcerative colitis. Curcumin, chamomile, and other herbal
      extracts are promising in the treatment of mild ulcerative colitis, but
      validation of products and monitoring of side effects are insufficient.

PMID- 28869012
TI  - [Erythropoietin treatment may improve cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders].
AB  - Cognitive dysfunction is a core feature in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders
      which reduces patients' workforce capacity - the largest socio-economic cost of
      these disorders. Nevertheless, there is no clinically available medical treatment
      with robust and enduring efficacy on cognitive deficits in most neuropsychiatric
      conditions. Recent research has shown that erythropoietin may have beneficial
      effects on cognitive dysfunction across neuropsychiatric disorders, including
      bipolar and unipolar disorders, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and multiple
      sclerosis.

PMID- 28869013
TI  - [Challenges in the differential diagnoses of parkinsonism].
AB  - Parkinsonism (PD) is the clinical syndrome of bradykinesia combined with rigidity
      and/or tremor at rest. These are the defining characteristics of PD, but they are
      present in many other diseases of the brain. The most frequent differential
      diagnosis of PD are the atypical parkinsonian syndromes and the conditions
      presenting with mainly lower body parkinsonism. Discrimination between these can
      be challenging, especially at early stages of the disease, but nevertheless of
      utmost importance, because treatment and prognosis vary. Diagnoses are clinical,
      as disease-specific biomarkers are still lacking.

PMID- 28869014
TI  - [Iliac haematoma as a differential diagnosis to lumbar disc herniation].
AB  - After a fall without fracture an 83-year-old man who was treated with warfarin
      was admitted with severe groin pain on the left hip. A few days later he had
      reduced strength in hip flexion and knee extension, absent patellar tendon
      reflex, and decreased sensibility of the anterior thigh and the medial lower leg.
      A magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large haematoma in the left iliac muscle.
      Iliac haematoma-induced femoral nerve compression neuropathy is a rare condition
      but should be considered as a differential diagnosis for L4 root compression in
      patients, who are receiving anticoagulant therapy.

PMID- 28869016
TI  - [Fremmedlegeme i osofagus].

PMID- 28869015
TI  - [Rat bite fever in a three-year-old child].
AB  - Rat bite fever (RBF) is rare in Denmark. It can be very difficult to diagnose, as
      the causative agent is an extremely fastidious organism which needs
      microaerophilic conditions to grow. We report a case of arthritis in the right
      ankle due to Streptobacillus moniliformis in a three-year-old girl who fully
      recovered after 14-day treatment of intravenous administrated penicillin followed
      by four weeks of orally administrated amoxicillin. Social history revealed the
      presence of two domestic rats living in the child's home. As rodents are becoming
      more popular as pets, RBF must be considered in patients with a history of
      relevant exposure.

PMID- 28869017
TI  - ?

PMID- 28869018
TI  - ?

PMID- 28869019
TI  - [Treatment of recurrent posterior epistaxis].
AB  - 30% of the patients presenting with epistaxis at emergency wards and
      otorhinolaryngeal specialist departments have posterior bleeding. Traditional
      treatment with packing often leads to initial treatment failure, and many
      patients experience recurrent bleeding within the following month. Recurrent
      posterior epistaxis should be treated with local electrocautery or endoscopic
      ligation of the sphenopalatine artery to reduce patient discomfort, hospital
      stay, risk of treatment failure and recurrence.

PMID- 28869020
TI  - [Administration of norepinephrine in peripheral venous catheter on surgical
      patients].
AB  - Hypotension is a common event during surgery and can cause serious post-operative
      complication, but vasoactive drugs can stabilize the cardiovascular system and
      reduce the risk of post-operative complications. Norepinephrine is an ideal
      vasopressor. Due to the risk of extravasation and ischaemic tissue damage
      norepinephrine is often administered via a central venous catheter.
      Administration of norepinephrine via a peripheral venous catheter may be a safe
      alternative during surgery, if the drug is administered correctly.

PMID- 28869021
TI  - [Acute impact of the small intestine in a patient after gastric bypass surgery
      and alcohol intake].
AB  - This case recounts the management of a patient, who had previously undergone
      laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery and was admitted with sudden onset of severe
      abdominal pain. A computed tomography suggested acute ischaemia of the Roux limb.
      A normal diagnostic laparoscopy was performed, and a subsequent upper endoscopy
      showed a severely inflamed Roux limb. The patient informed that he had
      accidentally ingested a single glass of strong liquor. The endoscopy was repeated
      a month after discharge and was normal. This case suggests a link between intake
      of strong liquor and local inflammation of the Roux limb.

PMID- 28869022
TI  - [Accidental find of scrotal tuberculosis on a computed tomography].
AB  - The prevalence of tuberculosis in Denmark is low compared to many developing
      countries. It is most commonly found in socially marginalized communities. We
      present an unusual case of a man, who was referred to urological treatment as a
      computed tomography had showed a tumour with a suspicious process in the left
      scrotum and in relation to the left seminal vesicle. Histopathology of the testis
      showed granuloma formation. A Ziehl-Neelsen staining showed no acid-fast bacilli,
      but polymerase chain reaction revealed Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
      Antituberculous treatment was commenced.

PMID- 28869023
TI  - ?

PMID- 28869024
TI  - ?

PMID- 28869025
TI  - [Gastric aspiration therapy is a possible alternative to treatment of obesity].
AB  - Aspiration therapy with AspireAssist is a novel endoscopic obesity treatment.
      Patients aspirate approximately 30% of an ingested meal through a draining system
      connected to a percutanous endoscopic gastrostomy tube. AspireAssist was recently
      approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and it induces weight loss
      comparable to the weight loss observed after bariatric surgery, but with a lower
      risk of complications. Few clinical studies about the efficacy and safety of
      AspireAssist have been carried out and published. Thus, further intervention
      studies evaluating acute as well as long-term effects are warranted.

PMID- 28869026
TI  - [A Danish fetal alcohol spectrum disorders definition].
AB  - The Danish Paediatric Society presents the first Danish definition of fetal
      alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in a new guideline. FASD is an umbrella term
      for conditions caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. To varying degrees, fetal
      alcohol damages manifest as physical defects, characteristic facial features and
      poor growth, as well as behavioural and cognitive disorders. It requires both
      somatic and psychological evaluation to identify these damages. Early diagnosis
      and identification of problems are important for prognosis as professional care
      has a positive preventive effect on comorbidities.

PMID- 28869027
TI  - [Evaluation and treatment of nipple secretion].
AB  - Nipple secretion is a common condition; it can occur in men and women, and be uni
      or bilateral. It is related to hormonal changes, physical stimulation,
      intracerebral processes and certain drugs, and it is divided into three types:
      galactorrhoea, clear/bloody or viscous. Only the clear/bloody type is an
      indication of breast malignancy. Malignancy should always be ruled out in the
      presence of breast tumours. Treatment is determined by aetiology, and can vary
      from patient education, medications to surgery.

PMID- 28869028
TI  - [The use of anti-Mullerian hormone in fertility treatment].
AB  - The need for fertility treatment in Denmark is increasing, one of the main causes
      being postponed parenthood. Ovarian reserve is determined by the anti-Mullerian
      hormone (AMH) level and by antral follicle count. Both tests can predict the
      ovarian response to gonadotropin treatment prior to in vitro fertilization (IVF)
      and are used to individualize ovarian stimulation to achieve an appropriate
      number of follicles and to avoid ovarian hyperstimulation. A new assay detects
      low values of AMH and may predict who will benefit from IVF, and who should be
      referred directly to oocyte donation.

PMID- 28869030
TI  - Use of coercion at Danish psychiatric wards by day of week and time of day.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mechanical restraint and other forms of coercion may be used under
      certain circumstances at psych-iatric wards. The use of coercion receives
      considerable focus, yet little is known about its diurnal distribution. We
      examined the initiation of mechanical restraint, sedative drug administration,
      physical retention, door locking and personal shielding by time of day and week.
      METHODS: Group 3 protocols in the national Register of Coercion for patients aged
      >= 18 years in the years 2010-2012 were analysed. The first coercive episode was
      internally compared with respect to type, shift and whether it had been initiated
      on weekdays or weekend days. The odds ratio for experiencing coercive episodes
      outside day shifts on weekdays was calculated and adjusted for sex, age and
      hospital. Episodes initiated after 24 hours of admission were also analysed.
      RESULTS: The dataset consisted of 68,619 records from 7,338 persons. The first
      coercive episode was mostly initiated during a day shift on a weekday (44.9%),
      but this differed markedly between types of coercion. Compared with locking of
      doors, the adjusted odds ratio of being subjected to coercion outside the day
      shift on weekdays was 3.32 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.91-3.79) for
      mechanical restraint and 2.70 (95% CI: 2.32-3.16) for physical retention. This
      pattern persisted if the first episode was initiated at least 24 hours after
      admission. CONCLUSIONS: The initiation of coercion was lower during evenings,
      nights and weekends, but different coercive types and hospitals followed
      different diurnal patterns, which indicates unexplained variations. FUNDING: The
      establishment of the data set was funded by the Public Health Officers North.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

PMID- 28869029
TI  - Validation of the Danish version of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Self-assessment
      Scale.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fatigue Self-assessment Scale (IBD
      F) is a multidimensional, disease-specific questionnaire. Patients with
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) took part in the development of the tool. The
      scale was developed in the UK and comprises 35 questions: five questions about
      the severity of fatigue and 30 questions about the impact of fatigue. The purpose
      of this study was to validate a Danish electronic version of the IBD-F in a
      Danish IBD population. METHODS: We included IBD outpatients regardless of disease
      activity. They were invited to answer the IBD-F, the Multidimensional Fatigue
      Inventory (MFI-20) and the health-related quality of life tool known as the Short
      Health Scale (SHS). Furthermore, we collected socio-demographic and disease data.
      A subsample was invited to answer the IBD-F again two weeks later. Spearman
      analysis was used to evaluate the correlations between the IBD-F, the MFI-20 and
      the SHS. Reliability was tested by intraclass coefficients. RESULTS: A total of
      325 patients were invited, and 159 patients had complete data. The IBD-F
      correlated well with the MFI-20 fatigue tool for almost all dimensions. The
      correlation with the SHS was less marked. The following variables were associated
      with more fatigue: female, Crohn's disease, respondent unemployed and
      comorbidity. The test-retest reliability was excellent. CONCLUSION: The Danish
      version of the IBD-F is a valid tool for use in Danish patients with IBD.
      FUNDING: This study was funded in part by an unrestricted grant from Takeda,
      Denmark. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

PMID- 28869031
TI  - Cost analysis of bariatric surgery in Denmark made with a decision-analytic
      model.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bariatric surgery offers effective obesity treatment. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bariatric surgery in Denmark
      from a third-party payer perspective in the mid- (ten years) and long-term
      (lifetime). METHODS: A state-transition Markov model was developed in which
      patients may experience surgery, post-surgery complications, diabetes mellitus
      type 2, cardiovascular diseases or die. Transition probabilities, costs and
      utilities were informed by the literature. Three types of surgery were included:
      gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy and adjustable gastric banding. The impact of
      different surgical methods on BMI level was informed by the Danish Obesity
      Surgery Registry (Dansk Fedmekirurgiregister). RESULTS: In the ten-year base-case
      analysis, bariatric surgery led to a cost increment of 19,332 DKK and generated
      an additional 1.1 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). In the course of a
      lifetime, surgery leads to savings of 36,403 DKK, an additional 0.7 life years
      and 2.9 QALYs. Bariatric surgery was cost-effective at ten years with an
      incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of 17,818 DKK per QALY and was dominant over
      conservative management in the course of a lifetime. Up to three years of delay
      in the provision of surgery resulted in a reduction of life years, a lower QALY
      gain and a minor decrease in healthcare costs. CONCLUSIONS: In Denmark, bariatric
      surgery is cost-effective at ten years and may produce a significant reduction in
      healthcare costs over the course of a lifetime in persons with severe obesity.
      FUNDING: Synergus AB received support for economic model development from
      Covidien AG (now part of Medtronic). TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

PMID- 28869032
TI  - Tissue - engineering as an adjunct to pelvic reconstructive surgery.
AB  - : This PhD-thesis is based on animal studies and comprises three original papers
      and unpublished data. The studies were con-ducted during my employment as a
      research fellow at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Herlev University
      Hospital, Denmark. New strategies for surgical reconstruction of pelvic organ pro
      lapse (POP) are warranted. Traditional native tissue repair may be associated
      with poor long-term outcome and augmentation with permanent polypropylene meshes
      is associated with frequent and severe adverse effects. Tissue-engineering is a
      regenerative strategy that aims at creating functional tissue using stem cells,
      scaffolds and trophic factors. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the
      potential adjunctive use of a tissue-engineering technique for pelvic
      reconstructive surgery using two synthetic biodegradable materials;
      methoxypolyethyleneglycol-poly(lacticco-glycolic acid) (MPEG-PLGA) and
      electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) - with or without seeded muscle stem cells in
      the form of autologous fresh muscle fiber fragments (MFFs). To simulate different
      POP repair scenarios different animal models were used. In Study 1 and 2, MPEG
      PLGA was evaluated in a native tissue re-pair model and a partial defect model of
      the rat abdominal wall. We found that the scaffold was fully degraded after eight
      weeks. Cells from added MFFs could be traced and had resulted in the formation of
      new striated muscle fibers. Also, biomechanical changes were found in the groups
      with added MFFs. In Study 3, the long-term degradable electrospun PCL scaffold
      was evaluated in three rat abdominal wall models representing different loads on
      the scaffold. Surprisingly, cells from the MFFs did not survive. After eight
      weeks, a marked inflammatory foreign-body response was observed with numerous
      giant cells located between and around the PCL fibers which appeared not to be
      degraded. This response caused a considerable increase in the thickness of the
      mesh, resulting in a neotissue PCL construct with strength comparable to that of
      normal rat abdominal wall. The foreign-body inflammatory response did not differ
      between the groups in terms of cellularity, cell types or thickness, and no
      differences were found between groups when comparing biomechanical properties. In
      study 4, we modified a new transabdominal rabbit vaginal model to avoid the
      erosions known to occur following vaginal mesh implantation. A partial defect was
      created on the anterior vaginal wall in the vesico-vaginal space and on the
      anterior vaginal wall close to the cervix. This was a feasibility study aimed at
      obtaining results comparable to those seen in the rat model. The model was easy
      to perform and no vaginal erosions were observed. IN CONCLUSION: In two rat
      abdominal wall models, cells from autologous MFFs, seeded on the quickly
      degradable MPEG-PLGA scaf-fold, survived implantation and contributed to the
      regenerative process by forming extra striated muscle fibers and influencing the
      biomechanical properties of the regenerated tissue. Consequently, MFFs seeded on
      an MPEG-PLGA scaffold is a potentially advantageous cell-delivering strategy to
      regenerate tissue at pelvic reconstructive surgery. In three rat abdominal wall
      models, a long-term degradable PCL scaffold caused a marked foreign-body response
      and formed a neo-tissue PCL construct that provided biomechanical tissue
      reinforcement to the abdominal wall, even at maximal load. Consequently, the PCL
      scaffold might be beneficial in pelvic reconstructive surgery, providing initial
      biomechanical rein-forcement, although long-term studies showing the tissue
      response at full degradation are required. Cells from the MFFs did not survive in
      or around the neo-tissue PCL construct, possibly because of the massive
      inflammatory response. Consequently, as a scaffold material, with the purpose of
      delivering cells to a specific anatomical site, the PCL scaffold seems poor. A
      transabdominal rabbit vaginal model was feasible and might be advantageous in the
      evaluation of meshes used for pelvic reconstructive surgery, especially when long
      term studies are needed.

PMID- 28869033
TI  - Life course of children with parental multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience onset
      of MS between the ages of 20 and 40. Since two-thirds of the persons with MS are
      young women of childbearing age, parenthood is an essential issue during this
      period of life. The potential influence of parental MS on children arises from
      the varied symptoms of the chronic illness, which affect physical and cognitive
      abilities. MS disabilities and fatigue can restrict daily life and result in less
      energy for activities or job loss and thus worse conditions for the family.
      OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: This PhD thesis was designed to investigate whether
      parental MS influences children in different areas throughout the children's life
      course (i.e. education, employment, disability pension, and income) as well as to
      explore the experiences of having a parent with MS. We investigated the research
      question using two distinct METHODS: A quantitative method based on nationwide
      population-based Danish registers comparing a group of children with one
      biological parent with MS (termed 'MS offspring') with a matched group of
      children of parents without MS (termed 'reference cohort') up to 58 years of age
      (Papers I-II). A qualitative method based on phenomenological face-to-face
      interviews with young adults with parental MS (Paper III). The nationwide
      register-based epidemiological method complemented by a phenomenological
      interview method, the long time-span and the age groups of 'children' up to age
      58 are original within this area of research. RESULTS: In Paper I, we
      investigated the educational achievements of 4,177 MS offspring compared with
      33,416 reference children. MS off-spring achieved a higher grade point average in
      the final class of basic school, at age 15, although they achieved similar
      educational levels as did the reference children at ages 15 to 58. There was a
      trend toward more MS offspring women attaining health-related educations than did
      reference women at ages 21 to 58. In Paper II, we investigated employment and
      income of 2,456 MS offspring compared with 19,648 reference children. At age 30,
      the MS offspring were less often employed, and at ages 30 and 40 MS offspring
      more often received disability pension than did reference children. The mean
      income at the age interval of 45 to 49 years was similar. Analyzing whether the
      MS offspring earned more than DKK 250,000 annually (~ EUR 33,650), which is
      approximately double the level defined as poverty in Denmark in 2012, they earned
      above this level in annual gross personal in-come less frequently than did
      reference children. This income level was only sufficient for the bare
      necessities. In Paper III, we explored the experiences of children growing up
      with a parent with MS by interviewing 14 young adults between 18 and 25 years.
      The results in the interview study showed two essential themes: 'Caring' and
      'Restraint'. Each essential theme emerged from four subthemes. Caring: Assuming
      responsibility; worry and guilt; choosing health-related educations; advantage of
      being responsible. Restraint: Concealing feelings and desires; anxiety and
      depression; shame; lack of openness and knowledge. All the young adults had
      experiences of the essential themes of caring and restraint. Half of the
      participants in the interview study were enrolled in a health-related education.
      CONCLUSION: Growing up with a parent with MS can have both beneficial and adverse
      influences on children late into adulthood. On the one hand, the educational
      achievements of MS offspring are either better or similar to those of reference
      children because they attained better grades and similar educational levels.
      Also, some of the young adults interviewed found advantages to having learned to
      be responsible. On the other hand, we found an ad-verse association regarding
      employment, disability pension, and income. Also, the young adults interviewed
      had experiences of caring for and of practicing restraint toward the parent with
      MS, the other parent, and siblings, with most participants continuing this
      pattern toward friends and partners. The results of caring and restraint might
      partly explain some of the associations found in the register-based studies. The
      children might continue taking care of their parents and striving to find a
      balance between helping others and fulfilling their own desires. This caregiver
      challenge might also partly explain the beneficial association between parental
      MS on education and the adverse association on employment. Thus, having a parent
      with MS might be associated with long-term socioeconomic influence on education,
      employment, disability pension, income, and social relations in children's life
      course: Parental MS influences children far into adulthood.

PMID- 28869034
TI  - Plasticity and function of human skeletal muscle in relation to disuse and
      rehabilitation: Influence of ageing and surgery.
AB  - In order to study the influence of disuse and aging on skeletal muscle
      homeostasis, different human models were employed. Effects of chronic disuse were
      investigated in elderly patients suffering from uni-lateral hip-osteoarthritis,
      whereas the effect of short-term disuse (4 and 14 days of unilateral lower limb
      immobilisation) was assessed in healthy young and old individuals. In summary,
      chronic muscle disuse in the elderly was associated with marked quantitative as
      well as qualitative neuromuscular impairments. More specifically, decreases were
      observed in muscle strength, quadriceps muscle size and myofibre area, muscle
      architecture, contractile properties and neuromuscular activation. Furthermore,
      substantial side-to-side differences in specific strength (MVC/LCSA) and
      normalised rapid muscle force capacity (RFD/CSA) were observed, indicating that a
      significant part of the observed changes in mechanical muscle function with
      disuse were explained by impairments in muscle quality. Importantly, within the
      first 4 days of immobility the ob-served atrophy responses did not seem affected
      by age, as manifested by comparable reductions in myofibre area in young and old
      individuals. However, in line with previous observations using various animal
      models, we observed a larger loss in muscle mass in young compared to older
      individuals after more prolonged immobilisation (14 days). Conversely, old
      individuals were more negatively affected with respect to neural function and
      rapid force characteristics than their young counterparts. Moreover, we showed
      that the initiation and regulation of human skeletal muscle atrophy with short
      term disuse is age-dependant. Based on the present experiments it can be
      concluded that a multitude of signalling pathways related to both muscle atrophy
      and protein synthesis are activated in the initial phase of disuse, which in turn
      lead to a rapid initial atrophy response (~1-4 days) in both young and old
      individuals followed by a gradually attenuated atrophy response at later time
      points (~2 weeks). Notably, during the first 1-2 days of immobility a parallel
      activation of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and the IGF-1/Akt pathway seem to
      occur along with a deactivation of PGC-1alpha and PGC-1beta, suggesting that
      cellular proteolysis plays an important role in the initiation of human disuse
      atrophy in both young and old muscle, whereas the concurrent regulation in
      protein synthesis signalling and proteolysis inhibition appears to affect young
      adults more pronouncedly compared to older adults. Gaining a better understanding
      of the ability of human skele-tal muscle to recover from disuse-induced atrophy
      has important implications for the development and implementation of effective
      countermeasures against physical frailty in the increasing population of elderly.
      Importantly therefore, the present experiments demonstrate that resistance
      training is highly effective of increasing maximal muscle strength and
      neuromuscular function in elderly post-operative patients. Importantly, these
      increases in mechanical muscle function were accompanied by gains in muscle size,
      architecture and in the expression of IGF-I mRNA splice variants, resembling that
      typically seen in young healthy individuals when exposed to resistance training.
      In contrast, these positive adaptations could not be achieved with the use of
      neuromuscular electrical stimulation or conventional rehabilitation efforts
      alone. Collectively, these findings strongly underline the importance of
      implementing resistive exercises in future rehabilitation programs for elderly
      individuals. In addition, comparing young and old able-bodied individuals, we
      observed that the magnitude and time-course of changes in mechanical muscle
      function during the recovery phase following short-term disuse were compromised
      in old compared to young individuals. Likewise, aged individuals demonstrated an
      impaired response to re-loading reflected by attenuated gains in myofibre area,
      in parallel with smaller increases in satellite cell number despite no age
      related differences were observed in factors known to promote skeletal muscle
      hypertrophy and myogenic stem cell proliferation (IGF-Ea, MGF, MyoD, myogenin,
      HGF). Moreover, an age-specific regulation in myostatin mRNA expression was
      observed, characterized by an amplified increase in aging skeletal muscle with
      immobilisation that was followed by less down-regulation during the subsequent
      phase of re-loading. In combination with an association observed between the
      changes in myostatin expression and satellite cell proliferation in the acute
      phase of re-loading, these data indicates that myostatin play an important role
      in the impaired ability of aged human skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28869035
TI  - A transgenic toolkit for visualizing and perturbing microtubules reveals
      unexpected functions in the epidermis.
AB  - The physiological functions of microtubules (MTs) are poorly understood in many
      differentiated cell types. We developed a genetic toolkit to study MT dynamics
      and function in diverse cells. Using TRE-EB1-GFP mice, we found that MT dynamics
      are strongly suppressed in differentiated keratinocytes in two distinct steps due
      to alterations in both growth rate and lifetime. To understand the functions of
      these MT populations, we developed TRE-spastin mice to disrupt MTs in specific
      cell types. MT perturbation in post-mitotic keratinocytes had profound
      consequences on epidermal morphogenesis. We uncoupled cell-autonomous roles in
      cell flattening from non-cell-autonomous requirements for MTs in regulating
      proliferation, differentiation, and tissue architecture. This work uncovers
      physiological roles for MTs in epidermal development, and the tools described
      here will be broadly useful to study MT dynamics and functions in mammals.

PMID- 28869036
TI  - Single methyl groups can act as toggle switches to specify transmembrane Protein
      protein interactions.
AB  - Transmembrane domains (TMDs) engage in protein-protein interactions that regulate
      many cellular processes, but the rules governing the specificity of these
      interactions are poorly understood. To discover these principles, we analyzed 26
      residue model transmembrane proteins consisting exclusively of leucine and
      isoleucine (called LIL traptamers) that specifically activate the erythropoietin
      receptor (EPOR) in mouse cells to confer growth factor independence. We
      discovered that the placement of a single side chain methyl group at specific
      positions in a traptamer determined whether it associated productively with the
      TMD of the human EPOR, the mouse EPOR, or both receptors. Association of the
      traptamers with the EPOR induced EPOR oligomerization in an orientation that
      stimulated receptor activity. These results highlight the high intrinsic
      specificity of TMD interactions, demonstrate that a single methyl group can
      dictate specificity, and define the minimal chemical difference that can modulate
      the specificity of TMD interactions and the activity of transmembrane proteins.

PMID- 28869037
TI  - Mcm10 promotes rapid isomerization of CMG-DNA for replisome bypass of lagging
      strand DNA blocks.
AB  - Replicative helicases in all cell types are hexameric rings that unwind DNA by
      steric exclusion in which the helicase encircles the tracking strand only and
      excludes the other strand from the ring. This mode of translocation allows
      helicases to bypass blocks on the strand that is excluded from the central
      channel. Unlike other replicative helicases, eukaryotic CMG helicase partially
      encircles duplex DNA at a forked junction and is stopped by a block on the non
      tracking (lagging) strand. This report demonstrates that Mcm10, an essential
      replication protein unique to eukaryotes, binds CMG and greatly stimulates its
      helicase activity in vitro. Most significantly, Mcm10 enables CMG and the
      replisome to bypass blocks on the non-tracking DNA strand. We demonstrate that
      bypass occurs without displacement of the blocks and therefore Mcm10 must
      isomerize the CMG-DNA complex to achieve the bypass function.

PMID- 28869039
TI  - [Bilateral acute iris transillumination syndrome: Case report].

PMID- 28869038
TI  - The genomic landscape of human cellular circadian variation points to a novel
      role for the signalosome.
AB  - The importance of natural gene expression variation for human behavior is
      undisputed, but its impact on circadian physiology remains mostly unexplored.
      Using umbilical cord fibroblasts, we have determined by genome-wide association
      how common genetic variation impacts upon cellular circadian function. Gene set
      enrichment points to differences in protein catabolism as one major source of
      clock variation in humans. The two most significant alleles regulated expression
      of COPS7B, a subunit of the COP9 signalosome. We further show that the
      signalosome complex is imported into the nucleus in timed fashion to stabilize
      the essential circadian protein BMAL1, a novel mechanism to oppose its proteasome
      mediated degradation. Thus, circadian clock properties depend in part upon a
      genetically-encoded competition between stabilizing and destabilizing forces, and
      genetic alterations in these mechanisms provide one explanation for human
      chronotype.

PMID- 28869041
TI  - Chest ultrasound for guiding lung recruitment maneuvers.

PMID- 28869040
TI  - The impact of obesity in the cardiac lipidome and its consequences in the cardiac
      damage observed in obese rats.
AB  - AIMS: To explore the impact of obesity on the cardiac lipid profile in rats with
      diet-induced obesity, as well as to evaluate whether or not the specific changes
      in lipid species are associated with cardiac fibrosis. METHODS: Male Wistar rats
      were fed either a high-fat diet (HFD, 35% fat) or standard diet (3.5% fat) for 6
      weeks. Cardiac lipids were analyzed using by liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry. RESULTS: HFD rats showed cardiac fibrosis and enhanced levels of
      cardiac superoxide anion (O2), HOMA index, adiposity, and plasma leptin, as well
      as a reduction in those of cardiac glucose transporter (GLUT 4), compared with
      control animals. Cardiac lipid profile analysis showed a significant increase in
      triglycerides, especially those enriched with palmitic, stearic, and arachidonic
      acid. An increase in levels of diacylglycerol (DAG) was also observed. No changes
      in cardiac levels of diacyl phosphatidylcholine, or even a reduction in total
      levels of diacyl phosphatidylethanolamine, diacyl phosphatidylinositol, and
      sphingomyelins (SM) was observed in HFD, as compared with control animals. After
      adjustment for other variables (oxidative stress, HOMA, cardiac hypertrophy),
      total levels of DAG were independent predictors of cardiac fibrosis while the
      levels of total SM were independent predictors of the cardiac levels of GLUT 4.
      CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that obesity has a significant impact on cardiac
      lipid composition, although it does not modulate the different species in a
      similar manner. Nonetheless, these changes are likely to participate in the
      cardiac damage in the context of obesity, since total DAG levels can facilitate
      the development of cardiac fibrosis, and SM levels predict GLUT4 levels.

PMID- 28869043
TI  - Basilar artery thrombosis caused by vertebral dissection secondary to brachial
      plexus block.

PMID- 28869042
TI  - Hyperuricemia is associated with progression of chronic kidney disease in
      patients with reduced functioning kidney mass.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hyperuricemia plays a major role in the development
      and progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Many large observational studies
      have indicated that increased serum uric acid level predicts the development and
      progression of CKD in some population, however this hypothesis has not been yet
      studied in patients with reduced renal mass. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, &
      MEASUREMENTS: Retrospective study with a cohort of 324 patients with reduced
      renal mass from an outpatient basis, followed during 60 (36-98) months.
      Demographics variables, cardiovascular factors, concomitant medications,
      albuminuria and uric acid levels were recorded yearly. The primary endpoint was
      the annual fall of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) by MDRD-4. The
      sample was divided into three successive groups (A1: patients with fall of eGFR
      lower than median, A2: greater than median, B: without fall of eGFR). Factors
      associated and predictors of kidney function decline were analyzed. RESULTS: One
      hundred and seventy out of 324 patients suffered a fall of eGFR (group A),
      (median of fall -1.6ml/min/1.73m2/year (-3.0, -0.7)). Male gender,
      albuminuria>100mg/day and higher pulse pressure were associated to progression in
      our cohort (group A). Hyperuricemia was more frequent among patients with higher
      kidney disease progression (group A2) (33% vs 49%, p=0.04) when comparing to
      lower progression (group A1). Adjusted Cox regression models showed that
      hyperuricemia, pulse pressure and albuminuria were independent predictors of
      kidney disease progression (HR 1.67 (1.06-2.63), p=0.023; 1.02 (1.01-1.03),
      p=0.001 and HR: 2.14 (1.26-3.64), p=0.005, respectively). Kidney disease
      progression was higher in patients with unilateral renal atrophy or agenesis than
      nephrectomy (log rank: 7.433, p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Hyperuricemia is
      independently associated with kidney disease progression in patients with reduce
      functioning renal mass.

PMID- 28869044
TI  - Stroke and temporal arteritis: A study of 6 cases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Though uncommon, ischaemic stroke due to temporal arteritis carries
      serious difficulties for diagnosis and subsequent management and requires a high
      level of suspicion. METHODS: We analysed a series of 6 patients with biopsy
      proven temporal arteritis presenting with ischaemic stroke. We discuss clinical
      characteristics, difficulties of assessment, short- and long-term progression,
      treatment, and the usefulness of new diagnostic techniques. RESULTS: Our sample
      of 6 patients had a mean age of 68.3 years; 50% were women. The majority of
      patients showed systemic symptoms. Anterior and posterior circulation were
      affected similarly. MRI angiography, Doppler sonography, and PET-CT proved to be
      very useful for diagnosis and treatment. Mean follow-up time was 26 months.
      Clinical outcomes were far from good: 33% scored>=3 on the modified Rankin scale,
      including one death. Two patients had recurrent stroke despite treatment with
      full doses of corticosteroids, and 2 underwent angioplasty. CONCLUSIONS: Stroke
      caused by giant cell arteritis is a serious and potentially severe condition
      which requires a high level of suspicion and early treatment with
      corticosteroids. New diagnostic techniques contribute to refining patient
      assessment and identifying the optimal treatment. Endovascular treatment may be a
      valid therapeutic option in selected patients.

PMID- 28869045
TI  - Anticipating disaster: Mechanical thrombectomy in patients with low NIHSS scores.

PMID- 28869046
TI  - Usefulness of brain SPECT imaging in the study of recurrent hypersomnia: Kleine
      Levin syndrome.

PMID- 28869047
TI  - Isolated sixth nerve palsy: An unusual manifestation of preeclampsia.

PMID- 28869048
TI  - Ecologists Winning Arguments: Ends Don't Justify the Means. A Response to Begon.

PMID- 28869049
TI  - [Digoxin: Does it have a rest at weekends?]

PMID- 28869050
TI  - Long-term voice outcome after thyroidectomy using energy based devices.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Voice dysfunction is frequently reported after thyroidectomy even in
      absence of vocal fold paralysis. The energy-based devices such as Harmonic
      scalpel (HS) or LigaSure (LS) are commonly used in conventional thyroidectomy.
      The objective of this study was to investigate the long-term voice outcome after
      total thyroidectomy using energy based devices. METHODS: Patients who underwent
      total thyroidectomy with or without central neck dissection for papillary thyroid
      carcinoma using HS or LS from April 2012 to March 2013 were involved. The
      videolaryngostroboscopy, acoustic analysis, voice range profile, voice perceptual
      evaluation, and voice handicap index-30 were obtained preoperatively, 1 week, 1
      month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1year after thyroidectomy. RESULTS: Total 92
      patients (HS group: 58 cases; LS group: 34 cases) were enrolled in this study.
      Demographics, tumor stage, and extent of operation were not significantly
      different between the HS and LS group. None of the patients evidenced any
      abnormalities at the pre- or postoperative videolaryngostroboscopic examination.
      The voice range profile (highest frequency), voice perceptual evaluation (grade,
      rough, and breathy), and voice handicap index-30 (total, functional, physical,
      and emotional) showed significantly worse scores in early postoperative period
      (<1month), but gradually returned to preoperative values. The all parameters of
      acoustic analysis, voice range profile, voice perceptual evaluation, and voice
      handicap index-30 were not significantly different between the HS and LS group.
      CONCLUSION: The long-term voice change after thyroidectomy shows similar results
      regardless of the type of energy-based devices.

PMID- 28869052
TI  - Recent advances in design of electrochemical affinity biosensors for low level
      detection of cancer protein biomarkers using nanomaterial-assisted signal
      enhancement strategies.
AB  - The main advances in control and early diagnosis of cancer is greatly aided by
      low level detection of tumor markers in biological samples. Extensive efforts
      have been devoted to developing some ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensors
      for detection of cancer markers with high selectivity. These efforts include the
      development of the bioreceptors with high specificity and affinity, synthesis of
      novel signal amplifiers based on nanomaterials and the exploration of appropriate
      design strategies. Electrochemical measurement protocols are suitable for mass
      fabrication of miniaturized devices. They have a major role in the move towards
      rapid and simplified testing for point-of-care usage. This review discusses the
      remarkable advances of the last 6 years in the electrochemical affinity
      biosensors for determination of protein and glycoprotein tumor markers, with a
      particular focus on antibodies and aptamers as biorecognition probes.

PMID- 28869051
TI  - Emergency consultation for epistaxis: A bad predictor for overall health?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the mortality rate of a large epistaxis cohort with the
      fatalities of the general Swiss population and to evaluate significant risk
      factors for impending early death. METHODS: 568 patients out of an epistaxis
      cohort from a former study were contacted by mail to answer a questionnaire.
      Deceased patients were identified from March, 2007 through April, 2014. Death
      rates were compared to the general Swiss population. Different potential risk
      factors were evaluated by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Thirty-four percent of
      the included patients (61 of total n=181) died during the observation period. The
      mean number of deaths per year was 8.7. Binary logistic regression identified
      anterior localization (p=0.027), comorbid endogenous bleeding predisposition
      including hemorrhagic hereditary telangiectasia (p=0.017) and age (p<0.01) as
      independent and significant risk factors for early death in epistaxis patients. A
      significantly higher mortality was found within our epistaxis cohort compared to
      the Swiss general population. CONCLUSION: With the present data a trivial event
      such as epistaxis, especially when anteriorly located, needs to be seen in a new
      light. Emergency consultation because of nose bleeding might be an unexpected bad
      predictor for mortality. Although conclusions need to be considered with caution
      due to the retrospective character of the study, we regard epistaxis as an
      independent alarm-signal. After an acute nose bleed requiring emergency
      consultation, active collaboration with the patient's general practitioner and
      additional efforts to check for the patient's general health might be more useful
      than so far assumed.

PMID- 28869053
TI  - Author's reply.

PMID- 28869054
TI  - Onsite defluoridation system for drinking water treatment using calcium
      carbonate.
AB  - Fluoride in drinking water has several effects on teeth and bones. At
      concentrations of 1-1.5 mg/L, fluoride can strengthen enamel, improving dental
      health, but at concentrations above 1.5 to 4 mg/L can cause dental fluorosis. At
      concentrations of 4-10 mg/L, skeletal fluorosis can occur. There are many areas
      of the world that have excessive fluoride in drinking water, such as China,
      India, Sri Lanka, and the Rift Valley countries in Africa. Treatment solutions
      are needed, especially in poor areas where drinking water treatment plants are
      not available. On-site or individual treatment alternatives can be attractive if
      constructed from common materials and if simple enough to be constructed and
      maintained by users. Advanced on-site methods, such as under sink reserve osmosis
      units, can remove fluoride but are too expensive for developing areas. This paper
      investigates calcium carbonate as a cost effective sorbent for an onsite
      defluoridation drinking water system. Batch and column experiments were performed
      to characterize F- removal properties. Fluoride sorption was described by a
      Freundlich isotherm model, and it was found that the equilibrium time was
      approximately 3 h. Calcium carbonate was found to have comparable F- removal
      abilities as the commercial ion exchange resins and possessed higher removal
      effectiveness compared to calcium containing eggshells and seashells. It was also
      found that the anion Cl- did not compete with F- at typical drinking water
      concentrations, having little impact on the effectiveness of the treatment
      system. A fluoride removal system is proposed that can be used at home and can be
      maintained by users. Through this work, we can be a step closer to bringing safe
      drinking water to those that do not have access to it.

PMID- 28869055
TI  - Corrigendum to "Factors influencing local ecological knowledge of forage
      resources: Ethnobotanical evidence from West Africa's savannas" [J. Environ.
      Manag., 188 (1 March 2017) 297-307].

PMID- 28869056
TI  - Patients' autonomic activation during clinical interaction: A review of empirical
      studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate how patients' autonomic responses are related to verbal
      or non-verbal communication during clinical encounters. METHODS: The SCOPUS
      database was searched to identify papers. Studies were included if measures of
      autonomic arousal were related to patients' emotions or patient-clinician
      interaction during clinical consultations such as psychotherapy, counseling or
      medical interviews. The search was conducted according to PRISMA criteria. The
      included studies were assessed using the 16 item quality assessment tool QATSDD.
      RESULTS: A total of 24 publications were identified. The studies varied greatly
      in design and quality. However, a few trends could be observed across studies.
      Patients' expressions of emotions were associated with significant autonomic
      arousal. Clinician behavior affected arousal levels; and in a few studies, a
      patient centered way of presenting information was found to attenuate arousal
      level, interpreted as stress reduction. There was a general, but not consistent,
      trend in the reduction of arousal level over time within the consultation.
      Examples of individual differences in autonomic responses were found. CONCLUSION
      AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Increased awareness of potential impact of clinician
      behavior on patient' arousal level may be helpful for clinicians, in particular
      how different communication styles may augment or attenuate arousal in response
      to stressors.

PMID- 28869057
TI  - The social utility of clinical exome sequencing.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Examine the presentation of clinical and social implications of exome
      sequencing findings during patient-geneticist interactions. METHODS: Video
      recordings of 34 returns of exome sequencing results with findings in an academic
      genetics clinic were examined using an inductive thematic analysis to distinguish
      categories of consequences. We then operationalized these categories for
      structured observation coding of parent or geneticist/genetic counselor-initiated
      mention of consequences, complemented with semi-structured interviews with 16
      families. This allowed us to provide basic descriptive statistics including
      frequencies and bivariate analyses. Because variables were generally dichotomous,
      we used chi-square tests of independence. RESULTS: A total of 568 consequences of
      exome sequencing were discussed during the consultations, which can be grouped in
      two broad categories: clinical and social consequences. Clinical consequences
      related to the diagnosis, prognosis or treatment regimen of the test. Social
      consequences affect the family as a social unit and were not the reason for
      testing. CONCLUSION: Besides clinical consequences, patients and clinicians
      distinguish distinct and highly salient social consequences of exome findings
      during return of results consultations. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Clinical
      geneticists have an opportunity to address the social utility of exome findings.

PMID- 28869058
TI  - Enrichment and physiological characterization of an anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing
      bacterium 'Candidatus Brocadia sapporoensis'.
AB  - We successfully enriched a novel anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacterium
      affiliated with the genus 'Candidatus Brocadia' with high purity (>90%) in a
      membrane bioreactor (MBR). The enriched bacterium was distantly related to the
      hitherto characterized 'Ca. Brocadia fulgida' and 'Ca. Brocadia sinica' with 96%
      and 93% of 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence identity, respectively. The bacterium
      exhibited the common structural features of anammox bacteria and produced
      hydrazine in the presence of hydroxylamine under anoxic conditions. The
      temperature range of anammox activity was 20-45 degrees C with a maximum activity
      at 37 degrees C. The maximum specific growth rate (MUmax) was 0.0082h-1 at 37
      degrees C, corresponding to a doubling time of 3.5 days. The half-saturation
      constant (KS) for nitrite was 5+/-2.5MUM. The anammox activity was inhibited by
      nitrite (IC50=11.6mM) but not by formate and acetate. The major respiratory
      quinone was identified to be menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The enriched anammox bacterium
      shared nearly half of genes with 'Ca. Brocadia sinica' and 'Ca. Brocadia
      fulgida'. The enriched bacterium showed all known physiological characteristics
      of anammox bacteria and can be distinguished from the close relatives by its 16S
      rRNA gene sequence. Therefore, we proposed the name 'Ca. Brocadia sapporoensis'
      sp. nov.

PMID- 28869059
TI  - Soybeans inoculated with root zone soils of Canadian native legumes harbour
      diverse and novel Bradyrhizobium spp. that possess agricultural potential.
AB  - An assessment was made of the evolutionary relationships of soybean nodulating
      bacteria associated with legumes native to eastern Canada to identify potential
      new sources of soybean inoculant strains. Short season soybeans were used to
      selectively trap bacteria from root zone soils of four native legume species.
      Screening of more than 800 bacterial isolates from soybean root nodules by
      analysis of recA gene sequences followed by analyses of selected genotypes using
      six core and two symbiosis (nodC and nifH) gene sequences permitted
      identification of diverse taxa that included eight novel and four named
      Bradyrhizobium species as well as lineages attributed to the genera Afipia and
      Tardiphaga. Plant tests showed that symbionts related to four named species as
      well as a novel Bradyrhizobium lineage were highly efficient with regard to
      nitrogen fixation on soybeans relative to an inoculant strain. A new symbiovar
      (sv. septentrionalis) is proposed based on a group of four novel Bradyrhizobium
      spp. that possess distinctive nodC and nifH gene sequences and symbiotic
      characteristics. Evidence is provided for horizontal transfer of sv.
      septentrionalis symbiosis genes between novel Bradyrhizobium spp., a process that
      rendered recipient bacteria ineffective on soybeans. Diverse lineages of non
      symbiotic and symbiotic Bradyrhizobium spp. co-occured within monophyletic
      clusters in a phylogenetic tree of concatenated core genes, suggesting that loss
      and/or gain of symbiosis genes has occurred in the evolutionary history of the
      bacterial genus. Our data suggest that symbiont populations associated with
      legumes native to eastern Canada harbour elite strains of Bradyrhizobium for
      soybean inoculation.

PMID- 28869060
TI  - The effects of topical nitric oxide on healing of partial thickness porcine
      burns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nitric oxide is a wound mediator that promotes wound healing. We
      hypothesized that topical application of nitric oxide would speed
      reepithelialization, enhance angiogenesis, and reduce scar thickness in a partial
      thickness porcine burn model. METHODS: While under general anesthesia, 20 partial
      thickness burns were created on the backs of four female Yorkshire swine using a
      2.5cm*2.5cm*7.5cm, 150-g aluminum bar, preheated to 80 degrees C and applied for
      20s. The necrotic epidermis was removed and the burns were randomized to low,
      medium, and high concentrations of a novel nitric-oxide (NO) releasing drug or
      its ointment vehicle applied 3 times weekly for 28 days. Full thickness punch
      biopsies were performed at 8, 11, 14 and 28 days after injury to determine
      percentage wound reepithelialization and scar thickness using H&E staining and
      blood vessel density using CD31 staining. RESULTS: At day 11, the percentages
      (SD) wound reepithelialization were: control, 26.3 (34.6); low NO, 23.9 (36.9);
      medium NO, 43.3 (42.9); and high NO, 59.9 (43.6); ANOVA, P=0.02. The number of
      CD31 stained blood vessels at days 8 and 11 were greater in wounds treated with
      high dose NO vs. controls (48.1 vs. 22.9 [P<0.001] and 44.0 vs. 33.5 [P=0.05] per
      1mm2 respectively). Scar thicknesses (SD) in mm at day 28 by treatment allocation
      were: control, 4.8 (1.2); low NO, 4.7 (1.2); medium NO, 4.3 (1.2); and high NO,
      4.1 (1.0); P=0.22. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of partial thickness porcine burns with
      high concentrations of topical NO resulted in earlier reepithelization and
      increased angiogenesis but not reduced scar thickness compared with its control
      vehicle in a partial thickness porcine burn model.

PMID- 28869061
TI  - Implant Arthroplasty for Proximal Interphalangeal, Metacarpophalangeal, and
      Trapeziometacarpal Joint Degeneration.
AB  - Arthritis of the hand can result from inflammatory arthritis, osteoarthritis
      (OA), or be posttraumatic and can cause pain and debilitation. Arthroplasty
      serves as 1 surgical option in the surgical management of arthritis and aims to
      create a pain-free joint with preservation of motion. Although implant
      arthroplasty of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP), metacarpophalangeal (MCP),
      and trapeziometacarpal (TMC) joints predictably produce pain relief and high
      satisfaction, it has historically suffered from high rates of complications. The
      hinged silicone prosthesis was 1 of the early implants and, in many cases,
      remains the gold standard. However, problems with deformity correction, implant
      fracture, and synovitis remain. Implants made of alternative materials such as
      metal-plastic and pyrocarbon have evolved; however, survivorship and reoperation
      rates remain a concern. This review details the evolution and current options
      available for small joint implant arthroplasty involving the MCP, PIP, and TMC
      joints.

PMID- 28869062
TI  - Supination Contractures in Brachial Plexus Birth Palsy: Long-Term Upper Limb
      Function and Recurrence After Forearm Osteotomy or Nonsurgical Treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Forearm osteotomy for supination deformity in brachial plexus birth
      palsy (BPBP) may lead to improved function of the upper limb. However, recurrence
      rates are high and limit satisfactory results. METHODS: We reviewed the long-term
      outcome of the entire upper limb of 22 BPBP patients with a supination
      contracture who were treated by forearm osteotomy and compared them with an age
      matched group that was treated nonsurgically (n = 28). Recurrence was defined as
      a passive pronation below 30 degrees . RESULTS: The median follow-up was 5.0
      years (range, 1.5-14 years). The mean passive pronation after forearm osteotomy,
      including patients with recurrence at follow-up, improved from -1 degrees  (SD, 9
      degrees ) to 33 degrees  (SD, 48 degrees ) at final follow-up, mean active wrist
      extension improved from 23 degrees  (SD, 40 degrees ) to 41 degrees  (SD, 38
      degrees ). An overall improvement of wrist and hand strength was present. In
      patients without recurrence, pronation improved to a mean of 66 degrees  (SD, 23
      degrees ) at final follow-up. Recurrence of the supination contracture was
      present in 9 cases (41%) and was only present in patients with a single bone
      osteotomy. Recurrence was associated with lower age at surgery (recurrence mean,
      4 [SD, 1.2] and no recurrence 8 [SD 4.5]), lower shoulder external rotation
      (recurrence mean, 28 [SD, 17] and no recurrence 49 [SD, 23]), and overall lower
      hand function at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Forearm osteotomy improves forearm
      pronation and hand function. Recurrence should be considered as a potential
      complication after forearm osteotomy and is associated with young age and lower
      function of shoulder and hand. Single-bone osteotomy might also be a risk factor
      for recurrence. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic IV.

PMID- 28869063
TI  - Nanoparticles and innate immunity: new perspectives on host defence.
AB  - The innate immune system provides the first line of defence against foreign
      microbes and particulate materials. Engineered nanoparticles can interact with
      the immune system in many different ways. Nanoparticles may thus elicit
      inflammation with engagement of neutrophils, macrophages and other effector
      cells; however, it is important to distinguish between acute and chronic
      inflammation in order to identify the potential hazards of nanoparticles for
      human health. Nanoparticles may also interact with and become internalised by
      dendritic cells, key antigen-presenting cells of the immune system, where a
      better understanding of these processes could pave the way for improved
      vaccination strategies. Nanoparticle characteristics such as size, shape and
      deformability also influence nanoparticle uptake by a plethora of immune cells
      and subsequent immune responses. Furthermore, the corona of adsorbed biomolecules
      on nanoparticle surfaces should not be neglected. Complement activation
      represents a special case of regulated and dynamic corona formation on
      nanoparticles with important implications in clearance and safety. Additionally,
      the inadvertent binding of bacterial lipopolysaccharide to nanoparticles is
      important to consider as this may skew the outcome and interpretation of
      immunotoxicological studies. Here, we discuss nanoparticle interactions with
      different cell types and soluble mediators belonging to the innate immune system.

PMID- 28869064
TI  - Multiple correspondence analysis as a strategy to explore the association between
      categories of qualitative variables related to oral-maxillofacial trauma and
      violent crimes at the community level.
AB  - The main objective of this study was to show the applicability of multiple
      correspondence analysis (MCA) in the detection and representation of underlying
      structures in large datasets used to investigate oral-maxillofacial lesions. A
      cross-sectional study was conducted involving the analysis of the medical
      forensic and social records of 992 people who experienced oral-maxillofacial
      trauma resulting from non-fatal violent crimes that occurred in the community.
      Based on the MCA results, two distinct victim profiles were identified. The first
      profile was characterized by adult men, victims of instruments of violence (such
      as firearms, knives, or mixed aggression), resulting in severe trauma, mainly
      affecting the upper or middle third of the face. The second profile was
      characterized by adolescent and young adult women, victims of aggression using
      physical force, resulting in soft tissue traumas, mainly affecting the lower
      third of the face or more than one region at the same time. MCA has been
      demonstrated to be a powerful tool for exploring complex data related to oral
      maxillofacial trauma, showing whether there is a relationship and how variables
      are related. This multivariate method can also be very valuable in the study of
      several outcomes in oral and maxillofacial surgery and supporting specialties.

PMID- 28869065
TI  - Isolated acetabular osteochondroma of the hip.
AB  - We present a case of isolated intra-acetabular osteochondroma in a 21 year-old
      male who presented with history of right hip pain for 5 years and difficulty in
      walking. Patient was managed with excision of intra-articular exostoses through
      surgical hip dislocation. Intra-articular hip osteochondromas can be a rare cause
      of hip pain in patients with unexplained etiology, and their diagnosis and
      management can be challenging.

PMID- 28869066
TI  - Neoadjuvant radiotherapy for myxoid liposarcomas: Oncologic outcomes and
      histopathologic correlations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the histopathological features
      of primary extremity myxoid liposarcoma before and after neoadjuvant radiation
      therapy, and to evaluate the oncological outcomes of the patients. METHODS: The
      study included 23 patients (16 men and 7 women with a mean age of 43 (24-69)
      years) with primary myxoid liposarcoma of the extremities, who were treated
      between January 1998 and December 2015. Inclusion criteria were histopathological
      confirmation of the diagnosis with both the initial biopsy and the resection
      specimen, and having undergone neoadjuvant radiotherapy. Demographic, clinical
      and histopathological data were evaluated. RESULTS: Over a mean follow-up time of
      55.2 (8-139) months, 5 patients (21.7%) died secondary to disease progression,
      leaving 18 patients (78.3%) still alive at the time of last follow-up. Only one
      patient (4%) experienced local recurrence and six (26%) patients developed
      distant metastases. Disease-free survival at 5 and 10 years were 66%; whereas,
      overall patient survival at 5 and 10 years were 78.1% and 71.0%, respectively.
      Tumor size (>15 cm) and presence of metastasis were significantly associated with
      increased overall mortality. On histopathology, necrosis was present in 12/23
      resection specimens. Hyalinization/fibrosis and residual viable tumor was present
      in all specimens. Adipocytic maturation/cytodifferentiation was seen in 8/23
      patients. CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant radiotherapy was effective for myxoid
      liposarcomas histopathologically, although these histopathological features did
      not affect the patients' oncological outcomes. Favorable oncological outcomes
      were obtained with neoadjuvant radiotherapy, surgical resection and chemotherapy.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, therapeutic study.

PMID- 28869068
TI  - Re: Silke Gillessen, Gerhardt Attard, Tomasz M. Beer, et al. Management of
      Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer: The Report of the Advanced Prostate
      Cancer Consensus Conference APCCC 2017. Eur Urol 2018;73:178-211.

PMID- 28869067
TI  - National Testing of the Nursing-Kids Intensity of Care Survey for Pediatric Long
      term Care.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to test the Nursing-Kids Intensity of Care,
      a measure of the intensity of nursing care needs, defined as the quantity and
      type of direct and indirect care activities performed by caregivers in a national
      sample. DESIGN AND METHODS: A 40-item tool previously tested in a small sample
      was psychometrically tested on a sample of 116 children with complex medical
      conditions by 33 nurse raters across 11 pediatric sites. RESULTS: The Nursing
      Kids Intensity of Care tool demonstrated components of usability, feasibility,
      inter-rater, test-retest and internal consistency reliability and construct
      validity in the national study sample. CONCLUSIONS: Additional testing to further
      establish psychometric sufficiency and expanded use to quantify the intensity of
      nursing care needs of children with complex medical conditions in pediatric long
      term care settings is recommended. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This novel measure
      could assist the nursing administrators, educators and staff of pediatric long
      term care facilities assess the intensity of care needs of their residents.

PMID- 28869069
TI  - Reply to Finn E. von Eyben, Irene Virgolini and Giandomenico Roviello's Letter to
      the Editor re: Silke Gillessen, Gerhardt Attard, Tomasz M. Beer, et al.
      Management of Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer: The Report of the Advanced
      Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference APCCC 2017. Eur Urol 2018;73:178-211.

PMID- 28869070
TI  - Natural attenuation of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in soils due to its vertical
      and lateral migration.
AB  - Processes of vertical and lateral migration lead to gradual reduction in
      contamination of catchment soil, particularly its top layer. The reduction can be
      considered as natural attenuation. This, in turn, results in a gradual decrease
      of radiocesium activity concentrations in the surface runoff and river water, in
      both dissolved and particulate forms. The purpose of this research is to study
      the dynamics of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in undisturbed soils and floodplain
      deposits exposed to erosion and sedimentation during floods. Combined
      observations of radiocesium vertical distribution in soil and sediment deposition
      on artificial lawn-grass mats on the Niida River floodplain allowed us to
      estimate both annual mean sediment accumulation rates and maximum sedimentation
      rates corresponding to an extreme flood event during Tropical Storm Etau, 6-11
      September 2015. Dose rates were reduced considerably for floodplain sections with
      high sedimentation because the top soil layer with high radionuclide
      contamination was eroded and/or buried under cleaner fresh sediments produced
      mostly due to bank erosion and sediments movements. Rate constants of natural
      attenuation on the sites of the Takase River and floodplain of Niida River was
      found to be in range 0.2-0.4 year-1. For the site in the lower reach of the Niida
      River, collimated shield dose readings from soil surfaces slightly increased
      during the period of observation from February to July 2016. Generally, due to
      more precipitation, steeper slopes, higher temperatures and increased biological
      activities in soils, self-purification of radioactive contamination in Fukushima
      associated with vertical and lateral radionuclide migration is faster than in
      Chernobyl. In many cases, monitored natural attenuation along with appropriate
      restrictions seems to be optimal option for water remediation in Fukushima
      contaminated areas.

PMID- 28869072
TI  - Mid upper arm circumference and Powell-Tuck and Hennessy's equation correlate
      with body mass index and can be used sequentially in gastrostomy fed patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Body Mass Index (BMI) is a simple and widespread method to
      assess undernutrition. However its use may be limited in bedridden patients.
      AIMS: 1) compare BMI, Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) and Powell-Tuck and
      Hennessy's regression equation for BMI (BMIPTH) in gastrostomy fed patients, 2)
      validate its correlation for sequential use and 3) select the best cut-off of
      MUAC and BMIPTH to predict risk of undernutrition. METHODS: Prospective study
      including adult patients who underwent endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). BMI, MUAC
      and BMIPTH adjusted for sex and age were determined at the day of gastrostomy
      (0), first (1) and third (3) months of follow up. Correlations between BMI and
      MUAC and BMIPTH were calculated at all time-points using Spearman's test. MUAC's
      Area Under ROC (AUROC) to predict risk of undernutrition (BMI <= 18,5 kg/m2 in
      non-elderly (<65 years) and BMI <= 22,5 kg/m2 in elderly (>=65 years)) was
      calculated with DeLong method and Youden Index was used to select the best cut
      off for this outcome. RESULTS: 405 PEG patients were included (69,9% males,
      median age 62,9 +/- 15,3 years). Head and neck cancer and neurological disorders
      were the main indications for gastrostomy. BMI correlated moderately with BMIPTH0
      (rho = 0.646-0.694), MUAC0 (rho = 0.669) and MUAC1 (rho = 0.699). BMI correlated
      strongly with BMIPTH1 (rho = 0.764-0.794), BMIPTH3 (rho = 0.714-0.732) and MUAC3
      (rho = 0.725). MUAC and BMIPTH's accuracy was not significantly different to
      predict undernutrition neither in elderly (AUROC 0.835 +/- 0.033 Vs. 0.836 +/-
      0.033 respectively, p = 0.319) nor in non-elderly patients (AUROC 0.857 +/- 0.027
      Vs. 0.888 +/- 0.053 respectively, p = 0.256). MUAC <26 cm (positive predictive
      value (PPV) 83.5%) or BMIPTH <22 kg/m2 (PPV 83.5%) in elderly and MUAC <25 cm
      (PPV 90.7%) or BMIPTH <21 kg/m2 (PPV 91.7%) in non-elderly can accurately predict
      risk of undernutrition in PEG patients. CONCLUSIONS: MUAC and BMIPTH correlated
      with BMI not only at the day of PEG placement but also at the 1st and 3rd month
      of follow up and were equivalent to predict risk of undernutrition according to
      the new cut-offs defined for this population.

PMID- 28869071
TI  - Role of transplanted bone marrow cells in development of rotator cuff muscle
      fatty degeneration in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rotator cuff muscle fatty degeneration after a chronic tendon tear is
      an irreversible pathologic change associated with poor clinical outcomes of
      tendon repair, and its exact pathogenesis remains unknown. We sought to
      investigate the role of transplanted bone marrow cells in the development of
      fatty degeneration, specifically in adipocyte accumulation, using a mouse model.
      METHODS: Fourteen mice were divided into 2 bone marrow chimeric animal groups:
      bone marrow transplantation (BMT) group and reverse BMT group. For the BMT group,
      C57BL/6J wild-type mice underwent whole body irradiation followed by BMT into the
      retro-orbital sinus from green fluorescent protein (GFP)-transgenic donor mice.
      For the reverse BMT group, GFP-transgenic mice received BMT from C57BL/6J wild
      type donor mice after irradiation. The supraspinatus tendon, infraspinatus
      tendon, and suprascapular nerve were surgically transected 3 weeks after
      transplantation. The rotator cuff muscles were harvested 13 weeks after
      transplantation for histologic analysis and GFP immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: On
      histologic examination, both groups showed substantial fatty degeneration,
      fibrosis, and atrophy of the cuff muscles. The BMT group showed no noticeable GFP
      immunostaining, whereas the reverse BMT group showed significantly stronger GFP
      staining in most adipocytes (P < .001). However, both groups also showed that a
      small number of adipocytes originated from transplanted bone marrow cells. A
      small number of myocytes showed a large cytoplasmic lipid vacuole resembling
      adipocytes. CONCLUSIONS: This study's findings suggest that most adipocytes in
      fatty degeneration of the rotator cuff muscles originate from sources other than
      bone marrow-derived stem cells, and there may be more than 1 source for the
      adipocytes.

PMID- 28869073
TI  - Association of the rs10830963 polymorphism in melatonin receptor type 1B (MTNR1B)
      with metabolic response after weight loss secondary to a hypocaloric diet based
      in Mediterranean style.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Some genetic variants within MTNR1B were related with fasting
      glucose levels or the increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus and obesity. The
      aims of the present investigation were to determine the influence of rs10830963
      MTNR1B variant in relation to body weight loss, insulin resistance and adipokine
      levels in response to a hypocaloric diet with Mediterranean pattern. METHODS: A
      Caucasian population of 80 obese patients was studied before and after 12 weeks
      on a hypocaloric diet. Body weight, fat mass, waist circumference, blood
      pressure, fasting blood glucose, C-reactive protein (CRP), insulin concentration,
      insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), lipoprotein levels and adipocytokines levels
      (leptin, adiponectin and resistin) were measured. Genotype of MTNR1B gene single
      nucleotide polymorphism (rs10830963) was evaluated. RESULTS: In total, 44
      patients (55%) had the genotype CC, 27 patients CG (33.8%) and 9 patients GG
      (11.2%). With the dietary intervention body mass index, weight, fat mass,
      systolic blood pressure, leptin levels and waist circumference decreased in both
      groups. There were no significant differences between gender groups on the
      reported effects in each genotype group. However, the improvement of
      anthropometric parameters was higher in subjects with CC genotype than (GC + GG)
      genotype. After dietary intervention and in males with CC genotype, insulin
      levels (-5.3 +/- 4.8 UI/L vs 1.2 +/- 4.1 UI/L; p < 0.05) and HOMA-IR (-1.4 +/-
      2.1 units vs 0.4 +/- 2.0 units; p < 0.05) decreased. In the group of females with
      CC genotype, insulin levels (-3.5 +/- 2.1 UI/L vs. -1.4 +/- 2.2 UI/L: p < 0.05)
      and HOMA-IR (-1.4 +/- 1.2 units vs. -0.1 +/- 1.3 units: p < 0.05) decreased, too.
      However, these parameters remained unchanged in (GC + GG) group. Fasting glucose
      levels were higher in patients in (GC + GG). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the
      association of rs10830963 MTNR1B single nucleotide polymorphism with body weight
      loss and changes in fasting insulin levels and HOMA-IR in obese subjects.

PMID- 28869074
TI  - The Forgotten Ventricle.

PMID- 28869076
TI  - Reduction of the birth rate in Sao Paulo: a probable effect of the panic caused
      by the Zika-associated microcephaly epidemic.

PMID- 28869075
TI  - Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Perioperative Review.

PMID- 28869077
TI  - Current approaches to the treatment of Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder.
      Clinical approaches to manage PD include symptomatic therapies, serving to
      compensate for the effects of dopaminergic neuronal deficits, as well as more
      recently a move toward disease modification, with the goal of slowing or stopping
      disease progression. This perspective surveys the approved therapies for PD
      treatment as well as provides a view of the ongoing clinical approaches aimed at
      improving outcomes for PD patients.

PMID- 28869078
TI  - Increasing access to thoracic organs from donors infected with hepatitis C: A
      previous challenge-now an opportunity.

PMID- 28869079
TI  - The challenging diagnosis of Chagas disease reactivation in endomyocardial
      biopsies from heart-transplanted patients.

PMID- 28869080
TI  - Altered chemokine receptor expression in the peripheral blood lymphocytes in
      polymyositis and dermatomyositis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the expression of chemokine receptors in different
      peripheral blood T-cell subsets in patients with polymyositis (PM) and
      dermatomyositis (DM). METHODS: We used flow cytometry to measure the frequencies
      of chemokinereceptors CXCR3 and CCR4 expression in the CD4+ or CD8+ lymphocytes.
      Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays were also used to measure the concentrations
      of C-X-C motif chemokine 10 (CXCL10), thymus and activation regulated chemokine
      (TARC) and macrophage derived chemokine (MDC). RESULTS: Comparing to 20 healthy
      controls, %CD4+CXCR3+ and %CD8+CXCR3+ T cells significantly decreased in 33DM
      patients, and %CD8+CXCR3+ cells decreased in 24PM patients, but %CD4+CCR4+ and
      %CD8+CCR4+ cells did not significantly change in both the PM and DM patients.
      Accordingly, the Th1/Th2 polarization, analyzed as the balance obtained after
      dividing %CD4+CXCR3+ cells by %CD4+CCR4+ cells, showed a significant reduction in
      DM. The serum concentration of CXCR3+ ligand, CXCL10, significantly increased and
      negatively correlated with circulating %CD4+CXCR3+ cells in DM patients. There
      was no significant change of TARC and MDC in PM and DM patients. Furthermore,
      %CD4+CXCR3+ cells decreased more severely in the patients with interstitial lung
      disease. CONCLUSIONS: The present results indicate that the distributions of
      circulating CXCR3+ T-cells differ among the PM and DM cases. Our findings suggest
      a pathogenic difference between PM and DM.

PMID- 28869081
TI  - Differential regulation of IL-23 production in M1 macrophages by TIR8/SIGIRR
      through TLR4- or TLR7/8-mediated signaling.
AB  - Cross-talks between toll-like receptors (TLRs) including various negative
      regulatory mechanisms are many unknown. We investigated the differential
      mechanism of IL-23 production in M1 macrophages by single immunoglobulin
      interleukin-1 receptor-related (SIGIRR) molecule through TLR4 or TLR7/8. IL-12p40
      production by M1 macrophages pretreated with human neutrophil elastase (HNE) was
      synergistically enhanced IL-12p40, but not IL-23 production, after exposure to
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS (a TLR4 agonist) induced a slight increase of IL-23
      production, while Resiquimod (a TLR7/8 agonist) significantly enhanced IL-23
      production. Expression of SIGIRR protein, a negative regulator of TLR4, was
      higher in M1 macrophages than in monocytes. Interestingly, SIGIRR siRNA induced a
      slight increment of IL-23 production after exposure of macrophages to LPS, while
      IL-23 production in response to Resiquimod was significantly upregulated by
      SIGIRR siRNA. Silencing SIGIRR enhanced IRF4 protein level determined by western
      blotting or ELISA. IRF4 siRNA dramatically restored IL-23 production after
      exposure to Resiquimod in macrophages transfected with SIGIRR siRNA. In
      conclusion, production of IL-23 is differentially regulated in M1 macrophages by
      SIGIRR through TLR4- or TLR7/8-mediated signaling. SIGIRR is both a negative
      regulator of TLR4 and a positive regulator of TLR7/8.

PMID- 28869083
TI  - Antifungal effect of cow's urine distillate on Candida species.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increase in resistance of Candida species, to routinely used
      antifungal agents has necessitated the quest for new drugs. Few studies have
      revealed that cow's urine can suppress the growth of pathogenic fungi. However
      there is no published report on antifungal effects of cow's urine on clinical
      Candida isolates. OBJECTIVE: The present study aims at exploring the antifungal
      potential of cow's urine on clinical isolates of Candida species. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this in-vitro experimental study four standard strains and 37
      clinical isolates of Candida species were tested for their susceptibility to
      amphotericin B, fluconazole and voriconazole, by disk diffusion method. Detection
      of MIC of cow's urine for the Candida isolates was done by agar dilution method
      using 20-50% concentration of cow's urine. RESULTS: Clinical isolates of Candida
      albicans n = 22 (59.5%) Candida glabrata n = 6 (16.2%), Candida tropicalis n = 3
      (8.1%) and other Candida species n = 6 were tested for their antifungal
      susceptibility. Among them, 18.9% were resistant to voriconazole, 24.3% to
      amphotericin B and 35.1% to fluconazole. Statistically significant association
      was observed between susceptibility of voriconazole and that of cow's urine (p =
      0.045). C. albicans ATCC14053, Candida parapsilosis ATCC22019 and 75.7% of
      clinical isolates of Candida were susceptible to cow's urine. CONCLUSION: Cow's
      urine distillate has concentration dependent inhibitory effect on Candida species
      and is effective on the isolates that are either resistant or sensitive to the
      routinely used antifungal agents.

PMID- 28869085
TI  - Success rates and complications of autologous onlay bone grafts and sinus lifts
      in patients with congenital hypodontia and after trauma.
AB  - Autogenous bone remains the gold standard for augmentation of the alveolar ridge
      in congenital hypodontia and appreciable post-traumatic deformity. This generally
      reflects the volume of material required for such defects and the osteogenic
      potential of the grafts. Morbidity at the donor site and success rates may lead
      to autogenous grafts being superseded by xenografts or alloplastic materials in
      the future, but we know of little evidence to confirm this. All patients having
      augmentation of the alveolar ridge or sinus lift to enable subsequent placement
      of implants between 01 January 2009 and 31 December 2016 were identified from a
      prospectively-gathered database held at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
      Morbidity was recorded, with overall success defined as a graft that enabled
      subsequent placement of an implant. During this period the following grafts:
      calvarial (n=4), iliac crest (n=4), and ramus (n=149) were recorded, as well as
      53 sinus lifts. Sinus lift augmentation with BioOss(r) had the highest success
      rate (51/53). Calvarial and iliac crest grafts had higher failure rates (2/4 and
      3/4, respectively) than those from the mandibular ramus (6/149, 4%). Fifteen of
      149 (10%) ramus grafts resulted in transient anaesthesia of the inferior alveolar
      nerve but no patients developed any permanent morbidity at the donor or recipient
      sites. Ramus grafts are a predictable method of bone augmentation with only
      transient morbidity at the donor site. Higher failure rates for extraoral grafts
      probably reflect their use in more challenging cases when more bone is required.
      Bilateral ramus grafts are an alternative to extraoral grafts and may be
      supplemented by bovine-derived particulate grafts with no appreciable increase in
      complications.

PMID- 28869084
TI  - UPAR targeted molecular imaging of cancers with small molecule-based probes.
AB  - Molecular imaging can allow the non-invasive characterization and measurement of
      biological and biochemical processes at the molecular and cellular levels in
      living subjects. The imaging of specific molecular targets that are associated
      with cancers could allow for the earlier diagnosis and better treatment of
      diseases. Small molecule-based probes play prominent roles in biomedical research
      and have high clinical translation ability. Here, with an emphasis on small
      molecule-based probes, we review some recent developments in biomarkers, imaging
      techniques and multimodal imaging in molecular imaging and highlight the
      successful applications for molecular imaging of cancers.

PMID- 28869086
TI  - Bacterial Tubulins: A Eukaryotic-Like Microtubule Cytoskeleton.
AB  - Ever since their discovery, bacterial tubulins, found in several Prosthecobacter
      species, have raised curiosity as they are closely related to eukaryotic tubulin.
      Deng and colleagues now present new evidence for the functional homology of the
      two cytoskeletal systems where in vitro reconstituted Btub-microtubules display
      eukaryote-like biochemical and dynamic properties.

PMID- 28869082
TI  - Development of botanicals to combat antibiotic resistance.
AB  - The discovery of antibiotics in the previous century lead to reduction in
      mortality and morbidity due to infectious diseases but their inappropriate and
      irrational use has resulted in emergence of resistant microbial populations.
      Alteration of target sites, active efflux of drugs and enzymatic degradations are
      the strategies employed by the pathogenic bacteria to develop intrinsic
      resistance to antibiotics. This has led to an increased interest in medicinal
      plants since 25-50% of current pharmaceuticals are plant derived. Crude extracts
      of medicinal plants could serve as an alternate source of resistance modifying
      agents owing to the wide variety of secondary metabolites. These metabolites
      (alkaloids, tannins, polyphenols etc.) could act as potentials for antimicrobials
      and resistance modifiers. Plant extracts have the ability to bind to protein
      domains leading to modification or inhibition protein-protein interactions. This
      enables the herbals to also present themselves as effective modulators of host
      related cellular processes viz immune response, mitosis, apoptosis and signal
      transduction. Thus they may exert their activity not only by killing the
      microorganism but by affecting key events in the pathogenic process, thereby, the
      bacteria, fungi and viruses may have a reduced ability to develop resistance to
      botanicals. The article is meant to stimulate research wherein the cidal activity
      of the extract is not the only parameter considered but other mechanism of action
      by which plants can combat drug resistant microbes are investigated. The present
      article emphasizes on mechanisms involved in countering multi drug resistance.

PMID- 28869087
TI  - [Chemical peels and management of skin aging].
AB  - Chemical peels are an alternative and/or a complementary treatment to the
      surgical procedures for skin aging. The purpose of this article is to specify the
      procedures and the indications of the three principal types of chemical peels:
      alpha-hydroxy acids, trichloracetic acid, phenol-croton oil peel. The clinical
      examination will determine the depth of the lesions to treat and will take into
      consideration counter-indications and specific limits to each patient. Chemical
      peel is a four step procedure: pre-peel preparation, peeling itself, recovery
      phase and maintenance phase. The preparation is a very important phase which
      requires a thorough knowledge of cosmetics. This preparation can extend to any
      medical or surgical treatment for aging skin. Various techniques of peelings:
      superficial, medium, deep, combined and mosaic peel will be detailed. These
      procedures require a rigorous training and a distinct learning curve. The follow
      up will be specified as well as the management of the possible complications.

PMID- 28869088
TI  - Corrigendum to "Acute and sub-chronic oral toxicity studies of erythritol in
      Beagle dogs" [Food Chem. Toxicol. 105 (2017) 448-455].

PMID- 28869089
TI  - Translating Economic Evidence for Public Health: Knowledge Brokers and the
      Interactive Systems Framework.

PMID- 28869090
TI  - SES, Chronic Kidney Disease, and Race in the U.S.: A Systematic Review and Meta
      analysis.
AB  - CONTEXT: The risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the U.S. is higher in
      individuals with low SES than in those with high SES. However, differences in
      these risks between African Americans and whites are unclear. EVIDENCE
      ACQUISITION: Studies published through August 30, 2016 in Medline and EMBASE were
      searched. From the seven studies (1,775,267 participants) that met inclusion
      criteria, association estimates were pooled by race in meta-analysis. The ratio
      of association estimates and the corresponding 95% CIs for African Americans and
      whites were also pooled in meta-analysis. Additionally, meta-regression analysis
      was used to explore whether race is related to the strength of SES-CKD
      association. The analysis was conducted in September 2016. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS:
      The risk of CKD in low-SES people was 58% higher in African Americans (relative
      risk=1.58, 95% CI=1.33, 1.84) and 91% higher in whites (relative risk=1.91, 95%
      CI=1.47, 2.35) compared with their high-SES counterparts. The relative risk of
      CKD in low SES (versus high SES) was lower in African Americans than in whites
      (relative risk ratio=0.71, 95% CI=0.65, 0.77). Results from meta-regression
      analyses also indicated that race is potentially related to the strength of the
      association between low SES and CKD (p for difference between whites and African
      Americans=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of CKD in low SES (versus high SES) is
      higher in whites than in African Americans.

PMID- 28869091
TI  - Potential Functional Benefit From Light Intensity Physical Activity in Knee
      Osteoarthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Knee pain may preclude participation in higher intensity physical
      activity in people with knee osteoarthritis and benefits of light activity are
      unclear. The effect of replacing sedentary time with light intensity activity on
      incident functional limitation 2 years later was investigated. METHODS: Included
      were people with or at high risk of knee osteoarthritis without baseline
      functional limitation using data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative collected
      between August 2008 and July 2010. Data were analyzed between May 2016 and August
      2016 for time in sedentary, light, and moderate to vigorous physical activity
      from accelerometer monitoring. Incident functional limitation was defined as (1)
      slow gait speed <1.0 meters/second during a 20-meter walk, (2) Western Ontario
      and McMasters University Osteoarthritis Index physical function >=28, or (3)
      Short Form 12 Physical Component scale <40. RESULTS: Inclusion criteria were met
      by 1,873 people (mean age=65.0 [SD=9.0] years, mean BMI=28.4 [SD=4.7] kg/m2).
      Replacing 60 minutes/day of sedentary time with 60 minutes/day of light activity
      was associated with a 17% reduced risk for incident slow gait speed 2 years later
      (Hazard Ratio=0.83, 95% CI=0.70, 0.99) after adjustment. Approximately 5
      minutes/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity would be necessary to
      receive the equivalent benefit of 60 minutes/day of light activity. Effects in
      secondary patient-reported outcomes did not reach statistical significance.
      CONCLUSIONS: Replacing sedentary time with light activity may reduce the risk of
      performance-based functional limitation. As expected, moderate to vigorous
      physical activity rather than light provided stronger risk reduction. When
      moderate to vigorous physical activity is not an option, pursuing light activity
      may be a beneficial alternative to being sedentary.

PMID- 28869092
TI  - Oral Health-Promoting School Environments and Dental Caries in Quebec Children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Dental caries are highly prevalent among children and have negative
      health consequences. Their occurrence may depend in part on school-based
      environmental or policy-related factors, but few researchers have explored this
      subject. This study aimed to identify oral health promoting school environment
      types and estimate their relation with 2-year dental caries incidence among
      Quebec children aged 8-10 years. METHODS: This study used data from two visits
      (completed in 2008 and 2011) of the QUALITY (Quebec Adipose Lifestyle
      Investigation in Youth) cohort, which recruited white children at risk of obesity
      and their families from Greater Montreal schools. Measures included school and
      neighborhood characteristics, and Decayed, Missing, Filled-Surfaces index scores.
      Principal component and cluster analyses, and generalized estimating equations
      were conducted. RESULTS: Data were available for 330 children attending 200
      schools. Based on a series of statistical analyses conducted in 2016, the authors
      identified three distinct school environment types. Type 1 and 2 schools had
      strong healthy eating programs, whereas Type 3 had weak programs. Type 1 schools
      had favorable neighborhood food environments, whereas Type 2 and 3 had
      unfavorable ones. Adjusting for potential confounders, children attending Type 1
      and 2 schools had 21% (incidence rate ratio=0.79, 95% CI=0.68, 0.90) and 6%
      (incidence rate ratio=0.94, 95% CI=0.83, 1.07) lower 2-year incidence of dental
      caries, respectively, compared with Type 3 schools. CONCLUSIONS: School-based
      oral health promotion programs combined with a favorable neighborhood can lower
      dental caries incidence in school children.

PMID- 28869093
TI  - The Guide to Community Preventive Services and Disability Inclusion.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Approximately 40 million people in the U.S. identify as having a
      serious disability, and people with disabilities experience many health
      disparities compared with the general population. The Guide to Community
      Preventive Services (The Community Guide) identifies evidence-based programs and
      policies recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force)
      to promote health and prevent disease. The Community Guide was assessed to answer
      the questions: are Community Guide public health intervention recommendations
      applicable to people with disabilities, and are adaptations required? METHODS: An
      assessment of 91 recommendations from The Community Guide was conducted for 15
      health topics by qualitative analysis involving three data approaches: an
      integrative literature review (years 1980-2011), key informant interviews, and
      focus group discussion during 2011. RESULTS: Twenty-six recommended interventions
      would not need any adaptation to be of benefit to people with disabilities. Forty
      one recommended interventions could benefit from adaptations in communication and
      technology; 33 could benefit from training adaptations; 31 from physical
      accessibility adaptations; and 16 could benefit from other adaptations, such as
      written policy changes and creation of peer support networks. Thirty-eight
      recommended interventions could benefit from one or more adaptations to enhance
      disability inclusion. CONCLUSIONS: As public health and healthcare systems
      implement Task Force recommendations, identifying and addressing barriers to full
      participation for people with disabilities is important so that interventions
      reach the entire population. With appropriate adaptations, implementation of
      recommendations from The Community Guide could be successfully expanded to
      address the needs of people with disabilities.

PMID- 28869094
TI  - Effect of age and gender on the QTc-interval in healthy individuals and patients
      with long-QT syndrome.
AB  - Age- and gender-related differences in QTc-interval are most likely the result of
      changes in sex-specific hormones. Although the exact mechanisms and
      pathophysiology of sex hormones on the QTc-interval are not known, testosterone
      appears to shorten the QTc-interval. In females, however, there is a more complex
      interaction between progesterone and estrogen. In patients with an impaired
      repolarization, such as long-QT syndrome (LQTS), the effect of these sex hormones
      on the QTc-interval is more pronounced with a differing sensitivity between the
      LQTS genotypes.

PMID- 28869096
TI  - Profiling of experiential pleasure, emotional regulation and emotion expression
      in patients with schizophrenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emotion deficits may be the basis of negative symptoms in
      schizophrenia patients and they are prevalent in these patients. However,
      inconsistent findings about emotion deficits in schizophrenia suggest that there
      may be subtypes. AIM: The present study aimed to examine and profile experiential
      pleasure, emotional regulation and expression in patients with schizophrenia.
      METHODS: A set of checklists specifically capturing experiential pleasure,
      emotional regulation, emotion expression, depressive symptoms and anhedonia were
      administered to 146 in-patients with schizophrenia and 73 demographically-matched
      healthy controls. Psychiatric symptoms and negative symptoms were also evaluated
      by a trained psychiatrist for patients with schizophrenia. RESULTS: Two-stage
      cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis were used to analyze the
      profile of these measures in patients with schizophrenia. We found a three
      cluster solution. Cluster 1 (n=41) was characterized by a deficit in experiential
      pleasure and emotional regulation, Cluster 2 (n=47) was characterized by a
      general deficit in experiential pleasure, emotional regulation and emotion
      expression, and Cluster 3 (n=57) was characterized by a deficit in emotion
      expression. Results of a discriminant function analysis indicated that the three
      groups were reasonably discrete. CONCLUSION: The present findings suggest that
      schizophrenia patients can be classified into three subtypes based on
      experiential pleasure, emotional regulation and emotion expression, which are
      characterized by distinct clinical representations.

PMID- 28869097
TI  - CBT in the prevention of psychosis and other severe mental disorders in patients
      with an at risk mental state: A review and proposed next steps.
AB  - Patients with an 'At risk mental state' (ARMS) for developing psychosis can be
      treated successfully with CBT to postpone and prevent the transition to a first
      psychotic episode. A characteristic of individuals that meet ARMS criteria is
      that they are still open for multiple explanations for extraordinary experiences.
      CBT aims to normalize extraordinary experiences with education and to prevent
      delusional explanations. The treatment is not only effective, but also cost
      saving in averting psychosis as well as in reducing disability adjusted life
      years at 18- and 48-month follow-up. Profiling within the ARMS group results in a
      personalized treatment. The screening and early treatment for ARMS fulfills all
      the criteria of the World Health Organization and is ready to be routine
      screening and treatment in mental health care. At the same time, ARMS patients
      are complex patients with multi-morbid disorders. Especially childhood trauma is
      associated to ARMS status, together with co-morbid PTSD, depression, substance
      abuse and anxiety disorders. Psychotic symptoms appear to be severity markers in
      other non-psychotic disorders. Preventing psychosis in ARMS patients should be
      broadened to also address other disorders and aim to reduce chronicity of
      psychopathology and improve social functioning in general. Several mechanisms
      play a part in psychopathology in ARMS patients such as stress sensitivity as a
      result of adverse experiences, dopamine sensitivity that is associated with
      salience and aggravates several cognitive biases, dissociation mediating between
      trauma and hallucinations, and low self-esteem and self-stigma. New avenues to
      treat the complexity of ARMS patients will be proposed.

PMID- 28869095
TI  - Biology and clinical relevance of noncoding sno/scaRNAs.
AB  - Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are a group of noncoding RNAs that perform various
      biological functions, including biochemical modifications of other RNAs,
      precursors of miRNA, splicing, and telomerase activity. The small Cajal body
      associated RNAs (scaRNAs) are a subset of the snoRNA family and collect in the
      Cajal body where they perform their canonical function to biochemically modify
      spliceosomal RNAs prior to maturation. Failure of sno/scaRNAs have been
      implicated in pathology such as congenital heart anomalies, neuromuscular
      disorders, and various malignancies. Thus, understanding of sno/scaRNAs
      demonstrates the clinical value.

PMID- 28869098
TI  - Measurement of blood lactate, D-dimer, and activated prothrombin time improves
      prediction of in-hospital mortality in adults blunt trauma.

PMID- 28869099
TI  - Impact of implementation of the HEART pathway using an electronic clinical
      decision support tool in a community hospital setting.

PMID- 28869100
TI  - Rivaroxaban program for acute venous thromboembolism upon ED discharge, with
      focus on utility of commercially available dose pack.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a rivaroxaban discharge initiative on the
      efficacy and safety of acute venous thromboembolism treatment in emergency
      department patients. PRACTICE INNOVATION: Patients discharged on rivaroxaban from
      the emergency department were provided extensive counseling along with a
      commercially-available medication dose pack by the ED pharmacist. Patients were
      contacted by phone until they had obtained outpatient follow-up and remained
      adherent to anticoagulation beyond the initial first month of treatment. METHODS:
      In this retrospective chart review over a thirteen month period, efficacy and
      safety outcomes were compared between patients with intervention versus those who
      received usual care. Efficacy was defined by reduced 90-day readmission rates due
      to nonadherence or treatment failure, and improved medication adherence beyond
      the first month from discharge. Safety was determined by comparing 90-day
      readmission rates due to bleeding or adverse event. RESULTS: 41 patients received
      intervention with rivaroxaban, and 34 patients received usual care, with 76%
      prescribed rivaroxaban and remaining patients started on enoxaparin alone (6%) or
      enoxaparin plus warfarin (18%). Improved treatment efficacy in the intervention
      group was not found to be statistically significant. Safety outcomes were similar
      between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Home treatment of acute VTE, facilitated by
      medication dose pack, is a promising tactic to ensure both immediate and long
      term treatment efficacy and safety. Further studies are warranted to demonstrate
      clinical superiority of this intervention.

PMID- 28869101
TI  - Recycling of plastic waste: Screening for brominated flame retardants (BFRs).
AB  - Flame retardants are chemicals vital for reducing risks of fire and preventing
      human casualties and property losses. Due to the abundance, low cost and high
      performance of bromine, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) have had a significant
      share of the market for years. Physical stability on the other hand, has resulted
      in dispersion and accumulation of selected BFRs in the environment and receiving
      biota. A wide range of plastic products may contain BFRs. This affects the
      quality of waste plastics as secondary resource: material recycling may
      potentially reintroduce the BFRs into new plastic product cycles and lead to
      increased exposure levels, e.g. through use of plastic packaging materials. To
      provide quantitative and qualitative data on presence of BFRs in plastics, we
      analysed bromophenols (tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), dibromophenols (2,4- and
      2,6-DBP) and 2,4,6-tribromophenol (2,4,6-TBP)), hexabromocyclododecane
      stereoisomers (alpha-, beta-, and gamma-HBCD), as well as selected polybrominated
      diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in samples of household waste plastics, virgin and
      recycled plastics. A considerable number of samples contained BFRs, with highest
      concentrations associated with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS, up to
      26,000,000ngTBBPA/g) and polystyrene (PS, up to 330,000ng?HBCD/g). Abundancy in
      low concentrations of some BFRs in plastic samples suggested either unintended
      addition in plastic products or degradation of higher molecular weight BFRs. The
      presence of currently restricted flame retardants (PBDEs and HBCD) identified in
      the plastic samples illustrates that circular material flows may be contaminated
      for extended periods. The screening clearly showed a need for improved
      documentation and monitoring of the presence of BFRs in plastic waste routed to
      recycling.

PMID- 28869102
TI  - Quality improvement program of adult urinary tract infection management: Review
      and impact.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A quality improvement program for adult urinary tract infection
      management was established to avoid unnecessary antibiotic treatment and to
      promote adequate prescription, associated with financial and time savings.
      METHODS: Management was integrated into a three-step approach: clinical
      diagnosis, bacteriological diagnosis, and therapeutic decision. For each step,
      areas for improvement were prioritized and implemented through corrective
      measures and key messages, measured by indicators. This program was applied to
      the whole hospital, which includes an emergency department and hospital units
      (672 beds). RESULTS: The diffusion of new recommendations on clinical diagnosis
      helped limit the use of Urine Dipstick Tests (UDT) and identify situations
      requiring the prescription of urine cytobacteriological test (UCBE) and
      antibiotic treatment: decreased annual consumption of UDTs (34%) and UCBEs (25%).
      The implementation of a new sampling system for UCBEs was associated with a 21%
      increase in conclusive analysis. Results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing
      were also optimized. Trainings on the proper use of antibiotics led to a 5.0%
      decline in global consumption. Only 23 antibiotic prescriptions for UTI resulted
      in pharmaceutical advice to prescribers in 2014. CONCLUSION: The program is part
      of a practice improvement strategy. Integrating the management of urinary tract
      infections into a global process helped improve each step of patient management.

PMID- 28869103
TI  - Clinical manifestations and STK11 germline mutations in Taiwanese patients with
      Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS: Clinical manifestations and molecular basis of Taiwanese patients
      with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) were investigated to add the knowledge of
      phenotype and genotype of the disease. METHODS: Based on the Pathology Data Bank
      and the Colorectal Cancer Register, we collected their clinical data. The entire
      coding sequence of the STK11 gene was amplified and analyzed by sequencing using
      the genomic DNA. RESULTS: Fifteen patients diagnosed with PJS from 11 unrelated
      families were collected until 2015. The median age at the onset of symptoms was
      19 years with intussusception as the most frequent presenting symptom. Ten
      patients developing 11 cancers at various anatomical sites, including two cases
      of sinonasal cancer, two lung cancers, two breast cancers, two rectal cancers,
      two gynecological cancers and one small bowel cancer. Five of the deceased
      patients had died of cancers. The median age of diagnosis of first cancer in the
      probands was 32 years. Seventy patients (7 of 10) diagnosed before age of 40.
      Mutations found in eight families included five novel mutations (exon 6, c.843
      ins G; exon 8, c.2065 delete A; exon 8, c.G923A, nonsense; exon 6, c.748dupA; and
      mTOR c.5107dupA) and three previously reported mutations. The other three PJS
      families without detectable STK11 mutations did not develop malignancies so far.
      CONCLUSION: This is the first comprehensive study of patients with Peutz-Jeghers
      syndrome in the Taiwanese. We have demonstrated that the phenotype of Peutz
      Jeghers syndrome varies greatly among the patients. Patients with detectable
      STK11 mutations have very high risk of developing cancers.

PMID- 28869104
TI  - Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Spinal Cord: Clinical Value, Investigational
      Applications, and Technical Limitations.
AB  - Although diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has become a mainstay in modern brain
      imaging, it remains less utilized in the evaluation of the spinal cord. Many
      studies have shown promise in using DWI and diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) for
      evaluation of the spinal cord; however, application has been stalled by technical
      obstacles and artifacts, and questions remain regarding its clinical utility on
      an individual examination level. This review discusses the background, concepts,
      and technical aspects of DWI and DTI, specifically for imaging of the spinal
      cord. The clinical and investigational applications of spinal cord DTI, as well
      as the practical difficulties and limitations of DWI and DTI for the evaluation
      of the spinal cord are examined.

PMID- 28869105
TI  - Correlation between HBV protein preS2 and tumor markers of hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and Glypican 3 (GPC3) are both oncogenes and
      reactivated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). PreS2 has been proved to be an
      important transactivator in HCC. In this study, we aim to provide evidence that
      HBV protein preS2 is responsible for AFP and GPC3's reactivation in HCC. METHODS:
      Totally Sixty-three cases of HCC, aged 34-79, who were surgically treated and
      pathologically confirmed were enrolled. The levels of AFP in peripheral serum
      were detected with electrochemical luminescence method before surgery. Levels of
      GPC3 in HCC samples were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Luciferase reporter
      assays were used to measure the effect of preS2 on AFP and GPC3 promoters.
      RESULTS: AFP level and GPC3 but not albumin were significantly higher in preS2
      positive HCC samples than preS2-negative HCC samples. And the preS2 protein
      expression was positively related with serum AFP level and GPC3 expression.
      Furtherly, dual luciferase assay showed that preS2 activated AFP and GPC3
      promoter activity. CONCLUSION: The expression of preS2 protein relates closely to
      HCC markers AFP and GPC3.

PMID- 28869106
TI  - Expression of STIM1 is associated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in
      breast cancer.
AB  - STIM1 has been confirmed a key role involving in breast cancer proliferation and
      metastasis in vitro studies and its value in breast cancer patients is still to
      be defined. In this study, we investigate the correlation between STIM1
      expressions with clinicopathologic features and prognosis quantified by disease
      free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). To assess STIM1 expression, we
      conducted immunohistochemistry assays using breast cancer tissues encompassing a
      total of 165 breast cancer cases with detailed follow-up data and 40 cases of
      matched samples including cancer and adjacent normal tissues. STIM1 expression
      was present in 66.1% (109/165) of breast cancer cases which was significantly
      higher than adjacent non-tumor tissues. Larger tumors, lymphnode metastasis and
      negative estrogen receptor were positively associated with STIM1 overexpression.
      Furthermore, STIM1 expression was significantly associated with worse DFS
      (P=0.03) rather than OS in breast cancer patients.

PMID- 28869107
TI  - Molecular characterization of a series of solitary fibrous tumors, including
      immunohistochemical expression of STAT6 and NATB2-STAT6 fusion transcripts, using
      Reverse Transcriptase(RT)-Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) technique: An Indian
      experience.
AB  - A solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is characterized by a diverse clinicopathologic
      spectrum. Recent studies have unraveled STAT6 as a useful diagnostic
      immunohistochemical (IHC) marker for a SFT and NAB2-STAT6 as its specific gene
      fusion transcript. Thirty-three SFTs were tested for STAT6 immunostaining by
      polymer detection technique. STAT6 immunoexpression was further graded, based on
      intensity (mild, moderate and strong) and percentage of immunopositive tumor
      cells, ranging from 1 to 25%(1+); 26-50%(2+); 51-75%(3+) and in more than 75%(4+)
      tumor nuclei. These cases along with 17 other tumors were tested for 8 variants
      of NAB2-STAT6, using qualitative endpoint reverse-transcriptase (RT)-PCR
      technique. RNA extraction was performed using Recover All Total nucleic acid
      extraction kit. The selected cases were screened for all the 8 fusion variants,
      using 8 primer pairs for NAB2 and STAT6 genes. Thirty-three SFTs occurred in 18
      men and 15 women (M: F=1.2:1), with age varying from 13 to 74
      years(average=49.6); across various body sites. Immunohistochemically, most SFTs
      (30/33) (90.9%) displayed moderate to strong immunostaining for STAT6, including
      3+ and 4+ immunostaining patterns in 27/33 (81.8%) tumors. By RT-PCR,
      30/33(90.9%) cases of SFT were positive for NAB2-STAT6 fusions, including
      NAB2ex4/STAT6ex2 (7cases), NAB2ex7/STAT6ex2 (7cases), NAB2ex6/STAT6ex3 (6cases),
      NAB2ex6/SAT6ex16 (4cases), NAB2ex3/STAT6ex19 (4cases), NAB2ex6/STAT6ex17 (single
      case), NAB2ex4/STAT6ex4 (single case) and NAB2ex6/STAT6ex18 (none). NAB2-STAT6
      fusions were not observed in 9 cases of synovial sarcoma, 4 of Ewing sarcoma, 2
      of MPNST and 2 cases of dedifferentiated liposarcomas (100% specificity). On
      comparing with clinical outcomes, more cases (7/11)(63.6%) of classic SFT were
      associated with favorable outcomes, while more cases(5/8)(62%) of atypical and
      malignant SFTs were associated with aggressive outcomes. This study reinforces
      high sensitivity and specificity of NAB2-STAT6 fusion and its correlation with
      strong and diffuse IHC expression of STAT6 in a SFT, irrespective of its
      occurrence in various body sites and its histopathologic types. NAB2ex4-STAT6ex2
      and NAB2ex7-STAT6ex2 fusions were relatively more frequently observed in our
      patients. Atypical and malignant SFTs, together, were more frequently associated
      with relatively aggressive clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28869108
TI  - Cryopreservation of sperm in Grey mullet Mugil cephalus (Linnaeus, 1758).
AB  - The aim of this study was to document the effects of cryopreservation on sperm
      motility and viability in Grey mullet Mugil cephalus. Cryopreservation of sperm
      was attempted by using two extenders ringer solution for marine fish (RSMF) and
      V2 extender (V2E) and cryoprotectants dimethylacetamide (DMA), dimethylsulfoxide
      (DMSO), ethylene glycol (EG), glycerol (GLY), propylene glycol (PG) and methanol
      (MeOH). Cryoprotectants were assessed at different concentrations individually as
      well as in combination with varying equilibration times (10 and 30min). For
      optimization of freezing rate, four freezing protocols (-5, -10, -20 and -30
      degrees C/min) were evaluated. After achieving final temperature, samples were
      plunged in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees C) and stored for a week. Samples were
      subsequently thawed in a water bath at 30 degrees C for assessment of sperm
      motility and viability. Results indicated that cryomedium constituting of V2E
      extender+10% glycerol with a dilution ratio of 1:1 (sperm: cryomedium) at an
      equilibration time of 5 to- 10min and freezing rate of -20 degrees C/min was more
      desirable compared with other factors that were assessed. Use of this protocol
      resulted in retaining the greatest sperm motility grade 3.0+/-0.0 (50%-80% sperm
      movement, fast swimming) and 48.19+/-3.12% of sperm viability. The results of the
      present study, therefore, provide base-line data for establishing a protocol for
      sperm cryopreservation in M.cephalus. Further studies are, however, required for
      optimization of most suitable sperm cryopreservation protocol.

PMID- 28869109
TI  - The association between subclinical mastitis around calving and reproductive
      performance in grazing dairy cows.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of subclinical mastitis
      (SCM) on calving-to-first-service interval (CFS), calving-to-conception interval
      (CC), and on the number of services per conception (S/C) in grazing Holstein and
      Normande cows. Primiparous (n=43) and multiparous (n=165) cows were selected from
      five dairy herds. Two composite milk samples were aseptically collected from each
      cow at drying-off, and then every week during the first postpartum month. One
      sample was used for somatic cell count (SCC), and the other one for
      bacteriological analysis. Cows were followed up to 300 d after calving. Non
      parametric and parametric survival models, and negative binomial regression were
      used to assess the association between SCM, evaluated by SCC and milk culture,
      and reproductive indices. Staphylococcus aureus, CNS, and Streptococcus uberis
      were the most frequent isolated pathogens. Subclinical mastitis in the first
      month of lactation was not associated with CFS; however, the CC interval was
      longer in cows with SCM compared to healthy cows, the former also had a higher
      number of S/C.

PMID- 28869111
TI  - Enhancement of sperm motility and viability by turmeric by-product dietary
      supplementation in roosters.
AB  - Improving sperm motility and viability are major goals to improve efficiency in
      the poultry industry. In this study, the effects of supplemental dietary turmeric
      by-product (TBP) from commercial turmeric production on sperm motility,
      viability, and antioxidative status were examined in domestic fowl. Mature Rhode
      Island Red roosters were divided into two groups - controls (groupC) without TBP
      administration and test subjects (groupT) fed a basal diet supplemented with 0.8g
      of TBP/day in a temperature-controlled rearing facility (Experiment 1) and
      1.6g/day under heat stress (Experiment 2) for 4 weeks. In Experiment 1, TBP
      dietary supplementation increased the sperm motility variables straight-line
      velocity, curvilinear velocity, and linearity based on a computer-assisted semen
      analysis, 2 weeks following TBP supplementation. In Experiment 2, using flow
      cytometry, sperm viability at 3 and 4 weeks following TBP supplementation was
      greater in Group T than C, and this increase was consistent with a reduction in
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) production at 2 and 4 weeks. The results of both
      experiments clearly demonstrate that dietary supplementation with TBP enhanced
      sperm motility in the controlled-temperature conditions as well as sperm
      viability, and reduced ROS generation when heat stress prevailed. Considering its
      potential application in a range of environments, TBP may serve as an economical
      and potent antioxidant to improve rooster fertility.

PMID- 28869110
TI  - Anandamide exerts a suppressive effect on sperm binding to oviduct explants
      through CB1 receptors in the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).
AB  - An endocannabinoid system comprising of Anandamide (AEA) and its receptor has
      been shown to play a role in sperm acquisition of fertilizing potential and sperm
      oviduct interaction. In the present study, we assessed the effect of sperm pre
      treatment with AEA or co-incubation of sperm-oviduct explants with AEA in the
      presence or absence of CB1 receptor antagonist (SR141716A) on sperm-oviduct
      binding in the water buffalo. Cryopreserved spermatozoa from 3 Murrah buffalo
      bulls (3 ejaculates from each bull) were utilized for the study. Oviduct explants
      were prepared by overnight culture of epithelial cells in TCM- 199 and washed
      spermatozoa were added to the oviduct explants and incubated for 1h. Then, sperm
      oviduct explants were stained with a fluorescent stain (JC-1) and sperm binding
      index (BI - No. of bound spermatozoa/unit area of oviduct explants) was assessed.
      The results indicate that BI decreased significantly (P<0.05) when spermatozoa
      were either pre-treated with AEA (14.16+/-0.87) or sperm-oviduct explants were co
      incubated with AEA (16.27+/-0.86) at 1nM concentration compared to the control
      group (29.12+/-2.17), however such effect was not observed when AEA was used at
      1MUM concentration. Incorporation of SR141716A in the incubation medium inhibited
      the suppressive effect of AEA on BI. It was concluded that AEA, at 1nM
      concentration, decreased the number of spermatozoa bound to the oviduct explants
      and the suppressive effect of AEA on sperm-oviduct binding was inhibited by CB1
      receptor antagonist suggesting that the effect of AEA was mediated through CB1
      receptor in the water buffalo.

PMID- 28869112
TI  - Activation of catalase activity by a peroxisome-localized small heat shock
      protein Hsp17.6CII.
AB  - Plant catalases are important antioxidant enzymes and are indispensable for plant
      to cope with adverse environmental stresses. However, little is known how
      catalase activity is regulated especially at an organelle level. In this study,
      we identified that small heat shock protein Hsp17.6CII (AT5G12020) interacts with
      and activates catalases in the peroxisome of Arabidopsis thaliana. Although
      Hsp17.6CII is classified into the cytosol-located small heat shock protein
      subfamily, we found that Hsp17.6CII is located in the peroxisome. Moreover,
      Hsp17.6CII contains a novel non-canonical peroxisome targeting signal 1 (PTS1),
      QKL, 16 amino acids upstream from the C-terminus. The QKL signal peptide can
      partially locate GFP to peroxisome, and mutations in the tripeptide lead to the
      abolishment of this activity. In vitro catalase activity assay and holdase
      activity assay showed that Hsp17.6CII increases CAT2 activity and prevents it
      from thermal aggregation. These results indicate that Hsp17.6CII is a peroxisome
      localized catalase chaperone. Overexpression of Hsp17.6CII conferred enhanced
      catalase activity and tolerance to abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis.
      Interestingly, overexpression of Hsp17.6CII in catalase-deficient mutants, nca1-3
      and cat2 cat3, failed to rescue their stress-sensitive phenotypes and catalase
      activity, suggesting that Hsp17.6CII-mediated stress response is dependent on
      NCA1 and catalase activity. Overall, we identified a novel peroxisome-located
      catalase chaperone that is involved in plant abiotic stress resistance by
      activating catalase activity.

PMID- 28869113
TI  - Cold-induced retrotransposition of fish LINEs.
AB  - Classes of retrotransposons constitute a large portion of metazoan genome. There
      have been cases reported that genomic abundance of retrotransposons is correlated
      with the severity of low environmental temperatures. However, the molecular
      mechanisms underlying such correlation are unknown. We show here by cell
      transfection assays that retrotransposition (RTP) of a long interspersed nuclear
      element (LINE) from an Antarctic notothenioid fish Dissostichus mawsoni (dmL1)
      could be activated by low temperature exposure, causing increased dmL1 copies in
      the host cell genome. The cold-induced dmL1 propagation was demonstrated to be
      mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK)/p38 signaling pathway,
      which is activated by accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cold
      stressed conditions. Surprisingly, dmL1 transfected cells showed an increase in
      the number of viable cells after prolonged cold exposures than non-transfected
      cells. Features of cold inducibility of dmL1 were recapitulated in LINEs of
      zebrafish origin both in cultured cell lines and tissues, suggesting existence of
      a common cold-induced LINE amplification in fishes. The findings reveal an
      important function of LINEs in temperature adaptation and provid insights into
      the MAPK/p38 stress responsive pathway that shapes LINE composition in fishes
      facing cold stresses.

PMID- 28869114
TI  - Multidrug-Resistant Organisms in the Setting of Periprosthetic Joint Infection
      Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a rare yet challenging
      problem in total hip and knee arthroplasties. The management of PJI remains
      difficult primarily due to the evolution of resistance by the infecting
      organisms. METHODS: This review profiles acquired mechanisms of bacterial
      resistance and summarizes established and emerging techniques in PJI diagnosis,
      prevention, and treatment. RESULTS: New techniques in PJI diagnosis and
      prevention continue to be explored. Antibiotics combined with 1 or 2-stage
      revision are associated with the higher success rates and remain the mainstay of
      treatment. CONCLUSION: With higher prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms,
      novel antibiotic implant and wound care materials, improved methods for organism
      identification, and well-defined organism-specific treatment algorithms are
      needed to optimize outcomes of PJI.

PMID- 28869115
TI  - Wound Discharge After Pharmacological Thromboprophylaxis in Lower Limb
      Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The benefits vs risk of pharmacological prophylaxis for
      thromboembolic disease in orthopedic patients remain controversial.
      Pharmacological thromboprophylaxis regimes are commonly used in this patient
      group. Few studies specifically examine wound complications attributable to this
      therapy. In this prospective trial, we investigated the effect of various
      regimens on postoperative wounds. METHODS: A prospective, observational,
      multicenter study involving patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty
      was undertaken. Patients were divided into 3 groups depending on
      thromboprophylaxis: no anticoagulation, aspirin, or low molecular weight heparin
      (LMWH) (enoxaparin). Surgical wounds were evaluated for each regime using the
      Southampton Wound Assessment Score. RESULTS: Over a 12-month period, 327 patients
      were enrolled with a mean age of 68.1 years (+/-11.2 years). There were 105
      patients in the no anticoagulation group (32.1%), 97 patients in the aspirin
      group (29.7%), and 125 patients in the LMWH group (38.2%). Wound scores were
      evaluated for evidence and amount of discharge. The use of LMWH conferred a 4.92
      times greater risk and aspirin a 3.64 times greater risk of wound discharge than
      no pharmacological thromboprophylaxis (P < .0001). There were no significant
      differences in the incidence of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus between
      groups either as an inpatient or postdischarge. CONCLUSION: There is a
      significant increase in the risk of wound discharge when aspirin or LMWH is used
      in arthroplasty patients. As potential complications of wound problems are
      significant, a more balanced view of risk vs benefit needs to be taken when
      prescribing thromboprophylaxis for this patient group.

PMID- 28869116
TI  - Teriparatide Administration Increases Periprosthetic Bone Mineral Density After
      Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Prospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Teriparatide is a currently available therapeutic agent for
      osteoporosis. Previous studies have reported that teriparatide affects
      periprosthetic bone mineral density (BMD) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
      However, little agreement has been reached concerning the treatment of
      periprosthetic BMD after TKA with teriparatide. Moreover, BMD in the femoral and
      tibial sides of the joints together has never been examined. We investigated the
      efficacy of teriparatide to inhibit BMD loss in the femoral and tibial side and
      considered complications such as migration and periprosthetic fractures after
      TKA. METHODS: Twenty-two knees in 17 patients were included in this study, and a
      control group of patients who underwent TKA was identified according to their
      medical records. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was performed for different
      locations (knee, hip, and lumbar spine), and regions of interest were measured to
      estimate BMD at initiation of the study as a baseline reference, followed by
      subsequent measurements at 6 and 12 months. RESULTS: As a result of adjusting the
      difference between the BMDs of the 2 groups at initiation, there was a
      significant increase in R3 (posterior condyle) and R4 (lateral) at 6 months.
      Furthermore, there was a significant increase in R2 (anterior condyle), R3
      (posterior condyle), and R6 (tibial diaphysis) at 12 months. The study group had
      a higher adjusted mean BMD in all regions than did the control group at 6 and 12
      months. CONCLUSION: Teriparatide may be a reasonable treatment option for
      osteoporotic patients to preserve or improve periprosthetic BMD after TKA.

PMID- 28869117
TI  - Microfludic platforms for the evaluation of anti-platelet agent efficacy under
      hyper-shear conditions associated with ventricular assist devices.
AB  - Thrombus formation is a major adverse event affecting patients implanted with
      ventricular assist devices (VADs). Despite anti-thrombotic drug administration,
      thrombotic events remain frequent within the first year post-implantation.
      Platelet activation (PA) is an essential process underling thrombotic adverse
      events in VAD systems. Indeed, abnormal shear forces, correlating with specific
      flow trajectories of VADs, are strong agonists mediating PA. To date, the ability
      to determine efficacy of anti-platelet (AP) agents under shear stress conditions
      is limited. Here, we present a novel microfluidic platform designed to replicate
      shear stress patterns of a clinical VAD, and use it to compare the efficacy of
      two AP agents in vitro. Gel-filtered platelets were incubated with i)
      acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and ii) ticagrelor, at two different concentrations
      (ASA: 125 and 250 uM; ticagrelor: 250 and 500 nM) and were circulated in the VAD
      emulating microfluidic platform using a peristaltic pump. GFP was collected after
      4 and 52 repetitions of exposure to the VAD shear pattern and tested for shear
      mediated PA. ASA significantly inhibited PA only at 2-fold higher concentration
      (250 uM) than therapeutic dose (125 uM). The effect of ticagrelor was not
      dependent on drug concentration, and did not show significant inhibition with
      respect to untreated control. This study demonstrates the potential use of
      microfluidic platforms as means of testing platelet responsiveness and AP drug
      efficacy under complex and realistic VAD-like shear stress conditions.

PMID- 28869118
TI  - Multicentric giant cell tumor of bone: Case series of 4 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to retrospectively investigate patients with multicentric
      giant cell tumor (MCGCT) who were treated at our hospital and to clarify their
      clinical features, treatment policy, and follow-up method. METHODS: Four patients
      with two or more giant cell tumor (GCT) that occurred in the same patient were
      treated at our institution between 1978 and 2015. These patients were evaluated
      for the following: frequency, age of onset, number and site of occurrence, time
      to occurrence of the next lesion, treatment, recurrence, malignant
      transformation, metastasis, and oncological outcome. RESULTS: The rate of
      occurrence was 1.7%. The average age was 25.2 (17-44). The total number of
      lesions was three in two cases and two in two cases. All four cases had only one
      lesion during the initial visit. The most frequent site of occurrence was the
      proximal femur, followed by two lesions that occurred in the metaphysis. The
      interval between confirmation of the initial lesion and occurrence of the second
      lesion was in average 12.1 years (0.8-27.0). Initial presentations of lesions
      were treated by en bloc resection in one case and curettage in three cases. Local
      recurrences occurred in two cases that underwent curettage. The six lesions that
      occurred after the initial lesion were treated as follows: en bloc resection in
      four lesions, curettage and radiation therapy in one, and embolization and
      radiation therapy in one. Pathologically, no lesions presented malignancy.
      Pulmonary metastasis occurred in one case. The oncological outcome was NED in
      three cases and AWD in one case. CONCLUSIONS: No lesions were malignant, and by
      providing the same treatment as solitary GCT, the oncological outcome was good.
      It is unnecessary to be concerned of its risks and postoperatively conduct long
      term searches for focal lesions across the body.

PMID- 28869120
TI  - Ovaries and oogenesis in an epizoic dermapteran, Hemimerus talpoides (Dermaptera,
      Hemimeridae): Structural and functional adaptations to viviparity and
      matrotrophy.
AB  - The Dermaptera are traditionally classified in three taxa: the free living
      Forficulina and two viviparous (matrotrophic) groups, the Hemimerina and
      Arixeniina. Recent molecular and histological analyses suggest that both
      matrotrophic groups should be nested among the most derived taxon of the
      Forficulina, the Eudermaptera. We present results of ultrastructural analyses of
      ovary/ovariole morphology and oogenesis in a representative of the Hemimerina,
      Hemimerus talpoides (Walker, 1871). Our results strongly reinforce the idea that
      the Hemimerina should be classified within the Eudermaptera. We show additionally
      that the ovaries of the studied species are characterized by two peculiar
      modifications, i.e. the presence of numerous tracheoles in contact with the
      basement lamina covering the ovarioles, and an unusual development of the
      ovariole stalks. We believe that both characters are related to viviparity and
      unconventional "intra-ovariolar" embryo development. Finally, our study also
      indicates that the oocytes of H. talpoides reveal characters apparently
      associated with a matrotrophic type of embryo nourishment. They are completely
      yolkless and devoid of the typical, multilayered egg envelopes; instead, they
      comprise unconventional organelles (para-crystalline stacks of endoplasmic
      reticulum cisternae and translucent vacuoles) that seem to function after
      initiation of embryonic development. Thus, the ovaries as well as the oocytes of
      H. talpoides are characterized by an exceptional mixture of features shared with
      derived dermapterans and adaptations to matrotrophy.

PMID- 28869121
TI  - Exploring surface characterization and electrostatic property of Hybrid
      Pennisetum during alkaline sulfite pretreatment for enhanced enzymatic
      hydrolysability.
AB  - The surface characterization and electrostatic property of Hybrid Pennisetum (HP)
      after alkaline sulfite pretreatment were explored for enhanced enzymatic
      hydrolysability. The O/C ratio in HP increased from 0.34 to 0.60, and C1
      concentration decreased from 62.5% to 31.6%, indicating that alkaline sulfite
      pretreatment caused poorer lignin but richer carbohydrate on HP surface. Zeta
      potential and sulfur element analysis indicated that more enzymes would
      preferably adsorb on the carbohydrate surface of alkaline sulfite pretreated HP
      because the lignin was sulfonated, which facilitated the decrease of non
      productive adsorption. Glucose yield of alkaline sulfite pretreated HP reached to
      100% by synergistic action of cellulase and xylanase in the hydrolysis, which was
      significantly higher than that of NaOH pretreated, and the concentration of
      glucose released was 1.52times higher. The results suggested that alkaline
      sulfite pretreatment had potential for improving the HP hydrolysability, and the
      surface characterization and electrostatic property facilitated the enzymatic
      digestibility.

PMID- 28869123
TI  - Sequential high gravity ethanol fermentation and anaerobic digestion of steam
      explosion and organosolv pretreated corn stover.
AB  - The present work investigates the suitability of pretreated corn stover (CS) to
      serve as feedstock for high gravity (HG) ethanol production at solids-content of
      24wt%. Steam explosion, with and without the addition of H2SO4, and organosolv
      pretreated CS samples underwent a liquefaction/saccharification step followed by
      simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). Maximum ethanol
      concentration of ca. 76g/L (78.3% ethanol yield) was obtained from steam exploded
      CS (SECS) with 0.2% H2SO4. Organosolv pretreated CS (OCS) also resulted in high
      ethanol concentration of ca. 65g/L (62.3% ethanol yield). Moreover, methane
      production through anaerobic digestion (AD) was conducted from fermentation
      residues and resulted in maximum methane yields of ca. 120 and 69mL/g volatile
      solids (VS) for SECS and OCS samples, respectively. The results indicated that
      the implementation of a liquefaction/saccharification step before SSF employing a
      liquefaction reactor seemed to handle HG conditions adequately.

PMID- 28869119
TI  - Does home-based pulmonary rehabilitation improve functional capacity, peripheral
      muscle strength and quality of life in patients with bronchiectasis compared to
      standard care?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Home-based pulmonary rehabilitation is a promising intervention that
      may help patients to overcome the barriers to undergoing pulmonary
      rehabilitation. However, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation has not yet been
      investigated in patients with bronchiectasis. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the
      effects of home-based pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with bronchiectasis.
      METHODS: An open-label, randomized controlled trial with 48 adult patients with
      bronchiectasis will be conducted. INTERVENTIONS: The program will consist of
      three sessions weekly over a period of 8 weeks. Aerobic exercise will consist of
      stepping on a platform for 20min (intensity: 60-80% of the maximum stepping rate
      in incremental step test). Resistance training will be carried out using an
      elastic band for the following muscles: quadriceps, hamstrings, deltoids, and
      biceps brachii (load: 70% of maximum voluntary isometric contraction). CONTROL:
      The patients will receive an educational manual and a recommendation to walk
      three times a week for 30min. All patients will receive a weekly phone call to
      answer questions and to guide the practice of physical activity. The home-based
      pulmonary rehabilitation group also will receive a home visit every 15 days. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: incremental shuttle walk test, quality of life, peripheral
      muscle strength, endurance shuttle walk test, incremental step test, dyspnea, and
      physical activity in daily life. The assessments will be undertaken at baseline,
      after the intervention, and 8 months after randomization. DISCUSSION: The
      findings of this study will determine the clinical benefits of home-based
      pulmonary rehabilitation and will contribute to future guidelines for patients
      with bronchiectasis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02731482).
      https://register.clinicaltrials.gov/prs/app/action/SelectProtocol?sid=S00060X6&se
      ectaction=Edit&uid=U00028HR&ts=2&cx=1jbszg.

PMID- 28869122
TI  - Enhanced nitrogen and phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater in an
      anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic sequencing batch reactor with sludge fermentation
      products as carbon source.
AB  - An anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic sequencing batch reactor (AOA-SBR) using sludge
      fermentation products as carbon source was developed to enhance nitrogen and
      phosphorus removal in municipal wastewater with low C/N ratio (<4) and reduce
      sludge production. The AOA-SBR achieved simultaneous partial nitrification and
      denitrification (SND), aerobic phosphorus uptake and anoxic denitrification
      through the real-time control and the addition of sludge fermentation products.
      The average removal efficiencies of total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (PO43--P) and
      chemical oxygen demand (COD) after 145-day operation were 88.8%, 99.3% and 81.2%,
      respectively. Nitrite accumulation ratio (NAR) reached 99.1% and sludge reduction
      rate reached 44.1-52.1%. Specifically, 34.4% of the TN removal was carried out by
      SND and 57.5% by denitrification. Illumina MiSeq sequencing indicated that
      ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrosomonas) were enriched and nitrite-oxidizing
      bacteria (Nitrospira) did not exist in AOA-SBR. The system demonstrated potential
      to solve the dual problem of insufficient carbon source and sludge reduction.

PMID- 28869124
TI  - Synergistic dye adsorption by biochar from co-pyrolysis of spent mushroom
      substrate and Saccharina japonica.
AB  - The potential of activating terrestrial biomass (spent mushroom substrate, SMS)
      with ash-laden marine biomass [kelp seaweed, KE] via co-pyrolysis in the field of
      adsorption was first investigated. KE biochar (KBC), SMS biochar (SMSBC), biochar
      (SK10BC) from 10%-KE added SMS, and biochar (ESBC) from KE-extract added SMS were
      used for the adsorption of cationic dye crystal violet (CV). ESBC had highest
      fixed carbon content (70.60%) and biochar yield (31.6%). SK10BC exhibited high
      ash content, abundant functional groups, coarser surface morphology and Langmuir
      maximum adsorptive capacity (610.1mg/g), which is 2.2 times higher than that of
      SMSBC (282.9mg/g). Biochar activated by a small amount of high ash-containing
      biomass such as seaweed via co-pyrolysis can serve as viable alternative
      adsorbent for cationic dye removal.

PMID- 28869126
TI  - Acclimatization of a mixed-animal manure inoculum to the anaerobic digestion of
      Axonopus compressus reveals the putative importance of Mesotoga infera and
      Methanosaeta concilii as elucidated by DGGE and Illumina MiSeq.
AB  - In this study, a multifarious microbial mix from different sources is
      acclimatized over a period of three months to digesting cowgrass, and the changes
      in the community structure are examined with both a traditional denaturing
      gradient gel electrophoresis method as well as a next generation sequencing MiSeq
      method. It is shown that the much more in depth analysis by Illumina gives more
      information about the relative abundance and thus putative importance of the role
      of various microbes, in particular the bacterium Mesotoga infera and the archaeon
      Methanosaeta concilii.

PMID- 28869125
TI  - Phenol biodegradation and microbial community dynamics in extractive membrane
      bioreactor (EMBR) for phenol-laden saline wastewater.
AB  - An extractive membrane bioreactor (EMBR) for phenol-laden saline wastewater was
      set up in this study to investigate the variations of phenol removal,
      extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) release and microbial community dynamics.
      The gradual release of phenol and the total separation of salt were achieved by
      silicon rubber tube membrane. Only phenol (55.6-273.9mg/L) was extracted into
      microorganism unit from wastewaters containing 1.0-5.0g/L phenol and 35.0g/L
      NaCl. After 82d of EMBR operation, maximal 273.9mg/L of phenol was removed in
      EMBR. Low concentration of phenol in wastewater (2.5g/L) played a favorable
      effect on the microbial community structure, community and dynamics. The
      enumeration of Proteobacteria (30,499 sequences) significantly increased with
      more released EPS (82.82mg/gSS) to absorb and degrade phenol, compared to the
      virgin data without phenol addition. However, high concentration of phenol showed
      adverse effects on EPS release, microbial abundance and biodiversity.

PMID- 28869127
TI  - Patient-Centered Assessment of the Value of Oral Contrast Material.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to measure the value of oral contrast material
      from the patient's point of view. METHODS: A prospective HIPAA-compliant survey
      was administered from August 30, 2016, to March 9, 2017, at two outpatient
      centers to consecutive outpatients immediately after oral contrast material
      consumption for abdominopelvic CT. The survey included validated measures of
      temporary health disutility and oral contrast-specific questions vetted by
      patient advocates with experience in survey design. Descriptive statistics were
      calculated. RESULTS: The response rate (93% [218 of 234]) and completion rate
      (100% [218 of 218]) were excellent. When given a hypothetical choice to not drink
      oral contrast, most subjects (89% [193 of 218]) stated that they would always
      drink it for fear of missing an important finding, and only 5 (2%) stated that
      they would never drink it regardless of risk. Twenty (9%) said that the decision
      to drink oral contrast would depend on the level of risk, with 18 (8%) indicating
      that they would accept a 0.01% to 1.00% risk for missing an important finding if
      they did not have to drink oral contrast. Most patients rated the oral contrast
      taste as tolerable (55% [120 of 218]); a minority rated it bad or terrible (10%
      [21 or 218]). Thirty-six subjects (17%) experienced concern or unease (8 minimal,
      15 mild, 10 moderate, 3 extreme) when they learned that they had to drink oral
      contrast, and 36 (17%) experienced oral contrast-induced nausea or abdominal
      discomfort (10 minimal, 15 mild, 10 moderate, 1 extreme). CONCLUSIONS: If oral
      contrast material has any diagnostic benefit, most outpatients (89%) would rather
      drink it than accept any risk for missing an important finding.

PMID- 28869128
TI  - In Response to Avalanche Fatalities in the United States by Jekich et al.

PMID- 28869129
TI  - [Characteristics and cardiovascular events in a general population included in
      the RICARTO (RIesgo CARdiovascular TOledo) study: Data from the first 1,500
      individuals included in the study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess cardiovascular risk (CVR) by
      investigating the prevalence of CVR factors (CVRF), target organ damage (TOD),
      and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in general population of the health area of
      Toledo, Spain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Epidemiological and observational study that
      analysed a sample from the general population aged 18years or older, randomly
      selected from a database of health cards stratified by age and gender. Clinical
      history, physical examination, and complementary tests were performed. Total
      blood and serum samples were frozen at -85 degrees C to evaluate genetic studies
      in the future. Standard statistical analysis was performed. CVR was assessed by
      the SCORE scale calibrated for the Spanish population, and the Framingham Heart
      Study scale. RESULTS: A total of 1,500 individuals (mean age 49.1+/-15.8years,
      55.6% women) were included. Prevalences: dyslipidaemia 56.9% (95% confidence
      interval [95% CI]: 54.3-59.4), hypertension 33.0% (95%CI: 30.6-35.4), diabetes
      mellitus 8.6% (95%CI: 7.17-10.1), smoking 24.2% (95%CI; 122.0-26.4), obesity
      25.3% (95%CI; 23.1-27.5), and sedentary life-style 39.4% (95%CI; 36.9-41.8). No
      CVRF was reported in 21.1% of cases, and 18.6% had 3-5 CVRF. TOD:
      electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy, 4.3%, peripheral artery
      disease, 10.1% (Doppler ultrasound), and 15.3% (oscillometric device),
      microalbuminuria, 4.3%, sub-clinical renal disease, 3.2%, and nephropathy in 3.8%
      (CKD-EPI). At least one CVD was reported in 9.2% of cases. A low CVR (SCORE) was
      present in 44.6% of individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Dyslipidaemia was found in 60% of
      individuals, 40% had a sedentary life-style, 30% with hypertension, 20% smoked,
      20% obesity, and almost 10% with diabetes. More than a half of individuals have a
      moderate-high-very high risk. The prevalence of TOD and CVD are significant.

PMID- 28869130
TI  - [Onychomadesis in an immunocompetent adult patient].

PMID- 28869131
TI  - In the Hunger Games, the Winner Takes Everything.
AB  - Entosis is an atypical form of cell death that occurs when a cell engulfs and
      kills another cell. A recent article by Overholtzer and colleagues indicates that
      glucose deprivation promotes entosis. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)
      activation in the loser cells triggers their engulfment and elimination by winner
      cells, which endure starvation.

PMID- 28869132
TI  - Cementoblastoma: An updated analysis of 258 cases reported in the literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the recurrence rate of cementoblastomas for different
      variables aside from the clinical/radiologic features. METHODS: An electronic
      search was undertaken in November/2016. Eligibility criteria included
      publications having enough clinical/radiological/histological information to
      confirm the diagnosis. RESULTS: 141 publications (258 cementoblastomas) were
      included. There was an equal sex distribution. There was a high prevalence in the
      second/third decades of life, in the posterior regions, and in mandibular first
      molars. Lesions were commonly associated with bone expansion (74.9%), presence of
      clinical symptoms (70.2%), vital teeth (78%), root resorption (59.8%).
      Observations not as frequent: cortical bone perforation (16.3%), inferior
      displacement of the mandibular canal (23.6%). Treatment was reported for 229
      cases. Twenty (11.8%) out of 170 recurred. Preservation of the involved teeth and
      location seem to not influence the recurrence rate, but there was a 687% higher
      probability (odds ratio 7.875; p = 0.048) of recurrence for lesions associated
      with bone expansion, and a 217% higher probability (odds ratio 3.173; p = 0.023)
      of recurrence for lesions presenting cortical bone perforation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although the recurrence rate of cementoblastomas is not as high as previously
      believed, it is a relevant phenomenon (11.8%). The presence of bone expansion and
      cortical bone perforation seem to influence the recurrence rate.

PMID- 28869133
TI  - Aesthetic facial perception and need for intervention in laterognathism in women
      of different ethnicities.
AB  - This study compared the perception of facial pleasantness and the need for
      intervention, as assessed by orthodontists, oral and maxillofacial (OMF)
      surgeons, and laypersons, in people of different ethnicities showing varying
      degrees of simulated laterognathism. Facial photographs were modified to simulate
      deviations in the lower face of women of African, Asian and Caucasian descent,
      ascending in two-degree steps from zero to eight degrees of deviation. Three
      groups of 20 individuals each (OMF surgeons, orthodontists, and laypersons)
      assessed the images and rated facial pleasantness on a numerical scale ranging
      from 0 to 10. The results showed that orthodontists and laypersons rated faces
      differently only after six and eight degrees of facial change. OMF surgeons rated
      faces statistically differently from laypersons in all degrees of deviation, and
      differently from orthodontists in faces with zero, two, and four degrees of
      deviation. Scores for Caucasian and Asian faces differed only at two degrees of
      deviation. On the other hand, Caucasian and African faces differed at two and
      four degrees of deviation, while African and Asian faces differed only at eight
      degrees. The results suggest that, as a group, OMF surgeons were able to detect
      all degrees of lower face deviation. Moreover, orthodontists and OMF surgeons
      seemed to agree in terms of need for facial intervention, and saw that need more
      often than laypersons. In addition, ethnicity also affected the perception of
      milder facial changes.

PMID- 28869134
TI  - Isolated INO as a presentation of midbrain paramedian area lacunar infarction in
      patients with diabetes.
AB  - The clinical features and pathogenesis of the pure midbrain infarction need to be
      described. Of 4257 stroke patients who were on the stroke registry between
      January 2000 and December 2015, 25 patients with pure midbrain infarctions, as
      demonstrated on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, were enrolled. We
      analyzed the clinical features, MRI findings, and etiologic mechanisms of the
      infarctions. According to the distribution of each penetrating artery of the
      midbrain, we classified all the infarctions into paramedian (PM) area (13
      patients), lateral area (10 patients), and PM and lateral areas (2 patients). In
      the lacunar infarction of the PM area group (8 patients), 6 patients had diabetes
      mellitus (DM), and 5 patients showed isolated anterior internuclear
      ophthalmoplegia (INO)-the ratio was much higher than that of the non-PM-lacunar
      infarction group. Patients with DM were more likely to develop lacunar infarction
      of the midbrain PM area than that of non-diabetics. Data suggest that isolated
      INO is a presentation of midbrain PM area lacunar infarction in patients with DM.

PMID- 28869135
TI  - Genetics of Alzheimer's disease: From pathogenesis to clinical usage.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and has caused a
      major global health concern. Understanding the etiology of AD can be beneficial
      for the diagnosis and intervention of this disease. Genetics plays a vital role
      in the pathogenesis of AD. Research methods in genetics such as the linkage
      analysis, study of candidate genes, genome-wide association study (GWAS), and
      next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology help us map the genetic information
      in AD, which can not only provide a new insight into the pathogenesis of AD but
      also be beneficial for early targeted intervention of AD. This review summarizes
      the pathogenesis as well as the diagnostic and therapeutic value of genetics in
      AD.

PMID- 28869136
TI  - Basilar Artery Dolichoectasia: Prevalence and Correlates With Markers of Cerebral
      Small Vessel Disease in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Basilar artery (BA) dolichoectasia has been associated with cerebral
      small vessel disease (SVD). However, studies have focused on stroke patients, and
      results cannot be extrapolated to the population at large. In this study, we
      aimed to assess prevalence of BA dolichoectasia and its association with SVD in
      community-dwelling older adults living in rural Ecuador. METHODS: Atahualpa
      residents aged >=60 years underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic
      resonance angiography of intracranial vessels. Following Smoker's criteria, the
      mean BA diameter plus 2 standard deviation defined ectasia. In addition, a
      location lateral to the lateral margin of the clivus of dorsum sellae or a
      bifurcation at the third ventricle floor or higher defined dolichosis.
      Associations between BA abnormalities and imaging markers of SVD were assessed by
      the use of regression models adjusted for demographics and cardiovascular risk
      factors. RESULTS: Of 346 participants, 11 (3.2%) had ectasia, 40 (11.6%) had
      dolichosis, and 47 (13.6%) had dolichoectasia (ectasia, dolichosis, or both). BA
      diameter was only associated with severity of white matter hyperintensities (P =
      .038). Dolichosis was associated with deep cerebral microbleeds (P = .002) but
      not with white matter hyperintensities. Dolichoectasia was associated with both
      white matter hyperintensities (P = .031) and cerebral microbleeds (P = .001).
      There were no associations with lacunar infarcts or enlarged perivascular spaces
      in any model. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of BA dolichoectasia in this rural setting
      is similar to that reported in other populations. Associations with imaging
      markers of SVD differ according to whether the subject has ectasia or dolichosis.

PMID- 28869137
TI  - The optimal balance between quality and efficiency in proton radiography imaging
      technique at various proton beam energies: A Monte Carlo study.
AB  - Proton radiography is a novel imaging modality that allows direct measurement of
      the proton energy loss in various tissues. Currently, due to the conversion of so
      called Hounsfield units from X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) into relative proton
      stopping powers (RPSP), the uncertainties of RPSP are 3-5% or higher, which need
      to be minimized down to 1% to make the proton treatment plans more accurate. In
      this work, we simulated a proton radiography system, with position-sensitive
      detectors (PSDs) and a residual energy detector (RED). The simulations were built
      using Geant4, a Monte Carlo simulation toolkit. A phantom, consisting of several
      materials was placed between the PSDs of various Water Equivalent Thicknesses
      (WET), corresponding to an ideal detector, a gaseous detector, silicon and
      plastic scintillator detectors. The energy loss radiograph and the scattering
      angle distributions of the protons were studied for proton beam energies of
      150MeV, 190MeV and 230MeV. To improve the image quality deteriorated by the
      multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS), protons with small angles were selected. Two
      ways of calculating a scattering angle were considered using the proton's
      direction and position. A scattering angle cut of 8.7mrad was applied giving an
      optimal balance between quality and efficiency of the radiographic image. For the
      three proton beam energies, the number of protons used in image reconstruction
      with the direction method was half the number of protons kept using the position
      method.

PMID- 28869138
TI  - Survival Outcomes of Radical Prostatectomy Versus Radiotherapy in Intermediate
      Risk Prostate Cancer: A NCDB Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies of various prostate cancer patient cohorts found men
      receiving external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) had higher mortality than men
      undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). Conversely, a recent clinical trial showed
      no survival differences between treatment groups. We used the National Cancer
      Data Base (NCDB) to evaluate overall survival in intermediate-risk (T2b-T2c or
      Gleason 7 [grade group II or III] or prostate-specific antigen 10-20 ng/mL)
      prostate cancer patients undergoing EBRT with or without androgen deprivation
      therapy (ADT), RP, or no initial treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed
      268,378 men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer from 2004 to 2012. Kaplan
      Meier estimates and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to
      compare survival between treatments. RESULTS: After adjusting for patient and
      facility covariables, men receiving no initial treatment averaged greater
      adjusted mortality risk than men receiving EBRT (hazard ratio [HR], 1.71; 95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.62-1.80; P < .001), EBRT + ADT (HR, 1.73; 95% CI 1.64
      1.81; P < .001), or RP (HR, 4.18; 95% CI 3.94-4.43; P < .001). Men undergoing RP
      had significantly lower adjusted mortality risk than men receiving either EBRT
      (HR, 0.41; 95% CI 0.39-0.43; P < .001) or EBRT + ADT (HR, 0.41; 95% CI 0.39-0.43;
      P < .001). No difference was observed between men receiving EBRT or EBRT + ADT
      (HR, 1.01; 95% CI 0.97-1.05; P = .624). CONCLUSION: Men treated with RP
      experienced significantly lower overall mortality risk than EBRT with or without
      ADT and no treatment patients, regardless of patient, demographic, or facility
      characteristics. The results are limited by the lack of cancer-specific mortality
      in this database.

PMID- 28869139
TI  - Re: Cultural background, non-therapeutic circumcision and the risk of meatal
      stenosis and other urethral stricture disease: Two nationwide register-based
      cohort studies in Denmark 1977-2013.

PMID- 28869140
TI  - Median nerve ultrasound findings in systemic sclerosis patients: How do they
      relate to clinical features of the disease?

PMID- 28869141
TI  - Marine omega-3 fatty acids and cardiac death.

PMID- 28869142
TI  - Gene expression profile of estrogen receptors alpha and beta in rat brain during
      aging and following high fat diet.
AB  - The "sex-hormone" estrogen-17beta promotes several cognitive functions and is a
      master regulator of brain bioenergetics via the estrogen receptors alpha and beta
      (ERalpha and ERbeta). In this work, by using Real-Time PCR analysis, we evaluated
      the effect of aging and high fat diet (HFD) on ERalpha and ERbeta expression in
      rat hippocampus and cortex. In young rats, ERbeta is abundant in cortex and
      ERalpha in hippocampus. During the aging, in the cortex, we observe a general
      decrease in ERalpha and ERbeta expression; in hippocampus ERalpha increases and
      ERbeta decreases. ER expression patterns in rat brain are also affected by the
      administration of an HFD. In cortex, after 4weeks of HFD, ERbeta transcripts are
      down-regulated, whereas ERalpha levels remain unchanged; after 12weeks, both
      ERalpha and ERbeta expression is up-regulated. In the hippocampus, the level of
      ERbeta transcripts does not change following HDF, whereas ERalpha expression is
      affected by HDF, in a time-dependent manner: it increases after the 4-week
      treatment and decreases after 12weeks. Possible involvements of these receptors
      in the control of cortex and hippocampus functions during aging and in the
      modulation of energetic metabolism and feeding behaviour are discussed.

PMID- 28869144
TI  - Efficiency of using the day-of-implant CT for planning of SAVI APBI.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to develop an optimized, efficient workflow
      for using the day-of-implant (DOI) CT for treatment planning of accelerated
      partial breast irradiation brachytherapy using the strut-adjusted volume implant
      (SAVI) device. METHODS AND MATERIALS: For 62 consecutive SAVI patients, a DOI CT
      was acquired and used for treatment planning. A "verification" CT was acquired 24
      72 h after implant and immediately before the first fraction, then registered to
      the DOI CT. If the DOI CT-based plan was no longer optimal, a replan was
      performed. An array of metrics describing the geometry of the device and its
      relative position in the patient from the DOI CTs for these patients was
      collected. These metrics from the DOI CT were evaluated to determine what
      features could predict for the need to replan before the first treatment
      fraction. Logistical regression analysis including chi2 tests was used to
      determine if different factors correlated with replanning. RESULTS: Twenty-two of
      62 patients (35%) required replanning. Only the presence of splayed struts, where
      splay was toward the skin, and the use of a nine strut ("8-1") SAVI were
      significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with replanning. Within these individual
      populations, no additional factors showed a significant statistical correlation
      for requiring replanning. CONCLUSIONS: For strut-based accelerated partial breast
      irradiation brachytherapy, it was feasible to treat with a plan based on the DOI
      CT for a majority (65%) of patients. Some factors correlate to needing
      replanning; recognizing these could be used to optimize treatment workflow for
      certain patients, increasing clinical efficiency while enhancing the quality of
      patient care.

PMID- 28869143
TI  - A novel urethral sparing technique for high-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy
      after transurethral resection of the prostate.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess retrospectively the variability
      of the urethral dose optimized using a Foley catheter versus urethral contrast
      injected using a new modified triple-lumen catheter, in CT-based high-dose-rate
      (HDR) prostate brachytherapy of posttransurethral resection of prostate (TURP)
      patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: At our institution, there were six post-TURP
      patients with prostate carcinoma between July 2014 and April 2016 who underwent
      transperineal interstitial HDR brachytherapy (16 needles). A custom modified
      triple-lumen catheter was placed to inject contrast into the TURP defect. Three
      dimensional optimal plans using inverse planning simulated annealing algorithm
      was generated according to radiation therapy oncology group dose requirements.
      Alternative plans were retroactively generated for comparison using standard
      technique based on a Foley catheter as a urethral constraint volume for each
      patient with the same weighting factors. We compared the dosimetry parameters in
      each planning using Wilcoxon's ranked sum nonparametric test. RESULTS: The median
      followup of all patients was 17.5 months. No significant genitourinary or
      gastrointestinal toxicity was noted using this technique. In the dosimetric
      analysis, the prostate V100 values and TURP urethral V100 were significantly
      different between plans with and without the contrast (V100 [mean]: 92.4 [%] vs.
      94.4 [%], p = 0.046; TURP UV100 [mean]: 1.4 cc vs. 2.2 cc, p = 0.028). There were
      no statistical differences in the mean values of planning target volume V150%,
      V200%, and D90, and each bladder V75 and rectum V75. CONCLUSIONS: Post-TURP HDR
      brachytherapy with urethral contrast showed significantly more volume effect of
      the TURP defect than that with a Foley catheter alone. Better visualization of
      the TURP defect should lead to more accurate urethral sparing administration of
      HDR brachytherapy which is necessary to prevent urethral complication.

PMID- 28869145
TI  - The early diagnosis and management of mixed delirium in a patient placed on ECMO
      and with difficult sedation: A case report.
AB  - Delirium represents a serious problem that impacts the physical and cognitive
      prognosis of patients admitted to intensive care units and requires prompt
      diagnosis and management. This article describes the case and progress of a
      patient placed on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation with difficult sedation
      criteria and an early diagnosis of mixed delirium. During the case report, we
      reflect on the pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies employed to
      cope with delirium paying special attention to the non-use of physical restraint
      measures in order to preserve vital support devices (endotracheal tube or
      Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation cannula). The multimodal and
      multidisciplinary approach, focused on nursing interventions, strict
      Pain/Agitation/Delirium monitoring and pharmacological measures, as well as the
      implementation of measures according to the eCASH (early Comfort using Analgesia,
      minimal Sedatives and maximal Human Care) concept, were effective, resulting in a
      relatively short admission considering the severity of the patient's condition
      and the associated complications. Early independent ambulation was achieved prior
      to transfer to a hospitalisation unit.

PMID- 28869146
TI  - Intubation-associated pneumonia: An integrative review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This article aims to characterise intubation-associated pneumonia
      regarding its diagnosis, causes, risk factors, consequences and incidence.
      RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Integrative literature review using database Pubmed and B
      on and webpages of organisations dedicated to this area of study. SETTING: The
      research took place between May and July 2015. After selection of the articles,
      according to established criteria, their quality was assessed and 17 documents
      were included. RESULTS: Evidence has demonstrated that intubation associated
      pneumonia has a multifactorial aetiology and one of its main causes is micro
      aspiration of gastric and oropharynx contents. Risk factors can be internal or
      external. The diagnostic criteria are based on clinical, radiological and
      microbiological data, established by several organisations, including the
      European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which are, however, still
      not accurate. In recent years, there has been a downward trend in the incidence
      in Europe. Nevertheless, it continues to have significant economic impact, as
      well as affecting health and human lives. CONCLUSIONS: Several European countries
      are committed to addressing this phenomenon through infection control and
      microbial resistance programmes; however there is a much to be done in order to
      minimise its effects. The lack of consensus in the literature regarding diagnosis
      criteria, risk factors and incidence rates is a limitation of this study.

PMID- 28869147
TI  - Challenges and factors likely to promote coping as anticipated by nurses
      preparing for a merger of intensive and intermediate care units.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe challenges and factors that support coping as anticipated
      by nursing staff preparing for a merger of intensive and intermediate care units.
      RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The method of empathy-based stories was employed to collect
      data from staff. The stories (n=20) were analysed using inductive content
      analysis. SETTING: Nursing staff from the cardiac observation and evaluation,
      intensive care and surgical observation units in a central hospital in Finland.
      FINDINGS: Participants anticipated challenges related to personal factors that
      affect coping at work, challenges in co-operation among nursing staff and
      problems associated with the new work context. Participants expected to need
      informational, concrete and social support from colleagues in future clinical
      nursing situations. CONCLUSION: Fostering peer support and team spirit is
      important to ensure staff co-operation and smooth care processes following
      restructuring.

PMID- 28869148
TI  - Estimation of critically ill patients' complaints by the nurse, the physician and
      the patient's family: A prospective comparative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the ability of the families of critically ill patients
      and of the intensive care team caring for the patient to communicate and
      accurately identify patients' complaints. DESIGN: The complaints of critically
      ill patients were evaluated by a psychologist using a list of 12 items. The same
      day as the patient interview, the psychologist collected an estimation of the
      patient's complaints from the family, the nurse and the physician. SETTING: 20
      bed Intensive Care Unit in a large University Hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Patients' complaints. RESULTS: 51 patients were included. The most frequently
      reported complaints were insomnia, the inability to talk and presence of a
      tracheal tube. Patients reported a significantly higher prevalence of
      "misunderstanding" than that estimated by the nurses (55% vs 33%, p=0.045). The
      reported prevalence of "inability to talk" as the main complaint was
      significantly higher among patients than estimated by nurses and physicians (16%
      vs 2%, p=0.03 and 16% vs 2%, p=0.03 respectively). For the analysis of the
      individual complaints, there was a poor agreement between the patients and the
      other respondents. CONCLUSION: This study found that the estimation of critically
      ill patients' complaints by their families, nurses and physicians was largely
      suboptimal.

PMID- 28869149
TI  - The clinical surveillance process as carried out by expert nurses in a critical
      care context: A theoretical explanation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nursing Science presents surveillance as an indispensable component
      of patient safety. Although the literature defines surveillance fully, its
      implementation is not well understood. AIM: This research aims to formulate a
      theoretical explanation of the surveillance process that expert nurses employ in
      critical care. METHOD: To develop the theoretical explanation for the
      surveillance process of critical care nurses, Strauss and Corbin's (1998)
      grounded theory approach and Think Aloud Method (Fonteyn et al., 1993) were used
      with fifteen expert critical care nurses (n=15). FINDINGS: Surveillance in
      critical care is a continual process of collaborative vigilance that starts with
      the thought process and behaviour related to data collection, analysis and
      interpretation. The surveillance process comprises five key elements: 1) Managing
      the risk of complications; 2) Collecting data; 3) Detecting a problem; 4) Making
      a decision and 5) Working in synergy. CONCLUSION: In developing a theoretical
      explanation, this research leads to an understanding of the surveillance process
      performed by expert nurses in a critical care context.

PMID- 28869150
TI  - The association between hematological parameters and metabolic syndrome in
      Iranian men: A single center large-scale study.
AB  - AIMS: Some studies have demonstrated that metabolic syndrome is associated with
      hematological parameters. The present study explores the relationship between
      hematological parameters and numbers of metabolic syndrome conditions in Iranian
      men. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 11,114 participants who were
      professional drivers of commercial motor vehicles, and were enrolled in the
      Iranian Health Surveys between 2014 and 2016. Diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was
      made according to International Diabetes Federation criteria. Clinical data,
      including anthropometric measurements and serum parameters, were collected. Odds
      ratios for hematological parameters and metabolic syndrome were calculated using
      binary logistic regression models. RESULTS: We found that hemoglobin; platelet,
      and white blood cell counts increased with increasing numbers of metabolic
      syndrome components (p<0.05 for all). The odds ratio of metabolic syndrome
      significantly increased across successive quartiles of platelet (1.00, 1.25,
      1.29, and 1.51) and white blood cell counts (1.00, 1.51, 1.79, and 2.11) with the
      lowest quartile as the referent group. Similar associations for hemoglobin and
      hematocrit in the top quartile were also observed. We did not observe any
      significant difference in the mean of neutrophil count, mean platelet volume
      (MPV), red cell distribution width, or platelet distribution width among
      participants with or without metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      indicate that high levels of major hematological parameters such as hemoglobin,
      hematocrit, as well as platelet and white blood cell counts could be novel
      indicators for the development of metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28869151
TI  - Energy expenditure, body composition, and prevalence of metabolic disorders in
      patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe muscular disease
      characterized by progressive loss of functional muscle mass followed by changes
      in body composition. AIM: To describe body composition, resting energy
      expenditure (REE), and metabolic disorders in DMD patients followed-up at a
      tertiary care center. To analyze the association with type of steroid and
      ambulatory status, and to compare obese DMD patients with patients with
      multifactorial obesity. POPULATION AND METHODS: A prospective, observational,
      cross-sectional study was conducted. Anthropometric measurements were taken,
      evaluating body composition with bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), REE with
      indirect calorimetry, and biochemical parameters in all DMD patients seen between
      June 2013 and April 2014. RESULTS: 63 boys between 5.4 and 18.7years of age were
      evaluated. Diagnosis of obesity ranged from 28% measuring body mass indexZ-score
      (BMIZ-score) to 70% using percentage of fat mass (%FM). Patients who had lost
      gait had a significantly higher %FM than those in whom gait was preserved (72% vs
      46%, p<0.05). Insulin resistance was present in 29% associated with BMI Z-score
      and waist circumference and 40% had dyslipidemia associated with %FM, both of
      which were steroid independent. In obese DMD patients REE was lower than
      predicted and also lower than controls, and persist when dividing the patients
      into ambulators and non-ambulators. CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of obesity was
      observed. BMI-Z-score underestimates the degree of FM. No correlation was found
      between steroid type and body composition or metabolic disorders. No differences
      were found in REE between ambulators and non-ambulators. Obese DMD patients have
      a lower REE than controls.

PMID- 28869152
TI  - Effect of electronic education based on health promotion model on physical
      activity in diabetic patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: By high prevalence of inactivity, particularly in diabetic patients,
      the need to effective interventions to promote physical activity is essential.
      The aim of this study was to determine the effects of education based on health
      promotion model (HPM) through multimedia on the physical activity in diabetic
      patients. METHOD: In this quasi-experimental study, 76 patients with type II
      diabetes were evaluated (40 patents in intervention group and 36 patients in
      control group). The intervention group members and a friend or a family member,
      that could be supportive in physical activity, received teaching CD based on
      health promotion model. Both group members at the beginning of the study, two
      weeks and three months after the training, completed questionnaires. After data
      collection, statistical analysis was conducted using independent T-test, chi
      square test, and repeated measurement of ANOVA. RESULTS: Finding showed that self
      efficacy (P<0.001), health status (p=0.032), benefits (P<0.001) and friends
      support in physical activity (P<0.001) were perceived to be higher, and barrier
      of physical activity (P<0.001) was perceived to be lower in multimedia group
      compared to control group 3 months after training. There was a significant
      difference in average of metabolic equivalent of task (MET) between two groups
      after the intervention (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Planning of education based on the
      HPM and implementation through multimedia can change belief about physical
      activity and increase participation in physical activity.

PMID- 28869154
TI  - Hand hygiene in an era of healthcare complexity and antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28869153
TI  - A multi-faceted approach of a nursing led education in response to MERS-CoV
      infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The emergence of the Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus
      (MERS-CoV) resulted in multiple healthcare associated outbreaks. In response, we
      developed a nurse-led program to screen and triage patients with MERS-CoV
      infection. METHODS: A formal educational program was implemented to ensure a
      standardized approach to care planning and delivery. The essential skills that
      were included were the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including gown,
      gloves, head cover and N95 mask, hand hygiene, the practice of donning and
      doffing and the collection of MERS-CoV nasopharyngeal specimens. RESULTS: A core
      group of nurses were identified from high-risk units. The education program
      consisted of four skill-days. Nurses were assigned a pre-course work from Mosby's
      Nursing Skills, an online skill module, donning and doffing of PPE, and the
      process for obtaining a nasopharyngeal swab. The skill lab incorporated multiple
      methods such group discussion, watching an on-line video, and a simulated
      demonstration and practice on a mannequin. In total, 450 nurses attended the
      Nasopharyngeal Skills Day and 1000 nurses received training. Donning and doffing
      PPE and N95 mask fit testing has become an annual mandatory competency
      requirement for staff in nursing and clinical services. CONCLUSION: The
      application of specified protocols minimizes the risks of cross infection,
      placing emphasis on patient and staff safety as well as expediting the patient to
      definitive treatment. Nurse educators have an instrumental role in training
      nurses and other healthcare providers on the specifics needed to identify,
      contain and manage patient presenting with MERS-CoV.

PMID- 28869155
TI  - Investigation of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection in Moroccan patients suffering
      from cardiovascular diseases.
AB  - Chlamydia pneumoniae is an intracellular bacterium responsible for respiratory
      diseases and is highly involved in cardiovascular disease development, mainly
      atherosclerosis. The main objective of our study was to evaluate C. pneumoniae
      prevalence in Moroccan patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. A total
      of 115 patients with cardiovascular diseases were enrolled, and their clinical
      and behavioral information was recorded. Blood was sampled from all patients as
      well as the atheroma plaques from 36 patients undergoing surgery. Nested PCR was
      performed for C. pneumoniae DNA detection in both peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells (PBMCs) and atheroma plaques. Statistical analysis was performed using
      EpiInfo software. Data analysis showed cardiovascular disease dominance in men,
      with a sex ratio M/F of 3.4, a majority of tobacco users (52.2%), and many
      diabetics (44.3%). A significant difference between genders was shown for tobacco
      use (p<0.05). Positive cases for PBMCs and atheroma plaques were 61% and 86%,
      respectively, and a significant difference between PBMCs and atheroma plaque
      infection was identified (p=0.02). Data analysis also showed that 12% of patients
      presented only C. pneumoniae infection as a risk factor. Therefore, the high
      prevalence of C. pneumoniae suggests its involvement in atherosclerosis, and
      further investigation is recommended for confirmation.

PMID- 28869156
TI  - Molecular diagnosis of potentially human pathogenic Enterocytozoon bieneusi and
      Encephalitozoon species in exotic birds in Southwestern Iran.
AB  - Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites that produce spores. The
      infections caused by these parasites are mostly considered to be opportunistic in
      immunodeficient patients. Because of the zoonotic nature of microsporidia as well
      as the increasing prevalence of immunodeficiency diseases, the aim of this study
      was to evaluate the molecular diagnosis of Enterocytozoon bieneusi (E. bieneusi)
      and Encephalitozoon spp. in exotic birds in southwestern Iran. Initially, 816
      stool specimens were collected and stained by modified trichrome (Weber)
      staining. The slides were explored using light microscopy. In the next stage, the
      extracted DNA was amplified using a multiplex/nested PCR method. RFLP with the
      Mnl1 restriction enzyme was used to differentiate the Encephalitozoon species in
      the products of the molecular analysis. Out of 816 samples, 138 and 181 cases
      were found to be positive by the staining and the multiplex/nested-PCR methods,
      respectively. Of the 181 samples, 103 and 78 samples were positive for E.
      bieneusi and Encephalitozoon spp., respectively. The Encephalitozoon species were
      17 E. cuniculi, 52 E. intestinalis and 9 E. hellem. Of 103 E. bieneusi samples,
      57, 39, 2 and 5 cases were detected as genotypes D, M, E and L, respectively. The
      results showed a relatively high prevalence of microsporidia in exotic birds, and
      according to the results of the genotyping, these birds can be an important
      source of microsporidiosis. It is essential that high-risk individuals, including
      patients with immunodeficiency diseases, receive accurate and valid information
      about the risk of direct and indirect contact with infected exotic birds.

PMID- 28869157
TI  - The contribution of long non-coding RNAs in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are multifactorial autoimmune diseases with
      growing prevalence but the interaction between genetic, environmental and
      immunologic factors in their development is complex and remains obscure. There is
      great need to understand their pathogenetic mechanisms and evolve diagnostic and
      therapeutic tools. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are RNA molecules longer than
      200 nucleotides that are known to interfere in gene regulation but their roles
      and functions have not yet been fully understood. While they are widely
      investigated in cancers, little is known about their contribution in other
      diseases. There is growing evidence that lncRNAs play critical role in regulation
      of immune system and that they interfere in the pathogenetic mechanisms of
      autoimmune diseases, like IBDs. Recent studies have identified lncRNAs in the
      proximity of IBD-associated genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms within IBD
      associated lncRNAs as well. Furthermore, blood samples and pinch biopsies were
      also analyzed and a plethora of lncRNAs are found to be deregulated in Crohn's
      disease (CD), Ulcerative colitis (UC) or both. (Especially in UC samples the
      lncRNAs INFG-AS1 and BC012900 were found to be significantly up-regulated.
      Similarly, ANRIL, a lncRNA that nest different disease associated SNPs, is
      significantly down-regulated in inflamed IBD tissue.) This review aims at
      recording for the first time recent data about lncRNAs found to be deregulated in
      IBDs and discussing suggestive pathogenetic mechanisms and future use of lncRNAs
      as biomarkers.

PMID- 28869158
TI  - Re-bleeding rates and survival after early transjugular intrahepatic
      portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early implantation (<72h) of a transjugular intrahepatic
      portosystemic shunt (TIPS) after acute variceal bleeding (AVB) improves survival
      in highly selected patients. METHODS: We retrospectively assessed bleeding
      control and survival of unselected cirrhotic patients undergoing early TIPS
      implantation within 72h. We compared the outcomes to patients meeting early TIPS
      criteria but receiving late TIPS within 3-28days after AVB and endoscopic/medical
      treatment. RESULTS: Forty-nine patients were included. Mean MELD was 14.4 (+/
      4.4). Thirteen patients (26.5%) presented characteristics that were exclusion
      criteria in previous early TIPS trials (age>75, CPS>13, HCC>Milan, previous beta
      blocker/band-ligation, renal insufficiency). Bare metal and PTFE-covered stents
      were used in n=32 (65.3%) and n=17 (34.7%) patients, respectively, and showed
      similar early re-bleeding rates (9.9% vs. 7.1%; p=0.6905) and bleeding-related
      mortality (25.0% vs. 23.5%; p=0.9906). However, overall re-bleeding rate was
      lower with PTFE-TIPS (7.7% vs. 64.2%; p=0.0044) over a median follow-up of 18.5
      months with a tendency towards improved survival (median 70.5 vs. 13.8 months;
      p=0.204). Additional 68 patients meeting stringent criteria but receiving late
      TIPS also showed a favorable bleeding-related mortality (8.8%), which was not
      achieved in similar n=34 patients by a medical/endoscopic strategy with bleeding
      related mortality of 35.7%. CONCLUSIONS: An early TIPS strategy using covered
      stents and implementation of 'stringent criteria' results in a favorable outcome
      in patients with acute variceal bleeding.

PMID- 28869159
TI  - A Comparison of Objective Assessment Data for the United States and International
      Medical Graduates in a General Surgery Residency.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare objective assessment scores between international medical
      graduates (IMGs) and United States Medical Graduates. Scores of residents who
      completed a preliminary year, who later matched into a categorical position, were
      compared to those who matched directly into a categorical position at the Mayo
      Clinic, Rochester. DESIGN: Postgraduate year (PGY) 1 to 5 residents participate
      in a biannual multistation, OSCE-style assessment event as part of our surgical
      training program. Assessment data were, retrospectively, reviewed and analyzed
      from 2008 to 2016 for PGY-1 and from 2013 to 2016 for PGY 2 to 5 categorical
      residents. SETTING: Academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Categorical PGY 1 to 5
      General Surgery (GS) residents at Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN. RESULTS: A total of
      86 GS residents were identified. Twenty-one residents (1 United States Medical
      Graduates [USMG] and 20 IMGs) completed a preliminary GS year, before matching
      into a categorical position and 68 (58 USMGs and 10 IMGs) residents, who matched
      directly into a categorical position, were compared. Mean scores (%) for the
      summer and winter multistation assessments were higher for PGY-1 trainees with a
      preliminary year than those without (summer: 59 vs. 37, p < 0.001; winter: 69 vs.
      61, p = 0.05). Summer and winter PGY-2 scores followed the same pattern (74 vs.
      64, p < 0.01; 85 vs. 71, p < 0.01). For the PGY 3 to 5 assessments, differences
      in scores between these groups were not observed. IMGs and USMGs scored
      equivalently on all assessments. Overall, junior residents showed greater score
      improvement between tests than their senior colleagues (mean score increase: PGY
      1-2 = 18 vs. PGY 3-5 = 3, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Residents with a previous
      preliminary GS year at our institution scored higher on initial assessments
      compared to trainees with no prior GS training at our institution. The scoring
      advantage of an added preliminary year decreased as trainees progressed through
      residency.

PMID- 28869160
TI  - Evaluating the Use of Cleft Lip and Palate 3D-Printed Models as a Teaching Aid.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Visualization tools are essential for effective medical education, to
      aid students understanding of complex anatomical systems. Three dimensional (3D)
      printed models are showing a wide-reaching potential in the field of medical
      education, to aid the interpretation of 2D imaging. This study investigates the
      use of 3D-printed models in educational seminars on cleft lip and palate, by
      comparing integrated "hands-on" student seminars, with 2D presentation seminar
      methods. SETTING: Cleft lip and palate models were manufactured using 3D-printing
      technology at the medical school. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-seven students from two
      medical schools participated in the study. DESIGN: The students were randomly
      allocated to 2 groups. Knowledge was compared between the groups using a multiple
      choice question test before and after the teaching intervention. Group 1 was the
      control group with a PowerPoint presentation-based educational seminar and group
      2 was the test group, with the same PowerPoint presentation, but with the
      addition of a physical demonstration using 3D-printed models of unilateral and
      bilateral cleft lips and palate. RESULTS: The level of knowledge gained was
      established using a preseminar and postseminar assessment, in 2 different
      institutions, where the addition of the 3D-printed model resulted in a
      significant improvement in the mean percentage of knowledge gained (44.65% test
      group; 32.16%; control group; p = 0.038). Student experience was assessed using a
      postseminar survey, where students felt the 3D-printed model significantly
      improved the learning experience (p = 0.005) and their visualization (p = 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the benefits of the use of 3D-printed models
      as visualization tools in medical education and the potential of 3D-printing
      technology to become a standard and effective tool in the interpretation of 2D
      imaging.

PMID- 28869161
TI  - Case report: A patient with malaria at the emergency department.

PMID- 28869162
TI  - A novel method for T2 quantification in presence of B1 inhomogeneities.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: T2 relaxometry as a quantitative MRI technique offers a more
      precise characterization of tissue, compared with qualitative T2 weighted
      imaging. The issue, however, is that in typically used T2 relaxometry sequences
      such as a multi-spin echo sequences, incorrect refocussing flip angles and B1
      inhomogeneities cause inaccuracies in T2 determination. The work presented here
      within presents a new technique for modelling T2 decay curves and thereby
      correcting T2 times altered by inhomogeneities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      proposed technique models the signal decay acquired by multi-spin echo sequences
      based on extended phase graph theory. We have then put this new correction
      technique to test under both noise free and noise affected simulated signal and
      compared it to other previously introduced correction methods. To compare the
      efficacy of the T2 correction techniques, it was applied to MRI data acquired at
      9.4Tesla. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results show that the proposed technique is
      able to minimize the systematic error in T2 relaxometry for a wide range of T2
      times. Beyond that, the technique reveals the actual refocussing pulse angle in
      the respective voxel and reduces the error in So, which is mandatory if one aims
      for quantification of proton density.

PMID- 28869163
TI  - Biologically adapted radiation therapy.
AB  - The aim of biologically adapted radiotherapy (RT) is to shape or paint the
      prescribed radiation dose according to biological properties of the tumor in
      order to increase local control rates in the future. Human tumors are known to
      present with an extremely heterogeneous tissue architecture leading to highly
      variable local cell densities and chaotic vascular structures leading to tumor
      hypoxia and regions of increased radiation resistance. The goal of biologically
      adapted RT or dose painting is to individually adapt the radiation dose to
      biological features of the tumor as non-invasively assessed with functional
      imaging in order to overcome increased radiation resistance. This article
      discusses the whole development chain of biologically adapted RT from radio
      biologically relevant processes, functional imaging techniques to visualize tumor
      biology non-invasively and radiation prescription functions to the implementation
      of biologically adapted RT in clinical practice.

PMID- 28869164
TI  - The output factor correction as function of the photon beam field size - direct
      measurement and calculation from the lateral dose response functions of gas
      filled and solid detectors.
AB  - The first aim of this study has been to extend the systematic experimental study
      of the field size dependence of the output factor correction for three micro
      ionization chambers (PTW 31014, PTW 31022 and IBA Razor chamber), two silicon
      diodes (PTW 60017 and IBA Razor Diode) and the synthetic diamond detector
      microDiamond (PTW 60019) in a 6 MV photon beam down to an effective field side
      length of 2.6mm, and to summarize the present knowledge of this factor by
      treating it as a function of the dosimetric field size. In order to vary the
      dosimetric field size over this large range, output factors measurements were
      performed at source-to-surface distances of 60cm and 90cm. Since the output
      factors obtained with the organic scintillation detector Exradin W1 (Standard
      Imaging, Middleton, USA) at all field sizes closely agreed with those measured by
      EBT3 radiochromic films (ISP Corp, Wayne, USA), the scintillation detector served
      as the reference detector. The measured output correction factors reflect the
      influences of the volume averaging and density effects upon the uncorrected
      output factor values. In case of the microDiamond detector these opposing
      influences result in output factor correction values less than 1 for moderately
      small field sizes and larger than 1 for very small field sizes. Our results agree
      with most of the published experimental as well as Monte-Carlo simulated data
      within detector-specific limits of uncertainty. The dosimetric field side length
      has been identified as a reliable determinant of the output factor correction,
      and typical functional curve shapes of the field-size dependent output factor
      correction vs. dosimetric field side length have been associated with gas-filled,
      silicon diode and synthetic diamond detectors. The second aim of this study has
      been a novel, semi-empirical approach to calculate the field-size dependent
      output correction factors of small photon detectors by convolving film measured
      true dose profile data with measured lateral response functions of the detectors.
      To achieve this, the set of previously published 2D lateral dose response
      functions was complemented by those of the novel detectors PTW PinPoint chamber
      31022 (PTW Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany), Razor chamber and Razor Diode (IBA
      Dosimetry, Schwarzenbruck, Germany). The output correction factors calculated
      from the lateral dose response functions closely fit with the directly measured
      output correction factors, thus supporting the latter by an independent method.

PMID- 28869165
TI  - Concurrent bariatric surgery and paraesophageal hernia repair: comparison of
      sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Paraesophageal hernia (PEH) is a common condition that bariatric
      surgeons encounter. Expert opinion is split on whether bariatric surgery and PEH
      repair should be completed concurrently or sequentially. We hypothesized that
      concurrent bariatric surgery and PEH repair is safe. OBJECTIVES: We examined 30
      day outcomes after concomitant PEH repair and bariatric surgery. SETTING:
      National database, United States. METHODS: Using the American College of Surgeons
      National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database (2011-2014), we identified
      patients who underwent laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) or
      laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) with or without PEH repair. A propensity
      score-matching algorithm was used to compare patients who underwent either LRYGB
      or LSG with PEH repair. The primary outcome was overall morbidity. Secondary
      outcomes included mortality, serious morbidity, readmission, and reoperation.
      RESULTS: Of the 76,343 patients in this study, 5958 (7.80%) underwent PEH repair
      concurrently with bariatric surgery. The frequency of bariatric operations that
      included PEH repair increased over time (2.14% in 2010 versus 12.17% in 2014,
      P<.001). The rate of PEH/LSG was higher than PEH/LRYGB in 2014 (8.9 % versus
      3.2%). There were no significant differences in outcomes between the matched
      cohort of PEH and non-PEH patients. Subgroup analysis showed significantly
      greater rates of morbidity (6.20% versus 2.69%, P<.001), readmission (6.33%
      versus 3.06%, P<.001), and reoperation (3.00% versus 1.05%, P<.001) for PEH/LRYGB
      versus PEH/LSG. CONCLUSIONS: A PEH repair at the time of bariatric surgery does
      not appear to be associated with increased morbidity or mortality. A concurrent
      approach to treat patients with severe obesity and PEH appears safe.

PMID- 28869166
TI  - Surgical management of enterolith ileus after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

PMID- 28869167
TI  - Determinants associated with the correction of glomerular hyper-filtration one
      year after bariatric surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased adipokine production and hyperfiltration may explain the
      links between obesity and chronic kidney disease. Indeed, hyperfiltration may
      precede a subsequent accelerated decline of kidney function in these patients.
      Glomerular filtration rate decreases after bariatric surgery in young obese
      patients with hyperfiltration. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to identify the factors
      associated with this decrease 1 year after bariatric surgery. SETTING: We used
      data from a prospective cohort of severely obese patients who underwent bariatric
      surgery in Nice University Hospital. METHODS: We analyzed 175 patients before and
      1 year after bariatric surgery. Low-grade inflammation was evaluated by serum C
      reactive protein levels. Lean body mass and fat body mass were estimated by
      bioelectric impedance analysis. Body surface area was assessed by the Du Bois
      formula. Serum creatinine levels were used to estimate glomerular filtration rate
      by the chronic kidney disease-epidemiology collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation.
      Glomerular filtration rate was de-adjusted from standard body surface area and
      then divided by lean body mass to calculate the decrease in hyperfiltration and
      to separate the patients into 2 groups: above or below the median decrease of
      hyperfiltration after bariatric surgery. RESULTS: The factors associated with a
      large correction of hyperfiltration were baseline C-reactive protein levels (10.0
      +/- 5.8 mg/L versus 12.7 +/- 7.4 mg/L, P = .01) and brachial circumference (41 +/
      4 cm versus 44 +/- 5 cm, P = .006). A high fat mass reduction rate was
      significantly associated with a substantial hyperfiltration reduction after
      bariatric surgery (P<.001) independently of sex and surgical procedure.
      CONCLUSIONS: The correction of hyperfiltration is associated with a high
      reduction rate of fat mass after bariatric surgery but may be limited by low
      grade inflammation.

PMID- 28869168
TI  - ?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the aggressiveness
      of cancer cells at the level of positive surgical margins (PSM) on the
      biochemical recurrence rate (BRR) by studying the Gleason score (GS) at this
      level. METHODS: We included all radical prostatectomy (RP) procedures performed
      from January 2007 to November 2011. All of the RP specimens with PSM were
      reviewed to determine the GS at the level of PSM. We compared the GS at PSM with
      BRR. RESULTS: A total of 658 RP were analysed, among which 16% had PSM. From the
      101 patients with PSM included, 32% had biochemical recurrence (BR) with a median
      follow-up of 38 months. GS at PSM was significantly associated with earlier BR
      (P=0.008). Univariate analysis showed that GS at PSM (P=0.013), initial PSA
      (P<0.0001), pathologic GS (P<0.001), length of PSM (P=0.013), and seminal vesicle
      invasion (P<0.0001) were predictors of BR. Multivariate analysis confirmed that
      PSA greater than 10ng/mL and length of PSM greater than 3mm were independent
      prognostic factors for BR, but GS at the level of PSM was not. CONCLUSION: GS at
      PSM was not confirmed as an independent risk factor for BR. Initial PSA greater
      than 10ng/mL and length of PSM greater than 3mm were the sole independent
      predictors for BR. LEVEL OF PROOF: 4.

PMID- 28869169
TI  - [Temocillin and urinary tract infections].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Temocillin is an alternative to treat urinary tract infections with
      bacteria producing extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL). The objective is to
      evaluate the use of temocillin in urinary tract infections. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A systematic review of literature was carried out according to PRISMA
      criteria. All national and international recommendations have been reviewed
      regarding the indication of the use of temocillin in urology. Data collection on
      the use of temocillin in urinary tract infection has been performed from the
      Cochrane, LILACS and the Medline database. The following keywords were used:
      temocillin, extended spectrum beta-lactamase, urinary tract infections, urine,
      prostate, epididymis, testis, diffusion, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics. The
      selection was based on the methodology, language of publication (English/French),
      relevance to the topic and date of publication of the articles collected. The
      endpoint was to provide exhaustive scientific information allowing urologists to
      use this antibiotic in febrile urinary infections. RESULTS: Bacteria producing
      ESBL has a relatively high susceptible to temocillin, ranging from 61 % to 90 %.
      These rates would allow its use in probabilistic. The dosage recommended is
      currently, in the normo-renal patient, 4g per day by intermittent infusion or
      continuously after a loading dose of 2g. Some studies argue, particularly in case
      of difficult clinical situations or obese patients, for administration of high
      doses (6g/24h) rather continuous infusion. There is no evident relationship
      between high doses and side effects. With an excellent urinary and prostatic
      diffusion, temocilllin might be recommend for the treatment of ESBL prostatitis.
      CONCLUSION: Temocillin is known to have good urinary and prostatic diffusion.
      According to our results, this antibiotics is now a reliable alternative for the
      treatment of documented ESBL urinary tract infections. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28869170
TI  - [Safety and feasibility of outpatient flexible ureteroscopy for urinary stones: A
      retrospective single-center study].
AB  - AIM: Management of urolithiasis has changed over the past decades. Outpatient
      surgery has become a major issue for healthcare systems. The aim of this study
      was to assess the feasibility of outpatient flexible ureteroscopy. METHODS: A
      single-center retrospective study has been conducted including all patients who
      underwent an outpatient flexible ureteroscopy between January 2012 and December
      2013. Failure of outpatient management was defined as length of hospital stay>12
      hours or readmission within 48 hours after discharge. Univariate analysis was
      performed to seek for predictors of failure of outpatient management. RESULTS:
      One hundred and fifty-seven patients who underwent a total of 174 procedures were
      included. They were mostly men (57.5 %), with a mean body mass index of 25.2kg/m2
      (+/-4.3). The stones were mostly unique (64.3 %), with a mean size of 14.2mm (+/
      11.2). Eighty patients had a double J stent preoperatively (46.5 %), and mean
      operative time was 64.2 minutes (+/-34.1). An ureteral access sheath was used in
      39 procedures (22.4 %). A double J stent was left postoperatively in 103 patients
      (59.1 %). In total, 165 procedures (94.8 %) were performed successfully as
      outpatient surgery. On postoperative imaging, the stone-free rate was 69.5 %.
      Postoperative complications occurred in 3.4 % of cases and were mostly minor
      (i.e. Clavien 1-2; 83.3 %). Predictive factors of failed outpatient management
      were male gender (P=0.04), BMI (P=0.03), and anticoagulants intake (P=0.003).
      CONCLUSION: Outpatient flexible ureteroscopy for urinary stones is feasible and
      its low failure and complications rate may allow a wider spread of its use. LEVEL
      OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28869171
TI  - [Physiological hydronephrosis in pregnancy: Occurrence and possible causes. An
      MRI study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The etiology of the uretero-hydronephrosis in pregnancy is just
      hypothesis: hormonal or mechanical hypothesis, only investigated by echographic
      studies. MRI permits to visualize the entirety of the urinary tract, which can be
      helpful to find out a mechanical cause. METHODOLOGY: We have analysed the MRI of
      100 asymptomatic pregnant women. We have determined the number and locations of
      the uretero-hydronephroses and researched whether there is any relationship
      between the uretero-hydronephrosis and certain abdominal structures. We focused
      on the psoas muscle and measured its depth, width and calculated its surface by a
      reproducible method. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that the uretero
      hydronephrosis was predominantly at the right side (63%) and in the majority of
      the cases limited to the kidney (42%) and/or the proximal third of the ureter
      (42%). We were able to rule out some proposed etiologies: a compression of the
      ureter between the uterus and the iliac or ovarian vessels; a protective effect
      of the left intestinal structures. A link was observed between the psoas muscle
      and the physiological uretero-hydronephrosis: the ipsilateral psoas muscle seemed
      smaller in pregnant women presenting a uretero-hydronephrosis. CONCLUSION: We
      have highlighted a link between a physiological uretero-hydronephrosis during
      pregnancy and a lesser developped psoas muscle. The hypothesis proposed is that a
      smaller psoas muscle would have a less protective effect of the ureter due to a
      lesser development. This study offers a practical conclusion: a left sided
      uretero-hydronephrosis during pregnancy and/or including the entirety of the
      ureter is more probably a pathological hydronephrosis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28869172
TI  - [Double J stent removal's cost estimate using a re-sterilizable fibroscope in a
      French private structure].
AB  - : In front of the arrival of new devices intended to simplify the removal of
      double J stent, it poses the problem of the knowledge of the real cost of such an
      ablation under the current conditions of realization. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This
      is a monocentric economic evaluation of cost and remuneration needed data
      gathering of quotation (CCAM, GHS/SE, ...), estimate of the associated costs of
      wear and damping of the endoscopic equipments (endoscopes, cables, ...), estimate
      of the cost of sterilization, estimate of the associated costs to the
      intervention of staff (Auxiliary nurse [AS] and Nurse [IDE]) with timing of the
      various tasks. RESULTS: Quotation CCAM JCGE004 (48?) gives access to fixed price
      SE1 (73.71? for private clinic, and 75.89? for public institution) without
      hospitalization nor anaesthesia. The costs were reported to an act of single
      double J removal. Concerning the equipments: 4.42?HT for the fibroscopes,
      graspers, cable and light. The costs of sterilization were: 17.95?HT. The timed
      workforce's costs were: 7.61-9.51? for AS and 9.92-10.84? for IDE. The cost of
      consumable was about 1.37 ?HT, by excluding the common base from the extractions
      (1.876?HT). The total costs in France in 2016 were thus about 47.4 to 50.496?
      including all taxes. CONCLUSIONS: This estimate will be used certainly for
      reflection on the investments and the future studies of the economic impact of
      the new devices of extraction, by correlating it of course with the various
      maintenance contracts from each institution. LEVEL OF PROOF: 4.

PMID- 28869173
TI  - [Ablative therapy in kidney cancer: Indications].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ablative therapies (AT) in kidney cancer are rising. It's important
      to evaluate the situation of this therapy. The aim of this study is to identify
      the best indications for AT treatment for kidney cancer. METHODS: Review of
      literature using Medline and Embase databases. Study were selected based on
      scientific relevance. Clinical keys centered on the best requirements to indicate
      ablative therapies. RESULTS: AT is indicated according to specific tumor and
      patients criteria. A good initial evaluation is essential (imaging, pathology,
      renal function and general condition of the patient). AT gets the best results
      when applied to the following tumor criteria: solid tumor, length<3cm, exophytic
      localization, RENAL score<8. In few cases, AT could be discussed as an
      alternative to the reference treatment, sparing surgery: life expectancy
      evaluated between 3 and 7 years, chronic renal failure or single kidney,
      transplanted kidney, familial tumors. AT can be used in first line, post-surgery
      after local recurrence or for distant metastasis. Like every other innovative
      technic, indications of AT would be adjust with learning curve and cost
      effectiveness. CONCLUSION: AT have to be included as a valid treatment for kidney
      cancer<4cm. The respect of actual indications and collection of results of AT
      compared to surveillance and surgery, would determinate the evolution of AT
      indications in the future.

PMID- 28869174
TI  - Association between missing tooth count and mortality: A systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this review was to analyze existing literature on the
      relationship between tooth count and mortality by evaluating the findings in the
      context of methodological variations. We aimed at addressing the question of
      whether preserving natural teeth can impact mortality. STUDY SELECTION: PubMed,
      Web of Science and CINAHL databases were systematically searched using various
      combinations of related and synonymous keywords for "tooth count" and
      "mortality". The references of included articles were also evaluated for
      inclusion. Overall 49 studies found to be eligible were critically evaluated and
      their key findings were summarized. RESULTS: Studies were conducted in various
      continents and differed substantially in regards to their sample size,
      population, methodology, the definition of the tooth count variable, the
      confounders as well as the mediators accounted for in the analysis. Follow-up
      period ranged from 1 to 56 years. CONCLUSIONS: Although high variability in the
      studies precludes a definite conclusion about the relationship between number of
      teeth and mortality, the overall finding from this review is that reduced tooth
      count is associated with higher mortality. However the impact of factors such as
      smoking, health-care access, baseline co-morbidity and risk profile, dental and
      periodontal health, the presence of dental prosthesis as well as socio-economic
      status, in mediating whole or part of the association cannot be overlooked and
      needs further investigation using more standard methodologies. Any differences in
      males vs. females, as well as among different age groups, will also need further
      consideration in the future studies.

PMID- 28869175
TI  - Axillobifemoral bypass graft infection diagnosed with 18F-FDG PET/CT.

PMID- 28869176
TI  - 11C-PIB retention patterns in white and grey cerebral matter in idiopathic normal
      pressure hydrocephalus patients. A visual analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cortical cerebral amyloid disease, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease,
      has also been observed in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH). The
      aim of this study was to compare the 11C-PIB PET/CT retention pattern in iNPH
      patients and healthy subjects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A comparison was made of the
      11C-PIB PET/CT retention pattern in 13 iNPH patients selected for surgical
      deviation, compared to a normal control population. Images were visually analyzed
      and scored for gray matter and white matter (WM) from 1 to 4 (slight to very high
      PIB retention). The scoring was analyzed in both groups separately for infra- and
      supra-tentorial regions. A comprehensive clinical report was presented in terms
      of positive, negative, or equivocal. RESULTS: 11C-PIB PET/CT scan were reported
      as negative in 8, positive in 3, and equivocal in 2. Five of 13 patients showed
      at least one cortical area with PIB retention with an intensity higher than that
      observed in the control group. Overall, white matter (WM) PIB retention of iNPH
      scored lower than in the control group, showing a statistically significant
      difference in the infratentorial WM (92/104 vs 54/56; p<.05) and a tendency to be
      lower in the supratentorial regions (70/84 vs 122/156, p=.327), in particular in
      the upper periventricular region (25/28 vs 40/52; p=.134). CONCLUSIONS: The PIB
      retention pattern seems to be different in NPH, compared to normal subjects. PIB
      retention in WM of NPH appears less intense than in healthy subjects, and they
      show a higher degree of PIB retention in cortical regions. This deserves to be
      taken it into account.

PMID- 28869178
TI  - Review of the role of the sentinel node biopsy in neoadjuvant chemotherapy in
      women with breast cancer and negative or positive axillary node at diagnosis.
AB  - The role of the selective sentinel node biopsy (SNB) is increasing in relevance
      in breast cancer women with indication of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). The
      Radiosurgery Working Group of the SEMNIM is aware of the necessity of
      establishing the need for SNB before or after NAC, and also how to manage
      patients with axillary node-negative or node-positive. There is sufficient data
      to assess that the SNB with radioisotope techniques are feasible and safe in all
      these scenarios. An adequate axilla evaluation prior to surgery and the
      possibility of marking prior to NAC the nodes infiltrated must be the two main
      pillars to guarantee the success of the SNB. It has been shown that to
      incorporate the SNB in breast cancer women with indication of NAC increases the
      rate of a conservative treatment of the axilla that will be a clear benefit for
      these patients.

PMID- 28869179
TI  - [Discussion of the medico legal aspects of an unusual request for pregnancy
      termination].

PMID- 28869177
TI  - Correlation of 18F-FDG uptake on PET/CT with Ki67 immunohistochemistry in pre
      treatment epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Standardised uptake value (SUV) and volumetric parameters such as
      metabolic tumour volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) from 18F-FDG
      PET/CT are useful criteria for disease prognosis in pre-operative and post
      treatment epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Ki67 is another prognostic biomarker
      in EOC, associated with tumour aggressiveness. The aim of this study is to
      evaluate the association between 18F-FDG PET/CT measurements and Ki67 in pre
      treatment EOC to determine if PET/CT parameters could non-invasively predict
      tumour aggressiveness. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A pre-treatment PET/CT was performed
      on 18 patients with suspected or newly diagnosed EOC. Maximum SUV (SUVmax), mean
      SUV (SUVmean), whole-body MTV (wbMTV), and whole-body TLG (wbTLG) with a
      threshold of 30% and 40% of the SUVmax were obtained. Furthermore, Ki67 index
      (mean and hotspot) was estimated in tumour tissue specimens. Immunohistochemical
      findings were correlated with PET parameters. RESULTS: The mean age was 57.0
      years old (standard deviation 13.6 years). A moderate correlation was observed
      between mean Ki67 index and SUVmax (r=0.392), SUVmean 30% (r=0.437), and SUVmean
      40% (r=0.443), and also between hotspot Ki67 index and SUVmax (r=0.360), SUVmean
      30% (r=0.362) and SUVmean 40% (r=0.319). There was a weaker correlation, which
      was inversely negative, between mean and hotspot Ki67 and volumetric PET
      parameters. However, no statistical significant differences were found for any
      correlations. CONCLUSIONS: SUVmax and SUVmean were moderately correlated with
      Ki67 index, whereas volumetric PET parameters overall, showed a weaker
      correlation. Thus, SUVmax and SUVmean could be used to assess tumour
      aggressiveness in pre-treatment EOC.

PMID- 28869180
TI  - [Observational study of a social device for women in precarious situations during
      pregnancy and post-partum].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of the Regional experimental accompanying
      nutrition and breast-feeding for pregnant women (PRENAP) 75 social device on the
      duration of postpartum hospitalization and breast-feeding for pregnant women in
      precarious situation. METHODS: A retrospective observational study took place
      between November 2013 and May 2015 in a type III Parisian maternity. Comparison
      of sociodemographic, perinatal and postpartum characteristics of women in
      precarious situations (no stable housing and no social care or universal medical
      coverage or state medical aid) was done according to whether they were included
      in the system PRENAP or not. RESULTS: Over the study period, 344 (4.6%) women in
      precarious situations gave birth in this maternity. Among these women, the women
      included in the PRENAP system were more frequently in a very unfavorable social
      situation than those who were not included. The inclusion in the PRENAP device
      did not reduce the hospitalization in post-partum. Breast-feeding was chosen more
      frequently by the women included in the PRENAP device. CONCLUSION: The PRENAP
      device seems to favor the use of breast-feeding, but is not associated with a
      diminution of the hospitalization time in post-partum. This social device, which
      seems to be beneficial in terms of social and medical support for women in
      precarious situations, deserves to be evaluated prospectively.

PMID- 28869181
TI  - [Impact of osteopathic manipulative therapy in patient with deep with colorectal
      endometriosis: A classification based on symptoms and quality of life].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A prospective study to evaluate the clinical impact of osteopathic
      manipulative therapy (OMT) on symptoms and quality of life (QOL) of patients with
      colorectal endometriosis. METHODS: Forty-six patients with colorectal
      endometriosis completed the SF-36 QOL and symptoms questionnaire before and after
      OMT. A comparison and clustering analysis was performed to identify subgroups of
      patient's profile and symptom classification. RESULTS: The mean age of the
      patients was 32+/-6.2 years. Prior surgery for endometriosis was recorded in 73.9
      % of cases but none for deep infiltrating endometriosis. About three-quarters of
      the patients were nulliparous. The time between pre- and post-OMT completion of
      questionnaires was 28 days (15-63), A significant improvement in SF-36 QOL
      physical component summary (P<0.001) and mental component summary (P<0.001) was
      observed after OMT. Similarly, a significant improvement in gynecological,
      digestive and general symptoms values was observed. A clustering analysis allowed
      to identify four profiles of patients with colorectal endometriosis based on
      symptoms and a respective OMT gain of 30 %, 60 %, 64 % et 45 %. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results support that OMT improve QOL and endometriosis symptoms of patients with
      colorectal endometriosis. Moreover, this symptom classification based on OMT gain
      can serve to design future randomized trial.

PMID- 28869182
TI  - [Predictive factors of conservative breast surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy
      for breast cancer].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to evaluate the existence of predictive
      factors of conservative breast surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for
      breast cancer. METHODS: We included all women with invasive breast cancer who
      received NAC and underwent breast surgery between January 2007 and December 2013
      in our institution. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to
      determine the association between clinical and histological factors and
      conservative breast surgery. RESULTS: During the study period, 229 women were
      included of whom 73 had breast conservative surgery (32%). At univariable
      analysis, significant predictive factors were age (OR 0.97 [CI 95% 0.95-0.99],
      P=0.02), radiological size (OR 0.97 [CI 95% 0.96-0.99], P<0.001), multifocality
      (OR 0.53 [CI 95% 0.27-1.05], P=0.06), breast inflammation (OR 0.15 [CI 95% 0.07
      0.32], P<0.001) and the type of hormone receptors (P=0.12). In multivariable
      analysis, all these factors but age were significant factors and thus considered
      as independent predictive factors. CONCLUSION: This work permitted to identify
      independent predictive factors of breast conservative surgery after NAC for
      breast cancer that will be included in a risk scoring system that we aim to
      evaluate prospectively.

PMID- 28869183
TI  - Complete genome sequence of Pseudoalteromonas espejiana DSM9414T, an amino-acid
      requiring strain from seawater.
AB  - Strain DSM9414, the type strain of Pseudoalteromonas espejiana, is a Gram
      negative, and amino-acid-requiring stain isolated from seawater off the coast of
      Northern California. In this study, we report the complete genome sequence of
      Pseudoalteromonas espejiana DSM9414T. The genome (4,500,451bp; 40.3% G+C) is
      composed of two circular chromosomes: chromosome I is 3,720,756bp with 40.4% G+C
      content and chromosome II is 779,695bp with 39.8% G+C content. Genomic analysis
      showed that chromosome I encodes a complete set of ABC transporters responsible
      for branched-chain amino acids, whose homologous proteins were not discovered in
      other Pseudoalteromonas genomes released. This result indicated the tight
      dependence of extracellular amino acids for strain DSM9414T, which is consistent
      with its phenotype. The complete genome sequence of P. espejiana provides further
      genetic insights into the diversity of dependence on extracellular amino acids
      for Pseudoalteromonas species.

PMID- 28869184
TI  - The Treatment Landscape of Myelofibrosis Before and After Ruxolitinib Approval.
AB  - INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: Myelofibrosis (MF) is a chronic myeloproliferative
      neoplasm that presents with a heterogeneous clinical phenotype and prognosis.
      Before the US Food and Drug Administration approval of ruxolitinib, treatment
      options were varied and had limited effect. The increased use of ruxolitinib has
      drastically altered the MF treatment landscape. In this study, we aimed to
      clarify the clinical situations in which ruxolitinib is being used and analyze
      its effect on this landscape. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively assessed
      treatment choices for MF patients treated at our institution (n = 309). This
      population was divided into 2 cohorts on the basis of a diagnosis before (cohort
      BR: n = 174) or after (cohort AR: n = 135) ruxolitinib approval. Cohorts were
      further stratified for comparison according to presenting clinical factors.
      RESULTS: Expectedly, the first-line use of ruxolitinib markedly increased after
      its approval. AR patients were less likely to receive erythropoiesis-stimulating
      agents (ESAs; P = .0003) and thalidomide (P = .003) than BR patients. In patients
      with MF-related symptoms and/or splenomegaly, increased use of ruxolitinib was
      associated with decreased use of first-line ESA (P = .03) or thalidomide (P =
      .03). In anemic patients, increased use of first-line ruxolitinib was associated
      with a decreased use of thalidomide (P = .007). In patients with severe
      leukocytosis, ruxolitinib use did not significantly increase and hydroxyurea was
      the preferred first-line agent. CONCLUSION: Overall, the increased use of
      ruxolitinib appears to have come predominantly at the expense of thalidomide and
      ESAs, while not having a large effect on the first-line use of hydroxyurea.

PMID- 28869185
TI  - Gait variability and motor control in patients with knee osteoarthritis as
      measured by the uncontrolled manifold technique.
AB  - Knee osteoarthritis (OA) causes pain, reduced muscular strength and stiffness of
      the affected joint. In response, the motor control mechanism is altered,
      potentially compromising stability during acts of daily living. Reduced walking
      stability can be quantified in terms of gait variability. This study therefore
      aimed to identify and quantify the effects of knee arthritis on gait variability.
      Fifty adults (25 males/25 females) with end-stage OA of the knee sufficiently
      symptomatic to require joint replacement, walked on a self-paced treadmill for
      2min. A motion capture system was used to record 50 consecutive gait cycles from
      each patient. Kinematic variability of gait was analysed using the uncontrolled
      manifold technique (UCM). The position of the centre of mass (COM) was chosen as
      the task variable for the analysis. Results showed that our patient cohort were
      able to maintain a stable COM whilst walking, through adopting variable
      combinations of hip, knee and ankle kinematics. The greatest magnitudes of
      instability (based on the UCM ratios) occurred during initial contact and
      terminal stance. Active extension of the knee joint to approximately 5 degrees 
      is required during these gait cycle events, meaning that these gait events are
      highly quadriceps dependent. This study identified and quantified components of
      the gait cycle where patients with knee OA are most unstable. Employment of this
      technique could therefore allow specific personalised prescription for
      prehabilitation and rehabilitation.

PMID- 28869186
TI  - Neural Noise Hypothesis of Developmental Dyslexia: (Trends in Cognitive Sciences
      21, 434-448, 2017).

PMID- 28869187
TI  - Growth of Legionella anisa in a model drinking water system to evaluate different
      shower outlets and the impact of cast iron rust.
AB  - Legionella continues to be a problem in water systems. This study investigated
      the influence of different shower mixer faucets, and the influence of the
      presence of cast iron rust from a drinking water system on the growth of
      Legionella. The research is conducted using a model of a household containing
      four drinking water systems. All four systems, which contained standard plumbing
      components including copper pipes and a water heater, were filled with
      unchlorinated drinking water. Furthermore, all systems had three different shower
      faucets: (A) a stainless-steel faucet, (B) a brass-ceramic faucet, and (C) a
      brass thermostatic faucet. System 1 was solely filled with drinking water. System
      2 was filled with drinking water, and cast iron rust. System 3 was contaminated
      with Legionella, and system 4 was contaminated with a Legionella, and cast iron
      rust. During a period of 34 months, 450 cold water samples were taken from 15
      sample points of the four drinking water systems, and tested for Legionella
      according to the Dutch Standard (NEN 6265). In system 4, with added cast iron
      rust, the stainless-steel mixer faucet (A) had the highest concentration of
      Legionella at >4.3log10CFU/l (>20,000CFU/l) and was positive in 46.4% of samples.
      In contrast, the stainless-steel mixer faucet (A) of system 3 without cast iron
      rust showed 14.3% positive samples with a maximum concentration of 3.9log10CFU/l
      (7600CFU/l) Legionella. Additionally, both contaminated systems (3 and 4), with
      the brass thermostatic faucet (C), tested positive for Legionella. System 3 in
      85.7% of the samples, with a maximum concentration of 4.38log10CFU/l
      (24,200CFU/l), and system 4 in 64.3% of the samples with a maximum concentration
      of 4.13log10CFU/l (13.400CFU/l). These results suggest that both the type of
      faucet used in a drinking water system and the presence or absence of cast iron
      rust influence the growth of Legionella.

PMID- 28869188
TI  - Risk assessment of environmental exposure to heavy metals in mothers and their
      respective infants.
AB  - Exposure to heavy metals can cause renal injury, which has been well documented
      in occupational exposure. Studies of low exposure in the general population,
      however, are still scarce, particularly for vulnerable populations such as
      mothers and young children. This study evaluated exposure to heavy metals, and
      biomarkers of renal function and oxidative stress in 944 lactating mothers and
      their infants and investigated the role of the interaction between heavy metals
      and oxidative stress in altering renal function. Mother and infant urine samples
      were analyzed to measure mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) concentrations
      for determining body-burden exposure; N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminidase (NAG),
      alpha1-microglobulin (alpha1-MG), albumin (ALB), and creatinine (Cr)
      concentrations for determining early renal injury; and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine
      (8-OHdG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations for determining oxidative
      stress. The median concentrclearlyations in mothers presented as MUg/g Cr
      (infants as MUg/l) for Hg, Cd, and Pb were 0.695 (0.716), 0.322 (0.343), and 3.97
      (5.306) respectively. The mothers and their infants had clearly been exposed to
      heavy metals and had levels higher than the reference values reported for the
      general populations of USA, Germany, and Canada. Multiple regression analyses
      clearly demonstrated associations between urinary heavy metals in quartiles and
      several renal and oxidative biomarkers in mothers and to a lesser extent their
      infants. beta coefficients for urinary excretions of MDA, 8-OHdG, ALB, alpha1-MG,
      NAG, and Cr in mothers were high in the highest quartile of Hg (1.183-51.29MUg/g
      Cr or 1.732-106.95MUg/l), Cd (0.565-765.776MUg/g Cr or 0.785-1347.0MUg/l), and Pb
      (6.606-83.937MUg/g Cr or 9.459-80.826MUg/l), except Pb was not associated with
      ALB. Infants in the highest Pb quartile (9.293-263.098MUg/l) had the highest beta
      coefficients of urinary excretion of MDA, 8-OHdG, ALB, NAG, and Cr. Significant
      increasing trend in biomarkers across the quartiles of the three metals was seen
      in both mothers and infants (ptrend <0.001). A receiver operating characteristic
      analysis supported the predictive abilities of the four renal biomarkers in
      discriminating between low versus high metal quartiles. The interaction between
      heavy metals and oxidative stress contributed to the high excretions of renal
      biomarkers, but the mechanism remains unclear. These findings add to the limited
      evidence that low exposure to heavy metals in the general population is
      associated with alterations in renal function that could eventually progress to
      renal damage if exposure continues and that children are more susceptible due to
      the immaturity of their body organs.

PMID- 28869189
TI  - Status of small water supplies in the Nordic countries: Characteristics, water
      quality and challenges.
AB  - Access to safe water is essential for public health and is one of the most
      important prerequisites for good living and safe food production. Many studies
      have shown that non-compliance with drinking water quality standards in small
      water supply systems is much higher than in large systems. Nevertheless, people
      served by small water supply systems have the right to the same level of health
      protection. Actions are therefore needed to improve the situation. The objective
      of the present study was to carry out a baseline analysis of the situation in the
      Nordic region and provide recommendations for governmental policy and actions.
      Data were gathered on number of water supplies, population served, compliance
      with regulations and waterborne disease outbreaks from various sources in the
      Nordic countries. The collected data showed that there are about 12500 regulated
      water supplies, 9400 of which serve fewer than 500 persons. The number of
      unregulated and poorly regulated supplies is unknown, but it can be roughly
      estimated that these serve 10% of the Nordic population on a permanent basis or
      2.6 million people. However, this does not tell the whole story as many of the
      very small water supplies serve transient populations, summerhouse dwellers and
      tourist sites, with many more users. Non-compliance regarding microbes is much
      higher in the small supplies. The population weighted average fecal contamination
      incidence rate in the Nordic region is eleven times higher in the smaller
      supplies than in the large ones, 0.76% and 0.07%, respectively. Registered
      waterborne disease outbreaks were also more frequent in the small supplies than
      in the large ones.

PMID- 28869190
TI  - Year-to-year variation in the density of Ixodes ricinus ticks and the prevalence
      of the rodent-associated human pathogens Borrelia afzelii and B. miyamotoi in
      different forest types.
AB  - The human pathogens Borrelia afzelii, which causes Lyme borreliosis and B.
      miyamotoi, which causes relapsing fever, both circulate between Ixodes ricinus
      ticks and rodents. The spatiotemporal dynamics in the prevalence of these
      pathogens have not yet been fully elucidated, but probably depend on the
      spatiotemporal population dynamics of small rodents. We aimed to evaluate the
      effect of different forest types on the density of infected nymphs in different
      years and to obtain more knowledge about the spatial and temporal patterns of
      ticks and tick-borne pathogens. We analysed unfed nymphal ticks from 22 stands of
      four different forest types in Belgium in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014 and found
      that the density of nymphs in general and the density of nymphs infected with B.
      afzelii and B. miyamotoi varied yearly, but without temporal variation in the
      infection prevalence. The yearly variation in density of infected nymphs in our
      study thus seems to be caused most by the variation in the density of nymphs,
      which makes it a good predictor of disease risk. The risk for rodent-associated
      tick-borne diseases also varied between forest types. We stress the need to
      elucidate the contribution of the host community composition to tick-borne
      disease risk.

PMID- 28869191
TI  - Co-infection with Babesia divergens and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in cattle (Bos
      taurus), Sweden.
AB  - Babesiosis is a severe disease in cattle worldwide. In Europe, the main causative
      agent of bovine babesiosis is Babesia divergens. In some areas, this species is
      reported to have declined or even disappeared, and its etiological role overtaken
      by other piroplasmid species. Moreover, co-infection with other tick-transmitted
      pathogens can be expected to complicate diagnosis in cattle. Hence, molecular
      identification of the causative agent of babesiosis should be a priority.
      Therefore, samples from 71 domestic cattle, 39 with clinical signs of babesiosis
      and 32 without, from southern Sweden were screened for Babesia spp. and Anaplasma
      spp. using molecular methods Babesia divergens was detected in 38 of the samples,
      and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in 17. Co-infections with both pathogens were
      frequent, occurring in 18% of the animals with a B. divergens infection. The
      possibility of co-infection should be considered in diagnosis and treatment of
      bovine babesiosis.

PMID- 28869192
TI  - Selection of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae promoters available for xylose
      cultivation and fermentation.
AB  - To efficiently utilize xylose, a major sugar component of hemicelluloses, in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires the proper expression of varied exogenous and
      endogenous genes. To expand the repertoire of promoters in engineered xylose
      utilizing yeast strains, we selected promoters in S. cerevisiae during
      cultivation and fermentation using xylose as a carbon source. To select candidate
      promoters that function in the presence of xylose, we performed comprehensive
      gene expression analyses using xylose-utilizing yeast strains both during xylose
      and glucose fermentation. Based on microarray data, we chose 29 genes that showed
      strong, moderate, and weak expression in xylose rather than glucose fermentation.
      The activities of these promoters in a xylose-utilizing yeast strain were
      measured by lacZ reporter gene assays over time during aerobic cultivation and
      microaerobic fermentation, both in xylose and glucose media. In xylose media,
      PTDH3, PFBA1, and PTDH1 were favorable for high expression, and PSED1, PHXT7,
      PPDC1, PTEF1, PTPI1, and PPGK1 were acceptable for medium-high expression in
      aerobic cultivation, and moderate expression in microaerobic fermentation. PTEF2
      allowed moderate expression in aerobic culture and weak expression in
      microaerobic fermentation, although it showed medium-high expression in glucose
      media. PZWF1 and PSOL4 allowed moderate expression in aerobic cultivation, while
      showing weak but clear expression in microaerobic fermentation. PALD3 and PTKL2
      showed moderate promoter activity in aerobic cultivation, but showed almost no
      activity in microaerobic fermentation. The knowledge of promoter activities in
      xylose cultivation obtained in this study will permit the control of gene
      expression in engineered xylose-utilizing yeast strains that are used for
      hemicellulose fermentation.

PMID- 28869193
TI  - A search for microorganisms producing medium-chain alkanes from aldehydes.
AB  - Microorganisms with medium-chain alkane-producing activity are promising for the
      bio-production of drop-in fuel. In this study, we screened for microorganisms
      producing tridecane from tetradecanal. The activity of aldehyde decarbonylation
      was found in a wide range of microbes. In particular, the genus Klebsiella in the
      Enterobacteriaceae family was found to have a high ability to produce alkanes
      from aldehydes via enzyme catalyzed reaction.

PMID- 28869194
TI  - [How to manage a rectal cancer with synchronous liver metastases? A question of
      strategy].
AB  - The prognosis of patients with rectal cancer and synchronous liver metastasis has
      improved thanks to chemotherapy and rectal and liver surgery progresses. However,
      there is no consensus about optimal management and practices remain
      heterogeneous. A curative treatment may be considered for 20 to 30% of patients
      with complete resection of metastasis and primary tumor after induction
      chemotherapy. To this end, a primary optimal evaluation by a multidisciplinary
      board including hepatic and colorectal surgeons is crucial. The therapeutic
      strategy associates chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hepatic and rectal surgery. The
      most threatening site guides the sequence of treatments. If hepatic resectability
      is uncertain, a "liver first" strategy associating induction chemotherapy and
      hepatic surgery is preferred. In non-resectable metastatic cases, chemotherapies
      with targeted therapies might lead to secondary resection for 30% of patients
      (conversion). This has changed our practice and triggers reconsidering
      resectability after chemotherapy. When metastases remain non-resectable,
      additional treatment focusing on primary tumor should control pelvic symptoms
      otherwise hardly impacting quality of life. Rectal surgery, short-course
      radiotherapy (5*5Gy), conformational long-course chemoradiotherapy or intensity
      modulated radiation therapy with dose escalation are options discussed in this
      review.

PMID- 28869195
TI  - [Proton therapy for head and neck cancers].
AB  - The absence of exit dose and the sharp lateral penumbra are key assets for proton
      therapy, which are responsible for its dosimetric superiority over advanced
      photon radiotherapy. Dosimetric comparisons have consistently shown a reduction
      of the integral dose and the dose to organs at risk favouring intensity-modulated
      proton therapy (IMPT) over intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The
      structures that benefit the most of these dosimetric improvements in head and
      neck cancers are the anterior oral cavity, the posterior fossa, the visual
      apparatus and swallowing structures. A number of publications have concluded that
      these dosimetric differences actually translate into reduced toxicities with
      IMPT, for example with regards to reduced weight loss or need for feeding tube.
      Patient survival is usually similar to IMRT series, except in base of skull or
      sinonasal malignancies, where a survival advantage of IMPT could exist. The goals
      of the present review is to describe the major characteristics of proton therapy,
      to analyse the clinical data with regards to head and neck cancer patients, and
      to highlight the issue of patient selection and physical and biological
      uncertainties.

PMID- 28869196
TI  - [Role of induction chemotherapy in head and neck cancer: Cons].
AB  - The treatment of locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is based
      on concomitant chemoradiotherapy. A sequential treatment combining induction
      chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF), followed by
      (chemo)radiotherapy is frequently used as part of laryngeal preservation
      strategies. Apart from this particular situation, the benefit in terms of
      survival of induction chemotherapy has been much discussed in recent years. In
      five recent randomized trials, chemoradiotherapy was compared with TPF induction
      chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy. Of these five trials, four concluded
      that these treatments were similar. A single trial reports a benefit for
      induction chemotherapy but its methodology is highly debatable. After TPF
      chemotherapy, chemoradiotherapy is less well tolerated. In patients with
      significant lymph node invasion (N2b-c-N3), induction chemotherapy reduces the
      occurrence of distant metastasis. The HPV status should not influence the
      therapeutic decision.

PMID- 28869197
TI  - [Radiotherapy quality and risk manager role optimization in 2017].
AB  - The quality and risk manager works in a regulated framework, which delimits its
      missions. Nevertheless, the variety among the centers generates heterogeneous
      situations regarding the positioning and the range of action. A well-defined
      framework is needed in order to ratify the legitimacy and the recognition of
      quality and risk manager's main function.

PMID- 28869198
TI  - [A randomized controlled trial of metastases-directed treatment in patients with
      metastatic prostate cancer using stereotactic body irradiation: A GETUG-AFU
      trial].
AB  - The goal of treatment of metastatic prostate cancer remains palliation. The
      oligometastatic state could be the right time to intensify therapy by introducing
      metastases directed treatments. The aim of this trial was to evaluate the benefit
      of radiotherapy to all macroscopic metastatic sites and to the primary disease in
      patients with hormone sensitive oligometastatic prostate cancer.

PMID- 28869199
TI  - Reliability of measuring half-cycle cervical range of motion may be increased
      using a spirit level for calibration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Assessments of range of motion (ROM) represent an essential part of
      clinical diagnostics. Ultrasonic movement analyses have been demonstrated to
      provide reliable results when analyzing complete amplitudes (e.g., flexion
      extension). However, due to subjective determination of the starting position,
      the assessment of half-cycle movements (e.g, flexion only) is less reproducible.
      OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to examine the reliability of measuring half
      cycle cervical ROM using a spirit level for calibration. METHOD: 20 healthy
      subjects (30 +/- 12yrs, 7?, 13?) participated in the randomized, controlled,
      cross-over trial. In two testing sessions with one week of wash-out in between,
      cervical ROM was measured by means of an ultrasonic 3D movement analysis system
      using a test-retest design (baseline and 5 min post baseline). The sessions
      differed with reference to the mask carrying the ultrasound markers. It was
      removed during the 5 min break (mask off) or not (mask on). To determine the
      resting position, a bull's eye spirit level was used in each measurement.
      RESULTS: With ICC values of 0.90-0.98 (mask on, p < 0.001) and 0.90 to 0.97 (mask
      off, p < 0.001), both examined conditions demonstrated excellent test-retest
      reliability for separating the cycles regarding all movement planes. CONCLUSION:
      Cervical ROM during half-cycle movements can be assessed with excellent
      reliability using a spirit level. In contrast to subjective determination of the
      starting position, analyzing complete movement planes does not increase
      reliability. Using a defined and objective zero positioning allows the evaluation
      of repositioning tasks.

PMID- 28869200
TI  - Irreversible electroporation and thermal ablation of tumors in the liver, lung,
      kidney and bone: What are the differences?
AB  - Focal treatment with radiofrequency, microwave and cryoablation has been
      increasingly used for the treatment of tumors in patients who cannot undergo
      surgical resection and in select patients with early stage or oligometastatic
      disease. Each of these ablation modalities has a unique working principle and
      biophysics underlying the ablative effect, which largely determines the clinical
      indication for its application. Irreversible electroporation, a relatively new
      ablation technique with a predominantly nonthermal cell killing mechanism has
      emerged as an alternative treatment technique for tumors that are contraindicated
      for thermal ablation because of safety or efficacy considerations. Here,
      established thermal ablation techniques are compared with irreversible
      electroporation for treatment of tumors in the lung, liver, kidney and bone, and
      rationale is provided to guide selection of the most appropriate technique for
      each clinical setting.

PMID- 28869201
TI  - Cascading effects of attention disengagement and sensory seeking on social
      symptoms in a community sample of infants at-risk for a future diagnosis of
      autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - Recent work suggests sensory seeking predicts later social symptomatology through
      reduced social orienting in infants who are at high-risk for autism spectrum
      disorder (ASD) based on their status as younger siblings of children diagnosed
      with ASD. We drew on extant longitudinal data from a community sample of at-risk
      infants who were identified at 12 months using the First Year Inventory, and
      followed to 3-5 years. We replicate findings of Damiano et al. (in this issue)
      that a) high-risk infants who go on to be diagnosed with ASD show heightened
      sensory seeking in the second year of life relative to those who do not receive a
      diagnosis, and b) increased sensory seeking indirectly relates to later social
      symptomatology via reduced social orienting. We extend previous findings to show
      that sensory seeking has more clinical utility later in the second year of life
      (20-24 months) than earlier (13-15 months). Further, this study suggests that
      diminished attention disengagement at 12-15 months may precede and predict
      increased sensory seeking at 20-24 months. Findings add support for the notion
      that sensory features produce cascading effects on social development in infants
      at risk for ASD, and suggest that reduced attention disengagement early in life
      may set off this cascade.

PMID- 28869202
TI  - Short- and Long-term Functional Outcomes and Quality of Life after Radical
      Prostatectomy: Patient-reported Outcomes from a Tertiary High-volume Center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Results from population-based studies and the Prostate Testing for
      Cancer and Treatment trial reported worse urinary continence (UC) and erectile
      function (EF) for radical prostatectomy (RP) patients compared with their
      radiation or active surveillance counterparts. OBJECTIVE: To investigate
      functional outcomes for patients undergoing RP in a high-volume center. DATA,
      SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 8573 consecutive RP patients (2008-2012)
      were analyzed. INTERVENTION: RP. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:
      Standardized questionnaires assessing EF, UC, and quality of life (QoL), were
      completed at baseline and annually thereafter. UC was defined as use of 0 or 1
      safety pad/d, whereas the regular use of 1 pad/d was considered incontinent. EF
      was defined as >=3 points in the International Index of Erectile Function
      question two. QoL was assessed using the EORTC-QLQ-C30 Global Health/QoL item.
      Statistics relied on comparison of means and proportions. RESULTS AND
      LIMITATIONS: EF and UC rates significantly decreased after RP. Overall, 12-mo, 24
      mo, and 36-mo EF rates were 45%, 51%, and 53%, but reached up to 65.7% in
      preoperatively potent patients with bilateral nerve sparing. At 36 mo, 13%
      reported problems in their partnership. However, at the same time point, 77% were
      satisfied with their sexual intercourse. UC rates were 89.1%, 91.3%, and 89.0% at
      12-mo, 24-mo, and 36-mo postoperatively. Mean EORTC-QLQ-C30 scores ranged from 74
      to 79 and remained constant compared to baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Although varying
      definitions hinder direct comparisons to other studies, functional outcomes
      seemed favorable for patients undergoing RP in a high-volume center and most
      patients reported excellent QoL. PATIENT SUMMARY: Results of functional outcomes
      (urinary continence and potency) after radical prostatectomy are better in a high
      volume center compared with those obtained from population-based data, and most
      patients report excellent quality of life after radical prostatectomy.

PMID- 28869203
TI  - Nephron-sparing Suture of Renal Parenchyma After Partial Nephrectomy: Which
      Technique to Go For? Some Best Practices.
AB  - : The quantity of the preserved parenchyma after partial nephrectomy is the
      result of interplay among various factors: the unmodifiable preoperative quality
      of the renal parenchyma and some technical modifiable aspects. Among the
      modifiable factors able to influence the quantity, the suture technique has
      gained paramount importance. Indeed, nowadays there is a consensus suggesting
      that one of the main predictors of the ultimate renal function is the minimal
      parenchymal volume loss: this is the sum of the healthy parenchyma excised with
      the tumour and the portion of the parenchyma devascularised by the renorrhaphy.
      The historical aim of a good suture was to avoid bleeding and urine leakage. A
      modern suture after partial nephrectomy should minimise the ischaemic effect on
      the renal parenchyma whenever possible. This has to be carried out with precision
      and based on the vascular anatomy of the kidney. PATIENT SUMMARY: In this report,
      we tried to describe the best practice for the suturing of renal parenchyma after
      conservative surgical treatment for small renal tumours. Indeed, the suture after
      the resection of a renal mass should minimise the ischaemic effect on the renal
      tissue whenever possible, maximising the functional outcomes.

PMID- 28869204
TI  - Safety of Live Robotic Surgery: Results from a Single Institution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Live surgery events (LSEs) have become one of the most attended
      activities at surgical meetings and provide a unique opportunity for the audience
      to observe the decision-making process used by skilled and experienced surgeons
      in real time. However, there is an ongoing discussion on whether patients treated
      during LSE are at higher risk of complications. OBJECTIVE: To examine LSE
      outcomes for robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and establish patient
      safety and efficacy. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: From January 2008 to
      April 2016, >9000 patients underwent RARP at our institution, performed by a
      single surgeon. From this group, 36 patients underwent live RARP surgery (LS
      group) transmitted via video link from our institution to an external congress. A
      control group was obtained from our database to compare outcomes between the LS
      group and patients undergoing RARP under regular circumstances. The data were
      prospectively collected in a customized database and retrospectively analyzed.
      INTERVENTION: All patients underwent RARP performed by a single surgeon at our
      institution. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Postoperative
      outcomes were compared between the LS (n=36) and the control (n=108) groups using
      Student's t test and analysis of variance for continuous variables, and a two
      tailed Fisher's exact test for categorical variables. Statistical significance
      was set at p<0.05. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: There were no significant differences
      in baseline characteristics (age, body mass index, comorbidities, preoperative
      Gleason score, Sexual Health Inventory for Men score and American Urological
      Association symptom score) between the groups. The median console time was
      shorter for the LS group (73min, interquartile range [IQR] 70-79) than for the
      control group (78min, IQR 75-87; p=0.0371). No major complications were reported
      in either group, and only four minor complications were observed in the control
      group (p=0.2415). After median follow-up of 31 mo (IQR 18-50), only one patient
      (2.77%) in the LS group experienced biochemical recurrence, compared to four
      (3.71%) in the control group (p=0.7927). There was no significant difference in
      continence rates between the LS and control groups (97.22% vs 93.52%; p=0.7768).
      No differences in potency rate were evident by the end of the follow-up period
      (LS 69.44%, control group 70.37%; p=0.8432). The retrospective nature, the lack
      of randomization, and the single-institution experience are limitations of the
      study. CONCLUSIONS: In this series of live transmitted RARPs, perioperative
      results (oncological and functional outcomes and complications) were similar to
      those found in daily practice. After careful patient selection, LSEs are safe
      with minimal patient morbidity in the hands of an experienced surgeon working
      with a familiar surgical team. Further evaluation of the results from other
      surgeons at other centers is necessary. PATIENT SUMMARY: We investigated the
      safety of surgeries broadcast live from our institution. We found that outcomes
      were similar to those for patients undergoing surgery under regular circumstances
      in terms of the rate of complications and oncological and functional outcomes. We
      conclude that live transmitted surgery is safe in well-selected patients in the
      hands of an experienced surgeon.

PMID- 28869205
TI  - Ictal asystole in a patient with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome
      (PRES) and seizures.
AB  - We describe a case of ictal asystole in a patient with posterior reversible
      encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), which has never been described previously. Ictal
      asystole is rare and has possible serious medical consequences, including
      syncope, and may be a potential mechanism for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy
      (SUDEP). Awareness that PRES may be observed with recurrent ictal asystole may
      aid in the recognition and treatment of seizures in this condition and the
      prevention of asystole-associated complications.

PMID- 28869207
TI  - Effect of magnesium on the osteogenesis of normal human osteoblasts.
AB  - Biomaterials containing magnesium are used for implants and bone regeneration.
      However, mechanisms underlying the biologic effects of magnesium are still
      largely unknown and have not been examined on normal human osteoblasts. This
      study was designed to test the effect of supplemented Mg2+ concentrations between
      0.5 mM and 16 mM on the osteogenic behaviors of normal human primary osteoblasts.
      Human primary osteoblasts were cultured in the groups with various concentrations
      of supplemented magnesium for various time intervals. Cell proliferation was
      measured using crystal violet staining. Degree of Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP)
      activity was measured by fluorometric assay. Expression of osteocalcin was
      measured by immunosorbent assay. Mineralization of cultures was determined by
      Alizarin Red S staining. Results showed that initial cell attachment efficiency
      was not affected by supplemented Mg2+ (P > 0.05). At 21 days, proliferation rates
      increased in groups containing 0.5 mM-4 mM supplemented Mg2+ and decreased in
      groups of supplemented 8 mM and 16 mM Mg2+. ALP activity and osteocalcin
      expression were upregulated in groups of supplemented Mg2+ between 0.5 mM-2.0 mM
      (P < 0.05), but downregulated in groups with supplemented Mg2+ concentrations of
      4mM and above (P < 0.05). Cultures with 1 mM and 2 mM supplemented Mg2+ showed
      upregulated mineralization activity compared to the control (P < 0.05), but
      downregulated in groups with supplemented Mg2+ concentrations of 4 mM and above
      (P < 0.05). The present study based on an experimental design demonstrated the
      impact of 2 mM supplemented Mg2+ on induced-proliferation and differentiation of
      normal human osteoblasts.

PMID- 28869206
TI  - Serum magnesium and calcium levels in infertile women during a cycle of
      reproductive assistance.
AB  - Magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) are essential cations for women's preconception
      health. It is well known that, in blood, the concentration of ionized form of
      these two cations is temporally altered during menstrual cycle, suggesting a
      correlation between sex steroid hormones and serum calcium and magnesium levels.
      Evidence from literature suggests that in assisted reproductive technology
      increasing estrogens during ovarian hyperstimulation may also modulate serum
      magnesium and calcium levels. Therefore, we first examined total serum magnesium
      and calcium levels during follicular phase in a large population of infertile
      patients who underwent intrauterine insemination (IUI). The results were compared
      to a group of fertile women. Successively, we studied the total serum magnesium
      and calcium concentrations in infertile patients before and after ovarian
      hyperstimulation for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Results highlight that total
      serum concentration of magnesium and calcium does not seem altered in infertile
      women. During stimulation with gonadotropins, the values of the two cations do
      not change significantly in ovarian-stimulated women. However, we found a
      downward trend in the total magnesium and calcium levels in relation to the
      rising estrogens.

PMID- 28869208
TI  - Factors associated with magnesemia in patients with chronic kidney disease.
AB  - Previous studies have indicated diabetes was associated with lower serum
      magnesium (Mg) level. Patients with renal impairment usually have higher Mg
      concentration due to reduced renal excretion. Whether Mg level in diabetics with
      chronic kidney disease (CKD) is altered remains undermined. In this study, we
      analyzed serum Mg concentration in patients with CKD and also compared diabetics
      with non-diabetics. Factors associated with Mg levels were explored. A total of
      939 patients were included and 717 were with CKD. Their serum Mg concentration
      increased progressively, as their glomerular filtration rate (GFR) decreased in
      both diabetics and non-diabetics. Compared with non-diabetics, diabetes was
      significantly associated with lower serum Mg concentration in patients without
      CKD than in patients with CKD in all stages of disease. Multivariate regression
      analysis identified that both diabetes and serum albumin were independent factors
      of serum Mg concentration in patients without CKD. Age, diabetes, serum albumin
      concentration, GFR and macroproteinuria were significantly associated with serum
      Mg concentration in patients with early-stage CKD. In patients with moderate-to
      severe CKD, diabetes, serum albumin and GFR were independent factors related to
      the serum Mg level.

PMID- 28869209
TI  - Cost-effectiveness Analysis of an Aftercare Service vs Treatment-As-Usual for
      Patients with Severe Mental Disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There have been claims that community mental health principles leads
      to the maintenance of better health and functioning in patients and can be more
      economical for patients with severe and chronic mental disorders. Economic
      evaluation studies have been used to assess the cost-effectiveness of national
      health programs, or to propose efficient strategies for health care delivery.
      AIMS OF THE STUDY: The current study is intended to test the cost-effectiveness
      of an Aftercare Service when compared with Treatment-As-Usual for patients with
      severe mental disorders in Iran. METHODS: This study was a parallel group
      randomized controlled trial. A total of 160 post-discharge eligible patients were
      randomized into two equal patient groups, Aftercare Service (that includes either
      Home Visiting Care, or Telephone Follow-up for outpatient treatment) vs Treatment
      As-Usual, using stratified balanced block randomization method. All patients were
      followed for 12 months after discharge. The perspective of the present study was
      the societal perspective. The outcome measures were the rate of readmission at
      the hospitals after discharge, psychotic symptoms, manic symptoms, depressive
      symptoms, illness severity, global functioning, quality of life, and patients'
      satisfaction with the services. The costs included the intervention costs and the
      patient and family costs in the evaluation period. RESULTS: There was no
      significant difference in effectiveness measures between the two groups. The
      Aftercare Service arm was about 66,000 US$ cheaper than Treatment-As-Usual arm.
      The average total cost per patient in the Treatment-As-Usual group was about 4651
      USD, while it was reduced to 3823 US$ in the Aftercare Service group; equivalent
      to a cost reduction of about 800 USD per patient per year. DISCUSSION AND
      LIMITATIONS: Given that there was no significant difference in effectiveness
      measures between the two groups (slightly in favor of the intervention), the
      Aftercare Service was cost-effective. The most important limitation of the study
      was the relatively small sample size due to limited budget for the implementation
      of the study. A larger sample size and longer follow-ups are warranted.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION, USE AND POLICIES: Considering the limited
      resources and equity concerns for health systems, the importance of making
      decisions about healthcare interventions based on cost-effectiveness evidence is
      increasing. Our results suggest that the aftercare service can be recommended as
      an efficient service delivery mode, especially when psychiatric bed requirements
      are insufficient for a population. IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Further
      research should continue the work done with a larger sample size and longer
      follow-ups to further establish the cost-effectiveness analysis of an aftercare
      service program compared with routine conventional care.

PMID- 28869210
TI  - The Affordable Care Act's Dependent Care Coverage Expansion and Behavioral Health
      Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In September 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended dependent
      care coverage to individuals under the age of 26, allowing young adults to remain
      on their parent's private insurance. AIMS OF THE STUDY: This policy offers a
      natural experiment to examine the impact of expanded insurance coverage on mental
      health and substance use treatment utilization and payment composition. METHODS:
      Using National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and Medical Expenditure
      Panel Survey (MEPS) data between 2005 and 2014, this study employs a difference
      in-differences approach with 23-25 year olds as the treatment group and 27-30
      year olds as the control group to examine the impact of the expansion on
      insurance coverage, behavioral health treatment utilization, and treatment
      payment source. RESULTS: Results indicate that the dependent care coverage
      expansion is associated with an increase in insurance coverage, greater mental
      health treatment utilization, and an increase in payment for behavioral health
      treatment by private insurance. DISCUSSION: This study shows that insurance
      coverage increased and financial barriers to getting behavioral health treatment
      fell. Improving access to care only led to increases in mental health treatment
      utilization, while substance use treatment utilization remained unchanged.
      IMPLICATIONS: The ACA succeeded in extending insurance benefits to a population
      that has been historically underinsured. Along with those benefits, young adults
      enjoyed greater access to behavioral health care and a measure of financial
      protection from high costs. While the evidence has yet to be presented for the
      full implementation of the ACA, if these results are typical of its other
      provisions, then the ACA will have achieved some of its most important
      objectives.

PMID- 28869211
TI  - Clinicians' Views on Therapeutic Outcomes of Systemic Interventions and on the
      Ability of the EQ-5D to Capture these Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic interventions focus on improvements of interactions between
      clients and their environments, and are increasingly used to treat adolescents
      with problems of substance use and delinquency. Clients' progress may include
      broad and non-medical effects. When performing economic evaluations of these
      interventions, the common outcome of costs per quality adjusted life year
      (cost/QALY) may not capture all of these effects. AIMS OF THE STUDY: The current
      study is an explorative study. It aims to investigate which outcomes clinicians
      consider relevant to the therapeutic success of systemic interventions and
      whether these, according to them, are sufficiently captured by the EQ-5D
      instrument. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were performed with seven
      clinicians at two mental health institutions in the Netherlands. Clinicians were
      asked to list the most relevant outcomes of systemic interventions. They were
      asked whether they considered the EQ-5D dimensions to sufficiently capture these
      outcomes or if they missed aspects or outcome domains. RESULTS: The clinicians
      mentioned several broad effects relevant for the evaluation of systemic
      interventions. These were aspects of family functioning, parental functioning,
      social competencies, school attendance, etc. They considered several EQ-5D
      dimensions relevant (i.e. in particular 'usual activities' and
      'anxiety/depression'), yet they indicated that the instrument lacked systemic
      dimensions (i.e. family relations and relations with others) and addiction
      related aspects. DISCUSSION: The interviewed clinicians considered several
      dimensions of the EQ-5D useful in evaluating effects of systemic interventions,
      yet they expressed the need to add additional dimensions particularly relevant to
      systemic aspects to the instrument when performing economic evaluations of
      systemic interventions. The explorative analysis was limited by the small number
      of interviewed clinicians. Furthermore, a relatively high proportion of
      clinicians were specialized in Multidimensional Family Therapy, a type of
      systemic intervention particularly used to treat adolescents with substance use
      disorders and related problems. Hence the importance of addiction-related
      improvements may have been over-emphasized in this group of respondents.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION AND USE: Practical implications of the
      current study may be the need for enhancements of the current health economic
      methodology for evaluating systemic interventions as to capture additional
      aspects specifically relevant to these interventions. This may lead to different
      choices in the use of instruments for the evaluation of treatment progress and
      success in clinical practice. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES: By improving the
      health economic toolkit to evaluate systemic interventions one may provide policy
      recommendations in line with the therapeutic goals of the interventions.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Further research could be directed at
      investigating the suitability of other available instruments than the EQ-5D for
      economic evaluations of systemic interventions.

PMID- 28869212
TI  - Increased Mental Health Treatment Financing, Community-Based Organization's
      Treatment Programs, and Latino-White Children's Financing Disparities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Latino child populations are large and growing, and they present
      considerable unmet need for mental health treatment. Poverty, lack of health
      insurance, limited English proficiency, stigma, undocumented status, and
      inhospitable programming are among many factors that contribute to Latino-White
      mental health treatment disparities. Lower treatment expenditures serve as an
      important marker of Latino children's low rates of mental health treatment and
      limited participation once enrolled in services. AIMS: We investigated whether
      total Latino-White expenditure disparities declined when autonomous, county-level
      mental health plans receive funds free of customary cost-sharing charges,
      especially when they capitalized on cultural and language-sensitive mental health
      treatment programs as vehicles to receive and spend treatment funds. Using Whites
      as benchmark, we considered expenditure pattern disparities favoring Whites over
      Latinos and, in a smaller number of counties, Latinos over Whites. METHODS: Using
      segmented regression for interrupted time series on county level treatment
      systems observed over 64 quarters, we analyzed Medi-Cal paid claims for per-user
      total expenditures for mental health services delivered to children and youth
      (under 18 years of age) during a study period covering July 1, 1991 through June
      30, 2007. Settlement-mandated Medicaid's Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and
      Treatment (EPSDT) expenditure increases began in the third quarter of 1995. Terms
      were introduced to assess immediate and long term inequality reduction as well as
      the role of culture and language-sensitive community-based programs. RESULTS:
      Settlement-mandated increased EPSDT treatment funding was associated with more
      spending on Whites relative to Latinos unless plans arranged for cultural and
      language-sensitive mental health treatment programs. However, having programs
      served more to prevent expenditure disparities from growing than to reduce
      disparities. DISCUSSION: EPSDT expanded funding increased proportional
      expenditures for Whites absent cultural and language-sensitive treatment
      programs. The programs moderate, but do not overcome, entrenched expenditure
      disparities. These findings use investment in mental health services for Latino
      populations to indicate treatment access and utilization, but do not explicitly
      reflect penetration rates or intensity of services for consumers. IMPLICATIONS
      FOR POLICY: New funding, along with an expectation that Latino children's well
      documented mental health treatment disparities will be addressed, holds potential
      for improved mental health access and reducing utilization inequities for this
      population, especially when specialized, culturally and linguistically sensitive
      mental health treatment programs are present to serve as recipients of funding.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: To further expand knowledge of how federal or state
      funding for community based mental health services for low income populations can
      drive down the longstanding and considerable Latino-White mental health treatment
      disparities, we must develop and test questions targeting policy drivers which
      can channel funding to programs and organizations aimed at delivering
      linguistically and culturally sensitive services to Latino children and their
      families.

PMID- 28869213
TI  - Two-probe STM experiments at the atomic level.
AB  - Direct characterization of planar atomic or molecular scale devices and circuits
      on a supporting surface by multi-probe measurements requires unprecedented
      stability of single atom contacts and manipulation of scanning probes over large,
      nanometer scale area with atomic precision. In this work, we describe the full
      methodology behind atomically defined two-probe scanning tunneling microscopy
      (STM) experiments performed on a model system: dangling bond dimer wire supported
      on a hydrogenated germanium (0 0 1) surface. We show that 70 nm long atomic wire
      can be simultaneously approached by two independent STM scanners with exact probe
      to probe distance reaching down to 30 nm. This allows direct wire
      characterization by two-probe I-V characteristics at distances below 50 nm. Our
      technical results presented in this work open a new area for multi-probe
      research, which can be now performed with precision so far accessible only by
      single-probe scanning probe microscopy (SPM) experiments.

PMID- 28869214
TI  - Critical and compensation behavior of a mixed spin-5/2 and spin-3/2 Ising
      antiferromagnetic system in a core/shell nanowire.
AB  - In this work, Monte Carlo simulations based on metropolis algorithm were
      performed to study the critical and compensation temperatures of a core-shell
      nanowire with spins [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively,
      considering an Ising antiferromagnetic system. The influence of nearest neighbors
      exchange interactions and crystal field anisotropy on the critical and
      compensation behaviors of the system has been analyzed. The effects of the
      nanowire height in the critical and compensation temperatures were evaluated. The
      results show that, for a system with given values of exchange interaction
      constants and crystal field anisotropy, a compensation point only appears if two
      requirements are satisfied. First, the weight of the core magnetization in the
      total magnetization must be greater than the weight of the shell magnetization at
      zero temperature. And second, the exchange constant of shell ions must be greater
      than a certain value. This value is, at the same time, greater than the exchange
      constant of core ions. The critical and compensation temperatures are very
      sensitive to variations in the exchange constant of the shell ions and core ions,
      respectively, while the crystal field anisotropy affects both temperatures.

PMID- 28869215
TI  - Large scale calculations of thermoelectric transport coefficients: a case study
      of gamma-graphyne with point defects.
AB  - Defects such as vacancies and impurities could have profound effects on the
      transport properties of thermoelectric materials. However, it is usually quite
      difficult to directly calculate the thermoelectric properties of defect
      containing systems via first-principles method since very large supercell is
      required. In this work, based on the linear response theory and the kernel
      polynomial method, we present an efficient approach that can help to calculate
      the thermoelectric transport coefficients of a large system containing millions
      of atoms at arbitrary chemical potential and temperature. As a prototype example,
      we consider dilute vacancies and hydrogen impurities in a large scale gamma
      graphyne sheet and discuss their effects on the thermoelectric transport
      properties.

PMID- 28869216
TI  - In situ grown Ni9S8 nanorod/O-MoS2 nanosheet nanocomposite on carbon cloth as a
      free binder supercapacitor electrode and hydrogen evolution catalyst.
AB  - Transition metal sulfide nanostructure composites have received significant
      attention as energy conversion and storage devices. In this work, we report a
      three-dimension (3D) nanostructure with the Ni9S8 nanorods embedded in oxygen
      incorporated MoS2 (O-MoS2) nanosheets for supercapacitors and hydrogen evolution
      catalysts. The in situ grown Ni9S8/O-MoS2 nanocomposite on carbon cloth can be
      used as a free binder supercapacitor electrode and hydrogen evolution catalyst.
      The Ni9S8/O-MoS2 nanocomposite exhibits electrochemical behaviors with a specific
      capacitance of 907 F g-1 (at 2 A g-1) and good cycle stability after 1200 cycles
      due to its unique mutual embedding 3D nanostructure. Furthermore, the Ni9S8/O
      MoS2 nanocomposite also shows highly electrocatalytic features for hydrogen
      production with an onset overpotential of ~150 mV and a low Tafel slope of ~81 mV
      dec-1. The oxygen incorporation of MoS2 provides more active sites to participate
      in the catalytic process for the hydrogen evolution reaction.

PMID- 28869217
TI  - Single-molecule techniques in biophysics: a review of the progress in methods and
      applications.
AB  - Single-molecule biophysics has transformed our understanding of biology, but also
      of the physics of life. More exotic than simple soft matter, biomatter lives far
      from thermal equilibrium, covering multiple lengths from the nanoscale of single
      molecules to up to several orders of magnitude higher in cells, tissues and
      organisms. Biomolecules are often characterized by underlying instability:
      multiple metastable free energy states exist, separated by levels of just a few
      multiples of the thermal energy scale k B T, where k B is the Boltzmann constant
      and T absolute temperature, implying complex inter-conversion kinetics in the
      relatively hot, wet environment of active biological matter. A key benefit of
      single-molecule biophysics techniques is their ability to probe heterogeneity of
      free energy states across a molecular population, too challenging in general for
      conventional ensemble average approaches. Parallel developments in experimental
      and computational techniques have catalysed the birth of multiplexed, correlative
      techniques to tackle previously intractable biological questions. Experimentally,
      progress has been driven by improvements in sensitivity and speed of detectors,
      and the stability and efficiency of light sources, probes and microfluidics. We
      discuss the motivation and requirements for these recent experiments, including
      the underpinning mathematics. These methods are broadly divided into tools which
      detect molecules and those which manipulate them. For the former we discuss the
      progress of super-resolution microscopy, transformative for addressing many
      longstanding questions in the life sciences, and for the latter we include
      progress in 'force spectroscopy' techniques that mechanically perturb molecules.
      We also consider in silico progress of single-molecule computational physics, and
      how simulation and experimentation may be drawn together to give a more complete
      understanding. Increasingly, combinatorial techniques are now used, including
      correlative atomic force microscopy and fluorescence imaging, to probe questions
      closer to native physiological behaviour. We identify the trade-offs, limitations
      and applications of these techniques, and discuss exciting new directions.

PMID- 28869218
TI  - Novel boron channel-based structure of boron carbide at high pressures.
AB  - Boron carbide (B4C) is one of the hardest materials known to date. The extreme
      hardness of B4C arises from architecturally efficient B12 or B11C icosahedrons
      and strong inter-icosahedral B-C bonding. As an excellent material for use in
      ballistic armor, the mechanic limit of B4C and possible phase transitions under
      extreme stress conditions are of great interest. Here we systematically explored
      the post-icosahedral solid structures of B4C under high pressure, using an
      unbiased structure search method. A new structure composed of extended framework
      of B and zigzag chains of C is predicted to be stable above 96 GPa. The new
      structure was predicted to have a high Vickers hardness of 55 GPa and
      simultaneously to retain a metallic ground state. The exceptional mechanical
      properties found in this structure are attributed to strong sp 3 covalent network
      formed under extreme pressure conditions. The predicted structure represents a
      new type of superhard boron carbides that form under high pressure without the
      presence of boron icosahedrons, which encourages experimental exploration in this
      direction.

PMID- 28869219
TI  - Andrographolide sensitizes prostate cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising
      agent for anticancer therapy. The identification of small molecules that can
      establish the sensitivity of prostate cancer (PCa) cells to TRAIL-induced
      apoptosis is crucial for the targeted treatment of PCa. PC3, DU145, JAC-1,
      TsuPr1, and LNCaP cells were treated with Andrographolide (Andro) and TRAIL, and
      the apoptosis was measured using the Annexin V/PI double staining method. Real
      time-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot analysis were performed to
      measure the expression levels of target molecules. RNA interference technique was
      used to down-regulate the expression of the target protein. We established a nude
      mouse xenograft model of PCa, which was used to measure the caspase-3 activity in
      the tumor cells using flow cytometry. In this research study, our results
      demonstrated that Andro preferentially increased the sensitivity of PCa cells to
      TRAIL-induced apoptosis at subtoxic concentrations, and the regulation mechanism
      was related to the up-regulation of DR4. In addition, it also increased the p53
      expression and led to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the
      cells. Further research revealed that the DR4 inhibition, p53 expression, and ROS
      generation can significantly reduce the apoptosis induced by the combination of
      TRAIL and Andro in PCa cells. In conclusion, Andro increases the sensitivity of
      PCa cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis through the generation of ROS and up
      regulation of p53 and then promotes PCa cell apoptosis associated with the
      activation of DR4.

PMID- 28869220
TI  - Microdissection testicular extraction for a patient with transverse testicular
      ectopia and testicular fusion.

PMID- 28869221
TI  - Beyond epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase
      (ALK) testing in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: Is the picture as "ROS1" as
      it appears?

PMID- 28869222
TI  - 2025 too short time to eliminate tuberculosis from India.

PMID- 28869223
TI  - ROS1 rearrangement and response to crizotinib in Stage IV non-small cell lung
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The frequency of ROS1 rearrangement in non-small cell lung cancers
      has been reported from 1.6% to 2.3%. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined 105 lung
      adenocarcinoma patients for ROS1 rearrangement which were negative for EGFR and
      anaplastic lymphoma kinase. Clinical characteristics of ROS1 rearranged patients
      and their responses to crizotinib therapy were studied. RESULTS: Of the 105
      patients, three cases were positive for ROS1 rearrangement by fluorescence in
      situ hybridization analysis. All of them showed heterogeneous pattern. All the 3
      ROS1-positive patients were females in their forties and started on crizotinib.
      All of them responded to treatment. One of them developed resistance after 3
      months. Another one showed marked systemic response but central nervous system
      lesions progressed. The third case is doing well till date with inactive lesions
      on positron emission tomography scan. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of ROS1
      rearrangement is low in non-small cell lung carcinoma, but their diagnosis offers
      patients an opportunity to receive highly effective targeted therapies.

PMID- 28869224
TI  - Evaluation of tuberculosis-associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a
      tertiary care hospital: A case-control study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Irreversible airway obstruction is important sequelae of pulmonary
      tuberculosis (TB) that might contribute to a significant proportion of chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). India has the highest TB burden in the
      world. However, there are limited data on the prevalence and presentation of TB
      associated COPD from this region. AIMS: This study aims to evaluate the
      prevalence of TB-associated COPD among COPD patients presenting to a tertiary
      care hospital. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: It was a case-control study conducted in a
      tertiary care hospital. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Stable COPD patients presenting to
      chest OPD and an equal number of healthy controls were enrolled. COPD patients
      were subjected to detailed clinical evaluation and lung function test. History of
      pulmonary TB was evaluated from both groups through self-reporting and/or
      checking previous records. TB-associated COPD patients were identified and their
      prevalence and distinguishing features evaluated. RESULTS: Of 74 COPD patients,
      24 (32.4%) had previous history of pulmonary TB. The odds of having a previous TB
      in COPD patients was 3.96 (95% confidence interval: 1.64-9.55; P = 0.002) as
      compared to controls. Patients with TB-associated COPD were younger (P = 0.02),
      had lesser pack-years of smoking (P = 0.027) but had more number of
      hospitalizations (P = 0.01). The airflow limitation was similar in both groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: TB-associated COPD constitutes a significant proportion of COPD
      patients. It is a distinct clinical entity with preponderance in young. It may be
      associated with frequent hospitalizations as compared to other COPD patients.

PMID- 28869226
TI  - Inconsistency in the reporting of antitubercular drug susceptibility tests in an
      endemic region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individualized treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR
      TB) is associated with improved outcomes. Therapy needs to be tailored to drug
      susceptibility testing (DST) results. We present our observations on the
      inconsistency in DST reporting in an endemic region with a high prevalence of MDR
      TB. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 118 DST reports from 10 different
      laboratories. OBSERVATIONS: Of 118 patients, only 79 (67%) had DST reports with
      results to all first-line drugs, a fluoroquinolone (excluding ciprofloxacin), all
      aminoglycosides, and a polypeptide. Twenty-one (18%) isolates did not have DST
      reports for all first-line drugs; 4 (3%) did not have DST reports for any second
      line drugs; 9 (8%) did not have DST reports for a fluoroquinolone; and 31 (26%)
      did not have DST reports for all second-line aminoglycosides and polypeptide.
      CONCLUSION: Inconsistencies were observed in several of the 118 DST reports. A
      case is made for sensitization toward standardization and completeness in TB DST
      reporting in India.

PMID- 28869225
TI  - Resection and anastomosis for benign tracheal stenosis: Single institution
      experience of 18 cases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Tracheal stenosis is a complex condition caused by altered
      inflammatory response to injury and subsequent excessive circumferential scar
      formation. Surgical resection, wherever possible, offers the best long-term
      results. Nonsurgical methods provide immediate relief to all can be curative in
      few but mostly serve as an excellent bridge to surgery in majority. The purpose
      of this study is to retrospectively evaluate the outcome following surgery for
      benign tracheal stenosis at our center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective
      analysis was conducted on 18 patients who underwent resection and anastomosis for
      tracheal stenosis at our center between March 2012 and December 2015. Their
      records were analyzed for demography, history, clinical presentation, computed
      tomography, bronchoscopy details, preoperative interventions, indications for and
      details of surgery, the procedure performed, postoperative complications, and
      course during 6 months follow-up. RESULTS: The patients had a varied list of
      pathologies for which they were either intubated or tracheostomized. The length
      of stenosis ranged between 1 cm and 4 cm. The diameter of stenotic segment ranged
      between 0 mm and 10 mm. Average length of resected segment was 3 cm, and number
      of tracheal rings resected ranged from 2 to 9. Postoperative complications
      occurred in four patients (22.22%). All our patients were in the "excellent
      outcome" category at discharge as well as at 3 months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS:
      Surgical management of tracheal stenosis is challenging and requires
      multidisciplinary team approach. Thorough preoperative preparation and
      multidisciplinary planning regarding need for and timing of surgery, meticulous
      intraoperative technique, and aggressive postoperative care is key to successful
      surgery, which can provide long-lasting cure to these patients.

PMID- 28869227
TI  - A study on Beijing genotype in the clinical isolates of pulmonary drug-resistant
      tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Beijing strains are spread worldwide
      and are responsible for major outbreaks of tuberculosis (TB), sometimes spreading
      multidrug resistance (MDR). AIM: The aim of this study was to explore clinical
      features associated with the infection with Beijing strains among MDR patients of
      pulmonary TB in Lucknow and surrounding areas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a
      hospital-based epidemiological study. Our study population was selected from all
      the newly diagnosed patients attending outpatient department and admitted
      patients of Department of Respiratory Medicine, King George's Medical University,
      Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Those isolates which were characterized to be MTB
      by morphological and molecular techniques were tested for their resistance
      against the first-line drugs; after which each patient's isolate was genotyped.
      RESULTS: The results suggested that the presence of Beijing genotype in 31.78% of
      strains. CONCLUSION: Our results predicted that genotypic patterns reveal a large
      diversity among the MTB Beijing strain population. Increasing frequency of
      Beijing strains demands further research to unravel the factors behind its
      propensity to prevail.

PMID- 28869228
TI  - Symptom profile as assessed on delirium rating scale-revised-98 of delirium in
      respiratory intensive care unit: A study from India.
AB  - AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the phenomenology of delirium in patients
      admitted in a Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU). METHODS: Consecutive
      patients admitted to RICU were screened for delirium using Richmond Agitation
      Sedation Scale (RASS), Confusion Assessment Method for ICU (CAM-ICU) assessment
      tool and those found positive for delirium were evaluated by a psychiatrist to
      confirm the diagnosis. Those with a diagnosis of delirium as per the psychiatrist
      were evaluated on Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98 (DRS-R-98) to study
      phenomenology. RESULTS: All the 75 patients fulfilled the criteria of "acute
      onset of symptoms" and "presence of an underlying physical disorder" as per the
      DRS-R-98. Commonly seen symptoms of delirium included disturbances in attention
      (100%), thought process abnormality (100%), fluctuation in symptoms (97.33%)
      disturbance in, sleep-wake cycle, language disturbance (94.7%), disorientation
      (81.33%), and short-term memory impairments (73.33%). No patient had delusions
      and very few (5.3%) reported perceptual disturbances. According to RASS
      subtyping, hypoactive delirium was the most common subtype (n = 34; 45.33%),
      followed by hyperactive subtype (n = 28; 37.33%) and a few patients had mixed
      subtype of delirium (n = 13; 17.33%). Factor structure of DRS-R-98 symptoms
      yielded 3 factors (Factor-1: cognitive factor; Factor-2: motoric factor; Factor
      3; thought, language, and fluctuation factor). CONCLUSION: The phenomenology of
      delirium in ICU patients is similar to non-ICU patients, but hypoactive delirium
      is the most common subtype.

PMID- 28869229
TI  - Endoscopic ultrasound-guided evaluation of the pleura and cases of pleural
      effusion.
AB  - The most efficient and cost-effective approach for the diagnosis of pleural
      exudates remains uncertain and is a subject of controversy. Essential factors to
      be considered include the respective diagnostic yields of thoracocentesis, closed
      pleural biopsy, and thoracoscopy. The role of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) of the
      esophagus as a modality for the evaluation of pleural exudates has not yet been
      evaluated. The applied anatomy of the pleura has been discussed. The techniques
      involved in the EUS imaging of different aspects of the pleura in normal cases
      and in cases with pleural effusion are elaborated. The practical application of
      this knowledge can be useful in EUS-guided sampling of the pleural wall, pleural
      nodules, and in cases of pleural effusion.

PMID- 28869230
TI  - Three decades of transtracheal oxygen therapy: A review of the associated
      complications with an illustrative case presentation.
AB  - Transtracheal oxygen therapy is a well-established modality for improving
      oxygenation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleep apnea,
      pulmonary fibrosis, and other conditions causing hypoxic respiratory failure. In
      spite of its proven track record, the device remains underutilized. This article
      reviews benefits and complications related to the use of this modality with an
      illustrative case presentation.

PMID- 28869231
TI  - How a mild influenza B infection can kill: A case of pulmonary hemorrhage.
AB  - Viral influenza is a seasonal infection associated with significant morbidity and
      mortality. Rapidly fatal hemorrhagic pneumonia has been described in previously
      healthy individuals with beta-hemolytic Streptococcus pneumoniae in a small
      series of patients, but it is not common in patients coinfected with influenza B
      and beta-hemolytic Streptococcus, particularly since influenza B is considered
      less pathogenic than influenza A. However, despite being uncommon, this
      coinfection seems to be associated with high morbidity and mortality,
      particularly in healthy individuals. We present a case of a 46-year-old
      previously healthy white woman presenting with 4 days of shortness of breath,
      sore throat, subjective fevers, and nonproductive cough with rapidly fatal
      hemorrhagic pneumonia confirmed to have Group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus and
      influenza B coinfection. On admission, she had a temperature of 103 degrees  F,
      room air oxygen saturation of 95%, a positive nasal swab for influenza B, and
      negative rapid strep test. Initial chest radiograph showed increased bibasilar
      interstitial markings. She was admitted to a regular floor and started on
      oseltamivir. Preliminary throat culture was positive for Group A beta-hemolytic
      Streptococcus and penicillin V was started. Respiratory status deteriorated
      requiring intubation and transfer to Intensive Care Unit. Subsequently, copious
      bleeding was noted in her endotracheal tube. A bedside bronchoscopy with
      bronchoalveolar lavage revealed a hemorrhagic pneumonitis. Despite aggressive
      efforts, she developed shock, arrested, and died Western District Office of the
      Chief Medical Examiner, Roanoke, VA, USA postadmission. Blood cultures,
      bronchoalveolar lavage, and postmortem pulmonary tissue grew Group A beta
      hemolytic Streptococcus, only resistant to erythromycin.

PMID- 28869232
TI  - To immunosuppress or not: Behcet's syndrome presenting as an eosinophilic pleural
      effusion.
AB  - Etiologic diagnosis of an eosinophilic pleural effusion (EPE) presents a
      diagnostic challenge when intrapleural air and blood have been ruled out as its
      proximate causes. Among the causes of EPE, those that require immunosuppression
      for the underlying disease include connective tissue diseases, sarcoidosis,
      vasculitis, and eosinophilic pneumonia. We present a case of clinically suspected
      Behcet's syndrome based on a 10-year history of recurrent multiple oral ulcers
      and human leukocyte antigen-B51 positivity who presented with only an EPE.
      Computed tomography pulmonary angiogram ruled out central thoracic vein
      thrombosis but was inconclusive in ruling out a subsegmental pulmonary embolism.
      The patient declined immunosuppressants and while on follow-up developed
      bilateral extensive acute lower limb deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary
      embolism. Upper infrarenal inferior vena cava demonstrated chronic thrombosis
      suggestive of its antecedent role in pulmonary embolism-related EPE during the
      first instance. Behcet's syndrome-related EPE can be associated with venous
      thromboembolism, and immunosuppressive therapy prevents the subsequent thrombotic
      episodes.

PMID- 28869233
TI  - Meropenem: A possible new culprit in eosinophilic lung diseases.
AB  - Eosinophilic lung diseases are a diverse group of pulmonary disorders with an
      extensive list of differential diagnoses. Multiple drugs particularly antibiotics
      can cause pulmonary eosinophilia with variable pulmonary manifestations.
      Cutaneous drug reactions are common. Diagnosis is usually made on clinical
      history and blood eosinophilia with an accumulation of eosinophils in alveolar
      spaces on histologic analysis. Imaging findings are nonspecific. Stopping the
      offending agent is often enough while a short course of corticosteroids can
      hasten recovery. We present a unique case of eosinophilic pneumonia due to
      meropenem that highlights the importance of keeping a low threshold of suspicion
      regarding the etiology of drug-induced lung diseases as the current list is not
      exhaustive, and new agents are being identified continuously. A 51-year-old
      African American woman presented with fever, dyspnea, and diffuse pustular rash.
      She had been treated with meropenem intravenously through a peripherally inserted
      central catheter for 6 weeks before presentation for Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      septic arthritis of the left knee. She had a temperature of 102.2 F and SpO2of
      86% on room air. Chest roentgenogram had scattered infiltrates and chest
      tomography showed bilateral ground-glass opacities. Laboratory workup showed
      peripheral eosinophilia. Bronchoalveolar lavage revealed a white blood cell of
      2230 with 89% eosinophils. Skin lesions' biopsies showed pustular dermatosis,
      compatible with acute drug-induced eosinophilic lung disease with skin
      involvement. As meropenem was the only medication she had been exposed to, it was
      stopped and systemic steroids were initiated with improvement in respiratory and
      clinical status and complete recovery on follow-up.

PMID- 28869234
TI  - Weaning difficulty in a near hanging patient: An unusual cause.
AB  - Suicidal hanging causes damage to the airways, neck blood vessels as well as soft
      tissue injuries. We report the development of tracheo-esophageal fistula in such
      a patient. Recurrent soiling of the airways and the resultant lung infection led
      to weaning failure. We highlight the approach to diagnosis and appropriate
      management in such a patient.

PMID- 28869235
TI  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and tuberculosis.

PMID- 28869236
TI  - Catheter pinch-off syndrome.

PMID- 28869237
TI  - Nasal route for endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration
      (EBUS-TBNA): An alternative modality in difficult oral bronchoscope insertion.
AB  - Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is
      usually performed under moderate sedation through the oral approach. Oral
      insertion is performed owing to the larger size of the EBUS bronchoscope as well
      as the delicate and rigid distal end with an integrated ultrasound transducer
      assembly. Nasal route for EBUS scope insertion has been described as a feasible
      alternative. We herein report a patient wherein inability to introduce the EBUS
      bronchoscope through the mouth necessitated nasal insertion of the bronchoscope
      to successfully perform EBUS-TBNA. We discuss the relevant issues comparing the
      nasal and oral introduction of the EBUS bronchoscope.

PMID- 28869238
TI  - Familial interstitial pulmonary fibrosis in two different families in India: A
      case series.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic progressive
      interstitial lung disease (ILD), Occasionally, IPF occurs in families. Familial
      interstitial lung disease has been reported worldwide, limited information is
      available on the disease among Indian patients. CASE PRESENTATION: A 59-year-old
      woman presented with a 2-year history of progressive dyspnoea. Based on clinical
      and radiological features, our patient was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary
      fibrosis. Several family members of her first and second generations had died
      from respiratory failure. Her sister also diagnosed as IPF based on typical High
      resolution computed tomography (HRCT) finding though she was asymptomatic and
      came for screening. In addition, another male patient also had similar history
      and diagnosed as familial IPF based on HRCT and genetic testing in spite of
      significant occupational exposure. Genetic study revealed SFTPA1 gene was
      associated with susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. CONCLUSION: Our
      report illustrates that asymptomatic screening of family member can uncover such
      a serious disease in patients with familial interstitial fibrosis. Otherwise,
      clinical, radiological, and histological features are indistinguishable from
      those of sporadic cases. Furthermore, our work highlights the importance of
      compiling a thorough family history in individuals presenting with cough and
      dyspnoea, particularly in younger patients identified with idiopathic pulmonary
      fibrosis.

PMID- 28869239
TI  - "Cannon-Ball" skin metastases as the presenting manifestation of lung
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28869241
TI  - Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica following laryngeal tuberculosis.

PMID- 28869240
TI  - Transudative chylothorax and pleural tuberculosis in a patient with Eisenmenger
      syndrome: An extraordinary coincidence.

PMID- 28869242
TI  - Unusual presentation of lung cancer as skeletal muscle and subcutaneous
      metastases.

PMID- 28869243
TI  - Superior mediastinal syndrome secondary to Pott's spine in a child.

PMID- 28869245
TI  - Clinicomicrobiological study of community-acquired pneumonia.

PMID- 28869244
TI  - An unusual pulmonary metastatic manifestation of gestational choriocarcinoma: A
      diagnostic dilemma.

PMID- 28869246
TI  - Cosmetic silicone injection causing pneumomediastinum and respiratory failure.

PMID- 28869247
TI  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nontuberculosis mycobacteria co-infection: Two
      cases from the sub-Himalayan region of North India in a year.

PMID- 28869248
TI  - Pre-eclampsia: Screening and aspirin therapy for prevention of pre-eclampsia.

PMID- 28869249
TI  - GLP-1 and the kidney: from physiology to pharmacology and outcomes in diabetes.
AB  - The gastrointestinal tract - the largest endocrine network in human physiology -
      orchestrates signals from the external environment to maintain neural and
      hormonal control of homeostasis. Advances in understanding entero-endocrine cell
      biology in health and disease have important translational relevance. The gut
      derived incretin hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is secreted upon meal
      ingestion and controls glucose metabolism by modulating pancreatic islet cell
      function, food intake and gastrointestinal motility, amongst other effects. The
      observation that the insulinotropic actions of GLP-1 are reduced in type 2
      diabetes mellitus (T2DM) led to the development of incretin-based therapies - GLP
      1 receptor agonists and dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors - for the
      treatment of hyperglycaemia in these patients. Considerable interest exists in
      identifying effects of these drugs beyond glucose-lowering, possibly resulting in
      improved macrovascular and microvascular outcomes, including in diabetic kidney
      disease. As GLP-1 has been implicated as a mediator in the putative gut-renal
      axis (a rapid-acting feed-forward loop that regulates postprandial fluid and
      electrolyte homeostasis), direct actions on the kidney have been proposed. Here,
      we review the role of GLP-1 and the actions of associated therapies on glucose
      metabolism, the gut-renal axis, classical renal risk factors, and renal end
      points in randomized controlled trials of GLP-1 receptor agonists and DPP-4
      inhibitors in patients with T2DM.

PMID- 28869250
TI  - Hypertension: A new genetic clue to unravel the origins of pre-eclampsia.

PMID- 28869252
TI  - Chronic kidney disease: PLD4 regulates kidney fibrosis.

PMID- 28869254
TI  - The effect of comb architecture on complex coacervation.
AB  - Complex coacervation is a widely utilized technique for effecting phase
      separation, though predictive understanding of molecular-level details remains
      underdeveloped. Here, we couple coarse-grained Monte Carlo simulations with
      experimental efforts using a polypeptide-based model system to investigate how a
      comb-like architecture affects complex coacervation and coacervate stability.
      Specifically, the phase separation behavior of linear polycation-linear polyanion
      pairs was compared to that of comb polycation-linear polyanion and comb
      polycation-comb polyanion pairs. The comb architecture was found to mitigate
      cooperative interactions between oppositely charged polymers, as no discernible
      phase separation was observed for comb-comb pairs and complex coacervation of
      linear-linear pairs yielded stable coacervates at higher salt concentration than
      linear-comb pairs. This behavior was attributed to differences in counterion
      release by linear vs. comb polymers during polyeletrolyte complexation.
      Additionally, the comb polycation formed coacervates with both stereoregular
      poly(l-glutamate) and racemic poly(d,l-glutamate), whereas the linear polycation
      formed coacervates only with the racemic polyanion. In contrast, solid
      precipitates were obtained from mixtures of stereoregular poly(l-lysine) and
      poly(l-glutamate). Moreover, the formation of coacervates from cationic comb
      polymers incorporating up to ~90% pendant zwitterionic groups demonstrated the
      potential for inclusion of comonomers to modulate the hydrophilicity and/or other
      properties of a coacervate-forming polymer. These results provide the first
      detailed investigation into the role of polymer architecture on complex
      coacervation using a chemically and architecturally well-defined model system,
      and highlight the need for additional research on this topic.

PMID- 28869255
TI  - Correction: Enhancements in catalytic reactivity and selectivity of
      homobimetallic complexes containing heteroditopic ligands.
AB  - Correction for 'Enhancements in catalytic reactivity and selectivity of
      homobimetallic complexes containing heteroditopic ligands' by Mark R. D. Gatus et
      al., Dalton Trans., 2017, 46, 7457-7466.

PMID- 28869256
TI  - Regioselective hydrogenolysis of aryl ether C-O bonds by tungsten carbides with
      controlled phase compositions.
AB  - Evenly dispersed tungsten carbides with controlled phase compositions that
      exhibit an impressive capacity to carry out the regioselective hydrogenolysis of
      inert aryl ether C-O bonds instead of aliphatic C-O bonds to produce aromatic
      compounds are reported.

PMID- 28869257
TI  - The hydrophobic force for bubble-particle attachment in flotation - a brief
      review.
AB  - A deep understanding of the bubble-particle attachment is critical to flotation
      science and engineering. Historically, the so called "hydrophobic force" has been
      widely accepted to be the reason for bubble-particle attachment although its
      origin is still under debate now. In this paper, a number of representative
      mechanisms for the origin of hydrophobic attractions are reviewed, with the main
      focus being on solid-solid systems. Then we highlight the recent advances in the
      hydrophobic force measurement between bubble and particle. Quantitative
      description of the hydrophobic force in bubble-particle system has been achieved
      recently. This review is closed with a brief conclusion and perspective
      discussion.

PMID- 28869258
TI  - Effect of protic additives in Cu-catalysed asymmetric Diels-Alder cycloadditions
      of doubly activated dienophiles: towards the synthesis of magellanine-type
      Lycopodium alkaloids.
AB  - The pronounced beneficial effect of a precise amount of protic additive in an
      enantioselective Cu-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction is reported. This reaction,
      which employs a cyclic alkylidene beta-ketoester as a dienophile, represents one
      of the first examples of a transformation where these extremely versatile, though
      highly unstable reaction partners participate effectively in catalytic asymmetric
      cycloaddition with a functionalised diene. The cycloadduct was used as an
      intermediate towards the synthesis of magellanine-type Lycopodium alkaloids
      featuring a Stille cross-coupling of a highly congested enol triflate and a
      unique Meinwald rearrangement/cyclopropanation sequence.

PMID- 28869253
TI  - Organ-specific protection mediated by cooperation between vascular and epithelial
      barriers.
AB  - Immune privilege is a complex process that protects organs from immune-mediated
      attack and damage. It is accomplished by a series of cellular barriers that both
      control immune cell entry and promote the development of tolerogenic immune
      cells. In this Review, we describe the vascular endothelial and epithelial
      barriers in organs that are commonly considered to be immune privileged, such as
      the brain and the eye. We compare these classical barriers with barriers in the
      intestine, which share features with barriers of immune-privileged organs, such
      as the capacity to induce tolerance and to protect from external insults. We
      suggest that when intestinal barriers break down, disruption of other barriers at
      distant sites can ensue, and this may underlie the development of various
      neurological, metabolic and intestinal disorders.

PMID- 28869259
TI  - Anti-hyperlipidemic effect of rice bran polysaccharide and its potential
      mechanism in high-fat diet mice.
AB  - Hyperlipidemia occurs very often in modern society along with a high calorie
      intake and is regarded as one of the greatest risk factors for the prevalence of
      cardiac vascular disease (CVD). In this study, we investigated the anti
      hyperlipidemic effect of the rice bran polysaccharides (RBP) and its mechanism in
      a high fat diet animal model. 60 ICR mice were randomly divided into 3 groups,
      which included Control, HFD (high fat diet) and HFD + RBP, and each group
      included 20 mice. The control group was fed with a standard diet while the other
      two groups were fed with HFD. In addition, the HFD + RBP group was fed with 500
      mg kg-1 of rice bran polysaccharides by intragastric administration while the
      other two groups were intragastrically administered with water. The results
      showed that RBP treatment for 10 weeks obviously decreased the body weight, liver
      weight and adipose tissues of mice; and it decreased the levels of total
      cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL
      c) in the plasma. H&E staining of the liver tissues showed that RBP treatment
      decreased the size of fat droplets compared with the HFD group. Microarray
      analysis revealed that RBP treatment results in 80 genes being up-regulated while
      72 genes were down-regulated in the tissues of liver. IPA software analysis
      suggested that NF-kappaB may play a vital role in the lipid-lowering effect of
      RBP. Real-time quantitative PCR confirmed that the mRNA levels of PPAR-alpha,
      PPAR-gamma, PPAR-delta, SREBP-1C, FASN, ACC, SIRT and CD36, which are related to
      lipid metabolism, were significantly regulated by RBP supplementation compared to
      HFD. The western blot analysis further confirmed these altered expressions after
      RBP treatment. Taken together, these results suggest that the oral administration
      of RBP exerts lipid-lowering in high fat diet mice via regulating the lipid
      metabolism-related gene expression.

PMID- 28869251
TI  - Cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury: risk factors, pathophysiology and
      treatment.
AB  - Cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CSA-AKI) is the most common
      clinically important complication in adult patients undergoing open heart
      surgery, and is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. In patients in
      intensive care units, CSA-AKI is the second most common type of AKI after septic
      AKI. In this Review, we explore the definition of CSA-AKI, discuss its
      epidemiology and identify its risk factors. We discuss current theories of the
      pathophysiology of CSA-AKI and describe its clinical course. Furthermore, we
      introduce diagnostic tools with particular reference to novel biomarkers of AKI
      and their potential utility; we analyse currently applied interventions aimed at
      attenuating AKI in patients undergoing cardiac surgery; and describe evidence
      from randomized controlled trials aimed at preventing or treating CSA-AKI.
      Finally, we explore issues in the use of renal replacement therapy, its timing,
      its intensity and its preferred modalities in patients with CSA-AKI, and we
      discuss the prognosis of CSA-AKI in terms of patient survival and kidney
      recovery.

PMID- 28869260
TI  - Base-mediated diastereoselective [4 + 3] annulation of in situ generated ortho
      quinone methides with C,N-cyclic azomethine imines.
AB  - An efficient [4 + 3] annulation of 2-(1-tosylalkyl)phenols with C,N-cyclic
      azomethine imines via in situ generation of ortho-quinone methides (o-QMs) under
      mild basic reaction conditions is disclosed, furnishing biologically interesting
      seven-membered heterocyclic compounds with moderate to good yields and excellent
      diastereoselectivities. A gram-scale reaction is performed to demonstrate the
      potential in industrial application and two transition states are proposed to
      rationalize the outstanding diastereoselectivity.

PMID- 28869261
TI  - Microfluidic bead trap as a visual bar for quantitative detection of
      oligonucleotides.
AB  - We demonstrate a microfluidic bead trap capable of forming a dipstick-type bar
      visible to the naked eye for simple and quantitative detection of
      oligonucleotides. We use magnetic microparticles (MMPs) and polystyrene
      microparticles (PMPs) that are connected and form MMPs-targets-PMPs when target
      oligonucleotides are present, leaving free PMPs with a number inversely
      proportional to the amount of targets. Using a capillary flow-driven microfluidic
      circuitry consisting of a magnetic separator to remove the MMPs-targets-PMPs, the
      free PMPs can be trapped at the narrowing nozzle downstream, forming a visual bar
      quantifiable based on the length of PMP accumulation. Such a power-free and
      instrument-free platform enables a limit of detection at 13 fmol (0.65 nM in 20
      MUl, S/N = 3) of oligonucleotides and is compatible with single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms and operation in a complex bio-fluid. Moreover, using DNAzyme as
      the target oligonucleotide that catalyzes a specific hydrolytic cleavage in the
      presence of lead ions, we demonstrate a model application that detects lead ions
      with a limit of detection of 12.2 nM (2.5 MUg l-1), providing quantitative and
      visual detection of lead contamination at resource-limited sites.

PMID- 28869262
TI  - The effects of exfoliation, organic solvents and anodic activation on the
      catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction of tungsten disulfide.
AB  - The rational design of transition metal dichalcogenide electrocatalysts for
      efficiently catalyzing the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is believed to lead
      to the generation of a renewable energy carrier. To this end, our work has made
      three main contributions. At first, we have demonstrated that exfoliation via
      ionic liquid assisted grinding combined with gradient centrifugation is an
      efficient method to exfoliate bulk WS2 to nanosheets with a thickness of a few
      atomic layers and lateral size dimensions in the range of 100 nm to 2 nm. These
      WS2 nanosheets decorated with scattered nanodots exhibited highly enhanced
      catalytic performance for HER with an onset potential of -130 mV vs. RHE, an
      overpotential of 337 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 80 mV dec-1 in 0.5 M
      H2SO4. Secondly, we found a strong aging effect on the electrocatalytic
      performance of WS2 stored in high boiling point organic solvents such as
      dimethylformamide (DMF). Importantly, the HER ability could be recovered by
      removing the organic (DMF) residues, which obstructed the electron transport,
      with acetone. Thirdly, we established that the HER performance of WS2
      nanosheets/nanodots could be significantly enhanced by activating the electrode
      surface at a positive voltage for a very short time (60 s), decreasing the
      kinetic overpotential by more than 80 mV at 10 mA cm-2. The performance
      enhancement was found to arise primarily from the ability of a formed proton
      intercalated amorphous tungsten trioxide (a-WO3) to provide additional active
      sites and favourably modify the immediate chemical environment of the WS2
      catalyst, rendering it more favorable for local proton delivery and/or transport
      to the active edge site of WS2. Our results provide new insights into the effects
      of organic solvents and electrochemical activation on the catalytic performance
      of two-dimensional WS2 for HER.

PMID- 28869263
TI  - Two-dimensional GeP3 as a high capacity electrode material for Li-ion batteries.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) materials are promising for use in lithium (Li) electrodes
      due to their high surface ratio. By using density functional theory (DFT)
      calculations, we investigate the adsorption and diffusion of Li on a newly
      predicted 2D GeP3 material [Nano Lett., 2016, 17, 1833]. The most favourable
      adsorption sites for Li are identified, and a semiconducting to metallic
      transition induced by Li adsorption is found, which indicates excellent
      electrical conductivity. The GeP3 monolayer has an estimated capacity of 648 mA h
      g-1, which is almost twice that of commercially used graphite (375 mA h g-1).
      During full Li intercalation, the GeP3 layer undergoes only 1.2% lattice
      parameter reduction. Moreover, GeP3 possesses the advantages of a small diffusion
      barrier (~0.5 eV) and low average open-circuit voltages (~0.4 V). Our results
      highlight a new class of promising anode materials, i.e. 2D phosphide, as
      potential rechargeable lithium batteries with ultrahigh-capacity, superior ionic
      conductivity, and low average open-circuit voltage.

PMID- 28869264
TI  - Synthesis of 2-aminoBODIPYs by palladium catalysed amination.
AB  - Palladium catalysed coupling of the 2-iodoBODIPY 3 with a range of anilines and a
      primary alkylamine succeeds in generating the corresponding 2-aminoBODIPYs. These
      2-aminoBODIPY derivatives are non-emissive and quantum chemical calculations and
      electrochemistry are consistent with charge transfer from the amine substituent.
      Attenuation of this charge transfer pathway by conversion of the 1,2
      phenylenediamine derivative 9 into the corresponding benzimidazolone 10 restores
      the fluorescence and has been used as the basis for a fluorescence sensor for
      phosgene.

PMID- 28869265
TI  - Tuning interfacial patterns of molecular bonds via surface morphology.
AB  - Many studies have demonstrated that the mechanical properties of the
      extracellular matrix can significantly influence the morphology, strength and
      lifetime of focal adhesions. However, how the morphology of the contact surface
      affects the pattern formation of the molecular bonds still remains largely
      unknown. Here, by simplifying the cell and extracellular matrix to two opposing
      elastic bodies and considering the lateral diffusion as well as the
      bonding/debonding of molecular bonds, we study the clustering behavior of
      receptor-ligand bonds between curved surfaces and the phase diagrams of cluster
      patterns. We reveal the important role of surface morphology and bond kinetics in
      regulating the patterns of bond clusters. We further investigate the segregation
      dynamics of the interfacial bonds under various loading speeds, and we show that
      the average interfacial stress is rate-dependent while the rupture stress is rate
      independent. Finally, we demonstrate that programmable patterning of bond
      clusters can be achieved through the designed surface morphology.

PMID- 28869266
TI  - NI(ii) phosphine and phosphide complexes supported by a PNP-pyrrole pincer
      ligand.
AB  - The reaction between [(PNpyrP)NiCl] (1, PNpyrP = 2,5-bis((di-iso-propylphosphino)
      methyl)-1H-pyrrolide) and TlPF6 in the presence of a monodentate phosphine ligand
      led to cationic nickel phosphine and phosphite complexes,
      [(PNpyrP)Ni(PHPh2)][PF6] (2), [(PNpyrP)Ni(PMe3)][PF6] (3), and
      [(PNpyrP)Ni{P(OMe)3}][PF6] (4). Compound 2 can be deprotonated resulting in the
      generation of a terminal phosphido complex, [(PNpyrP)Ni(PPh2)] (5). When 3 is
      subjected to a base, a methyl proton of PMe3 is abstracted to afford
      [(PNpyrP)Ni(CH2PMe2)] (6), containing a methylene bridge between Ni and the
      external phosphine. Compounds 2-6 were characterized by single crystal X-ray
      diffraction in addition to multi-nuclear NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis.

PMID- 28869267
TI  - Multimodal imaging and photothermal therapy were simultaneously achieved in the
      core-shell UCNR structure by using single near-infrared light.
AB  - Core-shell nanostructures consisting of plasmonic materials and lanthanide-doped
      upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) show promising applications in theranostics
      including bio-imaging, diagnosis and therapy. However, some challenges still
      remain in the synthetic control because of the non-coordination between energy
      transfer and photothermal therapy (PTT). Herein, we developed a novel type of
      thermal-fluorescent core-shell hybrid nanocomposite incorporating rare-earth Yb3+
      and Er3+ ion doped GdOF as the shell and gold nanorods (GNRs) as the core,
      creating upconversion nanorods (UCNRs) of GNRs@GdOF:Yb3+,Er3+. In order to
      facilitate the absorption or excretion of UCNRs in vivo, we designed gold
      nanorods with lower aspect ratios by reducing the amount of CTAB in the growth
      solution. More importantly, under 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation,
      the green and red emissions of GdOF:Yb3+,Er3+ generally overlap with the visible
      absorbance of GNRs; by altering the contents of Yb3+ and Er3+ ions appropriately,
      the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption of low aspect ratio
      GNRs under 980 nm NIR laser excitation can be enhanced for improving the PTT
      efficiency. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo assays reveal that the composite
      has excellent bio-compatibility and cancer therapy efficiency. This multi
      functional nanocomposite, which possesses upconversion luminescence and
      photothermal and biocompatibility properties, shows strong potential for
      application in bio-imaging and photothermal anti-cancer therapy.

PMID- 28869268
TI  - Multi-scale structural analysis of the A-site and oxygen deficient perovskite
      Sr11Mo4O23.
AB  - The long range average crystal structure, as well as the short and medium range
      structural features, of the A-site deficient and oxygen deficient perovskite
      Sr11Mo4O23 have been determined. Rietveld refinement of synchrotron X-ray and
      neutron powder diffraction data show that this compound is cubic with space group
      Fd3[combining macron]m and a lattice parameter of a = 16.4108 A. These findings
      contradict earlier reports of a tetragonal crystal structure. Sr11Mo4O23 appears
      to be isostructural with Ba11W4O23, except that the disordered coordination
      environment around one of the Mo sites seems to be a mixture of octahedral and
      square pyramidal instead of octahedral and tetrahedral. The short and medium
      range structural features have been inspected using the neutron pair distribution
      function (PDF). Short range correlations between the oxygen polyhedra surrounding
      the Mo(2) atom exist to avoid short O-O contacts. A model has been constructed
      which contains such correlations and is verified by reverse Monte Carlo (RMC)
      modeling of the PDF. The RMC refinements also give the distribution of inter
      atomic distances in this compound which reveals how the various atomic positions
      are correlated and over what length scales. These results are important for
      understanding the ionic conduction pathways.

PMID- 28869269
TI  - Mono-BHT heteroleptic magnesium complexes: synthesis, molecular structure and
      catalytic behavior in the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters.
AB  - Numerous heteroleptic 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenolate (BHT) magnesium
      complexes have been synthesized by treatment of (BHT)MgBu(THF)2 with various
      alcohols. Molecular structures of the complexes have been determined by X-ray
      diffraction. The magnesium coordination number in [(BHT)Mg(MU-OBn)(THF)]2 (3) and
      [(BHT)Mg(MU-O-tert-BuC6H4)(THF)]2 (4) is equal to 4. Complexes formed from esters
      of glycolic and lactic acids, [(BHT)Mg(MU-OCH2COOEt)(THF)]2 (5) and [(BHT)Mg(MU
      OCH(CH3)COOCH2COOtBu)(THF)]2 (6) contain chelate fragments with pentacoordinated
      magnesium. Compounds 3-6 contain THF molecules coordinated to magnesium atoms.
      Complex {(BHT)Mg[MU-O(CH2)3CON(CH3)2]}2 (7) does not demonstrate any tendency to
      form an adduct with THF. It has been experimentally determined that complexes 3
      and 5 are highly active catalysts of lactide polymerization. The activity of 4 is
      rather low, and complex 7 demonstrates moderate productivity. According to DOSY
      NMR experiments, compounds 3 and 5 retain their dimeric structures even in THF.
      The free energies of model dimeric [(DBP)Mg(MU-OMe)(Sub)]2 and monomeric
      (DBP)Mg(OMe)(Sub)2 products on treatment of [(DBP)Mg(MU-OMe)(THF)]2 with a series
      of sigma-electron donors (Sub) have been estimated by DFT calculations. These
      results demonstrate that the substitution of THF by Sub in a dimeric molecule is
      an energetically allowed process, whereas the dissociation of dimers is
      energetically unfavorable. DFT modeling of epsilon-CL and (dl)-lactide ROP
      catalyzed by dimeric and monomeric complexes showed that a cooperative effect of
      two magnesium atoms occurs within the ROP for binuclear catalytic species. A
      comparison of the reaction profiles for ROP catalyzed by binuclear and
      mononuclear species allowed us to conclude that the binuclear mechanism is
      favorable in early stages of ROP initiated by dimers 3 and 5.

PMID- 28869271
TI  - Understanding the influence of low-frequency vibrations on the hydrogen bonds of
      acetic acid and acetamide dimers.
AB  - Low-frequency vibrations coupled to high-frequency modes are known to influence
      the hydrogen bond strengths in a weakly interacting dimer. In this context,
      various acetic acid and acetamide dimers were analyzed using Moller-Plesset
      second-order perturbation (MP2) and density functional theory (DFT)-based
      approaches with explicit anharmonicity corrections. The computed low-frequency
      fundamentals as well as the high-frequency modes, which were found to be related
      to hydrogen bonding (OH/NH stretching modes), were analyzed and their computed
      intensities were correlated with their hydrogen-bond strengths/binding energies.
      There are similarities in the nature of eight low-frequency fundamentals of these
      two dimers, and the in-plane bending and stretch-bend fundamentals of the
      different dimers of these two species (in this low-frequency region) have
      specific roles in their relative stability order. The computed linear
      correlations were further verified against the results from coupled cluster
      calculations including triple excitation (CCSD(T)), Gaussian-G4 (G4), Gaussian-G2
      MP2 (G2MP2) and complete basis set (CBS-QB3) methods of high accuracy energy
      calculations. As a consequence of such linear correlations, an additive property
      of local fragment energies (responsible for hydrogen bonding) was found to be a
      valid approximation to predict the binding energies of such dimers and the idea
      was found to be extendable to the other homologues of these acids/amides.

PMID- 28869272
TI  - Two-dimensional flow of driven particles: a microfluidic pathway to the non
      equilibrium frontier.
AB  - We discuss the basic physics of the flow of micron-scale droplets in 2D geometry.
      Our focus is on the use of droplet ensembles to look into fundamental questions
      of non-equilibrium systems, such as the emergence of dynamic patterns and
      irreversibility. We review recent research in these directions, which demonstrate
      that 2D microfluidics is uniquely set to study complex out-of-equilibrium
      phenomena thanks to the simplicity of the underlying Stokes flow and the
      accessibility of lab-on-chip technology.

PMID- 28869270
TI  - Proteomic and genetic analysis of the response of S. cerevisiae to soluble copper
      leads to improvement of the antimicrobial function of cellulosic copper
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Copper (Cu) was used in antiquity to prevent waterborne and food diseases
      because, as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent, it generates reactive oxygen
      species, ROS. New technologies incorporating Cu into low-cost biodegradable
      nanomaterials built on cellulose, known as cellulosic cupric nanoparticles or c
      CuNPs, present novel approaches to deliver Cu in a controlled manner to control
      microbial growth. We challenged strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with soluble
      Cu and c-CuNPs to evaluate the potential of c-CuNPs as antifungal agents. Cells
      exposed to c-CuNPs demonstrated greater sensitivity to Cu than cells exposed to
      soluble Cu, although Cu-resistant strains were more tolerant than Cu-sensitive
      strains of c-CuNP exposure. At the same level of growth inhibition, 157 MUM c
      CuNPs led to the same internal Cu levels as did 400 MUM CuSO4, offering evidence
      for alternative mechanisms of toxicity, perhaps through beta-arrestin dependent
      endocytosis, which was supported by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy of
      c-CuNPs distributed both on the cell surface and within the cytoplasm. Genes
      responsible for genetic variation in response to copper were mapped to the ZRT2
      and the CUP1 loci. Through proteomic analyses, we found that the expression of
      other zinc (Zn) transporters increased in Cu-tolerant yeast compared to Cu
      sensitive strains. Further, the addition of Zn at low levels increased the
      potency of c-CuNPs to inhibit even the most Cu-tolerant yeast. Through unbiased
      systems biological approaches, we identified Zn as a critical component of the
      yeast response to Cu and the addition of Zn increased the potency of the c-CuNPs.

PMID- 28869273
TI  - Evolution of nanostructured single-phase CoSb3 thin films by low-energy ion beam
      induced mixing and their thermoelectric performance.
AB  - Skutterudites are emerging as potential candidates that show high efficiency and
      thus provide an ideal platform for research. The properties of nanostructured
      films of skutterudites are different from those of the corresponding bulk. The
      present study reports the evolution of nanostructured single-phase CoSb3
      fabricated by using low-energy ion irradiation of Co/Sb bilayer films and
      subsequent annealing at an optimized temperature and their Seebeck coefficients
      (S). The effects of ion beam parameters with annealing on the phase evolution and
      nanostructure modifications were studied. An increase in Xe+ ion fluence resulted
      in complete mixing of Co/Sb on postannealing forming flower-like nanostructures
      of single phase CoSb3. The temperature-dependent electrical resistivity (rho)
      increases with the ion fluence because of defect creation which further increases
      on postannealing due to surface nanostructuring. The S of these films of CoSb3 is
      found to be higher and this is attributed to the formation of a uniform layer of
      nanostructured CoSb3 alloy thin film. The S and Hall coefficients of all these
      films are negative implying that they are n-type semiconductors.

PMID- 28869274
TI  - Probing the modulated formation of gold nanoparticles-beta-lactoglobulin corona
      complexes and their applications.
AB  - Understanding the interactions between proteins and nanoparticles (NPs) along
      with the underlying structural and dynamic information is of utmost importance to
      exploit nanotechnology for biomedical applications. Upon adsorption onto a NP
      surface, proteins form a well-organized layer, termed the corona, that dictates
      the identity of the NP-protein complex and governs its biological pathways. Given
      its high biological relevance, in-depth molecular investigations and applications
      of NPs-protein corona complexes are still scarce, especially since different
      proteins form unique corona patterns, making identification of the biomolecular
      motifs at the interface critical. In this work, we provide molecular insights and
      structural characterizations of the bio-nano interface of a popular food-based
      protein, namely bovine beta-lactoglobulin (beta-LG), with gold nanoparticles
      (AuNPs) and report on our investigations of the formation of corona complexes by
      combined molecular simulations and complementary experiments. Two major binding
      sites in beta-LG were identified as being driven by citrate-mediated
      electrostatic interactions, while the associated binding kinetics and
      conformational changes in the secondary structures were also characterized. More
      importantly, the superior stability of the corona led us to further explore its
      biomedical applications, such as in the smartphone-based point-of-care biosensing
      of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and in the computed tomography (CT) of the
      gastrointestinal (GI) tract through oral administration to probe GI tolerance and
      functions. Considering their biocompatibility, edible nature, and efficient
      excretion through defecation, AuNPs-beta-LG corona complexes have shown promising
      perspectives for future in vitro and in vivo clinical settings.

PMID- 28869275
TI  - Density functional study on the resistance to sulfur poisoning of Ptx (x = 0, 1,
      4 and 8) modified alpha-Mo2C(0001) surfaces.
AB  - The tolerance of sulfur poisoning of alpha-Mo2C(0001) surfaces with different Pt
      coverages is investigated combining the density functional theory (DFT) results
      with thermodynamics data using the ab initio atomistic thermodynamic method. It
      is found that on Mo2C(0001), Pt clusters tend to form two dimensional planar
      structures instead of aggregating. The clean Mo2C(0001) surface interacts with
      sulfides very strongly and is susceptible to sulfur poisoning. With increasing
      the coverage of Pt on the Mo2C surface, the interaction between sulfur and
      substrate is weakened. The sulfur tolerance ability increases in the order of
      Mo2C ~ Pt1/Mo2C < Pt4/Mo2C < Pt8/Mo2C, where the coverage of Pt on the Mo2C plays
      a very effective role. The results provide theoretical guidance for designing
      Mo2C based catalysts with high activity and high sulfur resistance.

PMID- 28869276
TI  - Amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling for prenatal diagnosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During pregnancy, fetal cells suitable for genetic testing can be
      obtained from amniotic fluid by amniocentesis (AC), placental tissue by chorionic
      villus sampling (CVS), or fetal blood. A major disadvantage of second trimester
      amniocentesis is that the results are available relatively late in pregnancy
      (after 16 weeks' gestation). Earlier alternatives are chorionic villus sampling
      (CVS) and early amniocentesis, which can be performed in the first trimester of
      pregnancy. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review was to compare the safety and
      accuracy of all types of AC (i.e. early and late) and CVS (e.g. transabdominal,
      transcervical) for prenatal diagnosis. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane
      Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (3 March 2017),
      ClinicalTrials.gov, the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
      (ICTRP; 3 March 2017), and reference lists of retrieved studies. SELECTION
      CRITERIA: All randomised trials comparing AC and CVS by either transabdominal or
      transcervical route. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors
      independently assessed trials for inclusion and risk of bias, extracted data and
      checked them for accuracy. The quality of the evidence was assessed using the
      GRADE approach. MAIN RESULTS: We included a total of 16 randomised studies, with
      a total of 33,555 women, 14 of which were deemed to be at low risk of bias. The
      number of women included in the trials ranged from 223 to 4606.Studies were
      categorized into six comparisons: 1. second trimester AC versus control; 2. early
      versus second trimester AC; 3. CVS versus second trimester AC; 4. CVS methods; 5.
      Early AC versus CVS; and 6. AC with or without ultrasound.One study compared
      second trimester AC with no AC (control) in a low risk population (women = 4606).
      Background pregnancy loss was around 2%. Second trimester AC compared to no
      testing increased total pregnancy loss by another 1%. The confidence intervals
      (CI) around this excess risk were relatively large (3.2% versus 2.3 %, average
      risk ratio (RR) 1.41, 95% CI 0.99 to 2.00; moderate-quality evidence). In the
      same study, spontaneous miscarriages were also higher (2.1% versus 1.3%; average
      RR 1.60, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.52; high-quality evidence). The number of congenital
      anomalies was similar in both groups (2.0% versus 2.2%, average RR 0.93, 95% CI
      0.62 to 1.39; moderate-quality evidence).One study (women = 4334) found that
      early amniocentesis was not a safe early alternative compared to second trimester
      amniocentesis because of increased total pregnancy losses (7.6% versus 5.9%;
      average RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.61; high-quality evidence), spontaneous
      miscarriages (3.6% versus 2.5%, average RR 1.41, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.98; moderate
      quality evidence), and a higher incidence of congential anomalies, including
      talipes (4.7% versus 2.7%; average RR 1.73, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.38; high-quality
      evidence).When pregnancy loss after CVS was compared with second trimester AC,
      there was a clinically significant heterogeneity in the size and direction of the
      effect depending on the technique used (transabdominal or transcervical),
      therefore, the results were not pooled. Only one study compared transabdominal
      CVS with second trimester AC (women = 2234). They found no clear difference
      between the two procedures in the total pregnancy loss (6.3% versus 7%; average
      RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.23, low-quality evidence), spontaneous miscarriages
      (3.0% versus 3.9%; average RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.49 to 1.21; low-quality evidence),
      and perinatal deaths (0.7% versus 0.6%; average RR 1.18, 95% CI 0.40 to 3.51; low
      quality evidence). Transcervical CVS may carry a higher risk of pregnancy loss
      (14.5% versus 11.5%; average RR 1.40, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.81), but the results were
      quite heterogeneous.Five studies compared transabdominal and transcervical CVS
      (women = 7978). There were no clear differences between the two methods in
      pregnancy losses (average RR 1.16, 95% CI 0.81 to 1.65; very low-quality
      evidence), spontaneous miscarriages (average RR 1.68, 95% CI 0.79 to 3.58; very
      low-quality evidence), or anomalies (average RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.41 to 1.12; low
      quality evidence). We downgraded the quality of the evidence to low due to
      heterogeneity between studies. Transcervical CVS may be more technically
      demanding than transabdominal CVS, with more failures to obtain sample (2.0%
      versus 1.1%; average RR 1.79, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.82, moderate-quality
      evidence).Overall, we found low-quality evidence for outcomes when early
      amniocentesis was compared to transabdominal CVS. Spontaneous miscarriage was the
      only outcome supported by moderate-quality evidence, resulting in more
      miscarriages after early AC compared with transabdominal CVS (2.3% versus 1.3%;
      average RR 1.73, 95% CI 1.15 to 2.60). There were no clear differences in
      pregnancy losses (average RR 1.15, 95% CI 0.86 to 1.54; low-quality evidence), or
      anomalies (average RR 1.14, 95% CI 0.57 to 2.30; very low-quality evidence).We
      found one study that examined AC with or without ultrasound, which evaluated a
      type of ultrasound-assisted procedure that is now considered obsolete. AUTHORS'
      CONCLUSIONS: Second trimester amniocentesis increased the risk of pregnancy loss,
      but it was not possible to quantify this increase precisely from only one study,
      carried out more than 30 years ago.Early amniocentesis was not as safe as second
      trimester amniocentesis, illustrated by increased pregnancy loss and congenital
      anomalies (talipes). Transcervical chorionic villus sampling compared with second
      trimester amniocentesis may be associated with a higher risk of pregnancy loss,
      but results were quite heterogeneous.Diagnostic accuracy of different methods
      could not be assessed adequately because of incomplete karyotype data in most
      studies.

PMID- 28869277
TI  - Polymorphisms in dopamine-associated genes and cognitive decline in Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cognitive decline is common in Parkinson's disease (PD), but the
      underlying mechanisms for this complication are incompletely understood.
      Genotypes affecting dopamine transmission may be of importance. This study
      investigates whether genotypes associated with reduced prefrontal dopaminergic
      tone and/or reduced dopamine D2-receptor availability (Catechol-O
      methyltransferase [COMT] Val158 Met genotype and DRD2 C957 T genotype) affect the
      development of cognitive deficits in PD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and
      34 patients with idiopathic PD, participating in a regional, population-based
      study of incident parkinsonism, underwent genotyping. After extensive baseline
      investigations (including imaging and biomarker analyses), the patients were
      followed prospectively during 6-10 years with neuropsychological evaluations,
      covering six cognitive domains. Cognitive decline (defined as the incidence of
      either Parkinson's disease mild cognitive impairment [PD-MCI] or dementia [PDD],
      diagnosed according to published criteria and blinded to genotype) was studied as
      the primary outcome. RESULTS: Both genotypes affected cognition, as shown by Cox
      proportional hazards models. While the COMT 158 Val/Val genotype conferred an
      increased risk of mild cognitive impairment in patients with normal cognition at
      baseline (hazard ratio: 2.13, P = .023), the DRD2 957 T/T genotype conferred an
      overall increased risk of PD dementia (hazard ratio: 3.22, P < .001). The poorer
      cognitive performance in DRD2 957 T/T carriers with PD occurred mainly in
      episodic memory and attention. CONCLUSIONS: The results favor the hypothesis that
      dopamine deficiency in PD not only relate to mild cognitive deficits in
      frontostriatal functions, but also to a decline in memory and attention. This
      could indicate that dopamine deficiency impairs a wide network of brain areas.

PMID- 28869278
TI  - Cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy monitoring for prevention of brain injury in
      very preterm infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebral injury and long-term neurodevelopmental impairment is common
      in extremely preterm infants. Cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) enables
      continuous estimation of cerebral oxygenation. This diagnostic method coupled
      with appropriate interventions if NIRS is out of normal range (that is cerebral
      oxygenation within the 55% to 85% range) may offer benefits without causing more
      harms. Therefore, NIRS coupled with appropriate responses to abnormal findings on
      NIRS needs assessment in a systematic review of randomised clinical trials and
      quasi-randomised studies. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the benefits and harms of
      interventions that attempt to alter cerebral oxygenation guided by cerebral NIRS
      monitoring in order to prevent cerebral injury, improve neurological outcome, and
      increase survival in preterm infants born more than 8 weeks preterm. SEARCH
      METHODS: We used the standard search strategy of the Cochrane Neonatal Review
      Group to search the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL 2016,
      Issue 8), MEDLINE via PubMed (1966 to 10 September 2016), Embase (1980 to 10
      September 2016), and CINAHL (1982 to 10 September 2016). We also searched
      clinical trial databases, conference proceedings, and the reference lists of
      retrieved articles for randomised clinical trials and quasi-randomised studies.
      SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised clinical trials and quasi-randomised clinical
      studies comparing continuous cerebral NIRS monitoring for at least 24 hours
      versus blinded NIRS or versus no NIRS monitoring. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:
      Two review authors independently selected, assessed the quality of, and extracted
      data from the included trials and studies. If necessary, we contacted authors for
      further information. We conducted assessments of risks of bias; risks of design
      errors; and controlled the risks of random errors with Trial Sequential Analysis.
      We assessed the quality of the evidence with GRADE. MAIN RESULTS: One randomised
      clinical trial met inclusion criteria, including infants born more than 12 weeks
      preterm. The trial employed adequate methodologies and was assessed at low risk
      of bias. One hundred and sixty-six infants were randomised to start continuous
      cerebral NIRS monitoring less than 3 hours after birth until 72 hours after birth
      plus appropriate interventions if NIRS was out of normal range according to a
      guideline versus conventional monitoring with blinded NIRS. There was no effect
      of NIRS plus guideline of mortality until term-equivalent age (RR 0.50, 95% CI
      0.29 to 1.00; one trial; 166 participants). There were no effects of NIRS plus
      guideline on intraventricular haemorrhages: all grades (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.65 to
      1.34; one trial; 166 participants); grade III/IV (RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.25 to 1.31;
      one trial; 166 participants); and cystic periventricular leukomalacia (which did
      not occur in either group). Likewise, there was no effect of NIRS plus guideline
      on the occurrence of a patent ductus arteriosus (RR 1.96, 95% CI 0.94 to 4.08;
      one trial; 166 participants); chronic lung disease (RR 1.27, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.50;
      one trial; 166 participants); necrotising enterocolitis (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.33 to
      1.94; one trial; 166 participants); and retinopathy of prematurity (RR 1.64, 95%
      CI 0.75 to 3.00; one trial; 166 participants). There were no serious adverse
      events in any of the intervention groups. NIRS plus guideline caused more skin
      marks from the NIRS sensor in the control group than in the experimental group
      (unadjusted RR 0.31, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.92; one trial; 166 participants). There are
      no data regarding neurodevelopmental outcome, renal impairment or air leaks.The
      quality of evidence for all comparisons discussed above was assessed as very low
      apart from all-cause mortality and adverse events: these were assessed as low and
      moderate, respectively. The validity of all comparisons is hampered by a small
      sample of randomised infants, risk of bias due to lack of blinding, and
      indirectness of outcomes. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The only eligible randomised
      clinical trial did not demonstrate any consistent effects of NIRS plus a
      guideline on the assessed clinical outcomes. The trial was, however, only powered
      to detect difference in cerebral oxygenation, not morbidities or mortality. Our
      systematic review did not reach sufficient power to prove or disprove effects on
      clinical outcomes. Further randomised clinical trials with low risks of bias and
      low risks of random errors are needed.

PMID- 28869279
TI  - Life situation 5 years after subarachnoid haemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) has high mortality and morbidity among
      survivors. SAH mainly affects young people and may result in long-term
      disabilities such as decreased Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL), mental
      health and cognitive function. The aim of this study was to investigate the life
      situation 5 years after a SAH including physical/emotional status, participation
      and HRQoL. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, a mail
      survey was sent to all persons treated at a neurosurgery unit in Gothenburg,
      Sweden, for non-traumatic SAH in 2009-2010, approximately 5 years post-SAH. The
      survey included questions regarding HRQoL; EuroQol 5-Dimensions (EQ-5D), the
      impact of the SAH; Stroke Impact Scale (SIS), Occupational Gaps Questionnaire and
      participation in society; Impact of Participation and Autonomy (IPA). RESULTS:
      Forty-two 5 year survivors were sent the survey, of whom 26 (62%) responded (59
      years old, range 33-85). The participants had generally low HRQoL and scored low
      in the domain of anxiety and depression. Many reported problems with emotions,
      fatigue, memory and executive function, but few problems with physical condition.
      However, nearly all participants reported to have an acceptable level of
      participation and 64% were independent in their daily life. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      5-year follow-up after SAH, the participants reported to have a greater number of
      hidden disabilities compared to physical problems, whereas most had acceptable
      participation in society. A yearly follow-up after a SAH could be suggested
      aiming to improving the cognitive and mental health.

PMID- 28869281
TI  - Dogs don't always prefer their owners and can quickly form strong preferences for
      certain strangers over others.
AB  - The unique relationship between dog and owner has been demonstrated in several
      experimental procedures, including tests in which dogs are left alone or with a
      stranger, tests of dogs' appeasement or social approach when petted by their
      owner or a stranger, and their ability to learn when taught by their owner or a
      stranger. In all cases, dogs responded differently to their owner, which has been
      referred to as a specific attachment, and likely a product of a prolonged history
      of reinforcement. In the current study, we used a concurrent choice paradigm in
      which dogs could interact with two people, both of whom provided the same petting
      interaction, to test whether owned dogs would prefer their owner over a stranger
      and whether the familiarity of the testing context would influence preference. We
      also investigated whether shelter and owned dogs tested with two strangers would
      show a preference between strangers and whether that preference would be similar
      in magnitude to any preference between the owner and stranger. Owned dogs
      preferred to interact with their owners when in an unfamiliar context, but
      allocated more time to the stranger in a familiar context. Both shelter and owned
      dogs tested with two strangers showed a magnitude of preference for one stranger
      over the other similar to owned dogs' preference for owners in an unfamiliar
      context. These results parallel what has been found in strange situation tests
      with owned dogs tested with their owners, but the strength of preference shown
      for one of two strangers indicates dogs can form a preference for one person
      quickly.

PMID- 28869282
TI  - Percutaneous sclerotherapy using bleomycin for the treatment of vascular
      malformations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Some vascular malformations are difficult to manage with surgical
      treatment. Thus, percutaneous sclerotherapy has been utilized with several
      advantages over surgical treatment. Bleomycin is one of several sclerosing agents
      used for the treatment of vascular malformations. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate
      therapeutic efficacy and safety of percutaneous sclerotherapy using bleomycin for
      the treatment of vascular malformations. METHODS: Thirty patients diagnosed with
      vascular malformations, including four with capillary malformations with nodular
      change, nine with lymphatic malformations, and 17 with venous malformations, were
      involved in the study. Patients received magnetic resonance imaging and pulmonary
      surveillance prior to the treatment. Clinical assessments for the degree of
      vascularity disappearance and adverse effects were performed by the investigator.
      RESULTS: Percutaneous sclerotherapy using bleomycin was performed in 3.2 sessions
      (mean) over 3 months (mean). Significant improvement was observed in 90.0% of all
      lesions. All lesions of capillary malformation with nodular change and lymphatic
      malformation demonstrated significant improvement, and 82.4% of lesions of venous
      malformation improved significantly. Seven patients (23.3%) complained of side
      effects including pain and headache. All occurred within 24 hours and were
      tolerable. CONCLUSIONS: Percutaneous sclerotherapy using bleomycin is effective
      and tolerable in the treatment of vascular malformation through a percutaneous
      approach. Therefore, it could be applied usefully for vascular malformations by
      dermatologists.

PMID- 28869284
TI  - Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay for
      determination of plasma nomegestrol acetate and estradiol in healthy
      postmenopausal women.
AB  - A highly sensitive and selective ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry method is described for the simultaneous determination of
      nomegestrol acetate (NOMAC), a highly selective progestogen, and estradiol (E2),
      a natural estrogen in human plasma. NOMAC was obtained from plasma by solid-phase
      extraction, while E2 was first separated by liquid-liquid extraction with methyl
      tert-butyl ether followed by derivatization with dansyl chloride. Deuterated
      internal standards, NOMAC-d5 and E2-d4 were used for better control of extraction
      conditions and ionization efficiency. The assay recovery of the analytes was
      within 90-99%. The analytes were separated on UPLC BEH C18 (50 * 2.1 mm, 1.7 MUm)
      column using a mobile phase comprising of acetonitrile and 3.0 mm ammonium
      trifluoroacetate in water (80:20, v/v) with a resolution factor (Rs ) of 3.21.
      The calibration curves were linear from 0.01 to 10.0 ng/mL for NOMAC and from
      1.00 to 1000 pg/mL for E2, respectively. The intra- and inter-batch precision was
      <=5.8% and the accuracy of quality control samples ranged from 96.7 to 103.4% for
      both analytes. The practical applicability of the method is demonstrated by
      analyzing samples from 18 healthy postmenopausal women after oral administration
      of 2.5 mg nomegestrol acetate and 1.5 mg estradiol film-coated tablets under
      fasting.

PMID- 28869283
TI  - Review article: the human intestinal virome in health and disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The human virome consists of animal-cell viruses causing transient
      infections, bacteriophage (phage) predators of bacteria and archaea, endogenous
      retroviruses and viruses causing persistent and latent infections. High
      throughput, inexpensive, sensitive sequencing methods and metagenomics now make
      it possible to study the contribution dsDNA, ssDNA and RNA virus-like particles
      make to the human virome, and in particular the intestinal virome. AIM: To review
      and evaluate the pioneering studies that have attempted to characterise the human
      virome and generated an increased interest in understanding how the intestinal
      virome might contribute to maintaining health, and the pathogenesis of chronic
      diseases. METHODS: Relevant virome-related articles were selected for review
      following extensive language- and date-unrestricted, electronic searches of the
      literature. RESULTS: The human intestinal virome is personalised and stable, and
      dominated by phages. It develops soon after birth in parallel with prokaryotic
      communities of the microbiota, becoming established during the first few years of
      life. By infecting specific populations of bacteria, phages can alter microbiota
      structure by killing host cells or altering their phenotype, enabling phages to
      contribute to maintaining intestinal homeostasis or microbial imbalance
      (dysbiosis), and the development of chronic infectious and autoimmune diseases
      including HIV infection and Crohn's disease, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      understanding of the intestinal virome is fragmented and requires standardised
      methods for virus isolation and sequencing to provide a more complete picture of
      the virome, which is key to explaining the basis of virome-disease associations,
      and how enteric viruses can contribute to disease aetiologies and be rationalised
      as targets for interventions.

PMID- 28869285
TI  - Microbiota: a mediator to transform glucosinolate precursors in cruciferous
      vegetables to the active isothiocyanates.
AB  - Isothiocyanates (ITCs), such as sulforaphane (SFN), exhibit powerful biological
      functions in fighting cancers, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
      They normally exist as glucosinolates (GLSs) in cruciferous vegetables, which are
      not themselves bioactive until they are degraded by myrosinase to form ITCs.
      Myrosinase coexists in the same plants but is normally kept apart from GLSs in
      different apparatus. A key point is that myrosinase is temperature sensitive and
      can be inactivated upon exposure to temperatures over 60  degrees , as typically
      occurs during cooking. However, studies using animal models and population trials
      have suggested that human gut bacteria might act like an 'organ' in that they can
      secrete their own myrosinase. In this review, the hydrolysis of GLS by myrosinase
      is discussed, with an important focus on the gut microflora and their myrosinase
      producing roles. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28869286
TI  - Psychotherapy clients' recalled treatment experiences: A survey of perceived
      evidence-based practice elements.
AB  - Evidence-based practice (EBPs) elements can be observed across treatment
      approaches for commonly occurring problems. Little is known about the prevalence
      or pervasiveness of EBP elements from the routine client's perspective. We
      assessed psychotherapy clients' self-reported retrospective treatment experiences
      with regard to common EBP elements. Participants (N = 592) were consenting
      university undergraduate students who accessed a web survey that included (a)
      demographic items; (b) an item assessing the problem domain(s) of focus during
      their therapy; and (c) the presence/absence of 8 EBP elements and the extent to
      which they were a focus of their psychotherapy. Overall, routine psychotherapy
      clients recalled receiving a variety of EBP elements, the most common being a
      focus on positive emotions. Future work should continue to focus on clients'
      experience of psychotherapy elements, including what was/is most and least
      helpful to assist in the refinement and implementation of EBPs.

PMID- 28869287
TI  - Systematic review with meta-analysis: the association between hepatitis E
      seroprevalence and haemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection appears to be more common than
      previously thought. HEV seroprevalence in patients on maintenance haemodialysis
      (HD) is unclear with a range from 0% to 44%. In addition, risk factors of
      transmission of HEV in patients on haemodialysis are unknown. AIM: To perform a
      systematic review and meta-analysis of HEV seroprevalence in HD patients compared
      with controls. METHODS: A systematic search of several databases identified all
      observational studies with comparative arms. Two reviewers extracted data and
      assessed the methodological quality. A random-effects model was used for pooled
      odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of positive anti-HEV IgG in both
      groups. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed with appropriate tests.
      RESULTS: We identified 31 studies from 17 countries between 1994 and 2016.
      Sixteen studies were judged to have adequate quality and 15 to have moderate
      limitations. HEV infection was more prevalent in patients on haemodialysis
      compared with controls (OR 2.47, 95% CI 1.79-3.40, I2 = 75.2%, P < .01). We
      conducted several subgroup analyses without difference in results. Egger
      regression test did not suggest publication bias (P = .83). Specific risk factors
      of HEV transmission in patients on haemodialysis were not clearly identified.
      CONCLUSIONS: Hepatitis E virus infection is more prevalent in patients on
      haemodialysis compared with non-haemodialysis control groups. Further studies are
      needed to determine risk factors of acquisition, impact on health, and risk for
      chronic HEV especially among those patients going to receive organ
      transplantation.

PMID- 28869288
TI  - Exploring the mechanism of Jieduquyuziyin prescription on systemic lupus
      erythematosus by GC-MS-based urine metabolomics.
AB  - A urine metabolomics method based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was
      developed in order to investigate the metabolite characteristics of systemic
      lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the therapeutic effects of Jieduquyuziyin
      prescription. The urinary metabolic profiles in urine specimens of the SLE model
      mice (MRL/lpr) group, prednisone acetate-treated SLE mouse group, Jieduquyuziyin
      prescription-treated SLE mouse group, and control group (C57BL/6 J) after the
      administration were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. These
      metabolic profiles were then processed by multivariate analysis, in particular
      Mass Profiler Professional, SIMCA-P and partial least-squares discriminant
      analysis. According to the partial least-squares discriminant analysis results,
      the SLE model group and the control group were obviously separated, indicating
      that the incidence of SLE had a greater impact on the metabolic network, and the
      SLE model group had significant difference compared with the control group in
      urine metabolites. Eleven differential metabolites were identified to be related
      to SLE, and the results of differential metabolite identification showed that the
      metabolites were mainly related to energy metabolism and amino acid metabolism
      pathway. These results can provide an experimental basis for further exploring
      the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of SLE.

PMID- 28869289
TI  - Quinoa Starch Characteristics and Their Correlations with the Texture Profile
      Analysis (TPA) of Cooked Quinoa.
AB  - : Starch characteristics significantly influence the functionality and end-use
      quality of cereals and pseudo-cereals. This study examined the composition and
      properties of starch from 11 pure varieties and 2 commercial samples of quinoa in
      relationship to the texture of cooked quinoa. Nearly all starch properties and
      characteristics differed among these samples. Results showed that total starch
      content of seeds ranged from 53.2 to 75.1 g/100 g apparent amylose content ranged
      from 2.7% to 16.9%; total amylose ranged from 4.7% to 17.3%; and the degree of
      amylose-lipid complex ranged from 3.4% to 43.3%. Amylose leaching ranged from 31
      mg/100 g starch in "Japanese Strain" to 862 mg/100 g starch in "49ALC." "Japanese
      Strain" starch also exhibited the highest water solubility (4.5%) and the lowest
      swelling power (17). alpha-Amylase activity in "1ESP," "Col.#6197," "Japanese
      Strain," "QQ63," "Yellow Commercial," and "Red Commercial" (0.03 to 0.09 CU) were
      significantly lower than the levels of the other quinoa samples (0.20 to 1.16
      CU). Additionally, gel texture, thermal properties, and pasting properties of
      quinoa starches were investigated. Lastly, correlation analysis showed that the
      quinoa samples with higher amylose content tended to yield harder, stickier, more
      cohesive, more gummy, and more chewy texture after cooking. A higher degree of
      amylose-lipid complex and amylose leaching were associated with softer and less
      chewy cooked quinoa TPA texture. Higher starch enthalpy correlated with firmer,
      more adhesive, more cohesive, and chewier texture. In sum, starch plays a
      significant role in the texture of cooked quinoa. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The
      research determined starch characteristics among a diverse set of pure quinoa
      varieties and commercial samples, and identified the relationships between starch
      properties and cooked quinoa texture. The results can help breeders and food
      manufacturers to understand better the relationships among quinoa starch
      characteristics, cooked quinoa texture, and the best use of different cultivars.

PMID- 28869290
TI  - Gonioscopy in the dog: inter-examiner variability and the search for a grading
      scheme.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate inter-examiner variability in gonioscopic evaluation
      of pectinate ligament abnormality in dogs and to assess level of inter-examiner
      agreement for four different gonioscopy grading schemes. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Two examiners performed gonioscopy in 98 eyes of 49 Welsh springer spaniel dogs
      and estimated the percentage circumference of iridocorneal angle affected by
      pectinate ligament abnormality to the nearest 5%. Percentage scores assigned to
      each eye by the two examiners were compared. Inter-examiner agreement was
      assessed following assignment of the percentage scores to each of four grading
      schemes by Cohen's kappa statistic. RESULTS: There was a strong positive
      correlation between the results of the two examiners (R=0.91). In general,
      Examiner 1 scored individual eyes higher than Examiner 2, especially for eyes in
      which both examiners diagnosed pectinate ligament abnormality. A "good" level of
      agreement could only be achieved with a gonioscopy grading scheme of no more than
      three categories and with a relatively large intermediate bandwidth (kappa=0.68).
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A three-tiered grading scheme might represent an
      improvement on hereditary eye disease schemes which simply classify dogs to be
      either "affected" or "unaffected" for pectinate ligament abnormality. However,
      the large intermediate bandwidth of this scheme would only allow for the
      additional detection of those dogs with marked progression of pectinate ligament
      abnormality which would be considered most at risk of primary closed-angle
      glaucoma.

PMID- 28869291
TI  - The client as the expert in psychotherapy: What clinicians and researchers can
      learn about treatment processes and outcomes from psychotherapy clients.
AB  - Clients are frequently recognized as perhaps having the largest impact on the
      eventual success or failure of treatment; however, researchers and clinicians
      alike often give inadequate attention to clients' perspectives on psychotherapy
      processes and outcomes. Researchers who do examine client variables in
      psychotherapy often conduct research about the client rather than from the
      client. The purpose of this article is to introduce a special issue focused on
      the client's perspective in psychotherapy. Specifically, the articles in this
      issue present case studies and quantitative and qualitative research that seek to
      (a) demonstrate how to tailor interventions according to the client's perspective
      and (b) identify common themes in clients' perspectives about their experiences
      in psychotherapy.

PMID- 28869292
TI  - Teaching conversational speech to children with autism spectrum disorder using
      text-message prompting.
AB  - The present study was designed to teach conversational speech using text-message
      prompts to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in home play settings
      with siblings and peers. A multiple baseline design across children was used.
      Children learned conversational speech through the text-message prompts, and the
      behavior generalized across peers and settings. Maintenance of treatment gains
      was seen at 1-month follow-up probes. Social validity measures indicated that
      parents of typically developing children viewed the participants' conversational
      speech as much improved after the intervention. Results are discussed in terms of
      the efficacy of text-message prompts as a promising way to improve conversational
      speech for children with ASD.

PMID- 28869293
TI  - Living in the city: school friendships, diversity and the middle classes.
AB  - Much of the literature on the urban middle classes describes processes of both
      affiliation (often to the localities) and disaffiliation (often from some of the
      non-middle-class residents). In this paper, we consider this situation from a
      different position, drawing on research exploring whether and how children and
      adults living in diverse localities develop friendships with those different to
      themselves in terms of social class and ethnicity. This paper focuses on the
      interviews with the ethnically diverse, but predominantly white British, middle
      class parent participants, considering their attitudes towards social and
      cultural difference. We emphasize the importance of highlighting inequalities
      that arise from social class and its intersection with ethnicity in analyses of
      complex urban populations. The paper's contribution is, first, to examine
      processes of clustering amongst the white British middle-class parents,
      particularly in relation to social class. Second, we contrast this process, and
      its moments of reflection and unease, with the more deliberate and purposeful
      efforts of one middle-class, Bangladeshi-origin mother who engages in active
      labour to facilitate relationships across social and ethnic difference.

PMID- 28869294
TI  - Beta-blocker therapy is not associated with mortality after intracerebral
      hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Beta-blocker therapy has been suggested to have neuroprotective
      properties in the setting of acute stroke; however, the evidence is weak and
      contradictory. We aimed to examine the effects of pre-admission therapy with beta
      blockers (BB) on the mortality following spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage
      (ICH). METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the Helsinki ICH Study database.
      RESULTS: A total of 1013 patients with ICH were included in the analysis.
      Patients taking BB were significantly older, had a higher premorbid mRS score,
      had more DNR orders, and more comorbidities as atrial fibrillation, hypertension,
      diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart disease, and heart failure. After adjustment
      for age, pre-existing comorbidities, and prior use of antithrombotic and
      antihypertensive medications, no differences in in-hospital mortality (OR 1.1,
      95% CI 0.8-1.7), 12-month mortality (OR 1.3, 95% CI 0.9-1.9), and 3-month
      mortality (OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.8-1.7) emerged. CONCLUSION: Pre-admission use of BB
      was not associated with mortality after ICH.

PMID- 28869296
TI  - Growth and Sucrose Metabolism of Carrot Callus Strains with Normal and Low Acid
      Invertase Activity.
AB  - The properties of two strains of carrot (Daucus carota) callus are presented. One
      has a very low acid invertase activity which is accompanied by differences in
      morphology and metabolic rate, but not in growth rate. We conclude that one of
      the main functions of plant acid invertases is in controlling the levels of
      sugars which, by interaction with hormones, affect differentiation, both
      morphological and biochemical. The effect of tris on sucrose metabolizing
      enzymes, and the cause of the "sucrose effect" are considered.

PMID- 28869297
TI  - Mechanism of Action of the Herbicide 2-Chloro-3(4-chlorophenyl) Propionate and
      its Methyl Ester: Interaction with Cell Responses Mediated by Auxin.
AB  - Chlorfenprop-methyl (the herbicidal component of BIDISIN(r)), and to a lesser
      extent the free acid, chlorfenprop, inhibit auxin mediated cell responses in
      coleoptiles of Avena sativa L. and Zea mays L., such as cell elongation, auxin
      uptake, -transport and -metabolism, acidification of growth media, and binding of
      naphthyl-I-acetic acid to auxin-specific binding sites in homo-genates of corn
      coleoptiles. Within a very narrow concentration range (1 to 2MUM) chlorfenprop
      methyl arrests growth from 0 to 100% in sensitive cultivars. The compound
      displays neither auxin-nor anti-auxin-activity, and only the l(-)-enantiomer is
      active. The interaction of the herbicide with auxin at the level of membranes is
      proposed.

PMID- 28869295
TI  - The Clinical Potential of Senolytic Drugs.
AB  - Senolytic drugs are agents that selectively induce apoptosis of senescent cells.
      These cells accumulate in many tissues with aging and at sites of pathology in
      multiple chronic diseases. In studies in animals, targeting senescent cells using
      genetic or pharmacological approaches delays, prevents, or alleviates multiple
      age-related phenotypes, chronic diseases, geriatric syndromes, and loss of
      physiological resilience. Among the chronic conditions successfully treated by
      depleting senescent cells in preclinical studies are frailty, cardiac
      dysfunction, vascular hyporeactivity and calcification, diabetes mellitus, liver
      steatosis, osteoporosis, vertebral disk degeneration, pulmonary fibrosis, and
      radiation-induced damage. Senolytic agents are being tested in proof-of-concept
      clinical trials. To do so, new clinical trial paradigms for testing senolytics
      and other agents that target fundamental aging mechanisms are being developed,
      because use of long-term endpoints such as lifespan or healthspan is not
      feasible. These strategies include testing effects on multimorbidity, accelerated
      aging-like conditions, diseases with localized accumulation of senescent cells,
      potentially fatal diseases associated with senescent cell accumulation, age
      related loss of physiological resilience, and frailty. If senolytics or other
      interventions that target fundamental aging processes prove to be effective and
      safe in clinical trials, they could transform geriatric medicine by enabling
      prevention or treatment of multiple diseases and functional deficits in parallel,
      instead of one at a time.

PMID- 28869298
TI  - The Critical Oxygen Pressures for Respiration in Intact Plants.
AB  - Two methods for determining critical respiratory oxygen pressure in whole plants
      are described. By a polarographic method involving the use of cylindrical
      platinum electrodes the following critical oxygen pressures for root respiration
      were found: Rice (cv. Norin 36). 0.024 atm: Rice (cv. Norm 37). 0.026 atm:
      Eriophorum angustifolium. 0.02 atm. These values contrast markedly with those
      obtained in vitro, and support earlier criticisms of in vitro measurements: they
      call into question the use of such data in the modelling of root aeration. When
      the results were assessed by an electrical analogue system, it was concluded that
      the respiratory activity in the intact root does not follow the normally accepted
      hyperbolic relationship with oxygen partial pressure. The experimental data were
      simulated most closely by assuming the critical oxygen pressure to be a function
      of respiratory responses in the low porosity (high diffusional impedance) tissues
      of the root meristem and stele, and respiratory activity in the moderately porous
      root cortex to be unaffected at values greater than 0.001 atm. A critical oxygen
      pressure of 0.025-0.04 atm for E. angustifolium was found from analyses of the
      gas phase oxygen in the leaves of whole plants after submergence in the dark. It
      was concluded that the higher value found by this method was most likely a
      function of respiratory responses in root tissue remote from the leaf and should
      not be regarded as the critical oxygen pressure for leaf respiration. The form of
      the oxygen concentration vs. time plot again suggested a very much lower critical
      oxygen pressure for certain of the plant tissues.

PMID- 28869299
TI  - Photosynthesis of Conifers in Relation to Annual Growth Cycles and Dry Matter
      Production: I. Some C4 Characteristics in Photosynthesis of Japanese Larch (Larix
      leptolepis).
AB  - Observations that deciduous larch species can show annual growth increments equal
      to or greater than evergreen conifers, and that the saturating light intensity
      for photosynthesis in needles of Larix leptolepis was almost twice those for
      several evergreen conifers, led to a study of the photosynthetic mechanism in L.
      leptolepis. Several features of photosynthesis in L. leptolepis placed this
      species in an intermediate position between classical C3 and C4 plants.
      Incorporation of 14 C from 14 CO2 by enzyme preparations of larch needles was
      eight times greater with PEP as substrate than with ribulose bis phosphate; a
      chlorophyll a/b ratio of 3.5 was obtained; needles possessed a green starch
      containing endodermis but with little orientation of mesophyll cells to this
      "bundle sheath"; no clear ultrastructural dimorphism was observed between
      chloroplasts of mesophyll and endodermal cells; a CO2 -compensation point of 20
      MUl-l-1 was recorded; and the first measurable product of photosynthesis appeared
      to be malate rather than phospho-glyceric acid. These results are discussed in
      relation to the deciduous habit of L. leptolepis and its high productivity in
      comparison with other conifers.

PMID- 28869300
TI  - Adaptation to Water Stress in Wheat.
AB  - Three experiments were designed to investigate to what extent adaptation to water
      stress take place. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Kolibri) was grown in water
      culture at constant temperature, air humidity, and light intensity. When the
      plants were 16 days old, the potential of the root medium (psir ) was lowered by
      1 bar every second day by means of polyethyleneglycol 1500 down to -4 or -7 bar
      and then remained at these levels. As a control one experiment was grown at -0.7
      bar. By regression it was found that when psir was lowered by I bar, osmotic
      potential in leaf (psipi ) decreased 1.46 bar, and leaf water potential (psit )
      0.68 bar, which mean an increase of turgor of 0.78 bar. At the same time the leaf
      water content did fall 0.30 g per g dry matter. Specific transpiration rate
      increased significantly after psir was kept constant, but the increase in area of
      fresh leaves was strongly reduced due to wilting of old leaves. After an
      "adaptation" period during which psir remained at -0.7, -4, and -7 bar,
      respectively, for at least 1 week. psir was altered so as to cover the range from
      0 to -14 bar and psipi , psir , transpiration and diffusion resistance in stomata
      (rs ) were measured. The levels of psipi and psi1 were lower (more negative) and
      turgor potential higher in plants grown at low psir . The transpiration in pre
      stressed plants showed less sensitivity to the alteration of psir than in the non
      stressed plants. The values of psir at which rs increased greatly, were found to
      be about -13, -15, and -18 bar for plants grown at -0.7, -4, and -7 bar,
      respectively.

PMID- 28869301
TI  - A Role for Auxin and Auxin Transport Inhibitors on the Ca Content of Artificially
      Induced Parthenocarpic Fruits.
AB  - Artificially induced parthenocarpic fruits of apples, pears and tomatoes, as well
      as seeded fruits treated with 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid, frequently show symptoms
      of Ca deficiency and a low Ca content. It was concluded that auxins, probably
      produced by the seeds, play a significant role in Ca translocation into fruits.
      Exogenous indoleacetic acid but not 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid applications could
      replace the effect of seeds in this respect. Auxin transport, rather than auxin
      accumulation, seems to be necessary for Ca transport, as can be concluded from
      the effect of auxin transport inhibitors.

PMID- 28869302
TI  - Simultaneous Measurement of the Bioelectric Potential of the Cell Wall and the
      Vacuoles during the Oscillatory Response to the Nitella Cell.
AB  - Simultaneous measurements of bioelectric potentials of the vacuole and cell wall
      in cells of Nitella mucronata were made by inserting glass microelectrodes into
      the vacuole and cell wall respeclively. During the oscillation of the bioelectric
      potential of the vacuole. induced by sudden changes of the external bathing
      solution or by the impalement of the cell with a microelectrode. the cell wall
      potential also exhibited fluctuations of variable intensities in phase and
      concomitant with spikes of the vacuolar potential oscillation. However, the
      polarity of the pulses of the cell wall potential was reverse to that of the
      spikes of the vacuolar potential. These results suggest that the same event is
      registered at both sides of the plasmalemma membrane across which these phenomena
      are occurring. The results also support the voltage clamp and tracer flux
      measurements on these cells which indicate that during the generation of single
      action potentials, induced by current, the plasma lemma transiently increases its
      permeability to Cl- and K+ ions expelling them from the cell. The variable
      intensity of the transient hyperpolarizations of the cell wall potential is
      explained by the distance of the microelectrode in the cell wall from the
      plasmalemma.

PMID- 28869304
TI  - Isolation and Analysis of Protein Bodies from Cotyledons of Lablab purpureus and
      Phaseolus vulgaris (Leguminoseae).
AB  - Protein bodies, isolated by differential and isopycnic centrifugation, have been
      observed in transmission and scanning electron microscope and biochemically
      analysed. The powders of the axes and of the cotyledons contain numerous protein
      bodies, which in the scanning microscope appear to be surrounded by a more or
      less torn membrane. The proportion of intact, isolated protein bodies is
      influenced by the grinding methods, but even in the best conditions soaking
      disaggregates the majority of them. After isopycnic centrifugation, their debris
      gather in different density zones. Analyses of each zone have revealed that the
      caseinases are associated with particles of higher density than are peptidases
      and trypsin inhibitors. A minority population of small-size protein bodies
      resists the homogenization and fractioning modalities. A double origin of the
      protein bodies is considered.

PMID- 28869303
TI  - Incorporation of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid in the Chlorophyll-Protein Complexes of
      the Moss Ceratodon purpureus.
AB  - After one month of cultivation in the dark in inorganic medium the chloroplasts
      of protonemata of Ceratodon purpureus have larger grana than chloroplasts from
      light-grown cultures. Incubation of dark-grown material with ALA increases the
      chlorophyll content and chlorophyll a/b ratio. On polyacrylamide-gel
      electrophoresis, a preferential labelling of chlorophyll-protein complex I is
      obtained after treatment with (3 H) ALA in darkness. In contrast, in light, much
      higher activity is found in chlorophyll-protein complex II. The free pigment zone
      is highly labelled in both environments.

PMID- 28869305
TI  - The Effect of Root Formation on the Levels of Protein, Chlorophyll, RNA, DNA and
      Carbohydrates in Excised Cotyledons of Cucurbita pepo.
AB  - In attached cotyledons of Cucurbita pepo L. protein, chlorophyll, RNA, DNA and
      carbohydrates were found to increase to a maximum level 14 days after
      commencement of germination, followed by a sharp decline thereafter. Cotyledons
      excised and planted in a nutrient solution 14 days after sowing showed maximum
      levels of protein, chlorophyll, RNA, DNA and soluble and insoluble sugars 52 days
      after planting. The increase in these compounds coincides with the full
      development of the root system. Excision earlier or later than 14 days resulted
      in lower levels of protein and other compounds. The decrease in the level after
      52 days was parallel to the senescing phase of the cotyledons.

PMID- 28869306
TI  - Carbon Dioxide as an Essential Requirement for Cultured Sycamore Cells.
AB  - Carbon dioxide (optimum concentration c. 1.0%) is essential to the initiation of
      the growth in suspension culture or on agar plates of cultured sycamore cells. By
      effective flushing of the cultures with CO2 -free air it is possible to
      demonstrate this requirement with initial cell densities up to 50 * 103 cells ml
      1 . This growth-promoting activity of carbon dioxide is not related to any effect
      it may have on the pH of the culture medium. The cells fix applied carbon dioxide
      into organic and amino acids but attempts to replace the carbon dioxide
      requirement by non-toxic levels of organic or amino acids have not been
      successful.

PMID- 28869307
TI  - The State of Protochlorophyll and Chlorophyll in Corn Roots.
AB  - The protochlorophyll(ide) present in primary roots of dark-grown corn (Zea mays)
      seedlings has an in vivo absorption maximum at 634 nm. Red light converts the
      pigment to chlorophyll(ide) a with an absorption maximum at 675 nm.

PMID- 28869308
TI  - Environmentally Induced Changes in the Cell Walls of Tomato Leaves in Relation to
      Cell and Protoplast Release.
AB  - Factors involved in the isolation of protoplasts from the leaves of tomato plants
      grown over a wide range of environmental conditions have been studied. Increases
      in calcium pectate in summer grown ("hard") plants are suggested as a barrier to
      cell wall degradation. A one-step method involving the addition of sodium citrate
      to pectinase plus cellulase gives high yield of protoplasts from hard plants.
      Attempts to convert isolated palisade cells to protoplasts have failed. The plant
      culture conditions are described such that protoplasts may be isolated throughout
      the year using low enzyme concentrations.

PMID- 28869309
TI  - Resting heart rate, heart rate reserve, and metabolic syndrome in professional
      firefighters: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the associations of resting heart rate (RHR)
      and heart rate reserve (HRR) with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in firefighters.
      METHODS: For each of 288 professional firefighters, HRR was calculated as the
      difference between measured RHR and estimated maximum HR. For comparison, VO2 max
      based on a treadmill test was included. MetS was defined according to the
      NCEP/ATP III criteria. RESULTS: The prevalence of MetS was 14.2%. The average of
      RHR was 61.5 beat/min. Only 5.8% of the firefighters had RHR of >=80 beat/min.
      Between the firefighters in the lowest and highest quintiles, the prevalence
      ratios (95% confidence intervals) for MetS were 1.88 (0.71-4.94), 5.90 (1.74
      20.02), and 8.03 (1.86-34.75) for RHR, HRR, and VO2 max, respectively. Both HRR
      and VO2 max, but not RHR, were significantly associated with MetS and its most
      component risk factors in middle-aged firefighters. CONCLUSIONS: HRR, a simple
      cardiovascular fitness measure, was inversely associated with MetS among middle
      aged professional firefighters.

PMID- 28869310
TI  - Chromatographic approaches for the characterization and quality control of
      therapeutic oligonucleotide impurities.
AB  - Phosphorothioate (PS) oligonucleotides are a rapidly rising class of drugs with
      significant therapeutic applications. However, owing to their complex structure
      and multistep synthesis and purification processes, generation of low-level
      impurities and degradation products are common. Therefore, they require
      significant investment in quality control and impurity identification. This
      requires the development of advanced methods for analysis, characterization and
      quantitation. In addition, the presence of the PS linkage leads to the formation
      of chiral centers which can affect their biological properties and therapeutic
      efficiency. In this review, the different types of oligonucleotide impurities and
      degradation products, with an emphasis on their origin, mechanism of formation
      and methods to reduce, prevent or even eliminate their production, will be
      extensively discussed. This review will focus mainly on the application of
      chromatographic techniques to determine these impurities but will also discuss
      other approaches such as mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis and nuclear
      magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Finally, the chirality and formation of
      diastereomer mixtures of PS oligonucleotides will be covered as well as
      approaches used for their characterization and the application for the
      development of stereochemically-controlled PS oligonucleotides.

PMID- 28869311
TI  - Factors underlying observed injury rate differences between temporary workers and
      permanent peers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temporary workers face increased risk of injury as compared to
      permanent workers in similar occupations. This study explores the role played by
      several potential risk factors. METHODS: Injured temporary and permanent workers,
      matched by industry, tenure and demographic characteristics, were interviewed to
      isolate the association of temporary employment with several injury risk factors.
      RESULTS: Temporary workers had higher workers' compensation claims rates than
      their permanent worker-peers. In interviews temporary workers a reported a lower
      frequency of exposure to hazards. However, they also reported being less likely
      to be equipped to cope with hazards by such countermeasures as experience
      screening, safety training and task control. CONCLUSION: Policies are needed to
      improve screening and training of temporary workers to assigned tasks, to
      discourage job-switching, to improve temporary workers' hazard awareness, to
      protect their right to report unsafe conditions. The responsibilities of agencies
      and host employers for ensuring the safety of their temporary workers need
      clarification in regulatory policy.

PMID- 28869312
TI  - Synthesis and Reactivity of a Scandium Terminal Hydride: H2  Activation by a
      Scandium Terminal Imido Complex.
AB  - Dihydrogen is easily activated by a scandium terminal imido complex containing
      the weakly coordinated THF. The reaction proceeds through a 1,2-addition
      mechanism, which is distinct from the sigma-bond metathesis mechanism reported to
      date for rare-earth metal-mediated H2 activation. This reaction yields a scandium
      terminal hydride, which is structurally well-characterized, being the first one
      to date. The reactivity of this hydride is reported with unsaturated substrates,
      further shedding light on the existence of the terminal hydride complex.
      Interestingly, the H2 activation can be reversible. DFT investigations further
      eludciate the mechanistic aspects of the reactivity of the scandium anilido
      terminal hydride complex with PhNCS but also on the reversible H2 activation
      process.

PMID- 28869313
TI  - What paediatric obesity treatment programmes work, and how can we measure their
      success?

PMID- 28869315
TI  - Strategy for Stereoselective Metal-free alpha-Functionalization of 2-Azaaryl
      Acetates with N-Boc Imines.
AB  - We report the first diastereo- and enantioselective formal Mannich reaction of 2
      pyridyl acetates which gives rise to alpha- and beta-functionalized 2-substituted
      pyridines. Key for success is the previous azaarene N-oxide formation enabling
      alpha-carbon deprotonation by a mild bifunctional Bronsted base and subsequent
      reaction with N-Boc imines under almost perfect stereocontrol.

PMID- 28869314
TI  - Eosinophil-rich trichoblastic carcinoma with aggressive clinical course in a
      young man.
AB  - We present the case of a 35-year-old man who developed a follicular
      differentiated cutaneous carcinoma with an eosinophil-rich infiltrate and an
      aggressive clinical behavior. After an in-depth histopathological investigation
      the diagnosis of trichoblastic carcinoma was made. Over the course of the disease
      the patient developed a cutaneous in-transit metastasis as well as an axillary
      lymph node metastasis 18 months after the excision of the primary tumor on his
      back. Based on a literature review we discuss the different concepts behind the
      term "trichoblastic carcinoma" and we summarize the clinical and histological
      details of previously reported cases. Furthermore, we focus on the phenomenon of
      tumor-associated eosinophilia.

PMID- 28869316
TI  - Coupling and Dearomatization of Pyridines at a Transient eta2 
      Cyclopropene/Bicyclobutane Zirconocene Complex.
AB  - This paper reports on stereospecific coupling reactions between an eta2 
      cyclopropene ligand and pyridine derivatives, which are preferred to alternative
      C-H bond activation reactions. The dicyclopropylzirconocene complex [Cp2 Zr(c-C3
      H5 )2 ] (1) eliminates cyclopropane to generate the eta2 
      cyclopropene/bicyclobutane intermediate [Cp2 Zr(eta2 -c-C3 H4 )] (A). A does not
      activate any pyridine C-H bonds, but rather pyridine inserts into a Zr-C bond of
      A, yielding an azazirconacycle with a dearomatized pyridyl group [Cp2 Zr{kappa2 
      N,C8 -(2-c-C3 H4 )-C5 H5 N}] (2). Kinetic data, isotopelabelling experiments, and
      DFT calculations indicate that the rate-determining step of this stereospecific
      reaction is cyclopropane elimination, and that the stability of the intermediate
      [Cp2 Zr(eta2 -c-C3 H4 )(NC5 H5 )] (A-py) governs the selectivity of the reaction.
      Complex 2 tautomerizes to [Cp2 Zr{kappa2 -N,C8 -(2-C3 H5 )-C5 H4 N}] (6) through
      a base-catalyzed proton migration accompanied by cyclopropyl opening and
      restoration of conjugation within the zirconacycle.

PMID- 28869317
TI  - Solid-State Reactions of Eicosaborate [B20 H18 ]2- Salts and Complexes.
AB  - A series of salts and complexes containing trans- and iso-isomers of
      octadecahydro-eicosaborate [B20 H18 ]2- dianion is synthesized and characterized
      using FTIR and 11 B NMR spectroscopies and X-ray diffraction techniques. Both
      isomers are found to act as four-, bi-, or zero-dentate ligands in reactions with
      copper(II), silver(I), and lead(II) through apical and/or equatorial boron atoms.
      Solid-state photo- and thermoinitiated reactions of octadecahydro-eicosaborate
      isomerization and solvent cleavage occurring in these compounds in a single
      crystal-to-single-crystal manner are studied in situ. In contrast with solutions,
      in solids the reaction of boron cluster transformation occurs rarely, thus,
      analysis of crystal packing allowed us to suggest some criteria of isomerization
      of macropolyhedral boranes in crystals. X-ray diffraction data are used to
      confirm reaction path of isomerization of the [B20 H18 ]2- dianion.

PMID- 28869318
TI  - Exercise for the prevention of low back and pelvic girdle pain in pregnancy: A
      meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The effect of exercise in prevention of low back and
      pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy is uncertain. This study aimed to assess the
      effect of exercise on low back pain, pelvic girdle pain and associated sick
      leave. DATABASES AND DATA TREATMENT: Literature searches were conducted in
      PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, ResearchGate and
      ClinicalTrials.gov databases from their inception through May 2017. Randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs) were eligible for inclusion in the review if they
      compared an exercise intervention with usual daily activities and at least some
      of the participants were free from low back pain and/or pelvic girdle pain at
      baseline. Methodological quality of included studies was evaluated using the
      Cochrane Collaboration's tool. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed, and
      heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. RESULTS: Eleven randomized
      controlled trials (2347 pregnant women) qualified for meta-analyses. Exercise
      reduced the risk of low back pain in pregnancy by 9% (pooled risk ratio (RR) =
      0.91, 95% CI 0.83-0.99, I2  = 0%, seven trials, N = 1175), whereas it had no
      protective effect on pelvic girdle pain (RR = 0.99, CI 0.81-1.21, I2  = 0%, four
      RCTs, N = 565) or lumbopelvic pain (RR = 0.96, CI 0.90-1.02, I2  = 0%, eight
      RCTs, N = 1737). Furthermore, exercise prevented new episodes of sick leave due
      to lumbopelvic pain (RR = 0.79, CI 0.64-0.99, I2  = 0%, three RCTs, N = 1168).
      There was no evidence of publication bias. CONCLUSION: Exercise appears to reduce
      the risk of low back pain in pregnant women, and sick leave because of
      lumbopelvic pain, but there is no clear evidence for an effect on pelvic girdle
      pain. SIGNIFICANCE: Exercise has a small protective effect against low back pain
      during pregnancy.

PMID- 28869319
TI  - Re: The impact of a novel transendometrial approach for caesarean myomectomy on
      obstetric outcomes of subsequent pregnancy: a longitudinal panel study: Novel
      transendometrial regimen for caesarean myomectomy on obstetric outcomes of
      subsequent pregnancy.

PMID- 28869321
TI  - Series test of cluster and network analysis for lupus nephritis, before and after
      IFN-K-immunosuppressive therapy.
AB  - AIM: The purpose was to screen potential targets of IFN-K-immunosuppressive
      therapy, which was used to offer effective information and resources for
      molecular targeted therapy. METHODS: The gene expression profile of GSE72747 was
      used to screen out significant differently expressed genes (DEGs). Series Test of
      Cluster (STC) analysis for DEGs was performed. For all DEGs, the Database for
      Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery was performed for Gene
      Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. Pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs was
      performed based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database.
      Pathway was constructed based on the interactions in the KEGG database. The
      coexpression network and gene signal expression networks were constructed and
      analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 2193 DEGs were screened and eight significant
      profiles were identified. Significant GO terms included small molecule metabolic
      process, translation and apoptotic process. Metabolic pathways and Alzheimer's
      disease were significant KEGG pathways. Pathway relationship network of DEGs was
      constructed. MAPK signalling pathway, apoptosis and pathways in cancer were hub
      nodes. Gene co-expression network analysis was performed. VCP-interacting
      membrane protein and NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1, alpha/beta subcomplex, 1,
      8 kDa were the hub nodes. Gene signal network was constructed with 162 nodes and
      254 edges. Hub nodes were phospholipase C, beta 2. CONCLUSION: Screened DEGs
      including VIMP, NDUFAB1, SEC61G, PSMC2 might be potential targets for lupus
      nephritis treatment by involving in different functions and pathways, such as
      metabolic process and immune process.

PMID- 28869320
TI  - Spin Changes Accompany Ultrafast Structural Interconversion in the Ground State
      of a Cobalt Nitrosyl Complex.
AB  - Ultrafast, reversible intersystem crossing (ISC) is reported under ambient
      conditions for the electronic ground state of the pentacoordinate cobalt nitrosyl
      complexes, [CoX2 (NO)(PMePh2 )2 ] (X=Cl, Br), in solution. ISCs on such short
      timescales are more typically observed in electronically excited states reached
      by absorption of ultraviolet or visible light. Singlet and triplet electron spin
      states of the complex, corresponding to two different isomers, are populated at
      room temperature, and the two isomers exchange on a timescale of a few
      picoseconds. Ultrafast two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy observes the change
      in wavenumber of the NO ligand band accompanying the isomerization and associated
      ISC on the (spin) adiabatic ground potential energy surface. Comparison of the
      dynamics of the chloro- and bromo-complexes shows that inertial effects of the
      ligand motion have a greater effect than spin-orbit coupling on determining the
      forward and reverse isomerization and ISC rates.

PMID- 28869322
TI  - Attenuation of the anti-contractile effect of cooling in the rat aorta by
      perivascular adipose tissue.
AB  - In addition to providing mechanical support for blood vessels, the perivascular
      adipose tissue (PVAT) secretes a number of vasoactive substances and exerts an
      anticontractile effect. The main objective of this study was to find out whether
      the anticontractile effect of cooling in the rat aorta is affected by PVAT. Our
      hypothesis was that PVAT would enhance the anticontractile effect of cooling in
      the rat aorta. Aorta segments, with or without PVAT, were used in this
      investigation. Cumulative concentration-response curves were established for
      phenylephrine at 37 degrees C or 24 degrees C. Phenylephrine (10-9 M - 10-5 M)
      induced concentration-dependent contractions of aorta segments with or without
      PVAT at 37 degrees C. The maximum response, but not pD2 value, was reduced in
      aorta segments with PVAT. Cooling the tissues to 24  degrees C resulted in a
      significant reduction in the maximum response in aorta segments without PVAT with
      no change in pD2 values. However, the anticontractile effect of cooling was
      attenuated in the presence of PVAT with no significant (p > 0.05) change in
      either the maximum response or pD2 value. L-NAME potentiated PE-induced
      contractions and this was greater in aorta segments without PVAT at both
      temperatures. The expression of eNOS protein and basal tissue level of nitric
      oxide (NO) were greater in aorta segments with PVAT at both temperatures.
      However, PE significantly increased tissue levels of NO only in aorta segments
      without PVAT. We concluded that PVAT-induced loss of anticontractile effect of
      cooling against PE-induced contractions could be due to impaired generation of NO
      in aorta segments with PVAT.

PMID- 28869323
TI  - Main causes of hospitalization in people with Angelman syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective was to describe the main causes of hospitalization in
      people with Angelman syndrome (AS). METHOD: Population-based cross-sectional
      study in the Community of Madrid (CM), Spain. The information source for AS cases
      was the information system for rare diseases in the CM. Variables related to
      hospitalization, for the period 2006-2014, were the following: number of
      episodes, outcome, main cause, length of stay and type of admission. Main causes
      of hospitalization were described by age group and sex. RESULTS: The most
      frequent causes of hospitalization were the following: oral-dental care (28.9%),
      seizures (19.6%), orthopaedic problems (14.4%) and acute respiratory disorders
      (12.4%). The percentage of hospitalizations was higher for oral-dental care in
      women and for orthopaedic problems in men (p-value <.05). Hospitalizations for an
      acute respiratory disorder were higher in adults (p-value <.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Some differences in the causes of hospitalization of people with AS were observed
      by sex and age.

PMID- 28869325
TI  - Epstein-Barr virus infection in children with renal transplantation: A single
      centre experience.
AB  - AIM: This study aimed to investigate the incidence, timing, manifestations,
      managements, and outcomes of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in paediatric
      renal transplant recipients in Korea. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 70
      patients aged <18 years who had undergone renal transplantation between January
      1990 and November 2014 at a single centre in Korea. EBV infection was diagnosed
      via serological test or real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
      The diagnosis of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) was based on
      biopsy findings. RESULTS: In total, 21 patients (30.0% of renal transplant
      recipients) had EBV infection. EBV infection occurred at an average age of 12.6
      +/- 4.5 (median, 12.0; range, 7.0-24.0 years, with a mean period of 28.3 +/- 27.2
      (median, 14.0; range, 2.0-75.0) months for developing EBV infection after
      transplantation. EBV infection developed 12 times more frequently in pre
      transplant EBV-seronegative recipients. Eight patients (38% of EBV-infected
      patients) had EBV disease, and six patients (75% of patients with EBV disease)
      had PTLD. The maximum EBV PCR titer was greater in patients with EBV disease than
      in the asymptomatic EBV infection group. The main treatment for EBV infection was
      the reduction in immunosuppressants. Asymptomatic EBV infection resolved in
      approximately 80% of the patients. One patient (17% of the patients with PTLD)
      expired. The glomerular filtration rate did not deteriorate during the treatment
      of EBV infection. CONCLUSION: Regular EBV monitoring in renal transplant
      recipients is mandatory for early diagnosis and treatment of EBV infections and
      prevention of PTLD, especially in pre-transplant EBV IgG-negative patients.

PMID- 28869324
TI  - Mycophenolate mofetil-related leukopenia in children and young adults following
      kidney transplantation: Influence of genes and drugs.
AB  - MMF is commonly prescribed following kidney transplantation, yet its use is
      complicated by leukopenia. Understanding the genetics mediating this risk will
      help clinicians administer MMF safely. We evaluated 284 patients under 21 years
      of age for incidence and time course of MMF-related leukopenia and performed a
      candidate gene association study comparing the frequency of 26 SNPs between cases
      with MMF-related leukopenia and controls. We matched cases by induction, steroid
      duration, race, center, and age. We also evaluated the impact of induction and
      SNPs on time to leukopenia in all cases. Sixty-eight (24%) patients had MMF
      related leukopenia, of which 59 consented for genotyping and 38 were matched with
      controls. Among matched pairs, no SNPs were associated with leukopenia. With non
      depleting induction, UGT2B7-900A>G (rs7438135) was associated with increased risk
      of MMF-related leukopenia (P = .038). Time to leukopenia did not differ between
      patients by induction agent, but 2 SNPs (rs2228075, rs2278294) in IMPDH1 were
      associated with increased time to leukopenia. MMF-related leukopenia is common
      after transplantation. UGT2B7 may influence leukopenia risk especially in
      patients without lymphocyte-depleting induction. IMPDH1 may influence time course
      of leukopenia after transplant.

PMID- 28869326
TI  - Re: Montgomery and implications for clinical practice.

PMID- 28869327
TI  - Seasonal variation in effectiveness of the boar-operated system to deliver baits
      to wild boar.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wild boar and feral pig numbers are growing worldwide and have
      substantial economic and environmental impacts. Bait-delivered pharmaceuticals
      such as disease vaccines, toxicants and contraceptives are advocated to mitigate
      these impacts. Effective campaigns based on these pharmaceuticals rely on
      optimising the target species' bait uptake, which may differ between seasons. We
      investigated seasonal differences in the use of Boar-Operated Systems (BOSs) by
      wild boar and non-target species in an English woodland. RESULTS: In a pre-trial
      phase (BOS left open), wild boar, wild mammals, birds, livestock and companion
      animals fed on the peanuts and maize used as bait in the BOS. During the trial
      (BOS closed), only wild boar consumed the baits. Wild boar visited and fed from a
      larger number of BOSs in spring than in summer or winter. No aggressive intra
      group interactions were recorded when wild boar fed from the BOSs but adult males
      were observed to monopolise two BOSs. Group size was highest in spring and bait
      uptake was lowest in winter. CONCLUSION: The study confirmed the species
      specificity of the BOS throughout the year and highlighted that, at least in this
      area, bait uptake by wild boar for baits delivered through the BOS would be
      maximised in spring. (c) 2017 Crown copyright. Pest Management Science (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28869328
TI  - Fluensulfone sorption and mobility as affected by soil type.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fluensulfone is a fluoroalkenyl chemical with activity against
      multiple genera of plant-parasitic nematodes. The adsorption, desorption, and
      mobility of fluensulfone were evaluated on multiple soils from the USA in
      laboratory and column experiments. RESULTS: Adsorption data regressed to the
      logarithmic Freundlich equation resulted in isotherm values of 1.24 to 3.28. Soil
      adsorption of fluensulfone correlated positively with organic matter (0.67) and
      clay (0.34), but negatively with sand (-0.54). Fluensulfone soil desorption
      correlated to pH (0.38) and cation exchange capacity (0.44). Fluensulfone
      desorption from Arredondo sand soil was 26%, and from other soils ranged from 43
      to 70%. In mobility experiments, fluensulfone in the leachate peaked at 3 h,
      gradually declining and becoming undetectable after 9 h. Recovery from leachate
      was 45% of the initial fluensulfone applied to the soil surface. In separate
      experiments, 30-cm-long soil columns were saturated with 1 L of water, and then
      segregated into three 10-cm sections. Fluensulfone recovery was 41, 34, 29, and
      13% in Chualar sandy loam, Arredondo sand, Greenville sandy clay loam, and Tifton
      loamy sand, respectively, in the top 10-cm section. CONCLUSION: Data indicated
      that soil organic matter and clay contents will affect sorption, mobility, and
      dissipation of fluensulfone. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28869329
TI  - A Multiple-Stimulus-Responsive Biomimetic Assembly Based on a Polyisocyanopeptide
      and Conjugated Polymer.
AB  - An assembly was fabricated and was revealed to be a multiple-stimulus-responsive
      biomimetic hybrid polymer architecture. It was constructed by the hydrophobic
      interactions between a conjugated polyfluorene that contained 2,1,3
      benzothiadiazole units (PFBT) and a tri(ethylene glycol)-functionalized
      polyisocyanopeptide (3OEG-PIC). The introduction of PFBT to the
      polyisocyanopeptide (PIC) network allowed for the incorporation of responsiveness
      to multiple stimuli including temperature, CO2 , carbonic anhydrase, and
      nonlinear mechanics, which mimics natural processes and interactions.
      Furthermore, the light-harvesting and signal amplification characteristics of
      PFBT endowed the supramolecular assembly with the essential function of
      fluorescence monitoring for biological processes.

PMID- 28869330
TI  - Butyrate-Loaded Chitosan/Hyaluronan Nanoparticles: A Suitable Tool for Sustained
      Inhibition of ROS Release by Activated Neutrophils.
AB  - Tissue damage caused by excessive amounts of neutrophil-derived reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) occurs in many inflammatory diseases. Butyrate is a short-chain
      fatty acid (SCFA) with known anti-inflammatory properties, able to modulate
      several neutrophil functions. Evidence is provided here that butyrate inhibits
      neutrophil ROS release in a dose and time-dependent fashion. Given the short half
      life of butyrate, chitosan/hyaluronan nanoparticles are next designed and
      developed as controlled release carriers able to provide cells with a long
      lasting supply of this SCFA. Notably, while the inhibition of neutrophil ROS
      production by free butyrate declines over time, that of butyrate-loaded
      chitosan/hyaluronan nanoparticles (B-NPs) is sustained. Additional valuable
      features of these nanoparticles are inherent ROS scavenger activity, resistance
      to cell internalization, and mucoadhesiveness. B-NPs appear as promising tools to
      limit ROS-dependent tissue injury during inflammation. Particularly, by virtue of
      their mucoadhesiveness, B-NPs administered by enema can be effective in the
      treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.

PMID- 28869331
TI  - Synthesis and structure-activity relationships of carbohydrazides and 1,3,4
      oxadiazole derivatives bearing an imidazolidine moiety against the yellow fever
      and dengue vector, Aedes aegypti.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 1,3,4-Oxadiazole and imidazolidine rings are important heterocyclic
      compounds exhibiting a variety of biological activities. In this study, novel
      compounds with oxadiazole and imidazolidine rings were synthesized from 3
      (methylsulfonyl)-2-oxoimidazolidine-1-carbonyl chloride and screened for
      insecticidal activities. The proposed structures of the 17 synthesized compounds
      were confirmed using elemental analysis, infrared (IR), proton nuclear magnetic
      resonance (1 H-NMR), and mass spectroscopy. RESULTS: None of the compounds showed
      larvicidal activity at the tested concentrations against first-instar Aedes
      aegypti larvae. However, nine compounds exhibited promising adulticidal activity,
      with mortality rates of >=80% at 5 ug per mosquito. Further dose-response
      bioassays were undertaken to determine median lethal dose (LD50 ) values.
      Compounds 1, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2 g, 3b, 3c, 3 g, and 3 h were effective, with typical
      LD50 values of about 5 - 10 ug per mosquito against female Ae. aegypti. Compounds
      2c (bearing a nitro group on the aromatic ring; LD50 = 2.80 +/- 0.54 ug per
      mosquito) and 3 h (double halogen groups at 2,4 position on the phenyl ring; LD50
      = 2.80 +/- 0.54 ug per mosquito) were the most promising compounds. CONCLUSION:
      Preliminary mode of action studies failed to show consistent evidence of either
      neurotoxic or mitochondria-directed effects. Further chemical synthesis within
      this series may lead to the development of new effective insecticides. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28869333
TI  - Lung metastases of a uterine tumor resembling ovarian sex-cord tumor: Report of a
      rare case.
AB  - Uterine tumor resembling an ovarian sex-cord tumor (UTROSCT) is a rare type of
      uterine neoplasm. We present an extremely rare case of lung metastases from a
      UTROSCT focusing on the cytologic features. A 69-year-old Japanese woman was
      admitted to our hospital for further examination and treatment for abnormal
      shadows in the right lung field. She had a history of total hysterectomy for
      UTROSCT. Moreover, she underwent wedge resection of the right middle lobe for
      lung metastasis of UTROSCT in 2011. Enhanced chest computed tomography scan
      revealed a solid nodule 8 mm in diameter in the right upper lobe and a well
      demarcated 33-mm mass or nodule in the lower lobe. Under the diagnosis of
      metastatic tumors from UTROSCT, she underwent wedge resection of the right upper
      lobe and segmentectomy of the right S8. Cytologically, the stump smear from the
      resected tumors revealed round to short spindle-shaped neoplastic small cells
      arranged in sheets with poor cohesion and no cluster formation. The nuclei were
      irregular in shape, and the chromatin was finely granular, uniform, and
      increased. Mitotic figures were not observed. Necrosis was absent in the
      background. Histologically, the final diagnosis was UTROSCT group II. This is an
      unusual case of metastatic UTROSCT to the lung in which the cytologic features
      are described.

PMID- 28869332
TI  - Renin-angiotensin blockade in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Studies with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) and angiotensin
      receptor blockers (ARBs) in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection
      fraction (HFpEF) have yielded inconsistent results. To conduct a systematic
      review and meta-analysis of all evidence for ACE-I and ARBs in patients with
      HFpEF, we searched PubMed, Ovid SP, Embase, and Cochrane database to identify
      randomized trials and observational studies that compared ACE-I or ARBs against
      placebo or standard therapy in HFpEF patients. Random-effect models were used to
      pool the data, and I2 testing was performed to assess the heterogeneity of the
      included studies. A total of 13 studies (treatment arm = 8676 and control arm =
      8608) were analysed. Pooled analysis of randomized trials for ACE-I and ARBs (n =
      6) did not show any effect on all-cause mortality [relative risk (RR) = 1.02, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) = 0.93-1.11, P = 0.68, I2  = 0%], while results from
      observational studies showed a significant improvement (RR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.87
      0.95, P = 0.005, I2  = 81.5%). In pooled analyses of all studies, ACE-I showed a
      reduction of all-cause mortality (RR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.87-0.95, P = 0.01). There
      was no reduction in cardiovascular mortality seen, but in pooled analysis of
      randomized trials, there was a trend towards reduced HF hospitalization risk (RR
      = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.83-1.01, I2  = 0%, P = 0.074). These data suggest that ACE-I
      and ARBs may have a role in improving outcomes of patients with HFpEF,
      underscoring the need for future research with careful patient selection, and
      trial design and conduct.

PMID- 28869334
TI  - Percutaneous thoracic duct intervention to treat plastic bronchitis related to
      Fontan palliation.
AB  - Plastic bronchitis is a life-threatening condition of airway obstructive cast
      formation. This pediatric case series from a high altitude center details the
      course of three patients after percutaneous thoracic duct interventions for
      refractory plastic bronchitis, with a follow-up interval of 3.5 years. In two
      patients, where cisterna chyli maceration (patients 2) or thoracic duct
      embolization (patient 3) was performed, a sustained clinical improvement is
      shown, with no subsequent cast recurrence. In patient 1, cisterna chyli
      maceration resulted in partial improvement. Herein, a favorable outcome is shown
      in pediatric patients with percutaneous thoracic duct interventions for plastic
      bronchitis at altitude.

PMID- 28869335
TI  - Generation and Evaluation of Novel Stromal Cell-Containing Tissue Engineered
      Artificial Stromas for the Surgical Repair of Abdominal Defects.
AB  - Repair of abdominal wall defects is one of the major clinical challenges in
      abdominal surgery. Most biomaterials are associated to infection and severe
      complications, making necessary safer and more biocompatible approaches. In the
      present work, the adequate mechanical properties of synthetic polymer meshes with
      tissue-engineered matrices containing stromal mesenchymal cells is combined to
      generate a novel cell-containing tissue-like artificial stroma (SCTLAS) for use
      in abdominal wall repair. SCTLAS consisting on fibrin-agarose hydrogels seeded
      with stromal cells and reinforced with commercial surgical meshes (SM) are
      evaluated in vitro and in vivo in animal models of abdominal wall defect.
      Inflammatory cells, collagen, and extracellular matrix (ECM) components are
      analyzed and compared with grafted SM. Use of SCTLAS results in less inflammation
      and less fibrosis than SM, with most ECM components being very similar to control
      abdominal wall tissues. Cell migration and ECM remodeling within SCTLAS is
      comparable to control tissues. The use of SCTLAS could contribute to reduce the
      side-effects associated to currently available SM and regenerated tissues are
      more similar to control abdominal wall tissues. Bioengineered SCTLAS could
      contribute to a safer treatment of abdominal wall defects with higher
      biocompatibility than currently available SM.

PMID- 28869336
TI  - High Photoluminescence Quantum Yields in Organic Semiconductor-Perovskite
      Composite Thin Films.
AB  - One of the obstacles towards efficient radiative recombination in hybrid
      perovskites is a low exciton binding energy, typically in the orders of tens of
      meV. It has been shown that the use of electron-donor additives can lead to a
      substantial reduction of the non-radiative recombination in perovskite films.
      Herein, the approach using small molecules with semiconducting properties, which
      are candidates to be implemented in future optoelectronic devices, is presented.
      In particular, highly luminescent perovskite-organic semiconductor composite thin
      films have been developed, which can be processed from solution in a simple
      coating step. By tuning the relative concentration of methylammonium lead bromide
      (MAPbBr3 ) and 9,9spirobifluoren-2-yl-diphenyl-phosphine oxide (SPPO1), it is
      possible to achieve photoluminescent quantum yields (PLQYs) as high as 85 %. This
      is attributed to the dual functions of SPPO1 that limit the grain growth while
      passivating the perovskite surface. The electroluminescence of these materials
      was investigated by fabricating multilayer LEDs, where charge injection and
      transport was found to be severely hindered for the perovskite/SPPO1 material.
      This was alleviated by partially substituting SPPO1 with a hole-transporting
      material, 1,3-bis(N-carbazolyl)benzene (mCP), leading to bright
      electroluminescence. The potential of combining perovskite and organic
      semiconductors to prepare materials with improved properties opens new avenues
      for the preparation of simple lightemitting devices using perovskites as the
      emitter.

PMID- 28869337
TI  - Rapid separation and simultaneous quantitative determination of 13 constituents
      in Psoraleae Fructus by a single marker using high-performance liquid
      chromatography with diode array detection.
AB  - Psoraleae Fructus is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines.
      Coumarins, flavonoids, and meroterpenes are the main contributors to the
      biological activity of Psoraleae Fructus. In this study, a new method for the
      quality control of Psoraleae Fructus was developed, through the quantitative
      analysis of multicomponents by single marker with diode array detector. Thirteen
      components, including psoralenoside, isopsoralenoside, psoralen, isopsoralen,
      psoralidin, neobavaisoflavone, bavachin, corylin, isobavachalcone, corylifol A,
      bavachinin, bavachalcone, and bakuchiol were rapidly separated and identified
      within 12 min by the newly developed method. The feasibility and reliability of
      this method were corroborated. The method was also compared to the external
      standard method and detection by corona charged aerosol detector. The results of
      percent difference (%) and cos (theta) have shown that there were no significant
      differences observed between the quantitative analysis of multicomponents by
      single marker and external standard method analyses; psoralen and isopsoralen
      were undetectable with the corona charged aerosol detector due to their but the
      sensitivity for all the compounds except bakuchiol detected by corona charged
      aerosol detector are higher than those obtained by diode array detector. In
      addition, the newly method developed was applied to the quality evaluation of
      Chinese patent medicines containing Psoraleae Fructus.

PMID- 28869338
TI  - Enhanced Biosynthesis of Hyaluronic Acid Using Engineered Corynebacterium
      glutamicum Via Metabolic Pathway Regulation.
AB  - Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a polysaccharide used in many industries such as
      medicine, surgery, cosmetics, and food. To avoid potential pathogenicity caused
      by its native producer, Streptococcus, efforts have been made to create a
      recombinant host for HA production. In this work, a GRAS (generally recognized as
      safe) strain, Corynebacterium glutamicum, is engineered for enhanced biosynthesis
      of HA via metabolic pathway regulation. Five enzymes (HasA-HasE) involved in the
      HA biosynthetic pathway are highlighted, and eight diverse operon combinations,
      including HasA, HasAB, HasAC, HasAD, HasAE, HasABC, HasABD, and HasABE, are
      compared. HasAB and HasABC are found to be optimal for HA biosynthesis in C.
      glutamicum. To meet the energy demand for HA synthesis, the metabolic pathway
      that produces lactate is blocked by knocking out the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)
      gene using single crossover homologous recombination. Engineered C.
      glutamicum/Deltaldh-AB is superior and had a significantly higher HA titer than
      C. glutamicum/Deltaldh-ABC. Batch and fed-batch cultures of C.
      glutamicum/Deltaldh-AB are performed in a 5-L fermenter. Using glucose feeding,
      the maximum HA titer reached 21.6 g L-1 , more than threefolds of that of the
      wild-type Streptococcus. This work provides an efficient, safe, and novel
      recombinant HA producer, C. glutamicum/Deltaldh-AB, via metabolic pathway
      regulation.

PMID- 28869339
TI  - Anodic Dissolution of Al Current Collectors in Unconventional Solvents for High
      Voltage Electrochemical Double-Layer Capacitors.
AB  - This study investigated the anodic dissolution of Al current collectors in
      unconventional electrolytes for high voltage electrochemical double-layer
      capacitors (EDLCs) containing adiponitrile (ADN), 3-cyanopropionic acid methyl
      ester (CPAME), 2-methyl-glutaronitrile (2-MGN) as solvent, and tetraethylammonium
      tetrafluoroborate (Et4 NBF4 ) and tetraethylammonium
      bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Et4 NTFSI) as conductive salts. To have a
      comparison with the state-of-the-art electrolytes, the same salts were also used
      in combination with acetonitrile (ACN). The chemical-physical properties of the
      electrolytes were investigated. Furthermore, their impact on the anodic
      dissolution of Al was analyzed in detail as well as the influence of this process
      on the performance of high voltage EDLCs. The results of this study indicated
      that in the case of Et4 NBF4 -based electrolytes, the use of an alternative
      solvent is very beneficial for the realization of stable devices. When Et4 NTFSI
      is used, the reduced solubility of the complex Al(TFSI)3 appears to be the key
      for the realization of advanced electrolytes.

PMID- 28869340
TI  - Diagnostic utility of cardiac troponin T level in patients with cardiac
      amyloidosis.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of high
      sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) levels in discriminating cardiac
      amyloidosis from patients with cardiac hypertrophy caused by aetiologies other
      than cardiac amyloidosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Serum hs-cTnT levels were measured
      in 96 patients with cardiac amyloidosis (light chain: 23, wild-type transthyretin
      amyloidosis: 40, and mutated transthyretin amyloidosis: 33), and 91 patients with
      other causes of cardiac hypertrophy who were confirmed to have no cardiac
      amyloidosis by endomyocardial biopsy (control group). The diagnostic utility and
      cut-off value of hs-cTnT were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic
      analysis. The median hs-cTnT levels were higher in cardiac amyloidosis than the
      control group [0.048 (0.029-0.073) vs. 0.016 (0.010-0.031) ng/mL; P < 0.001].
      High levels of hs-cTnT were suggestive of cardiac amyloidosis (cut-off value:
      0.0312 ng/mL, sensitivity: 0.74, specificity: 0.76, area under the curve: 0.788;
      95% confidence interval: 0.723-0.854, P < 0.001), compared with brain natriuretic
      peptide and E/e' ratio. The hs-cTnT levels were also useful in differentiating
      each type of amyloidosis from the control group. Multivariate analysis identified
      log hs-cTnT as an independent diagnostic factor for cardiac amyloidosis (odds
      ratio: 2.22; 95% confidence interval: 1.30-3.80; P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: High
      serum levels of hs-cTnT are highly suggestive of cardiac amyloidosis, allowing
      its differentiation from cardiac hypertrophy of other aetiologies. Further
      refined diagnostic approaches that include imaging modalities and
      histopathological examination are needed for these patients to avoid
      underdiagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis.

PMID- 28869342
TI  - High flow nasal cannula reduces carbon dioxide washout time: What can we pay
      attention to?

PMID- 28869341
TI  - (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate Ameliorates Insulin Resistance and Mitochondrial
      Dysfunction in HepG2 Cells: Involvement of Bmal1.
AB  - SCOPE: Normal physiological processes require a robust biological timer called
      the circadian clock. Dysregulation of circadian rhythms contributes to a variety
      of metabolic syndrome, including obesity and insulin resistance. (-)
      Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been demonstrated to possess antioxidant,
      anti-inflammatory, and cardioprotective bioactivities. The objective of this
      study was to explore whether the circadian clock is involved in the protective
      effect of EGCG against insulin resistance. METHODS AND RESULTS: The results
      demonstrated that EGCG reverses the relatively shallow daily oscillations of
      circadian clock genes transcription and protein expression induced by glucosamine
      in HepG2 cells. EGCG also alleviates insulin resistance by enhancing tyrosine
      phosphorylated levels of IRS-1, stimulating the translocation of GLUT2, and
      activating PI3K/AKT as well as AMPK signaling pathways in a Bmal1-dependent
      manner both in HepG2 cells and primary hepatocytes. Glucosamine-stimulated
      excessive secretions of ROS and depletions of mitochondrial membrane potential
      were notably attenuated in EGCG co-treated HepG2 cells, which consistent with the
      recovery in expression of mitochondrial respiration complexes. CONCLUSION: The
      results demonstrated that EGCG possesses a Bmal1-dependent efficacy against
      insulin resistance conditions by strengthening the insulin signaling and
      eliminating oxidative stress, suggesting that EGCG may serve as a promising
      natural nutraceutical for the regulation of metabolic disorders relevant to
      circadian clocks.

PMID- 28869343
TI  - Systematic reviews: Guidelines, tools and checklists for authors.

PMID- 28869344
TI  - Iliopsoas and intraperitoneal abscesses associated with pyoderma gangrenosum.

PMID- 28869345
TI  - Kerion celsi caused by Trichophyton erinacei from a hedgehog treated with
      terbinafine.

PMID- 28869346
TI  - Professor Stephania Jablonska, 1920-2017.

PMID- 28869349
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28869350
TI  - Utilizing lymphatic cell markers to visualize human lymphatic abnormalities.
AB  - In vivo visualization of the human lymphatic system is limited by the mode of
      delivery of tracing agents, depth of field and size of the area examined, and
      specificity of the cell markers used to distinguish lymphatic endothelium from
      the blood vessels and the surrounding tissues. These limitations are particularly
      problematic when imaging human lymphatic abnormalities. First, limited
      understanding of the lymphatic disease aetiology exists with respect to genetic
      causes and phenotypic presentations. Second, the ability of a tracer to reach the
      entire lymphatic network within the diseased tissue is suboptimal. Third, what is
      known about the expression of lymphatic endothelial cell (LEC) markers, such as
      podoplanin, lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor, Drosophila
      melanogaster homeobox gene prospero-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor
      receptor-3 in rodent lymphatic vessels and healthy human LECs may not necessarily
      apply in human lymphatic disease settings. The aim of this review is to highlight
      challenges in visualizing lymphatic vessels in human lymphatic abnormalities with
      respect to distribution patterns of the cellular markers currently employed to
      visualize abnormal human lymphatic vessels in experimental settings. Allowing for
      these limitations within new diagnostic visualization technologies is likely to
      improve our ability to image human lymphatic diseases.

PMID- 28869351
TI  - Ground plan of the larval nervous system in phoronids: Evidence from larvae of
      viviparous phoronid.
AB  - Nervous system organization differs greatly in larvae and adults of many species,
      but has nevertheless been traditionally used for phylogenetic studies. In
      phoronids, the organization of the larval nervous system depends on the type of
      development. With the goal of understanding the ground plan of the nervous system
      in phoronid larvae, the development and organization of the larval nervous system
      were studied in a viviparous phoronid species. The ground plan of the phoronid
      larval nervous system includes an apical organ, a continuous nerve tract under
      the preoral and postoral ciliated bands, and two lateral nerves extending between
      the apical organ and the nerve tract. A bilobed larva with such an organization
      of the nervous system is suggested to be the primary larva of the taxonomic group
      Brachiozoa, which includes the phyla Brachiopoda and Phoronida. The ground plan
      of the nervous system of phoronid larvae is similar to that of the early larvae
      of annelids and of some deuterostomians. The protostome- and deuterostome-like
      features, which are characteristic of many organ systems in phoronids, were
      probably inherited by phoronids from the last common bilaterian ancestor. The
      information provided here on the ground plan of the larval nervous system should
      be useful for future analyses of phoronid phylogeny and evolution.

PMID- 28869352
TI  - De novo transcriptome assembly and developmental mode specific gene expression of
      Pygospio elegans.
AB  - Species with multiple different larval developmental modes are interesting models
      for the study of mechanisms underlying developmental mode transitions and life
      history evolution. Pygospio elegans, a small, tube-dwelling polychaete worm
      commonly found in estuarine and marine habitats around the northern hemisphere,
      is one species with variable developmental modes. To provide new genomic
      resources for studying P. elegans and to address the differences in gene
      expression between individuals producing offspring with different larval
      developmental modes, we performed whole transcriptome Illumina RNA sequencing of
      adult worms from two populations and prepared a de novo assembly of the P.
      elegans transcriptome. The transcriptome comprises 66,233 unigenes, of which
      33,807 contain predicted coding sequences, 26,448 have at least one functional
      annotation, and 3,076 are classified as putative long non-coding RNAs. We found
      more than 8,000 unigenes significantly differentially expressed between adult
      worms from populations producing either planktonic or benthic larvae. This
      comprehensive transcriptome resource for P. elegans adds to the available genomic
      data for annelids and can be used to uncover mechanisms allowing developmental
      variation in this and potentially other marine invertebrate species.

PMID- 28869353
TI  - The transition path from female workers to neotenic reproductives in the termite
      Reticulitermes labralis.
AB  - Termite workers are characterized by unique flexibility in that a worker can
      develop in one of three ways: remain a worker, become a soldier within two
      successive moults, or become a neotenic reproductive (NR) within a single moult.
      However, is it true that workers can transform into NRs within a single moult?
      Actually, the developmental pathways of workers turning into NRs remains unclear.
      In this study, we show for the first time that the female workers of
      Reticulitermes labralis develop into NRs after a pre-NRs stage. We found that a
      female worker became a NR after two successive moults, whereas the male workers
      copulated directly with queens without undergoing any moults. After the first
      moult led the female workers into the pre-NR stage, the length of their abdomens,
      seventh sternites and ovaries significantly increased. After the second moult
      from the pre-NRs stage into NRs, the follicle cells returned to normal, and a few
      oocytes and follicle cells underwent apoptosis. These results demonstrated that
      the female pre-NR type was a transitional type during the development of female
      workers to the NR caste, and the starting point for oogenesis resumption was the
      NR stage. We confirmed there were fundamental differences in the reproductive
      pathway of the male and female workers. Therefore, we determined that the
      transformation process of the female NRs from workers may be a very complex
      process, and the reproductive biology of the workers has great potential to
      provide important and spectacular insights into the evolution strategy of
      termites.

PMID- 28869354
TI  - Working memory network alterations in high-functioning adolescents with an autism
      spectrum disorder.
AB  - AIM: People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically have deficits in the
      working memory (WM) system. WM is found to be an essential chain in successfully
      navigating in the social world. We hypothesize that brain networks for WM have an
      altered network integrity in ASD compared to controls. METHODS: Thirteen
      adolescents (one female) with autistic disorder (n = 1), Asperger's disorder (n =
      7), or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (n = 5), and 13
      typically developing healthy control adolescents (one female) participated in
      this study. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed using an n
      back task and in resting state. RESULTS: The analysis of the behavioral data
      revealed deficits in WM performance in ASD, but only when tested to the limit.
      Adolescents with ASD showed lower binary global efficiency in the WM network than
      the healthy control group with n-back and resting-state data. This correlated
      with diagnostic scores for total problems, reciprocity, and language. CONCLUSION:
      Adolescents with higher-functioning autism have difficulty with the WM system,
      which is typically compensated. Functional MRI markers of brain network
      organization in ASD are related to characteristics of autism as represented in
      diagnostic scores. Therefore, functional MRI provides neuronal correlates for
      memory difficulties in adolescents with ASD.

PMID- 28869355
TI  - Black Pigment Gallstone Inspired Platinum-Chelated Bilirubin Nanoparticles for
      Combined Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Therapy of Cancers.
AB  - Bilirubin (BR), a bile pigment that exerts potent antioxidant and anti
      inflammatory effects, is also a major constituent of black pigment gallstones
      found in bile ducts under certain pathological conditions. Inspired by the
      intrinsic metal-chelating power of BR found in gallstones, herein we report a
      cisplatin-chelated BR-based nanoparticle (cisPt@BRNP) for use as a new photonic
      nanomedicine for combined photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy of
      cancers. The cisPt@BRNPs were prepared by simply mixing cisplatin with BRNPs,
      yielding ca. 150-nm-size NPs. Upon near-IR laser irradiation at 808 nm,
      cisPt@BRNPs generated considerable heat and induced clear death of cancer cells
      in vitro. Following intravenous injection into human colon cancer-bearing mice,
      cisPt@BRNPs allowed effective tumor visualization by photoacoustic imaging and
      remarkable antitumor efficacy by photothermal therapy, suggesting their potential
      for use as a new photonic nanomedicine for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28869356
TI  - A Plant-Produced Candidate Subunit Vaccine Reduces Shedding of Enterohemorrhagic
      Escherichia coli in Ruminants.
AB  - Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are commonly present in the
      gastrointestinal tract of cattle and cause serious infectious disease in humans.
      Immunizing cattle against EHEC is a promising strategy to decrease the risk of
      food contamination; however, veterinary vaccines against EHEC such as Econiche
      have not been widely adopted by the agricultural industry, and have been
      discontinued, prompting the need for more cost-effective EHEC vaccines. The
      objective of this project is to develop a platform to produce plant-made antigens
      for oral vaccination of ruminants against EHEC. Five recombinant proteins were
      designed as vaccine candidates and expressed transiently in Nicotiana benthamiana
      and transplastomically in Nicotiana tabacum. Three of these EHEC proteins, NleA,
      Stx2b, and a fusion of EspA accumulated when transiently expressed. Transient
      protein accumulation was the highest when EHEC proteins were fused to an elastin
      like polypeptide (ELP) tag. In the transplastomic lines, EspA accumulated up to
      479 mg kg-1 in lyophilized leaf material. Sheep that were administered leaf
      tissue containing recombinant EspA shed less E. coli O157:H7 when challenged, as
      compared to control animals. These results suggest that plant-made, transgenic
      EspA has the potential to reduce EHEC shedding in ruminants.

PMID- 28869357
TI  - The moderator effect of commitment on the relations between satisfaction and
      motivation in Special Employment Centres.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the relation between satisfaction, commitment
      and motivation among employees with mild intellectual disabilities. The present
      research analyses the moderated effect of commitment on the relation between
      satisfaction of employees with intellectual disabilities and their motivation.
      METHOD: Employees with legally recognized intellectual disabilities, following
      the Spanish law, answered a questionnaire. The present authors examined bivariate
      relations across all variables in the model. Subsequently, a moderator model was
      tested, using the Johnson-Neyman and the pick-a-point approximation. RESULT:
      There was a direct effect between employees' satisfaction and motivation (b =
      2.4621; p < .0001). Commitment had a moderator effect on this relation (b = [
      3.36 to -0.30]; p < .001), especially for those employees with lower levels of
      commitment. CONCLUSIONS: Our research focuses on the antecedents of work
      motivation of employees with mild intellectual disabilities as full employees.
      So, our results help HR managers to increase employees' motivational levels, as
      one of the main objectives of healthy organizations.

PMID- 28869358
TI  - The role of respiratory tract infections and the microbiome in the development of
      asthma: A narrative review.
AB  - Asthma is a common disease in childhood, and might predispose for chronic
      obstructive respiratory morbidity in adolescence and adulthood. Various early
      life risk factors might influence the risk of wheezing, asthma, and lower lung
      function in childhood. Cohort studies demonstrated that lower respiratory tract
      infections in the first years of life are associated with an increased risk of
      wheezing and asthma, while the association with lung function is less clear.
      Additionally, the gut and airway microbiome might influence the risk of wheezing
      and asthma. The interaction between respiratory tract infections and the
      microbiome complicates studies of their associations with wheezing, asthma, and
      lung function. Furthermore, the causality behind these observations is still
      unclear, and several other factors such as genetic susceptibility and the immune
      system might be of importance. This review is focused on the association of early
      life respiratory tract infections and the microbiome with wheezing, asthma, and
      lung function, it is possible influencing factors and perspectives for future
      studies.

PMID- 28869360
TI  - Harnessing Microbial Cells Through Advanced Technologies and Conventional
      Strategies.

PMID- 28869359
TI  - Monitoring of hemostatic abnormalities in major orthopedic surgery patients
      treated with edoxaban by APTT waveform.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An analysis of the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) in
      major orthopedic surgery patients receiving edoxaban for the prevention of venous
      thromboembolism (VTE) was carried out. METHODS: The APTT waveform was analyzed in
      the above patients to monitor edoxaban administration. RESULTS: Of these 99
      patients, 12 exhibited deep vein thrombosis, and 25 had massive bleeding. An
      increased biphasic pattern of the APTT waveform was observed after the
      administration of edoxaban, but there were no significant differences between the
      patients with and without complications. The peak times of acceleration,
      velocity, and 1/2 fibrin formation were significantly prolonged after the
      administration of edoxaban, especially in patients with massive bleeding, and
      were moderately correlated with the anti-Xa activity. While the heights of
      velocity and acceleration peak 2 were lower in patients receiving warfarin
      treatment than in those receiving edoxaban, the widths of these parameters were
      significantly longer. The height of 1/2 fibrin formation and the width of
      acceleration peaks 1 and 2 and the velocity were significantly increased after
      the administration of edoxaban. CONCLUSION: The peak time of the APTT waveform
      was significantly prolonged after the administration of edoxaban. The analysis of
      the APTT waveform may therefore be useful for the prediction of the risk of
      massive bleeding.

PMID- 28869361
TI  - Development of multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction and liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the sensitive monitoring of
      aminoglycosides in honey and milk samples.
AB  - A simple and sensitive method for the simultaneous extraction and determination
      of six aminoglycosides in honey and milk samples was developed using multiple
      monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction and liquid chromatography with
      tandem mass spectrometry. The multiple monolithic fibers based on
      poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylenedimethacrylate) monolith as the extraction
      medium was used to concentrate target analytes. Because there were abundant
      carboxyl groups in the monolith, the monolithic fibers could extract
      aminoglycosides effectively through cation-exchange and hydrophobic interactions.
      To obtain optimum extraction performance, several extraction parameters including
      desorption solvent, adsorption and desorption time, pH value and ionic strength
      in sample matrix, were investigated in detail. Under the optimized extraction
      conditions, the limits of detection of the proposed method were 0.10-0.30 and
      0.23-0.59 MUg/kg for honey and milk samples, respectively. Satisfactory linearity
      was achieved for analytes with the coefficients of determination above 0.99. At
      the same time, the developed method showed acceptable method repeatability and
      reproducibility. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the
      determination of aminoglycosides in real honey and milk samples. Recoveries
      obtained for the determination of six target analytes in spiking samples ranged
      from 67.9 to 110%, and the relative standard deviations were in the range of 1.2
      11%.

PMID- 28869363
TI  - Retrospectoscope: Are the peripheral airways in infants and young children
      disproportionately small, putting them at risk for severe respiratory illnesses?

PMID- 28869362
TI  - Self-Assembly of Thermoresponsive Recombinant Silk-Elastinlike Nanogels.
AB  - Recombinant silk-elastinlike protein polymers (SELPs) combine the
      biocompatibility and thermoresponsiveness of human tropoelastin with the strength
      of silk. Direct control over structure of these monodisperse polymers allows for
      precise correlation of structure with function. This work describes the
      fabrication of the first SELP nanogels and evaluation of their physicochemical
      properties and thermoresponsiveness. Self-assembly of dilute concentrations of
      SELPs results in nanogels with enhanced stability over micelles due to physically
      crosslinked beta-sheet silk segments. The nanogels respond to thermal stimuli via
      size changes and aggregation. Modifying the ratio and sequence of silk to elastin
      in the polymer backbone results in alterations in critical gel formation
      concentration, stability, aggregation, size contraction temperature, and thermal
      reversibility. The nanogels sequester hydrophobic compounds and show promise in
      delivery of bioactive agents.

PMID- 28869364
TI  - Nanocryl Coating of PMMA Complete Denture Base Materials to Prevent Scratching.
AB  - The surface of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is vulnerable to indentation by hard
      objects that may contribute to abrade the material surface and subject it to
      wear. This phenomenon promotes an increase in the surface roughness leading to
      microbial colonisation which can endanger the general health of wearers and
      damage the intra-oral prosthesis. The aim of this study is to investigate the
      effect of three different nanocryl coating agents (Easy Glaze, G-Coat Plus and
      Formulation XP) on surface roughness and thickness of PMMA material after a
      simulating cleaning process utilizing an electric toothbrush and three different
      dentifrices (pastes and immersion). Acrylic uncoated discs were used as a control
      group. The results showed that the G-Coat Plus coating agent had less changes in
      the surface roughness and thickness layer whereas the immersion cleaner revealed
      less abrasion effect compared with the paste cleaners which could be considered
      the most suitable cleaner to provide lower abrasivenes and good removal of
      organic debris. However, using nanofilled sealants did not demonstrate
      significant improvement in reducing surface roughness p ? 0.05. Nevertheless, it
      could provide some protection against wearing to the acrylic resin surface during
      tooth brushing and may provide better resistance to microbial colonisation.

PMID- 28869365
TI  - Influence of Different Ceramic Systems on Marginal Misfit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to evaluate the marginal misfit at the
      interface between a ceramic coping and its abutment. METHODS: Twenty-four
      specimens were made with solid abutments. The specimens were divided into 3
      groups according to the ceramic system (n = 8): Lava (zirconia), IPS e.max Press
      (lithium disilicate), and IPS Empress Esthetic (leucite). All copings were
      cemented with resin luting agent (RelyX U200) and the marginal misfit were
      evaluated at 3 different times: initial, after cementation, and after mechanical
      cycling using a linear measuring microscope (Measuring Microscope STM-Olympus) at
      a magnification of 40x. All specimens were subjected to mechanical cycling (1
      million cycles) by an universal testing machine (Instron 8800). The results were
      statistically analyzed using Analysis of Variance and Student's t-test (alpha =
      0.05). RESULTS: all groups showed an increase in the marginal misfit after
      cementation. The lithium disilicate group demonstrated the lowest interacial gap
      values at each evaluation (p = 0.001). The zirconia and leucite groups showed
      similar interfacial gap values (initial, p = 0.244; and post cementation, p =
      0.751). CONCLUSIONS: the cementation increase the marginal misfit, but the
      mechanical cycling did not influence the marginal misfit of the ceramics systems
      evaluated.

PMID- 28869366
TI  - Effect of Distance on Light Transmission Through Polymerized Resin Composite.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Light transmittance of dental composites varies between products and
      shades, but also light curing units differ to each other in their irradiance and
      fiber optic structure of curing tip. The aim of this study was to investigate
      whether there is linear relationship between the distance of the curing tip to
      the resin composite and irradiance at lower surface of the resin composite.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Disks of 1 mm thickness (6mm diameter) were fabricated.
      Light transmittance (intensity) through the disk was measured at distance of 0,
      2, 4, 6, 8, 10 mm from the light tip with two light curing units Elipar S10 (3M
      ESPE) and Silverlight (GC). Irradiance ratio (irradiance on the sensor surface
      without the composite disk / with the composite disk) was calculated and plotted
      against the distance of the light curing tip. Statistical analysis was carried
      out using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA, Tukey's, alpha =0.05). RESULTS:
      Irradiance ratio varied between 18% to 24% with Silverlight and 21% to 26% with
      Elipar S10 light curing units. There were statistically significant differences
      between the ratios with different distances of the light curing tip (p?0.05).
      Interestingly, the highest irradiance ratio for Elipar S10 unit was found with 4
      mm distance of the tip, whereas Silverlight unit had the highest ratio with 6 mm
      distance. Out of two tested resin composites, the flowable composite showed
      higher irradiance ratio than regular packable resin composite. CONCLUSIONS:
      Increase of distance of the light curing tip from the composite surface decreased
      the absolute irradiance underneath of composite, as expected. However, there
      seemed to be device dependent optimal distance of 4-6 mm to reach the most
      efficient irradiance ratio through the composite resin keeping in mind that most
      efficient transmission of light through the material is reached by having light
      curing tip in contact to the material.

PMID- 28869367
TI  - Survival of Direct Posterior Composites With and Without a Bulk Fill Base.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Direct composite restorations are increasingly popular and a flowable
      bulk-fill base material (SDR, Dentsply) claims to minimise stress through a more
      flexible polymerisation process. This retrospective audit of restorations placed
      in general practice compares SDR based restorations with conventional composite
      restorations. METHODS: Restorations were all placed by one operator using a
      similar clinical technique and were audited as Group G, placed with a
      conventional layering composite (G-aenial, GC) and Group S which had a bulk-fill
      base of SDR (Dentsply) and then were covered with G-aenial (GC). Data regarding
      survival, post-operative sensitivity and mode of failure were recorded and
      analysed. RESULTS: In total 54 Group S restorations and 71 Group G restorations
      were followed for a minimum of 24 months. Group S had a 92.6% survival and Group
      G 93%. Group S was more prone to failure by tooth fracture (p=0.033). In both
      groups failure was more likely in larger cavities, in both those with an
      increased number of surfaces (p?0.001) and cuspal coverage (p=0.004).
      CONCLUSIONS: There appears to be similar survival of the two techniques in the
      short-term although there were significantly more tooth fractures in teeth
      restored with SDR.

PMID- 28869368
TI  - 3D Metal Printing - Additive Manufacturing Technologies for Frameworks of Implant
      Borne Fixed Dental Prosthesis.
AB  - An edentulous patient was rehabilitated with maxillary metal-ceramic and
      mandibular metal-resin implant-supported fixed dental prosthesis (FDP). Metal
      frameworks of the FDPs were fabricated using 3D additive manufacturing
      technologies utilizing selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting
      (EBM) processes. Both SLM and EBM technologies were employed in combination with
      computer numerical control (CNC) post-machining at the implant interface. This
      report highlights the technical and clinical protocol for fabrication of FDPs
      using SLM and EBM additive technologies.

PMID- 28869369
TI  - Minimally invasive percutaneous approach for the management of high grade
      spondylolisthesis.

PMID- 28869370
TI  - Disappearance of a synovial cyst after XLIF procedure.

PMID- 28869371
TI  - Quantitative analysis of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics at phase contrast cine-MRI:
      predictivity of neurosurgical "Shunt" responsiveness in patients with idiopathic
      normal pressure hydrocephalus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aqueductal stroke volume (ACSV) measured by phase-contrast cine (PCC)
      MRI has been proposed with controversy as a tool for the selection of patients
      with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) as candidates for shunt-surgery. The aim
      of this study was to assess if PCC-MRI scan measurements of ACSV could select
      properly these patients. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed charts and MRI of
      38 shunted patients (72,16 +/-6,16 years). ACSV measurements were performed 7-30
      days before shunt and at the first and sixth months after surgery. Normally
      distributed variables were compared in the two groups (improved/unimproved) by T
      test for baseline values and with repeated measures analysis of variance.
      RESULTS: 26 patients (68,4 %) improved after VPS (mean time of symptom onset was
      8,15 +/-7,19 months). Mean preoperative ACSV value was 271,85 +/- 143,03, which
      decreased by 21,6 % (mean 213 +/- 125,14 ) at the first month and 40,3% sixth
      months after VPS (mean 162,15 +/- 91,5). 12 patients (31,6 %) did not improve
      (mean time of symptom onset was 29 +/- 5,62 months). Mean preoperative ACSV value
      was 79,83 +/- 31,24, decreased to 8,7 % (mean 72,83 +/-28,66 ) at first month
      after VPS, 21,2% (mean 62,83 +/- 31,12 ) after six months. We found statistical
      difference between preoperative ACSV of improved and unimproved patients
      (p<0,01), onset time of symptoms (p<0,01) and the changes in ACSV after one and
      six months in both groups (p<0,001). CONCLUSIONS: ACSV is useful to stratify
      patients with NPH after surgery (improved /not improved) suggesting to proceed
      with serial ACSV measurements before deciding treatment.

PMID- 28869372
TI  - Single level anterior cervical fusion. A new method to evaluate the real need of
      plate augmentation.

PMID- 28869373
TI  - Lipoxin A4 alleviates cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury through up-regulating
      Nrf2.

PMID- 28869374
TI  - Application of esophageal radiography technique in the treatment of herniation of
      cervical disc with radiofrequency thermocoagulation and target ablation.

PMID- 28869375
TI  - Treatment strategies for craniopharyngiomas.
AB  - Craniopharyniomas arise from the sellar region and are particularly challenging
      because of their close proximity to critical neurovascular structures, including
      cranial nerves, brainstem, internal carotid arteries, posterior cerebral
      arteries, hypothalamus, and the pituitary gland. The tumors are benign on
      histology but can cause serious symptoms by compression of surrounding vital
      structures. While radical surgery and gross total resection (GTR) remains the
      first line treatment, choosing the optimal surgical approach is critical for the
      minimization of complications and post-operative morbidity. The extended
      endoscopic endonasal approach (EEEA) offers a direct route towards the sellar and
      suprasellar regions and has proven to be a safe and effective for GTR, with lower
      rates of complications and post-operative morbidity than open transcranial
      approaches. However, traditional transcranial approaches remain relevant in
      tumors with signficant lateral extension. Radiotherapy can be considered in cases
      of subtotal resection (STR) or if surgery is not possible, although progressive
      growth of cysts with neurological deterioration has been demonstrated no
      infrequently. Newly developed chemotherapy for papillary craniopharygniomas might
      expand treatment options in the future.

PMID- 28869376
TI  - Fluorinated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Binuclear Probes in 1H and 19F
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
AB  - The development of molecular and cellular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      procedures has always represented a challenge because of the fact that
      conventional MRI contrast agents are not directly detected in vivo; in proton MRI
      (e.g., with the nucleus 1H), their local concentration is measured through the
      effect they exert on the signal of hydrogen protons present in their immediate
      vicinity. Because the contrast effects generated by conventional MRI probes
      superpose to and can often impede the anatomical information contained in 1H MRI
      images, new probes based on a nucleus other than 1H, are being developed. In this
      study, we report on the development of fluorinated mesoporous silica
      nanoparticles (MSNs), which could represent an interesting dual probe that allows
      two MRI modes: 1H for high-resolution anatomical information and 19F for the
      detection of MSNs used as drug delivery agents. MSNs were synthesized and
      covalently functionalized either with fluorosilane (FMSNs) or polyfluorosiloxane
      (polyFMSNs) to enable their detection in 19F MRI. Then, gadolinium chelates were
      grafted on the particles to enhance their detectability in 1H MRI. The
      physicochemical, textural, and relaxometric properties (1H and 19F relaxation
      times) of the nanoparticles were measured and compared. The 19F relaxation
      properties were found to be dependent on the concentration of fluorine; they were
      also highly sensitive to the presence of gadolinium. The shortest relaxation
      times were obtained with polyFMSNs. At clinical magnetic field strengths, high 1H
      relaxivities and low relaxometric ratios (r2/r1 = 1.45; 2.2 for nanoparticles
      entrapped in hydrogel) were found for both nanoparticle systems. Finally, the
      visibility of both systems was confirmed in 1H, and the detectability of
      polyFMSNs was confirmed in 19F MRI. This physicochemical and relaxometric study
      opens the door to the applications of fluorinated silica nanoparticles as
      theranostic materials allowing dual MRI (1H and 19F).

PMID- 28869377
TI  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces marxianus Cocultures Allow Reduction
      of Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, and Monosaccharides and Polyols Levels in Whole Wheat
      Bread.
AB  - Fermentable oligo-, di-, and monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs) are small
      molecules that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine and rapidly fermented
      in the large intestine. There is evidence that a diet low in FODMAPs reduces
      abdominal symptoms in approximately 70% of the patients suffering from irritable
      bowel syndrome. Wheat contains relatively high fructan levels and is therefore a
      major source of FODMAPs in our diet. In this study, a yeast-based strategy was
      developed to reduce FODMAP levels in (whole wheat) bread. Fermentation of dough
      with an inulinase-secreting Kluyveromyces marxianus strain allowed to reduce
      fructan levels in the final product by more than 90%, while only 56%  reduction
      was achieved when a control Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain was used. To ensure
      sufficient CO2 production, cocultures of S. cerevisiae and K. marxianus were
      prepared. Bread prepared with a coculture of K. marxianus and S. cerevisiae had
      fructan levels <=0.2% dm, and a loaf volume comparable with that of control
      bread. Therefore, this approach is suitable to effectively reduce FODMAP levels
      in bread.

PMID- 28869378
TI  - Synthesis of Imidazopyridines via Copper-Catalyzed, Formal Aza-[3 + 2]
      Cycloaddition Reaction of Pyridine Derivatives with alpha-Diazo Oxime Ethers.
AB  - The Cu-catalyzed, formal aza-[3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction of pyridine
      derivatives with alpha-diazo oxime ethers in trifluoroethanol was used to
      synthesize imidazopyridines via the release of molecular nitrogen and elimination
      of alcohol. These methods enabled modular synthesis of a wide range of N
      heterobicyclic compounds such as imidazopyridazines, imidazopyrimidines, and
      imidazopyrazines with an alpha-imino Cu-carbenoid generated from the alpha-diazo
      oxime ethers and copper.

PMID- 28869379
TI  - Droplet Formation by Confined Liquid Threads inside Microchannels.
AB  - A confined liquid thread can form monodisperse droplets near the exit of a
      microchannel, provided the continuous phase is able to enter the microchannel. A
      general model that accurately predicts the droplet size including the breakup
      position inside the microchannel is presented and is verified with experimental
      observations; breakup occurs as long as the capillary number (Ca) of the liquid
      thread is below a critical capillary number (Cacr); for cylindrical
      microchannels, it is derived that Cacr = 1/16. Below Cacr, the formed droplets at
      the exit of the microchannel have a diameter approximately two times the diameter
      of the liquid thread; around and above Cacr, the liquid thread remains stable and
      the formed droplets grow infinitely large. The presented controlled droplet
      generation method is a useful tool for producing monodisperse emulsions and has
      great potential for the food and pharmaceutical industry.

PMID- 28869380
TI  - Three-Dimensional Morphological and Chemical Evolution of Nanoporous Stainless
      Steel by Liquid Metal Dealloying.
AB  - Nanoporous materials, especially those fabricated by liquid metal dealloying
      processes, possess great potential in a wide range of applications due to their
      high surface area, bicontinuous structure with both open pores for transport and
      solid phase for conductivity or support, and low material cost. Here, we used X
      ray nanotomography and X-ray fluorescence microscopy to reveal the three
      dimensional (3D) morphology and elemental distribution within materials. Focusing
      on nanoporous stainless steel, we evaluated the 3D morphology of the dealloying
      front and established a quantitative processing-structure-property relationship
      at a later stage of dealloying. The morphological differences of samples created
      by liquid metal dealloying and aqueous dealloying methods were also discussed. We
      concluded that it is particularly important to consider the dealloying,
      coarsening, and densification mechanisms in influencing the performance
      determining, critical 3D parameters, such as tortuosity, pore size, porosity,
      curvature, and interfacial shape.

PMID- 28869381
TI  - MEEK MICROGRAFTING TECHNIQUE AND ITS USE IN THE TREATMENT OF SEVERE BURN INJURIES
      AT THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OSTRAVA BURN CENTER.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early necrectomy and skin autotransplantation are prerequisites for
      successful treatment of extensive burns. Insufficient autograft donor site
      availability is a limiting factor. The Meek micrografting technique, published by
      C. P. Meek in 1958, appears to be a potential solution. Skin grafts are cut into
      micrografts and expanded at a ratio of 1:3, 1:4, 1:6 or 1:9. Thus, even in cases
      with limited donor site availability, it is possible to cover large areas after
      necrectomy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Meek micrografting was first used at the
      University Hospital Ostrava Burns Centre in 2013. To date, 14 operations have
      been performed in 4 patients with extensive burn trauma. Engraftment, healing
      rate, and subsequent scarring (with a particular focus on scar contracture
      formation) were observed postoperatively. RESULTS: The average micrograft success
      rate was 86.5%. The best success rates were observed in areas with deferred
      transplantation after necrectomy. Hypertrophic scarring occurred in both Meek and
      meshed transplant areas. No scar contractures requiring surgical management
      developed in micrografted areas. Surgical scar contracture release was required
      in 1 patient who underwent meshed graft transplantation. DISCUSSION: The Meek
      technique demonstrated significant advantages. Micrografts can be prepared with
      very small skin grafts, which is impossible with the mesh technique. Meshed
      grafts with expansion ratios of 1:3 or higher require allograft or xenograft
      coverage. In our experience, overlays were not necessary for micrografts with a
      1:6 expansion ratio. Given that no serious scar contractures developed in
      micrografted areas, we speculate that micrografts may pose a lower risk for their
      development when compared to meshed grafts. The disadvantage of the Meek
      technique is greater economic demands. CONCLUSION: Meek micrografting is
      effective in the surgical management of deep burns in extensive thermal injuries
      with limited donor site availability...

PMID- 28869382
TI  - OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE USE OF 40% BENZOIC ACID FOR NECRECTOMY IN DEEP BURNS.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chemical necrectomy of deep burns using 40% benzoic acid has been
      used extensively by the Department of Burns and Reconstructive Surgery at the
      University Hospital since its establishment in 1982. In spite of definite
      advantages for the patient and medical staff, hard data concerning benzoic acid
      absorption through skin necrosis and patient safety was missing. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We examined 22 burn patients in collaboration with the University
      Hospital Brno, Department of Clinical Biochemistry. The plasmatic levels of
      benzoic acid, hippuric acids and glycine, which is consumed during the metabolism
      of benzoic acid, were measured. Urine samples were collected to determine the
      total amount of hippuric acid that is excreted. We were able to determine the
      total amount of absorbed and excreted benzoic acid from these values. RESULTS: We
      consistently found that there was a rapid and short-term increase of plasmatic
      levels of benzoic acid (maximum 1.3 mmol/l). This value is about 5 times lower
      than the minimum toxic level of this acid (6.5 mmol/l). The same course has been
      observed in hippuric acid. The level of glycine dropped slightly, but was still
      within the normal range. DISCUSSION: Typical and atypical courses of the levels
      of both acids were discussed as well as the correlation of the dynamics of
      elimination with the extent of benzoic acid application in relationship with the
      clinical status of the patient. The effectiveness and safety of this method was
      evaluated. CONCLUSION: After summarizing the observations, it was demonstrated
      that chemical necrectomy using 40% benzoic acid is a selective method comparable
      with other types of sharp necrectomy. Chemical necrectomy is inexpensive, easy to
      perform and also reduces blood loss. Toxicity of absorbed benzoic acid is
      clinically negligible. Furthermore, benzoic acids antimycotic and antibacterial
      properties prevent the development of wound infection.

PMID- 28869383
TI  - EXPERIENCE WITH INTEGRA(r) AT THE PRAGUE BURNS CENTRE 2002-2016.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Integra(r) dermal replacement has a wide spectrum of use both in
      burn medicine as well as in reconstructive plastic surgery and traumatology.
      Since 2002, it has been a part of surgical treatment of patients at Prague Burns
      Centre of the Kralovske Vinohrady Teaching Hospital. STUDY GROUP: Integra(r) was
      used in 47 patients in total between years 2002 and 2016. In this group there
      were 28 paediatric patients and 19 adult patients. Eleven children were operated
      during the reconstructive period, 8 children had an acute injury. There were 11
      adult patients with Integra(r) applied within the trauma treatment, another 9
      during reconstructive surgery. In 2016, we examined 11 patients treated by
      Integra(r), at least 2 years ago. The average time since the application was 9
      years. All examined patients had Integra(r) primarily applied to treat an acute
      injury. METHOD: Scars after the application of Integra(r) were compared with
      scars after dermoepidermal grafts (DE) in respective patients. Evaluation was
      performed on the basis of subjective and objective assessment by means of the
      modified Vancouver Scale (VSS). Samples were submitted for a histological and
      immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: Areas with Integra(r) coverage scored 1.4
      points on average on the VSS. The scars after dermoepidermal graft scored 4
      points on the same scale. Subjective assessment of functional and cosmetic
      quality of scars by patients was better in all cases in comparison to DE
      grafting. Notable differences were found between scars following Integra(r)
      application and those after DE grafting on histological assessment, namely in the
      organization and quality of collagen and elastin fibres as well as in tissue
      revascularization. CONCLUSION: The Integra(r) artificial skin replacement is a
      part of surgical strategy in management of extensive burn trauma and plays an
      important role in reconstructive surgery. The resulting scar quality when using
      Integra(r) seems to be better than in DE grafting both from an objective and
      subjective points of view..

PMID- 28869384
TI  - MICROMYCETES INFECTION IN PATIENTS WITH THERMAL TRAUMA.
AB  - GOAL: Determination of basic epidemiological parameters of burn patients with
      micromycetes infection. Identification of the most important micromycetes in burn
      patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Monocentre retrospective study enrolling all
      adult burn patients who were hospitalized between 2007 and 2015 and in whom
      micromycetes were isolated during hospitalization. ABSI index (Abbreviated Burn
      Severity Index) was used to evaluate severity of thermal trauma. Results were
      statistically analysed. RESULTS: There were 61 patients with thermal trauma
      identified in total during the period of observation, and there were yeast or
      fibrous fungi isolated. There were 37 males and 24 females (M:F ratio - 1.5:1) in
      this group. The average age of patients was 57.3 years (29 patients were aged up
      to 60 years, 32 patients were over the age of 60 years, inclusive). 6 patients
      died (lethality was 9.8%). The average extent of the burn area was 21.6% TBSA
      (median 14.0%). There were 90 strains of micromycetes cultured in total in these
      patients (79 yeasts, 11 fibrous fungi). Micromycetes were isolated from burn area
      in 30 patients, from the lower airways in 19 patients, from the urogenital area
      in 15 patients and from blood culture in 7 patients. Non-albicans Candida species
      were predominant among yeasts (60 strains); Candida albicans was isolated 16
      times in total. Aspergillus fumigatus (4 isolations) and Fusarium species (2
      isolations) were predominant species among fibrous fungi. CONCLUSION: We
      successfully identified the basic epidemiological parameters in burn patients
      with micromycetes infection, similarly to the most important yeasts and fibrous
      fungi causing infection in these patients.

PMID- 28869385
TI  - MICRONEEDLING - A FORM OF COLLAGEN INDUCTION THERAPY - OUR FIRST EXPERIENCES.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Microneedling (percutaneous collagen induction therapy) is a new
      promising miniinvasive therapeutic method for the treatment of skin alterations
      of different aetiology, including burn scars. Since 2016, it is also available at
      our department. The microtraumatization of scars with the Dermaroller(r) leads to
      an activation of the healing cascade, activation of growth factors, which
      activate cell proliferation in the wound, increased synthesis and deposit of
      collagen - elastin complex with successive transformation of collagen III to
      collagen I, to neoangiogenesis and thus to accelerated scar remodelling. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: In the pilot study conducted in 2016, the microneedling method with
      Dermaroller(r) with 2.5 mm needles was used in six patients (two males, four
      females; age 25-73 years) with stabilized scars after previous application of
      split thickness skin graft due to thermal injury. We repeated the microneedling
      procedure in three intervals approximately 6 to 8 weeks apart, with the use of
      topical anaesthesia. RESULTS: Preliminary results showed a subjective improvement
      of the scars. Objective evaluation with the Vancouver Scar Score showed an
      improvement of an average of two points before and after treatment. CONCLUSION:
      Our first clinical experience show that microneedling appears to be a suitable
      microinvasive method for the improvement of scar quality after burn trauma.

PMID- 28869386
TI  - [History, Present State and Perspectives of Czech Burns Medicine.]
AB  - Care for burn patients is defined in most developed countries as an independent
      multidisciplinary specialty (burn medicine) and it is concentrated to specialized
      units, which are sufficiently staffed with appropriate space area and equipment.
      Since the 50s of the previous century in the former Czechoslovakia, there were
      five such units, three of which were in the Czech Republic (Prague, Ostrava,
      Brno). The specialty successfully developed and achieved prestige also abroad,
      mainly due to uninterrupted contacts with the foreign units. Until approximately
      mid 90s of the previous century, an increasing trend of development accelerated
      (new technologies, better space area and equipment, acquisition of new knowledge
      from abroad, etc.). On the other hand, two negative tendencies occurred. These
      were negative economic balance of care for burn patients, which was due to the
      current system of financing healthcare, and a completely inappropriate system of
      postgraduate education for burn medicine specialty. These two factors cause that
      young doctors are not interested in the specialty and there is a risk of its
      stagnation in case that the units will not be at least in an even economical
      balance and will not be able to offer young doctors anything in terms of
      financial rewards and further professional growth.

PMID- 28869387
TI  - REPORT ON THE OBSERVER TRAINING AT BROOKE ARMY MEDICAL CENTER IN SAN ANTONIO,
      TEXAS, USA.
AB  - A short report describing the unique experience of visiting the famous Brooke
      Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, Texas, USA and its Burn Center and
      Plastic Surgery Department in the period between June 27 and August 26, 2016.

PMID- 28869388
TI  - Proposal for a national triage system for the management of ventral hernias.
AB  - Ventral hernia disease is becoming increasingly prevalent and complex.
      Subspecialisation for patients with challenging conditions requiring surgery has
      been shown to improve postoperative outcomes. Worldwide, there is an emergence of
      specialist hernia centres using new and innovative techniques to repair large and
      complicated ventral hernias. After a national meeting of hernia experts, we
      present an algorithm to be used as a national triage system for patients with
      ventral hernias, with the aim of ensuring that patients are operated on by the
      most appropriate surgeon. Evidence-based clinical risk factors and ventral hernia
      parameters are used for risk stratification and patient triage. We hope that this
      algorithm will guide future ventral hernia management in the UK.

PMID- 28869389
TI  - The use of imaging in acute pancreatitis in United Kingdom hospitals: findings
      from a national quality of care study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess use of imaging in patients admitted to UK hospitals with
      acute pancreatitis (AP). METHODS: 4,479 patients had a diagnosis AP in the first
      6 months of 2014. The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and
      Death (NCEPOD) selected patients with more severe AP for case review. Clinicians
      completed 712 questionnaires and case reviewers assessed 418 cases. The use of
      imaging in patients with AP is reported. RESULTS: The common causes of AP were
      gallstones (46.5%) and alcohol excess (22%) with no cause identified in 17.5%.
      Imaging was needed to diagnose AP in 12%. 60.1% of patients had one or more CT
      scan. The timing of the CT scan(s) was appropriate in 90% of patients. The number
      of CTs was appropriate in all except 6.6% (equally split between too many and too
      few). AP collection intervention was radiological in 49/613 and surgical in
      23/613. 69.8% had an ultrasound scan which diagnosed gallstones in 46.4% and bile
      duct dilatation in 12.9%. At least 21% had ultrasound scan inappropriately
      omitted. The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death
      recommends gallstones are excluded in all patients with AP, including suspected
      alcohol-related AP. 29.8% underwent magnetic resonance cholangio--pancreatography
      diagnosing gallstones in 62.4%, bile duct dilatation in 25.4% and common bile
      duct stones in 14.4%. 20.6% had recurrent pancreatitis with gallstones accounting
      for a third. 17% with gallstone AP had a cholecystectomy within the guideline
      recommended time period. CONCLUSION: Imaging is rarely required for the diagnosis
      of AP. CT is used responsibly in AP management. Imaging should be used more to
      exclude gallstones, including in presumed alcohol related AP. Increased
      diagnostic efforts will not reduce recurrent biliary AP unless matched by earlier
      gallstone treatment. Advances in knowledge: Whilst CT is used responsibly in AP
      greater use of other diagnostic modalities is required to identify reversible
      causes, in particular gallstones, in order to prevent recurrent AP.

PMID- 28869390
TI  - Approach to interpret images produced by new generations of multidetector CT
      scanners in post-operative spine.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To reach a practical approach to interpret MDCT findings in post
      operative spine cases and to change the false belief of CT failure in the setting
      of instruments secondary to related artefacts. METHODS: We performed
      observational retrospective analysis of premier, early and late MDCT scans in 68
      post-operative spine patients, with emphasis on instruments related complications
      and osseous fusion status. We used a grading system for assessment of osseous
      fusion in 35 patients and we further analysed the findings in failure of fusion,
      grade (D). RESULTS: We observed a variety of instruments related complications
      (mostly screws medially penetrating the pedicle) and osseous fusion status in
      late scans. We graded 11 interbody and 14 posterolateral levels as osseous fusion
      failure, showing additional instruments related complications, end plates erosive
      changes, adjacent segments spondylosis and malalignment. CONCLUSION: Modern MDCT
      scanners provide high quality images and are strongly recommended in assessment
      of the instruments and status of osseous fusion. In post-operative imaging of the
      spine, it is essential to be aware for what you are looking for, in relevance to
      the date of surgery. Advances in knowledge: Modern MDCT scanners allow assessment
      of instruments position and integrity and osseous fusion status in post-operative
      spine. We propose a helpful algorithm to simplify interpreting post-operative
      spine imaging.

PMID- 28869391
TI  - Expanding collaborative care: integrating the role of dietitians and nutrition
      interventions in services for people with mental illness.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This article aims to draw mental health clinicians' attention to the
      connections between nutrition and mental health, and the roles that Accredited
      Practising Dietitians play in improving mental and physical health through
      dietary change. METHODS: Selective narrative review. RESULTS: Unhealthy dietary
      practices are common in high prevalence and severe mental illness.
      Epidemiological evidence demonstrates that nutrients and dietary patterns impact
      on mental health. In addition, poor physical health is well documented in people
      with mental illness and the greatest contributor to the mortality gap. Dietary
      intervention studies demonstrate improved mental and physical health outcomes.
      Accredited Practising Dietitians translate nutrition science into practical
      advice to improve the nutritional status of patients with mental illness, and
      prevent and manage comorbidities in a variety of care settings. CONCLUSIONS:
      Medical Nutrition Therapy offers opportunities to improve the physical and mental
      health of people living with mental illness.

PMID- 28869392
TI  - Intracranial pressure-induced optic nerve sheath response as a predictive
      biomarker for optic disc edema in astronauts.
AB  - A significant proportion of the astronauts who spend extended periods in
      microgravity develop ophthalmic abnormalities. Understanding this syndrome,
      called visual impairment and intracranial pressure (VIIP), has become a high
      priority for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, especially in view of
      future long-duration missions (e.g., Mars missions). Moreover, to ensure
      selection of astronaut candidates who will be able to complete long-duration
      missions with low risk of the VIIP syndrome, it is imperative to identify
      biomarkers for VIIP risk prediction. Here, we hypothesize that the optic nerve
      sheath response to alterations in intracranial pressure may be a potential
      predictive biomarker for optic disc edema in astronauts. If confirmed, this
      biomarker could be used for preflight identification of astronauts at risk for
      developing VIIP-associated optic disc edema.

PMID- 28869393
TI  - Ethics of clinical research in patients with ALS: is there a risk of
      exploitation?
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is the most common degenerative disease of the
      motor neuron network. Due to its inevitably fatal outcome, numerous attempts have
      been made to ameliorate its course. The emergence of every new technology has
      spurred research to see if it might benefit patients with ALS (PALS). This paper
      suggests a detailed road map to be followed when performing clinical research in
      PALS to satisfy the ethics requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki, expressed
      using the terminology of Beauchamp and Childress. The ethics principles that need
      to be satisfied are arranged in a hierarchical manner, each having to be
      satisfied before the next is approached: Justice; Beneficence, Nonmaleficence,
      Professional-Patient Relationship, and Respect for Autonomy. Study participants'
      autonomy can be respected only when all other principles have been addressed
      before PALS are approached to participate. Five 'red flags' are identified,
      which, if present, might indicate a risk that PALS may be exploited. PALS who are
      contemplating new treatments or clinical trials and their families will be
      assured that their best interests are the only ones that matter whenever
      adherence to established ethics principles and avoidance of known pitfalls are
      made explicit.

PMID- 28869394
TI  - Effect of age and sex in determining cognitive ability in Vanaraja chickens.
AB  - (1) To evaluate the cognitive ability of male and female Vanaraja birds, three
      hundred and sixty 1-d-old sexed chickens were reared under similar conditions in
      three treatment groups with 4 replicates in each group: 120 females in Treatment
      1, 120 males in Treatment 2 and both males and females (60 + 60) as a mixed group
      in Treatment 3. (2) To assess learning ability, the birds were trained in T- and
      Y-mazes and tested at 3-week intervals in 4 test schedules (21, 42, 63 and 84 d).
      The birds were put into tonic immobility (TI) in each test schedule. (3) In each
      maze test, the latency to find the feed was regarded as a successful completion
      of the task. In the TI-test, the time taken to stabilise on a plane surface after
      swinging in the hanging cradle for 20-25 s was recorded. (4) The results
      indicated that male birds appeared to be cognitively superior to females in terms
      of learning and cognitive evolution in all the mazes, but by d 84, the females
      performed as well as the males. With increasing age, spatial memory gathering and
      processing improved. In the TI-test, the effect of sex or grouping system had no
      significant effect on the performance of birds at the various ages.

PMID- 28869395
TI  - MRI of suspected appendicitis during pregnancy: interradiologist agreement,
      indeterminate interpretation and the meaning of non-visualization of the
      appendix.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the degree of interradiologist agreement between the MRI
      features of appendicitis during pregnancy, the outcomes associated with an
      indeterminate interpretation and the negative predictive value of non
      visualization of the appendix. METHODS: Our study was approved by the
      institutional review board at the Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
      (WUStL) and was HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
      1996)-compliant. The informed consent requirement was waived. Cases of suspected
      appendicitis during pregnancy evaluated using MRI were retrospectively identified
      using search queries. Scans were re-reviewed by two radiologists (7 and 9 years
      experience, respectively) to evaluate the interradiologist agreement of different
      MRI features of appendicitis during pregnancy (visualization of the appendix,
      appendiceal diameter, appendiceal wall thickening, periappendiceal fat stranding,
      fluid-filled appendix and periappendiceal fluid). The radiologists were blinded
      to patient outcome, patient intervention, laboratory data, demographic data and
      the original MRI reports. Clinical outcomes were documented by surgical pathology
      or clinical observation. Interradiologist agreement was analysed using Cohen's
      kappa, while patient demographic and clinical data was analysed using Student's t
      testing. RESULTS: 233 females with suspected appendicitis during pregnancy were
      evaluated using MRI over a 13-year period (mean age, 28.4 years; range, 17-38
      years). There were 14 (6%) positive examinations for appendicitis during
      pregnancy, including 1 patient whose MRI was interpreted as negative, proven by
      surgical pathology. The presence of periappendiceal soft-tissue stranding and the
      final overall impression had the most interradiologist agreement (k = 0.81-1).
      There were no pregnant patients found to have acute appendicitis who had an
      indeterminate MR interpretation or when the appendix could not be visualized.
      CONCLUSION: The final impression by the two retrospectively reviewing
      radiologists of MR examinations performed for suspected appendicitis during
      pregnancy had near-perfect agreement. In patients where the appendix could not be
      visualized or in patients that were interpreted as indeterminate, no patients had
      acute appendicitis. Advances in knowledge: MR impression for suspected
      appendicitis in the pregnant patient has high interradiologist agreement, and a
      non-visualized appendix or lack of inflammatory findings at the time of MR,
      reliably excludes surgical appendicitis.

PMID- 28869396
TI  - Stereotactic/hypofractionated body radiation therapy as an effective treatment
      for lymph node metastases from colorectal cancer: an institutional retrospective
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The colorectal cancer (CRC) might present loco-regional recurrence,
      including lymph-node metastasis. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is a non
      invasive and well-tolerated ablative treatment. Aim of the present study is to
      evaluate efficacy and toxicity of SBRT with volumetric modulated arc therapy
      (VMAT) in this setting. METHODS: 35 patients presenting a total of 47 nodal
      recurrences from CRC, treated with VMAT-SBRT from 2008 to 2015, were selected.
      About three fourth of the treatments delivered 45 Gy in 6 daily fractions. End
      points were the detection of toxicities, overall survival (OS), local control
      (LC), disease progression free incidence (DPFI) and disease free survival (DFS).
      Tumour response was assessed according to the RECIST criteria. RESULTS: Only
      Grade 1 and 2 toxicities were recorded. Median follow-up was 15 months (range 2
      68). Local relapse was reported in 6 patients, regional relapse in 10 patients.
      Complete remission was reported in 20 cases (53%), partial remission in 14 (37%).
      Rates of LC at 1, 2 and 3 years were 85.3, 75.0 and 75.0%, respectively. At 1
      year the actuarial OS was 100%, at 2 and 3 years was 81.4%. Median DFS was
      estimated in 16 months, with an incidence of 69.4, 33.3 and 19.4% at 1, 2 and 3
      years, respectively. CONCLUSION: The use of the VMAT-SBRT in lymph-node
      recurrence of CRC could prevent severe complications and achieve satisfying rates
      of disease control. Advances in knowledge: The use of VMAT-SBRT is a viable
      approach for lymph-node recurrence of CRC.

PMID- 28869397
TI  - Precision of cone beam CT to assess periodontal bone defects: a systematic review
      and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the diagnostic validity of CBCT in measuring periodontal
      bone defects when compared with the reference standard (in situ measurement).
      METHODS: Studies in which the main objective was to evaluate the diagnostic
      validity of CBCT in measuring periodontal bone defects when compared with the
      reference standard were selected. Four databases were searched. The studies were
      selected by two independent reviewers. The methodology of selected studies was
      assessed using the 14-item Quality Assessment Tool for Diagnostic Accuracy
      Studies. The quality of evidence and strength of recommendation was assessed by
      The Grading of Recommendations Assessment Tool, Development and Evaluation.
      RESULTS: Using a selection process in two phases, 16 studies were identified and,
      in seven articles meta-analysis was performed. The results from these meta
      analyses showed that no difference between the measurements of CBCT and in situ
      for alveolar bone loss, and demonstrated a concordance of 82.82% between CBCT and
      in situ for the classification of the degree of furcation involvement.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on a moderate level of evidence, CBCT could be useful for
      furcation involvement periodontal cases, but it should only be used in cases
      where clinical evaluation and conventional radiographic imaging do not provide
      the information necessary for an adequate diagnosis and proper periodontal
      treatment planning.

PMID- 28869398
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of haloperidol metabolite II prodrugs as anticancer
      agents.
AB  - The use of haloperidol metabolite II (HP-metabolite II) prodrugs is an emerging
      strategy in the treatment of cancer. HP-metabolite II exhibits antiproliferative
      properties at micromolar concentrations inducing apoptosis in different types of
      cancer. Thus, the application of the prodrug approach appears as a useful method
      leading to much more desirable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties.
      Some studies have shown that the esterification of the hydroxyl group of HP
      metabolite II with 4-phenylbutiric acid (4-PBA) or valproic acid enhances the
      anticancer therapeutic potency. The current progresses in the design, synthesis
      and evaluation of anticancer activity of HP metabolite II prodrugs will be
      discussed in this review.

PMID- 28869399
TI  - Clinical applications of textural analysis in non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Treatment
      pathways include regular cross-sectional imaging, generating large data sets
      which present intriguing possibilities for exploitation beyond standard visual
      interpretation. This additional data mining has been termed "radiomics" and
      includes semantic and agnostic approaches. Textural analysis (TA) is an example
      of the latter, and uses a range of mathematically derived features to describe an
      image or region of an image. Often TA is used to describe a suspected or known
      tumour. TA is an attractive tool as large existing image sets can be submitted to
      diverse techniques for data processing, presentation, interpretation and
      hypothesis testing with annotated clinical outcomes. There is a growing anthology
      of published data using different TA techniques to differentiate between benign
      and malignant lung nodules, differentiate tissue subtypes of lung cancer,
      prognosticate and predict outcome and treatment response, as well as predict
      treatment side effects and potentially aid radiotherapy planning. The aim of this
      systematic review is to summarize the current published data and understand the
      potential future role of TA in managing lung cancer.

PMID- 28869400
TI  - Azide-alkyne cycloaddition en route to 4-aminoquinoline-ferrocenylchalcone
      conjugates: synthesis and anti-TB evaluation.
AB  - AIM: Tuberculosis is responsible for 9.6 million infections and 1.5 million
      deaths in 2015. The development of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug
      resistant strains has impeded the development of effective antitubercular
      therapy. Results/methodology: The present manuscript describes the synthesis of a
      series of 4-aminoquinoline-ferrocenylchalcone conjugates via Cu-promoted
      Huisgen's azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction and evaluation of their
      antitubercular activities against mc26230 strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
      The conjugate 11j proved to be the most potent of the synthesized conjugates with
      a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC99) value of 30 MUM and proved to be
      noncytotoxic against HeLa cells. CONCLUSION: The synthesized conjugates can act
      as starting point for the development of new antitubercular agents. Synthesis and
      antitubercular evaluation of 1H-1,2,3-triazole-tethered 4-aminoquinoline
      ferrocenylchalcone conjugates. [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28869403
TI  - Misdiagnosing Donald Trump.

PMID- 28869401
TI  - Clinical outcomes of multileaf collimator-based CyberKnife for spine stereotactic
      body radiation therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for spinal metastases is
      becoming a prevalent therapeutic option. We aimed to evaluate the clinical
      feasibility and outcomes of the recently developed multileaf collimator (MLC)
      based CyberKnife (CK-M) for spine SBRT. METHODS: We reviewed 119 patients of 144
      cases with 229 lesions treated with CK between November 2014 and March 2016. The
      lesion features, dosimetric parameters and clinical outcomes were compared
      between fixed cone collimator based CK (CK-F) and CK-M. RESULTS: Of 144 cases, 78
      and 66 were treated with CK-F and CK-M, respectively. CK-M achieved an adequate
      target volume coverage that was comparable with CK-F (median 92 vs 90%; p = 0.03)
      even in larger targets (median 64.2 vs 46.7 cm3; p = 0.01), respectively. CK-M
      showed an improvement in the gradient index (p < 0.001) and no difference in
      conformity (p = 0.16). With CK-M, the median beam delivery time was significantly
      reduced by 30% (to 34 vs 48 min; p < 0.001). CK-M showed 1 year local control
      rates that were comparable to CK-F (77 vs 78%, respectively; p = 0.83).
      CONCLUSION: CK-M exhibits dosimetric data and local control that are comparable
      with CK-F, but with significant treatment time reduction. CK-M could be widely
      used in spine SBRT. Advances in knowledge: Given the recently developed MLC in
      CK, we aimed to evaluate the clinical feasibility and outcomes of MLC compared
      with fixed cone-based CK. MLC showed equivalent plan quality and significant
      treatment time reduction with comparable radiological control. We report here MLC
      as an effective and tolerable treatment option in CK.

PMID- 28869402
TI  - The epidemiology of back/neck/spine injuries in National Collegiate Athletic
      Association men's and women's ice hockey, 2009/2010 to 2014/2015.
AB  - This study describes the epidemiology of back/neck/spine injuries in National
      Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's and women's ice hockey. Data from 66
      NCAA men's and 29 women's ice hockey programmes (total of 147 and 67 team
      seasons, respectively) were analysed from the NCAA Injury Surveillance Program
      during the 2009/2010-2014/2015 academic years. In the study period, 226 and 97
      back/neck/spine injuries were reported in men and women, respectively, for injury
      rates of 0.56 and 0.65/1000 athlete exposures. Injury rates were higher in
      competitions than practices in men (injury rate ratio [IRR] = 4.22; 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: 3.24-5.49) and women (IRR = 2.49; 95% CI: 1.67-3.70).
      Most injuries occurred in the lower back/lumbar spine (men: 52.2%; women: 48.5%).
      There were notably low rates of fractures and severe spinal injuries for both
      sexes. This study enhances our understanding of the incidence, mechanisms and
      factors influencing these injuries and can ultimately lead to more effective
      injury prevention.

PMID- 28869404
TI  - Effect of wearing hearing protectors on the audibility of railway warning signals
      - an experimental study.
AB  - The effect of wearing hearing protectors on the audibility of warning signals has
      been evaluated for three specific railway-related jobs: track workers, train
      drivers and platform agents. Masked thresholds were measured in the laboratory,
      on railway agents with normal hearing, using warning signals and background
      noises typical of each job. Out of the 36 situations tested in total, statistical
      analyses showed that wearing earplugs improves the perception in 11 situations,
      deteriorates the perception in 10 situations and has no significant effect in 15
      situations (as compared to no hearing protector). The deteriorations essentially
      concern signals which have no (or not enough) energy in the low-frequency range
      (f< 1500 Hz) when they have to be heard in background noises which dominate in
      the low-frequency range. To prevent the deteriorations, these signals could be
      modified by adding some energy in the low-frequency range (f< 1500 Hz).

PMID- 28869406
TI  - A Corrigendum to the SMART STROKES abstract supplement.

PMID- 28869405
TI  - A telehealth intervention to promote healthy lifestyles after stroke: The Stroke
      Coach protocol.
AB  - Rationale Recurrent stroke is prevalent and associated with high mortality rates,
      disability, and social and economic costs. Adequate management of risk factors
      may reduce recurrent stroke; however, many stroke survivors have poor control of
      risk factors. We have developed a theoretically sound and evidence-based
      lifestyle modification program called the Stroke Coach, a telephone-based self
      management program to improve control of risk factors. Hypothesis Individuals who
      participate in Stroke Coach will achieve more lifestyle improvements than
      individuals in an attention controlled Memory Training Program. Design In this
      single blind randomized controlled trial, 126 community-living stroke survivors
      will be randomized to Stroke Coach or the attention control group. Participants
      randomized to the six-month Stroke Coach will receive seven telephone lifestyle
      coaching sessions, self-management education and practice, and a self-monitoring
      kit, comprised of a health report card, with blood pressure and activity
      monitors. Study Outcomes The primary outcome will be measured using the Health
      Promoting Lifestyle Profile II. Secondary outcomes include behavioral and
      physiological risk factors, quality of life, cognitive status, health and social
      service use. Measurements will be taken at baseline, immediately after the
      intervention and six-month post-intervention. Summary The results of this trial
      will add to our understanding of the use of self-management to improve control of
      risk factors, and may facilitate the development of a larger trial evaluating the
      effect of Stroke Coach on endpoints such as recurrent stroke or cardiac events as
      the primary outcome.

PMID- 28869407
TI  - Characterization of feedback-resistant mevalonate kinases from the methanogenic
      archaeons Methanosaeta concilii and Methanocella paludicola.
AB  - The inhibition of mevalonate kinase (MVK) by downstream metabolites is an
      important mechanism in the regulation of isoprenoid production in a broad range
      of organisms. The first feedback-resistant MVK was previously discovered in the
      methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcinamazei. Here, we report the cloning,
      expression, purification, kinetic characterization and inhibition analysis of
      MVKs from two other methanogens, Methanosaetaconcilii and Methanocellapaludicola.
      Similar to the M. mazei MVK, these enzymes were not inhibited by
      diphosphomevalonate (DPM), dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP),
      isopentenyldiphosphate (IPP), geranylpyrophosphate (GPP) or farnesylpyrophosphate
      (FPP). However, they exhibited significantly higher affinity to mevalonate and
      higher catalytic efficiency than the previously characterized enzyme.

PMID- 28869408
TI  - Involvement of signal peptidase I in Streptococcus sanguinis biofilm formation.
AB  - Biofilm accounts for 65-80 % of microbial infections in humans. Considerable
      evidence links biofilm formation by oral microbiota to oral disease and
      consequently systemic infections. Streptococcus sanguinis, a Gram-positive
      bacterium, is one of the most abundant species of the oral microbiota and it
      contributes to biofilm development in the oral cavity. Due to its altered biofilm
      formation, we investigated a biofilm mutant, DeltaSSA_0351, that is deficient in
      type I signal peptidase (SPase) in this study. Although the growth curve of the
      DeltaSSA_0351 mutant showed no significant difference from that of the wild-type
      strain SK36, biofilm assays using both microtitre plate assay and confocal laser
      scanning microscopy (CLSM) confirmed a sharp reduction in biofilm formation in
      the mutant compared to the wild-type strain and the paralogous mutant
      DeltaSSA_0849. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed remarkable differences
      in the cell surface morphologies and chain length of the DeltaSSA_0351 mutant
      compared with those of the wild-type strain. Transcriptomic and proteomic assays
      using RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry, respectively, were conducted on the
      DeltaSSA_0351 mutant to evaluate the functional impact of SPase on biofilm
      formation. Subsequently, bioinformatics analysis revealed a number of proteins
      that were differentially regulated in the DeltaSSA_0351 mutant, narrowing down
      the list of SPase substrates involved in biofilm formation to lactate
      dehydrogenase (SSA_1221) and a short-chain dehydrogenase (SSA_0291). With further
      experimentation, this list defined the link between SSA_0351-encoded SPase, cell
      wall biosynthesis and biofilm formation.

PMID- 28869409
TI  - The Rhodobacter capsulatus gene transfer agent is induced by nutrient depletion
      and the RNAP omega subunit.
AB  - Small bacteriophage-like particles called gene transfer agents (GTAs) that
      mediate DNA transfer between cells are produced by a variety of prokaryotes. The
      model GTA, produced by the alphaproteobacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus (RcGTA),
      is controlled by several cellular regulators, and production is induced upon
      entry into the stationary phase. We report that RcGTA production and gene
      transfer are stimulated by nutrient depletion. Cells depleted of organic carbon
      or blocked for amino acid biosynthesis increased RcGTA production and release
      from cells. Furthermore, cells lacking the sole RelA-SpoT homologue produced
      decreased levels of RcGTA, and the RNA polymerase omega (omega) subunit was
      required for appreciable production of RcGTA.

PMID- 28869410
TI  - Proposal to correct the generic name Flaviaesturariibacter Kang, Chun, Seo, Kim
      and Jahng 2015, 2212 to Flavaestuariibacter. Request for an Opinion.
AB  - The generic name Flaviaesturariibacter Kang, Chun, Seo, Kim and Jahng 2015, 2212
      is malformed: being derived from the Latin noun aestuarium, ...aestuarii...
      instead of ...aesturarii... is required. Moreover, according to Appendix 9 of the
      Prokaryotic Code, a connecting vowel must be dropped when the following word
      element starts with a vowel. I therefore propose to correct the name
      Flaviaesturariibacter to Flavaestuariibacter.

PMID- 28869411
TI  - The presence of small joint contractures is a risk factor for survival in 439
      patients with systemic sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Analysis of risk factors and mortality of 439 patients with systemic
      sclerosis (SSc) in a tertiary care centre. METHODS: The mean follow up time was
      8.4+/-5.6 years. Lost to follow up rate was 6.4%. Female to male ratio was 366 to
      73. Two hundred sixty patients had limited and 179 diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc).
      A standard protocol including musculoskeletal examinations was used for the
      assessment of patients. RESULTS: By Kaplan-Meier analysis the overall 5-, 10- and
      15 year survival were 88.2%, 79.9% and 73.6%, respectively. Univariate analysis
      showed that dcSSc, male gender, presence of small joint contractures, pulmonary
      interstitial, cardiac, oesophageal involvement, scleroderma renal crisis,
      arterial hypertension, anti-topoisomerase antibody, anemia, hypalbuminemia,
      coexistent malignancies and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation were associated
      with poor survival. Lack of giant capillaries, avascular zones or neo
      angiogenesis on capillaroscopy, and presence of anti-centromere antibodies were
      associated with favourable outcome. Multivariate regression analysis showed
      presence of small joint contractures, history of arterial hypertension, male
      gender, diffusing capacity of carbon monoxide <50%, right ventricular pressure
      >40 mmHg on echocardiography, less than 50% ejection fraction, anti-topoisomerase
      I positivity, anemia, and serum albumin concentration < 35 g/l as well as current
      or history of coexistent malignancy were independent poor prognostic factors.
      CONCLUSIONS: In addition to well-known factors predicting poor outcome in SSc,
      the presence of small joint contractures was a newly identi ed independent risk
      factor of mortality. Our data also confirmed a recent finding showing that
      history of arterial hypertension was also a poor prognostic factor.

PMID- 28869412
TI  - Prevalence of Takayasu's arteritis in Korea.

PMID- 28869413
TI  - Severe oesophageal disease and its associations with systemic sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Severe oesophageal disease in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc),
      referred as scleroderma oesophagus, is characterised by ineffective or absent
      peristalsis along with hypotensive oesophagogastric junction (hEGJ). The
      associations between scleroderma oesophagus and different clinical and laboratory
      manifestations of SSc is still controversial. In this study we aimed to assess
      associations between scleroderma oesophagus, diagnosed by high resolution
      manometry (HRM), and other manifestations of disease. METHODS: Fifty-four
      consecutive SSc patients (49 women, mean age 50.6+/-11.6) with oesophageal
      symptoms underwent clinical interview, medical records review and HRM. HRMs were
      analysed according to the Chicago Classification in order to provide oesophageal
      motility diagnosis; EGJ <9 mmHg was considered hypotensive. Demographic
      characteristics, patient-reported symptoms, SSc subtypes, pulmonary fibrosis,
      cutaneous ulcers, and anti-Scl-70 positivity were compared between SSc patients
      with or without scleroderma oesophagus. Comparison was also performed in computed
      tomography (CT) findings of oesophageal lumen in 26 patients with available data.
      Oesophageal dilatation was deemed present when the diameter was >9 mm. RESULTS:
      Absent contractility was present in 37 (68.5%) patients; among these patients
      hEGJP was found in 32, thus 32/54 (59.2%) patients had classic scleroderma
      oesophagus. There were no associations with gender, age, oesophageal symptoms,
      skin involvement extent, anti-Scl-70, pulmonary fibrosis and cutaneous ulcers.
      Notably, oesophageal dilation on chest CT was more frequent in patients with
      scleroderma oesophagus compared to those without (77% vs. 7%, p=0.04,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Scleroderma oesophagus diagnosed by HRM was present
      in less than 2/3 of symptomatic patients with SSc and associated only with
      oesophageal dilation in CT. Although further studies are needed, oesophageal
      dilation on chest CT may be a non-invasive alternative for evaluation of SSc
      patients with oesophageal symptoms.

PMID- 28869415
TI  - A novel iloprost administration method with portable syringe pump for the
      treatment of acral ulcers and Raynaud's phenomenon in systemic sclerosis
      patients. A pilot study (ILOPORTA).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study is to evaluate the feasibility, safety and
      efficacy of home infusion of iloprost with the new portable syringe pump
      Infonde(r), for the treatment of scleroderma-related Raynaud's phenomenon and
      digital ulcers. METHODS: 12 scleroderma patients were treated with iloprost at
      home, using the pump, with infusion cycles of 2 days per month (24 hours a day),
      for 6 months. RESULTS: The home treatment proved feasible since ten patients
      (83%) completed the entire infusion cycle, thus satisfying the feasibility target
      imposed by the protocol (75%). Side effects related to the device or venous
      access occurred in 3 out of 65 total 48-hour infusions (4.6%). They mostly
      consisted in phlebitis. No adverse events related to the device management were
      reported. Among the ten patients who completed the infusions, three showed a
      reduction in the number of ulcers, three maintained the same number, and four had
      no ulcers throughout the observation period. Patient's perception of their
      quality of life and wellness during home infusions, expressed with the Visual
      Analogue Scale (VAS) improved from 79/100 at the first infusion to 91/100 at the
      end of the study. All patients expressed a positive global judgment regarding
      this innovative method of iloprost infusion. CONCLUSIONS: The infusion of
      iloprost at home with Infonde(r) is feasible, safe and effective. Moreover, this
      approach presents potential advantages from the economic and organisational point
      of view. Because of the pilot design of our study, these results need to be
      confirmed in larger randomised trials.

PMID- 28869414
TI  - Expression of TREM-2 and its inhibitory effects on TNF-alpha induced inflammation
      in fibroblast-like synoviocytes via inhibiting p38 pathway activation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: It is not clear whether TREM-2 (the "triggering receptor expressed on
      myeloid cells 2") is expressed in fibroblast-like synovial cells (FLSs). In this
      study, we aimed to determine the expression of TREM-2 in rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA)-FLSs and explore whether and how TREM-2 modulates the function of RA-FLSs.
      METHODS: Western blot and RT-PCR were used to detect the expression of TREM-2 in
      RA-FLSs, siRNA and lentivirus were used to down-regulate and up-regulate the
      expression of TREM-2 in RA-FLSs. Then mRNA expression of IL-1beta, IL-6, and MMP
      13 was determined by RT-qPCR. Protein secretion of IL-1beta, IL-6, and MMP-13 in
      the supernatant was determined by ELISA assay; expression of cell signal
      transduction molecules was determined by western blot. RESULTS: A: Relative to OA
      FLSs, mRNA and protein expression levels of TREM-2 in RA-FLSs are significantly
      elevated. TREM-2 protein is mainly expressed in the cytoplasm of RA-FLSs; B: In
      RA, the expression of TREM-2 was reduced at first and then up-regulated after
      stimulation by TNF-alpha. TREM-2 also inhibited the activation of TNF-alpha
      induced of inflammation in RA-FLSs by the p38 pathway, which regulates the
      production of cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases. CONCLUSIONS: TREM-2
      expressed in RA-FLSs and TNF-alpha mediated reduction of inflammatory reactions.
      These phenomena indicated that TREM-2 may be a potential target in the treatment
      of RA.

PMID- 28869416
TI  - Autologous stem cell transplantation in systemic sclerosis: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Haematopoetic autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has emerged
      as a treatment option for patients with refractory, severe autoimmune disease.
      This is a systematic review of the current literature on ASCT in adult patients
      with systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: Original articles published between 2005
      and 2016 that evaluated the use of ASCT in patients with SSc were reviewed with
      respect to the primary outcomes of overall and transplant related mortality (TRM)
      rates, and secondary outcomes of changes in modified Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS),
      forced vital capacity (FVC), progression/event free survival (P/EFS) and quality
      of life measures. We also focussed on patient characteristics, the ASCT
      conditioning and mobilisation regimens used, and their relationship to patient
      outcome in each study. RESULTS: Of the 155 articles found, only 9 articles were
      suitable for review. There were 2 placebo-controlled trials (RCTs), ASTIS and
      ASSIST, and 7 observational and cohort studies. In general, patients undergoing
      ASCT had diffuse SSc with mRSS >14, and interstitial lung disease. The 2 RCTs
      showed a benefit in P/EFS (80-81%), FVC and quality of life measures in ASCT
      compared to monthly cyclophosphamide. All the studies showed an improvement in
      mRSS. TRM rates varied among studies, from 0 to 23%, with a trend to higher
      mortality rates in studies using higher doses of cyclophosphamide or
      myeloablative conditioning regimens. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that ASCT is
      beneficial in some patients with SSc and that patient selection and conditioning
      regimens are critical determinants of prognosis and mortality post-ASCT.

PMID- 28869418
TI  - A meta-analysis of laninamivir octanoate for treatment and prophylaxis of
      influenza.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laninamivir octanoate is a recently developed inhaled neuraminidase
      inhibitor for treating influenza virus infection. We performed meta-analyses to
      clarify the efficacy of laninamivir octanoate on influenza treatment and
      prevention. METHODS: MEDLINE and CENTRAL were searched to identify eligible
      studies. The log median time to event ratios (logMRs) and log odds ratios
      (logORs) were combined with meta-analysis. RESULTS: Nine studies in treatment
      settings and three studies in prophylaxis settings were eligible for this meta
      analysis. There was no significant difference between laninamivir octanoate and
      oseltamivir (8 studies, logMR 0.04, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.14]; P=0.36) or zanamivir (4
      studies, logMR -0.01, 95% CI [-0.12, 0.11]; P=0.93) in alleviating fever.
      However, laninamivir octanoate was associated with significantly longer fever
      duration in treating H3N2 influenza as compared to oseltamivir (4 studies, logMR
      0.29, 95% CI [0.00, 0.59]; P=0.047). Laninamivir octanoate was associated with
      significantly longer duration of fever as compared to peramivir (4 studies, logMR
      0.46, 95% CI [0.14, 0.77]; P=0.004). Laninamivir octanoate significantly reduced
      the incidence of clinical influenza in post-exposure settings (3 studies, logOR 
      1.17, 95% CI [-1.72, -0.62]; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the efficacy of
      laninamivir octanoate in treating influenza was comparable to that of oseltamivir
      or zanamivir, but it should be noted that laninamivir octanoate was associated
      with significantly longer fever duration in treating influenza H3N2 as compared
      to oseltamivir and oseltamivir-resistant mutations in seasonal influenza H1N1
      might have affected the results. Peramivir may be superior to laninamivir in
      treating influenza. Laninamivir octanoate is effective in preventing influenza in
      post-exposure settings as compared to placebo.

PMID- 28869417
TI  - Efficacy of intensive hand physical therapy in patients with systemic sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of a three-week period of complex and
      intensive hand physical therapy on hand function in patients with systemic
      sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: Thirty-one patients with SSc were treated. Hand
      stretching exercises, ergotherapy supplemented with thermal and mud baths,
      whirlpool therapy and soft tissue massage were daily used during a three-week
      period. The control SSc group (n=22) received similar management for their large
      joints leaving out their hands. The primary outcomes of this study were the
      Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder
      and Hand (DASH). Hand Anatomic Index (HAI), Cochin Hand Function (CHFT) and
      clinical characteristics were also assessed before starting the therapy and six
      months afterwards. RESULTS: Six months after the investigation period, only the
      group receiving hand physical therapy showed improvement in HAQ and DASH scores
      compared to the baseline values (p<0.05). The improvement in median HAQ value
      (25%-75% quartiles) reached the clinical meaningful rate (baseline 1.125/0.625
      1.625/ versus 0.75/0.25-1.5/ at six months). Visual analogue scales of global
      pain (p<0.01) and Raynaud's phenomenon (p<0.05) also had better results than at
      baseline. HAI, gripping strength and CHFT also showed some improvement, but did
      not reach the significance level of change by the end of the six-month
      observation period. CONCLUSIONS: The complex physical therapy caused favourable
      changes in both the HAQ and the DASH indicating that this particular program had
      some long-term beneficial effect on hand function in patients with SSc.

PMID- 28869419
TI  - Sub-10 nm patterning with DNA nanostructures: a short perspective.
AB  - DNA is the hereditary material that contains our unique genetic code. Since the
      first demonstration of two-dimensional (2D) nanopatterns by using designed DNA
      origami ~10 years ago, DNA has evolved into a novel technique for 2D and 3D
      nanopatterning. It is now being used as a template for the creation of sub-10 nm
      structures via either 'top-down' or 'bottom-up' approaches for various
      applications spanning from nanoelectronics, plasmonic sensing, and nanophotonics.
      This perspective starts with an histroric overview and discusses the current
      state-of-the-art in DNA nanolithography. Emphasis is put on the challenges and
      prospects of DNA nanolithography as the next generation nanomanufacturing
      technique.

PMID- 28869420
TI  - Improved ultrasound transducer positioning by fetal heart location estimation
      during Doppler based heart rate measurements.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Doppler ultrasound (US) is the most commonly applied method to measure
      the fetal heart rate (fHR). When the fetal heart is not properly located within
      the ultrasonic beam, fHR measurements often fail. As a consequence, clinical
      staff need to reposition the US transducer on the maternal abdomen, which can be
      a time consuming and tedious task. APPROACH: In this article, a method is
      presented to aid clinicians with the positioning of the US transducer to produce
      robust fHR measurements. A maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm is
      developed, which provides information on fetal heart location using the power of
      the Doppler signals received in the individual elements of a standard US
      transducer for fHR recordings. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated with
      simulations and in vitro experiments performed on a beating-heart setup. MAIN
      RESULTS: Both the experiments and the simulations show that the heart location
      can be accurately determined with an error of less than 7 mm within the
      measurement volume of the employed US transducer. SIGNIFICANCE: The results show
      that the developed algorithm can be used to provide accurate feedback on fetal
      heart location for improved positioning of the US transducer, which may lead to
      improved measurements of the fHR.

PMID- 28869421
TI  - A systemic view on the distribution of diet-derived methanol and hepatic acetone
      in mice.
AB  - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from breath can successfully be used to
      diagnose disease-specific pathological alterations in metabolism. However, the
      exact origin and underlying biochemical pathways that could be mapped to VOC
      signatures are mainly unknown. There is a knowledge gap regarding the
      contribution of tissues, organs, the gut microbiome, and exogenous factors to the
      'sum signal' from breath samples. Animal models for human disease such as mutant
      mice provide the possibility to reproduce genetic predisposition to disease,
      thereby allowing in-depth analysis of metabolic and biochemical functions. We
      hypothesized that breath VOCs can be traced back to origins and organ-specific
      metabolic functions by combining breath concentrations with systemic levels
      detected in different organs and biological media (breath, blood, feces and
      urine). For this we fed C57Bl/6N mice a grain-based chow or a purified low-fat
      diet, thereby modifying the emission of methanol in breath whereas acetone levels
      were unaffected. We then measured headspace concentrations of both VOCs in ex
      vivo samples of several biological media. Cecum content especially was identified
      as a likely source of systemic methanol, whereas the liver showed highest acetone
      concentrations. Our findings are a first step to the systemic mapping of VOC
      patterns to metabolic functions in mice because differences between VOCs could be
      traced to different sources in the body. As a future aim, different levels of so
      called omics technologies (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and breathomics)
      could be mapped to metabolic pathways in multiple tissues, deepening our
      understanding of VOC metabolism and possibly leading to early non-invasive
      biomarkers for human pathologies.

PMID- 28869422
TI  - Rolling and pitching oscillating foil propulsion in ground effect.
AB  - In this paper, we investigate the effect of operating near a solid boundary on
      the forces produced by harmonically oscillating thrust-generating foils. A
      rolling and pitching foil was towed in a freshwater tank in a series of
      experiments with varying kinematics. Hydrodynamic forces and torques were
      measured in the freestream and at varying distances from a solid boundary, and
      changes in mean lift and thrust were found when the foil approached the boundary.
      The magnitude of this ground effect exhibited a strong nonlinear dependence on
      the distance between the foil and the boundary. Significant effects were found
      within three chord lengths of the boundary, and ground effect can be induced at
      greater distances from the boundary by biasing the tip of the foil toward the
      boundary. Lift coefficients changed by as much as [Formula: see text] at the
      closest approach to the ground, with changes [Formula: see text] [Formula: see
      text] for all cases across Strouhal numbers ranging from [Formula: see text] to
      [Formula: see text], and nominal maximum angle of attack ranging from [Formula:
      see text] to [Formula: see text]. The ubiquity of the ground effect in high
      thrust kinematics suggests that the ground effect can provide a passive obstacle
      avoidance capability for foil propelled vehicles. By comparison with previous
      experimental work, we find that the ground effect experienced by a high-aspect
      ratio rolling and pitching foil is a fully three-dimensional phenomenon, as it is
      not accurately predicted when two-dimensional flow and/or two-dimensional
      kinematics are enforced. While two-dimensional foil kinematics are more easily
      modeled for numerical studies, three-dimensional foil kinematics may be more
      practical for real world implementation in underwater vehicles.

PMID- 28869423
TI  - Advanced analyses of physiological signals in the neonatal intensive care unit.
AB  - Management and monitoring of infants within the neonatal intensive care unit
      represents a unique challenge. It involves an array of life-threatening diseases,
      procedures with potentially lifelong impacts, co-morbidities associated with
      preterm birth and risk of infection from prolonged exposure to the hospital
      environment. With the integration of monitoring systems and increasing
      accessibility of high-resolution data, there is a growing interest in the utility
      of advanced data analyses in predictive monitoring and characterising patterns of
      disease. Such analyses may offer an opportunity to identify infants at high risk
      of certain conditions and to detect the onset of disease prior to manifestation
      of clinical signs. This allows caregivers more time to respond and mitigate any
      abnormal or potentially fatal changes. We review techniques for variability
      analysis as they have been or have the potential to be applied to neonatal
      intensive care, the disease conditions in which they have been tested, and
      technical as well as clinical challenges relevant to their application.

PMID- 28869424
TI  - Repair of the calvarial defect in goat model using magnesium-doped porous
      hydroxyapatite combined with recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2.
AB  - Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a representative bone repairing biomaterial for its
      similar composition to human bones and teeth. However, pure HA is limited in
      application for some unwanted characteristic, such as it is brickle and weakness
      in degradation. In this study, we modified HA by doping magnesium (Mg) to the
      material and studied its property in vitro. Besides, we also evaluated the
      calvarial defect repair effect using MgHA combined with rhBMP-2 in goat model.
      According to our outcomes, HA composited Mg made the scaffold smooth and the pore
      regular. In vitro study, Mg could increase the Ca releasing, which may reflect a
      faster degradation property modified by Mg. And then, MgHA improved the cell
      viability and proliferation. Furthermore, MgHA could increase the expression of
      ALP, Collagen I and VEGF protein compared with pure HA (p<0.5, respectively). In
      the vivo study, MgHA showed a better bone defect healing effect in computed
      tomography (CT) evaluation compared with HA (p<0.05), but it was inferior to the
      MgHA/rhBMP-2 (p<0.05). Besides, in the histological analysis, MgHA/rhBMP-2 showed
      the most effective bone formation outcome (p<0.05), and the MgHA group was
      significant better than the pure HA group on osteogenesis (p<0.05). Furthermore,
      Collagen I and VEGF mRNA expression at 12 week in MgHA/rhBMP-2 group were also
      significat higher than other two groups. In conclusion, Mg had effects on bone
      formation and angiogenesis, and MgHA/rhBMP-2 had improved the bone defect repair
      effect. It is worthy of being recommended to bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28869425
TI  - Effects of low oxygen dead space ventilation and breath-holding test in
      evaluating cerebrovascular reactivity: A comparative observation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the application prospect of low oxygen dead
      space ventilation (LODSV) in evaluating vasomotor reactivity (VMR) by comparison
      between LODSV and breath-holding test (BHT). METHODS: Outpatient or inpatient
      patients who underwent transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) were enrolled into
      this study. These patients successively underwent BHT and LODSV. The cooperation
      degree, tolerance conditions and adverse reactions in patients were recorded, and
      VMR was calculated, compared and analyzed. RESULTS: Patients had poor cooperation
      during BHT. Except for compensatory tachypnea after BHT, patients basically had
      no adverse reaction. The main manifestations of patients undergoing LODSV were
      deepened breathing and accelerated frequency in the end of the ventilation, and
      increased heart rate and a slight decline in pulse oxygen that rapidly recovered
      after ventilation. The increase rate of blood flow velocity in patients
      undergoing LODSV was significantly higher than in BHT (P<0.001), and its
      calculated VMR value was approximately 15% higher than BHT (P<0.001). BHT
      revealed a monophasic curve that slightly descends and rapidly increases, and
      LODSV revealed a curve that descends for a short time and slowly increases with a
      platform. CONCLUSION: LODSV can effectively eliminate the affect of poor
      cooperation in patients, and avoid intolerance caused by hypoxia. Hence, VMR
      value is more accurate than that determined by BHT; and this can reflect the
      maximum reaction ability of the blood vessels. Therefore, this method has higher
      clinical application value.

PMID- 28869426
TI  - EEG adaptive noise cancellation using information theoretic approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this paper, an adaptive method based on error entropy criterion is
      presented in order to eliminate noise from Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals.
      METHOD: Conventionally, the Mean-Squared Error (MSE) criterion is the dominant
      criterion deployed in the adaptive filters for this purpose. By deploying MSE,
      only second-order moment of the error distribution is optimized, which is not
      adequate for the noisy EEG signal in which the contaminating noises are typically
      non-Gaussian. By minimizing error entropy, all moments of the error distribution
      are minimized; hence, using the Minimum Error Entropy (MEE) algorithm instead of
      MSE-based adaptive algorithms will improve the performance of noise elimination.
      RESULTS: Simulation results indicate that the proposed method has a better
      performance compared to conventional MSE-based algorithm in terms of signal to
      noise ratio and steady state error.

PMID- 28869427
TI  - Study on the corrosion resistance and anti-infection of modified magnesium alloy.
AB  - In this paper, a low-cost and multifunctional hydroxyapatite (HA)/pefloxacin
      (PFLX) drug eluting layer is coated on magnesium (Mg) alloy through a simple
      hydrothermal and dip process. The drug PFLX could provide effective prevention
      for bone infection and inflammation due to its broad-spectrum antibacterial
      property. And HA would promote the growth of new bone and further improve the
      biocompatibility of implants. Besides, both PFLX and HA exhibits excellent
      corrosion protection for Mg alloy substrate. This coating is of great value for
      improving the application of Mg alloy as biomaterials.

PMID- 28869428
TI  - Preliminary studies of PVA/PVP blends incorporated with HAp and beta-TCP bone
      ceramic as template for hard tissue engineering.
AB  - Polyvinylalcohol (PVA) and Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) blend incorporated with
      hydroxyapatite (HAp) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) is electrospun as
      nanofibrous composite scaffolds to act as suitable template for bone tissue
      engineering. Microscopic and spectroscopic characterizations confirm uniform
      integration of the crystalline calcium phosphate ceramics in the scaffolds. PVA
      PVP blends are usually amorphous in nature and addition of phosphate ceramic
      particles specifically HAp elevates its crystalline behavior which is
      substantiated by XRD details. Further incorporation of ceramics is confirmed
      using FT-IR as characteristic PO43- groups for HAp and beta-TCP were observed in
      the distinguished composites. Single glass transition temperature is observed for
      pure and composite blends indicating the formation of highly miscible blends.
      Also, addition of these ceramics augments the thermal stability of the blend
      scaffolds. Biocompatibility of the prepared (PVA: PVP)-HAp and (PVA: PVP)-TCP
      scaffolds is assessed using MG-63 Osteoblast cell lines in the time interval of
      1st, 4th and 7th day. The cell viability percentage for (PVA: PVP)-HAp is high
      compared to beta-TCP added blend composites, reinforcing the fact that scaffolds
      with good mechanical strength and enhanced porosity supports better cell
      adhesion.

PMID- 28869429
TI  - Testing of features for fatigue detection in EOG.
AB  - The article deals with the testing of features for fatigue detection in
      electrooculography (EOG) records. An optimal methodology for EOG signal
      acquisition is described; the Biopac data acquisition system was used. EOG
      signals were being recorded while 10 volunteers were watching prepared scenes.
      Three scenes were created for this purpose - a rotating ball, a video of driving
      a car, and a cross. Recorded EOG signals were processed and 20 features were
      extracted. The features involved blinks, slow eye movement (SEM), rapid eye
      movement (REM), eye instability, magnitude, and periodicity. These features were
      statistically tested and discussed in terms of fatigue detection ability. Some of
      the features were compared with published results. Finally, the best features -
      fatigue indicators - were selected.

PMID- 28869430
TI  - Increased intrinsic stiffness and mineralization in femurs of adult rats after
      high intensity treadmill running training.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity plays a tremendous role in determining bone
      mechanical behavior, which is superimposed to gravidity. OBJECTIVE: Compare the
      geometric and material responses of the rat femur to a high intensity treadmill
      running training of a relatively short duration, as assessed by 3-point
      mechanical test. METHODS: Mature male rats (180.0 +/- 30 g) were assigned (7
      rats/group) to no exercise (NE) or treadmill exercise (EX). After a
      preconditioning period, the running speed was set at 45 cm.seg-1 during 2 wks,
      frequency 5 d/wk, 2-hour sessions/day. Body weight and weight of the crural
      quadriceps were registered at euthanasia. The right femur was mechanically tested
      through 3-point bending. The left femur was ashed to estimate bone mineral
      content. Geometric and material bone properties were estimated directly or
      calculated by appropriate equations. RESULTS: 1) Final body weight was 14%
      reduced in EX rats, while the crural quadriceps was 47% increased. Yield and
      fracture loads, and structural stiffness were significantly higher in the EX
      rats, as were the apparent elastic modulus, the bone mineral content and the
      degree of mineralization. Geometric properties were not affected. CONCLUSIONS:
      High intensity treadmill running training increases bone strength and stiffness
      by increasing material stiffness and mineralization, without affecting geometric
      bone parameters.

PMID- 28869431
TI  - A method to investigate the biomechanical alterations in Perthes' disease by hip
      joint contact modeling.
AB  - Perthes' disease is a destructive hip joint disorder characterized by
      malformation of the femoral head in young children. While the morphological
      changes have been widely studied, the biomechanical effects of these changes
      still need to be further elucidated. The objective of this study was to develop a
      method to investigate the biomechanical alterations in Perthes' disease by finite
      element (FE) contact modeling using MRI. The MRI data of a unilateral Perthes'
      case was obtained to develop the three-dimensional FE model of the hip joint. The
      stress and contact pressure patterns in the unaffected hip were well distributed.
      Elevated concentrations of stress and contact pressure were found in the Perthes'
      hip. The highest femoral cartilage von Mises stress 3.9 MPa and contact pressure
      5.3 MPa were found in the Perthes' hip, whereas 2.4 MPa and 4.9 MPa in the
      healthy hip, respectively. The healthy bone in the femoral head of the Perthes'
      hip carries additional loads as indicated by the increase of stress levels around
      the necrotic-healthy bone interface. Identifying the biomechanical changes, such
      as the location of stress and contact pressure concentrations, is a prerequisite
      for the preoperative planning to obtain stress relief for the highly stressed
      areas in the malformed hip. This single-patient study demonstrated that the
      biomechanical alterations in Perthes' disease can be evaluated individually by
      patient-specific finite element contact modeling using MRI. A multi-patient study
      is required to test the strength of the proposed method as a pre-surgery planning
      tool.

PMID- 28869432
TI  - Validation of a computational knee joint model using an alignment method for the
      knee laxity test and computed tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Computational models have been identified as efficient techniques in
      the clinical decision-making process. However, computational model was validated
      using published data in most previous studies, and the kinematic validation of
      such models still remains a challenge. Recently, studies using medical imaging
      have provided a more accurate visualization of knee joint kinematics. OBJECTIVE:
      The purpose of the present study was to perform kinematic validation for the
      subject-specific computational knee joint model by comparison with subject's
      medical imaging under identical laxity condition. METHODS: The laxity test was
      applied to the anterior-posterior drawer under 90 degrees  flexion and the varus
      valgus under 20 degrees  flexion with a series of stress radiographs, a Telos
      device, and computed tomography. The loading condition in the computational
      subject-specific knee joint model was identical to the laxity test condition in
      the medical image. RESULTS: Our computational model showed knee laxity kinematic
      trends that were consistent with the computed tomography images, except for
      negligible differences because of the indirect application of the subject's in
      vivo material properties. CONCLUSIONS: Medical imaging based on computed
      tomography with the laxity test allowed us to measure not only the precise
      translation but also the rotation of the knee joint. This methodology will be
      beneficial in the validation of laxity tests for subject- or patient-specific
      computational models.

PMID- 28869433
TI  - Treatment techniques on biocompatible titanium to modify the surface wetting
      properties.
AB  - The physical properties of biocompatible titanium surfaces were modified using
      different techniques of surface treatment. Particularly the measurements of
      roughness and wetting ability were controlled using six different techniques:
      polishing, sandblasting, acid attack, laser ablation, ion implantation and
      nanoparticle deposition. The titanium surface wetting can be modified drastically
      depending on the used treatment to enhance the hydrophilic or the hydrophobic
      behaviour of the metallic biocompatible surface. The study demonstrates that a
      linear relation between roughness and contact angle occurs. Possible applications
      to permanent or removable prosthesis titanium based are presented and discussed.

PMID- 28869434
TI  - Effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation and Kinesio Taping applications
      in children with cerebral palsy on postural control and sitting balance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT), neuromuscular electrical
      stimulation (NMES), and Kinesio Taping (KT) applications are separately used to
      improve postural control and sitting balance in children with cerebral palsy
      (CP). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to examine the combined effect of NDT,
      NMES and KT applications on postural control and sitting balance in children with
      CP. METHODS: Forty five children, in 3 groups, between the ages 5-12 years were
      included in the study. Group 1 received NDT; group 2 received NDT + NMES; and the
      group 3 received NDT + NMES + KT for 6 weeks. Sitting function evaluated by the
      sitting section of the gross motor function measure (GMFM), and postural control
      assessed with the seated postural control measurement (SPCM). RESULTS: Seating
      section of GMFM was improved significantly in all the groups; however, increases
      in the group 3 were higher than groups 1 and 2 (p= 0.001). While significant
      differences were observed in all groups in the SPCM posture (p< 0.001), function
      (p< 0.001), and the total scores (p< 0.001); the change in the third group was
      higher according to the comparison of the three groups within each other.
      CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of the NMES, and KT additionally to NDT improve the
      sitting posture, postural control, seating function, and gross motor function in
      children with CP.

PMID- 28869435
TI  - In vivo effects of limb movement on nerve stretch, strain, and tension: A
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKROUND: The mechanical behavior of the peripheral nervous system under
      elongation and tension has not been adequately established in vivo. OBJECTIVE:
      The purpose of this review is to investigate the mechanical behavior of the
      peripheral nervous system in vivo. METHODS: In vivo studies which evaluated the
      effects of limb movement and neurodynamic tests on peripheral nerve biomechanics
      were systematically searched in PubMed (Medline), the Cochrane Database, CINAHL,
      PEDro, Embase and Web of Science. Studies fulfilling the search criteria were
      assessed for methodological quality with a modified version of the Down & Blacks
      scale by two reviewers. RESULTS: This review includes the results of 22 studies,
      of which 15 examined limb movement influencing the median nerve, four the sciatic
      nerve, two the tibial nerve; and one each the ulnar and peroneal nerves
      respectively. Substantial nerve longitudinal and transverse excursion and changes
      in diameter were reported. Despite this, increased nerve strain was not a major
      finding. CONCLUSION: The heterogeneity of included studies, including wide
      variety of nerves tested, measurement location and joint position prevented
      comparisons between studies and also amalgamation of data. Limb movement induces
      complex biomechanical effects of which nerve elongation plays only a minor role.

PMID- 28869436
TI  - Design and analysis of a novel fall prevention device for lower limbs
      rehabilitation robot.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most stroke survivors are suffering from physical motor impairments
      and confronting with the risk of falls, and well trunk stability is essential for
      balance during daily functional activities. OBJECTIVES: Current fall prevention
      devices have various limits to the efficient recovery of balance function of the
      trunk. To provide hemiplegic patients after stroke with the retraining of trunk
      position sense and a safety environment, a novel fall prevention device is
      proposed. METHODS: Firstly, the structure of the device is introduced and this
      work is a first effort towards restoring trunk balance function through
      retraining of trunk position sense. Secondly, the kinematic and static model of
      the device are developed. Lastly, kinematic and static analysis are carried out
      to study the motion characteristics, and a contrast experiment was derived to
      show the effectiveness of robot. RESULTS: No obvious difference in balance
      ability between two groups prior treatment (P> 0.05). Fugl-Meyer assessment in
      all the cases were improved in different extent (P< 0.05). The robot group had
      significantly higher Fugl-Meyer scores after treatment than the control group (P<
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the fall prevention device has good
      kinematic dexterity within the prescribed workspace and markedly improves balance
      function.

PMID- 28869437
TI  - A 4-miRNAs signature predicts survival in glioblastoma multiforme patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although O(6)-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter
      methylation status is an important marker for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM),
      there is considerable variability in the clinical outcome of patients with
      similar methylation profles. OBJECTIVE: We examined whether a MicroRNA (miRNA)
      signature can be identified for predicting clinical outcomes and helping in
      treatment decisions. METHODS: The differentially expressed miRNAs were evaluated
      in 6 pairs of short- (? 450 days) and long-term survivors (> 450 days) by using
      microarray. Real time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) was applied to further verify
      screened miRNAs with a greater number of samples (n= 48). Meanwhile, functional
      interpretation of miRNA profile was carried out based on miRNA-target databases.
      In addition, MGMT promoter methylation status was tested by means of
      pyrosequencing (PSQ) testing. RESULTS: Six miRNAs were upregulated in the long
      term survival group (fold change ? 2.0, P< 0.05). The further verification by qRT
      PCR indicated that the increase in let-7g-5p, miR-139-5p, miR-17-5p and miR-9-3p
      level in long-term survivors was statistically significant. Kaplan-Meier survival
      analysis showed that high expression of a prognostic 4-miRNA signature was
      significantly associated with good patient survival (p= 0.0012). The signature
      regulated signaling pathways including Calcium, MAPK, ErbB, mTOR and cell cycle
      involved in carcinogenesis from glial progenitor cell to primary GBM.
      CONCLUSIONS: The 4-miRNA signature was identified as an independent prognostic
      biomarker that identified patients who have a favorable outcome.

PMID- 28869439
TI  - Epithelial-mesenchymal transition phenotypes of circulating tumor cells correlate
      with the clinical stages and cancer metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a crucial role in
      circulating tumor cells (CTCs) dissemination and cancer metastasis. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the EMT phenotypes of CTCs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients
      and the clinical utility in the early diagnosis of HCC metastasis and
      progression. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the count and EMT
      classification of CTCs detected by the CanPatrol(r) platform in 195 HCC patients.
      The clinical relevance with other pathological features was statistically
      evaluated. RESULTS: CTCs were detected in 95% of the 195 HCC patients with a
      range of 0-86 CTCs. Total CTCs numbers were correlated with BCLC stages,
      metastasis and serum AFP levels. The AUC of the ROC curve was 0.861 (95% CI:
      0.782-0.940) in discriminating metastatic HCC patients with non-metastatic
      patients. Epithelial, hybrid and mesenchymal CTCs were found in about 53%, 83%
      and 57% patients, respectively. The proportion of hybrid and mesenchymal CTCs was
      associated with ages, BCLC stages, metastasis and AFP levels. Besides, recurrent
      HCC patients presented higher CTCs count and increased hybrid and mesenchymal
      CTCs. CONCLUSIONS: CTCs count and EMT classification are correlated with clinical
      stages and metastasis of HCC, suggesting that they may be potential markers for
      the early diagnosis of HCC metastasis and progression.

PMID- 28869438
TI  - Decreased expression of MUC1 induces apoptosis and inhibits migration in
      pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells via regulation of Slug pathway.
AB  - MUC1, a membrane tethered mucin glycoprotein, is overexpressed in > 60% of human
      pancreatic cancers (PCs), and is associated with poor prognosis and enhanced
      metastasis. Here, we report the effect of silencing MUC1 expression on the
      growth, migration and invasive ability of pancreatic cancer cells, and explored
      its mechanisms. We observed that siRNA mediated suppression of the MUC1
      expression significantly reduced invasive and migrative capability and induced
      apoptosis of the pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells. We found that Slug was inhibited
      in the MUC1 siRNA transfected PANC-1 cells (MUC1 siRNA/PANC-1 cells). Expression
      of PUMA and E-cadherin was increased in the MUC1 siRNA/PANC-1 cells. PANC-1 cells
      overexpressing full long Slug gene (when transfected with Slug cDNA plasmid)
      significantly inhibited PUMA and E-cadherin expression in the MUC1 siRNA/PANC-1
      cells. Silencing PUMA expression inhibited apoptosis in the MUC1 siRNA
      transfected PANC-1 cells (MUC1 siRNA/PANC-1 cells). Silencing E-cadherin
      expression restored the invasion and migration ability in the MUC1 siRNA/PANC-1
      cells. We therefore concluded that silencing MUC1 expression inhibited migration
      and invasion, and induced apoptosis of PANC-1 cells via downregulation of Slug
      and upregulation of Slug dependent PUMA and E-cadherin expression. MUC1 could
      serve as a potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28869440
TI  - Downregulation of Piwil3 suppresses cell proliferation, migration and invasion in
      gastric cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide.
      Recent studies reported that Piwil3 was overexpressed in various cancers,
      including gastric cancer (GC). This study was intended to investigate its
      function and mechanism in GC progress. METHODS: Quantitative real time PCR(RT
      PCR) and western blotting assays were utilized to measure mRNA and protein
      expression levels, respectively. SiRNA transfection was performed to suppress the
      expression of Piwil3. CCK-8 assay, cell invasion and migration assays were used
      to determine the cell proliferative, cell invasive and migratory ability.
      RESULTS: The expression of Piwil3 was significantly increased in GC tissues
      compared with matched normal tissues. The specific siRNA significantly inhibited
      the protein and mRNA expressions of Piwil3, and effectively inhibited the
      proliferation and induced G0/G1 phase arrest in GC cells. Downregulation of
      Piwil3 significantly suppressed the migration and invasion of GC cells. Moreover,
      the downregulation of Piwil3 also significantly suppressed the tumor volumes in
      nude mice. Mechanism investigation showed that the downregulation of Piwil3
      significantly decreased the mRNA and protein expressions of metastasis-related
      genes, including RhoC, MTA1, MMP2 and MMP9, and also modulated the
      phosphorylation levels of JAK2 and STAT3 but not their protein levels.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that overexpression of Piwil3 promotes the
      proliferation, migration and invasion of GC cells partially through JAK2/STAT3
      signal pathway.

PMID- 28869441
TI  - Improvement of cytotoxicity of autologous CIKs from patients with breast cancer
      to MCF-7 cells by suppressed PD-1 expression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the improvement of cytotoxicity of autologous CIKs from
      patients with breast cancer to MCF-7 cells by suppressed PD-1 expression.
      METHODS: The Lentiviral Vector/PD-1 carrying the gene that can suppressed PD-1
      was transferred to CIK cells from patients with breast cancer to inhibit PD-1
      expression. The PD-1 protein were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. The
      positive PD-1 of CIKs and PD-L1 of MCF-7 cells were detected by FCM, and
      cytotoxicity of CIKs to MCF-7 was assayed by CCK-8. RESULTS: The PD-1 positive
      CIKs with Lentiviral Vector/PD-1 transferred from patients with breast cancer
      were 16.02%, 14.36% and 14.64% at 14th, 21st and 28th day, obviously inhibited as
      compared to 50.54%, 74.50% and 73.36% in CIKs without transinfection (P< 0.05);
      the Lentiviral Vector/PD-1 decreased the PD-1 mRNA levels in CIK cells, and
      Lentiviral Vector/PD-1-transferred CIKs had lower PD-1 expression; CCK-8
      detection showed that at 14th day, the cytotoxicity rates of CIKs with blank
      plasmids and those with PD-1 transfection to MCF-7 cells were 58.78% and 68.14%,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: MCF-7 cells have a strong PD-L1 expression at its
      surface, and inhibition of PD-1 expression can improve the cytotoxicity of CIK
      cells.

PMID- 28869442
TI  - Alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein plasma level decrease correlates with age in patients
      with myelodysplastic syndromes.
AB  - BACKGOUND: It has been indicated in plasma proteomic studies on different
      myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) cohorts that alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein could be a
      promising MDS biomarker candidate. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this work was to
      estimate alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (AHSG) plasma levels and its biomarker value in
      the low- and high-risk subgroups of MDS patients. METHODS: The level of AHSG was
      estimated for 115 plasma samples using ELISA. RESULTS: The AHSG plasma level was
      found to be decreased significantly (p= 2.59 * 10-7) in MDS patients (515 +/- 58
      MUg/ml) when compared to healthy controls (579 +/- 64 MUg/ml). Pearson and
      Spearman correlation analyses showed that age is the principal factor affecting
      the AHSG plasma level, rather than risk/diagnosis in MDS. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      work we demonstrate that although the total plasma level of AHSG is decreased in
      myelodysplastic syndrome patients, in particular in advanced MDS, that decrease
      correlates more strongly with age than with diagnosis within our studied cohort.
      Thus, according to the AHSG data gathered so far, AHSG total plasma level does
      not seem to be a suitable MDS biomarker, but its particular proteoforms should be
      considered for the next steps in MDS research.

PMID- 28869443
TI  - Pregnancy-associated gigantomastia recurrence and ectopic breast after reduction
      mammaplasty: A case report.
AB  - It has been reported that majority of cases of gigantomastia, also known as
      breast hypertrophy and macromastia, occur during either pregnancy or puberty.
      Gigantomastia is a rare disorder that does not have a clear etiology or well
      established risk factors. We present a 26-year-old female patient who appeared to
      have pregnancy-associated gigantomastia recurrence, large accessory breast and,
      ectopic breast tissue at external genital three years after bilateral breast
      reduction surgery. The patient successively underwent bilateral mastectomy and
      vulvar tumor resection. Breast hypertrophy and progenital ectopic breast were
      pathologically confirmed. This the first case of gigantomastia reported
      worldwide.

PMID- 28869444
TI  - Plasma TuM2-PK correlates with tumor size, CRP and CA 15-3 in metastatic breast
      carcinomas; short versus long term follow up study of the Egyptian breast cancer
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The key regulator of tumor metabolome is the glycolytic isoenzyme M2
      PK which favors the generation of nucleic acid via glutaminolysis as hypoxic
      adaptive mechanism in the tumor cells. AIM: The study aimed to evaluate the
      prognostic role of M2-PK, CRP, and CA 15-3 in preoperative and metastatic breast
      carcinomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 70 females; 15 controls, 33
      preoperative primary breast carcinomas clinically metastasis free, and 22
      clinically diagnosed metastatic breast carcinomas. M2-PK and CA 15-3 were
      detected by ELISA. CRP was quantified using the CRP LATEX kit. RESULTS: TuM2-PK
      significantly increased in metastatic and preoperative groups when compared to
      controls (p= 0.049, p= 0.001); respectively. Both CRP and CA 15-3 were
      significantly increased in metastatic than the preoperative group (p= 0.002). CA
      15-3 was significantly increased in both groups when compared to controls (p=
      0.016; p< 0.001; respectively). TuM2-PK level significantly related to tumor size
      in metastatic group (p= 0.006) and with menstruation status (p= 0.039), and liver
      metastasis (p= 0.036) in preoperative group. TuM2-PK significantly correlated
      with CRP (r= 0.793, p= 0.004), and CA 15-3 (r= 0.568, p= 0.006) in the metastatic
      group.Metastatic group with TuM2-PK ? 15 U/ml had significantly higher survival
      rate than those with > 15 U/ml (chi2= 13.841, p< 0.001) within 3.3-4.2 but not
      after 10-20 years follow up period. Metastasis to bone and lymph nodes
      significantly increased in the metastatic than the preoperative group (p= 0.002,
      p= 0.013; respectively). Within 3.3-4.2 years, CA15.3 has the highest prognostic
      performance in metastatic group while both TuM2-PK and CRP have same specificity.
      On the other hand, TuM2-PK has the highest prognostic performance in preoperative
      group. After 20 years follow up period, there was neither significant difference
      in the performance of the three markers in predicting mortality in metastatic and
      preoperative groups nor in predicting metastasis in preoperative group.
      CONCLUSION: Current results document for the first time, a cross-talk between
      TuM2-PK and each of CRP and CA 15-3 in metastatic breast cancer.

PMID- 28869445
TI  - Clinical significance of serum 14-3-3 beta in patients with hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The 14-3-3 family of conserved regulatory proteins comprises the
      isoforms beta (beta), gamma (gamma), zeta (zeta), sigma (epsilon), tau (eta), and
      delta (sigma), which are overexpressed and associated with a high risk of
      metastasis and poor survival in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present
      study, we investigated whether serum 14-3-3 isoforms are related to HCC
      progression and patient survival. METHODS: Serum samples from 63 HCC patients who
      underwent surgical reSection 104 HCC patients who received non-surgical anti-HCC
      treatments, 50 patients with liver cirrhosis alone, 45 patients with chronic
      hepatitis alone, and 50 healthy subjects were collected between January 2006 and
      December 2010. Serum levels of 14-3-3 (beta, epsilon, gamma, sigma, and zeta)
      isoforms were measured by ELISA. The correlation between 14-3-3 (beta and sigma)
      isoforms and clinicopathological factors was examined by logistic regression
      analysis. The feasibility of serum 14-3-3 beta for discriminating HCC patients
      was assessed by ROC curve analysis. Patient survival analyses were performed by
      Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox regression models. RESULTS: Serum levels of 14-3-3
      (beta and sigma) were significantly higher in HCC patients than in those with
      liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, and healthy subjects (p< 0.05). There was no
      difference in the serum levels of 14-3-3 epsilon, gamma, and zeta between HCC and
      the other groups (p> 0.05). High levels of serum 14-3-3 beta were associated with
      vascular invasion (p= 0.016), TNM stage (p= 0.012), BCLC stage (p= 0.01), and
      early recurrence (p= 0.013). Patients with high levels of serum 14-3-3 beta had a
      poor prognosis. There was no significant association between 14-3-3 sigma levels
      and clinicopathological parameters. A significant independent association between
      serum 14-3-3 beta and HCC was observed by univariate and multivariate analysis
      (p< 0.05). Serum 14-3-3 beta could effectively discriminate HCC patients at a cut
      off point of 18.7 ng/mL, with 91.4% sensitivity and 75.3% specificity.
      CONCLUSIONS: Serum 14-3-3 beta is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of
      early-stage HCC, and high levels of serum 14-3-3 beta were associated with
      metastasis and poor prognosis in HCC.

PMID- 28869446
TI  - bFGF in tumor tissue independently prognosticates disease outcome of a natural
      course of invasive breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a potent angiogenic and
      mitogenic factor that has been functionally predisposed to promote tumorigenesis,
      while literature data also associate bFGF with a favorable outcome of breast
      cancer. OBJECTIVE: In order to help resolve such controversy, this study set out
      to investigate the role of bFGF in breast cancer for the first time by use of the
      node-negative patient group with smaller tumors and without any systemic adjuvant
      therapy. This has allowed an increased homogeneity of the group and a far more
      reliable interpretation of results. METHODS: The study included 133 node-negative
      breast cancer patients with 33 distant metastasis events. bFGF levels were
      determined by ELISA in primary tumor tissue homogenates. RESULTS: bFGF in primary
      tumor tissue associated with favorable breast cancer outcome and its levels
      significantly and positively correlated with ER levels. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained
      results are relevant for the future prognostic research aimed at surpassing the
      currently achievable prognostic accuracies which are by far inadequate to allow
      reliable therapeutic decision making in breast cancer.

PMID- 28869447
TI  - High concentration of miR-133 is a useful marker for the diagnosis of lymphoma-
      associated hemophagocytic syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphoma associated hemophagocytic syndrome (LAHS) is one of the
      major adult secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). Early diagnosis
      and treatment contribute to improved outcome. No enlarge lymph nodes can often
      delay the diagnosis of underlying lymphoma. OBJECTIVE: To find out criteria
      distinguishing LAHS from HLH induced by benign diseases. METHODS: clinical
      characteristic and laboratory feature of 31 patients with HLH (10 benign disease
      associated HLH and 21 LAHS) were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: No
      significantly differences were observed in the levels of LDH, IL-6, IL-10, TNF
      alpha; however, the level of CRP (C reactive protein) and the mean level of sIL-R
      (soluble interleukin-2 receptor) were higher in patients with LAHS than those
      with benign disease associated disease associated HLH while ferritin levels were
      higher in benign disease associated HLH than in LAHS. Consequently, the serum sIL
      2R/ferritin ratio of patients with LAHS was markedly higher than that of patients
      with benign disease associated HLH (0.33 +/- 0.23 vs 5.82 +/- 3.26, P= 0.0001).
      In addition, we found out that the mean level of miR-133 (microRNA-133) was
      significant higher in LAHS than in benign disease associated HLH (18.83 +/- 10.44
      vs 5.82 +/- 3.26, P? 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Serum miR-133 is a new very useful
      marker for diagnosing of LAHS, but it need further confirmation by further
      clinical studies.

PMID- 28869448
TI  - Large intergenic non-coding RNA-ROR as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis
      and dynamic monitoring of breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent study has revealed that large intergenic non-coding RNA-ROR
      (linc-ROR) is aberrantly expressed in a number of cancers including breast
      cancer. However, whether circulating linc-ROR in plasma could be used for breast
      cancer diagnosis and dynamic monitoring is not clear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of
      this study is to determine if plasma linc-ROR could be applied as a biomarker for
      the diagnosis and dynamic monitoring of breast cancer. METHODS: We tested the
      expression levels of linc-ROR in 24 pairs of tissue samples and 96 plasma samples
      from breast cancer patients by quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction
      (qRT-PCR), and analyzed the correlation between plasma linc-ROR levels and
      clinico-pathological characteristics. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curve was used to assess the diagnostic power of plasma linc-ROR,
      carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA)153 for breast
      cancer. Furthermore, we explored the monitoring values of plasma linc-ROR for
      breast cancer by analyzing the preoperative and postoperative plasma linc-ROR
      levels of the same patients. RESULTS: The expression levels of linc-ROR were
      significantly higher in breast cancer tissues and plasma than the levels in the
      control (P< 0.05). The linc-ROR expression levels in plasma were correlated with
      lymph node metastasis (P< 0.05), estrogen receptor (ER) (P< 0.05) and
      progesterone receptor (PR) (P< 0.05). The area under the ROC curve of plasma linc
      ROR was 0.758 (sensitivity 80.0%; specificity 73.3%), which was higher than CEA
      and CA153 values from the same patients obtained. Combination of the linc-ROR
      with the conventional biomarkers might produce better diagnostic ability.
      Additionally, the linc-ROR expression levels of plasma in postoperative patients
      were lower than those in preoperative patients (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Overexpressed linc-ROR may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and dynamic
      monitoring of breast cancer.

PMID- 28869449
TI  - Propofol-induced neurotoxicity in hESCs involved in activation of miR-206/PUMA
      signal pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Studies in developing animals have demonstrated that
      when anesthetic agents, such as propofol, are early administered in life, it can
      lead to neuronal cell death and learning disabilities. However, the mechanisms
      causing these effects remains unknown. A recent report found that propofol could
      significantly upregulat miR-206 expression in the human ASCs. miR-206 could also
      induce apoptosis in human malignant cancers. Therefore, in this study, we
      hypothesized that propofol induces neurotoxicity in human embryonic stem cells
      (hESCs). METHODS: hESCs were exposed to propofol (50 MUM) for 6 hr and cell death
      was assessed using TUNEL staining, and cleaved caspase-3 expression. miR-206 was
      knocked down using antagomir. PUMA was knocked down using a small interfering
      RNA. microRNA-206 (miR-206) expression was assessed using quantitative reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). PUMA protein expression was
      detected using western blot assay. RESULTS: hESCs exposed to propofol showed a
      significant increase in TUNEL positive cells and cleaved caspase-3 expression,
      followed by the upregulation of miR-206 and PUMA expression. Targeting PUMA
      inhibits propofol-induced cell apoptosis; miR-206 knockdown decreased propofol
      induced cell apoptosis, cleaved caspase-3 and PUMA expression. CONCLUSIONS:
      Propofol induce s cell death in hESC-derived neurons via activation of miR
      206/PUMA signal pathway.

PMID- 28869450
TI  - IDH1 status is significantly different between high-grade thalamic and
      superficial gliomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While major progress has been made in diagnosis and treatment of
      gliomas based on molecules, molecular features of thalamic glioma have rarely
      been reported till now. OBJECTIVE: IDH1 mutation is important for prognosis of
      gliomas and represents a distinctive category of glioma. We intended to survey
      specific molecular abnormalities in high-grade thalamic gliomas (WHO III-IV).
      METHODS: We collected data of 50 and 93 newly diagnosed high-grade thalamic and
      superficial glioma patients respectively and conducted a comparative analysis of
      molecular characteristics between them. We analyzed expressions of molecules as
      follow: IDH1/2, P53, Ki-67, ATRX, PTEN, MMP9 and MGMT by Immunohistochemistry
      (IHC). Direct gene sequencing was performed to test the IDH1(R 132H) mutation.
      RESULTS: We found a significant difference of IDH1 mutation between those high
      grade gliomas, with 92% (46/50) of the thalamic tumors and 71% (66/93) of the
      superficial gliomas showing IDH1 wild-type (p= 0.004). It also showed that IDH1
      mutation in superficial glioblastomas 18.6% (13/70) occurred more than thalamic
      glioblastomas 2.6% (1/39) (p= 0.017). As to high-grade superficial gliomas, there
      were 26 patients with IDH1 mutation, which contained 7, 13, and 6 high, moderate
      and low Ki-67 expression gliomas, respectively. The IDH1 wild-type group (62
      patients), was composed of 29, 30, and 3 high, moderate and low Ki-67 expression
      gliomas, respectively. There was a significant distinction between the IDH1
      mutation and Ki-67 expressions (p= 0.024). We also noted that the occurrence of
      low Ki-67 expressions 23.1% (6/26) in IDH1 mutation group was outnumbered than
      IDH1 wild-type group 4.8% (3/62) (p= 0.018). In addition, we found PTEN negative
      correlated with MMP9 negative in thalamic high-grade gliomas, whereas no such
      difference was found in superficial gliomas (p= 0.016). CONCLUSION: The rare
      occurrence of IDH1 mutant high-grade thalamic gliomas strongly suggested that the
      high-grade thalamic glioma is another distinct tumor entity as compared to the
      high-grade superficial gliomas.

PMID- 28869451
TI  - Spalt-like transcription factor 4 as a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker
      of colorectal cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate the role of spalt-like transcription
      factor 4 (SALL4) in the diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC).
      METHODS: Between May 2008 and January 2010, 135 patients with CRC were recruited
      and subsequently assigned into the case group of the study. Additionally, 140
      healthy individuals under identical conditions were selected as the control
      group. Venous blood was collected from all subjects. High expression of SALL4 was
      detected by immunohistochemistry, and SALL4 serum levels were detected using
      ELISA. A 5-year follow-up was conducted. A Kaplan-Meier curve was applied for
      analysis of survival rates, and a log-rank was used for univariate analysis.
      RESULTS: The case group exhibited largely positive expression levels of SALL4.
      Levels of SALL4 serum were much higher than those in the control group. The AUC
      value of CRC detected by serum SALL4 was 0.916 (95% CI was 0.881-0.951), which
      regarded 0.1255 MUcg/l to be the point of critical value. This result was in
      direct relation to data from the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC).
      The sensitivity and specificity of serum SALL4 levels in the diagnosis of CRC
      were 85.9% and 85.7%, respectively. The AUC value of CRC detected by tissue SALL4
      was 0.727 (95% CI was 0.666-0.789), 0.5 was regarded as the critical value. The
      sensitivity and specificity of SALL4 expression in CRC tissues regarding the
      diagnosis of CRC was determined to be 58.6% and 86.9% respectively. The levels of
      SALL4 expression in serum and tissues highlighted a correlation to lymph node
      metastasis (LNM), differentiation degree, Dukes staging and tumor node metastasis
      staging. Lower serum SALL4 levels were associated with higher survival rates in
      CRC patients. In accordance with a COX regression, LNM, differentiation degree
      and SALL4 levels were determined as being prognostic factors in patients with CRC
      (both P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our experimental data indicated that over expression
      of SALL4 was found in CRC and low expression of SALL4 was connected with high
      survival rate after surgery. Thus our study suggested that SALL4 could serve as a
      potential diagnostic and prognostic marker of CRC.

PMID- 28869452
TI  - MiR-135a-5p modulates biological functions of thyroid carcinoma cells via
      targeting VCAN 3'-UTR.
AB  - Thyroid carcinoma is one of the most frequent malignant tumors of the endocrine
      system, which accounts for nearly 1% population in newly diagnosed carcinoma
      worldwide and the incidence has an increasing tendency in recent years. To
      explore whether miR-135a-5p could affect the proliferation, invasion and
      migration of thyroid carcinoma cells by targeting VCAN. The expression levels of
      miR-135a-5p and VCAN were detected in human thyroid carcinoma tissues and cells,
      para-carcinoma tissues, as well as human normal thyroid cells using RT-qPCR and
      Western blot. In addition, dual-luciferase reporter gene assay, MTT assay, colony
      formation assay, wound healing assay, Transwell assay, flow cytometry analysis
      and in vivo tumorigenesis assay were also conducted. The results demonstrated
      that miR-135a-5p was down-regulated while VCAN was up-regulated both in thyroid
      carcinoma tissues and cells. Furthermore, the up-regulation of miR-135a-5p
      inhibited cell proliferation, invasion and migration of thyroid carcinoma. Dual
      luciferase reporter gene assay provided evidence indicating that miR-135a-5p
      targeted VCAN in thyroid carcinoma. MiR-135a-5p could inhibit cell proliferation,
      invasion and migration of thyroid carcinoma by targeting VCAN. MiR-135a-5p and
      VCAN might emerge as a target for the treatment of thyroid carcinoma.

PMID- 28869454
TI  - 36th Conference of the German Society for Clinical Microcirculation and
      Hemorheology.

PMID- 28869453
TI  - Bortezomib could down-regulate the expression of RANKL, inhibit cell
      proliferation and induce cell apoptosis in the human myeloma cell line RPMI 8226
      by activating casepase-3.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In spite of bortezomib being developed and demonstrated as a safe drug
      therapy for multiple myeloma (MM), the role of bortezomib-induced receptor
      activator of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB ligand (RANKL) in the MM cell lines
      remains to be understood. Thus the present study aims to explore the impact of
      bortezomib on RANKL expression, cell growth and apoptosis in human myeloma cell
      line RPMI 8226. METHODS: Four experiment groups were set according to different
      concentrations of bortezomib, namely blank group (treated with DMEM solution free
      of other drugs), low-dose group (treated with 10 nmol/L bortezomib), middle-dose
      group (treated with 20 nmol/L bortezomib) and high-dose group (treated with 40
      nmol/L bortezomib). Western blotting was adopted to detect RANKL protein
      expression. MTT assay was performed to detect cell proliferation. Flow cytometry
      was used to analyze cell cycle and apoptosis. Spectrophotometry was applied to
      determine caspases-3 activity. RESULTS: Compared with the blank group, the RANKL
      protein expression, cell number at the S stage was reduced while cell inhibition
      rate, cell apoptosis rate and caspase-3 activity enhanced remarkably in the low
      dose, middle-dose and high-dose groups with dose-dependent manner. Compared with
      those treated with bortezomib (20 nmol/L and 40 nmol/L) for 6 h, the RANKL
      expression was down-regulated, cell inhibition rate was increased, cells at the S
      stage were reduced, cell apoptosis rate was enhanced, and caspase-3 activity
      elevated in the RPMI 8226 cells as treated with bortezomib for 24 h, with a dose-
      and time-dependent manner. CONCLUSIONS: Bortezomib could reduce the RANKL
      expression, inhibit cell proliferation and activate caspase-3 activity to induce
      cell apoptosis in RPMI 8266 cells.

PMID- 28869455
TI  - Influence of Ultrasound Microbubbles on kidney oxygen tension.
AB  - Ultrasound contrast agents (USCA) allows the dynamic detection of blood flow of
      both the macro and microvasculature. An obvious prerequisite for USCAs is the
      unhindered passage of clinically relevant dose levels through the
      microcirculation especially of the lungue, where they have to pass capillaries
      with diameters of around 4 MUm. While smaller microbubbles rapidly passed through
      the microcirculation along with the red blood cells, larger microbubbles,
      however, were observed to coalesce and interrupt the blood flow. Whether this
      might influence the tissue oxygen tension is unclear up to now.To examine this
      question a bolus of 2.4 ml SonoVueTM was injected into the suprarenal aorta at a
      flow rate of 10 ml/s (a dosage usually applied in the clinic). The pO2 in the
      outer medulla of the kidney was continuously measured using a flexible pO2
      microcatheter. In addition, the SonoVueTM injection and its passage through the
      renal vasculature were documented by the CEUS technology to assess whether the
      microbubbles passed the kidney.The study revealed that SonoVueTM induced no
      changes of the mean oxygen partial pressure in the outer medulla which confirms
      that these microbubbles on their way through the medullar capillaries did not
      hinder the co-flow of blood through the renal microvessels in a big animal model
      with a renal morphology and function comparable to human kidneys. These results
      demonstrate that the CEUS diagnostic itself did not influence the system to be
      examined which is a most important prerequisite for any diagnostic method.

PMID- 28869456
TI  - Perfusion control of a partial revascularized hand via application of Indocyanine
      green (ICG) and Near-infrared Fluorescence Imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intra- and postoperative assessment of perfusion with near-infrared
      fluorescence imaging is commonly used among plastic surgeons to evaluate the
      quality of a microsurgical anastomosis in free flaps. OBJECTIVE: As microsurgical
      anastomosis can be monitored with near-infrared fluorescence imaging there is
      potential concerning revascularized fingers and hands with soft tissue depths not
      exceeding 7 mm above anastomosis. In a case of a severe crush injury of the hand
      more information about the perfusion was necessary as clinical assessment
      suspected loss of perfusion. METHODS: A 49-year old male suffered from a severe
      crush injury of his left hand with dissection of the ulnar superficial palmar
      arterial arch and a lesion of median nerve. After revascularization and
      reconstruction of the nerve, the patient developed postoperatively a loss of
      perfusion of thumb and index finger. An evaluation of the perfusion status was
      obtained by fluorescence imaging after intravenous application of ICG. RESULTS:
      After intravenous application of ICG the near-infrared imaging showed a delayed
      but sufficient perfusion of the hand so that a salvage surgery was not indicated.
      CONCLUSIONS: In scenarios of critical perfusion in revascularized fingers and
      hands, the perfusion control via application of ICG and near-infrared
      fluorescence imaging can be a helpful tool.

PMID- 28869457
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects of a novel iron chelator, DIBI, in experimental sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Iron catalyzes the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as
      part of the innate antimicrobial defense. During sepsis, the dysregulated
      systemic inflammatory response to infection, iron homeostasis becomes disrupted,
      generating an excess of ROS causing damage to tissues. This can be potentially
      suppressed using iron chelators that selectively bind iron to prevent its
      participation in ROS-related inflammatory reactions. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesize
      that administration of DIBI, a novel iron-chelator, attenuates the dysregulated
      systemic immune response and reduces tissue damage in experimental endotoxemia.
      METHODS: Five groups of animals (n = 5-10) were included in this study: control,
      untreated endotoxemia, and endotoxemia animals treated with either DIBI-A, MAHMP,
      or DIBI-B. Intravital microscopy was performed on the intestine of anesthesized
      mice to observe leukocyte endothelial interactions and evaluate the intestinal
      microcirculation. RESULTS: Treatment of endotoxemic mice with DIBI-B reduced the
      number of adhering leukocytes in submucosal collecting (V1) venules by 68%. DIBI
      B, MAHMP, and DIBI-A were able to restore functional capillary density (FCD) in
      the intestinal muscle layer by 74%, 44%, and 11%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: DIBI
      B reduces leukocyte recruitment and improves FCD in experimental endotoxemia,
      outperforming other chelators tested. These findings suggest a potential role for
      DIBI-B as a candidate drug for sepsis treatment.

PMID- 28869458
TI  - Clinical significance of factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A-mutations in
      cerebral venous thrombosis - comparison with arterial ischemic stroke.
AB  - Cerebrovascular diseases are considered in a different way concerning their
      etiology with regard to arterial and venous occlusion. The role of thrombophilia
      in this context remains undetermined. For this reason, a case-control study was
      conducted including a total of 202 patients (154 females, 48 males) aged from 18
      to 76 years (mean: 39.8 years) suffering either from cerebral sinus venous
      thrombosis (n = 101) or from arterial ischemic stroke (n = 101). Study groups
      were evaluated on the basis of age- and gender-matched pairs. Gene mutations of
      factor V-1691 (factor V Leiden) and prothrombin-20210 being considered as the
      most common thrombophilia markers were analyzed in this study. Factor V Leiden
      mutations were found in 16.8% of patients with cerebral sinus venous thrombosis
      (CVT) and in 17.8% of patients with arterial ischemic stroke (AIS), which was
      significantly more frequent than in controls at a rate of 4.95% (ORs: 3.89 and
      4.16). Prothrombin-mutations were significantly more frequent in CVT at a rate of
      14.9% versus 2.97% in controls (OR: 5.70). This does not apply for AIS showing a
      rate of 4.95% prothrombin-mutations. Rates of factor V Leiden-mutations are not
      different in CVT compared with AIS. In contrast, however, prothrombin-mutations
      were significantly more frequent in CVT than in AIS with a rate of 14.9% versus
      4.95% (OR 3.35). Furthermore, 3 cases with combined heterozygosity of factor V
      Leiden- and prothrombin-mutation have been identified in CVT, but not in AIS or
      controls. All of the above mentioned mutations were exclusively heterozygous. We
      conclude from these data that thrombophilia in terms of factor V Leiden genotype
      is a risk factor for both CVT and AIS in equal measure. In contrast, prothrombin
      20210-mutations were different playing a significant role in the pathogenesis of
      cerebral sinus vein thrombosis, but not in arterial ischemic stroke. Also, the
      combined occurrence of heterozygous prothrombin- and factor V Leiden-mutation
      clearly favors the emergence of cerebral sinus venous thrombosis. Therefore, in
      terms of thrombophilia such as investigated in this study, pathogenesis of
      arterial and venous occlusions in cerebrovascular disease has to be regarded as
      different.

PMID- 28869460
TI  - Folate receptor mediated genetic modification of human mesenchymal stem cells via
      folic acid-polyethylenimine-grafted poly(N-3-hydroxypropyl)aspartamide.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are targeted as vehicles for cell mediated gene
      therapy. Here we report on a macromolecular carrier, which was designed aiming at
      successful targeted gene delivery into MSCs through the mediation of folate
      receptor and reduced cytotoxicity compared to established cationic polymer vector
      - polyethylenimine with a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 25,000 Dalton
      (PEI25K). The carrier PHPA-PEI1800-FA was synthesized in a two-step procedure.
      PHPA-PEI1800 was prepared by grafting polyethylenimine with a Mw of 1800 Dalton
      (PEI1800) onto the alpha,beta-poly(N-3-hydroxypropyl)-D,L-aspartamide (PHPA)
      backbone. PHPA-PEI1800-FA was obtained by chemically conjugating folic acid onto
      PHPA-PEI1800. The grafting degree of PEI1800 was 3.9+/-0.2% in relation to the CH
      groups of PHPA and the molar ratio of folic acid conjugated to PEI1800 (chiFA)
      was 1.8+/-0.1 as calculated by NMR spectroscopy. The copolymers were
      biodegradable and exhibited lower cytotoxicity than PEI25K. Compared to PHPA
      PEI1800, PHPA-PEI1800-FA led to a significantly higher transfection efficiency in
      human MSCs, which could be attributed to the mediation of folate receptor during
      the transfection process as confirmed by folic acid competition assay. Both
      marker gene (GFP) and therapeutic gene (VEGF) were delivered into human MSCs from
      multi-donors using PHPA-PEI1800-FA. The percentage of GFP+ MSCs showed an average
      value of 2.85+/-1.60% but a large variation for different samples. The VEGF
      expression level of the PHPA-PEI1800-FA transfected cells was significantly
      higher than that of either untransfected or naked DNA transfected cells.
      Conclusively, PHPA-PEI1800-FA is a suitable vector to deliver genes into human
      MSCs through the interaction with folate receptor.

PMID- 28869459
TI  - Modulation of the mesenchymal stem cell migration capacity via preconditioning
      with topographic microstructure.
AB  - Controlling mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) behavior is necessary to fully exploit
      their therapeutic potential. Various approaches are employed to effectively
      influence the migration capacity of MSCs. Here, topographic microstructures with
      different microscale roughness were created on polystyrene (PS) culture vessel
      surfaces as a feasible physical preconditioning strategy to modulate MSC
      migration. By analyzing trajectories of cells migrating after reseeding, we
      demonstrated that the mobilization velocity of human adipose derived mesenchymal
      stem cells (hADSCs) could be promoted by and persisted after brief
      preconditioning with the appropriate microtopography. Moreover, the elevated
      activation levels of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and mitogen-activated protein
      kinase (MAPK) in hADSCs were also observed during and after the preconditioning
      process. These findings underline the potential enhancement of in vivo
      therapeutic efficacy in regenerative medicine via transplantation of topographic
      microstructure preconditioned stem cells.

PMID- 28869461
TI  - Effects of Tacrolimus or Sirolimus on the adhesion of vascular wall cells:
      Controlled in-vitro comparison study.
AB  - In drug eluting stents the cytostatic drugs Sirolimus or Tacrolimus are used to
      inhibit blood vessel restenosis by limiting the proliferation of smooth muscle
      cells. However, the cytostatic activity of both drugs was shown to be not cell
      specific and could also affect the stent endothelialisation, respectively.
      Currently, only limited in vitro data are available about the impact of Sirolimus
      and Tacrolimus on endothelial cell proliferation over a broad concentration
      range. To answer this question the following study was performed.Commercially
      obtained HUVEC were expanded with DMEM cell culture medium (GIBCO, Germany)
      supplemented with 5 vol% fetal calf serum on non-coated regular polystyrene-based
      24-multiwell plates. For drug testings 2*104 cells/cm2 were seeded and grown for
      24 h until 30-40% of the multiwell surfaces were covered and then exposed to
      Sirolimus (1.0*10-11 - 1.0*10-5 mol/l) or Tacrolimus (2.0*10-8 - 6.2*10-5 mol/l),
      both dissolved in DMSO. 12, 24 and 48 h after adding the drugs cell numbers per
      area were quantified by counting the cells in six wells with four fields of view
      per well, representing 0.6 mm2, using a confocal laser microscope.After 48 h of
      cell growth in the drug-free cell culture medium, the HUVEC number increased from
      2.0*104 to 3.55*104 cells/cm2 (mean cell doubling time: 53.6 h, n = 6). At lower
      concentrations (<=2.0*10-6 mol/l) Tacrolimus reduced the number of adherent HUVEC
      significantly less than Sirolimus (p < 0.05). However, at higher concentrations
      (>=2.07*10-5 mol/l) the effect of Tacrolimus on the number of adherent
      endothelial cells was significantly greater than that of Sirolimus (p < 0.05). At
      the highest concentration applied (6.22*10-5 mol/l), Tacrolimus induced
      detachment of all HUVECs within 12 h after drug application. The number of
      adherent HUVEC decreased only slightly (about 9%) after Sirolimus application at
      the highest concentration (1.09*10-5 mol/l).These data show that in a non-flow
      model the cytostatic drug Tacrolimus reduced the number of adherent endothelial
      cells less than Sirolimus, as long as the drug concentration did not surpass 10-6
      mol/l. At the limits of solubility, Sirolimus (1*10-5 mol/l) reduced the number
      of adherent endothelial cells less than Tacrolimus (6*10-5 mol/l), which induced
      detachment of endothelial cells.

PMID- 28869462
TI  - Applying XTT, WST-1, and WST-8 to human chondrocytes: A comparison of membrane
      impermeable tetrazolium salts in 2D and 3D cultures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tetrazolium-based assays are optimized to assess
      proliferation/toxicity of monolayer or suspension cells in microtiter plates.
      With regard to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine the need for in vivo
      like 3D microtissues has an increasing relevance. Applying tetrazolium-based
      assays to 3D culture systems is technically more challenging. The composed
      microenvironment may influence the assay standards, e.g. equal distribution of
      tetrazolium. OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of membrane-impermeable tetrazolium salt-based
      assays with regard to spheroid culture (3D) of human chondrocytes. METHODS:
      Chondrocytes were isolated from human articular cartilage. XTT, WST-1, and WST-8
      were applied to monolayer cells (2D, varying cell numbers) and spheroids (3D,
      different sizes) in 96well plates. Formazan formation was measured
      spectrophotometrically after different incubation periods. Evaluation was done
      using phase contrast microsopy (toxicity), analyzing the correlation of cell
      number and absorbance signals (Gompertz function), and document signal over
      background ratio. RESULTS: In monolayer culture the assays showed a correlation
      between seeded cell numbers and absorption data. Spheroid sizes are directly
      related to the starting cell number. A correlation between size and absorbance
      was only detectable starting from 10,000 cells/aggregate. Phase contrast
      microscopy of monolayer cells revealed strong toxicity effects of the WST-1 (4 h)
      and XTT (8 h) assay and no signs of toxicity using WST-8. CONCLUSION: The WST-8
      assay is non-toxic and revealed the highest sensitivity in comparison to the XTT
      or WST-1 assay. There is evidence, that only cells of the outer rim of spheroids
      are able to convert membrane-impermeable tetrazolium salts to formazans.

PMID- 28869464
TI  - Oxygen and Glucose Deprivation Alter Synaptic Distribution of Tau Protein: The
      Role of Phosphorylation.
AB  - Alterations in tau synaptic distribution are considered to underlie synaptic
      dysfunction observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, brain
      blood hypoperfusion was simulated in mouse brain slices, and tau levels and
      phosphorylation were investigated in total extracts, as well as in postsynaptic
      density fractions (PSDs) and non-PSDs obtained through differential extraction
      and centrifugation. Oxygen deprivation (OD) resulted in tau dephosphorylation at
      several AD-related residues and activation of GSK3beta and phosphatase PP2A. On
      the contrary, glucose deprivation (GD) did not affect total levels of cellular
      tau or its phosphorylation despite inactivation of GSK3beta. However, tau
      distribution in PSD and non-PSD fractions and the pattern of tau phosphorylation
      in these compartments is highly complex. In PSDs, tau was increased under GD
      conditions and decreased under OD conditions. GD resulted in tau
      dephosphorylation at Ser199, Ser262, and Ser396 while OD resulted in tau
      hyperphosphorylation at Ser199 and Ser404. In the non-PSD fraction, GD or OD
      resulted in lower levels of tau, but the phosphorylation status of tau was
      differentially affected. In GD conditions, tau was found dephosphorylated at
      Ser199, Thr205, and Ser404 and hyperphosphorylated at Ser262. However, in OD
      conditions tau was found hyperphosphorylated at Thr205, SerSer356, Ser396, and
      Ser404. Combined OD and GD resulted in degradation of cellular tau and
      dephosphorylation of PSD tau at Ser396 and Ser404. These results indicate that
      oxygen deprivation causes dephosphorylation of tau, while GD and OD
      differentially affect distribution of total tau and tau phosphorylation variants
      in neuronal compartments by activating different mechanisms.

PMID- 28869463
TI  - Risk Factors, Neuroanatomical Correlates, and Outcome of Neuropsychiatric
      Symptoms in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An integrative model of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) is lacking. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we investigated
      the risk factors, anatomy, biology, and outcomes of NPS in AD. METHODS: 181
      subjects were included from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Study (ADNI).
      NPS were assessed with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire at baseline
      and 6 months. NPI >3 was used as a threshold for NPS positivity. Three NPS
      courses were characterized: 1) minimal/absent (negative at 0 and 6 months, n =
      77); 2) fluctuating (positive only at one time point, n = 53); 3) persistent
      (positive at both time points, n = 51). We examined the association between NPS
      course and family history of dementia, personal history of psychiatric disorders,
      cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, atrophy patterns, as well as longitudinal
      cognitive and functional measures at 12 and 24 months (MMSE, CDR-SOB, FAQ).
      RESULTS: AD subjects with absent, fluctuating, or persistent NPS had similar CSF
      amyloid-beta and tau levels. AD subjects with minimal/absent NPS had less
      personal history of psychiatric disorders (35%) than those with fluctuating (57%;
      p = 0.015) or persistent NPS (47%, not significant). At 24 months, AD subjects
      with persistent NPS had worse cognitive (MMSE; p = 0.05) and functional (CDR-SOB;
      p = 0.016) outcomes. Dorsolateral prefrontal atrophy was seen in persistent NPS,
      but not in fluctuating NPS. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that individuals
      with personal history of psychiatric disorders might be more vulnerable to
      develop NPS throughout the course of AD. The worst cognitive and functional
      outcomes associated with NPS in AD underscores the importance of monitoring NPS
      early in the disease course.

PMID- 28869465
TI  - Inflection Point in Course of Mild Cognitive Impairment: Increased Functional
      Connectivity of Default Mode Network.
AB  - The alteration of the default mode network (DMN) functional connectivity (FC) has
      been reported in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) as a
      predictor of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, no studies exist that examined
      stage-dependent DMN FC changes throughout the course of aMCI. The present study
      aims to characterize patterns of DMN FC over three aMCI stages as first defined.
      Utilizing the extreme groups approach on the performance of memory tasks, aMCI
      subjects were divided into mild, moderate, and severe stages. Independent
      component analysis was used to assess DMN for individual patients in each of the
      three cross-sectionally defined stages. Instead of finding that continued
      monotonic decline was the case for the hippocampus volume, which we also
      investigated in this study, we observed an increase in DMN functional
      connectivity from mild aMCI to moderate aMCI and a decrease to severe aMCI,
      mainly in the left precuneus and superior parietal lobe. Moreover, the FC was
      significantly associated with cognitive performance. Though a longitudinal study
      is needed to confirm these results, our cross-sectional finding is that non
      linear FC changes in DMN could be a characteristic of prodromal early disease
      development.

PMID- 28869467
TI  - Potentially Inappropriate Medication, Anticholinergic Burden, and Mortality in
      People Attending Memory Clinics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence regarding the association between
      potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) and mortality in older people with
      cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether use of medications considered
      to be potentially inappropriate in older people with cognitive impairment
      (PIMcog) and anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB) were associated with
      mortality in people who attended memory clinics. METHODS: Cross-sectional and
      longitudinal analyses of data from the Prospective Research In MEmory clinics
      (PRIME) study. Participants were community-dwelling people who attended nine
      memory clinics and had a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
      PIMcog was defined as any medication considered potentially inappropriate for a
      person with cognitive impairment according to Beers or STOPP criteria.
      Anticholinergic burden was calculated using the ACB scale. Time-dependent Cox
      proportional hazards regression was used to analyze associations between PIMcog
      use/ACB score and all-cause mortality over a three-year follow-up period. The
      regression model included the baseline variables: age, gender, education,
      cognitive diagnoses, total number of medications, disease-burden, cognition,
      physical function, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. RESULTS: Of 964 participants,
      360 (37.3%) used one or more PIMcog at some time during the study; most commonly
      anticholinergics and sedatives. 624 (64.7%) participants used a medication with
      potential or definite anticholinergic properties (ACB>0) at some point during the
      study. Both PIMcog use (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.42 95% CI: 1.12-1.80) and ACB
      score (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.18 95% CI: 1.06-1.32) were associated with
      mortality. CONCLUSION: Use of PIMcogs and medications with anticholinergic
      properties was common among memory clinic patients and both were associated with
      mortality.

PMID- 28869466
TI  - Heterogeneous Association of Alzheimer's Disease-Linked Amyloid-beta and Amyloid
      beta Protein Precursor with Synapses.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasingly viewed as a disease of synapses. Loss of
      synapses correlates better with cognitive decline than amyloid plaques and
      neurofibrillary tangles, the hallmark neuropathological lesions of AD. Soluble
      forms of amyloid-beta (Abeta) have emerged as mediators of synapse dysfunction.
      Abeta binds to, accumulates, and aggregates in synapses. However, the anatomical
      and neurotransmitter specificity of Abeta and the amyloid-beta protein precursor
      (AbetaPP) in AD remain poorly understood. In addition, the relative roles of
      Abeta and AbetaPP in the development of AD, at pre- versus post-synaptic
      compartments and axons versus dendrites, respectively, remain unclear. Here we
      use immunogold electron microscopy and confocal microscopy to provide evidence
      for heterogeneity in the localization of Abeta/AbetaPP. We demonstrate that Abeta
      binds to a subset of synapses in cultured neurons, with preferential binding to
      glutamatergic compared to GABAergic neurons. We also highlight the challenge of
      defining pre- versus post-synaptic localization of this binding by confocal
      microscopy. Further, endogenous Abeta42 accumulates in both glutamatergic and
      GABAergic AbetaPP/PS1 transgenic primary neurons, but at varying levels.
      Moreover, upon knock-out of presenilin 1 or inhibition of gamma-secretase AbetaPP
      C-terminal fragments accumulate both pre- and post-synaptically; however earlier
      pre-synaptically, consistent with a higher rate of AbetaPP processing in axons. A
      better understanding of the synaptic and anatomical selectivity of Abeta/AbetaPP
      in AD can be important for the development of more effective new therapies for
      this major disease of aging.

PMID- 28869468
TI  - Association of Gait Speed, Psychomotor Speed, and Dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gait speed (GS) and psychomotor speed (PS) could be considered as two
      different dimensions of age-related slowness and both measures are associated
      with higher risk of adverse health-related outcomes among elderly people.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between GS, PS, and incident dementia
      among community-dwelling older adults. METHODS: Twelve-year longitudinal study of
      1,265 participants in the Bordeaux Three-City Study, a French prospective cohort
      designed to determine the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment attributable
      to cardiovascular risk factors. Participants completed a battery of cognitive
      tests, including time to complete the Trail Making Test A, and a walking speed
      test. The incidence of dementia was determined over the 12-year follow-up period.
      Cox proportional hazards models with delayed entry were used to estimate the
      cumulative risk of dementia and were adjusted for sex, education, and ApoE4
      genotype. RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 74.0 years (SD 4.8). Over the 12
      year follow-up, 203 participants developed dementia. GS and PS were both
      independent predictors of incident all-cause dementia after 12 years of follow
      up. For a one SD increase of either GS or PS, the hazard ratio (HR) for
      Alzheimer's disease was 1.2 (95% CI = 1.02-1.32) and 1.4 (95% CI = 1.2-1.61),
      respectively; whereas for incident vascular dementia, the HR was 1.3 (95% CI =
      1.05-1.71) and 1.5 (95% CI = 1.16-2.08), respectively. No significant interaction
      between GS and PS was observed. CONCLUSIONS: In older French people aged 65+, our
      findings showed that both low GS and PS were independently associated with risk
      of incident Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

PMID- 28869471
TI  - Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Complaints Screening Tool Exploration of Subjective
      Cognitive Decline in a Large Cohort of the Chinese Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Substantial studies have reported the prevalence and the affecting
      factors of subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The complaints screening scale has
      also been used for probing. However, little is known in China. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the prevalence and risk factors of SCD, and explore an SCD complaints
      screening scale in China. METHODS: Stratified cluster random sampling was
      conducted. 2,689 residents aged 60-80 years completed questionnaire 1. 814
      residents were included for clinical and neuropsychological evaluations. Two
      standards were used to make the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and
      SCD, and a preliminary screening rate comparison was carried out. Finally, we
      assessed the risk factors of SCD and the correlation between the SCD
      questionnaire 9 (SCD-Q9) and the Auditory Verbal Learning Test-Long Delay Free
      Recall (AVLT-LR). RESULTS: 1) Standard 1 (ADNI2): the prevalence of SCD was 18.8%
      (95% CI = 14.7-22.9%) and zero conformed to six criteria (SCD plus). 2) Standard
      2 (Jak/Bondi): the prevalence of SCD was 14.4% (95% CI = 10.7-18.1%). 3) Standard
      1 had a relatively higher "false" positive rate, whereas Standard 2 had higher
      "false" negative rate. 4) Age, low education, fewer close friends, and daily
      drinking were independent risk factors for SCD progressing to MCI. 5) Total
      points of SCD-Q9 were negatively correlated to the value of AVLT-LR. CONCLUSIONS:
      The prevalence of SCD is high in the ShunYi District in Beijing, China. Age, low
      education, less social support, and daily drinking are independent risk factors.
      The brief SCD-Q9 can be used as a reference.

PMID- 28869470
TI  - The Cerebrospinal Fluid Abeta1-42/Abeta1-40 Ratio Improves Concordance with
      Amyloid-PET for Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease in a Clinical Setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that the concordance between amyloid-PET and
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid-beta (Abeta) increases when the CSF Abeta1
      42/Abeta1-40 ratio is used as compared to CSF Abeta1-42 levels alone. OBJECTIVE:
      In order to test this hypothesis, we set up a prospective longitudinal study
      comparing the concordance between different amyloid biomarkers for Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) in a clinical setting. METHODS: Seventy-eight subjects (AD dementia
      (n = 17), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 48), and cognitively healthy
      controls (n = 13)) underwent a [18F]Florbetapir ([18F]AV45) PET scan, [18F]FDG
      PET scan, MRI scan, and an extensive neuropsychological examination. In a large
      subset (n = 67), a lumbar puncture was performed and AD biomarkers were analyzed
      (Abeta1-42, Abeta1-40, T-tau, P-tau181). RESULTS: We detected an increased
      concordance in the visual and quantitative (standardized uptake value ratio
      (SUVR) and total volume of distribution (VT)) [18F]AV45 PET measures when the CSF
      Abeta1-42/Abeta1-40 was applied compared to Abeta1-42 alone. CSF biomarkers were
      stronger associated to [18F]AV45 PET for SUVR values when considering the total
      brain white matter as reference region instead of cerebellar grey
      matterConclusions:The concordance between CSF Abeta and [18F]AV45 PET increases
      when the CSF Abeta1-42/Abeta1-40 ratio is applied. This finding is of most
      importance for the biomarker-based diagnosis of AD as well as for selection of
      subjects for clinical trials with potential disease-modifying therapies for AD.

PMID- 28869469
TI  - Trehalose Improves Cognition in the Transgenic Tg2576 Mouse Model of Alzheimer's
      Disease.
AB  - This study assessed the therapeutic utility of the autophagy enhancing stable
      disaccharide trehalose in the Tg2576 transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) via an oral gavage of a 2% trehalose solution for 31 days.
      Furthermore, as AD is a neurodegenerative condition in which the transition
      metals, iron, copper, and zinc, are understood to be intricately involved in the
      cellular cascades leading to the defining pathologies of the disease, we sought
      to determine any parallel impact of trehalose treatment on metal levels.
      Trehalose treatment significantly improved performance in the Morris water maze,
      consistent with enhanced learning and memory. The improvement was not associated
      with significant modulation of full length amyloid-beta protein precursor or
      other amyloid-beta fragments. Trehalose had no effect on autophagy as assessed by
      western blot of the LC3-1 to LC3-2 protein ratio, and no alteration in biometals
      that might account for the improved cognition was observed. Biochemical analysis
      revealed a significant increase in the hippocampus of both synaptophysin, a
      synaptic vesicle protein and surrogate marker of synapses, and doublecortin, a
      reliable marker of neurogenesis. The growth factor progranulin was also
      significantly increased in the hippocampus and cortex with trehalose treatment.
      This study suggests that trehalose might invoke a suite of neuroprotective
      mechanisms that can contribute to improved cognitive performance in AD that are
      independent of more classical trehalose-mediated pathways, such as Abeta
      reduction and activation of autophagy. Thus, trehalose may have utility as a
      potential AD therapeutic, with conceivable implications for the treatment of
      other neurodegenerative disorders.

PMID- 28869472
TI  - Mitochondria in Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses have Similar Susceptibility to
      Amyloid-beta Peptides Modeling Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction is proposed to trigger memory deficits and synaptic
      damage at the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, it is unknown how
      mitochondria dysfunction might trigger synaptotoxicity and if a differential
      susceptibility of mitochondria located in synapses underlies the greater
      glutamatergic than GABAergic synaptotoxicity in early AD. Hippocampal
      synaptosomes (purified synapses) of a rat model of early AD, typified by
      selective memory deficits two weeks after intracerebroventricular injection of
      amyloid-beta peptides (Abeta1-42, 2 nmol), simultaneously displayed three
      mitochondria-associated deleterious alterations: 1) hampered metabolism
      (decreased MTT reduction); 2) increased oxygen radical production (increased
      hydrogen peroxide production); 3) increased caspase-3 activity. The direct
      exposure of hippocampal synaptosomes to Abeta1-42 (500 nM) similarly decreased
      mitochondrial membrane potential (TMRM+ fluorescence) and increased mitochondria
      derived oxygen radicals (MitoTraker(r)red-CM-H2Xros fluorescence) in individual
      glutamatergic (vesicular glutamate transporter-immunopositive) and GABAergic
      (vesicular GABA transporter-immunopositive) synaptosomes. However, significantly
      more glutamatergic than GABAergic synaptosomes were endowed with mitochondria
      (Tom20-immunopositive). These results indicate that dysfunctional mitochondria
      located in synapses can trigger synaptotoxicity through multifaceted mechanisms
      and that it is not the susceptibility of mitochondria to Abeta but more likely a
      different impact of dysfunctional mitochondria that underlies the greater
      sensitivity to synaptotoxicity of glutamatergic than GABA synapses in early AD.

PMID- 28869474
TI  - Cortical Metabolic and Cognitive Correlates of Disorientation in Alzheimer's
      Disease.
AB  - Orientation to time, date, and place is commonly utilized in clinical settings to
      aid in diagnosis, staging, and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study
      aimed to identify the cerebral metabolic correlates of orientation in patients
      with AD, and the degree to which regions associated with orientation overlap with
      memory-related structures. Eighty-five patients with a diagnosis of probable AD
      underwent fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and
      neuropsychological testing. Orientation items from the Dementia Rating Scale and
      recognition performance from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for AD
      (CERAD) Word List Learning test were correlated with cerebral glucose metabolism.
      Post-hoc analyses examined neuropsychological predictors of orientation. Better
      orientation performance related to greater cerebral metabolism in the bilateral
      middle-inferior temporal lobes, bilateral middle-posterior cingulate, left
      angular gyrus, and left middle occipital gyrus. In comparison, higher CERAD
      recognition discriminability score was associated with greater metabolic activity
      in left medial temporal lobe regions including the hippocampal and
      parahippocampal gyri, and the left fusiform gyrus. Post-hoc behavioral analyses
      revealed multiple cognitive functions to be related to orientation, including
      list learning, recognition memory, visuospatial functioning, attention, and
      language. Findings from the present study suggest that disorientation in AD
      results from dysfunction of a network of structures and cognitive abilities
      commonly found to be implicated in AD. The study supports the notion that memory
      is necessary but not sufficient for successful orientation.

PMID- 28869473
TI  - Neurocognitive and Behavioral Indexes for Identifying the Amnestic Subtypes of
      Mild Cognitive Impairment.
AB  - Early identification of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) subtypes is
      important for early diagnosis and prognosis of Alzheimer's disease. Healthy,
      single-domain (sdaMCI) and multiple-domain aMCI (mdaMCI) participants performed
      an auditory-visual distraction-attention task. Event-related brain potentials
      (ERPs) were recorded while the participants performed the task to evaluate
      Go/NoGo N2 and P3 ERP components. The results showed the expected behavioral and
      cognitive decline in mdaMCI participants relative to controls (fewer hits, longer
      reaction times [RTs], slightly smaller Go-N2 and NoGo-N2 amplitudes), while
      sdaMCI participants showed some decline (slightly longer RTs, smaller Go- and
      NoGo-N2 amplitudes) along with some unexpected results (a late positive slow
      wave, PSW) and good levels of execution. In addition, some of these parameters
      proved to be useful markers. Thus, the number of hits was the best marker for
      diagnosing mdaMCI participants (distinguishing them from controls, from sdaMCI
      participants, and from both groups together), while the PSW amplitude was the
      best marker for diagnosing sdaMCI participants (distinguishing them from
      controls, and from control & mdaMCI participants).

PMID- 28869475
TI  - Effect of Attention Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients with
      Subcortical Vascular Changes: The RehAtt Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients with small
      vessel disease (SVD) are at high dementia risk. We tested the effects of
      cognitive rehabilitation in these patients using the Attention Process Training
      II (APT-II) program in a single-blinded, randomized clinical trial. METHODS:
      Patients were randomized to APT-II or standard care and evaluated at baseline, 6,
      and 12 months with functional, quality of life, cognitive tests, and resting
      state functional MRI (rsfMRI). RESULTS: Forty-six patients were enrolled and 43
      (mean+/-SD age 75.1+/-6.8) completed the study. No change was seen in
      functionality and quality of life between treated and non-treated patients.
      However, the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test immediate recall showed a
      significant improvement in treated compared to non-treated group (change score 6
      versus 12 months: 1.8+/-4.9 and -1.4+/-3.8, p = 0.021; baseline versus 12 months:
      3.8+/-6.1 and 0.2+/-4.4, p = 0.032). A higher proportion of treated patients had
      stable/better evaluation compared to non-treated group on Visual search test (6
      versus 12 months: 95% versus 71%, p = 0.038) and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure
      copy (6 versus 12 months: 95% versus 67%, p = 0.027). RsfMRI, performed in a
      subsample, showed that the difference between follow-up and baseline in
      synchronization of activity in cerebellar areas was significantly greater in
      treated than in non-treated patients. CONCLUSION: We were unable to show a
      significant effect in quality of life or functional status in treated patients
      with MCI and SVD. However, APT-II produces some beneficial effects in focused
      attention and working memory and seems to increase activity in brain circuits
      involved in cognitive processes.

PMID- 28869477
TI  - Persistence with Antihypertensive Drugs in Patients with Hypertension and
      Dementia in Germany.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertension, a chronic disease resulting from aging and its related
      physiopathological dysregulations, is often associated with dementia. OBJECTIVE:
      The goal was to analyze the persistence with antihypertensive drugs in patients
      affected by both hypertension and dementia in Germany. METHODS: This study
      included hypertension patients who were initially treated with antihypertensive
      drugs in 1,262 general practices in Germany between January 2013 and December
      2015 (index date). Patients with hypertension and comorbid dementia were matched
      (1 : 1) to patients without dementia by age, gender, type of residence (nursing
      home versus home-care setting), physician, and initial antihypertensive therapy,
      using a propensity score method. The primary outcome was the rate of patients
      without treatment discontinuation with antihypertensive drugs in cases and
      controls in the 12 months following the index date. Cox regressions were used to
      determine the impact of dementia on persistence with antihypertensive treatment.
      RESULTS: This study included 2,191 patients with hypertension and comorbid
      dementia and 2,191 patients with hypertension but without dementia. The mean age
      was 79.3 years (SD = 10.3 years) in both groups. Twelve months after initiation
      of antihypertensive therapy, 73.5% of cases and 69.5% of controls were persistent
      (p < 0.001). Dementia was associated with a significant decrease in the risk of
      non-persistence with antihypertensive drugs in the entire population (HR = 0.86,
      95% CI: 0.79-0.93). This finding was corroborated in five different subgroups
      (age <=60 years, age 61-70 years, men, women, and patients living in home-care
      settings). CONCLUSIONS: Dementia was found to be a protective factor for
      persistence with antihypertensive drugs in Germany.

PMID- 28869476
TI  - Pazopanib Reduces Phosphorylated Tau Levels and Alters Astrocytes in a Mouse
      Model of Tauopathy.
AB  - Hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of tau protein is a critical factor in many
      neurodegenerative diseases. These diseases are increasing in prevalence, and
      there are currently no cures. Previous work from our group and others has shown
      that tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) can stimulate autophagy, decrease
      pathological proteins, and improve symptoms in models of neurodegeneration. Here
      we examined the role of pazopanib in mouse models that express either human
      mutant P301L tau (TauP301L) or triple mutant amyloid precursor protein (3x
      AbetaPP). The TauP301L mouse expresses P301L tau under the control of a prion
      promoter in both neurons and astrocytes, reminiscent of some human tauopathies.
      Pazopanib crosses the blood-brain barrier with no detectable peripheral off-side
      effects, and decreases p-tau in TauP301L mice. Pazopanib reaches a brain
      concentration sufficient for inhibition of several tyrosine kinases, including
      vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs). Further, pazopanib does
      not affect microglia but reduces astrocyte levels toward nontransgenic controls
      in TauP301L mice. Pazopanib does not alter amyloid beta levels or astrocytes in
      3x-AbetaPP mice but modulates a number of inflammatory markers (IP-10, MIP
      1alpha, MIP-1beta, and RANTES). These data suggest that pazopanib may be involved
      in p-tau clearance and modulation of astrocytic activity in models of
      tauopathies.

PMID- 28869479
TI  - Kynurenine Pathway Metabolites in Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metabolites of tryptophan, produced via the kynurenine pathway
      (kynurenines), have been linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD) in small cohorts with
      conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: To compare differences in plasma kynurenine
      levels between AD and controls and identify potential associations with
      cognition. METHODS: The study included 65 histopathologically-confirmed AD
      patients and 65 cognitively-screened controls from the Oxford Project to
      Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) cohort. Cognition was assessed using the
      Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CamCog). Tryptophan, kynurenines, neopterin, and
      vitamin B6 forms were measured in plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry. Non-parametric statistics, logistic regression and standardized
      robust regressions were applied with a false discovery rate of 0.05. RESULTS:
      Tryptophan, xanthurenic acid, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid, and quinolinic acid were
      lower in AD (Odds ratios (ORs) 0.24 -0.47; p-values <0.001 -0.01). Pyridoxal
      5'phosphate did not differ between AD and controls. Kynurenine, anthranilic acid,
      quinolinic acid, and markers of immune activation (neopterin,
      kynurenine/tryptophan ratio, and the PAr index (Pyridoxic acid/(Pyridoxal
      5'phosphate + Pyridoxal)) increased with age (beta 0.31 -0.51; p-values <0.001 
      0.006). Xanthurenic acid decreased with age (beta: -0.42, p < 0.001). Elderly AD
      patients with high quinolinic acid performed worse on the CamCog test, indicated
      by a significant age*quinolinic acid interaction (beta 0.21, p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Plasma concentrations of several kynurenines were lower in patients
      with AD compared to controls. Low xanthurenic acid occurred in both AD and with
      aging. Inflammation-related markers were associated with age, but not AD.
      However, elevated QA was associated with poor cognition in older AD patients.

PMID- 28869480
TI  - Genetically-Predicted Adult Height and Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Observational studies have linked increased adult height with better
      cognitive performance and reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It is unclear
      whether the associations are due to shared biological processes that influence
      height and AD or due to confounding by early life exposures or environmental
      factors. OBJECTIVE: To use a genetic approach to investigate the association
      between adult height and AD. METHODS: We selected 682 single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with height at genome-wide significance (p < 5*10
      8) in the Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits (GIANT) consortium.
      Summary statistics for each of these SNPs on AD were obtained from the
      International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP) of 17,008 individuals with
      AD and 37,154 controls. The estimate of the association between genetically
      predicted height and AD was calculated using the inverse-variance weighted
      method. RESULTS: The odds ratio of AD was 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.86
      0.95; p = 9.8*10-5) per one standard deviation increase (about 6.5 cm) in
      genetically predicted height based on 682 SNPs, which were clustered in 419 loci.
      In an analysis restricted to one SNP from each height-associated locus (n = 419
      SNPs), the corresponding OR was 0.92 (95% confidence interval, 0.86-0.97; p =
      4.8*10-3). CONCLUSIONS: This finding suggests that biological processes that
      influence adult height may have a role in the etiology of AD.

PMID- 28869482
TI  - Intelligent Assistive Technology for Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias: A
      Systematic Review.

PMID- 28869481
TI  - Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis Relies on a Twofold Clinical-Biological Algorithm:
      Three Memory Clinic Case Reports.
AB  - The International Working Group recently provided revised criteria of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) proposing that the diagnosis of typical amnesic AD should be
      established by a clinical-biological signature, defined by the phenotype of an
      "amnesic syndrome of the hippocampal type" (ASHT) combined with positive in vivo
      evidence of AD pathophysiology in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or on amyloid PET
      imaging. The application and clinical value of this refined diagnostic algorithm,
      initially intended for research purposes, is explored in three memory clinic
      cases presenting with different cognitive profiles including an ASHT, hippocampal
      atrophy, and CSF AD-biomarker data. The case reports highlight that the isolated
      occurrence of one of the two proposed AD criteria, ASHT or positive
      pathophysiological markers, does not provide a reliable diagnosis of typical AD.
      It is proposed that the twofold diagnostic IWG algorithm can be applied and
      operationalized in memory clinic settings to improve the diagnostic accuracy of
      typical amnesic AD in clinical practice.

PMID- 28869478
TI  - Tai Chi Chuan and Baduanjin Increase Grey Matter Volume in Older Adults: A Brain
      Imaging Study.
AB  - The aim of this study is to investigate and compare how 12-weeks of Tai Chi Chuan
      and Baduanjin exercise can modulate brain structure and memory function in older
      adults. Magnetic resonance imaging and memory function measurements (Wechsler
      Memory Scale-Chinese revised, WMS-CR) were applied at both the beginning and end
      of the study. Results showed that both Tai Chi Chuan and Baduanjin could
      significantly increase grey matter volume (GMV) in the insula, medial temporal
      lobe, and putamen after 12-weeks of exercise. No significant differences were
      observed in GMV between the Tai Chi Chuan and Baduanjin groups. We also found
      that compared to healthy controls, Tai Chi Chuan and Baduanjin significantly
      improved visual reproduction subscores on the WMS-CR. Baduanjin also improved
      mental control, recognition, touch, and comprehension memory subscores of the WMS
      CR compared to the control group. Memory quotient and visual reproduction
      subscores were both associated with GMV increases in the putamen and hippocampus.
      Our results demonstrate the potential of Tai Chi Chuan and Baduanjin exercise for
      the prevention of memory deficits in older adults.

PMID- 28869483
TI  - Obinutuzumab Plus Chlorambucil in a Patient with Severe Myasthenia Gravis and
      Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.
AB  - Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction,
      characterized by fatigable weakness of the extraocular, bulbar, and limb
      musculature; prevalence is estimated at 14 to 32 per 100,000 in North America.
      Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common type of leukemia in adults,
      resulting from clonal expansion of B-cells in blood, marrow, and secondary
      lymphoid tissues. The simultaneous presentation of MG and CLL is exceedingly
      rare. This article presents the case of 71-year-old man diagnosed simultaneously
      with MG and CLL. His MG was severe and refractory to treatment; therefore, a
      strategy of treating his coexisting CLL with obinutuzumab and chlorambucil was
      pursued. Following 6 cycles of obinutuzumab and chlorambucil, his CLL is in
      remission and his MG is almost entirely undetectable. This is the first case
      report describing the use of obinutuzumab, a novel anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody,
      in a patient with concurrent MG and CLL.

PMID- 28869484
TI  - Efficient Skipping of Single Exon Duplications in DMD Patient-Derived Cell Lines
      Using an Antisense Oligonucleotide Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exon skipping strategies in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have
      largely been directed toward altering splicing of exons flanking out-of-frame
      deletions, with the goal of restoring an open mRNA reading frame that leads to
      production of an internally deleted but partially functional dystrophin protein.
      OBJECTIVE: We sought to apply exon skipping to duplication mutations, assuming
      that the inherently limited efficiency of antisense oligonucleotide-induced exon
      skipping would more frequently skip a single copy of a duplicated exon, rather
      than both and result in significant amounts of wild-type DMD mRNA. METHODS: We
      tested this hypothesis in fibroblast cell lines derived from patients with a
      variety of single or multiple exon duplications that have been modified to allow
      transdifferentiation into a myogenic lineage. RESULTS: Using a variety of 2'O
      methyl antisense oligonucleotides, significant skipping was induced for each
      duplication leading to a wild-type transcript as a major mRNA product.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study provides another proof of concept for the feasibility of
      therapeutic skipping in patients carrying exon duplications in order to express
      wild-type, full-length mRNA, although careful evaluation of the skipping
      efficiency should be performed as some exons are easier to skip than others. Such
      a personalized strategy is expected to be highly beneficial for this subset of
      DMD patients, compared to inducing expression of an internally-deleted
      dystrophin.

PMID- 28869485
TI  - Nerve Conduction Studies as a Measure of Disease Progression: Objectivity or
      Illusion?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical nerve conduction studies (NCS) are often used as a secondary
      outcome measure in therapeutic trials, but show a high degree of inter-trial
      variability even when technical factors known to affect the recorded responses
      are minimised. This raises the intriguing possibility that some of the observed
      variability may reflect true changes in nerve activity. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was
      determine how much variability these factors might produce, and how this might
      affect the results of commonly used neuropathy rating scales. METHODS: A
      standardised protocol was repeated over forty consecutive trials by the same
      operators in two healthy subjects. The protocol included recordings that shared
      either a stimulating or a recording electrode position, such that changes due to
      electrode position could be excluded, and hand temperature was closely
      controlled. RESULTS: Despite controlling for inter-operator differences,
      electrode position, and hand temperature, the variability in sensory nerve action
      potential (SNAP) amplitude was extremely high (Range 23 MUV, CoV = 10.7-18.8).
      This variability was greater than the change in amplitude needed to move a
      subject from point 0 to point 4 on the CMT neuropathy rating scale. Neither
      temperature or electrode position accounted for all of this variability,
      suggesting that additional as yet unidentified factors are responsible.
      CONCLUSION: Even under closely controlled conditions and sophisticated laboratory
      methods, test-to-test variability can be significant. The factors responsible for
      this variability may be difficult to control, limiting the utility of single
      nerve recordings as a trial outcome measure.

PMID- 28869487
TI  - rhBMP-2 in an injectable Gelfoam carrier enhances consolidation of the distracted
      callus in a sheep model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A major problem associated with distraction osteogenesis is the long
      time required for consolidation. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to
      determine whether a percutaneous injection of recombinant human bone
      morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) in a Gelfoam carrier would enhance bone
      consolidation following distraction. METHODS: A unilateral tibial osteotomy
      combined with external stabilization was performed in 14 adult sheep. After a
      latency of four days, distraction was performed at 1.25 millimetres per day for
      20 days. On days 23 and 30, the sheep received an injection of rhBMP-2/Gelfoam or
      buffer/Gelfoam. During the following 50 days, radiographs and in vivo torsional
      stiffness measurements were obtained weekly. The effect of rhBMP-2 treatment post
      mortem was assessed using destructive biomechanical testing, quantitative CT and
      DXA analysis. RESULTS: The in vivo stiffness measurements of the sheep treated
      with rhBMP-2 were significantly higher than those of the carrier control group
      (p< 0.05). These in vivo data were verified by post-mortem biomechanical testing
      and quantitative CT analysis. The maximum torsional moment observed was 55%
      greater in the sheep treated with rhBMP-2. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the
      potential use of rhBMP-2 in an injectable carrier for enhancing consolidation, as
      it may ultimately lead to shorter treatment times for patients undergoing
      distraction procedures.

PMID- 28869486
TI  - Efficacy of Idebenone to Preserve Respiratory Function above Clinically
      Meaningful Thresholds for Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) in Patients with Duchenne
      Muscular Dystrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with DMD experience progressive restrictive respiratory
      disease and eventual respiratory failure. Standard of care guidelines command
      changes in disease management when forced vital capacity percent of predicted
      (FVC% p) falls below clinically relevant thresholds. The Phase 3 DELOS trial in
      patients with DMD demonstrated that idebenone reduces the loss of peak expiratory
      flow and FVC compared to placebo (Buyse GM, et al.; Lancet 2015; 385 : 1748-57).
      OBJECTIVE: Post-hoc analyses were conducted to assess whether treatment with
      idebenone could reduce the risk of patients dropping below clinically meaningful
      thresholds of FVC% p. METHODS: The DELOS trial enrolled DMD patients 10-18 years
      of age not using glucocorticoids to receive idebenone (N = 31) or placebo (N =
      33) for 12 months. Change from baseline in FVC and FVC% p was assessed by
      hospital spirometry and analyzed by mixed model of repeated measures and slope
      analysis and proportions of patients falling below clinically meaningful
      thresholds of FVC% p were compared. RESULTS: The change over 1 year in FVC and
      FVC% p showed a consistent pattern in favor of idebenone treatment across
      multiple analysis methods and fewer patients in the idebenone group declined by a
      margin of 10% or more in FVC and FVC% p compared to placebo. There were also
      fewer patients in the idebenone group (15%) with a decline below FVC% p of 50%
      compared to the placebo group (25%) and fewer patients in the idebenone group
      (28%) showed a decline below FVC% p of 50% or 40% or 30% compared to the placebo
      group (43%). CONCLUSIONS: These data added to the consistency and clinical
      meaningfulness of findings from the DELOS trial showing that idebenone can slow
      the loss of pulmonary function in patients with DMD.

PMID- 28869488
TI  - Sol-Gel Derived Active Material for Yb Thin-Disk Lasers.
AB  - A ytterbium doped active material for thin-disk laser was developed based on
      aluminosilicate and phosphosilicate glass matrices containing up to 30 mol%
      YbO1.5. Thick films and bulk samples were prepared by sol-gel processing. The
      structural nature of the base material was assessed by X-ray diffraction and
      Raman spectroscopy and the film morphology was evidenced by scanning electron
      microscopy. The photoluminescence (PL) properties of different compositions,
      including emission spectra and lifetimes, were also studied. Er3+ was used as an
      internal reference to compare the intensities of the Yb3+ PL peaks at ~ 1020 nm.
      The Yb3+ PL lifetimes were found to vary between 1.0 and 0.5 ms when the Yb
      concentration increased from 3 to 30 mol%. Based on a figure of merit, the best
      active material selected was the aluminosilicate glass composition 71 SiO2-14
      AlO1.5-15 YbO1.5 (in mol%). An active disk, ~ 36 MUm thick, consisting of a Bragg
      mirror, an aluminosilicate layer doped with 15 mol% Yb and an anti-reflective
      coating, was fabricated.

PMID- 28869489
TI  - Photoswitchable Fluorescent Diarylethene Derivatives with Thiophene 1,1-Dioxide
      Groups: Effect of Alkyl Substituents at the Reactive Carbons.
AB  - Photoswitching and fluorescent properties of sulfone derivatives of 1,2-bis(2
      alkyl-4-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)perfluorocyclopentene, 1-5, having methyl,
      ethyl, n-propyl, i-propyl, and i-butyl substituents at the reactive carbons (2-
      and 2'-positions) of the thiophene 1,1-dioxide rings were studied. Diarylethenes
      1-5 underwent isomerization reactions between open-ring and closed-ring forms
      upon alternate irradiation with ultraviolet (UV) and visible light and showed
      fluorescence in the closed-ring forms. The alkyl substitution at the reactive
      carbons affects the fluorescent property of the closed-ring isomers. The closed
      ring isomers 2b-5b with ethyl, n-propyl, i-propyl, and i-butyl substituents show
      higher fluorescence quantum yields than 1b with methyl substituents. In polar
      solvents, the fluorescence quantum yield of 1b markedly decreases, while 2b-5b
      maintain the relatively high fluorescence quantum yields. Although the
      cycloreversion quantum yields of the derivatives with methyl, ethyl, n-propyl,
      and i-propyl substituents are quite low and in the order of 10-5, introduction of
      i-butyl substituents was found to increase the yield up to the order of 10-3.
      These results indicate that appropriate alkyl substitution at the reactive
      carbons is indispensable for properly controlling the photoswitching and
      fluorescent properties of the photoswitchable fluorescent diarylethenes, which
      are potentially applicable to super-resolution fluorescence microscopies.

PMID- 28869490
TI  - The Impact of Hemodialysis Frequency and Duration on Blood Pressure Management
      and Quality of Life in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients.
AB  - Cardiovascular complications are the most prominent causes of morbidity and
      mortality among chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD)
      patients undergoing standard hemodialysis (HD) therapy. Cardiovascular disease
      risk is increased significantly through persistent hypertension and blood
      pressure (BP) fluctuation, which are the most common complications of CKD. It was
      hypothesized that an extended approach with lengthier and more frequent dialysis
      sessions, referred to in this paper as "extended hemodialysis" (EHD), can
      potentially lower and stabilize blood pressure, and consequently reduce the rate
      of morbidity and mortality. A greater reduction of volume (salt and water) with
      higher frequency can improve patient quality of life (QOL). Eleven papers,
      including clinical trials and systematic reviews were chosen and analyzed. The
      extracted data was used to evaluate the change in blood pressure levels between
      standard HD and EHD. Overall, the studies showed that EHD resulted in improved
      blood pressure management; therefore, we concluded that there will be a decrease
      in cardiovascular disease risk, stroke, and morbidity and mortality rate. There
      will be also an improvement in patient QOL due to beneficial effects of the EHD.

PMID- 28869491
TI  - Enhancing Youth Participation Using the PREP Intervention: Parents' Perspectives.
AB  - Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation (PREP), an innovative
      intervention aimed at modifying the environment and coaching youth/parents, was
      found to be effective in improving youth participation in chosen community
      activities. In order to complement existing quantitative evidence, this study
      examined parents' perspectives on the PREP approach. Twelve parents of youth with
      physical disabilities (12 to 18 years old) who received the PREP approach
      participated in individual semi-structured interviews following the 12-week
      intervention delivered by an occupational therapist. Thematic analysis revealed
      three inter-linked themes, the first of which was informative, describing the
      "nature of intervention", and led to two reflective themes: "multi-faceted
      effects of care" and "process of care". Parents highlighted the effect of the
      PREP intervention in a broad sense, extending beyond the accomplishment of the
      selected activities. This involved improvements on the physical, emotional, and
      social levels as well as in autonomy. Parents also discussed how their own needs
      were acknowledged through the intervention and recognized the unique role of the
      occupational therapist in supporting this process. The findings provide
      additional information about the usefulness of the PREP approach and describe the
      various benefits generated by a single intervention. Such knowledge can expand
      the therapeutic options for positive, health-promoting participation.

PMID- 28869492
TI  - The Lactate/Albumin Ratio: A Valuable Tool for Risk Stratification in Septic
      Patients Admitted to ICU.
AB  - The lactate/albumin ratio has been reported to be associated with mortality in
      pediatric patients with sepsis. We aimed to evaluate the lactate/albumin ratio
      for its prognostic relevance in a larger collective of critically ill (adult)
      patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). A total of 348 medical
      patients admitted to a German ICU for sepsis between 2004 and 2009 were included.
      Follow-up of patients was performed retrospectively between May 2013 and November
      2013. The association of the lactate/albumin ratio (cut-off 0.15) and both in
      hospital and post-discharge mortality was investigated. An optimal cut-off was
      calculated by means of Youden's index. The lactate/albumin ratio was elevated in
      non-survivors (p < 0.001). Patients with an increased lactate/albumin ratio were
      of similar age, but clinically in a poorer condition and had more pronounced
      laboratory signs of multi-organ failure. An increased lactate/albumin ratio was
      associated with adverse in-hospital mortality. An optimal cut-off of 0.15 was
      calculated and was associated with adverse long-term outcome even after
      correction for APACHE2 and SAPS2. We matched 99 patients with a lactate/albumin
      ratio >0.15 to case-controls with a lactate/albumin ratio <0.15 corrected for
      APACHE2 scores: The group with a lactate/albumin ratio >0.15 evidenced adverse in
      hospital outcome in a paired analysis with a difference of 27% (95%CI 10-43%; p <
      0.01). Regarding long-term mortality, again, patients in the group with a
      lactate/albumin ratio >0.15 showed adverse outcomes (p < 0.001). An increased
      lactate/albumin ratio was significantly associated with an adverse outcome in
      critically ill patients admitted to an ICU, even after correction for
      confounders. The lactate/albumin ratio might constitute an independent, readily
      available, and important parameter for risk stratification in the critically ill.

PMID- 28869493
TI  - Vaccines against Botulism.
AB  - Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) cause the flaccid paralysis of botulism by
      inhibiting the release of acetylcholine from motor neurons. There are seven
      serotypes of BoNT (A-G), with limited therapies, and no FDA approved vaccine for
      botulism. An investigational formalin-inactivated penta-serotype-BoNT/A-E toxoid
      vaccine was used to vaccinate people who are at high risk of contracting
      botulism. However, this formalin-inactivated penta-serotype-BoNT/A-E toxoid
      vaccine was losing potency and was discontinued. This article reviews the
      different vaccines being developed to replace the discontinued toxoid vaccine.
      These vaccines include DNA-based, viral vector-based, and recombinant protein
      based vaccines. DNA-based vaccines include plasmids or viral vectors containing
      the gene encoding one of the BoNT heavy chain receptor binding domains (HC).
      Viral vectors reviewed are adenovirus, influenza virus, rabies virus, Semliki
      Forest virus, and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis virus. Among the potential
      recombinant protein vaccines reviewed are HC, light chain-heavy chain
      translocation domain, and chemically or genetically inactivated holotoxin.

PMID- 28869495
TI  - What Can Synergetics Contribute to Embodied Aesthetics?
AB  - I deal with perception and action (e.g., movements) using results from
      synergetics, a comprehensive mathematical theory of the self-organized formation
      (emergence) of spatial, temporal, or functional structures in complex systems. I
      illustrate basic concepts such as order parameters (OPs), enslavement, complexity
      reduction, circular causality first by examples of well-known collective,
      spontaneous modes of human behavior such as rhythmic clapping of hands, and so
      forth, and then by face recognition. The role played by OPs depends on context.
      In the case of face (or pattern) recognition an OP represents the concept of an
      individual face (action of mind) and it enslaves the action (firing rates) of
      neurons (body). This insight allows me to interpret syndromes as order parameters
      playing their mind/body double role. I present criteria for the identification of
      OPs and discuss their general properties including error correction and remedy of
      deficiencies. Contact is made with a recent paper by Sabine Koch on embodied
      aesthetics. My approach includes the saturation of attention at various time
      scales (ambiguous figures/fashion). Adopting a psychological perspective, I
      discuss some ingredients of beauty such as proportionality and symmetry, but also
      the importance of irregularities.

PMID- 28869496
TI  - Electrochemical Properties of an Na4Mn9O18-Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite
      Synthesized via Spray Drying for an Aqueous Sodium-Ion Battery.
AB  - An aqueous sodium ion battery (ASIB) with metal Zn as anode and Na4Mn9O18-reduced
      graphene oxide (Na4Mn9O18-RGO) as cathode has been developed. In this work,
      spherical Na4Mn9O18-RGO composite particles were prepared via spray drying. The
      aqueous battery exhibits stable cyclability and high specific capacities.
      Typically, a high initial discharge capacity of 61.7 mAh.g-1 is attained at a
      high current rate of 4 C, and a stabilizing reversible capacity of 58.9 mAh.g-1
      was obtained after 150 cycles. The network interlaced by RGO sheets provided fast
      electron conduction paths and structural stability to accommodate the mechanical
      stresses induced by sodium insertion and extraction, so the Na4Mn9O18-RGO
      electrode displayed superior electrochemical performance in the ASIB.

PMID- 28869494
TI  - "Dicing and Splicing" Sphingosine Kinase and Relevance to Cancer.
AB  - Sphingosine kinase (SphK) is a lipid enzyme that maintains cellular lipid
      homeostasis. Two SphK isozymes, SphK1 and SphK2, are expressed from different
      chromosomes and several variant isoforms are expressed from each of the isozymes,
      allowing for the multi-faceted biological diversity of SphK activity.
      Historically, SphK1 is mainly associated with oncogenicity, however in reality,
      both SphK1 and SphK2 isozymes possess oncogenic properties and are recognized
      therapeutic targets. The absence of mutations of SphK in various cancer types has
      led to the theory that cancer cells develop a dependency on SphK signaling (hyper
      SphK signaling) or "non-oncogenic addiction". Here we discuss additional theories
      of SphK cellular mislocation and aberrant "dicing and splicing" as contributors
      to cancer cell biology and as key determinants of the success or failure of
      SphK/S1P (sphingosine 1 phosphate) based therapeutics.

PMID- 28869498
TI  - TiO2 Nanobelt@Co9S8 Composites as Promising Anode Materials for Lithium and
      Sodium Ion Batteries.
AB  - TiO2 anodes have attracted great attention due to their good cycling stability
      for lithium ion batteries and sodium ion batteries (LIBs and SIBs).
      Unfortunately, the low specific capacity and poor conductivity limit their
      practical application. The mixed phase TiO2 nanobelt (anatase and TiO2-B) based
      Co9S8 composites have been synthesized via the solvothermal reaction and
      subsequent calcination. During the formation process of hierarchical composites,
      glucose between TiO2 nanobelts and Co9S8 serves as a linker to increase the
      nucleation and growth of sulfides on the surface of TiO2 nanobelts. As anode
      materials for LIBs and SIBs, the composites combine the advantages of TiO2
      nanobelts with those of Co9S8 nanomaterials. The reversible specific capacity of
      TiO2 nanobelt@Co9S8 composites is up to 889 and 387 mAh.g-1 at 0.1 A.g-1 after
      100 cycles, respectively. The cooperation of excellent cycling stability of TiO2
      nanobelts and high capacities of Co9S8 nanoparticles leads to the good
      electrochemical performances of TiO2 nanobelt@Co9S8 composites.

PMID- 28869497
TI  - Die Another Day: Inhibition of Cell Death Pathways by Cytomegalovirus.
AB  - Multicellular organisms have evolved multiple genetically programmed cell death
      pathways that are essential for homeostasis. The finding that many viruses encode
      cell death inhibitors suggested that cellular suicide also functions as a first
      line of defence against invading pathogens. This theory was confirmed by studying
      viral mutants that lack certain cell death inhibitors. Cytomegaloviruses, a
      family of species-specific viruses, have proved particularly useful in this
      respect. Cytomegaloviruses are known to encode multiple death inhibitors that are
      required for efficient viral replication. Here, we outline the mechanisms used by
      the host cell to detect cytomegalovirus infection and discuss the methods
      employed by the cytomegalovirus family to prevent death of the host cell. In
      addition to enhancing our understanding of cytomegalovirus pathogenesis we detail
      how this research has provided significant insights into the cross-talk that
      exists between the various cell death pathways.

PMID- 28869499
TI  - Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Hydrolysates and Peptide
      Fractions Obtained by Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Selected Heat-Treated Edible
      Insects.
AB  - This study investigated the effect of heat treatment of edible insects on
      antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of peptides obtained by in vitro
      gastrointestinal digestion and absorption process thereof. The antioxidant
      potential of edible insect hydrolysates was determined as free radical-scavenging
      activity, ion chelating activity, and reducing power, whereas the anti
      inflammatory activity was expressed as lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase-2
      inhibitory activity. The highest antiradical activity against DPPH* (2,2-diphenyl
      1-picrylhydrazyl radical) was noted for a peptide fraction from baked cricket
      Gryllodes sigillatus hydrolysate (IC50 value 10.9 ug/mL) and that against ABTS*+
      (2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical) was the highest
      for raw mealworm Tenebrio molitor hydrolysate (inhibitory concentration (IC50
      value) 5.3 ug/mL). The peptides obtained from boiled locust Schistocerca gregaria
      hydrolysate showed the highest Fe2+ chelation ability (IC50 value 2.57 ug/mL);
      furthermore, the highest reducing power was observed for raw G. sigillatus
      hydrolysate (0.771). The peptide fraction from a protein preparation from the
      locust S. gregaria exhibited the most significant lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase
      2 inhibitory activity (IC50 value 3.13 ug/mL and 5.05 ug/mL, respectively).

PMID- 28869500
TI  - Using Naive Bayesian Analysis to Determine Imaging Characteristics of KRAS
      Mutations in Metastatic Colon Cancer.
AB  - Genotype, particularly Ras status, greatly affects prognosis and treatment of
      liver metastasis in colon cancer patients. This pilot aimed to apply word
      frequency analysis and a naive Bayes classifier on radiology reports to extract
      distinguishing imaging descriptors of wild-type colon cancer patients and those
      with v-Ki-ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) mutations. In
      this institutional-review-board-approved study, we compiled a SNaPshot mutation
      analysis dataset from 457 colon adenocarcinoma patients. From this cohort of
      patients, we analyzed radiology reports of 299 patients (> 32,000 reports) who
      either were wild-type (147 patients) or had a KRAS (152 patients) mutation. Our
      algorithm determined word frequency within the wild-type and mutant radiology
      reports and used a naive Bayes classifier to determine the probability of a given
      word belonging to either group. The classifier determined that words with a
      greater than 50% chance of being in the KRAS mutation group and which had the
      highest absolute probability difference compared to the wild-type group included:
      "several", "innumerable", "confluent", and "numerous" (p < 0.01). In contrast,
      words with a greater than 50% chance of being in the wild type group and with the
      highest absolute probability difference included: "few", "discrete", and "[no]
      recurrent" (p = 0.03). Words used in radiology reports, which have direct
      implications on disease course, tumor burden, and therapy, appear with differing
      frequency in patients with KRAS mutations versus wild-type colon adenocarcinoma.
      Moreover, likely characteristic imaging traits of mutant tumors make
      probabilistic word analysis useful in identifying unique characteristics and
      disease course, with applications ranging from radiology and pathology reports to
      clinical notes.

PMID- 28869501
TI  - The Use of a Virtual Online Debating Platform to Facilitate Student Discussion of
      Potentially Polarising Topics.
AB  - The merits of students exchanging views through the so-called human continuum
      exercise (HCE) are well established. The current article describes the creation
      of the virtual human continuum (VHC), an online platform that facilitates the
      same teaching exercise. It also reports feedback on the VHC from veterinary
      science students (n = 38). First-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students at
      the University of Sydney, Australia, trialed the platform and provided feedback.
      Most students agreed or strongly agreed that the VHC offered: a non-threatening
      environment for discussing emotive and challenging issues; and an opportunity to
      see how other people form ideas. It also made them think about how to express
      their ideas and make arguments; and left them feeling more comfortable about
      expressing their views using it than they would discussing ideas face-to-face
      (98%, 84%, 79% and 76%, respectively). All respondents agreed or strongly agreed
      that the VHC encouraged them to consider other opinions. These data suggest that
      the transition of the HCE to an online platform facilitates dialogue on difficult
      ethical issues in a supportive environment.

PMID- 28869502
TI  - A Review of the Safety and Efficacy of Vaccines as Prophylaxis for Clostridium
      difficile Infections.
AB  - This review aims to evaluate the literature on the safety and efficacy of novel
      toxoid vaccines for the prophylaxis of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) in
      healthy adults. Literature searches for clinical trials were performed through
      MEDLINE, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Web of Science using the keywords bacterial
      vaccines, Clostridium difficile, and vaccine. English-language clinical trials
      evaluating the efficacy and/or safety of Clostridium difficile toxoid vaccines
      that were completed and had results posted on ClinicalTrials.gov or in a
      published journal article were included. Six clinical trials were included. The
      vaccines were associated with mild self-reported adverse reactions, most commonly
      injection site reactions and flu-like symptoms, and minimal serious adverse
      events. Five clinical trials found marked increases in antibody production in
      vaccinated participants following each dose of the vaccine. Clinical trials
      evaluating C. difficile toxoid vaccines have shown them to be well tolerated and
      relatively safe. Surrogate markers of efficacy (seroconversion and geometric mean
      antibody levels) have shown significant immune responses to a vaccination series
      in healthy adults, indicating that they have the potential to be used as
      prophylaxis for CDI. However, more research is needed to determine the clinical
      benefits of the vaccines.

PMID- 28869503
TI  - An Adaptive Trajectory Clustering Method Based on Grid and Density in Mobile
      Pattern Analysis.
AB  - Clustering analysis is one of the most important issues in trajectory data
      mining. Trajectory clustering can be widely applied in the detection of hotspots,
      mobile pattern analysis, urban transportation control, and hurricane prediction,
      etc. To obtain good clustering performance, the existing trajectory clustering
      approaches need to input one or more parameters to calibrate the optimal values,
      which results in a heavy workload and computational complexity. To realize
      adaptive parameter calibration and reduce the workload of trajectory clustering,
      an adaptive trajectory clustering approach based on the grid and density (ATCGD)
      is proposed in this paper. The proposed ATCGD approach includes three parts:
      partition, mapping, and clustering. In the partition phase, ATCGD applies the
      average angular difference-based MDL (AD-MDL) partition method to ensure the
      partition accuracy on the premise that it decreases the number of the segments
      after the partition. During the mapping procedure, the partitioned segments are
      mapped into the corresponding cells, and the mapping relationship between the
      segments and the cells are stored. In the clustering phase, adopting the DBSCAN
      based method, the segments in the cells are clustered on the basis of the
      calibrated values of parameters from the mapping procedure. The extensive
      experiments indicate that although the results of the adaptive parameter
      calibration are not optimal, in most cases, the difference between the adaptive
      calibration and the optimal is less than 5%, while the run time of clustering can
      reduce about 95%, compared with the TRACLUS algorithm.

PMID- 28869504
TI  - Electrical Detection of Pneumococcus through the Nanoparticle Decoration Method.
AB  - A simple method of nanoparticle decoration can be used in the detection of
      pneumococcus. After the pneumococcal bacteria were captured by an antibody
      (pneumococcal C-polysaccharide (PnC) antibody) between the interdigitated
      electrodes, the gold nanoparticles conjugated with the PnC antibodies were let to
      bind onto an outer membrane of the bacteria. Upon successfully dense decoration,
      the bacteria surface will become conductive owing to the metal nanoparticles, and
      a distinctive conductance change between the electrodes can be observed. Since
      this success ratio, or the probability of the conductance change, reflects the
      concentration of the analyte, a number of repeated measurements can be used in
      the quantification of the bacteria. In this way, we have successfully detected S.
      pneumoniae in the range of 10-108 CFU/mL. The limit of detection in this work is
      lower than that in the commercial detection kit. We hope that the nanoparticle
      decoration method will play a role in the facile detection of various bacteria.

PMID- 28869505
TI  - A Survey on Data Quality for Dependable Monitoring in Wireless Sensor Networks.
AB  - Wireless sensor networks are being increasingly used in several application
      areas, particularly to collect data and monitor physical processes. Non
      functional requirements, like reliability, security or availability, are often
      important and must be accounted for in the application development. For that
      purpose, there is a large body of knowledge on dependability techniques for
      distributed systems, which provide a good basis to understand how to satisfy
      these non-functional requirements of WSN-based monitoring applications. Given the
      data-centric nature of monitoring applications, it is of particular importance to
      ensure that data are reliable or, more generically, that they have the necessary
      quality. In this survey, we look into the problem of ensuring the desired quality
      of data for dependable monitoring using WSNs. We take a dependability-oriented
      perspective, reviewing the possible impairments to dependability and the
      prominent existing solutions to solve or mitigate these impairments. Despite the
      variety of components that may form a WSN-based monitoring system, we give
      particular attention to understanding which faults can affect sensors, how they
      can affect the quality of the information and how this quality can be improved
      and quantified.

PMID- 28869508
TI  - An Effective Semantic Event Matching System in the Internet of Things (IoT)
      Environment.
AB  - IoT sensors use the publish/subscribe model for communication to benefit from its
      decoupled nature with respect to space, time, and synchronization. Because of the
      heterogeneity of communicating parties, semantic decoupling is added as a fourth
      dimension. The added semantic decoupling complicates the matching process and
      reduces its efficiency. Our proposed algorithm clusters subscriptions and events
      according to topic and performs the matching process within these clusters, which
      increases the throughput by reducing the matching time from the range of 16-18 ms
      to 2-4 ms. Moreover, the accuracy of matching is improved when subscriptions must
      be fully approximated, as demonstrated by an over 40% increase in F-score
      results. This work shows the benefit of clustering, as well as the improvement in
      the matching accuracy and efficiency achieved using this approach.

PMID- 28869507
TI  - Investigation on Eigenfrequency of a Cylindrical Shell Resonator under Resonator
      Top Trimming Methods.
AB  - The eigenfrequency of a resonator plays a significant role in the operation of a
      cylindrical shell vibrating gyroscope, and trimming is aimed at eliminating the
      frequency split that is the difference of eigenfrequency between two work modes.
      In this paper, the effects on eigenfrequency under resonator-top trimming methods
      that trim the top of the resonator wall are investigated by simulation and
      experiments. Simulation results show that the eigenfrequency of the trimmed mode
      increases in the holes-trimming method, whereas it decreases in the grooves
      trimming method. At the same time, the untrimmed modes decrease in both holes
      trimming and grooves-trimming methods. Moreover, grooves-trimming is more
      efficient than holes-trimming, which indicates that grooves-trimming can be a
      primary trimming method, and holes-trimming can be a precision trimming method.
      The rigidity condition after grooves-trimming is also studied to explain the
      variation of eigenfrequency. A femtosecond laser is employed in the resonator
      trimming experiment by the precise ablation of the material. Experimental results
      are in agreement with the simulation results.

PMID- 28869506
TI  - Critical Role of the Human ATP-Binding Cassette G1 Transporter in Cardiometabolic
      Diseases.
AB  - ATP-binding cassette G1 (ABCG1) is a member of the large family of ABC
      transporters which are involved in the active transport of many amphiphilic and
      lipophilic molecules including lipids, drugs or endogenous metabolites. It is now
      well established that ABCG1 promotes the export of lipids, including cholesterol,
      phospholipids, sphingomyelin and oxysterols, and plays a key role in the
      maintenance of tissue lipid homeostasis. Although ABCG1 was initially proposed to
      mediate cholesterol efflux from macrophages and then to protect against
      atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), it becomes now clear that
      ABCG1 exerts a larger spectrum of actions which are of major importance in
      cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). Beyond a role in cellular lipid homeostasis,
      ABCG1 equally participates to glucose and lipid metabolism by controlling the
      secretion and activity of insulin and lipoprotein lipase. Moreover, there is now
      a growing body of evidence suggesting that modulation of ABCG1 expression might
      contribute to the development of diabetes and obesity, which are major risk
      factors of CVD. In order to provide the current understanding of the action of
      ABCG1 in CMD, we here reviewed major findings obtained from studies in mice
      together with data from the genetic and epigenetic analysis of ABCG1 in the
      context of CMD.

PMID- 28869509
TI  - Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Curvularin-Type Metabolites from a Marine-Derived
      Fungal Strain Penicillium sp. SF-5859 in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced RAW264.7
      Macrophages.
AB  - Chemical study on the extract of a marine-derived fungal strain Penicillium sp.
      SF-5859 yielded a new curvularin derivative (1), along with eight known
      curvularin-type polyketides (2-9). The structures of these metabolites (1-9) were
      established by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D nuclear
      magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry (MS). In vitro anti
      inflammatory effects of these metabolites were evaluated in lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Among these metabolites, 3-9 were shown to
      strongly inhibit LPS-induced overproduction of nitric oxide (NO) and
      prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) with IC50 values ranging from 1.9 MUM to 18.1 MUM, and
      from 2.8 MUM to 18.7 MUM, respectively. In the further evaluation of signal
      pathways involved in these effects, the most active compound, (10E,15S)-10,11
      dehydrocurvularin (8) attenuated the expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS)
      and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Furthermore,
      compound 8 was shown to suppress the upregulation of pro-inflammatory mediators
      and cytokines via the inhibition of the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB)
      signaling pathway, but not through the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)
      pathway. Based on the comparisons of the different magnitude of the anti
      inflammatory effects of these structurally-related metabolites, it was suggested
      that the opening of the 12-membered lactone ring in curvularin-type metabolites
      and blocking the phenol functionality led to the significant decrease in their
      anti-inflammatory activity.

PMID- 28869510
TI  - A Hot-Polymer Fiber Fabry-Perot Interferometer Anemometer for Sensing Airflow.
AB  - This work proposes the first hot-polymer fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer
      (HPFFPI) anemometer for sensing airflow. The proposed HPFFPI is based on a single
      mode fiber (SMF) endface that is attached to a UV-cured polymer to form an
      ultracompact fiber Fabry-Perot microcavity. The proposed polymer microcavity was
      heated using a low-cost chip resistor with a controllable dc driving power to
      achieve a desired polymer's steady-state temperature (T) that exceeds the T of
      the surrounding environment. The polymer is highly sensitive to variations of T
      with high repeatability. When the hot polymer was cooled by the measured flowing
      air, the wavelength fringes of its optical spectra shifted. The HPFFPI
      anemometers have been experimentally evaluated for different cavity lengths and
      heating power values. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed HPFFPI
      responses well in terms of airflow measurement. A high sensitivity of 1.139
      nm/(m/s) and a good resolution of 0.0088 m/s over the 0~2.54 m/s range of airflow
      were achieved with a cavity length of 10 MUm and a heating power of 0.402 W.

PMID- 28869511
TI  - Analysis of Multi-Level Simultaneous Driving Technique for Capacitive Touch
      Sensors.
AB  - The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and driving levels of capacitive touch sensors
      determine the applicability of these sensors to thinner displays and sensor
      integrated modules. The simultaneous driving technique has been widely applied to
      capacitive touch sensors to cope with various types of environmental noise. A
      Hadamard matrix has been used to determine the driving code and multiplex
      capacitive signals required to increase the SNR and responsivity of touch
      sensors. Using multi-level Hadamard matrices, a new driving technique for sensing
      concurrent capacitive elements across multiple rows of a touch panel was
      developed. The technique provides more effective design choices than the existing
      bipolar driving method by supporting a variety of orders of matrices and regular
      capacity. The required TX voltage can be reduced by applying the Kronecker
      product for higher orders of simultaneous driving. A system model is presented
      for multiplexing capacitive signals to extract the SNR of the existing Hadamard
      matrices as well as one of the proposed multi-level sequences. In addition, the
      corresponding multi-level drivers and receivers were implemented to verify the
      theoretical expectations and simulation results of the proposed technique.

PMID- 28869512
TI  - The Application of a Novel Ceramic Liner Improves Bonding between Zirconia and
      Veneering Porcelain.
AB  - The adhesion of porcelain to zirconia is a key factor in the success of bilayered
      restorations. In this study, the efficacy of a novel experimental liner (EL)
      containing zirconia for improved bonding between zirconia and veneering porcelain
      was tested. Four ELs containing various concentrations (0, 3.0, 6.0, and 9.0 wt
      %) of zirconia were prepared. Testing determined the most effective EL (EL3
      containing 3.0 wt % zirconia) in terms of shear bond strength value (n = 15).
      Three different bar-shaped zirconia/porcelain bilayer specimens were prepared for
      a three-point flexural strength (TPFS) test (n = 15): no-liner (NL), commercial
      liner (CL), and EL3. Specimens were tested for TPFS with the porcelain under
      tension and the maximum load was measured at the first sign of fracture. The
      strength data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (alpha = 0.05)
      as well as Weibull distribution. When compared to NL, the CL application had no
      effect, while the EL3 application had a significant positive effect (p < 0.001)
      on the flexural strength. Weibull analysis also revealed the highest shape and
      scale parameters for group EL3. Within the limitations of this study, the novel
      ceramic liner containing 3.0 wt % zirconia (EL3) significantly enhanced the
      zirconia/porcelain interfacial bonding.

PMID- 28869514
TI  - Capturing Complex 3D Human Motions with Kernelized Low-Rank Representation from
      Monocular RGB Camera.
AB  - Recovering 3D structures from the monocular image sequence is an inherently
      ambiguous problem that has attracted considerable attention from several research
      communities. To resolve the ambiguities, a variety of additional priors, such as
      low-rank shape basis, have been proposed. In this paper, we make two
      contributions. First, we introduce an assumption that 3D structures lie on the
      union of nonlinear subspaces. Based on this assumption, we propose a Non-Rigid
      Structure from Motion (NRSfM) method with kernelized low-rank representation. To
      be specific, we utilize the soft-inextensibility constraint to accurately recover
      3D human motions. Second, we extend this NRSfM method to the marker-less 3D human
      pose estimation problem by combining with Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)
      based 2D human joint detectors. To evaluate the performance of our methods, we
      apply our marker-based method on several sequences from Utrecht Multi-Person
      Motion (UMPM) benchmark and CMU MoCap datasets, and then apply the marker-less
      method on the Human3.6M datasets. The experiments demonstrate that the kernelized
      low-rank representation is more suitable for modeling the complex deformation and
      the method consequently yields more accurate reconstructions. Benefiting from the
      CNN-based detector, the marker-less approach can be applied to more real-life
      applications.

PMID- 28869515
TI  - Characterizations of Anti-Alpha-Fetoprotein-Conjugated Magnetic Nanoparticles
      Associated with Alpha-Fetoprotein for Biomedical Applications.
AB  - In this work, we report characterizations of biofunctionalized magnetic
      nanoparticles (BMNPs) associated with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for biomedical
      applications. The example BMNP in this study is anti-alpha-fetoprotein (anti-AFP)
      conjugated onto dextran-coated Fe3O4 labeled as Fe3O4-anti-AFP, and the target is
      AFP. We characterize magnetic properties, such as increments of magnetization
      DeltaMH and effective relaxation time Deltataueff in the reaction process. It is
      found that both DeltaMH and Deltataueff are enhanced when the concentration of
      AFP, FAFP, increases. The enhancements are due to magnetic interactions among
      BMNPs in magnetic clusters, which contribute extra MH after the association with
      MH and in turn enhance taueff. The screening of patients carrying hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) is verified via DeltaMH/MH. The proposed method can be applied to
      detect a wide variety of analytes. The scaling characteristics of DeltaMH/MH show
      the potential to develop a vibrating sample magnetometer system with low field
      strength for clinic applications.

PMID- 28869516
TI  - Level of Theory and Solvent Effects on DASA Absorption Properties Prediction:
      Comparing TD-DFT, CASPT2 and NEVPT2.
AB  - Donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts (DASAs) are a very recent class of organic
      photoswitches that combine excellent properties, such as color and polarity
      change, a large structural modification, and excellent fatigue resistance.
      Despite their potential applications in different fields, very few studies have
      focused on rationalizing their electronic structure properties. Here, by means of
      different state-of-the-art theoretical methods, including solvent and vibrational
      effects, we show that while time dependent-density functional theory (TD-DFT) can
      qualitatively describe DASAs' excited states, multiconfigurational quantum
      chemistry methods along with dynamic electron correlation (CASPT2, NEVPT2) are
      required for a quantitative agreement with the experiment. This finding is
      reasoned based on the different charge transfer characteristics observed.
      Moreover, the TD-DFT computed two-photon absorption properties are reported and
      suggested to red-shift the absorption band, as required for biological
      applications.

PMID- 28869517
TI  - Eco-Friendly and Biodegradable Biopolymer Chitosan/Y2O3 Composite Materials in
      Flexible Organic Thin-Film Transistors.
AB  - The waste from semiconductor manufacturing processes causes serious pollution to
      the environment. In this work, a non-toxic material was developed under room
      temperature conditions for the fabrication of green electronics. Flexible organic
      thin-film transistors (OTFTs) on plastic substrates are increasingly in demand
      due to their high visible transmission and small size for use as displays and
      wearable devices. This work investigates and analyzes the structured formation of
      aqueous solutions of the non-toxic and biodegradable biopolymer, chitosan,
      blended with high-k-value, non-toxic, and biocompatible Y2O3 nanoparticles.
      Chitosan thin films blended with Y2O3 nanoparticles were adopted as the gate
      dielectric thin film in OTFTs, and an improvement in the dielectric properties
      and pinholes was observed. Meanwhile, the on/off current ratio was increased by
      100 times, and a low leakage current was observed. In general, the blended
      chitosan/Y2O3 thin films used as the gate dielectric of OTFTs are non-toxic,
      environmentally friendly, and operate at low voltages. These OTFTs can be used on
      surfaces with different curvature radii because of their flexibility.

PMID- 28869513
TI  - Gene Drive for Mosquito Control: Where Did It Come from and Where Are We Headed?
AB  - Mosquito-borne pathogens place an enormous burden on human health. The existing
      toolkit is insufficient to support ongoing vector-control efforts towards meeting
      disease elimination and eradication goals. The perspective that genetic
      approaches can potentially add a significant set of tools toward mosquito control
      is not new, but the recent improvements in site-specific gene editing with
      CRISPR/Cas9 systems have enhanced our ability to both study mosquito biology
      using reverse genetics and produce genetics-based tools. Cas9-mediated gene
      editing is an efficient and adaptable platform for gene drive strategies, which
      have advantages over innundative release strategies for introgressing desirable
      suppression and pathogen-blocking genotypes into wild mosquito populations; until
      recently, an effective gene drive has been largely out of reach. Many
      considerations will inform the effective use of new genetic tools, including gene
      drives. Here we review the lengthy history of genetic advances in mosquito
      biology and discuss both the impact of efficient site-specific gene editing on
      vector biology and the resulting potential to deploy new genetic tools for the
      abatement of mosquito-borne disease.

PMID- 28869518
TI  - Combining Theory-Driven Evaluation and Causal Loop Diagramming for Opening the
      'Black Box' of an Intervention in the Health Sector: A Case of Performance-Based
      Financing in Western Uganda.
AB  - Increased attention on "complexity" in health systems evaluation has resulted in
      many different methodological responses. Theory-driven evaluations and systems
      thinking are two such responses that aim for better understanding of the
      mechanisms underlying given outcomes. Here, we studied the implementation of a
      performance-based financing intervention by the Belgian Technical Cooperation in
      Western Uganda to illustrate a methodological strategy of combining these two
      approaches. We utilized a systems dynamics tool called causal loop diagramming
      (CLD) to generate hypotheses feeding into a theory-driven evaluation. Semi
      structured interviews were conducted with 30 health workers from two districts
      (Kasese and Kyenjojo) and with 16 key informants. After CLD, we identified three
      relevant hypotheses: "success to the successful", "growth and underinvestment",
      and "supervision conundrum". The first hypothesis leads to increasing
      improvements in performance, as better performance leads to more incentives,
      which in turn leads to better performance. The latter two hypotheses point to
      potential bottlenecks. Thus, the proposed methodological strategy was a useful
      tool for identifying hypotheses that can inform a theory-driven evaluation. The
      hypotheses are represented in a comprehensible way while highlighting the
      underlying assumptions, and are more easily falsifiable than hypotheses
      identified without using CLD.

PMID- 28869520
TI  - Multi-Scale Low-Entropy Method for Optimizing the Processing Parameters during
      Automated Fiber Placement.
AB  - Automated fiber placement (AFP) process includes a variety of energy forms and
      multi-scale effects. This contribution proposes a novel multi-scale low-entropy
      method aiming at optimizing processing parameters in an AFP process, where multi
      scale effect, energy consumption, energy utilization efficiency and mechanical
      properties of micro-system could be taken into account synthetically. Taking a
      carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg as an example, mechanical properties of macro-meso
      scale are obtained by Finite Element Method (FEM). A multi-scale energy transfer
      model is then established to input the macroscopic results into the microscopic
      system as its boundary condition, which can communicate with different scales.
      Furthermore, microscopic characteristics, mainly micro-scale adsorption energy,
      diffusion coefficient entropy-enthalpy values, are calculated under different
      processing parameters based on molecular dynamics method. Low-entropy region is
      then obtained in terms of the interrelation among entropy-enthalpy values,
      microscopic mechanical properties (interface adsorbability and matrix fluidity)
      and processing parameters to guarantee better fluidity, stronger adsorption,
      lower energy consumption and higher energy quality collaboratively. Finally, nine
      groups of experiments are carried out to verify the validity of the simulation
      results. The results show that the low-entropy optimization method can reduce
      void content effectively, and further improve the mechanical properties of
      laminates.

PMID- 28869521
TI  - A New Metre for Cheap, Quick, Reliable and Simple Thermal Transmittance (U-Value)
      Measurements in Buildings.
AB  - This paper deals with the thermal transmittance measurement focused on buildings
      and specifically in building energy retrofitting. Today, if many thermal
      transmittance measurements in a short time are needed, the current devices, based
      on the measurement of the heat flow through the wall, cannot carry out them,
      except if a great amount of devices are used at once along with intensive and
      tedious post-processing and analysis work. In this paper, from well-known
      physical laws, authors develop a methodology based on three temperatures
      measurements, which is implemented by a novel thermal transmittance metre. The
      paper shows its development step by step. As a result the developed device is
      modular, scalable, and fully wireless; it is capable of taking as many
      measurements at once as user needs. The developed system is compared working
      together on a same test to the currently used one based on heat flow. The results
      show that the developed metre allows carrying out thermal transmittance
      measurements in buildings in a cheap, quick, reliable and simple way.

PMID- 28869519
TI  - Differences in Sulfotyrosine Binding amongst CXCR1 and CXCR2 Chemokine Ligands.
AB  - Tyrosine sulfation, a post-translational modification found on many chemokine
      receptors, typically increases receptor affinity for the chemokine ligand. A
      previous bioinformatics analysis suggested that a sulfotyrosine (sY)-binding site
      on the surface of the chemokine CXCL12 may be conserved throughout the chemokine
      family. However, the extent to which receptor tyrosine sulfation contributes to
      chemokine binding has been examined in only a few instances. Computational
      solvent mapping correctly identified the conserved sulfotyrosine-binding sites on
      CXCL12 and CCL21 detected by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy,
      demonstrating its utility for hot spot analysis in the chemokine family. In this
      study, we analyzed five chemokines that bind to CXCR2, a subset of which also
      bind to CXCR1, to identify hot spots that could participate in receptor binding.
      A cleft containing the predicted sulfotyrosine-binding pocket was identified as a
      principal hot spot for ligand binding on the structures of CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL7,
      and CXCL8, but not CXCL5. Sulfotyrosine titrations monitored via NMR spectroscopy
      showed specific binding to CXCL8, but not to CXCL5, which is consistent with the
      predictions from the computational solvent mapping. The lack of CXCL5
      sulfotyrosine interaction and the presence of CXCL8-sulfotyrosine binding
      suggests a role for receptor post-translational modifications regulating ligand
      selectivity.

PMID- 28869522
TI  - Recombinant Botulinum Neurotoxin Hc Subunit (BoNT Hc) and Catalytically Inactive
      Clostridium botulinum Holoproteins (ciBoNT HPs) as Vaccine Candidates for the
      Prevention of Botulism.
AB  - There are few available medical countermeasures against botulism and the
      discontinuation of the pentavalent botulinum toxoid vaccine by the Centers for
      Disease Control and Prevention in 2011 has resulted in the need for a safe and
      effective prophylactic alternative. Advances in genetic engineering have resulted
      in subsequent vaccine efforts being primarily focused on the production of highly
      purified recombinant protein antigens representing one or more domains of the
      botulinum neurotoxin. Recombinant subunit vaccines based on the carboxy one-third
      of the toxin (Hc) developed in our lab against serotypes A-F have been shown to
      be safe and effective. However, in response to the identification of an ever
      increasing number of BoNT subtypes with significant amino acid heterogeneity, we
      have developed catalytically inactive BoNT holoproteins (ciBoNT HPs) in an
      attempt to elicit greater protective immunity to address these toxin variants.
      Here we report the production of ciBoNT/B1 HP, ciBoNT/C1 HP, ciBoNT/E1 HP and
      ciBoNT/F1 HP and compare the immunological and protective abilities of ciBoNT HPs
      and BoNT/A Hc, BoNT/B Hc, BoNT/C Hc, BoNT/E Hc and BoNT/F Hc vaccines when
      challenged with homologous and heterologous toxins. Our results suggest the
      ciBoNT HP vaccines exhibit superior potency after single vaccinations but
      multiple vaccinations with BoNT/Hc antigens resulted in increased survival rates
      at the toxin challenge levels used.

PMID- 28869523
TI  - An Optimum Specimen Geometry for Equibiaxial Experimental Tests of Reinforced
      Magnetorheological Elastomers with Iron Micro- and Nanoparticles.
AB  - The aim of this paper focused on obtaining the optimum cruciform geometry of
      reinforced magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) to perform homogeneous equibiaxial
      deformation tests, by using optimization algorithms and Finite Element Method
      (FEM) simulations. To validate the proposed specimen geometry, a digital image
      correlation (DIC) system was used to compare experimental result measurements
      with respect to those of FEM simulations. Moreover, and based on the optimum
      cruciform geometry, specimens produced from MRE reinforced with carbonyl-iron
      microparticles or iron nanoparticles were subjected to equibiaxial loading and
      unloading cycles to examine their Mullin's effect and their residual strain
      deformations.

PMID- 28869524
TI  - HPV16 E6 and E7 Upregulate Interferon-Induced Antiviral Response Genes ISG15 and
      IFIT1 in Human Trophoblast Cells.
AB  - Human papillomavirus (HPV) is suggested to infect trophoblasts in the placenta,
      and HPV infections are reported to be more prevalent in pregnancies with adverse
      outcomes. Results are however controversial, and studies investigating the
      molecular consequences of placental HPV infections are lacking. We studied HPV
      DNA localization in the placenta in cases of spontaneous abortion/spontaneous
      preterm delivery as well as in elective abortion/normal full-term delivery. Using
      in vitro assays, we investigated downstream effects of HPV16 E6 and E7 expression
      in trophoblast cells at the gene expression level in order to gain increased
      biological insight into the interaction between HPV and the cellular host.
      Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), combined with fluorescent
      immunohistochemistry (FIHC) to target the trophoblast marker CK7 clearly showed,
      that HPV DNA resides within syncytiotrophoblast cells in the placenta. In vitro
      HPV16 E6 and E7-transfected trophoblasts were analyzed by RNA sequencing, and
      results were validated by reverse transcription real time polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-qPCR) for selected genes in cell lines, as well as in patient
      material. We show that HPV16 E6 and E7 upregulate interferon-induced antiviral
      response genes ISG15 and IFIT1 in a human trophoblast cell line two-days post
      transfection. This is a response that is not observed when assessing the gene
      expression levels of the same genes in HPV16-positive placenta samples.
      Investigations on viral activity find that HPV16 E6 and E7 are not transcribed in
      patients, possibly suggesting that HPV16 syncytiotrophoblast infection may be
      latent. We conclude that HPV localizes to syncytiotrophoblast cells of the
      placenta, and that active expression of HPV16 E6 and E7 induce an immediate
      interferon-induced antiviral response in trophoblast cells, which is not present
      in HPV-positive placenta samples, suggesting latent infection.

PMID- 28869525
TI  - Persimmon Fruit Powder May Substitute Indolbi, a Synthetic Growth Regulator, in
      Soybean Sprout Cultivation.
AB  - Soybean sprouts are a major food item in Korea. Various studies have been carried
      out to enhance their yield and nutritional values. The objective of the present
      study was to examine the influence of persimmon fruit powder and Indolbi, a
      synthetic plant growth regulator, on the yield and nutritional value of soybean
      sprouts. Seeds were soaked in tap water containing 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.5% and 5.0%
      (w/v) persimmon fruit powder and the samples were named as PT-1, PT-2, PT-3, and
      PT-4, respectively. The yield increment was almost doubled in PT-3 and PT-4 than
      in the Indolbi treated sprouts on basis of the control. Vitamin C, isoflavones,
      and total phenolic contents as well as antioxidant potentials (determined by 1,1
      diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and superoxide anion radical scavenging assays) were
      also significantly (p < 0.05) higher in PT-3 compared to the Indolbi treatment
      and the control. However, total free amino acid and magnesium contents of Indolbi
      applied sprouts were higher than in the fruit powder treatments. The overall
      results of the present study showed that persimmon fruit powder can be an option
      to enhance the yield and nutritional value of soybean sprouts since, due to
      potential health hazards, the use of synthetic chemicals like Indolbi is less
      preferred than the natural products.

PMID- 28869526
TI  - Modulation of Immunogenicity and Conformation of HA1 Subunit of Influenza A Virus
      H1/N1 Hemagglutinin in Tubular Immunostimulating Complexes.
AB  - The HA1 subunit of the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) is a valuable antigen
      for the development of vaccines against flu due to the availability of most
      antigenic sites which are conformational. Therefore, a novel adjuvanted antigen
      delivery system, tubular immunostimulating complexes (TI-complexes) comprising
      monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) from different marine macrophytes as a lipid
      matrix for an antigen, was applied to enhance the immunogenicity of recombinant
      HA1 of influenza A H1N1 and to study the relation between its immunogenicity and
      conformation. The content of anti-HA1 antibodies and cytokines was estimated by
      ELISA after the immunization of mice with HA1 alone, and HA1 was incorporated in
      TI-complexes based on different MGDGs isolated from green algae Ulva lactuca,
      brown algae Sargassum pallidum, and seagrass Zostera marina. Conformational
      changes of HA1 were estimated by differential scanning calorimetry and intrinsic
      fluorescence. It was shown that the adjuvant activity of TI-complexes depends on
      the microviscosity of MGDGs, which differently influence the conformation of HA1.
      The highest production of anti-HA1 antibodies (compared with the control) was
      induced by HA1 incorporated in a TI-complex based on MGDG from S. pallidum, which
      provided the relaxation of the spatial structure and, likely, the proper
      presentation of the antigen to immunocompetent cells.

PMID- 28869527
TI  - Fine-Scale Spatial Variability of Pedestrian-Level Particulate Matters in Compact
      Urban Commercial Districts in Hong Kong.
AB  - Particulate matters (PM) at the pedestrian level significantly raises the health
      impacts in the compact urban environment of Hong Kong. A detailed investigation
      of the fine-scale spatial variation of pedestrian-level PM is necessary to assess
      the health risk to pedestrians in the outdoor environment. However, the
      collection of PM data is difficult in the compact urban environment of Hong Kong
      due to the limited amount of roadside monitoring stations and the complicated
      urban context. In this study, we measured the fine-scale spatial variability of
      the PM in three of the most representative commercial districts of Hong Kong
      using a backpack outdoor environmental measuring unit. Based on the measurement
      data, 13 types of geospatial interpolation methods were examined for the spatial
      mapping of PM2.5 and PM10 with a group of building geometrical covariates.
      Geostatistical modelling was adopted as the basis of spatial interpolation of the
      PM. The results show that the original cokriging with the exponential kernel
      function provides the best performance in the PM mapping. Using the fine-scale
      building geometrical features as covariates slightly improves the interpolation
      performance. The study results also imply that the fine-scale, localized
      pollution emission sources heavily influence pedestrian exposure to PM.

PMID- 28869528
TI  - The Spread of Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Coexistence with
      Helicoverpa zea in Southeastern Brazil.
AB  - Helicoverpa armigera, one of the world's most destructive crop pests, was first
      documented in Brazil in 2013. Within a few months, this polyphagous insect had
      spread over the Northeast and Central-West of Brazil, causing great agricultural
      losses. With several reports of populations resistant to pesticides and Bt crops
      around the world, there is great concern about the spread of this pest in Brazil.
      There is confusion about the actual distribution of this species due to the high
      morphological similarity with the native corn earworm Helicoverpa zea, which may
      also coexist with H. armigera in the field. Our aims here were (i) to confirm its
      presence in the State of Minas Gerais, one of the most important agricultural
      regions in the country; and (ii) to assess the co-occurrence of this pest with
      the congeneric corn earworm H. zea. Using molecular screening, we confirmed the
      presence of H. armigera in Bt-crops of soybean and cotton, and non-Bt-crops of
      soybean, cotton and maize. Mixed infestations of H. armigera with H. zea were
      found in non-Bt maize (Vicosa, Southeastern Minas Gerais). These results
      highlight the need for adequate control strategies for H. armigera in Brazil, to
      deal with its polyphagous feeding habits, high dispersal capacity and possible
      risks of hybridization with congeneric species.

PMID- 28869530
TI  - Unexplained Dyspnea in a Young Adult with Epstein-Barr Virus Infectious
      Mononucleosis: Pulmonary Involvement or Co-Infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae
      Pneumonia?
AB  - Clinically, in young immunocompetent adults, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) usually
      manifests as infectious mononucleosis (IM). Typical clinical findings of EBV IM
      include fever, profound fatigue, pharyngitis, bilateral posterior cervical
      adenopathy, and splenomegaly. Respiratory involvement with EBV IM may occur, but
      is distinctly rare. We present a case of a 20 year old female who with classic
      EBV IM, but was inexplicably dyspneic and hypoxemic. Further diagnostic testing
      confirmed co-infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae. As a non-zoonotic atypical
      community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), M. pneumoniae may rarely be accompanied by
      severe hypoxemia and even acute respiratory distress syndrome. She represented a
      diagnostic dilemma regarding the cause of her hypoxemia, i.e., due to EBV IM with
      pulmonary involvement or severe M. pneumoniae CAP. The patient slowly recovered
      with respiratory quinolone therapy.

PMID- 28869529
TI  - Different Covalent Immobilizations Modulate Lipase Activities of Hypocrea
      pseudokoningii.
AB  - Enzyme immobilization can promote several advantages for their industrial
      application. In this work, a lipase from Hypocrea pseudokoningii was efficiently
      linked to four chemical supports: agarose activated with cyanogen bromide (CNBr),
      glyoxyl-agarose (GX), MANAE-agarose activated with glutaraldehyde (GA) and GA
      crosslinked with glutaraldehyde. Results showed a more stable lipase with both
      the GA-crosslinked and GA derivatives, compared to the control (CNBr), at 50 
      degrees C, 60  degrees C and 70  degrees C. Moreover, all derivatives were
      stabilized when incubated with organic solvents at 50%, such as ethanol,
      methanol, n-propanol and cyclohexane. Furthermore, lipase was highly activated (4
      fold) in the presence of cyclohexane. GA-crosslinked and GA derivatives were more
      stable than the CNBr one in the presence of organic solvents. All derivatives
      were able to hydrolyze sardine, acai (Euterpe oleracea), cotton seed and grape
      seed oils. However, during the hydrolysis of sardine oil, GX derivative showed to
      be 2.3-fold more selectivity (eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/docosahexaenoic acid
      (DHA) ratio) than the control. Additionally, the types of immobilization
      interfered with the lipase enantiomeric preference. Unlike the control, the other
      three derivatives preferably hydrolyzed the R-isomer of 2-hydroxy-4
      phenylbutanoic acid ethyl ester and the S-isomer of 1-phenylethanol acetate
      racemic mixtures. On the other hand, GX and CNBr derivatives preferably
      hydrolyzed the S-isomer of butyryl-2-phenylacetic acid racemic mixture while the
      GA and GA-crosslink derivatives preferably hydrolyzed the R-isomer. However, all
      derivatives, including the control, preferably hydrolyzed the methyl mandelate S
      isomer. Moreover, the derivatives could be used for eight consecutive cycles
      retaining more than 50% of their residual activity. This work shows the
      importance of immobilization as a tool to increase the lipase stability to
      temperature and organic solvents, thus enabling the possibility of their
      application at large scale processes.

PMID- 28869531
TI  - Potential Application of Eicosapentaenoic Acid Monoacylglyceride in the
      Management of Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that marine omega-3 oils are involved in
      the reduction of cancer risk and progression. However, the anticancer effect of
      omega-3 monoglyceride on colorectal cancer has yet to be assessed. The goal of
      this study was to evaluate the anti-cancer effects of eicosapentaenoic acid
      monoglyceride (MAG-EPA) in HCT116 colorectal carcinoma cells. METHODS: The effect
      of MAG-EPA was evaluated in vitro on HCT116 cells and in vivo on mouse model of
      HCT116 xenograft. RESULTS: Our data reveal that MAG-EPA decreased cell
      proliferation and induced apoptosis in HCT116 cells. In a xenograft mouse model,
      daily per os administration of MAG-EPA reduced tumor growth. Furthermore, MAG-EPA
      treatments decreased EGFR, VEGFR, and AKT activation pathways and reduced VEGF
      and HIF1alpha expression levels in tumors. CONCLUSION: MAG-EPA may promote
      apoptosis and inhibit growth of tumors by suppressing EGFR and VEGFR activation
      pathways. Altogether, these data provide new evidence regarding the mode of
      action of MAG-EPA in colorectal cancer cells.

PMID- 28869532
TI  - CFTR-NHERF2-LPA2 Complex in the Airway and Gut Epithelia.
AB  - The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a cAMP- and
      cGMP-regulated chloride (Cl-) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) channel localized primarily
      at the apical plasma membrane of epithelial cells lining the airway, gut and
      exocrine glands, where it is responsible for transepithelial salt and water
      transport. Several human diseases are associated with altered CFTR channel
      function. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by the absence or dysfunction of CFTR
      channel activity, resulting from mutations in the gene. Secretory diarrhea is
      caused by the hyperactivation of CFTR channel activity in the gastrointestinal
      tract. CFTR is a validated target for drug development to treat CF, and extensive
      research has been conducted to develop CFTR inhibitors for therapeutic
      interventions of secretory diarrhea. The intracellular processing, trafficking,
      apical membrane localization, and channel function of CFTR are regulated by
      dynamic protein-protein interactions in a complex network. In this paper, we
      review the current knowledge of a macromolecular complex of CFTR, Na+/H+
      exchanger regulatory factor 2 (NHERF2), and lysophosphatidic acids (LPA) receptor
      2 (LPA2) at the apical plasma membrane of airway and gut epithelial cells, and
      discuss its relevance in human physiology and diseases. We also explore the
      possibilities of targeting this complex to fine tune CFTR channel activity, with
      a hope to open up new avenues to develop novel therapies for CF and secretory
      diarrhea.

PMID- 28869533
TI  - Construction of a Fluorescent H2O2 Biosensor with Chitosan 6-OH Immobilized beta
      Cyclodextrin Derivatives.
AB  - In the present work, a fluorescent H2O2 biosensor was constructed by
      encapsulating fluorescent probe Rhodamine B (RhmB) in the hydrophobic cavity of
      the cyclodextrin (beta-CD) and immobilizing catalase (CAT) on the 2-NH2 of
      chitosan (CTS) in a chitosan 6-OH immobilized beta-cyclodextrin derivative (CTS-6
      CD). The inclusion complex of CTS-6-CD to RhmB (CTS-6-CD-RhmB) was prepared by a
      solution method. Its structure and inclusion efficiency were determined by
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and
      fluorescence spectroscopy (FL). CAT was immobilized on CTS-6-CD-RhmB to
      eventually form the functional membrane, CTS-6-CD-RhmB-CAT, via glutaraldehyde
      crosslinking, which was further characterized by FTIR and FL, and used as a H2O2
      biosensor. The functional membrane was used to simultaneously oxidize and detect
      H2O2. The detection condition was optimized as pH 8, a reaction temperature of 25
      degrees C, and an immobilized enzyme concentration of 2 * 10-4 mol/L. The
      fluorescence response of the biosensor exhibited a good linear relationship with
      the concentration of H2O2 in the range of 20 mMU-300 MUM and the detection limit
      of 10-8 mol/L.

PMID- 28869534
TI  - Tongue Sole CD209: A Pattern-Recognition Receptor that Binds a Broad Range of
      Microbes and Promotes Phagocytosis.
AB  - CD209 is an immune receptor that plays an important role in the initiation of
      innate immunity and activation of adaptive immunity in mammals. However, much
      less is known about the immunological function of CD209 in lower vertebrates. In
      the present study, we examined the immune effect of a CD209 homologue (CsCD209)
      from the teleost fish tongue sole Cynoglossus semilaevis. CsCD209 possesses a
      lectin domain that shares high levels of similarity with the lectin domains of
      human and mouse CD209. CsCD209 expression was most abundant in kidney and blood
      and was significantly upregulated during bacterial infection. CsCD209 exhibited a
      subcellular localization mainly on the cell surface of myelomonocytes.
      Recombinant CsCD209 displayed apparent binding capacities to a broad range of
      bacteria and fungi, and significantly promoted the phagocytosis of the bound
      bacteria by C. semilaevis leukocytes. Collectively, the results indicate that
      teleost CD209 serves as a pattern recognition receptor that exerts an influence
      on the phagocytosis process during pathogen infections.

PMID- 28869536
TI  - Video Synchronization With Bit-Rate Signals and Correntropy Function.
AB  - We propose an approach for the synchronization of video streams using
      correntropy. Essentially, the time offset is calculated on the basis of the
      instantaneous transfer rates of the video streams that are extracted in the form
      of a univariate signal known as variable bit-rate (VBR). The state-of-the-art
      approach uses a window segmentation strategy that is based on consensual zero
      mean normalized cross-correlation (ZNCC). This strategy has an elevated
      computational complexity, making its application to synchronizing online data
      streaming difficult. Hence, our proposal uses a different window strategy that,
      together with the correntropy function, allows the synchronization to be
      performed for online applications. This provides equivalent synchronization
      scores with a rapid offset determination as the streams come into the system. The
      efficiency of our approach has been verified through experiments that demonstrate
      its viability with values that are as precise as those obtained by ZNCC. The
      proposed approach scored 81 % in time reference classification against the
      equivalent 81 % of the state-of-the-art approach, requiring much less
      computational power.

PMID- 28869535
TI  - Mitochondrial-Targeted Antioxidant Maintains Blood Flow, Mitochondrial Function,
      and Redox Balance in Old Mice Following Prolonged Limb Ischemia.
AB  - Aging is a major factor in the decline of limb blood flow with ischemia. However,
      the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We investigated the role of
      mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) with regard to limb perfusion
      recovery in aging during ischemia. We performed femoral artery ligation in young
      and old mice with or without treatment with a scavenger of mitochondrial
      superoxide, MitoTEMPO (180 MUg/kg/day, from pre-operative day 7 to post-operative
      day (POD) 21) infusion using an implanted mini-pump. The recoveries of cutaneous
      blood flow in the ischemic hind limb were lower in old mice than in young mice
      but were improved in MitoTEMPO-treated old mice. Mitochondrial DNA damage
      appeared in ischemic aged muscles but was eliminated by MitoTEMPO treatment. For
      POD 2, MitoTEMPO treatment suppressed the expression of p53 and the ratio of
      Bax/Bcl2 and upregulated the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF
      1alpha) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in ischemic aged skeletal
      muscles. For POD 21, MitoTEMPO treatment preserved the expression of PGC-1alpha
      in ischemic aged skeletal muscle. The ischemic soleus of old mice showed a lower
      mitochondrial respiratory control ratio in POD 21 compared to young mice, which
      was recovered in MitoTEMPO-treated old mice. Scavenging of mitochondrial
      superoxide attenuated mitochondrial DNA damage and preserved the mitochondrial
      respiration, in addition to suppression of the expression of p53 and preservation
      of the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator
      1alpha (PGC-1alpha) in ischemic skeletal muscles with aging. Resolution of
      excessive mitochondrial superoxide could be an effective therapy to recover blood
      flow of skeletal muscle during ischemia in senescence.

PMID- 28869537
TI  - An Adaptive Classification Strategy for Reliable Locomotion Mode Recognition.
AB  - Algorithms for locomotion mode recognition (LMR) based on surface
      electromyography and mechanical sensors have recently been developed and could be
      used for the neural control of powered prosthetic legs. However, the variations
      in input signals, caused by physical changes at the sensor interface and human
      physiological changes, may threaten the reliability of these algorithms. This
      study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of applying adaptive pattern
      classifiers for LMR. Three adaptive classifiers, i.e., entropy-based adaptation
      (EBA), LearnIng From Testing data (LIFT), and Transductive Support Vector Machine
      (TSVM), were compared and offline evaluated using data collected from two able
      bodied subjects and one transfemoral amputee. The offline analysis indicated that
      the adaptive classifier could effectively maintain or restore the performance of
      the LMR algorithm when gradual signal variations occurred. EBA and LIFT were
      recommended because of their better performance and higher computational
      efficiency. Finally, the EBA was implemented for real-time human-in-the-loop
      prosthesis control. The online evaluation showed that the applied EBA effectively
      adapted to changes in input signals across sessions and yielded more reliable
      prosthesis control over time, compared with the LMR without adaptation. The
      developed novel adaptive strategy may further enhance the reliability of neurally
      controlled prosthetic legs.

PMID- 28869538
TI  - Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Mechanical Characteristics of
      Carbon Fiber Sensors.
AB  - Carbon fiber-based materials possess excellent mechanical properties and show
      linear piezoresistive behavior, which make them good candidate materials for
      strain measurements. They have the potential to be used as sensors for various
      applications such as damage detection, stress analysis and monitoring of
      manufacturing processes and quality. In this paper, carbon fiber sensors are
      prepared to perform reliable strain measurements. Both experimental and
      computational studies were carried out on commercially available carbon fibers in
      order to understand the response of the carbon fiber sensors due to changes in
      the axial strain. Effects of parameters such as diameter, length, and epoxy
      hardener ratio are discussed. The developed numerical model was calibrated using
      laboratory-based experimental data. The results of the current study show that
      sensors with shorter lengths have relatively better sensitivity. This is due to
      the fact short fibers have low initial resistance, which will increase the change
      of resistance over initial resistance. Carbon fibers with low number of filaments
      exhibit linear behavior while nonlinear behavior due to transverse resistance is
      significant in fibers with large number of filaments. This study will allow
      researchers to predict the behavior of the carbon fiber sensor in real life and
      it will serve as a basis for designing carbon fiber sensors to be used in
      different applications.

PMID- 28869540
TI  - Secure Communications in CIoT Networks with a Wireless Energy Harvesting
      Untrusted Relay.
AB  - The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a bright prospect that a variety of
      common appliances can connect to one another, as well as with the rest of the
      Internet, to vastly improve our lives. Unique communication and security
      challenges have been brought out by the limited hardware, low-complexity, and
      severe energy constraints of IoT devices. In addition, a severe spectrum scarcity
      problem has also been stimulated by the use of a large number of IoT devices. In
      this paper, cognitive IoT (CIoT) is considered where an IoT network works as the
      secondary system using underlay spectrum sharing. A wireless energy harvesting
      (EH) node is used as a relay to improve the coverage of an IoT device. However,
      the relay could be a potential eavesdropper to intercept the IoT device's
      messages. This paper considers the problem of secure communication between the
      IoT device (e.g., sensor) and a destination (e.g., controller) via the wireless
      EH untrusted relay. Since the destination can be equipped with adequate energy
      supply, secure schemes based on destination-aided jamming are proposed based on
      power splitting (PS) and time splitting (TS) policies, called intuitive secure
      schemes based on PS (Int-PS), precoded secure scheme based on PS (Pre-PS),
      intuitive secure scheme based on TS (Int-TS) and precoded secure scheme based on
      TS (Pre-TS), respectively. The secure performances of the proposed schemes are
      evaluated through the metric of probability of successfully secure transmission (
      P S S T ), which represents the probability that the interference constraint of
      the primary user is satisfied and the secrecy rate is positive. P S S T is
      analyzed for the proposed secure schemes, and the closed form expressions of P S
      S T for Pre-PS and Pre-TS are derived and validated through simulation results.
      Numerical results show that the precoded secure schemes have better P S S T than
      the intuitive secure schemes under similar power consumption. When the secure
      schemes based on PS and TS polices have similar P S S T , the average transmit
      power consumption of the secure scheme based on TS is lower. The influences of
      power splitting and time slitting ratios are also discussed through simulations.

PMID- 28869539
TI  - A Robust Deep-Learning-Based Detector for Real-Time Tomato Plant Diseases and
      Pests Recognition.
AB  - Plant Diseases and Pests are a major challenge in the agriculture sector. An
      accurate and a faster detection of diseases and pests in plants could help to
      develop an early treatment technique while substantially reducing economic
      losses. Recent developments in Deep Neural Networks have allowed researchers to
      drastically improve the accuracy of object detection and recognition systems. In
      this paper, we present a deep-learning-based approach to detect diseases and
      pests in tomato plants using images captured in-place by camera devices with
      various resolutions. Our goal is to find the more suitable deep-learning
      architecture for our task. Therefore, we consider three main families of
      detectors: Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN),
      Region-based Fully Convolutional Network (R-FCN), and Single Shot Multibox
      Detector (SSD), which for the purpose of this work are called "deep learning meta
      architectures". We combine each of these meta-architectures with "deep feature
      extractors" such as VGG net and Residual Network (ResNet). We demonstrate the
      performance of deep meta-architectures and feature extractors, and additionally
      propose a method for local and global class annotation and data augmentation to
      increase the accuracy and reduce the number of false positives during training.
      We train and test our systems end-to-end on our large Tomato Diseases and Pests
      Dataset, which contains challenging images with diseases and pests, including
      several inter- and extra-class variations, such as infection status and location
      in the plant. Experimental results show that our proposed system can effectively
      recognize nine different types of diseases and pests, with the ability to deal
      with complex scenarios from a plant's surrounding area.

PMID- 28869542
TI  - Paint it Black: Using Change-Point Analysis to Investigate Increasing
      Vulnerability to Depression towards the End of Vincent van Gogh's Life.
AB  - This study investigated whether Vincent van Gogh became increasingly self-focused
      and thus vulnerable to depression-towards the end of his life, through a
      quantitative analysis of his written pronoun use over time. A change-point
      analysis was conducted on the time series formed by the pronoun use in Van Gogh's
      letters. We used time as a predictor to see whether there was evidence for
      increased self-focus towards the end of Van Gogh's life, and we compared this to
      the pattern in the letters written before his move to Arles. Specifically, we
      examined Van Gogh's use of first person singular pronouns (FPSP) and first person
      plural pronouns (FPPP) in the 415 letters he wrote while working as an artist
      before his move to Arles, and in the next 248 letters he wrote after his move to
      Arles until his death in Auvers-sur-Oise. During the latter period, Van Gogh's
      use of FPSP showed an annual increase of 0.68% (SE = 0.15, p < 0.001) and his use
      of FPPP showed an annual decrease of 0.23% (SE = 0.04, p < 0.001), indicating
      increasing self-focus and vulnerability to depression. This trend differed from
      Van Gogh's pronoun use in the former period (which showed no significant trend in
      FPSP, and an annual increase of FPPP of 0.03%, SE = 0.02, p = 0.04). This study
      suggests that Van Gogh's death was preceded by a gradually increasing self-focus
      and vulnerability to depression. It also illustrates how existing methods (i.e.,
      quantitative linguistic analysis and change-point analysis) can be combined to
      study specific research questions in innovative ways.

PMID- 28869541
TI  - Spread of Tst-Positive Staphylococcus aureus Strains Belonging to ST30 Clone
      among Patients and Healthcare Workers in Two Intensive Care Units.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of infections. Toxic shock syndrome toxin
      (TSST-1) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) are associated with severe
      clinical syndromes. S. aureus colonizing isolates recovered from healthcare
      workers and patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital
      comprising Group A were compared with those from adult non-ICU carriers (Group
      B). mecA, lukS/lukF-PV (Panton-Valentine leukocidin, PVL), and tst (toxic shock
      syndrome toxin) gene carriage was detected by PCR. Clones were identified in all
      methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and toxin-positive methicillin-susceptible
      strains (MSSA) by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), agr groups, and multi
      locus sequencing typing (MLST). Group A included 90 S. aureus isolates, whereas
      Group B 53. PVL was more frequently found among MRSA vs. MSSA (p < 0.001) and in
      strains of Group B as compared to Group A (p < 0.001), consistent with the spread
      of ST80-IV. Higher incidence of tst gene carriage was identified among MSSA vs.
      MRSA (P 0.005) belonging mainly to ST30, and Group A vs. Group B (P 0.002). The
      wide dissemination of ST80-IV mainly in the community is responsible for a high
      percentage of PVL-positive MRSA, while silent spread of tst-positive S. aureus
      clones among ICU patients and personnel poses a threat of hospital transmission
      and possible severe infections.

PMID- 28869543
TI  - Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Prepared via a Crushing
      Method Involving a High Shear Mixer.
AB  - The disposal of agricultural wastes such as fresh banana peels (BPs) is an
      environmental issue. In this work, fresh BPs were successfully transformed into
      nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs) by using a high shear mixer
      facilitated crushing method (HSM-FCM) followed by carbonization under Ar
      atmosphere. Ammonia-activated N-CNPs (N-CNPs-NH3) were prepared via subsequent
      ammonia activation treatments at a high temperature. The as-prepared N-CNPs and N
      CNPs-NH3 materials both exhibited high surface areas (above 700 m2/g) and mean
      particle size of 50 nm. N-CNPs-NH3 showed a relatively higher content of
      pyridinic and graphitic N compared to N-CNPs. In alkaline media, N-CNPs-NH3
      showed superior performances as an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst (E0 =
      -0.033 V, J = 2.4 mA/cm2) compared to N-CNPs (E0 = 0.07 V, J = 1.8 mA/cm2). In
      addition, N-CNPs-NH3 showed greater oxygen reduction stability and superior
      methanol crossover avoidance than a conventional Pt/C catalyst. This study
      provides a novel, simple, and scalable approach to valorize biomass wastes by
      synthesizing highly efficient electrochemical ORR catalysts.

PMID- 28869545
TI  - Hollow Au-Ag Alloy Nanorices and Their Optical Properties.
AB  - Hollow noble metal nanoparticles have excellent performance not only in surface
      catalysis but also in optics. In this work, the hollow Au-Ag alloy nanorices are
      fabricated by the galvanic replacement reaction. The dark-field spectrum points
      out that there is a big difference in the optical properties between the pure Ag
      nanorices and the hollow alloy nanorices that exhibit highly tunable localized
      surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) and that possess larger radiative damping,
      which is also indicated by the finite element method. Furthermore, the surface
      enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and oxidation test indicate that hollow Au-Ag
      alloy nanorices show good anti-oxidation and have broad application prospects in
      surface-plasmon-related fields.

PMID- 28869544
TI  - Potential Roles of Intrinsic Disorder in Maternal-Effect Proteins Involved in the
      Maintenance of DNA Methylation.
AB  - DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that needs to be
      carefully controlled as a prerequisite for normal early embryogenesis. Compelling
      evidence now suggests that four maternal-effect proteins, primordial germ cell 7
      (PGC7), zinc finger protein 57 (ZFP57), tripartite motif-containing 28 (TRIM28)
      and DNA methyltransferase (cytosine-5) 1 (DNMT1) are involved in the maintenance
      of DNA methylation. However, it is still not fully understood how these maternal
      effect proteins maintain the DNA methylation imprint. We noticed that a feature
      common to these proteins is the presence of significant levels of intrinsic
      disorder so in this study we started from an intrinsic disorder perspective to
      try to understand these maternal-effect proteins. To do this, we firstly analysed
      the intrinsic disorder predispositions of PGC7, ZFP57, TRIM28 and DNMT1 by using
      a set of currently available computational tools and secondly conducted an
      intensive literature search to collect information on their interacting partners
      and structural characterization. Finally, we discuss the potential effect of
      intrinsic disorder on the function of these proteins in maintaining DNA
      methylation.

PMID- 28869546
TI  - Energy-Efficient Optimal Power Allocation in Integrated Wireless Sensor and
      Cognitive Satellite Terrestrial Networks.
AB  - This paper proposes novel satellite-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which
      integrate the WSN with the cognitive satellite terrestrial network. Having the
      ability to provide seamless network access and alleviate the spectrum scarcity,
      cognitive satellite terrestrial networks are considered as a promising candidate
      for future wireless networks with emerging requirements of ubiquitous broadband
      applications and increasing demand for spectral resources. With the emerging
      environmental and energy cost concerns in communication systems, explicit
      concerns on energy efficient resource allocation in satellite networks have also
      recently received considerable attention. In this regard, this paper proposes
      energy-efficient optimal power allocation schemes in the cognitive satellite
      terrestrial networks for non-real-time and real-time applications, respectively,
      which maximize the energy efficiency (EE) of the cognitive satellite user while
      guaranteeing the interference at the primary terrestrial user below an acceptable
      level. Specifically, average interference power (AIP) constraint is employed to
      protect the communication quality of the primary terrestrial user while average
      transmit power (ATP) or peak transmit power (PTP) constraint is adopted to
      regulate the transmit power of the satellite user. Since the energy-efficient
      power allocation optimization problem belongs to the nonlinear concave fractional
      programming problem, we solve it by combining Dinkelbach's method with Lagrange
      duality method. Simulation results demonstrate that the fading severity of the
      terrestrial interference link is favorable to the satellite user who can achieve
      EE gain under the ATP constraint comparing to the PTP constraint.

PMID- 28869547
TI  - Dietary Protein and Amino Acid Profiles in Relation to Risk of Dysglycemia:
      Findings from a Prospective Population-Based Study.
AB  - Considering the limited knowledge on the effects of dietary amino acid intake on
      dysglycemia, we assessed the possible association of dietary protein and amino
      acid patterns with the risk of pre-diabetes in a prospective population-based
      study. Participants without diabetes and pre-diabetes (n = 1878) were recruited
      from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study and were followed for a mean of 5.8
      years. Their dietary protein and amino acid intakes were assessed at baseline
      (2006-2008); demographic, lifestyle, and biochemical variables were evaluated at
      baseline and in follow-up examinations. Pre-diabetes was defined according to the
      American Diabetes Association criteria. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard
      regression models, adjusted for potential confounders, were used to estimate the
      risk of pre-diabetes across tertiles of dietary protein and amino acid pattern
      scores. The mean age of the participants (44.9% men) was 38.3 +/- 12.7 years at
      baseline. Three major amino acid patterns were characterized: (1) higher loads of
      lysine, methionine, valine, aspartic acids, tyrosine, threonine, isoleucine,
      leucine, alanine, histidine, and serine; (2) higher loads of glycine, cysteine,
      arginine, and tryptophan; and (3) higher loads of proline and glutamic acid.
      Dietary total protein intake Hazard Ratio (HR) = 1.13, 95% Confidence Interval
      (CI) = 0.92-1.38 and HR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.81-1.23, in the second and third
      tertile, respectively) was not related to the development of pre-diabetes. The
      highest score of second dietary amino acid pattern tended to be associated with a
      decreased risk of pre-diabetes (HR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.65-1.01), whereas the third
      pattern was related to an increased risk in the fully adjusted model (HR = 1.24,
      95% CI = 1.02-1.52; p for trend = 0.05). These novel data suggest that the amino
      acid composition of an individual's diet may modify their risk of pre-diabetes.

PMID- 28869548
TI  - Polymethoxyflavones: Novel beta-Secretase (BACE1) Inhibitors from Citrus Peels.
AB  - Beta-site amyloid precursor protein (APP) cleaving enzyme1 (BACE1) catalyzes the
      rate-limiting step of amyloid-beta protein (Abeta) generation, and is considered
      as a prime target for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In search of a candidate for AD
      prevention, our efforts exploring the natural BACE1 inhibitor have led to the
      finding of nobiletin, tangeretin, and sinensetin-representative compounds of
      polymethoxyflavones (PMFs). Tangeretin exhibited the strongest BACE1 inhibition
      (IC50, 4.9 * 10-5 M), followed by nobiletin and sinensetin with IC50 values of
      5.9 * 10-5 M and 6.3 * 10-5 M, respectively. In addition, all compounds reacted
      in a non-competitive manner with the substrate. Docking analysis results for
      complexes with BACE1 indicated that SER10 and THR232 residues of BACE1 hydrogen
      bonded with two oxygen atoms of tangeretin, while three additional BACE1 residues
      (ALA157, VAL336 and THR232) interacted with three oxygen atoms of nobiletin.
      Furthermore, sinensetin formed four hydrogen bonds through nitrogen atoms of
      TYR71, LYS75, and TRP76, and an oxygen atom of TYR198. Furthermore, the lowest
      energy conformations of the most proposed complexes of sinensetin, nobiletin, and
      tangeretin with BACE1 were -7.2, -7.0, and -6.8 kcal/mol, respectively. Taken
      together, our results suggest that these polymethoxyflavones (PMFs) might be
      considered as promising BACE1 inhibitory agents that could lower Abeta production
      in AD.

PMID- 28869550
TI  - Correction: Xingchen Zhou, et al. Whole Exome Sequencing in Psoriasis Patients
      Contributes to Studies of Acitretin Treatment Difference. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2017,
      18, 295.
AB  - We would like to submit the following correction to the published paper [1], the
      reason for this action is that the data in Table 3 were reanalyzed by one more
      accurate statistic method: On page 12, the sentence of paragraph three "OR and
      95% CI were calculated by limited backward-LR (likelihood ratio) logistic
      regression analysis with adjustment by clinical variables" should be corrected
      into "OR and 95% CI were calculated by limited enter logistic regression analysis
      with adjustment by clinical variables".[...].

PMID- 28869549
TI  - Microbiological Impact of the Use of Reclaimed Wastewater in Recreational Parks.
AB  - Reclaimed wastewater for irrigation is an opportunity for recovery of this
      natural resource. In this study, microbial risk from the use of treated
      wastewater for irrigation of recreational parks in the city of Chihuahua,
      evaluating the effect of distribution distance, season, and presence of storage
      tanks, was analyzed. Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and multidrug-resistant
      bacteria were recovered from samples of reclaimed water and soils at recreational
      parks in Chihuahua by the membrane filtration method, using selected agars for
      microbial growth. Samples were taken at three different seasons. No correlation
      in the presence of microbial indicators and multidrug-resistant bacteria (p >
      0.05) was found between the distance from the wastewater treatment plant to the
      point of use. Presence of storage tanks in parks showed a significant effect (p <
      0.05) with a higher level of E. coli. The highest count in wastewater occurred in
      summer. We isolated 392 multidrug-resistant bacteria from water and soil; cluster
      analysis showed that the microorganisms at each location were of different
      origins. Irrigation with reclaimed wastewater did not have a negative effect on
      the presence of microbial indicators of the quality of soils in the parks.
      However, the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria still represents a
      potential risk factor for human health.

PMID- 28869551
TI  - An Energy-Efficient and Robust Multipath Routing Protocol for Cognitive Radio Ad
      Hoc Networks.
AB  - Routing in cognitive radio ad hoc networks (CRAHNs) is a daunting task owing to
      dynamic topology, intermittent connectivity, spectrum heterogeneity, and energy
      constraints. Other prominent aspects such as channel stability, path reliability,
      and route discovery frequency should also be exploited. Several routing protocols
      have been proposed for CRAHNs in the literature. By stressing on one of the
      aspects more than any other, however, they do not satisfy all requirements of
      throughput, energy efficiency, and robustness. In this paper, we propose an
      energy-efficient and robust multipath routing (ERMR) protocol for CRAHNs by
      considering all prominent aspects including residual energy and channel stability
      in design. Even when the current routing path fails, the alternative routing path
      is immediately utilized. In establishing primary and alternative routing paths,
      both residual energy and channel stability are exploited simultaneously. Our
      simulation study shows that the proposed ERMR outperforms the conventional
      protocol in terms of network throughput, packet delivery ratio, energy
      consumption, and end-to-end delay.

PMID- 28869552
TI  - Listeria monocytogenes Biofilms in the Wonderland of Food Industry.
AB  - The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is a concern in food safety because
      of its ability to form biofilm and to persist in food industry. In this mini
      review, the issue represented by this pathogen and some of the latest efforts
      performed in order to investigate the composition of biofilms formed by L.
      monocytogenes are summarized.

PMID- 28869554
TI  - Design of Waveguide Bars for Transmitting a Pure Shear Horizontal Wave to Monitor
      High Temperature Components.
AB  - Guided wave technique could be a possible method for monitoring components
      working in high temperature above 350  degrees C. However, this would require the
      design of an appropriate waveguide bar to transmit the wave, so that its sensing
      part is not influenced by the high temperature. In the present study, the shape
      of waveguide bars is designed based on the analysis of wave source
      characteristics. The critical frequency-width and frequency-thickness products of
      waveguide bars are analyzed theoretically and numerically to transmit the zeroth
      shear horizontal wave SH0* in bars. The results show that waveguide bars can cut
      off all the other wave modes when their frequency-thickness products are smaller
      than the critical value fd*, and frequency-width products are not smaller than
      the critical value fw*. Six waveguide bars are designed and fabricated based on
      the design criteria, and an experiment system is set up to check their work
      performance. The testing results indicate that the wave signals of the SH0* mode
      propagate clearly in waveguide bars, and cut off all the other modes when the
      frequency-thickness products and frequency-width products of the bars meet the
      design criteria. It is also demonstrated that the dependency of the experimental
      group velocity of each waveguide bar on frequency is in good agreement with the
      numerical result. High-temperature experiments also validate the reliability of
      the designed waveguide bars. Therefore, the critical frequency-thickness product
      and frequency-width product can be the basis for the design of the waveguide
      bars.

PMID- 28869555
TI  - Poly(Neopentyl Glycol Furanoate): A Member of the Furan-Based Polyester Family
      with Smart Barrier Performances for Sustainable Food Packaging Applications.
AB  - In the last decade, there has been an increased interest from the food packaging
      industry toward the development and application of bioplastics, to contribute to
      the sustainable economy and to reduce the huge environmental problem afflicting
      the planet. In the present work, we focus on a new furan-based polyester,
      poly(neopentyl glycol 2,5-furanoate) (PNF) to be used for sustainable food
      packaging applications. The aromatic polyester was successfully synthesized with
      high molecular weight, through a solvent-free process, starting directly from 2,5
      furandicarboxylic acid. PNF was revealed to be a material with good thermal
      stability, characterized by a higher Tg and Tm and a lower RAF fraction compared
      to poly(propylene 2,5-furanoate) (PPF), ascribable to the two methyl side groups
      present in PNF glycol-sub-unit. PNF's mechanical characteristics, i.e., very high
      elastic modulus and brittle fracture, were found to be similar to those of PPF
      and PEF. Barrier properties to different gases, temperatures and relative
      humidity were evaluated. From the results obtained, PNF was showed to be a
      material with very smart barrier performances, significantly superior with
      respect to PEF's ones. Lastly, PNF's permeability behavior did not appreciably
      change after contact with food simulants, whereas it got worse with increasing
      RH, due to the polar nature of furan ring.

PMID- 28869553
TI  - SGS3 Cooperates with RDR6 in Triggering Geminivirus-Induced Gene Silencing and in
      Suppressing Geminivirus Infection in Nicotiana Benthamiana.
AB  - RNA silencing has an important role in defending against virus infection in
      plants. Plants with the deficiency of RNA silencing components often show
      enhanced susceptibility to viral infections. RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRs)
      mediated-antiviral defense has a pivotal role in resistance to many plant
      viruses. In RDR6-mediated defense against viral infection, a plant-specific RNA
      binding protein, Suppressor of Gene Silencing 3 (SGS3), was also found to fight
      against some viruses in Arabidopsis. In this study, we showed that SGS3 from
      Nicotiana benthamiana (NbSGS3) is required for sense-RNA induced post
      transcriptional gene silencing (S-PTGS) and initiating sense-RNA-triggered
      systemic silencing. Further, the deficiency of NbSGS3 inhibited geminivirus
      induced endogenous gene silencing (GIEGS) and promoted geminivirus infection.
      During TRV-mediated NbSGS3 or N. benthamiana RDR6 (NbRDR6) silencing process, we
      found that their expression can be effectively fine-tuned. Plants with the knock
      down of both NbSGS3 and NbRDR6 almost totally blocked GIEGS, and were more
      susceptible to geminivirus infection. These data suggest that NbSGS3 cooperates
      with NbRDR6 against GIEGS and geminivirus infection in N. benthamiana, which
      provides valuable information for breeding geminivirus-resistant plants.

PMID- 28869556
TI  - A New Monoterpene from the Leaves of a Radiation Mutant Cultivar of Perilla
      frutescens var. crispa with Inhibitory Activity on LPS-Induced NO Production.
AB  - The leaves of Perilla frutescens var. crispa (Lamiaceae)-known as 'Jureum-soyeop'
      or 'Cha-jo-ki' in Korean, 'ZI SU YE' in Chinese, and 'Shiso' in Japan-has been
      used as a medicinal herb. Recent gamma irradiated mutation breeding on P.
      frutescens var. crispa in our research group resulted in the development of a new
      perilla cultivar, P. frutescens var. crispa (cv. Antisperill; PFCA), which has a
      higher content of isoegomaketone. The leaves of PFCA were extracted by
      supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction, and phytochemical investigation
      on this extract led to the isolation and identification of a new compound, 9
      hydroxy-isoegomaketone [(2E)-1-(3-furanyl)-4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-penten-1-one; 1].
      Compound 1 exhibited inhibitory activity on nitric oxide (NO) production in
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW264.7 cells with an IC50 value of 14.4 MUM.
      The compounds in the SC-CO2 extracts of the radiation mutant cultivar and the
      original plant were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography with
      diode array detection.

PMID- 28869557
TI  - Magnetic Abrasive Machining of Difficult-to-Cut Materials for Ultra-High-Speed
      Machining of AISI 304 Bars.
AB  - This research proposes an optimized magnetic abrasive machining process that uses
      an ultra-high-speed system to perform precision machining on a workpiece. The
      system can process several microns of material, either for machining surface
      roughness or for machining a workpiece for a precise micro-diameter. The
      stainless steel workpieces have been machined using an ultra-high-speed magnetic
      abrasive machining (UHSMAM) process. The experiments were performed analyzing the
      accuracy of the machined workpiece diameter, using response surface methodology.
      The results obtained after machining have been analyzed to determine the effect
      of different process parameters such as machining speed, machining time,
      machining frequencies, inert gas in/out, magnetic pole types, and magnetic
      abrasive mesh size for the individual workpiece, as well as to study various
      interaction effects that may significantly affect the machining performance of
      the process. The obtained outcomes of the analysis for different workpieces have
      been critically compared to understand the effect of the considered process
      parameters based on the resulting mechanical properties. Regression analysis was
      used to confirm the stability of the micro-diameter and the processing
      efficiency. Atomic force microscope (AFM) micrographs were also obtained to study
      the surface morphology of the precision-machined workpiece.

PMID- 28869558
TI  - Event-Driven Observer-Based Smart-Sensors for Output Feedback Control of Linear
      Systems.
AB  - This paper deals with a recent design of event-driven observer-based smart
      sensors for output feedback control of linear systems. We re-design the
      triggering mechanism proposed in a previously reported system with the
      implementation of self-sampling data smart sensors; as a result, we improve its
      performance. Our approach is theoretically supported by using Lyapunov theory and
      numerically evidenced by controlling the inverted pendulum on the cart mechanism.

PMID- 28869559
TI  - Relationship between Degree of Deformation in Quartz and Silica Dissolution for
      the Development of Alkali-Silica Reaction in Concrete.
AB  - This paper presents research on the influence of quartz deformation in aggregates
      for the development of the alkali-silica reaction in concrete and its
      relationship with silica dissolution. The study also compares these
      characteristics with the field behavior of such rocks in concrete. The paper
      proposes parameters to classify the different degrees of deformation of quartz.
      Transmission electron microscopy showed the presence of walls even in slightly
      deformed quartz, which indicate the presence of the internal paths available to
      react with the alkaline concrete pore solutions and point to the potential
      development of an alkali-silica reaction. The presence of the deformation bands
      in the quartz grains leads to the alkali aggregate reaction occurring more
      rapidly. The visible spectrophotometer test was performed to evaluate the
      dissolution potential of the different samples of deformed quartz, which
      confirmed that the reactivity of the quartz increases as the deformation of the
      crystalline structure increases. The parameters established in the present study
      could be verified by analyzing the behavior of reactive and innocuous aggregates
      from the buildings.

PMID- 28869560
TI  - Targeting PDE10A GAF Domain with Small Molecules: A Way for Allosteric Modulation
      with Anti-Inflammatory Effects.
AB  - Phosphodiesterase (PDE) enzymes regulate the levels of cyclic nucleotides, cAMP,
      and/or cGMP, being attractive therapeutic targets. In order to modulate PDE
      activity in a selective way, we focused our efforts on the search of allosteric
      modulators. Based on the crystal structure of the PDE10A GAF-B domain, a virtual
      screening study allowed the discovery of new hits that were also tested
      experimentally, showing inhibitory activities in the micromolar range. Moreover,
      these new PDE10A inhibitors were able to decrease the nitrite production in LPS
      stimulated cells, thus demonstrating their potential as anti-inflammatory agents.

PMID- 28869561
TI  - Why is Aged Acetylcholinesterase So Difficult to Reactivate?
AB  - Organophosphorus agents are potent inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase. Inhibition
      involves successive chemical events. The first is phosphylation of the active
      site serine to produce a neutral adduct, which is a close structural analog of
      the acylation transition state. This adduct is unreactive toward spontaneous
      hydrolysis, but in many cases can be reactivated by nucleophilic medicinal
      agents, such as oximes. However, the initial phosphylation reaction may be
      followed by a dealkylation reaction of the incipient adduct. This reaction is
      called aging and produces an anionic phosphyl adduct with acetylcholinesterase
      that is refractory to reactivation. This review considers why the anionic aged
      adduct is unreactive toward nucleophiles. An alternate approach is to realkylate
      the aged adduct, which would render the adduct reactivatable with oxime
      nucleophiles. However, this approach confronts a considerable-and perhaps
      intractable-challenge: the aged adduct is a close analog of the deacylation
      transition state. Consequently, the evolutionary mechanisms that have led to
      transition state stabilization in acetylcholinesterase catalysis are discussed
      herein, as are the challenges that they present to reactivation of aged
      acetylcholinesterase.

PMID- 28869562
TI  - Comparative Programs for Arthropod, Disease and Weed Management in New York
      Organic Apples.
AB  - Organic apple production in the eastern US is small and is mostly based on
      existing varieties, which are susceptible to scab, and rootstocks, which are
      susceptible to fire blight. This requires numerous sprays per year of various
      pesticides to produce acceptable fruit. From 2014 to 2016, we tested different
      arthropod, disease and weed management programs in an advanced tall spindle high
      density production system that included disease-resistant cultivars and
      rootstocks, in an organic research planting of apples in Geneva, New York.
      Arthropod and disease management regimens were characterized as Advanced Organic,
      Minimal Organic, or Untreated Control. Results varied by year and variety, but,
      in general, the Advanced program was more effective than the Minimal program in
      preventing damage from internal-feeding Lepidoptera, plum curculio, and
      obliquebanded leafroller, and less effective than the Minimal program against
      damage by foliar insects. Both organic programs provided comparable control of
      sooty blotch, cedar apple rust, and fire blight, with some variability across
      cultivars and years. The advanced selection CC1009 and Modi seemed to possess
      complete resistance to cedar apple rust, while Pristine had partial resistance.
      For weed control, bark chip mulch, organic soap sprays, and limonene sprays
      tended to be most effective, while mechanical tillage and flame weeding had lower
      success.

PMID- 28869564
TI  - Phenolics Isolated from Aframomum meleguta Enhance Proliferation and Ossification
      Markers in Bone Cells.
AB  - Osteoporosis is a serious health problem characterized by decreased bone mineral
      density and deterioration of bone microarchitecture. Current antiosteoporotic
      agents exhibit a wide range of adverse effects; meanwhile, phytochemicals are
      effective and safer alternatives. In the current work, nine compounds belonging
      to hydroxyphenylalkane and diarylheptanoid groups were isolated from Aframomum
      meleguea seeds and identified as 6-gingerol (1), 6-paradol (2), 8
      dehydrogingerdione (3), 8-gingerol (4), dihydro-6-paradol (5), dihydrogingerenone
      A (6), dihydrogingerenone C (7), 1,7-bis(3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxyphenyl)heptane
      3,5-diyl diacetate (8), and 1-(3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxyphenyl)-7-(3,4
      dihydroxyphenyl)heptane-3,5-diyl diacetate (9). The structures of isolated
      compounds were established by NMR and mass spectral data, in addition to
      referring to literature data. Exposure of MCF-7, MG-63, and SAOS-2 cells to
      subcytotoxic concentrations of the compounds under investigation resulted in
      accelerated proliferation. Among them, paradol was selected for further detailed
      biochemical analysis in SAOS-2 cells. DNA flowcytometric analysis of cell cycle
      distribution revealed that paradol did not induce any significant change in the
      proliferation index of SAOS-2 cells. Assessment of osteogenic gene expression
      revealed that paradol enhanced the expression of osteocyte and osteoblast-related
      genes and inhibited osteoclast and RUNX suppressor genes. Biochemically, paradol
      enhanced alkaline phosphatase activity and vitamin D content and decreased the
      osteoporotic marker acid phosphatase. In conclusion, paradol, which is a major
      constituents of A. melegueta seeds, exhibited potent proliferative and
      ossification characteristics in bone cells.

PMID- 28869565
TI  - The Variation of Oncidium Rosy Sunset Flower Volatiles with Daily Rhythm,
      Flowering Period, and Flower Parts.
AB  - Oncidium is an important ornamental crop worldwide, and in recent years, the
      characteristics of the flower aroma have become a concern for breeders. This
      study used headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas
      chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the volatile compounds to
      study the aroma characteristics of Onc. Rosy Sunset. A total of 45 compounds were
      identified, with the major compound being linalool. Onc. Rosy Sunset had the
      highest odor concentration from 10:00 to 12:00 and lowest from 20:00 to 24:00.
      The inflorescence emitted the highest quantities of volatile compounds during
      stages 3-6, which then decreased with the aging of the flowers. In Onc. Rosy
      Sunset, the sepals and petals were the major parts for the floral fragrance
      emission, in which linalool content was the highest, whereas the lip and column
      had a different composition of major volatile compounds, of which benzaldehyde,
      beta-myrcene, and beta-caryophyllene dominated.

PMID- 28869563
TI  - Synergic Anti-Pruritus Mechanisms of Action for the Radix Sophorae Flavescentis
      and Fructus Cnidii Herbal Pair.
AB  - Radix Sophorae Flavescentis (RSF) and Fructus Cnidii (FC) compose a typical
      herbal synergic pair in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for pruritus symptom
      treatments. The mechanisms of action for the synergy are not understood. This
      paper aims at predicting the anti-pruritus targets and the main active
      ingredients for the RSF and FC herbal pair. We demonstrate that the RSF-FC herbal
      pair can be elucidated by mining the chemical structures of compounds derived
      from RSF and FC. Based on chemical structure data, the putative targets for RSF
      and FC were predicted. Additional putative targets that interact with the anti
      pruritus targets were derived by mapping the putative targets onto a PPI network.
      By examining the annotations of these proteins, we conclude that (1) RSF's active
      compounds are mainly alkaloids and flavonoids. The representative putative
      targets of the alkaloids are inflammation-related proteins (MAPK14, PTGS2, PTGS2,
      and F2) and pruritus-related proteins (HRH1, TRPA1, HTR3A, and HTR6). The
      representative putative targets of the flavonoids are inflammation-related
      proteins (TNF, NF-kappaB, F2, PTGS2, and PTGS2) and pruritus-related proteins
      (NR3C1 and IL2). (2) FC's active compounds are mainly coumarins. Their
      representative putative targets are CNS-related proteins (AChE and OPRK1) and
      inflammation-related proteins (PDE4D, TLR9, and NF-kappaB). (3) Both RSF and FC
      display anti-inflammatory effects, though they exhibit their anti-pruritus
      effects in different ways. Their synergy shows that RSF regulates inflammation
      related pruritus and FC regulates CNS-related pruritus.

PMID- 28869566
TI  - Dramatic Influence of Ionic Liquid and Ultrasound Irradiation on the
      Electrophilic Sulfinylation of Aromatic Compounds by Sulfinic Esters.
AB  - The sulfinylation reaction of aromatic and hetero-aromatic compounds with
      sulfinic esters as electrophiles has been investigated in different ionic liquids
      and by means of different Lewis acid salts in order to get moderate to good
      yields of asymmetrical sulfoxides. Mixtures of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium
      chloride and aluminum chloride were found to be the most efficient and recyclable
      reaction framework. Ultrasound sonication appeared to be the most useful and
      green activation method to afford the sulfoxides in yields better than or
      equivalent to those obtained under the longer-lasting conventional stirring
      conditions.

PMID- 28869567
TI  - Using Next Generation Sequencing to Identify and Quantify the Genetic Composition
      of Resistance-Breaking Commercial Isolates of Cydia pomonella Granulovirus.
AB  - The use of Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV) isolates as biological control
      agents of codling moth (CM) larvae is important in organic and integrated pome
      fruit production worldwide. The commercially available isolates CpGV-0006, CpGV
      R5, and CpGV-V15 have been selected for the control of CpGV resistant CM
      populations in Europe. In infection experiments, CpGV-0006 and CpGV-R5 were able
      to break type I resistance and to a lower extent also type III resistance,
      whereas CpGV-V15 overcame type I and the rarely occurring type II and type III
      resistance. The genetic background of the three isolates was investigated with
      next generation sequencing (NGS) tools by comparing their nucleotide compositions
      to whole genome alignments of five CpGV isolates representing the known genetic
      diversity of the CpGV genome groups A to E. Based on the distribution of single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Illumina sequencing reads, we found that the
      two isolates CpGV-0006 and CpGV-R5 have highly similar genome group compositions,
      consisting of about two thirds of the CpGV genome group E and one third of genome
      group A. In contrast, CpGV-V15 is composed of equal parts of CpGV genome group B
      and E. According to the identified genetic composition of these isolates, their
      efficacy towards different resistance types can be explained and predictions on
      the success of resistance management strategies in resistant CM populations can
      be made.

PMID- 28869568
TI  - Medicinal Plants Based Products Tested on Pathogens Isolated from Mastitis Milk.
AB  - Bovine mastitis a major disease that is commonly associated with bacterial
      infection. The common treatment is with antibiotics administered intramammary
      into infected quarters of the udder. The excessive use of antibiotics leads to
      multidrug resistance and associated risks for human health. In this context, the
      search for alternative drugs based on plants has become a priority in livestock
      medicine. These products have a low manufacturing cost and no reports of
      antimicrobial resistance to these have been documented. In this context, the main
      objective of this study was to determine the antimicrobial effect of extracts and
      products of several indigenous, or acclimatized plants on pathogens isolated from
      bovine mastitis. A total of eleven plant alcoholic extracts and eight plant
      derived products were tested against 32 microorganisms isolated from milk. The
      obtained results have shown an inhibition of bacterial growth for all tested
      plants, with better results for Everniaprunastri, Artemisiaabsinthium, and
      Lavandulaangustifolia. Moreover, E.prunastri, Populus nigra, and L. angustifolia
      presented small averages of minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations.
      Among the plant-derived products, three out of eight have shown a strong anti
      microbial effect comparable with the effect of florfenicol and enrofloxacin, and
      better than individual plant extracts possibly due to synergism. These results
      suggest an important anti-microbial effect of these products on pathogens
      isolated from bovine mastitis with a possible applicability in this disease.

PMID- 28869569
TI  - Molecular Dynamic Analysis of Hyaluronic Acid and Phospholipid Interaction in
      Tribological Surgical Adjuvant Design for Osteoarthritis.
AB  - Tribological surgical adjuvants constitute a therapeutic discipline made possible
      by surgical advances in the treatment of damaged articular cartilage beyond
      palliative care. The purpose of this study is to analyze interactions between
      hyaluronic acid and phospholipid molecules, and the formation of geometric forms,
      that play a role in the facilitated lubrication of synovial joint organ systems.
      The analysis includes an evaluation of the pathologic state to detail conditions
      that may be encountered by adjuvants during surgical convalescence. The synovial
      fluid changes in pH, hyaluronic acid polydispersity, and phospholipid
      concentration associated with osteoarthritis are presented as features that
      influence the lubricating properties of adjuvant candidates. Molecular dynamic
      simulation studies are presented, and the Rouse model is deployed, to rationalize
      low molecular weight hyaluronic acid behavior in an osteoarthritic environment of
      increased pH and phospholipid concentration. The results indicate that the
      hyaluronic acid radius of gyration time evolution is both pH- and phospholipid
      concentration-dependent. Specifically, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine induces
      hydrophobic interactions in the system, causing low molecular weight hyaluronic
      acid to shrink and at high concentration be absorbed into phospholipid vesicles.
      Low molecular weight hyaluronic acid appears to be insufficient for use as a
      tribological surgical adjuvant because an increased pH and phospholipid
      concentration induces decreased crosslinking that prevents the formation of
      supramolecular lubricating forms. Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine remains an
      adjuvant candidate for certain clinical situations. The need to reconcile
      osteoarthritic phenotypes is a prerequisite that should serve as a framework for
      future adjuvant design and subsequent tribological testing.

PMID- 28869570
TI  - On Consistency Test Method of Expert Opinion in Ecological Security Assessment.
AB  - To reflect the initiative design and initiative of human security management and
      safety warning, ecological safety assessment is of great value. In the
      comprehensive evaluation of regional ecological security with the participation
      of experts, the expert's individual judgment level, ability and the consistency
      of the expert's overall opinion will have a very important influence on the
      evaluation result. This paper studies the consistency measure and consensus
      measure based on the multiplicative and additive consistency property of fuzzy
      preference relation (FPR). We firstly propose the optimization methods to obtain
      the optimal multiplicative consistent and additively consistent FPRs of
      individual and group judgments, respectively. Then, we put forward a consistency
      measure by computing the distance between the original individual judgment and
      the optimal individual estimation, along with a consensus measure by computing
      the distance between the original collective judgment and the optimal collective
      estimation. In the end, we make a case study on ecological security for five
      cities. Result shows that the optimal FPRs are helpful in measuring the
      consistency degree of individual judgment and the consensus degree of collective
      judgment.

PMID- 28869571
TI  - Value-Based Pricing and Reimbursement in Personalised Healthcare: Introduction to
      the Basic Health Economics.
AB  - 'Value-based' outcomes, pricing, and reimbursement are widely discussed as health
      sector reforms these days. In this paper, we discuss their meaning and
      relationship in the context of personalized healthcare, defined as receipt of
      care conditional on the results of a biomarker-based diagnostic test. We address
      the question: "What kinds of pricing and reimbursement models should be applied
      in personalized healthcare?" The simple answer is that competing innovators and
      technology adopters should have incentives that promote long-term dynamic
      efficiency. We argue that-to meet this social objective of optimal innovation in
      personalized healthcare-payers, as agents of their plan participants, should aim
      to send clear signals to their suppliers about what they value. We begin by
      revisiting the concept of value from an economic perspective, and argue that a
      broader concept of value is needed in the context of personalized healthcare. We
      discuss the market for personalized healthcare and the interplay between price
      and reimbursement. We close by emphasizing the potential barrier posed by
      inflexible or cost-based reimbursement systems, especially for biomarker-based
      predictive tests, and how these personalized technologies have global public
      goods characteristics that require global value-based differential pricing to
      achieve dynamic efficiency in terms of the optimal rate of innovation and
      adoption.

PMID- 28869572
TI  - Barriers to Effective Municipal Solid Waste Management in a Rapidly Urbanizing
      Area in Thailand.
AB  - This study focused on determining the barriers to effective municipal solid waste
      management (MSWM) in a rapidly urbanizing area in Thailand. The Tha Khon Yang
      Subdistrict Municipality is a representative example of many local governments in
      Thailand that have been facing MSWM issues. In-depth interviews with individuals
      and focus groups were conducted with key informants including the municipality
      staff, residents, and external organizations. The major influences affecting
      waste management were categorized into six areas: social-cultural, technical,
      financial, organizational, and legal-political barriers and population growth.
      SWOT analysis shows both internal and external factors are playing a role in
      MSWM: There is good policy and a reasonably sufficient budget. However, there is
      insufficient infrastructure, weak strategic planning, registration, staff
      capacity, information systems, engagement with programs; and unorganized waste
      management and fee collection systems. The location of flood prone areas has
      impacted on location and operation of landfill sites. There is also poor
      communication between the municipality and residents and a lack of participation
      in waste separation programs. However, external support from government and the
      nearby university could provide opportunities to improve the situation. These
      findings will help inform municipal decision makers, leading to better municipal
      solid waste management in newly urbanized areas.

PMID- 28869574
TI  - Incentivizing Verifiable Privacy-Protection Mechanisms for Offline Crowdsensing
      Applications.
AB  - Incentive mechanisms of crowdsensing have recently been intensively explored.
      Most of these mechanisms mainly focus on the standard economical goals like
      truthfulness and utility maximization. However, enormous privacy and security
      challenges need to be faced directly in real-life environments, such as cost
      privacies. In this paper, we investigate offline verifiable privacy-protection
      crowdsensing issues. We firstly present a general verifiable privacy-protection
      incentive mechanism for the offline homogeneous and heterogeneous sensing job
      model. In addition, we also propose a more complex verifiable privacy-protection
      incentive mechanism for the offline submodular sensing job model. The two
      mechanisms not only explore the private protection issues of users and platform,
      but also ensure the verifiable correctness of payments between platform and
      users. Finally, we demonstrate that the two mechanisms satisfy privacy
      protection, verifiable correctness of payments and the same revenue as the
      generic one without privacy protection. Our experiments also validate that the
      two mechanisms are both scalable and efficient, and applicable for mobile devices
      in crowdsensing applications based on auctions, where the main incentive for the
      user is the remuneration.

PMID- 28869575
TI  - Effects of a Transverse Field in Two Mixed-Spin Ising Bilayer Films.
AB  - The magnetic properties (phase diagrams and magnetizations) of two mixed-spin
      Ising bilayer films with a transverse field are investigated by the use of the
      effective field theory with correlations. The systems consist of two magnetic
      atoms where spin-1/2 atoms are directed to the z-direction and only spin-1 atoms
      are canted from the z-direction by applying a transverse field. We examined how
      magnetization sign reversal can be realized in the system, due to the effects of
      the transverse field on the spin-1 atoms. The compensation point phenomena are
      found in both systems, depending on the selections of physical parameters.
      However, the reentrant phenomena are found only for one of the two systems.

PMID- 28869573
TI  - Effects of Whey, Soy or Leucine Supplementation with 12 Weeks of Resistance
      Training on Strength, Body Composition, and Skeletal Muscle and Adipose Tissue
      Histological Attributes in College-Aged Males.
AB  - We sought to determine the effects of L-leucine (LEU) or different protein
      supplements standardized to LEU (~3.0 g/serving) on changes in body composition,
      strength, and histological attributes in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue.
      Seventy-five untrained, college-aged males (mean +/- standard error of the mean
      (SE); age = 21 +/- 1 years, body mass = 79.2 +/- 0.3 kg) were randomly assigned
      to an isocaloric, lipid-, and organoleptically-matched maltodextrin placebo (PLA,
      n = 15), LEU (n = 14), whey protein concentrate (WPC, n = 17), whey protein
      hydrolysate (WPH, n = 14), or soy protein concentrate (SPC, n = 15) group.
      Participants performed whole-body resistance training three days per week for 12
      weeks while consuming supplements twice daily. Skeletal muscle and subcutaneous
      (SQ) fat biopsies were obtained at baseline (T1) and ~72 h following the last day
      of training (T39). Tissue samples were analyzed for changes in type I and II
      fiber cross sectional area (CSA), non-fiber specific satellite cell count, and SQ
      adipocyte CSA. On average, all supplement groups including PLA exhibited similar
      training volumes and experienced statistically similar increases in total body
      skeletal muscle mass determined by dual X-ray absorptiometry (+2.2 kg; time p =
      0.024) and type I and II fiber CSA increases (+394 MUm2 and +927 MUm2; time p <
      0.001 and 0.024, respectively). Notably, all groups reported increasing Calorie
      intakes ~600-800 kcal/day from T1 to T39 (time p < 0.001), and all groups
      consumed at least 1.1 g/kg/day of protein at T1 and 1.3 g/kg/day at T39. There
      was a training, but no supplementation, effect regarding the reduction in SQ
      adipocyte CSA (-210 MUm2; time p = 0.001). Interestingly, satellite cell counts
      within the WPC (p < 0.05) and WPH (p < 0.05) groups were greater at T39 relative
      to T1. In summary, LEU or protein supplementation (standardized to LEU content)
      does not provide added benefit in increasing whole-body skeletal muscle mass or
      strength above PLA following 3 months of training in previously untrained college
      aged males that increase Calorie intakes with resistance training and consume
      above the recommended daily intake of protein throughout training. However, whey
      protein supplementation increases skeletal muscle satellite cell number in this
      population, and this phenomena may promote more favorable training adaptations
      over more prolonged periods.

PMID- 28869576
TI  - Spatial Distribution and Fuzzy Health Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in
      Surface Water from Honghu Lake.
AB  - Previous studies revealed that Honghu Lake was polluted by trace elements due to
      anthropogenic activities. This study investigated the spatial distribution of
      trace elements in Honghu Lake, and identified the major pollutants and control
      areas based on the fuzzy health risk assessment at screening level. The mean
      total content of trace elements in surface water decreased in the order of Zn
      (18.04 MUg/L) > Pb (3.42 MUg/L) > Cu (3.09 MUg/L) > Cr (1.63 MUg/L) > As (0.99
      MUg/L) > Cd (0.14 MUg/L), within limits of Drinking Water Guidelines. The results
      of fuzzy health risk assessment indicated that there was no obvious non
      carcinogenic risk to human health, while carcinogenic risk was observed in
      descending order of As > Cr > Cd > Pb. As was regarded to have the highest
      carcinogenic risk among selected trace elements because it generally accounted
      for 64% of integrated carcinogenic risk. Potential carcinogenic risk of trace
      elements in each sampling site was approximately at medium risk level (10-5 to 10
      4). The areas in the south (S4, S13, and S16) and northeast (S8, S18, and S19) of
      Honghu Lake were regarded as the risk priority control areas. However, the
      corresponding maximum memberships of integrated carcinogenic risk in S1, S3, S10
      S13, S15, and S18 were of relatively low credibility (50-60%), and may mislead
      the decision-makers in identifying the risk priority areas. Results of fuzzy
      assessment presented the subordinate grade and corresponding reliability of risk,
      and provided more full-scale results for decision-makers, which made up for the
      deficiency of certainty assessment to a certain extent.

PMID- 28869577
TI  - Forsythiae Fructus: A Review on its Phytochemistry, Quality Control, Pharmacology
      and Pharmacokinetics.
AB  - Forsythiae Fructus, as a traditional Chinese medicine, has been widely used both
      as a single herb and in compound prescriptions in Asia, mainly due to its heat
      clearing and detoxifying effects. Modern pharmacology has proved Forsythiae
      Fructus possesses various therapeutic effects, both in vitro and in vivo, such as
      anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral activities. Up to now, three
      hundred and twenty-one compounds have been identified and sensitive analytical
      methods have been established for its quality control. Recently, the
      pharmacokinetics of Forsythiae Fructus and its bioactive compounds have been
      reported, providing valuable information for its clinical application. Therefore,
      this systematic review focused on the newest scientific reports on Forsythiae
      Fructus and extensively summarizes its phytochemistry, pharmacology,
      pharmacokinetics and standardization procedures, especially the difference
      between the two applied types-unripe Forsythiae Fructus and ripe Forsythiae
      Fructus-in the hope of providing a helpful reference and guide for its clinical
      applications and further studies.

PMID- 28869578
TI  - Benthic Archives Reveal Recurrence and Dominance of Toxigenic Cyanobacteria in a
      Eutrophic Lake over the Last 220 Years.
AB  - Akinetes are resistant cells which have the ability to persist in sediment for
      several decades. We have investigated the temporal distribution of akinetes of
      two species, Dolichospermum macrosporum and Dolichospermum flos-aquae, in a
      sediment core sampled in Lake Aydat (France), which covers 220 years. The upper
      part, from 1907 to 2016, the number of akinetes fluctuated but stayed at high
      concentrations, especially for D. macrosporum in surface sediment (with the
      maximal value close to 6.105 akinetes g DW-1 of sediment), suggesting a
      recurrence of blooms of this species which was probably closely related to
      anthropic eutrophication since the 1960s. Before 1907, the abundance of akinetes
      of both species was very low, suggesting only a modest presence of these
      cyanobacteria. In addition, the percentage of intact akinetes was different for
      each species, suggesting different ecological processes in the water column. This
      percentage also decreased with depth, revealing a reduction in germination
      potential over time. In addition, biosynthetic genes of anatoxin-a (anaC) and
      microcystin (mcyA) were detected. First results show a high occurrence of mcyA
      all down the core. In contrast, anaC gene was mostly detected in the surface
      sediment (since the 1980s), revealing a potentially more recent occurrence of
      this cyanotoxin in Lake Aydat which may be associated with the recurrence of
      blooms of D. macrosporum and thus with anthropic activities.

PMID- 28869580
TI  - Association between Functional Movements Skills and Health Indicators in Children
      Aged between 9 and 12 Years Old.
AB  - Background: Children's health is a current concern and data suggests that poor
      fundamental movement skills (FMS) could be associated with poor health, which may
      or may not be mediated by low physical activity level. However, tools to assess
      FMS have not been standardized, and could consequently lead to different
      associations between FMS and health indicators. Objective: The primary objective
      of this study was to evaluate the associations between FMS and health indicators
      using two different FMS measurement tools often used in Canada. Methods: A total
      of 145 children between the ages of 9 to 12 were recruited from schools, after
      school programs, and summer camps in 2016. FMS were evaluated using the Passport
      for Life (bound, plank, run, kick, throw) and the PLAYbasic (run, hop, throw,
      kick, and balance). The association between each test and an average score for
      each tool were tests with health indicators including anthropometric measures,
      grip strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, and percent body fat. Results:
      Participants were composed of 54.2% boys aged 10.4 +/- 1.2 years with an average
      body mass index of 18.8 +/- 3.8 kg/m2. The association between the average score
      of both tools was 0.77 (p < 0.01), body mass index was significantly associated
      with 67% of FMS elements using the Passport for Life (r ranging from -0.18 to 
      0.32; p < 0.05), and 60% of FMS using the PLAYbasic (r ranging from -0.15 to 
      0.30; p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the associations
      of the health indicators with FMS and either FMS assessment tool (Passport for
      Life and PLAYbasic) (p = 0.05). Average score of FMS was significantly associated
      with all health indicators using both PLAYbasic and Passport for Life (all p <
      0.05). Conclusions: Health indicators in children are associated with FMS
      regardless of whether the Passport for Life or the PLAYbasic was used as the
      assessment tool. It is worth investigating if interventions that improve FMS lead
      to improvements in these health indicators.

PMID- 28869581
TI  - Seeing faces is necessary for face-domain formation.
AB  - Here we report that monkeys raised without exposure to faces did not develop face
      domains, but did develop domains for other categories and did show normal
      retinotopic organization, indicating that early face deprivation leads to a
      highly selective cortical processing deficit. Therefore, experience must be
      necessary for the formation (or maintenance) of face domains. Gaze tracking
      revealed that control monkeys looked preferentially at faces, even at ages prior
      to the emergence of face domains, but face-deprived monkeys did not, indicating
      that face looking is not innate. A retinotopic organization is present throughout
      the visual system at birth, so selective early viewing behavior could bias
      category-specific visual responses toward particular retinotopic representations,
      thereby leading to domain formation in stereotyped locations in inferotemporal
      cortex, without requiring category-specific templates or biases. Thus, we propose
      that environmental importance influences viewing behavior, viewing behavior
      drives neuronal activity, and neuronal activity sculpts domain formation.

PMID- 28869579
TI  - Exploring the Role of RGD-Recognizing Integrins in Cancer.
AB  - Integrins are key regulators of communication between cells and with their
      microenvironment. Eight members of the integrin superfamily recognize the
      tripeptide motif Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) within extracelluar matrix (ECM) proteins.
      These integrins constitute an important subfamily and play a major role in cancer
      progression and metastasis via their tumor biological functions. Such
      transmembrane adhesion and signaling receptors are thus recognized as promising
      and well accessible targets for novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications for
      directly attacking cancer cells and their fatal microenvironment. Recently,
      specific small peptidic and peptidomimetic ligands as well as antibodies binding
      to distinct integrin subtypes have been developed and synthesized as new drug
      candidates for cancer treatment. Understanding the distinct functions and
      interplay of integrin subtypes is a prerequisite for selective intervention in
      integrin-mediated diseases. Integrin subtype-specific ligands labelled with
      radioisotopes or fluorescent molecules allows the characterization of the
      integrin patterns in vivo and later the medical intervention via subtype specific
      drugs. The coating of nanoparticles, larger proteins, or encapsulating agents by
      integrin ligands are being explored to guide cytotoxic reagents directly to the
      cancer cell surface. These ligands are currently under investigation in clinical
      studies for their efficacy in interference with tumor cell adhesion,
      migration/invasion, proliferation, signaling, and survival, opening new treatment
      approaches in personalized medicine.

PMID- 28869583
TI  - Parallel encoding of recent visual experience and self-motion during navigation
      in Drosophila.
AB  - Animal navigation requires multiple types of information for decisions on
      directional heading. We identified neural processing channels that encode
      multiple cues during navigational decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster. In
      a flight simulator, we found that flies made directional choices on the basis of
      the location of a recently presented landmark. This experience-guided navigation
      was impaired by silencing neurons in the bulb (BU), a region in the central
      brain. Two-photon calcium imaging during flight revealed that the dorsal part of
      the BU encodes the location of a recent landmark, whereas the ventral part of the
      BU tracks self-motion reflecting turns. Photolabeling-based circuit tracing
      indicated that these functional compartments of the BU constitute adjacent, yet
      distinct, anatomical pathways that both enter the navigation center. Thus, the
      fly's navigation system organizes multiple types of information in parallel
      channels, which may compactly transmit signals without interference for decision
      making during flight.

PMID- 28869582
TI  - Impaired hippocampal place cell dynamics in a mouse model of the 22q11.2
      deletion.
AB  - Hippocampal place cells represent the cellular substrate of episodic memory.
      Place cell ensembles reorganize to support learning but must also maintain stable
      representations to facilitate memory recall. Despite extensive research, the
      learning-related role of place cell dynamics in health and disease remains
      elusive. Using chronic two-photon Ca2+ imaging in hippocampal area CA1 of wild
      type and Df(16)A+/- mice, an animal model of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, one of
      the most common genetic risk factors for cognitive dysfunction and schizophrenia,
      we found that goal-oriented learning in wild-type mice was supported by stable
      spatial maps and robust remapping of place fields toward the goal location.
      Df(16)A+/- mice showed a significant learning deficit accompanied by reduced
      spatial map stability and the absence of goal-directed place cell reorganization.
      These results expand our understanding of the hippocampal ensemble dynamics
      supporting cognitive flexibility and demonstrate their importance in a model of
      22q11.2-associated cognitive dysfunction.

PMID- 28869585
TI  - BRCA1 regulation on beta-hCG: a mechanism for tumorigenicity in BRCA1 defective
      breast cancer.
AB  - Human chorionic gonadotropin beta (beta-hCG) has been implicated in breast
      tumorigenesis. However, the role of this hormone is highly controversial as
      certain studies suggest it has anti-tumor properties while others have found it
      to be pro-tumorigenic. To unveil the truth, we have analyzed the expression of
      beta-hCG in breast cancer. We identified for the first time that beta-hCG
      expression is linked to BRCA1 status and its overexpression is seen in BRCA1
      mutated breast cancer cells, BRCA1 conditional knockout mouse breast cancer
      tissues and BRCA1 floxed basal cell carcinoma (BCC) tissues. An analysis of three
      large, transcriptomic data sets from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) expression
      profile confirmed the inverse correlation between BRCA1 and beta-hCG in human
      breast cancer. Using ChIP and luciferase assays, we also demonstrated that the
      cancer cells with wild-type but not mutant BRCA1 directly repress the expression
      of beta-hCG by binding to its promoter. Further, beta-hCG promotes migration and
      invasion predominantly in BRCA1 mutant breast cancer cells. Interestingly, stable
      overexpression of beta-hCG in BRCA1 mutant but not wild-type breast cancer cells
      results in the formation of spheres even on monolayer cultures. The cells of
      these spheres show high expression of both EMT and stem cell markers. Since beta
      hCG belongs to a cysteine knot family of proteins like TGFbeta and TGFbeta
      signaling is deregulated in BRCA1 defective tumors, we checked whether beta-hCG
      can mediate signaling through TGFbetaRII in BRCA1 mutated cells. We found for the
      first time that beta-hCG can bind and phosphorylate TGFbetaRII, irrespective of
      LHCGR status and induce proliferation in BRCA1 defective cells. Our results
      confirmed that there exists a transcriptional regulation of BRCA1 on beta-hCG and
      BRCA1 mutation promotes beta-hCG mediated tumorigenesis through TGFbetaRII
      signaling. Thus inhibiting beta-hCG-TGFbetaRII could prove an effective treatment
      strategy for BRCA1 mutated tumors.

PMID- 28869584
TI  - An xQTL map integrates the genetic architecture of the human brain's
      transcriptome and epigenome.
AB  - We report a multi-omic resource generated by applying quantitative trait locus
      (xQTL) analyses to RNA sequence, DNA methylation and histone acetylation data
      from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 411 older adults who have all three
      data types. We identify SNPs significantly associated with gene expression, DNA
      methylation and histone modification levels. Many of these SNPs influence
      multiple molecular features, and we demonstrate that SNP effects on RNA
      expression are fully mediated by epigenetic features in 9% of these loci.
      Further, we illustrate the utility of our new resource, xQTL Serve, by using it
      to prioritize the cell type(s) most affected by an xQTL. We also reanalyze
      published genome wide association studies using an xQTL-weighted analysis
      approach and identify 18 new schizophrenia and 2 new bipolar susceptibility
      variants, which is more than double the number of loci that can be discovered
      with a larger blood-based expression eQTL resource.

PMID- 28869587
TI  - Epigenetic foundations of pluripotent stem cells that recapitulate in vivo
      pluripotency.
AB  - In mammalian development, dynamic epigenetic reprogramming occurs in pre
      implantation embryos and primordial germ cells and plays a critical role in
      conferring pluripotency on embryonic cells. Pluripotent stem cells, such as
      embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, have been derived and
      maintained in vitro under culture conditions that include stimulators and
      inhibitors of extrinsic signaling. Recent advances in stem cell cultivation have
      opened the possibility of capturing naive pluripotency, which is reminiscent of
      the pluripotency of inner cell mass cells, in vitro. However, emerging evidence
      has revealed complexity of epigenetic regulation in pluripotent stem cells in
      vitro that reflects the developmental stage, gender, and species. In this review,
      we describe the developmental potential and epigenetic regulation of pluripotent
      stem cells in rodents and humans in vitro and discuss unsolved issues in
      developing strategies to capture in vivo pluripotency in vitro.

PMID- 28869586
TI  - Alterations in fatty acid metabolism in response to obesity surgery combined with
      dietary counseling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effects of obesity surgery on serum and adipose tissue fatty acid
      (FA) profile and FA metabolism may modify the risk of obesity-related diseases.
      METHODS: We measured serum (n=122) and adipose tissue (n=24) FA composition and
      adipose tissue mRNA expression of genes regulating FA metabolism (n=100) in
      participants of the Kuopio Obesity Surgery Study (KOBS, age 47.2+/-8.7 years, BMI
      44.6+/-6.0, 40 men, 82 women) before and one year after obesity surgery. As part
      of the surgery protocol, all the subjects were instructed to add sources of
      unsaturated fatty acids, such as rapeseed oil and fatty fish, into their diet.
      The results were compared with changes in serum FA composition in 122 subjects
      from the Finnish Diabetes Prevention study (DPS) (age 54.3+/-7.1 years, BMI
      32.2+/-4.6, 28 men, 94 women). RESULTS: The proportion of saturated FAs decreased
      and the proportion of n-3 and n-6 FAs increased in serum triglycerides after
      obesity surgery (all P<0.002). Weight loss predicted changes in quantitative
      amounts of saturated FAs, monounsaturated FAs, n-3 and n-6 FAs in triglycerides
      (P<0.002 for all). Moreover, the changes in adipose tissue FAs reflected the
      changes in serum FAs, and some of the changes were associated with mRNA
      expression of elongases and desaturases in adipose tissue (all P<0.05). In line
      with this the estimated activity of elongase (18:1 n-7/16:1 n-7) increased
      significantly after obesity surgery in all lipid fractions (all P<4 * 10-7) and
      the increase in the estimated activity of D5D in triglycerides was associated
      with higher weight loss (r=0.415, P<2 * 10-6). Changes in serum FA profile were
      similar after obesity surgery and lifestyle intervention, except for the change
      in the absolute amounts of n-3 FAs between the two studies (P=0.044).
      CONCLUSIONS: Beneficial changes in serum and adipose tissue FAs after obesity
      surgery could be associated with changes in endogenous metabolism and diet.

PMID- 28869588
TI  - Activation of pluripotent genes in hepatic progenitor cells in the transition of
      nonalcoholic steatohepatitis to pre-malignant lesions.
AB  - Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is considered as a precancerous condition. However,
      hepatic carcinogenesis from NASH is poorly understood. This study aims to
      investigate the activation of pluripotent genes (c-Myc, Oct-4, KLF-4, and Nanog)
      and morphogenic gene (Gli-1) in hepatic progenitor cells from patient specimens
      and in an animal model to determine the possibility of normal stem/progenitor
      cells becoming the origin of NASH-HCC. In this study, expression of pluripotent
      and morphogenic genes in human NASH-HCC tissues was significantly upregulated
      compared to adjacent non-tumor liver tissues. After feeding high-fat/calorie diet
      plus high fructose/glucose in drinking water (HFC diet plus HF/G) for up to 12
      months, mice developed obesity, insulin resistance, and steatohepatitis with
      significant necroptotic inflammation and fibrotic progression, as well as
      occurrence of hyperplastic nodules with dysplasia; and this model represents
      pathohistologically as a transition from NASH to NASH-HCC in a pre-carcinomatous
      stage. High expression of pluripotent and morphogenic genes was
      immunohistochemically visualized in the dysplasia areas of mouse liver, where
      there were many OV-6-positive cells, indicating proliferation of HOCs in NASH
      with fibrotic progression. Moreover, oncogenic transcription factors (c-Myc, KLF
      4, and Nanog) were co-localized in these hepatic progenitor cells. In conclusion,
      pluripotent and morphogenic genes may contribute to the reprogramming of hepatic
      progenitor cells in driving these cells to be the origin of NASH-HCC in a
      steatotic and inflamed microenvironment.

PMID- 28869589
TI  - Stem cell therapies for myocardial infarction in clinical trials: bioengineering
      and biomaterial aspects.
AB  - Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death and disability in
      advanced countries. Stem cell transplantation has emerged as a promising
      therapeutic strategy for acute and chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy. The current
      status of stem cell therapies for patients with myocardial infarction is
      discussed from a bioengineering and biomaterial perspective in this review. We
      describe (a) the current status of clinical trials of human pluripotent stem
      cells (hPSCs) compared with clinical trials of human adult or fetal stem cells,
      (b) the gap between fundamental research and application of human stem cells, (c)
      the use of biomaterials in clinical and pre-clinical studies of stem cells, and
      finally (d) trends in bioengineering to promote stem cell therapies for patients
      with myocardial infarction. We explain why the number of clinical trials using
      hPSCs is so limited compared with clinical trials using human adult and fetal
      stem cells such as bone marrow-derived stem cells.

PMID- 28869591
TI  - Identification of 153 new loci associated with heel bone mineral density and
      functional involvement of GPC6 in osteoporosis.
AB  - Osteoporosis is a common disease diagnosed primarily by measurement of bone
      mineral density (BMD). We undertook a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in
      142,487 individuals from the UK Biobank to identify loci associated with BMD as
      estimated by quantitative ultrasound of the heel. We identified 307 conditionally
      independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that attained genome-wide
      significance at 203 loci, explaining approximately 12% of the phenotypic
      variance. These included 153 previously unreported loci, and several rare
      variants with large effect sizes. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we
      undertook (1) bioinformatic, functional genomic annotation and human osteoblast
      expression studies; (2) gene-function prediction; (3) skeletal phenotyping of 120
      knockout mice with deletions of genes adjacent to lead independent SNPs; and (4)
      analysis of gene expression in mouse osteoblasts, osteocytes and osteoclasts. The
      results implicate GPC6 as a novel determinant of BMD, and also identify abnormal
      skeletal phenotypes in knockout mice associated with a further 100 prioritized
      genes.

PMID- 28869592
TI  - Reconstruction of enhancer-target networks in 935 samples of human primary cells,
      tissues and cell lines.
AB  - We propose a new method for determining the target genes of transcriptional
      enhancers in specific cells and tissues. It combines global trends across many
      samples and sample-specific information, and considers the joint effect of
      multiple enhancers. Our method outperforms existing methods when predicting the
      target genes of enhancers in unseen samples, as evaluated by independent
      experimental data. Requiring few types of input data, we are able to apply our
      method to reconstruct the enhancer-target networks in 935 samples of human
      primary cells, tissues and cell lines, which constitute by far the largest set of
      enhancer-target networks. The similarity of these networks from different samples
      closely follows their cell and tissue lineages. We discover three major co
      regulation modes of enhancers and find defense-related genes often simultaneously
      regulated by multiple enhancers bound by different transcription factors. We also
      identify differentially methylated enhancers in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
      and experimentally confirm their altered regulation of HCC-related genes.

PMID- 28869590
TI  - Identification of new susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes and shared
      etiological pathways with coronary heart disease.
AB  - To evaluate the shared genetic etiology of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and coronary
      heart disease (CHD), we conducted a genome-wide, multi-ancestry study of genetic
      variation for both diseases in up to 265,678 subjects for T2D and 260,365
      subjects for CHD. We identify 16 previously unreported loci for T2D and 1 locus
      for CHD, including a new T2D association at a missense variant in HLA-DRB5 (odds
      ratio (OR) = 1.29). We show that genetically mediated increase in T2D risk also
      confers higher CHD risk. Joint T2D-CHD analysis identified eight variants-two of
      which are coding-where T2D and CHD associations appear to colocalize, including a
      new joint T2D-CHD association at the CCDC92 locus that also replicated for T2D.
      The variants associated with both outcomes implicate new pathways as well as
      targets of existing drugs, including icosapent ethyl and adipocyte fatty-acid
      binding protein.

PMID- 28869593
TI  - How type II CRISPR-Cas establish immunity through Cas1-Cas2-mediated spacer
      integration.
AB  - CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and the nearby
      Cas (CRISPR-associated) operon establish an RNA-based adaptive immunity system in
      prokaryotes. Molecular memory is created when a short foreign DNA-derived
      prespacer is integrated into the CRISPR array as a new spacer. Whereas the RNA
      guided CRISPR interference mechanism varies widely among CRISPR-Cas systems, the
      spacer integration mechanism is essentially identical. The conserved Cas1 and
      Cas2 proteins form an integrase complex consisting of two distal Cas1 dimers
      bridged by a Cas2 dimer. The prespacer is bound by Cas1-Cas2 as a dual-forked
      DNA, and the terminal 3'-OH of each 3' overhang serves as an attacking
      nucleophile during integration. The prespacer is preferentially integrated into
      the leader-proximal region of the CRISPR array, guided by the leader sequence and
      a pair of inverted repeats inside the CRISPR repeat. Spacer integration in the
      well-studied Escherichia coli type I-E CRISPR system also relies on the bacterial
      integration host factor. In type II-A CRISPR, however, Cas1-Cas2 alone integrates
      spacers efficiently in vitro; other Cas proteins (such as Cas9 and Csn2) have
      accessory roles in the biogenesis phase of prespacers. Here we present four
      structural snapshots from the type II-A system of Enterococcus faecalis Cas1 and
      Cas2 during spacer integration. Enterococcus faecalis Cas1-Cas2 selectively binds
      to a splayed 30-base-pair prespacer bearing 4-nucleotide 3' overhangs. Three
      molecular events take place upon encountering a target: first, the Cas1-Cas2
      prespacer complex searches for half-sites stochastically, then it preferentially
      interacts with the leader-side CRISPR repeat, and finally, it catalyses a
      nucleophilic attack that connects one strand of the leader-proximal repeat to the
      prespacer 3' overhang. Recognition of the spacer half-site requires DNA bending
      and leads to full integration. We derive a mechanistic framework to explain the
      stepwise spacer integration process and the leader-proximal preference.

PMID- 28869594
TI  - An artificial transport metabolon facilitates improved substrate utilization in
      yeast.
AB  - Efficient substrate utilization is the first and most important prerequisite for
      economically viable production of biofuels and chemicals by microbial cell
      factories. However, production rates and yields are often compromised by low
      transport rates of substrates across biological membranes and their diversion to
      competing pathways. This is especially true when common chassis organisms are
      engineered to utilize nonphysiological feedstocks. Here, we addressed this
      problem by constructing an artificial complex between an endogenous sugar
      transporter and a heterologous xylose isomerase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
      Direct feeding of the enzyme through the transporter resulted in acceleration of
      xylose consumption and substantially diminished production of xylitol as an
      undesired side product, with a concomitant increase in the production of ethanol.
      This underlying principle could also likely be implemented in other
      biotechnological applications.

PMID- 28869596
TI  - GSK3beta controls epithelial-mesenchymal transition and tumor metastasis by CHIP
      mediated degradation of Slug.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/onc.2013.279.

PMID- 28869595
TI  - A toxic mutant huntingtin species is resistant to selective autophagy.
AB  - Protein misfolding is a common theme in neurodegenerative disorders including
      Huntington's disease (HD). The HD-causing mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT) has an
      expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) stretch that may adopt multiple conformations, and
      the most toxic of these is the one recognized by antibody 3B5H10. Here we show
      that the 3B5H10-recognized mHTT species has a slower degradation rate due to its
      resistance to selective autophagy in human cells and brains, revealing mechanisms
      of its higher toxicity.

PMID- 28869597
TI  - Atf3 deficiency promotes genome instability and spontaneous tumorigenesis in
      mice.
AB  - Mice lacking genes involving in the DNA-damage response (DDR) are often tumor
      prone owing to genome instability caused by oncogenic challenges. Previous
      studies demonstrate that activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3), a common
      stress sensor, can activate the tumor suppressor p53 and regulate expression of
      p53 target genes upon DNA damage. However, whether ATF3 contributes to the
      maintenance of genome stability and tumor suppression remains unknown. Here we
      report that Atf3-deficient (Atf3-/-) mice developed spontaneous tumors, and died
      significantly earlier than wild-type (Atf3+/+) mice. Consistent with these
      results, Atf3-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) had more aberrant chromosomes
      and micronuclei, and were genetically unstable. Whereas we demonstrated that ATF3
      activated p53 and promoted its pro-apoptotic activity in mouse thymi and small
      intestines, the chromosomal instability caused by Atf3 deficiency was largely
      dependent on the regulation of p53 by ATF3. Interestingly, loss of Atf3 also
      promoted spontaneous tumorigenesis in Trp53+/- mice, but did not affect tumor
      formation in Trp53-/- mice. Our results thus provide the first genetic evidence
      linking ATF3 to the suppression of the early development of cancer, and
      underscore the importance of ATF3 in the maintenance of genome integrity.

PMID- 28869598
TI  - RCC2 is a novel p53 target in suppressing metastasis.
AB  - RCC2 (also known as TD60) is a highly conserved protein involved in prognosis in
      colorectal cancer. However, its relationship with tumor development is less
      understood. Here we demonstrate a signaling pathway defining regulation of RCC2
      and its functions in tumor progression. We report that p53 is a transcriptional
      regulator of RCC2 that acts through its binding to a palindromic motif in the
      RCC2 promoter. RCC2 physically interacts and deactivates a small GTPase Rac1 that
      is known to be involved in metastasis. We solved a high-resolution crystal
      structure of RCC2 and revealed one RCC1-like domain with a unique beta-hairpin
      that is requisite for RCC2 interaction with Rac1. p53 or RCC2 deficiency leads to
      activation of Rac1 and deterioration of extracellular matrix sensing (haptotaxis)
      of surface-bound gradients. Ectopic expression of RCC2 restores directional
      migration in p53-null cells. Our results demonstrate that p53 and RCC2 signaling
      is important for regulation of cell migration and suppression of metastasis. We
      propose that the p53/RCC2/Rac1 axis is a potential target for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28869600
TI  - FOXO3-mediated chemo-protection in high-stage neuroblastoma depends on wild-type
      TP53 and SESN3.
AB  - Forkhead box O class transcription factors are homeostasis regulators that
      control cell death, longevity and therapy-resistance. In neuroblastoma (NB),
      nuclear FOXO3 correlates with stage M disease and poor prognosis. To analyze
      whether FOXO3 contributes to drug-resistance in this childhood cancer, we
      investigated how different high-stage-derived NB cells respond to the activation
      of an ectopic FOXO3 allele. We found endogenous FOXO3 mostly localized to the
      nucleus-upon activation of an ectopic, 4OHT-activated FOXO3(A3)ER fusion protein
      two of the cell lines underwent apoptosis, whereas in the others FOXO3-activation
      even increased survival during drug-treatment. In the latter cell type, FOXO3 did
      not induce the BH3-only protein BCL2L11/BIM due to impaired binding of FOXO3 to
      the BIM-promoter, but still activated other FOXO3 targets. It was shown before
      that FOXO3 and TP53 physically interact with each other at two different regions
      the TP53-N-terminus binds to the FOXO3-DNA binding domain (DBD) and the FOXO3-C
      terminus interacts with the TP53-DBD. Interestingly, cell lines that undergo
      FOXO3-induced cell death carry homozygous point mutations in the TP53-DBD near
      the structural hotspot-mutation-site R175H, which abrogated FOXO3-TP53
      interaction. In contrast, in FOXO3-death-resistant cells no point mutations in
      the TP53-DBD were found-in these cells FOXO3-TP53 complexes are formed and FOXO3
      binding to the BIM-promoter, but not the induction of the detoxifying protein
      SESN3, were prevented, which in turn increased chemo-protection in this type of
      high-stage-derived NB cells. Our combined data suggest that FOXO3 steps in as a
      death inducer in case of TP53-mutation, whereas functional TP53 alters FOXO3
      target-promoter-recognition, which prevents death induction by FOXO3 and instead
      increases chemo-protection and survival of NB cells. This novel mechanism may
      explain the low incidence of TP53 mutation in high-stage NB at diagnosis and
      suggests FOXO3 as a therapeutic target for this childhood malignancy.

PMID- 28869599
TI  - Taxane-mediated radiosensitization derives from chromosomal missegregation on
      tripolar mitotic spindles orchestrated by AURKA and TPX2.
AB  - Taxane-based radiochemotherapy is a central treatment option for various cancer
      entities in locally advanced stages. The therapeutic synergism of this combined
      modality approach due to taxane-mediated radiosensitization of cancer cells is
      well-known. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely elusive,
      and mechanism-derived predictive markers of taxane-based radiochemotherapy are
      currently not available. Here, we show that clinically relevant doses of
      Paclitaxel, the prototype taxane, stimulate a tripolar mode of mitosis leading to
      chromosomal missegregation and aneuploidization rather than interfering with cell
      cycle progression. This distinct mitotic phenotype was interlinked with
      Paclitaxel-mediated radiosensitization via overexpression of mitotic Aurora
      kinase A (AURKA) and its cofactor TPX2 whose knockdown rescued the bipolar mode
      of cell division and largely attenuated the radiosensitizing effects of
      Paclitaxel. In the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) lung adenocarcinoma cohort, high
      expression levels of AURKA and TPX2 were associated with specifically improved
      overall survival upon taxane-based radiochemotherapy, but not in case of non
      taxane-based radiochemotherapy, chemo- or radiotherapy only. Thus, our data
      provide insights into Paclitaxel-mediated radiosensitization on a mechanistic and
      molecular level and identify AURKA and TPX2 as the first potential mechanism
      based, predictive markers of taxane-based radiochemotherapy.

PMID- 28869601
TI  - Role of SMAD proteins in colitis-associated cancer: from known to the unknown.
AB  - Small mothers against decapentaplegic (SMAD) proteins are a family of signal
      transduction molecules in transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) ligand
      pathways that have been found to have a key role in the pathogenesis of
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Long standing IBD predisposes individuals to
      colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC), an entity that possess unique
      characteristics compared to hereditary and sporadic cancer. The ligands of the
      TGFbeta super family along with SMADs have also been implicated in several
      aspects of colorectal cancer formation. SMAD proteins are shown to be involved in
      a number of potentially carcinogenic mechanisms such as altering gene
      transcription, controlling stem cell differentiation to causing epigenetic
      changes. Modulation of these proteins has emerged as a novel therapeutic
      intervention for IBD although its effect on carcinogenesis remains elusive. This
      account reviews available evidence linking SMAD proteins to CAC and explores the
      potential areas for future research in this area.

PMID- 28869604
TI  - Myc target gene, long intergenic noncoding RNA, Linc00176 in hepatocellular
      carcinoma regulates cell cycle and cell survival by titrating tumor suppressor
      microRNAs.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a frequent form of cancer with a poor prognosis
      and with limited possibilities for medical intervention. Recent evidence has
      accumulated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important regulators of
      disease processes including cancer. Chromatin remodeling in cancer cells may
      result in an unusual expression of lncRNAs and indeed it has been shown that more
      than 7000 unannotated lncRNAs are expressed in HCCs. We identified a novel long
      intergenic noncoding RNA, Linc00176, that plays a role in proliferation and
      survival of HCC. Linc00176 regulates expression of more than 200 genes by the
      sponge function for tumor suppressor miRNAs, miR-9 and miR-185. Linc00176 is
      expressed at a high level only in HCC, and is activated by Myc, Max and AP-4
      transcription regulators. Myc also upregulates miR-9 and miR-185. In Linc00176
      depleted HCC, these miRNAs were released from Linc00176 and downregulated their
      target mRNAs. Thus, depletion of Linc00176 disrupted the cell cycle and induced
      necroptosis in HCC via released tumor suppressor miRNAs. These data indicate that
      atypically expressed lncRNAs may be useful targets for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28869602
TI  - Targeting mitochondrial translation by inhibiting DDX3: a novel
      radiosensitization strategy for cancer treatment.
AB  - DDX3 is a DEAD box RNA helicase with oncogenic properties. RK-33 is developed as
      a small-molecule inhibitor of DDX3 and showed potent radiosensitizing activity in
      preclinical tumor models. This study aimed to assess DDX3 as a target in breast
      cancer and to elucidate how RK-33 exerts its anti-neoplastic effects. High DDX3
      expression was present in 35% of breast cancer patient samples and correlated
      with markers of aggressiveness and shorter survival. With a quantitative
      proteomics approach, we identified proteins involved in the mitochondrial
      translation and respiratory electron transport pathways to be significantly
      downregulated after RK-33 or DDX3 knockdown. DDX3 localized to the mitochondria
      and DDX3 inhibition with RK-33 reduced mitochondrial translation. As a
      consequence, oxygen consumption rates and intracellular ATP concentrations
      decreased and reactive oxygen species (ROS) increased. RK-33 antagonized the
      increase in oxygen consumption and ATP production observed after exposure to
      ionizing radiation and reduced DNA repair. Overall, we conclude that DDX3
      inhibition with RK-33 causes radiosensitization in breast cancer through
      inhibition of mitochondrial translation, which results in reduced oxidative
      phosphorylation capacity and increased ROS levels, culminating in a bioenergetic
      catastrophe.

PMID- 28869603
TI  - A regulatory circuit composed of DNA methyltransferases and receptor tyrosine
      kinases controls lung cancer cell aggressiveness.
AB  - Overexpression of DNMT1 and KIT is prevalent in lung cancer, yet the underlying
      molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. While the deregulated activation of
      DNMT1 or KIT has been implicated in lung cancer pathogenesis, whether and how
      DNMT1 and KIT orchestrate lung tumorigenesis are unclear. Here, using human lung
      cancer tissue microarrays and fresh frozen tissues, we found that the
      overexpression of DNMT1 is positively correlated with the upregulation of KIT in
      tumor tissues. We demonstrated that DNMT1 and KIT form a positive regulatory
      loop, in which ectopic DNMT1 expression increases, whereas targeted DNMT1
      depletion abrogates KIT signaling cascade through Sp1/miR-29b network.
      Conversely, an increase of KIT levels augments, but a reduction of KIT expression
      ablates DNMT1 transcription by STAT3 pathway leading to in-parallel modification
      of the DNA methylation profiles. We provided evidence that KIT inactivation
      induces global DNA hypomethylation, restores the expression of tumor suppressor
      p15INK4B through promoter demethylation; in turn, DNMT1 dysfunction impairs KIT
      kinase signaling. Functionally, KIT and DNMT1 co-expression promotes, whereas
      dual inactivation of them suppresses, lung cancer cell proliferation and
      metastatic growth in vitro and in vivo, in a synergistic manner. These findings
      demonstrate the regulatory and functional interplay between DNA methylation and
      tyrosine kinase signaling in propelling tumorigenesis, providing a widely
      applicable approach for targeting lung cancer.

PMID- 28869605
TI  - Suppression of Sirt1 sensitizes lung cancer cells to WEE1 inhibitor MK-1775
      induced DNA damage and apoptosis.
AB  - Lung cancer treatment remains a challenge for clinical practice and new
      therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. Loss of functional WEE1 kinase causes
      DNA replication stress, DNA damage and unscheduled mitotic entry due to elevated
      CDK activity. The selective WEE1 inhibitor MK-1775 synergize with DNA-damaging
      agent to inhibit cancer cell growth. Here we report that inhibition of Sirt1
      deacetylase through small interfering RNA or selective inhibitor Ex527 greatly
      enhances MK-1775-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in human lung cancer
      cells. We further demonstrate that Sirt1 interacts and deacetylates homologous
      recombination (HR) repair machinery proteins, including NBS1 and Rad51.
      Inhibition of Sirt1 impairs HR repair activity, which causes unrepairable damage
      when combining MK-1775 and Ex527. Meanwhile, combination of MK-1775 and Ex527
      induces cooperative antitumor activity in lung cancer xenograft model in vivo.
      Thus, our study provides a novel therapeutic strategy to optimize MK-1775
      treatment efficiency in lung cancers.

PMID- 28869606
TI  - KCTD12 promotes tumorigenesis by facilitating CDC25B/CDK1/Aurora A-dependent G2/M
      transition.
AB  - Cell cycle dysregulation leads to uncontrolled cell proliferation and
      tumorigenesis. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying cell cycle
      progression can provide clues leading to the identification of key proteins
      involved in cancer development. In this study, we performed proteomics analysis
      to identify novel regulators of the cell cycle. We found that potassium channel
      tetramerization domain containing 12 (KCTD12) was significantly upregulated in M
      phase compared with S phase. We also found that KCTD12 overexpression not only
      facilitated the G2/M transition and induced cancer cell proliferation, but also
      promoted the growth of subcutaneous tumors and Ki-67 proliferation index in mice.
      Regarding the mechanism underlying these phenomena, cyclin-dependent kinase 1
      (CDK1) was identified as an interacting partner of KCTD12 by immunoprecipitation
      and mass spectrometry analysis, which showed that KCTD12 activated CDK1 and
      Aurora kinase A (Aurora A) and that the effects of KCTD12 on CDK1 phosphorylation
      and cell proliferation were abrogated by cell division cycle 25B (CDC25B)
      silencing. In addition, Aurora A phosphorylated KCTD12 at serine 243, thereby
      initiating a positive feedback loop necessary for KCTD12 to exert its cancer
      promoting effects. Furthermore, we analyzed the expression levels of various
      genes and the correlations between the expression of these genes and survival
      using tumor tissue microarray and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data sets. The
      data showed that KCTD12 expression was significantly upregulated in cervical and
      lung cancers. More importantly, high KCTD12 expression was associated with larger
      tumor sizes, higher pathological stages and poor patient survival. Collectively,
      our study demonstrate that KCTD12 binds to CDC25B and activates CDK1 and Aurora A
      to facilitate the G2/M transition and promote tumorigenesis and that Aurora A
      phosphorylates KCTD12 at serine 243 to trigger a positive feedback loop, thereby
      potentiating the effects of KCTD12. Thus, the KCTD12-CDC25B-CDK1-Aurora A axis
      has important implications for cancer diagnoses and prognoses.

PMID- 28869607
TI  - MRPL33 and its splicing regulator hnRNPK are required for mitochondria function
      and implicated in tumor progression.
AB  - MRPL33 gene encodes a large mitoribosomal subunit protein, which may be involved
      in mitochondrial translation. Although two splice variants of MRPL33 have been
      described, its splicing regulation remains elusive. Here we observed that
      inclusion of alternative exon 3 was greatly promoted in a panel of human cancer
      cells. Depletion of the exon 3-containing long isoform of MRPL33 (MRPL33-L) led
      to impaired proliferation and increased apoptosis in cancer cell lines and in a
      xenograft model. MRPL33-L knockdown could also induce mitochondrial dysfunction
      including increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species, decreased ATP
      production and 16 S rRNA levels. We further showed that alternative splicing of
      MRPL33-L pre-mRNA is regulated by hnRNPK and that knocking down hnRNPK could
      phenocopy MRPL33-L depletion. More importantly, overexpression of MRPL33-L could
      increase tumorigenic potential of hnRNPK-depleted cancer cells, likely indicating
      that hnRNPK mediates tumorigenesis through splicing regulation of MRPL33 pre
      mRNA. Finally, we found that inclusion of MRPL33 exon 3 was promoted in human
      colorectal cancer tissues and this was correlated with hnRNPK levels. In summary,
      our findings underscore the biological significance of MRPL33-L and hnRNPK in the
      tumor formation and identifies hnRNPK as a critical splicing regulator of MRPL33
      pre-mRNA in cancer cells.

PMID- 28869608
TI  - CNPY2 is a key initiator of the PERK-CHOP pathway of the unfolded protein
      response.
AB  - The unfolded protein response (UPR) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a highly
      conserved protein-quality-control mechanism critical for cells to make survival
      or-death decisions under ER-stress conditions. However, how UPR sensors are
      activated remains unclear. Here, we report that ER luminal protein canopy homolog
      2 (CNPY2) is released from grp78 upon ER stress. Free CNPY2 then engages protein
      kinase R-like ER kinase (PERK) to induce expression of the transcription factor
      C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), thereby initiating the UPR. Indeed, deletion of
      CNPY2 blocked the PERK-CHOP pathway and protected mice from UPR-induced liver
      damage and steatosis. Additionally, CNPY2 is transcriptionally upregulated by
      CHOP in a forward-feed loop to further enhance UPR signaling. These findings
      demonstrate the critical roles of CNPY2 in ER stress and suggest that CNPY2 is a
      potential new therapeutic target for UPR-related diseases such as metabolic
      disorders, inflammation and cancer.

PMID- 28869609
TI  - N6-methyladenosine (m6A) recruits and repels proteins to regulate mRNA
      homeostasis.
AB  - RNA modifications are integral to the regulation of RNA metabolism. One abundant
      mRNA modification is N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which affects various aspects of
      RNA metabolism, including splicing, translation and degradation. Current
      knowledge about the proteins recruited to m6A to carry out these molecular
      processes is still limited. Here we describe comprehensive and systematic mass
      spectrometry-based screening of m6A interactors in various cell types and
      sequence contexts. Among the main findings, we identified G3BP1 as a protein that
      is repelled by m6A and positively regulates mRNA stability in an m6A-regulated
      manner. Furthermore, we identified FMR1 as a sequence-context-dependent m6A
      reader, thus revealing a connection between an mRNA modification and an autism
      spectrum disorder. Collectively, our data represent a rich resource and shed
      further light on the complex interplay among m6A, m6A interactors and mRNA
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28869612
TI  - Instilling defect tolerance in new compounds.

PMID- 28869610
TI  - Mutations in ACTRT1 and its enhancer RNA elements lead to aberrant activation of
      Hedgehog signaling in inherited and sporadic basal cell carcinomas.
AB  - Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common human cancer, results from aberrant
      activation of the Hedgehog signaling pathway. Although most cases of BCC are
      sporadic, some forms are inherited, such as Bazex-Dupre-Christol syndrome (BDCS)
      a cancer-prone genodermatosis with an X-linked, dominant inheritance pattern. We
      have identified mutations in the ACTRT1 gene, which encodes actin-related protein
      T1 (ARP-T1), in two of the six families with BDCS that were examined in this
      study. High-throughput sequencing in the four remaining families identified
      germline mutations in noncoding sequences surrounding ACTRT1. These mutations
      were located in transcribed sequences encoding enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) and were
      shown to impair enhancer activity and ACTRT1 expression. ARP-T1 was found to
      directly bind to the GLI1 promoter, thus inhibiting GLI1 expression, and loss of
      ARP-T1 led to activation of the Hedgehog pathway in individuals with BDCS.
      Moreover, exogenous expression of ACTRT1 reduced the in vitro and in vivo
      proliferation rates of cell lines with aberrant activation of the Hedgehog
      signaling pathway. In summary, our study identifies a disease mechanism in BCC
      involving mutations in regulatory noncoding elements and uncovers the tumor
      suppressor properties of ACTRT1.

PMID- 28869611
TI  - Human-monoclonal-antibody therapy protects nonhuman primates against advanced
      Lassa fever.
AB  - There are no approved treatments for Lassa fever, which is endemic to the same
      regions of West Africa that were recently devastated by Ebola. Here we show that
      a combination of human monoclonal antibodies that cross-react with the
      glycoproteins of all four clades of Lassa virus is able to rescue 100% of
      cynomolgus macaques when treatment is initiated at advanced stages of disease,
      including up to 8 d after challenge.

PMID- 28869613
TI  - Age does not adversely influence outcomes among patients older than 60 years who
      undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant for AML and myelodysplastic
      syndrome.
AB  - Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) outcomes data of older
      AML/myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients are limited. We retrospectively
      evaluated consecutive patients ?60 years old with AML/MDS who underwent AHSCT
      between January 2005 and December 2014. The primary objectives were to determine
      nonrelapse mortality (NRM), relapse, relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall
      survival (OS) at 1 year post AHSCT. A total of 159 patients underwent AHSCT with
      a median age of 64 (range, 60-75) years. Of these, 103 patients (65%) had AML and
      56 patients (35%) had MDS. At 1 year post AHSCT, grade III-IV acute GvHD and
      chronic GvHD occurred in 20.8% (95% confidence interval (CI), 14.9-27.5%) and
      54.1% (95% CI, 46.0-61.5%) of patients, respectively. NRM, RFS, relapse rate and
      OS at 1 year post AHSCT were 25.3% (95% CI, 18.8-32.3%), 53.3% (95% CI, 46.1
      61.7%), 21.4% (95% CI, 15.4-28.1%) and 56.4% (95% CI, 49.2-54.7%), respectively.
      High disease risk index was associated with poor RFS, OS and higher relapse rate
      (P<0.03), whereas non-thymoglobulin-based GvHD prophylaxis, higher comorbidity
      index (?3) and MDS were associated with higher NRM (P<0.03). Importantly, age did
      not have an adverse effect on NRM, relapse, RFS and OS. AHSCT was well tolerated.
      Hence, older age alone should not be considered a contraindication to AHSCT.

PMID- 28869614
TI  - Impact of cigarette smoking on survival after myeloablative allogeneic
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and contribution of invasive fungal
      infection.

PMID- 28869616
TI  - Successful bone marrow transplantation in two sisters with activated
      phosphoinositide 3-kinase delta syndrome 2.

PMID- 28869615
TI  - Acute and fatal cardiotoxicity following high-dose cyclophosphamide in a patient
      undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation for systemic sclerosis despite
      satisfactory cardiopulmonary screening.

PMID- 28869619
TI  - alphabeta-T-cell depleted donor lymphocyte infusion for leukemia relapse after
      allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

PMID- 28869618
TI  - Outcomes following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant for patients
      with relapsed Wilms' tumor: a CIBMTR retrospective analysis.
AB  - Despite the marked improvement in the overall survival (OS) for patients
      diagnosed with Wilms' tumor (WT), the outcomes for those who experience relapse
      have remained disappointing. We describe the outcomes of 253 patients with
      relapsed WT who received high-dose chemotherapy (HDT) followed by autologous
      hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) between 1990 and 2013, and were reported
      to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research. The 5
      year estimates for event-free survival (EFS) and OS were 36% (95% confidence
      interval (CI); 29-43%) and 45% (95 CI; 38-51%), respectively. Relapse of primary
      disease was the cause of death in 81% of the population. EFS, OS, relapse and
      transplant-related mortality showed no significant differences when broken down
      by disease status at transplant, time from diagnosis to transplant, year of
      transplant or conditioning regimen. Our data suggest that HDT followed by
      autologous HCT for relapsed WT is well tolerated and outcomes are similar to
      those reported in the literature. As attempts to conduct a randomized trial
      comparing maintenance chemotherapy with consolidation versus HDT followed by stem
      cell transplant have failed, one should balance the potential benefits with the
      yet unknown long-term risks. As disease recurrence continues to be the most
      common cause of death, future research should focus on the development of
      consolidation therapies for those patients achieving complete response to
      therapy.

PMID- 28869617
TI  - A phase 1 trial of 90Y-Zevalin radioimmunotherapy with autologous stem cell
      transplant for multiple myeloma.
AB  - This phase 1 study (clinical trial NCT00477815) was conducted to determine the
      maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan (90Y-Zevalin)
      with high dose melphalan (HDM) therapy in multiple myeloma (MM) patients
      undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). In a 3+3 trial design, 30
      patients received rituximab 250 mg/m2 with indium-111 ibritumomab tiuxetan (111In
      Zevalin) for dosimetry (day -22); rituximab 250 mg/m2 with escalating doses of
      90Y-Zevalin (day -14); melphalan 100 mg/m2 (days -2,-1) followed by ASCT (day 0)
      and sargramostim (GM-CSF, day 0) until neutrophil engraftment. Each patient's
      111In-Zevalin dosimetry data were used to calculate the dose of 90Y-Zevalin (in
      mCi) to deliver 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 Gy to the liver. Dose limiting
      toxicities were seen in 3 patients. The overall response rate was 73% (22/30)
      with stringent complete response in 2 patients; complete response, 5; very good
      partial response, 12; and partial response, 3. The median PFS was 16.5 months and
      the median overall survival was 63.4 months. In MM, the MTD of 90Y-Zevalin with
      HDM is 18 Gy to the liver. The addition of radiation with novel delivery methods
      such as radioimmunotherapy combined with standard transplant regimens warrants
      further study.

PMID- 28869620
TI  - The influence of the cumulated deformation energy in the measurement by the DSI
      method on the selected mechanical properties of bone tissues.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of the study was to determine the influence of DSI test
      conditions, i.e., loading/unloading rates, hold time, and the value of the
      maximum loading force on selected mechanical properties of trabecular bone
      tissue. METHODS: The test samples were resected from a femoral head of a patient
      qualified for a hip replacement surgery. During the DSI tests hardness (HV, HM,
      HIT) and elastic modulus (EIT) of trabecular bone tissue were measured using the
      Micro Hardness Tester (MHT, CSEM). RESULTS: The analysis of the results of
      measurements and the calculations of total energy, i.e., elastic and inelastic
      (Wtotal, Welastic, Winelastic) and those of hardness and elasticity made it
      possible to assess the impact of the process parameters (loading velocity, force
      and hold time) on mechanical properties of bone structures at a microscopic
      level. CONCLUSIONS: The coefficient k dependent on the EIT/HIT ratio and on the
      stored energy (DeltaW = Wtotal - Welastic) is a measure of the material reaction
      to the loading and the deformation of tissue.

PMID- 28869621
TI  - Influence of fibre reinforcement on selected mechanical properties of dental
      composites.
AB  - PURPOSE: For splinting or designing adhesive bridges, reconstructive composite
      structures with increased mechanical properties owing to embedded reinforcement
      fibres are used. The aim of this article was to determine the influence of glass
      and aramid fibres on the mechanical strength of composites reinforced with these
      fibres. METHODS: Two polymer-ceramic microhybrid materials: Boston and Herculite
      were tested. Three types of reinforcement fibres were used: aramid (Podwiazka)
      with a single layer weave, a single layer weave glass fibre (FSO) and triple
      layer weave glass fibre (FSO evo). Tests were conducted in accordance with the
      requirements of ISO 4049:2009. The following material types were chosen for
      research: Boston, Boston + Podwiazka, Herculite, Herculite + Podwiazka, Herculite
      + FSO and Herculite + FSO evo. The scope of research included: flexural strength
      ?B, bending modulus of elasticity epsilonB and work to failure of the reinforced
      composite Wfb. Additionally, microscopic observations of fracture occurring in
      samples were made. RESULTS: In comparison: the Herculite (97.7 MPa) type with the
      Herculite + FSO evo (177.5 MPa) type was characterized by the highest strength.
      Fibre reinforcement resulted in decreasing the elasticity modulus: Herculite +
      reinforcement (6.86 GPa; 6.33 GPa; 6.11 GPa) in comparison with the Herculite
      (9.84 GPa) and respectively Boston + reinforcement (10.08 GPa) as compared with
      the Boston (11.81 GPa). CONCLUSIONS: Using glass fibres increases flexural
      strength of the test composites. Using aramid fibres does not change their
      strength. The elasticity modulus of the reinforced reconstructive structures
      decreases after application of either type of fibres. However, their resistance
      to the crack initiation increases.

PMID- 28869622
TI  - Spinal range of motion and plantar pressure in sport climbers.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to investigate the range of motion (ROM) of
      lumbar and thoracic articulations and static and dynamic plantar pressure in
      sport climbing athletes. METHODS: The sample included 30 sport climbers with a
      minimum of 2 years training experience and 30 physical education students who
      served as an active untrained control. ROM was assessed by a Saunders digital
      inclinometer and plantar pressure by a baropodometric platform. RESULTS: Mean
      spinal ROMs were greater in the sport climbers with an exception of extension,
      rotation, and lateral thoracic flexion, with a high degree of statistical
      significance obtained in the majority of the analyzed ROMs. The climbers
      exhibited increased mean forefoot pressure (smaller rearfoot pressure) in both
      the dominant and nondominant extremities, with significant intergroup differences
      found in dominant forefoot/rearfoot pressure distribution. CONCLUSIONS: Sport
      climbers present increased lumbar and thoracic ROM. The characteristics of
      climbing may also affect transverse arch structure and plantar pressure
      distribution.

PMID- 28869623
TI  - On influence of anodic oxidation on thrombogenicity and bioactivity of the Ti
      13Nb-13Zr alloy.
AB  - PURPOSE: This paper reports on the results of investigations on the blood
      response to the modified of surfaces titanium alloys. METHODS: To enhance
      biocompatibility of the Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloy, anodisation was performed at 80 and
      150 V. The oxidation process was carried out in a solution containing 4 mol dm-3
      H3PO4 and 0.59 mol dm-3 Ca(H2PO2)2. RESULTS: The haemolytic activity of the
      titanium alloy surface was not altered much by the anodisation. The obtained
      values of the percentage of haemolysis were well below the levels required for
      the materials intended for blood contact. The clotting time of the blood was
      similar for the as-ground sample and the sample anodised at 80 V. For the sample
      anodised at 150 V the clotting time was shorter. The differences between these
      samples were observed in partial thromboplastin time after activation,
      prothrombin time and thrombin time, after 24 h. Extracts taken from the samples
      were not toxic towards the L-929 mouse fibroblast cells. CONCLUSIONS: The
      proposed treatment might be appropriate for the preparation of modified Ti-13Nb
      13Zr surfaces intended for bone reconstruction or cardiovascular implants
      depending on process parameters.

PMID- 28869624
TI  - Computerized static posturography and laterality in children. Influence of age.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present study aims to explore relationships between footedness and
      posturographic assessment in children aged from 4 to 10. A real-time computerised
      device was used on a force plate for movement analysis. It requires a static
      posturography to assess postural control of children with the same handedness and
      footedness. METHODS: Thirty eight right-handed and right-footed children
      organized in three age groups of 4 to 6 years old, 6 to 8 years old and 8 to 10
      years old participated in the study. Two statical tests, the Unilateral Stance
      (US) and the Weight Bearing Squat (WBS) were performed, jointly with a dynamic
      balance examination (Limits of Stability (LOS)). All these tests were executed to
      explore the body capability of the right/left side. RESULTS: The study
      demonstrated significant differences involving the right/left side among the
      three age groups. Better performance on the youngest children's right part and on
      the oldest children's left part was observed. Differences between the left and
      right sides of the body were noticeably revealed by posturographic assessments in
      right-handed and right-footed children. CONCLUSIONS: Age seemed to be a
      determinant for these outcomes. Maturation of the vestibular at the ages of 6 or
      7 years might explain the observed differences between the youngest children and
      olderchildren.

PMID- 28869625
TI  - Phase composition and morphology characteristics of ceria-stabilized zirconia
      powders obtained via sol-gel method with various pH conditions.
AB  - PURPOSE: High purity, fine crystalline, degradation-free at low temperature
      powders have attracted special interest in CAD/CAM prosthetic dentistry full
      ceramic restorations. This study reports the preparation and characterisation of
      zirconia-ceria (0.9 ZrO2 0.1 CeO2) powders. Materials were obtained from
      zirconium-n-alkoxide and cerium nitrate hexahydrate in the pH 2-4 and 8-10.
      METHODS: Zirconia- ceria powders were obtained with the sol-gel method in a humid
      free environment. Thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) of the as-prepared materials was
      made for an assessment of its behaviour at elevated temperatures. Specimens were
      dried at 80  degrees C and calcinated in two stages: at 300  degrees C with
      soaking time 2.5 h and 850  degrees C with holding time 2.5 h, in order to
      evaluate the phase transformations. Thermal analyses of the as-dried powders were
      made for an assessment of its thermal behaviour during heat treatment up to 1000 
      degrees C. By X-ray diffraction (XRD), polymorphs of ZrO2 were identified.
      Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser particle size
      distribution (PSD) were involved for characterisation of morphology of the
      powders. RESULTS: A correlation between the pH of the colloidal system and the
      morphology of the as-obtained powders were found. Based on analysis (SEM, PSD),
      structures were identified known as soft and hard agglomerates. CONCLUSIONS: It
      can be stated that differences found between powder morphology were dependent on
      the value pH used, which can be crucial for powder densification during sintering
      and compacting green bodies which, as a consequence, may be crucial for the
      lifetime of zirconia prostheses. Correlations between phase composition and pH
      are difficult to grasp, and require further, more sophisticated, studies.

PMID- 28869626
TI  - Chemical passivation as a method of improving the electrochemical corrosion
      resistance of Co-Cr-based dental alloy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate corrosion resistance of
      Wirobond C(r) alloy after chemical passivation treatment. METHODS: The alloy
      surface undergone chemical passivation treatment in four different media.
      Corrosion studies were carried out by means of electrochemical methods in saline
      solution. Corrosion effects were determined using SEM. RESULTS: The greatest
      increase in the alloy polarization resistance was observed for passive layer
      produced in Na2SO4 solution with graphite. The same layer caused the highest
      increase in corrosion current. Generally speaking, the alloy passivation in
      Na2SO4 solution with graphite caused a substantial improvement of the corrosion
      resistance. The sample after passivation in Na2SO4 solution without graphite,
      contrary to others, lost its protective properties along with successive anodic
      polarization cycles. The alloy passivation in Na3PO4 solution with graphite was
      the only one that caused a decrease in the alloy corrosion properties. The SEM
      studies of all samples after chemical passivation revealed no pit corrosion - in
      contrast to the sample without any modification. CONCLUSIONS: Every successive
      polarization cycle in anodic direction of pure Wirobond C(r) alloy enhances
      corrosion resistance shifting corrosion potential in the positive direction and
      decreasing corrosion current value. The chemical passivation in solutions with
      low pH values decreases susceptibility to electrochemical corrosion of Co-Cr
      dental alloy. The best protection against corrosion was obtained after chemical
      passivation of Wirobond C(r) in Na2SO4 solution with graphite. Passivation with
      Na2SO4 in solution of high pH does not cause an increase in corrosion resistance
      of WIROBOND C. Passivation process increases alloy resistance to pit corrosion.

PMID- 28869627
TI  - Somatotype variables related to strength and power output in male basketball
      players.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between
      somatotype, muscular strength, power output measured in maximal cycle ergometer
      exercise bouts, and maximal power output and height of rise of the body mass
      centre (jump height) measured in akimbo counter movement jump (ACMJ), counter
      movement jump (CMJ) and spike jump (SPJ), in male basketball players. METHODS:
      Thirteen male basketball players (second division, age 19.4 +/- 0.8 years, body
      height 192.9 +/- 5.6 cm, body mass 88.8 +/- 8.6 kg, training experience 9.3 +/-
      0.8 years) participated in the study. Somatotype was determined using the Heath
      Carter method. Maximal joint torques were measured under static conditions. Power
      output was measured in 2 maximal cycle ergometer exercise bouts, 10 seconds each,
      with increasing external loads equal to 7.5 and 10.0% of the body weight (BW).
      All jump trials (ACMJ, CMJ and SPJ) were performed on a force plate. RESULTS: The
      mean somatotype of basketball players amounted to: 2.8-4.2-3.2. The sum of the
      joint torques for left and right lower extremities (0.613), trunk (0.631) and all
      six measured muscle groups (0.647) were significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with
      the mesomorphic component. Endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic components
      were correlated insignificantly with values of maximal power and height of jump
      during ACMJ, CMJ and SPJ trials. The power output measured in maximal cycle
      ergometer exercise bouts with increasing external loads was significantly
      correlated (p < 0.05) with mesomorphy and ectomorphy. CONCLUSION: It can be
      assumed that basketball players' anthropometric characteristics can influence
      their level of performance but it is not a decisive factor.

PMID- 28869628
TI  - The influence of the acoustic stimulus on postural stability.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess if 65 dB and 4000 Hz stimuli
      affect postural stability of young normally hearing people. METHODS:
      Posturography examinations belong to clinical tests which evaluate the motor
      skills. Posturography can be divided into static posturography and dynamic
      posturography. In both static and dynamic posturography patient stays on the
      platform with opened and closed eyes, but in the case of dynamic one, platform is
      unstable. In this study the Multitest Equilibre platform produced by FRAMIRAL was
      used. Patients took part in tests with opened and closed eyes, on stable and
      unstable platform. Additionally, patients were exposed to 65 dB and 4000 Hz
      acoustic stimuli. The sound pressure level, and frequency was belonging to the
      best audibly frequency range. RESULTS: Parameters such as velocity and surface
      were examined. The difference between velocity measured with acoustic stimuli and
      without acoustic stimuli was observed. On the other hand there was no difference
      in surface results. CONCLUSIONS: The statistically significant difference between
      velocity of patients center of gravity movements, measured on unstable platform,
      in the presence of 4000 Hz, 65 dB acoustic stimulus and without additional
      disturbances was observed.

PMID- 28869629
TI  - Experimental testing and constitutive modeling of the mechanical properties of
      the swine skin tissue.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study was an estimation of the possibility of using
      hyperelastic material models to fit experimental data obtained in the tensile
      test for the swine skin tissue. METHODS: The uniaxial tensile tests of samples
      taken from the abdomen and back of a pig was carried out. The mechanical
      properties of the skin such as the mean Young's modulus, the mean maximum stress
      and the mean maximum elongation were calculated. The experimental data have been
      used to identify the parameters in specific strain-energy functions given in
      seven constitutive models of hyperelastic materials: neo-Hookean, Mooney-Rivlin,
      Ogden, Yeoh, Martins, Humphrey and Veronda-Westmann. An analysis of errors in
      fitting of theoretical and experimental data was done. RESULTS: Comparison of
      load -displacement curves for the back and abdomen regions of skin taken showed a
      different scope of both the mean maximum loading forces and the mean maximum
      elongation. Samples which have been prepared from the abdominal area had lower
      values of the mean maximum load compared to samples from the spine area. The
      reverse trend was observed during the analysis of the values of elongation. An
      analysis of the accuracy of model fitting to the experimental data showed that,
      the least accurate were the model of neo- -Hookean, model of Mooney-Rivlin for
      the abdominal region and model of Veronda-Westmann for the spine region.
      CONCLUSIONS: An analysis of seven hyperelastic material models showed good
      correlations between the experimental and the theoretical data for five models.

PMID- 28869630
TI  - Deposition of phosphate coatings on titanium within scaffold structure.
AB  - PURPOSE: Existing knowledge about the appearance, thickness, and chemical
      composition of phosphate coatings on titanium inside porous structures is
      insufficient. Such knowledge is important for the design and fabrication of
      porous implants. METHODS: Metallic scaffolds were fabricated by selective laser
      melting of 316L stainless steel powder. Phosphate coatings were deposited on Ti
      sensors placed either outside the scaffolds or in the holes in the scaffolds. The
      electrochemically-assisted cathodic deposition of phosphate coatings was
      performed under galvanostatic conditions in an electrolyte containing the calcium
      and phosphate ions. The phosphate deposits were microscopically investigated;
      this included the performance of mass weight measurements and chemical analyses
      of the content of Ca2+ and ? 24 PO ions after the dissolution of deposits.
      RESULTS: The thicknesses of the calcium phosphate coatings were about 140 and 200
      nm for isolated titanium sensors and 170 and 300 nm for titanium sensors placed
      inside pores. Deposition of calcium phosphate occurred inside the pores up to 150
      mm below the scaffold surface. The deposits were rich in Ca, with a Ca/P ratio
      ranging from 2 to 2.5. CONCLUSIONS: Calcium phosphate coatings can be
      successfully deposited on a Ti surface inside a model scaffold. An increase in
      cathodic current results in an increase in coating thickness. Any decrease in the
      cathodic current inside the porous structure is slight. The calcium phosphate
      inside the pores has a much higher Ca/P ratio than that of stoichiometric HAp,
      likely due to a gradual increase in Ca fraction with distance from the surface.

PMID- 28869631
TI  - The Upper Limb Motion Deviation Index: A new comprehensive index of upper limb
      motion pathology.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the research was to formulate a new index enabling assessment
      of the overall pathology of the upper limb movement. It defines the difference
      between the pathological movement and a normal movement pattern. METHODS:
      Methodology of determining the index is based on a mathematical algorithm for
      calculating the Gait Deviation Index which is based on advanced methods of image
      comparison. To calculate the ULMDI index, one must divide the analyzed movement
      into cycles appropriate to the nature of the movement (similarly in gait it is
      the gait cycle) and then determine kinematic quantities (courses of joint
      angles). RESULTS: A group of 23 healthy people (10 women: k1-k10 and 13 men: m1
      m13) as the reference group and a group of 3 persons with mobility impairments
      (p1-p3) took part in the research. Time values of the angles of the joints on
      both upper limbs were registered and then ULMDI indexes were calculated.
      CONCLUSIONS: It has been shown that the developed ULMDI index allows to detect
      the deviations from the accepted norm in the performance of movements. The
      results showed that both the description of the motor dysfunction of examined
      person based on the diagnosis of the physician, a detailed analysis of kinematic
      waveforms received during the tests and the calculated values provide a coherent
      picture of the state of a human movement. The index analysis is less time
      consuming for the doctor, and the comparison of the results at various stages of
      therapy gives an objective picture of the rehabilitation progress.

PMID- 28869633
TI  - Optimal selection of dental implant for different bone conditions based on the
      mechanical response.
AB  - PURPOSE: Bone quality varies from one patient to another extensively. Young's
      modulus may deviate up to 40% of normal bone quality, which results into
      alteration of bone stiffness immensely. The prime goal of this study is to design
      the optimum dental implant considering the mechanical response at bone implant
      interfaces for a patient with specific bone quality. METHOD: 3D models of
      mandible and natural molar tooth were prepared from CT scan data, while dental
      implants were modelled using different diameter, length and porosity and FE
      analysis was carried out. Based on the variation in bone density, five different
      bone qualities were considered. First, failure analysis of implants, under
      maximum biting force of 250 N had been performed. Next, the implants that
      remained were selected for observation of mechanical response at bone implant
      interfaces under common chewing load of 120 N. RESULT: Maximum Von Mises stress
      did not surpass the yield strength of the implant material (TiAl4V). However,
      factor of safety of 1.5 was considered and all but two dental implants survived
      the design stress or allowable stress. Under 120 N load, distribution of Von
      Mises stress and strain at the boneimplant interface corresponding to the rest of
      the implants for five bone conditions were obtained and enlisted. CONCLUSION:
      Implants exhibiting interface strain within 1500-3000 microstrain range show the
      best bone remodelling and osseointegration. So, implant models having this range
      of interface strains were selected corresponding to the particular bone quality.
      A set of optimum dental implants for each of the bone qualities were predicted.

PMID- 28869632
TI  - Evaluation of reliability and concurrent validity of two optoelectric systems
      used for recording maximum vertical jumping performance versus the gold standard.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity
      of two alternative systems used for jumping performance measurement. METHODS: Two
      groups of subjects were tested. The first group consisted of 15 male adults (21.3
      +/- 1.7 years) and the second group consisted of 16 female volleyball players
      (17.2 +/- 0.9 years). We used three different systems of data collection in the
      study. Two of the used systems are based on optoelectric components. The Optojump
      Next system is referred to as the optoelectric system, and BTS Smart-E is refered
      to as the video system. Concurrent validity of these systems was verified with
      the use of "gold standard" which is force platform. All systems were used to
      estimate the height of vertical jumps. RESULTS: Both optoelectric systems turned
      out to be highly reliable with the ICCs = 0.98 for Optojump and 0.9 for BTS
      Smart. Their concurrent validity with the force platform data was also very high
      r = 0.99 and r = 0.97, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Comparison of these two systems
      shows distinct differences between them. Out of the two systems, Optojump system
      is more suitable for quick and reliable sports testing while when BTS-Smart is
      better for research and clinical testing.

PMID- 28869634
TI  - The effects of an early intrahospital rehabilitation on weight bearing during
      lower extremity lengthening with Ilizarov method.
AB  - PURPOSE: Exerting axial pressure on the affected lower limb remains one of the
      most crucial elements of Ilizarov method. The objective was to determine the
      effects of an early intrahospital rehabilitation on weight bearing during lower
      extremity lengthening with Ilizarov method. METHODS: The study included 15
      patients who underwent lower limb lengthening. The patients were tested on the
      third day after surgery using the pedobarographic platform. The tests were
      performed four times in the standing position: twice with the support of forearm
      crutches and twice without crutches. Patients were asked to either remain in the
      relaxed standing position (two tests) or use the lower limb equipped with
      Ilizarov apparatus to support the body weight (two tests). RESULTS: In relaxed
      stance average pressure with forearm crutches was 24.1% for affected limb, as
      compared to 75.9% for the healthy limb. In test without forearm crutches average
      pressure for affected limb was 26.1%, as compared to 73.9% for the healthy limb.
      Patients shifted body weight to the affected limb with forearm crutches on
      average, at the rate of 53.6%. In test without forearm crutches the affected limb
      was supporting the body weight at the rate of 48.26%. None of the patients was
      able to fully support the body weight on the affected leg. CONCLUSIONS: In spite
      of strict physiotherapy regimen, patients are neither able to equally distribute
      their body weight between the two lower limbs nor to shift their body weight to
      the limb equipped with Ilizarov apparatus.

PMID- 28869635
TI  - Assessing the impact of a targeted plyometric training on changes in selected
      kinematic parameters of the swimming start.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyse changes taking place within
      selected kinematic parameters of the swimming start, after completing a six-week
      plyometric training, assuming that the take-off power training improves its
      effectiveness. METHODS: The experiment included nine male swimmers. In the pre
      test the swimmers performed three starts focusing on the best performance. Next,
      a plyometric training programme, adapted from sprint running, was introduced in
      order to increase a power of the lower extremities. The programme entailed 75
      minute sessions conducted twice a week. Afterwards, a post-test was performed,
      analogous to the pre-test. Spatio-temporal structure data of the swimming start
      were gathered from video recordings of the swimmer above and under water.
      RESULTS: Impulses triggered by the plyometric training contributed to a shorter
      start time (the main measure of start effectiveness) and glide time as well as
      increasing average take-off, flight and glide velocities including take-off,
      entry and glide instantaneous velocities. The glide angle decreased. CONCLUSIONS:
      The changes in selected parameters of the swimming start and its confirmed
      diagnostic values, showed the areas to be susceptible to plyometric training and
      suggested that applied plyometric training programme aimed at increasing take-off
      power enhances the effectiveness of the swimming start.

PMID- 28869637
TI  - Evaluation of functional and structural changes affecting the lumbar spine in
      professional field hockey players.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate functional and structural changes
      in the lumbar spine which occurred as a consequence of playing field hockey.
      METHODS: The research group consisted of 20 male professional field hockey
      players. Computed tomography scans were collected to define the radiological
      density of the vertebral bodies and to calculate Young's modulus. An
      electrogoniometer was used to measure the range of movement. Geometric
      parameters, such as Lumbar Lordosis Angle, Index of Lumbar Lordosis, Whitmann
      Ferguson Angle and Anterior Pelvic Tilt, were also measured. RESULTS: The values
      describing lumbar lordosis increased linearly with years of training and were
      significantly greater than those reported in the literature. Field hockey players
      displayed a larger range of flexion, side bending and rotation to the right. An
      analysis of radiological density discovered significantly high values. An
      analysis of Young's modulus showed that the vertebral bodies become more fragile.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results show that overuse changes in the lumbar spine of field
      hockey players are severe and highly correlated with years of training.

PMID- 28869636
TI  - Structure and corrosion resistance of Co-Cr-Mo alloy used in Birmingham Hip
      Resurfacing system.
AB  - PURPOSE: The endoprostheses made of cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (Co-Cr-Mo) alloys
      belong to the group of the most popular metallic implants used for reconstruction
      of hip joints. For such biomaterials, the primary goal is a correct and long-term
      functioning in the aggressive environment of body fluids. Therefore, the purpose
      of this study was to examine both the morphology and the corrosion resistance of
      implants made of the cobalt alloy used in Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (BHR) system
      (Smith & Nephew). For comparative purposes, the electrochemical studies were done
      for the nitrided stainless steel - Orthinox. METHODS: Observations of the
      microstructure of the material under investigation were performed by means of the
      optical metallographic microscope and the scanning electron microscope.
      Furthermore, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy was used to analyse the
      chemical composition of the endoprosthesis. Characterisation and evaluation of
      electrochemical corrosion resistance of the selected alloys were performed by
      potentiodynamic polarisation tests. RESULTS: The structural studies confirmed
      that Co-Cr-Mo (BHR system) is characterised by a typical dendritic microstructure
      with carbide precipitates, mainly M23C6, within the interdendritic areas. The
      results of the polarisation measurements showed that the cobalt alloy
      investigated exhibits lower corrosion potential than Orthinox in the utilised
      environments (3% NaCl, simulated body fluid - Hank's Body Fluid). CONCLUSIONS:
      However, the high passivation ability of the Co-Cr-Mo alloy, as well as its
      resistance to the initiation and propagation of localised corrosion processes,
      indicate that this material is significantly more appropriate for long-term
      implants.

PMID- 28869638
TI  - Evaluation of the accuracy of the postural stability measurement with the Y
      Balance Test based on the levels of the biomechanical parameters.
AB  - PURPOSE: The study of dynamic balance involves tests that assess the muscle
      control of spatial changes of the position of the centre of gravity over the base
      of support. The purpose of this work was to determine the structure of the Y
      balance test and its accuracy based on the measurements of strength performance
      of the muscles acting on the knee joint as well as the flexibility and balance in
      boys aged 14 years. METHODS: The study included 43 schoolboys regularly
      participating in physical education lessons. The examination of postural
      stability was conducted with the use of the Y-balance test. The measurements of
      muscle strength and of resistance to fatigue of the extensors and flexors of knee
      joints in isometric contraction were performed on a measurement stand in a
      standard position with the use of tensometric sensors. The measurement of
      mobility range of the lower extremity joints was performed according to the SFTR.
      The examination of balance was performed with the use of the modified "Flamingo
      balance test". RESULTS: The factor structure of the Y-balance test results for
      the left and right lower extremities is similar and includes five principal
      independent factors that characterise the structure of analysed variables. They
      explain 76% and 74% of communality in total for the left and the right extremity,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The extracted factor structure points to a hybrid
      structure of the Y-Balance Test and shows its accuracy in the measurements of the
      lower limb joint mobility and strength performance of knee joint extensors.

PMID- 28869639
TI  - Analysis of the influence of the transducer and its coupling layer on round
      window stimulation.
AB  - PURPOSE: In this work, a finite element study is proposed to evaluate the effects
      of the transducer and its coupling layer on the performance of round window (RW)
      stimulation. METHODS: Based on a set of micro-computer tomography images of a
      healthy adult's right ear and reverse engineering technique, a coupled finite
      element model of the human ear and the transducer was constructed and verified.
      Then, the effect of the cross-section of the transducer, the elastic modulus of
      the coupling layer, the mass of the transducer, and the preload of the transducer
      were studied. RESULTS: The increase of the transducer's cross-section area
      deteriorates the RW stimulation, especially at the lower frequencies. This
      adverse effect of the cross-section area's increase of the transducer can be
      reduced by adding a coupling layer between the transducer and the RW. However,
      the coupling layer's improvement on the RW stimulation is reduced with the
      increase of its elastic modulus. Moreover, the mass loading of the transducer
      decreases the RW stimulation's performance mainly at higher frequencies and
      applying a static preload on the transducer enhances its hearing compensating
      performance at higher frequencies. CONCLUSIONS: The influence of the transducer's
      mass, the mass of the transducer, the applied static preload and the properties
      of the coupling layer must be taken into account in the design of the RW
      stimulation type implantable middle ear hearing device.

PMID- 28869640
TI  - Renewable high-density spiro-fuels from lignocellulose-derived cyclic ketones.
AB  - Renewable high-density spiro-fuels are synthesized from lignocellulose-derived
      cyclic ketones for the first time, which show higher density, higher neat heat of
      combustion and lower freezing point compared with other biofuels synthesized from
      the same feedstock, and thus represent a new type of renewable high-density fuel
      attractive for practical applications.

PMID- 28869641
TI  - Multicomponent equiatomic rare earth oxides with a narrow band gap and associated
      praseodymium multivalency.
AB  - New multicomponent equiatomic rare earth oxides (ME-REOs) containing 3-7 rare
      earth elements (Ce, Gd, La, Nd, Pr, Sm and Y) in equiatomic proportions are
      synthesized using nebulized spray pyrolysis. All the systems crystallized as a
      phase pure fluorite type (Fm3[combining macron]m) structure in spite of the high
      chemical complexity. A nominal increase in the lattice parameter compared to CeO2
      is observed in all ME-REOs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy performed on the ME
      REOs confirmed that all the constituent rare earth elements are present in the 3+
      oxidation state, except for Ce and Pr which are present in 4+ and in a mixed
      (3+/4+) oxidation state, respectively. The presence of Ce4+ contributes
      substantially to the observed stability of the single phase structure. These new
      oxide systems have narrow direct band gaps in the range of 1.95-2.14 eV and
      indirect band gaps in the range of 1.40-1.64 eV, enabling light absorption over
      the entire visible spectral range. Furthermore, the oxygen vacancy concentration
      rapidly increases and then saturates with the number of rare earth elements that
      are incorporated into the ME-REOs. The lowering of the band gap is found to be
      closely related to the presence of multivalent Pr. Interestingly, the band gap
      values are relatively invariant with respect to the composition or thermal
      treatments. Considering the high level of oxygen vacancies present and the
      observed low band gap values, these new material systems can be of importance
      where the presence of oxygen vacancies is essential or in applications where a
      narrow band gap is desirable.

PMID- 28869642
TI  - The influence of functional groups on the ethylene polymerization performance of
      silsesquioxane-supported Phillips-type catalysts.
AB  - A series of silsesquioxane-supported Phillips-type molecular catalysts for
      ethylene polymerization were synthesized by introducing various functional groups
      in proximity to monoalkylated Cr(iii). They were moderately active in ethylene
      polymerization, while the performance was sensitive to the type of functional
      group. In particular, the presence of a lone pair near the active center was
      found to enhance the activity and expand the molecular weight distribution, which
      is plausibly due to alkylaluminum temporally captured by the lone pair. A similar
      result was never obtained by adding free molecules bearing a lone pair, and the
      fixation of the lone pair near the active site was essential. It was revealed
      that the design strategy based on the support functionalization can be
      transferred to SiO2-supported chromium catalysts.

PMID- 28869643
TI  - Carrier relaxation dynamics in type-II ZnO/CdSe quantum dot heterostructures.
AB  - Semiconductor heterostructures with type-II band alignment are well known for
      their engineering property of efficient charge separation in photogenerated
      carriers. Herein, type-II CdSe/ZnO core/shell quantum dot heterostructures with
      CdSe shells of different thicknesses have been synthesized and a study of carrier
      dynamics is carried out using femtosecond transient absorption and picosecond
      emission spectroscopy. Carrier lifetime measurements by transient emission
      spectroscopy have revealed reduced electron-hole overlap in the type-II
      localization regime of ZnO/CdSe heterostructures. Femtosecond transient
      absorption studies have revealed hot electron transfer from CdSe shell to ZnO
      core prior to electron cooling in the CdSe shell. In addition, a surface channel
      for the hole cooling process has been identified in the transient absorption
      measurements. Effects of carrier trapping at interfacial defect states and type
      II localization on carrier recombination have been recognized in our transient
      absorption and emission studies of ZnO/CdSe QDs heterostructure.

PMID- 28869644
TI  - Reactivity of a stable copper-dioxygen complex.
AB  - We report the isolation of a room temperature stable dipyrromethene Cu(O2)
      complex featuring a side-on O2 coordination. Reactivity studies highlight the
      unique ability of the dioxygen adduct for both hydrogen-atom abstraction and
      acid/base chemistry towards phenols, demonstrating that side-on superoxide
      species can be reactive entities.

PMID- 28869645
TI  - Visible light photocatalytic decarboxylative monofluoroalkenylation of alpha
      amino acids with gem-difluoroalkenes.
AB  - alpha-Amino acids are among the most common biologically active molecules in
      nature, and their functionalization has attracted much attention. In this
      communication, a novel, efficient and general visible-light photocatalytic
      decarboxylative monofluoroalkenylation of N-protected alpha-amino acids with gem
      difluoroalkenes is reported, affording the corresponding alpha-amino
      monofluoroalkenes which might find applications in medical chemistry and
      materials science. The reaction proceeded at room temperature with high
      efficiency and tolerance of various functional groups.

PMID- 28869646
TI  - Compositions and structures of niobium oxide cluster ions, NbmOn+/-, (m = 2-12),
      revealed by ion mobility mass spectrometry.
AB  - Herein, the compositions and geometrical structures of niobium oxide cluster ions
      were studied and compared with those of the lighter Group 5 counterpart vanadium
      oxide cluster ions by ion-mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS). As a result of
      collision-induced dissociation in IM-MS, the compositions were found to be
      dependent on an odd and even number of niobium atoms, whereby the ions with
      (NbO2)(Nb2O5)(m-1)/2+ and (NbO3)(Nb2O5)(m-1)/2- were identified as stable
      compositions for an odd number of Nb atoms, whereas (Nb2O5)m/2+/- and
      (Nb2O6)(Nb2O5)(m-2)/2- were identified as stable compositions for an even number
      of Nb atom clusters. Furthermore, structural transitions were observed between m
      = 8 and 9 for cluster cations and m = 7 and 8 for cluster anions for experimental
      collision cross-sections (CCSs), which were determined from the arrival times in
      the ion-mobility measurements. Quantum chemical calculations were conducted on
      several structural candidates of these compositions for m = 2-12. For cluster
      cations with the sizes between m = 2 and 8 and cluster anions with m = 2-7, the
      structures were found to be similar to those of vanadium oxide cluster ions upon
      comparing the experimental CCSs with the theoretical CCSs of optimized
      structures. As compared to the vanadium oxide cluster ions, niobium oxide cluster
      cations with m >= 9 and anions with m >= 8 consisted of structures where some
      niobium atoms had more than five oxygen-atom coordination; thus, compact
      structures could be achieved in the case of niobium oxide cluster ions.

PMID- 28869647
TI  - Understanding the incomprehensible - patients' and spouses' experiences of
      comprehensibility before, at and after diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have examined manageability and meaningfulness in
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but there is a lack of studies examining the
      comprehensibility of ALS among patients and their spouses. AIM: This qualitative
      retrospective study aimed to illuminate patients' and spouses' experiences of
      comprehensibility in ALS from a long-term perspective, when symptoms appeared
      before diagnosis, and when the diagnosis was given and in life after diagnosis.
      METHODS: Individual semi-structured interviews with 14 patients and 13 spouses
      were performed. The transcribed interviews were subjected to qualitative content
      analysis. FINDINGS: Through the whole disease process, patients and spouses
      feared the unknown regardless of whether they comprehended the disease or not.
      They described that they before diagnosis felt uncertainty. It was problematic to
      comprehend what was wrong and what the deterioration implied. At the diagnosis,
      they described feelings of losing their foothold. Long-term after diagnosis, they
      still lived in fear and looked for reasons why they were afflicted. CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings of similar experiences in comprehensibility between patients and spouses
      strengthen the importance of support and information to both parties. Since they
      hovered between comprehensibility and incomprehensibility during the whole
      disease process, it is important that their questions, fears and worries are met,
      from the first visit at hospital and through the whole process. Multiprofessional
      teams, such as ALS teams and palliative teams can from a holistic perspective
      increase the possibility of meeting their needs in their unique situation.

PMID- 28869648
TI  - Site-specific distribution of claudin-based paracellular channels with roles in
      biological fluid flow and metabolism.
AB  - The claudins are a family of membrane proteins with at least 27 members in humans
      and mice. The extracellular regions of claudin proteins play essential roles in
      cell-cell adhesion and the paracellular barrier functions of tight junctions
      (TJs) in epithelial cell sheets. Furthermore, the extracellular regions of some
      claudins function as paracellular channels in the paracellular barrier that allow
      the selective passage of water, ions, and/or small organic solutes across the TJ
      in the extracellular space. Structural analyses have revealed a common framework
      of transmembrane, cytoplasmic, and extracellular regions among the claudin-based
      paracellular barriers and paracellular channels; however, differences in the
      claudins' extracellular regions, such as their charges and conformations,
      determine their properties. Among the biological systems that involve fluid flow
      and metabolism, it is noted that hepatic bile flow, renal Na+ reabsorption, and
      intestinal nutrient absorption are dynamically regulated via site-specific
      distributions of paracellular channel-forming claudins in tissue. Here, we focus
      on how site-specific distributions of claudin-2- and claudin-15-based
      paracellular channels drive their organ-specific functions in the liver, kidney,
      and intestine.

PMID- 28869649
TI  - Outlier identification in radiation therapy knowledge-based planning: A study of
      pelvic cases.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to apply statistical metrics to identify
      outliers and to investigate the impact of outliers on knowledge-based planning in
      radiation therapy of pelvic cases. We also aimed to develop a systematic workflow
      for identifying and analyzing geometric and dosimetric outliers. METHODS: Four
      groups (G1-G4) of pelvic plans were sampled in this study. These include the
      following three groups of clinical IMRT cases: G1 (37 prostate cases), G2 (37
      prostate plus lymph node cases) and G3 (37 prostate bed cases). Cases in G4 were
      planned in accordance with dynamic-arc radiation therapy procedure and include 10
      prostate cases in addition to those from G1. The workflow was separated into two
      parts: 1. identifying geometric outliers, assessing outlier impact, and outlier
      cleaning; 2. identifying dosimetric outliers, assessing outlier impact, and
      outlier cleaning. G2 and G3 were used to analyze the effects of geometric
      outliers (first experiment outlined below) while G1 and G4 were used to analyze
      the effects of dosimetric outliers (second experiment outlined below). A baseline
      model was trained by regarding all G2 cases as inliers. G3 cases were then
      individually added to the baseline model as geometric outliers. The impact on the
      model was assessed by comparing leverages of inliers (G2) and outliers (G3). A
      receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to determine the
      optimal threshold. The experiment was repeated by training the baseline model
      with all G3 cases as inliers and perturbing the model with G2 cases as outliers.
      A separate baseline model was trained with 32 G1 cases. Each G4 case (dosimetric
      outlier) was subsequently added to perturb the model. Predictions of dose-volume
      histograms (DVHs) were made using these perturbed models for the remaining 5 G1
      cases. A Weighted Sum of Absolute Residuals (WSAR) was used to evaluate the
      impact of the dosimetric outliers. RESULTS: The leverage of inliers and outliers
      was significantly different. The Area-Under-Curve (AUC) for differentiating G2
      (outliers) from G3 (inliers) was 0.98 (threshold: 0.27) for the bladder and 0.81
      (threshold: 0.11) for the rectum. For differentiating G3 (outlier) from G2
      (inlier), the AUC (threshold) was 0.86 (0.11) for the bladder and 0.71 (0.11) for
      the rectum. Significant increase in WSAR was observed in the model with 3
      dosimetric outliers for the bladder (P < 0.005 with Bonferroni correction), and
      in the model with only 1 dosimetric outlier for the rectum (P < 0.005).
      CONCLUSIONS: We established a systematic workflow for identifying and analyzing
      geometric and dosimetric outliers, and investigated statistical metrics for
      outlier detection. Results validated the necessity for outlier detection and
      clean-up to enhance model quality in clinical practice.

PMID- 28869650
TI  - Characterization of Extracellular Polymeric Substances Produced by Pseudomonas
      fragi Under Air and Modified Atmosphere Packaging.
AB  - Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) play an important role in bacterial
      biochemical properties. The characteristics of EPS from 2 strains of Pseudomonas
      fragi cultured in meat aerobically (control) and in modified atmosphere packaging
      (MAP) were studied. The amount and components of EPS, the surface properties, and
      the effect on biofilm formation of several spoilage organisms were evaluated. The
      results showed that MAP inhibited the growth of the P. fragi strains. Compared
      with the control, more loose and less bound EPS (containing protein and
      carbohydrate) were produced by P. fragi in MAP samples. MAP also caused increased
      cell autoaggregation and surface hydrophobicity. After the removal of the EPS,
      the surface property changes were strain-dependent, suggesting that membrane
      compositions were also changed. In addition, the EPS displayed significant
      antibiofilm activity on Pseudomonas fluorescens and Serratia liquefaciens. In
      conclusion, P. fragi strains not only modified the amount, components, and
      surface properties of EPS but also changed the cell membrane compositions to
      adapt to MAP stress. Moreover, EPS may play an important role in microbial
      community competitions.

PMID- 28869651
TI  - Technical Note: Investigating the impact of field size on patient selection for
      the 1.5T MR-Linac.
AB  - PURPOSE: The 1.5 T Elekta MR-Linac, due to the construction of the system will
      have a maximum radiation field size in the superior-inferior patient direction of
      22 cm at isocentre. The field size may impact on the patient groups which can be
      treated on the system. This technical note aims to address the question of which
      treatment sites will be affected by field size limitations on the MR-Linac.
      METHODS: Using historical data for 11 595 cases over 2 yr treated at the authors'
      institution, the proportion of plans that would fit the MR-Linac's field size was
      determined for eleven patient groups. In addition, cervix plans were analyzed to
      determine the length of the two Clinical Target Volumes (CTVs) and any overlap
      between them. RESULTS: With a 1 cm margin to allow for online plan adaption, 80%
      of all plans would be suitable for the MR-Linac due to the field size. This
      percentage increases to 100% for smaller tumor volumes such as prostate and
      brain. However, for cervix and three dose-level head and neck plans the
      percentage becomes 61% and 66%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The maximum radiation
      field size of the MR-Linac in the superior-inferior patient direction is 22 cm.
      With a 1 cm margin approximately 80% of all plans would be suitable for the MR
      Linac with the available field size, decreasing to 61% for larger tumor volumes.
      For cervix patients this may motivate investigations into treating each CTV with
      a separate isocentre, allowing for careful control of matching fields.

PMID- 28869652
TI  - Comparison of Laboratory-Developed and Commercial Monoclonal Antibody-Based
      Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays for Almond (Prunus dulcis) Detection
      and Quantification.
AB  - : A commercially available monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based direct sandwich enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (BioFront Technologies, Tallahassee, Fla.,
      U.S.A.) was compared with an in-house developed mAb 4C10-based ELISA for almond
      detection. The assays were comparable in sensitivity (limit of detection < 1 ppm
      full fat almond, limit of quantification < 5 ppm full fat almond), specificity
      (no cross-reactivity with 156 tested foods at a concentration of 100000 ppm whole
      sample), and reproducibility (intra- and interassay variability < 15% CV). The
      target antigens were stable and detectable in whole almond seeds subjected to
      autoclaving, blanching, frying, microwaving, and dry roasting. The almond
      recovery ranges for spiked food matrices were 84.3% to 124.6% for 4C10 ELISA and
      81.2% to 127.4% for MonoTrace ELISA. The almond recovery ranges for commercial
      and laboratory prepared foods with declared/known almond amount were 30.9% to
      161.2% for 4C10 ELISA and 38.1% to 207.6% for MonoTrace ELISA. Neither assay
      registered any false-positive or negative results among the tested commercial and
      laboratory prepared samples. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Ability to detect and
      quantify trace amounts of almonds is important for improving safety of almond
      sensitive consumers. Two monoclonal antibody-based ELISAs were compared for
      almond detection. The information is useful to food industry, regulatory
      agencies, scientific community, and almond consumers.

PMID- 28869653
TI  - Purpuric Agave Dermatitis.

PMID- 28869654
TI  - Nursing roles and functions addressing relatives during in-hospital
      rehabilitation following stroke. Care needs and involvement.
AB  - RATIONALE: In the last decades, length of stay of in-hospital rehabilitation of
      patients with stroke has been significantly reduced. Health authorities expect
      relatives to be at disposal to convey the knowledge of everyday life and to
      provide emotional as well as practical support in relation to the patient.
      Caregivers require nurse assistance, support and to be seen as an essential
      partner in the care giving process. However, the nurses do not perceive that
      teaching of relatives is a task they should routinely undertake. This might
      indicate an ambiguity between the relatives' expectations and the actual
      contribution from nurses. AIM: This study describes nurses' experienced roles and
      functions addressing the relatives of patients with stroke during in-hospital
      rehabilitation. METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN: A phenomenological hermeneutic approach
      influenced by Paul Ricoeur. In a secondary analysis focus group, interviews of 19
      randomly selected nurses from three different hospital settings were interpreted
      in three levels. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical
      guidelines for nursing research in the Nordic countries. FINDINGS: The nurses
      expressed that they address the patient and the relatives and support the
      interaction between the patient and the relatives. Four themes occurred: the
      changed lives of relatives; shared life after stroke; noncooperating relatives;
      time for the relatives. CONCLUSION: Nurses experience their roles and functions
      addressing relatives after stroke as crucial, challenging and multifaceted. They
      acknowledged care needs of the relatives in their own right by addressing the
      relatives' vulnerability during in-hospital rehabilitation characterised by an
      existential threat to the physical as well as the shared life. The focus on the
      needs of relatives considering their expected future role was experienced as
      conflicting with restricting time frames and a healthcare system focusing on the
      individual patient.

PMID- 28869655
TI  - Intravenous-only or Intravenous Transitioned to Oral Antimicrobials for
      Enterobacteriaceae-Associated Bacteremic Urinary Tract Infection.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterize antibiotic regimens utilized for bacteremic
      Enterobacteriaceae urinary tract infections and assess treatment failure
      associated with intravenous-only compared to intravenous transitioned to oral
      antibiotic treatment. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. SETTINGS: Tertiary care
      academic medical center. PATIENTS: 241 adult patients hospitalized between July
      1, 2010, and June 30, 2015, with positive blood and urine cultures with the same
      Enterobacteriaceae pathogen. MAIN RESULTS: Hospital days on antibiotics as well
      as length of stay were less in the group treated with any oral antibiotics
      (intravenous/oral, median 5 [IQR 3-7] days vs intravenous-only antibiotics 6 [4
      10] days, p<0.001; length of stay for intravenous/oral 4.6 [3.1-7.8] days vs
      intravenous-only 7.1 [4.0-17.5] days, p<0.001). No statistically significant
      difference was found in the composite outcome of treatment failure in patients
      who received intravenous-only antibiotics versus intravenous/oral antibiotics for
      the treatment of bacteremic urinary tract infections (intravenous-only 3.8% [95%
      CI: 1.0-9.4%] failure; intravenous/oral 8.2% [95% CI: 4.1-14.1%] failure;
      p=0.19). CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous transitioned to oral treatment
      (intravenous/oral) was associated with a shorter length of stay and fewer
      hospital antibiotic days compared with intravenous-only therapy. Transitioning
      from intravenous to oral antibiotic therapy is a viable treatment option to
      consider for patients with bacteremic Enterobacteriaceae urinary tract infection.

PMID- 28869656
TI  - Immigrants' use of health care in their country of origin: the role of social
      integration, discrimination and the parallel use of health care systems.
AB  - AIMS: The objective of this study was to elucidate the utilisation of Russian
      health care by immigrants of Russian origin living in Finland (cross-border
      health care). The study examined the association of cross-border health care with
      social integration and discrimination. Moreover, it studied whether cross-border
      health care was used as an alternative to the host-country's healthcare system.
      METHODS: Data from the Finnish Migrant Health and Wellbeing Survey (Maamu) were
      utilised. The number of respondents of Russian origin was 545. The main
      analytical method was logistic regression. The outcome variable was based on a
      survey item on seeking physician's treatment or help abroad during the last 12
      months. Social integration was measured multi-dimensionally, and the indicator
      was extracted by multiple correspondence analysis. Ethical approval for the study
      was obtained from the Ethical Committee of the Uusimaa Hospital Region. RESULTS:
      We found that 15.4% of the respondents had visited a physician in Russia during
      the last 12 months. 10.4% had experienced discrimination in Finnish health
      services during their stay in Finland. Stronger social integration predicted less
      frequent utilisation of cross-border health care. Experiences of discrimination
      or unfairness were associated with higher odds for seeking cross-border health
      care. Cross-border health care was typically used in parallel to the Finnish
      services. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings on integration and discrimination emphasise
      the importance of general integration policy as well as cultural competence in
      health care. Parallel use of healthcare systems entails both risks (e.g double
      medication, problems of follow-up) and opportunities (e.g. sense of agency),
      which should be further investigated.

PMID- 28869657
TI  - Self-reported personality traits are prospectively associated with proxy-reported
      behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia at the end of life.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are among the
      most challenging aspects of Alzheimer disease for patients and their families.
      Previous studies have found associations between informant-reported retrospective
      personality and BPSD; we test whether prospective, self-reported personality
      predicts who will experience these symptoms. METHODS: Deceased participants from
      the Health and Retirement Study who had evidence of cognitive impairment at the
      end of life (N = 1988) were selected to examine whether self-reported five-factor
      model personality traits, measured up to 8 years before death, were associated
      with proxy-reported BPSD. RESULTS: Neuroticism was associated with increased risk
      of the 7 BPSD: got lost in familiar places, wandered off, were not able to be
      left alone, experienced hallucinations, suffered from depression, had periodic
      confusion, and an uncontrolled temper. These associations were not moderated by
      age, gender, race, or education. Conscientiousness was associated with fewer
      symptoms overall and especially with lower risk of getting lost in familiar
      places and not being able to be left alone. CONCLUSIONS: The present research
      indicates that self-reported personality, particularly Neuroticism, is associated
      prospectively with risk for a wide range of behavioral symptoms for individuals
      who had cognitive impairment at the end of life. The use of self-reported
      personality traits can help aid in identifying who is most at risk for behavioral
      symptoms. Such information may be useful for nonpharmacological interventions
      tailored to the individual's personality to reduce the prevalence and burden of
      these BPSD.

PMID- 28869658
TI  - Understanding life experiences of people affected by Crohn's disease in Spain. A
      phenomenological approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: People affected by Crohn's disease must adapt their
      lives to their new chronic condition, and therefore, understanding such
      experience can be helpful in planning effective interventions for the affected
      ones. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into such experience and how
      they adapted in different areas of their lives, particularly in a family-centred
      culture such as the Spanish one. METHOD: A descriptive phenomenological study was
      conducted through in-depth interviews to 19 people diagnosed of Crohn's disease
      in the province of Alicante (Spain). Once the interviews were transcribed, data
      were analysed using Colaizzi's seven-step method. RESULTS: Five emergent themes
      were identified: self-protection against the unknown cause; self-training;
      learning to live with Crohn's disease; perceived losses associated to Crohn's
      disease; and relationship with others. The results portrayed a chronically ill
      patient who is unconscious about the chronicity and consequently must develop
      strategies to keep living a similar life like the one lived before. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study revealed that people affected by Crohn's disease struggle with the
      fact of being a chronic patient with uncertainty about the illness and need to
      learn living with a chronic condition that limits their daily lives. Furthermore,
      the lack of Crohn's disease a professional in charge of these people's Cares such
      as the specific nursing role existing in other countries support in the Spanish
      Health System determines the loneliness those diagnosed experience to cope with
      the new situation.

PMID- 28869659
TI  - Perceptions of family caregivers of cancer patients about the challenges of
      caregiving: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The experience of caring for a family member with cancer is
      associated with several care-related problems and challenges for the caregiver.
      The comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the trials and tribulations of
      caregiving can be a step towards resolving the problems faced by family
      caregivers of these patients. AIM: The present study aimed to explore challenges
      faced by Iranian family caregivers of cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      present qualitative study was conducted through in-depth semi-structured
      interviews held with 21 family caregivers of cancer patients selected through
      purposive sampling. Interviews continued until saturation of data. All interviews
      were recorded, transcribed and analysed through conventional content analysis.
      FINDING: The codes extracted from interviews produced four main themes, including
      'confusion', 'uncertainty', 'disintegration' and 'setback', which collectively
      caused suffering for family caregivers. CONCLUSION: Care provided in an
      atmosphere of suffering and discontent diminishes caregiver's quality of life and
      quality of patient care. Health planners should therefore consider the challenges
      and sufferings faced by family caregivers and should seek to obviate them through
      appropriate plans.

PMID- 28869660
TI  - Pseudoxanthoma elasticum-like changes in nonuremic calciphylaxis: Case series and
      brief review of a helpful diagnostic clue.
AB  - Calciphylaxis is a rare syndrome of vascular calcification with thrombosis that
      occurs most often in patients with end-stage renal disease, and it frequently
      portends a guarded prognosis. Rarely, nonuremic calciphylaxis (NUC) may occur; in
      this context, a strongly supportive histology is crucial in establishing the
      diagnosis. Herein, we describe 2 cases of NUC associated with pseudoxanthoma
      elasticum-like changes, identified in both initial nondiagnostic and subsequent
      diagnostic biopsy specimens. This unusual but helpful histologic finding may
      support the early diagnosis and treatment of a potentially life-threatening
      disease in the context of subtle histopathologic vascular changes or in the
      absence of classic clinical or laboratory findings.

PMID- 28869661
TI  - Utilisation of formal and informal care and services at home among persons with
      dementia: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The progression of dementia disease implies increasing needs for both
      informal and formal care and services but also risk of institutionalisation. To
      better adjust care and services in the phase preceding institutionalisation it is
      important to find out whether utilisation of formal and informal care and
      services is determined by increased needs and by who meets the needs. AIM: The
      aim was to compare persons with dementia (65+) with different levels of cognitive
      impairment, regarding utilisation of formal and informal care and service at
      home. METHODS: The participants consisted of 177 persons with dementia >=65 years
      old and at risk of nursing home admission, divided into groups according to their
      cognitive function. Structured interviews were conducted based on questionnaires
      about type and amount of formal and informal care utilised, as well as questions
      regarding cognitive impairment, dependency in activities of daily living (ADLs)
      and neuropsychiatric symptoms. To analyse the data, descriptive and comparative
      statistics were used. RESULTS: The findings revealed that the group with severe
      dementia used significantly more help with ADLs and supervision in terms of time
      (number of hours and days) provided by the informal caregiver, compared with the
      group with moderate dementia. Utilisation of formal care and services was highest
      in the group with the most severe cognitive impairments (Standardized Mini-Mental
      State Examination score of <9). The group with severe dementia were more
      dependent in ADLs and had more neuropsychiatric symptoms (hallucinations and
      motor disturbances). They were younger and more often cohabitated with the
      informal caregiver, compared with the group with moderate dementia. CONCLUSION:
      This study shows that in the phase preceding institutionalisation the ADL and
      supervision needs due to progression of dementia appear to tend to be met first
      and foremost by the informal caregivers.

PMID- 28869662
TI  - Parent Caring Response Scoring System: development and psychometric evaluation in
      the context of childhood cancer-related port starts.
AB  - RATIONALE: Multiple observational coding systems have been developed and
      validated to assess parent-child interactions during painful procedures. Most of
      these coding systems are neither theory-based nor do they well represent parent
      nonverbal behaviours. AIMS: Develop the Parent Caring Response Scoring System (P
      CaReSS) based on Swanson's Theory of Caring and test its psychometric properties
      in children in cancer port starts. METHODS: A hybrid approach of inductive and
      deductive coding was used to formulate the preliminary observational codes for
      the P-CaReSS. Twenty-nine children, each with one video-recording of port start
      available, were selected from the parent study (R01CA138981) to refine the P
      CaReSS, train coders and test inter-rater reliability. Videos of another 43
      children were used to evaluate the construct validity of P-CaReSS. Per cent
      agreement and Cohen's kappa were used to present the inter-rater reliability.
      Spearman rank-order correlations were used to report the construct validity.
      RESULTS: The 18-item P-CaReSS includes three types of parent behaviours: verbal,
      nonverbal and emotional behaviours. These parent interaction behaviours comprise
      five caring domains - knowing, being with, doing for, enabling, and maintaining
      belief - and one noncaring domain. On average the per cent agreement was 0.82 for
      the P-CaReSS overall, with average per cent agreements above 0.80 for both verbal
      and nonverbal behaviours. Kappa coefficient was 0.81 for the emotional behaviour.
      The behavioural codes in the P-CaReSS showed significant correlations with
      independent ratings of parent distress, child distress and child cooperation.
      CONCLUSIONS: The P-CaReSS is a promising tool that can be used to evaluate parent
      verbal, nonverbal and emotional behaviours during cancer-related port starts.
      This observational tool can be used to guide the development of nursing
      interventions to help parents caring for their child during cancer procedures.

PMID- 28869663
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28869664
TI  - Young Children's Use of Surface and Object Information in Drawings of Everyday
      Scenes.
AB  - Pictorial symbols such as photographs, drawings, and maps are ubiquitous in
      modern cultures. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how children relate these
      symbols to the scenes that they represent. The present work investigates 4-year
      old children's (N = 144) sensitivity to extended surface layouts and objects when
      using drawings of a room to find locations in that room. Children used either
      extended surfaces or objects when interpreting drawings, but they did not combine
      these two types of information to disambiguate target locations. Moreover,
      children's evaluations of drawings depicting surfaces or objects did not align
      with their use of such information in those drawings. These findings suggest that
      pictures of all kinds serve as media in which children deploy symbolic spatial
      skills flexibly and automatically.

PMID- 28869665
TI  - Puberty Predicts Approach But Not Avoidance on the Iowa Gambling Task in a
      Multinational Sample.
AB  - According to the dual systems model of adolescent risk taking, sensation seeking
      and impulse control follow different developmental trajectories across
      adolescence and are governed by two different brain systems. The authors tested
      whether different underlying processes also drive age differences in reward
      approach and cost avoidance. Using a modified Iowa Gambling Task in a
      multinational, cross-sectional sample of 3,234 adolescents (ages 9-17; M = 12.87,
      SD = 2.36), pubertal maturation, but not age, predicted reward approach, mediated
      through higher sensation seeking. In contrast, age, but not pubertal maturation,
      predicted increased cost avoidance, mediated through greater impulse control.
      These findings add to evidence that adolescent behavior is best understood as the
      product of two interacting, but independently developing, brain systems.

PMID- 28869666
TI  - Comprehensive Guidance for Antibiotic Dosing in Obese Adults.
AB  - Physiologic alterations seen in obesity commonly impact the pharmacokinetics (PK)
      and pharmacodynamics (PD) of antibiotics and may result in suboptimal dosing in
      this expanding but understudied population. Much of the published clinical and PK
      evidence to date consists of small patient populations and are retrospective
      with, not infrequently, heterogeneous results that in some cases are
      contradictory. In the last 10 years, additional antimicrobial PK/PD and clinical
      data encompassing prolonged infusion strategies and examination of critically ill
      populations have emerged to inform antimicrobial dosing in obesity. In this
      narrative review, we critically review literature on dosing, PK, and possible
      dosing strategies in obese adults. We searched PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane
      Library using Medical Subject Headings including anti-infectives, specific
      antimicrobial names, obese, pharmacokinetics, and others. We reviewed articles,
      cross-referenced select cited references, and when applicable, referenced drug
      databases and package inserts to develop dosing recommendations. We provide an
      overall critical review of the available data regarding PK and dosing issues
      including dosing recommendations in both critically ill and noncritically ill
      patients with significant obesity. We developed dosing recommendations for 34
      antimicrobials based on 121 articles of the 2336 identified by the search
      strategy. Although 11 of these do not appear to require dose adjustment, obesity
      specific dosing guidance is provided for the remaining 23 antimicrobials.
      Additional studies are needed to better understand and resolve discrepant
      published results regarding the PK of antibiotics to establish optimal dosing
      strategies in obese adults. Alternative dosing strategies, such as extended
      infusions, should be considered for time-dependent antibiotics (e.g., beta
      lactams) in obese patients to achieve PD targets reliably. Therapeutic drug
      monitoring across the spectrum of antimicrobials is of increasing importance in
      this and other populations to ensure optimized dosing.

PMID- 28869667
TI  - Children with ill parents: extent and nature of caring activities.
AB  - RATIONALE: Previous studies have shown that children may take on higher extents
      of caring activities if their parents are affected by severe illness or
      disability, especially when their parents lack access to formal and informal
      care. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study examined the extent and nature of caring
      activities done by patients' children; differences in caring activities between
      different types of parental illness; factors associated with caring activities.
      DESIGN: An explorative cross-sectional multicentre study. METHODS: Parents as
      patients in specialised healthcare services, and their children, were recruited
      from five health trusts in Norway. The sample included 246 children aged 8-17
      years and their 238 parents with severe physical illness (neurological disease or
      cancer) (n = 135), mental illness (n = 75) or substance abuse (n = 28). MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURE: Multidimensional Assessment of Caring Activities (MACA-YC18).
      RESULTS: A large number of children with ill parents are performing various
      caring activities. Increased caring activities among children due to their
      parent's illness were confirmed by their parents, especially with regard to
      personal care. We found no significant differences in the extent of caring
      activities between illness types, but there were some differences in the nature
      of these activities. Factors significantly associated with the extent and nature
      of caring activities were as follows: better social skills and higher external
      locus of control among the children; and poorer physical parental health.
      Parent's access to home-based services was limited. STUDY LIMITATIONS: In
      recruitment of participants for the study, a sampling bias may have occurred.
      CONCLUSION: To promote coping and to prevent inappropriate or extensive caring
      activities among children with ill parents, there is a need for increased access
      to flexible home-based services adapted to the type of parental illness.

PMID- 28869668
TI  - Intermediate purification of CHO-derived recombinant human Factor IX using
      hydrophobic interaction membrane-based chromatography and its comparison to a
      sulfated resin.
AB  - This work investigated the use of hydrophobic interaction membrane chromatography
      for intermediate purification of recombinant human Factor IX (rFIX) produced by
      CHO cells. The first purification step was based on a strong anion exchange
      monolith, thus forming a purification process fully based on convective media,
      which allow operation at high flow rates and low pressure drops, as well as
      modular scale-up. Although the starting material was challenging (CHO cell
      culture supernatant harvested at 70% cell viability), the two-step purification
      process showed promising results, with a global purification factor of 298, a
      global recovery of 69%, and DNA and endotoxin levels close to regulatory limits.
      Final host cell DNA (68.8 ng per dose of 500 IU), endotoxins (60 EU per dose of
      500 IU) and activated FIX (FIXa/FIX = 2.33%) were in levels close to those
      recommended by regulatory authorities. HCP removal was of 99.98%, decreasing from
      9 424 358 ppm in the supernatant to a final HCP value of 2071 ppm. The use of a
      supernatant harvested at higher viability and/or the addition of a third
      polishing step focusing on HCP removal could allow meeting the desired HCP range
      of 50-100 ppm, as well as the regulatory requirements for the other critical
      contaminants.

PMID- 28869669
TI  - A two-step method for rapid characterization of electroosmotic flows in capillary
      electrophoresis.
AB  - The measurement of electroosmotic flow (EOF) is important in a capillary
      electrophoresis (CE) experiment in terms of performance optimization and
      stability improvement. Although several methods exist, there are demanding needs
      to accurately characterize ultra-low electroosmotic flow rates (EOF rates), such
      as in coated capillaries used in protein separations. In this work, a new method,
      called the two-step method, was developed to accurately and rapidly measure EOF
      rates in a capillary, especially for measuring the ultra-low EOF rates in coated
      capillaries. In this two-step method, the EOF rates were calculated by measuring
      the migration time difference of a neutral marker in two consecutive experiments,
      in which a pressure driven was introduced to accelerate the migration and the DC
      voltage was reversed to switch the EOF direction. Uncoated capillaries were first
      characterized by both this two-step method and a conventional method to confirm
      the validity of this new method. Then this new method was applied in the study of
      coated capillaries. Results show that this new method is not only fast in speed,
      but also better in accuracy.

PMID- 28869670
TI  - Pulmonary embolism in pregnant patients: Assessing organ dose to pregnant phantom
      and its fetus during lung imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to provide updated radiation dose from
      diagnostic exams performed for pregnant patients suspected of pulmonary embolism
      (PE) using the recently developed BREP phantoms of pregnant woman and the fetus.
      Also to challenge the validity of current recommendations suggest that
      ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)
      vs. computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) should be considered for
      diagnosis of PE in radiosensitive groups such as pregnant women. METHODS: The
      Monte Carlo calculations involving detailed geometrical simulation of pregnant
      women and the fetus were performed. RESULTS: The results showed that when
      radiation dose to the fetus is of concern, CTPA is more appropriate at early
      stages causes 50%-97% lower fetal doses for the first two trimesters of
      pregnancy. While for gestational periods more than 6 months, V/Q SPECT leads to a
      15% lower fetal dose and thus, is less hazardous. The fetal dose from CTPA
      increases with gestational age, while that from V/Q SPECT decreases. Furthermore,
      the maximum amount of fetal dose is received by fetal skeleton (i.e., on average
      about 1.8 and 3.9 times larger dose from SPECT and CT, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: V/Q SPECT should not always be preferred for pregnant patients
      suspected of PE. This finding is in contrast with the guidance to choose the
      preferred modality based on the maternal effective dose. The reason of this issue
      was discussed in this paper based on chord length distributions (CLDs). The
      importance of considering fetal organs separately in MC calculations was also
      highlighted.

PMID- 28869671
TI  - Concussion in adolescence and risk of multiple sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess whether concussion in childhood or adolescence is associated
      with subsequent multiple sclerosis (MS) risk. Previous research suggests an
      association, but methodological limitations included retrospective data
      collection and small study populations. METHODS: The national Swedish Patient
      Register (hospital diagnoses) and MS Register were used to identify all MS
      diagnoses up to 2012 among people born since 1964, when the Patient Register was
      established. The 7,292 patients with MS were matched individually with 10 people
      without MS by sex, year of birth, age/vital status at MS diagnosis, and region of
      residence (county), resulting in a study population of 80,212. Diagnoses of
      concussion and control diagnoses of broken limb bones were identified using the
      Patient Register from birth to age 10 years or from age 11 to 20 years.
      Conditional logistic regression was used to examine associations with MS.
      RESULTS: Concussion in adolescence was associated with a raised risk of MS,
      producing adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 1.22 (1.05-1.42, p =
      0.008) and 2.33 (1.35-4.04, p = 0.002) for 1 diagnosis of concussion and >1
      diagnosis of concussion, respectively, compared with none. No notable association
      with MS was observed for concussion in childhood, or broken limb bones in
      childhood and adolescence. INTERPRETATION: Head trauma in adolescence,
      particularly if repeated, is associated with a raised risk of future MS, possibly
      due to initiation of an autoimmune process in the central nervous system. This
      further emphasizes the importance of protecting young people from head injuries.
      Ann Neurol 2017;82:554-561.

PMID- 28869672
TI  - Internal grant review to increase grant funding for junior investigators.

PMID- 28869673
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28869674
TI  - Metalloproteinase 9 as a biomarker of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
      development in multiple sclerosis patients receiving natalizumab.

PMID- 28869675
TI  - On establishing a grant pre-review process for new investigators.

PMID- 28869678
TI  - Bioinspired Redox-Active Catechol-Bearing Polymers as Ultrarobust Organic
      Cathodes for Lithium Storage.
AB  - Redox-active catechols are bioinspired precursors for ortho-quinones that are
      characterized by higher discharge potentials than para-quinones, the latter being
      extensively used as organic cathode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs).
      Here, this study demonstrates that the rational molecular design of copolymers
      bearing catechol- and Li+ ion-conducting anionic pendants endow redox-active
      polymers (RAPs) with ultrarobust electrochemical energy storage features when
      combined to carbon nanotubes as a flexible, binder-, and metal current collector
      free buckypaper electrode. The importance of the structure and functionality of
      the RAPs on the battery performances in LIBs is discussed. The structure
      optimized RAPs can store high-capacities of 360 mA h g-1 at 5C and 320 mA h g-1
      at 30C in LIBs. The high ion and electron mobilities within the buckypaper also
      enable to register 96 mA h g-1 (24% capacity retention) at an extreme C-rate of
      600C (6 s for total discharge). Moreover, excellent cyclability is noted with a
      capacity retention of 98% over 3400 cycles at 30C. The high capacity, superior
      active-material utilization, ultralong cyclability, and excellent rate
      performances of RAPs-based electrode clearly rival most of the state-of-the-art
      Li+ ion organic cathodes, and opens up new horizons for large-scalable
      fabrication of electrode materials for ultrarobust Li storage.

PMID- 28869677
TI  - Fibroblasts derived from patients with opsismodysplasia display SHIP2-specific
      cell migration and adhesion defects.
AB  - The SH2 domain containing inositol phosphatase 2 (SHIP2) dephosphorylates
      PI(3,4,5)P3 to generate PI(3,4)P2, a lipid involved in the control of cell
      migration and adhesion. The INPPL1 gene that encodes SHIP2 has been found to be
      mutated in several cases of opsismodysplasia (OPS), a rare autosomal recessive
      chondrodysplasia characterized by growth plate defects and delayed bone
      maturation. Reported mutations often result in premature stop codons or missense
      mutations in SHIP2 catalytic domain. SHIP2 biochemical properties are known from
      studies in cancer cells; its role in endochondral ossification is unknown. Here,
      we report two novel mutations in the INPPL1 gene and show that cell migration is
      very much decreased in fibroblasts derived from three OPS patients as compared
      with control individuals. In contrast, cell adhesion on fibronectin is increased
      in OPS fibroblasts. An inhibitory effect on migration was also observed when
      normal fibroblasts were incubated in the presence of a SHIP2 competitive
      inhibitor. We conclude that both migration and adhesion are very much disrupted
      in OPS-derived fibroblasts. It is suggested that signaling events linked to
      migration and particularly to adhesion, which are lost in OPS patients, would
      prevent normal endochondral ossification.

PMID- 28869676
TI  - Alcohol improves cerebellar learning deficit in myoclonus-dystonia: A clinical
      and electrophysiological investigation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To characterize neurophysiological subcortical abnormalities in
      myoclonus-dystonia and their modulation by alcohol administration. METHODS:
      Cerebellar associative learning and basal ganglia-brainstem interaction were
      investigated in 17 myoclonus-dystonia patients with epsilon-sarcoglycan (SGCE)
      gene mutation and 21 age- and sex-matched healthy controls by means of classical
      eyeblink conditioning and blink reflex recovery cycle before and after alcohol
      intake resulting in a breath alcohol concentration of 0.08% (0.8g/l). The alcohol
      responsiveness of clinical symptoms was evaluated by 3 blinded raters with a
      standardized video protocol and clinical rating scales including the Unified
      Myoclonus Rating Scale and the Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale. RESULTS:
      Patients showed a significantly reduced number of conditioned eyeblink responses
      before alcohol administration compared to controls. Whereas the conditioning
      response rate decreased under alcohol intake in controls, it increased in
      patients (analysis of variance: alcohol state * group, p = 0.004). Blink reflex
      recovery cycle before and after alcohol intake did not differ between groups.
      Myoclonus improved significantly after alcohol intake (p = 0.016). The severity
      of action myoclonus at baseline correlated negatively with the conditioning
      response in classical eyeblink conditioning in patients. INTERPRETATION: The
      combination of findings of reduced baseline acquisition of conditioned eyeblink
      responses and normal blink reflex recovery cycle in patients who improved
      significantly with alcohol intake suggests a crucial role of cerebellar networks
      in the generation of symptoms in these patients. Ann Neurol 2017;82:543-553.

PMID- 28869679
TI  - Direct Imaging of Superwetting Behavior on Solid-Liquid-Vapor Triphase
      Interfaces.
AB  - A solid-liquid-vapor interface dominated by a three-phase contact line usually
      serves as an active area for interfacial reactions and provides a vital clue to
      surface behavior. Recently, direct imaging of the triphase interface of
      superwetting interfaces on the microscale/nanoscale has attracted broad
      scientific attention for both theoretical research and practical applications,
      and has gradually become an efficient and intuitive approach to explore the
      wetting behaviors of various multiphase interfaces. Here, recent progress on
      characterizing the solid-liquid-vapor triphase interface on the
      microscale/nanoscale with diverse types of imaging apparatus is summarized.
      Moreover, the accurate, visible, and quantitative information that can be
      obtained shows the real interfacial morphology of the wetting behaviors of
      multiphase interfaces. On the basis of fundamental research, technical
      innovations in imaging and complicated multiphase interfaces of the superwetting
      surface are also briefly presented.

PMID- 28869680
TI  - Structural Analysis of Uranyl Complexation by the EF-Hand Motif of Calmodulin:
      Effect of Phosphorylation.
AB  - Better understanding of uranyl-protein interactions is a prerequisite to predict
      uranium chemical toxicity in cells. The EF-hand motif of the calmodulin site I is
      about thousand times more affine for uranyl than for calcium, and threonine
      phosphorylation increases the uranyl affinity by two orders of magnitude at pH 7.
      In this study, we confront X-ray absorption spectroscopy with Fourier transform
      infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence
      spectroscopy (TRLFS), and structural models obtained by molecular dynamics
      simulations to analyze the uranyl coordination in the native and phosphorylated
      calmodulin site I. For the native site I, extended X-ray absorption fine
      structure (EXAFS) data evidence a short U-Oeq distance, in addition to distances
      compatible with mono- and bidentate coordination by carboxylate groups. Further
      analysis of uranyl speciation by TRLFS and thorough investigation of the
      fluorescence decay kinetics strongly support the presence of a hydroxide uranyl
      ligand. For a phosphorylated site I, the EXAFS and FTIR data support a
      monodentate uranyl coordination by the phosphoryl group and strong interaction
      with mono- and bidentate carboxylate ligands. This study confirms the important
      role of a phosphoryl ligand in the stability of uranyl-protein interactions. By
      evidencing a hydroxide uranyl ligand in calmodulin site I, this study also
      highlights the possible role of less studied ligands as water or hydroxide ions
      in the stability of protein-uranyl complexes.

PMID- 28869681
TI  - Surgical treatment of a giant iliopsoas haemophilic pseudotumour with adjacent
      structure compressions: A case report.

PMID- 28869682
TI  - Individual fitness and the effects of a changing climate on the cessation and
      length of the breeding period using a 34-year study of a temperate songbird.
AB  - Studies of the phenological responses of animals to climate change typically
      emphasize the initiation of breeding although climatic effects on the cessation
      and length of the breeding period may be as or more influential of fitness. We
      quantified links between climate, the cessation and length of the breeding
      period, and individual survival and reproduction using a 34-year study of a
      resident song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) population subject to dramatic
      variation in climate. We show that the cessation and length of the breeding
      period varied strongly across years, and predicted female annual fecundity but
      not survival. Breeding period length was more influential of fecundity than
      initiation or cessation of breeding alone. Warmer annual temperature and drier
      winters and summers predicted an earlier cessation of breeding. Population
      density, the date breeding was initiated, a female's history of breeding success,
      and the number of breeding attempts initiated previously also predicted the
      cessation of breeding annually, indicating that climatic, population, and
      individual factors may interact to affect breeding phenology. Linking climate
      projections to our model results suggests that females will both initiate and
      cease breeding earlier in the future; this will have opposite effects on
      individual reproductive rate because breeding earlier is expected to increase
      fecundity, whereas ceasing breeding earlier should reduce it. Identifying factors
      affecting the cessation and length of the breeding period in multiparous species
      may be essential to predicting individual fitness and population demography.
      Given a rich history of studies on the initiation of breeding in free-living
      species, re-visiting those data to estimate climatic effects on the cessation and
      length of breeding should improve our ability to predict the impacts of climate
      change on multiparous species.

PMID- 28869683
TI  - RUNX1c Regulates Hematopoietic Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
      Possibly in Cooperation with Proinflammatory Signaling.
AB  - Runt-related transcription factor 1 (Runx1) is a master hematopoietic
      transcription factor essential for hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) emergence. Runx1
      deficient mice die during early embryogenesis due to the inability to establish
      definitive hematopoiesis. Here, we have used human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs)
      as model to study the role of RUNX1 in human embryonic hematopoiesis. Although
      the three RUNX1 isoforms a, b, and c were induced in CD45+ hematopoietic cells,
      RUNX1c was the only isoform induced in hematoendothelial progenitors
      (HEPs)/hemogenic endothelium. Constitutive expression of RUNX1c in human
      embryonic stem cells enhanced the appearance of HEPs, including hemogenic (CD43+)
      HEPs and promoted subsequent differentiation into blood cells. Conversely,
      specific deletion of RUNX1c dramatically reduced the generation of hematopoietic
      cells from HEPs, indicating that RUNX1c is a master regulator of human
      hematopoietic development. Gene expression profiling of HEPs revealed a RUNX1c
      induced proinflammatory molecular signature, supporting previous studies
      demonstrating proinflammatory signaling as a regulator of HSC emergence.
      Collectively, RUNX1c orchestrates hematopoietic specification of hPSCs, possibly
      in cooperation with proinflammatory signaling. Stem Cells 2017;35:2253-2266.

PMID- 28869684
TI  - Prevalence and associations of general practitioners' ordering of "non
      symptomatic" prostate-specific antigen tests: A cross-sectional analysis.
AB  - AIMS: Testing for asymptomatic prostate cancer with prostate specific antigen
      (PSA) is of uncertain benefit. Most relevant authorities recommend against
      screening, and for informed patient choice. We aimed to establish the prevalence
      and associations of "non-symptomatic" PSA-testing of men aged 40 or older by
      early-career general practitioners (GP registrars). METHODS: A cross-sectional
      analysis from the ReCEnT cohort study of registrars' consultations, 2010-2014
      (analysed in 2016). Registrars record 60 consecutive consultations each 6-month
      training term. The outcome factor was ordering an "asymptomatic" PSA test (a PSA
      ordered for an indication that was not prostate-related symptoms or prostatic
      disease monitoring). Independent variables were patient, registrar, practice,
      consultation and educational factors. RESULTS: A total of 856 registrars
      contributed details of 21,372 individual consultations and 35,696
      problems/diagnoses of males 40 or older. Asymptomatic PSAs were ordered for 1.8%
      (95%CI: 1.7-2.0%) of consultations and for 1.1% (95%CI: 1.0-1.2%) of
      problems/diagnoses. Multivariable associations of asymptomatic PSA testing
      (compared with problems/diagnoses for which a PSA was not ordered) included
      patient age (OR 2.32 [95%CI: 1.53-3.53] for 60-69 years compared with 40-49),
      patient ethnicity (OR 0.40 [95%CI: 0.19-0.86] for non-English speaking
      background), the patient being new to both the registrar and practice (ORs 1.46
      [95%CI: 1.08-1.99] and 1.79 [95%CI: 1.03-3.10]), the number of problems/diagnoses
      addressed (OR 1.44 [95%CI: 1.25-1.66] for each extra problem) and more pathology
      tests being ordered (OR 1.88 [95%CI: 1.79-1.97] for each extra test). CONCLUSION:
      GP registrars frequently order "asymptomatic" PSA tests. Our findings suggest
      that non-compliance with current guidelines for PSA screening may be relatively
      common and that targeted education is warranted.

PMID- 28869685
TI  - Ratiometric Fluorescence Detection of Phosphorylated Amino Acids Through Excited
      State Proton Transfer by Using Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (MIP) Recognition
      Nanolayers.
AB  - A 2,3-diaminophenazine bis-urea fluorescent probe monomer (1) was developed. It
      responds to phenylphosphate and phosphorylated amino acids in a ratiometric
      fashion with enhanced fluorescence accompanied by the development of a redshifted
      emission band arising from an excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) process in the
      hydrogen-bonded probe/analyte complex. The two urea groups of 1 form a cleft-like
      binding pocket (Kb >1010  L2  mol-2 for 1:2 complex). Imprinting of 1 in presence
      of ethyl ester- and fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-protected phosphorylated
      tyrosine (Fmoc-pTyr-OEt) as the template, methacrylamide as co-monomer, and
      ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker gave few-nanometer-thick
      molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) shells on silica core microparticles with
      excellent selectivity for the template in a buffered biphasic assay. The
      supramolecular recognition features were established by spectroscopic and NMR
      studies. Rational screening of co-monomers and cross-linkers allowed to single
      out the best performing MIP components, giving significant imprinting factors
      (IF>3.5) while retaining ESPT emission and the ratiometric response in the thin
      polymer shell. Combination of the bead-based detection scheme with the phase
      transfer assay dramatically improved the IF to 15.9, allowing sensitive
      determination of the analyte directly in aqueous media.

PMID- 28869687
TI  - Ancestral acquisitions, gene flow and multiple evolutionary trajectories of the
      type three secretion system and effectors in Xanthomonas plant pathogens.
AB  - Deciphering the evolutionary history and transmission patterns of virulence
      determinants is necessary to understand the emergence of novel pathogens. The
      main virulence determinant of most pathogenic proteobacteria is the type three
      secretion system (T3SS). The Xanthomonas genus includes bacteria responsible for
      numerous epidemics in agroecosystems worldwide and represents a major threat to
      plant health. The main virulence factor of Xanthomonas is the Hrp2 family T3SS;
      however, this system is not conserved in all strains and it has not been
      previously determined whether the distribution of T3SS in this bacterial genus
      has resulted from losses or independent acquisitions. Based on comparative
      genomics of 82 genome sequences representing the diversity of the genus, we have
      inferred three ancestral acquisitions of the Hrp2 cluster during Xanthomonas
      evolution followed by subsequent losses in some commensal strains and re
      acquisition in some species. While mutation was the main force driving
      polymorphism at the gene level, interspecies homologous recombination of large
      fragments expanding through several genes shaped Hrp2 cluster polymorphism.
      Horizontal gene transfer of the entire Hrp2 cluster also occurred. A reduced core
      effectome composed of xopF1, xopM, avrBs2 and xopR was identified that may allow
      commensal strains overcoming plant basal immunity. In contrast, stepwise
      accumulation of numerous type 3 effector genes was shown in successful pathogens
      responsible for epidemics. Our data suggest that capacity to intimately interact
      with plants through T3SS would be an ancestral trait of xanthomonads. Since its
      acquisition, T3SS has experienced a highly dynamic evolutionary history
      characterized by intense gene flux between species that may reflect its role in
      host adaptation.

PMID- 28869688
TI  - Sequence Engineering to Control the Helix Handedness of Peptide Foldamers.
AB  - Peptide foldamers have been studied for over two decades and numerous sequence
      patterns have been shown to form well-defined three-dimensional arrangements in
      solution. In particular, helices of various geometries have been described. In
      this article, different concepts concerning the construction of helical
      foldameric peptides, for which the possibility of governing the sense of the
      formed helix was evidenced, are presented and discussed.

PMID- 28869686
TI  - Concise Review: Kidney Generation with Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health care problem, resulting in
      increased cardiovascular mortality and often leading to end-stage kidney disease,
      where patients require kidney replacement therapies such as hemodialysis or
      kidney transplantation. Loss of functional nephrons contributes to the
      progression of CKD, which can be attenuated but not reversed due to inability to
      generate new nephrons in human adult kidneys. Human pluripotent stem cells
      (hPSCs), by virtue of their unlimited self-renewal and ability to differentiate
      into cells of all three embryonic germ layers, are attractive sources for kidney
      regenerative therapies. Recent advances in stem cell biology have identified key
      signals necessary to maintain stemness of human nephron progenitor cells (NPCs)
      in vitro, and led to establishment of protocols to generate NPCs and nephron
      epithelial cells from human fetal kidneys and hPSCs. Effective production of
      large amounts of human NPCs and kidney organoids will facilitate elucidation of
      developmental and pathobiological pathways, kidney disease modeling and drug
      screening as well as kidney regenerative therapies. We summarize the recent
      studies to induce NPCs and kidney cells from hPSCs, studies of NPC expansion from
      mouse and human embryonic kidneys, and discuss possible approaches in vivo to
      regenerate kidneys with cell therapies and the development of bioengineered
      kidneys. Stem Cells 2017;35:2209-2217.

PMID- 28869689
TI  - Cooperative Adsorption by Porous Frameworks: Diffraction Experiment and
      Phenomenological Theory.
AB  - Materials science of metal open frameworks is a state-of-the-art field for
      numerous applications, such as gas storage, sensors, and medicine. Two nanoporous
      frameworks, gamma-Mg(BH4 )2 and MIL-91(Ti), with different levels of structural
      flexibility, were examined with in situ X-ray diffraction guest adsorption
      desorption experiments. Both frameworks exhibit a cooperative guest adsorption
      correlated with a lattice deformation. This cooperativity originates from the
      long-range interactions between guest molecules, mediated by elastic response of
      the host porous structure. The observed experimental scenarios are rationalized
      with a mean field Gorsky-Bragg-Williams (GBW) approach for the lattice-gas Ising
      model. The adjusted GBW model, in combination with in situ synchrotron powder
      diffraction, demonstrates an efficient experimental and phenomenological approach
      to characterize thermodynamics of the adsorption in MOFs not only for the total
      uptake but also for every specific guest site.

PMID- 28869691
TI  - Bone Morphogenetic Protein Promotes Lewis X Stage-Specific Embryonic Antigen 1
      Expression Thereby Interfering with Neural Precursor and Stem Cell Proliferation.
AB  - The glycoprotein Prominin-1 and the carbohydrate Lewis X stage-specific embryonic
      antigen 1 (LeX-SSEA1) both have been extensively used as cell surface markers to
      purify neural stem cells (NSCs). While Prominin-1 labels a specialized membrane
      region in NSCs and ependymal cells, the specificity of LeX-SSEA1 expression and
      its biological significance are still unknown. To address these issues, we have
      here monitored the expression of the carbohydrate in neonatal and adult NSCs and
      in their progeny. Our results show that the percentage of immunopositive cells
      and the levels of LeX-SSEA1 immunoreactivity both increase with postnatal age
      across all stages of the neural lineage. This is associated with decreased
      proliferation in precursors including NSCs, which accumulate the carbohydrate at
      the cell surface while remaining quiescent. Exposure of precursors to bone
      morphogenetic protein (BMP) increases LEX-SSEA1 expression, which promotes cell
      cycle withdrawal by a mechanism involving LeX-SSEA1-mediated interaction at the
      cell surface. Conversely, interference with either BMP signaling or with LeX
      SSEA1 promotes proliferation to a similar degree. Thus, in the postnatal germinal
      niche, the expression of LeX-SSEA1 increases with age and exposure to BMP
      signaling, thereby downregulating the proliferation of subependymal zone
      precursors including NSCs. Stem Cells 2017;35:2417-2429.

PMID- 28869690
TI  - Highly Stretchable, Compliant, Polymeric Microelectrode Arrays for In Vivo
      Electrophysiological Interfacing.
AB  - Polymeric microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are emerging as a new generation of
      biointegrated microelectrodes to transduce original electrochemical signals in
      living tissues to external electrical circuits, and vice versa. So far, the
      challenge of stretchable polymeric MEAs lies in the competition between high
      stretchability and good electrode-substrate adhesion. The larger the
      stretchability, the easier the delamination of electrodes from the substrate due
      to the mismatch in their Young's modulus. In this work, polypyrrole (PPy)
      electrode materials are designed, with PPy nanowires integrated on the high
      conductive PPy electrode arrays. By utilizing this electrode material, for the
      first time, stretchable polymeric MEAs are fabricated with both high
      stretchability (~100%) and good electrode-substrate adhesion (1.9 MPa). In
      addition, low Young's modulus (450 kPa), excellent recycling stability (10 000
      cycles of stretch), and high conductivity of the MEAs are also achieved. As a
      proof of concept, the as-prepared polymeric MEAs are successfully used for
      conformally recording the electrocorticograph signals from rats in normal and
      epileptic states, respectively. Further, these polymeric MEAs are also successful
      in stimulating the ischiadic nerve of the rat. This strategy provides a new
      perspective to the highly stretchable and mechanically stable polymeric MEAs,
      which are vital for compliant neural electrodes.

PMID- 28869692
TI  - The 1,6,7,12-Tetraazaperylene Bridging Ligand as an Electron Reservoir and Its
      Disulfonato Derivative as Redox Mediator in an Enzyme-Electrode Process.
AB  - The homodinuclear ruthenium(II) complex [{Ru(l-N4 Me2 )}2 (MU-tape)](PF6 )4
      {[1](PF6 )4 } (l-N4 Me2 =N,N'-dimethyl-2,11-diaza[3.3](2,6)-pyridinophane,
      tape=1,6,7,12-tetraazaperylene) can store one or two electrons in the
      energetically low-lying pi* orbital of the bridging ligand tape. The
      corresponding singly and doubly reduced complexes [{Ru(l-N4 Me2 )}2 (MU-tape.-
      )](PF6 )3 {[2](PF6 )3 } and [{Ru(l-N4 Me2 )}2 (MU-tape2- )](PF6 )2 {[3](PF6 )2 },
      respectively, were electrochemically generated, successfully isolated and fully
      characterized by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, spectroscopic methods and
      magnetic susceptibility measurements. The singly reduced complex [2](PF6 )3
      contains the pi-radical tape.- and the doubly reduced [3](PF6 )2 the diamagnetic
      dianion tape2- as bridging ligand, respectively. Nucleophilic aromatic
      substitution at the bridging tape in [1]4+ by two sulfite units gave the complex
      [{Ru(l-N4 Me2 )}2 {MU-tape-(SO3 )2 }]2+ ([4]2+ ). Complex dication [4]2+ was
      exploited as a redox mediator between an anaerobic homogenous reaction solution
      of an enzyme system (sulfite/sulfite oxidase) and the electrode via participation
      of the low-energy pi*-orbital of the disulfonato-substituted bridging ligand tape
      (SO3 )22- (Ered1 =-0.1 V versus Ag/AgCl/1 m KCl in water).

PMID- 28869693
TI  - Diabetes prevalence and its impact on health-related quality of life in
      tuberculosis patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM), assess its
      influence on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with TB.
      METHODS: In this prospective study, eligible patients at three primary healthcare
      centres in urban slum region of south Delhi, India, underwent blood glucose
      screening at treatment initiation. HRQoL scores were determined by conducting
      face-to-face interviews using Dhingra and Rajpal (DR-12) scale at pre-treatment,
      end of intensive phase and end of the treatment. RESULTS: In 316 patients, the
      overall DM prevalence was 15.8%, of whom 9.5% were known to have diabetes, and
      6.3% were diagnosed at TB treatment initiation. DM was more common among patients
      of older age (P < 0.001), with higher BMI (P < 0.001), with PTB (P = 0.02) and
      with poor psychological status. HRQoL was significantly poor in the socio
      psychological & exercise adaptation domain in patients with DM ?50 years of age
      at each visit. Older age, poor literacy, loss in workdays, alcohol use and socio
      economic status significantly predict poor HRQoL scores in patients with DM.
      Uncontrolled DM patients demonstrated poor HRQoL at the end of the intensive
      phase (P = 0.04) of treatment and at its completion (P = 0.03) compared to those
      with controlled DM. CONCLUSION: Addressing screening measures and glycaemic
      control along with social determinants such as literacy level and alcohol
      consumption could be an important means of improving the HRQoL of TB with DM
      patients.

PMID- 28869694
TI  - Strongyloides stercoralis infection increases the likelihood to detect
      Trypanosoma cruzi DNA in peripheral blood in Chagas disease patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In a previous study performed by our group, Strongyloides stercoralis
      infection in patients with Chagas disease was associated with higher proportion
      of Trypanosoma cruzi DNA detection in peripheral blood. The aim of the study was
      to confirm this association in a larger cohort of patients. METHODS: Cross
      sectional study of all patients with Chagas disease diagnosed from 2005 to 2015
      during blood donation at the Catalan Blood Bank. Demographic data and T. cruzi RT
      PCR were collected. S. stercoralis infection diagnosis was based on a serological
      test. RESULTS: Two hundred and two blood donors were included. T. cruzi RT-PCR
      was positive in 72 (35.6%) patients, and S. stercoralis serology was positive in
      22 (10.9%) patients. Patients with positive S. stercoralis serology had higher
      proportion of positive T. cruzi RT-PCR than those with negative serology (54.5%
      vs. 33.3%, P = 0.050), and the difference increased when taking a serological
      index cut-off of 2.5, which increases the specificity of the test to detect a
      confirmed strongyloidiasis (60% vs. 33%, P = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with
      Chagas disease with positive S. stercoralis serology had higher proportion of
      positive T. cruzi RT-PCR in peripheral blood than those with negative serology,
      which reflects the potential immunomodulatory effects of S. stercoralis in T.
      cruzi co-infected patients.

PMID- 28869695
TI  - Climate change alters stability and species potential interactions in a large
      marine ecosystem.
AB  - We have little empirical evidence of how large-scale overlaps between large
      numbers of marine species may have altered in response to human impacts. Here, we
      synthesized all available distribution data (>1 million records) since 1992 for
      61 species of the East Australian marine ecosystem, a global hot spot of ocean
      warming and continuing fisheries exploitation. Using a novel approach, we
      constructed networks of the annual changes in geographical overlaps between
      species. Using indices of changes in species overlap, we quantified changes in
      the ecosystem stability, species robustness, species sensitivity and structural
      keystone species. We then compared the species overlap indices with environmental
      and fisheries data to identify potential factors leading to the changes in
      distributional overlaps between species. We found that the structure of the
      ecosystem has changed with a decrease in asymmetrical geographical overlaps
      between species. This suggests that the ecosystem has become less stable and
      potentially more susceptible to environmental perturbations. Most species have
      shown a decrease in overlaps with other species. The greatest decrease in species
      overlap robustness and sensitivity to the loss of other species has occurred in
      the pelagic community. Some demersal species have become more robust and less
      sensitive. Pelagic structural keystone species, predominately the tunas and
      billfish, have been replaced by demersal fish species. The changes in species
      overlap were strongly correlated with regional oceanographic changes, in
      particular increasing ocean warming and the southward transport of warmer and
      saltier water with the East Australian Current, but less correlated with
      fisheries catch. Our study illustrates how large-scale multispecies distribution
      changes can help identify structural changes in marine ecosystems associated with
      climate change.

PMID- 28869696
TI  - Comparison and functional characterisation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells
      isolated from filarial lymphoedema and endemic normals of a South Indian
      population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The underlying problem in lymphatic filariasis is irreversible
      swelling of the limbs (lymphoedema), which is a unique feature of lymphatic
      insufficiency. It is still unclear whether the natural ability of lymphatics to
      form functional lymphatic vasculature is achieved or attenuated in the
      lymphoedemal pathology. Clinical studies have clearly shown that circulating
      lymphatic progenitors (CLPs), a subset of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells
      (PBMCs), contribute to post-natal lymph vasculogenesis. CLP-based
      revascularisation could be a promising strategy to bypass the endothelial
      disruption and damage incurred by the filarial parasites. Thus our aim was to
      compare and characterise the functional prowess of PBMCs in physiological and
      lymphoedemal pathology. METHODS: PBMCs were isolated from venous blood sample
      from drug-naive endemic normals (EN) and drug-deprived filarial lymphoedema (FL)
      individuals using density gradient centrifugation. Adhesion, transwell migration
      and in vitro matrigel assays were employed to characterise the lymphvasculogenic
      potential of PBMCs. CLPs were phenotypically characterised using flow cytometry;
      expression levels of lymphatic markers and inflammatory cytokines were quantified
      using qRT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. RESULTS: PBMCs from FL group display poor
      adherence to fibronectin (P = 0.040), reduced migration towards SDF-1alpha (P =
      0.035), impaired tubular network (P = 0.004) and branching point (P = 0.048)
      formation. The PBMC mRNA expression of VEGFR3 (P = 0.039) and podoplanin (P =
      0.050) was elevated, whereas integrin alpha9 (P = 0.046) was inhibited in FL
      individuals; additionally, the surface expression of CD34 (P = 0.048) was
      significantly reduced in the FL group compared to the EN group. CONCLUSION: PBMCs
      from filarial lymphoedema show defective and dysregulated lymphvasculogenic
      function compared to endemic normals.

PMID- 28869697
TI  - Comfort-Supporting Nursing Activities for End-of-Life Patients in an
      Institutionalized Environment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Comfort promotion plays a significant role in end-of-life patient care.
      The objective of this study was to determine the utilization rate of comfort
      supporting nursing activities in end-of-life patients in an institutionalized
      environment in the Czech Republic in relation to the age of the registered nurses
      (RNs), length of work experience, education level, and type of workplace. DESIGN:
      A cross-sectional, descriptive study was designed. A questionnaire with Likert
      scales included 31 activities of dying care and spiritual support interventions.
      The sample comprised 907 RNs working in 49 institutions in nine regions of the
      Czech Republic. The Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U post-hoc test with
      Bonferroni correction of significance, Spearman's correlation analysis, and
      logical regression model were used for statistical evaluation. FINDINGS: The
      least frequently implemented activity by RNs was "Show the patient's willingness
      to discuss death" and the most frequent activity was "Threat to the patient's
      dignity and respect." The highest utilization rate of nursing activities was
      reported in the physical dimension, while the lowest utilization rate of nursing
      activities was in the social dimension set. Significant predictors for the high
      utilization rate of physical dimension set activities were hospice care
      departments, long-term care facilities (LTCFs), and the age of RNs. Hospice
      departments were also a predictor of high utilization rate of activities in the
      psychological, spiritual, and social dimension set activities. CONCLUSIONS: With
      the exception of hospice departments, RNs used activities encouraging
      psychological, spiritual, and social comfort for end-of-life patients less
      frequently than the physical dimension. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: RNs in hospitals and
      LTCFs focus insufficiently on the spiritual and psychosocial comfort of end-of
      life patients. This study is of particular significance to educators who prepare
      the next generation of nurses.

PMID- 28869698
TI  - Biogeographic responses of the copepod Calanus glacialis to a changing Arctic
      marine environment.
AB  - Dramatic changes have occurred in the Arctic Ocean over the past few decades,
      especially in terms of sea ice loss and ocean warming. Those environmental
      changes may modify the planktonic ecosystem with changes from lower to upper
      trophic levels. This study aimed to understand how the biogeographic distribution
      of a crucial endemic copepod species, Calanus glacialis, may respond to both
      abiotic (ocean temperature) and biotic (phytoplankton prey) drivers. A copepod
      individual-based model coupled to an ice-ocean-biogeochemical model was utilized
      to simulate temperature- and food-dependent life cycle development of C.
      glacialis annually from 1980 to 2014. Over the 35-year study period, the northern
      boundaries of modeled diapausing C. glacialis expanded poleward and the annual
      success rates of C. glacialis individuals attaining diapause in a circumpolar
      transition zone increased substantially. Those patterns could be explained by a
      lengthening growth season (during which time food is ample) and shortening
      critical development time (the period from the first feeding stage N3 to the
      diapausing stage C4). The biogeographic changes were further linked to large
      scale oceanic processes, particularly diminishing sea ice cover, upper ocean
      warming, and increasing and prolonging food availability, which could have
      potential consequences to the entire Arctic shelf/slope marine ecosystems.

PMID- 28869699
TI  - Fourteen-day high-dose esomeprazole, amoxicillin and metronidazole as third-line
      treatment for Helicobacter pylori infection.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The efficacy of currently recommended third-line therapies for
      Helicobacter pylori is suboptimal, even that of culture-guided treatments.
      Resistance to multiple antibiotics is the major factor related to treatment
      failure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a
      14-day therapy using high-dose of amoxicillin, metronidazole and esomeprazole.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Multicenter open-label study as a register in routine
      clinical practice in patients with two previous failures of eradication therapy.
      A triple therapy with esomeprazole 40 mg b.d., amoxicillin 1 g t.d.s and
      metronidazole 500 mg t.d.s for 2 weeks was administered as a third-line therapy
      after a first treatment including clarithromycin and a second treatment including
      a quinolone. Helicobacter pylori status was determined by either histology or 13
      C-UBT both before and after treatment. RESULTS: A total of 68 patients were
      included in this study. An interim analysis showed that only three out of eight
      patients who had received metronidazole in previous eradication regimens were
      cured (37%, 95% CI 8-75); as a result, after this interim analysis only
      metronidazole-naive patients were included. The ITT eradication rate in
      metronidazole-naive patients was 64% (95% CI 51-76). Adverse events occurred in
      58% of patients, all of them mild-to-moderate. Two patients (3%) did not complete
      >90% of the treatment because of side effects. No severe adverse events occurred.
      CONCLUSION: Cure rates of this 14-day schedule using high-dose esomeprazole,
      amoxicillin and metronidazole as a third-line eradication regimen were
      suboptimal, especially in patients who had received metronidazole in previous
      failed eradication regimens.

PMID- 28869700
TI  - Efficacy of AMC/DCBA lozenges for sore throat: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lozenges containing Amylmetacresol and 2,4-Dichlorobenzylalcohol
      (AMC/DCBA, eg Strepsils(r) ) are marketed as a remedy for acute sore throat. This
      over-the-counter formulation has antiseptic and local anaesthetic qualities.
      OBJECTIVES: The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to
      evaluate the efficacy and safety of AMC/DCBA for the relief of pain associated
      with acute uncomplicated sore throat. METHODS: A systematic review of Literature
      was conducted using databases Medline, Embase and Cochrane to identify randomised
      controlled trials comparing AMC/DCBA against placebo or alternative local
      treatment options for acute uncomplicated sore throat. An additional hand search
      was performed. Two reviewers independently assessed citations for relevance,
      inclusion criteria and risk of bias. Meta-analysis was performed on included
      trials and standardised mean differences (SMD; dCohen ) with 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were calculated. RESULTS: The literature search yielded 77
      citations, 3 of which met the inclusion criteria. AMC/DCBA lozenges (0.6 mg
      Amylmetacresol, 1.2 mg 2, 4-Dichlorobenzylalcohol) were compared with
      unflavoured, non-medicated lozenges. The AMC/DCBA formulation additionally
      contained lidocaine in one and flavouring additives in another trial. A total of
      660 adults participated in the included trials. Primary outcome was reduction in
      pain intensity against baseline, 2 hours after intervention compared with placebo
      group. Fixed effects meta-analysis resulted in a standardised mean difference in
      pain intensity of -0.6 (-0.75; -0.45) on an 11-point ordinal rating scale,
      favouring the AMC/DCBA lozenges. Secondary outcomes were sore throat relief,
      difficulty swallowing and throat numbness. No serious side effects were reported,
      whereas mild side effects like headache, cough, nasal congestion and irritation
      of the oral cavity, were reported in up to 16% of subjects in both groups. All
      included trials were sponsored by a manufacturer of AMC/DCBA containing lozenges.
      CONCLUSIONS: Lozenges with AMC/DCBA can be a safe treatment option to relieve
      pain in patients with uncomplicated sore throat looking for local treatment
      options and valuing the modest additional effect compared with non-medicated
      lozenges. Registration: PROSPERO CRD42015008826.

PMID- 28869702
TI  - The prevalence and preventability of potentially relevant drug-drug interactions
      in patients admitted for cardiovascular diseases: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - AIM: The aim was to describe the type and prevalence of potentially relevant drug
      drug interactions (pDDIs) in a population of patients admitted for cardiovascular
      diseases (CVD), and management strategies for reducing the occurrence of pDDIs.
      METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed on Cardiology ward
      of University Clinical Hospital Center in Belgrade, Serbia. A total of 527
      patients, with more than one prescription during hospital stay, were enrolled in
      this study. Data were obtained from medical records. LexiInteract was used as the
      screening tool. RESULTS: At least one potentially relevant pDDI was identified in
      83.9% of patients. Occurrence was significantly more prevalent in patients with
      higher number of drugs, multimorbidity, longer length of stay, arrhythmia, heart
      failure, infectious and respiratory disease. About 13% of pDDIs exposures were
      accompanied with concurrent renal or liver disease, as an additional risk for DDI
      manifestation. Among CVD, patients with a history of myocardial infarction
      possessed the highest additional risk. The most common potential clinical outcome
      was the effect on cardiovascular system 48.5%, renal function and/or potassium
      22.3%, bleeding 9.5%, impaired glucose control 6.8% and digoxin toxicity 4.6%.
      Main management strategies to avoid X or D class included using paracetamol
      instead of NSAID or alternative NSAID (38%), alternative antibiotic or antifungal
      (20.4%), H2 receptor antagonist instead of PPI (8.3%), avoiding therapeutic
      duplication (7.3%), and alternative HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (7%). Heart rate,
      blood pressure, electrolytes/potassium and blood glucose could have been employed
      in monitoring for potential consequence of 72.2% C class pDDIs. CONCLUSIONS: Use
      of drug interaction screening tools can be beneficial risk mitigation strategy
      for potentially relevant pDDIs in CVD patients. DDI screening software could be
      linked to the patient's laboratory results or clinical data regarding renal or
      liver function, as an approach to reinforce DDIs alert quality.

PMID- 28869703
TI  - Organocatalytic Intramolecular [4+2] Cycloaddition between In Situ Generated
      Vinylidene ortho-Quinone Methides and Benzofurans.
AB  - Described herein is the enantioselective construction of oxygen-containing [5-6
      5] tricyclic heterocycles by an organocatalyzed asymmetric [4+2] cycloaddition of
      vinylidene ortho-quinone methides and benzofurans. According to this methodology,
      a series of oxygen-containing [5-6-5] tricyclic heterocycles with various
      functional groups were synthesized in excellent enantio- and
      diastereoselectivities (>99 % ee, >20:1 d.r.). Furthermore, the deuterium
      labeling experiments and high-resolution mass spectroscopy demonstrated that a
      vinylidene ortho-quinone methide intermediate was involved and possibly resulted
      from a prototropic rearrangement of 2-ethynylphenol. Remarkably, a catalyst
      loading as low as 0.1 mol %, and a gram-scale synthesis were achieved for this
      transformation.

PMID- 28869701
TI  - Nup42 and IP6 coordinate Gle1 stimulation of Dbp5/DDX19B for mRNA export in yeast
      and human cells.
AB  - The mRNA lifecycle is driven through spatiotemporal changes in the protein
      composition of mRNA particles (mRNPs) that are triggered by RNA-dependent DEAD
      box protein (Dbp) ATPases. As mRNPs exit the nuclear pore complex (NPC) in
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae, this remodeling occurs through activation of Dbp5 by
      inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6 )-bound Gle1. At the NPC, Gle1 also binds Nup42,
      but Nup42's molecular function is unclear. Here we employ the power of structure
      function analysis in S. cerevisiae and human (h) cells, and find that the high
      affinity Nup42-Gle1 interaction is integral to Dbp5 (hDDX19B) activation and
      efficient mRNA export. The Nup42 carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) binds Gle1/hGle1B
      at an interface distinct from the Gle1-Dbp5/hDDX19B interaction site. A nup42
      CTD/gle1-CTD/Dbp5 trimeric complex forms in the presence of IP6 . Deletion of
      NUP42 abrogates Gle1-Dbp5 interaction, and disruption of the Nup42 or IP6 binding
      interfaces on Gle1/hGle1B leads to defective mRNA export in S. cerevisiae and
      human cells. In vitro, Nup42-CTD and IP6 stimulate Gle1/hGle1B activation of Dbp5
      and DDX19B recombinant proteins in similar, nonadditive manners, demonstrating
      complete functional conservation between humans and S. cerevisiae. Together, a
      highly conserved mechanism governs spatial coordination of mRNP remodeling during
      export. This has implications for understanding human disease mutations that
      perturb the Nup42-hGle1B interaction.

PMID- 28869704
TI  - Eliminating glutaraldehyde from crosslinked collagen films using supercritical
      CO2.
AB  - Collagen has received considerable attention as a biomaterial for tissue
      engineering because of its low immunogenicity, controllable biodegradation, and
      ability to influence cell growth and proliferation. Frequently, collagen
      scaffolds require crosslinking to improve mechanical strength, requiring agents
      like glutaraldehyde that have high residual cytotoxicity. A novel method for
      extracting residual glutaraldehyde from crosslinked collagen films with
      supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2 ) is presented. CO2 is a nontoxic, nonflammable
      substance that is relatively inert and can be used to process biomaterials at
      mild pressures and physiologic temperatures. In this work, it was first
      determined that type I collagen is chemically compatible with both liquid and
      supercritical CO2 . Treated collagen showed minimal changes in physicochemical
      properties as determined by differential scanning calorimetry, gel
      electrophoresis, and circular dichroism. CO2 was subsequently used to extract
      residual glutaraldehyde from crosslinked collagen films. Glutaraldehyde
      concentration was reduced by over 95%, from over 20 ppm before treatment to about
      1 ppm, in only 1 h. CO2 treatment caused negligible alteration of thermal
      stability but did significantly increase film stiffness and tensile strength.
      However, these changes were minor compared to heat-based removal of
      glutaraldehyde. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A:
      86-94, 2018.

PMID- 28869705
TI  - Long-acting injectable antipsychotics for prevention and management of violent
      behaviour in psychotic patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: It has been well established that long-term antipsychotic
      treatment prevents relapse, lowers number of rehospitalisations, and also
      effectively reduces violent behaviour. Although violent behaviour is not a
      typical manifestation of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, the
      diagnosis of psychosis increases the overall risk of violence. One of the few
      modifiable factors of violence risk is adherence with medication. In contrast,
      non-adherence with drug treatment and subsequent relapse increases risk of
      violent acts. Non-adherence can be addressed partially by long-acting injectable
      antipsychotics (LAI). The aim of our review was to examine the role of
      antipsychotic drugs, especially LAI, in prevention and management of violent
      behaviour in psychosis. METHODS: This is a non-systematic, narrative review of
      the data from open, naturalistic, retrospective, and population studies, case
      series, and post hoc analyses of randomised controlled trials. Search of
      electronic databases (PubMed, Embase) was performed to identify relevant papers.
      RESULTS: Nine published papers (3 cross-sectional chart reviews, 4 retrospective
      studies, 2 prospective, randomised trials) were found. The results indicated
      positive clinical and antiaggressive effects of LAI in psychotic patients with
      high risk of violent behaviour. DISCUSSION: Reviewed evidence suggests that
      secured drug treatment with LAI may have clinical benefit in schizophrenia
      patients with high risk of violent behaviour. LAI significantly reduced the
      severity of hostility, aggressivity, number of violent incidents, and criminal
      offences. These findings are supported further by the empirical evidence from
      clinical practice, high rates of prescribed LAI to schizophrenia patients in high
      security and forensic psychiatric facilities. CONCLUSIONS: Available data
      encourage the use of LAI in forensic psychiatry, especially during court-ordered
      commitment treatment.

PMID- 28869706
TI  - Early use of peripherally inserted central catheters is safe in Staphylococcus
      aureus bacteraemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) includes
      prolonged intravenous antibiotics often administered through a peripherally
      inserted central catheter (PICC). Optimal timing of PICC insertion for SAB
      treatment is unknown. There are concerns that early insertion may increase the
      risk of subsequent line infection. AIMS: This retrospective audit aims to
      determine if early PICC insertion is safe. The outcomes considered included crude
      mortality, attributable mortality, PICC line infections, duration of bacteraemia
      and relapsed SAB. METHODS: Patients with SAB at our institution between March
      2013 and September 2016 were identified. Early PICC line insertion was defined as
      occurring within 48 h of index positive blood culture. RESULTS: This
      retrospective audit identified 357 patients with SAB who subsequently received a
      PICC. This study did not show any significant differences between the early and
      late PICC insertion groups for attributable mortality (6.3% and 4.8%, P = 0.27),
      duration of bacteraemia (median 2 days for both groups, P = 0.48) and relapsed
      SAB (4.7% and 4.1%, P = 0.74). Importantly, no confirmed PICC infections were
      identified in either group. CONCLUSIONS: Early PICC insertion in SAB appears safe
      in this retrospective audit. If validated in prospective studies, this should
      allow for the early establishment of safe, reliable intraveous access in SAB
      patients.

PMID- 28869708
TI  - Optimization of spark plasma sintered titania for potential application as a
      keratoprosthesis skirt.
AB  - The manufacture of mechanically strong and biocompatible titania (TiO2 )
      materials is of vital importance for their application as corneal implant skirts.
      This study was aimed at optimizing the selection of raw powder and sintering
      conditions for TiO2 ceramics. TiO2 compacts were synthesized from five raw
      powders, denoted as Altair, Inframat, Alfa, Materion, and Amperit, respectively,
      by spark plasma sintering using different sintering parameters. The XRD and Raman
      results confirmed that the anatase TiO2 phase in the Inframat powder had
      converted completely to rutile TiO2 phase after sintering at 900 degrees C and
      above. The nanoindentation results indicated that among the five types of TiO2
      samples sintered at 1100 degrees C, the Inframat pellets possessed the highest
      Young's modulus and hardness. Additionally, when Materion samples were employed
      to study the effects of SPS parameters, a higher sintering temperature in the
      range of 1100-1300 degrees C decreased the mechanical properties of sintered
      pellets probably due to the generation of more structural defects. Culture of
      human corneal stromal fibroblasts on the sintered sample surfaces showed that
      comparably high cell viability and proliferation were observed on all TiO2
      samples except Amperit compared to positive control. Furthermore, cells cultured
      on Inframat TiO2 sintered in the temperature range of 900-1300 degrees C
      exhibited viability and formation of focal adhesion complex similar to those on
      control, and those prepared at 1100 degrees C had significantly higher cell
      proliferation indices than control. In conclusion, Inframat TiO2 consolidated at
      1100 degrees C by SPS was the best formulation for the preparation of
      mechanically strong and biocompatible Keratoprosthesis skirt. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3502-3513, 2017.

PMID- 28869709
TI  - In vitro basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) delivery using an antithrombogenic
      2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymer coated with a
      micropatterned diamond-like carbon (DLC) film.
AB  - In this study, a newly designed drug-release platform composed of an
      antithrombogenic 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymer was
      introduced, which was impregnated with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)
      (bFGF/MPC polymer) to enhance the endothelial cell activation. The platform was
      also coated with an ultrathin micropatterned diamond-like carbon (DLC) film
      (DLC/bFGF/MPC polymer) to precisely control the drug release rate and the cell
      compatibility. The resulting DLC/bFGF/MPC polymer could effectively prolong the
      bFGF release rate by depositing the micropatterned DLC. The number of adherent
      platelets on the DLC/bFGF/MPC polymer was significantly lower (about 1/14) than
      that on a currently used stent made of stainless steel (SUS316L), indicating the
      enhanced antithrombogenicity in the DLC/bFGF/MPC polymer. The proliferation of
      endothelial cells on the DLC/bFGF/MPC polymer and the DLC/MPC polymer (without
      bFGF) were also examined. It was found that the optical density of HUVEC on the
      DLC/bFGF/MPC polymer determined by WST-8 assay was higher by 25%than that on the
      DLC/MPC polymer (without bFGF) measured after 72 h of incubation. Our results
      suggest that the released bFGF that contributes to the expression of other growth
      factors results in the early proliferation of the HUVEC on the DLC/bFGF/MPC
      polymer. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3384
      3391, 2017.

PMID- 28869707
TI  - SPIO-Au core-shell nanoparticles for promoting osteogenic differentiation of
      MC3T3-E1 cells: Concentration-dependence study.
AB  - This work aims to explore the concentration-dependence of SPIO-Au core-shell
      nanoscale particles (NPs) (17.3 +/- 1.2 nm in diameter) on biocompatibility and
      osteogenic differentiation of preosteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells. The stability of NPs
      was first investigated by UV-vis absorption spectra and zeta potential
      measurement. Then concentration effects of NPs (1-80 MUg/mL) were evaluated on
      viability, morphology, proliferation, cellular uptake, and alkaline phosphate
      (ALP) activity levels. Results have shown strong stability and no acute toxicity
      (viability > 93%) or morphological difference at all concentration levels of NPs.
      The proliferation results indicated that the concentration of NPs below 40 MUg/mL
      does not affect the cell proliferation for 7 days of incubation. Transmission
      electron microscopy images revealed the successful internalization of NPs into
      MC3T3-E1 cells and the dose-dependent accumulation of NPs inside the cytoplasm.
      The ALP level of MC3T3-E1 cells was improved by 49% (of control) after treated
      with NPs at 10 MUg/mL for 10 days, indicating their positive effect on early
      osteogenic differentiation. This study confirmed the excellent biocompatibility
      of SPIO-Au NPs and their great potential for promoting osteogenic differentiation
      and promised the future application for these NPs in bone engineering including
      drug delivery, cell labeling, and activity tracking within scaffolds. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3350-3359, 2017.

PMID- 28869710
TI  - Influence of hydrodynamic pressure on the proliferation and osteogenic
      differentiation of bone mesenchymal stromal cells seeded on polyurethane
      scaffolds.
AB  - Hydraulic pressure has recently been introduced as an effective stimulation in
      the field of tissue engineering. In this study, a polymer scaffold consisting of
      polyurethane (PU)-based 1, 4-butanediisocyanate was fabricated. A self-designed
      bioreactor was employed to produce perfusion and hydrodynamic pressure
      stimulations. The viability, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of the
      rat bone mesenchymal stromal cell (rBMSC) growing in the polymer scaffold were
      investigated after hydrodynamic pressure stimulation. Additionally, the
      mechanical properties of the cell-laden constructs were also evaluated. Our
      findings suggested that the perfusion rate (10 mL/min) and low hydrodynamic
      pressure stimulation (60 mmHg, 0.5 Hz) maintained the viability of rBMSC during 2
      weeks cultivation. The cell proliferation was promoted by 60 mmHg stimulation in
      the first week. The synthesis of alkaline phosphates and osteocalcin was enhanced
      after 2 weeks stimulation. Meanwhile, the equilibrium modulus of scaffold was
      increased by 1.85-fold using 60 mmHg hydrodynamic pressure stimulation.
      Additionally, type I and III procollagen produced by rBMSC was increased 4.92-
      and 3.02-fold, respectively. However, no encouraging results were detected in 120
      mmHg hydrodynamic pressure group. Our study suggests that the 60 mmHg
      hydrodynamic pressure is a promising approach to enhance the functional
      properties of the rBMSC-laden PU-based bone scaffold. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3445-3455, 2017.

PMID- 28869711
TI  - Might Sorafenib combined with radiotherapy be better option for treating
      hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumour thrombosis?

PMID- 28869712
TI  - Acute oxygen therapy: an audit of prescribing and delivery practices in a
      tertiary hospital in Perth, Western Australia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxygen is a widely used drug in the hospital setting. However,
      international audits suggest that oxygen administration practices are often not
      compliant with prescribed standards. This can place patients at risk and cause
      serious adverse events. AIM: To analyse data related to recent practices of
      oxygen prescription and administration at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), Western
      Australia. The results of this audit aim to guide further research on possible
      interventional studies implementing key solutions. METHODS: All patients who
      received care in the Acute Medical Unit at RPH between 1 September and 14
      September 2015 were included in this audit. Patients who were given supplemental
      oxygen during their admission were selected for further review of records.
      Appropriate medically indicated target oxygen saturations for each patient were
      judged under consultation with a respiratory specialist. RESULTS: A total of 65
      patients received oxygen supplementation within the study period; 36 of these
      patients (55.4%) had target oxygen saturations prescribed by doctors, and 25% of
      the prescribed targets were judged to be inappropriate. In total, 49 patients
      (75.4%) were exposed to a potential risk from oxygen therapy due to prescription
      error and/or delivery error. A real risk was identified in 19 patients (29.2%) as
      they received oxygen at levels outside their appropriate medically indicated
      target range. CONCLUSION: The current practices of oxygen prescription and
      administration within RPH are suboptimal. Patients are placed at risk of oxygen
      toxicity due to deviation from oxygen prescription guidelines.

PMID- 28869713
TI  - Substrate Recognition by a Dual-Function P450 Monooxygenase GfsF Involved in FD
      891 Biosynthesis.
AB  - GfsF is a multifunctional P450 monooxygenase that catalyzes epoxidation and
      subsequent hydroxylation in the biosynthesis of macrolide polyketide FD-891.
      Here, we describe the biochemical and structural analysis of GfsF. To obtain the
      structural basis of a dual-function reaction, we determined the crystal structure
      of ligand-free GfsF, which revealed GfsF to have a predominantly hydrophobic
      substrate binding pocket. The docking models, in conjunction with the results of
      the enzymatic assay with substrate analogues and site-directed mutagenesis
      suggested two distinct substrate binding modes for epoxidation and hydroxylation
      reactions, which explained how GfsF regulates the order of two oxidative
      reactions. These findings provide new insights into the reaction mechanism of
      multifunctional P450 monooxygenases.

PMID- 28869714
TI  - Ultrafast Vibrational Dynamics of Membrane-Bound Peptides at the Lipid
      Bilayer/Water Interface.
AB  - Vibrational energy transfer (VET) of proteins at cell membrane plays critical
      roles in controlling the protein functionalities, but its detection is very
      challenging. By using a surface-sensitive femtosecond time-resolved sum-frequency
      generation vibrational spectroscopy with infrared pump, the detection of the
      ultrafast VET in proteins at cell membrane has finally become possible. The
      vibrational relaxation time of the N-H groups is determined to be 1.70(+/-0.05)
      ps for the alpha-helix located in the hydrophobic core of the lipid bilayer and
      0.9(+/-0.05) ps for the membrane-bound beta-sheet structure. The N-H groups with
      strong hydrogen bonding gain faster relaxation time. By pumping the amide A band
      and probing amide I band, the vibrational relaxation from N-H mode to C=O mode
      through two pathways (direct coupling and through intermediate states) is
      revealed. The ratio of the pathways depends on the NH???O=C hydrogen-bonding
      strength. Strong hydrogen bonding favors the coupling through intermediate
      states.

PMID- 28869715
TI  - Growth differentiation factor 15 as a predictor of adverse renal outcomes in
      patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF 15) has recently been reported
      as a useful prognostic marker in patients with chronic inflammatory disease and
      heart disease. AIM: To evaluate the role of GDF 15 as a potential prognostic
      predictor of renal outcome in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). METHODS: In
      total, 212 patients in the Chungnam National Hospital glomerulonephritis cohort,
      who were diagnosed as biopsy-proven IgAN between March 2010 and June 2014, were
      included. GDF Fifteen was analysed by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Cut
      off values of the GDF 15 and the hazard ratio of it resulting in haemodialysis
      within 2 years were analysed. RESULTS: The level of serum GDF 15 was negatively
      correlated with the initial eGFR. A serum GDF 15 level of more than 496.32 pg/mL
      showed 90% sensitivity and 72.9% specificity to predict the possibility of it
      resulting in haemodialysis within 2 years. In addition, a GDF 15 level higher
      than 490.4 pg/mL showed 63.64% sensitivity and 65% specificity to predict a
      decline in eGFR > 30 mL/min within 1 year of follow up. Moreover, initial serum
      GDF 15 level was associated with the development of interstitial fibrosis/tubular
      atrophy. CONCLUSIONS: Initial serum GDF 15 level showed an inverse correlation
      with serum eGFR and was associated with worse renal outcome. Our results
      suggested that GDF 15 may play a role as a potential prognosticator in IgAN.

PMID- 28869716
TI  - Identification of Chimeric alphabetagamma Diterpene Synthases Possessing both
      Type II Terpene Cyclase and Prenyltransferase Activities.
AB  - Two unusual diterpene synthases composed of three domains (alpha, beta, and
      gamma) were identified from fungal Penicillium species. They are the first
      enzymes found to possess both type II terpene cyclase (TC) and prenyltransferase
      (PT) activities. These enzymes were characterized by heterologous expression in
      Aspergillus oryzae and in vitro experiments with wild-type, mutated, and
      truncated enzymes. The results revealed that the alpha domain in the C-terminal
      region of these enzymes was responsible for the PT activity, whereas the
      betagamma domains in the N-terminal region composed the type II TC, and formed
      copalyl diphosphate (2). Additionally, between the alpha and betagamma domains,
      there is a characteristic linker region, in which minimal secondary structure is
      predicted. This linker does not exist in the characterized three-domain
      (alphabetagamma) terpene synthases known as monofunctional type I or type II TCs,
      or bifunctional type I and type II TC enzymes. Therefore, both the catalytic
      activities and protein architecture substantially differentiate these new enzymes
      from the previously characterized terpene synthases.

PMID- 28869717
TI  - Seasonal pattern of incidence and outcome of Acute Kidney Injury: A national
      study of Welsh AKI electronic alerts.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To identify any seasonal variation in the occurrence of, and outcome
      following Acute Kidney Injury. METHODS: The study utilised the biochemistry based
      AKI electronic (e)-alert system established across the Welsh National Health
      Service to collect data on all AKI episodes to identify changes in incidence and
      outcome over one calendar year (1st October 2015 and the 30th September 2016).
      RESULTS: There were total of 48 457 incident AKI alerts. The highest proportion
      of AKI episodes was seen in the quarter of January to March (26.2%), and the
      lowest in the quarter of October to December (23.3%, P < .001). The same trend
      was seen for both community-acquired and hospital-acquired AKI sub-sets. Overall
      90 day mortality for all AKI was 27.3%. In contrast with the seasonal trend in
      AKI occurrence, 90 day mortality after the incident AKI alert was significantly
      higher in the quarters of January to March and October to December compared with
      the quarters of April to June and July to September (P < .001) consistent with
      excess winter mortality reported for likely underlying diseases which precipitate
      AKI. CONCLUSIONS: In summary we report for the first time in a large national
      cohort, a seasonal variation in the incidence and outcomes of AKI. The results
      demonstrate distinct trends in the incidence and outcome of AKI.

PMID- 28869719
TI  - Phosphate Transfer in Activated Protein Complexes Reveals Interaction Sites.
AB  - For many proteins, phosphorylation regulates their interaction with other
      biomolecules. Herein, we describe an unexpected phenomenon whereby phosphate
      groups are transferred non-enzymatically from one interaction partner to the
      other within a binding interface upon activation in the gas phase. Providing that
      a high affinity exists between the donor and acceptor sites, this phosphate
      transfer is very efficient and the phosphate groups only ligate to sites in
      proximity to the binding region. Consequently, such phosphate-transfer reactions
      may define with high precision the binding site between a phosphoprotein and its
      binding partner, as well as reveal that the binding site in this system is
      retained in the phase transfer from solution to the gas phase.

PMID- 28869718
TI  - Prevalence and causes of preoperative anaemia in elective major surgery patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preoperative anaemia is associated with increased morbidity and
      mortality in surgical patients. Recent national patient blood management
      guideline recommended screening surgical patients for anaemia, particularly iron
      deficiency anaemia, without reference to the prevalence of anaemia or iron
      deficiency anaemia in this patient population. AIMS: To establish the prevalence
      and cause of preoperative anaemia in elective major surgery patients. METHODS:
      Patients attending the anaesthetic pre-admission clinics from 1 July 2013 to 30
      June 2014 prior to their major elective surgery in our institution were screened
      for anaemia and iron deficiency by measuring full blood count, iron studies and C
      reactive protein. Patients who were anaemic were either further assessed in the
      haematology clinic or had their medical records reviewed to ascertain the cause
      of the anaemia. RESULTS: Of 1494 patients, 208 (13.9%) were anaemic, with a male
      predominance (70.7%); 57 (27.4%) of them had iron deficiency anaemia. Other
      common causes of anaemia include underlying malignancy (18.3%), end-stage renal
      failure (11.5%) and other chronic diseases (7.2%). In 53 patients (25.5%), the
      cause was unknown. Anaemia was most commonly found in patients scheduled for
      gastrointestinal surgery. CONCLUSION: Preoperative anaemia affects 13.9% of
      patients undergoing elective major surgery. The most common causes are iron
      deficiency and chronic diseases. The cause was unexplained in 25.5% of patients
      with anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia in different surgical specialties may
      have implications on the approach to screening, particularly in resource-limited
      areas.

PMID- 28869720
TI  - Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation by MnOx /C: In Situ Catalyst Formation, Carbon
      Substrate Variations, and Direct O2 /CO2 Monitoring by Membrane-Inlet Mass
      Spectrometry.
AB  - Layers of amorphous manganese oxides were directly formed on the surfaces of
      different carbon materials by exposing the carbon to aqueous solutions of
      permanganate (MnO4- ) followed by sintering at 100-400  degrees C. During
      electrochemical measurements in neutral aqueous buffer, nearly all of the MnOx /C
      electrodes show significant oxidation currents at potentials relevant for the
      oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, by combining electrolysis with product
      detection by using mass spectrometry, it was found that these currents were only
      strictly linked to water oxidation if MnOx was deposited on graphitic carbon
      materials (faradaic O2 yields >90 %). On the contrary, supports containing sp3 -C
      were found to be unsuitable as the OER is accompanied by carbon corrosion to CO2
      . Thus, choosing the "right" carbon material is crucial for the preparation of
      stable and efficient MnOx /C anodes for water oxidation catalysis. For MnOx on
      graphitic substrates, current densities of >1 mA cm-2 at eta=540 mV could be
      maintained for at least 16 h of continuous operation at pH 7 (very good values
      for electrodes containing only abundant elements such as C, O, and Mn) and post
      operando measurements proved the integrity of both the catalyst coating and the
      underlying carbon at OER conditions.

PMID- 28869721
TI  - The utility and feasibility of assessing sleep disruption in a men's health
      clinic using a mobile health platform device: A pilot study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Evidence linking sleep disruption and sexual dysfunction in men is
      mounting; yet the characterisation of sleep patterns and complaints utilising a
      clinically feasible method within this patient population remain largely under
      reported. AIM: A pilot study aiming to demonstrate a clinically feasible method
      to characterise the sleep patterns and complaints in a representative sample of
      patients treated in a men's health clinic. METHODS: Male patients (n = 48)
      completed a battery of validated sleep questionnaires using an mHealth mobile
      platform, MySleepScript, at the Johns Hopkins Men's Health and Vitality Center.
      Metrics related to clinical feasibility such as completion time, ease of use,
      preference of electronic format, and patient satisfaction were also collected.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Insomnia Severity
      Index (ISI), Berlin Questionnaire, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and
      Primary Care PTSD Screen (PC-PTSD). RESULTS: Primary urological chief symptoms
      for this sample patient population were erectile dysfunction (ED; 80%),
      hypogonadism (40%), benign prostatic hyperplasia/lower urinary tract symptoms
      (BPH/LUTS; 40%) and Peyronie's disease (10%). Mean PSQI score was 7.8 [SD 4.2],
      with 67% of all patients falling within the "poor sleeper" range. At least mild
      symptoms of depression were noted in 40% and 43% were at risk for obstructive
      sleep apnea (OSA) on the Berlin Questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study
      demonstrated the feasibility and potential utility of an mHealth platform to
      assist clinicians, within a men's health clinic, in detecting sleep disturbances.
      Disrupted sleep was revealed in well over half of this sample of patients. As a
      result of the growing evidence linking poor sleep and sleep disorders (eg, OSA)
      to the conditions relevant to men's health (eg, erectile dysfunction,
      hypogonadism and BPH), further efforts beyond this pilot study are necessary to
      identify the aetiological processes underlying the association between specific
      disrupted sleep disorders and urological conditions.

PMID- 28869723
TI  - Answer to the Letter to the Editor of Dr. Clouatre and Dr. Preuss.

PMID- 28869724
TI  - The evidence of hydroxycitric acid (HCA) health risks to the testes points to
      manufacturing failings, not to properly made HCA salts.

PMID- 28869722
TI  - Pain relief of sore throat with a new anti-inflammatory throat lozenge, ibuprofen
      25 mg: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, international phase III
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of a new
      oromucosal ibuprofen form, ibuprofen 25 mg lozenge, in single and repeat dosing
      for up to 4 days, to the matched placebo, in the treatment of acute sore throat
      pain in adults. METHODS: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled
      trial, adult patients with non-streptococcal sore throat and signs of moderate-to
      severe associated pain (>=5 on the objective Tonsillo-Pharyngitis Assessment 21
      point scale and >=60 mm on the subjective 0-100 mm visual analogue Sore Throat
      Pain Intensity Scale [STPIS]) were assigned ibuprofen 25 mg (n=194) or matching
      placebo (n=191) lozenge treatment. Efficacy was assessed (at the investigating
      centre up to 2 hours after first dosing, then on an ambulatory basis) by
      parameters derived from patient's scores on scales of pain relief, pain
      intensity, and global efficacy assessment. The primary efficacy end-point was the
      time-weighted TOTal PAin Relief (TOTPAR) over 2 hours after first dosing using
      the Sore Throat Relief Scale (STRS). Safety and local tolerability were assessed.
      RESULTS: Ibuprofen 25 mg was superior to placebo on numerous pain relief
      parameters; TOTPAR was significantly higher with ibuprofen 25 mg over 2 hours
      after first dosing (P<.05), the effect being apparent from the first evaluation
      at 15 minutes (P<.05). The STPIS reduction in favour of ibuprofen 25 mg was not
      significant vs placebo. Mean STRS scores and patient's global efficacy assessment
      both reflected a higher efficacy of ibuprofen 25 mg over the 4-day treatment
      period with tests of statistical significance up to day 1 evening (P<.05), and,
      in patients with still clinically significant pain (n=128), after an average 4
      days (P<.01). Ibuprofen 25 mg lozenge was well tolerated with a safety profile
      similar to placebo. CONCLUSION: Low-dose ibuprofen 25 mg lozenge in repeat dosing
      provides in adults more efficacious and rapid relief of sore throat pain and is
      as well tolerated as placebo. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov,
      NCT01785862.

PMID- 28869725
TI  - [Advances in mass spectrometry-based approaches for neuropeptide analysis].
AB  - Neuropeptides are an important class of endogenous bioactive substances involved
      in the function of the nervous system, and connect the brain and other neural and
      peripheral organs. Mass spectrometry-based neuropeptidomics are designed to study
      neuropeptides in a large-scale manner and obtain important molecular information
      to further understand the mechanism of nervous system regulation and the
      pathogenesis of neurological diseases. This review summarizes the basic
      strategies for the study of neuropeptides using mass spectrometry, including
      sample preparation and processing, qualitative and quantitative methods, and mass
      spectrometry imagining.

PMID- 28869726
TI  - [Direct reprogramming from fibroblasts into cardiamyocytes].
AB  - Cardiac regenerative therapy has attracted much attention as a novel approach for
      heart diseases. Direct reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes without
      going through a pluripotent stem cell stage would provide a promising source of
      cells for cell transplantation in future. This review summarizes the research
      methods and problems of direct reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes
      in vitro and in vivo, and forecasts the future development of this new strategy.

PMID- 28869727
TI  - [Research progress in rotavirus VP4 subunit vaccine].
AB  - Rotaviruses are leading causes of worldwide acute diarrhea in children younger
      than 5 years old, with severe consequence of social and economic burden.
      Vaccination is the most effective way to control rotavirus infection, however,
      the licensed rotavirus vaccines are ineffective in some low-income countries of
      Africa and Asia, where the mortality caused by rotavirus is higher than other
      areas. In addition, there are also safety concerns such as increased risk of
      intussusception. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the efficiency and safety of
      rotavirus vaccine to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by rotavirus. Till
      now, many efforts are made to improve the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccines,
      and the inactive vaccine becomes the main trend in the research of rotavirus
      vaccine. The developments in recombinant rotavirus vaccines, especially in VP4
      subunit vaccines are summarized in this review, and it could be helpful to
      develop effective recombinant rotavirus vaccines in further studies.

PMID- 28869728
TI  - [Application of nanobody in cancer treatment].
AB  - Camelidae can produce a unique antibody that lacks light chain called variable
      heavy chain domain, also known as nanobodies. This antibody contains only one
      variable region, with high affinity, high stability, strong tissue penetration,
      efficient expression. Besides, their toxicity and immunogenicity are both low to
      be used for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications, as well as research
      tools. In this review, we discuss how nanobody has been explored as therapeutics
      in oncology, and provide ideas for the further development of nanobody.

PMID- 28869729
TI  - [Engineering and characterization of new intrinsic transcriptional terminators in
      Bacillus subtilis 168].
AB  - Terminators as regulatory signals are typically placed behind the last coding
      sequence to block the transcription of DNA to RNA and release the transcript. In
      the present study, the hairpin and the U-rich sequence of the bacteriophage
      lambdato terminator were first modified to investigate their effects on
      termination efficiency and mRNA stability in Bacillus subtilis 168. Compared with
      the native lambdato terminator, the terminator variants M3, M11 and M12 showed
      higher termination efficiency values. Moreover, the variantsM3, M4 and M11 showed
      significant positive effects on the mRNA stability of the upstream gfp gene.
      Additionally, insertion of RNase site also increased the mRNA stability. The
      results of this study suggested that the composition of the hairpin loop is not
      required for effective intrinsic termination in B. subtilis. Our results also
      showed that the terminator could also be used as a potential tool for increasing
      mRNA stability and the corresponding enzyme production in B. subtilis.

PMID- 28869730
TI  - [Effect of sodium chloride on growth and lipid accumulation of Chlorella
      protothecoides CS-41].
AB  - With basal medium, we studied the growth status, lipid droplet distribution,
      total lipid content of Chlorella protothecoides CS-41 treated with different
      concentrations of sodium chloride (0, 150, 300 and 600 mmol/L) by optical
      microscopy, electron microscopy, confocal laser focusing and Nile red staining.
      Results show that the addition of NaCl affected the growth of Chlorella
      protothecoides CS-41. With the increase of NaCl concentration, the growth rate of
      Chlorella was inhibited. Chlorella cell wall became thicker, and lipid droplets
      increased. At the early stage, the amount of lipid droplets in the 600 mmol/L
      NaCl culture was the highest, but at the late-log stage, the amount of lipid
      droplets increased with the increase of the biomass of culture in 150 and 300
      mmol/L NaCl culture. At the stable stage, biomass (dry weight) in 300 mmol/L NaCl
      culture was 73.55% of that in the control, but the total lipid content was 2.22
      times higher than that in the control. A certain concentration of sodium chloride
      treatment can significantly increase the lipid content of Chlorella
      protothecoides CS-41.

PMID- 28869731
TI  - [Prokaryotic expression, purification and characterization of arginine kinase of
      Bombyx mori].
AB  - Arginine kinase (AK) is a key enzyme in energy metabolism of invertebrates and
      plays an important regulatory role in the life activities such as growth and
      development, nutrition utilization, immune resistance and stress response.
      Arginine kinase of Bombyx mori (BmAK) is related to the energy balance and anti
      NPV process, but there is little research on its molecular structure and
      enzymatic properties. We cloned the ORF sequence of BmAK gene, and analyzed
      chromosomal localization, genomic structure, mRNA structure, secondary and
      tertiary structure. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that AK was highly conserved
      in evolution. Soluble recombinant BmAK was obtained by prokaryotic expression,
      and purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The circular dichroism
      spectroscopy showed that BmAK contained alpha-helix structures, and its alpha
      helix structures were relatively stable in the pH range between 5 and 10. Enzyme
      activity analysis showed that the optimum temperature of BmAK was 30 C and the
      optimum pH of BmAK was 7.5. The optimal temperature of BmAK was 25 C. Between 15
      C and 30 C, the structure and activity of BmAK was relatively stable. The
      structure of BmAK was relatively stable at pH 7.0. Our findings reveal the
      structure and function of BmAK to develop novel green safe and environmentally
      friendly insecticides.

PMID- 28869732
TI  - [Effect of calcium on sporulation of Taiwanofungus camphoratus in submerged
      fermentation].
AB  - Taiwanofungus camphoratus is a valuable and rare medicinal mushroom with various
      bioactivities, such as liver protection and anti-cancer. T. camphoratus can
      produce many arthroconidia at the end of submerged fermentation, but molecular
      mechanism underlying this submerged conidiation remains unknown. In this study,
      we found that Ca2+ concentration in culture medium significantly affected the
      arthroconidium production of T. camphoratus. Then, we identified two proteins
      (CaM and HSP90) involved in Ca2+/calmodulin signaling pathway and one protein
      (AbaA) involved in FluG-mediated conidiation pathway by two-dimensional
      electrophoresis analyses. Furthermore, we proposed a Ca2+/calmodulin- and FluG
      mediated signaling pathway by bioinformatics analysis. By real-time quantitative
      PCR analyses of 23 key genes in the Ca2+/calmodulin- and FluG-mediated
      conidiation pathway, we found that expression levels of 7 genes (crz1, hsp90,
      flbB, brlA, abaA, wetA and fadA) showed significant responses to Ca2+
      concentration in fermentation medium. Our research is beneficial for elucidating
      the underlying mechanism of submerged fermentation conidiation for T.
      camphoratus.

PMID- 28869733
TI  - [Effects of recombinant adenovirus Ad-miR-29b2c on HGC-27 cell proliferation and
      migration].
AB  - We constructed recombinant adenoviruses expressing miR-29b2c (Ad-miR29b2c), and
      analyzed their effects on the proliferation and migration of HGC-27 and MGC-803
      cells. miR-29b2c gene was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA and cloned into the
      pAdTrack-CMV vector to create the shuttle plasmid pAdT-29b2c. The recombinant
      plasmid was verified by restriction enzyme digestion and sequencing. The
      linearized shuttle vector was mixed with an adenoviral backbone plasmid (pAdEasy
      1), followed by cotransformation into competent BJ5183 cells to generate the
      recombinant plasmid pAd-miR-29b2c. Finally, recombinant adenoviral vectors were
      generated by transfecting the recombinant plasmid into 293A packaging cell line.
      HGC-27 and MGC-803 cells were infected with the recombinant adenoviruses
      expressing pAd-miR-29b2c, then MTT and wound-healing assay were used to analyze
      the effects of pAd-miR-29b2c on the proliferation and migration of HGC-27 and MGC
      803 cells. The miR-29b and miR-29c levels were significantly increased in HGC-27
      cells after infected with pAd-miR-29b2c. MTT and wound-healing analysis also
      revealed a significant decrease in proliferation and migration of HGC-27 and MGC
      803 cells compared to the control Ad-GFP-infected cells. Furthermore, western
      blotting results demonstrated that the protein expression level of delta-catenin
      was reduced in pAd-miR-29b2c transfected HGC-27 and MGC-803 cells. Taken
      together, the recombinant adenoviral vector was generated, and it can
      significantly inhibit the proliferation and migration of HGC-27 and MGC-803
      cells.

PMID- 28869734
TI  - [Changes of urinary proteins in a bacterial meningitis rat model].
AB  - Unlike cerebrospinal fluid or blood, urine accumulates metabolic changes of the
      body and has the potential to be a promising source of early biomarkers
      discovery. Bacterial meningitis is a major cause of illness among neonates and
      children worldwide. In this study, we used Escherichia coli-injected rat model to
      mimic meningitis and collected urine samples on day 1 and day 3. We used two
      different methods to digest proteins and analyzed peptides by liquid
      chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). We identified 17
      and 20 differential proteins by two methods respectively on day 1, and 5
      differential proteins by filter-aided digestion method on day 3. Finding these
      differential proteins laid a foundation to further explore biomarkers of
      bacterial meningitis.

PMID- 28869735
TI  - [Effects of 1.8 mT sinusoidal electromagnetic fields of different frequencies on
      bone mineral density and bone histomorphometry of young rats].
AB  - To study the effects of different frequency sinusoidal electromagnetic fields on
      the bone mineral density and bone histomorphometry of SD young rats, and to
      screen suitable electromagnetic field frequency. In total 32 female SD rats of 8
      weeks old were randomly divided into 4 groups: control group, 15 Hz group, 30 Hz
      group and 45 Hz group. Except for the control group, rats in experimental groups
      were treated with corresponding frequency of 1.8 mT sinusoidal electromagnetic
      field 90 minutes every day. Rats were measured for bone mineral density after 8
      weeks by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Rats' femur and vertebral bones were
      measured by analyzing the static and dynamic forms on the right tibia bone for
      morphometrics. Rat serum was measured to estimate the index of bone formation and
      bone resorption. Bone mineral density of rats from 15 Hz group and 45 Hz group
      was higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). Serum osteocalcin level of
      rats from 15 Hz group and 45 Hz group was higher than that of the control group
      (P<0.05). Double fluorescence spacing and static parameters of bone tissue in
      experimental group rat tibia were higher than that of the control group (P<0.05).
      Our findings imply that 15 Hz and 45 Hz sinusoidal electromagnetic fields can
      effectively increase bone mineral density in young rats for preventing
      osteoporosis.

PMID- 28869736
TI  - [Expression, purification, stability and transduction efficiency of full-length
      SOD2 recombinant proteins].
AB  - Superoxide dismutase (SOD) family is necessary to protect cells from the toxicity
      of reactive oxygen species produced during normal metabolism. Among SODs,
      manganese-containing superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD, SOD2) is the most important
      one. The DNA fragment containing the full nucleotide of full-length human SOD2
      was synthesized and inserted into the prokaryotic expression vector pGEX-4T-1
      with tag GST. DNA construct was then transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3)
      and expression was induced with IPTG at 25 C. The recombinant fusion protein GST
      SOD2 (46 kDa) was purified from the bacterial lysate by GST resin column affinity
      chromatography. GST tag was cleaved with thrombin, and a crude SOD2 recombinant
      protein (25 kDa) was obtained and further purified by heparin affinity
      chromatography. Activities of the two SOD2 proteins were 1 788 and 2 000 U/mg,
      respectively. Both SOD2 proteins were stable under physiological condition and
      cell-penetrating (P<0.05). Our findings open the possibility to study the
      structure and effects of two full-length recombinant SOD2 proteins.

PMID- 28869737
TI  - [A method to increase the production of insulin precursor in Pichia pastoris].
AB  - To improve the yield of insulin precursor (PI), we constructed a recombinant
      expression vector pPIC9K-PI and transformed it into Pichia pastoris GS115 using
      electroporation. After screening, a mutant strain CL012 with 12 copies was
      obtained on the YPDS plate containing 4.0 mg/mL G418. Then, the components of
      SNAREs (Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment receptor proteins),
      SNC2 and SNC2-SSO2, were expressed in the strain CL012 to explore the effect of
      SNAREs on the yield of PI. In shake flask culture, the strains expressing SNC2
      and SNC2-SSO2 yielded PI of 1.89 mg/L and 2.21 mg/L after methanol induction for
      96 h, which were improved by 23.53% and 44.44% compared to that of strain CL012
      (1.53 mg/L), respectively. Further, in a 5-L bioreactor, the yield of PI with
      strain CL012 was 53 mg/L for high-density fermentation, after 96 h of methanol
      induction, which was 34.64-fold higher than that of shake culture. The strains
      expressing SNC2 and SNC2-SSO2 yielded the PI of 64 mg/L and 78 mg/L, which were
      respectively increased by 20.75% and 47.17%, compared to that of strain CL012.
      This work indicated that SNAREs components promoted the secretion of PI to
      improve its heterologous expression in P. pastoris.

PMID- 28869738
TI  - [Cloning short gene fragment and constructing recombinant plasmid based on
      restoration of antibiotic resistance].
AB  - Molecular cloning is one of the most important and widely used technologies in
      molecular biology research. Generally, the target DNA fragment and the vector are
      separately digested by restriction enzyme, then purified and recovered, and then
      ligated with DNA-ligase. For some very short gene fragments (<300 bp), the
      recovery efficiency of the purified fragment is very low after digestion and
      cleavage, leading to the difficulty in its inserting into the expression vector.
      To address this issue, we developed a cloning method based on restoration of
      antibiotic resistance in constructing recombinant plasmid, which proved highly
      efficient in cloning very short gene fragments.

PMID- 28869739
TI  - [Mutation breeding of high 9alpha-hydroxy-androst-4-ene-3,17- dione transforming
      strains from phytosterols and their conversion process optimization].
AB  - In order to improve transformation efficiency of phytosterols into 9alpha
      hydroxylation of 4-androstene-3,17-dione (9alpha-OH-AD) by Mycobacterium sp. LY
      1, we studied the strains breeding using atmospheric and room temperature plasma
      (ARTP) technology and optimized their conversion process. A high production
      strain named C33 with a good genetic stability was selected and the product molar
      yield reached to 15.5%, 34.8% higher than that of original strain with 15 g/L
      phytosterols. Furthermore, the fermentation medium was optimized through the
      design of orthogonal experiment. Besides, oil-water bidirectional transformation
      system was set up to improve the 9alpha-OH-AD molar yield of mutant strain C33.
      With adding 12 mL soybean oil to each 1 g phytosterols, the molar yield of 9alpha
      OH-AD reached 47.0%, which increased twice than that of control (15.5%).

PMID- 28869740
TI  - 30 min of treadmill walking at self-selected speed does not increase gait
      variability in independent elderly.
AB  - Walking is one of the preferred exercises among elderly, but could a prolonged
      walking increase gait variability, a risk factor for a fall in the elderly? Here
      we determine whether 30 min of treadmill walking increases coefficient of
      variation of gait in elderly. Because gait responses to exercise depend on
      fitness level, we included 15 sedentary and 15 active elderly. Sedentary
      participants preferred a lower gait speed and made smaller steps than the
      actives. Step length coefficient of variation decreased ~16.9% by the end of the
      exercise in both the groups. Stride length coefficient of variation decreased ~9%
      after 10 minutes of walking, and sedentary elderly showed a slightly larger step
      width coefficient of variation (~2%) at 10 min than active elderly. Active
      elderly showed higher walk ratio (step length/cadence) than sedentary in all
      times of walking, but the times did not differ in both the groups. In conclusion,
      treadmill gait kinematics differ between sedentary and active elderly, but
      changes over time are similar in sedentary and active elderly. As a practical
      implication, 30 min of walking might be a good strategy of exercise for elderly,
      independently of the fitness level, because it did not increase variability in
      step and stride kinematics, which is considered a risk of fall in this
      population.

PMID- 28869741
TI  - Development of a quantitative multi-compound method for the detection of 14
      nitrogen-rich adulterants by LC-MS/MS in food materials.
AB  - The increasing number of food frauds using exogenous nitrogen-rich adulterants to
      artificially raise the protein content for economically motivated adulteration
      has demonstrated the need for a robust analytical methodology. This method should
      be applicable for quality control in operations covering a wide range of analyte
      concentrations to be able to analyse high levels as usually found in
      adulteration, as well as low levels due to contamination. The paper describes a
      LC-MS/MS method covering 14 nitrogen-rich adulterants using a simple and fast
      sample preparation based on dilution and clean-up by dispersive SPE.
      Quantification is carried out by isotopic dilution reaching LOQs of 0.05-0.20
      mg/kg in a broad range of food matrices (infant formula, liquid milk, dairy
      ingredient, high protein meal, cereal, infant cereal, and meat/fish powder).
      Validation of seven commodity groups was performed according to SANCO 12571/2013,
      giving satisfactory results demonstrating the method's fitness for purpose at the
      validated range at contamination level. Method ruggedness was further assessed by
      transferring the developed method into another laboratory devoted to routine
      testing for quality control. Next to the method description, emphasis is placed
      on challenges and problems appearing during method development as well as
      validation. They are discussed in detail and solutions are provided.

PMID- 28869743
TI  - Impact of agronomic and climatic factors on the mycotoxin content of harvested
      oats in the United Kingdom.
AB  - A survey was conducted to determine the concentration of Fusarium mycotoxins in
      UK oats over three seasons (2006-8). One hundred oat samples were collected each
      year at harvest, together with agronomic details, and analysed for 10 Fusarium
      mycotoxins. The incidence and concentration of most Fusarium mycotoxins,
      including deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, were relatively low in oats compared
      with values previously reported for wheat. HT-2 toxin (HT2) and T-2 toxin (T2)
      levels were relatively high with an overall combined (HT2+T2) mean of 450 MUg kg
      1 for 2006-8. Data were combined with a previous dataset collected from 2002-5 to
      determine the effects of agronomic practices and climate. There was a negative
      relationship with late summer rainfall, indicating that drier conditions in July
      and August resulted in increased HT2 and T2 in UK oats. Agronomic factors that
      impacted upon HT2 and T2 in harvested oats were previous crop, cultivation, and
      variety. Analysis of the previous cropping history showed there was a stepwise
      increase in HT2+T2 as the cereal intensity of the rotation increased. Variety was
      an important factor, with higher levels and a wider range detected on winter
      versus spring varieties. Indicative levels for HT2 and T2 in cereals and cereal
      products were introduced by the EC in 2013. The indicative level for unprocessed
      oats for human consumption is a combined concentration (HT2+T2) of 1000 MUg kg-1.
      From 2002 to 2008, between 1% and 30% of samples exceeded 1000 MUg kg-1 HT2+T2
      each year (overall mean, 16%). The introduction of European legislation on HT2
      and T2 mycotoxins could have serious implications for UK oat production and oat
      processing industries based on the levels detected within these studies.

PMID- 28869742
TI  - Persistent organic pollutants in farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax,
      Linnaeus, 1758) from Sicily (Italy).
AB  - Farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, Linnaeus, 1758) were collected
      during 2016 from one Sicilian fish farm that uses two different rearing systems -
      sea cage and concrete tank - for determination of polychlorinated biphenyls
      (PCB), organochlorine pesticides (OCP) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)
      residues by HRGC-MS/MS. Moreover, commercial feed was analysed. This study aimed
      to determine whether the different rearing systems affect the concentration of
      these compounds, and to assess the safety of cultured fish. PCBs represent the
      pollutants with the highest concentration; in particular, PCB138 and 153 have the
      highest concentration in almost all samples. Among OCPs, only 4,4'-DDE, 4,4'-DDD
      and 4,4'-DDT residues have been detected. Concerning PAHs, only fluorene and
      phenanthrene were detected, in both rearing systems. Although some residues of
      organic pollutants were found in the analysed samples, they were always below the
      MRLs, so the results suggest that farmed sea bass are safe for human consumption.

PMID- 28869745
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28869744
TI  - Impact of ion-pairs for the determination of multiclass antimicrobials residues
      in honey by LC-MS/MS.
AB  - This study examines the behaviour of volatile perfluorinated carboxylic acids
      used as ion-pairing reagents for the separation of multiclass antimicrobial
      residues in honey (tetracyclines, sulphonamides, macrolides, and
      aminoglycosides). Heptafluorobutanoic acid and pentafluoropentanoic acid were
      compared as mobile phase additives at concentrations of 0-20 mmol.L-1 using
      reversed-phase chromatography. Our objective was to find optimal conditions that
      enable the separation of antimicrobials with a minimum loss in sensitivity and
      efficiency. The influence of ion pairing on chromatographic performance was
      examined. Results showed that heptafluorobutanoic acid was able to separate
      aminoglycosides faster and more efficiently than pentafluoropentanoic acid, but
      at low concentrations of heptafluorobutanoic acid between 2.5 and 5 mM,
      tetracyclines showed poor chromatographic efficiency. A concentration of 10 mM
      was found to be optimal for all studied veterinary drugs. The method was then
      applied to determine multiclass antimicrobial residues in honey. Based on
      validation data, the mean recoveries of analytes ranged between 93% and 104%, and
      the intermediate precisions were <21%. The decision limit (CCalpha) and detection
      capability (CCbeta) were in the ranges of 5-25 and 7-33 MUg kg-1, respectively.
      The method was found to be suitable for use in analysis of veterinary drugs with
      a broader group of compounds found in food-producing animals.

PMID- 28869746
TI  - Physiological intensity profile, exercise load and performance predictors of a 65
      km mountain ultra-marathon.
AB  - The aims of the study were to describe the physiological profile of a 65-km (4000
      m cumulative elevation gain) running mountain ultra-marathon (MUM) and to
      identify predictors of MUM performance. Twenty-three amateur trail-runners
      performed anthropometric evaluations and an uphill graded exercise test (GXT) for
      VO2max, ventilatory thresholds (VTs), power outputs (PMax, PVTs) and heart rate
      response (HRmax, HR@VTs). Heart rate (HR) was monitored during the race and
      intensity was expressed as: Zone I (<VT1), Zone II (VT1-VT2), Zone III (>VT2) for
      exercise load calculation (training impulse, TRIMP). Mean race intensity was
      77.1%+/-4.4% of HRmax distributed as: 85.7%+/-19.4% Zone I, 13.9%+/-18.6% Zone
      II, 0.4%+/-0.9% Zone III. Exercise load was 766+/-110 TRIMP units. Race time
      (11.8+/-1.6h) was negatively correlated with VO2max (r = -0.66, P <0.001) and
      PMax (r = -0.73, P <0.001), resulting these variables determinant in predicting
      MUM performance, whereas exercise thresholds did not improve performance
      prediction. Laboratory variables explained only 59% of race time variance,
      underlining the multi-factorial character of MUM performance. Our results support
      the idea that VT1 represents a boundary of tolerable intensity in this kind of
      events, where exercise load is extremely high. This information can be helpful in
      identifying optimal pacing strategies to complete such extremely demanding MUMs.

PMID- 28869747
TI  - Live imaging looks deeper.
AB  - Iodixanol provides an easy and affordable solution to a problem that has limited
      resolution and brightness when imaging living samples.

PMID- 28869748
TI  - Liver iron concentration is not raised in patients with dysmetabolic
      hyperferritinemia.
AB  - : Background & aims. Hyperferritinemia (HF) is frequently present in patients
      with metabolic syndrome (MS). MS associated with HF is named dysmetabolic
      hyperferritinemia (DH). There are some publications that propose that DH is
      associated with a raised liveriron concentration (LIC). We studied the LIC in
      patients referred for HF to a secondary hospital to determine if there are
      differences between patients with or without MS. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We
      conducted a prospective study of 132 consecutive patients with HF from January to
      December 2010. The MS was defined by the International Diabetes Federation
      criteria (2005). LIC was determined by Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). RESULTS:
      The number of patients for which there was enough data to determine MS was 97,
      out of which 54 had MS and 43 had no MS (NMS). In 54/97 patients, MRI for LIC
      determination was performed. From the MS group, 44 were men (27 underwent MRI)
      and 10 women (9 MRI). The mean LIC was 27.83 +/- 20.90 ?mol/g for the MS group.
      In the NMS group, 36 were men (13 MRI), and 7 women (5 MRI). In 18 patients from
      the NMS group, LIC was determined by MRI. The mean LIC was 33.16 +/- 19.61 ?mol/g
      in the NMS group. We compared the mean values of LIC from both groups (MS vs.
      NMS) and no significant differences were found (p = 0.067). CONCLUSION: Patients
      with DH present a mean LIC within normal values and their values do not differ
      from those of patients with HF but without MS.

PMID- 28869749
TI  - Perspectives of female medical faculty in Ethiopia on a leadership fellowship
      program.
AB  - Objectives: This study aims to evaluate a leadership fellowship program through
      perspectives of Ethiopian women medical faculty participants. Methods: An
      intensive two-week leadership development fellowship was designed for women
      faculty from Ethiopian medical schools and conducted from 2011-2015 at the
      University of Wisconsin-School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison,
      Wisconsin. Nine Ethiopian women working in early- or mid-level academic positions
      were selected. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the fellows.
      Transcripts were reviewed through qualitative analysis to assess the perceived
      impact of the training on their careers. Three male academic leaders were
      interviewed to solicit feedback on the program. Results: Eight of 9 fellows were
      interviewed. Themes describing the benefits of the fellowship included: increased
      awareness of gender inequities; enhanced motivation for career advancement;
      increased personal confidence; and improved leadership skills. Fellows provided
      suggestions for future training and scaling up efforts to promote gender equity.
      Male leaders described the benefits of men promoting gender equity within
      academic health centers. Conclusions: This paper provides evidence that targeted
      brief training programs can enhance women's motivation and skills to become
      effective leaders in academic medicine in Ethiopia. Promoting gender equity in
      academic medicine is an important strategy to address health workforce shortages
      and to provide professional role models for female students in the health
      professions.

PMID- 28869750
TI  - Thermoelectric performance and the role of anti-site disorder in the 24-electron
      Heusler TiFe2Sn.
AB  - Heusler compounds XY 2 Z with 24 valence electrons per formula unit are potential
      thermoelectric materials, given their thermal and chemical stability and their
      relatively earth-abundant constituent elements. We present results on the 24
      electron compound TiFe2Sn here. First principles calculations on this compound
      suggest semiconducting behavior. A relatively flat conduction band that could be
      associated with a high Seebeck coefficient upon electron doping is found. A
      series of compounds have been prepared and characterized using a combination of
      synchrotron x-ray and neutron diffraction studies to understand the effects of
      site order/disorder phenomena and n-type doping. Samples fabricated by a three
      step processing approach were subjected to high temperature Seebeck and
      electrical resistivity measurements. Ti:Fe anti-site disorder is present in the
      stoichiometric compound and these defects are reduced when starting Ti-rich
      compositions are employed. Additionally, we investigate control of the Seebeck
      coefficient through the introduction of carriers through the substitution of Sb
      on the Sn site in these intrinsically p-type materials.

PMID- 28869751
TI  - Constructing hierarchical sulfur-doped nitrogenous carbon nanosheets for sodium
      ion storage.
AB  - Hierarchical sulfur-doped nitrogenous carbon (S/NC) and nitrogenous carbon (NC)
      nanosheets are successfully fabricated by carbonization of their corresponding
      precursor polymers which are synthesized through the polymerization reaction of
      dianhydride and multi-amine compounds. Hierarchical S/NC nanosheets deliver
      greatly enhanced reversible capacity, compared with hierarchical NC nanosheets,
      of 280 mAh g-1 at a current density of 100 mA g-1 after 300 cycles. It is found
      that the introduction of sulfur species in carbon skeleton results in increasing
      the turbostratic structures, rather than enlarging the interlayer distances, for
      boosting the specific capacity of sodium-ion storage. The turbostratic structures
      and sulfur dopant existed in the carbon can offer more active sites for the
      sodium-ion storage. Carbon-based materials doped with sulfur are capable of
      improving the sodium-ion storage property, which can broaden the horizon of
      designing a string of outstanding carbon materials for the future energy storage
      technologies.

PMID- 28869752
TI  - Spin-wave excitations in the spin-density wave state of doped iron pnictides.
AB  - We investigate spin-wave excitations in the spin-density wave state of doped iron
      pnictides within a five-orbital model. We find that the excitations along
      ([Formula: see text])  ->  ([Formula: see text]) are very sensitive to dopings
      whereas they do not exhibit a similar sensitivity along ([Formula: see text])  ->
      ([Formula: see text]). Secondly, the ellipticity of the elliptical ring-like
      excitations around ([Formula: see text]) is also very much dependent on doping.
      Thirdly, the spin-wave spectral weight shifts towards the low-energy region as it
      moves away from zero doping. We find several features to be in qualitative
      agreement with the inelastic neutron-scattering measurements for the doped
      pnictides.

PMID- 28869753
TI  - Quantum plasmon model for the terahertz photoconductivity in intrinsic
      semiconductor nanowires.
AB  - A quantum plasmon model for the terahertz photoconductivity in intrinsic
      semiconductor nanowires is developed. The classical plasmon model assumes the
      excited electron in semiconductors feels a restoring force generated by a
      harmonic-oscillator potential. Although it is successfully applied to explain the
      terahertz photoconductivity in semiconductor nanowires, the classical treatment
      of the potential weakens accurate theoretical analysis. Here I treat the
      potential in a full quantum way and present an exact analytical formula for
      photoconductivity. The formula not only gives more reasonable photoconductivity,
      but also has the same conciseness when compared with that of the classical
      plasmon model. The validity of the quantum plasmon model is proved independently
      by numerical calculations in real space.

PMID- 28869754
TI  - The Irisin Hormone Profile and Expression in Human Bone Tissue in the Bone
      Healing Process in Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND Whether or not there is a relationship between the newly-discovered
      irisin hormone and bone healing is not yet known. The aim of this study was to
      investigate what effect irisin hormone has on the bone healing process. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS The study included 21 adult patients with a diagnosed fracture of the
      lower extremity (femur or tibia). Informed consent was obtained from all the
      patients. A total of four venous blood samples were taken from the patients:
      before fracture stabilization, then postoperatively on days 1, 10, and 60. In
      patients with femoral neck fracture who had hip prosthesis applied, bone tissue
      samples were taken from the removed femur head and irisin was determined
      immunohistochemically in muscle biopsies taken from the same patients. RESULTS In
      analysis, it was revealed that the mean value of irisin 60 days after operation
      is significantly higher than the values of irisin before operation, 1 day after
      operation, and 15 day after operation (p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, respectively).
      Intense staining was observed in compact bone tissue, muscle tissue, and in
      hypertrophic vascular endothelium within the Havers canal. CONCLUSIONS The level
      of irisin hormone increased in the bone union process and affects fracture
      healing due to irisin receptors in human bone tissue.

PMID- 28869755
TI  - Sampling strategies to capture single-cell heterogeneity.
AB  - Advances in single-cell technologies have highlighted the prevalence and
      biological significance of cellular heterogeneity. A critical question
      researchers face is how to design experiments that faithfully capture the true
      range of heterogeneity from samples of cellular populations. Here we develop a
      data-driven approach, illustrated in the context of image data, that estimates
      the sampling depth required for prospective investigations of single-cell
      heterogeneity from an existing collection of samples.

PMID- 28869756
TI  - Red-shifted luciferase-luciferin pairs for enhanced bioluminescence imaging.
AB  - Red-shifted bioluminescence reporters are desirable for biological imaging. We
      describe the development of red-shifted luciferins based on synthetic
      coelenterazine analogs and corresponding mutants of NanoLuc that enable bright
      bioluminescence. One pair in particular showed superior in vitro and in vivo
      sensitivity over commonly used bioluminescence reporters. We adapted this pair to
      develop a bioluminescence resonance-energy-based Antares reporter called
      Antares2, which offers improved signal from deep tissues.

PMID- 28869758
TI  - Internally ratiometric fluorescent sensors for evaluation of intracellular GTP
      levels and distribution.
AB  - GTP is a major regulator of multiple cellular processes, but tools for
      quantitative evaluation of GTP levels in live cells have not been available. We
      report the development and characterization of genetically encoded GTP sensors,
      which we constructed by inserting a circularly permuted yellow fluorescent
      protein (cpYFP) into a region of the bacterial G protein FeoB that undergoes a
      GTP-driven conformational change. GTP binding to these sensors results in a
      ratiometric change in their fluorescence, thereby providing an internally
      normalized response to changes in GTP levels while minimally perturbing those
      levels. Mutations introduced into FeoB to alter its affinity for GTP created a
      series of sensors with a wide dynamic range. Critically, in mammalian cells the
      sensors showed consistent changes in ratiometric signal upon depletion or
      restoration of GTP pools. We show that these GTP evaluators (GEVALs) are suitable
      for detection of spatiotemporal changes in GTP levels in living cells and for
      high-throughput screening of molecules that modulate GTP levels.

PMID- 28869759
TI  - p75 neurotrophin receptor interacts with and promotes BACE1 localization in
      endosomes aggravating amyloidogenesis.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a
      progressive deposition of amyloid beta (Abeta) and dysregulation of neurotrophic
      signaling, causing synaptic dysfunction, loss of memory, and cell death. The
      expression of p75 neurotrophin receptor is elevated in the brain of AD patients,
      suggesting its involvement in this disease. However, the exact mechanism of its
      action is not yet clear. Here, we show that p75 interacts with beta-site amyloid
      precursor protein cleaving enzyme-1 (BACE1), and this interaction is enhanced in
      the presence of Abeta. Our results suggest that the colocalization of BACE1 and
      amyloid precursor protein (APP) is increased in the presence of both Abeta and
      p75 in cortical neurons. In addition, the localization of APP and BACE1 in early
      endosomes is increased in the presence of Abeta and p75. An increased
      phosphorylation of APP-Thr668 and BACE1-Ser498 by c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)
      in the presence of Abeta and p75 could be responsible for this localization. In
      conclusion, our study proposes a potential involvement in amyloidogenesis for
      p75, which may represent a future therapeutic target for AD. Cover Image for this
      Issue: doi. 10.1111/jnc.14163.

PMID- 28869757
TI  - A general method to fine-tune fluorophores for live-cell and in vivo imaging.
AB  - Pushing the frontier of fluorescence microscopy requires the design of enhanced
      fluorophores with finely tuned properties. We recently discovered that
      incorporation of four-membered azetidine rings into classic fluorophore
      structures elicits substantial increases in brightness and photostability,
      resulting in the Janelia Fluor (JF) series of dyes. We refined and extended this
      strategy, finding that incorporation of 3-substituted azetidine groups allows
      rational tuning of the spectral and chemical properties of rhodamine dyes with
      unprecedented precision. This strategy allowed us to establish principles for
      fine-tuning the properties of fluorophores and to develop a palette of new
      fluorescent and fluorogenic labels with excitation ranging from blue to the far
      red. Our results demonstrate the versatility of these new dyes in cells, tissues
      and animals.

PMID- 28869760
TI  - The Role of Parental Posttraumatic Stress, Marital Adjustment, and Dyadic Self
      Disclosure in Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: A Family System Approach.
AB  - Research indicates that posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) induced by war
      trauma may be transmitted to veterans' wives and offspring (secondary traumatic
      stress; STS). However, the interplay between family members' characteristics has
      not been accounted for in such processes. Taking a family systems perspective, we
      examine the contributions of fathers' PTSS, mothers' STS, marital adjustment, and
      self-disclosure of both parents to offspring's STS and test whether marital
      quality applies as a mechanism of parent-child transmission. Combat veterans and
      former prisoners of war (N = 123), their spouses, and adult offspring were
      investigated in a multiple-step mediation analysis. The results highlight the
      mother's crucial role in trauma transmission and suggest that strengthening the
      marital relationship may buffer the transmission of fathers' PTSS to offspring.

PMID- 28869762
TI  - Association of breast milk fatty acids with allergic disease outcomes-A
      systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have immunoregulatory
      properties. Breast milk is rich in PUFA, and it has been hypothesized that these
      PUFAs may be important in the aetiology of allergic diseases. Despite a growing
      body of evidence, the associations between breast milk PUFA and allergic disease
      have not previously been systematically reviewed. METHODS: The search was
      performed in PubMed and EMBASE databases using breastfeeding, fatty acid and
      allergic disease terms. Two authors were involved in selecting papers for review
      according to the inclusion criteria and extracting information on study
      characteristics and measures of association. Only studies that reported numeric
      associations between concentration of breast milk fatty acids and allergic
      disease outcomes were included. RESULTS: A total of 18 papers met the inclusion
      criteria, reporting results from 15 study populations. The majority were cohort
      studies (n=11), with data from only two case-control and two cross-sectional
      studies. Sample size varied between 30 and 352 participants, and follow-up time
      of the cohorts varied between 3 months and 14 years. Nine studies reported on
      eczema, seven reported on sensitization, and only five reported on asthma/wheeze.
      There was heterogeneity among studies in terms of presenting the association
      between PUFA and allergy; therefore, estimates could not be pooled. Only a few
      studies observed associations between n-3 and n-6 PUFAs and allergic disease, and
      the magnitude of this effect varied greatly. CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient
      evidence to suggest that colostrum or breast milk polyunsaturated fatty acids
      influence the risk of childhood allergic diseases.

PMID- 28869763
TI  - Applying the Paradigm of Relational Ethics into Contextual Therapy. Analyzing the
      practice of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy.
AB  - Ivan Boszormenyi Nagy introduced with his contextual therapy a challenging theory
      into the world of family therapy. It is rooted in a relational ethical
      perspective on human relations and shifts the focus of therapy from pathology to
      evoking reciprocal care and a genuine dialogue, based on the conviction that
      inter-human relations are resources for individual growth and health. This
      article presents a research project on the practice of the founder himself, to
      describe how the principles of the contextual theory and therapy can be
      integrated into concrete therapeutic interventions. Using the Constant Comparison
      Method, the authors found six clusters of interventions representing methodical
      elements through which Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy applies the paradigm of his
      approach.

PMID- 28869764
TI  - A comparative analysis of human plasma and serum proteins by combining native
      PAGE, whole-gel slicing and quantitative LC-MS/MS: Utilizing native MS
      electropherograms in proteomic analysis for discovering structure and interaction
      correlated differences.
AB  - MS identification has long been used for PAGE-separated protein bands, but global
      and systematic quantitation utilizing MS after PAGE has remained rare and not
      been reported for native PAGE. Here we reported on a new method combining native
      PAGE, whole-gel slicing and quantitative LC-MS/MS, aiming at comparative analysis
      on not only abundance, but also structures and interactions of proteins. A pair
      of human plasma and serum samples were used as test samples and separated on a
      native PAGE gel. Six lanes of each sample were cut, each lane was further sliced
      into thirty-five 1.1 mm * 1.1 mm squares and all the squares were subjected to
      standardized procedures of in-gel digestion and quantitative LC-MS/MS. The
      results comprised 958 data rows that each contained abundance values of a protein
      detected in one square in eleven gel lanes (one plasma lane excluded). The data
      were evaluated to have satisfactory reproducibility of assignment and
      quantitation. Totally 315 proteins were assigned, with each protein assigned in 1
      28 squares. The abundance distributions in the plasma and serum gel lanes were
      reconstructed for each protein, named as "native MS-electropherograms".
      Comparison of the electropherograms revealed significant plasma-versus-serum
      differences on 33 proteins in 87 squares (fold difference > 2 or < 0.5, p <
      0.05). Many of the differences matched with accumulated knowledge on protein
      interactions and proteolysis involved in blood coagulation, complement and wound
      healing processes. We expect this method would be useful to provide more
      comprehensive information in comparative proteomic analysis, on both quantities
      and structures/interactions.

PMID- 28869765
TI  - Family Subsystems Predicting Adolescents' Perceptions of Sibling Relationship
      Quality Over Time.
AB  - This study examined associations between parents' relationship conflict and
      parent-adolescent triangulation, and changes in adolescents' perceptions of
      sibling affection and hostility. The goal was to learn whether conflict in
      parents' relationships spills over to siblings' relationships, or whether
      siblings compensate by becoming less hostile and more affectionate. Using a
      subsample (N = 400) from the Flourishing Families Project (FFP), we found a trend
      for mother-adolescent triangulation predicting an increase in sibling hostility
      across 2 years. Fathers' reports of relationship conflict were related to
      increased levels of initial sibling hostility, but predicted a marginal decrease
      in hostility over time. Findings support increased understanding of parenting
      dynamics associated with changes in sibling relationship quality, and have the
      potential to inform clinical practice.

PMID- 28869761
TI  - Novel viral vectors in infectious diseases.
AB  - Since the development of vaccinia virus as a vaccine vector in 1984, the utility
      of numerous viruses in vaccination strategies has been explored. In recent years,
      key improvements to existing vectors such as those based on adenovirus have led
      to significant improvements in immunogenicity and efficacy. Furthermore, exciting
      new vectors that exploit viruses such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) and vesicular
      stomatitis virus (VSV) have emerged. Herein, we summarize these recent
      developments in viral vector technologies, focusing on novel vectors based on
      CMV, VSV, measles and modified adenovirus. We discuss the potential utility of
      these exciting approaches in eliciting protection against infectious diseases.

PMID- 28869766
TI  - Vaccination strategies in tauopathies and synucleinopathies.
AB  - Vaccination therapies constitute potential treatment options in neurodegenerative
      disorders such as Alzheimer disease or Parkinson disease. While a lot of research
      has been performed on vaccination against extracellular amyloid beta, the focus
      recently shifted toward vaccination against the intracellular proteins tau and
      alpha-synuclein, with promising results in terms of protein accumulation
      reduction. In this review, we briefly summarize lessons to be learned from
      clinical vaccination trials in Alzheimer disease that target amyloid beta. We
      then focus on tau and alpha-synuclein. For both proteins, we provide important
      data on protein immunogenicity, and put them into context with data available
      from both animals and human vaccination trials targeted at tau and alpha
      synuclein. Together, we give a comprehensive overview about current clinical
      data, and discuss associated problems.

PMID- 28869768
TI  - Recent advances in metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks for
      sample preparation and chromatographic analysis.
AB  - In the field of analytical chemistry, sample preparation and chromatographic
      separation are two core procedures. The means by which to improve the
      sensitivity, selectivity and detection limit of a method have become a topic of
      great interest. Recently, porous organic frameworks, such as metal-organic
      frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), have been widely used
      in this research area because of their special features, and different methods
      have been developed. This review summarizes the applications of MOFs and COFs in
      sample preparation and chromatographic stationary phases. The MOF- or COF-based
      solid-phase extraction (SPE), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), gas
      chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary
      electrochromatography (CEC) methods are described. The excellent properties of
      MOFs and COFs have resulted in intense interest in exploring their performance
      and mechanisms for sample preparation and chromatographic separation.

PMID- 28869767
TI  - Structural dissection of Shewanella oneidensis old yellow enzyme 4 bound to a
      Meisenheimer complex and (nitro)phenolic ligands.
AB  - Shewanella oneidensis, a Gram-negative gamma-proteobacterium with an extensive
      redox capacity, possesses four old yellow enzyme (OYE) homologs. Of these,
      Shewanella yellow enzyme 4 (SYE4) is implicated in resistance to oxidative
      stress. Here, we present a series of high-resolution crystal structures for SYE4
      in the oxidized and reduced states, and in complex with phenolic ligands and the
      nitro-aromatic explosive picric acid. The structures unmask new features,
      including the identification of a binding platform for long-chain hydrophobic
      molecules. Furthermore, we present the first structural observation of a hydride
      Meisenheimer complex of picric acid with a flavoenzyme. Overall, our study
      exposes the binding promiscuity of SYE4 toward a variety of electrophilic
      substrates and is consistent with a general detoxification function for SYE4.

PMID- 28869769
TI  - Increased consumer density reduces the strength of neighborhood effects in a
      model system.
AB  - An individual's susceptibility to attack can be influenced by conspecific and
      heterospecifics neighbors. Predicting how these neighborhood effects contribute
      to population-level processes such as competition and evolution requires an
      understanding of how the strength of neighborhood effects is modified by changes
      in the abundances of both consumers and neighboring resource species. We show for
      the first time that consumer density can interact with the density and frequency
      of neighboring organisms to determine the magnitude of neighborhood effects. We
      used the bean beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus, and two of its host beans, Vigna
      unguiculata and V. radiata, to perform a response-surface experiment with a range
      of resource densities and three consumer densities. At low beetle density, damage
      to beans was reduced with increasing conspecific density (i.e., resource
      dilution) and damage to the less preferred host, V. unguiculata, was reduced with
      increasing V. radiata frequency (i.e., frequency-dependent associational
      resistance). As beetle density increased, however, neighborhood effects were
      reduced; at the highest beetle densities neither focal nor neighboring resource
      density nor frequency influenced damage. These findings illustrate the importance
      of consumer density in mediating indirect effects among resources, and suggest
      that accounting for consumer density may improve our ability to predict
      population-level outcomes of neighborhood effects and our use of them in
      applications such as mixed-crop pest management.

PMID- 28869771
TI  - Authors' Response.

PMID- 28869772
TI  - Transnational Intersectionality in Family Therapy With Resettled Refugees.
AB  - In this article, we discuss incorporating the transnational intersectionality
      framework in family therapy with resettled refugees. Transnational
      intersectionality is an extension of the framework of intersectionality which
      helps to better understand complexities of power and oppression across national
      contexts and their influence on refugees' lives. Adopting this framework alerts
      family therapists to: (a) develop critical awareness of refugee's transnational
      contexts; (b) understand differences in experiences of social identities across
      contexts; (c) acknowledge postmigration factors of oppression affecting
      resettlement; and (d) critically reflect upon therapist-interpreter-client
      intersectionalities. This shifts our conceptualization of therapy with refugees
      to actively consider transnational contexts which refugees uniquely occupy. We
      describe the framework and provide two case illustrations to highlight its
      usefulness.

PMID- 28869774
TI  - Compassion-focused self-help for skin conditions in individuals with insecure
      attachment: a pilot evaluation of acceptability and potential effectiveness.

PMID- 28869775
TI  - Internet-based interventions for smoking cessation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tobacco use is estimated to kill 7 million people a year. Nicotine is
      highly addictive, but surveys indicate that almost 70% of US and UK smokers would
      like to stop smoking. Although many smokers attempt to give up on their own,
      advice from a health professional increases the chances of quitting. As of 2016
      there were 3.5 billion Internet users worldwide, making the Internet a potential
      platform to help people quit smoking. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness
      of Internet-based interventions for smoking cessation, whether intervention
      effectiveness is altered by tailoring or interactive features, and if there is a
      difference in effectiveness between adolescents, young adults, and adults. SEARCH
      METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group Specialised Register,
      which included searches of MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO (through OVID). There
      were no restrictions placed on language, publication status or publication date.
      The most recent search was conducted in August 2016. SELECTION CRITERIA: We
      included randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Participants were people who
      smoked, with no exclusions based on age, gender, ethnicity, language or health
      status. Any type of Internet intervention was eligible. The comparison condition
      could be a no-intervention control, a different Internet intervention, or a non
      Internet intervention. To be included, studies must have measured smoking
      cessation at four weeks or longer. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review
      authors independently assessed and extracted data. We extracted and, where
      appropriate, pooled smoking cessation outcomes of six-month follow-up or more,
      reporting short-term outcomes narratively where longer-term outcomes were not
      available. We reported study effects as a risk ratio (RR) with a 95% confidence
      interval (CI).We grouped studies according to whether they (1) compared an
      Internet intervention with a non-active control arm (e.g. printed self-help
      guides), (2) compared an Internet intervention with an active control arm (e.g.
      face-to-face counselling), (3) evaluated the addition of behavioural support to
      an Internet programme, or (4) compared one Internet intervention with another.
      Where appropriate we grouped studies by age. MAIN RESULTS: We identified 67 RCTs,
      including data from over 110,000 participants. We pooled data from 35,969
      participants.There were only four RCTs conducted in adolescence or young adults
      that were eligible for meta-analysis.Results for trials in adults: Eight trials
      compared a tailored and interactive Internet intervention to a non-active
      control. Pooled results demonstrated an effect in favour of the intervention (RR
      1.15, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.30, n = 6786). However, statistical heterogeneity was high
      (I2 = 58%) and was unexplained, and the overall quality of evidence was low
      according to GRADE. Five trials compared an Internet intervention to an active
      control. The pooled effect estimate favoured the control group, but crossed the
      null (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.09, n = 3806, I2 = 0%); GRADE quality rating was
      moderate. Five studies evaluated an Internet programme plus behavioural support
      compared to a non-active control (n = 2334). Pooled, these studies indicated a
      positive effect of the intervention (RR 1.69, 95% CI 1.30 to 2.18). Although
      statistical heterogeneity was substantial (I2 = 60%) and was unexplained, the
      GRADE rating was moderate. Four studies evaluated the Internet plus behavioural
      support compared to active control. None of the studies detected a difference
      between trial arms (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.18, n = 2769, I2 = 0%); GRADE
      rating was moderate. Seven studies compared an interactive or tailored Internet
      intervention, or both, to an Internet intervention that was not
      tailored/interactive. Pooled results favoured the interactive or tailored
      programme, but the estimate crossed the null (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.22, n =
      14,623, I2 = 0%); GRADE rating was moderate. Three studies compared tailored with
      non-tailored Internet-based messages, compared to non-tailored messages. The
      tailored messages produced higher cessation rates compared to control, but the
      estimate was not precise (RR 1.17, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.41, n = 4040), and there was
      evidence of unexplained substantial statistical heterogeneity (I2 = 57%); GRADE
      rating was low.Results should be interpreted with caution as we judged some of
      the included studies to be at high risk of bias. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The
      evidence from trials in adults suggests that interactive and tailored Internet
      based interventions with or without additional behavioural support are moderately
      more effective than non-active controls at six months or longer, but there was no
      evidence that these interventions were better than other active smoking
      treatments. However some of the studies were at high risk of bias, and there was
      evidence of substantial statistical heterogeneity. Treatment effectiveness in
      younger people is unknown.

PMID- 28869776
TI  - Cutaneous melanoma in Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome: part of the clinical spectrum?

PMID- 28869773
TI  - Antioxidant Consumption is Associated with Decreased Odds of Congenital Limb
      Deficiencies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Approximately 1 in 2000 infants is born with a limb deficiency in the
      US. Research has shown that women's periconceptional diet and use of vitamin
      supplements can affect risk of birth defects. We investigated whether maternal
      consumption of nutritional antioxidants was associated with occurrence of
      transverse limb deficiency (TLD) and longitudinal limb deficiencies (LLD).
      METHODS: We analysed case-control data from mothers and their singleton infants
      with TLD (n = 566), LLD (n = 339), or no malformation (controls; n = 9384) in the
      National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997-2009). Using a modified food
      frequency, we estimated usual pre-pregnancy antioxidant consumption by total
      fruit and vegetable consumption (in grams) grouped into tertiles, and cumulative
      antioxidant score (ranging from 1 to 10) based on consumption of three
      antioxidants: beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein. We estimated odds ratios (OR)
      adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, body
      mass index, and total energy. RESULTS: Compared to women in the lowest tertile of
      fruit and vegetable consumption, women in the highest tertile were less likely to
      have infants with TLD (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.57, 0.96) or LLD (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.59,
      1.13). Compared to the lowest antioxidant consumption score of 1, those with the
      highest score of 10 had ORs of 0.68 (95% CI 0.48, 0.95) for TLD and 0.77 (95% CI
      0.50, 1.17) for LLD. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary intake of antioxidants was associated
      with reduced odds of limb deficiencies. These findings add further evidence for
      women's periconceptional diet reducing occurrence of some birth defects.

PMID- 28869777
TI  - Genetic variation of a foundation rockweed species affects associated
      communities.
AB  - Genetic variation in a foundation species may affect the composition of
      associated communities as well as modify ecosystem function. While the ecological
      consequences of genetic diversity of foundation species have been widely
      reported, the ability of individual genotypes to support dissimilar communities
      has been documented only in forest ecosystems. Here, for the first time in a
      marine ecosystem, we test whether the different genotypes of the rockweed Fucus
      vesiculosus harbor distinct community phenotypes and whether the genetic
      similarity of individual genotypes or their defensive compound content can
      explain the variation of the associated communities. We reared replicated
      genotypes in a common garden in the sea and analyzed their associated communities
      of periphytic algae and invertebrates as well as determined their contents of
      defense compounds, phlorotannins, and genetic distance based on neutral molecular
      markers. The periphytic community was abundant in mid-summer and its biovolume,
      diversity and community composition varied among the rockweed genotypes. The
      diversity of the periphytic community decreased with its increasing biovolume. In
      autumn, when grazers were abundant, periphytic community biomass was lower and
      less variable among rockweed genotypes, indicating different relative importance
      of bottom-up regulation through heritable variation of the foundation species and
      top-down regulation through grazing intensity. Similarly, composition of the
      invertebrate community varied among the rockweed genotypes. Although the genotype
      explained about 10-18% of the variation in associated communities, the variation
      was explained neither by the genetic distance nor the phlorotannin content. Thus,
      neither neutral genetic markers nor a single phenotypic trait could provide a
      mechanistic understanding of the genetic basis of community specificity.
      Therefore, a more comprehensive mapping of quantitative trait variation is needed
      to understand the underlying mechanisms. The community specificity implies that
      genetic variation within a foundation species is crucial for the biodiversity and
      assembly of associated organisms and, thus, for the functioning of associated
      communities. The result highlights the importance of ensuring the genetic
      variation of foundation species as a conservation target.

PMID- 28869778
TI  - A geographic cline in the ability to self-fertilize is unrelated to the
      pollination environment.
AB  - The reproductive assurance (RA) hypothesis predicts that the ability to
      autonomously self-fertilize should be favored in environments where a lack of
      mates or pollinators limits outcross reproduction. Because such limits to
      outcrossing are predicted to be most severe at range edges, elevated autonomy in
      peripheral populations is often attributed to RA. We test this hypothesis in 24
      populations spanning the range of Campanula americana, including sampling at the
      range interior and three geographic range edges. We scored autonomous fruit set
      in a pollinator-free environment and detected clinal variation-autonomy increased
      linearly from the southern to the northern edge, and from the eastern to the
      western edge. We then address whether the cline reflects the contemporary
      pollination environment. We measured population size, plant density, pollinator
      visitation, outcross pollen limitation and RA in natural populations over two
      years. Most populations were pollen limited, and those that experienced higher
      visitation rates by bumblebees had reduced pollen limitation. Reproductive
      assurance, however, was generally low across populations and was unrelated to
      pollen limitation or autonomy. Neither pollen limitation nor RA displayed
      geographic clines. Finally, autonomy was not associated with pollinator
      visitation rates or mate availability. Thus, the data do not support the RA
      hypothesis; clinal variation in autonomy is unrelated to the current pollination
      environment. Therefore, geographic patterns of autonomy are likely the result of
      historical processes rather than contemporary natural selection for RA.

PMID- 28869779
TI  - Quality of life in people with vitiligo: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PMID- 28869780
TI  - Deciphering the enigma of undetected species, phylogenetic, and functional
      diversity based on Good-Turing theory.
AB  - Estimating the species, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of a community is
      challenging because rare species are often undetected, even with intensive
      sampling. The Good-Turing frequency formula, originally developed for
      cryptography, estimates in an ecological context the true frequencies of rare
      species in a single assemblage based on an incomplete sample of individuals.
      Until now, this formula has never been used to estimate undetected species,
      phylogenetic, and functional diversity. Here, we first generalize the Good-Turing
      formula to incomplete sampling of two assemblages. The original formula and its
      two-assemblage generalization provide a novel and unified approach to notation,
      terminology, and estimation of undetected biological diversity. For species
      richness, the Good-Turing framework offers an intuitive way to derive the non
      parametric estimators of the undetected species richness in a single assemblage,
      and of the undetected species shared between two assemblages. For phylogenetic
      diversity, the unified approach leads to an estimator of the undetected Faith's
      phylogenetic diversity (PD, the total length of undetected branches of a
      phylogenetic tree connecting all species), as well as a new estimator of
      undetected PD shared between two phylogenetic trees. For functional diversity
      based on species traits, the unified approach yields a new estimator of
      undetected Walker et al.'s functional attribute diversity (FAD, the total species
      pairwise functional distance) in a single assemblage, as well as a new estimator
      of undetected FAD shared between two assemblages. Although some of the resulting
      estimators have been previously published (but derived with traditional
      mathematical inequalities), all taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity
      estimators are now derived under the same framework. All the derived estimators
      are theoretically lower bounds of the corresponding undetected diversities; our
      approach reveals the sufficient conditions under which the estimators are nearly
      unbiased, thus offering new insights. Simulation results are reported to
      numerically verify the performance of the derived estimators. We illustrate all
      estimators and assess their sampling uncertainty with an empirical dataset for
      Brazilian rain forest trees. These estimators should be widely applicable to many
      current problems in ecology, such as the effects of climate change on spatial and
      temporal beta diversity and the contribution of trait diversity to ecosystem
      multi-functionality.

PMID- 28869781
TI  - Plant diversity maintains long-term ecosystem productivity under frequent drought
      by increasing short-term variation.
AB  - Increasing frequency of extreme climatic events can disrupt ecosystem processes
      and destabilize ecosystem functioning. Biodiversity may dampen these negative
      effects of environmental perturbations to provide greater ecosystem stability. We
      assessed the effects of plant diversity on the resistance, recovery and stability
      of experimental grassland ecosystems in response to recurring summer drought over
      7 yr. Plant biomass production was reduced during the summer drought treatment
      compared with control plots. However, the negative effect of drought was
      relatively less pronounced at high than at low plant diversity, demonstrating
      that biodiversity increased ecosystem resistance to environmental perturbation.
      Furthermore, more diverse plant communities compensated for the reduced
      productivity during drought by increasing spring productivity compared to control
      plots. The drought-induced compensatory recovery led to increased short-term
      variations in productivity across growing seasons in more diverse communities
      that stabilized the longer-term productivity across years. Our findings show that
      short-term variation between seasons in the face of environmental perturbation
      can lead to longer-term stability of annual productivity in diverse ecosystems
      compared to less diverse ecosystems.

PMID- 28869782
TI  - Olmutinib-induced palmoplantar keratoderma.

PMID- 28869783
TI  - High-performance liquid chromatography thermodynamic study of new potential
      antiepileptic compounds on a cholesterol column using isocratic elution with
      methanol/water and acetonitrile/water eluent systems.
AB  - Basic thermodynamic functions responsible for retention of new 1,2,4-triazole
      derivatives exhibiting varied antiepileptic activity on cholesterol-based
      stationary phase were determined. Evaluation of the Gibbs energy change, the
      change in enthalpy and the change in entropy was based on the van't Hoff
      relationship representing lnk versus 1/T. A detailed discussion of the van't Hoff
      equation, exploring the influence of the phase ratio on deviations from linearity
      in a van't Hoff plot is presented. We show chromatographic evidence to the
      question of how a varied mobile phase composition may cause different
      thermodynamic phase ratios. The analysis of data from a differential scanning
      calorimetry excluded any phase transitions of either the individual solutes or
      cholesterol stationary phase suspended in the mobile phase components within the
      studied temperature range.

PMID- 28869784
TI  - Selective C-H Bond Cleavage in Methane by Small Gold Clusters.
AB  - Methane represents the major constituent of natural gas. It is primarily used
      only as a source of energy by means of combustion, but could also serve as an
      abundant hydrocarbon feedstock for high quality chemicals. One of the major
      challenges in catalysis research nowadays is therefore the development of
      materials that selectively cleave one of the four C-H bonds of methane and thus
      make it amenable for further chemical conversion into valuable compounds. By
      employing infrared spectroscopy and first-principles calculations it is uncovered
      herein that the interaction of methane with small gold cluster cations leads to
      selective C-H bond dissociation and the formation of hydrido methyl complexes, H
      Aux+ -CH3 . The distinctive selectivity offered by these gold clusters originates
      from a fine interplay between the closed-shell nature of the d states and
      relativistic effects in gold. Such fine balance in fundamental interactions could
      prove to be a tunable feature in the rational design of a catalyst.

PMID- 28869785
TI  - OsASR2 regulates the expression of a defence-related gene, Os2H16, by targeting
      the GT-1 cis-element.
AB  - The GT-1 cis-element widely exists in many plant gene promoters. However, the
      molecular mechanism that underlies the response of the GT-1 cis-element to
      abiotic and biotic stresses remains elusive in rice. We previously isolated a
      rice short-chain peptide-encoding gene, Os2H16, and demonstrated that it plays
      important roles in both disease resistance and drought tolerance. Here, we
      conducted a promoter assay of Os2H16 and identified GT-1 as an important cis
      element that mediates Os2H16 expression in response to pathogen attack and
      osmotic stress. Using the repeated GT-1 as bait, we characterized an abscisic
      acid, stress and ripening 2 (ASR2) protein from yeast-one hybridization
      screening. Sequence alignments showed that the carboxy-terminal domain of OsASR2
      containing residues 80-138 was the DNA-binding domain. Furthermore, we identified
      that OsASR2 was specifically bound to GT-1 and activated the expression of the
      target gene Os2H16, as well as GFP driven by the chimeric promoter of 2 * GT-1
      35S mini construct. Additionally, the expression of OsASR2 was elevated by
      pathogens and osmotic stress challenges. Overexpression of OsASR2 enhanced the
      resistance against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae and Rhizoctonia solani, and
      tolerance to drought in rice. These results suggest that the interaction between
      OsASR2 and GT-1 plays an important role in the crosstalk of the response of rice
      to biotic and abiotic stresses.

PMID- 28869786
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic/ Pharmacodynamic Modelling of Auditory-Evoked Event
      Related Potentials with Lorazepam.
AB  - Event-related potentials (ERPs) are commonly used in Neuroscience research,
      particularly the P3 waveform because it is associated with cognitive brain
      functions and is easily elicited by auditory or sensory inputs. ERPs are affected
      by drugs such as lorazepam, which increase the latency and decrease the amplitude
      of the P3 wave. In this study, auditory-evoked ERPs were generated in 13 older
      healthy volunteers using an oddball tone paradigm, after administration of single
      0.5 and 2 mg doses of lorazepam. Population pharmacokinetics
      (PK)/pharmacodynamics (PD) models were developed using nonlinear mixed-effects
      methods in order to assess the effect of lorazepam on the latency and amplitude
      of the P3 waveforms. The PK/PD models showed that doses of 0.3 mg of lorazepam
      achieved approximately half of the maximum effect on the latency of the P3
      waveform. For P3 amplitude, half the maximum effect was achieved with a dose of
      1.2 mg of lorazepam. The PK/PD models also predicted an efficacious dose range of
      lorazepam, which was close to the recommended therapeutic range. The use of
      longitudinal P3 latency data allowed better predictions of the lorazepam
      efficacious dose range than P3 amplitude or aggregate exposure-response data,
      suggesting that latency could be a more sensitive parameter for drugs with
      similar mechanisms of action as lorazepam and that time course rather than single
      time-point ERP data should be collected. Overall, the results suggest that P3 ERP
      waveforms could be used as potential non-specific biomarkers for functional
      target engagement for drugs with brain activity, and PK/PD models can aid trial
      design and choice of doses for development of new drugs with ERP activity.

PMID- 28869787
TI  - The microbiology of oral lichen planus: Is microbial infection the cause of oral
      lichen planus?
AB  - Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a variant of lichen planus (LP), a common chronic
      mucocutaneous inflammatory disease. Cutaneous lesions of LP are self-limiting,
      but OLP lesions are non-remissive, alternating periods of exacerbation and
      quiescence, and only symptomatic treatments exist for OLP. The precise etiology
      and pathogenesis of OLP are hardly understood, which is a major obstacle to the
      development of new therapeutics for this disease. OLP is considered a T-cell
      mediated inflammatory disease. Although various antigens have been considered,
      what actually triggers the inflammatory response of T cells is unknown. Suggested
      predisposing factors include genetic factors, stress, trauma, and infection. The
      aim of this review was to determine whether microbial infection can cause OLP. We
      first reviewed the association between OLP and microbial factors, including
      viral, fungal, and bacterial infections. In addition, each microbial factor
      associated with OLP was assessed by modified guidelines of Fredricks and Relman
      to determine whether it establishes a causal relationship. In conclusion, no
      microbial factor yet fulfills the guidelines to establish the causality of OLP.
      By focusing on the unclarified issues, however, the potential roles of microbial
      factors in the pathogenesis of OLP will be soon elucidated.

PMID- 28869788
TI  - Biocatalytic Valorization of Furans: Opportunities for Inherently Unstable
      Substrates.
AB  - Biogenic furans (furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural) are expected to become
      relevant building blocks based on their high degree of functionality and
      versatility. However, the inherent instability of furans poses considerable
      challenges for their synthetic modifications. Valorization routes of furans
      typically generate byproducts, impurities, wastes, and a cumbersome downstream
      processing, compromising their ecological footprint. Biocatalysis may become an
      alternative, given the high selectivity of enzymes, together with the mild
      reaction conditions applied. This Review critically discusses the options for
      enzymes in the upgrading of furans. Based on previous reports, a variety of
      biocatalytic transformations have been applied to furans, with successful cases
      both in aqueous and in water-free media. Options comprise the biodetoxification
      of toxic furans in hydrolysates, selective syntheses based on oxidation-reduction
      processes, solvent-free esterifications, or carboligations to afford C12
      derivatives. Reported strategies show in general promising but still modest
      productivities (2-30 gproduct  L-1  d-1 , depending on the example). There are
      opportunities with high potential and deserving of further development, scale-up,
      and technoeconomic assessment, to entirely validate them as realistic
      alternatives.

PMID- 28869789
TI  - Subtle changes in the active site architecture untangled overlapping substrate
      ranges and mechanistic differences of two reductive dehalogenases.
AB  - : Reductive dehalogenases (RDases) of organohalide-respiring bacteria are
      cobamide-containing iron-sulfur proteins that catalyze different reductive
      dehalogenation reactions. Here, we report a functional analysis of two
      recombinant RDases, the tetrachloroethene (PCE) reductive dehalogenase (PceA) of
      Desulfitobacterium hafniense Y51 and the 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) reductive
      dehalogenase (DcaA) of Desulfitobacterium dichloroeliminans DCA1. Both enzymes
      share 88% protein sequence identity, but appeared to have divergent mechanisms.
      In this study, the heterologously produced DcaA converted 1,2-DCA and 1,1,2
      trichloroethane (1,1,2-TCA) via dihaloelimination to ethene and vinyl chloride,
      respectively. In addition, halogen substitution at PCE, trichloroethene (TCE) and
      tribromoethene (TBE) was observed, but only at low rates. In contrast,
      recombinant PceA exclusively converted halogenated ethenes and showed no
      dihaloelimination activity. In silico structural analysis of both RDases revealed
      similar architectures of their active site cavities. Exchange of the highly
      conserved Tyr298 to Phe led to a complete loss of the PCE, TCE and TBE conversion
      by both RDases, strengthening the assumption that Tyr298 functions as proton
      donor in the course of halogen substitution. The exchange did not affect the
      ability of DcaA to convert 1,2-DCA and 1,1,2-TCA. This result makes the
      involvement of a proton transfer in the dihaloelimination reaction unlikely and
      allows for a clear differentiation between two mechanisms working in DcaA and
      PceA. The analysis of the role of the active site structure for RDase function
      was extended to the mutations W118F that had a negative effect on DcaA function
      and W432F or T294V that caused alterations in the substrate specificity of the
      enzyme. ENZYMES: Tetrachloroethene reductive dehalogenase (EC 1.21.99.5), DCA 
      RDase.

PMID- 28869790
TI  - Evaluating the role of magnetic resonance imaging post-neoadjuvant therapy for
      breast cancer in the NEONAB trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accuracy after neoadjuvant systemic
      therapy (NST) for breast cancer varies according to hormone receptor (HR), human
      epidermal growth factor receptor type-2 (HER2) subtype and Ki-67 proliferation
      index. Whether MRI accuracy varies by genomic signatures is unknown. We examined
      the accuracy of MRI in the NEONAB trial (Clinicaltrials.gov #: NCT01830244). AIM:
      To examine the accuracy of MRI to predict pathological response to neoadjuvant
      therapy for breast cancer in the NEONAB trial. METHODS: Patients with stages II
      III breast cancer received sequential epirubicin, cyclophosphamide and nab
      paclitaxel and trastuzumab if they were HER2+. Sensitivity, specificity, positive
      predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated to
      assess the utility of preoperative MRI to predict pathological complete response
      (pCR). Bland-Altman plots were used to assess agreement between MRI and
      pathological assessment of residual disease. RESULTS: MRI correctly predicted pCR
      in 64.1% of the cohort. Sensitivity and specificity were 52% and 78%,
      respectively; PPV 73% and NPV 58%. MRI predicted pCR most accurately in HER2
      positive patients; sensitivity 58%, specificity 100%, PPV 100% and NPV 38%. MRI
      had higher PPV and NPV in tumours with Ki-67 >= 15% than tumours with Ki-67 <
      15%, 75% versus 50% and 57.5% versus 50%, respectively. In this study, MRI
      underestimated residual tumour size by 1.65 mm (limits of agreement: 43.07-39.77
      mm). CONCLUSIONS: MRI appears more accurate for predicting pCR in HER2+ disease
      than other subtypes and in cancers with Ki-67 >= 15% compared to those with Ki-67
      < 15%. Accuracy of MRI in our HR+, RS >= 25 cohort is comparable to previous
      reports of unselected HR+ disease. MRI post-NST should be interpreted in
      conjunction with HER2 status and Ki-67 index of the primary.

PMID- 28869791
TI  - Proteogenomic Insights into the Intestinal Parasite Blastocystis sp. Subtype 4
      Isolate WR1.
AB  - Blastocystis sp. is known for years as a highly prevalent anaerobic eukaryotic
      parasite of humans and animals. Several monophyletic clades have been delineated
      based on molecular data, and the occurrence of each subtype in humans and/or
      animal hosts has been documented. The genome of several representatives has been
      sequenced revealing specific traits such as an intriguing 3'-end processing of
      primary transcripts. Here, a first high-throughput proteomics dataset acquired on
      this difficult-to-cultivate parasite is presented for the zoonotic subtype T4
      isolate WR1. Amongst the 2766 detected proteins, we highlighted the role of a
      small ADP ribosylation factor GTP-binding protein involved in intracellular
      traffic as major regulator of vesicle biogenesis and a voltage-dependent anion
      selective channel protein because both were unexpectedly highly abundant. We show
      how these data may be used for gaining proteogenomics insights into Blastocystis
      sp. specific molecular mechanisms. We evidenced for the first time by
      proteogenomics a functional termination codon derived from transcript
      polyadenylation for seven different key cellular components.

PMID- 28869792
TI  - Comprehensive description of genomewide nucleotide and structural variation in
      short-season soya bean.
AB  - Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics tools have greatly
      facilitated the characterization of nucleotide variation; nonetheless, an
      exhaustive description of both SNP haplotype diversity and of structural
      variation remains elusive in most species. In this study, we sequenced a
      representative set of 102 short-season soya beans and achieved an extensive
      coverage of both nucleotide diversity and structural variation (SV). We called
      close to 5M sequence variants (SNPs, MNPs and indels) and noticed that the number
      of unique haplotypes had plateaued within this set of germplasm (1.7M tag SNPs).
      This data set proved highly accurate (98.6%) based on a comparison of called
      genotypes at loci shared with a SNP array. We used this catalogue of SNPs as a
      reference panel to impute missing genotypes at untyped loci in data sets derived
      from lower density genotyping tools (150 K GBS-derived SNPs/530 samples). After
      imputation, 96.4% of the missing genotypes imputed in this fashion proved to be
      accurate. Using a combination of three bioinformatics pipelines, we uncovered ~92
      K SVs (deletions, insertions, inversions, duplications, CNVs and translocations)
      and estimated that over 90% of these were accurate. Finally, we noticed that the
      duplication of certain genomic regions explained much of the residual
      heterozygosity at SNP loci in otherwise highly inbred soya bean accessions. This
      is the first time that a comprehensive description of both SNP haplotype
      diversity and SV has been achieved within a regionally relevant subset of a major
      crop.

PMID- 28869793
TI  - The relationship between knowledge, health literacy, and adherence among patients
      taking oral anticoagulants for stroke thromboprophylaxis in atrial fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients' knowledge regarding their oral anticoagulant (OAC)
      treatment for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF), their level of
      medication adherence, and health literacy are known to affect treatment outcomes.
      However, contemporary data regarding the relationships between these variables
      are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationships between anticoagulant
      knowledge, health literacy, and self-reported adherence in patients taking
      warfarin and the directly acting oral anticoagulants. METHODS: A cross-sectional
      survey was conducted in 48 patients with AF identified from general practices.
      The Anticoagulation Knowledge Tool (AKT) was used to assess anticoagulation
      knowledge; the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (s-TOFHLA) for
      health literacy; and the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) for
      medication adherence. RESULTS: Participants had mean scores of 61.6 +/- 15.8, 7.2
      +/- 1.1, and 24.7 +/- 9.5 for the AKT, MMAS-8 and s-TOFHLA, respectively.
      Significant correlations were observed between anticoagulation knowledge and
      health literacy with medication adherence (0.37, P < .01 and .30, P < .05,
      respectively). Participants with inadequate health literacy had a significantly
      lower mean knowledge score than those with adequate health literacy (55.8 +/-
      15.9 vs 66.1 +/- 14.4, P < .05). Participants who self-reported adherence to
      their OAC had significantly higher knowledge scores than those who did not (67.5
      +/- 13.3 vs 56.1 +/- 16.2, P < .05). CONCLUSION: Significant correlations between
      health literacy, OAC knowledge, and adherence were observed, and these
      relationships should to be considered by health professionals responsible for
      monitoring patients who are prescribed anticoagulants. We also observed serious
      gaps in OAC knowledge. Interventions designed to optimize the outcomes of
      anticoagulant treatment need to address these factors.

PMID- 28869794
TI  - Extensive genome heterogeneity leads to preferential allele expression and copy
      number-dependent expression in cultivated potato.
AB  - Relative to homozygous diploids, the presence of multiple homologs or homeologs
      in polyploids affords greater tolerance to mutations that can impact genome
      evolution. In this study, we describe sequence and structural variation in the
      genomes of six accessions of cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), a
      vegetatively propagated autotetraploid and their impact on the transcriptome.
      Sequence diversity was high with a mean single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)
      rate of approximately 1 per 50 bases suggestive of high levels of allelic
      diversity. Additive gene expression was observed in leaves (3605 genes) and
      tubers (6156 genes) that contrasted the preferential allele expression of between
      2180 and 3502 and 3367 and 5270 genes in the leaf and tuber transcriptome,
      respectively. Preferential allele expression was significantly associated with
      evolutionarily conserved genes suggesting selection of specific alleles of genes
      responsible for biological processes common to angiosperms during the breeding
      selection process. Copy number variation was rampant with between 16 098 and 18
      921 genes in each cultivar exhibiting duplication or deletion. Copy number
      variable genes tended to be evolutionarily recent, lowly expressed, and enriched
      in genes that show increased expression in response to biotic and abiotic stress
      treatments suggestive of a role in adaptation. Gene copy number impacts on gene
      expression were detected with 528 genes having correlations between copy number
      and gene expression. Collectively, these data suggest that in addition to allelic
      variation of coding sequence, the heterogenous nature of the tetraploid potato
      genome contributes to a highly dynamic transcriptome impacted by allele
      preferential and copy number-dependent expression effects.

PMID- 28869795
TI  - Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy and Offspring Weight Gain: a Consideration of
      Competing Explanations.

PMID- 28869796
TI  - Antitumor effects of eribulin depend on modulation of the tumor microenvironment
      by vascular remodeling in mouse models.
AB  - We previously reported that eribulin mesylate (eribulin), a tubulin-binding drug
      (TBD), could remodel tumor vasculature (i.e. increase tumor vessels and
      perfusion) in human breast cancer xenograft models. However, the role of this
      vascular remodeling in antitumor effects is not fully understood. Here, we
      investigated the effects of eribulin-induced vascular remodeling on antitumor
      activities in multiple human cancer xenograft models. Microvessel densities (MVD)
      were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (CD31 staining), and antitumor effects
      were examined in 10 human cancer xenograft models. Eribulin significantly
      increased MVD compared to the controls in six out of 10 models with a correlation
      between enhanced MVD levels and antitumor effects (R2  = 0.54). Because of
      increased MVD, we next used radiolabeled liposomes to examine whether eribulin
      treatment would result in increased tumoral accumulation levels of these
      macromolecules and, indeed, we found that eribulin, unlike vinorelbine (another
      TBD) enhanced them. As eribulin increased accumulation of radiolabeled liposomes,
      we postulated that this treatment might enhance the antitumor effect of Doxil (a
      liposomal anticancer agent) and facilitate recruitment of immune cells into the
      tumor. As expected, eribulin enhanced antitumor activity of Doxil in a post
      erlotinib treatment H1650 (PE-H1650) xenograft model. Furthermore, infiltrating
      CD11b-positive immune cells were significantly increased in multiple eribulin
      treated xenografted tumors, and natural killer (NK) cell depletion reduced the
      antitumor effects of eribulin. These findings suggest a contribution of the
      immune cells for antitumor activities of eribulin. Taken together, our results
      suggest that vascular remodeling induced by eribulin acts as a microenvironment
      modulator and, consequently, this alteration enhanced the antitumor effects of
      eribulin.

PMID- 28869797
TI  - Identification of the biosynthesis gene cluster for the novel lantibiotic
      paenilan from Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 and characterization of its product.
AB  - AIMS: To analyse the function of a putative lantibiotic gene cluster of
      Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 and to characterize its product, paenilan. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: Comparative analysis of the lantibiotic gene cluster of E681
      revealed that the cluster, consisting of 11 open reading frames, is involved in
      the biosynthesis of a class I lantibiotic. The pnlA gene encoding the prepeptide
      PnlA was identified and P. polymyxa strain EPT14 producing only paenilan was
      constructed by knockout of the other five antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters
      of E681. Paenilan was purified from EPT14 culture by solvent partitioning, ODS
      silica gel chromatography and reversed-phase preparative HPLC. The molecular mass
      (2510.10 Da) and structure of paenilan analysed by Nanoelectrospray ionization
      mass spectrometry (MS) and MS/MS showed that paenilan is a novel class I
      lantibiotic. Paenilan exhibited antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive
      bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus and Paenibacillus durus. The
      paenilan gene is well-conserved in different Paenibacillus sp. isolated from
      globally distant places. CONCLUSIONS: The lantibiotic gene cluster of P. polymyxa
      E681 was analysed and its product, a novel and useful lantibiotic named paenilan
      that inhibits the growth of some Gram-positive bacteria, was characterized.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Paenibacillus species are a good source of
      new lantibiotics, and the conservation of the paenilan gene among Paenibacillus
      sp. implies paenilan has an important function(s) for their survival.

PMID- 28869798
TI  - Antimicrobial activity of plant extracts against the honeybee pathogens,
      Paenibacillus larvae and Ascosphaera apis and their topical toxicity to Apis
      mellifera adults.
AB  - AIMS: To explore alternative nonchemical control measures against two honeybee
      pathogens, Paenibacillus larvae and Ascosphaera apis, 37 plant species were
      screened for antimicrobial activity. METHODS AND RESULTS: The activity of
      selected plant extracts was screened using an in vitro disc diffusion assay and
      the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by the broth
      microdilution method. The results showed that 36 plant extracts had some
      antibacterial activity on P. larvae by disc diffusion assay. Chromolaena odorata
      showed the greatest antibacterial activity against P. larvae (MIC 16-64 MUg ml-1
      ). Of the 37 tested plants, only seven species, Amomum krervanh, Allium sativum,
      Cinnamomum sp., Piper betle, Piper ribesioides, Piper sarmentosum and Syzygium
      aromaticum had inhibitory effects on A. apis (MICs of 32-64 MUg ml-1 ). The
      results demonstrated that promising plant extracts were not toxic to adult bees
      at the concentrations used in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate
      the potential antimicrobial activity of natural products against honeybee
      diseases caused by P. larvae and A. apis. Chromolaena odorata in particular
      showed high bioactivity against P. larvae. Further study is recommended to
      develop these nonchemical treatments against American foulbrood and chalkbrood in
      honeybees. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This work proposes new natural
      products for the control of American foulbrood and chalkbrood in honeybees.

PMID- 28869799
TI  - Trehalose 6-phosphate is involved in triggering axillary bud outgrowth in garden
      pea (Pisum sativum L.).
AB  - Trehalose 6-phosphate (Tre6P) is a signal of sucrose availability in plants, and
      has been implicated in the regulation of shoot branching by the abnormal
      branching phenotypes of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and maize (Zea mays)
      mutants with altered Tre6P metabolism. Decapitation of garden pea (Pisum sativum)
      plants has been proposed to release the dormancy of axillary buds lower down the
      stem due to changes in sucrose supply, and we hypothesized that this response is
      mediated by Tre6P. Decapitation led to a rapid and sustained rise in Tre6P levels
      in axillary buds, coinciding with the onset of bud outgrowth. This response was
      suppressed by simultaneous defoliation that restricts the supply of sucrose to
      axillary buds in decapitated plants. Decapitation also led to a rise in amino
      acid levels in buds, but a fall in phosphoenolpyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate.
      Supplying sucrose to stem node explants in vitro triggered a concentration
      dependent increase in the Tre6P content of the buds that was highly correlated
      with their rate of outgrowth. These data show that changes in bud Tre6P levels
      are correlated with initiation of bud outgrowth following decapitation,
      suggesting that Tre6P is involved in the release of bud dormancy by sucrose.
      Tre6P might also be linked to a reconfiguration of carbon and nitrogen metabolism
      to support the subsequent growth of the bud into a new shoot.

PMID- 28869800
TI  - Self-Stigma Mediates the Impact of Insight on Current Suicide Ideation in Suicide
      Attempters with Schizophrenia: Results of a Moderated Mediation Approach.
AB  - This study examined the relationships among insight, self-stigma, self-esteem,
      hope, quality of life, and suicidal behavior in individuals diagnosed as having
      schizophrenia. Hypotheses concerning mediating and moderating effects were
      examined. A total of 170 community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia
      participated in the study. The results revealed a negative association between
      insight and suicide ideation, which was partially mediated by self-stigma.
      Moreover, this indirect link was stronger among patients with suicide attempts
      than among those without attempts. We discuss the implications of these results
      for preventing or reducing the considerable risks of suicide in this population.

PMID- 28869802
TI  - Deadly Experience: The Association Between Firing a Gun and Various Aspects of
      Suicide Risk.
AB  - Firearms account for half of all U.S. suicide deaths, but research on mechanisms
      through which firearms confer risk is limited. Although research has indicated
      firearm ownership and the unsafe storage of firearms are associated with an
      elevated risk of suicide, such research cannot provide insight into the extent to
      which a history of using a gun plays a role. We recruited a community sample (N =
      100; 76% female; 44% Black) oversampled for prior suicidal behavior in a high gun
      ownership state (Mississippi). Consistent with hypotheses, a greater number of
      lifetime experiences of firing a gun were associated with elements of the
      capability for suicide (fearlessness about death, pain tolerance, pain
      persistence) and lifetime suicide attempts, but not with suicide ideation or
      simple pain detection. These findings indicate that guns may confer risk of
      suicide in part through increased comfort and aptitude with the weapon, a notion
      consistent with the construct of practical capability. Furthermore, these
      findings are consistent with research indicating that guns do not cause healthy
      individuals to become suicidal, but rather increase risk among already suicidal
      individuals. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of considering
      practical experience with guns as well as simple ownership and storage methods.

PMID- 28869801
TI  - Japanese genome-wide association study identifies a significant colorectal cancer
      susceptibility locus at chromosome 10p14.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies are a powerful tool for searching for disease
      susceptibility loci. Several studies identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNP) connected intimately to the onset of colorectal cancer (CRC) have been
      published, but there are few reports of genome-wide association studies in Japan.
      To identify genetic variants that modify the risk of CRC oncogenesis, especially
      in the Japanese population, we performed a multi-stage genome-wide association
      study using a large number of samples: 1846 CRC cases and 2675 controls. We
      identified 4 SNP (rs7912831, rs4749812, rs7898455 and rs10905453) in chromosome
      region 10p14 associated with CRC; however, there are no coding or non-coding
      genes within this region of fairly extensive linkage disequilibrium (a 500-kb
      block) on 10p14. Our study revealed that the 10p14 locus is significantly
      correlated with susceptibility to CRC in the Japanese population, in accordance
      with the results of multiple studies in other races.

PMID- 28869803
TI  - Identification of alpha-tocopherol as a bioactive component of Dicranopteris
      linearis with disrupting property against preformed biofilm of Staphylococcus
      aureus.
AB  - AIMS: The potential of Dicranopteris linearis leaves' extract and its bioactive
      components were investigated for the first time for its disrupting ability
      against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms. METHODS AND RESULTS: The leaves of D.
      linearis were subjected to sonication-assisted extraction using hexane (HEX),
      dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and methanol (MeOH). It was found that only the
      MeOH fraction exhibited antimicrobial activity using broth microdilution assay;
      while all four fractions do not exhibit biofilm inhibition activity against S.
      aureusATCC 6538P, S. aureusATCC 43300, S. aureusATCC 33591 and S. aureusATCC
      29213 using crystal violet assay. Among the four fractions tested, only the HEX
      fraction showed biofilm disrupting ability, with 60-90% disruption activity at 5
      mg ml-1 against all four S. aureus strains tested. Bioassay-guided purification
      of the active fraction has led to the isolation of alpha-tocopherol. alpha
      Tocopherol does not affect the cells within the biofilms but instead affects the
      biofilm matrix in order to disrupt S. aureus biofilms. CONCLUSIONS: alpha
      Tocopherol was identified to be the bioactive component of D. linearis with
      disruption activity against S. aureus biofilm matrix. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF
      THE STUDY: The use of alpha-tocopherol as a biofilm disruptive agent might
      potentially be useful to treat biofilm-associated infections in the future.

PMID- 28869804
TI  - Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp and Kindler syndrome: a new association.

PMID- 28869806
TI  - Characterizing Viscoelastic Modulations in Biopolymer Hydrogels by Coherence
      Gated Light Scattering.
AB  - pH-responsive hydrogels are of great interest for the controlled release of
      drugs. However, the changes in the structural and mechanical properties of
      hydrogels during the pH-responsive swelling/contraction process remains largely
      unknown. In this article, we demonstrate that coherence-gated dynamic light
      scattering can be used to in situ characterize the structural dynamics of
      chitosan (CS) hydrogels at different pH values and show that the CS hydrogels
      undergo viscoelastic modulations during the swelling/contraction/recovery process
      induced by pH changes. The conditions for the CS hydrogels to undergo these
      modulations are found by continuously monitoring the nonequilibrium, long-term
      dynamical process. Our findings are in a close correspondence to the macroscopic
      observations made at time points where the CS hydrogels are at equilibrium.

PMID- 28869805
TI  - Pre-operative trans-catheter arterial chemo-embolization increases hepatic artery
      thrombosis after liver transplantation - a retrospective study.
AB  - Little is known about nonsurgical risk factors for hepatic artery thrombosis
      (HAT) after liver transplantation (LT). We determined risk factors for HAT
      occurring within 90 days post-LT and analysed the effect of HAT on graft and
      patient survival. Donor and recipient demographics, surgery-related data and
      outcome in transplants complicated by thrombosis (HAT+) and their matched
      controls (HAT-) were compared. Risk factors were assessed by univariate logistic
      regression. Median (IQR) is given. A total of 25 HAT occurred among 1035 adult LT
      (1/1997-12/2014) and 50 controls were manually matched. Donor and recipient
      demographics were similar. Pre-LT trans-catheter arterial chemo-embolization
      (TACE) was more frequent in HAT+ (HAT+ 20% vs. HAT- 4%, P = 0.037). HAT+ had
      longer implantation [HAT+ 88 min (76-108) vs. HAT- 77 min (66-93), P = 0.028] and
      surgery times [HAT+ 6.25 h (5.18-7.47) vs. HAT- 5.25 h (4.33-6.5), P = 0.001].
      Early graft dysfunction and sepsis were more frequent in HAT+ and hospitalization
      longer. TACE had the greatest odds ratio in unadjusted analysis (OR: 6, 95% CI:
      1.07-33.53, P = 0.03). All but seven grafts were lost after HAT (HAT+ 72% vs. HAT
      36%, P = 0.003); however, patient survival was unaffected (HAT+ 79.8% vs. HAT-
      76%, P = 0.75). LT candidates undergoing TACE are at risk of developing HAT early
      after transplant.

PMID- 28869807
TI  - Prolonged toilet training in children with Down syndrome: a case-control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Children with Down syndrome have delayed psychomotor development,
      which is a factor that influences the level of difficulty in toilet training. The
      current study aims to estimate the age toilet training starts and completes in
      children with DS compared to children with normal psychomotor development and to
      evaluate the method and type of toilet training most frequently used, as well as
      its association with lower urinary tract symptoms and functional constipation.
      METHODS: A case-control study was carried out from 2010 to 2015. All parents
      completed a questionnaire designed to assess the toilet training process. Lower
      urinary tract symptoms were assessed through the application of the Dysfunctional
      Voiding Symptom Score. The presence of functional constipation was assessed
      according to the Rome III criteria. RESULTS: The study included 93 children with
      Down syndrome and 204 children with normal psychomotor development (control group
      [CG]). The mean age of toilet training onset was 22.8 months in those with DS and
      17.5 months in the CG (p=0.001). In children with DS, the mean age when
      completing toilet training was 56.2 months and 27.1 months in the CG (p=0.001).
      Among children with DS, females completed toilet training earlier (p=0.02). The
      toilet training method used most often was child-oriented approach in both
      groups. No association was observed with the presence of lower urinary tract
      symptoms or functional constipation and the age of beginning and completing
      toilet training in both groups. CONCLUSION: Children with Down syndrome
      experienced prolonged toilet training time. Prospective longitudinal studies are
      essential to gain insight into the toilet training of these children.

PMID- 28869808
TI  - Pediatric emergency in Brazil: the consolidation of an area in the pediatric
      field.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to present a review on the evolution,
      development, and consolidation of the pediatric emergency abroad and in Brazil,
      as well as to discuss the residency program in this key area for pediatricians.
      DATA SOURCES: This was a narrative review, in which the authors used pre-selected
      documents utilized as the minimum requirements for the Residency Program in
      Pediatric Emergency Medicine and articles selected by interest for the theme
      development, at the SciELO and Medline databases, between 2000 and 2017. DATA
      SYNTHESIS: The historical antecedents and the initial evolution of pediatric
      emergency in Brazil, as well as several challenges were described, regarding the
      organization, the size, the training of professionals, and also the regulation of
      the professional practice in this new specialty. Additionally, a new pediatric
      emergency residency program to be implemented in Brazil is described.
      CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric emergency training will be a powerful stimulus to attract
      talented individuals, to establish them in this key area of medicine, where they
      can exercise their leadership by promoting care qualification, research, and
      teaching, as well as acting decisively in their management.

PMID- 28869809
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28869810
TI  - Autophagy regulation in preeclampsia: Pros and cons.
AB  - Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process in eukaryotes to maintain
      cellular homeostasis against stress. This process has two main functions:
      producing energy and quality control of intracellular proteins. During early
      pregnancy, extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs) invade the uterine myometrium and
      migrate along the lumina of spiral arterioles under hypoxic and low-nutrient
      conditions. Autophagy activation is observed in EVTs under these conditions,
      suggesting that EVTs use autophagy for adjusting to such harsh conditions. On the
      other hand, soluble endoglin, which is increased in sera in preeclamptic cases,
      inhibits autophagy in vitro, resulting in suppression of EVT functions, invasion
      and vascular remodeling. In addition, p62/SQSTM1, a substrate degraded by
      autophagy, accumulates in EVTs in preeclamptic placental biopsy samples,
      exhibiting impaired autophagy in vivo. There are, however, some opposing reports
      in which autophagy activation, an increase of autophagy vacuoles or LC3 dots, was
      more frequently observed in preeclamptic or FGR placentas than in normal
      pregnancy. Thus, changes in autophagy status are seen in preeclamptic placentas,
      but the mechanism by which autophagy modulates biological changes in the
      placentas is still unknown. Recently, there is increasing evidence that autophagy
      is involved in maintaining pregnancy. This review introduces the role of
      autophagy for maintaining pregnancy and its correlation with preeclampsia.

PMID- 28869811
TI  - Hidden Markov model analysis reveals the advantage of analytic eye movement
      patterns in face recognition across cultures.
AB  - It remains controversial whether culture modulates eye movement behavior in face
      recognition. Inconsistent results have been reported regarding whether cultural
      differences in eye movement patterns exist, whether these differences affect
      recognition performance, and whether participants use similar eye movement
      patterns when viewing faces from different ethnicities. These inconsistencies may
      be due to substantial individual differences in eye movement patterns within a
      cultural group. Here we addressed this issue by conducting individual-level eye
      movement data analysis using hidden Markov models (HMMs). Each individual's eye
      movements were modeled with an HMM. We clustered the individual HMMs according to
      their similarities and discovered three common patterns in both Asian and
      Caucasian participants: holistic (looking mostly at the face center), left-eye
      biased analytic (looking mostly at the two individual eyes in addition to the
      face center with a slight bias to the left eye), and right-eye-based analytic
      (looking mostly at the right eye in addition to the face center). The frequency
      of participants adopting the three patterns did not differ significantly between
      Asians and Caucasians, suggesting little modulation from culture. Significantly
      more participants (75%) showed similar eye movement patterns when viewing own-
      and other-race faces than different patterns. Most importantly, participants with
      left-eye-biased analytic patterns performed significantly better than those using
      either holistic or right-eye-biased analytic patterns. These results suggest that
      active retrieval of facial feature information through an analytic eye movement
      pattern may be optimal for face recognition regardless of culture.

PMID- 28869812
TI  - The effects of prosthetic foot stiffness on transtibial amputee walking mechanics
      and balance control during turning.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little evidence exists regarding how prosthesis design
      characteristics affect performance in tasks that challenge mediolateral balance
      such as turning. This study assesses the influence of prosthetic foot stiffness
      on amputee walking mechanics and balance control during a continuous turning
      task. METHODS: Three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic data were collected from
      eight unilateral transtibial amputees as they walked overground at self-selected
      speed clockwise and counterclockwise around a 1-meter circle and along a straight
      line. Subjects performed the walking tasks wearing three different ankle-foot
      prostheses that spanned a range of sagittal- and coronal-plane stiffness levels.
      FINDINGS: A decrease in stiffness increased residual ankle dorsiflexion (10-13
      degrees ), caused smaller adaptations (<5 degrees ) in proximal joint angles,
      decreased residual and increased intact limb body support, increased residual
      limb propulsion and increased intact limb braking for all tasks. While changes in
      sagittal-plane joint work due to decreased stiffness were generally consistent
      across tasks, effects on coronal-plane hip work were task-dependent. When the
      residual limb was on the inside of the turn and during straight-line walking,
      coronal-plane hip work increased and coronal-plane peak-to-peak range of whole
      body angular momentum decreased with decreased stiffness. INTERPRETATION: Changes
      in sagittal-plane kinematics and kinetics were similar to those previously
      observed in straight-line walking. Mediolateral balance improved with decreased
      stiffness, but adaptations in coronal-plane angles, work and ground reaction
      force impulses were less systematic than those in sagittal-plane measures.
      Effects of stiffness varied with the residual limb inside versus outside the
      turn, which suggests that actively adjusting stiffness to turn direction may be
      beneficial.

PMID- 28869814
TI  - Multi-residue determination of 47 organic compounds in water, soil, sediment and
      fish-Turia River as case study.
AB  - A sensitive and reliable method based on solid-liquid extraction (SLE) using
      McIlvaine-Na2EDTA buffer (pH=4.5)-methanol and solid-phase extraction (SPE) clean
      up prior to ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass
      spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was applied to determine 47 organic contaminants in
      fish, soil and sediments. The SPE procedure to clean-up the extracts was also
      used as extraction method to determine these compounds in water. Recoveries
      ranged from 38 to 104% for all matrices with RSDs<30%. Limits of Quantification
      for the target compounds were in the range of 10-50ng/g for soil, 2-40ng/g for
      sediment, 5-30ng/g for fish and 0.3-26ng/L for water. Furthermore, the proposed
      method was compared to QuEChERS (widely used for environmental matrices) that
      involves extraction with buffered acetonitrile (pH 5.5) and dispersive SPE clean
      up. The results obtained (recoveries>50% for 36 compounds in front of 9, matrix
      effect<20% for 31 compounds against 21, and LOQs <25ngg-1 for 38 compounds
      against 22) indicates that the proposed method is more efficient than QuEChERS,
      The method was applied to monitoring these compounds along the Turia River. In
      river waters, Paracetamol (175ngL-1), ibuprofen (153ngL-1) and bisphenol A (41ngL
      1) were the compounds most frequently detected while in sediments were
      vildagliptin (7ngg-1) and metoprolol (31ngg-1) and in fish, bisphenol A (33ngg-1)
      or sulfamethoxazole (13ngg-1).

PMID- 28869813
TI  - Prevalence and predictors of depression and well-being after hysterectomy: An
      observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess risk and predictive factors for depression and well-being,
      3 and 12 months after elective hysterectomy. Secondary objectives were to assess
      the incidence of depression, level of well-being, and feelings of femininity.
      STUDY DESIGN: A prospective multicenter cohort study was performed among 419
      women, undergoing hysterectomy for benign indication. Data were collected in the
      week prior to surgery, and in the per- and postoperative period up to the fourth
      postoperative day and 3 and 12 months after surgery. Sociodemographic variables,
      baseline health status, psychosocial predictors, and surgery data were assessed.
      Outcome measures were Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D,
      range 0-60), the 12-item well-being questionnaire energy and positive well-being
      subscales (range 0-12), and feelings of femininity. Predictor analyses were
      performed using linear mixed model analyses. RESULTS: Levels of depression,
      energy, and positive well-being after hysterectomy were predicted by their
      corresponding baseline levels (estimate 0.62 p<0.001, 0.39 p<0.001, 0.37 p<0.001,
      respectively) and baseline pain (0.31 p=0.003, -0.09 p=0.026, -0.10 p=0.008).
      Postoperative infection reported at 12 months affected CES-D and energy level.
      Several other gynaecological, psychosocial, or perioperative factors were also
      predictive for one of the outcomes. Prevalence of depression at baseline, 3 and
      12 months was 24%, 19%, and 21%, respectively. In general, well-being scores were
      slightly higher 3 and 12 months after hysterectomy than at baseline. Feelings of
      femininity were not negatively affected in 92% of the patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      Preoperative psychosocial status, perioperative pain, and postoperative infection
      were found as predictors of psychological outcome after hysterectomy. In the
      majority of patients we observed small but significant improvements with regard
      to postoperative depression and well-being, while feelings of femininity were
      unaffected.

PMID- 28869815
TI  - Separation of bioactive chamazulene from chamomile extract using metal-organic
      framework.
AB  - Isolation of bioactive compounds from extracts of pharmaceutical plant is very
      important. In this work, copper benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate metal organic
      framework (Cu-BTC MOF) has been synthesized. It is used in separating of
      chamazulene from chamomile extract. The Cu-BTC MOF not only shows good
      chamazulene adsorption but also maintains good desorption properties. However,
      the research on this field is still new and the maturation of novel MOFs or the
      enhancements of known ones are required.The chamomile extract obtained after each
      stage of the treatments was carefully characterized by thin-layer chromatography
      (TLC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-vis spectrometry and
      gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The morphology and the
      crystallinity of Cu-BTC MOF were investigated using scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), respectively. Breakthrough experiments
      in a column was investigated and the data was fitted with Bohart-Adams model.
      Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to investigate the preferential adsorption
      sites of Cu-BTC for chamazulene molecules.

PMID- 28869817
TI  - DNA hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes RASSF6 and RASSF10 as independent
      prognostic factors in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Hypermethylation of Ras association domain family (RASSF) often
      plays a key role in malignant progression of solid tumors; however, their impact
      on the prognosis and survival of adult ALL patients remain elusive. METHODS: The
      frequency of the promoter methylation pattern of RASSF6 and RASSF10 were analyzed
      in the peripheral blood (PB) samples taken at the time of diagnosis of 45 ALL
      patients. The methylation-specific PCR (MSP) assay was used to detect the DNA
      methylation patterns. RESULTS: RASSF6 was frequently hypermethylated in patients
      diagnosed with pre-B-ALL (90.9%) and B-ALL (87.5%), followed by T-ALL (66.7%);
      whereas, RASSF10 methylation was more confined to T-ALL (80%) as compared to B
      ALL (25%) and pre-B ALL (9.1%) patients. Moreover, hypermethylation of RASSF6 was
      significantly associated with a poor prognosis and shorter overall survival (OS)
      in patients with pre-B-ALL (log-rank test; P=0.041). CONCLUSION: RASSF6 and
      RASSF10 were frequently hypermethylated in the samples at the time of diagnosis
      of adult ALL patients. Our study represents the first report of methylation of
      RASSF6 at a high frequency in patients with pre-B ALL. Furthermore,
      hypermethylation of RASSF6 was significantly associated with inferior overall
      survival in pre-B ALL patients. It may suggest that the frequent epigenetic
      inactivation of RASSF6 plays an important role in the pathogenesis and
      progression of pre-B-ALL.

PMID- 28869818
TI  - Maximum entropy models as a tool for building precise neural controls.
AB  - Neural responses are highly structured, with population activity restricted to a
      small subset of the astronomical range of possible activity patterns.
      Characterizing these statistical regularities is important for understanding
      circuit computation, but challenging in practice. Here we review recent
      approaches based on the maximum entropy principle used for quantifying collective
      behavior in neural activity. We highlight recent models that capture population
      level statistics of neural data, yielding insights into the organization of the
      neural code and its biological substrate. Furthermore, the MaxEnt framework
      provides a general recipe for constructing surrogate ensembles that preserve
      aspects of the data, but are otherwise maximally unstructured. This idea can be
      used to generate a hierarchy of controls against which rigorous statistical tests
      are possible.

PMID- 28869816
TI  - Timed sequential therapy for acute myelogenous leukemia: Results of a
      retrospective study of 301 patients and review of the literature.
AB  - Timed sequential therapy (TST) aims to improve outcomes in acute myelogenous
      leukemia (AML) by harnessing drug-induced cell cycle kinetics of AML, where a
      second drug is timed to coincide with peak leukemia proliferation induced by the
      first drugs. We analyzed outcomes in 301 newly diagnosed AML patients treated
      from 2004-2013 with cytarabine, anthracycline, and etoposide TST induction.
      Median age was 52 (range 20-74) and complete remission rate 68%. With median
      follow-up 5.8 years, 5-year DFS and overall survival (OS) were 37% (95% CI 31
      45%) and 32% (95% CI 27-38%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, older age,
      unfavorable cytogenetics, and WBC>=50*109/L resulted in worse OS. Among patients
      not undergoing blood and marrow transplant, a propensity score analysis, which
      reduces imbalance in baseline characteristics, showed consolidation with TST
      compared with 1 or more cycles high-dose cytarabine trended toward lower DFS and
      post-remission survival with hazard ratio (HR) 1.9 (95% CI 0.9-4.0), and 1.6 (95%
      CI 0.7-3.6), respectively. Our results demonstrate the efficacy and feasibility
      of TST induction for newly diagnosed patients with AML, with results comparable
      to that seen in clinical trials with other TST therapies and 7+3.

PMID- 28869819
TI  - Rational optimization of the mannoside building block for automated
      electrochemical assembly of the core trisaccharide of GPI anchor
      oligosaccharides.
AB  - We have developed a carbohydrate building block of mannosides based on DFT
      calculations, electrochemical analysis, and automated solution-phase synthesis.
      The optimized building block in hand was used to prepare the core trisaccharide
      of GPI anchor oligosaccharides.

PMID- 28869820
TI  - Graphene-based nanomaterials for drug and/or gene delivery, bioimaging, and
      tissue engineering.
AB  - Here, we discuss the biomedical applications of graphene-based nanomaterials
      (GBNs). We examine graphene and its various derivatives, including graphene,
      graphene oxides (GOs), reduced graphene oxides (rGOs), graphene quantum dots
      (GQDs), and graphene composites, and discuss their unique properties related to
      their biomedical applications. We also summarize the detailed biomedical
      applications of GBNs, including drug and/or gene delivery, bioimaging, and tissue
      engineering. We also highlight the toxicity of these nanomaterials.

PMID- 28869821
TI  - Composition and abundance of particles present on "powder-free" examination
      gloves.
AB  - Seven widely available brands of powder free nitrile gloves, commonly used in
      forensic laboratories during the handling of exhibits were examined. Samples were
      collected from the outer surfaces of the gloves and the particle types present
      were characterised using automated mineral analysis. Particles less than 10MUm in
      diameter are abundant on the surface of all of the gloves examined. Although the
      particles are dominated by common compounds/minerals (e.g. calcite, gypsum, NaCl,
      Fe oxides/carbonates, Al oxides, quartz, plagioclase, kaolinite) each glove brand
      analysed has a distinct population of particles present which allows the samples
      to be differentiated from each other. These particle types may be transferred
      from the gloves to exhibits during handling. In addition, these distinct
      populations of particles may be transferred to anyone wearing powder free nitrile
      gloves.

PMID- 28869822
TI  - Potential of GHB phase-II-metabolites to complement current approaches in GHB
      post administration detection.
AB  - Recently, phase-II-metabolites of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), namely GHB
      beta-O-glucuronide and GHB-4-sulfate, were implemented in the scope of drug
      testing methods The clearance of GHB from the circulation is extremely fast due
      to its incorporation into the metabolic pathway of the citrate cycle. The
      elimination half-life of GHB from blood was reported to be dose dependent between
      30 and 50min resulting in narrow detection windows of less than 12h after illicit
      administration or cases of drug facilitated sexual assault regardless of the
      biological matrix used. As sulfated metabolites tend to show prolonged half-lives
      and slower elimination kinetics compared to unmodified or glucuronidated drugs,
      the potential of GHB-4-sulfate in prolonging the detection of GHB administration
      was assessed. Its urinary concentrations were determined in n=100 samples from
      athletes and n=50 samples from sport students, and the resulting data were used
      to calculate a preliminary reference population-based threshold for urinary GHB
      sulfate concentration. The threshold was then compared to concentrations found in
      post-administration urine samples collected from 3 volunteers who administered
      GHB within the setting of a clinical trial. Due to the large inter-individual
      variability of concentrations found in the reference population, GHB-4-sulfate
      itself was not suitable to prolong the detection times for GHB applications, even
      when specific gravity-corrected values were used. Therefore, a metabolomics-based
      approach was applied to the reference population samples and evaluated regarding
      other urinary metabolites that potentially correlate with the urinary excretion
      of GHB-4-sulfate and GHB-beta-O-glucuronide in order to find a suitable marker to
      normalize urinary concentrations. The most promising candidate was found at a
      molecular mass of 321.0696 and was preliminarily identified as beta-citryl
      glutamic acid.

PMID- 28869823
TI  - Evidence of perceptive impairment in OSA patients investigated by means of a
      visual search task.
AB  - Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a common sleep disorder characterized by
      episodes of complete or partial obstruction of respiratory airways during sleep
      that leads to hypoxaemia and sleep fragmentation. One relevant daytime
      consequence of OSA is a negative impact on neurocognitive domain, ranging from
      psychomotor performance to executive function. In spite of a huge amount of
      evidence regarding cognitive impairment, little is known about perceptual
      processing in these patients. The aim of this research is to investigate the
      effects of OSA on visual mechanisms by employing a visual search paradigm. 19 OSA
      patients and 19 age-matched healthy controls (HC) participated in a case-control
      study. After a nocturnal cardiorespiratory monitoring, patients performed a
      visual search task in which they had to detect the presence/absence of a target
      (letter T) embedded in the 50% of trials into a set of distractors (letters Os,
      Xs, or Ls). Target's salience and distractors' numerosity were manipulated as
      independent variables, whereas accuracy and reaction times (RT) were recorded as
      dependent variables. HC, after the exclusion of any sleep disorder or sleepiness,
      performed the same experiments. Results generally confirmed the typical effects
      of visual search. OSA patients reported significantly slower RT in comparison
      with HC, indicating an overall perceptual deficit consisting in a harder
      extraction of relevant information from noise. Neither patients' age nor the
      objective clinical indices were associated with RT. This study indicates the
      presence of an impairment in OSA patients involving basic mechanisms of visual
      processing and likely ascribable to the disorder per se.

PMID- 28869824
TI  - Analysis of aerobic granules under the toxic effect of ampicillin in sequencing
      batch reactors: Performance and microbial community.
AB  - To study the change of the aerobic granules' microbial community in the present
      of antibiotics, ampicillin (AMP) was selected as a model component. With acetate
      as carbon source, different concentrations of AMP (5, 10 and 15 mg L-1) were
      applied to the inflow intermittently and the results showed that the stability of
      the aerobic granules was maintained below 10 mg L-1 AMP. Simultaneously, under
      exposure to 5 and 10 mg L-1 AMP, the COD removal efficiency in the batch reactors
      remained at 86% and AMP was degraded almost completely with a removal efficiency
      of 97%. However, the EPS concentration and dehydrogenase activity decreased
      constantly with increasing AMP dosage. High-throughput sequencing analysis
      revealed that Proteobacteria was the most prominent phylum in the whole
      experiment and contributed to the degradation of AMP. The percentages of Azoarcus
      and Mycoplana increased at 10 mg L-1 AMP. In addition, Hydrogenophaga and
      Enterococcus played a key role in the microbial metabolism.

PMID- 28869825
TI  - Patient learning of treatment contents in cognitive therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Research has demonstrated that both memory and
      learning for treatment contents are poor, and that both are associated with worse
      treatment outcome. The Memory Support Intervention has been shown to improve
      memory for treatment, but it has not yet been established if this intervention
      can also improve learning of treatment contents. This study was designed to
      document the number of times participants exhibited each of the indices of
      learning, to examine the indices of learning and their relationship to recall of
      treatment points, and to investigate the association between the indices of
      learning and depression outcome. METHODS: Adults diagnosed with major depressive
      disorder (N = 48) were randomly assigned to 14 sessions of cognitive therapy-as
      usual (CT-as-usual) or cognitive therapy plus the Memory Support Intervention (CT
      + Memory Support). Measures of learning, memory, and depressive symptomatology
      were taken at mid-treatment, post-treatment, and at 6-month follow-up. RESULTS:
      Relative to the CT-as-usual group, participants in the CT + Memory Support group
      reported more accurate thoughts and applications of treatment points at mid
      treatment, post-treatment, and 6-month follow-up. Patient recall was
      significantly correlated with application and cognitive generalization. Thoughts
      and application at mid-treatment were associated with increased odds of treatment
      response at post-treatment. LIMITATIONS: The learning measure for this study has
      not yet been psychometrically validated. The results are based on a small sample.
      CONCLUSIONS: Learning during treatment is poor, but modifiable via the Memory
      Support Intervention. These results provide encouraging data that improving
      learning of treatment contents can reduce symptoms during and following
      treatment.

PMID- 28869826
TI  - Origins, evolution, domestication and diversity of Saccharomyces beer yeasts.
AB  - Yeasts have been used for food and beverage fermentations for thousands of years.
      Today, numerous different strains are available for each specific fermentation
      process. However, the nature and extent of the phenotypic and genetic diversity
      and specific adaptations to industrial niches have only begun to be elucidated
      recently. In Saccharomyces, domestication is most pronounced in beer strains,
      likely because they continuously live in their industrial niche, allowing only
      limited genetic admixture with wild stocks and minimal contact with natural
      environments. As a result, beer yeast genomes show complex patterns of
      domestication and divergence, making both ale (S. cerevisiae) and lager (S.
      pastorianus) producing strains ideal models to study domestication and, more
      generally, genetic mechanisms underlying swift adaptation to new niches.

PMID- 28869828
TI  - Is the biocompatibility of copper with polymerized natural coating dependent on
      the potential selected for the electropolymerization process?
AB  - With the intention of taking care of the environment and human health, the
      development of alternative eco-friendly methods to inhibit metal corrosion is
      intensively encouraged. In previous works we showed that some phytocompounds
      components of essential oils such as carvacrol (Carv) and thymol (TOH) are able
      to be electropolymerized on metals and they seem to be promissory for this
      purpose. The aim this paper is to investigate if the biocompatibility of copper
      covered by coatings formed by electropolymerization of Carv and TOH (polyCarv and
      polyTOH) is related with the potential selected for the electropolymerization
      process. Potentiostatic perturbations at different potentials, AFM images, ATR
      FTIR spectroscopy and measurements of copper ions release provided suitable
      information to make a detailed analysis of different stages of the
      electropolymerization process that leads to polyCarv and polyTOH layers on copper
      surface. The change of the characteristics of the coatings over time was
      evaluated after several polymerization periods and current transients were
      interpreted by using nucleation and growth models. Results showed interesting
      changes in the polymerization process with the electrochemical perturbation,
      nature of the isomer, and time of the treatment. The treatment that provides the
      most protective, transparent and homogeneous layer, that strongly increased the
      biocompatibility of Cu could be selected: electropolymerization of Carv at 0.4V.
      Results highlight the importance of the detailed study of the evolution of the
      electropolymerization processes to select the best ecofriendly condition due the
      high impact of potential perturbation and polarization time on the
      biocompatibility of the resulting polymeric layer-copper system.

PMID- 28869827
TI  - Effects of dexamethasone and nimesulide on bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis
      of the jaw: An experimental study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of dexamethasone (DEX) and nimesulide (NIM) on
      Bisphosphonate-related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (BRONJ) in rats. DESIGN: BRONJ
      was induced by zoledronic acid (ZA) infusion (0.2mg/kg) in Wistar rats (n=8),
      followed by extraction of the left lower first molar (BRONJ groups). Control
      groups (n=40) received saline (IV). For eight weeks, DEX (0.04, 0.4, 4mg/kg) or
      saline (SAL) were administered by gavage 24h before each infusion of ZA or saline
      (IV), or NIM (10.3mg/kg) was administered 24h and 12h before each infusion of ZA
      or saline (IV). The haematological analyses were conducted weekly. After
      euthanasia (day 70), the jaws were submitted to radiographic and microscopic
      analysis. Kidney, liver, spleen and stomach were analysed histopathologically.
      RESULTS: The BRONJ groups showed a higher radiolucent area compared with the
      control groups (p<0.05). Histomorphometric analysis revealed healing and new bone
      formation in the control groups, while the BRONJ groups exhibited devitalized
      bone with bacterial colonies and inflammatory infiltrate. The BRONJ-DEX 0.4 and
      4mg/kg groups had a greater number of bacterial colonies (p<0.05) and an
      increased polymorphonuclear cell count compared to the saline-BRONJ group, while
      the BRONJ-NIM group had a lower polymorphonuclear count (p<0.05). The BRONJ
      groups had leucocytosis, which was reduced by DEX administration. Treatments with
      DEX with or without ZA caused white pulp atrophy. CONCLUSION: Thus, DEX or NIM
      therapy was not effective in preventing radiographic and histopathologic events
      associated with BRONJ. Treatment with DEX attenuated leucocytosis post-infusion
      with ZA.

PMID- 28869829
TI  - Strontium doping promotes bioactivity of rhBMP-2 upon calcium phosphate cement
      via elevated recognition and expression of BMPR-IA.
AB  - Preserving and improving osteogenic activity of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP
      2) upon implants remains one of the key limitations in bone regeneration. With
      calcium phosphate cement (CPC) as model, we have developed a series of strontium
      (Sr)-doped CPC (SCPC) to address this issue. The effects of fixed Sr on the
      bioactivity of recombinant human BMP-2 (rhBMP-2) as well as the underlying
      mechanism were investigated. The results suggested that the rhBMP-2-induced
      osteogenic activity was significantly promoted upon SCPCs, especially with a low
      amount of fixed Sr (SrCO3 content <10wt%). Further studies demonstrated that the
      Sr-induced enhancement of bioactivity of rhBMP-2 was related to an elevated
      recognition of bone morphogenetic protein receptor-IA (BMPR-IA) to rhBMP-2 and an
      increased expression of BMPR-IA in C2C12 model cells. As a result, the
      activations of BMP-induced signaling pathways were different in C2C12 cells
      incubated upon CPC/rhBMP-2 and SCPCs/rhBMP-2. These findings explicitly decipher
      the mechanism of SCPCs promoting osteogenic bioactivity of rhBMP-2 and signify
      the promising application of the SCPCs/rhBMP-2 matrix in bone regeneration
      implants.

PMID- 28869830
TI  - Modification of hysteresis behaviors of protein monolayer and the corresponding
      structures with the variation of protein surface charges.
AB  - Successive compression-decompression cycles of the surface pressure (pi) -
      specific molecular area (A) isotherms of protein (BSA) monolayers show that
      reversible hysteresis persists if the protein molecules contain effective
      positive or negative surface charges. However, for neutral condition, i.e., close
      to the isoelectric point of the protein, irreversibility in the hysteresis
      behaviour dominates. Out-of-plane structures obtained from the X-ray reflectivity
      analysis suggest that at lower surface pressure monomolecular layer of BSA is
      formed on the water surface. With increasing surface pressure, molecules start to
      lift-up from the water surface in such a way that semi-major axis makes an angle
      with the water surface. Depending on the surface pressure and surface charge of
      BSA, monomolecular or bimolecular layer of tilted BSA molecules is formed on the
      water surface, however, formation of bimolecular layer is observed when the pH is
      relatively closer to the BSA isoelectric point. After complete decompression,
      tilted monomolecular or bimolecular structures again transform into monomolecular
      layer as evidenced from the structural analysis of the films deposited at lower
      surface pressures in the second compression, however, structural hysteresis
      varies depending upon the subphase pH or protein surface charge. Structures
      obtained from the films deposited at first and second compressions at lower
      pressure implies that although structural dissimilarity is present but structural
      hysteresis is only present near the isoelectric point of BSA and becomes
      negligible below and above that pH. Competitive electrostatic and van der Waals
      interactions are responsible for such hysteresis behaviours and structural
      modifications.

PMID- 28869831
TI  - Characterisation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by the composting
      of different waste matrices.
AB  - The complaints arising from the problem of odorants released by composting plants
      may impede the construction of new composting facilities, preclude the proper
      activity of existing facilities or even lead to their closure, with negative
      implications for waste management and local economy. Improving the knowledge on
      VOC emissions from composting processes is of particular importance since
      different VOCs imply different odour impacts. To this purpose, three different
      organic matrices were studied in this work: dewatered sewage sludge (M1),
      digested organic fraction of municipal solid waste (M2) and untreated food waste
      (M3). The three matrices were aerobically biodegraded in a bench-scale bioreactor
      simulating composting conditions. A homemade device sampled the process air from
      each treatment at defined time intervals. The samples were analysed for VOC
      detection. The information on the concentrations of the detected VOCs was
      combined with the VOC-specific odour thresholds to estimate the relative weight
      of each biodegraded matrix in terms of odour impact. When the odour formation was
      at its maximum, the waste gas from the composting of M3 showed a total odour
      concentration about 60 and 15,000 times higher than those resulting from the
      composting of M1 and M2, respectively. Ethyl isovalerate showed the highest
      contribution to the total odour concentration (>99%). Terpenes (alpha-pinene,
      beta-pinene, p-cymene and limonene) were abundantly present in M2 and M3, while
      sulphides (dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide) were the dominant
      components of M1.

PMID- 28869832
TI  - Sentinel lymph node biopsy in Chinese patients with large operable breast cancer
      (>=4 cm): A decade's experience from a single institution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Performing sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with large
      operable breast cancer is still controversial. Our aim is to find whether or not
      performing SLNB is feasible and safety in Chinese patients with large operable
      breast cancer. METHODS: We reviewed the data of patients in our center from 2003
      to 2015, a series of 267 patients with large operable breast cancer (>=4 cm) who
      underwent SLNB were examined. All selected patients recieved preoperative
      axillary evaluation. RESULTS: The successful rate for localizing SLNs was 96.3%
      (257 of 267). 31.1% (78 of 257) patients were found to have positive sentinel
      lymph nodes (SLN). The median follow-up was 52 months. 2.2% (4 of 179) SLN
      negative patients developed axillary recurrence (AR) as first event. The 5-year
      axillary recurrence free survival in SLN-negative patients was 96.9% (95%CI,
      93.8%-100%). Patients with suspicious nodes on ultrasonography (US) (P = 0.16)
      and undergoing breast conserving therapy (BCT) (P = 0.057) had a higher trend to
      be associated with AR. The 5-year recurrence free survival (RFS) was 86.1%
      (95%CI, 80.8%-93.0%) in SLN-negative patients and 76.3% (95%CI, 68.1%-90.1%) in
      SLN-positive patients (P = 0.246). CONCLUSIONS: SLNB is feasible and safety in
      patients with large operable breast cancer who underwent preoperative axillary
      evaluation.

PMID- 28869833
TI  - Yap promotes hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis and mobilization via governing
      cofilin/F-actin/lamellipodium axis by regulation of JNK/Bnip3/SERCA/CaMKII
      pathways.
AB  - Despite the increasingly important role of Hippo-Yap in hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) development and progression, little insight is available at the time
      regarding the specifics interaction of Yap and cancer cells migration. Here, we
      identified the mechanism by which tumor-intrinsic Yap deletion resulted in HCC
      migratory inhibition. Yap was greatly upregulated in HCC and its expression
      promoted the cells migration. Functional studies found that knockdown of Yap
      induced JNK phosphorylation which closely bound to the Bnip3 promoter and
      contributed to Bnip3 expression. Higher Bnip3 employed excessive mitophagy
      leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and ATP shortage. The insufficient ATP
      inactivated SERCA and consequently triggered intracellular calcium overload. As
      the consequence of calcium oscillation, Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases
      II (CaMKII) was signaled and subsequently inhibited cofilin activity via
      phosphorylated modification. The phosphorylated cofilin failed to manipulate F
      actin polymerization and lamellipodium formation, resulting into the impairment
      of lamellipodium-based migration. Collectively, our results identified Hippo-Yap
      as the tumor promoter in hepatocellular carcinoma that mediated via activation of
      cofilin/F-actin/lamellipodium axis by limiting JNK-Bnip3-SERCA-CaMKII pathways,
      with potential application to HCC therapy involving cancer metastasis.

PMID- 28869835
TI  - Inhibition of TRAF6-Ubc13 interaction in NFkB inflammatory pathway by analyzing
      the hotspot amino acid residues and protein-protein interactions using molecular
      docking simulations.
AB  - Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are important in most of the biochemical
      processes. Hotspot amino acid residues in proteins are the most important
      contributors for proper protein-protein interactions. Hotspot amino acid residues
      have been looked down upon as important therapeutic targets in inhibiting PPIs.
      Interaction between TRAF6 and Ubc13 is a crucial point in the NFkB inflammatory
      pathway. Dysfunction of the NFkB pathway is associated with numerous human
      diseases including cancer and neurodenegeration disorders. Ubc13 also interacts
      specifically to TRAF6 and not with other proteins of the TRAF family and this
      makes the TRAF6-Ubc13 complex an important target for specific inhibition. Hence,
      interfering with the TRAF6-Ubc13 association may prove effective in suppressing
      the NFkB disease pathway. In the present study, we searched the TRAF6-Ubc13
      interaction interface to analyze their binding hotspot amino acid residues using
      various computational techniques. Heterocyclic compounds are known for their
      medicinal properties. We screened for heterocyclic analogues to the known TRAF6
      inhibitor PDTC, to predict a better inhibitor using in silico protein-ligand and
      protein-protein interaction studies. Our in silico prediction results suggest
      that tetrahydro-2-thiophenecarbothioamide (Chemspider ID 36027528) binds one of
      the major hot-spot residues of TRAF6-Ubc13 interface and can be a better
      alternative in suppressing TRA6-Ubc13 complex formation in chronic inflammation
      than PDTC.

PMID- 28869836
TI  - Toward a generalized computational workflow for exploiting transient pockets as
      new targets for small molecule stabilizers: Application to the homogentisate 1,2
      dioxygenase mutants at the base of rare disease Alkaptonuria.
AB  - Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an inborn error of metabolism where mutation of
      homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HGD) gene leads to a deleterious or misfolded
      product with subsequent loss of enzymatic degradation of homogentisic acid (HGA)
      whose accumulation in tissues causes ochronosis and degeneration. There is no
      licensed therapy for AKU. Many missense mutations have been individuated as
      responsible for quaternary structure disruption of the native hexameric HGD. A
      new approach to the treatment of AKU is here proposed aiming to totally or
      partially rescue enzyme activity by targeting of HGD with pharmacological
      chaperones, i.e. small molecules helping structural stability. Co-factor pockets
      from oligomeric proteins have already been successfully exploited as targets for
      such a strategy, but no similar sites are present at HGD surface; hence,
      transient pockets are here proposed as a target for pharmacological chaperones.
      Transient pockets are detected along the molecular dynamics trajectory of the
      protein and filtered down to a set of suitable sites for structural stabilization
      by mean of biochemical and pharmacological criteria. The result is a
      computational workflow relevant to other inborn errors of metabolism requiring
      rescue of oligomeric, misfolded enzymes.

PMID- 28869834
TI  - PKR activation causes inflammation and MMP-13 secretion in human degenerated
      articular chondrocytes.
AB  - Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease affecting a large population
      of people. Although the elevated expression of PKR (double stranded RNA-dependent
      protein kinase) and MMP-13 (collagenase-3) have been indicated to play pivotal
      roles in the pathogenesis of OA, the exact mechanism underlying the regulation of
      MMP-13 by PKR following inflammatory stimulation was relatively unknown. The
      purpose of this study was to determine the signaling pathway involved in the PKR
      mediated induction of MMP-13 after TNF-alpha-stimulation. In this study,
      cartilages of knee joint were obtained from OA subjects who underwent
      arthroplastic knee surgery. Cartilages were used for tissue analysis or for
      chondrocytes isolation. In results, the upregulated expression of PKR was
      observed in damaged OA cartilages as well as in TNF-alpha-stimulated
      chondrocytes. Phosphorylation of PKC (protein kinase C) was found after TNF-alpha
      administration or PKR activation using poly(I:C), indicating PKC was regulated by
      PKR. The subsequent increased activity of NADPH oxidase led to oxidative stress
      accumulation and antioxidant capacity downregulation followed by an exaggerated
      inflammatory response with elevated levels of COX-2 and IL-8 via ERK/NF-kappaB
      pathway. Activated ERK pathway also impeded the inhibition of MMP-13 by PPAR
      gamma. These findings demonstrated that TNF-alpha-induced PKR activation
      triggered oxidative stress-mediated inflammation and MMP-13 in human
      chondrocytes. Unraveling these deregulated signaling cascades will deepen our
      knowledge of OA pathophysiology and provide aid in the development of novel
      therapies.

PMID- 28869837
TI  - Simultaneous sound velocity and thickness measurement by the ultrasonic pitch
      catch method for corrosion-layer-forming polymeric materials.
AB  - Since thermosetting resins have excellent resistance to chemicals, fiber
      reinforced plastics composed of such resins and reinforcement fibers are widely
      used as construction materials for equipment in chemical plants. Such equipment
      is usually used for several decades under severe corrosive conditions so that
      failure due to degradation may result. One of the degradation behaviors in
      thermosetting resins under chemical solutions is "corrosion-layer-forming"
      degradation. In this type of degradation, surface resins in contact with a
      solution corrode, and some of them remain asa corrosion layer on the pristine
      part. It is difficult to precisely measure the thickness of the pristine part of
      such degradation type materials by conventional pulse-echo ultrasonic testing,
      because the sound velocity depends on the degree of corrosion of the polymeric
      material. In addition, the ultrasonic reflection interface between the pristine
      part and the corrosion layer is obscure. Thus, we propose a pitch-catch method
      using a pair of normal and angle probes to measure four parameters: the
      thicknesses of the pristine part and the corrosion layer, and their respective
      sound velocities. The validity of the proposed method was confirmed by measuring
      a two-layer sample and a sample including corroded parts. The results demonstrate
      that the pitch-catch method can successfully measure the four parameters and
      evaluate the residual thickness of the pristine part in the corrosion-layer
      forming sample.

PMID- 28869839
TI  - Interventions aimed at closing the social class achievement gap: changing
      individuals, structures, and construals.
AB  - Understanding the sources of the social class achievement gap in education is an
      important step toward ensuring that education serves its purpose as an engine of
      social mobility. The goal of the current article is to provide a brief overview
      of the sources of the social class achievement gap as well as interventions aimed
      at closing this gap. We outline three major sources of the social class
      achievement gap-individual skills, structural conditions, and people's processes
      of meaning-making, or construals-and the interventions that target them. While
      all of these interventions can effect change, we propose that interventions will
      be most effective when tailored to fit the specific needs of students and the
      context in which they are delivered.

PMID- 28869838
TI  - FGFR2-Driven Signaling Counteracts Tamoxifen Effect on ERalpha-Positive Breast
      Cancer Cells.
AB  - Signaling mediated by growth factors receptors has long been suggested as one of
      the key factors responsible for failure of endocrine treatment in breast cancer
      (BCa). Herein we present that in the presence of tamoxifen, FGFs (Fibroblast
      Growth Factors) promote BCa cell growth with the strongest effect being produced
      by FGF7. FGFR2 was identified as a mediator of FGF7 action and the FGFR2-induced
      signaling was found to underlie cancer-associated fibroblasts-dependent
      resistance to tamoxifen. FGF7/FGFR2-triggered pathway was shown to induce ER
      phosphorylation, ubiquitination and subsequent ER proteasomal degradation which
      counteracted tamoxifen-promoted ER stabilization. We also identified activation
      of PI3K/AKT signaling targeting ER-Ser167 and regulation of Bcl-2 expression as a
      mediator of FGFR2-promoted resistance to tamoxifen. Analysis of tissue samples
      from patients with invasive ductal carcinoma revealed an inversed correlation
      between expression of FGFR2 and ER, thus supporting our in vitro data. These
      results unveil the complexity of ER regulation by FGFR2-mediated signaling likely
      to be associated with BCa resistance to endocrine therapy.

PMID- 28869840
TI  - The cognate facilitation effect in bilingual lexical decision is influenced by
      stimulus list composition.
AB  - Cognates share their form and meaning across languages: "winter" in English means
      the same as "winter" in Dutch. Research has shown that bilinguals process
      cognates more quickly than words that exist in one language only (e.g. "ant" in
      English). This finding is taken as strong evidence for the claim that bilinguals
      have one integrated lexicon and that lexical access is language non-selective.
      Two English lexical decision experiments with Dutch-English bilinguals
      investigated whether the cognate facilitation effect is influenced by stimulus
      list composition. In Experiment 1, the 'standard' version, which included only
      cognates, English control words and regular non-words, showed significant cognate
      facilitation (31ms). In contrast, the 'mixed' version, which also included
      interlingual homographs, pseudohomophones (instead of regular non-words) and
      Dutch-only words, showed a significantly different profile: a non-significant
      disadvantage for the cognates (8ms). Experiment 2 examined the specific impact of
      these three additional stimuli types and found that only the inclusion of Dutch
      words significantly reduced the cognate facilitation effect. Additional
      exploratory analyses revealed that, when the preceding trial was a Dutch word,
      cognates were recognised up to 50ms more slowly than English controls. We suggest
      that when participants must respond 'no' to non-target language words,
      competition arises between the 'yes'- and 'no'-responses associated with the two
      interpretations of a cognate, which (partially) cancels out the facilitation that
      is a result of the cognate's shared form and meaning. We conclude that the
      cognate facilitation effect is a real effect that originates in the lexicon, but
      that cognates can be subject to competition effects outside the lexicon.

PMID- 28869841
TI  - Effects of attention on the speech reception threshold and pupil response of
      people with impaired and normal hearing.
AB  - For people with hearing difficulties, following a conversation in a noisy
      environment requires substantial cognitive processing, which is often perceived
      as effortful. Recent studies with normal hearing (NH) listeners showed that the
      pupil dilation response, a measure of cognitive processing load, is affected by
      'attention related' processes. How these processes affect the pupil dilation
      response for hearing impaired (HI) listeners remains unknown. Therefore, the
      current study investigated the effect of auditory attention on various pupil
      response parameters for 15 NH adults (median age 51 yrs.) and 15 adults with mild
      to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (median age 52 yrs.). Both groups listened
      to two different sentences presented simultaneously, one to each ear and
      partially masked by stationary noise. Participants had to repeat either both
      sentences or only one, for which they had to divide or focus attention,
      respectively. When repeating one sentence, the target sentence location (left or
      right) was either randomized or blocked across trials, which in the latter case
      allowed for a better spatial focus of attention. The speech-to-noise ratio was
      adjusted to yield about 50% sentences correct for each task and condition. NH
      participants had lower ('better') speech reception thresholds (SRT) than HI
      participants. The pupil measures showed no between-group effects, with the
      exception of a shorter peak latency for HI participants, which indicated a
      shorter processing time. Both groups showed higher SRTs and a larger pupil
      dilation response when two sentences were processed instead of one. Additionally,
      SRTs were higher and dilation responses were larger for both groups when the
      target location was randomized instead of fixed. We conclude that although HI
      participants could cope with less noise than the NH group, their ability to focus
      attention on a single talker, thereby improving SRTs and lowering cognitive
      processing load, was preserved. Shorter peak latencies could indicate that HI
      listeners adapt their listening strategy by not processing some information,
      which reduces processing time and thereby listening effort.

PMID- 28869842
TI  - Changes in intrinsic local connectivity after reading intervention in children
      with autism.
AB  - Most of the existing behavioral and cognitive intervention programs in autism
      spectrum disorders (ASD) have not been tested at the neurobiological level, thus
      falling short of finding quantifiable neurobiological changes underlying
      behavioral improvement. The current study takes a translational neuroimaging
      approach to test the impact of a structured visual imagery-based reading
      intervention on improving reading comprehension and assessing its underlying
      local neural circuitry. Behavioral and resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI)
      data were collected from children with ASD who were randomly assigned to an
      Experimental group (ASD-EXP; n=14) and a Wait-list control group (ASD-WLC; n=14).
      Participants went through an established reading intervention training program
      (Visualizing and Verbalizing for language comprehension and thinking or V/V; 4-h
      per day, 10-weeks, 200h of face-to-face instruction). Local functional
      connectivity was examined using a connection density approach from graph theory
      focusing on brain areas considered part of the Reading Network. The main results
      are as follows: (I) the ASD-EXP group showed significant improvement, compared to
      the ASD-WLC group, in their reading comprehension ability evidenced from change
      in comprehension scores; (II) the ASD-EXP group showed increased local brain
      connectivity in Reading Network regions compared to the ASD-WLC group post
      intervention; (III) intervention-related changes in local brain connectivity were
      observed in the ASD-EXP from pre to post-intervention; and (IV) improvement in
      language comprehension significantly predicted changes in local connectivity. The
      findings of this study provide novel insights into brain plasticity in children
      with developmental disorders using targeted intervention programs.

PMID- 28869843
TI  - Flexing dual-systems models: How variable cognitive control in children informs
      our understanding of risk-taking across development.
AB  - Prevailing models of the development of decision-making propose that peak risk
      taking occurs in adolescence due to a neural imbalance between two processes:
      gradual, linearly developing cognitive control and rapid, non-linearly developing
      reward-processing. Though many studies have found neural evidence supporting this
      dual-systems imbalance model, its behavioral predictions have been surprisingly
      difficult to document. Most laboratory studies have not found adolescents to
      exhibit greater risk-taking than children, and public health data show everyday
      risk-taking to peak in late adolescence/early adulthood. Moreover, when
      adolescents are provided detailed information about decision options and
      consequences, they evince similar behavior to adults. Such findings point to a
      critical feature of the development of decision-making that is missed by
      imbalance models. Specifically, the engagement of cognitive control is context
      dependent, such that cognitive control and therefore advantageous decision-making
      increases when available information is high and decreases when available
      information is low. Furthermore, the context dependence of cognitive control
      varies across development, such that increased information availability benefits
      children more than adolescents, who benefit more than adults. This review
      advances a flexible dual-systems model that is only imbalanced under certain
      conditions; explains disparities between neural, behavioral, and public health
      findings; and provides testable hypotheses for future research.

PMID- 28869844
TI  - Blindness and social trust: The effect of early visual deprivation on judgments
      of trustworthiness.
AB  - Investigating the impact of early visual deprivation on evaluations related to
      social trust has received little attention to date. This is despite consistent
      evidence suggesting that early onset blindness may interfere with the normal
      development of social skills. In this study, we investigated whether early
      blindness affects judgments of trustworthiness regarding the actions of an agent,
      with trustworthiness representing the fundamental dimension in the social
      evaluation. Specifically, we compared performance between a group of early blind
      individuals with that of sighted controls in their evaluation of trustworthiness
      of an agent after hearing a pair of two positive or two negative social behaviors
      (impression formation). Participants then repeated the same evaluation following
      the presentation of a third (consistent or inconsistent) behavior regarding the
      same agent (impression updating). Overall, blind individuals tended to give
      similar evaluations compared to their sighted counterparts. However, they also
      valued positive behaviors significantly more than sighted controls when forming
      their impression of an agent's trustworthiness. Moreover, when inconsistent
      information was provided, blind individuals were more prone to revise their
      initial evaluation compared to controls. These results suggest that early visual
      deprivation may have a dramatic effect on the evaluation of social factors such
      as trustworthiness.

PMID- 28869845
TI  - A microdevice for rapid, monoplex and colorimetric detection of foodborne
      pathogens using a centrifugal microfluidic platform.
AB  - Outbreaks of foodborne diseases have become a global health concern; hence, many
      improvements and developments have been made to reduce the risk of food
      contamination. We developed a centrifugal microfluidic automatic wireless
      endpoint detection system integrated with loop mediated isothermal amplification
      (LAMP) for monoplex pathogen detection. Six identical sets were designed on the
      microfluidic compact disc (CD) to perform 30 genetic analyses of three different
      species of foodborne pathogens. The consecutive loading, mixing, and aliquoting
      of the LAMP primers/reagents and DNA sample solutions were accomplished using an
      optimized square-wave microchannel, metering chambers and revulsion per minute
      (RPM) control. We tested 24 strains of pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli,
      Salmonella spp and Vibrio cholerae), with 8 strains of each bacterium, and
      performed DNA amplification on the microfluidic CD for 60min. Then, the amplicons
      of the LAMP reaction were detected using the calcein colorimetric method and
      further analysed via the developed electronic system interfaced with Bluetooth
      wireless technology to transmit the results to a smartphone. The system showed a
      limit of detection (LOD) of 3 * 10-5ngMUL-1 DNA by analysing the colour change
      when tested with chicken meat spiked with the three pathogenic bacteria. Since
      the entire process was performed in a fully automated way and was easy to use,
      our microdevice is suitable for point-of-care (POC) testing with high simplicity,
      providing affordability and accessibility even to poor, resource-limited
      settings.

PMID- 28869847
TI  - Adaptive response under multiple stress exposure in fish: From the molecular to
      individual level.
AB  - Aquatic systems are subjected to various sources of stress due to global changes,
      such as increasing temperature and pollution. A major challenge for the next
      decade will be to evaluate the combined effects of these multiple stressors on
      organisms and ecosystems. For organisms submitted to chemical, biological or
      physical stressors, the capacity to set up an efficient adaptive response is a
      fundamental prerequisite for their long-term survival and performance. In this
      study, goldfish (Carassius auratus) were subjected to individual and combined
      pesticide mixtures and increased temperatures to evaluate their adaptive response
      in multistress conditions from the molecular to the individual level. Fish were
      exposed for 16 days to a mixture of pesticides at environmental relevant
      concentrations (S-metolachlor, isoproturon, linuron, atrazine-desethyl,
      aclonifen, pendimethalin and tebuconazole) and at two temperatures (22  degrees C
      and 32  degrees C). Three major physiological traits of the stress response were
      measured: the hormonal response (i.e. plasma cortisol), the metabolic balance
      from molecular to individuals' levels (metabolomics, cellular energy allocation,
      energy reserves and global condition indexes), and the cellular defense system
      induction (SOD, CAT and GST). Results show that (1) environmentally relevant
      concentrations of pesticides lead to significant responses in fish at all
      biological levels; (2) the metabolic response depends on the nature of stress
      (thermal vs. chemical); and (3) fish may be unable to set up an efficient
      adaptive response when chemical and thermal stresses were combined, with adverse
      outcomes at the individuals' level.

PMID- 28869846
TI  - A statistical framework for applying RNA profiling to chemical hazard detection.
AB  - Use of 'omics technologies in environmental science is expanding. However,
      application is mostly restricted to characterizing molecular steps leading from
      toxicant interaction with molecular receptors to apical endpoints in laboratory
      species. Use in environmental decision-making is limited, due to difficulty in
      elucidating mechanisms in sufficient detail to make quantitative outcome
      predictions in any single species or in extending predictions to aquatic
      communities. Here we introduce a mechanism-agnostic statistical approach,
      supplementing mechanistic investigation by allowing probabilistic outcome
      prediction even when understanding of molecular pathways is limited, and
      facilitating extrapolation from results in laboratory test species to predictions
      about aquatic communities. We use concepts familiar to environmental managers,
      supplemented with techniques employed for clinical interpretation of 'omics-based
      biomedical tests. We describe the framework in step-wise fashion, beginning with
      single test replicates of a single RNA variant, then extending to multi-gene RNA
      profiling, collections of test replicates, and integration of complementary data.
      In order to simplify the presentation, we focus on using RNA profiling for
      distinguishing presence versus absence of chemical hazards, but the principles
      discussed can be extended to other types of 'omics measurements, multi-class
      problems, and regression. We include a supplemental file demonstrating many of
      the concepts using the open source R statistical package.

PMID- 28869848
TI  - Discriminating modes of toxic action in mice using toxicity in BALB/c mouse
      fibroblast (3T3) cells.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determine whether toxicity in mouse fibroblast
      cells (3T3 cells) could predict toxicity in mice. Synthesized data on toxicity
      was subjected to regression analysis and it was observed that relationship of
      toxicities between mice and 3T3 cells was not strong (R2 = 0.41). Inclusion of
      molecular descriptors (e.g. ionization, pKa) improved the regression to R2 =
      0.56, indicating that this relationship is influenced by kinetic processes of
      chemicals or specific toxic mechanisms associated to the compounds. However, to
      determine if we were able to discriminate modes of action (MOAs) in mice using
      the toxicities generated from 3T3 cells, compounds were first classified into
      "baseline" and "reactive" guided by the toxic ratio (TR) for each compound in
      mice. Sequence, binomial and recursive partitioning analyses provided strong
      predictions of MOAs in mice based upon toxicities in 3T3 cells. The correct
      classification of MOAs based on these methods was 86%. Nearly all the baseline
      compounds predicted from toxicities in 3T3 cells were identified as baseline
      compounds from the TR in mice. The incorrect assignment of MOAs for some
      compounds is hypothesized to be due to experimental uncertainty that exists in
      toxicity assays for both mice and 3T3 cells. Conversely, lack of assignment can
      also arise because some reactive compounds have MOAs that are different in mice
      compared to 3T3 cells. The methods developed here are novel and contribute to
      efforts to reduce animal numbers in toxicity tests that are used to evaluate
      risks associated with organic pollutants in the environment.

PMID- 28869849
TI  - Metabolic pathway and role of individual species in the bacterial consortium for
      biodegradation of azo dye: A biocalorimetric investigation.
AB  - In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the functional role and
      metabolic behaviour of the monoculture (Staphylococcus lentus (SL), Bacillus
      flexus (BF) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA)) in the bacterial biocenosis for
      biotransformation of an azo dye. The power-time profile obtained from consortia
      depicted three distinct peaks, which correlated well with the individual
      bacterial growth (PA > SL > BF), indicating the synergistic relation and division
      of labour in the biocenosis. The heat release pattern was used to identify the
      sequential behaviour of microbial consortia in real time. Yield calculation based
      on total heat liberated to the complete substrate utilization Y (Q/S) for PA, SL,
      and BF were 15.99, 16.68, 7.32 kJ/L respectively. Similarly, the oxy calorific
      values Y (Q/O) for the above species are respectively 386, 375, 440 kJ/mol and
      indicates the aerobic nature of microorganism employed. Further, the metabolome
      produced during the biotransformation were identified using Gas Chromatography
      Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), based on which a plausible pathway was predicted. The
      abundant metabolites were palmitic acid (m/z = 256) and diethyl phthalate (m/z =
      222.2). The abundance of diethyl phthalate was much lesser in the consortia
      compared to the monoculture. Thus, the biocalorimetric heat yield calculation
      along with the stoichiometry and plausible pathway based biochemical elucidation
      provides a mechanistic basis for understanding the azo-dye biotransformation by
      the monocultures in consortia.

PMID- 28869850
TI  - The incidence and epidemiology of eldercide in the city of Johannesburg, South
      Africa.
AB  - The current study describes the incidence and epidemiological characteristics of
      eldercide (homicides among victims aged 60 years and older) in Johannesburg for
      the period 2001 to 2010. A retrospective population-based study was conducted on
      cases drawn from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System. A total of
      557 eldercides were recorded by NIMSS for the study period with an average annual
      rate of 23.1 per 100 000. The average annual rate for males was 42.4 per 100 000
      and 8.9 per 100 000 for females. There was little variation in the rates by race.
      Eldercide victims were predominantly male (77.4%), black (48.3%) or white
      (43.2%), and were mainly killed by firearms (44.8%) or the use of blunt force
      (27.8%), in a private residence (66.0%), on a week day (53.8%) and during the day
      (56.1%). The study also found that the characteristics of eldercide varied across
      males and females, and across black and white race groups. The high incidence of
      eldercides points to the need for interventions that give special attention to
      the risk configurations and circumstances associated with these violent deaths.

PMID- 28869852
TI  - Association between intimate partner violence and mental health among Korean
      married women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Intimate partner violence (IPV) has only attracted limited attention
      in Korea despite numerous studies in Western countries that indicate IPV is
      associated with depressive symptoms. This study examined the association of IPV
      with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation as moderated by the perceived
      gender roles of married women in South Korea. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed a data
      set of 4659 married females from the 8th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study.
      Participants were categorized into three groups of non-IPV, non-physical IPV, and
      physical IPV. The presence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation was then
      used to predict mental health outcomes. METHODS: Logistic regression helped to
      investigate the association of IPV and mental health. Furthermore, an interactive
      regression of IPV and perceived gender roles was also done. RESULTS: Each type of
      IPV (non-physical and physical) was significantly associated with depressive
      symptoms (Odds ratios [ORs]: 1.65 and 4.34; 95% confidence interval [CIs]: 1.28
      2.13 and 2.71-7.28, respectively) and suicidal ideation (ORs: 1.40 and 3.84; 95%
      CIs: 1.06-1.85 and 2.32-6.36, respectively) after adjusting for covariates. In
      addition, women who experienced IPV and reported having traditional gender roles
      were also more likely to report depressive symptoms (OR: 4.59; 95% CI: 2.90-7.28)
      and suicidal ideation (OR: 7.28; 95% CI: 3.56-14.87). CONCLUSIONS: Research
      findings indicate an increasingly marked pattern of work-family conflict in
      regard to the relationship between traditional gender roles and the effect of IPV
      on the mental health of women. Policy efforts are needed to reduce IPV as a
      mental health risk factor and address paternalistic traditions deeply rooted in
      Korean society that place women in an inferior family status.

PMID- 28869851
TI  - Repurposing ribosomes for synthetic biology.
AB  - The translation system is the cell's factory for protein biosynthesis, stitching
      together hundreds to thousands of amino acids into proteins, which are required
      for the structure, function, and regulation of living systems. The extraordinary
      synthetic capability of this system, which includes the ribosome and its
      associated factors required for polymerization, has driven extensive efforts to
      harness it for societal use in areas as diverse as energy, materials, and
      medicine. A powerful example is recombinant protein production, which has
      impacted the lives of patients through the synthesis of biopharmaceuticals such
      as insulin. In nature, however, only limited sets of monomers are utilized,
      thereby resulting in limited sets of biopolymers (i.e., proteins). Expanding
      nature's repertoire of ribosomal monomers could yield new classes of enzymes,
      therapeutics, materials, and chemicals with diverse, genetically encoded
      chemistry. Here, we discuss recent progress towards engineering ribosomes both in
      vivo and in vitro. These fundamental and technical breakthroughs open doors for
      advanced applications in biotechnology and synthetic biology.

PMID- 28869853
TI  - Association of smoking status with substance use and psychological distress in
      Serbia.

PMID- 28869854
TI  - Estimating the effect of finite depth of field in single-particle cryo-EM.
AB  - The extent to which the resolution varies within a three-dimensional (3-D)
      reconstruction, when the diameter of an object is large, is investigated
      computationally. Numerical simulation is used to model ideal three-dimensional
      point-spread functions at different radial positions within an object. It is
      shown that reconstructed density maps are affected less than might have been
      expected when particles are larger than the depth of field. This favorable
      outcome is attributed mainly to the fact that a point which lies outside the
      depth of field relative to the center, for some orientations of the object, will
      also lie within the depth of field for other orientations. We find, as a result,
      that the diameter of a particle can be as much as four times the depth of field
      (as defined by a 90 degrees  phase-error criterion) before curvature of the Ewald
      sphere becomes a limiting factor in determining the resolution that can be
      achieved.

PMID- 28869855
TI  - Reactivity of 12-tungstophosphoric acid and its inhibitor potency toward Na+/K+
      ATPase: A combined 31P NMR study, ab initio calculations and crystallographic
      analysis.
AB  - Influence of 12-tungstophosphoric acid (WPA) on conversion of adenosine
      triphosphate (ATP) to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) in the presence of Na+/K+
      ATPase was monitored by 31P NMR spectroscopy. It was shown that WPA exhibits
      inhibitory effect on Na+/K+-ATPase activity. In order to study WPA reactivity and
      intermolecular interactions between WPA oxygen atoms and different proton donor
      types (D=O, N, C), we have considered data for WPA based compounds from the
      Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), the Crystallographic Open Database (COD) and
      the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD). Binding properties of Keggin's
      anion in biological systems are illustrated using Protein Data Bank (PDB). This
      work constitutes the first determination of theoretical Bader charges on
      polyoxotungstate compound via the Atom In Molecule theory. An analysis of
      electrostatic potential maps at the molecular surface and charge of WPA,
      resulting from DFT calculations, suggests that the preferred protonation site
      corresponds to WPA bridging oxygen. These results enlightened WPA chemical
      reactivity and its potential biological applications such as the inhibition of
      the ATPase activity.

PMID- 28869856
TI  - Detection rates, trends in and factors affecting observed levels of selected
      volatile organic compounds in blood among US adolescents and adults.
AB  - Data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed to
      evaluate detection rates, trend in and factors affecting the observed levels of
      1,4-dichlorobenzene, benzene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, styrene, toluene, and m/p
      xylene among US adolescents and adults over 2005-2012. Over 2005-20102, among
      adolescents, detection rates declined by more than 50% for benzene, ethylbenzene,
      and o-xylene, and among adults, detection rates declined by more than 50% for
      ethylbenzene and o-xylene and by a little less than 50% for benzene. Among
      adults, adjusted levels of 1, 4-dichlorobenzene, benzene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene,
      toluene, and m/p-xylene decreased by 13.7%, 17.1%, 20%, 17.7%, 23.2%, and 18.7%
      respectively for every two-year survey cycle. Among adolescents, percentage
      decline in the levels of 1, 4-dichlorobenzene, benzene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene,
      styrene, toluene, and m/p-xylene was 15.2%, 21.4%, 19.3%, 16.1%, 47.8%, and 17.7%
      respectively for every two year survey period. The ratio of adjusted geometric
      means for adult smokers as compared to adult nonsmokers was 10.7 for benzene, 3.5
      for ethylbenzene, 2.0 for o-xylene, 3.4 for styrene, 3.5 for toluene, and 2.2 for
      m/p-xylene. Among adolescents, gender did not affect the adjusted levels of any
      of the seven VOCs, and the order in which adjusted levels for 1, 4
      dichlorobenzene by race/ethnicity was observed was: non-Hispanic white
      (0.038ng/mL)<Mexican American (0.102ng/mL)<non-Hispanic black (0.178ng/mL) and
      most of the pairwise comparisons were statistically significantly different
      (p<=0.02) but race/ethnicity did not affect the adjusted levels for benzene,
      ethylbenzene, o-xylene, styrene, toluene, and m/p-xylene. For benzene, males had
      lower levels of adjusted geometric means (AGM) than females (0.021 vs.
      0.025ng/mL). For adults, gender did not affect the adjusted levels of 1, 4
      dicholorobenzene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, styrene, toluene, and m/p-xylene.

PMID- 28869857
TI  - BDE-47 and BDE-85 stimulate insulin secretion in INS-1 832/13 pancreatic beta
      cells through the thyroid receptor and Akt.
AB  - PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) are environmental pollutants that have
      been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes, however, the precise
      mechanisms are not clear. Particularly, their direct effect on insulin secretion
      is unknown. In this study, we show that two PBDE congeners, BDE-47 and BDE-85,
      potentiate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) in INS-1 832/13 cells.
      This effect of BDE-47 and BDE-85 on GSIS was dependent on thyroid receptor (TR).
      Both BDE-47 and BDE-85 (10MUM) activated Akt during an acute exposure. The
      activation of Akt by BDE-47 and BDE-85 plays a role in their potentiation of
      GSIS, as pharmacological inhibition of PI3K, an upstream activator of Akt,
      significantly lowers GSIS compared to compounds alone. This study shows that BDE
      47 and BDE-85 directly act on pancreatic beta-cells to stimulate GSIS, and that
      this effect is mediated by the thyroid receptor (TR) and Akt activation.

PMID- 28869858
TI  - Internalized stigma as an independent risk factor for substance use problems
      among primary care patients: Rationale and preliminary support.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about internalized stigma among primary care
      patients, and whether the presence of internalized stigma is related to the
      severity of substance use problems independent of substance use-related
      variables. We sought to examine the relationship between internalized stigma and
      substance use problems among primary care patients with opioid or alcohol use
      disorders (OAUDs). METHODS: We present baseline data from 393 primary care
      patients who were enrolled in a study of collaborative care for OAUDs. Regression
      analyses examined the relationship between internalized stigma and substance use
      problems, controlling for demographics, psychiatric comorbidity, and
      quantity/frequency of use. RESULTS: The majority of participants reported
      thinking, at least sometimes, that they "have permanently screwed up" their lives
      (60%), and felt "ashamed" (60%), and "out of place in the world" (51%) as a
      result of their opioid or alcohol use. Higher internalized stigma was
      significantly related to more substance use problems (beta=2.68, p<0.01), even
      after the effects of covariates were accounted for. Stigma added 22%, out of 51%
      total variance explained, leading to a significant improvement in prediction of
      substance use problems. CONCLUSIONS: Among this group of primary care patients
      with OAUDs, rates of internalized stigma were comparable to those reported in
      specialty substance use treatment settings. Consistent with extant specialty care
      literature, our results suggest that internalized stigma may be a unique
      contributor that is associated with treatment outcomes, such as substance use
      problems, among primary care patients with OAUDs.

PMID- 28869859
TI  - Maternal buprenorphine treatment and infant outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Maternal buprenorphine maintenance predisposes the
      infant to exhibit neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), but there is insufficient
      published information regarding the nature of NAS and factors that contribute to
      its severity in buprenorphine-exposed infants. METHODS: The present study
      evaluated forty-one infants of buprenorphine-maintained women in comprehensive
      substance use disorder treatment who participated in an open-label study
      examining the effects of maternal buprenorphine maintenance on infant outcomes.
      Modifiers of the infant outcomes, including maternal treatment and substance use
      disorder parameters, were also evaluated. RESULTS: Fifty-nine percent of
      offspring exhibited NAS that required pharmacologic management. Both maternal
      buprenorphine dose as well as prenatal polysubstance exposure to illicit
      substance use/licit substance misuse were independently associated with NAS
      expression. Polysubstance exposure was associated with more severe NAS expression
      after controlling for the effects of buprenorphine dose. Other exposures,
      including cigarette smoking and SRI use, were not related to outcomes. Maternal
      buprenorphine dose was positively associated with lower birth weight and length.
      CONCLUSIONS: Polysubstance exposure was the most potent predictor of NAS severity
      in this sample of buprenorphine-exposed neonates. This finding suggests the need
      for interventions that reduce maternal polysubstance use during medication
      assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, and highlights the necessity of a
      comprehensive approach, beyond buprenorphine treatment alone, for the optimal
      care for pregnant women with opioid use disorders.

PMID- 28869860
TI  - Evaluation of sexual dysfunction in Parkinson's disease between two different
      regions of Turkey.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to evaluate sexual dysfunction (SD) between
      two different regions of Turkey in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-three PD patients in Ordu and 71 patients in Istanbul
      were included. The Unified PD Rating Scale and Hoehn and Yahr Stage (HYS) scale
      were used to assess disease severity. Cognitive function was assessed by the Mini
      Mental State Examination (MMSE). The sexual functions of the patients were
      evaluated with applying the Turkish version of the Arizona Sexual Experiences
      Scale (ASEX). RESULTS: Mean age of patients in Istanbul was 67.25+/-8.34years and
      mean age of patients in Ordu was 67.98+/-8.93 (p=0.66). There was 87.33% SD in
      Istanbul group and 95.35% in Ordu group (p=0.20) respectively. In terms of ASEX
      score, no difference was found between the Istanbul and Ordu groups. ASEX scores
      were significantly higher in females in both groups. CONCLUSION: In this study,
      we have found that living in the different regions of our country does not have
      an impact on sexual function in PD patients.

PMID- 28869861
TI  - Dimensions of organized activity involvement among Latino youth: Impact on well
      being.
AB  - Well-being, including self- and academic perceptions, is a key element of Latino
      adolescents' experiences. One factor that may be related to well-being among
      Latino adolescents is organized activity (OA) involvement. Drawing on a risk and
      resilience framework and utilizing principles of positive youth development, the
      current study aimed to examine this relation using hierarchical linear modeling
      (HLM) with nested data from 660 Latino-identified youth in the National Education
      Longitudinal Study: 88 (NELS:88). Furthermore, home language, sex, and family SES
      were explored as possible moderators of relations between dimensions of OA and
      well-being. After accounting for prior levels of well-being, results suggest that
      OA participation, particularly OA intensity, is related to greater self-worth,
      locus of control, and educational expectations, and that the4se relations may be
      even stronger for youth from low-SES backgrounds. Implications for future
      research and policy are discussed.

PMID- 28869862
TI  - BMP-2 and BMP-9 binding specificities with ALK-3 in aqueous solution with
      dynamics.
AB  - Signal ligands of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily
      include the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). BMPs bind to type I and type II
      serine-threonine kinase receptors and trigger the transphosphorylation cascade,
      wherein the active type II receptor phosphorylates the inactive type I receptor.
      This process further activates the cytoplasmic effectors of the pathway, such as
      SMAD proteins, which are homologs of both the Drosophila protein MAD (mothers
      against decapentaplegic) and the Caenorhabditis elegans protein SMA (small body
      size). Even though biological and medicinal studies have been performed on these
      complex species, we currently do not know the underlying molecular mechanisms of
      the signal ligand interactions with the receptors. Detailed understanding of
      these interactions increases our knowledge about these proteins, and also can
      provide the lacking information for successful mutation experiments. This study
      focuses on the computational analysis of binding affinities and structural
      binding specificities of two different types of BMPs (BMP-2 and BMP-9) to the
      activin receptor-like kinases (ALK-3) in solution. For studying the binding
      characteristics of BMP-2 or BMP-9 with ALK-3 in aqueous solution, we performed
      extensive molecular dynamics simulations coupled with thermodynamic calculations.
      The calculated thermodynamic properties show that the BMP-2/ALK-3 complex is
      thermodynamically more stable than a possible BMP-9/ALK-3 species in aqueous
      solution. The binding free energies indicate that ALK-3 preferably binds to BMP-2
      instead of BMP-9. The structural analysis shows that ALK-3 binding with BMP-2
      occurs in a perfectly symmetry pathway, whereas this symmetry is lost for
      possible ALK-3 interactions with BMP-9. The Phe49 to Val70 loop region of BMP-2
      presents strong inter-molecular interactions with ALK-3. On the other hand, BMP-9
      presents weaker interactions with ALK-3 via a non-continuous sequence. ALK-3
      binding region of BMP-2 corresponds to the region predicted to be flexible by our
      intrinsic disorder analysis, whereas the related region of BMP-9 is expected to
      be noticeably less flexible. This study proposes that mutating the BMP-9 with the
      partial Phe49 to Val70 sequence of BMP-2 can help to increase the reactivity of
      BMP-9 towards stable ALK-3 binding, which in turn has the potential to develop
      new signaling pathways for improving the formation of tissues and to prevent or
      treat severe diseases. Furthermore, this study also demonstrates the usefulness
      of theoretical physical chemistry tools, such as molecular dynamics simulations
      and the ProtMet simulation software package in the structural characterization of
      the TGF-beta superfamily proteins.

PMID- 28869864
TI  - ImmunoPEGliposomes for the targeted delivery of novel lipophilic drugs to red
      blood cells in a falciparum malaria murine model.
AB  - Most drugs currently entering the clinical pipeline for severe malaria
      therapeutics are of lipophilic nature, with a relatively poor solubility in
      plasma and large biodistribution volumes. Low amounts of these compounds do
      consequently accumulate in circulating Plasmodium-infected red blood cells,
      exhibiting limited antiparasitic activity. These drawbacks can in principle be
      satisfactorily dealt with by stably encapsulating drugs in targeted nanocarriers.
      Here this approach has been adapted for its use in immunocompetent mice infected
      by the Plasmodium yoelii 17XL lethal strain, selected as a model for human blood
      infections by Plasmodium falciparum. Using immunoliposomes targeted against a
      surface protein characteristic of the murine erythroid lineage, the protocol has
      been applied to two novel antimalarial lipophilic drug candidates, an
      aminoquinoline and an aminoalcohol. Large encapsulation yields of >90% were
      obtained using a citrate-buffered pH gradient method and the resulting
      immunoliposomes reached in vivo erythrocyte targeting and retention efficacies of
      >80%. In P. yoelii-infected mice, the immunoliposomized aminoquinoline succeeded
      in decreasing blood parasitemia from severe to uncomplicated malaria parasite
      densities (i.e. from >=25% to ca. 5%), whereas the same amount of drug
      encapsulated in non-targeted liposomes had no significant effect on parasite
      growth. Pharmacokinetic analysis indicated that this good performance was
      obtained with a rapid clearance of immunoliposomes from the circulation (blood
      half-life of ca. 2 h), suggesting a potential for improvement of the proposed
      model.

PMID- 28869863
TI  - Understanding molecular interactions between scavenger receptor A and its natural
      product inhibitors through molecular modeling studies.
AB  - Scavenger receptor A (SRA), as an immune regulator, has been shown to play
      important roles in lipid metabolism, cardiovascular diseases, and pathogen
      recognition. Several natural product inhibitors of SRA have been studied for
      their potential application in modulating SRA functions. To understand the
      binding mode of these inhibitors on SRA, we conducted systematic molecular
      modeling studies in order to identify putative binding domain(s) that may be
      responsible for their recognition to the receptor as well as their inhibitory
      activity. Treatment of SRA with one of the natural product inhibitors, rhein, led
      to significant dissociation of SRA oligomers to its trimer and dimer forms, which
      further supported our hypothesis on their putative mechanism of action. Such
      information is believed to shed light on design of more potent inhibitors for the
      receptor in order to develop potential therapeutics through immune system
      modulation.

PMID- 28869865
TI  - Visual in vivo degradation of injectable hydrogel by real-time and non-invasive
      tracking using carbon nanodots as fluorescent indicator.
AB  - Visual in vivo degradation of hydrogel by fluorescence-related tracking and
      monitoring is crucial for quantitatively depicting the degradation profile of
      hydrogel in a real-time and non-invasive manner. However, the commonly used
      fluorescent imaging usually encounters limitations, such as intrinsic
      photobleaching of organic fluorophores and uncertain perturbation of degradation
      induced by the change in molecular structure of hydrogel. To address these
      problems, we employed photoluminescent carbon nanodots (CNDs) with low
      photobleaching, red emission and good biocompatibility as fluorescent indicator
      for real-time and non-invasive visual in vitro/in vivo degradation of injectable
      hydrogels that are mixed with CNDs. The in vitro/in vivo toxicity results
      suggested that CNDs were nontoxic. The embedded CNDs in hydrogels did not diffuse
      outside in the absence of hydrogel degradation. We had acquired similar
      degradation kinetics (PBS-Enzyme) between gravimetric and visual determination,
      and established mathematical equation to quantitatively depict in vitro
      degradation profile of hydrogels for the predication of in vivo hydrogel
      degradation. Based on the in vitro data, we developed a visual platform that
      could quantitatively depict in vivo degradation behavior of new injectable
      biomaterials by real-time and non-invasive fluorescence tracking. This
      fluorescence-related visual imaging methodology could be applied to subcutaneous
      degradation of injectable hydrogel with down to 7 mm depth in small animal trials
      so far. This fluorescence-related visual imaging methodology holds great
      potentials for rational design and convenient in vivo screening of biocompatible
      and biodegradable injectable hydrogels in tissue engineering.

PMID- 28869866
TI  - Synergistic antitumor effect mediated by a paclitaxel-conjugated polymeric
      micelle-coated oncolytic adenovirus.
AB  - Combination treatment consisting of oncolytic adenovirus (Ad) and paclitaxel
      (PTX) is a promising strategy to achieve synergistic antitumor effect. However, a
      co-administration approach is subject to inherent limitations due to the poor
      solubility of PTX and chemoresistance of tumor cells. In order to overcome these
      limitations, an oncolytic Ad expressing a p53 variant (oAd-vp53) that is
      resistant to p53 inactivation in the tumor microenvironment was complexed with
      PEGylated and PTX-conjugated polymeric micelle (APP). This approach generated an
      oAd-vp53/APP complex (176.4 nm in diameter) that could concurrently deliver both
      oncolytic Ad and the nanoparticulate drug APP to tumors. APP-complexed
      replication-incompetent Ad (dAd/APP) exhibited 12-fold higher transduction
      efficiency than naked dAd in coxsackie adenovirus receptor (CAR)-negative cancer
      cells. This increased efficiency was attributed to more efficient cellular
      internalization mediated by charge interactions between APP and anionic cell
      membranes. Furthermore, oAd-vp53/APP elicited synergistically higher cancer cell
      killing than naked oAd-vp53, APP, or oAd-vp53 in combination with PTX (oAd-vp53 +
      PTX); this synergistic effect was shown to be due to superior induction of
      apoptosis and viral replication. Importantly, oAd-vp53/APP induced more potent
      and synergistic antitumor effect through both local and systemic administration
      by enhancing replication of oncolytic Ad and induction of apoptosis in tumor
      tissue. Further, the APP coating on the surface of Ad markedly attenuated the
      host immune response against Ad and decreased hepatic sequestration, resulting in
      minimal hepatotoxicity and a good safety profile. These attributes enabled oAd
      vp53/APP to elicit potent antitumor effect over multiple treatment cycles.
      Altogether, we demonstrate that concurrent delivery of oncolytic Ad and APP as a
      single nanocomplex is a promising strategy for achieving synergistic antitumor
      effect.

PMID- 28869867
TI  - Atopic dermatitis and psoriasis: two different immune diseases or one spectrum?
AB  - Psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD) are common T-cell mediated inflammatory
      diseases of the skin that can be treated by specific cytokine antagonists or more
      broad immunosuppressive drugs. The diseases are similar in that epidermal
      keratinocytes respond to T-cell derived cytokines by altering growth and
      differentiation responses, accounting for major parts of the overall disease
      phenotype. When studied across European-American populations, psoriasis and AD
      display differing T-cell polarity and different arrays of cytokines. Psoriasis is
      a disease largely driven by Th17 T-cells and associated IL-17 activation, while
      AD has a strong Th2 component associated with IL-4 and IL-13 over-production, and
      both diseases have activation of Th22 T-cells and Th1 pathways with increased IL
      22 and IFNgamma production, respectively. AD is a disease frequently associated
      with increased IgE production and overt allergies or asthma, most likely due to
      increased Th2 activation, which is largely lacking in psoriasis. Hence, psoriasis
      and AD can be viewed as distinct diseases with differing clinical, tissue, and
      molecular disease phenotypes, but this view does not account for specific
      subtypes of AD, including Asian-origin, intrinsic, and pediatric AD, that have a
      prominent IL-17 component and also tissue patterning that overlaps with
      distinctive psoriasis histopathology. Hence, when considering the range of AD
      phenotypes, a case can be made that psoriasis and AD exist across a spectrum
      where polar T-cell axes can be variably present and create some overlapping
      disease characteristics. Today, ~90% of psoriasis patients have extremely
      controlled disease by targeting the IL-23/Th17 T-cell axis with IL-23 or IL-17
      targeting antibodies. An outstanding question is whether targeting a single
      cytokine axis in AD, for example, Th2 axis, will lead to disease suppression in
      the majority of patients and across all subtypes, including those with higher IL
      17 expression, or whether it is necessary to personalize therapies and target
      multiple T-cell axes to attain similar disease improvement to psoriasis.

PMID- 28869868
TI  - Patient and program costs, and outcomes, of including gender-sensitive services
      in intensive inpatient programs for substance use.
AB  - Gender-sensitive services (GSS) attempt to make substance use treatment better
      for women, but at what cost and with what results? We sought answers to these
      questions in a federally-funded study by measuring separately the patient and
      provider costs of adding GSS, outcomes, and cost-outcome relationships for 12
      mixed-gender intensive inpatient programs (IIP) that varied in amounts and types
      of GSS. GSS costs to female inpatients included time devoted to GSS and expenses
      for care of dependents while in the IIP. GSS costs to providers included time
      spent with patients, indirect services, treatment facilities, equipment, and
      materials. Offering more GSS was expected to consume more patient and provider
      resources. Offering more GSS also was expected to enhance outcomes and cost
      outcome relationships. We found that average GSS costs to patients at the IIPs
      were $585 ($515-$656) per patient. Average GSS costs to providers at the IIPs
      were $344 ($42-$544) per patient. GSS costs to patients significantly exceeded
      GSS costs to providers. Contrary to previous research, offering more GSS services
      to patients did not result in significantly higher costs to patients or
      providers. IIPs offering more GSS may have delivered fewer traditional services,
      but this did not significantly affect outcomes, i.e., days until returning to
      another substance use treatment. In fact, median cost-outcome for these IIPs was
      a promising 35 treatment-free days, i.e., over a month, per $100 of GSS resources
      used by patients and providers.

PMID- 28869869
TI  - SYK protects cardiocytes against anoxia and hypoglycemia-induced injury in
      ischemic heart failure.
AB  - Spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK), a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase, is reported
      to be related to cell survival after A/H (anoxia/hypoglycemia) insult. However,
      the role of SYK in cardiocyte survival under A/H injury remains unclear. In this
      study, we aimed to gain insight into the role and molecular mechanism of SYK in
      cardiocytes exposed to A/H stress. The mRNA and protein expressions of SYK in
      H9c2 cardiocytes exposed to A/H injury, separately detected by real-time
      quantitative PCR and Western blot, were both robustly up-regulated. Then we
      overexpressed SYK in H9c2 with A/H injury, and found that cell viability was
      significantly increased and LDH leakage was decreased. Moreover, apoptosis
      measured by annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide and reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) identified by 2', 7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate were
      markedly inhibited in H9c2 with A/H injury following SYK overexpression.
      Furthermore, we observed that SYK could induce HO-1 expression by regulating the
      Akt phosphorylation level in H9c2 with A/H injury, protecting H9c2 from the
      injury induced by A/H treatment.

PMID- 28869870
TI  - The hematological and biochemical changes in rats exposed to britholite mineral.
AB  - The present study was to investigate the alteration of biochemical and
      hematological parameters on the rats exposed to natural radiation caused by
      britholite mineral (REE, Ca, Na)5 [(Si,P)O4]3(OH,F) within 15 days. Britholite
      was collected from Kuluncak mining area, Malatya, bearing radioactive 232Th
      isotope (average 2.68% ThO2), which is rare earth elements found high amounts.
      Britholite is toxic for the living animal and human and emits the radiation to
      natural surroundings about 0.8R/h due to its radioactive 232Th properties. In
      this study, animals were divided to two groups, one groups exposed to 232Th, the
      other group was served as control group. All animals were fed with same food and
      water during the experimental study (15 days). After 15 days, the hematologic and
      biochemical parameters (Na, K, Ca, P, Cl, Mg, glucose, cholesterol, HDL, LDL,
      albumin, Uric acid, AST, ALT, total protein, Fe, urea and creatine level and
      hormonal parameters (TSH, T3 and T4)) were analyzed The levels of serum
      triglyceride in the ionizing radiation group generated by 232Th isotope (p <
      0.05) statistically significantly increased compared with control group value.
      Lymphocytes, TSH, T3 and T4 decreased in the ionizing radiation group generated
      by 232Th isotope while neutrophils increased in the ionizing radiation group
      generated by 232Th isotope. The rats exposed to ionizing radiation generated by
      232Th isotope caused significant changes in the hematological and biochemical
      parameters and the most significantly alteration was observed in the thyroid
      hormonal levels, which might be due to high radiation doses within short time.
      These results should be kept in mind to maintain healthy life in people who lives
      in britholite mineral vicinity.

PMID- 28869871
TI  - Biochemical characterization and homology modeling of polyamine oxidase from
      cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.
AB  - The intracellular polyamine contents are regulated not only by polyamine
      biosynthesis and transport but also by polyamine degradation catalyzed by copper
      dependent amine oxidase (DAO) and FAD-dependent polyamine oxidase (PAO). The
      genome sequence of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 reveals the presence of at least
      one putative polyamine oxidase gene, slr5093. The open reading frame of slr5093
      encoding Synechocystis polyamine oxidase (SynPAO, E.C. 1.5.3.17) was expressed in
      Escherichia coli. The purified recombinant enzyme had the characteristic
      absorption spectrum of a flavoprotein with absorbance peaks at 380 and 450 nm.
      The optimum pH and temperature for the oxidation of both spermidine and spermine
      are 8.5 and 30  degrees C, respectively. The enzyme catalyzed the conversion of
      spermine and spermidine to spermidine and putrescine, respectively, with higher
      catalytic efficiency when spermine served as substrate. These results suggest
      that SynPAO is a polyamine oxidase involved in a polyamine back-conversion
      pathway. Based on the structural analysis, Gln94, Tyr403 and Thr440 in SynPAO are
      predicted to be important residues in the active site.

PMID- 28869872
TI  - Semi-preparative high-performance countercurrent chromatography method for the
      purification of chemically synthesized ATP analogue, ApppI.
AB  - An efficient high-performance countercurrent chromatography (HPCCC) based method
      has been developed for the purification of chemically synthesized 1-adenosin-5'
      yl 3-(3-methylbut-3-enyl)triphosphoric acid diester (ApppI). ApppI is an
      adenosine triphosphate (ATP) analogue with biological significance due to its
      varied actions in the body. ApppI was synthesized and purified as its
      tetrabutylammonium (TBA) salt and converted successfully into its more practical
      sodium salt form after purification. The amount of TBA hydroxide (2.0, 2.5 and
      3.0 eq) used in the synthesis of ApppI was shown to exert an effect on the
      purification process with HPCCC and on the overall yield (8%, 16% and 22%,
      respectively). 1-Adenosin-5'-yl 3-(3-methylbut-3-enyl)diphosphoric acid diester
      (AppI) was also isolated as a side product.

PMID- 28869873
TI  - HPLC-MS/MS method for bioavailability study of bruceines D & E in rat plasma.
AB  - Bruceines D and E are quassinoids from seeds of Brucea javanica (L.) Merr.
      exhibiting hypoglycemia effect. The crude drug is used as a traditional medicine
      by diabetes patients. The aim of this study is to understand the bioavailability
      and pharmacokinetics of both the bruceines D & E. A rapid and sensitive HPLC
      MS/MS method was developed and validated for the quantification of both
      quassinoids, bruceines D & E in rat plasma. Both the bruceines D & E were
      separated with the Zorbax SBC-18 column with gradient elution and mobile phase
      system of acetonitrile and deionized water with 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate
      of 0.5mL/min. Analytes were detected in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode
      with electrospray positive ionization. The quassinoids, namely bruceines D & E
      were detected with transitions of m/z 411.2->393.2 and m/z 395.2->377.2,
      respectively. Another quassinoid, eurycomanone was used as the internal standard
      with transition of m/z 409.2->391.2. The method was validated and conformed to
      the regulatory requirements. The validated method was applied to pharmacokinetic
      and bioavailability studies in rats. The pharmacokinetic study indicated both
      bruceine D and E were rapidly absorbed into the circulation system and reached
      its peak concentration at 0.54+/-0.34h and 0.66+/-0.30h, respectively. Bruceine E
      was eliminated slower than Bruceine D with t1/2 value almost increased two-fold
      compared to Bruceine D. In conclusion, a rapid, selective and sensitive HPLC
      MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of both the
      bruceines D and E in rat plasma. Both bruceines D and E displayed poor oral
      bioavailability.

PMID- 28869874
TI  - Effects of micro-structure on aerodynamics of Coccinella septempunctata elytra
      (ladybird) in forward flight as assessed via electron microscopy.
AB  - The effects of micro-structure on aerodynamics of Coccinella septempunctata
      (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) elytra in forward flight were investigated. The micro
      structure was examined by a scanning electron microscope and a digital
      microscope. Based on the experimental results, five elytron models were
      constructed to separately investigate the effects of the camber and the local
      corrugation in both leading edge and trailing edge on aerodynamics. Computational
      fluid dynamic simulations of five elytron models were conducted by solving the
      Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the Reynolds number of 245. The
      results show that camber and the local corrugation in the leading edge play
      significant roles in improving the aerodynamic performance, while the local
      corrugation in the trailing edge has little effect on aerodynamics.

PMID- 28869875
TI  - Ultrastructure and morphometric features of epididymal epithelium in Desmodus
      rotundus.
AB  - The blood-feeding behavior of Desmodus rotundus made this bat a potential vector
      of rabies virus and a public health issue. Consequently, the better understanding
      of its reproductive biology becomes valuable for the development of methods to
      control its population. In this study, we described morphological aspects of
      epithelial cells in D. rotundus' epididymis using light and transmission electron
      microscopy methods. The duct compartment was the main component of initial
      segment (83%), caput (90%), corpus (88%) and cauda (80%) regions. The epithelium
      lining the duct presented a progressive decrease in its height from initial
      segment to cauda regions. Moreover, the morphology of each cell type was the same
      along the entire duct. Similarly to rodents, columnar-shaped principal cells were
      the most abundant cell type throughout the epididymis, followed by basal and
      clear cells. Differently in rat and mice, the frequency of clear cells did not
      increase in the epididymis cauda, whereas the proportion of principal and basal
      cells was greater in this region. Furthermore, D. rotundus presented goblet
      shaped clear cells with the nucleus located in the apical portion of the
      epididymal epithelium. This cellular portion also presented electron-lucid
      vesicles of different sizes that may correspond to vesicles enriched with
      proteins related to proton secretion. In addition to the findings regarding clear
      cells' structural organization, basal cells presented scarce cytoplasm and no
      axiopodia. Taken these findings together, we suggest that the mechanism of
      luminal acidification may have other pathways in D. rotundus than those described
      in rodents.

PMID- 28869877
TI  - Solid-state NMR spectroscopic trends for supramolecular assemblies and protein
      aggregates.
AB  - Solid-state NMR is able to generate structural data on sample preparations that
      are explicitly non-crystalline. In particular, for amyloid fibril samples, which
      can comprise significant degrees of sample disorder, solid-state NMR has been
      used very successfully. But also solid-state NMR studies of other supramolecular
      assemblies that have resisted assessment by more standard methods are being
      performed with increasing ease and biological impact, many of which are briefly
      reviewed here. New technical trends with respect to structure calculation,
      protein dynamics and smaller sample amounts have reshaped the field of solid
      state NMR recently. In particular, proton-detected approaches based on fast Magic
      Angle Spinning (MAS) were demonstrated for crystalline systems initially.
      Currently, such approaches are being expanded to the above-mentioned non
      crystalline targets, the characterization of which can now be pursued with sample
      amounts on the order of a milligram. In this Trends article, I am giving a brief
      overview about achievements of the last years as well as the directions that the
      field has been heading into and delineate some satisfactory perspectives for
      solid-state NMR's future striving.

PMID- 28869876
TI  - Associations between internal exposure levels of persistent organic pollutants in
      adipose tissue and deep infiltrating endometriosis with or without concurrent
      ovarian endometrioma.
AB  - Endometriosis is a gynaecological disease characterized by the presence of
      ectopic endometrial tissue. Histologically, it appears as different sub-types,
      being peritoneal endometriosis, ovarian endometrioma (OvE) and deep infiltrating
      endometriosis (DIE), which are of major relevance due to their varying clinical
      presentations. A number of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been
      associated with the onset of endometriosis, yet the overall set of existing
      studies remains fairly divergent. In this preliminary case-control study we aimed
      to assess the potential associations between the internal exposure to POPs and
      the presence of DIE with or without concurrent OvE. Adipose tissue and serum
      samples were collected from surgically confirmed cases (n=55) and controls (n=44)
      enrolled during 2013 and 2015 in Pays de la Loire, France. Targeted pollutants
      (76 historical or more emerging POPs including dioxins, polychlorobiphenyls
      (PCB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs),
      hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were
      quantified by chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Odds ratios (ORs) and
      95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated from unconditional logistic
      regression adjusted for known confounding variables. The results showed
      significant associations between DIE and adipose tissue levels of 1.2.3.7.8 -
      PeCDD, OCDF, PCB 105, 114, 118 and 123, PBDE 183, PBB 153, and several OCPs
      including trans-nonachlor, cis-heptachlor epoxide, dieldrin, beta
      hexachlorocyclohexane and hexachlorobenzene. The largest associations were
      observed for OCDF followed by cis-heptachlor epoxide, exhibiting adjusted ORs
      (95% CI) of 5.42 (2.73-12.85) and 5.36 (2.44-14.84) per 1-SD increase,
      respectively. The stratified analysis comparing both disease sub-types suggested
      that adipose tissue exposure markers may be more associated with DIE concurrent
      with OvE, however these results need to be confirmed in a larger population.

PMID- 28869878
TI  - From ecstasy to MDMA: Recreational drug use, symbolic boundaries, and drug
      trends.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ecstasy pills with MDMA as the main ingredient were introduced in
      many European countries in the 1980s, and were often linked to the rave and club
      scenes. However, use gradually levelled off, in part as a response to increased
      concerns about possible mental health consequences and fatalities. Extensive use
      of MDMA now seems to be re-emerging in many countries. In this study, we
      investigated the cultural and social meaning associated with MDMA use in Oslo,
      Norway, with an emphasis on how users distinguish MDMA crystals and powder from
      "old ecstasy pills". METHODS: Qualitative in-depth interviews (n=31, 61,3% males)
      were conducted with young adult party-goers and recreational MDMA/ecstasy users
      (20-34 years old, mean age 26.2 years). RESULTS: Research participants emphasised
      three important perceived differences between the MDMA crystals and ecstasy
      pills: (i) The effects of MDMA were described as better than ecstasy; (ii) MDMA
      was regarded as a safer drug; (iii) Users of MDMA crystals were described as more
      distinct from and less anchored in out-of-fashion rave culture than those using
      ecstasy. These differences were an important part of the symbolic boundary work
      MDMA users engaged in when justifying their drug use. CONCLUSION: MDMA has re
      emerged as an important psychoactive substance in Oslo's club scene. One
      important reason for this re-emergence seems to be its perceived differentiation
      from ecstasy pills, even though the active ingredient in both drugs is MDMA. This
      perceived distinction between MDMA and ecstasy reveals the importance of social
      and symbolic meanings in relation to psychoactive substance use. Insights from
      this study can be important in terms of understanding how trends in drug use
      develop and how certain drugs gain or lose popularity.

PMID- 28869879
TI  - Hazardous child labor in Nepal: The case of brick kilns.
AB  - Hazardous child labor in Nepal is a serious concern, particularly in the brick
      kiln industry. Although a range of interventions have been implemented in Nepal
      to address hazardous child labor, there is a lack of research to both measure
      success and shape further development in interventions that integrate sound child
      protection practices to ensure the wellbeing of all children. This paper provides
      a review of the literature outlining interventions for children working in brick
      kilns in Nepal, and presents preliminary case study findings of one current
      intervention in the Kathmandu Valley. The paper highlights the strength of
      applying foundational child protection principles and advocates for the
      development and implementation of future programs underpinned by broad civil
      society principles within a child rights and protection framework.

PMID- 28869880
TI  - Psychometric properties of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Abuse Short Form
      (ACE-ASF) among Romanian high school students.
AB  - Child abuse is a major public health problem. In order to establish the
      prevalence of abuse exposure among children, measures need to be age-appropriate,
      sensitive, reliable and valid. This study aimed to investigate the psychometric
      properties of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire Abuse Short Form
      (ACE-ASF). The ACE-ASF is an 8-item, retrospective self-report questionnaire
      measuring lifetime physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Data from a nationally
      representative sample of 15-year-old, school-going adolescents (n=1733, 55.5%
      female) from the Romanian Health Behavior in School-Based Children Study 2014
      (HBSC) were analyzed. The factorial structure of the ACE-ASF was tested with
      Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and confirmed using Confirmatory Factor
      Analysis (CFA). Measurement invariance was examined across sex, and internal
      reliability and concurrent criterion validity were established. Violence exposure
      was high: 39.7% physical, 32.2% emotional and 13.1% sexual abuse. EFA established
      a two-factor structure: physical/emotional abuse and sexual abuse. CFA confirmed
      this model fitted the data well [chi2(df)=60.526(19); RMSEA=0.036;
      CFI/TLI=0.990/0.986]. Metric invariance was supported across sexes. Internal
      consistency was good (0.83) for the sexual abuse scale and poor (0.57) for the
      physical/emotional abuse scale. Concurrent criterion validity confirmed
      hypothesized relationships between childhood abuse and health-related quality of
      life, life satisfaction, self-perceived health, bullying victimization and
      perpetration, externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and multiple health
      complaints. Results support the ACE-ASF as a valid measure of physical, emotional
      and sexual abuse in school-aged adolescents. However, the ACE-ASF combines
      spanking with other types of physical abuse when this should be assessed
      separately instead. Future research is needed to replicate findings in different
      youth populations and across age groups.

PMID- 28869881
TI  - The learner as co-creator: A new peer review and self-assessment feedback form
      created by student nurses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Engagement with peer review and self-assessment is not always
      regarded by student nurses as an activity that results in a positive learning
      experience. Literature indicates that withdrawal from the learning process
      becomes attractive to individuals affected by a negative experience of peer
      review. Literature also provides examples of student nurses' feeling 'torn to
      shreds' during the process of peer review, resulting in loss of confidence and
      self-esteem. An influencing factor in such situations appears to be the absence
      of specific learner-driven criteria against which student nurses can assess peer
      and self-performance. The idea was thus ignited, that creation and utilisation of
      a learner-driven feedback form might potentially prevent, or at least minimise,
      the possibility of negative peer review experience. CONTEXT: Set within the
      context of a pre-registration nursing programme, within a Higher Education
      institution, student nurses (n=25), created a peer review/self-assessment
      feedback form. Its potential cross-discipline, global applicability is reasonably
      speculated. METHODS: Purposive sampling, followed by Stratified Random sampling,
      maximised participant variation. Data collection took place on 34 occasions,
      utilising focus group discussions using Nominal Group Technique, a practical task
      which was video recorded for mediating artefact purposes, and individual
      interviews. Analysis was concept and theme driven. FINDINGS: The study found that
      participants desired a new feedback form that specifically asks the evaluator to
      judge human qualities, such as 'compassion' and 'kindness', in addition to the
      skills and knowledge criteria that any peer review or self-assessment form used
      currently had incorporated. CONCLUSION: Providing the participants with the
      opportunity to develop criteria, against which performance could be measured,
      with emphasis being afforded to student inclusivity and resultant shift in power
      balance from the educator to the learner, embraces the idea of teaching and
      learning in the 21st Century.

PMID- 28869882
TI  - The utilization of waste by-products for removing silicate from mineral
      processing wastewater via chemical precipitation.
AB  - This study investigates an environmentally friendly technology that utilizes
      waste by-products (waste acid and waste alkali liquids) to treat mineral
      processing wastewater. Chemical precipitation is used to remove silicate from
      scheelite (CaWO4) cleaning flotation wastewater and the waste by-products are
      used as a substitute for calcium chloride (CaCl2). A series of laboratory
      experiments is conducted to explain the removal of silicate and the
      characterization and formation mechanism of calcium silicate. The results show
      that silicate removal reaches 90% when the Ca:Si molar ratio exceeds 1.0. The X
      ray diffraction (XRD) results confirm the characterization and formation of
      calcium silicate. The pH is the key factor for silicate removal, and the
      formation of polysilicic acid with a reduction of pH can effectively improve the
      silicate removal and reduce the usage of calcium. The economic analysis shows
      that the treatment costs with waste acid (0.63 $/m3) and waste alkali (1.54 $/m3)
      are lower than that of calcium chloride (2.38 $/m3). The efficient removal of
      silicate is confirmed by industrial testing at a plant. The results show that
      silicate removal reaches 85% in the recycled water from tailings dam.

PMID- 28869883
TI  - Degradation of sulfolane using activated persulfate with UV and UV-Ozone.
AB  - This study investigates the degradation of sulfolane in aqueous system by
      (NH4)2S2O8/UVC and (NH4)2S2O8/O3/UVC. While bubbling O3 significantly decreased
      the reaction time, the experimental results in both cases were consistent:
      firstly, the degradation of sulfolane followed pseudo-first order kinetic models,
      secondly, the reaction rates were affected by persulfate dosages, UV light
      intensity, initial pH and concentration of carbonate/bicarbonate present. Low
      concentration of chloride (less then 100 ppm) had no effect on the reaction rate.
      Application of (NH4)2S2O8/O3/UVA for degradation of sulfolane was also
      investigated. It was found that for higher sulfolane degradation kinetics, higher
      concentrations of persulfate was required under UVA irradiation. Finally,
      (NH4)2S2O8/UVC was evaluated for its applicability for degradation of sulfolane
      in groundwater samples.

PMID- 28869884
TI  - Serum C-peptide as a key contributor to lipid-related residual cardiovascular
      risk in the elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The serum levels of C-peptide, an important risk factor for
      cardiovascular disease (CVD), increase with age. This study aimed to investigate
      the association between serum C-peptide and increased risk for CVD with altered
      lipid metabolism in the elderly. METHODS: This was a population-based cross
      sectional study that included 3091 elderly participants aged >=65 years. Serum C
      peptide and lipid levels were measured according to standard protocols. Sampling
      weights were used to estimate the characteristics of study participants.
      Stratified analysis of covariance was used to evaluate the changes in the serum
      lipid levels according to quartiles of serum C-peptide levels, and the linear
      trend was assessed using a linear model. The logistic regression model was
      carried out to determine the association between the serum C-peptide levels and
      serum lipid levels. RESULTS: The results of the analysis of covariance stratified
      by sex and serum insulin level showed that the serum triglyceride (TG) and high
      density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were significantly associated with
      changes in the serum C-peptide levels, independent of the serum insulin level.
      The logistic regression analyses indicated that the serum C-peptide levels were
      positively associated with the serum TG levels, and negatively associated with
      the serum HDL-C levels. A significant dose-response association was obtained in
      both men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Serum C-peptide levels were strongly associated
      with increased serum TG and reduced HDL-C levels in the elderly. Our results
      suggest that serum C-peptide increases the risk of CVD via a pathway that
      increases TG or decreases HDL-C levels.

PMID- 28869885
TI  - Development and validation of a prognostic index for 6- and 12-month mortality in
      hospitalized older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Estimation of mortality in elderly patients is difficult yet very
      important when planning care. Previous tools are complicated or do no take into
      account some major determinants of mortality (i.e., frailty). We designed a
      simple, accurate, and non-disease-specific tool to predict individual mortality
      risk after hospital discharge in older adults. METHODS: Patients admitted to the
      Acute Geriatric Unit were assessed at adission and at discharge and contacted 6
      and 12 months later. Determinants of mortality were obtained. Using multivariable
      analysis, beta coeffcicients were calculated to build 2 scores able to predict
      mortality at 6 and 12 months after discharge. The scores were tested on a sample
      comprising 75% of the patients, who were randomly selected; they were validated
      using the remaining 25%. Discrimination was assessed using ROC curves. Scores
      were calculated for each patient and divided into tertiles. Survival analysis was
      performed. RESULTS: Determinants of mortality at 6 months were dependent
      ambulation at baseline, full dependence at discharge, length of stay,
      pluripatology, pressure ulcers, low grip strength, malignacy, and male gender. At
      12 months the determinants were: dependent amblation at baseline, full dependence
      at discharge, pluripatology, low BMI, low grip strength, heart failure,
      malignacy, and male gender. Discrimination and calibration were excellent.
      Survival analysis demonstrated different survival trajectories (p<0.001) for each
      tertile in both scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our incices provide accurate prognostic
      information in elderly patients after discharge. They can be calculated easily,
      quickly and do not require technical or laboratory support, thus endorsing their
      value in dalily clinical practice.

PMID- 28869886
TI  - Persistent organic pollutants in red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis) from
      Hokkaido, Japan.
AB  - The red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) from eastern Hokkaido is classified as a
      Special Natural Monument in Japan. In this study, we determined the
      concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in red-crowned crane
      muscle tissues (n = 47). Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) had the highest median
      concentration (240ng/g lipid weight), followed by dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
      and its metabolites (DDTs) (150ng/g lipid weight), chlordane-related compounds
      (CHLs) (36ng/g lipid weight), hexachlorobenzene (HCB) (16ng/g lipid weight),
      hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) (4.4ng/g lipid weight), polybrominated diphenyl
      ethers (PBDEs) (1.8ng/g lipid weight), and finally, Mirex (1.5ng/g lipid weight).
      Additionally, a positive correlation was found among POP concentrations. No sex
      differences beyond body parameters were observed. Additionally, red-crowned
      cranes exhibited a high enantiomeric excess of (+)-alpha-HCH, with enantiomer
      fractions varying from 0.51 to 0.87 (average: 0.69).

PMID- 28869887
TI  - Chronic toxicity of 1,3,5-triazine herbicides in the postembryonic development of
      the western clawed frog Silurana tropicalis.
AB  - Seven 1,3,5- triazine (s-triazine) herbicides (ametryn, prometryn, dimethametryn,
      simazine, atrazine, propazine, and cyanazine) were tested using an amphibian
      (Silurana tropicalis) metamorphosis assay focusing on morphometric, gravimetric,
      and thyroid-histological endpoints. Premetamorphic tadpoles were exposed to each
      s-triazine at 2 concentrations between 1/1000 and 1/10 of the 96-h acute toxicity
      values, until all tadpoles in the control group reached either the late
      prometamorphosic stages or the initial stage of metamorphic climax. All s
      triazines tested induced significant retardation in growth and development at the
      higher concentrations (0.2-1.0mg/L), and some of them induced similar effects
      even at the lower concentrations (0.02-0.1mg/L) while each showing a linear dose
      response. Total size of the thyroid glands tended to be reduced corresponding to
      the delayed development, but without showing histomorphological lesions typical
      of anti-thyroid chemicals. These consistent results suggest that the s-triazines
      can act as a chemical stressor inhibiting tadpole growth and development,
      possibly without disrupting the thyroid axis. In addition, tadpoles exhibiting
      spinal curvatures appeared in either one or both of the lower and higher
      concentration groups for each s-triazine tested. The incidence rate in the s
      triazine exposure groups where tadpoles with scoliosis were observed ranged from
      3.3% to 63.3%, some of which were significantly higher than that in the
      respective control groups (0-6.7%). It is speculated that the s-triazines may
      promote to occur axial malformations in developing tadpoles.

PMID- 28869888
TI  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: State-of-the-art 2017 and new therapeutic
      strategies.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a fatal malignancy with an overall 5
      year survival of 8% for all stages combined. The majority of patients present
      with stage IV disease at diagnosis and these patients have an overall 5-year
      survival of 3%. Currently, the standard of care for metastatic pancreas
      adenocarcinoma is combination cytotoxic therapy, namely FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine
      plus nab-paclitaxel for good performance status patients. Given the challenges
      and the rising incidence of PDAC expected to become the second leading cause of
      cancer-related death by 2030, there is a major unmet need to develop more
      effective therapies. In this setting, the molecular and genomic characterization
      of PDAC have underpinned the use of targeted therapies. To date, the results from
      targeted agent evaluation have been disappointing with some exceptions. Novel
      promising strategies depend on biomarker identification and patient selection
      e.g. germline mutations in DNA repair or mismatch repair genes, where the
      addition of a platinum agent or checkpoint inhibitor can have a positive impact
      on survival. This article will review the state-of-the-art treatment of
      metastatic pancreatic cancer with an emphasis on novel promising therapeutic
      strategies and an overview on emerging biomarkers.

PMID- 28869889
TI  - IL-36 induces cytokine IL-6 and chemokine CXCL8 expression in human lung tissue
      cells: Implications for pulmonary inflammatory responses.
AB  - IL-36alpha, IL-36beta and IL-36gamma are cytokine members of IL-1 family.
      Although IL-36 expression was observed in human lung during pulmonary infections,
      it remains unknown whether IL-36 could act directly on lung tissue cells during
      pulmonary inflammatory responses. In this study, we showed that IL-36 receptor
      was expressed in human lung fibroblasts and bronchial epithelial cells.
      Correspondingly, IL-36alpha, IL-36beta or IL-36gamma up-regulated gene expression
      of cytokine IL-6 and chemokine CXCL8 in human lung fibroblasts and bronchial
      epithelial cells, and promoted IL-6 and CXCL8 release from human lung fibroblasts
      and bronchial epithelial cells. The production of IL-6 and CXCL8 in these lung
      tissues cells induced by IL-36alpha, IL-36beta or IL-36gamma was regulated by
      p38MAPK, ERK or Akt signaling pathways. Taken together, the above results suggest
      that IL-36-mediated IL-6 and CXCL8 production in human lung fibroblasts and
      bronchial epithelial cells may be involved in pulmonary inflammation especially
      caused by bacterial or viral infections.

PMID- 28869890
TI  - Development of anti-hepatitis B surface (HBs) antibodies after HBs antigen loss
      in HIV-hepatitis B virus co-infected patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-seroconversion, or loss of HBsAg
      and acquisition of anti-hepatitis B surface (HBs) antibodies, defines functional
      cure of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. After HBsAg-loss, little is
      known regarding the development of anti-HBs antibodies and even less so in
      individuals co-infected with HIV. OBJECTIVES: To determine anti-HBs antibody
      kinetics after HBsAg-loss and explore determinants of HBsAg-seroconversion in HIV
      HBV co-infected patients. STUDY DESIGN: Patients enrolled in the French HIV-HBV
      cohort were included if they had >1 study visit after HBsAg-loss. Individual
      patient kinetics of anti-HBs antibody levels were modeled over time using mixed
      effect non-linear regression, whereby maximum specific growth rate and maximal
      level of antibody production were estimated from a Gompertz growth equation.
      RESULTS: Fourteen (4.6%) of 308 co-infected patients followed in the cohort
      exhibited HBsAg-loss, all of whom were undergoing antiretroviral therapy. Nine
      (64.3%) of these patients achieved HBsAg-seroconversion during a median 3.0 years
      (IQR=1.1-5.1) after HBsAg-loss. Across individuals with HBsAg-seroconversion, the
      fastest rates of antibody growth ranged between 0.57-1.93year-1 (population
      maximum growth rate=1.02) and antibody production plateaued between 2.09-3.66
      log10 mIU/mL at the end of follow-up (population maximal antibody levels=2.66).
      Patients with HBsAg-seroconversion had substantial decreases in HBV DNA viral
      loads (P=0.03) and proportion with elevated ALT levels (P=0.02) and HBeAg
      positive serology (P=0.08). No such differences were observed in those without
      HBsAg-seroconversion. CONCLUSIONS: Most co-infected patients with HBsAg
      seroconversion produced and maintained stable antibody levels, yet kinetics of
      anti-HBs production were much slower compared to those observed post-vaccination
      or after clearance of acute HBV-infection.

PMID- 28869891
TI  - Synthesis and biological effect of chrom-4-one derivatives as functional
      inhibitors of heat shock protein 27.
AB  - Heat Shock Protein 27 (HSP27) is a member of small heat shock proteins with a
      highly-conserved alpha-crystalline domain. It inhibits aggregation of damaged
      proteins through a complex structural systems of phosphorylation-dependent
      oligomerization and self-assembly. It has been demonstrated that HSP27 is
      involved in a variety of pathophysiological pathways with negative or positive
      protective activities. In this study, we synthesized six chromone analogs
      possessing thiiran-2-ylmethoxy or oxyran-2-ylmethoxy substituents and evaluated
      their biological activities against HSP27 protein. Compounds YK598-2, J4 and J2
      induced significant abnormal HSP27 dimer formation in NCI-H460, a human lung
      cancer cell line. In synergistic anticancer activity test, the compounds
      effectively producing abnormal HSP27 cross-linking remarkably enhanced the
      antiproliferative activity of 17-AAG, a HSP90 inhibitor. Target specificity test
      using the HSP27-silenced cells (shHSP27) showed that compounds YK598-2, J4, and
      J2 significantly lost their cross-linking activity only under conditions when
      HSP27 was deprived of. In the evaluation of cancer cell sensitization with
      cisplatin, cisplatin-induced lung cancer cell growth inhibition was sensitized
      with statistical significance by J4 and J2 as compared to compound alone
      treatment. These results suggest that abnormal HSP27 dimerization can be an
      efficient control point for cancer cell proliferation and chromone compounds
      might have potential as anticancer agents that modulate abnormal HSP27
      dimerization.

PMID- 28869892
TI  - Combination lung cancer chemotherapy: Design of a pH-sensitive transferrin-PEG-Hz
      lipid conjugate for the co-delivery of docetaxel and baicalin.
AB  - The aim of the present study is to design a novel dual-ligand lipid based
      nanoparticle system. It is conducted by a specific ligand and pH sensitive lipid
      conjugate. Docetaxel (DTX) and baicalein (BA) are co-delivered by this system for
      combination lung cancer chemotherapy. Firstly, transferrin (Tf)-polyethylene
      glycol (PEG)-hydrazone (hz)-glyceryl monostearate (GMS), Tf-PEG-hz-GMS, was
      synthesized. Tf decorated DTX and BA loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (Tf-D/B
      SLNs) were prepared by emulsification method. The capability of Tf-D/B-SLNs in
      suppressing lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo was investigated. The results
      revealed the better antitumor efficiency of Tf-D/B-SLNs than the non-decorated
      SLNs and single drug loaded SLNs. Significant synergistic effects were observed
      in the dual drugs loaded systems. The best tumor inhibition ability and the
      lowest systemic toxicity also proved the pH-sensitive co-delivery nano-system
      could be a promising strategy for treatment of lung cancer.

PMID- 28869893
TI  - Antioxidant and glucose metabolizing potential of edible insect, Brachytrupes
      orientalis via modulating Nrf2/AMPK/GLUT4 signaling pathway.
AB  - Brachytrupes orientalis (Gryllidae) is a common edible insect species eaten by
      the different tribes of North East India. This study investigated the
      potentiality of Brachytrupes orientalis extracts in different solvent hydro
      alcoholic (AEBO), hexane (HEBO) and ethyl acetate (EEBO) on glucose utilization
      and cell viability in high glucose (HG) treated myotubes. It has been observed
      that AEBO supplementation significantly increased the glucose utilization against
      HG exposure; however, treatment HEBO and EEBO have no significant effect. AEBO
      also increased the intercellular glucose-6-phosphate level and the protein
      expression of both phospho-AMPK and GLUT4 in HG treated myotubes in a dose
      dependent manner. Furthermore, supplementation with AEBO decreased the
      intercellular ROS production, lipid peroxidation, and up-regulated the protein
      expression of Nrf2 and GST. Chromatography and Spectroscopic analyses of AEBO
      also suggest that Ursolic acid may be one of the bioactive principles with rich
      potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium content.

PMID- 28869894
TI  - SPOCK1 promotes the growth of Osteosarcoma cells through mTOR-S6K signaling
      pathway.
AB  - SPOCK1 belongs to the SPARC family, which plays an important role in
      proliferation, invasion and migration of various tumour cells. However, the
      functions of SPOCK1 in osteosarcoma cell growth and proliferation have not been
      fully elucidated. In the present study, we found that SPOCK1 is significantly
      upregulated in osteosarcoma tissue. Moreover, overexpression of SPOCK1 was
      associated with tumour size, metastasis, Enneking stage and pathological degree.
      Furthermore, knockdown of SPOCK1 expression suppressed the growth of osteosarcoma
      cells in vitro and reduced tumourigenicity in nude mice in vivo. Additionally,
      our data suggest that inactivation of the mTOR-S6K signaling pathway participated
      in inhibition of SPOCK1-mediated suppression of osteosarcoma cell growth. These
      findings represent a novel pathogenetic mechanism of osteosarcoma development
      that provides a potential target for therapeutic strategies for osteosarcoma.

PMID- 28869896
TI  - Proteomic approaches for drug discovery against tegumentary leishmaniasis.
AB  - Tegumentary leishmaniases (TL) comprise various clinical forms, in which current
      therapeutic treatments lack in safety and efficacy. Recently the parasite is
      developing resistance mechanisms against anti leishmanial drugs startling the
      scientific community to recruit efforts to search for novel therapeutics.
      Proteomics hold promises for the treatment of leishmaniasis and investigation of
      parasite-host interaction since these set of methodological tools have provided a
      wealth of protein expression data on several Leishmania species. Firstly this
      review puts together the current treatment and challenges to fight tegumentary
      leishmaniasis. In addition, the 2 dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass
      spectrometry techniques in protein identification and characterization are
      described and discussed in the context of proteomics regarding Leishmania
      studies. In this review, we selected literature content on TL causative agents.
      Important proteomic findings related to differentiation proteome (promastigote
      and amastigote forms), Leishmania-macrophage interaction proteome and secreted
      and soluble proteins including molecules involved in parasite resistance and
      potential drug targets are examined and discussed. We also highlight open
      questions regarding drug research that can be addressed with proteomics
      approaches.

PMID- 28869895
TI  - The biochemical effects of nano tamoxifen and some bioactive components in
      experimental breast cancer.
AB  - The effect of nano tamoxifen and some bioactive components such as yeast,
      isoflavone, and silymarin on the level of resistance and prevention of breast
      cancer progression in experimental animals is the target of this study. Thirty
      female Sprague-Dawley rats received a single medication dosage of 7,12
      dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) intragastrically. After fourteen days of DMBA
      admission, the procedure protocol started out. Finally, all the experimental
      results evaluated, tabulated and statistically analyzed. The results demonstrated
      a highly significant elevation in the 8-OHdG level in group 1 (nano yeast) and 3
      (nano silymarin) while the results demonstrated a highly significant reduction in
      group 2 (nano tamoxifen). The apoptosis results demonstrated a significant
      elevation in group 3 (nano silymarin) where appeared significant reduction in
      group 4 (nano isoflavone). ErbB-2 results demonstrated a significant elevation in
      group 2 (nano tamoxifen) and a significant reduction in each of group 3 (nano
      silymarin) and 4 (nano isoflavone). The lipid peroxide level demonstrated an
      extremely significant reduction in group 4 (nano isoflavone). And a significant
      reduction of total antioxidant was observed in group 3 (nano silymarin) in
      comparison to injected animals control. This may be considered a new vision and
      strategy to resist breast cancer disease or prevent progression.

PMID- 28869897
TI  - Thalidomide alleviates postoperative pain and spatial memory deficit in aged
      rats.
AB  - Pain is a major risk factor of post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) in
      aged population. We investigated the effects of thalidomide, an anti-inflammatory
      and analgesic drug, on POCD in aged rats, and also explored the underlying
      mechanisms. Laparotomy was performed under anesthesia in aged rats (24-25 months)
      to establish POCD models. Thalidomide (5-50mg/kg) was intraperitoneally
      administered immediately after laparotomy. Within 12h after the operation, pain
      symptoms were assessed by rat grimace scale (RGS). Within postoperative day (POD)
      3-14, spatial memory was evaluated using performance errors in a radial arm maze.
      Protein levels of inflammatory cytokines and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)
      receptors were measured on POD 14. POCD rats treated with thalidomide showed
      decreased RGS and performance errors, compared with saline-treated POCD rats.
      Single administration of thalidomide significantly reduced production of
      cytokines (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)-1beta) in serum
      but not in the brain, and attenuated upregulation of NMDA receptor (NR) 2A/B
      subunits in the hippocampus at POD 14. MK-801 abolished thalidomide-induced
      attenuation of spatial memory deficits. Our results support that thalidomide
      could disrupt the development of post-operative memory deficit in aged rats
      through its long-term regulation of NMDA receptors (NRs) in the hippocampus.
      Therefore, thalidomide might provide a new means to prevent the development of
      POCD.

PMID- 28869899
TI  - A deep convolutional neural network model to classify heartbeats.
AB  - The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a standard test used to monitor the activity of
      the heart. Many cardiac abnormalities will be manifested in the ECG including
      arrhythmia which is a general term that refers to an abnormal heart rhythm. The
      basis of arrhythmia diagnosis is the identification of normal versus abnormal
      individual heart beats, and their correct classification into different
      diagnoses, based on ECG morphology. Heartbeats can be sub-divided into five
      categories namely non-ectopic, supraventricular ectopic, ventricular ectopic,
      fusion, and unknown beats. It is challenging and time-consuming to distinguish
      these heartbeats on ECG as these signals are typically corrupted by noise. We
      developed a 9-layer deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically
      identify 5 different categories of heartbeats in ECG signals. Our experiment was
      conducted in original and noise attenuated sets of ECG signals derived from a
      publicly available database. This set was artificially augmented to even out the
      number of instances the 5 classes of heartbeats and filtered to remove high
      frequency noise. The CNN was trained using the augmented data and achieved an
      accuracy of 94.03% and 93.47% in the diagnostic classification of heartbeats in
      original and noise free ECGs, respectively. When the CNN was trained with highly
      imbalanced data (original dataset), the accuracy of the CNN reduced to 89.07%%
      and 89.3% in noisy and noise-free ECGs. When properly trained, the proposed CNN
      model can serve as a tool for screening of ECG to quickly identify different
      types and frequency of arrhythmic heartbeats.

PMID- 28869898
TI  - 3-O-Glucosylation of quercetin enhances inhibitory effects on the adipocyte
      differentiation and lipogenesis.
AB  - Glycosylation of natural flavonoids with various sugar moieties can affect their
      physicochemical and pharmacological properties. In this study, the plant
      flavonoids quercetin aglycon (Quer) and quercetin 3-O-glucoside (Q3G) were
      evaluated and compared for their potential anti-obesity effects. The Q3G dose
      dependently reduced the TG contents and lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocyte
      cells, by 52% and 60% at 20MUM, respectively, compared to differentiated control
      (100%), which were 1.6-fold and 2.4-fold higher reduction than Quer. The Q3G
      (20MUM) also more significantly reduced the expression of adipogenic markers such
      as C/EBP-beta, C/EBP-alpha, PPAR-gamma, and aP2 than Quer, indicating that the
      Q3G suppresses both adipocyte differentiation and lipogenesis more effectively
      than Quer in vitro. Comparing to those in the high-fat diet (HFD) fed mice
      control group for 10 weeks, both the body and liver weights and the size of
      adipocytes in epididymal adipose tissues were significantly reduced in HFD mice
      fed with Q3G for another 6 weeks (30mg/kg body weight by oral administration),
      accompanied by the reductions of TG, total cholesterol, and HDL-cholesterol in
      serum. The Q3G also reduced the levels of the lipid metabolism-associated
      proteins, PPAR-gamma, SREBP-1c, and FAS in the liver tissues. These results
      clearly demonstrated that Q3G exhibits a stronger anti-obesity effect than Quer
      and its anti-obesity effect is mediated via inhibition of adipocyte
      differentiation and lipogenesis, decreasing serum lipid levels by altering
      hepatic lipid metabolism, and reducing body weight gain. The results of this
      study suggest that the Q3G, but not Quer, can be a potent functional ingredient
      of beneficial health foods or a therapeutic agent to prevent or treat obesity.

PMID- 28869900
TI  - Integration of RNA-Seq and RPPA data for survival time prediction in cancer
      patients.
AB  - Integration of several types of patient data in a computational framework can
      accelerate the identification of more reliable biomarkers, especially for
      prognostic purposes. This study aims to identify biomarkers that can successfully
      predict the potential survival time of a cancer patient by integrating the
      transcriptomic (RNA-Seq), proteomic (RPPA), and protein-protein interaction (PPI)
      data. The proposed method -RPBioNet- employs a random walk-based algorithm that
      works on a PPI network to identify a limited number of protein biomarkers. Later,
      the method uses gene expression measurements of the selected biomarkers to train
      a classifier for the survival time prediction of patients. RPBioNet was applied
      to classify kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC), glioblastoma multiforme
      (GBM), and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) patients based on their survival
      time classes (long- or short-term). The RPBioNet method correctly identified the
      survival time classes of patients with between 66% and 78% average accuracy for
      three data sets. RPBioNet operates with only 20 to 50 biomarkers and can achieve
      on average 6% higher accuracy compared to the closest alternative method, which
      uses only RNA-Seq data in the biomarker selection. Further analysis of the most
      predictive biomarkers highlighted genes that are common for both cancer types, as
      they may be driver proteins responsible for cancer progression. The novelty of
      this study is the integration of a PPI network with mRNA and protein expression
      data to identify more accurate prognostic biomarkers that can be used for
      clinical purposes in the future.

PMID- 28869901
TI  - Transtibial Prosthetic Socket Shape in a Developing Country: A study to compare
      initial outcomes in Pressure Cast hydrostatic and Patella Tendon Bearing designs.
AB  - This study compared the physical function and comfort level of patients with
      unilateral transtibial amputation after being fitted with a hand-cast Patella
      Tendon Bearing (PTB) socket and a pressure-cast (PCAST) hydrocast socket. The
      latter technique aims to reduce the skill dependency currently required for
      socket manufacture and fit. The study was conducted at the Vietnamese Training
      Centre for Orthopaedic Technologies and involved seventeen Vietnamese
      participants with unilateral transtibial amputation, all of whom were long term
      users of prosthetics. All participants were fitted with two sockets manufactured
      using both hand-cast and PCAST techniques with International Committee of the Red
      Cross components. Walking tests (timed up and go test and six-minute-walk-test),
      spatio-temporal gait analyses and subjective comfort assessments were completed
      after a short acclimatisation period with each socket. The participant-preferred
      socket was also noted. No significant differences were found for the measures of
      mobility, functional capacity, spatio-temporal gait parameters, gait symmetry,
      perceived comfort or participant socket preference. The results show the initial
      patient outcomes are similar when participants are fitted with a hand-cast PTB
      socket and a PCAST hydrocast sockets. Future work should confirm these findings
      in a longer trial.

PMID- 28869902
TI  - Acute effects of anesthetic lumbar spine injections on temporal spatial
      parameters of gait in individuals with chronic low back pain: A pilot study.
AB  - This study examined whether epidural injection-induced anesthesia acutely and
      positively affected temporal spatial parameters of gait in patients with chronic
      low back pain (LBP) due to lumbar spinal stenosis. Twenty-five patients (61.7+/
      13.6years) who were obtaining lumbar epidural injections for stenosis-related LBP
      participated. Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores, Medical Outcomes Short Form
      (SF-36) scores, 11-point Numerical pain rating (NRSpain) scores, and temporal
      spatial parameters of walking gait were obtained prior to, and 11-point Numerical
      pain rating (NRSpain) scores, and temporal spatial parameters of walking gait
      were obtained after the injection. Gait parameters were measured using an
      instrumented gait mat. Patients received transforaminal epidural injections in
      the L1-S1 vertebral range (1% lidocaine, corticosteroid) under fluoroscopic
      guidance. Patients with post-injection NRSpain ratings of "0" or values greater
      than "0" were stratified into two groups: 1) full pain relief, or 2) partial pain
      relief, respectively. Post-injection, 48% (N=12) of patients reported full pain
      relief. ODI scores were higher in patients with full pain relief (55.3+/-21.4
      versus 33.7 12.8; p=0.008). Post-injection, stride length and step length
      variability were significantly improved in the patients with full pain relief
      compared to those with partial pain relief. Effect sizes between full and partial
      pain relief for walking velocity, step length, swing time, stride and step length
      variability were medium to large (Cohen's d>0.50). Patients with LBP can gain
      immediate gait improvements from complete pain relief from transforaminal
      epidural anesthetic injections for LBP, which could translate to better stability
      and lower fall risk.

PMID- 28869903
TI  - Biomechanical differences between cases with suspected chronic exertional
      compartment syndrome and asymptomatic controls during running.
AB  - Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) has been hypothesised, following
      clinical observations, to be the result of abnormal biomechanics predominantly at
      the ankle. Treatment of CECS through running re-education to correct these
      abnormalities has been reported to improve symptoms. However no primary research
      has been carried out to investigate the movement patterns of those with CECS.
      This study aimed to compare the running kinematics and muscle activity of cases
      with CECS and asymptomatic controls. 20 men with bilateral symptoms of CECS of
      the anterior compartment and 20 asymptomatic controls participated. Barefoot and
      shod running 3D kinematics and muscle activity of the left and right legs; and
      anthropometry were compared. Cases displayed less anterior trunk lean and less
      anterior pelvic tilt throughout the whole gait cycle and a more upright shank
      inclination angle during late swing (peak mean difference 3.5 degrees , 4.1
      degrees  and 7.3 degrees  respectively). Cases demonstrated greater step length
      and stance time, although this was not consistent across analyses. There were no
      consistent differences in Tibialis anterior or Gastrocnemius medialis muscle
      activity. Cases were heavier (mean difference 7.9kg, p=0.02) than controls with
      no differences in height (p>0.05) These differences only partially match the
      clinical observations previously described. However, no consistent differences
      were found at the ankle joint suggesting that current running re-education
      interventions which focus on adjusting ankle kinematics are not modifying
      pathological aspects of gait. The longer step length is a continuing theme in
      this population and as such may be a key component in the development of CECS.

PMID- 28869904
TI  - The impact of democracy and media freedom on under-5 mortality, 1961-2011.
AB  - Do democracies produce better health outcomes for children than autocracies? We
      argue that (1) democratic governments have an incentive to reduce child mortality
      among low-income families and (2) that media freedom enhances their ability to
      deliver mortality-reducing resources to the poorest. A panel of 167 countries for
      the years 1961-2011 is used to test those two theoretical claims. We find that
      level of democracy is negatively associated with under-5 mortality, and that that
      negative association is greater in the presence of media freedom. These results
      are robust to the inclusion of country and year fixed effects, time-varying
      control variables, and the multiple imputation of missing values.

PMID- 28869905
TI  - How acceptable are intoxicated behaviors? Discrepancy between personal versus
      perceived approval.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: College students report high rates of binge drinking yet they
      reliably endorse elevated perceptions of drinking by their peers. However, the
      drinking norms literature offers little insight into how college students think
      about behaviors exhibited while intoxicated. This study aims to determine (a) if
      the predicted self-other differences (SODs) are seen among college students with
      respect to approval of intoxicated behaviors and (b) whether gender and
      race/ethnicity moderate these differences. We hypothesized that students would
      perceive others as more approving of intoxicated behaviors than they were
      themselves, resulting in significant SODs. We also predicted that women would
      have larger SODs relative to their male counterparts, and minority students would
      have larger SODs relative to their white counterparts. METHODS: Participants
      (N=233, 63% female) were recruited from an introductory psychology course at a
      large public northeastern university. They completed online surveys that assessed
      demographics, and responded to a list of intoxicated behaviors with ratings of
      personal approval and perceived peer approval. RESULTS: Perceived others'
      approval ratings exceeded personal approval ratings for 42 of the 44 different
      intoxicated behaviors. Women had significantly higher SODs relative to men and
      differed on personal approval. Non-white students had significantly higher SODs
      relative to white students, and differed both on personal approval and
      perceptions of others' approval of intoxicated behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent
      SODs were observed in the approval of intoxicated behaviors. These findings may
      help to inform normative feedback interventions by revealing the potential for
      normative pressure, especially for non-white students.

PMID- 28869906
TI  - Association of childhood abuse and prescription opioid use in early adulthood.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous research has examined the association of childhood abuse
      with opioid misuse and dependence in adulthood. However, little research has
      focused specifically on prescription opioids, and no studies have examined
      associations with prescription opioid use, a potential pathway to later opioid
      misuse and dependence. The aim of the present study was to examine the
      association of childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse with prescription
      opioid use in early adulthood. METHODS: We used data from Waves I (12-18years)
      and IV (24-32years) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult
      Health. At Wave IV, respondents reported experiences of childhood abuse occurring
      prior to age 18years and prescription opioid use in the last four weeks. We
      conducted multivariable logistic regression to examine associations of childhood
      abuse with recent prescription opioid use. RESULTS: In multivariable models
      adjusted for respondent sex, race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status,
      childhood emotional abuse (OR=1.57, 95% CI 1.29, 1.90), physical abuse (OR=1.46,
      95% CI 1.14, 1.87), and any childhood abuse (OR=1.51, 95% CI 1.24, 1.82) were
      significantly associated with recent prescription opioid use. CONCLUSIONS: Given
      continued increases in prescription opioid use and opioid-related morbidity and
      mortality in the U.S., understanding upstream social and environmental factors
      associated with prescription opioid use is important to strengthening and
      expanding current prevention and intervention strategies. Future research is
      needed to examine factors potentially mediating the association between childhood
      abuse and prescription opioid use in order to provide additional insights for
      prevention and intervention efforts.

PMID- 28869907
TI  - Bone comparison identification method based on chest computed tomography imaging.
AB  - The aim of this study is to examine the usefulness of bone structure extracted
      data from chest computed tomography (CT) images for personal identification.
      Eighteen autopsied cases (12 male and 6 female) that had ante- and post-mortem
      (AM and PM) CT images were used in this study. The two-dimensional (2D) and three
      dimensional (3D) bone images were extracted from the chest CT images via
      thresholding technique. The similarity between two thoracic bone images
      (consisting of vertebrae, ribs, and sternum) acquired from AMCT and PMCT images
      was calculated in terms of the normalized cross-correlation value (NCCV) in both
      2D and 3D matchings. An AM case with the highest NCCV corresponding to a given PM
      case among all of the AM cases studied was regarded as same person. The accuracy
      of identification of the same person using our method was 100% (18/18) in both 2D
      and 3D matchings. The NCCVs for the same person tended to be significantly higher
      than the average of NCCVs for different people in both 2D and 3D matchings. The
      computation times of image similarity between the two images were less than one
      second and approximately 10min in 2D and 3D matching, respectively. Therefore, 2D
      matching especially for thoracic bones seems more advantageous than 3D matching
      with regard to computation time. We conclude that our proposed personal
      identification method using bone structure would be useful in forensic cases.

PMID- 28869908
TI  - Bioactive ent-kaurane diterpenoids from Isodon rubescens.
AB  - Seven previously undescribed 7,20-epoxy-ent-kaurane diterpenoids,
      isojiangrubesins A-G, along with seventeen known ones, were isolated from the
      aerial parts of Isodon rubescens. Their structures were characterized on the
      basis of spectroscopic methods and signal-crystal X-ray diffraction. All of these
      compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity against five human tumor
      cell lines (HL-60, SMMC-7721, A-549, MCF-7, and SW480). Four isolates exhibited
      significant inhibitory ability against all cell lines, with IC50 values ranging
      from 0.5 to 6.5 MUM; They also strongly inhibited NO production in LPS-stimulated
      RAW264.7 cells.

PMID- 28869909
TI  - Dietary patterns and depressive symptoms during pregnancy in Japan: Baseline data
      from the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Only one Brazilian study has examined the association between dietary
      patterns and depressive symptoms during pregnancy. The current cross-sectional
      study examined this issue in Japan. METHODS: Study subjects were 1744 pregnant
      women. Between April 2007 and March 2008, information under study was obtained.
      Dietary patterns were derived from a factor analysis of 33 predefined food groups
      based on a self-administered diet history questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were
      defined as a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale score >= 16.
      Adjustment was made for age, gestation, region of residence, number of children,
      family structure, history of depression, family history of depression, smoking,
      secondhand smoke exposure, employment, household income, education, and body mass
      index. RESULTS: Three dietary patterns were identified: 'healthy', characterized
      by high intake of green and yellow vegetables, other vegetables, mushrooms,
      pulses, seaweed, potatoes, fish, sea products, miso soup, sugar, and shellfish;
      'Japanese', characterized by high intake of rice and miso soup; and 'Western',
      characterized by high intake of beef and pork, processed meat, vegetable oil,
      chicken, eggs, shellfish, and salt-containing seasonings. The healthy and
      Japanese patterns were independently inversely associated with depressive
      symptoms during pregnancy: the adjusted prevalence ratios (95% confidence
      intervals, P for trend) between extreme quartiles were 0.56 (0.43-0.73, < 0.0001)
      and 0.72 (0.55-0.94, 0.008), respectively. No association was observed between
      the Western pattern and depressive symptoms during pregnancy. LIMITATIONS:
      Information was obtained between the 5th and 39th week of pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS:
      The healthy and Japanese dietary patterns may be inversely associated with
      depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

PMID- 28869911
TI  - Nanoporous PtCo/Co3O4 composites with high catalytic activities toward hydrolytic
      dehydrogenation of ammonia borane.
AB  - The design and fabrication of highly active and durable catalysts for the ammonia
      borane (AB) hydrolysis has been one of significant issues in the application of
      green and economic hydrogen energy. Nanoporous (NP) PtCo/Co3O4 composites are
      straightforwardly fabricated by selectively etching Al atoms followed by removing
      Co atoms from the PtCoAl precursor alloy. By controlling the second-step
      dealloying, the NP-PtCo/Co3O4 composites evolved into pure nanoporous structure
      with Co3O4 nanosheets on the surface gradually disappeared as well different
      Pt/Co ratios resulted. Compared with NP-Pt and pure Co3O4 catalysts, the NP
      PtCo/Co3O4 composites with different Pt/Co ratios exhibit markedly enhanced
      catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of AB. NP-Pt40Co60 composite with some
      Co3O4 nanosheets anchored on the surface shows the higher catalytic activity
      compared to other several samples with different Pt contents, exhibiting a high
      initial turnover frequency of 131mol H2 min-1 (mol Pt)-1. Meanwhile, the
      recyclability tests indicate that NP-Pt40Co60 composite retained 65% of the
      initial catalytic activity after the fifth run of hydrolysis. Therefore, the high
      catalytic activity and good durability render the as-made composite as a powerful
      catalyst candidate for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of AB in the practical
      applications.

PMID- 28869910
TI  - Cognition in depression: Can we THINC-it better?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive compromise is a common experience for patients with
      depression and other mood disorders. Depressed patients sustain deficits in
      working memory and attentional distortions in emotional processing and negative
      attention biases, which may contribute to maintaining their depressive state.
      METHODS: The Mood Assessment and Classification (MAC) Committee comprised
      academic psychiatrists with clinical expertise in the management of mood
      disorders. The independently convened committee met to discuss contentious
      aspects of mood disorders diagnosis and assessment with the express aim of
      informing clinical practice and future research. RESULTS: The Committee
      specifically identified cognition as an important aspect for clinicians to
      consider in the context of depression and mood disorders. This article highlights
      some of the barriers to assessment and proposes tools that have the potential to
      be implemented in clinical practice. LIMITATIONS: The conclusions drawn within
      this article are based on expert opinion. We have noted the limitations of the
      literature that informs this opinion. CONCLUSIONS: As cognitive ability has been
      closely linked to patients' ability to achieve functional recovery, it is
      imperative that clinicians are able to identify patients with cognitive deficits
      and are equipped with tools to conduct effective cognitive assessments. Examining
      cognitive factors may generate a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis of
      depression and mood disorders which can ultimately be used to inform treatment.

PMID- 28869912
TI  - Well-organized migration of electrons for enhanced hydrogen evolution:
      Integration of 2D MoS2 nanosheets with plasmonic photocatalyst by a facile
      ultrasonic chemical method.
AB  - The construction of a plasmonic photocatalyst is an efficient way to suppress
      detrimental electrons-holes recombination and extend the spectral range of light
      absorption in semiconductors. However, the facilitation effect in the aspect of
      electrons-holes separation is great limited as the lack of a driving force
      compelled the electrons or holes migration to surface catalytic sites makes them
      flow randomly in semiconductors. In this work, we confirm that the integration of
      MoS2 nanosheets formed two dimensional (2D) layered heterojunction with C3N4 with
      Au-C3N4 plasmonic photocatalyst can further enhance electrons-holes separation
      through the formation of Au-C3N4-MoS2 nanostructure by a facile ultrasonic
      chemical method. The integrated MoS2 nanosheets extract the electrons not only
      from C3N4 due to a building up of 2D layered heterojunction but also from
      plasmonic Au via a "pipe" played by C3N4. The electrons "pump" role of the 2D
      MoS2 nanosheets makes electrons flow randomly turn into the well-organized
      migration direction, promoting the electrons-holes more efficient separation and
      lifetime prolongation. Meanwhile, MoS2 nanosheets also increase the light
      absorption of the photocatalyst owing to its inherent strength of the narrower
      band gap. Enabled by integration of 2D MoS2 nanosheets, the hydrogen production
      rate is 2.08 times higher than that of its counterpart Au-C3N4. This work
      highlights a new window to employ 2D layered heterojunction for enhanced
      photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance.

PMID- 28869913
TI  - Modelling of immiscible liquid-liquid systems by Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics.
AB  - Immiscible fluid systems are ubiquitous in industry, medicine and nature.
      Understanding the phase morphologies and intraphase fluid motion is often
      desirable in many of these situations; for example, this will aid improved design
      of microfluidic platforms for the production of medicinal formulations. In this
      paper, we detail a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) approach that
      facilitates this understanding. The approach includes surface tension and
      enforces incompressibility. The approach also allows the consideration of an
      arbitrary number of immiscible phases of differing viscosities and densities. The
      nature of the phase morphologies can be arbitrary and change in time, including
      break-up (which is illustrated) and coalescence. The use of different fluid
      constitutive models, including non-Newtonian models, is also possible. The
      validity of the model is demonstrated by applying it to a range of model problems
      with known solutions, including the Young-Laplace problem, confined droplet
      deformation under a linear shear field, and a droplet falling under gravity
      through another quiescent liquid. Results are also presented to illustrate how
      the SPH model can be used to elucidate the behaviour of immiscible liquid
      systems.

PMID- 28869914
TI  - Synthesis of CdSe quantum dots decorated SnO2 nanotubes as anode for photo
      assisted electrochemical degradation of hydrochlorothiazide: Kinetic process.
AB  - Pharmaceutical residues have been increasingly detected in the aquatic
      environment and are considered important contaminants of emerging concern. This
      study examines the photo assisted electrochemical degradation of the
      Hydrochlorothiazide by using CdSe quantum dots decorated SnO2 nanotubes. The
      characteristic devices such as Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction,
      UV-vis diffuse reflectance Transmission electron Microscopy were used to analyze
      information structure of CdSe QDs/SnO2 nanotubes. All the experiments were
      perform with influence of the current density (10-60mAcm-2) and sodium chloride
      (0.02-0.10molL-1) in the supporting electrolyte composition was analyzed. The
      results showed that the Hydrochlorothiazide and TOC removal was achieved in the
      current density range used. As expected, the degradation kinetics presented a
      pseudo first order behavior. Comparison of the efficiencies of the
      photocatalytic, electrochemical (EC) and photo-assisted electrochemical (PAEC)
      techniques verified that the combined process showed a synergism for HCT and TOC
      removal.

PMID- 28869915
TI  - Organization and structure of mixed Langmuir films composed of polydiacetylene
      and hemicyanine.
AB  - Mixed Langmuir monolayers of 10,12-Pentacosadiynoic acid (DA) monomer and an
      amphiphilic Hemicyanine dye derivative have been formed at the air/water
      interface. Two derivatives of docosylpyridinium have been used, with either one
      included in the monolayer in 1:1molar ratio. The DA monomers within the mixed
      monolayers have been polymerized in situ at the air/water interface. The
      crystalline structure of the monolayer and the kinetics of polymerization have
      been probed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD). The polymerization of
      DA proceeds with no phase segregation, exclusively leading to the red
      polydiacetylene form. The kinetics of polymerization at the air/water interface
      has been monitored in situ by GIXD. The experimental results have been combined
      with Molecular Mechanics computer simulations, revealing that DA molecules are
      sequentially arranged with molecules of Hemicyanine dye in alternating rows. The
      hydrophobic chains of the dye molecules act as spacers between the DA monomers.
      Surprisingly, such molecular arrangement does not hinder the in situ
      photopolymerization of DA. The mechanism of polymerization of DA within the mixed
      Langmuir monolayers has been convincingly described in molecular detail. This
      approach for interfacial polymerization of DA holds great potential for optically
      active devices and nanostructures comprising self-assembled thin films based in
      polydiacetylene.

PMID- 28869916
TI  - Electrospun nylon 6,6 membrane as a reusable nano-adsorbent for bisphenol A
      removal: Adsorption performance and mechanism.
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA) is highly considered as an emerging contaminants (ECs) due to
      their endocrine disrupting and reproductive toxicant nature. It has been detected
      in drinking water sources in many countries. This study deals with the adsorptive
      removal of BPA using nylon 6,6 nanofibrous membrane (NNM) fabricated by
      electrospinning technique. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models (R2=0.99) were
      obeyed for BPA adsorption, which indicates the monolayer adsorption of BPA and
      also surface heterogeneity of NNM. The adsorption kinetics of BPA was followed
      pseudo second order rate (R2=0.89-0.99), which suggests the occurrence of rapid
      adsorption rate through interaction of surface functional groups present in NNM.
      The maximum adsorption of BPA (91.3mgg-1) was attained at 30 degrees C. The
      hydroxyl groups of BPA form hydrogen bonding with carbonyl groups of NNM during
      the adsorptive removal process. Reusability study confirmed a much better
      stability of NNM in the recyclic application. Finally, this study suggests that
      NNM might be an outstanding nano-adsorbent for the emerging contaminants removal,
      including BPA from drinking water sources.

PMID- 28869917
TI  - Response of soil methane uptake to simulated nitrogen deposition and grazing
      management across three types of steppe in Inner Mongolia, China.
AB  - The response of soil methane (CH4) uptake to increased nitrogen (N) deposition
      and grazing management was studied in three types of steppe (i.e., meadow steppe,
      typical steppe, and desert steppe) in Inner Mongolia, China. The experiment was
      designed with four simulated N deposition rates such as 0, 50, 100, and 200kgNha
      1, respectively, under grazed and fenced management treatments. Results showed
      that the investigated steppes were significant sinks for CH4, with an uptake flux
      of 1.12-3.36kgha-1 over the grass growing season and that the magnitude of CH4
      uptake significantly (P<0.05) decreased with increasing N deposition rates. The
      soil CH4 uptake rates were highest in the desert steppe, moderate in the typical
      steppe, and lowest in the meadow steppe. Compared with grazed plots, fencing
      increased the CH4 uptake by 4.7-40.2% with a mean value of 20.2% across the three
      different steppe types. The responses of soil CH4 uptake to N deposition in the
      continental steppe varied depending on the N deposition rate, steppe type, and
      grazing management. A significantly positive correlation between CH4 uptake and
      soil temperature was found in this study, whereas no significant relationship
      between soil moisture and CH4 uptake occurred. Our results may contribute to the
      improvement of model parameterization for simulating biosphere-atmosphere CH4
      exchange processes and for evaluating the climate change feedback on CH4 soil
      uptake.

PMID- 28869918
TI  - Circulating CD4+PD-1+ and CD8+PD-1+ T cells are profoundly decreased at the onset
      of fulminant type 1 diabetes and are restored by treatment, contrasting with
      CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells.
AB  - Programed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) is an inhibitory receptor expressed by T
      cells that downregulates the activation and proliferation of these cells to
      maintain peripheral self-tolerance. Recent studies reported some cases of new
      onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) under anti-PD1 or PDL-1 antibodies. We demonstrated
      that circulating both CD4+PD-1+ and CD8+PD-1+ T cells were profoundly reduced at
      the onset of fulminant T1D and were restored by treatment in two patients with
      fulminant T1D.

PMID- 28869919
TI  - Cardiometabolic health in Asians with diabetes in the US.
AB  - AIMS: Asians develop diabetes at lower levels of adiposity than people of other
      race/ethnicities. However, there is limited data investigating the health of US
      Asians with diabetes. We compared cardiovascular risk factors in US Asians to
      other race/ethnicities stratified by diabetes status. METHODS: Among 4645 adults
      in the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a
      cross-sectional survey of the US population, odds ratios were calculated for
      obesity, hypertension, and elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol
      associated with race/ethnicity after adjustment for age, sex, income, education,
      smoking, alcohol consumption, and health insurance. RESULTS: Overall and
      stratified by diabetes status, non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and
      Mexican-Americans were significantly more likely to be obese compared to non
      Hispanic Asians after adjustment. Overall and stratified by diabetes status,
      adjusted levels of hypertension compared to non-Hispanic Asians was generally
      similar for non-Hispanic whites and Mexican-Americans and generally more common
      among non-Hispanic blacks; among those with diagnosed diabetes, the adjusted odds
      ratios (95% confidence interval) were 1.48 (0.79-2.77), 2.54 (1.49-4.30), and
      1.38 (0.73-2.60) for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican
      Americans, respectively. Overall and stratified by diabetes status, elevated LDL
      cholesterol levels were generally similar between non-Hispanic Asians and other
      race/ethnicities; among those with diagnosed diabetes, the adjusted odds ratios
      (95% confidence interval) were 0.88 (0.32-2.43), 0.58 (0.24-1.42), and 1.15 (0.29
      4.58) for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican-Americans,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although non-Hispanic Asians had lower levels of
      adiposity compared to other race/ethnicities with diabetes, their adjusted levels
      of hypertension and LDL cholesterol were generally more comparable.

PMID- 28869920
TI  - Comparison of direct 13C and indirect 1H-[13C] MR detection methods for the study
      of dynamic metabolic turnover in the human brain.
AB  - A wide range of direct 13C and indirect 1H-[13C] MR detection methods exist to
      probe dynamic metabolic pathways in the human brain. Choosing an optimal
      detection method is difficult as sequence-specific features regarding spatial
      localization, broadband decoupling, spectral resolution, power requirements and
      sensitivity complicate a straightforward comparison. Here we combine density
      matrix simulations with experimentally determined values for intrinsic 1H and 13C
      sensitivity, T1 and T2 relaxation and transmit efficiency to allow selection of
      an optimal 13C MR detection method for a given application and magnetic field.
      The indirect proton-observed, carbon-edited (POCE) detection method provides the
      highest accuracy at reasonable RF power deposition both at 4T and 7T. The various
      polarization transfer methods all have comparable performances, but may become
      infeasible at 7T due to the high RF power deposition. 2D MR methods have limited
      value for the metabolites considered (primarily glutamate, glutamine and gamma
      amino butyric acid (GABA)), but may prove valuable when additional information
      can be extracted, such as isotopomers or lipid composition. While providing the
      lowest accuracy, the detection of non-protonated carbons is the simplest to
      implement with the lowest RF power deposition. The magnetic field homogeneity is
      one of the most important parameters affecting the detection accuracy for all
      metabolites and all acquisition methods.

PMID- 28869921
TI  - A 5-year descriptive study of electroconvulsive therapy at SCARF.

PMID- 28869922
TI  - A qualitative study of experience of parents of adolescents who received ECT.
AB  - AIM OF THIS STUDY: To evaluate the experience of parents of adolescents who
      received ECT for severe mental illness. METHODOLOGY: Using qualitative methods, 6
      parents of 5 adolescents were interviewed by using a self-designed semi
      structured interview after the completion of ECT course. The clinicians involved
      in the ECT procedure, i.e., seeking informed consent and administration of ECT
      were not aware about the study. All the interviews were recorded and the content
      was analysed and themes were generated. RESULTS: Parents of all the 5 adolescents
      expressed that their children were considered for ECT only after the patient had
      not responded to medication and were unmanageable. Prior to ECT the treating
      doctors did explain to them about the ECT procedure, they were given information
      booklet and they were not coerced to consent for ECT. Some of the parents
      reported that they had dilemma prior to giving consent and were scared prior to
      the first ECT. However, as the clinical condition of their children improved,
      they felt that ECT was a good treatment. Majority of the parents felt that ECT
      was delayed for their children. When asked about restriction in use of ECT in
      children and adolescents, the parents expressed that it is important for law
      makers to understand the distress of the parents,when their children are acutely
      ill. They expressed that decision of administration of ECT must be left to the
      family and the treating clinicians. CONCLUSION: Parents of adolescents considered
      for ECT are generally satisfied with the treatment procedure.

PMID- 28869923
TI  - Infant, maternal, and familial predictors and correlates of regulatory problems
      in early infancy: The differential role of infant temperament and maternal
      anxiety and depression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Excessive infant crying, feeding and sleeping problems are likely to
      emerge from the complex interplay of various factors. AIMS: To investigate the
      role of infant (e.g., temperament), maternal (e.g., anxiety and depressive
      disorders), and familial (e.g., social support) factors as potential precursors
      of infant regulatory problems. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective-longitudinal study.
      SUBJECTS: 286 mother-infant dyads were investigated from early pregnancy until 16
      months postpartum via questionnaires and interviews. OUTCOME MEASURES: Regulatory
      problems at 2, 4 and 16 months postpartum assessed by standardized diagnostic
      interviews. RESULTS: Fussy infant temperament and maternal anxiety disorders were
      associated with excessive infant crying (OR=1.16, 95%CI:1.05-1.29, OR=3.28,
      95%CI:1.16-9.26) and feeding problems (OR=1.05, 95%CI:1.01-1.11, OR=2.27,
      95%CI:1.36-3.80) whereas maternal depressive disorders were associated with
      infant sleeping problems (OR=2.55, 95%CI:1.06-6.11). Moreover, high maternal age
      (OR=0.86, 95%CI:0.75-0.98) was associated with a lower risk for excessive crying
      and being a single mother (OR=0.16, 95%CI:0.03-0.73) and cognitive reappraisal to
      regulate emotions (OR: 0.59, 95%CI:0.36-0.96) was associated with a lower risk
      for sleeping problems. CONCLUSION: Excessive infant crying and feeding problems
      may be related to interactional deficits of anxious mothers who perceive their
      infants as "difficult" during soothing or feeding situations. Sleeping problems
      may be transmitted already during pregnancy by an altered sleep-wake-rhythm of
      mothers with a history of depression or by a genetic predisposition. Therapeutic
      interventions should focus on maternal anxiety and depression, behavior
      management techniques to cope with difficult situations with "fussy" infants and
      potential protective factors (e.g. favorable maternal emotion regulation) to
      address crying, feeding and sleeping problems.

PMID- 28869924
TI  - Methylisothiazolinone toxicity and inhibition of wound healing and regeneration
      in planaria.
AB  - Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) is a common biocide used in cosmetic and industrial
      settings. Studies have demonstrated that MIT is a human sensitizer, to the extent
      that in 2013 MIT was named allergen of the year. Recently, we showed that MIT
      exposure in Xenopus laevis (the African clawed frog) inhibits wound healing and
      tail regeneration. However, it is unknown whether MIT affects these processes in
      other animals. Here, we investigated the effects of MIT exposure in planaria-non
      parasitic freshwater flatworms able to regenerate all tissues after injury. Using
      a common research strain of Dugesia japonica, we determined that intact
      planarians exposed to 15MUM MIT displayed both neuromuscular and epithelial
      integrity defects. Furthermore, regenerating (head and tail) fragments exposed to
      15MUM MIT failed to close wounds or had significantly delayed wound healing.
      Planarian wounds normally close within 1h after injury. However, most MIT-exposed
      animals retained open wounds at 24h and subsequently died, and those few animals
      that were able to undergo delayed wound healing without dying exhibited abnormal
      regeneration. For instance, head regeneration was severely delayed or inhibited,
      with anterior structures such as eyes failing to form in newly produced tissues.
      These data suggest that MIT directly affects both wound healing and regeneration
      in planarians. Next, we investigated the ability of thiol-containing antioxidants
      to rescue planarian wound closure during MIT exposure. The data reveal both n
      acetyl cysteine and glutathione were each able to fully rescue MIT inhibition of
      wound healing. Lastly, we established MIT toxicity levels by determining the LC50
      of 5 different planarian species: D. japonica, Schmidtea mediterranea, Girardia
      tigrina, Girardia dorotocephala, and Phagocata gracilis. Our LC50 data revealed
      that concentrations as low as 39MUM (4.5ppm) are lethal to planarians, with
      concentrations of just 5MUM inhibiting wound healing, and suggest that phylogeny
      is predictive of species toxicity levels. Together these results indicate MIT may
      have broad wound healing effects on aquatic species in general and are not
      limited to X. laevis alone. Future studies should investigate the impact of MIT
      on wound healing in other organisms, including non-aquatic organisms and mammals.

PMID- 28869925
TI  - Cadmium stress assessment based on the electrocardiogram characteristics of zebra
      fish (Danio rerio): QRS complex could play an important role.
AB  - The electrocardiogram (ECG) of zebra fish (Danio rerio) expresses cardiac
      features that are similar to humans. Here we use sharp microelectrode
      measurements to obtain ECG characteristics in adult zebra fish and analyze the
      effects of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) on the heart. We observe the overall changes
      of ECG parameters in different treatments (0.1 TU, 0.5 TU and 1.0 TU CdCl2),
      including P wave, Q wave, R wave, S wave, T wave, PR interval (atrial
      contraction), QRS complex (ventricular depolarization), ST segment, and QT
      interval (ventricular repolarization). The trends of the ECG parameters showed
      some responses to the concentration and exposure time of CdCl2, but it was
      difficult to obtain more information about the useful indicators in water quality
      assessment depending on tendency analysis alone. A self-organizing map (SOM)
      showed that P values, R values, and T values were similar; R wave and T wave
      amplitude were similar; and most important, QRS value was similar to the CdCl2
      stress according to the classified data patterns including CdCl2 stress (E) and
      ECG components based on the Ward linkage. It suggested that the duration of QRS
      complex was related to environmental stress E directly. The specification and
      evaluation of ECG parameters in Cd2+ pollution suggested that there is a markedly
      significant correlation between QRS complex and CdCl2 stress with the highest r
      (0.729) and the smallest p (0.002) among all ECG characteristics. In this case,
      it is concluded that QRS complex can be used as an indicator in the CdCl2 stress
      assessment due to the lowest AIC data abased on the linear regression model
      between the CdCl2 stress and ECG parameters.

PMID- 28869926
TI  - Outer, inner and planar polarity in the Arabidopsis root.
AB  - Plant roots control uptake of water and nutrients and cope with environmental
      challenges. The root epidermis provides the first selective interface for
      nutrient absorption, while the endodermis produces the main apoplastic diffusion
      barrier in the form of a structure called the Casparian strip. The positioning of
      root hairs on epidermal cells, and of the Casparian strip around endodermal
      cells, requires asymmetries along cellular axes (cell polarity). Cell polarity is
      termed planar polarity, when coordinated within the plane of a given tissue
      layer. Here, we review recent molecular advances towards understanding both the
      polar positioning of the proteo-lipid membrane domain instructing root hair
      initiation, and the cytoskeletal, trafficking and polar tethering requirements of
      proteins at outer or inner plasma membrane domains. Finally, we highlight
      progress towards understanding mechanisms of Casparian strip formation and
      underlying endodermal cell polarity.

PMID- 28869927
TI  - Improved Drug Adherence in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in the Chronic
      Phase by Switching to Second-Generation Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors.

PMID- 28869929
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28869928
TI  - Atypical Uterine Smooth Muscle Tumors: A Retrospective Evaluation of Clinical and
      Pathologic Features.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical characteristics combined with new biomarkers help
      discriminate between atypical uterine smooth muscle tumors (AUSMT) and
      leiomyosarcomas (LMS). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively collected a
      series of leiomyomas (LM), AUSMT, and LMS. Estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone
      receptors (PR), p16, Ki-67, and p53 expression were assessed by
      immunohistochemistry. For AUSMT patients, immunohistochemistry evaluations were
      performed at the time of diagnosis and at recurrences. RESULTS: A total of 27
      cases of AUSMT, 22 LM, and 31 LMS were identified. The expression of ER and PR
      decreased from LM to LMS (ER+: LM 95.5%, AUSMT 88.9%, LMS 41.9%, p < 0.001; PR+:
      LM 100%, AUSMT 88.9%, LMS 38.2%, p = 0.002). By contrast, p16 and p53 expression
      increased (p16+: LM 4.5%, AUSMT 40.7%, LMS 45.2%, p = 0.004; p53: LM 9.1%, AUSMT
      33.3%, LMS 58.1%, p = 0.001). At a median follow-up of 33.47 months, 40.7% of
      patients with AUSMT experienced recurrent disease, 6 patients relapsed as AUSMT
      and 5 as LMS. In univariate analysis was observed that ER status (p = 0.027) and
      p53 expression (p = 0.015) predicted risk of relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of
      AUSMT should be centralized in dedicated centers. International collaborations
      are needed to optimize research strategy, which may lead to the identification of
      new useful biomarkers and to improvement in the clinical management of this rare
      disease.

PMID- 28869930
TI  - Uremic Restless Legs Syndrome Pleads "Not Guilty".

PMID- 28869931
TI  - A Phase II Exploratory Study of PXD-101 (Belinostat) Followed by Zevalin in
      Patients with Relapsed Aggressive High-Risk Lymphoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Aggressive lymphomas (aNHL) including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
      (DLBCL) have poor outcomes in relapsed refractory patients. Prior studies have
      demonstrated that loss of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII)
      expression in DLBCL is associated with poor survival. The objective of this
      single-arm phase II study was to evaluate if PXD-101 would increase MHCII
      expression, synergize with Zevalin, and improve clinical outcomes. METHODS: This
      was a single-center open-label phase II trial (NCT01686165) geared toward heavily
      pretreated patients with CD20-positive aNHL. The primary endpoint was overall
      response rate (ORR) in aNHL patients treated with 2 cycles of PXD-101 followed by
      restaging CT and 1 cycle of Zevalin. RESULTS: Five patients were enrolled, and
      all were heavily pretreated. Therapy was well tolerated, with nausea and vomiting
      being the most frequent adverse events. All patients progressed after receiving
      therapy; the study did not achieve the required ORR to proceed to the next stage.
      CONCLUSION: The pleotropic effects of histone deacetylase inhibition and lack of
      clinical biomarkers have precluded a priori identification of responding
      patients. Thus, while we report a negative trial of PXD-101 in combination with
      Zevalin, this study highlights the importance of a clinically feasible biomarker.

PMID- 28869932
TI  - Pirfenidone in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis "RECAP-itulating Safety into the
      Real World".

PMID- 28869933
TI  - [Die therapeutische Wirksamkeit westlicher Atemtherapiemethoden: Ein
      systematischer Review].

PMID- 28869934
TI  - Typical Hemodialysis in India: A Case Report.
AB  - We report here a typical case of a patient on hemodialysis (HD) for end-stage
      renal disease (ESRD) in India that highlights some of the management issues
      encountered in a country with an enormous burden of ESRD and major challenges of
      underdialysis and management of comorbidities. The patient, a 42-year-old
      multiparous woman with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage V, type 2 diabetes
      mellitus, and hypertension is a homemaker from a middle-class family, living in a
      large city, with no family history of CKD. From May 2013 to December 2016, she
      has been receiving twice-weekly maintenance HD for 4 h (intermittent HD); access
      was via an internal jugular line initially and then via a left brachiocephalic
      arteriovenous fistula (AVF) from late June 2013. Medical problems in this patient
      included poor medication and dietary compliance, underdialysis, anemia, volume
      overload, congestive cardiac failure with recurrent pulmonary edema, and
      hypertensive crisis. In December 2016, she complained of pain in the fistula arm
      during dialysis, and in January 2017, she developed edema of the arm. Specific
      endovascular intervention with balloon angioplasty resulted in a resolution of
      the stenosis of the venous side of the AVF and the edema. Counselling for dietary
      compliance and drug adherence resulted in good blood pressure control. Unlike in
      most other dialysis units, we have been able to increase her HD to thrice weekly
      and institute several ancillary services, including skilled dietary counselling,
      cardiac care, and regular bioimpedance analysis with favorable outcomes. Thus, a
      multidisciplinary team approach offering such ancillary services would allow for
      better management and improved outcomes in patients with ESRD in resource-poor
      settings.

PMID- 28869935
TI  - Fetal Aneuploidy: A Comparison of Dichorionic Twins and Monochorionic Twins.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical characteristics of fetal aneuploidy between
      dichorionic twins (DCT) and monochorionic twins (MCT) undergoing invasive
      prenatal diagnosis. METHODS: Twin fetuses undergoing invasive prenatal diagnosis
      were enrolled in this study. All twin fetuses were classified into 2 groups
      according to chorionicity. The rates of fetal aneuploidy in different groups were
      compared. RESULT: This study included 1,714 fetuses (857 sets of twin pairs);
      among them, 1,190 were DCT and 524 were MCT. Overall, the rate of aneuploidy was
      4.7% (56/1,190) in DCT and 3.4% (18/524) in MCT. Sixty-four (86.5%, 64/74) fetal
      aneuploidies occurred in only one fetus of the twin pairs. In DCT, the most
      common aneuploidy was trisomy 21 (53.6%, 30/56), followed by trisomy 18 (21.4%,
      12/56) and trisomy 13 (8.9%, 5/56), while in MCT, the most common aneuploidy was
      Turner syndrome (33.3%, 6/18), followed by trisomy 21 (27.7%, 5/18) and 47,XYY
      (11.0%, 2/18). CONCLUSION: Aneuploidy mostly occurred in only one fetus in the
      twin pairs. The most common aneuploidy was trisomy 21 in DCT and Turner syndrome
      in MCT. Dual amniocentesis should be performed when discordant monozygotic twins
      are suspected.

PMID- 28869937
TI  - Prospects for Vascular Access Education in Developing Countries: Current
      Situation in Cambodia.
AB  - We report our activities training doctors on vascular access procedures at
      International University (IU) Hospital in Cambodia through a program facilitated
      by Ubiquitous Blood Purification International, a nonprofit organization that
      provides medical support to developing countries in the field of dialysis
      medicine. Six doctors from Japan have been involved in the education of medical
      personnel at IU, and we have collectively visited Cambodia about 15 times from
      2010 to 2016. In these visits, we have performed many operations, including 42
      for arteriovenous fistula, 1 arteriovenous graft, and 1 percutaneous transluminal
      angioplasty. Stable development and management of vascular access is increasingly
      required in Cambodia due to increased use of dialysis therapy, and training of
      doctors in this technique is urgently required. However, we have encountered
      several difficulties that need to be addressed, including (1) the situation of
      personnel receiving this training, (2) problems with facilities, including
      medical equipment and drugs, (3) financial limitations, and (4) problems with
      management of vascular access.

PMID- 28869936
TI  - Synergistic Effect of Baicalin and Adriamycin in Resistant HL-60/ADM Leukaemia
      Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The present study was designed to investigate the expression of
      multidrug resistance (MDR)-related genes, verify the synergistic effects of
      baicalin and Adriamycin (ADM) and investigate the related mechanisms in ADM
      resistant leukaemic HL-60/ADM cells. METHODS: We used a HL-60/ADM cell line.
      Cytotoxicity and flow cytometry assays were employed to verify the cytotoxic
      effects of baicalin. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting
      assays were used to assess the expression of MDR-related genes and the changes in
      gene expression (both MDR-related and PI3K/Akt pathway-related) induced by
      administration of baicalin. RESULTS: We found that only multidrug resistance
      protein 1 (MRP1), lung resistance-related protein (LRP) and Bcl-2 genes were
      expressed in both HL-60 and HL-60/ADM cells. HL-60/ADM cells exhibited
      significantly higher expression (p < 0.05). We also observed that low-dose
      baicalin (5 and 10 umol/L) can induce growth inhibition and apoptotic effects on
      HL-60/ADM cells by increasing the intracellular accumulation of ADM. The
      synergistic effect of baicalin and ADM was verified. Concerning the potential
      mechanisms involved in this process, we showed that baicalin down-regulated the
      expression of several MDR-related and PI3K/Akt pathway-related genes.
      CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed the increased expression of MRP1, LRP and Bcl-2 genes
      in HL-60/ADM cells compared to regular HL-60 cells, which are recommended for
      future investigation on MDR. The present study provided evidence of the
      synergistic effect of baicalin and ADM in HL-60/ADM cells. Therefore, baicalin
      may be considered as a potential therapeutic agent against resistant leukaemia.
      Suppression of the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway, followed by inhibition of the
      expression of MDR-related genes may be a common mechanism in combination
      treatments with ADM for the reduction of resistance to ADM.

PMID- 28869938
TI  - Mineral and Bone Disorder in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Case Report from Vietnam.
AB  - We report a case of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease (CPDD)
      involving a patient on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). The 32-year-old man
      presented in August 2016 with a complaint of left shoulder swelling of 8 months'
      duration with no trauma or fever. He was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome in
      1998, which progressed to ESRD. He commenced MHD in 2012. Examination at our
      hospital revealed a soft nontender swelling of the left shoulder. Blood
      biochemistry showed elevated serum urate, phosphate, beta2 microglobulin, and
      parathyroid hormone. Imaging revealed joint effusion and dense heterogenous
      deposition. Aspirate analysis showed urate crystals 3+, and culture yielded no
      growth. Following rheumatology review, the working diagnosis was periarticular
      tissue tuberculosis, after excluding pseudogout and amyloidosis. Following 1
      month of colchicine and allopurinol, synovial fluid microscopy showed CPDD
      crystals. Symptoms gradually resolved over the course of 6 months. In this rare
      case, a diagnosis of CPDD was made with a multidisciplinary approach that
      included imaging and biochemical investigations.

PMID- 28869940
TI  - Severe Secondary Hyperparathyroidism in a Hemodialysis Patient: A Case Report
      from Mongolia.
AB  - Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) occurs in patients with chronic renal
      failure complicated with renal bone disease and soft tissue/vascular
      calcification. In dialysis patients with severe SHPT, medical treatment may fail
      and parathyroidectomy (PTX) is indicated for definitive treatment. Severe
      hypocalcemia from hungry bone disease or postoperative hypoparathyroidism may
      occur during the postoperative period. We report here a case of severe SHPT in a
      hemodialysis patient treated with phosphate binders, calcitriol, and
      calcimimetics but who still required PTX. Severe hypocalcemia with muscle cramps
      occurred postoperatively. Around 1 year after PTX, anemia and features of SHPT
      have improved but the patient still has intermittent hypocalcemia with suspected
      postoperative hypoparathyroidism. Regular comprehensive assessment of calcium and
      phosphorus levels throughout all stages of chronic kidney disease is vital. The
      postoperative period of PTX in SHPT patients is critical, requiring monitoring to
      improve management.

PMID- 28869939
TI  - Survival of Dialysis Patients with Restless Legs Syndrome: A 15-Year Follow-Up
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Restless legs syndrome, also known as Willis/Ekbom disease (RLS/WED),
      is a sleep-related, sensorimotor disorder with a high prevalence among end-stage
      renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD) (about 15-40%).
      Whether RLS/WED in uremic patients influences cardiovascular morbidity and
      mortality remains a matter of controversy. The aim of this study was to evaluate
      the relationship of RLS/WED and mortality in a population of chronically dialyzed
      patients. METHOD: In 1996, we studied 128 patients with ESRD undergoing HD; 47
      subjects (36.7%) complained RLS/WED symptoms. Fifteen years later we evaluated
      the mortality of this population. No clinical follow-up examination of the uremic
      population was made. The Kaplan-Maier curves in dialysis patients with or without
      RLS/WED (control group matched for age) were constructed for all-cause mortality
      and compared using log-rank test. RESULTS: The Kaplan-Maier curves disclosed a
      lower mortality rate in the uremic patients with RLS/WED than in those without
      RLS/WED (p = 0.04). In our analysis, the mortality rate was not influenced by
      RLS/WED severity (p = 0.11) or gender (p = 0.15). No difference among the causes
      of death was found in the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that
      mortality in ESRD patients is not influenced by concomitant RLS/WED. After a 15
      year follow-up, survival rates in our cohort were significantly longer in uremic
      subjects with RLS/WED than in those without RLS/WED. Finally, we found no
      relationship between RLS/WED severity and mortality.

PMID- 28869941
TI  - Identifying Attenuating Mutations: Tools for a New Vaccine Design against
      Flaviviruses.
AB  - Emerging Flaviviruses pose an increasing threat to global human health. To date,
      human vaccines against yellow fever virus (YFV), Japanese encephalitis virus
      (JEV), dengue virus (DV), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) exist.
      However, there is no human vaccine against other Flaviviruses such as Zika virus
      (ZIKV) and West Nile virus (WNV). In order to restrict their spread and to
      protect populations against the diseases they induce, vaccines against these
      emerging viruses must be designed. Obtaining new live attenuated Flavivirus
      vaccines using molecular biology methods is now possible. Molecular infectious
      clones of the parental viruses are relatively easy to generate. Key mutations
      present in live attenuated vaccines or mutations known to have a key role in the
      Flavivirus life cycle and/or interactions with their hosts can be identified by
      sequencing, and are then inserted in infectious clones by site-directed
      mutagenesis. More recently, the use of chimeric viruses and large-scale
      reencoding and introduction of microRNA target sequences have also been tested.
      Indeed, a combination of these methods will help in designing new generations of
      vaccines against emerging and reemerging Flaviviruses.

PMID- 28869942
TI  - Pulmonary Cavities after Diagnostic Transbronchial Cryobiopsy in a Lung
      Transplantation Patient.

PMID- 28869943
TI  - Targeting the Potassium Channel Kv1.3 Kills Glioblastoma Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive cancers,
      counting for a high number of the newly diagnosed patients with central nervous
      system (CNS) cancers in the United States and Europe. Major features of GBM
      include aggressive and invasive growth as well as a high resistance to treatment.
      Kv1.3, a potassium channel of the shaker family, is expressed in the inner
      mitochondrial membrane of many cancer cells. Inhibition of mitochondrial Kv1.3
      was shown to induce apoptosis in several tumor cells at doses that were not
      lethal for normal cells. METHODS: We investigated the expression of Kv1.3 in
      different glioma cell lines by immunocytochemistry, western blotting and electron
      microscopy and analyzed the effect of newly synthesized, mitochondria-targeted,
      Kv1.3 inhibitors on the induction of cell death in these cells. Finally, we
      performed in vivo studies on glioma bearing mice. RESULTS: Here, we report that
      Kv1.3 is expressed in mitochondria of human and murine GL261, A172 and LN308
      glioma cells. Treatment with the novel Kv1.3 inhibitors PAPTP or PCARBTP as well
      as with clofazimine induced massive cell death in glioma cells, while Psora-4 and
      PAP-1 were almost without effect. However, in vivo experiments revealed that the
      drugs had no effect on orthotopic brain tumors in vivo. CONCLUSION: These data
      serve as proof of principle that Kv1.3 inhibitors kills GBM cells, but drugs that
      act in vivo against glioblastoma must be developed to translate these findings in
      vivo.

PMID- 28869945
TI  - An Interview with the Guest Editors.

PMID- 28869944
TI  - Evidence for Concerted and Mosaic Brain Evolution in Dragon Lizards.
AB  - The brain plays a critical role in a wide variety of functions including
      behaviour, perception, motor control, and homeostatic maintenance. Each function
      can undergo different selective pressures over the course of evolution, and as
      selection acts on the outputs of brain function, it necessarily alters the
      structure of the brain. Two models have been proposed to explain the evolutionary
      patterns observed in brain morphology. The concerted brain evolution model posits
      that the brain evolves as a single unit and the evolution of different brain
      regions are coordinated. The mosaic brain evolution model posits that brain
      regions evolve independently of each other. It is now understood that both models
      are responsible for driving changes in brain morphology; however, which factors
      favour concerted or mosaic brain evolution is unclear. Here, we examined the
      volumes of the 6 major neural subdivisions across 14 species of the agamid lizard
      genus Ctenophorus (dragons). These species have diverged multiple times in
      behaviour, ecology, and body morphology, affording a unique opportunity to test
      neuroevolutionary models across species. We assigned each species to an ecomorph
      based on habitat use and refuge type, then used MRI to measure total and regional
      brain volume. We found evidence for both mosaic and concerted brain evolution in
      dragons: concerted brain evolution with respect to body size, and mosaic brain
      evolution with respect to ecomorph. Specifically, all brain subdivisions increase
      in volume relative to body size, yet the tectum and rhombencephalon also show
      opposite patterns of evolution with respect to ecomorph. Therefore, we find that
      both models of evolution are occurring simultaneously in the same structures in
      dragons, but are only detectable when examining particular drivers of selection.
      We show that the answer to the question of whether concerted or mosaic brain
      evolution is detected in a system can depend more on the type of selection
      measured than on the clade of animals studied.

PMID- 28869946
TI  - Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Intractable Tremor-Dominant Parkinson Disease: A
      Retrospective Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyze the outcomes
      of stereotactic radiosurgery for patients suffering from medically refractory
      Parkinson disease (PD) tremor. METHODS: We retrospectively studied the outcomes
      of 33 patients who were treated with gamma knife thalamotomy (GKT) over a 19-year
      period. Twelve patients were >=80 years. A median dose of 140 Gy (range, 130-150
      Gy) was delivered to the nucleus ventralis intermedius through a single 4-mm
      isocenter. We used the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin clinical tremor rating scale to score
      tremor, handwriting, drawing, and ability to drink fluids. The median time to the
      last follow-up was 23 months (range, 9-144 months). RESULTS: After GKT, 31
      patients (93.9%) experienced improvement in tremor. Twenty-three patients (70.0%)
      had complete or nearly complete tremor arrest. Nine patients (27.2%) noted tremor
      arrest and resolution of impairment in writing, drawing, and ability to drink
      fluids. One patient (3%) improved in bradykinesia, 3 patients (9%) improved in
      rigidity, and 3 patients (9%) decreased their dosage of dopa after GKT. Tremor
      relief was fully maintained in the last follow-up for 96.8% of responding
      patients. Two patients (6%) experienced temporary adverse radiation effects.
      CONCLUSIONS: GKT is a safe and effective treatment for medically refractory PD
      tremor, especially for the elderly or those not suitable for deep brain
      stimulation or thermal thalamotomy.

PMID- 28869947
TI  - The Protective Effects of Sika Deer Antler Protein on Cisplatin-Induced
      Nephrotoxicity.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study measured the effect of Sika deer (Cervus nippon
      Temminck) antler protein (SDAPR), glycoproteins (SDAG), and polysaccharides
      (SDAPO) on cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity in HEK 293 cells, and investigated the
      effect of SDAPR against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in mice. METHODS: Cell
      viability was measured by MTT assay. ICR mice were randomly divided into five
      groups: control, cisplatin with vehicle, and cisplatin with SDAPR at three
      concentrations: 5, 10, or 20 mg/kg, p.o., 10 d. Cisplatin was injected on 7th day
      (25 mg/kg, i.p.). Renal function, oxidative stress, levels of inflammatory
      factors, and expression of apoptosis-related proteins were measured in vivo.
      Renal tissues were stained with TUNEL and H&E to observe renal cell apoptosis and
      pathological changes. RESULTS: Pretreatment with SDAPR (125-2000 ug/mL)
      significantly improved cell viability, with an EC50 of approximately 1000 ug/mL.
      SDAPR also ameliorated cisplatin-induced histopatholo- gic changes, and decreased
      blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) (P < 0.05). Western blotting
      analysis showed SDAPR clearly decreased expression levels of cleaved-caspase-3
      and Bax, and increased the expression level of Bcl-2 (P < 0.01). Additionally,
      SDAPR markedly regulated oxidative stress markers and inflammatory cytokines
      (P<0.05). TUNEL staining showed decreased apoptosis after SDAPR treatment (P <
      0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that SDAPR can be an effective dietary
      supplement, to relieve cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity by improved antioxidase
      activity, suppressed inflammation, and inhibited apoptosis in vivo.

PMID- 28869949
TI  - Support for Dialysis Therapy in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar by Japanese
      Societies in the Field of Blood Purification.
AB  - With recent economic development in Southeast Asia, there have been improvements
      in medical services and healthcare provision. This has led to increased numbers
      of dialysis patients and increased numbers of dialysis facilities in the region.
      To assist economically developing countries in managing this change, support
      projects from Japan have been conducted in the region since around 2007. This
      article summarizes and discusses Japan's support activities, in which some of the
      authors were directly involved, in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Initial
      support was mainly organized by the non-governmental organization Ubiquitous
      Blood Purification International (NGO UBPI), and currently several organizations
      in the field of blood purification work together to offer ongoing support in the
      region. Many positive changes have resulted from these activities in Southeast
      Asia, but challenges remaining for the future are to establish an educational
      system for each dialysis specialty and develop dialysis techniques ensuring high
      treatment quality and safety.

PMID- 28869948
TI  - The Long Non-Coding RNA XIST Interacted with MiR-124 to Modulate Bladder Cancer
      Growth, Invasion and Migration by Targeting Androgen Receptor (AR).
AB  - BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) X-inactive specific transcript
      (XIST) is involved in the progression of several tumors. The interaction between
      lncRNA and miRNA or miRNA's target genes is reported to play crucial roles in
      malignancy. In addition, Androgen receptor (AR) is considered to be involved in
      bladder cancer progression. In this study, we investigated the role of XIST in
      human bladder cancer and its interaction with miR-124 and AR. METHODS: XIST and
      AR expression was detected in bladder tumor samples and cell lines. Effects of
      XIST and AR on bladder cancer cells growth, invasion and migration were analyzed.
      Bioinformatic analysis and luciferase assays were used to identify the
      interaction among XIST, AR and miR-124. The correlations of miR-124 with XIST and
      AR in bladder cancer samples were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: XIST and AR
      were upregulated in bladder cancer tissues and positively correlated. Higher XIST
      and AR expression were related to poorer TNM stage of bladder cancer. XIST
      knockdown reduced bladder cancer cells' proliferation, invasion and migration.
      While this inhibitory effect could be partially restored by AR overexpression.
      XIST inhibited miR-124 expression by directly targeting. Moreover, miR-124 could
      bind to the 3'UTR of AR to regulate its expression. MiR-124 inhibition partially
      restored the XIST knockdown-induced reduction of AR, c-myc, p27, MMP13 and MMP9
      expression. In bladder cancer tissues, miR-124 level was inversely correlated
      with the expression of XIST and AR, respectively. CONCLUSION: These findings
      indicated that XIST might be an oncogenic lncRNA that promoted the bladder cancer
      growth, invasion and migration via miR-124 dependent AR regulation.

PMID- 28869950
TI  - Interleukin-10 Gene-Modified Dendritic Cell-Induced Type 1 Regulatory T Cells
      Induce Transplant-Tolerance and Impede Graft Versus Host Disease After Allogeneic
      Stem Cell Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Tr1 cells can induce peripheral tolerance to self- and foreign
      antigens, and have been developed as a therapeutic tool for the induction of
      tolerance to transplanted tissue. We explored the feasibility of generating Tr1
      cells by using IL-10 gene-modified recipient DCs (DCLV-IL-10) to stimulate donor
      naive CD4+ T cells. We also investigated some biological properties of Tr1 cells.
      METHODS: DCLV-IL-10 were generated through DCs transduced with a lentivirus
      vector carrying the IL-10 gene, and Tr1 cells were produced by using DCLV-IL-10
      to stimulate naive CD4+ T cells. The effects of Tr1 cells on T-cell proliferation
      and the occurrence of graft versus host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic stem
      cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) were investigated. RESULTS: The DCLV-IL-10
      induced Tr1 cells co-expressed LAG-3 and CD49b. Moreover, they also expressed
      CD4, CD25, and IL-10, but not Foxp3, and secreted significantly higher levels of
      IL-10 (1,729.36 +/- 185.79 pg/mL; P < 0.001) and INF-gamma (1,524.48 +/- 168.65
      pg/mL; P < 0.01) than the control T cells upon the stimulation by allogeneic DCs.
      Tr1 cells markedly suppressed T-lymphocyte proliferation and the mixed
      lymphocytic response (MLR) in vitro. The mice used in the allo-HSCT model had
      longer survival times and lower clinical and pathological GVHD scores than the
      control mice. CONCLUSION: IL-10 gene-modified DC-induced Tr1 cells may be used as
      a potent cellular therapy for the prevention of GVHD after allo-HSCT.

PMID- 28869951
TI  - The "Dialysis Situation in Asian Countries" Symposium: Providing New Insights to
      Improve Dialysis in the Region.

PMID- 28869952
TI  - Risk Factors for Delirium in Older Medical Inpatients in Tanzania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk factors for prevalent delirium in older hospitalised adults
      in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain poorly characterised. METHODS: A total of 510
      consecutive admissions of adults aged >=60 years to acute medical wards of
      Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in northern Tanzania were recruited.
      Patients were assessed within 24 h of admission with a risk factor questionnaire,
      physiological observations, neurocognitive assessment, and informant interview.
      Delirium and dementia diagnoses were made according to the Diagnostic and
      Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM V) and DSM IV
      respectively, by an expert panel. RESULTS: Being male, current alcohol use,
      dementia, and physiological markers of illness severity were significant
      independent risk factors for delirium on multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The
      risk factors for prevalent delirium in older medical inpatients in SSA include
      pre-existing dementia, and are similar to those identified in high-income
      countries. Our data could help inform the development of a delirium risk
      stratification tool for older adults in SSA.

PMID- 28869953
TI  - Acute Kidney Injury following Ingestion of Henna Leaf Extract: A Case Report from
      Myanmar.
AB  - Alternative medicine is gaining popularity worldwide. In Asia, particularly
      Southeast Asia, herbal medicine plays an important role in healthcare. A 34-year
      old man from Yangon, Myanmar, was admitted to the medical ward of our hospital
      after ingesting a herbal remedy of boiled henna leaves (Dan Ywet in Burmese). He
      developed hemoglobinuria leading to acute kidney injury (AKI). The insult was
      severe, and he underwent 5 sessions of hemodialysis. His condition improved and
      within 7 weeks of injury, he made a full recovery. However, he was lost to follow
      up when renal function became normal. Our diagnosis was AKI from hemoglobinuria
      secondary to henna leaf extract nephrotoxicity in G6PD deficiency. This case
      highlights the steps required to achieve the International Society of
      Nephrology's goal of 0 preventable deaths from AKI by 2025 and the efforts needed
      to increase public knowledge about herbal remedies and AKI, medication adherence,
      and compliance with follow-up.

PMID- 28869954
TI  - Acute Kidney Injury due to Fish Gallbladder Ingestion: A Case Report from
      Cambodia.
AB  - We report the case of a 22-year-old woman with a 3-day history of watery stool,
      generalized abdominal pain, repeated vomiting, and decreased urine output
      following the consumption of fish gallbladder for self-treatment of acne. She was
      admitted and received empirical antiemetic, proton pump inhibitor, and
      intravenous saline treatment. Urine output reduced drastically with markedly
      elevated urea and creatinine, and she underwent urgent hemodialysis (HD). Based
      on thorough history taking and prompt biochemical investigations that showed
      extremely high urea and creatinine levels, we made a diagnosis of acute kidney
      injury (AKI) secondary to fish gallbladder poisoning. Renal function improved
      over a period of 5 weeks. Fish gallbladder poisoning is quite frequent in several
      developing countries in Asia. General physicians in these countries should note
      that various types of food poisoning can be involved in the etiology of AKI. The
      condition is commonly reversible, and therefore proper history taking is
      important and prompt biochemical investigations including blood urea and
      creatinine are needed to enable early diagnosis and fast institution of
      treatment, which may include HD.

PMID- 28869956
TI  - The Implications of Recent Recommendations for Managing Patients with Psoriasis
      Treated with Fumaric Acid Esters.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Fumaric acid esters (FAEs) are a well-established efficacious
      systemic treatment for psoriasis. Recent recommendations from the European
      Medicines Agency suggest monitoring of full blood count every 4 weeks for the
      duration of therapy for psoriasis. The aim of our study was to assess the
      incidence of lymphopenia in patients taking FAEs and the impact of recent
      recommendations for our practice. METHODS: We reviewed 151 patients treated with
      FAEs for psoriasis between December 2013 and 2015. RESULTS: Lymphopenia <700 *
      109/L was detected within the last 12 months in 36/151 (24%) and lymphopenia <500
      * 109/L in 10/151 (7%). Of 39 patients no longer on treatment, 7 (18%) stopped
      because of persistent lymphopenia. CONCLUSION: The implementation of these
      recommendations would have significant resource implications and also likely
      influence the acceptability of FAEs to patients. Cessation of FAEs necessitates
      the need for alternative therapy, commonly biologic therapy.

PMID- 28869957
TI  - Diagnostic Value of Time-Constrained Naming Test in Mild Cognitive Impairment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Naming difficulties have recently garnered more interest in elderly
      individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We anticipate that naming tests
      with the consideration of response time can provide more informative and distinct
      neuropsychological profiles of individuals with MCI. METHODS: Naming tests were
      administered to 76 elderly individuals with MCI and 149 healthy elderly (HE). We
      analyzed the impact of MCI on naming performance and occurrence of "delayed"
      response. We also validated the predictive power of naming tests with a time
      constrained scoring system. RESULTS: MCI participants performed poorer on the
      noun naming test than HE participants (p = 0.014). MCI was significantly
      associated with the occurrence of "delayed" response on the noun (odds ratio [OR]
      = 3.57; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.78-7.17) and verb naming tests (OR =
      4.66; 95% CI = 2.07-10.46). The time-constrained naming scores were significantly
      better able to distinguish the MCI from the HE group than the conventional
      spontaneous naming score on both the noun (p < 0.001) and verb (p = 0.002) naming
      tests. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings broaden the knowledge related to the naming
      ability in individuals with MCI, with respect to the response time. We also
      confirmed the validity of the naming tests by applying the "delayed" responses as
      supplementary assessments in the diagnosis of MCI.

PMID- 28869958
TI  - Management of Nephrotic Syndrome: A Case Report from Lao PDR.
AB  - We report the case of a 23-year-old woman with a 2-week history of swelling
      around the eyes and both legs, and generalized body swelling. She had a history
      of chronic constipation and poor diet but no fever, recent illnesses, or
      hematuria. Examination revealed bilateral pedal edema and mild ascites.
      Laboratory investigations showed low hemoglobin 79 g/L, low mean corpuscular
      volume 53 fL, thrombocytosis 973 * 109/L, and marked hypochromia and
      microcytosis, with low iron and ferritin. She had hypoalbuminemia and reduced
      serum protein (albumin 1.9 g/dL, globulin 2.8 g/dL) with elevated triglycerides
      (454 mg/dL). Although kidney biopsy could not be performed due to a lack of
      facilities in the country, we made a diagnosis of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome
      (NS) with iron deficiency anemia secondary to poor diet based on clinical and
      laboratory findings. The patient was admitted and treated with intravenous
      methylprednisolone and iron supplements. Antiplatelet therapy was instituted with
      dipyridamole to prevent thromboembolism from the combination of nephrotic
      syndrome and thrombocytosis. She was later treated with albumin and furosemide
      due to elevated blood pressure and worsened edema. The edema resolved and her
      general condition improved. She was discharged to follow up and has remained
      stable, requiring no further treatment as of 18 months after admission. Kidney
      biopsy is important for diagnosis of NS. Diagnosis may be made from clinical and
      laboratory findings alone in some cases; however, biopsy is required to determine
      the type of NS and improve further management and treatment outcomes for
      patients.

PMID- 28869959
TI  - Screening of Cognitive Impairment in the Dialysis Population: A Scoping Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment in end-stage kidney disease patients on dialysis
      is increasingly common. This study aimed to review the practice of screening and
      to evaluate the evidence on cognitive impairment prevalence in this population.
      METHODS: This scoping review of studies summarises the evidence on cognitive
      impairment in dialysis populations. The search included the Medline, CINAHL,
      Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases for English-language
      articles published between 2000 and 2015. A total of 46 articles were reviewed.
      RESULTS: The studies were of prospective observational design, with the majority
      conducted in the haemodialysis population. The reported prevalence of cognitive
      impairment ranged from 6.6 to 51%. Three screening tools were consistently used.
      CONCLUSION: While cognitive impairment is recognised in the dialysis population,
      there is paucity of screening data. The design of prospective comparisons ideally
      includes established screening instruments, particularly the Montreal Cognitive
      Assessment, to determine the optimal results for this population. Translation of
      established screening tools to increase the inclusion of people from other
      cultural and language groups is required. Regular screening can enhance the
      timing to introduce home-based care support and advance care planning
      discussions.

PMID- 28869960
TI  - Syncytia Induction by Clinical Isolates of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus A.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Syncytia formation is the hallmark of the cytopathic effect caused by
      human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV), which is the most important viral
      respiratory pathogen in children. This article reports methodological
      improvements in primary HRSV isolation and the importance of syncytia formation
      and mRNA levels of F protein for the progeny yield, using clinical isolates of
      HRSV. METHODS: The A and B strains of HRSV were isolated in HEp-2 cell cultures
      from fresh and frozen nasopharyngeal aspirates. The formation of syncytia was
      evaluated using 2 different assays. Levels of F protein mRNA were quantified by
      real-time PCR while HRSV progeny titration was done by plaque assay. RESULTS:
      HRSV was primarily isolated from 238 of 312 (90.7%) samples, and 13 of these (12
      HRSV-A and 1 HRSV-B) were continuously passaged in vitro. The quantity and size
      of syncytia formed by 6 pure HRSV-A clinical isolates were different, as were the
      levels of F protein mRNA. CONCLUSION: There is a direct correlation of quantities
      of syncytia and inoculum size, but not with mRNA levels of HRSV-A F protein.
      Importantly, levels of F protein mRNA were directly related to progeny
      production.

PMID- 28869961
TI  - Contribution of Neuro-Imaging for Prediction of Functional Recovery after
      Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - Prediction measures of recovery and outcome after stroke perform with only modest
      levels of accuracy if based only on clinical data. Prediction scores can be
      improved by including morphologic imaging data, where size, location, and
      development of the ischemic lesion is best documented by magnetic resonance
      imaging. In addition to the primary lesion, the involvement of fiber tracts
      contributes to prognosis, and consequently the use of diffusion tensor imaging
      (DTI) to assess primary and secondary pathways improves the prediction of outcome
      and of therapeutic effects. The recovery of ischemic tissue and the progression
      of damage are dependent on the quality of blood supply. Therefore, the status of
      the supplying arteries and of the collateral flow is not only crucial for
      determining eligibility for acute interventions, but also has an impact on the
      potential to integrate areas surrounding the lesion that are not typically part
      of a functional network into the recovery process. The changes in these
      functional networks after a localized lesion are assessed by functional imaging
      methods, which additionally show altered pathways and activated secondary centers
      related to residual functions and demonstrate changes in activation patterns
      within these networks with improved performance. These strategies in some
      instances record activation in secondary centers of a network, for example, also
      in homolog contralateral areas, which might be inhibitory to the recovery of
      primary centers. Such findings might have therapeutic consequences, for example,
      image-guided inhibitory stimulation of these areas. In the future, a combination
      of morphological imaging including DTI of fiber tracts and activation studies
      during specific tasks might yield the best information on residual function,
      reserve capacity, and prospects for recovery after ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28869962
TI  - Mimicking biological stress-strain behaviour with synthetic elastomers.
AB  - Despite the versatility of synthetic chemistry, certain combinations of
      mechanical softness, strength, and toughness can be difficult to achieve in a
      single material. These combinations are, however, commonplace in biological
      tissues, and are therefore needed for applications such as medical implants,
      tissue engineering, soft robotics, and wearable electronics. Present materials
      synthesis strategies are predominantly Edisonian, involving the empirical mixing
      of assorted monomers, crosslinking schemes, and occluded swelling agents, but
      this approach yields limited property control. Here we present a general strategy
      for mimicking the mechanical behaviour of biological materials by precisely
      encoding their stress-strain curves in solvent-free brush- and comb-like polymer
      networks (elastomers). The code consists of three independent architectural
      parameters-network strand length, side-chain length and grafting density. Using
      prototypical poly(dimethylsiloxane) elastomers, we illustrate how this parametric
      triplet enables the replication of the strain-stiffening characteristics of
      jellyfish, lung, and arterial tissues.

PMID- 28869963
TI  - Cell biology: The persistence of memory.

PMID- 28869964
TI  - Biodiversity effects in the wild are common and as strong as key drivers of
      productivity.
AB  - More than 500 controlled experiments have collectively suggested that
      biodiversity loss reduces ecosystem productivity and stability. Yet the
      importance of biodiversity in sustaining the world's ecosystems remains
      controversial, largely because of the lack of validation in nature, where strong
      abiotic forcing and complex interactions are assumed to swamp biodiversity
      effects. Here we test this assumption by analysing 133 estimates reported in 67
      field studies that statistically separated the effects of biodiversity on biomass
      production from those of abiotic forcing. Contrary to the prevailing opinion of
      the previous two decades that biodiversity would have rare or weak effects in
      nature, we show that biomass production increases with species richness in a wide
      range of wild taxa and ecosystems. In fact, after controlling for environmental
      covariates, increases in biomass with biodiversity are stronger in nature than
      has previously been documented in experiments and comparable to or stronger than
      the effects of other well-known drivers of productivity, including climate and
      nutrient availability. These results are consistent with the collective
      experimental evidence that species richness increases community biomass
      production, and suggest that the role of biodiversity in maintaining productive
      ecosystems should figure prominently in global change science and policy.

PMID- 28869965
TI  - The neuropeptide neuromedin U stimulates innate lymphoid cells and type 2
      inflammation.
AB  - The type 2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 have important
      roles in stimulating innate and adaptive immune responses that are required for
      resistance to helminth infection, promotion of allergic inflammation, metabolic
      homeostasis and tissue repair. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) produce type
      2 cytokines, and although advances have been made in understanding the cytokine
      milieu that promotes ILC2 responses, how ILC2 responses are regulated by other
      stimuli remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that ILC2s in the mouse
      gastrointestinal tract co-localize with cholinergic neurons that express the
      neuropeptide neuromedin U (NMU). In contrast to other haematopoietic cells, ILC2s
      selectively express the NMU receptor 1 (NMUR1). In vitro stimulation of ILC2s
      with NMU induced rapid cell activation, proliferation, and secretion of the type
      2 cytokines IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 that was dependent on cell-intrinsic expression
      of NMUR1 and Galphaq protein. In vivo administration of NMU triggered potent type
      2 cytokine responses characterized by ILC2 activation, proliferation and
      eosinophil recruitment that was associated with accelerated expulsion of the
      gastrointestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis or induction of lung
      inflammation. Conversely, worm burden was higher in Nmur1-/- mice than in control
      mice. Furthermore, use of gene-deficient mice and adoptive cell transfer
      experiments revealed that ILC2s were necessary and sufficient to mount NMU
      elicited type 2 cytokine responses. Together, these data indicate that the NMU
      NMUR1 neuronal signalling circuit provides a selective mechanism through which
      the enteric nervous system and innate immune system integrate to promote rapid
      type 2 cytokine responses that can induce anti-microbial, inflammatory and tissue
      protective type 2 responses at mucosal sites.

PMID- 28869967
TI  - A solvent- and vacuum-free route to large-area perovskite films for efficient
      solar modules.
AB  - Recent advances in the use of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites for
      optoelectronics have been rapid, with reported power conversion efficiencies of
      up to 22 per cent for perovskite solar cells. Improvements in stability have also
      enabled testing over a timescale of thousands of hours. However, large-scale
      deployment of such cells will also require the ability to produce large-area,
      uniformly high-quality perovskite films. A key challenge is to overcome the
      substantial reduction in power conversion efficiency when a small device is
      scaled up: a reduction from over 20 per cent to about 10 per cent is found when a
      common aperture area of about 0.1 square centimetres is increased to more than 25
      square centimetres. Here we report a new deposition route for methyl ammonium
      lead halide perovskite films that does not rely on use of a common solvent or
      vacuum: rather, it relies on the rapid conversion of amine complex precursors to
      perovskite films, followed by a pressure application step. The deposited
      perovskite films were free of pin-holes and highly uniform. Importantly, the new
      deposition approach can be performed in air at low temperatures, facilitating
      fabrication of large-area perovskite devices. We reached a certified power
      conversion efficiency of 12.1 per cent with an aperture area of 36.1 square
      centimetres for a mesoporous TiO2-based perovskite solar module architecture.

PMID- 28869966
TI  - Polycomb-like proteins link the PRC2 complex to CpG islands.
AB  - The Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) mainly mediates transcriptional
      repression and has essential roles in various biological processes including the
      maintenance of cell identity and proper differentiation. Polycomb-like (PCL)
      proteins, such as PHF1, MTF2 and PHF19, are PRC2-associated factors that form sub
      complexes with PRC2 core components, and have been proposed to modulate the
      enzymatic activity of PRC2 or the recruitment of PRC2 to specific genomic loci.
      Mammalian PRC2-binding sites are enriched in CG content, which correlates with
      CpG islands that display a low level of DNA methylation. However, the mechanism
      of PRC2 recruitment to CpG islands is not fully understood. Here we solve the
      crystal structures of the N-terminal domains of PHF1 and MTF2 with bound CpG
      containing DNAs in the presence of H3K36me3-containing histone peptides. We show
      that the extended homologous regions of both proteins fold into a winged-helix
      structure, which specifically binds to the unmethylated CpG motif but in a
      completely different manner from the canonical winged-helix DNA recognition
      motif. We also show that the PCL extended homologous domains are required for
      efficient recruitment of PRC2 to CpG island-containing promoters in mouse
      embryonic stem cells. Our research provides the first, to our knowledge, direct
      evidence to demonstrate that PCL proteins are crucial for PRC2 recruitment to CpG
      islands, and further clarifies the roles of these proteins in transcriptional
      regulation in vivo.

PMID- 28869968
TI  - Structural basis of MsbA-mediated lipopolysaccharide transport.
AB  - Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is
      critical for the assembly of their cell envelopes. LPS synthesized in the
      cytoplasmic leaflet of the inner membrane is flipped to the periplasmic leaflet
      by MsbA, an ATP-binding cassette transporter. Despite substantial efforts, the
      structural mechanisms underlying MsbA-driven LPS flipping remain elusive. Here we
      use single-particle cryo-electron microscopy to elucidate the structures of lipid
      nanodisc-embedded MsbA in three functional states. The 4.2 A-resolution structure
      of the transmembrane domains of nucleotide-free MsbA reveals that LPS binds deep
      inside MsbA at the height of the periplasmic leaflet, establishing extensive
      hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions with MsbA. Two sub-nanometre-resolution
      structures of MsbA with ADP-vanadate and ADP reveal an unprecedented closed and
      an inward-facing conformation, respectively. Our study uncovers the structural
      basis for LPS recognition, delineates the conformational transitions of MsbA to
      flip LPS, and paves the way for structural characterization of other lipid
      flippases.

PMID- 28869969
TI  - m6A modulates haematopoietic stem and progenitor cell specification.
AB  - N6-methyladenosine (m6A) has been identified as the most abundant modification on
      eukaryote messenger RNA (mRNA). Although the rapid development of high-throughput
      sequencing technologies has enabled insight into the biological functions of m6A
      modification, the function of m6A during vertebrate embryogenesis remains poorly
      understood. Here we show that m6A determines cell fate during the endothelial-to
      haematopoietic transition (EHT) to specify the earliest haematopoietic
      stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) during zebrafish embryogenesis. m6A-specific
      methylated RNA immunoprecipitation combined with high-throughput sequencing
      (MeRIP-seq) and m6A individual-nucleotide-resolution cross-linking and
      immunoprecipitation with sequencing (miCLIP-seq) analyses reveal conserved
      features on zebrafish m6A methylome and preferential distribution of m6A peaks
      near the stop codon with a consensus RRACH motif. In mettl3-deficient embryos,
      levels of m6A are significantly decreased and emergence of HSPCs is blocked.
      Mechanistically, we identify that the delayed YTHDF2-mediated mRNA decay of the
      arterial endothelial genes notch1a and rhoca contributes to this deleterious
      effect. The continuous activation of Notch signalling in arterial endothelial
      cells of mettl3-deficient embryos blocks EHT, thereby repressing the generation
      of the earliest HSPCs. Furthermore, knockdown of Mettl3 in mice confers a similar
      phenotype. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the critical function of m6A
      modification in the fate determination of HSPCs during vertebrate embryogenesis.

PMID- 28869971
TI  - Leukaemia: Vitamin C regulates stem cells and cancer.

PMID- 28869970
TI  - Competing memories of mitogen and p53 signalling control cell-cycle entry.
AB  - Regulation of cell proliferation is necessary for immune responses, tissue
      repair, and upkeep of organ function to maintain human health. When proliferating
      cells complete mitosis, a fraction of newly born daughter cells immediately enter
      the next cell cycle, while the remaining cells in the same population exit to a
      transient or persistent quiescent state. Whether this choice between two cell
      cycle pathways is due to natural variability in mitogen signalling or other
      underlying causes is unknown. Here we show that human cells make this fundamental
      cell-cycle entry or exit decision based on competing memories of variable mitogen
      and stress signals. Rather than erasing their signalling history at cell-cycle
      checkpoints before mitosis, mother cells transmit DNA damage-induced p53 protein
      and mitogen-induced cyclin D1 (CCND1) mRNA to newly born daughter cells. After
      mitosis, the transferred CCND1 mRNA and p53 protein induce variable expression of
      cyclin D1 and the CDK inhibitor p21 that almost exclusively determines cell-cycle
      commitment in daughter cells. We find that stoichiometric inhibition of cyclin D1
      CDK4 activity by p21 controls the retinoblastoma (Rb) and E2F transcription
      program in an ultrasensitive manner. Thus, daughter cells control the
      proliferation-quiescence decision by converting the memories of variable mitogen
      and stress signals into a competition between cyclin D1 and p21 expression. We
      propose a cell-cycle control principle based on natural variation, memory and
      competition that maximizes the health of growing cell populations.

PMID- 28869972
TI  - Cell signalling: Red alert about lipid's role in skin cancer.

PMID- 28869975
TI  - Prostate Cancer Screening: Time to Question How to Optimize the Ratio of Benefits
      and Harms.

PMID- 28869973
TI  - Palmitoylation-dependent activation of MC1R prevents melanomagenesis.
AB  - The melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), a G-protein-coupled receptor, has a crucial
      role in human and mouse pigmentation. Activation of MC1R in melanocytes by alpha
      melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) stimulates cAMP signalling and melanin
      production and enhances DNA repair after ultraviolet irradiation. Individuals
      carrying MC1R variants, especially those associated with red hair colour, fair
      skin and poor tanning ability (denoted as RHC variants), are associated with
      higher risk of melanoma. However, how MC1R activity is modulated by ultraviolet
      irradiation, why individuals with red hair are more prone to developing melanoma,
      and whether the activity of RHC variants might be restored for therapeutic
      benefit are unknown. Here we demonstrate a potential MC1R-targeted intervention
      strategy in mice to rescue loss-of-function MC1R in MC1R RHC variants for
      therapeutic benefit by activating MC1R protein palmitoylation. MC1R
      palmitoylation, primarily mediated by the protein-acyl transferase ZDHHC13, is
      essential for activating MC1R signalling, which triggers increased pigmentation,
      ultraviolet-B-induced G1-like cell cycle arrest and control of senescence and
      melanomagenesis in vitro and in vivo. Using C57BL/6J-Mc1re/eJ mice, in which
      endogenous MC1R is prematurely terminated, expressing Mc1r RHC variants, we show
      that pharmacological activation of palmitoylation rescues the defects of Mc1r RHC
      variants and prevents melanomagenesis. The results highlight a central role for
      MC1R palmitoylation in pigmentation and protection against melanoma.

PMID- 28869974
TI  - Neuronal regulation of type 2 innate lymphoid cells via neuromedin U.
AB  - Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) regulate inflammation, tissue repair and
      metabolic homeostasis, and are activated by host-derived cytokines and alarmins.
      Discrete subsets of immune cells integrate nervous system cues, but it remains
      unclear whether neuron-derived signals control ILC2s. Here we show that
      neuromedin U (NMU) in mice is a fast and potent regulator of type 2 innate
      immunity in the context of a functional neuron-ILC2 unit. We found that ILC2s
      selectively express neuromedin U receptor 1 (Nmur1), and mucosal neurons express
      NMU. Cell-autonomous activation of ILC2s with NMU resulted in immediate and
      strong NMUR1-dependent production of innate inflammatory and tissue repair
      cytokines. NMU controls ILC2s downstream of extracellular signal-regulated kinase
      and calcium-influx-dependent activation of both calcineurin and nuclear factor of
      activated T cells (NFAT). NMU treatment in vivo resulted in immediate protective
      type 2 responses. Accordingly, ILC2-autonomous ablation of Nmur1 led to impaired
      type 2 responses and poor control of worm infection. Notably, mucosal neurons
      were found adjacent to ILC2s, and these neurons directly sensed worm products and
      alarmins to induce NMU and to control innate type 2 cytokines. Our work reveals
      that neuron-ILC2 cell units confer immediate tissue protection through
      coordinated neuroimmune sensory responses.

PMID- 28869976
TI  - Proposed U.S. Funding Cuts Threaten Progress on Antimicrobial Resistance.

PMID- 28869977
TI  - Contemporary Influenza Diagnostics: Renewed Focus on Testing Patients.

PMID- 28869978
TI  - Web Exclusives. Annals Graphic Medicine - Dear Doctor I.

PMID- 28869979
TI  - Enhancing the Role of Internists in the Transition From Pediatric to Adult Health
      Care.

PMID- 28869980
TI  - Enhancing the Role of Internists in the Transition From Pediatric to Adult Health
      Care.

PMID- 28869981
TI  - Shared Humanity.

PMID- 28869982
TI  - Let me stop when it is done.

PMID- 28869983
TI  - connecting flight to Rochester, MN.

PMID- 28869984
TI  - Influenza.
AB  - Influenza is an acute viral respiratory disease that affects persons of all ages
      and is associated with millions of medical visits, hundreds of thousands of
      hospitalizations, and thousands of deaths during annual winter epidemics of
      variable severity in the United States. Elderly persons have the highest
      influenza-associated hospitalization and mortality rates. The primary method of
      prevention is annual vaccination. Early antiviral treatment has the greatest
      clinical benefit; otherwise, management includes adherence to recommended
      infection prevention and control measures as well as supportive care of
      complications.

PMID- 28869986
TI  - Diagnostic Accuracy of Novel and Traditional Rapid Tests for Influenza Infection
      Compared With Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction: A Systematic
      Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Background: Rapid and accurate influenza diagnostics can improve patient care.
      Purpose: To summarize and compare accuracy of traditional rapid influenza
      diagnostic tests (RIDTs), digital immunoassays (DIAs), and rapid nucleic acid
      amplification tests (NAATs) in children and adults with suspected influenza. Data
      Sources: 6 databases from their inception through May 2017. Study Selection:
      Studies in English, French, or Spanish comparing commercialized rapid tests (that
      is, providing results in <30 minutes) with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain
      reaction reference standard for influenza diagnosis. Data Extraction: Data were
      extracted using a standardized form; quality was assessed using QUADAS-2 (Quality
      Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2) criteria. Data Synthesis: 162
      studies were included (130 of RIDTs, 19 of DIAs, and 13 of NAATs). Pooled
      sensitivities for detecting influenza A from Bayesian bivariate random-effects
      models were 54.4% (95% credible interval [CrI], 48.9% to 59.8%) for RIDTs, 80.0%
      (CrI, 73.4% to 85.6%) for DIAs, and 91.6% (CrI, 84.9% to 95.9%) for NAATs. Those
      for detecting influenza B were 53.2% (CrI, 41.7% to 64.4%) for RIDTs, 76.8% (CrI,
      65.4% to 85.4%) for DIAs, and 95.4% (CrI, 87.3% to 98.7%) for NAATs. Pooled
      specificities were uniformly high (>98%). Forty-six influenza A and 24 influenza
      B studies presented pediatric-specific data; 35 influenza A and 16 influenza B
      studies presented adult-specific data. Pooled sensitivities were higher in
      children by 12.1 to 31.8 percentage points, except for influenza A by rapid NAATs
      (2.7 percentage points). Pooled sensitivities favored industry-sponsored studies
      by 6.2 to 34.0 percentage points. Incomplete reporting frequently led to unclear
      risk of bias. Limitations: Underreporting of clinical variables limited
      exploration of heterogeneity. Few NAAT studies reported adult-specific data, and
      none evaluated point-of-care testing. Many studies had unclear risk of bias.
      Conclusion: Novel DIAs and rapid NAATs had markedly higher sensitivities for
      influenza A and B in both children and adults than did traditional RIDTs, with
      equally high specificities. Primary Funding Source: Quebec Health Research Fund
      and BD Diagnostic Systems.

PMID- 28869987
TI  - Effects of Intensive Systolic Blood Pressure Control on Kidney and Cardiovascular
      Outcomes in Persons Without Kidney Disease: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized
      Trial.
AB  - Background: The public health significance of the reported higher incidence of
      chronic kidney disease (CKD) with intensive systolic blood pressure (SBP)
      lowering is unclear. Objective: To examine the effects of intensive SBP lowering
      on kidney and cardiovascular outcomes and contrast its apparent beneficial and
      adverse effects. Design: Subgroup analyses of SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure
      Intervention Trial). (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01206062). Setting: Adults with high
      blood pressure and elevated cardiovascular risk. Participants: 6662 participants
      with a baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 60
      mL/min/1.73 m2. Intervention: Random assignment to an intensive or standard SBP
      goal (120 or 140 mm Hg, respectively). Measurements: Differences in mean eGFR
      during follow-up (estimated with a linear mixed-effects model), prespecified
      incident CKD (defined as a >30% decrease in eGFR to a value <60 mL/min/1.73 m2),
      and a composite of all-cause death or cardiovascular event, with surveillance
      every 3 months. Results: The difference in adjusted mean eGFR between the
      intensive and standard groups was -3.32 mL/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI, -3.90 to -2.74
      mL/min/1.73 m2) at 6 months, was -4.50 mL/min/1.73 m2 (CI, -5.16 to -3.85
      mL/min/1.73 m2) at 18 months, and remained relatively stable thereafter. An
      incident CKD event occurred in 3.7% of participants in the intensive group and
      1.0% in the standard group at 3-year follow-up, with a hazard ratio of 3.54 (CI,
      2.50 to 5.02). The corresponding percentages for the composite of death or
      cardiovascular event were 4.9% and 7.1% at 3-year follow-up, with a hazard ratio
      of 0.71 (CI, 0.59 to 0.86). Limitation: Long-term data were lacking. Conclusion:
      Intensive SBP lowering increased risk for incident CKD events, but this was
      outweighed by cardiovascular and all-cause mortality benefits. Primary Funding
      Source: National Institutes of Health.

PMID- 28869988
TI  - Survival After Fulminant Myocarditis Induced by Immune-Checkpoint Inhibitors.

PMID- 28869991
TI  - Robotic-Assisted Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy (RAMIE) with a Standardized
      Intrathoracic Circular End-to-side Stapled Anastomosis and a Team of Two (Surgeon
      and Assistant Only).
AB  - Robotic-assisted surgery is rapidly increasing, especially in general surgery. It
      has been shown for years that the minimal invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is
      possible using a robotic system, for example, da Vinci Xi, Intuitive Surgical. In
      the past, most robotic esophageal resections have been performed
      thoracoscopically, and the anastomosis was mostly sutured at the neck. Due to the
      increase of usable instruments and technical progress, it is possible to perform
      the total abdominothoracic esophagectomy with an intrathoracic sutured
      anastomosis robotically. In this article, we would like to present the
      standardized operation technique and tricks for the robotic-assisted (da Vinci
      Xi) Ivor Lewis MIE (RAMIE), especially the robotic technique in combination with
      a standardized intrathoracic circular end-to-side stapled esophagogastric
      anastomosis.

PMID- 28869990
TI  - Different Effects of Screening on Prostate Cancer Death in Two Trials.

PMID- 28869989
TI  - Reconciling the Effects of Screening on Prostate Cancer Mortality in the ERSPC
      and PLCO Trials.
AB  - Background: The ERSPC (European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate
      Cancer) found that screening reduced prostate cancer mortality, but the PLCO
      (Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial) found no
      reduction. Objective: To evaluate whether effects of screening on prostate cancer
      mortality relative to no screening differed between the ERSPC and PLCO. Design:
      Cox regression of prostate cancer death in each trial group, adjusted for age and
      trial. Extended analyses accounted for increased incidence due to screening and
      diagnostic work-up in each group via mean lead times (MLTs), which were estimated
      empirically and using analytic or microsimulation models. Setting: Randomized
      controlled trials in Europe and the United States. Participants: Men aged 55 to
      69 (ERSPC) or 55 to 74 (PLCO) years at randomization. Intervention: Prostate
      cancer screening. Measurements: Prostate cancer incidence and survival from
      randomization; prostate cancer incidence in the United States before screening
      began. Results: Estimated MLTs were similar in the ERSPC and PLCO intervention
      groups but were longer in the PLCO control group than the ERSPC control group.
      Extended analyses found no evidence that effects of screening differed between
      trials (P = 0.37 to 0.47 [range across MLT estimation approaches]) but strong
      evidence that benefit increased with MLT (P = 0.0027 to 0.0032). Screening was
      estimated to confer a 7% to 9% reduction in the risk for prostate cancer death
      per year of MLT. This translated into estimates of 25% to 31% and 27% to 32%
      lower risk for prostate cancer death with screening as performed in the ERSPC and
      PLCO intervention groups, respectively, compared with no screening. Limitation:
      The MLT is a simple metric of screening and diagnostic work-up. Conclusion: After
      differences in implementation and settings are accounted for, the ERSPC and PLCO
      provide compatible evidence that screening reduces prostate cancer mortality.
      Primary Funding Source: National Cancer Institute.

PMID- 28869992
TI  - Transforaminal Epiduroscopic Laser Ablation of Sinuvertebral Nerve in Patients
      with Chronic Diskogenic Back Pain: Technical Note and Preliminary Result.

PMID- 28869994
TI  - [X-Ray Photographs from the First World War].

PMID- 28869995
TI  - ?

PMID- 28869993
TI  - Early Dynamics of Interleukin-6 in Cerebrospinal Fluid after Aneurysmal
      Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND:  Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a severe condition associated with
      high mortality. Early brain injury (EBI) plays an important role in the
      pathophysiology of SAH, and inflammation is a major contributor to EBI.
      Inflammation is a widely studied topic in both experimental and clinical
      conditions; however, just a few clinical studies have focused primarily on the
      early inflammatory response after SAH, and detailed information about the
      association between the dynamics of early inflammatory response with main
      clinical characteristics is lacking. This study analyzes the early dynamics of
      inflammatory response after SAH and evaluates the possible associations between
      the markers of early inflammatory response and main clinical characteristics.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS:  A total of 47 patients with a diagnosis of aneurysmal SAH
      within the last 24 hours were enrolled in the study. All treatments, including
      treatment of aneurysm (surgery/coiling) and implantation of a drainage system
      (external ventricular drainage/lumbar catheter), were conducted in the same way
      as in other patients with this diagnosis. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
      samples were collected three times a day for 4 days. The dynamics of
      proinflammatory cytokines were assessed, and associations between levels of the
      proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1beta, or tumor necrosis factor
      (TNF)alpha and main clinical characteristics were evaluated using linear mixed
      effect models. RESULTS:  The CSF levels of IL-6 were massively increased
      initially after SAH (up to 72 hours) with an additional increase in later phases
      (after 72 hours), but there was high variability in IL-6 levels. A significant
      association was noted between the Glasgow Outcome Scale score and both overall
      levels of IL-6 (p = 0.0095) and their dynamics (p = 0.0208); the effect of the
      Hunt and Hess scale was borderline (p = 0.0887). No association was found between
      IL-6 levels and Fisher grade, modality of treatment (surgery, coiling, no
      treatment), and later development of cerebral vasospasm. Plasmatic levels of IL-6
      increased slightly, but no significant association was found. The levels of IL
      1beta and TNFalpha were within the physiologic range in both CSF and plasma.
      CONCLUSIONS:  Early dynamics of IL-6 in CSF are associated with a patients
      outcome. But it is difficult to use IL-6 alone for outcome prediction due to its
      high variability. The question is whether the dynamics of IL-6 could be used in
      combination with other early markers associated with brain injury. More detailed
      research is required to answer this question.

PMID- 28869996
TI  - [Prevention of Head and Brain Injuries in Football: Is there a Need to Ban
      Headings?]
AB  - Football, the most popular sports worldwide, is associated with a high number of
      injuries. Head and brain injuries in football are less frequent, but may result
      in severe long-term damage. The mechanisms of these injuries in football are
      multifactorial, and the ball is rarely the main cause of a head injury. Short
      term, medium-term and long-term consequences of headings in football are
      insufficiently examined, and there are hardly any case reports about severe
      episodes. Heading has been banned in US junior football since November 2015,
      which is understandable considering the higher risk for head injuries in popular
      American sports such as ice hockey or American football and people's fear
      associated with this risk. However, the decision to ban heading in football is
      not based on scientific results, and different experiences have been made in
      European football. Therefore, this decision should not simply be transferred to
      Europe. In fact, other injury prevention strategies for head injuries in junior
      football are necessary, such as the adaptation of ball sizes, which has already
      been implemented. It is not necessary to change match rules in the form of a
      general ban on heading in football. Further scientific studies are needed for
      standardisation in football worldwide.

PMID- 28869997
TI  - [Surgical Refixation after Proximal Hamstring Tendon Avulsion Injuries: Does the
      Time of Surgery Influence Functional Outcomes?]
AB  - Background Proximal hamstring tendon avulsion injuries are rare. If they do
      occur, surgical treatment with tendon refixation is regarded as the method of
      choice. Surgical outcome measurements have been investigated heterogeneously and,
      therefore, are difficult to compare. Hence, the possibility for correlations
      between postoperative outcomes and surgical methods or time of surgery is
      limited. Objective Using the new, validated and injury-specific Perth Hamstring
      Assessment Tool (PHAT), we aimed to investigate a population of own patients in
      order to compare the results in relation to the time of surgery after trauma.
      Methods In this retrospective case control study, all patients who had undergone
      hamstring avulsion surgery between 1/2011 and 3/2016 with a follow-up period of
      at least six months were asked to document their subjective functional outcome
      using the PHAT. Depending on the time of surgery after trauma, patients and the
      results of their questionnaires were assigned either to an acute (< 4 weeks), a
      delayed (1 - 3 months) or a chronic (> 3 months) group. Results In the named
      period, 64 patients had a hamstring refixation surgery, 57 of them could be
      included in the study. 39 (68 %) returned the completed PHAT questionnaire. The
      mean PHAT score (0 - 100 pts.) was 72.4 (SD +/- 21.0). There was no significant
      difference between the acute and the delayed group (77.0 +/- 22.0 vs. 63.4 +/-
      16.2; p: 0.0673), whereas a significant difference was detected between the acute
      and the chronic group (77.0 +/- 22.0 vs. 58.3 +/- 20.2; p: 0.0214). Conclusion
      The results of this study show that an early diagnosis and subsequent operation
      of a hamstring tendon avulsion injury leads to significant better functional
      outcomes compared with chronic procedures.

PMID- 28869999
TI  - Preparation of tritium-labeled PF-622, a novel fatty acid amide hydrolase
      inhibitor.
AB  - To make a detailed characterization of the mechanism of inhibition and
      selectivity of a novel fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitor PF-622, 3 tritium
      isotopomers were prepared. [3 H]PF-622a labeled at the piperazine ring B and [3
      H]PF-622b labeled at both the ring B and phenyl ring A were synthesized via
      catalytic H(hydrogen)-T(tritium) exchange, utilizing 1 equiv and excess of
      Crabtree's catalyst, respectively. The preparation of [3 H]PF-622c labeled only
      at the phenyl ring A was achieved via tritiodebromination of the bromide
      precursor, using Pd(PPh3 )4 as a catalyst. The observations from these tritiation
      reactions might open a new perspective in the labeling for the targets having a
      similar moiety.

PMID- 28869998
TI  - Changes in consumption of added sugars from age 13 to 30 years: a systematic
      review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
AB  - Added sugar intake during adolescence has been associated with weight gain and
      cardiometabolic risk factors. Moreover, dietary habits may persist into
      adulthood, increasing chronic disease risk in later life. This systematic review
      investigated changes in intake of added sugars between the ages of 13 and 30
      years. Literature databases were searched for longitudinal studies of diet during
      adolescence or early adulthood. Retrieved articles were screened for studies
      including multiple measures of intake of sugars or sugary foods from cohort
      participants between the ages of 13 and 30. Data were analysed using random
      effects meta-analysis, by the three main nutrient and food group categories
      identified (PROSPERO: CRD42015030126). Twenty-four papers reported longitudinal
      data on intake of added sugar or sucrose (n = 6), sugar-sweetened beverages
      (SSBs) (n = 20) and/or confectionery (n = 9). Meta-analysis showed a non
      significant per year of age decrease in added sugar or sucrose intake (-0.15%
      total energy intake (95%CI -0.41; 0.12)), a decrease in confectionery consumption
      (-0.20 servings/week (95%CI -0.41; -0.001)) and a non-significant decrease in SSB
      consumption (-0.15 servings/week (95%CI -0.32; 0.02)). Taken together, the
      overall decrease in added sugar intake observed from adolescence to early
      adulthood may suggest opportunities for intervention to further improve dietary
      choices within this age range.

PMID- 28870000
TI  - Effectiveness of the 'Hold me Tight' Relationship Enhancement Program in a Self
      referred and a Clinician-referred Sample: An Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
      Based Approach.
AB  - While evidence-based couple therapies are available, only a minority of troubled
      couples seek help and they often do this too late. To reach more couples earlier,
      the couple relationship education (CRE) group program "Hold me Tight" (HmT) based
      on Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) was developed. This study is the
      first to examine the effectiveness of HmT. Using a three-wave (waiting period,
      treatment, and follow-up) within-subject design, HmT was delivered to 79 self
      referred couples and 50 clinician-referred couples. We applied a comprehensive
      outcome measure battery. Our main findings were that (1) self-referred couples
      significantly improved during HmT on all measures, that is relationship
      satisfaction, security of partner-bond, forgiveness, daily coordination,
      maintenance behavior, and psychological complaints, with a moderate-to-large mean
      effect size (d = .63), which was maintained (d = .57) during the 3.5 month follow
      up; (2) in clinician-referred couples, who were vulnerable in terms of insecure
      attachment status and psychopathology, the improvement during HmT was moderate (d
      = .42), but this was reduced during the 3.5-month follow-up to a small effect (d
      = .22); (3) emotional functioning (typical HmT target) as well as behavioral
      functioning (typical Behavioral Couples Therapy-based CRE target) improved during
      HmT; and (4) individual psychological complaints, although not specifically
      targeted, were reduced during HmT. These findings suggest that HmT is a promising
      intervention for enhancement of relationship functioning. Clinical implications
      are discussed.

PMID- 28870001
TI  - An efficient new method for the synthesis of 3-[18 F]fluoro-4-aminopyridine via
      Yamada-Curtius rearrangement.
AB  - 4-Aminopyridine is a clinically approved drug to improve motor symptoms in
      multiple sclerosis. A fluorine-18-labeled derivative of this drug, 3-[18 F]fluoro
      4-aminopyridine, is currently under investigation for positron emission
      tomography (PET) imaging of demyelination. Herein, the Yamada-Curtius reaction
      has been successfully applied for the preparation of this PET radioligand with a
      better radiochemical yield and improved specific activity. The overall
      radiochemical yield was 5 to 15% (n = 12, uncorrected) with a specific activity
      of 37 to 148 GBq/MUmol (end of synthesis) in a 90 minute synthesis time. It is
      expected that this 1 pot Yamada-Curtius reaction can be used to prepare similar
      fluorine-18-labeled amino substituted heterocycles.

PMID- 28870002
TI  - Use of the RenalGuard system to prevent contrast-induced AKI: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contrast-induced kidney injury (CI-AKI) following cardiovascular
      interventions results in increased morbidity and mortality. RenalGuard (RG) is a
      novel, closed loop system which balances volume administration with forced
      diuresis to maintain a high urine output. We performed a meta-analysis of the
      existing data comparing use of RG to conventional volume expansion. METHODS: Ten
      studies were found eligible, of which four were randomized controlled trials. Of
      an aggregate sample size (N) of 1585 patients, 698 were enrolled in the four RCTs
      and 887 belonged to the remaining registries included in this meta-analysis.
      Primary outcomes included CI-AKI incidence and relative risk. Mortality,
      dialysis, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACCE) were secondary
      outcomes. A random effects model was used and data were evaluated for publication
      bias. RESULTS: RG was associated with significant risk reduction in CI-AKI
      compared to control (RR: 0.30, 95%CI: 0.18-0.50, P < 0.01). CI-AKI in RG was
      found to be 7.7% versus 23.6% in the control group (P < 0.01). Use of RG was
      associated with decreased mortality (RR: 0.43, 95%CI: 0.18-0.99, P = 0.05),
      dialysis (RR: 0.20, 95%CI: 0.06-0.61, P = 0.01), and MACCE (RR: 0.42, 95%CI: 0.27
      0.65, P < 0.01) compared to control. CONCLUSIONS: RG significantly reduces rates
      of CI-AKI compared to standard volume expansion and is also associated with
      decreased rates of death, dialysis, and MACCE.

PMID- 28870004
TI  - Inverse Correlation between Extracellular DNase Activity and Biofilm Formation
      among Chicken-Derived Campylobacter Strains.
AB  - Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli are important foodborne pathogenic
      bacteria, particularly in poultry meat. In this study, the presence of
      extracellular DNase activity was investigated for biofilm-deficient Campylobacter
      strains versus biofilm-forming Campylobacter strains isolated from chickens, to
      understand the relationship between extracellular DNase activity and biofilm
      formation. A biofilm-forming reference strain, C. jejuni NCTC11168, was co
      incubated with biofilm non-forming strains isolated from raw chickens or their
      supernatants. The biofilm non-forming strains or supernatants significantly
      prohibited the biofilm formation of C. jejuni NCTC11168. In addition, the strains
      degraded pre-formed biofilms of C. jejuni NCTC11168. Degradation of C. jejuni
      NCTC11168 biofilm was confirmed after treatment with the supernatant of the
      biofilm non-forming strain 2-1 by confocal laser scanning microscopy.
      Quantitative analysis of the biofilm matrix revealed reduction of extracellular
      DNA (16%) and proteins (8.7%) after treatment. Whereas the biofilm-forming
      strains C. jejuni Y23-5 and C. coli 34-3 isolated from raw chickens and the C.
      jejuni NCTC11168 reference strain showed no extracellular DNase activity against
      their own genomic DNA, most biofilm non-forming strains tested, including C.
      jejuni 2-1, C. coli 34-1, and C. jejuni 63-1, exhibited obvious extracellular
      DNase activities against their own or 11168 genomic DNA, except for one biofilm
      non-former, C. jejuni 22-1. Our results suggest that extracellular DNase activity
      is a common feature suppressing biofilm formation among biofilm non-forming C.
      jejuni or C. coli strains of chicken origin.

PMID- 28870003
TI  - Outcomes of patients with severely calcified aorto-ostial coronary lesions who
      underwent orbital atherectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We assessed the feasibility and safety of orbital atherectomy in
      patients with severely calcified aorto-ostial coronary artery lesions.
      BACKGROUND: The treatment of calcified aorta-ostial coronary artery lesions is
      technically challenging. Orbital atherectomy can potentially damage the guiding
      catheter if it is not retracted sufficiently during treatment of ostial lesions.
      Orbital atherectomy can also excessively whip if the guiding catheter is not
      close enough to the ostium to provide sufficient support. Several techniques can
      be performed to successfully treat ostial lesions with orbital atherectomy.
      METHODS: Our retrospective multicenter registry included 548 real-world patients
      who underwent orbital atherectomy, 59 (10.8%) of whom underwent treatment for
      aorto-ostial coronary artery lesions (left main artery [n = 35] and right
      coronary artery [n = 24]). The primary endpoint was the rate of 30-day major
      adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), defined as the occurrence of
      death, myocardial infarction, target vessel revascularization, and stroke.
      RESULTS: The primary endpoint was similar in patients with and without ostial
      lesions (3.4% vs 2.2%, P = 0.2), as were the 30-day rates of death (1.7% vs 1.4%,
      P = 0.7), myocardial infarction (1.7% vs 1.0%, P = 0.3), target vessel
      revascularization (0% vs 0%, P > 0.91), and stroke (0% vs 0.2%, P > 0.9).
      Angiographic complications and stent thrombosis did not occur in patients with
      ostial lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Despite its technical challenges, orbital
      atherectomy appears to be a feasible and safe treatment option for calcified
      aorto-ostial coronary lesions.

PMID- 28870005
TI  - In Vitro Effect of DFC-2 on Mycolic Acid Biosynthesis in Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis.
AB  - DFC-2, a methyl 5-[2-(dimethylamino)ethoxy]-7,12-dioxo-7,12-dihydrodinaphtho[1,2
      b:2',3'-d]furan-6-carboxylate, is reported to have antitubercular effects against
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis. At concentrations ranging from 0.19 to 0.39 MUg/ml,
      DFC-2 inhibited both drug-susceptible and -resistant strains of M. tuberculosis.
      Microarray analyses were employed to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms
      of DFC-2's action in M. tuberculosis. The most affected functional gene category
      was "lipid biosynthesis," which is involved in mycolic acid synthesis. The
      decrease in transcription of genes related to mycolic acid synthesis was
      confirmed by RT-PCR. Furthermore, we found that DFC-2 triggered a reduction in
      mycolic acid levels, showing a similar pattern to that of mycolic acid synthesis
      inhibitor isoniazid. These results may explain how this compound kills
      mycobacteria efficiently by inhibiting mycolic acid synthesis.

PMID- 28870006
TI  - Downregulation of Hepatic De Novo Lipogenesis and Adipogenesis in Adipocytes by
      Pinus densiflora Bark Extract.
AB  - Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora) bark extract, PineXol (PX), was investigated
      for its potential antioxidant and anti-inflammation effects in vitro. It was
      hypothesized that PX treatment (25-150 MUg/ml) would reduce the lipid synthesis
      in HepG2 hepatocytes as well as lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
      Hepatocytes' intracellular triglycerides and cholesterol were decreased in the PX
      150 MUg/ml treatment group compared with the control (p < 0.05). Consequently, de
      novo lipogenic proteins (acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1, stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1,
      elongase of very long chain fatty acids 6, glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase
      1, and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1) were significantly decreased
      in hepatocytes by PX 150 MUg/ml treatment compared with the control (p < 0.05).
      In differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes, the lipid accumulation was significantly
      attenuated by all PX treatments (p < 0.01). Regulators of adipogenesis, including
      CCAAT-enhancer-binding proteins alpha, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor
      gamma, and perilipin, were decreased in PX 100 MUg/ml treatment compared with the
      control (p < 0.05). In conclusion, PX might have anti-obesity effects by blocking
      hepatic lipogenesis and by inhibiting adipogenesis in adipocytes.

PMID- 28870007
TI  - Glycosylation Enhances the Physicochemical Properties of Caffeic Acid Phenethyl
      Ester.
AB  - In this study, we synthesized a glycosylated derivative of caffeic acid phenethyl
      ester (CAPE) using the amylosucrase from Deinococcus geothermalis with sucrose as
      a substrate and examined its solubility, chemical stability, and anti
      inflammatory activity. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that the
      resulting glycosylated CAPE (G-CAPE) was the new compound caffeic acid phenethyl
      ester-4-O-alpha-D-glucopyranoside. G-CAPE was 770 times more soluble than CAPE
      and highly stable in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium and buffered solutions,
      as estimated by its half-life. The glycosylation of CAPE did not significantly
      affect its anti-inflammatory activity, which was assessed by examining
      lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide production and using a nuclear factor
      erythroid 2-related factor 2 reporter assay. Furthermore, a cellular uptake
      experiment using high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the cell-free
      extracts of RAW 264.7 cells demonstrated that G-CAPE was gradually converted to
      CAPE within the cells. These results demonstrate that the glycosylation of CAPE
      increases its bioavailability by helping to protect this vital molecule from
      chemical or enzymatic oxidation, indicating that G-CAPE is a promising candidate
      for prodrug therapy.

PMID- 28870008
TI  - Oleaginous Yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides as a Tool for Rapid Evaluation of Anti
      Obesity Candidates: Inhibitory Effect of Persimmon Leaf Fermentate on Lipid
      Accumulation.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the efficiency of Rhodosporidium toruloides
      as a new tool to evaluate the triglyceride (TG) reduction effects of anti-obesity
      candidate materials. Unfermented and fermented persimmon leaf hot water extracts
      (UFPLE and FPLE) were used as anti-obesity agents. The content of TG in R.
      toruloides treated with FPLE was less than those with UFPLE by about 11% (p <
      0.05) relative to the control (R. toruloides incubated in YPD medium without the
      agents). Fat reduction in 3T3-L1 cells achieved by FPLE was about 13% higher than
      that achieved by UFPLE.

PMID- 28870009
TI  - Comprehensive Analysis of Proteomic Differences between Escherichia coli K-12 and
      B Strains Using Multiplexed Isobaric Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) Labeling.
AB  - The Escherichia coli K-12 and B strains are among the most frequently used
      bacterial hosts for scientific research and biotechnological applications.
      However, omics analyses have revealed that E. coli K-12 and B exhibit notably
      different genotypic and phenotypic attributes, even though they were derived from
      the same ancestor. In a previous study, we identified a limited number of
      proteins from the two strains using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and
      tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). In this study, an in-depth analysis of the
      physiological behavior of the E. coli K-12 and B strains at the proteomic level
      was performed using six-plex isobaric tandem mass tag-based quantitative MS.
      Additionally, the best lysis buffer for increasing the efficiency of protein
      extraction was selected from three tested buffers prior to the quantitative
      proteomic analysis. This study identifies the largest number of proteins in the
      two E. coli strains reported to date and is the first to show the dynamics of
      these proteins. Notable differences in proteins associated with key cellular
      properties, including some metabolic pathways, the biosynthesis and degradation
      of amino acids, membrane integrity, cellular tolerance, and motility, were found
      between the two representative strains. Compared with previous studies, these
      proteomic results provide a more holistic view of the overall state of E. coli
      cells based on a single proteomic study and reveal significant insights into why
      the two strains show distinct phenotypes. Additionally, the resulting data
      provide in-depth information that will help fine-tune processes in the future.

PMID- 28870010
TI  - Optimal Temperature and Light Intensity for Improved Mixotrophic Metabolism of
      Chlorella sorokiniana Treating Livestock Wastewater.
AB  - Mixotrophic microalgal growth gives a great premise for wastewater treatment
      based on photoautotrophic nutrient utilization and heterotrophic organic removal
      while producing renewable biomass. There remains a need for a control strategy to
      enrich them in a photobioreactor. This study performed a series of batch
      experiments using a mixotroph, Chlorella sorokiniana, to characterize optimal
      guidelines of mixotrophic growth based on a statistical design of the experiment.
      Using a central composite design, this study evaluated how temperature and light
      irradiance are associated with CO2 capture and organic carbon respiration through
      biomass production and ammonia removal kinetics. By conducting regressions on the
      experimental data, response surfaces were created to suggest proper ranges of
      temperature and light irradiance that mixotrophs can beneficially use as two
      types of energy sources. The results identified that efficient mixotrophic
      metabolism of Chlorella sorokiniana for organics and inorganics occurs at the
      temperature of 30-40 degrees C and diurnal light condition of 150-200 MUmol
      E.m2.s-1. The optimal specific growth rate and ammonia removal rate were recorded
      as 0.51/d and 0.56/h on average, respectively, and the confirmation test verified
      that the organic removal rate was 105 mg COD.l-1.d-1. These results support the
      development of a viable option for sustainable treatment and effluent quality
      management of problematic livestock wastewater.

PMID- 28870011
TI  - Inhibitory Effect of the Ethanol Extract of a Rice Bran Mixture Comprising
      Angelica gigas, Cnidium officinale, Artemisia princeps, and Camellia sinensis on
      Brucella abortus Uptake by Professional and Nonprofessional Phagocytes.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated the inhibitory effect of a rice bran mixture extract
      (RBE) on Brucella abortus pathogenesis in professional (RAW 264.7) and
      nonprofessional (HeLa) phagocytes. We fermented the rice bran mixture and then
      extracted it with 50% ethanol followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to
      identify the components in RBE. Our results clearly showed that RBE caused a
      significant reduction in the adherence of B. abortus in both cell lines.
      Furthermore, analysis of phagocytic signaling proteins by western blot assay
      revealed that RBE pretreatment resulted in inhibition of phosphorylation of JNK,
      ERK, and p38, leading to decline of internalization compared with the controls.
      Additionally, the intensity of F-actin observed by fluorescence microscopy and
      FACS was remarkably reduced in RBE-pretreated cells compared with control cells.
      However, the intracellular replication of B. abortus within phagocytes was not
      affected by RBE. Taken together, these findings suggest that the phagocytic
      receptor blocking and suppressive effects of RBE on the MAPK-linked phagocytic
      signaling pathway could negatively affect the invasion of B. abortus into
      phagocytes.

PMID- 28870012
TI  - Lactoferrin Protects Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Oxidative Stress-Induced
      Senescence and Apoptosis.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been suggested as a primary candidate for cell
      therapy applications because they have self-renewal and differentiation
      capabilities. Although they can be expanded in ex vivo system, clinical
      application of these cells is still limited because they survive poorly and
      undergo senescence or apoptosis when transplanted and exposed to environmental
      factors such as oxidative stress. Thus, reducing oxidative stress is expected to
      improve the efficacy of MSC therapy. The milk protein lactoferrin is a
      multifunctional iron-binding glycoprotein that plays various roles, including
      reduction of oxidative stress. Thus, we explored the effect of lactoferrin on
      oxidative stress-induced senescence and apoptosis of human MSCs (hMSCs).
      Measurement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) revealed that lactoferrin inhibited
      the production of hydrogen peroxide-induced intracellular ROS, suggesting
      lactoferrin as a good candidate as an antioxidant in hMSCs. Pretreatment of
      lactoferrin suppressed hydrogen peroxide-induced senescence of hMSCs. In
      addition, lactoferrin reduced hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis via inhibition
      of caspase-3 and Akt activation. These results demonstrate that lactoferrin can
      be a promising factor to protect hMSCs from oxidative stress-induced senescence
      and apoptosis, thus increasing the efficacy of MSC therapy.

PMID- 28870013
TI  - Can documented coronary vasospasm be the smoking gun in settling the etiology of
      sudden cardiac death?

PMID- 28870014
TI  - Risk of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma development is much
      higher in Koreans than in Taiwanese.

PMID- 28870015
TI  - Significance of duodenal mucosal lesions: can they be a clue to a systemic
      disease?

PMID- 28870016
TI  - Clinical features and treatment outcomes of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell
      neoplasm: a single-center experience in Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare
      hematologic malignancy that typically presents in the form of skin manifestations
      with or without lymph node and bone marrow involvement. Given its rarity and
      recent recognition as a distinct pathological entity, no standard of treatment
      exists for this aggressive disease and its prognosis is particularly dismal.
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed clinical features and treatment outcomes of
      patients who were diagnosed with BPDCN between 2000 and 2014. RESULTS: Ten
      patients had a median age at diagnosis of 41 years (range, 18 to 79), and seven
      patients were male. Sites of disease involvement were the skin (n = 7), lymph
      node (n = 5), bone marrow (n = 2), liver (n = 2), spleen (n = 2), and soft tissue
      (n = 1). Intensified chemotherapy regimens such as hyperCVAD regimen
      (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone, methotrexate,
      cytarabine), and VPDL (vincristine, methylprednisolone, daunorubicin, L
      asparaginase) were used as a first-line treatment. Although all patients treated
      with intensified chemotherapy showed an objective response (five patients with
      complete response) with median progression-free survival of 11.2 months (range
      6.2 to 19.4), complete remission was not sustained for more than 2 years in any
      case. The response was relatively long-lived compared with previously reported
      CHOP (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone)-like regimens, but
      the above regimens do not result in long-term remission. CONCLUSIONS: All
      patients treated with hyperCVAD or VPDL showed an objective response, but the
      duration of response was relatively short. Thus, the development of more
      effective induction as well as consolidation treatment strategy should be
      warranted to improve this rare disease entity.

PMID- 28870018
TI  - Exploring the pros and cons of mechanistic case diagrams for problem-based
      learning.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mechanistic case diagram (MCD) was recommended for increasing the depth
      of understanding of disease, but with few articles on its specific methods. We
      address the experience of making MCD in the fullest depth to identify the pros
      and cons of using MCDs in such ways. METHODS: During problem-based learning, we
      gave guidelines of MCD for its mechanistic exploration from subcellular processes
      to clinical features, being laid out in as much detail as possible. To understand
      the students' attitudes and depth of study using MCDs, we analyzed the results of
      a questionnaire in an open format about experiencing MCDs and examined the
      resulting products. RESULTS: Through the responses to questionnaire, we found
      several favorable outcomes, major of which was deeper insight and comprehensive
      understanding of disease facilitated by the process of making well-organized
      diagram. The main disadvantages of these guidelines were the feeling of too much
      workload and difficulty of finding mechanisms. Students gave suggestions to
      overcome these problems: cautious reading of comprehensive texts, additional
      guidance from staff about depth and focus of mechanisms, and cooperative group
      work. From the analysis of maps, we recognized there should be allowance of
      diversities in the appearance of maps and many hypothetical connections, which
      could be related to an insufficient understanding of mechanisms in nature.
      CONCLUSION: The more detailed an MCD task is, the better students can become
      acquainted with deep knowledges. However, this advantage should be balanced by
      the results that there are many ensuing difficulties for the work and deliberate
      help plans should be prepared.

PMID- 28870017
TI  - Research trends in studies of medical students' characteristics: a scoping
      review.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to investigate domestic and international research
      trends in studies of medical students' characteristics by using the scoping
      review methods. This study adopted the scoping review to assess papers on the
      characteristics of medical students. The procedure of research was carried out
      according to the five steps of the scoping review. The full texts of 100 papers
      are obtained and are read closely, after which suitable 88 papers are extracted
      by us for this research. The review is mapped by the year of the study, source,
      location, author, research design, research subject, objective, and key results.
      The frequency is analyzed by using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. We found 70 papers
      (79.5%) on a single medical school, 15 (17.0%) on multiple medical schools, and
      three (3.4%) on mixed schools, including medical and nonmedical schools. Sixty
      nine (79.5%) were cross-sectional studies and 18 (20.5%) were longitudinal
      studies. Eighty-two papers (93.2%) adopted questionnaire surveys. We summarized
      research trends of studies on medical students in Korea and overseas by topic,
      and mapped them into physical health, mental health, psychological
      characteristics, cognitive characteristics, social characteristics, and career.
      This study provides insights into the future directions of research for the
      characteristics of medical students.

PMID- 28870019
TI  - The mediating effect of calling on the relationship between medical school
      students' academic burnout and empathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study is aimed at identifying the relationships between medical
      school students' academic burnout, empathy, and calling, and determining whether
      their calling has a mediating effect on the relationship between academic burnout
      and empathy. METHODS: A mixed method study was conducted. One hundred twenty
      seven medical students completed a survey. Scales measuring academic burnout,
      medical students' empathy, and calling were utilized. For statistical analysis,
      correlation analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, and hierarchical multiple
      regression analyses were conducted. For qualitative approach, eight medical
      students participated in a focus group interview. RESULTS: The study found that
      empathy has a statistically significant, negative correlation with academic
      burnout, while having a significant, positive correlation with calling. Sense of
      calling proved to be an effective mediator of the relationship between academic
      burnout and empathy. CONCLUSION: This result demonstrates that calling is a key
      variable that mediates the relationship between medical students' academic
      burnout and empathy. As such, this study provides baseline data for an education
      that could improve medical students' empathy skills.

PMID- 28870020
TI  - Career exploration behavior of Korean medical students.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study is to analyze the effects of medical students' social support
      and career barriers on career exploration behavior mediated by career decision
      making self-efficacy. METHODS: We applied the t-test to investigate the
      difference among the variables based on gender and admission types. Also, we
      performed path analysis to verify the effect of perceived career barriers and
      social support on career exploration behavior with career decision efficacy as a
      mediator. RESULTS: First, we noted statistically significant gender and admission
      type difference in social support, career barriers and career exploration
      behaviors. Second, social support and career barriers were found to influence
      career exploration behavior as a mediating variable for career decision-making
      self-efficacy. CONCLUSION: Social support and career barriers as perceived by
      medical students influenced their career exploration behavior, with their
      decision-making self-efficacy serving as a full mediator. Therefore, this study
      has educational implications for career program development and educational
      training for career decision-making self-efficacy.

PMID- 28870021
TI  - Characteristics of medical teachers using student-centered teaching methods.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study investigated characteristics of medical teachers who have
      adopted student-centered teaching methods into their teaching. METHODS: A 24-item
      questionnaire consisted of respondent backgrounds, his or her use of student
      centered teaching methods, and awareness of the school's educational objectives
      and curricular principles was administered of faculty members at a private
      medical school in Korea. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were
      conducted to compare faculty use of student-centered approaches across different
      backgrounds and awareness of curricular principles. RESULTS: Overall response
      rate was 70% (N=140/200), approximately 25% (n=34) of whom were using student
      centered teaching methods. Distributions in the faculty use of student-centered
      teaching methods were significantly higher among basic sciences faculty (versus
      clinical sciences faculty), with teaching experiences of over 10 years (versus
      less than 10 years), and who were aware of the school's educational objectives
      and curricular principles. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates differences in medical
      faculty's practice of student-centered teaching across disciplines, teaching
      experiences, and their understanding of the school's educational objectives
      curricular principles. These findings have implications for faculty development
      and institutional support to better promote faculty use of student-centered
      teaching approaches.

PMID- 28870022
TI  - Playing to our human strengths to prepare medical students for the future.
AB  - We are living in an age where artificial intelligence and astounding
      technological advances are bringing truly remarkable change to healthcare.
      Medical knowledge and skills which form the core responsibility of doctors such
      as making diagnoses may increasingly be delivered by robots. Machines are
      gradually acquiring human abilities such as deep learning and empathy. What, then
      is the role of doctors in future healthcare? And what direction should medical
      schools be taking to prepare their graduates? This article will give an overview
      of the evolving technological landscape of healthcare and examine the issues
      undergraduate medical education may have to address. The experience at The
      University of Hong Kong will serve as a case study featuring several curricular
      innovations that aim to empower medical graduates with the capabilities to thrive
      in the future.

PMID- 28870023
TI  - Medical education: addressing questions that require attention.

PMID- 28870024
TI  - Personal professional identity formation through interprofessional learning and
      early patient encounter during preclinical years.

PMID- 28870026
TI  - Optogenetics: Control of Brain Using Light
AB  - Neuronal cells communicate with each other by producing electrical signals or
      action potentials (APs). Different ion channels, including Na+, K+ and Ca2+
      channels, are involved in generation of AP. Once an AP is generated in the soma,
      it travels down entire the axon length toward its terminal in a self-generating
      fashion that ultimately conveys information between neurons in the neural
      circuit. Depending on the neurotransmitter, each neuron inhibits or excites other
      neurons in a certain network. For instance, glutamate released from glutamatergic
      neurons, opens AMPA and NMDA channels permitting influx of Na+/Ca2+, which leads
      to postsynaptic depolarization. On the other hand, GABA released from GABAergic
      neurons results in Cl- influx and postsynaptic hyperpolarization. One of the
      major challenges in neuroscience is how actions of individual cells in the brain
      could underlie a certain behavior such as attention, food consumption,
      aggression, cognition, and movement...

PMID- 28870025
TI  - Clinical characteristics of patients with chronic hepatitis B who developed
      genotypic resistance to entecavir: Real-life experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Clinical characteristics of patients with chronic hepatitis B
      (CHB) who developed genotypic resistance to entecavir (ETV) were compared to
      those without resistance. METHODS: Two hundred fifty eight CHB patients who
      underwent ETV treatment in our institution from July 2007 to May 2013 were
      included. RESULTS: Eight (3.1%) patients developed genotypic resistance to ETV
      during the follow-up period. The patterns of genotypic resistance to ETV were as
      follows: L180M + M204V + S202G (n=3); M204I + V173M (n=1); I169V + V173M (n=1);
      L180M + M204V + V173L (n=1); L180M + M204V + V173L + M250V (n=1); M204I + V214A +
      P237H (n=1). The cumulative occurrence rates of genotypic resistance to ETV were
      not significantly different between CHB patients with prior nucleos(t)tide
      analogues (NA) exposure (NA experienced, n=56) and NA naive patients (n=202,
      P=0.823 by log rank comparison). Older age, higher baseline log10hepatitis B
      virus-deoxynucleic acid (log10HBV-DNA), higher log10HBV-DNA at 3, 6, 12 and 24
      months after baseline, and complete virologic response (CVR, undetectable serum
      HBV-DNA by polymerase chain reaction 6 months after ETV treatment) were
      significant contributors to the development of genotypic resistance to ETV.
      Multivariate analyses showed higher log10HBV-DNA 6 months after baseline and
      absence of CVR were independent and significant contributors to the development
      of ETV resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical characteristics of patients who
      developed ETV resistance were higher log10HBV-DNA 6 months after baseline and
      absence of CVR during the ETV treatment.

PMID- 28870028
TI  - [Importance of rehabilitation in management of ankylosing spondylitis].

PMID- 28870027
TI  - [Chronic disease management of rheumatic diseases, are you ready].

PMID- 28870029
TI  - [Gitelman syndrome: early diagnosis and treatment].

PMID- 28870030
TI  - [Physician professionalism, medicare reform, and reimbursement].

PMID- 28870031
TI  - [The clinical characteristics of 346 patients with IgG4-related disease].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics of IgG4-related disease (IgG4
      RD)so as to improve the understanding of IgG4-RD in China. Methods: IgG4-RD
      patients were recruited from Peking Union Medical College Hospital between
      January 2011 and January 2016. All patients were followed-up for more than 6
      months. The demographic characteristics, symptoms, organ involvements, laboratory
      examinations and treatment efficacy were evaluated and analyzed. Results: A total
      of 346 patients were finally enrolled, including 230 males (66.5%) and 116
      females (33.5%). The mean age of disease onset was (53.8+/-14.2) years old. The
      mostly common involved organs were lymph nodes (56.4%) and submandibular glands
      (52.6%). Other affected organs and manifestations included: swelling of the
      lacrimal glands (46.5%), autoimmune pancreatitis (38.4%), pulmonary involvement
      (28.0%), sclerosing cholangitis (25.4%), naso-sinusitis (23.4%), parotid gland
      swelling (21.7%), retroperitoneal fibrosis (19.9%), large arteries involvement
      (9.5%), kidney involvement (obstructive nephropathy caused by retroperitoneal
      fibrosis was excluded) (6.9%), skin lesions (6.4%). Rare features consisted of
      thyroid glands, pituitary glands, gastrointestinal tract, pachymeningitis,
      pericardium, sclerosing mediastinitis and orchitis. The majority of patients had
      multi-organ involvement, such as 74.3% patients with 3 and more, 18.2% and 7.5%
      patients with 2 and single organ involvement respectively. The average IgG4-RD
      responder index (IgG4-RD RI) was 13.21+/-5.70. History of allergy was found in
      172 (49.7%) patients. As to the laboratory tests, elevated serum IgG4 levels were
      confirmed in 285 (94.1%) patients, which was positively correlated with IgG4-RD
      RI. There were 33.5% patients receiving monotherapy of glucocorticoid, 52.6%
      treated with glucocorticoids combined with immunosuppressive agents, 4.9%
      patients with immunosuppressant only, and 9.0% patients with mild disease not
      receiving medication. The majority (336, 97.1%) patients improved the above
      regimens. Conclusion: IgG4-RD is a systemic fibro-inflammatory disease with
      multiple organ involvement. The mostly common involved organs include lymph node,
      submandibular glands, and pancreas. Glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive agents
      were effective for IgG4-RD.

PMID- 28870032
TI  - [Neutrophil extracellular traps-induced endothelial cell damage in the
      pathogenesis of dermatomyositis-associated interstitial lung disease].
AB  - Objective: To explore the role of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs)-induced
      endothelial cell damage in the pathogenesis of dermatomyositis (DM)-associated
      interstitial lung disease(ILD). Methods: Serum free DNA and krebs von den lungen
      6 (KL-6) level were tested in healthy controls, dermatomyositis patients with or
      without interstitial lung disease (DM-ILD and DM-NILD). Subjects' peripheral
      blood neutrophils were stimulated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA),
      then human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were co-cultured with NETs.
      The cell morphology was observed by the inverted phase contrast microscope. Cell
      viability was detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK8). Results: The concentration
      of serum free DNA in DM patients [(271.27+/- 76.53) MUg/L] was significantly
      higher than that in health control (HC)[(152.89+/-37.34) MUg/L, P<0.001].
      Moreover, free DNA level in DM-ILD patients [(302.67+/-74.15) MUg/L] was higher
      than that in DM-NILD patients [(235.59+/-63.55 ) MUg/L, P<0.005]. The
      concentration of KL-6in DM patients [(3.08+/-2.07) MUg/L]was higher than that in
      HC[(0.87+/-0.51) MUg/L, P<0.001]. Similarly, KL-6 in DM-ILD patients [(4.00+/
      2.44) MUg/L ] was higher than that of DM-NILD patients [(2.03+/-0.61) MUg/L,
      P<0.005]. Free DNA and KL-6 were positively correlated (r=0.251, P<0.05). The
      survival of endothelial cells in DM group (53+/-11)% was lower than that of HC
      group [(70+/-5)%, P<0.001]. Not surprisingly, the survival of endothelial cells
      in DM-ILD group (44+/-4) % was lower than that in DM-NILD group [(61+/-8)%,
      P<0.01]. Conclusion: NETs could play an important role in the pathogenesis of
      dermatomyositis associated interstitial lung disease, suggesting that NETs may be
      the potential therapeutic target.

PMID- 28870033
TI  - [The expression and clinical significance of proprotein convertase subtilisin
      kexin 9 in rheumatoid arthritis].
AB  - Objective: To assess the expression and significance of proprotein convertase
      subtilisin kexin 9 (PCSK9) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods:
      Sixty-five RA patients and forty-seven healthy controls were recruited in this
      study. The body mass index (BMI) and serum total cholesterol(TC),
      triglyceride(TG), high density lipoprotein(HDL), lipoprotein a, low density
      lipoprotein(LDL), very low density lipoprotein(VLDL), apolipoprotein A(ApoA),
      apolipoprotein B(ApoB) and the ratio of LDL-C/HDL-C were tested. Other parameters
      included disease activity score 28(DAS28), rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cyclic
      citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibody, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), c
      reactive protein (CRP). Serum PCSK9 level was measured by ELISA and compared
      between RA patients and healthy controls. Results: (1) The serum PCSK9 levels in
      RA patients were higher than those in healthy controls[(409.36+/-223.52) MUg/L vs
      (292.19+/-109.79) MUg/L, P<0.05]. (2) Compared with subgroup of moderate and low
      active disease and patients in remission, PCSK9 was significantly higher in
      patients with highly active disease (P<0.05). (3) The serum PCSK9 levels were
      positively correlated with RF, TC, TG, LDL, very low density lipoprotein (VLDL),
      ApoB, with r values as 0.303, 0.490, 0.320, 0.451, 0.319, 0.463, respectively
      (P<0.05). (4) Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that DAS28, RF, TC and
      LDL-C/HDL-C were relevant factors for PCSK9 in RA patients. Conclusions: The
      serum PCSK9 level is elevated in RA patients, which is related to RF, disease
      activity, TC, TG, LDL, VLDL, ApoB. This suggests that PCSK9 is potentially linked
      to inflammatory reaction and lipid metabolism in rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28870034
TI  - [The efficacy and safety of insulin degludec versus insulin glargine in insulin
      naive subjects with type 2 diabetes: results of a Chinese cohort from a
      multinational randomized controlled trial].
AB  - Objective: To compare the safety and efficacy of insulin degludec (IDeg) with
      those of insulin glargine (IGlar) in insulin-naive subjects with type 2 diabetes
      (T2DM). Methods: This was a 26-week, randomized, open-label, parallel-group,
      treat-to-target trial in 560 Chinese subjects with T2DM (men/women: 274/263, mean
      age 56 years, mean diabetes duration 7 years) inadequately controlled on oral
      antidiabetic drugs (OADs). Subjects were randomized 2?1 to once-daily IDeg (373
      subjects) or IGlar(187 subjects), both in combination with metformin. The primary
      endpoint was changes from baseline in glycosylated hemoglobin(HbA1c) after 26
      weeks. Results: Mean HbA1c decreased from 8.2% in both groups to 6.9% in IDeg and
      7.0% in IGlar, respectively. Estimated treatment difference (ETD) of IDeg-IGlar
      in change from baseline was -0.10% points (95%CI-0.25-0.05). The proportion of
      subjects achieving HbA1c<7.0% was 56.3%and 49.7% with IDeg and IGlar,
      respectively [estimated odds ratio of IDeg/IGlar: 1.26(95%CI 0.88-1.82)].
      Numerically lower rateof overall confirmed hypoglycaemia and statistically
      significantly lower nocturnal confirmed hypoglycemia were associated with IDeg
      compared with IGlar, respectively [estimated rateratio of IDeg/IGlar 0.69(95%CI
      0.46-1.03), and 0.43(95%CI 0.19-0.97)]. No differences in other safety parameters
      were found between the two groups. Conclusions: IDeg was non-inferior to IGlar in
      terms of glycaemic control, and was associated with a statistically significantly
      lower rate of nocturnal confirmed hypoglycaemia. IDeg is considered to be
      suitable for initiating insulin therapy in Chinese T2DM patients on OADs
      requiring intensified treatment. Clinical trail registration: Clinicaltrials.gov,
      NCT01849289.

PMID- 28870035
TI  - [Association of Crohn's disease with T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3
      gene polymorphisms in Chinese patients].
AB  - Objective: To explore the association of Crohn's disease (CD) with T cell
      immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3 (Tim-3) gene polymorphisms in patients of
      Zhejiang Han population in China. Methods: A total of 308 CD patients and 573 age
      and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in our study. Two single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of Tim-3 (rs1036199 and rs10515746) were examined
      by the improved multiple ligase detection reaction technique (iMLDR). Analyses of
      linkage disequilibrium and haplotype were also performed by Haploview 4.2
      software in all study subjects. Results: In general, the allele and genotype
      frequencies of Tim-3 (rs1036199 and rs10515746) were not statistically different
      between CD patients and the controls (all P>0.05). According to "the Montreal
      Classification" , CD patients were divided into different subgroups. The variant
      allele (C) and genotype (AC+ CC) of rs1036199 were more frequent in CD patients
      with penetrating diseases than in the controls (10.4% vs 1.7%, P=0.002; 20.8% vs
      3.5%, P=0.023). Similar conclusions were also drawn for the variant allele (A)
      and genotype (CA+ AA) of rs10515746 in patients with penetrating diseases when
      compared with the controls (10.4% vs 2.2%, P=0.000; 20.8% vs 4.2%, P=0.033,
      respectively). The two SNPs of Tim-3 were in strong linkage disequilibrium
      (D'=1.0, r2=0.928). The haplotype (AC) formed by their wild-type alleles (A) and
      (C) was decreased in patients with penetrating CD compared with the controls
      (89.6% vs 98.3%, P=0.000). However, the haplotype (CA) formed by their variant
      alleles was more frequent in patients with penetrating CD than in the controls
      (10.4% vs 1.6%, P=0.000). Conclusions:Tim-3 (rs1036199 and rs10515746) variations
      might be correlated with the enhanced risk of penetrating diseases in CD
      patients. Furthermore, the haplotype (AC) and (CA) formed by the two SNPs might
      be a protective and a risky factor for penetrating CD respectively.

PMID- 28870036
TI  - [The correlation of brachial ankle pulse wave velocity with arterosclerosis at
      different estimated levels of glomerular filtration rate].
AB  - To explore the relationship between brachial ankle artery pulse wave velocity of
      the (baPWV) in different estimation GFR (eGFR) groups and atherosclerosis.In
      2010, 2012 and 2014, eGFR and baPWV were detected in 1 427 healthy persons.As
      eGFR level decreased, baPWV increased accordingly with higher proportion of baPWV
      >=1 400 cm/s.The percentage of eGFR lower than 60 ml.min-1.1.73 m-2 was similar
      in subgroups with different baPWV.However, the proportion of eGFR reduction>=30%
      decreased according to the elevation of baPWV.Multivariate logistic regression
      analysis indicated the lower the eGFR, the higher the risk of atherosclerosis.Low
      eGFR is an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28870037
TI  - [Clinical characteristics of a case of Gitelman syndrome and the gene detection
      analysis in family].

PMID- 28870038
TI  - [Gene analysis in a family with adult onset Bartter syndrome type 2].

PMID- 28870040
TI  - [A case report of IgA-kappa light chain multiple myeloma following essential
      thrombocythaemia].

PMID- 28870039
TI  - [Four cases of gastritis cystica profunda].

PMID- 28870041
TI  - [Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist to treat acute intermittent porphyria: a
      case report].

PMID- 28870043
TI  - [Research of systemic sclerosis sine scleroderma].

PMID- 28870042
TI  - [Building up holistic care in a patient with arthritis and lower limb edema].

PMID- 28870044
TI  - [Advances in diagnosis and treatment of peripartum cardiomyopathy].

PMID- 28870045
TI  - [Advances in eosinophilic disorders].

PMID- 28870046
TI  - [The Chinese consensus for screening, diagnosis and management of Barrett's
      esophagus and early adenocarcinoma(2017, Wanning)].
AB  - Patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE)/columnar lined esophagus (CLE) and
      adenocarcinoma are increasing, in whom 0.61% BE/CLE would develop to
      adenocarcinoma. The prognosis of esophageal cancer is related to the tumor stage
      at diagnosis. To standardize the screening, diagnosis and therapy of BE and
      adenocarcinoma in China, 31 digestive diseases and digestive endoscopy experts
      and digestive histologists drafted the consensus on the basis of clinical
      experience and references. The consensus defined BE as a complication of
      gastroesophageal reflux disease. The normal distal squamous epithelial lining is
      replaced by columnar epithelial. The squamous-columnar junction (SCJ) is above
      the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) >=1 cm and proved by endoscopy and histology.
      Adenocarcinoma developing in BE mucosa is called BE adenocarcinoma. The early BE
      adenocarcinoma is divided into 4 stages: M1, M2, M3 and M4, according to the
      depth of tumor infiltration without expanding beyond mucosa. Because 90%
      esophageal cancers are esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in China, this
      consensus emphasizes the significance of screening BE and adenocarcinoma in
      esophageal cancers. The diagnosis of BE should meet the following criteria: under
      endoscopy, the normal distal squamous epithelial lining is replaced by columnar
      epithelial (SCJ is above the GEJ >=1cm), which is confirmed by histology. The
      lesion should be further assessed by electron staining endoscopy such as narrow
      band imaging (NBI), flexile spectral imaging color enhancement (FICE), i-scan,
      and endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) to choose the optimal therapy. Endoscopic
      resection such as endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and endoscopic mucosal
      resection (EMR) is preferred. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), photodynamic therapy
      (PDT), cryotherapy, Argon plasma coagulation (APC) are alternative therapeutic
      regimens yet should be administrated cautiously. The standardized histologic
      result is very important, which can be used to assess the response effect,
      further treatment and follow-up schedule. It is recommended that the follow-up
      would better be done with high resolution endoscope. Patients without intestinal
      metaplasia in the four quadrants of BE and the length <3 cm is recommended to be
      excluded from the follow-up. BE with intestinal metaplasia<3 cm is recommended
      only follow-up for 3-5 years. BE and metaplasia>=3 cm is recommended to be
      observed every 2-3 years.

PMID- 28870047
TI  - [Expert consensus for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with Gitelman
      syndrome].
AB  - Gitelman syndrome (GS) is an autosomal recessive, salt-losing tubulopathy caused
      by inactivating mutations in the SLC12A3 gene that encodes the thiazide-sensitive
      sodium-chloride cotransporter (NCC). GS is characterized by hypokalemic metabolic
      alkalosis, hypomagnesemia and hypocalciuria. GS is one of the most common
      inherited renal tubulopathy with a prevalence estimated at about one to ten per
      40 000 people. The prevalence of GS is even higher in Asia than other countries.
      The majority of GS patients present mild and nonspecific symptoms during
      adolescence or adulthood. Common clinical manifestations are associated with
      electrolyte abnormalities, such as muscle weakness, salt craving and tetany.
      However, the phenotype of GS is highly variable and links to the quality of life.
      Diagnosis of GS is based on the clinical symptoms, biochemical abnormalities
      (normal/low blood pressure, metabolic alkalosis, hypomagnesemia, hypocalciuria
      and increased activity of renin-angiotensin- aldosterone system) and genetic
      test. Genetic diagnosis of GS is recommended for all patients and the diagnosis
      is confirmed when biallelic inactivating SLC12A3 mutations are identified. The
      differential diagnosis includes renal tubular acidosis, primary
      hyperaldosteronism, Bartter syndrome, Liddle syndrome and other diseases that
      cause hypokalemia. Among them Bartter syndrome (especially type III) is the most
      important genetic disorder to consider due to its similar manifestations with GS.
      All GS patients are encouraged to keep high-sodium diet. Magnesium and potassium
      supplements (oral or intravenous) are usually given to GS patients to improve
      clinical symptoms. Other medicines such as aldosterone receptor antagonists,
      angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin II receptor
      blockers (ARBs) and prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors (PGSIs) are alternative
      choices of treating hypokalemia, but the side-effects of these medication should
      be well considered. Management of GS includes health education, complication
      evaluation and regular follow-up. Annual evaluation by a nephrologist is
      recommended. Extra evaluation and treatment depend on special conditions, such as
      pregnancy, perioperative or growth period. Antenatal diagnosis for GS is
      technically feasible but not recommend due to the benign prognosis in the
      majority of patients. In general, this expert consensus statement aims to
      establish an initial framework for the better diagnosis, treatment and management
      of Chinese patients with GS.

PMID- 28870048
TI  - [The treatment options of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm with liver
      metastasis].
AB  - Liver metastasis is the one of the main prognostic factors of pancreatic
      neuroendocrine neoplasm (PNEN). With the development of multidisciplinary
      collaboration among surgical oncology, medical oncology, and intervention
      treatment, the treatment of PNEN with liver metastasis gradually tends to become
      diversification. Surgery is still the only way for curing the patients with
      pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor with liver metastasis when the histological types
      are G1 and G2. Medical oncology and intervention treatment could be selected for
      those having PNEN with diffuse liver metastasis or those cannot tolerate surgery.
      Liver transplantation only suits for a small number of selected patients. The
      present article explored the relationship between histological classifications
      and the treatment options of PNEN with liver metastasis, and discussed the
      specific treatments from perspectives of surgical treatment, medical treatment
      and intervention treatment.

PMID- 28870049
TI  - [Clinical effect of terminal branches portal vein embolization combined with
      transcatheter arterial chemoembolization on liver neoplasms].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the efficacy of branches portal vein embolization (TBPVE)
      combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) on liver neoplasms.
      Methods: From August 2016 to May 2017, there were 13 patients including 11 males
      and 2 females with primary hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent TBPVE+ TACE ,
      among whom there were 11 cases with a history of HBV infection.Average age of the
      13 patients was (60.8+/-6.2)years. The live function of all patients were Child
      Pugh A classification.The CT or MRI images of each patient was reconstructed and
      the standard liver volume(SLV) before TBPVE+ TACE was (1 181.2+/-49.3)ml,
      estimated future liver remnant(FLR) was (326.1+/-72.1)ml and FLR/SLV was (27.6+/
      6.0)%.The puncture site for TBPVE was determined by the three-dimensional
      reconstruction of portal vein.CT scan or MRI, AFP and liver function test were
      repeated after one and two weeks after TBPVE+ TACE.FLR and FLR/SLV were
      calculated respectively.Hepatectomy would be performed if the patients agreed.The
      postoperative complications were analyzed. Results: On the 7thday after TBPVE+
      TACE, the FLR/SLV was(42.6+/-8.0)% and the FLR increasement was(56.0+/-24.6)%.The
      level of AFP decreased from(87.9+/-81.8)MUg/L to (29.7+/-20.9)MUg/L.On the
      14thday after TBPVE+ TACE, the FLR/SLV was(45.8+/-6.2)% and the FLR increasement
      was(71.8+/-29.0)%.Four patients underwent surgery which including 2 right
      hepatectomies and 2 right trisegmentectomies in 2 weeks after TBPVE+ TACE.Nine
      patients were performed with targeting intratumoral lactic acidosis TACE (TILA
      TACE). No severe complication occurred in all patients. Conclusions: TBPVE could
      induce a rapid growth of the liver remnant but still with the concern of inducing
      the growth of neoplasms at the same time.To combine TACE in TBPVE therapy not
      also can the growth of neoplasms be prevented but also inducing its
      shrinking.This method might be a new mode for the treatment of hepatocellular
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28870050
TI  - [Survey of current status of prevention of venous thromboembolism after thoracic
      surgery in China].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the current status of prevention and treatment of
      venous thromboembolism (VTE) after thoracic surgery in China. Method: Chinese
      thoracic surgeons were investigated by the online questionnaire which was based
      on the Chinese version of International VTE questionnaire added with 6 extra
      questions with Chinese characteristics. Results: A total of 1 150 valid
      questionnaires were retrieved, accounting for about 20% of all the Chinese
      thoracic surgeons. The surgeons participating in this survey came from all over
      the country, most of whom were experienced professionals with high academic
      titles.For lung cancer patients, 66.96% (770/1 150) of the surgeons suggested
      that VTE prophylaxis should start 1 day after lung cancer resection, and 64.61%
      (743/1 150) of the surgeons suggested extending after discharge. For
      esophagestomy patients, and 48.35% (514/1 063) of the surgeons suggested that
      there was no need for patients to extend VTE prophylaxis after discharge. More
      than half of the surgeons participating in this survey made decision of the
      method and duration of VTE prophylaxis after lung cancer resection (53.91% (620/1
      150)) or esophagectomy (52.49% (558/1 063)) depending on the clinical
      experience.Low molecular weight heparin was the common choice of most surgeons in
      VTE prophylaxis. More than half of the surgeons thought that previous history of
      VTE, advanced age, complicated with thrombophilia, obesity (body mass index>30
      kg/m2), duration of surgery longer than 6 hours and family history of VTE were
      key risk factors of the occurrence of postoperative VTE. Conclusions: The results
      of this survey are highly credible and are a good reflection of the current
      status of VTE prevention and treatment after thoracic surgery in China. This
      survey will play an important role in promoting VTE prevention and treatment in
      Chinese thoracic surgery department, it will also provide data support for
      government setting new policies, hospital construction of VTE prevention and
      control as well as raising physicians' awareness.

PMID- 28870051
TI  - [Choices of methods in dividing the neck of pancreas in laparoscopic
      pancreaticoduodenectomy].
AB  - Objective: To discuss the methods, skills and experiences of dividing the neck of
      pancreas in laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy(LPD). Methods: The clinical data
      of 58 patients with periampullary tumors who received LPD at the Union Hospital
      of Fujian Medical University from December 2014 to January 2017 were
      retrospectively analyzed.There were 26 males and 32 females, ranged from 18 to 65
      years, with a mean age of (46+/-12)years. Results: All of the 58 patients
      underwent operation smoothly.Three cases underwent open anastomosis via an
      auxiliary incision after the total resection of specimen laparoscopically, due to
      the early learning curve of LPD.Two cases transformed into open operation as a
      result of tumor vascular invasion to portal vein(PV) or superior mesenteric
      vein(SMV). Fifty-three cases underwent laparoscopic or laparoscopic combined with
      robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy completely.Forty-two cases ligated gastroduodenal
      artery(GDA), fully penetrated the interspace between rear of pancreatic neck and
      SMV, suspended the pancreas and then divided the neck of pancreas from inferior
      to superior. Thirteen cases fully dissected the interspace between rear of
      pancreatic neck and SMV, divided the neck of pancreas from inferior to superior
      and then ligated GDA.Three cases ligated GDA, dissected PV and SMV at the
      superior and inferior margin of the neck of pancreas separately, and then divided
      pancreas from anterior to posterior.Mean time of dividing pancreas was (34.9+/
      9.7)minutes, mean volume of blood loss while dividing pancreas was (30.1+/
      8.2)ml.The main postoperative complications included pancreatic fistula(7 cases,
      Biochemical leak 2 cases, B grade 3 cases, C grade 2 cases), biliary fistula(3
      cases), gastric fistula(1 case), delayed gastric emptying(1 case, C grade),
      abdominal infection(5 cases), hepatic failure (1 case), intra-abdominal
      hemorrhage(2 cases), reoperation(2 cases). One case died at the perioperative
      period while others recovered.The mean duration of postoperative stay was (14.2+/
      5.1)days. Conclusions: Dividing the neck of pancreas is one of the most important
      steps in LPD, which deserved sufficient attention.At the meantime, a suitable
      method of dividing the neck of pancreas should be chosen according to
      intraoperative exploration and preoperative imageological examinations.

PMID- 28870052
TI  - [Clinical efficacy of enhanced recovery after surgery in atrial caval shunting
      for type II Budd-Chiari syndrome].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy of enhanced recovery after
      surgery(ERAS) in atrial caval shunting (ACS) for type II Budd-Chiari
      syndrome(BCS). Methods: The clinical data of patients underwent ACS for type II
      BCS in the Henan Province People's Hospital from January 2014 to June 2016 were
      prospectively analyzed.Randomized and single-blind, controlled study was
      performed among the patients, and all of them underwent ACS and were divided into
      control group (patients underwent traditional perioperative management) and ERAS
      group (patients underwent ERAS perioperative management) based on a random number
      table.Operational and postoperative data, levels of inflammatory cytokines,
      stress state evaluation and postoperative complications were observed.The
      comparison between the two groups was evaluated with an independent sample t
      test.The trend analyses for variables were done using repeated measures ANOVA.The
      count data were analyzed using the chi-square test or Fisher exact. Results:
      Eighty-two patients were screened for eligibility, and allocated into the control
      group (40 patients) and the ERAS group (42 patients). All patients underwent ACS
      successfully with no death.Comparison of intraoperative status: operation time,
      volume of intraoperative blood and number of patients receiving blood transfusion
      were (211.0+/-12.9) minutes vs. (207.7+/-10.7) minutes, (167.5+/-28.3) ml vs.
      (165.0+/-28.4) ml and 3 cases vs. 1 case between the control group and the ERAS
      group, respectively, showing no difference between the two groups (t=0.90, 0.29,
      chi2=0.32, all P>0.05). Comparison of postoperative status: time of gastric tube
      removal, time of catheter removal, time of chest tube, time to flatus, time of
      food intake, duration of postoperative infusion, duration of postoperative
      hospital stay and numeric rating scale were (3.7+/-0.5)days vs. (0.0+/-0.0)days,
      (2.3+/-0.7)days vs. (1.4+/-0.5)days, (3.7+/-0.7)days vs. (2.3+/-0.5)days, (75.2+/
      3.8)hours vs. (46.6+/-4.2)hours, (75.7+/-4.7)hours vs. (21.4+/-2.1)hours, (10.0+/
      1.0)days vs. (5.8+/-0.9)days, (11.4+/-1.0)days vs. (7.8+/-0.6)days, 2.9+/-0.4 vs.
      1.9+/-0.6 between the control group and the ERAS group, respectively, with
      statistically differences (t=35.03, 4.36, 8.10, 22.89, 47.78, 14.75, 14.22, 6.13,
      all P<0.05). Stress state evaluation: the levels of IR were (2.7+/-0.1) vs.(2.7+/
      0.1), (8.8+/-0.7) vs. (5.2+/-0.3), (11.0+/-0.5) vs. (7.3+/-0.5), (4.9+/-0.2) vs.
      (3.9+/-0.1), and the levels of C-reaction protein were (14.6+/-1.3)mg/L
      vs.(14.6+/-1.1) mg/L, (101.2+/-13.6) mg/L vs. (89.5+/-6.9) mg/L, (62.7+/-8.6)
      mg/L vs. (56.4+/-8.4) mg/L, (46.4+/-6.7) mg/L vs. (40.0+/-5.6) mg/L from pre
      operation to postoperative day 1, 3 and 5 between the control group and the ERAS
      group, respectively, with statistically significant differences in changing
      trends(F=136.61, 4.97, both P<0.05). Comparisons of levels of inflammatory
      cytokines: the levels of IL-6 were (43.1+/-2.7) ng/L vs. (43.6+/-3.6) ng/L,
      (135.1+/-6.4) ng/L vs. (117.4+/-5.7) ng/L, (145.4+/-6.7) ng/L vs. (128.5+/-5.5)
      ng/L, (93.3+/-3.7) ng/L vs. (88.0+/-3.9) ng/L, and the levels of TNF-alpha were
      (10.4+/-0.3)mmol/L vs. (10.4+/-0.3) mmol/L, (14.4+/-0.4) mmol/L vs. (12.6+/-0.4)
      mmol/L, (15.6+/-0.4) mmol/L vs. (13.8+/-0.4) mmol/L, (12.3+/-0.7) mmol/L vs.
      (11.4+/-0.6) mmol/L from pre-operation to postoperative day 1, 3 and 5 between
      the control group and the ERAS group, respectively, with statistically
      significant differences in changing trends (F=15.15, 21.45, both P<0.05).
      Comparison of postoperative complications: incidence of complications was
      30.0%(12/40) in the control group and 11.9%(5/42) in the ERAS group, and the
      numbers of patients with nausea and vomiting, respiratory complications and
      cardiovascular complications were 4, 3, 5 cases in the control group and 3, 1, 1
      case in the ERAS group, respectively, showing statistically differences in the
      incidence of complications(chi2=4.08, P<0.05). All the 82 patients were followed
      up for 2 to 22 months (median time, 12 months), no patients received reoperation
      or re-admitted to the hospital duo to complications. Conclusion: ERAS management
      in the perioperative period of ACS for BCS is beneficial to postoperative
      recovery of patients, and can relieve postoperative stress state and inflammatory
      response, reduce the duration of hospital stay, and incidence of postoperative
      complications.

PMID- 28870053
TI  - [Domestic external fixator application in the treatment of limb deformities: 7
      289 cases application report].
AB  - Objective: To discuss the clinical application and effects of domestic external
      fixator in the treatment of patients with malformations of limbs. Methods: A
      total of 7 289 patients with malformation of limbs who had been operated in Qin
      Sihe orthopedic surgery team from January 1989 to June 2016 were retrospective
      analyzed. The patients were treated with domestic external fixator, including 4
      033 males and 3 256 females, aging from 2 to 82 years with a mean age of 23.4
      years. There were 2 732 patients using Ilizarov external fixator, 4 713 patients
      using hybrid external fixator, 57 patients using monobrachial external fixator,
      232 patients using Ilizarov external fixator and hybrid external fixator. The
      Ilizarov, hybrid and monobrachial external fixator were used in 67, 65 and 0
      patients on the upper limbs and in 2 665, 4 616 and 57 patients on the lower
      limbs. There were 3 028 patients operated on the left limbs, 3 260 patients
      operated on the right limbs and 1 001 patients operated on the bilateral limbs.
      The top three types of diseases were sequelae of poliomyelitis, cerebral palsy
      and post-traumatic stress disorder peromely. Deformity types inclued talipes
      equinovarus, knee flexion deformity, cavus foot and so on. Results: All the
      patients were followed up for a period of 2.5 months to 22.4 years, with an
      average follow-up time of 5.4 years. All of the external fixators were used for
      single once, and there was no substitute for external fixator quality problem.
      All the patients were completed surgery goal until removing external fixation
      except 1 patient gave up treatment and 1 removed the fixator because of metal
      allergy. The common complications included wire or pin infection and joint
      movement limitation and so on. Conclusions: The domestic external fixator
      developed and produced based on the characteristics of Chinese limb deformity
      disability. The domestic external fixator can be used to treat kinds of limb
      deformities with the advantages of practical, economical, adjustable, universal
      and portable. The domestic external fixator could meet the clinical demand for
      fixation of the osteotomy end of the limbs, the correction of the deformity, the
      repair of the defects and the limb lengthening.

PMID- 28870054
TI  - [Paracondylar-lateral cervical approach for resection of jugular foramen
      schwannomas: a retrospective analysis of 15 cases].
AB  - Objective: To explore the effects of paracondylar-lateral cervical approach for
      resection of the jugular foramen schwannoma(JFS). Methods: A total of 15 patients
      with JFS operated via the paracondylar-lateral cervical approach between December
      2011 and March 2016 at Department of Neurosurgery in Xiangya Hospital of Central
      South University were retrospectively analyzed. There were 7 males and 8 females,
      aging from 22 to 77 years with a mean age of (41.9+/-15.8) years.There were 12
      patients who accepted primary surgery, 3 patients who accepted secondary surgery.
      There were 10 patients with tinnitus or hearing loss, 8 patients with dysphagia,
      9 patients with hoarseness, 7 patients with tongue hemiparesis, 8 patients with
      ataxia, 1 patient with Pyramidal signs, 2 patients with facial hypesthesia or
      pain, 1 patient with facial paresis. According to Samii JFS grading system, 2
      patients were type B, 4 were type C and 9 were type D. All patients were followed
      up through outpatient and telephone by MRI in 3, 9, 12 months postoperation.
      Results: Gross total removal of tumors were achieved in 14 patients and subtotal
      removal in 1 patient. Two patients had new hoarseness, 2 had new dysphagia and 3
      had more serious dysphagia, 1 patient had more serious facial paresis after the
      operation. There were 2 patients with intracranial infection, 2 with pneumonia, 1
      with subcutaneous effusion, 1 with cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea, 5 with gastric
      intubation during perioperative period. There were no death, intracranial
      hematoma and decreased hearing patients. All patients were followed up, the
      follow-up time were 3 to 33 months with a mean of (26.9+/-11.2) months. Till to
      the latest follow up, dysphagia improved in 2 cases, hoarseness and tongue
      hemiparesis improved in 3 cases, hearing loss and tinnitus improved in 9 cases,
      balance function improved in 7 cases, facial hypesthesia and pain improved in 2
      cases, pyramidal signs disappeared in 1 case, facial nerve function improved to
      normal in 1 case. There was no recurrence and progressed case. Conclusion:
      Paracondylar-lateral cervical approach is an alternative approach for both
      intracranial and extracranial JFS.

PMID- 28870055
TI  - [Lymph node metastasis and prognostic factors for T1 esophageal cancer].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the lymph node metastasis (LNM) pattern and related
      prognostic factors for T1 esophageal cancer. Methods: Clinical data of 143 cases
      of pT1 esophageal cancer patients (120 male and 23 female patients with median
      age of 60 years) who underwent esophagectomy and lymph node resection during
      January 2011 and July 2016 at the Department of Esophageal Cancer of Tianjin
      Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital were reviewed, including 50
      cases of T1a patients and 93 cases of T1b patients. The LNM pattern was analyzed
      and the prognostic factors related to LNM were assessed by chi2 test and Logistic
      regression analysis. Results: Of 143 patients, 25 patients had LNM. The LNM rates
      were 17.5% for pT1 tumors, 16.0%(8/50) for pT1a tumors, and 22.6%(21/93) for T1b
      tumors. Of 25 patients with LNM, one patient had cervical metastasis, 15 patients
      with thoracic metastasis, and 17 patients with abdominal metastasis. The
      relatively highest LNM sites were laryngeal recurrent nerve (8 cases), left
      gastric artery (8 cases), right and left cardiac (6 cases) and thoracic
      paraesophageal (5 cases). Logistic regression analysis showed that the depth of
      tumor infiltration (OR=4.641, 95%CI: 1.279 to 16.836, P=0.020), tumor size
      (OR=5.301, 95%CI: 1.779 to 15.792, P=0.003), tumor location (OR=3.238, 95% CI:
      1.248 to 8.401, P=0.016), and tumor differentiation (OR=5.301, 95%CI: 1.719 to
      16.347, P=0.004) were independent prognostic factors related to LNM for T1
      esophageal cancer. Tumor size (OR=4.117, 95% CI: 1.228 to 13.806, P=0.022) was an
      independent risk factor related to thoracic LNM, and the vessel invasion
      (OR=6.058, 95% CI: 1.228 to 29.876, P=0.027) and tumor location (OR=8.113, 95%
      CI: 1.785-36.872, P=0.007) were independent prognostic factors related to
      abdominal LNM. Conclusions: T1 esophageal cancer has a relatively high LNM rate,
      and the depth of tumor infiltration, tumor size, tumor location and tumor
      differentiation are correlated with LNM. The LNM risk and extent must be
      considered comprehensively in decision-making of a better surgical treatment and
      lymph node resection strategy.

PMID- 28870056
TI  - [Application of autologous fat grafting in breast reconstruction].
AB  - Objective: To observe the outcome of breast reconstruction with autologous fat
      grafting in the patients following treatment for breast cancer. Methods: The
      clinical data of 22 patients after breast cancer modified radical mastectomy with
      fat grafting for breast reconstruction from January 2012 to March 2015 at
      Department of Body Contouring and Liposuction Center of Plastic Surgery, Hospital
      of Peking Union Medical College were analyzed retrospectively. The age of 22
      patients (all female) was 28 to 54 years. Fifteen patients were performed breast
      modified radical mastectomy 5 to 16 year ago without radiotherapy, 7 patients
      were performed breast modified radical mastectomy following regular radiotherapy
      2 years ago. Low negative pressure liposuction technical was applied to harvest
      fat tissue for 400 to 800 ml which was filtrated and purified by cotton pad
      method in low temperature environment. Fat grafting was performed with multi
      level and multi-tunnel and in multi-point injection ways. All patients were
      followed up by regular imaging evaluation with MRI or ultrasonography after
      operation every 3 months. Results: All breast reconstruction were successfully
      performed in 22 patients, no severe complications occurred. Among 15 patients
      without radiotherapy, 12 patients were performed with autologous fat grafting for
      breast reconstruction, 3 patients with prosthetic implantation for breast
      augmentation after autologous fat grafting. Among 7 patients with radiotherapy, 6
      patients were performed with autologous fat grafting for breast reconstruction, 1
      patient with prosthetic implantation for breast augmentation after autologous fat
      grafting. The volume of fat grafting was 104 to 380 ml. It took 2.5 hours to
      finish the operation including 1.0 to 1.5 hours for liposuction and 40 minutes
      for fat grafting. Next fat grafting were performed after 3 months. The fat of the
      breast were survived well detecting by MRI, only 1 patient had a cystic nodule
      which had been resected during nipple reconstruction. Ultrasonography screened
      several cystic nodules with the major axis of 0.1 to 0.2 cm in the breast, which
      couldn't be found by palpating in 18 patients. The patients were followed up for
      18 to 36 months, the outcome were satisfactory. Conclusion: Autologous fat
      grafting for breast reconstruction simplifies the operation program with
      satisfied results and avoids the complications of breast reconstruction with skin
      flap.

PMID- 28870057
TI  - [Clinical analysis of 34 cases with sepsis and systemic capillary leak syndrome].
AB  - Objective: To study the clinical characteristics of sepsis with systemic
      capillary leak syndrome(SCLS) and to evaluate the therapeutic effect and clinical
      significance of fluid therapy adjusted timely in these patients. Methods: The
      clinical data of 34 patients with sepsis and SCLS in the Department of
      Hepatobiliary Surgery ICU of General Hospital of People's Liberation Army General
      Hospital from July 2014 to January 2016 were retrospectively analyzed.There were
      21 males and 13 females, aged from 21 to 74 years, with an average age of 56.3
      years.Primary disease as follows: 18 cases with severe acute pancreatitis, 7
      postoperative cases of subtotal hepatectomy, 5 postoperative cases of
      pancreatoduodenectomy, 4 postoperative cases of cholelithiasis.These patients
      were divided into survival group and death group according to their 28-day
      survival status.The clinical data including C-reactive protein(CRP), platelets
      (PLT), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), the level of arterial blood lactic
      acid(LAC), oxygenation index(PaO2/FiO2, OI), net fluid balance(NFB) and
      norepinephrine dosage(NE) were collected and compared between two groups at three
      different intervals(day 1-3, day 4-6, day 7-9). The measurement data and
      numeration data were statistically analyzed with t test and chi2 test
      respectively to explore the inherent characteristics of the disease evolution and
      its clinical significance. Results: The survival group (n=23)and the death
      group(n=11)had no significant difference in the characteristics of basic clinical
      characters.The condition of the survival group and the death group were both in
      progress in 1-3 days period manifested as increased CRP(t=-0.473, P=0.640) and
      BNP levels(t=0.140, P=0.895), decreased PLT counts(t=-0.505, P=0.620) in the
      inflammatory response, decreased LAC(t=-1.008, P=0.320) and OI level (t=-2.379,
      P=0.020)in tissue perfusion index, and positive fluid balance(NFB: t=0.910,
      P=0.370), required NE(t=-0.853, P=0.400) to maintain effective perfusion pressure
      with systemic edema in both groups.There was no significant difference of all
      these clinical parameters between the two groups.The patients' condition of the
      survival group reached a plateau phase, whereas all relative indicators of the
      death group implied significant aggravation and deterioration of systemic
      infection(CRP: t=-3.438, P=0.000; PLT: t=1.649, P=0.110; BNP: t=-10.612,
      P=0.000), tissue perfusion (LAC: t=-11.305, P=0.000; OI: t=2.743, P=0.010)and
      tissue edema NFB(t=-4.257, P=0.000) and NE(t=-7.956, P=0.000) in 4-6 days
      period.In the last 7-9 days period the patients' condition of the survival group
      took a turn for improvement, yet the condition of the death group continued to
      deteriorate, refractory septic shock developed and multiple organ dysfunction
      syndrome followed afterwards inevitably(CRP: t=-10.036, P=0.000; PLT: t=6.061,
      P=0.000; BNP: t=-10.119, P=0.000; LAC: t=-24.466, P=0.000; OI: t=13.443, P=0.010;
      NFB: t=-8.345, P=0.000; NE: t=-7.121, P=0.000). Conclusions: The condition of
      patient with sepsis and SCLS would be improved markedly at the critical turning
      point around 7-9 days period since the effective systemic treatment began.If the
      infection does not be significantly constrolled and SCLS still remains in a
      sustained extravasation period in 7-9 days, the prognosis of these patients may
      be worse and the mortality may be higher than that of the patients mentioned
      before.

PMID- 28870058
TI  - Technologically-advanced assessment of upper-limb spasticity: a pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spasticity is a muscle disorder associated with upper motor neuron
      syndrome occurring in neurological disorders, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis,
      spinal cord injury and others. It influences the patient's rehabilitation,
      interfering with function, limiting independence, causing pain and producing
      secondary impairments, such as contractures or other complications. Due to the
      heterogeneity of clinical signs of spasticity, there is no agreement on the most
      appropriate assessment and measurement modality for the evaluation of treatment
      outcomes. AIM: The aim of this article is to propose the use of new robotic
      devices for upper-limb spasticity assessment and describe the most relevant
      measures of spasticity which could be automatically assessed by using a
      technologically advanced device. DESIGN: Observational pilot study. SETTING: The
      treatment was provided in a Rehabilitation Centre where the device was located
      and the subjects were treated in an outpatients setting. POPULATION: Five post
      stroke patients, age range 19-79 years (mean age 61, standard deviation [SD]+/
      25) in their chronic phase. METHODS: A new robotic device able to automatically
      assess upper-limb spasticity during passive and active mobilization has been
      developed. The elbow spasticity of five post stroke patients has been assessed by
      using the new device and by means of the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). After the
      first assessment, subjects were treated with botulin toxin injections, and then
      underwent 10 sessions of robotic treatments. After the treatment, subjects
      spasticity was assessed by using the robotic device and the MAS Score. RESULTS:
      In four out of five patients, the botulin toxin injection and robotic treatment
      resulted in the improvement of the MAS Score; in three patients the robotic
      measures were able to detect the MAS changes. In one subject botulin toxin was
      not effective and the robotic device was able to detect the lack of
      effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: By using the robotic device some spasticity
      parameters can be continuously recorded during the rehabilitation treatment in
      order to objectively measure the effectiveness of the interventions provided.
      CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: The standardized evaluation parameters recorded
      using robotic devices may provide several advantages: 1) the measures for
      spasticity assessment can be monitored during every rehabilitation session (even
      during each movement); 2) these measurements are able to highlight even small
      changes; 3) the recovery plateau can be detected early thus avoiding further
      rehabilitation sessions; and 4) these measurements can reduce the assessment bias
      in multicenter studies.

PMID- 28870059
TI  - Publication trends of study protocols in rehabilitation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Growing evidence points for the need to publish study protocols in
      the health field. The aim of this paper was to observe whether the growing
      interest in publishing study protocols in the broader health field has been
      translated into increased publications of rehabilitation study protocols.
      EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: PubMed was searched with appropriate combinations of
      Medical Subject Headings up to December 2014. The effective presence of study
      protocols was manually screened. Regression models analyzed the yearly growth of
      publications. Two-sample Z-tests analyzed whether the proportion of systematic
      reviews (SRs) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) among study protocols
      differed from that of the same designs for the broader rehabilitation research.
      EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Up to December 2014, 746 publications of rehabilitation study
      protocols were identified, with an exponential growth since 2005 (r2=0.981;
      P<0.001). RCT protocols were the most common among rehabilitation study protocols
      (83%), while RCTs were significantly more prevalent among study protocols than
      among the broader rehabilitation research (83% vs. 35.8%; P<0.001). For SRs, the
      picture was reversed: significantly less common among study protocols (2.8% vs.
      9.3%; P<0.001). Funding was more often reported by rehabilitation study protocols
      than the broader rehabilitation research (90% vs. 53.1%; P<0.001). Rehabilitation
      journals published a significantly lower share of rehabilitation study protocols
      than they did for the broader rehabilitation research (1.8% vs.16.7%; P<0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Identifying the reasons for these discrepancies and reverting
      unwarranted disparities (e.g. low rate of publication for rehabilitation SR
      protocols) are likely new avenues for rehabilitation research and its
      publication. SRs, particularly those aggregating RCT results, are considered the
      best standard of evidence to guide rehabilitation clinical practice; however,
      that standard can be improved in rigor and/or transparency if the publications of
      rehabilitation SRs protocols become more common.

PMID- 28870060
TI  - Sonographic features that can be used to differentiate between small triple
      negative breast cancer and fibroadenoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Our study investigated whether any sonographic findings could be useful
      for differentiating between small triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and
      fibroadenoma. METHODS: This retrospective study was approved by our Institutional
      Review Board, which waived the requirement for patient consent. From January 2009
      to December 2010, the sonographic features of 181 pathologically proven TNBC
      tumors and 172 fibroadenomas measuring less than or equal to 2 cm in the longest
      dimension were reviewed and analyzed according to the fifth edition of the Breast
      Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) lexicon. Mean tumor roundness was
      also measured using in-house software. RESULTS: The median longest lesion
      dimension was 16 mm (range, 13 to 18 mm) in TNBCs and 13 mm (range, 10 to 16 mm)
      in fibroadenomas. In comparison to fibroadenomas, small TNBC tumors presented
      with a higher incidence of irregular shapes (66.9%), noncircumscribed margins
      (91.7%), hypoechoic echotexture (59.1%), posterior acoustic enhancement (65.2%),
      and associated features (24.4%). Most TNBCs were classified as BI-RADS category 4
      (65.2%) or 5 (28.2%). The mean tumor roundness of small TNBCs was greater than
      that of fibroadenomas (60%+/-12% vs. 53%+/-13%). Multivariate analysis showed
      that older patient age, irregular shape, nonparallel orientation, posterior
      acoustic enhancement, associated features, a BI-RADS final assessment category of
      4 or 5, and greater tumor roundness were significant independent factors
      indicative of TNBCs. CONCLUSION: TNBC tumors tend to demonstrate more suspicious
      sonographic features and greater tumor roundness than fibroadenomas. These
      features may have the potential to help differentiate between small TNBCs and
      fibroadenomas.

PMID- 28870061
TI  - Morphological alterations of the tendon and pulley on ultrasound after
      intrasynovial injection of betamethasone for trigger digit.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to elucidate whether intrasynovial
      corticosteroid injections for trigger digit reduced the volume of the tendon and
      pulley on high-resolution ultrasonography. METHODS: Twenty-three digits of 20
      patients with trigger digit were included. Each affected finger was graded
      clinically according to the following classification: grade I for pre-triggering,
      grade II for active triggering, grade III for passive triggering, and grade IV
      for presence of contracture. Axial ultrasound examinations were performed before
      an intrasynovial corticosteroid injection and at an average of 31 days after the
      injection. The transverse diameter, thickness, and cross-sectional area of the
      tendon and the thickness of the pulley were measured by two independent, blinded
      researchers. RESULTS: At least 1 grade of improvement was achieved in this study
      group by the time of the second examination. The transverse diameter and cross
      sectional area of the tendon and the thickness of the pulley significantly
      decreased (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The injection of a single dose of betamethasone
      improved clinical symptoms by reducing the volume of both the tendon and pulley,
      which may be related to the fact that tendon and pulley ruptures are delayed by
      corticosteroid injections.

PMID- 28870063
TI  - Validation of the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale among
      patients scheduled for cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28870062
TI  - Initial clinical and hemodynamic results of a regional pulmonary
      thromboendarterectomy program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) is the treatment of choice for
      eligible patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).
      However, access to CTEPH and PTE care is limited. There is a paucity of published
      data on PTE efficacy and outcomes from alternative, regional centers of
      excellence in CTEPH and PTE care in the USA, outside a single national and
      international referral center. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of
      patients undergoing PTE at our institution from June 2013 to December 2016 (42
      months), and collected clinical, echocardiographic and hemodynamic data on our
      patients pre- and post-PTE (N.=71). RESULTS: Patients age ranged between 20-83
      years (mean+/-SD: 56+/-16), with 54% of patients female and 61% Caucasians. The
      predominant symptom was shortness of breath with a median duration of symptoms of
      17 months. Following PTE, clinical improvements included a reduction in NYHA
      class from 3.1+/-1.1 to 2.2+/-1.2. There were major improvements in hemodynamics
      and echocardiographic parameters pre- versus post-PTE: mean pulmonary artery
      pressure (mmHg) 45+/-11 to 24+/-8, cardiac index (L/min/m2) 2.1+/-0.5 to 2.8+/
      0.5, pulmonary vascular resistance (mmHg/L/min) 8.9+/-4.5 to 2.8+/-1.8, ratio of
      right ventricle (RV): left ventricle (LV) 1.2+/-0.3 to 0.9+/-0.2, RV fractional
      area change (%) 23+/-14 to 44+/-13, reduction in the incidence of RV outflow
      tract Doppler notching and improved pulmonary artery acceleration time (96% to
      30%, and 74+/-19 to 111+/-21). In-hospital mortality was 4.2% (3 patients).
      CONCLUSIONS: Herein, we report for the first time, the improvements in patient
      functionality, hemodynamics, right heart function and outcomes at a major
      regional PTE program.

PMID- 28870064
TI  - Amyloid beta Fibril Elongation by Monomers Involves Disorder at the Tip.
AB  - The growth of amyloid fibrils from Abeta1-42 peptide, one of the key pathogenic
      players in Alzheimer's disease, is believed to follow a nucleation-elongation
      mechanism. Fibril elongation is often described as a "dock-lock" procedure, where
      a disordered monomer adsorbs to an existing fibril in a relatively fast process
      (docking), followed by a slower conformational transition toward the ordered
      state of the template (locking). Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations of
      an ordered pentamer of Abeta42 at fully atomistic resolution, which includes
      solvent, to characterize the elongation process. We construct a Markov state
      model from an ensemble of short trajectories generated by an advanced sampling
      algorithm that efficiently diversifies a subset of the system without any bias
      forces. This subset corresponds to selected dihedral angles of the peptide chain
      at the fibril tip favored to be the fast growing one experimentally. From the
      network model, we extract distinct locking pathways covering time scales in the
      high microsecond regime. Slow steps are associated with the exchange of
      hydrophobic contacts, between nonnative and native intermolecular contacts as
      well as between intra- and intermolecular ones. The N-terminal segments, which
      are disordered in fibrils and typically considered inert, are able to shield the
      lateral interfaces of the pentamer. We conclude by discussing our findings in the
      context of a refined dock-lock model of Abeta fibril elongation, which involves
      structural disorder for more than one monomer at the growing tip.

PMID- 28870066
TI  - Simulation Studies on the Lipid Interaction and Conformation of Novel Drug
      Delivery Pseudopeptidic Polymers.
AB  - Pseudopeptides based on poly(l-lysine isophthalamide) backbone have emerged as
      promising drug delivery candidates due to their pH-activated membrane disruption
      ability. To gain molecular understanding on these novel polymeric species, we
      have constructed force-field parameters and simulated the behaviors of polymers
      with and without phenylalanine grafted as side chains under conditions compatible
      with different pHs. The free energy changes upon polymer permeation through
      membrane were calculated using the umbrella sampling technique. We show that both
      polymers with and without grafts interact better with the membrane under
      conditions compatible with lower pH. The conformational states of the polymers
      were investigated in water and at a water-membrane interface. On the basis of
      Markov state modeling results, we propose a possible advantage of the grafted
      polymer over the ungrafted polymer for membrane rupture because of its quicker
      conformational rearrangement kinetics.

PMID- 28870065
TI  - A Potential New Threat to Wild Life: Presence of UV Filters in Bird Eggs from a
      Preserved Area.
AB  - The present study uses bird eggs of seven wild species as a biomonitoring tool
      for sunscreens occurrence. Seven UV filters (UV-Fs), including 3 hydroxy
      metabolites of oxybenzone (benzophenone 3, BP3) were characterized in unhatched
      eggs from Donana Natural Space (Spain). High frequency of detection was observed
      for all UV-Fs, ranging from 95% to 100%. The oxybenzone metabolite 4
      hydroxybenzophenone (4HB) was ubiquitous at concentrations in the range 12.0-3348
      ng g-1 dry weight (dw). The parent compound, oxybenzone, was also present in all
      samples at lower concentrations (16.9-49.3 ng g-1 dw). Due to the three BP3's
      metabolites, benzophenone 1 (BP1), 4HB, and 4,4'-dihydroxybenzophenone (4DHB)
      presence in unhatched eggs, it can be inferred that parent compounds are absorbed
      into the bird through the upper gut and the OH-derivatives formed are transferred
      by the mother to the egg before the lying. White stork (Ciconia ciconia) and
      western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) were the most contaminated species,
      with mean total UV-Fs concentrations of 834 and 985 ng g-1 dw, respectively.
      Results evidenced that biomagnification process across the bird species studied
      cannot be ruled out.

PMID- 28870067
TI  - Versatile Device Architectures for High-Performing Light-Soaking-Free Inverted
      Polymer Solar Cells.
AB  - Metal oxide charge transport layers have been widely employed to prepare inverted
      polymer solar cells with high efficiency and long lifetime. However, the
      intrinsic defects in the metal oxide layers, especially those prepared from low
      temperature routes, overshadow the high efficiency that can be achieved and also
      introduce "light-soaking" issues to these devices. In this work, we have employed
      polyethyleneimine (PEI) and poly(9,9-bis(6'-(N,N-diethylamino)propyl)-fluorene
      alt-9,9-bis-(3-ethyl(oxetane-3-ethyloxy)-hexyl)-fluorene] (PFN-OX) to modify our
      low-temperature-processed TiO2 electron transport layer (ETL) and demonstrated
      that the light-soaking issue can be effectively eliminated by PEI modifications
      because of the formation of abundant dipole moments, whereas PFN-OX was
      ineffective as a result of deficient dipole moments at the interface. Excitingly,
      PEI modifications enable versatile device architectures to obtain light-soaking
      free, inverted PTB7-Th:PC71BM solar cells with efficiencies of over 10%, by
      adding PEI either in the bulk or as an adjacent layer below or above the TiO2
      ETL.

PMID- 28870068
TI  - Revealing the Effect of Irradiation on Cement Hydrates: Evidence of a Topological
      Self-Organization.
AB  - Despite the crucial role of concrete in the construction of nuclear power plants,
      the effects of radiation exposure (i.e., in the form of neutrons) on the calcium
      silicate-hydrate (C-S-H, i.e., the glue of concrete) remain largely unknown.
      Using molecular dynamics simulations, we systematically investigate the effects
      of irradiation on the structure of C-S-H across a range of compositions.
      Expectedly, although C-S-H is more resistant to irradiation than typical
      crystalline silicates, such as quartz, we observe that radiation exposure affects
      C-S-H's structural order, silicate mean chain length, and the amount of molecular
      water that is present in the atomic network. By topological analysis, we show
      that these "structural effects" arise from a self-organization of the atomic
      network of C-S-H upon irradiation. This topological self-organization is driven
      by the (initial) presence of atomic eigenstress in the C-S-H network and is
      facilitated by the presence of water in the network. Overall, we show that C-S-H
      exhibits an optimal resistance to radiation damage when its atomic network is
      isostatic (at Ca/Si = 1.5). Such an improved understanding of the response of C-S
      H to irradiation can pave the way to the design of durable concrete for radiation
      applications.

PMID- 28870069
TI  - Boosting Chemical Stability, Catalytic Activity, and Enantioselectivity of Metal
      Organic Frameworks for Batch and Flow Reactions.
AB  - A key challenge in heterogeneous catalysis is the design and synthesis of
      heterogeneous catalysts featuring high catalytic activity, selectivity, and
      recyclability. Here we demonstrate that high-performance heterogeneous asymmetric
      catalysts can be engineered from a metal-organic framework (MOF) platform by
      using a ligand design strategy. Three porous chiral MOFs with the framework
      formula [Mn2L(H2O)2] are prepared from enantiopure phosphono-carboxylate ligands
      of 1,1'-biphenol that are functionalized with 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)-,
      bismethyl-, and bisfluoro-phenyl substituents at the 3,3'-position. For the first
      time, we show that not only chemical stability but also catalytic activity and
      stereoselectivity of the MOFs can be tuned by modifying the ligand structures.
      Particularly, the MOF incorporated with -CF3 groups on the pore walls exhibits
      enhanced tolerance to water, weak acid, and base compared with the MOFs with -F
      and -Me groups. Under both batch and flow reaction systems, the CF3-containing
      MOF demonstrated excellent reactivity, selectivity, and recyclability, affording
      high yields and enantioselectivities for alkylations of indoles and pyrrole with
      a range of ketoesters or nitroalkenes. In contrast, the corresponding homogeneous
      catalysts gave low enantioselectivity in catalyzing the tested reactions.

PMID- 28870070
TI  - Engineering of Pore Geometry for Ultrahigh Capacity Methane Storage in Mesoporous
      Metal-Organic Frameworks.
AB  - Mesoporous Zn4O(-COO)6-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), including UMCM-1,
      MOF-205, MUF-7a, and the newly synthesized MOFs, termed ST-1, ST-2, ST-3, and ST
      4 (ST = ShanghaiTech University), have been systematically investigated for
      ultrahigh capacity methane storage. Exceptionally, ST-2 was found to have the
      highest deliverable capacity of 289 cm3STP/cm3 (567 mg/g) at 298 K and 5-200 bar,
      which surpasses all previously reported records held by porous materials. We
      illustrate that the fine-tuned mesoporosity is critical in further improving the
      deliverable capacities at ultrahigh pressure.

PMID- 28870071
TI  - Orcein-Related Small Molecule O4 Destabilizes hIAPP Protofibrils by Interacting
      Mostly with the Amyloidogenic Core Region.
AB  - The accumulation of the human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) deposits in the
      pancreas is regarded as an important factor that leads to the depletion of islet
      beta-cells and islet transplantation failure. In recent experiments, it was
      reported that a small organic molecule O4 inhibits the formation of hIAPP1-37
      oligomers and fibrils. However, the interaction between O4 molecules and hIAPP
      oligomers is largely unknown on the atomic level. In this work, we studied the
      influence of O4 molecules on fibril-like hIAPP pentamer and decamer by performing
      atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show that O4 molecules
      mostly bind to the amyloid core region spanning residues 22NFGAI26 for both hIAPP
      pentamer and decamer, which leads to the local disruption of interpeptide beta
      sheets. The calculation of contact probability and binding energy indicates that
      the binding of O4 molecules is mostly driven by aromatic stacking and hydrophobic
      interactions. Our work reveals the detailed disruption mechanism of full-length
      hIAPP protofibrils by O4 molecules and may be helpful to the design of more
      efficient inhibitors against hIAPP aggregation.

PMID- 28870072
TI  - Building Stable MMP2-Responsive Multifunctional Polymeric Micelles by an All-in
      One Polymer-Lipid Conjugate for Tumor-Targeted Intracellular Drug Delivery.
AB  - In this study, we described an "all-in-one" polymer-lipid conjugate (PEG2k-ppTAT
      PEG1k-PE) that could self-assemble to matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2)-sensitive
      multifunctional micelles. The assembled micelles had several key features,
      including a protective long chain poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG2k) (the outer
      shell), an MMP2-sensitive peptide linker (pp) (the tumor-targeting middle layer),
      a trans-activating transcriptional activator (TAT) peptide (the cell-penetrating
      middle layer), and a stable PEG1k-PE micelle for drug loading (the inner core).
      In the absence of MMP2, the PEG2k-ppTAT-PEG1k-PE micelles were intact and showed
      low bioactivity due to the surface-anchored PEG2k, whereas in the presence of
      MMP2, the pp was cleaved, resulting in the PEG2k deshielding and exposure of the
      previously hidden TAT for enhanced intracellular drug delivery. Even if
      completely cleaved by MMP2, the remaining PEG1k-PE micelles were stable and the
      micelles' particle size and drug release were not significantly influenced. The
      paclitaxel (PTX)-loaded PEG2k-ppTAT-PEG1k-PE micelles showed significant MMP2
      dependent cellular uptake, tumor penetration, and anticancer activity in various
      cancer cells and three-dimensional multicellular spheroids. Because of the
      enhanced intracellular drug accumulation, these multifunctional micelles were
      able to sensitize the drug-resistant cancer cells and their spheroids to PTX
      treatments. Furthermore, in vivo tumor uptake and retention data indicated that
      the PEG2k-ppTAT-PEG1k-PE micelles could dramatically increase the residence time
      of their payloads in the tumor.

PMID- 28870073
TI  - Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (-)-Pavidolide B.
AB  - The enantioselective synthesis of (-)-pavidolide B (1) was achieved in a linear
      sequence of 10 steps. The key steps are (a) an enantioselective organocatalytic
      cyclopropanation; (b) a radical-based cascade annulation for the regio- and
      diastereo-selective synthesis of the highly functionalized lactone 3 bearing the
      characteristic tricyclic core and seven contiguous stereocenters;

PMID- 28870074
TI  - Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds of Infection: A Systematic Review.
AB  - With heightened global concern of microbial drug resistance, advanced methods for
      early and accurate diagnosis of infection are urgently needed. Analysis of
      exhaled breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) toward detecting microbial
      infection potentially allows a highly informative and noninvasive alternative to
      current genomics and culture-based methods. We performed a systematic review of
      research literature reporting human and animal exhaled breath VOCs related to
      microbial infections. In this Review, we find that a wide range of breath
      sampling and analysis methods are used by researchers, which significantly
      affects interstudy method comparability. Studies either perform targeted analysis
      of known VOCs relating to an infection, or non-targeted analysis to obtain a
      global profile of volatile metabolites. In general, the field of breath analysis
      is still relatively immature, and there is much to be understood about the
      metabolic production of breath VOCs, particularly in a host where both commensal
      microflora as well as pathogenic microorganisms may be manifested in the airways.
      We anticipate that measures to standardize high throughput sampling and analysis,
      together with an increase in large scale collaborative international trials, will
      bring routine breath VOC analysis to improve diagnosis of infection closer to
      reality.

PMID- 28870076
TI  - In Situ Complementary Doping, Thermoelectric Improvements, and Strain-Induced
      Structure within Alternating PEDOT:PSS/PANI Layers.
AB  - Although the deposition of alternating layers from poly(3,4
      ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and polyaniline (PANI)
      salts has recently provided a breakthrough in the field of conductive polymers,
      the cause for the conductivity improvement has remained unclear. In this work, we
      report a cooperative doping effect between alternating PANI base and PEDOT:PSS
      layers, resulting in electrical conductivities of 50-100 S cm-1 and power factors
      of up to 3.0 +/- 0.5 MUW m-1 K-2, which surpass some of the recent values
      obtained for protonated PANI/PEDOT:PSS multilayers by a factor of 20. In this
      case, the simultaneous improvement in the electrical conductivity of both types
      of layers is caused by the in situ protonation of PANI, which corresponds to the
      removal of the excess acidic PSS chains from the PEDOT:PSS grains. The interplay
      between the functional groups' reactivity and the supramolecular chain
      reorganization leads to an array of preparation-dependent phenomena, including a
      stepwise increase in the film thickness, an alternation in the electrical
      conductivity, and the formation of a diverse surface landscape. The latter effect
      can be traced to a buildup of strain within the layers, which results in either
      the formation of folds or the shrinkage of the film. These results open new paths
      for designing nanostructured thin-film thermoelectrics.

PMID- 28870075
TI  - Cerium Dioxide-Mediated Signal "On-Off" by Resonance Energy Transfer on a Lab-On
      Paper Device for Ultrasensitive Detection of Lead Ions.
AB  - In this report, a 3D microfluidic lab-on-paper device for ultrasensitive
      detection of lead cation was designed using phoenix tree fruit-shaped CeO2
      nanoparticles (PFCeO2 NPs) as the catalyst and 50 nm silver NPs (Ag NPs) as the
      quencher. First, snowflake-like Ag NPs were grown on the paper working electrode
      through an in situ growth method and used as a matrix for DNAzymes that were
      specific for lead ions (Pb2+). After the addition of Ag NP-labeled substrate
      strands, the Ag NPs restrained the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) intensity of
      luminol greatly through the resonance energy transfer from luminol to Ag NPs.
      However, under the existence of Pb2+, the substrate strands were separated, and
      then PFCeO2 NP-labeled signal strands were hybridized with the DNAzymes. The ECL
      signal was improved greatly under the fast catalytic reaction between PFCeO2 NPs
      and H2O2, which converted the response from signal off to signal on state,
      resulting in sensitive detection of Pb2+. Under the optimal conditions, the ECL
      signal response exhibited a good linear relationship with the logarithm of lead
      cation in a wide linear range of 0.05-2000 nM and an ultralow detection limit of
      0.016 nM. Meanwhile, a sensor featured with good specificity, acceptable
      stability, reproducibility, and low cost provides a promising portable, simple,
      and effective strategy for Pb2+ detection.

PMID- 28870077
TI  - Interplay of Nanoscale, Hybrid P3HT/ZTO Interface on Optoelectronics and
      Photovoltaic Cells.
AB  - Photovoltaic effects in poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) have attracted
      much attention recently. Here, natively p-type doped P3HT nanofibers and n-type
      doped zinc tin oxide (ZTO) nanowires are used for making not only field-effect
      transistors (FETs) but also p-n nanoscale diodes. The hybrid P3HT/ZTO p-n
      heterojunction shows applications in many directions, and it also facilitates the
      investigation of photoelectrons and photovoltaic effects on the nanoscale. As for
      applications, the heterojunction device shows a simultaneously high on/off ratio
      of n- and p-type FETs, gatable p-n junction diodes, tristate buffer devices,
      gatable photodetectors, and gatable solar cells. On the other hand, P3HT
      nanofibers are taken as a photoactive layer and the role played by the p-n
      heterojunction in the photoelectric and photovoltaic effects is investigated. It
      is found that the hybrid P3HT/ZTO p-n heterojunction assists in increasing
      photocurrents and enhancing photovoltaic effects. Through the controllable gating
      of the heterojunction, we can discuss the background mechanisms of photocurrent
      generation and photovoltaic energy harvesting.

PMID- 28870078
TI  - In Situ Nanoreactor for Photosynthesizing H2 Gas To Mitigate Oxidative Stress in
      Tissue Inflammation.
AB  - Hydrogen gas can reduce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are produced
      in inflamed tissues. Inspired by natural photosynthesis, this work proposes a
      multicomponent nanoreactor (NR) that comprises chlorophyll a, l-ascorbic acid,
      and gold nanoparticles that are encapsulated in a liposomal (Lip) system that can
      produce H2 gas in situ upon photon absorption to mitigate inflammatory responses.
      Unlike a bulk system that contains free reacting molecules, this Lip NR system
      provides an optimal reaction environment, facilitating rapid activation of the
      photosynthesis of H2 gas, locally providing a high therapeutic concentration
      thereof. The photodriven NR system reduces the degrees of overproduction of ROS
      and pro-inflammatory cytokines both in vitro in RAW264.7 cells and in vivo in
      mice with paw inflammation that is induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS).
      Histological examinations of tissue sections confirm the ability of the NR system
      to reduce LPS-induced inflammation. Experimental results indicate that the Lip NR
      system that can photosynthesize H2 gas has great potential for mitigating
      oxidative stress in tissue inflammation.

PMID- 28870079
TI  - Characterizing Residue-Bilayer Interactions Using Gramicidin A as a Scaffold and
      Tryptophan Substitutions as Probes.
AB  - Previous experiments have shown that the lifetime of a gramicidin A dimer channel
      (which forms from two nonconducting monomers) in a lipid bilayer is modulated by
      mutations of the tryptophan (Trp) residues at the bilayer-water interface. We
      explore this further using extensive molecular dynamics simulations of various gA
      dimer and monomer mutants at the Trp positions in phosphatidylcholine bilayers
      with different tail lengths. gA interactions with the surrounding bilayer are
      strongly modulated by mutating these Trp residues. There are three principal
      effects: eliminating residue hydrogen bonding ability (i.e., reducing the channel
      monolayer coupling strength) reduces the extent of the bilayer deformation caused
      by the assembled dimeric channel; a residue's size and geometry affects its
      orientation, leading to different hydrogen bonding partners; and increasing a
      residue's hydrophobicity increases the depth of gA monomer insertion relative to
      the bilayer center, thereby increasing the lipid bending frustration.

PMID- 28870081
TI  - Bioavailability of Polyphenols and Flavonoids in the Era of Precision Medicine.

PMID- 28870082
TI  - Preface to the Surfaces and Interfaces for Molecular Monitoring Special Issue.

PMID- 28870080
TI  - Charge Shielding Prevents Aggregation of Supercharged GFP Variants at High
      Protein Concentration.
AB  - Understanding protein stability is central to combatting protein aggregation
      diseases and developing new protein therapeutics. At the high concentrations
      often present in biological systems, purified proteins can exhibit undesirable
      high solution viscosities and poor solubilities mediated by short-range
      electrostatic and hydrophobic protein-protein interactions. The interplay between
      protein amino acid sequence, protein structure, and solvent conditions to
      minimize protein-protein interactions is key to designing well-behaved
      pharmaceutical proteins. However, theoretical approaches have yet to yield a
      general framework to address these problems. Here, we analyzed the high
      concentration behavior of superfolder GFP (sfGFP) and two supercharged sfGFP
      variants engineered to have formal charges of -18 or +15. Under low cosolute
      conditions, sfGFP and the -18 variant formed a gel or phase separated at ~10
      mg/mL. Under conditions that screen surface charges, including formulations with
      high histidine or high NaCl concentrations, all three variants attained
      concentrations up to 250 mg/mL with moderate viscosities. Moreover, all three
      variants exhibited very similar viscosity-concentration profiles over this range.
      This effect was not mimicked by high sugar concentrations that exert excluded
      volume effects without shielding charge. Collectively, these data demonstrate
      that charge shielding neutralizes not only long-range electrostatic interactions
      but also, surprisingly, short-range electrostatic effects due to surface charge
      anisotropy. This work shows that supercharged sfGFP behavior under high ionic
      strength is largely determined by particle geometry, a conclusion that is
      supported by colloid models and may be applicable to pharmaceutically relevant
      proteins.

PMID- 28870083
TI  - Socioeconomic disparities in head and neck cancer patients' access to cancer
      treatment centers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Both socioeconomic status and travel time to cancer treatment have
      been associated with treatment choice and patient outcomes. An improved
      understanding of the relationship between these two dimensions of access may
      enable cancer control experts to better target patients with poor access,
      particularly in isolated suburban and rural communities. METHODS: Using
      geographical information systems, head and neck cancer patients across British
      Columbia, Canada from 1981 to 2009, were mapped and their travel times to the
      nearest treatment center at their time of diagnosis were modelled. Patients'
      travel times were analysed by urban, suburban, and rural neighborhood types and
      an index of multiple socioeconomic deprivation was used to assess the role of
      socioeconomic status in patients' spatial access. RESULTS: Significant
      associations between socioeconomic deprivation and spatial access to treatment
      were identified, with the most deprived quintiles of patients experiencing nearly
      twice the travel time as the least deprived quintile. The sharpest disparities
      were observed among the most deprived patient populations in suburban and rural
      areas. However, the establishment of new treatment centers has decreased overall
      travel times by 28% in recent decades. CONCLUSIONS: Residence in a neighborhood
      with high socioeconomic deprivation is strongly associated with head and neck
      cancer patients' spatial access to cancer treatment centers. Patients residing in
      the most socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods consistently have longer travel
      times in urban, suburban, and rural communities in the study area.

PMID- 28870084
TI  - Comparison Between Thromboelastography and Conventional Coagulation Tests in
      Surgical Patients With Localized Prostate Cancer.
AB  - We aimed to examine hypercoagulable and hypocoagulable conditions in patients
      with prostate cancer using thromboelastography (TEG) and correlate TEG parameters
      with conventional coagulation test. The t test was used for comparing TEG
      parameters and routine coagulation results. Spearman rank-order correlation was
      used to describe the relationship of TEG and conventional tests. Sensitivity,
      specificity, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values were
      determined for bleeding and thrombosis. Totally, 20 patients had active bleeding
      postoperatively, 16 of whom showed hypocoagulation on TEG test and 9 of whom
      showed hypocoagulation by routine coagulation test ( P = .024). Overall, 60
      patients did not have active bleeding postoperatively, 51 of whom showed
      hypercoagulation detected by TEG test and 42 of whom showed hypercoagulation
      found by routine coagulation test ( P = .040). Remarkably, patients had a little
      higher fibrinogen (FIB) compared to controls. There was no statistical difference
      in any of the conventional coagulation indexes between the groups. Correlation
      analysis showed that reaction time (R) and coagulation time (K) were positively
      correlated with the prothrombin time-international normalized ratio (PT-INR) and
      negatively correlated with FIB ( P < .001). Contrarily, alpha-angle and maximum
      amplitude (MA) were negatively correlated with PT-INR but positively correlated
      with FIB. Significantly, MA showed the strongest correlation with FIB and R
      exhibited the strongest correlation with PT-INR. Sensitivity and specificity for
      bleeding and thrombosis in TEG were higher than those in conventional coagulation
      test. Accordingly, TEG might be superior in evaluating hypercoagulation and
      detecting the risk of bleeding in patients with prostate cancer.

PMID- 28870085
TI  - A systematic review and critical appraisal of gene polymorphism association
      studies in medication-overuse headache.
AB  - Purpose of review Medication-overuse headache is a secondary chronic headache
      disorder, evolving from an episodic primary headache type, caused by the frequent
      and excessive use of headache symptomatic drugs. While gene polymorphisms have
      been deeply investigated as susceptibility factors for migraine, little attention
      has been paid to medication-overuse headache genetics. In the present study we
      conducted a systematic review to identify, appraise and summarize the current
      findings of gene polymorphism association studies in medication-overuse headache.
      Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed and Web of
      Knowledge databases of primary studies that met the diagnostic criteria for
      medication-overuse headache according to the temporally-relevant Classification
      of Headache Disorder of the International Headache Society. Results A total of 17
      candidate gene association studies focusing on medication-overuse headache were
      finally included in the qualitative review. Among these, 12 studies investigated
      the role of common gene polymorphisms as risk factors for medication-overuse
      headache susceptibility, six studies focused on the relationship with clinical
      features of medication-overuse headache patients, and four studies evaluated
      their role as determinants of clinical outcomes in medication-overuse headache
      patients. Conclusion Results of single studies show a potential role of
      polymorphic variants of the dopaminergic gene system or of other genes related to
      drug-dependence pathways as susceptibility factors for disease or as determinants
      of monthly drug consumption, respectively. In this systematic review, we
      summarize the findings of gene polymorphism association studies in medication
      overuse headache and discuss the methodological issues that need to be addressed
      in the design of future studies.

PMID- 28870087
TI  - Impact on dose and image quality of a software-based scatter correction in
      mammography.
AB  - Background In 2014, Siemens developed a new software-based scatter correction
      (Progressive Reconstruction Intelligently Minimizing Exposure [PRIME]), enabling
      grid-less digital mammography. Purpose To compare doses and image quality between
      PRIME (grid-less) and standard (with anti-scatter grid) modes. Material and
      Methods Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was measured for various
      polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) thicknesses and dose values provided by the
      mammograph were recorded. CDMAM phantom images were acquired for various PMMA
      thicknesses and inverse Image Quality Figure (IQFinv) was calculated. Values of
      incident entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) and average glandular dose (AGD) were
      obtained from the DICOM header for a total of 1088 pairs of clinical cases. Two
      experienced radiologists compared subjectively the image quality of a total of
      149 pairs of clinical cases. Results CNR values were higher and doses were lower
      in PRIME mode for all thicknesses. IQFinv values in PRIME mode were lower for all
      thicknesses except for 40 mm of PMMA equivalent, in which IQFinv was slightly
      greater in PRIME mode. A mean reduction of 10% in ESAK and 12% in AGD in PRIME
      mode with respect to standard mode was obtained. The clinical image quality in
      PRIME and standard acquisitions resulted to be similar in most of the cases (84%
      for the first radiologist and 67% for the second one). Conclusion The use of
      PRIME software reduces, in average, the dose of radiation to the breast without
      affecting image quality. This reduction is greater for thinner and denser
      breasts.

PMID- 28870086
TI  - Histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps for the differentiation
      between lymphoma and metastatic lymph nodes of squamous cell carcinoma in head
      and neck region.
AB  - Background To clarify the nature of cervical malignant lymphadenopathy is highly
      important for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of head and neck tumors.
      Purpose To investigate the role of first-order apparent diffusion coefficient
      (ADC) histogram analysis for differentiating lymphoma from metastatic lymph nodes
      of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in the head and neck region. Material and
      Methods Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data of 67 patients (lymphoma, n = 20;
      SCC, n = 47) with malignant lymphadenopathy were retrospectively analyzed. The
      SCC group was divided into nasopharyngeal SCC and non-nasopharyngeal SCC groups.
      The ADC histogram features (ADC10, ADC25, ADCmean, ADCmedian, ADC75, ADC90,
      skewness, and kurtosis) were derived and then compared by independent-samples t
      test and one-way analysis of variance test, respectively. Receiver operating
      characteristic curve analyses were employed to investigate diagnostic performance
      of the significant parameters. Results Lymphoma showed significantly lower
      ADCmean, ADCmedian, ADC75, and ADC90 than SCC (all P < 0.05). Setting ADC90 =
      0.719 * 10-3 mm2/s as the threshold value, optimal diagnostic performance was
      achieved (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.719, sensitivity = 95.7%, specificity =
      50.0%). Subgroup analyses showed no significant difference between lymphoma and
      NPC (all P > 0.05). Lymphoma showed significantly lower ADC25, ADCmean,
      ADCmedian, ADC75, and ADC90 than non-nasopharyngeal SCC (all P < 0.05). Optimal
      diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.847, sensitivity = 86.7%, specificity = 80.0%)
      could be achieved when setting ADC90 = 0.943 * 10-3 mm2/s as the threshold value.
      Conclusion Given its limitations, our study has shown that first-order ADC
      histogram analysis is capable of differentiating lymphoma from metastatic lymph
      nodes of SCC, especially those of non-nasopharyngeal SCC.

PMID- 28870088
TI  - Transmitral thrombectomy to treat a patient with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
AB  - A 68-year-old woman with a history of bipolar disorder was admitted to another
      hospital with a gastric ulcer. On admission, Takotsubo cardiomyopathy was
      suspected because her electrocardiogram was abnormal and the characteristic left
      ventricular wall motion was apparent. On hospital day 11, echocardiography
      revealed a thrombus in the apex of the left ventricle. She was transferred to our
      hospital and heparin treatment was commenced. On follow-up echocardiography, the
      left ventricular wall motion had normalized but thrombus mobility had increased.
      Thrombectomy was performed via a transmitral approach with endoscopic assistance.
      Endoscopy allowed excellent visualization of the intracardiac structure.

PMID- 28870090
TI  - Efficiency of temporary storage of geothermal waters in a lake system: Monitoring
      the changes of water quality and bacterial community structures.
AB  - Disposal of used geothermal waters in Hungary often means temporary storage in
      reservoir lakes to reduce temperature and improve water quality. In this study,
      the physical and chemical properties and changes in the bacterial community
      structure of a reservoir lake system in southeast region of Hungary were
      monitored and compared through 2 years, respectively. The values of biological
      oxygen demand, concentrations of ammonium ion, total inorganic nitrogen, total
      phosphorous, and total phenol decreased, whereas oxygen saturation, total organic
      nitrogen, pH, and conductivity increased during the storage period. Bacterial
      community structure of water and sediment samples was compared by denaturing
      gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) following the amplification of the 16S rRNA
      gene. According to the DGGE patterns, greater seasonal than spatial differences
      of bacterial communities were revealed in both water and sediment of the lakes.
      Representatives of the genera Arthrospira and Anabaenopsis (cyanobacteria) were
      identified as permanent and dominant members of the bacterial communities.

PMID- 28870091
TI  - High prevalence of OXA-type carbapenemases among Acinetobacter baumannii strains
      in a teaching hospital of Tehran.
AB  - Nosocomial infection caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
      (CRAB) has created a public health concern all around the world. In this study,
      100 isolates of CRAB from hospitalized patients during 2015-2016 at Imam Khomeini
      Hospital were investigated to determine the rates of multidrug-resistant (MDR)
      and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion
      method. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of six antibiotics were
      determined by broth microdilution method. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR) was performed to detect blaOXA-51 like and blaOXA-58 like, blaOXA-23 like,
      and blaOXA-24 like that are encoding resistance to carbapenems. All CRAB isolates
      were MDR and XDR and 2% of them were pandrug-resistant (PDR), whereas colistin,
      polymyxin B, and tigecycline were the most effective agents. All isolates were
      positive for blaOXA-51 like by PCR. The frequency of blaOXA-23 like and blaOXA-24
      like was 81% and 22%, respectively. Findings of this study showed that very few
      therapeutic options remained for the treatment of CRAB infections and blaOXA-23
      like is a dominant resistance gene in CRAB at this hospital.

PMID- 28870092
TI  - Emergence of armA and rmtB genes among VIM, NDM, and IMP metallo-beta-lactamase
      producing multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens.
AB  - In the recent years, it has been noted that microorganisms with acquired
      resistance to almost all available potent antibiotics are increasing worldwide.
      Hence, the use of antibiotics in every clinical setup has to be organized to
      avoid irrational use of antibiotics. This study was aimed to establish the
      pattern of antibiotic sensitivity and relevance of antimicrobial resistance in
      aerobic Gram-negative bacilli. A total of 103 aerobic Gram-negative bacteria
      namely Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter spp., Citrobacter
      koserii, Proteus spp., and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were collected from tertiary
      care centers around Chennai. Kirby-Bauer Disk Diffusion test and study for genes
      of cephalosporin, carbapenem, and aminoglycoside resistance were done. A
      descriptive analysis of the data on altogether 103 clinical urine isolates was
      performed. All strains showed susceptibility to colistin. The frequency of genes
      encoding 16S rRNA methylases armA and rmtB were 7.8% and 6.8%, respectively.
      Among metallo-beta-lactamases, blaVIM, blaIMP, and blaNDM-1 were detected in
      6.8%, 3.8%, and 3.8%, respectively. One E. coli strain harbored blaSIM-1 gene.
      Cumulative analysis of data suggested that 30% of the strains carried more than
      one resistance gene. The current research evidenced the increasing frequency of
      resistance mechanisms in India. Combined approach of antibiotic restriction,
      effective surveillance, and good infection control practices are essential to
      overcome antibiotic resistance.

PMID- 28870089
TI  - Mitogen- and Stress-Activated Protein Kinase 1 Regulates Status Epilepticus
      Evoked Cell Death in the Hippocampus.
AB  - Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling has been implicated in a wide
      range of neuronal processes, including development, plasticity, and viability.
      One of the principal downstream targets of both the extracellular signal
      regulated kinase/MAPK pathway and the p38 MAPK pathway is Mitogen- and Stress
      activated protein Kinase 1 (MSK1). Here, we sought to understand the role that
      MSK1 plays in neuroprotection against excitotoxic stimulation in the hippocampus.
      To this end, we utilized immunohistochemical labeling, a MSK1 null mouse line,
      cell viability assays, and array-based profiling approaches. Initially, we show
      that MSK1 is broadly expressed within the major neuronal cell layers of the
      hippocampus and that status epilepticus drives acute induction of MSK1
      activation. In response to the status epilepticus paradigm, MSK1 KO mice
      exhibited a striking increase in vulnerability to pilocarpine-evoked cell death
      within the CA1 and CA3 cell layers. Further, cultured MSK1 null neurons exhibited
      a heighted level of N-methyl-D-aspartate-evoked excitotoxicity relative to wild
      type neurons, as assessed using the lactate dehydrogenase assay. Given these
      findings, we examined the hippocampal transcriptional profile of MSK1 null mice.
      Affymetrix array profiling revealed that MSK1 deletion led to the significant
      (>1.25-fold) downregulation of 130 genes and an upregulation of 145 genes.
      Notably, functional analysis indicated that a subset of these genes contribute to
      neuroprotective signaling networks. Together, these data provide important new
      insights into the mechanism by which the MAPK/MSK1 signaling cassette confers
      neuroprotection against excitotoxic insults. Approaches designed to upregulate or
      mimic the functional effects of MSK1 may prove beneficial against an array of
      degenerative processes resulting from excitotoxic insults.

PMID- 28870094
TI  - Design, synthesis and biological activity of pyrazinamide derivatives for anti
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - A total of 11 pyrazinamide derivatives were designed and synthesised using
      pyrazinamide as the lead compound, which was optimised by structural modification
      with alkyl chains, six-membered rings, and bioisosterism, respectively. The
      target compounds were synthesised using pyrazinecarboxylic acid as the starting
      material by acylation, amidation, and alkylation, respectively. Their structures
      were confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HRESIMS, and elemental analysis, respectively.
      The bioactivities of derivatives were assayed using bacteriostatic experiment and
      minimum inhibitory concentration experiment. It was showed that the derivatives
      had good inhibitory effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The biological activity
      of derivative 1f was the best among all compounds, its antibacterial activity was
      99.6%, and the minimum inhibitory concentration was 8.0 ug/mL.

PMID- 28870093
TI  - Novel series of 1,2,4-trioxane derivatives as antimalarial agents.
AB  - Among three series of 1,2,4-trioxane derivatives, five compounds showed good in
      vitro antimalarial activity, three compounds of which exhibited better activity
      against P. falciparum resistant (RKL9) strain than the sensitive (3D7) one. Two
      best compounds were one from aryl series and the other from heteroaryl series
      with IC50 values of 1.24 uM and 1.24 uM and 1.06 uM and 1.17 uM, against
      sensitive and resistant strains, respectively. Further, trioxane derivatives
      exhibited good binding affinity for the P. falciparum cysteine protease falcipain
      2 receptor (PDB id: 3BPF) with well defined drug-like and pharmacokinetic
      properties based on Lipinski's rule of five with additional physicochemical and
      ADMET parameters. In view of having antimalarial potential, 1,2,4-trioxane
      derivative(s) reported herein may be useful as novel antimalarial lead(s) in the
      discovery and development of future antimalarial drug candidates as P. falciparum
      falcipain 2 inhibitors against resistant malaria.

PMID- 28870095
TI  - Efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treatment and Prophylaxis of
      Radiation-Induced Oral Mucositis in Patients Receiving Radiotherapy: A Randomized
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (Chining
      decoction, CHIN) for radiation-induced oral mucositis in patients with head and
      neck cancer. METHODS: From May 2014 to December 2015, 70 consecutive patients
      were randomly assigned to receive CHIN (treatment group) or recombinant human
      epidermal growth factor (rhEGF) spray (control group) at a 1:1 ratio. CHIN was
      administered to treatment group from the first day of radiotherapy until the
      completion of radiotherapy. Simultaneously, the rhEGF spray was administered to
      control group on the oral mucosa of irradiated area. The clinical benefit was
      determined by gradation of mucositis (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse
      Events v4.0), oral pain, and xerostomia (visual analysis scale) for each week
      during radiotherapy. Body mass index was evaluated before and after radiotherapy.
      RESULTS: Patients in the treatment group had prominent remission of oral pain and
      grade of mucositis on each observing point compared with those in control group (
      P < .01). Xerostomia was decreased notably in treatment group compared with
      control group ( P < .01). Body mass index in the treatment group exhibited
      advantage over control group after radiotherapy, but there was no statistical
      significance (19.8 +/- 3.26 vs 18.8 +/- 2.5 kg/m2, P = .153, >.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      CHIN presented an obvious advantage in preventing radiation-induced oral
      mucositis compared with rhEGF spray.

PMID- 28870096
TI  - Major health service transformation and the public voice: conflict, challenge or
      complicity?
AB  - Objectives Calls for major reconfigurations of health services have been
      accompanied by recommendations that wide ranging stakeholders be involved. In
      particular, patients and the wider public are seen as critical contributors as
      both funders and beneficiaries of public health care. But public involvement is
      fraught with challenges, and little research has focused on involvement in the
      health service transformation initiatives. This paper examines the design and
      function of public involvement in reconfiguration of health services within the
      English NHS. Methods Qualitative data including interviews, observation and
      documents were collected in two health service 'transformation' programmes;
      interviews include involved public and professional participants. Data were
      analysed using parallel deductive and inductive approaches. Results Public
      involvement in the programmes was extensive but its terms of reference, and the
      individuals involved, were restricted by policy pressures and programme
      objectives. The degree to which participants descriptively or substantively
      represented the wider public was limited; participants sought to 'speak for' this
      public but their views on what was 'acceptable' and likely to influence decision
      making led them to constrain their contributions. Conclusions Public involvement
      in two major service reconfiguration programmes in England was seen as important
      and functional, and could not be characterized as tokenistic. Yet involvement in
      these programmes fell short of normative ideals, and could inadvertently reduce,
      rather than enlarge, public influence on health service reconfiguration
      decisions.

PMID- 28870098
TI  - Expectations and reality: perceptions of support among African American breast
      cancer survivors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The experience of an illness such as breast cancer is not a static
      event. Just as physiological needs change as a patient transitions through
      diagnosis, treatment, to long-term survivorship, so too will their needs for
      social support. We applied a transitions theory framework to explore how African
      American women with breast cancer conceptualized and experienced support along
      their breast cancer journey. DESIGN: We recruited 16 African American women with
      breast cancer from a regional cancer center in South Carolina to complete
      qualitative, semi-structured interviews. We iteratively examined verbatim
      transcripts using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three core themes emerged: 'I guess
      she was supposed to': When support meets patient expectations; 'I wasn't
      expecting that and that just made me feel so good': When reality exceeds
      expectations; and 'Don't try to make an invalid out of me': When support given
      wasn't what was desired. Survivors shared how their family, friends and clergy
      met their needs for emotional (e.g. prayer, sharing affirmations about God) and
      instrumental support (e.g. cooking meals, house cleaning). They emphasized how
      receiving emotional support from their healthcare providers was a pleasant
      surprise. However, survivors also described unexpected disappointments when
      family members offered support that was un-needed or un-desired. CONCLUSIONS:
      Applying transitions theory, we found that social support is a process of
      bidirectional negotiation where African American women with breast cancer
      perceive support as helpful and acceptable depending on who offers support, what
      type of support is offered, and when it is offered. Members of their social
      support network (e.g. family, friends, providers) should periodically assess the
      survivor's evolving needs to ensure the social support harmonizes with the needs
      and expectations of the survivor.

PMID- 28870097
TI  - Glycosylation profiling to evaluate glycoprotein immunogens against HIV-1.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Much of the efforts to develop a vaccine against the human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have focused on the design of recombinant mimics of
      the viral attachment glycoprotein (Env). The leading immunogens exhibit native
      like antigenic properties and are being investigated for their ability to induce
      broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Understanding the relative abundance of
      glycans at particular glycosylation sites on these immunogens is important as
      most bNAbs have evolved to recognize or evade the dense coat of glycans that
      masks much of the protein surface. Understanding the glycan structures on
      candidate immunogens enables triaging between native-like conformations and
      immunogens lacking key structural features as steric constraints limit glycan
      processing. The sensitivity of the processing state of a particular glycan to its
      structural environment has led to the need for quantitative glycan profiling and
      site-specific analysis to probe the structural integrity of immunogens. Areas
      covered: We review analytical methodologies for HIV immunogen evaluation and
      discuss how these studies have led to a greater understanding of the structural
      constraints that control the glycosylation state of the HIV attachment and fusion
      spike. Expert commentary: Total composition and site-specific glycosylation
      profiling are emerging as standard methods in the evaluation of Env-based
      immunogen candidates.

PMID- 28870099
TI  - Discrepant Views of Oncologists and Cancer Patients on Complementary and
      Alternative Medicine in a Chinese General Hospital.
AB  - PURPOSE: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been widely used by
      cancer patients but rarely discussed by oncologists. This study was designed to
      evaluate the communication gap between China's oncologists and cancer patients on
      CAM. METHODS: Two parallel cross-sectional studies assessed 83 oncologists and
      402 cancer patients on CAM communication between patients and oncologists, and
      attitudes toward CAM use and clinical decisions about CAM. RESULTS: A majority
      (75.1%) of the cancer patients (302/402) were identified as CAM users within the
      most recent three months while 77.6% of the cancer patients (312/402) were
      identified as CAM users since diagnosis of cancer. Oncologists and patients
      responded differently ( P < .001) on CAM communications. Both oncologists and
      patients expected that CAM could improve the immune system. They both agreed that
      oncologists usually discouraged their patients from using CAM. Regarding the
      effectiveness of CAM, cancer patients were more likely to believe that CAM was
      effective while oncologists had more concerns about adverse effects of CAM use.
      CAM use by patients was predicted by disease duration (>=9 months) in the
      multivariable logistic regression model. CONCLUSION: China's oncologists and
      cancer patients may hold discrepant views on CAM. China's oncologists are
      encouraged to improve their knowledge on CAM and to initiate more discussions
      with their patients regarding effective and the safe use of CAM.

PMID- 28870100
TI  - Biologic drugs in adult onset Still's disease: a systematic review and meta
      analysis of observational studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biological drugs, mainly interleukin (IL)-1 and IL-6 antagonists, but
      also tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, have been used in the treatment of
      adult onset Still's disease patients (AOSD). METHODS: We summarised the available
      evidence for the effectiveness of biologic drugs in AOSD. A systematic review of
      the literature was performed in order to identify all the available data
      concerning the effectiveness of biologic drugs in AOSD. The proportion of
      patients achieving complete remission or any clinical response was calculated.
      The meta-analysis was thus performed using a random-effects model accounting for
      the expected high level of heterogeneity. RESULTS: Nineteen observational
      published studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled analysis under a
      random-effects model showed an overall rate of clinical response of 0.85 (95% CI:
      0.77-0.91, p < 0.0001) and an overall rate of complete remission of 0.66 (95% CI:
      0.54-0.77, p = 0.01). The heterogeneity across studies was high (Q = 59.82 with
      df = 19.0, p < 0.0001, I2 = 68.23%). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis suggests that
      AOSD patients may experience a clinical response and/or a complete remission when
      treated with biologic drugs. Specifically designed and powered studies are needed
      to fully investigate the role of such medications in the management of AOSD
      patients.

PMID- 28870101
TI  - Effects of non-medical switching on outcomes among patients prescribed tumor
      necrosis factor inhibitors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate health care use and outcomes among patients who
      experienced a non-medical switch of their prescribed anti-tumor-necrosis-factor
      biological agent (anti-TNF) for cost containment reasons. METHODS: Retrospective
      evaluation of Humedica electronic health records of patients >=18 years old with
      anti-TNF treatment for immune conditions. Using natural language processing,
      stable patients who experienced a non-medical switch (for cost reasons) of their
      anti-TNF between 2007 and 2013 were identified (NMS cohort, n = 158) and matched
      to patients who did not (control cohort, n = 4804). Rates of office visits,
      emergency department visits, and hospitalizations at 30, 90, and 365 days
      following were evaluated. Medication-related adverse events, defined as
      subsequent medication change due to a side effect and/or efficacy-related reason
      were also compared. RESULTS: Adjusted rates of office visits were higher among
      the NMS cohort than the control cohort at 30 (46.4% vs. 31.7%, p < .001), 90
      (71.0% vs. 57.0%, p < .001), and 365 days (87.8% vs. 76.8%, p < .001). Rates of
      emergency department use and hospitalization were comparable between cohorts. The
      NMS cohort had higher adjusted rates of medication-related adverse consequences
      (both increased side effects and diminished efficacy) than the control cohort at
      30 (13.8% vs. 4.0%, p = .003), 90 (31.6% vs 9.6%, p < .001), and 365 days (54.7%
      vs. 20.3%, p < .001). Compared with controls, the NMS cohort had higher adjusted
      rates of subsequent medication change within 1 year (27.82% vs. 13.9%, p = .001).
      CONCLUSION: Non-medical switching among patients prescribed anti-TNFs was
      associated with increased health care use, medication-related side effects, and
      reports of diminished efficacy.

PMID- 28870102
TI  - Therapeutic outcomes of the LHRH antagonists.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recently, LHRH antagonists have been established in the management
      of advanced prostate cancer, although the vast majority of Medical Oncologists
      and Urologists still prefer the LHRH agonists. Areas Covered: In this article we
      assess the therapeutic outcomes and the safety of the LHRH antagonists (mainly
      degarelix) compared to the LHRH agonists. Expert Commentary: Relevant studies
      demonstrated that LHRH antagonists are at least non-inferior to the LHRH agonists
      regarding therapeutic efficacy and safety, while there is potential benefit over
      the LHRH agonists in terms of cardiovascular morbidity and disease control.
      Disadvantages regarding formulation and frequency of administration are currently
      seem to be improving, as a 3-month depot of degarelix is evaluated and relugolix,
      an investigational orally administered is undergoing phase I studies, while the
      results of relative comparative studies are warranted.

PMID- 28870103
TI  - Racial/ethnic variation in the prevalence of vaccine-related human papillomavirus
      genotypes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There are currently three licensed human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines
      that protect against cervical cancer. Here we compare the prevalence of bi-,
      quadri-, and nonavalent vaccine-related HPV genotypes in a multi-ethnic sample of
      non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and Asian women. DESIGN:
      Patients in this analysis (n = 419) represent a subset of women with a previous
      abnormal Pap test participating in a clinical trial. HPV genotyping was conducted
      using the Roche Linear Array. Prevalent HPV genotypes were grouped according to
      their inclusion in each of the vaccines: bivalent (16, 18), quadrivalent (16, 18,
      6, 11), and nonavalent (16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, 58, 6, 11). RESULTS: The
      prevalence of HPV genotypes covered by the bi-/quadrivalent vaccines was lowest
      among non-Hispanic black (15%) and Hispanic women (20%), compared to non-Hispanic
      white (38%) and Asian women (38%). Across all racial/ethnic groups, a large
      proportion of infections (38%-49%) were with genotypes included in the nonavalent
      vaccine. However, the prevalence of HPV genotypes not covered by any vaccine was
      significantly higher among non-Hispanic black (36%) and Hispanic women (42%),
      compared to non-Hispanic white (24%) and Asian women (16%) (p < 0.001).
      Racial/ethnic differences in HPV genotype prevalence were observed when
      controlling for demographic and sexual behavior characteristics, as well as when
      restricting the analysis to women with CIN 2+. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest
      racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of vaccine-related HPV genotypes. In
      particular, non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women had the lowest prevalence of
      HPV genotypes covered by the bi-/quadrivalent vaccines. While a large proportion
      of their infections were covered by the nonavalent vaccine, non-Hispanic black
      and Hispanic women also had the highest prevalence of HPV genotypes not covered
      by any vaccine.

PMID- 28870104
TI  - Type II transmembrane serine proteases as potential target for anti-influenza
      drug discovery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The outbreak of an influenza pandemic as well as the continued
      circulation of seasonal influenza highlights the need for effective antiviral
      therapies. The emergence of drug-resistant strains further necessitates the
      development of novel antivirals that target the host factors crucial for viral
      replication. Area covered: This review summarizes the current understanding of
      the structural and functional properties of type II transmembrane serine
      proteases (TTSPs) as a proteolytic activator of influenza virus infection and
      discusses their potential as antiviral targets. It also explores the experimental
      evidence accumulated for inhibitors of TTSPs as novel, broad-spectrum antivirals
      against various influenza virus subtypes. The review also provides an overview of
      the properties of small molecules, proteins, and peptides that efficiently
      inhibit the proteolytic activation of the influenza virus. Expert opinion: TTSPs
      activate a wide range of influenza virus subtypes including avian influenza
      viruses, both in vitro and in vivo, via proteolytic cleavage of influenza
      hemagglutinin (HA) into infection-competent fusogenic conformation. Other viruses
      such as SARS-, MERS-coronaviruses and human metapneumoviruses may use the same
      host cell proteases for activation, implying that TTSP inhibition might be a
      novel strategy for developing broad-spectrum antiviral agents for respiratory
      viral infections.

PMID- 28870105
TI  - Characterization of volatile compounds produced by Lactobacillus helveticus
      strains in a hard cheese model.
AB  - Starter cultures of Lactobacillus helveticus used in hard cooked cheeses play an
      important role in flavor development. In this work, we studied the capacity of
      three strains of L. helveticus, two autochthonous (Lh138 and Lh209) and one
      commercial (LhB02), to grow and to produce volatile compounds in a hard cheese
      extract. Bacterial counts, pH, profiles of organic acids, carbohydrates, and
      volatile compounds were analyzed during incubation of extracts for 14 days at 37
      C. Lactobacilli populations were maintained at 106 CFU ml-1 for Lh138, while
      decreases of approx. 2 log orders were found for LhB02 and Lh209. Both Lh209 and
      LhB02 slightly increased the acetic acid content whereas mild increase in lactic
      acid was produced by Lh138. The patterns of volatiles were dependent on the
      strain which reflect their distinct enzymatic machineries: LhB02 and Lh209
      produced a greater diversity of compounds, while Lh138 was the least producer
      strain. Extracts inoculated with LhB02 and Lh 209 were characterized by ketones,
      esters, alcohols, aldehydes, and acids, whereas in the extracts with Lh138 the
      main compounds belonged to aromatic, aldehydes, and ketones groups. Therefore,
      Lh209 and LhB02 could represent the best cheese starters to improve and intensify
      the flavor, and even a starter composed by combinations of LhB02 or Lh209 with
      Lh138 could also be a strategy to diversify cheese flavor.

PMID- 28870106
TI  - Expanded access to cancer treatments from conversion to neutropenia prophylaxis
      with biosimilar filgrastim-sndz.
AB  - AIM: Biosimilar medicines offer significant cost-savings potential over their
      reference products, which can be re-allocated to provide access to other cancer
      treatments on a budget-neutral basis. METHODS: Simulation study using cost data
      for the USA under consideration of several prophylaxis patterns. RESULTS:
      Potential savings from conversion from reference filgrastim to biosimilar
      filgrastim-sndz are significant. These savings expand budget-neutral access to
      novel immunotherapies (obinutuzumab; pembrolizumab) or supportive care
      (filgrastim-sndz). CONCLUSION: The combination of biosimilar savings and expanded
      access increases the value of cancer care as the same supportive care is provided
      at lower cost, additional cancer care is enabled at no additional cost, and more
      patients will have access to cancer care.

PMID- 28870107
TI  - Safety and efficacy of cladribine tablets in patients with relapsing-remitting
      multiple sclerosis: Results from the randomized extension trial of the CLARITY
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the 2-year CLARITY study, cladribine tablets significantly
      improved clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes (vs placebo) in
      patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). OBJECTIVE: To assess
      the safety and efficacy of cladribine treatment in a 2-year Extension study.
      METHODS: In this 2-year Extension study, placebo recipients from CLARITY received
      cladribine 3.5 mg/kg; cladribine recipients were re-randomized 2:1 to cladribine
      3.5 mg/kg or placebo, with blind maintained. RESULTS: A total of 806 patients
      were assigned to treatment. Adverse event rates were generally similar between
      groups, but lymphopenia Grade ? 3 rates were higher with cladribine than placebo
      (Grade 4 lymphopenia occurred infrequently). In patients receiving cladribine 3.5
      mg/kg in CLARITY and experiencing lymphopenia Grade ? 3 in the Extension, >90% of
      those treated with cladribine 3.5 mg/kg and all treated with placebo in the
      Extension, recovered to Grade 0-1 by study end. Cladribine treatment in CLARITY
      produced efficacy improvements that were maintained in patients treated with
      placebo in the Extension; in patients treated with cladribine 3.5 mg/kg in
      CLARITY, approximately 75% remained relapse-free when given placebo during the
      Extension. CONCLUSION: Cladribine tablets treatment for 2 years followed by 2
      years' placebo treatment produced durable clinical benefits similar to 4 years of
      cladribine treatment with a low risk of severe lymphopenia or clinical worsening.
      No clinical improvement in efficacy was apparent following further treatment with
      cladribine tablets after the initial 2-year treatment period in this trial
      setting.

PMID- 28870108
TI  - Positive and negative affectivity, stress, and well-being in African-Americans:
      Initial demonstration of a polynomial regression and response surface methodology
      approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The extent to which positive (PA) and negative (NA) affect conjointly
      impact well-being is not yet well understood. Additionally, research
      investigating the role of affectivity in maintaining well-being among ethnic and
      racial minorities is scant. The current research demonstrates how polynomial
      regression and response surface methodology (PR and RSM) may be used to better
      understand how PA and NA jointly influence stress and well-being. DESIGN: In
      Study 1, 291 African-American undergraduates (Mage = 22.91, SD = 6.91; 67%
      female) completed measures of affectivity and psychological well-being. In Study
      2, a community sample of 117 African-Americans (Mage = 31.87, SD = 13.83; 69%
      female) completed affectivity measures and a laboratory-based social stressor
      task to assess links between affectivity and salivary cortisol reactivity. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Study 1 included life satisfaction, perceived stress and self
      reported depressive symptoms. Study 2 included salivary cortisol reactivity.
      RESULTS: Across both studies, PA ascendency (i.e. high PA combined with low NA)
      was associated with better well-being, while NA ascendancy (i.e. high NA combined
      with low PA) was associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: PR and RSM may
      provide new insight into the conjoint influence of PA and NA on health and well
      being. We discuss potential implications for affectivity research, including race
      related explorations.

PMID- 28870109
TI  - Usefulness of cardiometabolic index for the estimation of ischemic stroke risk
      among general population in rural China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cardiometabolic index (CMI) has been recognized as a novel and
      practical marker for the assessment of cardiometabolic risk as it is
      independently related to diabetes and atherosclerotic progression. This study
      tested the hypothesis that CMI represents a risk of ischemic stroke in a general
      population of rural China. METHODS: From July 2012 to August 2013, we examined
      data from a large cross-sectional study of 11,345 participants (mean age 53.8
      years; 60.8% females) who underwent biochemical determinations and anthropometric
      measurements in rural areas of northeast China. Ischemic stroke was documented as
      a history of cerebrovascular events and verified by medical record review.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of ischemic stroke was given to 3.1% of females and 3.2%
      of males. The cardio-metabolic profile was notably more adverse in ischemic
      stroke groups, irrespective of gender. A dose-response manner was detected for
      the prevalence of ischemic stroke, exhibiting a significant increase from the
      lowest to the highest quartiles of CMI (1.2% to 6.4% in females, P for
      trend<0.001; 2.3% to 4.3% in males, P for trend = 0.017). In multivariable
      analysis, for every 1 SD increment in CMI, the probability of ischemic stroke
      increased by 18% in females and 14% in males, respectively. The odds ratios for
      ischemic stroke comparing the top versus bottom quartiles of CMI were 2.047
      (95%CI: 1.168-3.587) for females and 1.722 (95%CI: 1.019-2.910) for males.
      According to the area under receiver operating characteristic (AUC), the
      discrimination power of CMI in predicting ischemic stroke was relatively higher
      for females (AUC: 0.685) than males (AUC: 0.573). CONCLUSION: The strong and
      independent association of CMI with ischemic stroke in females, in comparison
      with the much lesser degree in males, provides further insight to better stratify
      by sex in investigations of ischemic stroke and solidly corroborates the
      potential role of ischemic stroke prevention targeted at CMI.

PMID- 28870110
TI  - Herbal Medicine for Xerostomia in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review of
      Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Xerostomia (dry mouth) causes many clinical problems, including oral
      infections, speech difficulties, and impaired chewing and swallowing of food.
      Many cancer patients have complained of xerostomia induced by cancer therapy.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review is to assess the efficacy of herbal
      medicine for the treatment of xerostomia in cancer patients. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Randomized controlled trials investigating the use of herbal medicines
      to treat xerostomia in cancer patients were included. We searched the following
      12 databases without restrictions on time or language. The risk of bias was
      assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. RESULTS: Twenty-five randomized
      controlled trials involving 1586 patients met the inclusion criteria. A total of
      24 formulas were examined in the included trials. Most of the included trials
      were insufficiently reported in the methodology section. Five formulas were shown
      to significantly improve the salivary flow rate compared to comparators.
      Regarding the grade of xerostomia, all formulas with the exception of a Dark Plum
      gargle solution with normal saline were significantly effective in reducing the
      severity of dry mouth. Adverse events were reported in 4 trials, and adverse
      effects of herbal medicine were reported in 3 trials. CONCLUSIONS: We found
      herbal medicines had potential benefits for improving salivary function and
      reducing the severity of dry mouth in cancer patients. However, methodological
      limitations and a relatively small sample size reduced the strength of the
      evidence. More high-quality trials reporting sufficient methodological data are
      warranted to enforce the strength of evidence regarding the effectiveness of
      herbal medicines.

PMID- 28870111
TI  - The anatomical variation of the circulus arteriosus cerebri in a cadaver cohort
      representing the population dynamics of the Western Cape.
AB  - The literature revealed a connection between the variations of the Circulus
      arteriosus cerebri (CAC) and cerebrovascular disease, ischemia, stroke, aneurysms
      and atherosclerosis. The diameters of the vessels forming the CAC have been
      classified into 22 types by previous authors. The aim of this study was to assess
      the variation of the CAC (diameter, length and anomalies) in a cadaver cohort
      representing the population of the Western Cape. Thirty-nine subjects (female n =
      11, male n = 28) who had died of causes unrelated to brain trauma, were obtained
      from Stellenbosch University. Additionally, a pilot study was done on 20
      specimens. The CAC were removed and fixed for three weeks in 10% buffered
      formaldehyde. Digital images were taken and the vessels were measured using Adobe
      Creative Suite 5: Extended edition (Photoshop). The normal diameter (type 1) was
      observed in 41% of specimens and type 4 (hypoplastic posterior communicating
      artery) was observed in 23.1%. One case (bilateral hypoplastic posterior
      communicating arteries and a hypoplastic right posterior cerebral artery) was
      classified as "other", since it could not be classified into the 22 types.
      Additional variations included duplication (17.9%) and one point fusion (15.4%)
      of the anterior communicating artery. Studies have shown that about half of a
      healthy population have a typical CAC (normal diameter and no anomalies). In the
      present study the prevalence of a typical CAC was only 15.4%. Studies can only be
      compared if the same definitions for variations are used. The knowledge of these
      variations is important in endarterectomy, stenting head and neck surgery and
      angiography.

PMID- 28870112
TI  - Engagement and Adherence With ezPARENT, an mHealth Parent-Training Program
      Promoting Child Well-Being.
AB  - Mobile health (mHealth) interventions use mobile technology (tablets and
      smartphones) delivery platforms for interventions to improve health outcomes.
      Despite growing acceptance, there is little understanding of how consumers engage
      with and adhere to mHealth interventions. This study analyzes usage data from the
      intervention arm ( n = 42) of a randomized clinical trial testing the efficacy of
      the ezPARENT program and provides recommendations for using engagement and
      adherence metrics. Engagement was measured by parent usage (duration, frequency,
      and activity) of ezPARENT and adherence using an adherence index (the sum of
      individual modules completed, number of visits to ezPARENT, and maximum time
      between visits). Parents spent M = 37.15 min per module and had M = 13.55 program
      visits in the 3-month intervention period. Parents visited the program over a
      period of M = 69.5 days and completed 82% of the modules. These data provide
      support that parents will use intervention programs delivered digitally;
      engagement and adherence metrics are useful in evaluating program uptake.

PMID- 28870113
TI  - Advances in quantifying apolipoproteins using LC-MS/MS technology: implications
      for the clinic.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Apolipoproteins play a key role in pre-, pro-, and anti
      atherosclerotic processes and have become important circulating biomarkers for
      the prediction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Whereas currently clinical
      immunoassays are not available for most apolipoproteins and lack the capacity for
      multiplexing, liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC
      MS/MS) allows simultaneous, highly-specific, and precise quantification of
      multiple apolipoproteins. Areas covered: We discuss LC-MS/MS methods for
      quantification of apolipoproteins reported in the literature and highlight key
      requirements for clinical use. Besides the advances in sample preparation and LC
      MS/MS technologies, this overview also discusses advances in proteoform analysis
      and applications of dried blood/plasma collection. Expert commentary:
      Standardized quantification using LC-MS/MS technology has been demonstrated for
      apolipoprotein A-I and B. However, for implementation in clinical CVD risk
      assessment, LC-MS/MS must bring significant added clinical value in comparison to
      fast, standardized, and straightforward clinical (immuno)assays. Ongoing advances
      in accuracy and multiplexing capacity of LC-MS/MS, nonetheless, bear potential to
      enable standardized and interpretable personalized profiling of a patient's CVD
      risk by simultaneous quantification of multiple apolipoproteins and -variants.
      We, moreover, anticipate further personalization of CVD risk assessment by the
      potential of LC-MS/MS to enable simultaneous genotyping and remote monitoring
      using dried blood/plasma collection devices.

PMID- 28870115
TI  - The Association Between Cognitive Impairment and Patterns of Activity Engagement
      Among Older Adults.
AB  - This study aims to assess the association between cognitive impairment and
      activity engagement patterns. Data from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study were
      used. A total of 3,943 participants aged 65 or older were included in analyses.
      Latent class analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis were used.
      Four activity engagement profiles were identified: high activity (31.2%), active
      leisure (18.9%), passive leisure (28.2%), and low activity (21.7%). People in the
      high activity group engaged in all activities more than people in any other
      group, whereas people in the low activity group did not actively engage in most
      activities. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that cognitive
      impairment had an independent effect on the probability of being assigned to the
      low activity group compared to other groups. Cognitive impairment was associated
      with inactivity in a variety of activities. Future studies should examine
      supportive factors, which facilitate active patterns among people with cognitive
      impairment.

PMID- 28870114
TI  - Alleviating Mechanical Allodynia and Modulating Cellular Immunity Contribute to
      Electroacupuncture's Dual Effect on Bone Cancer Pain.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Electroacupuncture (EA) has been used as an alternative analgesic
      therapy for hundreds of years, yet its analgesic potency and therapeutic
      advantage against bone cancer pain (BCP) in comparison with morphine remains
      unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of EA on mechanical
      allodynia and cellular immunity of BCP rats, and to further explore the potential
      mechanism. METHODS: The BCP model was established by implanting Walker 256
      mammary gland carcinoma cells into the left tibia of adult female Sprague-Dawley
      rats. EA (dilatational wave, 2/100 Hz, 0.5 mA-1mA-1.5 mA for 10 minutes each
      intensity) was applied bilaterally to Zusanli (ST 36) and Kunlun (BL 60) for 30
      minutes. Both EA stimulation and morphine (10 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) was given
      once every other day. Naloxone (0.3 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) was injected at 30
      minutes prior to EA. Mechanical allodynia were demonstrated by paw withdrawal
      thresholds (PWTs) which measured by dynamic plantar aesthesiometer. T cell
      proliferation, percentage of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in spleen as well
      as expression of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in plasma were detected by WST-8, flow
      cytometry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique, respectively.
      RESULTS: An intratibial inoculation of Walker 256 mammary gland carcinoma cells
      significantly decreased PWTs to mechanical stimuli. EA stimulation alleviated
      mechanical allodynia in BCP rats, and the analgesic potency of EA was weaker than
      that of morphine. In contrast to morphine, EA stimulation of BCP rats increased
      splenic concanavalin A (Con A)-induced T cell proliferation and plasma IL-2
      content, as well as increased the percentages of splenic CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ T
      cell subsets. Moreover, both the analgesic effect and the partial
      immunomodulation of EA were suppressed by an intraperitoneal injection of
      naloxone. CONCLUSION: EA could significantly alleviate BCP-induced mechanical
      allodynia. Although the analgesic effect of EA was weaker than that of morphine,
      EA had an immunomodulation effect on cellular immunity. Both analgesic and
      immunomodulatory effect of EA might share the same mechanism via the opioid
      mediated pathway, which needs further investigation.

PMID- 28870116
TI  - Beta-thalassemia in the paediatric cardiac surgery setting - a case report and
      literature review.
AB  - Beta (beta)-thalassemia is a blood disorder with an incidence of 1 in 100,000.1
      This case report outlines a patient with beta-thalassemia requiring
      cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and the measures taken to ensure an uneventful
      procedure.

PMID- 28870117
TI  - Pseudotyped Lentiviral Vectors: One Vector, Many Guises.
AB  - Viruses have evolved specialized molecular mechanisms to transfer their genome
      efficiently into host cells. Viruses can be repurposed into viral vectors to
      achieve controlled gene transfer to desired cells. One of the most popular
      classes of vectors, lentiviral vectors (LVs), transduce mammalian cells
      efficiently. LVs are pseudotyped with various heterologous viral envelopes to
      alter their tropism. While the most common example is the envelope glycoprotein
      from vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVG), many other viral proteins have also been
      used. Pseudotyping LVs with a diverse set of naturally occurring or engineered
      viral envelopes has allowed targeted transduction of specific cell types. Many
      exciting studies are further uncovering new specificities and shortcomings of
      pseudotyped LVs. These studies will expand the toolbox to make LVs that cater to
      the specific requirements of transduction. This review provides a comprehensive
      overview of various viral envelope pseudotypes used with LVs, their
      specificities, advantages, and drawbacks.

PMID- 28870118
TI  - Suppression of chronic inflammation with engineered nanomaterials delivering
      nuclear factor kappaB transcription factor decoy oligodeoxynucleotides.
AB  - As a prototypical pro-inflammatory transcription factor, constitutive activation
      of NF-kappaB signaling pathway has been reported in several chronic inflammatory
      disorders including inflammatory bowel disease, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid
      arthritis and cancer. Application of decoy oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) against
      NF-kappaB, as an effective molecular therapy approach, has brought about several
      promising outcomes in treatment of chronic inflammatory disorders. However,
      systematic administration of these genetic constructs is mostly hampered due to
      their instability, rapid degradation by nucleases and poor cellular uptake. Both
      chemical modification and application of delivery systems have shown to
      effectively overcome some of these limitations. Among different administered
      delivery systems, nanomaterials have gained much attention for delivering NF
      kappaB decoy ODNs owing to their high loading capacity, targeted delivery and
      ease of synthesis. In this review, we highlight some of the most recently
      developed nanomaterial-based delivery systems for overcoming limitations
      associated with clinical application of these genetic constructs.

PMID- 28870119
TI  - A history of concussions is associated with symptoms of common mental disorders
      in former male professional athletes across a range of sports.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recent reports suggest that exposure to repetitive concussions in
      sports is associated with an increased risk of symptoms of distress, anxiety and
      depression, sleep disturbance or substance abuse/dependence (typically referred
      as symptoms of common mental disorders[CMD]) and of later development of
      neurodegenerative disease, in particular chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
      The primary aim of this study was to explore the relationship between sports
      career-related concussions and the subsequent occurrence of symptoms of CMD among
      former male professional athletes retired from football (soccer), ice hockey and
      rugby (union). METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses were performed on baseline
      electronic questionnaires from three prospective cohort studies among former male
      professional athletes retired from football (soccer), ice hockey and rugby
      (union). The number of confirmed concussions was examined through a single
      question, while symptoms of distress, anxiety and depression, sleep disturbance
      and adverse alcohol use were assessed using validated questionnaires. RESULTS:
      From 1,957 former professional athletes contacted, a total of 576 (29%) completed
      the questionnaire. Of these, 23% had not incurred a concussion during their
      career, 34% had two or three, 18% four or five, and 11% six or more concussions.
      The number of sports career-related concussions was a predictor for all outcome
      measures (beta = 0.072-0.109; P <= 0.040). Specifically, former professional
      athletes who reported a history of four or five concussions were approximately
      1.5 times more likely to report symptoms of CMD, rising to a two- to five-fold
      increase in those reporting a history of six or more sports career-related
      concussions. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate an association between exposure
      to sports concussion and subsequent risk of symptoms of CMD in former
      professional athletes across a range of contact sports. Further work to explore
      the association between sports concussion and symptoms of CMD is required; in the
      meanwhile, strategies for effective risk reduction and improved management appear
      indicated.

PMID- 28870120
TI  - Virotherapy Research in Germany: From Engineering to Translation.
AB  - Virotherapy is a unique modality for the treatment of cancer with oncolytic
      viruses (OVs) that selectively infect and lyse tumor cells, spread within tumors,
      and activate anti-tumor immunity. Various viruses are being developed as OVs
      preclinically and clinically, several of them engineered to encode therapeutic
      proteins for tumor-targeted gene therapy. Scientists and clinicians in German
      academia have made significant contributions to OV research and development,
      which are highlighted in this review paper. Innovative strategies for
      "shielding," entry or postentry targeting, and "arming" of OVs have been
      established, focusing on adenovirus, measles virus, parvovirus, and vaccinia
      virus platforms. Thereby, new-generation virotherapeutics have been derived.
      Moreover, immunotherapeutic properties of OVs and combination therapies with
      pharmacotherapy, radiotherapy, and especially immunotherapy have been
      investigated and optimized. German investigators are increasingly assessing their
      OV innovations in investigator-initiated and sponsored clinical trials. As a
      prototype, parvovirus has been tested as an OV from preclinical proof-of-concept
      up to first-in-human clinical studies. The approval of the first OV in the
      Western world, T-VEC (Imlygic), has further spurred the involvement of
      investigators in Germany in international multicenter studies. With the
      encouraging developments in funding, commercialization, and regulatory
      procedures, more German engineering will be translated into OV clinical trials in
      the near future.

PMID- 28870121
TI  - Wide Awake and Ready to Move: 20 Years of Non-Viral Therapeutic Genome
      Engineering with the Sleeping Beauty Transposon System.
AB  - Gene therapies will only become a widespread tool in the clinical treatment of
      human diseases with the advent of gene transfer vectors that integrate genetic
      information stably, safely, effectively, and economically. Two decades after the
      discovery of the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon, it has been transformed into a
      vector system that is fulfilling these requirements. SB may well overcome some of
      the limitations associated with viral gene transfer vectors and transient non
      viral gene delivery approaches that are being used in the majority of ongoing
      clinical trials. The SB system has achieved a high level of stable gene transfer
      and sustained transgene expression in multiple primary human somatic cell types,
      representing crucial steps that may permit its clinical use in the near future.
      This article reviews the most important aspects of SB as a tool for gene therapy,
      including aspects of its vectorization and genomic integration. As an
      illustration, the clinical development of the SB system toward gene therapy of
      age-related macular degeneration and cancer immunotherapy is highlighted.

PMID- 28870122
TI  - Diabetes fatalism and its emotional distress subscale are independent predictors
      of glycemic control among Lebanese patients with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Achieving and sustaining optimal glycemic control in type 2 diabetes
      (T2DM) is difficult because of socio-cultural and psychosocial factors including
      diabetes fatalism. Diabetes fatalism is 'a complex psychological cycle
      characterized by perceptions of despair, hopelessness, and powerlessness'.
      PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether diabetes fatalism and
      other psychosocial and socio-cultural variables are correlates of glycemic
      control in Lebanese population with T2DM. METHODS: A convenience sample of 280
      adult participants with T2DM were recruited from a major hospital in greater
      Beirut-Lebanon area and from the community. Diabetes fatalism was assessed using
      the Arabic version of 12-item Diabetes Fatalism Scale. Multiple linear regression
      models were used to assess the relationship between HbA1c and psychosocial and
      socio-cultural characteristics including diabetes fatalism. Four models were run
      to examine the independent association between HbA1c and diabetes fatalism and to
      identify which of the 3 subscales (emotional distress, spiritual coping and
      perceived self-efficacy) were associated with HbA1c. RESULTS: The mean age of the
      participants was 58.24(SD = 13.48) and the majority were females (53.76%), while
      32.73% of the sample had diabetes for more than 10 years. Fully adjusted multiple
      linear regression models showed that higher scores on diabetes fatalism and the
      emotional distress subscale (P = 0.018) were significantly associated with higher
      HbA1c values. In addition, having diabetes for more than 11 years (P = 0.05) and
      a higher number of diabetes complications (P < 0.001) were associated with higher
      HbA1c levels. However, advanced age (P = 0.055), female gender (P = 0.003), and
      diabetes education (P = 0.011) were significantly associated with lower HbA1c
      levels. CONCLUSION: This is the first study in the Arab region that identifies
      diabetes fatalism as an independent predictor of glycemic control among Lebanese.
      Future studies should further investigate this construct to guide interventions
      that can address it for better diabetes outcomes.

PMID- 28870123
TI  - Bayesian treatment comparison using parametric mixture priors computed from
      elicited histograms.
AB  - A Bayesian methodology is proposed for constructing a parametric prior on two
      treatment effect parameters, based on graphical information elicited from a group
      of expert physicians. The motivating application is a 70-patient randomized trial
      to compare two treatments for idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in children. The
      methodology relies on histograms of the treatment parameters constructed manually
      by each physician, applying the method of Johnson et al. (2010). For each
      physician, a marginal prior for each treatment parameter characterized by
      location and precision hyperparameters is fit to the elicited histogram. A
      bivariate prior is obtained by averaging the marginals over a latent physician
      effect distribution. An overall prior is constructed as a mixture of the
      individual physicians' priors. A simulation study evaluating several versions of
      the methodology is presented. A framework is given for performing a sensitivity
      analysis of posterior inferences to prior location and precision and illustrated
      based on the idiopathic nephrotic syndrome trial.

PMID- 28870124
TI  - Reactive oxygen species trigger NF-kappaB-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation
      induced by zinc oxide nanoparticles in A549 cells.
AB  - Inhaled zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) induce lung inflammation associated
      with oxidative stress. The NLRP3 inflammasome plays a pivotal role in the
      development of lung inflammation. However, the underlying effects of the NLRP3
      inflammasome on ZnO-NPs-induced inflammation remain obscure. In the present
      study, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, expression of NLRP3, caspase-1
      p10, and cytokines release of interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-18 were determined
      after A549 cells were exposed to ZnO-NPs. The ROS scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine
      (NAC), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB inhibitor BAY11-7082, and NLRP3
      inhibitor glibenclamide (GEL) were used to explore the mechanism of NLRP3
      inflammasome activation-induced by ZnO-NPs. ZnO-NPs stimulation induced ROS
      generation and NF-kappaB p65 phosphorylation. Similarly, the expression of NLRP3
      and caspase-1 p10 and the release of IL-1beta and IL-18 were significantly
      increased after ZnO-NPs treatment, which indicated that the NLRP3 inflammasome
      was activated by ZnO-NPs. Meanwhile, NAC pretreatment inhibited ZnO-NPs-induced
      activation of NF-kappaB and NLRP3 inflammasome. The NF-kappaB inhibitor BAY11
      7082 did not affect ROS production but significantly reduced the NLRP3
      inflammasome activation induced by ZnO-NPs. Furthermore, the ability of ZnO-NPs
      to increase the production of IL-1beta and IL-18 was significantly inhibited by
      GEL. The ZnO-NPs induced the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in A549 cells,
      which might be via a ROS-NF-kappaB-NLRP3 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28870125
TI  - Role of chest ultrasound in neonatal lung disease: a review of current evidences.
AB  - Among the common causes of neonatal admission to NICU, respiratory distress is
      one of the important causes. The neonatal respiratory distress is end result of
      various pulmonary and non-pulmonary causes. Differentiation of pulmonary causes
      of respiratory distress is important for the neonatologist as treatment differs
      with different etiologies. Conventionally, chest X-ray and sometimes CT scan have
      been used to identify the etiology of respiratory distress but these modalities
      have several limitations which make their use in NICU doubtful. In recent
      decades, there has been use of lung ultrasound (LUS) to identify and
      differentiate the etiologies of respiratory distress. The current available
      evidence show that LUS has good sensitivity and specificity to identify all the
      common causes of neonatal distress like respiratory distress syndrome, transient
      tachypnea of newborn, pneumothorax, and pneumonia. This review will cover the
      various uses of LUS in neonatal care with current available evidence.

PMID- 28870126
TI  - Innovative biomarkers in psychiatric disorders: a major clinical challenge in
      psychiatry.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Currently, the diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses is based upon DSM
      5 criteria. Although endophenotype-specificity for a particular disorder is
      discussed, the identification of objective biomarkers is ongoing for aiding
      diagnosis, prognosis, or clinical response to treatment. We need to improve the
      understanding of the biological abnormalities in psychiatric illnesses across
      conventional diagnostic boundaries. The present review investigates the
      innovative post-genomic knowledge used for psychiatric illness diagnostics and
      treatment response, with a particular focus on proteomics. Areas covered: This
      review underlines the contribution that psychiatric innovative biomarkers have
      reached in relation to diagnosis and theragnosis of psychiatric illnesses.
      Furthermore, it encompasses a reliable representation of their involvement in
      disease through proteomics, metabolomics/pharmacometabolomics and lipidomics
      techniques, including the possible role that gut microbiota and CYP2D6
      polimorphisms may play in psychiatric illnesses. Expert opinion: Etiologic
      heterogeneity, variable expressivity, and epigenetics may impact clinical
      manifestations, making it difficult for a single measurement to be pathognomonic
      for multifaceted psychiatric disorders. Academic, industry, or government's
      partnerships may successfully identify and validate new biomarkers so that
      unfailing clinical tests can be developed. Proteomics, metabolomics, and
      lipidomics techniques are considered to be helpful tools beyond neuroimaging and
      neuropsychology for the phenotypic characterization of brain diseases.

PMID- 28870127
TI  - Major liver resection in pregnancy: three cases with different etiologies and
      review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major liver resection during pregnancy is extremely rare. When
      required, the associated physiologic and anatomic changes pose specific
      challenges and greater risk for both mother and fetus Materials and methods:
      Three cases of major liver resection during pregnancy due to different etiologies
      are presented. The relevant literature is reviewed and discussed. RESULTS: We
      present three cases of major liver resection due to giant liver hemangioma with
      Kasabach-Merrit syndrome, giant hydatid cyst, and intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma, at gestational week (GW) 17, 19, and 30, respectively. All
      patients had an uneventful postoperative course, continued the pregnancy and gave
      birth at GW 38. CONCLUSION: Major liver resection can be performed safely during
      pregnancy. A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, anesthesiologists and
      gynecologists, in a highly experienced tertiary hepatobiliary center, should be
      involved.

PMID- 28870128
TI  - Relationship of surgically repaired ulnar collateral ligament injury of the thumb
      to the morphology of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the thumb.

PMID- 28870129
TI  - Intra-articular distal radius fractures in elderly patients: a randomized
      prospective study of casting versus volar plating.
AB  - : We compared outcomes in elderly patients with intra-articular distal radius
      fractures treated by closed reduction and plaster immobilization or open
      reduction and internal fixation with a volar plate. Ninety-seven patients older
      than 60 years were randomly allocated to conservative (47 patients) or surgical
      (50 patients) treatment. Over a 2-year period, we assessed patient-rated wrist
      evaluation score, DASH (disability arm, shoulder and hand) questionnaire, pain,
      wrist range of motion, grip strength, and radiological parameters. The functional
      outcomes and quality of life were significantly better after volar plating
      fixation compared with conservative treatment. We found that restoration of the
      articular surface, radial inclination, and ulnar variance affected the outcomes,
      but the articular step-off did not. Twenty-five per cent of the patients with
      conservative treatment had secondary loss of reduction. We conclude that surgical
      plating leads to better outcomes than conservative treatment for elderly patients
      with intra-articular distal radius fractures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I.

PMID- 28870131
TI  - Re: Cluster analysis of the clinical histories of cattle affected with bovine
      anaemia associated with Theileria orientalis Ikeda type infection.

PMID- 28870130
TI  - Prevalence of the distal oblique bundle of the interosseous membrane of the
      forearm: an anatomical study.
AB  - A study was undertaken to examine the presence of the distal oblique bundle of
      the forearm in a large sample in order to describe its true prevalence. The study
      sample consisted of 200 cadaveric forearms. Fifteen were excluded due to defects
      in the distal interosseous membrane. In the remaining 185 specimens, the distal
      interosseous membrane was examined following removal of soft tissue, to determine
      whether a distal oblique bundle was present and whether there were connecting
      fibres to the distal radio-ulnar joint. The distal oblique bundle was observed in
      53 specimens (29%). In 45 of these forearms (85%), one or more connecting fibres
      to the distal radio-ulnar joint were identified. The presence of a distal oblique
      bundle in 29% is less frequent than that reported in previous literature. The
      presence of the distal oblique bundle should be noted and may be of importance in
      the management of disorders of the distal radio-ulnar joint.

PMID- 28870132
TI  - Differential modes of photosensitisation in cancer cells by berberine and
      coralyne.
AB  - In this study, we demonstrated that the cytotoxicity of the protoberberine
      alkaloids such as coralyne, berberine and jatrorrhizine to several human cancer
      cell lines can be improved significantly in combination with UVA exposure.
      However, the phototoxic property of coralyne was much higher than that of the
      other two alkaloids. The combination of coralyne and UVA (designated as CUVA)
      induced oxygen-independent cytotoxicity in the human lung cancer A549 cells by
      producing more lethal DNA double-strand breaks, and the effect was mediated via
      the replication machinery. In comparison, the berberine-induced phototoxicity to
      the A549 cells was mediated by reactive oxygen species generation, mitochondrial
      membrane permeabilisation and caspase-9/caspase-3 activation.

PMID- 28870133
TI  - Treatment outcomes from forensic intellectual disability services: The
      perspectives of patients and their family/carers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Research investigating the treatment outcomes of forensic
      intellectual and developmental disability (FIDD) services has largely focused on
      the perspectives of clinicians and researchers. This study sought the
      perspectives of patients and family/carers on the outcomes important to them.
      METHODS: Semi-structured consultation groups were conducted with patients in FIDD
      services ( n = 21) and family carers ( n = 6). Interview data were content
      analysed, and outcomes identified fell into three main domains (effectiveness,
      safety and patient experience). RESULTS: The consultations identified outcome
      domains not considered in the published literature. Patients and carers also had
      differential perspectives on treatment outcomes commonly reported within
      literature. Illustrative quotes are used to evidence the domains. DISCUSSION:
      This study is the first to investigate the outcomes of relevance to patients and
      their families. These views have been incorporated into an outcomes framework
      which will form the foundation of future prospective outcome studies.

PMID- 28870134
TI  - Role of massage therapy on reduction of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in term and
      preterm neonates: a review of clinical trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NNH) is one of the leading causes of
      admissions in nursery throughout the world. It affects approximately 2.4-15% of
      neonates during the first 2 weeks of life. AIMS: To evaluate the role of massage
      therapy for reduction of NNH in both term and preterm neonates. METHOD: The
      literature search was done for various randomized control trials (RCTs) by
      searching the Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMBASE. RESULTS: This review included
      total of 10 RCTs (two in preterm neonates and eight in term neonates) that
      fulfilled inclusion criteria. In most of the trials, Field massage was given. Six
      out of eight trials reported reduction in bilirubin levels in term neonates.
      However, only one trial (out of two) reported significant reduction in bilirubin
      levels in preterm neonates. Both trials in preterm neonates and most of the
      trials in term neonates (five trials) reported increased stool frequencies.
      CONCLUSION: Role of massage therapy in the management of NNH is supported by the
      current evidence. However, due to limitations of the trials, current evidences
      are not sufficient to use massage therapy for the management of NNH in routine
      practice.

PMID- 28870135
TI  - Validation of an assessment tool for pre-operative EVAR planning.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Current methods of teaching endovascular aortic aneurysm repair
      (EVAR) planning involve non-criteria-based observations that lack validity. The
      primary aim of this study was to validate an EVAR Planning Objective Structured
      Assessment of Skill (EpOSAS) tool for the assessment of pre-operative EVAR
      planning skills. METHODS: Content analysis was performed in order to inform the
      formulation of EpOSAS domains. Thirty-five participants planned two cases of
      infra-renal abdominal aortic aneurysm for EVAR, using the OsiriX 7 platform. EVAR
      planning measurements, with accompanying screenshots, were uploaded onto an
      electronic data collection sheet. Performance was assessed by three blinded
      assessors using the EpOSAS tool. Construct and concurrent validity were
      evaluated. RESULTS: Inter-observer reliability for the three assessors for total
      EpOSAS scores was high (Cronbach's alpha 0.89). There were statistically
      significant differences in total EpOSAS scores between the different experience
      groups, demonstrating construct validity (Novice (5.3, IQR 5-5.3), Intermediate
      (15.3, IQR 14.8-16.8) and Experts (17.5, IQR 17-17.7), p<0.001). A statistically
      significant correlation was found between total EpOSAS scores and percentage
      error in measurements, demonstrating concurrent validity (Spearman's rank
      correlation coefficient: R=-0.250, p<0.001). Receiver-operator characteristics
      analysis established a cut-off point of 16 out of 18 for determining competence.
      CONCLUSION: We have developed and validated a tool that can be used for the
      assessment of pre-operative EVAR planning skills.

PMID- 28870136
TI  - Ectonucleotidase inhibitors: a patent review (2011-2016).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ectonucleotidases are a broad family of metallo-ectoenzymes that
      are responsible for hydrolysing a variety of nucleotides to nucleosides, hence
      orchestrating the activation of P1 and P2 cell receptors via controlled release
      of nucleotides and nucleosides. Many disorders such as impaired calcification
      including aortic calcification, neurological and immunological disorders,
      platelet aggregation, cell proliferation and metastasis. are characterized by an
      increase in expression of these ectonucleotidases. Consequently, selective
      inhibitors of ectonucleotidases are required for therapeutic intervention. Area
      covered: Several classes of compounds such as purine, nucleotide derivatives
      (e.g., ARL67156) and monoclonal antibodies, have shown promising ectonucleotidase
      inhibitory potential. This review discusses chemistry and therapeutic
      applications of ectonucleotidase inhibitors patented from 2011 to 2016. Expert
      opinion: All eukaryotic cells express nucleotide and nucleoside receptors on
      their cell surface and are capable of releasing extracellular nucleotides.
      Ectonucleotidases are a broad family of metallo-ectoenzymes that hydrolyze a
      variety of nucleotides to nucleosides. These extracellular nucleotides and
      nucleosides are important cell signalling molecules and mediate a variety of
      (patho)physiological processes by acting upon their respective P1 and/or P2
      receptors. Discovery of molecules that can selectively inhibit or activate
      ectonucleotidases is crucial from therapeutic point of view, since it allows
      human intervention into purinergic cell signalling, thereby allowing us to
      modulate related (patho)physiological processes as desired.

PMID- 28870137
TI  - The effect of supervised exercise on localized TMD pain and TMD pain associated
      with generalized pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of a supervised exercise program in patients
      with localized/regional temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain and with TMD
      associated with generalized pain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Consecutively referred
      patients with localized/regional TMD pain (n = 56; 46 women and 10 men, mean age
      44 years) and TMD associated with generalized pain (n = 21; 21 women, mean age 41
      years) participated. Patients underwent a 10-session structured supervised
      exercise program over 10-20 weeks that included relaxation, and coordination and
      resistance training of the jaw and neck/shoulders. The outcomes were jaw pain
      intensity on the Numerical Rating Scale, endurance time for jaw opening and
      protrusion against resistance and chewing, and effect of pain on daily
      activities. RESULTS: After the exercise program, a reduction in jaw pain was
      reported by the local (p = .001) and general (p = .011) pain groups. There were
      no significant differences in jaw pain intensity between the groups, before (p =
      .062) or after treatment (p = .121). Endurance time increased for both groups for
      jaw opening/protrusion (both p < .001) and chewing (both p = .002). The effect of
      jaw pain on daily activities decreased after exercise compared to baseline for
      both the local (p < .001) and general (p = .008) pain groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Supervised exercise can reduce TMD pain and increase capacity in patients with
      TMD. The results suggest that activation of the jaw motor system with exercise
      has a positive effect in patients with localized/regional TMD pain and TMD
      associated with generalized pain.

PMID- 28870138
TI  - A Plea for the Newborn Diagnosis of Hb S-Hereditary Persistence of Fetal
      Hemoglobin.
AB  - The gene for hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) in the Caribbean
      is much more common than previously estimated. To avoid labeling persons with the
      benign syndrome Hb S (HBB: c.20A>T)/HPFH as a disease and wasting scarce
      resources, parental studies are recommended when newborn screening reveals a
      pattern consistent with an SS phenotype.

PMID- 28870139
TI  - The role of segmental and durational cues in the processing of reduced words.
AB  - In natural conversations, words are generally shorter and they often lack
      segments. It is unclear to what extent such durational and segmental reductions
      affect word recognition. The present study investigates to what extent reduction
      in the initial syllable hinders word comprehension, which types of segments
      listeners mostly rely on, and whether listeners use word duration as a cue in
      word recognition. We conducted three experiments in Dutch, in which we adapted
      the gating paradigm to study the comprehension of spontaneously uttered
      conversational speech by aligning the gates with the edges of consonant clusters
      or vowels. Participants heard the context and some segmental and/or durational
      information from reduced target words with unstressed initial syllables. The
      initial syllable varied in its degree of reduction, and in half of the stimuli
      the vowel was not clearly present. Participants gave too short answers if they
      were only provided with durational information from the target words, which shows
      that listeners are unaware of the reductions that can occur in spontaneous
      speech. More importantly, listeners required fewer segments to recognize target
      words if the vowel in the initial syllable was absent. This result strongly
      suggests that this vowel hardly plays a role in word comprehension, and that its
      presence may even delay this process. More important are the consonants and the
      stressed vowel.

PMID- 28870140
TI  - Immunogenicity and safety of an inactivated quadrivalent influenza vaccine
      candidate versus inactivated trivalent influenza vaccines in participants >/=3
      years of age: a double-blind, randomized, parallel-controlled phase III clinical
      trial in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Viruses from two antigenically distinct influenza B strains have co
      circulated since the mid-1980s, yet inactivated trivalent influenza vaccines
      (TIVs) with either the Victoria or Yamagata lineage could only provide limited
      protection from influenza B strain. Quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV)
      including both influenza B lineages can improve protection against circulating
      influenza B viruses. METHODS: Participants >/ = 3 years of age were recruited,
      stratified by age, and then randomly allocated at a ratio of 2:1:1 to receive one
      injection of the experimental QIV, TIV-Victoria (Vic) or TIV-Yamagata (Yam). The
      primary objective of this study was to demonstrate that the hemagglutination
      inhibition (HI) antibodies induced by the QIV candidate are not inferior to the
      licensed TIVs. RESULTS: First, 3661 participants received the inoculation. The
      QIV was found to be non-inferior to TIVs in terms of the geometric mean titers
      (GMTs) and seroconversion rates (SCRs) of the HI antibodies against shared
      strains 28 days after completion of inoculation, and was superior to the TIVs
      against the alternate B strain, which is absent from the TIVs. The occurrences of
      adverse events (AEs) post-vaccination were similar across the treatment groups.
      CONCLUSION: The experimental QIV showed good immunogenicity and an acceptable
      safety profile.

PMID- 28870141
TI  - Physical and Psychosocial Characteristics of Current Child Dancers and Nondancers
      With Systemic Joint Hypermobility: A Descriptive Analysis.
AB  - Study Design Cross-sectional study. Background The effect of current
      participation in dance training on joint pain and instability, fatigue, and
      quality of life is unknown. Objectives To examine differences in joint pain,
      instability, gross motor skills, nonmusculoskeletal systemic manifestations,
      health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and fatigue between children with joint
      hypermobility syndrome/Ehlers-Danlos syndrome-hypermobility type (JHS/EDS-HT) who
      currently undertake formal dance training and those who do not. Methods Children
      with JHS/EDS-HT and 1 parent completed reports providing data on demographic
      variables, symptoms, organized activity participation, HRQoL, and fatigue.
      Physical and functional measures included extent of hypermobility, aerobic
      fitness, balance, and muscle endurance. Results Of the 102 participating
      children, 22 currently undertook dance classes, averaging 3.3 h/wk. While the
      dancers reported a number of painful joints similar to that reported by
      nondancers (mean +/- SD, 5.5 +/- 3.7 versus 6.4 +/- 3.9 joints, respectively; P =
      .36), they reported significantly lower pain levels on a 0-to-10 scale (3.8 +/-
      3.3 versus 5.6 +/- 3.4, P = .04) and found pain to be less problematic, affecting
      less of their body. They reported fewer unstable joints (1.0 +/- 1.0 versus 2.0
      +/- 1.8 joints, P = .001), despite being more hypermobile (Beighton score, 7.3 +/
      1.4 versus 6.6 +/- 1.6 on a 9-point scale, P = .047; Lower Limb Assessment
      Score, 9.2 +/- 2.0 versus 8.1 +/- 1.9 on a 12-point scale, P = .02). The dancers
      had significantly better HRQoL in the subdomain of school functioning (P = .004)
      and reported less fatigue (P = .024). Conclusion Children with JHS/EDS-HT who are
      currently undertaking formal dance training have fewer joint pain and instability
      symptoms, less fatigue, and better HRQoL; however, the cross-sectional nature of
      the study means that causation cannot be determined. Level of Evidence Therapy,
      level 2b. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(10):782-791. Epub 4 Sep 2017.
      doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7331.

PMID- 28870142
TI  - Validation of the Standardized Universal Pain Evaluations for Rheumatology
      Providers for Children and Youth (SUPER-KIDZ).
AB  - Study Design Longitudinal observational clinimetric study with repeated measures.
      Background No validated multidimensional pain measure for children and youth with
      juvenile idiopathic arthritis exists. Objective To determine the test-retest
      reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness of English and French
      versions of the Standardized Universal Pain Evaluations for Rheumatology
      Providers for Children and Youth (SUPER-KIDZ). Methods Measurement properties of
      the SUPER-KIDZ (older child, younger child, and parent versions) were
      prospectively evaluated in patients (aged 4 to 18 years) with juvenile idiopathic
      arthritis at 2 centers. Internal consistency of the 3 subscales was measured
      using ordinal reliability alpha. Test-retest reliability for each subscale was
      evaluated with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) from participants
      assumed to have stable pain (over a 1-week period with no change in treatment).
      Correlations of SUPER-KIDZ scores with validated measures determined construct
      validity. Responsiveness of SUPER-KIDZ subscales was evaluated in patients with
      improvement in pain, using standardized response mean and linear mixed-model
      regression. Results Seventy-one children aged 8 to 18 years and 29 parent-child
      dyads aged 4 to 7 years were included. Seventy-four percent of participants were
      female, with a median of 3 active joints (interquartile range, 1-5). Internal
      consistency was strong (alpha = .78-.96) for pain characteristics, interference,
      and emotional functioning SUPER-KIDZ subscales. Good test-retest reliability
      (ICC>=0.80) was found for the pain characteristics subscale in older- and younger
      child versions. Most other subscales had satisfactory reliability coefficients
      (ICC>=0.70). Correlations of 0.50 or greater were found between the older-child
      SUPER-KIDZ scores and the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire and Patient
      Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System depressive symptoms items, as
      well as the younger-child pain-intensity item and the Faces Pain Scale-Revised.
      Strong responsiveness was found for all subscales (standardized response mean,
      0.63-1.54; significant linear mixed-model regression), except for the older-child
      emotional functioning subscale. Conclusion The SUPER-KIDZ has shown good internal
      consistency and responsiveness, and satisfactory test-retest reliability.
      Construct validity was moderate for the younger- and older-child versions, but
      weak for the parent version. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(10):731-740. Epub
      4 Sep 2017. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7375.

PMID- 28870143
TI  - Characteristics and Outcome of Patellofemoral Pain in Adolescents: Do They Differ
      From Adults?
AB  - Study Design Case series with 1-year follow-up. Background Most of the
      recommendations for the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of patellofemoral
      pain (PFP) are based on research performed in adults. The literature suggests
      that there are potential differences between adolescents and adults with PFP.
      Objectives To investigate differences in characteristics, symptoms, and prognosis
      at 1-year follow-up between adolescents and adults with PFP. Methods Data from 64
      patients with PFP, assessed at baseline and 1-year follow-up, were used. At
      baseline, data on demographics, symptoms, and coping strategies were obtained by
      questionnaire. Physical examination included strength and flexibility
      measurements of the quadriceps and hamstrings. At 1-year follow-up, a
      questionnaire was used to collect data on pain, function, and recovery.
      Differences between adolescents (14-18 years) and adults (18-40 years) were
      analyzed using regression techniques, adjusted for sex, body mass index, and the
      presence of bilateral pain. Results Of the 64 patients with PFP included at
      baseline, 78.1% were available for follow-up. At baseline, adolescents with PFP
      had a significantly lower body mass index (20.7 versus 24.9 kg/m2) and a greater
      percentage of bilateral pain (70% versus 43.2%) than adults with PFP. There were
      no differences in reported pain and symptoms between the 2 groups. In total, 25%
      of the adolescents regarded themselves as recovered after 1 year, compared to
      22.7% of the adults (adjusted P = .725). Conclusion The sample size of the study,
      in relation to the number of statistical tests performed, urges caution in the
      interpretation of the results. In contrast to what has been suggested previously,
      only minor differences seem to exist between adolescents and adults with PFP. In
      both groups, PFP is clearly not a self-limiting disease, with nearly 75% of those
      in this study reporting persistent pain at 1-year follow-up. Level of Evidence
      Prognosis, level 4. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(10):801-805. Epub 4 Sep
      2017. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7326.

PMID- 28870144
TI  - Higher survival rates in exercise-related out-of-hospital cardiac arrests,
      compared to non-exercise-related - a study from the Swedish Register of
      Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
AB  - Background Despite the positive effects of physical activity, the risk of sudden
      cardiac arrest is transiently increased during and immediately after exercise.
      The purpose of this study was to assess the incidence of exercise-related out-of
      hospital cardiac arrest in the general population and to compare characteristics
      and prognosis of these cardiac arrests with non-exercise-related out-of-hospital
      cardiac arrests. Methods Data from all cases of treated out-of-hospital cardiac
      arrest outside of home reported to the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary
      Resuscitation from 2011-2015 in three counties of Sweden were investigated
      (population 2.1 m). This registry captures almost 100% of all out-of-hospital
      cardiac arrests in Sweden. Results Of 1825 out-of hospital cardiac arrests, 137
      (7.5%) were exercise-related, resulting in an incidence of 1.2 per 100,000 person
      years. The 30-day survival rate was significantly higher among exercise-related
      out-of hospital cardiac arrests compared to non-exercise-related out-of-hospital
      cardiac arrests (54.3 % vs 19.4%, p < 0.0001). Patients suffering an exercise
      related out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were on average 10 years younger than
      those who had a non-exercise-related out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, 56.4 years
      compared to 67.2 years. Exercise-related out-of-hospital cardiac arrests were
      more often witnessed (89.4% vs 78.6%, p = 0.002), had higher rates of bystander
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation (80.3% vs 61.0%, p < 0.0001) and were more
      frequently connected to an automated external defibrillator (20.4% vs 4.6%, p <
      0.0001). Conclusions Cardiac arrests that occur in relation to exercise have a
      significantly better prognosis and outcome than non-exercise-related cardiac
      arrests. This may be explained by favourable circumstances but may also reflect
      that these persons experience a sudden cardiac arrest at a lower degree of
      coronary artery disease, due to their younger age and to exercise being a
      trigger.

PMID- 28870145
TI  - Real-world use and modeled impact of glucose-lowering therapies evaluated in
      recent cardiovascular outcomes trials: An NCDR(r) Research to Practice project.
AB  - Aims Recent trials (EMPA-REG OUTCOME and Liraglutide Effect and Action in
      Diabetes: Evaluation of Cardiovascular Outcome Results [LEADER]) have shown
      improved cardiovascular (CV) mortality with specific currently available glucose
      lowering medications (empagliflozin and liraglutide, respectively), but were
      limited to selected patient populations. We sought to evaluate the current use
      and potential real-world impact of empagliflozin (and other sodium-glucose co
      transporter 2 inhibitors [SGLT2is]) and liraglutide (and other glucagonlike
      peptide-1 receptor agonist [GLP-1 RAs]) among patients in the Diabetes
      Collaborative Registry (DCR). Methods and results We evaluated 182,525 patients
      from the DCR - a large, US-based outpatient registry of individuals with type 2
      diabetes from 313 sites that included cardiology, endocrinology and primary care
      practices. Among these patients, 26.2% met major eligibility criteria for EMPA
      REG OUTCOME and 48.0% met major eligibility criteria for LEADER. Of these
      potentially eligible patients, only a small minority were actually prescribed
      these agents: 5.2% on an SGLT2i and 6.0% on a GLP-1 RA, respectively. Patients
      receiving these studied medications or medication classes, in general, had lower
      CV disease burden compared with those not on these agents. Assuming similar risk
      reductions as in the clinical trials, if all potentially trial-eligible patients
      in the DCR were treated for 1 year with empagliflozin (or other SGLT2is, assuming
      a class effect) or liraglutide (or other GLP-1 RAs, assuming a class effect),
      this may have prevented 354 CV deaths, 231 heart failure hospitalizations, 329 CV
      deaths and 247 myocardial infarctions, respectively. Conclusion In a large, US
      based outpatient registry, we found a significant number of patients would have
      been potentially eligible for glucose-lowering agents that demonstrated CV
      benefit in recent clinical trials. In view of these findings, a broader and
      better-targeted use of these medications in evidence-based patient populations
      should be considered.

PMID- 28870146
TI  - Effects of altering heel wedge properties on gait with the Intrepid Dynamic
      Exoskeletal Orthosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis is a custom-made dynamic
      response carbon fiber device. A heel wedge, which sits in the shoe, is an
      integral part of the orthosis-heel wedge-shoe system. Because the device
      restricts ankle movement, the system must compensate to simulate plantarflexion
      and allow smooth forward progression during gait. OBJECTIVES: To determine the
      influence of wedge height and durometer on the walking gait of individuals using
      the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis. STUDY DESIGN: Repeated measures.
      METHODS: Twelve individuals walked over level ground with their Intrepid Dynamic
      Exoskeletal Orthosis and six different heel wedges of soft or firm durometer and
      1, 2, or 3 cm height. Center of pressure velocity, joint moments, and roll-over
      shape were calculated for each wedge. RESULTS: Height and durometer significantly
      affected time to peak center of pressure velocity, time to peak internal
      dorsiflexion and knee extension moments, time to ankle moment zero crossing, and
      roll-over shape center of curvature anterior-posterior position. Wedge height had
      a significant influence on peak center of pressure velocity, peak dorsiflexion
      moment, time to peak knee extension moment, and roll-over shape radius and
      vertical center of curvature. CONCLUSION: Changes in wedge height and durometer
      systematically affected foot loading. Participants preferred wedges which
      produced ankle moment zero crossing timing, peak internal knee extension moment
      timing, and roll-over shape center of curvature anterior-posterior position close
      to that of able-bodied individuals. Clinical relevance Adjusting the heel wedge
      is a simple, straightforward way to adjust the orthosis-heel wedge-shoe system.
      Changing wedge height and durometer significantly alters loading of the foot and
      has great potential to improve an individual's gait.

PMID- 28870147
TI  - Electronic cleansing in computed tomography colonography using AT layer
      identification with integration of gradient directional second derivative and
      material fraction model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In computed tomography colonography images, electronic cleansing (EC)
      is applied to remove opacified residual materials, called fecal-tagging materials
      (FTM), using positive-contrast tagging agents and laxative to facilitate polyp
      detection. METHODS: The proposed EC, EC prop , integrates the gradient
      directional second derivative into material fraction model to preserve submerged
      soft tissue (ST) under FTM. Three-material fraction model is used to remove FTM
      and artifacts at air-tagging (AT) layers and T-junctions where air, ST, and FTM
      material meet simultaneously. Moreover, the proposed AT layer identification is
      used to distinguish AT layers from air-tissue-tagging (ATT) layers in order to
      preserve ATT layers during cleansing. The clinical evaluation on 467 3
      Dimensional band view images was conducted by the abdominal radiologist using
      four grading levels of cleansing quality with five causes of low quality EC. The
      amount of the remaining artifacts at T-junctions was approximated from the
      results of EC prop . The results from EC prop were compared with the results from
      syngo.via Client 3.0 Software, EC syngo , and the fast three-material modeling,
      EC prev , using the preference of the radiologist. Two-tailed paired Wilcoxon
      signed rank test is used to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: The
      average grade on cleansing quality is 2.89 out of 4. The artifacts at T-junctions
      from 86.94% of the test images can be removed, whereas artifacts at T-junctions
      from only 13.06% of the test images cannot be removed. For 13.06% of the test
      images, the results from EC prop are more preferable to the results from EC syngo
      (p<0.008). For all the test images, the results from EC prop are more preferable
      to the results from EC prev (p<0.001). Finally, the visual assessment shows that
      EC prop can preserve ATT layers, submerged polyps and folds while EC prev can
      preserve only submerged folds but fails to preserve ATT layers. CONCLUSION: From
      our implementation, EC prop can improve the performance of the existing EC, such
      that it can preserve ST, especially ATT layers and remove the artifacts at T
      junctions which have never been proposed by any other methods before.

PMID- 28870148
TI  - Accumulation of HIV-1 drug resistance in patients on a standard thymidine
      analogue-based first line antiretroviral therapy after virological failure:
      implications for the activity of next-line regimens from a longitudinal study in
      Mozambique.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We describe the accumulation of HIV-1 drug resistance and its effect
      on the activity of next-line components in patients with virological failure (HIV
      1 RNA >1000 copies/mL) after 1 year (t1) of first-line antiretroviral therapy
      (ART) not switching to second-line drugs for one additional year (t2) in low
      middle income countries (LMIC). METHODS AND RESULTS: We selected 48 patients from
      the DREAM cohort (Maputo, Mozambique); their median pre-ART CD4+ cell count was
      165 cells/MUl. At t1 patients were receiving ART since a median of 12.2 months
      (mainly zidovudine/lamivudine/nevirapine), their median HIV RNA was 3.8 log10
      copies/mL, 43 (89.6%) presented at least one resistance-associated mutation
      (RAM), most frequently for lamivudine/emtricitabine, nevirapine and efavirenz.
      Resistance to tenofovir, was 10% at 1 year and higher than 20% at 2 years, while
      projection at 3 years was >30%. At t2, 42 (89.4%) had a predicted low-level or
      higher resistance to at least 1 s-line drug. At t1, the frequency of RAM in
      patients with a lower adherence to pharmacy appointments (<95%) was significantly
      lower (12/20, 60% for NRTI and 14/20, 70% for NNRTI) than in those with a better
      adherence (26/28, 92.8% for NRTI and 25/28, 89.3% for NNRTI) (OR 0.12, 95% CI
      0.02-0.63, p = 0.012 and OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.06-1.29, p = 0.103, respectively).
      Overall thymidine analogue mutations (TAMs) accumulation rate was 0.32/year,
      0.50/year in the subgroup with HIV RNA >10,000 copies/mL; NNRTI RAM accumulation
      rate was 0.15/year, 0.40/year in the subgroup with HIV RNA >10,000 copies/mL.
      CONCLUSIONS: While the activity of NNRTIs is compromised early during failure,
      tenofovir and zidovudine activity are reduced more frequently after 1 year of
      documented virological failure of thymidine analogue-based first-line ART, with
      RAMs accumulating faster in patients with higher viral loads. The present
      observation may help informing decisions on when to switch to a second line ART
      in patients on virological failure in LMIC.

PMID- 28870149
TI  - Development of novel InDel markers and genetic diversity in Chenopodium quinoa
      through whole-genome re-sequencing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a balanced nutritional crop,
      but its breeding improvement has been limited by the lack of information on its
      genetics and genomics. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain knowledge on genomic
      variation, population structure, and genetic diversity and to develop novel
      Insertion/Deletion (InDel) markers for quinoa by whole-genome re-sequencing.
      RESULTS: We re-sequenced 11 quinoa accessions and obtained a coverage depth
      between approximately 7* to 23* the quinoa genome. Based on the 1453-megabase
      (Mb) assembly from the reference accession Riobamba, 8,441,022 filtered bi
      allelic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 842,783 filtered InDels were
      identified, with an estimated SNP and InDel density of 5.81 and 0.58 per kilobase
      (kb). From the genomic InDel variations, 85 dimorphic InDel markers were newly
      developed and validated. Together with the 62 simple sequence repeat (SSR)
      markers reported, a total of 147 markers were used for genotyping the 129 quinoa
      accessions. Molecular grouping analysis showed classification into two major
      groups, the Andean highland (composed of the northern and southern highland
      subgroups) and Chilean coastal, based on combined STRUCTURE, phylogenetic tree
      and PCA (Principle Component Analysis) analyses. Further analysis of the genetic
      diversity exhibited a decreasing tendency from the Chilean coast group to the
      Andean highland group, and the gene flow between subgroups was more frequent than
      that between the two subgroups and the Chilean coastal group. The majority of the
      variations (approximately 70%) were found through an analysis of molecular
      variation (AMOVA) due to the diversity between the groups. This was congruent
      with the observation of a highly significant FST value (0.705) between the
      groups, demonstrating significant genetic differentiation between the Andean
      highland type of quinoa and the Chilean coastal type. Moreover, a core set of 16
      quinoa germplasms that capture all 362 alleles was selected using a simulated
      annealing method. CONCLUSIONS: The large number of SNPs and InDels identified in
      this study demonstrated that the quinoa genome is enriched with genomic
      variations. Genetic population structure, genetic core germplasms and dimorphic
      InDel markers are useful resources for genetic analysis and quinoa breeding.

PMID- 28870150
TI  - Hydrogen sulfide attenuates isoflurane-induced neuroapoptosis and cognitive
      impairment in the developing rat brain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isoflurane-induced neuroapoptosis and cognitive impairment has been
      previously reported. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been shown to be a neuromodulator
      that is thought to have anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidative
      benefits. However, it is not known if H2S is protective against anesthesia
      induced apoptosis and cognitive defects. METHODS: In this study, postnatal day 7
      (P7) Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups: control group
      (normal saline), H2S group (NaHS 28 MUM/kg), isoflurane group (normal saline
      +0.75% isoflurane) and H2S preconditioning group (NaHS 28 MUM/kg + 0.75%
      isoflurane). After exposure to isoflurane for 6 h, half the numbers of rats in
      each group were euthanized, and the hippocampus and cerebral cortex were
      dissected and examined for apoptosis by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase
      mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) technique and western blot. After 6
      weeks, the remaining rats were subjected to a Morris water maze (MWM) test for
      behavioral assessment. RESULTS: The TUNEL assay and western blot showed that when
      rats were preconditioned with NaHS, neuroapoptosis decreased significantly both
      in hippocampus and cerebral cortex compering with the isofulrane group. The MWM
      showed that P7 rats administration of NaHS improved cognitive impairments induced
      by isoflurane. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrates that H2S attenuates
      isoflurane-induced neuroapoptosis and improves cognitive impairments in the
      developing rat brain.

PMID- 28870151
TI  - Progression of arterial stiffness is associated with changes in bone mineral
      markers in advanced CKD.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of all-cause and
      cardiovascular mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). There are
      limited prospective data however on progression of arterial stiffness in CKD,
      including evaluating associations with bone mineral markers such as fibroblast
      growth factor 23 (FGF23) and soluble alpha-klotho (sKl). METHODS: In this
      prospective, single-center, observational study, arterial stiffness [measured by
      pulse wave velocity (PWV)] and hormones influencing mineral homeostasis,
      including serum FGF23 and sKl, were compared between non-dialysis CKD stages 4/5
      and healthy controls at baseline and 12 months (12 m). Abdominal aortic
      calcification (AAC) was quantitated using lateral lumbar radiography at baseline.
      RESULTS: Forty patients with CKD [mean estimated glomerular filtration rate
      (eGFR) 19.5 +/- 6.7 mL/min/1.73m2] and 42 controls (mean eGFR 88.6 +/- 12.9
      mL/min/1.73m2) completed follow-up. There were no differences in age, gender and
      body mass index between groups. A significant increase in FGF23 [240.6 (141.9
      1129.8) to 396.8 (160.3-997.7) pg/mL, p = 0.001] was observed in the CKD group
      but serum phosphate, corrected calcium, parathyroid hormone and sKl did not
      change significantly over 12 m. At baseline, CKD subjects had higher AAC
      prevalence [83.8% versus (vs.) 43.6%, p = 0.002] and higher aortic PWV [9.7(7.6
      11.7) vs. 8.1 (7.2-9.7) m/s, p = 0.047] compared to controls. At 12 m, aortic PWV
      increased by 1.3 m/s (95% confidence interval, 0.56 to 2.08, p < 0.001) in the
      CKD cohort, with 30% of subjects showing progression from normal aortic
      elasticity to stiffening (PWV > 10 m/s). Serum FGF23 was associated with AAC,
      abnormal PWV and progression of PWV at 12 m. CONCLUSIONS: Arterial stiffness and
      serum FGF23, both of which are associated with increased cardiovascular risk,
      increased over one year in individuals with CKD. Additionally, a significant
      association was found between serum FGF23 and arterial calcification and
      stiffness. Larger clinical studies and further experimental work are warranted to
      delineate the temporal relationship as well as the pathological mechanisms
      linking FGF23 and vascular disease.

PMID- 28870152
TI  - Subjective patient-reported versus objective adherence to subcutaneous interferon
      beta-1a in multiple sclerosis using RebiSmart(r): the CORE study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient adherence to treatment is key to preventing the worsening of
      neurological disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). The RebiSmart(r) autoinjector
      facilitates self-administration of subcutaneous interferon beta-1a (sc IFN beta
      1a) and records objective adherence data. The CORE study was undertaken to
      evaluate the relationship between subjectively reported and objective adherence
      of MS patients using RebiSmart(r) in Switzerland and explore variables associated
      with objective adherence. METHODS: Patients with relapsing-remitting MS who were
      treated with sc IFN beta-1a 44 or 22 MUg three times weekly using RebiSmart(r)
      for at least 9 months participated in this phase IV non-interventional study.
      Neurologist questionnaires were used at month 0 to collect patient demographics,
      medical history and estimates of patients' adherence. Patient questionnaires were
      used to record subjective patient-reported adherence at month 0 and estimates of
      variables influencing adherence. Objective adherence data were obtained from the
      RebiSmart(r) log-files at months 0 and 6. RESULTS: Of 56 patients who completed
      the observation period, 53 had evaluable data. Objective adherence differed
      significantly between self-reported compliant (n = 33) and non-compliant groups
      (n = 20) (p = 0.00001). Older age, greater disability, patient's perception of
      the importance of ease of use and storage, being well informed about RebiSmart(r)
      features and neurologists' estimations of adherence were all positively
      associated with treatment adherence. CONCLUSIONS: We showed for the first time
      that subjective patient-reported adherence in MS was well in line with objective
      adherence, suggesting that the frequency of administration is reported accurately
      by patients to their neurologist. This observation may have implications for
      future treatment monitoring strategies and strategic medical decisions. Patients,
      particularly those who are younger and with lower levels of disability, may
      benefit from being better informed of the importance of being adherent to their
      treatments and receiving information about their medication and the device they
      are using.

PMID- 28870153
TI  - Myocardial infarction during anaphylaxis in a young healthy male with normal
      coronary arteries- is epinephrine the culprit?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anaphylaxis is an acute, potentially fatal medical emergency.
      Myocardial injury or infarction in the setting of an anaphylaxis can be due the
      anaphylaxis itself, when it is known as Kounis syndrome or it can also be due to
      the effect of epinephrine treatment. Epinephrine is considered as the cornerstone
      in management of anaphylaxis. Myocardial infarction secondary to therapeutic
      doses of adrenaline is a rare occurrence and only a few cases have been reported
      in literature. The mechanism of myocardial injury was considered to be due to
      coronary vasospasm secondary to epinephrine as the coronary angiograms were
      normal on these occasions. CASE PRESENTATION: A 21-year- old previously healthy
      male got admitted to the local hospital with an urticarial rash and difficulty in
      breathing, one hour after ingestion of prawns for which he was known to be
      allergic. He was treated with 0.5 ml of intramuscular adrenaline (1:1000) which
      was administered to the lateral side of the thigh, following which he developed
      palpitations and tightening type central chest pain. Electrocardiogram showed ST
      segment depressions in leads III, aVF and V1 to V5 and he was transferred to a
      tertiary care hospital. The second electrocardiogram, done 2 h later, showed
      resolution of ST segment depressions but new T inversions in leads I and aVL.
      Troponin I was elevated with a titer of 2.15 ng/ml. He was treated with
      sublingual GTN in the emergency treatment unit and the symptoms resolved.
      Transthoracic 2D echocardiogram and stress testing with treadmill was normal and
      CT coronary angiogram revealed normal coronary arteries. CONCLUSION: Here we
      present a case of a young healthy adult with no significant risk factors for
      coronary artery disease who developed myocardial infarction following
      intramuscular administration of therapeutic dose of adrenalin for an anaphylactic
      reaction. The postulated mechanism is most likely an alpha receptor mediated
      coronary vascular spasm. However the use of adrenaline in the setting of life
      threatening anaphylaxis is life saving and the benefits far outweigh the risks of
      adverse effects. Therefore the purpose of reporting this case is not to
      discourage the use of adrenaline in anaphylaxis but to make aware of this
      potential adverse effect which can occur in the acute setting.

PMID- 28870154
TI  - Projecting prevalence, costs and evaluating simulated interventions for diabetic
      end stage renal disease in a Canadian population of aboriginal and non-aboriginal
      people: an agent based approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes-related end stage renal disease (DM-ESRD) is a devastating
      consequence of the type 2 diabetes epidemic, both of which disproportionately
      affect Indigenous peoples. Projecting case numbers and costs into future decades
      would help to predict resource requirements, and simulating hypothetical
      interventions could guide the choice of best practices to mitigate current
      trends. METHODS: An agent based model (ABM) was built to forecast First Nations
      and non-First Nations cases of DM-ESRD in Saskatchewan from 1980 to 2025 and to
      simulate two hypothetical interventions. The model was parameterized with data
      from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Saskatchewan Health
      Administrative Databases, the Canadian Organ Replacement Register, published
      studies and expert judgement. Input parameters without data sources were
      estimated through model calibration. The model incorporated key patient
      characteristics, stages of diabetes and chronic kidney disease, renal replacement
      therapies, the kidney transplant assessment and waiting list processes, costs
      associated with treatment options, and death. We used this model to simulate two
      interventions: 1) No new cases of diabetes after 2005 and 2) Pre-emptive renal
      transplants carried out on all diabetic persons with new ESRD. RESULTS: There was
      a close match between empirical data and model output. Going forward, both
      incidence and prevalence cases of DM-ESRD approximately doubled from 2010 to
      2025, with 250-300 new cases per year and almost 1300 people requiring RRT by
      2025. Prevalent cases of First Nations people with DM-ESRD increased from 19% to
      27% of total DM-ESRD numbers from 1990 to 2025. The trend in yearly costs
      paralleled the prevalent DM-ESRD case count. For Scenario 1, despite eliminating
      diabetes incident cases after 2005, prevalent cases of DM-ESRD continued to rise
      until 2019 before slowly declining. When all DM-ESRD incident cases received a
      pre-emptive renal transplant (scenario 2), a substantial increase in DM-ESRD
      prevalence occurred reflecting higher survival, but total costs decreased
      reflecting the economic advantage of renal transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: This ABM
      can forecast numbers and costs of DM-ESRD in Saskatchewan and be modified for
      application in other jurisdictions. This can aid in resource planning and be used
      by policy makers to evaluate different interventions in a safe and economical
      manner.

PMID- 28870155
TI  - Pessary or Progesterone to Prevent Preterm delivery in women with short cervical
      length: the Quadruple P randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is in quantity and in severity the most important topic
      in obstetric care in the developed world. Progestogens and cervical pessaries
      have been studied as potential preventive treatments with conflicting results. So
      far, no study has compared both treatments. METHODS/DESIGN: The Quadruple P study
      aims to compare the efficacy of vaginal progesterone and cervical pessary in the
      prevention of adverse perinatal outcome associated with preterm birth in
      asymptomatic women with a short cervix, in singleton and multiple pregnancies
      separately. It is a nationwide open-label multicentre randomized clinical trial
      (RCT) with a superiority design and will be accompanied by an economic analysis.
      Pregnant women undergoing the routine anomaly scan will be offered cervical
      length measurement between 18 and 22 weeks in a singleton and at 16-22 weeks in a
      multiple pregnancy. Women with a short cervix, defined as less than, or equal to
      35 mm in a singleton and less than 38 mm in a multiple pregnancy, will be invited
      to participate in the study. Eligible women will be randomly allocated to receive
      either progesterone or a cervical pessary. Following randomization, the silicone
      cervical pessary will be placed during vaginal examination or 200 mg progesterone
      capsules will be daily self-administered vaginally. Both interventions will be
      continued until 36 weeks gestation or until delivery, whichever comes first.
      Primary outcome will be composite adverse perinatal outcome of perinatal
      mortality and perinatal morbidity including bronchopulmonary dysplasia,
      intraventricular haemorrhage grade III and IV, periventricular leukomalacia
      higher than grade I, necrotizing enterocolitis higher than stage I, Retinopathy
      of prematurity (ROP) or culture proven sepsis. These outcomes will be measured up
      until 10 weeks after the expected due date. Secondary outcomes will be, among
      others, time to delivery, preterm birth rate before 28, 32, 34 and 37 weeks,
      admission to neonatal intensive care unit, maternal morbidity, maternal admission
      days for threatened preterm labour and costs. DISCUSSION: This trial will provide
      evidence on whether vaginal progesterone or a cervical pessary is more effective
      in decreasing adverse perinatal outcome in both singletons and multiples. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Trial registration number: NTR 4414 . Date of registration January
      29th 2014.

PMID- 28870156
TI  - Generation of expressed sequence tags for discovery of genes responsible for
      floral traits of Chrysanthemum morifolium by next-generation sequencing
      technology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chrysanthemum morifolium is one of the most economically valuable
      ornamental plants worldwide. Chrysanthemum is an allohexaploid plant with a large
      genome that is commercially propagated by vegetative reproduction. New cultivars
      with different floral traits, such as color, morphology, and scent, have been
      generated mainly by classical cross-breeding and mutation breeding. However, only
      limited genetic resources and their genome information are available for the
      generation of new floral traits. RESULTS: To obtain useful information about
      molecular bases for floral traits of chrysanthemums, we read expressed sequence
      tags (ESTs) of chrysanthemums by high-throughput sequencing using the 454
      pyrosequencing technology. We constructed normalized cDNA libraries, consisting
      of full-length, 3'-UTR, and 5'-UTR cDNAs derived from various tissues of
      chrysanthemums. These libraries produced a total number of 3,772,677 high-quality
      reads, which were assembled into 213,204 contigs. By comparing the data obtained
      with those of full genome-sequenced species, we confirmed that our chrysanthemum
      contig set contained the majority of all expressed genes, which was sufficient
      for further molecular analysis in chrysanthemums. CONCLUSION: We confirmed that
      our chrysanthemum EST set (contigs) contained a number of contigs that encoded
      transcription factors and enzymes involved in pigment and aroma compound
      metabolism that was comparable to that of other species. This information can
      serve as an informative resource for identifying genes involved in various
      biological processes in chrysanthemums. Moreover, the findings of our study will
      contribute to a better understanding of the floral characteristics of
      chrysanthemums including the myriad cultivars at the molecular level.

PMID- 28870158
TI  - Erratum to: Lipid emulsion mitigates impaired pulmonary function induced by limb
      I/R in rats through attenuation of local cellular injury and the subsequent
      systemic inflammatory response/inflammation.

PMID- 28870157
TI  - Ten important articles on noninvasive ventilation in critically ill patients and
      insights for the future: A report of expert opinions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Noninvasive ventilation is used worldwide in many settings. Its
      effectiveness has been proven for common clinical conditions in critical care
      such as cardiogenic pulmonary edema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      exacerbations. Since the first pioneering studies of noninvasive ventilation in
      critical care in the late 1980s, thousands of studies and articles have been
      published on this topic. Interestingly, some aspects remain controversial (e.g.
      its use in de-novo hypoxemic respiratory failure, role of sedation, self-induced
      lung injury). Moreover, the role of NIV has recently been questioned and
      reconsidered in light of the recent reports of new techniques such as high-flow
      oxygen nasal therapy. METHODS: We conducted a survey among leading experts on NIV
      aiming to 1) identify a selection of 10 important articles on NIV in the critical
      care setting 2) summarize the reasons for the selection of each study 3) offer
      insights on the future for both clinical application and research on NIV.
      RESULTS: The experts selected articles over a span of 26 years, more clustered in
      the last 15 years. The most voted article studied the role of NIV in acute
      exacerbation chronic pulmonary disease. Concerning the future of clinical
      applications for and research on NIV, most of the experts forecast the
      development of innovative new interfaces more adaptable to patients
      characteristics, the need for good well-designed large randomized controlled
      trials of NIV in acute "de novo" hypoxemic respiratory failure (including its
      comparison with high-flow oxygen nasal therapy) and the development of software
      based NIV settings to enhance patient-ventilator synchrony. CONCLUSIONS: The
      selection made by the experts suggests that some applications of NIV in critical
      care are supported by solid data (e.g. COPD exacerbation) while others are still
      waiting for confirmation. Moreover, the identified insights for the future would
      lead to improved clinical effectiveness, new comparisons and evaluation of its
      role in still "lack of full evidence" clinical settings.

PMID- 28870159
TI  - Obstetric professionals' perceptions of non-invasive prenatal testing for Down
      syndrome: clinical usefulness compared with existing tests and ethical
      implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for fetal aneuploidy is
      commercially available in many countries, little is known about how obstetric
      professionals in non-Western populations perceive the clinical usefulness of NIPT
      in comparison with existing first-trimester combined screening (FTS) for Down
      syndrome (DS) or invasive prenatal diagnosis (IPD), or perceptions of their
      ethical concerns arising from the use of NIPT. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey
      among 327 obstetric professionals (237 midwives, 90 obstetricians) in Hong Kong.
      RESULTS: Compared to FTS, NIPT was believed to: provide more psychological
      benefits and enable earlier consideration of termination of pregnancy. Compared
      to IPD, NIPT was believed to: provide less psychological stress for high-risk
      women and more psychological assurance for low-risk women, and offer an advantage
      to detect chromosomal abnormalities earlier. Significant differences in perceived
      clinical usefulness were found by profession and healthcare sector: (1)
      obstetricians reported more certain views towards the usefulness of NIPT than
      midwives and (2) professionals in the public sector perceived less usefulness of
      NIPT than the private sector. Beliefs about earlier detection of DS using NIPT
      were associated with ethical concerns about increasing abortion. Participants
      believing that NIPT provided psychological assurance among low-risk women were
      less likely to be concerned about ethical issues relating to informed decision
      making and pre-test consultation for NIPT. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest the
      need for political debate initially on how to ensure pregnant women accessing
      public services are informed about commercially available more advanced
      technology, but also on the potential implementation of NIPT within public
      services to improve access and equity to DS screening services.

PMID- 28870160
TI  - TREK-1 mediates isoflurane-induced cytotoxicity in astrocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are growing concerns that anaesthetic exposure can cause
      extensive apoptotic degeneration of neurons and the impairment of normal synaptic
      development and remodelling. However, little attention has been paid to exploring
      the possible cytotoxicity of inhalation anaesthetics, such as isoflurane, in
      astrocytes. In this research, we determined that prolonged exposure to an
      inhalation anaesthetic caused cytotoxicity in astrocytes, and we identified the
      underlying molecular mechanism responsible for this process. METHODS: Astrocytes
      were exposed to isoflurane, and astrocytic survival was then measured via LDH
      release assays, MTT assays, and TUNEL staining. TWIK-related potassium (K+)
      channel-1 (TREK-1) over-expression and knockdown models were also created using
      lentiviruses. The levels of TREK-1 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
      were measured via Western blot and qRT-PCR. RESULTS: Prolonged exposure to
      isoflurane decreased primary astrocytic viability in a dose- and time-dependent
      manner. Moreover, with prolonged exposure to isoflurane, the TREK-1 level
      increased, and the BDNF level was reduced. TREK-1 knockdown promoted the survival
      of astrocytes and increased BDNF expression following isoflurane exposure.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overdoses of and prolonged exposure to isoflurane induce
      cytotoxicity in primary astrocytes. TREK-1 plays an important role in isoflurane
      induced cultured astrocytic cytotoxicity by down-regulating the expression of
      BDNF.

PMID- 28870161
TI  - Chronic dialysis, NAT2 polymorphisms, and the risk of isoniazid-induced
      encephalopathy - case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isoniazid is the most widely used anti-tuberculosis agent, yet it may
      lead to life-threatening complications. CASE PRESENTATION: Here we report the
      case of a chronic hemodialysis patient who developed severe encephalopathy after
      the start of isoniazid. Blood levels of isoniazid were elevated, and acetyl
      isoniazid over isoniazid ratio was decreased 3 h after intake of the medication,
      suggesting that a slow acetylator phenotype may have contributed to drug
      toxicity, in addition to pyridoxal phosphate removal by dialysis. This hypothesis
      was confirmed by sequencing of NAT2, the gene responsible for isoniazid
      elimination, and identification of NAT2 polymorphisms compatible with a slow
      acetylator phenotype. Isoniazid withdrawal along with supplementation using high
      doses of pyridoxine successfully reversed the drug toxicity. Isoniazid toxicity
      occurs in populations at risk, including patients with chronic kidney failure or
      NAT2 polymorphisms, who have a disturbed metabolism of pyridoxine or isoniazid,
      respectively, and those on renal replacement therapies, in whom pyridoxal
      phosphate - the active metabolite of pyridoxine - is inadvertently removed by
      dialysis. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians should be aware of the increased risk of
      isoniazid toxicity in patients on dialysis and in those with a slow acetylator
      phenotype conferred by NAT2 polymorphisms. Adaptation of prescription - either
      with higher doses of pyridoxine or decreased doses of isoniazid, respectively -
      has been suggested to reduce the risk of potentially life-threatening toxicity of
      isoniazid.

PMID- 28870162
TI  - Estimation of utility weights for major liver diseases according to disease
      severity in Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The global burden of liver diseases, such as hepatocellular carcinoma
      and liver cirrhosis, is substantial. In this study, we estimated utility weights
      of liver disease-related health states in the general population using a visual
      analogue scale (VAS) and the standard gamble (SG) method. METHODS: Depictions of
      standardized health states related to major liver diseases were developed based
      on patient education materials and previous publications. To fully reflect
      disease progression from diagnosis to prognosis, each health state comprised four
      parts: diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, and progression and prognosis. A total of
      407 participants from the Korean general population evaluated the health states
      using the VAS and SG methods in computer-assisted personal interviews. After
      excluding illogical responses, mean utility weights were calculated for each
      health state. RESULTS: The utility weights for health states were significantly
      different according to the existence of inconsistency in general. According to
      the VAS results, the health state with the highest utility was 'Chronic hepatitis
      B virus infection' (0.64), whereas the health state with the lowest utility was
      'Hepatocellular carcinoma that requires palliative therapy' (0.17). Similarly,
      the SG results revealed that the health state with the highest utility was
      'Chronic hepatitis B virus infection' (0.85), and the health state with the
      lowest utility was 'Hepatocellular carcinoma that requires palliative therapy'
      (0.40). CONCLUSIONS: The estimated utility weights in this study will be useful
      to measure the burden of liver diseases and evaluate cost-utility of programs for
      reducing the burden of liver diseases.

PMID- 28870163
TI  - Comparison of the SupremeTM and ProSealTM laryngeal mask airways in infants: a
      prospective randomised clinical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The SupremeTM and ProSealTM laryngeal mask airways (LMAs) are widely
      used in paediatric anaesthesia; however, LMA use in infants is limited because
      many anaesthesiologists prefer to use tracheal intubation in infants. In this
      study, we compared the Supreme and ProSeal LMAs in infants by measuring their
      performance characteristics, including insertion features, ventilation
      parameters, induced changes in haemodynamics and rates of postoperative
      complications. METHODS: Infants of ASA physical status I scheduled for elective,
      minor, lower abdominal surgery were divided into two groups: the Supreme LMA
      group and the ProSeal LMA group. Times and ease of LMA insertion were noted. The
      percentages of tidal volume leakage as well as peak, mean and leakage pressures
      for all infants were measured. Heart rate (HR), oxygen saturation (SpO2) and end
      tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) values were recorded before and after LMA insertion
      and before and after extubation. After extubation, complications and adverse
      effects were noted. RESULTS: Demographic and surgical data were similar between
      the two groups. LMA insertion times were shorter for the ProSeal group than for
      the Supreme group (P < 0.002). The mean HR value for the ProSeal group was lower
      than for the Supreme group (P < 0.011). Both the peak pressure and the leakage
      percentage for the ProSeal group were statistically lower than for the Supreme
      group. The leakage pressure for the ProSeal group was statistically higher than
      for the Supreme group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The ProSeal LMA is superior to
      the Supreme LMA for use in infants due to the ease of insertion, high
      oropharyngeal leakage pressure and fewer induced changes in haemodynamics. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrial.gov, NCT03251105 , retrospectively registered on 15
      Aug 2017.

PMID- 28870164
TI  - Attention and motor deficits index non-specific background liabilities that
      predict autism recurrence in siblings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent research has demonstrated that subclinical autistic traits of
      parents amplify the effects of deleterious mutations in the causation of autism
      spectrum disorder (ASD) in their offspring. Here, we examined the extent to which
      two neurodevelopmental traits that are non-specific to ASD
      inattention/hyperactivity and motor coordination-might contribute to ASD
      recurrence in siblings of ASD probands. METHODS: Data from a quantitative trait
      study of 114 ASD probands and their brothers, 26% of whom also had ASD, were
      analyzed. Autistic trait severity was ascertained using the Social Responsiveness
      Scale-2, attention/hyperactivity problems using the Achenbach System of
      Empirically Based Assessment, and motor coordination (in a subset of
      participants) using the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire.
      RESULTS: Among siblings (affected and unaffected), both categorical recurrence of
      ASD (Nagelkerke R 2 = 0.53) and quantitative ASD trait burden (R 2 = 0.55) were
      predicted by sibling ADHD and motor coordination impairment scores, even though
      these traits, on average, were not elevated among the unaffected siblings.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings in a clinical family cohort confirm observations from
      general population studies that inattention/hyperactivity and motor impairment
      axes of behavioral development that are non-specific to ASD, and often
      appreciable before ASD is typically diagnosed-jointly account for over 50% of the
      variation in autistic impairment of siblings, whether ascertained quantitatively
      or categorically. This finding within a sibling design suggests that background
      ASD susceptibilities that are inherited but non-specific ("BASINS") may
      contribute to additive genetic liability in the same manner that ASD-specific
      susceptibilities (such as parental subclinical ASD traits and deleterious
      mutations) engender ASD risk.

PMID- 28870165
TI  - Myosin repertoire expansion coincides with eukaryotic diversification in the
      Mesoproterozoic era.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The last eukaryotic common ancestor already had an amazingly complex
      cell possessing genomic and cellular features such as spliceosomal introns,
      mitochondria, cilia-dependent motility, and a cytoskeleton together with several
      intracellular transport systems. In contrast to the microtubule-based dyneins and
      kinesins, the actin-filament associated myosins are considerably divergent in
      extant eukaryotes and a unifying picture of their evolution has not yet emerged.
      RESULTS: Here, we manually assembled and annotated 7852 myosins from 929
      eukaryotes providing an unprecedented dense sequence and taxonomic sampling. For
      classification we complemented phylogenetic analyses with gene structure
      comparisons resulting in 79 distinct myosin classes. The intron pattern analysis
      and the taxonomic distribution of the classes suggest two myosins in the last
      eukaryotic common ancestor, a class-1 prototype and another myosin, which is most
      likely the ancestor of all other myosin classes. The sparse distribution of class
      2 and class-4 myosins outside their major lineages contradicts their presence in
      the last eukaryotic common ancestor but instead strongly suggests early eukaryote
      eukaryote horizontal gene transfer. CONCLUSIONS: By correlating the evolution of
      myosin diversity with the history of Earth we found that myosin innovation
      occurred in independent major "burst" events in the major eukaryotic lineages.
      Most myosin inventions happened in the Mesoproterozoic era. In the late
      Neoproterozoic era, a process of extensive independent myosin loss began
      simultaneously with further eukaryotic diversification. Since the Cambrian
      explosion, myosin repertoire expansion is driven by lineage- and species-specific
      gene and genome duplications leading to subfunctionalization and fine-tuning of
      myosin functions.

PMID- 28870166
TI  - Injurious falls and subsequent adverse drug events among elderly - a Swedish
      population-based matched case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fall injuries are stressful and painful and they have a range of
      serious consequences for older people. While there is some clinical evidence of
      unintentional poisoning by medication following a severe fall injuries,
      population-based studies on that association are lacking. This is investigated in
      the current study, in which attention is also paid to different clinical
      conditions of the injured patients. METHODS: We conducted a matched case-control
      study of Swedish residents 60 years and older from various Swedish population
      based registers. Cases defined as adverse drug events (ADE) by unintentional
      poisoning leading to hospitalization or death were extracted from the National
      Patient Register (NPR) and the Cause of Death Register from January 2006 to
      December 2009 (n = 4418). To each case, four controls were matched by sex, age
      and residential area. Information on injurious falls leading to hospitalization
      six months prior to the date of hospital admission or death from ADE by
      unintentional poisoning, and corresponding date for the controls, was extracted
      from the NPR. Data on clinical conditions, such as dispensed medications,
      comorbidity and previous fall injuries were also extracted from the Swedish
      Prescribed Drug Register (SPDR) and NPR. Effect estimates were calculated using
      conditional logistic regression and presented as odds ratios (OR) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: We found a three-fold increased risk of
      unintentional poisoning by medication in the six-month period after an injurious
      fall (OR 3.03; 95% CI, 2.54-3.74), with the most pronounced increase 1-3 weeks
      immediately after (OR, 7.66; 95% CI, 4.86-12.1). In that time window, from among
      those hospitalized for a fall (n = 92), those who sustained an unintentional
      poisoning (n = 60) tended to be in poorer health condition and receive more
      prescribed medications than those who did not, although this was not
      statistically significant. Age stratified analyses revealed a higher risk of
      poisoning among the younger (aged 60-79 years) than older elderly (80+ years).
      CONCLUSION: Medication-related poisoning leading to hospitalization or death can
      be an ADE subsequent to an episode of hospitalization for a fall-related injury.
      Poisoning is more likely to occur closer to the injurious event and among the
      younger elderly. It cannot be ruled out that some of those falls are themselves
      ADE and early signs of greater vulnerability among certain patients.

PMID- 28870167
TI  - Identification of microRNAs controlling hepatic mRNA levels for metabolic genes
      during the metabolic transition from embryonic to posthatch development in the
      chicken.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The transition from embryonic to posthatch development in the chicken
      represents a massive metabolic switch from primarily lipolytic to primarily
      lipogenic metabolism. This metabolic switch is essential for the chick to
      successfully transition from the metabolism of stored egg yolk to the utilization
      of carbohydrate-based feed. However, regulation of this metabolic switch is not
      well understood. We hypothesized that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role
      in the metabolic switch that is essential to efficient growth of chickens. We
      used high-throughput RNA sequencing to characterize expression profiles of mRNA
      and miRNA in liver during late embryonic and early posthatch development of the
      chicken. This extensive data set was used to define the contributions of
      microRNAs to the metabolic switch during development that is critical to growth
      and nutrient utilization in chickens. RESULTS: We found that expression of over
      800 mRNAs and 30 miRNAs was altered in the embryonic liver between embryonic day
      18 and posthatch day 3, and many of these differentially expressed mRNAs and
      miRNAs are associated with metabolic processes. We confirmed the regulation of
      some of these mRNAs by miRNAs expressed in a reciprocal pattern using luciferase
      reporter assays. Finally, through the use of yeast one-hybrid screens, we
      identified several proteins that likely regulate expression of one of these
      important miRNAs. CONCLUSIONS: Integration of the upstream regulatory mechanisms
      governing miRNA expression along with monitoring the downstream effects of this
      expression will ultimately allow for the construction of complete miRNA
      regulatory networks associated with the hepatic metabolic switch in chickens. Our
      findings support a key role for miRNAs in controlling the metabolic switch that
      occurs between embryonic and posthatch development in the chicken.

PMID- 28870168
TI  - Dual RNA-seq reveals no plastic transcriptional response of the coccidian
      parasite Eimeria falciformis to host immune defenses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parasites can either respond to differences in immune defenses that
      exist between individual hosts plastically or, alternatively, follow a
      genetically canalized ("hard wired") program of infection. Assuming that large
      scale functional plasticity would be discernible in the parasite transcriptome we
      have performed a dual RNA-seq study of the lifecycle of Eimeria falciformis using
      infected mice with different immune status as models for coccidian infections.
      RESULTS: We compared parasite and host transcriptomes (dual transcriptome)
      between naive and challenge infected mice, as well as between immune competent
      and immune deficient ones. Mice with different immune competence show
      transcriptional differences as well as differences in parasite reproduction
      (oocyst shedding). Broad gene categories represented by differently abundant host
      genes indicate enrichments for immune reaction and tissue repair functions. More
      specifically, TGF-beta, EGF, TNF and IL-1 and IL-6 are examples of functional
      annotations represented differently depending on host immune status. Much in
      contrast, parasite transcriptomes were neither different between Coccidia
      isolated from immune competent and immune deficient mice, nor between those
      harvested from naive and challenge infected mice. Instead, parasite
      transcriptomes have distinct profiles early and late in infection, characterized
      largely by biosynthesis or motility associated functional gene groups,
      respectively. Extracellular sporozoite and oocyst stages showed distinct
      transcriptional profiles and sporozoite transcriptomes were found enriched for
      species specific genes and likely pathogenicity factors. CONCLUSION: We propose
      that the niche and host-specific parasite E. falciformis uses a genetically
      canalized program of infection. This program is likely fixed in an evolutionary
      process rather than employing phenotypic plasticity to interact with its host.
      This in turn might limit the potential of the parasite to adapt to new host
      species or niches, forcing it to coevolve with its host.

PMID- 28870169
TI  - Determinants of physical activity frequency and provider advice during pregnancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our aims were to (1) describe the frequency of physical activity and
      prenatal healthcare provider advice about physical activity during pregnancy and
      (2) examine determinants and correlates of 3rd trimester physical activity and
      receipt of physical activity advice. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2008
      Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. We studied 2669 women from North
      Carolina and Colorado with data on physical activity frequency in the 3 months
      prior to pregnancy and during the 3rd trimester and 1584 women from Oklahoma with
      data on provider advice regarding physical activity during pregnancy. Respondents
      reported physical activity, defined as 30 min or more of exercise/physical
      activity (excluding vocationally related activity), in in these categories: <1
      day/week, 1-4 days/week, and >=5 days/week. We defined adherence to American
      College of Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG) criteria as physical activity >=5
      days/week in the 3rd trimester. We performed logistic regression analyses
      weighted for sampling and adjusted for socio-demographic factors. RESULTS: Forty
      two percent of women in North Carolina and Colorado reported 3rd trimester
      physical activity <1 day/week, 42% 1-4 days/week, 9% >=5 days/week; 7% reported
      being told not to exercise. Seventy-two percent of women in Oklahoma reported
      receiving physical activity advice from a prenatal care provider. Low activity
      frequency (<1 day/week) prior to pregnancy was strongly associated with low
      likelihood of ACOG guideline adherence in the 3rd trimester (aOR 0.10, 95% CU
      0.04, 0.30 vs. 1-4 days/week). Underweight women were more likely to adhere to
      ACOG guidelines than normal weight women (aOR 2.27, 95% CI 1.36, 3.79).
      Overweight women were more likely to receive physical activity advice (aOR 2.9,
      95% CI 1.3, 6.3 vs. normal weight), but obese women were not (aOR 0.65, 95% CI
      0.4, 1.2). CONCLUSIONS: Few women meet ACOG guideline criteria for physical
      activity during pregnancy. Improving physical activity and weight status prior to
      pregnancy may improve activity levels during pregnancy. Nearly one third did not
      receive advice about physical activity during prenatal care. Obese women were no
      more likely to receive advice than their normal weight counterparts, indicating
      the need for targeted physical activity counseling in this population.

PMID- 28870170
TI  - Analysis of the genome sequence of Phomopsis longicolla: a fungal pathogen
      causing Phomopsis seed decay in soybean.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phomopsis longicolla T. W. Hobbs (syn. Diaporthe longicolla) is a
      seed-borne fungus causing Phomopsis seed decay in soybean. This disease is one of
      the most devastating diseases reducing soybean seed quality worldwide. To
      facilitate investigation of the genomic basis of pathogenicity and to understand
      the mechanism of the disease development, the genome of an isolate, MSPL10-6,
      from Mississippi, USA was sequenced, de novo assembled, and analyzed. RESULTS:
      The genome of MSPL 10-6 was estimated to be approximately 62 Mb in size with an
      overall G + C content of 48.6%. Of 16,597 predicted genes, 9866 genes (59.45%)
      had significant matches to genes in the NCBI nr database, while 18.01% of them
      did not link to any gene ontology classification, and 9.64% of genes did not
      significantly match any known genes. Analysis of the 1221 putative genes that
      encoded carbohydrate-activated enzymes (CAZys) indicated that 715 genes belong to
      three classes of CAZy that have a direct role in degrading plant cell walls. A
      novel fungal ulvan lyase (PL24; EC 4.2.2.-) was identified. Approximately 12.7%
      of the P. longicolla genome consists of repetitive elements. A total of 510
      potentially horizontally transferred genes were identified. They appeared to
      originate from 22 other fungi, 26 eubacteria and 5 archaebacteria. CONCLUSIONS:
      The genome of the P. longicolla isolate MSPL10-6 represented the first reported
      genome sequence in the fungal Diaporthe-Phomopsis complex causing soybean
      diseases. The genome contained a number of Pfams not described previously.
      Information obtained from this study enhances our knowledge about this seed-borne
      pathogen and will facilitate further research on the genomic basis and
      pathogenicity mechanism of P. longicolla and aids in development of improved
      strategies for efficient management of Phomopsis seed decay in soybean.

PMID- 28870171
TI  - Evolution of mobile genetic element composition in an epidemic methicillin
      resistant Staphylococcus aureus: temporal changes correlated with frequent loss
      and gain events.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Horizontal transfer of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) that carry
      virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes mediates the evolution of
      methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and the emergence of new MRSA
      clones. Most MRSA lineages show an association with specific MGEs and the
      evolution of MGE composition following clonal expansion has not been widely
      studied. RESULTS: We investigated the genomes of 1193 S. aureus bloodstream
      isolates, 1169 of which were MRSA, collected in the UK and the Republic of
      Ireland between 2001 and 2010. The majority of isolates belonged to clonal
      complex (CC)22 (n = 923), which contained diverse MGEs including elements that
      were found in other MRSA lineages. Several MGEs showed variable distribution
      across the CC22 phylogeny, including two antimicrobial resistance plasmids
      (pWBG751-like and SAP078A-like, carrying erythromycin and heavy metal resistance
      genes, respectively), a pathogenicity island carrying the enterotoxin C gene and
      two phage types Sa1int and Sa6int. Multiple gains and losses of these five MGEs
      were identified in the CC22 phylogeny using ancestral state reconstruction.
      Analysis of the temporal distribution of the five MGEs between 2001 and 2010
      revealed an unexpected reduction in prevalence of the two plasmids and the
      pathogenicity island, and an increase in the two phage types. This occurred
      across the lineage and was not correlated with changes in the relative prevalence
      of CC22, or of any sub-lineages within in. CONCLUSIONS: Ancestral state
      reconstruction coupled with temporal trend analysis demonstrated that epidemic
      MRSA CC22 has an evolving MGE composition, and indicates that this important MRSA
      lineage has continued to adapt to changing selective pressure since its
      emergence.

PMID- 28870172
TI  - The lysin motif-containing proteins, Lyp1, Lyk7 and LysMe3, play important roles
      in chitin perception and defense against Verticillium dahliae in cotton.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lysin motif (LysM)-containing proteins are important pattern
      recognition receptors (PRRs) in plants, which function in the perception of
      microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) and in the defense against
      pathogenic attack. To date, the LysM genes have not been systematically analyzed
      in cotton or effectively utilized for disease resistance. RESULTS: Here, we
      identified 29, 30, 60, and 56 LysM genes in the four sequenced cotton species,
      diploid Gossypium raimondii, diploid G. arboreum, tetraploid G. hirsutum acc. TM
      1, and G. barbadense acc. 3-79, respectively. These LysM genes were classified
      into four groups with different structural characteristics and a variety of
      expression patterns in different organs and tissues when induced by chitin or
      Verticillium dahliae. We further characterized three genes, Lyp1, Lyk7 and
      LysMe3, which showed significant increase in expression in response to chitin
      signals, V. dahliae challenge and several stress-related signaling compounds.
      Lyp1, Lyk7 and LysMe3 proteins were localized to the plasma membrane, and
      silencing of their expression in cotton drastically impaired salicylic acid,
      jasmonic acid, and reactive oxygen species generation, impaired defense gene
      activation, and compromised resistance to V. dahliae. CONCLUSION: Our results
      indicate that Lyp1, Lyk7, and LysMe3 are important PRRs that function in the
      recognition of chitin signals to activate the downstream defense processes and
      induce cotton defense mechanisms against V. dahliae.

PMID- 28870173
TI  - Children with respiratory tract infections in Swedish primary care; prevalence of
      antibiotic resistance in common respiratory tract pathogens and relation to
      antibiotic consumption.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of antibiotics consumed in developed countries are
      prescribed in primary care. However, little is known about resistance levels in
      the primary care population. METHOD: Nasopharyngeal cultures were obtained from
      children, 0-10 years of age, seeking care at their Primary Health Care Centre
      with symptoms of respiratory tract infection. Parental questionnaires were used
      to retrieve information about the child's previous antibiotic consumption.
      RESULT: Cultures from 340 children were gathered. The level of resistant
      Haemophilus influenzae was low and the prevalence of penicillin non-susceptible
      pneumococci (PNSP MIC >= 0.125 mg/L) was 6% compared to 10% (p = 0.31) in
      corresponding cultures from children diagnosed at the local clinical microbiology
      laboratory. Antibiotic treatment within the previous 4 weeks predisposed for
      resistant bacteria in the nasopharynx, OR: 3.08, CI 95% (1.13-8.42). CONCLUSION:
      Low prevalence of PNSP supports the use of phenoxymethylpenicillin as empirical
      treatment for childhood upper respiratory tract infections attending primary care
      in our setting. It is important that studies on resistance are performed in
      primary care populations to evaluate data from microbiological laboratories.
      Recent antibiotic treatment increases risk of bacterial resistance in children
      and continuous work to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing should be
      prioritised.

PMID- 28870174
TI  - Local CD34-positive capillaries decrease in mouse models of kidney disease
      associating with the severity of glomerular and tubulointerstitial lesions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The renal vasculature plays important roles in both homeostasis and
      pathology. In this study, we examined pathological changes in the renal
      microvascular in mouse models of kidney diseases. METHODS: Glomerular lesions
      (GLs) in autoimmune disease-prone male BXSB/MpJ-Yaa (Yaa) mice and
      tubulointerstitial lesions (TILs) in male C57BL/6 mice subjected to unilateral
      ureteral obstruction (UUO) for 7 days were studied. Collected kidneys were
      examined using histopathological techniques. A nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test
      (P < 0.05) was performed to compare healthy controls and the experimental mice.
      The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare three or more groups, and multiple
      comparisons were performed using Scheffe's method when significant differences
      were observed (P < 0.05). RESULTS: Yaa mice developed severe autoimmune
      glomerulonephritis, and the number of CD34+ glomerular capillaries decreased
      significantly in GLs compared to that in control mice. However, UUO-treated mice
      showed severe TILs only, and CD34+ tubulointerstitial capillaries were decreased
      significantly in TILs with the progression of tubulointerstitial fibrosis
      compared to those in untreated control kidneys. Infiltrations of B-cells, T
      cells, and macrophages increased significantly in the respective lesions of both
      disease models (P < 0.05). In observations of vascular corrosion casts by
      scanning electron microscopy and of microfil rubber-perfused thick kidney
      sections by fluorescence microscopy, segmental absences of capillaries were
      observed in the GLs and TILs of Yaa and UUO-treated mice, respectively. Further,
      transmission electron microscopy revealed capillary endothelial injury in the
      respective lesions of both models. The numbers of CD34+ glomerular and
      tubulointerstitial capillaries were negatively correlated with all examined
      parameters in GLs (P < 0.05) and TILs (P < 0.01), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: From
      the analysis of mouse models, we identified inverse pathological correlations
      between the number of local capillaries in GLs and TILs and the severity of
      kidney diseases.

PMID- 28870175
TI  - Treatment outcomes for isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis under program conditions
      in British Columbia, Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Every year, over 1 million people develop isoniazid (INH) resistant
      tuberculosis (TB). Yet, the optimal treatment regimen remains unclear. Given
      increasing prevalence, the clinical efficacy of regimens used by physicians is of
      interest. This study aims to examine treatment outcomes of INH resistant TB
      patients, treated under programmatic conditions in British Columbia, Canada.
      METHODS: Medical charts were retrospectively reviewed for cases of culture
      confirmed INH mono-resistant TB reported to the BC Centre for Disease Control
      (BCCDC) from 2002 to 2014. Treatment regimens, patient and strain
      characteristics, and clinical outcomes were analysed. RESULTS: One hundred sixty
      five cases of INH mono-resistant TB were included in analysis and over 30
      different treatment regimens were prescribed. Median treatment duration was 10.5
      months (IQR 9-12 months) and treatment was extended beyond 12 months for 26
      patients (15.8%). Fifty six patients (22.6%) experienced an adverse event that
      resulted in a drug regimen modification. Overall, 140 patients (84.8%) had a
      successful treatment outcome while 12 (7.2%) had an unsuccessful treatment
      outcome of failure (n = 2; 1.2%), relapse (n = 4; 2.4%) or all cause mortality (n
      = 6; 3.6%). CONCLUSION: Our treatment outcomes, while consistent with findings
      reported from other studies in high resource settings, raise concerns about
      current recommendations for INH resistant TB treatment. Only a small proportion
      of patients completed the recommended treatment regimens. High quality studies to
      confirm the effectiveness of standardized regimens are urgently needed, with
      special consideration given to trials utilizing fluoroquinolones.

PMID- 28870176
TI  - Toward a better judgment of item relevance in progress testing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Items must be relevant to ensure item quality and test validity.
      Since "item relevance" has not been operationalized yet, we developed a rubric to
      define it. This study explores the influence of this rubric on the assessment of
      item relevance and on inter-rater agreement. METHODS: Members of the item review
      committee (RC) and students, teachers, and alumni (STA) reassessed the relevance
      of 50 previously used progress test (PT) items and decided about their inclusion
      using a 5-criteria rubric. Data were analyzed at item level using paired samples
      t-tests, Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), and linear regression
      analysis, and at rater level in a generalizability analysis per group. RESULTS:
      The proportion of items that the RC judged relevant enough to be included
      decreased substantially from 1.00 to 0.72 (p < 0.001). Agreement between the RC
      and STA was high, with an ICC of >0.7 across items. The relation between
      inclusion and relevance was strong (correlation = 0.89, p < 0.001), and did not
      differ between RC and STA. To achieve an acceptable inter-rater reliability for
      relevance and inclusion, 6 members must serve on the RC. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the
      rubric results in a stricter evaluation of items' appropriateness for inclusion
      in the PT and facilitates agreement between the RC and other stakeholders. Hence,
      it may help increase the acceptability and validity of the PT.

PMID- 28870177
TI  - Will Chinese external therapy with compound Tripterygium wilfordii hook F gel
      safely control disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: design of
      a double-blinded randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chinese external therapy (CET) is a topical application with mainly
      Chinese herb medicine therapy with thousands of years of historical implications
      and is a clinical routine that is commonly used for relieving joint-related
      symptoms in patients with arthritis in Chinese hospitals. However, there is a
      paucity of modern medical evidence to support its effectiveness and safety. Thus,
      we propose to implement a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical
      trial in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using, as the experimental
      intervention, topical application of a hospital-compounded gel preparation of
      Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF). METHODS: This study will be an 8-week
      double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted at
      Guang'anmen Hospital in Beijing, China, and 168 patients with moderately active
      RA will be randomly assigned with a 1:1 ratio to apply a topical gel preparation
      containing TwHF or placebo. The primary outcome variable will be the proportion
      of subjects, by study group, to achieve a 20% improvement in the American College
      of Rheumatology criteria (ACR20) by week 8. Secondary outcome measures to be
      assessed at weeks 4 or 8 will include: measurement of ACR20 response rate at week
      4, ACR50 response rate, the changes in DAS28 score, and joint synovitis
      classification assessment monitored by musculoskeletal ultrasound. Safety
      evaluations conducted at weeks 4, 8 and 12 will be based on spontaneous
      complaints by the study subjects, but special emphasis will be focused on
      cutaneous allergy and alterations of menstruation in premenopausal female
      participants. Statistical analyses will be performed using the intention to treat
      analysis data set. DISCUSSION: This proposed clinical trail is designed to
      evaluate the efficacy and safety of CET based on a single topically-applied agent
      in a relatively large patient population with RA. This study protocol gives a
      detailed description of the usage and dosage of the topical compound TwHF gel and
      the methodology of this study. In addition, it is hoped that the outcomes of this
      study will be viewed as supporting the generalizability of CET in the setting of
      inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The results of this study are expected to have
      important public health implications for Asian RA patients that currently utilize
      CET as a complimentary treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trial gov
      Identifier: NCT02818361 . Registrated on Jun. 15, 2016.

PMID- 28870178
TI  - Using total quality management approach to improve patient safety by preventing
      medication error incidences*.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whereas one of the predominant causes of medication errors is a drug
      administration error, a previous study related to our investigations and reviews
      estimated that the incidences of medication errors constituted 6.7 out of 100
      administrated medication doses. Therefore, we aimed by using six sigma approach
      to propose a way that reduces these errors to become less than 1 out of 100
      administrated medication doses by improving healthcare professional education and
      clearer handwritten prescriptions. METHODS: The study was held in a General
      Government Hospital. First, we systematically studied the current medication use
      process. Second, we used six sigma approach by utilizing the five-step DMAIC
      process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Implement, Control) to find out the real
      reasons behind such errors. This was to figure out a useful solution to avoid
      medication error incidences in daily healthcare professional practice. Data sheet
      was used in Data tool and Pareto diagrams were used in Analyzing tool. RESULTS:
      In our investigation, we reached out the real cause behind administrated
      medication errors. As Pareto diagrams used in our study showed that the fault
      percentage in administrated phase was 24.8%, while the percentage of errors
      related to prescribing phase was 42.8%, 1.7 folds. This means that the mistakes
      in prescribing phase, especially because of the poor handwritten prescriptions
      whose percentage in this phase was 17.6%, are responsible for the consequent)
      mistakes in this treatment process later on. Therefore, we proposed in this study
      an effective low cost strategy based on the behavior of healthcare workers as
      Guideline Recommendations to be followed by the physicians. This method can be a
      prior caution to decrease errors in prescribing phase which may lead to decrease
      the administrated medication error incidences to less than 1%. CONCLUSION: This
      improvement way of behavior can be efficient to improve hand written
      prescriptions and decrease the consequent errors related to administrated
      medication doses to less than the global standard; as a result, it enhances
      patient safety. However, we hope other studies will be made later in hospitals to
      practically evaluate how much effective our proposed systematic strategy really
      is in comparison with other suggested remedies in this field.

PMID- 28870181
TI  - "Engaging with birth stories in pregnancy: a hermeneutic phenomenological study
      of women's experiences across two generations".
AB  - BACKGROUND: The birth story has been widely understood as a crucial source of
      knowledge about childbirth. What has not been reported is the effect that birth
      stories may have on primigravid women's understandings of birth. Findings are
      presented from a qualitative study exploring how two generations of women came to
      understand birth in the milieu of other's stories. The prior assumption was that
      birth stories must surely have a positive or negative influence on listeners,
      steering them towards either medical or midwifery-led models of care. METHODS: A
      Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used. Twenty UK
      participants were purposively selected and interviewed. Findings from the initial
      sample of 10 women who were pregnant in 2012 indicated that virtual media was a
      primary source of birth stories. This led to recruitment of a second sample of 10
      women who gave birth in the 1970s-1980s, to determine whether they were more able
      to translate information into knowledge via stories told through personal contact
      and not through virtual technologies. RESULTS: Findings revealed the experience
      of 'being-in-the-world' of birth and of stories in that world. From a
      Heideggerian perspective, the birth story was constructed through 'idle talk'
      (the taken for granted assumptions of things, which come into being through
      language). Both oral stories and those told through technology were described as
      the 'modern birth story'. The first theme 'Stories are difficult like that',
      examines the birth story as problematic and considers how stories shape meaning.
      The second 'It's a generational thing', considers how women from two generations
      came to understand what their experience might be. The third 'Birth in the
      twilight of certainty,' examines women's experience of Being in a system of birth
      as constructed, portrayed and sustained in the stories being shared. CONCLUSIONS:
      The women pregnant in 2012 framed their expectations in the language of choice,
      whilst the women who birthed in the 1970s-1980s framed their experience in the
      language of safety. For both, however, the world of birth was the same; saturated
      with, and only legitimised by the birth of a healthy baby. Rather than creating
      meaningful understanding, the 'idle talk' of birth made both cohorts fearful of
      leaving the relative comfort of the 'system', and of claiming an alternative
      birth.

PMID- 28870179
TI  - The quality of systematic reviews about interventions for refractive error can be
      improved: a review of systematic reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews should inform American Academy of Ophthalmology
      (AAO) Preferred Practice Pattern(r) (PPP) guidelines. The quality of systematic
      reviews related to the forthcoming Preferred Practice Pattern(r) guideline (PPP)
      Refractive Errors & Refractive Surgery is unknown. We sought to identify reliable
      systematic reviews to assist the AAO Refractive Errors & Refractive Surgery PPP.
      METHODS: Systematic reviews were eligible if they evaluated the effectiveness or
      safety of interventions included in the 2012 PPP Refractive Errors & Refractive
      Surgery. To identify potentially eligible systematic reviews, we searched the
      Cochrane Eyes and Vision United States Satellite database of systematic reviews.
      Two authors identified eligible reviews and abstracted information about the
      characteristics and quality of the reviews independently using the Systematic
      Review Data Repository. We classified systematic reviews as "reliable" when they
      (1) defined criteria for the selection of studies, (2) conducted comprehensive
      literature searches for eligible studies, (3) assessed the methodological quality
      (risk of bias) of the included studies, (4) used appropriate methods for meta
      analyses (which we assessed only when meta-analyses were reported), (5) presented
      conclusions that were supported by the evidence provided in the review. RESULTS:
      We identified 124 systematic reviews related to refractive error; 39 met our
      eligibility criteria, of which we classified 11 to be reliable. Systematic
      reviews classified as unreliable did not define the criteria for selecting
      studies (5; 13%), did not assess methodological rigor (10; 26%), did not conduct
      comprehensive searches (17; 44%), or used inappropriate quantitative methods (3;
      8%). The 11 reliable reviews were published between 2002 and 2016. They included
      0 to 23 studies (median = 9) and analyzed 0 to 4696 participants (median = 666).
      Seven reliable reviews (64%) assessed surgical interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Most
      systematic reviews of interventions for refractive error are low methodological
      quality. Following widely accepted guidance, such as Cochrane or Institute of
      Medicine standards for conducting systematic reviews, would contribute to
      improved patient care and inform future research.

PMID- 28870180
TI  - Awareness, attitudes and perceptions regarding HIV and PMTCT amongst pregnant
      women in Guinea-Bissau- a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be a major cause
      of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa. Prevention
      of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) strategies have proven effective
      in decreasing the number of children infected in utero, intrapartum and during
      the breastfeeding period. This qualitative study explores knowledge and
      perceptions of HIV amongst pregnant women, healthcare workers' experiences of the
      national PMTCT services, and barriers to PMTCT, during a period of programme
      scale-up in urban Guinea-Bissau (2010-11). METHODS: In-depth interviews were
      undertaken amongst 27 women and 19 key informants at local antenatal clinics and
      the national maternity ward in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. RESULTS: Amongst women who
      had been tested for HIV, awareness and knowledge of HIV and PMTCT remained low.
      Testing without informed consent was reported in some cases, in particular when
      the test was performed around the time of delivery. Possible drivers of
      inadequate counselling included lack of confidentiality, suboptimal healthcare
      worker training, lack of time, and perceived occupational risk. Demand-side
      barriers to PMTCT included lack of HIV and PMTCT knowledge, customary and
      cultural beliefs associated with HIV and ill-health, HIV stigma and
      discrimination, and fear of partnership dissolution. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-cultural
      and operational challenges, including HIV testing without informed consent,
      present significant barriers to the scale-up of PMTCT services in Bissau.
      Strengthening local capacity for effective counselling and testing in the
      antenatal setting is paramount. Further research into local customary beliefs
      relating to HIV is warranted.

PMID- 28870182
TI  - Reviewing clinical guideline development tools: features and characteristics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To improve consistency and streamline development and publication of
      clinical guidelines (GL), there is a need for appropriate software support. We
      have found few specific tools for the actual authoring and maintaining of GLs,
      and correspondingly few analyses or reviews of GL development tool functionality.
      In order to assist GL developers in selecting and evaluating tools, this study
      tries to address the perceived gap by pursuing four goals: 1) identifying
      available tools, 2) reviewing a representative group of tools and their supported
      functionalities, 3) uncovering themes of features that the studied tools support,
      and 4) compare the selected tools with respect to the themes. METHODS: We
      conducted a literature search using PubMed and Google Scholar in order to find GL
      development tools (GDT). We also explored tools and Content Management Systems
      (CMS) used in representative organisations and international communities that
      develop and maintain GLs. By reading a selected representative group of five GL
      tool manuals, exploring tools hands-on, we uncovered 8 themes of features. All
      found tools were compared according to these themes in order to identify the
      level of functionality they offer to support the GL development and publishing
      process. In order to limit the scope, tools for designing computer
      interpretable/executable GL are excluded. RESULTS: After finding 1552 published
      papers, contacting 7 organizations and international communities, we identified a
      total of 19 unique tools, of which 5 tools were selected as representative in
      this paper. We uncovered a total of 8 themes of features according to the
      identified functionalities that each tool provides. Four features were common
      among tools: Collaborative authoring process support, user access control, GL
      repository management, electronic publishing. We found that the GRADE methodology
      was supported by three of the reviewed tools, while only two tools support
      annotating GL with MeSH terms. We also identified that monitoring progress,
      reference management, Managing versions (version control), and Change control
      (tracking) were often the missing features. CONCLUSION: The results can promote
      sector discussion and eventual agreement on important tool functionality. It may
      aid tool and GL developers towards more efficient, and effective, GL authoring.

PMID- 28870183
TI  - Differences in drug use between men and women: an Italian cross sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drugs are the most important treatment option for most diseases, and
      the majority of medical consultations result in a prescription. Women and men
      receive different drug prescriptions and differ in therapeutic response to
      pharmacological therapy. This disparity is due to biological factors (sex
      differences) or/and behavior, lifestyle and life experience (gender differences).
      Sex differences in drug use have been demonstrated in several therapeutic areas;
      however, there is a lack of overviews on sex and gender differences of drug use
      in an entire population. METHODS: We conducted a descriptive cross - sectional
      drug use study, involving the entire Italian population in 2012, aimed at showing
      and analyzing differences between men and women as regards their exposure to
      drugs. The data source was IMS LifeLink Treatment DynamicsTMLRx Database and it
      included all prescribed drugs reimbursed by the Italian National Healthcare
      System in 2012 and covered 90% of the entire Italian population. The information
      about the prescriptions was stratified by men and women and age. Drug consumption
      was expressed as DDD/ 1000 ab die. Exposure to drug prescriptions was expressed
      as period prevalence (the proportion of the population dispensed >=1 prescription
      in 2012 per 1000 inhabitants). Differences of prevalence between men and women
      were expressed as crude and age adjusted risk ratios with 95% CI. RESULTS: Our
      findings suggested that the largest differences in drug prescriptions regarded
      drugs affecting bone structure and mineralization (RR 15.9), calcium (RR 8.6) and
      thyroid therapy (RR 5.4), dispensed more to women than men. Otherwise ACE
      inhibitors were more commonly used in men. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study
      exploring difference in drug use between men and women and carried out on the
      entire Italian population. Our findings showed substantial differences between
      men and women in term of prevalence of drug prescriptions. Some differences in
      drug use may be explained by sex differences (variations in disease prevalence
      and severity, pathophysiology, or by other biological differences), other
      differences need further investigation to explain the apparent lack of a rational
      medical explanation for some findings. The findings may subsequently be used to
      plan future studies to address differences suggesting inequity in treatment
      approaches.

PMID- 28870184
TI  - Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. aqueous extract improves impaired glucose tolerance in
      high-fat diet-fed rats by decreasing the inflammatory response.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. is a medicinal plant with physiological
      activities such as anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory activities and in
      vitro anti-diabetic activity. However, the effects of aqueous extracts from A.
      pilosa on insulin-resistant rats have not yet been examined. We investigated the
      effects of aqueous extract from A. pilosa on impaired glucose metabolism induced
      by a high-fat diet in rats. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to
      the following groups: normal-fat diet (NF, n = 9); high-fat diet (HF, n = 9);
      high-fat diet with 0.1% A. pilosa aqueous extract (HFA, n = 10). Experimental
      diets were administered for 16 weeks. At the end of the treatment, liver and fat
      tissues were isolated, and serum was collected for biochemical analysis. RESULTS:
      The HF group rats had a significantly higher liver weight than the NF group rats
      did, and increased hepatic lipid accumulation (p < 0.05); however,
      supplementation with A. pilosa decreased liver weight. Blood glucose levels in
      the HFA group were lower than levels measured in the HF group 30, 60, and 120 min
      after glucose administration (p < 0.05). In addition, dietary A. pilosa
      supplementation decreased tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 6 levels,
      while increasing serum adiponectin concentrations (p < 0.05 vs. the HF group).
      These effects were accompanied by reduced hepatic and adipose tissue expression
      of inflammation-related genes such as Tnf and Il1b (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings indicate that A. pilosa aqueous extract can ameliorate insulin
      resistance in high-fat diet-fed rats by decreasing the inflammatory response.

PMID- 28870185
TI  - The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care
      in Nepal: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In resource-poor settings, the provision of basic maternity care
      within health centres is often a challenge. Despite the difficulties, Nepal
      reduced its maternal mortality ratio by 80% from 850 to an estimated 170 per
      100,000 live births between 1991 and 2011 to achieve Millennium Development Goal
      Five. One group that has been credited for this is community health workers,
      known as Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs), who form an integral part of
      the government healthcare system. This qualitative study explores the role of
      FCHVs in maternal healthcare provision in two regions: the Hill and Terai.
      METHODS: Between May 2014 and September 2014, 20 FCHVs, 11 health workers and 26
      service users were purposefully selected and interviewed using semi-structured
      topic guides. In addition, four focus group discussions were held with 19 FCHVs.
      Data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: All study participants
      acknowledged the contribution of FCHVs in maternity care. All FCHVs reported that
      they shared key health messages through regularly held mothers' group meetings
      and referred women for health checks. The main difference between the two study
      regions was the support available to FCHVs from the local health centres. With
      regular training and access to medical supplies, FCHVs in the hill villages
      reported activities such as assisting with childbirth, distributing medicines and
      administering pregnancy tests. They also reported use of innovative approaches to
      educate mothers. Such activities were not reported in Terai. In both regions, a
      lack of monetary incentives was reported as a major challenge for already
      overburdened volunteers followed by a lack of education for FCHVs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our findings suggest that the role of FCHVs varies according to the context in
      which they work. FCHVs, supported by government health centres with emphasis on
      the use of local approaches, have the potential to deliver basic maternity care
      and promote health-seeking behaviour so that serious delays in receiving
      healthcare can be minimised. However, FCHVs need to be reimbursed and provided
      with educational training to ensure that they can work effectively. The study
      underlines the relevance of community health workers in resource-poor settings.

PMID- 28870187
TI  - Participation in a scientific pre-university program and medical students'
      interest in an academic career.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The proportion of medical doctors involved in research activities is
      declining. Undergraduate medical research programs are positively associated with
      medical students' research interest. Scientific pre-university programs (SPUPs)
      outside the medical domain are also positively associated with research interest,
      but have not been related to the shortage of clinician-scientists. This study
      examined the effect of an SPUP on medical students' research interest. METHODS:
      This study was conducted at a Dutch medical school. Medical students in all years
      who had participated in an SPUP and first-year master students who had not
      participated in an SPUP were invited to fill out an online survey on
      extracurricular activities and future career interests. SPUP participants were
      compared with three groups of non-participants: (i) an unmatched group, (ii) a
      group matched on gender and pre-university Grade Point Average (pu-GPA) and (iii)
      a group matched on gender and first-year GPA, one to five years after finishing
      the SPUP. Participants evaluated the SPUP through ratings of statements about the
      program. RESULTS: Two-hundred forty medical students, including 71 SPUP
      participants responded to the survey. SPUP participants participated
      significantly more often in the Honors class (i.e., extracurricular educational
      program for high-performing students), gained significantly more often
      extracurricular research experience, enrolled significantly more often in the
      Research master (i.e., research training program parallel to the clinical master
      program) and obtained significantly more often a scholarship than unmatched non
      SPUP participants. Using a non-SPUP group matched on gender and pu-GPA reduced
      the effect size of the significant differences in Honors class participation,
      Research master participation and scholarship obtainment. Using a non-SPUP group
      matched on gender and first-year GPA rendered the significant difference in
      Research master participation and scholarship obtainment insignificant.
      Significantly more SPUP participants than unmatched non-SPUP participants
      preferred a combination of clinical care and research in their future career.
      Using a non-SPUP group matched on gender and either pu-GPA or first-year GPA did
      not change the effect size of this significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings demonstrate the potential value of an SPUP in increasing the number of
      medical students with research interest and as a policy measure to help to
      alleviate the shortage of clinician-scientists.

PMID- 28870186
TI  - Knowledge, attitude, and status of nitrite inhalant use among men who have sex
      with men in Tianjin, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nitrite inhalants have become popular as recreational drugs among the
      homosexual population in some developed countries since the 1980s. These drugs,
      also called RUSH in China, have become attractive among Chinese men who have sex
      with men (MSM) in the past few years. The aim of this cross-sectional study was
      to understand the knowledge, attitude, and status of nitrite inhalant use among
      Chinese MSM. METHODS: The study participants were recruited from Tianjin, China
      between April and August 2012. Information, including demographics, sexual
      behavior, and RUSH use, was obtained through structured interviewer
      questionnaires. Blood samples were also collected to identify the status of HIV,
      HSV, and syphilis infections. RESULTS: A total of 500 participants were
      interviewed. Of the participants, 64.0% knew that RUSH could increase sexual
      pleasure and 38.6% of the participants had used RUSH at least once. The mean
      duration of RUSH use was 1.5 years. Among the participants who were familiar with
      RUSH, 60.0% had heard of RUSH for the first time after 2011, 55% received
      information about RUSH via the internet, and only 42.2% knew the side effects of
      RUSH. RUSH users were more likely to work in companies (Odds ratio [OR]: 2.61;
      95% CI: 1.65-4.12), live with homosexual partners (OR: 1.88; 95% CI: 1.19-2.92),
      not live alone (OR: 2.26; 95% CI: 1.29-3.96), smoke cigarettes (OR: 1.49; 95% CI:
      1.02-2.17), use alcohol (OR: 1.63; 95% CI: 1.12-2.39), and seek sexual partners
      on the internet (OR: 2.59; 95% CI: 1.50-4.50). CONCLUSIONS: The impact of RUSH
      abuse on the expanding HIV epidemic among MSM has been demonstrated in China. Our
      findings suggest that the communication and awareness of health hazard of
      recreational drugs should be reinforced in HIV prevention education, especially
      through new media. Future research is needed to further explore how integrative
      strategies should be used to reduce the substance abuse and risky sexual
      behaviors.

PMID- 28870188
TI  - Assessing the impact of the introduction of an electronic hospital discharge
      system on the completeness and timeliness of discharge communication: a before
      and after study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital discharge summaries are a key communication tool ensuring
      continuity of care between primary and secondary care. Incomplete or untimely
      communication of information increases risk of hospital readmission and
      associated complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the
      introduction of a new electronic discharge system (NewEDS) was associated with
      improvements in the completeness and timeliness of discharge information, in
      Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, England. METHODS: A before and after
      longitudinal study design was used. Data were collected using the gold standard
      auditing tool from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). This tool contains a
      checklist of 57 items grouped into seven categories, 28 of which are classified
      as mandatory by RCP. Percentage completeness (out of the 28 mandatory items) was
      considered to be the primary outcome measure. Data from 773 patients discharged
      directly from the acute medical unit over eight-week long time periods (four
      before and four after the change to the NewEDS) from August 2010 to May 2012 were
      extracted and evaluated. Results were summarised by effect size on completeness
      before and after changeover to NewEDS respectively. The primary outcome variable
      was represented with percentage of completeness score and a non-parametric
      technique was used to compare pre-NewEDS and post-NewEDS scores. RESULTS: The
      changeover to the NewEDS resulted in an increased completeness of discharge
      summaries from 60.7% to 75.0% (p < 0.001) and the proportion of summaries created
      under 24 h from discharge increased significantly from 78.0% to 93.0% (p <
      0.001). Furthermore, five of the seven grouped checklist categories also showed
      significant improvements in levels of completeness (p < 0.001), although there
      were reduced levels of completeness for three items (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The
      introduction of a NewEDS was associated with a significant improvement in the
      completeness and timeliness of hospital discharge communication.

PMID- 28870189
TI  - Can digital stories go where palliative care research has never gone before? A
      descriptive qualitative study exploring the application of an emerging public
      health research method in an indigenous palliative care context.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for global approaches
      to palliative care development. Yet it is questionable whether one-size-fits-all
      solutions can accommodate international disparities in palliative care need. More
      flexible research methods are called for in order to understand diverse
      priorities at local levels. This is especially imperative for Indigenous
      populations and other groups underrepresented in the palliative care evidence
      base. Digital storytelling (DST) offers the potential to be one such method.
      Digital stories are short first-person videos that tell a story of great
      significance to the creator. The method has already found a place within public
      health research and has been described as a useful, emergent method for community
      based participatory research. METHODS: The aim of this study was to explore Maori
      participants' views on DST's usefulness, from an Indigenous perspective, as a
      research method within the discipline of palliative care. The digital
      storytelling method was adapted to include Maori cultural protocols. Data
      capturing participant experience of the study were collected using participant
      observation and anonymous questionnaires. Eight participants, seven women and one
      man, took part. Field notes and questionnaire data were analysed using critical
      thematic analysis. RESULTS: Two main themes were identified during analyses: 1)
      issues that facilitated digital storytelling's usefulness as a research method
      for Maori reporting on end of life caregiving; and 2) issues that hindered this
      process. All subthemes identified: recruitment, the powhiri process, (Maori
      formal welcome of visitors) and technology, related to both main themes and are
      presented in this way. CONCLUSION: Digital storytelling is an emerging method
      useful for exploring Indigenous palliative care issues. In line with a Health
      Promoting Palliative Care approach that centres research in communities, it helps
      meet the need for diverse approaches to involve underrepresented groups.

PMID- 28870190
TI  - Monobloc implants in cementless total hip arthroplasty in patients with Legg
      Calve-Perthes disease: a long-term follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate 10-year outcomes in
      cementless monobloc total hip arthroplasty (THA) in a group of hips with Legg
      Calve-Perthes disease (LCPD). METHODS: We reviewed 71 patients (88 hips) who
      underwent cementless THA with a diagnosis of LCPD from 2003 to 2009. From the
      total of 71 patients, 34 men and 37 women with an average age of 49.94 years were
      included. The mean follow-up period was 10 years. RESULTS: The mean Harris Hip
      Score improved significantly from 46.42 to 89.70. Similarly, the postoperative
      range of motion, hip dysfunction and osteoarthritis outcome score and SF-12 score
      also significantly improved. The mean leg lengthening was 22.1 mm. During the
      follow-up, eight complications were noted, including two cases of intraoperative
      femoral fractures, two cases of sciatic nerve paralysis, two cases of
      heterotrophic ossifications, one case of thigh pain and one case of dislocation.
      One revision was conducted for a periprosthetic fracture, and the survivorship at
      10 years was 98.3%. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the monobloc stem can
      lead to satisfactory outcomes for clinical function, radiological evaluation,
      restoration of the normal limb lengths, complications, and survivorship among
      LCPD patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty.

PMID- 28870191
TI  - Effectiveness of a specific manual approach to the suboccipital region in
      patients with chronic mechanical neck pain and rotation deficit in the upper
      cervical spine: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mechanical neck pain is a highly prevalent problem in primary
      healthcare settings. Many of these patients have restricted mobility of the
      cervical spine. Several manual techniques have been recommended for restoring
      cervical mobility, but their effectiveness in these patients is unknown. The aim
      of the present study is to compare the effectiveness of two types of specific
      techniques of the upper neck region: the pressure maintained suboccipital
      inhibition technique (PMSIT) and the translatory dorsal glide mobilization (TDGM)
      C0-C1 technique, as adjuncts to a protocolized physiotherapy treatment of the
      neck region in subjects with chronic mechanical neck pain and rotation deficit in
      the upper cervical spine. METHODS: A randomized, prospective, double-blind
      (patient and evaluator) clinical trial. The participants (n = 78) will be
      randomly distributed into three groups. The Control Group will receive a
      protocolized treatment for 3 weeks, the Mobilization Group will receive the same
      protocolized treatment and 6 sessions (2 per week) of the TDGM C0-C1 technique,
      and the Pressure Group will receive the same protocolized treatment and 6
      sessions (2 per week) of the PMSIT technique. The intensity of pain (VAS), neck
      disability (NDI), the cervical range of motion (CROM), headache intensity (HIT-6)
      and the rating of clinical change (GROC scale) will be measured. The measurements
      will be performed at baseline, post-treatment and 3 months after the end of
      treatment, by the same physiotherapist blinded to the group assigned to the
      subject. DISCUSSION: We believe that an approach including manual treatment to
      upper cervical dysfunction will be more effective in these patients. Furthermore,
      the PMSIT technique acts mostly on the musculature, while the TDGM technique acts
      on the joint. We expect to clarify which component is more effective in improving
      the upper cervical mobility. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02832232 .
      Registered on July 13th, 2016.

PMID- 28870192
TI  - Development of a framework for the co-production and prototyping of public health
      interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Existing guidance for developing public health interventions does not
      provide information for researchers about how to work with intervention providers
      to co-produce and prototype the content and delivery of new interventions prior
      to evaluation. The ASSIST + Frank study aimed to adapt an existing effective peer
      led smoking prevention intervention (ASSIST), integrating new content from the UK
      drug education resource Talk to Frank ( www.talktofrank.com ) to co-produce two
      new school-based peer-led drug prevention interventions. A three-stage framework
      was tested to adapt and develop intervention content and delivery methods in
      collaboration with key stakeholders to facilitate implementation. METHODS: The
      three stages of the framework were: 1) Evidence review and stakeholder
      consultation; 2) Co-production; 3) Prototyping. During stage 1, six focus groups,
      12 consultations, five interviews, and nine observations of intervention delivery
      were conducted with key stakeholders (e.g. Public Health Wales [PHW] ASSIST
      delivery team, teachers, school students, health professionals). During stage 2,
      an intervention development group consisting of members of the research team and
      the PHW ASSIST delivery team was established to adapt existing, and co-produce
      new, intervention activities. In stage 3, intervention training and content were
      iteratively prototyped using process data on fidelity and acceptability to key
      stakeholders. Stages 2 and 3 took the form of an action-research process
      involving a series of face-to-face meetings, email exchanges, observations, and
      training sessions. RESULTS: Utilising the three-stage framework, we co-produced
      and tested intervention content and delivery methods for the two interventions
      over a period of 18 months involving external partners. New and adapted
      intervention activities, as well as refinements in content, the format of
      delivery, timing and sequencing of activities, and training manuals resulted from
      this process. The involvement of intervention delivery staff, participants and
      teachers shaped the content and format of the interventions, as well as
      supporting rapid prototyping in context at the final stage. CONCLUSIONS: This
      three-stage framework extends current guidance on intervention development by
      providing step-by-step instructions for co-producing and prototyping an
      intervention's content and delivery processes prior to piloting and formal
      evaluation. This framework enhances existing guidance and could be transferred to
      co-produce and prototype other public health interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ISRCTN14415936 , registered retrospectively on 05 November 2014.

PMID- 28870193
TI  - Mapping infectious disease hospital surge threats to lessons learnt in Singapore:
      a systems analysis and development of a framework to inform how to DECIDE on
      planning and response strategies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital usage and service demand during an Infectious Disease (ID)
      outbreak can tax the health system in different ways. Herein we conceptualize
      hospital surge elements, and lessons learnt from such events, to help build
      appropriately matched responses to future ID surge threats. METHODS: We used the
      Interpretive Descriptive qualitative approach. Interviews (n = 35) were conducted
      with governance and public health specialists; hospital based staff; and General
      Practitioners. Key policy literature in tandem with the interview data were used
      to iteratively generate a Hospital ID Surge framework. We anchored our narrative
      account within this framework, which is used to structure our analysis. RESULTS:
      A spectrum of surge threats from combinations of capacity (for crowding) and
      capability (for treatment complexity) demands were identified. Starting with the
      Pyramid scenario, or an influx of high screening rates flooding Emergency
      Departments, alongside fewer and manageable admissions; the Reverse-Pyramid
      occurs when few cases are screened and admitted but those that are, are complex;
      during a 'Black' scenario, the system is overburdened by both crowding and
      complexity. The Singapore hospital system is highly adapted to crowding,
      functioning remarkably well at constant near-full capacity in Peacetime and
      resilient to Endemic surges. We catalogue 26 strategies from lessons learnt
      relating to staffing, space, supplies and systems, crystalizing institutional
      memory. The DECIDE model advocates linking these strategies to types of surge
      threats and offers a step-by-step guide for coordinating outbreak planning and
      response. CONCLUSIONS: Lack of a shared definition and decision making of surge
      threats had rendered the procedures somewhat duplicative. This burden was
      paradoxically exacerbated by a health system that highly prizes planning and
      forward thinking, but worked largely in silo until an ID crisis hit. Many such
      lessons can be put into play to further strengthen our current hospital
      governance and adapted to more diverse settings.

PMID- 28870195
TI  - A qualitative study of Filipina immigrants' stress, distress and coping: the
      impact of their multiple, transnational roles as women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Migration is associated with a number of stress factors which can
      affect mental health. Ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status can intertwine
      with and influence the process of migration and mental health. Philippine
      migration to Europe has increased in recent years and has become more feminised.
      Knowing more about the factors that influence immigrants' mental health and
      coping can help aid health care delivery and policy planning. The purpose of this
      qualitative study was to explore the contextual factors that influence the mental
      health of Filipinas living in Norway and their coping strategies. METHOD:
      Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen Filipinas 24-49
      years, living in Norway. The analysis was informed by the post-colonial feminist
      perspective in order to examine the process by which gender, ethnicity and
      socioeconomic status interact with contextual factors in these women's lives and
      influence their wellbeing. RESULTS: Data analysis revealed that all informants
      experienced some level of stress or distress. Two main factors: Sense of
      belonging and Securing a future contributed to the women's level of distress
      associated with living abroad as an immigrant woman. Distress was heighted by the
      women's multiple, transnational roles they occupied; roles as workers,
      breadwinners, daughters, wives and mothers. None of the women had sought
      professional help for their distress. Religion and informal support from friends
      and family appear to help these women cope with many of the challenges they face
      as immigrant women living and working abroad. CONCLUSIONS: Filipinas face a
      number of challenges related to their status as immigrant women and the juggling
      of their transnational lives. Understanding the context of these women's lives
      may aid the identification of mental health problems. Although the women show
      resilience and appear to cope successfully, some may benefit from professional
      help.

PMID- 28870194
TI  - A yeast fermentate improves gastrointestinal discomfort and constipation by
      modulation of the gut microbiome: results from a randomized double-blind placebo
      controlled pilot trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Constipation and symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort such as
      bloating are common among otherwise healthy individuals, but with significant
      impact on quality of life. Despite the recognized contribution of the gut
      microbiome to this pathology, little is known about which group(s) of
      microorganism(s) are playing a role. A previous study performed in vitro suggests
      that EpiCor(r) fermentate has prebiotic-like properties, being able to favorably
      modulate the composition of the gut microbiome. Therefore, the aim of this study
      was to investigate the effects of EpiCor fermentate in a population with symptoms
      of gastrointestinal discomfort and reduced bowel movements and to evaluate its
      effect at the level of the gut microbiome. METHODS: This pilot study was
      performed according to a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel
      design. Eighty subjects with symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort and
      constipation were allocated to one of two trial arms (placebo or EpiCor
      fermentate). Randomization was done in a stratified manner according to symptom
      severity, resulting in two subgroups of patients: severe and moderate. Daily
      records of gastrointestinal symptoms were assessed on a 5-point scale, and also
      stool frequency and consistency were documented during a 2-week run-in and a 6
      week intervention phases. Averages over two-week intervals were calculated.
      Constipation-associated quality of life and general perceived stress were
      assessed at baseline and after 3 and 6 weeks of intervention. Fecal samples were
      also collected at these same time points. RESULTS: EpiCor fermentate led to a
      significant improvement of symptoms such as bloating/distension (p = 0.033 and p
      = 0.024 after 2 and 4 weeks of intervention, respectively), feeling of fullness
      (p = 0.004 and p = 0.023 after 2 and 4 weeks of intervention, respectively) and
      general daily scores (p = 0.046 after 2 weeks of intervention) in the moderate
      subgroup. A significant improvement in stool consistency was observed for the
      total population (p = 0.023 after 2 weeks of intervention) as well as for the
      severe subgroup (p = 0.046 after 2 weeks of intervention), and a nearly
      significant increase in stool frequency was detected for the total cohort (p =
      0.083 and p = 0.090 after 2 and 4 weeks of intervention, respectively). These
      effects were accompanied by an improvement in constipation-associated quality of
      life and general perceived stress, particularly in the moderate subgroup. Members
      of the families Bacteroidaceae and Prevotellaceae, two groups of bacteria that
      have been previously reported to be deficient in constipated patients, were found
      to increase with EpiCor fermentate in the severe subgroup. In the moderate
      subgroup, a significant increase in Akkermansia muciniphila was observed.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite the relatively low dose administered (500 mg/day),
      particularly when comparing to the high recommended doses for prebiotic fibers,
      EpiCor fermentate was able to modulate the composition of the gut microbiome,
      resulting in improvement of constipation-associated symptoms. Conversely, the
      reported increase in bowel movements may have altered the gut microbial community
      by increasing those groups of bacteria that are better adapted to a faster
      gastrointestinal transit time. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03051399 at
      ClinicalTrials.gov. Retrospectively registered. Registration date: 13 February
      2017.

PMID- 28870196
TI  - EXPLICIT: a feasibility study of remote expert elicitation in health technology
      assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Expert opinion is often sought to complement available information
      needed to inform model-based economic evaluations in health technology
      assessments. In this context, we define expert elicitation as the process of
      encoding expert opinion on a quantity of interest, together with associated
      uncertainty, as a probability distribution. When availability for face-to-face
      expert elicitation with a facilitator is limited, elicitation can be conducted
      remotely, overcoming challenges of finding an appropriate time to meet the expert
      and allowing access to experts situated too far away for practical face-to-face
      sessions. However, distance elicitation is associated with reduced response rates
      and limited assistance for the expert during the elicitation session. The aim of
      this study was to inform the development of a remote elicitation tool by
      exploring the influence of mode of elicitation on elicited beliefs. METHODS: An
      Excel-based tool (EXPLICIT) was developed to assist the elicitation session,
      including the preparation of the expert and recording of their responses. General
      practitioners (GPs) were invited to provide expert opinion about population
      alcohol consumption behaviours. They were randomised to complete the elicitation
      by either a face-to-face meeting or email. EXPLICIT was used in the elicitation
      sessions for both arms. RESULTS: Fifteen GPs completed the elicitation session.
      Those conducted by email were longer than the face-to-face sessions (13 min 30 s
      vs 10 min 26 s, p = 0.1) and the email-elicited estimates contained less
      uncertainty. However, the resulting aggregated distributions were comparable.
      CONCLUSIONS: EXPLICIT was useful in both facilitating the elicitation task and in
      obtaining expert opinion from experts via email. The findings support the opinion
      that remote, self-administered elicitation is a viable approach within the
      constraints of HTA to inform policy making, although poor response rates may be
      observed and additional time for individual sessions may be required.

PMID- 28870197
TI  - Polarity based characterization of biologically active extracts of Ajuga
      bracteosa Wall. ex Benth. and RP-HPLC analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The concept of botanical therapeutics has revitalized due to wide
      importance of plant derived pharmaceuticals. Therefore, the ameliorative
      characteristics of Ajuga bracteosa were studied. METHODS: Total phenolic content,
      flavonoid content, antioxidant capacity, reducing power and free-radical
      scavenging activity were determined colorimetrically. Specific polyphenols were
      quantified by RP-HPLC analysis. Preliminary cytotoxicity was tested using brine
      shrimp lethality assay while antiproliferative activity against THP-1 and Hep-G2
      cell lines was determined by MTT and SRB protocols respectively. Antileishmanial
      potential was assessed via MTT colorimetric method. To investigate antidiabetic
      prospect, alpha-amylase inhibition assay was adopted whereas disc diffusion
      method was used to detect likely protein kinase inhibitory, antibacterial and
      antifungal activities. RESULTS: Among fifteen different extracts, maximum total
      phenolic content (10.75 +/- 0.70 MUg GAE/mg DW), total reducing power (23.90 +/-
      0.70 MUg AAE/mg DW) and total antioxidant capacity (11.30 +/- 0.80 MUg AAE/mg DW)
      were exhibited by methanol extract with superlative percent extract recovery
      (17.50 +/- 0.80% w/w). Chloroform-methanol extract demonstrated maximum flavonoid
      content (4.10 +/- 0.40 MUg QE/mg DW) and ethanol extract exhibited greatest
      radical scavenging activity (IC50 14.40 +/- 0.20 MUg/ml). RP-HPLC based
      quantification confirmed polyphenols such as pyrocatechol, gallic acid,
      resorcinol, catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, p-coumaric
      acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid, coumarin, sinapinic acid, trans-cinnamic acid,
      rutin, quercetin and kaempferol. The brine shrimp lethality assay ranked 78.60%
      extracts as cytotoxic (LC50 <= 250 MUg/ml) whereas significant THP-1 inhibition
      was shown by methanol-acetone extract (IC50 4.70 +/- 0.43 MUg/ml). The
      antiproliferative activity against Hep-G2 hepatoma cancer cell line was
      demonstrated by n-hexane, ethylacetate and methanol-distilled water (IC50 8.65
      8.95 MUg/ml) extracts. Methanol extract displayed prominent protein kinase
      inhibitory activity (MIC 12.5 MUg/disc) while n-hexane extract revealed
      remarkable antileishmanial activity (IC50 4.69 +/- 0.01 MUg/ml). The antidiabetic
      potential was confirmed by n-hexane extract (44.70 +/- 0.30% alpha-amylase
      inhibition at 200 MUg/ml concentration) while a moderate antibacterial and
      antifungal activities were unveiled. CONCLUSION: The variation in biological
      spectrum resulted due to use of multiple solvent systems for extraction. We also
      deduce that the valuable information gathered can be utilized for discovery of
      anticancer, antileishmanial, antioxidant and antidiabetic bioactive lead
      candidates.

PMID- 28870198
TI  - Up-modulation of PLC-beta2 reduces the number and malignancy of triple-negative
      breast tumor cells with a CD133+/EpCAM+ phenotype: a promising target for
      preventing progression of TNBC.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The malignant potential of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is
      also dependent on a sub-population of cells with a stem-like phenotype. Among the
      cancer stem cell markers, CD133 and EpCAM strongly correlate with breast tumor
      aggressiveness, suggesting that simultaneous targeting of the two surface
      antigens may be beneficial in treatment of TNBC. Since in TNBC-derived cells we
      demonstrated that PLC-beta2 induces the conversion of CD133high to CD133low
      cells, here we explored its possible role in down-modulating the expression of
      both CD133 and EpCAM and, ultimately, in reducing the number of TNBC cells with a
      stem-like phenotype. METHODS: A magnetic step-by-step cell isolation with
      antibodies directed against CD133 and/or EpCAM was performed on the TNBC-derived
      MDA-MB-231 cell line. In the same cell model, PLC-beta2 was over-expressed or
      down-modulated and cell proliferation and invasion capability were evaluated by
      Real-time cell assays. The surface expression of CD133, EpCAM and CD44 in the
      different experimental conditions were measured by multi-color flow cytometry
      immunophenotyping. RESULTS: A CD133+/EpCAM+ sub-population with high
      proliferation rate and invasion capability is present in the MDA-MB-231 cell
      line. Over-expression of PLC-beta2 in CD133+/EpCAM+ cells reduced the surface
      expression of both CD133 and EpCAM, as well as proliferation and invasion
      capability of this cellular subset. On the other hand, the up-modulation of PLC
      beta2 in the whole MDA-MB-231 cell population reduced the number of cells with a
      CD44+/CD133+/EpCAM+ stem-like phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: Since selective targeting
      of the cells with the highest aggressive potential may have a great clinical
      importance for TNBC, the up-modulation of PLC-beta2, reducing the number of cells
      with a stem-like phenotype, may be a promising goal for novel therapies aimed to
      prevent the progression of aggressive breast tumors.

PMID- 28870199
TI  - Effects of dietary gelatin hydrolysates on bone mineral density in magnesium
      deficient rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The major types of commercially available gelatin hydrolysates are
      prepared from mammals or fish. Dietary gelatin hydrolysates from mammals were
      reported to improve bone mineral density (BMD) in some animal models. In
      contrast, there is limited study showing the effects of dietary gelatin
      hydrolysates from fish on BMD. The quantity and structure of peptides in the
      plasma after oral administration of gelatin hydrolysates depend on the gelatin
      source, which suggests that the biological activity of gelatin hydrolysates
      depend on the gelatin source. This study examined the effects of fish-derived
      gelatin hydrolysate (FGH) or porcine-derived gelatin hydrolysate (PGH) intake on
      BMD and intrinsic biomechanical properties in magnesium (Mg)-deficient rats as a
      model showing the decrease in both BMD and intrinsic biomechanical properties.
      METHODS: Four-week-old male Wistar rats were assigned into four groups: a normal
      group was fed a normal diet (48 mg Mg/100 g diet), a Mg-deficient (MgD) group was
      fed a MgD diet (7 mg Mg/100 g diet), a FGH group was fed a MgD + FGH diet (5%
      FGH), and a PGH group was fed a MgD + PGH diet (5% PGH) for 8 weeks. At the end
      of the study, BMD and intrinsic biomechanical properties of the femur were
      measured. RESULTS: The MgD group showed significantly lower Young's modulus, an
      intrinsic biomechanical property, and trabecular BMD of the femur than the normal
      group; however, the MgD diet did not affect cortical BMD and cortical thickness.
      Both the FGH and the PGH groups showed significantly higher cortical thickness
      and ultimate displacement of the femur than the normal group, but neither type of
      gelatin hydrolysate affected Young's modulus. Furthermore, the FGH group, but not
      the PGH group, showed significantly higher trabecular BMD than the MgD group.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that FGH and PGH increase cortical thickness
      but only FGH prevents the decrease in trabecular BMD seen in Mg-deficient rats,
      while neither type of gelatin hydrolysate affect intrinsic biomechanical
      properties.

PMID- 28870200
TI  - Anticancer activity of calyx of Diospyros kaki Thunb. through downregulation of
      cyclin D1 via inducing proteasomal degradation and transcriptional inhibition in
      human colorectal cancer cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although it has been reported to contain high polyphenols, the
      pharmacological studies of the calyx of Diospyros kaki Thunb (DKC) have not been
      elucidated in detail. In this study, we elucidated anti-cancer activity and
      potential molecular mechanism of DKC against human colorectal cancer cells.
      METHODS: Anti-cell proliferative effect of 70% ethanol extracts from the calyx of
      Diospyros kaki (DKC-E70) was evaluated by MTT assay. The effect of DKC-E70 on the
      expression of cyclin D1 in the protein and mRNA level was evaluated by Western
      blot and RT-PCR, respectively. RESULTS: DKC-E70 suppressed the proliferation of
      human colorectal cancer cell lines such as HCT116, SW480, LoVo and HT-29.
      Although DKC-E70 decreased cyclin D1 expression in protein and mRNA level,
      decreased level of cyclin D1 protein by DKC-E70 occurred at the earlier time than
      that of cyclin D1 mRNA, which indicates that DKC-E70-mediated downregulation of
      cyclin D1 protein may be a consequence of the induction of degradation and
      transcriptional inhibition of cyclin D1. In cyclin D1 degradation, we found that
      cyclin D1 downregulation by DKC-E70 was attenuated in presence of MG132. In
      addition, DKC-E70 phosphorylated threonine-286 (T286) of cyclin D1 and T286A
      abolished cyclin D1 downregulation by DKC-E70. We also observed that DKC-E70
      mediated T286 phosphorylation and subsequent cyclin D1 degradation was blocked in
      presence of the inhibitors of ERK1/2, p38 or GSK3beta. In cyclin D1
      transcriptional inhibition, DKC-E70 inhibited the expression of beta-catenin and
      TCF4, and beta-catenin/TCF-dependent luciferase activity. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results suggest that DKC-E70 may downregulate cyclin D1 as one of the potential
      anti-cancer targets through cyclin D1 degradation by T286 phosphorylation
      dependent on ERK1/2, p38 or GSK3beta, and cyclin D1 transcriptional inhibition
      through Wnt signaling. From these findings, DKC-E70 has potential to be a
      candidate for the development of chemoprevention or therapeutic agents for human
      colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28870201
TI  - Maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy and child's language, communication
      and motor skills at 3 and 5 years: the Norwegian mother and child cohort study
      (MoBa).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cell phone use during pregnancy is a public health concern. We
      investigated the association between maternal cell phone use in pregnancy and
      child's language, communication and motor skills at 3 and 5 years. METHODS: This
      prospective study includes 45,389 mother-child pairs, participants of the MoBa,
      recruited at mid-pregnancy from 1999 to 2008. Maternal frequency of cell phone
      use in early pregnancy and child language, communication and motor skills at 3
      and 5 years, were assessed by questionnaires. Logistic regression was used to
      estimate the associations. RESULTS: No cell phone use in early pregnancy was
      reported by 9.8% of women, while 39%, 46.9% and 4.3% of the women were
      categorized as low, medium and high cell phone users. Children of cell phone user
      mothers had 17% (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.77, 0.89) lower adjusted risk of having low
      sentence complexity at 3 years, compared to children of non-users. The risk was
      13%, 22% and 29% lower by low, medium and high maternal cell phone use.
      Additionally, children of cell phone users had lower risk of low motor skills
      score at 3 years, compared to children of non-users, but this association was not
      found at 5 years. We found no association between maternal cell phone use and low
      communication skills. CONCLUSIONS: We reported a decreased risk of low language
      and motor skills at three years in relation to prenatal cell phone use, which
      might be explained by enhanced maternal-child interaction among cell phone users.
      No evidence of adverse neurodevelopmental effects of prenatal cell phone use was
      reported.

PMID- 28870202
TI  - An assessment of healthcare professionals' knowledge about and attitude towards
      influenza vaccination in Freetown Sierra Leone: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vaccinating healthcare professionals against influenza is considered
      an effective infection control measure. However, there is a low uptake of
      influenza vaccine among healthcare professionals around the globe. Currently, it
      is unknown whether healthcare professionals in Sierra Leone are aware of, and
      have been vaccinated against influenza. Also, there is a paucity of research
      evidence on their level of knowledge and attitude toward influenza vaccination.
      This study assessed healthcare professionals' current influenza vaccine uptake
      rate, reasons for not getting vaccinated as well as their awareness, knowledge
      of, and attitude towards influenza vaccination in Freetown Sierra Leone. METHOD:
      A cross-sectional study was conducted between February and April 2016 among
      healthcare providers working in four public and two private health facilities in
      Freetown Sierra Leone. Linear regression analysis, one-way ANOVA and independent
      t-test were employed for data analysis. RESULTS: Among 706 respondents that
      participated in the study more than half were females 378 (53.6%), nurses 425
      (60.4%), and the majority were between the age group of 20-39 years 600 (85.3%).
      Only 46 (6.5%) were vaccinated against influenza. Key reasons for not vaccinated
      against influenza were less awareness about influenza vaccination among HCPs 580
      (82.73%) with (beta = 0.154; CI 0.058-0.163), the high cost of influenza vaccines
      and therefore not normally purchased 392 (55.92%) having (beta = 0.150; CI 0.063
      0.186). More than half believed that HCPs are less susceptible to influenza
      infections than other people. Also, majority 585 (84.3%) of HCPs thought that
      influenza disease could be transmitted after symptoms appear. In addition, 579
      (83.2%) of HCPs felt that symptoms usually appear 8-10 days after exposure. Close
      to half 321 (46.0%) of HCPs were not aware of the influenza immunisation
      guidelines published by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and
      Centre for Disease Control. CONCLUSION: Influenza vaccine coverage among
      healthcare professionals in Freetown Sierra Leone was low. High cost, inadequate
      knowledge about influenza and its vaccine as well as the lack of awareness of
      vaccine availability were key barriers. Increasing access to influenza vaccine
      and the use of appropriate educational interventions to increase knowledge and
      awareness are required to improve influenza vaccination coverage among HCPs.

PMID- 28870204
TI  - Left atrial myxoma complicated with multi-system embolization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atrial myxoma accounts for approximately 50% of all cardiac tumors.
      The majority of myxomas are located in the left atrium and present variable
      clinical manifestation. CASE PRESENTATION: A young man was transferred to our
      hospital with sudden onset of resting pain, pallor and numb in right leg. An
      atrial mobile mass was detected by transthoracic echocardiography. Anticoagulant
      and antithrombotic therapy were administered, a timely surgery was performed and
      the mass was confirmed as a myxoma. The patient did not discharge any discomfort
      post-operation. CONCLUSION: For patients with atrial myxoma, early diagnosis is
      essential, anticoagulant or antithrombotic therapy and surgery have a great
      importance to prevent further embolism.

PMID- 28870203
TI  - The DLGAP family: neuronal expression, function and role in brain disorders.
AB  - The neurotransmitter glutamate facilitates neuronal signalling at excitatory
      synapses. Glutamate is released from the presynaptic membrane into the synaptic
      cleft. Across the synaptic cleft glutamate binds to both ion channels and
      metabotropic glutamate receptors at the postsynapse, which expedite downstream
      signalling in the neuron. The postsynaptic density, a highly specialized matrix,
      which is attached to the postsynaptic membrane, controls this downstream
      signalling. The postsynaptic density also resets the synapse after each synaptic
      firing. It is composed of numerous proteins including a family of Discs large
      associated protein 1, 2, 3 and 4 (DLGAP1-4) that act as scaffold proteins in the
      postsynaptic density. They link the glutamate receptors in the postsynaptic
      membrane to other glutamate receptors, to signalling proteins and to components
      of the cytoskeleton. With the central localisation in the postsynapse, the DLGAP
      family seems to play a vital role in synaptic scaling by regulating the turnover
      of both ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors in response to synaptic
      activity. DLGAP family has been directly linked to a variety of psychological and
      neurological disorders. In this review we focus on the direct and indirect role
      of DLGAP family on schizophrenia as well as other brain diseases.

PMID- 28870205
TI  - Maintenance of stemness is associated with the interation of LRP6 and heparin
      binding protein CCN2 autocrined by hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The overall response rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to
      chemotherapy is poor. In our previous study, oxaliplatin-resistant HCC is found
      to exhibit an enhanced stemness, and increased levels of CCN2 and LRP6, while the
      role of CCN2 and LRP6 in the prognosis of HCC patients, and the interaction
      regulation mechanism between CCN2 and LRP6 are still unclear. METHODS: The
      expression levels of CCN2 and LRP6 were detected in large cohorts of HCCs, and
      functional analyses of CCN2 and LRP6 were performed both in vitro and in vivo.
      The roles of cell surface heparin sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in the mutual
      regulatory between CCN2 and LRP6 were verified in HCC, and the interventions of
      low molecular weight heparin sodium (LMWH) were explored. RESULTS: CCN2 and LRP6
      were overexpressed in HCCs, and the CCN2 and LRP6 levels were positively
      associated with the malignant phenotypes and poor prognosis of HCCs. LRP6 could
      significantly upregulate the expression of CCN2. Meanwhile, CCN2 was able to
      enhance malignant phenotype of HCC cells in a dose-dependent manner through
      binding with LRP6; and knock-down of LRP6 expression, perturbation of HSPGs, co
      incubation of CCN2 with LMWH could significantly block the adhesion of CCN2 to
      LRP6. LMWH enhanced the therapeutic effect of oxaliplatin on HCC with a high CCN2
      expression. CONCLUSIONS: CCN2 plays a promoting role in HCC progression through
      activating LRP6 in a HSPGs-dependent manner. Heparin in combination with
      chemotherapy has a synergic effect and could be a treatment choice for HCCs with
      a high CCN2 expression.

PMID- 28870206
TI  - 3,6-Dihydroxyflavone regulates microRNA-34a through DNA methylation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the common cancer in China. In previous study, we
      determined that 3,6-dihydroxyflavone (3,6-DHF) increases miR-34a significantly in
      breast carcinogenesis, but the mechanism remains unclear. METHODS: We used qRT
      PCR to analyze miR-34a and ten-eleven translocation (TET)1, TET2, TET3 levels in
      breast cancer cells. With a cellular breast carcinogenesis model and an
      experimental model of carcinogenesis in rats, TET1 levels were evaluated by
      western blot analysis and immunofluorescence. TET1 and 5hmC (5
      hydroxymethylcytosine) levels were evaluated by immunofluorescence in nude mouse
      xenografts of MDA-MB-231 cells. Chromatin immunoprecipitation(ChIP) assayed for
      TET1 on the TET1 promoter, and dot blot analysis of DNA 5hmC was performed in MDA
      MB-231 cells. We evaluated the mechanism of 3,6-DHF on the expression of tumor
      suppressor miR-34a by transfecting them with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT)1
      plasmid and TET1 siRNA in breast cancer cells. Methylation-specific PCR detected
      methylation of the miR-34a promoter. RESULTS: First, we found that 3,6-DHF
      promotes the expression of TET1 during carcinogen-induced breast carcinogenesis
      in MCF10A cells and in rats. 3,6-DHF also increased TET1 and 5hmC levels in MDA
      MB-231 cells. Further study indicated that TET1 siRNA and pcDNA3/Myc-DNMT1
      inhibited the 3,6-DHF reactivation effect on expression of miR-34a in breast
      cancer cells. Methylation-specific PCR assays indicated that TET1 siRNA and
      pcDNA3/Myc-DNMT1 inhibit the effect of 3,6-DHF on the demethylation of the miR
      34a promoter. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that 3,6-DHF effectively increases
      TET1 expression by inhibiting DNMT1 and DNA hypermethylation, and consequently up
      regulates miR-34a in breast carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28870207
TI  - Effects of Trilostane on urinary Catecholamines and their metabolites in dogs
      with Hypercortisolism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glucocorticoids influence the synthesis and metabolism of
      catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine) and metanephrines (metanephrine
      and normetanephrine). The aim of this study was to measure urinary catecholamines
      and metanephrines in dogs with hypercortisolism before and during trilostane
      therapy. Urine samples were collected during initial work up and during therapy
      with trilostane in 14 dogs with hypercortisolism and in 25 healthy dogs.
      Epinephrine, norepinephrine, metanephrine and normetanephrine were measured using
      high-pressure liquid chromatography and expressed as ratios to urinary creatinine
      concentration. RESULTS: Untreated dogs with hypercortisolism had significantly
      higher epinephrine, norepinephrine, and normetanephrine:creatinine ratios
      compared to healthy dogs. During trilostane therapy, urinary catecholamines and
      their metabolites did not decrease significantly. However, dogs with low post
      ACTH cortisol concentrations during trilostane therapy had less increased
      epinephrine, norepinephrine and normetanephrine:creatinine ratios compared to
      healthy dogs. There was no correlation of urinary catecholamines and their
      metabolites with baseline or post-ACTH cortisol or endogenous ACTH concentrations
      during trilostane therapy. CONCLUSION: Influences between steroid hormones and
      catecholamines seem to occur, as dogs with hypercortisolism have significantly
      higher urinary epinephrine, norepinephrine, and normetanephrine:creatinine
      ratios. Once-daily trilostane therapy does not lead to a significant decrease in
      catecholamines and their metabolites. Trilostane-treated dogs still have
      increased urinary epinephrine, norepinephrine and normetanephrine:creatinine
      ratios during trilostane therapy.

PMID- 28870208
TI  - The role of self-regulatory skills and automaticity on the effectiveness of a
      brief weight loss habit-based intervention: secondary analysis of the 10 top tips
      randomised trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Habit-interventions are designed to promote the automaticity of
      healthy behaviours and may also enhance self-regulatory skills during the habit
      formation process. A recent trial of habit-based advice for weight loss (10 Top
      Tips; 10TT), found that patients allocated to 10TT lost significantly more weight
      over 3 months than those allocated to usual care, and reported greater increases
      in automaticity for the target behaviours. The current study aimed to test the
      hypothesis that i) 10TT increased self-regulatory skills more than usual care,
      and ii) that self-regulatory skills and automaticity changes mediated the effect
      of 10TT on weight loss. METHODS: 537 obese patients from 14 primary care
      practices in the UK were randomized to receive 10TT or usual care. Patients in
      the 10TT group received a leaflet containing tips for weight loss and healthy
      habits formation, a self-monitoring log book and a wallet-sized shopping guide on
      how to read food labels. Patients were weighed and completed validated
      questionnaires for self-regulation and automaticity at baseline and 3-month
      follow-up. Within-group and Between-group effects were explored using Paired T
      test and ANCOVA, respectively. Mediation was assessed using bootstrapping to
      estimate indirect effects and the sobel test. RESULTS: Over 3 months patients who
      were given 10TT reported greater increases in self-regulatory skills (Mean
      difference: .08; 95% CI .01; .15) than those who received usual care. Changes in
      self-regulatory skills and automaticity over 3 months mediated the effect of the
      intervention on weight loss (beta = .52, 95% Bias Corrected CI .17; .91).
      CONCLUSIONS: As hypothesised, 10TT enhanced self-regulatory skills and changes in
      self-regulatory skills and automaticity mediated the effect of the intervention
      on weight loss. This supports the proposition that self-regulatory training and
      habit formation are important features of weight loss interventions. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: This study was prospectively registered with the International
      Standard Randomised Controlled Trials ( ISRCTN16347068 ) on 26 September 2011.

PMID- 28870210
TI  - Hemostatic bioactivity of novel Pollen Typhae Carbonisata-derived carbon quantum
      dots.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pollen Typhae Carbonisata (PTC) is a type of calcined herb drug that
      has been used as a hemostatic medicine to promote hemostasis for thousands of
      years. In this study, we discovered and separated novel water-soluble carbon
      quantum dots (CQDs, named PTC-CQDs) from aqueous extracts of PTC. These PTC-CDs
      were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high
      resolution TEM, as well as Fourier transform infrared, ultraviolet-visible, and
      fluorescence spectroscopy. Then, we assessed the anti-hemorrhagic effects and
      related hemostatic mechanisms of the obtained PTC-CQDs. RESULTS: The PTC-CQDs
      separated from PTC are spherical, monodisperse, and have a narrow size
      distribution between 2 and 8 nm. In the pharmacology experiment, remarkable anti
      hemorrhage effects of PTC-CQDs were revealed. Additionally, the rats showed a
      profound decrease in activated partial thromboplastin time and increase in
      fibrinogen and PLT after PTC-CQDs treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated
      the explicit hemostasis effect of PTC-CQDs, which not only provided a new idea
      for the material research of PTC, but have also provided new insights into
      potential biomedical and healthcare applications of CQDs in the field of
      haemorrhage control and laid a solid foundation for future drug discovery.

PMID- 28870211
TI  - Re-irradiation for oligo-recurrence from esophageal cancer with radiotherapy
      history: a multi-institutional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy following surgery has recently become a
      standard therapy. The purpose of the present study was to determine the
      effectiveness and toxicity of re-irradiation for oligo-recurrence in lymph nodes
      from esophageal cancer treated by definitive radiotherapy or by surgery with
      additional radiotherapy. METHODS: We reviewed retrospectively 248 patients
      treated with (chemo)radiotherapy for oligo-recurrence in lymph nodes from
      esophageal cancer in five Japanese high-volume centers between 2000 and 2015.
      Thirty-three patients in whom re-irradiation was performed were enrolled in this
      study, and the results for patients in whom re-irradiation was performed were
      compared with the results for other patients. RESULTS: Median maximum lymph node
      diameter was 22 mm. Median total radiation dose was 60 Gy. The median calculated
      biological effective dose using the LQ model with alpha/beta = 10 Gy (BED10) in
      patients in whom re-irradiation was performed was significantly lower than the
      median BED10 in others. There was no different factor except for BED10, histology
      and irradiation field between patients with a past irradiation history and
      patients without a past irradiation history. The median observation period in
      surviving patients in whom re-irradiation was performed was 21.7 months. The 3
      year overall survival rate in the 33 patients with a past irradiation history was
      17.9%, with a median survival period of 16.0 months. Overall survival rate and
      local control rate in patients with a past irradiation history were significantly
      worse than those in patients without a past irradiation history (log-rank test, p
      = 0.016 and p = 0.0007, respectively). One patient in whom re-irradiation was
      performed died from treatment-related gastric hemorrhage. CONCLUSIONS: Results in
      the present study suggested that re-irradiation for oligo-recurrence in lymph
      nodes from esophageal cancer treated by definitive radiotherapy or by surgery
      with additional radiotherapy might be acceptable but unsatisfactory.

PMID- 28870213
TI  - Test-and-treat approach to HIV/AIDS: a primer for mathematical modeling.
AB  - The public benefit of test-and-treat has induced a need to justify goodness for
      the public, and mathematical modeling studies have played a key role in designing
      and evaluating the test-and-treat strategy for controlling HIV/AIDS. Here we
      briefly and comprehensively review the essence of contemporary understanding of
      the test-and-treat policy through mathematical modeling approaches and identify
      key pitfalls that have been identified to date. While the decrease in HIV
      incidence is achieved with certain coverages of diagnosis, care and continued
      treatment, HIV prevalence is not necessarily decreased and sometimes the test-and
      treat is accompanied by increased long-term cost of antiretroviral therapy (ART).
      To confront with the complexity of assessment on this policy, the elimination
      threshold or the effective reproduction number has been proposed for its use in
      determining the overall success to anticipate the eventual elimination. Since the
      publication of original model in 2009, key issues of test-and-treat modeling
      studies have been identified, including theoretical problems surrounding the
      sexual partnership network, heterogeneities in the transmission dynamics, and
      realistic issues of achieving and maintaining high treatment coverage in the most
      hard-to-reach populations. To explicitly design country-specific control policy,
      quantitative modeling approaches to each single setting with differing
      epidemiological context would require multi-disciplinary collaborations among
      clinicians, public health practitioners, laboratory technologists,
      epidemiologists and mathematical modelers.

PMID- 28870209
TI  - Bridging Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia through inflammation and
      biomarkers - pre-clinical and clinical investigations.
AB  - In recent years, evidence supporting a link between inflammation and
      neuropsychiatric disorders has been mounting. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and
      schizophrenia share some clinical similarities which we hypothesize might reflect
      the same biological basis, namely, in terms of inflammation. However, the
      diagnosis of ASD and schizophrenia relies solely on clinical symptoms, and to
      date, there is no clinically useful biomarker to diagnose or monitor the course
      of such illnesses.The focus of this review is the central role that inflammation
      plays in ASD and schizophrenia. It spans from pre-clinical animal models to
      clinical research and excludes in vitro studies. Four major areas are covered:
      (1) microglia, the inflammatory brain resident myeloid cells, (2) biomarkers,
      including circulating cytokines, oxidative stress markers, and microRNA players,
      known to influence cellular processes at brain and immune levels, (3) effect of
      anti-psychotics on biomarkers and other predictors of response, and (4) impact of
      gender on response to immune activation, biomarkers, and response to anti
      psychotic treatments.

PMID- 28870212
TI  - Chromosome contacts in activated T cells identify autoimmune disease candidate
      genes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autoimmune disease-associated variants are preferentially found in
      regulatory regions in immune cells, particularly CD4+ T cells. Linking such
      regulatory regions to gene promoters in disease-relevant cell contexts
      facilitates identification of candidate disease genes. RESULTS: Within 4 h,
      activation of CD4+ T cells invokes changes in histone modifications and enhancer
      RNA transcription that correspond to altered expression of the interacting genes
      identified by promoter capture Hi-C. By integrating promoter capture Hi-C data
      with genetic associations for five autoimmune diseases, we prioritised 245
      candidate genes with a median distance from peak signal to prioritised gene of
      153 kb. Just under half (108/245) prioritised genes related to activation
      sensitive interactions. This included IL2RA, where allele-specific expression
      analyses were consistent with its interaction-mediated regulation, illustrating
      the utility of the approach. CONCLUSIONS: Our systematic experimental framework
      offers an alternative approach to candidate causal gene identification for
      variants with cell state-specific functional effects, with achievable sample
      sizes.

PMID- 28870214
TI  - Plasmodium vivax genetic diversity and heterozygosity in blood samples and
      resulting oocysts at the Thai-Myanmar border.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Polyclonal blood-stage infections of Plasmodium vivax are frequent
      even in low transmission settings, allowing meiotic recombination between
      heterologous parasites. Empirical data on meiotic products are however lacking.
      This study examined microsatellites in oocysts derived by membrane feeding of
      mosquitoes from blood-stage P. vivax infections at the Thai-Myanmar border.
      METHODS: Blood samples from patients presenting with vivax malaria were fed to
      Anopheles cracens by membrane feeding and individual oocysts from midguts were
      obtained by dissection after 7 days. DNA was extracted from oocysts and parental
      blood samples and tested by microsatellite analysis. RESULTS: A focused study of
      eight microsatellite markers was undertaken for nine blood stage infections from
      2013, for which derived oocysts were studied in six cases. One or more alleles
      were successfully amplified for 131 oocysts, revealing high levels of allelic
      diversity in both blood and oocyst stages. Based on standard criteria for
      defining minor alleles, there was evidence of clear deviation from random mating
      (inbreeding) with relatively few heterozygous oocysts compared to variance across
      the entire oocyst population (FIT = 0.89). The main explanation appeared to be
      natural compartmentalisation at mosquito (FSC = 0.27) and human stages (FCT =
      0.68). One single human case produced a total of 431 successfully amplified loci
      (across 70 oocysts) that were homozygous and identical to parental alleles at all
      markers, indicating clonal infection and transmission. Heterozygous oocyst
      alleles were found at 15/176 (8.5%) successfully amplified loci in the other five
      cases. There was apparently reduced oocyst heterozygosity in individual oocysts
      compared to diversity within individual mosquitoes (FIS = 0.55), but this may
      simply reflect the difficulty of detecting minor alleles in oocysts, given the
      high rate of amplification failure. Inclusion of minor allele peaks (irrespective
      of height) when matching peaks were found in related blood or oocyst samples,
      added 11 minor alleles for 9 oocysts, increasing the number of heterozygous loci
      to 26/176 (14.8%; p = 0.096). CONCLUSION: There was an apparently low level of
      heterozygous oocysts but this can be explained by a combination of factors:
      relatively low complexity of parental infection, natural compartmentalisation in
      humans and mosquitoes, and the methodological challenge of detecting minor
      alleles.

PMID- 28870215
TI  - The SPARK Tool to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in health policy
      and systems research: development and initial validation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Groups or institutions funding or conducting systematic reviews in
      health policy and systems research (HPSR) should prioritise topics according to
      the needs of policymakers and stakeholders. The aim of this study was to develop
      and validate a tool to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in HPSR.
      METHODS: We developed the tool following a four-step approach consisting of (1)
      the definition of the purpose and scope of tool, (2) item generation and
      reduction, (3) testing for content and face validity, (4) and pilot testing of
      the tool. The research team involved international experts in HPSR, systematic
      review methodology and tool development, led by the Center for Systematic Reviews
      on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK). We followed an inclusive approach
      in determining the final selection of items to allow customisation to the user's
      needs. RESULTS: The purpose of the SPARK tool was to prioritise questions in HPSR
      in order to address them in systematic reviews. In the item generation and
      reduction phase, an extensive literature search yielded 40 relevant articles,
      which were reviewed by the research team to create a preliminary list of 19
      candidate items for inclusion in the tool. As part of testing for content and
      face validity, input from international experts led to the refining, changing,
      merging and addition of new items, and to organisation of the tool into two
      modules. Following pilot testing, we finalised the tool, with 22 items organised
      in two modules - the first module including 13 items to be rated by policymakers
      and stakeholders, and the second including 9 items to be rated by systematic
      review teams. Users can customise the tool to their needs, by omitting items that
      may not be applicable to their settings. We also developed a user manual that
      provides guidance on how to use the SPARK tool, along with signaling questions.
      CONCLUSION: We have developed and conducted initial validation of the SPARK tool
      to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in HPSR, along with a user manual.
      By aligning systematic review production to policy priorities, the tool will help
      support evidence-informed policymaking and reduce research waste. We invite
      others to contribute with additional real-life implementation of the tool.

PMID- 28870216
TI  - Trifluoperazine, a novel autophagy inhibitor, increases radiosensitivity in
      glioblastoma by impairing homologous recombination.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Resistance to adjuvant radiotherapy is a major cause of treatment
      failure in patients with glioblastoma (GBM). Autophagy inhibitors have been shown
      to enhance the efficacy of radiotherapy for certain solid tumors. However,
      current inhibitors do not penetrate the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Here, we
      assessed the radiosensitivity effects of the antipsychotic drug trifluoperazine
      (TFP) on GBM in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: U251 and U87 GBM cell lines as well
      as GBM cells from a primary human biopsy (P3), were used in vitro and in vivo to
      evaluate the efficacy of TFP treatment. Viability and cytotoxicity was evaluated
      by CCK-8 and clonogenic formation assays. Molecular studies using
      immunohistochemistry, western blots, immunofluorescence and qPCR were used to
      gain mechanistic insight into the biological activity of TFP. Preclinical
      therapeutic efficacy was evaluated in orthotopic xenograft mouse models. RESULTS:
      IC50 values of U251, U87 and P3 cells treated with TFP were 16, 15 and 15.5 MUM,
      respectively. TFP increased the expression of LC3B-II and p62, indicating a
      potential disruption of autophagy flux. These results were further substantiated
      by a decreased Lysotracker Red uptake, indicating impaired acidification of the
      lysosomes. We show that TFP and radiation had an additive effect when combined.
      This effect was in part due to impaired TFP-induced homologous recombination.
      Mechanistically we show that down-regulation of cathepsin L might explain the
      radiosensitivity effect of TFP. Finally, combining TFP and radiation resulted in
      a significant antitumor effect in orthotopic GBM xenograft models. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study provides a strong rationale for further clinical studies exploring the
      combination therapy of TFP and radiation to treat GBM patients.

PMID- 28870217
TI  - Controlled ovulation of the dominant follicle using progestin in minimal
      stimulation in poor responders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of progestin (P) during ovarian stimulation is effective in
      blocking the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge in women with normal ovarian reserve,
      however, its effects have not been determined in poor responders. This study
      aimed to explore the follicular dynamics in P-primed minimal stimulation in poor
      responders. METHODS: A total of 204 infertile women with diminished ovarian
      reserve were allocated into the medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) group or the
      natural-cycle control group in an alternating order. MPA (10 mg) was administered
      daily beginning from the early follicular phase and a low dose of hMG was added
      in the late follicular phase if the serum FSH level was lower than 8.0mIU/ml.
      When a dominant follicle reached maturity, triptorelin 100 MUg and hCG 1000 IU
      were used for trigger, and oocytes were retrieved 34-36 h later.All viable
      embryos were cryopreserved for subsequent frozen embryo transfer. Natural cycle
      IVF was used as controls. RESULTS: Compared with the natural cycle group, the MPA
      group exhibited a larger pre-ovulatory follicle (18.7 +/- 1.8 mm vs 17.2 +/- 2.2
      mm), a longer follicular phase (13.6 +/- 3.6 days vs 12.3 +/- 3.2 days), and
      higher peak oestradiol values (403.88 +/- 167.16 vs 265.26 +/- 122.16 pg/ml),
      while maintaining lower LH values (P < 0.05). The incidences of spontaneous LH
      surge and premature ovulation decreased significantly (1.0% vs 50%; 2% vs. 10.8%,
      respectively; P < 0.05). A greater number of oocytes and viable embryos were
      harvested from the MPA group than from the natural cycle group (P < 0.05).
      Moreover,the clinical pregnancy rate was slightly higher in the MPA group than in
      the natural cycle controls, but the difference was not significant (11.8% vs
      5.9%, P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study supported the hypothesis that P-primed
      minimal stimulation achieved ovulation control of the dominant follicle and did
      not adversely affect the quality of oocytes in poor responders. Therefore, P
      priming is a promising approach to overcome premature ovulation in minimal
      stimulation for poor responders. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR-OCH-14004176 .
      Registered on January 8, 2014.

PMID- 28870218
TI  - Respiratory problems in children with esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal
      fistula.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children with congenital esophageal atresia (EA) and
      tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) have chronic respiratory symptoms including
      recurrent pneumonia, wheezing and persistent cough. The aim of this study is to
      describe the clinical findings of a large group of children with EA and TEF
      surgically corrected and the instrumental investigation to which they have
      undergone in order to better understand the patient's needs and harmonize the
      care. METHODS: A retrospective data collection was performed on 105 children with
      EA and TEF followed at Department of Pediatric Medicine of Bambino Gesu
      Children's Hospital (Rome, Italy) between 2010 and 2015. RESULTS: 69/105 (66%)
      children reported lower respiratory symptoms with a mean age onset of 2.2 +/- 2.5
      years and only 63/69 (91%) performed specialist assessment at Respiratory Unit.
      Recurrent pneumonia (33%) and wheezing (31%) were the most reported symptoms. The
      first respiratory evaluation was performed after surgically correction of
      gastroesophageal reflux (GER) at mean age of 3.9 +/- 4.2 years. Twenty nine
      patients have undergone to chest CT with contrast enhancement detecting localized
      atelectasis (41%), residual tracheal diverticulum (34%), bronchiectasis (31%),
      tracheal vascular compression (21%), tracheomalacia (17%) and esophageal
      diverticulum (14%). Fifty three patients have undergone to airways endoscopy
      detecting tracheomalacia (66%), residual tracheal diverticulum (26%), recurrent
      tracheoesophageal fistula (19%) and vocal cord paralysis (11%). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study confirms that respiratory symptoms often complicate EA and TEF; their
      persistence despite medical and surgical treatment of GER means that other
      etiological hypothesis must be examined and that a complete respiratory
      diagnostic work up must be considered.

PMID- 28870219
TI  - Predictors of screen viewing time in young Singaporean children: the GUSTO
      cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Higher screen viewing time (SVT) in childhood has been associated
      with adverse health outcomes, but the predictors of SVT in early childhood are
      poorly understood. We examined the sociodemographic and behavioral predictors of
      total and device-specific SVT in a Singaporean cohort. METHODS: At ages 2 and 3
      years, SVT of 910 children was reported by their parents. Interviewer
      administered questionnaires assessed SVT on weekdays and weekends for television,
      computer, and hand-held devices. Multivariable linear mixed-effect models were
      used to examine the associations of total and device-specific SVT at ages 2 and 3
      with predictors, including children's sex, ethnicity, birth order, family income,
      and parental age, education, BMI, and television viewing time. RESULTS: At age 2,
      children's total SVT averaged 2.4 +/- 2.2 (mean +/- SD) hours/day, including 1.6
      +/- 1.6 and 0.7 +/- 1.0 h/day for television and hand-held devices, respectively.
      At age 3, hand-held device SVT was 0.3 (95% CI: 0.2, 0.4) hours/day higher, while
      no increases were observed for other devices. SVT tracked moderately from 2 to 3
      years (r = 0.49, p < 0.0001). Compared to Chinese children, Malay and Indian
      children spent 1.04 (0.66, 1.41) and 0.54 (0.15, 0.94) more hours/day watching
      screens, respectively. Other predictors of longer SVT were younger maternal age,
      lower maternal education, and longer parental television time. CONCLUSIONS: In
      our cohort, the main predictors of longer children's SVT were Malay and Indian
      ethnicity, younger maternal age, lower education and longer parental television
      viewing time. Our study may help target populations for future interventions in
      Asia, but also in other technology-centered societies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This
      ongoing study was first registered on July 1, 2010 on NCT01174875 as.
      Retrospectively registered.

PMID- 28870221
TI  - Isolation and characterization of the fall Chinook aquareovirus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Salmon are paramount to the economy, ecology, and history of the
      Pacific Northwest. Viruses constitute one of the major threats to salmon health
      and well-being, with more than twenty known virus species that infect salmon.
      Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of the fall Chinook
      aquareovirus, a divergent member of the species Aquareovirus B within the family
      Reoviridae. METHODS: The virus was first found in 2014 as part of a routine adult
      broodstock screening program in which kidney and spleen tissue samples from
      healthy-appearing, adult fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) returning
      to a hatchery in Washington State produced cytopathic effects when inoculated
      onto a Chinook salmon embryo cell line (CHSE-214). The virus was not able to be
      confirmed by an RT-PCR assay using existing aquareovirus pan-species primers, and
      instead was identified by metagenomic next-generation sequencing. Metagenomic
      next-generation sequencing was used to recover the full genome and completed
      using 3' RACE. RESULTS: The genome of the fall Chinook aquareovirus contains 11
      segments of double-stranded RNA totaling 23.3 kb, with each segment flanked by
      the canonical sequence termini found in the aquareoviruses. Sequence comparisons
      and a phylogenetic analysis revealed a nucleotide identity of 63.2% in the VP7
      gene with the Green River Chinook virus, placing the new isolate in the species
      Aquareovirus B. A qRT-PCR assay was developed targeting the VP2, which showed
      rapid growth of the isolate during the initial 5 days in culture using CHSE-214
      cells. CONCLUSIONS: This sequence represents the first complete genome of an
      Aquareovirus B species. Future studies will be required to understand the
      potential pathogenicity and epidemiology of the fall Chinook aquareovirus.

PMID- 28870220
TI  - The type VI adenylyl cyclase protects cardiomyocytes from beta-adrenergic stress
      by a PKA/STAT3-dependent pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The type VI adenylyl cyclase (AC6) is a main contributor of cAMP
      production in the heart. The amino acid (aa) sequence of AC6 is highly homologous
      to that of another major cardiac adenylyl cyclase, AC5, except for its N-terminus
      (AC6-N, aa 1-86). Activation of AC6, rather than AC5, produces cardioprotective
      effects against heart failure, while the underlying mechanism remains to be
      unveiled. Using an AC6-null (AC6-/-) mouse and a knockin mouse with AC6-N
      deletion (AC6 DeltaN/DeltaN), we aimed to investigate the cardioprotective
      mechanism of AC6 in the heart. METHODS: Western blot analysis and
      immunofluorescence staining were performed to determine the intracellular
      distribution of AC6, AC6-DeltaN (a truncated AC6 lacking the first 86 amino
      acids), and STAT3 activation. Activities of AC6 and AC6-DeltaN in the heart were
      assessed by cAMP assay. Apoptosis of cardiomyocytes were evaluated by the TUNEL
      assay and a propidium iodine-based survival assay. Fibrosis was examined by
      collagen staining. RESULTS: Immunofluorescence staining revealed that cardiac AC6
      was mainly anchored on the sarcolemmal membranes, while AC6-DeltaN was
      redistributed to the sarcoplasmic reticulum. AC6DeltaN/DeltaN and AC6-/- mice had
      more apoptotic myocytes and cardiac remodeling than WT mice in experimental
      models of isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial injury. Adult cardiomyocytes
      isolated from AC6DeltaN/DeltaN or AC6-/- mice survived poorly after exposure to
      ISO, which produced no effect on WT cardiomyocytes under the condition tested.
      Importantly, ISO treatment induced cardiac STAT3 phosphorylation/activation in WT
      mice, but not in AC6DeltaN/DeltaN and AC6-/- mice. Pharmacological blockage of
      PKA-, Src-, or STAT3- pathway markedly reduced the survival of WT myocytes in the
      presence of ISO, but did not affect those of AC6DeltaN/DeltaN and AC6-/-
      myocytes, suggesting an important role of AC6 in mediating cardioprotective
      action through the activation of PKA-Src-STAT3-signaling. CONCLUSIONS:
      Collectively, AC6-N controls the anchorage of cardiac AC6 on the sarcolemmal
      membrane, which enables the coupling of AC6 with the pro-survival PKA-STAT3
      pathway. Our findings may facilitate the development of novel therapies for heart
      failure.

PMID- 28870222
TI  - General anesthetics protects against cardiac arrest-induced brain injury by
      inhibiting calcium wave propagation in zebrafish.
AB  - Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Although
      many victims are initially resuscitated, they often suffer from serious brain
      injury, even leading to a "persistent vegetative state". Therefore, it is need to
      explore therapies which restore and protect brain function after cardiac arrest.
      In the present study, using Tg (HuC:GCaMP5) zebrafish as a model, we found the
      zebrafish brain generated a burst of Ca2+ wave after cardiac arrest by in vivo
      time-lapse confocal imaging. The Ca2+ wave was firstly initiated at hindbrain and
      then sequentially propagated to midbrain and telencephalon, the neuron displayed
      Ca2+ overload after Ca2+ wave propagation. Consistent with this, our study
      further demonstrated neuronal apoptosis was increased in cardiac arrest zebrafish
      by TUNEL staining. The cardiac arrest-induced Ca2+ wave propagation can be
      prevented by general anesthetics such as midazolam or ketamine pretreatment.
      Moreover, midazolam or ketamine pretreatment dramatically decreased the neuronal
      apoptosis and improved the survival rate in CA zebrafish. Taken together, these
      findings provide the first in vivo evidence that general anesthetics pretreatment
      protects against cardiac arrest-induced brain injury by inhibiting calcium wave
      propagation in zebrafish.

PMID- 28870223
TI  - Modified 'candy-plug' technique for chronic type B aortic dissection with
      aneurysmal dilatation: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The original 'candy-plug' technique has been reported to be
      beneficial for the treatment of residual perfused false lumen in patients with
      aortic dissection. However, this technique is also associated with several
      problems, such as narrowing of the true lumen and damage to the flap or vessel
      wall. Therefore, we modified the procedure to overcome these problems. Here we
      report a case in which the patient was successfully treated using the modified
      procedure. CASE PRESENTATION: A 59-year-old man presented with chronic type B
      aortic dissection with aneurysmal dilatation. The patient had undergone
      prosthetic graft replacement of the ascending aorta for acute type A aortic
      dissection 3 years previously and replacement of the descending aorta for
      residual type B aortic dissection with aneurysmal dilatation 1 year previously.
      After these procedures, the residual false lumen aneurysm of the distal
      descending aorta expanded to 57-mm in diameter. Endovascular stent grafting was
      successfully performed using the modified 'candy-plug' technique with relining of
      the true lumen and occlusion of the false lumen. The patient was discharged 10
      days after the procedure. Follow-up imaging at 1 year showed a completely
      thrombosed false lumen aneurysm. CONCLUSION: The modified 'candy-plug' technique
      is useful for treatment of residual type B aortic dissection with aneurysmal
      dilatation.

PMID- 28870224
TI  - Psychoactive substances as a last resort-a qualitative study of self-treatment of
      migraine and cluster headaches.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment resistant cluster headache and migraine patients are
      exploring alternative treatments online. The aim of this study was to improve
      comprehension regarding the use of non-established or alternative pharmacological
      treatments used by sufferers of cluster headaches and migraines. METHODS: A
      qualitative thematic analysis of the users' own accounts presented in online
      forum discussions were conducted. The forum boards https://shroomery.org/ ,
      http://bluelight.org , and https://clusterbusters.org/ met the inclusion criteria
      and were used for the study. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in six themes: a
      desperate need for effective treatments; the role of the forum-finding
      alternative treatments and community support; alternative treatment substances;
      dosage and regimens; effects and treatment results; and adverse effects. The
      results provide an insight into why, how, and by which substances and methods
      sufferers seek relief from cluster headache and migraines. CONCLUSIONS: These
      patients are in a desperate and vulnerable situation, and illicit psychoactive
      substances are often considered a last resort. There appeared to be little or no
      interest in psychoactive effects per se as these were rather tolerated or avoided
      by using sub-psychoactive doses. Primarily, psilocybin, lysergic acid
      diethylamide, and related psychedelic tryptamines were reportedly effective for
      both prophylactic and acute treatment of cluster headache and migraines.
      Treatment results with cannabis were more unpredictable. No severe adverse events
      were reported, but it was observed how desperation sometimes spurred risky
      behavior when obtaining and testing various treatment alternatives. The forum
      discourse mainly revolved around maximizing treatment results and minimizing
      potential harms.

PMID- 28870225
TI  - Implementation framework for chronic disease intervention effectiveness in Maori
      and other indigenous communities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: About 40% of all health burden in New Zealand is due to cancer,
      cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes/obesity. Outcomes for Maori
      (indigenous people) are significantly worse than non-Maori; these inequities
      mirror those found in indigenous communities elsewhere. Evidence-based
      interventions with established efficacy may not be effective in indigenous
      communities without addressing specific implementation challenges. We present an
      implementation framework for interventions to prevent and treat chronic
      conditions for Maori and other indigenous communities. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The
      He Pikinga Waiora Implementation Framework has indigenous self-determination at
      its core and consists of four elements: cultural-centeredness, community
      engagement, systems thinking, and integrated knowledge translation. All elements
      have conceptual fit with Kaupapa Maori aspirations (i.e., indigenous knowledge
      creation, theorizing, and methodology) and all have demonstrated evidence of
      positive implementation outcomes. APPLYING THE FRAMEWORK: A coding scheme derived
      from the Framework was applied to 13 studies of diabetes prevention in indigenous
      communities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States from a
      systematic review. Cross-tabulations demonstrated that culture-centeredness (p =
      .008) and community engagement (p = .009) explained differences in diabetes
      outcomes and community engagement (p = .098) explained difference in blood
      pressure outcomes. IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: The He Pikinga Waiora
      Implementation Framework appears to be well suited to advance implementation
      science for indigenous communities in general and Maori in particular. The
      framework has promise as a policy and planning tool to evaluate and design
      effective interventions for chronic disease prevention in indigenous communities.

PMID- 28870226
TI  - BayFish: Bayesian inference of transcription dynamics from population snapshots
      of single-molecule RNA FISH in single cells.
AB  - Single-molecule RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) provides
      unparalleled resolution in the measurement of the abundance and localization of
      nascent and mature RNA transcripts in fixed, single cells. We developed a
      computational pipeline (BayFish) to infer the kinetic parameters of gene
      expression from smFISH data at multiple time points after gene induction. Given
      an underlying model of gene expression, BayFish uses a Monte Carlo method to
      estimate the Bayesian posterior probability of the model parameters and quantify
      the parameter uncertainty given the observed smFISH data. We tested BayFish on
      synthetic data and smFISH measurements of the neuronal activity-inducible gene
      Npas4 in primary neurons.

PMID- 28870227
TI  - Cone-beam CT reconstruction for non-periodic organ motion using time-ordered
      chain graph model.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to introduce the new concept of a four
      dimensional (4D) cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) reconstruction approach for
      non-periodic organ motion in cooperation with the time-ordered chain graph model
      (TCGM) and to compare it with previously developed methods such as total
      variation-based compressed sensing (TVCS) and prior-image constrained compressed
      sensing (PICCS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our proposed reconstruction is based on a
      model including the constraint originating from the images of neighboring time
      phases. Namely, the reconstructed time-series images depend on each other in this
      TCGM scheme, and the time-ordered images are concurrently reconstructed in the
      iterative reconstruction approach. In this study, iterative reconstruction with
      the TCGM was carried out with 90 degrees  projection ranges. The images
      reconstructed by the TCGM were compared with the images reconstructed by TVCS
      (200 degrees  projection ranges) and PICCS (90 degrees  projection ranges). Two
      kinds of projection data sets-an elliptic-cylindrical digital phantom and two
      clinical patients' data-were used. For the digital phantom, an air sphere was
      contained and virtually moved along the longitudinal axis by 3 cm/30 s and 3
      cm/60 s; the temporal resolution was evaluated by measuring the penumbral width
      of the air sphere. The clinical feasibility of the non-periodic time-ordered 4D
      CBCT image reconstruction was examined with the patient data in the pelvic
      region. RESULTS: In the evaluation of the digital-phantom reconstruction, the
      penumbral widths of the TCGM yielded the narrowest result; the results obtained
      by PICCS and TCGM using 90 degrees  projection ranges were 2.8% and 18.2% for 3
      cm/30 s, and 5.0% and 23.1% for 3 cm/60 s narrower than that of TVCS using 200
      degrees  projection ranges. This suggests that the TCGM has a better temporal
      resolution, whereas PICCS seems similar to TVCS. These reconstruction methods
      were also compared using patients' projection data sets. Although all three
      reconstruction results showed motion related to rectal gas or stool, the result
      obtained by the TCGM was visibly clearer with less blurring. CONCLUSION: The TCGM
      is a feasible approach to visualize non-periodic organ motion. The digital
      phantom results demonstrated that the proposed method provides 4D image series
      with a better temporal resolution compared to TVCS and PICCS. The clinical
      patients' results also showed that the present method enables us to visualize
      motion related to rectal gas and flatus in the rectum.

PMID- 28870228
TI  - Changes in catastrophic health expenditure in post-conflict Sierra Leone: an
      Oaxaca-blinder decomposition analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: At the end of the eleven-year conflict in Sierra Leone, a wide range
      of policies were implemented to address both demand- and supply-side constraints
      within the healthcare system, which had collapsed during the conflict. This study
      examines the extent to which households' exposure to financial risks associated
      with seeking healthcare evolved in post-conflict Sierra Leone. METHOD: This study
      uses the 2003 and 2011 cross-sections of the Sierra Leone Integrated Household
      Survey to examine changes in catastrophic health expenditure between 2003 and
      2011. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach is used to quantify the extent to
      which changes in catastrophic health expenditure are attributable to changes in
      the distribution of determinants (distributional effect) and to changes in the
      impact of these determinants on the probability of incurring catastrophic health
      expenditure (coefficient effect). RESULTS: The incidence of catastrophic health
      expenditure decreased significantly by 18% from approximately 50% in 2003 t0 32%
      in 2011. The decomposition analysis shows that this decrease represents net
      effects attributable to the distributional and coefficient effects of three
      determinants of catastrophic health expenditure - ill-health, the region in which
      households reside and the type of health facility used. A decrease in the
      incidence of ill-health and changes in the regional location of households
      contributed to a decrease in catastrophic health expenditure. The distributional
      effect of health facility types observed as an increase in the use of public
      health facilities, and a decrease in the use of services in facilities owned by
      non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also contributed to a decrease in the
      incidence of catastrophic health expenditure. However, the coefficient effect of
      public health facilities and NGO-owned facilities suggests that substantial
      exposure to financial risk remained for households utilizing both types of health
      facilities in 2011. CONCLUSION: The findings support the need to continue
      expanding current demand-side policies in Sierra Leone to reduce the financial
      risk of exposure to ill health.

PMID- 28870229
TI  - Potential factors associated with clinical stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma at
      diagnosis: a case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In China, most patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are
      diagnosed at a late stage and consequently have a poor prognosis. This study
      aimed to investigate potential factors associated with the clinical stage of NPC
      at diagnosis. METHODS: Data were obtained from 118 patients with early-stage NPC
      and 274 with late-stage NPC who were treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer
      Center between August 2014 and July 2015. Patients were individually matched by
      age, sex, and residence, and a conditional logistic regression model was applied
      to assess the associations of clinical stage at diagnosis with socioeconomic
      status indicators, knowledge of NPC, physical examinations, patient interval, and
      risk factors for NPC. RESULTS: Although knowledge of early NPC symptoms, smoking
      cessation, and patient interval were important factors, the number of cigarettes
      smoked per day, motorbike ownership, and physical examination exhibited the
      strongest associations with the clinical stage of NPC at diagnosis. Compared with
      smoking fewer than ten cigarettes a day, smoking 10-30 cigarettes [odds ratio
      (OR) 4.03; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11-14.68] or more than 30 cigarettes
      (OR 11.46; 95% CI 1.26-103.91) was associated with an increased risk of late
      diagnosis. Compared with not owning a motorbike, owning a motorbike (OR 0.38; 95%
      CI 0.23-0.64) was associated with early diagnosis. Subjects who underwent
      physical examinations were less likely to receive a late diagnosis than those who
      did not undergo examinations (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.28-0.89). However, indicators of
      wealth were not significant factors. CONCLUSIONS: Initiatives to improve NPC
      patient prognosis should aim to promote knowledge about early symptoms and
      detection, health awareness, and accessibility to health facilities among all
      patients, regardless of socioeconomic status.

PMID- 28870230
TI  - Pre-pregnancy weight, gestational weight gain, and the gut microbiota of mothers
      and their infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent evidence supports that the maternal gut microbiota impacts the
      initial infant gut microbiota. Since the gut microbiota may play a causal role in
      the development of obesity, it is important to understand how pre-pregnancy
      weight and gestational weight gain (GWG) impact the gut microbiota of mothers at
      the time of delivery and their infants in early life. In this study, we performed
      16S rRNA gene sequencing on gut microbiota samples from 169 women 4 days after
      delivery and from the 844 samples of their infants at six timepoints during the
      first 2 years of life. We categorized the women (1) according to pre-pregnancy
      body mass index into overweight/obese (OW/OB, BMI >= 25) or non-overweight/obese
      (BMI < 25) and (2) into excessive and non-excessive GWG in the subset of mothers
      of full-term singleton infants (N = 116). We compared alpha diversity and
      taxonomic composition of the maternal and infant samples by exposure groups. We
      also compared taxonomic similarity between maternal and infant gut microbiota.
      RESULTS: Maternal OW/OB was associated with lower maternal alpha diversity.
      Maternal pre-pregnancy OW/OB and excessive GWG were associated with taxonomic
      differences in the maternal gut microbiota, including taxa from the highly
      heritable family Christensenellaceae, the genera Lachnospira, Parabacteroides,
      Bifidobacterium, and Blautia. These maternal characteristics were not associated
      with overall differences in the infant gut microbiota over the first 2 years of
      life. However, the presence of specific OTUs in maternal gut microbiota at the
      time of delivery did significantly increase the odds of presence in the infant
      gut at age 4-10 days for many taxa, and these included some lean-associated taxa.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results show differences in maternal gut microbiota composition
      at the time of delivery by pre-pregnancy weight and GWG, but these changes were
      only associated with limited compositional differences in the early life gut
      microbiota of their infants. Further work is needed to determine the degree to
      which these maternal microbiota differences at time of birth with OW/OB and GWG
      may affect the health of the infant over time and by what mechanism.

PMID- 28870232
TI  - HIV treatment cascade among female entertainment and sex workers in Cambodia:
      impact of amphetamine use and an HIV prevention program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV prevalence remains high in Cambodia among female entertainment
      and sex workers (FESW), and amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) use significantly
      increases risk of infection. A successful continuum of care (CoC) is key to
      effective clinical care and prevention. This study aimed to describe the HIV CoC
      in HIV-positive FESW. We examined CoC outcomes among HIV-positive FESW
      participating in the Cambodia Integrated HIV and Drug Prevention Implementation
      (CIPI) study, being implemented in ten provinces. CIPI is a trial aimed at
      reducing ATS use concomitant with the SMARTgirl HIV prevention program. METHODS:
      From 2013 to 2016, 1198 FESW >= 18 years old who reported multiple sex partners
      and/or transactional sex were recruited. We identified 88 HIV-positive women at
      baseline. We described linkage to care as 12-month retention and viral
      suppression (<1000 copies/mL). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to
      examine correlates of retention in care at 12 months, and viral suppression.
      RESULTS: Median age of the 88 HIV-positive women was 32 years [interquartile
      range (IQR) 28, 35]; 50% were working in entertainment venues and 50% as
      freelance sex workers; 70% reported SMARTgirl membership. In the past 3 months,
      women reported a median of 15 sex partners, 38% reported unprotected sex, and 55%
      reported using ATS. Overall, 88% were receiving HIV care, 83% were on
      antiretroviral therapy, 39% were retained in care at 12 months, and 23% were
      virally suppressed. SMARTgirl membership was independently associated with
      fourfold greater odds of 12-month retention in care (AOR = 4.16, 95% CI 1.38,
      12.56). Those at high risk for an ATS use disorder had 91% lower odds of 12-month
      retention in care (AOR = 0.09, 95% CI 0.01, 0.72). Viral suppression was
      independently associated with SMARTgirl membership, older age, reporting of STI
      symptoms, worse symptoms of psychological distress, and greater numbers of sex
      partners. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to characterize the HIV CoC in
      Cambodian FESW. While most women were successfully linked to HIV care, retention
      and viral suppression were low. Tailored programs like SMARTgirl, targeting the
      broader population of HIV-positive FESW as well as interventions to reduce ATS
      use could optimize the clinical and population health benefits of HIV treatment.
      Trial registration This work reports data collected as part of a trial:
      NCT01835574. This work does not present trial results.

PMID- 28870233
TI  - Free fatty acids profile among lean, overweight and obese non-alcoholic fatty
      liver disease patients: a case - control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) given its association with
      obesity and diabetes may perhaps exert distinct free fatty acids (FFA) pattern,
      but the understanding of this phenomenon is limited. To this effect, we evaluated
      FFA profiles among healthy subjects and NAFLD patients stratified by body weight,
      to identify FFA valuable for early diagnosis of NAFLD. METHODS: Serum FFA
      profiles of healthy and NAFLD (lean, overweight and obese) subjects was
      determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and distinctions in
      FFA patterns were evaluated using one-way ANOVA while Receiver operating
      characteristics (ROC) and logistic regression models were used to explore FFA
      significant for diagnosing NAFLD. RESULTS: NAFLD patients presented significantly
      higher (P < 0.05) serum FFA profiles compared to healthy controls (HC). While
      total FFA profiles were insignificantly different between lean (2093.33 +/-
      558.11 MUg/ml) and overweight (2420.81 +/- 555.18 MUg/ml) NAFLD patients, obese
      NAFLD (2739.01 +/- 810.35 MUg/ml) presented most significantly elevated (P <
      0.05) total FFA profiles compared with HC. Of the four FFA; myristic acid (14:0),
      palmitoleic acid (16:1), gamma-linolenic acid (gamma-18:3) and cis-7,10,13,16,19
      docosapentaenoic acid (22:5), selected in ROC analysis given their high Youden's
      index and AUC, only 14:0; 5.58(1.37, 22.76) and 16:1; 4.36(1.34, 14.13) had
      statistical significant odd ratios. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest 14:0 and
      16:1 are promising for early diagnosis of NAFLD.

PMID- 28870231
TI  - WNT signaling - lung cancer is no exception.
AB  - Since the initial discovery of the oncogenic activity of WNT ligands our
      understanding of the complex roles for WNT signaling pathways in lung cancers has
      increased substantially. In the current review, the various effects of activation
      and inhibition of the WNT signaling pathways are summarized in the context of
      lung carcinogenesis. Recent evidence regarding WNT ligand transport mechanisms,
      the role of WNT signaling in lung cancer angiogenesis and drug transporter
      regulation and the importance of microRNA and posttranscriptional regulation of
      WNT signaling are also reviewed.

PMID- 28870235
TI  - Soy isoflavones inducing overt hypothyroidism in a patient with chronic
      lymphocytic thyroiditis: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many people have thyroid conditions that make them susceptible to
      hypothyroidism. If the foods they eat may interfere with the production of
      thyroid hormone, which can lead to development of serious hypothyroidism. The
      danger of health drinks should always be noted. CASE PRESENTATION: A 72-year-old
      Japanese woman was previously diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis
      caused by a goiter and had an elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone level (6.56
      MUIU/ml), a high anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody level (>600 IU/ml), and a high
      antithyroglobulin level (> 4000 IU/ml) but normal levels of free triiodothyronine
      (3.08 pg/ml) and thyroxine (1.18 ng/ml). She presented to our hospital with
      sudden-onset general malaise, edema, and hoarseness with an elevated thyroid
      stimulating hormone (373.3 MUIU/ml) level and very low triiodothyronine (< 0.26
      pg/ml) and thyroxine (0.10 ng/ml) levels. It was determined that for 6 months she
      had been consuming a processed, solved health drink ("barley young leaf") in
      amounts of 9 g/day, which included soybean and kale powder extract.
      Hypothyroidism might be affected by ingredients of health drinks. She
      discontinued consumption of the health drink immediately and began taking 12.5
      MUg of levothyroxine. The amount of levothyroxine was gradually increased every 3
      days up to 100 MUg. At day 61, her thyroid-stimulating hormone level had
      decreased (6.12 MUIU/ml), her free triiodothyronine (2.69 pg/ml) and thyroxine
      (1.56 ng/ml) levels had increased, and her general condition was improved. Among
      risky foods lowering thyroid function, some experimental studies have revealed
      that isoflavones reduce thyroid function. Therefore, we measured the presence of
      isoflavones in the patient's frozen serum with thin-layer chromatography. After
      she discontinued consumption of the health drink, two components quickly
      disappeared, and the other three components gradually decreased. On the basis of
      developing solvent composition and a positive ferric chloride reaction in thin
      layer chromatography experiment, the five ingredients that disappeared or
      decreased were highly suspected to be soy isoflavones. CONCLUSIONS: This case
      emphasizes that consuming health drinks that include soy isoflavone powder
      extracts can lead to severe hypothyroidism.

PMID- 28870234
TI  - Collection of non-meconium stool on fecal occult blood cards is an effective
      method for fecal microbiota studies in infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Effective methods are needed to collect fecal samples from children
      for large-scale microbiota studies. Stool collected on fecal occult blood test
      (FOBT) cards that can be mailed provides an effective solution; however, the
      quality of sequencing resulting from this method is unknown. The aim of this
      study is to compare microbiota metrics of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene
      sequencing from stool and meconium collected on FOBT cards with stool collected
      in an Eppendorf tube (ET) under different conditions. METHODS: Eight stool
      samples from children in diapers aged 0 month-2 years and three meconium samples
      were collected and stored as follows: (1) <= 2 days at room temperature (RT) in
      an ET, (2) 7 days at - 80  degrees C in an ET, (3) 3-5 days at RT on a FOBT card,
      (4) 7 days at RT on a FOBT card, and (5) 7 days at - 80  degrees C on a FOBT
      card. Samples stored at - 80  degrees C were frozen immediately. Each
      specimen/condition underwent 16S rRNA gene sequencing with replicates on the
      Illumina MiSeq. Alpha and beta diversity measures and relative abundance of major
      phyla were compared between storage conditions and container (ET vs. FOBT card),
      with pairwise comparison between different storage conditions and the "standard"
      of 7 days at - 80  degrees C in an ET and fresh stool in an ET. RESULTS: Stool
      samples clustered mainly by individual diaper (P < 10-5, Adonis), rather than by
      storage condition (P = 0.42) or container (P = 0.16). However, meconium samples
      clustered more by container (P = 0.002) than by individual diaper (P = 0.009) and
      storage condition (P = 0.02). Additionally, there were no differences in alpha
      diversity measures and relative abundance of major phyla after Bonferroni
      correction between stool stored on a FOBT card at RT for 7 days with stool stored
      in an ET tube at - 80  degrees C; differences in alpha diversity were seen
      however when compared to fresh stool in an ET. Overall, based on the intraclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC), the different storage containers/conditions are
      reliable in preserving the microbial memberships and slightly less reliable in
      preserving the alpha diversity and relative microbial composition of infant
      stool. CONCLUSIONS: Acknowledging certain limitations, FOBT cards may be a useful
      tool in large-scale stool microbiota studies in children requiring outpatient
      follow-up where only small amounts of stool can be obtained, but should not be
      used when studying meconium.

PMID- 28870236
TI  - Acquired Hemophilia A in an advanced age patient of hispanic origin: a case
      report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acquired Hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare hematological disorder that
      exhibits an incidence of approximately 1.5 cases per million patients a year. It
      is characterized by the development of autoantibodies against circulating Factor
      VIII coagulation proteins which, in turn, which in turn lead to potentially life
      threatening hemorrhagic episodes. The incidence of AHA increases with age; with
      80% of the affected patient population encompassing men and women that are 65
      years or older. Some of the challenges that are highlighted in managing this
      disorder relate to the delayed diagnosis of this condition due to the rarity of
      the latter, the difficulty in establishing reliable hemostasis, and the secondary
      complications that are found when using immunosuppressive and hemostatic
      treatments in tandem with the elderly population afflicted with this disease.
      CASE PRESENTATION: A 90-year-old female of Hispanic origin presented with a 2
      week history of generalized weakness, dizziness, shortness of breath and
      extensive purpuric formations that involved the left arm towards the lateral
      aspect of the thorax with the inclusion of a small right lateral neck hematoma
      formation. Upon initial laboratory screening, a hemoglobin level of 7.9, a
      hematocrit level of 21.9 and a PTT value of 70.9 were discovered. Despite
      conventional hemostatic treatment approaches, the patient did not show marked
      improvement of the laboratory values. Ongoing specialized laboratory reports,
      combined with the clinical presentation of the patient, led to the diagnosis of
      Acquired Hemophilia A. Treatment with recombinant porcine Factor VIII was
      initiated, which led to rapid improvement of clinical symptoms and laboratory
      values. The patient was discharged with current treatment plan and emergent
      follow/up with a hematologist was scheduled. CONCLUSION: Acquired Hemophilia A is
      an elusive bleeding disorder that has been seldom encountered in the demographics
      of Puerto Rico. The prompt detection of this diagnosis based on the clinical
      presentation alone is paramount to prevent the occurrence of grave hemorrhagic
      episodes. General knowledge and awareness of the treatment options available is
      key to ameliorate the prognosis of this ailment.

PMID- 28870237
TI  - The N- and C-terminal carbohydrate recognition domains of Haemonchus contortus
      galectin bind to distinct receptors of goat PBMC and contribute differently to
      its immunomodulatory functions in host-parasite interactions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hco-gal-m is a tandem-repeat galectin isolated from the adult worm of
      Haemonchus contortus. A growing body of studies have demonstrated that Hco-gal-m
      could exert its immunomodulatory effects on host peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells (PBMC) to facilitate the immune evasion. Our previous work revealed that C
      terminal and N-terminal carbohydrate recognition domains (CRD) of Hco-gal-m had
      different sugar binding abilities. However, whether different domains of Hco-gal
      m account differently for its multiple immunomodulatory functions in the host
      parasite interaction remains to be elucidated. RESULTS: We found that the N
      terminal CRD of Hco-gal-m (MNh) and the C-terminal CRD (MCh) could bind to goat
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells by distinct receptors: transmembrane protein
      63A (TMEM63A) was a binding receptor of MNh, while transmembrane protein 147
      (TMEM147) was a binding receptor of MCh. In addition, MCh was much more potent
      than MNh in inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis, while MNh was
      much more effective in inhibiting NO production. Moreover, MNh could suppress the
      transcription of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), but MCh not. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggested that these two CRDs of Hco-gal-m bind to distinct receptors and
      contributed differently to its ability to downregulate host immune response.
      These results will improve our understanding of galectins from parasitic
      nematodes contributing to the mechanism of parasitic immune evasion and continue
      to illustrate the diverse range of biological activities attributable to the
      galectin family.

PMID- 28870239
TI  - Evaluating somatic tumor mutation detection without matched normal samples.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Observations of recurrent somatic mutations in tumors have led to
      identification and definition of signaling and other pathways that are important
      for cancer progression and therapeutic targeting. As tumor cells contain both an
      individual's inherited genetic variants and somatic mutations, challenges arise
      in distinguishing these events in massively parallel sequencing datasets.
      Typically, both a tumor sample and a "normal" sample from the same individual are
      sequenced and compared; variants observed only in the tumor are considered to be
      somatic mutations. However, this approach requires two samples for each
      individual. RESULTS: We evaluate a method of detecting somatic mutations in tumor
      samples for which only a subset of normal samples are available. We describe
      tuning of the method for detection of mutations in tumors, filtering to remove
      inherited variants, and comparison of detected mutations to several matched
      tumor/normal analysis methods. Filtering steps include the use of population
      variation datasets to remove inherited variants as well a subset of normal
      samples to remove technical artifacts. We then directly compare mutation
      detection with tumor-only and tumor-normal approaches using the same sets of
      samples. Comparisons are performed using an internal targeted gene sequencing
      dataset (n = 3380) as well as whole exome sequencing data from The Cancer Genome
      Atlas project (n = 250). Tumor-only mutation detection shows similar recall (43
      60%) but lesser precision (20-21%) to current matched tumor/normal approaches
      (recall 43-73%, precision 30-82%) when compared to a "gold-standard" tumor/normal
      approach. The inclusion of a small pool of normal samples improves precision,
      although many variants are still uniquely detected in the tumor-only analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: A detailed method for somatic mutation detection without matched
      normal samples enables study of larger numbers of tumor samples, as well as tumor
      samples for which a matched normal is not available. As sensitivity/recall is
      similar to tumor/normal mutation detection but precision is lower, tumor-only
      detection is more appropriate for classification of samples based on known
      mutations. Although matched tumor-normal analysis is preferred due to higher
      precision, we demonstrate that mutation detection without matched normal samples
      is possible for certain applications.

PMID- 28870238
TI  - BET bromodomain inhibitors and agonists of the beta-2 adrenergic receptor
      identified in screens for compounds that inhibit DUX4 expression in FSHD muscle
      cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) is a progressive muscle disease
      caused by mutations that lead to epigenetic derepression and inappropriate
      transcription of the double homeobox 4 (DUX4) gene in skeletal muscle. Drugs that
      enhance the repression of DUX4 and prevent its expression in skeletal muscle
      cells therefore represent candidate therapies for FSHD. METHODS: We screened an
      aggregated chemical library enriched for compounds with epigenetic activities and
      the Pharmakon 1600 library composed of compounds that have reached clinical
      testing to identify molecules that decrease DUX4 expression as monitored by the
      levels of DUX4 target genes in FSHD patient-derived skeletal muscle cell
      cultures. RESULTS: Our screens identified several classes of molecules that
      include inhibitors of the bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) family of proteins
      and agonists of the beta-2 adrenergic receptor. Further studies showed that
      compounds from these two classes suppress the expression of DUX4 messenger RNA
      (mRNA) by blocking the activity of bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) or by
      increasing cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: These data uncover pathways involved in the regulation of DUX4
      expression in somatic cells, provide potential candidate classes of compounds for
      FSHD therapeutic development, and create an important opportunity for mechanistic
      studies that may uncover additional therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28870240
TI  - Neuron-derived CCL2 contributes to microglia activation and neurological decline
      in hepatic encephalopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: CCL2 was up-regulated in neurons and involved in microglia activation
      and neurological decline in mice suffering from hepatic encephalopathy (HE).
      However, no data exist concerning the effect of neuron-derived CCL2 on microglia
      activation in vitro. METHODS: The rats were pretreated with CCL2 receptor
      inhibitors (INCB or C021, 1 mg/kg/day i.p.) for 3 days prior to thioacetamide
      (TAA) administration (300 mg/kg/day i.p.) for inducing HE model. At 8 h following
      the last injection (and every 4 h after), the grade of encephalopathy was
      assessed. Blood and whole brains were collected at coma for measuring CCL2 and
      Iba1 expression. In vitro, primary neurons were stimulated with TNF-alpha, and
      then the medium were collected for addition to microglia cultures with or without
      INCB or C021 pretreatment. The effect of the medium on microglia proliferation
      and activation was evaluated after 24 h. RESULTS: CCL2 expression and microglia
      activation were elevated in the cerebral cortex of rats received TAA alone. CCL2
      receptors inhibition improved neurological score and reduced cortical microglia
      activation. In vitro, TNF-alpha treatment induced CCL2 release by neurons. Medium
      from TNF-alpha stimulated neurons caused microglia proliferation and M1 markers
      expression, including iNOS, COX2, IL-6 and IL-1beta, which could be suppressed by
      INCB or C021 pretreatment. The medium could also facilitate p65 nuclear
      translocation and IkappaBalpha phosphorylation, and NF-kappaB inhibition reduced
      the increased IL-6 and IL-1beta expression induced by the medium. CONCLUSION:
      Neuron-derived CCL2 contributed to microglia activation and neurological decline
      in HE. Blocking CCL2 or inhibiting microglia excessive activation may be
      potential strategies for HE.

PMID- 28870241
TI  - Intestinal helminthic infection and anemia among pregnant women attending ante
      natal care (ANC) in East Wollega, Oromia, Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ethiopia is a developing country where intestinal helminthic
      infections are major public health problems. The burden of intestinal parasites,
      particularly the soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), is often very high in school
      children and pregnant women. Anemia, associated with STH, is a major factor in
      women's health, especially during pregnancy; it is an important contributor to
      maternal mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of
      intestinal helminthic infection and anemia among pregnant women attending ANC in
      East Wollega Zone, Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in
      five health centers of East Wollega Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia between
      November 2015 and January 2016. The health centers were selected randomly and
      study participants were enrolled consecutively with proportions from all the
      health centers. Stool and blood specimens were processed using standard operating
      procedures in accordance with structured questionnaires. Logistic regression
      models were applied to assess the association between predictors and outcome
      variables. P values less than 0.05 were taken as significant levels. Results were
      presented in tables and figures. RESULTS: A total of 372 pregnant women were
      enrolled in this study with a median age of 25 years (range 17-40 years). The
      total prevalence of intestinal helminths was 24.7% (92/372) with the predominance
      of Hookworm (15.1%) followed by Ascaris lumbricoides (6.5%). Illiteracy [AOR, 95%
      CI 2.21 (1.3, 4.8), P = 0.042], absence of latrine [AOR, 95% CI 4.62 (1.7, 8.3),
      P = 0.013] and regular consumption of raw and/or unwashed fruit [AOR, 95% CI 3.30
      (1.2, 6.3), P = 0.011] were significant predictors of intestinal helminthic
      infection. The overall prevalence of anemia was 17.5% (65/372) where mild anemia
      accounts for 80% of the total anemia. Anemia was significantly associated with
      the first trimester of gestation [AOR, 95% CI 2.82 (1.3, 6.2), P = 0.009],
      previous malaria infection [AOR, 95% CI 2.32 (1.3, 5.3), P = 0.003], failing to
      take iron supplements regularly [AOR, 95% CI 1.82 (1.1, 4.8), P = 0.022] and
      infection with intestinal helminths specifically with Hookworm (P = 0.001) and
      Ascaris lumbricoides (P = 0.022). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of intestinal
      helminths and anemia was significantly high in this study. Different socio
      demographic, lifestyle and obstetric factors were identified as significant
      contributors of intestinal helminthic infection and anemia among pregnant women.
      Therefore, public health measures and intensive antenatal care services are vital
      to promoting safe pregnancy.

PMID- 28870242
TI  - Intraoperative wound irrigation to prevent surgical site infection after
      laparotomy (IOWISI): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most common
      hospital infections and contributes substantially to postoperative morbidity and
      mortality. In addition, SSIs dramatically increase the treatment cost and length
      of hospital stay. Following visceral surgery by laparotomy, SSI rates are
      especially high (14-25%). Therefore, measures to prevent SSI in this field are
      urgently needed. Prophylactic intraoperative wound irrigation (IOWI) of the
      subcutaneous soft tissue before skin closure hypothetically represents an easy
      and economical option to reduce SSI rates and is already frequently used in
      clinical practice. However, there are currently no definite recommendations on
      the use of IOWI since high-level evidence supporting its use is lacking.
      Consequently, clinical practice varies widely. Antiseptic polyhexanide (PHX)
      based solutions are approved for soft-tissue wound irrigation in surgery but have
      not been specifically evaluated in randomized clinical trials for the prevention
      of SSI following laparotomy for visceral surgery. METHODS/DESIGN: The IOWISI
      trial is a multicentre, randomized, observer- and patient-blinded clinical trial
      with three parallel treatment groups, comparing IOWI with a 0.04% PHX solution to
      no irrigation (test 1) or saline (test 2) before skin closure after laparotomy
      for visceral surgery (contamination level II-IV). The primary endpoint of the
      trial is the SSI rate within 30 days postoperatively. Statistical analysis of the
      primary endpoint measure will be based on the intention-to-treat population. The
      global level of significance is set at 2.5% for test 1 and 5% for test 2 and the
      sample size (n = 540) is determined to assure a power of 94% (test 1) and 85%
      (test 2). DISCUSSION: The IOWISI trial will provide high-level evidence as a
      basis for clinical recommendations regarding the use of IOWI with PHX or saline
      and will potentially impact on future clinical guidelines and practice. The
      pragmatic trial design guarantees high external validity. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      Registered at the German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00012251 . Registered on 3
      July 2017.

PMID- 28870243
TI  - Human fascioliasis by Fasciola hepatica: the first case report in Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fascioliasis is a zoonotic disease caused by Fasciola species.
      Patient may be asymptomatic or presents with jaundice and biliary colic or right
      hypochondriac pain due to bile duct obstruction with gastrointestinal symptoms.
      CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of human fascioliasis in a 45 years old
      female presented to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), Kathmandu,
      Nepal on August, 2015 with fever, right hypochondriac pain, jaundice and
      occasional vomiting with anorexia for 4 months whose alkaline phosphatase was
      elevated and peripheral blood smear revealed eosinophilia. The patient also gives
      the history of consumption of water-cress. Endoscopic Retrograde
      Cholagiopancretography (ERCP) showed the presence of a flat worm resembling
      Fasciola hepatica and stool routine examination revealed ova of F. hepatica. The
      patient was treated with nitazoxanide by which she got improved. Repeat stool
      examination 2 weeks after treatment revealed no ova of F. hepatica. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patient with fascioliasis can be simply diagnosed with stool routine microscopy
      and treated with nitazoxanide. So patient with right hypochondriac pain, sign and
      symptoms of obstructive jaundice, eosinophilia and history of water-cress
      consumption should be suspected for fascioliasis and investigated and treated
      accordingly.

PMID- 28870244
TI  - Review of "Echinococcus and Echinococcosis, Part A." edited by R. C. Andrew
      Thompson, Alan J. Lymbery and Peter Deplazes.
AB  - BOOK DETAILS: Thompson RCA, Deplazes P, Lymbery AJ, Editors. Echinococcus and
      Echinococcosis, Part A. Volume 95, Advances in Parasitology 95. Academic Press;
      2017. 525 pages, ISBN 978-0-12-8114711 (hardcover); 9780128114728 (eBook).

PMID- 28870246
TI  - Determinants of psychoactive substances use among Woldia University students in
      Northeastern Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psychoactive substance use has become a major public health problem
      among students in Ethiopian universities. Hence, this study aimed to investigate
      the magnitude and determinants of psychoactive substances use (khat chewing,
      alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking) among undergraduate students of Woldia
      University, Ethiopia. METHODS: Institution based quantitative cross-sectional
      study was employed on Woldia University students in April 2015. 730 students were
      included in the study. Data were collected using self-administered
      questionnaires. EpiData version 3.02 was used to enter data. Then, data were
      exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of
      alcohol drinking, khat chewing and cigarette smoking among the study students
      were 33.1, 13 and 7.9%, respectively. Likewise, the current prevalence of alcohol
      drinking, khat chewing and cigarette smoking was 27.9, 10.4 and 6.4%,
      respectively. More than half of the surveyed students (59.1%) were introduced to
      psychoactive substance use by peer pressure. About 66% of the study participants
      believed that psychoactive substances are important for relaxation, and 19% to
      relief from stress. Students who were Muslims [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 3.74,
      95% CI (1.57, 8.91)], Oromo ethnic group [AOR 2.63, 95% CI (1.19, 5.81)], ever
      drunk alcohol [AOR 6.32, 95% CI (2.96, 13.48)] and ever smoked cigarette [AOR:
      9.16, 95% CI (4.33, 19.38)] were positively associated with khat chewing.
      Furthermore, pocket money and ever khat chewing were associated with alcohol
      drinking and cigarette smoking. CONCLUSION: This study showed that psychoactive
      substances use is somewhat prevalent among students in Woldia University. Hence,
      support of religious institutions in providing education aimed at preventing
      substance use, establishing and strengthening peer educators in the university
      are important interventions to tackle psychoactive substances use.

PMID- 28870245
TI  - Mice overexpressing growth hormone exhibit increased skeletal muscle myostatin
      and MuRF1 with attenuation of muscle mass.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In contrast to the acute effects of growth hormone (GH) on skeletal
      muscle protein synthesis, long-term GH treatment appears to have negligible
      effects on muscle mass. Despite this knowledge, little is known regarding the
      chronic effects of GH on skeletal muscle protein synthesis and atrophy signaling
      pathways. The purpose of this study was to determine if protein synthesis
      pathways are attenuated and/or muscle atrophy intracellular signaling pathways
      are altered in the skeletal muscle of transgenic bovine GH (bGH) mice. METHODS:
      The gastrocnemius and soleus from 5-month-old male bGH mice (n = 9) and wild type
      (WT) controls (n = 9) were harvested and analyzed for proteins involved in the
      protein synthesis (Akt/mTOR), growth and proliferation (MAPK), and muscle atrophy
      (MuRF1 and myostatin) pathways. RESULTS: Total body mass was significantly
      increased in bGH mice compared to WT controls (49%, P < 0.0001). When expressed
      relative to total body mass, the gastrocnemius (- 28%, P < 0.0001), but not the
      soleus, was significantly lower in mice overexpressing GH, compared to controls.
      Transgenic bGH mice had elevated phosphorylation levels of protein kinase b
      (Akt1), 4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1), p70 S6 kinase, p42/44, and p38 (P < 0.05)
      compared to WT littermates. Mature myostatin (26 kDa), premature myostatin (52
      kDa), and activin receptor type IIB (AcvR2B) protein levels were increased in bGH
      mice (P < 0.05), along with elevated phosphorylation levels of mothers against
      decapentaplegic homolog (Smad2) (59%, P < 0.0001). Mice overexpressing GH had
      increased MuRF1 expression (30%, P < 0.05) and insulin receptor substrate 1
      (IRS1) serine phosphorylation (44%, P < 0.05) in the gastrocnemius, but not the
      soleus, when compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that
      chronic elevations in circulating GH have a critical impact on signaling pathways
      involved in skeletal muscle protein synthesis and atrophy, and suggest that
      MuRF1, myostatin, and IRS1 serine phosphorylation may act to inhibit exaggerated
      glycolytic muscle growth, in environments of chronic GH/IGF-1 excess.

PMID- 28870247
TI  - Seropositivity for Trypanosoma cruzi in domestic dogs from Sonora, Mexico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chagas disease is an important health problem in Latin America due to
      its incapacitating effects and associated mortality. Studies on seropositivity
      for Trypanosoma cruzi in Mexican dogs have demonstrated a direct correlation
      between seropositivity in humans and dogs, which can act as sentinels for the
      disease in this region. The objective of this study was to determine the
      seropositivity for T.cruzi infection in dogs from Sonora, a northern borderstate
      of Mexico. METHODS: Responsible pet owners were selected at random from an urban
      area of Empalme municipality, Sonora, Mexico, and from there, 180 dog samples
      were collected. Anti-T. cruzi antibodies were determined using the enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Reactive ELISA sera were processed by
      indirect immunofluorescence to confirm the presence of anti-T. cruzi antibodies.
      For the statistical analysis, chi-square tests were conducted. RESULTS: Dogs'
      sera showed a seropositivity rate of 4.44%. The rate of seropositivity was not
      associated with the dogs' age, sex, or socioeconomics pertaining to the
      geographical area. One sample (1/180, 0.55%) showed the acute state of the
      disease. CONCLUSIONS: The study found a presence of anti-T. cruzi antibodies in
      dogs in this area, which suggests vector transmission. There is a need for active
      surveillance programs throughout the state of Sonora and vector control
      strategies should also be implemented in endemic regions.

PMID- 28870248
TI  - Functional and quality of life outcomes after partial glossectomy: a multi
      institutional longitudinal study of the head and neck research network.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While aggressive treatment for oral cancer may optimize survival,
      decrements in speech and swallowing function and quality of life often result.
      This exploratory study investigated how patients recover their communicative
      function, swallowing ability, and quality of life after primary surgery [with or
      without adjuvant (chemo)radiation therapy] for tongue cancer over the course of
      the first year post-operation. METHODS: Patients treated for oral cancer at three
      institutions (University of Alberta Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical
      Center, and Turku University Hospital) were administered patient-reported
      outcomes assessing speech [Speech Handicap Index (SHI)], swallowing [(M.D.
      Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI)] and quality of life [European Organization
      for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Head and Neck
      Module (EORTC-H&N35)]. Outcome measures were completed pre-operatively and at 1-,
      6-, and 12-months post-operatively. RESULTS: One hundred and seventeen patients
      undergoing partial glossectomy with reconstruction participated in this study.
      Results indicated no significant differences in swallowing function (MDADI and
      EORTC-H&N35 subscales) between baseline and 6 months post-surgery and no
      significant differences in speech function (SHI subscales) between baseline and 1
      year post-surgery. Most quality of life domains (EORTC-H&N35 subscales) returned
      to baseline levels by 1 year post-operation, while difficulties with dry mouth
      and sticky saliva persisted. A clear time trend of adjuvant (chemo)radiation
      therapy negatively affecting dry mouth scores over time was identified in this
      study, while negative independent effects of chemoradiation on MDADI swallowing,
      and EORTC-H&N35 swallowing, eating, and opening mouth subscales were found.
      CONCLUSIONS: Assessment time influenced patient-reported speech, swallowing, and
      quality of life outcomes, while treatment (by time) effects were found for only
      swallowing and quality of life outcomes. Results of the present study will help
      guide clinical care and will be useful for patient counseling on expected short
      and long-term functional and quality of life outcomes of surgical and adjuvant
      treatment for oral cavity cancer.

PMID- 28870249
TI  - Improving Emergency Department radiology transportation time: a successful
      implementation of lean methodology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emergency Department overcrowding has become a global problem and a
      growing safety and quality concern. Radiology and laboratory turnaround time, ED
      boarding and increased ED visits are some of the factors that contribute to ED
      overcrowding. Lean methods have been used in the ED to address multiple flow
      challenges from improving door-to-doctor time to reducing length of stay. The
      objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using Lean
      management methods on improving Emergency Department transportation times for
      plain radiography. METHODS: We performed a before and after study at an academic
      urban Emergency Department with 49,000 annual visits after implementing a Lean
      driven intervention. The primary outcome was mean radiology transportation
      turnaround time (TAT). Secondary outcomes included overall study turnaround time
      from order processing to preliminary report time as well as ED length of stay.
      All ED patients undergoing plain radiography 6 months pre-intervention were
      compared to all ED patients undergoing plain radiography 6 months post
      intervention after a 1 month washout period. RESULTS: Post intervention there was
      a statistically significant decrease in the mean transportation TAT (mean +/- SD:
      9.87 min +/- 15.05 versus 22.89 min +/- 22.05, respectively, p-value <0.0001). In
      addition, it was found that 71.6% of patients in the post-intervention had
      transportation TAT <= 10 min, as compared to 32.3% in the pre-intervention
      period, p-value <0.0001, with narrower interquartile ranges in the post
      intervention period. Similarly, the "study processing to preliminary report time"
      and the length of stay were lower in the post-intervention as compared to the pre
      intervention, (52.50 min +/- 35.43 versus 54.04 min +/- 34.72, p-value = 0.02 and
      3.65 h +/- 5.17 versus 4.57 h +/- 10.43, p < 0.0001, respectively), in spite of
      an increase in the time it took to elease a preliminary report in the post
      intervention period. CONCLUSION: Using Lean change management techniques can be
      effective in reducing transportation time to plain radiography in the Emergency
      Department as well as improving process reliability.

PMID- 28870250
TI  - Moon phases and moon signs do not influence morbidity, mortality and long-term
      survival, after living donor kidney transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Approximately 11% of the German population are convinced that certain
      moon phases and moon signs may impact their health and the onset and clinical
      course of diseases. Before elective surgery, a considerable number of patients
      look to optimize the timing of the procedure based on the lunar cycle. Especially
      patients awaiting living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) commonly look for an
      adjustment of the date of transplantation according to the moon calendar. This
      study therefore investigated the perioperative and long-term outcome of LDKT
      dependent on moon phases and zodiac signs. METHODS: Patient data were
      prospectively collected in a continuously updated kidney transplant database. Two
      hundred and seventy-eight consecutive patients who underwent LDKT between 1994
      and December 2009 were selected for the study and retrospectively assigned to the
      four moon phases (new-moon, waxing-moon, full-moon, and waning-moon) and the
      corresponding zodiac sign (moon sign Libra), based on the date of
      transplantation. Preexisting comorbidities, perioperative mortality, surgical
      outcome, and long-term survival data were analyzed. RESULTS: Of all LDKT
      procedures, 11.9, 39.9, 11.5, and 36.5% were performed during the new, waxing,
      full, and waning moon, respectively, and 6.2% during the moon sign Libra, which
      is believed to interfere with renal surgery. Survival rates at 1, 5, and 10 years
      after transplantation were 98.9, 92, and 88.7% (patient survival) and 97.4, 91.6,
      and 80.6% (graft survival) without any differences between all groups of lunar
      phases and moon signs. Overall perioperative complications and early graft loss
      occurred in 21.2 and 1.4%, without statistical difference (p > 0.05) between
      groups. CONCLUSION: Moon phases and the moon sign Libra had no impact on early
      and long-term outcome measures following LDKT in our study. Thus, concerns of
      patients awaiting LDKT regarding the ideal time of surgery can be allayed, and
      surgery may be scheduled independently of the lunar phases.

PMID- 28870251
TI  - HIV-1 tolerates changes in A-count in a small segment of the pol gene.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The HIV-1 RNA genome has a biased nucleotide composition with a
      surplus of As. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this striking
      phenomenon, but the A-count of the HIV-1 genome has thus far not been
      systematically manipulated. The reason for this reservation is the likelihood
      that known and unknown sequence motifs will be affected by such a massive
      mutational approach, thus resulting in replication-impaired virus mutants. We
      present the first attempt to increase and decrease the A-count in a relatively
      small polymerase (pol) gene segment of HIV-1 RNA. RESULTS: To minimize the
      mutational impact, a new mutational approach was developed that is inspired by
      natural sequence variation as present in HIV-1 isolates. This phylogeny
      instructed mutagenesis allowed us to create replication-competent HIV-1 mutants
      with a significantly increased or decreased local A-count. The local A-count of
      the wild-type (wt) virus (40.2%) was further increased to 46.9% or reduced to
      31.7 and 26.3%. These HIV-1 variants replicate efficiently in vitro, despite the
      fact that the pol changes cause a quite profound move in HIV-SIV sequence space.
      CONCLUSIONS: Extrapolating these results to the complete 9 kb RNA genome, we may
      cautiously suggest that the A-rich signature does not have to be maintained. This
      survey also provided clues that silent codon changes, in particular from G-to-A,
      determine the subtype-specific sequence signatures.

PMID- 28870252
TI  - Change in serum level of vitamin D and associated factors at early phase of bone
      healing among fractured adult patients at University of Gondar teaching hospital,
      Northwest Ethiopia: a prospective follow up study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Currently, Vitamin D deficiency is a major public health problem
      and it affects more than one billion people worldwide. Vitamin D is crucial for
      bone mineralization and ossification. Patients with fractures need Vitamin D for
      the healing of their fractured bone. The current study was carried out to
      determine if there is change in the serum level of Vitamin-D associated with
      factors at early phase of fractured bone healing (ossification) process among
      adult fractured patients at University of Gondar teaching hospital, Northwest
      Ethiopia. METHODS: This facility-based prospective follow up study was conducted
      from March to June 2016. Data was collected by an interviewer, and pretested and
      structured questionnaires were used. Biological samples were collected to
      determine the serum level of vitamin-D in all subjects. In addition, X-Ray
      findings were used to determine the early phase of bone healing process. Data was
      entered into EPI INFO version 3.5.3 and analyzed using the Statistical Package
      for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic
      regression analysis was done to screen for factors associated with decreased
      serum levels of Vitamin-D. In the Multivariate regression analysis, those
      variables which had a P-value of <0.05 were considered as independently
      associated with change in serum level of Vitamin-D. RESULTS: A total of 118 adult
      patients with fractures participated in this study. The prevalence of patients'
      with decreased serum levels of vitamin-D at post-test was 63.6% [95% CI; (0.551
      0.720)]. Inadequate intake of milk and milk products in the 1st week of fracture
      [AOR = 95%CI: 0.20 (0.05-0.90)], Poor Dietary Diversity Score [AOR = 95% CI: 29.1
      (2.27-371.65)], and ossified bone [AOR =95% CI: 4.10 (1.12-14.95)] showed
      statistically significant association with decreased serum level of Vitamin-D.
      CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Decreased serum level of Vitamin-D at early phase
      of fractured bone healing process was found in the majority of patients (>63%)
      raising concern for Vitamin D deficiency to be a significant public health
      problem in the study population. It was statistically associated with: poor
      dietary diversity score, in adequate intake of milk and milk products in the
      1stone week of fracture and ossified (healed) bone. Introducing hospital based
      Vitamin-D supplementation and integrated with health and nutritional education is
      a vital intervention needed to improve serum levels of Vitamin-D.

PMID- 28870254
TI  - Understanding the factors affecting the attraction and retention of health
      professionals in rural and remote areas: a mixed-method study in Niger.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The critical shortage of human resources in health is a critical
      public health problem affecting most low- and middle-income countries,
      particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to the shortage of health
      professionals, attracting and retaining them in rural areas is a challenge. The
      objective of the study was to understand the factors that influence the
      attraction and retention of health professionals working in rural areas in Niger.
      METHODS: A mixed-method study was conducted in Tillabery region, Niger. A
      conceptual framework was used that included five dimensions. Three data
      collection methods were employed: in-depth interviews, documentary analysis, and
      concept mapping. In-depth interviews were conducted with three main actor groups:
      policy-makers and Ministry of Health officials (n = 15), health professionals (n
      = 102), and local health managers (n = 46). Concept mapping was conducted with
      midwifery students (n = 29). Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were
      performed to analyse the data from the concept mapping method. A content analysis
      was conducted for the qualitative data. RESULTS: The results of the study showed
      that the local environment, which includes living conditions (no electricity,
      lack of availability of schools), social factors (isolation, national and local
      insecurity), working conditions (workload), the lack of financial compensation,
      and individual factors (marital status, gender), influences the attraction and
      retention of health professionals to work in rural areas. Human resources
      policies do not adequately take into account the factors influencing the
      retention of rural health professionals. CONCLUSION: Intersectoral policies are
      needed to improve living conditions and public services in rural areas. The
      government should also take into account the feminization of the medical
      profession and the social and cultural norms related to marital status and
      population mobility when formulating human resources management policies.

PMID- 28870253
TI  - Early presence of anti-angiogenesis-related adverse events as a potential
      biomarker of antitumor efficacy in metastatic gastric cancer patients treated
      with apatinib: a cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reliable biomarkers of apatinib response in gastric cancer (GC) are
      lacking. We investigated the association between early presence of common adverse
      events (AEs) and clinical outcomes in metastatic GC patients. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data on 269 apatinib
      treated GC patients in two clinical trials. AEs were assessed at baseline until
      28 days after the last dose of apatinib. Clinical outcomes were compared between
      patients with and without hypertension (HTN), proteinuria, or hand and foot
      syndrome (HFS) in the first 4 weeks. Time-to-event variables were assessed using
      Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazard regression models. Binary
      endpoints were assessed using logistic regression models. Landmark analyses were
      performed as sensitivity analyses. Predictive model was analyzed, and risk scores
      were calculated to predict overall survival. RESULTS: Presence of AEs in the
      first 4 weeks was associated with prolonged median overall survival (169 vs. 103
      days, log-rank p = 0.0039; adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.64, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 0.64-0.84, p = 0.001), prolonged median progression-free survival
      (86.5 vs. 62 days, log-rank p = 0.0309; adjusted HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53-0.91, p =
      0.007), and increased disease control rate (54.67 vs. 32.77%; adjusted odds ratio
      2.67, p < 0.001). Results remained significant in landmark analyses. The onset of
      any single AE or any combinations of the AEs were all statistically significantly
      associated with prolonged OS, except for the presence of proteinuria. An AE-based
      prediction model and subsequently derived scoring system showed high calibration
      and discrimination in predicting overall survival. CONCLUSION: Presence of HTN,
      proteinuria, or HFS during the first cycle of apatinib treatment was a viable
      biomarker of antitumor efficacy in metastatic GC patients.

PMID- 28870255
TI  - Detection and epidemic dynamic of ToCV and CCYV with Bemisia tabaci and weed in
      Hainan of China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, two of the crinivirus, Tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV)
      and Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) have gained increasing attention due
      to their rapid spread and devastating impacts on vegetable production worldwide.
      Both of these viruses are transmitted by the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia
      tabaci (Gennadius), in a semi-persistent manner. Up to now, there is still lack
      of report in Hainan, the south of China. METHODS: We used observational and
      experimental methods to explore the prevalence and incidence dynamic of CCYV and
      ToCV transmitted by whiteflies in Hainan of China. RESULTS: In 2016, the
      chlorosis symptom was observed in the tomato and cucumber plants with a large
      number of B. tabaci on the infected leaves in Hainan, China, with the incidence
      rate of 69.8% and 62.6% on tomato and cucumber, respectively. Based on molecular
      identification, Q biotype was determined with a viruliferous rate of 65.0% and
      55.0% on the tomato and cucumber plants, respectively. The weed, Alternanthera
      philoxeroides near the tomato and cucumber was co-infected by the two viruses.
      Furthermore, incidence dynamic of ToCV and CCYV showed a close relationship with
      the weed, Alternanthera philoxeroides, which is widely distributed in Hainan.
      CONCLUSION: Our results firstly reveal that the weed, A. philoxeroides is
      infected by both ToCV and CCYV. Besides, whiteflies showed a high viruliferous
      rate of ToCV and CCYV. Hainan is an extremely important vegetable production and
      seed breeding center in China. If the whitefly can carry these two viruses
      concurrently, co-infection in their mutual host plants can lead to devastating
      losses in the near future.

PMID- 28870256
TI  - Phylo_dCor: distance correlation as a novel metric for phylogenetic profiling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elaboration of powerful methods to predict functional and/or physical
      protein-protein interactions from genome sequence is one of the main tasks in the
      post-genomic era. Phylogenetic profiling allows the prediction of protein-protein
      interactions at a whole genome level in both Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. For this
      reason it is considered one of the most promising methods. RESULTS: Here, we
      propose an improvement of phylogenetic profiling that enables handling of large
      genomic datasets and infer global protein-protein interactions. This method uses
      the distance correlation as a new measure of phylogenetic profile similarity. We
      constructed robust reference sets and developed Phylo-dCor, a parallelized
      version of the algorithm for calculating the distance correlation that makes it
      applicable to large genomic data. Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia
      coli genome datasets, we showed that Phylo-dCor outperforms phylogenetic
      profiling methods previously described based on the mutual information and
      Pearson's correlation as measures of profile similarity. CONCLUSIONS: In this
      work, we constructed and assessed robust reference sets and propose the distance
      correlation as a measure for comparing phylogenetic profiles. To make it
      applicable to large genomic data, we developed Phylo-dCor, a parallelized version
      of the algorithm for calculating the distance correlation. Two R scripts that can
      be run on a wide range of machines are available upon request.

PMID- 28870257
TI  - Enrichment of beneficial bacteria in the skin microbiota of bats persisting with
      white-nose syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases of wildlife are increasing worldwide with
      implications for conservation and human public health. The microbiota (i.e.
      microbial community living on or in a host) could influence wildlife disease
      resistance or tolerance. White-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by the fungus
      Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), has killed millions of hibernating North
      American bats since 2007. We characterized the skin microbiota of naive, pre-WNS
      little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) from three WNS-negative hibernation sites
      and persisting, previously exposed bats from three WNS-positive sites to test the
      hypothesis that the skin microbiota of bats shifts following WNS invasion.
      RESULTS: Using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing on 66 bats and 11
      environmental samples, we found that hibernation site strongly influenced the
      composition and diversity of the skin microbiota. Bats from WNS-positive and WNS
      negative sites differed in alpha and beta diversity, as well as in microbiota
      composition. Alpha diversity was reduced in persisting, WNS-positive bats, and
      the microbiota profile was enriched with particular taxa such Janthinobacterium,
      Micrococcaceae, Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, and Rhodococcus. Some of these taxa are
      recognized for their antifungal activity, and specific strains of Rhodococcus and
      Pseudomonas are known to inhibit Pd growth. Composition of the microbial
      community in the hibernaculum environment and the community on bat skin was
      superficially similar but differed in relative abundance of some bacterial taxa.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that Pd invasion
      leads to a shift in the skin microbiota of surviving bats and suggest the
      possibility that the microbiota plays a protective role for bats facing WNS. The
      detection of what appears to be enrichment of beneficial bacteria in the skin
      microbiota of persisting bats is a promising discovery for species re
      establishment. Our findings highlight not only the potential value of management
      actions that might encourage transmission, growth, and establishment of
      beneficial bacteria on bats, and within hibernacula, but also the potential risks
      of such management actions.

PMID- 28870258
TI  - Opportunities and challenges in rheumatology research in Central Europe.
AB  - The Central European Congress of Rheumatology (CECR) has been organized by seven
      Central European countries: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,
      Slovakia, and Slovenia. These countries have lots of similarities, but also
      differences, with respect to rheumatology research. In this paper, based on
      questionnaires, we wish to demonstrate achievements and difficulties in
      rheumatology research performed in our region.

PMID- 28870259
TI  - RDFIO: extending Semantic MediaWiki for interoperable biomedical data management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biological sciences are characterised not only by an increasing
      amount but also the extreme complexity of its data. This stresses the need for
      efficient ways of integrating these data in a coherent description of biological
      systems. In many cases, biological data needs organization before integration.
      This is not seldom a collaborative effort, and it is thus important that tools
      for data integration support a collaborative way of working. Wiki systems with
      support for structured semantic data authoring, such as Semantic MediaWiki,
      provide a powerful solution for collaborative editing of data combined with
      machine-readability, so that data can be handled in an automated fashion in any
      downstream analyses. Semantic MediaWiki lacks a built-in data import function
      though, which hinders efficient round-tripping of data between interoperable
      Semantic Web formats such as RDF and the internal wiki format. RESULTS: To solve
      this deficiency, the RDFIO suite of tools is presented, which supports importing
      of RDF data into Semantic MediaWiki, with metadata needed to export it again in
      the same RDF format, or ontology. Additionally, the new functionality enables
      mash-ups of automated data imports combined with manually created data
      presentations. The application of the suite of tools is demonstrated by importing
      drug discovery related data about rare diseases from Orphanet and acid
      dissociation constants from Wikidata. The RDFIO suite of tools is freely
      available for download via pharmb.io/project/rdfio . CONCLUSIONS: Through a set
      of biomedical demonstrators, it is demonstrated how the new functionality enables
      a number of usage scenarios where the interoperability of SMW and the wider
      Semantic Web is leveraged for biomedical data sets, to create an easy to use and
      flexible platform for exploring and working with biomedical data.

PMID- 28870260
TI  - Programmed cell death ligand 1 cut-point is associated with reduced disease
      specific survival in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Programmed cell death 1 (PD1) inhibitors have recently shown
      promising anti-cancer effects in a number of solid tumor types. A predictive
      biomarker to this class of drugs has not been clearly identified; however,
      overexpression of the PD1 ligand (PD-L1) has shown particular promise in lung
      adenocarcinoma. In this study, we explore the staining characteristics,
      prevalence, and clinico-molecular correlates of PD-L1 overexpression in
      pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). METHODS: A tissue microarray (TMA) was
      constructed from cases of resected PDAC. PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) was
      performed using the SP142 primary antibody. Immunohistochemical assessment for
      deficient mismatch repair status (MMRd), CD3 and CD8 were performed. All
      biomarkers were assessed independently by two anatomical pathologists and
      consensus achieved on all cases. Survival analysis was performed using three
      thresholds (> = 1%, >5% and >10%) for tumor cell membrane staining. RESULTS: Two
      hundred fifty-two cases were included in the TMA and evaluable by IHC. Thirty-one
      (12%), 17 (7%), 12(5%) cases were positive at percentage cut offs of >0, >5, and
      >10% respectively. Increased PD-L1 expression was associated with inferior
      prognosis (p = 0.0367). No statistically significant association was identified
      between PD-L1 status and MMR status or tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.
      CONCLUSIONS: This data suggests that there is an inverse relationship between PD
      L1 expression and disease specific survival times in resected PDAC. Consequently,
      this association may represent a phenotype where increased PD-L1 expression has
      an effect on tumor biology and could therefore identify a subgroup where PD1
      blockade could have enhanced effectiveness.

PMID- 28870261
TI  - Sustained-release study on Exenatide loaded into mesoporous silica nanoparticles:
      in vitro characterization and in vivo evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exenatide (EXT), the first glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist,
      has been approved as an adjunctive therapy for patients with type 2 diabetes. Due
      to EXT's short half-life, EXT must be administrated by continuous subcutaneous
      (s.c.) injection twice daily. In previous studies, many studies on EXT loaded
      into polymer materials carriers for sustained release had been reported. However,
      these carriers have some defects, such as hydrophobicity, low surface energy, low
      mechanical strength, and poor chemical stability. Therefore, this study aims to
      develop a novel drug delivery system, which is EXT loaded into well-ordered
      hexagonal mesoporous silica structures (EXT-SBA-15), to control the
      sustainability of EXT. METHODS: SBA-15 was prepared by hydrothermal method with
      uniform size. Morphology of SBA-15 was employed by transmission electron
      microscopy. The pore size of SBA-15 was characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption
      isotherms. The in vitro drug release behavior and pharmacokinetics of EXT-SBA-15
      were investigated. Furthermore, the blood glucose levels of diabetic mice were
      monitored after subcutaneous injection of EXT-Sol and EXT-SBA-15 to evaluate
      further the stable hypoglycemic effect of EXT-SBA-15. RESULTS: EXT-SBA-15 showed
      a higher drug loading efficiency (15.2 +/- 2.0%) and sustained-release features
      in vitro. In addition, pharmacokinetic studies revealed that the EXT-SBA-15
      treatment group extended the half-life t 1/2(beta) to 14.53 +/- 0.70 h compared
      with that of the EXT solution (EXT-Sol) treatment group (0.60 +/- 0.08 h) in
      vivo. Results of the pharmacodynamics study show that the EXT-SBA-15 treatment
      group had inhibited blood glucose levels below 20 mmol/L for 25 days, and the
      lowest blood glucose level was 13 mmol/L on the 10th day. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrates that the EXT-SBA-15 delivery system can control the sustainability
      of EXT and contribute to improve EXT clinical use.

PMID- 28870262
TI  - Virulence factors, antifungal susceptibility and molecular mechanisms of azole
      resistance among Candida parapsilosis complex isolates recovered from clinical
      specimens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the biofilm formation, the
      extracellular enzymatic activities of 182 clinical isolates of the Candida
      parapsilosis complex. METHODS: Molecular identification of the C. parapsilosis
      species complex was performed using PCR RFLP of SADH gene and PCR sequencing of
      ITS region. The susceptibility of ours isolates to antifungal agents and
      molecular mechanisms underlying azole resistance were evaluated. RESULTS: 63.5%
      of C. parapsilosis were phospholipase positive with moderate activity for the
      majority of strains. None of the C. metapsilosis or C. orthopsilosis isolates was
      able to produce phospholipase. Higher caseinase activities were detected in C.
      parapsilosis (Pz = 0.5 +/- 0.18) and C. orthopsilosis (Pz = 0.49 +/- 0.07) than
      in C. metapsilosis isolates (Pz = 0.72 +/- 0.1). 96.5% of C. parapsilosis strains
      and all isolates of C. metapsilosis and C. orthopsilosis produced gelatinase. All
      the strains possessed the ability to show haemolysis on blood agar. C.
      metapsilosis exhibited the low haemolysin production with statistical significant
      differences compared to C. parapsilosis and C. orthopsilosis. The biofilm forming
      ability of C. parapsilosis was highly strain dependent with important
      heterogeneity, which was less evident with both C. orthopsilosis and C.
      metapsilosis. Some C. parapsilosis isolates met the criterion for susceptible
      dose dependent to fluconazole (10.91%), itraconazole (16.36%) and voriconazole
      (7.27%). Moreover, 5.45% and 1.82% of C. parapsilosis isolates were respectively
      resistant to fluconazole and voriconazole. All strains of C. metapsilosis and C.
      orthopsilosis were susceptible to azoles; and isolates of all three species
      exhibited 100% of susceptibility to caspofungin, amphotericin B and 5
      flucytosine. CONCLUSIONS: A combination of molecular mechanisms, including the
      overexpression of ERG11, and genes encoding efflux pumps (CDR1, MDR1, and MRR1)
      were involved in azole resistance in C. parapsilosis.

PMID- 28870263
TI  - Effect of maternal vitamin D3 supplementation on maternal health, birth outcomes,
      and infant growth among HIV-infected Tanzanian pregnant women: study protocol for
      a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vitamin D has significant immunomodulatory effects on both adaptive
      and innate immune responses. Observational studies indicate that adults infected
      with HIV with low vitamin D status may be at increased risk of mortality,
      pulmonary tuberculosis, and HIV disease progression. Growing observational
      evidence also suggests that low vitamin D status in pregnancy may increase the
      risk of adverse birth and infant health outcomes. As a result, antiretroviral
      therapy (ART) adjunct vitamin D3 supplementation may improve the health of HIV
      infected pregnant women and their children. METHODS/DESIGN: The Trial of Vitamins
      5 (ToV5) is an individually randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of
      maternal vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) supplementation conducted among 2300 HIV
      infected pregnant women receiving triple-drug ART under Option B+ in Dar es
      Salaam, Tanzania. HIV-infected pregnant women of 12-27 weeks gestation are
      randomized to either: 1) 3000 IU vitamin D3 taken daily from randomization in
      pregnancy until trial discharge at 12 months postpartum; or 2) a matching placebo
      regimen. Maternal participants are followed-up at monthly clinic visits during
      pregnancy, at delivery, and then with their children at monthly postpartum clinic
      visits. The primary efficacy outcomes of the trial are: 1) maternal HIV disease
      progression or death; 2) risk of small-for-gestational age (SGA) births; and 3)
      risk of infant stunting at 1 year of age. The primary safety outcome of the trial
      is incident maternal hypercalcemia. Secondary outcomes include a range of
      clinical and biological maternal and child health outcomes. DISCUSSION: The ToV5
      will provide causal evidence on the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on HIV
      progression and death, SGA births, and infant stunting at 1 year of age. The
      results of the trial are likely generalizable to HIV-infected pregnant women and
      their children in similar resource-limited settings utilizing the Option B+
      approach. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02305927 .
      Registered on 29 October 2014.

PMID- 28870264
TI  - Cryptosporidium infecting wild cricetid rodents from the subfamilies Arvicolinae
      and Neotominae.
AB  - We undertook a study on Cryptosporidium spp. in wild cricetid rodents. Fecal
      samples were collected from meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), southern red
      backed voles (Myodes gapperi), woodland voles (Microtus pinetorum), muskrats
      (Ondatra zibethicus) and Peromyscus spp. mice in North America, and from bank
      voles (Myodes glareolus) and common voles (Microtus arvalis) in Europe. Isolates
      were characterized by sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the small subunit
      ribosomal RNA (SSU) and actin genes. Overall, 33.2% (362/1089) of cricetids
      tested positive for Cryptosporidium, with a greater prevalence in cricetids from
      North America (50.7%; 302/596) than Europe (12.1%; 60/493). Principal Coordinate
      analysis separated SSU sequences into three major groups (G1-G3), each
      represented by sequences from North American and European cricetids. A maximum
      likelihood tree of SSU sequences had low bootstrap support and showed G1 to be
      more heterogeneous than G2 or G3. Actin and concatenated actin-SSU trees, which
      were better resolved and had higher bootstrap support than the SSU phylogeny,
      showed that closely related cricetid hosts in Europe and North America are
      infected with closely related Cryptosporidium genotypes. Cricetids were not major
      reservoirs of human pathogenic Cryptosporidium spp.

PMID- 28870266
TI  - Comparison of the lived experiences of family caregivers of patients with
      dementia and of patients with cancer in Indonesia.
AB  - : ABSTRACTBackground:Dementia, even more than cancer, demands long-term care.
      While in Indonesia cancer is accepted as a disease requiring caregiving, dementia
      is still considered "a normal condition." These differences might affect the
      experiences of caregivers, especially those relating to social health, the
      subject of our study. We aim to describe and compare the lived experiences of
      family caregivers of patients with cancer (PWC) with those of patients with
      dementia (PWD) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and to explore the role of their social
      health in these experiences. METHOD: A qualitative design was applied. In-depth
      face-to-face interviews were conducted with PWC and PWD caregivers in two
      outpatient clinics of a tertiary hospital. The constant comparative method was
      applied to analyze the data that were interpreted using the concept of social
      health to explore the experiences of the caregivers. We used Atlas.ti software.
      RESULTS: Three themes were identified: problems with caregiving, dealing with
      problems, and beliefs in caregiving. We found more similarities than differences
      in the experiences of caregivers in both groups. Half of the categories were
      related to social health: challenges, consequences, hiding, social support, and
      the caregiver's approach. The organization of dementia care is characterized by
      simplicity and direct ties between medical specialists, PWD, and caregivers,
      whereas cancer care encounters coordination problems. CONCLUSIONS: Family
      caregivers of both groups mostly had similar experiences of the caregiving
      process. Gaining a better understanding of the specific experiences of
      caregivers, and their social health, opens new avenues for interventions to
      improve their quality of life.

PMID- 28870267
TI  - Evil, terrorism, and psychiatry.

PMID- 28870265
TI  - Predicting Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacterial Colonization and
      Associated Infection on Hospital Admission.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Isolation of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) from
      patients in the community has been increasingly observed. A prediction model for
      MDR-GNB colonization and infection risk stratification on hospital admission is
      needed to improve patient care. METHODS A 2-stage, prospective study was
      performed with 995 and 998 emergency department patients enrolled, respectively.
      MDR-GNB colonization was defined as isolates resistant to 3 or more classes of
      antibiotics, identified in either the surveillance or early (<=48 hours) clinical
      cultures. RESULTS A score-assigned MDR-GNB colonization prediction model was
      developed and validated using clinical and microbiological data from 995 patients
      enrolled in the first stage of the study; 122 of these patients (12.3%) were MDR
      GNB colonized. We identified 5 independent predictors: age>70 years (odds ratio
      [OR], 1.84 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.06-3.17]; 1 point), assigned point
      value in the model), residence in a long-term-care facility (OR, 3.64 [95% CI,
      1.57-8.43); 3 points), history of cerebrovascular accidents (OR, 2.23 [95% CI,
      1.24-4.01]; 2 points), hospitalization within 1 month (OR, 2.63 [95% CI, 1.39
      4.96]; 2 points), and recent antibiotic exposure (OR, 2.18 [95% CI, 1.16-4.11]; 2
      points). The model displayed good discrimination in the derivation and validation
      sets (area under ROC curve, 0.75 and 0.80, respectively) with the best cutoffs
      of<4 and >=4 points for low- and high-risk MDR-GNB colonization, respectively.
      When applied to 998 patients in the second stage of the study, the model
      successfully stratified the risk of MDR-GNB infection during hospitalization
      between low- and high-risk groups (probability, 0.02 vs 0.12, respectively; log
      rank test, P<.001). CONCLUSION A model was developed to optimize both the
      decision to initiate antimicrobial therapy and the infection control
      interventions to mitigate threats from MDR-GNB. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
      2017;38:1216-1225.

PMID- 28870268
TI  - Multi-level obstruction in obstructive sleep apnoea: prevalence, severity and
      predictive factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterise multi-level obstruction in terms of prevalence,
      obstructive sleep apnoea severity and predictive factors, and to collect
      epidemiological data on upper airway morphology in obstructive sleep apnoea
      patients. METHODS: Retrospective review of 250 obstructive sleep apnoea patients.
      RESULTS: On clinical examination, 171 patients (68.4 per cent) had multi-level
      obstruction, 49 (19.6 per cent) had single-level obstruction and 30 (12 per cent)
      showed no obstruction. Within each category of obstructive sleep apnoea severity,
      multi-level obstruction was more prevalent. Multi-level obstruction was
      associated with severe obstructive sleep apnoea (more than 30 events per hour) (p
      = 0.001). Obstructive sleep apnoea severity increased with the number of
      obstruction sites (correlation coefficient = 0.303, p < 0.001). Multi-level
      obstruction was more likely in younger (p = 0.042), male (p = 0.045) patients,
      with high body mass index (more than 30 kg/m2) (p < 0.001). Palatal (p = 0.004),
      tongue (p = 0.026) and lateral pharyngeal wall obstructions (p = 0.006) were
      associated with severe obstructive sleep apnoea. CONCLUSION: Multi-level
      obstruction is more prevalent in obstructive sleep apnoea and is associated with
      increased severity. Obstruction at certain anatomical levels contributes more
      towards obstructive sleep apnoea severity.

PMID- 28870270
TI  - Resistance towards monensin is proposed to be acquired in a Toxoplasma gondii
      model by reduced invasion and egress activities, in addition to increased
      intracellular replication.
AB  - Monensin (Mon) is an anticoccidial polyether ionophore widely used to control
      coccidiosis. The extensive use of polyether ionophores on poultry farms resulted
      in widespread resistance, but the underlying resistance mechanisms are unknown in
      detail. For analysing the mode of action by which resistance against polyether
      ionophores is obtained, we induced in vitro Mon resistance in Toxoplasma gondii
      RH strain (MonR-RH) and compared it with the sensitive parental strain (Sen-RH).
      The proteome assessment of MonR-RH and Sen-RH strains was obtained after isotopic
      labelling using stable isotope labelling by amino acid in cell culture. Relative
      proteomic quantification between resistant and sensitive strains was performed
      using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry. Overall, 1024
      proteins were quantified and 52 proteins of them were regulated. The
      bioinformatic analysis revealed regulation of cytoskeletal and transmembrane
      proteins being involved in transport mechanisms, metal ion-binding and invasion.
      During invasion, actin and microneme protein 8 (MIC8) are seem to be important
      for conoid extrusion and forming moving junction with host cells, respectively.
      Actin was significantly upregulated, while MIC8 was downregulated, which indicate
      an invasion reduction in the resistant strain. Resistance against Mon is not a
      simple process but it involves reduced invasion and egress activity of T. gondii
      tachyzoites while intracellular replication is enhanced.

PMID- 28870269
TI  - Failure to Communicate: Transmission of Extensively Drug-Resistant bla OXA-237
      Containing Acinetobacter baumannii-Multiple Facilities in Oregon, 2012-2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVE To determine the scope, source, and mode of transmission of a
      multifacility outbreak of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Acinetobacter
      baumannii. DESIGN Outbreak investigation. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Residents and
      patients in skilled nursing facilities, long-term acute-care hospital, and acute
      care hospitals. METHODS A case was defined as the incident isolate from clinical
      or surveillance cultures of XDR Acinetobacter baumannii resistant to imipenem or
      meropenem and nonsusceptible to all but 1 or 2 antibiotic classes in a patient in
      an Oregon healthcare facility during January 2012-December 2014. We queried
      clinical laboratories, reviewed medical records, oversaw patient and
      environmental surveillance surveys at 2 facilities, and recommended
      interventions. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and molecular analysis
      were performed. RESULTS We identified 21 cases, highly related by PFGE or
      healthcare facility exposure. Overall, 17 patients (81%) were admitted to either
      long-term acute-care hospital A (n=8), or skilled nursing facility A (n=8), or
      both (n=1) prior to XDR A. baumannii isolation. Interfacility communication of
      patient or resident XDR status was not performed during transfer between
      facilities. The rare plasmid-encoded carbapenemase gene bla OXA-237 was present
      in 16 outbreak isolates. Contact precautions, chlorhexidine baths, enhanced
      environmental cleaning, and interfacility communication were implemented for
      cases to halt transmission. CONCLUSIONS Interfacility transmission of XDR A.
      baumannii carrying the rare blaOXA-237 was facilitated by transfer of affected
      patients without communication to receiving facilities. Infect Control Hosp
      Epidemiol 2017;38:1335-1341.

PMID- 28870272
TI  - In rats gestational iron deficiency does not change body fat or hepatic
      mitochondria in the aged offspring.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction and resulting changes in adiposity have been observed
      in the offspring of animals fed a high fat (HF) diet. As iron is an important
      component of the mitochondria, we have studied the offspring of female rats fed
      complete (Con) or iron-deficient (FeD) rations for the duration of gestation to
      test for similar effects. The FeD offspring were ~12% smaller at weaning and
      remained so because of a persistent reduction in lean tissue mass. The offspring
      were fed a complete (stock) diet until 52 weeks of age after which some animals
      from each litter were fed a HF diet for a further 12 weeks. The HF diet increased
      body fat when compared with animals fed the stock diet, however, prenatal iron
      deficiency did not change the ratio of fat:lean in either the stock or HF diet
      groups. The HF diet caused triglyceride to accumulate in the liver, however,
      there was no effect of prenatal iron deficiency. The activity of the
      mitochondrial electron transport complexes was similar in all groups including
      those challenged with a HF diet. HF feeding increased the number of copies of
      mitochondrial DNA and the prevalence of the D-loop mutation, however, neither
      parameter was affected by prenatal iron deficiency. This study shows that the
      effects of prenatal iron deficiency differ from other models in that there is no
      persistent effect on hepatic mitochondria in aged animals exposed to an increased
      metabolic load.

PMID- 28870271
TI  - ICD-9-CM Coding for Multidrug Resistant Infection Correlates Poorly With
      Microbiologically Confirmed Multidrug Resistant Infection.

PMID- 28870273
TI  - Factors associated with delay in trauma team activation and impact on patient
      outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Trauma code activation is initiated by emergency physicians using
      physiological and anatomical criteria, mechanism of injury, and patient
      demographic factors. Our objective was to identify factors associated with
      delayed trauma team activation. METHODS: We assessed consecutive cases from a
      regional trauma database from January 2008 to March 2014. We defined a delay in
      trauma code activation as a time greater than 30 minutes from the time of
      arrival. We conducted univariate analysis for factors potentially influencing
      trauma team activation, and we subsequently used multiple logistic regression
      analysis models for delayed activation in relation to mortality, length of stay,
      and time to operative management. RESULTS: Patients totalling 846 were included
      for our analysis; 4.1% (35/846) of trauma codes were activated after 30 minutes.
      Mean age was 40.8 years in the early group versus 49.2 in the delayed group
      (p=0.01). Patients were over age 70 years in 7.6% in the early activation group
      versus 17.1% in the delayed group (p=0.04). There was no significant difference
      in sex, type of injury, injury severity, or time from injury between the two
      groups. There was no significant difference in mortality, median length of stay,
      or median time to operative management. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed activation is linked
      with increasing age with no clear link to increased mortality. Given the severe
      injuries in the delayed cohort that required activation of the trauma team,
      further emphasis on the older trauma patient and interventions to recognize this
      vulnerable population should be made.

PMID- 28870274
TI  - Psychopharmacological options for adult patients with anorexia nervosa: the
      patients' and carers' perspectives.

PMID- 28870275
TI  - Identification of fall predictors in the active elderly population from the
      routine medical records of general practitioners.
AB  - : Aim To evaluate the possibility of determining predictors of falls in the
      active community-dwelling elderly from the routine medical records of the general
      practitioners (GPs). BACKGROUND: Time constraints and competing demands in the
      clinical encounters frequently undermine fall-risk evaluation. In the context of
      proactive primary healthcare, quick, and efficient tools for a preliminary fall
      risk assessment are needed in order to overcome these barriers. METHODS: The
      study included 1220 subjects of 65 years of age or older. Data were extracted
      from the GPs' patient records. For each subject, the following variables were
      considered: age, gender, diseases, and pharmacotherapy. Univariate and
      multivariable analyses have been conducted to identify the independent predictors
      of falls. Findings The mean age of the study population was 77.8+/-8.7 years for
      women and 74.9+/-7.3 years for men. Of the sample, 11.6% had experienced one or
      more falls in the previous year. The risk of falling was found to increase
      significantly (P<0.05) with age (OR=1.03; 95% CI=1.01-1.05), generalized
      osteoarthritis (OR=2.01; 95% CI=1.23-3.30), tinnitus (OR=4.14; 95% CI=1.25
      13.74), cognitive impairment (OR=4.12; 95% CI=2.18-7.80), and two or more co
      existing diseases (OR=5.4; 95% CI=1.68-17.39). Results suggest that it is
      possible to identify patients at higher risk of falling by going through the
      current medical records, without adding extra workload on the health personnel.
      In the context of proactive primary healthcare, the analysis of fall predictors
      from routine medical records may allow the identification of which of the several
      known and hypothesized risk factors may be more relevant for developing quick and
      efficient tools for a preliminary fall-risk assessment.

PMID- 28870276
TI  - The developing world of DOHaD.
AB  - Since its debut in a ground-breaking report by Barker and Osmond in 1986, the
      concept of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) has been
      further developed in several aspects. Its methodology and conclusions relating to
      proposed origins and outcomes of early life events have been developing and
      spreading internationally. Indeed, the DOHaD concept now seems to have influenced
      many fields of research. This article aims to briefly review why the DOHaD
      concept is important in biomedical science, how it has developed, is currently
      developing, and how it should develop in future.

PMID- 28870277
TI  - Lessons Learned From Implementing an Incident Command System During a Local
      Multiagency Response to a Legionnaires' Disease Cluster in Sydney, NSW.
AB  - The incident command system (ICS) provides a common structure to control and
      coordinate an emergency response, regardless of scale or predicted impact. The
      lessons learned from the application of an ICS for large infectious disease
      outbreaks are documented. However, there is scant evidence on the application of
      an ICS to manage a local multiagency response to a disease cluster with
      environmental health risks. The Sydney Local Health District Public Health Unit
      (PHU) in New South Wales, Australia, was notified of 5 cases of Legionnaires'
      disease during 2 weeks in May 2016. This unusual incident triggered a multiagency
      investigation involving an ICS with staff from the PHU, 3 local councils, and the
      state health department to help prevent any further public health risk. The early
      and judicious use of ICS enabled a timely and effective response by supporting
      clear communication lines between the incident controller and field staff. The
      field team was key in preventing any ongoing public health risk through
      inspection, sampling, testing, and management of water systems identified to be
      at-risk for transmission of legionella. Good working relationships between
      partner agencies and trust in the technical proficiency of environmental health
      staff aided in the effective management of the response. (Disaster Med Public
      Health Preparedness. 2018;12:539-542).

PMID- 28870278
TI  - A CONSULTATION GUIDE FOR ASSESSING THE APPLICABILITY OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES:A
      CASE STUDY.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The translation of research findings into policy and practice is
      crucially dependent on the applicability of such findings in a given decision
      making context. We explored in a case study whether a generic consultation guide
      to assess the applicability of a health technology could be rapidly deployed and
      deliver useful insights. METHODS: A consultation guide based on the context and
      implementation for complex interventions (CICI) framework was developed and
      piloted to assess the applicability of reinforced home-based palliative care in
      three European countries. Individual consultations in England and Germany and a
      panel discussion in Poland were completed. RESULTS: Various barriers may hinder
      successful implementation of reinforced home-based palliative care in the three
      countries. Whilst the experts across all countries emphasized the lack of funding
      along with organization and structure as major barriers, information varied by
      country for many of the other identified barriers and facilitators. Participants
      in the pilot study provided positive feedback in terms of understanding the topic
      and purpose of the consultation, and both individual and panel consultations
      could be easily implemented. CONCLUSIONS: In this case study, the consultation
      guide presented a pragmatic, ready-to-use tool to assess the applicability of a
      health technology. As shown here, it can be used in a generic manner without
      discrete empirical information on the technology in question or, ideally, makes
      use of specific information collected as part of a HTA. Further studies are
      needed to validate this guide and apply it to other types of health technologies
      and more diverse decision-making contexts.

PMID- 28870279
TI  - Graph-based impact analysis as a framework for incorporating practitioner
      knowledge in dairy herd health management.
AB  - Production diseases in dairy cows are multifactorial, which means they emerge
      from complex interactions between many different farm variables. Variables with a
      large impact on production diseases can be identified for groups of farms using
      statistical models, but these methods cannot be used to identify highly
      influential variables in individual farms. This, however, is necessary for herd
      health planning, because farm conditions and associated health problems vary
      largely between farms. The aim of this study was to rank variables according to
      their anticipated effect on production diseases on the farm level by applying a
      graph-based impact analysis on 192 European organic dairy farms. Direct impacts
      between 13 pre-defined variables were estimated for each farm during a round
      table discussion attended by practitioners, that is farmer, veterinarian and herd
      advisor. Indirect impacts were elaborated through graph analysis taking into
      account impact strengths. Across farms, factors supposedly exerting the most
      influence on production diseases were 'feeding', 'hygiene' and 'treatment'
      (direct impacts), as well as 'knowledge and skills' and 'herd health monitoring'
      (indirect impacts). Factors strongly influenced by production diseases were 'milk
      performance', 'financial resources' and 'labour capacity' (directly and
      indirectly). Ranking of variables on the farm level revealed considerable
      differences between farms in terms of their most influential and most influenced
      farm factors. Consequently, very different strategies may be required to reduce
      production diseases in these farms. The method is based on perceptions and
      estimations and thus prone to errors. From our point of view, however, this
      weakness is clearly outweighed by the ability to assess and to analyse farm
      specific relationships and thus to complement general knowledge with contextual
      knowledge. Therefore, we conclude that graph-based impact analysis represents a
      promising decision support tool for herd health planning. The next steps include
      testing the method using more specific and problem-oriented variables as well as
      evaluating its effectiveness.

PMID- 28870280
TI  - Glucose and cholesterol stabilization in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
      with depressive and anxiety symptoms by problem-solving therapy in primary care
      centers in Mexico City.
AB  - : Aim The aim of this study was to determine if the problem-solving therapy (PST)
      helps control metabolic variables in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM) who show depressive and anxiety symptoms. BACKGROUND: T2DM is a chronic
      degenerative multifactorial disease. It is considered one of the main public
      health problems in the world, and it represents an important social and economic
      burden. It is frequently associated with major depression and anxiety disorders,
      which are related with high glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) concentrations and poor
      metabolic control. METHOD: We initially included 123 patients diagnosed with T2DM
      from five primary care centers (PCC) in Mexico City. HbA1c, central glucose, and
      lipid profile were measured in each patient. In addition, the Kessler
      psychological distress scale (K-10), the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Beck
      Anxiety Inventory were applied at the beginning and, to those who continued, at
      the end of the PST, as well as four months later. Findings In total, 36 patients
      completed the PST and the follow-up. There was a significant decrease in
      depressive and anxiety symptoms (P<0.001), as well as in total cholesterol
      (P=0.002), HbA1c (P=0.05), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (P=0.022). The PST
      helps reduce depressive and anxiety symptoms and may help stabilize glucose and
      cholesterol up to four months. Further studies on this area are recommended. If
      our findings are confirmed, the PST could help improve the quality of life of
      thousands of individuals with psychiatric-metabolic co-morbidity who only visit
      PCC.

PMID- 28870281
TI  - Workplace injuries in the Australian allied health workforce.
AB  - Objective This study aims to identify the number, costs and reported injury
      mechanisms of serious injury claims for allied health professionals.Methods Using
      Australian Workers' Compensation injury data, the number, mechanism, and costs of
      injury claims were calculated for eight groups of allied health professions
      (chiropractors and osteopaths, speech pathologists and audiologists, occupational
      therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, podiatrists, social workers and
      prosthetists/orthotists) between the 2000-01 and 2013-14 financial years.
      Workforce injury rates were calculated using the 2011 Australian Census Workforce
      data (denominator) and 2011 Workers' Compensation Statistics claims data
      (numerator).Results Across the allied health professions, 7023 serious injuries
      (minimum 5 days absence from work) were recorded with an associated total
      compensation cost of A$201970000. Fewer than 1.5% of each allied health
      professional group had an injury claim, with the exception of
      prosthetists/orthotists who had a rate of 25.9% serious injury claims (95%
      confidence interval 21.9-30.4). The average cost per claim varied across the
      allied health professions, from the lowest cost of A$19091 per injury for
      occupational therapists to the highest of A$48466 per claim in chiropractic and
      osteopathy. Body stressing followed by mental stress were the most common
      mechanisms of injury.Conclusions Mechanism of injury, both physical and
      psychosocial, were identified. Prosthetists/orthotists are at the highest risk of
      workplace injury of all allied health professions. This suggests the need for
      further investigation and development of appropriately targeted injury prevention
      programs for each allied health profession.What is known about this topic?
      Retention of allied health professionals is a significant issue, with workplace
      injuries identified as one contributing factor to this problem. Healthcare
      workers are potentially at high risk of injury as they are exposed to a range of
      physical and psychosocial hazards in their workplace.What does this paper add?
      This paper is the first to report on serious injuries, minimum 5 days absence
      from work, from Australian Workers' Compensation data, across a range of allied
      health professions. Various allied health professions were examined to identify
      the number, mechanism and cost of serious workplace injuries finding there is an
      average of 500 serious claims per year at a cost of A$14million.
      Prosthetists/orthotists were identified as having the highest proportion of
      claims per workforce population.What are the implications for practitioners?
      These results suggest highly varied injury rates across allied health
      professions. Compensation data does not enable accurate identification of causal
      factors. Further work is required to identify relevant causal factors so that
      targeted risk reduction strategies can be developed to reduce workforce injuries.

PMID- 28870282
TI  - Transgender women and HIV-related health disparities: falling off the HIV
      treatment cascade.
AB  - : Background Transgender women living with HIV infection experience poorer health
      outcomes across the HIV continuum of care. While disparities are well
      established, their underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This study
      examined the HIV continuum of care (also known as the HIV treatment cascade),
      including linkage and engagement in care and health status among transgender
      women and cisgender women and cisgender men living with HIV. METHOD: Case-control
      matching was applied to a cohort of 1101 people living with HIV; 70 transgender
      women living with HIV were matched on years since testing HIV positive with
      cisgender women and cisgender men. Participants provided measures indicative of
      the HIV treatment cascade that included linkage and engagement in care, receiving
      and adhering to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and HIV viral suppression. Common
      correlates of HIV-related health status: depression symptoms, HIV-related stress,
      alcohol and drug use, healthcare conspiracy beliefs, medical mistrust, emotional
      social support and tangible social support, were also assessed. RESULTS:
      Transgender women were significantly less likely to receive ART, were less
      adherent to ART and had poorer HIV viral suppression than cisgender persons.
      Multivariable models demonstrated that health disparities were predicted by
      transgender women having poorer tangible social support over and above the other
      correlates of health outcomes. CONCLUSION: Tangible support is amenable by
      interventions such as building and strengthening supportive networks and
      paraprofessional services. Socially supportive interventions should be considered
      critical in efforts to decrease HIV health disparities among transgender women.

PMID- 28870283
TI  - Aging in Australia: country of birth and language preferences of residents in
      aged care facilities.
AB  - Objective There is a need to better understand the use of aged care services by
      people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The aim of the
      present study was to describe the prevalence of people living in residential aged
      care facilities (RACFs) who were born in non-English-speaking countries and/or
      have a preferred language other than English and to describe service utilisation
      rates.Methods The present study consisted of a secondary analysis of data from
      the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Aged Care Data
      Clearinghouse. Data were analysed by country of birth, preferred language, state
      or territory and Aged Care Planning Regions within Victoria.Results Nationally,
      over 30000 (18.3%) RACF residents were born in a non-English-speaking country. In
      Victoria, almost one in four RACF residents (23.9%) was born in a non-English
      speaking country, and approximately one in eight (13.1%) has a preferred language
      other than English. Most Victorian RACFs (72.4%) have at least one resident with
      a preferred language other than English. Approximately one in four residents
      (26.1%) with a preferred language other than English are the sole speaker of the
      language in their facility.Conclusion All RACFs need to effectively address the
      needs and preferences of their residents, including those who were born in a non
      English-speaking country or prefer to speak a language other than English.What is
      known about the topic? The number of older people from a non-English-speaking
      background continues to increase, but little is known about the prevalence of
      this cohort living in RACFs and how aged care providers are responding to their
      needs and preferences.What does this paper add? The present study provides
      detailed, service- and policy-relevant information, demonstrating a substantial
      degree of diversity among people living in RACFs, with wide distribution across
      facilities and regions. The findings confirm the need for a systematic, sector
      wide approach to addressing linguistic diversity and developing inclusive
      practices.What are the implications for practitioners? All RACFs are required to
      develop policies and procedures in order to cater to the needs and preferences of
      residents who were born in non-English-speaking countries and/or who prefer to
      speak a language other than English.

PMID- 28870285
TI  - Rapid transporter regulation prevents substrate flow traffic jams in boron
      transport.
AB  - Nutrient uptake by roots often involves substrate-dependent regulated nutrient
      transporters. For robust uptake, the system requires a regulatory circuit within
      cells and a collective, coordinated behaviour across the tissue. A paradigm for
      such systems is boron uptake, known for its directional transport and
      homeostasis, as boron is essential for plant growth but toxic at high
      concentrations. In Arabidopsis thaliana, boron uptake occurs via diffusion
      facilitators (NIPs) and exporters (BORs), each presenting distinct polarity.
      Intriguingly, although boron soil concentrations are homogenous and stable, both
      transporters manifest strikingly swift boron-dependent regulation. Through
      mathematical modelling, we demonstrate that slower regulation of these
      transporters leads to physiologically detrimental oscillatory behaviour. Cells
      become periodically exposed to potentially cytotoxic boron levels, and nutrient
      throughput to the xylem becomes hampered. We conclude that, while maintaining
      homeostasis, swift transporter regulation within a polarised tissue context is
      critical to prevent intrinsic traffic-jam like behaviour of nutrient flow.

PMID- 28870284
TI  - Microsaccadic sampling of moving image information provides Drosophila hyperacute
      vision.
AB  - Small fly eyes should not see fine image details. Because flies exhibit saccadic
      visual behaviors and their compound eyes have relatively few ommatidia (sampling
      points), their photoreceptors would be expected to generate blurry and coarse
      retinal images of the world. Here we demonstrate that Drosophila see the world
      far better than predicted from the classic theories. By using
      electrophysiological, optical and behavioral assays, we found that R1-R6
      photoreceptors' encoding capacity in time is maximized to fast high-contrast
      bursts, which resemble their light input during saccadic behaviors. Whilst over
      space, R1-R6s resolve moving objects at saccadic speeds beyond the predicted
      motion-blur-limit. Our results show how refractory phototransduction and rapid
      photomechanical photoreceptor contractions jointly sharpen retinal images of
      moving objects in space-time, enabling hyperacute vision, and explain how such
      microsaccadic information sampling exceeds the compound eyes' optical limits.
      These discoveries elucidate how acuity depends upon photoreceptor function and
      eye movements.

PMID- 28870287
TI  - Stress responsive miR-31 is a major modulator of mouse intestinal stem cells
      during regeneration and tumorigenesis.
AB  - Intestinal regeneration and tumorigenesis are believed to be driven by intestinal
      stem cells (ISCs). Elucidating mechanisms underlying ISC activation during
      regeneration and tumorigenesis can help uncover the underlying principles of
      intestinal homeostasis and disease including colorectal cancer. Here we show that
      miR-31 drives ISC proliferation, and protects ISCs against apoptosis, both during
      homeostasis and regeneration in response to ionizing radiation injury.
      Furthermore, miR-31 has oncogenic properties, promoting intestinal tumorigenesis.
      Mechanistically, miR-31 acts to balance input from Wnt, BMP, TGFbeta signals to
      coordinate control of intestinal homeostasis, regeneration and tumorigenesis. We
      further find that miR-31 is regulated by the STAT3 signaling pathway in response
      to radiation injury. These findings identify miR-31 as a critical modulator of
      ISC biology, and a potential therapeutic target for a broad range of intestinal
      regenerative disorders and cancers.

PMID- 28870289
TI  - Ethanol production from chitosan by the nematophagous fungus Pochonia
      chlamydosporia and the entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and
      Beauveria bassiana.
AB  - Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer after cellulose and virtually
      unexplored as raw material for bioethanol production. In this paper, we
      investigate chitosan, the deacetylated form of chitin which is the main component
      of shellfish waste, as substrate for bioethanol production by fungi. Fungal
      parasites of invertebrates such as the nematophagous Pochonia chlamydosporia (Pc)
      or the entomopathogens Beauveria bassiana (Bb) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Ma)
      are biocontrol agents of plant parasitic nematodes (eg. Meloidogyne spp.) or
      insect pests such as the red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). These fungi
      degrade chitin-rich barriers for host penetration. We have therefore tested the
      chitin/chitosanolytic capabilities of Pc, Bb and Ma for generating reducing
      sugars using chitosan as only nutrient. Among the microorganisms used in this
      study, Pc is the best chitosan degrader, even under anaerobic conditions. These
      fungi have alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) encoding
      genes in their genomes. We have therefore analyzed their ethanol production under
      anaerobic conditions using chitosan as raw material. P. chlamydosporia is the
      largest ethanol producer from chitosan. Our studies are a starting point to
      develop chitin-chitosan based biofuels.

PMID- 28870288
TI  - Influence of (p)ppGpp on biofilm regulation in Pseudomonas putida KT2440.
AB  - The global regulatory molecule (p)ppGpp is synthesized under limited nutrition
      conditions and involves in many cellular processes in bacteria. (p)ppGpp has been
      reported to affect biofilm formation in several bacterial species. Here, we found
      that deletion of (p)ppGpp synthase genes of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 led to
      enhanced biofilm formation in polystyrene microtitre plates. Besides, the
      pellicle of this mutant formed at the air-liquid interface lost the robust
      structure and became frail. The biofilm formation and its structure are mainly
      determined by exopolysaccharides (EPSs) and adhesins. Transcriptional analysis of
      four EPS operons designated as pea, peb, alg and bcs and two adhesin genes
      nominated as lapA and lapF showed that the deletion of (p)ppGpp synthase genes
      increased the expression of peb, bcs and lapA but repressed the expression of pea
      and lapF. Furthermore, expression of the regulation factor FleQ was significantly
      augmented in (p)ppGpp-synthase mutants while the expression of sigma factor RpoS
      was reduced. Since FleQ and RpoS play important roles in regulating expression of
      EPS and adhesin genes, (p)ppGpp may mediate the synthesis of biofilm matrix via
      influencing these regulators to control the biofilm formation and pellicle
      structure.

PMID- 28870286
TI  - Attenuation of dopamine-modulated prefrontal value signals underlies
      probabilistic reward learning deficits in old age.
AB  - Probabilistic reward learning is characterised by individual differences that
      become acute in aging. This may be due to age-related dopamine (DA) decline
      affecting neural processing in striatum, prefrontal cortex, or both. We examined
      this by administering a probabilistic reward learning task to younger and older
      adults, and combining computational modelling of behaviour, fMRI and PET
      measurements of DA D1 availability. We found that anticipatory value signals in
      ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) were attenuated in older adults. The
      strength of this signal predicted performance beyond age and was modulated by D1
      availability in nucleus accumbens. These results uncover that a value
      anticipation mechanism in vmPFC declines in aging, and that this mechanism is
      associated with DA D1 receptor availability.

PMID- 28870290
TI  - The yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium thailandense LB01 produces a new
      biosurfactant using olive oil mill wastewater as an inducer.
AB  - In this study, the biosurfactant production by an Aureobasidium thailandense LB01
      was reported for the first time. Different agro-industrial by-products (corn
      steep liquor, sugarcane molasses, and olive oil mill wastewater) were evaluated
      as alternative low-cost substrates. The composition of the culture medium was
      optimized through response surface methodology. The highest biosurfactant
      production (139+/-16mg/L) was achieved using a culture medium containing yeast
      extract (2g/L); olive oil mill wastewater (1.5%, w/w); glucose (6g/L) and KH2PO4
      (1g/L) after 48h of fermentation. The partially purified biosurfactant exhibited
      a critical micelle concentration of 550mg/L, reducing the surface tension of
      water up to 31.2mN/m. Its molecular structure was found to be similar to a lauric
      acid ester. The biosurfactant exhibited a better performance than the chemical
      surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in oil dispersion assays, thus suggesting
      its potential application in bioremediation.

PMID- 28870291
TI  - Genomic characterization of an extensively-drug resistance Salmonella enterica
      serotype Indiana strain harboring blaNDM-1 gene isolated from a chicken carcass
      in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to genetically characterize the
      antimicrobial resistance mechanisms of Salmonella enterica serotype Indiana C629
      isolated from a chicken carcass in China in 2014. METHODS: Antimicrobial
      susceptibility against a panel of 23 antimicrobial agents was carried out on
      Salmonella enterica serotype Indiana C629 and assessed according to CLSI
      standards. Whole-genome sequencing of this isolate was conducted to obtain the
      complete genome of S. Indiana. RESULTS: Salmonella Indiana C629 expressed an XDR
      phenotype being resistant to more than 20 antimicrobial agents, including
      imipenem and meropenem. From the analysis of the resistance mechanisms, two
      mutations were identified in subunit A of DNA gyrase within the quinolone
      resistance determining region, in addition to the acquisition of mobile efflux
      pumps encoding oqxA/B/R. Additionally, four beta-lactamases resistance genes
      (blaCTX-M-65, blaTEM-1, blaOXA-1, and blaNDM-1), five aminoglycosides resistance
      genes (aac(3)-IV, aac(6')-Ib-cr, aadA2, aadA5, and aph(4)-Ia), two phenicol
      resistance genes (catB3 and floR), and five trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole
      resistance genes (sul1/2/3 and dfrA12/17) were also identified. A total of 191
      virulence genes were identified. Among them, 57 belonged to type-three secretion
      system (T3SS) encoding genes, 55 belonged to fimbrial adherence encoding genes,
      and 39 belonged to flagella-encoding genes CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated
      that multi-resistance mechanisms consistent with an XDR-phenotype, along with
      various virulence encoding genes of a S. Indiana strain in China These findings
      highlight the importance of cooperation among different sectors in order to
      monitor the spread of resistant pathogens among food animal, foods of animal
      origin and human beings that might further take measures to protect consumers'
      health.

PMID- 28870292
TI  - Nutrients and host attributes modulate the abundance and functional traits of
      phyllosphere microbiome in rice.
AB  - The abundance of phyllosphere bacterial communities of seven genotypes of rice
      ADT- 38, ADT-43, CR-1009, PB-1, PS-5, P-44, and PB-1509 was investigated, in
      relation to nutrient dynamics of rhizosphere and leaves. P-44 genotype recorded
      highest pigment accumulation, while genotypes CR-1009 and P-44 exhibited most
      number of different bacterial morphotypes, Colony forming units in two media
      (Nutrient agar and R2A) varied significantly and ranged from 106-107 per g plant
      tissues. Among the selected 60 distinct morphotypes, IAA and siderophore
      producers were the dominant functional types. Biocontrol activity against
      Drechslera oryzae was shown by 38 isolates, while 17 and 9 isolates were potent
      against Rhizoctonia solani and Magnaporthe oryzae respectively. Principal
      Component Analysis (PCA) illustrated the significant effects of selected soil and
      leaf nutrients of seven rice varieties on the culturable phyllospheric population
      (log CFU), particularly in the R2A medium. Eigen values revealed that 83% of the
      variance observed could be assigned to Leaf-Fe, Leaf-Mn, chlorophyll b and soil
      organic carbon (OC). Quantitative PCR analyses of abundance of bacteria,
      cyanobacteria and archaebacteria revealed a host-specific response, with CR-1009
      showing highest number of 16S rRNA copies of bacterial members, while both P-44
      and PS-5 had higher cyanobacterial abundance, but lowest number of those
      belonging to archaebacteria. Nutritional aspects of leaf and soil influenced the
      abundance of bacteria and their functional attributes; this is of interest for
      enhancing the efficacy of foliar inoculants, thereby, improving plant growth and
      disease tolerance.

PMID- 28870293
TI  - Characterization of multifarious plant growth promoting traits of rhizobacterial
      strain AR6 under Chromium (VI) stress.
AB  - Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can increase the host plant tolerance
      to cope up with heavy metal induced stress, which can be improve plant growth.
      Thus, the present study was designed to isolate Cr(VI) tolerant PGPR strain and
      evaluate its plant growth promoting (PGP) properties under Cr(VI) stress.
      Rhizobacterial strain AR6 was isolated from the rhizosphere of Phaseolus vulgaris
      L. and showed 99% homology with Cellulosimicrobium funkei (KM032184) in BLASTn
      analysis. Strain AR6 was specifically selected due to its high Cr(VI) tolerance
      (1200MUg/ml) and substantial production of PGP substances. Strain AR6 produced
      36.75MUg/ml of indole acetic acid (IAA), 60.40MUg/ml of ammonia and 14.23MUg/ml
      of exopolysaccharide (EPS). Moreover, strain AR6 showed positive results for
      catalase, protease, amylase, lipase production and phosphate solubilization. A
      trend of Cr(VI) concentration dependent progressive decline for PGP traits of
      strain AR6 was observed excluding EPS which was regularly increased on increasing
      concentrations of Cr(VI). Among the four tested Cr(VI) concentrations, 250MUg/ml
      showed the maximum toxicity to PGP activities of strain AR6. Inoculation of
      rhizobacterial strain AR6 significantly increased the root length of test crops
      in the presence of Cr(VI) and produced a considerable number of colonizes on the
      root of versatile dicot and monocot plants. Moreover, strain AR6 exhibited strong
      antagonistic activity against phytopathogen Aspergillus niger. Thus, the present
      study suggests that metal tolerant and PGP activities of the rhizobacterial
      strain AR6 could be exploited for environmental and agricultural issues.

PMID- 28870294
TI  - Exploring the interaction network of the Bacillus subtilis outer coat and crust
      proteins.
AB  - Bacillus subtilis spores, representatives of an exceptionally resistant dormant
      cell type, are encircled by a thick proteinaceous layer called the spore coat.
      More than 80 proteins assemble into four distinct coat layers: a basement layer,
      an inner coat, an outer coat and a crust. As the spore develops inside the mother
      cell, spore coat proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm are gradually deposited
      onto the prespore surface. A small set of morphogenetic proteins necessary for
      spore coat morphogenesis are thought to form a scaffold to which the rest of the
      coat proteins are attached. Extensive localization and proteomic studies using
      wild type and mutant spores have revealed the arrangement of individual proteins
      within the spore coat layers. In this study we examined the interactions between
      the proteins localized to the outer coat and crust using a bacterial two hybrid
      system. These two layers are composed of at least 25 components. Self
      interactions were observed for most proteins and numerous novel interactions were
      identified. The most interesting contacts are those made with the morphogenetic
      proteins CotE, CotY and CotZ; these could serve as a basis for understanding the
      specific roles of particular proteins in spore coat morphogenesis.

PMID- 28870296
TI  - Targeting the Microbiome for Mental Health: Hype or Hope?

PMID- 28870295
TI  - Targets of ubiquitin like system in mycobacteria and related actinobacterial
      species.
AB  - Protein turnover and recycling is a prerequisite in all living organisms to
      maintain normal cellular physiology. Many bacteria are proteasome deficient but
      they possess typical protease enzymes for carrying out protein turnover. However,
      several groups of actinobacteria such as mycobacteria harbor both proteasome and
      proteases. In these bacteria, for cellular protein turnover the target proteins
      undergo post-translational modification referred as pupylation in which a small
      protein Pup (prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein) is tagged to the specific lysine
      residues of the target proteins and after that those target proteins undergo
      proteasomal degradation. Thus, Pup serves as a degradation signal, helps in
      directing proteins toward the bacterial proteasome for a turnover. Although the
      Pup-proteasome system has a multifaceted role in environmental stresses,
      pathogenicity and regulation of cellular signaling, but the fate of all types of
      pupylation such as mono and polypupylation on the proteins is still not
      completely understood. In this review, we present the mechanisms involved in the
      activation and conjugation of Pup to the target proteins, describing the
      structural sketch of pupylation and fundamental differences between the
      eukaryotic ubiquitin-proteasome and bacterial Pup-proteasome systems. We are also
      presenting a concise classification and cataloging of the complete battery of
      experimentally identified Pup-substrates from various species of actinobacteria.

PMID- 28870297
TI  - Amygdalar-Prefrontal Connectivity Changes During Adolescence: Implications for
      Development of Mood Disorders.

PMID- 28870298
TI  - A Collaborative Psychopharmacology Research Agenda for Posttraumatic Stress
      Disorder.

PMID- 28870299
TI  - A New Perspective on the Mechanisms of Neglect.

PMID- 28870300
TI  - Enhancing Recovery After Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - There have been multiple successful efforts to improve and shorten the recovery
      period after elective total joint arthroplasty. The development of rapid recovery
      protocols through a multidisciplinary approach has occurred in recent years to
      improve patient satisfaction as well as outcomes. Bundled care payment programs
      and the practice of outpatient total joint arthroplasty have provided additional
      pressure and incentives for surgeons to provide high-quality care with low cost
      and complications. In this review, the evidence for modern practices are reviewed
      regarding patient selection and education, anesthetic techniques, perioperative
      pain management, intraoperative factors, blood management, and postoperative
      rehabilitation.

PMID- 28870301
TI  - Perioperative Pain Management and Anesthesia: A Critical Component to Rapid
      Recovery Total Joint Arthroplasty.
AB  - Multimodal pain management has become the standard of care following total hip
      and knee replacement. The advantages include decreasing opioid consumption and
      its associated side effects, facilitating earlier mobilization, and faster return
      to function. An effective rapid recovery protocol includes the use of multiple
      different types of medications targeting each area of the pain pathway,
      preemptive analgesia, regional nerve blockade, and local infiltration analgesia.

PMID- 28870302
TI  - Perioperative Pain Management in Hip and Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - Total hip and knee arthroplasty is associated with significant perioperative
      pain, which can adversely affect recovery by increasing risk of complications,
      length of stay, and cost. Historically, opioids were the mainstay of
      perioperative pain control. However, opioids are associated with significant
      downsides. Preemptive use of a multimodal pain management approach has become the
      standard of care to manage pain after hip and knee arthroplasty. Multimodal pain
      management uses oral medicines, peripheral nerve blocks, intra-articular
      injections, and other tools to reduce the need for opioids. Use of a multimodal
      approach promises to decrease complications, improve outcomes, and increase
      patient satisfaction after hip and knee arthroplasty.

PMID- 28870303
TI  - Patient Satisfaction After Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Realistic or Imaginary
      Goal?
AB  - This article summarizes the current literature regarding patient satisfaction
      after total knee arthroplasty. In 10% to 15% of cases, the operation has not met
      the patients' expectations. The causes of this dissatisfaction are
      multifactorial, and include patient-related factors, details related to the
      surgical procedure and prosthesis chosen, perioperative factors, and factors
      associated with nursing and general medical care. However, surgeons must bear the
      brunt of patients' dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction erodes the doctor
      patient relationship, and may have implications in an emerging health care
      economy in which doctors and hospitals are reimbursed based on both clinical
      outcome and patient satisfaction.

PMID- 28870304
TI  - The Effect of Opioids, Alcohol, and Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs on
      Fracture Union.
AB  - The estimated rate of fracture nonunion is between 5% and 10%, adding significant
      cost to the health care system. The cause of fracture nonunion is multifactorial,
      including the severity of the injury, patient factors resulting in aberrancies in
      the biology of fracture, and the side effects of pain control modalities.
      Minimizing surgeon-controlled factors causing nonunion is important to reduce the
      cost of health care and improve patient outcomes. Opioids, alcohol, and
      nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been implicated as risk factors for
      fracture nonunion. Current literature was reviewed to examine the effects of
      opioids, alcohol, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on fracture union.

PMID- 28870305
TI  - The Importance of Optimizing Acute Pain in the Orthopedic Trauma Patient.
AB  - Postoperative pain control is a highly studied topic because of its significant
      effect on costs, hospital course, and, most importantly, patient satisfaction.
      Opioid use has been the "status quo" of postoperative pain management but
      prolongs hospital stays and increases complications. Optimizing acute pain
      management in patients with orthopedic trauma is important and can translate into
      significant positive physiologic and financial outcomes. Although multiple viable
      examples of optimizing acute pain management in the literature demonstrate
      outcome improvements, implementation has not been widespread. Significant outcome
      success will depend more on systemwide implementation than a specific regimen for
      postoperative pain control.

PMID- 28870306
TI  - Pediatric Perioperative Pain Management.
AB  - Effective perioperative pain control in pediatric patients undergoing orthopedic
      surgery remains a challenge. Developing a successful pain control regimen begins
      preoperatively with assessment of the patient and discussion with the patient and
      family regarding expectations. Perioperative pain control regimens are customized
      based on the type of surgery, patient characteristics, and anticipated severity
      and duration of the postoperative pain. Recent study focuses on multimodal
      strategies and regional anesthesia options, allowing for decreased opioid use.
      This article provides an evidence-based overview of preoperative, intraoperative,
      and postoperative pain control for the pediatric orthopedic patient.

PMID- 28870307
TI  - Perioperative Pain Management in Pediatric Spine Surgery.
AB  - Pain management after spinal deformity correction surgery for scoliosis in the
      pediatric population can be difficult. Deformity correction with posterior spinal
      fusion causes significant tissue trauma. Historically, pain control has been
      achieved with intravenous opiates. Opiates provide excellent analgesic effect;
      however, they have serious consequences when used alone. In adult total joint
      arthroplasty, multimodal pain control has become an increasingly common method to
      achieve pain control without these sequelae. Recently, the same techniques have
      been studied in pediatric spinal deformity correction surgery. This article
      outlines the state of pain management in pediatric spine patients.

PMID- 28870308
TI  - Perioperative Pain Management for Upper Extremity Surgery.
AB  - Upper extremity surgeons are currently faced with a daunting array of anesthesia
      techniques, ranging from traditional general anesthesia to wide-awake surgery,
      during which patients can watch their surgeons operate in the morning and return
      to work as soon as that afternoon. This range of options means that surgeons must
      consider patient-related factors such as disease process and relevant
      comorbidities, as well as surgery-related factors such as anatomic location,
      complexity, length of procedure, and postoperative pain expectations. In general,
      the least invasive technique is favored, but each patient must be considered
      individually to ensure the best anesthesia choice.

PMID- 28870309
TI  - Multimodal Analgesia in Foot and Ankle Surgery.
AB  - Progress in surgical acute pain management has allowed most foot and ankle
      surgery to be performed in ambulatory outpatient surgical centers. Multimodal
      analgesia focuses on improving postoperative pain by combining pharmacologic and
      other modalities, addressing multiple pain mechanisms and receptor pathways while
      reducing adverse effects through lower doses of oral medications. Local
      anesthesia techniques provide excellent pain relief with few adverse events.
      Multimodal analgesia in foot and ankle surgery provides superior pain relief, and
      reduced opioid dependence and opioid-related side effects, improving patient
      satisfaction, safety, and timely return to function.

PMID- 28870311
TI  - Perioperative Pain Management.

PMID- 28870310
TI  - Peripheral Nerve Blocks in Foot and Ankle Surgery.
AB  - Postoperative pain is one of the most important factors in regard to patient
      outcomes. It has been linked with patient satisfaction, length of stay, and
      overall hospital costs. Peripheral nerve blocks have provided a safe, effective
      method to control early postoperative pain when symptoms are most severe.
      Peripheral nerve blocks, whether used intraoperatively or postoperatively,
      provide an alternative or adjunct to conventional pain management methods for
      patients who may not tolerate heavy narcotics or general anesthesia, in
      particular the elderly and those with cardiopulmonary disease.

PMID- 28870313
TI  - Long wavelength near-infrared transmission spectroscopy of barley seeds using a
      supercontinuum laser: Prediction of mixed-linkage beta-glucan content.
AB  - A supercontinuum laser was used to perform the first transmission measurements on
      intact seeds with long wavelength near-infrared spectroscopy. A total of 105
      barley seeds from five different barley genotypes (Bomi, lys5.f, lys5.g, lys16
      and lys95) were measured from 2275 to 2375 nm. The mixed-linkage (1->3,1->4)-beta
      D-glucan (BG) and protein content was measured with wet chemical analysis for
      each single seed. A partial least squares model correlated the BG % (w/w) with
      the spectral measurements with a R2CV and R2PRED of 0.83 and 0.90, respectively.
      The predictive model for BG could be improved by averaging spectra from the same
      seed and by replacing the individual seed BG content with the average BG of each
      barley genotype.

PMID- 28870312
TI  - Recent advances in microfluidic sample preparation and separation techniques for
      molecular biomarker analysis: A critical review.
AB  - Microfluidics is a vibrant and expanding field that has the potential for solving
      many analytical challenges. Microfluidics show promise to provide rapid,
      inexpensive, efficient, and portable diagnostic solutions that can be used in
      resource-limited settings. Researchers have recently reported various
      microfluidic platforms for biomarker analysis applications. Sample preparation
      processes like purification, preconcentration and labeling have been
      characterized on-chip. Additionally, improvements in microfluidic separation
      techniques have been reported for molecular biomarkers. This review critically
      evaluates microfluidic sample preparation platforms and separation methods for
      biomarker analysis reported in the last two years. Key advances in device
      operation and ability to process different sample matrices in a variety of device
      materials are highlighted. Finally, current needs and potential future directions
      for microfluidic device development to realize its full diagnostic potential are
      discussed.

PMID- 28870314
TI  - Visual and sensitive fluorescent sensing for ultratrace mercury ions by
      perovskite quantum dots.
AB  - Mercury ions sensing is an important issue for human health and environmental
      safety. A novel fluorescence nanosensor was designed for rapid visual detection
      of ultratrace mercury ions (Hg2+) by using CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskite quantum dots
      (QDs) based on the surface ion-exchange mechanism. The synthesized CH3NH3PbBr3
      QDs can emitt intense green fluorescence with high quantum yield of 50.28%, and
      can be applied for Hg2+ sensing with the detection limit of 0.124 nM (24.87 ppt)
      in the range of 0 nM-100 nM. Furthermore, the interfering metal ions have no any
      influence on the fluorescence intensity of QDs, showing the perovskite QDs
      possess the high selectivity and sensitivity for Hg2+ detection. The sensing
      mechanism of perovskite QDs for Hg2+ is has also been investigated by XPS, EDX
      studies, showing Pb2+ on the surface of perovskite QDs has been partially
      replaced by Hg2+. Spot plate test shows that the perovskite QDs can also be used
      for visual detection of Hg2+. Our research indicated the perovskite QDs are
      promising candidates for the visual fluorescence detection of environmental
      micropollutants.

PMID- 28870315
TI  - Simultaneous fluorescent detection of multiple metal ions based on the DNAzymes
      and graphene oxide.
AB  - A novel fluorescent detection strategy for simultaneous detection of Cu2+, Pb2+
      and Mg2+ based on DNAzyme branched junction structure with three kinds of
      DNAzymes and graphene oxide (GO) was presented. Three fluorophores labeled DNA
      sequences consisted with enzyme-strand (E-DNA) and substrate strand (S-DNA) were
      annealed to form DNAzyme branched junction structure. In the presence of target
      metal ion, the DNAzyme was activated to cleave the fluorophore labeled S-DNA. The
      S-DNA fragments were released and adsorbed onto GO surface to quench the
      fluorescent signal. The detection limit was calculated to be 1 nM for Cu2+, 200
      nM for Mg2+, and 0.3 nM for Pb2+, respectively. This strategy was successfully
      used for simultaneous detection of Cu2+, Mg2+ and Pb2+ in human serum. Moreover,
      it had potential application for simultaneous detection of multiple metal ions in
      environmental and biological samples.

PMID- 28870316
TI  - Vacuum-assisted headspace solid-phase microextraction: A tutorial review.
AB  - Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HSSPME) sampling under vacuum conditions
      is a new and effective approach to accelerate the extraction kinetics of analytes
      with a low affinity for the headspace. Vacuum-assisted HSSPME (Vac-HSSPME)
      evolved from this approach and the resulting methods were always found to yield
      high extraction efficiencies and very good sensitivities within short sampling
      times and at mild temperatures. Vac-HSSPME preserves the simplicity of regular
      HSSPME and the only extra step required is that of air-evacuating the sample
      container before or after introducing the sample. Moreover, fast implementation
      of the technique is possible when using the latest, simplified and easy to
      construct sample container that can hold constant low-pressure conditions for
      extended sampling times. The main objective of the current tutorial is to provide
      a general strategy that can be applied towards the development of new Vac-HSSPME
      methods. The most important outcomes of past theoretical investigations are
      highlighted and a simple criterion for predicting the effect of vacuum on HSSPME
      sampling of water or water-containing samples is outlined. This theoretical
      discussion is then used as a background to elucidate the combined effects of low
      sampling pressure and several other experimental parameters on HSSPME sampling.
      Specific implications unique to Vac-HSSPME are also discussed, providing
      practical tips and a troubleshooting guide to new users. The great benefits of
      adopting the Vac-HSSPME approach are further demonstrated by reviewing all past
      applications reporting the quantitative and/or qualitative determination of
      compounds with a low tendency to escape to the headspace in a variety of samples.
      Vacuum is a new experimental parameter to control and exploit during HSSPME
      method optimization. The potential applications of Vac-HSSPME in areas like food,
      environmental and biological analysis are numerous and still remain to be
      explored.

PMID- 28870317
TI  - A universal SERS aptasensor based on DTNB labeled GNTs/Ag core-shell nanotriangle
      and CS-Fe3O4 magnetic-bead trace detection of Aflatoxin B1.
AB  - A novel universal Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) based aptasensor
      platform for the trace detection of Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a common food
      contaminating mycotoxin, has been constructed, with the aid of the specific
      interaction between AFB1 and aptamers. The amino-terminal aptamer conjugated
      magnetic-bead (CS-Fe3O4) and the gold nanotriangles (GNTs)-DTNB@Ag-DTNB
      nanotriangles (GDADNTs) were used as the capturer and the reporter of AFB1,
      respectively. Under the optimized assay condition, the platform shows a
      distinguished sensitivity with the LOD as low as 0.54 pg/mL and the linear range
      from 0.001 to 10 ng/mL, a high stability of the SERS substrate activity remained
      three months at least, a decent reproducibility with RSD of ca. 5%, and a good
      selectivity to the general coexisted interferences. The distinguished sensitivity
      and selectivity for trace AFB1 detection has been achieved mainly due to the
      strong Raman enhancement effect of GNTs as the kernel for GDADNTs from the double
      layer of the reporter molecules, the specificity of aptamer and superparamagnetic
      CS-Fe3O4 respectively. Furthermore, the proposed SERS aptasensor is universal to
      other trace molecules detection with the specific aptamers.

PMID- 28870318
TI  - Assay of DNA methyltransferase 1 activity based on uracil-specific excision
      reagent digestion induced G-quadruplex formation.
AB  - DNA methylation catalyzed by DNA methyltransferase plays an important role in
      many biological processes including gene transcription, genomic imprinting and
      cellular differentiation. Herein, a novel and effective electrochemical method
      for the assay of DNA methyltransferase 1(DNMT1) activity has been successfully
      developed by using uracil-specific excision reagent (USER) induced G-quadruplex
      formation. Briefly, double stranded DNA containing the recognition sequence of
      DNMT1 is immobilized on the electrode. Among them, one strand (DNA S1) contains G
      rich sequence and a cytosine base, while the supplement strand (DNA S2) cotains C
      rich sequence and a methylated cytosine. Through the activity of DNMT1, the
      hemimethylated CG recognition sequence of the double stranded DNA are methylated
      and DNA S2 strand is cleaved and removed after the subsequently treatment with
      EpiTect fast bisulfite conversion kits and USER, leaving the DNA S1 to form the G
      quadruplex-hemin DNAzyme for signal amplification. Under optimal-conditions, the
      method shows wide linear range of 0.1-40 U mL-1 with a detection limit of 0.06 U
      mL-1. Furthermore, the inhibition assay study demonstrates that SGI-1027 can
      inhibit the DNMT 1 activity with the IC50 values of 6 MUM in the presence of 160
      MUM S-adenosylmethionine. Since this method can detect human DNMT1 activity
      effectively and has successfully been applied in complex biological samples, it
      may have great potential in the applications in DNA methylation related clinical
      practices and biochemical researches.

PMID- 28870319
TI  - Ultrasensitive electrochemical immunosensor for alpha fetoprotein detection based
      on platinum nanoparticles anchored on cobalt oxide/graphene nanosheets for signal
      amplification.
AB  - An ultrasensitive sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor was developed for
      quantitative monitoring of Alpha fetoprotein (AFP). To achieve this objective, an
      incorporated signal amplification strategy of platinum nanoparticles anchored on
      cobalt oxide/graphene nanosheets (Pt NPs/Co3O4/graphene) was proposed by acting
      as the label of secondary antibodies. The prepared label not only empowered by
      advantages of each component but exhibited better electrochemical performance
      than single Pt NPs, Co3O4 and graphene, which has shown large specific surface
      area and good catalytic activity towards the reduction of H2O2. Meanwhile, the
      nanocomposite of gold nanoparticles adhered on 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane
      functionalized graphene sheets (Au@MPTES-GS) was used as matrix to accelerate
      electron transfer and immobilize primary antibodies in this system. The signal
      amplification mechanism of the matrix and the label were explored successfully.
      Under optimal conditions, the electrochemical immunosensor exhibited a wide
      linear range from 0.1 pg mL-1 to 60 ng mL-1 with a low detection limit of 0.029
      pg mL-1for AFP. The proposed immunosensor may have promising application in the
      clinical diagnosis of AFP and other tumor markers.

PMID- 28870320
TI  - A correlated information removing based interference suppression technique in
      electronic nose for detection of bacteria.
AB  - A sensor array with 30 gas sensors is used in the electronic nose (e-nose) for
      bacteria detection in wound infection. However, the interference is an urgent
      problem in e-nose, since it would impact on the detection of target due to the
      cross-sensitivity of gas sensors, especially the background interference caused
      by carrier gas. The related methods to suppress the background interference are
      independent component analysis and orthogonal signal correction algorithm which
      are unreasonable, because it is difficult to obtain the so-called reference
      vector in complex real-world scenario. Consider that the sampling process of pump
      suction is divided into three parts: baseline collecting, sample collecting and
      system purging. In the case of stabilized carrier gas, the information in
      baseline can be fully used to suppress the interference in sampling stage. Thus a
      novel and effective correlated information removing based interference
      suppression (CIRIS) method is proposed. Specifically, the principle of this
      method is to suppress the interference of the sampling stage by removing the
      information correlated with baseline samples. Experimental results show that the
      proposed method (CIRIS with principal component analysis used to calculate the
      projection matrix) is significantly effective for interference suppression in e
      nose.

PMID- 28870321
TI  - New stationary phases for gas chromatography based on polymers with intrinsic
      porosity.
AB  - Norbornene polymers with intrinsic porosity were investigated as candidates for
      polymeric stationary phases in capillary GC. Kinetic and thermodynamic
      characteristics of the stationary phases were evaluated and turned out that only
      polymer with vicinal distribution of trimethylsilyl groups (polymer II) provided
      properties making it potential candidate for application in capillary GC. Columns
      with stationary phase based on polymer II demonstrated unique selectivity,
      moderate thermostability and efficiency better than previously studied columns
      with stationary phase based on poly[(1-trimethylsilyl)-1-propine].

PMID- 28870322
TI  - Highly selective enrichment of phosphorylated proteins by using Spore@Fe3+
      microspheres.
AB  - The advantages of spore-based microspheres include high monodispersity, presence
      of different functional groups (carboxylic, amino, and hydroxyl groups), facile
      industrial-scale preparation by using cell cultures via fermentation in a
      potentially cost effective and environment friendly manner, and high uniformity.
      We developed a novel spore@Fe3+ microsphere for specific capture of
      phosphoproteins. Caseins (alpha-casein and beta-casein) as phosphoproteins were
      used to evaluate binding capacity and enrichment factor. The spore@Fe3+
      microspheres demonstrate high binding capacity and selectivity for
      phosphoproteins (1983 and 1818 mg g-1 for alpha-casein and beta-casein,
      respectively). A mixture of bovine serum albumin and beta-casein at 100:1 ratio
      displayed an enrichment factor higher than 173-fold, which can nearly be
      considered "purification" of phosphoproteins. The proposed method is a promising
      technique in developing more selective, rapid, low cost, and high-throughput
      platforms for phosphoprotein enrichment, and it presents potential application in
      investigation of protein functions and in personalized diagnostic tests.

PMID- 28870323
TI  - Poly-l-cysteine/electrospun copper oxide nanofibers-zinc oxide nanoparticles
      nanocomposite as sensing element of an electrochemical sensor for simultaneous
      determination of adenine and guanine in biological samples and evaluation of
      damage to dsDNA and DNA purine bases by UV radiation.
AB  - A new nanocomposite film constructed of poly-l-cysteine/zinc oxide nanoparticles
      electrospun copper oxide nanofibers (PLC/ZnO-NPs-CuO-NFs) was prepared on the
      surface of the graphite electrode (GE). The novel electrode was successfully
      applied for the simultaneous determination of guanine (G) and adenine (A), two of
      the most important components of DNA and RNA. The PLC/ZnO-NPs-CuO-NFs/GE enhanced
      the anodic peak currents of the purine bases conspicuously and could determine
      them sensitively and separately in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution at the
      physiological pH (7.0). The synthesized nanofibers, nanoparticles and
      nanocomposite were characterized by different methods such as Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM),
      atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X
      ray analysis (EDS). Under the optimum operating conditions, linear calibration
      curves were obtained in the range of 0.05-6.78 and 0.01-3.87 MUM with a detection
      limit of 12.48 and 1.25 nM for G and A, respectively. The proposed method was
      applied to quantify A and G in three different DNA samples with satisfactory
      results. In addition, damage to human blood double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and DNA
      purine bases (liberated in previously hydrolyzed human blood dsDNA) caused by UV
      C and UV-B were evaluated. The results demonstrated that the proposed biosensing
      platform not only provides a novel and sensitive approach to detecting DNA
      damage, but also can be used for simultaneous determination of purine bases and
      major products of DNA oxidative damage.

PMID- 28870324
TI  - Photoelectrochemical detection of copper ions by modulating the growth of CdS
      quantum dots.
AB  - We discovered that copper ions (Cu2+) catalyze the oxidation of cysteine (CSH) by
      oxygen (O2) to modulate the growth of CSH-capped cadmium sulfide (CdS)
      nanoparticles (NPs). This new chemical process was applied to sensitive
      fluorogenic and photoelectrochemical (PEC) detection of Cu2+ ions in real samples
      of mineral and tap water using the photocatalytic activity of the resulting NPs.
      Disposable screen-printed electrodes (SPCEs) modified with electroactive
      polyvinylpyridine bearing osmium complex (Os-PVP) by cyclic voltammetry (CV) were
      employed for PEC analytical system. CdS NPs formed during the assay photocatalyze
      oxidation of 1-thioglycerol (TG) upon application of 0.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl to SPCEs.
      Os-PVP complex mediated the electron transfer between the electrode surface and
      CdS NPs. We proved that our assays did not suffer from interference from other
      ions accompanying Cu2+ and the sensitivity of our assays covers the European
      Union standard limit of Cu2+ ions in drinking water.

PMID- 28870325
TI  - GC-MS based metabolomics of colon cancer cells using different extraction
      solvents.
AB  - The increasing incidence of colorectal cancer enforces the development of novel
      methodologies and protocols to deepen in the molecular mechanisms that govern
      disease pathophysiological events. The aim of this work is to deepen in the
      optimum metabolite extraction protocol from adherent mammalian cells of colon
      cancer for high throughput metabolomics using gas chromatography coupled to mass
      spectrometry (GC-MS). GC-MS results showed that metabolic information obtained
      from colon cancer cells was highly dependent on metabolite extraction selection,
      which at the same time is extremely influenced by the analytical platform. A
      further purpose of this investigation is to uncover an unexplored portion of HT
      29 colon cancer cells metabolome, complementary to other already explored by CE
      MS and LC-MS methods. At this respect, a total of 150 metabolites were identified
      in HT-29 colon cancer cells by GC-MS. The extraction protocol with acetonitrile
      isopropanol-water was the most appropriate for fatty acids and related pathways
      analysis. Most of the metabolites involved in pathways of amino acids,
      glutathione, amino sugars and other polar metabolites were better extracted with
      acidified water, although water extraction showed the best overall
      reproducibility. Although pathways involving nitrogenous bases could be
      investigated using organic or aqueous extracts, a higher number of metabolites
      involved in these pathways were identified in the aqueous extracts. In addition,
      metabolite extraction protocol was observed to be crucial for the determination
      of potentially interesting clusters of metabolites.

PMID- 28870326
TI  - Molecularly imprinted polymers immobilized on 3D printed scaffolds as novel solid
      phase extraction sorbent for metergoline.
AB  - In the present work, a novel solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbent was developed
      based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) immobilized on 3D-printed
      scaffolds using polymer networks as MIP-immobilizing layer. MIPs were produced by
      precipitation polymerization in acetonitrile (ACN) using methacrylic acid (MAA)
      as functional monomer, trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as crosslinker
      and metergoline as model template which allows final recognition of ergot
      alkaloid mycotoxins. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic light
      scattering (DLS) analyses showed an average MIP particle size of 457 +/- 145 nm.
      Functional MIP analysis revealed dissociation constants (KD) of 0.29 and 38.90
      MUM for high and low affinity binding sites respectively. Subsequently,
      crosslinking of polymer network building blocks was applied as MIP immobilization
      method on poly-epsilon-caprolactone (PCL) which was selected as polymer model.
      Methodology optimization and subsequent evaluation were first realized on 2D PCL
      surfaces. Based on analyses such as optical evaluation of MIP availability after
      immobilization through SEM and depth profilometry, an optimal polymer network
      building block concentration of 7.5 w/w% was selected. In a final part, transfer
      of MIP immobilization to 3D PCL scaffolds was successfully realized. Functional
      analysis showed that the newly developed SPE sorbents were able to rebind 44.87
      +/- 8.30% of a 1 MUM metergoline solution. In conclusion, a new type of SPE
      sorbent was developed for the detection of metergoline by the use of MIP
      functionalized polymer scaffolds. The applied technology opens up future
      possibilities for the extraction of a broad range of components such as other
      mycotoxins.

PMID- 28870327
TI  - The 5-azoniaspiro[4.4]nonyl group for improved MS peptide analysis: A novel non
      fragmenting ionization tag for mass spectrometric sensitive sequencing of
      peptides.
AB  - A novel class of ionization tags, based on 5-azoniaspiro[4.4]nonyl (ASN+)
      scaffold were designed for improved analysis of peptides by electrospray tandem
      mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). A new labeling agent, 1-{[3-oxo-3
      (pentafluorophenoxy)propyl]carbamoyl}-5-azoniaspiro[4.4]nonane, was developed to
      react with amine and/or thiol group-containing peptides. The ionization
      efficiency of peptides resulting from derivatization was enhanced 10-100 fold,
      depending on the peptide sequence and hydrophobicity of the ionization tag. The
      proposed tags are completely stable during collision-induced dissociation (CID)
      experiments: they do not undergo unwanted fragmentation via Hofmann elimination
      and, more importantly, they cannot be removed by intermolecular nucleophilic
      attack. Moreover, CID of the derivatized peptide ions generates a dominant series
      of y-type fragment ions with a high sequence coverage. The proposed procedure was
      successfully tested on digested model proteins: ubiquitin and bovine serum
      albumin. We also synthesized isotopically labeled analog of 5
      azoniaspiro[4.4]nonyl tag to check its applicability for comparative quantitative
      LC-ESI-MS analysis. The obtained results indicate the general usefulness of the 5
      azoniaspiro[4.4]nonyl quaternary ammonium ionization tag for LC-ESI-MS/MS
      sequencing and quantification of peptides, especially for those of low abundance.

PMID- 28870328
TI  - Sphingolipids in marine microalgae: Development and application of a mass
      spectrometric method for global structural characterization of ceramides and
      glycosphingolipids in three major phyla.
AB  - Sphingolipid compositions are crucial for the structural and physiological
      properties of microalgae membranes. In the present study, we developed a
      quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometric method based on MSE data
      collection for the identification of sphingolipids with high efficiency,
      selectivity, sensitivity and mass accuracy and applied this method for precise
      structural identification and quantitative profiling of ceramides and
      glycosphingolipids in total lipid extracts from 17 strains of microalgae,
      including 11 strains of diatom, 3 strains of dinoflagellate and 3 strains of
      haptophyta. Using this method, four species of sphingolipids including 27
      ceramides, 13 monosaccharide ceramides, 18 disaccharide ceramides and 18
      trisaccharide ceramides were identified. The compositions of sphingolipid
      included glycosyl moieties, long chain bases and N-acyl chains showed a
      significant difference among different microalgae categories. Some long chain
      bases including d19:2, d19:3 and d19:4, glycosyl moieties including disaccharide
      and trisaccharide, and N-acyl chains such as 14:0, 14:1, 24:0, 24:1, h18:1, h19:1
      and h22:0-2 can be chosen as the molecular signature for microalgae from three
      major phyla. This methodology will be useful for a wide range of physiological
      and pathological studies of sphingolipids. Furthermore, the diversity of
      sphingolipid structure could provide a new criterion for microalgae
      chemotaxonomy.

PMID- 28870329
TI  - Molecular absorption measurements with an optical fibre coupled array of ultra
      violet light-emitting diodes.
AB  - A photometric detector based on eight different light-emitting diodes covering
      the ultraviolet range from 255 nm to 350 nm is described. These are coupled with
      fused silica optical fibres to a conventional cuvette with 1 cm optical path
      length or to a low volume flow through cell for detection in high-performance
      liquid chromatography. Photodiodes are employed for the measurement of the
      transmitted intensity as well as of a reference signal and the photocurrents are
      processed with a log-ratio amplifier to obtain a voltage proportional to
      absorbance values. The wavelength desired for the measurement at hand is selected
      by electronically switching on the requisite light-emitting diode. The detector
      was found to have a low noise level of 80 MUAU. In batch-wise measurements as
      well as in detection for high-performance liquid chromatography dynamic ranges of
      2-3 orders of magnitude were possible. Reproducibilities in peak areas for the
      latter application were better than 1%.

PMID- 28870330
TI  - Evidence-based guidelines for being supportive of people who stutter in North
      America.
AB  - PURPOSE: While many resources, particularly those available on the Internet,
      provide suggestions for fluent speakers as they interact with people who stutter
      (PWS), little evidence exists to support these suggestions. Thus, the purpose of
      this study was to document the supportiveness of common public reactions,
      behaviors, or interventions to stuttering by PWS.Methods 148 PWS completed the
      Personal Appraisal of Support for Stuttering-Adults. Additionally, a comparison
      of the opinions of adults who stutter based on gender and their involvement in
      self-help/support groups was undertaken. Results Many of the Internet-based
      suggestions for interacting with PWS are aligned with the opinions of the
      participants of this study. Significant differences were found amongst people who
      stutter on the basis of gender and involvement in self-help groups.Conclusions
      Lists of "DOs and DON'Ts" that are readily available on the Internet are largely
      supported by the data in this study; however, the findings highlight the need for
      changing the emphasis from strict rules for interacting with people who stutter
      to more flexible principles that keep the needs of individual PWS in mind.

PMID- 28870331
TI  - Atypical non-verbal sensorimotor synchronization in adults who stutter may be
      modulated by auditory feedback.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate if non-verbal sensorimotor synchronization abilities in
      adult individuals who stutter (IWS) differ from non-stuttering controls (NS)
      under various performance conditions (tempo, auditory feedback, use of hands
      [single/both] and rhythm). METHODS: Participants were 11 IWS (5 males, 6 females,
      Mean age=25.8, SD=8.7) and 11 age- and gender-matched controls (Mean age=24.4,
      SD=8.4). During the experiment, participants were asked to prepare three melodies
      and subsequently perform them with a metronome at different rates and auditory
      feedback modalities (non-altered and suppressed). For each task/condition we
      tracked timing asynchrony related to the steady metronome beat. RESULTS AND
      CONCLUSIONS: Overall, IWS displayed significantly higher timing asynchrony. Of
      all conditions, auditory-feedback distinguished IWS from NS most strongly, a
      subgroup of IWS significantly benefitting from the absence of auditory feedback.
      In addition, IWS showed a non-significant trend of higher negative mean
      asynchrony (NMA) and were more affected by the slower rate and increased rhythmic
      complexity and occasionally suggested poorer beat perception. These results
      suggest aberrant timing of sensorimotor network interaction associated with the
      origin of developmental stuttering.

PMID- 28870332
TI  - Rethinking covert stuttering.
AB  - PURPOSE: The experience of passing as fluent, also called covert stuttering, has
      been uncritically framed as an inherently negative pursuit. Historically passing
      has been understood as a repression of one's true, authentic self in response to
      either psychological distress or social discrimination. The authors of this paper
      seek a more nuanced understanding of passing. We ask, how must a person relate to
      herself in order to pass as fluent? METHODOLOGY: This is a qualitative research
      study in which the authors utilized the ethical theories of philosopher Michel
      Foucault to contextualize data obtained from semi-structured interviews with nine
      participants who pass as fluent. RESULTS: Rather than a repression of an
      authentic self our data suggests passing is more usefully understood as a form of
      resistance by people who stutter to a hostile society. Participants learned from
      experiences of delegitimization that their stuttering had ethical ramifications.
      Consequently, they used a variety of self-forming practices to pass and thereby
      achieve the privileges that come with perceived able-bodiedness. CONCLUSION:
      Passing as fluent is not an inauthentic form of stuttering but a form of
      stuttering that is produced through the use of specific technologies of
      communication. These technologies of communication are constituted by the unique
      ethical relationship of the person who stutters with herself. Passing can be
      understood as an active form of resistance rather than a passive form of
      repression. By theorizing passing as fluent as an ethical relationship, we open
      up the possibility of changing the relationship and performing it differently.

PMID- 28870333
TI  - Stuttering generalization self-measure: Preliminary development of a self
      measuring tool.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Generalization of treatment is considered a difficult task for
      clinicians and people who stutter (PWS), and can constitute a barrier to long
      term treatment success. To our knowledge, there are no standardized tests that
      collect measurement of the behavioral and cognitive aspects alongside the
      client's self-perception in real-life speaking situations. PURPOSE: This paper
      describes the preliminary development of a Stuttering Generalization Self-Measure
      (SGSM). The purpose of SGSM is to assess 1) stuttering severity and 2) speech
      anxiety level during real-life situations as perceived by PWS. Additionally, this
      measurement aims to 3) investigate correlations between stuttering severity and
      speech-anxiety level within the same real-life situation. METHOD: The SGSM
      initially reported includes nine speaking situations designed that are developed
      to cover a variety of frequent speaking scenario situations. However, two of
      these were less commonly encountered by participants and subsequently not
      included in the final analyses. Items were created according to five listener
      categories (family and close friends, acquaintances, strangers, persons of
      authority, and giving a short speech to small audience). Forty-three participants
      (22 PWS, and 21 control) aged 18 to 53 years were asked to complete the
      assessment in real-life situations. RESULTS: Analyses indicated that test-retest
      reliability was high for both groups. Discriminant validity was also achieved as
      the SGSM scores significantly differed between the controls and PWS two groups
      for stuttering and speech-anxiety. Convergent validity was confirmed by
      significant correlations between the SGSM and other speech-related anxiety
      measures.

PMID- 28870334
TI  - The Yin and Yang of It.

PMID- 28870335
TI  - Sisyphus.

PMID- 28870336
TI  - Unconscious Bias.

PMID- 28870337
TI  - Research advances on the multiple uses of Moringa oleifera: A sustainable
      alternative for socially neglected population.
AB  - Moringa oleifera Lam (Moringaceae) is a plant with high nutritional and medicinal
      value. Native to India, it is now widely distributed throughout tropical and
      subtropical regions of the world. Its different parts are sources of proteins,
      vitamins and minerals and present different pharmacological and biotechnological
      potential. Moreover, M. oleifera seeds are widely used in water and effluent
      treatment, for their coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation properties,
      their ability of improving water quality, by reducing organic matter and
      microbial load, with special applicability in intensive animal production
      systems, such as aquaculture. In addition, due to its high nutritional value and
      several medicinal properties, this tree may act as a nutritional and medical
      alternative for socially neglected populations. In this context, this review
      gathers information on M. oleifera, emphasizing its chemical constituents,
      nutritional, pharmacological and antimicrobial properties, applications in the
      treatment of water effluents, and ecological and social aspects.

PMID- 28870338
TI  - Alternate paradigms on Zika virus-related complications: An analytical review.
AB  - The proportion of the reported cases of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection reached the
      status of a pandemic. Numerous studies are being conducted on the isolation of
      ZIKV strains from various epidemics, diagnosis of the infections, various animal
      models and cell culture designs to study the pathogenesis of ZIKV in the attempts
      to find an effective ZIKV vaccine. This review focuses upon the 'Off-Spectrum'
      body of studies which analyses the epidemiology, pathogenesis and other
      attributes of ZIKV in the light of various dissident hypotheses.

PMID- 28870339
TI  - Birds and poultries toxoplasmosis in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the overall prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection
      among birds and poultries in Iran. METHODS: Data were systematically collected
      from 1983 to 2016 in Iran on the following electronic databases: PubMed, Google
      Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, Magiran, Irandoc, IranMedex, and
      Scientific Information Database. Additionally, the abstracts of national
      scientific congresses and dissertations were included. RESULTS: A total of 20
      articles in the field of birds and poultries toxoplasmosis, totally examining
      4563 cases with 754 positive results reporting the overall prevalence of
      infection from all parts of Iran could fulfill our eligibility criteria. The
      overall estimated prevalence included in chicken 20% (95% CI: 3%-38%) in chicken,
      pigeons 8% (95% CI: -17%-33%) and in sparrows 15% (95% CI: -25%-54%). CONCLUSION:
      Although there is a lack in data about poultries and birds toxoplasmosis in Iran,
      our meta-analysis revealed that infection rate is high among birds and poultries
      in Iran. More studies are needed to manage controlling programs and prevention
      strategies among poultries in Iran.

PMID- 28870340
TI  - GC-MS analysis of volatile compounds of Perilla frutescens Britton var. Japonica
      accessions: Morphological and seasonal variability.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the composition of volatile compounds in the different
      accessions of Perilla frutescens (P. frutescens) collected from various habitats
      of China and Japan. METHODS: In the present study, the essential oil from the
      leaves of P. frutescens cultivars from China and Japan was extracted by hydro
      distillation and the chemical composition and concentration of the volatile
      components present in the oils were determined by gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. RESULTS: Among the volatile components, the major
      proportion was of perilla ketone, which was followed by elemicin and beta
      caryophyllene in the Chinese Perilla cultivars. The main component in the oil
      extracted from the Japanese accessions was myristicin, which was followed by
      perilla ketone and beta-caryophyllene. We could distinguish seven chemotypes,
      namely the perilla ketone (PK) type, perilla ketone, myristicin (PM) type,
      perilla ketone, unknown (PU) type, perilla ketone, beta-caryophyllene,
      myristicine (PB) type, perilla ketone, myristicin, unknown (PMU) type, perilla
      ketone, elemicine, myristicin, beta-caryophyllene (PEMB) type, and the perilla
      ketone, limonene, beta-cryophyllene, myristicin (L) type. Most of the accessions
      possessed higher essential oil content before the flowering time than at the
      flowering stage. The average plant height, leaf length, leaf width of the Chinese
      accessions was higher than those of the Japanese accessions. CONCLUSION: The
      results revealed that the harvest time and geographical origin caused
      polymorphisms in the essential oil composition and morphological traits in the
      Perilla accessions originating from China and Japan. Therefore, these chemotypes
      with desirable characters might be useful for industrial exploitation and for
      determining the harvest time.

PMID- 28870341
TI  - Production, characterization and biological activities of acidic
      exopolysaccharide from marine Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 3MS 2017.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate in-vitro antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor
      abilities against human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) and human prostate cancer
      (PC3) as well as the suppressor effect of bacterial exopolysaccharide (BAEPS) on
      Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC). METHODS: In-vitro antioxidants characters of
      BAEPS were determined using various methods, while anti-inflammatory activity was
      estimated against cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2). In-vitro study, anticancer
      against MCF7 and PC3 were assessed by the mitochondrial dependent reduction of
      yellow MTT. In in-vivo study against EAC progression, mice were inoculated with
      EAC cells and then were orally administered BAEPS at 200 mg/kg after 24 h (equals
      to 0.10 of determined LD50)/10 d. RESULTS: BAEPS was acidic exopolysaccharide
      contained uronic acid (12.3%) and sulfate (22.8%) with constitution of glucose,
      galactose and glucuronic acid in a molar ratio 1.6:1.0:0.9, respectively, with a
      molecular mass of 3.76 * 104 g/mol. BAEPS appeared potent antioxidant characters
      as free radical scavenging, oxygen reactive species scavenging and metal
      chelation, while its reducing power was low. BAEPS showed selective anti
      inflammatory activity against COX-2 than COX-1, COX-2 selective. BAEPS exhibited
      potent and selective effect to breast cell cancer MCF7, the death percentage was
      65.20% with IC50 = 70 MUg/mL and IC90 = 127.40 MUg/mL. BAEPS decreased counted
      viable EAC cells and induced non-viable cells. BAEPS improved all assessed
      hematological parameters. These improvements were reflected in the increasing
      median survival time and significant increment (P < 0.05) in life span.
      CONCLUSIONS: BAEPS has anti-tumor activity with a good margin of safety. The anti
      tumor activity of BAEPS may be due to its content from sulfated groups and uronic
      acids and they have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

PMID- 28870342
TI  - Chemical analysis and in vitro antimicrobial effects and mechanism of action of
      Trachyspermum copticum essential oil against Escherichia coli.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To find a natural plant essential oil (EO) with excellent
      antimicrobial effects on food-borne bacteria and to explore the mechanism of its
      antimicrobial function against Escherichia coli (E. coli). METHODS: The
      antimicrobial activity of seven EOs against Gram-negative E. coli ATCC 8739 and
      Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 was investigated using agar disk
      diffusion method, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum
      bactericidal concentration (MBC) of each EO was determined using the broth
      dilution method. The chemical composition of the Trachyspermum copticum (T.
      copticum) EO was analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In
      order to explore the mechanism of the antimicrobial action, 1 MIC and 2 MIC of T.
      copticum EO was added to a suspension of E. coli, the growth curve and the
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of E. coli, and the release of cell
      constituents and protein and potassium ions from the bacterial cell were
      measured. RESULTS: The T. copticum EO had the best antimicrobial activity against
      the test bacteria, and 10 compounds accounting for 94.57% of the total oil were
      identified, with the major components being thymol (46.22%), p-cymene (19.03%),
      and gamma-terpinene (22.41%). The addition of 1 MIC that T. copticum EO
      significantly inhibited the growth of E. coli and increased the release of cell
      constituents and protein and potassium ions from the bacterial cells. Scanning
      electron micrographs showed that T. copticum EO caused most of the E. coli cell
      membranes to collapse and rupture, leading to cell death. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results indicate that T. copticum EO is a good natural antimicrobial agent for
      food-borne pathogens.

PMID- 28870343
TI  - Solvent-solvent fractionations of Combretum erythrophyllum (Burch.) leave
      extract: Studies of their antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and cytotoxicity
      potentials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the biological activities of Combretum erythrophyllum (C.
      erythrophyllum) leaf extracts against infectious diseases' pathogenesis and their
      cytotoxicity potentials. METHODS: Powdered leaf material (300 g) of C.
      erythrophyllum was extracted (1:10 w/v) using acetone to obtain the crude
      extract. Liquid-liquid fractionation was performed on the crude acetone extract
      (30 g) using solvents of different polarity. The bioautographic method was used
      to detect the inhibition of bacterial and fungal growth by active compounds
      present in the crude and fractions. The extracts were then tested on bacterial
      strains: Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli,
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa; fungal strains: Candida albicans (C. albicans),
      Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus fumigatus, by microtitre dilution method
      for MIC determination. RESULTS: The extracts MIC values ranged between 0.08 and
      2.50 mg/mL against the tested pathogens. Water fraction had the highest activity
      against bacteria strains, while the fungal assay revealed crude acetone extract
      and ethyl acetate fraction to be active against C. albicans (1.25 mg/mL),
      dichloromethane extract against C. albicans and A. fumigatus (0.16 mg/mL).
      Extract fractions showed a good antioxidant activity via DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl
      radical scavenging assays, in the order: ethyl acetate > water > acetone >
      dichloromethane > hexane. The toxicity level of crude extract and fractions
      evaluated in Vero monkey kidney cells ranged from 34 to 223 MUg/mL, while
      doxorubicin (IC50 = 7.19 MUg/mL) served as the positive control. CONCLUSIONS: It
      can be concluded that the extracts of C. erythrophyllum are safe for medicinal
      use in folk medicine for treating infectious and stress related diseases.

PMID- 28870344
TI  - Association between FGFR4 gene polymorphism and high-risk HPV infection cervical
      cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To discuss the association between FGFR4 gene polymorphism rs351855
      (Glu388Aly) and the susceptibility and chemotherapeutic effect of cervical cancer
      infected by high-risk type HPV. METHODS: A total of 162 patients with high-risk
      HPV cervical cancer and 162 healthy women were collected and the genotypes of the
      FGFR4 rs351855 locus were detected. The genotype distributions in the two groups
      were compared. The cervical cancer patients were divided into four groups which
      namely good therapeutic effect group and bad therapeutic effect, recurrence or
      metastasis and no recurrence or metastasis group respectively, and the risks of
      different genotype on the curative effect and prognosis were analyzed by Logistic
      regression. The survival time of patients with different genotypes was compared.
      RESULTS: There was no statistic difference in FGFR4 rs351855 genotype
      distribution between the patients group and control group (P > 0.05), among which
      the risk of chemotherapy failure on GA + AA patients was 3.257 times as much as
      that of the GG patients, and the risk of recurrence or metastasis of GA + AA
      patients was 2.783 times as much as that of the GG patients. For AA patients, the
      risk of chemotherapy failure and the risk of relapse and metastasis are 3.833 and
      3.406 times, respectively, as much as that of the GG patients. The overall
      survival of GA and AA patients was shorter than that of the GG patients, and
      significant difference was found (chi2 = 7.098, P = 0.029). The difference in
      overall survival between GA + AA patients and GG patients was almost
      statistically significant (chi2 = 3.634, P = 0.057). CONCLUSIONS: The FGFR4
      rs351855 polymorphism is not associated with the susceptibility of high-risk HPV
      cervical cancer, but patients with gene A was at higher risk of unfavorable
      chemotherapy prognosis compared with patients with GG.

PMID- 28870345
TI  - Mechanism of antagonistic effects of Andrographis paniculata methanolic extract
      against Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Wall.
      Ex Nees (A. paniculata) on expressions and activities of catalase, superoxide
      dismutase and alkylhydroperoxide reductase C in Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)
      with respect to its survival in vitro. METHODS: Antioxidative property of
      methanolic leaves extract of A. paniculata (0.06 mg/mL). Minimum inhibitory
      concentration (MIC) was determined by its ability to reduce hydrogen peroxide
      (H2O2) toxicity against S. aureus ATCC 25923 [(3.8 * 108) cfu/mL]. Effects of the
      extract on expressions of katA (encoding catalase), sodA and sodM [encoding
      superoxide dismutases (SODs)], and ahpC [encoding alkylhydroperoxide reductase C
      (AhpC)] in S. aureus were determined by RT-qPCR and corresponding enzyme activity
      assays were performed. Nitroblue tetrazolium reduction (NBT) assay was performed
      to determine effects of the extract on intracellular and extracellular levels of
      O2- in S. aureus. RESULTS: Cells challenged with 7.5 mmol/L H2O2 showed 0%
      survival in 30 min whereas 25% survived after treatment with the extract and
      H2O2. Cells that were treated with the extract alone had 43% survival in the same
      exposure period. Expressions of sodA and sodM genes in extract-treated cells were
      lowered 0.8-fold and 0.7-fold, respectively with decrease in total SOD activity
      of 26.8 U compared to untreated cells, 32.4 U (P < 0.05). In contrast, extract
      treated S. aureus cells showed 3.3-fold increase in katA expression with
      corresponding increase in catalase activity of 1.828 U compared to untreated
      cells which was 1.248 U, (P < 0.05). More profoundly, ahpC expression was
      increased 61-fold in extract-treated cells, (P < 0.05) with corresponding
      increase in AhpC activity of 0.018 U compared to untreated cells, 0.012 U, (P <
      0.05). Extract-treated cells had significantly lower intra- and extracellular O2-
      levels with absorbance readings (A575 nm) of 0.340 and 0.524 compared to
      untreated cells which were 0.516 and 0.928 (P < 0.05), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Taken together these results suggest that the low MIC of A. paniculata methanolic
      leaves extract (0.06 mg/mL) reduce H2O2 toxicity and more importantly, was in
      itself effectively inhibitory against S. aureus. Further, our observations
      suggest that a probable mode of its inhibitory mechanism against S. aureus is by
      reducing total SOD activity through downregulation of sodA and sodM expressions.

PMID- 28870346
TI  - Effect of Taoren Quyu Decoction on human endometrial cells and its anti
      endometriosis activity in rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of Taoren Quyu Decoction (TQD) on endometrial
      cells in patients with endometriosis (EMs) and EMs in rats. METHODS: A total of
      60 female Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, namely, normal group,
      model group, positive group and TQD group, each group having 15 rats. Except the
      normal group, EMs model was established in the other three groups by
      transplanting the rat autologous endometrium. After 4 weeks of intragastric
      administration, blood, eutopic and ectopic endometrial tissues of rats in each
      group were collected to detect the serum levels of estrogen (E2), cancer antigen
      125 (CA125), endometrial antibody (EMAb), and expressions of microvessel density
      (MVD), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin (Ang-2). The
      volume of endometriosis cyst was determined simultaneously. For the in vitro
      culture of human endometrial cells, 4 groups, namely, normal group, model group,
      positive group and TQD group were used. The positive group and TQD group were
      treated with danazol and TQD respectively. Then 24 h after the treatment, the
      expressions of survivin and tumor suppressor gene (p53) of each group were
      detected. RESULTS: The volumes of the endometriosis cysts in the positive group
      and the TQD group were significantly reduced compared with the model group (P <
      0.05). The serum levels of E2, CA125 and EMAb, and the expressions of MVD, VEGF
      and Ang-2 in the model group were significantly increased compared with the
      normal group (P < 0.05); while they were all significantly reduced in the
      positive group and TQD group (P < 0.05). Compared with the normal group, the
      expression of survivin in the model group was significantly up-regulated (P <
      0.05), and expression of p53 was significantly reduced (P < 0.05); compared with
      the model group, the expressions of survivin in the positive and TQD groups were
      significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and expression of p53 was significantly up
      regulated (P < 0.05). The difference between positive group and TQD group was not
      statistically significant (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: TQD has a significant anti-EMs
      effect, and its mechanism of action may be related to anti-angiogenesis and
      promoting apoptosis of ectopic endometrial cell.

PMID- 28870347
TI  - In vitro inhibitory analysis of consensus siRNAs against NS3 gene of hepatitis C
      virus 1a genotype.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore inhibitory effects of genome-specific, chemically
      synthesized siRNAs (small interference RNA) against NS3 gene of hepatitis C virus
      (HCV) 1a genotype in stable Huh-7 (human hepatoma) cells as well as against viral
      replication in serum-inoculated Huh-7 cells. METHODS: Stable Huh-7 cells
      persistently expressing NS3 gene were produced under antibiotic gentamycin (G418)
      selection. The cell clones resistant to 1000 MUg antibiotic concentration (G418)
      were picked as stable cell clones. The NS3 gene expression in stable cell clone
      was confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blotting. siRNA cell cytotoxicity was
      determined by MTT cell proliferation assay. Stable cell lines were transfected
      with sequence specific siRNAs and their inhibitory effects were determined by RT
      PCR, real-time PCR and Western blotting. The viral replication inhibition by
      siRNAs in serum inoculated Huh-7 cells was determined by real-time PCR. RESULTS:
      RT-PCR and Western blot analysis confirmed NS3 gene and protein expression in
      stable cell lines on day 10, 20 and 30 post transfection. MTT cell proliferation
      assay revealed that at most concentrated dose tested (50 nmol/L), siRNA had no
      cytotoxic effects on Huh-7 cells and cell proliferation remained unaffected. As
      demonstrated by the siRNA time-dependent inhibitory analysis, siRNA NS3-is44
      showed maximum inhibition of NS3 gene in stable Huh-7 cell clones at 24 (80%, P =
      0.013) and 48 h (75%, P = 0.002) post transfection. The impact of siRNAs on virus
      replication in serum inoculated Huh-7 cells also demonstrated significant
      decrease in viral copy number, where siRNA NS3-is44 exhibited 70% (P < 0.05)
      viral RNA reduction as compared to NS3-is33, which showed a 64% (P < 0.05)
      decrease in viral copy number. siRNA synergism (NS3-is33 + NS3-is44) decreased
      viral load by 84% (P < 0.05) as compared to individual inhibition by each siRNA
      (i.e., 64%-70% (P < 0.05)) in serum-inoculated cells. Synthetic siRNAs mixture
      (NS5B-is88 + NS3-is33) targeting different region of HCV genome (NS5B and NS3)
      also decreased HCV viral load by 85% (P < 0.05) as compared to siRNA inhibitory
      effects alone (70% and 64% respectively, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: siRNAs directed
      against NS3 gene significantly decreased mRNA and protein expression in stable
      cell clones. Viral replication was also vividly decreased in serum infected Huh-7
      cells. Stable Huh-7 cells expressing NS3 gene is helpful to develop anti
      hepatitis C drug screening assays. siRNA therapeutic potential along with other
      anti-HCV agents can be considered against hepatitis C.

PMID- 28870348
TI  - Clinical study inpatient-reported outcomes after binocular implantation of
      aspheric intraocular lens of different negative spherical aberrations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare patient-reported outcomes after implantation of the ZA9003
      intraocular lens (IOLs), or the MCX11 ASP IOLs or the spherical IOLs (HQ-201HEP).
      METHODS: Prospective nonrandomized controlled trial was used. A total of 105
      patients (210 eyes) were divided into three groups according to the type of IOLs:
      ZA9003 (35 patients, 70 eyes), MCX11 ASP (35 patients, 70 eyes) or HQ-201HEP (35
      patients, 70 eyes). The main outcome was scores of Catquest nine-item short-form
      questionnaire. Additional outcome was best corrected visual acuities, spherical
      aberration (SA) and total higher-order aberrations (HOAs). RESULTS: The global
      score was significantly lower in the spherical IOL group than the aspherical IOL
      group of -020 MUm SA (P < 0.05) and the aspherical IOL group of -027 MUm SA (P <
      0.05), and no significant difference was found in the global score between the
      aspherical IOL group of -020 MUm SA than the aspherical IOL group of -027 MUm SA
      (P > 0.05). Significant differences were also found in question 2, question 5,
      question 6 and question 8 between the spherical IOLs and the aspherical IOLs.
      CONCLUSION: Implantation of an aspherical IOL could improve vision-related
      quality of life compared with a spherical IOL. However, there were no
      statistically significant differences in vision-related quality of life between
      aspheric IOLs with different negative spherical aberrations.

PMID- 28870349
TI  - Effect of axial vertical vibration on degeneration of lumbar intervertebral discs
      in modified bipedal rats: An in-vivo study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of axial vibrations on gene expression and
      lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration in vivo. METHODS: A modified bipedal rat
      model was established using a brachial plexus rhizotomy approach to imitate human
      upright posture. The experimental animals were randomly divided into three
      groups: control, vertical vibration, and whole-body vibration. Gene expression in
      degeneration of the intervertebral discs was assessed by reverse transcription
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The expression of aggrecan,
      Col1alpha1, Col2alpha1, and decorin were shown to be up-regulated in 14-week-old
      rats in the vertical vibration and whole-body vibration groups, whereas biglycan
      and versican expression was down-regulated in 14-week-old rats of the two
      experimental groups. Furthermore, biglycan and versican expression levels were
      shown to be lower in the whole-body vibration group than in the vertical
      vibration group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This in-vivo study demonstrated that
      vibrations can influence the expression of anabolic genes. Furthermore, whole
      body vibrations seem to have a greater effect in this regard than vertical
      vibrations. A new method is expected to relieve the low back pain of the patients
      through our research.

PMID- 28870350
TI  - First report on molecular characterization of Leishmania species from cutaneous
      leishmaniasis patients in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report presence of Leishmania major in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of
      Pakistan, where cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic and was thought to be
      caused by Leishmania tropica only. METHODS: Biopsy samples from 432 CL suspected
      patients were collected from 3 southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during
      years 2011-2016. Microscopy on Giemsa stained slides were done followed by
      amplification of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 gene. RESULTS:
      Leishmania amastigotes were detected by microscopy in 308 of 432 samples (71.3%)
      while 374 out of 432 samples (86.6%) were positive by ribosomal internal
      transcribed spacer 1 PCR. Subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism
      confirmed L. tropica in 351 and L. major in 6 biopsy samples. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study is the first molecular characterization of Leishmania species in southern
      Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It confirmed the previous assumptions that anthroponotic CL
      is the major CL form present in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Furthermore, this is
      the first report of L. major from a classical anthroponotic CL endemic focus
      identified in rural areas of Kohat district in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PMID- 28870351
TI  - Retraction notice to "Effect of phentolamine on myocardial extracellular matrix
      of cardiac remodeling in rats" [Asian Pac J Trop Med (2014) 645-649].

PMID- 28870352
TI  - A Comment on Driving and Neurologic Impairment.

PMID- 28870353
TI  - Comparison of Unsafe Driving Across Medical Conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare risks of unsafe driving in patients with medical
      conditions. METHODS: This large population-based study included all patients who
      were referred for a fitness-to-drive evaluation at an official driving evaluation
      center in 2013 and 2014. Risks of unsafe driving included physician's fitness-to
      drive recommendation, comprehensive fitness-to-drive decision, motor vehicle
      crash history, and traffic violation history. RESULTS: A total of 6584 patients
      were included in the study. Risks of unsafe driving were significantly different
      across medical conditions (P<.001 for all outcome measures). Patients with
      neurological conditions comprised the majority of the database (4837; 74%), but
      were not at the highest risk for unsafe driving. Patients with psychiatric
      conditions or substance abuse did worse on most driving safety outcomes, despite
      their low representation in the total sample (359 [6%] and 46 [1%],
      respectively). CONCLUSION: The risk of unsafe driving varied greatly across
      medical conditions. Sensitization campaigns, education, and medical guidelines
      for physicians and driver licensing authorities are warranted to identify
      patients at risk, especially for those with psychiatric conditions and substance
      abuse problems.

PMID- 28870354
TI  - The Effect of Dogs on Human Sleep in the Home Sleep Environment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To objectively assess whether a dog in the bedroom or bed disturbs
      sleep. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: From August 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015,
      we evaluated the sleep of humans and dogs occupying the same bedroom to determine
      whether this arrangement was conducive to sleep. The study included 40 healthy
      adults without sleep disorders and their dogs (no dogs <6 months old). Each
      participant wore an accelerometer and their dog a validated dog accelerometer for
      7 nights. RESULTS: The mean +/- SD age of the participants (88% women) was 44+/
      14 years and body mass index was 25+/-6. The mean +/- SD age of the dogs was 5+/
      3 years and weight was 15+/-13 kg. Mean +/- SD actigraphy data showed 475+/-101
      minutes in bed, 404+/-99 minutes total sleep time, 81%+/-7% sleep efficiency, and
      71+/-35 minutes wake time after sleep onset. The dogs' accelerometer activity
      during the corresponding human sleep period was characterized as mean +/- SD
      minutes at rest, active, and at play of 413+/-102, 62+/-43, and 2+/-4. The dogs
      had mean +/- SD 85%+/-15% sleep efficiency. Human sleep efficiency was lower if
      the dog was on the bed as opposed to simply in the room (P=.003). CONCLUSION:
      Humans with a single dog in their bedroom maintained good sleep efficiency;
      however, the dog's position on/off the bed made a difference. A dog's presence in
      the bedroom may not be disruptive to human sleep, as was previously suspected.

PMID- 28870355
TI  - Mechanical Ventilation: State of the Art.
AB  - Mechanical ventilation is the most used short-term life support technique
      worldwide and is applied daily for a diverse spectrum of indications, from
      scheduled surgical procedures to acute organ failure. This state-of-the-art
      review provides an update on the basic physiology of respiratory mechanics, the
      working principles, and the main ventilatory settings, as well as the potential
      complications of mechanical ventilation. Specific ventilatory approaches in
      particular situations such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease are detailed along with protective ventilation in
      patients with normal lungs. We also highlight recent data on patient-ventilator
      dyssynchrony, humidified high-flow oxygen through nasal cannula, extracorporeal
      life support, and the weaning phase. Finally, we discuss the future of mechanical
      ventilation, addressing avenues for improvement.

PMID- 28870356
TI  - The Childhood Roots of Cardiovascular Disease Disparities.
AB  - A recent national review of the social determinants of cardiovascular disease
      (CVD) underscored the growing recognition that poor socioeconomic conditions
      early in life place children at higher risk for CVD as adults. There is growing
      evidence that chronic elevation of allostatic load as a consequence of high
      levels of early childhood stress can trigger early atherosclerotic changes in
      children independently of behaviors. Elevated levels of circulating cortisol have
      been documented in children as young as 4 years who were raised in highly
      stressful circumstances. Chronic elevation of cortisol is associated with
      increased release of inflammatory proteins such as interleukin 6, which can lead
      to fibrosis and scarring in the vessel walls of the arterial circulation,
      resulting in increased intima-media thickness. Increased intima-media thickness
      of the carotid artery has been found in individuals with low socioeconomic status
      as early as age 18 years and has been associated with increased CVD risk
      throughout the adult years. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended
      that it is the task of pediatricians and other health care professionals to
      screen for toxic stress among children during their early years and to take steps
      known to reduce stress reactivity, thereby helping these children to reduce their
      risk of early atherosclerotic changes and increased CVD throughout the life
      course.

PMID- 28870357
TI  - Neurostimulation Devices for the Treatment of Neurologic Disorders.
AB  - Rapid advancements in neurostimulation technologies are providing relief to an
      unprecedented number of patients affected by debilitating neurologic and
      psychiatric disorders. Neurostimulation therapies include invasive and
      noninvasive approaches that involve the application of electrical stimulation to
      drive neural function within a circuit. This review focuses on established
      invasive electrical stimulation systems used clinically to induce therapeutic
      neuromodulation of dysfunctional neural circuitry. These implantable
      neurostimulation systems target specific deep subcortical, cortical, spinal,
      cranial, and peripheral nerve structures to modulate neuronal activity, providing
      therapeutic effects for a myriad of neuropsychiatric disorders. Recent advances
      in neurotechnologies and neuroimaging, along with an increased understanding of
      neurocircuitry, are factors contributing to the rapid rise in the use of
      neurostimulation therapies to treat an increasingly wide range of neurologic and
      psychiatric disorders. Electrical stimulation technologies are evolving after
      remaining fairly stagnant for the past 30 years, moving toward potential closed
      loop therapeutic control systems with the ability to deliver stimulation with
      higher spatial resolution to provide continuous customized neuromodulation for
      optimal clinical outcomes. Even so, there is still much to be learned about
      disease pathogenesis of these neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders and the
      latent mechanisms of neurostimulation that provide therapeutic relief. This
      review provides an overview of the increasingly common stimulation systems, their
      clinical indications, and enabling technologies.

PMID- 28870358
TI  - In Reply-50 Shades of Brown: Going Beyond the Guidelines in Melanoma Screening
      With Partner Skin Examinations.

PMID- 28870359
TI  - 50 Shades of Brown: Going Beyond the Guidelines in Melanoma Screening With
      Partner Skin Examinations.

PMID- 28870360
TI  - Regarding "Emergencies in Hematology and Oncology"-I.

PMID- 28870361
TI  - Regarding "Emergencies in Hematology and Oncology"-II.

PMID- 28870362
TI  - In Reply-Regarding "Emergencies in Hematology and Oncology," I and II.

PMID- 28870363
TI  - Defining Physician Burnout, and Differentiating Between Burnout and Depression-I.

PMID- 28870364
TI  - Defining Physician Burnout, and Differentiating Between Burnout and Depression
      II.

PMID- 28870366
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28870365
TI  - In Reply-Defining Physician Burnout, and Differentiating Between Burnout and
      Depression.

PMID- 28870367
TI  - Embolic Origin of Osler Nodes.

PMID- 28870368
TI  - Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28870369
TI  - Charles Fletcher, The Centaur Company, and Proprietary Medicine Revenue Stamps.

PMID- 28870370
TI  - Dos Quatro by Bill Barrett.
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- 28870371
TI  - Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fundamental fatty acid for the brain: New dietary
      sources.
AB  - Docosahexaenoic acid (C22: 6n-3, DHA) is a long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid
      of marine origin fundamental for the formation and function of the nervous
      system, particularly the brain and the retina of humans. It has been proposed a
      remarkable role of DHA during human evolution, mainly on the growth and
      development of the brain. Currently, DHA is considered a critical nutrient during
      pregnancy and breastfeeding due their active participation in the development of
      the nervous system in early life. DHA and specifically one of its derivatives
      known as neuroprotectin D-1 (NPD-1), has neuroprotective properties against brain
      aging, neurodegenerative diseases and injury caused after brain ischemia
      reperfusion episodes. This paper discusses the importance of DHA in the human
      brain given its relevance in the development of the tissue and as neuroprotective
      agent. It is also included a critical view about the ways to supply this noble
      fatty acid to the population.

PMID- 28870372
TI  - DHA and EPA in red blood cell membranes are associated with dietary intakes of
      omega-3-rich fish in healthy children.
AB  - Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) are important in
      child development. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the
      associations between dietary intakes of n-3 LCPUFA and red blood cell (RBC) n-3
      LCPUFA in young children. Healthy children, (2-8y) underwent RBC fatty acid
      profiling. Dietary intakes were parent-reported over 6 mo using three 24h dietary
      intake assessments and three 30 d food frequency questionnaires (FFQ).
      Participants (n = 49, 5.6 +/- 1.9y), were 59% male, and had a body mass index
      (BMI) z-score of 0.65 +/- 0.84. Dietary n-3 LCPUFA intakes were not different
      over time. RBC docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) positively correlated with average DHA
      from the 24h recalls. RBC DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) positively
      correlated with average n-3 LCPUFA-rich fish intake from the FFQ. RBC appear to
      reflect long-term stable intakes of n-3 LCPUFA during growth in healthy young
      children.

PMID- 28870373
TI  - New technologies in human factors and ergonomics research and practice.

PMID- 28870374
TI  - Potential roles of digital technologies in clinical trials.

PMID- 28870375
TI  - Dietary traits of the ungulates from the HWK EE site at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania):
      Diachronic changes and seasonality.
AB  - The Oldowan site HWK EE (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) has yielded a large fossil and
      stone tool assemblage at the transition from Lower to Middle Bed II, ~1.7 Ma.
      Integrated tooth wear and stable isotope analyses were performed on the three
      most abundant ungulate taxa from HWK EE, namely Alcelaphini, cf. Antidorcas recki
      (Antilopini) and Equus oldowayensis (Equini), to infer dietary traits in each
      taxon. Some paleodietary changes were observed for cf. A. recki and E.
      oldowayensis based on tooth wear at the transition from the Lemuta to the Lower
      Augitic Sandstone (LAS) interval within the HWK EE sequence. Stable carbon and
      oxygen isotope data show no significant changes in bulk diet or hydroclimate
      between the Lemuta and LAS intervals. The combined tooth wear and stable isotope
      data suggest similar paleoecological conditions across the two HWK EE intervals,
      but that differences in vegetation consumed among ungulates may have resulted in
      changes in dietary niches. Integrating tooth wear and stable isotope analyses
      permits the characterization of ungulate diets and habitats at HWK EE where C4
      dominated and minor mixed C3 and C4 habitats were present. Our results provide a
      better understanding of the paleoenvironmental conditions of the Lemuta and LAS
      intervals. The LAS assemblage was mostly accumulated during relatively dry
      periods at Olduvai Gorge when grasses were not as readily available and grazing
      animals may have been more nutritionally-stressed than during the formation of
      the Lemuta assemblage. This helps to contextualize variations in hominin and
      carnivore feeding behavior observed from the faunal assemblages produced during
      the two main occupations of the site.

PMID- 28870376
TI  - Associations of Body Mass Index and Body Fat With Markers of Inflammation and
      Nutrition Among Patients Receiving Hemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the extent to which visceral and subcutaneous body fat
      are associated with markers of nutrition and inflammation in patients on dialysis
      therapy could shed light on the obesity paradox and the biology of subcutaneous
      fat. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: 609 adults receiving
      hemodialysis who participated in the ACTIVE/ADIPOSE Study. PREDICTORS: Body mass
      index (BMI), waist circumference, and bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy
      derived estimates of percent body fat. OUTCOMES: C-Reactive protein (CRP),
      interleukin 6 (IL-6), prealbumin, albumin, leptin, and adiponectin
      concentrations. MEASUREMENTS: We performed linear regression analyses to examine
      the extent to which proxies of visceral and subcutaneous fat were associated with
      inflammation, nutrition, and adiposity-related hormones. RESULTS: BMI was
      directly associated with markers of inflammation (standardized estimate for
      ln[CRP in mg/L]: 0.30 [95% CI, 0.22-0.38] per 10kg/m2; for ln[IL-6 in pg/mL]:
      0.10 [95% CI, 0.02-0.18] per 10kg/m2), but was not associated with markers of
      nutrition. BMI was also inversely associated with adiponectin and directly
      associated with leptin. With waist circumference and percent body fat (as a proxy
      of visceral and subcutaneous fat, respectively) modeled together, waist
      circumference was associated with markers of inflammation (standardized estimate
      for ln[CRP in mg/L]: 0.21 [95% CI, 0.09-0.34] per 10cm; for ln[IL-6 in pg/mL]:
      0.18 [95% CI, 0.07-0.29] per 10cm), whereas percent body fat was not associated
      with CRP (standardized estimate for ln[CRP in mg/L]: 0.03 [95% CI, -0.10 to 0.15]
      per 1%) and was inversely associated with IL-6 (standardized estimate for ln[IL-6
      in pg/mL]: -0.15 [95% CI, -0.27 to -0.02] per 1%). In addition, waist
      circumference was inversely associated with prealbumin and albumin (standardized
      estimates of -0.12 [95% CI, -0.23 to -0.02] mg/dL per 10cm and -0.17 [95% CI, 
      0.28 to -0.06] g/dL per 10cm, respectively), and percent body fat was directly
      associated with prealbumin and albumin (0.20 [95% CI, 0.07-0.32] mg/dL and 0.15
      [95% CI, 0.02-0.28] g/dL per 1%, respectively). Higher waist circumference was
      associated indirectly with adiponectin and directly with leptin concentrations.
      LIMITATIONS: Although the observed associations implicate visceral fat as the
      cause of inflammation, it cannot be determined in this cross-sectional study.
      CONCLUSIONS: Proxies of visceral and subcutaneous fat appear to have opposing
      associations with biomarkers of inflammation and nutrition. Subcutaneous fat may
      be an indicator of nutritional status, and visceral fat, an indicator of
      inflammation.

PMID- 28870377
TI  - Cardiac Imaging in the Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - Coronary artery disease (CAD) continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and
      mortality worldwide. Although invasive coronary angiography has previously been
      the gold standard in establishing the diagnosis of CAD, there is a growing shift
      to more appropriately use the cardiac catheterization laboratory to perform
      interventional procedures once a diagnosis of CAD has been established by
      noninvasive imaging modalities rather than using it primarily as a diagnostic
      facility to confirm or refute CAD. With ongoing technological advancements,
      noninvasive imaging plays a pre-eminent role in not only diagnosing CAD but also
      informing the choice of appropriate therapies, establishing prognosis, all while
      containing costs and providing value-based care. Multiple imaging modalities are
      available to evaluate patients suspected of having coronary ischemia, such as
      stress electrocardiography, stress echocardiography, single-photon emission
      computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging, positron emission tomography,
      coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography, and magnetic resonance imaging.
      These imaging modalities can variably provide functional and anatomical
      delineation of coronary stenoses and help guide appropriate therapy. This review
      will discuss their advantages and limitations and their usage in the diagnostic
      pathway for patients with CAD. We also discuss newer technologies such as CT
      fractional flow reserve, CT angiography with perfusion, whole-heart coronary
      magnetic resonance angiography with perfusion, which can provide both anatomical
      as well as functional information in the same test, thus obviating the need for
      multiple diagnostic tests to obtain a comprehensive assessment of both, plaque
      burden and downstream ischemia. Recognizing that clinicians have a multitude of
      tests to choose from, we provide an underpinning of the principles of ischemia
      detection by these various modalities, focusing on anatomy vs physiology, the
      database justifying their use, their prognostic capabilities and lastly, their
      appropriate and judicious use in this era of patient-centered, cost-effective
      imaging.

PMID- 28870378
TI  - "Think aloud" and "Near live" usability testing of two complex clinical decision
      support tools.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Low provider adoption continues to be a significant barrier to
      realizing the potential of clinical decision support. "Think Aloud" and "Near
      Live" usability testing were conducted on two clinical decision support tools.
      Each was composed of an alert, a clinical prediction rule which estimated risk of
      either group A Streptococcus pharyngitis or pneumonia and an automatic order set
      based on risk. The objective of this study was to further understanding of the
      facilitators of usability and to evaluate the types of additional information
      gained from proceeding to "Near Live" testing after completing "Think Aloud".
      METHODS: This was a qualitative observational study conducted at a large academic
      health care system with 12 primary care providers. During "Think Aloud" testing,
      participants were provided with written clinical scenarios and asked to verbalize
      their thought process while interacting with the tool. During "Near Live" testing
      participants interacted with a mock patient. Morae usability software was used to
      record full screen capture and audio during every session. Participant comments
      were placed into coding categories and analyzed for generalizable themes. Themes
      were compared across usability methods. RESULTS: "Think Aloud" and "Near Live"
      usability testing generated similar themes under the coding categories
      visibility, workflow, content, understand-ability and navigation. However, they
      generated significantly different themes under the coding categories usability,
      practical usefulness and medical usefulness. During both types of testing
      participants found the tool easier to use when important text was distinct in its
      appearance, alerts were passive and appropriately timed, content was up to date,
      language was clear and simple, and each component of the tool included obvious
      indicators of next steps. Participant comments reflected higher expectations for
      usability and usefulness during "Near Live" testing. For example, visit aids,
      such as automatically generated order sets, were felt to be less useful during
      "Near-Live" testing because they would not be all inclusive for the visit.
      CONCLUSIONS: These complementary types of usability testing generated unique and
      generalizable insights. Feedback during "Think Aloud" testing primarily helped to
      improve the tools' ease of use. The additional feedback from "Near Live" testing,
      which mimics a real clinical encounter, was helpful for eliciting key barriers
      and facilitators to provider workflow and adoption.

PMID- 28870379
TI  - eSource for clinical trials: Implementation and evaluation of a standards-based
      approach in a real world trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Learning Health System (LHS) requires integration of research into
      routine practice. 'eSource' or embedding clinical trial functionalities into
      routine electronic health record (EHR) systems has long been put forward as a
      solution to the rising costs of research. We aimed to create and validate an
      eSource solution that would be readily extensible as part of a LHS. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The EU FP7 TRANSFoRm project's approach is based on dual modelling,
      using the Clinical Research Information Model (CRIM) and the Clinical Data
      Integration Model of meaning (CDIM) to bridge the gap between clinical and
      research data structures, using the CDISC Operational Data Model (ODM) standard.
      Validation against GCP requirements was conducted in a clinical site, and a
      cluster randomised evaluation by site nested into a live clinical trial. RESULTS:
      Using the form definition element of ODM, we linked precisely modelled data
      queries to data elements, constrained against CDIM concepts, to enable automated
      patient identification for specific protocols and pre-population of electronic
      case report forms (e-CRF). Both control and eSource sites recruited better than
      expected with no significant difference. Completeness of clinical forms was
      significantly improved by eSource, but Patient Related Outcome Measures (PROMs)
      were less well completed on smartphones than paper in this population.
      DISCUSSION: The TRANSFoRm approach provides an ontologically-based approach to
      eSource in a low-resource, heterogeneous, highly distributed environment, that
      allows precise prospective mapping of data elements in the EHR. CONCLUSION:
      Further studies using this approach to CDISC should optimise the delivery of
      PROMS, whilst building a sustainable infrastructure for eSource with research
      networks, trials units and EHR vendors.

PMID- 28870380
TI  - Active learning reduces annotation time for clinical concept extraction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate: (1) the annotation time savings by various active
      learning query strategies compared to supervised learning and a random sampling
      baseline, and (2) the benefits of active learning-assisted pre-annotations in
      accelerating the manual annotation process compared to de novo annotation.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: There are 73 and 120 discharge summary reports provided by
      Beth Israel institute in the train and test sets of the concept extraction task
      in the i2b2/VA 2010 challenge, respectively. The 73 reports were used in user
      study experiments for manual annotation. First, all sequences within the 73
      reports were manually annotated from scratch. Next, active learning models were
      built to generate pre-annotations for the sequences selected by a query strategy.
      The annotation/reviewing time per sequence was recorded. The 120 test reports
      were used to measure the effectiveness of the active learning models. RESULTS:
      When annotating from scratch, active learning reduced the annotation time up to
      35% and 28% compared to a fully supervised approach and a random sampling
      baseline, respectively. Reviewing active learning-assisted pre-annotations
      resulted in 20% further reduction of the annotation time when compared to de novo
      annotation. DISCUSSION: The number of concepts that require manual annotation is
      a good indicator of the annotation time for various active learning approaches as
      demonstrated by high correlation between time rate and concept annotation rate.
      CONCLUSION: Active learning has a key role in reducing the time required to
      manually annotate domain concepts from clinical free text, either when annotating
      from scratch or reviewing active learning-assisted pre-annotations.

PMID- 28870381
TI  - Impact of predicting health-guidance candidates using massive health check-up
      data: A data-driven analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Starting in 2008, specific health checkups and health guidance to
      prevent non-communicable diseases have been provided in Japan, which has the
      highest proportion of elderly citizens in the world. The attendance rate for
      health guidance appointments is 17.7%, which is far from the national goal of the
      system (45%). To improve the attendance rate, we present a model for predicting
      whether an examinee is a candidate for health guidance; this model was based on a
      machine learning method and a restricted but massive amount of health checkup
      information. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using machine learning methods, we developed
      the following five prediction models for identifying health-guidance candidates:
      baseline: this model included sex and age; model 1: this model included variables
      that can be measured in person+information on whether the examinee was a
      candidate in the past year; model 2: model 1+systolic blood pressure+diastolic
      blood pressure; model 3: model 2+all health checkup results from the past year;
      and model 4: model 3 using the training dataset excluding cases with missing
      data. RESULTS: The performance levels of the five prediction models (the AUC
      values of the models for the test dataset) were as follows: 0.592 [95% CI: 0.586
      0.596] for the baseline model, 0.855 [95% CI: 0.851-0.858] for model 1, 0.985
      [95% CI: 0.984-0.985] for model 2, 0.993 [95% CI: 0.993-0.993] for model 3, and
      0.943 [95% CI: 0.941-0.945] for model 4. CONCLUSIONS: We studied five models for
      identifying health-guidance candidates. The model that used all health checkup
      results from the past year had the highest predictive power. Application of the
      prediction model developed in the present study to the selection of health
      guidance candidates could reduce the cost of guidance.

PMID- 28870382
TI  - Simulation-based decision support framework for dynamic ambulance redeployment in
      Singapore.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Dynamic ambulance redeployment policies tend to introduce much more
      flexibilities in improving ambulance resource allocation by capitalizing on the
      definite geospatial-temporal variations in ambulance demand patterns over the
      time-of-the-day and day-of-the-week effects. A novel modelling framework based on
      the Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) approach leveraging on a Discrete
      Events Simulation (DES) model for dynamic ambulance redeployment in Singapore is
      proposed in this paper. METHODS: The study was based on the Singapore's national
      Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. Based on a dataset comprising 216,973
      valid incidents over a continuous two-years study period from 1 January 2011-31
      December 2012, a DES model for the EMS system was developed. An ADP model based
      on linear value function approximations was then evaluated using the DES model
      via the temporal difference (TD) learning family of algorithms. The objective of
      the ADP model is to derive approximate optimal dynamic redeployment policies
      based on the primary outcome of ambulance coverage. RESULTS: Considering an 8min
      response time threshold, an estimated 5% reduction in the proportion of calls
      that cannot be reached within the threshold (equivalent to approximately 8000
      dispatches) was observed from the computational experiments. The study also
      revealed that the redeployment policies which are restricted within the same
      operational division could potentially result in a more promising response time
      performance. Furthermore, the best policy involved the combination of redeploying
      ambulances whenever they are released from service and that of relocating
      ambulances that are idle in bases. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the
      successful application of an approximate modelling framework based on ADP that
      leverages upon a detailed DES model of the Singapore's EMS system to generate
      approximate optimal dynamic redeployment plans. Various policies and scenarios
      relevant to the Singapore EMS system were evaluated.

PMID- 28870384
TI  - Top ten challenges when interfacing a laboratory information system to an
      electronic health record: Experience at a large academic medical center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent U.S. government regulations incentivize implementation of an
      electronic health record (EHR) with computerized order entry and structured
      results display. Many institutions have also chosen to interface their EHR to
      their laboratory information system (LIS). Reported long-term benefits include
      increased efficiency and improved quality and safety. In order to successfully
      implement an interfaced EHR-LIS, institutions must plan years in advance and
      anticipate the impact of an integrated system. It can be challenging to fully
      understand the technical, workflow and resource aspects and adequately prepare
      for a potentially protracted system implementation and the subsequent
      stabilization. OBJECTIVES: We describe the top ten challenges that we encountered
      in our clinical laboratories following the implementation of an interfaced EHR
      LIS and offer suggestions on how to overcome these challenges. METHODS: This
      study was performed at a 777-bed, tertiary care center which recently implemented
      an interfaced EHR-LIS. Challenges were recorded during EHR-LIS implementation and
      stabilization and the authors describe the top ten. RESULTS: Our top ten
      challenges were selection and harmonization of test codes, detailed training for
      providers on test ordering, communication with EHR provider champions during the
      build process, fluid orders and collections, supporting specialized workflows,
      sufficient reports and metrics, increased volume of inpatient venipunctures,
      adequate resources during stabilization, unanticipated changes to laboratory
      workflow and ordering specimens for anatomic pathology. A few suggestions to
      overcome these challenges include regular meetings with clinical champions,
      advanced considerations of reports and metrics that will be needed, adequate
      training of laboratory staff on new workflows in the EHR and defining all tests
      including anatomic pathology in the LIS. CONCLUSION: EHR-LIS implementations have
      many challenges requiring institutions to adapt and develop new infrastructures.
      This article should be helpful to other institutions facing or undergoing a
      similar endeavor.

PMID- 28870383
TI  - Advancing Alzheimer's research: A review of big data promises.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the current state of science using big data to advance
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) research and practice. In particular, we analyzed the
      types of research foci addressed, corresponding methods employed and study
      findings reported using big data in AD. METHOD: Systematic review was conducted
      for articles published in PubMed from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2015.
      Keywords with AD and big data analytics were used for literature retrieval.
      Articles were reviewed and included if they met the eligibility criteria.
      RESULTS: Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. They can be
      categorized into seven research foci: diagnosing AD or mild cognitive impairment
      (MCI) (n=10), predicting MCI to AD conversion (n=13), stratifying risks for AD
      (n=5), mining the literature for knowledge discovery (n=4), predicting AD
      progression (n=2), describing clinical care for persons with AD (n=3), and
      understanding the relationship between cognition and AD (n=3). The most commonly
      used datasets are AD Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (n=16), electronic health
      records (EHR) (n=11), MEDLINE (n=3), and other research datasets (n=8). Logistic
      regression (n=9) and support vector machine (n=8) are the most used methods for
      data analysis. CONCLUSION: Big data are increasingly used to address AD-related
      research questions. While existing research datasets are frequently used, other
      datasets such as EHR data provide a unique, yet under-utilized opportunity for
      advancing AD research.

PMID- 28870385
TI  - Interaction between visual and chemical cues in a Liolaemus lizard: a multimodal
      approach.
AB  - Multimodal communication involves the use of signals and cues across two or more
      sensory modalities. The genus Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) offers a great
      potential for studies on the ecology and evolution of multimodal communication,
      including visual and chemical signals. In this study, we analyzed the response of
      male and female Liolaemus pacha to chemical, visual and combined (multimodal)
      stimuli. Using cue-isolation tests, we registered the number of tongue flicks and
      headbob displays from exposure to signals in each modality. Number of tongue
      flicks was greater when a chemical stimulus was presented alone than in the
      presence of visual or multimodal stimuli. In contrast, headbob displays were
      fewer in number with visual and chemical stimuli alone, but significantly higher
      in number when combined. Female signallers triggered significantly more tongue
      flicks than male signallers, suggesting that chemical cues are involved in sexual
      recognition. We did not find an inhibition between chemical and visual cues. On
      the contrary, we observed a dominance of the chemical modality, because when
      presented with visual stimuli, lizards also responded with more tongue flicks
      than headbob displays. The total response produced by multimodal stimuli was
      similar to that of the chemical stimuli alone, possibly suggesting non
      redundancy. We discuss whether the visual component of a multimodal signal could
      attract attention at a distance, increasing the effectiveness of transmission and
      reception of the information in chemical cues.

PMID- 28870386
TI  - [The antimicrobial activity of ephedrine and admixture of ephedrine and propofol:
      an in vitro study].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Propofol and Ephedrine are commonly used during anesthesia
      maintenance, the former as a hypnotic agent and the later as a vasopressor. The
      addition of propofol to ephedrine or administration of ephedrine before propofol
      injection is useful for decreasing or preventing propofol related hemodynamic
      changes and vascular pain. This in vitro study evaluated the antibacterial effect
      on common hospital-acquired infection pathogens of ephedrine alone or combined
      with propofol. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study was performed in two stages. In the
      first, the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of propofol and ephedrine alone and
      combined was calculated for Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium,
      Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and a clinical isolate of
      Acinetobacter spp. at 0, 6, 12 and 24h, using the microdilution method. In the
      second stage, the same drugs and combination were used to determine their effect
      on bacterial growth. Bacterial solutions were prepared at 0.5MacFarland in
      sterile 0.9% physiological saline and diluted at 1/100 concentration. Colony
      numbers were measured as colony forming units.mL-1 at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12th
      hours. RESULTS: Ephedrine either alone or combined with propofol did not have an
      antimicrobial effect on Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium or Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa and this was similar to propofol. However, ephedrine alone and
      combined with propofol was found to have an antimicrobial effect on
      Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter species at 512mcg.mL-1 concentration and
      significantly decreased bacterial growth rate. CONCLUSION: Ephedrine has an
      antimicrobial activity on Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter species which
      were frequently encountered pathogens as a cause of nosocomial infections.

PMID- 28870387
TI  - [Reply to the letter to the Editor].

PMID- 28870388
TI  - The optimal timing of enteral nutrition and its effect on the prognosis of acute
      pancreatitis: A propensity score matched cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early enteral nutrition (EN) can improve the prognosis of acute
      pancreatitis (AP), but the optimal initiation time is unknown. In this study, the
      optimal time of early EN was analyzed to disclose the application of early EN in
      AP. METHODS: Data of 104 patients with AP were prospectively collected. With
      secondary infection (infected pancreatic necrosis and extrapancreatic infection)
      as the primary outcome variable, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve
      was used to calculate the optimal cut-off time of early EN. Propensity score
      matching was used to adjust for covariates. Secondary outcomes include acute
      gastrointestinal injury (AGI) grades, serum albumin level, and EN-related
      complications. RESULTS: The ROC curve analysis showed that the third day after
      hospital admission was the best cut-off time of early EN (with the area under the
      curve of 0.744). After PS matching, the proportion of secondary infection in the
      early EN group was significantly lower than the late EN group (8.6% vs. 36.5%, P
      < 0.05). Regression analysis showed that early EN was a protective factor against
      secondary infection (OR 0.161, 95%CI 0.036-0.718, P < 0.05). The AGI grades and
      serum albumin levels were better improved in the early EN group (AGI F = 4.468, P
      < 0.05; serum albumin F = 3.794, P < 0.05).The proportion of EN-related abdominal
      distension in the early EN group was significantly lower (8.8% vs. 38.5%, P <
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Early EN initiated within three days could reduce the risk of
      secondary infection and improve the nutritional status of patients with acute
      pancreatitis, with a better tolerance.

PMID- 28870390
TI  - How Do We Balance the Long-Term Health of a Patient With the Short-Term Risk to
      the Physician?
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a wide variation in practice patterns among emergency
      medicine physicians; many factors weigh into the medical decision-making process
      including the health of the patient as well as short-term risk to the physician.
      OBJECTIVE: The objective of our discussion is to illustrate specific scenarios
      where medical decisions are focused on the physician's short-term risk, then to
      propose an approach to shifting the balance to the patient's long-term health.
      METHODS: Using recent data on the evaluation, disposition, and outcomes of
      patients with low-risk chest pain in the emergency department, we calculate the
      risk of outpatient evaluation compared to the common practice of admission or
      observation. RESULTS: Patients with low-risk chest pain and negative initial
      evaluation in the emergency department with 2 normal cardiac biomarkers, normal
      vital signs, and non-ischemic, interpretable ECGs, have an extremely low-risk of
      a short term clinically relevant adverse cardiac event. There is a suggestion of
      a higher patient risk from admission, prompting consideration that continued
      evaluation of the chest pain as an outpatient may be safer than admission or
      observation. CONCLUSION: A test/intervention should be done if the risk of a
      missed diagnosis or adverse outcome is greater that the risk of the
      test/intervention. Involving the patient in the decision-making process may help
      to shift the management balance from the physician's short-term concern of their
      own risk, to the patient's long-term health.

PMID- 28870389
TI  - Clinicopathologic and survival differences in younger patients with pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma-A propensity score-matched comparative analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Early-onset pancreatic cancer (EOPC) is not optimally
      characterized because of its extremely low incidence. We investigated
      clinicopathologic differences between younger or older patients with pancreatic
      cancer, and compared their outcomes. METHODS: We enrolled 699 consecutive
      patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and admitted to
      our surgical department between 2000 and 2014. We compared demographics and
      clinical outcomes in patients who were younger and older than 45 years at
      diagnosis. We estimated 1:2 case propensity score matching (PSM) by a logistic
      regression model based on patients' ASA scores, postoperative AJCC stages,
      adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. RESULTS: At diagnosis 34 patients (4.9%)
      were younger than 45 years. After PSM, tested variables and median survival
      periods were not significantly different between two groups. Some 441 patients
      (63.1%) suffered postoperative recurrence, but did not significantly differ by
      age for local (14.7 vs. 18.5%, P = 0.658) or systemic recurrence (70.6 vs. 54.4%,
      P = 0.077). There was a significant difference of disease-free survival (DFS)
      after PSM (8.9 vs. 29.3%, P = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Five-year OS and recurrence
      patterns did not significantly differ between two groups. But five-year DFS was
      significantly worse after PSM and systemic recurrence tended to be more frequent
      in the younger group.

PMID- 28870391
TI  - Determinants of Adverse Outcomes After Systemic-To-Pulmonary Shunts in
      Biventricular Circulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic-to-pulmonary shunts are useful palliative procedures,
      although many teams have been deterred by high mortality and morbidity. We aimed
      to identify predictors of adverse outcomes after shunts in biventricular lesions.
      METHODS: From 2004 to 2014, 173 children had shunt procedures. Morphologies
      included: tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect
      (VSD) with and without major aortopulmonary collaterals (MAPCAs), transposition
      of great arteries with pulmonary stenosis, and double outlet right ventricle.
      Median age was 22 days (range, 3 to 3,438 days) and median weight 3.2 kg (range,
      1.7 to 20 kg). Shunt sizes ranged from 3 to 5 mm with median shunt size/weight
      ratio 1.03 mm/kg (range, 0.3 to 2.5 mm/kg). RESULTS: In-hospital mortality was
      5.2% for the initial shunt procedure. Inter-stage mortality was 3.6%. Overall,
      86% of patients progressed to corrective surgery. Acute events were observed in
      41 patients, leading to 6 deaths. Events included 30 emergency chest openings, 16
      shunt thrombosis, and 17 pulmonary overcirculation. Independent predictors of
      acute events or in-hospital mortality were genetic or extracardiac anomalies
      (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.9, p = 0.04), and preoperative shock/acidosis (HR = 2.73,
      p = 0.003). Diagnosis of pulmonary atresia with VSD and MAPCAs was protective (HR
      = 0.23, p = 0.042). Weight, shunt size, and size/weight ratios were not
      significant risk factors. Shunt thrombosis occurred at a median 3 hours (range, 0
      to 46 hours) postoperatively, leading to 33% of in-hospital deaths. Low
      postoperative oxygen saturation and higher platelet counts in intensive care were
      independent predictors of thrombosis (p = 0.022, p = 0.005 respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Early adverse events contribute to mortality and morbidity for the
      shunt procedure. Patients with lower oxygen saturation and higher platelet counts
      in the postoperative period are at higher risk of shunt thrombosis.

PMID- 28870392
TI  - How and when to refer patients diagnosed with secondary headache and other
      craniofacial pain in the Emergency Department and Primary Care: Recommendations
      of the Spanish Society of Neurology's Headache Study Group.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: When secondary headache is suspected and the patient is referred to
      the emergency department or to the outpatient neurology clinic, it is important
      to know which are the appropriate complementary examinations to perform and the
      suitable referral pathway for patients to follow. In order to establish
      recommendations on this matter, the Spanish Society of Neurology's Headache Study
      Group (GECSEN) has decided to issue a series of agreed recommendations
      constituting a referral protocol for patients with headache and/or craniofacial
      neuralgias. DEVELOPMENT: Young neurologists with an interest and experience in
      headache were invited to draft a series of practical guidelines in collaboration
      with GECSEN's Executive Committee. For practical reasons, the document was
      divided into 2 articles: the first focuses on primary headaches and craniofacial
      neuralgias and this second article on secondary headaches and other craniofacial
      pain. In order for the recommendations to be helpful for daily practice, they
      follow a practical approach, with tables summarising referral criteria,
      examinations to be performed, and referral to other specialists. CONCLUSIONS: We
      hope to offer a guide and tools to improve decision-making regarding patients
      with headache, identifying complementary tests to prioritise and referral
      pathways to be followed, in order to avoid duplicated consultations and delayed
      diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28870393
TI  - How and when to refer patients diagnosed with primary headache and craniofacial
      neuralgia in the Emergency department or Primary Care: Recommendations of the
      Spanish Society of Neurology's Headache Study Group.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: When a patient is diagnosed with primary headache or craniofacial
      neuralgia in the emergency department or in primary care, and is referred to a
      neurologist due to the complexity of the case, it is useful to know whether
      additional examination should be sought and the priority (urgent, preferential or
      normal) with which the patient should be seen. This will avoid unnecessary delays
      in patients with disabling headache and where organic causes are suspected. In
      order to issue recommendations on this matter, the Spanish Society of Neurology's
      Headache Study Group has decided to create a series of agreed recommendations
      constituting a referral protocol for patients with headache and/or craniofacial
      neuralgia. DEVELOPMENT: Young neurologists with an interest and experience in
      headache were invited to draft a series of practical guidelines in collaboration
      with Spanish Society of Neurology's Headache Study Group Executive Committee. For
      practical reasons, the document was divided into 2 articles: this first article
      focuses on primary headaches and craniofacial neuralgias and the second on
      secondary headaches. In order for the recommendations to be helpful for daily
      practice they follow a practical approach, with tables summarising referral
      criteria, examinations to be performed, and referral to other specialists.
      CONCLUSIONS: We hope to offer a guide and tools to improve decision-making
      regarding patients with headache, identifying complementary tests to prioritise
      and referral pathways to be followed, in order to avoid duplicated consultations
      and delayed diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28870396
TI  - Challenges in the study of adolescent and acculturative changes.
AB  - This article focuses on two recurrent themes in the study of acculturation in
      adolescence that challenge progress of the field. First, we often work with low
      dimensional, trait-like models of acculturation that cannot deal with modern
      types of acculturation that are often characterized by multidimensionality and
      domain specificity. Second, acculturative change in adolescence is undertheorized
      and there is a need to integrate developmental tasks and models of acculturation.
      It is argued that approaches that have been adopted in the study of identity
      (with their models that range from generalized traits to situated approaches and
      their adoption of both quantitative and qualitative methods) are highly suitable
      for the study of acculturation. A more contextualized approach would also
      facilitate the study of the interaction of contextual conditions and
      acculturative changes in adolescence.

PMID- 28870394
TI  - Variability in Interpretation of Cardiac Standstill Among Physician Sonographers.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Cardiac standstill on point-of-care ultrasonography has been
      widely studied as a marker of prognosis in cardiac arrest. Return of spontaneous
      circulation has been reported in as few as 0% and as many as 45% of patients with
      cardiac standstill. When explicitly documented, the definition of cardiac
      activity in these studies varied from any slight change in echogenicity of the
      myocardium to any kinetic cardiac activity. We hypothesize that the variability
      in research definitions of cardiac activity may affect interpretation of video
      clips of patients in cardiac arrest. The goal of this study is to assess the
      variability in interpretation of standstill among physician sonographers.
      METHODS: We surveyed physician sonographers at 6 conferences held at 3 academic
      medical centers in the Greater New York area. Survey respondents were allotted 20
      seconds per slide to determine whether each of 15 video clips of patients in
      cardiac arrest were standstill or not. Data were collected anonymously with radio
      frequency remotes. RESULTS: There were 127 total participants, including faculty,
      fellows, and resident physicians specializing in emergency medicine, critical
      care, and cardiology. There was only moderate interrater agreement among all
      participants (alpha=0.47). This lack of agreement persisted across specialties,
      self-reported training levels, and self-reported ultrasonographic expertise.
      CONCLUSION: According to the results of our study, there appears to be
      considerable variability in interpretation of cardiac standstill among physician
      sonographers. Consensus definitions of cardiac activity and standstill would
      improve the quality of cardiac arrest ultrasonographic research and standardize
      the use of this technology at the bedside.

PMID- 28870395
TI  - Synthesis and anti-enterovirus activity of new analogues of MDL-860.
AB  - A series of twelve novel compounds, analogues of antiviral agent MDL-860 were
      synthesized and their antiviral activity was evaluated in vitro against
      enteroviruses poliovirus 1 (PV1), Coxsackieviruses B1 (CVB1) and Coxsackieviruses
      B3 (CVB3). Compounds 14, 24 and 25 manifested strong antiviral effects against
      CVB1 and PV1 (SI values of 405 and 118 for CVB1 and PV1 respectively). In
      contrast to the wide anti-enteroviral activity of MDL-860, these three compounds
      were inactive against CVB3. Compounds 14, 24 and 25 along with MDL-860 were
      tested in vivo in mice infected with CVB1. Marked protective effects of compounds
      14 and 24 were established, PI values of 50% and 33.3%, respectively. In
      addition, almost all of the tested compounds manifested very low toxicity.

PMID- 28870397
TI  - Eradicating hepatitis B virus: The critical role of preventing perinatal
      transmission.
AB  - Prevention of hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission from infected mothers to their
      newborns is critical to HBV control and eventual eradication. Mother-to-child
      perinatal transmission causes the highest chronic carrier rate (>85%) with a high
      rate of subsequent chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. This risk
      is reduced by 90% with HBV vaccine given along with hepatitis B immune globulin
      (HBIG) starting at birth. New analyses of our data from US trials of HBIG and HBV
      vaccine in high-risk infants revealed better efficacy with yeast-recombinant
      vaccine than plasma-derived vaccine, especially in preventing late onset
      infections, with evidence that vaccine prevented transmission of maternal HBV
      infection with the glycine to arginine mutation in surface antigen codon 145
      (sG145R). Most late infections with sG145R were in vaccine non-responders,
      suggesting escape from HBIG rather than from vaccine-induced antibody. Our
      findings also help explain survey results from Taiwan following universal
      childhood immunization implemented in the mid-1980s. We conclude that current
      vaccines will remain effective against surface antigen mutants. Anti-viral drugs
      in high-risk pregnant women, in combination with newborn HBIG and vaccine, show
      promise for eliminating residual breakthrough neonatal infections, critical to
      meeting WHO 2030 goals and for eradicating HBV.

PMID- 28870398
TI  - Selective lobar exclusion by venous clamping during ex vivo lung perfusion.

PMID- 28870399
TI  - The risk of reoperative cardiac surgery in radiation-induced valvular disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mediastinal radiation therapy (MRT) increases the risk for adverse
      outcomes after cardiac surgery and is not incorporated in the Society of Thoracic
      Surgeons (STS) risk algorithm. We aimed to quantify the surgical risk conferred
      by MRT in patients undergoing primary and reoperative valvular operations.
      METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 261 consecutive patients with prior MRT who
      underwent valvular operations between January 2002 and May 2015. Short- and long
      term outcomes were compared for STS predicted risk of mortality, surgery type,
      gender, year of surgery, and age-matched patients stratified by reoperative
      status. RESULTS: Mean age was 62.6 +/- 12.1 years and 174 (67%) were women. The
      majority had received MRT for Hodgkin lymphoma (48.2%) and breast cancer (36%).
      Overall, 214 (82%) were primary and 47 (18%) were reoperative procedures.
      Reoperation carried a higher operative mortality than primary cases (17% vs 3.7%;
      P = .003). Compared with the 836 nonradiated matches, operative mortality and
      observed-to-expected STS mortality ratios were higher in primary (3.8% [1.4] vs
      0.8% [0.32]; P = .004) and reoperative (17% [3.35] vs 2.3% [0.45]; P = .001)
      patients with prior MRT. Cox proportional hazard modeling revealed that in
      patients with previous MRT, primary (hazard ratio, 2.24; 95% confidence interval,
      1.73-2.91) and reoperative status (hazard ratio, 3.19; 95% confidence interval,
      1.95-5.21) adversely affected long-term survival compared with nonradiated
      matches. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery for radiation-induced valvular heart disease has a
      higher operative mortality than predicted by STS predicted risk of mortality.
      Reoperations are associated with increased morbidity and mortality compared with
      primary cases. Careful patient selection is paramount and expanded indications
      for transcatheter therapies should be considered, especially in reoperative
      patients.

PMID- 28870400
TI  - EGFR mutational status in lung adenocarcinoma: Staging implications or continuous
      evolution?

PMID- 28870401
TI  - Corrigendum to "Synchrotron Fourier transformed infrared mapping: A novel
      approach for membrane fouling characterization" [Water Res. 111 (2017) 375-381].

PMID- 28870402
TI  - Corrigendum to 'Development of a model to simulate groundwater inundation induced
      by sea-level rise and high tides in Honolulu, Hawaii' [Water Research 114 (2017)
      122-134].

PMID- 28870403
TI  - High Antigen Processing Machinery component expression in Langerhans cells from
      melanoma patients' sentinel lymph nodes.
AB  - Langerhans cells (LCs) from melanoma patients sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) are poor
      T cell activators mostly due to an immature immunophenotype. However Antigen
      Presenting Machinery (APM) role is unknown. We investigated HLA-class I APM
      components (Delta, LMP-7/10, TAP-1, Calnexin, Tapasin, beta2-microglobulin and
      HLA-A,B,C) in LCs from healthy donors skin and melanoma patients SLN. APM
      component levels were low in immature epidermal LCs and significantly increased
      after maturation (p<0.05); their levels were significantly high in SLN LCs
      (p<0.01). APM component expression correlated with melanoma Breslow's thickness
      and SLN metastases: HLA-A,B,C level was significantly lower in SLN LCs from thick
      lesions patients compared with those from thin/intermediate lesions (p<0.05);
      beta2-microglobulin level was significantly higher in positive SLN LCs compared
      to negative ones (p<0.05). Functionally, SLN LCs did not phagocytose exogenous
      antigens. These findings extend LCs knowledge indicating that they are not fully
      impaired by melanoma, contributing to design new LCs-based therapeutic
      approaches.

PMID- 28870404
TI  - Interferon-gamma suppresses the proliferation and migration of human placenta
      derived mesenchmal stromal cells and enhances their ability to induce the
      generation of CD4+CXCR5+Foxp3+Treg subset.
AB  - We investigate the effects of interferon (IFN)-gamma on human placenta-derived
      mesenchymal stromal cells (hPMSCs), in particular, their adhesion, proliferation
      and migration and modulatory effects on the CD4+CXCR5+Foxp3+Treg subset. And we
      compared hPMSCs ability to induce the generation of different Treg subsets in
      response to treatment with IFN-gamma. We found that IFN-gamma suppressed the
      proliferation and migration for hPMSCs. The ability of hPMSCs to induce the
      generation of CD4+CXCR5+Foxp3+Treg subset was enhanced by IFN-gamma. And maximal
      effectiveness of IFN-gamma treated hPMSCs upon inducing the generation of Treg
      subsets was for CD4+CXCR5+Foxp3+Treg subset as compared with that of
      CD4+CD25+Foxp3+, CD8+CD25+Foxp3+, CD4+IL-10+ and CD8+IL-10+Treg subsets. These
      results have important implications for the development and application of hPMSCs
      in clinical use.

PMID- 28870405
TI  - Gut, microbiota-dependent trimethylamine-N-oxide is associated with long-term all
      cause mortality in patients with exacerbated chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The gut, microflora-dependent metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide
      (TMAO) has emerged as a dietary-associated risk factor for incident
      cardiovascular events. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a
      prevalent disease worldwide with a high associated risk for cardiovascular
      disease and death due to an infectious cause. AIMS: To study whether TMAO is
      predictive for adverse clinical outcomes in patients with exacerbated COPD.
      METHODS: A total of 189 patients with COPD exacerbation were prospectively
      followed for a median of 6.1 y. TMAO plasma levels at the time of emergency
      department admission were measured by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem
      mass spectrometry. Cox and linear regression models were used to investigate
      associations of TMAO with all-cause mortality and different comorbidities.
      RESULTS: All-cause mortality was 55.6% after 6 y. The deceased patients showed
      significantly higher median admission TMAO (MUmol/L) levels compared with
      survivors (3.9 [interquartile range: 2.3-7.1] versus 2.9 [interquartile range:
      1.8-4.7]; P = 0.01), which resulted in an unadjusted hazard ratio of 1.8 ([95%
      confidence interval: 1.2-3.0], P = 0.01). This association was no longer
      significant after multivariate adjustment. Median TMAO levels were similar in
      nonpneumonic and pneumonic COPD exacerbation. Higher age, higher body mass index,
      diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease were predictors for increased
      plasma TMAO levels in linear regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Increased
      circulating TMAO levels per se were associated with long-term all-cause mortality
      in patients with COPD independent of type of exacerbation. However, this
      association was largely explained by comorbidities and age. Whether TMAO levels
      can additionally be influenced by nutritional interventions should be addressed
      in future studies.

PMID- 28870408
TI  - Thyroid storm and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
AB  - Graves' disease is often associated with other autoimmune disorders, including
      rare associations with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA). We describe a unique
      presentation of thyroid storm and warm AIHA diagnosed concurrently in a young
      female with hyperthyroidism. The patient presented with nausea, vomiting,
      diarrhea and altered mental status. Laboratory studies revealed hemoglobin
      3.9g/dL, platelets 171*109L-1, haptoglobin <5mg/dL, reticulocytosis, and positive
      direct antiglobulin test (IgG, C3d, warm). Additional workup revealed serum
      thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) <0.01MUIU/mL and serum free-T4 (FT4) level
      7.8ng/dL. Our patient was diagnosed with concurrent thyroid storm and warm AIHA.
      She was started on glucocorticoids to treat both warm AIHA and thyroid storm, as
      well as antithyroid medications, propranolol and folic acid. Due to profound
      anemia and hemodynamic instability, the patient was transfused two units of
      uncrossmatched packed red blood cells slowly and tolerated this well. She was
      discharged on methimazole as well as a prolonged prednisone taper, and achieved
      complete resolution of the thyrotoxicosis and anemia at one month.
      Hyperthyroidism can affect all three blood cell lineages of the hematopoietic
      system. Anemia can be seen in 10-20% of patients with thyrotoxicosis. Several
      autoimmune processes can lead to anemia in Graves' disease, including pernicious
      anemia, celiac disease, and warm AIHA. This case illustrates a rarely described
      presentation of a patient with Graves' disease presenting with concurrent thyroid
      storm and warm AIHA.

PMID- 28870409
TI  - Frugal Biotech Applications of Low-Temperature Plasma.
AB  - Gas discharge low-temperature air plasma can be utilized for a variety of
      applications, including biomedical, at low cost. We term these applications
      'frugal plasma' - an example of frugal innovation. We demonstrate how simple,
      robust, low-cost frugal plasma devices can be used to safely disinfect
      instruments, surfaces, and water.

PMID- 28870406
TI  - Probiotics and gastrointestinal conditions: An overview of evidence from the
      Cochrane Collaboration.
AB  - Alterations in the composition of the gut microbiota are associated with a number
      of gastrointestinal (GI) conditions, including diarrhea, inflammatory bowel
      diseases (IBD), and liver diseases. Probiotics, live microorganisms that may
      confer a health benefit to the host when consumed, are commonly used as a therapy
      for treating these GI conditions by means of modifying the composition or
      activity of the microbiota. The purpose of this review was to summarize the
      evidence on probiotics and GI conditions available from Cochrane, a nonprofit
      organization that produces rigorous and high-quality systematic reviews of health
      interventions. Findings from this review will help provide more precise guidance
      for clinical use of probiotics and to identify gaps in probiotic research related
      to GI conditions.

PMID- 28870407
TI  - Striatal dopamine D2/3 receptor-mediated neurotransmission in major depression:
      Implications for anhedonia, anxiety and treatment response.
AB  - Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission within the brain's reward circuit has been
      implicated in the pathophysiology of depression and in both, cognitive and
      pharmacological mechanisms of treatment response. Still, a direct relationship
      between measures of DA neurotransmission and reward-related deficits in patients
      with depression has not been demonstrated. To gain insight into the symptom
      specific alterations in the DA system in patients with depression, we used
      positron emission tomography (PET) and the D2/3 receptor-selective radiotracer
      [11C]raclopride in twenty-three non-smoking un-medicated Major Depressive
      Disorder (MDD) patients and sixteen healthy controls (HC). We investigated the
      relationship between D2/3 receptor availability and baseline measures of
      depression severity, anxiety, anhedonia, and cognitive and pharmacological
      mechanisms of treatment response. We found that, compared to controls, patients
      with depression showed greater D2/3 receptor availability in several striatal
      regions, including the bilateral ventral pallidum/nucleus accumbens (vPAL/NAc),
      and the right ventral caudate and putamen. In the depressed sample, D2/3 receptor
      availability in the caudal portion of the ventral striatum (NAc/vPAL) correlated
      with higher anxiety symptoms, whereas D2/3 receptor availability in the rostral
      area of the ventral striatum correlated negatively with the severity of
      motivational anhedonia. Finally, MDD non-remitters showed greater baseline
      anxiety, greater D2/3 availability in the NAc/vPAL, and greater placebo-induced
      DA release in the bilateral NAc. Our results demonstrate abnormally high D2/3
      receptor availability in the ventral striatum of patients with MDD, which seem to
      be associated with comorbid anxiety symptoms and lack of response to
      antidepressants.

PMID- 28870410
TI  - Choosing Wisely: Mentors, Sponsors, and Your Kitchen Cabinet.

PMID- 28870411
TI  - Use of Value Stream Mapping to Reduce Outpatient CT Scan Wait Times.

PMID- 28870412
TI  - The Conventional Versus Alternative Agricultural Divide: A Response to Garibaldi
      et al.

PMID- 28870413
TI  - Esophageal baseline impedance levels allow the identification of esophageal
      involvement in patients with systemic sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Distal esophageal baseline impedance (BI) levels reflect the
      esophageal mucosal integrity in reflux disease. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) could
      potentially affect the integrity of esophageal mucosa and consequently impair
      distal and proximal BI levels, but data in this regard are lacking. AIM AND
      METHODS: We aimed to prospectively investigate and compare BI levels among non
      erosive reflux disease (NERD), SSc patients, and healthy controls (HCs).
      Consecutive patients with reflux symptoms and well-defined diagnosis of SSc
      underwent upper endoscopy and, in case of no lesions encountered, manometry and
      impedance-pH testing off-therapy. In addition to traditional impedance-pH
      parameters, BI values at 3, 5, 7, and 17cm above the lower esophageal sphincter
      were calculated. RESULTS: Fifty-two patients with NERD, 50 with SSc, and 50 HCs
      were enrolled. Nineteen (38%) SSc patients and 22 (42%) NERD patients had
      abnormal acid exposure. In patients with SSc, median BI values were significantly
      lower than in NERD patients and HCs (p < 0.0001) at 3, 5, and 7cm; there was no
      difference between HCs and NERD patients at 17cm in the proximal esophagus,
      whereas a significant difference was observed at 17cm between SSc and NERD as
      well as HCs (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Distal and proximal BI values in SSc patients
      were lower than in NERD and HCs, thus we speculated that these findings may be
      related to the deposition of collagen in the connective tissue. Measurement of BI
      may be used as an indirect, but simple and accurate marker of esophageal
      involvement in patients with SSc.

PMID- 28870414
TI  - Radioecological modelling of Polonium-210 and Caesium-137 in lichen-reindeer-man
      and top predators.
AB  - This work deals with analysis and modelling of the radionuclides 210Pb and210Po
      in the food-chain lichen-reindeer-man in addition to 210Po and 137Cs in top
      predators. By using the methods of Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) the
      atmospheric deposition of 210Pb and 210Po is predicted at the sample locations.
      Dynamic modelling of the activity concentration with differential equations is
      fitted to the sample data. Reindeer lichen consumption, gastrointestinal
      absorption, organ distribution and elimination is derived from information in the
      literature. Dynamic modelling of transfer of 210Pb and 210Po to reindeer meat,
      liver and bone from lichen consumption, fitted well with data from Sweden and
      Finland from 1966 to 1971. The activity concentration of 210Pb in the skeleton in
      man is modelled by using the results of studying the kinetics of lead in skeleton
      and blood in lead-workers after end of occupational exposure. The result of
      modelling 210Pb and 210Po activity in skeleton matched well with concentrations
      of 210Pb and 210Po in teeth from reindeer-breeders and autopsy bone samples in
      Finland. The results of 210Po and 137Cs in different tissues of wolf, wolverine
      and lynx previously published, are analysed with multivariate data processing
      methods such as Principal Component Analysis PCA, and modelled with the method of
      Projection to Latent Structures, PLS, or Partial Least Square Regression PLSR.

PMID- 28870415
TI  - [Implementation of the tracer patient audit in a private radiation therapy
      centre].
AB  - The "tracer patient" audit is an evaluation method introduced by the French
      health authority in the V2014 certification. This is not mandatory in private
      radiotherapy centres. In our continuous quality improvement approach and in order
      to improve the management of patient care, the management of our radiation
      therapy centre has decided to use this method to evaluate our medical practice
      and to engage healthcare professionals at the core of this approach.

PMID- 28870416
TI  - [Combination of radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy for localized
      prostate cancer].
AB  - Combination of radiotherapy and androgen deprivation is now considered as the
      standard of care for patients with a localized prostate cancer but poor prognosis
      factors. Two groups of randomized trials have led to this recommendation: some
      have compared radiotherapy alone versus hormonal treatment and radiotherapy:
      these trials demonstrated, now with a long follow-up, an improvement in 10-year
      survival for the combined treatment. Three recent trials compared androgen
      deprivation alone or combined with radiotherapy; a benefit in survival was also
      demonstrated in favour of the combination. Some questions remained concerning the
      optimal duration of hormonal treatment, in view of its potential side effects.
      Patients in the intermediate prognostic groups could receive a short-term
      androgen deprivation, but those with a high Gleason score must be treated with a
      long-term hormonal treatment. Modalities of radiotherapy, regarding volumes and
      dose must also be precised in the next years.

PMID- 28870417
TI  - Characterization of an innovative intramedullary nail for diaphyseal fractures of
      long bones.
AB  - In this paper, an innovative design of nail for fractures occurring on long bones
      has been investigated. Its functioning is based essentially on sliding of conical
      surfaces, located in a spindle and in holding pins. Spindle and holding pins are
      connected together by a sleeve. The sliding transforms the rotational and
      translational motion of the spindle to a radial expansion of the holding pins,
      protruding inside the intramedullary canal. In order to evaluate mechanical
      behavior of the prosthesis different benchmarks and tests were numerically
      performed by an FE code. Results confirm good performances in terms of strength,
      under compression, bending and torque loading. Moreover, a complete model of the
      nail implanted on a tibia, has been developed and tested evaluating two loading
      configurations. Results confirmed a satisfactory behavior of the nail in terms of
      stress and strain shielding, comparable to the others traditional systems of
      prosthesis. In conclusion, this kind of nail appears to offer a good solution for
      elderly patients, which could not endure complications due to a complex surgery,
      as distal or medial screws are not necessary.

PMID- 28870418
TI  - Vibration-based fixation assessment of tibial knee implants: A combined in vitro
      and in silico feasibility study.
AB  - The preoperative diagnosis of loosening of cemented tibial knee implants is
      challenging. This feasibility study explored the basic potential of a vibration
      based method as an alternative diagnostic technique to assess the fixation state
      of a cemented tibia implant and establish the method's sensitivity limits. A
      combined in vitro and in silico approach was pursued. Several loosening cases
      were simulated. The largest changes in the vibrational behavior were obtained in
      the frequency range above 1500 Hz. The vibrational behavior was described with
      two features; the frequency response function and the power spectral density band
      power. Using both features, all experimentally simulated loosening cases could
      clearly be distinguished from the fully cemented cases. By complementing the
      experimental work with an in silico study, it was shown that loosening of
      approximately 14% of the implant surface on the lateral and medial side was
      detectable with a vibration-based method. Proximal lateral and medial locations
      on the tibia or locations toward the edge of the implant surface measured in the
      longitudinal direction were the most sensitive measurement and excitation
      locations to assess implant fixation. These results contribute to the development
      of vibration-based methods as an alternative follow-up method to detect loosened
      tibia implants.

PMID- 28870419
TI  - Healthy body, healthy mind: A mixed methods study of outcomes, barriers and
      supports for exercise by people who have chronic moderate-to-severe acquired
      brain injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few people with chronic moderate-to-severe brain injury are following
      recommended physical activity guidelines. OBJECTIVE: Investigate effects of
      planned, systematic physical activity while cultivating social and emotional well
      being of people with chronic moderate-to-severe brain injury. HYPOTHESIS:
      Moderate-to-intensive physical activity would be associated with improvements in
      impairment and activity limitation measures (endurance, mobility, gait speed)
      immediately post-intervention and six weeks later (study week 12). METHODS: The
      intervention was a single group pre-/post-intervention study with 14 people with
      chronic moderate-to-severe brain injury who live in brain injury group homes and
      exercised 60-90 min, 3 days per week for 6 weeks at a maximum heart rate of 50
      80%. Pre-post measures (administered weeks 0, 6 and 12) were the 6 Minute Walk
      Test, High-level Mobility Assessment Tool and 10 Meter Walk Test. The qualitative
      component used a brief survey and semi-structured interview guide with
      participants, family members, and staff. RESULTS: Following program completion,
      post-intervention group changes were noted on all outcome measures and greater
      than minimal detectable change for people with brain injury. Three transitioned
      from low to high ambulatory status and maintained this change at 12 weeks. During
      interviews, participants agreed the program was stimulating. More than eighty
      percent liked working out in a group and felt better being active. CONCLUSIONS:
      Program impact included physical, cognitive and social/emotional aspects. Social
      aspects (group format, trainers) were highly motivating and supported by
      residents, family, and staff. Investments in transportation and recruiting and
      training interns to assist participants are critical to program sustainability
      and expansion.

PMID- 28870420
TI  - Value of protein concentration in cerebrospinal fluid in paediatric patients with
      Guillain-Barre syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The albumin-cytologic dissociation in cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF) supports the diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) but does not
      support the prognosis, so the aim of this study is to determine the usefulness of
      protein numbers in the CSF to predict progression in paediatric patients.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A diagnostic test was performed in paediatric patients with
      GBS, analysing sociodemographic, clinical and protein variables in CSF as well as
      electromyography. The presence of dysautonomia was also documented. RESULTS: Data
      were analysed from 23 patients, predominantly males (87%), school age (43.5%) and
      history of digestive infection (73.9%). Using the ROC curve, an area under the
      curve of 0.966 with best CSF protein cut-off point of 87-92 proteins/mm was found
      for the presence of dysautonomias and to evaluate the poor response to treatment
      with 0.969 intravenous immunoglobulin with better cut-off point in 157
      proteins/mm. CONCLUSION: The amount of proteins in the CSF can be used as a
      prognostic indicator and severity, such that proteins greater than 100 in CSF
      translate into a torpid evolution and with greater complications.

PMID- 28870421
TI  - State of the art of the telemedicine. Where are we and what is pending to be
      done?

PMID- 28870423
TI  - Diagnosis of infective endocarditis by 18F-FDG-PET/CT, presentation of a false
      negative result.

PMID- 28870422
TI  - Quantitative evaluation of capillaroscopic microvascular changes in patients with
      established coronary heart disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Microcirculation disturbances have been associated
      to most of the cardiovascular risk factors as well as to multiple inflammatory
      diseases. However, whether these abnormalities are specifically augmented in
      patients with coronary heart disease is still unknown. We aimed to evaluate if
      there is a relationship between the presence of coronary heart disease and the
      existence of functional and structural capillary abnormalities evaluated in the
      cutaneous microcirculation by videocapillaroscopy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two
      matched samples of 30 participants with and without coronary heart disease but
      with similar clinical and anthropometric characteristics were evaluated by
      videocapillaroscopy at the dorsal skin of the third finger of the non-dominant
      hand. We calculated basal capillary density as well as capillary density after a
      period of arterial and venous occlusion in order to evaluate functionality and
      maximum capillary density. We also measured capillary recruitment. RESULTS:
      Microvascular capillary density at rest was significantly lower in patients
      suffering from coronary heart disease than in controls. This fact was also found
      after dynamic tests (arterial and venous occlusion), suggesting functional
      impairments. Capillary recruitment of the samples was not different in our
      sample. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, patients with coronary heart disease exhibit
      functional and structural microvascular disturbances. Although this is a very
      preliminary study, these findings open the door for further studying the
      microvascular functionality in coronary patients and how it relates to the
      response to treatment and/or the prognosis of the disease.

PMID- 28870424
TI  - Influence of atrial fibrillation on the mortality of patients with heart failure
      with preserved ejection fraction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The impact of atrial fibrillation (AF) on the
      prognosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is still the
      subject of debate. We analysed the influence of AF on the prognosis on mortality
      and readmission in patients with HFpEF. METHODS: Prospective observational study
      in 1,971 patients with HFpEF, who were admitted for acute heart failure. Patients
      were divided into 2 groups according to the presence or absence of AF. We
      analysed mortality, readmissions and combined mortality/readmissions at one year
      follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 1,177 (59%) patients had AF, mean age 80.3 (7.8)
      years and 1,233 (63%) were women. Patients with HFpEF and AF were older, female,
      greater valvular aetiology and lower comorbidity measured by the Charlson index.
      At the one year follow-up, 430 (22%) patients had died and 840 (43%) had been
      readmitted. In the 2 groups analysed, there was no difference in all-cause
      mortality (22 vs. 21%; P=.739, AF vs. no-AF, respectively) or cardiovascular
      causes (9.6 vs. 8.2%; P=.739, AF vs. no-AF, respectively). In the multivariable
      analysis, factors associated with higher mortality were: age, male, valvular
      aetiology, uric acid, and comorbidity. In the analysis of the subgroup with HFpEF
      with AF, the presence of chronic AF compared to de novo AF was associated with
      higher mortality (HR 1,716; 95% CI 1,099-2,681; P=.018). CONCLUSIONS: In patients
      with HFpEF, the presence of AF is frequent. During the one-year follow-up, the
      presence of AF does not influence mortality or readmissions in patients with
      HFpEF.

PMID- 28870426
TI  - Prognostic value of local relapse for patients with endometrial cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of our study was to determine survival and prognostic
      factors associated with isolated local recurrence of endometrial cancer. METHODS:
      Data of 1229 patients with endometrial carcinoma treated between 2000 and 2012
      were extracted from maintained databases of nine French University Hospitals as
      well as from the Senti-Endo trial. Patients with isolated central pelvic and
      vaginal recurrence were selected for further analysis. RESULTS: Two hundreds and
      twenty five patients recurred during the inclusion period, 20 with isolated
      central pelvic recurrence and 23 with vaginal recurrence. Patients without
      recurrence had initially significantly less lymphovascular space invasion (p =
      0.01), less advanced diseases (>stage II) (p < 0.001) and more often low or
      intermediate risk tumours than patients with local recurrence. Local recurrence
      was statistically associated with better overall survival than non-local
      recurrence (p = 0.028) but dramatically decreased overall survival when compared
      to patients without any recurrence (p < 0.001). The site of recurrence, i.e.
      vaginal or central pelvic, was significantly associated with overall survival (p
      = 0.015). Patients without brachytherapy at initial management were more likely
      to have local recurrence of their disease when compared to those without
      recurrence (p = 0.03). None of the prognostics factors for survival in patients
      with local recurrence was statistically significant in multivariate analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Local recurrence is a key event in endometrial cancer evolution
      severely impacting overall survival. Better understanding of the factors
      associated with prolonged survival is mandatory to improve our management of
      these patients.

PMID- 28870425
TI  - Emerging Insights into the Roles of the Paf1 Complex in Gene Regulation.
AB  - The conserved, multifunctional Polymerase-Associated Factor 1 complex (Paf1C)
      regulates all stages of the RNA polymerase (Pol) II transcription cycle. In this
      review, we examine a diverse set of recent studies from various organisms that
      build on foundational studies in budding yeast. These studies identify new roles
      for Paf1C in the control of gene expression and the regulation of chromatin
      structure. In exploring these advances, we find that various functions of Paf1C,
      such as the regulation of promoter-proximal pausing and development in higher
      eukaryotes, are complex and context dependent. As more becomes known about the
      role of Paf1C in human disease, interest in the molecular mechanisms underpinning
      Paf1C function will continue to increase.

PMID- 28870427
TI  - [How to deal with a fetal head circumference lower than the third percentile?]
AB  - The prenatal finding of a head circumference (HC) below the 3rd percentile (p)
      remains, in the same way as short femur or increased nuchal translucency with
      normal karyotype, one the most difficult situations for the praticionner in the
      setting of prenatal diagnosis. Microcephaly is a gateway to possible cerebral
      pathologies, but the main objective is to identify serious prenatal situations. A
      standardized HC measurement, the use of adapted reference tools and charts,
      longitudinal following of cephalic biometrics in high-risk situations, and
      systematic central nervous system analysis can increase the diagnostic
      performance of ultrasound which is often disappointing for microcephaly. The
      early distinction between associated or isolated microcephaly makes it possible
      to quickly orient the prenatal management and counseling. Fetal MRI and genetic
      counseling are fundamental in this context, making it possible to specify at best
      the etiological diagnosis and to provide assistance to the neuropediatrician in
      the establishment of an often uncertain prognosis. The recent increase in cases
      of microcephaly concomitant with the epidemic of the ZIKA virus is an additional
      argument to improve our practices and the daily apprehension of HC<3rd p.

PMID- 28870428
TI  - Retro- and orthonasal olfactory function in relation to olfactory bulb volume in
      patients with hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism with an olfactory deficit
      is defined as Kallmann syndrome and is distinct from normosmic idiopathic
      hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism. OBJECTIVE: Because olfactory perception not only
      consists of orthonasally gained impressions but also involves retronasal
      olfactory function, in this study we decided to comprehensively evaluate both
      retronasal and orthonasal olfaction in patients with idiopathic hypogonadotrophic
      hypogonadism. METHODS: This case-control study included 31 controls and 45
      idiopathic hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism patients. All participants whose
      olfactory and taste functions were evaluated with orthonasal olfaction
      (discrimination, identification and threshold), retronasal olfaction, taste
      function and olfactory bulb volume measurement. The patients were separated into
      three groups according to orthonasal olfaction: anosmic idiopathic
      hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, hyposmic idiopathic hypogonadotrophic
      hypogonadism and normosmic idiopathic hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism. RESULTS:
      Discrimination, identification and threshold scores of patients with Kallmann
      syndrome were significantly lower than controls. Threshold scores of patients
      with normosmic idiopathic hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism. were significantly
      lower than those of controls, but discrimination and identification scores were
      not significantly different. Retronasal olfaction was reduced only in the anosmic
      idiopathic hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism group compared to controls.
      Identification of bitter, sweet, sour, and salty tastes was not significantly
      different when compared between the anosmic, hyposmic, and normosmic idiopathic
      hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism groups and controls. Olfactory bulb volume was
      lower bilaterally in all patient groups when compared with controls. The
      olfactory bulb volume of both sides was found to be significantly correlated with
      threshold, discrimination and identification scores in idiopathic
      hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism patients. CONCLUSION: 1) There were no significant
      differences in gustatory function between controls and idiopathic
      hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism patients; 2) retronasal olfaction was reduced only
      in anosmic patients but not in orthonasally hyposmic participants, possibly
      indicating presence of effective compensatory mechanisms; 3) olfactory bulb
      volumes were highly correlated with olfaction scores in the hypogonadotrophic
      hypogonadism group. The current results indicate a continuum from anosmia to
      normosmia in idiopathic hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism patients.

PMID- 28870429
TI  - Motor nerve to the masseter: A pediatric anatomic study and the "3:1 rule".

PMID- 28870430
TI  - Uncommon liver lesions with multimodality imaging and pathology correlation.
AB  - Uncommon liver lesions pose a diagnostic challenge because of unfamiliar imaging
      findings. For simplification, these lesions can be divided into four broad
      categories based on the dominant imaging feature in each: hypervascular,
      hypovascular, fat-containing, or cystic lesions. In this review, we profile the
      radiological features of uncommon liver lesions on multimodality imaging
      including ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI), and nuclear medicine.

PMID- 28870431
TI  - Could parenchymal enhancement on contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM)
      represent a new breast cancer risk factor? Correlation with known radiology risk
      factors.
AB  - AIM: To compare background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) on contrast-enhanced
      (CE) spectral mammography (CESM) with CE magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and
      evaluate how these relate to hormonal status, mammographic breast density (MBD)
      and MRI fibroglandular tissue volume (FGTV). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Between June
      2012 to October 2015, participants in a cancer staging study underwent full-field
      digital mammography (FFDM), CEMRI, and CESM. Two readers independently rated
      FGTV, MBD, and BPE using the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS)
      criteria. Inter-reader reliability was estimated using weighted kappa (k) and
      correlations between BPE, MBD, and FGTV calculated using Spearman's correlation
      coefficient. Associations with hormonal status were evaluated using multilevel
      ordinal regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 96 eligible participants, 66 women
      (35-77 years) underwent CESM and CEMRI. Reasons for exclusion were declined or
      withdrawn consent (n=18), inadequate renal function (n=2), claustrophobia (n=2),
      previous reaction to contrast medium (n=2), mild reaction to contrast medium
      following CESM (n=2), lack of vascular access (n=1), neoadjuvant chemotherapy
      (n=1), CESM equipment failure (n=1), and unclear in one case. Inter-reader
      agreement was substantial (k=0.67) for CESM BPE, slight (k=0.19) for CEMRI BPE,
      moderate (k=0.57) for MRI FGTV and fair (k=0.35) for MBD. CESM BPE showed
      significant correlation with MBD (rho=0.36, p<0.0001), FGTV (rho=0.52, p<0.0001),
      and MRI BPE (rho=0.49, p<0.0001). BPE was significantly reduced in the post
      menopausal group for CEMRI and CESM (p<0.05). CESM BPE did not significantly
      fluctuate during the menstrual cycle. CONCLUSION: CESM BPE is correlated with
      MBD, FGTV, and CEMRI BPE, has better inter-reader reliability than CEMRI, and is
      not influenced by the menstrual cycle. Grading the degree of BPE on CESM could be
      a useful addition to breast cancer risk assessment tools.

PMID- 28870432
TI  - The "pseudo-CT myelogram sign": an aid to the diagnosis of underlying brain stem
      and spinal cord trauma in the presence of major craniocervical region injury on
      post-mortem CT.
AB  - AIM: To document the detection of underlying low-attenuation spinal cord or brain
      stem injuries in the presence of the "pseudo-CT myelogram sign" (PCMS) on post
      mortem computed tomography (PMCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The PCMS was identified
      on PMCT in 20 decedents (11 male, nine female; age 3-83 years, mean age 35.3
      years) following fatal blunt trauma at a single forensic centre. Osseous and
      ligamentous craniocervical region injuries and brain stem or spinal cord trauma
      detectable on PMCT were recorded. PMCT findings were compared to conventional
      autopsy in all cases. RESULTS: PMCT-detected transection of the brain stem or
      high cervical cord in nine of 10 cases compared to autopsy (90% sensitivity).
      PMCT was 92.86% sensitive in detection of atlanto-occipital joint injuries
      (n=14), and 100% sensitive for atlanto-axial joint (n=8) injuries. PMCT detected
      more cervical spine and skull base fractures (n=22, and n=10, respectively)
      compared to autopsy (n=13, and n=5, respectively). CONCLUSION: The PCMS is a
      novel description of a diagnostic finding, which if present in fatal
      craniocervical region trauma, is very sensitive for underlying spinal cord and
      brain stem injuries not ordinarily visible on PMCT. Its presence may also predict
      major osseous and/or ligamentous injuries in this region when anatomical
      displacement is not evident on PMCT.

PMID- 28870433
TI  - Antibacterial activity of 3,3',4'-Trihydroxyflavone from Justicia wynaadensis
      against diabetic wound and urinary tract infection.
AB  - The present investigation was designed to study the effect of an active compound
      isolated from Justicia wynaadensis against multi drug resistant organisms
      (MDRO's) associated with diabetic patients. The drug resistant pathogens
      implicated in wound and urinary tract infection of diabetic patients were
      isolated and identified by molecular sequencing. Solvent-solvent fractionation of
      crude methanol extract produced hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol
      water fraction, among which chloroform fraction was found to be potent when
      compared with other three fractions. Further, chloroform fraction was subjected
      to preparatory HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography), that produced four
      sub-fractions; chloroform HPLC fraction 1 (CHF1) through CHF4. Among the sub
      fractions, CHF1 inhibited the pathogens effectively in comparison to other three
      sub-fractions. The purity of CHF1 was found to be >95%. Therefore, CHF1 was
      further characterized by NMR and FTIR analysis and based on the structure
      elucidated, the compound was found to be 3,3',4'-Trihydroxyflavone. The effective
      dose of this bioactive compound ranged from 32MUg/mL to 1.2mg/mL. Thus, the
      present study shows that 3,3',4'-Trihydroxyflavone isolated from J. wynaadensis
      is an interesting biopharmaceutical agent and could be considered as a source of
      antimicrobial agent for the treatment of various infections and used as a
      template molecule for future drug development.

PMID- 28870434
TI  - Cerebral Infarctions Following Palliative Transarterial Chemoembolization with
      Embozene of a Vertebral Body Metastatic Tumor.
AB  - Preoperative transarterial chemoembolization has been widely used as an adjunct
      therapy for hypervascular metastatic spinal tumors. Several therapeutic iodized
      oil-based agents have been used in combination with anticancer drugs for
      injection into a feeding artery. Novel spherical agents with narrow-range
      particles and lower tendency to clump are preferred for the embolization of
      vascular malformations and hypervascular tumors. We describe the first case of
      cerebral embolization resulting in posterior circulation infarctions following
      transarterial embolization of a vascular vertebral body metastatic tumor with
      Embozene microspheres.

PMID- 28870435
TI  - Short progressive muscle relaxation or motor coordination training does not
      increase performance in a brain-computer interface based on sensorimotor rhythms
      (SMR).
AB  - Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) allow for controlling devices through modulation
      of sensorimotor rhythms (SMR), yet a profound number of users is unable to
      achieve sufficient accuracy. Here, we investigated if visuo-motor coordination
      (VMC) training or Jacobsen's progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) prior to BCI use
      would increase later performance compared to a control group who performed a
      reading task (CG). Running the study in two different BCI-labs, we achieved a
      joint sample size of N=154 naive participants. No significant effect of either
      intervention (VMC, PMR, control) was found on resulting BCI performance.
      Relaxation level and visuo-motor performance were associated with later BCI
      performance in one BCI-lab but not in the other. These mixed results do not
      indicate a strong potential of VMC or PMR for boosting performance. Yet further
      research with different training parameters or experimental designs is needed to
      complete the picture.

PMID- 28870436
TI  - How to Write a High Quality Multiple Choice Question (MCQ): A Guide for
      Clinicians.
AB  - Despite the variety of assessment tools available, multiple choice questions
      (MCQs) still play an integral part in examinations at both a national and
      speciality board level. MCQs have a number of methodological advantages yet their
      strength is related to the quality of the question posed. Specifically, there has
      been a move towards the MCQ testing a taxonomically higher order concept of
      integration-interpretation and problem solving. This paper focuses on question
      development and the potential pitfalls to avoid.

PMID- 28870437
TI  - Preliminary Interpretations of Transthoracic Echocardiograms by Cardiology
      Fellows.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Echocardiograms are often obtained after business hours on an urgent
      or emergent basis to assist in the care of patients with complex presentations.
      Considerable variation exists among academic medical centers with regard to who
      performs and interprets these studies, with different levels of cardiology fellow
      involvement in scanning and/or interpreting. On-call echocardiographic
      interpretation can be educationally valuable for cardiologists in training but
      may come at the expense of patient care. The aim of this study was to examine the
      agreement of preliminary fellows' interpretations of weekend on-call
      transthoracic echocardiograms with official attending cardiologists'
      interpretations. METHODS: Cardiology fellows perform preliminary interpretations
      of sonographer-obtained echocardiograms obtained on weekends, with final reports
      performed by attending cardiologists the following business day. In this study,
      358 consecutive echocardiograms obtained on weekends over a 12-month period were
      reviewed. Discrepancies between the preliminary and final interpretations were
      categorized as either major (diagnoses with implications for urgent change in
      management) or minor (diagnoses without such implications). All discrepancies
      were also categorized as a missed diagnosis, an overcall (of severity), or an
      undercall. RESULTS: No preliminary interpretation was identified in 18.4% of the
      studies (66 of 358). Of the remaining on-call echocardiograms (n = 292), the
      overall discrepancy rate in interpretations between fellows and attending
      cardiologists was 16.8%. Out of these, the minor discrepancy rate was 14.4% (42
      of 292), and the major discrepancy rate was 2.4% (seven of 292). Misses,
      overcalls, and undercalls accounted for 29%, 31%, and 40% of all discrepancies,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that although minor discrepancies
      between fellows' and attending cardiologists' interpretations were common
      (14.4%), major discrepancies were uncommon (2.4%) and similar to major
      discrepancy rates from the radiology literature. In general, discrepant
      interpretations were more likely to result from changes in severity, but misses
      accounted for almost all of the major discrepancies. Further research is needed
      to compare the clinical impact of different models of on-call echocardiographic
      services.

PMID- 28870438
TI  - Standardized Delineation of Endocardial Boundaries in Three-Dimensional Left
      Ventricular Echocardiograms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography is fundamental for left
      ventricular (LV) assessment. The aim of this study was to determine discrepancies
      in 3D LV endocardial tracings and suggest tracing guidance. METHODS: Forty-five
      3D LV echocardiographic data sets were traced by three experienced operators,
      from different centers, according to predefined guidelines. The 3D meshes were
      compared with one another, and the endocardial areas of discrepancies were
      identified. A discussion and retracing protocol was used to reduce discrepancies.
      For each data set, an average 3D mesh was produced (reference mesh).
      Subsequently, four novice operators, divided into two groups, traced 20 of the
      data sets. Two operators followed the tracing protocol and two did not. RESULTS:
      The intraclass correlation coefficients among the three experienced operators for
      end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and ejection fraction were 0.952,
      0.955, and 0.932. The absolute distances between tracings were 1.11 +/- 0.45 mm.
      The highest tracing discrepancies were at the apical cap and anterior and
      anterolateral walls in end-diastole and end-systole and also at the basal
      anteroseptum in end-systole. Agreement with the reference meshes was better for
      the novice operators who followed the guidance (10.9 +/- 17.3 mL, 10.2 +/- 14.7
      mL, and -2.2 +/- 4.1% for end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and ejection
      fraction) compared with those who did not (16.3 +/- 16.4 mL, 17.0 +/- 16.0 mL,
      and -4.2 +/- 4.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Comparing 3D LV tracings, the
      endocardial areas that are the most difficult to delineate were identified. The
      suggested protocol for LV tracing resulted in very good agreement among
      operators. The reference 3D meshes are available for online testing and ranking
      of LV tracing algorithms.

PMID- 28870439
TI  - First insight into the heritable variation of the resistance to infection with
      the bacteria causing the withering syndrome disease in Haliotis rufescens
      abalone.
AB  - Withering syndrome disease has experienced worldwide spread in the last decade.
      This fatal disease for abalone is produced by a rickettsia-like organism (WS
      RLO), the bacterium "Candidatus Xenohaliotis californiensis". To evaluate the
      potential of the red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) to improve its resistance to
      infection by WS-RLO, the additive genetic component in the variation of this
      trait was estimated. For this, the variation in infection intensity with WS-RLOs
      and WS-RLOv (phage-infected RLOs) was analyzed in 56 families of full-sibs
      maintained for three years in a host-parasite cohabitation aquaculture system. A
      WS-RLO prevalence of 65% was observed in the analysed population; and from the
      total WS-RLO inclusions 60% were hyperparasited with the phage (WS-RLOv). The
      decrease in the food ingestion rate was the sole negative effect associated with
      increasing WS-RLO intensity of infection, suggesting that the high level of WS
      RLOv load may have diminished the symptoms of WS disease in the analyzed
      abalones. The estimated heritabilities were moderate to mid, but significant,
      varying from 0.21 to 0.23 and 0.36 for WS-RLO and WS-RLOv infections,
      respectively. This suggests that variation in resistance to infection with WS-RLO
      may respond to selection in the evaluated red abalone population. Estimated
      response to selection (G) for the level of infection by WS-RLO indicated that if
      the 10% of red abalone with the lowest infection level is selected as broodstock,
      a 90% reduction in the intensity of infection in the progeny can be expected,
      even with the lowest estimation of heritability (h2=0.21). This strong response
      would be also due to the large phenotypic variance of this trait. Strong positive
      correlations, both phenotypic and genotypic, were observed between infection
      intensities with WS-RLO and WS-RLOv, indicating that selection to increase
      resistance to one of the types of RLOs will affect resistance in the other in the
      same direction. This is the first study that demonstrates the existence of
      additive genetic variation for resistance to WS-RLO in abalone. Consequently, it
      is possible to increase the resistance to WS-RLO in H. rufescens by selective
      breeding, which can be an economically attractive and environmentally friendly
      manner to reduce mortalities and growth effects caused by WS in abalone farms.

PMID- 28870440
TI  - The noninvasive diagnosis of esophageal varices and its application in clinical
      practice.
AB  - Here, we review recent improvements made to different noninvasive tests used for
      the diagnosis of esophageal varices (EV) in the light of the recent Baveno VI
      recommendation and with an emphasis on clinical application. Like for fibrosis
      tests, these noninvasive EV tests can be classified as direct markers when they
      provide a visualization of EV (including all imaging procedures like endoscopy or
      radiology) and as indirect markers when they do not (blood markers or
      elastometry). Clinical descriptors expressed as percentages, especially the
      spared endoscopy rate and the missed high-risk esophageal varices (HREV) rate,
      are more eloquent in this setting than classical statistical descriptors like
      accuracy. Single biomarkers are insufficient, generally due to a missed HREV rate
      exceeding the acceptable limit of 5% indicated in the Baveno VI consensus. Thus,
      biomarker combinations are currently garnering the most interest. The Baveno VI
      recommendation states that in alcoholic and viral cirrhoses, screening endoscopy
      can be safely set aside for patients with liver stiffness<20kPa and
      platelets>150G/L. The Baveno rule's mean missed HREV rate is<5% but its spared
      endoscopy rate is<20%. New combinations or stepwise algorithms show promise but
      must be validated. Going forward, the Baveno rule provides a simple noninvasive
      method to rule out HREV in clinical practice but the need for further research
      continues. The noninvasive diagnosis of HREV will be significantly improved by
      new, simple and affordable combinations.

PMID- 28870441
TI  - Influences on decision-making for young women undergoing bilateral prophylactic
      mastectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the influences on decision
      making of younger women (<35) undergoing or considering bilateral prophylactic
      mastectomy (BPM). METHODS: Qualitative interviews guided by interpretative
      phenomenological analysis (IPA) were conducted with forty-six women who had a
      strong family history of breast cancer (BC) who had either undergone (n=26) or
      were considering (n=20) BPM. Participants were recruited from Australia and New
      Zealand (NZ) via hospitals, a genetics clinic, a research cohort, a registry and
      online. RESULTS: Four themes underpinning the influences on decision-making were
      identified: fear and anxiety, children, personal experiences with BC, health
      professional's influence. CONCLUSIONS: The decision to undergo BPM for younger
      women (<35) was multifaceted, however, it appeared that fear and anxiety were the
      main influence. Younger women appear more anxious than previous research with
      older women. There appears to be few differences between those with confirmed
      BRCA1/2 mutations and those with no known mutation and this is clinically
      significant. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: These findings have important practice
      implications, particularly improving communication of risk statistics, especially
      to those with no known mutation. Health professionals need to take into account
      the way younger women perceive information given to them when discussing risk.

PMID- 28870442
TI  - Mimicking non-verbal emotional expressions and empathy development in simulated
      consultations: An experimental feasibility study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the feasibility of applying an experimental design to study
      the relationship between non-verbal emotions and empathy development in simulated
      consultations. METHOD: In video-recorded simulated consultations, twenty
      clinicians were randomly allocated to either an experimental group (instructed to
      mimic non-verbal emotions of a simulated patient, SP) or a control group (no such
      instruction). Baseline empathy scores were obtained before consultation,
      relational empathy was rated by SP after consultation. Multilevel logistic
      regression modelled the probability of mimicry occurrence, controlling for
      baseline empathy and clinical experience. ANCOVA compared group differences on
      relational empathy and consultation smoothness. RESULTS: Instructed mimicry
      lasted longer than spontaneous mimicry. Mimicry was marginally related to
      improved relational empathy. SP felt being treated more like a whole person
      during consultations with spontaneous mimicry. Clinicians who displayed
      spontaneous mimicry felt consultations went more smoothly. CONCLUSION: The
      experimental approach improved our understanding of how non-verbal emotional
      mimicry contributed to relational empathy development during consultations.
      Further work should ascertain the potential of instructed mimicry to enhance
      empathy development. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Understanding how non-verbal
      emotional mimicry impacts on patients' perceived clinician empathy during
      consultations may inform training and intervention programme development.

PMID- 28870444
TI  - Pharmacists' satisfaction with their work: Analysis of an alumni survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The level of job satisfaction among practicing pharmacists is
      important because it has been found to affect job performance and employee
      turnover. The Swedish pharmacy market has undergone major changes in recent
      years, and little is known about pharmacists' job satisfaction. OBJECTIVES: The
      objective of this study was to investigate the level of job satisfaction and
      associated factors among graduates from the web-based pharmacy programs at Umea
      University. METHODS: Job satisfaction of pharmacists was measured as part of an
      alumni survey conducted with those who graduated from the pharmacy programmes
      between 2006 and 2014. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, and
      logistic regression was used to explore factors affecting job satisfaction.
      RESULTS: The total number of graduates who completed the survey was 222 (response
      rate 43%.) The majority of respondents were female (95%), and most were employed
      at a community pharmacy (85%). The mean age was 39.7 years. The majority of
      graduates (91%) were satisfied with their job "most of the time" or "all of the
      time", and 87% of the respondents would "definitely" or "maybe" choose the same
      career again. The multivariate analysis showed that increasing years in the
      current position (OR: 0.672 (0.519-0.871)) was associated with lower job
      satisfaction. Older age (OR: 1.123 (1.022-1.234)), the perception that the
      knowledge and skills acquired during university education is useful in the
      current job (OR: 4.643 (1.255-17.182)) and access to continuing professional
      development (OR: 9.472 (1.965-45.662)) were associated with higher job
      satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Most graduates from the web-based pharmacy programmes
      were satisfied with their current job. Access to continuing professional
      development seems to be important for the level of job satisfaction among
      pharmacists.

PMID- 28870445
TI  - Gene expression and molecular characterization of a novel C-type lectin,
      encapsulation promoting lectin (EPL), in the rice armyworm, Mythimna separata.
AB  - Insect cellular immune reactions differ depending on the target species.
      Phagocytosis is activated to scavenge microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi.
      On the other hand, larger invaders such as parasitoid wasps are eliminated by
      activation of encapsulation. In this study, we hypothesized that novel
      determinants regulate cellular immunities independent of surface molecular
      pattern recognition involving pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Immune
      related genes differentially expressed depending on the treated material size
      were screened in larval hemocytes of the rice armyworm, Mythimna separata.
      Consequently, we identified a novel C-type lectin gene up-regulated by injection
      of large beads but not small beads of identical material. Examination of in vitro
      effect of the recombinant protein on the immune reactions clarified that the
      protein activated encapsulation reaction, while it suppressed phagocytosis. These
      results suggest that this novel C-type lectin designated "encapsulation promoting
      lectin (EPL)" regulates cellular immunity by a novel immune target size
      recognition mechanism.

PMID- 28870443
TI  - Light at night as an environmental endocrine disruptor.
AB  - Environmental endocrine disruptors (EEDs) are often consequences of human
      activity; however, the effects of EEDs are not limited to humans. A primary focus
      over the past ~30years has been on chemical EEDs, but the repercussions of non
      chemical EEDs, such as artificial light at night (LAN), are of increasing
      interest. The sensitivity of the circadian system to light and the influence of
      circadian organization on overall physiology and behavior make the system a
      target for disruption with widespread effects. Indeed, there is increasing
      evidence for a role of LAN in human health, including disruption of circadian
      regulation and melatonin signaling, metabolic dysregulation, cancer risk, and
      disruption of other hormonally-driven systems. These effects are not limited to
      humans; domesticated animals as well as wildlife are also exposed to LAN, and at
      risk for disrupted circadian rhythms. Here, we review data that support the role
      of LAN as an endocrine disruptor in humans to be considered in treatments and
      lifestyle suggestions. We also present the effects of LAN in other animals, and
      discuss the potential for ecosystem-wide effects of artificial LAN. This can
      inform decisions in agricultural practices and urban lighting decisions to avoid
      unintended outcomes.

PMID- 28870446
TI  - HEPACONTROL. A program that reduces early readmissions, mortality at 60 days, and
      healthcare costs in decompensated cirrhosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Decompensated cirrhosis patients have an elevated incidence of
      early readmission, mortality and economic burden. The aims of HEPACONTROL were to
      reduce early readmission and to evaluate its impact on mortality and emergency
      department visits. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Quasi-experimental study with control
      group which compared two cohorts of patients discharged after being admitted for
      cirrhosis-related complications. A prospective cohort (n=80), who followed the
      HEPACONTROL program, which began with a follow-up examination seven days after
      discharge at the Hepatology Unit Day Hospital and a retrospective cohort of
      patients (n=112), who had been given a standard follow-up. Outcome variables that
      were compared between both groups were early readmission rates, the number of
      emergency department visits post-discharge, financial costs and mortality.
      RESULTS: The rate of early readmission was lower in the group with HEPACONTROL
      (11.3% vs 29.5%; P=.003). Also, the mean number of visits to the emergency
      department post-discharge (1.10+/-1.64 vs 1.71+/-2.36; P=.035), mortality at
      60days (3.8% vs 14.3%; P=.016), and the cost of early readmission were all lower
      compared with the group with standard follow-up (P=.029). CONCLUSIONS:
      HEPACONTROL decreases the incidence of early readmission the rate of emergency
      department visits and mortality at 60days in patients with decompensated
      cirrhosis, and it is cost-effective.

PMID- 28870450
TI  - White blood cell profiles in amphibians help to explain disease susceptibility
      following temperature shifts.
AB  - Temperature variability, and in particular temperature decreases, can increase
      susceptibility of amphibians to infections by the fungus Batrachochytrium
      dendrobatidis (Bd). However, the effects of temperature shifts on the immune
      systems of Bd-infected amphibians are unresolved. We acclimated frogs to 16 
      degrees C and 26  degrees C (baseline), simultaneously transferred them to an
      intermediate temperature (21  degrees C) and inoculated them with Bd (treatment),
      and tracked their infection levels and white blood cell profiles over six weeks.
      Average weekly infection loads were consistently higher in 26 degrees C-history
      frogs, a group that experienced a 5  degrees C temperature decrease, than in 16
      degrees C-history frogs, a group that experienced a 5  degrees C temperature
      increase, but this pattern only approached statistical significance. The 16
      degrees C-acclimated frogs had high neutrophil:lymphocyte (N:L) ratios
      (suggestive of a hematopoietic stress response) at baseline, which were conserved
      post-treatment. In contrast, the 26 degrees C-acclimated frogs had low N:L ratios
      at baseline which reversed to high N:L ratios post-treatment (suggestive of
      immune system activation). Our results suggest that infections were less
      physiologically taxing for the 16 degrees C-history frogs than the 26 degrees C
      history frogs because they had already adjusted immune parameters in response to
      challenging conditions (cold). Our findings provide a possible mechanistic
      explanation for observations that amphibians are more susceptible to Bd infection
      following temperature decreases compared to increases and underscore the
      consensus that increased temperature variability associated with climate change
      may increase the impact of infectious diseases.

PMID- 28870448
TI  - Nasal interleukin 25 as a novel biomarker for patients with chronic
      rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and airway hypersensitiveness: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a chronic
      inflammatory disease of the upper airway and is tightly linked with airway
      hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and asthma. However, the surrogate biomarkers for
      indicating AHR and asthma in patients with CRSwNP remain elusive. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the surrogate biomarkers for indicating AHR and asthma in patients
      with CRSwNP. METHODS: In this study, sinonasal tissues were collected from 42
      patients with CRSwNP (asthma, n = 17; asymptomatic AHR, n = 11; non-AHR, n = 14),
      11 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps (CRSsNP), and 13
      controls. The protein and messenger RNA levels of interleukin (IL) 25 and other
      cytokines in nasal polyp (NP) and control sinonasal tissues were determined by
      quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and multiplex immunoassay,
      respectively. Multivariate logistic regression and receiver operating
      characteristic curve analysis were performed to assess the clinical relevance of
      IL-25. RESULTS: We found that the protein and messenger RNA levels of IL-25 were
      significantly increased in NP tissues compared with the control sinonasal tissues
      from patients with CRSwNP, patients with CRSsNP, and controls. Multivariate
      logistic regression revealed that the nasal IL-25 protein level and nasal and
      blood eosinophil counts were independent risk factors for AHR in patients with
      CRSwNP. According to receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, nasal
      tissue IL-25 had a sensitivity of 91.4% and a specificity of 62.8% (area under
      the curve, 0.845) at the cutoff level of 5 pg/MUL for indicating AHR in this
      CRSwNP cohort. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that IL-25 was significantly
      increased in NP tissues and may be considered as the molecular indicator for AHR
      in patients with CRSwNP. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT02110654.

PMID- 28870449
TI  - Assessing hypoxia risk during air travel after a severe asthma exacerbation in
      children.

PMID- 28870451
TI  - MicroRNA-based transcriptomic responses of Atlantic salmon during infection by
      the intracellular bacterium Piscirickettsia salmonis.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that have emerged as key regulators
      in diverse biological processes across taxa. However, despite the importance of
      these transcripts, little is known about their role during the immune response in
      salmonids. Because of this, we use deep sequencing technologies to explore the
      microRNA-based transcriptomic response of the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) to
      the intracellular bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis, one of the main threats to
      salmon aquaculture in Chile. Hence, 594 different miRNAs were identified from
      head kidney and spleen transcriptomic data. Among them, miRNA families mir-181,
      mir-143 and mir-21 were the most abundant in control groups, while after
      infection with P. salmonis, mir-21, mir-181 and mir-30 were the most predominant
      families. Furthermore, transcriptional analysis revealed 84 and 25 differentially
      expressed miRNAs in head kidney and spleen respectively, with an overlapping
      response of 10 miRNAs between the analyzed tissues. Target prediction, coupled
      with GO enrichment analysis, revealed that the possible targets of the most
      regulated miRNAs were genes involved in the immune response, such as cortisol
      metabolism, chemokine-mediated signaling pathway and neutrophil chemotaxis genes.
      Among these, predicted putative target genes such as C-C motif chemokine 19-like,
      stromal cell-derived factor 1-like, myxovirus resistance protein 2 and hepcidin-1
      were identified. Overall, our results suggest that miRNA expression in co
      modulation with transcription activity of target genes is related to putative
      roles of non-coding RNAs in the immune response of Atlantic salmon against
      intracellular bacterial pathogens.

PMID- 28870447
TI  - Psychosocial functioning and the cortisol awakening response: Meta-analysis, P
      curve analysis, and evaluation of the evidential value in existing studies.
AB  - Cortisol levels rise immediately after awakening and peak approximately 30-45min
      thereafter. Psychosocial functioning influences this cortisol awakening response
      (CAR), but there is considerable heterogeneity in the literature. The current
      study used p-curve and meta-analysis on 709 findings from 212 studies to test the
      evidential value and estimate effect sizes of four sets of findings: those
      associating worse psychosocial functioning with higher or lower cortisol increase
      relative to the waking period (CARi) and to the output of the waking period
      (AUCw). All four sets of findings demonstrated evidential value. Psychosocial
      predictors explained 1%-3.6% of variance in CARi and AUCw responses. Based on
      these effect sizes, cross-sectional studies assessing CAR would need a minimum
      sample size of 617-783 to detect true effects with 80% power. Depression was
      linked to higher AUCw and posttraumatic stress to lower AUCw, whereas
      inconclusive results were obtained for predictor-specific effects on CARi.
      Suggestions for future CAR research are discussed.

PMID- 28870452
TI  - Doxorubicin-loaded oligonucleotide conjugated gold nanoparticles: A promising in
      vivo drug delivery system for colorectal cancer therapy.
AB  - In this study, we propose doxorubicin (DOX) loaded oligonucleotides (ONTs)
      attached to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as a drug delivery system for cancer
      chemotherapy. DOX is one of the representative cancer chemotherapy agents and is
      widely used by many researchers as a chemotherapy agent in the drug delivery
      system. Due to the advantages of AuNPs such as simple steps in synthesis, high
      surface-area-to-volume ratio, and biocompatibility, we utilized AuNPs as drug
      delivery vehicle. AuNPs were synthesized by chemical reduction to be 13 nm
      diameter. The G-C rich oligonucleotides were used both for drug loading sites and
      AuNPs capping agents. 80% of DOX in solution could be bound to ONTs on AuNPs to
      became DOX-loaded AuNPs coated with ONTs (Doxorubicin-Oligomer-AuNP, DOA), and
      about 28% of loaded DOX was released from the as-prepared DOA. Confocal
      microscopy observation showed that DOA was well transported into cells, and
      finally the DOX was released into the cell nucleus. The drug's efficacies such as
      in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo tumor growth inhibition were demonstrated with
      SW480 colon cancer cell line and a xenograft mouse model. MTT assay was performed
      to see the cytotoxicity effect on SW480 cells treated with DOA for 24 h, and the
      cell viability was determined to be 41.77% (p < 0.001). When DOA was administered
      regularly to a tumor bearing mouse, the tumor growth inhibition degree was
      examined by measuring the tumor size. The treatment-control (T/C) ratio was found
      to be 0.69. Thus, our results suggest the use of DOAs as promising drug delivery
      systems for colorectal cancer therapy.

PMID- 28870454
TI  - Introduction to flavoproteins: Beyond the classical paradigms.

PMID- 28870453
TI  - Spinal cord tumors in children: A review of 21 cases treated at the same
      institution.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Spinal cord tumors in children (SCTC) are rare with a frequent
      diagnostic delay. Its management is multidisciplinary and challenging due to
      functional implications. The position of surgery is now better established but
      the role and timing of chemotherapy (CT) and radiotherapy (RT) still remains
      under debate. Adverse effects of treatments are important to be taken into
      account, in the follow-up of these children. The aim of this paper was to present
      a series of 21 cases of SCTC treated at the same institution, to briefly present
      clinical features, treatments and outcome, with a special focus on spinal
      deformities in children with this condition. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty-one
      consecutive SCTC were referred to our institution from 1990 to 2014. Data
      regarding age, sex, diagnostic delay, clinical examination, MRI, surgery,
      pathology, other treatment (CT and RT), orthopedic issues and follow-up of these
      children were retrospectively recorded. RESULTS: Mean age was 8years (standard
      deviation: 5.2years) (range: 4 months-17years). Mean diagnosis delay was 5.5
      months (standard deviation: 6.5 months) (range: 0 days-18 months). All children
      (10 girls, 11 boys) were operated on (10 partial removals, 7 subtotal and 4 gross
      total removals) as first-line treatment. Pathological results showed 12 juvenile
      pilocytic astrocytomas, 1 grade III astrocytoma, 1 grade IV astrocytoma, 3
      oligodendrogliomas, 2 ependymomas, 1 glioblastoma and 1 rhabdoid tumor. Fourteen
      children (66.7%) received additional treatment: 12 CT and 7 RT. Ten children had
      postoperative spinal deformities. Mean follow-up (FU) was 71 months (5 months-180
      months), with a median FU at 60 months, where 8 tumor progressions and 4 deaths
      were observed. Overall, survival (at 5years) was 81% and progression free
      survival (at 5years) was 67%. CONCLUSION: Surgery is the goal standard for SCTC
      and the only appropriate treatment in cases of a low-grade lesion with stable
      disease on MR follow-up. Additional treatment must be reserved for high-grade
      lesions or tumor progression not attainable by a second look surgery. Spinal
      deformities are a frequent complication. Overall, survival and event free
      survival primarily depends on the pathology. Studies involving more centers are
      obligatory with the aim of collecting more cases and drawing more definitive
      conclusions regarding the management of these tumors.

PMID- 28870455
TI  - Pharmacological evaluation of metformin and N-benzylbiguanide, a novel analogue
      of metformin, on the vasopressor responses to adrenergic system stimulation in
      pithed rats with fructose-induced insulin resistance.
AB  - Metformin has been associated with cardioprotection, vasorelaxation and
      normalization of endothelial function during type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. However,
      few studies have analysed its effects on vascular adrenergic system. Our study
      has evaluated the vasopressor responses induced by sympathetic stimulation or by
      i.v. bolus injections of the agonists noradrenaline (alpha1/2), methoxamine
      (alpha1) and UK 14,304 (alpha2) in rats with fructose-induced insulin resistance
      chronically pretreated with either metformin or EGL-6M (N-benzylbiguanide), a
      novel analogue of metformin. Rats were treated with fructose (15%) or tap water
      (control) during 16 weeks. Next, both groups were treated daily during 4 weeks
      with: (1) vehicle; (2) metformin (50mg/kg); or (3) EGL-6M (50mg/kg). Blood
      glucose and plasma insulin were determined before and after administration of
      glucose during oral glucose tolerance test. Animals treated with fructose showed
      hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, which were decreased by metformin and
      EGL-6M. In animals treated with fructose, the vasopressor responses induced by:
      (1) sympathetic stimulation were decreased; (2) noradrenaline were increased; and
      (3) methoxamine and UK 14,304 remained unaffected compared with control group. In
      control animals, metformin failed to modify the vasopressor responses analysed,
      while EGL-6M increased the vasopressor responses to sympathetic stimulation. In
      rats treated with fructose, metformin decreased vasopressor response to
      noradrenaline but did not modify the sympathetic stimulation responses. EGL-6M
      increased the vasopressor responses to sympathetic stimulation without modifying
      those to noradrenaline, methoxamine or UK 14,304. Collectively, these data
      suggest that EGL-6M is capable to increase insulin sensitivity and the
      vasopressor sympathetic outflow in rats.

PMID- 28870456
TI  - Pharmacological synergism of 2,2-dichloroacetophenone and EGFR-TKi to overcome
      TKi-induced resistance in NSCLC cells.
AB  - Combination treatment has been used as one of the therapeutic approaches for
      patients suffering from lung cancer, either to cope with the issue of acquired
      drug resistance due to prolong the use of a particular EGFR-TKi treatment, or to
      decrease the doses of each compound in order to reduce potential toxicity. 2,2
      dichloroacetophenone (DAP) was reported as a PDK inhibitor recently, which is
      much more potent than dichloroacetate (DCA) in anti-cancer therapy. In this
      study, we applied DAP in combined with EGFR-TKis, erlotinib or gefitinib in NSCLC
      cell lines and NSCLC xenograft model. Synergistic anti-cancer effects in two
      NSCLC cell lines with EGFR mutation, NCI-H1975 and NCI-H1650, as well as in NCI
      H1975 xenograft model were observed. In comparison with either DAP or EGFR-TKi
      applied alone, the combination treatment not only further suppressed the EGFR
      signaling in vitro and in vivo, but also significantly promoted cell apoptosis.
      Interestingly, this synergistic anti-cancer effect was also observed in NCI-H1975
      gefitinib induced-resistant cell line. Taken together, our results suggested that
      the combined use of DAP and EGFR-TKi exhibited anti-cancer synergy which may
      offer an additional treatment option for patients with EGFR-TKi induced
      resistance.

PMID- 28870458
TI  - Farm exposure in early childhood is associated with a lower risk of severe
      respiratory illnesses.

PMID- 28870457
TI  - A fluorogenic C. neoformans reporter strain with a robust expression of m-cherry
      expressed from a safe haven site in the genome.
AB  - C. neoformans is an encapsulated fungal pathogen with defined asexual and sexual
      life cycles. Due to the availability of genetic and molecular tools for its
      manipulation, it has become a model organism for studies of fungal pathogens,
      even though it lacks a reliable system for maintaining DNA fragments as
      extrachromosomal plasmids. To compensate for this deficiency, we identified a
      genomic gene-free intergenic region where heterologous DNA could be inserted by
      homologous recombination without adverse effects on the phenotype of the
      recipient strain. Since such a site in the C. neoformans genome at a different
      location has been named previously as "safe haven", we named this locus second
      safe haven site (SH2). Insertion of DNA into this site in the genome of the KN99
      congenic strain pair caused minimal change in the growth of the engineered strain
      under a variety of in vitro and in vivo conditions. We exploited this 'safe'
      locus to create a genetically stable highly fluorescent strain expressing mCherry
      protein (KN99mCH); this strain closely resembled its wild-type parent (KN99alpha)
      in growth under a variety of in vitro stress conditions and in the expression of
      virulence traits. The efficiency of phagocytosis and the proliferation of KN99mCH
      inside human monocyte-derived macrophages were comparable to those of KN99alpha,
      and the engineered strain showed the expected organ dissemination after
      inoculation, although there was a slight reduction in virulence. The mCherry
      fluorescence allowed us to measure specific association of cryptococci with
      leukocytes in the lungs and mediastinal lymph nodes of infected animals and, for
      the first-time, to assess their live/dead status in vivo. These results highlight
      the utility of KN99mCH for elucidation of host-pathogen interactions in vivo.
      Finally, we generated drug-resistant KN99 strains of both mating types that are
      marked at the SH2 locus with a specific drug resistant gene cassette; these
      strains will facilitate the generation of mutant strains by mating.

PMID- 28870459
TI  - Long-term benefits of optimal asthma control in pregnancy.

PMID- 28870460
TI  - Increased IgE levels are linked to faster relapse in patients with omalizumab
      discontinued chronic spontaneous urticaria.

PMID- 28870462
TI  - Food diversity during the first year of life and allergic diseases until 15
      years.

PMID- 28870461
TI  - Enhanced plasmacytoid dendritic cell antiviral responses after omalizumab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atopy and viral respiratory tract infections synergistically promote
      asthma exacerbations. IgE cross-linking inhibits critical virus-induced IFN-alpha
      responses of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), which can be deficient in
      patients with allergic asthma. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether reducing
      IgE levels in vivo with omalizumab treatment increases pDC antiviral IFN-alpha
      responses in inner-city children with asthma. METHODS: PBMCs and pDCs isolated
      from children with exacerbation-prone asthma before and during omalizumab
      treatment were stimulated ex vivo with rhinovirus and influenza in the presence
      or absence of IgE cross-linking. IFN-alpha levels were measured in supernatants,
      and mRNA expression of IFN-alpha pathway genes was determined by using
      quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) in cell pellets. FcepsilonRIalpha protein levels
      and mRNA expression were measured in unstimulated cells by using flow cytometry
      and qRT-PCR, respectively. Changes in these outcomes and associations with
      clinical outcomes were analyzed, and statistical modeling was used to identify
      risk factors for asthma exacerbations. RESULTS: Omalizumab treatment increased
      rhinovirus- and influenza-induced PBMC and rhinovirus-induced pDC IFN-alpha
      responses in the presence of IgE cross-linking and reduced pDC surface
      FcepsilonRIalpha expression. Omalizumab-induced reductions in pDC
      FcepsilonRIalpha levels were significantly associated with a lower asthma
      exacerbation rate during the outcome period and correlated with increases in PBMC
      IFN-alpha responses. PBMC FcepsilonRIalpha mRNA expression measured on study
      entry significantly improved an existing model of exacerbation prediction.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that omalizumab treatment augments pDC IFN
      alpha responses and attenuates pDC FcepsilonRIalpha protein expression and
      provide evidence that these effects are related. These results support a
      potential mechanism underlying clinical observations that allergic sensitization
      is associated with increased susceptibility to virus-induced asthma
      exacerbations.

PMID- 28870463
TI  - Efficacy and safety of 4 months of sublingual immunotherapy with recombinant Mal
      d 1 and Bet v 1 in patients with birch pollen-related apple allergy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Birch pollen-related apple allergy is among the most prevalent food
      allergies in adolescent/adult subjects and mainly results from sensitization to
      the major birch pollen allergen Bet v 1 and subsequent cross-reaction with the
      apple protein Mal d 1. However, specific immunotherapy with birch pollen has
      inconsistent effects on apple allergy. OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare the safety
      and efficacy of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) with 2 formulations containing
      either rMal d 1 or rBet v 1 on birch pollen-related apple allergy. METHODS: Sixty
      participants with birch pollen-related apple allergy were randomized to daily
      sublingual application of placebo (n = 20) or 25 MUg of rMal d 1 (n = 20) or rBet
      v 1 (n = 20) for 16 weeks. Adverse events were regularly recorded. Sublingual
      challenges with standardized doses of rMal d 1, skin prick tests with recombinant
      allergens, and measurements of allergen-specific IgE and IgG4 antibodies were
      performed before and after treatment. RESULTS: Both formulations caused
      comparable, mainly local adverse events. No systemic reactions occurred. Compared
      with the placebo and rBet v 1-treated groups, SLIT with rMal d 1 reduced rMal d 1
      induced oral symptoms (P = .001 and P = .038) accompanied by longitudinally
      reduced rMal d 1-specific cutaneous reactions (P = .022) and enhanced IgG4/IgE
      ratios (P = .012). SLIT with rBet v 1 neither improved the clinical reactivity to
      rMal d 1 nor enhanced rMal d 1-specific IgG4/IgE ratios. Participants receiving
      placebo showed no allergen-specific changes. CONCLUSION: Sublingual treatment
      with a recombinant food allergen was safe and clinically effective, as determined
      by using standardized challenges. We present a promising approach for the
      effective treatment of birch pollen-related apple allergy.

PMID- 28870464
TI  - Serum periostin, IgE, and SE-IgE can be used as biomarkers to identify moderate
      to severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.

PMID- 28870465
TI  - Inhibition of IL-17-committed T cells in a murine psoriasis model by a vitamin D
      analogue.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A better understanding of the means by which topical vitamin D
      analogues exert their therapeutic effect on psoriasis is of theoretical and
      practical importance. OBJECTIVE: We sought to clarify whether and how the topical
      vitamin D analogue calcipotriol (CAL) controls the IL-17A-mediated pathogenesis
      of murine psoriasis-like dermatitis in vivo. METHODS: Psoriasis-like dermatitis
      was induced by the topical application of an imiquimod (IMQ)-containing cream on
      the murine ear for 4 to 6 consecutive days. For topical CAL treatment, mice were
      treated daily with CAL solution on the ear before IMQ application. RESULTS: Mice
      treated topically with CAL exhibited much milder IMQ-induced psoriasis-like
      dermatitis compared with vehicle-treated mice, with impaired accumulation of IL
      17A-committed T (T17) cells in the lesional skin. The IMQ-induced upregulation of
      Il12b and Il23a was marked in the epidermis and was abrogated by CAL application,
      suggesting CAL-mediated suppression of IL-23 expression. CAL inhibited Il12b and
      Il23a expression by Langerhans cells ex vivo stimulated with IMQ and CD40 cross
      linking. Topical CAL also inhibited T17 cell expansion in the draining lymph
      nodes of IMQ-treated skin, implying a possible effect on T17 cell-mediated
      dermatitis at distant sites. In fact, topical CAL application on the IMQ-treated
      left ear resulted in amelioration of T17 cell accumulation and psoriasis-like
      dermatitis in the right ear subsequently treated with IMQ. CONCLUSION: Topical
      CAL can exert its antipsoriatic effect on CAL-treated lesions and, concomitantly,
      distant lesions by attenuating the T17 cell accumulation in both CAL-treated
      lesions and draining lymph nodes.

PMID- 28870466
TI  - IL-12 and IL-7 synergize to control mucosal-associated invariant T-cell cytotoxic
      responses to bacterial infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacterial respiratory tract infections and exacerbations of chronic
      lung diseases are commonly caused by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi).
      Cell-mediated cytotoxicity might be key to controlling infection, but the
      responses of NTHi-specific T-cell populations are not well understood. Mucosal
      associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are a recently discovered, innate-like subset
      of T cells with cytotoxic function, the role of which in lung immunity is
      unclear. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the mechanisms behind
      conventional T-cell and MAIT cell cytotoxic responses to NTHi. METHODS: Human ex
      vivo lung explants were infected with a clinical strain of NTHi. Monocyte-derived
      macrophages were also infected with NTHi in vitro and cocultured with autologous
      T cells. Cytotoxic responses of T-cell subsets were measured by using flow
      cytometry. RESULTS: We found significant upregulation of the cytotoxic markers
      CD107a and granzyme B in lung CD4+, CD8+, and MAIT cell populations. We show that
      MAIT cell cytotoxic responses were upregulated by a combination of both time
      dependent antigen presentation and a novel mechanism through which IL-12 and IL-7
      synergistically control granzyme B through upregulation of the IL-12 receptor.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our data provide evidence for a cytotoxic role of MAIT
      cells in the lung and highlight important differences in the control of adaptive
      and innate-like T-cell responses. Understanding these mechanisms might lead to
      new therapeutic opportunities to modulate the antibacterial response and improve
      clinical outcome.

PMID- 28870467
TI  - Corrigendum to "Advanced breast cancer rates in the epoch of service screening:
      The 400,000 women cohort study from Italy" [Eur J Cancer 75 (April 2017) 109
      116].

PMID- 28870468
TI  - Corrigendum to "Accurate NMR determination of C-H or N-H distances for unlabeled
      molecules" [Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 73 (2016) 15-21].

PMID- 28870469
TI  - First demonstration of equid gammaherpesviruses within the gastric mucosal
      epithelium of horses.
AB  - Horses commonly develop gastric mucosal ulcers, similar to humans, a condition
      known as equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) that can lead to poor performance
      and lost training time and care expenses. Unlike humans, however, an infectious
      bacterial cause of ulcers has not been conclusively identified. Herpesviruses,
      while well-established causative agents of diseases such as cold sores, genital
      lesions, and certain types of cancer, have also been implicated in the
      development of a subset of gastric ulcers in humans. The presence of equid
      herpesviruses in the gastrointestinal tract and their potential contribution to
      EGUS has not been evaluated. Here, we provide the first evidence of equid
      gammaherpesviruses 2 and 5 (EHV-2 and -5) within the epithelium of the gastric
      mucosa of horses. These viruses were initially detected by a nested PCR screen of
      gastric tissue samples obtained from client- and university-owned horses with and
      without ulcers; however, no association with EGUS was found in this limited
      sample set. We then validated a highly sensitive in situ hybridization (ISH)
      assay and used this assay to characterize the distribution of these viruses in
      necropsy gastric tissue samples from five racehorses. Analyses revealed frequent
      EHV-2 and EHV-5 co-infections within the gastric mucosal epithelium, regardless
      of the ulcer status. These results are the first to demonstrate the presence of
      equid gammaherpesviruses in the gastric mucosa of horses and warrants further
      investigation to determine the contribution of these viruses to the development
      of EGUS and/or other gastrointestinal diseases.

PMID- 28870471
TI  - Challenging Occam's Razor: An Unusual Combination of Sarcoidosis and Amyloidosis.
      The Value of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Infiltrative Cardiomyopathies.
AB  - We describe the case of a 66-year old woman with the extremely rare combination
      of sarcoidosis and amyloidosis (light chain) and the important role of
      cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging to differentiate between these 2
      infiltrative diseases. Myocardial characterization with T1 mapping can improve
      disease detection, especially in overlap cases, and possibly obviate the need for
      cardiac biopsy.

PMID- 28870470
TI  - Poliovirus Receptor: More than a simple viral receptor.
AB  - The human poliovirus receptor (PVR) is a cell surface protein with a multitude of
      functions in human biology. PVR was initially identified as the receptor for the
      human poliovirus and recent discoveries have given a greater insight into both
      its morphology and its function. Alternative splicing of the PVR gene results in
      a total of 4 alternatively spliced isoforms. Two of these isoforms lack a
      complete transmembrane domain and are considered soluble and block viral
      infection; the remaining two transmembrane isoforms differ only at their extreme
      C-terminal domains resulting in differential localization in epithelia and
      polarity of viral infection. In addition to its role as a receptor for the human
      poliovirus, several native biological functions have also been uncovered. PVR is
      an important cell adhesion protein and is involved in the transendothelial
      migration of leukocytes. Through its interactions with CD226 and TIGIT,
      transmembrane proteins found on leukocytes, PVR is a key regulator of the cell
      mediated immune response. As PVR is differentially regulated in a broad spectrum
      of cancers, it has a strong potential for clinical use as a biomarker. PVR is
      also a possible target for novel cancer therapies. Utilizing its natural tropism
      for PVR, a genetically modified form of the live attenuated poliovirus vaccine is
      currently being tested for its ability to locate and destroy certain tumors.
      These recent studies emphasize the importance of PVR in human biology and
      demonstrate its utility beyond being a viral receptor protein.

PMID- 28870472
TI  - Effects of high beta-glucan barley on visceral fat obesity in Japanese
      individuals: A randomized, double-blind study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether a diet in which high
      beta-glucan barley was substituted for rice would reduce visceral fat obesity in
      Japanese individuals. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled
      intervention study was conducted with 100 Japanese individuals with waist
      circumference (WC) >=85 cm for men or >=90 cm for women and body mass index (BMI)
      >=24 kg/m2. Participants were randomly assigned to consume a mixture of rice and
      either high beta-glucan barley (test group, 4.4 g/d) or beta-glucan-free barley
      (placebo group) for 12 wk. Blood samples and computed tomography scans were
      obtained before and after the trial. RESULTS: Both groups showed decreases in
      body weight and BMI, and these changes were significantly greater in the test
      group. WC and visceral fat area (VFA) significantly decreased in both groups
      (VFA: -10.7 cm2 in the test group; -6.8 cm2 in the placebo group). These changes
      did not differ significantly between the groups. However, a subgroup analysis of
      participants with VFA >=100 cm2 showed a significant decrease in the test group,
      and this decrease was significantly greater than in the placebo group.
      CONCLUSIONS: The intake of high beta-glucan barley led to significant and safe
      reductions in VFA, body weight, BMI, and WC in individuals with visceral fat
      obesity with VFA >=100 cm2. Barley high in beta-glucan may contribute to
      preventing visceral fat obesity.

PMID- 28870473
TI  - Short-term effects of a low glycemic index carob-containing snack on energy
      intake, satiety, and glycemic response in normal-weight, healthy adults: Results
      from two randomized trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The potential positive health effects of carob-containing snacks are
      largely unknown. Therefore, the aims of these studies were to determine the
      glycemic index (GI) of a carob snack compared with chocolate cookie containing
      equal amounts of available carbohydrates and to compare the effects of a carob
      versus chocolate cookie preload consumed as snack before a meal on (a) short-term
      satiety response measured by subsequent ad libitum meal intake, (b) subjective
      satiety as assessed by visual analog scales and (c) postprandial glycemic
      response. METHODS: Ten healthy, normal-weight volunteers participated in GI
      investigation. Then, 50 healthy, normal-weight individuals consumed, crossover,
      in random order, the preloads as snack, with 1-wk washout period. Ad libitum meal
      (lunch and dessert) was offered. Capillary blood glucose samples were collected
      at baseline, 2 h after breakfast, just before preload consumption, 2 h after
      preload, 3 h after preload, just before meal (lunch and dessert), 1 h after meal,
      and 2 h after meal consumption. RESULTS: The carob snack was a low GI food,
      whereas the chocolate cookie was a high GI food (40 versus 78, respectively, on
      glucose scale). Consumption of the carob preload decreased the glycemic response
      to a following meal and to the individual's feelings of hunger, desire to eat,
      preoccupation with food, and thirst between snack and meal, as assessed with the
      use of visual analog scales. Subsequently, participants consumed less amounts of
      food (g) and had lower total energy intake at mealtimes. CONCLUSIONS: The carob
      snack led to increased satiety, lower energy intake at meal, and decreased
      postmeal glycemic response possibly due to its low GI value. Identifying foods
      that promote satiety and decrease glycemic response without increasing the
      overall energy intake may offer advantages to body weight and glycemic control.

PMID- 28870474
TI  - HMGB1 values and response to HBV vaccine in children with celiac disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In addition to its wide clinical variability, celiac disease (CD) can
      also cause a lower response to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) than healthy
      individuals. The aim of this study was to examine high mobility group box 1
      (HMGB1) as a new potential marker of an inadequate response to HBV vaccine in
      children with CD at diagnosis before starting a gluten-free diet. METHODS: We
      recruited 49 children with CD who were tested at admission for immunization
      against HBV. Serum HMGB1 levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay test. RESULTS: Serum HMGB1 levels were significantly higher in
      nonresponders than in responders (P < 0.05). In the responders group in
      particular, with reference to the titer of vaccine response, we found a
      significantly higher serum HMGB1 level in the low responders (P < 0.001). We
      detected statistically significant higher values of HMGB1 in the typical form of
      disease presentation than in the atypical or silent form (P < 0.05). In the
      typical form, we showed even significantly higher HMGB1 values in low responders
      than in high responders (P < 0.001). With regard to the HLA haplotype and serum
      HMGB1 levels, any statistically significant difference was detected (P > 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: In patients with CD, HMGB1 could represent a new marker that is able
      to reflect the immune impairment that results in failure of the HBV vaccination.

PMID- 28870475
TI  - Taste-related factors and food neophobia: Are they associated with nutritional
      status and teenagers' food choices?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of taste-related
      factors (craving for sweets, using food as a reward and pleasure) and food
      neophobia with nutritional status and food intake among teenagers. METHODS: This
      was a cross-sectional study with 132 teenagers 15 to 19 y of age. Food behavior,
      anthropometrics, body composition, and lifestyle measurements were obtained and
      analyzed. RESULTS: Craving for sweets was associated with overweight, adiposity,
      meal skipping, physical inactivity, and intake of sweets (P < 0.05). Reward was
      linked to adiposity, physical inactivity, lack of interest in information about
      food, and intake of sweets (P < 0.05). Pleasure was associated with physical
      inactivity, lack of interest in information about food, and intake of sweets and
      soft drinks (P < 0.05). Teenage girls had a higher craving for sweets (22.88 +/-
      4.77) and higher pleasure scores (21.50 +/- 3.82), body fat (25.33 +/- 6.60),
      meal skipping (63.2%), and physical inactivity (64.7%) than their male
      counterparts (P < 0.05). There was no association among food neophobia,
      nutritional status, and food intake. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study
      indicated that, in contrast to food neophobia, taste-related factors can be
      associated with body fat and inadequate food choices in teenagers. However, this
      was a cross-sectional study and further cohort studies should be performed for in
      depth investigation of a causal relationship between the findings of this
      research.

PMID- 28870476
TI  - Branched-chain amino acid supplementation and exercise-induced muscle damage in
      exercise recovery: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Accumulating evidence suggests positive effects of branched-chain
      amino acids (BCAAs) on moderate muscle damage. However, findings vary
      substantially across studies. The aim of this review was to examine the effect of
      BCAAs on recovery following exercise-induced muscle damage. METHODS: Controlled
      trials were identified through a computerized literature search and tracking of
      citations performed up to November 2015. To pool data, either a fixed-effects or
      a random-effects model was used; for assessing heterogeneity, Cochran's Q and I2
      tests were used. RESULTS: Eight trials met the inclusion criteria. Pooled data
      from the eight studies showed that BCAAs significantly reduced creatine kinase at
      two follow-up times (<24 and 24 h) in comparison with placebo recovery (<24 h:
      mean difference, -71.55 U/L, 95% confidence interval, -93.49 to -49.60, P <
      0.000, n = 5 trials; 24 h: mean difference, -145.04 U/L, 95% confidence interval,
      -253.66 to -36.43, P = 0.009, n = 8 trials). In contrast, effects were not
      significant in any of the follow-up times for muscle soreness or lactate
      dehydrogenase. CONCLUSION: The current evidence-based information indicates that
      use of BCAAs is better than passive recovery or rest after various forms of
      exhaustive and damaging exercise. The advantages relate to a reduction in muscle
      soreness and ameliorated muscle function because of an attenuation of muscle
      strength and muscle power loss after exercise.

PMID- 28870477
TI  - A low-protein, high-carbohydrate diet increases browning in perirenal adipose
      tissue but not in inguinal adipose tissue.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the browning and origin of fatty
      acids (FAs) in the maintenance of triacylglycerol (TG) storage and/or as fuel for
      thermogenesis in perirenal adipose tissue (periWAT) and inguinal adipose tissue
      (ingWAT) of rats fed a low-protein, high-carbohydrate (LPHC) diet. METHODS: LPHC
      (6% protein, 74% carbohydrate) or control (C; 17% protein, 63% carbohydrate)
      diets were administered to rats for 15 d. The tissues were stained with
      hematoxylin and eosin for histologic analysis. The content of uncoupling protein
      1 (UCP1) was determined by immunofluorescence. Levels of T-box transcription
      factor (TBX1), PR domain containing 16 (PRDM16), adipose triacylglycerol lipase
      (ATGL), hormone-sensitive lipase, lipoprotein lipase (LPL), glycerokinase,
      phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), glucose transporter 4, beta3
      adrenergic receptor (AR), beta1-AR, protein kinase A (PKA), adenosine
      monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and phospho-AMPK were determined
      by immunoblotting. Serum fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) was measured using a
      commercial kit (Student's t tests, P < 0.05). RESULTS: The LPHC diet increased
      FGF21 levels by 150-fold. The presence of multilocular adipocytes, combined with
      the increased contents of UCP1, TBX1, and PRDM16 in periWAT of LPHC-fed rats,
      suggested the occurrence of browning. The contents of beta1-AR and LPL were
      increased in the periWAT. The ingWAT showed higher ATGL and PEPCK levels, phospho
      AMPK/AMPK ratio, and reduced beta3-AR and PKA levels. CONCLUSION: These findings
      suggest that browning occurred only in the periWAT and that higher utilization of
      FAs from blood lipoproteins acted as fuel for thermogenesis. Increased glycerol 3
      phosphate generation by glyceroneogenesis increased FAs reesterification from
      lipolysis, explaining the increased TG storage in the ingWAT.

PMID- 28870478
TI  - Validity of equations using knee height to predict overall height among older
      people in Benin.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Chumlea's formulas are a validated means of predicting overall height
      from knee height (KH) among people >60 y of age, but, to our knowledge, no
      formula is validated for use in African countries, including Benin. The aim of
      this study was to compare height provided by predictive formulas using KH to
      measured height in an elderly population in Benin. METHODS: Individuals >60 y of
      age in Benin underwent nutritional assessment with determination of weight, body
      mass index (BMI), height, and KH. A Bland-Altman analysis was carried out by sex
      and age. The percentage of predictions accurate to +/-5 cm compared with the
      measured height was calculated. The tested formulas were Chumlea's formulas for
      non-Hispanic Black people (CBP) and two formulas for use among Caucasians.
      RESULTS: Data from 396 individuals (81.1% male) were analyzed. The three formulas
      achieved 98% accuracy, but with 4.6% risk for error (+/-2 SD: -6 to +9 cm), which
      appeared to make them unfit for the whole population. Nevertheless, if a level of
      prediction +/-5 cm is considered acceptable in clinical practice, the CBP formula
      achieved 83.1% accuracy. Moreover, there was no significant difference in BMI
      calculated with the measured and the predicted height, and the nutritional status
      based on BMI did not differ. CONCLUSION: CBP formulas seem applicable in 83% of
      cases (+/-5 cm) to assess the height with KH of older people in Benin and do not
      overestimate the prevalence of malnutrition.

PMID- 28870479
TI  - North and South American countries food-based dietary guidelines: A comparison.
AB  - Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) are regularly updated educational documents
      that provide scientific information on nutritional needs and food composition to
      the general population. The aim of this study was to review the FBDGs of
      countries in the Americas and compare them based on their pictorial
      representation, food grouping, and associated messages on healthy eating and
      behavior, considering intercultural differences. FBDGs from 30 countries in the
      Americas were collected, representing 97% of the entire North and South American
      population. Of these FBDGs, 93% (28 of 30) have adopted a food guide illustration
      shape that conveys local traditions and classifies foods into six or seven
      groups. The main food groups are vegetables, fruits, cereals, starchy vegetables
      and fruits, legumes, milk and dairy, protein-rich foods, oils and fats, and sugar
      and sweeteners. Some differences include single food classifications. Despite the
      dietary pattern resulting from geographic conditions and cultural heritages, the
      main nutritional keypoints are similar among the different American FBDGs as
      follows: (1) Consume large amounts of fruits, vegetables, and cereals; and (2)
      limit intake of fat, simple sugars, and salt. Although there is general agreement
      on the basic nutritional messages, FBDGs remain insufficient regarding food
      groups and the identification of subgroup population nutritional requirements,
      particularly in countries where both excess and deficit malnutrition are present.

PMID- 28870480
TI  - Propofol sedation substantially increases the caloric and lipid intake in
      critically ill patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The amount of lipid delivered to patients varies considerably
      depending on the non-nutritional intake from sedation, and on the feeding
      solution. The aim of this study was to quantify the magnitude and proportion of
      lipids and energy provided from propofol sedation in intensive care unit (ICU)
      patients. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected
      data in consecutive patients admitted to the ICUs of two university hospitals.
      Inclusion criterion included an ICU stay >5 d. Data were collected for a maximum
      of 10 d. Propofol sedation using 1% or 2% propofol solutions was defined as >100
      mg/d. Nutritional management was per protocol in both centers, recommending
      enteral feeding. Data are shown as means +/- standard deviation. RESULTS: In all,
      701 admissions (687 patients, ages 59 +/- 16 y, SAPS II 51 +/- 17) and 6485 d,
      including 3484 propofol sedation days were analyzed. Energy targets were 1987 +/-
      411 kcal/d; mean energy delivery was 1362 +/- 811 kcal/d (70% +/- 38% of
      prescription) including propofol and dextrose. Enteral feeding dominated (75% of
      days) and progressed similarly in both ICUs. Mean propofol sedation dose was 2045
      +/- 1650 mg/d, resulting in 146 +/- 117 kcal/d. Fat from propofol constituted 17%
      of total energy (up to 100% during the first days). Fat delivery (40 +/- 23 g/d:
      maximum 310 g/d) was significantly increased by the combination of propofol
      sedation, the 1% solution, and high-fat-containing feeds. In survivors, high-fat
      proportion was associated with prolonged ventilation time (P < 0.0001).
      CONCLUSION: Propofol sedation resulted in large doses of lipids being delivered
      to patients, some receiving pure lipids during the first days. As the metabolic
      effects of high proportions of fat are unknown, further research is warranted.

PMID- 28870481
TI  - Inflammatory diet and risk for colorectal cancer: A population-based case-control
      study in Newfoundland, Canada.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Chronic inflammation is implicated in causing cancer. Diet plays an
      important role in regulating chronic inflammation by altering circulating levels
      of inflammatory biomarkers. Effect of single food or nutrient on cancer often is
      inconclusive; perhaps due to dietary interactions and multicolinearity. The aim
      of this study was to determine prediagnostic inflammatory potential of overall
      diet in relation to risk for colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: In all, 547
      patients with CRC from Newfoundland Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry and 685
      controls from the general population were identified. Data on sociodemographic,
      medical history, lifestyle, and a 169-item food frequency questionnaire were
      collected retrospectively from both groups. Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory
      Index (DII) score was calculated and used as both categorical and continuous
      variables for analysis. Odds ratio was estimated using multivariable logistic
      regression after adjusting potential confounders. A linear test for trend was
      performed using the median value in each quartile. RESULTS: Overall energy
      adjusted mean DII score was -0.81 (range -5.19 to 6.93). Cases (-0.73 +/- 1.5)
      had slightly higher DII scores than controls (-0.89 +/- 1.6; P = 0.04). After
      adjusting the potential confounders, a statistically significant association was
      found between DII score and CRC risk. Using DII as a continuous variable (odds
      ratio [OR]continuous 1.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.20) and
      categorical variable (ORquartile 1 versus 4 1.65, 95% CI 1.13-2.42; Ptrend =
      0.02). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that proinflammatory diets are
      associated with an increased risk for CRC in the Newfoundland population.

PMID- 28870482
TI  - Influence of chemotherapy on total energy expenditure in patients with
      gastrointestinal cancer: A pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Resting energy expenditure (REE) and physical activity (PA) undergo
      variations during chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to use a metabolic
      Holter (SenseWear Armband [SWA]) to assess REE, total energy expenditure (TEE),
      and PA changes in patients undergoing chemotherapy to ensure the appropriate
      calorie intake. To our knowledge, this is the first study to do so. METHODS:
      Eight patients with gastrointestinal tumors and a Karnofsky performance status of
      >50 underwent evaluation of the body mass index; REE, TEE, metabolic equivalent,
      and sleep efficiency were evaluated by SWA. Fat-free mass and fat mass were
      measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis, muscle strength by handgrip, and
      dietary intake by food diary. All evaluations were performed before chemotherapy
      (T0), at mid-treatment (T1), and at the end of treatment (T2). A calorie
      equivalent diet to the TEE was recommended to all patients. RESULTS: At T0, a
      body weight loss of 15.1 +/- 7.2% in the previous 6 mo was observed in all
      patients. Two patients did not complete treatment. During chemotherapy, thanks to
      the nutritional counseling, the remaining patients increased their calorie intake
      (P = 0.006) and no significant change was observed in other parameters. The REE
      calculation measured by SWA was correlated to the Harris-Benedict formula (P <=
      0.002). CONCLUSION: The present data excluded significant variations of REE and
      PA in the course of chemotherapy in patients who do not experience weight loss
      and who have a Karnofsky performance status of >50. Nutritional counseling based
      on SWA measurements is useful to support nutritional status in patients
      undergoing chemotherapy.

PMID- 28870483
TI  - Influence of an omega3-fatty acid-enriched enteral diet with and without added
      glutamine on the metabolic response to injury in a rat model of prolonged acute
      catabolism.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In critically ill patients, acute injury alters gut function, causing
      greater risk for sepsis and malnutrition. Peptide-enriched diets may promote
      nitrogen absorption, whereas omega3-enriched diets reduce alterations in gut
      barrier function. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a
      peptide- and omega3-enriched diet on the metabolic response to injury and the gut
      barrier function in a model of prolonged catabolism in the rat. Given the
      intestinal trophic effect of glutamine, we tested for a synergistic effect of
      glutamine. METHODS: We randomized 40 male Sprague-Dawley rats (250 g) into four
      groups to enterally receive a standard high-protein diet (S), or a peptide- and
      omega3-enriched diet either alone (IMN) or supplemented with glutamine and
      alanine supplied as dipeptide (DIP) or as free amino acids (AAs) for 4 d.
      Metabolic response to injury was induced by turpentine injections on days 1 and
      3. At sacrifice, nutritional and inflammatory biomarkers and intestinal and liver
      function were assessed. RESULTS: Weight gain (+45-62%) and nitrogen balance (+33
      56%) were significantly higher in all groups than in the S group. In jejunal
      mucosa, total glutathione was significantly higher (+20-30%) and myeloperoxidase
      activity significantly lower in all groups compared with the S group. Hepatic
      triacylglycerol content was significantly lower in the AA (0.30 +/- 0.04 MUM/g)
      and DIP (0.43 +/- 0.08 MUM/g) groups than in the S group (0.71 +/- 0.08 MUM/g).
      CONCLUSIONS: In this model of prolonged catabolism, compared with a standard
      diet, a peptide- and omega3-enriched diet improved metabolic response to injury,
      with better nitrogen balance and weight recovery, and decreased intestinal
      myeloperoxidase activity. Only marginal additional effects of glutamine
      supplementation were observed with decreased hepatic fat content.

PMID- 28870485
TI  - Low skeletal muscle mass predicts early mortality in cirrhotic patients with
      acute variceal bleeding.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Low skeletal muscle mass adversely affects outcomes in cirrhotic
      patients; however, its affect in patients with acute variceal bleeding remains
      unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of low skeletal muscle
      mass on outcomes in patients with cirrhosis and acute variceal bleeding. METHODS:
      We evaluated 122 patients to identify factors associated with two outcomes:
      failure to control bleeding, defined as either rebleeding or death within 5 d,
      and 6-wk mortality. Skeletal muscle mass was estimated by calculating the psoas
      muscle area at the third lumbar vertebra on computed tomographic images. RESULTS:
      Forty-two patients had low skeletal muscle mass. Fifteen patients had failure to
      control bleeding and 32 patients died within 6 wk. Six of the patients with low
      skeletal muscle mass and nine without low skeletal muscle mass had failure to
      control bleeding; these proportions did not differ significantly (P = 0.628).
      Fifteen of the patients (35.7%) with low skeletal muscle mass died within 6 wk;
      this proportion was marginally higher than the 17 (21.3%) without low skeletal
      muscle mass who died within 6 wk (P = 0.084). On multivariate analysis, presence
      of low skeletal muscle mass (odds ratio [OR], 4.69; P = 0.024), nonalcoholic
      etiology (OR, 10.3; P = 0.024), higher international normalized ratio of
      prothrombin time (OR, 41.4; P < 0.001), and rebleeding within 6 wk (OR, 27; P <
      0.001) were associated with 6-wk mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Low skeletal muscle mass
      is an independent predictor of 6-wk mortality in cirrhotic patients with acute
      variceal bleeding.

PMID- 28870484
TI  - Higher protein intake is associated with improved muscle strength in elite senior
      athletes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The optimal protein intake for elderly individuals who exercise
      regularly has not yet been clearly defined. The aim of this study was to test the
      hypothesis that protein intake level is associated with muscle strength in
      elderly elite athletes. METHODS: We evaluated 50 elite senior athletes (38 men
      and 12 women) participating in the European Master Games 2011 in an observational
      cross-sectional study. Participants were divided into two groups-lower (LPI) or
      higher (HPI) protein intake-according to the median value of their ratio of
      urinary urea nitrogen to urinary creatinine (i.e., 8.8 g/L), as a marker of
      protein intake. A dietary interview confirmed differences in protein consumption
      between the LPI and HPI groups. We also evaluated body composition
      (bioimpedance), muscle strength, and hematochemical indices. RESULTS: LPI and HPI
      groups were homogeneous for age (72 [68-74] and 71 [68-74] y, respectively), fat
      free mass index (18.4 [17-19.4] and 18.2 [17-19.1] kg/m2), body fat (18.3% [12.3
      20.7%] and 16.6% [13.6-21.2%]), and glomerular filtration rate (57.7 [53.8-64.9]
      and 62.7 [56.1-69.3] mL/min/1.73 m2). The HPI group showed greater leg and trunk
      muscle strength (N) compared with the LPI group (left leg extension, 339 [238
      369] versus 454 [273-561], respectively, P < 0.05; right leg extension, 319 [249
      417] versus 432 [334-635], P <= 0.05; trunk extension, 435 [370-467] versus 464
      [390-568], P <= 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Higher protein intake in elite senior
      athletes is associated with a greater muscle strength.

PMID- 28870486
TI  - Effect of 1-y oral supplementation with vitaminized olive oil on platelets from
      healthy postmenopausal women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Olive oil is the main fat source in the Mediterranean diet and shows a
      protective role against aging and related diseases. Osteoporosis represents a
      serious health problem worldwide and is associated with an increased risk for
      fractures and mortality. Nutrition should be part of bone disease prevention
      strategies, especially in light of the aging population and the effect of diet on
      bone health. The aim of this study was to investigate whether oral
      supplementation with extra virgin olive oil (VOO) enriched with vitamins D3, K1,
      and B6 (VitVOO) is able to modify some physicochemical and functional plasma
      membrane properties and nitrosative stress markers status. METHODS: In this
      single-center, randomized placebo-controlled trial, 60 postmenopausal women were
      administered either VitVOO or placebo (PlaVOO). After 1 y of oral
      supplementation, platelet membrane fluidity changes, Na+/K+-ATPase activity,
      serum nitric oxide, and peroxynitrite levels were determined in participants.
      RESULTS: After 1 y (time 1), women taking VitVOO showed lower nitric oxide levels
      than those taking PlaVOO; the same trend was found for peroxynitrite levels. As
      far as membrane fluidity was concerned, a significant decrease in anisotropy of
      diphenylhexatriene and trimethylammonium-diphenylhexatriene at time 1 in VitVOO
      participants compared with PlaVOO was found. Finally, Na+/K+-ATPase activity
      showed a significant increase after VitVOO supplementation. CONCLUSION: The
      supplementation of VitVOO into the diet of postmenopausal women could represent a
      proper tool for platelet function and a useful strategy against nitrosative
      stress and related diseases, thus confirming the antioxidant role played by the
      added vitamins.

PMID- 28870487
TI  - Comparison of new adiposity indices for the prediction of body fat in
      hospitalized patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To measure the accuracy of the body mass index (BMI), BMI adjusted for
      fat mass (BMIfat), body adiposity index (BAI), BAI for the Fels Longitudinal
      Study sample, Clinica Universidad de Navarra-Body Adiposity Estimator, and fat
      mass index and to compare the accuracy to that of bioelectrical impedance and
      dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in a sample of the Brazilian population.
      METHODS: A cross-sectional study conducted on 240 hospitalized patients, 43 (18%)
      male and 197 (83%) female. Mean patient ages were 53.0 +/- 13.3 y for males and
      53.49 +/- 14.0 y for females. All subjects underwent anthropometric evaluation,
      bioelectrical impedance, and DXA, which permitted the calculation of the indices.
      The level of significance was set at P < 0.05 in the statistical analyses.
      RESULTS: Mean subject age (y), weight (kg), and height (cm) were 53.0 +/- 13.3
      and 53.4 +/- 14.0; 72.8 +/- 14.9 and 67.6 +/- 14.0; and 171.0 +/- 8.0 and 157.0
      +/- 7.0 for men and women, respectively. Excess weight was detected in 67.4% and
      66% according to the BMI, in 30% and 69.5% according to the BMIfat, and in 51%
      and 38% according to the BAI for men and women, respectively. Pearson correlation
      revealed that BMIfat clearly showed a better correlation (r = 0.67) with DXA than
      the remaining tools. The Clinica Universidad de Navarra-Body Adiposity Estimator
      was the only body adiposity parameter that was significantly higher in men
      compared to women. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that BMIfat is the index best
      related to the prediction of body fat and that the BAI did not exceed the limits
      of the BMI. Further studies of this type are needed to strengthen the present
      findings.

PMID- 28870488
TI  - The Effect of Psychosocial Factors on Success Rates of Hepatitis C Treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Our study was to determine which psychosocial factors interfere with
      patients reaching sustained virologic response (SVR), a marker for hepatitis C
      virus eradication. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed between
      January 6, 2015 and February 24, 2016. The primary outcome was to assess which
      social and psychological factors may interfere with patients reaching SVR. SVR
      was defined as having an undetectable viral load 12 weeks after the completion of
      the treatment regimen. Bivariate analysis was followed by a multivariate logistic
      regression analysis to determine significant factors for SVR. Depression and
      generalized anxiety disorder were included. RESULTS: A total of 204 patients
      completed treatment within the designated time frame and were included in the
      final analysis. Social or home support was associated with SVR (odds ratio = 7.0,
      p = 0.02). Cocaine use was also a significant factor predicting SVR. Historical
      cocaine use compared with active cocaine use during treatment was associated with
      an odds ratio of SVR of 39.3 (p = 0.04). Interestingly, historical cocaine use vs
      no history of cocaine use did not influence SVR. No history of depression or
      generalized anxiety disorder was associated with a higher rate of SVR (odds ratio
      = 10.4, p = 0.05). No depression/generalized anxiety disorder compared with
      untreated depression/generalized anxiety disorder was associated with a 13.1
      times greater rate of SVR (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: It is important to recognize
      and address psychosocial factors related to mental illness and active cocaine
      addictions before hepatitis C virus treatment. Furthermore, patients without home
      or social support are at greater risk for failing treatment, thus strategies to
      provide support during treatment are necessary.

PMID- 28870489
TI  - Bisphenol A and immunotoxic potential: A commentary.
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA) is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and epoxy resin
      plastics. There has been interest in the possibility that BPA has immunotoxic
      properties, and a variety of investigations have explored this. Among the
      approaches taken have been human observational and cross-sectional studies,
      investigations using experimental animals, and in vitro studies, some of which
      have been reviewed previously by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). This
      commentary aims to provide a focused review of data regarding the ability of BPA
      to perturb the immune system, including the developing immune system, and to
      cause related adverse health effects. The objective is to complement the
      evaluations conducted by EFSA, with a focus on the ability of BPA to impair
      immune function, to promote respiratory allergy and airway inflammation, and to
      compromise immunological tolerance to dietary proteins. The conclusion drawn is
      that there is currently no persuasive evidence that BPA has significant
      immunotoxic potential. This is, in part, due to some of the data reviewed being
      apparently contradictory or inconsistent, and the investigations from which those
      data were derived having limitations with regard to experimental design. The
      conclusion drawn here is that presently there is no clear evidence that BPA has
      the potential to cause immunotoxicity resulting in adverse health effects.

PMID- 28870490
TI  - A study to support regulatory submission assessing effects of Tri(2-ethylhexyl)
      trimellitate (TEHTM) upon pre and post-natal development in the rat, with a
      comparative group receiving Di(2-ethyl hexyl) phthalate (DEHP) included.
AB  - Oral exposure of rodents to the plasticizer, Di(2-ethyl hexyl) phthalate (DEHP),
      elicits birth defects and effects upon the reproductive tract. There is currently
      limited published information regarding potential developmental effects in
      rodents of another phthalate ester, TEHTM.

PMID- 28870491
TI  - The effect of neonatal immune challenge on reproduction by altering intraovarian
      kisspeptin/GPR54 system in the rat.
AB  - Immune challenge in early life has been observed to influence the long-term
      reproductive dysfunction. On PNDs 3 and 5, female offsprings were administered
      with LPS (50MUg/kg, i.p.) or saline. Vaginal opening was recorded, and oestrous
      cyclicity was monitored immediately post puberty and again at 56-70 days. At 10
      weeks of age, the ovaries were removed for immunostaining and RNA analysis.
      Neonatal exposure to LPS resulted in a significant delay puberty onset as well as
      destroyed expression of ovulation related genes. At PND 42 and 70, a significant
      increase in Kiss1 mRNA and Kisspeptin expression was detected at proestrus and
      oestrus in neo-LPS treated rats compared with the counterparts. Therefore,
      neonatal LPS exposure had a long-term effect on reproductive function and the up
      regulated expression of ovarian Kiss1 and kisspeptin during the ovulatory
      transition stage may contribute to ovulatory dysfunction induced by peripheral
      LPS administration in early life.

PMID- 28870492
TI  - Prenatal and postnatal exposure to low levels of permethrin exerts reproductive
      effects in male mice.
AB  - Permethrin, a pyrethroid chemical, is widely used as a pesticide because of its
      rapid insecticidal activity. Although permethrin is considered to exert very low
      toxicity on mammalian reproductive organs, the effects of early low-level and
      chronic exposure on adult spermatogenesis are unclear. We exposed mice to
      environmentally relevant concentrations of permethrin (0, 0.3, and 30ppm) in
      drinking water during prenatal and postnatal period and examined the effects on
      the testis in mice offspring when they reached maturity (12 weeks of age). Using
      methyl green-pyronin staining, we found an abnormal accumulation of RNA in the
      seminiferous epithelia of mice treated with permethrin; this accumulation may be
      derived from an enlargement of the residual body. Additionally, permethrin may
      cause a decline of Sertoli cell functions. Our findings demonstrate that low
      level and chronic permethrin exposure during prenatal and postnatal period has
      distinct effects on male reproductive system in mice.

PMID- 28870493
TI  - Incontinentia Pigmenti: A Summary Review of This Rare Ectodermal Dysplasia With
      Neurologic Manifestations, Including Treatment Protocols.
AB  - Incontinentia pigmenti is a rare neuroectodermal dysplasia caused by a defect in
      the IKBKG gene (formerly known as NEMO). There are 27.6 new cases per year
      worldwide; 65% to 75% are sporadic mutations, and 25% to 35% are familial. It is
      usually lethal in males, but females survive because of X-inactivation mosaicism.
      The disorder is typically identified by unique skin findings, a series of four
      stages that emerge throughout the first year of life. The central nervous system
      manifestations in the eye and in the brain cause the most disability. Defects of
      hair, nails, and teeth occur, and there can be other systemic involvement.
      Surveillance protocols for medical management have been established by the
      Incontinentia Pigmenti International Foundation. This article will summarize the
      existing knowledge of this condition and detail the protocols to help manage the
      care of the infant or child who presents with incontinentia pigmenti.

PMID- 28870495
TI  - Depression in the School-Aged Child With Type 1 Diabetes: Implications for
      Pediatric Primary Care Providers.
AB  - Depression is a common comorbid condition experienced by children with type 1
      diabetes that, if undiagnosed, can lead to deterioration in glycemic control and
      other serious health complications. Although it is documented that children with
      type 1 diabetes experience high rates of depression, a comprehensive clinical
      guide does not exist to help direct the pediatric provider on how to best care
      for these children. The purpose of this article is to synthesize current evidence
      to aid the pediatric primary care provider in the detection and management of
      depression in the school-aged child with type 1 diabetes.

PMID- 28870494
TI  - Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes of a Telehealth Care Coordination
      Intervention for Children With Medical Complexity: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore health-related quality of life (HRQL)
      and family impact in the context of an advanced practice registered nurse
      delivered telehealth care coordination intervention for children with medical
      complexity (CMC). This was a secondary outcomes analysis of a randomized
      controlled trial with 163 families of CMC in an existing medical home. HRQL and
      family impact were measured using the PedsQL measurement model. Bivariate and
      analysis of covariance analyses were conducted to explore associations at
      baseline and the intervention effect over 2 years. Significant predictors of Year
      2 child HRQL were baseline HRQL and the presence of both neurologic impairment
      and technology dependence. There was no significant intervention effect on child
      HRQL or family impact after 24 months. Care coordination interventions for CMC
      may need to incorporate family system interventions for optimal outcomes in a
      range of quality of life domains.

PMID- 28870496
TI  - Gut Protozoa: Friends or Foes of the Human Gut Microbiota?
AB  - The importance of the gut microbiota for human health has sparked a strong
      interest in the study of the factors that shape its composition and diversity.
      Despite the growing evidence suggesting that helminths and protozoa significantly
      interact with gut bacteria, gut microbiome studies remain mostly focused on
      prokaryotes and on populations living in industrialized countries that typically
      have a low parasite burden. We argue that protozoa, like helminths, represent an
      important factor to take into account when studying the gut microbiome, and that
      their presence - especially considering their long coevolutionary history with
      humans - may be beneficial. From this perspective, we examine the relationship
      between the protozoa and their hosts, as well as their relevance for public
      health.

PMID- 28870497
TI  - Parasites Lost: Neglecting a Crucial Element in De-Extinction.
AB  - Bringing back iconic and beloved extinct species is a hot and intensely debated
      current topic. Yet, the parasites of de-extinction candidate species have
      remained largely overlooked in this debate. Here we point out the potentially far
      reaching ecological impacts of bringing back extinct species without their
      parasites.

PMID- 28870498
TI  - Drug adherence in hypertension.
AB  - Blood pressure control remains unsatisfactory in all countries of the world with
      at best 60% of treated hypertensive patients reaching recommended therapeutic
      goals. Several factors have been identified which may explain why the rate of
      blood pressure control remains low. Among them, one can cite medical inertia and
      a poor adherence to drug therapies. In the absence of new drugs to control blood
      pressure, drug adherence has become a major issue in the management of
      hypertensive patients. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the major problem
      is the lack of persistence followed by a poor day to day execution of the
      prescribed regimens. Although there are multiple ways of assessing drug
      adherence, only very few of them are accurate and the most accurate ones are
      either difficult to implement in clinical practice or too expensive and hence not
      available outside reference centers. Therefore, physicians have no real capacity
      to establish a correct diagnosis of non persistence or poor adherence even in
      high risk patients such as those with resistant hypertension. Today a new
      approach is becoming increasingly used which consists in measuring urinary drug
      levels. Nevertheless, there is still an important need for simple and cheap
      techniques or devices helping physicians in their ability to tackle poor
      adherence to therapy and thereby improve blood pressure control in the
      population.

PMID- 28870499
TI  - The pleasures of drunken one-night stands: Assemblage theory and narrative
      environments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we use assemblage theory to investigate the link
      between alcohol use and one-night stands. METHODS: The data come from qualitative
      interviews conducted with 104 young participants in the night-time economy.
      RESULTS: We show that: (i) alcohol-fuelled sexual explorations (e.g. erotic
      fantasizing, flirting and sex) are of paramount importance for young partygoers;
      (ii) sexualized territories (e.g. private parties, rural feasts and the backseat
      of cars) significantly shape the experience and performance of one-night stands;
      and (iii) contrary to previous research, one-night stands are to a large degree
      associated with pleasure-the immediate pleasure of having sex and the long-term
      pleasure of telling about it to others. CONCLUSION: We argue that drunken one
      night stands are part and parcel of a drinking culture that places high value on
      sexual encounters and personal sex stories.

PMID- 28870500
TI  - Home closure as a weapon in the Dutch war on drugs: Does judicial review function
      as a safety net?
AB  - BACKGROUND: A widespread sense of a failing criminal justice system and increased
      feelings of insecurity changed the response to crime into a culture of control,
      which is characterized by policies that punish and exclude. In the Netherlands,
      these influences can be witnessed in the war on drugs where local authorities use
      their administrative power to close homes involved in drug-related crime.
      Citizens can invoke judicial review over these administrative interferences by
      claiming that such closure results in an unfair balance between purposes, means
      and consequences. This paper assesses whether judicial review functions as a
      safety net against losing one's home due to drug-related crime. METHODS: We used
      doctrinal legal research methods to examine the "law in the books" and empirical
      legal research methods to analyse the "law in action". We used a survey to
      investigate how often the drug-related closure power was used in 2015, and we
      statistically analysed all published case law of Dutch lower courts between 2007
      and 2016. RESULTS: The scope of the closure power broadened over the years and
      our data show that local authorities fiercely make use of this instrument. In
      41.4% of the cases, citizens are successful in fighting the closure. While
      scholarly literature indicates that judicial courts function as safeguards by
      questioning the proportionality of administrative action, raising a
      proportionality defence does not necessarily result in a more favourable outcome
      for citizens. In fact, raising a proportionality defence makes it more likely to
      result in dismissal of the appeal. CONCLUSION: The stretched scope of the drug
      related closure power together with the relatively low success rate of citizens
      who fight the loss of their home and a seemingly meaningless proportionality
      check show no sign of a safety net against the loss of one's home at the suit of
      a local authority.

PMID- 28870501
TI  - [University and Health: Lights and shadows in Montreal (Canada)].

PMID- 28870502
TI  - ?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To analyse the efficiency of nurse prescription of the health
      products inherent to their care work, in Andalusia, Spain, between the years 2009
      2015. To also analyse the discussions by the Medical Colleges Organisation and
      the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, before the draft bill on
      nurse prescription and their outcome. DESIGN: Scoping review. DATA SOURCE: Main
      bibliographic databases of Latin-American, Spanish, and foreign languages were
      reviewed, including, Fundacion Index, Doyma, and Medline Library. Google Scholar
      was also used with the same search terms, adding to limit the search the term
      "Andalusia": "prescription nurse" AND "efficiency" OR "Andalusia". Another search
      was conducted in the grey literature using the same criteria in the Andalusian
      Health Service (SAS) web site. It was complemented with an interview with the
      care director of the SAS. DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 617 articles were found, of
      which 20 were selected. In the grey literature, 52 documents were found, of which
      4 were used. RESULTS: Few studies were found on the efficiency in nurse
      prescription in Andalusia, although they are as strong as the data provided by
      the Andalusian Health Care Directorate on the health products inherent in their
      profession. After modification of Royal Decree 954/2015, and under pressure from
      the Medical Colleges Organisation, it leaves the competence of prescription nurse
      exclusively to the medical indication, who diagnoses and prescribes and
      eliminates it without argument scientifically endorsed. CONCLUSIONS: We
      corroborate the incorporation of efficiency in the Health System through the
      nurse prescription, and the rupture with the Royal Decree 954/2015. The
      allegations of the Medical Colleges Organisation are without argument.

PMID- 28870503
TI  - [Prospective study of the incidence of cardiovascular events in young adults and
      its relation to the metabolic syndrome].

PMID- 28870504
TI  - The oxidized phospholipid POVPC impairs endothelial function and vasodilation via
      uncoupling endothelial nitric oxide synthase.
AB  - Endothelial dysfunction is an early stage of atherosclerosis. We recently have
      shown that 25-hydroxycholesterol found in atherosclerotic lesions could impair
      endothelial function and vasodilation by uncoupling and inhibiting endothelial
      nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). 1-Palmitoyl-2-(5-oxovaleroyl)-sn-glycero-3
      phosphocholine (POVPC), the oxidation product of oxidized low-density
      lipoprotein, is another proinflammatory lipid and has also been found in
      atherosclerotic lesions. However, whether POVPC promotes atherosclerosis like 25
      hydroxycholesterol remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the
      effects of POVPC on endothelial function and vasodilation. Human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells (HUVECs) were incubated with POVPC. Endothelial cell
      proliferation, migration and tube formation were measured. Nitric oxide (NO)
      production and superoxide anion generation (O2-) were determined. The expression
      and phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), AKT, PKC-betaII
      and P70S6K as well as the association of eNOS and heat shock protein 90 (HSP90)
      were detected by immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation. Endothelial cell
      apoptosis was monitored by TUNEL staining. The expression of Bcl-2, Bax, and
      Cleaved Caspase 3 were detected by immunoblotting. Finally, aortic ring from
      C57BL6 mice were isolated and treated with POVPC and the endothelium-dependent
      vasodilation was evaluated. POVPC significantly inhibited HUVECs proliferation,
      migration, tube formation, decreased NO production but increased O2- generation.
      POVPC inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS at Ser1177, increased
      activation of PKC-betaII, P70S6K and the phosphorylation of eNOS at Thr495,
      reduced the association of HSP90 with eNOS. Meanwhile, POVPC induced endothelial
      cell apoptosis by inhibiting Bcl-2 expression, increasing Bax and cleaved caspase
      3 expressions as well as caspase-3 activity and impaired endothelium-dependent
      vasodilation. These data demonstrated that POVPC impaired endothelial function by
      uncoupling and inhibiting eNOS as well as by inducing endothelial cell apoptosis.
      Therefore, POVPC may play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis
      and may be considered as a potential therapeutic target for atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28870506
TI  - PCB in the environment: bio-based processes for soil decontamination and
      management of waste from the industrial production of Pleurotus ostreatus.
AB  - Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are hazardous soil contaminants for which a bio
      based technology for their recovery is essential. The objective of this study was
      to validate the exploitation of spent mushroom substrate (SMS), a low or null
      cost organic waste derived from the industrial production of P. ostreatus, as
      bulking agent in a dynamic biopile pilot plant. The SMS shows potential oxidative
      capacity towards recalcitrant compounds. The aim was consistent with the design
      of a process of oxidation of highly chlorinated PCBs, which is independent from
      their reductive dehalogenation. Feasibility was verified at a mesocosm scale and
      validated at pilot scale in a dynamic biopile pilot plant treating ten tons of a
      historically contaminated soil (9.28+/-0.08mg PCB/kg soil dry weight). Mixing of
      the SMS with the soil was required for the depletion of the contaminants. At the
      pilot scale, after eight months of incubation, 94.1% depletion was recorded. A
      positive correlation between Actinobacteria and Firmicutes active metabolism,
      soil laccase activity and PCB removal was observed. The SMS was found to be
      exploitable as a versatile low cost organic substrate capable of activating
      processes for the oxidation of highly chlorinated PCBs. Moreover, its
      exploitation as bulking agent in biopiles is a valuable management strategy for
      the re-utilisation of an organic waste deriving from the industrial cultivation
      of edible mushrooms.

PMID- 28870507
TI  - Can parallel ecological speciation be detected with phylogenetic analyses?
AB  - Distinguishing parallel divergence from vicariance scenarios is crucial to
      establish the determinism of natural selection in the formation of new species.
      It has been proposed that phylogenetic methods can be used to disentangle a
      single origin in allopatry and multiple origins in sympatry for ecological
      speciation. However, a key issue is to what extent introgression in a patchy
      environment may complicate the distinction between both origins through the
      analysis of variation at neutral markers. While divergence at environmentally
      based selected loci retains the initial correlation with ecological variables,
      such association may be lost at neutral loci unlinked to any selected locus.
      Thus, neutral divergence might reflect in the long-term the molecular fingerprint
      of isolation by distance regardless of the model of speciation considered, and a
      question arises as to whether phylogenetic analyses of neutral markers are able
      or not to retrieve the signals acquired in the ancestral populations. Here, we
      use computer simulations to show that the detection of the original signal using
      a phylogenetic method strongly depends on the migration rates among populations.
      Recombination accelerates the loss of the initial phylogenetic signal, but this
      effect is rather small compared with the effect of migration, and only
      substantial when recombination is very large. For model species with reduced gene
      flow between distant populations and between populations adapted to different
      habitats, the phylogenetic approach is able to distinguish a single origin in
      allopatry from multiple origins in sympatry.

PMID- 28870505
TI  - TGF-beta1 affects cell-cell adhesion in the heart in an NCAM1-dependent
      mechanism.
AB  - The contractile property of the myocardium is maintained by cell-cell junctions
      enabling cardiomyocytes to work as a syncytium. Alterations in cell-cell
      junctions are observed in heart failure, a disease characterized by the
      activation of Transforming Growth Factor beta 1 (TGFbeta1). While TGFbeta1 has
      been implicated in diverse biologic responses, its molecular function in
      controlling cell-cell adhesion in the heart has never been investigated. Cardiac
      specific transgenic mice expressing active TGFbeta1 were generated to model the
      observed increase in activity in the failing heart. Activation of TGFbeta1 in the
      heart was sufficient to drive ventricular dysfunction. To begin to understand the
      function of this important molecule we undertook an extensive structural analysis
      of the myocardium by electron microscopy and immunostaining. This approach
      revealed that TGFbeta1 alters intercalated disc structures and cell-cell adhesion
      in ventricular myocytes. Mechanistically, we found that TGFbeta1 induces the
      expression of neural adhesion molecule 1 (NCAM1) in cardiomyocytes in a p38
      dependent pathway, and that selective targeting of NCAM1 was sufficient to rescue
      the cell adhesion defect observed when cardiomyocytes were treated with TGFbeta1.
      Importantly, NCAM1 was upregulated in human heart samples from ischemic and non
      ischemic cardiomyopathy patients and NCAM1 protein levels correlated with the
      degree of TGFbeta1 activity in the human cardiac ventricle. Overall, we found
      that TGFbeta1 is deleterious to the heart by regulating the adhesion properties
      of cardiomyocytes in an NCAM1-dependent mechanism. Our results suggest that
      inhibiting NCAM1 would be cardioprotective, counteract the pathological action of
      TGFbeta1 and reduce heart failure severity.

PMID- 28870508
TI  - Inappropriate Dexamethasone Use by a Trekker in Nepal: A Case Report.
AB  - We present a case of inappropriate dexamethasone use in a trekker in the Everest
      region of Nepal. We aim to increase awareness among health professionals of the
      possible use of this medication by trekkers and promote knowledge of potential
      complications. In this case, a previously altitude-naive trekker was prescribed
      prophylactic dexamethasone by physicians in a Western travel clinic before high
      altitude trekking in Nepal. There were no indications for prophylactic medication
      nor for the use of dexamethasone. The trekker reported that no discussion
      regarding risks and benefits, alternatives, side effects, contraindications, or
      dose tapering on completion of the course had occurred before travel. Side
      effects were temporary, but serious complications may have ensued if it not for
      timely interventions by doctors at the International Porter Protection Group
      rescue post. The events leading to inappropriate dexamethasone use in this case
      cannot be known for certain. However, it is clear that the trekker lacked the
      knowledge to use the medication safely. Although the efficacy of dexamethasone in
      the prevention of acute mountain sickness is undisputed, associated side effects
      and other limitations make acetazolamide the prophylactic drug of choice.
      Inappropriate use of dexamethasone can lead to severe complications, and such a
      case has been reported from Mount Everest. Clinicians prescribing dexamethasone
      must understand the indications and risks, and health professionals at altitude
      should be aware of its use by trekkers and the potential complications.

PMID- 28870509
TI  - Avalanche Accident Resulting in Leg Amputation.

PMID- 28870510
TI  - Repeated transcranial direct current stimulation improves cognitive dysfunction
      and synaptic plasticity deficit in the prefrontal cortex of streptozotocin
      induced diabetic rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive dysfunction is commonly observed in diabetic patients. We
      have previously reported that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation
      (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex can facilitate visuospatial
      working memory in diabetic patients with concomitant diabetic peripheral
      neuropathy and mild cognitive impairment, but the underlying mechanisms remain
      unclear. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the cellular mechanisms underlying the effect
      of tDCS on cognitive decline in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.
      METHODS: STZ-induced diabetic rats were subjected to either repeated anodal tDCS
      or sham stimulation over the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Spatial working
      memory performance in delayed nonmatch-to-place T maze task (DNMT), the induction
      of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the mPFC, and dendritic morphology of Golgi
      stained pyramidal neurons in the mPFC were assessed. RESULTS: Repeated
      applications of prefrontal anodal tDCS improved spatial working memory
      performance in DNMT and restored the impaired mPFC LTP of diabetic rats. The mPFC
      of tDCS-treated diabetic rats exhibited higher levels of brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein and N-Methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)
      subunit mRNA and protein compared to sham stimulation group. Furthermore, anodal
      tDCS significantly increased dendritic spine density on the apical dendrites of
      mPFC layer V pyramidal cells in diabetic rats, whereas the complexity of basal
      and apical dendritic trees was unaltered. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that
      repeated anodal tDCS may improve spatial working memory performance in
      streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats through augmentation of synaptic plasticity
      that requires BDNF secretion and transcription/translation of NMDARs in the mPFC,
      and support the therapeutic potential of tDCS for cognitive decline in diabetes
      mellitus patients.

PMID- 28870511
TI  - Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      during transcranial near-infrared laser irradiation.

PMID- 28870512
TI  - The use of cold cots following perinatal death.

PMID- 28870513
TI  - Transvaginal repair of a misunderstood large bowel evisceration six months after
      vaginal hysterectomy.

PMID- 28870514
TI  - Microstructure-informed slow diffusion tractography in humans enhances
      visualisation of fibre pathways.
AB  - Conventional fibre tractography methods based on diffusion tensor imaging exploit
      diffusion anisotropy and directionality in the range of low diffusion weightings
      (b-values). High b-value Biexponential Diffusion Tensor Analysis reported
      previously has demonstrated that fractional anisotropy of the slow diffusion
      component is essentially higher than that of conventional diffusion tensor
      imaging whereas popular compartment models associate this slow diffusion
      component with axonal water fraction. One of the primary aims of this study is to
      elucidate the feasibility and potential benefits of "microstructure-informed"
      whole-brain slow-diffusion fibre tracking (SDIFT) in humans. In vivo diffusion
      weighted images in humans were acquired in the extended range of diffusion
      weightings<=6000smm-2 at 3T. Fast and slow diffusion tensors were reconstructed
      using the bi-exponential tensor decomposition, and a detailed statistical
      analysis of the relevant whole-brain tensor metrics was performed. We visualised
      three-dimensional fibre tracts in in vivo human brains using deterministic
      streamlining via the major eigenvector of the slow diffusion tensor. In
      particular, we demonstrated that slow-diffusion fibre tracking provided
      considerably higher fibre counts of long association fibres and allowed one to
      reconstruct more short association fibres than conventional diffusion tensor
      imaging. SDIFT is suggested to be useful as a complimentary method capable to
      enhance reliability and visualisation of the evaluated fibre pathways. It is
      especially informative in precortical areas where the uncertainty of the mono
      exponential tensor evaluation becomes too high due to decreased anisotropy of low
      b-value diffusion in these areas. Benefits can be expected in assessment of the
      residual axonal integrity in tissues affected by various pathological conditions,
      in surgical planning, and in evaluation of cortical connectivity, in particular,
      between Brodmann's areas.

PMID- 28870515
TI  - MRI characteristics of the glia limitans externa: A 7T study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To perform a systematic analysis of the intrinsic contrast parameters of
      the FLAIR hyperintense rim (FHR), a thin layer of high intensity covering the
      entire surface of the cerebral cortex detected on fluid-attenuated inversion
      recovery (FLAIR) sequence T2 weighted imaging performed on a 7T system, in an
      attempt to identify its anatomical correlate. METHODS: Fast spin echo inversion
      recovery (FSE-IR) and cardiac-gated fast spin echo (FSE) images were obtained
      with defined parameters in eight normal volunteers on a 7 T MRI system to
      determine T2 and proton density, T1 characteristics. K-means clustering analysis
      of parameter sets was performed using MATLAB version R2015b for the purpose of
      identifying the cluster reflecting FHR. The results were subsequently confirmed
      by independent component analysis (ICA) based on T1 behavior on FSE-IR using a
      MATLAB script of FastICA algorithm. RESULTS: The structure giving rise to FHR was
      found to have a unique combination of intrinsic contrast parameters of low proton
      density, long T2, and disproportionally short T1. The findings are in strong
      agreement with the functional and structural specifics of the glia limitans
      externa (GLE), a structure composed of snuggled endfeet of astrocytes containing
      abundant aquaporin-4 (AQP-4), the main water channel of the brain. CONCLUSION:
      Intrinsic contrast parameters of FHR reflect structural and functional specifics
      of the GLE, and their values are highly dependent on the physiologic
      functionality of AQP-4. Microscopic imaging on a 7T system and analysis of GLE
      contrast parameters can be developed into a method for evaluating AQP-4
      functionality.

PMID- 28870516
TI  - A docking model of dapsone bound to HLA-B*13:01 explains the risk of dapsone
      hypersensitivity syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dapsone (4,4'-diaminodiphenylsulfone) has been widely used for the
      treatment of infections such as leprosy. Dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome (DHS)
      is a major side effect, developing in 0.5-3.6% of patients treated with dapsone,
      and its mortality rate is ~10%. Recently, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B*13:01
      was identified as a marker of susceptibility to DHS. OBJECTIVES: To investigate
      why HLA-B*13:01 is responsible for DHS from a structural point of view. METHODS:
      First, we used homology modeling to derive the three-dimensional structures of
      HLA-B*13:01 (associated with DHS) and HLA-B*13:02 (not so associated despite
      strong sequence identity [99%] with HLA-B*13:01). Next, we used molecular
      docking, molecular dynamic simulations, and the molecular mechanics Poisson
      Boltzman surface area method, to investigate the interactions of dapsone with HLA
      B*13:01 and 13:02. RESULTS: We found a crucial structural difference between HLA
      B*13:01 and 13:02 in the F-pocket of the antigen-binding site. As Trp95 in the
      alpha-domain of HLA-B*13:02 is replaced with the less bulky Ile95 in HLA-B*13:01,
      we found an additional well-defined sub-pocket within the antigen-binding site of
      HLA-B*13:01. All three representative docking poses of dapsone against the
      antigen-binding site of HLA-B*13:01 used this unique sub-pocket, indicating its
      suitability for binding dapsone. However, HLA-B*13:02 does not seem to possess a
      binding pocket suitable for binding dapsone. Finally, a binding free energy
      calculation combined with a molecular dynamics simulation and the molecular
      mechanics Poisson-Boltzman surface area method indicated that the binding
      affinity of dapsone for HLA-B*13:01 would be much greater than that for HLA
      B*13:02. CONCLUSIONS: Our computational results suggest that dapsone would fit
      within the structure of the antigen-recognition site of HLA-B*13:01. This may
      change the self-peptides that bind to HLA-B*13:01, explaining why HLA-B*13:01 is
      a marker of DHS susceptibility.

PMID- 28870517
TI  - Phase 2 Trial of Capecitabine, Gemcitabine, and Bevacizumab in Sarcomatoid Renal
      Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with sarcomatoid renal-cell carcinomas (sRCC) have poor
      outcomes and limited treatment options. Preclinical and clinical data suggest
      susceptibility to cytotoxic agents and vascular endothelial growth factor
      targeted therapies. We designed a phase 2 trial to evaluate the efficacy and
      safety of capecitabine, gemcitabine, and bevacizumab in sRCC. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Patients with metastatic or unresectable sRCC were eligible for
      inclusion. Patients received oral capecitabine 800 mg/m2 twice daily on days 1 to
      21 of a 28-day cycle, intravenous gemcitabine 900 mg/m2 on days 1 and 15, and
      intravenous bevacizumab 10 mg/kg on days 1 and 15. Primary end points were
      progression-free survival and time to treatment failure (TTF). Secondary end
      points were safety, objective response rate, and overall survival. RESULTS:
      Thirty-four patients were enrolled onto the trial. One patient was excluded from
      survival analysis and 4 from response analysis as a result of missing data.
      Median progression-free survival was 5.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI],
      3.4-7.7), median TTF was 4.2 months (95% CI, 2.4-6.0), and median overall
      survival was 12 months (95% CI, 10.6-13.4). Objective response rate was 20% (5
      partial responses, 1 complete response), and disease control rate was 73%. Thirty
      one (91%) of the 34 patients discontinued treatment. The most common reason for
      treatment discontinuation was progressive disease, which occurred in 24 patients
      (71%). The most common grade 3 toxicity was rash (including hand-foot syndrome)
      in 24% patients. CONCLUSION: The combination of capecitabine, gemcitabine, and
      bevacizumab is an option for patients with sRCC; however, response rates are low.
      Novel therapies are needed to improve outcomes in patients with sRCC.

PMID- 28870518
TI  - MultiTEP platform-based DNA vaccines for alpha-synucleinopathies: preclinical
      evaluation of immunogenicity and therapeutic potency.
AB  - We have previously demonstrated that anti-beta amyloid DNA vaccine (AV-1959D)
      based on our proprietary MultiTEP platform technology is extremely immunogenic in
      mice, rabbits, and monkeys. Importantly, MultiTEP platform enables development of
      vaccines targeting pathological molecules involved in various neurodegenerative
      disorders. Taking advantage of the universality of MultiTEP platform, we
      developed DNA vaccines targeting 3 B-cell epitopes (amino acids [aa]85-99, aa109
      126, and aa126-140) of human alpha-synuclein (halpha-Syn) separately or all 3
      epitopes simultaneously. All 4 DNA vaccines (1) generate high titers of anti
      halpha-Syn antibodies and (2) induce robust MultiTEP-specific T-helper cell
      responses without activation of potentially detrimental autoreactive anti-halpha
      Syn T-helper cells. Generated antibodies recognize misfolded halpha-Syn produced
      by neuroblastoma cells, halpha-Syn in the brain tissues of transgenic mouse
      strains and in the brain tissues of dementia with Lewy body cases. Based on these
      results, the most promising vaccine targeting 3 B-cell epitopes of halpha-Syn
      simultaneously (PV-1950D) has been chosen for ongoing preclinical assessment in
      mouse models of halpha-Syn with the aim to translate it to the human clinical
      trials.

PMID- 28870519
TI  - Sigma-1 receptor knockout increases alpha-synuclein aggregation and
      phosphorylation with loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra.
AB  - Sigma-1 receptor (sigma1R) is expressed in dopaminergic neurons of substantia
      nigra. Here, we show that sigma1R knockout (sigma1R-/-) mice, at age 6-12 months,
      appeared with age-related loss of dopaminergic neurons and decline of motor
      coordination. Levels of alpha-synuclein (alphaSyn) oligomers and fibrillar
      alphaSyn in substantia nigra of sigma1R-/- mice were age-dependently increased
      without the changes in alphaSyn monomers. The phosphorylation of alphaSyn
      monomers or oligomers in dopaminergic neurons was enhanced in sigma1R-/- mice.
      Levels of phosphorylated eIF2a and C/EBP homologous protein expression were
      elevated in sigma1R-/- mice with decline of proteasome activity. Inhibition of
      endoplasmic reticulum stress by salubrinal recovered the alphaSyn phosphorylation
      and proteasome activity and prevented early oligomerization of alphaSyn in
      sigma1R-/- mice. Rifampicin reduced the late increase of alphaSyn oligomers in
      sigma1R-/- mice. Rifampicin or salubrinal could reduce the loss of dopaminergic
      neurons in sigma1R-/- mice and improved their motor coordination. The results
      indicate that the sigma1R deficiency through enhanced aggregation and
      phosphorylation of alphaSyn causes the loss of dopaminergic neurons leading to
      the decline of motor coordination.

PMID- 28870521
TI  - Clinical aspects and biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease in Down syndrome.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) may affect in excess of 90% of individuals with Down
      syndrome (DS) after age 60, due to duplication of the APP gene in trisomy of
      chromosome 21, with neuropathology that is comparable to Sporadic AD and Familial
      AD (FAD). Previous literature suggested some unique features in clinical
      presentation of dementia in DS (DSd), which might be due to diagnostic
      difficulties, or represent a real difference compared to SAD or FAD. We review
      current knowledge on clinical diagnosis and presentation of dementia in DS in
      comparison with FAD due to APP mutations and APP duplication. We suggest that the
      clinical presentation in DS (prominent memory decline and behavioral symptoms,
      and early development of myoclonus and seizures) are similar to the clinical
      features associated with APP mutations that is known to have an increased
      Abeta42/ Abeta40 ratio, and highlight the relative lack of vascular complications
      associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy in DS in comparison with those rare
      individuals with FAD due to duplication APP. We consider the biomarker evidence
      associated with DS and DSd with reference to Abeta peptide levels and oxidative
      stress, and suggest future directions for research to explore the potential
      mechanisms associated with the clinical presentation of DSd.

PMID- 28870520
TI  - Loss of Nrf2 promotes alveolar type 2 cell loss in irradiated, fibrotic lung.
AB  - The development of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis represents a critical
      clinical issue limiting delivery of therapeutic doses of radiation to non-small
      cell lung cancer. Identification of the cell types whose injury initiates a
      fibrotic response and the underlying biological factors that govern that response
      are needed for developing strategies that prevent or mitigate fibrosis. C57BL/6
      mice (wild type, Nrf2 null, Nrf2flox/flox, and Nrf2Delta/Delta; SPC-Cre) were
      administered a thoracic dose of 12Gy and allowed to recover for 250 days. Whole
      slide digital and confocal microscopy imaging of H&E, Masson's trichrome and
      immunostaining were used to assess tissue remodeling, collagen deposition and
      cell renewal/mobilization during the regenerative process. Histological
      assessment of irradiated, fibrotic wild type lung revealed significant loss of
      alveolar type 2 cells 250 days after irradiation. Type 2 cell loss and the
      corresponding development of fibrosis were enhanced in the Nrf2 null mouse. Yet,
      conditional deletion of Nrf2 in alveolar type 2 cells in irradiated lung did not
      impair type 2 cell survival nor yield an increased fibrotic phenotype. Instead,
      radiation-induced DeltaNp63 stem/progenitor cell mobilization was inhibited in
      the Nrf2 null mouse while the propensity for radiation-induced myofibroblasts
      derived from alveolar type 2 cells was magnified. In summary, these results
      indicate that Nrf2 is an important regulator of irradiated lung's capacity to
      maintain alveolar type 2 cells, whose injury can initiate a fibrotic phenotype.
      Loss of Nrf2 inhibits DeltaNp63 stem/progenitor mobilization, a key event for
      reconstitution of injured lung, while promoting a myofibroblast phenotype that is
      central for fibrosis.

PMID- 28870522
TI  - Poly (I:C) impairs NO donor-induced relaxation by overexposure to NO via the NF
      kappa B/iNOS pathway in rat superior mesenteric arteries.
AB  - Recent studies have suggested a link between vascular dysfunction and innate
      immune activation including toll-like receptors (TLRs), but the detailed
      mechanism remains unclear. Here we investigated whether poly (I:C) [a synthetic
      double-strand RNA recognized by TLR3, melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5
      (MDA5), and retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)] affected nitric oxide
      (NO)/cGMP-related vascular relaxation, one of the major cascades of relaxation,
      in rat superior mesenteric arteries. Using organ-cultured arteries, we found that
      poly (I:C) (30MUg/mL for approximately 1 day) markedly reduced sodium
      nitroprusside (SNP)-induced relaxation (vs. vehicle); this was prevented by co
      treatment with a TLR3 inhibitor. Relaxation induced by 8-Br cGMP (a
      phosphodiesterase (PDE)-resistant cGMP analogue) and the expression of proteins
      related to NO/cGMP signaling did not differ between vehicle- and poly (I:C)
      treated groups. When PDEs were inhibited by IBMX (a nonselective PDE inhibitor),
      the SNP-induced relaxation was still greatly reduced in poly (I:C)-treated
      arteries (vs. vehicle). Poly (I:C) reduced SNP-stimulated cGMP production, but
      increased NO production and iNOS expression (vs. vehicle). The impairment of SNP
      induced relaxation by poly (I:C) was prevented by co-treatment with either iNOS
      or a nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) inhibitor. This effect induced by poly
      (I:C) appeared to be independent of oxidative stress. The SNP-induced relaxation
      was reduced in freshly isolated arteries by pre-incubation with SNP in a
      concentration-dependent manner. Poly (I:C) did not alter protein levels of TLR3,
      TRIF/TICAM-1, or phospho-IRF3/IRF3, whereas RIG-I and MDA5 were significantly
      upregulated (vs. vehicle). These results suggest that poly (I:C) impairs NO donor
      induced relaxation in rat superior mesenteric arteries via overexposure to NO
      produced by the NF-kappaB/iNOS pathway.

PMID- 28870524
TI  - Folic acid supplement use and the risk of gestational hypertension and
      preeclampsia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are among the leading causes of
      maternal morbidity and mortality. Studies suggest that the use of folic acid may
      lower the risk of hypertensive disorders in pregnant women. AIM: The aim of this
      study was to assess the effects of timing and duration of folic acid-containing
      supplement use on the risk for gestational hypertension and preeclampsia.
      METHODS: Exposures and outcomes data were obtained through interviews and review
      of participant's medical records from the MotherToBaby cohort studies across the
      United States and Canada. Demographics, medical history, lifestyle factors,
      substance use, and fetal sex were assessed as potential confounders. Unadjusted
      and adjusted risks for gestational hypertension and preeclampsia were examined
      using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. FINDINGS: 3247 women were
      included in the study. Compared to non-supplement use, early and late supplement
      use were not significantly associated with the development of gestational
      hypertension or preeclampsia. The odds of developing gestational hypertension and
      preeclampsia were significantly reduced as the duration of folic acid-containing
      supplement use increased. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study suggest that the
      use of folic acid-containing supplements may mitigate the risk for gestational
      hypertension and preeclampsia.

PMID- 28870523
TI  - Antagonism of mGlu2/3 receptors in the nucleus accumbens prevents oxytocin from
      reducing cued methamphetamine seeking in male and female rats.
AB  - Methamphetamine (meth) addiction is a prevalent health concern worldwide, yet
      remains without approved pharmacological treatments. Preclinical evidence
      suggests that oxytocin may decrease relapse, but the neuronal underpinnings
      driving this effect remain unknown. Here we investigate whether oxytocin's effect
      is dependent on presynaptic glutamatergic regulation in the nucleus accumbens
      core (NAcore) by blocking metabotropic glutamate receptors 2/3 (mGluR2/3). Male
      and female Sprague-Dawley rats self-administered meth or sucrose on an escalating
      fixed ratio, followed by extinction and cue-induced reinstatement sessions.
      Reinstatement tests consisted of systemic (Experiment 1) or site-specific
      application of the drugs into the NAcore (Experiments 2 and 3). Before
      reinstatement sessions, rats received LY341495, an mGluR2/3 antagonist, or its
      vehicle followed by a second infusion/injection of oxytocin or saline. As
      expected, both males and females reinstated lever pressing to meth associated
      cues, and LY341495 alone did not impact this behavior. Oxytocin injected
      systemically or infused into the NAcore decreased cued meth seeking. Importantly,
      combined LY341495 and oxytocin administration restored meth cued reinstatement.
      Interestingly, neither oxytocin nor LY341495 impacted sucrose-cued reinstatement,
      suggesting distinct mechanisms between meth and sucrose. These findings were
      consistent between males and females. Overall, we report that oxytocin reduced
      responding to meth-associated cues and blocking presynaptic mGluR2/3 reversed
      this effect. Further, oxytocin's effects were specific to meth cues as NAcore
      oxytocin was without an effect on sucrose cued reinstatement. Results are
      discussed in terms of oxytocin receptor localization in the NAcore and modulation
      of presynaptic regulation of glutamate in response to drug associated cues.

PMID- 28870525
TI  - Rectal balloon use limits vaginal displacement, rectal dose, and rectal toxicity
      in patients receiving IMRT for postoperative gynecological malignancies.
AB  - Pelvic radiotherapy for gynecologic malignancies traditionally used a 4-field box
      technique. Later trials have shown the feasibility of using intensity-modulated
      radiotherapy (IMRT) instead. But vaginal movement between fractions is concerning
      when using IMRT due to greater conformality of the isodose curves to the target
      and the resulting possibility of missing the target while the vagina is
      displaced. In this study, we showed that the use of a rectal balloon during
      treatment can decrease vaginal displacement, limit rectal dose, and limit acute
      and late toxicities. Little is known regarding the use of a rectal balloon (RB)
      in treating patients with IMRT in the posthysterectomy setting. We hypothesize
      that the use of an RB during treatment can limit rectal dose and acute and long
      term toxicities, as well as decrease vaginal cuff displacement between fractions.
      We performed a retrospective review of patients with gynecological malignancies
      who received postoperative IMRT with the use of an RB from January 1, 2012 to
      January 1, 2015. Rectal dose constraint was examined as per Radiation Therapy
      Oncology Group (RTOG) 1203 and 0418. Daily cone beam computed tomography (CT) was
      performed, and the average (avg) displacement, avg magnitude, and avg magnitude
      of vector were calculated. Toxicity was reported according to RTOG acute
      radiation morbidity scoring criteria. Acute toxicity was defined as less than 90
      days from the end of radiation treatment. Late toxicity was defined as at least
      90 days after completing radiation. Twenty-eight patients with postoperative IMRT
      with the use of an RB were examined and 23 treatment plans were reviewed. The avg
      rectal V40 was 39.3% +/- 9.0%. V30 was65.1% +/- 10.0%. V50 was 0%. Separate cone
      beam computed tomography (CBCT) images (n = 663) were reviewed. The avg
      displacement was as follows: superior 0.4 + 2.99 mm, left 0.23 +/- 4.97 mm, and
      anterior 0.16 +/- 5.18 mm. The avg magnitude of displacement was
      superior/inferior 2.22 +/- 2.04 mm, laterally 3.41 +/- 3.62 mm, and
      anterior/posterior 3.86 +/- 3.45 mm. The avg vector magnitude was 6.60 +/- 4.14
      mm. For acute gastrointestinal (GI) toxicities, 50% experienced grade 1
      toxicities and 18% grade 2 GI toxicities. For acute genitourinary (GU)
      toxicities, 21% had grade 1 and 18% had grade 2 toxicities. For late GU
      toxicities, 7% had grade 1 and 4% had grade 2 toxicities. RB for gynecological
      patients receiving IMRT in the postoperative setting can limit V40 rectal dose
      and vaginal displacement. Although V30 constraints were not met, patients had
      limited acute and late toxicities. Further studies are needed to validate these
      findings.

PMID- 28870526
TI  - Drug repurposing strategy against Trypanosoma cruzi infection: In vitro and in
      vivo assessment of the activity of metronidazole in mono- and combined therapy.
AB  - Metronidazole (Mtz) is a commercial broad-spectrum nitroimidazolic derivative
      with relevant antimicrobial activity and relative safety profile. Therefore, it
      is fair to consider Mtz a candidate for drug repurposing for other neglected
      conditions such as Chagas disease (CD), a parasitic pathology caused by
      Trypanosoma cruzi. CD is treated only with benznidazole (Bz) and nifurtimox, both
      introduced in clinics decades ago despite important limitations, including low
      efficacy on the later disease stage (chronic form) and severe side effects. New
      cheap and fast alternative treatments for CD are needed, thus the repurposing of
      Mtz was assessed in vitro and in vivo in mono- and combined therapy. In vitro
      assays demonstrated EC50>200uM for Mtz, while for Bz the values ranged from
      2.51uM (intracellular forms) to 11.5uM (bloodstream trypomastigotes). When both
      drugs were combined in fixed-ratio proportions, Mtz promoted Bz potency (lower
      EC50 values). In vivo toxicity assays for Mtz in mice showed no adverse effects
      neither histopathological alterations up to 2000mg/kg. Regarding experimental T.
      cruzi infection, Bz 100mg/kg suppressed parasitemia while Mtz (up to 1000mg/kg)
      in monotherapy did not, but prolonged animal survival at 250 and 500 regimen
      doses. The combination of both drugs (Bz 10+Mtz 250) prevented mortality (70%)
      besides protected against electric cardiac alterations triggered by the parasite
      infection. Although not able to reduce parasite load, the combination therapy
      prevented animal mortality; this was possibly due to a protection of the electric
      cardiac physiology that is normally altered in experimental infection of T.
      cruzi. It also suggested that the interaction with Mtz could have improved the
      pharmacokinetics of Bz. Our study emphasizes the importance of drug repurposing
      and combined therapy for CD to contribute to alternative therapies for this
      neglected and silent pathology.

PMID- 28870527
TI  - Identification and phenotyping of circulating autoreactive proteinase 3-specific
      B cells in patients with PR3-ANCA associated vasculitis and healthy controls.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To develop a method to detect and phenotype circulating proteinase 3
      (PR3)-specific B-cells in patients with PR3-ANCA associated vasculitis (AAV).
      METHODS: Recombinant human PR3 (rPR3) was tagged with FITC or biotin, and its
      binding characteristics were studied by flow cytometry using three hybridoma cell
      lines secreting antibodies (Ab) against human PR3, mouse PR3 (no cross-reactivity
      with human PR3), and human neutrophil elastase. We measured the proportion of PR3
      specific B-cells and studied their surface phenotype in patients with PR3-AAV and
      healthy controls (HC). RESULTS: Labeled rPR3 efficiently and specifically bound
      to hybridoma cells producing anti-human-PR3-Ab but not anti-mouse-PR3-Ab or anti
      human-elastase-Ab. The proportion of rPR3-stained B cells was higher in patients
      with PR3-AAV compared to HCs: median (IQR) 1.11% (0.81-2.43) vs 0.45% (0.26-0.62)
      respectively, p < 0.001. There was a trend towards a higher proportion of PR3
      specific B cells among patients with active disease compared to patients in
      remission: 2.91% (1.18-6.52) vs 0.99% (0.72-1.58), p = 0.09. In HCs, the
      proportion of PR3-specific B cells was highest among the transitional B-cell
      subset, and decreased with the maturation of B cells. Conversely, in patients,
      the proportion of PR3-specific B cells progressively increased with the
      maturation of B cells (median 1.90% of naive B cells, 2.30% of unswitched memory
      B cells, 2.37% of switched memory B cells, and 3.68% of plasmablasts).
      CONCLUSIONS: Circulating PR3-specific B cells can be detected in HC and patients
      with PR3-AAV. Their progressive enrichment during B-cell maturation suggests that
      they are actively selected and escape peripheral tolerance checkpoints in
      patients.

PMID- 28870528
TI  - Three-Dimensional Cross-Sectional Light-Sheet Microscopy Imaging of the Inflamed
      Mouse Gut.

PMID- 28870529
TI  - An Unusual Case of Abdominal Pain.

PMID- 28870530
TI  - Abnormal Responses to Local Esophageal Food Allergen Injections in Adult Patients
      With Eosinophilic Esophagitis.
AB  - Skin tests and measurement of serum levels of immunoglobulin E do not accurately
      identify foods for elimination from the diets of patients with eosinophilic
      esophagitis (EoE). We investigated whether an esophageal prick test, in which the
      esophageal mucosa is challenged by local injection of allergen extracts, could
      identify individuals with esophageal sensitization. During endoscopy, 6 allergens
      were injected in the esophagus of 8 patients with EoE and 3 patients without EoE
      (controls). A second endoscopy was performed after 24 hours to evaluate delayed
      responses. Five of the 8 patients with EoE had evidence for an acute response
      (luminal obstruction and mucosal blanching); 2 other patients had a delayed wheal
      or flare reaction. No responses were observed in controls. We conclude that
      esophageal mucosal food allergen injections induce acute and/or delayed responses
      in patients with EoE but not controls. The esophageal prick test deserves further
      exploration because it may guide elimination diets.

PMID- 28870531
TI  - The Perils of Competitive Speed Eating!

PMID- 28870533
TI  - Rituximab in refractory autoimmune hemolytic anemia in systemic lupus
      erythematosus.

PMID- 28870532
TI  - Progression of an Unusual Primary Liver Tumor.

PMID- 28870534
TI  - Assessing the insecticide susceptibility status of field population of
      Phlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a hyperendemic area of zoonotic
      cutaneous leishmaniasis in Esfahan Province, Central Iran.
AB  - Leishmaniasis is a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) and emerging parasitic
      infection that affect mainly poor regions around the world. This study aimed to
      determine the baseline susceptibility of Phlebotomus papatasi to commonly used
      insecticides in a hyper endemic area using WHO standard procedure in central
      Iran. A total of 4-5 replicates containing 120-200 sand flies were used for each
      insecticide. Baseline susceptibility to DDT and pyrethroids was assessed on 5326
      specimens collected from the study area. The LT50 and LT90 values were measured
      according to the World Health Organisation test using probit analysis and
      regression lines. The test results against males P. papatasi revealed that LT50
      values to DDT 4%,Permethrin 0.75%, Deltamethrin 0.05%, Cyfluthrin 0.15% and
      Lambdacyhalothrin 0.05% were 564.07, 38.08, 1.95, 0.60 and 9.78s and the figures
      for females were 584.44, 110.10, 11.64, 1.53 and 16.91s, respectively. Our
      results indicated that P. papatasi as the main cutaneous leishmaniasis vector was
      susceptible to Cyfluthrin 0.15%, Lambdacyhalothrin 0.05%, Permethrin 0.75% and
      Deltamethrin 0.05% and tolerant to DDT 4%. This study was carried out in one out
      of many Leishmaniasis foci in Iran. We recommend that future studies incorporate
      other regions and use the same procedure for monitoring and evaluating sand fly
      resistance. Also, WHO can provide a specific guideline and create a test kit for
      sand fly resistance monitoring and for applying susceptibility test because the
      tubes prepared for mosquitoes are not actually fit for sand flies.

PMID- 28870535
TI  - Historical overview of infantile visceral leishmaniasis in El Agamy, Alexandria,
      Egypt.
AB  - Infantile visceral leishmaniasis (IVL) is considered a rare and neglected disease
      in Egypt. An outbreak of the disease in El Agamy, Alexandria occurred in 1982
      although the disease was previously reported 80 years before. Epidemiological and
      entomological studies were conducted ever since the 1982 outbreak to identify
      human cases, the parasite, reservoir host and the sand fly vector. Leishmania
      infantum MON-98, a new and unique zymodeme, was responsible of the disease. Stray
      dogs acted as the reservoir host and Phlebotomus langeroni was the proven vector.
      The parasite isolates from human cases were identical to the parasite isolates
      from the reservoir host and the sand fly vector. The El Agamy focus in 1982 was
      basically a rural Bedouin setting of recently built cement houses surrounded by
      lime stone fences. The numbers of human cases of IVL in this area have been
      declining, with the last reported case in 2005. This coincides with the
      completion of irregular urbanization of El Agamy which resulted in the
      disappearance of P. langeroni. In this review, we characterize the old focus of
      IVL in El Agamy based on published literature to identify factors underlying the
      appearance and disappearance of the disease.

PMID- 28870536
TI  - Animal African Trypanosomiasis in Nigeria: A long way from
      elimination/eradication.
AB  - Animal African Trypanosomiasis (AAT) is a disease of livestock that directly
      hinders livestock production and therefore impedes the socio-economic development
      of sub-Saharan Africa. The establishment of the Pan-African Tsetse and
      Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) was to enhance the goal of
      elimination and eradication of tsetse flies and AAT from endemic countries in
      Africa. In order to achieve AAT eradication, a five-step progressive control
      pathway (PCP) model has been proposed. The data presented in this report
      demonstrates that Nigeria is highly endemic of AAT and that it is yet to
      comprehensively approach the process of eradication as it is at the infancy stage
      of data gathering and processing. This review is thus presented to serve as a
      wake-up call to all relevant stakeholders to intensify efforts in approaching the
      painstaking process of AAT eradication in Nigeria.

PMID- 28870537
TI  - Clinical characteristics of patients with ischemic stroke following the 2016
      Kumamoto earthquake.
AB  - To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with ischemic stroke
      following the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. We retrospectively studied patients with
      ischemic stroke admitted to our hospital for 12weeks following the earthquake. We
      compared the clinical backgrounds and characteristics of the patients: before
      (the same period from the previous 3years) and after the earthquake; and the
      early (first 2weeks) and late (subsequent 10weeks) phases. A total of 194
      patients with ischemic stroke were admitted to our hospital after the earthquake;
      496 (165.3/year) patients were admitted before the earthquake. No differences
      between the two groups were noted for the clinical backgrounds, characteristics,
      or biomarkers. Past history of sleeping in a shelter or small vehicle was found
      in 13% and 28% of patients, respectively. Sleeping in a shelter (27% vs. 10%,
      p=0.013) was found more frequently in patients during the early phase than during
      the late phase after the earthquake. Admission of patients with ischemic stroke
      increased after the earthquake; however no differences between before and after
      the earthquake were noted for their clinical characteristics. To prevent ischemic
      stroke following earthquakes, mental stress and physical status of evacuees must
      be assessed.

PMID- 28870538
TI  - Long-term assessment of recruitment, early stages and population dynamics of the
      endangered Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis in the Columbretes Islands (NW
      Mediterranean).
AB  - A long-term experimental approach was undertaken to assess viability and
      resilience of the endangered Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis. Artificial
      and natural recruitment, mortality, population traits and juvenile growth were
      assessed in seasonal and annual surveys. In the Columbretes Islands, P. nobilis
      thrives in differing substrate types, from coarse sand to boulders, in Cymodocea
      nodosa meadows and among rhodoliths, and is always found sharing habitat with the
      less abundant sibling species P. rudis. In artificial collectors larval
      settlement occurred over a several months period, concentrating its peak in
      September and resulting from two separated spawning events. Recruitment in the
      collectors showed high inter-annual variability and was independent of depth, but
      positively correlated with seasonal water temperature increase in June. Natural
      recruitment of P. nobilis was low and showed little variability, evidencing the
      existence of intense post-settlement processes. Adult mortality was also low,
      thus leading to slow population dynamics and to the species' vulnerability to
      catastrophic events. Population size structure suggests the existence of a refuge
      size above 45 cm shell length. The fast growth during the first years of life
      would help shortening this vulnerability period. Altogether, essential
      information and tools for the species' conservation are provided, which will be
      critical in the current context of mass mortalities affecting P. nobilis.

PMID- 28870539
TI  - Mixed Reality Meets Pharmaceutical Development.
AB  - As science evolves, the need for more efficient and innovative knowledge transfer
      capabilities becomes evident. Advances in drug discovery and delivery sciences
      have directly impacted the pharmaceutical industry, though the added complexities
      have not shortened the development process. These added complexities also make it
      difficult for scientists to rapidly and effectively transfer knowledge to offset
      the lengthened drug development timelines. While webcams, camera phones, and
      iPads have been explored as potential new methods of real-time information
      sharing, the non-"hands-free" nature and lack of viewer and observer point-of
      view render them unsuitable for the R&D laboratory or manufacturing setting. As
      an alternative solution, the Microsoft HoloLens mixed-reality headset was
      evaluated as a more efficient, hands-free method of knowledge transfer and
      information sharing. After completing a traditional method transfer between 3 R&D
      sites (Rahway, NJ; West Point, PA and Schnachen, Switzerland), a retrospective
      analysis of efficiency gain was performed through the comparison of a mock method
      transfer between NJ and PA sites using the HoloLens. The results demonstrated a
      minimum 10-fold gain in efficiency, weighing in from a savings in time, cost, and
      the ability to have real-time data analysis and discussion. In addition, other
      use cases were evaluated involving vendor and contract research/manufacturing
      organizations.

PMID- 28870540
TI  - CON4EI: Slug Mucosal Irritation (SMI) test method for hazard identification and
      labelling of serious eye damaging and eye irritating chemicals.
AB  - Assessment of ocular irritancy is an international regulatory requirement in the
      safety evaluation of industrial and consumer products. Although many in vitro
      ocular irritation assays exist, alone they are incapable of fully categorizing
      chemicals. The objective of CEFIC-LRI-AIMT6-VITO CON4EI (CONsortium for in vitro
      Eye Irritation testing strategy) project was to develop tiered testing strategies
      for eye irritation assessment that can lead to complete replacement of the in
      vivo Draize rabbit eye test (OECD TG 405). A set of 80 reference chemicals was
      tested with seven test methods, one method was the Slug Mucosal Irritation (SMI)
      test method. The method measures the amount of mucus produced (MP) during a
      single 1-hour contact with a 1% and 10% dilution of the chemical. Based on the
      total MP, a classification (Cat 1, Cat 2, or No Cat) is predicted. The SMI test
      method correctly identified 65.8% of the Cat 1 chemicals with a specificity of
      90.5% (low over-prediction rate for in vivo Cat 2 and No Cat chemicals).
      Mispredictions were predominantly unidirectional towards lower classifications
      with 26.7% of the liquids and 40% of the solids being underpredicted. In general,
      the performance was better for liquids than for solids with respectively 76.5% vs
      57.1% (Cat 1), 61.5% vs 50% (Cat 2), and 87.5% vs 85.7% (No Cat) being identified
      correctly.

PMID- 28870541
TI  - Lay preferences for dentogingival esthetic parameters: A systematic review.
AB  - STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: An objective definition of the characteristics that render
      a smile esthetically acceptable in the eye of laypeople is lacking. PURPOSE: The
      purpose of this systematic review was to identify, appraise, and synthesize the
      available evidence on the opinion of laypeople regarding the dentogingival
      characteristics that render a smile esthetically acceptable. The evidence was
      collected by surveying with standardized digitally modified smile images.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Four databases were used to search English language studies
      published between January 1996 and December 2015. This was complemented by a
      manual search of 8 dental journals. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, 2 independent reviewers
      extracted the relevant characteristics of lay evaluators, the images evaluated,
      and the outcomes measure. Included studies were assessed in agreement with the
      Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE)
      statement. Outcomes were treated as a continuous variable, and when more than 1
      article provided information on a parameter, the weighted arithmetic mean was
      calculated. RESULTS: After 8851 articles were screened, 20 studies were included.
      Those studies addressed 20 different dentogingival esthetic parameters. The total
      number of participants interviewed was 3107. According to the Olmos
      classification, 6 studies had a high level of quality, and 14 studies had a
      moderate level of quality. The 2 reviewers agreed on all the quality assessments.
      In the articles reviewed, central incisors clearly played a key role in smile
      esthetics. Almost all dental, gingival, and occlusal parameters are related to
      the proportion, shape, and position of central incisors and their relation to the
      adjacent dental structures. CONCLUSIONS: The present review provides the
      estimated thresholds of tolerability and ideal values of smile parameters
      determined by laypeople. This may guide clinicians in evidence-based diagnosis
      and the planning of dental esthetic treatments.

PMID- 28870542
TI  - Detailed qualitative analysis of honeybush tea (Cyclopia spp.) volatiles by
      comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry and relation with sensory data.
AB  - The volatile composition of honeybush (Cyclopia) species was studied by
      comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry (GC*GC-TOF-MS). Headspace-solid phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) was
      used to extract the volatile compounds from tea infusions prepared from the three
      species C. genistoides, C. maculata and C. subternata. A total of 287 compounds
      were identified, 101 of which were confirmed using reference standards, while the
      remainder were tentatively identified using mass spectral and retention index
      (RI) data. The identification power of TOF-MS enabled the tentative
      identification of 147 compounds for the first time in honeybush tea. The majority
      of the compounds identified were common to all three Cyclopia species, although
      there were differences in their relative abundances, and some compounds were
      unique to each of the species. In C. genistoides, C. maculata and C. subternata
      265, 257 and 238 compounds were identified, respectively. Noteworthy was the
      tentative identification of cinnamaldehyde in particular C. maculata samples,
      which points to the likely contribution of this compound to their distinct
      sensory profiles. This study emphasises the complexity of honeybush tea volatile
      composition and confirms the power of GC*GC combined with TOF-MS for the analysis
      of such complex samples.

PMID- 28870543
TI  - Development and comprehensive comparison of two on-line capillary electrophoretic
      methods for beta-secretase inhibitor screening.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, afflicting over 34
      million patients worldwide. Since beta-secretase is a rate-limiting enzyme of the
      production of neurotoxic beta-amyloid peptide oligomers abnormally accumulated in
      the affected brain tissue, its specific inhibition appears to be a promising
      approach to slowing down or even stopping the progression of the disease. Hence
      two on-line capillary electrophoretic methods for studies of beta-secretase
      activity based on the principles of transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles
      and electrophoretically mediated microanalysis were developed, both using a
      simple unlabeled peptide substrate and UV detection. The optimized procedures
      were thoroughly validated and applied for determining the enzyme's kinetic
      parameters and the inhibition characteristics of two potent probe inhibitors. The
      resulting values were found to be comparable to literature data obtained with
      other analytical techniques. The suitability of the employed methodologies for
      different experimental designs is discussed on the basis of a statistical
      evaluation of the experimental data. The presented methods constitute a
      miniaturized and fully automated tool, which should be suitable for kinetic and
      inhibition studies of beta-secretase as a target for Alzheimer's disease drug
      discovery in the early stages of the development of a new drug.

PMID- 28870544
TI  - Multi-analysis determination of tropane alkaloids in cereals and solanaceaes
      seeds by liquid chromatography coupled to single stage Exactive-Orbitrap.
AB  - Tropane alkaloids are a wide group of substances that comprises more than 200
      compounds occurring especially in the Solanaceae family. The main aim of this
      study is the development of a method for the analysis of the principal tropane
      alkaloids as atropine, scopolamine, anisodamine, tropane, tropine, littorine,
      homatropine, apoatropine, aposcopolamine, scopoline, tropinone, physoperuvine,
      pseudotropine and cuscohygrine in cereals and related matrices. For that, a
      simple solid-liquid extraction was optimized and a liquid chromatographic method
      coupled to a single stage Exactive-Orbitrap was developed. The method was
      validated obtaining recoveries in the range of 60-109% (except for some compounds
      in soy), precision values (expressed as relative standard deviation) lower than
      20% and detection and quantification limits equal to or lower than 2 and 3MUg/kg
      respectively. Finally, the method was applied to the analysis of different types
      of samples as buckwheat, linseed, soy and millet, obtaining positives for
      anisodamine, scopolamine, atropine, littorine and tropinone in a millet flour
      sample above the quantification limits, whereas atropine and scopolamine were
      detected in a buckwheat sample, below the quantification limit. Contaminated
      samples with Solanaceaes seeds (Datura Stramonium and Brugmansia Arborea) were
      also analysed, detecting concentrations up to 693MUg/kg (scopolamine) for
      contaminated samples with Brugmansia seeds and 1847MUg/kg (atropine) when samples
      were contaminated with Stramonium seeds.

PMID- 28870545
TI  - Arterial stiffness and cognitive impairment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arterial stiffness is one of the earliest indicators of changes in
      vascular wall structure and function and may be assessed using various
      indicators, such as pulse-wave velocity (PWV), the cardio-ankle vascular index
      (CAVI), the ankle-brachial index (ABI), pulse pressure (PP), the augmentation
      index (AI), flow-mediated dilation (FMD), carotid intima media thickness (IMT)
      and arterial stiffness index-beta. Arterial stiffness is generally considered an
      independent predictor of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. To date, a
      significant number of studies have focused on the relationship between arterial
      stiffness and cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: To investigate the
      relationships between specific arterial stiffness parameters and cognitive
      impairment, elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the
      relationship between arterial stiffness and cognitive impairment and determine
      how to interfere with arterial stiffness to prevent cognitive impairment, we
      searched PUBMED for studies regarding the relationship between arterial stiffness
      and cognitive impairment that were published from 2000 to 2017. We used the
      following key words in our search: "arterial stiffness and cognitive impairment"
      and "arterial stiffness and cognitive impairment mechanism". Studies involving
      human subjects older than 30years were included in the review, while irrelevant
      studies (i.e., studies involving subjects with comorbid kidney disease, diabetes
      and cardiac disease) were excluded from the review. RESULTS: We determined that
      arterial stiffness severity was positively correlated with cognitive impairment.
      Of the markers used to assess arterial stiffness, a higher PWV, CAVI, AI, IMT and
      index-beta and a lower ABI and FMD were related to cognitive impairment. However,
      the relationship between PP and cognitive impairment remained controversial. The
      potential mechanisms linking arterial stiffness and cognitive impairment may be
      associated with arterial pulsatility, as greater arterial pulsatility damages the
      cerebral microcirculation, which causes various phenomena associated with
      cerebral small vessel diseases (CSVDs), such as white matter hyperintensities
      (WMHs), cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), and lacunar infarctions (LIs). The
      mechanisms underlying the relationship between arterial stiffness and cognitive
      impairment may also be associated with reductions in white matter and gray matter
      integrity, medial temporal lobe atrophy and Abeta protein deposition. Engaging in
      more frequent physical exercise; increasing flavonoid and long-chain n-3
      polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption; increasing tea, nitrite, dietary calcium
      and vitamin D intake; losing weight and taking medications intended to improve
      insulin sensitivity; quitting smoking; and using antihypertensive drugs and
      statins are early interventions and lifestyle changes that may be effective in
      preventing arterial stiffness and thus preventing cognitive impairment.
      CONCLUSION: Arterial stiffness is a sensitive predictor of cognitive impairment,
      and arterial stiffness severity has the potential to serve as an indicator used
      to facilitate treatments designed to prevent or delay the onset and progression
      of dementia in elderly individuals. Early treatment of arterial stiffness is
      beneficial and recommended.

PMID- 28870546
TI  - Association of SAA gene polymorphism with ischemic stroke in northern Chinese Han
      population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serum amyloid A protein (SAA) is known as an inflammatory factor and
      an apolipoprotein that can replace apolipoprotein A-I/II components as the major
      apolipoprotein of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), which is related to
      atherosclerosis. The present study is aimed to evaluate whether the SAA gene
      polymorphism is involved in ischemic stroke in northern Chinese Han population.
      METHODS: In a case-control study, the participants included 396 patients (239
      males, 157 females) with ischemic stroke and 360 healthy subjects (211 males, 149
      females). The rs12218 polymorphism of the SAA gene was analyzed by polymerase
      chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism, while the rs2468844
      polymorphism of the SAA gene was analyzed by matrix-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The frequencies
      of the CC genotype and the C allele of rs12218 were higher in participants with
      ischemic stroke than in the control group (P=0.020 in males, P=0.001 in large
      artery atherosclerosis group, LAA). The frequencies of the AG genotype and the G
      allele of rs2468844 were higher in participants with ischemic stroke than in the
      control group (P=0.040 in males, P=0.011 in large-artery atherosclerosis group).
      Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed the significance of the rs12218 in
      males and in large-artery atherosclerosis group after adjustment for confounding
      factors. CONCLUSION: The rs12218 polymorphism of the SAA gene was associated with
      ischemic stroke in males and in patients with large-artery atherosclerosis group
      in northern Chinese Han population.

PMID- 28870547
TI  - Association of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring parameters with the
      Framingham Stroke Risk Profile.
AB  - The Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP) is a novel and reliable tool for
      estimating the 10-year probability for incident stroke in stroke-free
      individuals, while the predictive value of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
      (ABPM) for first-ever and recurrent stroke has been well established. We sought
      to evaluate cross-sectionally the association of ABPM parameters with FSRP score
      in a large sample of 2343 consecutive stroke-free individuals (mean age: 56.0+/
      12.9, 49.1% male) who underwent 24-hour ABPM. True hypertensives showed
      significantly higher FSRP (11.2+/-5.0) compared to the normotensives (8.2+/-5.0,
      p<0.001), while subjects with white coat hypertension also had higher FSRP
      (10.2+/-4.7) than normotensives (8.2+/-5.0, p<0.001). Compared to dippers that
      exhibited the lowest FSRP, non-dippers and reverse-dippers exhibited
      significantly higher FSRP (9.8+/-4.8 for dippers vs 10.6+/-5.2 and 11.5+/-5.0 for
      non-dippers and reverse-dippers respectively, p<=0.001 for comparisons). In
      univariate analyses, the ABPM parameters that had the strongest correlation with
      FSRP were 24-hour (r=0.440, p<0.001), daytime (r=0.435, p<0.001) and night-time
      (r=0.423; p<0.001) pulse pressure (PP). The best fitting model for predicting
      FSRP (R2=24.6%) on multiple linear regression analyses after adjustment for
      vascular risk factors not included in FSRP comprised the following parameters in
      descending order: 24-hour PP (beta=0.349, p<0.001), daytime SBP variability
      (beta=0.124, p<0.001), 24-hour HR variability (beta=-0.091, p<0.001), mean 24
      hour HR (beta=-0.107, p<0.001), BMI (beta=0.081, p<0.001) and dipping percentage
      (beta=-0.063, p=0.001). 24-hour PP and daytime SBP variability are the two ABPM
      parameters that were more strongly associated with FSRP-score. Reverse dippers
      had the highest FSRP among all dipping status profiles.

PMID- 28870548
TI  - Corticosteroid therapy and severity of vasogenic edema in posterior reversible
      encephalopathy syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a variable
      cerebrovascular syndrome associated with hypertension and autoregulatory failure.
      Steroids have been reported to both precipitate and treat PRES. We sought to
      determine the prevalence of steroid therapy at the time of PRES and to assess the
      relationship between steroid therapy and extent of vasogenic edema. METHODS: We
      performed a retrospective review of radiology reports between 2008 and 2014 from
      two academic medical centers to identify cases of PRES. Clinical and radiographic
      data were collected. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence
      of corticosteroid therapy at the time of PRES onset and the latency from steroid
      initiation to PRES onset. The association between steroid therapy and extent of
      vasogenic edema was assessed in multiple regression models. RESULTS: We
      identified 99 cases of PRES in 96 patients. The median age was 55years (IQR 30
      65) and 74% were women. Steroid therapy at time of PRES onset was identified in
      44 of 99 cases. Excluding patients on chronic therapy, the median duration of
      steroid exposure before PRES onset was 6 (IQR, 3-10) days. Steroid therapy was
      not associated with extent of vasogenic edema in unadjusted or linear and
      logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, and maximum systolic blood
      pressure on day of onset. CONCLUSION: Corticosteroid therapy, often of brief
      duration, frequently preceded the onset of PRES and was not associated with
      severity of vasogenic edema.

PMID- 28870549
TI  - Altered expression of E-Cadherin-related transcription factors indicates partial
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition in aggressive meningiomas.
AB  - E-Cadherin has been suggested to be involved in meningioma progression but is
      also known as a key player of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). We
      wondered whether the adherens junction protein E-Cadherin, the tight junction
      protein Zo-1, and transcription factors suppressing E-Cadherin expression (Slug,
      Snail, Twist, Zeb-1) are differentially expressed between histopathological
      subtypes of meningioma, and if the expression of these factors is related to
      biological features of meningiomas. Analyzing 85 meningiomas of various
      histopathological subtypes and grades of malignancy by immunohistochemistry and
      50 of them in addition by real-Time-PCR, we observed significantly reduced
      expression of Zeb-1, Twist and Slug, together with slightly increased expression
      levels for E-Cadherin and Zo- 1 in fibroblastic WHO-grade I tumors compared to
      meningothelial WHO grade I tumors, contradicting the hypothesis of EMT in the
      fibroblastic meningiomas characterized by mesenchymal appearance. However,
      comparing aggressive WHO grade II or III meningiomas with WHO-grade I tumors, we
      observed altered expression levels (loss of E-Cadherin and Zo-1, increased
      expression of Zeb-1 and Slug) indicating molecular features of EMT in aggressive
      meningiomas. This was supported by reduced E-Cadherin and increased Slug levels
      in recurrent compared to non-recurrent meningiomas. The expression levels of E
      cadherin and Zo-1 were positively correlated with expression of NF2 mRNA. In
      primary meningioma cultures and IOMM-Lee meningioma cells, EMT induction by TGF
      beta resulted in altered morphology and increased expression of EMT associated
      transcription factors. Meningioma cells with allelic losses of NF2 showed
      generally higher levels of various EMT relevant proteins, but were unresponsive
      to TGF-beta treatment. Our data indicate that aggressive meningiomas of WHO grade
      II/III are characterized by molecular alterations indicating partial EMT. This
      might contribute to the aggressive biology of these tumors.

PMID- 28870550
TI  - Reduced mitochondrial mRNA expression in dementia with Lewy bodies.

PMID- 28870551
TI  - Low IDL-B and high LDL-1 subfraction levels in serum of ALS patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Converging evidence highlights that lipid metabolism plays a key
      role in ALS pathophysiology. Dyslipidemia has been described in ALS patients and
      may be protective but peripheral lipoprotein subclasses have never been studied.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: We collected sera from 30 ALS patients and 30 gender and
      age-matched controls. We analyzed 11 distinct lipoprotein subclasses by linear
      polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Lipoprint, Quantimetrix Corporation, USA). We
      also measured lipoprotein (a), apolipoprotein B, and apolipoprotein E levels.
      RESULTS: ALS patients had significant higher total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol,
      and LDL-cholesterol levels than controls (p<0.0001, p=0.0007, and p=0.0065,
      respectively). The LDL-1 subfraction concentration was higher (1.03+/-0.41 vs.
      0.71+/-0.28mmol/L; p=0.0006) and the IDL-B subfraction lower (6.5+/-2% vs. 8.0+/
      2%; p=0.001) in ALS patients than controls. DISCUSSION: Our preliminary work
      confirmed the association between ALS and dyslipidemia. The low IDL-B levels may
      explain the hepatic steatosis frequently reported in ALS. The high levels of the
      cholesterol-rich LDL-1 subfraction is consistent with previously reported
      hypercholesterolemia. CONCLUSION: This study describes, for the first time, the
      distribution of serum lipoproteins in ALS patients, with low IDL-B and high LDL-1
      subfraction level.

PMID- 28870552
TI  - High neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is associated with white matter
      hyperintensity in a healthy population.
AB  - High neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is correlated with the occurrence,
      morbidity and mortality of cerebrovascular disease as a marker of systemic
      inflammation. However, its effect on cerebral white matter hyperintensity (WMH)
      is unclear. We investigated high NLR burden as a surrogate marker of WMH volume
      in a healthy population. Healthy subjects with voluntary health check-ups between
      January 2006 and December 2013, including brain MRI and laboratory examination,
      were collected. WMH volumes were rated quantitatively. A total of 2875 subjects
      were enrolled, and the mean volume of WMH was 2.63+/-6.26mL. In multivariate
      linear regression analysis, NLR [beta=0.191, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.104
      to 0.279, P<0.001] remained significant after adjusting for confounders. Age
      (beta=0.049, 95% CI=0.045 to 0.054, P<0.001), hypertension (beta=0.191, 95%
      CI=0.101 to 0.281, P<0.001), diabetes (beta=0.153, 95% CI=0.045 to 0.261,
      P=0.006), and extracranial atherosclerosis (beta=0.348, 95% CI=0.007 to 0.688,
      P=0.045) were also significant independently from NLR. Additionally, the high NLR
      group (NLR>=1.52) was related to male sex, hypertension, diabetes, current
      smoking, extracranial atherosclerosis, silent brain infarct, and high WMH
      volumes. In conclusion, high NLR is associated with larger WMH volumes in a
      healthy population. Assessment of NLR may be helpful in detecting cerebral WMH
      burdens in high risk groups.

PMID- 28870553
TI  - Is spasticity always the same? An observational study comparing the features of
      spastic equinus foot in patients with chronic stroke and multiple sclerosis.
AB  - Spasticity is common in stroke and multiple sclerosis. To treat spasticity we
      have a wide range of interventions, whose application may depend not only on the
      severity of spasticity but also on its etiology. Consequently, a better
      understanding of muscle spasticity in different neurological diseases may inform
      clinicians as to the more appropriate therapeutic approach. Our aim was to
      compare the clinical and ultrasonographic features of spastic equinus in patients
      with chronic stroke and multiple sclerosis. Thirty-eight patients with secondary
      progressive multiple sclerosis and 38 chronic stroke patients with spastic
      equinus were evaluated at the affected ankle according to the following outcomes:
      modified Ashworth scale, Tardieu scale, passive range of motion, spastic
      gastrocnemius muscle echo intensity and thickness. Affected calf muscles tone was
      significantly greater in patients with chronic stroke (modified Ashworth scale
      P=0.008; Tardieu scale angle P=0.004) as well as spastic gastrocnemius muscle
      echo intensity (P<0.001). Affected ankle range of motion was significantly
      greater in patients with multiple sclerosis (P<0.001) as well as spastic
      gastrocnemius muscle thickness (medialis: P=0.003; lateralis: P=0.004). Our
      findings evidenced that the same pattern of spasticity (equinus foot) has some
      different features according to its etiology. This may help the management of
      spasticity.

PMID- 28870554
TI  - Effectiveness of speech language therapy either alone or with add-on computer
      based language therapy software (Malayalam version) for early post stroke
      aphasia: A feasibility study.
AB  - CONTEXT AND AIMS: This study aimed to assess the feasibility of professional
      based conventional speech language therapy (SLT) either alone (Group A/less
      intensive) or assisted by novel computer based local language software (Group
      B/more intensive) for rehabilitation in early post stroke aphasia. SETTINGS AND
      DESIGN: Comprehensive Stroke Care Center of a tertiary health care institute
      situated in South India, with the study design being prospective open randomised
      controlled trial with blinded endpoint evaluation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This
      study recruited 24 right handed first ever acute ischemic stroke patients above
      15years of age affecting middle cerebral artery territory within 90days of stroke
      onset with baseline Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) Aphasia Quotient (AQ) score of
      <93.8 between September 2013 and January 2016.The recruited subjects were block
      randomised into either Group A/less intensive or Group B/more intensive therapy
      arms, in order to receive 12 therapy sessions of conventional professional based
      SLT of 1h each in both groups, with an additional 12h of computer based language
      therapy in Group B over 4weeks on a thrice weekly basis, with a follow up WAB
      performed at four and twelve weeks after baseline assessment. The trial was
      registered with Clinical trials registry India [2016/08/0120121]. STATISTICAL
      ANALYSIS: All the statistical analysis was carried out with IBM SPSS Statistics
      for Windows version 21. RESULTS: 20 subjects [14 (70%) Males; Mean age:
      52.8years+/-SD12.04] completed the study (9 in the less intensive and 11 in the
      more intensive arm). The mean four weeks follow up AQ showed a significant
      improvement from the baseline in the total group (p value: 0.01). The rate of
      rise of AQ from the baseline to four weeks follow up (DeltaAQ %) showed a
      significantly greater value for the less intensive treatment group as against the
      more intensive treatment group [155% (SD: 150; 95% CI: 34-275) versus 52% (SD:
      42%; 95% CI: 24-80) respectively: p value: 0.053]. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the
      more intensive treatment arm incorporating combined professional based SLT and
      computer software based training fared poorer than the less intensive therapy
      group, this study nevertheless reinforces the feasibility of SLT in augmenting
      recovery of early post stroke aphasia.

PMID- 28870555
TI  - Botulinum toxin alleviates dysphagia of patients with inclusion body myositis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Oropharyngeal dysphagia is a disabling and undertreated symptom that
      often occurs in patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (s-IBM). In this
      study, we examined the effect of botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT-A) injections to
      the cricopharyngeus muscle (CPM) of patients with s-IBM and dysphagia. PATIENTS,
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-center retrospective study involving 40 biopsy
      proven s-IBM-patients treated in the District of Southwest Finland from 2000 to
      2013. The incidence of dysphagia, rate of aspirations, rate of aspiration
      pneumonias and treatment results of dysphagia were analyzed. Patients treated for
      dysphagia were evaluated before and after surgery by video-fluoroscopy and/or
      using a questionnaire. RESULTS: Twenty-five of the 40 s-IBM patients (62.5%)
      experienced dysphagia. BoNT-A was injected a median of 2 times (range 1-7) in 12
      patients with dysphagia. Before the injections 7 patients reported aspiration,
      none afterwards. The corresponding figures for aspiration pneumonia were 3 and 0.
      All of these patients had normal swallowing function 12months (median, range 2
      60) after the last injection. CONCLUSION: BoNT-A injections to the CPM alleviate
      the dysphagia of s-IBM patients reversibly and appear to reduce the rate of
      aspiration effectively.

PMID- 28870556
TI  - The maid of the Bridal Room by Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) shows evidence of
      hypopituitary dwarfism and neurofibromatosis type-1.

PMID- 28870557
TI  - Retroviral envelope proteins: Involvement in neuropathogenesis.
AB  - The primary disease caused by infection with the exogenous human retroviruses,
      human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) or human T-cell lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV
      1), may overlay manifestations of additional autoimmune pathogenesis. Currently,
      a role for human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) is also emerging in some
      autoimmune/immune-mediated diseases, particularly in multiple sclerosis (MS).
      Both exogenous and endogenous retroviruses have the potential to elicit the
      processes leading to autoimmune disease. The pathogenicity of the retroviral
      envelope protein (Env) is a key player with notable importance in neuroimmune
      diseases. An essential prerequisite of retroviral infection is the interactions
      between Env (the retroviral adhesion) proteins on the virion and specific surface
      receptors on the host cell. These interactions facilitate fusion of the viral
      envelope and cellular membranes. Additional fusiogenic activities mediated by Env
      may be beneficial (establishment of the syncytiotrophoblast induced by a HERV
      encoded Env) or detrimental to the host (syncytia formation, induction of
      apoptosis), and Envs are further implied in the direct induction of
      proinflammatory cytokines, the regulation of autophagy, and pathways of cell
      death. The pathogenic potential of retroviral Env is therefore not limited to the
      pathogenetics of infection but also comprise the pathogenic/toxic capacity of the
      Env protein itself.

PMID- 28870558
TI  - Video-EEG findings in acute bithalamic-midbrain ischemia.

PMID- 28870559
TI  - Intranasal deferoxamine affects memory loss, oxidation, and the insulin pathway
      in the streptozotocin rat model of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Accumulation of metal and the accompanying increase in oxidative stress and
      inflammation plays an important role in neurodegenerative disease. Deferoxamine
      (DFO) is a metal chelator found to be beneficial in several animal models of
      neurodegenerative disease and insult including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's
      disease, stroke, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. In this study, we determine whether
      intranasally (IN) administered DFO is beneficial in the intracerebroventricular
      streptozotocin (ICV STZ) rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's disease, which is
      different from previous models in that it exhibits dysregulation of insulin
      metabolism as well as oxidative stress and inflammation. Surgical induction of
      the model included ICV injections of either STZ or citrate buffer (sham in rats),
      which were treated IN with either saline or DFO (n=10-15/group). Treatment
      started either before or after injection of STZ to induce the model, and
      continued throughout the study. IN treatment continued three times per week for
      three weeks before behavior tests started followed by eventual euthanasia with
      tissue collection. Spatial memory tests with the Morris water maze showed that
      STZ rats treated with IN DFO both before and after model induction had
      significantly shorter escape latencies. Pre-treatment with IN DFO also
      significantly decreased footslips on the tapered balance beam test. Brain tissue
      analyses showed DFO treatment decreased oxidation as measured by oxyblot and
      increased insulin receptor expression. These results further support the
      potential of IN DFO for use as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, and show
      benefit in a non-amyloid/tau rodent model.

PMID- 28870560
TI  - Cardioembolic stroke and cardiomyopathy: Rhythm is the key.

PMID- 28870561
TI  - MtDNA m.3472T>C could be classified as a primary mutation of Leber's hereditary
      optic neuropathy.

PMID- 28870562
TI  - Genetic variation in angiotensin converting-enzyme affects the white matter
      integrity and cognitive function of amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients.
AB  - Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene has been implicated in amnestic mild
      cognitive impairment (aMCI). Most human genetic studies have focused on ACE
      insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism and yielded conflicting results. In this
      work, we evaluated the relationships between cognitive function, serum ACE level,
      brain white matter (WM) integrity, and ACE I/D polymorphism in 48 patients with
      aMCI and 36 well matched control subjects from south China. In aMCI patients, D
      allele frequency was higher (D/I ratio=0.51:0.49) than that of the control
      subjects (D/I ratio=0.43:0.57); however, the difference was not statistically
      significant (p>0.05). The D carriers in aMCI subjects performed significantly
      poorer on auditory-verbal learning test (AVLT) -delayed recall than the I
      homozygous group (p=0.035). These carriers had higher serum ACE level than the I
      homozygous carriers of aMCI (p=0.037). In the aMCI group, D carriers showed
      significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the left middle frontal
      gyrus, left anterior cingulate, right gyrus parahippocampalis, right inferior
      parietal lobule, and bilateral anterior central gyrus than the I homozygotes
      carriers. However, no significant difference was observed in FA values between I
      homozygotes and D carriers in the control subjects. The ACE D allele in aMCI
      patients may increase the risk of cognitive impairment. A high serum ACE level
      possibly plays an important role in the incidence of aMCI.

PMID- 28870563
TI  - Executive dysfunction, behavioral changes and quality of life in Chinese patients
      with progressive supranuclear palsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the prevalence and clinical correlates of executive
      impairment and behavioral changes, and the determinants of health-related quality
      of life (HRQoL) in Chinese patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
      METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 52 patients with PSP. The frontal
      assessment battery (FAB) was used to assess executive function, while the frontal
      behavioral inventory (FBI) and Neuropsychiatry Inventory (NPI) were used to
      assess behavioral changes. The HRQoL of PSP patients was assessed using the
      Parkinson's disease questionnaire-39 (PDQ-39). The stepwise multiple regression
      model was use to explore their related factors. RESULTS: Executive deficits were
      detected in forty patients (76.9%), and fifty patients (96.2%) displayed varied
      degrees of frontal behavioral changes. FAB score was associated with Montreal
      Cognitive Assessment score (beta=0.620, P<0.001) and Unified Parkinson's disease
      Rating Scale (UPDRS) III score (beta=-0.238, P=0.025). FBI score was associated
      with FAB score (beta=-0.311, P=0.005) and UPDRS III score (beta=0.251, P=0.018).
      PDQ-39 score was associated with FAB score (beta=-0.324, P=0.005), UPDRS III
      score (beta=0.306, P=0.008), and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score
      (beta=0.353, P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Executive deficits and behavioral changes are
      common in Chinese PSP patients. Executive functions are associated with disease
      severity. Patients with executive dysfunction and more severe disease disability
      are likely to exhibit frontal behavioral abnormalities. Executive dysfunction,
      disease severity and depression exert an impact on the HRQoL of PSP patients.

PMID- 28870564
TI  - Evaluation of polymerase chain reaction in nerve biopsy specimens of patients
      with Hansen's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pure neuritic variety of leprosy (PNL) presents as peripheral
      neuropathy with absent skin lesions and negative skin smears. Diagnosing PNL is
      an uphill task as most of these patients have nonspecific changes on nerve
      biopsy. In such circumstances, additional molecular diagnostic tools like
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has proven to be useful in diagnosing leprosy.
      The present study was planned to evaluate the role of PCR in nerve biopsy
      specimens of patients with PNL. METHODS: Patients attending the neuromuscular
      clinic from January 2013 to June 2014 with mononeuropathy multiplex underwent
      detailed diagnostic evaluation to ascertain the cause of neuropathy. Patients
      where this evaluation failed to establish an etiology underwent a nerve biopsy.
      RESULTS: Nerve biopsy was done in 52 patients, of which 35 were diagnosed as pure
      neuritic leprosy. Definite leprosy with positive wade fite staining for lepra
      bacilli was seen in 13 patients and 22 biopsies revealed a probable leprosy
      without lepra bacilli being identified. PCR for M. leprae was positive in 22
      patients (62%). 12 of the 13 cases with definite leprosy on histopathology were
      PCR positive while in the AFB negative group, PCR was positive in 10 cases. PCR
      had a sensitivity of 92.3%, specificity of 54.5%. The positive and negative
      predictive value of PCR was 54.5% and 92.3% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: PCR helps
      in diagnosing PNL in doubtful cases. A positive PCR increases the sensitivity of
      detection of M. leprae especially in cases of probable PNL group where AFB cannot
      be demonstrated on histopathology.

PMID- 28870565
TI  - Corrigendum to "Is maraviroc useful in multiple sclerosis patients with
      natalizumab-related progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy?" [J. Neurol. Sci.
      378 (2017) 233-237].

PMID- 28870566
TI  - Pre- and postganglionic vasomotor dysfunction causes distal limb coldness in
      multiple system atrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The detailed pathophysiology of limb coldness in multiple system
      atrophy (MSA) is unknown. METHODS: We evaluated cutaneous vasomotor neural
      function in 18 MSA patients with or without limb coldness, and in 20 healthy
      volunteers as controls. We measured resting skin sympathetic nerve activity
      (SSNA) and spontaneous changes of the sympathetic skin response (SSR) and skin
      blood flow (skin vasomotor reflex: SVR), as well as SVR and reflex changes of
      SSNA after electrical stimulation. The parameters investigated were the SSNA
      frequency at rest, amplitude of SSNA reflex bursts, absolute decrease and percent
      reduction of SVR, recovery time, and skin blood flow velocity. RESULTS: Both the
      resting frequency of SSNA and the amplitude of SSNA reflex bursts were
      significantly lower in the MSA group than the control group (p<0.001 and p<0.05,
      respectively). There were no significant differences between the two groups with
      regard to the absolute decrease or percent reduction of SVR volume. The recovery
      time showed no significant difference between all MSA patients and control
      groups, but it was significantly prolonged in six MSA patients with limb coldness
      compared with that in the control group and that in MSA patients without limb
      coldness (p<0.01). The skin blood flow velocity was significantly slower in the
      MSA group than in the control group (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: In MSA patients, limb
      coldness might occur due to impairments of the peripheral circulation based on
      prolongation of vasoconstriction and a decrease of skin blood flow velocity
      secondary to combined pre- and postganglionic skin vasomotor dysfunction.

PMID- 28870567
TI  - Tele-neurology in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rapid advancement in telecommunications on the African continent
      has opened up avenues for improving medical care to underserved populations.
      Although the greatest burden of neurological disorders is borne by Low-and-Middle
      Income Countries (LMICs) including sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there is a profound
      paucity of neurologists to serve the population. Telemedicine presents a
      promising avenue for effective mobilization and utilization of the few
      neurologists in Africa. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the published
      literature on the use of telemedicine for improved care and outcomes for patients
      with neurological disorders in SSA. METHODS: We searched PubMed and Cochrane
      library from January 1, 1980 to April 30, 2017 using the following keywords:
      "Telemedicine neurology Africa", "Teleneurology Africa", "Telestroke Africa",
      "Telerehabilitation Africa", "Telemedicine for epilepsy", "Telemedicine for
      Parkinson's disease Africa", "Telemedicine for dementia Africa", "Telehealth
      neurology Africa". Our inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials, or
      case series that reported the utilization of telemedicine for care/education of
      individuals with neurological disorders in sub-Saharan Africa. RESULTS: This
      search yielded 6 abstracts. By consensus between two investigators, 1 publication
      met the criteria for inclusion and further review. The one study identified
      utilized telemedicine for the purpose of improving education/knowledge of 16
      doctors and 17 allied health professionals in Parkinson's disease (PD) in
      Cameroon. The study noted feasibility and satisfaction of participants with
      telemedicine as well as improved knowledge base of participants after the
      educational course but noted access to healthcare by patients did not change. No
      studies have evaluated the use of telemedicine for care of patients with
      neurological disorders. CONCLUSION: The indication is that teleneurology may be
      feasible in SSA and studies are needed to assess feasibility, acceptability,
      efficacy, cost-effectiveness of this promising discipline of neurology in these
      resource-limited settings. We propose the setting up of trans-continental, inter
      regional, intra-regional, and national networks of neurologists to utilize
      teleneurology platforms to improve the reach of neurology care in SSA.

PMID- 28870568
TI  - Herpes simplex encephalitis and Alzheimer's disease: Is there a link?

PMID- 28870569
TI  - Measurement of spontaneous blinks in patients with Parkinson's disease using a
      new high-speed blink analysis system.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients often have a blinking
      abnormality. In this study, we examined the kinematic features of spontaneous
      blinking in 65 PD patients and 62 healthy controls by a new research method
      utilizing an intelligent vision sensor camera prototype with a 1kHz sampling
      rate. METHODS: Spontaneous blinks were measured by use of a non-stress
      'intelligent vision sensor' camera prototype. RESULTS: The mean spontaneous blink
      rate was 17.9 (blinks/min) in the PD patients and 15.6 in the controls (no
      correlation). However, there were extremely low and extremely high blink-rate
      groups among the PD patients. The amplitude of the closing and opening phase in
      the PD patients were significantly smaller than those in the controls. Small
      blink waves (100-200msec) prior to blink onset existed in 60% of the PD patients
      and in 18% of the controls. CONCLUSION: During spontaneous blinking the blink
      amplitude is decreased, and the pause between the closing and opening phase is
      prolonged in patients with PD. Small blink waves prior to blink onset were also
      characteristically found in the PD patients.

PMID- 28870571
TI  - Does fear of falling predict gait variability in multiple sclerosis?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Behavioural symptoms and gait disorders are very common in patients
      with multiple sclerosis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between fear of
      falling and gait instability at one year in patients with multiple sclerosis.
      METHODS: Thirty-five multiple sclerosis patients were included. Fear of falling
      was assessed by the Fall Efficacy Scale-International and gait variability with
      stride time variability under single and dual-task conditions at baseline and at
      one year. RESULTS: Baseline fear of falling score was associated with increased
      stride time variability at one year during dual-task condition even after
      adjustment on covariates. CONCLUSION: Fear of falling is associated with gait
      variability at one year, especially under dual-task condition.

PMID- 28870570
TI  - Effects of naftopidil on inhibitory transmission in substantia gelatinosa neurons
      of the rat spinal dorsal horn in vitro.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Naftopidil is used clinically for the treatment of voiding disorders
      in benign prostatic hyperplasia. Previous in vivo experiments in which naftopidil
      was applied intrathecally abolished rhythmic bladder contraction, suggesting that
      naftopidil might inhibit a voiding reflex through interaction with spinal dorsal
      horn neurons. Here we aimed to clarify the mechanism of action of naftopidil on
      dorsal horn neurons. METHODS: Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were performed
      using substantia gelatinosa neurons of adult rat spinal cord slices. Miniature or
      evoked inhibitor and excitatory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs and EPSCs,
      respectively) were analyzed. RESULTS: Bath-applied naftopidil increased the
      frequency but not the amplitude of miniature IPSCs (mIPSCs) in 38% of neurons
      tested; in contrast, the effect of naftopidil on miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs) were
      mild and observed in only 2 out of 19 neurons. Naftopidil enhanced the amplitude
      of both GABAergic and glycinergic evoked-IPSCs (eIPSCs) that were elicited by
      focal stimuli in the presence of either the non-NMDA receptor antagonist 6-cyano
      7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX), or the NMDA receptor antagonist DL-2-amino-5
      phosphonovaleric acid (APV). CONCLUSIONS: Although naftopidil was developed as an
      alpha-1 adrenoceptor antagonist, our previous spinal cord slice experiments
      showed that the activation of an alpha-1 adrenoceptor in substantia gelatinosa
      increases the frequency of mIPSCs. This result suggested that, under our
      conditions, naftopidil may interact with a receptor(s) other than an alpha-1
      adrenoceptor in the spinal dorsal horn. The present results suggested that
      naftopidil enhances the release of GABA and glycine by activating inhibitory
      interneuron terminals in the spinal dorsal horn via a receptor other than an
      alpha-1 adrenoceptor, thereby modulating sensory transmission in the substantia
      gelatinosa.

PMID- 28870572
TI  - High angular resolution diffusion imaging abnormalities in the early stages of
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Using magnetic resonance (MR) high angular resolution diffusion
      imaging (HARDI), we aimed at revealing possible microstructural alterations in
      the early stage of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), still not completely
      elucidated. METHODS: We studied 22 patients with ALS, in stages 1 or 2 according
      to the King's staging system, compared to 18 healthy controls (HCs). Statistical
      mapping of HARDI-derived parameters and tractography measures were performed
      using the Q-ball imaging diffusion data model. RESULTS: When compared to HCs, the
      ALS group showed a highly significant decrease of generalized fractional
      anisotropy (GFA) and fiber length and density in the corticospinal tracts (CSTs)
      and in the corpus callosum (CC) (p<0.05, corrected level of significance).
      Moreover, stratifying the ALS population considering the disease phenotype,
      larger areas of decreased GFA were found in patients with bulbar phenotype
      compared to those with classic phenotype in several bilateral associative fiber
      tracts, such as superior and inferior longitudinal, inferior fronto-occipital and
      uncinate fasciculi. CONCLUSIONS: Our whole-brain HARDI results provided
      preliminary evidence of an early pattern of microstructural degeneration in ALS,
      mainly involving the CSTs and the CC, although divergent patterns of
      microstructural abnormalites could be related to different disease phenotypes.

PMID- 28870574
TI  - Argyrophilic grain disease in a 46-year-old male suicide victim.

PMID- 28870573
TI  - CXCL10 and CXCL13 chemokines in patients with relapsing remitting and primary
      progressive multiple sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating
      disease of the central nervous system characterized by a variable clinical
      course. Different pathogenic mechanisms responsible for relapsing remitting
      (RRMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) are modulated by
      immunological process with important role of chemokine network. CXCL10 and CXCL13
      chemokines act as chemoattractants and modulators of proinflammatory reactions
      promoting process of demyelination. In the present study, we investigated the
      concentrations of CXCL10 and CXCL13 in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of
      patients with RRMS and PPMS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study groups comprised 25
      RRMS patients (39,5+/-12years), 24 PPMS patients (49,9+/-10,5years), 31 healthy
      individuals (36+/-10,4years) with tension headache without symptoms of
      inflammatory diseases. A quantitive test kit based on ELISA has been used for
      chemokines measurement. Correlations analysis between the levels of CXCL10,
      CXCL13 and patient age, duration of MS, EDSS and IgG index were done. RESULTS:
      The mean concentration of CXCL10 in the CSF was statistically significantly
      higher in RRMS in comparison with the control group. The mean concentration of
      CXCL13 in the CSF was significantly higher in RRMS and PPMS than in the control
      group. The results have shown that in the stable phase of MS without relapse,
      mean concentration of CXCL10 and CXCL13 in CSF did not differ significantly
      between RRMS and PPMS. In PPMS a positive correlation between IgG index and CSF
      CXCL10 level or CSF CXCL13 level was observed. In RRMS a positive correlation
      between IgG index and CSF CXCL13 level was observed. CONCLUSIONS: These data
      indicate involvement of CXCL10 and CXCL13 chemokines in immunopathogenetic
      mechanisms in MS. There was no significant difference between mean CXCL10 or
      CXCL13 concentrations in the CSF in both RRMS and PPMS patients. No significant
      correlations were found between patient age and chemokines levels in theCSF in
      all groups. It suggest that these chemokines play similar role in inflammatory
      process despite more pronounced neurodegenerative process in PPMS.

PMID- 28870575
TI  - Usefulness of platelet to lymphocyte and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios in
      predicting the presence of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and in-hospital major
      adverse cerebral events.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio
      (NLR) as recently emerging thrombo-inflammatory indicators were significantly
      associated with both major cerebrovascular/cardiovascular adverse events (MACE)
      and mortality. Therefore, we aimed to assess the effects of combinations of PLR
      and NLR in predicting the presence of CVST and in-hospital MACE. METHODS: A total
      of 277 participants comprising 80 patients with evidence of CVST and 197 controls
      with similar baseline characteristics were included in this retrospective study.
      Patients were classified into 3 groups based on the optimal cut-off values of PLR
      and NLR calculated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for in
      hospital MACE rates. RESULTS: PLR (148+/-61 vs 101+/-50, p<0.001) and NLR (3.12+/
      1.4 vs 1.94+/-1.1, p<0.001) were significantly higher in the CVST group.
      Furthermore, patients in the high risk group (a PLR of >=115.0 and an NLR of
      >=2.1) had the highest in-hospital MACE rates including seizure (p=0.012),
      papilledema (p=0.025) and diplopia or blurry vision (p=0.028). After multivariate
      logistic regression analysis MPV, PLR (1.052 [1.045-1.059], p=0.001) and NLR
      (1.442 [1.086-1.916], p=0.012) were found as independent predictors of CVST.
      CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PLR and NLR are easily available and cheap
      thrombo-inflammatory indicators, so that PLR and NLR could be used in prediction
      of CVST and in-hospital MACE.

PMID- 28870577
TI  - Serial changes of carotid wall thickening on ultrasound in Takayasu arteritis.

PMID- 28870576
TI  - Istradefylline improves daytime sleepiness in patients with Parkinson's disease:
      An open-label, 3-month study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Istradefylline, a selective adenosine A2A receptor antagonist, has
      been reported to improve daily "off time" and motor symptoms in patients with
      Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the effect of istradefylline on sleep problems
      has not been thoroughly investigated. METHODS: We evaluated the effect of
      istradefylline on daytime sleepiness, sleep disturbances, and motor symptoms in
      22 PD patients who were affected by the wearing off phenomenon in an open-label,
      3-month study. Participants received 20-40mg/day istradefylline once daily
      (morning) over a 3-month period. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), PD sleep
      scale (PDSS)-2 and PD Questionnaire (PDQ-8) were administered at baseline,
      2weeks, 1month, 2months and 3months. At baseline and 3months, patients were
      evaluated on the Movement Disorder Society Revision of the Unified PD Rating
      Scale (MDS-UPDRS) parts III and IV. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients (95.5%)
      completed the study. At 3months, MDS-UPDRS part III (-5.3, p=0.0002) and part IV
      (-2.5, p=0.001) scores improved and off time decreased significantly (-50.1min,
      p=0.0004). PDQ-8 scores were unchanged at 3months. ESS scores decreased
      significantly at 2months and 3months (-2.4 and -3.3, respectively, p<0.0001), but
      the total PDSS-2 scores did not change. CONCLUSION: Istradefylline improved
      daytime sleepiness in PD patients, possibly through its effect on enhancing
      alertness. In addition, the lack of significant changes in the total PDSS-2
      scores over the study period suggests istradefylline had no negative impact on
      sleep.

PMID- 28870578
TI  - Depression and fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous research has examined the components of depression and
      fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS), but the findings have been inconsistent. The
      aim of this study was to explore the associations between overall and subscale
      scores of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) and the
      Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) as well as the longitudinal changes in
      scores in a large cohort of MS patients. METHODS: MS subjects who completed a
      battery of patient reported outcome (PRO) measures including the CES-D and MFIS
      (N=435) were included in our analysis. At the first available MFIS measurement,
      Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to estimate the association between
      the CES-D and MFIS in terms of both total scores and subscale scores. In
      addition, the longitudinal change in each total score and subscale score was
      estimated using a linear mixed model, and the association between the measures in
      terms of longitudinal change was estimated using Pearson's correlation
      coefficient and linear mixed models. RESULTS: At baseline, 15% of subjects were
      classified as high on both depression and fatigue scales, 16% were classified as
      high on the fatigue scale only, and 9% were classified as high on the depression
      scale only. There was a high correlation between CES-D and MFIS total scores
      (r=0.62). High correlations were also observed between the somatic and retarded
      activity subscales of the CES-D and each of the MFIS subscales (r>=0.60). In
      terms of longitudinal change, the change over the first year between the CES-D
      and MFIS total scores showed a moderate correlation (r=0.49). Subjects with high
      fatigue scores but low depression scores at baseline were more likely than
      subjects with low baseline fatigue and depression scores to develop high
      depression scores at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that
      depression and fatigue in MS share several features and have a similar
      longitudinal course. But using cut-off scores to define depression and fatigue,
      our study also found that non-depressed subjects with high fatigue may be at a
      greater risk for developing depression.

PMID- 28870579
TI  - Aberrant microRNA expression in patients with painful peripheral neuropathies.
AB  - Changes in the neuro-immune balance play a major role in the induction and
      maintenance of neuropathic pain. We recently reported pathophysiologically
      relevant alterations in skin and sural nerve cytokine expression in peripheral
      neuropathies of different etiologies. Immune processes and cytokine expression
      are under tight control of microRNAs (miRNAs). To identify potential master
      switches in the neuro-immune balance, we aimed at characterizing inflammation
      regulating miRNA profiles in patients with peripheral neuropathies. In an
      unselected patient cohort with polyneuropathies of different etiologies seen at
      our neuromuscular center between 2014 and 2015, we determined the systemic and
      local relative expression of miR-21-5p, miR-146a, and miR-155. In white blood
      cells we found higher miR-21 (p<0.001) and miR-146a (p<0.001) expression and
      lower miR-155 (p<0.001) expression when compared to healthy controls. In sural
      nerve, miR-21 (p<0.02) was increased in painful compared to painless
      neuropathies. In painful neuropathies, skin biopsies from the lower leg had
      reduced miR-146a (p<0.001) and miR-155 (p<0.001) expression compared to the
      thigh. Thus, peripheral neuropathies are associated with aberrant miRNA
      expression in white blood cells, sural nerve, and skin. These miRNA patterns may
      help to identify factors that determine the painfulness of peripheral
      neuropathies and lead to druggable targets.

PMID- 28870580
TI  - Management of glioblastoma in elderly patients.
AB  - Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults
      over 55years of age. The median age of diagnosis for patients with GBM is 64years
      old, with the incidence of patients between 75 and 85 increasing. The optimal
      treatment paradigm for elderly GBM patients continues to evolve due to the higher
      frequency of age-related and/or medical co-morbidities. Geriatric GBM patients
      have historically been excluded from larger, controlled clinical trials due to
      their presumed decreased likelihood of a sustained treatment response and/or a
      prolonged good outcome. Here, we highlight current treatment considerations of
      elderly GBM patients with respect to surgical, radiotherapeutic and systemic
      modalities, with considerations for improving future clinical outcomes for this
      patient population.

PMID- 28870581
TI  - Pharmacological treatments for fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory
      disease. Fatigue is the most common symptom of MS patients, affecting >80%
      subjects. Medical treatment is an important method for managing fatigue.
      Currently, although many drugs have been tested in treatment of MS fatigue, the
      efficacy of these drugs remain largely unclear. METHODS: We researched available
      literatures in PubMed, Embase, Medline, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library (August
      31, 2016). Search terms included multiple sclerosis, fatigue, medication
      treatments, amantadine, modafinil, aspirin, acetyl-l-carnitine, pemoline, 4
      aminopyridine and randomized controlled trial (RCT). Two researchers were
      required to independently assess the quality of literatures, and finish data
      extraction. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. FINDINGS: A
      total of 11 RCTs involving 723 patients were included. The therapeutic effects
      were quantified by different scales, such as Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS)
      or Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Here, meta-analysis suggested that amantadine,
      not modafinil, was effective for treating the fatigue in MS. Moreover, two
      studies implied that l-carnitine might have similar therapeutic effect with
      amantadine. However, the reliability of this finding was greatly weakened by the
      limited sample sizes. Additionally, current data could not answer whether
      treatment of MS fatigue using aspirin or 4-aminopyridine was beneficial. Finally,
      we found that all drugs except pemoline were relatively safe for treating MS
      fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: Current limited data suggest that amantadine may be the
      only drug that has relatively sufficient evidences in treatment of fatigue
      symptoms in MS. Further RCT studies recruiting larger samples sizes are required
      to validate the therapeutic effect of these candidate drugs.

PMID- 28870582
TI  - Linking Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes: Novel shared susceptibility
      genes detected by cFDR approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Both type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) occur
      commonly in the aging populations and T2D has been considered as an important
      risk factor for AD. The heritability of both diseases is estimated to be over
      50%. However, common pleiotropic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)/loci have
      not been well-defined. The aim of this study is to analyze two large public
      accessible GWAS datasets to identify novel common genetic loci for T2D and/or AD.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: The recently developed novel conditional false discovery
      rate (cFDR) approach was used to analyze the summary GWAS datasets from
      International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP) and Diabetes Genetics
      Replication And Meta-analysis (DIAGRAM) to identify novel susceptibility genes
      for AD and T2D. RESULTS: We identified 78 SNPs (including 58 novel SNPs) that
      were associated with AD in Europeans conditional on T2D (cFDR<0.05). 66 T2D SNPs
      (including 40 novel SNPs) were identified by conditioning on SNPs association
      with AD (cFDR<0.05). A conjunction-cFDR (ccFDR) analysis detected 8 pleiotropic
      SNPs with a significance threshold of ccFDR<0.05 for both AD and T2D, of which 5
      SNPs (rs6982393, rs4734295, rs7812465, rs10510109, rs2421016) were novel
      findings. Furthermore, among the 8 SNPs annotated at 6 different genes, 3
      corresponding genes TP53INP1, TOMM40 and C8orf38 were related to mitochondrial
      dysfunction, critically involved in oxidative stress, which potentially
      contribute to the etiology of both AD and T2D. CONCLUSION: Our study provided
      evidence for shared genetic loci between T2D and AD in European subjects by using
      cFDR and ccFDR analyses. These results may provide novel insight into the
      etiology and potential therapeutic targets of T2D and/or AD.

PMID- 28870583
TI  - A new infectious encephalopathy syndrome, clinically mild encephalopathy
      associated with excitotoxicity (MEEX).
AB  - Acute infectious encephalopathy is often observed in children in East Asia
      including Japan. More than 40% of the patients remain unclassified into specific
      syndromes. To investigate the underlying pathomechanisms in those with
      unclassified encephalopathy, we evaluated brain metabolism by MR spectroscopy.
      Among seven patients with acute encephalopathy admitted to our hospital from June
      2016 to May 2017, three were classified into acute encephalopathy with biphasic
      seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD). The other four showed consciousness
      disturbance lasting more than three days with no parenchymal lesion visible on
      MRI, which led to a diagnosis of unclassified encephalopathy. MR spectroscopy in
      these four patients, however, revealed an increase of glutamine with a normal N
      acetyl aspartate level on days 5 to 8, which had normalized by follow-up studies
      on days 11 to 16. The four patients clinically recovered completely. Among 27
      patients with encephalopathy, including the present seven patients, admitted to
      our hospital from January 2015 to March 2017, seven (26%) were classified into
      this type, which we propose is a new encephalopathy syndrome, clinically mild
      encephalopathy associated with excitotoxicity (MEEX). MEEX is the second most
      common subtype, following AESD (30%). This study suggests that excitotoxicity may
      be a common underlying pathomechanism of acute infectious encephalopathy, and
      prompt astrocytic neuroprotection from excitotoxicity may prevent progression of
      MEEX into AESD.

PMID- 28870584
TI  - Relevance of CCM gene polymorphisms for clinical management of sporadic cerebral
      cavernous malformations.
AB  - Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are clusters of capillaries in the brain
      that may cause focal deficits or seizures in affected patients. They occur in
      both sporadic and inherited autosomal dominant form. Germline mutations in CCM1,
      CCM2 and CCM3 were identified in familial cases. Over the past 13years we
      performed sequencing and MLPA of the CCM genes in all sporadic and familial CCM
      cases coming from some hospital clinics of Neurology and Neurosurgery of Messina
      and other Italian cities. Our results showed that CCM sporadic patients, negative
      for previously reported CCM gene causative mutations, always carried known CCM
      polymorphisms. Previously, we reported polymorphisms in CCM2 gene associated with
      an increase in risk for CCM. Here, we undertook a case-control study to
      investigate the possible association of others polymorphisms (c.485+65 C/G,
      c.989+63 C/G, c.1980 A/G in CCM1 gene, c.472+127 C/T in CCM2 and c.150 G/A in
      CCM3) with CCMs. The five polymorphisms were characterized in 64 sporadic
      patients and in 90 healthy controls by ASO-PCR. Statistically significant
      differences in frequencies between patients and controls were found for
      c.485+65C/G, c.1980 A/G and c.472+127C/T polymorphisms. For c.485+65C/G
      polymorphism, a higher frequency of mutated allele (G) was found in patients
      group (9%) than in controls (2%) (p=0.0041); for c.1980 A/G polymorphism, we
      found a frequency of mutated allele (G) higher in the control group (25%)
      compared to that of patients (8%) (p=0.0396). Same trend was observed for
      c.472+127C/T polymorphism (T allele frequency=34% and 6% in control group and
      patients, respectively; p=0.0001). Polymorphisms c.485+65C/G, c.1980 A/G and
      c.472+127C/T were associated with an increased risk of CCM as indicated by odds
      ratio values. Furthermore, c.1980 A/G and c.472+127C/T polymorphisms were
      associated with less severe CCM symptomatology. Identification of these
      polymorphisms in CCM sporadic patient may represent a useful tool for clinicians
      to determine prognosis, scheduled periodic checks and appropriate treatment
      strategy.

PMID- 28870585
TI  - Medical decision-making capacity and its cognitive predictors in progressive MS:
      Preliminary evidence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical decision-making capacity (MDC) refers to the ability to make
      informed decisions about treatment and declines in cognition are associated with
      declines in MDC across multiple disease entities. However, although it is well
      known that cognitive impairment is prevalent in multiple sclerosis (MS), little
      is known about MDC in the disease. METHODS: Data from 22 persons with progressive
      MS and 18 healthy controls were analyzed. All diagnoses were made by a board
      certified neurologist with experience in MS. All study participants were
      administered a vignette-based measure of MDC and also a neuropsychological
      battery. RESULTS: Performance on three MDC consent standards (i.e., Appreciation,
      Reasoning, Understanding) was significantly lower for people with progressive MS
      as compared to healthy controls. In the progressive MS group, verbal fluency was
      the primary cognitive predictor for both Reasoning and Understanding consent
      standards. Verbal learning and memory was the primary cognitive predictor for
      Appreciation. MS severity was not significantly correlated with any MDC variable.
      CONCLUSION: MDC is a complex and cognitively mediated functional ability that is
      impaired in many people with progressive MS. Verbal measures of fluency and
      memory are strongly associated with MDC performances in the current sample of
      people with MS and could potentially be utilized to quickly screen for MDC
      impairment in MS.

PMID- 28870586
TI  - Bacterial meningitis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae following untreated
      idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis.

PMID- 28870587
TI  - The value of midbrain morphology in predicting prognosis in chronic disorders of
      consciousness: A preliminary ultrasound study.
AB  - Transcranial sonography (TCS) of the brainstem is currently used to support the
      clinical diagnosis of movement disorders. The aim of the study was to assess the
      usefulness of midbrain TCS in assessing outcome in patients with Chronic
      Disorders of Consciousness (DOC). Eleven patients with Minimally Conscious State
      (MCS) and Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS) were included in the study. We
      measured the area and echogenicity of the midbrain by encoding and digitally
      analyzing the corresponding images from the orbitomeatal plane, the morphology of
      brain parenchyma from the thalamic and cella media plane, and the intracranial
      circulation. All the patients showed an increase of pulsatility index and
      numerous morphological alterations on all the scan planes. In particular, we
      found a loss of the characteristic butterfly-shape of the midbrain, which
      appeared hypoechoic in the UWS but not in the MCS patients. After six months, the
      patients were clinically assessed by using Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE).
      We found that a higher increase in GOSE scoring at follow-up was correlated with
      larger area and higher echogenicity of the midbrain at baseline. The present
      study suggests that TCS data of the midbrain may support clinical assessment of
      patients with chronic DOC to estimate their outcome.

PMID- 28870588
TI  - Suspected retroorbital inflammation resulting in bilateral occlusion of the
      internal carotid arteries.

PMID- 28870589
TI  - Subcutaneous "bolus" immunoglobulin dose in CIDP: A proof-of concept study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Subcutaneous (SC) immunoglobulin (Ig) is an effective therapy for
      Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). However,
      optimal dosage and frequency of administration remain to be clarified.
      OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess the feasibility and tolerability of a novel
      regimen of SCIg administration, based on concentrated "bolus" doses delivered
      every other week, as compared to the "conventional" SCIg regimen, based on 1-3
      administrations/week. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consecutively consenting CIDP
      patients (6 men and 1 woman) were crossed-over from SCIg "conventional" to SCIg
      "bolus" and followed-up for 6months. The main endpoints were: tolerability,
      defined as the percentage of patients successfully completing the study,
      patient's perceived disability, as measured by the Rasch-built Overall Disability
      Scale (R-ODS), life quality index (LQI), and inflammatory neuropathy cause and
      treatment (INCAT) scale. RESULTS: SCIg "bolus" was well tolerated by all
      patients. The R-ODS score significantly improved (p=0.042), as well as the LQI
      sub-domains related to the interference of treatment in daily living activities
      (p=0.026), and therapy-related problems (p=0.039). No significant change was
      observed in the INCAT (p=0.317) score. There were no cases of drop-out and/or
      dose adjustment during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: SCIg "bolus" seems to represent an
      effective and well-tolerated option for CIDP maintenance therapy.

PMID- 28870590
TI  - Micro-RNAs in ALS muscle: Differences in gender, age at onset and disease
      duration.
AB  - Few studies have explored the role of microRNAs (or miRNAs) in Amyotrophic
      Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) muscle, possibly because of the difficulty in obtaining
      samples and because this is a rare disease. We measured the expression levels of
      muscle-specific miRNAs (miRNA-1, miRNA-206, miRNA-133a, miRNA-133b, miRNA-27a)
      and inflammatory/angiogenic miRNAs (miRNA-155, miRNA-146a, miRNA-221, miRNA-149*)
      in the muscles of 13 ALS patients and controls. To highlight differences,
      patients were subdivided according to their gender, age at onset of symptoms, and
      disease duration. A significant over-expression of all miRNAs was observed in ALS
      patients versus controls, in male patients versus females, in patients with early
      onset versus patients with late onset, and in patients with long disease duration
      versus patients with short duration. A differential expression of miRNAs
      according to gender could be explained by the hormonal regulation which
      determines the body muscle mass. The course of the disease might reflect
      differential degree of muscle atrophy and signaling at miRNA levels. An evident
      role is also played by inflammatory/angiogenetic factors as shown by the observed
      miRNA changes.

PMID- 28870592
TI  - Computer-based assessment of upper-limb incoordination in autosomal recessive
      spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay patients: A pilot study.
AB  - Ataxia refers to a group of neurological disorders characterized by a lack of
      coordination during voluntary movements. One of the most commonly used tests to
      assess upper-limb coordination is the Archimedes spiral test. The purpose of this
      research is to present an innovative computer-based Archimedes spiral test that
      can accurately assess coordination. Forty nine individuals (age: 25.2+/-7.1years)
      were recruited including thirteen patients diagnosed with Autosomal Recessive
      Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix/Saguenay (ARSACS). Participants were instructed to
      trace a spiral on the touch-screen with the tip of their index finger at a self
      paced velocity by following an on-screen spiral template. Mean error and maximum
      error as well as frequency analysis were calculated to classify healthy and
      ARSACS participants. While mean and maximum errors provided good results, the
      highest classification success rate was obtained using frequency analysis,
      particularly between f=1.2Hz and f=1.7Hz. Interpretation of traditional paper
      drawn Archimedes spirals is limited, and several computerized versions have been
      reported. Herein, we present a custom-made tool that allows discrimination of
      measures assessing ataxia in ARSACS. This utilizes a proposed frequency method
      that may have the potential to track the evolution of upper-limb incoordination
      in patients and therefore help clinicians and scientists to better monitor their
      patients.

PMID- 28870591
TI  - Hemorrhage recurrence risk factors in cerebral amyloid angiopathy: Comparative
      analysis of the overall small vessel disease severity score versus individual
      neuroimaging markers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An MRI-based score of total small vessel disease burden (CAA-SVD
      Score) in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) has been demonstrated to correlate
      with severity of pathologic changes. Evidence suggests that CAA-related
      intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) recurrence risk is associated with specific
      disease imaging manifestations rather than overall severity. We compared the
      correlation between the CAA-SVD-Score with the risk of recurrent CAA-related
      lobar ICH versus the predictive role of each of its components. METHODS:
      Consecutive patients with CAA-related ICH from a single-center prospective cohort
      were analyzed. Radiological markers of CAA related SVD damage were quantified and
      categorized according to the CAA-SVD-Score (0-6 points). Subjects were followed
      prospectively for recurrent symptomatic ICH. Adjusted Cox proportional hazards
      models were used to investigate associations between the CAA-SVD-Score as well as
      each of the individual MRI signatures of CAA and the risk of recurrent ICH.
      RESULTS: In 229 CAA patients with ICH, a total of 56 recurrent ICH events
      occurred during a median follow-up of 2.8years [IQR 0.9-5.4years, 781 person
      years). Higher CAA-SVD-Score (HR=1.26 per additional point, 95%CI [1.04-1.52],
      p=0.015) and older age were independently associated with higher ICH recurrence
      risk. Analysis of individual markers of CAA showed that CAA-SVD-Score findings
      were due to the independent effect of disseminated superficial siderosis (HR for
      disseminated cSS vs none: 2.89, 95%CI [1.47-5.5], p=0.002) and high degree of
      perivascular spaces enlargement (RR=3.50-95%CI [1.04-21], p=0.042). CONCLUSION:
      In lobar CAA-ICH patients, higher CAA-SVD-Score does predict recurrent ICH.
      Amongst individual elements of the score, superficial siderosis and dilated
      perivascular spaces are the only markers independently associated with ICH
      recurrence, contributing to the evidence for distinct CAA phenotypes singled out
      by neuro-imaging manifestations.

PMID- 28870593
TI  - Incidence and case-fatality from spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage in a
      southern region of Portugal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is scarce information on incidence and case fatality of
      spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH) in certain regions of the world,
      including in Europe. There is no community-based data on SICH in Southern
      Portugal. AIM: To determine the incidence and early case-fatality from SICH in
      Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal. METHODS: The recommended criteria
      for stroke incidence studies was used to identify cases of incident first-ever
      SICH from January 1st to December 31st 2015 in a subregion with 280,081
      inhabitants. Crude incidence rates per age group and gender; standardized rates
      to the European population; and age adjusted case fatality rates were calculated.
      RESULTS: Eighty-two first-ever cases of SICH (64.6% men) occurred. The mean age
      was 72.3 years (SD+/-12.1); women were 3 years older than men on average and had
      more frequently lobar SICH. The crude annual incidence rate was 29.2/100,000 (95%
      CI 23.4- 38.6; p<0.001); higher in men (39.7/100,000) than women (19.8/100,000).
      The standardized to the European population incidence was 15.1/100,000 (95% CI
      3.6-18.9; p<0.05); 26.9 and 10.9/100,000 for men and women respectively. The 30
      day case-fatality was 40 % (95% CI 29-51) and increased steeply with age
      CONCLUSION: The incidence of SICH in Southern Portugal was high, but within the
      figures found in some parts of Europe. However, a marked predominance of males
      was found and the case-fatality rate was amongst the highest reported in western
      countries.

PMID- 28870594
TI  - Rebound syndrome after teriflunomide cessation in a patient with multiple
      sclerosis.
AB  - We report a case of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) with severe
      rebound syndrome 12weeks following discontinuation of teriflunomide therapy. The
      patient developed severe clinical relapses with significant increase in the
      number of brain and spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lesions. She responded
      well to intravenous and oral steroids and was later maintained on rituximab.

PMID- 28870595
TI  - Evidence of small-fiber neuropathy (SFN) in two patients with unexplained genital
      sensory loss and sensory urinary cystopathy.

PMID- 28870597
TI  - Spastic paraplegia type 4: A novel SPAST splice site donor mutation and expansion
      of the phenotype variability.
AB  - Mutations in SPG4/SPAST are the most frequent molecular aetiology in the
      autosomal dominant form of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). Loss-of-function
      and haploinsufficiency in SPAST have been demonstrated and the pure form of
      spastic paraplegia is a main clinical manifestation. This study is to explore the
      novel SPAST splice site donor variant, c.1004+3A>C, in seven patients from two
      families, one from Italy and the other from Japan. Exon 6 is skipped out by the
      variant, leading to a premature termination of translation, p.Gly290Trpfs*5.
      Measurement of SPAST transcripts in lymphocytes demonstrated a reduction through
      nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). Intra- and inter-familial phenotypic
      variations were observed, including age-at-onset, severity of spasticity, and
      scoliosis. Our study demonstrated further evidence of allelic heterogeneity in
      SPG4, dosage effects through NMD, and broad clinical features of the SPAST
      mutation.

PMID- 28870598
TI  - Sensory-motor neuropathy in a case with SPG35: Expanding the phenotype.

PMID- 28870596
TI  - Common and specific risk factors for ischemic stroke in elderly: Differences
      based on type of ischemic stroke and aging.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk factors among the types of ischemic stroke (atherothrombotic
      cerebral infarction: ATI, cardio-embolic infarction: CEI, lacunar infarction: LI)
      in aged stroke patients have rarely been compared to each other. METHODS: We
      compared the clinical parameters of 300 elderly patients with ischemic stroke,
      age 65-98years, to 100 age-matched control patients. RESULTS: Comparison by
      parametric test and logistic regression analysis between all 300 and 100 control
      patients showed higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures (p<0.001, p=0.03),
      lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (p=0.01), larger cardiothoracic
      ratio (CTR) (p<0.001), smoking (p<0.01) and possibly poor adherence to anti
      hypertensive agents in the ischemic stroke patients (p<0.001). Comparisons among
      three types (n=100 for each) showed the highest atheromatous risk factors for ATI
      to be hemoglobin A1c (p=0.01) and low-density lipoprotein (p<0.001) and for CEI
      to be largest cardiac load, indicated by largest left atrial dimension (p<0.001),
      and CTR (p<0.001). Triglyceride level was found to be a borderline risk factor
      for LI (p=0.054). Comparison between those aged <74 versus >=75years (n=150 for
      each) showed a lower eGFR (p=0.02) and larger right atrial dimension (p<0.001) in
      patients >=75. CONCLUSION: The risk factors were quite different among the
      subtypes and aging.

PMID- 28870599
TI  - Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4A improves hepatic differentiation of immortalized
      adult human hepatocytes and improves liver function and survival.
AB  - Immortalized human hepatocytes (IHH) could provide an unlimited supply of
      hepatocytes, but insufficient differentiation and phenotypic instability restrict
      their clinical application. This study aimed to determine the role of hepatocyte
      nuclear factor 4A (HNF4A) in hepatic differentiation of IHH, and whether
      encapsulation of IHH overexpressing HNF4A could improve liver function and
      survival in rats with acute liver failure (ALF). Primary human hepatocytes were
      transduced with lentivirus-mediated catalytic subunit of human telomerase reverse
      transcriptase (hTERT) to establish IHH. Cells were analyzed for telomerase
      activity, proliferative capacity, hepatocyte markers, and tumorigenicity (c-myc)
      expression. Hepatocyte markers, hepatocellular functions, and morphology were
      studied in the HNF4A-overexpressing IHH. Hepatocyte markers and karyotype
      analysis were completed in the primary hepatocytes using shRNA knockdown of
      HNF4A. Nuclear translocation of beta-catenin was assessed. Rat models of ALF were
      treated with encapsulated IHH or HNF4A-overexpressing IHH. A HNF4A-positive IHH
      line was established, which was non-tumorigenic and conserved properties of
      primary hepatocytes. HNF4A overexpression significantly enhanced mRNA levels of
      genes related to hepatic differentiation in IHH. Urea levels were increased by
      the overexpression of HNF4A, as measured 24h after ammonium chloride addition,
      similar to that of primary hepatocytes. Chromosomal abnormalities were observed
      in primary hepatocytes transfected with HNF4A shRNA. HNF4alpha overexpression
      could significantly promote beta-catenin activation. Transplantation of HNF4A
      overexpressing IHH resulted in better liver function and survival of rats with
      ALF compared with IHH. HNF4A improved hepatic differentiation of IHH.
      Transplantation of HNF4A-overexpressing IHH could improve the liver function and
      survival in a rat model of ALF.

PMID- 28870601
TI  - Lung Alveolar Repair: Not All Cells Are Equal.
AB  - The lungs are capable of repair but the extent to which this occurs varies
      widely. Recent data indicate that, following injury, different progenitor cell
      populations can arise, depending on the molecular environment. In turn, these
      result in either normal or aberrant alveolar repair. Thus, a key question in lung
      regenerative medicine is how to maintain a 'Goldilocks zone' of repair.

PMID- 28870600
TI  - Interleukin 10 enhanced CD8+ T cell activity and reduced CD8+ T cell apoptosis in
      patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
AB  - The pleiotropic cytokine interleukin (IL)-10 is best characterized by its ability
      to downregulate inflammation and promote peripheral tolerance. On the other hand,
      IL-10 was also found to maintain the effector response of CD8+ T cells and
      promote the expansion of tumor-resident CD8+ T cells. In diffuse large B cell
      lymphoma (DLBCL), the role of IL-10 has been characterized in tumor cells but not
      in CD8+ T cells. We found that CD8+ T cells in DLBCL presented robust interferon
      (IFN)-gamma expression early during TCR-activation but could not maintain this
      response later on, which was characterized by significantly lower CD8+ T cell
      degranulation and higher apoptosis. These observations were associated with
      higher PD-1 expression in DLBCL CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, the PD-1+ cells were
      strongly enriched in the IFN-gamma+, but not the IFN-gamma-, fraction.
      Interestingly, exogenous IL-10 significantly improved the survival of DLBCL CD8+
      T cells, and resulted in significantly higher IFN-gamma, ganzyme A and granzyme B
      expression in the absence of CD19+ tumor cells, and significantly improved CD8+ T
      cell-mediated specific lysis of CD19+ tumor cells. IL-10 did not alter the
      expression of PD-1 in DLBCL CD8+ T cells, but curiously, IL-10-treated DLBCL CD8+
      T cells were less susceptible to PD-L1-mediated apoptosis. We then demonstrated
      that IL-10 treatment significantly elevated the expression of pro-survival factor
      Bcl-2. Blocking IL-10 resulted in higher apoptosis, fewer IFN-gamma+ CD8+ T
      cells, and lower Bcl-2 expression. IL-10 also significantly increased STAT3, but
      not STAT1, phosphorylation in CD8+ T cells. Together, these results suggested
      that IL-10 could enhance CD8+ T cell inflammation in DLBCL patients.

PMID- 28870602
TI  - The Brazilian Back Complaints in the Elders (Brazilian BACE) study:
      characteristics of Brazilian older adults with a new episode of low back pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Low back pain (LBP) is little explored in the aging population
      especially when considering age-relevant and culturally dependent outcomes. We
      aimed to describe socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of Brazilian
      older people with a new episode of LBP presenting to primary care. METHODS: We
      sourced baseline information on socio-demographic, pain-related and clinical
      characteristics from 602 older adults from the Brazilian Back Complaints in the
      Elders (Brazilian BACE) study. We analyzed differences in pain, disability,
      functional capacity and psychosocial factors between sub-groups based on age
      (i.e. participants aged 55-74 or >=75 years), education (i.e. those with four
      years or less of schooling or those with more than four years of schooling) and
      income (i.e. participants who reported earning two or less minimal wages or three
      and more). RESULTS: Participants presented severe LBP (7.18/10, SD: 2.59).
      Younger participants were slightly more disabled (mean difference 1.29 points,
      95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03/5.56), reporting poorer physical health, and
      less fall-related self-efficacy (mean difference of 2.41, 95% CI 0.35/4.46).
      Those less educated, and those with income equal or less than two minimum wages
      had more disability, pain catastrophizing and worse functional capacity.
      CONCLUSIONS: This was the first study showing that Brazilian older adults with
      LBP present high levels of functional disability and psychological distress,
      especially those with low socioeconomic status.

PMID- 28870604
TI  - Astrocytes in the spinal dorsal horn and chronic itch.
AB  - Chronic itch is a hallmark symptom of inflammatory skin conditions, such as
      atopic dermatitis. Existing treatment for chronic itch is largely ineffective.
      Despite recent progress in our understanding of the neuronal basis for itch
      sensation in the peripheral and central nervous systems, the mechanisms
      underlying how itch turns into a pathological chronic state remain poorly
      understood. Recent studies have uncovered the causal role of astrocytes in the
      spinal dorsal horn using mouse models of chronic itch, including atopic
      dermatitis. Understanding the key roles of astrocytes may provide us with
      exciting insights into the mechanisms for the chronicity of itch sensation and
      clues to develop novel therapeutic agents for treating chronic itch.

PMID- 28870605
TI  - The roles of cortical astrocytes in chronic pain and other brain pathologies.
AB  - Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the brain. Several decades ago,
      they were considered to be only support cells in the central nervous system.
      Recent studies using advanced technologies have clarified that astrocytes play
      more active roles in regulating neuronal function and remodeling synaptic
      structures by releasing molecules called gliotransmitters. In addition to various
      physiological functions, astrocytes are activated under disease conditions, such
      as chronic pain, releasing molecules that in turn cause reorganization of the
      central nervous system microstructure and disrupt behavior in pathological
      conditions. In the present review, we summarize cortical astrocyte function in
      chronic pain and other neurological disorders and discuss the role of astrocytes
      in brain pathologies.

PMID- 28870603
TI  - Hormonal correlates of development and natal dispersal in wild female owl monkeys
      (Aotus azarae) of Argentina.
AB  - Pair-living and socially monogamous primates typically do not reproduce before
      dispersing. It is currently unclear whether this reproductive suppression is due
      to endocrine or behavioral mechanisms. Cooperatively breeding taxa, like
      callitrichids, may forego reproduction in natal groups because they reap
      inclusive fitness benefits and/or they are avoiding inbreeding. However, neither
      of these benefits of delayed reproduction appear to adequately explain the lack
      of reproduction prior to leaving the natal group in pair-living monogamous
      species. In this study, we determined whether wild Azara's owl monkeys (Aotus
      azarae) in the Argentinean Chaco establish reproductive maturity prior to
      dispersing. We utilized 635 fecal extracts to characterize reproductive hormone
      profiles of 11 wild juvenile and subadult females using enzyme immunoassays.
      Subadult females showed hormone profiles indicative of ovulatory cycling and had
      mean PdG and E1G concentrations approximately five times higher than juveniles.
      Contrary to expectations from the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis, female owl
      monkeys do not delay puberty, but rather commence ovarian cycling while residing
      in their natal group. Still, subadults appear to have a period during which they
      experience irregular, non-conceptive cycles prior to reproducing. Commencing
      these irregular cycles in the natal group may allow them to develop a state of
      suspended readiness, which could be essential to securing a mate, while avoiding
      costs of ranging solitarily. Our results indicate that reproductive suppression
      in female owl monkeys is not due to endocrine suppression. We suggest that adults
      likely use behavioral mechanisms to prevent subadults from reproducing with
      unrelated adult males in their natal group.

PMID- 28870606
TI  - Supercritical fluid chromatography in traditional Chinese medicine analysis.
AB  - Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) are gaining increasing popularity throughout
      the world due to their long historical clinical practices. Highly efficient
      analytical separation tools are essential for investigating the mysterious
      properties of TCMs and their quality control. Supercritical fluid chromatography
      (SFC) showed a great potential in TCM analysis for both nonpolar and polar
      components. In this paper, an overview of the experimental conditions (i.e.
      detection mode, stationary phase, mobile phase composition, pressure and
      temperature) used in SFC for achiral separations of TCM components is presented
      and recent applications to the analysis of different classes of compounds
      extracted from TCMs, such as lipids, terpene and terpenoids, phenolic compounds,
      flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins and carbohydrates, will be briefly described.

PMID- 28870607
TI  - Circular dichroism in functional quality evaluation of medicines.
AB  - Circular dichroism (CD) is a non-destructive and powerful technique for providing
      structure and ligand interaction information of small molecules as well as
      biotechnological medicines. While CD is a well-established technique in
      biomedical research, and different types and variants of CD do exist, the focus
      of this review is on the pharmaceutical quality control (QC) aspects of the
      classic electronic CD (ECD). The basic principles of the CD technique are
      initially described, followed by a systematic literature research on
      pharmaceutical aspects encompassing chiral small molecules, bio-polymers (i.e.
      proteins, peptides and nucleic acids), medicine-biotarget interaction (i.e. small
      molecule-albumin interaction, protein-receptor interaction and peptide-biotarget
      interaction) and medicine changes (i.e. chemical modification, biosimilar/bio
      better with stability and aggregation). In addition, unstructured literature was
      also included covering the use of CD mainly in discovery and fundamental
      research, but which might shift towards the pharmaceutical QC field as well in
      the future.

PMID- 28870608
TI  - Associations Among Food Insecurity, Academic Performance, and Weight Status in
      Primary Schoolchildren in Tehran, Iran: A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations among household food insecurity (FI),
      academic performance, and weight status in urban primary schoolchildren. DESIGN:
      Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Primary schools in Tehran, Iran. PARTICIPANTS: A
      total of 803 students (419 boys and 384 girls), aged 10-12 years, were recruited
      from 43 primary schools. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Levels of FI were measured using
      a locally validated, 18-item household food security survey module. Academic
      performance was assessed by 152 teachers through a specifically designed, 20
      scale questionnaire. Standard anthropometric measurements were also taken.
      ANALYSIS: Linear and multinomial regressions were conducted. RESULTS: At the
      household level, FI was associated with poorer grades in all subjects studied
      (except for social science in FI without hunger) (P < .05). At the child level, a
      significant association was observed between low food security and poorer grades
      in all subjects studied, whereas for very low food security, this relationship
      was significant only for mathematics, reading, and science (P < .05). Food
      insecurity without hunger (odds ratio = 2.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-6.23)
      and low food security (odds ratio = 4.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.58-12.23)
      were associated with overweight only in girls. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The
      findings confirm the need for policies and programs to improve students' dietary
      quality and food security to improve their health as well as educational
      attainment. Future research is needed to explore further the association between
      food security and academic performance.

PMID- 28870609
TI  - Draw and Tell: Dietary Acculturation as Lived by Black Immigrant Children of
      African and Caribbean Descent Residing in Canada.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Explore immigrant children's lived experience of dietary
      acculturation. DESIGN: Draw and tell qualitative research. PARTICIPANTS: A total
      of 167 school-aged children living in Ottawa, Canada, who had a mother born in
      sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean. METHODS: Children made 2 drawings about
      foods, 1 related to Canada and the other to their home country, and explained
      their drawings and what they meant to them. These discussions were recorded and
      transcribed. ANALYSIS: Foods were counted for each region
      (Canada/Africa/Caribbean). Thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: Most
      children drew different foods for Canada and their home country. Apples were the
      most frequently mentioned food for Canada. Pizza, juice and sugar-sweetened
      beverages, fries/poutine, and hamburgers were among the 10 most frequently
      mentioned foods for Canada, whereas none of the top 10 foods for African and
      Caribbean countries were highly processed. Rice, chicken, meat, and leafy
      vegetables were in the top 10 foods mentioned for the 3 regions. Emerging themes
      were food availability and variety, mothers' lack of time and fatigue, and the
      school eating environment. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: It seems that these black
      immigrant children experienced dietary acculturation and that changes in dietary
      habits have had mostly a negative impact on their diet.

PMID- 28870610
TI  - Tax on tobacco and sugary drinks in the United Arab Emirates.

PMID- 28870612
TI  - Discontinuation of melanoma combination immunotherapy.

PMID- 28870611
TI  - Safety and activity of microRNA-loaded minicells in patients with recurrent
      malignant pleural mesothelioma: a first-in-man, phase 1, open-label, dose
      escalation study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: TargomiRs are minicells (EnGeneIC Dream Vectors) loaded with miR-16
      based mimic microRNA (miRNA) and targeted to EGFR that are designed to counteract
      the loss of the miR-15 and miR-16 family miRNAs, which is associated with
      unsuppressed tumour growth in preclinical models of malignant pleural
      mesothelioma. We aimed to assess the safety, optimal dosing, and activity of
      TargomiRs in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. METHODS: In this first
      in-man, open-label, dose-escalation phase 1 trial at three major cancer centres
      in Sydney (NSW, Australia), we recruited adults (aged >=18 years) with a
      confirmed diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma, measurable disease,
      radiological signs of progression after previous chemotherapy, Eastern
      Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, life expectancy of 3
      months or more, immunohistochemical evidence of tumour EGFR expression, and
      adequate bone marrow, liver, and renal function. Patients were given TargomiRs
      via 20 min intravenous infusion either once or twice a week (3 days apart) in a
      traditional 3 + 3 dose-escalation design in five dose cohorts. The dose
      escalation steps planned were 5 * 109, 7 * 109, and 9 * 109 TargomiRs either once
      or twice weekly, but after analysis of data from the first eight patients, all
      subsequent patients started protocol treatment at 1 * 109 TargomiRs. The primary
      endpoints were to establish the maximum tolerated dose of TargomiRs as measured
      by dose-limiting toxicity, define the optimal frequency of administration, and
      objective response (defined as the percentage of assessable patients with a
      complete or partial response), duration of response (defined as time from the
      first evidence of response to disease progression in patients who achieved a
      response), time to response (ie, time from start of treatment to the first
      evidence of response) and overall survival (defined as time from treatment
      allocation to death from any cause). Analyses were based on the full analysis set
      principle, including every patient who received at least one dose of TargomiRs.
      The study was closed for patient entry on Jan 3, 2017, and registered with
      ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02369198, and the Australian Registry of Clinical
      Trials, number ACTRN12614001248651. FINDINGS: Between Sept 29, 2014, and Nov 24,
      2016, we enrolled 27 patients, 26 of whom received at least one TargomiR dose
      (one patient died before beginning treatment). Overall, five dose-limiting
      toxicities were noted: infusion-related inflammatory symptoms and coronary
      ischaemia, respectively, in two patients given 5 * 109 TargomiRs twice weekly;
      anaphylaxis and cardiomyopathy, respectively, in two patients given 5 * 109
      TargomiRs once weekly but who received reduced dexamethasone prophylaxis; and non
      cardiac pain in one patient who received 5 * 109 TargomiRs once weekly. We
      established that 5 * 109 TargomiRs once weekly was the maximum tolerated dose.
      TargomiR infusions were accompanied by transient lymphopenia (25 [96%] of 26
      patients), temporal hypophosphataemia (17 [65%] of 26 patients), increased
      aspartate aminotransferase or alanine aminotranferase (six [23%] of 26 patients),
      and increased alkaline phosphatase blood concentrations (two [8%]). Cardiac
      events occurred in five patients: three patients had electrocardiographic
      changes, one patient had ischaemia, and one patient had Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
      Of the 22 patients who were assessed for response by CT, one (5%) had a partial
      response, 15 (68%) had stable disease, and six (27%) had progressive disease. The
      proportion of patients who achieved an objective response was therefore one (5%)
      of 22, and the duration of the objective response in that patient was 32 weeks.
      Median overall survival was 200 days (95% CI 94-358). During the trial, 21 deaths
      occurred, of which 20 were related to tumour progression and one was due to bowel
      perforation. INTERPRETATION: The acceptable safety profile and early signs of
      activity of TargomiRs in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma support
      additional studies of TargomiRs in combination with chemotherapy or immune
      checkpoint inhibitors. FUNDING: Asbestos Diseases Research Foundation.

PMID- 28870613
TI  - Defeating anaemia in myelodysplastic syndromes: another step forward.

PMID- 28870614
TI  - Androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer.

PMID- 28870616
TI  - miR-16: expanding the range of molecular targets in mesothelioma.

PMID- 28870617
TI  - Spatial vs. non-spatial eco-evolutionary dynamics in a tumor growth model.
AB  - Metastatic prostate cancer is initially treated with androgen deprivation therapy
      (ADT). However, resistance typically develops in about 1 year - a clinical
      condition termed metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). We
      develop and investigate a spatial game (agent based continuous space) of mCRPC
      that considers three distinct cancer cell types: (1) those dependent on exogenous
      testosterone (T+), (2) those with increased CYP17A expression that produce
      testosterone and provide it to the environment as a public good (TP), and (3)
      those independent of testosterone (T-). The interactions within and between
      cancer cell types can be represented by a 3 * 3 matrix. Based on the known
      biology of this cancer there are 22 potential matrices that give roughly three
      major outcomes depending upon the absence (good prognosis), near absence or high
      frequency (poor prognosis) of T- cells at the evolutionarily stable strategy
      (ESS). When just two cell types coexist the spatial game faithfully reproduces
      the ESS of the corresponding matrix game. With three cell types divergences
      occur, in some cases just two strategies coexist in the spatial game even as a
      non-spatial matrix game supports all three. Discrepancies between the spatial
      game and non-spatial ESS happen because different cell types become more or less
      clumped in the spatial game - leading to non-random assortative interactions
      between cell types. Three key spatial scales influence the distribution and
      abundance of cell types in the spatial game: i. Increasing the radius at which
      cells interact with each other can lead to higher clumping of each type, ii.
      Increasing the radius at which cells experience limits to population growth can
      cause densely packed tumor clusters in space, iii. Increasing the dispersal
      radius of daughter cells promotes increased mixing of cell types. To our
      knowledge the effects of these spatial scales on eco-evolutionary dynamics have
      not been explored in cancer models. The fact that cancer interactions are
      spatially explicit and that our spatial game of mCRPC provides in general
      different outcomes than the non-spatial game might suggest that non-spatial
      models are insufficient for capturing key elements of tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28870615
TI  - Luspatercept for the treatment of anaemia in patients with lower-risk
      myelodysplastic syndromes (PACE-MDS): a multicentre, open-label phase 2 dose
      finding study with long-term extension study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myelodysplastic syndromes are characterised by ineffective
      erythropoiesis. Luspatercept (ACE-536) is a novel fusion protein that blocks
      transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta) superfamily inhibitors of
      erythropoiesis, giving rise to a promising new investigative therapy. We aimed to
      assess the safety and efficacy of luspatercept in patients with anaemia due to
      lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. METHODS: In this phase 2, multicentre, open
      label, dose-finding study (PACE-MDS), with long-term extension, eligible patients
      were aged 18 years or older, had International Prognostic Scoring System-defined
      low or intermediate 1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes or non-proliferative chronic
      myelomonocytic leukaemia (white blood cell count <13 000/MUL), and had anaemia
      with or without red blood cell transfusion support. Enrolled patients were
      classified as having low transfusion burden, defined as requiring less than 4 red
      blood cell units in the 8 weeks before treatment (and baseline haemoglobin <10
      g/dL), or high transfusion burden, defined as requiring 4 or more red blood cell
      units in the 8 weeks before treatment. Patients received luspatercept
      subcutaneously once every 21 days at dose concentrations ranging from 0.125 mg/kg
      to 1.75 mg/kg bodyweight for five doses (over a maximum of 12 weeks). Patients in
      the expansion cohort were treated with 1.0 mg/kg luspatercept; dose titration up
      to 1.75 mg/kg was allowed, and patients could be treated with luspatercept for a
      maximum of 5 years. Patients in the base study were assessed for response and
      safety after 12 weeks in order to be considered for enrolment into the extension
      study. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients achieving modified
      International Working Group-defined haematological improvement-erythroid (HI-E),
      defined as a haemoglobin concentration increase of 1.5 g/dL or higher from
      baseline for 14 days or longer in low transfusion burden patients, and a
      reduction in red blood cell transfusion of 4 or more red blood cell units or a
      50% or higher reduction in red blood cell units over 8 weeks versus pre-treatment
      transfusion burden in high transfusion burden patients. Patient data were
      subcategorised by: luspatercept dose concentrations (0.125-0.5 mg/kg vs 0.75-1.75
      mg/kg); pre-study transfusion burden (high transfusion burden vs low transfusion
      burden, defined as >=4 vs <4 red blood cell units per 8 weeks); pre-study serum
      erythropoietin concentration (<200 IU/L, 200-500 IU/L, and >500 IU/L); presence
      of 15% or more ring sideroblasts; and presence of SF3B1 mutations. Efficacy
      analyses were carried out on the efficacy evaluable and intention-to-treat
      populations. This trial is currently ongoing. This study is registered with
      ClinicalTrials.gov, numbers NCT01749514 and NCT02268383. FINDINGS: Between Jan
      21, 2013, and Feb 12, 2015, 58 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes were
      enrolled in the 12 week base study at nine treatment centres in Germany; 27
      patients were enrolled in the dose-escalation cohorts (0.125-1.75 mg/kg) and 31
      patients in the expansion cohort (1.0-1.75 mg/kg). 32 (63% [95% CI 48-76]) of 51
      patients receiving higher dose luspatercept concentrations (0.75-1.75 mg/kg)
      achieved HI-E versus two (22% [95% CI 3-60]) of nine receiving lower dose
      concentrations (0.125-0.5 mg/kg). Three treatment-related grade 3 adverse events
      occurred in one patient each: myalgia (one [2%]), increased blast cell count (one
      [2%]), and general physical health deterioration (one [2%]). Two of these
      treatment-related grade 3 adverse events were reversible serious grade 3 adverse
      events: one patient (2%) had myalgia and one patient (2%) had general physical
      health deterioration. INTERPRETATION: Luspatercept was well tolerated and
      effective for the treatment of anaemia in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes
      and so could therefore provide a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of
      anaemia associated with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes; further studies are
      ongoing. FUNDING: Acceleron Pharma.

PMID- 28870618
TI  - Revisiting the theoretical basis of the endosymbiotic origin of plastids in the
      original context of Lynn Margulis on the origin of mitosing, eukaryotic cells.
AB  - Fifty years ago, Lynn Margulis proposed a comprehensive hypothesis on the origin
      of eukaryotic cells with an emphasis on the origin of mitosis. This hypothesis
      postulated that the eukaryotic cell is a composite of different parts as a result
      of the symbiosis of various different bacteria. In this hypothesis, she
      integrated previously proposed ideas that mitochondria and chloroplasts were
      descendants of endosymbionts that originated from aerobic bacteria and blue-green
      algae (now cyanobacteria), respectively. However, the major part of her
      hypothesis, which she believed to be original, was the origin of mitosis. The
      core of her postulate involved a chromosome partition mechanism dependent on DNA
      microtubule binding, which originated from a hypothetical centriole-DNA complex,
      with an ability to replicate. Surprisingly, her complete lack of real
      experimental works in the cytoskeleton, cell motility, or paleontology did not
      prevent this 29-year-old junior scientist from assembling archival knowledge and
      constructing a narrative on the evolution of all organisms. Whether the centriole
      DNA complex originated from a spirochete or not was a minor anecdote in this
      initial postulate. Unfortunately, this hypothesis on the origin of mitosis, which
      she believed to be a holistic unity, testable by experiments, was entirely
      refuted. Despite falsification of her original narrative as a whole, her success
      as a founder of endosymbiotic theory on the origin of mitochondria and
      chloroplasts is undoubted. We will discuss the reasons for her success in terms
      of the historical situation in the latter half of the 20th century.

PMID- 28870619
TI  - A causal Bayesian network model of disease progression mechanisms in chronic
      myeloid leukemia.
AB  - Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a cancer of the hematopoietic system initiated
      by a single genetic mutation which results in the oncogenic fusion protein Bcr
      Abl. Untreated, patients pass through different phases of the disease beginning
      with the rather asymptomatic chronic phase and ultimately culminating into blast
      crisis, an acute leukemia resembling phase with a very high mortality. Although
      many processes underlying the chronic phase are well understood, the exact
      mechanisms of disease progression to blast crisis are not yet revealed. In this
      paper we develop a mathematical model of CML based on causal Bayesian networks in
      order to study possible disease progression mechanisms. Our results indicate that
      an increase of Bcr-Abl levels alone is not sufficient to explain the phenotype of
      blast crisis and that secondary changes such as additional mutations are
      necessary to explain disease progression and the poor therapy response of
      patients in blast crisis.

PMID- 28870620
TI  - Fixation probability of a nonmutator in a large population of asexual mutators.
AB  - In an adapted population of mutators in which most mutations are deleterious, a
      nonmutator that lowers the mutation rate is under indirect selection and can
      sweep to fixation. Using a multitype branching process, we calculate the fixation
      probability of a rare nonmutator in a large population of asexual mutators. We
      show that when beneficial mutations are absent, the fixation probability is a
      nonmonotonic function of the mutation rate of the mutator: it first increases
      sublinearly and then decreases exponentially. We also find that beneficial
      mutations can enhance the fixation probability of a nonmutator. Our analysis is
      relevant to an understanding of recent experiments in which a reduction in the
      mutation rates has been observed.

PMID- 28870621
TI  - Is weather related to the number of assaults seen at emergency departments?
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is often suggested that the weather can effect behaviour,
      increasing the likelihood of assaults and resulting in increased admissions to
      emergency departments (ED). Therefor a better understanding of the effect of
      climatic conditions could be useful to help EDs in capacity planning. Whilst
      other studies have looked at this, none have used data collected specifically to
      look at ED attendance for assaults or have taken account of potential behaviour
      modifiers. METHODS: We use data from our ED violence surveillance system, the
      Cardiff Model (CM), married to daily meteorological data to construct negative
      binomial regression models. The models are used to estimate changes in the
      assault rate with changes in temperature, adjusting for day of the week and
      alcohol consumption. RESULTS: We find that there is 1% increase in the assault
      rate for every degree increase in the maximum daily temperature (IRR=1.01, P
      value=0.033). Additionally, different patterns in alcohol consumption at weekends
      also provide a significant contribution. However, when we generalise this model
      to represent temperature in terms of factors of standard deviation from the mean
      temperature, the IRR relationship changes, plateauing at unusually high
      temperatures (+/-1.5 SD above the mean). CONCLUSIONS: The results presented here
      suggest that whilst temperature does increase the risk of assaults in Dorset,
      there may be a limit to its effect. This implies the 'curve-linear' relationship
      for temperature as suggested by others.

PMID- 28870622
TI  - How can we influence the incidence of secondary fragility fractures? A review on
      current approaches.
AB  - With the increasing number of elderly patients presenting with fragility
      fractures, their care has become a focus among trauma and orthopaedic surgeons.
      Protocols are ever evolving to improve the clinical pathways and treatment
      modalities targeting a more efficient and patient centred service. In this
      article, current approaches and their potential to reduce mortality and re
      fracture in these patients are discussed.

PMID- 28870623
TI  - Development of fracture liaison services: What have we learned?
AB  - Due to dramatic improvements in life expectancy we are seeing a rapidly growing
      population of older people. Increasing frailty and susceptibility to fragility
      fractures are becoming pressing issues for both the individuals that suffer them
      as well as society, through pressures on health and social care budgets. The
      success of fracture liaison services, co-ordinated programmes enhancing the
      management of the fracture, osteoporosis, frailty and falls risk, is undisputed.
      To achieve optimal outcomes, however, it is important to have a standardisation
      of design, scope and structure of the service. Experience has taught us that by
      delegating responsibility for the holistic care of the patient to a trained and
      adequately resourced professional/team (fracture prevention practitioner) with
      clear standards against which benchmarking occurs, is the optimal model of
      delivery. Future challenges include how best to measure the success of services
      in imparting a reduction in fractures at a local population level as well as how
      to detect those patients with unmet need who do not uniformly present to health
      care services, such as those with vertebral fractures. The implementation of
      fracture liaison services however, is a clear demonstration of how collaboration
      between health care, social care and charity organisations, among others, has
      materially improved the health and well-being of the population.

PMID- 28870624
TI  - Response to Letter to the Editor on "The outcome of unstable proximal femoral
      fracture treated with reverse LISS plates".

PMID- 28870625
TI  - Comparison of the moulding ability of Plaster of Paris and polyester cast
      material in the healthy adult forearm.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To quantify the moulding ability of Plaster of Paris and polyester
      cast materials as assessed by the novel use of peripheral quantitative computed
      tomography. METHODS: A prospective crossover study was performed in 25 healthy
      volunteers aged 18-65 years. Participants' non-dominant wrist was immobilized
      using a synthetic polyester cast followed by a Plaster of Paris cast with three
      point moulding to simulate reduction of a dorsally angulated distal radius
      fracture. The novel use of peripheral quantitative computed tomography was used
      to measure the closeness of fit of each cast on an axial tomographic slice.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Plaster of Paris casts were able to achieve a closer
      mould than polyester when measured between the bone and the cast (p=0.002), as
      well as between the skin and the cast (p=0.001). There was no difference when
      stratified on BMI. Using pQCT assessment, a closely moulded fit was able to be
      more consistently achieved when using Plaster of Paris when compared to polyester
      casts of the distal radius. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28870626
TI  - Immunoreactivity of urate transporters, GLUT9 and URAT1, is located in epithelial
      cells of the choroid plexus of human brains.
AB  - It has been suggested that urate plays a protective role in neurons, while
      hyperuricemia is correlated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
      However, whether there is a system that directly transports urate into the brain
      remains to be clarified. In this study, the localization of glucose transporter 9
      (GLUT9) and urate transporter 1 (URAT1), which are known to be representative
      reabsorptive urate transporters, was immunohistochemically examined in autopsied
      human brains. Immunoreactivity of GLUT9 was observed on the apical side of the
      cytoplasm of epithelial cells in the choroid plexus and in the cilia of ependymal
      cells of the human brain. Immunoreactivity of URAT1 was observed on the
      basolateral side of the cytoplasm of epithelial cells in the choroid plexus. In
      addition, immunoreactivity of GLUT9 and URAT1 was not observed in microvessels of
      the human brains. The choroid plexus and renal proximal tubule were similar in
      having a polarized distribution of these two transporters with the two
      transporters on opposite membranes, but the two transporters' distribution
      differs between the choroid plexus and the kidney in terms of which membrane
      (apical/basal) expresses which transporter. These findings support the hypothesis
      of the direct transport of intravascular urate into the central nervous system
      through the choroid plexus.

PMID- 28870627
TI  - Endurance exercise improves function in individuals with Parkinson's disease: A
      meta-analysis.
AB  - Current evidence has shown that exercise can reduce symptoms of Parkinson's
      disease (PD). However, previous studies indicated mixed results, possibly because
      of variability in terms of the nature of the exercise interventions. The purpose
      of this study was to perform a metaanalysis of current evidence from endurance
      exercise intervention studies for effects on the United Parkinson's Disease
      Rating Scale (UPDRS) in individuals with PD. A systematic literature search in
      six electronic databases was performed and two independent reviewers screened the
      title and abstract of 1106 records captured by the initial search. Inclusion
      criteria for full-text review were (A) peer-reviewed English-language
      publications, (B) randomized controlled trials that compared an endurance
      exercise intervention group to a non-exercising control group, and (C) an outcome
      measure which included the UPDRS total score or section III (motor) subscore.
      From the title/abstract screening, the same independent reviewers assessed 245
      full-text articles for eligibility. Of the fulltext articles reviewed 7 articles
      were included in our meta-analysis, 238 were excluded for the following reasons:
      147 did not meet endurance exercise criteria, 53 were review/systematic reviews,
      34 were conference abstracts or posters, 2 were editorial or commentary, 1 was a
      study protocol, and 1 was unpublished. The d index was used to calculate the
      difference between means of different groups within individual studies, and a
      weighting factor or w was used to calculate the effect size across studies.
      Overall, d index was found to be -0.32 with 95% confidence interval, CI (-0.09, 
      0.56) found to be statistically significant indicating a positive effect of
      endurance exercise in UPDRS scores. In conclusion, this meta-analysis supports
      integrating endurance exercise training, as defined by ACSM, into treatment of
      PD.

PMID- 28870628
TI  - The role of anterior cruciate ligament in the control of posture; possible neural
      contribution.
AB  - The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is not only a mechanical structure for knee
      joint stability but is also a source of sensory information which could be used
      in the control of standing posture. It has been shown that the center of pressure
      (COP) time series during normal standing may be decomposed into two components
      which are hypothetically governed by different neural mechanisms, namely rambling
      and trembling. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent an
      injury to the ACL structure would affect these two control mechanisms. In this
      study the balance of a group of ACL deficient (ACLD) patients during double and
      single leg standing was examined and compared with that of a group of healthy
      individuals. We not only calculated the traditional measures of COP, but also
      decomposed this complex signal to investigate if ACL deficiency would affect the
      rambling and trembling components differently. The results showed that rambling
      was not significantly different between the two groups; however the trembling
      component was significantly greater for the ACLD group in both the single leg and
      the double leg condition. Further, there was also a component
      (rambling/trembling) by direction (anterior-posterior/mediolateral) interaction
      for both groups, indicating that the rambling component exhibited differences
      between directions of sway whereas the trembling component did not. This study
      provided evidence that the two components of postural control are differently
      affected by ACL deficiency, and that the rambling component is influenced by
      direction of sway.

PMID- 28870629
TI  - Microinjection of the dopamine D2-receptor antagonist Raclopride into the medial
      preoptic area reduces REM sleep in lactating rats.
AB  - The medial preoptic area (mPOA) is a brain structure classically related to both
      non-REM (NREM) sleep and maternal behavior. Although the dopaminergic system is
      known to play a role in the control of the states of sleep and wakefulness, its
      effects within the mPOA on sleep are still not clear. Microinjection of the
      dopamine D2 receptor antagonist Raclopride into the mPOA has been shown to
      promote nursing postures in lactating dams with no effects on active maternal
      behavior. We hypothesized that the facilitation of nursing postures may be also
      associated with the promotion of NREM sleep. In order to test the hypothesis,
      Raclopride was microinjected into the mPOA and maternal behavior and sleep were
      assessed in lactating rats. The changes observed included a reduction of the
      latency to start nursing and an increase of the time to reunite the entire
      litter. Contrary to our hypothesis, NREM sleep was not affected by Raclopride. On
      the other hand, REM sleep and its transitional stage from NREM sleep, were
      significantly reduced by this pharmacological agent. These data suggest that
      dopamine D2 receptors within the mPOA are involved in the transition from NREM to
      REM sleep.

PMID- 28870630
TI  - GLP-1 receptor agonists: An example of the challenge for animal models to predict
      plaque instability/rupture and cardiovascular outcomes.

PMID- 28870632
TI  - Are structural brain changes driven by aortic atherosclerosis?

PMID- 28870631
TI  - The sirtuin family members SIRT1, SIRT3 and SIRT6: Their role in vascular biology
      and atherogenesis.
AB  - The sirtuins, silent mating-type information regulation 2 (SIRTs), are a family
      of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)-dependent histone deacetylases with
      important roles in regulating energy metabolism and senescence. Activation of
      SIRTs appears to have beneficial effects on lipid metabolism and antioxidants,
      prompting investigation of the roles of these proteins in atherogenesis. Although
      clinical data are currently limited, the availability and safety of SIRT
      activators such as metformin and resveratrol provide an excellent opportunity to
      conduct research to better understand the role of SIRTs in human atherosclerosis.
      Encouraging observations from preclinical studies necessitate rigorous large,
      prospective, randomized clinical trials to determine the roles of SIRT activators
      on the progression of atherosclerosis and ultimately on cardiac outcomes, such as
      myocardial infarction and mortality.

PMID- 28870633
TI  - De novo assembly and annotation of the whole transcriptome of Oratosquilla
      oratoria.
AB  - As the representative species of Stomatopoda, Oratosquilla oratoria can tolerate
      the complex benthic environment. In this study, our goal was to develop the
      transcriptomic resource of O. oratoria that would support adaptation mechanism
      studies. We generated the whole transcriptome of O. oratoria from combined
      tissues (eyestalk, muscle, sexual and viscus) using Hiseq technology. A total of
      51,305,284 high-quality clean reads were assembled to produce 59,054 non
      redundant transcripts with a mean length of 987nt using Trinity and CORSET
      software. Among the predictable unigenes, a total of 32,451 unigenes were
      annotated based on protein databases. Finally, we predicted the coding sequences
      of 31,822 unigenes and obtained 19,057 SSRs in the present study. The present
      study will provide an important resource and foundational understanding for
      future genomic research of O. oratoria.

PMID- 28870634
TI  - Dendritic spine actin cytoskeleton in autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - Dendritic spines are small actin-rich protrusions from neuronal dendrites that
      form the postsynaptic part of most excitatory synapses. Changes in the shape and
      size of dendritic spines correlate with the functional changes in excitatory
      synapses and are heavily dependent on the remodeling of the underlying actin
      cytoskeleton. Recent evidence implicates synapses at dendritic spines as
      important substrates of pathogenesis in neuropsychiatric disorders, including
      autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although synaptic perturbations are not the only
      alterations relevant for these diseases, understanding the molecular
      underpinnings of the spine and synapse pathology may provide insight into their
      etiologies and could reveal new drug targets. In this review, we will discuss
      recent findings of defective actin regulation in dendritic spines associated with
      ASD.

PMID- 28870635
TI  - Cannabidiol inhibits priming-induced reinstatement of methamphetamine in REM
      sleep deprived rats.
AB  - Methamphetamine (METH) is a widely abused and a severely addictive
      psychostimulant. Relapse is the main cause of concern when treating addiction. It
      could manifest after a long period of abstinence. Previous studies showed that
      there is a strong connection between sleep impairment and relapse. Also, it has
      been reported that cannabidiol might be a potential treatment for drug craving
      and relapse. In this study, we used conditioned place preference (CPP) to
      investigate whether Cannabidiol (CBD), a phytocannabinoid, can prevent METH
      induced reinstatement in Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Deprived (RSD) rats. In order
      to induce CPP, the animals were given METH (1mg/kg; sc) for five days. The
      effective priming dose of METH (0.5mg/kg, sc) reinstated the extinguished METH
      induced CPP. In order to investigate the effect of RSD on METH-induced
      reinstatement, we used the inverted flowerpot technique to deprive the rats of
      REM sleep. We found that 24h-RSD could facilitate priming-induced reinstatement
      of METH. In addition to this, the ICV administration of CBD 10MUg/5MUl could
      suppress the METH-induced reinstatement even in RSD rats. In conclusion, the
      administration of CBD 10MUg/5MUl effectively prevents METH-induced CPP, even in a
      condition of stress. CBD can be considered an agent that reduces the risk of the
      relapse; however, this requires more investigation.

PMID- 28870636
TI  - De novo ERBB2 amplification causing intrinsic resistance to erlotinib in EGFR
      L858R mutated TKI-naive lung adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28870637
TI  - A hierarchical Bayesian approach to calibrating the linear-quadratic model from
      clonogenic survival assay data.
AB  - We propose a Bayesian hierarchical model applicable to the calibration of the
      linear-quadratic model of radiation dose-response. Experimental data used in
      model calibration were taken from a clonogenic survival assay conducted on human
      breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) across a range of radiation doses (0-6Gy).
      Employing Markov-chain Monte Carlo methods, we calibrated the proposed Bayesian
      hierarchical model, computed posterior distributions for the model parameters and
      survival fraction dose-response probability densities. Key contributions include
      the proposal of a model that incorporates multiple sources of inter- and intra
      experiment variability commonly neglected in the standard frequentist approach
      and its subsequent application to in vitro experimental data.

PMID- 28870638
TI  - Exome sequencing for the differential diagnosis of ciliary chondrodysplasias:
      Example of a WDR35 mutation case and review of the literature.
AB  - Exome sequencing is becoming widely popular and affordable, making it one of the
      most desirable methods for the identification of rare genetic variants for
      clinical diagnosis. Here, we report the clinical application of whole exome
      sequencing for the ultimate diagnosis of a ciliary chondrodysplasia case
      presented with an initial clinical diagnosis of Asphyxiating Thoracic Dystrophy
      (ATD, Jeune Syndrome). We have identified a novel homozygous missense mutation in
      WDR35 (c.206G > A), a gene previously associated with Sensenbrenner Syndrome,
      Ellis-van Creveld syndrome and Short-rib polydactyly syndrome type V. The genetic
      findings in this family led to the re-evaluation of the initial diagnosis and a
      differential diagnosis of Sensenbrenner Syndrome was made after cautious re
      examination of the patient. Cell culture studies revealed normal subcellular
      localization of the mutant WDR35 protein in comparison to wildtype protein,
      pointing towards impaired protein-protein interaction and/or altered cell
      signaling pathways as a consequence of the mutated allele. This research study
      highlights the importance of including pathogenic variant identification in the
      diagnosis pipeline of ciliary chondrodysplasias, especially for clinically not
      fully defined phenotypes.

PMID- 28870639
TI  - Migratory properties of ex vivo expanded regulatory T cells: Influence of all
      trans retinoic acid and rapamycin.
AB  - Adoptively transferred regulatory T-cells represent a promising therapeutic
      approach for tolerance induction in autoimmunity and transplantation medicine.
      However, a major hurdle for clinical application is the manufacturing of
      sufficient Treg cell numbers with respect to the low frequency of naturally
      occurring Tregs in the peripheral blood. Therefore, ex vivo large-scale expansion
      is mandatory for most of the clinical conditions. Besides the Treg cell number
      other parameters of the cell product are of high relevance for safe and efficient
      clinical Treg cell application like Treg cell purity, suppressive capacity and
      genetic stability of the Treg cell phenotype. Moreover, migratory properties of
      ex vivo expanded Tregs should be defined very clearly in order to predict their
      migration to secondary lymphoid organs as sites of antigen-specific activation,
      in vivo proliferation and subsequent trafficking to affected target organs.
      Therefore, we studied different cell culture conditions for Treg large-cell
      expansion using all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and/or rapamycin (Rapa) with focus
      on their migratory properties. The tested culture conditions revealed comparable
      chemokine receptor expression profiles (CXCR3, CCR4, CCR6, CCR7) and functional
      migration capabilities (IP10 and CCL19) with respect to Th1 and Th2 inflammatory
      conditions. However, the most striking difference was detected for the expansion
      capacity, suppressive potency and genetic stability likely predisposing large
      scale expansion with ATRA and/or Rapa for therapeutic intervention in acute GvHD
      and without supplementation for chronic GvHD.

PMID- 28870640
TI  - IVUS Findings in Late and Very Late Stent Thrombosis. A Comparison Between Bare
      metal and Drug-eluting Stents.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Stent thrombosis (ST) is a life-threatening
      complication after stent implantation. Intravascular ultrasound is able to
      discern most causes of ST. The aim of this study was to compare intravascular
      ultrasound findings between bare-metal stents (BMS) and drug-eluting stents (DES)
      in patients with late (31 days to 1 year) or very late ST (> 1 year). METHODS: Of
      250 consecutive patients with late or very late ST in 7 Spanish institutions, 114
      patients (45.5% BMS and 54.5% DES) were imaged with intravascular ultrasound. Off
      line intravascular ultrasound analysis was performed to assess malapposition,
      underexpansion, and neoatherosclerosis. RESULTS: The median time from stent
      implantation to ST was 4.0 years with BMS and 3.4 years with DES (P = .04).
      Isolated malapposition was similarly observed in both groups (36.5% vs 46.8%; P =
      .18) but was numerically lower with BMS (26.6% vs 48.0%; P = .07) in patients
      with very late ST. Isolated underexpansion was similarly observed in both groups
      (13.5% vs 11.3%; P = .47). Isolated neoatherosclerosis occurred only in patients
      with very late ST and was more prevalent with BMS (22.9%) than with DES (6.0%); P
      = .02. At 2.9 years' follow-up, there were 0% and 6.9% cardiac deaths,
      respectively (P = .06) and recurrent ST occurred in 4.0% and 5.2% of patients,
      respectively (P = .60). CONCLUSIONS: Malapposition was the most common finding in
      patients with late and very late ST and is more prevalent with DES in very late
      ST. In contrast, neoatherosclerosis was exclusively observed in patients with
      very late ST and mainly with BMS.

PMID- 28870641
TI  - Diagnosis and Treatment of Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis. Progress and Hope.
AB  - Cardiac amyloidosis is an infiltrative disorder caused by extracellular protein
      deposition. Transthyretin is a proamyloidotic protein that produces one of the
      most frequent forms of cardiac amyloidosis, either through mutations or a wild
      type form (previously known as senile amyloidosis). Until very recently,
      diagnosis of transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) was very uncommon and histological
      confirmation was mandatory, making diagnosis of ATTR a real challenge in daily
      clinical practice. Moreover, the specific therapeutic options to alter the
      clinical course of the disease were very limited. However, advances in cardiac
      imaging and diagnostic strategies have improved recognition of ATTR. In addition,
      several compounds able to modify the natural history of the disease are in the
      final phases of research, with promising results. Given that effective therapies
      are on the horizon, cardiologists should be well-versed in this disease and be
      familiar with its diagnosis and treatment. This review describes the broad
      clinical spectrum of ATTR in detail, as well as recent advances in the diagnosis
      and treatment of this condition.

PMID- 28870642
TI  - High-dose Thiotepa, Busulfan, Cyclophosphamide, and Autologous Stem Cell
      Transplantation as Upfront Consolidation for Systemic Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma With
      Synchronous Central Nervous System Involvement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Synchronous involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) at the
      diagnosis of systemic non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is associated with an increased
      risk for relapse despite complete remission to initial therapy. High-dose
      chemotherapy with a CNS-directed conditioning regimen followed by autologous stem
      cell transplantation (ASCT) holds promise as a consolidative approach. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all patients with systemic
      B-cell NHL and synchronous CNS involvement who received upfront consolidation
      with high-dose chemotherapy with thiotepa, busulfan, cyclophosphamide, and ASCT
      while in first complete remission between July 2008 and June 2016 at 2 partner
      academic institutions. RESULTS: Twenty patients were identified through the
      transplant database. The median age at diagnosis was 53 years (range, 37-65
      years). The majority had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma histology (n = 17; 85%).
      The sites of CNS involvement were parenchymal (n = 12; 60%) and leptomeningeal
      disease (n = 9; 45%). All patients received systemic and CNS-directed therapy
      prior to transplant, with the most common approaches being R-CHOP (rituximab,
      cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, and prednisolone) (n = 13; 65%) and
      high-dose intravenous methotrexate (n = 16; 80%), respectively. With a median
      follow up of 4.4 years after ASCT (range, 2 months-8.5 years), the Kaplan-Meier
      estimates of 4-year progression-free and overall survival were 77% (95%
      confidence interval, 48%-91%) and 82% (95% confidence interval, 54%-94%),
      respectively. CONCLUSION: CNS-directed high-dose chemotherapy and ASCT provides
      durable remission for patients with synchronous aggressive lymphoma and should be
      strongly considered as consolidative therapy for eligible patients with systemic
      NHL with CNS involvement in first complete remission.

PMID- 28870643
TI  - Pegylated GCSF Can Be Used With First-Line da-EPOCH-R Without Compromising Dose
      Intensity, Safety, or Efficacy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Infusional da-EPOCH-R (dose-adjusted etoposide, doxorubicin, and
      cyclophosphamide with vincristine, prednisone, and rituximab) is a dose
      intensified regimen with a potential role in treating high-risk subtypes of
      aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Studies of da-EPOCH-R use daily
      injections of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) to tailor chemotherapy
      dosing, and whether 1-time administration of pegylated GCSF (peg-GCSF) is as
      efficacious has not been addressed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed aggressive
      B-NHL patients treated at our center with first-line da-EPOCH-R for clinician
      choice of growth factor, and analyzed dose level achieved, rate of unplanned
      hospitalizations, and patient outcomes. RESULTS: Among 73 patients, 44 received
      peg-GCSF. Overall, 11 patients (15%) patients achieved dose level 4. Baseline
      characteristics between peg-GCSF and GCSF groups were similar. The proportion of
      patients who achieved dose level 4 was comparable in the peg-GCSF group (5 of 44
      [11%]) and daily GCSF (6 of 29 [21%]; P = .24). The rate of unplanned
      hospitalizations, and event-free and overall survival, were also similar between
      groups. CONCLUSION: We suggest routine use of peg-GCSF is an acceptable
      alternative to daily GCSF, for patients in whom da-EPOCH-R is selected as first
      line treatment for aggressive B-NHL.

PMID- 28870644
TI  - How unpredictable access to food increases the body fat of small passerines: A
      mechanistic approach.
AB  - Unpredictable rewards increase the vigor of responses in autoshaping (a Pavlovian
      conditioning procedure) and are preferred to predictable rewards in free-choice
      tasks involving fixed- versus variable-delay schedules. The significance those
      behavioral properties may have in field conditions is currently unknown. However,
      it is noticeable that when exposed to unpredictable food, small passerines - such
      as robins, titmice, and starlings - get fatter than when food is abundant. In
      functional terms, fattening is viewed as an evolutionary strategy acting against
      the risk of starvation when food is in short supply. But this functional view
      does not explain the causal mechanisms by which small passerines come to be
      fatter under food uncertainty. Here, it is suggested that one of these causal
      mechanisms is that involved in behavioral invigoration and preference for food
      uncertainty in the laboratory. Based on a psychological theory of motivational
      changes under food uncertainty, we developed an integrative computational model
      to test this idea. We show that, for functional (adaptive) reasons, the
      excitatory property of reward unpredictability can underlie the propensity of
      wild birds to forage longer and/or more intensively in an unpredictable
      environment, with the consequence that they can put on more fat reserves.

PMID- 28870645
TI  - Role of stressful life events and kindling in bipolar disorder: Converging
      evidence from a mania-predominant illness course.
AB  - Stressful life events can precipitate relapses and recurrences in bipolar
      disorder. Kindling in bipolar disorder has been linked to maladaptive
      psychological reactivity to minor stressful life events. Systematic studies on
      life events and kindling are rare in bipolar disorder with a manic predominant
      polarity. One hundred and forty-nine remitted patients with bipolar I disorder
      were recruited. The National Institute of Mental Health-Life Chart Methodology
      was used to depict the illness course retrospectively, and the Presumptive
      Stressful Life Events Scale-Lifetime version was used to record the stressful
      life events. The role of stressful life events and the probability of kindling
      were assessed using appropriate statistics. There was a mania-predominant course
      of bipolar disorder in the sample with 55.7% (n = 83) having only recurrent
      mania. Family conflict and altered sleep patterns were the commonly reported
      stressful life events. When controlled for the severity of the stressor, the
      stressful life events were often associated with the initial episodes rather than
      the latter ones. Kindling may occur in bipolar disorder with mania as the
      predominant polarity. However, retrospective recall bias and hospital-based
      sampling limit generalizability of such observations.

PMID- 28870646
TI  - Psychopathological dimensions and the clinician's subjective experience.
AB  - Classical psychopathology highly valued the interaction between clinician and
      patient, and recent findings have provided preliminary evidence of an association
      between categorical psychiatric diagnosis and the clinician's subjective
      experience during the first clinical assessment. To extend these findings, the
      present study examined the relationship between psychopathological dimensions and
      clinicians' subjective experiences. The study involved 45 clinicians and 783
      patients in several psychiatric inpatient and outpatient units. When they saw a
      new patient, the clinicians completed the Assessment of Clinician's Subjective
      Experience questionnaire (ACSE) and the 24-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale
      (BPRS). Scores on five core psychopathological dimensions supported by meta
      analytic evidence (Affect, Positive Symptoms, Negative Symptoms, Activation,
      Disorganization) were derived from the BPRS. Multivariate analysis revealed that
      each psychopathological dimension was characterized by a distinct pattern of
      independent associations with certain aspects of Clinician's Subjective
      Experience, as measured by the ACSE. This study provided preliminary evidence of
      significant and theoretically consistent relationships between major
      psychopathological dimensions and the psychiatrist's subjective experience during
      the first clinical evaluation. Improving the understanding of intersubjective
      processes may have important implications for theory, practice, research, and
      training.

PMID- 28870647
TI  - Comparison between autogenous iliac bone and freeze-dried bone allograft for
      repair of alveolar clefts in the presence of plasma rich in growth factors: A
      randomized clinical trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of alveolar cleft repair
      using iliac bone and freeze-dried bone allograft (FDBA) in the presence of plasma
      rich in growth factors (PRGF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with unilateral
      alveolar cleft (n = 32) were randomly allocated to either the iliac plus PRGF
      group or the FDBA plus PRGF group. CBCT images were obtained before and 6 months
      after the surgery to assess the regenerated bone volume. Paired t-tests and two
      way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied to analyze the data using SPSS 16.0
      software. RESULTS: The patients' mean age was 15 +/- 5.7 years (range = 8-27). In
      the iliac plus PRGF group, the mean volume of cleft before the surgery and the
      mean regenerated bone volume 6 months after were 1.67 +/- 0.66 and 1.14 +/- 0.47
      cm3, respectively. The corresponding values were 1.5 +/- 0.54 and 0.72 +/- 0.23
      cm3 in the FDBA plus PRGF group. The remaining bone to cleft volume ratio was not
      associated with grafting time (secondary or tertiary) and the original cleft
      volume. Iliac bone reinforced with PRGF was more successful than FDBA plus PRGF
      in repairing alveolar cleft (p = 0.007). CONCLUSION: Due to the poor performance
      of the allograft, autografts should still be preferred in spite of possible donor
      site morbidity.

PMID- 28870648
TI  - Can electromagnetic-navigated maxillary positioning replace occlusional splints
      in orthognathic surgery? A clinical pilot study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Because of the inaccuracy of intermaxillary splints in orthognathic
      surgery, intraoperative guidance via a real time navigation system might
      represent a suitable method for enhancing the precision of maxillary positioning.
      Therefore, in this clinical trial, maxillary repositioning after Le Fort I
      osteotomy was guided splintless by an electromagnetic navigation system.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Conservatively planned maxillary reposition in each of 5
      patients was transferred to a novel software module of the electromagnetic
      navigation system. Intraoperatively, after Le Fort I osteotomy, the software
      guided the maxilla to the targeted position. Accuracy was evaluated by pre- and
      postoperative cone beam computer tomography imaging (the vectorial distance of
      the incisal marker points was measured in three dimensions) and compared with
      that of a splint transposed control group. RESULTS: The repositioning of the
      maxilla guided by the electromagnetic navigation system was intuitive and simple
      to accomplish. The achieved maxillary position with a deviation of 0.7 mm on
      average to the planned position was equally accurate compared with that of the
      splint transposed control group of 0.5 mm (p > 0.05). DISCUSSION: The data of
      this clinical study display good accuracy for splintless electromagnetic
      navigated maxillary positioning. Nevertheless, this method does not surpass the
      splint-encoded gold standard with regard to accuracy. Future investigations will
      be necessary to show the full potential of electromagnetic navigation in
      orthognathic surgery.

PMID- 28870650
TI  - Adolescent Self-Screening for Mental Health Problems; Demonstration of an
      Internet-Based Approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of positive screening scores, construct
      validity, and opportunities for follow-up in a large sample of adolescents who
      chose to fill out the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-Youth Form (PSC-Y) through the
      Mental Health America (MHA) Web site. METHODS: MHA sent researchers a
      deidentified data set of all PSC-Y data submitted to MHA from May 15, 2015 to May
      14, 2016. The analytic data set contained 29,886 PSC-Y forms from youth aged 11
      to 17 years who sought out the Web site and chose to fill out the PSC-Y
      anonymously and independently online. The prevalence of impairment on the PSC-Y
      was calculated overall and for various subgroups. Next steps reported by at-risk
      youth were also examined. RESULTS: Of all respondents, 77.4% of youth screened
      positive on the PSC-Y. Significant associations between positive screening and
      self-ratings of a need for help, previous history of mental health treatment, and
      low family income provided construct validation for the online PSC-Y. Almost two
      thirds of positively screened youth stated that they planned to get some kind of
      help in the future and 10% indicated that they planned to seek professional
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The large number of respondents suggested that many
      adolescents use the Internet to learn about mental health and that a very high
      percentage of them might be at risk. The availability of brief, free Internet
      based psychosocial screens might offer a viable way to identify at-risk youth and
      provide them with pathways to additional support and/or treatment.

PMID- 28870649
TI  - Lipopolysaccharide impairs permeability of pulmonary microvascular endothelial
      cells via Connexin40.
AB  - The endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pulmonary endothelial barrier
      disruption is a key pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory
      distress syndrome (ARDS). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying LPS
      impaired permeability of pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) are
      not fully understood. Gap junctions, particularly Connexin40 (Cx40), are
      necessary for the maintenance of normal vascular function. In this study, we for
      the first time investigated the role of Cx40 in LPS-impaired permeability of
      PMVECs and provided potential therapeutic approaches based on mechanistic
      findings of Cx40 regulation by LPS stimuli. Rat PMVECs were isolated, cultured
      and identified with cell morphology, specific markers, ultrastructural
      characteristics and functional tests. Western blot analysis demonstrated that
      Cx40 is the major connexin highly expressed in PMVECs. Furthermore, by inhibiting
      Cx40 in a time-dependent manner, LPS impaired gap junction function and induced
      permeability injury of PMVECs. The key role of Cx40 decline in mediating
      detrimental effects of LPS was further confirmed in rescue experiments through
      Cx40 overexpression. Mechanistically, LPS stress on PMVECs inhibited the protein
      kinase C (PKC) pathway, which may synergize with the inflammatory nuclear factor
      kappaB (NFkappaB) signaling activation in suppressing Cx40 expression level and
      phosphorylation. Moreover, through pharmacological PKC activation or NFkappaB
      inhibition, Cx40 activity in PMVECs could be restored, leading to maintained
      barrier function under LPS stress. Our findings uncover a previously unrecognized
      role of Cx40 and its regulatory mechanisms in impaired endothelial integrity
      under endotoxin and inflammation, shedding light on intervention approaches to
      improve pulmonary endothelial barrier function in ALI and ARDS.

PMID- 28870651
TI  - Bullying and Children's Academic Performance.

PMID- 28870652
TI  - Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors: Parental Concern and Concordance Between Parent
      and Adolescent Reports.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated which adolescent health risk behaviors are of concern
      to parents generally, according to adolescent age, gender, and in the context of
      perceived risk. We compared adolescent and parent reports of the presence of
      health-risk behaviors and factors predicting agreement. METHODS: Three hundred
      adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (mean, 14.5 years; 52% female) who presenting for
      well care completed an electronic screening tool used to assess health-risk
      behaviors. Parents completed parallel measures of their child's behavior and
      parental concern. Adolescent and parent reports were compared using McNemar test.
      Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine predictors of agreement.
      RESULTS: High parental concern was most commonly reported for screen time and
      diet. When parents identified their adolescent as at-risk, high parental concern
      was near universal for mental health but less commonly reported for substance
      use. There were no differences in parental concern according to adolescent
      gender. Parents of older adolescents expressed more concern regarding physical
      activity and alcohol. Compared with adolescents, parents were more likely to
      report risk regarding anxiety, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical
      activity, and less likely to report risk regarding screen time, sleep, and
      marijuana use. Younger adolescent age and higher family relationship quality were
      predictive of stronger parent-adolescent agreement. CONCLUSIONS: Parents in well
      care visits commonly have concerns about adolescent lifestyle behaviors. Although
      parents are more likely to report concern when they know about a behavior,
      parental concern is not always aligned with parental awareness of risk,
      particularly for substance use. Parent report of higher prevalence of some risk
      behaviors suggests their input might assist in risk identification.

PMID- 28870653
TI  - The New RNA World: Growing Evidence for Long Noncoding RNA Functionality.
AB  - The past decade has seen a major increase in the study of noncoding RNAs
      (ncRNAs). However, there remains a great deal of confusion and debate over the
      levels of functionality and mechanisms of action of the majority of these new
      transcripts. This Opinion article addresses several of these issues, focusing
      particularly on long ncRNAs (lncRNAs). We reemphasize the unique abilities of
      RNAs to form myriad structures as well as to interact with other RNAs, DNA, and
      proteins, which provide them with unique and powerful abilities. One of these,
      the ability to interact sequence specifically with DNA, has been largely
      overlooked. Accumulating evidence suggests that evolution has taken advantage of
      RNA's properties via the rapid acquisition of new noncoding genes in testes, with
      subsequent gains of function in other tissues. This amplification process appears
      to be one of the major forces driving metazoan evolution and diversity.

PMID- 28870654
TI  - Molecular Dependency Impacts on the Compensating Ability of Paralogs: A Response
      to Veitia.

PMID- 28870655
TI  - Comparative health effects in mice of Libby amphibole asbestos and a fibrous
      amphibole from Arizona.
AB  - This project developed from studies demonstrating that Libby Amphibole Asbestos
      (LAA) causes a non-typical set of health outcomes not generally reported for
      asbestos, including systemic autoimmunity and an unusual and devastating lamellar
      pleural thickening that progresses to severe pulmonary dysfunction and death.
      Further, mineral fiber mixtures with some similarities to LAA have recently been
      discovered in southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona, where the material exists
      in extensive recreational areas and is present in yards, roads, parking lots and
      school yards. The objective was to compare the health outcomes in mice exposed to
      either LAA or the fibrous amphiboles collected in Arizona at the Lake Mead
      National Recreational Area at very low doses to represent environmental
      exposures. In this study, the fibrous amphibole asbestos sample from Arizona
      (AzA) is composed of winchite (69%), actinolite (22%), and non-amphibole minerals
      (9%) and has a mean aspect ratio of 16.7+/-0.9. Fibrous amphibole asbestos from
      Libby (LAA) is composed of winchite (70%), richterite (9%), tremolite (5%), and
      non-amphibole minerals (16%) with a mean aspect ratio of 8.4+/-0.7. C57BL/6 mice
      were exposed by oropharyngeal aspiration to fiber suspensions at a very low dose
      of 3MUg/mouse. After seven months, both LAA- and AzA-exposed mice had indices of
      chronic immune dysfunction related to a TH17 cytokine profile, with B cell
      activation, autoantibody production and proteinuria, suggesting kidney
      involvement. In addition, both exposures led to significant lung and pleural
      fibrosis. These data suggest that there is risk of pulmonary disease and
      autoimmune outcomes with environmental exposure to amphibole asbestos, and that
      this is not limited to Libby, Montana.

PMID- 28870656
TI  - A two-step model of TiO2 nanoparticle toxicity in human liver tissue.
AB  - We examine the toxicity of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles on human liver
      through a two-step approach, including a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic
      (PBPK) model and a cell-response model. The PBPK model predicts the bio
      distribution of nanoparticles that remain in the human body after exposure, with
      special attention to their accumulation in liver tissue. The cell-response model
      predicts liver cell death as a consequence of the accumulated TiO2 nanoparticles
      by considering cell fate dynamics through the interplay between cellular uptake
      of the nanoparticles and their dilution due to cell division. The results suggest
      that tissue damage from a low nanoparticle dose is negligible due to renewal cell
      division, but for higher doses larger fractions of cells must participate in the
      cell cycle to recover the original tissue mass. By combining the two models, it
      becomes possible to explain the liver cell viability and cell death after TiO2
      nanoparticle exposure.

PMID- 28870658
TI  - Cholelithiasis in a Patient With History of Cholecystectomy.

PMID- 28870659
TI  - Endoscopic Resolution of Black Esophagus With Treatment of Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

PMID- 28870657
TI  - Use of Biologic Therapy by Pregnant Women With Inflammatory Bowel Disease Does
      Not Affect Infant Response to Vaccines.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: In women with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), exposure to
      immunomodulator or biologic therapy has not been associated with adverse events
      during pregnancy or outcomes of newborns. We investigated whether exposure of
      patients to these agents during pregnancy affects serologic responses to vaccines
      in newborns. METHODS: We collected data from the Pregnancy in IBD and Neonatal
      Outcomes registry, which records outcomes of pregnant women with diagnosis of IBD
      receiving care at multiple centers in the United States, from 2007 through 2016.
      Serum samples collected from infants at least 7 months old were analyzed for
      titers of antibodies to Haemophilus influenzae B (HiB) or tetanus toxin; mothers
      completed a survey of vaccine practices and outcomes from July 2013 through
      October 2016. Umbilical cord blood samples from 33 infants were assayed for
      concentration of biologic agents. Vaccination response was compared between
      infants born to mothers exposed to biologic therapy (infliximab, adalimumab,
      certolizumab pegol, golimumab, natalizumab, vedolizumab, or ustekinumab-either as
      a single agent or in combination with an immunomodulator, at any time between
      conception and delivery) and infants born to unexposed mothers. RESULTS: A total
      of 179 women completed the vaccine survey (26 biologic unexposed, 153 exposed to
      a biologic agent). We found no significant difference in proportions of infants
      with protective antibody titers against HiB born to exposed mothers (n = 42, 71%)
      vs unexposed mothers (n = 8, 50%) (P = .41). We also found no difference in the
      proportion of infants with protective antibody titers to tetanus toxoid born to
      exposed mothers (80%) vs unexposed mothers (75%) (P = .66). The median
      concentration of infliximab in cord blood did not differ significantly between
      infants with vs without protective antibody titers to HiB (P = .30) or tetanus
      toxoid (P = .93). Mild reactions were observed in 7/40 infants who received
      rotavirus vaccine and whose mothers had been exposed to biologic therapies.
      CONCLUSIONS: Vaccination of infants against HiB and tetanus toxin, based on
      antibody titers measured when infants were at least 7 months old, does not appear
      to be affected by in utero exposure to biologic therapy.

PMID- 28870660
TI  - Role of Age and Race in the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Veterans With
      Hepatitis B Virus Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatocellular (HCC) surveillance guidelines for patients with
      chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are based on race- and age-specific
      estimates of HCC risk, derived from studies conducted in areas in which HBV is
      endemic. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the national
      Veterans Administration data to identify patients with chronic HBV infection from
      2001 through 2013. We examined the effect of race and age on HCC risk while
      adjusting for baseline clinical characteristics. RESULTS: The study cohort had
      8329 patients; 3498 patients (42.0%) were white, 3248 (39%) were African
      Americans, and 659 (7.9%) were Asian Pacific Islanders. The annual HCC incidence
      was highest in Asian Pacific Islanders (0.65%), followed by whites (0.57%) and
      African Americans (0.40%). After adjusting for clinical and viral factors, the
      risk of HCC was significantly higher in Asian Pacific Islanders compared with
      whites (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 2.04; 95% CI, 1.31-3.17). There was no
      difference in HCC risk between African Americans and whites (adjusted HR, 0.77;
      95% CI, 0.58-1.02). HCC risk increased with age: adjusted HR was 1.97 (95% CI,
      0.99-3.87) for 40-49 years; adjusted HR was 3.00 (95% CI, 1.55-5.81) for 50-59
      years; and adjusted HR was 4.02 (95% CI, 2.03-7.94) for more than 60 years vs
      less than 40 years. Patients with cirrhosis had higher risk of HCC than patients
      without cirrhosis (adjusted HR = 3.69; 95% CI, 2.82-4.83). However, even among
      patients without cirrhosis, the annual incidence of HCC was more than 0.2% for
      all patients older than 40 years with high levels of alanine aminotransferase
      regardless of race. CONCLUSIONS: In a sample of male veterans with chronic HBV
      infection, risk of HCC is highest among Asian Pacific Islanders, followed by
      whites and African Americans. Cirrhosis increased HCC risk. Among patients
      without cirrhosis, male patients who are older than 40 years and have increased
      levels of alanine aminotransferase might benefit from HCC surveillance,
      regardless of race.

PMID- 28870661
TI  - Risk of Colorectal Carcinoma in Siblings of Probands With Common Colorectal
      Carcinoma.

PMID- 28870662
TI  - Splenic Abscesses Caused by Salmonella D9.

PMID- 28870663
TI  - Videocapsule Endoscopy Identifies Small Bowel Lesions in Patients With
      Eosinophilic Enteritis.

PMID- 28870664
TI  - Gastric Mucosal Staining After Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Embolization.

PMID- 28870666
TI  - Tenofovir alafenamide as a rescue therapy in a patient with HBV-cirrhosis with a
      history of Fanconi syndrome and multidrug resistance.
AB  - Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is a recommended first-line therapy for both
      naive and experienced patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), although reduced
      estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), hypophosphatemia, hyperphosphaturia
      and Fanconi syndrome have been reported in some patients. Entecavir (ETV) could
      be considered as a rescue therapy for TDF-treated patients developing renal
      dysfunction, though patients with prior history of treatment with lamivudine
      (LAM) can develop ETV resistance strains, which can lead to potentially severe
      hepatitis flares. Tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), a new prodrug of tenofovir, has
      recently been developed to improve the renal and bone safety profile compared to
      TDF, while maintaining the same virologic efficacy. The recently published 48
      week phase III TAF registration studies confirmed the superior safety profile.
      Here we describe a case of a 75-year-old woman with HBV mono-infection and
      compensated cirrhosis who developed ETV resistant strains and grade 3 chronic
      kidney disease after many years of LAM and adefovir (ADV) treatment and a TDF
      induced Fanconi syndrome. The administration of 25mg/day of TAF, granted as part
      of a compassionate use program, rapidly suppressed viral replication to
      undetectable levels without worsening renal function or side effects.

PMID- 28870665
TI  - Association of Paid Sick Leave Laws With Foodborne Illness Rates.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous studies suggest an association between paid sick leave
      (PSL) and better population health, including fewer infectious and nosocomial
      gastrointestinal disease outbreaks. Yet few studies examine whether laws
      requiring employers to offer PSL demonstrate a similar association. This mixed
      methods study examined whether laws requiring employers to provide PSL are
      associated with decreased foodborne illness rates, particularly laws that are
      more supportive of employees taking leave. METHODS: The four earliest PSL laws
      were classified by whether they were more or less supportive of employees taking
      leave. Jurisdictions with PSL were matched to comparison jurisdictions by
      population size and density. Using difference-in-differences, monthly foodborne
      illness rates (2000-2014) in implementation and comparison jurisdictions before
      and after the laws were effective were compared, stratifying by how supportive
      the laws were of employees taking leave, and then by disease. The empirical
      analysis was conducted from 2015-2017. RESULTS: Foodborne illness rates declined
      after implementation of the PSL law in jurisdictions with laws more supportive of
      employees taking leave, but increased in jurisdictions with laws that are less
      supportive. In adjusted analyses, PSL laws that were more supportive of employees
      taking sick leave were associated with an adjusted 22% decrease in foodborne
      illness rates (p=0.005). These results are driven by campylobacteriosis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although the results suggest an association between more supportive
      PSL laws and decreased foodborne illness rates, they should be interpreted
      cautiously because the trend is driven by campylobacteriosis, which has low
      person-to-person transmission.

PMID- 28870667
TI  - Reply to: "Is osteopontin a promising prognostic biomarker for
      cholangiocarcinoma?"

PMID- 28870668
TI  - Diagnostic and prognostic role of circulating microparticles in hepatocellular
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28870669
TI  - Reply to: "Risk factors of hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatitis B surface
      antigen seroclearance".

PMID- 28870670
TI  - IL-1 receptor like 1 protects against alcoholic liver injury by limiting NF
      kappaB activation in hepatic macrophages.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIM: Alcohol consumption increases intestinal permeability and
      causes damage to hepatocytes, leading to the release of pathogen- and damage
      associated molecular pattern molecules (PAMPs and DAMPs), stimulating hepatic
      macrophages and activating NF-kappaB. The resultant inflammation exacerbates
      alcoholic liver disease (ALD). However, much less is known about the mechanisms
      attenuating inflammation and preventing disease progression in most heavy
      drinkers. Interleukin (IL)-33 is a DAMP (alarmin) released from dead cells that
      acts through its receptor, IL-1 receptor like 1 (ST2). ST2 signaling has been
      reported to either stimulate or inhibit NF-kappaB activation. The role of IL
      33/ST2 in ALD has not been studied. METHODS: Serum levels of IL-33 and its decoy
      receptor, soluble ST2 (sST2) were measured in ALD patients. Alcohol-induced liver
      injury, inflammation and hepatic macrophage activation were compared between wild
      type, IL-33-/- and ST2-/- mice in several models. RESULTS: Elevation of serum IL
      33 and sST2 were only observed in patients with severe decompensated ALD.
      Consistently, in mice with mild ALD without significant cell death and IL-33
      release, IL-33 deletion did not affect alcohol-induced liver damage. However, ST2
      deletion exacerbated ALD, through enhancing NF-kappaB activation in liver
      macrophages. In contrast, when extracellular IL-33 was markedly elevated, liver
      injury and inflammation were attenuated in both IL-33-/- and ST2-/- mice compared
      to wild-type mice. CONCLUSION: Our data revealed a dichotomous role of IL-33/ST2
      signaling during ALD development. At early and mild stages, ST2 restrains the
      inflammatory activation of hepatic macrophages, through inhibiting NF-kappaB, and
      plays a protective function in an IL-33-independent fashion. During severe liver
      injury, significant cell death and marked IL-33 release occur, which triggers IL
      33/ST2 signaling and exacerbates tissue damage. LAY SUMMARY: In mild ALD, ST2
      negatively regulates the inflammatory activation of hepatic macrophages, thereby
      protecting against alcohol-induced liver damage, whereas in the case of severe
      liver injury, the release of extracellular IL-33 may exacerbate tissue
      inflammation by triggering the canonical IL-33/ST2L signaling in hepatic
      macrophages.

PMID- 28870672
TI  - Risk factors of hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatitis B surface antigen
      seroclearance.

PMID- 28870671
TI  - Relationship between serum HBV-RNA levels and intrahepatic viral as well as
      histologic activity markers in entecavir-treated patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: In diagnostics, serum hepatitis B virus (HBV)-RNA levels are
      valuable when the HBV-DNA load in circulation is effectively suppressed by
      nucleos(t)ide analogue (NUC) therapy. This study aimed to determine the
      intrahepatic viral replication activity reflected in serum HBV-RNA and whether
      HBV-RNA contributes to liver histological changes in patients treated with NUC.
      METHODS: A cross-sectional set of serum and liver biopsy samples was obtained
      from patients treated with entecavir, who had undetectable levels of serum HBV
      DNA. The correlations between serum HBV-RNA concentration and levels of
      peripheral and intrahepatic viral replicative forms, as well as histological
      scores, were analyzed. Quasispecies of serum HBV-RNA and intrahepatic viral
      replicative forms were examined by deep sequencing. HBV-RNA-positive hepatocytes
      were visualized by in situ hybridization. RESULTS: Serum HBV-RNA was detected in
      35 of 47 patients (74.47%, 2.33-4.80log10copies/ml). These levels correlated not
      only with the intrahepatic HBV-RNA level and the ratio of intrahepatic HBV-RNA to
      covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), but also with the histological scores
      for grading and staging. Regarding quasispecies, serum HBV-RNA was dynamic and
      more genetically homogenous to simultaneously sampled intrahepatic HBV-RNA than
      to the cccDNA pool. In situ histology revealed that HBV-RNA-positive hepatocytes
      were clustered in foci, sporadically distributed across the lobules, and co
      localized with hepatitis B surface antigen. CONCLUSION: Serum HBV-RNA levels
      reflect intrahepatic viral transcriptional activity and are associated with liver
      histopathology in patients receiving NUC therapy. Our study sheds light on the
      nature of HBV-RNA in the pathogenesis of chronic HBV infection and has
      implications for the management of chronic hepatitis B during NUC therapy. LAY
      SUMMARY: Serum HBV-RNA levels are indicative of the intrahepatic transcriptional
      activity of covalently closed circular DNA and are associated with liver
      histological changes in patients with chronic B hepatitis who are receiving
      nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy.

PMID- 28870673
TI  - A fatty liver leads to decreased kidney function?

PMID- 28870675
TI  - Direct-acting antiviral therapy in patients with hepatocellular cancer: The
      timing of treatment is everything.

PMID- 28870674
TI  - Development of chronic kidney disease in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease: A cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been associated
      with chronic kidney disease (CKD), but cohort studies are limited. We
      investigated the longitudinal association of NAFLD and its severity with the
      development of CKD. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 41,430
      adult men and women (average age, 48.9y) without CKD at baseline who underwent
      repeated health check-up examinations from January 1, 2003, through December 31,
      2013. NAFLD status was assessed by ultrasonography, and NAFLD severity was
      assessed by the NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS). RESULTS: The outcome was an incident
      CKD, defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate less than
      60ml/min/1.73m2. During 200,790 person-years of follow-up (median follow-up of
      4.15years), we identified 691 incident CKD cases. The multivariable-adjusted
      hazard ratio for CKD comparing participants with and without NAFLD was 1.22 (95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.04-1.43). The risk of CKD increased progressively with
      increased NAFLD severity. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for CKD
      comparing participants with NFS <-1.455 and those with NFS >=-1.455 to
      participants without NAFLD were 1.09 (95% CI 0.91-1.32) and 1.58 (95% CI 1.30
      1.92), respectively. The association was consistent across clinically relevant
      subgroups. CONCLUSION: In a large cohort of adult men and women without CKD,
      NAFLD was associated with an increased risk of CKD development. NAFLD may
      adversely affect renal function and patients may need to be carefully monitored
      for an increased risk of CKD. LAY SUMMARY: The presence of fatty liver is
      associated with the future decline of renal function. Thus, fatty liver patients
      need to be monitored regularly for renal function.

PMID- 28870676
TI  - Hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE) for fatty liver grafts in rats and
      humans.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Pretreatment of marginal organs by perfusion is a promising
      opportunity to make more organs available for transplantation. Protection of
      human donation after cardiac death (DCD) livers by a novel machine perfusion
      technique, hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE), was recently established.
      Herein, we tested whether HOPE is also useful for fatty liver grafts, using a
      rodent transplant model. METHODS: Rats were fed over three weeks with a special
      methionine-choline-deficient diet (MCDD) to induce severe hepatic macrosteatosis
      (>=60%). Afterwards, livers were transplanted with either minimal or 12h cold
      storage. Additional liver grafts were treated after 12h cold storage with 1h HOPE
      before transplantation. Graft injury after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT)
      was assessed in terms of oxidative stress, damage-associated molecular patterns
      release, toll-like receptor-4 activation, cytokine release, endothelial
      activation, and the development of necrosis and fibrosis. RESULTS: Implantation
      of cold stored macrosteatotic liver grafts induced massive reperfusion injury
      after OLT, compared to controls (non-fatty livers). HOPE treatment after cold
      storage failed to change the degree of steatosis itself, but markedly decreased
      reperfusion injury after OLT, as detected by less oxidative stress, less nuclear
      injury, less Kupffer- and endothelial cell activation, as well as less fibrosis
      within one week after OLT. Protective effects were lost in the absence of oxygen
      in the HOPE perfusate. CONCLUSION: HOPE after cold storage of fatty livers
      prevents significant reperfusion injury and improves graft function, comparable
      to the effects of HOPE in DCD livers and DCD kidneys. HOPE treatment is easy and
      may become a universal concept to further expand the donor pool. LAY SUMMARY: An
      increasing number of donor livers contain fat. It is important to harness
      marginal livers, which may contain fat, as the stock of donor livers is limited.
      Hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE) prevents reperfusion injury and improves
      liver graft function. HOPE offers a simple and low-cost option for treating liver
      grafts in transplant centers, even after cold storage, instead of transporting
      machines to the place of procurement. HOPE could be used globally to expand the
      donor pool.

PMID- 28870677
TI  - Is osteopontin a promising prognostic biomarker for cholangiocarcinoma?

PMID- 28870678
TI  - Reply to: "Diagnostic and prognostic role of circulating microparticles in
      hepatocellular carcinoma".

PMID- 28870679
TI  - ACC/AATS/AHA/ASE/ASNC/HRS/SCAI/SCCT/SCMR/STS 2017 Appropriate Use Criteria for
      Multimodality Imaging in Valvular Heart Disease: A Report of the American College
      of Cardiology Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force, American Association for
      Thoracic Surgery, American Heart Association, American Society of
      Echocardiography, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society,
      Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society of
      Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic
      Resonance, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

PMID- 28870680
TI  - Correlation of MYC Gene and Protein Status With Breast Cancer Subtypes and
      Outcome of Patients Treated With Anthracycline-Based Adjuvant Chemotherapy.
      Pooled Analysis of 2 Hellenic Cooperative Group Phase III Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prognostic/predictive value of aberrant MYC gene copies and
      protein expression is not clear in breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Early
      breast cancer patients were treated with anthracycline-containing chemotherapy
      within 2 randomized adjuvant trials. MYC gene and centromere-8 status, as well as
      Myc protein expression were investigated on 1060 paraffin tumors with
      fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively.
      RESULTS: MYC amplification was present in 45% and polysomy-8 in 23% of the
      tumors. Cytoplasmic staining was observed in 60% and nuclear staining in 26% of
      the tumors, strongly correlating with each other but not with MYC gene status.
      MYC gene amplification in the absence of polysomy-8 was associated with adverse
      disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS), and remained as an
      independent unfavorable prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (Wald P = .022
      for DFS; P = .032 for OS), whereas patients with MYC amplification and polysomy
      8, with polysomy-8 only, and with normal MYC without polysomy-8 performed
      significantly better compared with those with MYC gene amplification only.
      Nuclear Myc protein expression benefitted patients treated with paclitaxel
      (interaction P = .052 for DFS; P = .049 for OS). This interaction remained
      independently significant in multivariate analysis for OS (overall P = .028).
      CONCLUSION: The effect of MYC gene status on breast cancer patient outcome seems
      to depend on the underlying chromosomal instability and appears unfavorable for
      tumors with MYC amplification without polysomy. Nuclear Myc protein expression
      seems predictive for benefit from adjuvant paclitaxel. These data might aid in
      the interpretation of relevant findings from large clinical trials.

PMID- 28870681
TI  - The association of venous thromboembolism chemoprophylaxis timing on venous
      thromboembolism after major vascular surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is reported to occur in up to 33% of
      patients undergoing major vascular surgery. Despite this high incidence, patients
      inconsistently receive timely VTE chemoprophylaxis. The true incidence of VTE
      among patients receiving delayed VTE chemoprophylaxis is unknown. We sought to
      identify the association of VTE chemoprophylaxis timing on VTE risk,
      postoperative transfusion rates, and 30-day mortality and morbidity in patients
      undergoing major open vascular surgery. METHODS: Patients undergoing major open
      vascular surgery (open abdominal aortic aneurysm [oAAA] repair, aortofemoral
      bypass, and lower extremity infrainguinal bypass [LEB]) were identified using the
      Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative (MSQC) between July 2012 and June 2015.
      The VTE rate was compared between patients receiving early versus delayed VTE
      chemoprophylaxis. VTE chemoprophylaxis delay was defined as therapy initiation
      more than 24 hours after surgery. The risk-adjusted association of the
      chemoprophylaxis timing and VTE development was determined using multivariable
      logistic regression. Blood transfusion rates, 30-day mortality, and postoperative
      complications were compared across groups. RESULTS: A total of 2421 patients
      underwent major open vascular surgery, including 196 oAAA repair, 259
      aortofemoral bypass, and 1966 LEB. The overall incidence of 30-day VTE was 1.40%,
      ranging from 1.12% for LEB to 3.57% for oAAA repair. Among patients receiving
      early VTE chemoprophylaxis, the rate of VTE was 0.78% versus 2.26% among those
      with a delay in VTE chemoprophylaxis (P = .002). When accounting for the
      preoperative risk of VTE, delayed chemoprophylaxis was associated with a
      significantly higher risk of VTE (odds ratio, 2.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.12
      5.06; P = .024). The early VTE chemoprophylaxis group was associated with a
      significantly decreased risk of bleeding compared with those with a delay (14.31%
      vs 18.90%; P = .002). Overall 30-day mortality and postoperative complications
      were similar with the exception of an associated higher rate of infectious
      complications in the delayed VTE chemoprophylaxis group, including superficial
      surgical site infection (6.00% vs 4.06%; P = .028), pneumonia (3.25% vs 1.85%; P
      = .028), urinary tract infection (2.95% vs 1.57%; P = .020), and severe sepsis
      (3.05% vs 1.71%; P = .029). CONCLUSIONS: Although patients undergoing major open
      vascular surgery have a low risk of VTE at baseline, there is a significantly
      greater risk of developing VTE among patients who have a delay in the
      administration of VTE chemoprophylaxis. Postoperative transfusion rates were
      significantly lower among patients receiving early chemoprophylaxis. There were
      no differences in the 30-day mortality and postoperative complications, except
      for infectious complications. Given these findings, surgeons should consider
      early chemoprophylaxis in the postoperative setting after major open vascular
      surgery without contraindication.

PMID- 28870683
TI  - Permethrin potentiates adipogenesis via intracellular calcium and endoplasmic
      reticulum stress-mediated mechanisms in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
AB  - Permethrin, a pyrethroid insecticide, was previously reported to promote
      adipogenesis in vitro and weight gain in vivo. The mechanism by which permethrin
      promotes adipogenesis/obesity, however, has not been fully explored.
      Intracellular calcium and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress have been reported to
      be linked with adipogenesis and obesity. Because pyrethroid insecticides have
      been determined to influence intracellular calcium and ER stress in vitro, the
      purpose of this current study was to investigate whether permethrin potentiates
      adipogenesis via a change in intracellular calcium, leading to endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER) stress in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. 3T3-L1 cells were exposed to four
      different concentrations of permethrin (0.01, 0.1, 1 & 10 MUM) for 6 days during
      differentiation. Treatment of permethrin increased intracellular calcium level in
      a concentration-dependent manner. Similarly, permethrin treatment increased
      protein levels of ER stress markers in a concentration-dependent manner. These
      data suggest that intracellular calcium and ER stress may be involved in
      permethrin-induced adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 cells.

PMID- 28870685
TI  - Evaluation of the safety of a genetically modified DAS-444O6-6 soybean meal and
      hulls in a 90-day dietary toxicity study in rats.
AB  - A 90-day sub chronic toxicity study was conducted in rats to evaluate the safety
      of genetically modified DAS-444O6-6 soybeans expressing herbicide tolerant
      proteins when compared with its conventional comparators (non-transgenic near
      isoline control soybean and three commercially available non-transgenic line
      control soybeans). Rats were given diets formulated with either 10% or 20% w/w of
      soybean meal and 1% or 2% hulls of DAS-444O6-6 soybean with an equivalent amount
      of hulls from an isoline non-transgenic control soybean for at least 90 days. In
      addition, three separate 20% w/w non-transgenic commercially available soybean
      varieties were also given to groups of rats to serve as reference controls.
      Animals were evaluated by cage-side and hand-held detailed clinical observations,
      ophthalmic examinations, body weights/body weight gains, feed consumption,
      hematology, prothrombin time, urinalysis, clinical chemistry, selected organ
      weights, and gross and histopathologic examinations. Under the conditions of this
      study, the genetically modified DAS-444O6-6 diets did not cause any treatment
      related effects in rats following 90 days of dietary administration as compared
      with rats fed diets with soybean of isoline control or commercial reference
      controls and are considered equivalent to the diets prepared from conventional
      comparators.

PMID- 28870682
TI  - Association of arterial calcification with chronic limb ischemia in patients with
      peripheral artery disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Arterial calcification is associated with an increased risk of limb
      events, including amputation. The association between calcification in lower
      extremity arteries and the severity of ischemia, however, has not been assessed.
      We thus sought to determine whether the extent of peripheral artery calcification
      (PAC) was correlated with Rutherford chronic ischemia categories and hypothesized
      that it could independently contribute to worsening limb status. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed all patients presenting with symptomatic peripheral
      artery disease who underwent evaluation by contrast and noncontrast computed
      tomography scan of the lower extremities as part of their assessment. Demographic
      and cardiovascular risk factors were recorded. Rutherford ischemia categories
      were determined based on history, physical examination, and noninvasive testing.
      PAC scores and the extent of occlusive disease were measured on noncontrast and
      contrast computed tomography scans, respectively. Spearman's correlation testing
      was used to assess the relationship between occlusive disease and calcification
      scores. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated
      with increasing Rutherford ischemia categories. RESULTS: There were 116 patients
      identified, including 75 with claudication and 41 with critical limb ischemia. In
      univariate regression, there was a significant association between increasing
      Rutherford ischemia category and age, diabetes duration, hypertension, the
      occlusion score, and PAC. There was a moderate correlation between the extent of
      occlusive disease and PAC scores (Spearman's R = 0.6). In multivariable analysis,
      only tobacco use (odds ratio [OR], 3.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-8.3),
      diabetes duration (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01-1.08), and the calcification score (OR,
      2.1; 95% CI, 1.4-3.2) maintained an association with increasing ischemia
      categories after adjusting for relevant cardiovascular risk factors and the
      extent of occlusive disease. CONCLUSIONS: PAC is independently associated with
      increased ischemia categories in patients with peripheral artery disease. Further
      research aimed at understanding the relationship between arterial calcification
      and worsening limb ischemia is warranted.

PMID- 28870684
TI  - Isoliquiritigenin pretreatment attenuates cisplatin induced proximal tubular
      cells (LLC-PK1) death and enhances the toxicity induced by this drug in bladder
      cancer T24 cell line.
AB  - Cisplatin is an effective antineoplastic agent widely used in the treatment of
      solid tumors, however, it induces nephrotoxicity. Cisplatin-induced
      nephrotoxicity is associated with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      production and decreased antioxidant system defense in kidney. Isoliquiritigenin
      (IsoLQ) is a chalcone, which is characterized by its antioxidant and
      antiinflammatory properties. Herein, we investigated the protective effect of
      IsoLQ on LLC-PK1 proximal tubular cells against cisplatin-induced death and its
      effect on the antineoplastic activity of cisplatin on bladder cancer T24 cell
      line. It was found that pretreatment with IsoLQ attenuates cisplatin-induced cell
      death, ROS production, and activation of caspase-3. IsoLQ also induced heme
      oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression that may be associated with nuclear factor
      (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) nuclear translocation. The protective effect
      of IsoLQ was abrogated by tin mesoporphyrin (SnMP), an HO inhibitor. Further,
      bilirubin and carbon monoxide releasing molecule-2 also showed a protective
      effect against cisplatin-induced cell death. In addition, IsoLQ induced in a dose
      dependent way, death of T24 cells and exacerbated cisplatin-induced cell death.
      These results suggest that IsoLQ has a protective effect on cisplatin-induced
      toxicity in LLC-PK1 cells, in part through induction of HO-1, without interfering
      with the antineoplastic activity of this agent in T24 cells.

PMID- 28870686
TI  - [Risk factors related to homicide in Moroccan patients with schizophrenia].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Persons with schizophrenia are thought to be at increased risk of
      committing violent crime - 4 to 6 times the level of general population
      individuals without this disorder. The relationship between schizophrenia and
      homicide is complex and cannot be reduced to a simple causal link. OBJECTIVES:
      The objectives of this study were to describe the characteristics of homicide in
      Moroccan patients suffering from schizophrenia and to determine the correlated
      sociodemographic, clinical and toxic variables. METHODS: The study included two
      groups of patients with a DSM IV diagnosis of schizophrenia who attended the "Ibn
      Nafis" university psychiatric hospital of Marrakech in Morocco. The first group
      was composed of 30 patients hospitalized for homicide in the forensic unit
      between 1 January 2005 and 31 August 2015. The second group included 90 patients
      without any criminal record. These two groups have been matched according to age
      and gender. Demographic, clinical and therapeutic variables were analyzed and
      compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Data analysis has objectified the
      following results: the mean of age in the first group was 37.03 (+/-9.09) and in
      the second group was 31.4 (+/-8.76). No significant differences were found
      between the two groups regarding the different sociodemographic variables and the
      age of onset of disease. Significant differences were found between the two
      groups regarding: personal antecedents of attempt of homicide (P=0.003), personal
      antecedents of attempt of suicide (P<0.001), a history of previous violence
      (P=0.005), untreated psychosis before the act (P<0.001), poor medication
      compliance and a low familial support (P<0.001), antisocial behavior (P<0.001)
      and addictive behavior (P=0.005). DISCUSSION: Several studies identified some
      possible predictor factors for violent behavior: poor compliance, lack of insight
      impulsivity and paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms, systematized delusions and
      addictive behavior seem to considerably increase the risk of turning to violence.
      Demographic variables as suggested by other studies are less valuable predictors
      of homicide in patients with schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: Awareness of these
      factors will allow us to provide improved prevention of violence within
      schizophrenic subjects. Interventions for reducing such behavior should focus on
      clinical variables and integrate an early diagnosis of the disease and an
      improvement of medication compliance.

PMID- 28870687
TI  - [ACT in the treatment of sexual addiction: About a clinical case].
AB  - While referring to the theoretical and practical model of R. Harris (2012), this
      article proposes the use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in the
      treatment of sexual addiction. While dependent behaviors begin and may be
      maintained by refusal of unpleasant emotional states (that is, addict individuals
      tend to fight or flee negative emotions by replacing eventually painful or
      otherwise unpleasant states by behaviors providing pleasure), the ACT framework
      appears as an ally in treatment of addictive behaviors, in that its goal is a fit
      between patients' behaviors and their values (instead avoidance of unpleasant
      states avoidance). Within a clinical case of a patient suffering from sexual
      addiction, we show that using ACT helps (i) to decrease the intensity of sexual
      addiction (as assessed through QMICA-Se in a pre-post design), (ii) to develop
      psychological flexibility (AAQ-II), and (iii) to decrease anxious and depressive
      symptoms of the patient (HADS). Moreover, the patient recognizes to feel himself
      in the here and now, and also to perform activities related to his own values.
      Acceptance of this limited form of sexuality now allows him to calmly consider
      the possibility of meeting a new person. ACT thus appears to provide clinical
      benefits in treatment of sexual addictions.

PMID- 28870688
TI  - [What do virtual reality tools bring to child and adolescent psychiatry?]
AB  - Virtual reality is a relatively new technology that enables individuals to
      immerse themselves in a virtual world. It offers several advantages including a
      more realistic, lifelike environment that may allow subjects to "forget" they are
      being assessed, allow a better participation and an increased generalization of
      learning. Moreover, the virtual reality system can provide multimodal stimuli,
      such as visual and auditory stimuli, and can also be used to evaluate the
      patient's multimodal integration and to aid rehabilitation of cognitive
      abilities. The use of virtual reality to treat various psychiatric disorders in
      adults (phobic anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating
      disorders, addictions...) and its efficacy is supported by numerous studies.
      Similar research for children and adolescents is lagging behind. This may be
      particularly beneficial to children who often show great interest and
      considerable success on computer, console or videogame tasks. This article will
      expose the main studies that have used virtual reality with children and
      adolescents suffering from psychiatric disorders. The use of virtual reality to
      treat anxiety disorders in adults is gaining popularity and its efficacy is
      supported by various studies. Most of the studies attest to the significant
      efficacy of the virtual reality exposure therapy (or in virtuo exposure). In
      children, studies have covered arachnophobia social anxiety and school refusal
      phobia. Despite the limited number of studies, results are very encouraging for
      treatment in anxiety disorders. Several studies have reported the clinical use of
      virtual reality technology for children and adolescents with autistic spectrum
      disorders (ASD). Extensive research has proven the efficiency of technologies as
      support tools for therapy. Researches are found to be focused on communication
      and on learning and social imitation skills. Virtual reality is also well
      accepted by subjects with ASD. The virtual environment offers the opportunity to
      administer controlled tasks such as the typical neuropsychological tools, but in
      an environment much more like a standard classroom. The virtual reality classroom
      offers several advantages compared to classical tools such as more realistic and
      lifelike environment but also records various measures in standardized
      conditions. Most of the studies using a virtual classroom have found that
      children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder make significantly fewer
      correct hits and more commission errors compared with controls. The virtual
      classroom has proven to be a good clinical tool for evaluation of attention in
      ADHD. For eating disorders, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program enhanced
      by a body image specific component using virtual reality techniques was shown to
      be more efficient than cognitive behavioural therapy alone. The body image
      specific component using virtual reality techniques boots efficiency and
      accelerates the CBT change process for eating disorders. Virtual reality is a
      relatively new technology and its application in child and adolescent psychiatry
      is recent. However, this technique is still in its infancy and much work is
      needed including controlled trials before it can be introduced in routine
      clinical use. Virtual reality interventions should also investigate how newly
      acquired skills are transferred to the real world. At present virtual reality can
      be considered a useful tool in evaluation and treatment for child and adolescent
      disorders.

PMID- 28870689
TI  - Tics and obsessive-compulsive disorder in relation to diet: Two case reports.

PMID- 28870690
TI  - Psychometric validation of the French version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience
      Scale.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Resilience defines the ability to face adversity with positive
      outcomes. Different scales, including the 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience
      Scale (CDRISC), have been elaborated in order to evaluate resilience among
      various populations. The evaluation of resilience in French populations was
      impossible until CDRISC was translated into French. In the present work, we aim
      to validate a French version of CDRISC (f-CDRISC). METHODS: The survey was
      conducted at Nantes University. Both dental and medical students were eligible.
      The factor structure of f-CDRISC was determined and its replicability was tested
      on two sub-samples by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and parallel analysis
      (PA). A third student sample was used for confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA).
      RESULTS: We collected 1210 responses. Four items did not reach acceptance
      thresholds for reliability and were discarded from the f-CDRISC. EFA and PA of
      the remaining 21 items highlighted a replicable 3-factor structure that was
      further confirmed by CFA. Resilience factors included "tolerance to negative
      affects", "tenacity" and "self-confidence". All factors displayed acceptable to
      good internal consistency. They were characterized by positive medium to strong
      correlations with the overall f-CDRISC Scale. Significant positive correlations
      were also observed between the resilience factors. CONCLUSION: The present work
      constitutes the first study devoted to a French adaptation of the CDRISC
      questionnaire. We present evidence showing that the f-CDRISC is a reliable tool
      for resilience evaluation in French speaking populations.

PMID- 28870691
TI  - [Burnout in Tunisian medical residents: About 149 cases].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Burnout is a professional psychological chronic stress-induced
      syndrome defined by three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization,
      and low personal accomplishment. This syndrome concerns all professions but
      especially healthcare staff. Numerous studies have attempted to document the
      impact of work activities on the doctor's mental health. According to the
      literature, junior doctors are more vulnerable to develop this syndrome. AIMS:
      Are to determine the prevalence of severe burnout among residents of different
      specialties: anesthesiology, general surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry,
      basic sciences. The secondary end points are to analyze risk factors, causes and
      consequences associated with burnout. METHODS: A cross-sectional study conducted
      among medical residents working in hospitals located in the governorates of
      Tunis. Three instruments were used: an anonymous self-administered questionnaire,
      Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to assess burnout, and Abstract Beck Depression
      Inventory to evaluate the intensity of depression. Severe burnout was defined as
      a severely high level of both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization
      associated with a severely low level of personal accomplishment. RESULTS: A total
      of 149 participants (response rate=76.8%) participated in the survey. Among
      participants, 17.14% (n=26) had a severe burnout. The emergency medicine
      residents had the highest rate of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and
      severe depression. Overall, resident respondents, 31% (n=46), had moderate to
      severe depression. Among stress factors, those significantly correlated to
      burnout were: lack of hobbies (P<0.001), bad job conditions (P=0.031), poor
      conditions of the workplace (P=0.046), relationship problems in workplace
      (P=0.01), work-family conflicts (P<0.001). The consequences of occupational
      stress associated with burnout were: Antecedents of specialty change (P=0.017)
      and desire for a specialty change (P<0.001). A significant correlation between
      depression and severe burnout was not found. CONCLUSION: Medical residents in all
      specialties are at risk of burnout. Nevertheless, this study revealed that some
      specialties are more exhausting, which is consistent with the results reported in
      the literature. Moreover, it is shown that several stress factors as well as many
      consequences are related to severe burnout, which is in agreement with numerous
      studies. However, results between different studies are disparate.

PMID- 28870692
TI  - Distinct Patterns of Acral Melanoma Based on Site and Relative Sun Exposure.
AB  - Acral melanoma is distinct from melanoma of other cutaneous sites, yet there is
      considerable variation within this category. To better define this variation, we
      assessed melanomas occurring on dorsal (n = 21), volar (n = 9), and
      subungual/interdigital (n = 13) acral skin as well as acral nevi (n = 24) for
      clinical, histologic, and molecular features. Melanomas on dorsal acral surfaces
      demonstrated clear differences compared with volar and subungual/interdigital
      melanomas. The latter two groups exhibited significantly less frequent BRAF
      mutations (P = 0.01), were significantly less likely to have the superficial
      spreading histologic subtype (P = 0.01), occurred in older patients (P = 0.05),
      and had more frequent involvement in non-Caucasians (P = 0.01). These differences
      can be explained by differing levels of UV exposure. Subungual/interdigital
      melanomas had the most diverse group of oncogenic mutations including PIK3CA
      (2/13), STK11 (2/13), EGFR (1/13), FGFR3 (1/13), and PTPN11 (1/13). In addition,
      subungual/interdigital melanomas had a significantly higher frequency of copy
      number aberrations (67%) than other subgroups (P = 0.02), particularly in CDK4
      and cyclin D1, and were less likely to have BRAF mutations or a superficial
      spreading histologic subtype (P = 0.05) compared with volar acral melanomas.
      Although based on a limited sample size, differences between volar and
      subungual/interdigital melanomas in our study may be the result of differing
      levels of UV exposure.

PMID- 28870694
TI  - Embryonic Fate Mapping Uncovers the Critical Role of microRNAs in the Development
      of Epidermal gammadelta T Cells.

PMID- 28870693
TI  - Therapeutic Targeting of TAZ and YAP by Dimethyl Fumarate in Systemic Sclerosis
      Fibrosis.
AB  - Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma, SSc) is a devastating fibrotic disease with few
      treatment options. Fumaric acid esters, including dimethyl fumarate (DMF,
      Tecfidera; Biogen, Cambridge, MA), have shown therapeutic effects in several
      disease models, prompting us to determine whether DMF is effective as a treatment
      for SSc dermal fibrosis. We found that DMF blocks the profibrotic effects of
      transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta) in SSc skin fibroblasts.
      Mechanistically, we found that DMF treatment reduced nuclear localization of
      transcriptional coactivator with PDZ binding motif (TAZ) and Yes-associated
      protein (YAP) proteins via inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 3
      kinase/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway. In addition, DMF abrogated TGFbeta/Akt1
      mediated inhibitory phosphorylation of glycogen kinase 3beta (GSK3beta) and a
      subsequent beta-transducin repeat-containing proteins (betaTRCP) mediated
      proteasomal degradation of TAZ, as well as a corresponding decrease of TAZ/YAP
      transcriptional targets. Depletion of TAZ/YAP recapitulated the antifibrotic
      effects of DMF. We also confirmed the increase of TAZ/YAP in skin biopsies from
      patients with diffuse SSc. We further showed that DMF significantly diminished
      nuclear TAZ/YAP localization in fibroblasts cultured on a stiff surface.
      Importantly, DMF prevented bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis in mice. Together, our
      work demonstrates a mechanism of the antifibrotic effect of DMF via inhibition of
      Akt1/GSK3beta/TAZ/YAP signaling and confirms a critical role of TAZ/YAP in
      mediating the profibrotic responses in dermal fibroblasts. This study supports
      the use of DMF as a treatment for SSc dermal fibrosis.

PMID- 28870695
TI  - Practical application of gene expression arrays in a clinical setting: The light
      at the end of a long tunnel.

PMID- 28870696
TI  - In vitro study of virulence potential of Acinetobacter baumannii outer membrane
      vesicles.
AB  - Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as an important opportunistic pathogen mostly
      causing nosocomial infections. The virulence factors of this important pathogen
      are largely unknown. Outer membrane vesicles (OMV) are naturally secreted by many
      gram negative and gram positive bacteria. These vesicles contain outer membrane
      proteins, lipids, periplasmic proteins, DNA and RNA. Their role in intracellular
      and intercellular signaling, transfer of virulence factors and eliciting immune
      response in host cells has been established in many pathogens. In this study, we
      investigated OMVs from three multi-drug resistant (MDR) clinical isolates and a
      non-MDR reference strain of A. baumannii for virulence potential. A. baumannii
      OMVs showed phospholipase C, hemolytic and leukotoxic activities. We found large
      variations in virulence potential between OMVs of MDR clinical isolates and non
      MDR reference strain. These effector molecules were concentrated in OMVs than
      whole cell bacterial culture and cell-free supernatant. OMV-mediated
      phospholipase, hemolytic and leucotoxic activities may have a key role in
      pathogenicity of A. baumannii infection and may be future targets for therapeutic
      and preventive strategies. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first
      report showing virulence potential of A. baumannii OMVs.

PMID- 28870697
TI  - A new pathogen, Myxobolus holzerae (Myxosporea: Myxozoa) causing severe gill
      disease in an Indian major carp Labeo rohita in a cold water wetland, Punjab
      (India).
AB  - The Indian major carp, Labeo rohita Hamilton, 1822 is a tropical freshwater
      cyprinid fish native to inland waters in Asia. Herein, we describe a novel
      myxozoan forming plasmodia in the gill lamellae of L. rohita from Ranjit Sagar
      Wetland in Punjab, India. Myxospores were consistent with the genus Myxobolus,
      round to elliptical in valvular view, lemon shaped in side view with a
      characteristic protrusion at the anterior end and a round posterior end; length
      7.65 +/- 0.07 MUm, width 4.62 +/- 0.09 MUm. There were two polar capsules of
      equal length, pear shaped, length of polar capsule 2.54 +/- 0.05 MUm, width 1.60
      +/- 0.02 MUm, with 5-6 turns of the polar filament. The 890 bp 18S rDNA sequence
      was up to 97% similar to M. catlae from other cyprinid fishes in India. In
      having, unique myxospore morphology and 18S rDNA sequence, we propose Myxobolus
      holzerae as new to science.

PMID- 28870698
TI  - Asbestos: insights from women.

PMID- 28870699
TI  - Enhancing recovery of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen in lab-scale and
      large-scale anion-exchange chromatography by optimizing the conductivity of
      buffers.
AB  - In biopharmaceutical science, ion-exchange chromatography (IEC) is a well-known
      purification technique to separate the impurities such as host cell proteins from
      recombinant proteins. However, IEC is one of the limiting steps in the
      purification process of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (rHBsAg), due to
      its low recovery rate (<50%). In the current study, we hypothesized that ionic
      strengths of IEC buffers are easy-to-control parameters which can play a major
      role in optimizing the process and increasing the recovery. Thus, we investigated
      the effects of ionic strengths of buffers on rHBsAg recovery via adjusting Tris
      HCl and NaCl concentrations. Increasing the conductivity of equilibration (Eq.),
      washing (Wash.) and elution (Elut.) buffers from their initial values of 1.6
      mS/cm, 1.6 mS/cm, and 7.0 mS/cm to 1.6 mS/cm, 7 mS/cm and 50 mS/cm, respectively
      yielded an average recovery rate of 82% in both lab-scale and large-scale weak
      anion-exchange chromatography without any harsh effect on the purity percentage
      of rHBsAg. The recovery enhancement via increasing the conductivity of Eq. and
      Wash. buffers can be explained by their roles in reducing the binding strength
      and aggregation of retained particles in the column. Moreover, further increase
      in the salt concentration of Elut. Buffer could substantially promote the ion
      exchange process and the elution of retained rHBsAg.

PMID- 28870700
TI  - Short inter-stimulus intervals can be used for olfactory electroencephalography
      in patients of varying olfactory function.
AB  - Use of chemosensory event-related potentials (ERPs) is limited by relatively poor
      signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). We hypothesized that by reducing the standard
      inter-stimulus interval (ISI), the increased number of trial repetitions possible
      may increase SNR. In order to further investigate this, we performed the largest
      study to date assessing chemosensory ERP using short and long ISIs in 101
      participants of varying olfactory function. Using rose odor (phenylethylalcohol,
      PEA) as a relatively selective olfactory stimulant, we found no significant
      difference in the proportion of individuals in whom ERPs were recorded using
      short or long ISIs. This was true in normosmic, hyposmic and functionally anosmic
      individuals. We also demonstrated significantly increased SNR using short PEA
      ISIs, in the normosmic and functionally anosmic groups. Comparing between groups
      of different olfactory function, hyposmic patients achieved faster onsets and
      greater amplitudes than normosmics under the PEA-10s protocol. This could be due
      to increased stimulus attendance, but requires confirmation with further
      research.

PMID- 28870702
TI  - Automatic Frequency-Shift Detection in the Auditory System: A Review of
      Psychophysical Findings.
AB  - The human brain has the task of binding successive sounds produced by the same
      acoustic source into a coherent perceptual stream, and binding must be selective
      when several sources are concurrently active. Binding appears to obey a principle
      of spectral proximity: pure tones close in frequency are more likely to be bound
      than pure tones with remote frequencies. It has been hypothesized that the
      binding process is realized by automatic "frequency-shift detectors" (FSDs),
      comparable to the detectors of spatial motion in the visual system. In 2005, this
      hypothesis was supported by a psychophysical study showing that human listeners
      are able to identify the direction of a frequency shift between two successive
      pure tones while the first of these tones is not audible individually due to
      informational masking by other tones presented synchronously. A number of
      variants of this study have been performed since 2005, in order to confirm the
      existence of FSDs, to characterize their properties, and to clarify as far as
      possible their neural underpinnings. The results obtained up to now suggest that
      the working of the FSDs exploits an implicit sensory memory which is powerful
      with respect to both capacity and retention time. Tones within chords can be
      perceptually enhanced by small frequency shifts, in a manner suggesting that the
      FSDs can serve in auditory scene analysis not only as binding tools but also, to
      a limited extent, as segregation tools.

PMID- 28870701
TI  - Hyper-oligodendrogenesis at the vascular niche and reduced blood-brain barrier
      integrity in the prefrontal cortex during protracted abstinence.
AB  - Alcoholism is a relapsing disorder with limited treatment options, in part due to
      our limited understanding of the disease etiology. We have recently shown that
      increased ethanol-seeking in a behavioral model of relapse in a rat model of
      alcoholism was associated with increased oligodendrogenesis which was positively
      correlated with platelet/endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM-1) expression
      in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The current study investigated whether
      newly born oligodendrocytes form close physical associations with endothelial
      cells expressing PECAM-1 and whether these changes were accompanied by altered
      blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity. Colableling and confocal analysis
      demonstrate that newly born oligodendroglia were always located in close physical
      proximity to PECAM-1 in the mPFC of rats that were ethanol dependent and
      demonstrated high propensity for relapse. Notably, the endothelial proximity of
      new oligodendrocytes was associated with reduced expression of endothelial
      barrier antigen (SMI-71), a marker for BBB integrity. Furthermore, voluntary
      wheel running during abstinence enhanced SMI-71 expression in endothelial cells,
      indicating protection against abstinence-induced reduction in BBB integrity.
      Taken together, these results suggest that ethanol experience and abstinence
      disrupts homeostasis in the oligo-vascular niche in the mPFC. Reversing these
      mechanisms may hold the key to reducing propensity for relapse in individuals
      with moderate to severe alcohol use disorder.

PMID- 28870703
TI  - A novel mutation at ANTXR1 in an Indian patient with growth retardation-alopecia
      pseudoanodontia-optic atrophy syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Growth retardation-alopecia-pseudoanodontia-optic atrophy (GAPO)
      syndrome (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man [OMIM] ID 230740) is one of the
      rarest autosomal recessive syndromes. It is characterized by many phenotypes,
      including wide anterior fontanel, frontal bossing of the face, depressed nasal
      bridge, along with the 4 classic phenotypes contained in the name of the
      syndrome. Recent reports identified nonsense, missense, and splicing mutations at
      different exons of ANTXR1 responsible for GAPO syndrome in patients from
      different ethnic populations. Here, we are reporting a mutation at ANTXR1 in an
      Indian patient with GAPO syndrome. STUDY DESIGN: We describe an inherited
      mutation at ANTXR1 in a 6-year-old Indian boy with GAPO syndrome. RESULTS:
      Genomic DNA from the patient with the GAPO syndrome and his family members were
      screened for previously reported mutations at ANTXR1 by sequencing. Novel
      homozygous and heterozygous mutations in exon-3 of ANTXR1 (c.265 G > A, p.Gly89
      Arg) were identified in the patient and in other members of the family,
      respectively. However, no mutated allele was identified in genomic DNA from
      unrelated healthy individuals. Bioinformatic analysis by different tools
      predicted the deleterious, damaging, or aberrant splicing effect of mutation on
      the protein. CONCLUSIONS: Functional inefficiency of ANTXR1 as a result of
      mutation might have led to GAPO syndrome.

PMID- 28870704
TI  - The intricate connection between diet, microbiota, and cancer: A jigsaw puzzle.
AB  - The microbial community has a decisive role in determining our health and disease
      susceptibility. Presumably, this is closely associated with the complex community
      network of bacteria, fungi, archaea and viruses that reside our guts. This
      dynamic ecosystem exists in a symbiotic relationship with its host and plays a
      fundamental role in the hosts' physiological functions. The microbial community
      is highly personalized and therefore exhibits a high degree of inter-individual
      variability, which is dependent on host specifics such as genetic background,
      physiology and lifestyle. Although the gut microbiota is shaped early on during
      birth, there are several factors that affect the composition of microbiota during
      childhood and adulthood. Among them diet appears to be a consistent and prominent
      one. The metabolic activity of bacteria affects food digestion, absorption,
      energy production, and immunity. Thus, definition of the microbiota composition
      and functional profiles in response to a particular diet may lead to critical
      information on the direct and indirect role/use of the bacterial community during
      health and disease. In this review, I discuss gut microbiota and its potential
      link to cancer with specific emphasis on metabolism and diet.

PMID- 28870705
TI  - V. Aboyans et al. in response to the article by M. Helfre et al.: Usefulness of a
      systematic screening of carotid atherosclerosis in asymptomatic people with type
      2 diabetes for cardiovascular risk reclassification. Ann Endocrinol (Paris).
      2017;78:14-19.

PMID- 28870706
TI  - Bariatric surgery in adolescents with severe obesity: Review and state of the art
      in France.
AB  - Severe obesity (body mass index>120% of BMI IOTF-30 cut off) and morbid obesity
      (BMI>140% of BMI IOTF-30 cut off) affect 5 to 10% of obese adolescents in France.
      Organic complications can be found in about 50% of these patients, and depressive
      symptoms in one-third of them. Finally, over 70% will suffer from adult morbid
      obesity associated with a marked increase in morbidity and mortality. However,
      the reversion of obesity strongly decreases, and may even cancels, these risks.
      In controlled randomized studies, lifestyle interventions have limited
      effectiveness on BMI in children (and none in adolescents). Bariatric surgery has
      been shown to have short-term effectiveness in adolescents with severe and morbid
      obesity: the average BMI loss after gastric banding was 11.6kg/m2 (95% confidence
      interval from 9.8 to 13.4), 16.6kg/m2 (95% confidence interval from 13.4 to 19.8)
      after bypass, and 14.1kg/m2 (95% confidence interval 10.8 to 17.5) after sleeve
      gastrectomy. The resolution of comorbidities was the main aim, as well as the
      improvement of quality of life. This is not a simple surgical intervention, and
      minor side effects have been reported in approximately 10-15% of teenagers who
      underwent surgery (more common with the gastric band), and severe side effects in
      nearly 1-5% (mainly with bypass). In France, recommendations regarding
      indications, the care pathway, multidisciplinary meetings, reference management
      structures and postoperative care have been published by the French National
      Health Authority (HAS) in 2016 to provide a framework for bariatric surgery in
      underage patients.

PMID- 28870707
TI  - Interventions to improve beta-cell mass and function.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become an epidemiologically important disease
      worldwide and is also becoming a great matter of concern due to the effects
      associated with it like: high morbidity, elevated health care cost and shortened
      life span. T2DM is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by insulin
      resistance as well as beta-cell dysfunction. It is widely accepted that in the
      face of insulin resistance, euglycemia can be maintained by increase in
      pancreatic beta-cell mass and insulin secretion. This compensation is largely due
      to enhanced secretion of insulin by the beta-cell mass, which is present
      initially, and thereby subsequent increases in beta-cell mass provide additional
      insulin secretion. However, the mechanism by which beta-cell anatomical
      plasticity and functional plasticity for insulin secretion is coordinated and
      executed in different physiological and pathophysiological states is complex and
      has been poorly understood. As the incidence of T2DM continues to increase at an
      alarming rate, it is becoming imperative to shift the research focus towards the
      beta-cell physiology where identification of novel pathways that influence the
      beta-cell proliferation and/or contribute to increase insulin secretion has the
      potential to lead to new therapies for preventing or delaying onset of disease.

PMID- 28870708
TI  - Carbimazole embryopathy.

PMID- 28870709
TI  - Pheochromocytoma during pregnancy: Case report and review of recent literature.

PMID- 28870710
TI  - Communication Skills Training in Ophthalmology: Results of a Needs Assessment and
      Pilot Training Program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct a needs assessment to identify gaps in communication skills
      training in ophthalmology residency programs and to use these results to pilot a
      communication workshop that prepares residents for difficult conversations.
      DESIGN: A mixed-methods design was used to perform the needs assessment. A pre
      and postsurvey was administered to workshop participants. SETTING: Mass Eye and
      Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Department of Ophthalmology.
      PARTICIPANTS: HMS ophthalmology residents from postgraduate years 2-4
      participated in the needs assessment and the workshop. Ophthalmology residency
      program directors in the United States participated in national needs assessment.
      METHODS: Ophthalmology program directors across the United States were queried on
      their perception of resident communication skills training through an online
      survey. A targeted needs assessment in the form of a narrative exercise captured
      resident perspectives on communication in ophthalmology from HMS residents. A
      group of HMS residents participated in the pilot workshop and a pre- and
      postsurvey was administered to participants to assess its effectiveness. RESULTS:
      The survey of program directors yielded a response rate of 40%. Ninety percent of
      respondents agreed that the communication skills training in their programs could
      be improved. Fifteen of 24 residents (62%) completed the needs assessment.
      Qualitative analysis of the narrative material revealed four themes; (1)
      differing expectations, (2) work role and environment, (3) challenges specific to
      ophthalmology, and (4) successful strategies adopted. Nine residents participated
      in the workshop. There was a significant improvement post-workshop in resident
      reported scores on their ability to manage their emotions during difficult
      conversations (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: There is an opportunity to improve
      communication skills training in ophthalmology residency through formalized
      curriculum.

PMID- 28870711
TI  - The Economics of Academic Advancement Within Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The success of an academic surgeon's career is often viewed as
      directly related to academic appointment; therefore, the sequence of promotion is
      a demanding, rigorous process. This paper seeks to define the financial
      implication of academic advancement across different surgical subspecialties.
      STUDY DESIGN: Data was collected from the Association of American Medical
      College's 2015 report of average annual salaries. Assumptions included 30 years
      of practice, 5 years as assistant professor, and 10 years as associate professor
      before advancement. The base formula used was: (average annual salary) * (years
      of practice [30 years - fellowship/research years]) + ($50,000 * years of
      fellowship/research) = total adjusted lifetime salary income. RESULTS: There was
      a significant increase in lifetime salary income with advancement from assistant
      to associate professor in all subspecialties when compared to an increase from
      associate to full professor. The greatest increase in income from assistant to
      associate professor was seen in transplant and cardiothoracic surgery (35% and
      27%, respectively). Trauma surgery and surgical oncology had the smallest
      increases of 8% and 9%, respectively. With advancement to full professor, the
      increase in lifetime salary income was significantly less across all
      subspecialties, ranging from 1% in plastic surgery to 8% in pediatric surgery.
      CONCLUSION: When analyzing the economics of career advancement in academic
      surgery, there is a substantial financial benefit in lifetime income to becoming
      an associate professor in all fields; whereas, advancement to full professor is
      associated with a drastically reduced economic benefit.

PMID- 28870712
TI  - The Role of Simulation in Boosting the Learning Curve in EVAR Procedures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Simulation may be a useful tool for training in endovascular
      procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of endovascular
      repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (EVAR) simulation in boosting trainees'
      learning curve. DESIGN: Ten vascular surgery residents were recruited and divided
      in 2 groups (Trainee Group and Control group). At a first session (t0), each
      resident performed 2 simulated EVAR procedures using an endovascular simulator.
      After 2 weeks, each participant simulated other 2 EVAR procedures in a final
      session (t1). In the period between t0 and t1, each resident in the Trainee Group
      performed 6 simulated EVAR procedures, whereas the Control Group did not perform
      any other simulation. Both quantitative and qualitative performance evaluations
      were performed at t0 and t1. Quantitative evaluation from simulator metrics
      included total procedural time (TP), total fluoroscopy time (TF), time for
      contralateral gate cannulation (TG), and contrast medium volume (CM) injected.
      Qualitative evaluation was based on a Likert scale used to calculate a total
      performance score referred to skills involving major EVAR procedural steps.
      RESULTS: All residents in the Trainee Group significantly reduced TP (48 +/- 12
      vs 32 +/- 8 minutes, t0 vs t1, p < 0.05), TF (18 +/- 7 vs 11 +/- 6 minutes, p <
      0.05), and CM used over time (121 +/- 37 vs 85 +/- 26ml, p < 0.05), but not TG (5
      +/- 5 vs 3 +/- 4 minutes, p = 0.284). In the Control Group metrics did not change
      significantly in any field (TP = 55 +/- 11 vs 46 +/- 10 minutes; TF = 25 +/- 9 vs
      21 +/- 4 minutes; CM = 132 +/- 51 vs 102 +/- 42ml; TG = 6 +/- 4 vs 8 +/- 5
      minutes, all p > 0.05). The average Trainee Group qualitative total performance
      score improved significantly (p < 0.05) after rehearsal sessions when compared
      with the Control Group. CONCLUSION: Simulation is an effective method to improve
      competence of vascular surgery residents with EVAR procedures.

PMID- 28870714
TI  - The dangers of unregulated stem-cell marketing.

PMID- 28870713
TI  - Dietary pomegranate extract and inulin affect gut microbiome differentially in
      mice fed an obesogenic diet.
AB  - Growing evidence suggests that dysbiosis of gut microbiota is associated with
      pathogenesis of a variety of human diseases. Using dietary intervention to shape
      the composition and metabolism of the gut microbiota is increasingly recognized.
      In the present study, we investigated the effects of polysaccharide inulin and
      polyphenol-rich pomegranate extract (PomX) alone or in combination on the cecal
      microbiota composition and function in a diet induced obesity mouse model. Male
      C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four experimental groups and consumed
      either high-fat/high-sucrose [HF/HS (32% energy from fat, 25% energy from
      sucrose, 17% energy from protein)] diet, HF/HS diet supplemented with PomX
      (0.25%), or inulin (9%) or PomX and inulin in combination for 4 weeks. In mice
      fed the PomX-diet the proportion of Turicibacteraceae and Ruminococcaceae was
      significantly increased compared to the control HF/HS diet. Supplementation with
      inulin alone and inulin + PomX combination significantly increased the proportion
      of Verrucomicrobiaceae (A. muciniphila) and decreased Clostridiaceae. Only mice
      fed the inulin diet experienced an increase in serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and
      monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), which was reversed when feeding the
      inulin + PomX diet. Feeding the inulin + PomX diet was associated with a
      significant increase in Bifidobacteriaceae and Rikenellaceae, which may have
      contributed to the reduction of endotoxemia markers. Inulin supplementation
      showed lower species richness of gut microbiota compared to mice fed with HF/HS
      or HF/HS/PomX, and the reduction was reversed by the addition of PomX. Inulin
      alone and in combination with PomX had distinct microbial clusters determined by
      both weighted and unweighted UniFrac Beta-Diversity principle coordinate
      analysis. A total of 19 KEGG biological pathways were significantly regulated in
      the gut microbiota with PomX and inulin alone or combined treatment. Inulin
      significantly enhanced KEGG infectious disease-related pathway associated with
      increase of serum LPS and MCP-1. No changes in gene expression of ileal
      proinflammatory cytokine and tight junction genes were observed in mice treated
      with PomX and inulin. Our results demonstrated that the gut microbiota and their
      biological pathways were differentially effected by dietary PomX and inulin fed
      combined or alone. It is therefore very important to consider the interaction
      among bioactive components of food when evaluating potential prebiotic effects.

PMID- 28870715
TI  - Stretching the carotid sinus to treat resistant hypertension.

PMID- 28870717
TI  - Alleged acoustic attack on US diplomats puzzling experts.

PMID- 28870716
TI  - Endovascular baroreflex amplification for resistant hypertension: a safety and
      proof-of-principle clinical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Carotid baroreflex activation lowers blood pressure and might have
      potential application for the treatment of resistant hypertension. We did a proof
      of-principle trial with a novel endovascular baroreceptor amplification device,
      MobiusHD (Vascular Dynamics, Mountain View, CA, USA), in patients with resistant
      hypertension. METHODS: CALM-FIM_EUR was a prospective, first-in-human, open-label
      study done at six European centres. Eligible patients were adults with resistant
      hypertension (office systolic blood pressure >=160 mm Hg despite taking at least
      three antihypertensive agents, including a diuretic). MobiusHD devices were
      implanted unilaterally in the internal carotid artery. The primary endpoint was
      the incidence of serious adverse events at 6 months. Secondary endpoints included
      changes in office and 24 h ambulatory blood pressure. This trial is registered
      with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01911897. FINDINGS: Between December, 2013,
      and February, 2016, 30 patients were enrolled and underwent successful
      implantation. Mean age was 52 years (SD 12), 15 patients (50%) were men, and mean
      antihypertensive use was 4.4 drugs (1.4). Mean office blood pressure was 184/109
      mm Hg (18/14) at baseline and was reduced by 24/12 mm Hg (13-34/6-18) at 6 months
      (p=0.0003 for systolic and p=0.0001 diastolic blood pressure). Mean baseline 24 h
      ambulatory blood pressure was 166/100 mm Hg (17/14) at baseline and was reduced
      by 21/12 mm Hg (14-29/7-16) at 6 months (p<0.0001 for systolic and diastolic
      blood pressure). Five serious adverse events had occurred in four patients (13%)
      at 6 months: hypotension (n=2), worsening hypertension (n=1), intermittent
      claudication (n=1) and wound infection (n=1). INTERPRETATION: In patients with
      resistant hypertension, endovascular baroreceptor amplification with the MobiusHD
      device substantially lowered blood pressure with an acceptable safety profile.
      Randomised, double-blind, sham-controlled trials are warranted to investigate the
      use of this treatment further. FUNDING: Vascular Dynamics.

PMID- 28870718
TI  - Four-year experience of providing mobile extracorporeal life support to out-of
      center patients within a suprainstitutional network-Outcome of 160 consecutively
      treated patients.
AB  - AIM: Mobile extracorporeal life support (ECLS) may soon be on the verge to become
      a fundamental part of emergency medicine. Here, we report on our four-year
      experience of providing advanced mechanical circulatory support for out-of-center
      patients within the Dusseldorf ECLS Network (DELSN). METHODS: This retrospective
      cohort study analyses the outcome of 160 patients with refractory circulatory
      failure consecutively treated with mobile veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation (vaECMO) between July 2011 and October 2015 within the DELSN.
      RESULTS: Out of the 160 patients (56+/-16years, vaECMO initiation under CPR 68%),
      59 patients (36%) survived to primary discharge, with 50 patients (31%) still
      alive after a median follow-up of 1.74 years. Time-discrete mortality was highest
      during the first 24h. There was no difference between survivors and non-survivors
      regarding age, etiology of circulatory failure, presence of CPR during
      implantation or distance to implantation site. Incidence of kidney injury
      requiring dialysis (61% vs. 24%, p<0.0001), shock liver (27% vs. 12%, p=0.031)
      and visceral ischemia (19% vs. 3%, p=0.013) were the only complications increased
      in non-survivors. Subgroup analysis showed no significant outcome difference for
      ECPR vs. non-ECPR patients. Outcome was significantly impaired with initial
      neuron-specific enolase >=45.4MUg/L (AUC 0.75, p<0.0001) and lactate >=5.5mmol/L
      (AUC 0.70, p<0.0001). Program-year-dependent in-center mortality showed an
      increasing trend, while program-year-dependent follow-up mortality decreased over
      time. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates that regional mobile ECLS rescue
      therapy can be provided with encouraging outcomes, although patient selection
      criteria and early outcome parameters reflecting on therapy success or futility
      still need to be refined.

PMID- 28870719
TI  - Increased survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest when off duty medically
      educated personnel perform CPR compared with laymen.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been proved to save
      lives; however, whether survival is affected by the training level of the
      bystander is not fully described. AIM: To describe if the training level of
      laymen and medically educated bystanders affect 30-day survival in out-of
      hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA). METHODS: This observational study included all
      witnessed and treated cases of bystander CPR reported to the Swedish Registry of
      Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation between 2010 and 2014. Bystander CPR was divided
      into two categories: (a) lay-byCPR (non-medically educated) and (b) med-byCPR
      (off duty medically educated personnel). RESULTS: During 2010-2014, 24,643
      patients were reported to the OHCA registry, of which 6850 received lay-byCPR and
      1444 med-byCPR; 16,349 crew-witnessed and non-witnessed cases and those with
      missing information were excluded from the analysis. The median interval from
      collapse to call for emergency medical services was 2min in both groups (p=0.97)
      and 2min from collapse to start of CPR for lay-byCPR versus 1min for med-byCPR
      (p<0.0001). There were no significant differences in CPR methods used; 64.3% (lay
      byCPR) and 65.7% (med-byCPR) applied compressions and ventilation, respectively
      (p=0.33). The 30-day survival was 14.7% for lay-byCPR and 17.2% for the med-byCPR
      group (p=0.02). The odds ratio adjusted for potential confounders regarding
      survival (med-byCPR versus lay-byCPR) was 1.34 (95% confidence interval, 1.11
      1.62; p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: In cases of OHCA, medically educated bystanders
      initiated CPR earlier and an increased 30-day survival was found compared with
      laymen bystanders. These results support the need to improve the education
      programme for laypeople.

PMID- 28870721
TI  - Factors Associated with Severity of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptoms in Patients
      with Endometriosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study sought to examine factors associated with severity of
      irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by using the Birmingham IBS symptom scale in
      patients presenting with endometriosis to a tertiary referral centre. METHODS: A
      prospective research cohort of patients presenting to a tertiary referral centre
      for endometriosis was evaluated for the presence and severity of IBS between
      December 2013 and April 2015. Patients with endometriosis had a diagnosis of IBS
      by using the Rome III criteria and were evaluated for severity of IBS symptoms by
      using the Birmingham IBS symptom scale. Multifactorial variables, including stage
      of endometriosis at the time of previous surgery, clinical examination findings,
      mood disorder questionnaire scores, and lifestyle factors, were evaluated using
      the t test and Spearman rank correlation test. RESULTS: A total of 194 of 373
      (52%) women with confirmed endometriosis had a diagnosis of IBS. Factors
      associated with severity of IBS symptoms in patients with endometriosis included
      lower-stage endometriosis (P = 0.004), presence of mood disorders (P <0.001),
      tenderness on physical examination (P <= 0.001), a history of sexual assault (P
      <= 0.02), and presence of sleep disturbance (P <= 0.01). Evaluation of the
      subscales of the Birmingham IBS symptom scale revealed a strong association
      between the previously identified factors and the pain subscale. CONCLUSION:
      Using the Birmingham IBS symptom scale, our study revealed more severe IBS
      symptoms in patients with lower-stage endometriosis and identified other
      variables highly associated with severity of IBS. Continued research is required
      to characterize further the clinical importance of IBS symptoms in patients with
      endometriosis-associated pelvic pain.

PMID- 28870722
TI  - Umbilical Cord Strangulation by Amniotic Bands.

PMID- 28870720
TI  - Post-resuscitation arterial oxygen and carbon dioxide and outcomes after out-of
      hospital cardiac arrest.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if arterial oxygen and carbon dioxide abnormalities in
      the first 24h after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) are associated with
      increased mortality in adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). METHODS: We
      used data from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC), including adult OHCA
      with sustained ROSC >=1h after Emergency Department arrival and at least one
      arterial blood gas (ABG) measurement. Among ABGs measured during the first 24h of
      hospitalization, we identified the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2>=300mmHg),
      hypoxemia (PaO2<60mmHg), hypercarbia (PaCO2>50mmHg) and hypocarbia
      (PaCO2<30mmHg). We evaluated the associations between oxygen and carbon dioxide
      abnormalities and hospital mortality, adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: Among
      9186 OHCA included in the analysis, hospital mortality was 67.3%. Hyperoxemia,
      hypoxemia, hypercarbia, and hypocarbia occurred in 26.5%, 19.0%, 51.0% and 30.6%,
      respectively. Initial hyperoxemia only was not associated with hospital mortality
      (adjusted OR 1.10; 95% CI: 0.97-1.26). However, final and any hyperoxemia (1.25;
      1.11-1.41) were associated with increased hospital mortality. Initial (1.58; 1.30
      1.92), final (3.06; 2.42-3.86) and any (1.76; 1.54-2.02) hypoxemia (PaO2<60mmHg)
      were associated with increased hospital mortality. Initial (1.89; 1.70-2.10);
      final (2.57; 2.18-3.04) and any (1.85; 1.67-2.05) hypercarbia (PaCO2>50mmHg) were
      associated with increased hospital mortality. Initial (1.13; 0.90-1.41), final
      (1.19; 1.04-1.37) and any (1.01; 0.91-1.12) hypocarbia (PaCO2<30mmHg) were not
      associated with hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: In the first 24h after ROSC,
      abnormal post-arrest oxygen and carbon dioxide tensions are associated with
      increased out of-hospital cardiac arrest mortality.

PMID- 28870723
TI  - Managing Malnourishment in Pregnancy after Bariatric Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little information exists to guide monitoring and treatment of
      malnourishment during pregnancy after bariatric surgery. Here we present a case
      with severe deficiencies and recommendations for testing and treatment. CASE: Our
      patient underwent a duodenal switch procedure resulting in significant weight
      loss and numerous deficiencies. She then experienced a neonatal demise with
      multiple congenital abnormalities, including diaphragmatic hernia, possibly
      related to severe vitamin A deficiency. After high doses of oral and parenteral
      replacement, pancreatic enzymes, and total parenteral nutrition, she delivered an
      anatomically normal but growth-restricted neonate in a subsequent pregnancy.
      CONCLUSION: Bariatric procedures may result in nutritional deficiencies that
      affect pregnancy outcome. Women with severe deficiencies require pre-pregnancy
      counselling, monitoring, aggressive treatment, and a multidisciplinary approach
      to care.

PMID- 28870724
TI  - Tubal Sterilization in Women Under 30: Case Series and Ethical Implications.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: According to the SOGC Contraception Consensus, it is recommended that
      permanent contraception be offered to women regardless of age or parity. Many
      women who desire sterilization at a young age experience barriers from physicians
      who decline to facilitate the request. METHODS: As part of a quality assurance
      project, we performed a review of cases where tubal sterilization was performed
      in women under 30 over a 42-month period (September 2013-March 2017). We also
      performed a literature review on the ethical and clinical considerations with
      respect to young women requesting permanent contraception. RESULTS: We identified
      29 women under 30 who had consented for tubal sterilization; 27.5% of women were
      nulliparous, and 27.5% had a medical condition for which unintended pregnancy is
      associated with an increased risk of adverse event. As documented in the
      patients' records, many women expressed prior difficulty in obtaining the
      procedure. Despite being informed of the risk of regret, most women proceed with
      the surgical procedure. Three additional women had consented and subsequently
      cancelled their surgical procedure. CONCLUSION: Women who are well-informed and
      desire permanent contraception should be offered the procedure, regardless of age
      or parity. Declining such requests is a form of conscientious refusal and is not
      a clinical decision.

PMID- 28870725
TI  - Strangulation du cordon ombilical par des brides amniotiques.

PMID- 28870726
TI  - Analysis of the prophages carried by human infecting isolates provides new
      insight into the evolution of Group B Streptococcus species.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Group B Streptococcus (GBS) emerged in the 1970s as a major cause of
      neonatal infections, and has been increasingly associated with infections in
      adults since the 1990s. Prophages have been suspected to have driven these
      epidemiological trends. We have characterized the prophages harboured by 275
      human GBS isolates belonging to the major lineages. METHODS: We applied whole
      genome sequencing (WGS) to 14 isolates representative of the diversity within GBS
      species, located and identified their prophages. Using prediction tools, we
      searched for prophage elements potentially involved with the ability of GBS to
      infect humans. Using the data obtained by WGS, we designed a PCR-based tool and
      studied the prophage content of 275 isolates. RESULTS: WGS of the 14 isolates
      revealed 22 prophages (i) distributed into six groups (A-F), (ii) similar to
      phages and prophages from GBS and non-GBS streptococci recovered from livestock,
      and (iii) carrying genes encoding factors previously associated with host
      adaptation and virulence. PCR-based detection of prophages revealed the presence
      of at least one prophage in 72.4% of the 275 isolates and a significant
      association between neonatal infecting isolates and prophages C, and between
      adult infecting isolates and prophages A. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that
      prophages (possibly animal-associated) have conditioned bacterial adaptation and
      ability to cause infections in neonates and adults, and support a role of
      lysogeny with the emergence of GBS as a pathogen in human.

PMID- 28870727
TI  - Selective digestive and oropharyngeal decontamination in medical and surgical ICU
      patients: individual patient data meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Selective digestive decontamination (SDD) and selective oropharyngeal
      decontamination (SOD) improved intensive care unit (ICU), hospital and 28-day
      survival in ICUs with low levels of antibiotic resistance. Yet it is unclear
      whether the effect differs between medical and surgical ICU patients. METHODS: In
      an individual patient data meta-analysis, we systematically searched PubMed and
      included all randomized controlled studies published since 2000. We performed a
      two-stage meta-analysis with separate logistic regression models per study and
      per outcome (hospital survival and ICU survival) and subsequent pooling of main
      and interaction effects. RESULTS: Six studies, all performed in countries with
      low levels of antibiotic resistance, yielded 16 528 hospital admissions and 17
      884 ICU admissions for complete case analysis. Compared to standard care or
      placebo, the pooled adjusted odds ratios for hospital mortality was 0.82 (95%
      confidence interval (CI) 0.72-0.93) for SDD and 0.84 (95% CI 0.73-0.97) for SOD.
      Compared to SOD, the adjusted odds ratio for hospital mortality was 0.90 (95% CI
      0.82-0.97) for SDD. The effects on hospital mortality were not modified by type
      of ICU admission (p values for interaction terms were 0.66 for SDD and control,
      0.87 for SOD and control and 0.47 for SDD and SOD). Similar results were found
      for ICU mortality. CONCLUSIONS: In ICUs with low levels of antibiotic resistance,
      the effectiveness of SDD and SOD was not modified by type of ICU admission. SDD
      and SOD improved hospital and ICU survival compared to standard care in both
      patient populations, with SDD being more effective than SOD.

PMID- 28870728
TI  - Clinical use of fungal PCR from deep tissue samples in the diagnosis of invasive
      fungal diseases: a retrospective observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the clinical use of panfungal PCR for diagnosis of invasive
      fungal diseases (IFDs). We focused on the deep tissue samples. METHODS: We first
      described the design of panfungal PCR, which is in clinical use at Helsinki
      University Hospital. Next we retrospectively evaluated the results of 307 fungal
      PCR tests performed from 2013 to 2015. Samples were taken from normally sterile
      tissues and fluids. The patient population was nonselected. We classified the
      likelihood of IFD according to the criteria of the European Organization for
      Research and Treatment of Cancer/Invasive Fungal Infections Cooperative Group and
      the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Mycoses Study Group
      (EORTC/MSG), comparing the fungal PCR results to the likelihood of IFD along with
      culture and microscopy results. RESULTS: There were 48 positive (16%) and 259
      negative (84%) PCR results. The sensitivity and specificity of PCR for diagnosing
      IFDs were 60.5% and 91.7%, respectively, while the negative predictive value and
      positive predictive value were 93.4% and 54.2%, respectively. The concordance
      between the PCR and the culture results was 86% and 87% between PCR and
      microscopy, respectively. Of the 48 patients with positive PCR results, 23 had a
      proven or probable IFD. CONCLUSIONS: Fungal PCR can be useful for diagnosing IFDs
      in deep tissue samples. It is beneficial to combine fungal PCR with culture and
      microscopy.

PMID- 28870730
TI  - Comparing a single-day swabbing regimen with an established 3-day protocol for
      MRSA decolonization control.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Success of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
      decolonization procedures is usually verified by control swabs of the colonized
      body region. This prospective controlled study compared a single-day regimen with
      a well-established 3-day scheme for noninferiority and adherence to the testing
      scheme. METHODS: Two sampling schemes for screening MRSA patients of a single
      study cohort at a German tertiary-care hospital 2 days after decolonization were
      compared regarding their ability to identify MRSA colonization in throat or nose.
      In each patient, three nose and three throat swabs were taken at 3- to 4-hour
      intervals during screening day 1, and in the same patients once daily on days 1,
      2 and 3. Swabs were analysed using chromogenic agar and broth enrichment. The
      study aimed to investigate whether the single-day swabbing scheme is not inferior
      to the 3-day scheme with a 15% noninferiority margin. RESULTS: One hundred sixty
      patients were included, comprising 105 and 101 patients with results on all three
      swabs for decolonization screening of the nose and throat, respectively.
      Noninferiority of the single-day swabbing scheme was confirmed for both
      pharyngeal and nasal swabs, with 91.8% and 89% agreement, respectively. The
      absolute difference of positivity rates between the swabbing regimens was 0.025 (
      0.082, 0.131) for the nose and 0.006 (-0.102, 0.114) (95% confidence interval)
      for the pharynx as calculated with McNemar's test for matched or paired data.
      Compliance with the single-day scheme was better, with 12% lacking second-day
      swabs and 27% lacking third-day swabs from the nostrils. CONCLUSIONS: The better
      adherence to the single-day screening scheme with noninferiority suggests its
      implementation as the new gold standard.

PMID- 28870729
TI  - Tigecycline-induced inhibition of mitochondrial DNA translation may cause lethal
      mitochondrial dysfunction in humans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A 65-year-old patient developed an unexplained and ultimately lethal
      metabolic acidosis under prolonged treatment with tigecycline. Tigecycline is
      known to have a selective inhibitory effect on eukaryotic mitochondrial
      translation. The underlying molecular mechanisms of the metabolic acidosis in
      this patient were explored. METHODS: Oxidative phosphorylation system (OXPHOS)
      analysis, blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by in-gel
      activity staining in mitochondria, molecular analysis of mitochondrial DNA
      (mtDNA) for genomic rearrangements and sequencing of the rRNA genes was performed
      on the subject's skeletal muscle. RESULTS: OXPHOS analysis revealed a combined
      deficiency of the complexes I, III, IV and V, with a preserved function of
      complex II (encoded by nuclear DNA), thus demonstrating a defective mtDNA
      translation. There were no known underlying mitochondrial genetic defects. The
      patient had a (m.1391T>A) variant within the 12SrRNA gene in heteroplasmy (50
      60%). CONCLUSIONS: This patient developed an ultimately lethal mitochondrial
      toxicity while receiving prolonged treatment with tigecycline, which was caused
      by a defective translation of the mtDNA. Tigecycline is known to suppress
      eukaryotic mitochondrial DNA translation, but until now this effect has been
      considered to be clinically insignificant. The observations in this patient
      suggest a clinically significant mitochondrial toxicity of tigecycline in this
      patient, and warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28870732
TI  - Processes and Outcomes of Congestive Heart Failure Care by Different Types of
      Primary Care Models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Having nurse practitioners (NPs) as primary care providers for
      patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) is 1 way to address the growing
      shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs). METHODS AND RESULTS: We used inverse
      probability of treatment weighted with propensity score to examine the processes
      and outcomes of care for patients under 3 care models. Approximately 72.9%, 0.8%,
      and 26.3% of CHF patients received care under the PCP model, the NP model, and
      the shared care model, respectively. Patients under the NP or shared care models
      were more likely than those under the PCP model to be referred to cardiologists
      (odds ratio 1.35, 95% confidence interval 1.32-1.37; odds ratio  1.32, 95%
      confidence interval 1.30-1.35) and to get guideline-recommended medications. NPs
      and PCPs had similar rates of emergency room (ER) visits and Medicare spending
      after adjusting for processes of care. Patients under the shared care model had a
      higher burden of comorbidity and experienced a higher rate of ER visits and
      hospitalizations than those under the PCP model. CONCLUSION: The delivery of CHF
      care mirrors the severity of comorbidity in these patients. The high rate of
      hospitalization and ER visits in the shared care model underscores the need to
      design and implement more effective chronic disease management and integrated
      care programs.

PMID- 28870731
TI  - Chronic Neuregulin-1beta Treatment Mitigates the Progression of Postmyocardial
      Infarction Heart Failure in the Setting of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus by
      Suppressing Myocardial Apoptosis, Fibrosis, and Key Oxidant-Producing Enzymes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients surviving myocardial
      infarction (MI) have substantially higher cardiovascular morbidity and mortality
      compared to their nondiabetic counterparts owing to the more frequent development
      of subsequent heart failure (HF). Neuregulin (NRG)-1beta is released from cardiac
      microvascular endothelial cells and acts as a paracrine factor via the ErbB
      family of tyrosine kinase receptors expressed in cardiac myocytes to regulate
      cardiac development and stress responses. Because myocardial NRG-1/ErbB signaling
      has been documented to be impaired during HF associated with type 1 DM, we
      examined whether enhancement of NRG-1beta signaling via exogenous administration
      of recombinant NRG-1beta could exert beneficial effects against post-MI HF in the
      type 1 diabetic heart. METHODS AND RESULTS: Type 1 DM was induced in male Sprague
      Dawley rats by a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ) (65 mg/kg). Two weeks
      after induction of type 1 DM, rats underwent left coronary artery ligation to
      induce MI. STZ-diabetic rats were treated with saline or NRG-1beta (100 ug/kg)
      twice per week for 7 weeks, starting 2 weeks before experimental MI. Residual
      left ventricular function was significantly greater in the NRG-1beta-treated STZ
      diabetic MI group compared with the vehicle-treated STZ-diabetic MI group 5 weeks
      after MI as assessed by high-resolution echocardiography. NRG-1beta treatment of
      STZ-diabetic MI rats was associated with reduced myocardial fibrosis and
      apoptosis as well as decreased gene expression of key oxidant-producing enzymes.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that recombinant NRG-1beta may be a promising
      therapeutic for HF post-MI in the setting of type 1 DM.

PMID- 28870733
TI  - Functionalized poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) bodies as new in vitro biocatalysts.
AB  - Cytochromes P450 play a key role in the drug and steroid metabolism in the human
      body. This leads to a high interest in this class of proteins. Mammalian
      cytochromes P450 are rather delicate. Due to their localization in the
      mitochondrial or microsomal membrane, they tend to aggregate during expression
      and purification and to convert to an inactive form so that they have to be
      purified and stored in complex buffers. The complex buffers and low storage
      temperatures, however, limit the feasibility of fast, automated screening of the
      corresponding cytochrome P450-effector interactions, which are necessary to study
      substrate-protein and inhibitor-protein interactions. Here, we present the
      production and isolation of functionalized poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) granules (PHB
      bodies) from Bacillus megaterium MS941 strain. In contrast to the expression in
      Escherichia coli, where mammalian cytochromes P450 are associated to the cell
      membrane, when CYP11A1 is heterologously expressed in Bacillus megaterium, it is
      located on the PHB bodies. The surface of these particles provides a matrix for
      immobilization and stabilization of the CYP11A1 during the storage of the protein
      and substrate conversion. It was demonstrated that the PHB polymer basis is inert
      concerning the performed conversion. Immobilization of the CYP11A1 onto the PHB
      bodies allows freeze-drying of the complex without significant decrease of the
      CYP11A1 activity. This is the first lyophilization of a mammalian cytochrome
      P450, which allows storage over more than 18days at 4 degrees C instead of
      storage at -80 degrees C. In addition, we were able to immobilize the cytochrome
      P450 on the PHB bodies in vitro. In this case the expression of the protein is
      separated from the production of the immobilization matrix, which widens the
      application of this method. 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- 28870734
TI  - Curcusone C induces telomeric DNA-damage response in cancer cells through
      inhibition of telomeric repeat factor 2.
AB  - Telomeric repeat factor 2 (known as TRF2 or TERF2) is a key component of telomere
      protection protein complex named as Shelterin. TRF2 helps the folding of telomere
      to form T-loop structure and the suppression of ATM-dependent DNA damage response
      activation. TRF2 has been recognized as a potentially new therapeutic target for
      cancer treatment. In our routine screening of small molecule libraries, we found
      that Curcusone C had significant effect in disrupting the binding between TRF2
      and telomeric DNA, with potent antitumor activity against cancer cells. Our
      result showed that Curcusone C could bind with TRF2 without binding interaction
      with TRF1 (telomeric repeat factor 1) although these two proteins share high
      sequence homology, indicating that their binding conformations and biological
      functions in telomere could be different. Our mechanistic studies showed that
      Curcusone C bound with TRF2 possibly through its DNA binding site causing
      blockage of its interaction with telomeric DNA. Further in cellular studies
      indicated that the interaction of TRF2 with Curcusone C could activate DNA-damage
      response, inhibit tumor cell proliferation, and cause cell cycle arrest,
      resulting in tumor cell apoptosis. Our studies showed that Curcusone C could
      become a promising lead compound for further development for cancer treatment.
      Here, TRF2 was firstly identified as a target of Curcusone C. It is likely that
      the anti-cancer activity of some other terpenes and terpenoids are related with
      their possible effect for telomere protection proteins.

PMID- 28870735
TI  - Percutaneous Osteotomies in Hallux Valgus: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Percutaneous and minimally invasive surgery is one of the greatest advances in
      the operating field of orthopedic since the late 1990s. The potential advantages
      include a shorter operative time, quicker recovery, and reduced hospital stay
      compared with traditional open surgery. However, scientific validation of the
      safety and efficacy of hallux valgus (HV) percutaneous surgery remains
      inconclusive. The objective of the present study was to systematically review the
      published data and clinical evidence for percutaneous HV surgery, evaluate the
      scientific method of the reports, and clarify the indications, safety, efficacy,
      and potential risks of these surgical techniques. Two reviewers independently
      identified the studies using a PubMed search, with the keywords "hallux valgus,"
      "osteotomy," "minimally invasive," and "percutaneous." Quality assessment was
      performed using the Coleman methodology scale, and each study was assigned a
      level of evidence and grade of recommendation. Eighteen studies were included and
      reported a total of 1534 procedures for percutaneous HV surgery on 1397 patients.
      Of the 18 studies, 14 (77.8%) were level IV, 2 (11.1%) were level III, and 2
      (11.1%) were level II. Overall, the average angle correction of the HV deformity
      improved postoperatively. Regarding the complications, although some
      investigators revealed no major complications, others described deformity
      recurrence in 7.8%, stiffness of the first metatarsophalangeal joint in 9.8%,
      malunion in 4% to 8.7%, and infection rates ranging from 1.9% to 14.3%. The main
      indication for percutaneous HV surgery is the correction of mild deformities. The
      complication rate was elevated even in experienced surgeons. In conclusion,
      future research in percutaneous techniques should include adequately sized
      randomized control trials, standardization of treatment protocols, and the use of
      validated tools for the measurement of clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28870736
TI  - Role of rifampin for the treatment of bacterial infections other than
      mycobacteriosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Rifampin was initially approved for the treatment of tuberculosis.
      Because of its low toxicity, broad-spectrum activity, and good bioavailability,
      rifampin is now commonly administered as combination antimicrobial therapy for
      the treatment of various infections caused by organisms other than mycobacteria.
      This review summarizes the most recent clinical studies on the use of rifampin
      combinations for treating four common non-mycobacterial infections: acute
      bacterial meningitis, infective endocarditis and bacteraemia, pneumonia, and
      biofilm-related infections. METHODS: We performed a literature search of clinical
      studies published in English from January 2005 to June 2016 using the PubMed
      database with the search terms "rifampin" with "meningitis" or "infective
      endocarditis and bacteraemia" or "pneumonia" or "prosthetic joint infections.
      RESULTS: Current evidence to support a rifampin combination therapy as a
      treatment for non-mycobacterial infections was largely based on in vitro/in vivo
      studies and non-comparable retrospective case series. Additionally, controlled
      clinical trials that directly compared outcomes resulting from rifampin treatment
      versus treatment without rifampin were limited. CONCLUSIONS: Rifampin combination
      therapy appears promising for the treatment of non-mycobacterial infections.
      However, further definitive clinical trials are necessary to validate its use
      because the risk of adverse drug-drug interactions and of the emergence of
      rifampin resistance during treatment may outweigh the potential benefits.

PMID- 28870738
TI  - Errata.

PMID- 28870737
TI  - Chondrocyte primary cilium is mechanosensitive and responds to low-intensity
      ultrasound by altering its length and orientation.
AB  - The primary cilium has been implicated in mechanotransduction, however, its
      mechanosensory role in transducing signals under low-intensity ultrasound (LIUS)
      which has the potential to repair fractures and cartilage, remains
      uninvestigated. This study examined the impact of continuous-wave US, at the cell
      resonance frequency of 5.0MHz and pressure amplitude of either 14 or 60kPa, on
      the incidence, length and orientation of primary cilium in bovine articular
      chondrocytes. Visualization of primary cilium with acetylated alpha-tubulin
      staining demonstrated that the primary cilium was elongated, bent under US and
      these changes were reversible. Basal expression of phospho-ERK1/2 was lower in
      deciliated chondrocytes, thus implicating the role for the primary cilium in
      transducing signals via the MAPK/ERK pathway. This study demonstrates that the
      chondrocyte primary cilium is mechanosensitive and responds to US by altering its
      length and orientation.

PMID- 28870740
TI  - An extended framework for science.
AB  - We may be at the cusp of a next generation framework for science which can be
      facilitated by understanding current limitations in the context of a divergence
      of 'scientific' tradition from the Axial Age (800-200 BCE) to the present. A
      powerful advance may come from fusing certain elements from Western and Eastern
      traditions, synthesizing the framework with an apt understanding of the
      divergence. Key traits will include the ethopoetic nature of the scientist with
      attention to his/her experience of self. The framework will also 'access'
      knowledge through a state of mind less encumbered with paradoxes, duality,
      incompatibility and other aporias. Case studies in biology and physics illustrate
      possibilities.

PMID- 28870741
TI  - A neonatal death associated with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (Republic of
      Kalmykia, Russia, June 2016).

PMID- 28870739
TI  - Increased Vascular Permeability in the Bone Marrow Microenvironment Contributes
      to Disease Progression and Drug Response in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
AB  - The biological and clinical behaviors of hematological malignancies can be
      influenced by the active crosstalk with an altered bone marrow (BM)
      microenvironment. In the present study, we provide a detailed picture of the BM
      vasculature in acute myeloid leukemia using intravital two-photon microscopy. We
      found several abnormalities in the vascular architecture and function in patient
      derived xenografts (PDX), such as vascular leakiness and increased hypoxia.
      Transcriptomic analysis in endothelial cells identified nitric oxide (NO) as
      major mediator of this phenotype in PDX and in patient-derived biopsies.
      Moreover, induction chemotherapy failing to restore normal vasculature was
      associated with a poor prognosis. Inhibition of NO production reduced vascular
      permeability, preserved normal hematopoietic stem cell function, and improved
      treatment response in PDX.

PMID- 28870742
TI  - The Effect of Smoking on Thirty-Day Postoperative Complications After Total Joint
      Arthroplasty: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total joint arthroplasty (TJA) is a highly successful treatment, but
      is burdensome to the national healthcare budget. National quality initiatives
      seek to reduce costly complications. Smoking's role in perioperative complication
      after TJA is less well known. This study aims to identify smoking's independent
      contribution to the risk of short-term complication after TJA. METHODS: All
      patients undergoing primary TJA between 2011 and 2012 were selected from the
      American College of Surgeon's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program's
      database. Outcomes of interest included rates of readmission, reoperation,
      mortality, surgical complications, and medical complications. To eliminate
      confounders between smokers and nonsmokers, a propensity score was used to
      generate a 1:1 match between groups. RESULTS: A total of 1251 smokers undergoing
      TJA met inclusion criteria. Smokers in the combined total hip and knee
      arthroplasty cohort had higher 30-day readmission (4.8% vs 3.2%, P = .041), were
      more likely to have a surgical complication (odds ratio 1.84, 95% confidence
      interval 1.21-2.80), and had a higher rate of deep surgical site infection (SSI)
      (1.1% vs 0.2%, P = .007). Analysis of total hip arthroplasty only revealed that
      smokers had higher rates of deep SSI (1.3% vs 0.2%, P = .038) and higher
      readmission rate (4.3% vs 2.2%, P = .034). Analysis of total knee arthroplasty
      only revealed greater surgical complications (2.8% vs 1.2%, P = .048) and
      superficial SSI (1.8% vs 0.2%, P = .002) in smokers. CONCLUSION: Smoking in TJA
      is associated with higher rates of SSI, surgical complications, and readmission.

PMID- 28870743
TI  - Accuracy of Cup Positioning With the Computed Tomography-Based Two-dimensional to
      Three-Dimensional Matched Navigation System: A Prospective, Randomized Controlled
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The accuracy of various navigation systems used for total hip
      arthroplasty has been described, but no publications reported the accuracy of cup
      orientation in computed tomography (CT)-based 2D-3D (two-dimensional to three
      dimensional) matched navigation. METHODS: In a prospective, randomized controlled
      study, 80 hips including 44 with developmental dysplasia of the hips were divided
      into a CT-based 2D-3D matched navigation group (2D-3D group) and a paired-point
      matched navigation group (PPM group). The accuracy of cup orientation (absolute
      difference between the intraoperative record and the postoperative measurement)
      was compared between groups. Additionally, multiple logistic regression analysis
      was performed to evaluate patient factors affecting the accuracy of cup
      orientation in each navigation. RESULTS: The accuracy of cup inclination was 2.5
      degrees  +/- 2.2 degrees  in the 2D-3D group and 4.6 degrees  +/- 3.3 degrees  in
      the PPM group (P = .0016). The accuracy of cup anteversion was 2.3 degrees  +/-
      1.7 degrees  in the 2D-3D group and 4.4 degrees  +/- 3.3 degrees  in the PPM
      group (P = .0009). In the PPM group, the presence of roof osteophytes decreased
      the accuracy of cup inclination (odds ratio 8.27, P = .0140) and the absolute
      value of pelvic tilt had a negative influence on the accuracy of cup anteversion
      (odds ratio 1.27, P = .0222). In the 2D-3D group, patient factors had no effect
      on the accuracy of cup orientation. CONCLUSION: The accuracy of cup positioning
      in CT-based 2D-3D matched navigation was better than in paired-point matched
      navigation, and was not affected by patient factors. It is a useful system for
      even severely deformed pelvises such as developmental dysplasia of the hips.

PMID- 28870744
TI  - Total Joint Arthroplasty in Ambulatory Surgery Centers: Analysis of Disqualifying
      Conditions and the Frequency at Which They Occur.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The frequency of total joint arthroplasties (TJAs) performed in
      ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) is increasing. However, not all TJA patients
      are healthy enough to safely undergo these procedures in an ambulatory setting.
      We examined the percentage of arthroplasty patients who would be eligible to have
      the procedure performed in a free-standing ASC and the distribution of
      comorbidities making patients ASC-ineligible. METHODS: We reviewed the charts of
      3444 patients undergoing TJA and assigned ASC eligibility based on American
      Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status, a set of exclusion criteria, and any
      existing comorbidities. RESULTS: Overall, 70.03% of all patients undergoing TJA
      were eligible for ASC. Of the ASA class 3 patients who did not meet any exclusion
      criteria but had systemic disease (51.11% of all ASA class 3 patients), 53.69%
      were deemed ASC-eligible because of sufficiently low severity of comorbidities.
      The most frequent reasons for ineligibility were body mass index >40 kg/m2
      (32.66% of ineligible patients), severity of comorbidities (28.00%), and
      untreated obstructive sleep apnea (25.19%). CONCLUSION: A large proportion of TJA
      patients were found to be eligible for surgery in an ASC, including over one
      third of ASA class 3 patients. ASC performed TJA provides an opportunity for
      increased patient satisfaction and decreased costs, selecting the right
      candidates for the ambulatory setting is critical to maintain patient safety and
      avoid postoperative complications.

PMID- 28870745
TI  - Failed Two-Stage Exchange: Factors Leading to Unachievable Endoprosthetic
      Reconstruction After Multiple Revision Surgeries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Information about the outcome after failed 2-stage exchange is
      scarce. The aim of this study is to determine possible influencing factors
      leading to multiple revisions, resulting in a failed endoprosthetic joint
      reconstruction. METHODS: Medical records of patients (15 hip and 29 knee joints)
      who had undergone additional revision surgeries due to a failed 2-stage exchange
      were reviewed concerning infection parameters, number and type of procedure(s),
      current state of the revised joint, and whether failure of endoprosthetic
      reconstruction had occurred. RESULTS: Endoprosthetic reconstruction was achieved
      in 52.3% (n = 23) of the patients. About 36.4% (n = 16) of patients successfully
      reached the second stage of the initial 2-stage exchange. Half of the patients (n
      = 22) had to undergo spacer exchange in the initial interstage period. Five or
      more revision surgeries significantly increased the odds of failure of
      endoprosthetic reconstruction compared to patients with <5 revision surgeries
      (odds ratio 4.98, 95% confidence interval 1.34-18.4, P = .016). Patients with
      initial culture-negative revision surgery showed no significant differences in
      the odds of failure of endoprosthetic reconstruction (odds ratio 0.69, 95%
      confidence interval 0.20-2.43, P = .567). CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing re
      revision surgery due to a failed 2-stage exchange are very likely to ultimately
      experience a failed endoprosthetic reconstruction. The identification of the
      underlying pathogen does not influence the likelihood of a better outcome in
      terms of a successful endoprosthetic reconstruction.

PMID- 28870746
TI  - Incidence, Risk Factors, and Impact of Clostridium difficile Colitis Following
      Primary Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An improved understanding of Clostridium difficile is important as it
      is used as a measure of hospital quality and is associated with substantial
      morbidity. This study utilizes the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
      to determine the incidence, timing, risk factors, and clinical implications of C
      difficile colitis in patients undergoing primary total hip or knee arthroplasty
      (THA or TKA). METHODS: Patients who underwent primary THA or TKA as part of the
      2015 National Surgical Quality Improvement Program were identified. The primary
      outcome was a diagnosis of C difficile colitis within the 30-day postoperative
      period. Risk factors for the development of C difficile colitis were identified
      using Poisson multivariate regression. RESULTS: A total of 39,172 patients who
      underwent primary THA or TKA were identified. The incidence of C difficile
      colitis was 0.10% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.07-0.13). Of the cases that
      developed C difficile colitis, 79% were diagnosed after discharge and 84% had not
      had a preceding infection diagnosed. Independent preoperative and procedural risk
      factors for the development of C difficile colitis were greater age (most notably
      >=80 years old, relative risk [RR] 5.28, 95% CI 1.65-16.92, P = .008), dependent
      functional status (RR 4.05, 95% CI 1.44-11.36, P = .008), preoperative anemia (RR
      2.52, 95% CI 1.28-4.97, P = .007), hypertension (RR 2.51, 95% CI 1.06-5.98, P =
      .037), and THA (vs TKA; RR 2.25, 95% CI 1.16-4.36, P = .017). Postoperative
      infectious risk factors were urinary tract infection (RR 10.66, 95% CI 3.77
      30.12, P < .001), sepsis (RR 17.80, 95% CI 3.77-84.00, P < .001), and "any
      infection" (RR 6.60, 95% CI 2.66-16.34, P < .001). CONCLUSION: High-risk patients
      identified in this study should be targeted with preventative interventions and
      have perioperative antibiotics judiciously managed.

PMID- 28870747
TI  - Development of a gallic acid-loaded chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel
      composite: Release characteristics and antioxidant activity.
AB  - The physico-chemical properties of a chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol (CS/PVA)
      based hydrogel composite were investigated. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was
      employed as a crosslinking agent. The results indicated that the chitosan-based
      composite presented a thermal resistance up to 200 degrees C. The structural
      properties, which were evaluated using FTIR and DSC, showed good miscibility
      between chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol. SEM presented a compact and homogeneous
      structure. The release profile of the chitosan-based hydrogel composite was
      investigated using gallic acid (GA). It showed high antioxidant activities, which
      were monitored using DPPH radical scavenging. Diffusion of water into the
      chitosan-based hydrogel was assumed to be pseudo-Fickian in PBS solution. The
      CS/PVA-based hydrogel composite exhibited good properties as a drug delivery
      system.

PMID- 28870748
TI  - Sulfated polysaccharide of Sepiella Maindroni ink inhibits the migration,
      invasion and matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression through suppressing EGFR
      mediated p38/MAPK and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways in SKOV-3 cells.
AB  - Previous studies demonstrated that SIP-SII, a sulfated derivative of SIP that is
      isolated from the ink of Sepiella maindroni, showed significant inhibition of
      tumor growth and metastasis. In this study, the effects of SIP-SII on the
      migration, invasion and molecular mechanism in ovarian cancer cell line, SKOV-3
      cells, were investigated. The flow cytometry, confocal microscope observation,
      western blot and RT-PCR results indicated that SIP-SII located on cell membrane
      and inhibited the expression and activation of epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR). Moreover, the binding capacity of SIP-SII with EGFR was confirmed by
      surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis and co-localization of EGFR and SIP-SII.
      Accordingly, SIP-SII was proved to attenuate the EGF-induced EGFR phosphorylation
      and migration by western blot and wound healing assay, respectively.
      Additionally, SIP-SII inhibited p38/MAPK and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways in
      SKOV-3 cells significantly. What is more, SIP-SII showed amplified inhibitory
      activity on migration, invasion, and MMP-2 expression in combination with p38
      specific inhibitor, PI3K-specific inhibitor or mTOR-specific inhibitor in SKOV-3
      cells. Therefore, the mechanism that SIP-SII suppressed EGFR-mediated p38/MAPK
      and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways to inhibit migration and invasion of SKOV-3
      cells was demonstrated. These findings suggested that SIP-SII might be used as a
      potential inhibitor against tumor metastasis.

PMID- 28870749
TI  - Bioprinting and its applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
AB  - Bioprinting of three-dimensional constructs mimicking natural-like extracellular
      matrix has revolutionized biomedical technology. Bioprinting technology
      circumvents various discrepancies associated with current tissue engineering
      strategies by providing an automated and advanced platform to fabricate various
      biomaterials through precise deposition of cells and polymers in a premeditated
      fashion. However, few obstacles associated with development of 3D scaffolds
      including varied properties of polymers used and viability, controlled
      distribution, and vascularization, etc. of cells hinder bioprinting of complex
      structures. Therefore, extensive efforts have been made to explore the potential
      of various natural polymers (e.g. cellulose, gelatin, alginate, and chitosan,
      etc.) and synthetic polymers in bioprinting by tuning their printability and
      cross-linking features, mechanical and thermal properties, biocompatibility, and
      biodegradability, etc. This review describes the potential of these polymers to
      support adhesion and proliferation of viable cells to bioprint cell laden
      constructs, bone, cartilage, skin, and neural tissues, and blood vessels, etc.
      for various applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicines.
      Further, it describes various challenges associated with current bioprinting
      technology and suggests possible solutions. Although at early stage of
      development, the potential benefits of bioprinting technology are quite clear and
      expected to open new gateways in biomedical, pharmaceutics and several other
      fields in near future.

PMID- 28870750
TI  - Biosynthesis of Ag nanoparticles using isolated bacteria from contaminated sites
      and its application as an efficient catalyst for hydrazine electrooxidation.
AB  - In the present study, a bacterium resistance to heavy metals was isolated from
      contaminated areas. An eco-friendly and simple method was found to biosynthesis
      of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by reducing of aqueous Ag+ using the heavy metals
      resistance MKH1 bacterium. The biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV-vis
      spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
      techniques. A peak at about 420nm is related to absorption band of AgNPs which
      confirms by UV-vis spectroscopy. The SEM images showed that the biosynthesized
      AgNPs have mainly spherical shape with average diameters of 30-60nm. The electro
      catalytic properties of AgNPs with different Ag content were investigated by
      different electrochemical tests. Biosynthesized AgNPs using isolated MKH1 show
      high catalytic activity and stability towards the oxidation reaction of
      hydrazine.

PMID- 28870751
TI  - Molecular mechanism and characterization of self-assembly of feather keratin
      gelation.
AB  - Protein gels with controlled viscoelastic properties could find numerous material
      and biomedical applications. Feather keratin is naturally abundant protein while
      its gelation property has not been explored. In this study hydrogel from fully
      reduced feather keratin was prepared by dialysis. The objectives of this work
      were to study the molecular mechanism of self-assembly of feather keratin gel and
      to characterize the structural and viscoelastic properties of hydrogels prepared
      under various pHs (3-9) and temperatures (50-90 degrees C). Re-oxidation of free
      cysteine thiols and formation of hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bond were
      determined as the main stabilizing forces in self-assembly of feather keratin
      gel. Adding thiol blocking agent of N-ethylmaleimide leads to reduced storage
      modulus of keratin gel; gelation was completely inhibited at 82% blockage of free
      thiols. Increasing temperature decreased storage modulus, while gelation at pH 3
      resulted in stiffer gels compared to pHs of 5, 7 and 9. Feather keratin gels with
      tunable viscoelastic properties could find applications as engineered scaffolds
      for different tissues.

PMID- 28870752
TI  - Sarbohydrate binding module CBM28 of endoglucanase Cel5D from
      Caldicellulosiruptor bescii recognizes crystalline cellulose.
AB  - Optimal catalytic activity of endoglucanase Cel5D from the thermophilic anaerobic
      bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii requires the presence of a carbohydrate
      binding module of family 28, CbCBM28. The binding properties of CbSVM28 with
      cello-, laminari-, xylo- and chito-oligosaccharides were studied by isothermal
      titration calorimetry. CbSVM28 bound only cello-oligosaccharides comprising at
      least four glucose residues with binding constants of 2.5.104 and 2.2.106M-1 for
      cellotetraose and cellohexaose, respectively. The interaction between CbSVM28 and
      amorphous cellulose is best described by a two-binding-site model with the
      binding constants of 1.5.105 and 1.9.105M-1. In a competitive binding assay in
      the presence of a 10-fold excess of cellohexaose the binding constant of CbSVM28
      to amorphous cellulose was 1.9.105M-1. A two-binding-site model also better
      approximates the binding to Avicel with the binding constants of 8.3.105 and
      3.2.104M-1; while in the presence of cellohexaose, the binding is described by a
      single-binding-site model with the binding constant of 2.3.104M-1. With CbSVM28
      binding to bacterial crystalline cellulose with a constant of 7.4.104M-1, this is
      the first report of such a strong binding to crystalline cellulose for a module
      of family 28.

PMID- 28870753
TI  - Synthesis of Ag@Fe2O3 nanocomposite based on O-carboxymethylchitosan with
      antimicrobial activity.
AB  - In this paper, nano-hybrid particles of Ag@Fe2O3 based on O-carboxymethylchitosan
      were successfully synthesized using different reducing agents (NaBH4, sucrose)
      and without reducing agent. The smallest silver nanoparticles were those prepared
      without reducing agent (~5+/-3nm). The average size of silver particles prepared
      with NaBH4 is around 5-15nm, and for samples prepared with sucrose, the average
      particle size is 10-25nm. The magnetization curves are roughly reversible,
      indicating that gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles transit to a superparamagnetic state.
      Nanocomposites subjected to antimicrobial tests showed great antimicrobial
      activity against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative
      (Escherichia coli) bacteria, and good activity against the yeast Candida albicans
      and resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus. The antibacterial behavior as a
      function of time was investigated in microbial growth kinetics, and the best
      nanocomposite was the one without reducing agent, which completely inhibited
      microbial growth for 48h.

PMID- 28870754
TI  - Clinical and non-clinical depression and anxiety in young people: A scoping
      review on heart rate variability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of cardiac autonomic nervous
      system functioning, has emerged as a physiological indicator for emotional
      regulation and psychological well-being. HRV is understudied in the context of
      depression and anxiety in young people (10-24years old). Main objectives: (1)
      describe the nature and breadth of reviewed studies; and (2) synthesize main
      findings in the context of clinical and non-clinical populations of young people
      with depression and/or anxiety. METHODS: The Arksey and O'Malley methodology was
      utilized for this scoping review. CINHAL, EMBASE, Medline, PsychInfo, Scopus, Web
      of Science, as well as grey literature, were searched. Two reviewers screened
      titles, abstracts and full papers for inclusion. A total of 20 citations were
      included in the final review (19 citations peer-reviewed journal articles, 1
      journal abstract). Numerical and thematic analysis was used to summarize study
      findings. RESULTS: In clinical populations of either depression or anxiety, HRV
      was lower compared to controls. In non-clinical populations of either depression
      or anxiety, HRV was found to be lower in those who reported more depression or
      anxiety symptoms. LIMITATIONS: The quality of the reviewed articles was not
      assessed which limits the ability to generate conclusions regarding study
      findings. CONCLUSION: Changes in HRV were found across the spectrum of clinical
      and non-clinical populations of young people with depression or anxiety.
      Neurophysiological research on depression and anxiety in young people can act as
      a first step to understanding how physiological flexibility (i.e. HRV) is related
      to psychological flexibility (i.e. adaptive or maladaptive responses to life
      events).

PMID- 28870755
TI  - High seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii and probability of detecting tissue
      cysts in backyard laying hens compared with hens from large free-range farms.
AB  - Serological assays are commonly used to determine the prevalence of Toxoplasma
      gondii infection in livestock, but the predictive value of seropositivity with
      respect to the presence of infective tissue cysts is less clear. The present
      study aimed at the identification of seropositive and seronegative free-range
      laying hens from organic and backyard farms, and the relationship with the
      presence of viable tissue cysts. In addition, potential risk and protective
      factors on the selected farms were investigated. An in-house T. gondii surface
      antigen (TgSAG1, p30, SRS29B) ELISA was validated with sera from experimentally
      infected chickens and used to examine 470 serum samples collected from laying
      hens from large organic and small backyard farms at the end of their laying
      period. A total of 11.7% (55/470) of all chickens tested positive, and another
      18.9% (89/470) of test results were inconclusive. The highest seroprevalences
      were observed on small backyard farms with 47.7% (41/86) of chickens being
      seropositive while another 20.9% (18/86) of test results were inconclusive.
      Twenty-nine seropositive, 20 seronegative and 12 laying hens which yielded
      inconclusive ELISA results, were selected for further examination. Hearts and
      limb muscles of these hens were examined for T. gondii tissue cysts in a bioassay
      with IFNgamma-knockout or IFNgamma-receptor-knockout mice. Viable T. gondii was
      isolated from 75.9% (22/29) of the seropositive, 25.0% (3/12) of the
      inconclusive, and 5.0% (1/20) of the seronegative chickens. All 26 chickens
      tested positive in heart samples, while drumstick muscles (i.e. limb muscles)
      tested positive only in three. Data on putative risk and protective factors were
      collected on the farms using a standard questionnaire. Generalised multilevel
      modelling revealed farm size, cat related factors ('cats on the premise', 'cats
      used for rodent control'), hen house/hall related factors ('size category of hen
      house/hall', 'frequency category of cleaning hen house/hall', 'service period')
      as significantly associated with seropositivity to T. gondii in hens. The final
      model, which included the age of the birds as an effect modifier and farm as a
      random effect variable, revealed that the use of cats for rodent control and an
      area available per hen in the chicken run of >=10sqm were statistically
      significant risk factors for T. gondii seropositivity. Overall this study showed
      that exposure to T. gondii is common in small backyard farms but is rare on large
      organic farms with a high density of free-range hens, even when cats were present
      on the premises.

PMID- 28870756
TI  - Stabilization of hyperforin dicyclohexylammonium salt with dissolved albumin and
      albumin nanoparticles for studying hyperforin effects on 2D cultivation of
      keratinocytes in vitro.
AB  - Due to the limited chemical stability of the natural hyperforin molecule, a more
      stable form of hyperforin, i.e., the hyperforin dicyclohexylammonium salt (HYP
      DCHA) has been used for ex vivo and in vitro experiments in recent years, but its
      actual stability under typical cell culture conditions has never been studied
      before. In this contribution the stability of HYP-DCHA was examined under typical
      cell culture conditions. Different cell culture media with and without fetal calf
      serum (FCS) supplementation were studied with regard to further stabilization of
      HYP-DCHA determined with HPLC analysis. Furthermore, albumin nanoparticles were
      examined as a stabilizing carrier system for HYP-DCHA. In this context, the
      interaction between HYP-DCHA and albumin nanoparticles (ANP) was examined with
      regard to size and loading with HYP . The effects of HYP-DCHA either supplied in
      cell culture medium or loaded on ANP on viability and cytotoxicity were studied
      in vitro on HaCaT monolayers (human keratinocyte cell line). HYP-DCHA supplied in
      FCS-containing medium was recovered completely after 24h of incubation. However,
      a lack of FCS caused a total loss of HYP-DCHA after less than 24h incubation
      time. Supplying HYP-DCHA loaded on ANP in an FCS-free medium resulted in a
      recovery of about 60% after 24h incubation. HYP-DCHA supplied in medium along
      with FCS showed a slow dose-dependent decrease in viability of HaCaT cells
      without any cytotoxic effects (antiproliferative effect). Treatment with HYP-DCHA
      with a lack of FCS resulted in a significantly faster decrease in viability which
      was mainly due to cytotoxicity. The latter was true for HYP-DHCA-loaded ANP where
      increased cytotoxicity was observed despite the presence of FCS. The results show
      that the stability of the widely used HYP-DCHA is rather limited under cell
      culture conditions. Especially a lack of FCS leads to degradation and/or
      oxidation of HYP-DCHA probably causing an increased cytotoxicity. In contrast,
      FCS supplementation fairly stabilizes HYP-DCHA under cell culture conditions
      while albumin nanoparticles may serve the same stabilization purpose despite
      increasing cytotoxic effects onto the cells themselves.

PMID- 28870757
TI  - Global effect of CsrA on gene expression in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli
      O157:H7.
AB  - The post-transcriptional regulator CsrA regulates multiple unrelated processes
      such as central carbon metabolism, motility, biofilm formation and bacterial
      virulence in different bacteria. However, regulation by CsrA in enterohemorrhagic
      Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 is still largely unknown. In this study, we
      performed a detailed analysis of gene expression differences between the EHEC
      O157:H7 wild-type strain and a corresponding csrA::kan mutant using RNA-seq
      technology. Genes whose expression was affected by CsrA were identified and
      grouped into different clusters of orthologous group categories. Genes located in
      the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) pathogenicity island were significantly
      upregulated, whereas expression of flagella-related genes was significantly
      reduced in the csrA::kan mutant. Subsequent bacterial adherence and motility
      assays showed that inactivation of CsrA in EHEC O157:H7 resulted in a significant
      increase in bacterial adherence to host epithelial cells, with a concomitant loss
      of swimming motility on semi-solid agar plates. Furthermore, we also found that
      CsrA regulates genes not previously identified in other bacterial species,
      including genes encoding cytochrome oxidases and those required for nitrogen
      metabolism. Our results provide essential insight into the regulatory function of
      CsrA.

PMID- 28870758
TI  - Posterior condylar offset influences the intraoperative soft tissue balance
      during posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to clarify the influence of the posterior condylar
      offset (PCO) on intraoperative soft tissue balance including the joint component
      gap and varus ligament balance measured by an offset-type tensor during posterior
      stabilized (PS) total knee arthroplasty (TKA). METHODS: In this study, 35
      patients with osteoarthritis of the knee underwent PS TKA. Intraoperative soft
      tissue balance including the joint component gap and varus/valgus ligament
      balance were assessed at 0 degrees , 10 degrees , 45 degrees , 90 degrees , and
      135 degrees  of flexion with an offset-type tensor that could be used with the
      femoral component placement and patellofemoral joint reduction. The correlations
      between the postoperative PCO and the intraoperative soft tissue balance
      parameters were assessed using simple regression analysis. RESULTS: The joint
      component gap at 0 degrees  extension was inversely correlated with the PCO (R = 
      0.41, p < 0.05). The joint component gap of 10 degrees -0 degrees  was positively
      correlated with the PCO (R = 0.35, p < 0.05). No other soft tissue balance
      parameters were correlated with the PCO. CONCLUSIONS: A larger PCO was confirmed
      to reduce joint component gap in extension but not always in flexion in PS TKA.

PMID- 28870759
TI  - Recurrent patellar dislocation with spontaneous valgus knee deformity treated by
      distal femoral osteotomy alone: A report of two cases.

PMID- 28870760
TI  - Endoscopic management of erosion after banded bariatric procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prosthetic materials wrapped around a portion of the stomach have
      been used to provide gastric restriction in bariatric surgery for many years.
      Intraluminal erosion of adjustable and nonadjustable gastric bands typically
      occurs many years after placement and results in various symptoms. Endoscopic
      management of gastric band erosion has been described and allows for optimal
      patient outcomes. OBJECTIVES: We will describe our methods and experience with
      endoscopic management of intraluminal gastric band erosions after bariatric
      procedures. SETTING: University hospital in the United States. METHODS: A
      retrospective review of our bariatric surgery database identified patients
      undergoing removal of gastric bands. A chart review was then undertaken to
      confirm erosion of prosthetic material into the gastrointestinal tract. Baseline
      characteristics, operative reports, and follow-up data were analyzed. RESULTS:
      Sixteen patients were identified with an eroded gastric band: 11 after banded
      gastric bypass, 3 after laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB), and 2 after
      vertical banded gastroplasty. All patients were successfully treated with
      endoscopic removal of the prosthetic materials using either endoscopic scissors
      or ligation of the banding material with off-label use of a mechanical
      lithotripter device. Complications included a postoperative gastrointestinal
      bleed requiring repeat endoscopy, 1 patient with asymptomatic pneumoperitoneum
      requiring observation, and 1 with seroma at the site of LAGB port removal.
      CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic management of intraluminal prosthetic erosion after
      gastric banded bariatric procedures can be safe and effective and should be
      considered when treating this complication. Erosion of the prosthetic materials
      inside the gastric lumen allows for potential endoscopic removal without free
      intraabdominal perforation. Endoscopic devices designed for dividing eroded LAGBs
      may help standardize and increase utilization of this approach.

PMID- 28870761
TI  - An outbreak of acute respiratory illnesses in primary school children with low
      vaccine uptake, UK, 2016.

PMID- 28870762
TI  - Peripheral nerve and diclofenac sodium: Molecular and clinical approaches.
AB  - Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most frequently prescribed
      medications worldwide. Diclofenac sodium (DS), one of these NSAIDs, has a high
      specificity for arachidonic acid-degrading cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 enzymes. This
      drug can be used to relieve neuropathic pain. In this review, we examine the
      relevant researches, including in vivo, animal, and clinical human studies, with
      the aim of understanding the effect of DS on the peripheral nerves. In injured
      nerves, COX-2 is potently upregulated around the injury site. When a nerve is
      damaged, both COX-1 and COX-2 expression is increased in macrophages and Schwann
      cells. In addition, COX inhibitors can promote axonal outgrowth in cultured
      neurons. Neuropathic pain occurs after injury and leads to dysfunction of the
      peripheral nervous system. NSAIDs can modulate the nociceptive and inflammatory
      pain pathways and control neuropathic pain. DS may accelerate nerve regeneration
      and its effects on healing, as well as causing deleterious effects in the
      developing nerves. DS teratogenicity disrupts myelin sheath thickness and axon
      structure. Understanding the possible benefits and limitations of DS and specific
      conditions such as prenatal use will be of benefit in clinical practice.

PMID- 28870763
TI  - Engineering PLGA nano-based systems through understanding the influence of
      nanoparticle properties and cell-penetrating peptides for cochlear drug delivery.
AB  - The properties of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) and
      penetration enhancers play a deciding role in the inner ear drug delivery of NPs
      across the round window membrane (RWM). Thus, PLGA nano-based systems with a
      variety of particle sizes and surface chemistries and those combined with cell
      penetrating peptides (CPPs) as penetration enhancers were devised to explore
      their impact on the cochlear drug delivery in vivo. First, we demonstrated that
      the properties of NPs dictated the extent of NP cochlear entry by near-infrared
      fluorescence imaging. NPs with the sizes of 150 and 300nm had faster entry than
      that of 80nm NPs. At 0.5h, among the NPs unmodified and modified with chitosan
      (CS), poloxamer 407 (P407) and methoxy polyethylene glycol, CS-PLGA-NPs (positive
      surface charge) carried payload to the cochlea fastest, whereas P407-PLGA-NPs
      (surface hydrophilicity) showed the greatest distribution in the cochlea at 24h.
      Compared to other CPPs (TAT, penetratin and poly(arginine)8), low molecular
      weight protamine (LMWP) performed an outstanding enhanced NP cellular uptake in
      HEI-OC1 cells and cochlear entry. More importantly, NPs with optimized properties
      and CPPs may be combined to improve RWM penetration. For the first time, we
      confirmed that the combination of P407-PLGA-NPs (mean diameter: 100-200nm) and
      LMWP provided a synergistic enhancement in NP entry to the organ of Corti and
      stria vascularis without inducing pathological alteration of cochlear tissues and
      RWM. Taken together, we propose an effective PLGA nano-based strategy for
      enhanced drug delivery to the inner ear tissues that combines hydrophilic
      molecule-modified NPs and CPPs, ultimately opening an avenue for superior inner
      ear therapy.

PMID- 28870764
TI  - Supersaturating drug delivery systems: The potential of co-amorphous drug
      formulations.
AB  - Amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) are probably the most common and important
      supersaturating drug delivery systems for the formulation of poorly water-soluble
      compounds. These delivery systems are able to achieve and maintain a sustained
      drug supersaturation which enables improvement of the bioavailability of poorly
      water-soluble drugs by increasing the driving force for drug absorption. However,
      ASDs often require a high weight percentage of carrier (usually a hydrophilic
      polymer) to ensure molecular mixing of the drug in the carrier and stabilization
      of the supersaturated state, often leading to high dosage volumes and thereby
      challenges in the formulation of the final dosage form. As a response to the
      shortcomings of the ASDs, the so-called co-amorphous formulations, which are
      amorphous combinations of two or more low molecular weight components, have
      emerged as an alternative formulation strategy for poorly-soluble drugs. While
      the current research on co-amorphous formulations is focused on preparation and
      characterization of these systems, more detailed research on their
      supersaturation and precipitation behavior and the effect of co-formers on
      nucleation and crystal growth inhibition is needed. The current status of this
      research is reviewed in this paper. Furthermore, the potential of novel
      preparation methods for co-amorphous systems with respect to the current
      preparation methods are discussed.

PMID- 28870765
TI  - A review of patient-specific gastrointestinal parameters as a platform for
      developing in vitro models for predicting the in vivo performance of oral dosage
      forms in patients with Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that presents
      with visible motor symptoms, but that is accompanied by several additional
      symptoms, including gastrointestinal symptoms that may affect pharmacokinetics of
      oral medications. A detailed understanding of the nature of PD-specific
      gastrointestinal parameters and of how they may affect drug release of orally
      administered dosage forms seems to be essential information for developing better
      oral PD medications. The availability of bio-predictive drug release models
      simulating PD-specific gastrointestinal parameters would also be beneficial for
      this purpose. The focus of the present literature review was to determine PD
      specific gastrointestinal parameters that will allow for the development of a
      test methodology simulating the gastrointestinal passage of orally administered
      medications in PD patients. Whereas for some gastrointestinal segments there is
      quite a reasonable set of data available on fluid volumes, motility and passage
      times, for others there is still a big lack in information that would be required
      for simulating a detailed gastrointestinal passage in a PD patient. The latter is
      particularly true for potential disease-related changes in gastrointestinal fluid
      composition. However, with the availability of novel non-invasive diagnostic
      options there is a chance of obtaining more information in the near future.

PMID- 28870766
TI  - Mechanistic modeling of a capsule filling process.
AB  - Filling a dosator nozzle moving into a powder bed was investigated using the
      Discrete Element Method (DEM). Various particle diameters and contact properties
      were modeled. The simulations qualitatively showed the influence of powder
      properties on the amount of dosed powder. Two factors that influence the dosed
      mass were observed. First, the ratio between the particle and dosator diameters
      affects the packing of particles inside the dosator chamber. Second, the flow
      behavior of the powder significantly modifies its filling and compression
      behavior. Cohesive powders pack less densely inside the powder bed, which could
      lead to a lower amount of dosed powder. In contrast, cohesive powders are
      compressed more during dosing and the density inside the dosator chamber
      increases during the dosing process. Since the simulation of fine cohesive
      powders is numerically impossible due to a high number of particles and small
      simulation time steps, we applied a simple method for particle scaling to acquire
      a qualitative understanding of the filling behavior of coarse and fine powders.

PMID- 28870767
TI  - Broadening the spectrum of small-molecule antibacterials by metallic
      nanoparticles to overcome microbial resistance.
AB  - Now-a-days development of microbial resistancce have become one of the most
      important global public health concerns. It is estimated that about 2 million
      people are infected in USA with multidrug resistant bacteria and out of these,
      about 23,000 die per year. In Europe, the number of deaths associated with
      infection caused by MDR bacteria is about 25,000 per year, However, the situation
      in Asia and other devloping countries is more critical. Considering the
      increasing rate of antibiotic resistance in various pathogens, it is estimated
      that MDR organisms can kill about 10 million people every year by 2050. The use
      of antibiotics in excessive and irresponsible manner is the main reason towards
      its ineffectiveness. However, in this context, promising application of
      nanotechnology in our everyday life has generated a new avenue for the
      development of potent antimicrobial materials and compounds (nanoantimicrobials)
      capable of dealing with microbial resistance. The devlopement and safe
      incorporation of nanoantimicrobials will bring a new revolution in health sector.
      In this review, we have critically focused on current worldwide situation of
      antibiotic resistance. In addition, the role of various nanomaterials in the
      management of microbial resistance and the possible mechanisms for antibacterial
      action of nanoparticles alone and nanoparticle-antibiotics conjuagte are also
      discussed.

PMID- 28870768
TI  - Sponge like microparticles for drug delivery and cosmeto-textile use: Formulation
      and human skin penetration.
AB  - This unique work is targeted to achieve three main goals: i) to enhance the
      aqueous solubility of three specifically selected hydrophobic active agents, ii)
      to prepare such polymeric biodegradable microparticles which can encapsulate
      actives-cyclodextrin complexes and iii) to functionalize a polyamide base textile
      with active loaded microparticles and active-cyclodextrin loaded microparticles.
      To achieve this objective, biodegradable cationic microparticles were prepared
      via double emulsion solvent evaporation process and were loaded with
      hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin based complexes of Indomethacin, alpha
      tocopheroland Lauryl Isoquinolinium Bromide during the formulation process.
      Inclusion complex based particles were evaluated for their morphology, size
      distribution, zeta potential, skin penetration aptitude and adsorption onto a
      selected textile. It was observed that active-cyclodextrin complex encapsulation
      do not affect the morphology, size and zeta potential of the microparticles as
      well as adsorption of the microparticles onto textile remains unaltered. However
      such active-cyclodextrin complex encapsulated particles provided the enhancement
      in the aqueous solubility of hydrophobic agents and also provided prolonged
      release formulations.

PMID- 28870769
TI  - Progressing neurobiological strategies against proteostasis failure: Challenges
      in neurodegeneration.
AB  - Proteins are ordered useful cellular entities, required for normal health and
      organism's survival. The proteome is the absolute set of cellular expressed
      proteins, which regulates a wide range of physiological functions linked with all
      domains of life. In aging cells or under unfavorable cellular conditions,
      misfolding of proteins generates common pathological events linked with
      neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Current advances of proteome studies
      systematically generates some progress in our knowledge that how misfolding of
      proteins or their accumulation can contribute to the impairment or depletion of
      proteome functions. Still, the underlying causes of this unrecoverable loss are
      not clear that how such unsolved transitions give rise to multifactorial
      challengeable degenerative pathological conditions in neurodegeneration. In this
      review, we specifically focus and systematically summarize various molecular
      mechanisms of proteostasis maintenance, as well as discuss progressing
      neurobiological strategies, promising natural and pharmacological candidates,
      which can be useful to counteract the problem of proteopathies. Our article
      emphasizes an urgent need that now it is important for us to recognize the
      fundamentals of proteostasis to design a new molecular framework and fruitful
      strategies to uncover how the proteome defects are associated with aging and
      neurodegenerative diseases. A enhance understanding of progress link with
      proteome and neurobiological challenges may provide new basic concepts in the
      near future, based on pharmacological agents, linked with impaired proteostasis
      and neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28870770
TI  - Mechanisms of the Improvement in Peak VO2 With Exercise Training in Heart Failure
      With Reduced or Preserved Ejection Fraction.
AB  - Heart failure (HF) is a major health care burden associated with high morbidity
      and mortality. Approximately 50% of HF patients have reduced ejection fraction
      (HFrEF) while the remainder of patients have preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
      A hallmark of both HF phenotypes is dyspnoea upon exertion and severe exercise
      intolerance secondary to impaired oxygen delivery and/or use by exercising
      skeletal muscle. Exercise training is a safe and effective intervention to
      improve peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and quality of life in clinically stable HF
      patients, however, evidence to date suggests that the mechanism of this
      improvement appears to be related to underlying HF phenotype. The purpose of this
      review is to discuss the role of exercise training to improve VO2peak, and how
      the central and peripheral adaptations that mediate the improvements in exercise
      tolerance may be similar or differ by HF phenotype (HFrEF or HFpEF).

PMID- 28870771
TI  - Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical Nocardia species in a
      tertiary hospital in China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There is a lack of information on the activities of antimicrobial
      agents against Nocardia clinical isolates of specific species in China. The aim
      of this study was to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of 28 clinical
      isolates of Nocardia spp. isolated from Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital (Beijing,
      China). METHODS: Molecular diagnosis of Nocardia spp. was performed using partial
      16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequences. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was
      performed by broth microdilution according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards
      Institute (CLSI) recommendations. RESULTS: The species distribution was as
      follows: Nocardia cyriacigeorgica (n=13); Nocardia farcinica (n=6); Nocardia
      beijingensis (n=3); Nocardia abscessus (n=2); Nocardia wallacei (n=2); Nocardia
      otitidiscaviarum (n=1); and Nocardia nova (n=1). The susceptibility rates to
      trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT), linezolid, amikacin, imipenem, tobramycin,
      ceftriaxone and cefotaxime were 100.0%, 100.0%, 92.9%, 75.0%, 67.9%, 67.9% and
      64.3%, respectively, whilst the resistance rate both to ciprofloxacin and
      clarithromycin was 71.4%. CONCLUSIONS: N. cyriacigeorgica was the most frequently
      isolated Nocardia spp. All clinical isolates showed low susceptibility to
      ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin and complete susceptibility both to SXT and
      linezolid, which can be considered the primary choice for the treatment of
      Nocardia infections in China.

PMID- 28870772
TI  - The dissolvable bead: A novel in vitro biofilm model for evaluating antimicrobial
      resistance.
AB  - In vitro biofilm assays are a vital first step in the assessment of therapeutic
      effectiveness. Current biofilm models have been found to be limited by
      throughput, reproducibility, and cost. We present a novel in vitro biofilm model,
      utilising a sodium alginate substratum for surface biofilm colony formation,
      which can be readily dissolved for accurate evaluation of viable organisms. The
      dissolving bead biofilm assay was evaluated using a range of clinically relevant
      strains. The reproducibility and responsiveness of the assay to an antimicrobial
      challenge was assessed using standardised methods. Cryo-scanning electron
      microscopy was used to image biofilm colonies. Biofilms were grown for 20h prior
      to testing. The model provides a reproducible and responsive assay to clinically
      relevant antimicrobial challenges, as defined by established guidelines. Moreover
      cryo-scanning electron microscopy demonstrates that biofilm formation is
      localised exclusively to the alginate bead surface. Our results suggest that this
      simple model provides a robust and adaptable assay for the investigation of
      bacterial biofilms.

PMID- 28870774
TI  - ETS transcription factor family member GABPA contributes to vitamin D receptor
      target gene regulation.
AB  - Binding motifs of the ETS-domain transcription factor GABPA are found with high
      significance below the summits of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) cistrome. VDR is
      the nuclear receptor for the biologically most active vitamin D metabolite
      1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3). In this study, we determined the
      GABPA cistrome in THP-1 human monocytes and found that it is comprised of 3822
      genomic loci, some 20% of which were modulated by 1,25(OH)2D3. The GABPA cistrome
      showed a high overlap rate with accessible chromatin and the pioneer
      transcription factor PU.1. Interestingly, 23 and 12% of persistent and transient
      VDR binding sites, respectively, co-localized with GABPA, which is clearly higher
      than the rate of secondary VDR loci (4%). Some 40% of GABPA binding sites were
      found at transcription start sites, nearly 100 of which are of 1,25(OH)2D3 target
      genes. On 593 genomic loci VDR and GABPA co-localized with PU.1, while only 175
      VDR sites bound GABPA in the absence of PU.1. In total, VDR sites with GABPA co
      localization may control some 450 vitamin D target genes. Those genes that are co
      controlled by PU.1 preferentially participate in cellular and immune signaling
      processes, while the remaining genes are involved in cellular metabolism
      pathways. In conclusion, GABPA may contribute to differential VDR target gene
      regulation.

PMID- 28870775
TI  - Ethical Challenges in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease.
AB  - Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) using an HLA-identical sibling donor
      offers a very high likelihood of cure with good outcomes for patients with sickle
      cell disease (SCD), and alternative donor HCT for SCD is an area of active
      clinical research. Thus, HCT is a potential option for a growing number of
      patients with SCD. This expanded use of HCT has raised several ethical questions.
      Who is eligible for HCT, in terms of both disease severity and psychosocial
      factors? Should affected children with matched sibling donors undergo HCT only
      when they have declared themselves as having significant symptomatology?
      Regarding donors, special ethical challenges include the use of preimplantation
      genetic diagnosis to conceive an HLA-identical sibling. In this review, we
      critically analyze various ethical challenges related to HCT for SCD, and offer
      recommendations to guide clinical care.

PMID- 28870773
TI  - Mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase biogenesis: Recent developments.
AB  - Mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (COX) is the primary site of cellular oxygen
      consumption and is essential for aerobic energy generation in the form of ATP.
      Human COX is a copper-heme A hetero-multimeric complex formed by 3 catalytic core
      subunits encoded in the mitochondrial DNA and 11 subunits encoded in the nuclear
      genome. Investigations over the last 50 years have progressively shed light into
      the sophistication surrounding COX biogenesis and the regulation of this process,
      disclosing multiple assembly factors, several redox-regulated processes leading
      to metal co-factor insertion, regulatory mechanisms to couple synthesis of COX
      subunits to COX assembly, and the incorporation of COX into respiratory
      supercomplexes. Here, we will critically summarize recent progress and
      controversies in several key aspects of COX biogenesis: linear versus modular
      assembly, the coupling of mitochondrial translation to COX assembly and COX
      assembly into respiratory supercomplexes.

PMID- 28870776
TI  - Consensus Report by the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators and
      Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Consortium Joint Working Committees on
      Supportive Care Guidelines for Management of Veno-Occlusive Disease in Children
      and Adolescents, Part 3: Focus on Cardiorespiratory Dysfunction, Infections,
      Liver Dysfunction, and Delirium.
AB  - Some patients with veno-occlusive disease (VOD) have multiorgan dysfunction, and
      multiple teams are involved in their daily care in the pediatric intensive care
      unit. Cardiorespiratory dysfunction is critical in these patients, requiring
      immediate action. The decision of whether to use a noninvasive or an invasive
      ventilation strategy may be difficult in the setting of mucositis or other
      comorbidities in patients with VOD. Similarly, monitoring of organ functions may
      be very challenging in these patients, who may have fulminant hepatic failure
      with or without hepatic encephalopathy complicated by delirium and/or infections.
      In this final guideline of our series on supportive care in patients with VOD, we
      address some of these questions and provide evidence-based recommendations on
      behalf of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators and Pediatric
      Blood and Marrow Transplantation Consortium Joint Working Committees.

PMID- 28870777
TI  - Effects of Late Toxicities on Outcomes in Long-Term Survivors of Ex-Vivo CD34+
      Selected Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.
AB  - The late adverse events in long-term survivors after myeloablative-conditioned
      allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with ex vivo CD34+ cell
      selection are not well characterized. Using the National Cancer Institute's
      Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0, we assessed all
      grade >=3 toxicities from the start of conditioning to the date of death,
      relapse, or last contact in 131 patients who survived >1 year post-HCT,
      identifying 285 individual toxicities among 17 organ-based toxicity groups.
      Pretransplantation absolute lymphocyte count >.5 K/uL and serum albumin >4.0 g/dL
      were associated with a reduced risk of toxicities, death, and nonrelapse
      mortality (NRM), whereas serum ferritin >1000 ng/mL was associated with an
      increased risk of toxicities and NRM after 1 year. An HCT Comorbidity Index (HCT
      CI) score >=3 was associated with an increased risk of all-cause death and NRM,
      but was not associated with a specific increased toxicity risk after 1 year.
      Patients who incurred more than the median number of toxicities (n = 7) among all
      patients within the first year subsequently had an increased risk of hematologic,
      infectious, and metabolic toxicities, as well as an increased risk of NRM and
      inferior 4-year overall survival (OS) (67% versus 86%; P = .003) after the 1-year
      landmark. The development of grade II-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)
      within the first year was associated with incurring >7 toxicities within the
      first year (P = .016), and also with an increased risk of all-cause death and NRM
      after 1 year. In multivariate models, cardiovascular, hematologic, hepatic,
      infectious, metabolic, neurologic, and pulmonary toxicities incurred after 1 year
      were independently associated with increased risk of death and NRM when adjusting
      for both HCT-CI and grade II-IV acute GVHD within the first year. One-year
      survivors of ex vivo CD34+ selection had a favorable 4-year OS of 77%, although
      the development of grade >=3 toxicities after the first year was associated with
      poorer outcomes, emphasizing the fundamental importance of improving survivorship
      efforts that may improve long-term toxicity burden and outcome.

PMID- 28870778
TI  - Outcome Analysis of Pediatric Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated
      with Total Body Irradiation-Free Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell
      Transplantation: Comparison of Patients with and Without Central Nervous System
      Involvement.
AB  - Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with a non-total body irradiation
      (TBI) conditioning regimen has proven feasible for treating patients with acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, it is commonly believed that for
      extramedullary involvement of ALL in sanctuary sites, such as the central nervous
      system (CNS), TBI shall not be abandoned. In this study, the outcomes of
      pediatric ALL patients with CNS involvement (CNS+) and without CNS involvement
      (CNS-) treated with TBI-free allogeneic HSCT were retrospectively compared. The
      patients received a TBI-free busulfan plus cyclophosphamide conditioning regimen.
      Comparing CNS+ (n = 27) and CNS- (n = 134) patients, the 5-year probabilities of
      relapse (44.4% versus 41.8%; P = .799), disease-free survival (DFS; 48.1% versus
      43.3%; P = .642) and overall survival (OS; 51.9% versus 47.0%; P = .646) were not
      significantly different. Although transplantation-related mortality (TRM) was
      higher in the CNS- patients, the difference between the 2 groups was not
      significant (3.7% versus 12.7%; P = .177). In multivariate analysis, there were
      no significant between-group differences in OS (P = .502), DFS (P = .424),
      relapse rate (P = .226), or TRM (P = .117). These findings suggest that HSCT
      using a non-TBI-containing conditioning regimen can lead to similar outcomes in
      pediatric ALL patients with and without CNS involvement. TBI-free allogeneic HSCT
      might be feasible and effective for CNS+ ALL patients.

PMID- 28870779
TI  - Epitestosterone- and testosterone-replacement in immature castrated rats changes
      main testicular developmental characteristics.
AB  - Epitestosterone is the 17alpha-epimer of testosterone and has been described as
      an anti-androgen, since it inhibits the effects produced by testosterone and
      dihydrotestosterone via the nuclear androgen receptor (nAR). However,
      epitestosterone also displays an effect which is similar to the non-classical
      effect of testosterone, depolarizing the membrane potential of Sertoli cells and
      inducing a rapid Ca2+ uptake. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a
      treatment with epitestosterone on developmental parameters of immature rats.
      Animals were chemically castrated by using the gonadotropin-releasing hormone
      (GnRH) antagonist cetrorelix and then received a replacement of 7 days with
      epitestosterone or testosterone. Replacement with either epitestosterone or
      testosterone restored the anogenital distance (AGD) and testicular weight which
      had been reduced by chemical castration. The immunocontent of nAR and the nAR
      immunoreactivity were reduced by epitestosterone treatment in the testis of both
      castrated and non-castrated animals. Furthermore, testosterone was unable of
      changing the membrane potential of Sertoli cells through its non-classical action
      in the group of animals castrated and replaced with epitestosterone. In
      conclusion, in relation to the level of protein expression of nAR epitestosterone
      acts as an anti-androgen. However, it acts in the same way as testosterone when
      genital development parameters are evaluated. Moreover, in castrated rats
      epitestosterone suppressed the non-classical response of testosterone, changing
      the pattern of testosterone signalling via a membrane mechanism in Sertoli cells.

PMID- 28870780
TI  - Mutational analysis of rare subtypes of congenital adrenal hyperplasia in a
      highly inbred population.
AB  - CONTEXT: Apart from 21 Hydroxylase deficiency, other subtypes of congenital
      adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are rare. We studied the clinical features and
      molecular genetics of a relatively large series of patients with CYP17A1,
      HSD3beta2 and StAR deficiencies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We studied 21 patients
      including 7 patients with CYP17A1, 10 patients with HSD3beta2 and 4 patients with
      StAR deficiencies. For mutation detection, we isolated DNA from peripheral
      leucocytes, amplified genes of interest using polymerase chain reaction and
      directly sequenced the amplicons using Dideoxy Chain Termination method. RESULTS:
      Regardless of their karyotype, patients with CYP17A1 deficiency presented with
      normally looking external female genitalia and were raised as females.
      Hypertension and hypokalemia were prominent features in 4 of 7 patients. Two
      missense (p.R416H, p.R239Q) and 2 non-sense (p.Y329X, p.Y329X) mutations were
      found in these 7 cases. In 3 unrelated families with 10 affected siblings with
      HSD3beta2 mutations, two non-sense mutations were found (p.Q334X, p.R335X). 46XY
      patients with HSD3beta2 deficiency presented with ambiguous genitalia while 46XX
      patients presented with normal female external genitalia. Adrenal crisis was
      common in patients with both karyotypes. In the 4 patients with StAR deficiency,
      both genetic male and female patients presented with normally looking female
      external genitalia and adrenal crisis. One previously reported missense mutation
      (p.R182H) was found in 3 unrelated patients and a novel non-sense mutation
      (p.Q264X) in the fourth patient. CONCLUSIONS: These cases of rare subtypes of CAH
      illustrate the heterogeneous phenotypic and genetic features of these subtypes
      and add unique novel mutations to the previously known ones.

PMID- 28870781
TI  - Aberrant G protein-receptor expression is associated with DNA methylation in
      aldosterone-producing adenoma.
AB  - This study aimed to evaluate the methylation levels of G protein-coupled receptor
      (GPCR) related genes and the effects of methylation on mRNA expression levels in
      aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA). DNA methylation array and transcriptome
      analysis were applied in non-functioning adrenocortical adenoma (NFA) and APA. We
      investigated 192 GPCR-related genes and found hypo-methylation in the promoter
      region of 66 of these genes in APA. An integration study between microarray and
      methylation analysis revealed that HTR4, MC2R, TACR1, GRM3, and PTGER1 showed
      hypo-methylation and up-regulation of mRNA in APA. qPCR analysis showed that HTR4
      and PTGER1 expression was 9.3-fold and 6.6-fold higher in APAs than in NFAs,
      respectively, whereas expression of the other genes was not different between the
      groups. Methylation of HTR4 and PTGER1 at positions -229 and -666 from the
      transcription start site, respectively, showed a significant inverse correlation
      with their mRNA levels. Methylation levels were not associated with KCNJ5 or
      ATP1A1 mutations in human adrenal samples. We demonstrated an increased incidence
      of CpG island demethylation of GPCR-related gene in APA. The expression of two
      receptors, HTR4 and PTGER1, showed a strong association with DNA methylation.

PMID- 28870782
TI  - The role of TET-mediated DNA hydroxymethylation in prostate cancer.
AB  - Ten-eleven translocation (TET) proteins are recently characterized dioxygenases
      that regulate demethylation by oxidizing 5-methylcytosine to 5
      hydroxymethylcytosine and further derivatives. The recent finding that 5hmC is
      also a stable and independent epigenetic modification indicates that these
      proteins play an important role in diverse physiological and pathological
      processes such as neural and tumor development. Both the genomic distribution of
      (hydroxy)methylation and the expression and activity of TET proteins are
      dysregulated in a wide range of cancers including prostate cancer. Up to now it
      is still unknown how changes in TET and 5(h)mC profiles are related to the
      pathogenesis of prostate cancer. In this review, we explore recent advances in
      the current understanding of how TET expression and function are regulated in
      development and cancer. Furthermore, we look at the impact on 5hmC in prostate
      cancer and the potential underlying mechanisms. Finally, we tried to summarize
      the latest techniques for detecting and quantifying global and locus-specific
      5hmC levels of genomic DNA.

PMID- 28870783
TI  - 19p13.3-GADD45B common variants and 19q13.3-PPP1R13L and 19q13.3-CD3EAP in lung
      cancer risk among Chinese.
AB  - Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The
      GADD45 gene family plays important roles in a variety of the responses to cell
      injury including cell cycle checkpoints, apoptosis, DNA repair and anti-tumor
      immunity. The 19p13.3-GADD45B encoded protein product is involved in apoptosis
      and inhibiting tumor growth. To evaluate the association of 19p13.3-GADD45B
      common variants and lung cancer risk, the present study containing 544 Chinese
      lung cancer cases and 550 cancer-free controls was conducted. Three htSNPs
      (haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphism) (rs7354, rs14384, and
      rs3783501) covering 95% of the common haplotype diversity in 19p13.3-GADD45B and
      interaction of 19p13.3-GADD45B and 19q13.3-PPP1R13L and 19q13.3-CD3EAP variants
      and smoking-duration were explored. Genotype and allele frequencies and haplotype
      distributions of the 19p13.3-GADD45B 3 htSNPs were not associated with lung
      cancer risk after adjustment for smoking status. 19p13.3-GADD45B rs7354 was
      associated with lung cancer risk among <=20 (years) smokers [C/A-A/A versus CC,
      OR (95% CI) = 3.20 (1.11-9.20), P = 0.025] in a dominant model stratified by
      smoking duration. MDR (multifactor dimensionality reduction) analyses showed that
      smoking history as main effect and three-way models (smoking duration, 19p13.3
      GADD45B rs3783501, 19q13.3-CD3EAP rs967591) (P = 0.001-0.002) indicated
      statistically significant association with lung cancer risk. The study identified
      evidence implicating DNA damage response genes on chromosome 19 in etiology of
      smoke-exposed lung cancer. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that 19p13.3
      GADD45B rs7354 variant and interaction between 19p13.3-GADD45B rs3783501 and
      19q13.3-CD3EAP rs967591 may play a role in association with smoke-exposed lung
      cancer among Chinese. 19p13.3-GADD45B variants should be further evaluated in
      large prospective studies with molecular pathological annotations of lung cancer.

PMID- 28870784
TI  - Isotypes of autoantibodies against differentially expressed novel malondialdehyde
      modified peptide adducts in serum of Taiwanese women with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - : This study identified and validated four differentially expressed novel
      malondialdehyde (MDA)-modified peptide adducts and evaluated autoantibodies
      against native and MDA-modified peptides among Taiwanese women patients with
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA) and healthy controls (HCs). Ig
      kappa chain C region76-99, alpha-1-antitrypsin284-298, alpha-2-macroglobulin824
      841, and apolipoprotein B-1004022-4040 exhibiting 2-fold differences in relative
      modification ratios were identified by concanavalin A (Con A) affinity
      chromatography, 1D SDS-PAGE, in-gel digestion, nano-LC/MS/MS and nano-LC/MS using
      pooled serum-derived Con A-captured proteins from 9 RA and 9 age-matched HCs.
      Furthermore, the levels of proteins, serum MDA, and MDA-modified protein adducts
      were further validated against individual serum from 20 RA and 20 HCs, and
      autoantibodies against native and their MDA-modified peptides used 45 RA, 30 OA
      and 45 HCs. Levels of serum MDA and MDA-modified protein adducts were
      significantly higher in RA than HCs but protein levels were not significantly
      different. Serum Igs G and M against MDA-modified peptides showed better
      diagnostic performance in differentiating among patients with RA, OA and HCs,
      with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.96-0.98,
      sensitivity of 88.9%-97.8%, and specificity of 88.9%-100%. Autoantibodies against
      MDA-modified epitopes become useful clinical biomarkers for RA. BIOLOGICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: By using a label-free relative quantitative proteomic analysis of
      concanavalin A (Con A)-bound serum samples, the current study discovered and
      validated malondialdehyde (MDA)-modified peptide adducts as novel biomarkers for
      differentiating between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy controls
      (HCs). In addition, the serum levels of MDA, proteins, and MDA-modified protein
      adducts as well as the MDA modification of proteins were determined. Isotypes of
      autoantibodies against MDA-modified peptide adducts can be used as serological
      biomarkers for further discriminating among RA patients, osteoarthritis patients
      and HCs. This strategy can become the basis for identifying potential diagnostic
      and pathological biomarkers for RA.

PMID- 28870785
TI  - Concurrent Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy in Locally Advanced
      Breast Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate whether concurrent neoadjuvant radiation added to standard
      chemotherapy could increase the pathologic complete response (pCR) to treatment
      for locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: This
      prospective phase 2 trial recruited 32 LABC patients from 2009 to 2011. Patients
      received neoadjuvant every-3-weekly 5-fluorouracil (500 mg/m2), epirubicin (100
      mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m2) for 3 cycles, followed by weekly
      docetaxel (35 mg/m2) for 9 cycles. Regional radiation (45 Gy/25 plus 5.4 Gy/5)
      was delivered concurrently with docetaxel, then modified radical mastectomy.
      Patients were matched post hoc by a blinded statistician to a concurrent cohort
      treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, modified radical mastectomy, and adjuvant
      regional radiation. RESULTS: Thirty of 32 patients completed treatment. Twenty
      seven were successfully matched by propensity score to 81 control patients by
      age, stage, and molecular subtype. The concurrent chemoradiation produced a
      significant increase in pCR (14% vs 22%, P<.001) but no statistically significant
      difference in disease-free and overall survival at 3 years (respectively, 69% vs
      81%, P=.186, hazard ratio 0.51; and 74% vs 89%, P=.162, hazard ratio 0.46).
      Toxicity included 25% of patients with grade 3 pneumonitis and 25% of patients
      with dermatitis, and 1 death. CONCLUSIONS: Concurrent neoadjuvant radiation added
      to radiosensitizing chemotherapy significantly improved pCR. A prospective
      randomized clinical trial is warranted to exploit the improved response seen with
      concurrent therapy but using another radio-sensitizing taxane, to better minimize
      treatment-related toxicity and determine its impact on overall survival.

PMID- 28870786
TI  - Online Adaptive Hyperthermia Treatment Planning During Locoregional Heating to
      Suppress Treatment-Limiting Hot Spots.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adequate tumor temperatures during hyperthermia are essential for
      good clinical response, but excessive heating of normal tissue should be avoided.
      This makes locoregional heating using phased array systems technically
      challenging. Online application of hyperthermia treatment planning could help to
      improve the heating quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical
      benefit of online treatment planning during treatment of pelvic tumors heated
      with the AMC-8 locoregional hyperthermia system. METHODS: For online adaptive
      hyperthermia treatment planning, a graphical user interface was developed.
      Electric fields were calculated in a preprocessing step using our in-house
      developed finite-difference-based treatment planning system. This allows instant
      calculation of the temperature distribution for user-selected phase-amplitude
      settings during treatment and projection onto the patient's computed tomographic
      scan for online visualization. Online treatment planning was used for 14
      treatment sessions in 8 patients to reduce the patients' reports of hot spots
      while maintaining the same level of tumor heating. The predicted decrease in hot
      spot temperature should be at least 0.5 degrees C, and the tumor temperature
      should decrease less than 0.2 degrees C. These predictions were compared with
      clinical data: patient feedback about the hot spot and temperature measurements
      in the tumor region. RESULTS: In total, 17 hot spot reports occurred during the
      14 sessions, and the alternative settings predicted the hot spot temperature to
      decrease by at least 0.5 degrees C, which was confirmed by the disappearance of
      all 17 hot spot reports. At the same time, the average tumor temperature was
      predicted to change on average -0.01 degrees C (range, -0.19 degrees C to 0.34
      degrees C). The measured tumor temperature change was on average only -0.02
      degrees C (range, -0.26 degrees C to 0.31 degrees C). In only 2 cases the
      temperature decrease was slightly larger than 0.2 degrees C, but at most it was
      0.26 degrees C. CONCLUSIONS: Online application of hyperthermia treatment
      planning is reliable and very useful to reduce hot spots without affecting tumor
      temperatures.

PMID- 28870787
TI  - Conditional Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 1 Deletion in the Endothelial
      Compartment Has No Beneficial Effect on Radiation-Induced Whole-Lung Damage in
      Mice.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate whether the endothelial pool of plasminogen activator
      inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) plays a role in the development of radiation-induced
      lung damage, as previously demonstrated in the intestine. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      Human lung microvascular endothelial cells were exposed to 10 Gy irradiation so
      as to study their ability to acquire an "activated" phenotype. Mice in which the
      Cre-Lox strategy was used to produce PAI-1 deletion specifically in the
      endothelial compartment were exposed to 17 Gy whole-thorax irradiation and
      followed up for 2, 13, and 23 weeks after irradiation. RESULTS: Human lung
      microvascular endothelial cells had an activated phenotype after radiation
      exposure, overexpressed PAI-1, and underwent endothelial-to-mesenchymal
      transition. In mice, knockout of PAI-1 in the endothelium had no beneficial
      effect on radiation-induced lung damage and showed a tendency to worsen acute
      lesions. CONCLUSIONS: As opposed to the intestine, the endothelial pool of PAI-1
      does not play a determinant role in the development of radiation-induced lung
      damage. The therapeutic value of PAI-1 inhibition in lung radiation injury may be
      associated with other types of cells.

PMID- 28870788
TI  - Effect of Brain Tumor Presence During Radiation on Tissue Toxicity:
      Transcriptomic and Metabolic Changes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Radiation therapy (RT) causes functional and transcriptomic changes in
      the brain; however, most studies have been carried out in normal rodent brains.
      Here, the long-term effect of irradiation and tumor presence during radiation was
      investigated. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Male Wistar rats ~7 weeks old were divided
      into 3 groups: sham implant, RT+sham implant, and RT+tumor implant (C6 glioma).
      Hypofractionated irradiation (8 or 6 Gy/day for 5 days) was localized to a 1-cm
      strip of cranium starting 5 days after implantation, resulting in complete tumor
      regression and prolonged survival. Biopsy of tissue was performed in the implant
      area 65 days after implantation. RNA was hybridized to GeneChip Rat Exon 1.0 ST
      array. Data were analyzed using significant analysis of microarrays and ingenuity
      pathway analysis. 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) imaging was
      performed in the implantation site 65 to 70 days after implantation using a 9.4 T
      Biospec magnetic resonance imaging scanner with a quadrature rat brain array.
      Immunohistochemical staining for astrogliosis, HMG-CoA synthase 2, gamma
      aminobutyric acid (GABA) and taurine was performed at ~65 days after
      implantation. RESULTS: Eighty-four genes had a false discovery rate <3.5%. We
      compared RT+tumor implant with RT+sham implant animals. The tumor presence
      affected networks associated with cancer/cell morphology/tissue morphology. 1H
      MRS showed significant reduction in taurine levels (P<.04) at the implantation
      site in both groups. However, the RT+tumor group also showed significant increase
      in levels of neurotransmitter GABA (P=.02). Hippocampal taurine levels were only
      significantly reduced in the RT+tumor group (P=.03). HMG-CoA synthase 2, GABA and
      taurine levels were confirmed using staining. Glial fibrillary acidic protein
      staining demonstrated a significant increase in inflammation that was heightened
      in the RT+tumor group. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that tumor presence during
      radiation significantly affects long-term functional transcriptomics landscape
      and neurotransmitter levels at the tumor implantation site/normal tissue,
      accompanied by increased inflammation (astrogliosis).

PMID- 28870789
TI  - Panitumumab in Combination With Preoperative Radiation Therapy in Patients With
      Locally Advanced RAS Wild-type Rectal Cancer: Results of the Multicenter
      Explorative Single-Arm Phase 2 Study NEORIT.
AB  - PURPOSE: Studies investigating combinations of anti-epidermal growth factor
      receptor monoclonal antibodies such as panitumumab or cetuximab with standard
      chemoradiation therapy protocols in rectal cancer have yielded disappointing
      results. Because of the supposed negative interaction of epidermal growth factor
      receptor inhibition and chemoradiation therapy, we conducted a phase 2 study
      using single-agent panitumumab in combination with radiation therapy in patients
      with RAS wild-type locally advanced rectal cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      Patients with RAS wild-type locally advanced (clinical stage II or III) rectal
      cancer localized 0 to 12 cm from the anus were eligible for study participation.
      The primary objective of the study was to determine pathologic complete response
      (pCR). Secondary objectives comprised assessing the safety, surgical morbidity,
      clinical response, tumor downstaging, and tumor regression grading according to
      Dworak. RESULTS: A total of 54 patients with a median age of 58 years were
      treated. In 3.7% of patients, pCR was achieved. Downstaging of the primary tumor
      or lymph nodes was seen in 65% of patients. No grade >=2 hematologic toxicity was
      seen. The most common grade >=3 nonhematologic toxicities were skin toxicity
      (24%) and diarrhea (10%). CONCLUSIONS: Panitumumab in combination with radiation
      therapy as neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer showed a
      favorable toxicity profile but failed to meet the predefined pCR rate to justify
      further clinical trials.

PMID- 28870790
TI  - Adjuvant Intensity Modulated Whole-Abdominal Radiation Therapy for High-Risk
      Patients With Ovarian Cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and
      Obstetrics Stage III): First Results of a Prospective Phase 2 Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess treatment tolerance and toxicity rates of consolidative whole
      abdominal radiation therapy (WART) following cytoreductive surgery and
      carboplatin/paclitaxel chemotherapy in high-risk patients with advanced ovarian
      cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage III) using
      intensity modulated radiation therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The OVAR-IMRT-02
      study is a multicenter, single-arm, phase 2 trial. Twenty patients with optimally
      debulked ovarian cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
      stage III) with complete remission after chemotherapy were treated with intensity
      modulated WART as a consolidation therapy. A total dose of 30 Gy in 20 fractions
      of 1.5 Gy was applied to the entire peritoneal cavity. The primary endpoint was
      treatment tolerability, defined as lack of any Common Terminology Criteria for
      Adverse Events grade 4 toxicity within 10 weeks after start of treatment;
      secondary objectives were acute and chronic toxicity, quality of life, rates of
      therapy disruption and abortion, and progression-free and overall survival.
      RESULTS: Intensity modulated WART resulted in excellent coverage of the whole
      peritoneal cavity, with effective sparing of all organs at risk. The primary
      analysis included all 20 enrolled patients, of whom 19 did not experience Common
      Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events grade 4 toxicity. Only 1 patient
      experienced acute grade 4 hematologic toxicity. Thus, the tolerability rate of
      intensity modulated WART was significantly higher than 70%. No gastrointestinal
      acute toxicities higher than grade 2 have been observed. During WART, mean global
      health status decreased by 18.1 points (95% confidence interval 7.1, 29.0). Six
      weeks after WART, global health status had already increased, with a mean score
      difference of 4.6 (95% confidence interval -11.1, 20.4) compared with baseline.
      Similar characteristics were observed for all function scale scores. CONCLUSION:
      Intensity modulated WART after aggressive surgery and carboplatin/paclitaxel
      chemotherapy is associated with an acceptable risk of acute toxicity and a
      treatment tolerability rate significantly higher than 70%. Together with our
      knowledge about clinical feasibility, meaning excellent coverage of the planning
      target volume and effective sparing of organs at risk, intensity modulated WART
      could offer a new therapeutic option for consolidation treatment of patients with
      advanced ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28870791
TI  - Performance of Knowledge-Based Radiation Therapy Planning for the Glioblastoma
      Disease Site.
AB  - PURPOSE: The presence of multiple serial organs at risk (OARs) in close proximity
      to the tumor makes treatment planning for glioblastoma (GBM) complex and time
      consuming. The present study aimed to create a knowledge-based (KB) radiation
      therapy model for GBM patients using RapidPlan. METHODS AND MATERIALS: An initial
      model was trained using 82 glioblastoma patients treated with 60 Gy in 30
      fractions. Plans were created using either volumetric modulated arc therapy
      (VMAT) or intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). To improve the goodness
      of-fit of the model, an intermediate model was generated by using the dose-volume
      histograms (DVHs) of best spared OARs of the initial model. Using the
      intermediate model and manual refinement, all 82 cases were replanned, resulting
      in the final model. The final model was validated on an independent set of 45
      patients with GBM, astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, and meningioma. RESULTS: The
      plans created by the final model exhibited superior planning target volume (PTV)
      dose metrics compared with manual clinical plans: DeltaD99%=-0.52 +/- 0.20 Gy,
      and DeltaD1%=0.80 +/- 0.13 Gy (differences are computed as clinical-model). OAR
      maximum doses were statistically similar, with improved optic apparatus sparing
      (DeltaDmax=2.78 +/- 0.82 Gy). Stated improvements correspond to P<.05. The KB
      planning time is typically 7 minutes for IMRT and 13 minutes for VMAT, compared
      with a typical 4 hours for manual planning. CONCLUSIONS: The KB approach results
      in significant improvement in planning efficiency and in superior PTV coverage
      and better normal tissue sparing irrespective of tumor size and location within
      the brain.

PMID- 28870793
TI  - Rare association of optic disk pits with myelinated retinal nerves.
AB  - We report the case of a 9-year-old girl who presented for a routine change of
      glasses. On slit-lamp examination, no abnormality was detected; however, dilated
      fundus examination revealed profuse myelination of the retinal nerves around the
      disk of the right eye along with an optic disk pit inferotemporally. The left eye
      fundus also had an optic disk pit inferotemporally but no associated myelination.
      Visual acuity was 6/9 in each eye, and the patient had no other ocular or
      systemic complaints. To our knowledge, cooccurrence of myelinated retinal nerves
      and optic disk pits in the same eye, has not been previously reported.

PMID- 28870792
TI  - Multicenter, Phase 1, Dose Escalation Study of Hypofractionated Stereotactic
      Radiation Therapy With Bevacizumab for Recurrent Glioblastoma and Anaplastic
      Astrocytoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To establish the maximum tolerated dose of a 3-fraction hypofractionated
      stereotactic reirradiation schedule when delivered with concomitant bevacizumab
      to treat recurrent high-grade gliomas. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with
      recurrent high-grade glioma with Karnofsky performance status >=60, history of
      standard fractionated initial radiation, tumor volume at recurrence <=40 cm3, and
      absence of brainstem or corpus callosum involvement were eligible. A standard 3+3
      phase 1 dose escalation trial design was utilized, with dose-limiting toxicities
      defined as any grade 3 to 5 toxicities possibly, probably, or definitely related
      to radiation. Bevacizumab was given at a dose of 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks.
      Hypofractionated stereotactic reirradiation was initiated after 2 bevacizumab
      doses, delivered in 3 fractions every other day, starting at 9 Gy per fraction.
      RESULTS: A total of 3 patients were enrolled at the 9 Gy * 3 dose level cohort, 5
      in the 10 Gy * 3 cohort, and 7 in the 11 Gy * 3 cohort. One dose-limiting
      toxicity of grade 3 fatigue and cognitive deterioration possibly related to
      hypofractionated stereotactic reirradiation was observed in the 11 Gy * 3 cohort,
      and this dose was declared the maximum tolerated dose in combination with
      bevacizumab. Although no symptomatic radionecrosis was observed, substantial
      treatment-related effects and necrosis were observed in resected specimens. The
      intent-to-treat median overall survival was 13 months. CONCLUSIONS: Reirradiation
      using a 3-fraction schedule with bevacizumab support is feasible and reasonably
      well tolerated. Dose-escalation was possible up to 11 Gy * 3, which achieves a
      near doubling in the delivered biological equivalent dose to normal brain, in
      comparison with our previous 6 Gy * 5 schedule. Promising overall survival
      warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28870794
TI  - Pediatric ophthalmology and childhood reading difficulties: Amblyopia and slow
      reading.
AB  - Reading is a major life activity, as recognized by the US Congress in the
      Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008, and the education code of
      most US states requires schools to evaluate reading and implement reading
      programs to addresses students' reading difficulties. Currently, such legislation
      is employed to identify accommodations needed for children with bilateral visual
      impairment and for children with dyslexia and/or related learning disabilities.
      Yet recent research has shown that children with the most common form of
      monocular visual impairment-amblyopia-read slowly. Slow reading can be
      detrimental to academic performance and learning, which in turn may affect self
      esteem. Parents and educators can work together to implement accommodations (eg,
      extra time) to help amblyopic students succeed in their daily school tasks, and
      improve their performance on the timed, standardized tests that are critical for
      promotion and admission to magnet schools, TAG programs, high schools, and
      colleges. Children with other visual disorders that cause visual impairment in
      one eye (eg, glaucoma, cataract, trauma, etc) should also be considered for
      academic accommodations.

PMID- 28870796
TI  - Forceps trauma in a newborn presenting as iris heterochromia.
AB  - Birth-associated ocular trauma is common and often minor, including
      subconjunctival and retinal haemorrhage and eyelid edema. Significant ocular
      trauma during birth, usually associated with forceps-assisted delivery, is rarer
      and can include Descemet's membrane rupture, lid lacerations, hyphema, Purtcher
      retinopathy, facial nerve palsy, corneal edema, and corneal laceration. We report
      the first case of ocular birth trauma from forceps presenting as isolated iris
      heterochromia and a pseudo rubeosis iridis, which completely resolved by 1 month
      of age with no known adverse ocular sequelae.

PMID- 28870795
TI  - Securing extraocular muscles in strabismus surgery: biomechanical analysis of
      muscle imbrication.
AB  - An experimental study was performed to quantitatively evaluate the tensile
      strength of extraocular muscle imbrication as it relates to the positioning of
      the imbricating suture. The study was conducted in a controlled fashion using
      fresh ex vivo pig eyes with extraocular muscles attached and a precision digital
      force gauge. The study provides clinically translatable data to inform surgical
      technique regarding secure muscle imbrication. Results suggest that imbrications
      performed 0.5 mm or less from the cut muscle edge or 0.5 mm or less from the
      lateral margin may be prone to tensile failure.

PMID- 28870797
TI  - Detailed characterisation of STC-1 cells and the pGIP/Neo sub-clone suggests the
      incretin hormones are translationally regulated.
AB  - STC-1 is a heterogeneous plurihormonal cell line producing several prominent gut
      peptide hormones. pGIP/Neo is a genetically selected sub-clone of STC-1 with
      augmented levels of glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP). Morphometric
      parameters, hormone concentrations, mRNA transcripts, hormone immunocytochemistry
      and nutrient utilisation/production of these two cell lines were compared.
      Proglucagon-derived peptides (Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and - 2(GLP-2))
      were lower in sub-clone cells than progenitor cells. High Content Analysis found
      altered intracellular GLP-1, GIP, cholecystokinin (CCK) and peptide YY (PYY)
      levels and differing hormone co-localisation. The proportion pGIP/Neo cells
      containing GIP immunoreactivity (82%) was greater than STC-1 (65%), as were the
      proportion with 'GIP only', 'GLP-1+GIP' or 'GIP+PYY' immunoreactivity. Most
      surprisingly mRNA transcripts of the proglucagon and GIP genes were inversely
      correlated to the levels of their translated peptides. This strongly suggests
      that proglucagon and GIP are encoded on 'translationally regulated genes' - a
      characteristic possessed by other endocrine hormones. Metabolomic profiling
      revealed differences in cellular nutrient utilisation/production and that under
      normal culture conditions both cell lines exhibit signs of overflow metabolism.
      These studies provide an insight into the metabolism and properties of these
      valuable cells, suggesting for the first time that incretin hormone genes are
      translationally regulated.

PMID- 28870798
TI  - Pattern of Mas expression in acute and post-acute stage of nerve injury in mice.
AB  - Angiotensin-(1-7) (Ang [1-7]) and its receptor Mas are involved in a number of
      physiological processes, including control of arterial pressure and modulation of
      nervous system actions. However, the involvement of the Ang-(1-7)/Mas axis in
      peripheral nerve injury has not been investigated. Using a model of sciatic nerve
      injury in mice, we demonstrated opposing changes in Mas receptor expression at
      days 2 and 14 post-injury. Mas receptor expression was more intense 2days after
      the nerve lesion, compared with the intensity of the intact nerve. At this time
      point, the sciatic nerve functional index was -20. At day 14 after the lesion,
      the intensity of the immunostaining labeling in longitudinal sections of the
      nerve was reduced (~30%) and the functional index increased +36 (gait
      improvement). In the axotomized group treated with A779 (a Mas receptor
      antagonist), the functional recovery index decreased in relation to the untreated
      axotomized group. The Mas receptor inhibitor also altered the intensity of
      labeling of S-100, GAP43, and IBA-1 (morphological features compatible with
      delayed axon growth). This study demonstrated that Ang-(1-7)/Mas axis activity
      was differentially modulated in the acute and post-acute stages of nerve injury.

PMID- 28870799
TI  - Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation for the Management of Depression, Anxiety,
      Sleep Disturbance, and Pain in Patients With Advanced Cancer: A Preliminary
      Study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) is a safe modulation of brain
      activity for treating depression, anxiety, insomnia, and pain. However, there are
      no published studies in patients with advanced cancer (ACPs). OBJECTIVES: The aim
      of the study was to determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a four
      week CES intervention on depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and pain scores.
      Concurrent salivary biomarker studies were conducted. METHODS: In this one group
      open label pre- and post-intervention study with a four-week CES intervention,
      ACPs with one or more of four moderate intensity (>=3/10) Edmonton Symptom
      Assessment Scale (ESAS) symptoms (depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and
      pain) were eligible. Adherence (0%-100%), satisfaction rates (0-10), and safety
      were assessed. ESAS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Pittsburgh
      Sleep Quality Index, Brief Pain Inventory, and salivary levels (cortisol, alpha
      amylase, C-reactive protein, and interleukin-1beta, and interleukin-6) were
      assessed from baseline to Week 4. RESULTS: Thirty-three of 36 patients (92%)
      completed the CES. Median (interquartile range) adherence CES use and
      satisfaction scores were 93% (89-100) and 10% (9-10), respectively, and the
      adherence criteria was met in the study. CES use was safe (no Grade 3 or higher
      adverse events). HADS anxiety (P < 0.001), HADS depression (P = 0.024), ESAS
      anxiety (P = 0.001), ESAS depression (P = 0.025), Brief Pain Inventory pain (P =
      0.013), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index daytime dysfunction (P = 0.002), and
      medication use (P = 0.006) scores improved after four-week CES treatment.
      CONCLUSION: In this preliminary study, we found that the use of CES was safe and
      feasible in ACP. The use of CES was associated with significant improvement of
      depression, anxiety, pain, and sleep scores. These findings support further
      studies of CES in ACP for symptom control.

PMID- 28870800
TI  - Cancer Pain With a Neuropathic Component: A Cross-sectional Study of Its Clinical
      Characteristics, Associated Psychological Distress, Treatments, and Predictors at
      Referral to a Cancer Pain Clinic.
AB  - CONTEXT: In patients with cancer pain, identifying a neuropathic pain component
      (NPC) may inform the selection of subsequent therapeutic interventions.
      OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence, clinical
      characteristics, associated psychological distress, pre-referral treatment, and
      predictors of cancer pain with an NPC in patients referred to a cancer pain
      clinic. METHODS: Participants had standard assessments and documentation: Brief
      Pain Inventory ratings, presence of an NPC, based on a Douleur Neuropathique 4
      (DN4) (neuropathic pain screening scale) score >=4 combined with a physician's
      clinical assessment (blinded to DN4 result), the Hospital Anxiety Depression
      Scale, and Emotion Thermometer scores. Logistic regression analyses were used to
      determine predictors associated with an NPC. RESULTS: Of 371 study participants,
      120 (32.3%) had a designated NPC. Overall, psychological distress indices were
      similar in the NPC and nociceptive pain groups, except for a Hospital Anxiety and
      Depression Scale >7 score that was proportionately higher (74% vs. 63%, P = 0.03)
      in the nociceptive group. The final multivariable logistic regression model
      generated the following NPC predictors and their respective odds ratios (95%
      CIs): recent chemotherapy, 2.93 (1.63-5.26); recent surgery, 3.65 (2.03-6.59);
      adjuvant analgesic use, 2.93 (1.66-5.17); episodic incident pain, 2.63 (1.44
      4.84); episodic breakthrough pain, 3.67 (2.00-6.73); pain duration three or more
      months, 2.35 (1.36-4.06); higher pain intensity, 1.47 (1.24-1.74); and pelvic or
      perineal pain location, 2.75 (1.09-6.96). CONCLUSION: One in three patients with
      cancer have an NPC, which is independently associated with recent chemotherapy,
      surgery, adjuvant analgesic use, episodic incident and breakthrough pain, longer
      pain duration, higher pain intensity, and pelvic or perineal pain location.

PMID- 28870801
TI  - Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 1,3
      diphenylbenzo[f][1,7]naphthyrdines.
AB  - A novel series of twenty 1,3-diphenylbenzo[f][1,7]benzonaphthyrdine derivatives
      were designed and synthesized through intermolecular imino Diels-Alder reaction.
      Their in vitro cytotoxic activities were evaluated against six human cancer cell
      lines (NCIH23, HCT15, NUGC-3, ACHN, PC-3, and MDA-MB-231). Majority of
      synthesized compounds exhibited significant cytotoxic activities against all
      tested human cancer cell lines. Among them 4l, 4m, and 4o derivatives exhibited
      most promising cytotoxic activities. Furthermore these compounds were evaluated
      against human Topoisomerase IIalpha inhibition. Interestingly, the compound 4l
      exhibited 1.3 and 1.2 times more potent human Topoisomerase IIalpha inhibition
      than the reference drug etoposide in both 100uM and 20uM concentrations
      respectively. Molecular docking studies for the compound 4l have also been
      executed by Sybyl X-2.1 in which it reveals the binding site of the compound 4l
      with topo IIalpha DNA cleavage site where etoposide was situated. The
      benzo[f][1,7]naphthyridine ring was stacked between the DNA bases of the cleavage
      site.

PMID- 28870802
TI  - beta-Arrestin biased dopamine D2 receptor partial agonists: Synthesis and
      pharmacological evaluation.
AB  - beta-Arrestin biased G protein-coupled receptor ligands represent important
      molecular probes and may increase favorable drug action and safety as novel
      therapeutics. Starting from recently discovered hydroxy-substituted heterocyclic
      piperazine scaffolds, we have developed a series of dopamine D2 receptor ligands
      with a pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyridine as secondary pharmacophore that is functionalized
      in position 3 by a formyl or hydroxyiminomethyl substituent. The ligands,
      especially the benzoxazinone 9d, were found to stimulate substantial beta
      arrestin-2 recruitment, while being nearly devoid of activity in a GTPgammaS
      binding assay. Investigating a new series of truncated analogs lacking a
      secondary pharmacophore, considerable beta-arrestin-2 recruitment in the absence
      of G protein activation was found, when a 5-hydroxy-2H-benzo[b][1,4]oxazin-3(4H)
      one was combined with an N-propyl-substituted 1,4-diazepane (15c). Although 15c
      displayed reduced potency compared to 9d, the dose-response curves indicate that
      a hydroxy-substituted heterocyclic primary pharmacophore is sufficient for the
      functionally selective activation of D2R.

PMID- 28870803
TI  - Suppression of Wnt5a, but not Wnts, relieves chronic post-thoracotomy pain via
      anti-inflammatory modulation in rats.
AB  - With regard to post-surgical pain, the incidence of chronic post-thoracotomy pain
      (CPTP) is second only to that caused by amputation and the underlying mechanism
      remains elusive. The emerging role of Wnts has been confirmed in the pathogenesis
      of neuropathic and inflammatory pain, both of which are known components of CPTP.
      We investigated whether Wnt3a and Wnt5a were involved in the development of CPTP,
      concerning their regulation of inflammatory responses in a previously established
      rat model. We observed up regulated protein levels of Wnt3a, Wnt5a, beta-catenin,
      and TLR4, along with activated astrocytes and pro-inflammatory cytokines, in both
      dorsal root ganglia and the spinal cord dorsal horn. Furthermore, intrathecal
      inhibition of Wnt5a but not Wnts relieved mechanical hyperalgesia, down regulated
      expression of TLR4, and inactivated astrocytes and pro-inflammatory cytokines.
      These results suggest Wnt5a, but not Wnts, contributes to the development of
      CPTP, possibly by regulating the inflammatory response.

PMID- 28870804
TI  - High glucose instigates tubulointerstitial injury by stimulating hetero
      dimerization of adiponectin and angiotensin II receptors.
AB  - Abnormal expression and dysfunction of adiponectin and the cognate receptors are
      involved in diabetes and diabetic kidney disease (DKD), whereas angiotensin
      receptor blockers (ARBs) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)
      alleviate diabetic albuminuria and prevent development of DKD through
      upregulation of adiponectin expression. Here we report that high glucose
      stimulates expression of angiotensin II (AngII) receptors (AT1 and AT2) in renal
      proximal tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52E). These receptors underwent hetero
      dimerization with adiponectin receptor AdipoR1 and AdipoR2, respectively. High
      glucose inhibited the dimerization between AT1 and AT2. Interestingly, these
      hetero-dimers instigated tubulointerstitial injury by inhibiting the
      cytoprotective action of the adiponectin receptors. These modes of receptor
      receptor hetero-dimerization may contribute to high glucose-induced renal
      tubulointerstitial injury and could be potential therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28870805
TI  - RAI3 knockdown promotes adipogenic differentiation of human adipose-derived stem
      cells by decreasing beta-catenin levels.
AB  - Retinoic acid-induced protein 3 (RAI3) has been found to play significant roles
      in embryonic development, cellular proliferation and differentiation, but its
      role in adipogenesis has not been explored. In this study, we discovered RAI3 was
      downregulated during the adipogenic differentiation of human adipose derived stem
      cells (hASCs). Moreover, we demonstrated that knockdown of RAI3 promoted
      adipogenic differentiation of hASCs both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically,
      our findings showed that inhibition of RAI3 in hASCs reduced the expression of
      beta-catenin, and lithium chloride which can activate the beta-catenin pathway
      abolished the effect of RAI3 knockdown on the adipogenesis. These results suggest
      RAI3 plays an important role in adipogenesis of hASCs and may have a potential
      use in the future application.

PMID- 28870806
TI  - Structural insights into the functional role of GMP in modulating the YfiBNR
      system.
AB  - YfiBNR, a tripartite cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP) signalling system, plays an
      important role in biofilm formation of the gram-negative bacterium P. aeruginosa,
      which regulates the cellular processes strongly associated with chronic lung
      infections and drug resistance. The outer-membrane lipoprotein YfiB can release
      the inhibition of the inner membrane protein YfiN by sequestering the
      periplasmatic protein YfiR, resulting in the activation of diguanylate cyclase
      activity of YfiN and the production of c-di-GMP. In contrast to the extensive
      studies on c-di-GMP, little is known about how GMP acts in the YfiBNR system.
      Here, we report the crystal structures of YfiR complexed with GMP and YfiBL43P
      YfiR complexed with GMP. In the YfiR-GMP complex, GMP is located in a hydrophilic
      pocket formed by R175/H177/R60, while in the YfiBL43P-YfiR-GMP complex, GMP is
      located in a slightly separated hydrophilic pocket, with GMP forming hydrogen
      bonds with both YfiB and YfiR. A binding affinity test and biofilm formation
      assay indicated that GMP may activate diguanylate cyclase activity to promote
      biofilm production by promoting the affinity of YfiB and YfiR. This finding thus
      provides a new perspective for preventing biofilm-related antibiotic resistance
      and chronic infections.

PMID- 28870807
TI  - A natural product toosendanin inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition and
      tumor growth in pancreatic cancer via deactivating Akt/mTOR signaling.
AB  - The pancreatic cancer is among the most aggressive malignancies with strong
      proclivity to metastasis. The malignancy during pancreatic cancer progression is
      largely ascribed to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here we showed that
      toosendanin (TSN), which is an active component in traditional Chinese medicine,
      can strongly attenuate pancreatic cancer progression. TSN suppressed the
      viability and grow of pancreatic cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. The
      migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells were also consistently
      inhibited dose-dependently. TSN can reverse the TGF-beta induced EMT and
      morphological change in pancreatic cancer cells by increasing Ecadherin
      expression while reducing Vimentin, ZEB1 and SNAIL levels. Furthermore, TSN
      evidently repressed xenograft tumor growth in mouse pancreatic cancer models
      without significantly toxic side effects. Mechanistic studies suggested that TSN
      mediated pancreatic cancer inhibition by blocking Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. Our
      results showed that TSN inhibits pancreatic cancer progression via downregulating
      Akt/mTOR signaling. Since the concentrations of TSN used in current study is very
      low, our results demonstrated that TSN can inhibit pancreatic cancer progression
      thereby implying that TSN can be used as a potential pharmacological agent
      especially in treatment of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28870808
TI  - Hedgehog signaling inhibitor GANT61 induces endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated
      protective autophagy in hepatic stellate cells.
AB  - Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays an important role in the viability maintenance of
      hepatic stellate cells (HSC). HSCs have been identified as the major
      profibrogenic cells in the liver. The present study revealed that a novel Hh
      signaling antagonist GANT61 induced apoptosis in the activated human hepatic
      stellate cell line LX-2 cells, as it dose-dependently caused mitochondrial inner
      transmembrane potential (DeltaPsim) loss and caspase-3 cleavage. Autophagic flux
      was markedly increased after GANT61 treatment. Moreover, we found that autophagy
      was a pro-survival factor in GANT61-treated LX-2 cells because autophagic
      inhibitors 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) or Chloroquine (CQ) significantly aggravated
      GANT61-induced cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident
      molecular chaperone BiP, a marker of ER stress, was markedly increased after
      incubation with GANT61. Meanwhile, the PERK-eIF2alpha-ATF4-CHOP pathway was
      observed to be activated by GANT61. Salubrinal, a selective inhibitor of ER
      stress, suppressed GANT61-induced LC3BII expression and enhanced poly (ADP
      ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage, indicating that ER stress is a trigger of
      autophagy and suppresses apoptosis in GANT61-treated LX-2 cells. Overall, these
      results demonstrate that simultaneous inhibition of Hh signaling and autophagy or
      ER stress could be a better way to reduce activated HSCs.

PMID- 28870809
TI  - Efficient potential of mean force calculation from multiscale simulations: Solute
      insertion in a lipid membrane.
AB  - The determination of potentials of mean force for solute insertion in a lipid
      membrane by means of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations is often hampered by
      sampling issues. Recently, a multiscale method has been proposed to leverage the
      conformational ensemble of a lower-resolution model as starting point for higher
      resolution simulations. In this work, we analyze the efficiency of this method by
      comparing its predictions for propanol insertion into a lipid membrane against
      conventional atomistic umbrella sampling simulation results. The multiscale
      approach is confirmed to provide accurate results with a gain of one order of
      magnitude in computational time. We then investigate the role of the coarse
      grained representation. We find that the accuracy of the results is tightly
      connected to the presence of a good configurational overlap between the coarse
      grained and atomistic models-a general requirement when developing multiscale
      simulation methods.

PMID- 28870810
TI  - Analysis of an acyl-CoA binding protein in Aspergillus oryzae that undergoes
      unconventional secretion.
AB  - Acyl-CoA binding protein (ACBP) plays important roles in the metabolism of lipids
      in eukaryotic cells. In the industrially important filamentous fungus Aspergillus
      oryzae, although we have previously demonstrated that the A. oryzae ACBP (AoACBP)
      localizes to punctate structures and exhibits long-range motility, which is
      dependent on autophagy-related proteins, the physiological role of AoACBP remains
      elusive. Here, we describe identification and characterization of another ACBP
      from A. oryzae; we named this ACBP as AoAcb2 and accordingly renamed AoACBP as
      AoAcb1. The deduced amino acid sequence of AoAcb2 lacked a signal peptide.
      Phylogenetic analysis classified AoAcb2 into a clade that was same as the ACBP
      Acb1 of the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but was different from that of
      AoAcb1. In contrast to punctate localization of AoAcb1, AoAcb2 was found to be
      dispersedly distributed in the cytoplasm, as was previously observed for the S.
      cerevisiae Acb1. Since we could not generate an Aoacb2 disruptant, we created an
      Aoacb2 conditional mutant that exhibited less growth under Aoacb2-repressed
      condition, suggesting that Aoacb2 is an essential gene for growth. Moreover, we
      observed that A. oryzae AoAcb2, but not A. oryzae AoAcb1, was secreted under
      carbon-starved condition, suggesting that AoAcb2 might be secreted via the
      unconventional protein secretion (UPS) pathway, just like S. cerevisiae Acb1. We
      also demonstrated that the unconventional secretion of AoAcb2 was dependent on
      the t-SNARE AoSso1, but was independent of the autophagy-related protein AoAtg1,
      suggesting that the unconventional secretion of AoAcb2, unlike that of S.
      cerevisiae Acb1, via the UPS pathway, is not regulated by the autophagy
      machinery. Thus, the filamentous fungus A. oryzae harbors two types of ACBPs, one
      of which appears to be essential for growth and undergoes unconventional
      secretion.

PMID- 28870811
TI  - A hetero-micro-seeding strategy for readily crystallizing closely related protein
      variants.
AB  - Protein crystallization remains difficult to rationalize and screening for
      optimal crystallization conditions is a tedious and time consuming procedure.
      Here, we report a hetero-micro-seeding strategy for producing high resolution
      crystals of closely related protein variants, where micro crystals from a readily
      crystallized variant are used as seeds to develop crystals of other variants less
      amenable to crystallization. We applied this strategy to Bovine Pancreatic
      Trypsin Inhibitor (BPTI) variants, which would not crystallize using standard
      crystallization practice. Out of six variants in our analysis, only one called
      BPTI-[5,55]A14G formed well behaving crystals; and the remaining five (A14GA38G,
      A14GA38V, A14GA38L, A14GA38I, and A14GA38K) could be crystallized only using
      micro-seeds from the BPTI-[5,55]A14G crystal. All hetero-seeded crystals
      diffracted at high resolution with minimum mosaicity, retaining the same space
      group and cell dimension. Moreover, hetero-micro-seeding did not introduce any
      biases into the mutant's structure toward the seed structure, as demonstrated by
      A14GA38I structures solved using micro-seeds from A14GA38G, A14GA38L and
      A14GA38I. Though hetero-micro-seeding is a simple and almost naive strategy, this
      is the first direct demonstration of its workability. We believe that hetero
      micro-seeding, which is contrasting with the popular idea that crystallization
      requires highly purified proteins, could contribute a new tool for rapidly
      solving protein structures in mutational analysis studies.

PMID- 28870812
TI  - Thyroidectomy stimulates glucagon-like peptide-1 secretion and attenuates hepatic
      steatosis in high-fat fed rats.
AB  - Thyroid hormones (THs) as a therapeutic intervention to treat obesity has been
      tried but the effect of THs on body weight and the mechanistic details of which
      are far from clear. This study was designed to determine and elucidate the
      mechanistic details of metabolic action of THs in high-fat diet (HFD) fed Sprague
      Dawley (SD) rats. Rats were made surgically hypothyroid (thyroidectomy, Thx).
      Body weights and food and water intake profoundly decreased in HFD fed
      thyroidectomized group (HN Thx). Results showed that delayed insulin response,
      increased total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density
      lipoprotein in HN Thx. Unexpectedly, however, Thx reduced serum and hepatic
      triglyceride concentrations. Further studies revealed that Thx dramatically
      increased circulating GLP-1 as well as increased expressions of GLP-1 in small
      intestine. Diminished hepatic expressions of lipogenic genes, were observed in HN
      Thx group. Beta-catenin and glutamine synthetase, a known target of beta-catenin,
      were up-regulated in the liver of HN Thx group. The expressions of gluconeogenic
      genes G6P and PCK were reduced in the liver of HN Thx group. The results may
      suggest that surgery-induced hypothyroidism increases GLP-1, the actions of which
      may in part be responsible for the reduction in water intake, appetite and
      hepatic steatosis.

PMID- 28870813
TI  - ATP-independent inhibition of amyloid beta fibrillation by the endoplasmic
      reticulum resident molecular chaperone GRP78.
AB  - Neuronal cell death induced by an accumulation of amyloid beta (Abeta) peptides,
      which are pathogenic molecules for Alzheimer's disease, is closely related with
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. In the ER stress condition, part of the ER
      resident chaperones is known to be translocated to another cellular location,
      such as the cell surface. The ER chaperone 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein
      (GRP78), which shows ATP-dependent chaperone activity, also shows translocation
      to the cell surface. In this study, we examined the influence of GRP78 on Abeta
      fibrillation in the presence or absence of ATP. We revealed that a small amount
      of GRP78 effectively inhibited fibrillation of Abeta fragments. Intriguingly, the
      fibrillation inhibition by GRP78 was confirmed in the absence of ATP, suggesting
      GRP78 exhibited ATP-independent interaction with Abeta fragments.

PMID- 28870815
TI  - Activation of transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM7) channel increases
      basal autophagy and reduces amyloid beta-peptide.
AB  - Cerebral accumulation of amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta), which is produced from
      amyloid precursor protein (APP), is the primary cause of Alzheimer's disease
      (AD). Autophagy recycles cellular components and digests intracellular components
      including Abeta. The Ca2+- and Mg2+-permeable transient receptor potential
      melastatin 7 (TRPM7) channel underlies the constitutive Ca2+ influx in some
      cells. Since we already reported that TRPM7 channel-mediated Ca2+ influx
      regulates basal autophagy, we hypothesize that the activation of TRPM7 channel
      could increase basal autophagy and consequently decrease Abeta. In this study, we
      showed that naltriben (NTB), a specific TRPM7 channel activator, induced Ca2+
      influx and activated autophagic signaling in neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. NTB
      also promoted co-localization of LC3 and APP, and reduced Abeta. Furthermore, we
      found that an early-onset familial AD-associated presenilin1 DeltaE9 (PS1
      DeltaE9) mutant cells had attenuated basal autophagy. NTB was able to recover
      autophagy and decrease Abeta in PS1 DeltaE9 cells. Our results show that the
      activating TRPM7 channel may prevent AD-related Abeta neuropathology via
      modulating Ca2+-regulated basal autophagy.

PMID- 28870814
TI  - Curcumin inhibits bladder cancer stem cells by suppressing Sonic Hedgehog
      pathway.
AB  - Cancer stem cells (CSCs) is responsible for the recurrence of human cancers.
      Thus, targeting CSCs is considered to be a valid way for human cancer treatment.
      Curcumin is a major component of phytochemicals that exerts potent anticancer
      activities. However, the effect of curcumin on bladder cancer stem cells (BCSCs)
      remains to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of
      curcumin suppressing bladder cancer stem cells. In this study, UM-UC-3 and EJ
      cells were cultured in serum-free medium (SFM) to form cell spheres that was
      characterized as BCSCs. Then cell spheres were separately treated with different
      concentrations of curcumin and purmorphamine. Cell cycle analysis were used to
      determine the percentage of cells in different phases. Western blot and
      quantitative real-time PCR analysis were used to detect the expression of
      relative molecules. Immunofluorescence staining analysis were also utilized to
      measure the protein level of CD44. We found that CSC markers, including CD44,
      CD133, ALDH1-A1, OCT-4 and Nanog, were obviously highly expressed in cell
      spheres. Moreover, we observed that curcumin reduced the cell spheres formation,
      decreased the expression of CSC markers, suppressed cell proliferation and
      induced cell apoptosis. We also found that curcumin inhibited the activation of
      Shh pathway, while the inhibitory effects of curcumin on BCSCs could be weakened
      by upregulation of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) pathway. Altogether, these data suggested
      that curcumin inhibited the activities of BCSCs through suppressing Shh pathway,
      which might be an effective chemopreventive agent for bladder cancer
      intervention.

PMID- 28870816
TI  - [From TORCH to TORCHZ: Zika virus infection highlights infectious fetopathies].

PMID- 28870817
TI  - [PRRT2 mutation and infantile convulsions].
AB  - New genetic techniques have made it possible to better understand the
      implications of the PRRT2 gene (proline rich transmembrane protein 2) in various
      neurological disorders. Mutations within this gene are responsible for
      kinesigenic paroxysmal dyskinesias (PKD) as well as for benign familial infantile
      epilepsy (BFIE), a disease associating infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis
      (ICCA), a form of familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM type 4), paroxysmal benign
      torticollis of childhood, and episodic ataxia. We describe the case of an infant,
      carrying a mutation of the PRRT2 gene, with a classical presentation. Through her
      progression over time, we raise the question of systematic use of anti-epileptic
      drugs.

PMID- 28870818
TI  - [Fatal female genital mutilation in a 10-year-old girl].
AB  - Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures involving partial or
      total removal of the external genitalia and/or any other procedures affecting the
      female genitalia, for cultural or religious reasons or for nontherapeutic
      purposes in general. FGM is responsible for a number of short-, medium-, and long
      term complications that can engage the vital and functional prognosis, especially
      in African countries. We report on a case in a 10-year-old girl who underwent
      genital mutilation, a traditional type of total excision during the neonatal
      period. She was followed for urethral meatus stenosis, which then was complicated
      by obstructive chronic kidney failure and urinary sepsis, whose progression was
      fatal.

PMID- 28870819
TI  - [Type 1 neurofibromatosis: Onset of two tumors before the age of 5years].
AB  - Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a frequent autosomal dominant genetic disorder
      that predisposes to the development of benign and malignant tumors. Mutation of
      the NF1 gene affects the RAS-MAPK signaling pathway and leads to a dysfunction in
      cell proliferation and induces tumor development. Epidemiology of cancer in
      children with NF1 is very different from the general pediatric population, which
      requires regular and specific monitoring. Neurofibroma is the most frequent
      benign tumor. It can be very invalidating depending on the size and location of
      the tumor. Currently, there is no specific treatment for these tumors. The most
      frequent malignancies in children with NF1 are leukemias, rhabdomyosarcomas,
      malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors and gliomas. The treatment of these
      tumors should consider the risk of second cancers induced by radio- and
      chemotherapy. We report on the case of a 5-year-old boy with NF1 developing two
      tumors.

PMID- 28870820
TI  - Is There a Place for the Posterior Approach in Cases of Acute Myelopathy on
      Thoracic Disc Hernia?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute myelopathy in cases of thoracic disc herniation (TDH) is an
      exceptional condition for which the treatment is not codified. Here we present
      the results of a standardized procedure in 10 patients who underwent surgery for
      acute myelopathy on TDH between December 2009 and December 2016. METHODS: Our
      approach began with a cautious laminectomy without resection of the hernia on the
      day of admission. On subsequent days, a complementary thoracoscopic procedure was
      performed according to the patient's neurologic recovery and the nature of the
      hernia (calcified or fibrous). Outcome was assessed by the Frankel score at the
      last consultation. RESULTS: All patients had acute myelopathy, with Frankel score
      of C or worse and a TDH detected on magnetic resonance imaging occupying an
      average of 62.5 +/- 18.4% of the canal. This lesion was calcified in 6 cases and
      soft in 4 cases. The laminectomy allowed stabilization in 1 case and a neurologic
      improvement in 9 cases. Complementary surgery via a thoracoscopic approach was
      performed in the 6 cases of calcified hernia. After an average follow-up of 44.55
      +/- 26.44 months, 6 patients showed complete neurologic recovery and 4 had
      moderate sequelae (Frankel D). CONCLUSIONS: Laminectomy appears to allow
      stabilization of the neurologic situation in rare cases of acute myelopathy on
      TDH. The need for complementary resection of the hernia by an anterior approach
      should always be discussed secondarily.

PMID- 28870821
TI  - Self-Made, Cost-Reducing Hemostatic Agent for Use in Spine Surgery.
AB  - Operative bleeding complications can lead to patient morbidity and mortality as
      well as longer and increased hospitalization costs. Matrix hemostatic sealants
      are used commonly to shorten the time to hemostasis, operative times, and the
      need for blood transfusion. Commercially available hemostatic powders are used in
      spine surgery because of their ability to conform to wounds and decrease bleeding
      in difficult-to-access surgical sites. Hospital costs for these agents are
      variable and are dependent on negotiated institutional contracted prices. We
      present our technique for mixing and use of our own hemostatic agent that has
      been used by our senior spine surgeons for more than a decade. It uses supplies
      that are commonly found in the hospital for a fraction of the cost and at
      different concentrations of thrombin. We hope that this report serves to assist
      surgeons working in hospitals with limited resources and enriches their
      armamentarium of hemostatic agents.

PMID- 28870822
TI  - Radiologic Features and Surgical Strategy of Hemangioblastomas with Enhanced Cyst
      Wall.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hemangioblastomas with enhanced cyst walls represent a rare radiologic
      presentation of hemangioblastomas with poor understandings. We aimed to summarize
      the clinical and radiologic features, important differential diagnosis, surgical
      strategy, and clinical outcome of this rare entity. METHODS: From June 2008 to
      March 2017, 12 patients with cystic hemangioblastomas presenting with enhanced
      wall thickness on MRI were treated in our department. The clinical presentations,
      radiologic investigations, surgical treatment, neurologic outcome, and recurrence
      rate were evaluated. Important preoperative differential diagnosis and surgical
      strategy of this entity were discussed. RESULTS: Twelve patients with cystic
      hemangioblastomas presenting with an enhanced cyst wall on magnetic resonance
      imaging were analyzed retrospectively. There were 5 male and 7 female subjects,
      with a mean age of 41.4 years (range, 13-78 years) and an average duration of
      symptoms before diagnosis of 2.23 months (range, 0.5-8.0 months). Radiologically,
      enhancement of both tumoral nodule and cyst were observed in 8 patients, while
      pure ring-enhanced cyst without typical tumoral nodule was found in 4 patients.
      Histopathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of hemangioblastomas, and the
      enhanced cyst wall and mural nodule shared the same histopathologic pattern.
      Postoperative complications occurred in only 1 patient with postoperative
      cerebellar hemorrhage. During follow-up, 8 patients achieved favorable neurologic
      outcomes (Karnofsky score: 100) without recurrence; however, 4 patients
      experienced local tumor recurrence after the initial surgery. CONCLUSIONS:
      Hemangioblastomas with enhanced cyst wall possess distinctive radiologic
      features, and they are frequently misdiagnosed preoperatively. Favorable tumor
      control can be achieved only when gross total resection of both the tumor nodule
      and cyst wall are performed. Close follow-up is necessary because of the high
      recurrence rate in this subset of hemangioblastomas.

PMID- 28870824
TI  - Spine Navigation Based on 3-Dimensional Robotic Fluoroscopy for Accurate
      Percutaneous Pedicle Screw Placement: A Prospective Study of 66 Consecutive
      Cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive spine surgery is associated with obstructed
      visibility of anatomic landmarks and increased radiation exposure, leading to
      higher incidence of pedicle screw mispositioning. To address these drawbacks,
      intraoperative 3-dimensional fluoroscopy (io3DF) and navigation are being
      increasingly used. We aimed to present our dedicated multifunctional hybrid
      operating room (HyOR) setup and evaluate the accuracy and safety of io3DF image
      guided spinal navigation in transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion with
      percutaneous pedicle screw (PPS) placement. METHODS: The HyOR includes a fixed 3D
      multiaxis robotic fluoroscopy arm that moves automatically to the preprogrammed
      position when needed. An initial io3DF assessment is performed to collect
      intraoperative images, which are automatically transferred into the navigation
      system. These data are used to calibrate the PPSs and insert them under computer
      assisted navigation. A second io3DF is performed for verifying PPS position.
      RESULTS: Between January 2014 and December 2016, 66 consecutive patients (age,
      58.6 +/- 14.1 years) were treated for refractory lumbar degenerative pain.
      Seventy-three spinal levels were treated, and 276 screws were placed, with 4.2 +/
      0.76 screws per patient. There was no measurable radiation to the HyOR staff,
      whereas the mean radiation dose per patient was 378.3 MUGym2. The overall
      accuracy rate of PPS placement was 99.6%. There were no significant procedure
      related complications. CONCLUSIONS: Spine navigation based on io3DF images
      enabled us to avoid radiation exposure to the operating room team while
      delivering minimal but sufficient radiation doses to our patients. This approach
      achieved an accuracy rate of 99.6% for PPS placement in the safe zone, without
      significant complications.

PMID- 28870823
TI  - Occipital Artery to Middle Cerebral Artery Bypass: Operative Nuances.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Superficial temporal artery (STA)-middle cerebral artery (MCA)
      anastomosis is a common procedure for vascular neurosurgeons, and it is used in a
      variety of diseases. However, there are cases in which the STA is absent or is
      too hypoplastic to be used as a donor for revascularization. Occipital artery
      (OA)-MCA bypass may be a treatment option in these cases. METHODS: We encountered
      4 cases of symptomatic cerebral ischemia in which the STA was absent or
      unavailable. These cases were treated by revascularization from the OA to the
      periphery of the MCA. RESULTS: By meticulous dissection of the OA to the level of
      the superior temporal line, the OA could reach the periphery of the angular
      artery and be anastomosed to it in the usual fashion. The patency of the donor
      artery was confirmed by magnetic resonance angiography soon after the operation
      and 3 years later. CONCLUSIONS: OA-MCA bypass may be a surgical option for
      cerebral revascularization when the STA is not available.

PMID- 28870825
TI  - Prolonged but non-permanent expression of a transgene in ependymal cells of adult
      rats using an adenovirus-mediated transposon gene transfer system.
AB  - Ependymal cells have been considered one of prime targets for gene therapy in the
      central nervous system as they can secrete proteins directly into the
      cerebrospinal fluid. In this study, we have explored the probability of permanent
      exogenous gene expression using a combined adenovirus/transposon system. To this
      end, we created three adenoviruses; adenovirus #1 containing a CAG promoter
      driven enhanced green fluorescent protein tagged with a palmitoylation site
      (palEGFP), whose DNA sequence was flanked by two different Tol2 ends, #2
      containing a human FoxJ1 promoter-driven T2TP transposase, and #3 containing an
      EF-1 alpha promoter-driven T2TP transposase. We injected these adenoviruses into
      the lateral ventricles of adult rats to assess the duration of transgene
      expression, by which adenoviruses selectively infected to ependymal cells because
      they express the specific receptor. In animals injected with only adenovirus #1,
      we found palEGFP-expressing ependymal cells 1week after injection, but these
      cells had disappeared by 2weeks. In animals that received adenoviruses #1 and #2
      in combination, despite detecting many palEGFP-expressing ependymal cells within
      the initial 2weeks, transgene expression in ependymal cells was almost
      disappeared 1month after injection. In contrast, many palEGFP-expressing
      astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and neurons were found near the sites injected with
      adenoviruses #1 and #3, even 1month after injection. There was no prominent
      infiltration of immunological cells during the observation period. These findings
      indicate that an adenovirus-mediated transposon gene transfer system can lead to
      prolonged, but not permanent, expression of exogenous genes in ependymal cells of
      adult rats.

PMID- 28870826
TI  - Hyperforin protects against acute cerebral ischemic injury through inhibition of
      interleukin-17A-mediated microglial activation.
AB  - Hyperforin, a pharmacologically active component of the medicinal plant Hypericum
      perforatum (St. John's wort), has been shown to be neuroprotective against acute
      ischemic stroke. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear and need to
      be fully elucidated. C57BL/6 wildtype (WT) mice or interleukin (IL)-17A knock-out
      mice were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (60min) followed by
      reperfusion for 72h. Hyperforin (0.5MUg) was injected slowly into the right
      ventricle of WT mice 1, 24 and 48h after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)
      onset. Here, we found that hyperforin treatment decreased the mRNA and protein
      expression of IL-17A at 72h after MCAO onset. Hyperforin reduced infarct volumes
      and increased neurologic scores accompanied by a decrease in microglial
      activation and a shift from M1 to M2 phenotypes in the peri-infarct striatum.
      Furthermore, we revealed that IL-17A was essential to the microglial activation
      in the acute phase of ischemic stroke. IL-17A knock-out (il-17a-/-) or anti-IL-17
      A monoclonal antibody treatment markedly decreased the microglial activation and
      induced a shift from M1 to M2 phenotypes of activated microglia. In addition,
      treatment with recombinant mouse IL-17A abolished the protective effects of
      hyperforin on acute ischemic brain injury, attenuated the inhibitory effects of
      hyperforin on the microglial activation, and inhibited the enhanced shift from M1
      to M2 phenotypes mediated by hyperforin. In conclusion, our results clearly
      showed that hyperforin could protect against acute cerebral ischemic injury
      through inhibition of interleukin-17A-mediated microglial activation and
      polarization of microglia to M2 phenotype.

PMID- 28870827
TI  - Distinguishing response to names in Rett and MECP2 Duplication syndrome: An ERP
      study of auditory social information processing.
AB  - Despite significant advances at the level of basic research, the characterization
      of higher-level processes in Rett and MECP2 Duplication syndrome remains
      understudied. In this pilot study, we assessed social-emotional information
      processing by testing whether children (ages 4-12years) with Rett (n=9) and MECP2
      Duplication syndrome (n=7) distinguished their own spoken name from other names.
      We hypothesized that own and familiar names would elicit more positive parietal
      P300 responses than unknown names, and that the groups would have different
      neural responses to these stimuli. The MECP2 Duplication group partially mirrored
      the parietal responses to own name observed in typically developing participants,
      and better name discrimination correlated with more adaptive behaviors.
      Conversely, participants with RTT did not resemble the typical group, and showed
      greater responses to close other names at frontal/central regions. These results
      may reflect the different consequences of too much (MECP2 Duplication) vs. too
      little (RTT) MeCP2 protein.

PMID- 28870829
TI  - Chemiluminescence immunoassays for estradiol and ethinylestradiol based on new
      biotinylated estrogen derivatives.
AB  - New chemiluminescence-based immunoassays for sensitive detection of 17-beta
      estradiol (E2) and ethinylestradiol (EE2) are described on the basis of the use
      of biotinylated estrogen derivatives. Estrogen derivatives bearing a carboxylic
      group (E2-COOH and EE2-COOH) on C-3 position were synthesized, covalently bound
      to aminated biotin and subsequently immobilized on avidin-coated microtiter
      plates. The assay principle was based on competition between free and immobilized
      estrogens for their binding to primary antibodies, with subsequent revelation
      using horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled secondary antibodies. Under optimized
      conditions, the chemiluminescence immunoassays showed a highly sensitive response
      to E2 and EE2, with respective detection limits of 0.5 and 1.2 ng L-1. The LOD
      achieved using biotinylated E2 was in the same order of magnitude as those
      obtained using commercially available E2-bovine serum albumin conjugate (E2-BSA).
      The developed devices were successfully applied to analysis wastewater treatment
      plants effluents (WWTP) with negligible matrix effect.

PMID- 28870828
TI  - A miniaturized assay for kinetic characterization of the Na+-translocating
      NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase from Vibrio cholerae.
AB  - We demonstrate the miniaturization of an enzymatic assay for the determination of
      NADH oxidation and quinone reduction by the Na+ -translocating NADH quinone
      oxidoreductase (NQR) in the 96-well plate format. The assay is based on the
      spectrophotometric detection of NADH consumption and quinol formation. We
      validated the new method with known inhibitors of the NQR and optimized
      conditions for high-throughput screening as demonstrated by excellent Z-factors
      well above the accepted threshold (>=0.5). Overall, the method allows the
      screening and identification of potential inhibitors of the NQR, and rapid
      characterization of NQR variants obtained by site-specific mutagenesis.

PMID- 28870830
TI  - An improved amperometric creatinine biosensor based on nanoparticles of
      creatininase, creatinase and sarcosine oxidase.
AB  - An improved amperometric biosensor for detection of creatinine was developed
      based on immobilization of nanoparticles (NPs) of creatininase (CA), creatinase
      (CI), and sarcosine oxidase (SOx) onto glassy carbon (GC) electrode. Transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were
      employed for characterization of enzyme nanoparticles (ENPs). The GC electrode
      was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV)
      and electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) at different stages of its amendment.
      The biosensor showed optimum response within 2s at pH 6.0 in 0.1 M sodium
      phosphate buffer and 25  degrees C, when operated at 1.0 V against Ag/AgCl.
      Biosensor exhibited wider linear range from 0.01 MUM to 12 MUM with a limit of
      detection (LOD) of 0.01 MUM. The analytical recoveries of added creatinine in
      sera were 97.97 +/- 0.1% for 0.1 mM and 98.76 +/- 0.2% for 0.15 mM, within and
      between batch coefficients of variation (CV) were 2.06% and 3.09% respectively. A
      good correlation (R2 = 0.99) was observed between sera creatinine values obtained
      by standard enzymic colorimetric method and the present biosensor. This biosensor
      measured creatinine level in sera of apparently healthy subjects and persons
      suffering from renal and muscular dysfunction. The ENPs electrode lost 10% of its
      initial activity within 240 days of its regular uses, when stored at 4  degrees
      C.

PMID- 28870831
TI  - The complex and instructive relationship between OSA and nocturnal cardiovascular
      death.

PMID- 28870832
TI  - Tuning polypeptide-based micellar carrier for efficient combination therapy of
      ErbB2-positive breast cancer.

PMID- 28870833
TI  - Multivalent interactions between streptavidin-based pretargeting fusion proteins
      and cell receptors impede efficient internalization of biotinylated
      nanoparticles.
AB  - : Pretargeting represents a promising strategy to enhance delivery of
      nanoparticles. The strategy involves first introducing bispecific antibodies or
      fusion proteins (BFP) that can bind specific epitopes on target cells with one
      arm, and use the other arm to capture subsequently administered effector
      molecules, such as radionuclides or drug-loaded nanoparticles. Nevertheless, it
      remains unclear whether BFP that bind slowly- or non-internalizing epitopes on
      target cells can facilitate efficient intracellular delivery. Here, we
      investigated the cellular uptake of biotin-functionalized nanoparticles with
      streptavidin-scFv against TAG-72, a membrane protein on Jurkat T-cell leukemia
      cells. Unlike conventional active-targeted nanoparticles, we found that
      pretargeting resulted in preferential retention of ~100nm nanoparticles at the
      plasma membrane rather than internalization into cells. We found no improvement
      in nanoparticle internalization by simply reducing nanoparticle concentration or
      surface biotin density. Interestingly, by adding both the BFP and a monoclonal
      antibody against TAG-72, we observed a twofold improvement in internalization of
      pretargeted nanoparticles. Our work illustrates that the cellular fate of
      pretargeted nanoparticles can be controlled by carefully tuning the interactions
      between pretargeting molecules and nanoparticles on the cell surface. STATEMENT
      OF SIGNIFICANCE: Pretargeting is a multi-step strategy that utilizes bispecific
      proteins that recognize both cellular epitopes and subsequently administered
      therapeutic molecules. This approach has been extensively studied for
      radiotherapy of blood cancers; however, pretargeting remains largely
      underexplored for nanoparticle targeting, including whether pretargeting can
      facilitate efficient intracellular delivery. Here, we found that high density of
      targeting proteins on the cell surface can effectively limit internalization of
      pretargeted nanoparticles. Our work underscores the need to carefully assess
      specific cell-pretargeting molecule pairs for applications requiring
      intracellular delivery, and the key design requirements for such bispecific
      pretargeting molecules.

PMID- 28870834
TI  - Prevalence of Preventive Cardiovascular Medication Use In Nursing Home Residents.
      Room for Deprescribing? The SHELTER Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In nursing home (NH) residents with a very short life expectancy,
      the benefits of preventive cardiovascular medication maintenance are
      questionable. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of 4 classes of preventive
      cardiovascular medication (PCM) in NH residents, and to explore differences of
      prevalence across length of stay, mortality risk, cognitive impairment,
      functional disability, and across countries. METHODS: A 12-month prospective
      cohort study was conducted in 57 NHs in 8 countries (Czech Republic, England,
      Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Israel). We assessed the
      prevalence at first measurement of 4 classes of PCM: oral anticoagulants (OAC),
      platelet aggregation inhibitor (PAI), antihypertensive (AHT), and lipid-modifying
      agent (LMA), in older (60+ years) residents with valid medication assessments.
      The PCM prevalence was compared across the length of stay (short <60 days, mid,
      long >12 months), health instability as defined by Changes in Health, End-Stage
      Disease, Signs, and Symptoms Scale (CHESS) > 3, cognitive impairment by Cognitive
      Performance Scale (CPS) > 2, and functional disability was measured using the
      Activities of Daily Living Hierarchy Scale (ADLH) >=5. RESULTS: Of the 3759
      eligible residents, 2175 (57.9%) used at least 1 PCM. The prevalence of the 4
      groups of PCM: OAC, PAI, AHT and LMA were 5.6%, 34.9%, 35.7%, and 10.4%,
      respectively. PCM use was lower in long-stay residents versus mid-stay: 56.0% vs.
      62.7%, in cognitively impaired residents (47.1% vs. 67%), in residents with a
      high mortality risk (47.4% vs. 58.6%), and in residents with a high ADLH score
      (48.6% vs 64.0%). CONCLUSION: Although the prevalence of PCM use was lower in
      long-stay, cognitively impaired residents, persons with a high mortality risk,
      and residents with more functional disabilities, there seems to be room for
      deprescribing.

PMID- 28870835
TI  - Feasibility and reliability of digital imaging for estimating food selection and
      consumption from students' packed lunches.
AB  - Although increasing attention is placed on the quality of foods in children's
      packed lunches, few studies have examined the capacity of observational methods
      to reliably determine both what is selected and consumed from these lunches. The
      objective of this project was to assess the feasibility and inter-rater
      reliability of digital imaging for determining selection and consumption from
      students' packed lunches, by adapting approaches previously applied to school
      lunches. Study 1 assessed feasibility and reliability of data collection among a
      sample of packed lunches (n = 155), while Study 2 further examined reliability in
      a larger sample of packed (n = 386) as well as school (n = 583) lunches. Based on
      the results from Study 1, it was feasible to collect and code most items in
      packed lunch images; missing data were most commonly attributed to packaging that
      limited visibility of contents. Across both studies, there was satisfactory
      reliability for determining food types selected, quantities selected, and
      quantities consumed in the eight food categories examined (weighted kappa
      coefficients 0.68-0.97 for packed lunches, 0.74-0.97 for school lunches), with
      lowest reliability for estimating condiments and meats/meat alternatives in
      packed lunches. In extending methods predominately applied to school lunches,
      these findings demonstrate the capacity of digital imaging for the objective
      estimation of selection and consumption from both school and packed lunches.

PMID- 28870836
TI  - Patients' experience with nonsurgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis: a
      qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a highly prevalent disease in
      older adults that causes significant limitations in walking and other daily
      activities. Research into optimal nonsurgical treatment approaches for LSS is
      lacking. PURPOSE: The purpose of this qualitative study is to assess the opinions
      of participants in a randomized clinical trial of nonsurgical LSS treatments
      regarding the interventions they received, factors contributing to adherence to
      the interventions, and methods of outcomes assessment. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This
      study used a qualitative focus group design conducted at an academic research
      center. PATIENT SAMPLE: Individuals participating in a randomized clinical trial
      (RCT) for non-surgical LSS treatment were invited to discuss their study
      treatments and general experiences with LSS. The three treatment arms in the
      study were medical care, community-based group exercise, and clinic-based manual
      therapy and individual exercise. OUTCOME MEASURES: Following coding of
      qualitative data, kappa statistic was used to calculate agreement between
      observers. Themes were identified and agreed upon by both coders. METHODS: This
      study was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
      Fifty individuals (28 women, mean age 73+/-7.7 years) participated in a focus
      group. Two focus groups based on modified grounded theory were held for
      participants of each of the three treatment arms, for a total of six focus
      groups. Discussion topics included perceived effectiveness of the assigned
      treatment, suggestions for improvement, barriers and facilitators to completing
      treatment, and opinions of research outcome measures. RESULTS: Several themes
      were evident across all treatment groups. First, patients prefer individualized
      treatment that is tailored to their specific impairments and functional
      limitations. They also want to learn self-management strategies to rely less upon
      formal health care providers. Participants consistently stated that exercise
      improved their pain levels and physical function. However, they noted that these
      effects are temporary, so commitment to exercising long-term is important. Common
      barriers to completing the assigned LSS treatment included transportation issues
      and other comorbid health conditions. All three treatment groups cited perceived
      treatment benefit as a strong facilitator to continuing treatment. In addition,
      the ability of the health care provider to relate to the patient and listen to
      the patient's concerns was a common facilitator. Within the community-based group
      exercise treatment arm, most individuals continued group exercise after study
      completion, and social support was often mentioned as a facilitator to continuing
      treatment. Medical care was most often associated with minimal to no effect of
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Many individuals with LSS report barriers to accessing
      non-surgical treatment, but may also be willing to commit to a long-term
      treatment strategy that includes exercise. Social support from others with LSS
      and from health care providers with good communication skills may facilitate
      compliance with treatment recommendations.

PMID- 28870837
TI  - Post-tetanic transcranial motor evoked potentials augment the amplitude of
      compound muscle action potentials recorded from innervated and non-innervated
      muscles.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Transcranial electrical stimulation used to produce motor
      evoked potentials (TES-MEPs) and subsequent compound muscle action potential
      (CMAP) recording is widely used to monitor motor function during surgery when
      there is risk of damaging the spinal cord. Nonetheless, some muscles do not
      produce CMAP amplitudes sufficient for intraoperative monitoring. PURPOSE: This
      study aimed to investigate the utility of tetanic stimulation at single and
      multiple peripheral nerve sites for augmenting CMAP amplitudes recorded from
      innervated and non-innervated muscles. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: A retrospective
      study was carried out. PATIENT SAMPLE: The study sample comprised 24 patients
      with cervical myelopathy who underwent decompression surgery at our department
      between November 2005 and March 2007. OUTCOME MEASURES: Compound muscle action
      potential amplitude was a physiological measure. METHODS: We used two patterns of
      tetanic peripheral nerve stimulation for each patient. The first pattern
      consisted of tetanic stimulation of the left tibial nerve only (Pattern 1), and
      the second pattern consisted of tetanic stimulation of the bilateral median
      nerves and left tibial nerve (Pattern 2). RESULTS: Compound muscle action
      potential amplitudes from all muscles were augmented by both tetanic stimulation
      patterns compared with conventional TES-MEP recording; however, Pattern 2
      elicited the greatest augmentation of CMAP amplitudes, especially for CMAPs
      recorded from the bilateral abductor pollicis brevis muscles. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although tetanic stimulation of a single peripheral nerve increased CMAP
      amplitudes recorded from both innervated and non-innervated muscles, CMAP
      amplitudes were best augmented when the corresponding nerve received tetanic
      stimulation. Additionally, tetanic stimulation of multiple nerves rather than a
      single nerve appears to provide better augmentation.

PMID- 28870838
TI  - Comparison of S2-Alar and traditional iliac screw pelvic fixation for pediatric
      neuromuscular deformity.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Many pelvic fixation options exist for posterior spinal
      fusion of pediatric neuromuscular scoliosis, including standard iliac screws
      (SISs) or a more recently introduced S2-Alar (S2A) technique. However, little
      data exist comparing the clinical and radiographic outcomes of these techniques.
      PURPOSE: This study aimed to dentify differences in clinical and radiographic
      outcomes for pediatric neuromuscular scoliosis patients treated with SIS or S2A
      pelvic fixation. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This was a retrospective cohort study at a
      pediatric orthopedic clinic. PATIENT SAMPLE: Patients aged 8-19 years undergoing
      posterior spinal fusion to the pelvis for neuromuscular scoliosis using SIS or
      S2A technique, with Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) Level 4 or
      5 were included. OUTCOMES MEASURES: Postoperative complication rates associated
      with pelvic fixation method were the outcome measures. METHODS: Charts and
      radiographs were reviewed for demographics, intra- and postoperative course,
      levels of instrumentation, operative correction, and implant failure (IF).
      Postoperative complications were classified according to the Accordion scale.
      RESULTS: We studied 50 patients (28 SIS, 22 S2A) aged 14.0+/-2.8 years and an
      average follow-up of 3.5+/-1.7 years. The average number of levels fused was
      16.5+/-1.1 with an average curve correction of 48 degrees +/-21 degrees 
      postoperatively. A significant difference in radiographic IF rates was noted
      between SIS and S2A groups (57% vs. 27%, p=.02). No difference was noted between
      groups for frequency or severity of postoperative complications, inclusive of
      wound infections. Subgroup analysis demonstrated equivalent IF rates when
      comparing the S2A group with the SIS group with cross-links. CONCLUSIONS: The S2A
      group generally demonstrated improved rates of radiographic IF compared with the
      SIS group, but the rates became equivalent when a cross-link was added to an SIS
      construct. Further, no difference in postoperative complication rates were
      identified between SIS and S2A groups.

PMID- 28870839
TI  - Long-term clinical results following Charite III lumbar total disc replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Lumbar total disc replacement (TDR) operation represents an
      alternative to lumbar fusion for the treatment of symptomatic lumbar
      intervertebral disc degeneration and has gained increasing attention in recent
      years. PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess clinical outcomes in a cohort of
      patients with TDR and the long-term survival rate of the prostheses. STUDY
      DESIGN: This is a retrospective, single-center clinical study. PATIENT SAMPLE:
      The sample comprised 30 patients, giving a total of 35 prostheses after an
      average follow-up (FU) of 15.2 years following TDR, which was performed for the
      treatment of lumbar degenerative disc disease. OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical
      evaluation included visual analog scale (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index
      (ODI). Radiological parameters of intervertebral disc height (IDH), range of
      motion (ROM), lumbar lordosis, lumbar scoliosis, and prosthesis position were
      evaluated in surgical and adjacent levels. Complications and re-operation rates
      were also assessed. METHODS: Clinical evaluation and radiological parameters were
      evaluated preoperatively and at final FU. All data were collected by members of
      our department, including research assistants and nurses who were not involved in
      the decision making of this study. RESULTS: Thirty of the 35 patients
      participated in the final FU. The cumulative survival rate of the prosthesis at a
      mean FU of 15.4 years was 100%. The clinical success rate was 93.3%. The VAS and
      ODI scores at final FU were significantly lower than preoperatively (p<.001). The
      average ROM of the operated and superior adjacent segment decreased significantly
      at the final FU, whereas the inferior adjacent segment was not affected. The IDH
      of all surgical and adjacent levels were well maintained at the final FU. Ten
      patients had a lumbar scoliosis >3 degrees  and the mean angle was 8.5 degrees ,
      of which 7 had left convex curvature. Three prostheses were offset more than 5 mm
      from the midline on the coronal plane. Four prostheses showed subsidence. Twenty
      six operative segments and five adjacent segments showed heterotopic
      ossification. Two patients of the total 35-patient cohort underwent a secondary
      operation. CONCLUSIONS: Satisfactory clinical results and good prosthesis
      survival can be achieved in the long term. Lumbar TDR surgeries also have the
      potential to reduce the incidence of adjacent segment disease.

PMID- 28870840
TI  - Surgical outcomes in the elderly with degenerative spondylolisthesis: comparative
      study between patients over 80 years of age and under 80 years-a gender-,
      diagnosis-, and surgical method-matched two-cohort analyses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Taiwan, the current life expectancy of an 80-year-old man is 88.4
      years and that of an 80-year-old is woman is 89.8 years. Surgical candidates
      older than 80 years usually ask surgeons whether it would be safe for them to
      undergo surgery. PURPOSE: The objectives of this study were to report the
      surgical outcomes of patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis who were older
      than 80 years and underwent instrumented surgeries and to compare these data with
      the outcomes of patients aged 65-79 years. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This is a
      retrospective study. PATIENT SAMPLE: The study included 76 patients. OUTCOME
      MEASURES: The preoperative medical condition was reviewed using the weighted
      Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and the American Society of Anesthesiologists
      (ASA) physical status classification. Clinical outcomes were evaluated according
      to the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the visual analog scale (VAS) for leg
      and back pain. Plain radiographs were used to assess the fusion status, implant
      related complications, and the prevalence of osteoporotic compression fractures
      (OVFx). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study comprised patients older than 80 years,
      and the control group comprised patients aged 65-79 years. The two cohorts were
      matched for gender, main diagnosis, and surgical method. RESULTS: In total, 76
      patients were included in the study. The study group had 38 patients with a mean
      age of 82.4 years (80-93 years); the control group also had 38 patients with a
      mean age of 70.8 years (65-79 years). The study group had a significantly higher
      ASA classification (2.94 vs. 2.76, p=.040) and CCI score (1.84 vs. 1.13, p=.012).
      The study group had a higher prevalence of preoperative OVFx (10.5% vs. 2.6%,
      p=.116) and incidence of new-onset OVFx (13.2% vs. 2.6%, p=.089). The study group
      had longer operative times (204.6 vs. 179.1 minutes, p=.052) with more blood loss
      (606.5 vs. 525.8 mL, p=.512), but this finding was not statistically significant.
      The mean ODI and VAS scores were similar between the two groups. The bone union
      rate was superior in the control group (81.6% vs. 89.5%, p=.328). CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients older than 80 years have a higher osteoporotic status and comorbidities,
      which may lead to longer operative times and greater blood loss, with poorer
      radiographic outcomes. However, the clinical results were not affected. With
      appropriate patient selection, the age of >80 years is not a negative predictive
      factor for instrumented surgery for degenerative spondylolisthesis.

PMID- 28870841
TI  - An increase in the degree of olisthesis during axial loading reduces the dural
      sac size and worsens clinical symptoms in patients with degenerative
      spondylolisthesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Previous studies have shown that axial loading during
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) significantly reduces the size of the dural sac
      compared with conventional MRI in patients with degenerative lumbar disease. In
      our previous study, axial-loaded MRI showed a significantly larger degree of
      olisthesis than conventional MRI in patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis
      (DS). Furthermore, the degree of olisthesis on axial-loaded MRI correlated more
      strongly with that observed on X-ray in the upright position. However, no study
      has investigated whether or not the increase in the degree of olisthesis during
      axial loading correlates with the reduction in the dural sac size and affects the
      severity of clinical symptoms in patients with DS. PURPOSE: The objective of this
      study was to determine whether or not the increase in the degree of olisthesis
      correlates with the reduction of the dural sac cross-sectional area (DCSA)
      detected on axial-loaded MRI and worsens the severity of clinical symptoms in
      patients with DS. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This is an imaging cohort study. PATIENT
      SAMPLE: A total of 41 consecutive patients with DS were prospectively evaluated
      in this study. OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome measures include the degree of
      olisthesis, the DCSA, the Pearson correlation coefficient, and the severity of
      clinical symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The differences in the degree of
      olisthesis and the DCSA between conventional and axial-loaded MRIs were
      determined. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the increase in the degree of
      olisthesis with the reduction in the DCSA during axial loading was calculated.
      The reduction in the DCSA and the severity of clinical symptoms in patients
      exhibiting a >=2-mm increase in the degree of olisthesis were compared with those
      in patients exhibiting a <2-mm increase. RESULTS: The increase in the degree of
      olisthesis was significantly correlated with the reduction in the DCSA during
      axial loading (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.63, p<.001). The reduction in
      the DCSA during axial loading in patients with a >=2-mm increase in the degree of
      olisthesis (26+/-3 mm2) was significantly greater than in those with a <2-mm
      increase (13+/-2 mm2) (p<.01). Clinical symptoms such as walking distance and
      activity of daily living evaluated using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association
      score were significantly worse in patients with a >=2-mm increase in the degree
      of olisthesis (117+/-19 m and 6.7+/-0.5 points, respectively) than in those with
      a <2-mm increase (236+/-36 m and 8.4+/-0.4 points, respectively) (p<.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that the increase in the degree of
      olisthesis was significantly correlated with the reduction in the dural sac size
      detected on axial-loaded MRI and worsened the severity of clinical symptoms in
      patients with DS. These results suggest that axial-loaded MRI may be a useful
      imaging study for detecting dynamic changes in the degree of olisthesis during
      axial loading to the lumbar spine related to the narrowing of the spinal canal
      and the severity of clinical symptoms in the assessment of patients with DS.

PMID- 28870842
TI  - Bioinformatics solutions for big data analysis in life sciences presented by the
      German network for bioinformatics infrastructure.

PMID- 28870843
TI  - Phosphatidylserine: A cancer cell targeting biomarker.
AB  - Cancer is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity globally. Many prominent
      cancer-associated molecules have been identified over the recent years which
      include EGFR, CD44, TGFbRII, HER2, miR-497, NMP22, BTA, Fibrin/FDP etc. These
      biomarkers are often used for screening, detection, diagnosis, prognosis,
      prediction and monitoring of cancer development. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is an
      essential component in all human cells which is present on the inner leaflet of
      the cell membrane. The oxidative stress causes exposure of PS on the surface of
      the vascular endothelium in the cancer cells (lung, breast, pancreatic, bladder,
      skin, brain metastasis, rectal adenocarcinoma etc.) but not on the normal cells.
      The external PS is regulated by calcium-dependent flippase activity. Cancer cell
      lines with high surface PS have low flippase activity and high intracellular
      calcium content. Human Annexin-V, PS targeting antibodies (PGN635 and bavituximab
      and mch1N11), lysosomal protein, phospholipid Saposin C
      dioleoylphosphatidylserine (SapC-DOPS), peptide-peptoid hybrid PPS1, PS-binding
      14-mer peptide (PSBP-6) and hexapeptide (E3) have been reported to target PS
      present on cancer cell surface. High expression of CD47 inhibits tumor cell
      phagocytosis by macrophages. The PS cancer biomarker has also been used to target
      the drugs to cancer cells specifically without affecting other healthy cells.
      Currently, the fusion protein (FP) consisting of L-methionase linked to human
      Annexin-V has been reported to target the cancer cells. The FP catalyzes the
      conversion of non-toxic prodrug selenomethionine into toxic methyl selenol which
      thus also prevents the methionine (essential amino acid) supplementation to the
      cancer cells.

PMID- 28870845
TI  - Gluten-Free Labeling: Are Growth Media Containing Wheat, Barley, and Rye Falling
      through the Cracks?

PMID- 28870844
TI  - Inhibitory synapse deficits caused by familial alpha1 GABAA receptor mutations in
      epilepsy.
AB  - Epilepsy is a spectrum of neurological disorders with many causal factors. The
      GABA type-A receptor (GABAAR) is a major genetic target for heritable human
      epilepsies. Here we examine the functional effects of three epilepsy-causing
      mutations to the alpha1 subunit (alpha1T10'I, alpha1D192N and alpha1A295D) on
      inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) mediated by the major synaptic GABAAR
      isoform, alpha1beta2gamma2L. We employed a neuron - HEK293 cell heterosynapse
      preparation to record IPSCs mediated by mutant-containing GABAARs in isolation
      from other GABAAR isoforms. IPSCs were recorded in the presence of the
      anticonvulsant drugs, carbamazepine and midazolam, and at elevated temperatures
      (22, 37 and 40 degrees C) to gain insight into mechanisms of febrile seizures.
      The mutant subunits were also transfected into cultured cortical neurons to
      investigate changes in synapse formation and neuronal morphology using
      fluorescence microscopy. We found that IPSCs mediated by alpha1T10'Ibeta2gamma2L,
      alpha1D192Nbeta2gamma2L GABAARs decayed faster than those mediated by
      alpha1beta2gamma2L receptors. IPSCs mediated by alpha1D192Nbeta2gamma2L and
      alpha1A295Dbeta2gamma2L receptors also exhibited a heightened temperature
      sensitivity. In addition, the alpha1T10'Ibeta2gamma2L GABAARs were refractory to
      modulation by carbamazepine or midazolam. In agreement with previous studies, we
      found that alpha1A295Dbeta2gamma2L GABAARs were retained intracellularly in
      HEK293 cells and neurons. However, pre-incubation with 100nM suberanilohydroxamic
      acid (SAHA) induced alpha1A295Dbeta2gamma2L GABAARs to mediate IPSCs that were
      indistinguishable in magnitude and waveform from those mediated by
      alpha1beta2gamma2L receptors. Finally, mutation-specific changes to synaptic
      bouton size, synapse number and neurite branching were also observed. These
      results provide new insights into the mechanisms of epileptogenesis of alpha1
      epilepsy mutations and suggest possible leads for improving treatments for
      patients harbouring these mutations.

PMID- 28870846
TI  - Retailer-Led Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Price Increase Reduces Purchases in a
      Hospital Convenience Store in Melbourne, Australia: A Mixed Methods Evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited evidence has been gathered on the real-world impact of sugar
      sweetened beverage price changes on purchasing behavior over time or in community
      retail settings. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to determine changes in beverage
      purchases, business outcomes, and customer and retailer satisfaction associated
      with a retailer-led sugar-sweetened beverage price increase in a convenience
      store. We hypothesized that purchases of less-healthy beverages would decrease
      compared to predicted sales. DESIGN: A convergent parallel mixed methods design
      complemented sales data (122 weeks pre-intervention, 17 weeks during
      intervention) with stakeholder interviews and customer surveys.
      PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Electronic beverage sales data were collected from a
      convenience store in Melbourne, Australia (August through November 2015).
      Convenience store staff completed semi-structured interviews (n=4) and adult
      customers exiting the store completed surveys (n=352). INTERVENTION: Beverages
      were classified using a state government framework. Prices of "red" beverages
      (eg, nondiet soft drinks, energy drinks) increased by 20%. Prices of "amber" (eg,
      diet soft drinks, small pure fruit juices) and "green" beverages (eg, water) were
      unchanged. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in beverage volume, item sales, and
      revenue during the intervention were compared with predicted sales. STATISTICAL
      ANALYSES: Sales data were analyzed using time series segmented regression while
      controlling for pre-intervention trends, autocorrelation in sales data, and
      seasonal fluctuations. RESULTS: Beverage volume sales of red (-27.6%; 95% CI 
      32.2 to -23.0) and amber (-26.7%; 95% CI -39.3 to -16.0) decreased, and volume of
      green beverages increased (+26.9%; 95% CI +14.1 to +39.7) in the 17th
      intervention week compared with predicted sales. Store manager and staff
      considered the intervention business-neutral, despite a small reduction in
      beverage revenue. Fifteen percent of customers noticed the price difference and
      61% supported the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: A 20% sugar-sweetened beverage price
      increase was associated with a reduction in their purchases and an increase in
      purchases of healthier alternatives. Community retail settings present a bottom
      up approach to improving consumer beverage choices.

PMID- 28870847
TI  - Bundle of care for blunt chest trauma patients improves analgesia but increases
      rates of intensive care unit admission: A retrospective case-control study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This single-centre retrospective case-control study aimed to assess
      the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary clinical pathway for blunt chest trauma
      patients admitted in emergency department (ED). PATIENTS AND METHODS: All
      consecutive blunt chest trauma patients with more than 3 rib fractures and no
      indication of mechanical ventilation were compared to a retrospective cohort over
      two 24-month periods, before and after the introduction of the bundle of care.
      Improvement of analgesia was the main outcome investigated in this study. The
      secondary outcomes were the occurrence of secondary respiratory complications
      (pneumonia, indication for mechanical ventilation, secondary ICU admission for
      respiratory failure or death), the intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length
      of stay (LOS). RESULTS: Sixty-nine pairs of patients were matched using a 1:1
      nearest neighbour algorithm adjusted on age and indices of severity. Between the
      two periods, there was a significant reduction of the rate of uncontrolled
      analgesia (55 vs. 17%, P<0.001). A significant increase in the rate of primary
      ICU transfer during the post-protocol period (23 vs. 52%, P<0.001) was not
      associated with a reduction of secondary respiratory complications or a reduction
      of ICU or hospital LOS. Only the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
      appeared to be associated with a significant reduction of secondary respiratory
      complications (OR=0.3 [0.1-0.9], P=0.03). CONCLUSION: Implementation of a
      multidisciplinary clinical pathway significantly improves pain control after ED
      management, but increases the rate of primary ICU admission without significant
      reduction of secondary respiratory complications.

PMID- 28870848
TI  - Sevoflurane-induced cardioprotection in coronary artery bypass graft surgery:
      Randomised trial with clinical and ex-vivo endpoints.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myocardial ischaemia reperfusion injury following cardiac surgery
      with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) increases postoperative mortality. Setting
      techniques to protect the heart during this critical period therefore represents
      a considerable challenge. METHOD: A randomised controlled study in Caen
      University Hospital Centre, investigated whether the clinical cardio protective
      effects of administration sevoflurane before cardiopulmonary bypass during
      coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) could translate into protected atrial
      trabeculae contractility against hypoxia-reoxygenation in vitro. Patients
      undergoing elective on-pump CABG surgery were allocated to receive either
      sevoflurane (n=24) or no halogenated volatile anaesthetic (n=21). MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: the relationship between sevoflurane exposure before CPB and the
      incidence of major adverse cardiac events, with primary endpoint: the
      postoperative troponin I peak level, and secondary endpoints: the inotropic
      support, and the duration of stay in intensive unit and in-hospital stay were
      chosen as study endpoints. The right atrial was collected at the beginning of
      bypass surgery for the in vitro experimentation. Isometrically contracting
      isolated human right atrial trabeculae obtained from the two groups were exposed
      to 30-min hypoxia followed by 60-min reoxygenation. RESULTS: The patients
      receiving sevoflurane prior to aortic clamping significantly exhibited less
      cardiac Troponin I (1.39 [0.34-2.97] vs. 2.80 [2.54-3.64] ng.mL-1 in Control;
      P=0.03) and required a reduced inotropic drug support (P<0.001). Isolated
      trabeculae from patients receiving sevoflurane enhanced the recovery of force
      after reoxygenation compared to the Control group (79+/-5% vs. 53+/-8% of
      baseline in Control; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Administration of sevoflurane before
      CPB induced cardioprotection in patients undergoing CABG and preconditioned human
      myocardium against hypoxia-reoxygenation in vitro.

PMID- 28870849
TI  - Perioperative management of asplenic patients in France: A national survey among
      anaesthetists.

PMID- 28870850
TI  - Hypoprothrombinemia and severe perioperative haemorrhagic complications in
      cardiac surgery patients treated with high-dose cefazolin for infective
      endocarditis.
AB  - Endocarditis is a serious and common disease that requires prolonged
      antimicrobial therapy. The recent shortage of oxacillin has led to the use of
      other antimicrobial agents such as cefazolin to treat endocarditis due to
      methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. We describe four cases of life
      threatening haemorrhagic complications (fatal in two cases) in patients treated
      with high-dose cefazolin. All of these patients with major bleeding presented
      with hypoprothrombinemia secondary to hypovitaminosis K. This adverse event may
      be due to inhibition of vitamin K epoxide reductase and/or gamma-glutamyl
      carboxylase by the 2-methyl-1,2,3-thiadiazol-5-thiol group of cefazolin. This
      inhibition may result in hypoprothrombinemia by altering the synthesis of vitamin
      K-dependent coagulation factors. The increasing use of cefazolin, especially at a
      high dose and for a prolonged period of time, should be accompanied by regular
      monitoring of coagulation, including prothrombin index, and vitamin K
      supplementation.

PMID- 28870852
TI  - Independent circuits in basal ganglia and cortex for the processing of reward and
      precision feedback.
AB  - In order to understand human decision making it is necessary to understand how
      the brain uses feedback to guide goal-directed behavior. The ventral striatum
      (VS) appears to be a key structure in this function, responding strongly to
      explicit reward feedback. However, recent results have also shown striatal
      activity following correct task performance even in the absence of feedback. This
      raises the possibility that, in addition to processing external feedback, the
      dopamine-centered "reward circuit" might regulate endogenous reinforcement
      signals, like those triggered by satisfaction in accurate task performance. Here
      we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test this idea.
      Participants completed a simple task that garnered both reward feedback and
      feedback about the precision of performance. Importantly, the design was such
      that we could manipulate information about the precision of performance within
      different levels of reward magnitude. Using parametric modulation and functional
      connectivity analysis we identified brain regions sensitive to each of these
      signals. Our results show a double dissociation: frontal and posterior cingulate
      regions responded to explicit reward but were insensitive to task precision,
      whereas the dorsal striatum - and putamen in particular - was insensitive to
      reward but responded strongly to precision feedback in reward-present trials.
      Both types of feedback activated the VS, and sensitivity in this structure to
      precision feedback was predicted by personality traits related to approach
      behavior and reward responsiveness. Our findings shed new light on the role of
      specific brain regions in integrating different sources of feedback to guide goal
      directed behavior.

PMID- 28870851
TI  - New furostanol saponins with anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activities from the
      rhizomes of Smilax davidiana.
AB  - Seven new furostanol saponins have been isolated from the rhizomes of Smilax
      davidiana. Their structures were established by 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques
      (1H,1H-COSY, NOESY, HSQC and HMBC), mass spectrometry and comparison with the
      literature. The isolated compounds were subjected to evaluate anti-inflammatory
      and cytotoxic activities in vitro. Compounds 3, 5 and 7 were found to have modest
      anti-inflammatory effects through suppression of IL-1beta production and promote
      the expression of IL-10 in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Davidianoside F (6)
      showed activity against MCF-7 and HELA cell lines at the concentration of 10.2uM
      and 4.3uM, respectively.

PMID- 28870853
TI  - Neural overlap of L1 and L2 semantic representations in speech: A decoding
      approach.
AB  - Although research has now converged towards a consensus that both languages of a
      bilingual are represented in at least partly shared systems for language
      comprehension, it remains unclear whether both languages are represented in the
      same neural populations for production. We investigated the neural overlap
      between L1 and L2 semantic representations of translation equivalents using a
      production task in which the participants had to name pictures in L1 and L2.
      Using a decoding approach, we tested whether brain activity during the production
      of individual nouns in one language allowed predicting the production of the same
      concepts in the other language. Because both languages only share the underlying
      semantic representation (sensory and lexical overlap was maximally avoided), this
      would offer very strong evidence for neural overlap in semantic representations
      of bilinguals. Based on the brain activation for the individual concepts in one
      language in the bilateral occipito-temporal cortex and the inferior and the
      middle temporal gyrus, we could accurately predict the equivalent individual
      concepts in the other language. This indicates that these regions share semantic
      representations across L1 and L2 word production.

PMID- 28870854
TI  - Opposite effects of binge drinking on consciously vs. subliminally induced
      cognitive conflicts.
AB  - Binge-drinking is very prevalent and potentially harmful, yet very little is
      known about the specificity of its effects on behavior and the underlying
      neurophysiologic mechanisms. While it is generally accepted that alcohol impairs
      top-down cognitive control and conflict monitoring, it has remained unclear
      whether this also applies to subliminally triggered conflicts, as alcohol may not
      impair automated processes to the same extent. To investigate this, we used a
      within-subjects design in a sample of n = 22 healthy young male subjects who
      performed a complex response conflict paradigm while an EEG was recorded.
      Behavioral data showed that a binge-like intoxication of 1.10/00 increased the
      response conflict induced by consciously perceived flankers, but paradoxically
      decreased the response conflict induced by subliminal primes. The latter was
      found to be reflected in decreased amplitude differences in the visual N1, which
      reflects attentional aspects of stimulus processing, and the N2 as well as a
      following central negativity, which are thought to reflect conflict monitoring
      and cognitive effort. On the neuroanatomical level, we found the decrease in
      subliminally induced response conflicts to be based on changes in fronto-parietal
      networks (including BA 7/the precuneus, BA 40/the postcentral gyrus, BA 23 &
      24/the cingulate cortex and BA 13/the insular cortex) that subserve attention
      allocation, the processing of complex stimuli and cognitive conflict. It can be
      concluded that alcohol intoxication paradoxically reduces subliminally triggered
      response conflicts, which may be caused by decreased allocation of attention
      towards less salient/noticeable stimuli.

PMID- 28870855
TI  - Growth media in anaerobic fermentative processes: The underestimated potential of
      thermophilic fermentation and anaerobic digestion.
AB  - Fermentation and anaerobic digestion of organic waste and wastewater is broadly
      studied and applied. Despite widely available results and data for these
      processes, comparison of the generated results in literature is difficult. Not
      only due to the used variety of process conditions, but also because of the many
      different growth media that are used. Composition of growth media can influence
      biogas production (rates) and lead to process instability during anaerobic
      digestion. To be able to compare results of the different studies reported, and
      to ensure nutrient limitation is not influencing observations ascribed to process
      dynamics and/or reaction kinetics, a standard protocol for creating a defined
      growth medium for anaerobic digestion and mixed culture fermentation is proposed.
      This paper explains the role(s) of the different macro- and micronutrients, as
      well as the choices for a growth medium formulation strategy. In addition, the
      differences in nutrient requirements between mesophilic and thermophilic systems
      are discussed as well as the importance of specific trace metals regarding
      specific conversion routes and the possible supplementary requirement of
      vitamins. The paper will also give some insight into the bio-availability and
      toxicity of trace metals. A remarkable finding is that mesophilic and
      thermophilic enzymes are quite comparable at their optimum temperatures. This has
      consequences for the trace metal requirements of thermophiles under certain
      conditions. Under non-limiting conditions, the trace metal requirement of
      thermophilic systems is about 3 times higher than for mesophilic systems.

PMID- 28870856
TI  - Transcriptome analysis of hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) with Streptococcus
      agalactiae infection identifies Toll-like receptor pathway-mediated induction of
      NADPH oxidase complex and piscidins as primary immune-related responses.
AB  - Streptococcus agalactiae infection is one of the most significant bacterial
      diseases in tilapia aquaculture. Identification of immune-related genes
      associated with Streptococcus agalactiae infection may provide a basis for
      breeding selection or therapeutics to augment disease resistance. Therefore, we
      utilized transcriptome profiling to study the host response in tilapia following
      Streptococcus agalactiae infection. Based on GO and KEGG enrichment analyses, we
      found that differentially expressed genes are widely involved in immune-related
      pathways, including the induction of antimicrobial peptides. Moreover, the main
      components of two immune-related pathways (Toll-like receptor signaling and
      leukocyte transendothelial migration) and four environmental information
      processing pathways (TNF, PI3K-Akt, Jak-STAT and MAPK) were identified. Finally,
      a time-course expression profile for several of the identified transcripts
      including tilapia piscidin 3 (TP3), tilapia piscidin 4 (TP4), TLR2, TLR5, MyD88,
      TRAF6, p38, and interleukin components was performed by qRT-PCR. Collectively,
      these results provide a starting point to study molecular mechanisms of tilapia
      immune response to Streptococcus agalactiae infection and may be applied as a
      basis for developing disease resistant strains by breeding selection.

PMID- 28870857
TI  - Molecular characterization and expression analysis of interferon-gamma in black
      seabream Acanthopagrus schlegelii.
AB  - Interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) is a major component in immunological signaling and
      plays a key role in resisting viral infection. In this study, we identified and
      characterized an IFN-gamma gene (AsIFN-gamma) in the marine fish black seabream
      (Acanthopagrus schlegelii). We cloned AsIFN-gamma genomic sequence, which
      comprises four exons, three introns and an upstream promoter including several
      conserved regulatory elements. The complete cDNA of AsIFN-gamma was 816 bp in
      length and encoded a putative 194 amino acids (aa) protein with a 22 aa signal
      peptide, six alpha-helices and one nuclear localization signal (NLS). Multiple
      alignment showed that AsIFN-gamma protein shared 31-60% identity with IFN-gamma
      of other fish but low identity with fish IFN-gammarel and IFN-gamma of other
      vertebrates. AsIFN-gamma was constitutively expressed in all examined tissues
      with the highest expression level in immune organs, such as spleen, gill and
      kidney. In black seabream infected by red spotted nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV),
      the expression of AsIFN-gamma was significantly up-regulated in most tissues, and
      RGNNV infection in vitro also induced significant up-regulation of AsIFN-gamma,
      indicating that AsIFN-gamma was involved in immune response to RGNNV infection.
      Overexpression of AsIFN-gamma in cultured Acanthopagrus schlegelii brain (AsB)
      cells rapidly and transiently stimulated the expression of JAK-STAT signaling
      pathway related genes including STAT1, STAT2 and IRF9, as well as the downstream
      antiviral genes MX1 and ISG15. Furthermore, overexpression of AsIFN-gamma was
      able to significantly inhibit RGNNV replication and virus production in AsB
      cells. In summary, we identified a conserved IFN-gamma gene of black seabream,
      and demonstrated the rapid and strong antiviral activities of AsIFN-gamma against
      RGNNV in black seabream.

PMID- 28870859
TI  - Ocean acidification and pathogen exposure modulate the immune response of the
      edible mussel Mytilus chilensis.
AB  - Ocean acidification (OA) is one of the main consequences of increasing
      atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), impacting key biological processes of marine
      organisms such as development, growth and immune response. However, there are
      scarce studies on the influence of OA on marine invertebrates' ability to cope
      with pathogens. This study evaluated the single and combined effects of OA and
      bacterial infection on the transcription expression of genes related to
      antioxidant system, antimicrobial peptides and pattern recognition receptors in
      the edible mussel Mytilus chilensis. Individuals of M. chilensis were exposed
      during 60 days at two concentrations of pCO2 (550 and 1200 MUatm) representing
      respectively current and future scenario of OA and were then injected with the
      pathogenic bacterium Vibrio anguillarum. Results evidenced an immunomodulation
      following the OA exposure with an up-regulation of C-type Lectin and Mytilin B
      and a down-regulation of Myticin A and PGRP. This immunomodulation pattern is
      partially counteracted after challenge with V. anguillarum with a down-regulation
      of the C-type lectin and Mytilin B and the up-regulation of Myticin A. In turn,
      these results evidence that pCO2-driven OA scenarios might triggers specific
      immune-related genes at early stages of infection, promoting the transcription of
      antimicrobial peptides and patterns recognition receptors. This study provides
      new evidence of how the immune response of bivalves is modulated by higher CO2
      conditions in the ocean, as well one factor for the resilience of marine
      population upon global change scenarios.

PMID- 28870860
TI  - Does Early Prostate Specific Antigen Doubling Time after Radical Prostatectomy,
      Calculated Prior to Prostate Specific Antigen Recurrence, Correlate with Prostate
      Cancer Outcomes? A Report from the SEARCH Database Group.
AB  - PURPOSE: Short prostate specific antigen doubling time following recurrence after
      radical prostatectomy portends a poor prognosis. Prostate specific antigen
      doubling time is traditionally calculated using prostate specific antigen values
      0.2 ng/ml or greater. We determined whether early prostate specific antigen
      doubling time, calculated from the first detectable postoperative prostate
      specific antigen up to and including the first recurrence value, correlates with
      prostate cancer outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cox models were used to examine
      the association between early prostate specific antigen doubling time and
      castration resistant prostate cancer, metastases, and all cause and prostate
      cancer specific mortality in 674 men who underwent radical prostatectomy between
      1988 and 2014 and had a biochemical recurrence. Early prostate specific antigen
      doubling time was examined as a log transformed continuous and a categorical
      variable. RESULTS: After adjusting for multiple clinicopathological
      characteristics, log transformed early prostate specific antigen doubling time
      was not associated with any outcome. However, when early doubling time was
      categorized as 15 or greater, 9 to 14.9, 3 to 8.9 and less than 3 months, on
      multivariable analysis men with early doubling time less than 3 months were at
      increased risk for castration resistant prostate cancer (HR 6.20, p = 0.004),
      metastases (HR 5.26, p = 0.001), prostate cancer specific mortality (HR 5.06, p =
      0.026) and all cause mortality (HR 1.63, p = 0.065) compared to those with an
      early doubling time of 15 months or greater. However, the association with all
      cause mortality was not significant. Those with an early prostate specific
      antigen doubling time of 3 to 8.9 months were at increased risk for castration
      resistant prostate cancer (HR 3.56, p = 0.015), all cause mortality (HR 1.67, p =
      0.006) and prostate cancer specific mortality (HR 3.17, p = 0.044) but not
      metastases (p = 0.13). CONCLUSIONS: Early prostate specific antigen doubling time
      less than 9 months, calculated using prostate specific antigen values before and
      up to biochemical recurrence, is associated with an increased risk of castration
      resistant prostate cancer, metastases, and prostate cancer specific and all cause
      mortality among men with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy.
      Early prostate specific antigen doubling time allows for risk stratification at
      biochemical recurrence and before prostate specific antigen doubling time is
      calculable, enabling these men to be referred for early aggressive secondary
      treatment and/or clinical trials.

PMID- 28870858
TI  - Molecular characterization and expression analysis of the large yellow croaker
      (Larimichthys crocea) chemokine receptors CXCR2, CXCR3, and CXCR4 after bacterial
      and poly I:C challenge.
AB  - The large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) has a well-developed innate immune
      system. We studied a component of this system, chemokine receptor CXCR family. In
      this study, we report the full-length open reading frames, as well as the
      identification and characterization of the chemokine receptor genes CXCR2
      (LycCXCR2), CXCR3 (LycCXCR3), and CXCR4 (LycCXCR4) of large yellow croaker. We
      report that LycCXCR3 and LycCXCR4 are evolving neutrally according to PAML
      analyses. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that CXCR transcripts were
      expressed in all examined tissues. The expression of chemokine receptors
      LycCXCR2, LycCXCR3, and LycCXCR4 was elevated in the kidney, spleen, and
      particularly the liver of the large yellow croaker after challenge with Vibrio
      anguillarum and polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly I:C). These results suggest
      that LycCXCR2, LycCXCR3, and LycCXCR4 may be important immune-related genes,
      playing crucial roles in immune defence against bacterial infection.

PMID- 28870861
TI  - Sleep Problems are Associated with Development and Progression of Lower Urinary
      Tract Symptoms: Results from REDUCE.
AB  - PURPOSE: Although lower urinary tract symptoms and sleep problems often develop
      together, to our knowledge it is unknown whether sleep disturbances are linked to
      lower urinary tract symptoms development and progression. As measured by the 6
      item MOS-Sleep (Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale) survey we examined the
      relationship between sleep problems, and the development and progression of lower
      urinary tract symptoms in the REDUCE (Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer
      Events) study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: REDUCE was a randomized trial testing
      prostate cancer chemoprevention with dutasteride in men with prostate specific
      antigen 2.5 to 10 ng/ml and a negative biopsy. At baseline men completed MOS
      Sleep and a scaled average was used to calculate the sleep score. Men were
      followed for 4 years and I-PSS (International Prostate Symptom Score) was
      completed at baseline and every 6 months. Asymptomatic men had I-PSS less than 8
      while symptomatic men had I-PSS 8 or greater. In the placebo arm of 2,588 men not
      receiving alpha-blockers or 5alpha-reductase inhibitors at baseline we tested the
      association between sleep problems and lower urinary tract symptom development
      and progression using Cox models. RESULTS: During followup lower urinary tract
      symptoms developed in 209 of 1,452 asymptomatic men (14%) and 580 of 1,136 (51%)
      with lower urinary tract symptoms demonstrated progression. On multivariable
      analysis higher sleep scores were suggestively associated with increased lower
      urinary tract symptoms in asymptomatic men (quartile 4 vs 1 HR 1.41, 95% CI 0.92
      2.17, p = 0.12) and with lower urinary tract symptom progression in symptomatic
      men (per 10 points of sleep score HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01-1.12, p = 0.029).
      CONCLUSIONS: Among men with lower urinary tract symptoms worse sleep scores were
      associated with the progression of lower urinary tract symptoms and among
      asymptomatic men worse sleep scores were suggestively associated with the
      development of lower urinary tract symptoms. If confirmed, these data suggest
      that sleep problems may precede such symptoms. Whether treating sleep problems
      would improve lower urinary tract symptoms requires further testing.

PMID- 28870862
TI  - Incidence, Clinicopathological Risk Factors, Management and Outcomes of Nonmuscle
      Invasive Recurrence after Complete Response to Trimodality Therapy for Muscle
      Invasive Bladder Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: We describe the incidence, clinicopathological risk factors, management
      and outcomes of recurrent nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer after a complete
      response to trimodality therapy of muscle invasive bladder cancer. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 342 patients with cT2-4aN0M0
      muscle invasive bladder cancer and a complete response after trimodality therapy
      from 1986 to 2013. Using competing risks analyses we examined the association
      between baseline clinicopathological variables and nonmuscle invasive bladder
      cancer outcomes. Kaplan-Meier and the generalized Fleming-Harrington test were
      used to compare disease specific and overall survival. RESULTS: At a median
      followup of 9 years nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer recurred in 85 patients
      (25%) who had had a complete response. On Kaplan-Meier analysis baseline
      carcinoma in situ was associated with recurrent nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer
      (p = 0.02). However, on multivariate analysis carcinoma in situ and other
      baseline clinicopathological characteristics did not predict such recurrence.
      Patients with recurrent nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer had worse 10-year
      disease specific survival than those without recurrence (72.1% vs 78.4%, p =
      0.002), although overall survival was similar (p = 0.66). Of the 39 patients
      (46%) who received adjuvant intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin 29 (74%)
      completed induction therapy and 19 (49%) reported bacillus Calmette-Guerin
      toxicity. Three-year recurrence-free and progression-free survival after
      induction bacillus Calmette-Guerin was 59% and 63%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      After a complete response to trimodality therapy nonmuscle invasive bladder
      cancer recurred in 25% of patients, developing in some of them more than a decade
      after trimodality therapy. No baseline clinicopathological characteristics were
      associated with such recurrence after a complete response. Patients with
      nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer recurrence had worse disease specific survival
      than those without such recurrence but similar overall survival. Adjuvant
      intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin had a reasonable toxicity profile and
      efficacy in this population. Properly selected patients with recurrent nonmuscle
      invasive bladder cancer after a complete response may avoid immediate salvage
      cystectomy.

PMID- 28870863
TI  - Use of targeted sequence capture and high-throughput sequencing identifies a
      novel PKD1 mutation involved in adult polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a common inherited disease that is
      characterized by a progressive development of renal cysts. Approximately 85% of
      PKD cases are due to mutations in the polycystin 1 (PKD1) gene. Here, we report a
      pedigree containing nine patients with autosomal dominant PKD (ADPKD). Using
      targeted exome sequencing of PKD1 and PKD2 genes, we identified a novel
      heterozygous frameshift mutation c.3976_3977insCT (p.F1326Sfs*21) in the PKD1
      gene that segregated between affected and unaffected family members. This
      mutation is currently not present in the 1000 Genomes Project nor ExAC databases
      and is therefore a novel PKD1 mutation involved in ADPKD. These results provide a
      novel sequence variant for the genetic analysis of this disease.

PMID- 28870865
TI  - Changes in water manganese levels and longitudinal assessment of intellectual
      function in children exposed through drinking water.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Manganese is commonly found in water but potential neurotoxic effects
      from exposure through drinking water are poorly understood. We previously
      reported a cross-sectional study showing that drinking water Mn concentration was
      associated with lower IQ in children aged 6 to 13 years. OBJECTIVE: For this
      follow-up study, we aimed to re-assess the relation between exposure to Mn from
      drinking water and IQ at adolescence. In addition, we aimed to examine whether
      changes in drinking water Mn concentration was associated with changes in IQ
      scores. METHODS: From the 380 children enrolled in the baseline study, 287
      participated to this follow-up study conducted in average 4.4 years after. Mn
      concentration was measured in home tap water and children's hair. The
      relationships between these Mn exposure indicators and IQ scores (Weschsler
      Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence) at follow-up were assessed with linear
      regression analysis, adjusting for potential confounders. Intra-individual
      differences in IQ scores between the two examinations were compared for children
      whose Mn concentration in water remained stable between examinations, increased
      or decreased. RESULTS: The mean age at follow-up was 13.7 years (range, 10.5 to
      18.0 years). Geometric mean of Mn concentration in water at follow-up was
      14.5MUg/L. Higher Mn concentration in water measured at follow-up was associated
      with lower Performance IQ in girls (beta for a 10-fold increase=-2.8, 95%
      confidence intervals [CI] -4.8 to -0.8) and higher Performance IQ in boys
      (beta=3.9, 95% CI 1.4 to 6.4). IQ scores were not significantly associated with
      Mn concentration in hair, although similar trends as for concentration in water
      were observed. For children whose Mn concentration in water increased between
      baseline and follow-up, Performance IQ scores decreased significantly (intra
      individual difference, -2.4 points). CONCLUSION: Higher levels of Mn in drinking
      water were associated with lower Performance IQ in girls, whereas the opposite
      was observed in boys. These findings suggest long-term exposure to Mn through
      drinking water is associated differently with cognition in boys and girls.

PMID- 28870864
TI  - Counter regulation of ECRG4 gene expression by hypermethylation-dependent
      inhibition and the Sp1 transcription factor-dependent stimulation of the c2orf40
      promoter.
AB  - The human cytokine precursor ECRG4 has been associated with multiple
      physiological, developmental and pathophysiological processes involving cell
      proliferation, cell migration, innate immunity, inflammation, cancer progression
      and metastases. Although down-regulation of ECRG4 gene expression has been
      largely attributed to hypermethylation of CpG islands in the 5'untranslated
      region of the ECRG4 promoter, the mechanisms that underlie the dynamics of its
      regulation have never been systematically described. Here we show that the ECRG4
      gene is widely expressed in human tissues and report that its core promoter lies
      between the -780 to +420 base pairs relative to the ATG start codon of the ECRG4
      open reading frame. This sequence, which contains several CpG islands, also
      includes multiple overlapping Sp1 consensus binding sequences and a putative
      binding site for NF-kB activation. 5'RACE of mRNA derived from human leukocytes
      shows that ECRG4 transcription initiates from the guanidine at -11 from the
      initiation ATG of the ECRG4 open reading frame. While there is no canonical TATA-
      or CAAT-boxes proximal to this translational initiation site, there is a distal
      TATA-sequence in the 5'UTR. This region was identified as the sequence targeted
      by hypermethylation because in vitro methylation of plasmids encoding the ECRG4
      promoter abolish promoter activity and the treatment of Jurkat cells (which
      naturally express ECRG4) with the methylation inhibitor 5-AzaC, increases
      endogenous ECRG4 expression. Because ChIP assays show that Sp1 binds the ECRG4
      promoter, that forced Sp1 expression trans-activates the ECRG4 promoter and Sp1
      inhibition with mithramycin inhibits ECRG4 expression, we conclude that the
      dynamic positive and negative regulatory elements controlling ECRG4 expression
      include a counter regulation between promoter methylation and Sp1 activation.

PMID- 28870866
TI  - Evaluation of the effect of an environmental management program on exposure to
      manganese in a mining zone in Mexico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, is found the largest second deposit
      of Manganese (Mn) in Latin America. Various studies on the sources of emission,
      exposure, and the effects on the health of children and adults have been
      conducted utilizing an ecosystem approach. Given the findings of Mn levels in air
      and the neurocognitive effects, an Environmental Management Program (EMP) was
      designed and implemented with the purpose of reducing exposure to Mn of the
      population, including various actions for reducing Mn emissions into the
      atmosphere. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of the EMP on the concentrations of
      Mn in air, as well as the modification of exposure to Mn in the blood and hair of
      adult residents of the communities intervened. METHODS: A quasi-experimental
      study was conducted in five rural communities, in which Mn concentrations were
      evaluated in air and in blood in the years 2002 and 2007, pre-intervention, and
      in 2013, postintervention. In 2003, the concentration of hair Mn among the
      communities was evaluated. Measurements were carried out of Particulate Matter
      (PM) of >10 and 2.5MUm (PM10 and PM2.5), and Mn in PM10 and PM2.5 were measured
      using proton-induced X-ray emissions (PIXE). The method of Difference in
      Differences (DID) was applied to estimate the impact of EMP on Mn concentrations
      in particulate matter via linear regression through multilevel models. To
      evaluate the effect of Mn concentrations in air over Mn concentrations in blood
      in both study periods in the mining communities per year (2002 and 2013), a
      linear regression model for each year was employed. RESULTS: We estimated that
      the EMP contributed to reducing the average daily concentrations of Mn in PM10
      and PM2.5 by 92 and 85%, respectively. The adjusted model did not show an effect
      of Mn concentrations in air over Mn concentrations in blood in both study
      periods. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the measures implemented to reduce
      Mn emissions in air exerted a significant impact on the reduction of inhaled
      exposure in adult population.

PMID- 28870867
TI  - Hematologic neoplasms: Dendritic cells vaccines in motion.
AB  - Dendritic cells (DCs) are bone-marrow-derived immune cells accounted for a key
      role in cancer vaccination as potent antigen-presenting cells within the immune
      system. Cancer microenvironment can modulate DCs maturation resulting in their
      accumulation into functional states associated with a reduced antitumor immune
      response. In this regard, a successful cancer vaccine needs to mount a potent
      antitumor immune response able to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor milieu. As
      a consequence, DCs-based approaches are a safe and promising strategy for
      improving the therapeutic efficacy in hematological malignancies, particularly in
      combinations with additional treatments. This review summarizes the most
      significant evidence about the immunotherapeutic strategies performed to target
      hematologic neoplasms including the tumoral associated antigens (TAA) pulsed on
      DCs, whole tumor cell vaccines or leukemia-derived DCs.

PMID- 28870868
TI  - Heme oxygenase-1 participates in the resolution of seawater drowning-induced
      acute respiratory distress syndrome.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate whether heme oxygenase-1(HO-1)
      participated in the resolution of seawater drowning-induced acute respiratory
      distress syndrome (ARDS). In this study, gross and microscopic morphology of
      pulmonary tissue, computed tomography images and biochemical indexes were
      continuously observed from 15min to 15day after seawater drowning. The content
      and activity of HO-1 were determined by western-blot and spectrophotometric
      method, respectively. The morphological and biochemical indexes indicated that
      the seawater drowning could lead to the serious pulmonary hemorrhage and edema.
      However, 6h after drowning, these morphological and biochemical indexes gradually
      returned to basal level. Meanwhile, seawater drowning increased the HO-1
      expression and activity while Zinc protoporphyrin (a HO-1 specific activity
      inhibitor) decreased the content of transforming growth factor beta-1 in lung
      tissue and hampered the repair process of seawater drowning-induced ARDS. Thus,
      HO-1 participates in the resolution of seawater drowning-induced ARDS.

PMID- 28870869
TI  - Dysfunctional breathing is more frequent in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      than in asthma and in health.
AB  - Involuntary adaptations of breathing patterns to counter breathlessness may lead
      to dysfunctional breathing in obstructive lung diseases. However, no studies
      examining dysfunctional breathing in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
      have been reported. Patients with verified COPD (n=34), asthma (n=37) and a
      healthy control group (n=41) were recruited. All participants completed the
      Nijmegen questionnaire for dysfunctional breathing as well as measures of disease
      activity. Comparisons between groups employed analysis of variance with post-hoc
      Bonferroni analyses and Pearson correlation for associations. Patients with COPD
      had significantly higher Nijmegen questionnaire scores than asthmatics (COPD:
      23.4+/-10.6 versus 17.3+/-10.6, p=0.016) and healthy individuals (14.3+/-9.6,
      p=0.002). Significantly more patients with COPD had severe dysfunctional
      breathing with Nijmegen scores >23 (47%; 16/34) compared to asthma (27%; 10/37)
      and healthy controls (17%; 7/41) respectively (p=0.019). Dysfunctional breathing
      was detected in ~50% of patients with COPD, more so than in asthma or health.
      Strategies to reduce abnormal breathing behaviours may have important benefits
      for treatment of breathlessness in COPD.

PMID- 28870870
TI  - "Spirometric" lung age reference equations: A narrative review.
AB  - The aim of the present paper was to conduct a narrative review of the published
      norms of the "spirometric" lung-age (SLA). A literature search which covered the
      period 1970 to June 2017, was conducted using the Pubmed. The search strategy had
      used the following MeSH words: "Spirometry"[Majr]) AND "Aging"[Majr]. Six
      original studies have reported equations predicting SLA for adults aged 18-90
      years [USA (n=2), Japan (n=2); Australia (n=1) and Tunisia (n=1)]. Their sample
      sizes varied from 125 to 15238, with a total of 32334 volunteers (11788 men).
      Several models of norms were developed. They included one (often, FEV1) or more
      spirometric data in addition to one (often, height) or more anthropometric data.
      All studies have validated their norms in additional one or more groups, with
      satisfactory results. Only three authors have proposed algorithms to interpret
      SLA. All studies presented several limitations concerning the sample size and/or
      representation, the age distribution, the use of old spirometric data and/or
      equipment, the application of old spirometric methods, and especially
      mathematical and statistical flaws.

PMID- 28870871
TI  - Controversy and debate on clinical genomics sequencing-paper 1: genomics is not
      exceptional: rigorous evaluations are necessary for clinical applications of
      genomic sequencing.
AB  - Next generation genomic sequencing (NGS) technologies-whole genome and whole
      exome sequencing-are now cheap enough to be within the grasp of many health care
      organizations. To many, NGS is symbolic of cutting edge health care, offering the
      promise of "precision" and "personalized" medicine. Historically, research and
      clinical application has been a two-way street in clinical genetics: research
      often driven directly by the desire to understand and try to solve immediate
      clinical problems affecting real, identifiable patients and families, accompanied
      by a low threshold of willingness to apply research-driven interventions without
      resort to formal empirical evaluations. However, NGS technologies are not simple
      substitutes for older technologies and need careful evaluation for use as
      screening, diagnostic, or prognostic tools. We have concerns across three areas.
      First, at the moment, analytic validity is unknown because technical platforms
      are not yet stable, laboratory quality assurance programs are in their infancy,
      and data interpretation capabilities are badly underdeveloped. Second, clinical
      validity of genomic findings for patient populations without pre-existing high
      genetic risk is doubtful, as most clinical experience with NGS technologies
      relates to patients with a high prior likelihood of a genetic etiology. Finally,
      we are concerned that proponents argue not only for clinically driven approaches
      to assessing a patient's genome, but also for seeking out variants associated
      with unrelated conditions or susceptibilities-so-called "secondary targets"-this
      is screening on a genomic scale. We argue that clinical uses of genomic
      sequencing should remain limited to specialist and research settings, that
      screening for secondary findings in clinical testing should be limited to the
      maximum extent possible, and that the benefits, harms, and economic implications
      of their routine use be systematically evaluated. All stakeholders have a
      responsibility to ensure that patients receive effective, safe health care, in an
      economically sustainable health care system. There should be no exception for
      genome-based interventions.

PMID- 28870872
TI  - Five indicators were developed to assess the quality of reviews on preventive
      interventions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to develop quality indicators for
      preventive effectiveness and to evaluate their use with Cochrane Reviews of
      primary preventive interventions. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Based on the quality
      of care framework, we searched the literature to develop a set of quality
      indicators. Two authors applied the quality indicators independently to a sample
      of Cochrane systematic reviews of primary prevention. RESULTS: Five quality
      indicators were developed: sample size, directness of evidence, adherence, harm,
      and costs. We applied the quality indicators to a random sample of 84 of a total
      of 264 Cochrane reviews of primary preventive interventions. Only 70% reviews (n
      = 59) complied with the indicator sample size, whereas 61% (n = 51) complied with
      directness of the outcome, 48% (n = 40) with adherence, 76% (n = 64) with harm,
      and 46% (n = 39) with the indicator cost. CONCLUSION: Applying the five quality
      indicators is feasible. The quality of evidence in reviews of primary prevention
      can be substantially improved. Trialists and review authors should provide more
      information especially on adherence, costs, and indirectness of the outcome.
      Methodological research is needed on how to incorporate cost information in
      systematic reviews and how to better deal with indirectness.

PMID- 28870873
TI  - The kinematic alignment technique for TKA reliably aligns the femoral component
      with the cylindrical axis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Kinematic alignment (KA) technique is an alternative technique for
      positioning a TKA, which aims a patient-specific implant positioning in order to
      reproduce the pre-arthritic knee anatomy. Because reliability in implant
      positioning is of interest to obtain reproducible good functional results, our
      study tests the hypothesis that the medial and lateral distal and posterior
      positions of the planned and surgically implanted kinematically aligned femoral
      component are similar. METHODS: Preoperative knee magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) and postoperative knee computed tomography (CT) of 13 patients implanted
      with a KA Persona(r) TKA (Zimmer, Warsaw, USA) using manual instrumentation
      (kinematically-aligned TKA procedure pack(r), Zimmer Biomet, Warsaw, USA) were
      segmented to create 3D femoral models. The kinematic alignment position of the
      femoral component was planned on the 3D model created from the preoperative MRI.
      Differences in the positions of the planned and surgically implanted
      kinematically-aligned femoral component were determined with in-house analysis
      software. RESULTS: The average differences between the medial and lateral distal
      and posterior positions of the planned and surgically implanted kinematically
      aligned femoral component were inferior to 1mm and no statistically significant.
      In terms of variability, 62% (8/13) of performed implants matched all four
      positions within 1.5mm, and the maximum difference was 3mm. CONCLUSION: In this
      small series, intraoperative kinematic positioning of the femoral component with
      the specific manual instrumentation closely matched the planned position, which
      suggests that this technique reliably aligned the flexion-extension axis of the
      femoral component to the cylindrical axis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3.

PMID- 28870874
TI  - Characteristics and outcome following transcatheter aortic valve replacement in
      patients with severe aortic stenosis with low flow.
AB  - AIMS: Only a few studies have examined the respective impact of low flow (LF),
      low gradient (LG) and low ejection fraction (LEF) on outcomes following
      transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The purpose of this study was to
      assess the impact of preprocedural stroke volume index, aortic valve gradient,
      left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and different flow/gradient/LVEF
      patterns on the clinical outcomes of patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS)
      who undergo TAVR. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analysed the clinical,
      echocardiographic, and outcome data collected in 770 patients with AS who
      underwent TAVR. Overall, 357 patients had normal flow (NF) AS and 413 had LF AS.
      Patients with NF had similar one-year mortality (12.0% vs. 15.0%, p=0.23)
      compared with those in the LF group. Overall, patients with NF and/or HG had
      lower one-year mortality rates (11.7 to 13%) compared to those with paradoxical
      LF-LG with NEF (19%) and those with classical LF-LG with LEF (27.3%). Low mean
      gradient was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio: 1.14,
      per 10 mmHg decrease, p=0.02). Despite significant association in univariable
      analyses, LF and LEF were not found to be predictors of outcomes in multivariable
      analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with HG and those with NF-LG have low one-year
      mortality rates following TAVR, whereas those with classical LF-LG and LEF and
      those with paradoxical LF-LG and NEF have high and intermediate risk of
      mortality, respectively. In contradiction to previous reports, LG but not LF or
      LEF is an independent predictor of late mortality in high-risk patients with
      severe AS undergoing TAVR.

PMID- 28870875
TI  - Which is the best antiaggregant or anticoagulant therapy after TAVI? A propensity
      matched analysis from the ITER registry. The management of DAPT after TAVI.
AB  - AIMS: The safety and efficacy of single vs. dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in
      patients undergoing TAVI remain to be addressed. The aim of our study was to
      evaluate the usefulness of a DAPT compared to a single platelet therapy in
      patients undergoing TAVI with a balloon-expandable prosthesis. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: All consecutive patients enrolled in the ITER registry were included.
      Patients undergoing TAVI discharged with aspirin alone were compared to those
      taking DAPT before and after selection using propensity score with matching.
      Subgroup analysis was performed for those on OAT. Prosthetic heart valve
      dysfunction at follow-up was the primary endpoint, whereas all-cause death,
      cardiovascular death, bleedings, vascular complications and cerebrovascular
      accidents were the secondary ones. From 1,364 patients, after propensity score
      with matching, 605 were selected for each group (aspirin alone vs. DAPT). At 30
      days, rates of VARC mortality were lower in patients with aspirin alone (1.5% vs.
      4.1%, p=0.003), mainly driven by a reduction of major vascular complications
      (5.3% vs. 10.7%, p<0.001) and of major bleedings (6.6% vs. 11.5%, p<0.001),
      without a difference in prosthetic heart valve dysfunction after 45+/-14 months
      (2.8% vs. 3.0%, p=0.50). These results were confirmed on multivariable analysis.
      CONCLUSIONS: After TAVI with a balloon-expandable prosthesis, aspirin alone does
      not increase the risk of prosthetic valve dysfunction, and reduces the risk of
      periprocedural complications and of 30-day all-cause death.

PMID- 28870876
TI  - Prevalence and impact of critical limb ischaemia on in-hospital outcome in
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation in Germany.
AB  - AIMS: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is common in patients with aortic valve
      stenosis (AS). This study sought to assess the prevalence of critical limb
      ischaemia (CLI) and its impact on in-hospital outcome in patients undergoing
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) for severe AS. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: All isolated TAVI procedures for AS in Germany between 2007 and 2013
      were analysed regarding the stage-specific prevalence of PAD, comorbidities, in
      hospital complications and mortality using diagnostic and procedural codes. Among
      32,044 patients with TAVI, 3,375 (10.5%) had PAD and 654 (2.0%) CLI. TAVI
      patients with PAD, particularly those with CLI, had a higher incidence of
      periprocedural stroke, bleeding and acute kidney injury (p<0.001). The overall in
      hospital mortality among TAVI without PAD, non-CLI PAD and CLI was 6.1%, 8.4% and
      14.7%, respectively (p<0.001). In a multivariate logistic regression analysis,
      CLI was an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 1.96, 95%
      confidence interval 1.56-2.47; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing
      TAVI, the presence of PAD is associated with an increased risk of periprocedural
      complications, while only CLI independently predicts increased in-hospital
      mortality. Whether CLI represents a marker of general poor health status
      resulting in poor outcome or is a modifiable risk factor whose treatment prior to
      TAVI can improve the outcome requires prospective studies.

PMID- 28870877
TI  - Very low pacemaker rate following ACURATE neo transcatheter heart valve
      implantation.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate whether minimising trauma to the
      aortic annulus and left ventricular outflow tract reduces the occurrence of new
      conduction disorders and the need for permanent pacemakers. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      A total of 175 patients (58% female, mean age 83+/-6 years) underwent
      transfemoral TAVI with the Boston Scientific ACURATE neo at three centres in
      Europe. Prosthesis size selection was based on perimeter-derived annular
      diameter. Predilatation was performed in all with a balloon 1.9+/-0.9 mm smaller
      than the perimeter-derived annular diameter. Post-dilatation was performed in 46
      (26.3%) with a balloon 1.2+/-0.9 mm smaller than the perimeter-derived annular
      diameter. Eighteen patients (10.3%) developed a new left bundle branch block, 13
      (7%) a new first-degree AV block, and four (2.3%) received a new permanent
      pacemaker. Paravalvular regurgitation was none/trace in 66 (37.7%), mild in 101
      (57.7%) and moderate in eight (4.6%). At 30 days, the rate of any stroke was 1.7%
      (3/175), and one patient (0.6%) had died. CONCLUSIONS: With careful selection of
      the balloon and the ACURATE neo prosthesis size, very low rates of new conduction
      disorders and permanent pacemaker implantation may be achieved without increasing
      the amount of paravalvular regurgitation.

PMID- 28870878
TI  - Clinical outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention with the COMBO stent
      versus Resolute Integrity and PROMUS Element stents: a propensity-matched
      analysis.
AB  - AIMS: The COMBO stent combines sirolimus elution with an endothelial progenitor
      cell-capturing layer to promote early endothelialisation. There has not been a
      head-to-head comparison of this novel device with any other currently used drug
      eluting stent (DES). We sought to compare clinical outcome at two years after
      COMBO stent placement with the Resolute Integrity or PROMUS Element stent in an
      all-comers cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients from the REMEDEE registry
      (COMBO, n=1,000) were matched with patients from the DUTCH PEERS trial (PROMUS
      Element/Resolute Integrity, n=1,811). Propensity score matching on 13 baseline
      characteristics was applied to create two balanced cohorts of patients treated
      with COMBO versus PROMUS Element/Resolute Integrity. Propensity score matching
      yielded 771 patient pairs, representing all-comers patients, with a median age of
      65 years, 27% female and more than 50% of patients presenting with acute coronary
      syndrome. Target lesion failure (TLF), a composite of cardiac death, target
      vessel MI and any target lesion revascularisation, at two-year follow-up was 7.9%
      in COMBO and 6.4% in PROMUS Element/Resolute Integrity, HR 1.24 (95% CI: 0.85
      1.81), p=0.26. Definite stent thrombosis (ST) was not significantly different
      between groups (0.8% vs. 0.9%, p=0.79). CONCLUSIONS: In a propensity-matched
      analysis, the COMBO stent showed similar rates of TLF and ST at two-year follow
      up compared to Resolute Integrity and PROMUS Element.

PMID- 28870879
TI  - Initial experience with the novel BioMime 60 mm-long sirolimus-eluting tapered
      stent system in long coronary lesions.

PMID- 28870880
TI  - Percutaneous closure of subannular rupture following transcatheter aortic valve
      implantation.

PMID- 28870881
TI  - Transcatheter edge-to-edge repair of lead-associated tricuspid regurgitation.

PMID- 28870882
TI  - Two-year outcome after biodegradable polymer sirolimus- and biolimus-eluting
      coronary stents (from the randomised SORT OUT VII trial).

PMID- 28870883
TI  - Percutaneous renal artery revascularization after prolonged ischemia secondary to
      blunt trauma: pooled cohort analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to identify factors related to technical and clinical success
      of percutaneous revascularization for blunt renal arterial trauma. METHODS: All
      cases of percutaneous revascularization for blunt renal arterial trauma were
      searched in the available literature. We included a case of iatrogenic renal
      artery occlusion at our institution treated by percutaneous stenting 20 hours
      after injury. A pooled cohort analysis of percutaneous revascularization for
      blunt renal artery injury was then performed to analyze factors related to
      technical and clinical success. Clinical failure was defined as development of
      new hypertension, serum creatinine rise, or significant asymmetry in split renal
      function. RESULTS: A total of 53 cases have been reported, and 54 cases were
      analyzed including our case. Median follow-up was 6 months. Technical success was
      88.9% and clinical success was 75%. Of 12 treatment failures (25%), 66.7%
      occurred during the first postprocedure month. Time from injury to
      revascularization was not a predictor of clinical success (OR=1.00, P = 0.681).
      Renal artery occlusion was significantly associated with clinical failure
      (OR=7.50, P = 0.017) and postintervention antiplatelet therapy was significantly
      associated with treatment success (OR=0.16, P = 0.043). At 37-month follow-up,
      the stented renal artery in our case remained patent and the patient was
      normotensive with preserved glomerular filtration rate. CONCLUSION: Percutaneous
      revascularization for blunt renal arterial injury resulted in relatively high
      technical and clinical success. Time-to-revascularization was independent of
      successful outcomes. Clinical success was significantly associated with a patent
      renal artery at the time of intervention and with postprocedure antiplatelet
      therapy.

PMID- 28870885
TI  - Mesenteric panniculitis.
AB  - A 53-year-old black woman presented with a 3-day history of abdominal pain.
      Ultrasound of the abdomen showed a gall bladder packed with small stones. She
      gave a history of abdominal surgery for a gynaecological condition. She had a
      cholecystectomy done, but her symptoms continued after cholecystectomy. She then
      had anendoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram (ERCP) and sphincterotomy
      done, again her symptoms remained the same. A CT scan of the abdomen was done,
      and mesenteric panniculitis was suspected. A laparoscopic biopsy of the mesentery
      was performed, and it confirmed mesenteric panniculitis. She was started on a 2
      week course of steroids to which she responded very well. Three months after the
      initial presentation, she was still asymptomatic.

PMID- 28870886
TI  - What would a sustainable health and care system look like?

PMID- 28870884
TI  - A combined VBM and DTI study of schizophrenia: bilateral decreased insula volume
      and cerebral white matter disintegrity corresponding to subinsular white matter
      projections unlinked to clinical symptomatology.
AB  - PURPOSE: Grey matter and white matter changes within the brain are well defined
      in schizophrenia. However, most studies focused on either grey matter changes or
      white matter integrity separately; only in limited number of studies these
      changes were interpreted in the same frame. In addition, the relationship of
      these findings with clinical variables is not clearly established. Here, we aimed
      to investigate the grey matter and white matter changes in schizophrenia patients
      and exhibit the relation of these imaging findings with clinical variables.
      METHODS: A total of 20 schizophrenia patients and 16 matched healthy controls
      underwent magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the grey matter and white
      matter alterations that occur in schizophrenia patients using voxel-based
      morphometry (VBM) and whole brain voxel-wise analysis of diffusion tensor imaging
      (DTI) parameters with SPM8, respectively. While the preprocessing steps of VBM
      were performed with the default parameters of VBM8 toolbox, the preprocessing
      steps of DTI were carried out using FSL. Additionally, VBM results were
      correlated with clinical variables. RESULTS: Bilateral insula showed decreased
      grey matter volume in schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls (P <
      0.01). The opposite contrast did not show a significant difference. Psychiatric
      scores, duration of illness, and age were not correlated with the decreased grey
      matter volume of insula in schizophrenia patients. DTI analysis revealed a
      significant increase in mean, radial, and axial diffusivity, mainly of the fibers
      of bilateral anterior thalamic radiation and superior longitudinal fasciculus
      with left predominance, which intersected with bilateral subinsular white matter
      (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that insula may be the main affected
      brain region in schizophrenia, which is also well supported by the literature.
      Our results were independent of disease duration and schizophrenia symptoms.
      White matter alterations were observed within bilateral anterior thalamic
      radiation and superior longitudinal fasciculus that intersects with subinsular
      white matter. Studies with larger sample sizes and more detailed clinical
      assessments are required to understand the function of insula in the neurobiology
      of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28870887
TI  - Appetite, food intake and gut hormone responses to intense aerobic exercise of
      different duration.
AB  - The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of acute bouts of high
      intensity aerobic exercise of differing durations on subjective appetite, food
      intake and appetite-associated hormones in endurance-trained males. Twelve
      endurance-trained males (age = 21 +/- 2 years; BMI = 21.0 +/- 1.6 kg/m2; VO2max =
      61.6 +/- 6.0 mL/kg/min) completed four trials, within a maximum 28 day period, in
      a counterbalanced order: resting (REST); 15 min exercise bout (15-min); 30 min
      exercise bout (30-min) and 45 min exercise bout (45-min). All exercise was
      completed on a cycle ergometer at an intensity of ~76% VO2max Sixty minutes post
      exercise, participants consumed an ad libitum meal. Measures of subjective
      appetite and blood samples were obtained throughout the morning, with plasma
      analyzed for acylated ghrelin, total polypeptide tyrosine-tyrosine (PYY) and
      total glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) concentrations. The following results were
      obtained: Neither subjective appetite nor absolute food intake differed between
      trials. Relative energy intake (intake - expenditure) was significantly greater
      after REST (2641 +/- 1616 kJ) compared with both 30-min (1039 +/- 1520 kJ) and 45
      min (260 +/- 1731 kJ), and significantly greater after 15-min (2699 +/- 1239 kJ)
      compared with 45-min (condition main effect, P < 0.001). GLP-1 concentration
      increased immediately post exercise in 30-min and 45-min, respectively (condition
      * time interaction, P < 0.001). Acylated ghrelin was transiently suppressed in
      all exercise trials (condition * time interaction, P = 0.011); the greatest, most
      enduring suppression, was observed in 45-min. PYY concentration was unchanged
      with exercise. In conclusion, high-intensity aerobic cycling lasting up to 45 min
      did not suppress subjective appetite or affect absolute food intake, but did
      reduce relative energy intake, in well-trained endurance athletes. Findings
      question the role of appetite hormones in regulating subjective appetite in the
      acute post-exercise period.

PMID- 28870888
TI  - Cell-secreted vesicles containing microRNAs as regulators of gamete maturation.
AB  - Mammalian gamete maturation requires extensive signaling between germ cells and
      their surrounding somatic cells. In the ovary, theca cells, mural granulosa
      cells, cumulus cells and the oocyte all secrete factors throughout follicle
      growth and maturation that are critical for ovulation of a high-quality oocyte
      with the competence to develop into an embryo. Similarly, maturation of sperm
      occurs as it transits the epididymis during which epididymal epithelium and sperm
      exchange secretory factors that are required for sperm to gain motility and
      fertility. Recent studies in a variety of species have uncovered the presence of
      cell-secreted vesicles in follicular fluid (microvesicles and exosomes) and
      epididymal fluid (epididymosomes). Moreover, these cell-secreted vesicles contain
      small non-coding regulatory RNAs called microRNAs, which can be shuttled between
      maturing gametes and surrounding somatic cells. Although little is known about
      the exact mechanism of how microRNAs are loaded into these cell-secreted vesicles
      or are transferred and modulate gene expression and function in gametes, recent
      studies clearly suggest that cell-secreted vesicle microRNAs play a role in
      oocyte and sperm maturation. Moreover, a role for cell-secreted vesicular
      microRNAs in gamete maturation provides for novel opportunities to modulate and
      discover new diagnostic markers associated with male or female fertility. This
      manuscript provides an overview of cell-secreted vesicles in ovarian follicular
      fluid and epididymal fluid and microRNAs and discusses recent discoveries on the
      potential function of cell-secreted vesicles as carriers of microRNAs in oocyte
      and sperm maturation.

PMID- 28870889
TI  - miR-194 as predictive biomarker of responsiveness to neoadjuvant
      chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - AIMS: Curative surgery remains the primary form of treatment for locally advanced
      rectal cancer (LARC). Recent data support the use of preoperative
      chemoradiotherapy (pCRT) to improve the prognosis of LARC with a significant
      reduction of local relapse and an increase of overall survival. Unfortunately,
      only 20% of the patients with LARC present complete pathological response after
      pCRT, whereas in 20%-40%, the response is poor or absent. METHODS: We
      investigated the expression level of miR-194 in n=38 patients with LARC using our
      public microRNA (miRNA) expression dataset. miR-194 expression was further
      validated by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and in situ hybridisation
      (ISH). Protein-protein interaction network and pathway enrichment analysis were
      performed on miR-194 targets. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Using biopsy samples
      collected at diagnosis, mir-194 was significantly upregulated in patients
      responding to treatment (p value=0.016). The data was confirmed with qRT-PCR (p
      value=0.0587) and ISH (p value=0.026). Protein-protein interaction network and
      pathway enrichment analysis reveal a possible mechanism of susceptibility to pCRT
      involving Wnt pathway via its downstream mediator TRAF6. Finally, we interrogated
      the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database database in order to identify those
      chemical compounds able to mimic the biological effects of miR-194 as new
      possible therapeutic option in LARC treatment. The present study combining miRNA
      expression profiling with integrative computational biology identified miR-194 as
      predictive biomarker of response to pCRT. Using known and predicted drug
      mechanism of action, we then identified possible chemical compounds for further
      in vitro validation.

PMID- 28870890
TI  - Thrombocytosis Portends Adverse Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis
      of 5,619 Patients in 16 Individual Studies.
AB  - AIM: The current study aimed to determine the prognostic significance of
      thrombocytosis in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) by a meta-analysis of the
      literature. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The meta-analysis followed the 2009 guidelines
      of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. A
      systematic literature review was conducted from PubMed and Web of Science for
      articles published up to May 15, 2015. Sixteen studies with a total of 5,619
      patients met the inclusion criteria. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals
      were retrieved from the original articles, calculated from the published Kaplan
      Meier survival curves, or the corresponding authors were contacted for additional
      information. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic and Chi-square
      tests. Publication bias was assessed by Begg's funnel plot, Egger's linear
      regression test and trim-and-fill method. Sensitivity analysis was performed to
      validate the reliability. RESULTS: Thrombocytosis is associated with shorter
      overall, disease-free and cancer-specific survival. Overall survival is reduced
      in patients with thrombocytosis regardless of their clinical tumor stage, and
      ethnicity. Shortened disease-free survival is associated with elevated platelet
      count in the non-specific stage (I-IV), localized tumor (stage I-III), and in the
      Asian patient population. Thrombocytosis is further associated with reduced
      cancer-specific survival in the non-specific stage and in Asian patients.
      Finally, thrombocytosis is significantly related to female patients, colon tumor
      location, T3-4 stage, lymph node positivity, metastasis, undifferentiated
      histology and lymphatic involvement. CONCLUSION: Thrombocytosis portends adverse
      prognosis in CRC, and may serve as a clinically useful marker to facilitate risk
      stratification and guide postoperative management.

PMID- 28870891
TI  - Lidocaine Stimulates the Function of Natural Killer Cells in Different
      Experimental Settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the functions of natural killer (NK) cells is to eliminate
      cancer cells. The cytolytic activity of NK cells is tightly regulated by
      inhibitory and activation receptors located in the surface membrane. Lidocaine
      stimulates the function of NK cells at clinically relevant concentrations. It
      remains unknown whether this effect of lidocaine has an impact on the expression
      of surface receptors of NK cells, can uniformly stimulate across different cancer
      cell lines, and enhances the function of cells obtained during oncological
      surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: NK cells from healthy donors and 43 patients who
      had undergone surgery for cancer were isolated. The function of NK cells was
      measured by lactate dehydrogenase release assay. NK cells were incubated with
      clinically relevant concentrations of lidocaine. By flow cytometry, we determined
      the impact of lidocaine on the expression of galactosylgalactosylxylosylprotein3
      beta-glucuronosytranferase 1, marker of cell maturation (CD57), killer cell
      lectin like receptor A, inhibitory (NKG2A) receptors and killer cell lectin like
      receptor D, activation (NKG2D) receptors of NK cells. Differences in expression
      at p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Lidocaine increased
      the expression of NKG2D receptors and stimulated the function of NK cells against
      ovarian, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cell lines. Lidocaine also increased the
      cytolytic activity of NK cells from patients who underwent oncological surgery,
      except for those who had orthopedic procedures. CONCLUSION: Lidocaine showed an
      important stimulatory activity on NK cells. Our findings suggest that lidocaine
      might be used perioperatively to minimize the impact of surgery on NK cells.

PMID- 28870893
TI  - Deepening a Simple Question: Can MSCs Be Used to Treat Cancer?
AB  - In cancer, mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) have been considered as vehicles
      for targeted delivery of drugs due to their inherent tropism toward primary and
      metastatic tumors. However, it is still unclear whether MSCs could be
      therapeutically explored without significant harm, since a great amound of
      evidence indicates that MSCs are able to exert both tumor-suppressive and pro
      oncogenic effects. Here, we discuss how MSCs might adopt a pro- or anti
      inflammatory profile in response to changes within the tumor microenvironment and
      how these features may lead to opposite outcomes in tumor development.
      Additionally, we address how differences in experimental design might impact
      interpretation and consistency of the current literature in this specific field.
      Finally, we point-out critical issues to be addressed at a pre-clinical stage,
      regarding safety and therapeutic effectiveness of MSCs application in cancer
      treatment.

PMID- 28870892
TI  - Physical Needs of Long-term Cancer Patients.
AB  - The enormous success in the therapeutic area of oncology has allowed achieving a
      number of long-term survival patients unthinkable until a few decades ago. The
      number of cancer survivors in the world has, in fact, almost tripled in the last
      decade alone. Anticancer therapies, including those of the latest generation,
      aimed at targeting also the chronicity of the disease, are not free from side
      effects, especially when used in the long term. This scenario should lead to
      development of follow-up programs with the purpose of assessing long-term effects
      related to cancer treatments, in addition to the early detection of any relapse
      or a second tumor. Oncologists who take care of cancer survivors cannot ignore
      these effects; it is, therefore, essential to start a program of prevention and
      treatment of these sequelae, to meet patients' health needs.

PMID- 28870894
TI  - Colorectal Carcinogenesis: Role of Oxidative Stress and Antioxidants.
AB  - One of the contributory causes of colon cancer is the negative effect of reactive
      oxygen species on DNA repair mechanisms. Currently, there is a growing support
      for the concept that oxidative stress may be an important etiological factor for
      carcinogenesis. The purpose of this review is to elucidate the role of oxidative
      stress in promoting colorectal carcinogenesis and to highlight the potential
      protective role of antioxidants. Several studies have documented the importance
      of antioxidants in countering oxidative stress and preventing colorectal
      carcinogenesis. However, there are conflicting data in the literature concerning
      its proper use in humans, since these studies did not yield definitive results
      and were performed mostly in vitro on cell populations, or in vivo in
      experimental animal models.

PMID- 28870895
TI  - Fluoride Induces Apoptosis in Mammalian Cells: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.
AB  - Apoptosis is genetically programmed cell death, an irreversible process of cell
      senescence with characteristic features different from other cellular mechanisms
      of death such as necrosis. In the last years, apoptosis has been extensively
      studied in the scientific literature, because it has been established that
      apoptosis plays a crucial role following the time course of chronic degenerative
      diseases, such as cancer. Thus, several researchers have strugged to detect what
      chemical agents are able to inter fere with the apoptotic process. Thus, the
      purpose of this literature review is to assess if fluoride induces apoptosis in
      mammalian cells using in vivo and in vitro test systems. Certain mammalian cell
      types such as oral cells, blood and brain were exetensively investigated; the
      results showed that fluoride is able to induce apoptosis in both intrinsinc and
      extrinsic pathways. Moreover, other cells types have been poorly investigated
      such as bone, kidney and reproductive cells with conflicting results so far.
      Therefore, this area needs further investigation for the safety of human
      populations exposed to fluoride in a chronic way, as for example in developing
      countries.

PMID- 28870896
TI  - Gefitinib Enhances Mitochondrial Biological Functions in NSCLCs with EGFR
      Mutations at a High Cell Density.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Gefitinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth
      factor receptor (EGFR) and has been approved for the treatment of non-small cell
      lung cancers (NSCLCs) with EGFR mutations. Here we demonstrated that gefitinib
      induced a significantly enhanced biological activity of succinate-tetrazolium
      reductase (STR) in mitochondria and mitochondrial membrane potential in HCC827
      cells (EGFR mutation NSCLCs, sensitive to gefitinib) at a high cell density.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We assessed the biological activity (STR, mitochondrial
      membrane potential, expression level of Bcl-2 family proteins) of gefitinib on
      NSCLCs at different cell densities. RESULTS: The 3D cell culture experiments
      showed the enhanced mitochondrial biological activity in clustered cell culture
      treated with gefitinib. Interestingly, the expression levels of Bcl-xL and Bax,
      were affected by the cellular number and gefitinib treatment. We also found that
      gefitinib prevented additive anticancer activity in the combinational treatment
      with doxorubicin, which induces mitochondria-dependent apoptotic cell death.
      CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that gefitinib may work as a mitochondrial
      protector against combinational treatment with mitochondria-dependent anticancer
      agents in high-cell-density.

PMID- 28870897
TI  - Phosphoproteomic Analysis Identifies Signaling Pathways Regulated by Curcumin in
      Human Colon Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Curcumin, a major polyphenol of the spice turmeric, acts as a potent
      chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agent in several cancer types, including
      colon cancer. Although various proteins have been shown to be affected by
      curcumin, how curcumin exerts its anticancer activity is not fully understood.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Phosphoproteomic analyses were performed using SW480 and
      SW620 human colon cancer cells to identify curcumin-affected signaling pathways.
      RESULTS: Curcumin inhibited the growth of the two cell lines in a dose-dependent
      manner. Thirty-nine curcumin-regulated phosphoproteins were identified, five of
      which are involved in cancer signaling pathways. Detailed analyses revealed that
      the mTORC1 and p53 signaling pathways are main targets of curcumin. CONCLUSION:
      Our results provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of the anticancer
      activities of curcumin and future molecular targets for its clinical application.

PMID- 28870898
TI  - Inhibitory Activity of Iron Chelators ATA and DFO on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells
      and Phosphatases PTP1B and SHP2.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rapidly-dividing cancer cells have higher requirement for iron
      compared to non-transformed cells, making iron chelating a potential anticancer
      strategy. In the present study we compared the anticancer activity of uncommon
      iron chelator aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) with the known deferoxamine (DFO).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated the impact of ATA and DFO on the viability
      and proliferation of MCF-7 cancer cells. Moreover we performed enzymatic activity
      assays and computational analysis of the ATA and DFO effects on pro-oncogenic
      phosphatases PTP1B and SHP2. RESULTS: ATA and DFO decrease the viability and
      proliferation of breast cancer cells, but only ATA considerably reduces the
      activity of PTP1B and SHP2 phosphatases. Our studies indicated that ATA strongly
      inactivates and binds in the PTP1B and SHP2 active site, interacting with
      arginine residue essential for enzyme activity. CONCLUSION: We confirmed that
      iron chelating can be considered as a potential strategy for the adjunctive
      treatment of breast cancer.

PMID- 28870899
TI  - Effective Metabolic Targeting of Human Osteosarcoma Cells In Vitro and in
      Orthotopic Nude-mouse Models with Recombinant Methioninase.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methionine dependence may be the only known general metabolic defect
      in cancer. In order to exploit methionine dependence for therapy, our laboratory
      previously cloned L-methionine alpha-deamino-gamma-mercaptomethane lyase [EC
      4.4.1.11]) (recombinant methioninase [rMETase]), which was subsequently tested in
      mouse models of various types of human tumors. The present study aimed to
      investigate the efficacy of rMETase on human osteosarcoma cells in vitro and in
      vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human osteosarcoma cell lines 143B, HOS and SOSN2
      were tested in vitro for survival during a 72-h exposure to rMETase using the WST
      8 assay. Half-maximal inhibitory concentrations were calculated for in vitro
      efficacy experiments. 143B cells were orthotopically transplanted into the tibia
      of nude mice. Mouse models were randomized into the following groups 1 week after
      transplantation: Group 1, untreated control; Group 2, cisplatinum (CDDP)
      [intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection at 6 mg/kg weekly, for 3 weeks], positive
      control; Group 3, rMETase, 100 units/mouse i.p. daily, for 21 days. Tumor sizes
      and body weight were measured with calipers and a digital balance once per week,
      respectively. RESULTS: rMETase significantly inhibited osteosarcoma cell growth,
      in a dose-dependent manner, in vitro. Both CDDP and rMETase treatment
      significantly inhibited tumor volume compared to untreated control mice at 5
      weeks after initiation. Tumor volumes were as follows: Group 1, untreated,
      control: 1808.2 +/- 344 mm3; Group 2, CDDP: 1102.2 +/- 316 mm3, p=0.0008 compared
      to untreated control; Group 3, rMETase: 884.8 +/- 361 mm3, p=0.0001 compared to
      untreated control. There were no animal deaths in any group. The body weight of
      mice was not significantly different between any group. CONCLUSION: rMETase
      showed promising efficacy against osteosarcoma, a recalcitrant tumor type. Future
      studies will investigate the efficacy of rMETase on patient-derived orthotopic
      xenograft (PDOX) models of osteosarcoma as a bridge to testing rMETase in the
      clinic.

PMID- 28870900
TI  - Probing the Molecular Mechanisms Governing the Oncolytic Activity of Paeonia
      suffruticosa on Triple-negative Breast Cancer Cells In Vitro.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Extracts of Paeonia suffruticosa are traditionally used in
      Chinese medicine to increase blood flow. Recently, this extract has been shown to
      possess anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory properties, though this mechanism
      remains unknown. In the current work, we prepared extracts of P. suffruticosa and
      analyzed their effects on MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer cells.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Varying concentrations of an aqueous extract of P.
      suffruticosa was administered to MDA-MB-231. An MTS assay was used to determine
      the cell viability. Cytokine production was investigated through enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Caspase-Glo assays were performed to measure caspase
      3/7, 8 and 9 to analyze anti-apoptotic effects. RESULTS: MTS assay for cell
      viability revealed that the extract increased viability at low concentrations
      (0.6 mg/ml) and decreased viability observed at concentrations >=2.5 mg/ml
      (p<0.01). ELISA for IL-6, IL-2, and TNF-alpha revealed a biphasic dose-response
      inversely related to viability (p<0.05). IL-24 expression also increased at 2.5
      mg/ml and 4.0 mg/ml (p<0.05). Bax levels remained relatively constant while Bcl-2
      decreased significantly in all concentrations (p<0.01). Small decreases in Fas
      ligand levels was observed in parallel with a lack of increase in caspase-8
      activity. Most notable was that while 4mg/ml of P. suffruticosa extract reduced
      MDA-MB-231 viability by >60% (p<0.01), the same concentration reduced the
      viability of non-transformed HaCat cells by ~8% (p>0.05), suggesting a selective
      oncolytic effect. CONCLUSION: P. suffruticosa extract has the ability to modulate
      the production of several tumor suppressive cytokines, induce intrinsic apoptosis
      and has the capability of reducing cancer burden while sparing healthy tissue.

PMID- 28870901
TI  - Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyl Transferase a Reliable Marker of Progression in
      Cervical Dysplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (Nampt) catalyses the
      rate-limiting step of the mammalian nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)
      salvage pathway. Nampt is highly expressed in several epithelial and mesenchymal
      neoplasms, where is promotes cell-cycle progression ans chemotherapy resistance.
      To our knowledge, alterations in Nampt expression have not been examined in
      cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed immunohistochemical analysis for Nampt using
      tissue microarrays on 14 samples of benign cervical squamous epithelium and 15
      CIN I, 15 CIN II, and 13 samples of CIN III. The SCCs included 5 low-grade, 67
      intermediate-grade, and 81 high-grade tumors. RESULTS: Nampt levels increased
      with increased CIN grades were compared to benign cervical squamous epithelium.
      Similarly, Nampt levels increased with increasing SCC grade. CONCLUSION: Nampt
      expression is a reliable marker of progression in cervical dysplasia and SCC.

PMID- 28870902
TI  - Communicate or Die - A Model for HPV+ and HPV- CSCs and Their Interactions with
      SDF-1alpha.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are suspected of being a reason for
      limited therapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Stromal cell
      derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha) plays a critical role in the communication
      between CSCs and their microenvironment. We investigated the influence of SDF
      1alpha on HPV+/HPV- SCC cell lines to find an approach of explanation for the
      superior prognosis of HPV+ HNSCCs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated the
      expression of CD44/CXCR4 on HPV+/HPV- SCC cell lines and monitored the influence
      of SDF-1alpha on proliferation, morphology and migration of HPV+/HPV- SCCs.
      RESULTS: HPV- SCCs showed a significant increase of podia formation and an
      intensified migration towards SDF-1alpha. HPV+ SCCs rested nearly unaffected by
      SDF-1alpha. CONCLUSION: Weakened reaction to SDF-1alpha in HPV+ SCC could lead to
      an impaired communication between CSCs and their niche, that would result in an
      increased exposure of CSCs to the harming influence of e.g. chemotherapeutic
      agents.

PMID- 28870903
TI  - Role of ARHGAP24 in ADP Ribosylation Factor 6 (ARF6)-dependent Pseudopod
      Formation in Human Breast Carcinoma Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The small GTPase ADP ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) promotes
      carcinoma cell invasion and metastasis through remodeling of actin cytoskeleton
      and formation of pseudopod that is regulated by RAC. RHO GTPase activating
      protein 24 (ARHGAP24), a RAC-specific GTPase activating protein, binds to
      activated ARF6 and is recruited to the plasma membrane. The aim of the present
      study was to demonstrate if ARHGAP24 is involved in the ARF6-mediated formation
      of pseudopods in breast carcinoma cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The formation of
      pseudopods induced by activated ARF6 was monitored using MDA-MB-231 human breast
      carcinoma cells. The effect of knockdown of endogenous ARHGAP24 by siRNA was
      examined. RESULTS: Knockdown of ARHGAP24 in MDA-MB-231 carcinoma cells increased
      the lifespan of pseudopods to retract, which resulted in increased length of
      pseudopods induced by activated ARF6. ARHGAP24 required a binding site of ARF6 to
      achieve ARF6-dependent actin remodeling. CONCLUSION: ARHGAP24 may regulate
      pseudopod formation downstream of activated ARF6 in MDA-MB-231 human breast
      carcinoma cells.

PMID- 28870904
TI  - Increased CXCL8 Expression Is Negatively Correlated with the Overall Survival of
      Patients with ER-Negative Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 8 (CXCL8) is a multi-functional
      chemokine and has important roles during tumor formation and development. It was
      previously reported that increased CXCL8 protein levels occurred in certain
      patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present study, we examined levels of
      CXCL8 mRNA in breast cancer tissues and analyzed its levels in correlation to
      patients' clinical data and 10-year overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Our results
      clearly demonstrated that the level of CXCL8 mRNA was significantly higher in
      patients without estrogen receptor expression. The receiver operating
      characteristic curve indicated that the best cut-off value for CXCL8 expression
      was 3.095 for predicting patient's OS. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated
      that higher CXCL8 mRNA levels in breast cancer tissues together with estrogen
      receptor negativity was associated with significantly shorter OS, and could be
      applied as a negative risk factor for 10-year OS.

PMID- 28870905
TI  - Transforming Growth Factor-beta, Interleukin-10, and Serological Markers in EBV
      associated Gastric Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The association between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and gastric
      cancer (GC) has been reported by many researchers. Immunosuppressive cytokines,
      such as interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta),
      play an important role in the tumor process. The aim of the present study was to
      detect antibodies against EBV and explore the levels of TGFbeta and IL-10 in
      Polish GC patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty patients with GC and 50
      hospitalized individuals without GC (control group) were enrolled in the study.
      Frozen tumor tissue fragments were tested using nested PCR assay for EBV DNA
      detection. ELISA test was used to detect the presence of anti-VCA IgG, anti-EBNA
      IgG, anti-EA IgG, TGFbeta and Il-10 in sera from all individuals. RESULTS: EBVCA
      was detected in 88.0%, EBNA in 90.0%, and EA in 72.0% of patients. Levels of
      TGFbeta and IL-10 were significantly higher in patients with high levels of anti
      EA antibodies (25.4 ng/ml; 7.8 pg/ml) compared to patients with low levels of
      anti-EA antibodies (12.61 ng/ml; 4.29 pg/ml). CONCLUSION: The significantly
      higher level of EA in patients' sera indicates EBV reactivation. TGFbeta level
      was significantly higher in GC than in the control group, especially in EA
      positive patients, indicating its possible role in gastric carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28870906
TI  - Discordance and Conversion Rates of Progesterone-, Estrogen-, and HER2/neu
      Receptor Status in Primary Breast Cancer and Brain Metastasis Mainly Triggered by
      Hormone Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Knowing the molecular footprint of tumors is a precondition for
      personalized medicine. For breast cancer, targeted therapies are frequently based
      on the molecular status of the tissue gained from the primary tumor operation.
      However, it is unclear whether metastases in different organs maintain the same
      status. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We compared the estrogen- (ER), progesterone- (PgR)
      and HER2/neu receptor status of the primary tumor with brain metastases in a
      series of 24 consecutive breast cancer patients. RESULTS: 62.5-75% of patients
      exhibited a constant receptor status between the primary tumor and the brain
      metastasis, whereas discordance rates of 25-37.5% were found, depending on the
      receptor. The rate of ER and PgR expression was each 41.6% in the primary tumors
      and decreased to 12.5% and 16.6% in the brain metastases. In contrast, the rate
      for Her2+ tumors increased from 41.6% in primary breast cancer to 65.2% in the
      respective brain metastases. The Ki-67 proliferation index increased
      significantly from a mean of 21% at the primary tumor site to 60% in brain
      metastases (p<0.001). All anti-estrogen treated breast tumors lost the estrogen
      receptor expression in the brain metastases, whereas no Her2/neu conversions
      occurred after treatment with trastuzumab. CONCLUSION: In summary, receptor
      conversion is frequent during disease progression. Therefore, the receptor status
      of the primary tumor is invalid for planning a therapy targeted against brain
      metastases, especially after hormone-therapy. In these cases, new tissue
      collection by biopsy or resection is mandatory for the selection of adequate
      therapeutic targets and accurate decision-making for systemic therapies.

PMID- 28870907
TI  - Circulating Levels of VEGF and CXCL1 Are Predictive of Metastatic Organotropismin
      in Patients with Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer of the gastrointestinal system and
      has a marked preference to metastasize to distant organs. In this study, we
      investigated whether levels of circulating serum pro-angiogenic cytokine such as
      chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (melanoma growth-stimulating activity, alpha;
      CXCL1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have a role in favoring the
      colonization of metastatic cells at preferential sites and determined their
      prognostic significance in a cohort of 103 patients with metastatic colorectal
      cancer. Importantly, we found that the presence of elevated circulating levels of
      VEGF and CXCL1 are predictive of liver and lung metastasis, respectively.
      Moreover, the presence of a high serum VEGF level represents a negative
      prognostic factor for patients with liver metastases, with a worse prognosis than
      patients with lung metastasis. This suggests an additional role for circulating
      cytokines as a predictive tool for cancer prognosis and diagnosis, as well as for
      assessment of tumor sensitivity to anticancer therapy.

PMID- 28870908
TI  - Bcl-2-like Protein 11 (BIM) Expression Is Associated with Favorable Prognosis for
      Patients with Cervical Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Bcl-2-like protein 11 (BIM) is a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl
      2 protein family. BIM elicits cell death by binding to pro-survival Bcl-2
      proteins. Even though the association of BIM expression with cell death has been
      investigated, its clinical survival significance in cervical cancer has not. In
      the current study, the prognostic significance of BIM in cervical cancer was
      investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included normal cervical tissues
      (n=254), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) tissues (n=275), and invasive
      cervical cancer (n=164). In order to identify BIM expression,
      immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed, and IHC scoring by quantitative digital
      image analysis was determined. Then, the association of BIM with prognostic
      factors was investigated. RESULTS: BIM expression was higher in cervical cancer
      than normal cervical tissues (p<0.001). Well and moderate differentiation
      indicated higher BIM expression than did poor differentiation (p=0.001). Also,
      BIM expression was high in radiation-sensitive cervical cancer relative to
      radiation-resistant cancer (p=0.049). High BIM expression showed better 5-year
      disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates (p=0.049 and
      pi=0.030, respectively) than did low expression. In a multivariate analysis, BIM
      was shown to be an independent risk factor for DFS and OS in cervical cancer,
      with hazard ratios of 0.22 (p=0.006) and 0.46 (p=0.046), respectively.
      CONCLUSION: BIM is associated with favorable prognostic markers for prediction of
      DFS and OS in cervical cancer. High BIM expression is a potential prognostic
      marker as well as a chemotherapeutic target for cervical cancer.

PMID- 28870909
TI  - Expression of Cancer Stem Cell-associated DKK1 mRNA Serves as Prognostic Marker
      for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are associated with prognosis of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In our previous study, we created cDNA microarray
      databases on the CSC population of human HuH7 cells. In the present study, we
      identified genes that might serve as prognostic markers of HCC by employing
      existing databases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Expressions of glutathione S
      transferase pi 1 (GSTP1), lysozyme (LYZ), C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CXCL5),
      interleukin-8 (IL8) and dickkopf WNT signaling pathway inhibitor 1 (DKK1), the
      five most highly expressed genes in the CSC cDNA microarray databases, were
      examined in 99 patients with HCC by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT
      PCR), and their clinical significance was analyzed. RESULTS: The Kaplan-Meier
      analysis showed that both overall and cancer-specific survival were significantly
      longer in patients with low DKK1 expression than in those with high DKK1
      expression. The multivariate analysis revealed that overall survival was
      negatively associated with albumin and positively associated with alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP), serosal invasion and stage, and cancer-specific survival was
      positively associated with ALP, portal vein invasion and DKK1 mRNA. CONCLUSION:
      Expression of CSC-associated DKK1 mRNA might be an unfavorable prognostic marker
      for patients with HCC.

PMID- 28870910
TI  - Induction and Analysis of Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes that Recognize Autologous Oral
      Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is essential that cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) recognize tumor
      associated antigens (TAAs) and exhibit antitumor effects in immunological
      responses for tumor rejection. However, only a few cases with oral squamous cell
      carcinoma (OSCC) have been studied for these antitumor mechanisms. We established
      a cancer cell line and autologous CTL pair for identifying TAAs in OSCC, despite
      difficulties in establishing such a pair. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cell line
      (OTM) from a primary lesion and a CTL line (TcOTM) were derived from OSCC in a 64
      year-old female patient. CTL clones were generated by repetitive limiting
      dilutions. Accurate characterization was performed by in vitro analysis. RESULTS:
      The TcOTM clone showed specific cytotoxic activity against OTM cells in an human
      leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A24-restricted manner. Furthermore, it exerted
      cytotoxicity against the allogenic HLA-A24 cell lines. CONCLUSION: These data
      indicated that the TcOTM clone recognized a TAA presented by HLA-A24 cells. This
      unique method will allow for identification of unknown TAAs for OSCC in the
      future.

PMID- 28870911
TI  - Sunitinib Inhibits Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation by Inducing Apoptosis, Cell
      cycle Arrest and DNA Repair While Inhibiting NF-kappaB Signaling Pathways.
AB  - The tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib was recently approved for use against
      gastrointestinal stromal tumors and advanced renal cell carcinoma. Yet, the
      protective effect of sunitinib against breast cancer has been poorly
      investigated. In this study, we investigated the antiproliferative and
      apoptogenic effects of sunitinib and the possible mechanism involved against the
      MCF7 human breast cancer cell line. Treatment of MCF7 cells with sunitinib caused
      concentration-dependent cell growth suppression due to apoptosis. Apoptotic death
      induced by sunitinib in MCF7 cells was mediated by activation of caspase-3 and
      p53 mRNA and protein expression and an increase in the percentage of apoptotic
      cells (40%) as determined by flow cytometry. Apoptosis was associated with a
      significant inhibition of nuclear factor-kappa B mRNA and protein expression.
      Mechanistically, blocking of de novo RNA synthesis by actinomycin D significantly
      inhibited sunitinib-induced expression of p53 mRNA, but not that of caspase-3,
      indicating involvement of a transcriptional mechanism. This apoptosis-mediated
      inhibition of MCF7 cell growth was attributed to inhibition of cell cycle-related
      genes (cyclin D1 and cyclin E2) and arrest of MCF7 cells in the G2/M phase in the
      cell cycle, allowing up-regulation of expression of DNA repair genes such as x
      ray repair cross-complementing protein 1. In addition, sunitinib exhibited
      concentration-dependent induction of oxidative stress genes (heme oxygenase 1 and
      glutathione transferase A1) through the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor
      2 pathway. These findings lead us to propose that sunitinib suppressed the
      proliferation of MCF7 cells via cell-cycle arrest and apoptotic- and oxidative
      stress-mediated pathways.

PMID- 28870912
TI  - Amentoflavone Inhibits Metastatic Potential Through Suppression of ERK/NF-kappaB
      Activation in Osteosarcoma U2OS Cells.
AB  - AIM: The study goal was to investigate effect of amentoflavone on nuclear factor
      kappaB (NF-kappaB)-modulated metastatic mechanism in osteosarcoma U2OS cells.
      U2OS cells were treated with amentoflavone, NF-kappaB inhibitor, protein kinase B
      (PKB or AKT) inhibitor or mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitor.
      Change of cell viability, NF-kappaB activation, expression of metastasis
      associated proteins, signal transduction, and cell migration and invasion were
      evaluated by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide
      (MTT) assay, NF-kappaB reporter gene assay, western blotting, and cell migration
      and invasion assays. The results demonstrated that inhibition of activation of
      extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) was a key point for suppression of
      NF-kappaB-modulated metastatic mechanism. Amentoflavone significantly inhibited
      NF-kappaB activation, ERK phosphorylation, expression of metastasis-associated
      proteins, and cell migration and invasion. Our findings indicate that
      amentoflavone reduces metastatic potential through suppression of ERK and NF
      kappaB activation in osteosarcoma U2OS cells.

PMID- 28870913
TI  - Regorafenib Induces Apoptosis and Inhibits Metastatic Potential of Human Bladder
      Carcinoma Cells.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to verify the effects of regorafenib on
      apoptosis and metastatic potential in TSGH 8301 human bladder carcinoma cells in
      vitro. Cells were treated with different concentration of regorafenib for
      different periods of time. Effects of regorafenib on cell viability, apoptosis
      pathways, metastatic potential, and expression of metastatic and anti-apoptotic
      proteins were evaluated with the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5
      diphenyltetrazolium (MTT) assay, flow cytometry, cell migration and invasion
      assay, and western blotting. We found regorafenib significantly reduced cell
      viability, cell migration and invasion, and expression of metastatic and anti
      apoptotic proteins. In addition, regorafenib significantly induced accumulation
      of sub-G1 phase cells, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, and expression
      of active caspase-3 and caspase-8. These results show that regorafenib not only
      induces apoptosis, but also inhibits metastatic potential in bladder cancer TSGH
      8301 cells in vitro.

PMID- 28870914
TI  - An Adaptation System to Avoid Apoptosis via Autophagy Under Hypoxic Conditions in
      Pancreatic Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Pancreatic cancer tissue is a hypoxic environment resistant to
      anticancer drugs. This study examined the role of autophagy as a response to
      hypoxic stress in pancreatic cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pancreatic cell lines
      (PANC-1, BxPC-3 and AsPC-1) were exposed to hypoxic conditions using cobalt
      chloride, a hypoxia-mimicking agent. Protein expression and cytotoxicity assays
      were performed to determine the effect of hypoxia on autophagy. RESULTS: When
      pancreatic cancer cells were exposed to hypoxia, autophagy was induced. The
      autophagy-inducing signal was dependent on the AMPK pathway. Inhibition of
      autophagy in a hypoxic state induced a remarkable cytotoxicity and enhanced
      apoptosis. When an AMPK inhibitor was added, cytotoxicity was observed in the
      hypoxic environment. CONCLUSION: The induced autophagy, dependent on the AMPK
      pathway, is a necessary survival strategy adopted by pancreatic cancer cells to
      adapt to hypoxic stress, and could be an attractive target for drug development.

PMID- 28870915
TI  - Critical Overview of HER2 Assessement in Bladder Cancer: What Is Missing for a
      Better Therapeutic Approach?
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To assess the concordance between IHC and FISH and its influence
      on tumor type, grade and lympho-vascular invasion (LVI). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) to 45 cases of bladder carcinoma, followed by
      fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) were applied. RESULTS: 31.12% cases were
      IHC positive. Less than 35% of HER2-negative cases presented LVI and this percent
      increased to 54.54% for +1 HER2 cases. LVI increases up to 57.14% for +2 HER2
      cases and slightly decreased for +3 HER2 cases to 42.85%. IHC/FISH concordance
      was found for 73.34% cases but 31.57% were previously negative and 36.36% scored
      as +1 by IHC had gene amplification as shown by FISH analysis. T3 was correlated
      with HER2-IHC (p=0.05) and HER2-FISH (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: Improved HER2
      assessement is needed for urothelial carcinomas. HER2-IHC scored as 0-2 should be
      validated by and reclassified according to FISH analysis.

PMID- 28870916
TI  - GRP78 Regulates Apoptosis, Cell Survival and Proliferation in 5-Fluorouracil
      resistant SNUC5 Colon Cancer Cells.
AB  - 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is an effective anticancer drug. However, the development
      of drug resistance has limited its chemotherapeutic efficacy. To address this
      problem, we investigated the expression of glucose-regulated protein (GRP78, 78
      kDa) in 5-FU-resistant colorectal cancer (CRC) cells (SNUC5/5FUR). GRP78 was
      highly expressed in the SNUC5/5FUR cells compared to wild-type SNUC5 cells. In
      the presence of 5-FU, GRP78 knockdown induced apoptosis via activation of caspase
      3 and poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase 1. GRP78 also inhibited the production of
      intracellular reactive oxygen species by regulating stress-associated signaling
      pathways. Furthermore, GRP78 enhanced cell survival and proliferation via
      activation of the phosphatidylinosito-3-kinase-AKT-mammalian target of rapamycin
      axis and cell cycle-associated proteins. These effects were blocked upon GRP78
      knockdown, which indicates that GRP78 is involved in the development of 5-FU
      resistance in these CRC cells. Therefore, a combination of chemotherapy and GRP78
      specific targeting may counteract 5-FU resistance in CRC cells.

PMID- 28870917
TI  - The Association Between HSP90/topoisomerase I Immunophenotype and the Clinical
      Features of Colorectal Cancers in Respect to KRAS Gene Status.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) and
      topoisomerase I (Topo I) expression and the association between both proteins and
      clinicopathological parameters of colorectal cancer (CRC), in order to describe
      their role in tumor biology regarding to Kirsten Ras (KRAS) - positive/negative
      cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Expression of HSP90 and Topo I, and KRAS gene
      mutations were estimated in primary CRCs. RESULTS: HSP90/Topo I immunophenotype
      correlated with gender, Duke staging, tumor grade and lymph node metastasis
      (p<0.01). Positive correlation was found between KRAS mutation and HSP90
      expression (p=0.02). HSP90, Topo I expression, and co-expression of HSP90/Topo I
      correlated with unfavorable parameters of CRCs in respect to KRAS gene status
      (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results revealed that cooperation between HSP90 and
      Topo I expression exists in CRCs, independently of KRAS gene status, suggesting
      that co-expression of both proteins might be considered as a double target on
      individual tumor cells.

PMID- 28870918
TI  - The Diagnostic Significance of Serum Alcohol Dehydrogenase Isoenzymes and
      Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Activity in Prostate Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate a potential role of
      alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) as tumor markers
      for prostate cancer (PCa). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum samples were obtained
      from 52 patients with PCa, 34 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
      and 60 healthy subjects. Class III and IV of ADH and total ADH activity were
      measured by the photometric method. For measurement of class I and II ADH and
      ALDH activity, the fluorometric method was employed. RESULTS: Significantly
      higher total activity of ADH, ADH III and ADH IV were found in the sera of both,
      PCa and BPH patients compared with healthy individuals. The diagnostic
      sensitivity for ADH III activity was 94.2%, specificity 100%, PPV (positive
      predictive value) and NPV (negative predictive value) were 100% and 95.2%
      respectively. Area under receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve for ADH
      III activity was 0.993. CONCLUSION: The results suggest a potential role of ADH
      III activity as a parameter included in the panel of markers for PCa.

PMID- 28870919
TI  - The Impact of Environmental Light Intensity on Experimental Tumor Growth.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Cancer research requires for consistent models that minimize
      environmental variables. Within the typical laboratory animal housing facility,
      animals may be exposed to varying intensities of light as a result of cage type,
      cage position, light source, and other factors; however, studies evaluating the
      differential effect of light intensity during the light phase on tumor growth are
      lacking. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effect of cage face light intensity, as
      determined by cage rack position was evaluated with two tumor models using the
      C57Bl/6NHsd mouse and transplantable B16F10 melanoma cells or Lewis lung
      carcinoma (LLC) cells. Animals were housed in individually-ventilated cages
      placed at the top, middle, or bottom of the rack in a diagonal pattern so that
      the top cage was closest to the ceiling light source, and cage face light
      intensity was measured. Following a two-week acclimation period at the assigned
      cage position, animals were subcutaneously administered either 1.3*106 B16F10
      melanoma cells or 2.5*105 Lewis lung carcinoma cells. Weights of excised tumors
      were measured following euthanasia 18 days (melanoma) or 21 days (LCC) after
      tumor cell administration. RESULTS: Cage face light intensity was significantly
      different depending on the location of the cage, with cages closest to the light
      source have the greatest intensity. Mean tumor weights were significantly less
      (p<0.001 for melanoma; p<=0.01 for LCC) in middle light intensity mice compared
      to high and low light intensity mice. CONCLUSION: The environmental light
      intensity to which experimental animals are exposed may vary markedly with cage
      location and can significantly influence experimental tumor growth, thus
      supporting the idea that light intensity should be controlled as an experimental
      variable for animals used in cancer research.

PMID- 28870920
TI  - The Contribution of Matrix Metalloproteinase-7 Promoter Genotypes in Breast
      Cancer in Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family of enzymes are in
      charge of degradation of various components of the extracellular matrix and their
      functional genetic polymorphisms may be associated with cancer susceptibility.
      The functional polymorphisms in the promoter region of MMP7 (A-181G and C-153T)
      have been reported to influence the binding capacity of nuclear proteins and may
      contribute to genetic susceptibility to cancer. In this study, we focused on
      investigating the contribution of the genotypes of MMP7 (A-181G and C-153T) to
      breast cancer in Taiwan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: These two polymorphisms were
      genotyped in 1,232 patients with breast cancer and 1,232 controls by polymerase
      chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism methodology. RESULTS: The
      odds ratios (ORs) after adjusting for age, family history of cancer, smoking and
      alcohol drinking status for those carrying AG and GG genotypes at MMP7 promoter A
      181G were 1.22 (95%CI=0.91-1.63, p=0.2235) and 2.84 (95%CI=1.64-7.48, p=0.0007)
      respectively, compared to those carrying the wild-type AA genotype. Supporting
      this finding, the adjusted OR for those carrying the G allele at MMP7 promoter A
      181G was 1.57 (95%CI=1.29-1.93, p=0.0008), compared to those carrying the wild
      type A allele. There was no polymorphic genotype at MMP7 C-153T found among any
      of the investigated individuals. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the MMP7 A
      181G polymorphisms may play a role in determining personal cancer susceptibility
      and GG genotype at MMP7 A-181G may serve as a biomarker for early detection and
      prediction of breast cancer in Taiwanese.

PMID- 28870921
TI  - Significance of Circulating Galectin-3 in Patients with Pancreatobiliary Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Pancreatobiliary cancer is a disease associated with a dismal
      prognosis and limited treatment options. The aim of the present study was to
      clarify the usefulness of circulating galectin-3 in pancreatobiliary cancer.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: We examined serum galectin-3 concentrations in 45 patients
      with pancreatobiliary cancer. Receiver operating characteristic curves were
      utilized to evaluate the accuracy of circulating galectin-3 to discriminate
      pancreatobiliary cancer patients from controls and predict the prognostic
      outcomes. RESULTS: Circulating galectin-3 had diagnostic value at the cut-off
      level of 6.2 ng/ml, and the patients' overall survival was predictable at the cut
      off level of 10.3 ng/ml. Furthermore, circulating galectin-3 >=10.3 ng/ml was an
      independent prognostic marker in pancreatobiliary cancer. Regarding biliary
      cancer, higher galectin-3 was associated with malnutrition. On the other hand,
      regarding pancreatic cancer, higher galectin-3 levels were associated with higher
      inflammatory parameters. CONCLUSION: Galectin-3 can be a useful biomarker in
      patients with pancreatobiliary cancer.

PMID- 28870922
TI  - Hedgehog Inhibition Upregulates TRK Expression to Antagonize Tumor Suppression in
      Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Previously we have shown that tropomyosin-related kinase B (TRKB)
      and Hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathways induce malignant phenotypes in many cancer
      types. However, results from small cell lung cancer (SCLC) clinical trials using
      TRK and Hh inhibitors have been disappointing. One reason for this may be the
      existence of crosstalk between TRKB and Hh signalling pathways. In this study, we
      detected negative crosstalk between the TRKB and Hh-GLI1 signalling pathways.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The human small cell lung carcinoma cell line, SBC-5, was
      used. Using small interfering RNA to inhibit TRKB and Hh signalling, whether TRKB
      and Hh signaling contribute to proliferation and invasiveness in SBC-5 cells were
      investigated. RESULTS: TRKB expression in GLI1 siRNA-transfected SBC-5 cells was
      higher than that of control cells. GLI1-knockdown alone did not affect
      invasiveness of SBC-5 cells. However, combined knockdown of TRKB and GLI1
      significantly decreased invasiveness. Moreover, combined TRKB and GLI1 knockdown
      inhibited proliferation and migration to a greater extent than when either was
      inhibited alone. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that Hh inhibition increases
      TrkB expression to counter tumor suppression in SBC-5 cells. The combined use of
      TRKB and Hh inhibitors may, therefore, be useful for the treatment of refractory
      SCLC.

PMID- 28870923
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Compatibility of a Transponder Aimed for Radiotherapy
      Positioning - A Phantom Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Electromagnetic Positioning Systems (EMP) is a new position-ing
      technique in four-dimensional radiotherapy. Patients with implanted transponders
      may be referred for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) making it important to
      establish the MR safety. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Oranges were prepared with
      transponders and imaged on a 3T MR scanner with different sequences. Computed
      tomography (CT) was performed as comparison. MR artifacts were assessed. An
      estimation of the maximum transponder de-flection force and heating was made.
      RESULTS: The mean measured displacement of transponders was 0.1 mm (range=0.03
      0.3 mm). Artifacts were observed adjacent to transponders using all sequences.
      The deflection force on the transponder in the gantry was less than 38 mN. No
      heating was observed. CONCLUSION: The absence of any substantial movement, the
      weak measured deflection force and absence of observed heating speaks for the
      safe use of MR imaging with transponder 3T. Local artefacts makes evaluation
      impossible adjacent to transponders.

PMID- 28870924
TI  - Role of Caspase-9 Gene Ex5+32 G>A (rs1052576) Variant in Susceptibility to
      Primary Brain Tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: This study is the first to evaluate the relationship of caspase-9
      (CASP-9) gene polymorphism with the risk for primary brain tumor development.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group included 43 glioma and 27 meningioma
      patients and 76 healthy individuals. CASP-9 gene Ex5+32 G>A (rs1052576)
      polymorphism was analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
      RESULTS: Individuals with the CASP-9 GG genotype had significantly decreased risk
      of developing a glioma brain tumor (p=0.024). Additionally, the GA genotype was
      significantly lower in patients with glioma than the control group (p=0.019). A
      significantly decreased risk of developing glioma was found in the A allele
      carrier group (p=0.024). However, there was no statistically significant
      relationship between CASP-9 polymorphism and brain meningioma (p=0.493).
      CONCLUSION: CASP-9 (rs1052576) mutant A allele seems to be a protective factor
      for glioma brain tumor. Future studies with a larger sample size will clarify the
      possible roles of CASP-9 gene in the etiology and progression of primary brain
      tumors.

PMID- 28870926
TI  - Hedgehog Stimulation Suppresses Clonogenicity and Activates NOTCH Signalling in T
      lymphoblastic Leukaemia Jurkat Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Hedgehog (HH) and NOTCH pathways are involved in the regulation
      of cancer stem cells and haematopoietic malignancies. However, the effects of HH
      stimulation on cell growth and NOTCH signalling in acute T-lymphoblastic
      leukaemia (T-ALL) cells have not been elucidated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two T
      ALL cell lines, Jurkat and KOPT-K1 harbouring activating NOTCH1 mutations, were
      cultured with recombinant Sonic (S) HH and analysed for proliferation, colony
      formation, and expression of NOTCH-regulated genes and proteins. RESULTS: SHH
      stimulation did not affect cell growth but suppressed colony formation, increased
      the levels of cleaved NOTCH1 fragment characteristic for NOTCH1 activation, and
      upregulated mRNA expression of HES1, while decreasing that of MYC in Jurkat
      cells. However, no such effects were observed in KOPT-K1 cells. CONCLUSION: Our
      results indicate that SHH stimulation activates NOTCH signalling in Jurkat cells,
      thus disclosing a novel relationship between HH and NOTCH pathways.

PMID- 28870925
TI  - Usefulness of Flow Cytometry in Diagnosis of IgG4-Related Ophthalmic Disease and
      Extranodal Marginal Zone B-Cell Lymphoma of the Ocular Adnexa.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Although flow cytometry (FCM) is used to evaluate cell surface
      markers of various leucocyte populations quantitatively, little is known about
      the usefulness of FCM in lymphoproliferative disorders of the ocular adnexa. The
      aim of this study was to disclose results of FCM, which were compared among IgG4
      related ophthalmic disease (IgG4-ROD), idiopathic orbital inflammation (IOI), and
      extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (EMZL). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a
      retrospective observational study. Sixty-nine tumors comprising of 16 IgG4-ROD,
      24 IOI, and 29 EMZL were enrolled in the study. All tumors, surgically excised,
      were diagnosed based on histopathology, immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain gene
      rearrangement, and FCM. In FCM, the percentage of T-cell markers (CD2, CD3, CD4,
      CD5, CD7, CD8), B-cell markers (CD10, CD19, CD20, CD23), NK cell marker (CD56)
      and cell surface kappa/lambda was searched based on medical records. Ig light
      chain restriction was evaluated from results in kappa/lambda deviation by FCM.
      RESULTS: The percentage of CD2, CD3, CD4, CD7, and CD10 was significantly higher
      in IgG4-ROD/IOI than EMZL (p<0.05 in every factor). In contrast, CD19 and CD20
      percentages were significantly greater in EMZL than IgG4-ROD/IOI (p<0.01). There
      was no significant difference in any marker between IgG4-ROD and IOI. Kappa
      positive cells were significantly greater in EMZL than IgG4-ROD/IOI (p<0.05). In
      kappa/lambda deviation, false-positive was noted in 3 (7.5%) benign IgG4-ROD/IOI
      and false-negative was observed in 10 (34.5%) EMZL cases. Sensitivity and
      specificity of Ig light chain restriction were 65.5 and 92.5%, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Analyses of cell surface markers using FCM were useful in
      differentiating EMZL from IgG4-ROD/IOI. Sensitivity of Ig light chain restriction
      was relatively low in diagnosis of EMZL using FCM.

PMID- 28870927
TI  - Response of OVCAR-3 Cells to Cisplatin and Hyperthermia: Does Hyperthermia Really
      Matter?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is proposed as a
      promising treatment method, but fundamental information about the contribution of
      hyperthermia to intraperitoneal chemotherapy is lacking. The purpose of this
      study was to investigate the cytotoxic effect of hyperthermia and cisplatin on
      OVCAR-3 cells in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Imitating the typical clinical
      conditions of HIPEC, OVCAR-3 cells were exposed to hyperthermia and cisplatin for
      1 h. MTT viability test, flow cytometric analysis, and real-time cell and
      isobologram analysis were performed. RESULTS: Hyperthermia up to 42 degrees C did
      not significantly increase the effect of cisplatin regarding the viability and
      apoptosis of OVCAR-3 cells. Moreover, an antagonistic effect of hyperthermia and
      cisplatin was revealed. CONCLUSION: Our investigation of OVCAR-3 cells critically
      disputes the benefit of hyperthermia in ovarian cancer treatment. Further in
      vitro and in vivo research is essential for better understanding of the
      mechanisms of action of hyperthermia and its role in the treatment of epithelial
      ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28870928
TI  - Outcomes and Prognostic Factors of Resected Salivary Gland Malignancies:
      Examining a Single Institution's 12-year Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite adjuvant radiotherapy, survival outcomes remain poor in
      patients with salivary gland malignancies who have multiple poor prognostic
      factors. This study aimed to determine which patients may benefit from treatment
      intensification. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent curative resection
      with or without adjuvant radiotherapy between 2002 and 2014 were identified and a
      retrospective chart review was performed. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free
      survival (DFS) were the main outcomes measured. RESULTS: A total of 95 patients
      met the inclusion criteria. The median follow-up was 46.8 months. The median age
      was 60 years. Radiotherapy was given to 78 patients. Multivariate analysis
      revealed that male sex and perineural invasion significantly reduced overall and
      disease-free survival. Distant metastases comprised of 67% of recurrences and 33%
      were locoregional. CONCLUSION: Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy should be considered
      for patients with tumors with perineural invasion, especially in males with high
      risk histopathology or high-grade, late-stage disease. To our knowledge, this is
      the first study to assess the impact of pack-year smoking history on survival
      outcomes.

PMID- 28870929
TI  - Diffusion-weighted MRI Provides a Useful Biomarker for Evaluation of Radiotherapy
      Efficacy in Patients with Prostate Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with measurement of apparent
      diffusion coefficient (ADC) allows for assessment of tumor aggressiveness. The
      objective of this study was to evaluate the changes of ADC value in prostate
      cancer after volumetric-modulated arc radiotherapy (VMAT) and to identify
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarkers for monitoring tissue changes after
      radiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty-seven patients with biopsy-proven
      prostate cancer treated with VMAT underwent serial MRI examinations including DWI
      before radiotherapy, and at 3 and 12 months after radiotherapy. ADC values of the
      tumor and healthy prostate tissue were measured and compared at these three time
      points. RESULTS: The tumor ADC value increased significantly 3 months after
      radiotherapy (p<0.0001). There was a further increase of tumor ADC from 3 to 12
      months after radiotherapy (p<0.01). The ADC of healthy prostate tissue did not
      show any significant changes. CONCLUSION: The ADC value is a useful biomarker for
      evaluating the efficacy of radiotherapy in prostate cancer.

PMID- 28870930
TI  - Comparison of the Serum Tumor Markers S100 and Melanoma-inhibitory Activity (MIA)
      in the Monitoring of Patients with Metastatic Melanoma Receiving Vaccination
      Immunotherapy with Dendritic Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In patients with melanoma, early dissemination via lymphatic and
      hematogenous routes is frequently seen. Thus, besides clinical follow-up
      examination and imaging, reliable melanoma-specific serological tumor markers are
      needed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively compared two serum markers for
      melanoma, S100 and melanoma-inhibitory activity (MIA), for monitoring of patients
      with metastatic melanoma under either adjuvant or therapeutic vaccination
      immunotherapy with dendritic cells (DC). Serum was obtained from a total of 100
      patients (28 patients in stage III and 72 patients in stage IV, according to the
      American Joint Committee on Cancer 2002) at regular intervals during therapy,
      accompanied by follow-up imaging. RESULTS: When relapse was detected, both
      markers often remained within normal range. In contrast, in patients with
      metastatic measurable disease receiving therapeutic and not adjuvant DC
      vaccination, an increase of both markers was a strong indicator for disease
      progression. When comparing both markers in the whole study population, MIA
      showed a superior sensitivity to detect disease progression. CONCLUSION: S100 and
      MIA are highly sensitive tumor markers for monitoring of patients with melanoma
      with current metastases, but less sensitive for monitoring of tumor-free
      patients. In the current study, MIA had a slightly superior sensitivity to detect
      progressive disease compared to S100 and seems to be more useful in monitoring of
      patients with metastatic melanoma receiving immunotherapy.

PMID- 28870931
TI  - Long-term Clinical Results of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Patients with
      Cervical Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: We assessed the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent
      chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the cervical
      esophagus. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 37 patients treated
      with definitive CCRT. The patients received radiotherapy at a fraction dose of 2
      Gy (total; 60 or 70 Gy) and concurrent chemotherapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy
      consisted of 1 to 2 cycles of 5-fluorouracil plus cisplatin or nedaplatin.
      RESULTS: The median follow-up was 119.0 months, the 10-year overall survival,
      progression-free survival and laryngectomy-free survival rates were 35.6, 19.9
      and 30.2% respectively. In the univariate analysis, T stage (T4 vs. T1-3) was the
      only prognostic factor for PFS. The most common acute toxicity was leukocytopenia
      (Grade 3; 27%). As for late toxicities, 4 patients (11%) developed Grade 2 or 3
      esophageal strictures. CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrated that
      CCRT yielded satisfactory clinical outcomes with acceptable toxicities.

PMID- 28870933
TI  - Clinicopathological Features of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ from 18F-FDG-PET
      Findings.
AB  - AIM: The presence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) can increase the risk of
      developing an invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), but it is difficult to predict
      what will occur if a DCIS is left untreated. We reported the usefulness of 18F
      fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) for DCIS, and that the
      presence of FDG uptake in the tumor could be considered a predictor of invasive
      potential in patients with DCIS. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated the
      clinicopathological features of DCIS by using FDG-PET findings, and we evaluated
      the possibility of using FDG-PET in DCIS cases as a biomarker of which lesions
      will go on to become invasive. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We investigated the cases of
      185 consecutive patients with primary breast cancer who were diagnosed as having
      DCIS or IDC and underwent FDG-PET preoperatively. RESULTS: We divided the cases
      into two groups on the basis of histology; DCIS vs. IDC (n=171). The DCIS cases
      were divided into two groups on the basis of FDG uptake in the primary tumor.
      Fourteen of the 185 patients (7.4%) were revealed to have a DCIS. The analysis
      revealed that the SUVmax and the number of cases not detected by FDG-PET were
      significantly different between the DICS and IDC groups. The extent of the
      primary tumor was not significantly different between the two groups. In six
      cases (42.9%) of the 14 DCIS cases, no FDG uptake was detected by FDG-PET. The
      extent of tumor did not significantly differ between the two groups. In addition,
      all six cases without FDG uptake were of the diffuse-spread type, without mass
      formation. All eight cases with mass formation had FDG uptake. CONCLUSION: Our
      present findings suggest that the FDG-PET uptake reflects tumor burden or tumor
      density, which should be considered to be associated with the presence of
      invasion.

PMID- 28870932
TI  - Clinical Significance of Salvage Esophagectomy for Patients with Esophageal
      Cancer and Factors of Influencing Long-term Survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) without planned surgery has
      been recently widely used as a therapeutic option for locally advanced esophageal
      cancer. Salvage esophagectomy can offer the chance of prolonged survival for
      patients who have locoregional failure after definitive CRT, but many clinicians
      oppose the use of surgery due to the associated excessive morbidity and
      mortality. The aim of this study was to identify patients who are good candidates
      for salvage surgery by investigating factors influencing long-term survival.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 40 patients underwent concurrent CRT or RT
      followed by esophagectomy for residual tumor or locoregional recurrence of
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma without distant organ metastasis at the
      Department of General Surgical Science, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan, and were
      included in this study. As short-term outcomes after salvage esophagectomy,
      pulmonary and cardiovascular complications, anastomotic leakage, and chylothorax,
      and the length of postoperative stay were evaluated. Survival rates were
      calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the Cox proportional hazards model
      was used for univariate and multivariate analyses of disease-specific survival.
      RESULTS: Postoperative complications were noted in 20 patients (50%), and
      pulmonary complications were the most common (25%), followed by anastomotic
      leakage (20%). There was also one case of in-hospital death, caused by multiple
      organ failure due to chylothorax. Univariate analysis revealed that sex, clinical
      residual tumor, CRT response, pathological tumor depth, and pathological residual
      tumor were significant factors affecting disease-specific survival (p=0.034,
      p=0.009, p=0.014, p=0.020, and p=0.026, respectively). Moreover, multivariate
      analysis demonstrated that clinical residual tumor was the only independent
      factor influencing disease-specific survival (p=0.036). Thirteen patients (32.5%)
      died from other illnesses after salvage surgery, 53.8% patients from pneumonia.
      CONCLUSION: Based on long-term survival, recurrence rather than residual tumor
      after definitive CRT was a favorable indicator for salvage esophagectomy. Not
      only management of postoperative morbidity and curative operation but, also long
      term rigorous outpatient management, including respiratory rehabilitation to
      reduce pneumonia, is necessary.

PMID- 28870934
TI  - Inflammatory Breast Cancer Outcomes in a Contemporary Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence on the management of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is
      limited. This study investigated factors influencing IBC treatment outcomes such
      as event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Data were collected from 173 patients with stage III non-IBC and 17 patients with
      IBC diagnosed at the Keck Medical Center and Los Angeles County and University of
      Southern California (LAC+USC) Medical Center. Cox proportional hazard regression
      evaluated associations between variables significant for EFS and OS. RESULTS: On
      multivariate analysis, negative estrogen receptor (ER)status [hazard ratio
      (HR)=1.88, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.11-3.18, p<0.06) and lack of
      postoperative radiation treatment (HR=2.07, 95% CI=1.03-4.15, p<0.04) were
      significant for poorer EFS. High Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) score (HR=2.24,
      95% CI=0.79-6.36, p<0.13) and lack of postoperative radiation treatment to the
      breast (HR=4.39, 95% CI=0.39-49.55, p<0.23) were associated with lower rates of
      OS. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of IBC has a significantly worse prognosis. Receipt
      of post-mastectomy radiation therapy was a significant predictor of better EFS
      and OS.

PMID- 28870935
TI  - Detection of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ by Ultrasound and Mammography: Size
      dependent Inaccuracy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retrospective analysis of breast cancer imaging methods is a common
      tool for evaluating the effectiveness of ultrasound and mammography regarding
      ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). No large number subpopulation of pure DCIS has
      been reported. It is however known that mammography and ultrasound underestimate
      tumor dimension with increasing tumor size. We aimed to quantify this
      discrepancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective analysis reviewed the
      ultrasound and mammography data from 173 patients with DCIS at the University of
      Cologne - Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics between the years 2007 and
      2010. Of these 173 patients, 34 fulfilled the DCIS analysis requirements and were
      evaluated in this study. RESULTS: Overall, ultrasound underestimated tumor size
      79.4% of the time, while overestimating only 20.6% of the time. Mammography
      underestimated tumor size in 50%, overestimated in 38.2%, correctly estimating in
      11.8%. Over and underestimation distributions differed drastically above and a
      cut-off point of <=2 cm actual tumor size, with a significant shift toward severe
      underestimation by both methods above a tumor size of 2 cm. DCIS misestimation
      was defined as the absolute value of the difference between actual tumor size and
      pre-surgical measurement by an imaging method. Mean DCIS size misestimation
      (actual tumor size <=2 cm) was 3 mm for ultrasound and 6.2 mm for mammography.
      CONCLUSION: We support previous findings that ultrasound and mammography lose
      accuracy with increasing tumor size. Nonetheless, ultrasound may be more useful
      in estimation of DCIS size for tumors <=2 cm than previously expected.

PMID- 28870936
TI  - Subcellular Localization of Maspin Correlates with Histone Deacetylase 1
      Expression in Human Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Maspin is known to be a tumor suppressor protein. Its nuclear
      localization and endogenous inhibition of histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) are
      considered crucial for its tumor suppressor activity. However, it remains unclear
      whether subcellular localization of maspin correlates with HDAC1 expression level
      in human breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemical analyses were
      performed on 164 resected specimens of invasive breast carcinoma using antibodies
      for maspin and HDAC1. Subcellular localization of maspin protein and HDAC1 mRNA
      expression level in two human breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, MDA-MB-231) and
      mammary epithelial cell line (MCF10) were analyzed by immunofluorescence and
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction, respectively. RESULTS: The frequency of
      cytoplasmic-only, pancellular (combined nuclear and cytoplasm) and no staining of
      maspin were 31%, 14.0% and 55%, respectively. The cytoplasmic-only subgroup
      showed significantly higher histological grade (p=0.004), negative progesterone
      receptor status (p=0.003) and shorter disease-free survival compared to the
      pancellular subgroup (p=0.043). High HDAC1 expression was observed in 60% of
      cases and was significantly correlated with cytoplasmic-only staining compared to
      pancellular (p<0.001) or no staining (p=0.004). Immunofluorescence analysis
      revealed that maspin protein was localized mainly in the cytoplasm in MCF7 and
      MDA-MB-231 cells, while in both the nucleus and cytoplasm in MCF10A cells. HDAC1
      mRNA levels were significantly up-regulated in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells compared
      to MCF10A cells (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: High HDAC1 expression may contribute to
      the aggressiveness of human breast cancer with cytoplasmic-only expression of
      maspin.

PMID- 28870937
TI  - MRI and Ultrasound Fusion Imaging for Cervical Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluating locoregional extension of cervical cancer is a key step in
      patient management. This study evaluated the feasibility of fusion imaging - a
      combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with real-time high-resolution
      ultrasound (US) - to diagnose cervical cancer and its extension. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This prospective bi-center study included 13 women who underwent a 1.5-T
      MRI protocol including at least one T2-weighted plane. The results of imaging
      fusion were then compared with US and MRI results alone. RESULTS: Cervical cancer
      was detected as a hyperechogenic hypervascularized lesion. Parametrial extension
      was detected by exploration of the stromal ring and the use of color Doppler mode
      in fusion imaging, and characterized by visualization of a vascular bridge.
      CONCLUSION: Fusion imaging could be used as a complementary technique for MRI to
      enhance diagnostic performance for cervical cancer lesions. While MRI remains the
      reference, real-time fusion imaging could improve its characterization and detect
      parametrial infiltration.

PMID- 28870938
TI  - Identifying Rational Candidates for Immunotherapy Targeting PD-1/PD-L1 in
      Cervical Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To investigate the abundance of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)
      expression and identify rational candidates for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapies
      in cervical cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In 27 patients with FIGO stage IB1-IIA
      cervical cancer, paraffin-embedded tumors were immunohistochemically stained with
      PD-L1 antibody. The correlation of tumoral PD-L1 expression with
      clinicopathological factors and survival outcomes were evaluated. RESULTS:
      Overall, PD-L1 expression was primarily detected in 12 (44.4%) patients. All
      tumors with PD-L1 expression were squamous cell carcinomas (SqCC). In subgroup
      analysis of SqCC, higher PD-L1 expression was associated with low preoperative
      serum SqCC antigen level (p=0.030) and no parametrial invasion (p=0.048). The 5
      year progression-free survival (83.3% vs. 50.0%. p=0.136) and overall survival
      rates (90.9% vs. 83.3%, p=0.615) were superior in patients with PD-L1 expression
      that in those without PD-L1 expression; however, neither was significant.
      CONCLUSION: Patients with SqCC and favorable clinicopathological factors could be
      candidates for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy in cervical cancer.

PMID- 28870939
TI  - Clinical and Oncological Outcomes of Laparoscopic Lateral Pelvic Lymph Node
      Dissection in Advanced Lower Rectal Cancer: Single-institution Experience.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes of laparoscopic
      versus open surgery for total mesorectal excision (TME) with lateral pelvic lymph
      node dissection (LPLD) in advanced lower rectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Forty-four patients who underwent TME with LPLD for lower rectal cancer (pStage
      II/III) between January 2008 and December 2014 were divided into two groups
      according to the type of surgical approach as follows: open LPLD group (OLD,
      n=17) and laparoscopic LPLD group (LLD, n=27). RESULTS: Operative time was
      comparable between the groups (p=0.15), whereas intraoperative blood loss and
      complication rates were significantly less in LLD than in OLD. Postoperative
      hospital stay was shorter in LLD than in OLD. Overall survival and local
      recurrence-free survival were similar in the two groups. Disease-free survival
      was better in LLD than in OLD, although the difference was not significant.
      CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic TME with LPLD is safe and feasible.

PMID- 28870940
TI  - Inconsistent Reporting Between Meta-analysis Protocol and Publication - A Cross
      Sectional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inconsistent reporting in published meta-analyses compared to
      registered protocol are poorly understood. The aim of the study was to assess
      inconsistencies between registered protocols and published reports among oncology
      drug meta-analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed
      including oncology drug meta-analyses published between January 1st and November
      14th 2016 with a published protocol. Two investigators extracted data on:
      selection criteria, outcome(s) and statistical plan in protocol and manuscript,
      plus self-acknowledgement of inconsistent reporting between protocol and
      publication. RESULTS: Protocol registration was present in 19% (23/119) of all
      oncology drug meta-analyses. In meta-analyses with protocol (n=23), 70% (16/23)
      had issues with inconsistent reporting between protocol and published report
      concerning; inclusion criteria, comparator group, intervention, outcome (PICO) or
      statistical analysis. Self-acknowledgement of changes between protocol and
      publication was found in 50% (8/16). CONCLUSION: In meta-analyses with protocol,
      discrepancies between registered protocols and publications are frequent.

PMID- 28870941
TI  - Metastatic Microcystic Adnexal Carcinoma with DNA Sequencing Results and Response
      to Systemic Antineoplastic Chemotherapy.
AB  - Microcystic adnexal carcinoma (MAC) is a rare cutaneous malignancy. Due to its
      rarity, the molecular characteristics and treatment for metastatic MAC remain
      undefined. Here we present, as far as we are aware, the first case of metastatic
      MAC with DNA sequencing results indicating a mutation in TP53 and chromosomal
      losses in cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) and cyclin dependent
      kinase inhibitor 2B (CDKN2B). In addition, this is the first case of metastatic
      MAC with a documented objective response to systemic antineoplastic chemotherapy
      (carboplatin and paclitaxel) confirmed by positron emission tomography/computed
      tomography. Our case increases the very limited medical knowledge of this rare
      disease.

PMID- 28870942
TI  - Long-term Survival After Stereotactic Radiosurgery of Brain Metastases: A Case
      Series with 10-year Follow-up.
AB  - Patients with brain metastases (BRM) generally have a poor prognosis with
      infrequent long-term outcomes. Four patients treated by stereotactic radiosurgery
      (SRS) for BRM between 2000 and 2010 with a minimum follow-up of 10 years are
      described. The mean age was 43.5 years, and these individuals exhibited good
      performance status at the time of diagnosis of intracranial disease. BRM was
      solitary or multiple, and the primary malignant tumor originated from the thyroid
      gland, lung, mediastinum or large intestine. Progression of the original and
      secondary tumors subsequent to diagnosis and SRS was not observed. Radioimaging
      of the brain obtained 9 years later in one of the patients who was asymptomatic
      at follow-up revealed white matter changes; BRM in this individual was treated by
      tumor resection and cranial irradiation prior to SRS. We contend that extended
      longevity is not precluded when standard management of BRM is practiced in
      selected cases.

PMID- 28870943
TI  - Prospective Evaluation of Neuromediator Dynamics in Castration-Resistant Prostate
      Cancer Patients During Docetaxel.
AB  - AIM: Aim of the study was to detect small cell/neuroendocrine (SCNC)
      transformation in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) that is
      a challenging procedure. We investigated the role of neuromediator dynamics as
      potential evidence of SCNC in patients undergoing docetaxel therapy. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: A multi-institutional, prospective observational study was conducted.
      Patients undergoing docetaxel treatment were included. Chromogranin A (CGA),
      neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and pro-gastrin releasing peptide (Pro-GRP) were
      sequentially evaluated at predefined time points. Outcome measures were overall
      survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and PSA nadir. RESULTS: Fifty-two
      patients were included. A general rise in CGA levels was observed. Patients with
      a high CGA rise (100%ULN: CGA >=98.1ng/ml) between the 1st and 3rd cycle trended
      towards a decreased OS (p=0.0649) and showed a decreased PFS (p=0.0369). In
      multivariate analysis, continuous CGA rise correlated with PFS (p=0.0553; HR
      1.136), but was not an independent predictor of OS. CONCLUSION: Patients with an
      early high CGA rise may demonstrate a subgroup with poor outcome due to
      underlying SCNC transformation. Monitoring of CGA appears to be an option worth
      considering.

PMID- 28870944
TI  - Predictive Role of CYFRA21-1 and CEA for Subsequent Docetaxel in Non-small Cell
      Lung Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of the present study was to determine the clinical value
      of tumor marker levels for previously treated NSCLC patients. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We retrospectively screened 113 previously treated patients with
      advanced NSCLC who were treated with docetaxel monotherapy regarding the
      pretreatment serum level of cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1) and
      carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). RESULTS: The thirty-two patients with normal
      CYFRA21-1 levels and high CEA levels had a significantly higher response rate
      than the other 81 patients (25% vs. 8.6%, p=0.031). The former group showed
      statistically longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)
      than the latter group (median PFS, 180 vs. 59 days, p<0.001; median OS, 579 vs.
      255 days, p=0.002). In multivariate analysis, tumor marker levels had a
      significant impact on PFS and OS. CONCLUSION: Combination of the two tumor
      markers is a predictive and prognostic marker of docetaxel monotherapy for
      previously treated NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28870945
TI  - Flattening Filter Free vs. Flattened Beams for Lung Stereotactic Body Radiation
      Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To assess the clinical impact of high dose rate stereotactic body
      radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with lung neoplastic lesions. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: From January 2014 to June 2016, a single-center retrospective analysis
      was performed including all patients treated by either flattening filter free
      (FFF) beams or flattening filter beams (FF) three-dimensional (3D) SBRT for lung
      neoplastic lesions. RESULTS: A total of 99 SBRT were performed on 75 patients.
      Among these, 29 SBRT were performed using a FFF technique while 70 other SBRT
      were done using a FF technique. Median follow-up time was 12.9 months. Overall,
      no difference between the two groups was found except for the mean beam on time
      which was reduced by 3.3 to 0.9 minutes in the FFF group (p<0.001). CONCLUSION:
      We report a low toxicity rate and a shortened beam on time in patients treated
      with 3D FFF SBRT for lung neoplastic lesions.

PMID- 28870946
TI  - Effects of an Alkaline Diet on EGFR-TKI Therapy in EGFR Mutation-positive NSCLC.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The acidic tumor microenvironment is associated with progression of
      cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between an
      alkaline diet and the effect of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine
      kinase inhibitor (TKI) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: Eleven advanced or recurrent NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations
      treated with EGFR-TKI after being instructed to follow an alkaline diet were
      retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: The median progression-free survival (PFS)
      and overall survival (OS) were 19.5 (range=3.1-33.8) and 28.5 (range=15.4-46.6)
      months. The average dosage of EGFR-TKI was 56+/-22% of the standard dosage. Urine
      pH was significantly increased after the alkaline diet (6.00+/-0.38 vs. 6.95+/
      0.55; p<0.05). CONCLUSION: An alkaline diet may enhance the effect of EGFR-TKI
      treatment in NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations.

PMID- 28870947
TI  - Evaluation of Factors Affecting Metastasis for Renal Cell Carcinoma Based on
      Current Guidelines in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To analyze the suitability for metastasis evaluation of each
      pathologic item on the Fourth Edition of the General Rule for Clinical and
      Pathologic Studies on Renal Cell Carcinoma in Japan. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively examined 457 cases of renal operation after 2011 using the
      current edition of the guidelines. RESULTS: The mean postoperative follow-up
      period was 25.3 months. Radical nephrectomy was performed in 264 cases, whereas
      partial nephrectomy was performed in 193 cases. Including the 33 cases discovered
      after operation, the overall number of metastatic cases was 68 (14.9%). Using the
      current edition of the guidelines, the items of histologic grade, morphology of
      tumor invasion, tumor pseudocapsule, and intrarenal metastasis were all
      correlated with distant metastasis. CONCLUSION: This is the first report showing
      that each item on the current Japanese guidelines for renal cell cancer was
      useful for predicting metastasis.

PMID- 28870948
TI  - Neoadjuvant Imatinib Therapy Followed by Intersphincteric Resection for Low
      Rectal Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Intersphincteric resection (ISR) aims to preserve anal function
      in patients with very low rectal tumors. Here, we analyzed patients who underwent
      neoadjuvant imatinib therapy followed by ISR for low rectal gastrointestinal
      stromal tumors (GISTs). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed
      patients with low rectal GISTs who underwent neoadjuvant imatinib therapy and ISR
      between January 2013 and December 2015 at the University of Tokyo hospital.
      RESULTS: The study included 4 men and 1 woman, with a median age of 67 years
      (range=45-67). All patients received 400 mg of neoadjuvant imatinib once daily
      for the median duration of 4 months (range=3-12). Microscopically, R0 resection
      was performed in 4 patients, and R1, in 1 patient. There was 1 recurrence event
      during the median follow-up duration of 35 months. CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant
      imatinib therapy and ISR for low rectal GISTs is a challenging, but promising,
      alternative to achieve complete resection margins and preserve anal function.

PMID- 28870949
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Serum CEA for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients
      Receiving Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To examine the prognostic significance of serum carcinoembryonic
      antigen (CEA) for stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with
      stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: In total, 129 stage
      I NSCLC patients were analyzed and divided into two groups: CEA-High (CEA>5
      ng/ml) and CEA-Low (CEA<=5 ng/ml). RESULTS: Median follow-up time was 38 months.
      Overall survival was not significantly different between CEA-High (n=47) and CEA
      Low (n=82) patients (57% vs. 63% at 3 years; p=0.39), although progression-free
      survival (PFS) was significantly worse in CEA-High patients (31% vs. 51% at 3
      years; p=0.01). Larger tumor size and high CEA level were independent prognostic
      factors for worse PFS. Failure pattern analysis showed that regional node or
      distant recurrence was more common in CEA-High patients (47%) than in CEA-Low
      patients (29%). CONCLUSION: Patients with CEA-High stage I NSCLC have a higher
      risk of regional or systemic relapse and should be followed-up carefully.

PMID- 28870950
TI  - A Scoring System to Predict the Development of Bone Metastasis After Radical
      Resection of Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To develop a scoring system to predict bone metastasis after
      radical resection within 5 years. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We evaluated the patient
      records of 1,749 patients, of whom 50 patients developed bone metastasis.
      Treatment-related factors (age, gender, localization, histology, preoperative
      carbohydrate antigen 199 level, T-stage, lymph node metastasis (LN) and pulmonary
      metastasis (PM)) were analyzed. RESULTS: We found three independent risk factors,
      namely rectal cancer (p=0.038), LN (p=0.006) and metachronous PM (p<0.001).
      Scoring was conducted by adding zero or one point from each variable and resulted
      in four groups of 0, 1, 2 or 3 points. Three groups were formed, with 0-1 points
      vs. 2 points vs. 3 points (1.5% vs. 6.6% and 10.5%, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This
      new score can help clinicians identify patients at risk for continuous monitoring
      and optimize surveillance to be able to detect and treat bone metastases very
      early in order to avoid skeletal complications.

PMID- 28870951
TI  - Comparison of Postoperative Outcomes Between Laparoscopic and Open Surgery for
      Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To determine the superiority of the laparoscopic vs. open
      technique for colorectal cancer surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective analysis of consecutive patients who underwent curative surgery by
      laparoscopic colectomy (LC) or open colectomy (OC) for colon cancer. The patients
      were classified into two groups: as LC group and OC group. We retrospectively
      assessed clinical characteristics, intraoperative and postoperative outcomes and
      long-term outcomes between the two groups by univariate analysis. RESULTS: The LC
      group had significantly less intraoperative blood loss, complications, and
      shorter post-operative hospital stay than the OC group. The overall survival of
      Stage II in the LC group is significantly longer than the OC group. DFS of Stage
      III in the LC group was significantly longer than the OC group. CONCLUSION: LC
      showed more favorable results in both short-term and long-term outcomes than OC.

PMID- 28870952
TI  - Metallothionein Isoform Expression in Benign and Malignant Thyroid Lesions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metallothioneins (MTs) are involved in numerous cell processes such
      as binding and transport of zinc and copper ions, differentiation, proliferation
      and apoptosis, therefore contributing to carcinogenesis. Scarce data exist on
      their expression in benign and malignant lesions of the thyroid. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: mRNA expression of functional isoforms of MT genes (MT1A, MT1B, MT1E,
      MT1F, MT1G, MT1H, MT1X, MT2A, MT4) was studied in 17 nodular goiters (NG), 12
      follicular adenomas (FA) and 26 papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC). RESULTS: One
      way ANOVA revealed significant differences in mRNA expression levels of MT1A
      (p<0.05), MT1E (p<0.005), MT1F (p<0.0001), MT1G (p<0.005), MT1X (p<0.0005) and
      MT2A (p<0.005) in the analyzed samples. Post hoc analysis confirmed a
      significantly lower expression of MT1A mRNA in PTC compared to NG (p<0.05).
      Significant down-regulation was also noted for other MT isoforms in PTC in
      comparison to NG: MT1E (p<0.05), MT1F (p<0.0001), MT1G (p<0.005), MT1X (p<0.0005)
      and MT2A (p<0.05). In addition, significant down-regulation of MT1F and MT1G in
      FA compared to NG was observed (p<0.005 and p<0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION:
      Expression of functional MT isoforms may contribute to thyroid carcinogenesis and
      potentially serve as a diagnostic marker in distinguishing benign and malignant
      lesions.

PMID- 28870953
TI  - Role of Densitometric Criteria in Evaluation of Effectiveness of Antiangiogenic
      Therapies in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: An Italian Clinical Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To evaluate the role of densitometric criterion using the Choi
      Criteria in the assessment of the response to antiangiogenic treatments of
      metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) compared to the RECIST criteria. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Fifty-four patients (mean age=50.6 years) affected by advanced
      colorectal cancer and with hepatic and possibly peritoneal and pulmonary
      metastases, that can be treated with bevacizumab, were prospectively evaluated by
      computerized tomography (CT) scan. Metastases were also evaluated by CT in one
      dimensional form according to RECIST. RESULTS: Results show that in 58% of
      analyzed cases, stable disease according to RECIST coincided with stable disease
      according to the CHOI criteria, whereas in 42% of analyzed cases disease
      progression according to RECIST corresponded to stable disease or even partial
      response according to CHOI criteria. CONCLUSION: By using the densitometric
      criterion with CHOI criteria, the evaluation of the response to antiangiogenic
      treatment of mCRC is partially different compared to RECIST criteria.

PMID- 28870954
TI  - First-line Treatment of Advanced Biliary Ducts Carcinoma: A Randomized Phase II
      Study Evaluating 5-FU/LV Plus Oxaliplatin (Folfox 4) Versus 5-FU/LV (de Gramont
      Regimen).
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Few clinical trials are available for advanced biliary tract
      carcinoma (BTC). We conducted this randomized phase II clinical trial to explore
      efficacy and safety of 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (5-FU/LV - de Gramont) or the
      same regimen plus oxaliplatin (Folfox 4) as first-line treatment of advanced BTC.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Primary endpoint was overall survival (OS); secondary
      endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), response and toxicity. RESULTS: A
      total of 48 patients were enrolled, 23 in de Gramont arm and 25 in the Folfox
      arm. Disease control rate was 56.5% for de Gramont vs. 72% for Folfox. RR was
      21.7% for de Gramont arm and 28% for Folfox arm (p=0.12). PFS was in favor of
      Folfox (5.2 vs. 2.8 months; p=0.031). OS was 7.5 and 13.0 months for de Gramont
      and Folfox arm respectively (p=0.0010). Toxicity was generally mild in both arms.
      CONCLUSION: Folfox 4 could be considered a valid option as first-line treatment
      of BTC due to its efficacy and tolerability.

PMID- 28870955
TI  - Correlation of Radiation Pneumonitis History Before Nivolumab with Onset of
      Interstitial Lung Disease and Progression-free Survival of Patients with Pre
      treated Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Nivolumab has a promising efficacy for patients with non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as second-line or later treatment, and after
      radiotherapy as abscopal effect. However, the effects of radiation pneumonitis
      history before nivolumab have not been clarified. Therefore, we retrospectively
      analyzed the correlation of a history of radiation pneumonitis before nivolumab
      with onset of interstitial lung disease (ILD) and progression-free survival (PFS)
      after nivolumab treatment in patients with previously treated NSCLC. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: A total of 201 patients treated with nivolumab were retrospectively
      reviewed. We collected clinical data of patients at the time of starting
      nivolumab and we evaluated ILD incidence and PFS in relation to patient
      characteristics, including radiation pneumonitis history. RESULTS: The median age
      was 68 years; 135 patients were men, 157 had a smoking history, and 153 had
      performance status of 0 or 1. Thirty-four patients experienced radiation
      pneumonitis before nivolumab, and 50 patients received radiotherapy to the chest
      (31 patients received curative radiotherapy). The overall median PFS was 2.8
      months and the overall ILD rate was 12.4%. Higher ILD incidence was observed in
      the group with a history of radiation pneumonitis (26.5%) compared to the group
      without radiation pneumonitis (9.6%). The median PFS was 3.6 and 2.3 months,
      respectively. On multivariate analysis, a history of radiation pneumonitis was
      also significantly correlated with good PFS (p=0.023). CONCLUSION: Although
      increasing the risk of ILD, a history of radiation pneumonitis before nivolumab
      also contributes to the prolongation of PFS after nivolumab.

PMID- 28870957
TI  - Comparing the Efficacy of DeVIC Therapy and High-dose Methotrexate Monotherapy
      with Whole-brain Radiation Therapy for Newly-diagnosed Primary Central Nervous
      System Lymphoma: A Single Institution Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: In the current study, we aimed to compare DeVIC (dexamethasone,
      etoposide, ifosfamide and carboplatin) chemotherapy with high-dose methotrexate
      (HD-MTX) monotherapy plus whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for newly
      diagnosed primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), in terms of their
      efficacies and tolerability. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 21 consecutive
      patients with PCNSL were treated with DeVIC therapy and WBRT, between 2002 and
      2010. From 2010 to 2014, 14 consecutive patients with PCNSL were treated with HD
      MTX followed by WBRT. RESULTS: Overall response rates of complete and partial
      response for initial chemotherapy were significantly better with DeVIC therapy
      (95.2%) than with HD-MTX monotherapy (50%). Furthermore, one-year and two-year
      progression-free survival (PFS) rates were better in the DeVIC cohort than in the
      HD-MTX cohort. DeVIC therapy yielded higher early response rates, longer PFS, and
      manageable adverse events, and may be potentially better for the treatment of
      cases that are refractory to MTX-based therapy. CONCLUSION: Our retrospective
      clinical study revealed that DeVIC therapy is comparable with that of HD-MTX
      monotherapy plus WBRT, for newly diagnosed PCNSL.

PMID- 28870956
TI  - Targeted Delivery of Cordycepin to Liver Cancer Cells Using Transferrin
      conjugated Liposomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Cordycepin is an endogenous nucleoside with significant
      anticancer biological activity. The objective of this study was to develop
      targeted liposomes to improve solubility and biological activity of cordycepin.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We established transferrin-conjugated liposomes to deliver
      cordycepin to liver cancer cells and evaluated the uptake and effect. RESULTS:
      The liposomes were loaded with cordycepin. Their average size was 125.3 nm, with
      drug encapsulation efficiency of 65.3%. The liposomes had good colloidal
      stability and released cordycepin slowly. Liposomal cordycepin was shown to
      increase reactive oxygen species production and cause depolarization of the
      mitochondrial transmembrane in liver cancer cells. Cellular uptake of liposomal
      cordycepin was enhanced by conjugation to transferrin, that facilitated receptor
      mediated endocytosis. CONCLUSION: Transferrin-conjugated liposomes are effective
      as nanocarriers for cordycepin delivery to liver cancer cells.

PMID- 28870958
TI  - Anti-proliferative, Cytotoxic and NF-KB Inhibitory Properties of Spiro(Lactone
      Cyclohexanone) Compounds in Human Leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: NF-KB affects most aspects of cellular physiology. Deregulation
      of NF-KB signaling is associated with inflammatory diseases and cancer. In this
      study, we evaluated the cytotoxic and NF-KB inhibition potential of new
      spiro(lactone-cyclohexanone) compounds in two different human leukemia cell lines
      (U937 and K562). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The anti-proliferative effects of the
      spiro(lactone-cyclohexanone) compounds on human K562 and U937 cell lines was
      evaluated by trypan blue staining, as well as their involvement in NF-kB
      regulation were analyzed by luciferase reporter gene assay, Caspase-3/7
      activities were evaluated to analyze apoptosis induction. RESULTS: Both
      spiro(coumarin-cyclohexanone) 4 and spiro(6- methyllactone-cyclohexanone) 9 down
      regulated cancer cell viability and proliferation. Compound 4 inhibited TNF-alpha
      induced NF-KB activation in a dose-dependent manner and induced caspase-dependent
      apoptosis in both leukemia cell lines. CONCLUSION: Results show that compound 4
      and compound 9 have potential as anti-cancer agents. In addition, compound 4
      exerted NF-kB inhibition activity in leukemia cancer cells.

PMID- 28870959
TI  - Differences in Urinary Renal Failure Biomarkers in Cancer Patients Initially
      Treated with Cisplatin.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: We investigated whether measuring the excretion of each acute
      kidney injury (AKI) biomarker after cisplatin (CDDP) administration is useful for
      predicting AKI and evaluated the most appropriate AKI marker in patients treated
      with CDDP. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We measured NAG, Kim-1, and NGAL in urinary
      samples of 40 cancer patients treated with chemotherapy on day 1 (before
      chemotherapy), day 2, and day 5 after treatment; serum creatinine (sCr) was
      compared on days 7 and 28 after CDDP administration vs. baseline. RESULTS: NAG,
      Kim-1, and NGAL excretion (creatinine corrected) were not significantly elevated
      5 days after receiving chemotherapy in the non-CDDP chemotherapy group.
      Conversely, all markers were significantly higher 5 days after receiving
      chemotherapy in the CDDP group when compared to baseline. CONCLUSION: Urinary
      NAG, Kim-1, and NGAL can detect renal injury more sensitively than sCr.

PMID- 28870960
TI  - Risk-reducing Salpingo-Oophorectomy in Women at Higher Risk of Ovarian and Breast
      Cancer: A Single Institution Prospective Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Occult cancers' reported rates vary from 2-12% and serous tubal
      intraepithelial carcinomas (STICs) have been identified in 3-12% of the
      prophylactically removed tubes of women carrying a BRCA mutation. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the incidence of tubal minor epithelial atypia (STIL),
      STIC, and occult invasive cancer and to evaluate the cancer-specific mortality in
      a prospective series of women at higher risk of ovarian and breast cancer
      undergoing risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) n a tertiary cancer center.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A series of RRSO specimens (including endometrial biopsy)
      from women carrying a BRCA mutation, BRCA-unknown and BRCA-negative were
      collected between January 1998 and April 2016 at the Division of Gynecology at
      the European Institute of Oncology. Inclusion criteria were: asymptomatic women
      who had a negative gynecologic screening within 3 months prior to RRSO. Exclusion
      criteria were: women with ovarian/tubal cancer prior to RRSO. RESULTS: A total of
      411 women underwent RRSO. Median age at RRSO was 47.0 years (range=32-70 years);
      75.2% had a history of breast cancer. Fifteen women were diagnosed with an occult
      cancer (7 STIC, 4 invasive cancers, 2 breast cancers metastatic to the adnexa, 2
      endometrial cancer) (3.6%). Sixteen showed a STIL (3.9%). When excluding cases
      with preoperative positive markers, the occult invasive cancer rate drops to
      1.5%. CONCLUSION: Our study, covering an 18-year period, shows a substantial low
      risk of occult cancer among a high-risk population of women undergoing RRSO. Our
      data still support the indication for RRSO in higher-risk patients. An
      endometrial biopsy should also be routinely obtained as it raises the chances of
      detecting occult endometrial cancers that may be otherwise missed.

PMID- 28870961
TI  - The Local Recurrence of Breast Cancer with Squamous Metaplasia and Obvious
      Histological Heterogeneity.
AB  - CASE REPORT: We herein report a case of local recurrence of breast cancer with
      squamous metaplasia and obvious intratumoral and intertumoral heterogeneity. A 39
      year-old female patient was diagnosed with T3N2M0 stage IIIB right breast cancer
      and underwent right total mastectomy and axillar lymph node dissection. At four
      years after surgery, she became aware of chest wall pain and diagnostic imaging
      revealed recurrence in the lung, right thoracic wall and sternum. The recurrent
      lesions remained stable for 18 months with endocrine therapy. Thereafter, the
      lesion in the right thoracic wall suddenly became enlarged. Moreover, liver
      metastasis was confirmed on FDG-PET/CT. She underwent right thoracic wall tumor
      resection. A biopsy was simultaneously performed to obtain a specimen from the
      site of liver metastasis. Postoperatively, the right chest wall mass showed
      obvious intratumoral heterogeneity; squamous differentiation with aggressive
      features and a papillotubular component similar to the primary tumor. The
      metastatic liver tumor showed similar pathological features to the primary tumor.
      CONCLUSION: Intratumoral and intertumoral heterogeneity within primary tumors and
      associated metastatic sites may contribute to treatment failure and drug
      resistance.

PMID- 28870962
TI  - Value of Additional Digital Breast Tomosynthesis for Preoperative Staging of
      Breast Cancer in Dense Breasts.
AB  - AIM: This retrospective study was initiated to determine the diagnostic value of
      additional preoperative breast tomosynthesis (DBT) for breast cancer staging in
      dense breasts. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-six patients (69 breasts) with
      findings of American College of Radiology category 3 or 4 with Breast Imaging
      Reporting and Data System 5, 6 or 0 were included. All patients underwent digital
      mammography and additional DBT. RESULTS: A total of 40/69 (58%) cancers were
      detected on both mammography and DBT, 23 (33.3%) were only seen on DBT
      (p=0.0001); 6/69 (8.7%) carcinomas were not detected by either method, of which
      three were invasive lobular carcinomas. Sensitivity for multifocal/multicentric
      disease was significantly higher on DBT (12/19, 63.2%) compared to mammography
      (4/19, 21.1%) (p=0.02), specificity was comparable (96.0% vs. 90.0%).
      Multifocal/multicentric disease was not detected on mammography nor DBT in 7/19
      (36.8%) patients, including three invasive lobular carcinomas. CONCLUSION: DBT
      may significantly improve preoperative breast cancer staging in patients with
      dense breasts compared to conventional mammography alone. Nevertheless,
      limitations have to be expected in the case of invasive lobular carcinoma.

PMID- 28870963
TI  - Are Multiple Tumors of the Parotid Gland Uncommon or Underestimated?
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Parotid gland tumors are mostly solitary tumors of the salivary
      gland tissue. There is limited evidence about multifocal tumor growth of the
      parotid gland. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 796
      consecutive parotidectomies in 758 patients over the last 40 years in our
      department, and investigated the incidence and histological type of synchronous
      and metachronous parotid tumors. Multifocal recurrent tumors and hybrid tumors
      were excluded. RESULTS: We identified 93 (13%) patients with multiple parotid
      lesions. Their mean age was 63 (range=15-93) years. Multiple parotid tumors were
      found unilaterally in 59% and bilaterally in 41% of cases. The contralateral
      tumor was diagnosed synchronously in 13 of 38 (34%) cases and in 25 of 38 (66%)
      cases metachronously. The time separating the diagnoses of both contralateral
      tumors ranged between one and eleven years. The same histological type was found
      in 95% of the tumors, and 96% of the parotid tumors had lymphatic origin. Warthin
      tumors (65%) were the most frequent histological type. CONCLUSION: Every sixth
      patient with a parotid tumor has multifocal tumor lesions. The majority of
      multifocal parotid tumors have a lymphoid element, while multifocal growth is
      uncommon in other histological types.

PMID- 28870964
TI  - Incidence and Oncological Implications of Previously Undetected Tumor
      Multicentricity Following Pancreaticoduodenectomy for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
      in Patients Undergoing Salvage Pancreatectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The risk for multicentricity of pancreatic adenocarcinoma remains
      unclear and the question whether pancreaticoduodenectomy represents sufficient
      oncological treatment for patients with ductal adenocarcinoma of the head of the
      pancreas needs further investigation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Clinicopathological
      data of patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma between 2005 and 2015 were assessed and the incidence of tumor
      multicentricity among patients who required salvage pancreatectomy within 90
      postoperative days was evaluated. RESULTS: Pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed
      in 1,005 patients. Sixty-two patients (6%) suffered a major postoperative
      complication (pancreatic fistula/anastomotic leak/bleeding) after resection of
      the head of the pancreas, requiring salvage pancreatectomy. Histological
      examination of the pancreatic remnant in patients with ductal adenocarcinoma
      (n=19) revealed multicentric carcinoma in two patients, resulting in an incidence
      of 11% for tumor multicentricity. Preoperative cross-sectional imaging failed to
      identify tumor multicentricity in these patients. Additionally, two patients with
      pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia and two with neuroendocrine tumor were
      identified. CONCLUSION: The incidence of previously undetected multicentric
      adenocarcinoma among patients undergoing salvage pancreatectomy in our study was
      surprisingly high. This finding suggests that the role of total pancreatectomy
      for pancreatic head cancer, as well as the current strategies for postoperative
      tumor surveillance, should be re-evaluated in order to provide the best
      oncological approach and prolonged survival for patients with ductal
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28870966
TI  - Robot-assisted Extracranial Stereotactic Radiotherapy of Adrenal Metastases in
      Oligometastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of
      stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in the treatment of patients with
      adrenal metastases in oligometastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between November 2012 and May 2015, fifteen patients with
      oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer and adrenal metastases were treated
      with the Cyberknife(r) system. The primary endpoint was local control. RESULTS:
      The 1-year and 2-year local control rates were 60% and 46.6%, respectively. The
      differences in local control for patients with metachronous and synchronous
      metastases reached statistical significance (p=0.00028). Two-year overall
      survival of 91.2% for patients with metachronous metastases was also more
      favourable compared to patients with synchronous adrenal metastases with 42.8%.
      CONCLUSION: Extracranial stereotactic radiotherapy with the Cyberknife(r) is a
      safe and non-invasive technique that extends the therapeutic spectrum in the
      treatment of patients with adrenal metastases in oligometastatic NSCLC.

PMID- 28870965
TI  - Surgical Strategy for T1 Duodenal or Ampullary Carcinoma According to the Depth
      of Tumor Invasion.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the utility of local resection (LR) for T1 duodenal carcinoma
      and T1 ampullary carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between June 2002 and November
      2014, a total of 64 patients with pathological T1 (pT1) ampullary carcinoma (25
      patients) and pT1 duodenal carcinoma (39 patients) were treated. Of these, 33
      patients underwent local resection (LR group), while the other 31 patients
      underwent pancreatoduodenectomy (PD group). RESULTS: The LR group had 31 patients
      with pT1a and 2 patients with pT1b. PD group had 18 patients with pT1a and 13
      patients with pT1b. One patient with pT1b duodenal carcinoma (20.0%) and one
      patient with pT1b ampullary carcinoma (10.0%) developed lymph node metastasis,
      while none of the patients with pT1a disease developed metastases. CONCLUSION: LR
      may be considered in the patients preoperatively diagnosed with T1a duodenal
      carcinoma and T1a ampullary carcinoma.

PMID- 28870967
TI  - Safety for Repeat Lumpectomy Without Radiotherapy for Ipsilateral Breast Tumor
      Recurrence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is little information on the local recurrence risk of patients
      who undergo repeat lumpectomy without radiotherapy after salvage surgery for
      ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-five
      patients who underwent repeat lumpectomy without radiotherapy after IBTR were
      retrospectively analyzed. The risk factors of second IBTR, including the breast
      cancer subtype of IBTR defined by the estrogen receptor (ER) and HER2 status,
      were assessed. RESULTS: The median follow-up period was 62 months. The 5-year
      second IBTR-free survival rate was 83%. Patients with the ER-positive/HER2
      negative subtype of IBTR had a significantly better second IBTR-free survival
      rate than those with other subtypes of IBTR (88% vs. 75%, respectively, p=0.02).
      Multivariate analysis revealed that the breast cancer subtype of IBTR was a
      significantly independent predictive factor of second IBTR-free survival
      (p=0.003). A low-risk group for second IBTR, defined by the breast cancer subtype
      of IBTR and margin status of primary surgery, was detected (5-year second IBTR
      free survival rate: 100%). CONCLUSION: Patients in the low-risk group defined by
      the breast cancer subtype of IBTR and margin status of primary surgery could
      safely undergo repeat lumpectomy without radiotherapy for IBTR.

PMID- 28870968
TI  - Efficacy of Additional Surgical Resection After Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection
      for Superficial Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of additional
      surgical resection (ASR) after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for
      superficial esophageal cancer (SEC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Clinicopathological
      features and prognoses were analyzed in esophageal cancer (EC) cases with the
      indication for additional treatments (AT) after ESD (37 cases) and in cases that
      underwent primary resection (13 cases). RESULTS: Sixteen out of 37 cases
      underwent ASR. The remaining 21 cases underwent other treatments or observation.
      Although all ASR cases are alive without recurrence, recurrence developed in 2
      non-ASR cases. Residual tumors were detected in 2 ASR cases. All 4 cases were T1b
      and positive for lymph vessel invasion (ly+). No significant difference was
      observed in surgical outcomes between ASR and primary surgical resection (PSR)
      cases. CONCLUSION: AT need to be considered for T1b and ly+ cases, and ASR is one
      of the effective AT. The safety of ASR was similar to PSR for SEC.

PMID- 28870969
TI  - Study on the Validity of Pancreaticoduodenectomy in the Elderly.
AB  - AIM: Pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is still the only curative treatment for
      periampullary cancer. Confirming the outcomes of PD in elderly patients is
      important as the aging population continues to grow. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      analyzed 340 patients with periampullary cancer who underwent PD, dividing them
      into three groups by age: group A: aged 64 years or younger, n=115; group B: 65
      74 years, n=144; and group C: 75 years or older, n=81. RESULTS: Group C had a
      significantly higher 60-day mortality of 6.3% (p=0.04), the lowest 5-year overall
      survival rate of 9.9% (p=0.02), and there was no impact of staging of the Union
      for International Cancer Control classification on overall survival of patients
      with pancreatic cancer. Independent prognostic factors of group C in the
      multivariate analysis were pancreatic cancer and reoperation. CONCLUSION: For
      elderly patients aged 75 years or over, caution should be exercised in selecting
      PD for patients with pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28870970
TI  - Errata.

PMID- 28870972
TI  - LDL cholesterol level in fifth-grade schoolchildren associates with stature.
AB  - Short stature is associated with increased LDL-cholesterol levels and coronary
      artery disease in adults. We investigated the relationship of stature to LDL
      levels in children in the West Virginia Coronary Artery Risk Detection in
      Appalachian Communities (CARDIAC) Project to determine whether the genetically
      determined inverse relationship observed in adults would be evident in fifth
      graders. A cross-sectional survey of schoolchildren was assessed for
      cardiovascular risk factors. Data collected at school screenings over 18 years in
      WV schools were analyzed for 63,152 fifth-graders to determine relationship of
      LDL to stature with consideration of age, gender, and BMI. The first (shortest)
      quartile showed an LDL level of 93.6 mg/dl compared with an LDL level of 89.7
      mg/dl for the fourth (tallest) quartile. Each incremental increase of 1 SD of
      height lowered LDL by 0.049 mg/dl (P < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis showed LDL
      to vary inversely as a function of the first (lowest) quartile of height after
      controlling for gender, median age, BMI percentile for age and gender, and year
      of screening. The odds ratio for LDL >= 130 mg/dl for shortest versus tallest
      quartile is 1.266 (95% CL 1.162-1.380). The odds ratio for LDL >= 160 mg/dl is
      1.456 (95% CL 1.163-1.822). The relationship between short stature and LDL, noted
      in adults, is confirmed in childhood.

PMID- 28870971
TI  - Polygenic determinants in extremes of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
AB  - HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) remains a superior biochemical predictor of CVD risk, but
      its genetic basis is incompletely defined. In patients with extreme HDL-C
      concentrations, we concurrently evaluated the contributions of multiple large-
      and small-effect genetic variants. In a discovery cohort of 255 unrelated lipid
      clinic patients with extreme HDL-C levels, we used a targeted next-generation
      sequencing panel to evaluate rare variants in known HDL metabolism genes,
      simultaneously with common variants bundled into a polygenic trait score. Two
      additional cohorts were used for validation and included 1,746 individuals from
      the Montreal Heart Institute Biobank and 1,048 individuals from the University of
      Pennsylvania. Findings were consistent between cohorts: we found rare
      heterozygous large-effect variants in 18.7% and 10.9% of low- and high-HDL-C
      patients, respectively. We also found common variant accumulation, indicated by
      extreme polygenic trait scores, in an additional 12.8% and 19.3% of overall cases
      of low- and high-HDL-C extremes, respectively. Thus, the genetic basis of extreme
      HDL-C concentrations encountered clinically is frequently polygenic, with
      contributions from both rare large-effect and common small-effect variants.
      Multiple types of genetic variants should be considered as contributing factors
      in patients with extreme dyslipidemia.

PMID- 28870973
TI  - Primary hyperparathyroidism in young patients in Russia: high frequency of
      hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a relatively rare disorder
      among children, adolescents and young adults. Its development at an early age is
      suspicious for hereditary causes, though the need for routine genetic testing
      remains controversial. OBJECTIVE: To identify and describe hereditary forms of
      PHPT in patients with manifestation of the disease under 40 years of age. DESIGN:
      We enrolled 65 patients with PHPT diagnosed before 40 years of age. Ten of them
      had MEN1 mutation, and PHPT in them was the first manifestation of multiple
      endocrine neoplasia type 1 syndrome. METHODS: The other fifty-five patients
      underwent next-generation sequencing (NGS) of a custom-designed panel of genes,
      associated with PHPT (MEN1, CASR, CDC73, CDKN1A, CDKN1B, CDKN1C, CDKN2A, CDKN2C,
      CDKN2D). In cases suspicious for gross CDC73 deletions multiplex ligation
      dependent probe amplification was performed. RESULTS: NGS revealed six pathogenic
      or likely pathogenic germline sequence variants: four in CDC73 c.271C>T
      (p.Arg91*), c.496C>T (p.Gln166*), c.685A>T (p.Arg229*) and c.787C>T
      (p.Arg263Cys); one in CASR c.3145G>T (p.Glu1049*) and one in MEN1 c.784-9G>A. In
      two patients, MLPA confirmed gross CDC73 deletions. In total, 44 sporadic and 21
      hereditary PHPT cases were identified. Parathyroid carcinomas and atypical
      parathyroid adenomas were present in 8/65 of young patients, in whom CDC73
      mutations were found in 5/8. CONCLUSIONS: Hereditary forms of PHPT can be
      identified in up to 1/3 of young patients with manifestation of the disease at
      <40 years of age. Parathyroid carcinomas or atypical parathyroid adenomas in
      young patients are frequently associated with CDC73 mutations.

PMID- 28870974
TI  - Serum levels of polyamine synthesis enzymes increase in diabetic patients with
      breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between
      diabetes and breast cancer and the detection of enzymes and ornithine levels in
      polyamine synthesis pathway in diabetes, breast cancer and diabetic breast cancer
      patients. METHODS: Ornithine, arginine decarboxylase, ornithine decarboxylase and
      agmatinase levels have been measured in serum of all groups. Ornithine levels
      were measured spectrophotometrically. Arginine decarboxylase, ornithine
      decarboxylase and agmatinase levels were determined by ELISA kits. RESULTS:
      Except for the diabetic group, the levels of enzymes in the polyamine synthesis
      pathway were increased in all and statistically significant (P < 0.05). The
      increase in the levels of agmatinase was very important among the enzymes (P <
      0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased levels of polyamine synthase enzymes in diabetes
      mellitus were found to be increased patients with breast cancer. Whether and how
      diabetes-based breast cancer development relates to increase activity of enzymes
      responsible for polyamine synthesis requires further mechanistic and prospective
      monitoring studies in larger patient cohorts.

PMID- 28870975
TI  - Three cases of imported eyeworm infection in dogs: a new threat for the United
      Kingdom.
AB  - In July 2016 we described the first known case of canine ocular thelaziosis in
      the UK in a dog recently imported from Romania. Here we confirm our initial
      diagnosis using PCR followed by sequence analysis, and we report a further two
      clinical cases in dogs with recent history of travel to Italy and France. In view
      of the presence in the UK of the vector for Thelazia callipaeda, namely Phortica
      spp, we discuss the significance of these three cases in the context of the UK
      government's pet travel scheme, disease control and both animal and public health
      in the UK.

PMID- 28870976
TI  - Caregiver burden in owners of a sick companion animal: a cross-sectional
      observational study.
AB  - Much recent work has focused on occupational stress in veterinary medicine,
      although little is known about the possible contribution of client-based factors.
      Clients providing care for a companion animal with protracted illness are likely
      to experience 'caregiver burden' and reduced psychosocial functioning, which may
      ultimately lead to increased veterinarian stress. This cross-sectional
      observational study assessed caregiver burden and psychosocial function in 238
      owners of a dog or cat, comparing owners of an animal with chronic or terminal
      diseases (n=119) with healthy controls blindly matched for owner age/sex and
      animal species (n=119). Results showed greater burden, stress and symptoms of
      depression/anxiety, as well as poorer quality of life, in owners of companion
      animals with chronic or terminal disease (p<0.001 for all). Higher burden was
      correlated with reduced psychosocial function (p<0.001 for all). Owners of a sick
      companion animal exhibit elevated caregiver burden, which is linked to poorer
      psychosocial functioning. This knowledge may help veterinarians understand and
      more effectively handle client distress in the context of managing the challenges
      of sick companion animal caregiving. Future work is needed to determine whether
      clients with this presentation impact veterinarian stress and how burden in this
      population might be reduced.

PMID- 28870977
TI  - Recommendations for Prevention and Control of Influenza in Children, 2017 - 2018.
AB  - This statement updates the recommendations for routine use of the seasonal
      influenza vaccine and antiviral medications for the prevention and treatment of
      influenza in children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends annual
      seasonal influenza immunization for everyone 6 months and older, including
      children and adolescents. Highlights for the upcoming 2017-2018 season include
      the following:1. Annual universal influenza immunization is indicated with either
      a trivalent or quadrivalent (no preference) inactivated vaccine;2. The 2017-2018
      influenza A (H1N1) vaccine strain differs from that contained in the 2016-2017
      seasonal vaccines. The 2017-2018 influenza A (H3N2) vaccine strain and influenza
      B vaccine strains included in the trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines are the
      same as those contained in the 2016-2017 seasonal vaccines: a. trivalent vaccine
      contains an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus, an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014
      (H3N2)-like virus, and a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus (B/Victoria lineage); and
      b. quadrivalent vaccine contains an additional B virus (B/Phuket/3073/2013-like
      virus [B/Yamagata lineage]);3. Quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine
      (LAIV4) is not recommended for use in any setting in the United States during the
      2017-2018 influenza season. This interim recommendation, originally made in 2016,
      followed observational data from the US Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network
      revealing that LAIV4 performed poorly against influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 viruses in
      recent influenza seasons;4. All children with an egg allergy of any severity can
      receive an influenza vaccine without any additional precautions beyond those
      recommended for any vaccine;5. All health care personnel should receive an annual
      seasonal influenza vaccine, a crucial step in preventing influenza and reducing
      health care-associated influenza infections, because health care personnel often
      care for individuals at high risk for influenza-related complications; and6.
      Pediatricians should attempt to promptly identify children suspected of having
      influenza infection for timely initiation of antiviral treatment, when indicated,
      to reduce morbidity and mortality. Best results are seen when treated within 48
      hours of symptom onset.

PMID- 28870978
TI  - 10,000 Steps Australia: a community-wide eHealth physical activity promotion
      programme.

PMID- 28870979
TI  - NHS needs extra L350m to cope this winter, service providers say.

PMID- 28870980
TI  - Former health secretary is still pushing for justice over contaminated blood
      scandal.

PMID- 28870981
TI  - Acquired cardiovascular disease in adult patients with congenital heart disease.

PMID- 28870982
TI  - Understanding the effect of corticosteroid pretreatment in brain-dead organ
      donors: new mechanistic insights for improvement of organ quality in liver
      transplantation.
AB  - Transplant surgeons are currently faced with the challenge to accept marginal
      liver transplants due to steatosis or old age. Improving organ quality by
      implementing a selective organ protective donor management could be the first
      step towards a graft of enhanced quality. However, the molecular mechanisms of
      such treatments are still poorly understood. Glucocorticoid medication in donor
      medicine has been carried out and discussed for a long time. In a recent study
      published in Clinical Science, Jimenez-Castro et al. [Clin. Sci. (2017) 131, 733
      746] demonstrate how liver histology and transplant liver function can be
      improved by administration of glucocorticoids to brain-dead donor rats with
      steatotic livers. This work illustrates the need for further trials in order to
      selectively improve the quality of steatotic livers with a potential for liver
      transplantation.

PMID- 28870983
TI  - Ischaemia as a cause of LVOT gradient reversal in HCM.
AB  - : We present the case of a previously fit 84-year-old female with long-standing
      systemic hypertension and the echo phenotype of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)
      - asymmetrical septal hypertrophy, significant resting left ventricular (LV)
      outflow obstruction and mitral regurgitation (MR) secondary to systolic anterior
      motion (SAM) of the mitral valve. Valsalva provocation caused an increase in LVOT
      dynamic gradient and MR severity. The patient presented with a progressive
      decrease in exercise capacity along with chest pain relieved by rest or
      sublingual GTN. Exercise stress echo demonstrated a paradoxical response with
      reduction of both LVOT gradient and severity of MR. There was evidence of
      inducible regional wall motion abnormalities associated with no change in LV
      cavity size. Coronary angiogram revealed significant triple vessel disease.
      LEARNING POINTS: 20% of adult HCM patients over the age of 45 years have been
      shown to have coexistent coronary artery disease (CAD) that is associated with a
      reduced overall survival. Diagnosis of CAD in patients with HCM is difficult to
      make based on clinical grounds because of the high incidence of angina in
      patients with HCM but no CAD.Reduction of LVOT gradient with stress in patients
      with HCM (in the absence of a vaso-vagal response) may indicate ischaemia due to
      significant multivessel epicardial CAD, including left mainstem stenosis. Hence,
      this finding during stress echocardiography suggests that further investigation
      of the coronaries should be considered.Exercise stress echocardiography has not
      been validated for the assessment of ischaemia secondary to epicardial coronary
      disease in patients with HCM because ischaemia in this group of patients is often
      caused by multiple mechanisms, including microvascular ischaemia and myocardial
      bridging.Comparative assessment of rest and peak exercise 2D strain may add
      incremental value in identifying regional wall motion abnormalities, which may be
      difficult to distinguish by eye in hypertrophied, dynamic myocardium.A
      paradoxical response to exercise with significant decrease in LVOT obstruction
      and MR has been reported in the literature. This is often associated with a trend
      toward increased exercise capacity and better prognostic outcomes. Our clinical
      case presents a significant decrease in LVOT obstruction and MR that was
      associated with a trend toward reduced exercise capacity and was caused by
      ischaemia.

PMID- 28870984
TI  - Optimal follow-up strategies for adrenal incidentalomas: reappraisal of the 2016
      ESE-ENSAT guidelines in real clinical practice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recently, the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE), in
      collaboration with the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors (ENSAT),
      asserted that adrenal incidentalomas (AIs) <4 cm and <=10 Hounsfield units (HU)
      do not require further follow-up imaging. To validate the clinical application of
      the follow-up strategies suggested by the 2016 ESE-ENSAT guidelines, we explored
      the clinical characteristics and natural course of AIs in a single center over 13
      years. DESIGN AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included a total of
      1149 patients diagnosed with AIs between 2000 and 2013 in a single tertiary
      center. Hormonal examination and radiological evaluations were performed at the
      initial diagnosis of AI and during the follow-up according to the appropriate
      guidelines. RESULTS: The mean age at diagnosis was 54.2 years, and the majority
      of AIs (68.0%) were nonfunctional lesions. Receiver operating curve analysis was
      used to discriminate malignant from benign lesions; the optimal cut-off value for
      mass size was 3.4 cm (sensitivity: 100%; specificity: 95.0%), and that for the
      pre-contrast HU was 19.9 (sensitivity: 100%; specificity: 67.4%). The majority of
      nonfunctional lesions did not change in size during the 4-year follow-up period.
      Applying a cut-off value of 1.8 MUg/dL after a 1-mg overnight dexamethasone
      suppression test, 28.0% of all nonfunctional AIs progressed to autonomous
      cortisol secretion during the follow-up period. However, we observed no
      development of overt Cushing's syndrome in the study. CONCLUSIONS: We advocate
      that no follow-up imaging is required if the detected adrenal mass is <4 cm and
      has clear benign features. However, prospective studies with longer follow-up are
      needed to confirm the appropriate follow-up strategies.

PMID- 28870986
TI  - Factors affecting seizure outcome after epilepsy surgery: an observational
      series.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Surgical treatment can bring seizure remission in people with focal
      epilepsy but requires careful selection of candidates. OBJECTIVES: To determine
      which preoperative factors are associated with postoperative seizure outcome.
      DESIGN: We audited seizure outcome of 693 adults who had resective epilepsy
      surgery between 1990 and 2010 and used survival analysis to detect preoperatively
      identifiable risk factors of poor seizure outcome. RESULTS: Seven factors were
      significantly associated with increased probability of recurrence of seizures
      with impaired awareness postsurgery: MRI findings (eg, HR adjusted for other
      variables in the model 2.5; 95% CI 1.6 to 3.8 for normal MRI compared with
      hippocampal sclerosis), a history of secondarily generalised convulsive seizures
      (2.3; 95% CI 1.7 to 3.0 for these seizures in the previous year vs never),
      psychiatric history (1.3; 95% CI 1.1 to 1.7), learning disability (1.8; 95% CI
      1.2 to 2.6) and extratemporal (vs temporal) surgery (1.4; 95% CI 1.02, 2.04).
      People with an older onset of epilepsy had a higher probability of seizure
      recurrence (1.01; 95% CI 1.00, 1.02) as did those who had used more antiepileptic
      drugs (1.05; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.09). Combinations of variables associated with
      seizure recurrence gave overall low probabilities of 5-year seizure freedom (eg,
      a normal MRI and convulsive seizures in the previous year has a probability of
      seizure freedom at 5 years of approximately 0.19). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
      Readily identified clinical features and investigations are associated with
      reduced probability of good outcome and need consideration when planning
      presurgical evaluation.

PMID- 28870985
TI  - Whole-exome sequencing gives additional benefits compared to candidate gene
      sequencing in the molecular diagnosis of children with growth hormone or IGF-1
      insensitivity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: GH insensitivity (GHI) is characterised by short stature, IGF-1
      deficiency and normal/elevated serum GH. IGF-1 insensitivity results in pre- and
      post-natal growth failure with normal/high IGF-1 levels. The prevalence of
      genetic defects is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To identify the underlying genetic
      diagnoses in a paediatric cohort with GH or IGF-1 insensitivity using candidate
      gene (CGS) and whole-exome sequencing (WES) and assess factors associated with
      the discovery of a genetic defect. METHODS: We undertook a prospective study of
      132 patients with short stature and suspected GH or IGF-1 insensitivity referred
      to our centre for genetic analysis. 107 (96 GHI, 88 probands; 11 IGF-1
      insensitivity, 9 probands) underwent CGS. WES was performed in those with no
      defined genetic aetiology following CGS. RESULTS: A genetic diagnosis was
      discovered 38/107 (36%) patients (32% probands) by CGS. WES revealed 11 patients
      with genetic variants in genes known to cause short stature. A further 2 patients
      had hypomethylation in the H19/IGF2 region or mUPD7 consistent with Silver
      Russell Syndrome (total with genetic diagnosis 51/107, 48% or 41/97, 42%
      probands). WES also identified homozygous putative variants in FANCA and PHKB in
      2 patients. Low height SDS and consanguinity were highly predictive for
      identifying a genetic defect. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive genetic testing confirms
      the genetic heterogeneity of GH/IGF-1 insensitivity and successfully identified
      the genetic aetiology in a significant proportion of cases. WES is rapid and may
      isolate genetic variants that have been missed by traditional clinically driven
      genetic testing. This emphasises the benefits of specialist diagnostic centres.

PMID- 28870987
TI  - Maternal Dead-end 1 promotes translation of nanos1 by binding the eIF3 complex.
AB  - In the developing embryo, primordial germ cells (PGCs) represent the exclusive
      progenitors of the gametes, and their loss results in adult infertility. During
      early development, PGCs are exposed to numerous signals that specify somatic cell
      fates. To prevent somatic differentiation, PGCs must transiently silence their
      genome, an early developmental process that requires Nanos activity. However, it
      is unclear how Nanos translation is regulated in developing embryos. We report
      here that translation of nanos1 after fertilization requires Dead-end 1 (Dnd1), a
      vertebrate-specific germline RNA-binding protein. We provide evidence that Dnd1
      protein, expression of which is low in oocytes, but increases dramatically after
      fertilization, directly interacts with, and relieves the inhibitory function of
      eukaryotic initiation factor 3f, a repressive component in the 43S preinitiation
      complex. This work uncovers a novel translational regulatory mechanism that is
      fundamentally important for germline development.

PMID- 28870988
TI  - A fluorescent toolkit for spatiotemporal tracking of apoptotic cells in living
      Drosophila tissues.
AB  - Far from being passive, apoptotic cells influence their environment. For example,
      they promote tissue folding, myoblast fusion and modulate tumor growth.
      Understanding the role of apoptotic cells necessitates their efficient tracking
      within living tissues, a task that is currently challenging. In order to easily
      spot apoptotic cells in developing Drosophila tissues, we generated a series of
      fly lines expressing different fluorescent sensors of caspase activity. We show
      that three of these reporters (GFP-, Cerulean- and Venus-derived molecules) are
      detected specifically in apoptotic cells and throughout the whole process of
      programmed cell death. These reporters allow the specific visualization of
      apoptotic cells directly within living tissues, without any post-acquisition
      processing. They overcome the limitations of other apoptosis detection methods
      developed so far and, notably, they can be combined with any kind of fluorophore.

PMID- 28870990
TI  - Three-dimensional automated reporter quantification (3D-ARQ) technology enables
      quantitative screening in retinal organoids.
AB  - The advent of stem cell-derived retinal organoids has brought forth unprecedented
      opportunities for developmental and physiological studies, while presenting new
      therapeutic promise for retinal degenerative diseases. From a translational
      perspective, organoid systems provide exciting new prospects for drug discovery,
      offering the possibility to perform compound screening in a three-dimensional
      (3D) human tissue context that resembles the native histoarchitecture and to some
      extent recapitulates cellular interactions. However, inherent variability issues
      and a general lack of robust quantitative technologies for analyzing organoids on
      a large scale pose severe limitations for their use in translational
      applications. To address this need, we have developed a screening platform that
      enables accurate quantification of fluorescent reporters in complex human iPSC
      derived retinal organoids. This platform incorporates a fluorescence microplate
      reader that allows xyz-dimensional detection and fine-tuned wavelength selection.
      We have established optimal parameters for fluorescent reporter signal detection,
      devised methods to compensate for organoid size variability, evaluated
      performance and sensitivity parameters, and validated this technology for
      functional applications.

PMID- 28870991
TI  - The receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPRB negatively regulates FGF2
      dependent branching morphogenesis.
AB  - PTPRB is a transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase known to regulate blood
      vessel remodelling and angiogenesis. Here, we demonstrate that PTPRB negatively
      regulates branching morphogenesis in the mouse mammary epithelium. We show that
      Ptprb is highly expressed in adult mammary stem cells and also, although at lower
      levels, in oestrogen receptor-positive luminal cells. During mammary development,
      Ptprb expression is downregulated during puberty, a period of extensive ductal
      outgrowth and branching. In vivo shRNA knockdown of Ptprb in the cleared mammary
      fat pad transplant assay resulted in smaller epithelial outgrowths with an
      increased branching density and also increased branching in an in vitro organoid
      assay. Organoid branching was dependent on stimulation by FGF2, and Ptprb
      knockdown in mammary epithelial cells resulted in a higher level of fibroblast
      growth factor receptor (FGFR) activation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation, both at
      baseline and following FGF2 stimulation. Therefore, PTPRB regulates branching
      morphogenesis in the mammary epithelium by modulating the response of the FGFR
      signalling pathway to FGF stimulation. Considering the importance of branching
      morphogenesis in multiple taxa, our findings have general importance outside
      mammary developmental biology.

PMID- 28870989
TI  - A stepwise model of reaction-diffusion and positional information governs self
      organized human peri-gastrulation-like patterning.
AB  - How position-dependent cell fate acquisition occurs during embryogenesis is a
      central question in developmental biology. To study this process, we developed a
      defined, high-throughput assay to induce peri-gastrulation-associated patterning
      in geometrically confined human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) colonies. We
      observed that, upon BMP4 treatment, phosphorylated SMAD1 (pSMAD1) activity in the
      colonies organized into a radial gradient. We developed a reaction-diffusion (RD)
      based computational model and observed that the self-organization of pSMAD1
      signaling was consistent with the RD principle. Consequent fate acquisition
      occurred as a function of both pSMAD1 signaling strength and duration of
      induction, consistent with the positional-information (PI) paradigm. We propose
      that the self-organized peri-gastrulation-like fate patterning in BMP4-treated
      geometrically confined hPSC colonies arises via a stepwise model of RD followed
      by PI. This two-step model predicted experimental responses to perturbations of
      key parameters such as colony size and BMP4 dose. Furthermore, it also predicted
      experimental conditions that resulted in RD-like periodic patterning in large
      hPSC colonies, and rescued peri-gastrulation-like patterning in colony sizes
      previously thought to be reticent to this behavior.

PMID- 28870992
TI  - Cell migration, intercalation and growth regulate mammalian cochlear extension.
AB  - Developmental remodeling of the sensory epithelium of the cochlea is required for
      the formation of an elongated, tonotopically organized auditory organ, but the
      cellular processes that mediate these events are largely unknown. We used both
      morphological assessments of cellular rearrangements and time-lapse imaging to
      visualize cochlear remodeling in mouse. Analysis of cell redistribution showed
      that the cochlea extends through a combination of radial intercalation and cell
      growth. Live imaging demonstrated that concomitant cellular intercalation results
      in a brief period of epithelial convergence, although subsequent changes in cell
      size lead to medial-lateral spreading. Supporting cells, which retain contact
      with the basement membrane, exhibit biased protrusive activity and directed
      movement along the axis of extension. By contrast, hair cells lose contact with
      the basement membrane, but contribute to continued outgrowth through increased
      cell size. Regulation of cellular protrusions, movement and intercalation within
      the cochlea all require myosin II. These results establish, for the first time,
      many of the cellular processes that drive the distribution of sensory cells along
      the tonotopic axis of the cochlea.

PMID- 28870993
TI  - Klf5 maintains the balance of primitive endoderm versus epiblast specification
      during mouse embryonic development by suppression of Fgf4.
AB  - The inner cell mass of the mouse blastocyst gives rise to the pluripotent
      epiblast (EPI), which forms the embryo proper, and the primitive endoderm (PrE),
      which forms extra-embryonic yolk sac tissues. All inner cells coexpress lineage
      markers such as Nanog and Gata6 at embryonic day (E) 3.25, and the EPI and PrE
      precursor cells eventually segregate to exclusively express Nanog and Gata6,
      respectively. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-extracellular signal-regulated
      kinase (ERK) signalling is involved in segregation of the EPI and PrE lineages;
      however, the mechanism involved in Fgf4 regulation is poorly understood. Here, we
      identified Klf5 as an upstream repressor of Fgf4Fgf4 was markedly upregulated in
      Klf5 knockout (KO) embryos at E3.0, and was downregulated in embryos
      overexpressing Klf5 Furthermore, Klf5 KO and overexpressing blastocysts showed
      skewed lineage specification phenotypes, similar to FGF4-treated preimplantation
      embryos and Fgf4 KO embryos, respectively. Inhibitors of the FGF receptor (Fgfr)
      and ERK pathways reversed the skewed lineage specification of Klf5 KO
      blastocysts. These data demonstrate that Klf5 suppresses Fgf4-Fgfr-ERK
      signalling, thus preventing precocious activation of the PrE specification
      programme.

PMID- 28870995
TI  - One hundred years on: Ypres and ATLS.

PMID- 28870994
TI  - Conditional deletion of ELL2 induces murine prostate intraepithelial neoplasia.
AB  - Elongation factor, RNA polymerase II, 2 (ELL2) is an RNA Pol II elongation factor
      with functional properties similar to ELL that can interact with the prostate
      tumor suppressor EAF2. In the prostate, ELL2 is an androgen response gene that is
      upregulated in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We recently showed that ELL2
      loss could enhance prostate cancer cell proliferation and migration, and that
      ELL2 gene expression was downregulated in high Gleason score prostate cancer
      specimens. Here, prostate-specific deletion of ELL2 in a mouse model revealed a
      potential role for ELL2 as a prostate tumor suppressor in vivoEll2-knockout mice
      exhibited prostatic defects including increased epithelial proliferation,
      vascularity and PIN lesions similar to the previously determined prostate
      phenotype in Eaf2-knockout mice. Microarray analysis of prostates from Ell2
      knockout and wild-type mice on a C57BL/6J background at age 3 months and qPCR
      validation at 17 months of age revealed a number of differentially expressed
      genes associated with proliferation, cellular motility and epithelial and neural
      differentiation. OncoPrint analysis identified combined downregulation or
      deletion in prostate adenocarcinoma cases from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)
      data portal. These results suggest that ELL2 and its pathway genes likely play an
      important role in the development and progression of prostate cancer.

PMID- 28870996
TI  - Vestigial-like 3 is a novel Ets1 interacting partner and regulates trigeminal
      nerve formation and cranial neural crest migration.
AB  - Drosophila Vestigial is the founding member of a protein family containing a
      highly conserved domain, called Tondu, which mediates their interaction with
      members of the TEAD family of transcription factors (Scalloped in Drosophila). In
      Drosophila, the Vestigial/Scalloped complex controls wing development by
      regulating the expression of target genes through binding to MCAT sequences. In
      vertebrates, there are four Vestigial-like genes, the functions of which are
      still not well understood. Here, we describe the regulation and function of
      vestigial-like 3 (vgll3) during Xenopus early development. A combination of
      signals, including FGF8, Wnt8a, Hoxa2, Hoxb2 and retinoic acid, limits vgll3
      expression to hindbrain rhombomere 2. We show that vgll3 regulates trigeminal
      placode and nerve formation and is required for normal neural crest development
      by affecting their migration and adhesion properties. At the molecular level,
      vgll3 is a potent activator of pax3, zic1, Wnt and FGF, which are important for
      brain patterning and neural crest cell formation. Vgll3 interacts in the embryo
      with Tead proteins but unexpectedly with Ets1, with which it is able to stimulate
      a MCAT driven luciferase reporter gene. Our findings highlight a critical
      function for vgll3 in vertebrate early development.

PMID- 28870997
TI  - The Evolution, Functions and Applications of the Breast Cancer Genes BRCA1 and
      BRCA2.
AB  - BRCA1 and BRCA2 are both tumor suppressors whose mutations are the cause of most
      hereditary breast cancers. Both genes are highly involved in ensuring genome
      stability. BRCA1 homologs are found in the plant and animal kingdoms while BRCA2
      homologs are additionally found in the fungi kingdom. The initial origin of both
      genes remains unknown, however it is expected that the common ancestors
      originated around 1.6 billion years ago prior to the kingdoms diverging. There
      has been a great amount of divergence between homologs that is not observed in
      other tumor suppressors with only functionally important domains conserved. This
      divergence continues today with evidence of primate BRCA1/2 evolution. Cancer
      associated mutations have been found to occur at conserved sites, indicating that
      conserved sites are important for function. In this study, we present a review on
      the phylogenesis of BRCA1 and BRCA2.

PMID- 28870999
TI  - Chemical Proteomic Approaches Targeting Cancer Stem Cells: A Review of Current
      Literature.
AB  - Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been proposed as central drivers of tumor
      initiation, progression, recurrence, and therapeutic resistance. Therefore,
      identifying stem-like cells within cancers and understanding their properties is
      crucial for the development of effective anticancer therapies. Recently, chemical
      proteomics has become a powerful tool to efficiently determine protein networks
      responsible for CSC pathophysiology and comprehensively elucidate molecular
      mechanisms of drug action against CSCs. This review provides an overview of major
      methodologies utilized in chemical proteomic approaches. In addition, recent
      successful chemical proteomic applications targeting CSCs are highlighted. Future
      direction of potential CSC research by integrating chemical genomic and proteomic
      data obtained from a single biological sample of CSCs are also suggested in this
      review.

PMID- 28871000
TI  - Low Levels of Microsatellite Instability at Simple Repeated Sequences Commonly
      Occur in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of MSI in a
      large series of human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) with various etiologies.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The MSI status was determined by polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR) using 5 mononucleotide and 13 CAn dinucleotide repeats. RESULTS: None of
      the 122 HCC samples displayed an MSI-High phenotype, as defined by the presence
      of alterations at more than 30% of the microsatellite markers analyzed. Yet,
      limited microsatellite instability consisting in the insertion or deletion of a
      few repeat motifs was detected in 32 tumor samples (26.2%), regardless of the
      etiology of the underlying liver disease. MSI tended to be higher in patients
      with cirrhosis (p=0.051), possibly reflecting an impact of the inflammatory
      context in this process. CONCLUSION: Based on a large series of HCC with various
      etiologies, our study allowed us to definitely conclude that MSI is not a
      hallmark of HCC.

PMID- 28870998
TI  - Histone Deacetylases as New Therapeutic Targets in Triple-negative Breast Cancer:
      Progress and Promises.
AB  - Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks expression of estrogen receptor (ER),
      progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 gene. It comprises approximately 15-20% of
      breast cancers (BCs). Unfortunately, TNBC's treatment continues to be a clinical
      problem because of its relatively poor prognosis, its aggressiveness and the lack
      of targeted therapies, leaving chemotherapy as the mainstay of treatment. It is
      essential to find new therapies against TNBC, in order to surpass the resistance
      and the invasiveness of already existing therapies. Given the fact that
      epigenetic processes control both the initiation and progression of TNBC, there
      is an increasing interest in the mechanisms, molecules and signaling pathways
      that participate at the epigenetic modulation of genes expressed in
      carcinogenesis. The acetylation of histone proteins provokes the transcription of
      genes involved in cell growth, and the expression of histone deacetylases (HDACs)
      is frequently up-regulated in many malignancies. Unfortunately, in the field of
      BC, HDAC inhibitors have shown limited effect as single agents. Nevertheless,
      their use in combination with kinase inhibitors, autophagy inhibitors, ionizing
      radiation, or two HDAC inhibitors together is currently being evaluated. HDAC
      inhibitors such as suberoylanilidehydroxamic acid (SAHA), sodium butyrate,
      mocetinostat, panobinostat, entinostat, YCW1 and N-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-2
      propylpentanamide have shown promising therapeutic outcomes against TNBC,
      especially when they are used in combination with other anticancer agents. More
      studies concerning HDAC inhibitors in breast carcinomas along with a more
      accurate understanding of the TNBC's pathobiology are required for the possible
      identification of new therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28871001
TI  - Colitic Cancer Develops Through Mutational Alteration Distinct from that in
      Sporadic Colorectal Cancer: A Comparative Analysis of Mutational Rates at Each
      Step.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) are at risk of UC-associated
      colorectal cancer (CRC); however, little is known about genetic alterations
      occurring during UC carcinogenesis. We examined mutational changes in patients
      with colitic cancer and the features that differed between the carcinogenesis of
      UC and sporadic CRC. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Specimens were obtained from the non
      neoplastic mucosa and cancer cells of 12 patients with colitic cancer. The
      mutational rate of oncogenes in colitic cancer was analyzed and compared to that
      of oncogenes in sporadic CRC. RESULTS: We observed a lower mutation rate in
      adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) (16.7%(2/12) vs. 75.9%(161/212), respectively,
      p=0.0001) and KRAS (16.7%(2/12) vs. 42% (89/212), respectively, p=0.04) in
      colitic cancer than in sporadic CRC. With respect to cadherin 1 (CDH1) and
      fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2), the mutational rates for non
      neoplastic colorectal mucosa were similar to those in sporadic CRC. CONCLUSION:
      We demonstrated that mutational rates for APC and KRAS differ between colitic
      cancer and sporadic CRC. Furthermore, we revealed that CDH1 and FGFR2 become
      mutated at an earlier stage in colitic carcinogenesis than in sporadic CRC.

PMID- 28871002
TI  - Trichostatin A Sensitizes Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells to Enhanced NK Cell
      mediated Killing by Regulating Immune-related Genes.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of
      cancer-related death worldwide. The ability of HCC to avoid immune detection is
      considered one of the main factors making it difficult to cure. Abnormal histone
      deacetylation is thought to be one of the mechanisms for HCC immune escape,
      making histone deacetylases (HDACs) attractive targets for HCC treatment. Here,
      we investigated the effect of trichostatin A (TSA), a highly potent HDAC
      inhibitor, on HCC (HepG2) gene expression and function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      genome wide-transcriptional microarray was used to identify genes regulated by
      TSA in HepG2 cells. Gene Ontology was used to identify pathways regulated by TSA,
      and these changes were confirmed by qPCR. The effect of TSA on natural killer
      (NK) cell-mediated killing of HCC cell lines were analyzed by both flow cytometry
      and LDH cytotoxicity assay. A study was also conducted in a Balb/c nude mice
      xenograft model to assess the anti-tumor activity of TSA. RESULTS: TSA regulated
      the transcription of numerous innate immunity & tumor antigen recognition
      associated genes, such as ULBP1 and RAET1G, in HCC cells. In vivo, TSA reduced
      tumor cell growth in an NK cell-dependent manner. In vitro, TSA treatment of
      HepG2 cells rendered them more susceptible to NK cell-mediated killing while
      increasing the expression of NKGD2 ligands, including ULBP1/2/3 and MICA/B. TSA
      also induced direct killing of HCC cells by stimulating apoptosis. CONCLUSION:
      TSA likely increases killing of HCC cells indirectly by increasing NK cell
      directed killing and directly by increasing apoptosis.

PMID- 28871004
TI  - miR18a and miR19a Recruit Specific Proteins for Splicing in Thyroid Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thyroid cancer is one of the most frequent types of endocrine
      cancers. In most cases, thyroid cancers are caused by deregulated miRNA
      expression, especially involving the miR17-92 cluster. miR17-92 transcription is
      altered in several different tumor types including lymphoma, leukemia, and of the
      breast and thyroid. As an intronic cluster, miR17-92 must be processed during
      splicing and therefore interaction between microprocessor and spliceosome
      machineries is of major importance in understanding its expression. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We investigated the protein composition of spliceosomes assembled on pre
      RNAs containing intronic miR18a and miR19a, components of the miR17-92 cluster,
      using mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Interestingly, we observed that proteins
      associated with intronic miR18a and miR19a are cell-specific, and are similar for
      both miRNAs analyzed. The only exception is the group of heterogeneous nuclear
      proteins that are commonly recruited by different cells. CONCLUSION: miRNA
      processing depends on cell-specific proteins and heterogeneous nuclear proteins
      have a general role in miRNA processing from introns.

PMID- 28871003
TI  - Association Between RASSF1A Promoter Methylation and Testicular Germ Cell Tumor:
      A Meta-analysis and a Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The RAS association domain family protein 1a (RASSF1A) is a prominent
      tumor suppressor gene showing altered promoter methylation in testicular germ
      cell tumors (TGCT). RASSF1A promoter hypermethylation might represent an early
      event in TGCT tumorigenesis. We investigated whether the RASSF1A promoter
      methylation in peripheral blood of TGCT patients can be associated with
      testicular cancer risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following a meta-analysis, we
      performed a cohort study including 32 testicular cancer patients and 32 healthy
      controls. Promoter methylation of the RASSF1A and O6-methylguanine-DNA
      methyltransferase (MGMT) genes was analyzed using bisulfite pyrosequencing of DNA
      from peripheral blood. RESULTS: Meta-analysis showed an odds ratio (OR) of 7.69
      for RASSF1A promoter methylation as a risk factor for TGCT. Cohort study found
      altered methylation of the RASSF1A promoter in blood of TGCT patients.
      Methylation was higher in TGCT patients before BEP chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: The
      meta-analysis indicates a role of the RASSF1A promoter hypermethylation from
      peripheral blood in TCGT. We confirmed that finding in our cohort study, which
      represents the first report of changed RASSF1A promoter methylation in peripheral
      blood TGCT.

PMID- 28871005
TI  - Evaluation of Podoplanin Expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Using RNAscope
      and Immunohistochemistry - A Preliminary Report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Podoplanin (PDPN), a mucin-type transmembrane glycoprotein, is
      expressed in a variety of human cancer types, and contributes to tumor
      progression. Our goal was to evaluate PDPN expression in hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) using both immunohistochemistry (IHC) and RNAscope in situ hybridization.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients with HCC who underwent partial hepatectomy
      with curative intent were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: IHC gave positive
      results in 11 cases, while RNAscope assay for PDPN detected amplification in 16
      cases. A significant association was noted between PDPN protein expression and
      histological tumor grade (p=0.036). Four cases that had negative PDPN results by
      RNAscope were also negative by IHC, while the remaining five cases with negative
      results by IHC were positive by RNAscope. A positive relationship was found
      between PDPN mRNA protein expression (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our preliminary
      results suggest that PDPN contributes to the malignant potential of HCC. RNAscope
      proved to be a more sensitive and reliable method than IHC in PDPN detection.

PMID- 28871007
TI  - Occurrence of depressive tendency and associated social factors among elderly
      persons forced by the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster to live as
      long-term evacuees: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study examined the incidence of depression and associated factors
      among elderly persons from Iitate village after the March 2011 earthquake.
      METHOD: This was a prospective cohort study. As a baseline survey, in May 2010 a
      self-assessment Basic Checklist (BCL) was distributed to 1611 elderly villagers,
      of which 1277 responded. Of these respondents, 885 without a tendency to
      depression (69.3%) were given a follow-up survey in May 2013. The BCL was used to
      assess depression tendency, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL),
      physical function, nutritional status, oral function, homeboundness, cognitive
      function and social activities. Univariate analysis was used to examine
      differences in risk between those with a presence of depression tendency (PDT)
      and those without (non-PDT) depending on demographic and BCL variables. Variables
      found to be significant were analysed by Poisson regression analysis. RESULTS: Of
      the 438 respondents in the second survey, 163 (37.2%) showed depression tendency.
      PDT risk was significantly increased by female gender, age, history of diabetes
      and cognitive disorder. It was significantly reduced by increased IADL.
      Engagement in social activities decreased PDT risk in rental accommodation.
      DISCUSSION: Renters faced a higher risk of PDT than persons evacuated in groups
      to purpose-built housing. The inclusion of social activities in the multivariate
      Poisson regression analysis weakened this effect. Female gender, a history of
      diabetes, reduced IADL and a tendency to cognitive disorder each independently
      affected PDT risk. These findings may inform future responses to earthquakes and
      the technical disasters that may accompany them.

PMID- 28871006
TI  - Post-transcriptional Regulation of MMP16 and TIMP2 Expression via miR-382, miR
      410 and miR-200b in Endometrial Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The post-transcriptional regulation of matrix metalloproteinases
      (MMPs) via microRNAs (miRNAs) has been recently described in numerous human
      malignancies. However, the exact mechanisms of miRNA-mediated MMPs deregulation
      in endometrial cancer (EC) remain unclear. Herein, we aimed to analyze the
      expression of MMP2, MMP16 and TIMP2 and identify miRNAs that modulate their
      expression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Protein expression was assessed by
      immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded EC samples. Target
      prediction algorithms were applied to select miRNAs binding the 3'UTRs of MMP16
      (miR-377, miR-382, miR-410, miR-200b) or TIMP2 (miR-200b), and their levels were
      measured by qPCR in laser capture-microdissected tissue fragments. Luciferase
      assays and western blotting were used to indicate individual miRNA- mRNA
      interactions. RESULTS: Overexpression of MMP2 and MMP16 in cancerous tissues
      corresponded to down-regulation of miR-377, miR-382 and miR-410, while decreased
      expression of TIMP2 was associated with miR-200b up-regulation. In vitro
      experiments confirmed direct regulation of MMP16 by miR-382 and miR-410, and
      TIMP2 by miR-200b in EC Ishikawa cells. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated novel
      mechanisms of miRNA-mediated regulation of MMPs activity in EC.

PMID- 28871008
TI  - Can health indicators and psychosocial characteristics predict attrition in
      youths with overweight and obesity seeking ambulatory treatment? Data from a
      retrospective longitudinal study in a paediatric clinic in Luxembourg.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed to identify factors that could predict
      attrition in youths starting ambulatory treatment to control or lose weight.
      DESIGN: Retrospective longitudinal study. SETTING: Paediatric clinic: ambulatory
      treatment programme. PATIENTS AND MEASURES: A youth sample (n=191; 89 boys; aged
      7-17 years) completed measures of demographic characteristics, and health and
      psychosocial traits before starting an ambulatory weight management programme.
      Anthropometric and biological markers related to obesity were also obtained.
      Tests of mean differences and regression analyses were used to investigate the
      relationship between these variables and attrition after 1 year. RESULTS: The
      chi2and t test results showed both psychosocial and health indicators
      differentiated between participants who continued attending the treatment
      programme and those who dropped out. More specifically, youths that dropped out
      of treatment were significantly older, had higher body mass index z scores,
      higher levels of insulin, triglycerides and HOMA-IR, reported poorer health, had
      more conduct problems and were more dissatisfied with themselves and their bodies
      before starting treatment. Results of regression analyses revealed that weight
      status (anthropometric and biological markers), age and body dissatisfaction
      predicted attrition (overall prediction success 73%; prediction success for
      continued attendance 90/91%; prediction success for dropouts 42/44%). CONCLUSION:
      Attrition, but especially the continued attendance in treatment, can be
      successfully predicted by age, weight status and body dissatisfaction. For
      patients who present with one or more risk factors, careful consideration is
      needed to decide which (combination of) inpatient or outpatient programme may
      facilitate prolonged engagement of the patient and hence may be most effective in
      establishing weight loss.

PMID- 28871009
TI  - Guideline use behaviours and needs of primary care practitioners in China: a
      cross-sectional survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Clinical guidelines have been recognised as an effective way to
      improve healthcare performance. However, little is known about the uptake and
      implementation of guidelines by general practitioners in China. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the guideline use behaviours and needs of practitioners
      in primary care settings in China. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey
      from December 2015 to May 2016 that included practitioners at 268 institutions in
      15 provinces in China. Questionnaire development was informed by the execution of
      a literature review and consultation of experts. On-site surveys were implemented
      using a paper questionnaire to minimise missing responses. A multivariate
      logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with
      provider knowledge of and attitudes towards clinical guidelines. RESULTS: Of the
      respondents, 91.7% (1568/1708) were aware of clinical guidelines, but only 11.3%
      (177/1568) frequently used them. The main mechanism by which primary care
      practitioners accessed guidelines was public search engines (63.4%; 911/1438),
      and practitioners seldom reported using biomedical databases. The most frequently
      identified barriers to guideline use were lack of training (49.9%; 778/1560),
      lack of access (44.6%; 696/1560) and lack of awareness (38.0%; 592/1560). Less
      than one-quarter of respondents considered current guidelines 'entirely
      appropriate' for use in primary care (23.5%; 339/1442). Most participants (96.2%;
      1509/1568) believed it was necessary to develop primary care guidelines. Provider
      attitudes towards current guidelines were associated with the location and level
      of the institution and professional title of the practitioner (p<0.05).
      CONCLUSION: Our survey revealed poor knowledge and uptake of clinical guidelines
      in primary care, and we identified a gap between the needs of practitioners and
      availability of clinical guidelines for use in primary care in China. In
      addition, lacking access to and training in guidelines also prevented primary
      healthcare practitioners from using guidelines in daily practice.

PMID- 28871010
TI  - Exploring the association between chorangioma and infantile haemangioma in
      singleton and multiple pregnancies: a case-control study in a Swedish tertiary
      centre.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Placenta or placental chorangioma could be the origin site of
      infantile haemangioma since they share various histochemical and genetic
      characteristics with placental vascular tissue. The aim of the current study was
      to investigate the association between chorangiomas and infantile haemangiomas in
      singleton and multiple pregnancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An informative
      questionnaire enquiring about the presence or not of infantile haemangioma and
      including illustrative photos of haemangioma was sent to 469 (153 cases with
      chorangioma and 316 controls) mothers of 323 singleton (104 cases and 219
      controls) and 146 multiple (49 cases and 97 controls) liveborn neonates
      registered in Sweden. Overall, 310 mothers (66.1%) from 216 singleton and 94
      multiple pregnancies (96 cases and 214 controls) provided feedback and their
      consent to participate in the current case-control study. RESULTS: The incidence
      of infantile haemangioma showed no statistically significant differences between
      cases and controls (18.8% vs 18.2%) or between singleton and multiple pregnancies
      (18.9% vs 17.0%). The frequency of pre-eclampsia was significantly higher in
      cases with chorangioma compared with controls (41.7% vs 24.3%, OR=2.22, 95% CI
      1.33 to 3.71, p=0.0022) and in singleton compared with multiple pregnancies
      (33.3% vs 21.3%, OR=1.85, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.26, p=0.034), whereas there were no
      significant differences in the incidence of infantile haemangioma in neonates of
      mothers with or without pre-eclampsia or in neonates of mothers with multiple
      compared with singleton pregnancies. CONCLUSION: There was no association between
      placental chorangiomas and infantile haemangiomas. Multiple pregnancies or pre
      eclampsia were not significantly related to higher incidence of infantile
      haemangioma.

PMID- 28871011
TI  - Economic impact of ulipristal acetate on surgical procedures for uterine fibroids
      in France.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the budget impact of using ulipristal acetate (UPA) 5 mg to
      treat women with uterine fibroids (UF) causing moderate to severe symptoms.
      DESIGN: We modelled trends in the number of surgical procedures for symptomatic
      UF, with and without the use of UPA for preoperative or intermittent treatment
      and assessed the budget impact of UPA use from the French national healthcare
      insurance system perspective. SETTING: A French national hospital database (PMSI)
      that records admissions and relative procedures to public and private hospitals.
      PARTICIPANTS: Women eligible for surgical procedures for uterine fibroids. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Economic impact of UPA treatment. RESULTS: This study based on
      observational retrospective data shows that the current use of UPA in its
      preoperative indication was associated with 5645 fewer surgeries from 2013 to
      2015. Extrapolation suggests 17 885 fewer surgeries from 2016 to 2019. Overall,
      preoperative use of UPA results in substantial cost savings for the French
      national healthcare insurance system, with a cumulated budget impact estimated at
      ?-5 million from 2013 to 2015 and ?-13.5 million from 2016 to 2019. In addition,
      treating women nearing the menopause (>=48 years old) with intermittent treatment
      from 2017 to 2019 could produce an incremental cost saving of ?19 million.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the use of UPA in women eligible for surgical
      procedures for UF is associated with considerable savings for the French national
      healthcare insurance system in both preoperative and intermittent indications by
      decreasing the need to perform surgeries.

PMID- 28871012
TI  - Performance of a postnatal metabolic gestational age algorithm: a retrospective
      validation study among ethnic subgroups in Canada.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Biological modelling of routinely collected newborn screening data
      has emerged as a novel method for deriving postnatal gestational age estimates.
      Validation of published models has previously been limited to cohorts largely
      consisting of infants of white Caucasian ethnicity. In this study, we sought to
      determine the validity of a published gestational age estimation algorithm among
      recent immigrants to Canada, where maternal landed immigrant status was used as a
      surrogate measure of infant ethnicity. DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective
      validation study in infants born in Ontario between April 2009 and September
      2011. SETTING: Provincial data from Ontario, Canada were obtained from the
      Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. PARTICIPANTS: The dataset included
      230 034 infants born to non-landed immigrants and 70 098 infants born to
      immigrant mothers. The five most common countries of maternal origin were India
      (n=10 038), China (n=7468), Pakistan (n=5824), The Philippines (n=5441) and
      Vietnam (n=1408). Maternal country of origin was obtained from Citizenship and
      Immigration Canada's Landed Immigrant Database. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Performance of a postnatal gestational age algorithm was evaluated
      across non-immigrant and immigrant populations. RESULTS: Root mean squared error
      (RMSE) of 1.05 weeks was observed for infants born to non-immigrant mothers,
      whereas RMSE ranged from 0.98 to 1.15 weeks among infants born to immigrant
      mothers. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for
      distinguishing term versus preterm infants (>=37 vs <37 weeks gestational age or
      >34 vs <=34 weeks gestational age) was 0.958 and 0.986, respectively, in the non
      immigrant subgroup and ranged from 0.927 to 0.964 and 0.966 to 0.99 in the
      immigrant subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Algorithms for postnatal determination of
      gestational age may be further refined by development and validation of region or
      ethnicity-specific models. However, our results provide reassurance that an
      algorithm developed from Ontario-born infant cohorts performs well across a range
      of ethnicities and maternal countries of origin without modification.

PMID- 28871013
TI  - Understanding symptom appraisal and help-seeking in people with symptoms
      suggestive of pancreatic cancer: a qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates due to non-specific symptoms
      leading to later diagnosis. Understanding how patients interpret their symptoms
      could inform approaches to earlier diagnosis. This study sought to explore
      symptom appraisal and help-seeking among patients referred to secondary care for
      symptoms suggestive of pancreatic cancer. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of
      semistructured in-depth interviews. Data were analysed iteratively and
      thematically, informed by the Model of Pathways to Treatment. PARTICIPANTS AND
      SETTING: Pancreatic cancer occurs rarely in younger adults, therefore patients
      aged >=40 years were recruited from nine hospitals after being referred to
      hospital with symptoms suggestive of pancreatic cancer; all were participants in
      a cohort study. Interviews were conducted soon after referral, and where
      possible, before diagnosis. RESULTS: Twenty-six interviews were conducted (cancer
      n=13 (pancreas n=9, other intra-abdominal n=4), non-cancer conditions n=13; age
      range 48-84 years; 14 women). Time from first symptoms to first presentation to
      healthcare ranged from 1 day to 270 days, median 21 days. We identified three
      main themes. Initial symptom appraisal usually began with intermittent, non
      specific symptoms such as tiredness or appetite changes, attributed to diet and
      lifestyle, existing gastrointestinal conditions or side effects of medication.
      Responses to initial symptom appraisal included changes in meal type or
      frequency, or self-medication. Symptom changes such as alterations in appetite
      and enjoyment of food or weight loss usually prompted further appraisal. Triggers
      to seek help included a change or worsening of symptoms, particularly pain, which
      was often a 'tipping point'. Help-seeking was often encouraged by others. We
      found no differences in symptom appraisal and help-seeking between people
      diagnosed with cancer and those with other conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Greater
      public and healthcare professional awareness of the combinations of subtle and
      intermittent symptoms, and their evolving nature, is needed to prompt timelier
      help-seeking and investigation among people with symptoms of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28871014
TI  - Prevalence of stroke and associated risk factors: a population based cross
      sectional study from northeast China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Epidemiological studies aimed at stroke and its risk factors can help
      identify persons at higher risk and therefore promote stroke prevention
      strategies. We aimed to explore the current prevalence of stroke and its
      associated risk factors in northeast China. DESIGN: Population based cross
      sectional study. SETTING: Data were collected using a structured precoded
      questionnaire designed by the Stroke Screening and Prevention Programme of the
      National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, between January and
      March 2016. PARTICIPANTS: 4100 permanent residents, aged 40 years or older, who
      had lived in Dehui City of Jilin Province for more than 6 months volunteered to
      participate in the survey, with a response rate of 92.2%. For the purpose of the
      present analysis, 48 subjects were excluded due to missing values, giving a total
      of 4052 people included in this analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The questionnaire
      included demographic characteristics, stroke related behavioural factors,
      personal and family medical history of stroke, physical examination and
      laboratory testing. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of stroke in Jilin Province
      was 7.2% (95% CI 6.3% to 8.2%). Of all stroke cases, 91.7% (95% CI 87.4% to
      94.6%) were ischaemic stroke and 8.3% (95% CI 5.4% to 12.6%) were haemorrhagic
      stroke. The prevalence rates of dyslipidaemia, smoking and hypertension were
      ranked as the top three cerebrovascular risk factors and were 62.1%, 61.8% and
      57.3%, respectively. We found that hypertension, dyslipidaemia and lack of
      exercise were associated with ischaemic stroke. However, only hypertension
      (OR=4.064, 95% CI 1.358 to 12.160) was significantly associated with haemorrhagic
      stroke. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of stroke, especially ischaemic stroke, and
      associated cerebrovascular risk factors among adults aged 40 years or older in
      northeast China were high. A higher regional prevalence of hypertension,
      dyslipidaemia and lack of exercise may be responsible.

PMID- 28871015
TI  - Impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on patients with aortic
      aneurysms: a nationwide retrospective cohort study in Taiwan.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Aortic aneurysm (AA) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a risk factor for AA, and the prognoses
      of COPD patients with AA who underwent/did not undergo an operation warrant
      investigation. DESIGN: A nationwide retrospective cohort study. SETTING: We
      included patients with AA older than 18 years who received their first AA
      diagnosis between 2005 and 2011 in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: This study enrolled 3263
      COPD patients with AA before propensity score matching and 2127 COPD patients
      with AA after propensity score matching. OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcomes were
      all-cause mortality and rehospitalisation for AA or operation. The outcomes of
      COPD patients with AA and COPD patients without AA during an 8-year follow-up
      period were examined using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: In the AA
      population, patients with COPD showed higher rates of mortality and
      rehospitalisation than patients without COPD with adjusted HRs of 1.12 (95% CI
      1.03 to 1.22) and 1.11 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.23), respectively, after propensity
      score matching. Analysis of the patients who underwent an operation revealed that
      the rates of mortality of COPD and non-COPD patients were not significantly
      different. In contrast, among the patients who did not receive an operation,
      patients with COPD showed a higher mortality rate than patients without COPD with
      an adjusted HR of 1.11 (95% CI 1.0 to 1.22). CONCLUSIONS: The outcomes of COPD
      patients with AA undergoing an operation were improved, but the mortality rate of
      non-COPD patients with AA remained high. An effective treatment to reduce
      mortality in this group warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28871016
TI  - Health-related quality of life in residents aged 18 years and older with and
      without disease: findings from the First Provincial Health Services Survey of
      Hunan, China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Published research has not considered acute diseases and injuries in
      assessing the impact of varying disease counts on health-related quality of life
      (HRQoL). We used Chinese value sets of EQ-5D-3L to examine the relationship
      between the number of diseases individuals had (including chronic diseases, acute
      diseases and injuries) and their HRQoL. METHODS: A total of 19 387 individuals
      aged 18 years and older were included in the study. Using data from the First
      Provincial Health Services Survey of Hunan, China, HRQoL was assessed with the EQ
      5D-3L scale, a standardized instrument developed by the EuroQoL group. The EQ-5D
      3L utility score was calculated using the Chinese EQ-5D-3L value set. This survey
      coded disease using the list of 133 conditions that was defined by the First
      Provincial Health Services Survey of Hunan, China, based on the 10th
      International Classification of Diseases. 126 conditions were disease-related and
      were therefore included in data analysis. RESULTS: Of 15 245 respondents, urban
      residents and male constituted 53.0% and 48.2%, respectively. 19.3% of
      respondents had one disease and 5.0% had at least two diseases. Of the five
      dimensions of the EQ-5D-3L, the pain/discomfort dimension had the highest
      proportion of moderate or serious problems among the respondents (14.4%, 95% CI
      10.5% to 18.2%). The average Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score and utility score
      were 78.0 (95% CI 76.9 to 79.1) and 0.958 (95% CI 0.946 to 0.970), respectively.
      Residents with 1 and >=2 diseases had higher proportions of moderate or serious
      problems in five dimensions of the EQ-5D-3L scale during the previous 2 weeks
      than those without disease after controlling for location (urban/rural), sex,
      age, education level and household income, respectively (adjusted ORs: 3.1-3.7
      and 4.4-6.6, respectively). The mean of the EQ VAS score was 8.4 and 13.6 points
      lower in respondents with 1 and >=2 diseases than in respondents without disease;
      the corresponding mean score difference was 0.048 and 0.086 in EQ-5D-3L utility
      score. Disease-specific analyses were not conducted due to the inadequacy of
      sample size. CONCLUSIONS: The HRQoL of residents aged 18 years and older declines
      distinctly as the number of diseases increases. Actions should be taken to
      improve the HRQoL of residents with multiple diseases in China (including acute
      diseases, chronic diseases and injuries).

PMID- 28871017
TI  - Scoping review protocol: education initiatives for medical psychiatry
      collaborative care.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The collaborative care model is an approach providing care to those
      with mental health and addictions disorders in the primary care setting. There is
      a robust evidence base demonstrating its clinical and cost-effectiveness in
      comparison with usual care; however, the transitioning to this new paradigm of
      care has been difficult. While there are efforts to train and prepare healthcare
      professionals, not much is known about the current state of collaborative care
      training programmes. The objective of this scoping review is to understand how
      widespread these collaborative care education initiatives are, how they are
      implemented and their impacts. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The scoping review
      methodology uses the established review methodology by Arksey and O'Malley. The
      search strategy was developed by a medical librarian and will be applied in eight
      different databases spanning multiple disciplines. A two-stage screening process
      consisting of a title and abstract scan and a full-text review will be used to
      determine the eligibility of articles. To be included, articles must report on an
      existing collaborative care education initiative for healthcare providers. All
      articles will be independently assessed for eligibility by pairs of reviewers,
      and all eligible articles will be abstracted and charted in duplicate using a
      standardised form. The extracted data will undergo a 'narrative review' or a
      descriptive analysis of the contextual or process-oriented data and simple
      quantitative analysis using descriptive statistics. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:
      Research ethics approval is not required for this scoping review. The results of
      this scoping review will inform the development of a collaborative care training
      initiative emerging from the Medical Psychiatry Alliance, a four-institution
      philanthropic partnership in Ontario, Canada. The results will also be presented
      at relevant national and international conferences and published in a peer
      reviewed journal.

PMID- 28871018
TI  - Early-life exposure to air pollutants and adverse pregnancy outcomes: protocol
      for a prospective cohort study in Beijing.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The association between early exposure to ambient air pollution and
      adverse pregnancy outcomes in China is unclear. This study will assess the risk
      of early-life exposure to air pollutants in Beijing and explore the viability of
      8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as a biological indicator to assess oxidative
      stress induced by early-life exposure to air pollution. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:
      Here, 2500 women with singleton pregnancies and their infants will be recruited
      from the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. We will collect nine types
      of biological samples, including maternal serum, urine, placental tissue,
      umbilical cord tissue and umbilical cord blood during all three trimesters. The
      air pollution data (particulate matter (PM)2.5, PM10 and similar factors) will be
      recorded at official fixed-site monitoring stations closest to where the pregnant
      women live. We plan to assess the effect of air pollutants on adverse pregnancy
      outcomes and infant respiratory and circulatory disease using Cox regression and
      competitive risk analysis and explore possible critical windows of exposure
      during pregnancy using daily pollutant concentrations averaged over various
      periods of pregnancy combined with individual activity and physiological
      parameters. Maternal and umbilical cord blood samples (1000 samples) will be
      randomly selected for 8-OHdG assays to assess the correlation between exposures
      to air pollutants and oxidative stress. We will determine whether air pollutant
      exposure or 8-OHdG levels are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. SPSS
      and SAS statistical software will be used for data analysis. Cox regression and
      competing risk analysis will be used to compute the HR and population
      attributable risk. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This research protocol has already
      been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Beijing Obstetrics and
      Gynecology Hospital. Written informed consent will be obtained from all study
      participants prior to enrolment. The results will be published in peer-reviewed
      journals or disseminated through conference presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: This study has been registered in WHO International Clinical Trial
      Register-Chinese Clinical Trial Registry under registrationnumber ChiCTR-ROC
      16010181 (http :// www.chictr.org.cn / showproj.aspx ?proj=17328).

PMID- 28871019
TI  - Biopsychosocial factors associated with non-recovery after a minor transport
      related injury: protocol for a systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Globally, road transport accidents contribute substantially to the
      number of deaths and also to the burden of disability. Up to 50 million people
      suffer a transport-related non-fatal injury each year, which often leads to long
      term disability. It has been shown that substantial number of people with minor
      injuries struggle to recover and the reasons are still not well explored.Despite
      the high prevalence, little is known about the factors hindering recovery
      following minor traffic-related injuries. The aim of this paper is to present a
      protocol for the systematic review aiming to understand biopsychosocial factors
      related to non-recovery and identify current gaps in the literature. METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: The review will be conducted in compliance with the Preferred Reporting
      Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocol guidelines. A search of
      the electronic databases, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled trials, will be undertaken, in addition to Google Scholar and grey
      literature to identify studies in period from 2006 to 2016. Quantitative and
      qualitative research articles describing and identifying biopsychosocial factors
      associated with non-recovery and health outcomes such as pain, disability,
      functional recovery, health-related quality of life, post-traumatic stress
      disorder, depression, anxiety and return to work will be included. A conceptual
      framework developed to identify biopsychosocial factors will be applied to assure
      defined criterion.At present, there is little anticipation for meta-analyses due
      to the heterogeneity of factors and outcomes assessed. Therefore, a narrative
      synthesis based on study findings will be conducted. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:
      Ethical approval is not required as primary data will not be collected. Review
      results will be published as a part of thesis, peer-reviewed journal and
      conferences. TRIALREGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPEROregistration number:
      CRD42016052276.

PMID- 28871020
TI  - Intermittent catheter users' symptom identification, description and management
      of urinary tract infection: a qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To elucidate the views of intermittent catheter (IC) users regarding
      urinary tract infection (UTI) symptom presentation, terminology for describing
      signs and symptoms, the cause of UTI and management strategies. DESIGN:
      Qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. The transcribed text was
      analysed thematically. SETTING: 12 general practitioner (GP) surgeries in
      Hampshire and Dorset, UK. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 30 IC users, aged
      over 18, using IC for at least 3 months who had at least one self-reported UTI
      since starting IC. RESULTS: Participants reported a variety of signs and
      symptoms, such as urine cloudiness and smell, as indicators of UTI. The terms
      used often differed from those in the modified National Institute on Disability
      and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) symptom set. IC users had difficulty
      distinguishing possible UTI symptoms from those of their comorbidities. They
      expressed uncertainty about the cause of UTI, often attributing it to poor
      hygiene and lifestyle behaviours. Whereas some viewed UTI as an expected
      consequence of IC use that could be self-managed, others felt more concerned and
      were more reliant on their GP for support. A range of management strategies was
      described, including drinking more fluids, increased attention to personal
      hygiene and self-medicating with antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: There is uncertainty
      among IC users about UTI signs and symptoms and when to seek help. Individual
      accounts of UTI fitted generally within the modified NIDRR descriptors but
      adopted less technical and more 'lay' language. IC users' descriptions of UTI
      signs and symptoms can lack precision, owing partly to the presence of underlying
      health conditions. This, together with differing levels of concern about the need
      to seek help and self-medication with antibiotics, presents challenges for the
      GP. This study provides the basis for developing a self-help tool which may aid
      identification of UTI and enhance communication with healthcare professionals.

PMID- 28871022
TI  - Perceived effects of the economic recession on population mental health, well
      being and provision of care by primary care users and professionals: a
      qualitative study protocol in Portugal.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Economic recession periods can pose accentuated risks to
      population's mental health and well-being as well as additional threats to health
      systems. Users and health professionals are key stakeholders in care delivery;
      however, little attention has been given to their experiences of the crisis. This
      paper presents a qualitative study protocol to assess users' and health
      professionals' perceptions about the effects of the post-2008 economic recession
      on mental health and care delivery in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal.
      METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The methodology to assess perceived effects of the economic
      recession by primary care users and professionals on population mental health,
      well-being and provision of care is presented. Focus groups with users and
      semistructured interviews with health professionals will be carried out in three
      primary healthcare units in Lisbon areas especially affected by the crisis.
      Thematic analysis of full-transcribed interviews will be conducted using an
      iterative and reflexive approach. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study protocol
      was approved by the Ethics Committee of NOVA Medical School, NOVA University of
      Lisbon. The findings will be useful for other researchers and policy-makers to
      develop and implement the assessment of prevailing experiences of users and
      health professionals on the effects of the economic recession on mental health
      and quality of care in primary health context, promoting their involvement and
      contribution to services responsiveness.

PMID- 28871021
TI  - Effectiveness of two psychological interventions for pain management, emotional
      regulation and promotion of quality of life among adult Portuguese men with
      haemophilia (PSY-HaEMOPEQ): study protocol for a single-centre prospective
      randomised controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Haemophilia is a bleeding disorder associated with significant
      pain, emotional distress, quality of life (QoL) impairment and considerable
      healthcare costs. Psychosocial health and effective pain management are
      considered essential end points for optimal haemophilia care, but there is a
      significant gap in evidence-based treatments targeting these outcomes in people
      with haemophilia (PWH). Psychological interventions are cost-effective in
      promoting emotional well-being, QoL and pain control, although these have been
      scarcely used in haemophilia field. This investigation aims to evaluate the
      effectiveness of two psychological interventions for pain management, emotional
      regulation and promotion of QoL in PWH. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a single
      centre parallel randomised controlled trial conducted at a European Haemophilia
      Comprehensive Care Centre in Portugal, with five assessment points: baseline
      (T0), postintervention (T1), 3 (T2), 6 (T3) and 12 (T4) months follow-up.
      Eligible adult males, with moderate or severe haemophilia A or B will be
      randomised to experimental (EG) or control (CG) group. Intervention is either
      cognitive-behavioural therapy (EG1) or hypnosis (EG2), both consisting of four
      weekly sessions following standardised scripts delivered by trained
      psychologists. Randomisation will be computer generated, allocation concealment
      will be guaranteed and outcome assessors will be blind to EG/CG allocation. Main
      outcomes are pain and haemophilia-related QoL and secondary outcomes include
      clinical (clotting factor replacement consumption, joint bleeding episodes,
      analgesic intake) and psychological (pain coping strategies, anxiety, depression,
      illness perceptions) variables, functional assessment of the joints, inflammatory
      biomarkers (cytokines, high-sensitivity C reactive protein) and white blood cell
      count. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study was approved by the competent
      authorities and all procedures will comply with international ethical guidelines
      for clinical studies involving humans. Written informed consent will be obtained
      from all participants. The dissemination plan includes peer-reviewed scientific
      publications, conference participation and web and media coverage. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02870452.

PMID- 28871023
TI  - Effect of Baduanjin exercises on elevated blood lipid levels of middle-aged and
      elderly individuals: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of
      randomised controlled trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and effect on elevated blood lipid levels of
      Baduanjin exercises in middle-aged and elderly individuals. METHODS: A systematic
      literature search for articles up to March 2017 will be conducted using seven
      databases: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge
      Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodicals Database, Chinese
      BioMedical Database and Wanfang Data. Inclusion criteria are randomised
      controlled trials of Baduanjin exercises that examine blood lipid levels in
      middle-aged and elderly individuals. The primary outcome measures will be total
      cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol. Stata V.13.0 software will be used for data synthesis,
      sensitivity analysis, metaregression, subgroup analysis and risk of bias
      assessment. A funnel plot will be developed to evaluate reporting bias and Begg
      and Egger tests will be used to assess funnel plot symmetries. We will use the
      Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system to
      assess the quality of evidence. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This systematic review
      will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. Our findings will provide
      information about the safety of Baduanjin exercises for middle-aged and elderly
      individuals and their effect on elevated blood lipid levels. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD 42017060613.

PMID- 28871024
TI  - Telemedicine-guided education on secondary stroke and fall prevention following
      inpatient rehabilitation for Texas patients with stroke and their caregivers: a
      feasibility pilot study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aftermath of stroke leaves many consequences including
      cognitive deficits and falls due to imbalance. Stroke survivors and families
      struggle to navigate the complex healthcare system with little assistance
      posthospital discharge, often leading to early hospital readmission and worse
      stroke outcomes. Telemedicine Guided Education on Secondary Stroke and Fall
      Prevention Following Inpatient Rehabilitation feasibility study examines whether
      stroke survivors and their caregivers find value in telerehabilitation (TR) home
      visits that provide individualised care and education by a multidisciplinary team
      after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A
      prospective, single arm, pilot study is designed to evaluate the feasibility of
      weekly TR home visits initiated postdischarge from inpatient rehabilitation.
      Newly diagnosed patients with stroke are recruited from a Houston-based
      comprehensive stroke centre inpatient rehabilitation unit, loaned an iPad with
      data plan and trained to use information technology security-approved
      videoconferencing application. After hospital discharge, six weekly TR home
      visits are led by rotating specialists (pharmacist, physical/occupational
      therapist, speech therapist, rehabilitation physician, social worker,
      geriatrician specialised in fracture prevention) followed by satisfaction survey
      on week 7. Specialists visually assess patients in real time, educate them on
      secondary stroke and fall prevention and suggest ways to improve function
      including direct medical interventions when indicated. Primary outcomes are
      proportion of eligible patients consenting to the study, participation rate in
      all six TR home visits and satisfaction score. The study started 31 December 2015
      with plan to enrol up to 50 patients over 24 months. Feasibility study results
      will inform us as to whether a randomised controlled trial is warranted to
      determine efficacy of TR home visit intervention in improving stroke outcomes.
      ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval obtained by the Institutional Review
      Board (IRB), Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects, IRB number: HSC-MS
      14-0994. Study results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed
      journal.

PMID- 28871025
TI  - The economic impact of childhood acute gastroenteritis on Malawian families and
      the healthcare system.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This prospective cohort study sought to estimate health system and
      household costs for episodes of diarrhoeal illness in Malawi. SETTING: Data were
      collected in two Malawian settings: a rural health centre in Chilumba and an
      urban tertiary care hospital in Blantyre. PARTICIPANTS: Children under 5 years of
      age presenting with diarrhoeal disease between 1 January 2013 and 21 November
      2014 were eligible for inclusion. Illnesses attributed to other underlying causes
      were excluded, as were illnesses commencing more than 2 weeks prior to
      presentation. Complete data were collected on 514 cases at both the time of the
      initial visit to the participating healthcare facility and 6 weeks after
      discharge. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measure
      was the total cost of an episode of illness. Costs to the health system were
      gathered from chart review (drugs and diagnostics) and actual hospital
      expenditure (staff and facility costs). Household costs, including lost income,
      were obtained by interview with the parents/guardians of patients. RESULTS: Total
      costs in 2014 US$ for rural inpatient, rural outpatient, urban inpatient and
      urban outpatient were $65.33, $8.89, $60.23 and $14.51, respectively (excluding
      lost income). Mean household contributions to these costs were 15.8%, 9.8%, 21.3%
      and 50.6%. CONCLUSION: This study found significant financial burden from
      childhood diarrhoeal disease to the healthcare system and to households. The
      latter face the risk of consequent impoverishment, as the study demonstrates how
      the costs of seeking treatment bring the income of the majority of families in
      all income strata below the national poverty line in the month of illness.

PMID- 28871026
TI  - Study protocol for a matter of heart: a qualitative study of patient factors
      driving overuse of cardiac catheterisation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Overuse of cardiac catheterisation (CC) for stable coronary artery
      disease (CAD) is documented in Germany and other regions, although percutaneous
      coronary interventions do not provide a benefit over medical therapy for stable
      patients. Various studies investigated health system, physician and patient
      factors driving non-adherence to guidelines which recommend a stepwise approach
      with invasive procedures only in case of signs of ischaemia in non-invasive
      testing. In a larger-scale project, we aim to better understand the patients'
      perspective in order to develop an intervention that enhances patient's
      acceptance of this stepwise diagnostic approach for stable CAD. As a first step,
      this qualitative study aims to identify patient factors that prevent and promote
      the described overuse. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The exploratory qualitative
      interview study will include about 20 patients with stable CAD and a history of
      acute coronary syndrome from two German teaching practices. Narrative, structured
      interviews designed to last 30 to 90 min will be conducted. The interviews will
      be analysed using qualitative content analysis by Mayring. The analysis will
      address the following questions: (1) What are reasons for stable patients to
      undergo CC? (2) How do patients deal with their heart disease (secondary
      prevention)? (3) Which processes do patients describe regarding decision-making
      for non-invasive and invasive coronary procedures? (4) What information needs
      exist on behalf of patients to better understand the stepwise diagnostic approach
      outlined in guidelines and thereby avoid low-appropriate CCs? Based on these
      data, empirical typification will be conducted. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical
      approval for the study was obtained. All participants will provide written
      informed consent. Data will be pseudonymised for analysis. The findings will
      contribute to the development of an appropriate intervention. Results will be
      disseminated by conference presentations and journal publications.

PMID- 28871028
TI  - The role of pragmatism in explaining heterogeneity in meta-analyses of randomised
      trials: a protocol for a cross-sectional methodological review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There has been increasing interest in pragmatic trials methodology.
      As a result, tools such as the Pragmatic-Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary
      2 (PRECIS-2) are being used prospectively to help researchers design randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs) within the pragmatic-explanatory continuum. There may be
      value in applying the PRECIS-2 tool retrospectively in a systematic review
      setting as it could provide important information about how to pool data based on
      the degree of pragmatism. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of pragmatism as a
      source of heterogeneity in systematic reviews by (1) identifying systematic
      reviews with meta-analyses of RCTs that have moderate to high heterogeneity, (2)
      applying PRECIS-2 to RCTs of systematic reviews, (3) evaluating the inter-rater
      reliability of PRECIS-2, (4) determining how much of this heterogeneity may be
      explained by pragmatism. METHODS: A cross-sectional methodological review will be
      conducted on systematic reviews of RCTs published in the Cochrane Library from 1
      January 2014 to 1 January 2017. Included systematic reviews will have a minimum
      of 10 RCTs in the meta-analysis of the primary outcome and moderate to
      substantial heterogeneity (I2>=50%). Of the eligible systematic reviews, a random
      selection of 10 will be included for quantitative evaluation. In each systematic
      review, RCTs will be scored using the PRECIS-2 tool, in duplicate. Agreement
      between raters will be measured using the intraclass correlation coefficient.
      Subgroup analyses and meta-regression will be used to evaluate how much
      variability in the primary outcome may be due to pragmatism. DISSEMINATION: This
      review will be among the first to evaluate the PRECIS-2 tool in a systematic
      review setting. Results from this research will provide inter-rater reliability
      information about PRECIS-2 and may be used to provide methodological guidance
      when dealing with pragmatism in systematic reviews and subgroup considerations.
      On completion, this review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for
      publication.

PMID- 28871027
TI  - Case management in primary care among frequent users of healthcare services with
      chronic conditions: protocol of a realist synthesis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A common reason for frequent use of healthcare services is the
      complex healthcare needs of individuals suffering from multiple chronic
      conditions, especially in combination with mental health comorbidities and/or
      social vulnerability. Frequent users (FUs) of healthcare services are more at
      risk for disability, loss of quality of life and mortality. Case management (CM)
      is a promising intervention to improve care integration for FU and to reduce
      healthcare costs. This review aims to develop a middle-range theory explaining
      how CM in primary care improves outcomes among FU with chronic conditions, for
      what types of FU and in what circumstances. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A realist
      synthesis (RS) will be conducted between March 2017 and March 2018 to explore the
      causal mechanisms that underlie CM and how contextual factors influence the link
      between these causal mechanisms and outcomes. According to RS methodology, five
      steps will be followed: (1) focusing the scope of the RS; (2) searching for the
      evidence; (3) appraising the quality of evidence; (4) extracting the data; and
      (5) synthesising the evidence. Patterns in context-mechanism-outcomes (CMOs)
      configurations will be identified, within and across identified studies. Analysis
      of CMO configurations will help confirm, refute, modify or add to the components
      of our initial rough theory and ultimately produce a refined theory explaining
      how and why CM interventions in primary care works, in which contexts and for
      which FU with chronic conditions. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Research ethics is
      not required for this review, but publication guidelines on RS will be followed.
      Based on the review findings, we will develop and disseminate messages tailored
      to various relevant stakeholder groups. These messages will allow the development
      of material that provides guidance on the design and the implementation of CM in
      health organisations. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Prospero CRD42017057753.

PMID- 28871029
TI  - Protocol for a qualitative study exploring perspectives on the INternational
      CLassification of Diseases (11th revision); Using lived experience to improve
      mental health Diagnosis in NHS England: INCLUDE study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Developed in dialogue with WHO, this research aims to incorporate
      lived experience and views in the refinement of the International Classification
      of Diseases Mental and Behavioural Disorders 11th Revision (ICD-11). The validity
      and clinical utility of psychiatric diagnostic systems has been questioned by
      both service users and clinicians, as not all aspects reflect their lived
      experience or are user friendly. This is critical as evidence suggests that
      diagnosis can impact service user experience, identity, service use and outcomes.
      Feedback and recommendations from service users and clinicians should help
      minimise the potential for unintended negative consequences and improve the
      accuracy, validity and clinical utility of the ICD-11. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The
      name INCLUDE reflects the value of expertise by experience as all aspects of the
      proposed study are co-produced. Feedback on the planned criteria for the ICD-11
      will be sought through focus groups with service users and clinicians. The data
      from these groups will be coded and inductively analysed using a thematic
      analysis approach. Findings from this will be used to form the basis of co
      produced recommendations for the ICD-11. Two service user focus groups will be
      conducted for each of these diagnoses: Personality Disorder, Bipolar I Disorder,
      Schizophrenia, Depressive Disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. There will
      be four focus groups with clinicians (psychiatrists, general practitioners and
      clinical psychologists). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has received
      ethical approval from the Coventry and Warwickshire HRA Research Ethics Committee
      (16/WM/0479). The output for the project will be recommendations that reflect the
      views and experiences of experts by experience (service users and clinicians).
      The findings will be disseminated via conferences and peer-reviewed publications.
      As the ICD is an international tool, the aim is for the methodology to be
      internationally disseminated for replication by other groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03131505.

PMID- 28871031
TI  - Angular Gyrus Involvement at Encoding and Retrieval Is Associated with Durable
      But Less Specific Memories.
AB  - After consolidation, information belonging to a mental schema is better
      remembered, but such memory can be less specific when it comes to details. A
      neuronal mechanism consistent with this behavioral pattern could result from a
      dynamic interaction that entails mediation by a specific cortical network with
      associated hippocampal disengagement. We now report that, in male and female
      adult human subjects, encoding and later consolidation of a series of objects
      embedded in a semantic schema was associated with a buildup of activity in the
      angular gyrus (AG) that predicted memory 24 h later. In parallel, the posterior
      hippocampus became less involved as schema objects were encoded successively.
      Hippocampal disengagement was related to an increase in falsely remembering
      objects that were not presented at encoding. During both encoding and retrieval,
      the AG and lateral occipital complex (LOC) became functionally connected and this
      interaction was beneficial for successful retrieval. Therefore, a network
      including the AG and LOC enhances the overnight retention of schema-related
      memories and their simultaneous detachment from the hippocampus reduces the
      specificity of the memory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study provides the first
      empirical evidence on how the hippocampus and the neocortex interact dynamically
      when acquiring and then effectively retaining durable knowledge that is
      associated to preexisting knowledge, but they do so at the cost of memory
      specificity. This interaction is a fundamental mnemonic operation that has thus
      far been largely overlooked in memory research.

PMID- 28871030
TI  - Spatiochromatic Interactions between Individual Cone Photoreceptors in the Human
      Retina.
AB  - A remarkable feature of human vision is that the retina and brain have evolved
      circuitry to extract useful spatial and spectral information from signals
      originating in a photoreceptor mosaic with trichromatic constituents that vary
      widely in their relative numbers and local spatial configurations. A critical
      early transformation applied to cone signals is horizontal-cell-mediated lateral
      inhibition, which imparts a spatially antagonistic surround to individual cone
      receptive fields, a signature inherited by downstream neurons and implicated in
      color signaling. In the peripheral retina, the functional connectivity of cone
      inputs to the circuitry that mediates lateral inhibition is not cone-type
      specific, but whether these wiring schemes are maintained closer to the fovea
      remains unsettled, in part because central retinal anatomy is not easily amenable
      to direct physiological assessment. Here, we demonstrate how the precise
      topography of the long (L)-, middle (M)-, and short (S)-wavelength-sensitive
      cones in the human parafovea (1.5 degrees  eccentricity) shapes perceptual
      sensitivity. We used adaptive optics microstimulation to measure psychophysical
      detection thresholds from individual cones with spectral types that had been
      classified independently by absorptance imaging. Measured against chromatic
      adapting backgrounds, the sensitivities of L and M cones were, on average,
      receptor-type specific, but individual cone thresholds varied systematically with
      the number of preferentially activated cones in the immediate neighborhood. The
      spatial and spectral patterns of these interactions suggest that interneurons
      mediating lateral inhibition in the central retina, likely horizontal cells,
      establish functional connections with L and M cones indiscriminately, implying
      that the cone-selective circuitry supporting red-green color vision emerges after
      the first retinal synapse.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We present evidence for
      spatially antagonistic interactions between individual, spectrally typed cones in
      the central retina of human observers using adaptive optics. Using chromatic
      adapting fields to modulate the relative steady-state activity of long (L)- and
      middle (M)-wavelength-sensitive cones, we found that single-cone detection
      thresholds varied predictably with the spectral demographics of the surrounding
      cones. The spatial scale and spectral pattern of these photoreceptor interactions
      were consistent with lateral inhibition mediated by retinal horizontal cells that
      receive nonselective input from L and M cones. These results demonstrate a clear
      link between the neural architecture of the visual system inputs-cone
      photoreceptors-and visual perception and have implications for the neural locus
      of the cone-specific circuitry supporting color vision.

PMID- 28871032
TI  - KLF9 and JNK3 Interact to Suppress Axon Regeneration in the Adult CNS.
AB  - Neurons in the adult mammalian CNS decrease in intrinsic axon growth capacity
      during development in concert with changes in Kruppel-like transcription factors
      (KLFs). KLFs regulate axon growth in CNS neurons including retinal ganglion cells
      (RGCs). Here, we found that knock-down of KLF9, an axon growth suppressor that is
      normally upregulated 250-fold in RGC development, promotes long-distance optic
      nerve regeneration in adult rats of both sexes. We identified a novel binding
      partner, MAPK10/JNK3 kinase, and found that JNK3 (c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3) is
      critical for KLF9's axon-growth-suppressive activity. Interfering with a JNK3
      binding domain or mutating two newly discovered serine phosphorylation acceptor
      sites, Ser106 and Ser110, effectively abolished KLF9's neurite growth suppression
      in vitro and promoted axon regeneration in vivo These findings demonstrate a
      novel, physiologic role for the interaction of KLF9 and JNK3 in regenerative
      failure in the optic nerve and suggest new therapeutic strategies to promote axon
      regeneration in the adult CNS.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Injured CNS nerves fail to
      regenerate spontaneously. Promoting intrinsic axon growth capacity has been a
      major challenge in the field. Here, we demonstrate that knocking down Kruppel
      like transcription factor 9 (KLF9) via shRNA promotes long-distance axon
      regeneration after optic nerve injury and uncover a novel and important KLF9-JNK3
      interaction that contributes to axon growth suppression in vitro and regenerative
      failure in vivo These studies suggest potential therapeutic approaches to promote
      axon regeneration in injury and other degenerative diseases in the adult CNS.

PMID- 28871033
TI  - Reticulospinal Contributions to Gross Hand Function after Human Spinal Cord
      Injury.
AB  - Multiple descending motor pathways likely contribute to the recovery of hand
      motor function following spinal cord injury (SCI). Reticulospinal neurons project
      to spinal motor neurons controlling hand muscles and extensively sprout into gray
      matter structures after SCI; therefore, it has been proposed that the
      reticulospinal tract is one of the descending motor pathways involved in recovery
      of hand function after injury. To test this hypothesis, we examined the
      StartReact response, an involuntary release of a planned movement via a startling
      stimulus that engages the reticulospinal tract, by measuring reaction times from
      electromyographic activity in an intrinsic finger muscle during three motor tasks
      requiring different degrees of hand dexterity: index finger abduction, a
      precision grip, and a power grip. Males and females with and without incomplete
      chronic cervical SCI were tested. We found that although SCI participants
      voluntarily responded to all tasks, reaction times were shorter during a startle
      cue while performing a power grip but not index finger abduction or precision
      grip. Control subjects had similarly shorter reaction times during a startle cue
      in all motor tasks. These results provide the first evidence for a contribution
      of the reticulospinal tract to hand control in humans with SCI during gross
      finger manipulations and suggest that this contribution is less pronounced during
      fine dexterous finger movements.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT It has been long proposed
      that brainstem pathways contribute to the recovery of hand function in humans
      with spinal cord injury (SCI). Here, we show that individuals with anatomically
      incomplete chronic cervical SCI responded to a startle stimulus, a test that
      engages the reticulospinal tract, while performing a power grip but not during
      index finger abduction or precision grip. Control subjects responded to a startle
      stimulus similarly across tasks. These observations suggest that reticulospinal
      outputs after SCI contribute to hand motor tasks involving gross finger
      movements. Interestingly, this contribution is less pronounced during fine
      dexterous finger movements.

PMID- 28871036
TI  - Sodium Channel beta2 Subunits Prevent Action Potential Propagation Failures at
      Axonal Branch Points.
AB  - Neurotransmitter release depends on voltage-gated Na+ channels (Navs) to
      propagate an action potential (AP) successfully from the axon hillock to a
      synaptic terminal. Unmyelinated sections of axon are very diverse structures
      encompassing branch points and numerous presynaptic terminals with undefined
      molecular partners of Na+ channels. Using optical recordings of Ca2+ and membrane
      voltage, we demonstrate here that Na+ channel beta2 subunits (Navbeta2s) are
      required to prevent AP propagation failures across the axonal arborization of
      cultured rat hippocampal neurons (mixed male and female). When Navbeta2
      expression was reduced, we identified two specific phenotypes: (1) membrane
      excitability and AP-evoked Ca2+ entry were impaired at synapses and (2) AP
      propagation was severely compromised with >40% of axonal branches no longer
      responding to AP-stimulation. We went on to show that a great deal of electrical
      signaling heterogeneity exists in AP waveforms across the axonal arborization
      independent of axon morphology. Therefore, Navbeta2 is a critical regulator of
      axonal excitability and synaptic function in unmyelinated axons.SIGNIFICANCE
      STATEMENT Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels are fulcrums of neurotransmission that
      convert electrical inputs into chemical outputs in the form of vesicle fusion at
      synaptic terminals. However, the role of the electrical signal, the presynaptic
      action potential (AP), in modulating synaptic transmission is less clear. What is
      the fidelity of a propagating AP waveform in the axon and what molecules shape it
      throughout the axonal arborization? Our work identifies several new features of
      AP propagation in unmyelinated axons: (1) branches of a single axonal
      arborization have variable AP waveforms independent of morphology, (2) Na+
      channel beta2 subunits modulate AP-evoked Ca2+-influx, and (3) beta2 subunits
      maintain successful AP propagation across the axonal arbor. These findings are
      relevant to understanding the flow of excitation in the brain.

PMID- 28871035
TI  - Odorant Receptor Sensitivity Modulation in Drosophila.
AB  - The ability to modulate sensitivity in sensory systems is essential for useful
      information to be extracted from fluctuating stimuli in a wide range of
      background conditions. The mechanisms underlying sensitivity regulation in insect
      primary olfactory neurons are poorly understood. Here we reveal that
      dephosphorylation of OrcoS289 that occurs upon prolonged odor exposure is a
      mechanism underlying reduction in odorant sensitivity in Drosophila primary
      olfactory neurons in both sexes. OrcoS289A mutants, unable to phosphorylate this
      position, have low intrinsic odorant sensitivity that is independent of altered
      expression or localization. A phosphomimetic allele, OrcoS289D , has enhanced
      odorant sensitivity compared with wild-type controls. To explore the functional
      ramifications of this phosphorylation in vivo, we generated phospho-specific
      antiserum to OrcoS289 and show that phosphorylation at this residue is
      dynamically regulated by odorant exposure with concomitant modulation of odorant
      sensitivity. OrcoS289 is phosphorylated in the sensitized state, and odorant
      exposure triggers dephosphorylation and desensitization without altering receptor
      localization. We further show that dephosphorylation of OrcoS289 is triggered by
      neuronal activity, and not conformational changes in the receptor occurring upon
      ligand binding. Mutant flies unable to regulate Orco function through
      phosphorylation at S289 are defective for odor-guided behavior. These findings
      provide insight into the mechanisms underlying regulation of insect odorant
      receptors in vivoSIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We have uncovered a mechanism underlying
      olfactory receptor sensitivity regulation in Drosophila The phosphorylation state
      of Orco S289 is altered in an odorant-dependent manner and changes in
      phosphorylation affect receptor sensitivity without changing subcellular
      localization. We show that neuronal activity triggers the phosphorylation changes
      and that this phenomenon is important for odorant-guided behaviors in Drosophila
      This phosphorylation site is conserved in other insects, including mosquitoes,
      indicating this mechanism may be a target for manipulation of insect behaviors in
      the future.

PMID- 28871037
TI  - Identification of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type O (PTPRO) as a
      Synaptic Adhesion Molecule that Promotes Synapse Formation.
AB  - The proper formation of synapses-specialized unitary structures formed between
      two neurons-is critical to mediating information flow in the brain. Synaptic cell
      adhesion molecules (CAMs) are thought to participate in the initiation of the
      synapse formation process. However, in vivo functional analysis demonstrates that
      most well known synaptic CAMs regulate synaptic maturation and plasticity rather
      than synapse formation, suggesting that either CAMs work synergistically in the
      process of forming synapses or more CAMs remain to be found. By screening for
      unknown CAMs using a co-culture system, we revealed that protein tyrosine
      phosphatase receptor type O (PTPRO) is a potent CAM that induces the formation of
      artificial synapse clusters in co-cultures of human embryonic kidney 293 cells
      and hippocampal neurons cultured from newborn mice regardless of gender. PTPRO
      was enriched in the mouse brain and localized to postsynaptic sites at excitatory
      synapses. The overexpression of PTPRO in cultured hippocampal neurons increased
      the number of synapses and the frequency of miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs). The knock
      down (KD) of PTPRO expression in cultured neurons by short hairpin RNA (shRNA)
      reduced the number of synapses and the frequencies of the mEPSCs. The effects of
      shRNA KD were rescued by expressing either full-length PTPRO or a truncated PTPRO
      lacking the cytoplasmic domain. Consistent with these results, the N-terminal
      extracellular domain of PTPRO was required for its synaptogenic activity in the
      co-culture assay. Our data show that PTPRO is a synaptic CAM that serves as a
      potent initiator of the formation of excitatory synapses.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
      The formation of synapses is critical for the brain to execute its function and
      synaptic cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) play essential roles in initiating the
      formation of synapses. By screening for unknown CAMs using a co-culture system,
      we revealed that protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type O (PTPRO) is a potent
      CAM that induces the formation of artificial synapse clusters. Using loss-of
      function and gain-of-function approaches, we show that PTPRO promotes the
      formation of excitatory synapses. The N-terminal extracellular domain of PTPRO
      was required for its synaptogenic activity in cultured hippocampal neurons and
      the co-culture assay. Together, our data show that PTPRO is a synaptic CAM that
      serves as a potent initiator of synapse formation.

PMID- 28871038
TI  - Accountable care systems and accountable care organisations.

PMID- 28871034
TI  - Domain-General Brain Regions Do Not Track Linguistic Input as Closely as Language
      Selective Regions.
AB  - Language comprehension engages a cortical network of left frontal and temporal
      regions. Activity in this network is language-selective, showing virtually no
      modulation by nonlinguistic tasks. In addition, language comprehension engages a
      second network consisting of bilateral frontal, parietal, cingulate, and insular
      regions. Activity in this "multiple demand" (MD) network scales with
      comprehension difficulty, but also with cognitive effort across a wide range of
      nonlinguistic tasks in a domain-general fashion. Given the functional
      dissociation between the language and MD networks, their respective contributions
      to comprehension are likely distinct, yet such differences remain elusive. Prior
      neuroimaging studies have suggested that activity in each network covaries with
      some linguistic features that, behaviorally, influence on-line processing and
      comprehension. This sensitivity of the language and MD networks to local input
      characteristics has often been interpreted, implicitly or explicitly, as evidence
      that both networks track linguistic input closely, and in a manner consistent
      across individuals. Here, we used fMRI to directly test this assumption by
      comparing the BOLD signal time courses in each network across different people (n
      = 45, men and women) listening to the same story. Language network activity
      showed fewer individual differences, indicative of closer input tracking, whereas
      MD network activity was more idiosyncratic and, moreover, showed lower
      reliability within an individual across repetitions of a story. These findings
      constrain cognitive models of language comprehension by suggesting a novel
      distinction between the processes implemented in the language and MD
      networks.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Language comprehension recruits both language
      specific mechanisms and domain-general mechanisms that are engaged in many
      cognitive processes. In the human cortex, language-selective mechanisms are
      implemented in the left-lateralized "core language network", whereas domain
      general mechanisms are implemented in the bilateral "multiple demand" (MD)
      network. Here, we report the first direct comparison of the respective
      contributions of these networks to naturalistic story comprehension. Using a
      novel combination of neuroimaging approaches we find that MD regions track
      stories less closely than language regions. This finding constrains the possible
      contributions of the MD network to comprehension, contrasts with accounts
      positing that this network has continuous access to linguistic input, and
      suggests a new typology of comprehension processes based on their extent of input
      tracking.

PMID- 28871040
TI  - Ministers must act "without delay" to solve GP indemnity crisis, defence bodies
      warn.

PMID- 28871039
TI  - Human TorsinA can function in the yeast cytosol as a molecular chaperone.
AB  - TorsinA (TorA) is an AAA+ (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities)
      ATPase linked to dystonia type 1 (DYT1), a neurological disorder that leads to
      uncontrollable muscular movements. Although DYT1 is linked to a 3 bp deletion in
      the C-terminus of TorA, the biological function of TorA remains to be
      established. Here, we use the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a tractable in
      vivo model to explore TorA function. We demonstrate that TorA can protect yeast
      cells against different forms of environmental stress and show that in the
      absence of the molecular disaggregase Hsp104, TorA can refold heat-denatured
      luciferase in vivo in an ATP-dependent manner. However, this activity requires
      TorA to be translocated to the cytoplasm from the endoplasmic reticulum in order
      to access and process cytoplasmic protein aggregates. Furthermore, mutational or
      chemical inactivation of the ATPase activity of TorA blocks this activity. We
      also find that TorA can inhibit the propagation of certain conformational
      variants of [PSI+], the aggregated prion form of the endogenous Sup35 protein.
      Finally, we show that while cellular localisation remains unchanged in the
      dystonia-linked TorA mutant DeltaE302-303, the ability of this mutant form of
      TorA to protect against cellular stress and to facilitate protein refolding is
      impaired, consistent with it being a loss-of-function mutation.

PMID- 28871041
TI  - Vena Cava Filter Retrieval Rates and Factors Associated With Retrieval in a Large
      US Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retrieval of vena cava filters (VCFs) is important for safety as
      complications increase with longer dwell times. This study assessed VCF retrieval
      rates and factors associated with retrieval in a national cohort. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: VCFs were identified by procedural codes from an administrative claims
      database. Patients were identified who had a VCF placement during a
      hospitalization from a national commercial administrative claims database.
      Indications for VCF placement were identified as pulmonary embolism with or
      without deep vein thrombosis, deep vein thrombosis only, or prophylactic. Patient
      demographic and clinical characteristics were included in proportional hazard
      regression models to find associations with early (90-day) and 1-year VCF
      retrieval. Initiation of anticoagulation and the correlation between time-to
      retrieval and time-to-initiation of anticoagulation were observed. Of 54 766
      patients receiving a VCF, 36.9% had pulmonary embolism, 43.9% had deep vein
      thrombosis only, and 19.2% had no apparent venous thromboembolism present. Over
      the 1 year of follow-up, the cumulative incidence of VCF retrieval was 18.4%.
      Retrieval increased over time from a low of 14.0% in 2010 up to ~24% in 2014. In
      adjusted time-to-event models, increasing age, differing regions, and some
      comorbidities were associated with poorer retrieval rates. Initiation of
      anticoagulation was poorly correlated with retrieval, with anticoagulation
      preceding retrieval by a median of 51 days while those without retrieval had a
      median of 278 days of exposure to anticoagulation. CONCLUSIONS: VCF retrieval
      increased over the study period but remained suboptimal and was weakly correlated
      with anticoagulation initiation.

PMID- 28871042
TI  - Trimethylamine-N-Oxide Induces Vascular Inflammation by Activating the NLRP3
      Inflammasome Through the SIRT3-SOD2-mtROS Signaling Pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) has recently been identified as a novel
      and independent risk factor for promoting atherosclerosis through inducing
      vascular inflammation. However, the exact mechanism is currently unclear. Studies
      have established a central role of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like
      receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in the
      pathogenesis of vascular inflammation. Here, we examined the potential role of
      the NLRP3 inflammasome in TMAO-induced vascular inflammation in vitro and in vivo
      and the underlying mechanisms. METHODS AND RESULTS: Experiments using liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, Western blot, and fluorescent probes
      showed that TMAO-induced inflammation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVECs) and aortas from ApoE-/- mice. Moreover, TMAO promoted NLRP3 and
      activated caspase-1 p20 expression and caspase-1 activity in vitro and in vivo.
      Notably, a caspase-1 inhibitor (YVAD), an NLRP3 inhibitor (MCC950), as well as
      NLRP3 short interfering RNA attenuated TMAO-induced activation of the NLRP3
      inflammasome, subsequently leading to suppression of inflammation in HUVECs. TMAO
      additionally stimulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, in particular,
      mitochondrial ROS, while inhibiting manganese superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2)
      activation and sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) expression in HUVECs and aortas from ApoE-/-
      mice. TMAO-induced endothelial NLRP3 inflammasome activation was ameliorated by
      the mitochondrial ROS scavenger Mito-TEMPO, or SIRT3 overexpression in HUVECs.
      Conversely, TMAO failed to further inhibit magnesium SOD2 and activate the NLRP3
      inflammasome or induce inflammation in SIRT3 short interfering RNA-treated HUVECs
      and aortas from SIRT3-/- mice. CONCLUSIONS: TMAO promoted vascular inflammation
      by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome, and the NLRP3 inflammasome activation in
      part was mediated through inhibition of the SIRT3-SOD2-mitochondrial ROS
      signaling pathway.

PMID- 28871043
TI  - MMI-0100 Inhibits Cardiac Fibrosis in a Mouse Model Overexpressing Cardiac Myosin
      Binding Protein C.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac stress can trigger production of a 40-kDa peptide fragment
      derived from the amino terminus of the cardiac myosin-binding protein C. Cardiac
      stress, as well as cMyBP-C mutations, can trigger production of 1 such truncated
      protein fragment, a 40-kDa peptide fragment derived from the amino terminus of
      cMyBP-C. Genetic expression of this 40-kDa fragment in mouse cardiomyocytes
      (cMyBP-C40k) leads to cardiac disease, fibrosis, and death within the first year.
      Fibrosis can occur in many cardiovascular diseases, and mitogen-activated protein
      kinase--activated protein kinase-2 signaling has been implicated in a variety of
      fibrotic processes. Recent studies demonstrated that mitogen-activated protein
      kinase--activated protein kinase-2 inhibition using the cell-permeant peptide
      inhibitor MMI-0100 is protective in the setting of acute myocardial infarction.
      We hypothesized that MMI-0100 might also be protective in a chronic model of
      fibrosis, produced as a result of cMyBP-C40k cardiomyocyte expression. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: Nontransgenic and cMyBP-C40k inducible transgenic mice were given
      MMI-0100 or PBS daily for 30 weeks. In control groups, long-term MMI-0100 was
      benign, with no measurable effects on cardiac anatomy, function, cell viability,
      hypertrophy, or probability of survival. In the inducible transgenic group, MMI
      0100 treatment reduced cardiac fibrosis, decreased cardiac hypertrophy, and
      prolonged survival. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmaceutical inhibition of mitogen-activated
      protein kinase--activated protein kinase-2 signaling via MMI-0100 treatment is
      beneficial in the context of fibrotic cMyBPC40k disease.

PMID- 28871044
TI  - LPP3 mediates self-generation of chemotactic LPA gradients by melanoma cells.
AB  - Melanoma cells steer out of tumours using self-generated lysophosphatidic acid
      (LPA) gradients. The cells break down LPA, which is present at high levels around
      the tumours, creating a dynamic gradient that is low in the tumour and high
      outside. They then migrate up this gradient, creating a complex and evolving
      outward chemotactic stimulus. Here, we introduce a new assay for self-generated
      chemotaxis, and show that raising LPA levels causes a delay in migration rather
      than loss of chemotactic efficiency. Knockdown of the lipid phosphatase LPP3 -
      but not of its homologues LPP1 or LPP2 - diminishes the cell's ability to break
      down LPA. This is specific for chemotactically active LPAs, such as the 18:1 and
      20:4 species. Inhibition of autotaxin-mediated LPA production does not diminish
      outward chemotaxis, but loss of LPP3-mediated LPA breakdown blocks it. Similarly,
      in both 2D and 3D invasion assays, knockdown of LPP3 diminishes the ability of
      melanoma cells to invade. Our results demonstrate that LPP3 is the key enzyme in
      the breakdown of LPA by melanoma cells, and confirm the importance of attractant
      breakdown in LPA-mediated cell steering.This article has an associated First
      Person interview with the first author of the paper.

PMID- 28871045
TI  - Loss of Arabidopsis p24 function affects ERD2 trafficking and Golgi structure,
      and activates the unfolded protein response.
AB  - The p24 family of proteins (also known as the TMED family) are key regulators of
      protein trafficking along the secretory pathway, but very little is known about
      their functions in plants. A quadruple loss-of-function mutant affecting the p24
      genes from the delta-1 subclass of the p24delta subfamily
      (p24delta3delta4delta5delta6) showed alterations in the Golgi, suggesting that
      these p24 proteins play a role in the organization of the compartments of the
      early secretory pathway in Arabidopsis Loss of p24delta-1 proteins also induced
      the accumulation of the K/HDEL receptor ERD2a (ER lumen protein-retaining
      receptor A) at the Golgi and increased secretion of BiP family proteins, ER
      chaperones containing an HDEL signal, probably due to an inhibition of COPI
      dependent Golgi-to-ER transport of ERD2a and thus retrieval of K/HDEL ligands.
      Although the p24delta3delta4delta5delta6 mutant showed enhanced sensitivity to
      salt stress, it did not show obvious phenotypic alterations under standard growth
      conditions. Interestingly, this mutant showed a constitutive activation of the
      unfolded protein response (UPR) and the transcriptional upregulation of the COPII
      subunit gene SEC31A, which may help the plant to cope with the transport defects
      seen in the absence of p24 proteins.

PMID- 28871046
TI  - Loss of OCRL increases ciliary PI(4,5)P2 in Lowe oculocerebrorenal syndrome.
AB  - Lowe syndrome is a rare X-linked disorder characterized by bilateral congenital
      cataracts and glaucoma, mental retardation, and proximal renal tubular
      dysfunction. Mutations in OCRL, an inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase that
      dephosphorylates PI(4,5)P2, cause Lowe syndrome. Previously we showed that OCRL
      localizes to the primary cilium, which has a distinct membrane phospholipid
      composition, but disruption of phosphoinositides in the ciliary membrane is
      poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that cilia from Lowe syndrome patient
      fibroblasts exhibit increased levels of PI(4,5)P2 and decreased levels of PI4P.
      In particular, subcellular distribution of PI(4,5)P2 build-up was observed at the
      transition zone. Accumulation of ciliary PI(4,5)P2 was pronounced in mouse
      embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from Lowe syndrome mouse model as well as in
      Ocrl-null MEFs, which was reversed by reintroduction of OCRL. Similarly,
      expression of wild-type OCRL reversed the elevated PI(4,5)P2 in Lowe patient
      cells. Accumulation of sonic hedgehog protein in response to hedgehog agonist was
      decreased in MEFs derived from a Lowe syndrome mouse model. Together, our
      findings show for the first time an abnormality in ciliary phosphoinositides of
      both human and mouse cell models of Lowe syndrome.

PMID- 28871049
TI  - Industrial hardware and software verification with ACL2.
AB  - The ACL2 theorem prover has seen sustained industrial use since the mid-1990s.
      Companies that have used ACL2 regularly include AMD, Centaur Technology, IBM,
      Intel, Kestrel Institute, Motorola/Freescale, Oracle and Rockwell Collins. This
      paper introduces ACL2 and focuses on how and why ACL2 is used in industry. ACL2
      is well-suited to its industrial application to numerous software and hardware
      systems, because it is an integrated programming/proof environment supporting a
      subset of the ANSI standard Common Lisp programming language. As a programming
      language ACL2 permits the coding of efficient and robust programs; as a prover
      ACL2 can be fully automatic but provides many features permitting domain-specific
      human-supplied guidance at various levels of abstraction. ACL2 specifications and
      models often serve as efficient execution engines for the modelled artefacts
      while permitting formal analysis and proof of properties. Crucially, ACL2 also
      provides support for the development and verification of other formal analysis
      tools. However, ACL2 did not find its way into industrial use merely because of
      its technical features. The core ACL2 user/development community has a shared
      vision of making mechanized verification routine when appropriate and has been
      committed to this vision for the quarter century since the Computational Logic,
      Inc., Verified Stack. The community has focused on demonstrating the viability of
      the tool by taking on industrial projects (often at the expense of not being able
      to publish much).This article is part of the themed issue 'Verified trustworthy
      software systems'.

PMID- 28871047
TI  - Axonal localization of neuritin/CPG15 mRNA is limited by competition for HuD
      binding.
AB  - HuD protein (also known as ELAVL4) has been shown to stabilize mRNAs with AU-rich
      elements (ARE) in their 3' untranslated regions (UTRs), including Gap43, which
      has been linked to axon growth. HuD also binds to neuritin (Nrn1) mRNA, whose
      3'UTR contains ARE sequences. Although the Nrn1 3'UTR has been shown to mediate
      its axonal localization in embryonic hippocampal neurons, it is not active in
      adult dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Here, we asked why the 3'UTR is not
      sufficient to mediate the axonal localization of Nrn1 mRNA in DRG neurons. HuD
      overexpression increases the ability of the Nrn1 3'UTR to mediate axonal
      localizing in DRG neurons. HuD binds directly to the Nrn1 ARE with about a two
      fold higher affinity than to the Gap43 ARE. Although the Nrn1 ARE can displace
      the Gap43 ARE from HuD binding, HuD binds to the full 3'UTR of Gap43 with higher
      affinity, such that higher levels of Nrn1 are needed to displace the Gap43 3'UTR.
      The Nrn1 3'UTR can mediate a higher level of axonal localization when endogenous
      Gap43 is depleted from DRG neurons. Taken together, our data indicate that
      endogenous Nrn1 and Gap43 mRNAs compete for binding to HuD for their axonal
      localization and activity of the Nrn1 3'UTR.

PMID- 28871048
TI  - An emerging case for membrane pore formation as a common mechanism for the
      unconventional secretion of FGF2 and IL-1beta.
AB  - Extracellular proteins with important signalling roles in processes, such as
      inflammation and angiogenesis, are known to employ unconventional routes of
      protein secretion. Although mechanisms of unconventional protein secretion are
      beginning to emerge, the precise molecular details have remained elusive for the
      majority of cargo proteins secreted by unconventional means. Recent findings
      suggest that for two examples of unconventionally secreted proteins, interleukin
      1beta (IL-1beta) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), the common molecular
      principle of pore formation may be shared. Under specific experimental
      conditions, secretion of IL-1beta and FGF2 is triggered by phosphatidylinositol
      4,5-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P2]-dependent formation of pores across the plasma
      membrane. However, the underlying mechanisms are different, with FGF2 known to
      directly interact with PI(4,5)P2, whereas in the case of IL-1beta secretion, it
      is proposed that the N-terminal fragment of gasdermin D interacts with PI(4,5)P2
      to form the pore. Thus, although implemented in different ways, these findings
      suggest that pore formation may be shared by the unconventional secretion
      mechanisms for FGF2 and IL-1beta in at least some cases. In this Opinion article,
      we discuss the unconventional mechanisms of FGF2 and IL-1beta release with a
      particular emphasis on recent discoveries suggesting the importance of pore
      formation on the plasma membrane.

PMID- 28871050
TI  - The HACMS program: using formal methods to eliminate exploitable bugs.
AB  - For decades, formal methods have offered the promise of verified software that
      does not have exploitable bugs. Until recently, however, it has not been possible
      to verify software of sufficient complexity to be useful. Recently, that
      situation has changed. SeL4 is an open-source operating system microkernel
      efficient enough to be used in a wide range of practical applications. Its
      designers proved it to be fully functionally correct, ensuring the absence of
      buffer overflows, null pointer exceptions, use-after-free errors, etc., and
      guaranteeing integrity and confidentiality. The CompCert Verifying C Compiler
      maps source C programs to provably equivalent assembly language, ensuring the
      absence of exploitable bugs in the compiler. A number of factors have enabled
      this revolution, including faster processors, increased automation, more
      extensive infrastructure, specialized logics and the decision to co-develop code
      and correctness proofs rather than verify existing artefacts. In this paper, we
      explore the promise and limitations of current formal-methods techniques. We
      discuss these issues in the context of DARPA's HACMS program, which had as its
      goal the creation of high-assurance software for vehicles, including quadcopters,
      helicopters and automobiles.This article is part of the themed issue 'Verified
      trustworthy software systems'.

PMID- 28871051
TI  - Formal verification: will the seedling ever flower?
AB  - In one sense, formal specification and verification have been highly successful:
      techniques have been developed in pioneering academic research, transferred to
      software companies through training and partnerships, and successfully deployed
      in systems with national significance. Altran UK has been in the vanguard of this
      movement. This paper summarizes some of our key deployments of formal techniques
      over the past 20 years, including both security- and safety-critical systems. The
      impact of formal techniques, however, remains within an industrial niche, and
      while government and suppliers across industry search for solutions to the
      problems of poor-quality software, the wider software industry remains resistant
      to adoption of this proven solution. We conclude by reflecting on some of the
      challenges we face as a community in ensuring that formal techniques achieve
      their true potential impact on society.This article is part of the themed issue
      'Verified trustworthy software systems'.

PMID- 28871052
TI  - Program synthesis: challenges and opportunities.
AB  - Program synthesis is the mechanized construction of software, dubbed 'self
      writing code'. Synthesis tools relieve the programmer from thinking about how the
      problem is to be solved; instead, the programmer only provides a description of
      what is to be achieved. Given a specification of what the program should do, the
      synthesizer generates an implementation that provably satisfies this
      specification. From a logical point of view, a program synthesizer is a solver
      for second-order existential logic. Owing to the expressiveness of second-order
      logic, program synthesis has an extremely broad range of applications. We survey
      some of these applications as well as recent trends in the algorithms that solve
      the program synthesis problem. In particular, we focus on an approach that has
      raised the profile of program synthesis and ushered in a generation of new
      synthesis tools, namely counter-example-guided inductive synthesis (CEGIS). We
      provide a description of the CEGIS architecture, followed by recent algorithmic
      improvements. We conjecture that the capacity of program synthesis engines will
      see further step change, in a manner that is transparent to the applications,
      which will open up an even broader range of use-cases.This article is part of the
      themed issue 'Verified trustworthy software systems'.

PMID- 28871053
TI  - Provably trustworthy systems.
AB  - We present recent work on building and scaling trustworthy systems with formal,
      machine-checkable proof from the ground up, including the operating system
      kernel, at the level of binary machine code. We first give a brief overview of
      the seL4 microkernel verification and how it can be used to build verified
      systems. We then show two complementary techniques for scaling these methods to
      larger systems: proof engineering, to estimate verification effort; and
      code/proof co-generation, for scalable development of provably trustworthy
      applications.This article is part of the themed issue 'Verified trustworthy
      software systems'.

PMID- 28871054
TI  - Compositional relaxed concurrency.
AB  - There is a broad design space for concurrent computer processors: they can be
      optimized for low power, low latency or high throughput. This freedom to tune
      each processor design to its niche has led to an increasing diversity of
      machines, from powerful pocketable devices to those responsible for complex and
      critical tasks, such as car guidance systems. Given this context, academic
      concurrency research sounds notes of both caution and optimism. Caution because
      recent work has uncovered flaws in the way we explain the subtle memory behaviour
      of concurrent systems: specifications have been shown to be incorrect, leading to
      bugs throughout the many layers of the system. And optimism because our tools and
      methods for verifying the correctness of concurrent code-although built above an
      idealized model of concurrency-are becoming more mature. This paper looks at the
      way we specify the memory behaviour of concurrent systems and suggests a new
      direction. Currently, there is a siloed approach, with each processor and
      programming language specified separately in an incomparable way. But this does
      not match the structure of our programs, which may use multiple processors and
      languages together. Instead we propose a compositional approach, where program
      components carry with them a description of the sort of concurrency they rely on,
      and there is a mechanism for composing these. This will support not only
      components written for the multiple varied processors found in a modern system
      but also those that use idealized models of concurrency, providing a sound
      footing for mature verification techniques.This article is part of the themed
      issue 'Verified trustworthy software systems'.

PMID- 28871055
TI  - Verified trustworthy software systems.

PMID- 28871056
TI  - Position paper: the science of deep specification.
AB  - We introduce our efforts within the project 'The science of deep specification'
      to work out the key formal underpinnings of industrial-scale formal
      specifications of software and hardware components, anticipating a world where
      large verified systems are routinely built out of smaller verified components
      that are also used by many other projects. We identify an important class of
      specification that has already been used in a few experiments that connect strong
      component-correctness theorems across the work of different teams. To help
      popularize the unique advantages of that style, we dub it deep specification, and
      we say that it encompasses specifications that are rich, two-sided, formal and
      live (terms that we define in the article). Our core team is developing a proof
      of-concept system (based on the Coq proof assistant) whose specification and
      verification work is divided across largely decoupled subteams at our four
      institutions, encompassing hardware microarchitecture, compilers, operating
      systems and applications, along with cross-cutting principles and tools for
      effective specification. We also aim to catalyse interest in the approach, not
      just by basic researchers but also by users in industry.This article is part of
      the themed issue 'Verified trustworthy software systems'.

PMID- 28871057
TI  - KH-type splicing regulatory protein is a new component of chromatoid body.
AB  - The chromatoid body (CB) is a specific cloud-like structure in the cytoplasm of
      haploid spermatids. Recent findings indicate that CB is identified as a male germ
      cell-specific RNA storage and processing center, but its function has remained
      elusive for decades. In somatic cells, KH-type splicing regulatory protein (KSRP)
      is involved in regulating gene expression and maturation of select microRNAs
      (miRNAs). However, the function of KSRP in spermatogenesis remains unclear. In
      this study, we showed that KSRP partly localizes in CB, as a component of CB.
      KSRP interacts with proteins (mouse VASA homolog (MVH), polyadenylate-binding
      protein 1 (PABP1) and polyadenylate-binding protein 2 (PABP2)), mRNAs (Tnp2 and
      Odf1) and microRNAs (microRNA-182) in mouse CB. Moreover, KSRP may regulate the
      integrity of CB via DDX5-miRNA-182 pathway. In addition, we found abnormal
      expressions of CB component in testes of Ksrp-knockout mice and of patients with
      hypospermatogenesis. Thus, our results provide mechanistic insight into the role
      of KSRP in spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28871059
TI  - Chromosome structure dynamics during the cell cycle: a structure to fit every
      phase.

PMID- 28871058
TI  - The Hox proteins Ubx and AbdA collaborate with the transcription pausing factor
      M1BP to regulate gene transcription.
AB  - In metazoans, the pausing of RNA polymerase II at the promoter (paused Pol II)
      has emerged as a widespread and conserved mechanism in the regulation of gene
      transcription. While critical in recruiting Pol II to the promoter, the role
      transcription factors play in transitioning paused Pol II into productive Pol II
      is, however, little known. By studying how Drosophila Hox transcription factors
      control transcription, we uncovered a molecular mechanism that increases
      productive transcription. We found that the Hox proteins AbdA and Ubx target gene
      promoters previously bound by the transcription pausing factor M1BP, containing
      paused Pol II and enriched with promoter-proximal Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins,
      yet lacking the classical H3K27me3 PcG signature. We found that AbdA binding to
      M1BP-regulated genes results in reduction in PcG binding, the release of paused
      Pol II, increases in promoter H3K4me3 histone marks and increased gene
      transcription. Linking transcription factors, PcG proteins and paused Pol II
      states, these data identify a two-step mechanism of Hox-driven transcription,
      with M1BP binding leading to Pol II recruitment followed by AbdA targeting, which
      results in a change in the chromatin landscape and enhanced transcription.

PMID- 28871060
TI  - Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase HSD1L is localised to the pituitary-gonadal axis of
      primates.
AB  - Steroid hormones play clinically important and specific regulatory roles in the
      development, growth, metabolism, reproduction and brain function in human. The
      type 1 and 2 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzymes (11beta-HSD1 and 2)
      have key roles in the pre-receptor modification of glucocorticoids allowing
      aldosterone regulation of blood pressure, control of systemic fluid and
      electrolyte homeostasis and modulation of integrated metabolism and brain
      function. Although the activity and function of 11beta-HSDs is thought to be
      understood, there exists an open reading frame for a distinct 11betaHSD-like
      gene; HSD11B1L, which is present in human, non-human primate, sheep, pig and many
      other higher organisms, whereas an orthologue is absent in the genomes of mouse,
      rat and rabbit. We have now characterised this novel HSD11B1L gene as encoded by
      9 exons and analysis of EST library transcripts indicated the use of two
      alternate ATG start sites in exons 2 and 3, and alternate splicing in exon 9.
      Relatively strong HSD11B1L gene expression was detected in human, non-human
      primate and sheep tissue samples from the brain, ovary and testis. Analysis in
      non-human primates and sheep by immunohistochemistry localised HSD11B1L protein
      to the cytoplasm of ovarian granulosa cells, testis Leydig cells, and gonadatroph
      cells in the anterior pituitary. Intracellular localisation analysis in
      transfected human HEK293 cells showed HSD1L protein within the endoplasmic
      reticulum and sequence analysis suggests that similar to 11betaHSD1 it is
      membrane bound. The endogenous substrate of this third HSD enzyme remains elusive
      with localisation and expression data suggesting a reproductive hormone as a
      likely substrate.

PMID- 28871062
TI  - A critique of phrenology in Moby-Dick.
AB  - Phrenology has a fascinating, although controversial, place in the history of
      localizationism of brain and mental functions. The 2 main proponents of
      phrenology were 2 German-speaking doctors, Joseph Gall (1758-1828) and Johann
      Spurzheim (1776-1832). According to their theory, a careful examination of skull
      morphology could disclose personality characters. Phrenology was initially
      restricted to medical circles and then diffused outside scientific societies,
      reaching nonscientific audiences in Europe and North America. Phrenology deeply
      penetrated popular culture in the 19th century and its tenets can be observed in
      British and American literature. Here we analyze the presence of phrenologic
      concepts in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, by Herman Melville (1819-1891), one of the
      most prominent American writers. In his masterpiece, he demonstrates that he was
      familiarized with Gall and Spurzheim's writings, but referred to their theory as
      "semi-science" and "a passing fable." Of note, Melville's fine irony against
      phrenology is present in his attempt to perform a phrenologic and physiognomic
      examination of The Whale. Thus, Moby-Dick illustrates the diffusion of phrenology
      in Western culture, but may also reflect Melville's skepticism and criticism
      toward its main precepts.

PMID- 28871063
TI  - Intra-arterial milrinone may differentiate fulminant RCVS from vasculitis.

PMID- 28871064
TI  - Editors' Note.

PMID- 28871065
TI  - Letter re: A dedicated scholarly research program in an adult and pediatric
      neurology residency program.

PMID- 28871066
TI  - Author response: A dedicated scholarly research program in an adult and pediatric
      neurology residency program.

PMID- 28871067
TI  - Letter re: Hans Jacob and brain research on Hamburg "euthanasia" victims:
      "Awaiting further brains!"

PMID- 28871061
TI  - Sex dimorphic regulation of osteoprogenitor progesterone in bone stromal cells.
AB  - Increasing peak bone mass is a promising strategy to prevent osteoporosis. A
      mouse model of global progesterone receptor (PR) ablation showed increased bone
      mass through a sex-dependent mechanism. Cre-Lox recombination was used to
      generate a mouse model of osteoprogenitor-specific PR inactivation, which
      recapitulated the high bone mass phenotype seen in the PR global knockout mouse
      mode. In this work, we employed RNA sequencing analysis to evaluate sex
      independent and sex-dependent differences in gene transcription of
      osteoprogenitors of wild-type and PR conditional knockout mice. PR deletion
      caused marked sex hormone-dependent changes in gene transcription in male mice as
      compared to wild-type controls. These transcriptional differences revealed
      dysregulation in pathways involving immunomodulation, osteoclasts, bone
      anabolism, extracellular matrix interaction and matrix interaction. These results
      identified many potential mechanisms that may explain our observed high bone mass
      phenotype with sex differences when PR was selectively deleted in the MSCs.

PMID- 28871068
TI  - Author response: Hans Jacob and brain research on Hamburg "euthanasia" victims:
      "Awaiting further brains!"

PMID- 28871069
TI  - Clinical Reasoning: A 27-year-old man with unsteady gait.

PMID- 28871070
TI  - Pearls & Oy-sters: Frontal lobe epilepsy presenting as complex stereotyped
      movements.

PMID- 28871071
TI  - Teaching NeuroImages: Central neurocytoma.

PMID- 28871072
TI  - Teaching Video NeuroImages: Bilateral abducens ocular neuromyotonia.

PMID- 28871073
TI  - Optical techniques for breath analysis: from single to multi-species detection.
AB  - Optical spectroscopy can be used for trace-level gas analysis in different
      applications, including exhaled breath research. A common approach is the
      targeted on-line, real-time analysis of small molecules (two to five atoms).
      Currently, the methodology is normally used for the detection of single analytes
      at trace levels, or two to three species at most at the same time. The main
      limitation preventing sensitive multi-species detection has been the limited fast
      scanning range of the lasers used as light sources. This limitation is currently
      being eliminated by the availability of optical frequency combs (OFC) which offer
      wide spectral bandwidths and the benefits of a laser-type light source. Recent
      advances in mid-infrared OFC technology allow measurements in the so-called
      molecular fingerprint region of the electromagnetic spectrum, where many
      molecules have strong fundamental vibrational transitions that enable sensitive
      detection. Several technical hurdles remain to be overcome, but if these problems
      can be solved laser absorption spectroscopy has the potential to challenge mass
      spectrometry in on-line multi-species trace gas analysis.

PMID- 28871074
TI  - Acoustics of snoring and automatic snore sound detection in children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Acoustic analyses of snoring sounds have been used to objectively
      assess snoring and applied in various clinical problems for adult patients. Such
      studies require highly automatized tools to analyze the sound recordings of the
      whole night's sleep, in order to extract clinically relevant snore- related
      statistics. The existing techniques and software used for adults are not
      efficiently applicable to snoring sounds in children, basically because of
      different acoustic signal properties. In this paper, we present a broad range of
      acoustic characteristics of snoring sounds in children (N  =  38) in comparison
      to adult (N  =  30) patients. APPROACH: Acoustic characteristics of the signals
      were calculated, including frequency domain representations, spectrogram-based
      characteristics, spectral envelope analysis, formant structures and loudness of
      the snoring sounds. MAIN RESULTS: We observed significant differences in spectral
      features, formant structures and loudness of the snoring signals of children
      compared to adults that may arise from the diversity of the upper airway anatomy
      as the principal determinant of the snore sound generation mechanism.
      Furthermore, based on the specific audio features of snoring children, we
      proposed a novel algorithm for the automatic detection of snoring sounds from
      ambient acoustic data specifically in a pediatric population. The respiratory
      sounds were recorded using a pair of microphones and a multi-channel data
      acquisition system simultaneously with full-night polysomnography during sleep.
      Brief sound chunks of 0.5 s were classified as either belonging to a snoring
      event or not with a multi-layer perceptron, which was trained in a supervised
      fashion using stochastic gradient descent on a large hand-labeled dataset using
      frequency domain features. SIGNIFICANCE: The method proposed here has been used
      to extract snore-related statistics that can be calculated from the detected
      snore episodes for the whole night's sleep, including number of snore episodes
      (total snoring time), ratio of snore to whole sleep time, variation of snoring
      rate, regularity of snoring episodes in time and amplitude and snore loudness.
      These statistics will ultimately serve as a clinical tool providing information
      for the objective evaluation of snoring for several clinical applications.

PMID- 28871075
TI  - Dose assessment from chronic exposure to industrial NORM in iron ore processing.
AB  - Radiological exposures due to naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) can
      occur during a wide range of work-related activities in the mineral processing
      and chemical industries. However, evaluation of such exposures in industrial
      settings remains a difficult exercise owing inter alia to the large number of
      personnel, operations and plants affected; assumptions that often have to be made
      concerning the actual duration and frequency of exposures; the complex chemistry
      and radioactive disequilibria involved and typically, the paucity of historical
      data. In our study, the challenges associated with assessing chronic exposure to
      fugitive dust enriched in 210Pb and 210Po and the determination of the associated
      internal dose by inhalation and ingestion are described by reference to a case
      study undertaken at an iron ore sintering plant between June 2013 and July 2015.
      The applicability of default dose coefficients and biokinetic models provided by
      the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP) was verified by
      combining air and dust monitoring with information on the characteristics of the
      aerosols and in-vitro solubility experiments. The disparity between particulate
      matter 100 microns or less in diameter (PM100), particulate matter 10 microns or
      less in diameter (PM10) and 210Pb/210Po activity concentrations observed over the
      different monitoring campaigns and sampling locations confirmed that use of
      positional short-term monitoring surveys to extrapolate intake over a year was
      not appropriate and could lead to unrealistic intake and dose figures. Personal
      air sampling is more appropriate for estimating the dose in such situations,
      though it is not always practical and may collect insufficient quantities of
      material for radiochemical analysis; this is an important constraint when dealing
      with low specific activity materials.

PMID- 28871077
TI  - Treatment of Hepatic Hydatid Cyst in a 7-Year-Old Boy Using a New Type of
      Radiofrequency Ablation Electrode.
AB  - BACKGROUND Radiofrequency ablation has been established as a treatment method for
      malignancies and some particular cystic lesions, especially in adults. Experience
      with radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of hydatid cysts, especially in
      children, is limited. CASE REPORT Although echinococcosis is rare, especially in
      children, we describe a 7-year-old boy with lung and liver cystic echinococcosis.
      Diagnosis was established by clinical history and imaging findings and confirmed
      by positive antiechinococcal antibodies. After 6 months of chemotherapy with
      albendazole, the liver lesion remained and a radiofrequency ablation under
      computed tomography guidance was obtained. The procedure was performed with a new
      type of ablation electrode in order to minimize handling and procedure duration
      and to achieve the best clinical result in only 1 session. This type of electrode
      provides the ability to simultaneously drain and ablate the cyst and the ability
      to monitor the desired ablation temperature in real time. CONCLUSIONS Our patient
      is the first pediatric case with hepatic hydatid cyst treated successfully with
      the use of a new type of radiofrequency ablation electrode under computed
      tomography guidance.

PMID- 28871076
TI  - Knockdown of MicroRNA-122 Protects H9c2 Cardiomyocytes from Hypoxia-Induced
      Apoptosis and Promotes Autophagy.
AB  - BACKGROUND Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a severe disease causing heart
      failure and sudden death. Studies indicate that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved
      in the pathophysiology of AMI. In the present study, we carefully explored the
      effects of miR-122 on myocardial hypoxia injury and its possible underlying
      mechanism. MATERIAL AND METHODS miR-122 expression was analyzed in H9c2
      cardiomyocytes after being transfected with miR-122 mimic, ASO-miR-122, or
      negative control. Cell viability and apoptosis were investigated by CCK-8 assays
      and flow cytometry analysis, respectively. Cell migration was analyzed using
      wound-healing assays. Western blotting was performed to analyze the expression of
      phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10
      (PTEN)/phosphatidylinositol 3-hydroxy kinase (PI3K)/AKT and LC3-II/LC3-I. RESULTS
      Hypoxia exposure significantly inhibited H9c2 cell viability (P<0.01). miR-122
      overexpression promoted the hypoxia-induced H9c2 cell proliferation and migration
      loss (P<0.05), and cell apoptosis was increased (P<0.05). miR-122 knockdown
      enhanced cell viability and decreased cell apoptosis (P<0.05). Knockdown of miR
      122 enhanced PTEN/PI3K/AKT activation and cell autophagy. Overexpression of miR
      122 inhibited the PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway and cell autophagy pathway. CONCLUSIONS
      The expression of miR-122 is involved in hypoxia-induced H9c2 cardiomyocyte
      injury. Knockdown of miR-122 protects H9c2 cells from hypoxia-induced apoptosis
      and enhances cell viability.

PMID- 28871078
TI  - Impact of Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second (FEV1) and 6-Minute Walking
      Distance at 3, 6, and 12 Months and Annually on Survival and Occurrence of
      Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome (BOS) After Lung Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND Development of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) is a great
      limitation for patient survival in lung transplantation (LTx). A curative
      treatment for BOS is still missing, and in terminal stages re-transplantation (Re
      LTx) is the only salvation. It is possible to slow the progress of BOS if it is
      detected at an early stage. This might be possible by assessing pulmonary
      function pattern. MATERIAL AND METHODS Between 1990 and 2014, 278 patients
      underwent LTx at Skane University Hospital, Sweden. Pulmonary function was
      followed using spirometry (FEV1) and 6-minute walking test (6MWT) measured at 3,
      6, and 12 months and annually. The endpoint used was freedom from BOS (BOS grade
      <=1), BOS (BOS grade >=2), and death or Re-LTx. RESULTS Double-lung
      transplantation (DLTx) showed a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.514 (p=0.001) versus
      recipients who underwent single-lung transplantation (SLTx). Regarding freedom
      from BOS, FEV1 showed an HR of 0.597 and 6MWT an HR of 0.982 (p<0.001). Regarding
      combined endpoint BOS >=2 and Re-LTx, FEV1 showed an HR of 0.618 and 6MWT an HR
      of 0.972 (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Recipients with higher FEV1 or 6MWT values had
      better chances of survival. Recipients with DLTx had a significant survival
      benefit and a protective effect against development of BOS. As the distance that
      the patient can walk in 6 minutes increases, risk for death or Re-LTx is
      significantly lower, as is incidence of developing BOS grade >=2. Understanding
      changes within pulmonary function are probably key to understanding patient
      prognosis.

PMID- 28871079
TI  - Sirt6 deficiency exacerbates podocyte injury and proteinuria through targeting
      Notch signaling.
AB  - Podocyte injury is a major determinant of proteinuric kidney disease and the
      identification of potential therapeutic targets for preventing podocyte injury
      has clinical importance. Here, we show that histone deacetylase Sirt6 protects
      against podocyte injury through epigenetic regulation of Notch signaling. Sirt6
      is downregulated in renal biopsies from patients with podocytopathies and its
      expression correlates with glomerular filtration rate. Podocyte-specific deletion
      of Sirt6 exacerbates podocyte injury and proteinuria in two independent mouse
      models, diabetic nephropathy, and adriamycin-induced nephropathy. Sirt6 has
      pleiotropic protective actions in podocytes, including anti-inflammatory and anti
      apoptotic effects, is involved in actin cytoskeleton maintenance and promotes
      autophagy. Sirt6 also reduces urokinase plasminogen activator receptor
      expression, which is a key factor for podocyte foot process effacement and
      proteinuria. Mechanistically, Sirt6 inhibits Notch1 and Notch4 transcription by
      deacetylating histone H3K9. We propose Sirt6 as a potential therapeutic target
      for the treatment of proteinuric kidney disease.Podocytes are essential
      components of the renal glomerular filtration barrier and podocyte dysfunction
      leads to proteinuric kidney disease. Here Liu et al. show that Sirt6 protects
      podocytes from apoptosis and inflammation by increasing autophagic flux through
      inhibition of the Notch pathway.

PMID- 28871080
TI  - Genetically engineered red cells expressing single domain camelid antibodies
      confer long-term protection against botulinum neurotoxin.
AB  - A short half-life in the circulation limits the application of therapeutics such
      as single-domain antibodies (VHHs). We utilize red blood cells to prolong the
      circulatory half-life of VHHs. Here we present VHHs against botulinum neurotoxin
      A (BoNT/A) on the surface of red blood cells by expressing chimeric proteins of
      VHHs with Glycophorin A or Kell. Mice whose red blood cells carry the chimeric
      proteins exhibit resistance to 10,000 times the lethal dose (LD50) of BoNT/A, and
      transfusion of these red blood cells into naive mice affords protection for up to
      28 days. We further utilize an improved CD34+ culture system to engineer human
      red blood cells that express these chimeric proteins. Mice transfused with these
      red blood cells are resistant to highly lethal doses of BoNT/A. We demonstrate
      that engineered red blood cells expressing VHHs can provide prolonged
      prophylactic protection against bacterial toxins without inducing inhibitory
      immune responses and illustrates the potentially broad translatability of our
      strategy for therapeutic applications.The therapeutic use of single-chain
      antibodies (VHHs) is limited by their short half-life in the circulation. Here
      the authors engineer mouse and human red blood cells to express VHHs against
      botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) on their surface and show that an infusion of
      these cells into mice confers long lasting protection against a high dose of
      BoNT/A.

PMID- 28871081
TI  - Dynamic plasticity in phototransduction regulates seasonal changes in color
      perception.
AB  - To cope with seasonal changes in the environment, organisms adapt their
      physiology and behavior. Although color perception varies among seasons, the
      underlying molecular basis and its physiological significance remain unclear.
      Here we show that dynamic plasticity in phototransduction regulates seasonal
      changes in color perception in medaka fish. Medaka are active and exhibit clear
      phototaxis in conditions simulating summer, but remain at the bottom of the tank
      and fail to exhibit phototaxis in conditions simulating winter. Mate preference
      tests using virtual fish created with computer graphics demonstrate that medaka
      are more attracted to orange-red-colored model fish in summer than in winter.
      Transcriptome analysis of the eye reveals dynamic seasonal changes in the
      expression of genes encoding photopigments and their downstream pathways.
      Behavioral analysis of photopigment-null fish shows significant differences from
      wild type, suggesting that plasticity in color perception is crucial for the
      emergence of seasonally regulated behaviors.Animal coloration and behavior can
      change seasonally, but it is unclear if visual sensitivity to color shifts as
      well. Here, Shimmura et al. show that medaka undergo seasonal behavioral change
      accompanied by altered expression of opsin genes, resulting in reduced visual
      sensitivity to mates during winter-like conditions.

PMID- 28871083
TI  - Interspecies quorum sensing in co-infections can manipulate trypanosome
      transmission potential.
AB  - Quorum sensing (QS) is commonly used in microbial communities and some
      unicellular parasites to coordinate group behaviours 1,2 . An example is
      Trypanosoma brucei, which causes human African trypanosomiasis, as well as the
      livestock disease, nagana. Trypanosomes are spread by tsetse flies, their
      transmission being enabled by cell-cycle arrested 'stumpy forms' that are
      generated in a density-dependent manner in mammalian blood. QS is mediated
      through a small (<500 Da), non-proteinaceous, stable but unidentified 'stumpy
      induction factor' 3 , whose signal response pathway has been identified. Although
      QS is characterized in T. brucei, co-infections with other trypanosome species
      (Trypanosoma congolense and Trypanosoma vivax) are common in animals, generating
      the potential for interspecies interactions. Here, we show that T. congolense
      exhibits density-dependent growth control in vivo and conserves QS regulatory
      genes, of which one can complement a T. brucei QS signal-blind mutant to restore
      stumpy formation. Thereafter, we demonstrate that T. congolense-conditioned
      culture medium promotes T. brucei stumpy formation in vitro, which is dependent
      on the integrity of the QS signalling pathway. Finally, we show that, in vivo, co
      infection with T. congolense accelerates differentiation to stumpy forms in T.
      brucei, which is also QS dependent. These cross-species interactions have
      important implications for trypanosome virulence, transmission, competition and
      evolution in the field.

PMID- 28871082
TI  - Stromal and epithelial transcriptional map of initiation progression and
      metastatic potential of human prostate cancer.
AB  - While progression from normal prostatic epithelium to invasive cancer is driven
      by molecular alterations, tumor cells and cells in the cancer microenvironment
      are co-dependent and co-evolve. Few human studies to date have focused on stroma.
      Here, we performed gene expression profiling of laser capture microdissected
      normal non-neoplastic prostate epithelial tissue and compared it to non
      transformed and neoplastic low-grade and high-grade prostate epithelial tissue
      from radical prostatectomies, each with its immediately surrounding stroma.
      Whereas benign epithelium in prostates with and without tumor were similar in
      gene expression space, stroma away from tumor was significantly different from
      that in prostates without cancer. A stromal gene signature reflecting bone
      remodeling and immune-related pathways was upregulated in high compared to low
      Gleason grade cases. In validation data, the signature discriminated cases that
      developed metastasis from those that did not. These data suggest that the
      microenvironment may influence prostate cancer initiation, maintenance, and
      metastatic progression.Stromal cells contribute to tumor development but the
      mechanisms regulating this process are still unclear. Here the authors analyze
      gene expression profiles in the prostate and show that stromal gene signature
      changes ahead of the epithelial gene signature as prostate cancer initiates and
      progresses.

PMID- 28871084
TI  - Engineering a riboswitch-based genetic platform for the self-directed evolution
      of acid-tolerant phenotypes.
AB  - Environmental pH is a fundamental signal continuously directing the metabolism
      and behavior of living cells. Programming the precise cellular response toward
      environmental pH is, therefore, crucial for engineering cells for increasingly
      sophisticated functions. Herein, we engineer a set of riboswitch-based pH-sensing
      genetic devices to enable the control of gene expression according to
      differential environmental pH. We next develop a digital pH-sensing system to
      utilize the analogue-sensing behavior of these devices for high-resolution
      recording of host cell exposure to discrete external pH levels. The application
      of this digital pH-sensing system is demonstrated in a genetic program that
      autonomously regulated the evolutionary engineering of host cells for improved
      tolerance to a broad spectrum of organic acids, a valuable phenotype for
      metabolic engineering and bioremediation applications.Cells are exposed to shifts
      in environmental pH, which direct their metabolism and behavior. Here the authors
      design pH-sensing riboswitches to create a gene expression program, digitalize
      the system to respond to a narrow pH range and apply it to evolve host cells with
      improved tolerance to a variety of organic acids.

PMID- 28871085
TI  - Probing the potential of mucus permeability to signify preterm birth risk.
AB  - Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality, and is frequently
      associated with intra-amniotic infection hypothesized to arise from bacterial
      ascension across a dysfunctional cervical mucus plug. To study this dysfunction,
      we assessed the permeability of cervical mucus from non-pregnant ovulating (n =
      20) and high- (n = 9) and low-risk (n = 16) pregnant women to probes of varying
      sizes and surface chemistries. We found that the motion of negatively charged,
      carboxylated microspheres in mucus from pregnant patients was significantly
      restricted compared to ovulating patients, but not significantly different
      between high- and low-risk pregnant women. In contrast, charged peptide probes
      small enough to avoid steric interactions, but sensitive to the biochemical
      modifications of mucus components exhibited significantly different transport
      profiles through mucus from high- and low-risk patients. Thus, although both
      microstructural rearrangements of the components of mucus as well as biochemical
      modifications to their adhesiveness may alter the overall permeability of the
      cervical mucus plug, our findings suggest that the latter mechanism plays a
      dominant role in the impairment of the function of this barrier during preterm
      birth. We expect that these probes may be readily adapted to study the mechanisms
      underlying disease progression on all mucosal epithelia, including those in the
      mouth, lungs, and gut.

PMID- 28871086
TI  - Identification of HSP90 inhibitors as a novel class of senolytics.
AB  - Aging is the main risk factor for many chronic degenerative diseases and cancer.
      Increased senescent cell burden in various tissues is a major contributor to
      aging and age-related diseases. Recently, a new class of drugs termed senolytics
      were demonstrated to extending healthspan, reducing frailty and improving stem
      cell function in multiple murine models of aging. To identify novel and more
      optimal senotherapeutic drugs and combinations, we established a senescence
      associated beta-galactosidase assay as a screening platform to rapidly identify
      drugs that specifically affect senescent cells. We used primary Ercc1 -/- murine
      embryonic fibroblasts with reduced DNA repair capacity, which senesce rapidly if
      grown at atmospheric oxygen. This platform was used to screen a small library of
      compounds that regulate autophagy, identifying two inhibitors of the HSP90
      chaperone family as having significant senolytic activity in mouse and human
      cells. Treatment of Ercc1 -/? mice, a mouse model of a human progeroid syndrome,
      with the HSP90 inhibitor 17-DMAG extended healthspan, delayed the onset of
      several age-related symptoms and reduced p16INK4a expression. These results
      demonstrate the utility of our screening platform to identify senotherapeutic
      agents as well as identified HSP90 inhibitors as a promising new class of
      senolytic drugs.The accumulation of senescent cells is thought to contribute to
      the age-associated decline in tissue function. Here, the authors identify HSP90
      inhibitors as a new class of senolytic compounds in an in vitro screening and
      show that administration of a HSP90 inhibitor reduces age-related symptoms in
      progeroid mice.

PMID- 28871088
TI  - Human Primary Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Their in vitro Progenies
      Display Distinct Transcriptional Profile Signatures.
AB  - Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs) are a rare population of cells
      that gives rise to skeletal tissues and the hematopoietic stroma in vivo.
      Recently, we have demonstrated that BM-MSCs fulfill stringent in vivo stem cell
      criteria when propagated as non-adherent mesenspheres but not as adherent
      cultured cells. Motivated by these profound functional differences, the current
      study aimed to identify potential important MSC regulators by investigating
      global gene expression profiles of adherent and non-adherent culture-derived BM
      MSCs in comparison with primary BM-MSCs. A substantial number of genes were
      differentially expressed between primary and culture-expanded cells already early
      upon culture, and numerous genes were found to be different when comparing
      adherent and non-adherent BM-MSCs. Cluster analysis identified 16 sets of genes
      of which two displayed comparable gene expression levels in primary and non
      adherent cultured cells, but not in adherent cultured cells. This pattern
      suggested that these clusters contained candidate regulators of BM-MSCs. Gene
      expression differences were confirmed for selected genes and BM-MSC transcription
      factors by protein analysis and RT-PCR, respectively. Taken together, these data
      demonstrated profound gene expression changes upon culture of primary BM-MSCs.
      Moreover, gene cluster differences provide the basis to uncover the regulatory
      mechanisms that control primary and cultured BM-MSCs.

PMID- 28871087
TI  - Ethnic differences in smoking intensity and COPD risk: an observational study in
      primary care.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk is lower in black and south Asian
      people than white people, when adjusting for age, sex, deprivation and smoking
      status. The role of smoking intensity was assessed for its contribution to ethnic
      differences in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk, a relationship not
      previously investigated. This cross-sectional study included routinely collected
      primary care data from four multi-ethnic London boroughs. Smoking intensity
      (estimated by cigarettes per day) was compared between ethnic groups. Chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease risk was compared between ethnic groups using
      multiple logistic regression, controlling for age, sex, deprivation, asthma and
      both smoking status and smoking intensity, examined independently. In all,
      1,000,388 adults were included. Smoking prevalence and intensity were
      significantly higher in the white British/Irish groups than other ethnic groups.
      Higher smoking intensity was associated with higher chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease risk. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk was significantly lower
      in all ethnic groups compared with white British/Irish after adjustment for
      either smoking status or smoking intensity, with lowest risk in black Africans
      (odds ratio 0.33; confidence interval 0.28-0.38). Ethnic differences in chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease risk were not explained in this study by ethnic
      differences in smoking prevalence or smoking intensity. Other causes of ethnic
      differences in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk should be sought,
      including ethnic differences in smoking behaviour, environmental factors,
      repeated respiratory infections, immigrant status, metabolism and addictiveness
      of nicotine and differential susceptibility to the noxious effects of cigarette
      smoke.COPD: SMOKING INTENSITY NOT BEHIND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN DISEASE RISK:
      Lower smoking intensity among blacks and south Asians does not explain their
      lower risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A UK team led by
      Alexander Gilkes from Kings College London analysed primary care data from more
      than a million people living in four multi-ethnic boroughs of the British
      capital. The researchers found that smoking status and intensity (as measured by
      number of cigarettes smoked per day) were both significantly higher in white
      British or Irish groups than in other ethnic populations. Even after
      statistically adjusting for smoking status or smoking intensity, however, the
      researchers couldn't account for the fact that people of south Asian or African
      descent had much lower prevalence rates of COPD, a lung disease linked to
      smoking. The findings suggest that other explanations of ethnic differences are
      still needed.

PMID- 28871089
TI  - CD81 association with SAMHD1 enhances HIV-1 reverse transcription by increasing
      dNTP levels.
AB  - In this study, we report that the tetraspanin CD81 enhances human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 reverse transcription in HIV-1-infected cells.
      This is enabled by the direct interaction of CD81 with the deoxynucleoside
      triphosphate phosphohydrolase SAMHD1. This interaction prevents endosomal
      accumulation and favours the proteasome-dependent degradation of SAMHD1.
      Consequently, CD81 depletion results in SAMHD1 increased expression, decreasing
      the availability of deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTP) and thus HIV-1 reverse
      transcription. Conversely, CD81 overexpression, but not the expression of a CD81
      carboxy (C)-terminal deletion mutant, increases cellular dNTP content and HIV-1
      reverse transcription. Our results demonstrate that the interaction of CD81 with
      SAMHD1 controls the metabolic rate of HIV-1 replication by tuning the
      availability of building blocks for reverse transcription, namely dNTPs. Together
      with its role in HIV-1 entry and budding into host cells, the data herein
      indicate that HIV-1 uses CD81 as a rheostat that controls different stages of the
      infection.

PMID- 28871091
TI  - Demonstration of sub-luminal propagation of single-cycle terahertz pulses for
      particle acceleration.
AB  - The sub-luminal phase velocity of electromagnetic waves in free space is
      generally unobtainable, being closely linked to forbidden faster than light group
      velocities. The requirement of sub-luminal phase-velocity in laser-driven
      particle acceleration schemes imposes a limit on the total acceleration
      achievable in free space, and necessitates the use of dispersive structures or
      waveguides for extending the field-particle interaction. We demonstrate a
      travelling source approach that overcomes the sub-luminal propagation limits. The
      approach exploits ultrafast optical sources with slow group velocity propagation,
      and a group-to-phase front conversion through nonlinear optical interaction. The
      concept is demonstrated with two terahertz generation processes, nonlinear
      optical rectification and current-surge rectification. We report measurements of
      longitudinally polarised single-cycle electric fields with phase and group
      velocity between 0.77c and 1.75c. The ability to scale to multi-megavolt-per
      metre field strengths is demonstrated. Our approach paves the way towards the
      realisation of cheap and compact particle accelerators with femtosecond scale
      control of particles.Controlled generation of terahertz radiation with subluminal
      phase velocities is a key issue in laser-driven particle acceleration. Here, the
      authors demonstrate a travelling-source approach utilizing the group-to-phase
      front conversion to overcome the sub-luminal propagation limit.

PMID- 28871090
TI  - TRIM23 mediates virus-induced autophagy via activation of TBK1.
AB  - Autophagy and interferon (IFN)-mediated innate immunity are critical antiviral
      defence mechanisms, and recent evidence indicated that tripartite motif (TRIM)
      proteins are important regulators of both processes. Although the role of TRIM
      proteins in modulating antiviral cytokine responses has been well established,
      much less is known about their involvement in autophagy in response to different
      viral pathogens. Through a targeted RNAi screen examining the relevance of
      selected TRIM proteins in autophagy induced by herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1),
      encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) and influenza A virus (IAV), we identified
      several TRIM proteins that regulate autophagy in a virus-species-specific manner,
      as well as a few TRIM proteins that were essential for autophagy triggered by all
      three viruses and rapamycin, among them TRIM23. TRIM23 was critical for autophagy
      mediated restriction of multiple viruses, and this activity was dependent on both
      its RING E3 ligase and ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) GTPase activity. Mechanistic
      studies revealed that unconventional K27-linked auto-ubiquitination of the ARF
      domain is essential for the GTP hydrolysis activity of TRIM23 and activation of
      TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) by facilitating its dimerization and ability to
      phosphorylate the selective autophagy receptor p62. Our work identifies the
      TRIM23-TBK1-p62 axis as a key component of selective autophagy and further
      reveals a role for K27-linked ubiquitination in GTPase-dependent TBK1 activation.

PMID- 28871092
TI  - Acupuncture and related therapies used as add-on or alternative to prokinetics
      for functional dyspepsia: overview of systematic reviews and network meta
      analysis.
AB  - Prokinetics for functional dyspepsia (FD) have relatively higher number needed to
      treat values. Acupuncture and related therapies could be used as add-on or
      alternative. An overview of systematic reviews (SRs) and network meta-analyses
      (NMA) were performed to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of different
      acupuncture and related therapies. We conducted a comprehensive literature search
      for SRs of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in eight international and Chinese
      databases. Data from eligible RCTs were extracted for random effect pairwise meta
      analyses. NMA was used to explore the most effective treatment among acupuncture
      and related therapies used alone or as add-on to prokinetics, compared to
      prokinetics alone. From five SRs, 22 RCTs assessing various acupuncture and
      related therapies were included. No serious adverse events were reported. Two
      pairwise meta-analyses showed manual acupuncture has marginally stronger effect
      in alleviating global FD symptoms, compared to domperidone or itopride. Results
      from NMA showed combination of manual acupuncture and clebopride has the highest
      probability in alleviating patient reported global FD symptom. Combination of
      manual acupuncture and clebopride has the highest probability of being the most
      effective treatment for FD symptoms. Patients who are contraindicated for
      prokinetics may use manual acupuncture or moxibustion as alternative. Future
      confirmatory comparative effectiveness trials should compare clebopride add-on
      manual acupuncture with domperidone add-on manual acupuncture and moxibustion.

PMID- 28871093
TI  - Fatty Acid Concentration and Phase Transitions Modulate Abeta Aggregation
      Pathways.
AB  - Aggregation of amyloid beta (Abeta) peptides is a significant event that
      underpins Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology. Abeta aggregates, especially the low
      molecular weight oligomers, are the primary toxic agents in AD and hence, there
      is increasing interest in understanding their formation and behavior. Aggregation
      is a nucleation-dependent process in which the pre-nucleation events are
      dominated by Abeta homotypic interactions. Dynamic flux and stochasticity during
      pre-nucleation renders the reactions susceptible to perturbations by other
      molecules. In this context, we investigate the heterotypic interactions between
      Abeta and fatty acids (FAs) by two independent tool-sets such as reduced order
      modelling (ROM) and ensemble kinetic simulation (EKS). We observe that FAs
      influence Abeta dynamics distinctively in three broadly-defined FA concentration
      regimes containing non-micellar, pseudo-micellar or micellar phases. While the
      non-micellar phase promotes on-pathway fibrils, pseudo-micellar and micellar
      phases promote predominantly off-pathway oligomers, albeit via subtly different
      mechanisms. Importantly off-pathway oligomers saturate within a limited molecular
      size, and likely with a different overall conformation than those formed along
      the on-pathway, suggesting the generation of distinct conformeric strains of
      Abeta, which may have profound phenotypic outcomes. Our results validate previous
      experimental observations and provide insights into potential influence of
      biological interfaces in modulating Abeta aggregation pathways.

PMID- 28871095
TI  - Stable reconstruction of the (110) surface and its role in pseudocapacitance of
      rutile-like RuO2.
AB  - Surfaces of rutile-like RuO2, especially the most stable (110) surface, are
      important for catalysis, sensing and charge storage applications. Structure,
      chemical composition, and properties of the surface depend on external
      conditions. Using the evolutionary prediction method USPEX, we found stable
      reconstructions of the (110) surface. Two stable reconstructions, RuO4-(2 * 1)
      and RuO2-(1 * 1), were found, and the surface phase diagram was determined. The
      new RuO4-(2 * 1) reconstruction is stable in a wide range of environmental
      conditions, its simulated STM image perfectly matches experimental data, it is
      more thermodynamically stable than previously proposed reconstructions, and
      explains well pseudocapacitance of RuO2 cathodes.

PMID- 28871094
TI  - The immunologic advantage of recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma from the
      viewpoint of Galectin-9/Tim-3-related changes in the tumour microenvironment.
AB  - Given salvage treatment for recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains a
      clinical dilemma, immunotherapy targeting NPC-specific immunosuppression may
      bring new hope. We analyzed the expression of CD8, CD4, Foxp3 and Tim-3 in
      lymphocytes, and of Galectin-9 in tumour cells between paired primary and
      recurrent NPC from 95 patients and we noted that there was significant increase
      in the expression of Galectin-9+ tumour cells (p < 0.001) and Foxp3+ lymphocytes
      (p < 0.001) but a significant decrease in the expression of CD8+ lymphocytes (p =
      0.01) between paired primary and recurrent NPC. Of all patients, 53 patients
      (55.79%) and 57 patients (60%) had increased percentages of Galectin-9+ tumour
      cells and of Foxp3+ lymphocytes, respectively. Conversely, 42 patients (44.21%)
      had decreased percentages of CD8+ lymphocytes. The patients with high Galectin-9
      expression in recurrent NPC frequently also had high Tim-3 (p = 0.04) and Foxp3
      (p = 0.01), and low CD8 (p = 0.04) expression in lymphocytes. After multivariate
      analyses, low CD8 expression in lymphocytes was an independent risk factor for
      relapse-free survival (p = 0.002) and overall survival (p = 0.02). Our data
      suggests that recurrent NPC may had more immunologic advantage than primary NPC,
      especially the Galectin-9/Tim-3 pathway. The immunotherapies targeting Galectin
      9/Tim-3/Foxp3 interaction may serve as a potential salvage treatment for
      recurrent NPC.

PMID- 28871096
TI  - Near-source high-rate GPS, strong motion and InSAR observations to image the 2015
      Lefkada (Greece) Earthquake rupture history.
AB  - The 2015/11/17 Lefkada (Greece) earthquake ruptured a segment of the Cephalonia
      Transform Fault (CTF) where probably the penultimate major event was in 1948.
      Using near-source strong motion and high sampling rate GPS data and Sentinel-1A
      SAR images on two tracks, we performed the inversion for the geometry, slip
      distribution and rupture history of the causative fault with a three-step self
      consistent procedure, in which every step provided input parameters for the next
      one. Our preferred model results in a ~70 degrees  ESE-dipping and ~13 degrees  N
      striking fault plane, with a strike-slip mechanism (rake ~169 degrees ) in
      agreement with the CTF tectonic regime. This model shows a bilateral propagation
      spanning ~9 s with the activation of three main slip patches, characterized by
      rise time and peak slip velocity in the ranges 2.5-3.5 s and 1.4-2.4 m/s,
      respectively, corresponding to 1.2-1.8 m of slip which is mainly concentrated in
      the shallower (<10 km) southern half of the causative fault. The inferred slip
      distribution and the resulting seismic moment (M0 = 1.05 * 1019 N m) suggest a
      magnitude of M w 6.6. Our best solution suggests that the occurrence of large (M
      w  > 6) earthquakes to the northern and to the southern boundaries of the 2015
      causative fault cannot be excluded.

PMID- 28871098
TI  - Anisotropic resonance modes emerging in an antiferromagnetic superconducting
      state.
AB  - Two strong arguments in favor of magnetically driven unconventional
      superconductivity arise from the coexistence and closeness of superconducting and
      magnetically ordered phases on the one hand, and from the emergence of magnetic
      spin-resonance modes at the superconducting transition on the other hand.
      Combining these two arguments one may ask about the nature of superconducting
      spin-resonance modes occurring in an antiferromagnetic state. This problem can be
      studied in underdoped BaFe2 As2, for which the local coexistence of large moment
      antiferromagnetism and superconductivity is well established by local probes.
      However, polarized neutron scattering experiments are required to identify the
      nature of the resonance modes. In the normal state of Co underdoped BaFe2 As2 the
      antiferromagnetic order results in broad magnetic gaps opening in all three spin
      directions that are reminiscent of the magnetic response in the parent compound.
      In the superconducting state two distinct anisotropic resonance excitations
      emerge, but in contrast to numerous studies on optimum and over-doped BaFe2 As2
      there is no isotropic resonance excitation. The two anisotropic resonance modes
      appearing within the antiferromagnetic phase are attributed to a band selective
      superconducting state, in which longitudinal magnetic excitations are gapped by
      antiferromagnetic order with sizable moment.

PMID- 28871097
TI  - Miltefosine Resistant Field Isolate From Indian Kala-Azar Patient Shows Similar
      Phenotype in Experimental Infection.
AB  - Emergence of resistance to drugs used to treat the Indian Kala-azar patients
      makes control strategy shattered. In this bleak situation, Miltefosine (MIL) was
      introduced to treat mainly antimonial unresponsive cases. Within years,
      resistance to MIL has been reported. While checking the MIL sensitivity of the
      recent KA clinical isolates (n = 26), we came across one isolate which showed
      four times more EC50 for MIL than that of MIL-Sensitive (MIL-S) isolates and
      considered as putative MIL-Resistant (MIL-R). The expressions of LdMT and LdRos3
      genes of this isolate were found down regulated. Th1/Th2 cytokines, ROS and NO,
      FACS dot plots and mitochondrial trans membrane potential measurement were
      performed. In vivo hamster model with this MIL-R isolate showed much lesser
      reduction in liver weight (17.5%) compared to average reduction in liver weight
      (40.2%) of the animals infected with MIL-S isolates. The splenic and hepatic
      stamps smears of MIL-R infected hamsters revealed the retention of parasite load
      of about 51.45%. The splenocytes of these animals failed to proliferate anti
      leishmanial T-cells and lack of cell mediated immunity hampered recovery. Thus,
      these phenotypic expressions of experimental model may be considered similar to
      that of the MIL unresponsive patients. This is first such kind of report.

PMID- 28871099
TI  - Vocal greeting during mother-infant reunions in a nocturnal primate, the gray
      mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus).
AB  - In human societies, ritualized greeting behavior includes gestural and vocal
      displays to signal the social acceptance of an encountering person. These
      displays are universal across cultures suggesting a pre-human origin. Vocal
      greeting displays are only reported for monkeys and apes with complex social
      systems, but none of these studies confirmed that greeting signals fulfill all
      criteria characterizing human greeting behavior. In this study, we analyzed for
      the first time whether vocal exchanges between mother and infants in a non-human
      primate fulfill the criteria of human greeting behavior and whether vocal
      greeting behavior is present in a basal primate with a less complex social
      system, the gray mouse lemur. By comparing spontaneous leave-takings and
      reunions, we found that vocal exchanges during mother-infant reunions fulfilled
      all six criteria characterizing human greeting behavior. Thus, predictable
      reciprocal vocal exchanges occurred at the start of the reunion (but not during
      leave-taking), when mother and infant had visual contact to each other. Thus, we
      argued that mother-infant vocal exchanges governing reunions are essential to
      establish social bonds and to ritualize the greeting function. Our findings
      suggest that ritualized vocal greeting has its origins deeply rooted in mammalian
      phylogeny and derives from vocal exchanges during parent-infant reunions.

PMID- 28871100
TI  - Exposure to arousal-inducing sounds facilitates visual search.
AB  - Exposure to affective stimuli could enhance perception and facilitate attention
      via increasing alertness, vigilance, and by decreasing attentional thresholds.
      However, evidence on the impact of affective sounds on perception and attention
      is scant. Here, a novel aspect of affective facilitation of attention is studied:
      whether arousal induced by task-irrelevant auditory stimuli could modulate
      attention in a visual search. In two experiments, participants performed a visual
      search task with and without auditory-cues that preceded the search. Participants
      were faster in locating high-salient targets compared to low-salient targets.
      Critically, search times and search slopes decreased with increasing auditory
      induced arousal while searching for low-salient targets. Taken together, these
      findings suggest that arousal induced by sounds can facilitate attention in a
      subsequent visual search. This novel finding provides support for the alerting
      function of the auditory system by showing an auditory-phasic alerting effect in
      visual attention. The results also indicate that stimulus arousal modulates the
      alerting effect. Attention and perception are our everyday tools to navigate our
      surrounding world and the current findings showing that affective sounds could
      influence visual attention provide evidence that we make use of affective
      information during perceptual processing.

PMID- 28871101
TI  - Retrospective Analysis of Structural Disease Progression in Retinitis Pigmentosa
      Utilizing Multimodal Imaging.
AB  - In this report, we assess the natural progression rate of retinitis pigmentosa
      (RP) over an average of three years using spectral-domain optical coherence
      tomography (SD-OCT) and short wavelength fundus autofluorescence (SW-AF).
      Measurement of the ellipsoid zone (EZ) line width and hyperautofluorescent ring
      diameters was performed in 81 patients with RP in a retrospective, longitudinal
      fashion. Rate of structural disease progression, symmetry between eyes, and test
      retest variability were quantified. We observed on average, EZ-line widths
      decreased by 140 um (5.2%, p < 0.001) per year, and average horizontal and
      vertical hyperautofluorescent ring diameters decreased by 149 um (3.6%, p <
      0.001) and 120 um (3.9%, p < 0.001) per year, respectively. The 95th percentile
      of this cohort had differences in progression slopes between eyes that were less
      than 154 um, 118 um, and 132 um for EZ-line width and horizontal and vertical
      ring diameters, respectively. For all measures except horizontal ring diameter,
      progression rates were significantly slower at end-stage disease. From our data,
      we observed a statistically significant progression rate in EZ line width and SW
      AF ring diameters over time, verifying the utility of these measurements for
      disease monitoring purposes. Additionally, calculated differences in progression
      slopes between eyes may prove useful for investigators evaluating the efficacy of
      unilateral treatments for RP in clinical trials.

PMID- 28871103
TI  - Lipidomic dysregulation within the lung parenchyma following whole-thorax lung
      irradiation: Markers of injury, inflammation and fibrosis detected by MALDI-MSI.
AB  - Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is a delayed effect of acute radiation
      exposure that can limit curative cancer treatment therapies and cause lethality
      following high-dose whole-thorax lung irradiation (WTLI). To date, the exact
      mechanisms of injury development following insult remain ill-defined and there
      are no FDA approved pharmaceutical agents or medical countermeasures.
      Traditionally, RILI development is considered as three phases, the clinically
      latent period, the intermediate acute pneumonitis phase and the later fibrotic
      stage. Utilizing matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry
      imaging, we identified a number of lipids that were reflective of disease state
      or injury. Lipids play central roles in metabolism and cell signaling, and thus
      reflect the phenotype of the tissue environment, making these molecules pivotal
      biomarkers in many disease processes. We detected decreases in specific
      surfactant lipids irrespective of the different pathologies that presented within
      each sample at 180 days post whole-thorax lung irradiation. We also detected
      regional increases in ether-linked phospholipids that are the precursors of PAF,
      and global decreases in lipids that were reflective of severe fibrosis. Taken
      together our results provide panels of lipids that can differentiate between
      naive and irradiated samples, as well as providing potential markers of
      inflammation and fibrosis.

PMID- 28871102
TI  - Angiotensin II affects inflammation mechanisms via AMPK-related signalling
      pathways in HL-1 atrial myocytes.
AB  - Inflammation is a common cause of cardiac arrhythmia. Angiotensin II (Ang II) is
      a major contributing factor in the pathogenesis of cardiac inflammation; however,
      its underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we explored the effect
      of Ang II on inflammatory mechanisms and oxidative stress using HL-1 atrial
      myocytes. We showed that Ang II activated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)
      phosphorylation and other inflammatory markers, such as transforming growth
      factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Ang II
      decreased oxygen consumption rate, which resulted in reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) generation and inhibition of ROS blocked Ang II-mediated JNK
      phosphorylation and TGF-beta1 induction. Ang II induced the expression of its
      specific receptor, AT1R. Ang II-induced intracellular calcium production
      associated with Ang II-mediated signalling pathways. In addition, the generated
      ROS and calcium stimulated AMPK phosphorylation. Inhibiting AMPK blocked Ang II
      mediated JNK and TGF-beta signalling pathways. Ang II concentration, along with
      TGF-beta1 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels, was slightly increased in
      plasma of patients with atrial fibrillation. Taken together, these results
      suggest that Ang II induces inflammation mechanisms through an AMPK-related
      signalling pathway. Our results provide new molecular targets for the development
      of therapeutics for inflammation-related conditions, such as atrial fibrillation.

PMID- 28871104
TI  - Aggregated mesoporous nanoparticles for high surface area light scattering layer
      TiO2 photoanodes in Dye-sensitized Solar Cells.
AB  - Hierarchically structured aggregates, consisting of TiO2 nanoparticles were
      produced via one-step solvothermal syntheses with a mixed solvent system
      containing both acetic acid and ethanol. Two of the resulting structures, one
      ~700 nm and the other ~300 nm in diameter, were found to be comprised of 8.5 nm
      and 10.5 nm anatase crystals, and possess specific surface areas of 138 and 106
      m2 g-1 respectively. These particles were incorporated into Dye-sensitized Solar
      Cells (DSCs) as high surface area scattering layers, along with a layer of a
      transparent material. Solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 9.1% and
      8.2% were recorded using these aggregated particles as compared to those of
      commonly used large particles scattering layer 7.4%.

PMID- 28871106
TI  - 3D imaging of the brain morphology and connectivity defects in a model of
      psychiatric disorders: MAP6-KO mice.
AB  - In the central nervous system, microtubule-associated protein 6 (MAP6) is
      expressed at high levels and is crucial for cognitive abilities. The large
      spectrum of social and cognitive impairments observed in MAP6-KO mice are
      reminiscent of the symptoms observed in psychiatric diseases, such as
      schizophrenia, and respond positively to long-term treatment with antipsychotics.
      MAP6-KO mice have therefore been proposed to be a useful animal model for these
      diseases. Here, we explored the brain anatomy in MAP6-KO mice using high spatial
      resolution 3D MRI, including a volumetric T1w method to image brain structures,
      and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) for white matter fiber tractography. 3D DTI
      imaging of neuronal tracts was validated by comparing results to optical images
      of cleared brains. Changes to brain architecture included reduced volume of the
      cerebellum and the thalamus and altered size, integrity and spatial orientation
      of some neuronal tracks such as the anterior commissure, the mammillary tract,
      the corpus callosum, the corticospinal tract, the fasciculus retroflexus and the
      fornix. Our results provide information on the neuroanatomical defects behind the
      neurological phenotype displayed in the MAP6-KO mice model and especially
      highlight a severe damage of the corticospinal tract with defasciculation at the
      location of the pontine nuclei.

PMID- 28871105
TI  - Convergent Akt activation drives acquired EGFR inhibitor resistance in lung
      cancer.
AB  - Non-small-cell lung cancer patients with activating epidermal growth factor
      receptor (EGFR) mutations typically benefit from  EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor
      treatment. However, virtually all patients succumb to acquired EGFR tyrosine
      kinase inhibitor resistance that occurs via diverse mechanisms. The diversity and
      unpredictability of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance mechanisms presents
      a challenge for developing new treatments to overcome EGFR tyrosine kinase
      inhibitor resistance. Here, we show that Akt activation is a convergent feature
      of acquired EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance, across a spectrum of
      diverse, established upstream resistance mechanisms. Combined treatment with an
      EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor and Akt inhibitor causes apoptosis and synergistic
      growth inhibition in multiple EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor-resistant non-small
      cell lung cancer models. Moreover, phospho-Akt levels are increased in most
      clinical specimens obtained from EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer patients
      with acquired EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance. Our findings provide a
      rationale for clinical trials testing Akt and EGFR inhibitor co-treatment in
      patients with elevated phospho-Akt levels to therapeutically combat the
      heterogeneity of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance mechanisms.EGFR-mutant
      non-small cell lung cancer are often resistant to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor
      treatment. In this study, the authors show that resistant tumors display high Akt
      activation and that a combined treatment with AKT inhibitors causes synergistic
      tumour growth inhibition in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28871107
TI  - Concentration, source identification, and exposure risk assessment of PM2.5-bound
      parent PAHs and nitro-PAHs in atmosphere from typical Chinese cities.
AB  - Sixteen parent PAHs and twelve nitro-PAHs were measured in PM2.5 samples
      collected over one year (2013-2014) at nine urban sites in China. During the
      sampling period, concentrations of individual nitro-PAHs were one or two orders
      of magnitude lower than their parent PAHs. Typical seasonal variations in parent
      PAH concentrations, which increased 10- to 80- fold in winter compared to summer,
      were observed in this study. Conversely, the mean atmospheric concentrations of
      nitro-PAHs were similar in all four seasons, with the exception of 9
      nitroanthracene (9n-Ant). Compared to other nitro-PAHs which were secondary
      formation products, 9n-Ant had a higher concentration and made up a larger
      proportion of total nitro-PAHs. Positive matrix factorization results indicated
      that 9n-Ant sources included biomass burning (20%), vehicle exhaust emissions
      (43%), and secondary formation (30%). Overall, the elevated concentrations of
      parent PAHs observed in winter correlated with the contribution from coal
      combustion at all sites, especially in north China (>80%). The contribution of
      secondary formation products to total nitro-PAHs was measured during the summer,
      and was especially high in the larger cities such as Shanghai (84%), Beijing
      (76%), Guangzhou (60%), and Chengdu (64%), largely due to the summer
      concentrations of parent PAHs were markedly lower than in winter.

PMID- 28871108
TI  - Allelic variation of the rice blast resistance gene Pid3 in cultivated rice
      worldwide.
AB  - In this study, the re-sequencing data from 3,000 rice genomes project (3 K RGP)
      was used to analyze the allelic variation at the rice blast resistance (R) Pid3
      locus. A total of 40 haplotypes were identified based on 71 nucleotide
      polymorphic sites among 2621 Pid3 homozygous alleles in the 3k genomes. Pid3
      alleles in most japonica rice accessions were pseudogenes due to premature stop
      mutations, while those in most indica rice accessions were identical to the
      functional haplotype Hap_6, which had a similar resistance spectrum as the
      previously reported Pid3 gene. By sequencing and CAPS marker analyzing the Pid3
      alleles in widespread cultivars in China, we verified that Hap_6 had been widely
      deployed in indica rice breeding of China. Thus, we suggest that the priority for
      utilization of the Pid3 locus in rice breeding should be on introducing the
      functional Pid3 alleles into japonica rice cultivars and the functional alleles
      of non-Hap_6 haplotypes into indica rice cultivars for increasing genetic
      diversity.

PMID- 28871109
TI  - Two-color pump-probe interferometry of ultra-fast light-matter interaction.
AB  - Two-color side-view probing of light-matter interaction from minute focal volume
      of a tightly focused fs-laser pump pulse reveals charge dynamics with high 0.9
      MUm optical resolution and approximately ~45fs temporal resolution defined by
      pulse duration. Use of two colors is advantageous for probing optically excited
      plasma regions with different density. Holographical digital focusing and spatial
      filtering were implemented to obtain the same resolution images for subsequent
      Fourier analysis. Fast plasma density decay with time constant ~150 fs was
      resolved and is consistent with self-trapping. Potential applications of an
      optical control over light-induced defects with deep-sub-wavelength resolution is
      discussed.

PMID- 28871110
TI  - A Deep Learning-Based Radiomics Model for Prediction of Survival in Glioblastoma
      Multiforme.
AB  - Traditional radiomics models mainly rely on explicitly-designed handcrafted
      features from medical images. This paper aimed to investigate if deep features
      extracted via transfer learning can generate radiomics signatures for prediction
      of overall survival (OS) in patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). This
      study comprised a discovery data set of 75 patients and an independent validation
      data set of 37 patients. A total of 1403 handcrafted features and 98304 deep
      features were extracted from preoperative multi-modality MR images. After feature
      selection, a six-deep-feature signature was constructed by using the least
      absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression model. A
      radiomics nomogram was further presented by combining the signature and clinical
      risk factors such as age and Karnofsky Performance Score. Compared with
      traditional risk factors, the proposed signature achieved better performance for
      prediction of OS (C-index = 0.710, 95% CI: 0.588, 0.932) and significant
      stratification of patients into prognostically distinct groups (P < 0.001, HR =
      5.128, 95% CI: 2.029, 12.960). The combined model achieved improved predictive
      performance (C-index = 0.739). Our study demonstrates that transfer learning
      based deep features are able to generate prognostic imaging signature for OS
      prediction and patient stratification for GBM, indicating the potential of deep
      imaging feature-based biomarker in preoperative care of GBM patients.

PMID- 28871111
TI  - Monitoring the electron dynamics of the excited state via higher-order spectral
      minimum.
AB  - A pump-probe scheme for monitoring the electron dynamics of the excited state has
      been investigated by numerically solving the two-state time-dependent Schrodinger
      equation based on the non-Born-Oppenheimer approximation. By adjusting the delay
      time between a mid-infrared probe pulse and an ultra violet pump pulse, an
      obvious minimum can be seen in the higher-order harmonic region. With electron
      probability density distribution, ionization rate and classical simulation, the
      minimum can be ascribed to the electron localization around one nucleus at larger
      delay time and represents the electron dynamics of the excited state at the time
      of ionization. Moreover, the position of the minimum is much more sensitive to
      the nuclear motion.

PMID- 28871112
TI  - Activation of liver stromal cells is associated with male-biased liver tumor
      initiation in xmrk and Myc transgenic zebrafish.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is more prevalent in men than in women. Previously
      we have found that some stromal cells, including hepatic stellate cells (HSCs),
      neutrophils and macrophages, play crucial roles in promoting sex disparity in
      kras V12 -induced zebrafish HCC. The activation of HSCs is mediated by serotonin
      while activation of neutrophils and macrophages is mediated by cortisol. To
      ensure that these findings are also applicable to other oncogene induced tumors,
      stromal cell activation was compared between male and female fish during liver
      tumorigenesis initiated by xmrk or Myc oncogene. Consistently, we observed male
      biased liver tumorigenesis in the xmrk and Myc models. In both models, there was
      a higher rate of HSC activation accompanied with a higher level of serotonin in
      male liver tumors. For tumor-infiltrated neutrophils and macrophages,
      significantly higher densities in male liver tumors were observed in both xmrk
      and Myc models. However, the male-biased increase of cortisol was observed only
      in xmrk- but not apparently in Myc expressing liver tumors. Overall, these
      observations are consistent with the observations in the kras liver tumor model,
      indicating that the serotonin- and cortisol-mediated pathways also play roles in
      sex disparity of liver tumors caused by other molecular pathways.

PMID- 28871114
TI  - A comparative integrated gene-based linkage and locus ordering by linkage
      disequilibrium map for the Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei.
AB  - The Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, is the most farmed aquaculture
      species worldwide with global production exceeding 3 million tonnes annually.
      Litopenaeus vannamei has been the focus of many selective breeding programs
      aiming to improve growth and disease resistance. However, these have been based
      primarily on phenotypic measurements and omit potential gains by integrating
      genetic selection into existing breeding programs. Such integration of genetic
      information has been hindered by the limited available genomic resources,
      background genetic parameters and knowledge on the genetic architecture of
      commercial traits for L. vannamei. This study describes the development of a
      comprehensive set of genomic gene-based resources including the identification
      and validation of 234,452 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms in-silico, of
      which 8,967 high value SNPs were incorporated into a commercially available
      Illumina Infinium ShrimpLD-24 v1.0 genotyping array. A framework genetic linkage
      map was constructed and combined with locus ordering by disequilibrium
      methodology to generate an integrated genetic map containing 4,817 SNPs, which
      spanned a total of 4552.5 cM and covered an estimated 98.12% of the genome. These
      gene-based genomic resources will not only be valuable for identifying regions
      underlying important L. vannamei traits, but also as a foundational resource in
      comparative and genome assembly activities.

PMID- 28871113
TI  - TRIB3 inhibits proliferation and promotes osteogenesis in hBMSCs by regulating
      the ERK1/2 signaling pathway.
AB  - Osteogenic differentiation in human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells
      (hBMSCs) is regulated by various factors, including bone morphogenetic proteins
      (BMPs), Notch, growth hormones and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs).
      Tribbles homolog 3 (TRIB3), a pseudokinase, plays an important role in cancer
      cells and adipocytes. However, TRIB3 function in osteogenic differentiation is
      unknown, although it is involved in regulating signaling pathways associated with
      osteogenic differentiation. Here, we found that TRIB3 was highly expressed during
      osteogenic differentiation in hBMSCs. Inhibition of focal adhesion kinase (FAK)
      or phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) resulted in a significant decrease in
      TRIB3 expression, and expression of TRIB3 was restored by increasing insulin-like
      growth factor-1 (IGF-1) via activating phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein
      kinase B (PI3K/AKT) signaling. TRIB3 knock-down enhanced proliferation and
      decreased osteogenic differentiation at the middle stage of differentiation, and
      these effects were reversed by inhibiting the activation of extracellular signal
      regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2. In conclusion, TRIB3 plays an important role in
      proliferation and osteogenic differentiation by regulating ERK1/2 activity at the
      middle stage of differentiation, and expression of TRIB3 is regulated by FAK in a
      PI3K/AKT-dependent manner.

PMID- 28871115
TI  - In-situ visualization of multiple filament competition dynamic during nonlinear
      propagation of femtosecond laser.
AB  - In this work, multiple filamentation competition of femtosecond pulse in methanol
      is studied both experimentally and numerically. The visualization of multiple
      filamentation competition has been realized in the experiment performing the
      three-photon fluorescence of Coumarin 440. The random changes of multiple
      filamentation stemmed from the jitter of the peak laser intensity ratio of
      initial hot spots are first observed directly and visually, which can be well
      explained by a simplified (2D+1)-dimensional model.

PMID- 28871116
TI  - Controlling Directed Protein Interaction Networks in Cancer.
AB  - Control theory is a well-established approach in network science, with
      applications in bio-medicine and cancer research. We build on recent results for
      structural controllability of directed networks, which identifies a set of driver
      nodes able to control an a-priori defined part of the network. We develop a novel
      and efficient approach for the (targeted) structural controllability of cancer
      networks and demonstrate it for the analysis of breast, pancreatic, and ovarian
      cancer. We build in each case a protein-protein interaction network and focus on
      the survivability-essential proteins specific to each cancer type. We show that
      these essential proteins are efficiently controllable from a relatively small
      computable set of driver nodes. Moreover, we adjust the method to find the driver
      nodes among FDA-approved drug-target nodes. We find that, while many of the drugs
      acting on the driver nodes are part of known cancer therapies, some of them are
      not used for the cancer types analyzed here; some drug-target driver nodes
      identified by our algorithms are not known to be used in any cancer therapy.
      Overall we show that a better understanding of the control dynamics of cancer
      through computational modelling can pave the way for new efficient therapeutic
      approaches and personalized medicine.

PMID- 28871118
TI  - Durable and self-hydrating tungsten carbide-based composite polymer electrolyte
      membrane fuel cells.
AB  - Proton conductivity of the polymer electrolyte membranes in fuel cells dictates
      their performance and requires sufficient water management. Here, we report a
      simple, scalable method to produce well-dispersed transition metal carbide
      nanoparticles. We demonstrate that these, when added as an additive to the proton
      exchange Nafion membrane, provide significant enhancement in power density and
      durability over 100 hours, surpassing both the baseline Nafion and platinum
      containing recast Nafion membranes. Focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope
      tomography reveals the key membrane degradation mechanism. Density functional
      theory exposes that OH* and H* radicals adsorb more strongly from solution and
      reactions producing OH* are significantly more endergonic on tungsten carbide
      than on platinum. Consequently, tungsten carbide may be a promising catalyst in
      self-hydrating crossover gases while retarding desorption of and capturing free
      radicals formed at the cathode, resulting in enhanced membrane durability.The
      proton conductivity of polymer electrolyte membranes in fuel cells dictates their
      performance, but requires sufficient water management. Here, the authors report a
      simple method to produce well-dispersed transition metal carbide nanoparticles as
      additives to enhance the performance of Nafion membranes in fuel cells.

PMID- 28871117
TI  - Conjoint and dissociated structural and functional abnormalities in first-episode
      drug-naive patients with major depressive disorder: a multimodal meta-analysis.
AB  - Published MRI evidence of structural and resting-state functional brain
      abnormalities in MDD has been inconsistent. To eliminate interference by repeated
      disease episodes and antidepressant treatment, we conducted the first multimodal
      voxel-wise meta-analysis of studies of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and the
      amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in first-episode drug-naive MDD
      patients, using the Seed-based d Mapping method (SDM). Fifteen VBM data sets and
      11 ALFF data sets were included. SDM-based multimodal meta-analysis was used to
      highlight brain regions with both structural and functional abnormalities. This
      identified conjoint structural and functional abnormalities in left lateral
      orbitofrontal cortex and right supplementary motor area, and also dissociated
      abnormalities of structure (decreased grey matter in right dorsolateral
      prefrontal cortex and right inferior temporal gyrus; increased grey matter in
      right insula, right putamen, left temporal pole, and bilateral thalamus) and
      function (increased brain activity in left supplementary motor area, left
      parahippocampal gyrus, and hippocampus; decreased brain activity in right lateral
      orbitofrontal cortex). This study reveals a complex pattern of conjoint and
      dissociated structural and functional abnormalities, supporting the involvement
      of basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits, representing emotional, cognitive and
      psychomotor abnormalities, in the pathophysiology of early-stage MDD.
      Specifically, this study adds to Psychoradiology, an emerging subspecialty of
      radiology, which seems primed to play a major clinical role in guiding diagnostic
      and treatment planning decisions in patients with mental disorder.

PMID- 28871119
TI  - Magnetite nanoparticles enhance the performance of a combined bioelectrode-UASB
      reactor for reductive transformation of 2,4-dichloronitrobenzene.
AB  - Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) among the cometabolism microbes
      plays a key role in the anaerobic degradation of persistent organic pollutants
      and stability of anaerobic bioreactor. In this study, the COD removal efficiency
      increased to 99.0% during the start-up stage in the combined bioelectrode-UASB
      system (R1) with magnetite nanoparticles addition, which was higher than those in
      the coupled bioelectrode-UASB (R2; 83.2%) and regular UASB (R3; 71.0%). During
      the stable stage, the increase of 2,4-dichloronitrobenzene (2,4-DClNB)
      concentration from 25 mg L-1 to 200 mg L-1 did not affect the COD removal
      efficiencies in R1 and R2, whereas the performance of R3 was deteriorated
      obviously. Further intermediates analysis indicated that magnetite nanoparticles
      enhanced the reductive dechlorination of 2,4-DClNB. High-throughput sequencing
      results showed that the functional microbes like Syntrophobacter and
      Syntrophomonas which have been reported to favor the DIET, were predominant on
      the cathode surface of R1 reactor. It is speculated that the addition of
      magnetite nanoparticles favors the cooperative metabolism of dechlorinating
      microbes and electricigens during 2,4-DClNB degradation process in the combined
      bioelectrode-UASB reactor. This study may provide a new strategy to improve the
      performance of microbial electrolysis cells and enhance the pollutant removal
      efficiency.

PMID- 28871120
TI  - Development of a luciferase-based biosensor to assess enterovirus 71 3C protease
      activity in living cells.
AB  - Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is a major pathogen of hand, foot, and mouth disease
      (HFMD). To date, no antiviral drug has been approved to treat EV71 infection. Due
      to the essential role that EV71 3 C protease (3Cpro) plays in the viral life
      cycle, it is generally considered as a highly appealing target for antiviral drug
      development. In this study, we present a transgene-encoded biosensor that can
      accurately, sensitively and quantitatively report the proteolytic activity of
      EV71 3Cpro. This biosensor is based on the catalyzed activity of a pro
      interleukin (IL)-1beta-enterovirus 3Cpro cleavage site-Gaussia Luciferase (GLuc)
      fusion protein that we named i-3CS-GLuc. GLuc enzyme is inactive in the fusion
      protein because of aggregation caused by pro-IL-1beta. However, the 3Cpro of EV71
      and other enteroviruses, such as coxsackievirus A9 (CVA9), coxsackievirus B3
      (CVB3), and poliovirus can recognize and process the canonical enterovirus 3Cpro
      cleavage site between pro-IL-1beta and GLuc, thereby releasing and activating
      GLuc and resulting in increased luciferase activity. The high sensitivity, ease
      of use, and applicability as a transgene in cell-based assays of i-3CS-GLuc
      biosensor make it a powerful tool for studying viral protease proteolytic events
      in living cells and for achieving high-throughput screening of antiviral agents.

PMID- 28871121
TI  - Effects of cycloheximide on the interpretation of ribosome profiling experiments
      in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
AB  - Stress conditions lead to global and gene-specific changes in RNA translation.
      Ribosome profiling experiments have identified genome-wide alterations in the
      distribution of ribosomes along mRNAs. However, it is contentious whether these
      changes reflect real responses, or whether they are artefacts caused by the use
      of inhibitors of translation (notably cycloheximide). To address this issue we
      performed ribosome profiling with the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe
      under conditions of exponential growth (unstressed) and nitrogen starvation
      (nutritional stress), and both in the presence and absence of cycloheximide. We
      examined several aspects of the translational response, including density of
      ribosomal footprints on coding sequences, 5' leader ribosomal densities,
      distribution of ribosomes along coding sequences, and ribosome codon occupancies.
      Cycloheximide had minor effects on overall ribosome density, which affected
      mostly mRNAs encoding ribosomal proteins. Nitrogen starvation caused an
      accumulation of ribosomes on 5' leaders in both cycloheximide-treated and
      untreated cells. By contrast, stress-induced ribosome accumulation on the 5' side
      of coding sequences was cycloheximide-dependent. Finally, codon occupancy showed
      strong positive correlations in cycloheximide-treated and untreated cells. Our
      results demonstrate that cycloheximide does influence some of the results of
      ribosome profiling experiments, although it is not clear if this effect is always
      artefactual.

PMID- 28871122
TI  - Effect of Correlations in Swarms on Collective Response.
AB  - Social interaction increases significantly the performance of a wide range of
      cooperative systems. However, evidence that natural swarms limit the number of
      interactions suggests potentially detrimental consequences of excessive
      interaction. Using a canonical model of collective motion, we find that the
      collective response to a dynamic localized perturbation-emulating a predator
      attack-is hindered when the number of interacting neighbors exceeds a certain
      threshold. Specifically, the effectiveness in avoiding the predator is enhanced
      by large integrated correlations, which are known to peak at a given level of
      interagent interaction. From the network-theoretic perspective, we uncover the
      same interplay between number of connections and effectiveness in group-level
      response for two distinct decision-making models of distributed consensus
      operating over a range of static networks. The effect of the number of
      connections on the collective response critically depends on the dynamics of the
      perturbation. While adding more connections improves the response to slow
      perturbations, the opposite is true for fast ones. These results have far
      reaching implications for the design of artificial swarms or interaction
      networks.

PMID- 28871123
TI  - The role of Hfq in regulation of lipA expression in Pseudomonas protegens Pf-5.
AB  - Pseudomonas lipase is a well-studied lipase. However, few studies have been
      conducted to examine the mechanisms underlying the regulation of the lipase
      expression. Hfq is a global regulatory protein that, among others, controls the
      expression of multiple genes, regulate bacterial peristalsis, and participates in
      the regulation of quorum-sensing (QS) system. In this study, the effects of Hfq
      on lipase expression were investigated by knocking out the hfq and rsmY genes or
      overexpressing of hfq and rsmY genes. We found that Hfq regulates the expression
      of lipA at both transcriptional and translational levels. The translational level
      was the main regulatory level of lipA. Hfq also regulates the expression and
      stability of rsmY. Additionally, using hfq/rsmY double gene knock-out, we showed
      that Hfq can directly bind to the rsmY to regulate lipA activity. In conclusion,
      our results indicate that Hfq regulates the expression of rsmY mainly at the
      translational level to influence the expression of lipA in Pseudomonas protegens
      Pf-5.

PMID- 28871124
TI  - Cell Division Cycle 42 plays a Cell type-Specific role in Lung Tumorigenesis.
AB  - Cell division cycle 42 (CDC42) plays important roles in polarity establishment
      and maintenance as well as cell cycle progression and cell division. Although
      disruption of cell polarity is a prerequisite in epithelial tumor initiation, the
      roles of CDC42 in tumorigenesis are still poorly understood. Here we find that
      Cdc42 deficiency inhibits the Kras G12D -induced lung alveoli tumor formation,
      while conversely promotes bronchiole tumor formation in mice. Bronchial Cdc42
      loss destroys contact inhibition potentially through cell polarity disruption,
      and results in increased tumor formation. In contrast, deletion of Cdc42 in
      alveoli cells prevents Kras G12D -induced cell proliferation, which leads to
      reduced tumor formation. Further analyses of clinical specimens uncover a
      significant positive correlation between CDC42 and type II alveolar epithelial
      cells marker SP-A, indicating the potential importance of CDC42 in this specific
      subset of lung cancer. Collectively, we identify the lineage-specific function of
      CDC42 in lung tumorigenesis potentially through the regulation of cell polarity
      integrity.

PMID- 28871125
TI  - HIV-1 matrix protein p17 misfolding forms toxic amyloidogenic assemblies that
      induce neurocognitive disorders.
AB  - Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1)-associated neurocognitive disorder
      (HAND) remains an important neurological manifestation that adversely affects a
      patient's quality of life. HIV-1 matrix protein p17 (p17) has been detected in
      autoptic brain tissue of HAND individuals who presented early with severe AIDS
      encephalopathy. We hypothesised that the ability of p17 to misfold may result in
      the generation of toxic assemblies in the brain and may be relevant for HAND
      pathogenesis. A multidisciplinary integrated approach has been applied to
      determine the ability of p17 to form soluble amyloidogenic assemblies in vitro.
      To provide new information into the potential pathogenic role of soluble p17
      species in HAND, their toxicological capability was evaluated in vivo. In C.
      elegans, capable of recognising toxic assemblies of amyloidogenic proteins, p17
      induces a specific toxic effect which can be counteracted by tetracyclines, drugs
      able to hinder the formation of large oligomers and consequently amyloid fibrils.
      The intrahippocampal injection of p17 in mice reduces their cognitive function
      and induces behavioral deficiencies. These findings offer a new way of thinking
      about the possible cause of neurodegeneration in HIV-1-seropositive patients,
      which engages the ability of p17 to form soluble toxic assemblies.

PMID- 28871126
TI  - MDM2 Contributes to High Glucose-Induced Glomerular Mesangial Cell Proliferation
      and Extracellular Matrix Accumulation via Notch1.
AB  - Murine double minute 2 (MDM2) is an E3-ubiquitin ligase critical for various
      biological functions. Previous data have revealed an indispensable role of MDM2
      in kidney homeostasis. However, its role in glomerular mesangial cell (GMC)
      proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation during hyperglycemia
      condition remains unclear. In our present study, we found that MDM2 protein level
      was significantly upregulated in high glucose-treated GMCs, while knocking down
      MDM2 by siRNA could attenuate high glucose-induced ECM accumulation and GMCs
      proliferation. Unexpectedly, Nutlin-3a, a MDM2-p53 interaction blocker, had no
      benefit in protecting diabetic mice from renal impairment in vivo and in
      alleviating high glucose-induced ECM accumulation in vitro. Intriguingly, we
      found that Notch1 signaling activation was obviously attenuated by MDM2 depletion
      in GMCs with high glucose exposure. However, Numb, a substrate of MDM2 which
      suppresses Notch1 signaling, was found not to be involved in the MDM2 and Notch1
      association. Moreover, our findings demonstrated that MDM2 interacted with Notch1
      intracellular domain (NICD1) independent of Numb and regulated the ubiquitination
      status of NICD1. Collectively, our data propose a pivotal role of MDM2 in high
      glucose-induced GMC proliferation and ECM accumulation, via modulating the
      activation of Notch1 signaling pathway in an ubiquitination-dependent way.

PMID- 28871127
TI  - Simultaneous multi-band valley-protected topological edge states of shear
      vertical wave in two-dimensional phononic crystals with veins.
AB  - The introduction of the concept of valley pseudospin to phononic crystals has
      made a remarkable topologically protected interface transport of sound, which
      opens a novel research area referred to as valley Hall topological insulators.
      Here, we demonstrate the simultaneous multi-band edge states of shear vertical
      waves in two-dimensional phononic crystals with veins. The multi-band edge states
      are topologically valley-protected and are obtained by simultaneously gapping
      multiple Dirac points at K (or K') under the inversion symmetry breaking. As the
      relative radius of the two adjacent steel columns varies, the band diagram
      undergoes a topological transition which can be characterized by topological
      charge distributions and opposite valley Chern numbers. Subsequently, the vortex
      chirality of the bulk valley modes is unveiled. With numerical simulations,
      simultaneous multi-band valley dependent edge states and the associated valley
      protected backscattering suppression around the curved waveguide are further
      demonstrated. Our work could become a promising platform for applications of
      multi-functional topological acoustic devices.

PMID- 28871128
TI  - Synergistic Effect of BDNF and FGF2 in Efficient Generation of Functional
      Dopaminergic Neurons from human Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - To understand the process of neurogenesis, generation of functional dopaminergic
      (DAergic) neurons from human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) is important. BDNF
      has been reported to be responsible for inducing neuronal maturation and
      functionality. Previously, we have reported the efficient generation of neurons
      from human bone marrow derived MSCs using FGF2 alone. We hypothesize that hMSCs
      from various tissues [(bone marrow (BM), adipose tissue (AD) and dental pulp
      (DP)], if treated with BDNF on 9th day of induction, alongwith FGF2 will generate
      functional DAergic neurons. Hence, cells were characterized at morphometric,
      transcription and translational levels for various markers like MAP2, TH, NGN2,
      PITX3, DAT, synaptophysin, Kv4.2 and SCN5A. Functionality of in vitro generated
      neurons was studied by calcium ion imaging. Result analysis depicted that BDNF
      has effect on expression of dopaminergic neuronal markers at gene and protein
      levels and functionality of neurons. Among these hMSCs, DP-MSC showed
      significantly better neuronal characteristics in terms of morphology, expression
      of neuronal markers and foremost, functionality of neurons. From the present
      study, therefore, we concluded that i) BDNF has additive effect on neuronal
      characteristics and functionality ii) DP-MSC are better MSC candidate to study
      DAergic neurogenesis and perform future studies.

PMID- 28871129
TI  - A novel inducible mutagenesis screen enables to isolate and clone both embryonic
      and adult zebrafish mutants.
AB  - Conventional genetic screens for recessive mutants are inadequate for studying
      biological processes in the adult vertebrate due to embryonic lethality. Here, we
      report that a novel inducible mutagenesis system enables to study gene function
      in both embryonic and adult zebrafish. This system yields genetic mutants with
      conditional ectopic over- or under-expression of genes in F1 heterozygotes by
      utilizing inducible Tet-On transcriptional activation of sense or anti-sense
      transcripts from entrapped genes by Tol2 transposase-meditated transgenesis.
      Pilot screens identified 37 phenotypic mutants displaying embryonic defects (34
      lines), adult fin regeneration defects (7 lines), or defects at both stages (4
      lines). Combination of various techniques (such as: generating a new mutant
      allele, injecting gene specific morpholino or mRNA etc) confirms that Dox-induced
      embryonic abnormalities in 10 mutants are due to dysfunction of entrapped genes;
      and that Dox-induced under-expression of 6 genes causes abnormal adult fin
      regeneration. Together, this work presents a powerful mutagenesis system for
      genetic analysis from zebrafish embryos to adults in particular and other model
      organisms in general.

PMID- 28871130
TI  - Early weaning increases aggression and stereotypic behaviour in cats.
AB  - Behaviour problems are common in companion felines, and problematic behaviour may
      be a sign of chronic stress. In laboratory animals, early weaning increases the
      risk for aggression, anxiety, and stereotypic behaviour. However, very few
      studies have focused on early weaning in one of the world's most popular pets,
      the domestic cat, although weaning soon after the critical period of
      socialisation is common practice. To study the effects of early weaning (<12
      weeks) on behaviour, a large data set (N = 5726, 40 breeds) was collected from
      home-living domestic cats through a questionnaire survey. The results show that
      weaning before 8 weeks of age increases the risk for aggression, but not fearful
      behaviour. Moreover, cats weaned after 14 weeks of age have a lower probability
      for aggression towards strangers than early weaned cats and a lower probability
      for stereotypic behaviour (excessive grooming) than cats weaned at 12 weeks. The
      effect of weaning age on stereotypic behaviour is partially explained by the
      effects on aggression. These findings indicate that early weaning has a
      detrimental effect on behaviour, and suggest delayed weaning as a simple and
      inexpensive approach to significantly improve the welfare of millions of domestic
      cats.

PMID- 28871132
TI  - An LC-MS Approach to Quantitative Measurement of Ammonia Isotopologues.
AB  - Ammonia is a fundamental aspect of metabolism spanning all of phylogeny.
      Metabolomics, including metabolic tracing studies, are an integral part of
      elucidating the role of ammonia in these systems. However, current methods for
      measurement of ammonia are spectrophotometric, and cannot distinguish
      isotopologues of ammonia, significantly limiting metabolic tracing studies. Here,
      we describe a novel LC-MS-based method that quantitatively assesses both 14N-and
      15N-isotopologues of ammonia in polar metabolite extracts. This assay (1)
      quantitatively measures the concentration of ammonia in polar metabolite isolates
      used for metabolomic studies, and (2) accurately determines the percent isotope
      abundance of 15N-ammonia in a cell lysate for 15N-isotope tracing studies. We
      apply this assay to quantitatively measure glutamine-derived ammonia in lung
      cancer cell lines with differential expression of glutaminase.

PMID- 28871131
TI  - A novel quantitative PCR mediated by high-fidelity DNA polymerase.
AB  - The biggest challenge for accurate diagnosis of viral infectious disease is the
      high genetic variability of involved viruses, which affects amplification
      efficiency and results in low sensitivity and narrow spectrum. Here, we developed
      a new simple qPCR mediated by high-fidelity (HF) DNA polymerase. The new method
      utilizes an HFman probe and one primer. Fluorescent signal was generated from the
      3'-5' hydrolysis of HFman probe by HF DNA polymerase before elongation
      initiation. Mismatches between probe/primer and template have less influence on
      the amplification efficiency of the new method. The new qPCR exhibited higher
      sensitivity and better adaptability to sequence variable templates than the
      conventional TaqMan probe based-qPCR in quantification of HIV-1 viral load.
      Further comparison with COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test (v2.0) showed a good correlation
      coefficient (R2 = 0.79) between both methods in quantification of HIV-1 viral
      load among 21 clinical samples. The characteristics of tolerance to variable
      templates and one probe-one primer system imply that the probe/primer design for
      the new method will be easier and more flexible than the conventional method for
      highly heterogeneous viruses. Therefore, the HF DNA polymerase-mediated qPCR
      method is a simple, sensitive and promising approach for the development of
      diagnostics for viral infectious diseases.

PMID- 28871133
TI  - Mixed invasive ductal and lobular carcinoma has distinct clinical features and
      predicts worse prognosis when stratified by estrogen receptor status.
AB  - In order to investigate clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of
      mixed invasive ductal and lobular carcinoma (IDC-L), 209,109 primary breast
      cancer patients diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), invasive lobular
      carcinoma (ILC) or IDC-L were included. It was found that IDC-L patients had
      lower tumor grade and higher hormone receptor positive proportions than IDC
      patients. Moreover, IDC-L patients were younger and had a similar hormone
      receptor status compared with ILC patients. Kaplan-Meier plots showed that the
      breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) of IDC-L patients was significantly better
      than IDC patients (P < 0.001) and tended to be better than ILC patients (P =
      0.166). However, after adjusting for clinicopathological factors, survival
      advantage of IDC-L disappeared. Subgroup analysis indicated that IDC-L had higher
      hazard ratios (HRs) than IDC in grade 1, grade 2, ER-positive and ER-negative
      subgroups. Survival analysis in ER-positive and ER-negative subgroups showed that
      IDC-L predicted a worse prognosis than IDC. In conclusion, IDC-L is a distinct
      histological subtype compared with IDC and ILC. Lower grade and higher ER
      positive proportions mainly contribute to its better prognosis. In both ER
      positive and ER-negative subgroups, IDC-L predicts worse prognosis than IDC,
      which suggested the inadequacy of IDC-based therapy and the need of escalated
      therapy.

PMID- 28871134
TI  - High-fat diet increases pain behaviors in rats with or without obesity.
AB  - Obesity is associated with increased risk for chronic pain. Basic mechanisms for
      this association are poorly understood. Using a milder version of a radicular
      pain model, local inflammation of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), we observed
      marked increases in mechanical and cold allodynia in rats of both sexes that were
      maintained on a high-fat diet (HFD) for 6 weeks prior to DRG inflammation.
      Notably, this increase in pain-related behaviors occurred in both Long-Evans and
      Sprague-Dawley rats despite the fact that the 6-week HFD exposure induced obesity
      (e.g., increased insulin, leptin, weight, and percent body fat) in the Long
      Evans, but not Sprague-Dawley, strains. This suggested that HFD, rather than
      obesity per se, increased pain behaviors. Increased pain behaviors were observed
      even after a much shorter (1 week) exposure to the HFD but the effect was
      smaller. HFD also increased behavioral responses and paw swelling to paw
      injection of complete Freund's adjuvant, a model of peripheral inflammatory pain.
      No change was detected in plasma cytokine levels in HFD rats. However, increased
      macrophage infiltration of the DRG was observed in response to the HFD, absent
      any pain model. The results suggest that HFD can increase pain even when it does
      not cause obesity.

PMID- 28871135
TI  - Physico-chemical characterization of Antheraea mylitta silk mats for wound
      healing applications.
AB  - In the field of plastic reconstructive surgery, development of new innovative
      matrices for skin repair is in demand. The ideal biomaterial should promote
      attachment, proliferation and growth of cells. Additionally, it should degrade in
      an appropriate time period without releasing harmful substances, not exerting a
      pathological immune response. The materials used should display optimized
      mechanical properties to sustain cell growth and limit scaffold contraction.
      Wound healing is a biological process directed towards restoration of tissue that
      has suffered an injury. An important phase of wound healing is the generation of
      a basal epithelium wholly replacing the epidermis of the wound. Wild silk from
      Antheraea mylitta meets these demands to a large extent. To evaluate the effects
      of the treatment, Antheraea mylitta and Bombyx mori samples were characterized by
      SEM-EDX, FT-IR, XRD and TGA-DSC techniques. Preliminary cell growth behavior was
      carried out by culturing epidermal cells and proliferation was quantified via
      viability assay. Moreover, Antheraea mylitta possesses excellent cell-adhesive
      capability, effectively promoting cell attachment and proliferation. Antheraea
      mylitta serves as a delivery vehicle for cells. With all these unique features,
      it is expected that Antheraea mylitta mat will have wide utility in the areas of
      tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28871136
TI  - Small molecule T63 suppresses osteoporosis by modulating osteoblast
      differentiation via BMP and WNT signaling pathways.
AB  - Osteoporosis results from the imbalance between bone resorption and bone
      formation, and restoring the normal balance of bone remodeling is highly
      desirable for identification of better treatment. In this study, using a cell
      based high-throughput screening model representing Runt-related transcription
      factor 2 (RUNX2) transcriptional activity, we identified a novel small-molecular
      weight compound, T63, as an efficient up-regulator of osteogenesis. T63 increased
      the alkaline phosphatase (ALPL) activity and mineralization as well as gene
      expression of Alpl and other osteogenic marker genes in mouse osteoblasts and
      mesenchymal stem cell-like cells. Upon induction of osteoblast differentiation,
      T63 inhibited adipogenic differentiation in the pluripotent mesenchymal cells.
      Consistently, T63 up-regulated RUNX2 mRNA and protein levels, and knockdown of
      RUNX2 reduced the osteogenic role of T63. Mechanistically, T63 activated both
      BMPs and WNT/beta-catenin signaling pathways. Inhibition of either signaling
      pathway with specific inhibitor suppressed T63-induced RUNX2 expression and the
      osteogenic phenotypes. Moreover, T63 markedly protected against bone mass loss in
      the ovariectomized and dexamethasone treated rat osteoporosis model.
      Collectively, our data demonstrate that T63 could be a promising drug candidate
      and deserves further development for potential therapeutics in osteoporosis.

PMID- 28871137
TI  - C-terminal BRE overexpression in 11q23-rearranged and t(8;16) acute myeloid
      leukemia is caused by intragenic transcription initiation.
AB  - Overexpression of the BRE (brain and reproductive organ-expressed) gene defines a
      distinct pediatric and adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) subgroup. Here we
      identify a promoter enriched for active chromatin marks in BRE intron 4 causing
      strong biallelic expression of a previously unknown C-terminal BRE transcript.
      This transcript starts with BRE intron 4 sequences spliced to exon 5 and
      downstream sequences, and if translated might code for an N terminally truncated
      BRE protein. Remarkably, the new BRE transcript was highly expressed in over 50%
      of 11q23/KMT2A (lysine methyl transferase 2A)-rearranged and t(8;16)/KAT6A-CREBBP
      cases, while it was virtually absent from other AML subsets and normal tissues.
      In gene reporter assays, the leukemia-specific fusion protein KMT2A-MLLT3
      transactivated the intragenic BRE promoter. Further epigenome analyses revealed
      97 additional intragenic promoter marks frequently bound by KMT2A in AML with C
      terminal BRE expression. The corresponding genes may be part of a context
      dependent KMT2A-MLLT3-driven oncogenic program, because they were higher
      expressed in this AML subtype compared with other groups. C-terminal BRE might be
      an important contributor to this program because in a case with relapsed AML, we
      observed an ins(11;2) fusing CHORDC1 to BRE at the region where intragenic
      transcription starts in KMT2A-rearranged and KAT6A-CREBBP AML.

PMID- 28871138
TI  - Predicting irreversible electroporation-induced tissue damage by means of
      magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography.
AB  - Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is gaining importance in routine clinical
      practice for nonthermal ablation of solid tumors. For its success, it is
      extremely important that the coverage and exposure time of the treated tumor to
      the electric field is within the specified range. Measurement of electric field
      distribution during the electroporation treatment can be achieved using magnetic
      resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT). Here, we show improved MREIT
      enabled electroporation monitoring of IRE-treated tumors by predicting IRE
      ablated tumor areas during IRE of mouse tumors in vivo. The in situ prediction is
      enabled by coupling MREIT with a corresponding Peleg-Fermi mathematical model to
      obtain more informative monitoring of IRE tissue ablation by providing cell death
      probability in the IRE-treated tumors. This technique can potentially be used in
      electroporation-based clinical applications, such as IRE tissue ablation and
      electrochemotherapy, to improve and assure the desired treatment outcome.

PMID- 28871139
TI  - A strategy for the identification of patterns in the biosynthesis of nonribosomal
      peptides by Betaproteobacteria species.
AB  - Nonribosomal peptides have an important pharmacological role due to their
      extensive biological properties. The singularities in the biosynthesis of these
      natural products allowed the development of genome-mining strategies which
      associate them to their original biosynthetic gene clusters. Generally, these
      compounds present complex architectures that make their identification difficult.
      Based on these evidences, genomes from species of the class Betaproteobacteria
      were studied with the purpose of finding biosynthetic similarities  among them .
      These organisms were applied as templates due to their large number of
      biosynthetic gene clusters and the natural products isolated from them. The
      strategy for Rapid Identification of Nonribosomal Peptides Portions (RINPEP)
      proposed in this work was built by reorganizing the data obtained from antiSMASH
      and NCBI with a product-centered way. The verification steps of RINPEP
      comprehended the fragments of existent compounds and predictions obtained in
      silico with the purpose of finding common subunits expressed by different genomic
      sequences. The results of this strategy revealed patterns in a global overview of
      the biosynthesis of nonribosomal peptides by Betaproteobacteria.

PMID- 28871140
TI  - Increased incidence of cytomegalovirus coinfection in HCV-infected patients with
      late liver fibrosis is associated with dysregulation of JAK-STAT pathway.
AB  - Herein, we examined the association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) coinfection and
      the progression of liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and
      investigated the effect of CMV coinfection on JAK-STAT pathway. CMV DNAemia was
      detected by PCR in DNA from controls (n = 120), and HCV patients with early (F0
      F1, n = 131) and late (F2-F4, n = 179) liver fibrosis. By quantitative real time
      PCR (qRT-PCR), we examined the profile of 8 JAK-STAT transcripts in PBMCs RNA
      from 90 HCV patients (39 CMV positive and 51 CMV negative), 4 CMV mono-infected
      patients, and 15 controls. Our results demonstrated higher incidence of CMV in F2
      F4 group than in control (OR 5.479, 95% CI 3.033-9.895, p < 0.0001) or F0-F1
      groups (OR 2, 95% CI 1.238-3.181, p = 0.005). qRT-PCR showed downregulation of
      STAT2 (p = 0.006) and IRF7 (p = 0.02) in CMV positive group compared to CMV
      negative one. The downregulation of STAT2 and IRF7 was mainly in CMV positive
      patients with late fibrosis compared to CMV negative patients (p = 0.0007 for
      IRF7 and p = 0.01 for STAT2). Our results are the first to report that CMV
      coinfection is a possible risk factor for the progression of HCV-induced liver
      fibrosis, and thereby CMV screening and treatment are important for HCV patients.

PMID- 28871141
TI  - Monolithic integration of AlGaInP-based red and InGaN-based green LEDs via
      adhesive bonding for multicolor emission.
AB  - In general, to realize full color, inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are
      diced from respective red-green-blue (RGB) wafers consisting of inorganic
      crystalline semiconductors. Although this conventional method can realize full
      color, it is limited when applied to microdisplays requiring high resolution.
      Designing a structure emitting various colors by integrating both AlGaInP-based
      and InGaN-based LEDs onto one substrate could be a solution to achieve full color
      with high resolution. Herein, we introduce adhesive bonding and a chemical wet
      etching process to monolithically integrate two materials with different bandgap
      energies for green and red light emission. We successfully transferred AlGaInP
      based red LED film onto InGaN-based green LEDs without any cracks or void areas
      and then separated the green and red subpixel LEDs in a lateral direction; the
      dual color LEDs integrated by the bonding technique were tunable from the green
      to red color regions (530-630 nm) as intended. In addition, we studied vertically
      stacked subpixel LEDs by deeply analyzing their light absorption and the
      interaction between the top and bottom pixels to achieve ultra-high resolution.

PMID- 28871142
TI  - Genetic and non-genetic determinants of thymic epithelial cell number and
      function.
AB  - The thymus is the site of T cell development in vertebrates. In general, the
      output of T cells is determined by the number of thymic epithelial cells (TECs)
      and their relative thymopoietic activity. Here, we show that the thymopoietic
      activity of TECs differs dramatically between individual mouse strains. Moreover,
      in males of some strains, TECs perform better on a per cell basis than their
      counterparts in females; in other strains, this situation is reversed. Genetic
      crosses indicate that TEC numbers and thymopoietic capacity are independently
      controlled. Long-term analysis of functional parameters of TECs after castration
      provides evidence that the number of Foxn1-expressing TECs directly correlates
      with thymopoietic activity. Our study highlights potential complications that can
      arise when comparing parameters of TEC biology across different genetic
      backgrounds; these could affect the interpretation of the outcomes of
      interventions aimed at modulating thymic activity in genetically diverse
      populations, such as humans.

PMID- 28871143
TI  - Dysbiosis contributes to chronic constipation development via regulation of
      serotonin transporter in the intestine.
AB  - Chronic constipation is a prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder
      accompanied with intestinal dysbiosis. However, causal relationship between
      dysbiosis and constipation remains poorly understood. Serotonin transporter
      (SERT) is a transmembrane transport protein which re-uptakes excessive 5
      hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) from effective location to terminate its physiological
      effects and involves in regulating gastrointestinal motility. In this study,
      fecal microbiota from patients with constipation and healthy controls were
      transplanted into the antibiotic depletion mice model. The mice which received
      fecal microbiota from patients with constipation presented a reducing in
      intestinal peristalsis and abnormal defecation parameters including the frequency
      of pellet expulsion, fecal weight and fecal water content. After fecal microbiota
      transplantation, the SERT expression in the colonic tissue was significantly
      upregulated, and the content of 5-HT was decreased which negatively correlated
      with the gastrointestinal transit time. Moverover, fecal microbiota from the mice
      which received fecal microbiota from patients with constipation also upregulated
      SERT in Caco-2 cells. Besides, this process accompanied with the decreased
      abundance of Clostridium, Lactobacillus, Desulfovibrio, and Methylobacterium and
      an increased tend of Bacteroides and Akkermansia, which also involved in the
      impairment of intestinal barrier after FMT. Taken together, intestinal dysbiosis
      may upregulate the SERT expression and contribute to the development of chronic
      constipation.

PMID- 28871144
TI  - Evolutionary morphology of the lizard chemosensory system.
AB  - Foraging mode plays a pivotal role in traditional reconstructions of squamate
      evolution. Transitions between modes are said to spark concerted changes in the
      morphology, physiology, behaviour, and life history of lizards. With respect to
      their sensory systems, species that adopt a sit-and-wait strategy are thought to
      rely on visual cues primarily, while actively hunting species would predominantly
      use chemical information. The morphology of the tongue and the vomeronasal-organs
      is believed to mirror this dichotomy. Still, support for this idea of concerted
      evolution of the morphology of the lizard sensory system merely originates from
      studies comparing only a few, distantly related taxa that differ in many aspects
      of their biology besides foraging mode. Hence, we compared vomeronasal-lingual
      morphology among closely related lizard species (Lacertidae). Our findings show
      considerable interspecific variation indicating that the chemosensory system of
      lacertids has undergone substantial change over a short evolutionary time.
      Although our results imply independent evolution of tongue and vomeronasal-organ
      form, we find evidence for co-variation between sampler and sensor, hinting
      towards an 'optimization' for efficient chemoreception. Furthermore, our findings
      suggest species' degree of investment in chemical signalling, and not foraging
      behaviour, as a leading factor driving the diversity in vomeronasal-lingual
      morphology among lacertid species.

PMID- 28871145
TI  - Reversible Keap1 inhibitors are preferential pharmacological tools to modulate
      cellular mitophagy.
AB  - Mitophagy orchestrates the autophagic degradation of dysfunctional mitochondria
      preventing their pathological accumulation and contributing to cellular
      homeostasis. We previously identified a novel chemical tool (hereafter referred
      to as PMI), which drives mitochondria into autophagy without collapsing their
      membrane potential (DeltaPsim). PMI is an inhibitor of the protein-protein
      interaction (PPI) between the transcription factor Nrf2 and its negative
      regulator, Keap1 and is able to up-regulate the expression of autophagy
      associated proteins, including p62/SQSTM1. Here we show that PMI promotes
      mitochondrial respiration, leading to a superoxide-dependent activation of
      mitophagy. Structurally distinct Keap1-Nrf2 PPI inhibitors promote mitochondrial
      turnover, while covalent Keap1 modifiers, including sulforaphane (SFN) and
      dimethyl fumarate (DMF), are unable to induce a similar response. Additionally,
      we demonstrate that SFN reverses the effects of PMI in co-treated cells by
      reducing the accumulation of p62 in mitochondria and subsequently limiting their
      autophagic degradation. This study highlights the unique features of Keap1-Nrf2
      PPI inhibitors as inducers of mitophagy and their potential as pharmacological
      agents for the treatment of pathological conditions characterized by impaired
      mitochondrial quality control.

PMID- 28871146
TI  - Light rare earth element depletion during Deepwater Horizon blowout
      methanotrophy.
AB  - Rare earth elements have generally not been thought to have a biological role.
      However, recent work has demonstrated that the light REEs (LREEs: La, Ce, Pr, and
      Nd) are essential for at least some methanotrophs, being co-factors in the XoxF
      type of methanol dehydrogenase (MDH). We show here that dissolved LREEs were
      significantly removed in a submerged plume of methane-rich water during the
      Deepwater Horizon (DWH) well blowout. Furthermore, incubation experiments
      conducted with naturally methane-enriched waters from hydrocarbon seeps in the
      vicinity of the DWH wellhead also showed LREE removal concurrent with methane
      consumption. Metagenomic sequencing of incubation samples revealed that LREE
      containing MDHs were present. Our field and laboratory observations provide
      further insight into the biochemical pathways of methanotrophy during the DWH
      blowout. Additionally, our results are the first observations of direct
      biological alteration of REE distributions in oceanic systems. In view of the
      ubiquity of LREE-containing MDHs in oceanic systems, our results suggest that
      biological uptake of LREEs is an overlooked aspect of the oceanic geochemistry of
      this group of elements previously thought to be biologically inactive and an
      unresolved factor in the flux of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from the
      ocean.

PMID- 28871147
TI  - Breast Cancer Spheroids Reveal a Differential Cancer Stem Cell Response to
      Chemotherapeutic Treatment.
AB  - An abnormal multicellular architecture is a defining characteristic of breast
      cancer and, yet, most in vitro tumor models fail to recapitulate this
      architecture or accurately predict in vivo cellular responses to therapeutics.
      The efficacy of two front-line chemotherapeutic agents (paclitaxel and cisplatin)
      are described within three distinct in vitro models employing the triple-negative
      basal breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and the luminal breast cancer cell line
      MCF7: a) a 3D collagen embedded multicellular spheroid tumor model, which
      reflects the architecture and cellular heterogeneity of tumors in vivo; b) a 3D
      collagen model with a single cell-type diffusely embedded; and c) a 2D monolayer.
      The MDA-MB-231 embedded spheroid tumor model exhibited the most robust response
      to chemotherapeutic treatment, and possessed the greatest cancer stem cell (CSC)
      content. CSC-related genes are elevated across all MDA-MB-231 in vitro models
      following paclitaxel treatment, indicating that paclitaxel enrichment of
      chemoresistant CSCs is less dependent on microenvironmental tumor structure,
      while cisplatin showed a more context-dependent response. In the MCF7 cell models
      a context-dependent response is observed with paclitaxel treatment increasing the
      CSC related genes in the 2D monolayer and 3D diffuse models while cisplatin
      treatment afforded an increase in ALDH1A3 expression in all three models.

PMID- 28871149
TI  - Rapid LC-MS Based High-Throughput Screening Method, Affording No False Positives
      or False Negatives, Identifies a New Inhibitor for Carbonic Anhydrase.
AB  - Developing effective high-throughput screening (HTS) methods is of paramount
      importance in the early stage of drug discovery. While rugged and robust assays
      may be easily developed for certain enzymes, HTS assays designed to identify
      ligands that block protein binding are much more challenging to develop;
      attenuating the number of false positives and false negatives under high
      throughput screening conditions is particularly difficult. We describe an MS
      based HTS workflow that addresses these challenges. The assay mitigates false
      positives by selectively identifying positive hits exclusively when a ligand at
      the binding site of interest is displaced; it mitigates false negatives by
      detecting a reporter compound that ionizes well, not by detecting the ligand
      binder, which may not ionize. The method was validated by detecting known binders
      of three proteins, pepsin, maltose binding protein (MBP), and carbonic anhydrase
      (CA) in the presence of hundreds of non-binders. We also identified a novel CA
      binder, pifithrin-u, which could not have been identified by any other MS-based
      assay because of its poor ionization efficiency. This new method addresses many
      of the challenges that are currently encountered during high-throughput
      screening.

PMID- 28871148
TI  - Editing an alpha-globin enhancer in primary human hematopoietic stem cells as a
      treatment for beta-thalassemia.
AB  - beta-Thalassemia is one of the most common inherited anemias, with no effective
      cure for most patients. The pathophysiology reflects an imbalance between alpha-
      and beta-globin chains with an excess of free alpha-globin chains causing
      ineffective erythropoiesis and hemolysis. When alpha-thalassemia is co-inherited
      with beta-thalassemia, excess free alpha-globin chains are reduced significantly
      ameliorating the clinical severity. Here we demonstrate the use of CRISPR/Cas9
      genome editing of primary human hematopoietic stem/progenitor (CD34+) cells to
      emulate a natural mutation, which deletes the MCS-R2 alpha-globin enhancer and
      causes alpha-thalassemia. When edited CD34+ cells are differentiated into
      erythroid cells, we observe the expected reduction in alpha-globin expression and
      a correction of the pathologic globin chain imbalance in cells from patients with
      beta-thalassemia. Xenograft assays show that a proportion of the edited CD34+
      cells are long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells, demonstrating the
      potential of this approach for translation into a therapy for beta
      thalassemia.beta-thalassemia is characterised by the presence of an excess of
      alpha-globin chains, which contribute to erythrocyte pathology. Here the authors
      use CRISP/Cas9 to reduce alpha-globin expression in hematopoietic precursors, and
      show effectiveness in xenograft assays in mice.

PMID- 28871150
TI  - Intragastric balloon as an adjunct to lifestyle programme in severely obese
      adolescents: impact on biomedical outcomes and skeletal health.
AB  - Intragastric Balloons are a temporary, reversible and safer option compared to
      bariatric surgery to promote significant weight loss, leading to improved
      metabolic outcomes. However, due to subsequent weight regain, alternative
      procedures are now preferred in adults. In adolescents, more amenable to
      lifestyle change, balloons may be an alternative to less reversible procedures.
      Our aim was to assess the tolerability and efficacy of the intragastric balloon
      in severely obese adolescents and the impact of associated weight loss on
      biomedical outcomes (glucose metabolism, blood pressure, lipid profiles) and bone
      density. A 2-year cohort study of 12 adolescents (BMI >3.5 s.d., Tanner stage >4)
      following 6 months intragastric balloon placement was carried out. Subjects
      underwent anthropometry, oral glucose tolerance test, and DEXA scans at 0, 6 and
      24 months. The results showed clinically relevant improvements in blood pressure,
      insulin: glucose metabolism, liver function and sleep apnoea at 6 months. Changes
      were not sustained at 2 years though some parameters (Diastolic BP, HBA1c,
      insulin AUC) demonstrated longer-term improvement despite weight regain. Despite
      weight loss, bone mass accrual showed age appropriate increases. In conclusion,
      the intragastric balloon was safe, well tolerated and effective in supporting
      short-term weight loss and clinically relevant improvement in obesity-related
      complications, which resolved in some individuals. Benefits were not sustained in
      the majority at 2 years.

PMID- 28871151
TI  - Time-Resolved Pharmacological Studies using Automated, On-line Monitoring of Five
      Parallel Suspension Cultures.
AB  - Early stage pharmacological studies rely on in vitro methodologies for screening
      and testing compounds. Conventional assays based on endpoint measurements provide
      limited information because the lack in temporal resolution may not determine the
      pharmacological effect at its maximum. We developed an on-line, automated system
      for near real-time monitoring of extracellular content from five parallel
      suspension cultures, combining cell density measurements with a high-resolution
      separations every 12 minutes for 4 days. Selector and switching valves provide
      the fluidic control required to sample from one culture during the analysis of
      the previous sample from another culture, a time-saving measure that is
      fundamental to the throughput of the presented system. The system was applied to
      study the metabolic effects of the drugs rotenone, beta-lapachone and clioquinol
      using lactate as metabolic indicator. For each drug, 96 assays were executed on
      the extracellular matrix at three concentrations with two controls in parallel,
      consuming only 5.78 mL of media from each culture over four days, less than 60
      MUL per analysis. The automated system provides high sample throughput, good
      temporal resolution and low sample consumption combined with a rugged analytical
      method with adequate sensitivity, providing a promising new platform for
      pharmacological and biotechnological studies.

PMID- 28871153
TI  - Omni-resonant optical micro-cavity.
AB  - Optical cavities transmit light only at discrete resonant frequencies, which are
      well-separated in micro-structures. Despite attempts at the construction of
      planar 'white-light cavities', the benefits accrued upon optically interacting
      with a cavity - such as resonant field buildup - have remained confined to narrow
      linewidths. Here, we demonstrate achromatic optical transmission through a planar
      Fabry-Perot micro-cavity via angularly multiplexed phase-matching that exploits a
      bio-inspired grating configuration. By correlating each wavelength with an
      appropriate angle of incidence, a continuous spectrum resonates and the micro
      cavity is rendered transparent. The locus of a single-order 0.7-nm-wide resonance
      is de-slanted in spectral-angular space to become a 60-nm-wide achromatic
      resonance spanning multiple cavity free-spectral-ranges. The result is an 'omni
      resonant' planar micro-cavity in which light resonates continuously over a broad
      spectral span. This approach severs the link between the resonance bandwidth and
      the cavity-photon lifetime, thereby promising resonant enhancement of linear and
      nonlinear optical effects over broad bandwidths in ultrathin devices.

PMID- 28871154
TI  - Herbivores rescue diversity in warming tundra by modulating trait-dependent
      species losses and gains.
AB  - Climate warming is altering the diversity of plant communities but it remains
      unknown which species will be lost or gained under warming, especially
      considering interactions with other factors such as herbivory and nutrient
      availability. Here, we experimentally test effects of warming, mammalian
      herbivory and fertilization on tundra species richness and investigate how plant
      functional traits affect losses and gains. We show that herbivory reverses the
      impact of warming on diversity: in the presence of herbivores warming increases
      species richness through higher species gains and lower losses, while in the
      absence of herbivores warming causes higher species losses and thus decreases
      species richness. Herbivores promote gains of short-statured species under
      warming, while herbivore removal and fertilization increase losses of short
      statured and resource-conservative species through light limitation. Our results
      demonstrate that both rarity and traits forecast species losses and gains, and
      mammalian herbivores are essential for preventing trait-dependent extinctions and
      mitigate diversity loss under warming and eutrophication.Warming can reduce plant
      diversity but it is unclear which species will be lost or gained under
      interacting global changes. Kaarlejarvi et al. manipulate temperature, herbivory
      and nutrients in a tundra system and find that herbivory maintains diversity
      under warming by reducing species losses and promoting gains.

PMID- 28871155
TI  - Long-distance impact of Iceland plume on Norway's rifted margin.
AB  - Results of a 3D modeling study inspired by recent seismic tomography of the
      Northern Atlantic mantle suggest that a complex pattern of hot mantle
      distribution with long horizontal flows originating from the Iceland mantle plume
      has been the norm in the geological past. In the Northern Atlantic the Iceland
      plume has a strong long-distance impact on intraplate deformation affecting both
      onshore and offshore parts of Norway's rifted margin. As a result, this margin is
      characterized by large magnitude differential topography sustained over at least
      several tens of Myr. Here we use high-resolution 3D thermo-mechanical modeling to
      demonstrate that the long-distance plume impact can be explained by its fast
      lateral propagation controlled by pre-existing lithosphere structures. Numerical
      models show that these structures strongly affect the style of horizontal flow of
      plume head material. This results in long-distance propagation of hot material
      emplaced at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary causing long-wavelength
      anomalies in onshore topography of Norway's rifted margin. Short-wavelength
      offshore topographic domes are likely caused by joint occurrence of plume-related
      thermal perturbations and gravitational forces related to plate thickening (ridge
      push). Our 3D modeling brings together plume impingement, spreading ridge
      dynamics, and the formation of anomalous intraplate structures offshore Norway in
      one scenario.

PMID- 28871152
TI  - Genome-Wide Association Study of Blood Pressure Traits by Hispanic/Latino
      Background: the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.
AB  - Hypertension prevalence varies between ethnic groups, possibly due to differences
      in genetic, environmental, and cultural determinants. Hispanic/Latino Americans
      are a diverse and understudied population. We performed a genome-wide association
      study (GWAS) of blood pressure (BP) traits in 12,278 participants from the
      Hispanics Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). In the discovery
      phase we identified eight previously unreported BP loci. In the replication
      stage, we tested these loci in the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study of admixed
      Southern Brazilians, the COGENT-BP study of African descent, women of European
      descent from the Women Health Initiative (WHI), and a sample of European descent
      from the UK Biobank. No loci met the Bonferroni-adjusted level of statistical
      significance (0.0024). Two loci had marginal evidence of replication: rs78701042
      (NGF) with diastolic BP (P = 0.008 in the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study), and
      rs7315692 (SLC5A8) with systolic BP (P = 0.007 in European ancestry replication).
      We investigated whether previously reported loci associated with BP in studies of
      European, African, and Asian ancestry generalize to Hispanics/Latinos. Overall,
      26% of the known associations in studies of individuals of European and Chinese
      ancestries generalized, while only a single association previously discovered in
      a people of African descent generalized.

PMID- 28871156
TI  - Late-onset hypersensitivity after a lesion in the ventral posterolateral nucleus
      of the thalamus: A macaque model of central post-stroke pain.
AB  - Central post-stroke pain (CPSP) can occur as a result of a cerebrovascular
      accident in the ventral posterolateral nucleus (VPL) of the thalamus. Developing
      therapeutic interventions for CPSP is difficult because its pathophysiology is
      unclear. Here we developed and characterized a macaque model of CPSP. The
      location of the VPL was determined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and
      extracellular recording of neuronal activity during tactile stimulation, after
      which a hemorrhagic lesion was induced by injecting collagenase type IV.
      Histological analysis revealed that most of the lesion was localized within the
      VPL. Several weeks after the injection, the macaques displayed behavioral changes
      that were interpreted as reflecting the development of both mechanical allodynia
      and thermal hyperalgesia. Immunohistochemistry revealed that microglial and
      astrocytic activation in the perilesional areas lasted at least 3 months after
      injection. The present model reproduced the symptoms of patients suffering from
      CPSP, in which both mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia often develop
      several weeks after cerebrovascular accident. Further, the long-lasting glial
      activation revealed here may be characteristic of primate brains following
      injury. The present model will be useful not only for examining the neurological
      changes underlying CPSP, but also for testing therapeutic interventions for CPSP.

PMID- 28871157
TI  - GDP-D-mannose epimerase regulates male gametophyte development, plant growth and
      leaf senescence in Arabidopsis.
AB  - Plant GDP-D-mannose epimerase (GME) converts GDP-D-mannose to GDP-L-galactose, a
      precursor of both L-ascorbate (vitamin C) and cell wall polysaccharides. However,
      the genetic functions of GME in Arabidopsis are unclear. In this study, we found
      that mutations in Arabidopsis GME affect pollen germination, pollen tube
      elongation, and transmission and development of the male gametophyte through
      analysis of the heterozygous GME/gme plants and the homozygous gme plants.
      Arabidopsis gme mutants also exhibit severe growth defects and early leaf
      senescence. Surprisingly, the defects in male gametophyte in the gme plants are
      not restored by L-ascorbate, boric acid or GDP-L-galactose, though boric acid
      rescues the growth defects of the mutants, indicating that GME may regulate male
      gametophyte development independent of L-ascorbate and GDP-L-galactose. These
      results reveal key roles for Arabidopsis GME in reproductive development,
      vegetative growth and leaf senescence, and suggest that GME regulates plant
      growth and controls male gametophyte development in different manners.

PMID- 28871158
TI  - Hub-driven remote synchronization in brain networks.
AB  - The phenomenon of "remote synchronization" (RS), first observed in a star network
      of oscillators, involves synchronization of unconnected peripheral nodes through
      a hub that maintains independent dynamics. In the RS regime the central hub was
      thought to serve as a passive gate for information transfer between nodes. Here,
      we investigate the physical origin of this phenomenon. Surprisingly, we find that
      a hub node can drive remote synchronization of peripheral oscillators even in the
      presence of a repulsive mean field, thus actively governing network dynamics
      while remaining asynchronous. We study this novel phenomenon in complex networks
      endowed with multiple hub-nodes, a ubiquitous feature of many real-world systems,
      including brain connectivity networks. We show that a change in the natural
      frequency of a single hub can alone reshape synchronization patterns across the
      entire network, and switch from direct to remote synchronization, or to hub
      driven desynchronization. Hub-driven RS may provide a mechanism to account for
      the role of structural hubs in the organization of brain functional connectivity
      networks.

PMID- 28871159
TI  - Molecular characterization of 20 small supernumerary marker chromosome cases
      using array comparative genomic hybridization and fluorescence in situ
      hybridization.
AB  - The variability of a small supernumerary marker chromosome (sSMC)-related
      phenotype is determined by the molecular component, the size, and shape of the
      marker chromosome. As fluorescence in situ hybridization has limitations
      regarding the resolution, efficiency, and accuracy. Recently, array comparative
      genomic hybridization (aCGH) was used for sSMC characterization. In this study,
      twenty cases with sSMCs were characterized by aCGH and FISH. Chromosomal origin
      of the marker chromosomes were successfully identified in seventeen of them. For
      the three cases with negative aCGH results, two of them were more likely due to
      that the sSMCs only contained centromere heterochromatin, whereas the reason for
      the remaining case with negative aCGH finding was uncertain. In order to
      establish a stronger genotype-phenotype correlation for clinical service in the
      future and avoid miss characterization, more sSMC cases were needed to be
      detailed characterized. This will help to clarify the variable clinical
      characteristics of sSMCs and provide additional information to aid clinical
      service and future research.

PMID- 28871161
TI  - Developing cost-effective seismic mineral exploration methods using a
      landstreamer and a drophammer.
AB  - To be fully embraced into mineral exploration, seismic data require to be
      acquired fast, cheaper and with minimum environmental impacts addressing also the
      often brown-field highly noisy environment where these surveys are employed.
      Since 2013 and through a number of case studies, we have been testing a newly
      developed for urban environment, digital-based 240 m long, seismic landstreamer
      for mine planning and mineral exploration purposes. Here, we present a pilot
      study examining the potential of the streamer for deep targeting a known, down to
      approximately 850 m depth, iron-oxide mineralization in the Bergslagen mineral
      district of central Sweden. Combined streamer (100-3C-MEMS (micro
      electromechanical system), 2-4 m spacing) and 75 wireless recorders (mixed 10 Hz
      and MEMS, 10 m spacing) were used. A Bobcat-mounted drophammer, 500 kg, was used
      to generate the seismic signal. Within 4 days, approximately 3.5 km of seismic
      data using 2-10 m source and receiver spacing were acquired. Reflection data
      processing results clearly image the mineralization as a set of strong high
      amplitude reflections and likely slightly extending beyond the known 850 m depth.
      This is encouraging and suggests such a cost-effective exploration method can be
      used in the area and elsewhere to delineate similar depth range iron-oxide
      deposits.

PMID- 28871160
TI  - White light emission from a single organic molecule with dual phosphorescence at
      room temperature.
AB  - The development of single molecule white light emitters is extremely challenging
      for pure phosphorescent metal-free system at room temperature. Here we report a
      single pure organic phosphor, namely 4-chlorobenzoyldibenzothiophene, emitting
      white room temperature phosphorescence with Commission Internationale de l'Eclair
      age coordinates of (0.33, 0.35). Experimental and theoretical investigations
      reveal that the white light emission is emerged from dual phosphorescence, which
      emit from the first and second excited triplet states. We also demonstrate the
      validity of the strategy to achieve metal-free pure phosphorescent single
      molecule white light emitters by intrasystem mixing dual room temperature
      phosphorescence arising from the low- and high-lying triplet states.The
      development of single molecule white light-emitters is extremely challenging for
      pure phosphorescent metal-free systems at room temperature. Here the authors show
      a single pure organic room temperature phosphor, 4-chlorobenzoyldibenzothiophene,
      utilizing the emission from both T1 and T2 states.

PMID- 28871162
TI  - Cervical nodal volume for prognostication and risk stratification of patients
      with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and implications on the TNM-staging system.
AB  - We aim to evaluate the quantitative parameters of 18F-FDG PET/CT (metabolic
      parameters) and MRI (morphologic parameters) for prognostication and risk
      stratification in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). 200 (147 males, aged 50 +/- 13
      years-old, mean +/- S.D.) newly diagnosed patients with NPC (TxNxM0) were
      prospectively recruited. Primary tumor and nodal lesions were identified and
      segmented for both morphologic (volume, VOL) and metabolic (SUV and MTV)
      quantification. Independent predictive factors for recurrence free survival (RFS)
      and overall survival (OS) were morphologic nodal volume (VOL_N, p < 0.001), TNM
      stage (p = 0.022), N-Stage (p = 0.024) for RFS, and VOL_N (p = 0.014) for OS.
      Using Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis, three risk-layers were
      identified for RFS: Stage I/II with VOL_N < 18cc (HR = 1), stage III /IV with
      VOL_N < 18cc (HR = 2.93), VOL_N >= 18cc (HR = 7.84) regardless of disease stage
      (p < 0.001). For OS, two risk layers were identified: VOL_N < 18cc (HR = 1),
      VOL_N >= 18cc (HR = 4.23) (p = 0.001). The 18cc threshold for morphologic nodal
      volume was validated by an independent cohort (n = 105). Based on the above risk
      classification, 35 patients (17.5%) would have a higher risk than suggested by
      the TNM-staging system. Thus, morphologic nodal volume is an important factor in
      prognostication and risk stratification in NPC, and should be incorporated into
      the staging system, while PET parameters have no advantage for this purpose in
      our cohort.

PMID- 28871163
TI  - Increase of vitamin D assays prescriptions and associated factors: a population
      based cohort study.
AB  - A worldwide increase in the frequency of testing for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D
      (25OHD) levels has been observed over the last years. Our aim was to measure the
      evolution in the number of vitamin D assays performed in France from 2008 to 2013
      and to investigate some of the drivers that may explain this increase. Patients
      within the representative 1/97th sample of the French health insurance system
      reimbursement database (EGBS database) who had at least one 25OHD or 1-25(OH)2D
      assay between 2008 and 2013 were included. Trends over time in number of vitamin
      D assays were analysed globally and per year in a multivariable Poisson
      regression model with GEE. Among the 639,163 patients of the EGBS database,
      118,509 (18.5%) had at least one vitamin D assay over the 6-year study period.
      Among the individuals tested, 52.1% had only one test. The number of vitamin D
      assays (25OHD or 1-25(OH)2D) increased 7.5-fold from 9,620 in 2008 to 81,641 in
      2013. This study confirms the rapid and dramatic increase in vitamin D assays
      prescriptions and shows that this is mostly due to a global increase of the
      proportion of patients tested rather than an increase in repetition of tests in
      some individual patients.

PMID- 28871164
TI  - Tumor-infiltrating CD45RO+ Memory T Lymphocytes Predict Favorable Clinical
      Outcome in Solid Tumors.
AB  - The prognostic role of tumor-infiltrating CD45RO+ memory T lymphocytes (CD45RO+ T
      cells) in human solid tumors remains controversial. Herein, we conducted a meta
      analysis including 25 published studies with 4720 patients identified from PubMed
      and EBSCO to assess the prognostic impact of tumor-infiltrating CD45RO+ T cells
      in human solid tumors. We found that CD45RO+ T cell infiltration was
      significantly associated with improved overall survival (OS) and disease-free
      survival (DFS) in all types of solid tumors. In stratified analyses, CD45RO+ T
      cell infiltration significantly improved 1-year, 3-year and 5-year OS in
      colorectal, gastric and esophageal cancer, but only 5-year OS in hepatocellular
      carcinoma. And these cells were positively associated with 1-year, 3-year and 5
      year DFS in hepatocellular, colorectal and esophageal cancer. In addition, high
      density of intratumoral CD45RO+ T cells inversely correlated with TNM stage of
      solid tumor. In conclusion, CD45RO+ memory T lymphocyte infiltration leads to a
      favorable clinical outcome in solid tumors, implicating that it is a valuable
      biomarker for prognostic prediction for human solid malignances.

PMID- 28871166
TI  - The oceanic origin of path-independent carbon budgets.
AB  - Virtually all Earth system models (ESM) show a near proportional relationship
      between cumulative emissions of CO2 and change in global mean temperature, a
      relationship which is independent of the emissions pathway taken to reach a
      cumulative emissions total. The relationship, which has been named the Transient
      Climate Response to Cumulative CO2 Emissions (TCRE), gives rise to the concept of
      a 'carbon budget'. That is, a finite amount of carbon that can be burnt whilst
      remaining below some chosen global temperature change threshold, such as the 2.0 
      degrees C target set by the Paris Agreement. Here we show that the path
      independence of TCRE arises from the partitioning ratio of anthropogenic carbon
      between the ocean and the atmosphere being almost the same as the partitioning
      ratio of enhanced radiative forcing between the ocean and space. That these
      ratios are so close in value is a coincidence unique to CO2. The simple model
      used here is underlain by many assumptions and simplifications but does reproduce
      key aspects of the climate system relevant to the path-independence of carbon
      budgets. Our results place TCRE and carbon budgets on firm physical foundations
      and therefore help validate the use of these metrics for climate policy.

PMID- 28871165
TI  - Zoonotic intestinal helminths interact with the canine immune system by
      modulating T cell responses and preventing dendritic cell maturation.
AB  - Parasite co-evolution alongside the mammalian immune system gave rise to several
      modulatory strategies by which they prevent exaggerated pathology and facilitate
      a longer worm survival. As little is known about the immunoregulatory potential
      of the zoonotic canine parasites Ancylostoma caninum and Toxocara canis in the
      natural host, the present study aimed to investigate whether their larval
      excretory-secretory (ES) products can modulate the canine immune system. We
      demonstrated TcES to increase the frequency of CD4+ Foxp3high T cells, while both
      AcES and TcES were associated with elevated Helios expression in Foxp3high
      lymphocytes. ES products were further capable of inducing IL-10 production by
      lymphocytes, which was mainly attributed to CD8+ T cells. ES treatment of PBMCs
      prior to mitogen stimulation inhibited polyclonal proliferation of CD4+ and CD8+
      T cells. Moreover, monocyte-derived ES-pulsed dendritic cells reduced
      upregulation of MHC-II and CD80 in response to lipopolysaccharide. The data
      showed that regulation of the canine immune system by A. caninum and T. canis
      larvae comprises the modification of antigen-specific and polyclonal T cell
      responses and dendritic cell maturation.

PMID- 28871167
TI  - Supported Cu0 nanoparticles catalyst for controlled radical polymerization
      reaction and block-copolymer synthesis.
AB  - The synthesis of Cu0 nanoparticles on different supports and their activity in
      controlled living radical polymerization processes is presented. The type of
      support influences the final size of the copper nanoparticles as well as their
      adhesion to the support. These aspects have a direct influence on the
      characteristics of the polymers obtained. The best results were obtained for SiO2
      particles, which afforded a good molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn = 1.25).
      The activity, recovery and recycling of the catalyst was explored for ultrafast
      polymerization reaction of butyl acrylate. Further, the terminal bromine
      reactivity was used for the synthesis of a block poly(n butyl acrylate-block
      styrene). The influence of ligand type on the control of the reaction was
      studied. Also, a straightforward polymerization procedure without any ligand
      afforded a polydispersity value of 1.38.

PMID- 28871170
TI  - Capturing PM2.5 Emissions from 3D Printing via Nanofiber-based Air Filter.
AB  - This study investigated the feasibility of using polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber
      based air filters to capture PM2.5 particles emitted from fused deposition
      modeling (FDM) 3D printing. Generation and aggregation of emitted particles were
      investigated under different testing environments. The results show that: (1) the
      PCL nanofiber membranes are capable of capturing particle emissions from 3D
      printing, (2) relative humidity plays a signification role in aggregation of the
      captured particles, (3) generation and aggregation of particles from 3D printing
      can be divided into four stages: the PM2.5 concentration and particles size
      increase slowly (first stage), small particles are continuously generated and
      their concentration increases rapidly (second stage), small particles aggregate
      into more large particles and the growth of concentration slows down (third
      stage), the PM2.5 concentration and particle aggregation sizes increase rapidly
      (fourth stage), and (4) the ultrafine particles denoted as "building unit" act as
      the fundamentals of the aggregated particles. This work has tremendous
      implications in providing measures for controlling the particle emissions from 3D
      printing, which would facilitate the extensive application of 3D printing. In
      addition, this study provides a potential application scenario for nanofiber
      based air filters other than laboratory theoretical investigation.

PMID- 28871168
TI  - Central Nervous System Responses of the Oriental migratory, Locusta migratoria
      manilensis, to Fungal Infection.
AB  - Responses of the central nervous system (CNS) to microbial challenge and the
      interplay between the CNS and the immune system are important for defending
      against pathogen attack. We have examined the CNS transcriptional response of
      Locusta migratoria manilensis to infection by the locust-specific fungal
      pathogen, Metarhizium acridum. CNS responses were examined during spore
      attachment, fungal germination and pre-penetration of the cuticle, and cuticle
      penetration/hemocoel ingress and proliferation. Effects were seen at the earliest
      time points (4 h post-infection) and the number of differentially expressed genes
      (DEGs) was highest during late mycosis (72 h post-infection). Significantly
      affected neurological pathways included genes involved in serotonergic,
      cholinergic, dopaminergic, GABAergic, and glutamergic synapse responses, as well
      as pathways responsible for synaptic vesicle cycle, long-term potentiation and
      depression, and neurotrophin and retrograde endocannabinoid signaling. In
      addition, a significant number of immune related DEGs were identified. These
      included components of the Toll, Imd and JAK/STAT pathways, consistent with
      interactions between the CNS and immune systems. The activation of immune
      response related CNS genes during early stage infection highlights the rapid
      detection of microbial pathogens and suggests an important role for the CNS in
      modulating immunity potentially via initiating behavioral adaptations along with
      innate immune responses.

PMID- 28871169
TI  - Ancestry & molecular evolutionary analyses of heat shock protein 47 kDa
      (HSP47/SERPINH1).
AB  - HSP47/SERPINH1 is key-regulator for collagen biosynthesis and its structural
      assembly. To date, there is no comprehensive study on the phylogenetic history of
      HSP47. Herein we illustrate the evolutionary history of HSP47/SERPINH1 along with
      sequence, structural and syntenic traits for HSP47/SERPINH1. We have identified
      ancestral HSP47/SERPINH1 locus in Japanese lamprey (Lethenteron japonicum). This
      gene remains on the same or similar locus for ~500 million years (MY), but
      chromosomal duplication was observed in ray-finned fishes, leading into three
      sets of three sets (I-III) of HSP47/SERPINH1. Two novel introns were inserted at
      the positions 36b and 102b in the first exon of only HSP47_1 gene from the
      selected ray-finned fishes. On the evolutionary time scale, the events of HSP47
      duplications took placed between 416-360 MY ago (MYA) while intron insertion
      dates back to 231-190 MYA after early divergence of ray-finned fishes.

PMID- 28871172
TI  - The cytoplasmic nuclear receptor RARgamma controls RIP1 initiated cell death when
      cIAP activity is inhibited.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) has a critical role in diverse cellular events
      including inflammation, apoptosis and necroptosis through different signaling
      complexes. However, little is known about how the transition from inflammatory
      signaling to the engagement of death pathways is modulated. Here we report that
      the cytoplasmic retinoic acid receptor gamma (RARgamma) controls receptor
      interacting protein kinase 1 (RIP1)-initiated cell death when cellular inhibitor
      of apoptosis (cIAP) activity is blocked. Through screening a short hairpin RNA
      library, we found that RARgamma was essential for TNF-induced RIP1-initiated
      apoptosis and necroptosis. Our data suggests that RARgamma initiates the
      formation of death signaling complexes by mediating RIP1 dissociation from TNF
      receptor 1. We demonstrate that RARgamma is released from the nucleus to
      orchestrate the formation of the cytosolic death complexes. In addition, we
      demonstrate that RARgamma has a similar role in TNF-induced necroptosis in vivo.
      Thus, our study suggests that nuclear receptor RARgamma provides a key checkpoint
      for the transition from life to death.The molecular switch between how tumour
      necrosis factor (TNF) controls inflammation versus cell death is less well
      defined. Here, the authors show that the nuclear receptor retinoic acid receptor
      gamma is released from the nucleus to disrupt TNF initiated cell death complexes
      in the cytoplasm.

PMID- 28871171
TI  - Chemotherapy-Response Monitoring of Breast Cancer Patients Using Quantitative
      Ultrasound-Based Intra-Tumour Heterogeneities.
AB  - Anti-cancer therapies including chemotherapy aim to induce tumour cell death.
      Cell death introduces alterations in cell morphology and tissue micro-structures
      that cause measurable changes in tissue echogenicity. This study investigated the
      effectiveness of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) parametric imaging to characterize
      intra-tumour heterogeneity and monitor the pathological response of breast cancer
      to chemotherapy in a large cohort of patients (n = 100). Results demonstrated
      that QUS imaging can non-invasively monitor pathological response and outcome of
      breast cancer patients to chemotherapy early following treatment initiation.
      Specifically, QUS biomarkers quantifying spatial heterogeneities in size,
      concentration and spacing of acoustic scatterers could predict treatment
      responses of patients with cross-validated accuracies of 82 +/- 0.7%, 86 +/- 0.7%
      and 85 +/- 0.9% and areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve
      of 0.75 +/- 0.1, 0.80 +/- 0.1 and 0.89 +/- 0.1 at 1, 4 and 8 weeks after the
      start of treatment, respectively. The patients classified as responders and non
      responders using QUS biomarkers demonstrated significantly different survivals,
      in good agreement with clinical and pathological endpoints. The results form a
      basis for using early predictive information on survival-linked patient response
      to facilitate adapting standard anti-cancer treatments on an individual patient
      basis.

PMID- 28871173
TI  - Two loci single particle trajectories analysis: constructing a first passage time
      statistics of local chromatin exploration.
AB  - Stochastic single particle trajectories are used to explore the local chromatin
      organization. We present here a statistical analysis of the first contact time
      distributions between two tagged loci recorded experimentally. First, we extract
      the association and dissociation times from data for various genomic distances
      between loci, and we show that the looping time occurs in confined nanometer
      regions. Second, we characterize the looping time distribution for two loci in
      the presence of multiple DNA damages. Finally, we construct a polymer model, that
      accounts for the local chromatin organization before and after a double-stranded
      DNA break (DSB), to estimate the level of chromatin decompaction. This novel
      passage time statistics method allows extracting transient dynamic at scales
      varying from one to few hundreds of nanometers, it predicts the local changes in
      the number of binding molecules following DSB and can be used to characterize the
      local dynamic of the chromatin.

PMID- 28871174
TI  - Erythropoietin enhances Kupffer cell number and activity in the challenged liver.
AB  - Erythropoietin (EPO) is the main hormone driving mammalian erythropoiesis, with
      activity mediated via the surface receptor, EPO-R, on erythroid progenitor cells.
      Recombinant human EPO is currently used clinically for the treatment of anemia in
      patients with end-stage renal disease, and in certain cancer patients suffering
      from anemia induced either by the tumor itself or by chemotherapy. EPO-R
      expression is also detected in non-erythroid cells, including macrophages present
      in the peritoneum, spleen, and bone marrow (BM). Here we demonstrate that Kupffer
      cells (KCs) - the liver-resident macrophages - are EPO targets. We show that, in
      vitro, EPO initiated intracellular signalling and enhanced phagocytosis in a rat
      KC line (RKC-2) and in sorted KCs. Moreover, continuous EPO administration in
      mice, resulted in an increased number of KCs, up-regulation of liver EPO-R
      expression and    elevated  production of the monocyte chemoattractant CCL2, with
      corresponding egress of Ly6Chi monocytes from the BM. In a model of acute
      acetaminophen-induced liver injury, EPO administration increased the recruitment
      of Ly6Chi monocytes and neutrophils to the liver. Taken together, our results
      reveal a new role for EPO in stimulating KC proliferation and phagocytosis, and
      in recruiting Ly6Chi monocytes in response to liver injury.

PMID- 28871175
TI  - Fluorescent CRISPR Adaptation Reporter for rapid quantification of spacer
      acquisition.
AB  - CRISPR-Cas systems are adaptive prokaryotic immune systems protecting against
      horizontally transferred DNA or RNA such as viruses and other mobile genetic
      elements. Memory of past invaders is stored as spacers in CRISPR loci in a
      process called adaptation. Here we developed a novel assay where spacer
      integration results in fluorescence, enabling detection of memory formation in
      single cells and quantification of as few as 0.05% cells with expanded CRISPR
      arrays in a bacterial population. Using this fluorescent CRISPR Adaptation
      Reporter (f-CAR), we quantified adaptation of the two CRISPR arrays of the type I
      E CRISPR-Cas system in Escherichia coli, and confirmed that more integration
      events are targeted to CRISPR-II than to CRISPR-I. The f-CAR conveniently
      analyzes and compares many samples, allowing new insights into adaptation. For
      instance, we show that in an E. coli culture the majority of acquisition events
      occur in late exponential phase.

PMID- 28871177
TI  - Enhanced Low-temperature Electro-optical Kerr Effect of Stable Cubic Soft
      Superstructure Enabled by Fluorinated Polymer Stabilization.
AB  - An enhanced electro-optical Kerr effect of the stable self-organized cubic blue
      phase liquid crystal superstructure at a relatively low temperature down to -50 
      degrees C was achieved through a judiciously designed fluorinated polymer
      stabilization. The fluorinated sample exhibited not only a rather stable cubic
      structure, but the promoted electro-optical performances of low driving voltage,
      weak hysteresis and high contrast ratio at such a low-temperature, which were
      much distinct from the common non-fluorinated polymer stabilized blue phase
      liquid crystal without conspicuous low-temperature Kerr response behaviours. Kerr
      constant, which reflects the obviousness of Kerr effect, of the fluorinated
      sample at -50  degrees C indicated a spectacular enhancement of two orders of
      magnitude in contrast to the commonly material, thereby corroborating the high
      efficiency of polymer fluorination in enhancing low-temperature Kerr effect. Such
      an enhancement of Kerr effect was probably resulted from the decreasing of
      interfacial anchoring between liquid crystal and fluorinated polymer network. The
      fluorinated polymer stabilization not only ensures the stability of self
      organized cubic structure of blue phase, but overcomes the challenge and
      bottleneck problem of low-temperature inapplicability of common blue phase liquid
      crystal and paves a brilliant and broad way for relevant materials to abundant
      perspective applications at low temperature.

PMID- 28871176
TI  - Interleukin-17A is involved in mechanical hyperalgesia but not in the severity of
      murine antigen-induced arthritis.
AB  - Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) is considered an important pro-inflammatory cytokine but
      its importance in joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is unclear. It
      has also been reported that IL-17A may induce pain but it is unclear whether pro
      inflammatory and pro-nociceptive effects are linked. Here we studied in wild type
      (WT) and IL-17A knockout (IL-17AKO) mice inflammation and hyperalgesia in antigen
      induced arthritis (AIA). We found that the severity and time course of AIA were
      indistinguishable in WT and IL-17AKO mice. Furthermore, the reduction of
      inflammation by sympathectomy, usually observed in WT mice, was preserved in IL
      17AKO mice. Both findings suggest that IL-17A is redundant in AIA pathology.
      However, in the course of AIA IL-17AKO mice showed less mechanical hyperalgesia
      than WT mice indicating that IL-17A contributes to pain even if it is not crucial
      for arthritis pathology. In support for a role of IL-17A and other members of the
      IL-17 family in the generation of pain we found that sensory neurones in the
      dorsal root ganglia (DRG) express all IL-17 receptor subtypes. Furthermore, in
      isolated DRG neurones most IL-17 isoforms increased tetrodotoxin- (TTX-)
      resistant sodium currents which indicate a role of IL-17 members in inflammation
      evoked sensitization of sensory nociceptive neurones.

PMID- 28871179
TI  - Epigenetic analysis confirms no accelerated brain aging in schizophrenia.
AB  - Epigenetic aging is associated with several biological mechanisms and diseases.
      We assessed two brain data sets, one small (n = 48) and one large (n = 392), to
      test epigenetic aging in schizophrenia. DNA methylation age from frontal cortex
      was significantly correlated with chronological age but no significant
      differences in DNA methylation age acceleration between schizophrenia cases and
      controls were observed in both data sets. Our results were consistent with a
      previous study investigating schizophrenia and epigenetic aging in superior
      temporal gyrus. Future studies targeting different brain regions and defined cell
      types are warranted to further investigate accelerated brain aging in
      schizophrenia.

PMID- 28871178
TI  - A novel mathematical model of protein-bound uremic toxin kinetics during
      hemodialysis.
AB  - Protein-bound uremic toxins (PBUTs) are difficult to remove by conventional
      hemodialysis; a high degree of protein binding reduces the free fraction of
      toxins and decreases their diffusion across dialyzer membranes. Mechanistic
      understanding of PBUT kinetics can open new avenues to improve their dialytic
      removal. We developed a comprehensive model of PBUT kinetics that comprises: (1)
      a three-compartment patient model, (2) a dialyzer model. The model accounts for
      dynamic equilibrium between protein, toxin, and the protein-toxin complex.
      Calibrated and validated using clinical and experimental data from the
      literature, the model predicts key aspects of PBUT kinetics, including the free
      and bound concentration profiles for PBUTs and the effects of dialysate flow rate
      and dialyzer size on PBUT removal. Model simulations suggest that an increase in
      dialysate flow rate improves the reduction ratio (and removal) of strongly
      protein-bound toxins, namely, indoxyl sulfate and p-cresyl sulfate, while for
      weakly bound toxins, namely, indole-3-acetic acid and p-cresyl glucuronide, an
      increase in blood flow rate is advantageous. With improved dialyzer performance,
      removal of strongly bound PBUTs improves gradually, but marginally. The proposed
      model can be used for optimizing the dialysis regimen and for in silico testing
      of novel approaches to enhance removal of PBUTs.

PMID- 28871181
TI  - Inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus in water by pulsed spark discharge.
AB  - A pulsed spark plasma discharge system was developed and tested as an energy
      efficient water sterilization method. A 5 log10 reduction on Staphylococcus
      aureus concentration of 108 CFU/ml was obtained. Complete inactivation was
      achieved for concentration of 106 CFU/ml. Of the various factors generated by an
      underwater spark discharge, ultraviolet radiation plays a major role. The
      inactivation was completely suppressed by the addition of 30 mg/L of a soluble
      sunscreen, Benzophenone-9. Results obtained using the pulsed spark plasma
      discharge showed that this system has several advantages, such as high energy
      efficiency, absence of harmful by-products and portability, over the conventional
      sterilization methods.

PMID- 28871180
TI  - Phenotyping and susceptibility of established porcine cells lines to African
      Swine Fever Virus infection and viral production.
AB  - African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly pathogenic, double-stranded DNA
      virus with a marked tropism for cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage,
      affecting swine species and provoking severe economic losses and health threats.
      In the present study, four established porcine cell lines, IPAM-WT, IPAM-CD163,
      C?2+ and WSL, were compared to porcine alveolar macrophage (PAM) in terms of
      surface marker phenotype, susceptibility to ASFV infection and virus production.
      The virulent ASFV Armenia/07, E70 or the naturally attenuated NHV/P68 strains
      were used as viral models. Cells expressed only low levels of specific receptors
      linked to the monocyte/macrophage lineage, with low levels of infection overall,
      with the exception of WSL, which showed more efficient production of strain
      NHV/P68 but not of strains E70 and Armenia/07.

PMID- 28871182
TI  - Mott Transition and Magnetism in Rare Earth Nickelates and its Fingerprint on the
      X-ray Scattering.
AB  - The metal-insulator transition (MIT) remains among the most thoroughly studied
      phenomena in solid state physics, but the complexity of the phenomena, which
      usually involves cooperation of many degrees of freedom including orbitals,
      fluctuating local moments, magnetism, and the crystal structure, have resisted
      predictive ab-initio treatment. Here we develop ab-initio theoretical method for
      correlated electron materials, based on Dynamical Mean Field Theory, which can
      predict the change of the crystal structure across the MIT at finite temperature.
      This allows us to study the coupling between electronic, magnetic and orbital
      degrees of freedom with the crystal structure across the MIT in rare-earth
      nickelates. We predict the electronic free energy profile of the competing
      states, and the theoretical magnetic ground state configuration, which is in
      agreement with neutron scattering data, but is different from the magnetic models
      proposed before. The resonant elastic X-ray response at the K-edge, which was
      argued to be a probe of the charge order, is theoretically modelled within the
      Dynamical Mean Field Theory, including the core-hole interaction. We show that
      the line-shape of the measured resonant elastic X-ray response can be explained
      with the "site-selective" Mott scenario without real charge order on Ni sites.

PMID- 28871183
TI  - Functional expression of the entire adhesiome of Salmonella enterica serotype
      Typhimurium.
AB  - Adhesins are crucial virulence factors of pathogenic bacteria involved in
      colonization, transmission and pathogenesis. Many bacterial genomes contain the
      information for a surprisingly large number of diverse adhesive structures. One
      prominent example is the invasive and facultative intracellular pathogen
      Salmonella enterica with an adhesiome of up to 20 adhesins. Such large repertoire
      of adhesins contributes to colonization of a broad range of host species and may
      allow adaptation to various environments within the host, as well as in non-host
      environments. For S. enterica, only few members of the adhesiome are functionally
      expressed under laboratory conditions, and accordingly the structural and
      functional understanding of the majority of adhesins is sparse. We have devised a
      simple and versatile approach to functionally express all adhesins of S. enterica
      serotype Typhimurium, either within Salmonella or within heterologous hosts such
      as Escherichia coli. We demonstrate the surface expression of various so far
      cryptic adhesins and show ultrastructural features using atomic force microscopy
      and transmission electron microscopy. In summary, we report for the first time
      the expression of the entire adhesiome of S. enterica serotype Typhimurium.

PMID- 28871184
TI  - Motion correction in optoacoustic mesoscopy.
AB  - Raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM), also termed photoacoustic mesoscopy,
      offers novel insights into vascular morphology and pathophysiological biomarkers
      of skin inflammation in vivo at depths unattainable by other optical imaging
      methods. Using ultra-wideband detection and focused ultrasound transducers, RSOM
      can achieve axial resolution of 4 micron and lateral resolution of 20 micron to
      depths of several millimeters. However, motion effects may deteriorate
      performance and reduce the effective resolution. To provide high-quality
      optoacoustic images in clinical measurements, we developed a motion correction
      algorithm for RSOM. The algorithm is based on observing disruptions of the
      ultrasound wave front generated by the vertical movement of the melanin layer at
      the skin surface. From the disrupted skin surface, a smooth synthetic surface is
      generated, and the offset between the two surfaces is used to correct for the
      relative position of the ultrasound detector. We test the algorithm in
      measurements of healthy and psoriatic human skin and achieve effective resolution
      up to 5-fold higher than before correction. We discuss the performance of the
      correction algorithm and its implications in the context of multispectral
      mesoscopy.

PMID- 28871185
TI  - Evaluating the Sources of Graphene's Resistivity Using Differential Conductance.
AB  - We explore the contributions to the electrical resistance of monolayer and
      bilayer graphene, revealing transitions between different regimes of charge
      carrier scattering. In monolayer graphene at low densities, a nonmonotonic
      variation of the resistance is observed as a function of temperature. Such
      behaviour is consistent with the influence of scattering from screened Coulomb
      impurities. At higher densities, the resistance instead varies in a manner
      consistent with the influence of scattering from acoustic and optical phonons.
      The crossover from phonon-, to charged-impurity, limited conduction occurs once
      the concentration of gate-induced carriers is reduced below that of the residual
      carriers. In bilayer graphene, the resistance exhibits a monotonic decrease with
      increasing temperature for all densities, with the importance of short-range
      impurity scattering resulting in a "universal" density-independent (scaled)
      conductivity at high densities. At lower densities, the conductivity deviates
      from this universal curve, pointing to the importance of thermal activation of
      carriers out of charge puddles. These various assignments, in both systems, are
      made possible by an approach of "differential-conductance mapping", which allows
      us to suppress quantum corrections to reveal the underlying mechanisms governing
      the resistivity.

PMID- 28871186
TI  - Analysis of population-specific pharmacogenomic variants using next-generation
      sequencing data.
AB  - Functional rare variants in drug-related genes are believed to be highly
      differentiated between ethnic- or racial populations. However, knowledge of
      population differentiation (PD) of rare single-nucleotide variants (SNVs),
      remains widely lacking, with the highest fixation indices, (Fst values), from
      both rare and common variants annotated to specific genes, having only been
      marginally used to understand PD at the gene level. In this study, we suggest a
      new, gene-based PD method, PD of Rare and Common variants (PDRC), for analyzing
      rare variants, as inspired by Generalized Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (GCMH)
      statistics, to identify highly population-differentiated drug response-related
      genes ("pharmacogenes"). Through simulation studies, we reveal that PDRC
      adequately summarizes rare and common variants, due to PD, over a specific gene.
      We also applied the proposed method to a real whole-exome sequencing dataset,
      consisting of 10,000 datasets, from the Type 2 Diabetes Genetic Exploration by
      Next-generation sequencing in multi-Ethnic Samples (T2D-GENES) initiative, and
      3,000 datasets from the Genetics of Type 2 diabetes (Go-T2D) repository. Among
      the 48 genes annotated with Very Important Pharmacogenetic summaries (VIPgenes),
      in the PharmGKB database, our PD method successfully identified candidate genes
      with high PD, including ACE, CYP2B6, DPYD, F5, MTHFR, and SCN5A.

PMID- 28871188
TI  - Himalayan glaciers experienced significant mass loss during later phases of
      little ice age.
AB  - To date, there is a gap in the data about the state and mass balance of glaciers
      in the climate-sensitive subtropical regions during the Little Ice Age (LIA).
      Here, based on an unprecedented tree-ring sampling coverage, we present the
      longest reconstructed mass balance record for the Western Himalayan glaciers,
      dating to 1615. Our results confirm that the later phase of LIA was substantially
      briefer and weaker in the Himalaya than in the Arctic and subarctic regions.
      Furthermore, analysis of the time-series of the mass-balance against other time
      series shows clear evidence of the existence of (i) a significant glacial decay
      and a significantly weaker magnitude of glaciation during the latter half of the
      LIA; (ii) a weak regional mass balance dependence on either the El Nino-Southern
      Oscillation (ENSO) or the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) taken in isolation, but a
      considerable combined influence of both of them during the LIA; and (iii) in
      addition to anthropogenic climate change, the strong effect from the increased
      yearly concurrence of extremely high TSI with El Nino over the past five decades,
      resulting in severe glacial mass loss. The generated mass balance time-series can
      serve as a source of reliable reconstructed data to the scientific community.

PMID- 28871187
TI  - Prolonged fasting elicits increased hepatic triglyceride accumulation in rats
      born to dexamethasone-treated mothers.
AB  - We investigated the effect of dexamethasone during the last week of pregnancy on
      glucose and lipid metabolism in male offspring. Twelve-week old offspring were
      evaluated after fasting for 12-hours (physiological) and 60-hours (prolonged).
      Physiological fasting resulted in glucose intolerance, decreased glucose
      clearance after pyruvate load and increased PEPCK expression in rats born to
      dexamethasone-treated mothers (DEX). Prolonged fasting resulted in increased
      glucose tolerance and increased glucose clearance after pyruvate load in DEX.
      These modulations were accompanied by accumulation of hepatic triglycerides (TG).
      Sixty-hour fasted DEX also showed increased citrate synthase (CS) activity, ATP
      citrate lyase (ACLY) content, and pyruvate kinase 2 (pkm2), glucose transporter 1
      (slc2a1) and lactate dehydrogenase-a (ldha) expressions. Hepatic AKT2 was
      increased in 60-hour fasted DEX, in parallel with reduced miRNAs targeting the
      AKT2 gene. Altogether, we show that metabolic programming by prenatal
      dexamethasone is characterized by an unexpected hepatic TG accumulation during
      prolonged fasting. The underlying mechanism may depend on increased hepatic
      glycolytic flux due to increased pkm2 expression and consequent conversion of
      pyruvate to non-esterified fatty acid synthesis due to increased CS activity and
      ACLY levels. Upregulation of AKT2 due to reduced miRNAs may serve as a permanent
      mechanism leading to increased pkm2 expression.

PMID- 28871189
TI  - Expression and anti-inflammatory role of activin receptor-interacting protein 2
      in lipopolysaccharide-activated macrophages.
AB  - The bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a key pathogenic stimulator,
      can induce the activation of macrophages. Activin receptor-interacting protein 2
      (ARIP2), an intracellular signaling protein, has a wide histological
      distribution, however, whether ARIP2 is involved in regulation of activation of
      macrophages was not well characterized. Here, by immunocytochemical staining, we
      found that ARIP2 protein existed in monocyte-macrophage cell line RAW264.7 cells
      and peritoneal macrophages of mouse, and ARIP2 expression in RAW264.7 cells was
      up-regulated by LPS. Furthermore, the results revealed that ARIP2 overexpression
      in the LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells inhibited the productions of IL-1beta and
      TNFalpha, phagocytic activities and CD14 expression, whereas did not alter
      expressions of MyD88, TLR2 and TLR4. Additionally, in vivo ARIP2 overexpression
      also reduced the productions of IL-1beta and TNFalpha from the LPS-stimulated
      peritoneal macrophages of mouse. These data suggest that ARIP2 may play an anti
      inflammatory role in macrophages via inhibiting CD14 expression.

PMID- 28871190
TI  - New insights about functional and cross-reactive properties of antibodies
      generated against recombinant TbpBs of Haemophilus parasuis.
AB  - Vaccines have become fundamental in the control and elimination of Glasser
      Disease, a systemic disease of pigs caused by Haemophilus parasuis. The classic
      vaccines available for prevention of this infection were developed without a
      robust knowledge about host immunological mechanisms. In this study, we
      demonstrated the presence of cross-reactive epitopes on both the N-lobe and C
      lobe of variants of transferrin binding protein B (TbpBs) expressed on the
      surface of 6 virulent serovars of H. parasuis. Antibodies against TbpB-derived
      antigens were capable of increasing the phagocytic capacity of neutrophils and
      were also capable of blocking porcine transferrin from binding to TbpB.
      Surprisingly, none of the pig or mice antisera from animals immunized with TbpB
      derived antigens mixed with Montanide IMS 2215 VG PR adjuvant were able to
      activate the classical complement pathway (CCP). In contrast, antisera from mice
      immunized with TbpB-derived antigens adjuvanted with Freund's adjuvants or
      Montanide Gel 01 were able to activate the CCP and kill H. parasuis. Our results
      demonstrate that the type of adjuvant can modulate the functional response
      induced by TbpB-derived antigens. Based on these results, we propose that a
      properly formulated TbpB-based vaccine may elicit a functional protective
      antibody response with broad cross-reactivity against heterologous strains of H.
      parasuis.

PMID- 28871191
TI  - Pharmacogenetics of methylphenidate in childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity
      disorder: long-term effects.
AB  - Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental
      disorder in which a significant proportion of patients do not respond to
      treatment. The objective of this study was to examine the role of genetic risk
      variants in the response to treatment with methylphenidate (MPH). The
      effectiveness of MPH was evaluated based on variations in the CGI-S and CGAS
      scales over a 12-month treatment period using linear mixed effects models. A
      total of 208 ADHD patients and 34 polymorphisms were included in the analysis.
      For both scales, the response was associated with time, extended-release MPH/both
      formulations, and previous MPH treatment. For the CGI-S scale, response was
      associated with SLC6A3 rs2550948, DRD4 promoter duplication, SNAP25 rs3746544,
      and ADGRL3 rs1868790. Interactions between the response over time and SLC6A3 and
      DRD2 were found in the CGI-S and CGAS scales, respectively. The proportion of the
      variance explained by the models was 18% for the CGI-S and 22% for the CGAS. In
      this long-term study, the effects of SLC6A3, DRD4, SNAP25, and ADGRL3 on response
      to treatment reflect those observed in previous studies. In addition, 2
      previously unreported interactions with response to treatment over a 12-month
      period were found (SLC6A3 and DRD2).

PMID- 28871192
TI  - Voice cues are used in a similar way by blind and sighted adults when assessing
      women's body size.
AB  - Humans' ability to gauge another person's body size from their voice alone may
      serve multiple functions ranging from threat assessment to speaker normalization.
      However, how this ability is acquired remains unknown. In two experiments we
      tested whether sighted, congenitally blind and late blind adults could accurately
      judge the relative heights of women from paired voice stimuli, and importantly,
      whether errors in size estimation varied with task difficulty across gr oups.
      Both blind (n = 56) and sighted (n = 61) listeners correctly judged women's
      relative heights on approximately 70% of low difficulty trials, corroborating
      previous findings for judging men's he ights. However, accuracy dropped to chance
      levels for intermediate difficulty trials and to 25% for high difficulty trials,
      regardless of the listener's sightedness, duration of vision loss, sex, or age.
      Thus, blind adults estimated women's height with the same degree of accuracy, but
      also the same pattern of errors, as did sighted controls. Our findings provide
      further evidence that visual experience is not necessary for accurate body size
      estimation. Rather, both blind and sighted listeners appear to follow a general
      rule, mapping low auditory frequencies to largeness across a range of contexts.
      This sound-size mapping emerges without visual experience, and is likely very
      important for humans.

PMID- 28871193
TI  - Estradiol Regulates Txnip and Prevents Intermittent Hypoxia-Induced Vascular
      Injury.
AB  - Chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH) contributes to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
      related cardiovascular diseases through increasing oxidative stress. It has been
      widely recognized that estradiol decreases the risk for cardiovascular disease,
      but the estrogen replacement therapy is limited for its side effects. Thioredoxin
      (Trx) and its endogenous inhibitor, thioredoxin-interacting protein (Txnip), are
      associated with the protective effect of estradiol in some conditions. In this
      study, we aimed to explore whether estradiol could protect against IH-induced
      vascular injury, and the possible effect of Trx-1/Txnip in this process. Forty
      eight adult female C57/BL6J mice were randomly divided into 4 groups, ovariectomy
      combined with IH group, sham operation combined with IH group, IH group and the
      control group. The mice treated with IH for 8 hrs/day, and 28 days. IH induced
      the injury of aorta, and ovariectomized mice were more prone to the IH-induced
      aortic injury, with higher level of oxidative stress. In vitro, estradiol
      increased Trx-1 level, but decreased the level of Txnip and oxidative stress in
      human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) treated with IH for 16 hrs. Knock
      down of Txnip by specific siRNA rescued oxidative stress and apoptosis. In
      conclusion, estradiol protects against IH-induced vascular injury, partially
      through the regulation of Trx-1/Txnip pathway.

PMID- 28871194
TI  - Effect of amino acid mutations on the conformational dynamics of amyloidogenic
      immunoglobulin light-chains: A combined NMR and in silico study.
AB  - The conformational dynamics of a pathogenic kappa4 human immunoglobulin light
      chain variable domain, SMA, associated with AL amyloidosis, were investigated by
      15N relaxation dispersion NMR spectroscopy. Compared to a homologous light-chain,
      LEN, which differs from SMA at eight positions but is non-amyloidogenic in vivo,
      we find that multiple residues in SMA clustered around the N-terminus and CDR
      loops experience considerable conformational exchange broadening caused by
      millisecond timescale protein motions, consistent with a destabilized dimer
      interface. To evaluate the contribution of each amino acid substitution to
      shaping the dynamic conformational landscape of SMA, NMR studies were performed
      for each SMA-like point mutant of LEN followed by in silico analysis for a subset
      of these proteins. These studies show that a combination of only three mutations
      located within or directly adjacent to CDR3 loop at the dimer interface, which
      remarkably include both destabilizing (Q89H and Y96Q) and stabilizing (T94H)
      mutations, largely accounts for the differences in conformational flexibility
      between LEN and SMA. Collectively, our studies indicate that a correct
      combination of stabilizing and destabilizing mutations is key for immunoglobulin
      light-chains populating unfolded intermediates that result in amyloid formation,
      and underscore the complex nature of correlations between light-chain
      conformational flexibility, thermodynamic stability and amyloidogenicity.

PMID- 28871195
TI  - Role of floral organ identity genes in the development of unisexual flowers of
      Quercus suber L.
AB  - Monoecious species provide an excellent system to study the specific determinants
      that underlie male and female flower development. Quercus suber is a monoecious
      species with unisexual flowers at inception. Despite the overall importance of
      this and other tree species with a similar reproductive habit, little is known
      regarding the mechanisms involved in the development of their male and female
      flowers. Here, we have characterised members of the ABCDE MADS-box gene family of
      Q. suber. The temporal expression of these genes was found to be sex-biased. The
      B-class genes, in particular, are predominantly, or exclusively (in the case of
      QsPISTILLATA), expressed in the male flowers. Functional analysis in Arabidopsis
      suggests that the B-class genes have their function conserved. The identification
      of sex-biased gene expression plus the identification of unusual protein-protein
      interactions suggest that the floral organ identity of Q. suber may be under
      control of specific changes in the dynamics of the ABCDE model. This study
      constitutes a major step towards the characterisation of the mechanisms involved
      in reproductive organ identity in a monoecious tree with a potential contribution
      towards the knowledge of conserved developmental mechanisms in other species with
      a similar sex habit.

PMID- 28871196
TI  - Magnetophoretic sorting of microdroplets with different microalgal cell densities
      for rapid isolation of fast growing strains.
AB  - Microalgae - unicellular photosynthetic organisms - have received increasing
      attention for their ability to biologically convert CO2 into valuable products.
      The commercial use of microalgae requires screening strains to improve the
      biomass productivity to achieve a high-throughput. Here, we developed a
      microfluidic method that uses a magnetic field to separate the microdroplets
      containing different concentrations of microalgal cells. The separation
      efficiency is maximized using the following parameters that influence the amount
      of lateral displacement of the microdroplets: magnetic nanoparticle
      concentration, flow rate of droplets, x- and y-axis location of the magnet, and
      diameter of the droplets. Consequently, 91.90% of empty, 87.12% of low-, and
      90.66% of high-density droplets could be separated into different outlets through
      simple manipulation of the magnetic field in the microfluidic device. These
      results indicate that cell density-based separation of microdroplets using a
      magnetic force can provide a promising platform to isolate microalgal species
      with a high growth performance.

PMID- 28871197
TI  - Thermal conductivity and air-mediated losses in periodic porous silicon membranes
      at high temperatures.
AB  - Heat conduction in silicon can be effectively engineered by means of sub
      micrometre porous thin free-standing membranes. Tunable thermal properties make
      these structures good candidates for integrated heat management units such as
      waste heat recovery, rectification or efficient heat dissipation. However,
      possible applications require detailed thermal characterisation at high
      temperatures which, up to now, has been an experimental challenge. In this work
      we use the contactless two-laser Raman thermometry to study heat dissipation in
      periodic porous membranes at high temperatures via lattice conduction and air
      mediated losses. We find the reduction of the thermal conductivity and its
      temperature dependence closely correlated with the structure feature size. On the
      basis of two-phonon Raman spectra, we attribute this behaviour to diffuse
      (incoherent) phonon-boundary scattering. Furthermore, we investigate and quantify
      the heat dissipation via natural air-mediated cooling, which can be tuned by
      engineering the porosity.Nanostructuring of silicon allows acoustic phonon
      engineering, but the mechanism of related thermal transport in these structures
      is not fully understood. Here, the authors study the heat dissipation in silicon
      membranes with periodic nanoholes and show the importance of incoherent
      scattering.

PMID- 28871198
TI  - Modulation of action potentials using PEDOT:PSS conducting polymer microwires.
AB  - : We describe the use of PEDOT:PSS conducting polymer microwires to modulate
      action potentials in single cells. PEDOT: PSS conducting polymer microwires are
      electrochemically synthesized with diameters ranging from 860 nm to 4.5 MUm and
      conductivities of ~30 S/cm. The length of the microwires is controlled by the
      spacing of the electrodes used for the electrochemical polymerization. We
      demonstrate the use of these microwires to control the action potentials of
      cardiomyocytes, showing that the cellular contractions match the frequency of the
      applied voltage. Membrane integrity assays confirm that the voltage delivered by
      the wires does not damage cells. We expect the conducting polymer microwires will
      be useful as minimally invasive devices to control the electrical properties of
      cells with high spatial precision.

PMID- 28871200
TI  - Highly oxidising fluids generated during serpentinite breakdown in subduction
      zones.
AB  - Subduction zones facilitate chemical exchanges between Earth's deep interior and
      volcanism that affects habitability of the surface environment. Lavas erupted at
      subduction zones are oxidized and release volatile species. These features may
      reflect a modification of the oxidation state of the sub-arc mantle by hydrous,
      oxidizing sulfate and/or carbonate-bearing fluids derived from subducting slabs.
      But the reason that the fluids are oxidizing has been unclear. Here we use
      theoretical chemical mass transfer calculations to predict the redox state of
      fluids generated during serpentinite dehydration. Specifically, the breakdown of
      antigorite to olivine, enstatite, and chlorite generates fluids with high oxygen
      fugacities, close to the hematite-magnetite buffer, that can contain significant
      amounts of sulfate. The migration of these fluids from the slab to the mantle
      wedge could therefore provide the oxidized source for the genesis of primary arc
      magmas that release gases to the atmosphere during volcanism. Our results also
      show that the evolution of oxygen fugacity in serpentinite during subduction is
      sensitive to the amount of sulfides and potentially metal alloys in bulk rock,
      possibly producing redox heterogeneities in subducting slabs.

PMID- 28871199
TI  - Morphine-induced hyperalgesia involves mu opioid receptors and the metabolite
      morphine-3-glucuronide.
AB  - Opiates are potent analgesics but their clinical use is limited by side effects
      including analgesic tolerance and opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH). The Opiates
      produce analgesia and other adverse effects through activation of the mu opioid
      receptor (MOR) encoded by the Oprm1 gene. However, MOR and morphine metabolism
      involvement in OIH have been little explored. Hence, we examined MOR contribution
      to OIH by comparing morphine-induced hyperalgesia in wild type (WT) and MOR
      knockout (KO) mice. We found that repeated morphine administration led to
      analgesic tolerance and hyperalgesia in WT mice but not in MOR KO mice. The
      absence of OIH in MOR KO mice was found in both sexes, in two KO global mutant
      lines, and for mechanical, heat and cold pain modalities. In addition, the
      morphine metabolite morphine-3beta-D-glucuronide (M3G) elicited hyperalgesia in
      WT but not in MOR KO animals, as well as in both MOR flox and MOR-Nav1.8 sensory
      neuron conditional KO mice. M3G displayed significant binding to MOR and G
      protein activation when using membranes from MOR-transfected cells or WT mice but
      not from MOR KO mice. Collectively our results show that MOR is involved in
      hyperalgesia induced by chronic morphine and its metabolite M3G.

PMID- 28871202
TI  - Humans and climate change drove the Holocene decline of the brown bear.
AB  - The current debate about megafaunal extinctions during the Quaternary focuses on
      the extent to which they were driven by humans, climate change, or both. These
      two factors may have interacted in a complex and unexpected manner, leaving the
      exact pathways to prehistoric extinctions unresolved. Here we quantify, with
      unprecedented detail, the contribution of humans and climate change to the
      Holocene decline of the largest living terrestrial carnivore, the brown bear
      (Ursus arctos), on a continental scale. We inform a spatially explicit
      metapopulation model for the species by combining life-history data and an
      extensive archaeofaunal record from excavations across Europe with reconstructed
      climate and land-use data reaching back 12,000 years. The model reveals that,
      despite the broad climatic niche of the brown bear, increasing winter
      temperatures contributed substantially to its Holocene decline - both directly by
      reducing the species' reproductive rate and indirectly by facilitating human land
      use. The first local extinctions occurred during the Mid-Holocene warming period,
      but the rise of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago marked the onset of large-scale
      extinctions, followed by increasingly rapid range loss and fragmentation. These
      findings strongly support the hypothesis that complex interactions between
      climate and humans may have accelerated megafaunal extinctions.

PMID- 28871201
TI  - Protective immunity differs between routes of administration of attenuated
      malaria parasites independent of parasite liver load.
AB  - In humans and murine models of malaria, intradermal immunization (ID-I) with
      genetically attenuated sporozoites that arrest in liver induces lower protective
      immunity than intravenous immunization (IV-I). It is unclear whether this
      difference is caused by fewer sporozoites migrating into the liver or by
      suboptimal hepatic and injection site-dependent immune responses. We therefore
      developed a Plasmodium yoelii immunization/boost/challenge model to examine
      parasite liver loads as well as hepatic and lymph node immune responses in
      protected and unprotected ID-I and IV-I animals. Despite introducing the same
      numbers of genetically attenuated parasites in the liver, ID-I resulted in lower
      sterile protection (53-68%) than IV-I (93-95%). Unprotected mice developed less
      sporozoite-specific CD8+ and CD4+ effector T-cell responses than protected mice.
      After immunization, ID-I mice showed more interleukin-10-producing B and T cells
      in livers and skin-draining lymph nodes, but fewer hepatic CD8 memory T cells and
      CD8+ dendritic cells compared to IV-I mice. Our results indicate that the lower
      protection efficacy obtained by intradermal sporozoite administration is not
      linked to low hepatic parasite numbers as presumed before, but correlates with a
      shift towards regulatory immune responses. Overcoming these immune suppressive
      responses is important not only for live-attenuated malaria vaccines but also for
      other live vaccines administered in the skin.

PMID- 28871203
TI  - Targeting transferrin receptors at the blood-brain barrier improves the uptake of
      immunoliposomes and subsequent cargo transport into the brain parenchyma.
AB  - Drug delivery to the brain is hampered by the presence of the blood-brain
      barrier, which excludes most molecules from freely diffusing into the brain, and
      tightly regulates the active transport mechanisms that ensure sufficient delivery
      of nutrients to the brain parenchyma. Harnessing the possibility of delivering
      neuroactive drugs by way of receptors already present on the brain endothelium
      has been of interest for many years. The transferrin receptor is of special
      interest since its expression is limited to the endothelium of the brain as
      opposed to peripheral endothelium. Here, we investigate the possibility of
      delivering immunoliposomes and their encapsulated cargo to the brain via
      targeting of the transferrin receptor. We find that transferrin receptor
      targeting increases the association between the immunoliposomes and primary
      endothelial cells in vitro, but that this does not correlate with increased cargo
      transcytosis. Furthermore, we show that the transferrin receptor-targeted
      immunoliposomes accumulate along the microvessels of the brains of rats, but find
      no evidence for transcytosis of the immunoliposome. Conversely, the increased
      accumulation correlated both with increased cargo uptake in the brain endothelium
      and subsequent cargo transport into the brain. These findings suggest that
      transferrin receptor-targeting is a relevant strategy of increasing drug exposure
      to the brain.

PMID- 28871204
TI  - Higher-order assembly of crystalline cylindrical micelles into membrane
      extendable colloidosomes.
AB  - Crystallization-driven self-assembly of diblock copolymers into cylindrical
      micelles of controlled length has emerged as a promising approach to the
      fabrication of functional nanoscale objects with high shape anisotropy. Here we
      show the preparation of a series of crystallizable diblock copolymers with
      appropriate wettability and chemical reactivity, and demonstrate their self
      assembly into size-specific cylindrical micelle building blocks for the
      hierarchical construction of mechanically robust colloidosomes with a range of
      membrane textures, surface chemistries and optical properties. The colloidosomes
      can be structurally elaborated post assembly by in situ epitaxial elongation of
      the membrane building blocks to produce microcapsules covered in a chemically
      distinct, dense network of hair-like outgrowths. Our approach provides a route to
      hierarchically ordered colloidosomes that retain the intrinsic growth activity of
      their constituent building blocks to permit biofunctionalization, and have
      potential applications in areas such as biomimetic encapsulation, drug delivery,
      catalysis and biosensing.Functional nanoscale objects can be prepared via
      crystallization-driven self-assembly of diblock copolymers. Here the authors show
      the self-assembly of crystalline block copolymers into size-specific cylindrical
      micelles for the hierarchical construction of mechanically robust colloidosomes
      with a range of membrane textures.

PMID- 28871206
TI  - Gold nanoparticles approach to detect chondroitin sulphate and hyaluronic acid
      urothelial coating.
AB  - This study investigated the location of hyaluronic acid (HA)- and chondroitin
      sulphate (CS)-coated gold nanoparticles in rabbit bladder and evaluated gene
      expression of CD44, RHAMM and ICAM-1 receptors involved in HA and CS transport
      into the cell. Gold nanoparticles were synthesised by reduction of gold salts
      with HA or CS to form HA-AuNPs and CS-AuNPs. Bladder samples were incubated with
      CS-AuNPs and HA-AuNPs or without glycosaminoglycans. Transmission electron
      microscopy, optic microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to
      determine the location of the synthesised AuNPs. Real-time PCR was used to
      analyse expression of urothelial cell receptors CD44, RHAMM, ICAM-1, after ex
      vivo administration of CS-AuNPs and HA-AuNPs. We showed that HA-AuNPs and CS
      AuNPs were located in the cytoplasm and tight junctions of urothelial umbrella
      cells; this appearance was absent in untreated bladders. There were no
      significant differences in gene expression levels for CD44, RHAMM and ICAM-1
      receptors in treated versus control bladder tissues. In conclusion, we clearly
      showed the presence of exogenous GAGs in the bladder surface and the tight
      junctions between umbrella cells, which is important in the regeneration pathway
      of the urothelium. The GAGs-AuNPs offer a promising approach to understanding the
      biophysical properties and imaging of urothelial tissue.

PMID- 28871205
TI  - Siderophore cheating and cheating resistance shape competition for iron in soil
      and freshwater Pseudomonas communities.
AB  - All social organisms experience dilemmas between cooperators performing group
      beneficial actions and cheats selfishly exploiting these actions. Although
      bacteria have become model organisms to study social dilemmas in laboratory
      systems, we know little about their relevance in natural communities. Here, we
      show that social interactions mediated by a single shareable compound necessary
      for growth (the iron-scavenging pyoverdine) have important consequences for
      competitive dynamics in soil and pond communities of Pseudomonas bacteria. We
      find that pyoverdine non- and low-producers co-occur in many natural communities.
      While non-producers have genes coding for multiple pyoverdine receptors and are
      able to exploit compatible heterologous pyoverdines from other community members,
      producers differ in the pyoverdine types they secrete, offering protection
      against exploitation from non-producers with incompatible receptors. Our findings
      indicate that there is both selection for cheating and cheating resistance, which
      could drive antagonistic co-evolution and diversification in natural bacterial
      communities.Lab strains of Pseudomonas are model systems for the evolution of
      cooperation over public goods (iron-scavenging siderophores). Here, Butaite et
      al. add ecological and evolutionary insight into this system by showing that
      cheating and resistance to cheating both shape competition for iron in natural
      Pseudomonas communities.

PMID- 28871207
TI  - Optical-flow based non-invasive analysis of cardiomyocyte contractility.
AB  - Characterization of cardiomyocyte beat patterns is needed for quality control of
      cells intended for surgical injection as well as to establish phenotypes in
      disease modeling or toxicity studies. Optical-flow based analysis of
      videomicroscopic recordings offer a manipulation-free and efficient
      characterization of contractile cycles, an important characteristics of
      cardiomyocyte phenotype. We demonstrate that by appropriate computational
      analysis of optical flow data one can identify distinct contractile centers and
      distinguish active cell contractility from passive elastic tissue deformations.
      Our proposed convergence measure correlates with myosin IIa immuno-localization
      and is capable to resolve contractile waves and their synchronization within
      maturing, unlabeled induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte cultures.

PMID- 28871208
TI  - Identify latent chromosomal aberrations relevant to myelodysplastic syndromes.
AB  - Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of heterogeneous hematologic
      malignancies. This study aims to identify latent chromosomal abnormalities
      relevant to MDS, which may optimize the current diagnosis of MDS. Affymetrix
      CytoScan 750 K microarray platform was utilized to perform a genome-wide
      detection of chromosomal aberrations in the bone marrow cells of the patients.
      The findings were compared with the results from traditional karyotypic analysis
      and FISH to reveal latent chromosomal aberrations. Chromosomal gain, loss, and
      UPD, and complex karyotypes were identified in those samples. In addition to
      established cytogenetic aberrations detected by karyotypic analysis, CytoScan 750
      K microarray also detected cryptic chromosomal lesions in MDS. Those latent
      defects underlying multiple gene mutations may construe the clinical variability
      of MDS. In Conclusion, Affymetrix CytoScan 750 K microarray is efficient in
      identifying latent chromosomal aberrations in MDS.

PMID- 28871209
TI  - HMGB1/Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) does not aggravate inflammation but
      promote endogenous neural stem cells differentiation in spinal cord injury.
AB  - Receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) signaling is involved in a
      series of cell functions after spinal cord injury (SCI). Our study aimed to
      elucidate the effects of RAGE signaling on the neuronal recovery after SCI. In
      vivo, rats were subjected to SCI with or without anti-RAGE antibodies micro
      injected into the lesion epicenter. We detected Nestin/RAGE, SOX-2/RAGE and
      Nestin/MAP-2 after SCI by Western blot or immunofluorescence (IF). We found that
      neural stem cells (NSCs) co-expressed with RAGE were significantly activated
      after SCI, while stem cell markers Nestin and SOX-2 were reduced by RAGE
      blockade. We found that RAGE inhibition reduced nestin-positive NSCs expressing
      MAP-2, a mature neuron marker. RAGE blockade does not improve neurobehavior
      Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) scores; however, it damaged survival of
      ventral neurons via Nissl staining. Through in vitro study, we found that
      recombinant HMGB1 administration does not lead to increased cytokines of TNF
      alpha and IL-1beta, while anti-RAGE treatment reduced cytokines of TNF-alpha and
      IL-1beta induced by LPS via ELISA. Meanwhile, HMGB1 increased MAP-2 expression,
      which was blocked after anti-RAGE treatment. Hence, HMGB1/RAGE does not
      exacerbate neuronal inflammation but plays a role in promoting NSCs
      differentiating into mature neurons in the pathological process of SCI.

PMID- 28871210
TI  - Disorder versus two transport lifetimes in a strongly correlated electron liquid.
AB  - We report on angle-dependent measurements of the sheet resistances and Hall
      coefficients of electron liquids in SmTiO3/SrTiO3/SmTiO3 quantum well structures,
      which were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) DyScO3. We compare their
      transport properties with those of similar structures grown on LSAT
      [(La0.3Sr0.7)(Al0.65Ta0.35)O3]. On DyScO3, planar defects normal to the quantum
      wells lead to a strong in-plane anisotropy in the transport properties. This
      allows for quantifying the role of defects in transport. In particular, we
      investigate differences in the longitudinal and Hall scattering rates, which is a
      non-Fermi liquid phenomenon known as lifetime separation. The residuals in both
      the longitudinal resistance and Hall angle were found to depend on the relative
      orientations of the transport direction to the planar defects. The Hall angle
      exhibited a robust T 2 temperature dependence along all directions, whereas no
      simple power law could describe the temperature dependence of the longitudinal
      resistances. Remarkably, the degree of the carrier lifetime separation, as
      manifested in the distinctly different temperature dependences and diverging
      residuals near a critical quantum well thickness, was completely insensitive to
      disorder. The results allow for a clear distinction between disorder-induced
      contributions to the transport and intrinsic, non-Fermi liquid phenomena, which
      includes the lifetime separation.

PMID- 28871212
TI  - Evaluation of consumer monitors to measure particulate matter.
AB  - Recently, inexpensive (<$300) consumer aerosol monitors (CAMs) targeted for use
      in homes have become available. We evaluated the accuracy, bias, and precision of
      three CAMs (Foobot from Airoxlab, Speck from Carnegie Mellon University, and
      AirBeam from HabitatMap) for measuring mass concentrations in occupational
      settings. In a laboratory study, PM2.5 measured with the CAMs and a medium-cost
      aerosol photometer (personal DataRAM 1500, Thermo Scientific) were compared to
      that from reference instruments for three aerosols (salt, welding fume, and
      Arizona road dust, ARD) at concentrations up to 8500 MUg/m3. Three of each type
      of CAM were included to estimate precision. Compared to reference instruments,
      mass concentrations measured with the Foobot (r-value = 0.99) and medium-cost
      photometer (r-value = 0.99) show strong correlation, whereas those from the Speck
      (r-value range 0.88 - 0.99) and AirBeam (0.7 - 0.96) were less correlated. The
      Foobot bias was (-12%) for ARD and measurements were similar to the medium-cost
      instrument. Foobot bias was (< -46%) for salt and welding fume aerosols. Speck
      bias was at 18% salt for ARD and -86% for welding fume. AirBeam bias was (-36%)
      for salt and (-83%) for welding fume. All three photometers had a bias (< -82%)
      for welding fume. Precision was excellent for the Foobot (coefficient of
      variation range: 5% to 8%) and AirBeam (2% to 9%), but poorer for the Speck (8%
      to 25%). These findings suggest that the Foobot, with a linear response to
      different aerosol types and good precision, can provide reasonable estimates of
      PM2.5 in the workplace after site-specific calibration to account for particle
      size and composition.

PMID- 28871213
TI  - Evaluation of the Alphasense Optical Particle Counter (OPC-N2) and the Grimm
      Portable Aerosol Spectrometer (PAS-1.108).
AB  - We compared the performance of a low-cost (~$500), compact optical particle
      counter (OPC, OPC-N2, Alphasense) to another OPC (PAS-1.108, Grimm Technologies)
      and reference instruments. We measured the detection efficiency of the OPCs by
      size from 0.5 to 5 MUm for monodispersed, polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres. We
      then compared number and mass concentrations measured with the OPCs to those
      measured with reference instruments for three aerosols: salt, welding fume and
      Arizona road dust. The OPC-N2 detection efficiency for monodispersed was similar
      to the PAS-1.108 for particles larger than 0.8 MUm (minimum of 79% at 1 MUm and
      maximum of 101% at 3 MUm). For 0.5-MUm particles, the detection efficiency of
      OPCN2 was underestimated at 78%, whereas PAS-1.108 overestimated concentrations
      by 183%. The mass concentrations from the OPCs were linear (r >= 0.97) with those
      from the reference instruments for all aerosols, although the slope and intercept
      were different. The mass concentrations were overestimated for dust (OPC-N2,
      slope = 1.6; PAS-1.108, slope = 2.7) and underestimated for welding fume (OPC-N2,
      slope = 0.05; PAS-1.108, slope = 0.4). The coefficient of variation (CV,
      precision) for OPC-N2 for all experiments was between 4.2% and 16%. These
      findings suggest that, given site-specific calibrations, the OPC-N2 can provide
      number and mass concentrations similar to the PAS-1.108 for particles larger than
      1 MUm.

PMID- 28871214
TI  - Rapid Analysis of the Size Distribution of Metal-Containing Aerosol.
AB  - Conventional methods to measure the metallic content of particles by size are
      time consuming and expensive, requiring collection of particles with a cascade
      impactor and subsequent metals analysis by inductively coupled plasma mass
      spectrometry (ICP-MS). In this work, we describe a rapid way to measure the size
      distribution of metal-containing particles from 10 nm to 20 MUm, using a nano
      micro-orifice uniform-deposit impactor (nano-MOUDI) to size-selective and collect
      particles that are then analyzed with a field portable X-ray fluorescence (FP
      XRF) to determine metal composition and concentration. The nano-MOUDI was used to
      sample a stainless-steel aerosol produced by a spark discharge system. The
      particle-laden substrates were then analyzed directly with FP-XRF and then with
      ICP-MS. Results from FP-XRF were linearly correlated with results from ICP-MS (R2
      = 0.91 for Fe and R2 = 0.84 for Cr). Although the FP-XRF was unable to detect Fe
      particles at mass per substrate loadings less than 2.5 MUg effectively, it
      produced results similar to those using the ICP-MS at a mass per substrate
      loading greater than 2.5 MUg.

PMID- 28871211
TI  - Functional prediction of long non-coding RNAs in ovarian cancer-associated
      fibroblasts indicate a potential role in metastasis.
AB  - Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) contribute to the poor prognosis of ovarian
      cancer. Unlike in tumour cells, DNA mutations are rare in CAFs, raising the
      likelihood of other mechanisms that regulate gene expression such as long non
      coding RNAs (lncRNAs). We aimed to identify lncRNAs that contribute to the tumour
      promoting phenotype of CAFs. RNA expression from 67 ovarian CAF samples and 10
      normal ovarian fibroblast (NOF) samples were analysed to identify differentially
      expressed lncRNAs and a functional network was constructed to predict those CAF
      specific lncRNAs involved in metastasis. Of the 1,970 lncRNAs available for
      analysis on the gene expression array used, 39 unique lncRNAs were identified as
      differentially expressed in CAFs versus NOFs. The predictive power of
      differentially expressed lncRNAs in distinguishing CAFs from NOFs were assessed
      using multiple multivariate models. Interrogation of known transcription factor
      lncRNA interactions, transcription factor-gene interactions and construction of a
      context-specific interaction network identified multiple lncRNAs predicted to
      play a role in metastasis. We have identified novel lncRNAs in ovarian cancer
      that are differentially expressed in CAFs compared to NOFs and are predicted to
      contribute to the metastasis-promoting phenotype of CAFs.

PMID- 28871215
TI  - Racial/Ethnic Patterns of Kindergarten School Enrollment in the United States.
AB  - Enrollment into unequal schools at the start of formal education is an important
      mechanism for the reproduction of racial/ethnic educational inequalities. We
      examine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in school enrollment options
      at kindergarten, the start of schooling. We use nationally representative data
      from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to model
      whether parents seek information about their child's school before enrolling,
      whether parents move to a location so that a child can attend a certain school,
      or whether parents enroll their child in a school other than the assigned public
      school. Results indicate that enrollment patterns differ greatly across
      race/ethnicity. Whereas Black families are the most likely to seek information on
      a school's performance, White families are the most likely to use the elite
      option of choosing their residential location to access a particular school.
      These differences persist when controlling for socioeconomic status and
      sociogeographic location. Kindergarten enrollment patterns preserve the
      advantages of White families, perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities through
      multiple institutions and contributing to intergenerational processes of social
      stratification. Research should continue to examine specific educational
      consequences of housing inequities and residential segregation.

PMID- 28871216
TI  - Motivational Interviewing as an Adjunct to Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Anxiety
      Disorders: A Critical Review of the Literature.
AB  - Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is efficaciously and effectively used in the
      treatment of anxiety disorders; however, as CBT for anxiety routinely utilizes
      exposure components, clients often experience ambivalence about treatment and
      their clinicians often must deal with resistance. Motivational Interviewing (MI)
      is a therapeutic strategy that addresses ambivalence about change in clinical
      interventions. MI has been applied as an adjunct for treatments such as CBT in
      order to increase motivation for and commitment to the intervention, especially
      when components of the treatment may be challenging (e.g., exposure, cognitive
      restructuring). Though researchers have commented specifically on the use of MI
      as a supplement to CBT for anxiety disorders, no comprehensive review has
      systematically assessed the strengths and limitations of extant literature on the
      topic, nor across anxiety disorders. Findings are summarized from 6 case studies
      and uncontrolled trials and 11 randomized controlled trials published through
      March 2016. An integrated critique of this literature also is offered.
      Limitations and the preliminary nature of the work in this area notwithstanding,
      it appears that it is feasible to supplement or integrate CBT with MI and that
      doing so has the potential to improve treatment initiation and engagement, as
      well as clinical outcomes. A number of directions for future research are
      addressed, such as determining which MI approaches to implement, with whom, when,
      and in what contexts.

PMID- 28871217
TI  - Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder from Brain Resting-State Functional
      Connectivity Patterns Using a Deep Neural Network with a Novel Feature Selection
      Method.
AB  - The whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) pattern obtained from resting-state
      functional magnetic resonance imaging data are commonly applied to study
      neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by using
      different machine learning models. Recent studies indicate that both hyper- and
      hypo- aberrant ASD-associated FCs were widely distributed throughout the entire
      brain rather than only in some specific brain regions. Deep neural networks (DNN)
      with multiple hidden layers have shown the ability to systematically extract
      lower-to-higher level information from high dimensional data across a series of
      neural hidden layers, significantly improving classification accuracy for such
      data. In this study, a DNN with a novel feature selection method (DNN-FS) is
      developed for the high dimensional whole-brain resting-state FC pattern
      classification of ASD patients vs. typical development (TD) controls. The feature
      selection method is able to help the DNN generate low dimensional high-quality
      representations of the whole-brain FC patterns by selecting features with high
      discriminating power from multiple trained sparse auto-encoders. For the
      comparison, a DNN without the feature selection method (DNN-woFS) is developed,
      and both of them are tested with different architectures (i.e., with different
      numbers of hidden layers/nodes). Results show that the best classification
      accuracy of 86.36% is generated by the DNN-FS approach with 3 hidden layers and
      150 hidden nodes (3/150). Remarkably, DNN-FS outperforms DNN-woFS for all
      architectures studied. The most significant accuracy improvement was 9.09% with
      the 3/150 architecture. The method also outperforms other feature selection
      methods, e.g., two sample t-test and elastic net. In addition to improving the
      classification accuracy, a Fisher's score-based biomarker identification method
      based on the DNN is also developed, and used to identify 32 FCs related to ASD.
      These FCs come from or cross different pre-defined brain networks including the
      default-mode, cingulo-opercular, frontal-parietal, and cerebellum. Thirteen of
      them are statically significant between ASD and TD groups (two sample t-test p <
      0.05) while 19 of them are not. The relationship between the statically
      significant FCs and the corresponding ASD behavior symptoms is discussed based on
      the literature and clinician's expert knowledge. Meanwhile, the potential reason
      of obtaining 19 FCs which are not statistically significant is also provided.

PMID- 28871218
TI  - Mapping Sonification for Perception and Action in Motor Skill Learning.

PMID- 28871219
TI  - P2X7 Receptor Activation Modulates Autophagy in SOD1-G93A Mouse Microglia.
AB  - Autophagy and inflammation play determinant roles in the pathogenesis of
      Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease
      characterized by deterioration and final loss of upper and lower motor neurons
      (MN) priming microglia to sustain neuroinflammation and a vicious cycle of
      neurodegeneration. Given that extracellular ATP through P2X7 receptor constitutes
      a neuron-to-microglia alarm signal implicated in ALS, and that P2X7 affects
      autophagy in immune cells, we have investigated if autophagy can be directly
      triggered by P2X7 activation in primary microglia from superoxide dismutase 1
      (SOD1)-G93A mice. We report that P2X7 enhances the expression of the autophagic
      marker microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3)-II, via mTOR pathway
      and concomitantly with modulation of anti-inflammatory M2 microglia markers. We
      also demonstrate that the autophagic target SQSTM1/p62 is decreased in SOD1-G93A
      microglia after a short stimulation of P2X7, but increased after a sustained
      challenge. These effects are prevented by the P2X7 antagonist A-804598, and the
      autophagy/phosphoinositide-3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin (WM). Finally, a chronic
      in vivo treatment with A-804598 in SOD1-G93A mice decreases the expression of
      SQSTM1/p62 in lumbar spinal cord at end stage of disease. These data identify the
      modulation of the autophagic flux as a novel mechanism by which P2X7 activates
      ALS-microglia, to be considered for further investigations in ALS.

PMID- 28871220
TI  - The Vomeronasal Organ: A Neglected Organ.

PMID- 28871221
TI  - Commentary: Out-of-Body Experience during Awake Craniotomy.

PMID- 28871223
TI  - Effects of Enzymatically Depolymerized Low Molecular Weight Heparins on CCl4
      Induced Liver Fibrosis.
AB  - With regard to identifying the effective components of LMWH drugs curing hepatic
      fibrosis disease, we carried out a comparative study on the efficacy of
      enzymatically depolymerized LMWHs on CCl4 induced mouse liver fibrosis. The
      results showed that the controlled enzymatic depolymerization conditions resulted
      in LMWHs with significantly different activities. The LMWH product depolymerized
      by Heparinase I (I-11) with a Mw of 7160, exhibited a significant advantage in
      reducing the liver inflammation by suppressing TNF-alpha and IL-1beta secretion,
      and minimizing hepatic fibrogenesis. The products prepared by only Heparinase II
      (II-11), and combined Heparinase III and II (III-II-5) showed limited positive
      effect on hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. On the contrary, the products by
      combined Heparinase III and I (III-I-9, III-I-5) showed no effect or stimulation
      effect on the hepatic fibrogenesis. Our results provided the basis for structure
      activity relationship insight for inhibition of liver fibrosis activities of
      LMWHs, which might have significant implications for generic anti-fibrosis
      disease drug development.

PMID- 28871224
TI  - NFIX as a Master Regulator for Lung Cancer Progression.
AB  - About 40% of lung cancer cases globally are diagnosed at the advanced stage. Lung
      cancer has a high mortality and overall survival in stage I disease is only 70%.
      This study was aimed at finding a candidate of transcription regulator that
      initiates the mechanism for metastasis by integrating computational and
      functional studies. The genes involved in lung cancer were retrieved using in
      silico software. 10 kb promoter sequences upstream were scanned for the master
      regulator. Transient transfection of shRNA NFIXs were conducted against A549 and
      NCI-H1299 cell lines. qRT-PCR and functional assays for cell proliferation,
      migration and invasion were carried out to validate the involvement of NFIX in
      metastasis. Genome-wide gene expression microarray using a HumanHT-12v4.0
      Expression BeadChip Kit was performed to identify differentially expressed genes
      and construct a new regulatory network. The in silico analysis identified NFIX as
      a master regulator and is strongly associated with 17 genes involved in the
      migration and invasion pathways including IL6ST, TIMP1 and ITGB1. Silencing of
      NFIX showed reduced expression of IL6ST, TIMP1 and ITGB1 as well as the cellular
      proliferation, migration and invasion processes. The data was integrated with the
      in silico analyses to find the differentially expressed genes. Microarray
      analysis showed that 18 genes were expressed differentially in both cell lines
      after statistical analyses integration between t-test, LIMMA and ANOVA with
      Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment at p-value < 0.05. A transcriptional regulatory
      network was created using all 18 genes, the existing regulated genes including
      the new genes PTCH1, NFAT5 and GGCX that were found highly associated with NFIX,
      the master regulator of metastasis. This study suggests that NFIX is a promising
      target for therapeutic intervention that is expected to inhibit metastatic
      recurrence and improve survival rate.

PMID- 28871222
TI  - Reproducibility of Single-Pulse, Paired-Pulse, and Intermittent Theta-Burst TMS
      Measures in Healthy Aging, Type-2 Diabetes, and Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to assess
      neurophysiology and the mechanisms of cortical brain plasticity in humans in
      vivo. As the use of these measures in specific populations (e.g., Alzheimer's
      disease; AD) increases, it is critical to understand their reproducibility (i.e.,
      test-retest reliability) in the populations of interest. Objective:
      Reproducibility of TMS measures was evaluated in older adults, including healthy,
      AD, and Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) groups. Methods: Participants received
      two identical neurophysiological assessments within a year including motor
      thresholds, baseline motor evoked potentials (MEPs), short- and long-interval
      intracortical inhibition (SICI, LICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF), and
      MEP changes following intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS). Cronbach's
      alpha coefficients were calculated to assess reproducibility. Multiple linear
      regression analyses were used to investigate factors related to intraindividual
      variability. Results: Reproducibility was highest for motor thresholds, followed
      by baseline MEPs, SICI and LICI, and was lowest for ICF and iTBS aftereffects.
      The AD group tended to show higher reproducibility than T2DM or controls.
      Intraindividual variability of baseline MEPs was related to age and variability
      of RMT, while the intraindividual variability in post-iTBS measures was related
      to baseline MEP variability, intervisit duration, and Brain-derived neurotrophic
      factor (BDNF) polymorphism. Conclusion: Increased reproducibility in AD may
      reflect pathophysiological declines in the efficacy of neuroplastic mechanisms.
      Reproducibility of iTBS aftereffects can be improved by keeping baseline MEPs
      consistent, controlling for BDNF genotype, and waiting at least a week between
      visits. Significance: These findings provide the first direct assessment of
      reproducibility of TMS measures in older clinical populations. Reproducibility
      coefficients may be used to adjust effect- and sample size calculations for
      future studies.

PMID- 28871225
TI  - Exposure Characteristics of the Analogous beta-Carboline Alkaloids Harmaline and
      Harmine Based on the Efflux Transporter of Multidrug Resistance Protein 2.
AB  - Harmaline and harmine occur naturally in plants and are distributed endogenously
      in human and animal tissues. The two beta-carboline alkaloids possess potential
      for treating Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression and other
      central nervous system diseases. However, studies have showed that the two
      compounds have similar structures but with quite different bioavailability. The
      aim of this study was to elucidate the exposure difference and characterize the
      in vitro transport, metabolism, and pharmacokinetic properties of harmaline and
      harmine. The results showed that the harmaline and harmine transport across the
      Caco-2 and MDCK cell monolayers was varied as the time, concentration, pH and
      temperature changed. The absorption of harmaline and harmine was significantly
      decreased when ES (OATPs inhibitor), TEA (OCTs/OCTNs substrate), NaN3 (adenosine
      triphosphate inhibitor), or sodium vanadate (ATPase Na+/K+-dependent inhibitor)
      was added. However, when given MK571 and probenecid (the typical MRP2 inhibitor),
      the PappAB of harmine was increased (1.62- and 1.27-folds), and the efflux ratio
      was decreased from 1.59 to 0.98 and from 1.59 to 1.19, respectively. In addition,
      the uptake ratio of harmine at 1 MUM was >2.65 in the membrane vesicles
      expressing human MRP2. Furthermore, harmine could slightly up-regulate the
      expression of MRP2, which implying harmine might be the substrate of MRP2.
      Particularly, the CLint -value for harmine was ~1.49-folds greater than that of
      harmaline in human liver microsomes. It was worth noting that the F-value of
      harmine was increased 1.96-folds after harmine co-administration with probenecid.
      To summarize, comprehensive analysis indicated that harmaline and harmine were
      absorbed by transcellular passive diffusion and a pH- and Na+-dependent mechanism
      might be mediated by OATPs and OCTs/OCTNs. MRP2 but MDR1 or BCRP might be
      involved in the transport of harmine. Furthermore, harmine was more unstable and
      easily metabolized than harmaline. All these findings suggested that harmine not
      only appears be an MRP2 substrate, but also possesses weak metabolic stability,
      and eventually leads to a low oral bioavailability. Taken together, the
      elucidated absorption, transport, metabolism as well as pharmacokinetic
      characteristics of harmaline and harmine provide useful information for designing
      delivery systems, pharmacological applications and avoiding drug-drug
      interactions.

PMID- 28871226
TI  - Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Evaluation of Marbofloxacin and PK/PD
      Modeling against Escherichia coli in Pigs.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity of marbofloxacin and establish
      the optimal dose regimens for decreasing the development of fluoroquinolone
      resistance in pigs against Escherichia coli with ex vivo
      pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling. The recommended dose (2 mg/kg
      body weight) of marbofloxacin was orally administered in healthy pigs. The ileum
      content and plasma were both collected for the determination of marbofloxacin.
      The main parameters of Cmax, AUC0-24 h, AUC, Ke, t1/2ke, MRT and Clb were 11.28
      MUg/g, 46.15, 77.81 MUg?h/g, 0.001 h-1, 69.97 h, 52.45 h, 0.026 kg/h in ileum
      content, and 0.55 MUg/ml, 8.15, 14.67 MUg?h/ml, 0.023 h-1, 30.67 h, 34.83 h, 0.14
      L/h in plasma, respectively In total, 218 E. coli strains were isolated from most
      cities of China. The antibacterial activity in vitro and ex vivo of marbofloxacin
      against E. coli was determined following CLSI guidance. The MIC90 of sensitive
      strains (142) was calculated as 2 MUg/ml. The minimum inhibitory concentration
      (MIC) of HB197 was 2 and 4 MUg/ml in broth and ileum fluids, respectively. In
      vitro mutant prevention concentration, growth and killing-time in vitro and ex
      vivo of marbofloxacin against selected HB197 were assayed for pharmacodynamic
      studies. According to the inhibitory sigmoid Emax modeling, the value of AUC0-24
      h/MIC produced in ileum content was achieved, and bacteriostatic, bactericidal
      activity, and elimination were calculated as 16.26, 23.54, and 27.18 h,
      respectively. Based on Monte Carlo simulations to obtain 90% target attainment
      rate, the optimal doses to achieve bacteriostatic, bactericidal, and elimination
      effects were 0.85, 1.22, and 1.41 mg/kg.bw for 50% target, respectively, and
      0.92, 1.33, and 1.53 mg/kg.bw for 90% target, respectively, after oral
      administration. The results in this study provided a more optimized alternative
      for clinical use and demonstrated that the dosage 2 mg/kg of marbofloxacin by
      oral administration could have an effect on bactericidal activity against E.
      coli.

PMID- 28871228
TI  - Interplay of the Quality of Ciprofloxacin and Antibiotic Resistance in Developing
      Countries.
AB  - Ciprofloxacin, a second generation broad spectrum fluoroquinolone, is active
      against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Ciprofloxacin has a high
      oral bioavailability and a large volume of distribution. It is used for the
      treatment of a wide range of infections including urinary tract infections caused
      by susceptible bacteria. However, the availability and use of substandard and
      spurious quality of oral ciprofloxacin formulations in the developing countries
      has been thought to have contributed toward increased risk of treatment failure
      and bacterial resistance. Therefore, quality control and bioequivalence studies
      of the commercially available oral ciprofloxacin formulations should be
      monitored. Appropriate actions should be taken against offending manufacturers in
      order to prevent the sale of substandard and spurious quality of ciprofloxacin
      formulations.

PMID- 28871227
TI  - Comparative Proteomic Analysis Provides insight into the Key Proteins as Possible
      Targets Involved in Aspirin Inhibiting Biofilm Formation of Staphylococcus
      xylosus.
AB  - Staphylococcus xylosus is an opportunistic pathogen that causes infection in
      humans and cow mastitis. And S. xylosus possesses a strong ability to form
      biofilms in vitro. As biofilm formation facilitates resistance to antimicrobial
      agents, the discovery of new medicinal properties for classic drugs is highly
      desired. Aspirin, which is the most common active component of non-steroidal anti
      inflammatory compounds, affects the biofilm-forming capacity of various bacterial
      species. We have found that aspirin effectively inhibits biofilm formation of S.
      xylosus by Crystal violet (CV) staining and scanning electron microscopy
      analyses. The present study sought to elucidate possible targets of aspirin in
      suppressing S. xylosus biofilm formation. Based on an isobaric tag for relative
      and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) fold-change of >1.2 or <0.8 (P-value < 0.05),
      178 differentially expressed proteins, 111 down-regulated and 67 up-regulated,
      were identified after application of aspirin to cells at a 1/2 minimal inhibitory
      concentration. Gene ontology analysis indicated enrichment in metabolic processes
      for the majority of the differentially expressed proteins. We then used the Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database to analyze a large
      number of differentially expressed proteins and identified genes involved in
      biosynthesis of amino acids pathway, carbon metabolism (pentose phosphate and
      glycolytic pathways, tricarboxylic acid cycle) and nitrogen metabolism (histidine
      metabolism). These novel proteins represent candidate targets in aspirin-mediated
      inhibition of S. xylosus biofilm formation at sub-MIC levels. The findings lay
      the foundation for further studies to identify potential aspirin targets.

PMID- 28871229
TI  - Gabapentin Modulates HCN4 Channel Voltage-Dependence.
AB  - Gabapentin (GBP) is widely used to treat epilepsy and neuropathic pain. There is
      evidence that GBP can act on hyperpolarization-activated cation (HCN) channel
      mediated Ih in brain slice experiments. However, evidence showing that GBP
      directly modulates HCN channels is lacking. The effect of GBP was tested using
      two-electrode voltage clamp recordings from human HCN1, HCN2, and HCN4 channels
      expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Whole-cell recordings were also made from mouse
      spinal cord slices targeting either parvalbumin positive (PV+) or calretinin
      positive (CR+) inhibitory neurons. The effect of GBP on Ih was measured in each
      inhibitory neuron population. HCN4 expression was assessed in the spinal cord
      using immunohistochemistry. When applied to HCN4 channels, GBP (100 MUM) caused a
      hyperpolarizing shift in the voltage of half activation (V1/2) thereby reducing
      the currents. Gabapentin had no impact on the V1/2 of HCN1 or HCN2 channels.
      There was a robust increase in the time to half activation for HCN4 channels with
      only a small increase noted for HCN1 channels. Gabapentin also caused a
      hyperpolarizing shift in the V1/2 of Ih measured from HCN4-expressing PV+
      inhibitory neurons in the spinal dorsal horn. Gabapentin had minimal effect on Ih
      recorded from CR+ neurons. Consistent with this, immunohistochemical analysis
      revealed that the majority of CR+ inhibitory neurons do not express somatic HCN4
      channels. In conclusion, GBP reduces HCN4 channel-mediated currents through a
      hyperpolarized shift in the V1/2. The HCN channel subtype selectivity of GBP
      provides a unique tool for investigating HCN4 channel function in the central
      nervous system. The HCN4 channel is a candidate molecular target for the acute
      analgesic and anticonvulsant actions of GBP.

PMID- 28871230
TI  - Comparative Analysis for Glycopatterns and Complex-Type N-Glycans of Glycoprotein
      in Sera from Chronic Hepatitis B- and C-Infected Patients.
AB  - Background: Chronic infection with HBV (CHB) or HCV (CHC) is the most common
      chronic viral hepatitis that can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma
      in humans, their infections have distinct pathogenic processes, however, little
      is known about the difference of glycoprotein glycopatterns in serum between
      hepatitis B virus (HBV)- and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. Methods:
      A method combining the lectin microarrays, letin-mediated affinity capture
      glycoproteins, and MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS was employed to analyze serum protein
      glycopatterns and identify the glycan structures from patients with CHB (n = 54)
      or CHC(n = 47), and healthy volunteers (HV, n = 35). Lectin blotting was further
      utilized to validate and assess the expression levels of their serum
      glycopatterns. Finally, the differences of the glycoprotein glycopatterns were
      systematically compared between CHB and CHC patients. Conclusions: As a result,
      there were 11 lectins (e.g., HHL, GSL-II, and EEL) exhibited significantly
      increased expression levels, and three lectins (LCA, VVA, and ACA) exhibited
      significantly decreased expression levels of serum protein glycopatterns only in
      the CHB patients. However, DBA exhibited significantly decreased expression
      levels, and two lectins (WGA and SNA) exhibited significantly increased
      expression levels of serum glycopatterns only in the CHC patients. Furthermore,
      LEL and MAL-I showed a coincidentally increasing trend in both CHC and CHB
      patients compared with the HV. The individual analysis demonstrated that eight
      lectins (MPL, GSL-I, PTL-II, UEA-I, WGA, LEL, VVA, and MAL-I) exhibited a high
      degree of consistency with the pooled serum samples of HV, CHB, and CHC patients.
      Besides, a complex-type N-glycans binder PHA-E+L exhibited significantly
      decreased NFIs in the CHB compared with HV and CHC subjects (p < 0.01). The MALDI
      TOF/TOF-MS results of N-linked glycans from the serum glycoproteins isolated by
      PHA-E+L-magnetic particle conjugates showed that there was an overlap of 23 N
      glycan peaks (e.g., m/z 1419.743, 1663.734, and 1743.581) between CHB, and CHC
      patients, 5 glycan peaks (e.g., m/z 1850.878, 1866.661, and 2037.750) were
      presented in virus-infected hepatitis patients compared with HV, 3 glycan peaks
      (1460.659, 2069.740, and 2174.772) were observed only in CHC patients. Our data
      provide useful information to find new biomarkers for distinguishing CHB and CHC
      patients based on the precision alteration of their serum glycopatterns.

PMID- 28871231
TI  - Expression of the Fatty Acid Receptors GPR84 and GPR120 and Cytodifferentiation
      of Epithelial Cells in the Gastric Mucosa of Mouse Pups in the Course of Dietary
      Transition.
AB  - During weaning, the ingested food of mouse pups changes from exclusively milk to
      solid food. In contrast to the protein- and carbohydrate-rich solid food, high
      fat milk is characterized primarily by fatty acids of medium chain length
      particularly important for the suckling pups. Therefore, it seems conceivable
      that the stomach mucosa may be specialized for detecting these important
      nutrients during the suckling phase. Here, we analyzed the expression of the G
      protein coupled receptors GPR84 and GPR120 (FFAR4), which are considered to be
      receptors for medium and long chain fatty acids (LCFAs), respectively. We found
      that the mRNA levels for GPR84 and GPR120 were high during the suckling period
      and progressively decreased in the course of weaning. Visualization of the
      receptor-expressing cells in 2-week-old mice revealed a high number of labeled
      cells, which reside in the apical as well as in the basal region of the gastric
      glands. At the base of the gastric glands, all GPR84-immunoreactive cells and
      some of the GPR120-positive cells also expressed chromogranin A (CgA), suggesting
      that they are enteroendocrine cells. We demonstrate that the majority of the
      CgA/GPR84 cells are X/A-like ghrelin cells. The high degree of overlap between
      ghrelin and GPR84 decreased post-weaning, whereas the overlap between ghrelin and
      GPR120 increased. At the apical region of the glands the fatty acid receptors
      were mainly expressed in unique cell types. These contain lipid-filled vacuole-
      and vesicle-like structures and may have absorptive functions. We detected
      decreased immunoreactivity for GPR84 and no lipid droplets in surface cells post
      weaning. In conclusion, expression of GPR84 in ghrelin cells as well as in
      surface cells suggests an important role of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) in
      the developing gastric mucosa of suckling mice.

PMID- 28871232
TI  - Fear, Anger, and Risk Preference Reversals: An Experimental Study on a Chinese
      Sample.
AB  - Fear and anger are basic emotions of the same valence which differ in terms of
      their certainty and control dimensions according to the Appraisal Tendency
      Framework, a theory addressing the relationship between specific emotions, and
      judgments and choices. Past research based on the Appraisal Theory revealed
      contradictory results for risky choice decision-making. However, these
      conclusions were drawn from Western samples (e.g., North American). Considering
      potential cultural differences, the present study aims to investigate whether the
      Appraisal Tendency hypothesis yields the same results in a Chinese sample. Our
      first study explores how dispositional fear and anger influence risk preferences
      through a classic virtual "Asia Disease Problem" task and the second study
      investigates how induced fear and anger influence risk preferences through an
      incentive-compatible task. Consistent with previous research, our results reveal
      that induced fear and anger have differential effects on risky decisions: angry
      participants prefer the risk-seeking option, whereas fearful participants prefer
      a risk-averse option. However, we find no associations between dispositional fear
      (or anger) and risky decisions.

PMID- 28871233
TI  - Commentary: Primary Emotional Systems and Personality: An Evolutionary
      Perspective.

PMID- 28871234
TI  - Test Anxiety in Spanish Adolescents: Examining the Role of Emotional Attention,
      and Ruminative Self-focus and Regulation.
AB  - Emotional attention has been found as a key predictive dimension of stress.
      However, very few studies have investigated the relationship between emotional
      attention and test anxiety. The objective of the present study was to analyze the
      role of emotional attention, measured using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), on
      the level of test anxiety, and measured using the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI).
      In addition, we examined the potential mediating role of Self-Rumination and Self
      Reflection, as measured through the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ), on
      the relationship between emotional attention and test anxiety. The sample
      included 385 Spanish adolescents between 14 and 19 years of age. Mediation
      analysis results are consistent with a model in which Self-Rumination, but no
      Self-Reflection, mediates the relationship between Emotional Attention and Test
      Anxiety. Finally, several potential implications of these findings to improve
      quality of life in adolescents are discussed.

PMID- 28871235
TI  - Increase of Reproductive Life Span Delays Age of Onset of Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - One striking observation in Parkinson's disease (PD) is the remarkable gender
      difference in incidence and prevalence of the disease. Data on gender differences
      with regard to disease onset, motor and non-motor symptoms, and dopaminergic
      medication are limited. Furthermore, whether estrogen status affects disease
      onset and progression of PD is controversially discussed. In this retrospective
      single center study, we extracted clinical data of 226 ambulatory PD patients and
      compared age of disease onset, disease stage, motor impairment, non-motor
      symptoms, and dopaminergic medication between genders. We applied a matched-pairs
      design to adjust for age and disease duration. To determine the effect of
      estrogen-related reproductive factors including number of children, age at
      menarche, and menopause on the age of onset, we applied a standardized
      questionnaire and performed a regression analysis. The male to female ratio in
      the present PD cohort was 1.9:1 (147 men vs. 79 women). Male patients showed
      increased motor impairment than female patients. The levodopa equivalent daily
      dose was increased by 18.9% in male patients compared to female patients. Matched
      pairs analysis confirmed the increased dose of dopaminergic medication in male
      patients. No differences were observed in age of onset, type of medication, and
      non-motor symptoms between both groups. Female reproductive factors including
      number of children, age at menarche, and age at menopause were positively
      associated with a delay of disease onset up to 30 months. The disease-modifying
      role of estrogen-related outcome measures warrants further clinical and
      experimental studies targeting gender differences, specifically hormone-dependent
      pathways in PD.

PMID- 28871236
TI  - Non-Visual Photopigments Effects of Constant Light-Emitting Diode Light Exposure
      on the Inner Retina of Wistar Rats.
AB  - The retina is part of the central nervous system specially adapted to capture
      light photons and transmit this information to the brain through photosensitive
      retinal cells involved in visual and non-visual activities. However, excessive
      light exposure may accelerate genetic retinal diseases or induce photoreceptor
      cell (PRC) death, finally leading to retinal degeneration (RD). Light pollution
      (LP) caused by the characteristic use of artificial light in modern day life may
      accelerate degenerative diseases or promote RD and circadian desynchrony. We have
      developed a working model to study RD mechanisms in a low light environment using
      light-emitting diode (LED) sources, at constant or long exposure times under LP
      conditions. The mechanism of PRC death is still not fully understood. Our main
      goal is to study the biochemical mechanisms of RD. We have previously
      demonstrated that constant light (LL) exposure to white LED produces a
      significant reduction in the outer nuclear layer (ONL) by classical PRC death
      after 7 days of LL exposure. The PRCs showed TUNEL-positive labeling and a
      caspase-3-independent mechanism of cell death. Here, we investigate whether
      constant LED exposure affects the inner-retinal organization and structure, cell
      survival and the expression of photopigments; in particular we look into whether
      constant LED exposure causes the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), of
      intrinsically photosensitive RGCs (ipRGCs), or of other inner-retinal cells.
      Wistar rats exposed to 200 lx of LED for 2 to 8 days (LL 2 and LL 8) were
      processed for histological and protein. The results show no differences in the
      number of nucleus or TUNEL positive RGCs nor inner structural damage in any of LL
      groups studied, indicating that LL exposure affects ONL but does not produce RGC
      death. However, the photopigments melanopsin (OPN4) and neuropsin (OPN5)
      expressed in the inner retina were seen to modify their localization and
      expression during LL exposure. Our findings suggest that constant light during
      several days produces retinal remodeling and ONL cell death as well as
      significant changes in opsin expression in the inner nuclear layer.

PMID- 28871237
TI  - Characteristics and Outcomes of Young Patients with First-Ever Ischemic Stroke
      Compared to Older Patients: The National Acute Stroke ISraeli Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nationwide data on the clinical profile and outcomes of ischemic
      stroke in younger adults are still scarce. Our aim was to analyze clinical
      characteristics and outcomes of young patients with first-ever ischemic stroke
      compared to older patients. METHODS: The National Acute Stroke ISraeli registry
      is a nationwide prospective hospital-based study performed triennially. Younger
      adults, aged 50 years and younger, were compared with patients, aged 51-84 years
      regarding risk factors, clinical presentation, stroke severity, stroke etiology,
      and outcomes. A logistic model for stroke outcome was fitted for each age group.
      RESULTS: 336 first-ever ischemic strokes were identified among patients aged 50
      years and younger and 3,243 among patients 51-84 years. Younger adults had lower
      rates of traditional vascular risk factors, but 82.7% had at least one of these
      risk factors. Younger adults were more likely to be male (62.8%), current smokers
      (47.3%), and to have a family history of stroke (7.4%). They tended to have less
      common stroke presentation such as sensory disturbances or headache and were more
      likely to arrive at the hospital independently by car. The majority of young
      adults (70%) had a favorable outcome (modified Ranking Scale; mRS <= 1) at
      discharge, but 11.7% had poor outcome (mRS > 3) and 18.2% had an in-hospital
      complication. According to a multivariable regression model, in young adults,
      only baseline stroke severity (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale > 5) was
      associated with poor outcome at discharge (p < 0.001), whereas in older adults,
      stroke severity (p < 0.001), female gender (OR = 1.35, CI 95% 1.03-1.76), older
      age (OR = 1.08, CI 95% 1.01-1.16), atrial fibrillation (OR = 1.62, CI 95% 1.16
      2.26), and anterior circulation territory (OR = 2.10, CI 95% 1.50-2.94) were all
      significantly associated with poor outcome. CONCLUSION: Our findings, in this
      nationwide registry, demonstrate the relatively high rate of smoking and family
      history of stroke, and the lower rate of hospital arrival by ambulance among
      young adults. This calls for increasing awareness to the possibility of stroke
      among young adults and for better prevention, especially smoking cessation.

PMID- 28871238
TI  - Overcoming Therapeutic Inertia in Multiple Sclerosis Care: A Pilot Randomized
      Trial Applying the Traffic Light System in Medical Education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physicians often do not initiate or intensify treatments when clearly
      warranted, a phenomenon known as therapeutic inertia (TI). Limited information is
      available on educational interventions to ameliorate knowledge-to-action gaps in
      TI. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an educational
      intervention compared to usual care among practicing neurologists caring for
      patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: We conducted a pilot double
      blind, parallel-group, randomized clinical trial. Inclusion criteria included
      neurologists who are actively involved in managing MS patients. Participants were
      exposed to 20 simulated case-scenarios (10 cases at baseline, and 10 cases post
      randomization to usual care vs. educational intervention) of relapsing-remitting
      MS with moderate or high risk of disease progression. The educational
      intervention employed a traffic light system (TLS) to facilitate decisions,
      allowing participants to easily recognize high-risk scenarios requiring treatment
      escalation. We also measured differences between blocks to invoke decision
      fatigue. The control group responded as they would do in their usual clinical
      practice not exposed to the educational intervention. The primary feasibility
      outcome was the proportion of participants who completed the study and the
      proportion of participants who correctly identified a high-risk case-scenario
      with the "red traffic light." Secondary outcomes included decision fatigue
      (defined as an increment of TI in the second block of case-scenarios compared to
      the first block) and the efficacy of the educational intervention measured as a
      reduction in TI for MS treatment. RESULTS: Of 30 neurologists invited to be part
      of the study, the participation rate was 83.3% (n = 25). Of the 25 participants,
      14 were randomly assigned to the control group and 11 to the intervention group.
      TI was present in 72.0% of participants in at least one case scenario. For the
      primary feasibility outcome, the completion rate of the study was 100% (25/25
      participants). Overall, 77.4% of participants correctly identified the "red
      traffic light" for clinical-scenarios with high risk of disease progression.
      Similarly, 86.4% of participants correctly identified the "yellow traffic light"
      for cases that would require a reassessment within 6-12 months. For the secondary
      fatigue outcome, within-group analysis showed a significant increased prevalence
      of TI in the second block of case-scenarios (decision fatigue) among participants
      randomized to the control group (TI pre-intervention 57.1% vs. TI post
      intervention 71.4%; p = 0.015), but not in the active group (TI pre-intervention
      54.6% vs. TI post-intervention 63.6%; p = 0.14). For the efficacy outcome, we
      found a non-significant reduction in TI for the targeted intervention compared to
      controls (22.6 vs. 33.9% post-intervention; OR 0.57; 95% CI 0.26-1.22).
      CONCLUSION: An educational intervention applying the TLS is feasible and shows
      some promising results in the identification of high-risk scenarios to reduce
      decision fatigue and TI. Larger studies are needed to determine the efficacy of
      the proposed educational intervention. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT03134794.

PMID- 28871239
TI  - Arginine Vasopressin Effects on Subjective Judgments and Neural Responses to Same
      and Other-Sex Faces in Men and Women.
AB  - Arginine vasopressin (AVP) influences social and emotional behaviors across a
      wide range of species. In humans, intranasal AVP has been previously shown to
      alter physiological responses to and subjective judgments of same-sex faces in
      both men and women. The present study attempted to elucidate the neural mechanism
      for these effects by randomizing 40 healthy men and 40 healthy women to treatment
      with either 40 IU intranasal AVP or a saline placebo approximately 30 min before
      imaging their brain function with fMRI as they viewed same and other-sex faces.
      All subjects were also scanned a second time several days later with no treatment
      to evaluate the persistence of AVP effects over time. AVP acutely increased
      positive ratings of same-sex faces in women, with some evidence that these
      effects persisted until the second scan. While AVP had no acute effects on same
      sex ratings in men, AVP increased positive ratings of same-sex faces several days
      later. On the other hand, AVP had no effect on other-sex face judgments in either
      sex. AVP modulation of brain function was focused on the nucleus accumbens (NAc)
      and the lateral septum, two reward processing areas involved in the formation of
      social bonds. AVP provoked acute increases in right NAc and bilateral lateral
      septum responses to female faces among men, with left lateral septum responses
      persisting over time while right NAc responses reversed over time. Finally, AVP
      modulated hypothalamic activation to faces in both men and women. The present
      study therefore indicates that intranasal AVP affects subjective ratings and
      neural responses to same and other-sex faces in men and women, with some effects
      persisting and others emerging over time. Future studies should investigate
      whether AVP effects are modulated by individual variables such as genotype,
      personality, or attachment style as previously reported for other nonapeptides.

PMID- 28871240
TI  - In Vivo and In Vitro Analysis in Coronary Artery Disease Related to Type 2
      Diabetes.
AB  - AIM: The leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with type 2
      diabetes mellitus (DM) is coronary artery disease (CAD), a condition often
      asymptomatic but severe in these patients. Although glucose metabolism impairment
      and oxidative stress are known actors in the endothelial dysfunction/remodeling
      that occurs in diabetic patients, the relationship between cardiovascular
      disorders and DM is not fully understood. We have performed both an in vivo
      imaging and in vitro molecular analysis to investigate diabetic-specific CAD
      alterations. METHODS: Computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) was
      performed in a group of 20 diabetic patients with CAD (DM+CAD+), 20 non-diabetic
      with CAD (DM-CAD+), 10 diabetic non-CAD patients (DM+CAD-), and 20 non-diabetic
      healthy subjects (HS). Imaging quantitative parameters such as calcium score
      (Cascore), calcified plaque volume (CPV), non-calcified plaque volume (NCPV),
      total plaque volume (TPV), remodeling index (RI), and plaque burden were
      extracted for each CAD subject. Moreover, the expression levels of superoxide
      dismutase 2 (SOD2) and liver X receptor alpha (LXRalpha) genes were analyzed in
      the peripheral blood mononuclear cells, whereas hyaluronan (HA) concentrations
      were evaluated in the plasma of each subject. RESULTS: Imaging parameters, such
      as Cascore, CPV, RI, and plaque burden, were significantly higher in DM+CAD+
      group, compared to DM-CAD+ (P = 0.019; P = 0.014; P < 0.001, P < 0.001,
      respectively). SOD2 mRNA was downregulated, while LXRalpha gene expression was
      upregulated in DM+CAD-, DM+CAD+, and DM-CAD+ groups compared to HS (P = 0.001, P
      = 0.03, and P = 0.001 for SOD2 and P = 0.006, P = 0.008, and P < 0.001 for
      LXRalpha, respectively). Plasmatic levels of HA were higher in DM-CAD+, DM+CAD-,
      and DM+CAD+ groups, compared to HS (P = 0.001 for the three groups). When
      compared to DM-CAD+, HA concentration was higher in DM+CAD- (P = 0.008) and
      DM+CAD+ (P < 0.001) with a significant difference between the two diabetic groups
      (P = 0.003). Moreover, HA showed a significant association with diabetes (P =
      0.01) in the study population, and the correlation between HA levels and glycemia
      was statistically significant (rho = 0.73, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In our
      population, imaging parameters highlight a greater severity of CAD in diabetic
      patients. Among molecular parameters, HA is modulated by diabetic CAD-related
      alterations while SOD2 and LXRalpha are found to be more associated with CAD but
      do not discriminate between diabetic and non-diabetic subgroups.

PMID- 28871241
TI  - Inhibition of Fungal Pathogens across Genotypes and Temperatures by Amphibian
      Skin Bacteria.
AB  - Symbiotic bacteria may dampen the impacts of infectious diseases on hosts by
      inhibiting pathogen growth. However, our understanding of the generality of
      pathogen inhibition by different bacterial taxa across pathogen genotypes and
      environmental conditions is limited. Bacterial inhibitory properties are of
      particular interest for the amphibian-killing fungal pathogens (Batrachochytrium
      dendrobatidis and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans), for which probiotic
      applications as conservation strategies have been proposed. We quantified the
      inhibition strength of five putatively B. dendrobatidis-inhibitory bacteria
      isolated from woodland salamander skin against six Batrachochytrium genotypes at
      two temperatures (12 and 18 degrees C). We selected six genotypes from across the
      Batrachochytrium phylogeny: B. salamandrivorans, B. dendrobatidis-Brazil and four
      genotypes of the B. dendrobatidis Global Panzootic Lineage (GPL1: JEL647, JEL404;
      GPL2: SRS810, JEL423). We performed 96-well plate challenge assays in a full
      factorial design. We detected a Batrachochytrium genotype by temperature
      interaction on bacterial inhibition score for all bacteria, indicating that
      bacteria vary in ability to inhibit Batrachochytrium depending on pathogen
      genotype and temperature. Acinetobacter rhizosphaerae moderately inhibited B.
      salamandrivorans at both temperatures (MU = 46-53%), but not any B. dendrobatidis
      genotypes. Chryseobacterium sp. inhibited three Batrachochytrium genotypes at
      both temperatures (MU = 5-71%). Pseudomonas sp. strain 1 inhibited all
      Batrachochytrium genotypes at 12 degrees C and four Batrachochytrium genotypes at
      18 degrees C (MU = 5-100%). Pseudomonas sp. strain 2 and Stenotrophomonas sp.
      moderately to strongly inhibited all six Batrachochytrium genotypes at both
      temperatures (MU = 57-100%). All bacteria consistently inhibited B.
      salamandrivorans. Using cluster analysis of inhibition scores, we found that more
      closely related Batrachochytrium genotypes grouped together, suggesting that
      bacterial inhibition strength may be predictable based on Batrachochytrium
      relatedness. We conclude that bacterial inhibition capabilities change among
      bacterial strains, Batrachochytrium genotypes and temperatures. A comprehensive
      understanding of bacterial inhibitory function, across pathogen genotypes and
      temperatures, is needed to better predict the role of bacterial symbionts in
      amphibian disease ecology. For targeted conservation applications, we recommend
      using bacterial strains identified as strongly inhibitory as they are most likely
      to produce broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents at a range of temperatures.

PMID- 28871242
TI  - Concurrent Detection of Human Norovirus and Bacterial Pathogens in Water Samples
      from an Agricultural Region in Central California Coast.
AB  - Bacterial pathogens and human norovirus (HuNoV) are major cause for acute
      gastroenteritis caused by contaminated food and water. Public waterways can
      become contaminated from a variety of sources and flood after heavy rain events,
      leading to pathogen contamination of produce fields. We initiated a survey of
      several public watersheds in a major leafy green produce production region of the
      Central California Coast to determine the prevalence of HuNoV as well as
      bacterial pathogens. Moore swabs were used to collect environmental samples bi
      monthly at over 30 sampling sites in the region. High prevalence of HuNoV and
      bacterial pathogens were detected in environmental water samples in the region.
      The overall detection rates of HuNoV, O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
      (STEC), non-O157 STEC, Salmonella, and Listeria were 25.58, 7.91, 9.42, 59.65,
      and 44.30%, respectively. The detection rates of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes
      were significantly higher in the spring. Fall and spring had elevated detection
      rates of O157 STEC. The overall detection rates of non-O157 STEC in the fall were
      lower than the other seasons but not significant. The overall detection rates of
      HuNoV were highest in fall, followed by spring and winter, with summer being
      lowest and significantly lower than other seasons. This study presented the first
      study of evaluating the correlation between the detection rate of HuNoV and the
      detection rates of four bacterial pathogens from environmental water. Overall,
      there was no significant difference in HuNoV detection rates between samples
      testing positive or negative for the four bacterial pathogens tested. Pathogens
      in animal-impacted and human-impacted areas were investigated. There were
      significant higher detection rates in animal-impacted areas than that of human
      impacted areas for bacterial pathogens. However, there was no difference in HuNoV
      detection rates between these two areas. The overall detection levels of generic
      E. coli and detection rate of HuNoV showed no correlation.

PMID- 28871243
TI  - First Molecular Detection of Babesia gibsoni in Dogs from Wuhan, China.
AB  - Canine piroplasmosis is a significant disease in dogs caused by Babesia and
      Theileria parasites. The clinical manifestations range from mild illness to
      serious disease depending on the parasite species and the physical condition of
      the infected dog. Canine piroplasmosis has been reported to be prevalent in
      China. However, no molecular evidence of the disease has been reported in pet
      dogs from Wuhan. In this study, 118 blood samples were randomly collected from
      pet dogs in veterinary clinics. The blood samples were subjected to both
      microscopic examination and reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization assays to
      detect piroplasm infection. Parasites were observed in 10 blood samples via
      microscopic examination, whereas there were 14 Babesia gibsoni-positive RLB
      tests. Phylogenetic analysis was performed after the 18S rRNA and ITS gene
      sequences from the 14 positive samples were cloned and sequenced. The results
      confirmed the existence of B. gibsoni in this area. This is the first molecular
      report of canine babesiosis in pet dogs from Wuhan, China. Pet dogs are companion
      animals, and the prevalence of babesiosis will be of concern in daily life. This
      study will help veterinarians better understand the prevalence of canine
      babesiosis and provide a guide for disease control in pet dogs.

PMID- 28871244
TI  - Microbial Diversity in Sulfate-Reducing Marine Sediment Enrichment Cultures
      Associated with Anaerobic Biotransformation of Coastal Stockpiled Phosphogypsum
      (Sfax, Tunisia).
AB  - Anaerobic biotechnology using sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) is a promising
      alternative for reducing long-term stockpiling of phosphogypsum (PG), an acidic
      (pH ~3) by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industries containing high amounts
      of sulfate. The main objective of this study was to evaluate, for the first time,
      the diversity and ability of anaerobic marine microorganisms to convert sulfate
      from PG into sulfide, in order to look for marine SRB of biotechnological
      interest. A series of sulfate-reducing enrichment cultures were performed using
      different electron donors (i.e., acetate, formate, or lactate) and sulfate
      sources (i.e., sodium sulfate or PG) as electron acceptors. Significant sulfide
      production was observed from enrichment cultures inoculated with marine
      sediments, collected near the effluent discharge point of a Tunisian fertilizer
      industry (Sfax, Tunisia). Sulfate sources impacted sulfide production rates from
      marine sediments as well as the diversity of SRB species belonging to
      Deltaproteobacteria. When PG was used as sulfate source, Desulfovibrio species
      dominated microbial communities of marine sediments, while Desulfobacter species
      were mainly detected using sodium sulfate. Sulfide production was also affected
      depending on the electron donor used, with the highest production obtained using
      formate. In contrast, low sulfide production (acetate-containing cultures) was
      associated with an increase in the population of Firmicutes. These results
      suggested that marine Desulfovibrio species, to be further isolated, are
      potential candidates for bioremediation of PG by immobilizing metals and
      metalloids thanks to sulfide production by these SRB.

PMID- 28871245
TI  - Comparative Genomic Analysis of Neutrophilic Iron(II) Oxidizer Genomes for
      Candidate Genes in Extracellular Electron Transfer.
AB  - Extracellular electron transfer (EET) is recognized as a key biochemical process
      in circumneutral pH Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB). In this study, we searched
      for candidate EET genes in 73 neutrophilic FeOB genomes, among which 43 genomes
      are complete or close-to-complete and the rest have estimated genome completeness
      ranging from 5 to 91%. These neutrophilic FeOB span members of the
      microaerophilic, anaerobic phototrophic, and anaerobic nitrate-reducing FeOB
      groups. We found that many microaerophilic and several anaerobic FeOB possess
      homologs of Cyc2, an outer membrane cytochrome c originally identified in
      Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. The "porin-cytochrome c complex" (PCC) gene
      clusters homologous to MtoAB/PioAB are present in eight FeOB, accounting for 19%
      of complete and close-to-complete genomes examined, whereas PCC genes homologous
      to OmbB-OmaB-OmcB in Geobacter sulfurreducens are absent. Further, we discovered
      gene clusters that may potentially encode two novel PCC types. First, a cluster
      (tentatively named "PCC3") encodes a porin, an extracellular and a periplasmic
      cytochrome c with remarkably large numbers of heme-binding motifs. Second, a
      cluster (tentatively named "PCC4") encodes a porin and three periplasmic
      multiheme cytochromes c. A conserved inner membrane protein (IMP) encoded in PCC3
      and PCC4 gene clusters might be responsible for translocating electrons across
      the inner membrane. Other bacteria possessing PCC3 and PCC4 are mostly
      Proteobacteria isolated from environments with a potential niche for Fe(II)
      oxidation. In addition to cytochrome c, multicopper oxidase (MCO) genes
      potentially involved in Fe(II) oxidation were also identified. Notably, candidate
      EET genes were not found in some FeOB, especially the anaerobic ones, probably
      suggesting EET genes or Fe(II) oxidation mechanisms are different from the
      searched models. Overall, based on current EET models, the search extends our
      understanding of bacterial EET and provides candidate genes for future research.

PMID- 28871246
TI  - Succession and Fermentation Products of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus)
      Hindgut Microbiota in Response to an Extreme Dietary Shift.
AB  - Dietary intake affects the structure and function of microbes in host intestine.
      However, the succession of gut microbiota in response to changes in macronutrient
      levels during a long period of time remains insufficiently studied. Here, we
      determined the succession and metabolic products of intestinal microbiota in
      grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) undergoing an abrupt and extreme diet
      change, from fish meal to Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanense). Grass carp hindgut
      microbiota responded rapidly to the diet shift, reaching a new equilibrium
      approximately within 11 days. In comparison to animal-diet samples, Bacteroides,
      Lachnospiraceae and Erysipelotrichaceae increased significantly while
      Cetobacterium decreased significantly in plant-diet samples. Cetobacterium was
      negatively correlated with Bacteroides, Lachnospiraceae and Erysipelotrichaceae,
      while Bacteroides was positively correlated with Lachnospiraceae. Predicted
      glycoside hydrolase and polysaccharide lyase genes in Bacteroides and
      Lachnospiraceae from the Carbohydrate-Active enZymes (CAZy) database might be
      involved in degradation of the plant cell wall polysaccharides. However, none of
      these enzymes was detected in the grass carp genome searched against dbCAN
      database. Additionally, a significant decrease of short chain fatty acids levels
      in plant-based samples was observed. Generally, our results suggest a rapid
      adaption of grass carp intestinal microbiota to dietary shift, and that
      microbiota are likely to play an indispensable role in nutrient turnover and
      fermentation.

PMID- 28871247
TI  - Archaeal Persisters: Persister Cell Formation as a Stress Response in Haloferax
      volcanii.
AB  - Persister cells are phenotypic variants within a microbial population, which are
      dormant and transiently tolerant to stress. Persistence has been studied
      extensively in bacteria, and in eukaryotes to a limited extent, however, it has
      never been observed in archaea. Using the model haloarchaeon, Haloferax volcanii
      DS2, we demonstrated persister cell formation in this domain, with time-kill
      curves exhibiting a characteristic biphasic pattern following starvation or
      exposure to lethal concentrations of various biocidal compounds. Repeated
      challenges of surviving cells showed that, as with bacteria, persister formation
      in H. volcanii was not heritable. Additionally, as previously shown with
      bacteria, persister formation in H. volcanii was suppressed by exogenous indole.
      The addition of spent culture media to assays conducted on planktonic cells
      showed that H. volcanii-conditioned media stimulated persistence, whereas
      conditioned media of other haloarchaea or halophilic bacteria did not, suggesting
      the involvement of a species-specific signal. Using a TLC overlay assay, the
      quorum sensing bioreporter Agrobacterium tumefaciens ATCC BAA-2240 detected the
      presence of C4 and C6 acyl homoserine lactone-like signal molecules in a H.
      volcanii culture extract. While synthetic bacterial AHLs did not induce
      persistence, this is potentially due to structural differences between bacterial
      and archaeal signals, and does not discount a quorum sensing component in
      haloarchaeal persister formation. The observation of persister cell formation by
      this haloarchaeon may provide some insights into the survival of these organisms
      in stressful or dynamic environments.

PMID- 28871248
TI  - Identification and Functional Characterization of Small Alarmone Synthetases in
      Corynebacterium glutamicum.
AB  - The hyperphosphorylated guanosine derivatives ppGpp and pppGpp represent global
      regulators of the bacterial stress response, as they act as central elements of
      the stringent response system. Although it was assumed that both, (p)ppGpp
      synthesis and hydrolysis, are catalyzed by one bifunctional RSH-protein in the
      actinobacterial model organism Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032, two
      putative short alarmone synthetases (SASs) were identified by bioinformatic
      analyses. The predicted sequences of both enzymes, designated as RelP*Cg and
      RelSCg, exhibit high similarities to the conserved (p)ppGpp synthetase catalytic
      domain. In the context of sequence analysis, significant differences were found
      between the RelP variants of different C. glutamicum isolates. In contrast to the
      bifunctional RelA/SpoT homolog (RSH) protein RelCg, whose gene deletion results
      in a reduced growth rate, no change in growth characteristics were observed for
      deletion mutants of the putative SAS proteins under standard growth conditions.
      The growth deficit of the Deltarel strain could be restored by the additional
      deletion of the gene encoding RelSCg, which clearly indicates a functional
      relationship between both enzymes. The predicted pyrophosphokinase activity of
      RelSCg was demonstrated by means of genetic complementation of an Escherichia
      coli DeltarelADeltaspoT strain. For the expression of RelP*Cg , as well as the
      slightly differing variant RelPCg from C. glutamicum AS1.542, no complementation
      was observed, concluding that both RelP versions possess no significant
      pyrophosphokinase activity in vivo. The results were confirmed by in vitro
      characterization of the corresponding proteins. In the course of this
      investigation, the additional conversion of GMP to pGpp was determined for the
      enzyme RelSCg. Since the SAS species analyzed extend both the network of
      stringent response related enzymes and the number of substances involved, the
      study of this class of enzymes is an important component in understanding the
      bacterial stress response. In addition to the comprehension of important
      biological processes, such as growth rate regulation and the survival of
      pathogenic species in the host organism, SAS enzymes can be used to produce novel
      hyperphosphorylated nucleotide species, such as pGpp.

PMID- 28871249
TI  - Neutralization of Human Interleukin 23 by Multivalent Nanobodies Explained by the
      Structure of Cytokine-Nanobody Complex.
AB  - The heterodimeric cytokine interleukin (IL) 23 comprises the IL12-shared p40
      subunit and an IL23-specific subunit, p19. Together with IL12 and IL27, IL23 sits
      at the apex of the regulatory mechanisms shaping adaptive immune responses. IL23,
      together with IL17, plays an important role in the development of chronic
      inflammation and autoimmune inflammatory diseases. In this context, we generated
      monovalent antihuman IL23 variable heavy chain domain of llama heavy chain
      antibody (VHH) domains (Nanobodies(r)) with low nanomolar affinity for human
      interleukin (hIL) 23. The crystal structure of a quaternary complex assembling
      hIL23 and several nanobodies against p19 and p40 subunits allowed identification
      of distinct epitopes and enabled rational design of a multivalent IL23-specific
      blocking nanobody. Taking advantage of the ease of nanobody formatting,
      multivalent IL23 nanobodies were assembled with properly designed linkers
      flanking an antihuman serum albumin nanobody, with improved hIL23 neutralization
      capacity in vitro and in vivo, as compared to the monovalent nanobodies. These
      constructs with long exposure time are excellent candidates for further
      developments targeting Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.

PMID- 28871250
TI  - MicroRNA-21: A Positive Regulator for Optimal Production of Type I and Type III
      Interferon by Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells.
AB  - Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are the major producers of type I and type
      III interferons (IFNs) that play essential roles in host antiviral immunity.
      MicroRNAs (miRs) are small, noncoding RNAs that can modulate many immune
      processes. Although molecular regulation of type I IFN production by pDCs has
      been studied extensively, the regulation of type III IFN production has not been
      studied thoroughly, particularly at posttranscriptional level. We show here that
      miR-21 is an essential positive regulator for the production of both IFN-alpha
      and IFN-lambda by pDCs and for promoting host defense against viral infection.
      miR-21 was markedly upregulated in toll-like receptor (TLR)-activated pDCs and
      was crucial for TLR7/9 ligand- or herpesvirus-induced production of IFN-alpha and
      IFN-lambda by pDCs. miR-21-deficient pDCs produced significantly lower levels of
      IFN-alpha and IFN-lambda on activation than those by wild-type pDCs. Impaired
      antiviral immune responses were also observed in miR-21-deficient mice.
      Mechanistically, we identified phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) as the major
      target of miR-21 in pDCs, and miR-21 deficiency resulted in increased expression
      of PTEN that suppressed TLR-mediated activation of PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling in
      pDCs. Hence, our findings provide evidence that miR-21 positively regulates both
      IFN-alpha and IFN-lambda production and identify an important role for miR-21 in
      regulating the function of pDCs and in host antiviral immunity.

PMID- 28871251
TI  - Th17-Inducing Cytokines IL-6 and IL-23 Are Crucial for Granuloma Formation during
      Experimental Paracoccidioidomycosis.
AB  - Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), a chronic granulomatous disease caused by the
      thermally dimorphic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and Paracoccidioides
      lutzii, has the highest mortality rate among systemic mycosis. The T helper 1
      mediated immunity is primarily responsible for acquired resistance during P.
      brasiliensis infection, while susceptibility is associated with Th2 occurrence.
      Th17 is a population of T CD4+ cells that, among several chemokines and
      cytokines, produces IL-17A and requires the presence of IL-1, IL-6, and TGF-beta
      for differentiation in mice and IL-23 for its maintenance. Th17 has been
      described as an arm of the immune system that enhances host protection against
      several bacterial and fungal infections, as Pneumocystis carinii and Candida
      albicans. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the Th17 immune response and the
      role of Th17-associated cytokines (IL-6, IL-23, and IL-17A) during experimental
      PCM. First, we observed that P. brasiliensis infection [virulent yeast strain 18
      of P. brasiliensis (Pb18)] increased the IL-17A production in vitro and all the
      evaluated Th17-associated cytokines in the lung tissue from C57BL/6 wild-type
      mice. In addition, the deficiency of IL-6, IL-23, or IL-17 receptor A (IL-17RA)
      impaired the compact granuloma formation and conferred susceptibility during
      infection, associated with reduced tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IFN-gamma, and
      inducible nitric oxide synthase enzyme expression. Our data suggest that IL-6
      production by bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) is important to promote the
      Th17 differentiation during Pb18 infection. In accordance, the adoptive transfer
      of BMDMs from C57BL/6 to infected IL-6-/- or IL-17RA-/- mice reduced the fungal
      burden in the lungs compared to nontransferred mice and reestablished the
      pulmonary granuloma formation. Taken together, these results suggest that Th17
      associated cytokines are involved in the modulation of immune response and
      granuloma formation during experimental PCM.

PMID- 28871252
TI  - Development and Characterization of a Camelid Single Domain Antibody-Urease
      Conjugate That Targets Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2.
AB  - Angiogenesis is the process of new blood vessel formation and is essential for a
      tumor to grow beyond a certain size. Tumors secrete the pro-angiogenic factor
      vascular endothelial growth factor, which acts upon local endothelial cells by
      binding to vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs). In this study,
      we describe the development and characterization of V21-DOS47, an immunoconjugate
      that targets VEGFR2. V21-DOS47 is composed of a camelid single domain anti-VEGFR2
      antibody (V21) and the enzyme urease. The conjugate specifically binds to VEGFR2
      and urease converts endogenous urea into ammonia, which is toxic to tumor cells.
      Previously, we developed a similar antibody-urease conjugate, L-DOS47, which is
      currently in clinical trials for non-small cell lung cancer. Although V21-DOS47
      was designed from parameters learned from the generation of L-DOS47, additional
      optimization was required to produce V21-DOS47. In this study, we describe the
      expression and purification of two versions of the V21 antibody: V21H1 and V21H4.
      Each was conjugated to urease using a different chemical cross-linker. The
      conjugates were characterized by a panel of analytical techniques, including SDS
      PAGE, size exclusion chromatography, Western blotting, and LC-MSE peptide
      mapping. Binding characteristics were determined by ELISA and flow cytometry
      assays. To improve the stability of the conjugates at physiologic pH, the pIs of
      the V21 antibodies were adjusted by adding several amino acid residues to the C
      terminus. For V21H4, a terminal cysteine was also added for use in the
      conjugation chemistry. The modified V21 antibodies were expressed in the E. coli
      BL21 (DE3) pT7 system. V21H1 was conjugated to urease using the
      heterobifunctional cross-linker succinimidyl-[(N-maleimidopropionamido)
      diethyleneglycol] ester (SM(PEG)2), which targets lysine resides in the antibody.
      V21H4 was conjugated to urease using the homobifunctional cross-linker, 1,8
      bis(maleimido)diethylene glycol (BM(PEG)2), which targets the cysteine added to
      the antibody C-terminus. V21H4-DOS47 was determined to be the superior conjugate
      as the antibody is easily produced and purified at high levels, and the conjugate
      can be efficiently generated and purified using methods easily transferrable for
      cGMP production. In addition, V21H4-DOS47 retains higher binding activity than
      V21H1-DOS47, as the native lysine residues are unmodified.

PMID- 28871253
TI  - Severe Tuberculosis in Humans Correlates Best with Neutrophil Abundance and
      Lymphocyte Deficiency and Does Not Correlate with Antigen-Specific CD4 T-Cell
      Response.
AB  - It is generally thought that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific CD4+ Th1
      cells producing IFN-gamma are essential for protection against tuberculosis (TB).
      In some studies, protection has recently been associated with polyfunctional
      subpopulation of Mtb-specific Th1 cells, i.e., with cells able to simultaneously
      secrete several type 1 cytokines. However, the role for Mtb-specific Th1 cells
      and their polyfunctional subpopulations during established TB disease is not
      fully defined. Pulmonary TB is characterized by a great variability of disease
      manifestations. To address the role for Mtb-specific Th1 responses during TB, we
      investigated how Th1 and other immune cells correlated with particular TB
      manifestations, such as the degree of pulmonary destruction, TB extent, the level
      of bacteria excretion, clinical disease severity, clinical TB forms, and "Timika
      X-ray score," an integrative parameter of pulmonary TB pathology. In comparison
      with healthy Mtb-exposed controls, TB patients (TBP) did not exhibit deficiency
      in Mtb-specific cytokine-producing CD4+ cells circulating in the blood and
      differed by a polyfunctional profile of these cells, which was biased toward the
      accumulation of bifunctional TNF-alpha+IFN-gamma+IL-2- lymphocytes. Importantly,
      however, severity of different TB manifestations was not associated with Mtb
      specific cytokine-producing cells or their polyfunctional profile. In contrast,
      several TB manifestations were strongly correlated with leukocyte numbers, the
      percent or the absolute number of lymphocytes, segmented or band neutrophils. In
      multiple alternative statistical analyses, band neutrophils appeared as the
      strongest positive correlate of pulmonary destruction, bacteria excretion, and
      "Timika X-ray score." In contrast, clinical TB severity was primarily and
      inversely correlated with the number of lymphocytes in the blood. The results
      suggest that: (i) different TB manifestations may be driven by distinct
      mechanisms; (ii) quantitative parameters and polyfunctional profile of
      circulating Mtb-specific CD4+ cells play a minor role in determining TB severity;
      and (iii) general shifts in production/removal of granulocytic and lymphocytic
      lineages represent an important factor of TB pathogenesis. Mechanisms leading to
      these shifts and their specific role during TB are yet to be determined but are
      likely to involve changes in human hematopoietic system.

PMID- 28871255
TI  - Signaling to the Epigenome: New Insights into the Roles of Nuclear Signaling
      Kinases in the Context of the Immune System and Cancer.

PMID- 28871254
TI  - Single-Domain Antibodies As Versatile Affinity Reagents for Analytical and
      Diagnostic Applications.
AB  - With just three CDRs in their variable domains, the antigen-binding site of
      camelid heavy-chain-only antibodies (HcAbs) has a more limited structural
      diversity than that of conventional antibodies. Even so, this does not seem to
      limit their specificity and high affinity as HcAbs against a broad range of
      structurally diverse antigens have been reported. The recombinant form of their
      variable domain [nanobody (Nb)] has outstanding properties that make Nbs, not
      just an alternative option to conventional antibodies, but in many cases, these
      properties allow them to reach analytical or diagnostic performances that cannot
      be accomplished with conventional antibodies. These attributes include
      comprehensive representation of the immune specificity in display libraries, easy
      adaptation to high-throughput screening, exceptional stability, minimal size, and
      versatility as affinity building block. Here, we critically reviewed each of
      these properties and highlight their relevance with regard to recent developments
      in different fields of immunosensing applications.

PMID- 28871256
TI  - Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-DRB1*15:01 and HLA-DRB5*01:01 Present Complementary
      Peptide Repertoires.
AB  - Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR15 is a haplotype associated with multiple
      sclerosis. It contains the two DRB* genes DRB1*1501 (DR2b) and DRB5*0101 (DR2a).
      The reported anchor motif of the corresponding HLA-DR molecules was determined in
      1994 based on a small number of peptide ligands and binding assays. DR2a could
      display a set of peptides complementary to that presented by DR2b or,
      alternatively, a similar peptide repertoire but recognized in a different manner
      by T cells. It is known that DR2a and DR2b share some peptide ligands, although
      the degree of similarity of their associated peptidomes remains unclear. In
      addition, the contribution of each molecule to the global peptide repertoire
      presented by the HLA-DR15 haplotype has not been evaluated. We used mass
      spectrometry to analyze the peptide pools bound to DR2a and DR2b, identifying 169
      and 555 unique peptide ligands of DR2a and DR2b, respectively. The analysis of
      these sets of peptides allowed the refinement of the corresponding binding motifs
      revealing novel anchor residues that had been overlooked in previous analyses.
      Moreover, the number of shared ligands between both molecules was low, indicating
      that DR2a and DR2b present complementary peptide repertoires to T cells. Finally,
      our analysis suggests that, quantitatively, both molecules contribute to the
      peptide repertoire presented by cells expressing the HLA-DR15 haplotype.

PMID- 28871257
TI  - Reactivation of Intestinal Inflammation Is Suppressed by Catestatin in a Murine
      Model of Colitis via M1 Macrophages and Not the Gut Microbiota.
AB  - While there is growing awareness of a relationship between chromogranin-A (CHGA)
      and susceptibility to inflammatory conditions, the role of human catestatin
      [(hCTS); CHGA352-67] in the natural history of established inflammatory bowel
      disease is not known. Recently, using two different experimental models, we
      demonstrated that hCTS-treated mice develop less severe acute colitis. We have
      also shown the implication of the macrophages in this effect. The aims of this
      study were to determine (1) whether hCTS treatment could attenuate the
      reactivation of inflammation in adult mice with previously established chronic
      colitis; (2) whether this effect is mediated through macrophages or the gut
      microbiota. Quiescent colitis was induced in 7-8-week-old C57BL6 mice using four
      cycles (2-4%) of dextran sulfate sodium. hCTS (1.5 mg/kg/day) treatment or
      vehicle started 2 days before the last induction of colitis and continuing for 7
      days. At sacrifice, macro- and microscopic scores were determined. Colonic pro
      inflammatory cytokines [interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1beta, and TNF- alpha], anti
      inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, TGF- beta), classically activated (M1) (iNOS,
      Mcp1), and alternatively activated (M2) (Ym1, Arg1) macrophages markers were
      studied using ELISA and/or RT-qPCR. In vitro, peritoneal macrophages isolated
      from naive mice and treated with hCTS (10-5 M, 12 h) were exposed to either
      lipopolysaccharide (100 ng/ml, 12 h) to polarize M1 macrophages or to IL-4/IL-13
      (20 ng/ml) to polarize M2 macrophages. M1/M2 macrophage markers along with
      cytokine gene expression were determined using RT-qPCR. Feces and mucosa
      associated microbiota (MAM) samples were collected, and the V4 region of 16 s
      rRNA was sequenced. Micro- and macroscopic scores, colonic IL-6, IL-1beta, TNF-
      alpha, and M1 macrophages markers were significantly decreased in the hCTS
      treated group. Treatment did not have any effect on colonic IL-10, TGF-beta, and
      M2 markers nor modified the bacterial richness, diversity, or the major phyla in
      colitic fecal and MAM samples. In vitro, pro-inflammatory cytokines levels, as
      well as their gene expression, were significantly reduced in hCTS-treated M1
      macrophages. hCTS treatment did not affect M2 macrophage markers. These findings
      suggest that hCTS treatment attenuates the severity of inflammatory relapse
      through the modulation of the M1 macrophages and the release of pro-inflammatory
      cytokines.

PMID- 28871258
TI  - Distinctive Surface Glycosylation Patterns Associated With Mouse and Human CD4+
      Regulatory T Cells and Their Suppressive Function.
AB  - Regulatory T-cells (Treg) are essential for maintaining immune homeostasis and
      tolerance. Surface glycosylation is ubiquitous on mammalian cells and regulates
      diverse biological processes. While it is currently well accepted that surface
      glycan expression influences multiple aspects of T-cell function, little is known
      about the relevance of glycosylation to Treg biology. This study aimed to profile
      the surface glycosylation characteristics of Treg in various lymphoid
      compartments of mouse and in human peripheral blood with comparison to non
      regulatory, conventional CD4+ T-cells (Tconv). It also sought to determine the
      relationship between the surface glycosylation characteristics and suppressive
      potency of Treg. Lectin-based flow cytometric profiling demonstrated that Treg
      surface glycosylation differs significantly from that of Tconv in the resting
      state and is further modified by activation stimuli. In mouse, the surface
      glycosylation profiles of FoxP3+ Treg from spleen and lymph nodes were closely
      comparable but greater variability was observed for Treg in thymus, bone marrow,
      and blood. Surface levels of tri/tetra-antennary N-glycans correlated with
      expression of proteins known to be involved in Treg suppressive functions,
      including GITR, PD-1, PD-L1, CD73, CTLA-4, and ICOS. In coculture experiments
      involving purified Treg subpopulations and CD4+ or CD8+ Tconv, higher surface
      tri/tetra-antennary N-glycans was associated with greater Treg suppressive
      potency. Enzymatic manipulation of mouse Treg surface glycosylation resulting in
      a temporary reduction of surface N-glycans significantly reduced Treg capacity to
      suppress Tconv activation through contact-dependent mechanisms. Overall, these
      findings demonstrate that Treg have distinctive surface glycan characteristics
      that show variability across anatomical locations and are modulated by activation
      events. They also provide evidence of an important role for surface glycosylation
      in determining Treg phenotype and suppressive potency. These insights may prove
      relevant to the analysis of Treg in disease settings and to the further
      development of Treg-based immunotherapies.

PMID- 28871259
TI  - Syphilis Infection Differentially Regulates the Phenotype and Function of
      gammadelta T Cells in HIV-1-Infected Patients Depends on the HIV-1 Disease Stage.
AB  - A rapidly escalating outbreak of syphilis infection has been affected men who
      have sex with men, particularly those with HIV-1 infection. gammadelta T cells
      are unconventional immune cells with two main subsets, Vdelta1 T cells and
      Vdelta2 T cells, which possess a combination of innate and adaptive immune
      features allowing them against HIV-1. However, whether syphilis infection affects
      the phenotype and function of gammadelta T cells in HIV-1-infected patients
      remains unclear, especially in acute HIV-1 infection (AHI). In this study, we
      enrolled 57 HIV-1-infected patients (24 with HIV-1 infection only and 33
      coinfected with syphilis) from an acute HIV-1-infected cohort in Beijing (PRIMO).
      A comprehensive analysis of gammadelta T-cell phenotype and function was
      performed by flow cytometry. We found syphilis coinfection could reverse the
      imbalance of Vdelta1/Vdelta2 ratio in AHI. Syphilis infection results in
      decreased gammadelta T-cell activation in AHI, but increased gammadelta T-cell
      activation in chronic HIV-1 infection (CHI). Moreover, patients with CHI had
      larger numbers of IL-17-producing gammadelta T cells than those with AHI,
      regardless of syphilis status. Thus, syphilis affected the gammadelta T-cell
      immune response differently in patients depending on the stages of HIV-1 disease.
      In addition, the percentage of IL-17-producing gammadelta T cells was positively
      correlated with the percentage of neutrophils. These results suggest that the
      gammadelta T-cell/IL-17/neutrophil axis is involved in HIV-1 pathogenesis and
      disease progression. Taken together, our observations provide new insight into
      the roles of gammadelta T cells in immunopathogenesis of syphilis and HIV-1
      coinfection, particularly during AHI, and our findings may be helpful for the
      prevention of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections and highlight
      the great significance on the remedy of patients coinfected with HIV-1.

PMID- 28871260
TI  - Dermatomyositis and Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathies: A Window on
      Autoimmunity and Cancer.
AB  - Autoimmune myopathies (myositides) are strongly associated with malignancy. The
      link between myositis and cancer, originally noticed by Bohan and Peter in their
      classification in 1975 (1), has been evidenced by large population-based cohort
      studies and a recent meta-analysis. The numerous reports of cases in which the
      clinical course of myositis reflects that of cancer and the short delay between
      myositis and cancer onset support the notion that myositis may be an authentic
      paraneoplastic disorder. Thus, cancer-associated myositis raises the question of
      cancer as a cause rather than a consequence of autoimmunity. Among myositides,
      dermatomyositis and more recently, although to a lesser extent, immune-mediated
      necrotizing myopathies are the most documented forms associated with cancer.
      Interestingly, the current diagnostic approach for myositis is based on the
      identification of specific antibodies where each antibody determines specific
      clinical features and outcomes. Recent findings have shown that the
      autoantibodies anti-TIF1gamma, anti-NXP2 and anti-HMGCR are associated with
      cancers in the course of myositis. Herein, we highlight the fact that the targets
      of these three autoantibodies involve cellular pathways that intervene in tumor
      promotion and we discuss the role of cancer mutations as autoimmunity triggers in
      adult myositis.

PMID- 28871261
TI  - The Chronic Stages of Bovine Fasciola hepatica Are Dominated by CD4 T-Cell
      Exhaustion.
AB  - Fasciola hepatica infection of ruminants leads to non-resolving chronic
      infection, as patency develops, there is switching to a TGF-beta and IL-10 led
      response. Here, we explore the responses of CD4 T-cells within the major draining
      lymph nodes. We found minimal expression of Foxp3 within CD4 cells but elevated
      levels within the gammadelta (WC1+) population. There is a strong T-cell
      intrinsic exhaustion phenotype within the hepatic lymph node (HLN) characterized
      by a lack of antigen-specific proliferation and cytokine secretion. CD4 T-cells
      recovered from the HLN had high levels of PD-1 expression and low levels of IL-2
      secretion. Exogenous IL-2 partially rescued this defect; when combined with
      neutralization of IL-10 and TGF-beta, full restoration of proliferation, and
      cytokine production was achieved. Moreover, there is a clear uncoupling of the
      mechanisms that facilitate this regulation with parasite-specific proliferation
      and cytokine secretion being governed by independent means. These data would
      suggest that there is a CD4 T-cell-intrinsic regulation in place early in chronic
      infection, potentially leading to failure in resistance to reinfection.

PMID- 28871263
TI  - The Activity of the Neutral Sphingomyelinase Is Important in T Cell Recruitment
      and Directional Migration.
AB  - Breakdown of sphingomyelin as catalyzed by the activity of sphingomyelinases
      profoundly affects biophysical properties of cellular membranes which is
      particularly important with regard to compartmentalization of surface receptors
      and their signaling relay. As it is activated both upon TCR ligation and co
      stimulation in a spatiotemporally controlled manner, the neutral sphingomyelinase
      (NSM) has proven to be important in T cell activation, where it appears to play a
      particularly important role in cytoskeletal reorganization and cell polarization.
      Because these are important parameters in directional T cell migration and
      motility in tissues, we analyzed the role of the NSM in these processes.
      Pharmacological inhibition of NSM interfered with early lymph node homing of T
      cells in vivo indicating that the enzyme impacts on endothelial adhesion,
      transendothelial migration, sensing of chemokine gradients or, at a cellular
      level, acquisition of a polarized phenotype. NSM inhibition reduced adhesion of T
      cells to TNF-alpha/IFN-gamma activated, but not resting endothelial cells, most
      likely via inhibiting high-affinity LFA-1 clustering. NSM activity proved to be
      highly important in directional T cell motility in response to SDF1-alpha,
      indicating that their ability to sense and translate chemokine gradients might be
      NSM dependent. In fact, pharmacological or genetic NSM ablation interfered with T
      cell polarization both at an overall morphological level and redistribution of
      CXCR4 and pERM proteins on endothelial cells or fibronectin, as well as with F
      actin polymerization in response to SDF1-alpha stimulation, indicating that
      efficient directional perception and signaling relay depend on NSM activity.
      Altogether, these data support a central role of the NSM in T cell recruitment
      and migration both under homeostatic and inflamed conditions by regulating
      polarized redistribution of receptors and their coupling to the cytoskeleton.

PMID- 28871262
TI  - Role of Neuroinflammation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Cellular Mechanisms
      and Therapeutic Implications.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease
      that affects upper motor neurons (MNs) comprising the corticospinal tract and
      lower MNs arising from the brain stem nuclei and ventral roots of the spinal
      cord, leading to fatal paralysis. Currently, there are no effective therapies for
      ALS. Increasing evidence indicates that neuroinflammation plays an important role
      in ALS pathogenesis. The neuroinflammation in ALS is characterized by
      infiltration of lymphocytes and macrophages, activation of microglia and reactive
      astrocytes, as well as the involvement of complement. In this review, we focus on
      the key cellular players of neuroinflammation during the pathogenesis of ALS by
      discussing not only their detrimental roles but also their immunomodulatory
      actions. We will summarize the pharmacological therapies for ALS that target
      neuroinflammation, as well as recent advances in the field of stem cell therapy
      aimed at modulating the inflammatory environment to preserve the remaining MNs in
      ALS patients and animal models of the disease.

PMID- 28871265
TI  - Expression of a Chimeric Gene Encoding Insecticidal Crystal Protein Cry1Aabc of
      Bacillus thuringiensis in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Confers Resistance to
      Gram Pod Borer (Helicoverpa armigera Hubner.).
AB  - Domain swapping and generation of chimeric insecticidal crystal protein is an
      emerging area of insect pest management. The lepidopteran insect pest, gram pod
      borer (Helicoverpa armigera H.) wreaks havoc to chickpea crop affecting
      production. Lepidopteran insects were reported to be controlled by Bt (cryI)
      genes. We designed a plant codon optimized chimeric Bt gene (cry1Aabc) using
      three domains from three different cry1A genes (domains I, II, and III from
      cry1Aa, cry1Ab, and cry1Ac, respectively) and expressed it under the control of a
      constitutive promoter in chickpea (cv. DCP92-3) to assess its effect on gram pod
      borer. A total of six transgenic chickpea shoots were established by grafting
      into mature fertile plants. The in vitro regenerated (organogenetic) shoots were
      selected based on antibiotic kanamycin monosulfate (100 mg/L) with transformation
      efficiency of 0.076%. Three transgenic events were extensively studied based on
      gene expression pattern and insect mortality across generations. Protein
      expression in pod walls, immature seeds and leaves (pre- and post-flowering) were
      estimated and expression in pre-flowering stage was found higher than that of
      post-flowering. Analysis for the stable integration, expression and insect
      mortality (detached leaf and whole plant bioassay) led to identification of
      efficacious transgenic chickpea lines. The chimeric cry1Aabc expressed in
      chickpea is effective against gram pod borer and generated events can be utilized
      in transgenic breeding program.

PMID- 28871264
TI  - Neuroinflammation, Bone Marrow Stem Cells, and Chronic Pain.
AB  - Current treatments for chronic pain, such as inflammatory pain, neuropathic pain,
      and cancer pain are insufficient and cause severe side effects. Mounting evidence
      suggests that neuroinflammation in the peripheral and central nervous system (PNS
      and CNS) plays a pivotal role in the genesis and maintenance of chronic pain.
      Characteristic features of neuroinflammation in chronic pain conditions include
      infiltration of immune cells into the PNS [e.g., the sciatic nerve and dorsal
      root ganglion (DRG)], activation of glial cells such as microglia and astrocytes
      in the CNS (spinal cord and brain), and production and secretion of pro
      inflammatory cytokines and chemokines [TNF, interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, CCL2,
      and CXCL1]. Recent studies suggest that bone marrow stem cells or bone marrow
      stromal cells (BMSCs) produce powerful analgesic effects in animal models of
      inflammatory pain, neuropathic pain, and cancer pain. We recently demonstrated
      that intrathecal injection of BMSCs resulted in a long-term relief of neuropathic
      pain for several weeks after peripheral nerve injury. Strikingly, this analgesic
      effect is mediated by the anti-inflammatory cytokine transforming growth factor
      beta secreted from BMSCs. Additionally, BMSCs exhibit potent modulation of
      neuroinflammation, by inhibiting monocyte infiltration, glial activation, and
      cytokine/chemokine production in the DRG and spinal cord. Thus, BMSCs control
      chronic pain by regulation of neuroinflammation in the PNS and CNS via paracrine
      signaling. In this review, we discuss the similar results from different
      laboratories of remarkable anti-nociceptive efficacy of BMSCs in animal and
      clinical studies. We also discuss the mechanisms by which BMSCs control
      neuroinflammation and chronic pain and how these cells specifically migrate to
      damaged tissues.

PMID- 28871266
TI  - Molecular Mapping of QTLs Associated with Lodging Resistance in Dry Direct-Seeded
      Rice (Oryza sativa L.).
AB  - Dry direct-seeded rice (DSR) is an alternative crop establishment method with
      less water and labor requirement through mechanization. It provides better
      opportunities for a second crop during the cropping season and therefore, a
      feasible alternative system to transplanted lowland rice. However, lodging is one
      of the major constraints in attaining high yield in DSR. Identification of QTLs
      for lodging resistance and their subsequent use in improving varieties under DSR
      will be an efficient breeding strategy to address the problem. In order to map
      the QTLs associated with lodging resistance, a set of 253 BC3F4 lines derived
      from a backcross between Swarna and Moroberekan were evaluated in two consecutive
      years. A total of 12 QTLs associated with lodging resistance traits [culm length
      (qCL), culm diameter (qCD), and culm strength (qCS)] were mapped on chromosomes
      1, 2, 6, and 7 using 193 polymorphic SNP markers. Two major and consistent effect
      QTLs, namely qCD1.1 (with R2 of 10%) and qCS1.1 (with R2 of 14%) on chromosome 1
      with id1003559 being the peak SNP marker (flanking markers; id1001973-id1006772)
      were identified as a common genomic region associated with important lodging
      resistance traits. In silico analysis revealed the presence of Gibberellic Acid 3
      beta-hydroxylase along with 34 other putative candidate genes in the marker
      interval region of id1001973-id1006772. The positive alleles for culm length,
      culm diameter, and culm strength were contributed by the upland adaptive parent
      Moroberekan. Our results identified significant positive correlation between
      lodging related traits (culm length diameter and strength) and grain yield under
      DSR, indicating the role of lodging resistant traits in grain yield improvement
      under DSR. Deployment of the identified alleles influencing the culm strength and
      culm diameter in marker assisted introgression program may facilitate the lodging
      resistance under DSR.

PMID- 28871268
TI  - Xylem Vessel Diameter Affects the Compartmentalization of the Vascular Pathogen
      Phaeomoniella chlamydospora in Grapevine.
AB  - Fungal wilt diseases are a threat to global food safety. Previous studies in
      perennial crops showed that xylem vessel diameter affects disease susceptibility.
      We tested the hypothesis that xylem vessel diameter impacts occlusion processes
      and pathogen compartmentalization in Vitis vinifera L. We studied the interaction
      between four grape commercial cultivars with the vascular wilt pathogen
      Phaeomoniella chlamydospora. We used qPCR and wood necrotic lesion length to
      measure fungal colonization coupled with histological studies to assess
      differences in xylem morphology, pathogen compartmentalization, and fungal
      colonization strategy. We provided evidence that grape cultivar with wide xylem
      vessel diameter showed increased susceptibility to P. chlamydospora. The host
      response to pathogen included vessel occlusion with tyloses and gels, deposition
      of non-structural phenolic compounds and suberin in vessel walls and depletion of
      starch in parenchyma cells. Pathogen compartmentalization was less efficient in
      wide xylem vessels than in narrow diameter vessels. Large vessels displayed
      higher number of tyloses and gel pockets, which provided substrate for P.
      chlamydospora growth and routes to escape occluded vessels. We discuss in which
      capacity xylem vessel diameter is a key determinant of the compartmentalization
      process and in turn grape cultivar resistance to disease caused by P.
      chlamydospora.

PMID- 28871267
TI  - How the Depletion in Mineral Major Elements Affects Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.)
      Primary Cell Wall.
AB  - The noteworthy fine remodeling that plant cell walls (CWs) undergo to adapt to
      developmental, physiological and environmental cues and the observation that its
      composition and dynamics differ between species represents an opportunity to
      couple crop species agronomic studies with research on CW modifications. Vitis
      vinifera is one of the most important crops from an economic point-of-view due to
      the high value of the fruit, predominantly for winemaking. The availability of
      some information related to this species' CWs allows researching its responses to
      imposed conditions that affect the plant's development. Mineral deficiency, in
      particular nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur, strongly affects plant
      metabolism, reducing both growth and crop yield. Despite the importance of
      mineral nutrition in development, its influence on CW synthesis and modifications
      is still insufficiently documented. Addressing this knowledge gap, V. vinifera
      experimental models were used to study CW responses to imposed mineral depletion
      in unorganized (callus) and organized (shoots) tissues. The discussion of the
      obtained results is the main focus of this review. Callus and shoots submitted to
      mineral restriction are impaired in specific CW components, predominantly
      cellulose. Reorganization on structure and deposition of several other polymers,
      in particular the degree and pattern of pectin methyl-esterification and the
      amount of xyloglucan (XyG), arabinan and extensin, is also observed. In view of
      recently proposed CW models that consider biomechanical hotspots and direct
      linkages between pectins and XyG/cellulose, the outcome of these modifications in
      explaining maintenance of CW integrity through compensatory stiffening can be
      debated. Nutrient stresses do not affect evenly all tissues with undifferentiated
      callus tissues showing more pronounced responses, followed by shoot mature
      internodes, and then newly formed internodes. The impact of nitrogen depletion
      leads to more noticeable responses, supporting this nutrient's primary role in
      plant development and metabolism. The consequential compensatory mechanisms
      highlight the pivotal role of CW in rearranging under environmental stresses.

PMID- 28871269
TI  - A Chemical-Induced, Seed-Soaking Activation Procedure for Regulated Gene
      Expression in Rice.
AB  - Inducible gene expression has emerged as a powerful tool for plant functional
      genomics. The estrogen receptor-based, chemical-inducible system XVE has been
      used in many plant species, but the limited systemic movement of inducer beta
      estradiol in transgenic rice plants has prohibited a wide use of the XVE system
      in this important food crop. Here, we constructed an improved chemical-regulated,
      site-specific recombination system by employing the XVE transactivator in
      combination with a Cre/loxP-FRT system, and optimized a seed-soaking procedure
      for XVE induction in rice. By using a gus gene and an hpRNAi cassette targeted
      for OsPDS as reporters, we demonstrated that soaking transgenic seeds with
      estradiol solution could induce highly efficient site-specific recombination in
      germinating embryos, resulting in constitutive and high-level expression of
      target gene or RNAi cassette in intact rice plants from induced seeds. The
      strategy reported here thereby provides a useful gene activation approach for
      effectively regulating gene expression in rice.

PMID- 28871270
TI  - In vivo Assembly in Escherichia coli of Transformation Vectors for Plastid Genome
      Engineering.
AB  - Plastid transformation for the expression of recombinant proteins and entire
      metabolic pathways has become a promising tool for plant biotechnology. However,
      large-scale application of this technology has been hindered by some technical
      bottlenecks, including lack of routine transformation protocols for agronomically
      important crop plants like rice or maize. Currently, there are no standard or
      commercial plastid transformation vectors available for the scientific community.
      Construction of a plastid transformation vector usually requires tedious and time
      consuming cloning steps. In this study, we describe the adoption of an in vivo
      Escherichia coli cloning (iVEC) technology to quickly assemble a plastid
      transformation vector. The method enables simple and seamless build-up of a
      complete plastid transformation vector from five DNA fragments in a single step.
      The vector assembled for demonstration purposes contains an enhanced green
      fluorescent protein (GFP) expression cassette, in which the gfp transgene is
      driven by the tobacco plastid ribosomal RNA operon promoter fused to the 5'
      untranslated region (UTR) from gene10 of bacteriophage T7 and the transcript
      stabilizing 3'UTR from the E. coli ribosomal RNA operon rrnB. Successful
      transformation of the tobacco plastid genome was verified by Southern blot
      analysis and seed assays. High-level expression of the GFP reporter in the
      transplastomic plants was visualized by confocal microscopy and Coomassie
      staining, and GFP accumulation was ~9% of the total soluble protein. The iVEC
      method represents a simple and efficient approach for construction of plastid
      transformation vector, and offers great potential for the assembly of
      increasingly complex vectors for synthetic biology applications in plastids.

PMID- 28871272
TI  - Scalable Convex Multiple Sequence Alignment via Entropy-Regularized Dual
      Decomposition.
AB  - Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) is one of the fundamental tasks in biological
      sequence analysis that underlies applications such as phylogenetic trees,
      profiles, and structure prediction. The task, however, is NP-hard, and the
      current practice resorts to heuristic and local-search methods. Recently, a
      convex optimization approach for MSA was proposed based on the concept of atomic
      norm [23], which demonstrates significant improvement over existing methods in
      the quality of alignments. However, the convex program is challenging to solve
      due to the constraint given by the intersection of two atomic-norm balls, for
      which the existing algorithm can only handle sequences of length up to 50, with
      an iteration complexity subject to constants of unknown relation to the natural
      parameters of MSA. In this work, we propose an accelerated dual decomposition
      algorithm that exploits entropy regularization to induce closed-form solutions
      for each atomic-norm-constrained subproblem, giving a single-loop algorithm of
      iteration complexity linear to the problem size (total length of all sequences).
      The proposed algorithm gives significantly better alignments than existing
      methods on sequences of length up to hundreds, where the existing convex
      programming method fails to converge in one day.

PMID- 28871271
TI  - Somatic Embryogenesis in Coffee: The Evolution of Biotechnology and the
      Integration of Omics Technologies Offer Great Opportunities.
AB  - One of the most important crops cultivated around the world is coffee. There are
      two main cultivated species, Coffea arabica and C. canephora. Both species are
      difficult to improve through conventional breeding, taking at least 20 years to
      produce a new cultivar. Biotechnological tools such as genetic transformation,
      micropropagation and somatic embryogenesis (SE) have been extensively studied in
      order to provide practical results for coffee improvement. While genetic
      transformation got many attention in the past and is booming with the CRISPR
      technology, micropropagation and SE are still the major bottle neck and urgently
      need more attention. The methodologies to induce SE and the further development
      of the embryos are genotype-dependent, what leads to an almost empirical
      development of specific protocols for each cultivar or clone. This is a serious
      limitation and excludes a general comprehensive understanding of the process as a
      whole. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of which achievements and
      molecular insights have been gained in (coffee) somatic embryogenesis and
      encourage researchers to invest further in the in vitro technology and combine it
      with the latest omics techniques (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics,
      metabolomics, and phenomics). We conclude that the evolution of biotechnology and
      the integration of omics technologies offer great opportunities to (i) optimize
      the production process of SE and the subsequent conversion into rooted plantlets
      and (ii) to screen for possible somaclonal variation. However, currently the
      usage of the latest biotechnology did not pass the stage beyond proof of
      potential and needs to further improve.

PMID- 28871273
TI  - Greedy Direction Method of Multiplier for MAP Inference of Large Output Domain.
AB  - Maximum-a-Posteriori (MAP) inference lies at the heart of Graphical Models and
      Structured Prediction. Despite the intractability of exact MAP inference,
      approximate methods based on LP relaxations have exhibited superior performance
      across a wide range of applications. Yet for problems involving large output
      domains (i.e., the state space for each variable is large), standard LP
      relaxations can easily give rise to a large number of variables and constraints
      which are beyond the limit of existing optimization algorithms. In this paper, we
      introduce an effective MAP inference method for problems with large output
      domains. The method builds upon alternating minimization of an Augmented
      Lagrangian that exploits the sparsity of messages through greedy optimization
      techniques. A key feature of our greedy approach is to introduce variables in an
      on-demand manner with a pre-built data structure over local factors. This results
      in a single-loop algorithm of sublinear cost per iteration and O(log(1/epsilon))
      type iteration complexity to achieve epsilon sub-optimality. In addition, we
      introduce a variant of GDMM for binary MAP inference problems with a large number
      of factors. Empirically, the proposed algorithms demonstrate orders of magnitude
      speedup over state-of-the-art MAP inference techniques on MAP inference problems
      including Segmentation, Protein Folding, Graph Matching, and Multilabel
      prediction with pairwise interaction.

PMID- 28871274
TI  - Paired Expression Analysis of Tumor Cell Surface Antigens.
AB  - Adoptive immunotherapy with antibody-based therapy or with T cells transduced to
      express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) is useful to the extent that the cell
      surface membrane protein being targeted is not expressed on normal tissues. The
      most successful CAR-based (anti-CD19) or antibody-based therapy (anti-CD20) in
      hematologic malignancies has the side effect of eliminating the normal B cell
      compartment. Targeting solid tumors may not provide a similar expendable marker.
      Beyond antibody to Her2/NEU and EGFR, very few antibody-based and no CAR-based
      therapies have seen broad clinical application for solid tumors. To expand the
      way in which the surfaceome of solid tumors can be analyzed, we created an
      algorithm that defines the pairwise relative overexpression of surface antigens.
      This enables the development of specific immunotherapies that require the
      expression of two discrete antigens on the surface of the tumor target. This dyad
      analysis was facilitated by employing the Hotelling's T-squared test (Hotelling
      Lawley multivariate analysis of variance) for two independent variables in
      comparison to a third constant entity (i.e., gene expression levels in normal
      tissues). We also present a unique consensus scoring mechanism for identifying
      transcripts that encode cell surface proteins. The unique application of our
      bioinformatics processing pipeline and statistical tools allowed us to compare
      the expression of two membrane protein targets as a pair, and to propose a new
      strategy based on implementing immunotherapies that require both antigens to be
      expressed on the tumor cell surface to trigger therapeutic effector mechanisms.
      Specifically, we found that, for MYCN amplified neuroblastoma, pairwise
      expression of ACVR2B or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) with GFRA3, GFRA2,
      Cadherin 24, or with one another provided the strongest hits. For MYCN, non
      amplified stage 4 neuroblastoma, neurotrophic tyrosine kinase 1, or ALK paired
      with GFRA2, GFRA3, SSK1, GPR173, or with one another provided the most promising
      paired-hits. We propose that targeting these markers together would increase the
      specificity and thereby the safety of CAR-based therapy for neuroblastoma.

PMID- 28871275
TI  - Radiation Treatment in Women with Ovarian Cancer: Past, Present, and Future.
AB  - Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynecologic cancers, with 5-year
      survival rates less than 50%. Most women present with advanced stage disease as
      the pattern of spread is typically with dissemination of malignancy throughout
      the peritoneal cavity prior to development of any symptoms. Prior to the advent
      of platinum-based chemotherapy, radiotherapy was used as adjuvant therapy to
      sterilize micrometastatic disease. The evolution of radiotherapy is detailed in
      this review, which establishes radiotherapy as an effective therapy for women
      with micrometastatic disease in the peritoneal cavity after surgery, ovarian
      clear cell carcinoma, focal metastatic disease, and for palliation of advanced
      disease. However, with older techniques, the toxicity of whole abdominal
      radiotherapy and the advancement of systemic therapies have limited the use of
      radiotherapy in this disease. With newer radiotherapy techniques, including
      intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT),
      and low-dose hyperfractionation in combination with targeted agents, radiotherapy
      could be reconsidered as part of the standard management for this deadly disease.

PMID- 28871276
TI  - Fear of Massive Deportations in the United States: Social Implications on
      Deprived Pediatric Communities.

PMID- 28871278
TI  - Community Mobilization for Slum Upgrading through Sanitation in Roma Informal
      Settlements in the Paris Region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community-based processes addressing environment, housing, and health
      issues may decrease health inequities by addressing social, economic, and
      political health determinants more effectively. Yet little analysis of their
      effectiveness has been undertaken and their potential transfer to marginalized
      groups in rich country settings. In Europe, stark health inequalities are seen
      among the Roma, Europe's most impoverished community who often reside in informal
      settlements suffering from illiteracy, inadequate housing, and lack of water and
      sanitation. This paper assesses a dry sanitation project in a Roma informal
      settlement in the Paris region to improve their living conditions. METHODS:
      Between 2014 and 2017, multiple stakeholders were involved in a participatory
      process of design, construction, and maintenance of toilets. Interviews, mapping,
      model construction, and facilitated discussion were used to identify design
      features and follow-up indicators. Field notes, videos, questionnaires, and
      observation provided data for monitoring and evaluation. For questionnaires
      delivered to women in the community, a cross section time series was conducted to
      due to migration. RESULTS: Despite issues related to maintenance, the overall
      quality of life of women improved after toilet construction. This included
      indicators for comfort, cleanliness, practicality, privacy, security, and
      menstrual hygiene management. Furthermore, fewer women restrained themselves from
      relieving themselves or from drinking less water to avoid urinating. Odors
      continued to be an issue. Self-reporting of illnesses, such as diarrhea and
      urinary tract infections, were not reliable due to the vague description of these
      illnesses and the potential recall bias. Appropriate sanitation in informal
      settlements is a necessity as shown by feedback from Roma women and the
      literature. However, a more sustainable toilet project would have required an
      adequate budget, good quality materials, accountability, and buy in from all
      inhabitants as well as good relationships between the chief and all stakeholders
      in the settlement. Furthermore, provision should have been made for vulnerable
      and less autonomous inhabitants to ensure proper follow-up and maintenance.
      CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS: Safe water and sanitation is essential to decrease
      health inequities. Formative research, identifying natural leaders, sanitation
      committee formation, outcome indicator and baseline questionnaire development,
      appropriate messages and toilet design and placement, long-term follow-up, and
      political support are elements for effective interventions with the Roma.
      Potential attrition and reporting bias should be considered in monitoring and
      evaluation.

PMID- 28871279
TI  - Longitudinal Changes in AbsoluteVO2peak, Physical Activity Level, Body Mass
      Index, and Overweightedness among Adolescents in Vocational and Non-Vocational
      Studies.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to examine differences in physical activity level,
      physical fitness, body mass index, and overweight among adolescents in vocational
      and non-vocational studies, at the age of 14, 16, and 19, using a 5-year
      longitudinal design. Students in sport studies had the highest absoluteVO2peak
      and higher physical activity levels, than students in vocational subjects and
      students with a specialization in general studies. However, there were no
      significant differences between students in vocational subjects and students with
      a specialization in general studies according to absoluteVO2peak and physical
      activity levels. Students in vocational subjects were significantly more
      overweight/obese at 19 years of age, compared with the other students. Our
      findings support previous research pointing to overweightedness as being more
      widespread among adolescents in vocational programs than in non-vocational
      programs. However, differences in the physical activity level and physical
      fitness do not seem to explain these differences.

PMID- 28871277
TI  - The Centenary of Immune Thrombocytopenia-Part 2: Revising Diagnostic and
      Therapeutic Approach.
AB  - Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is the most common cause of
      thrombocytopenia in children and adolescents and can be considered as a
      paradigmatic model of autoimmune disease. This second part of our review
      describes the clinical presentation of ITP, the diagnostic approach and overviews
      the current therapeutic strategies. Interestingly, it suggests an algorithm
      useful for differential diagnosis, a crucial process to exclude secondary forms
      of immune thrombocytopenia (IT) and non-immune thrombocytopenia (non-IT), which
      require a different therapeutic management. Advances in understanding the
      pathogenesis led to new therapeutic targets, as thrombopoietin receptor agonists,
      whose role in treatment of ITP will be discussed in this work.

PMID- 28871280
TI  - Impacting Binational Health through Leadership Development: A Program Evaluation
      of the Leaders across Borders Program, 2010-2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Workforce and leadership development is imperative for the
      advancement of public health along the U.S./Mexico border. The Leaders across
      borders (LaB) program aims to train the public health and health-care workforce
      of the border region. The LaB is a 6-month intensive leadership development
      program, which offers training in various areas of public health. Program
      curriculum topics include: leadership, border health epidemiology, health
      diplomacy, border public policies, and conflict resolution. METHODS: This article
      describes the LaB program evaluation outcomes across four LaB cohort graduates
      between 2010 and 2014. LaB graduates received an invitation to participate via
      email in an online questionnaire. Eighty-five percent (n = 34) of evaluation
      participants indicated an improvement in the level of binationality since
      participating in the LaB program. Identified themes in the evaluation results
      included increased binational collaborations and partnerships across
      multidisciplinary organizations that work towards improving the health status of
      border communities. Approximately 93% (n = 37) of the LaB samples were interested
      in participating in future binational projects while 80% (n = 32) indicated
      interest in the proposal of other binational initiatives. Participants expressed
      feelings of gratitude from employers who supported their participation and
      successful completion of LaB. DISCUSSION: Programs such as LaB are important in
      providing professional development and education to a health-care workforce along
      the U.S./Mexico border that is dedicated to positively impacting the health
      outcomes of vulnerable populations residing in this region.

PMID- 28871282
TI  - Commentary: How Cells Can Control Their Size by Pumping Ions.

PMID- 28871281
TI  - Live-cell Microscopy and Fluorescence-based Measurement of Luminal pH in
      Intracellular Organelles.
AB  - Luminal pH is an important functional feature of intracellular organelles.
      Acidification of the lumen of organelles such as endosomes, lysosomes, and the
      Golgi apparatus plays a critical role in fundamental cellular processes. As such,
      measurement of the luminal pH of these organelles has relevance to both basic
      research and translational research. At the same time, accurate measurement of
      intraorganellar pH in living cells can be challenging and may be a limiting
      hurdle for research in some areas. Here, we describe three powerful methods to
      measure rigorously the luminal pH of different intracellular organelles, focusing
      on endosomes, lysosomes, and the Golgi apparatus. The described methods are based
      on live imaging of pH-sensitive fluorescent probes and include: (1) A protocol
      based on quantitative, ratiometric measurement of endocytosis of pH-sensitive and
      pH-insensitive fluorescent conjugates of transferrin; (2) A protocol for the use
      of proteins tagged with a ratiometric variant of the pH-sensitive intrinsically
      fluorescent protein pHluorin; and (3) A protocol using the fluorescent dye
      LysoSensorTM. We describe necessary reagents, key procedures, and methods and
      equipment for data acquisition and analysis. Examples of implementation of the
      protocols are provided for cultured cells derived from a cancer cell line and for
      primary cultures of mouse hippocampal neurons. In addition, we present strengths
      and weaknesses of the different described intraorganellar pH measurement methods.
      These protocols are likely to be of benefit to many researchers, from basic
      scientists to those conducting translational research with a focus on diseases in
      patient-derived cells.

PMID- 28871283
TI  - GPla Polymorphisms Are Associated with Outcomes in Patients at High
      Cardiovascular Risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Platelet membrane glycoprotein receptors mediate thrombus formation.
      GP Ia/IIa is an essential platelet integrin receptor. Single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) of the GP Ia/IIa gene alter GP Ia/IIa expression; however,
      their influence on cardiovascular disease remains unclear. This study aimed to
      investigate the effect of the GP Ia/IIa SNPs rs1126643 and rs1062535 on clinical
      outcomes in a large collective including high-risk patients with cardiovascular
      disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: GP Ia SNP analysis was performed in 943 patients
      with symptomatic coronary artery disease. All patients were tracked for all-cause
      death, myocardial infarction, and ischemic stroke for 360 days. Homozygous
      carriers of the minor allele showed significantly worse event-free survival when
      compared with major allele carriers in the complete collective as well as in the
      subset of high-risk patients (carrying all of the following three risk factors:
      diabetes type II, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia). There was no significant
      difference in the subset of low-risk patients (carrying none of the three risk
      factors). CONCLUSIONS: GPla SNPs are associated with cardiovascular prognosis
      especially in high-risk patients. Identification of GPIa SNPs is of importance to
      tailor therapies in patients at already high cardiovascular risk.

PMID- 28871285
TI  - Immortalization and Characterization of Porcine Macrophages That Had Been
      Transduced with Lentiviral Vectors Encoding the SV40 Large T Antigen and Porcine
      Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase.
AB  - The domestic pig is an important agricultural animal, and thus, infectious
      diseases that affect pigs can cause severe economic losses in the global swine
      industry. Various porcine pathogens target macrophages, which are classical
      innate immune cells. Although macrophages basically protect the host from
      pathogens, they also seem to contribute to infectious processes. Therefore,
      cultured macrophages can be used to develop in vitro models for studying not only
      genes associated with porcine innate immunity but also the infectious processes
      of porcine pathogens. However, the availability of porcine macrophage cell lines
      is limited. In this study, we describe a novel immortalized porcine kidney
      derived macrophage (IPKM) cell line, which was generated by transferring the SV40
      large T antigen (SV40LT) and porcine telomerase reverse transcriptase (pTERT)
      genes into primary porcine kidney-derived macrophages using lentiviral vectors.
      The IPKM displayed a typical macrophage morphology and was routinely passaged
      (doubling time: about 4 days). These cells were immunostained for macrophage
      markers. In addition, they exhibited substantial phagocytosis of polystyrene
      microbeads and released inflammatory cytokines upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      stimulation. Furthermore, the maturation and secretion of interleukin-1beta were
      observed after nigericin-induced inflammasome activation in LPS-primed IPKM.
      These findings suggest that IPKM exhibit the typical inflammatory characteristics
      of macrophages. By transferring the SV40LT and pTERT genes using lentiviral
      vectors, we also successfully immortalized macrophages derived from the
      peripheral blood of a low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient pig. These
      results suggest that the co-expression of SV40LT and pTERT is an effective way of
      immortalizing porcine macrophages.

PMID- 28871286
TI  - Editorial: Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Swine.

PMID- 28871284
TI  - Hops (Humulus lupulus L.) Bitter Acids: Modulation of Rumen Fermentation and
      Potential As an Alternative Growth Promoter.
AB  - Antibiotics can improve ruminant growth and efficiency by altering rumen
      fermentation via selective inhibition of microorganisms. However, antibiotic use
      is increasingly restricted due to concerns about the spread of antibiotic
      resistance. Plant-based antimicrobials are alternatives to antibiotics in animal
      production. The hops plant (Humulus lupulus L.) produces a range of bioactive
      secondary metabolites, including antimicrobial prenylated phloroglucinols, which
      are commonly called alpha- and beta-acids. These latter compounds can be
      considered phyto-ionophores, phytochemicals with a similar antimicrobial
      mechanism of action to ionophore antibiotics (e.g., monensin, lasalocid). Like
      ionophores, the hop beta-acids inhibit rumen bacteria possessing a classical Gram
      positive cell envelope. This selective inhibition causes several effects on rumen
      fermentation that are beneficial to finishing cattle, such as decreased
      proteolysis, ammonia production, acetate: propionate ratio, and methane
      production. This article reviews the effects of hops and hop secondary
      metabolites on rumen fermentation, including the physiological mechanisms on
      specific rumen microorganisms, and consequences for the ruminant host and
      ruminant production. Further, we propose that hop beta-acids are useful model
      natural products for ruminants because of (1) the ionophore-like mechanism of
      action and spectrum of activity and (2) the literature available on the plant due
      to its use in brewing.

PMID- 28871288
TI  - Error-Specific Cognitive Control Alterations in Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trait anxiety is reliably associated with enhanced neural responses
      following errors: meta analyses have described how the electrophysiological
      response to errors known as the Error-Related Negativity (ERN) is increased in
      anxious individuals, particularly in relation to worry. The ERN has been related
      to a broader class of control signals, particularly via a common theta band
      denominator, but it is unknown whether worry relates to these alternative medial
      frontal metrics. Moreover, it is unclear if increased ERN in anxiety relates to
      altered cognitive control. METHODS: In this report we examine EEG activities in
      Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD, N=39) and control (CTL: N=52) participants
      during an executive control task. We leveraged a previously defined theta-band
      network to examine if an altered control signal in GAD underlies a differential
      implementation of cognitive control. RESULTS: GAD and CTL groups were reliably
      dissociated by both error- and conflict- related neural activity, in both the
      time and frequency (i.e. theta band) domains. Moreover, we demonstrate that ERN,
      error-related theta power, and the single trial correlation between theta and
      response time were unique predictors of GAD status. Overall, we were able to
      account for nearly 1/4 of the group variance and successfully classify GAD from
      control participants with 2/3 accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these findings
      suggest that multiple neural metrics of error processing may uniquely distinguish
      clinical anxiety from healthy individuals, and that mechanisms of control also
      differ in GAD; finally, these error-related neural measures have the potential to
      be sensitive and specific bio-signatures of anxiety.

PMID- 28871289
TI  - Probing charges on solid-liquid interfaces with the resistive-pulse technique.
AB  - Our manuscript addresses the issue of probing an effective surface charge that
      any surface can acquire at the solid/liquid interface. Even if a particle is
      predicted to be neutral based on its chemical structure, the particle can carry
      finite surface charges when placed in a solution. We present tools to probe the
      presence of surface charge densities of meso-particles, characterized with zeta
      potentials below 10 mV. The tools are based on the resistive-pulse technique,
      which uses single pores to probe properties of individual objects including
      molecules, particles, and cells. The presented experiments were performed with
      particles 280 and 400 nm in diameter and single pores with opening diameter tuned
      between ~ 200 nm and one micron. Surface charge properties were probed in two
      modes: (i) the passage of the particles through pores of diameters larger than
      the particles, as well as (ii) an approach curve of a particle to a pore that is
      smaller than the particle diameter. The curve in the latter mode has a biphasic
      character starting with a low-amplitude current decrease, followed by a current
      enhancement reaching an amplitude of ~10% of the baseline current. The current
      increase was long-lasting and stable, and shown to strongly depend on the
      particle surface charge density. The results are explained via voltage-modulation
      of ionic concentrations in the pore.

PMID- 28871287
TI  - Bayesian Analysis of the Association between Family-Level Factors and Siblings'
      Dental Caries.
AB  - We conducted a Bayesian analysis of the association between family-level
      socioeconomic status and smoking and the prevalence of dental caries among
      siblings (children from infant to 14 y) among children living in rural and urban
      Northern Appalachia using data from the Center for Oral Health Research in
      Appalachia (COHRA). The observed proportion of siblings sharing caries was
      significantly different from predicted assuming siblings' caries status was
      independent. Using a Bayesian hierarchical model, we found the inclusion of a
      household factor significantly improved the goodness of fit. Other findings
      showed an inverse association between parental education and siblings' caries and
      a positive association between households with smokers and siblings' caries. Our
      study strengthens existing evidence suggesting that increased parental education
      and decreased parental cigarette smoking are associated with reduced childhood
      caries in the household. Our results also demonstrate the value of a Bayesian
      approach, which allows us to include household as a random effect, thereby
      providing more accurate estimates than obtained using generalized linear mixed
      models.

PMID- 28871290
TI  - Image-based feedback and analysis system for digital microfluidics.
AB  - Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a technology that provides a means of manipulating
      nL-MUL volumes of liquids on an array of electrodes. By applying an electric
      potential to an electrode, these discrete droplets can be controlled in parallel
      which can be transported, mixed, reacted, and analyzed. Typically, an automation
      system is interfaced with a DMF device that uses a standard set of basic
      instructions written by the user to execute droplet operations. Here, we present
      the first feedback method for DMF that relies on imaging techniques that will
      allow online detection of droplets without the need to reactivate all destination
      electrodes. Our system consists of integrating open-source electronics with a
      CMOS camera and a zoom lens for acquisition of the images that will be used to
      detect droplets on the device. We also created an algorithm that uses a Hough
      transform to detect a variety of droplet sizes and to detect singular droplet
      dispensing and movement failures on the device. As a first test, we applied this
      feedback system to test droplet movement for a variety of liquids used in cell
      based assays and to optimize different feedback actuation schemes to improve
      droplet movement fidelity. We also applied our system to a colorimetric enzymatic
      assay to show that our system is capable of biological analysis. Overall, we
      believe that using our approach of integrating imaging and feedback for DMF can
      provide a platform for automating biological assays with analysis.

PMID- 28871291
TI  - Visible-light-induced tandem cyclization of 2-alkynylanilines with disulfides: a
      convenient method for accessing benzothiophenes under transition-metal-free and
      photocatalyst-free conditions.
AB  - A simple and efficient strategy for the preparation of benzothiophenes via
      visible-light-induced cyclization of 2-alkynylanilines with disulfides was
      developed. The reaction afforded the desired products in good yields at room
      temperature under transition-metal-free and photocatalyst-free conditions.

PMID- 28871292
TI  - Emerging investigator series: As(v) in magnetite: incorporation and
      redistribution.
AB  - Exposure to As in groundwater negatively impacts millions of people around the
      globe, and As mobility in groundwater is often controlled by Fe mineral
      dissolution and precipitation. Additionally, trace elements can be released from
      and incorporated into the structure of Fe oxides in the presence of dissolved
      Fe(ii). The potential for As to redistribute between sorbed on the magnetite
      surface and incorporated in the magnetite structure, however, remains unclear. In
      this study, we use selective chemical extraction and X-ray absorption
      spectroscopy (XAS) to distinguish magnetite-sorbed and incorporated As(v) and to
      provide evidence for As(v) incorporation during magnetite precipitation. While As
      in the As-magnetite coprecipitates did not redistribute between sorbed and
      incorporated over a 4 month period, a small, but measurable increase in
      incorporated As(v) of up to 13% was observed for sorbed As(v). We suggest that
      Fe(ii)-catalyzed recrystallization of magnetite did not significantly influence
      the redistribution of sorbed As(v) because the extent of Fe atom exchange was
      small (~10%). In addition, the extent of As redistribution was the same in the
      absence and presence of added aqueous Fe(ii), suggesting that aqueous Fe(ii) had,
      overall, a minor effect on As redistribution for both coprecipitated and sorbed
      As(v). Our results suggest that coprecipitation of As(v) with magnetite and
      redistribution of As(v) sorbed on magnetite are potential pathways for
      irreversible As(v) uptake and sequestration. These pathways are likely to play a
      significant role in controlling As mobility in natural systems, during human
      induced redox cycling of groundwater such as aquifer storage and recovery, as
      well as in iron oxide-based As removal systems.

PMID- 28871294
TI  - Structure of nanoscale-pitch helical phases: blue phase and twist-bend nematic
      phase resolved by resonant soft X-ray scattering.
AB  - Periodic structures of phases with orientational order of molecules but
      homogenous electron density distribution: a short pitch cholesteric phase, blue
      phase and twist-bend nematic phase, were probed by resonant soft X-ray scattering
      (RSoXS) at the carbon K-edge. The theoretical model shows that in the case of a
      simple heliconical nematic structure, two resonant signals corresponding to the
      full and half pitch band should be present, while only the full pitch band is
      observed experimentally. This suggests that the twist-bend nematic phase has a
      complex structure with a double-helix built of two interlocked, shifted helices.
      We confirm that the helical pitch in the twist-bend nematic phase is in a 10 nm
      range for both the chiral and achiral materials. We also show that the symmetry
      of the blue phase can be unambiguously determined through a resonant enhancement
      of the X-ray diffraction signals, by including polarization effects, which are
      found to be an important indicator in phase structure determination.

PMID- 28871293
TI  - Modular total syntheses of mycolactone A/B and its [2H]-isotopologue.
AB  - A modular total synthesis of mycolactone A/B, the exotoxin produced by
      Mycobacterium ulcerans, has been achieved through the orchestration of several Pd
      catalyzed key steps. While this route leads to a mixture of the natural product
      and its C12 epimer (4 : 1 ratio), this was inconsequential from the biological
      activity standpoint. Compared to the previously reported routes, this synthetic
      blueprint allows the late-stage modification of the toxin, as exemplified by the
      preparation of [22,22,22-2H3]-mycolactone A/B.

PMID- 28871295
TI  - Synthesis of the fungus metabolite cladosin C.
AB  - Cladosin C is one of the few known enaminotetramic acids, isolated from extracts
      of the deep sea fungus Cladosporium sphaerospermum. It was synthesised in ten
      steps and 14% overall yield by a late-stage amination of the corresponding 3
      acyltetramic acid. This was obtained by a Dieckmann condensation of an N-beta
      ketoacylaminoester derived from dehydrovalinate and the thioester-terminated side
      chain containing the stereogenic centre which stemmed from poly-(R)-3
      hydroxybutyrate.

PMID- 28871296
TI  - Two solvent-induced porous hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks: solvent effects on
      structures and functionalities.
AB  - Two solvent-induced porous hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks have been obtained,
      and their synthesis, crystal structures, gas sorption behaviours and fluorescence
      sensing applications have been systematically investigated to elucidate the
      solvent effects on the structures and functionalities of HOFs.

PMID- 28871297
TI  - The influence of nearest-neighbour interactions and assembly dynamics on the
      transport properties of porphyrin supramolecular assemblies on Au(111).
AB  - Here we report on the effect of local molecular organization or "tertiary
      structure" on the charge transport properties of thiol-tethered
      tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPPF4-SC5SH) nanoscale clusters of ca. 5 nm in lateral
      dimension embedded within a dodecanethiol (C12) monolayer on Au(111). The
      structure of the clusters in the mixed monolayers and their resulting transport
      properties were monitored by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Tunneling
      Microscopy (STM) and Spectroscopy (STS). The mixed films were deposited on
      Au(111) for a period of one to five days, during which the lateral dimensions of
      the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH islands that were formed after one day reduced by nearly 35% on
      average by five days, accompanied by a noticeable depletion of the surrounding
      C12 monolayer. These subtle changes in mixed monolayer morphology were
      accompanied by drastic differences in conductance. The ZnTPPF4-SC5SH clusters
      assembled for one day exhibited highly reproducible I-V spectra with simple
      tunneling behavior. By three days, this evolved into bias-induced switching of
      conductance, with a ~100-1000 fold increase. Furthermore, current fluctuations
      started to become significant, and then dominated transport across the ZnTPPF4
      SC5SH clusters assembled over five days. Our data suggests that this evolution
      can be understood by slow surface diffusion, enabling the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH molecules
      to overcome initial steric hindrance in the early stages of island formation in
      the C12 monolayer (at day one), to reach a more energetically-favored, close
      packed organization, as noted by the decrease in island size (by day three).
      However, when desorption of the supporting matrix of C12 became pronounced (by
      day five), the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH clusters began to lose stabilization, and stochastic
      switching was then observed to dominate transport in the clusters, illustrating
      the critical nature of the local organization on these transport properties.

PMID- 28871298
TI  - Selective synthesis of three product classes from imine and carboxylic acid
      precursors via direct imine acylation.
AB  - Three divergent Direct Imine Acylation (DIA) procedures are reported that allow
      the selective generation of delta-lactams, beta-lactams and
      tetrahydropyrimidinones (via a novel three-component coupling) from imine and
      carboxylic acid precursors. All operate via initial N-acyliminium ion formation
      and diverge depending on the reaction conditions and nature of the substrates.

PMID- 28871299
TI  - Phosphine-catalyzed [3 + 2] annulation reaction: highly regio- and
      diastereoselective synthesis of 2-azaspiro[4.4]nonene-1,3-diones.
AB  - A novel phosphine-catalyzed [3 + 2] annulation of gamma-substituted allenoates
      with succinimides was developed, which was successfully applied to the synthesis
      of 2-azaspiro[4.4]nonene-1,3-dione derivatives. The reaction afforded the desired
      products in moderate to high yields (up to 96%) with excellent regioselectivities
      and diastereoselectivities (up to >99 : 1 dr). A plausible reaction mechanism has
      also been proposed based on previous literature.

PMID- 28871300
TI  - Polymer-immobilized, hybrid multi-catalyst architecture for enhanced
      electrochemical oxidation of glycerol.
AB  - The development of a hybrid, tri-catalytic architecture is demonstrated by
      immobilizing MWCNTs, TEMPO-modified linear poly(ethylenimine) and oxalate
      decarboxylase on an electrode to enable enhanced electrochemical oxidation of
      glycerol. This immobilized, hybrid catalytic motif results in a synergistic 3.3
      fold enhancement of glycerol oxidation and collects up to 14 electrons per
      molecule of glycerol.

PMID- 28871301
TI  - Synthesis and characterisation of new tripodal lanthanide complexes and
      investigation of their optical and magnetic properties.
AB  - This paper presents the synthesis of a tripodal ligand (H3L) via the Schiff base
      condensation of N,N-diethylsalicylaldehyde and tris(2-aminoethyl)amine. The
      neutral complexes of type [EuL], [GdL] and [DyL] were synthesized and
      characterized by FT-IR, SEM-EDS, PXRD, single crystal X-ray diffraction, CHN
      analysis and high resolution ESI-MS. X-ray crystallographic studies demonstrated
      that the heptadentate ligand incorporating a cavity pre-organized by hydrogen
      bonding binds the Ln(iii) ions to yield a face capped octahedral coordination
      geometry with three-fold symmetry. Photoluminescence studies show a typical
      Ln(iii) absorption character for the three complexes, with [EuL] demonstrating
      considerably stronger lanthanide-based luminescence peaks, and a Eu(iii) centered
      luminescence lifetime of 0.144 +/- 0.01 ms. Temperature/field-dependent DC and
      temperature/frequency-dependent AC magnetic measurements carried out for the
      Dy(iii) complex indicated obvious magnetic anisotropy and suggested slow
      relaxation behaviour with considerable quantum tunnelling of the magnetization
      contribution.

PMID- 28871302
TI  - Copper-catalysed difluoroalkylation of aromatic aldehydes via a
      decarboxylation/aldol reaction.
AB  - A copper-catalysed tandem decarboxylation/aldol reaction of simple aromatic
      aldehydes with 2,2-difluoro-3-oxo-3-arylpropanoic acid has been developed under
      mild conditions. This method provides a new route for the direct one-pot
      synthesis of difluorinated aldols in moderate to good yields from simple
      substrates.

PMID- 28871303
TI  - Polymeric mannosides prevent DC-SIGN-mediated cell-infection by cytomegalovirus.
AB  - Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a beta-herpesvirus with a high prevalence in the
      population. HCMV is asymptomatic for immunocompetent adults but is a leading
      cause of morbidity for new born and immunocompromised patients. It was recently
      shown that the envelope glycoprotein B (gB) of HCMV interacts with the Dendritic
      Cell-Specific ICAM-3 Grabbing Non integrin (DC-SIGN) to infect the host. In this
      work we developed a set of DC-SIGN blockers based on mono-, di-, tetra and
      polyvalent mannosides. The multivalent mannosides were designed to interact with
      the carbohydrate recognition domains of DC-SIGN in a chelate or bind and
      recapture process, and represent the first chemical antiadhesives of HCMV
      reported so far. Polymeric dextrans coated with triazolylheptylmannoside (THM)
      ligands were highly potent, blocking the gB and DC-SIGN interaction at nanomolar
      concentrations. The compounds were further assessed for their ability to prevent
      the DC-SIGN mediated HCMV infection of dendritic cells. A dextran polymer coated
      with an average of 902 THM ligands showed an outstanding effect in blocking the
      HCMV trans-infection with IC50 values down to the picomolar range (nanomolar when
      expressed in THM concentration). Each THM moiety on the polymer surpassed the
      antiadhesive effect of the methylmannoside reference by more than four orders of
      magnitude. The compound proved non-cytotoxic at the high concentration of 2 mM
      and therefore represents an interesting antiadhesive candidate against HCMV and
      potentially against other virus hijacking dendritic cells to infect the host.

PMID- 28871304
TI  - An electrochemiluminescence cloth-based biosensor with smartphone-based imaging
      for detection of lactate in saliva.
AB  - Cloth fabrics and smartphones have become the two things people are most familiar
      with. Particularly, smartphones are used as portable personal computers,
      revolutionizing communication and lifestyle. Here, screen-printing technology is
      applied to fabricate carbon electrodes and electrochemical chambers on a single
      hydrophilic cloth, while the cloth-based electrochemiluminescence (ECL) signals
      are read out by using an inexpensive smartphone. Therefore, the ECL detection is
      available in both low-cost disposable sensors and a portable format, which may be
      very suitable to be used as a non-invasive monitoring tool for medical
      diagnostics. As a proof-of-principle, lactate oxidase is immobilized onto the
      working electrode for the lactate measurement. Under optimized conditions, the
      lactate levels can be quantified over the range of 0.05-2.5 mM, with a detection
      limit of 0.035 mM and the relative standard deviations of 4.7%, 5.2% and 5.0% for
      0.05, 0.5 and 2.5 mM lactate (n = 5). In addition, the proposed biosensor has an
      acceptable stability and selectivity. Finally, the ECL biosensor is successfully
      applied for the determination of lactate in human saliva. These results show that
      the presented ECL platform has the potential to be applied to non-invasively
      detect a variety of analytes of medical interest.

PMID- 28871305
TI  - Skeletal muscle-on-a-chip: an in vitro model to evaluate tissue formation and
      injury.
AB  - Engineered skeletal muscle tissues can be used for in vitro studies that require
      physiologically relevant models of native tissues. Herein, we describe the
      development of a three-dimensional (3D) skeletal muscle tissue that recapitulates
      the architectural and structural complexities of muscle within a microfluidic
      device. Using a 3D photo-patterning approach, we spatially confined a cell-laden
      gelatin network around two bio-inert hydrogel pillars, which induce uniaxial
      alignment of the cells and serve as anchoring sites for the encapsulated cells
      and muscle tissues as they form and mature. We have characterized the tissue
      morphology and strain profile during differentiation of the cells and skeletal
      muscle tissue formation by using a combination of fluorescence microscopy and
      computational tools. The time-dependent strain profile suggests the existence of
      individual cells within the gelatin matrix, which differentiated to form a
      multinucleated skeletal muscle tissue bundle as a function of culture time. We
      have also developed a method to calculate the passive tension generated by the
      engineered muscle tissue bundles suspended between two pillars. Finally, as a
      proof-of-concept we have examined the applicability of the skeletal muscle-on
      chip system as a screening platform and in vitro muscle injury model. We studied
      the dose-dependent effect of cardiotoxin on the engineered muscle tissue
      architecture and its subsequent effect on the passive tension. This simple yet
      effective tool can be appealing for studies that necessitate the analysis of
      skeletal muscle structure and function, including preclinical drug discovery and
      development.

PMID- 28871306
TI  - Introduction to Sigma Proteins: Evolution of the Concept of Sigma Receptors.
AB  - For over 40 years, scientists have endeavored to understand the so-called sigma
      receptors. During this time, the concept of sigma receptors has continuously and
      significantly evolved. With thousands of publications on the subject, these
      proteins have been implicated in various diseases, disorders, and physiological
      processes. Nevertheless, we are just beginning to understand what sigma proteins
      do and how they work. Two subtypes have been identified, Sigma1 and Sigma2.
      Whereas Sigma1 (also known as sigma-1 receptor, Sig1R, sigma1 receptor, and
      several other names) was cloned over 20 years ago, Sigma2 (sigma-2 receptor,
      sigma2 receptor) was cloned very recently and had remained a pharmacologically
      defined entity. In this volume, we will focus primarily on Sigma1. We will
      highlight several key subject areas in which Sigma1 has been well characterized
      as well as (re)emerging areas of interest. Despite the large number of
      publications regarding Sigma1, several fundamental questions remain unanswered or
      only partially answered. Most of what we know about Sigma1 comes from
      pharmacological studies; however, a clearly defined molecular mechanism of action
      remains elusive. One concept has become clear; Sigma1 is not a traditional
      receptor. Sigma1 is now considered a unique pharmacologically regulated integral
      membrane chaperone or scaffolding protein. A number of landmark discoveries over
      the past decade have begun to reshape the concept of sigma receptors. With the
      rapid emergence of new information, development of new tools, and changing
      conceptual frameworks, the field is poised for a period of accelerated progress.

PMID- 28871307
TI  - Combined rupture of left ventricular free wall and pericardium.

PMID- 28871308
TI  - [Laparoscopic lavage for perforated sigmoid diverticulitis : One-year results of
      the SCANDIV trial].

PMID- 28871309
TI  - Erratum to: Ultrasound-guided interscalene brachial plexus block in a child with
      acute upper respiratory infection.

PMID- 28871311
TI  - [Multiprofessional outpatient psychosocial treatment for elderly patients with
      mental disorders].
AB  - Mental disorders contribute substantially to the loss of quality of life and life
      expectancy in old age. Life expectancy is reduced especially by the bidirectional
      interaction with heart diseases, diabetes mellitus as well as the depression
      specific risk of suicide. Depression in old age is a strong risk factor for
      nursing home placement, which is usually an undesired outcome for older people.
      Utilization of mental health services is hindered by self-stigmatization and
      prejudice; however, according to recent surveys older people increasingly value
      psychotherapeutic services. Shortcomings in the diagnostics and therapy in the
      primary treatment of old age depression have stimulated research in low-threshold
      options in primary care and collaborative multiprofessional outpatient
      interventions in many countries. The core features of collaborative care
      approaches are improved diagnostics, stepped-care protocols, continuous disease
      monitoring, and access to psychiatric and psychotherapeutic supervision or
      services. Collaborative multiprofessional outpatient approaches have been shown
      to be superior for the treatment of old age depression compared to treatment as
      usual.

PMID- 28871310
TI  - Autophagy in diabetic kidney disease: regulation, pathological role and
      therapeutic potential.
AB  - Diabetic kidney disease, a leading cause of end-stage renal disease, has become a
      serious public health problem worldwide and lacks effective therapies. Autophagy
      is a highly conserved lysosomal degradation pathway that removes protein
      aggregates and damaged organelles to maintain cellular homeostasis. As important
      stress-responsive machinery, autophagy is involved in the pathogenesis of various
      diseases. Emerging evidence has suggested that dysregulated autophagy may
      contribute to both glomerular and tubulointerstitial pathologies in kidneys under
      diabetic conditions. This review summarizes the recent findings regarding the
      role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease and highlights
      the regulation of autophagy by the nutrient-sensing pathways and intracellular
      stress signaling in this disease. The advances in our understanding of autophagy
      in diabetic kidney disease will facilitate the discovery of a new therapeutic
      target for the prevention and treatment of this life-threatening diabetes
      complication.

PMID- 28871314
TI  - [Psychotherapy with mild cognitive impairment and dementia].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite evidence for psychotherapy (PT) in elderly patients, it is
      not standard care in patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
      Although neuropsychiatric symptoms are frequent in these patients, there is a
      lack of studies investigating the importance and efficiency of PT. OBJECTIVE: Can
      patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia benefit from PT? If so,
      which modifications of therapeutic strategies are necessary for treating elderly
      patients with mild cognitive impairments? MATERIAL AND METHODS: Evaluation of
      empirical evidence on the efficiency of PT for patients with mild cognitive
      impairment and dementia. Presentation of interventions and modifications of
      therapeutic strategies. RESULTS: Empirical evidence points towards beneficial
      effects of PT on depressive symptoms and quality of life. The treatment of
      anxiety disorders has so far been broadly neglected. Modifications of therapeutic
      strategies include simplification of content, repetitions, implementation of
      external memory aids and inclusion of caregivers into therapeutic process.
      CONCLUSION: Psychotherapy can be effective in patients with mild cognitive
      impairment and early stages of dementia. When practicing PT, an adaptation of
      therapeutic strategies is necessary. Nevertheless, there is a need for further
      studies investigating the benefits and implementation of PT into standard care,
      especially as pharmacological interventions are very limited in their efficiency
      and tolerability in this patient population.

PMID- 28871315
TI  - Laboratory Investigation of Mineralization of Refractory Nitrogen from Sewage
      Treatment Plants.
AB  - Laboratory studies were conducted and modeled to evaluate whether refractory
      organic nitrogen in tertiary-treated wastewater effluent could become
      bioavailable by conversion to mineral forms. Multiday incubations of effluent
      collected from the Branford and New Haven, Connecticut, waste water treatment
      plants (WWTP) revealed low but steady conversion of organic nitrogen to nitrate
      (NO3-). In Branford, the principal form of organic nitrogen was dissolved, and in
      New Haven it was particulate. Modeling suggested that in both the cases
      conversion to NO3- from organic forms occurred at several per cent per day, and
      appeared to happen via the intermediary NH4+. The results suggest that organic
      nitrogen may be an important source of bioavailable N, contributing to the
      problem of hypoxia in Long Island Sound and other estuaries.

PMID- 28871316
TI  - [Red, scaly baby: a pediatric dermatological emergency : Clinical and
      differential diagnoses of neonatal erythroderma].
AB  - Neonatal, ichthyosiform erythroderma is rare and may be associated with primarily
      cutaneous disorders as well as with a broad spectrum of potentially severe
      underlying diseases. Neonatal erythroderma represents a pediatric dermatological
      emergency requiring a swift diagnosis and effective, interdisciplinary
      management. This review summarizes both primary skin diseases and systemic
      illnesses that are known to elicit erythroderma in neonates and young infants.

PMID- 28871317
TI  - [Drug therapy safety at the transition from hospital to community medicine].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the qualitative and quantitative changes of medications
      during the stay on a geriatric-psychiatric ward where the medication was
      optimized by a clinical pharmacist, and after discharge. The goal of the study
      was to analyze the continuity of the medication at the transfer from hospital to
      ambulatory care. METHODS: We interviewed 41 patients on the phone about their
      drug regimen 4 and 12 weeks after discharge. Medications were compared to their
      discharge medication. The number of medications from the PRISCUS list of
      inappropriate medications for the elderly as well as the number of drug
      interactions was documented. The drug interaction database MediQ was used to
      identify and classify the drug-drug interactions. RESULTS: During the
      hospitalization of the patients, 101 interventions of the clinical pharmacist
      were recommended and accepted. In cooperation with the physicians, the number of
      drug interactions decreased by 44% and the number of PRISCUS list medications by
      42%. Only 4 weeks after discharge, 54 drugs for 27 patients (66%) had already
      been changed. During the following 8 weeks, another 44 medications were changed
      in 14 patients (35%). The total number of drugs after discharge did not change.
      The number of moderate drug interactions (p = 0.17) of medications from the
      PRISCUS list increased (p = 0.77), but not significantly. CONCLUSION: While the
      interventions of a clinical pharmacist can lead to a reduction in drug
      interactions and inappropriate medication for the elderly during the
      hospitalization, the medication was changed after discharge in numerous cases. In
      a detailed analysis it was found that some of the changes increased the number of
      drug interactions as well as the number of potentially inappropriate medications
      for the elderly. A drug interaction check after discharge could prevent drug
      interactions and medication errors. Also the nationwide medication plan can help
      to prevent medication errors by the prescribing physician as well as by the
      patient.

PMID- 28871318
TI  - [Psychotherapy with older caregivers].
AB  - Nursing and caring for a relative can be regarded as an important developmental
      task, which mainly affects elderly people who provide care for their very old
      parents or their (spouse) partners. Being responsible for the care of someone can
      be associated with a severe caregiver burden and experienced as a crisis.
      Possible psychological consequences are pronounced depressive symptoms or
      maladaptive stress reactions. For these caregivers, psychotherapeutic counselling
      can be sensible and helpful in addition to other resources of caregiver support.
      This applies in particular to improving coping with problematic everyday
      situations, stressful emotions, and strengthening resources. Multimodal
      interventions that address methods of cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance
      as well as commitment therapy could show good evidence for this target group but
      have so far received little attention in healthcare programs. Because it is often
      difficult for caregivers to organize regular visits to the psychotherapist's
      practice, psychotherapeutic offers would be desirable in more flexible settings
      (e. g. by telephone or internet-based). The extent to which such supplementary
      interventions can be embedded and financed in the context of chronic care models
      is still unclear.

PMID- 28871312
TI  - ALK1 signaling in development and disease: new paradigms.
AB  - Activin A receptor like type 1 (ALK1) is a transmembrane serine/threonine
      receptor kinase in the transforming growth factor-beta receptor family that is
      expressed on endothelial cells. Defects in ALK1 signaling cause the autosomal
      dominant vascular disorder, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), which is
      characterized by development of direct connections between arteries and veins, or
      arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Although previous studies have implicated
      ALK1 in various aspects of sprouting angiogenesis, including tip/stalk cell
      selection, migration, and proliferation, recent work suggests an intriguing role
      for ALK1 in transducing a flow-based signal that governs directed endothelial
      cell migration within patent, perfused vessels. In this review, we present an
      updated view of the mechanism of ALK1 signaling, put forth a unified hypothesis
      to explain the cellular missteps that lead to AVMs associated with ALK1
      deficiency, and discuss emerging roles for ALK1 signaling in diseases beyond HHT.

PMID- 28871319
TI  - Onset ages of hepatopulmonary syndrome and pulmonary hypertension in patients
      with biliary atresia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) and portopulmonary hypertension (PoPH)
      are extrahepatic complications of biliary atresia (BA). Their detection is
      sometimes delayed, which may result in missed opportunities for liver
      transplantation. The aim of this study was to determine the onset ages of HPS and
      PoPH in BA patients. METHODS: BA patients followed at our institution were
      identified. Patients visited our clinic for routine blood work, as well as
      regular electrocardiography, chest X-rays, and arterial blood gas tests. Lung
      perfusion scintigraphy and cardiac ultrasound were performed to diagnose HPS.
      Cardiac catheterization was conducted to diagnose PoPH. RESULTS: The study
      population consisted of 88 BA patients. The median follow-up duration was 11.6
      years (range 0.8-26.0 years). Six patients (6.8%) developed HPS and three
      patients (3.4%) developed PoPH. The median age of onset of HPS was significantly
      younger than that of PoPH (HPS: 4 years, PoPH: 15 years, P < 0.019). Two patients
      (66%) with PoPH died, while all patients with HPS survivied. CONCLUSION: The
      onset of HPS was significantly earlier than that of PoPH. The mortality rate was
      high in patients with PoPH. Teenagers with BA should receive routine cardiac
      echocardiograms to detect PH in its early stages.

PMID- 28871320
TI  - Excess risk of venous thromboembolism in hip fracture patients and the prognostic
      impact of comorbidity.
AB  - : Hip fracture patients were at increased excess risk of venous thromboembolism
      (VTE) up to 1 year following hip fracture. During the first year, interaction
      between hip fracture and comorbidity was observed among patients with severe and
      very severe comorbidity. INTRODUCTION: We compared the risk of VTE in hip
      fracture patients with that in the general population. We also examined whether
      and to what extent the association between hip fracture and VTE varied by
      comorbidity level. METHODS: Nationwide cohort study based on Danish health
      registries, 1995-2015. We identified hip fracture patients (n = 110,563) and
      sampled a comparison cohort without hip fracture from the general population (n =
      552,774). Comorbidity was assessed using the Charlson comorbidity index. We
      calculated attributable fraction, as the proportion of the VTE rate, among
      persons exposed to both hip fracture and comorbidity, attributed to exposure
      interaction. RESULTS: The cumulative incidences of VTE were 0.73% within 30 days
      and 0.83% within 31-365 days among hip fracture patients, and 0.05 and 0.43% in
      the general population. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of VTE among hip fracture
      patients were 17.29 [95% confidence interval (CI) 14.74-20.28] during the first
      30 days and 2.13 (95% CI 1.95-2.32) during 31-365 days following hip fracture.
      The relative risks of VTE were 1.03 (95% CI 0.96-1.11) and 1.11 (95% CI 1.00
      1.23) after 1-5 years and 6-10 years. During the first 30 days and 31-365 days,
      14%/28% of VTE rates and 5%/4% of VTE rates were attributable to the interaction
      between hip fracture and severe/very severe comorbidity, respectively. Mortality
      risks within 30 days of VTE were 29.4% in hip fracture and 11.0% in general
      population cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: Hip fracture patients were at increased excess
      risk of VTE up to 1 year following their fracture. During the first year,
      interaction between hip fracture and comorbidity was observed among patients with
      severe and very severe comorbidity.

PMID- 28871321
TI  - Revealing Adaptive Management of Environmental Flows.
AB  - Managers of land, water, and biodiversity are working with increasingly complex
      social ecological systems with high uncertainty. Adaptive management (learning
      from doing) is an ideal approach for working with this complexity. The competing
      social and environmental demands for water have prompted interest in freshwater
      adaptive management, but its success and uptake appear to be slow. Some of the
      perceived "failure" of adaptive management may reflect the way success is
      conceived and measured; learning, rarely used as an indicator of success, is
      narrowly defined when it is. In this paper, we document the process of adaptive
      flow management in the Edward-Wakool system in the southern Murray-Darling Basin,
      Australia. Data are from interviews with environmental water managers, document
      review, and the authors' structured reflection on their experiences of adaptive
      management and environmental flows. Substantial learning occurred in relation to
      the management of environmental flows in the Edward-Wakool system, with evidence
      found in planning documents, water-use reports, technical reports, stakeholder
      committee minutes, and refereed papers, while other evidence was anecdotal. Based
      on this case, we suggest it may be difficult for external observers to perceive
      the success of large adaptive management projects because evidence of learning is
      dispersed across multiple documents, and learning is not necessarily considered a
      measure of success. We suggest that documentation and sharing of new insights,
      and of the processes of learning, should be resourced to facilitate social
      learning within the water management sector, and to help demonstrate the
      successes of adaptive management.

PMID- 28871323
TI  - [Orthopedic surgery in Dhulikhel, Nepal].
AB  - Nepal is one of the 20 poorest countries in the world. Thus, medical care in
      Nepal is dependent on significant medical and financial commitment from within
      and outside the country. Dhulikhel Hospital - Kathmandu University Hospital (DH
      KUH) was founded in 1996 by Prof. Dr. Ram and colleagues. Collaboration and
      support of many people and institutions are, in contrast to the experience in
      other hospitals of the third world, characterized by an extraordinary
      sustainability. The reason for this is the spirit lived according to the motto
      "best service for the poor". The structures in DH-KUH are influenced by a very
      close cooperation with a number of international (university) hospitals. Most of
      the DH-KUH departments have an amazingly high technical standard. Assuming this
      development and progress can be continued, a splendid future for DH-KUH can be
      predicted.

PMID- 28871322
TI  - Frequency and characteristics of pulmonary nodules in children at computed
      tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Normative data on pulmonary nodules in children without malignancy
      are limited. Knowledge of the frequency and characteristics of pulmonary nodules
      in healthy children can influence care decisions in children with malignant
      disease. OBJECTIVE: To provide normative data concerning the frequency and
      characteristics of pulmonary nodules on computed tomography (CT) in young
      children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All children ages 1 year-12 years who underwent
      chest CT after high-energy trauma were retrospectively investigated. Exclusion
      criteria were a history of malignancy, thick image slices, motion artefacts and
      extensive post-traumatic pulmonary changes. Two radiologists were asked to
      independently identify all nodules and to characterize each nodule with respect
      to location, size, perifissural location and calcification. Discrepancies were
      adjudicated by a third reader, who set the reference standard in this study.
      Interobserver agreement in detection and characterization was assessed using the
      kappa coefficient (kappa). RESULTS: Identified were 120 patients, of whom 72 (75%
      male; median age: 8.0 years [interquartile range: 4-11]) were included. A total
      of 59 pulmonary nodules were present in 27 patients (38%; 95% confidence
      interval: 26-49%; range: 1-5 nodules per patient, with a mean diameter of 3.2 mm
      [standard deviation: 0.9 mm]). For nodule detection, the per-patient
      interobserver agreement was substantial (kappa=0.78) and per-lobe agreement was
      moderate (kappa=0.40). For characterization, there was fair to substantial
      agreement (kappa=0.36-0.74). CONCLUSION: Small pulmonary nodules on chest CT are
      a common finding in otherwise healthy children, but detection and
      characterization have only moderate interobserver agreement.

PMID- 28871324
TI  - Visual and auditory temporal integration in healthy younger and older adults.
AB  - As people age, they tend to integrate successive visual stimuli over longer
      intervals than younger adults. It may be expected that temporal integration is
      affected similarly in other modalities, possibly due to general, age-related
      cognitive slowing of the brain. However, the previous literature does not provide
      convincing evidence that this is the case in audition. One hypothesis is that the
      primacy of time in audition attenuates the degree to which temporal integration
      in that modality extends over time as a function of age. We sought to settle this
      issue by comparing visual and auditory temporal integration in younger and older
      adults directly, achieved by minimizing task differences between modalities.
      Participants were presented with a visual or an auditory rapid serial
      presentation task, at 40-100 ms/item. In both tasks, two subsequent targets were
      to be identified. Critically, these could be perceptually integrated and reported
      by the participants as such, providing a direct measure of temporal integration.
      In both tasks, older participants integrated more than younger adults, especially
      when stimuli were presented across longer time intervals. This difference was
      more pronounced in vision and only marginally significant in audition. We
      conclude that temporal integration increases with age in both modalities, but
      that this change might be slightly less pronounced in audition.

PMID- 28871325
TI  - High level of soluble interleukin-2 receptor in serum predicts treatment
      resistance and poor progression-free survival in multiple myeloma.
AB  - The IL-2/IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) system plays a central role in maintaining normal
      T cell immunity, and its disturbance is associated with several hematologic
      disorders. Studies have found in several types of lymphoma that abnormal amounts
      of soluble IL-2R (sIL-2R) may result in imbalance of the IL-2/IL-2R system and
      hence of the T cell immunoregulation. Whether the level of sIL-2R in blood could
      predict treatment outcomes or not needs to be investigated in multiple myeloma
      (MM) patients. The level of sIL-2R in serum was measured using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 81 patients with newly diagnosed MM. Twenty-six
      patients (32.1%) were treated with bortezomib-based regimens and 55patients
      (67.9%) received old drugs-based regimens. The mean concentration of sIL-2R for
      myeloma patients was 8.51 ng/ml, significantly higher than that of healthy
      controls (0.56 ng/ml, p < 0.0001). The best cutoff value for sIL-2R in predicting
      high risk for disease progression is 6.049 ng/ml with an area under curve (AUC)
      of 0.665 (p = 0.013). Thirty-six patients (44.4%) were classified as higher sIL
      2R level group (> 6.049 ng/ml), and 45 patients (55.6%) as lower group (<= 6.049
      ng/ml). The overall response rate (ORR) was 60.0% in lower sIL-2R level group,
      and 41.7% in higher level group (p = 0.156). The median progression-free survival
      (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was 12 months (range, 2.0-65 months) and 20
      months (range, 2.0-118 months), respectively. In a multivariate survival
      analysis, including Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score,
      treatment response, and sIL-2R level, it was found that all these three
      parameters were significantly independent prognostic factors for PFS (p = 0.032,
      0.016, and 0.043, respectively), but none factors maintained their value in
      predicting OS. Subgroup analysis revealed that high level of sIL-2R is correlated
      with significantly inferior PFS in patients treated with bortezomib-based
      regimens (p = 0.004). Serum sIL-2R level is an independent prognostic factor for
      PFS, indicating novel drugs targeting the imbalance of IL-2/IL-2R system may be a
      promising strategy in MM.

PMID- 28871326
TI  - Mortality and Morbidity After Hartmann's Procedure Versus Primary Anastomosis
      Without a Diverting Stoma for Colorectal Perforation: A Nationwide Observational
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The benefit of primary anastomosis (PA) without a diverting stoma
      over Hartmann's procedure (HP) for colorectal perforation remains controversial.
      We compared postoperative mortality and morbidity between HP and PA without a
      diverting stoma for colorectal perforation of various etiologies. METHODS: Using
      the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination database, we extracted data on
      patients who underwent emergency open laparotomy for colorectal perforation of
      various etiologies from July 1, 2010 to March 31, 2014. We compared 30-day
      mortality, postoperative complication rates, and postoperative critical care
      interventions between HP and PA groups using propensity score matching, inverse
      probability of treatment weighting, and instrumental variable analyses to adjust
      for measured and unmeasured confounding factors. RESULTS: We identified 8500
      eligible patients (5455 HP and 3045 PA). In the propensity score-matched model, a
      significant difference between the HP and PA groups was detected in 30-day
      mortality (7.7% vs. 9.6%; risk difference, 1.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI],
      0.5-3.4). The inverse probability of treatment weighting showed similar results
      (8.8% vs. 10.7%; risk difference, 1.9%; 95% CI, 1.0-2.8). In the instrumental
      variable analysis, the point estimate suggested similar direction to that of the
      propensity score analyses (risk difference, 4.4%; 95% CI, -3.3 to 12.1). The PA
      group had significantly higher rates of secondary surgery for complications (4.6%
      vs. 8.4%; risk difference, 3.8%; 95% CI, 2.5-4.1) and slightly longer duration of
      postoperative critical care interventions. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed a
      significant difference in 30-day mortality between HP and PA without a diverting
      stoma.

PMID- 28871328
TI  - Selective determination of mandelic acid in urine using molecularly imprinted
      polymer in microextraction by packed sorbent.
AB  - Mandelic acid (MA) is a major metabolite of ethylbenzene and styrene. For the
      first time, a selective, fast, and easy-to-use procedure was developed for the
      determination of MA in urine samples. The new procedure is based on MIMEPS, the
      combination of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) and microextraction by
      packed sorbent (MEPS). High-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet
      detection (HPLC-UV) was used for the separation and determination of MA. The bulk
      polymerization method was used to synthesize the MIP, and the MIP and non
      imprinted polymer (NIP) were characterized by Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy. The selectivity of the MIP was investigated in the presence of
      interferents. In addition, we investigated the various parameters that affect the
      performance of the MEPS, including the pH of the sample, the number of extraction
      cycles, sample volume, and the types and volumes of the washing and elution
      solvents. A six-point calibration curve was obtained in the range of 0.2-20 ug/mL
      (R 2 = 0.9994). The extraction recovery was more than 88.8%. The limit of
      detection and the limit of quantitation were 0.06 and 0.2 ug/mL, respectively.
      The intra- and inter-day precisions were in the range of 3.6-4.7% and 3.8-5.1%,
      respectively. The accuracy was -8.4 to -11.1%. The optimized procedure was
      selective, sensitive, and rapid, and it was both user friendly and
      environmentally friendly. The sample preparation process took only about 5 min,
      so the MIMEPS-HPLC-UV procedure is recommended as an alternative for the
      biomonitoring of workers exposed to ethylbenzene and/or styrene.

PMID- 28871327
TI  - Micronutrient intake adequacy and depression risk in the SUN cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to prospectively assess the association between
      micronutrient intake adequacy and risk of depression. METHODS: This dynamic
      cohort study involves Spanish university graduates (SUN Project). Dietary intake
      was assessed at baseline and after 10 years of follow-up with a semi-quantitative
      food frequency questionnaire. Micronutrient intake adequacy for vitamins B1, B2,
      B3, B6, B12, C, A, D, E, folic acid, zinc, iodine, selenium, iron, calcium,
      potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and chrome was estimated. Inadequate intake for
      each nutrient was defined when the intake of the nutrient was below the estimated
      average requirements (EAR) if available or the adequate intake levels, if EARs
      were not available. We compared participants with inadequate intake for >=4
      nutrients vs. those with one nutrient. Participants were classified as having
      incident depression if they had no previous history of depression or
      antidepressants use at baseline, but they reported during follow-up a new
      clinical diagnosis of depression by a physician, use of antidepressant drugs, or
      both. Time-dependent multivariable Cox regression models were fitted. RESULTS:
      After a median follow-up of 8.5 years, 953 new cases of depression were observed
      among 13,983 participants. Participants with inadequate intake for >=4 nutrients
      showed a significantly higher risk of depression [multivariable hazard ratio (HR)
      = 1.37; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-1.85]. When the analyses were updated
      with repeated assessments of intakes, the association was attenuated and it was
      no longer statistically significant (Multivariable HR = 1.11; 95% CI 0.82-1.51).
      CONCLUSIONS: Micronutrient inadequacy in four or more micronutrients could exert
      a moderate role in the development of depression.

PMID- 28871329
TI  - Transforming growth factor-beta-mediated CD44/STAT3 signaling contributes to the
      development of atrial fibrosis and fibrillation.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with atrial fibrosis. Inhibition of atrial
      fibrosis might be a plausible approach for AF prevention and therapy. This study
      is designed to evaluate the potential role of CD44, a membrane receptor known to
      regulate fibrosis, and its related signaling in the pathogenesis of atrial
      fibrosis and AF. Treatment of cultured rat atrial fibroblasts with transforming
      growth factor-beta (TGF-beta, a key mediator of atrial fibrosis) led to a higher
      expression of hyaluronan (HA), CD44, STAT3, and collagen (a principal marker of
      fibrosis) than that of ventricular fibroblasts. In vivo, TGF-beta transgenic mice
      and AF patients exhibited a greater expression of HA, CD44, STAT3, and collagen
      in their atria than wild-type mice and sinus rhythm subjects, respectively.
      Treating TGF-beta transgenic mice with an anti-CD44 blocking antibody resulted in
      a lower expression of STAT3 and collagen in their atria than those with control
      IgG antibody. Programmed stimulation triggered less AF episodes in TGF-beta
      transgenic mice treated with anti-CD44 blocking antibody than in those with
      control IgG. Blocking CD44 signaling with anti-CD44 antibody and mutated CD44
      plasmids attenuated TGF-beta-induced STAT3 activation and collagen expression in
      cultured atrial fibroblasts. Deletion and mutational analysis of the collagen
      promoter along with chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated that STAT3 served
      as a vital transcription factor in collagen expression. TGF-beta-mediated
      HA/CD44/STAT3 pathway plays a crucial role in the development of atrial fibrosis
      and AF. Blocking CD44-dependent signaling may be a feasible way for AF
      management.

PMID- 28871330
TI  - Forensic features and phylogenetic analyses of Sichuan Han population via 23
      autosomal STR loci included in the Huaxia Platinum System.
AB  - Short tandem repeats (STRs) are DNA regions with a variable number of repeated
      units (2-6 bp) and attractive to genetic application like forensic, population
      genetics, and anthropological studies. The Huaxia Platinum System allows the
      multiplex amplification of 23 autosomal STR loci and two gender determination
      loci. In the present study, genetic polymorphisms of these 23 autosomal STR loci
      were first obtained from 309 Sichuan Han individuals, southwest China. No
      evidence of deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) was identified.
      The combined match probability (CMP), combined power of discrimination (CPD), and
      combined power of exclusion (CPE) are 1.087 * 10-27,
      0.999999999999999999999999999, and 0.9999999996 in the Sichuan Han Chinese
      population, respectively. The inter-population differentiation, PCA, MDS, and
      phylogenetic analysis revealed that Sichuan Han had a closer genetic relationship
      with neighboring Han Chinese populations. Our findings indicated that the 23
      autosomal STR loci are polymorphic and informative in studied southwestern
      Chinese Han population and can be utilized as a powerful tool for forensic
      applications. In addition, population comparisons demonstrated that the genetic
      similarities widely existed among Han Chinese populations distributed in
      different administrative divisions, and genetic differences had existed between
      minorities (most prominently for Uyghur and Kazakh) and Han groups.

PMID- 28871331
TI  - Exploring the repetition bias in voluntary task switching.
AB  - In the voluntary task-switching paradigm, participants are required to randomly
      select tasks. We reasoned that the consistent finding of a repetition bias (i.e.,
      participants repeat tasks more often than expected by chance) reflects reasonable
      adaptive task selection behavior to balance the goal of random task selection
      with the goals to minimize the time and effort for task performance. We conducted
      two experiments in which participants were provided with variable amount of
      preview for the non-chosen task stimuli (i.e., potential switch stimuli). We
      assumed that switch stimuli would initiate some pre-processing resulting in
      improved performance in switch trials. Results showed that reduced switch costs
      due to extra-preview in advance of each trial were accompanied by more task
      switches. This finding is in line with the characteristics of rational adaptive
      behavior. However, participants were not biased to switch tasks more often than
      chance despite large switch benefits. We suggest that participants might avoid
      effortful additional control processes that modulate the effects of preview on
      task performance and task choice.

PMID- 28871333
TI  - [Thermal injuries : Clinical and acute management in pediatric practice].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Each year 30,000 children suffer from burn injuries in Germany and
      2000 of these children must be treated in special pediatric burn centers.
      Approximately two thirds of these children are less than 4 years old, 70% of
      thermal injuries are due to scalding with hot liquids. OBJECTIVES: The aim of
      this article is to give an overview of the characteristics of pediatric burn
      trauma with recommendations for initial treatment, surgical therapy as well as
      follow-up treatment. CONCLUSION: Physicians are especially challenged by
      pediatric burn injuries which can cause lifelong stigma by scarring and other
      physical defects. The treatment of pediatric thermal injuries should be performed
      in clinics with expertise in treating pediatric burns to achieve optimal results.

PMID- 28871332
TI  - REM sleep behavior disorder, autonomic dysfunction and synuclein-related
      neurodegeneration: where do we stand?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: From newfound parasomnia to a marker of future synucleinopathy,
      since its first description in 1986, REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) has been
      systematically tackled from virtually many viewpoints in basic, translational,
      and clinical studies. The time delay between RBD and synucleinopathy onset offers
      an exceptional window for observation and design of neuroprotective trials. In
      the last few years, research has focused on characterizing possible differences
      within RBD patients in order to draw potential profiles more or less susceptible
      to further neurodegeneration. Attention has been drawn towards autonomic
      dysfunction in RBD as one of such variables. OVERVIEW: In this review, REM sleep
      physiology and relevant brain anatomy is briefly mentioned and integrated with
      neuroanatomical and physiological concepts regarding the central autonomic
      network. A detailed summary of works showing the presence of autonomic
      dysfunction in RBD is provided, and clinical and electrophysiological features of
      RBD in synucleinopathies are discussed. A short overview of RBD in other
      neurodegenerative diseases is also provided.

PMID- 28871334
TI  - Role of percutaneous veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as bridge
      to left ventricular assist device.
AB  - Percutaneous veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) provides
      emergency circulatory support for cardiogenic shock patients and is used as a
      bridge to a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The purpose of this study was
      to determine risk factors for LVAD implantation in patients who required
      percutaneous VA-ECMO as a bridge to long-term LVAD. We retrospectively
      investigated 32 consecutive LVAD patients who required percutaneous VA-ECMO as a
      bridge to long-term LVAD. Twenty-nine patients (91%) were intubated, and their
      serum creatinine and total bilirubin levels before LVAD implantation were 2.1 +/-
      2.0 and 3.7 +/- 3.7 mg/dl, respectively. Patients were supported by LVAD for 495
      +/- 393 days, during which 15 died, 6 recovered native cardiac functions and LVAD
      was explanted, and 11 underwent heart transplantation. Multivariate logistic
      regression analysis revealed that a preoperative left ventricular end-diastolic
      diameter (LVDd) <=54 mm was a significant predictor of 90-day mortality after
      LVAD implantation (OR 13.64; 95% CI 1.081-172.0; p = 0.0433) and freedom from
      death during LVAD support was significantly worse in patients with an LVDd <=54
      mm. Furthermore, preoperative LVDd was positively correlated with postoperative
      right ventricular stroke work index (r = 0.739, p < 0.0001) and patients with an
      LVDd <=54 mm had significantly worse postoperative right ventricular, renal, and
      hepatic functions. We demonstrated that percutaneous VA-ECMO could be utilized as
      a bridge to long-term LVAD in selected patients. Our results suggest that
      preoperative LVDd is a useful predictor of mortality and right ventricular
      function after LVAD implantation in patients requiring VA-ECMO, in whom
      assessment of right ventricular function is challenging.

PMID- 28871335
TI  - Biodegradation of gaseous toluene with mixed microbial consortium in a biofilter:
      steady state and transient operation.
AB  - Petroleum oil refineries are massive emitters of risky volatile organic compounds
      (VOCs). Among the VOCs, toluene is taken into account as a significant pollutant.
      In the present study, a compost biofilter is used to treat the toluene vapor.
      However, an elimination capacity and removal efficiency of the biofilter was
      investigated for a wide range of toluene concentrations (0.29-3.8 g m-3) and
      operated for 54 days effectively. Elimination capacity of 93 g m-3 h-1 was
      recorded as maximum value at a toluene inlet concentration of 114 g m-3 h-1. An
      elimination capacity was perpetually better at the lower section of the
      biofilter, and therefore, the value was around 40-60 g m-3 h-1. The high removal
      efficiency of 97% was obtained at inlet toluene load of 60.55 g m-3 h-1. Hence,
      the biofilm was quite sensitive to handling transient loading conditions. The
      pressure drop had no vital impact on the biofilter performance. An Ottengraf
      model was applied to all phase of biofilter operation in each of the diffusion
      limiting region and reaction limiting region. The parameters of the model K 1
      (75.95 g1/2 m-3/2 h-1) and K 0 (90.51 g m-3 h-1) were obtained from diffusion and
      reaction limiting region severally. However, K 1 was used to calculate the
      theoretical elimination capacities, and therefore, K 0 was used to discover the
      biofilm thickness. By the way, the average biofilm thickness was found to be 0.98
      mm from reaction limiting region.

PMID- 28871336
TI  - Zoledronate dysregulates fatty acid metabolism in renal tubular epithelial cells
      to induce nephrotoxicity.
AB  - Zoledronate is a bisphosphonate that is widely used in the treatment of metabolic
      bone diseases. However, zoledronate induces significant nephrotoxicity associated
      with acute tubular necrosis and renal fibrosis when administered intravenously.
      There is speculation that zoledronate-induced nephrotoxicity may result from its
      pharmacological activity as an inhibitor of the mevalonate pathway but the
      molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. In this report, human proximal
      tubular HK-2 cells and mouse models were combined to dissect the molecular
      pathways underlying nephropathy caused by zoledronate treatments. Metabolomic and
      proteomic assays revealed that multiple cellular processes were significantly
      disrupted, including the TGFbeta pathway, fatty acid metabolism and small GTPase
      signaling in zoledronate-treated HK-2 cells (50 MUM) as compared with those in
      controls. Zoledronate treatments in cells (50 MUM) and mice (3 mg/kg) increased
      TGFbeta/Smad3 pathway activation to induce fibrosis and kidney injury, and
      specifically elevated lipid accumulation and expression of fibrotic proteins.
      Conversely, fatty acid transport protein Slc27a2 deficiency or co-administration
      of PPARA agonist fenofibrate (20 mg/kg) prevented zoledronate-induced lipid
      accumulation and kidney fibrosis in mice, indicating that over-expression of
      fatty acid transporter SLC27A2 and defective fatty acid beta-oxidation following
      zoledronate treatments were significant factors contributing to its
      nephrotoxicity. These pharmacological and genetic studies provide an important
      mechanistic insight into zoledronate-associated kidney toxicity that will aid in
      development of therapeutic prevention and treatment options for this nephropathy.

PMID- 28871337
TI  - Clinical Course of Partial Virologic Response with Prolonged Tenofovir Therapy in
      Nuclos(t)ides-Naive Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The clinical course of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with
      partial virologic response (PVR) during tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF)
      therapy remains unclear. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the long-term
      clinical outcomes of TDF treatment in nucleos(t)ides-naive CHB patients,
      particularly in those with PVR. RESULTS: A total of 391 patients treated with TDF
      therapy for more than 12 months were included. Virologic response (VR) was
      achieved in 341 patients (87.2%). PVR was evident in 127 (45.3%) of the 391
      patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis using selected baseline
      factors identified absolute HBV DNA levels at baseline (OR 0.496; 95% CI 1.369
      1.969) and HBeAg positivity (OR 0.622; 95% CI 1.096-3.167) as factors
      significantly associated with PVR. During continuous prolonged TDF therapy, 127
      (71.8%) of 177 patients with PVR achieved VR. The cumulative rates of VR in
      patients with PVR at 12, 24, and 36 months were 42.4, 79.7, and 90.2%,
      respectively. Serum HBV DNA level at week 24 was significantly associated with VR
      in patients with PVR. CONCLUSIONS: The vast majority of CHB patients with PVR
      achieved VR through prolonged TDF therapy, although the time to achieve VR was
      delayed in those with PVR. This suggests that adjustment of TDF therapy in
      patients with PVR is unnecessary.

PMID- 28871338
TI  - Comparison of the effectiveness on intra-articular and subcutaneous TNF inhibitor
      in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
AB  - The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of single intra-articular
      (IA) injection of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) inhibitor in knee joints
      comparing with subcutaneous injection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
      Forty-eight RA patients with 73 knee arthritis were divided into three groups,
      group A: received a single injection of TNF inhibitor into knee joints; group B:
      received regular subcutaneous injection; and group C: received both of the
      regimen as groups A and B. Ultrasound, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive
      protein (CRP), patients' global visual analogue scale (VAS), and 28-joint Disease
      Activity Score (DAS28) were collected pre- and post-therapy 4 weeks. The results
      of the study are as follows: (1) CRP, VAS, and DAS28 of all groups improved
      significantly post-therapy (p < 0.05); (2) After therapy, synovial hypertrophy
      (SH) decreased significantly from 4.40 +/- 1.86 mm to 2.74 +/- 1.88 mm (p < 0.05)
      and power Doppler (PD) signal decreased significantly from 2.63 +/- 0.75 to 1.50
      +/- 0.93 (p < 0.01) in group A. Synovial effusion (SE), SH, and PD showed no
      significant improvement in group B. SE decreased significantly from 9.84 +/- 4.70
      mm to 5.89 +/- 4.47 mm (p < 0.05), SH decreased significantly from 4.52 +/- 1.97
      mm to 2.49 +/- 1.73 mm (p < 0.01), and PD decreased significantly from 2.46 +/-
      0.66 to 1.38 +/- 1.04 (p < 0.01) in group C; and (3) The improvement rate of SH
      and PD in both groups A and C was obviously higher than that of group B (p <
      0.05). Single IA injection of TNFalpha inhibitor was an effective treatment in
      improvement of SH and PD of knee joints than subcutaneous injection in RA
      patients.

PMID- 28871339
TI  - Recruitment strategies in efferent sympathetic nerve activity.
AB  - In 1968, the first reported microneurographic recordings of muscle sympathetic
      nerve activity (MSNA) in humans revealed the bursty behavior of efferent
      sympathetic nerve activity. The timing of bursts could be explained by baroreflex
      physiology, but the variability in size of each burst was left unexplained. On
      the basis of shorter latencies of larger bursts, Wallin's group [53] proposed the
      existence of variable supraspinal synaptic delays and/or options for recruitment
      of faster-conducting sympathetic neurons when bursts become stronger. These
      options represent features of recruitable neural systems. Based on the highly
      variable latencies of single axons whose firing patterns could not explain
      reflexive increases in burst size, the concept of a latent subpopulation of
      sympathetic axons was speculated to exist. Using evidence from experimental
      preparations in anesthetized smaller animals, to recent signal processing of
      multi-fiber recordings in humans, this brief review will discuss the attempts to
      discover and understand recruitment strategies within the peripheral sympathetic
      nervous system. The review focuses on new information from human recordings
      supporting the idea that rate coding, population coding (recruitment), and
      temporal coding are options available within the peripheral sympathetic nervous
      system to adjust efferent sympathetic outflow. Although data are limited,
      possible clinical applications are discussed.

PMID- 28871340
TI  - PhzA, the shunt switch of phenazine-1,6-dicarboxylic acid biosynthesis in
      Pseudomonas chlororaphis HT66.
AB  - Natural phenazines are versatile secondary metabolites that are mainly produced
      by Pseudomonas and Streptomyces. All phenazine-type metabolites originate from
      two precursors: phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) in Pseudomonas or phenazine-1,6
      dicarboxylic acid (PDC) in Streptomyces and other bacteria. Although the
      biosynthesis of PCA in Pseudomonas has been extensively studied, the origin of
      PDC still remains unclear. Comparing the phenazine biosynthesis operons of
      different species, we found that the phzA gene was restricted to Pseudomonas in
      which PCA is produced. By generating phzA-inactivated mutant, we found a new
      compound obviously accumulated; it was then isolated and identified as PDC.
      Protein sequence alignment showed that PhzA proteins from Pseudomonas form a
      separate group that is recognized by H73L and S77L mutations. Generating
      mutations of L73 into H73 and L77 into S77 resulted in a significant increase in
      PDC production. These findings suggest that phzA may act as a shunt switch of PDC
      biosynthesis in Pseudomonas and distinguish the pathway producing only PCA from
      the pathway forming PCA plus PDC. Using real-time PCR analysis, we suggested that
      the phzA, phzB, and phzG genes either directly or indirectly regulate the
      production of PDC, and phzA plays the most significant regulatory role. This is
      the first description of phzA in the biosynthesis of PDC, and the first-time
      substantial PDC was obtained in Pseudomonas. Therefore, this study not only
      provides valuable clues to better understand the biosynthesis of PCA and PDC in
      Pseudomonas but also introduces a method to produce PDC derivatives by
      genetically engineered strains.

PMID- 28871341
TI  - [Initial management of traumatic ventral shoulder dislocation].
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the current literature a consensus on the specific management of
      primary anterior traumatic shoulder instability has not been reached. While the
      steps of the initial diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are mostly well
      defined, a variety of factors need to be considered for the planning of further
      treatment. OBJECTIVE: This article aims at giving an overview of the essential
      aspects of the initial management in the rescue center, clinical and radiological
      diagnostic procedures and the subsequent treatment options. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      The content of this article is based on our own clinical experiences in
      combination with a systematic literature search for relevant clinical and
      baseline studies. RESULTS: Besides a detailed anamnesis and clinical examination,
      X-rays in two planes are important for the diagnosis. Potential nerve injuries or
      fractures need to be borne in mind before and after reduction of the joint and
      documented accordingly. The Matsen's maneuver can be recommended as it enables a
      careful repositioning. In rare cases of an irreducible shoulder dislocation due
      to soft tissue or bony articular interpositions, an open reduction might be
      necessary. Further therapeutic concepts should be adapted to patient age,
      activity level and accompanying pathologies, which determine the risk of a
      recurrent dislocation. A surgical approach for stabilization of the shoulder is
      highly recommended in cases of concomitant bony defects as well as in young and
      physically active patients. CONCLUSION: A well-structured treatment plan is
      essential for the initial management of primary anterior traumatic shoulder
      instability. A generally applicable algorithm for further management is not yet
      established. The treatment should therefore be individually planned based on
      patient-specific characteristics.

PMID- 28871343
TI  - Three steps and a join: a simple guide to right- and left-sided medial to lateral
      laparoscopic colorectal surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To provide a standardised 'medial to lateral' approach to
      laparoscopic colorectal surgery. METHODS: Both right- and left- sided
      laparoscopic colorectal procedures were simplified into three well-defined steps
      and a join. An instructional video and procedural guide provides the important
      pearls and pitfalls in performing laparoscopic colorectal surgery. RESULTS:
      During a 10-year period (2006-2016) at a single institution, 20 senior colorectal
      trainee surgeons and 20 general surgery registrars were trained in the 'three
      steps and a join' technique. Five hundred and sixty-eight laparoscopic anterior
      resections using this technique were performed. There were 5 (0.9%) leaks. Five
      hundred and forty-three laparoscopic right-sided resections were performed. There
      were 3 (0.6%) anastomotic leaks requiring reoperation and loop ileostomy.
      CONCLUSIONS: This step-by-step instructional video and procedural guide provides
      a simple and standardised approach which may be incorporated into a training
      pathway for laparoscopic right- and left-sided colorectal surgery.

PMID- 28871342
TI  - A systematic review of publications on charged particle therapy for
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Charged particle therapy (proton beam therapy and carbon ion therapy) is a form
      of radiotherapy which has the unique characteristic of superior depth dose
      distribution, and has been used for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) in a limited number of patients, especially in Japan. We undertook a
      systematic review to define the clinical utility of charged particle therapy for
      patients with HCC. We searched the MEDLINE database from 1983 to June 2016 to
      identify clinical studies on charged particle therapy for HCC. Primary outcomes
      of interest were local control, overall survival, and late radiation morbidities.
      A total of 13 cohorts from 11 papers were selected from an initial dataset of 78
      papers. They included a randomized controlled trial comparing proton beam therapy
      with transarterial chemoembolization, 9 phase I or II trials and 2 retrospective
      studies. The reported actuarial local control rates ranged from 71.4-95% at 3
      years, and the overall survival rates ranged from 25-42.3% at 5 years. Late
      severe radiation morbidities were uncommon, and a total of 18 patients with grade
      >=3 late adverse events were reported among the 787 patients included in this
      analysis. Charged particle therapy for HCC was associated with good local control
      with limited probability of severe morbidities. The cost-effectiveness and the
      distinctive clinical advantages of charged particle therapies should be clarified
      in order to become a socially accepted treatment modality for HCC.

PMID- 28871344
TI  - Tubal ligation and ovarian cancer risk in African American women.
AB  - PURPOSE: Tubal ligation has been associated with reduced risk of epithelial
      ovarian cancer (EOC) in studies of primarily white women, but less is known about
      the association in African American (AA) women. We sought to evaluate the
      associations among 597 invasive ovarian cancer cases and 742 controls of AA
      descent recruited from the African American Cancer Epidemiology Study, a
      population-based case-control study in 11 geographical areas in the US. METHODS:
      Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR)
      and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for potentially confounding factors.
      RESULTS: An inverse association between tubal ligation and EOC was observed that
      was not statistically significant (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.68-1.14). However, an
      inverse association with EOC risk was observed among women who had a tubal
      ligation at age 35 years or older (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.41-0.98), but not among
      those who had a tubal ligation before age 35 (OR 0.98; 95% CI 0.74-1.29) (p for
      interaction = 0.08). The association also varied considerably by tumor subtype. A
      strong inverse association was observed for endometrioid tumors (OR 0.31, 95% CI
      0.14-0.70), whereas associations with mucinous (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.36-2.12) and
      serous (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.71-1.24) tumors were weaker and not statistically
      significant. A statistically non-significant positive association for clear cell
      tumors (OR 1.84, 95% CI 0.58-5.82) was based on a low number of cases.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that tubal ligation may confer a reduced risk for
      EOC among AA women that is comparable to the associations that have been
      previously observed in primarily white populations.

PMID- 28871345
TI  - Expose: Different Faces of a Bleeding Giant Duodenal Ulcer.

PMID- 28871346
TI  - [Differential diagnosis of dissociative seizures].
AB  - Patient history taking and semiology provide seminal clues to the diagnosis of
      dissociative seizures. Openness and alertness of the treating physician are
      essential. Video-electroencephalogram(EEG)-based analyses of the events are
      crucial to establish the correct diagnosis, particularly in complex cases. The
      patient-doctor relationship is of particular importance in order to successfully
      motivate the patient for psychotherapeutic treatment. Coexisting psychiatric
      morbidity as well as other functional somatic symptoms must be actively explored.
      Current changes in the established diagnostic manuals, including ICD-11, reflect
      the ongoing vivid interest and controversial discussions in the field of
      dissociative disorders.

PMID- 28871347
TI  - [Meta-analysis of adjuvant therapy for periampullary adenocarcinoma].

PMID- 28871349
TI  - Recent Insights into Pharmacologic Cardiovascular Risk Reduction in Type 2
      Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus (DM) affects nearly 30 million Americans and carries an
      increased risk of macrovascular complications of myocardial infarction, stroke,
      and cardiovascular death. While aggressive cardiovascular risk factor reduction
      has long been advocated in patients with diabetes, clinical trials have only
      recently demonstrated that such reductions result in improved outcomes. This
      review discusses recent evidence for risk reduction strategies and therapies with
      a focus on the management of glycemia, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Although
      the degree to which aggressive glycated hemoglobin reduction decreases the risk
      of macrovascular outcomes remains unclear, the use of specific agents, such as
      the newer sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors and glucagon-like
      peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, may reduce cardiovascular events in patients with
      diabetes, irrespective of glycated hemoglobin reduction. Statins have been the
      mainstay of dyslipidemia management, with recent guidelines recommending statin
      use in all patients aged 40-75 years with diabetes. There is an emerging role for
      the recently developed proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9)
      inhibitors in diabetes, as these agents further reduce serum cholesterol and
      clinical cardiovascular events beyond the maximum tolerated statin therapy.
      Lastly, most evidence suggests that aggressive blood pressure lowering in
      diabetic patients with hypertension reduces macrovascular events. Recent studies
      have re-affirmed a goal blood pressure of 140/90, and a lower pressure is likely
      prudent in most patients with diabetes. Specifically, angiotensin-converting
      enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may reduce
      cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes beyond their blood pressure
      lowering effect. In conclusion, there is a growing literature which shows that
      the risk of cardiovascular outcomes can be reduced in most patients with
      diabetes, as outlined in this review.

PMID- 28871348
TI  - Characterization of complex flow patterns in the ascending aorta in patients with
      aortic regurgitation using conventional phase-contrast velocity MRI.
AB  - Ascending aorta (AA) flow displacement (FD) is a surrogate for increased wall
      shear stress. We prospectively studied the flow profile in the AA in patients
      with aortic regurgitation (AR), to identify predictors of FD and investigate
      whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phase-contrast flow rate curves (PC-FRC)
      contain quantitative information related to FD. Forty patients with chronic
      moderate (n = 14) or severe (n = 26) AR (21 (53%) with bicuspid aortic valve) and
      22 controls were investigated. FD was determined from phase-contrast velocity
      profiles and defined as the distance between the center of the lumen and the
      "center of velocity" of the peak systolic forward flow or the peak diastolic
      negative flow, normalized to the lumen radius. Forward and backward volume flow
      was determined separately for systole and diastole. Seventy percent had systolic
      backward flow and 45% had diastolic forward flow in large areas of the vessel. AA
      dimension was an independent predictor of systolic FD while AA dimension and
      regurgitant volume were independent predictors of diastolic FD. Valve phenotype
      was not an independent predictor of systolic or diastolic FD. The linear
      relationships between systolic backward flow and systolic FD and diastolic
      forward flow and diastolic FD were strong (R = 0.77 and R = 0.76 respectively).
      Systolic backward flow and diastolic forward flow identified marked systolic and
      diastolic FD (>=0.35) with a positive likelihood ratio of 6.0 and 10.8,
      respectively. In conclusion, conventional PC-FRC data can detect and quantify FD
      in patients with AR suggesting the curves as a research and screening tool in
      larger patient populations.

PMID- 28871350
TI  - [Approach to liver, spleen and pancreatic injuries including damage control
      surgery of terrorist attacks].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Terrorist attacks have outreached to Europe with more and more
      attacks on civilians. Derived from war surgery experience and from lessons
      learned from major incidents, it seems mandatory for every surgeon to improve
      understanding of the special circumstances of trauma following a terrorist attack
      and its' management. METHOD: A short literature review is followed by outlining
      the damage control surgery (DCS) principle for each organ system with practical
      comments from the perspective of a specialized hepatobiliary (HPB) surgery unit.
      CONCLUSION: Every surgeon has to become familiar with the new entities of blast
      injuries and terrorist attack trauma. This concerns not only the medical
      treatment but also tailoring surgical treatment with a view to a lack of critical
      resources under these circumstances. For liver and pancreatic trauma, simple
      treatment strategies are a key to success.

PMID- 28871351
TI  - Beyond colour: consistent variation in near infrared and solar reflectivity in
      sunbirds (Nectariniidae).
AB  - The visible spectrum represents a fraction of the sun's radiation, a large
      portion of which is within the near infrared (NIR). However, wavelengths outside
      of the visible spectrum that are reflected by coloured tissues have rarely been
      considered, despite their potential significance to thermal effects. Here, we
      report the reflectivity from 300 to 2100 nm of differently coloured feathers. We
      measured reflectivity across the UV-Vis-NIR spectra of different (a) body parts,
      (b) colour-producing mechanisms and (c) sexes for 252 individuals of 68 sunbird
      (family: Nectariniidae) species. Breast plumage was the most reflective and cap
      plumage the least. Female plumage had greater reflectivity than males. Carotenoid
      based colours had the greatest reflectivity, followed by non-iridescent and
      iridescent melanin-based colours. As ordered arrays of melanin-filled organelles
      (melanosomes) produce iridescent colours, this suggests that nanostructuring may
      affect reflectance across the spectrum. Our results indicate that differently
      coloured feathers consistently vary in their thermal, as well as obvious visual,
      properties.

PMID- 28871353
TI  - Study of polyamide thin film characteristics impact on permeability/selectivity
      performance and fouling behavior of forward osmosis membrane.
AB  - In recent years, forward osmosis (FO) has received considerable attention due to
      its huge potentials in water desalination. The thin film composite (TFC) membrane
      used in the FO desalination consists of a bottom support layer covered by an
      active layer on top. Polyamide (PA) is commonly employed as an active layer
      forming via interfacial polymerization between m-phenylenediamine (MPD) and
      trimesoyl chloride (TMC) monomers. In this study, the effects that the MPD and
      TMC concentrations could have on the performance and anti-fouling behavior of the
      obtained FO membrane have been investigated. Results showed that there is a trade
      off relationship between the water flux and salt rejection, which by increasing
      MPD concentration, the water flux was reduced? while the salt rejection was
      enhanced. Also, by increasing the TMC concentration, an opposite trend was
      observed. Using 0.20 wt.% of TMC monomer, the highest water fluxes of 21.6 LMH
      and 29.3 LMH were achieved in two different membrane configurations. Furthermore,
      higher TMC concentration caused better anti-fouling property, when PA active
      layer of the membrane was in a high fouling potential environment.

PMID- 28871352
TI  - Co-operative intra-protein structural response due to protein-protein
      complexation revealed through thermodynamic quantification: study of MDM2-p53
      binding.
AB  - The p53 protein activation protects the organism from propagation of cells with
      damaged DNA having oncogenic mutations. In normal cells, activity of p53 is
      controlled by interaction with MDM2. The well understood p53-MDM2 interaction
      facilitates design of ligands that could potentially disrupt or prevent the
      complexation owing to its emergence as an important objective for cancer therapy.
      However, thermodynamic quantification of the p53-peptide induced structural
      changes of the MDM2-protein remains an area to be explored. This study attempts
      to understand the conformational free energy and entropy costs due to this
      complex formation from the histograms of dihedral angles generated from molecular
      dynamics simulations. Residue-specific quantification illustrates that,
      hydrophobic residues of the protein contribute maximum to the conformational
      thermodynamic changes. Thermodynamic quantification of structural changes of the
      protein unfold the fact that, p53 binding provides a source of inter-element
      cooperativity among the protein secondary structural elements, where the highest
      affected structural elements (alpha2 and alpha4) found at the binding site of the
      protein affects faraway structural elements (beta1 and Loop1) of the protein. The
      communication perhaps involves water mediated hydrogen bonded network formation.
      Further, we infer that in inhibitory F19A mutation of P53, though Phe19 is
      important in the recognition process, it has less prominent contribution in the
      stability of the complex. Collectively, this study provides vivid microscopic
      understanding of the interaction within the protein complex along with exploring
      mutation sites, which will contribute further to engineer the protein function
      and binding affinity.

PMID- 28871354
TI  - Putting POP-Q to the test: does C - D = cervical length?
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: We investigated the correlation between calculated
      cervical length (CCL) and gross specimen cervical length (GCL) after total
      vaginal hysterectomy (TVH) at the time of surgery for pelvic organ prolapse
      (POP). METHODS: This was a retrospective chart review of patients who had
      undergone TVH with reconstructive surgery for POP between 2013 and 2015. Patients
      without an intact specimen or documented cervical length in the pathology report
      were excluded. CCL was defined as the absolute difference between Pelvic Organ
      Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) points C and D. GCL was obtained from the
      pathology report as the distance from the external to the internal os. The Bland
      Altman method was used to assess the accuracy of POP-Q measurements with a priori
      ranges. Symptom severity was evaluated using the PFDI-20 questionnaire. Analysis
      of variance was used to model both GCL and CCL as a function of prolapse stage
      and the leading compartment. RESULTS: The final analysis included 202 subjects.
      Of the CCL measurements, 56.93% were within +/-2 cm of GCL, while 36.14% were
      within +/-1 cm. POP stage was significantly associated with GCL (P < 0.0024). CCL
      was significantly longer in patients with stage 4 POP (3.57 cm, 95% CI 3.13-4.00)
      than in those with stage 2 POP (P < 0.0017; mean 2.68 cm, 95% CI 2.45-2.92) and
      stage 3 POP (P < 0.0300; mean 2.94 cm, 95% CI 2.73-3.15). There were no
      significant correlations between PFDI scores and CCL or GCL. CONCLUSIONS: The
      agreement between POP-Q CCL (|C - D|) and GCL decreases with increasing POP-Q
      stage. There was no correlation between POP symptom severity and GCL or CCL. GCL
      significantly increased with increasing POP stage.

PMID- 28871355
TI  - Negative Mood States or Dysfunctional Cognitions: Their Independent and
      Interactional Effects in Influencing Severity of Gambling Among Chinese Problem
      Gamblers in Hong Kong.
AB  - Gambling-related cognitions and negative psychological states have been proposed
      as major factors in the initiation and maintenance of problem gambling (PG).
      While there are a substantial number of studies supporting the role of cognitive
      dysfunctions in the initiation and maintenance of PG, very few empirical studies
      have explored the specific role of negative psychological states in influencing
      PG behaviours. In addition, very few studies have examined the interaction
      effects of cognitive dysfunctions and negative psychological states in exerting
      influence on PG behaviours. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the main
      and interaction effects of gambling-related cognitions and psychological states
      on the gambling severity among a group of problem gamblers in Hong Kong. A cross
      sectional research design was adopted. A purposive sample of 177 problem gamblers
      who sought treatment from a social service organization in Hong Kong completed a
      battery of standardised questionnaires. While gambling-related cognitions were
      found to exert significant effects on gambling severity, negative psychological
      states (i.e. stress) significantly moderated the relationship between gambling
      cognitions and gambling severity. In essence, those participants who reported a
      higher level of stress had more stable and serious gambling problems than those
      who reported a lower level of stress irrespective of the level of gambling
      related cognitions. The findings of the moderating role of negative emotions in
      the relationship between cognitive distortions and severity of gambling provide
      insight towards developing an integrated intervention model which includes both
      cognitive-behavioural and emotion regulation strategies in helping people with
      PG.

PMID- 28871356
TI  - The importance of a full thickness vaginal wall dissection. Comment on
      "Transvaginal mesh: a historical review and update of the current state of
      affairs in the United States".

PMID- 28871357
TI  - [Immunotherapy as modern tumor treatment].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The specific immune system is capable of preventing the development
      of tumor diseases and stimulation of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes can repress existing
      tumors. The activation of T-lymphocytes is influenced by a new class of antibody
      based medication, the immune checkpoint inhibitors. METHODS: Review of the
      scientific background and the published clinical trials on the activity and
      approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors for various tumor diseases. RESULTS:
      Immune checkpoint inhibitors function by activating T-lymphocytes during the
      priming (CTLA4) or effector phase (PDL1/PD1). Activated tumor-specific T
      lymphocytes in turn can attack the tumor. For malignant melanoma, a combination
      of both checkpoint inhibitors is approved and achieves response rates of 60%. The
      PD1 inhibitors are active against non-small cell lung cancer achieving a
      progression-free survival (PFS) of 12 months and a survival rate of 60% at 24
      months. For renal cell cancer and bladder cancer response rates to PD-1
      inhibitors of approximately 25% and an improvement in overall survival (OS) up to
      4 months compared to previous standard therapies have been reported. CONCLUSION:
      Immune checkpoint inhibitors are active against a number of tumors. In some
      cases, such as malignant melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer, the response
      rates are impressive and exceed those achieved with conventional chemotherapies.
      Future combinations with other treatment modalities, such as chemotherapy and
      radiotherapy may further improve the response rates.

PMID- 28871358
TI  - Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) and adherence to antiemetic
      guidelines: results of a survey of oncology nurses.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) can be prevented in most
      patients with use of guideline-recommended antiemetic regimens. However, studies
      have suggested that adherence to antiemetic guidelines is suboptimal. Oncology
      nurses, as part of a multidisciplinary team, can help promote appropriate
      antiemetic prophylaxis. Therefore, nurses were surveyed to assess antiemetic
      guideline awareness and practice patterns of antiemetic use, determine adherence
      to guideline recommendations, and query barriers to adherence. METHODS: In
      September 2015, 531 US-based oncology nurses participated in an online survey
      administered and analyzed by ONS:Edge. RESULTS: Nurses were most familiar with
      National Comprehensive Cancer Network (73%) and American Society of Clinical
      Oncology (48%) antiemetic guidelines. While most (77%) felt that antiemetics
      prescribed were consistent with guideline recommendations, practice patterns of
      antiemetic use revealed low adherence to those guidelines, particularly during
      the delayed (25-120 h) phase following highly emetogenic chemotherapy, where only
      25% of nurses reported administration of guideline-recommended agents.
      Overutilization of phenothiazines and benzodiazepines was common. Only 17% of
      respondents reported that most (> 75%) of their patients have CINV optimally
      controlled; 39% reported between 6 and 20% of patients have an alteration in
      their chemotherapy due to CINV, and reports of emergency department/hospital
      visits due to poorly controlled CINV were high. The predominant barrier
      interfering guideline-recommended antiemetic prophylaxis was reported as
      physician preference (71%). CONCLUSIONS: This survey revealed an opportunity to
      increase awareness of antiemetic guidelines and a critical need to address
      barriers interfering with utilization of guideline-recommended antiemetic agents
      in order to optimize CINV control for patients undergoing emetogenic
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28871359
TI  - [Indications and strategies in mechanical circulatory support : Rise of the
      machines?]
AB  - Terminal heart failure is an emerging problem with a continuously growing number
      of diseased patients worldwide. Because of the limited number of donor hearts,
      mechanical circulatory support is increasingly becoming an integral part of
      surgical treatment for end-stage heart failure, especially in patients deemed for
      destination therapy. Accurate patient selection, appropriate indication, and the
      optimal implantation time point guarantee a good outcome for these patients. This
      review article gives a systematic overview of the possible indication settings
      and treatment strategies for various patient groups in need of mechanical
      circulatory support.

PMID- 28871360
TI  - The AES total ankle arthroplasty analysis of failures and survivorship at ten
      years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: AES mobile-bearing total ankle replacement was developed from the
      Buechel Pappas model. It was withdrawn in 2009, after identification of a higher
      than expected complication rate. The purpose of the current study was to analyse
      clinical outcomes, failures and survival of the initial series of 50 AES
      published in 2009. METHODS: In this single-centre continuous prospective study
      (2003-2006), 50 AES prostheses were included. Pre-operative osteoarthritis was
      mainly post-traumatic (50%) and secondary to instability (36%). All patients were
      assessed with clinical and radiographic follow-up at six months, one year, two
      years and every two to three years thereafter. A CT-scan was systematically
      performed before procedure, and at two years, five years and ten years. At last
      follow-up, all patients with TAR had a functional (SF 36, AOFAS) and clinical
      assessment. All complications or surgical events were analysed. RESULTS: The mean
      follow-up was ten +/- two years (range, 9-13). The mean AOFAS score was 75 points
      (range, 26-100). The mean SF 36 score was 69 points (range, 35-97). There was a
      significant deterioration in AOFAS score at five years and at last follow-up (p <
      0.05). Fifteen TARs underwent reoperation for cyst curettage-graft because of
      development of periprosthetic lesions. Six of them ended up with prosthesis
      removal-arthrodesis. At the last follow-up, 14 TARs were removed for arthrodesis.
      Of the 30 prostheses seen at last follow-up, four are awaiting prosthesis removal
      arthrodesis and one for cyst curettage-graft. The ten year survivorships free of
      any prosthesis removal or arthrodesis and free of any reoperation were 68% (95%
      CI, 55-85) and 57% (95% CI, 44-74), respectively. CONCLUSION: Our data suggested
      a high rate of reoperation. Overall ten year survival was lower than with other
      designs, particularly due to cyst lesions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV,
      prospective case series.

PMID- 28871361
TI  - Are Negative Peer Influences Domain Specific? Examining the Influence of Peers
      and Parents on Externalizing and Drug Use Behaviors.
AB  - Most studies tend to characterize peer influences as either positive or negative.
      In a sample of 1815 youth from 14 different schools in Caracas, Venezuela, we
      explored how two types of peer affiliations (i.e., deviant and drug-using peers)
      differentially mediated the paths from positive parenting to youth's
      externalizing behavior and licit and illicit drug use. We used Zero Inflated
      Poisson models to test the probability of use and the extent of use during the
      past 12 months. Results suggested that peer influences are domain specific among
      Venezuelan youth. That is, deviant peer affiliations mediated the path from
      positive parenting to youth externalizing behaviors, and peer drug-using
      affiliations mediated the paths to the drug use outcomes. Mediation effects were
      partial, suggesting that parenting explained unique variance in the outcomes
      after accounting for both peer variables, gender, and age. We discuss
      implications for the development of screening tools and for prevention
      interventions targeting adolescents from different cultures.

PMID- 28871362
TI  - Electrocardiographic Markers of Appropriate Implantable Cardioverter
      Defibrillator Therapy in Young People with Congenital Heart Diseases.
AB  - Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are increasingly utilized in
      patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Prediction of the occurrence of
      shocks is important if improved patient selection is desired. The
      electrocardiogram (ECG) has been the first-line tool predicting the risk of
      sudden death, but data in CHD patients are lacking. We aim to evaluate the
      predictive value of electrocardiographic markers of appropriate therapy of ICD in
      young people with CHD. We conducted a prospective, longitudinal study, in twenty
      six CHD patients (mean age 24.7 +/- 5.3 years) who underwent first ICD
      implantation. Forty-two age- and diagnosis-matched controls were recruited.
      Twelve-lead ECG and 24 h Holter analysis were performed during a mean follow-up
      of 38.9 months. Data included heart rate, heart rate variability, QRS duration
      (QRSd), QTc interval and its dispersion, Tpeak-Tend (Tp-Te) interval and its
      dispersion, presence of fragmented QRS (fQRS), T wave alternans, atrial
      arrhythmias, and non-sustained ventricular tachycardia. Implant indication was
      primary prevention in ten cases (38.5%) and secondary prevention in 16 (61.5%).
      Overall, 17 subjects (65.3%) received at least one appropriate and effective ICD
      discharge. fQRS was present in 64.7% of cases with ICD therapy compared with
      patients without events or controls (p < 0.0001). Tp-e and Tp-e dispersion were
      significantly prolonged in patients with recurrences (113.5 and 37.2 ms) versus
      patients without ICD discharge (89.6 and 24.1 ms) or controls (72.4 and 19.3 ms)
      (p < 0.0001 and p < 0.0001, respectively). On univariate Cox regression analysis
      QRSd (hazard ratio: 1.19 per ms, p = 0.003), QTc dispersion (hazard ratio: 1.57
      per ms, p = 0.002), fQRS (hazard ratio: 3.58 p < 0.0001), Tp-e (hazard ratio:
      2.27 per ms, p < 0.0001), and Tp-e dispersion (hazard ratio: 4.15 per ms, p <
      0.0001), emerged as strong predictors of outcome. On multivariate Cox analysis
      fQRS, Tp-e and Tp-e dispersion remained in the model. The presence of fQRS, and
      both Tp-e and Tp-e dispersion are useful ECG tools in daily clinical practice to
      identify CHD patients at risk for appropriate ICD therapy.

PMID- 28871363
TI  - A joint model of cancer incidence, metastasis, and mortality.
AB  - Many diseases, especially cancer, are not static, but rather can be summarized by
      a series of events or stages (e.g. diagnosis, remission, recurrence, metastasis,
      death). Most available methods to analyze multi-stage data ignore intermediate
      events and focus on the terminal event or consider (time to) multiple events as
      independent. Competing-risk or semi-competing-risk models are often deficient in
      describing the complex relationship between disease progression events which are
      driven by a shared progression stochastic process. A multi-stage model can only
      examine two stages at a time and thus fails to capture the effect of one stage on
      the time spent between other stages. Moreover, most models do not account for
      latent stages. We propose a semi-parametric joint model of diagnosis, latent
      metastasis, and cancer death and use nonparametric maximum likelihood to estimate
      covariate effects on the risks of intermediate events and death and the
      dependence between them. We illustrate the model with Monte Carlo simulations and
      analysis of real data on prostate cancer from the SEER database.

PMID- 28871364
TI  - Combined dexamethasone and desmopressin test in the differential diagnosis of
      ACTH-dependent Cushing's syndrome and pseudo-cushing's states.

PMID- 28871365
TI  - Immune profiling of melanoma tumors reflecting aggressiveness in a preclinical
      model.
AB  - Melanoma, like most solid tumors, is highly heterogeneous in terms of invasive,
      proliferative, and tumor-initiating potential. This heterogeneity is the outcome
      of differential gene expression resulting from conditions in the tumor
      microenvironment and the selective pressure of the immune system. To investigate
      possible signatures combining immune-related gene expression and lymphocyte
      infiltration, we established a preclinical model using B16.F1-derived clones, in
      the context of melanoma aggressiveness. Combinatorial analyses revealed that
      tumors concomitantly expressing low levels of Tnf-a, Pd-1, Il-10, Il-1ra, Ccl5,
      Ido, high Il-9, and with low infiltration by CD45+, CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells and
      a high CD4+:CD8+ T cell ratio exhibited the most aggressive growth
      characteristics. Overall, these results support the notion that the intratumoral
      immunologic network molds aggressive melanoma phenotypes.

PMID- 28871366
TI  - Predictors of Mortality in Children with Pulmonary Atresia with Intact
      Ventricular Septum.
AB  - Pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum (PA/IVS) is a rare cardiac
      congenital lesion characterized by imperforate pulmonary valve, intact
      ventricular septum, and atrial level shunt. Although different management
      strategies to establish a source of non-ductal dependent pulmonary blood flow
      have been described, studies have not assessed the relationship between the
      therapeutic approach, patient characteristics, and outcomes. The purpose of this
      study was to identify predictors of mortality for patients with PA/IVS. Neonates
      and children with PA/IVS were identified through analysis of the 2012 Kids'
      Inpatient Database of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Hospital
      admissions that included a cardiac catheterization and/or surgical procedure were
      analyzed to identify demographics, co-morbidities, and outcomes. We identified
      508 patients with PA/IVS with hospital admissions that included cardiac
      catheterization (n = 165), surgical procedures (n = 273), or both (n = 70). The
      incidence of mortality in this cohort was 6.69% (34/508). Univariable analysis
      demonstrated that age less than 12 months (p < 0.001), non-elective admission (p
      < 0.001), AKI (p = 0.001), sepsis (p = 0.002), and the use of ECMO (p < 0.001)
      were associated with an increased risk of mortality, while no difference was
      observed for the type of therapeutic approach (p = 0.498). These variables were
      used in a multivariable logistic regression analysis to develop the predictive
      model for mortality. Age less than 12 months, non-elective admission, and the use
      of ECMO in children with PA/IVS were predictors for mortality. Interestingly, the
      type of therapeutic approach did not influence mortality, which suggests that
      patient characteristics other than the method chosen to provide pulmonary blood
      flow determine mortality.

PMID- 28871367
TI  - Comment on "No superior treatment for primary osteochondral defects of the talus.
      Dahmen J, et al. KSSTA 2017 Jun 27 PMID:28656457".

PMID- 28871368
TI  - Infected multilocular hydrocephalus treated by rigid and flexible endoscopes with
      electromagnetic-guided neuronavigation: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic surgery assisted by a navigation system has greatly aided
      treatment of infected multilocular hydrocephalus, especially in children. CASE
      REPORT: We describe a 2-year-old boy with multilocular hydrocephalus caused by
      repeated shunt infection, presenting with fever and vomiting. Magnetic resonance
      images (MRI) showed extraventricular cysts and severe ventricular deformity.
      There were three ventriculoperitoneal shunts and one residual ventricular
      catheter. With a flexible endoscope, we fenestrated the wall of extraventricular
      cysts and removed the residual catheter. We then used a rigid endoscope to
      fenestrate ventricular components. Both procedures were guided by electromagnetic
      (EM) navigation, and hydrocephalus was controlled with one ventricular catheter.
      CONCLUSION: We have successfully treated a case suffered from infected
      multilocular hydrocephalus in infants using rigid and flexible endoscopes
      combined with EM navigation.

PMID- 28871369
TI  - Self-inflicted explosive death by intra-oral detonation of a firecracker: a case
      report.
AB  - Self-inflicted explosive deaths due to detonation of fireworks are rare. In this
      case report, a peculiar case of an elderly male who discharged a firecracker
      inside his mouth, resulting in fatal blast induced craniofacial injuries, is
      described. There is paucity of published data describing fireworks-related
      suicidal and/or non-suicidal deaths. Even scantier data is present specifically
      describing fireworks-related blast induced neurotrauma and the mechanism(s) of
      injury involved in such cases. This case report emphasizes the severe damage that
      a commercially available explosive, the so-called "Gorilla Bomb", can cause, and
      raises questions about the relative ease of its acquisition.

PMID- 28871370
TI  - [Palmar dislocation of the proximal interphalangeal joint and traumatic
      boutonniere deformity].
AB  - Injury to the central slip of the extensor tendon may occur with open and also
      with closed injuries, such as volar dislocation of the proximal interphalangeal
      (PIP) joint. For adequate treatment, it is necessary to identify all injured
      structures. Without appropriate primary management, the patient is likely to
      develop a subacute to chronic posttraumatic boutonniere deformity. A fixed
      boutonniere deformity requires recovery of joint mobility. Once joint mobility is
      achieved, secondary surgical reconstruction of the central slip can be performed
      with a tendon transfer or a tendon transplant.

PMID- 28871372
TI  - [Psychotherapy with older adults].

PMID- 28871371
TI  - Management of skin and subcutaneous tissue in complex open abdominal wall
      reconstruction.
AB  - PURPOSE: Open abdominal wall reconstruction is often a complex endeavor, usually
      performed on patients with multiple risk factors and co-morbidities. METHODS: In
      this article, we review soft tissue management techniques that can optimize the
      skin and subcutaneous tissue, with the goal of reducing surgical-site
      occurrences. RESULTS: Regardless of the hernia repair technique used, outcomes
      can be highly dependent on the appropriate management of the skin and
      subcutaneous tissue. Indeed, dehiscence and surgical-site infection can
      jeopardize the entire reconstruction, especially in cases where synthetic mesh
      might become exposed and/or infected, setting up a "vicious cycle" (Holihan et
      al. in J Am Coll Surg 221:478-485, 2015). CONCLUSION: Multidisciplinary
      cooperation between the general and plastic surgeon is useful in cases of tenuous
      blood supply to the abdominal skin, in cases of redundant, marginal or excessive
      skin, and in cases of deficient skin.

PMID- 28871373
TI  - [Acute and chronic heart failure].
AB  - The initial therapy of chronic heart failure is still based on diuretics,
      angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, beta-blockers and in specific
      cases mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. The new European Society of
      Cardiology (ESC) guidelines published in 2016 introduced angiotensin-receptor
      neprilysin inhibitors, such as sacubitril/valsartan (LCZ 696) as new therapeutic
      agents in patients with chronic and progressive heart failure. New subgroup
      analyses for LCZ 696 have been published showing a beneficial effect in the
      context of various comorbidities, such as renal insufficiency, diabetes and
      hypotension. Furthermore, new data are available on intravenous iron substitution
      in chronic heart failure and on the indications for implantable converter
      defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy and other cardiac devices.
      Medicinal therapy of acute heart failure is still limited. For patients who
      cannot be treated with medicinal therapy, mechanical circulatory support, such as
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) should be recommended.

PMID- 28871374
TI  - Clinical outcomes and radiosurgical considerations for pediatric arteriovenous
      malformation: influence of clinical features on obliteration rate.
AB  - PURPOSE: Gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) is an established treatment modality for
      brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM), but there have been few published studies
      examining the relationship between clinical features of AVM and successful
      obliteration with GKRS in pediatric patients. In the current study, we
      investigate the outcomes of GKRS for pediatric patients with brain AVM and
      analyze the variables that influence obliteration. METHODS: We analyzed 68
      pediatric patients (<= 18 years) with a mean follow-up period of 61.9 months
      (range 6-215 months). The following parameters were analyzed to determine their
      influence on obliteration of AVM treated by GKRS: age, sex, target volume,
      irradiation dose, prior treatment, location of AVM, nidus structure, velocity of
      AVM, location of venous drainage, number of feeding arteries, and initial
      presenting symptoms. Also, we estimated clinical factors which should be
      considered during the follow-up period. RESULTS: Of the 68 patients, complete
      obliteration was confirmed in 26 (38.2%) by cerebral angiography. The response
      rate of AVM for GKRS was 92.6%. No significant association was observed between
      any of the parameters investigated and the obliteration of AVM, with the
      exception of number of feeding arteries, which exhibited a statistically
      significant difference by univariate analysis (p = 0.003). However, on
      multivariate analysis, nidus structure (p = 0.007), velocity of the main arterial
      phase (p = 0.013), velocity of the feeding artery phase (p = 0.004), and the
      number of feeding arteries (p = 0.018) showed statistical significance.
      CONCLUSION: GKRS yielded good long-term clinical outcomes in most pediatric
      patients. Multiple arterial feeding vessels, diffuse nidus structure, and fast
      flow of AVM were specific factors associated with a low rate of obliteration in
      pediatric AVMs.

PMID- 28871375
TI  - Walter E. Dandy: his contributions to pituitary surgery in the context of the
      overall Johns Hopkins Hospital experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Walter E. Dandy (1886-1946) was an outstanding neurosurgeon who spent
      his entire career at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. After graduating from medical
      school in 1910, he completed a research fellowship in the Hunterian laboratory
      with Harvey Cushing and then joined the Department of Surgery as resident, rising
      to the rank professor in 1931. Dandy made several contributions that helped
      building the neurosurgical specialty, most famously the introduction of pneumo
      ventriculography to image brain lesions for which he received a Nobel prize
      nomination. He also performed many pituitary surgeries, although his role in this
      area is less known and overshadowed by that of Cushing's. PURPOSE: This
      retrospective cohort study was designed to unveil Dandy's pituitary work and
      place it in the context of the overall pituitary surgeries performed at the Johns
      Hopkins Hospital. METHODS: Pituitary surgery data were obtained by screening the
      paper and electronic surgical pathology records of the Department of Pathology,
      as well as the general operating room log books of the Johns Hopkins Hospital
      housed in the Chesney Medical Archives. RESULTS: A total of 3211 pituitary
      surgeries associated with a pathological specimen were performed between February
      1902 and July 2017 in 2847 patients. Most of the surgeries (2875 of 3211 89%)
      were done by 21 neurosurgeons. Dandy ranks 4th as number of surgeries, with 287
      pituitary operations in 35 years of activity. He averaged 8 pituitary surgeries
      per year, a rate that positions him 6th among all Hopkins neurosurgeons. With the
      exception of his first operation done in July 1912 while Cushing was still at
      Hopkins, Dandy approached the pituitary gland transcranially, rather than
      transphenoidally. The majority of Dandy's pituitary patients had a pathological
      diagnosis of pituitary adenomas, followed by craniopharyngiomas and sellar cysts.
      In the decades Dandy operated, pituitary surgeries represented 0.56% of the total
      Johns Hopkins surgeries, a percentage significantly greater (p < 0.001) than the
      0.1% observed in modern days. Dandy's pituitary clinical work was matched by
      important experimental studies done in the early stages of his career.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the role of Dandy as an important contributor
      to advance our understanding of pathophysiology and treatment of pituitary
      diseases.

PMID- 28871376
TI  - [Branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm - contra resection].
AB  - Due to improvements in imaging modalities the diagnosis of branch duct
      intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (BD-IPMN) has been significantly
      increased in recent years. A BD-IPMN is frequently diagnosed as an incidental
      finding in asymptomatic patients. The optimal management of BD-IPMN is the
      subject of controversial discussions. Numerous studies have shown that an
      individualized therapeutic strategy with a follow-up observation of most BD-IPMNs
      is feasible and safe, considering age, comorbidities and patient preference. An
      accurate evaluation of BD-IPMN with a detailed anamnesis, high-resolution imaging
      techniques and endoscopic ultrasound is necessary. Symptomatic patients as well
      as patients with so-called high-risk stigmata should undergo resection.
      Asymptomatic patients with so-called worrisome features can either undergo
      surveillance or surgical resection, taking age and comorbidities into account.
      For BD-IPMN patients without high-risk stigmata and worrisome features and
      showing no symptoms, surveillance of the pancreatic lesion is the preferred
      approach. The high prevalence of BD-IPMN, limitations in differential
      diagnostics, an overestimation of the risk of malignancy due to an
      overrepresentation of symptomatic and suspected BD-IPMN in resected cohorts, an
      overestimated role of BD-IPMN as precursor lesions for pancreatic carcinoma and
      evidence of the safety of follow-up surveillance, underline the enormous
      importance of surveillance. Based on this and considering the background of a
      notable mortality and morbidity of pancreatic surgery, aggressive management with
      prophylactic surgical resection is not justified for all BD-IPMN, in particular
      for low-risk lesions.

PMID- 28871378
TI  - [The usage of protective gloves for routine disinfection of patient contact areas
      : An anonymous survey of work doctors and hygienists (infection control nurses,
      link nurses and physicians)].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Disinfection, routinely carried out in healthcare facilities and
      known as "ongoing disinfection" or "untargeted disinfection", covers areas that
      are suspected of being contaminated with pathogen-containing material without
      being recognizable or visible in individual cases. The use of chemical resistant
      protective gloves is indispensable for surface disinfection. However, it is
      unclear if healthcare facilities set specific requirements regarding the
      selection and application of gloves. METHOD: The usage of protective gloves for
      routine disinfection of patient contact areas was assessed in an anonymous cross
      sectional study. Work doctors and hygienists (infection control nurses, link
      nurses and physicians) were queried by questionnaire. RESULTS: Disposable gloves
      were predominantly used, in most cases largely in accordance with EN 374. The
      most common glove material was nitrile. Glove change was mostly reported between
      rooms. Reprocessing of reusable gloves is inconsistent. Several professions are
      responsible for selecting protective gloves. CONCLUSIONS: Procedures for glove
      selection and application for disinfection of contact surfaces vary between the
      surveyed institutions. Therefore, more attention has to be paid to these three
      aspects in the future and these must be included in the hygiene plans.

PMID- 28871377
TI  - The maize CorA/MRS2/MGT-type Mg transporter, ZmMGT10, responses to magnesium
      deficiency and confers low magnesium tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: ZmMGT10 was specifically expressed in maize roots and induced by a
      deficiency of magnesium. Overexpression of ZmMGT10 restored growth deficiency of
      the Salmonella typhimurium MM281 strain and enhanced the tolerance in Arabidopsis
      to stress induced by low magnesium levels by increasing uptake of Mg2+ via roots.
      CorA/MRS2/MGT-type Mg2+ transporters play a significant role in maintaining
      magnesium (Mg) homeostasis in plants. Although the maize CorA/MRS2/MGT family
      comprises of 12 members, currently no member has been functionally characterized.
      Here, we report the isolation and functional characterization of ZmMGT10 from the
      maize MRS2/MGT gene family. ZmMGT10 has a typical structure feature which
      includes two conserved TMs near the C-terminal end and an altered AMN tripeptide
      motif. The high sequence similarity and close phylogenetic relationship indicates
      that ZmMGT10 is probably the counterpart of Arabidopsis AtMGT6. The
      complementation of the Salmonella typhimurium mutated MM281 strain indicates that
      ZmMGT10 possesses the ability to transport Mg2+. ZmMGT10 was specifically
      expressed in the plant roots and it can be stimulated by a deficiency of Mg.
      Transgenic Arabidopsis plants which overexpressed ZmMGT10 grew more vigorously
      than wild-type plants under low Mg conditions, exhibited by longer root length,
      higher plant fresh weight and chlorophyll content, suggesting ZmMGT10 was
      essential for plant growth and development under low Mg conditions. Further
      investigations found that high accumulation of Mg2+ occurred in transgenic plants
      attributed to improved Mg2+ uptake and thereby enhanced tolerance to Mg
      deficiency. Results from this investigation illustrate that ZmMGT10 is a Mg
      transporter of maize which can enhance the tolerance to Mg deficient conditions
      by improving Mg2+ uptake in the transgenic plants of Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28871380
TI  - MRI of anal canal: common anal and perianal disorders beyond fistulas: Part 2.
AB  - A broad spectrum of disease, from benign processes to life-threatening
      pathologies, can cause anal pain. MR imaging (MRI) has become increasingly widely
      used method over the past two decades for the evaluation of individuals with
      anorectal symptoms. Although imaging is rarely necessary to determine the
      etiology of the majority of cases, MRI is particularly useful as a noninvasive
      method of excluding severe neoplastic conditions. In this article, MRI findings
      of a number of pathologies such as anal and perianal neoplasms, hemorrhoidal
      disease, arteriovenous malformation of the perianal region, and anal sphincter
      lesions (defects, scarring, atrophy) which may lead to fecal incontinence are
      presented.

PMID- 28871379
TI  - Discrepancy between subjective and objective measures of cognitive impairment in
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - This study explored the discrepancy between perceived cognitive dysfunction and
      computerized neuropsychological test performance in Korean patients with RA.
      Individuals with RA were recruited by their rheumatologists during follow-up
      visits at one hospital in Korea. After getting signed consents, a trained
      research nurse assessed participants with a range of physical, psychosocial, and
      biological metrics. Subjective cognitive dysfunction was assessed using the
      Perceived Deficits Questionnaire (PDQ; range 0-20). Objective cognitive
      impairment was assessed using a set of 6 computerized neurocognitive tests
      yielding 12 indices covering a range of cognitive domains. Subjects were
      classified as 'impaired' if they performed 1 SD below age-based population norms
      on each test. A total cognitive function score was calculated by summing the
      transformed scores (range 0-12). Multiple linear regression analyses determined
      the relationship of total cognitive function score with PDQ score, controlling
      for disease activity, functional limitations, and psychological factors. Forty
      subjects (mean +/- SD age: 63.1 +/- 11.4 years) were included. Mean +/- SD scores
      of total cognitive function and PDQ were 7.3 +/- 2.7 (2-12) and 11.8 +/- 5.1 (5
      25), respectively. In multivariate analysis, there was no significant
      relationship between total cognitive function score and PDQ score. However,
      depression and sleep quality (beta = 0.37, p = 0.025; beta = 0.17, p = 0.034)
      were significantly associated with PDQ score. The findings emphasize the gap
      between subjective and objective measures of cognitive impairment and the
      importance of considering psychological factors within the context of cognitive
      complaints in clinical settings.

PMID- 28871381
TI  - N-Acetyl-L-cysteine protects thyroid cells against DNA damage induced by external
      and internal irradiation.
AB  - We evaluated the effect of the antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) on the
      levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA double strand breaks (DSB) and
      micronuclei (MN) induced by internal and external irradiation using a rat thyroid
      cell line PCCL3. In internal irradiation experiments, ROS and DSB levels
      increased immediately after 131I addition and then gradually declined, resulting
      in very high levels of MN at 24 and 48 h. NAC administration both pre- and also
      post-131I addition suppressed ROS, DSB and MN. In external irradiation
      experiments with a low dose (0.5 Gy), ROS and DSB increased shortly and could be
      prevented by NAC administration pre-, but not post-irradiation. In contrast,
      external irradiation with a high dose (5 Gy) increased ROS and DSB in a bimodal
      way: ROS and DSB levels increased immediately after irradiation, quickly returned
      to the basal levels and gradually rose again after >24 h. The second phase was in
      parallel with an increase in 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal. The number of MN induced by the
      second wave of ROS/DSB elevations was much higher than that by the first peak. In
      this situation, NAC administered pre- and post-irradiation comparably suppressed
      MN induced by a delayed ROS elevation. In conclusion, a prolonged ROS increase
      during internal irradiation and a delayed ROS increase after external irradiation
      with a high dose caused serious DNA damage, which were efficiently prevented by
      NAC. Thus, NAC administration even both after internal or external irradiation
      prevents ROS increase and eventual DNA damage.

PMID- 28871382
TI  - Beyond stroke-uncommon causes of diffusion restriction in the basal ganglia.
AB  - In the emergency setting, a regional area of restricted diffusion involving the
      basal ganglia typically represents an acute infarct due to small vessel
      occlusion. However, it is important to consider additional differentials,
      specifically systemic causes. This article will review anatomy of the basal
      ganglia and pertinent associated vasculature, followed by other entities that can
      be a cause of restricted diffusion. These include hemolytic uremic syndrome,
      hypereosinophilic syndrome, fat embolism, meningitis, and hypoxic-ischemic
      injury. It is important to recognize presenting findings in these conditions, as
      the radiologist may be the first to give an accurate diagnosis or prompt
      additional testing.

PMID- 28871383
TI  - Non-clostridial gas gangrene in a patient with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes
      mellitus on hemodialysis.

PMID- 28871384
TI  - "Back to the future": a historical perspective on the role of extra-articular
      reconstruction.

PMID- 28871385
TI  - Dynamic 3T pelvic floor magnetic resonance imaging in women progressing from the
      nulligravid to the primiparous state.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The objective was to prospectively characterize
      dynamic pelvic 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (dp3T MRI) findings in
      nulligravida women and characterize changes 6 months after delivery in the same
      woman. METHODS: In this prospective study, nulligravida women seeking assisted
      reproductive technology for pregnancy were recruited. After physical examination
      by Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q), Brink assessment and measures
      including the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory-20 and Pelvic Floor Impact
      Questionnaire-7, pre-pregnancy dp3T MRI at rest, with strain, and evacuation were
      performed. Assessments were repeated >=6 months postpartum. Analysis included
      Welch and paired t tests for continuous variables, Fisher's exact test for
      differences in categorical outcomes, and paired t tests for postpartum symptoms.
      RESULTS: Nineteen subjects (mean +/- SD age, 31 +/- 5 years) completed baseline
      clinical and dp3T MRI studies, 15 delivered and 10 (30.5 +/- 3 years) completed
      pre-pregnancy and post-delivery clinical and dp3T MRI assessments. There were no
      significant changes in scores of validated questionnaires (all p > 0.05) or on
      POP-Q measures post-delivery. Two (20%) subjects without pre-pregnancy levator
      tears had tears on MRI post-delivery. MRI measures of pelvic organ descent were
      increased post-delivery. Seventeen pelvic soft-tissue parameters increased by
      greater than 10% post-delivery, including 5 out of 70 (7.1%), 17 out of 110
      (15.5%), and 50 out of 110 (45.5%) values exceeding thresholds at rest, strain,
      and evacuation respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic pelvic 3T MRI detected levator
      tears and increased pelvic organ descent, which can be directly attributed to
      pregnancy and delivery.

PMID- 28871386
TI  - PMCT images of a motorcycle helmet-associated fracture.

PMID- 28871387
TI  - Lethal hypothermia - a sometimes elusive diagnosis.

PMID- 28871388
TI  - Long-term micturition problems of asymptomatic postpartum urinary retention: a
      prospective case-control study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Covert (asymptomatic) postpartum urinary retention
      (PUR) is defined as post-void residual volume (PVRV) >=150 mL. Although often
      supposed to be a common and harmless phenomenon, no data are available on the
      potential long-term micturition problems of increased PVRV after vaginal
      delivery. METHODS: After the first spontaneous void post-vaginal delivery, PVRV
      was measured using a portable scanning device. Micturition symptoms were compared
      using validated questionnaires between women with PVRV < 150 mL and those with
      PVRV >=150 mL until 1 year after delivery. Women with PVRV >= 150 mL were
      followed until complete bladder emptying was achieved. RESULTS: Data of 105
      patients with PVRV < 150 mL and 119 with PVRV >= 150 mL were available for
      analysis. 75% of all patients included had PVRV >= 250 mL. More primiparous
      patients had PVRV >= 150 mL (p < 0.02). 92% of women with PVRV >= 150 mL after
      delivery were able to adequately empty their bladder within 4 days. One year
      after delivery, no statistically significant differences were found. CONCLUSIONS:
      Covert PUR according to the definition of PVRV >= 150 mL, is a common and
      transient phenomenon that does not result in more lower urinary tract symptoms 1
      year after delivery. Although the current definition is not useful in identifying
      postpartum women with a pathological condition, we suggest that the definition of
      covert PUR should be change to: "PVRV>=500 mL after the first spontaneous void
      after (vaginal) delivery." This cut-off value is the value at which some women do
      need more time to normalise emptying of the bladder. The exact clinical
      implications of covert PUR need to be further studied in this subcategory of
      women.

PMID- 28871390
TI  - Exploring sets of molecules from patents and relationships to other active
      compounds in chemical space networks.
AB  - Patents from medicinal chemistry represent a rich source of novel compounds and
      activity data that appear only infrequently in the scientific literature.
      Moreover, patent information provides a primary focal point for drug discovery.
      Accordingly, text mining and image extraction approaches have become hot topics
      in patent analysis and repositories of patent data are being established. In this
      work, we have generated network representations using alternative similarity
      measures to systematically compare molecules from patents with other bioactive
      compounds, visualize similarity relationships, explore the chemical neighbourhood
      of patent molecules, and identify closely related compounds with different
      activities. The design of network representations that combine patent molecules
      and other bioactive compounds and view patent information in the context of
      current bioactive chemical space aids in the analysis of patents and further
      extends the use of molecular networks to explore structure-activity
      relationships.

PMID- 28871389
TI  - Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) translational studies in the hamster cheek
      pouch model of oral cancer at the new "B2" configuration of the RA-6 nuclear
      reactor.
AB  - Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on selective accumulation of B-10
      carriers in tumor followed by neutron irradiation. We demonstrated, in 2001, the
      therapeutic effect of BNCT mediated by BPA (boronophenylalanine) in the hamster
      cheek pouch model of oral cancer, at the RA-6 nuclear reactor. Between 2007 and
      2011, the RA-6 was upgraded, leading to an improvement in the performance of the
      BNCT beam (B2 configuration). Our aim was to evaluate BPA-BNCT radiotoxicity and
      tumor control in the hamster cheek pouch model of oral cancer at the new "B2"
      configuration. We also evaluated, for the first time in the oral cancer model,
      the radioprotective effect of histamine against mucositis in precancerous tissue
      as the dose-limiting tissue. Cancerized pouches were exposed to: BPA-BNCT; BPA
      BNCT + histamine; BO: Beam only; BO + histamine; CONTROL: cancerized, no
      treatment. BNCT induced severe mucositis, with an incidence that was slightly
      higher than in "B1" experiments (86 vs 67%, respectively). BO induced
      low/moderate mucositis. Histamine slightly reduced the incidence of severe
      mucositis induced by BPA-BNCT (75 vs 86%) and prevented mucositis altogether in
      BO animals. Tumor overall response was significantly higher in BNCT (94-96%) than
      in control (16%) and BO groups (9-38%), and did not differ significantly from the
      "B1" results (91%). Histamine did not compromise BNCT therapeutic efficacy. BNCT
      radiotoxicity and therapeutic effect at the B1 and B2 configurations of RA-6 were
      consistent. Histamine slightly reduced mucositis in precancerous tissue even in
      this overly aggressive oral cancer model, without compromising tumor control.

PMID- 28871391
TI  - Hemofiltration induces generation of leukocyte-derived CD31+/CD41- microvesicles
      in sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microvesicles (MV) are extracellular vesicles known to be associated
      with cellular activation and inflammation. Hemofiltration is an effective blood
      purification technique for patients with renal failure and possibly also
      eliminates inflammatory mediators in the setting of sepsis. On the other hand,
      proinflammatory stimuli are induced by blood contacting the artificial membrane
      during extracorporeal blood purification. In chronic dialysis patients a systemic
      increase in MV has been described. The aim of the study was to investigate
      whether hemofilter passage of blood in continuous veno-venous hemofiltration
      (CVVH) alters MV composition and levels in critically ill patients with sepsis.
      METHODS: Pre- and postfilter bloods as well as ultrafiltrate samples from
      intensive care unit patients with severe sepsis were obtained during CVVH with
      regional citrate anticoagulation. MV subtypes in blood were analyzed by high
      sensitivity flow cytometry. Additionally, tissue factor (TF) levels and MV
      associated TF activities as well as MV activities were quantified. All parameters
      were corrected for hemoconcentration applied during CVVH. RESULTS: Twelve
      patients were analyzed. A significant increase in presumably mostly leukocyte
      derived CD31+/CD41- MV (1.32 (1.09-1.93)-fold [median (25th-75th quartiles)], p =
      0.021) was observed post- to prefilter, whereas platelet-derived MV as well as
      AnnexinV-binding MV were unaltered. Increments of AnnexinV+, CD42b+ and
      CD31+/CD41- MV post- to prefilter correlated with filtration fraction (FF) (all p
      < 0.05). Significant reductions in MV activity [0.72 (0.62-0.84)-fold, p = 0.002]
      and TF level [0.95 (0.87-0.99)-fold, p = 0.0093] were detected postfilter
      compared to prefilter. No MV activity was measurable in ultrafiltrate samples.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite clearing a fraction of small PS-exposing MV CVVH does not
      eliminate larger MV. Concurrently, CVVH induces the release of CD31+/CD4- MV that
      indicate leukocyte activation during hemofilter passage in septic patients.
      Increments of several MV subtypes within the hemofilter correlate with FF, which
      supports common recommendations to keep FF low. A fraction of TF is being cleared
      by CVVH via ultrafiltration.

PMID- 28871392
TI  - Response to Comment by Ting et al.: The importance of a full-thickness vaginal
      wall dissection.

PMID- 28871393
TI  - T1 vs. T2 weighted magnetic resonance imaging to assess total kidney volume in
      patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: In ADPKD patients total kidney volume (TKV) measurement using MRI is
      performed to predict rate of disease progression. Historically T1 weighted images
      (T1) were used, but the methodology of T2 weighted imaging (T2) has evolved. We
      compared the performance of both sequences. METHODS: 40 ADPKD patients underwent
      an abdominal MRI at baseline and follow-up. TKV was measured by manual tracing
      with Analyze Direct 11.0 software. Three readers established intra- and
      interreader coefficients of variation (CV). T1 and T2 measured kidney volumes and
      growth rates were compared with ICC and Bland-Altman analyses. RESULTS:
      Participants were 49.7 +/- 7.0 years of age, 55.0% female, with estimated GFR of
      50.1 +/- 11.5 mL/min/1.73 m2. CVs were low and comparable for T2 and T1
      (intrareader: 0.83% [0.48-1.79] vs. 1.15% [0.34-1.77], P = 0.9, interreader:
      2.18% [1.59-2.61] vs. 1.69% [1.07-3.87], P = 0.9). TKV was clinically similar,
      but statistically significantly different between T2 and T1: 1867 [1172-2721] vs.
      1932 [1180-2551] mL, respectively (P = 0.006), with a bias of only 0.8% and high
      agreement (ICC 0.997). Percentage kidney growth during 2.2 +/- 0.3 years was
      similar for T2 and T1 (9.3 +/- 10.6% vs. 7.8 +/- 9.9%, P = 0.1, respectively),
      with a bias of 1.5% and high agreement (ICC 0.843). T2 was more often of
      sufficient quality for volume measurement (86.7% vs. 71.1%, P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: In patients with ADPKD, measurement of kidney volume and growth rate
      performs similarly when using T2 compared to T1 weighted images, although T2
      performs better on secondary outcome parameters; they are more often of
      sufficient quality for volume measurement and result in slightly lower intra- and
      interreader variability.

PMID- 28871394
TI  - The effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on chromium(VI) reduction using
      autotrophic cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris.
AB  - Chromium is an acutely toxic heavy metal that is known to be a carcinogen. Of the
      two predominant forms of chromium, Cr(III) and Cr(VI), Cr(III) has only about one
      thousandth the toxicity of Cr(VI). Using microalgal biomass is one way to remove
      Cr(VI) from the environment. Four days of hydraulic retention time (HRT) was
      required to completely reduce 10 mg/L of Cr(VI) in the influent. Microalgal
      biomass is conventionally regarded as an adsorbent in most Cr(VI) reduction
      studies. However, this study found that Chlorella vulgaris had the potential to
      convert Cr(VI) to Cr(III) through the enzymatic route of chromium reductase
      although the measured chromium reductase activity of C. vulgaris was less than
      that reported values obtained in bacteria. X-ray absorption near-edge
      spectroscopy (XANES) analysis further showed the absorption edge of Cr(III) in
      Cr(VI)-treated C. vulgaris, supporting the assumption of Cr(VI) potentially being
      converted to less-toxic Cr(III).

PMID- 28871396
TI  - Retrospective comparison of direct in-bore magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      guided biopsy and fusion-guided biopsy in patients with MRI lesions which are
      likely or highly likely to be clinically significant prostate cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) detection
      rates between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)
      fusion-guided prostate biopsy (FGB) and direct in-bore MRI-guided biopsy (MRGB).
      METHODS: We performed a comparison of csPCa detection rates between FGB and MRGB.
      Included patients had (1) at least one prior negative TRUS biopsy; (2) a Prostate
      Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) 4 or 5 lesion and (3) a lesion size
      of >=8 mm measured in at least one direction. We considered a Gleason score >=7
      being csPCa. Descriptive statistics with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used
      to determine any differences. RESULTS: We included 51 patients with FGB (59 PI
      RADS 4 and 41% PI-RADS 5) and 227 patients with MRGB (34 PI-RADS 4 and 66% PI
      RADS 5). Included patients had a median age of 69 years (IQR, 65-72) and a median
      PSA level of 11.0 ng/ml (IQR, 7.4-15.1) and a median age of 67 years (IQR, 61
      70), the median PSA 12.8 ng/ml (IQR, 9.1-19.0) within the FGB and the MRGB group,
      respectively. Detection rates of csPCA did not differ significantly between FGB
      and MRGB, 49 vs. 61%, respectively. CONCLUSION: We did not detect significant
      differences between FGB and MRGB in the detection of csPCa. The differences in
      detection ratios between both biopsy techniques are narrow with an increasing
      lesion size. This study warrants further studies to optimize selection of best
      biopsy modality.

PMID- 28871395
TI  - Interactome analysis of transcriptional coactivator multiprotein bridging factor
      1 unveils a yeast AP-1-like transcription factor involved in oxidation tolerance
      of mycopathogen Beauveria bassiana.
AB  - Oxidation tolerance is an important determinant to predict the virulence and
      biocontrol potential of Beauveria bassiana, a well-known entomopathogenic fungus.
      As a transcriptional coactivator, multiprotein bridging factor 1 mediates the
      activity of transcription factor in diverse physiological processes, and its
      homolog in B. bassiana (BbMBF1) contributes to fungal oxidation tolerance. In
      this study, the BbMBF1-interactomes under oxidative stress and normal growth
      condition were deciphered by mass spectrometry integrated with the
      immunoprecipitation. BbMBF1p factor has a broad interaction with proteins that
      are involved in various cellular processes, and this interaction is dynamically
      regulated by oxidative stress. Importantly, a B. bassiana homolog of yeast AP-1
      like transcription factor (BbAP-1) was specifically associated with the BbMBF1
      interactome under oxidation and significantly contributed to fungal oxidation
      tolerance. In addition, qPCR analysis revealed that several antioxidant genes are
      jointly controlled by BbAP-1 and BbMBF1. Conclusively, it is proposed that
      BbMBF1p protein mediates BbAP-1p factor to transcribe the downstream antioxidant
      genes in B. bassiana under oxidative stress. This study demonstrates for the
      first time a proteomic view of the MBF1-interactome in fungi, and presents an
      initial framework to probe the transcriptional mechanism involved in fungal
      response to oxidation, which will provide a new strategy to improve the
      biocontrol efficacy of B. bassiana.

PMID- 28871397
TI  - Vertical distribution of archaeal communities associated with anaerobic
      degradation of pentabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-99) in river-based groundwater
      recharge with reclaimed water.
AB  - When groundwater is recharged with reclaimed water, the presence of trace amounts
      of biorefractory pentabromodiphenyl ether (PBDE, specifically BDE-99) might cause
      potential groundwater pollution. A laboratory-scale column was designed to
      investigate the distribution of the community of archaea in this scenario and the
      associated anaerobic degradation of BDE-99. The concentration of BDE-99 decreased
      significantly as soil depth increased, and fluorescence in situ hybridization
      (FISH) analysis suggested that archaea exerted significant effects on the
      biodegradation of PBDE. Through 454 pyrosequencing of 16s rRNA genes, we found
      that the distribution and structure of the archaeal community associated with
      anaerobic degradation of BDE-99 in the river-based aquifer media changed
      significantly between different soil depths. The primary debrominated metabolites
      varied with changes in the vertically distributed archaeal community. The archaea
      in the surface layer were dominated by Methanomethylovorans, and the middle layer
      was mainly composed of Nitrososphaera. Nitrosopumilus and Nitrososphaera were
      equally abundant in the bottom layer. In addition, Methanomethylovorans abundance
      depended on the depth of soil, and the relative abundance of Nitrosopumilus
      increased with increasing depth, which was associated with the oxidation
      reduction potential and the content of intermediate metabolites. We propose that
      Nitrososphaera and Nitrosopumilus might be the key archaeal taxa mediating the
      biodegradation of BDE-99.

PMID- 28871398
TI  - Effect of Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) on Accumulation of Magnesium in
      Lactobacillus rhamnosus B 442 Cells.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the effect of pulsed electric fields (PEF)
      on accumulation of magnesium ions in Lactobacillus rhamnosus B 442 cells. Under
      optimized conditions, this is, on 15 min exposure of the 20 h grown culture to
      PEF of the 2.0 kV/cm and 20 us pulse width at concentration 400 MUg Mg2+/mL
      medium, accumulation of magnesium in the biomass reached maximum 4.28 mg/g d.m.
      Optimization of PEF parameters caused an increase of magnesium concentration in
      the cells by 220% in comparison to the control not treated with PEF. Bacterial
      cell biomass enriched with Mg2+ may be an alternative for pharmacological
      supplementation applied in deficiency of this cation.

PMID- 28871399
TI  - Understanding therapeutic emergencies in acute hemolysis.

PMID- 28871400
TI  - Phosphorus and nitrogen resorption from different chemical fractions in senescing
      leaves of tropical tree species on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo.
AB  - Nutrient resorption, a process by which plants degrade organic compounds and
      resorb their nutrients from senescing tissues, is a crucial plant function to
      increase growth and fitness in nutrient-poor environments. Tropical trees on
      phosphorus (P)-poor soils are particularly known to have high P-resorption
      efficiency (PRE, the percentage of P resorbed from senescing leaves before
      abscission per total P in green leaves). However, the biochemical mechanisms
      underlying this greater PRE remain unclear. In this study, we determined the P
      concentration in easily soluble, nucleic acid, lipid and residual fractions for
      green and senescent leaves of 22 tree species from three sites, which differed in
      P availability, on the lower flanks of Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo. PRE varied from 24
      to 93% and was higher in species from the P-poor site. P-resorption rate was
      greatest from the lipid fraction, the nucleic acid fraction, and lowest in the
      easily soluble fraction and the residual fraction when all the species were
      pooled. For species with higher PRE, P-resorption rate of the residual fraction
      was relatively high and was comparable in magnitude to that of the other labile
      fractions. This suggests that tree species inhabiting P-poor environments
      increased PRE by improving the degradation of recalcitrant compounds. This study
      suggests that plants selectively degrade organic compounds depending on
      environmental conditions, which is a key mechanism underlying the variation of
      PRE.

PMID- 28871401
TI  - A febrile eruption after delivery.

PMID- 28871402
TI  - A smartphone colorimetric reader integrated with an ambient light sensor and a 3D
      printed attachment for on-site detection of zearalenone.
AB  - Smartphone biosensors could be cost-effective, portable instruments to be used
      for the readout of liquid colorimetric assays. However, current reported
      smartphone colorimetric readers have relied on photos of liquid assays captured
      using a camera, and then analyzed using software programs. This approach results
      in a relatively low accuracy and low generality. In this work, we reported a
      novel smartphone colorimetric reader that has been integrated with an ambient
      light sensor and a 3D printed attachment for the readout of liquid colorimetric
      assays. The portable and low-cost ($0.15) reader utilized a simplified electronic
      and light path design. Furthermore, our reported smartphone colorimetric reader
      can be compatible with different smartphones. As a proof of principle, the
      utility of this device was demonstrated using it in conjunction with an enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay to detect zearalenone. Results were consistent with
      those obtained using a professional microplate reader. The developed smartphone
      colorimetric reader was capable of providing scalable, cost-effective, and
      accurate results for liquid colorimetric assays that related to clinical
      diagnoses, environment pollution, and food testing. Graphical abstract A novel
      smartphone colorimetric reader that has been integrated with an ambient light
      sensor and a 3D printed attachment for the readout of liquid colorimetric assays.

PMID- 28871403
TI  - Comment to: Rectus abdominis atrophy after ventral abdominal incisions: midline
      versus chevron by Vigneswaran et al.

PMID- 28871404
TI  - Assessment of bioavailable B vitamin content in food using in vitro digestibility
      assay and LC-MS SIDA.
AB  - Standardized analytical methods, where each B vitamin is extracted from a given
      sample individually using separate procedures, typically ensure that the
      extraction conditions provide the maximum recovery of each vitamin. However, in
      the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT), the extraction conditions are the same
      for all vitamins. Here, we present an analytically feasible extraction protocol
      that simulates conditions in the GIT and provides a measure of the content of
      bioavailable vitamins using LC-MS stable isotope dilution assay. The results show
      that the activities of both human gastric and duodenal juices were insufficient
      to liberate absorbable vitamers (AV) from pure cofactors. The use of an
      intestinal brush border membrane (IBBM) fraction derived from the mucosal tissue
      of porcine small intestine ensured at least 70% AV recovery. The rate of AV
      liberation, however, was strongly dependent on the cofactor, e.g., in the case of
      NADH, it was magnitudes higher than in the case of thiamine diphosphate. For some
      vitamins in some food matrices, the use of the IBBM fraction assay resulted in
      lower values for the content of AV than conventional vitamin determination
      methods. Conventional methods likely overestimate the actual bioavailability of
      some vitamins in these cases. Graphical abstract Assessment of bioavailable B
      vitamin content in food.

PMID- 28871405
TI  - [Survival after radical completion dissection or observation for sentinel node
      metastasis in melanoma].

PMID- 28871406
TI  - Heavy Metal Contamination in Fish (Callinectis amnicola) From an Estuarine Creek
      in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and Health Risk Evaluation.
AB  - Heavy metal bioconcentration in crabs from an estuarine creek in the Niger Delta
      was examined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Health risk via human
      exposure to metal toxicity was evaluated. Mean metal levels (ug/g) were Cr 2.32
      +/- 0.71, Ni 2.76 +/- 0.48, Cu 12.94 +/- 3.53, Pb 5.67 +/- 1.03, Ag 1.83 +/- 0.71
      and Cd 0.73 +/- 0.14 with significant difference (p < 0.001) between periods. Ni,
      Pb and Cd had values above FAO/WHO recommended limits. Estimated daily intake
      values were below the reference oral doses and the target hazard quotient was <1
      for each metal examined while hazard index for all metals was also <1. The target
      carcinogenic risk value for Ni was 3.4 * 10-3. Based on the evaluations, the
      study concluded that consumers of crabs from the study area had minimal/moderate
      metal toxicity exposures of no significant health concern but recommended
      continuous monitoring to detect anomalies.

PMID- 28871408
TI  - Evaluation of the relationship between the topographical anatomy in the axillary
      region of the brachial plexus and the body mass index.
AB  - To investigate the topographic anatomy of the median, musculocutaneous, radial
      and ulnar nerves with respect to the axillary artery and to seek whether these
      configurations are associated with baseline descriptive data including age,
      gender, and body-mass index. This cross-sectional trial was carried out on 199
      patients (85 women, 114 men; average age: 46.78 +/- 15.45 years) in the
      department of anaesthesiology and reanimation of a tertiary care center.
      Topographic anatomy of the median, musculocutaneous, radial and ulnar nerves was
      assessed with ultrasonography. Localization of these nerves with respect to the
      axillary artery was marked on the map demonstrating 16 zones around the axillary
      artery. Frequencies of localizations of every nerve in these zones were recorded,
      and the correlation of these locations with descriptive data including age,
      gender and BMI was investigated. There was no difference between women and men
      for the distribution of the median (p = 0.74), ulnar (p = 0.35) and radial (p =
      0.64) nerves. However, the musculocutaneous nerve was more commonly located in
      Zone A13 in men compared to women (p = 0.02). The localization of the median (p =
      0.85), ulnar (p = 0.27) and radial (p = 0.88) nerves did not differ remarkably
      between patients with BMI < 25 kg/m2 and patients with BMI >= 25 kg/m2. Notably,
      the musculocutaneous nerve was more often determined in Zone A10 in cases with
      BMI >= 25 kg/m2 (p = 0.001). Our results imply that the alignment of the
      musculocutaneous nerve may vary in men and overweight people. This fact must be
      considered by the anaesthetist before planning the axillary block of brachial
      plexus. All these informations may enlighten the planning stages of the brachial
      plexus blockade.

PMID- 28871407
TI  - In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods: agar dilution to 3D tissue
      engineered models.
AB  - In the field of orthopaedic surgery, bacterial invasion of implants and the
      resulting periprosthetic infections are a common and unresolved problem.
      Antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods help to define the optimal treatment
      and identify antimicrobial resistance. This review discusses proven gold-standard
      techniques and recently developed models for antimicrobial susceptibility
      testing, while also providing a future outlook. Conventional, gold-standard
      methods, such as broth microdilution, are still widely applied in clinical
      settings. Although recently developed methods based on microfluidics and
      microdroplets have shown advantages over conventional methods in terms of testing
      speed, safety and the potential to provide a deeper insight into resistance
      mechanisms, extensive validation is required to translate this research to
      clinical practice. Recent optical and mechanical methods are complex and
      expensive and, therefore, not immediately clinically applicable. Novel osteoblast
      infection and tissue models best resemble infections in vivo. However, the
      integration of biomaterials into these models remains challenging and they
      require a long tissue culture, making their rapid clinical implementation
      unlikely. A method applicable for both clinical and research environments is
      difficult to realise. With a continuous increase in antimicrobial resistance,
      there is an urgent need for methods that analyse recurrent infections to identify
      the optimal treatment approaches. Graphical abstract Timeline of published and
      partly applied antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods, listed according to
      their underlying mechanism, complexity and application in research or clinics.

PMID- 28871409
TI  - Retrospective analysis of treatments with recombinant FSH and recombinant LH
      versus human menopausal gonadotropin in women with reduced ovarian reserve.
AB  - PURPOSES: The aim of this study is to determine whether a clinical advantage is
      gained with use of LH in combination with FSH or as a component of human
      menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) to achieve optimal ovarian stimulation. METHODS: In
      this study, we compared retrospectively two regimens, r-FSH/r-LH and hMG, for the
      treatment of women with reduced ovarian reserve, identified as subjects with
      antral follicle count (AFC) < 11 and AMH <= 1.1 ng/ml. RESULTS: Overall, the
      clinical pregnancy per started cycle was higher in the r-FSH/r-LH group (12.5 vs.
      8.1%, P < 0.02), while implantation (11.1 vs. 9.5%) and miscarriage rates (29.9
      vs. 35.9%) were comparable. Data were further analysed performing separate
      comparisons in subpopulations with different ranges of AFC, i.e. < 4, 4-6 and 7
      10. Major differences between the two regimens were observed in women with AFC <
      4. In this subpopulation, not only was the clinical pregnancies per started cycle
      higher in the r-FSH/r-LH group (10.2 vs. 1.5%, P < 0.01), but also implantation
      was significantly higher (13.0 vs. 2.8%, P < 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: A r-FSH/r-LH
      regimen appears to be beneficial for the treatment of women with extremely poor
      ovarian reserve. It should be considered however that, being retrospective, this
      study is affected by obvious limitations, such as post-treatment patient
      selection criteria and absence of randomisation.

PMID- 28871410
TI  - Early results of a safety and feasibility clinical trial of a novel single-port
      flexible robot for transoral robotic surgery.
AB  - The aim of this study was to describe the early results of a phase 1 safety and
      feasibility clinical trial of the first clinical use of a novel robot for
      transoral robotic surgery (TORS)-the da Vinci SP (Intuitive Surgical Inc.,
      Sunnyvale, CA, USA). Study design of this study is prospective clinical trial.
      The methods used in this study are prospective innovation, development,
      exploration, assessment, and long-term study phase 1 clinical trial. Early
      results of six patients underwent TORS with the da Vinci SP (Intuitive Surgical
      Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) demonstrate access the nasopharynx, oropharynx, larynx,
      and hypopharynx. There were no conversions of the robotic surgical system. There
      were no serious adverse events or adverse events related to the use of the robot
      at 30-day follow-up for all six patients. The early results of this safety and
      feasibility trial of the da Vinci SP (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA,
      USA) clearly demonstrate that the device is safe and that it is feasible in
      performing TORS to access the nasopharynx, oropharynx, larynx, and hypopharynx.

PMID- 28871411
TI  - Histodifferentiation of oil palm somatic embryo development at low auxin
      concentration.
AB  - Large-scale propagation of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) is difficult due
      to its single apical meristem. Thus, obtaining plants is mainly through seed
      germination, and a long growing period is required before oil production is
      possible. An alternative to large-scale seedling production is indirect somatic
      embryogenesis. The aim of this study was to analyze the somatic embryogenesis
      process in oil palm (E. guineensis Jacq.) with amino acids and low concentrations
      of auxins. The Tenera hybrid was analyzed by cytochemical and ultrastructural
      methods and was used to regenerate oil palm plants. First, calli were induced in
      MS culture media supplemented with 2,4-D and picloram. Two types of calli were
      obtained, characterized by beige or translucent color. Beige calli had
      embryogenic characteristics, such as large nuclei with prominent nucleoli, and
      they were multiplied for 8 months in MM culture (half strength MS, 1 mg L-1 2,4
      D, 2 mg L-1 2iP, 1 mg L-1 IBA, 250 mg L-1 citric acid, 10 mg L-1 cysteine, 100 mg
      L-1 inositol, 1 mg L-1 thiamine, 1 mg L-1 pyridoxine, 1 mg L-1 nicotinic acid, 1
      mg L-1 glycine, 200 mg L-1 malt extract, and 100 mg L-1 casein hydrolysate).
      After multiplication, the MCB culture medium (half strength MS, supplemented with
      0.25 mg L-1 NAA, 2 mg L-1 BAP, MM vitamins and 200 mg L-1 malt extract, and 100
      mg L-1 casein hydrolysate) was the most efficient for embryo formation, showing
      meristematic centers with totipotent cells in histochemical analyses. The somatic
      embryos were developed and germinated in MG medium (half strength MS, 0.45 mg L-1
      IAA, 0.25 mg L-1 BAP, and MM vitamins), transplanted into polyethylene tubes
      containing pine bark substrates, and acclimatized in a greenhouse, achieving a
      97% survival rate. The use of picloram for callus induction and somatic
      embryogenesis is advantageous and multiplication in MM medium is an important
      step for increasing cell mass. The calli with light beige color and nodular
      structures have meristematic cells with dense cytoplasm and totipotential
      features that later give rise to protoderm, procambium, and ground meristem
      during the globular, cordiform, and torpedo embryogenesis phases. In MCB medium,
      the concentration of vitamins and amino acids are crucial for somatic
      embryogenesis.

PMID- 28871413
TI  - [Regionalization of federal health reporting using the example of diabetes
      surveillance : Aims and results of the discussion between the Robert Koch
      Institute and the federal states].
AB  - Insufficiently treated diabetes mellitus can lead to severe comorbidities.
      National and international analyses show a continuous increase in diabetes
      prevalence over the last decades. Currently, an indicator-based national diabetes
      surveillance system is implemented at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) to monitor
      and report on diabetes development on the basis of available primary and
      secondary data. The aim of the meeting was to go into deeper discussions and to
      integrate expectations and expertise of the federal states into the design of the
      national surveillance system. A close collaboration between the RKI and the
      federal states is intended.

PMID- 28871412
TI  - RAGE-NF-kappaB-PPARgamma Signaling is Involved in AGEs-Induced Upregulation of
      Amyloid-beta Influx Transport in an In Vitro BBB Model.
AB  - The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) at the blood-brain
      barrier (BBB) is critical for regulation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) homeostasis in
      the diabetic brain. In this study, we used an in vitro BBB model consisting of
      mouse brain capillary endothelial cells (MBCECs) to investigate whether advanced
      glycation end products (AGEs) increase Abeta influx transport across the BBB and
      the underlying mechanisms. We found that AGEs induced Abeta influx transport
      across the BBB in concentration- and time-dependent manner, accompanied by
      increased RAGE expression and nuclear factor-kappa B p65 (NF-kappaB p65), and
      decreased nuclear peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma).
      Blockade of RAGE with its antibody and inhibition of NF-kappaB signaling with
      PDTC as well as activation of PPARgamma with rosiglitazone significantly
      decreased Abeta transport across the BBB from the periphery to the brain. These
      treatments also pronouncedly suppressed AGEs-induced increases in RAGE expression
      and nuclear NF-kappaB p65 and reversed the decrease in nuclear PPARgamma. These
      results suggest that RAGE-NF-kappaB-PPARgamma signaling is involved in regulation
      of AGEs-induced influx transport of Abeta across the BBB and targeting the
      signaling pathway could serve as a novel strategy to modify such Abeta transport.

PMID- 28871414
TI  - Postoperative urinary retention after inguinal hernia repair: a single
      institution experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: Inguinal hernia repair is a common general surgery procedure with low
      morbidity. However, postoperative urinary retention (PUR) occurs in up to 22% of
      patients, resulting in further extraneous treatments.This single institution
      series investigates whether patient comorbidities, surgical approaches, and
      anesthesia methods are associated with developing PUR after inguinal hernia
      repairs. METHODS: This is a single institution retrospective review of inguinal
      hernia from 2012 to 2015. PUR was defined as patients without a postoperative
      urinary catheter who subsequently required bladder decompression due to an
      inability to void. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were
      performed to quantify the associations between patient, surgical, and anesthetic
      factors with PUR. Stratification analysis was conducted at age of 50 years.
      RESULTS: 445 patients were included (42.9% laparoscopic and 57.1% open). Overall
      rate of PUR was 11.2% (12% laparoscopic, 10.6% open, and p = 0.64). In univariate
      analysis, PUR was significantly associated with patient age >50 and history of
      benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Risk stratification for age >50 revealed in
      this cohort a 2.49 times increased PUR risk with lack of intraoperative bladder
      decompression (p = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS: At our institution, we found that patient
      age, history of BPH, and bilateral repair were associated with PUR after inguinal
      hernia repair. No association was found with PUR and laparoscopic vs open
      approach. Older males may be at higher risk without intraoperative bladder
      decompression, and therefore, catheter placement should be considered in this
      population, regardless of surgical approach.

PMID- 28871415
TI  - Response to Improving Adherence to Treatment and Reducing Economic Costs of
      Hypertension: The Role of Olmesartan-Based Treatment.

PMID- 28871416
TI  - Robotic ventral mesh rectopexy for rectal prolapse: a single-institution
      experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Robotic ventral mesh rectopexy (RVMR) is an appealing approach for
      the treatment of rectal prolapse and other conditions. The aim of this study was
      to evaluate the outcomes of RVMR for rectal prolapse. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective chart review for patients who underwent RVMR for rectal prolapse at
      our institution between July 2012 and May 2016. Any patient who underwent RVMR
      during this time frame was included in our analysis. Any cases involving
      colorectal resection or other rectopexy techniques were excluded. RESULTS: Of the
      24 patients who underwent RVMR, 95.8% of patients were female. Median age was
      67.5 years old (IQR 51.5-73.3), and 79.2% of patients were American Society of
      Anesthesiologists class III or IV. Median operative time was 191 min (IQR 164.3
      242.5), and median length of stay was 3 days (IQR 2-3). There were no
      conversions, RVMR-related complications or mortality. Patients were followed for
      a median of 3.8 (IQR 1.2-15.9) months. Full-thickness recurrence occurred in 3
      (12.4%) patients. Rates of fecal incontinence improved after surgery (62.5 vs.
      41.5%, respectively) as did constipation (45.8 vs. 33.3%, respectively). No
      patients reported worsening symptoms postoperatively. Only one (4.2%) patient
      reported de novo constipation postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: RVMR is a feasible,
      safe and effective option for the treatment of rectal prolapse, with low short
      term morbidity and mortality. Multicenter and long-term studies are needed to
      better assess the benefits of this procedure.

PMID- 28871417
TI  - Review of enhanced recovery programs in benign gynecologic surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Enhanced recovery programs (ERPs) are evidence-based
      protocols designed to improve functional rehabilitation after surgery. ERPs have
      gained widespread acceptance in many surgical disciplines, and their use leads to
      significant improvements in patient outcomes while reducing hospital length of
      stay (LOS). There remains a paucity of data on the use of ERPs in benign
      gynecologic surgery. The purpose of this review was to evaluate current
      literature on the use of ERP concepts in benign gynecologic surgery. METHODS: A
      systematic search of PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and the Cochrane databases
      was conducted, cross-referencing search terms related to gynecologic surgery and
      ERP concepts. The search was limited to publications available in English.
      Studies published prior to 2000, and those involving gynecologic oncology,
      nonadult patients, and outpatient surgery were excluded. RESULTS: Nine studies
      were included in the analysis. Due to heterogeneity of the included studies, no
      statistical pooling was possible and comparison between studies was limited to
      their respective themes. Primary study outcomes included LOS, postoperative
      nausea and vomiting (PONV), pain management, patient satisfaction, and hospital
      costs. Five studies investigated ERPs, two evaluated measures to improve PONV,
      and four focused on unique aspects of pain management. Across the studies, ERPs
      that focused on the patients' basic symptoms and recovery were found to have
      equal, if not better, outcomes than standard practice. CONCLUSIONS: This
      integrative review supports the implementation of ERPs in benign gynecologic
      surgery. The results showed that the use of ERPs decreased LOS, improved pain
      scores, and reduced hospital costs, without increasing perioperative
      complications. We suggest additional randomized controlled trials of ERP concepts
      in benign gynecologic surgery to support their more widespread use and
      application.

PMID- 28871418
TI  - Time spent with impaired autoregulation is linked with outcome in severe
      infant/paediatric traumatic brain injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It could be shown in traumatic brain injury (TBI) in adults that the
      functional status of cerebrovascular autoregulation (AR), determined by the
      pressure reactivity index (PRx), correlates to and even predicts outcome. We
      investigated PRx, cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and intracranial pressure
      (ICP) and their correlation to outcome in severe infant and paediatric TBI.
      METHODS: Seventeen patients (range, 1 day to 14 years) with severe TBI (median
      GCS at presentation, 4) underwent long-term computerised ICP and mean arterial
      pressure (MAP) monitoring using dedicated software to determine CPP and PRx and
      optimal CPP (CPP level where PRx shows best autoregulation) continuously. Outcome
      was determined at discharge and at follow-up using the Glasgow Outcome Scale.
      RESULTS: Favourable outcome was reached in eight patients, unfavourable outcome
      in seven patients. Two patients died. Nine patients underwent decompressive
      craniectomy to control ICP during Intensive Care Unit treatment. When
      dichotomised to outcome, no significant difference was found for overall ICP, CPP
      and PRx. The time with severely impaired AR (PRx >0.2) was significantly longer
      for patients with unfavourable outcome (64 h vs 6 h, p = 0.001). Continuously
      impaired AR of >=24 h and age <1 year was associated to unfavourable outcome.
      Children with favourable outcome spent the entire monitoring time at or above the
      optimal CPP. CONCLUSIONS: Integrity of AR has a similar role for outcome after
      TBI in the paediatric population as in adults. The amount of time spent with
      deranged AR seems to be associated with outcome; a factor especially critical for
      infant patients. The results of this preliminary study need to be validated in
      the future.

PMID- 28871419
TI  - Thalamic and basal ganglia regions are involved in attentional processing of
      behaviorally significant events: evidence from simultaneous depth and scalp EEG.
AB  - Extensive descriptions exist on cortical responses to change in the acoustic
      environment. However, the involvement of subcortical regions is not well
      understood. Here we present simultaneous recordings of cortical and subcortical
      event-related potentials (ERPs) to different pure tones in patients undergoing
      surgery for deep brain stimulation (DBS). These patients had externalized
      electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus (STN), the ventrolateral posterior thalamus
      (VLp) or the globus pallidus internus (GPi). Subcortical and cortical ERPs were
      analyzed upon presentation of one frequent non-target stimulus and two infrequent
      stimuli, either being a target or a distractor stimulus. The results revealed
      that amplitudes of scalp-recorded P3 and subcortical late attention-modulated
      responses (AMR) were largest upon presentation of target stimuli compared with
      distractor stimuli. This suggests that thalamic and basal ganglia regions are
      sensitive to behaviorally relevant auditory events. Comparison of the subcortical
      structures showed that responses in VLp have shorter latency than in GPi and STN.
      Further, the subcortical responses in VLp and STN emerged significantly prior to
      the cortical P3 response. Our findings point to higher-order cognitive functions
      already at a subcortical level. Auditory events are categorized as behaviorally
      relevant in subcortical loops involving basal ganglia and thalamic regions. This
      label is then distributed to cortical regions by ascending projections.

PMID- 28871420
TI  - Weber's law in 2D and 3D grasping.
AB  - Visually guided grasping movements directed to real, 3D objects are characterized
      by a distinguishable trajectory pattern that evades the influence of Weber's law,
      a basic principle of perception. Conversely, grasping trajectories directed to 2D
      line drawings of objects adhere to Weber's law. It can be argued, therefore, that
      during 2D grasping, the visuomotor system fails at operating in analytic mode and
      is intruded by irrelevant perceptual information. Here, we explored the visual
      and tactile cues that enable such analytic processing during grasping. In
      Experiment 1, we compared grasping directed to 3D objects with grasping directed
      to 2D object photos. Grasping directed to photos adhered to Weber's law,
      suggesting that richness in visual detail does not contribute to analytic
      processing. In Experiment 2, we tested whether the visual presentation of 3D
      objects could support analytic processing even when only partial object-specific
      tactile information is provided. Surprisingly, grasping could be performed in an
      analytic fashion, violating Weber's law. In Experiment 3, participants were
      denied of any haptic feedback at the end of the movement and grasping
      trajectories again showed adherence to Weber's law. Taken together, the findings
      suggest that the presentation of real objects combined with indirect haptic
      information at the end of the movement is sufficient to allow analytic processing
      during grasp.

PMID- 28871421
TI  - Biosimilar uptake by British local formularies: a cross sectional study.
AB  - Background Biological medicines are starting to lose their patent protection, so
      similar, inexact copies (biosimilars) are being developed and licensed. The high
      acquisition costs of biologics for healthcare providers could be reduced by
      switching to biosimilars, thus alleviating budgetary pressures and increasing
      patient access. Therefore, the acceptance of biosimilars by prescribers in Great
      Britain (GB; England, Scotland, Wales) needs to be described and understood.
      Objective To determine uptake of the first wave of biosimilars (somatropin,
      epoetin, filgrastim) by local formularies (lists of preferred medicines for
      prescribing in local healthcare settings). Settings This study targeted local
      formularies in GB. Method In November 2014, local formularies (medicines
      formularies of Acute Trusts and Health Boards in GB) were screened for their
      approach to listing of biologics and their biosimilars as well as recommendations
      on usage of these pharmaceuticals. Main Outcomes Measures Listing frequencies of
      biosimilars. Results One hundred and forty-six British local formularies were
      screened. Amongst the 80% of formularies in which brand names were specified,
      biosimilar filgrastim was the most frequently listed when compared to the other
      targeted biosimilars. Biosimilars were listed in preference to reference biologic
      medicine in 49% of local formularies for filgrastim, 11% for somatropin and in
      only 6% for epoetin. Conclusion Although the market for biosimilars can act in
      parallel to the generic market, their uptake measured using local British
      formularies was less than what is expected given that the British market for
      medicines has a strong focus on generics. Finally, geographical variability
      within GB requires further investigation.

PMID- 28871422
TI  - The role of angiogenic markers in adverse perinatal outcomes: fresh versus frozen
      embryo transfers.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the angiogenic balance in fresh compared to
      frozen embryo transfers, and among neonates with adverse perinatal outcomes.
      METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study. All IVF cycles resulting in a
      singleton live birth at a university academic fertility center from January 1,
      2011, to December 31, 2013, were examined. Concentrations of sFLT-1 and PlGF were
      measured in previously frozen serum specimens collected during early gestation at
      approximately 5 weeks gestation. Patients completed an electronic survey to
      detail perinatal outcome. RESULTS: We identified 152 singleton live births (103
      fresh, 49 frozen). Demographic characteristics were similar between the two
      groups. Ratios of sFlt-1:PlGF were not different between fresh and frozen
      transfers. Neonates from fresh cycles had a mean birth weight 202 g lighter (p =
      0.01) than frozen cycles, after adjusting for gestational age. Among babies born
      with poor perinatal outcomes, there was a difference in sFlt-1:PlGF ratios after
      adjusting for race. In non-Asians, infants born small for gestational age (SGA)
      (< 10th percentile) had significantly higher sFLT-1:PLGF ratio, median ratio
      (0.21 vs 0.12, p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: Fresh transfers were associated with
      lower birth weight infants compared to frozen transfers. While there was no
      difference in sFlt-1:PlGF ratios between fresh and frozen transfers, these ratios
      were significantly lower in SGA infants, suggesting an imbalance in angiogenic
      markers during placentation.

PMID- 28871423
TI  - An application study of low-dose computed tomography perfusion imaging for
      evaluation of the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for advanced gastric
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study used low-dose computed tomography (CT) perfusion imaging
      technology to evaluate the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with
      advanced gastric adenocarcinoma and to determine whether any of the perfusion
      parameters could predict tumor response to chemotherapy. METHODS: Forty patients
      with gastric adenocarcinoma (T3-4NxM0) received three cycles of neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy and low-dose spiral CT perfusion imaging prior to and after the
      first and third series of chemotherapy. We calculated tissue blood flow (BF) and
      blood volume (BV) using commercial software. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
      was used to detect any significant variation of the tested parameters between
      different times of scanning. Spearman's test was used to evaluate the correlation
      among perfusion parameters, tumor size and pathological efficacy grade, and
      clinical response after chemotherapy, respectively. A receiver-operating
      characteristic analysis was used to determine the optimal diagnostic cutoff value
      for changes in perfusion parameters and tumor size. RESULTS: One-way ANOVA showed
      significant differences in BF and BV values between those before and after
      chemotherapy (p < 0.01). The BF, BV and size reduction rate after three series of
      chemotherapy were significantly correlated with pathological efficacy grade. BF
      and BV values after the first and third series of chemotherapy were also
      significantly correlated with clinical response (p < 0.01, respectively). The
      diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the BV reduction rate were higher than
      those of size reduction rate. CONCLUSIONS: Low-dose CT perfusion imaging is a
      valuable tool that permits microcirculation evaluation and therefore can evaluate
      the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28871424
TI  - New species of Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from Thrichomys fosteri and
      Clyomys laticeps (Rodentia: Echimyidae) of the Brazilian Pantanal.
AB  - The echimyid rodents Thrichomys fosteri and Clyomys laticeps are among the most
      commonly recorded small mammals in the Pantanal wetland of Brazil. These species
      play important ecological roles since they are the basis of the food chain of
      some predators and are parasitized by some pathogens. Knowledge of the eimerians
      that parasitize echimyid rodents in Brazil is absent, and only one report is
      available for South America. We therefore investigated parasitism by coccidians
      in the echimyids T. fosteri and C. laticeps in the Pantanal. Using morphological
      and morphometric features and associated statistical analyses, we describe five
      new eimerian species parasitizing T. fosteri (Eimeria nhecolandensis n. sp.,
      Eimeria jansenae n. sp., and Eimeria fosteri n. sp.) and C. laticeps (E.
      nhecolandensis n. sp., Eimeria corumbaensis n. sp., and Eimeria laticeps n. sp.)
      in different types of infection associations. We document the developmental forms
      in the tissues, and describe lesions in the enteric tract of some infected
      animals. We also discuss some approaches regarding epidemiological and ecological
      data. Our results demonstrate that echimyid rodents in the Brazilian Pantanal are
      important hosts for the maintenance of enteric coccidia. Moreover, in some
      circumstances, this parasitism may threaten the health of the hosts.

PMID- 28871425
TI  - miR-33a inhibits cell proliferation and invasion by targeting CAND1 in lung
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lung cancer continues to be one of the top five causes of cancer
      related mortality. This study aims to identify down- and upregulated miRNAs and
      mRNA which can be used as potential biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets for
      lung cancer. METHODS: Integrated analysis of differential expression profiles of
      miRNA and mRNA in lung cancer was performed by searching Gene Expression Omnibus
      datasets. Based on miRNA expression profiles, direct mRNA targets of miRNAs with
      experimental support were identified through miRTarBase. The levels of
      representative miRNAs and mRNAs were confirmed through qualitative real-time
      reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). RESULTS: The miR-33a
      was decreased in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues compared with the
      para-carcinoma tissues, whereas its target mRNA of cullin-associated NEDD8
      dissociated protein 1 (CAND1) was increased in NSCLC tissues. Further research
      has shown that miR-33a can inhibit lung cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle
      progression, and migration by targeting CAND1. Moreover, the CAND1 knockout lung
      cancer cells showed similar results as cells transfected with miR-33a mimic.
      CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that the data mining based on online
      databases was an effective method in finding novel target in cancer research, and
      the miR-33a and CAND1 played an important role in lung cancer proliferation and
      cell migration.

PMID- 28871426
TI  - Assessment of overactive bladder symptoms among women with successful pessary
      placement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The causal association between pelvic organ prolapse
      (POP) and overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms is supported by several theories. The
      aim of this study is to assess any changes in OAB symptoms among women with POP
      and OAB after successful pessary placement. METHODS: During the study period, all
      women with symptomatic POP stage II or greater and OAB symptoms were offered the
      solution of either a ring or a Gellhorn pessary. All patients were asked to
      complete a 3-day micturition/incontinence diary. Objective evaluation endpoints
      at baseline and at 6 weeks included: change in the mean number of micturitions/24
      h, change in the mean volume voided per micturition/24 h, and change in the
      number of urinary incontinence episodes. Subjective evaluation of the urgency,
      frequency, and nocturia symptoms was carried out using the score change of the
      questions 3, 5, and 2 of the International Consultation on Incontinence
      Questionnaire for Evaluating Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (ICIQ-FLUTS)
      respectively. RESULTS: Seventy-four women were included in the study. A
      statistically significant decrease (-28.3%; p < 0.001) of the mean number of
      micturitions/24 h with a significant increase (37%; p < 0.001) in the mean voided
      volume per micturition/24 h was observed. The total urine volume/24 h remained
      unchanged. The number of urinary incontinence episodes was significantly
      increased 6 weeks after pessary placement (p < 0.001). De novo stress urinary
      incontinence (SUI) was reported by 16.7% of the initially stress continent women.
      CONCLUSIONS: Women with coexisting POP and OAB symptoms may experience a
      significant improvement in micturition frequency and in urgency and frequency
      symptoms after successful pessary fitting.

PMID- 28871428
TI  - A prospective randomized trial of transanal hemorrhoidal dearterialization with
      mucopexy versus ultrasonic scalpel hemorrhoidectomy for grade III hemorrhoids.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to compare short- and medium-term
      results of transanal Doppler-guided hemorrhoidal dearterialization with mucopexy
      (DM) versus hemorrhoidectomy using an ultrasonic scalpel (US) for third-degree
      hemorrhoids. METHODS: Forty-four patients were randomly assigned to undergo
      either DM or US. The patients were followed up at 1, 2, 3 months at our clinic,
      and by telephone interview when the study was completed in May 2017. The primary
      endpoint was postoperative pain with quality of life, length of stay, return to
      normal activities, and incontinence among secondary endpoints. RESULTS:
      Postoperative pain was less intense in the DM group than in the US group during
      week 1 (p < 0.05), but no difference was seen after 2 weeks. More DM patients
      returned to normal daily activities within 3 days (p < 0.05). There were no
      between-group differences in quality of life. One patient in each group developed
      postoperative hemorrhage requiring readmission. No differences were found between
      the groups in postoperative incontinence, obstructed defecation scores, or SF-36.
      During a median 33-month follow-up (range 12-46 months), two patients in the DM
      group and one patient in the US group underwent further surgery for residual
      hemorrhoid related problems. Two patients in the DM group required further rubber
      band ligation. CONCLUSIONS: Medium-term results demonstrated that DM and US have
      similar effects on quality of life in the treatment of third-degree hemorrhoids.
      However, DM was associated with less early postoperative pain than US and a
      faster return to normal activities.

PMID- 28871427
TI  - Measuring Pain Catastrophizing and Pain-Related Self-Efficacy: Expert Panels,
      Focus Groups, and Cognitive Interviews.
AB  - PURPOSE: Pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing are important
      psychosocial determinants of pain and can be therapeutic targets for chronic pain
      management. Advances in psychometric science have made shorter or dynamically
      administered instruments possible. The aim of this study was to generate and test
      candidate items for two new patient-reported outcome measures of pain-related
      self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing. METHODS: An expert panel of pain
      clinicians and researchers was convened to establish construct definitions of
      pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing and guide item development.
      Two patient advisors provided guidance throughout the project. Nineteen people
      with chronic pain participated in focus groups about their perspectives and
      experiences related to pain-related self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing.
      Twenty-two people with chronic pain participated in cognitive interviews to test
      proposed candidate items. RESULTS: Saturation was reached after three focus
      groups with no new subdomains identified by participants in the third focus
      group. Following cognitive interviews, five of the 48 initial pain-related self
      efficacy candidate items were dropped and seven required substantial revision
      resulting in 43 pain-related self-efficacy candidate items. After two rounds of
      cognitive interviews, ten items were eliminated and ten substantially revised,
      resulting in a set of 30 from the initial 43 pain catastrophizing candidate
      items. CONCLUSION: This article summarizes results of the qualitative phase of
      the development of new measures of pain-related self-efficacy and pain
      catastrophizing. Candidate items will be field tested with a large sample of
      people with chronic pain and the data will be used to calibrate items to an item
      response theory model. Resulting item banks and short forms will be made publicly
      available to researchers and clinicians.

PMID- 28871429
TI  - Elucidating the rapid action of 2-(2-chlorophenyl)ethylbiguanide on HT-29 cells
      under a serum- and glucose-deprived condition.
AB  - We recently demonstrated the cytotoxic action of a novel phenformin derivative, 2
      (2-chlorophenyl)ethylbiguanide (2-Cl-Phen), on HT-29 cells under a serum- and
      glucose-deprived condition. In that study, we showed that the ATF6 arm of the ER
      stress pathway and c-Myc expression were downregulated 12 h after the treatment
      with 2-Cl-Phen. Through characterization of intracellular events at the early
      phase of the 2-Cl-Phen treatment before noticeable morphological changes, we
      found rapid fluctuations in the c-Myc and ATF4 proteins but not in their mRNAs in
      2-Cl-Phen-treated HT-29 cells under the serum- and glucose-deprived condition.
      The 2-Cl-Phen-mediated downregulation of ATF4 protein was not paralleled by the
      phosphorylation status of PERK and eIF2alpha. Reduction of c-Myc expression by 2
      Cl-Phen was more profound than that of ATF4 expression, and phosphorylated c-Myc
      was downregulated within 2 h. Pharmacological studies on the expression of c-Myc
      and ATF4 proteins showed that this decrease was mediated through proteasomal
      degradation but not by autophagy. Interestingly, treatment with lithium chloride,
      which is a well-known inhibitor of GSK3beta, partially recovered the expression
      of ATF4 protein, but its effect on the level of total c-Myc protein was
      negligible. Treatment with 2-Cl-Phen increased the expression of phosphorylated
      AMPK, but Compound C, an AMPK inhibitor, did not influence the expression of c
      Myc protein in HT-29 cells. Finally, we observed that 2-Cl-Phen partially
      attenuated the gene expression of integrin subunit alpha1 (ITGA1), a downstream
      target of c-Myc. Taken together, these results show that 2-Cl-Phen rapidly
      downregulated the expression of c-Myc in addition to ER stress responses in a
      post-translational manner. Further elucidation and improvement of this multi
      target-directed compound will provide new insights for developing therapeutic
      strategies against cancer.

PMID- 28871430
TI  - [Electronic Shiazo waterpipes: a new source of indoor air pollutants].
AB  - BACKGROUND: For some time, a new form of waterpipe smoking has been advertised,
      where steam stones moistened with aroma fluids (Shiazo) are heated
      electronically. Since there is no combustion of tobacco, it is often assumed that
      the produced vapor is not harmful to health. To clarify this issue, we performed
      a comprehensive inner and outer exposure assessment during the use of an
      electronic Shiazo waterpipe. METHODS: Three volunteers smoked an electronic
      waterpipe operated with nicotine-free Shiazo stones in a thoroughly ventilated
      room for 2 h. In three smoking sessions, three fluids with different flavorings
      were vaporized. In parallel, emissions of particles, volatile organic compounds,
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and metals were measured in indoor air.
      Within a biomonitoring study, urinary metabolite profiles of air pollutants were
      checked. For comparison, the components of the Shiazo fluids were also analyzed.
      RESULTS: During the smoking sessions, concentrations of formaldehyde,
      acetaldehyde, glycerine, and propylene glycol rose significantly in the indoor
      environment. The content of putative carcinogenic PAH in indoor air increased by
      42% to 174 ng/m3. Particle number concentrations ranged from 39,968 to 65,610
      particles/cm3 (median), with peaks at diameters from 25 to 31 nm. 3-HPMA, the
      mercapturic acid metabolite of the pyrolysis product acrolein, was strongly
      elevated in urine samples of the smokers. All fluids contained high amounts of
      contact allergens. CONCLUSIONS: Electronic Shiazo waterpipes release various
      harmful substances that considerably impact indoor air quality. Compared to
      conventional waterpipes, the release of pollutants is lower. Nevertheless,
      smoking with Shiazo waterpipes is a source of health risks for both users and
      bystanders.

PMID- 28871431
TI  - Involvement of NAC transcription factor SiNAC1 in a positive feedback loop via
      ABA biosynthesis and leaf senescence in foxtail millet.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: The foxtail millet NAC transcription factor NAC1, an ortholog of
      Arabidopsis NAP, is induced by ABA and senescence and accelerates leaf senescence
      by promoting ABA biosynthesis. Leaf senescence, a unique developmental stage
      involving macromolecule degradation and nutrient remobilization, is finely tuned
      and tightly controlled by different gene families. NO APICAL MERISTEM,
      ARABIDOPSIS ATAF1, and CUP-SHAPED COTYLEDON (NAC) transcription factors have been
      demonstrated to be involved in the modulation of leaf senescence in many land
      plant species. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.), an important food and fodder
      crop, has been studied for its strong stress tolerance and potential to be a
      biofuel model plant. However, the functional roles of senescence-associated NACs
      in foxtail millet are still unknown. In this study, we characterized a nuclear
      localized NAC transcription factor, SiNAC1, which is induced by senescence and
      concentrated in senescent leaves in foxtail millet. SiNAC1 also positively
      responds to abscisic acid (ABA) treatment in foxtail millet. Moreover, SiNAC1
      promotes the natural and dark-induced leaf senescence by an ABA-dependent manner
      in Arabidopsis thaliana. NCED2 and NCED3 are elevated by SiNAC1 overexpression,
      which subsequently promotes ABA biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Finally, as a
      homolog of AtNAP, SiNAC1 can partially rescue the delayed leaf senescence
      phenotype in atnap mutants. Overall, our results demonstrate that SiNAC1
      functions as a positive regulator of leaf senescence and is involved in a
      positive feedback loop via ABA biosynthesis and leaf senescence.

PMID- 28871432
TI  - Comparative physiological and proteomic analyses reveal different adaptive
      strategies by Cymbidium sinense and C. tracyanum to drought.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: A terrestrial orchid, Cymbidium sinense appears to utilizes
      "remedy strategy", while an epiphytic orchid, C. tracyanum , employs a
      "precaution strategy" to drought stress based on morphological, physiological and
      proteomic analysis. Drought condition influences plant growth and productivity.
      Although the mechanism by which plants adapt to this abiotic stress has been
      studied extensively, the water-adaptive strategies of epiphytes grown in water
      limited habitats remain undefined. Here, root and leaf anatomies, dynamic changes
      in physiological and proteomic responses during periods of drought stress and
      recovery studied in an epiphytic orchid (Cymbidium tracyanum) and a terrestrial
      orchid (C. sinense) to investigate their strategies for coping with drought.
      Compared with C. sinense, C. tracyanum showed stronger drought-resistant adaptive
      characteristics to drought because its leaves had more negative water potential
      at turgor loss point and roots had higher proportion of velamen radicum
      thickness. Although both species demonstrated quick recovery of photosynthesis
      after stress treatment, they differed in physiological and proteomic responses.
      We detected and functionally characterized 103 differentially expressed proteins
      in C. sinense and 104 proteins in C. tracyanum. These proteins were mainly
      involved in carbon and energy metabolism, photosynthesis, and defense responses.
      The up-regulated expression of plastid fibrillin may have contributed to the
      marked accumulation of jasmonates only in stressed C. sinense, while ferredoxin
      NADP reductase up-regulation was only found in C. tracyanum which possibly
      related to the stimulation of cyclic electron flow that is linked with
      photoprotection. These physiological and proteomic performances suggest distinct
      adaptive strategies to drought stress between C. sinense (remedy strategy) and C.
      tracyanum (precaution strategy). Our findings may help improve our understanding
      about the ecological adaptation of epiphytic orchids.

PMID- 28871433
TI  - Identification of an oleosin-like gene in seagrass seeds.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the oil body protein and function in seeds of mature
      seagrass, Thalassia hemprichii. RESULTS: Seeds of mature seagrass T. hemprichii
      when stained with a fluorescent probe BODIPY showed the presence of oil bodies in
      intracellular cells. Triacylglycerol was the major lipid class in the seeds.
      Protein extracted from seagrass seeds was subjected to immunological cross
      recognition with land plant seed oil body proteins, such as oleosin and caleosin,
      resulting in no cross-reactivity. An oleosin-like gene was found in seagrass
      seeds. Next generation sequencing and sequence alignment indicated that the
      deduced seagrass seed oleosin-like protein has a central hydrophobic domain
      responsible for their anchoring onto the surface of oil bodies. Phylogenetic
      analysis showed that the oleosin-like protein was evolutionarily closer to pollen
      oleosin than to seed oleosins. CONCLUSION: Oil body protein found in seagrass
      seeds represent a distinct class of land seed oil body proteins.

PMID- 28871435
TI  - Comparison of the bacterial community composition in the granular and the
      suspended phase of sequencing batch reactors.
AB  - Granulation of activated sludge is an increasingly important area within the
      field of wastewater treatment. Granulation is usually achieved by high hydraulic
      selection pressure, which results in the wash-out of slow settling particles. The
      effect of the harsh wash-out conditions on the granular sludge ecosystem is not
      yet fully understood, but different bacterial groups may be affected to varying
      degrees. In this study, we used high-throughput amplicon sequencing to follow the
      community composition in granular sludge reactors for 12 weeks, both in the
      granular phase and the suspended phase (effluent). The microbiome of the washed
      out biomass was similar but not identical to the microbiome of the granular
      biomass. Certain taxa (e.g. Flavobacterium spp. and Bdellovibrio spp.) had
      significantly (p < 0.05) higher relative abundance in the granules compared to
      the effluent. Fluorescence in situ hybridization images indicated that these taxa
      were mainly located in the interior of granules and therefore protected from
      erosion. Other taxa (e.g. Meganema sp. and Zooglea sp.) had significantly lower
      relative abundance in the granules compared to the effluent, and appeared to be
      mainly located on the surface of granules and therefore subject to erosion.
      Despite being washed out, these taxa were among the most abundant members of the
      granular sludge communities and were likely growing fast in the reactors. The
      ratio between relative abundance in the granular biomass and in the effluent did
      not predict temporal variation of the taxa in the reactors, but it did appear to
      predict the spatial location of the taxa in the granules.

PMID- 28871434
TI  - Cutaneous and Mucosal Manifestations of Sjogren's Syndrome.
AB  - Sjogren's syndrome is currently considered an "autoimmune epithelitis," as
      exocrine glands, especially salivary and lacrimal, are progressively destructed
      by an immune-mediated process associated with specific serum autoantibodies and
      local lymphocyte infiltrate. Xerostomia remains a key complain in patients with
      Sjogren's syndrome but should be evaluated also for other causes such as
      xerogenic medications, followed by radiation and chemotherapy for head and neck
      cancers, hormone disorders, infections, or other connective tissue diseases.
      Further, xerophtalmia (also known as dry eye) frequently associated with
      keratoconjunctivitis sicca cumulatively affects approximately 10-30% of the
      general population with increasing incidence with age and is more frequently
      secondary to non-autoimmune diseases. On the other hand, numerous patients with
      Sjogren's syndrome manifest signs of systemic dryness involving the nose, the
      trachea, the vagina, and the skin, suggesting that other glands are also affected
      beyond the exocrine epithelia. Skin involvement in Sjogren's syndrome is
      relatively common, and various manifestations may be present, in particular
      xeroderma, eyelid dermatitis, annular erythema, and cutaneous vasculitis.
      Additional skin non-vasculitic manifestations include livedo reticularis which
      may occur in the absence of vasculitis, and localized nodular cutaneous
      amyloidosis possibly representing lymphoproliferative diseases related to
      Sjogren's syndrome. The treatment of skin and mucosal manifestations in Sjogren's
      syndrome is similar regardless of the cause, starting from patient education to
      avoid alcohol and tobacco smoking and to pursue dental hygiene. In conclusion, a
      strict collaboration between the dermatologist and the rheumatologist is
      essential in the adequate management of Sjogren's syndrome skin and mucosal
      manifestations.

PMID- 28871436
TI  - The prevalence of medication-related adverse events in inpatients-a systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Adverse drug events (ADEs) have been internationally recognized as a
      major threat to patient safety. The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta
      analysis focusing on inpatient ADEs in the Western World to provide better
      estimate of the current state of medication safety in these countries. METHODS:
      The studies for meta-analysis were identified through electronic search in
      Cochrane, Scopus, Medline, and Web of science databases. Included articles
      focused on adult inpatient ADEs, had commonly accepted definition for ADE, and
      were conducted between 2000 and 2016. Disease or ADE-specific studies were
      excluded. Meta-analysis was conducted on the prevalence of inpatient ADEs and
      fatal adverse drug reactions (FADRs). RESULTS: The pooled estimate of the
      prevalence of inpatient ADEs was formed by 46,626 patient records included in 9
      articles. Inpatient ADE prevalence was 19 and 32.3% of these ADEs were assessed
      preventable (MD 28.6%, SD 22.6%). Three articles including 3385 patients focused
      on inpatient FADRs, but the pooled estimate of this was disregarded due to low
      number and high heterogeneity of the included studies. CONCLUSIONS: ADEs are
      estimated to affect 19% of inpatients during hospitalization. Most of the ADEs
      are moderate in severity causing no permanent harm to the patient. Only a small
      amount of ADEs cause inpatient deaths, but in this meta-analysis, however, we
      were unable to give direct estimate of the prevalence.

PMID- 28871437
TI  - Free radical studies of components of the extracellular matrix: contributions to
      protection of biomolecules and biomaterials from sterilising doses of ionising
      radiation.
AB  - The purpose of the current review is show how the principles and techniques of
      radiation chemistry have enabled the direct reactions of free radicals with
      biomolecules and biomaterials to be investigated at the molecular level. In
      particular, the review focusses on the free radical-induced fragmentation of
      glycosaminoglycans. Glycosaminoglycans are large linear polysaccharides
      consisting of repeating disaccharide units and are important components of the
      extracellular matrix (ECM) either in free form (hyaluronan) or as a component of
      proteoglycans. Oxidative damage of the extracellular matrix components by either
      enzymatic or non-enzymatic pathways may have implications for the initiation and
      progression of a range of human diseases. These include arthritis, kidney
      disease, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, periodontal disease and chronic
      inflammation. Oxidative damage to hyaluronan by reactive oxidative species and
      thus the potential mechanism of damage to the ECM and its role in human
      pathologies is reviewed with particular focus on damage initiated by potential in
      vivo free radicals such as superoxide, carbonate and hydroxyl radicals. Such
      knowledge has also allowed radiation protecting systems to be developed so that
      sterilising doses of radiation can be delivered to sensitive biomolecules such as
      proteins and glycosaminoglycans, and also to sensitive biomaterials such as
      tissue allografts.

PMID- 28871438
TI  - The structure, splicing, synteny and expression of lamprey COE genes and the
      evolution of the COE gene family in chordates.
AB  - COE genes encode transcription factors that have been found in all metazoans
      examined to date. They possess a distinctive domain structure that includes a DNA
      binding domain (DBD), an IPT/TIG domain and a helix-loop-helix (HLH) domain. An
      intriguing feature of the COE HLH domain is that in jawed vertebrates it is
      composed of three helices, compared to two in invertebrates. We report the
      isolation and expression of two COE genes from the brook lamprey Lampetra planeri
      and compare these to COE genes from the lampreys Lethenteron japonicum and
      Petromyzon marinus. Molecular phylogenetic analyses do not resolve the
      relationship of lamprey COE genes to jawed vertebrate paralogues, though synteny
      mapping shows that they all derive from duplication of a common ancestral genomic
      region. All lamprey genes encode conserved DBD, IPT/TIG and HLH domains; however,
      the HLH domain of lamprey COE-A genes encodes only two helices while COE-B
      encodes three helices. We also identified COE-B splice variants encoding either
      two or three helices in the HLH domain, along with other COE-A and COE-B splice
      variants affecting the DBD and C-terminal transactivation regions. In situ
      hybridisation revealed expression in the lamprey nervous system including the
      brain, spinal cord and cranial sensory ganglia. We also detected expression of
      both genes in mesenchyme in the pharyngeal arches and underlying the notochord.
      This allows us to establish the primitive vertebrate expression pattern for COE
      genes and compare this to that of invertebrate chordates and other animals to
      develop a model for COE gene evolution in chordates.

PMID- 28871439
TI  - One normal void and residual following MUS surgery is all that is necessary in
      most patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: There is considerable variation worldwide on how the
      assessment of voiding function is performed following midurethral sling (MUS)
      surgery. There is potentially a financial cost, and reduction in efficiency when
      patient discharge is delayed. Using our current practice of two normal void and
      residual (V&R) readings before discharge, the aim of this retrospective study was
      to evaluate the likelihood of an abnormal second V&R test if the first V&R test
      was normal in order to determine if a policy of discharge after only one
      satisfactory V&R test is reasonable. METHODS: Data from 400 patients who had had
      MUS surgery with or without other procedures were collected. Our unit protocol
      included two consecutive voids of greater than 200 ml with residuals less than
      150 ml before discharge. The patients were divided into the following groups: MUS
      only, MUS plus anterior colporrhaphy (AR) plus any other procedures (MUS/AR), and
      MUS with any non-AR procedures (MUS+). RESULTS: Complete datasets were available
      for 335 patients. Once inadequate tests (low volume voids <200 ml) had been
      excluded (28% overall), the likelihood of an abnormal second V&R test if the
      first test was normal was 7.1% overall, but 3.6% for MUS, 11.5% for MUS/AR and
      8.6% for MUS+. CONCLUSION: The findings in the MUS-only group indicate that it is
      probably safe to discharge patients after one satisfactory V&R test, as long as
      safety measures such as 'open access' are available so that patients have
      unhindered readmission if problems arise.

PMID- 28871440
TI  - Triheptanoin versus trioctanoin for long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorders: a
      double blinded, randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Observational reports suggest that supplementation that increases
      citric acid cycle intermediates via anaplerosis may have therapeutic advantages
      over traditional medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) treatment of long-chain fatty
      acid oxidation disorders (LC-FAODs) but controlled trials have not been reported.
      The goal of our study was to compare the effects of triheptanoin (C7), an
      anaplerotic seven-carbon fatty acid triglyceride, to trioctanoin (C8), an eight
      carbon fatty acid triglyceride, in patients with LC-FAODs. METHODS: A double
      blinded, randomized controlled trial of 32 subjects with LC-FAODs (carnitine
      palmitoyltransferase-2, very long-chain acylCoA dehydrogenase, trifunctional
      protein or long-chain 3-hydroxy acylCoA dehydrogenase deficiencies) who were
      randomly assigned a diet containing 20% of their total daily energy from either
      C7 or C8 for 4 months was conducted. Primary outcomes included changes in total
      energy expenditure (TEE), cardiac function by echocardiogram, exercise tolerance,
      and phosphocreatine recovery following acute exercise. Secondary outcomes
      included body composition, blood biomarkers, and adverse events, including
      incidence of rhabdomyolysis. RESULTS: Patients in the C7 group increased left
      ventricular (LV) ejection fraction by 7.4% (p = 0.046) while experiencing a 20%
      (p = 0.041) decrease in LV wall mass on their resting echocardiogram. They also
      required a lower heart rate for the same amount of work during a moderate
      intensity exercise stress test when compared to patients taking C8. There was no
      difference in TEE, phosphocreatine recovery, body composition, incidence of
      rhabdomyolysis, or any secondary outcome measures between the groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: C7 improved LV ejection fraction and reduced LV mass at rest, as
      well as lowering heart rate during exercise among patients with LC-FAODs.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01379625.

PMID- 28871442
TI  - Nocturnal herbivore-induced plant volatiles attract the generalist predatory
      earwig Doru luteipes Scudder.
AB  - Numerous studies have demonstrated that entomophagous arthropods use herbivore
      induced plant volatile (HIPV) blends to search for their prey or host. However,
      no study has yet focused on the response of nocturnal predators to volatile
      blends emitted by prey damaged plants. We investigated the olfactory behavioral
      responses of the night-active generalist predatory earwig Doru luteipes Scudder
      (Dermaptera: Forficulidae) to diurnal and nocturnal volatile blends emitted by
      maize plants (Zea mays) attacked by either a stem borer (Diatraea saccharalis) or
      a leaf-chewing caterpillar (Spodoptera frugiperda), both suitable lepidopteran
      prey. Additionally, we examined whether the earwig preferred odors emitted from
      short- or long-term damaged maize. We first determined the earwig diel foraging
      rhythm and confirmed that D. luteipes is a nocturnal predator. Olfactometer
      assays showed that during the day, although the earwigs were walking actively,
      they did not discriminate the volatiles of undamaged maize plants from those of
      herbivore damaged maize plants. In contrast, at night, earwigs preferred
      volatiles emitted by maize plants attacked by D. saccharalis or S. frugiperda
      over undamaged plants and short- over long-term damaged maize. Our GC-MS analysis
      revealed that short-term damaged nocturnal plant volatile blends were comprised
      mainly of fatty acid derivatives (i.e., green leaf volatiles), while the long
      term damaged plant volatile blend contained mostly terpenoids. We also observed
      distinct volatile blend composition emitted by maize damaged by the different
      caterpillars. Our results showed that D. luteipes innately uses nocturnal
      herbivore-induced plant volatiles to search for prey. Moreover, the attraction of
      the earwig to short-term damaged plants is likely mediated by fatty acid
      derivatives.

PMID- 28871441
TI  - International registry on the use of the CytoSorb(r) adsorber in ICU patients :
      Study protocol and preliminary results.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this clinical registry is to record the use of
      CytoSorb(r) adsorber device in critically ill patients under real-life
      conditions. METHODS: The registry records all relevant information in the course
      of product use, e. g., diagnosis, comorbidities, course of the condition,
      treatment, concomitant medication, clinical laboratory parameters, and outcome
      (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02312024). Primary endpoint is in-hospital
      mortality as compared to the mortality predicted by the APACHE II and SAPS II
      score, respectively. RESULTS: As of January 30, 2017, 130 centers from 22
      countries were participating. Data available from the start of the registry on
      May 18, 2015 to November 24, 2016 (122 centers; 22 countries) were analyzed, of
      whom 20 centers from four countries provided data for a total of 198 patients
      (mean age 60.3 +/- 15.1 years, 135 men [68.2%]). In all, 192 (97.0%) had 1 to 5
      Cytosorb(r) adsorber applications. Sepsis was the most common indication for
      CytoSorb(r) treatment (135 patients). Mean APACHE II score in this group was 33.1
      +/- 8.4 [range 15-52] with a predicted risk of death of 78%, whereas the observed
      mortality was 65%. There were no significant decreases in the SOFA scores after
      treatment (17.2 +/- 4.8 [3-24]). However interleukin-6 levels were markedly
      reduced after treatment (median 5000 pg/ml before and 289 pg/ml after treatment,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This third interim report demonstrates the
      feasibility of the registry with excellent data quality and completeness from 20
      study centers. The results must be interpreted with caution, since the numbers
      are still small; however the disease severity is remarkably high and suggests
      that adsorber treatment might be used as an ultimate treatment in life
      threatening situations. There were no device-associated side effects.

PMID- 28871443
TI  - MMP-7 cleaves amyloid beta fragment peptides and copper ion inhibits the
      degradation.
AB  - The extracellular deposition of amyloid beta (Abeta) is known to be the
      fundamental cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Abeta1-42, generated by beta
      secretases from the amyloid precursor protein (APP), is the main component of
      neuritic plaque, and the aggregation of this protein is shown to be dependent to
      an extent on metal ions such as copper and zinc. However, the mechanism by which
      Cu2+ affects the physicochemical properties of Abeta1-42 or the central nervous
      system is still under debate. A recent series of studies have demonstrated that
      both the soluble-type matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) and the
      membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) are capable of degrading Abeta
      peptides. MMP-7, one of the soluble-type matrix metalloproteinases, is expressed
      in hippocampal tissue; however, less information is available concerning the
      pathophysiological roles of this enzyme in the process and/or progress of
      Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we examined the degradation activity of MMP-7
      against various Abeta1-42's fragment peptides and the effect of Cu2+. Although
      Abeta22-40 was degraded by MMP-7 regardless of Cu2+, Cu2+ inhibited the
      degradation of Abeta1-19, Abeta11-20, and Abeta11-29 by MMP-7. These results
      indicate that MMP-7 is capable of degrading Abeta1-42, and that Abeta1-42
      acquired resistance against MMP-7 cleavage through Cu2+-binding and structure
      changes. Our results demonstrate that MMP-7 may play an important role in the
      defensive mechanism against the aggregation of Abeta1-42, which gives rise to the
      pathology of AD.

PMID- 28871444
TI  - Kondoa gutianensis f.a. sp. nov., a novel ballistoconidium-forming yeast species
      isolated from plant leaves.
AB  - Two strains, GT-165T and GT-261, isolated from plant leaves collected from Gutian
      Mountain in Zhejiang province in China were identified as a novel species of the
      genus Kondoa by the sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)
      region, the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit of rRNA (LSU rRNA) and the RNA
      polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2), complemented by physiological tests.
      Phylogenetic analysis based on the concatenated sequences of ITS, D1/D2 and RPB2
      showed that the closest known relatives of the new species are three undescribed
      Kondoa species and Kondoa thailandica. The ITS and D1/D2 sequences of the new
      species differ from the closely related species by 11-22% and 2-9%, respectively.
      The name Kondoa gutianensis f.a. sp. nov. (MB 820648, holotype = CGMCC 2.5703T;
      isotype: CBS 14811T = CGMCC 2.5703T) is proposed to accommodate the new taxon.

PMID- 28871445
TI  - Lateralized pointing does not cause a cognitive bias.
AB  - Lateralized pointing has been shown to cause not only a shift in visuo-motor
      midline, but also a shift in non-lateralized spatial attention. Non-lateralized
      cognitive consequences of lateralized pointing have been reported for local and
      global visuospatial processing. Here, we evaluate these findings and examine this
      effect for categorical and coordinate spatial relation processing, for which the
      attentional processes are thought to be highly similar to local and global
      visuospatial processing, respectively. Participants performed a commonly used
      working memory task to assess categorical and coordinate spatial relation
      processing. Lateralized pointing with either the left or the right hand, to
      either the left or the right side was introduced as a manipulation, as well as a
      new control condition without any pointing. Performance on the spatial relation
      task was measured before and after pointing. The results suggest that non
      lateralized consequences of lateralized pointing cannot be generalized to other
      cognitive tasks relying on attentional processing. Further examination of
      lateralized pointing is recommended before drawing further conclusions concerning
      its impact on non-lateralized cognition.

PMID- 28871447
TI  - Determination of endogenous inflammation-related lipid mediators in ischemic
      stroke rats using background subtracting calibration curves by liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - Accurate and reliable quantification of endogenous lipid mediators in complex
      biological samples is a daunting challenge. In this study, a robust and direct
      endogenous quantitative method using background subtracting calibration curves by
      liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was first developed for the
      determination of endogenous lipid mediators in ischemic stroke rats. Absolute
      quantification without surrogate matrix could be achieved by using background
      subtracting calibration curves, which were corrected and verified from standard
      curves constructed on original matrix. The recoveries of this method were in the
      range of 50.3-98.3%, the precision with the relative standard deviation was less
      than 13.8%, and the accuracy with the relative error was within +/- 15.0%. In
      addition, background subtracting calibration curves were further verified by
      validation factors ranging from 90.3 to 110.9%. This validated method has been
      successfully applied to the analysis of seven endogenous inflammation-related
      lipid mediators in the brain tissues of ischemic stroke rats. The results
      indicated that prostaglandins as inflammatory factors and some lipid mediators
      with neuroprotective effects increased apparently (p < 0.05) in the stroke groups
      compared with the normal rats. Besides, the two drugs (isosteviol sodium and
      edaravone) could significantly reduce (p < 0.05) the levels of prostaglandin E2
      and prostaglandin F2alpha of stroke rats to inhibit inflammation. Based on the
      results, it is strongly believed that this approach can be readily generalized as
      a new reference for the quantification of endogenous compounds in the complex
      biological samples. Graphical abstract The analysis procedure of determining
      endogenous inflammation-related lipid mediators using BSCC by LC-MS/MS.

PMID- 28871448
TI  - Pitfalls in MR imaging of acute anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

PMID- 28871446
TI  - Mechanisms and clinical implications of tumor heterogeneity and convergence on
      recurrent phenotypes.
AB  - Tumor heterogeneity has been identified at various -omic levels. The tumor
      genome, transcriptome, proteome, and phenome can vary widely across cells in
      patient tumors and are influenced by tumor cell interactions with heterogeneous
      physical conditions and cellular components of the tumor microenvironment. Here,
      we explore the concept that while variation exists at multiple -omic levels,
      changes at each of these levels converge on the same pathways and lead to
      convergent phenotypes in tumors that can provide common drug targets. These
      phenotypes include cellular growth and proliferation, sustained oncogenic
      signaling, and immune avoidance, among others. Tumor heterogeneity complicates
      treatment of patient cancers as it leads to varied response to therapies.
      Identification of convergent cellular phenotypes arising in patient cancers and
      targeted therapies that reverse them has the potential to transform the way
      clinicians treat these cancers and to improve patient outcome.

PMID- 28871449
TI  - ARHGEF39 promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation and migration via Akt
      signaling pathway.
AB  - Dbl-family guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) can activate RhoGTPases by
      facilitating the exchange of GDP for GTP, the aberrant expression of which has
      been implicated in tumorigenicity and metastasis of human cancers. ARHGEF39, as a
      member of Dbl-family GEFs, was reported to be a potential oncogene in human
      hepatocellular carcinoma previously. However, the role of ARHGEF39 in gastric
      cancer (GC) remains unclear so far. In the current study, we demonstrated that
      ARHGEF39 expression was significantly upregulated in GC tissues compared with
      paired adjacent normal tissues by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Functional
      analyses revealed that ARHGEF39 overexpression could promote proliferation,
      colony formation, and migration of GC cells in vitro, whereas ARHGEF39 knockdown
      markedly suppressed these phenotypes. Moreover, ARHGEF39 enhanced tumorigenicity
      and lung metastasis potential of GC cells in nude mice model. Mechanistically, we
      found that overexpressed ARHGEF39 significantly increased the phosphorylation
      level of Akt (p-Akt), and its effect on cell proliferation was attenuated by PI3K
      inhibitor LY294002. Thus, our findings suggest that ARHGEF39 may contribute to
      cell proliferation and migration in GC via a possible mechanism involving Akt
      signaling.

PMID- 28871450
TI  - Cup detachment during vacuum-assisted vaginal delivery and birth outcome.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the perinatal outcome associated with cup detachment
      during vacuum-assisted vaginal delivery (VAVD). METHODS: A retrospective cohort
      study of all women attempting VAVD in a tertiary hospital (2012-2014). Singleton
      term pregnancies were included. Antepartum fetal death and major fetal structural
      or chromosomal abnormalities were excluded. Primary outcome was neonatal birth
      trauma (subgaleal hematoma, subarachnoid hematoma, subdural hematoma, skull
      fracture, and/or erb's palsy). Secondary outcomes were maternal complications or
      other neonatal morbidities. Outcomes were compared between women after >=1 cup
      detachment (study group) and the rest (control group). Logistic regression
      analysis was utilized to adjust results to potential confounders. RESULTS:
      Overall, 1779 women attempted VAVD during study period. Of them, in 146 (8.2%),
      the cup detached prior to delivery; 130/146 (89%) had a single detachment. After
      detachment, 4 (2.7%) delivered by cesarean section, 77 (52.7%) delivered after
      cup reapplication, and 65 (44.6%) delivered spontaneously. Women in the study
      group were more likely to undergo VAVD due to prolonged second stage, and were
      characterized by lower rates of metal cup use. Neonates in the detachment group
      had higher rates of subarachnoid hematoma and composite neonatal birth trauma
      (2.7 vs. 0.1% and 4.8 vs. 1.8%, respectively, p < 0.05). This remained
      significant after adjustment to potential confounders (subarachnoid hematoma aOR
      = 45.44, 95% CI 6.42-321.62 and neonatal birth trauma aOR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.1
      6.22, p < 0.05 for all). Other neonatal and maternal morbidities were similar
      between groups. CONCLUSION: Cup detachment is associated with a higher rate of
      adverse neonatal outcome. Cup reapplication should be considered carefully.

PMID- 28871451
TI  - Methylation status of IGF2 DMR and LINE1 in leukocyte DNA provides distinct
      clinicopathological features of gastric cancer patients.
AB  - DNA methylation of leukocyte DNA has been proposed to be a biomarker for cancer
      that can be used to target patients for appropriate clinical implementation. We
      investigated IGF2 DMR and LINE1 methylation in the leukocyte DNA and their
      association with clinicopathological features and prognosis of gastric cancer
      (GC) patients. Methylation status of IGF2 DMR and LINE1 in the leukocyte DNA was
      quantified using bisulfite pyrosequencing in 207 GC patients. Methylation of both
      IGF2 DMR and the LINE1 was significantly higher in the undifferentiated
      histologic type compared to the differentiated histologic type (both P = 0.0002).
      Hypermethylation of both the IGF2 DMR and the LINE1 was associated with more
      aggressive features of GC such as advanced stage (IGF2 DMR, P = 0.0002; LINE1, P
      < 0.0001), lymphatic invasion positive (IGF2 DMR, P = 0.004; LINE1, P = 0.002),
      venous invasion positive (IGF2 DMR, LINE1, both P = 0.03), lymph node metastasis
      positive (IGF2 DMR, P = 0.01; LINE1, P = 0.001), peritoneal dissemination
      positive (IGF2 DMR, P = 0.04; LINE1, P = 0.002), liver metastasis positive (IGF2
      DMR, P = 0.008; LINE1, P = 0.001), and other distant metastasis positive (IGF2
      DMR, P = 0.04). Our data suggest that high LINE1 and IGF2 DMR methylation status
      would be a phenomenon that is observed with the progression of GC, supporting
      their potential utility as a biomarker in GC patients.

PMID- 28871452
TI  - Click chemistry-mediated cyclic cleavage of metal ion-dependent DNAzymes for
      amplified and colorimetric detection of human serum copper (II).
AB  - The determination of the level of Cu2+ plays important roles in disease diagnosis
      and environmental monitoring. By coupling Cu+-catalyzed click chemistry and metal
      ion-dependent DNAzyme cyclic amplification, we have developed a convenient and
      sensitive colorimetric sensing method for the detection of Cu2+ in human serums.
      The target Cu2+ can be reduced by ascorbate to form Cu+, which catalyzes the
      azide-alkyne cycloaddition between the azide- and alkyne-modified DNAs to form
      Mg2+-dependent DNAzymes. Subsequently, the Mg2+ ions catalyze the cleavage of the
      hairpin DNA substrate sequences of the DNAzymes and trigger cyclic generation of
      a large number of free G-quadruplex sequences, which bind hemin to form the G
      quadruplex/hemin artificial peroxidase to cause significant color transition of
      the sensing solution for sensitive colorimetric detection of Cu2+. This method
      shows a dynamic range of 5 to 500 nM and a detection limit of 2 nM for Cu2+
      detection. Besides, the level of Cu2+ in human serums can also be determined by
      using this sensing approach. With the advantages of simplicity and high
      sensitivity, such sensing method thus holds great potential for on-site
      determination of Cu2+ in different samples. Graphical abstract Sensitive
      colorimetric detection of copper (II) by coupling click chemistry with metal ion
      dependentDNAzymes.

PMID- 28871453
TI  - Hypertension in patients with CKD in China: clinical characteristics and
      management.

PMID- 28871455
TI  - Clinical characteristics and outcomes of biopsy-proven diabetic nephropathy.
AB  - Kidney damage is common in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). However, whether
      the type of kidney damage can be reliably diagnosed using clinical data alone
      remains unclear. Predictive factors for diabetic nephropathy (DN) outcomes are
      also poorly understood. In this study, the clinical manifestations of 111 cases
      of biopsy-proven DN were described, and the clinical and pathological parameters
      of patients with different DN outcomes were compared. Results showed that long DM
      duration ( > 10 years in 32.4% of patients), severe proteinuria (62.2%), and
      renal dysfunction (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] < 60 mL/(min$1.73
      m2)) (52.3%) did not accurately indicate whether the condition of these patients
      progressed to DN. Hematuria (48.6%) failed to specify either DN or nondiabetic
      renal disease. Diabetic retinopathy (78.4%) was a crucial complication in
      patients with DN. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the renal survival of 53
      patients who were diagnosed with DN and were followed up was not significantly
      associated with glomerular classification (P > 0.05). Cox's regression analysis
      demonstrated that renal survival time was significantly influenced by sex (beta =
      1.394, P = 0.038), hematuria (beta = 0.036, P = 0.029), and eGFR (beta =-0.039, P
      = 0.002) but was not significantly affected by age, 24 h urinary protein
      excretion, or glomerular classification (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the clinical
      characteristics of DN vary, and renal biopsy is necessary to determine renal
      damage patterns. Sex, hematuria, and the eGFR may affect DN outcomes, whereas the
      glomerular classification may not.

PMID- 28871456
TI  - Queueing theoretic analysis of labor and delivery : Understanding management
      styles and C-section rates.
AB  - Childbirth is a complex clinical service requiring the coordinated support of
      highly trained healthcare professionals as well as management of a finite set of
      critical resources (such as staff and beds) to provide safe care. The mode of
      delivery (vaginal delivery or cesarean section) has a significant effect on labor
      and delivery resource needs. Further, resource management decisions may impact
      the amount of time a physician or nurse is able to spend with any given patient.
      In this work, we employ queueing theory to model one year of transactional
      patient information at a tertiary care center in Boston, Massachusetts. First, we
      observe that the M/G/infinity model effectively predicts patient flow in an
      obstetrics department. This model captures the dynamics of labor and delivery
      where patients arrive randomly during the day, the duration of their stay is
      based on their individual acuity, and their labor progresses at some rate
      irrespective of whether they are given a bed. Second, using our queueing
      theoretic model, we show that reducing the rate of cesarean section - a current
      quality improvement goal in American obstetrics - may have important consequences
      with regard to the resource needs of a hospital. We also estimate the potential
      financial impact of these resource needs from the hospital perspective. Third, we
      report that application of our model to an analysis of potential patient coverage
      strategies supports the adoption of team-based care, in which attending
      physicians share responsibilities for patients.

PMID- 28871454
TI  - Non-genetic mechanisms of diabetic nephropathy.
AB  - Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most common microvascular complications
      in diabetes mellitus patients and is characterized by thickened glomerular
      basement membrane, increased extracellular matrix formation, and podocyte loss.
      These phenomena lead to proteinuria and altered glomerular filtration rate, that
      is, the rate initially increases but progressively decreases. DN has become the
      leading cause of end-stage renal disease. Its prevalence shows a rapid growth
      trend and causes heavy social and economic burden in many countries. However,
      this disease is multifactorial, and its mechanism is poorly understood due to the
      complex pathogenesis of DN. In this review, we highlight the new molecular
      insights about the pathogenesis of DN from the aspects of immune inflammation
      response, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, apoptosis and mitochondrial damage,
      epigenetics, and podocyte-endothelial communication. This work offers groundwork
      for understanding the initiation and progression of DN, as well as provides ideas
      for developing new prevention and treatment measures.

PMID- 28871457
TI  - Protective Effect of 1,25-Dihydroxy Vitamin D3 on Pepsin-Trypsin-Resistant
      Gliadin-Induced Tight Junction Injuries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tight junction (TJ) injuries induced by pepsin-trypsin-resistant
      gliadin (PT-G) play an important role in the pathogenesis of celiac disease.
      Previously, 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (VD3) was reported to be a TJ regulator
      that attenuates lipopolysaccharide- and alcohol-induced TJ injuries. However,
      whether VD3 can attenuate PT-G-induced TJ injuries is unknown. AIM: The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the effects of VD3 on PT-G-induced TJ injuries.
      METHODS: Caco-2 monolayers were used as in vitro models. After being cultured for
      21 days, the monolayers were treated with PT-G plus different concentrations of
      VD3. Then, the changes in trans-epithelial electrical resistance and FITC-dextran
      4000 (FD-4) flux were determined to evaluate the monolayer barrier function. TJ
      protein levels were measured to assess TJ injury severity, and myeloid
      differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) expression and zonulin release levels were
      determined to estimate zonulin release signaling pathway activity. Additionally,
      a gluten-sensitized mouse model was established as an in vivo model. After the
      mice were treated with VD3 for 7 days, we measured serum FD-4 concentrations, TJ
      protein levels, MyD88 expression, and zonulin release levels to confirm the
      effect of VD3. RESULTS: Both in vitro and in vivo, VD3 significantly attenuated
      the TJ injury-related increase in intestinal mucosa barrier permeability.
      Moreover, VD3 treatment up-regulated TJ protein expression levels and
      significantly decreased MyD88 expression and zonulin release levels. CONCLUSIONS:
      VD3 has protective effects against PT-G-induced TJ injuries both in vitro and in
      vivo, which may correlate with the disturbance of the MyD88-dependent zonulin
      release signaling pathway.

PMID- 28871458
TI  - Percutaneous irreversible electroporation combined with allogeneic natural killer
      cell immunotherapy for patients with unresectable (stage III/IV) pancreatic
      cancer: a promising treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study was attempted to investigate the safety and clinical efficacy
      of percutaneous irreversible electroporation combined with allogeneic natural
      killer cell therapy for treating stage III/IV pancreatic cancer, evaluate median
      progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). METHODS: Between
      March 2016 and February 2017, we enrolled 67 patients who met the enrollment
      criteria. According to the latest NCCN Guidelines, the patients were divided into
      stage III (35 patients, 16 patients received only irreversible electroporation
      (IRE) and 19 patients received IRE-NK: 8 patients underwent one course NK and 11
      patients underwent >=3 courses) and stage IV (32 patients, 14 patients received
      only IRE and 18 patients received IRE-NK: 8 patients underwent one course NK and
      10 patients underwent >=3 courses). The safety and short-term effects were
      evaluated first, then the median PFS, median OS, response rate (RR) and disease
      control rate (DCR) were assessed. RESULTS: Adverse events of all patients were
      limited to grades A and B, included local (mainly cough 12.7%, nausea and emesis
      6.8%, pain of puncture point 25.3% and duodenum and gastric retention 5.9%) and
      systemic (mainly fatigue 21.5, fever 33.5%, and blood pressure intraoperative
      transient reduction 27.4% and white cell count reduction 22.6%) reactions, fever
      was most frequent. The serum amylase level at 24 h and 7 d after IRE was not
      significantly changed compared to those before IRE (P > 0.05). CA19-9 value was
      lower in IRE-NK group than in IRE at 1 month after treatment (P < 0.05). After a
      median follow-up of 7.9 months (3.8-12.1 months): in stage III group, median PFS
      was higher in IRE-NK group (9.1 months) than in IRE group (7.9 months, P =
      0.0432), median OS was higher in IRE-NK (13.6 months) than in IRE (12.2 months; P
      = 0.0327), and median PFS was higher in who received multiple NK than single NK
      (9.9 vs. 8.2 months; P = 0.0387, respectively), median OS who received multiple
      NK was higher than single NK (13.7 vs. 12.1 months; P = 0.0451, respectively),
      the RR in IRE-NK (63.2%) was higher than in IRE (50.0%; P < 0.05); in stage IV
      group, median OS was higher in IRE-NK (10.2 months) than in IRE (9.1 months; P =
      0.0367), the DCR in IRE-NK (66.7%) was higher than in IRE (42.9%; P < 0.05).
      CONCLUSION: Percutaneous irreversible electroporation combined with allogeneic
      natural killer cell immunotherapy significantly increased median PFS and median
      OS in stage III pancreatic cancer and extended the median OS of stage IV
      pancreatic cancer. Multiple allogeneic natural killer cells infusion was
      associated with better prognosis to stage III pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28871459
TI  - Facultative CAM photosynthesis (crassulacean acid metabolism) in four species of
      Calandrinia, ephemeral succulents of arid Australia.
AB  - Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) was demonstrated in four small endemic
      Australian terrestrial succulents from the genus Calandrinia (Montiaceae) viz. C.
      creethiae, C. pentavalvis, C. quadrivalvis and C. reticulata. CAM was
      substantiated by measurements of CO2 gas-exchange and nocturnal acidification. In
      all species, the expression of CAM was overwhelmingly facultative in that
      nocturnal H+ accumulation was greatest in droughted plants and zero, or close to
      zero, in plants that were well-watered, including plants that had been droughted
      and were subsequently rewatered, i.e. the inducible component was proven to be
      reversible. Gas-exchange measurements complemented the determinations of acidity.
      In all species, net CO2 uptake was restricted to the light in well-watered
      plants, and cessation of watering was followed by a progressive reduction of CO2
      uptake in the light and a reduction in nocturnal CO2 efflux. In C. creethiae, C.
      pentavalvis and C. reticulata net CO2 assimilation was eventually observed in the
      dark, whereas in C. quadrivalvis nocturnal CO2 exchange approached the
      compensation point but did not transition to net CO2 gain. Following rewatering,
      all species returned to their original well-watered CO2 exchange pattern of net
      CO2 uptake restricted solely to the light. In addition to facultative CAM, C.
      quadrivalvis and C. reticulata exhibited an extremely small constitutive CAM
      component as demonstrated by the nocturnal accumulation in well-watered plants of
      small amounts of acidity and by the curved pattern of the nocturnal course of CO2
      efflux. It is suggested that low-level CAM and facultative CAM are more common
      within the Australian succulent flora, and perhaps the world succulent flora,
      than has been previously assumed.

PMID- 28871460
TI  - Opposing effects of memory-driven and stimulus-driven attention on distractor
      perception.
AB  - It is well known that a match between working memory contents and a visual
      stimulus creates attentional bias toward the memory-matching stimulus. The
      present study investigated whether this memory-driven attentional bias exerts
      similar effects with conventional, spatial attention driven by a cue stimulus.
      Specifically, we examined how the effect of a distracting, task-irrelevant
      stimulus is modulated when attention was oriented toward the distractor in memory
      and stimulus-driven manners. The results showed that significant interference by
      a distractor decreased when attention was allocated to the distractor in a memory
      driven manner, whereas the distracter captured attention in a stimulus-driven
      manner exerted increased interference. By contrast, memory-driven attention
      brought an unattended stimulus into attentional focus, while stimulus-driven
      attention failed to do so. These results provide evidence that the mechanisms
      underlying working memory-driven and stimulus-driven attention are separable,
      pointing to the dynamic and flexible relationship between working memory and
      attention.

PMID- 28871462
TI  - Response to the letter "Reviewers should have known better" by Mahir Gachabayov.

PMID- 28871461
TI  - Relationship Satisfaction and Dyadic Coping in Couples with a Child with Autism
      Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - Dyadic coping strategies may play a pivotal role in relationship satisfaction and
      explain why some couples adapt positively to the challenges associated with
      raising a child with ASD and others do not. Survey data from 127 caregivers of a
      child with ASD were used in generalized estimating equation analyses to
      investigate the factors associated with relationship satisfaction, including
      socio-demographics, parenting stress and dyadic coping. Results showed that over
      two-thirds of the sample reported satisfaction, which was associated with low
      parenting stress, increased use of positive and decreased use of negative dyadic
      coping strategies. Positive dyadic coping was found to have a greater influence
      than negative dyadic coping, supporting a strengths-based approach to
      interventions promoting family resilience.

PMID- 28871463
TI  - Specific effects of prenatal DEHP exposure on neuroendocrine gene expression in
      the developing hypothalamus of male rats.
AB  - Endocrine disrupting chemicals may disrupt developing neuroendocrine systems,
      especially when the exposure occurs during a critical period. This study aimed to
      investigate whether prenatal exposure to di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a
      major component of plasticizers used worldwide, disrupted the development of a
      network of genes important for neuroendocrine function in male rats. Pregnant
      rats were treated with corn oil (vehicle control), 2, 10 or 50 mg/kg DEHP by
      gavage from gestational day 14 to 19. The neuroendocrine gene expressions were
      quantified using a 48-gene Taqman qPCR array in the whole hypothalamus of
      neonatal rats (postnatal day 1) and in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus
      (AVPV), medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) and arcuate nucleus (ARC) of adult rats
      (postnatal day 70). Immunofluorescent signals of ERalpha and CYP19 were detected
      using the confocal microscopy in adult AVPV, MPN and ARC. The results showed that
      prenatal DEHP exposure perturbed somatic and reproductive development of
      offspring. Eleven genes were down-regulated in neonatal hypothalamus and showed
      non-monotonic dose-response relationships, that the 10 mg/kg DEHP dosage was
      associated with the greatest number of gene expression changes. Different from
      this, 14 genes were altered in adult AVPV, MPN and ARC and most of alterations
      were found in the 50 mg/kg DEHP group. Also, 50 mg/kg DEHP reduced ERalpha
      expression in the ARC, but no alterations were observed in CYP19 expression.
      These results indicated that prenatal DEHP exposure may perturb hypothalamic gene
      programming and the influences are permanent. The effects showed dependence on
      developmental stages and nuclei region.

PMID- 28871465
TI  - The crossing duct sign.
AB  - Pancreas divisum is a common variation in pancreatic ductal anatomy present in up
      to 10% of the population with variable clinical importance. The crossing duct
      sign refers to the appearance of dominant dorsal duct crossing the
      intrapancreatic common bile duct to empty into the minor papilla, best
      illustrated on maximum intensity projection images from MRCP.

PMID- 28871464
TI  - Treatment Response and Outcome with Two Different Prednisolone Regimens in
      Autoimmune Hepatitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Beyond available guidelines, therapy of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH)
      shows wide variation among physicians. We compared two regimens for treatment
      naive AIH: one recommended protocol with an initial prednisolone dose of 30
      mg/day and our own 40 mg/day prednisolone with a slow dose tapering protocol. We
      analyzed the safety, response rates, and outcomes for two groups of treated
      patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated data of 71 AIH
      patients including, group I (n = 32, prednisone 30 mg/day) and group II (n = 39,
      prednisone 40 mg/day). All patients also received azathioprine. RESULTS: The
      frequency of complete biochemical response was significantly higher in group II
      than in group I (69.2 vs. 43.8%, p = 0.031) after 3 months of therapy, but not
      after 6 and 12 months (79.5 vs. 59.4%, p = 0.065 and 89.5 vs. 80.6%, p = 0.30).
      In patients with severe interface hepatitis, the complete response rates were
      significantly higher in group II than in group I after 3 (63.6 vs. 23.1%, p =
      0.02) and 6 months (72.7 vs. 38.5%, p = 0.046), but not after 12 months of
      therapy (86.4 vs. 69.2%, p = 0.221). Relapses were observed in 50% of group I and
      in 35.9% of group II during maintenance therapy (p = 0.23). Overall survival was
      significantly better in group II than in group I (100 vs. 87.5%, log-rank, p =
      0.048). No severe steroid-related side effects were observed in either group.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our real-world experience suggests that an initial prednisolone dose
      of 40 mg/day with a slower tapering protocol induces earlier biochemical
      response, tends to result in less relapses during maintenance, and is associated
      with a better disease outcome.

PMID- 28871466
TI  - Salting-out-enhanced ionic liquid microextraction with a dual-role solvent for
      simultaneous determination of trace pollutants with a wide polarity range in
      aqueous samples.
AB  - In real aquatic environments, many occupational pollutants with a wide range of
      polarities coexist at nanogram to milligram per liter levels. Most reported
      microextraction methods focus on extracting compounds with similar properties
      (e.g., polarity or specific functional groups). Herein, we developed a salting
      out-enhanced ionic liquid microextraction based on a dual-role solvent (SILM-DS)
      for simultaneous detection of tetracycline, doxycycline, bisphenol A, triclosan,
      and methyltriclosan, with log K ow ranging from -1.32 to 5.40 in complex milk and
      environmental water matrices. The disperser in the ionic-liquid-based dispersive
      liquid-liquid microextraction was converted to the extraction solvent in the
      subsequent salting-out-assisted microextraction procedures, and thus a single
      solvent performed a dual role as both extractant and disperser in the SILM-DS
      process. Acetonitrile was selected as the dual-role solvent because of its strong
      affinity for both ionic liquids and water, as well as the extractant in the
      salting-out step. Optimized experimental conditions were 115 MUL [C8MIM][PF6] as
      extractor, 1200 MUL acetonitrile as dual-role solvent, pH 2.0, 5.0 min ultrasound
      extraction time, 3.0 g Na2SO4, and 3.0 min vortex extraction time. Under
      optimized conditions, the recoveries of the five pollutants ranged from 74.5 to
      106.9%, and their LODs were 0.12-0.75 MUg kg-1 in milk samples and 0.11-0.79 MUg
      L-1 in environmental waters. Experimental precision based on relative standard
      deviation was 1.4-6.4% for intraday and 2.3-6.5% for interday analyses. Compared
      with previous methods, the prominent advantages of the newly developed method are
      simultaneous determination of pollutants with a wide range of polarities and a
      substantially reduced workload for ordinary environmental monitoring and food
      tests. Therefore, the new method has great application potential for simultaneous
      determination of trace pollutants with strongly contrasting polarities in several
      analytical fields. Graphical Abstract A salting-out-enhanced ionic liquid
      microextraction based on a dual-role solvent (SILM-DS) was developed for
      simultaneous detection of tetracycline, doxycycline, bisphenol A, triclosan and
      methyltriclosan, with log K ow ranging from -1.32 to 5.40. The novelty of SILM-DS
      method lies in (1) simultaneous quantification of pollutants with contrasting
      polarity; (2) microextraction based on a dual-role solvent (as a disperser and
      extractant); (3) giving high recoveries for analytes with a wide range of
      polarities; and (4) reducing workload for ordinary environmental monitoring and
      food tests.

PMID- 28871467
TI  - Epigallocatechin gallate protects against homocysteine-induced vascular smooth
      muscle cell proliferation.
AB  - Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a bioactive ingredient of green tea, plays a
      protective role in the cardiovascular system. Homocysteine (Hcy) is a major risk
      factor for chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. The present study
      aimed to investigate the role of EGCG in Hcy-induced proliferation of vascular
      smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and its underlying mechanism. We also explored the
      roles of rennin-angiotensin system (RAS), extracellular signal-regulated kinases
      (ERK1/2), and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) in this process.
      Human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) were treated with different drugs for
      different periods. The proliferation rate of HASMCs was detected using the CCK-8
      and BrdU labeling assays. The Western blot assay was used to determine the
      expression levels of angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT-1R), ERK1/2, and p38
      MAPK. Compared with the control group, the HASMCs treated with Hcy at different
      doses (100, 200, 500, and 1000 uM) showed significantly increased proliferation.
      Hcy increased the expression of AT-1R, whereas EGCG decreased the protein
      expression of AT-1R. Furthermore, we found that Hcy-induced expression of p
      ERK1/2 and p-p38MAPK was dependent on AT-1R. Compared with Hcy (500 uM)-treated
      cells, EGCG (20 uM)-treated cells showed decreased proliferation as well as
      expression of AT-1R, p-ERK1/2, and p-p38MAPK. In addition, HASMC proliferation
      was suppressed by the addition of an AT-1R blocker (olmesartan), an ERK1/2
      inhibitor (PD98059), and a p38MAPK inhibitor (SB202190). EGCG can inhibit AT-1R
      and affect ERK1/2 and p38MAPK signaling pathways, resulting in the decrease of
      VSMC proliferation induced by Hcy.

PMID- 28871468
TI  - MicroRNA Expression in the Locus Coeruleus, Entorhinal Cortex, and Hippocampus at
      Early and Middle Stages of Braak Neurofibrillary Tangle Pathology.
AB  - The present study analyzes by RT-qPCR the expression of microRNA (miRNA)-27a-3p,
      miRNA-124-3p, miRNA-132-3p, and miRNA-143-3p in the locus coeruleus (LC),
      entorhinal cortex (EC), CA1 region of the hippocampus (CA1), and dentate gyrus
      (DG) of middle-aged (MA) individuals with no brain lesions and of cases at Braak
      and Braak stages I-II and II-IV of neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) pathology. The
      most affected region is the LC in which miRNA-27a-3p, miRNA-124-3p, and miRNA-143
      3p show a trend to increase at stages I-II and are significantly up-regulated at
      stages III-IV when compared with MA. Only miRNA-143-3p is up-regulated in the EC
      at stages III-IV when compared with MA and with stages I-II. No modifications in
      the expression levels of miRNA-27a-3p, miRNA-124-3p, miRNA-132-3p, and miRNA-143
      3p are found in CA1 at any stage, whereas miRNA-124-3p is significantly down
      regulated in DG at stages I-II. Accompanying in situ hybridization reveals miRNA
      27a-3p, miRNA-124-3p, and miRNA-143-3 localization in neurons, indicating that
      changes in miRNA expression are not a direct effect of changes in the numbers of
      neurons and glial cells. Present observations show for the first time important
      miRNA de-regulation in the LC at the first stages of NFT. Since the LC is the
      main noradrenergic input to the cerebral cortex, key regulator of mood and
      depression, and one of the first nuclei affected in aging and Alzheimer's disease
      (AD), these findings provide insights for additional study of the LC in aging and
      AD.

PMID- 28871470
TI  - Lifestyle and bladder cancer prevention: no consistent evidence from cohort
      studies.

PMID- 28871469
TI  - Imaging correlates for the 2016 update on WHO classification of grade II/III
      gliomas: implications for IDH, 1p/19q and ATRX status.
AB  - The 2016 World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central
      Nervous System incorporates the use of molecular information into the
      classification of brain tumors, including grade II and III gliomas, providing new
      prognostic information that cannot be delineated based on histopathology alone.
      We hypothesized that these genomic subgroups may also have distinct imaging
      features. A retrospective single institution study was performed on 40 patients
      with pathologically proven infiltrating WHO grade II/III gliomas with a pre
      treatment MRI and molecular data on IDH, chromosomes 1p/19q and ATRX status. Two
      blinded Neuroradiologists qualitatively assessed MR features. The relationship
      between each parameter and molecular subgroup (IDH-wildtype; IDH-mutant-1p/19q
      codeleted-ATRX intact; IDH-mutant-1p/19q intact-ATRX loss) was evaluated with
      Fisher's exact test. Progression free survival (PFS) was also analyzed. A border
      that could not be defined on FLAIR was most characteristic of IDH-wildtype
      tumors, whereas IDH-mutant tumors demonstrated either well-defined or slightly
      ill-defined borders (p = 0.019). Degree of contrast enhancement and presence of
      restricted diffusion did not distinguish molecular subgroups. Frontal lobe
      predominance was associated with IDH-mutant tumors (p = 0.006). The IDH-wildtype
      subgroup had significantly shorter PFS than the IDH-mutant groups (p < 0.001). No
      differences in PFS were present when separating by tumor grade. FLAIR border
      patterns and tumor location were associated with distinct molecular subgroups of
      grade II/III gliomas. These imaging features may provide fundamental prognostic
      and predictive information at time of initial diagnostic imaging.

PMID- 28871471
TI  - Impact of maternal nutrition in hepatitis E infection in pregnancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The basis of host response in hepatitis E virus (HEV)-related
      liver disease during pregnancy-is still unclear. The study aims to evaluate
      anthropometric parameters and biochemical nutritional parameters in hepatitis E
      infection during pregnancy and correlate it with severity of the disease.
      METHODS: A total of consecutive 267 pregnant women with jaundice were recruited.
      The jaundiced patients were classified as acute viral hepatitis (AVH) or acute
      liver failure (ALF). The study group included 144 pregnant women with HEV
      infection and 144 healthy asymptomatic age and gestational age-matched pregnant
      women as controls. Nutritional factors were evaluated on basis of anthropometric
      parameters and biochemical factors. Serum prealbumin and folate were assayed by
      ELISA kit. RESULTS: All nutritional parameters were significantly lower in
      pregnant women with HEV infection as compared with healthy pregnant controls.
      Some of the nutritional parameters significantly lower in ALF pregnant patients
      compared to AVH pregnant patients in HEV group. Linear regression analysis of the
      AVH group showed that serum total protein and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)
      were significant predictors for bilirubin, body mass index (BMI) could
      significantly predict viral load level, and total protein, prealbumin, folate,
      and tricep skin fold thickness (TSFT) could significantly predict prothrombin
      time. In ALF group, serum prealbumin could significantly predict bilirubin levels
      and MUAC could significantly predict prothrombin time. CONCLUSION: Malnutrition
      might confer a higher predisposition for HEV infection during pregnancy and is
      associated with increased severity of disease in terms of occurrence of ALF.

PMID- 28871474
TI  - Does your discussion realize its potential?

PMID- 28871472
TI  - Cytochrome P450 2D6 and Parkinson's Disease: Polymorphism, Metabolic Role, Risk
      and Protection.
AB  - Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 is one of the most highly active, oxidative and
      polymorphic enzymes known to metabolize Parkinsonian toxins and clinically
      established anti-Parkinson's disease (PD) drugs. Albeit CYP2D6 gene is not
      present in rodents, its orthologs perform almost the similar function with
      imprecise substrate and inhibitor specificity. CYP2D6 expression and catalytic
      activity are found to be regulated at every stage of the central dogma except
      replication as well as at the epigenetic level. CYP2D6 gene codes for a set of
      alternate splice variants that give rise to a range of enzymes possessing
      variable catalytic activity. Case-control studies, meta-analysis and systemic
      reviews covering CYP2D6 polymorphism and PD risk have demonstrated that poor
      metabolizer phenotype possesses a considerable genetic susceptibility. Besides,
      ultra-rapid metabolizer offers protection against the risk in some populations
      while lack of positive or inverse association is also reported in other
      inhabitants. CYP2D6 polymorphisms resulting into deviant protein products with
      differing catalytic activity could lead to inter-individual variations, which
      could be explained to certain extent on the basis of sample size, life style
      factors, food habits, ethnicity and tools used for statistical analysis across
      various studies. Current article describes the role played by polymorphic CYP2D6
      in the metabolism of anti-PD drugs/Parkinsonian toxins and how polymorphisms
      determine PD risk or protection. Moreover, CYP2D6 orthologs and their roles in
      rodent models of Parkinsonism have also been mentioned. Finally, a perspective on
      inconsistency in the findings and futuristic relevance of CYP2D6 polymorphisms in
      disease diagnosis and treatment has also been highlighted.

PMID- 28871473
TI  - Role of Peroxiredoxin 2 in the Protection Against Ferrous Sulfate-Induced
      Oxidative and Inflammatory Injury in PC12 Cells.
AB  - Peroxiredoxin 2 (Prdx2) is a ubiquitous antioxidant enzyme in mammalian brain.
      Although a protective role of Prdx2 has been established in cerebral ischemia and
      several neurodegenerative diseases, its contribution against iron-induced
      neurocytotoxicity still remains to be determined. Accordingly, in this study, we
      aimed to investigate the effects of Prdx2 on iron-induced cytotoxicity using an
      in vitro model in which PC12 cells are exposed to ferrous sulfate (FS). The FS
      treatment increased Prdx2 expression, and promoted lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)
      release and cell apoptosis in PC12 cells, accompanied by the increase in the
      Bax/Bcl2 ratio, cytochrome c release, and caspase-3 cleavage. FS exposure also
      increased the malondialdehyde content (lipid peroxidation), 3'-nitrotyrosine
      expression (protein nitration), gamma-H2A.X formation (DNA oxidation), and
      promoted nuclear factor kappa B nuclear translocation, cyclooxygenase-2
      expression, and release of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1beta.
      Lentivirus-mediated Prdx2 knockdown intensified the FS-induced LDH release and
      cell apoptosis by aggravating the oxidative and inflammatory damage. In
      conclusion, our findings demonstrated that Prdx2 played a vital role in the
      protection against iron-induced cytotoxicity in PC12 cells.

PMID- 28871475
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Ombitasvir/Paritaprevir/Ritonavir and Dasabuvir with or
      without Ribavirin for Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 1: A Systematic
      Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Interferon-free regimens are rapidly evolving for
      patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We performed this meta
      analysis to investigate the safety and efficacy of a combination regimen
      (ombitasvir [OBV]/paritaprevir [PTV]/ritonavir [r] +/- dasabuvir [DSV]) for the
      treatment of patients with HCV genotype 1 infection. METHODS: A computerized
      literature search for relevant clinical trials was conducted during May 2017.
      Data on sustained virological response (SVR), virological relapse, and safety
      outcomes were extracted and calculated as pooled proportion (PP) or risk ratio
      (RR) with their 95% confidence interval (CI), using StatsDirect and RevMan
      software. RESULTS: The final analysis included 13 studies for HCV genotype 1
      (3115 patients). The pooled effect estimate showed that 12-week treatment of
      genotype 1 patients with the OBV/PTV/r regimen achieved a high SVR rate (PP =
      94%, 95% CI 92-96) that increased to (PP = 97%, 95% CI 96-98) upon the addition
      of DSV. These results were consistent when independent subgroup analyses were
      conducted based on viral subgenotypes, the presence of cirrhosis, or former
      treatment failure. Adding ribavirin (RBV) to this regimen was not associated with
      increased SVR rates (risk ratio = 1, 95% CI 0.98-1.02), while it increased the
      risk of serious adverse events (p = 0.02), insomnia (p = 0.001), and pruritus (p
      < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The current meta-analysis showed a high efficacy for the
      OBV/PTV/r regimen in the treatment of HCV genotype 1 (with DSV) infection,
      regardless of the presence of cirrhosis or former treatment failure. Adding RBV
      to this regimen slightly decreased the relapse rate. Future studies with larger
      sample sizes are required to investigate the efficacy of this regimen in other
      HCV genotypes and to establish the evidence about the effect of adding RBV to
      OBV/PTV/r + DSV.

PMID- 28871476
TI  - Peritoneal perforation is less a complication than an expected event during
      transanal endoscopic microsurgery: experience from 194 consecutive cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indications for transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) have been
      extended to technically challenging tumors, which may be associated with an
      increased risk of peritoneal perforation (PP). The aim of the present study was
      to investigate the occurrence, management and outcome of PP in patients having
      TEM. METHODS: All the patients who had TEM for rectal adenoma or adenocarcinoma
      in our unit were included. Patients in whom PP occurred (Group A) were compared
      to those without PP (Group B). RESULTS: From 2007 to 2015, 194 TEM (116 men,
      median age 66 [range 21-100] years) were divided into Groups A (n = 28, 14%) and
      B (n = 166). The latter group included four patients, in whom a laparoscopy did
      not confirm suspicion of PP made during TEM. In 2 of 28 patients (7%), the
      diagnosis of PP was made postoperatively during reoperation for peritonitis. For
      the 26 other patients (93%), routine exploratory laparoscopy was performed with
      suture of the peritoneal defect on the pouch of Douglas in 24 cases and a rectal
      suture alone in 2 cases. Independent predictive factors for PP were: distance
      from the anal verge >10 cm (OR = 3.6), circumferential tumor (OR = 3.0) and
      anterior location (OR = 2.7). Hospital stay was significantly longer in Group A
      (7.5 [3-31] days) than in Group B (4 [1-38] days; p < 0.0001), whereas there was
      no significant difference regarding postoperative morbidity and recurrence rate.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that PP is not a very rare event during TEM,
      especially in anterior, circumferential and/or high rectal tumors. Laparoscopic
      treatment of PP is feasible and safe. The occurrence of PP is not associated with
      poor oncologic results.

PMID- 28871477
TI  - [Diagnostics and management of herpes zoster ophthalmicus].
AB  - Herpes zoster (HZ, shingles) represents the secondary manifestation of an
      infection with varicellazoster virus (VZV). A reactivation of dormant VZV in the
      ophthalmic branch of the fifth cranial nerve leads to ophthalmic HZ (HZO). The
      predominantly older and immune compromised patients often present with eye
      involvement (approximately 50%) as well as characteristic skin changes. Clinical
      manifestations include the cornea and conjunctiva but anterior uveitis and
      (rarely) acute retinal necrosis may also occur. Associated sensory symptoms that
      range from paresthesia to severe pain may severely affect the quality of life.
      Particularly in immunocompromised and/or elderly patients, HZO is associated with
      complicated courses. Systemic antiviral treatment and an adequate pain medication
      are the mainstay of the recommended management. The present article provides an
      overview of the contents of the current consensus-based European guidelines on
      the management of HZ with a specific focus on HZO.

PMID- 28871479
TI  - In Vitro Evaluation and Statistical Optimization of Antimicrobial Activity of
      Prunus cerasoides Stem Bark.
AB  - Nature is a generous source of compounds with the potential for prevention of
      infections. Antimicrobial screening of aqueous extract from bark of wild
      Himalayan cherry (Prunus cerasoides) was carried out against various pathogenic
      microorganisms with inhibition zone ranging from 19 to 24 mm. An optimization
      strategy, which included classical method and statistical method (RSM), was
      applied to optimize the effect of process variables. Fifteen percent plant
      material extracted at 40  degrees C for 60 min and at its natural pH (4.5)
      exhibited best antimicrobial activity with an average zone of inhibition ranging
      from 19 to 29 mm. Statistical optimization using RSM further enhanced the
      activity by 1.09-1.24 folds. Minimum inhibitory concentration of the aqueous
      extract against different microorganism ranged from 1 to 10 mg/ml. The aqueous
      extract was found to be reasonably thermostable at boiling temperature for 1 h.
      Viable cell count (VCC) studies of the extract showed it to be bactericidal in
      nature. Further, the aqueous extract was found to be neither cytotoxic nor
      mutagenic, when evaluated by MTT assay and Ames mutagenicity test. The results
      suggest that the aqueous extract of P. cerasoides could be a potential source to
      obtain new antimicrobials and effective herbal medicines to combat the problem of
      ever emerging microbial resistance.

PMID- 28871478
TI  - The iron-chelate transporter OsYSL9 plays a role in iron distribution in
      developing rice grains.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Rice OsYSL9 is a novel transporter for Fe(II)-nicotianamine and
      Fe(III)-deoxymugineic acid that is responsible for internal iron transport,
      especially from endosperm to embryo in developing seeds. Metal chelators are
      essential for safe and efficient metal translocation in plants. Graminaceous
      plants utilize specific ferric iron chelators, mugineic acid family
      phytosiderophores, to take up sparingly soluble iron from the soil. Yellow Stripe
      1-Like (YSL) family transporters are responsible for transport of metal
      phytosiderophores and structurally similar metal-nicotianamine complexes. Among
      the rice YSL family members (OsYSL) whose functions have not yet been clarified,
      OsYSL9 belongs to an uncharacterized subgroup containing highly conserved
      homologs in graminaceous species. In the present report, we showed that OsYSL9
      localizes mainly to the plasma membrane and transports both iron(II)
      nicotianamine and iron(III)-deoxymugineic acid into the cell. Expression of
      OsYSL9 was induced in the roots but repressed in the nonjuvenile leaves in
      response to iron deficiency. In iron-deficient roots, OsYSL9 was induced in the
      vascular cylinder but not in epidermal cells. Although OsYSL9-knockdown plants
      did not show a growth defect under iron-sufficient conditions, these plants were
      more sensitive to iron deficiency in the nonjuvenile stage compared with non
      transgenic plants. At the grain-filling stage, OsYSL9 expression was strongly and
      transiently induced in the scutellum of the embryo and in endosperm cells
      surrounding the embryo. The iron concentration was decreased in embryos of OsYSL9
      knockdown plants but was increased in residual parts of brown seeds. These
      results suggested that OsYSL9 is involved in iron translocation within plant
      parts and particularly iron translocation from endosperm to embryo in developing
      seeds.

PMID- 28871480
TI  - Evaluation of disordered eating tendencies in young adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: It was aimed to determine the prevalence of high disordered eating
      tendencies and its relationship with food addiction, emotional eating and self
      esteem in participants at 18 and 33 years age group. METHODS: This study was
      planned as a cross-sectional study and conducted with 1359 young adult volunteers
      (M = 386, F = 973) with an average age of 22.4 +/- 2.84 years. Eating Attitudes
      Test-26 (EAT-26), Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), Emotional Appetite
      Questionnaire (EMAQ) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) were used. EAT-26
      score above 20 was considered as eating disorders risk cutoff. RESULTS:
      Participants with disordered eating tendencies have higher rates (22.4%) of food
      addiction compared to participants without high disordered eating tendencies
      (7.2%). There is no difference for EMAQ and YFAS scores; however, there is a
      significant difference for RSES and EAT-26 scores according to gender. A positive
      association of EAT-26 with YFAS and EMAQ-negative scores and a negative
      association of EAT-26 with RSES and EMAQ-positive were found. DISCUSSION: There
      is association among EAT-26, YFAS, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Emotional
      Appetite Questionnaire scores. This study provides information for future studies
      about high disordered eating tendencies, food addiction and mood that are thought
      to be important in young adults. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V (cross-sectional
      descriptive study).

PMID- 28871482
TI  - Global sagittal alignment.

PMID- 28871483
TI  - A comprehensive dose assessment of irradiated hand by iridium-192 source in
      industrial radiography.
AB  - Among the various incidents in industrial radiography, inadvertent handling of
      sources by hands is one of the most frequent incidents in which some parts of the
      hands may be locally exposed to high doses. An accurate assessment of extremity
      dose assists medical doctors in selecting appropriate treatments, preventing the
      injury expansion in the region. In this study, a phantom was designed to simulate
      a fisted hand of a radiographer when the worker holds a radioactive source in
      their hands. The local doses were measured using implanted TLDs in the phantom at
      different distances from a source. Furthermore, skin dose distribution was
      measured by Gaf-chromic films in the palm region of the phantom. The reliability
      of the measurements has been studied via analytical as well as Monte-Carlo
      simulation methods. The results showed that the new phantom design can be used
      reliably in extremity dose assessments, particularly at the points next to the
      source.

PMID- 28871481
TI  - Vascular Manifestations in Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS): Is APS a
      Thrombophilia or a Vasculopathy?
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) is characterized
      primarily by thrombosis and pregnancy morbidity. Chronic vascular lesions can
      also occur. While the underlying mechanisms of these vascular lesions are not
      entirely known, there have been multiple theories describing the potential
      process of vasculopathy in APS and the various clinical manifestations associated
      with it. RECENT FINDINGS: Recently, it has been demonstrated that endothelial
      proliferation in kidneys can be explained by the activation of the mammalian
      target of rapamycin complex (mTORC) pathway by antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL).
      These data support the existence of an APS-related vasculopathy in different
      locations which can explain-in part-the different manifestations of APS. This
      review focuses on the various manifestations of APS as a result of APS-related
      vasculopathy, as well as pathophysiology, current screening, and treatment
      options for clinicians to be aware of.

PMID- 28871484
TI  - EPR Oximetry Sensor-Developing a TAM Derivative for In Vivo Studies.
AB  - Oxygenation is one of the most important physiological parameters of biological
      systems. Low oxygen concentration (hypoxia) is associated with various
      pathophysiological processes in different organs. Hypoxia is of special
      importance in tumor therapy, causing poor response to treatment. Triaryl methyl
      (TAM) derivative radicals are commonly used in electron paramagnetic resonance
      (EPR) as sensors for quantitative spatial tissue oxygen mapping. They are also
      known as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents and fluorescence
      imaging compounds. We report the properties of the TAM radical tris(2,3,5,6
      tetrachloro-4-carboxy-phenyl)methyl, (PTMTC), a potential multimodal
      (EPR/fluorescence) marker. PTMTC was spectrally analyzed using EPR and
      characterized by estimation of its sensitivity to the oxygen in liquid
      environment suitable for intravenous injection (1 mM PBS, pH = 7.4). Further,
      fluorescent emission of the radical was measured using the same solvent and its
      quantum yield was estimated. An in vitro cytotoxicity examination was conducted
      in two cancer cell lines, HT-29 (colorectal adenocarcinoma) and FaDu (squamous
      cell carcinoma) and followed by uptake studies. The stability of the radical in
      different solutions (PBS pH = 7.4, cell media used for HT-29 and FaDu cells
      culturing and cytotoxicity procedure, full rat blood and blood plasma) was
      determined. Finally, a primary toxicity test of PTMTC was carried out in mice.
      Results of spectral studies confirmed the multimodal properties of PTMTC. PTMTC
      was demonstrated to be not absorbed by cancer cells and did not interfere with
      luciferin-luciferase based assays. Also in vitro and in vivo tests showed that it
      was non-toxic and can be freely administrated till doses of 250 mg/kg BW via both
      i.v. and i.p. injections. This work illustrated that PTMTC is a perfect candidate
      for multimodal (EPR/fluorescence) contrast agent in preclinical studies.

PMID- 28871485
TI  - Inflammatory Response Occurs in Veins of Broiler Chickens Treated with a Selenium
      Deficiency Diet.
AB  - Selenium (Se) has been indicated to prevent chronic diseases including cancer,
      cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. However, a few studies have
      indicated that Se deficiency can induce vascular diseases. Thus, in the present
      study, we investigated the effect of Se deficiency on vascular pathology. A total
      of 60 male broiler chickens were randomly divided into 2 groups (n = 30). The
      control group (C group) was fed a basic diet, and the Se-deficient group (L
      group) was fed a Se-deficient, corn-soy-based diet. Changes in messenger RNA
      (mRNA) and protein levels of inflammatory factors and inflammation-related
      cytokines were examined by both RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Our results
      indicate that the mRNA and protein levels of inflammatory factors and
      inflammation-related cytokines in the L group were significantly changed in the
      vein. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to define the most
      important parameters that could be used as key factors. The in vitro experiments
      also demonstrated that Se can enhance the anti-inflammatory ability of vein
      endothelial cells. In conclusion, Se deficiency induces an inflammatory response
      by modulating inflammatory factors and inflammation-related cytokines.

PMID- 28871486
TI  - Erratum to: TERT Promoter Mutation and Telomere Length in Salivary Gland Tumors.

PMID- 28871487
TI  - Fabry disease in children: a federal screening programme in Russia.
AB  - : Our objective was to examine the prevalence of Fabry disease in Russian
      children with chronic pain in the distal limbs. This non-interventional, multi
      centre study included children 2-18 years of age with chronic recurrent
      unilateral or bilateral pain, burning, or acroparesthesia in the hands or feet.
      The presence of Fabry disease was defined by abnormal alpha-galactosidase A
      activity in males or alpha-galactosidase gene (GLA) mutation in females. Among
      214 patients (110 males), 84.1% had bilateral limb pain and 31.8% had unilateral
      limb pain recorded at some time point; 61 (28.5%) patients had a positive family
      history possibly associated with Fabry disease. Alpha-galactosidase A activity
      was within the normal range in all 109 of the male patients tested. One female
      patient had a GLA mutation (C937G > T) and alpha-galactosidase A activity within
      the normal range. CONCLUSION: We did not find definitive evidence of Fabry
      disease in these children with a history of chronic recurrent unilateral or
      bilateral limb pain or acroparesthesia. The presence of chronic limb pain does
      not appear to be highly predictive of a diagnosis of Fabry disease in Russian
      children and adolescents, suggesting that key early signs and symptoms of Fabry
      disease are not specific to the disease. What is Known: * Signs and symptoms of
      Fabry disease are seen in children < 10 years of age; pain in the distal limbs is
      a common early symptom. What is New: * Fabry disease was not diagnosed in this
      population of Russian children with a history of chronic limb pain. * The
      presence of acroparesthesia or chronic limb pain does not appear to be highly
      predictive of a diagnosis of Fabry disease in Russian children and adolescents,
      suggesting that these early symptoms of Fabry disease are not specific to the
      disease.

PMID- 28871488
TI  - Radio-Protective Effects of Melatonin on Subventricular Zone in Irradiated Rat:
      Decrease in Apoptosis and Upregulation of Nestin.
AB  - Neural stem cells are self-renewing, multipotent cells that can be found in
      subventricular (SVZ) and subgranular (SGZ) zones of the brain. These zones are
      susceptible to irradiation-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress. Melatonin
      (MLT) is a natural protector of neural cells against toxicity. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the effects of MLT as a radio-protective material effective
      in reducing tissue lesions in the SVZ of the brain and changing local apoptotic
      potential in rats. Twenty-five Gray irradiation was applied on adult rat brain
      for this study. One hour before irradiation, 100 mg/kg/IP MLT was injected, and 6
      h later, the animals were sacrificed. The antioxidant enzymes and MDA activity
      levels were measured post-sacrifice. Also, the expression level of Nestin and
      caspase 3 were studied by immunohistochemistry. Spectrophotometric analysis
      showed significant increases in the amount of malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in the
      irradiation-exposed (RAD) group compared to that of the control (Co) group (P <
      0.05). Pre-treatment with MLT (100 mg/kg) ameliorates the harmful effects of the
      aforementioned 25 Gy irradiation by increasing antioxidant enzyme activity and
      decreasing MDA levels. A significant reduction in apoptotic cells was observed in
      rats treated with MLT 1 h before exposure (P < 0.001). Nestin-positive cells were
      also reduced in the RAD group (P < 0.001). Our results confirm the anti-apoptotic
      and antioxidant role of MLT. The MLT concentration used may serve as a threshold
      for significant protection against 25 Gy gamma irradiations on neural stem cells
      in SVZ.

PMID- 28871489
TI  - What Role for Parental Attributions in Parenting Interventions for Child Conduct
      Problems? Advances from Research into Practice.
AB  - The role of parental attributions in parenting interventions has been the subject
      of intense interest from clinicians and researchers attempting to optimise
      outcomes in treatments for children with conduct problems. Despite research
      articulating the many ways parental attributions can influence behavioural parent
      training (BPT) outcomes, and recognition that addressing parental attributions in
      treatment is one of the great challenges faced by BPT practitioners, parenting
      interventions generally do not provide components that explicitly target or focus
      on changing problematic parental attributions. In this paper, we ask 'Should
      parental attributions be included into best practice interventions? If so, how
      can this be done in a way that improves outcomes without cluttering and
      complicating the parent training model?' We review the theoretical and empirical
      status of our understanding of the role of parental attributions in BPT with
      reference to three questions: 'do pre-treatment parental attributions uniquely
      predict treatment outcomes'; 'do changes in parental attributions uniquely
      predict treatment outcomes'; and 'does targeting parental attributions in BPT
      affect treatment outcomes'. Our review indicates that existing research supports
      the importance of focussing on parental attributions for some families in order
      to maximise treatment outcomes. However, clinical processes for doing this are
      yet to be identified and specified in a way that would allow for manualised
      replication and scrutiny in research designs. We finish with a discussion of how
      these clinical and research challenges could be approached.

PMID- 28871490
TI  - A comparison of the responsiveness of EQ-5D-5L and the QOLIE-31P and mapping of
      QOLIE-31P to EQ-5D-5L in epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the responsiveness of and correlation between the EQ-5D
      5L and the QOLIE-31P in patients with epilepsy, and develop a mapping function to
      predict EQ-5D-5L values based on the QOLIE-31P for use in economic evaluations.
      METHODS: The dataset was derived from two clinical trials, the ZMILE study in the
      Netherlands and the SMILE study in the UK. In both studies, patients' quality of
      life using the EQ-5D-5L and QOLIE-31P was measured at baseline and 12 months
      follow-up. Spearman's correlations, effect sizes (EF) and standardized response
      means (SRM) were calculated for both the EQ-5D-5L and QOLIE-31P domains and sub
      scores. Mapping functions were derived using ordinary least square (OLS) and
      censored least absolute deviations models. RESULTS: A total of 509 patients were
      included in this study. Low to moderately strong significant correlations were
      found between both instruments. The EQ-5D-5L showed high ceiling effects and
      small EFs and SRMs, whereas the QOLIE-31P did not show ceiling effects and also
      showed small to moderate EFs and SRMs. Results of the different mapping functions
      indicate that the highest adjusted R 2 we were able to regress was 0.265 using an
      OLS model with squared terms, leading to a mean absolute error of 0.103.
      CONCLUSIONS: Results presented in this study emphasize the shortcomings of the EQ
      5D-5L in epilepsy and the importance of the development of condition-specific
      preference-based instruments which can be used within the QALY framework. In
      addition, the usefulness of the constructed mapping function in economic
      evaluations is questionable.

PMID- 28871491
TI  - Robust age, but limited sex, differences in mu-opioid receptors in the rat brain:
      relevance for reward and drug-seeking behaviors in juveniles.
AB  - In the brain, the u-opioid receptor (MOR) is involved in reward-seeking behaviors
      and plays a pivotal role in the mediation of opioid use disorders. Furthermore,
      reward-seeking behaviors and susceptibility to opioid addiction are particularly
      evident during the juvenile period, with a higher incidence of opioid use in
      males and higher sensitivity to opioids in females. Despite these age and sex
      differences in MOR-mediated behaviors, little is known regarding potential age
      and sex differences in the expression of MORs in the brain. Here, we used
      receptor autoradiography to compare MOR binding densities between juvenile and
      adult male and female rats. Age differences were found in MOR binding density in
      12 out of 33 brain regions analyzed, with 11 regions showing higher MOR binding
      density in juveniles than in adults. These include the lateral septum, as well as
      sub-regions of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, hippocampus, and
      thalamus. Sex differences in MOR binding density were observed in only two brain
      regions, namely, the lateral septum (higher in males) and the posterior cortical
      nucleus of the amygdala (higher in females). Overall, these findings provide an
      important foundation for the generation of hypotheses regarding differential
      functional roles of MOR activation in juveniles versus adults. Specifically, we
      discuss the possibility that higher MOR binding densities in juveniles may allow
      for higher MOR activation, which could facilitate behaviors that are heightened
      during the juvenile period, such as reward and drug-seeking behaviors.

PMID- 28871492
TI  - Frequency of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea and Related Complications in
      Pediatric Patients Who Underwent Hypospadias Repair: a Comparative Study Using
      Probiotics vs Placebo.
AB  - This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of probiotics (Lactobacillus
      rhamnosus GG), as a preventive measure of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) in
      children who underwent hypospadias repair and its clinical consequences on
      postoperative outcome, comparing the group treated with probiotics + antibiotics
      with two control groups (only antibiotics and antibiotics + placebo). We
      performed a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study with three groups
      of patients (30 boys for each group) who underwent hypospadias repair in our unit
      from March 2016 to December 2016. G1 received antibiotics + probiotics (L.
      rhamnosus GG), while G2 and G3 respectively received only antibiotics or
      antibiotics + placebo (glucose solution at 5%) for the same period. The patients
      were evaluated in regard to the number of evacuations/day, stool consistency, and
      the number of dressings/day. The overall incidence of postoperative AAD was 33.3%
      (30/90), and it was statistically lower in G1 patients compared to G2 and G3 ones
      (p = 0.002). The duration of AAD was significantly longer in G2 and G3 compared
      to G1 (p = 0.001). In G1, the frequency of dressing change was significantly
      lower compared to G2 and G3 (p = 0.001).The incidence of postoperative
      complications (fistula and dehiscence) was significantly higher in G2 and G3
      compared to G1 (p = 0.001). Our study confirmed that the use of probiotic L.
      rhamnosus GG associated with antibiotics significantly reduced the incidence and
      the duration of postoperative AAD. In addition, the use of probiotics LGG reduced
      the frequency of dressing changes and the incidence of postoperative
      complications, such as urethral fistula and foreskin dehiscence.

PMID- 28871494
TI  - Delignification and detoxification of peanut shell bio-waste using an extremely
      halophilic laccase from an Aquisalibacillus elongatus isolate.
AB  - Lignocellulose bioconversion is a harsh process requiring the use of surfactants
      and organic solvents. Consequently, the incorporation of laccases in this
      bioconversion requires the bioprospecting of enzymes that can remain stable under
      extreme conditions. An extracellular, highly stable laccase was produced by the
      halophilic isolate Aquisalibacillus elongatus in submerged liquid culture
      fermentation. Statistical and non-statistical strategies gave the highest
      enzymatic activity (8.02 U mL-1) following addition of glucose (1.7 g L-1),
      copper sulfate (0.8 g L-1), urea (15 g L-1), and CaCl2 (0.8 g L-1). The enzyme,
      after purification using a synthetic affinity support, delignified a peanut shell
      substrate by 45%. A pH of 8.0 and a temperature of 35  degrees C were optimal for
      delignification of this bio-waste material. Addition of [Bmim][PF6], 1,4-dioxane,
      acetone, and HBT promoted this bio-waste delignification. Bio-treatment in the
      presence of 50% [Bmim][PF6] gave a maximal lignin removal of 87%. The surfactants
      tested had no significant effects on the delignification yield. The laccase also
      detoxified the toxic phenols found in peanut shell waste. The high catalytic
      efficiency of this enzyme against a lignocellulosic sample under extreme
      conditions suggests the suitability of this laccase for industrial applications.

PMID- 28871495
TI  - Responding to Other People's Direct Gaze: Alterations in Gaze Behavior in Infants
      at Risk for Autism Occur on Very Short Timescales.
AB  - Atypical gaze processing has been reported in children with autism spectrum
      disorders (ASD). Here we explored how infants at risk for ASD respond
      behaviorally to others' direct gaze. We assessed 10-month-olds with a sibling
      with ASD (high risk group; n = 61) and a control group (n = 18) during
      interaction with an adult. Eye-tracking revealed less looking at the adult in the
      high risk group during 300-1000 ms after the adult initiated direct gaze: a short
      alteration that is likely to go unnoticed by the naked eye. Data aggregated over
      longer segments (the traditional eye-tracking approach) showed no group
      differences. Although findings are limited by lack of outcome data, they are in
      line with theories linking atypical eye processing to the emergence of ASD.

PMID- 28871496
TI  - Factors influencing As(V) stabilization in the mine soils amended with iron-rich
      materials.
AB  - Chemical stability of As(V) in amended mine-impacted soils was assessed according
      to functions of incubation period (0, 1, 2, 4, and 6 months), amendment dose (2.5
      and 5%), and application timing (0 and 3rd month). Six soils contaminated with 26
      209 mg kg-1 of As(V) were collected from two abandoned mine sites and were
      treated with two alkaline iron-rich materials (mine discharge sludge (MS) and
      steel-making slag (SS)). Seventeen to 23% of As(V) in soils was labile. After
      each designated time, As(V) stability was assessed by the labile fractions
      determined with sequential extraction procedures (F1-F5). Over 6 months, a
      reduction (26.9-70.4%) of the two labile fractions (F1 and F2) and a quantitative
      increase (7.4-29.9%) of As(V) in F3 were observed (r 2 = 0.956). Two recalcitrant
      fractions (F4 and F5) remained unchanged. Temporal change of As(V) stability in a
      sample was well described by the two-domain model (k fast, k slow, and Ffast).
      The stabilization (%) correlated well with the fast-stabilizing domain (Ffast),
      clay content (%), and Fe oxide content (mg kg-1), but correlated poorly with
      kinetic rate constants (k fast and k slow). Until the 3rd month, the 2.5%-MS
      amended sample resulted in lower As(V) stabilization (25-40%) compared to the 5%
      sample (50-60%). However, the second 2.5% MS addition on the 2.5% sample upon the
      lapse of the 3rd month led to a substantial reduction (up to 38%) of labile As(V)
      fraction in the following 4th and 6th months. As a result, an additional 15-25%
      of As(V) stability was obtained when splitting the amendment dose into 3-month
      intervals. In conclusion, the As(V) stabilization by Fe-rich amendment is time
      dependent and its efficacy can be improved by optimizing the amendment dose and
      its timing.

PMID- 28871493
TI  - Plant and animal aquaporins crosstalk: what can be revealed from distinct
      perspectives.
AB  - Aquaporins (AQPs) can be revisited from a distinct and complementary perspective:
      the outcome from analyzing them from both plant and animal studies. (1) The
      approach in the study. Diversity found in both kingdoms contrasts with the
      limited number of crystal structures determined within each group. While the
      structure of almost half of mammal AQPs was resolved, only a few were resolved in
      plants. Strikingly, the animal structures resolved are mainly derived from the
      AQP2-lineage, due to their important roles in water homeostasis regulation in
      humans. The difference could be attributed to the approach: relevance in animal
      research is emphasized on pathology and in consequence drug screening that can
      lead to potential inhibitors, enhancers and/or regulators. By contrast, studies
      on plants have been mainly focused on the physiological role that AQPs play in
      growth, development and stress tolerance. (2) The transport capacity. Besides the
      well-described AQPs with high water transport capacity, large amount of evidence
      confirms that certain plant AQPs can carry a large list of small solutes. So far,
      animal AQP list is more restricted. In both kingdoms, there is a great amount of
      evidence on gas transport, although there is still an unsolved controversy around
      gas translocation as well as the role of the central pore of the tetramer. (3)
      More roles than expected. We found it remarkable that the view of AQPs as
      specific channels has evolved first toward simple transporters to molecules that
      can experience conformational changes triggered by biochemical and/or mechanical
      signals, turning them also into signaling components and/or behave as osmosensor
      molecules.

PMID- 28871497
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of a New Swallowable Intragastric Balloon Not Needing
      Endoscopy: Early Italian Experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a new
      intragastric balloon (ElipseTM Balloon, Allurion Technologies, Natick, MA USA)
      not needing endoscopy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The balloon was swallowed under
      fluoroscopy in 38 consecutive patients (F/M 28/10, mean age 46.4 +/- 10.6 years,
      mean weight 109.7 +/- 21.9 kg, and mean body mass index (BMI) 38.6 +/- 6.7
      kg/m2). After 4 months, the balloon spontaneously emptied and it was excreted
      through the digestive tract without upper endoscopy. RESULTS: There were no
      complications during balloon passage. After 16 weeks, the mean weight loss was
      12.7 kg, mean percent excess weight loss was 26%, and mean BMI reduction was 4.2
      kg/m2. Total body weight loss was 11.6%. There was a significant reduction in
      major co-morbidities related to metabolic syndrome: blood pressure (p < 0.02),
      waist circumference (p < 0.002), triglycerides (p < 0.0001), blood glucose (p <
      0.001), and HOMA-IR index (p < 0.001). At the end of the treatment, 37 balloons
      were naturally excreted in the stool, and one balloon was endoscopically removed.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study on 38 consecutive patients demonstrate
      that the ElipseTM Balloon is safe, effective, and very well accepted by patients.

PMID- 28871498
TI  - Tangeretin ameliorates renal failure via regulating oxidative stress, NF-kappaB
      TNF-alpha/iNOS signalling and improves memory and cognitive deficits in 5/6
      nephrectomized rats.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant global health concern with limited
      treatment options. Oxidative stress and inflammatory responses have been
      implicated in the pathology of CKD. Patients with CKD are frequently affected
      with neurological complications that affect both the central and peripheral
      nervous system. Identification of effective treatment strategies are of much
      clinical value in the therapy of CKD. Tangeretin, a plant-derived flavonoid has
      been described to retain extensive pharmacological properties. In the present
      study, we explored whether tangeretin exerted protective effects in 5/6
      nephrectomized rats. CKD was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by 5/6 nephrectomy
      (Nx). Separate groups of 5/6 Nx rats were treated with tangeretin (50, 100 or 200
      mg/kg b.wt.) or enalapril for 30 days (starting 5 days after surgery for 35
      days). Control animals were not subjected to Nx nor were treated with tangeretin
      or enalapril. Renal dysfunction, as evinced by raised serum urea, serum
      creatinine, proteinuria, and histological alterations were significantly reduced
      by tangeretin and enalapril treatment. 5/6 Nx animals exhibited raised levels of
      malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species. Elevated TNF-alpha, nitric
      oxide (NO) and cytokines-IL-6 and IL-1beta with upregulated NF-kappaB/TNF
      alpha/iNOS signalling pathways were effectively down-regulated by tangeretin.
      Cognitive disturbances and memory impairments observed in Nx rats were
      substantially improved by tangeretin. Collectively, the experimental data
      indicate that the anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of tangeretin
      effectively improved renal function and reduced the cognitive and memory
      impairments in CKD-induced animals.

PMID- 28871499
TI  - A Prospective Evaluation of Ileocecal Valve Dysfunction and Intestinal Motility
      Derangements in Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is an increasingly
      recognized clinical syndrome; however, its etiophathogenesis is poorly
      understood. We hypothesized that loss of gastric acid, a delayed intestinal
      transit, and ileocecal valve dysfunction may contribute to the genesis of this
      syndrome. AIMS: Our primary aim was to assess these parameters using wireless
      motility capsule (WMC) testing and to correlate them with the presence or absence
      of SIBO. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated 30 consecutive patients at a
      tertiary care center with suspected SIBO, diagnosed by lactulose hydrogen breath
      testing (LBT), and small bowel aspirate microbiology. Patients underwent WMC
      testing to assess ileocecal junction pressure (ICJP), small bowel transit time
      (SBTT), and regional gastrointestinal pH. RESULTS: Thirty patients completed
      testing; 15 had a positive LBT, and 11 had a positive aspirate culture. As
      compared with LBT-negative patients, ICJP was lower (27.8 vs. 72.7 mmHg, p =
      0.027), SBTT was longer (10.0 vs. 1.1 h, p = 0.004), gastric pH was higher (3.63
      vs. 2.42, p < 0.01), and small bowel pH was higher (6.96 vs. 6.61, p = 0.05). A
      hypotensive ICJP (<46.61 mmHg) was more prevalent in LBT-positive patients as
      compared with LBT-negative patients (73.3 vs. 14.29%, p = 0.003). Logistic
      regression models were used to assess the magnitude of each measured WMC
      parameter and the presence of SIBO. p values <=0.05 were considered statistically
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with SIBO have significantly lower ICJP,
      prolonged SBTT, and a higher gastrointestinal pH as compared to those without
      SIBO. These abnormalities may play different roles in the pathogenesis of SIBO,
      facilitating more targeted treatment to prevent recurrences of SIBO.

PMID- 28871501
TI  - Body mass index is an independent predictive factor for kidney function evaluated
      by glomerular filtration rate in a community-dwelling population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effects of overweight and obesity on kidney function have since
      been identified and become a subject of increased study and concern. But the
      association between body mass index (BMI) and estimated glomerular filtration
      rate (eGFR) is not well characterized. The aim of this study was to determine the
      relationship between BMI and eGFR. METHODS: To better understand the relationship
      between BMI and kidney function, we investigated the association between BMI and
      eGFR using both the baseline BMI level and the follow-up eGFR level and
      investigated the relationship between the change in BMI and the change in eGFR in
      1447 patients from a 4.8-year prospective study in Beijing, People's Republic of
      China. RESULTS: In multiple linear regression analysis, age, antihypertensive
      treatment, and BMI were negatively associated with the follow-up eGFR levels in
      all participants (R = -0.622, -0.926, and -0.266, respectively; P < 0.05), or in
      the elderly (R = -0.883, -1.035, and -0.630, respectively; P < 0.05); sex was
      found to be associated with the follow-up eGFR levels independently not only in
      all participants (R = 6.783; P < 0.001), but also in the elderly (R = 3.518; P <
      0.05). In addition, the change in eGFR levels was positively related to age, the
      change in LDL-C, the change in TC, and the change in SBP, but negatively related
      to the change in BMI and the change in HDL-C (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The
      present study clearly indicated that BMI is an independent predictive factor for
      kidney function evaluated by the eGFR level during a median 4.8 years of follow
      up in Chinese population. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, prospective cohort study.

PMID- 28871502
TI  - Science and Sentiment: Grinnell's Fact-Based Philosophy of Biodiversity
      Conservation.
AB  - At the beginning of the twentieth century, the biologist Joseph Grinnell made a
      distinction between science and sentiment for producing fact-based
      generalizations on how to conserve biodiversity. We are inspired by Grinnellian
      science, which successfully produced a century-long impact on studying and
      conserving biodiversity that runs orthogonal to some familiar philosophical
      distinctions such as fact versus value, emotion versus reason and basic versus
      applied science. According to Grinnell, unlike sentiment-based generalizations, a
      fact-based generalization traces its diverse commitments and thus becomes
      tractable for its audience. We argue that foregrounding tractability better
      explains Grinnell's practice in the context of his time as well as in the context
      of current discourse among scientists over the political "biases" of biodiversity
      research and its problem of "reproducibility."

PMID- 28871500
TI  - Computational neuroanatomy of human stratum proprium of interparietal sulcus.
AB  - Recent advances in diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) and tractography have enabled
      identification of major long-range white matter tracts in the human brain. Yet,
      our understanding of shorter tracts, such as those within the parietal lobe,
      remains limited. Over a century ago, a tract connecting the superior and inferior
      parts of the parietal cortex was identified in a post-mortem study: stratum
      proprium of interparietal sulcus (SIPS; Sachs, Das hemispharenmark des
      menschlichen grosshirns. Verlag von georg thieme, Leipzig, 1892). The tract has
      since been replicated in another fibre dissection study (Vergani et al., Cortex
      56:145-156, 2014), however, it has not been fully investigated in the living
      human brain and its precise anatomical properties are yet to be described. We
      used dMRI and tractography to identify and characterise SIPS in vivo, and
      explored its spatial proximity to the cortical areas associated with optic-flow
      processing using fMRI. SIPS was identified bilaterally in all subjects, and its
      anatomical position and trajectory are consistent with previous post-mortem
      studies. Subsequent evaluation of the tractography results using the linear
      fascicle evaluation and virtual lesion analysis yielded strong statistical
      evidence for SIPS. We also found that the SIPS endpoints are adjacent to the
      optic-flow selective areas. In sum, we show that SIPS is a short-range tract
      connecting the superior and inferior parts of the parietal cortex, wrapping
      around the intraparietal sulcus, and that it may be a crucial anatomy underlying
      optic-flow processing. In vivo identification and characterisation of SIPS will
      facilitate further research on SIPS in relation to cortical functions, their
      development, and diseases that affect them.

PMID- 28871503
TI  - Optimization and in line potentiometric monitoring of enhanced photocatalytic
      degradation kinetics of gemifloxacin using TiO2 nanoparticles/H2O2.
AB  - Gemifloxacin (GEM) is a broad-spectrum quinolone antibiotic. The presence of GEM
      residuals in industrial and hospital wastewater has been associated with
      genotoxicity and antibiotic resistance. In this contribution, the
      photodegradation of GEM using titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs)/H2O2 as a
      catalyst was optimized to eliminate residual drug and its photodegradates with
      antibacterial activity. A half-factorial design was implemented, investigating
      the effects of pH, initial concentration, H2O2 concentration, TiO2NP loading, and
      irradiation time. Owing to the time-dependent, multi-transformation of GEM into a
      wide range of structurally related photodegradation products, the monitoring of
      GEM throughout the experiments was achieved using both HPLC and potentiometric
      ion-selective electrodes (ISE). The sensor enabled in-line tracking of residual
      GEM in the presence of its photodegradates in real time. Results indicated that
      the pH, irradiation time, and GEM initial concentration were the most significant
      factors. At the optimum set of experimental conditions, the reaction followed
      first-order reaction kinetics with a mean percentage degradation of ~ 95% in less
      than 30 min of irradiation time and almost complete loss of antibacterial
      activity against Escherichia coli. The promising results demonstrated the
      efficiency of UV/TiO2NP/H2O2 as a photocatalyst for the breakdown of the
      pharmacophore of fluoroquinolones from water samples. The high selectivity,
      minimal solvent consumption, and lack of harmful waste generation confirmed the
      superiority of in-line monitoring using ISE. Optimization and in-line monitoring
      protocol should be applicable also at the pharmaceutical industry scale to
      eliminate the risk of antibiotic resistance.

PMID- 28871504
TI  - Using EEG Frontal Asymmetry to Predict IT User's Perceptions Regarding
      Usefulness, Ease of Use and Playfulness.
AB  - Information systems (IS) community is increasingly interested in employing
      neuroscience tools and methods in order to develop new theories concerning Human
      computer interaction (HCI) and further understand IS acceptance models. The new
      field of NeuroIS has been introduced to address these issues. NeuroIS researchers
      have proposed encephalography (EEG), among other neuroscience instruments, as a
      valuable usability metric, when used effectively in appropriately designed
      experiments. Moreover, numerous researchers have suggested that EEG frontal
      asymmetry may serve as an important metric of user experience. Based on the
      aforementioned evidence, this study aims to integrate frontal asymmetry with
      Technology acceptance model (TAM). Particularly, we assumed that frontal
      asymmetry might predict users' perceptions regarding Usefulness and Ease of Use.
      Furthermore, we hypothesized that frontal asymmetry might also affect (influence)
      users' Perceived Playfulness. Specifically, 82 (43 females and 39 males)
      undergraduate students were chosen to use a Computer-Based Assessment (while
      being connected to the EEG) in the context of an introductory informatics course.
      Results confirmed our hypothesis as well as points of theory about Information
      technology (IT) acceptance variables. This is one of the first studies to suggest
      that frontal asymmetry could serve as a valuable tool for examining IT acceptance
      constructs and better understanding HCI.

PMID- 28871505
TI  - Changing etiology and management patterns for spontaneous renal hemorrhage: a
      systematic review of contemporary series.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic literature review on spontaneous renal
      hemorrhage (SRH) in a contemporary cohort describing patterns in etiology and
      treatment. METHODS: A systematic search of MEDLINE and CENTRAL databases was
      conducted to include articles, including case reports and case series on SRH
      published from 2000 to 2016. Full-text manuscripts were reviewed for clinical
      parameters which were collated and analyzed with univariate methods. RESULTS:
      Seventy-nine publications met inclusion criteria, reporting on 102 cases. Renal
      neoplasms (56.9%) and polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) (11.8%) remained as the most
      common overall and vascular causes of SRH, respectively. Angiomyolipoma (AML) was
      the most common causative renal neoplasm (74.1%), and patients were more likely
      to be female and present with macroscopic hematuria than those with vasculitis,
      while malignant neoplasms were more common in men. Proportions of SRH due to
      malignant neoplasms (specifically renal cell carcinoma, RCC) were reported less
      than PAN. Among this contemporary series, transarterial embolization (TAE) was
      most commonly used for acute SRH (42.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Renal neoplasms remain as
      the most common cause of SRH, of which AML predominates, while PAN is currently
      the second most common etiology in acute SRH, replacing RCC. Minimally invasive
      approaches, such as TAE and conservative/medical management, were preferred to
      initial surgery. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number
      CRD42017069222.

PMID- 28871506
TI  - Evaluation of Project RISE, an HIV Prevention Intervention for Black Bisexual Men
      Using an Ecosystems Approach.
AB  - Black men who have sex with men and women (MSMW) are among the populations at
      highest risk for HIV infection. We describe the evaluation of Project RISE, a six
      session individual-level intervention developed for black MSMW using an
      ecosystems approach. A randomized controlled trial was used to test the effect of
      the intervention on sexual risk outcomes. Eligibility criteria included having
      both male and female sex partners in the past 12 months. Complete data at 5-month
      follow-up were collected from 86.7% of the 165 participants. In analyses
      controlling for HIV status, age, and baseline risk, intervention participants
      were found to have significantly greater reductions in number of female partners
      (p < 0.05) and total male and female partners (p < 0.05) at follow-up, compared
      to the control group. Intervention participants also were significantly more
      likely to report a reduction in number of sex episodes without a condom with
      female partners (p < 0.05) and with all partners (p < 0.02) at follow-up,
      compared to the control group.

PMID- 28871507
TI  - Delayed post-operative tension pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The incidence of pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis after spinal
      surgery is unknown, with a paucity of literature on this complication. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We present the first published case of delayed onset tension
      pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis associated with spinal surgery. RESULTS: This
      complication occurred from a cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) leak after posterior
      instrumentation removal and was successfully treated with emergent wound
      debridement and the formation of a CSF fistula. CONCLUSIONS: This case
      illustrates that delayed post-operative tension pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis
      can occur after spinal surgery in a patient with a CSF leak. It also illustrates
      that pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis can be easily diagnosed with cross
      sectional CT imaging. Furthermore, in a patient with rapid deterioration emergent
      surgical debridement may be necessary. Lastly, if the dural tear cannot be
      identified intra-operatively, the formalization of a CSF fistula should be
      considered.

PMID- 28871509
TI  - Atypical purging behaviors in a patient with anorexia nervosa: consumption of raw
      red kidney beans as an emetic.

PMID- 28871508
TI  - A Novel Role of a Chemotherapeutic Agent in a Rat Model of Endotoxemia:
      Modulation of the STAT-3 Signaling Pathway.
AB  - Sepsis caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a life-threatening disease
      accompanied by multiple organ failure. This study investigated the curative
      effects of imatinib (IMA) against hepatic, renal, and pulmonary responses caused
      by a single administration of LPS (10 mg/kg, i.p.) in rats. Treatment with IMA
      (15 mg/kg, i.p.) 30 min after LPS antagonized the LPS-induced boost of liver
      enzymes (ALT, AST), kidney functions (BUN, sCr) as well as the elevated pulmonary
      vascular permeability and edema. IMA declined tissue contents of NF-kappaB, STAT
      3, P38-MAPK, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and iNOS. It also amplified the anti
      inflammatory cytokine IL-10 as well as the Bcl-2/Bax ratio, a cardinal indicator
      of the anti-apoptotic effect. Meanwhile, the rats exhibited marked reduction of
      the broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) contents of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IFN
      gamma, and neutrophil count; however, they revealed prominent augmentation of the
      BALF content IL-10. In conclusion, these findings suggest that IMA is endowed
      with anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-apoptotic properties and hence may
      provide a novel agent for the management of sepsis.

PMID- 28871511
TI  - Nurses' work with interruptions: an objective model for testing interventions.
AB  - Interruptions experienced by nurses may lead to errors as their focus and
      attention to multiple patient needs are disrupted. As quantitative models to
      understand the dynamics of interruptions are lacking, the objective of this study
      is a model of a nurse's work with interruptions, generating insights into the
      onset of interruptions and evaluating suggested interventions. We observed nurses
      in a US Level I trauma center for 47.3 h, including 259 interruptions (9.1% of
      total time) across 580 nursing activities. A stochastic, non-stationary, model of
      a nurse's work was developed considering source and activity-dependent
      interruptions, with parameters clustered across similar periods of day. Two
      interventions emulating 'do not disturb' strategies were evaluated, along with a
      more focused intervention from suggestions that nurses' phone calls be 'triaged'.
      Modeled outcomes included the increase in interruptions in other activities due
      to deferment and changes to the beneficial/detrimental interruption (B/D) ratio.
      Across-the-board sequestering of nurses by deferring interruptions during
      medication increased the B/D ratio 17% (1.35 vs. 1.58), but resulted in an
      unforeseen 73% (1.04/h vs. 1.80/h) increase in interruptions during direct care.
      In contrast, the focused intervention (deferring only those interruptions
      arriving via cell phone during medication and direct care), netted a 31%
      improvement in the B/D ratio (1.29 vs. 1.69) and with moderated (< 0.13/h) impact
      on interruptions during other activities. Modeling the dynamics of the onset of
      interruptions reveals the potentially negative impact of across-the-board
      interventions, and the advantage of focused interventions anticipating unmet
      needs before they present as interruptions.

PMID- 28871510
TI  - Cyto-histology in NET: what is necessary today and what is the future?
AB  - The carcinoid as originally described is part of the relatively large family of
      neuroendocrine neoplasia found in almost every organ. Historical reasons back
      their current definitions. Neuroendocrine cancer is most frequently observed in
      the lung and the digestive tract. In the lung is defined as carcinoid (typical
      and atypical) for well differentiated, low to intermediate grade, and small cell
      and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma for poorly differentiated, high grade. In
      the digestive system are respectively defined as neuroendocrine tumor (NET) and
      neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of small and large cell types. Grading and staging
      are developed for their clinical classification by the World Health Organization
      (WHO) and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). In both anatomical sites
      the morphological features are overlapping, with bland histology for carcinoid
      and NET, and aggressive features with extensive necrosis, severe atypia and
      abundant, atypical mitoses for high grade cancer types. Such features are also
      essential diagnostic clues in cytological preparations. The confirmation of the
      neuroendocrine signature by immunohistochemistry is mandatory for the diagnosis;
      a minimum panel comprising chromogranin A and synaptophysin is recommended in the
      digestive system. In addition, the application of grading requires the mitotic
      count and or spotty necrosis assessment for lung, or the mitotic count and the
      Ki67 assessment in the digestive system.

PMID- 28871512
TI  - Decision Making and Priority Setting: The Evolving Path Towards Universal Health
      Coverage.
AB  - Health technology assessment (HTA) is widely viewed as an essential component in
      good universal health coverage (UHC) decision-making in any country. Various HTA
      tools and metrics have been developed and refined over the years, including
      systematic literature reviews (Cochrane), economic modelling, and cost
      effectiveness ratios and acceptability curves. However, while the cost
      effectiveness ratio is faithfully reported in most full economic evaluations, it
      is viewed by many as an insufficient basis for reimbursement decisions. Emotional
      debates about the reimbursement of cancer drugs, orphan drugs, and end-of-life
      treatments have revealed fundamental disagreements about what should and should
      not be considered in reimbursement decisions. Part of this disagreement seems
      related to the equity-efficiency tradeoff, which reflects fundamental differences
      in priorities. All in all, it is clear that countries aiming to improve UHC
      policies will have to go beyond the capacity building needed to utilize the
      available HTA toolbox. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) offers a more
      comprehensive tool for reimbursement decisions where different weights of
      different factors/attributes can give policymakers important insights to
      consider. Sooner or later, every country will have to develop their own way to
      carefully combine the results of those tools with their own priorities. In the
      end, all policymaking is based on a mix of facts and values.

PMID- 28871514
TI  - A Scoping Review of Economic Evaluations Alongside Randomised Controlled Trials
      of Home Monitoring in Chronic Disease Management.
AB  - Many countries have considered telemedicine and home monitoring of patients as a
      solution to the demographic challenges that health-care systems face. However,
      reviews of economic evaluations of telemedicine have identified methodological
      problems in many studies as they do not comply with guidelines. The aim of this
      study was to examine economic evaluations alongside randomised controlled trials
      of home monitoring in chronic disease management and hereby to explore the
      resources included in the programme costs, the types of health-care utilisation
      that change as a result of home monitoring and discuss the value of economic
      evaluation alongside randomised controlled trials of home monitoring on the basis
      of the studies identified. A scoping review of economic evaluations of home
      monitoring of patients with chronic disease based on randomised controlled trials
      and including information on the programme costs and the costs of equipment was
      carried out based on a Medline (PubMed) search. Nine studies met the inclusion
      criteria. All studies include both costs of equipment and use of staff, but there
      is large variation in the types of equipment and types of tasks for the staff
      included in the costs. Equipment costs constituted 16-73% of the total programme
      costs. In six of the nine studies, home monitoring resulted in a reduction in
      primary care or emergency contacts. However, in total, home monitoring resulted
      in increased average costs per patient in six studies and reduced costs in three
      of the nine studies. The review is limited by the small number of studies found
      and the restriction to randomised controlled trials, which can be problematic in
      this area due to lack of blinding of patients and healthcare professionals and
      the difficulty of implementing organisational changes in hospital departments for
      the limited period of a trial. Furthermore, our results may be based on
      assessments of older telemedicine interventions.

PMID- 28871515
TI  - A thermostable pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase from Brevibacillus
      borstelensis LK01 for synthesizing halogenated nucleosides.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To isolate a thermostable pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase (PyNP)
      from mesophilic bacteria by gene mining. RESULTS: BbPyNP from Brevibacillus
      borstelensis LK01 was isolated by gene mining. BbPyNP had a highest 60% identity
      with that of reported PyNPs. BbPyNP could catalyze the phosphorolysis of
      thymidine, 2'-deoxyuridine, uridine and 5-methyuridine. BbPyNP had good
      thermostability and retained 73% of its original activity after 2 h incubation at
      50  degrees C. BbPyNP had the highest activity at an optimum alkaline pH of 8.5.
      BbPyNP was stable from pH 7 to 9.8. Under preliminary optimized conditions, the
      biosynthesis of various 5-halogenated pyrimidine nucleosides by BbPyNP reached
      the yield of 61-84%. CONCLUSION: An efficient approach was estimated in isolating
      thermostable PyNP from mesophilic bacteria.

PMID- 28871516
TI  - Stability and Change in In-Group Mate Preferences among Young People in Ethiopia
      Are Predicted by Food Security and Gender Attitudes, but Not by Expected Pathogen
      Exposures.
AB  - There is broad anthropological interest in understanding how people define
      "insiders" and "outsiders" and how this shapes their attitudes and behaviors
      toward others. As such, a suite of hypotheses has been proposed to account for
      the varying degrees of in-group preference between individuals and societies. We
      test three hypotheses related to material insecurity, pathogen stress, and views
      of gender equality among cross-sectional (n = 1896) and longitudinal (n = 1002)
      samples of young people in Ethiopia (aged 13-17 years at baseline) to explore
      stability and change in their preferences for coethnic spouses. We show that food
      insecurity is associated with a greater likelihood of intolerant mate
      preferences. We also find that young people who hold more gender equitable
      attitudes tended to hold more tolerant mate preferences. Finally, we find no
      support for the hypothesis that expected pathogen exposure is associated with
      intolerant mate preferences. Our results most strongly support a material
      insecurity hypothesis of in-group bias, which assumes that uncertainty over
      meeting basic needs leads people to favor those in their in-group. As such, our
      findings join a small but growing group of studies that highlight the importance
      of material insecurity for understanding tolerance, xenophobia, in-group bias,
      and favoritism.

PMID- 28871517
TI  - Evaluation of the content of Zn, Cu, Ni and Pb as well as the enzymatic activity
      of forest soils exposed to the effect of road traffic pollution.
AB  - The paper evaluates the contents of total forms of selected heavy metals (Zn, Cu,
      Ni and Pb) as well as the activity of catalase (CAT), dehydrogenases (DEH),
      alkaline phosphatase (AlP) and acid phosphatase (AcP) in mineral surface horizons
      of forest soils exposed to the effect of road traffic pollutions. The sampling
      locations (n = 24) were determined in the area covered by the Szubin Forest along
      the exit road from Bydgoszcz to Poznan (provincial road no. 223). Soil was
      sampled 25 m away from the traffic lane, from two depths, 5-20 cm (humus
      horizons) and 20-50 cm (eluvial horizons). The contents of the heavy metals
      analysed were in the order of Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni. Despite intensive road traffic,
      with the Integrated Pollution Index (IPI) calculated, there was found a low
      pollution with nickel, average with zinc and copper and high with lead only.
      However, under the Regulation of the Minister of Environment, heavy metal values
      recorded allow for classifying the soils analysed as soils unpolluted with those
      metals. In the soil samples analysed, there were found significant positive
      dependencies between the content of clay fraction and zinc (r = 0.455; P < 0.05)
      and copper (r = 0.430; P < 0.05). With the enzyme activity results, values of the
      soil resistance index (RS) were calculated. The enzymes analysed were classified
      in the following decreasing order in terms of their resistance to traffic
      pollution: catalase > acid phosphatase > alkaline phosphatase > dehydrogenases
      (humus horizons) and catalase > dehydrogenases > alkaline phosphatase > acid
      phosphatase (eluvial horizons). Organic carbon showed a significant positive
      correlation with the activities of alkaline (r = 0.668; P < 0.05) and acid
      phosphatase (r = 0.668; P < 0.05) however not with catalase and dehydrogenases.

PMID- 28871518
TI  - Temporal integration of soil N2O fluxes: validation of IPNOA station automatic
      chamber prototype.
AB  - The assessment of nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from agricultural soil surfaces
      still poses a major challenge to the scientific community. The evaluations of
      integrated soil fluxes of N2O are difficult owing to their lower emissions when
      compared with CO2. These emissions are also sporadic as environmental conditions
      act as a limiting factor. A station prototype was developed to integrate annual
      N2O and CO2 emissions using an automatic chamber technique and infrared
      spectrometers within the LIFE project (IPNOA: LIFE11 ENV/IT/00032). It was
      installed from June 2014 to October 2015 in an experimental maize field in
      Tuscany. The detection limits for the fluxes were evaluated up to 1.6 ng N-N2O m2
      s-1 and 0.3 MUg C-CO2 m2 s-1. A cross-comparison carried out in September 2015
      with the "mobile IPNOA prototype"; a high-sensibility transportable instrument
      already validated provided evidence of very similar values and highlighted flux
      assessment limitations according to the gas analyzers used. The permanent
      monitoring device showed that temporal distribution of N2O fluxes can be very
      large and discontinuous over short periods of less than 10 days and that N2O
      fluxes were below the detection limit of the instrumentation during approximately
      70% of the measurement time. The N2O emission factors were estimated to 1.9% in
      2014 and 1.7% in 2015, within the range of IPCC assessments.

PMID- 28871520
TI  - Visceral Adiposity and Sarcopenic Visceral Obesity are Associated with Poor
      Prognosis After Resection of Pancreatic Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Visceral fat accumulation and muscle depletion have been identified
      as poor prognostic factors for various cancers. However, the significance of
      visceral adiposity and sarcopenic visceral obesity on outcomes after resection of
      pancreatic cancer remains unclear. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 301
      patients who underwent resection for localized pancreatic cancer between 2004 and
      2015 was performed. The extent of visceral adiposity [visceral to subcutaneous
      adipose tissue area ratio (VSR)] and visceral obesity [visceral fat area (VFA)]
      were measured on preoperative computed tomography images, together with skeletal
      muscle index (SMI) and muscle attenuation (MA). The impacts of these body
      composition parameters on outcomes after pancreatic resection were investigated.
      RESULTS: The overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates in
      patients with high VSR were significantly lower than those in patients with low
      VSR (P = 0.001, P = 0.007, respectively). There were no differences in OS and RFS
      between high VFA and low VFA group; however, when analyzed together with
      sarcopenic factors, OS and RFS rates of the patients with sarcopenic visceral
      obesity were significantly lower compared with those of the others. Multivariate
      analyses revealed that high VSR was an independent risk factor for mortality
      (hazard ratio (HR) 1.58, P = 0.009) and recurrence (HR 1.41, P = 0.026) together
      with low SMI, low MA, high CA19-9, microvascular invasion, and nodal metastasis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Visceral adiposity and sarcopenic visceral obesity, as well as low
      muscle mass and quality, were closely associated with mortality and recurrence
      after resection of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28871519
TI  - A Meta-Analysis of GLP-1 After Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass: Impact of Surgical
      Technique and Measurement Strategy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is an effective treatment for
      diabetes. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a gut hormone that is important to
      glucose homeostasis. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess GLP-1 level and its
      predictors after RYGB. METHODS: The study design was a meta-analysis. The data
      sources were MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Databases. The
      study selection composed of studies with pre- and post-RYGB levels. The main
      outcomes were as follows: Primary outcome was the change in postprandial GLP-1
      levels after RYGB. Secondary outcomes included the changes in fasting glucose,
      fasting insulin, and fasting GLP-1 levels after RYGB. Meta-regression to
      determine predictors of changes in GLP-1 levels was performed. Outcomes were
      reported using Hedge's g. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies with 368 patients were
      included. Postprandial GLP-1 levels increased after RYGB (Hedge's g = 1.29, p <
      0.0001), while fasting GLP-1 did not change (p = 0.23). Peak postprandial GLP-1
      levels gave the most consistent results (I 2 = 9.11). Fasting glucose and insulin
      levels decreased after RYGB (p < 0.0001). Roux limb length was a significant
      predictor for amount of GLP-1 increase (beta = - 0.01, p = 0.02). Diabetes
      status, amount of weight loss, length of biliopancreatic limb, and time of
      measurement were not significant predictors (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Postprandial
      GLP-1 levels increase after RYGB, while fasting levels remain unchanged. Shorter
      Roux limb length is associated with greater increase in postprandial GLP-1, which
      may lead to better glycemic control in this population.

PMID- 28871521
TI  - Astragaloside-IV prevents acute kidney injury and inflammation by normalizing
      muscular mitochondrial function associated with a nitric oxide protective
      mechanism in crush syndrome rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Crush syndrome (CS) is a serious medical condition characterized by
      muscle cell damage resulting from decompression after compression (i.e.,
      ischemia/reperfusion injury). A large number of CS patients develop cardiac
      failure, kidney dysfunction, and systemic inflammation, even when fluid therapy
      is administered. We evaluated whether the administration of astragaloside-IV (AS)
      containing fluid improved survival by preventing kidney and muscular
      mitochondrial dysfunction in a rat model of CS. RESULTS: The CS model was
      generated by subjecting anesthetized rats to bilateral hind limb compression with
      a rubber tourniquet for 5 h. Rats were then randomly divided into four groups:
      (1) sham; (2) CS with no treatment; (3) CS with normal saline treatment; and (4)
      CS with normal saline + 10 mg/kg AS. AS-containing fluid improved kidney function
      by improving shock and metabolic acidosis in CS rats. In addition, there was a
      reduction in oxidative damage. The attenuation of hyperkalemia was significantly
      related to improving muscle injury via preventing mitochondrial dysfunction.
      Moreover, this mitochondria protection mechanism was related to the nitric oxide
      (NO) generated by activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, which provided
      an anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effect. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with AS
      containing fluid led to a dramatic improvement in survival following CS because
      of direct and indirect anti-oxidative effects in the kidney, and improvements in
      mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation owing to AS acting as an NO donor in
      injured muscle.

PMID- 28871522
TI  - The acute toxicity of bisphenol A and lignin-derived bisphenol in algae,
      daphnids, and Japanese medaka.
AB  - Risk assessing newly synthesized chemicals prior to their applications is
      extremely important, if we want to ensure substitution of risky chemicals with
      more benign ones. During the past two decades, many analogs of bisphenol A (BPA)
      have been manufactured, while their toxicity remains less studied. The aim of
      this study was to compare the acute toxicity of a synthesized lignin-derived BPA
      (LD-BP) with that of BPA in representative aquatic organisms including two algal
      species (Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Scenedesmus obliquus), a cladoceran species
      (Daphnia magna), and the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes). The results revealed
      that the two algal species showed different responses to the two chemicals. For
      C. pyrenoidosa, both BPA and LD-BP stimulated growth within 48 h of exposure,
      except for the 50 mg L-1 of LD-BP treatment. After 96 and 144 h of exposures, BPA
      stimulated the growth of C. pyrenoidosa at low-exposure concentrations but
      inhibited its growth at high concentrations, while LD-BP caused a concentration
      dependent response in C. pyrenoidosa. S. obliquus exhibited a monotonic
      concentration-response curve for both BPA and LD-BP exposures. For both D. magna
      and O. latipes, concentration-responses were monotonic with 96 h-LC50 of BPA and
      LD-BP of 11.7 and 5.0 mg L-1 and 9.4 and 4.1 mg L-1, respectively. Our results
      demonstrate that LD-BP is more toxic than BPA in the representative aquatic
      organisms, and it can pose higher ecological risk to the aquatic ecosystem than
      BPA.

PMID- 28871523
TI  - A Personalized Diagnostic and Treatment Approach for Macrophage Activation
      Syndrome and Secondary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis in Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We assessed the clinical features and outcomes based on therapeutic
      options adopted during hospital stay for adult patients with macrophage
      activation syndrome and secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (MAS/sHLH).
      METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all adult patients (age >=
      18 years) diagnosed with MAS/sHLH at our center between 2010 and 2015. Inclusion
      criteria for patients were diagnosis of MAS/sHLH during admission and patients
      meeting at least 5 out of 8 of Henter's criteria or at least 4 out of 6 of the
      criteria that were tested. RESULTS: Nineteen adult patients with MAS/sHLH met the
      inclusion criteria from January 2010 to October 2015 (median age 48 years; female
      68.4%). Treatment had been personalized, depending on the clinical presentation
      and course of disease. Majority of the patients received anakinra, cyclosporine,
      intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG), and steroids. Fourteen (74%) patients
      survived, with clinical improvement by the time of discharge. After excluding the
      three patients with underlying leukemia/lymphoma who opted for palliative care
      and subsequently died, the survival rate was 88%. CONCLUSION: A modified
      diagnostic and treatment protocol for adult patients with MAS/sHLH that
      incorporated graded introduction of medications based on clinical presentation
      and cytokine profile resulted in the best adult survival rate reported in
      literature.

PMID- 28871524
TI  - Comparison of three different methods of internal sinus lifting for elevation
      heights of 7 mm: an ex vivo study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various techniques are available for elevating the sinus membrane.
      The aim of this study is to evaluate three methods of indirect sinus floor
      elevation regarding elevation heights of 7 mm on the outcomes of membrane
      perforation, length of perforation, and time required to perform the procedure.
      METHODS: Three different methods for indirect sinus lifting, bone added osteotome
      sinus floor elevation (BAOSFE), sinus floor elevation with an inflatable balloon,
      and crestal approach system (CAS kit) from OSSTEM, were assessed for their
      ability to lift the sinus without causing laceration of the Schneiderian
      membrane. The study was performed on 18 freshly slaughtered sheep heads (36 sinus
      lifts were done, 12 for each method). CBCT images of the heads were taken to
      assess the best location for the sinus lift. Then, the heads were bisected and
      the membrane was exposed from the medial aspect. After that, each method was
      performed. The intended elevation height was 7 mm. If the 7 mm were not reached,
      the maximum height of elevation was measured. RESULTS: The method used was
      significantly associated with the occurrence of perforation (p value = 0.014)
      where BAOSFE was associated with the largest number of perforations (58.4%, n =
      7) compared to 8.3% and 8.3% for the balloon and CAS kit methods, respectively.
      The odds ratio for perforation occurrence from BAOSFE compared to the CAS kit was
      significant (OR = 0.091, p = .022). No significant odds ratio was found for the
      balloon method compared to CAS kit. Additionally, the method used was
      significantly associated with time of operation and with the length of
      perforation (p value < 0.001) where CAS kit required the longest time and BAOSFE
      caused the biggest perforations. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that both the
      balloon and the CAS kit were superior to the BAOSFE in terms of safety in
      elevating the sinus membrane. Further, in vivo studies have to prove these
      findings.

PMID- 28871525
TI  - Modelling studies for photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes using TiO2
      nanofibers.
AB  - In this work, modelling of the photocatalytic degradation of para-nitrophenol
      (PNP) using synthesized electrospun TiO2 nanofibers under UV light illumination
      is reported. A dynamic model was developed in order to understand the behaviour
      of operating parameters, i.e. light intensity and catalyst loading on the
      photocatalytic activity. This model was simulated and analysed for both TiO2
      solid nanofibers and TiO2 hollow nanofibers, applied as photocatalysts in the
      Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic framework. The entire photocatalytic degradation
      rate follows pseudo-first-order kinetics. The simulated results obtained from the
      developed model are in good agreement with the experimental results. At a
      catalyst loading of 1.0 mg mL-1, better respective degradation rates were
      achieved at UV light irradiance of 4 mW cm-2, for both the TiO2 solid and hollow
      nanofibers. However, it was also observed that TiO2 hollow nanofibers have a
      higher adsorption rate than that of TiO2 solid nanofibers resulting in a higher
      photocatalytic degradation rate of PNP.

PMID- 28871527
TI  - Rapid Eating is Linked to Emotional Eating in Obese Women Relieving from
      Bariatric Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Eating rate is associated with BMI and weight gain in
      various populations, and is a factor modulating the risk of complications after
      bariatric surgery. The aim of the present study is to determine whether common
      difficulties to change eating rate in subjects with obesity candidate to
      bariatric surgery, could be due to more extensive abnormalities in eating
      behavior. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 116
      consecutive female patients attending a nutrition consultation for obesity in a
      specialized center in France. This questionnaire explored eating rate (on an
      analog 10-point analog scale; a score >= 7 defines rapid eating), degree of
      chewing, signs of prandial overeating and scores of emotionality, externality,
      and restrained eating. RESULTS: Average age of the study population was 38.4 +/-
      12.7 years. Mean BMI was 45.5 +/- 6.7, and eating rate was 6.3 +/- 1.8. Rapid
      eating was present in 50.0% of the population. There was an inverse relationship
      between eating rate and degree of chewing (r = -0.59, p < 0.0001). The proportion
      of "rapid eating" patients was significantly higher among those who responded
      "all the time", "very often" or "often" (63.1%), as compared to "sometimes" or
      "never" (25.0%) to the question "Do you feel like you eat too much?" (p <
      0.0001). There was a significant positive correlation between eating rate and
      emotional eating score (r = 0.30, p = 0.001) and external eating score (r = 0.30,
      p = 0.001), but not with restrained eating score. CONCLUSION: These data show
      that rapid eating, by being potentially associated to emotional eating, must be
      considered as an important issue in bariatric surgery.

PMID- 28871526
TI  - Feasibility and acceptability of a prevention program for eating disorders (Me,
      You and Us) adapted for young adolescents in Korea.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the adaptability and acceptability
      of a prevention program. METHODS: A total of 169 Korean students (83 boys and 86
      girls) with a mean age of 12.3 years from a 6th grade class at an elementary
      school participated in the study. Mental health social workers delivered Me, You
      and Us, a school-based body image intervention program originally developed in
      the UK, through a set of six sessions. The participants were assessed in terms of
      their body satisfaction and self-esteem before the program, after the program,
      and at 1-month follow-up. They were also surveyed about their satisfaction and
      acceptability levels after the program. RESULTS: At baseline, girls had lower
      body satisfaction and self-esteem than boys, and their body satisfaction and self
      esteem improved after the program. The improved body satisfaction was maintained
      at the 1-month follow-up. The efficacy of the program on body satisfaction was
      positively correlated with the frequency of their baseline level of "fat talk."
      The program was more effective in girls with possible symptoms of an eating
      disorder at baseline. 93.7% of boys and 77.4% of girls responded that they
      enjoyed the program. CONCLUSIONS: The program Me, You and Us was well-accepted by
      early adolescents in Korea and it can play a role in increasing body satisfaction
      and self-esteem by reducing "fat talk" in 6th grade students. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Level III, cohort study with intervention.

PMID- 28871528
TI  - Co-production of Fructooligosaccharides and Levan by Levansucrase from Bacillus
      subtilis natto with Potential Application in the Food Industry.
AB  - Fructooligosaccharides and levan have a wide range of applications in the food
      industry due to their physiological and functional properties. The enzymatic
      synthesis of these molecules exhibits great advantages when compared with
      microbial fermentation. In this study, the production of levansucrase from
      Bacillus subtilis natto and its utilization in fructooligosaccharides and levan
      syntheses using different reaction conditions were described. The best condition
      for levansucrase production was 420.7 g L-1 of sucrose at pH 7.0, which reached
      23.9 U ml-1 of transfructosylation activity. In a bioreactor, the highest
      production of fructooligosaccharides was 41.3 g L-1 using a medium containing 350
      g L-1 sucrose at 35  degrees C for 36 h. The enzymatic synthesis of levan
      resulted in 86.9 g L-1 when conditions similar to those used for
      fructooligosaccharides synthesis were applied. These results indicate that the
      levansucrase from B. subtilis natto could be applied for the co-production of
      fructooligosaccharides and levan, which are biomolecules that have health
      benefits and are used successfully in the food industry.

PMID- 28871529
TI  - Assessing Metabolic Flux in Plants with Radiorespirometry.
AB  - Carbohydrates are the dominant respiratory substrate in many plant cells.
      However, the route of carbohydrate oxidation varies depending on the relative
      cellular demands for energy, reductant, and precursors for biosynthesis. During
      these processes individual substrate carbon atoms are differentially released as
      carbon dioxide by specific reactions in the network, and this can be measured by
      monitoring the release of 14CO2 from a range of positionally labeled forms of
      [14C]glucose. Although the relative amounts of carbon dioxide produced from
      different carbon positions do not allow precise determination of fluxes, they are
      indicative of the route of carbohydrate utilization. Such information can be used
      to determine whether a comprehensive metabolic flux analysis is merited, and also
      to facilitate independent verification of flux maps generated by other
      techniques. This chapter describes an approach to determine and interpret the
      pattern of oxidation of carbohydrates by monitoring 14CO2 release during
      metabolism of exogenously supplied [1-14C]-, [2-14C]-, [3,4-14C]-, and [6
      14C]glucose. The method is exemplified by studies on Arabidopsis cell suspension
      cultures, but the protocol can be easily adapted for the investigation of other
      plant materials.

PMID- 28871530
TI  - Coupling Radiotracer Experiments with Chemical Fractionation for the Estimation
      of Respiratory Fluxes.
AB  - Carbohydrates catabolized via respiratory processes are not only used for energy
      production but also for biosynthesis of cellular components including soluble
      molecules (sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and their derivatives) and
      insoluble macromolecules (proteins, starch, and cell wall). Radiotracer
      experiments using 14C-labeled glucose provide a global picture of the fate of
      respired carbon in the metabolic network. This method is based on a chemical
      fractionation of biomolecules in 14C-glucose fed plant materials and the
      subsequent determination of radioactivity in each fraction. Metabolic flux into
      each fraction can be estimated from the specific activity of the hexose phosphate
      pool. Here, we describe the procedure for glucose metabolism in potato tuber but
      similar protocols can be adopted for various plant organs and substrates.

PMID- 28871531
TI  - A Method for Imaging Oxygen Distribution and Respiration at a Microscopic Level
      of Resolution.
AB  - Conventional oxygen (micro-) sensors assess oxygen concentration within a
      particular region or across a transect of tissue, but provide no information
      regarding its bidimensional distribution. Here, a novel imaging technology is
      presented, in which an optical sensor foil (i.e., the planar optode) is attached
      to the surface of the sample. The sensor converts a fluorescent signal into an
      oxygen value. Since each single image captures an entire area of the sample
      surface, the system is able to deduce the distribution of oxygen at a resolution
      level of few micrometers. It can be deployed to dynamically monitor oxygen
      consumption, thereby providing a detailed respiration map at close to cellular
      resolution. Here, we demonstrate the application of the imaging tool to
      developing plant seeds; the protocol is explained step by step and some potential
      pitfalls are discussed.

PMID- 28871532
TI  - VisiSens Technique to Measure Internal Oxygen and Respiration in Barley Roots.
AB  - Respiration is vital for production of energy in plants where oxygen is essential
      for conducting respiration. Internal oxygen levels in plants depend on
      respiratory rates. Tissues such as underground roots experience hypoxia due to
      their isolation from atmospheric oxygen and their internal oxygen depends on
      tissue size and local oxygen in soil and rhizosphere. Here, we used the ViSisens
      imaging technique, in which an optical sensor foil (i.e., the planar optode) is
      attached surface of root. This sensor measures oxygen values from fluorescence.
      Visisens microscope captures an entire area root surface and gives profile of
      internal oxygen. Interestingly, this system is also able to measure respiratory
      rate by measuring oxygen levels in a vial that contains root tissue.

PMID- 28871533
TI  - MultiSense: A Multimodal Sensor Tool Enabling the High-Throughput Analysis of
      Respiration.
AB  - The high-throughput analysis of respiratory activity has become an important
      component of many biological investigations. Here, a technological platform,
      denoted the "MultiSense tool," is described. The tool enables the parallel
      monitoring of respiration in 100 samples over an extended time period, by
      dynamically tracking the concentrations of oxygen (O2) and/or carbon dioxide
      (CO2) and/or pH within an airtight vial. Its flexible design supports the
      quantification of respiration based on either oxygen consumption or carbon
      dioxide release, thereby allowing for the determination of the physiologically
      significant respiratory quotient (the ratio between the quantities of CO2
      released and the O2 consumed). It requires an LED light source to be mounted
      above the sample, together with a CCD camera system, adjusted to enable the
      capture of analyte-specific wavelengths, and fluorescent sensor spots inserted
      into the sample vial. Here, a demonstration is given of the use of the MultiSense
      tool to quantify respiration in imbibing plant seeds, for which an appropriate
      step-by-step protocol is provided. The technology can be easily adapted for a
      wide range of applications, including the monitoring of gas exchange in any kind
      of liquid culture system (algae, embryo and tissue culture, cell suspensions,
      microbial cultures).

PMID- 28871534
TI  - Measurement of Respiration and Internal Oxygen in Germinating Cicer arietinum L.
      Seeds Using Optic Microsensor.
AB  - Internal oxygen concentrations vary in different tissues depending on tissue
      size, developmental stage, and their location. Respiratory rate of tissue also
      determines internal oxygen levels. For studying various signaling pathways it is
      essential to establish a correlation between respiration and internal oxygen.
      Seed germination is associated with increase in respiration which can dictate the
      internal oxygen and subsequent production of reactive oxygen species. Using optic
      oxygen microsensor we made an attempt to measure respiratory rate and internal
      oxygen. We found that microsensor is able to sense internal oxygen and it is also
      possible to measure oxygen levels in a close vial that contains seeds. Step-by
      step protocol is described here along with illustration.

PMID- 28871535
TI  - Using an Oxygen Microsensor to Measure Oxygen Dynamics in Tomato Plants in
      Response to Pseudomonas syringae Infection.
AB  - Pathogen infection leads to induction of defense responses which includes
      modulation of gene expression and changes in metabolism plants. Despite  of
      extensive research little is information known about the role of respiration and
      photosynthesis during pathogen infection in plants. Limited methods are available
      to measure oxygen dynamics in response to pathogen infection. Here by using an
      oxygen microsensor we measured oxygen changes in tomato plants infected with
      avirulent Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. In this method plant is placed
      in a closed chamber and change in oxygen levels can be measured by an oxygen
      sensor.

PMID- 28871536
TI  - Measurement of Oxygen Status in Arabidopsis Leaves Undergoing the Hypersensitive
      Response During Pseudomonas Infection.
AB  - When plants are infected with pathogens they defend themselves via various
      processes. Once such process is the development of the hypersensitive response
      (HR), a kind of programmed cell death (PCD), in which localized cell death takes
      place in order to prevent pathogen spread to other part of tissue. The
      Arabidopsis and Pseudomonas syringae system is one of the best known examples to
      study the HR. Here we used the VisiSensTM oxygen-imaging system to investigate
      oxygen distributions in Arabidopsis leaves infected with an avirulent strain of
      P. syringae and undergoing the hypersensitive response. Using this method we
      observed a change in oxygen status at 6 h post-infection and a drop in oxygen
      levels at 24 h after infection.

PMID- 28871537
TI  - Isolation of Physiologically Active and Intact Mitochondria from Chickpea.
AB  - Chickpea is an important leguminous crop that belongs to Fabaceae family, highly
      valued for its nutritious seeds. Seeds contain reserve food for the developing
      embryos. Mitochondria are crucial organelle for generation of chemical energy in
      the form of ATP which is required for achieving metabolically active state;
      therefore, investigating mitochondrial function and respiration rate is crucial
      for exploring various metabolic and physio-biochemical changes that occur during
      seed germination. Here we describe a method for isolation of mitochondria from
      germinating seeds of two chickpea varieties, i.e., Desi and Kabuli. Structure of
      Mitotracker-stained isolated mitochondria was observed by confocal microscopy and
      respiration rate was measured using an oxygen microsensor.

PMID- 28871538
TI  - Isolation and Structural Studies of Mitochondria from Pea Roots.
AB  - For structural and respiratory studies, isolation of intact and active
      mitochondria is essential. Here, we describe an isolation method which gave good
      yield and intact mitochondria from 2-week-old pea (Pisum sativum) roots grown
      hydroponically under standard growth conditions. We used Percoll gradient
      centrifugation for this isolation procedure. The yield of purified mitochondria
      was 50 MUg/g FW. Isolated mitochondria maintained their structure which was
      observed by using MitoTracker green in confocal microscope and scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM). Intact mitochondria are clearly visible in SCM images. Taken
      together this isolation method can be used for physiological and microscopic
      studies on mitochondria.

PMID- 28871539
TI  - Mitochondrial Respiration and Oxygen Tension.
AB  - Measurements of respiration and oxygen tension in plant organs allow a precise
      understanding of mitochondrial capacity and function within the context of
      cellular oxygen metabolism. Here we describe methods that can be routinely used
      for the isolation of intact mitochondria, and the determination of respiratory
      electron transport, together with techniques for in vivo determination of oxygen
      tension and measurement of respiration by both CO2 production and O2 consumption
      that enables calculation of the respiratory quotient [CO2]/[O2].

PMID- 28871540
TI  - Isolation of Mitochondria from Model and Crop Plants.
AB  - The ability to isolate intact and functional mitochondria has greatly deepened
      our understanding of mitochondrial structure and function. With the advancement
      of molecular biology techniques and progression into omics-based research over
      recent decades, mitochondrial research has shifted from crop species such as
      wheat, pea, and potato to genetically sequenced models such as Arabidopsis
      thaliana and rice. Although there are many attributes that make model species
      particularly appealing for plant research, they are often less than ideal for
      conducting biochemical investigations and as such, considerable modification to
      mitochondrial isolation methods has been made.As the cost of genome sequencing
      continues to decrease however, an increasing number of crop species are now being
      sequenced and with these new resources it appears that the research community is
      turning back toward crop research. In this chapter we present mitochondrial
      isolation methods using density gradient centrifugation for both model species
      such as Arabidopsis thaliana, rice, and Medicago and crop species including
      wheat, potato, and pea. In addition, we present a number of marker enzyme assays
      to confirm mitochondrial purity as well as respiratory assays to determine outer
      membrane integrity and respiratory function of isolated mitochondria.

PMID- 28871541
TI  - Procedures of Mitochondria Purification and Gene Expression to Study Alternative
      Respiratory and Uncoupling Pathways in Fruits.
AB  - We describe detailed procedures to get intact and well-coupled mitochondria from
      a variety of fruit species such as papaya (Carica papaya), guava (Psidium
      guajava), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) as
      well as the protocols to assess the capacities of AOX and UCP pathways in intact
      fruit mitochondria. The procedures presented here were tested for the species
      mentioned above; their use with other types of fruits must be tested for yield of
      intact and active mitochondria. This is possible from individual adjustments.
      Strict care during extraction, including the use of osmotic protectants (i.e.,
      mannitol/sucrose) and antioxidants (i.e., cysteine, ascorbate) at defined
      concentrations, are critical factors to ensure mitochondrial integrity and to
      obtain higher yields. The mitochondria purified using the discontinuous Percoll
      gradients described here can be used for the analysis of the capacity of
      alternative respiration and uncoupling pathways in fruits. In addition, protocols
      for quantitative and semiquantitative PCR applicable for the analysis of AOX and
      UCP gene expression in fruits are shown. Microarray and RNA-seq data from public
      databases are also valuable for the analysis of AOX and UCP genes. In both cases
      having the sequences of genes or cDNAs to be used in primer design or probe
      identification is necessary.

PMID- 28871542
TI  - Measurement of Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle Enzyme Activities in Plants.
AB  - Mitochondria are vital cytoplasmic organelle of eukaryotic cells responsible for
      oxidative energy metabolism and the synthesis of intermediates utilized in
      various other metabolic pathways. The functions of mitochondrion are the
      oxidation of organic acids by the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and the
      synthesis of ATP by the oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondrial electron
      transport chain. The TCA cycle is composed by a set of enzymes that are essential
      for optimal functioning of the primary carbon metabolism in plants. The activity
      of each TCA cycle enzyme in plants may vary according to cell type, plant tissue,
      stage of plant development, and the environment. Here, we describe current
      methods used for the determination of the TCA cycle enzyme activities in
      different plant tissues.

PMID- 28871543
TI  - Respiration Traits as Novel Markers for Plant Robustness Under the Threat of
      Climate Change: A Protocol for Validation.
AB  - Respiration traits allow calculating temperature-dependent carbon use efficiency
      and prediction of growth rates. This protocol aims (1) to enable validation of
      respiration traits as non-DNA biomarkers for breeding on robust plants in support
      of sustainable and healthy plant production; (2) to provide an efficient, novel
      way to identify and predict functionality of DNA-based markers (genes,
      polymorphisms, edited genes, transgenes, genomes, and hologenomes), and (3) to
      directly help farmers select robust material appropriate for a specified region.
      The protocol is based on applying isothermal calorespirometry and consists of
      four steps: plant tissue preparation, calorespirometry measurements, data
      processing, and final validation through massive field-based data.The methodology
      can serve selection and improvement for a wide range of crops. Several of them
      are currently being tested in the author's lab. Among them are important cereals,
      such as wheat, barley, and rye, and diverse vegetables. However, it is critical
      that the protocol for measuring respiration traits be well adjusted to the plant
      species by considering deep knowledge on the specific physiology and functional
      cell biology behind the final target trait for production. Here, Daucus carota L.
      is chosen as an advanced example to demonstrate critical species-specific steps
      for protocol development. Carrot is an important global vegetable that is grown
      worldwide and in all climate regions (moderate, subtropical, and tropical).
      Recently, this species is also used in my lab as a model for studies on
      alternative oxidase (AOX) gene diversity and evolutionary dynamics in interaction
      with endophytes.

PMID- 28871544
TI  - Calorespirometry: A Novel Tool in Functional Hologenomics to Select "Green"
      Holobionts for Biomass Production.
AB  - Endophytes can diversify temperature response and biomass production in plants
      and microalgae. Natural and inoculated endophytes that modify growth performance
      are increasingly considered in research and practical initiatives for sustainable
      agriculture. However, efficient, novel tools are required that are able to
      support identification of differential effects of native endophyte populations
      and for pre-selection of inocula.This protocol gives instructions for applying
      calorespirometry as a rapid means for identifying differential effects of
      endophytes on temperature response and predicted biomass productivity in
      microalgae and plant holobionts. The protocol can help discriminating
      hologenomes, genes, and molecular neutral or functional markers for microalgae
      strain and plant improvement. Here, we focus on the microalga Chlorella vulgaris
      and associated microorganisms as an example for highlighting the methodology for
      its integration in research and application.

PMID- 28871545
TI  - Measurements of Electron Partitioning Between Cytochrome and Alternative Oxidase
      Pathways in Plant Tissues.
AB  - Plant respiration is characterized by the existence of the alternative oxidase
      pathway (AOP) that competes with cytochrome oxidase pathway (COP) for the
      electrons of the ubiquinone pool of the mitochondrial electron transport chain,
      thus reducing ATP synthesis. The oxygen (O2) isotope fractionation technique is
      the only available to determine the electron partitioning between the two
      pathways and their in vivo activities in plant tissues. In this chapter, the
      basis of the O2 isotope fractionation technique and its derived calculations are
      carefully explained together with a detailed description of the dual-inlet
      isotope ratio mass spectrometry (DI-IRMS) system and the protocol developed at
      the University of Balearic Islands. The key advantages of the DI-IRMS over other
      systems are highlighted as well as the potential problems of this technique.
      Among these problems, those associated with leakage, diffusion, and inhibitor
      treatments are noted and solutions to prevent, detect, and repair these problems
      are detailed.

PMID- 28871546
TI  - A Driving Bioinformatics Approach to Explore Co-regulation of AOX Gene Family
      Members During Growth and Development.
AB  - The alternative oxidase (AOX) gene family is a hot candidate for functional
      marker development that could help plant breeding on yield stability through more
      robust plants based on multi-stress tolerance. However, there is missing
      knowledge on the interplay between gene family members that might interfere with
      the efficiency of marker development. It is common view that AOX1 and AOX2 have
      different physiological roles. Nevertheless, both family member groups act in
      terms of molecular-biochemical function as "typical" alternative oxidases and co
      regulation of AOX1 and AOX2 had been reported. Although conserved sequence
      differences had been identified, the basis for differential effects on physiology
      regulation is not sufficiently explored.This protocol gives instructions for a
      bioinformatics approach that supports discovering potential interaction of AOX
      family members in regulating growth and development. It further provides a
      strategy to elucidate the relevance of gene sequence diversity and copy number
      variation for final functionality in target tissues and finally the whole plant.
      Thus, overall this protocol provides the means for efficiently identifying plant
      AOX variants as functional marker candidates related to growth and development.

PMID- 28871547
TI  - A Step-by-Step Protocol for Classifying AOX Proteins in Flowering Plants.
AB  - The potential of alternative oxidase (AOX) genes to develop functional markers
      for plant breeding programs has been emphasized. In this sense, it is essential
      to have a reliable classification system, which could aid in the selection of
      candidate AOX genes from different species. In the case of angiosperms AOX, a
      robust classification system is required because this enzyme is encoded by
      variable gene numbers (1-6 genes) with variable AOX subfamilies and subtypes.
      Thus, in this protocol, we present a detailed guideline to application of a
      classification scheme of AOX based on specific amino acids and phylogeny. We
      believe that this classification protocol provides an easier and practical way of
      classifying new angiosperm AOX genes besides that it can help to standardize AOX
      gene names used in AOX research community.

PMID- 28871548
TI  - Studying Individual Plant AOX Gene Functionality in Early Growth Regulation: A
      New Approach.
AB  - AOX1 and AOX2 genes are thought to play different physiological roles. Whereas
      AOX1 is typically expected to associate to stress and growth responses, AOX2 was
      more often found to be linked to development and housekeeping functions. However,
      this view is questioned by several adverse observations. For example, co
      regulated expression for DcAOX1 and DcAOX2a genes was recently reported during
      growth induction in carrot (Daucus carota L.). Early expression peaks for both
      genes during the lag phase of growth coincided with a critical time point for
      biomass prediction, a result achieved by applying calorespirometry. The effect of
      both AOX family member genes cannot easily be separated. However, separate
      functional analysis is required in order to identify important gene-specific
      polymorphisms or patterns of polymorphisms for functional marker development and
      its use in breeding. Specifically, a methodology is missing that enables studying
      functional effects of individual genes or polymorphisms/polymorphic patterns on
      early growth regulation.This protocol aims to provide the means for identifying
      plant alternative oxidase (AOX) gene variants as functional markers for early
      growth regulation. Prerequisite for applying this protocol is available
      Schizosaccharomyces pombe strains that were transformed with individual AOX genes
      following published protocols from Anthony Moore's group (Albury et al., J Biol
      Chem 271:17062-17066, 1996; Affourtit et al., J Biol Chem 274:6212-6218, 1999).
      The novelty of the present protocol comes by modifying yeast cell densities in a
      way that allows studying critical qualitative and quantitative effects of AOX
      gene variants (isoenzymes or polymorphic genes) during the early phase of growth.
      Calorimetry is used as a novel tool to confirm differences obtained by optical
      density measurements in early growth regulation by metabolic phenotyping
      (released heat rates). This protocol enables discriminating between AOX genes
      that inhibit growth and AOX genes that enhance growth under comparable
      conditions. It also allows studying dependency of AOX gene effects on gene copy
      number. The protocol can also be combined with laser microdissection of
      individual cells from target tissues for specified breeding traits.

PMID- 28871549
TI  - Laser Capture Microdissection for Amplification of Alternative Oxidase (AOX)
      Genes in Target Tissues in Daucus carota L.
AB  - Laser microdissection provides a useful method for isolating specific cell types
      from complex biological samples for downstream applications. In contrast to the
      texture of mammalian cells, most plant tissues exhibit a cell organization with
      hard, cellulose-containing cell walls, large vacuoles, and air spaces, thus
      complicating tissue preparation and extraction of macromolecules such as DNA. In
      this study, we report a method that allows tissue-specific gene amplification. An
      improved perception of genetic identity of the entire plant can contribute to
      improved functional marker strategies. Alternative oxidase (AOX) has crucial
      position for stress-induced responses/adaptation. Daucus carota sequence
      polymorphisms in AOX were identified, however, never at tissue/cell level. This
      technology will support studying AOX gene sequences in carrot
      organs/tissues/cells and specifically exploring differential polymorphisms in
      root meristem that might be associated to adaptive growth upon all kind of
      stresses. Details on aspects of tissue preparation, including fixation and
      embedding procedures, laser capture microdissection, DNA extraction, and
      amplification, are provided. A combination of laser microdissection and
      polymerase chain reaction amplification provides a powerful tool for the analysis
      of AOX gene amplification in methacarn-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

PMID- 28871550
TI  - Measurement of Mitochondrial Respiration in Isolated Protoplasts: Cytochrome and
      Alternative Pathways.
AB  - The electron partitioning between COX and AOX pathways of mitochondria and their
      coordination is necessary to meet the energy demands as well as to maintain
      optimized redox status in plants under varying environmental conditions. The
      relative contribution of these two pathways to total respiration is an important
      measure during a given stress condition. We describe in detail the procedure that
      allows the measurement of the parameters of COX and AOX pathway of respiration in
      mesophyll protoplasts using Clark-type O2 electrode. This chapter also lists the
      steps for rapid isolation procedure for mesophyll protoplasts from pea leaves.
      The advantages and limitations of the use of metabolic inhibitors and the
      protoplasts for measuring the respiration are also briefly discussed.

PMID- 28871551
TI  - Measuring Spatial and Temporal Oxygen Flux Near Plant Tissues Using a Self
      Referencing Optrode.
AB  - Self-referencing optrodic microsensing is a noninvasive method for measuring
      oxygen transport into/from tissues. The sensing mechanism is based on
      fluorescence quenching by molecular oxygen at the tip of a fiber-optic probe, and
      facilitates microscale spatial mapping and continuous monitoring at 100-350 mHz
      sampling frequency. Over the last decade, this technique has been applied for
      plant tissues, including roots, seeds, leaves, and flowers in both liquid and
      air. Here, we describe the operating principle of self-referencing optrodic
      microsensing for the study of plant tissues with a specific focus on juvenile
      roots.

PMID- 28871553
TI  - Treatment with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in the refeeding phase of
      anorexia nervosa complicated with severe neutropenia and sepsis: a case report.
AB  - Leukopenia is frequently observed in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN).
      However, serious infectious diseases are infrequent in patients with AN. We
      present the case of a 13-year-old girl with AN complicated with severe
      neutropenia and sepsis upon refeeding. Her body mass index was 11 kg/m2 and her
      absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was 1555/uL on admission. After the initiation of
      refeeding, her ANC gradually declined to 346/uL. High fever occurred and a blood
      culture tested positive for Enterobacter cloacae. Although fever subsided with
      administration of antibiotics, human recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating
      factor (G-CSF) was administered to improve her severe neutropenia. After
      administration of G-CSF, initially for 5 days and again for 3 days, her ANC
      became normal and stable. The combination of neutropenia and low body mass index
      may contribute to severe bacterial infection. Usually, hematological
      abnormalities such as neutropenia improve spontaneously with the recovery of
      nutritional status in AN patients. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the
      indication for treatment with G-SCF. Although a careful consideration is
      required, treatment with G-CSF is effective in AN patients with sepsis caused by
      severe neutropenia.

PMID- 28871552
TI  - Lessons from a tarantula: new insights into myosin interacting-heads motif
      evolution and its implications on disease.
AB  - Tarantula's leg muscle thick filament is the ideal model for the study of the
      structure and function of skeletal muscle thick filaments. Its analysis has given
      rise to a series of structural and functional studies, leading, among other
      things, to the discovery of the myosin interacting-heads motif (IHM). Further
      electron microscopy (EM) studies have shown the presence of IHM in frozen
      hydrated and negatively stained thick filaments of striated, cardiac, and smooth
      muscle of bilaterians, most showing the IHM parallel to the filament axis. EM
      studies on negatively stained heavy meromyosin of different species have shown
      the presence of IHM on sponges, animals that lack muscle, extending the presence
      of IHM to metazoans. The IHM evolved about 800 MY ago in the ancestor of Metazoa,
      and independently with functional differences in the lineage leading to the slime
      mold Dictyostelium discoideum (Mycetozoa). This motif conveys important
      functional advantages, such as Ca2+ regulation and ATP energy-saving mechanisms.
      Recent interest has focused on human IHM structure in order to understand the
      structural basis underlying various conditions and situations of scientific and
      medical interest: the hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies, overfeeding
      control, aging and hormone deprival muscle weakness, drug design for
      schistosomiasis control, and conditioning exercise physiology for the training of
      power athletes.

PMID- 28871554
TI  - The Impact of Histologic Phenotype in the Treatment of Sinonasal Cancer.
AB  - The management of sinonasal cancer is a challenge due to its low occurrence and
      anatomical and significant diversity of histological types. The therapeutic
      modality used should be tailored individually according to the histology, tumour
      stage, molecular profile and previous treatments. The clinical management of
      sinonasal cancer has improved greatly owing to developments in endoscopic surgery
      and precision radiotherapy. Complete surgical resection is the mainstay of
      sinonasal malignancies' management but multimodality therapy is associated with
      improved outcomes in certain histologies. The recognition of various histological
      types with biological behaviours more suitable for non-surgical modalities has
      allowed treatment protocols to become more tailored to the disease. In this
      review we aim to describe and to summarise the current data guiding the
      management of sinonasal cancer with emphasis on phenotypic variation.

PMID- 28871555
TI  - Prediction of membrane fouling using artificial neural networks for wastewater
      treated by membrane bioreactor technologies: bottlenecks and possibilities.
AB  - Membrane fouling is a major concern for the optimization of membrane bioreactor
      (MBR) technologies. Numerous studies have been led in the field of membrane
      fouling control in order to assess with precision the fouling mechanisms which
      affect membrane resistance to filtration, such as the wastewater characteristics,
      the mixed liquor constituents, or the operational conditions, for example.
      Worldwide applications of MBRs in wastewater treatment plants treating all kinds
      of influents require new methods to predict membrane fouling and thus optimize
      operating MBRs. That is why new models capable of simulating membrane fouling
      phenomenon were progressively developed, using mainly a mathematical or numerical
      approach. Faced with the limits of such models, artificial neural networks (ANNs)
      were progressively considered to predict membrane fouling in MBRs and showed
      great potential. This review summarizes fouling control methods used in MBRs and
      models built in order to predict membrane fouling. A critical study of the
      application of ANNs in the prediction of membrane fouling in MBRs was carried out
      with the aim of presenting the bottlenecks associated with this method and the
      possibilities for further investigation on the subject.

PMID- 28871557
TI  - Anatomy of the Transverse Mesocolon Based on Embryology for Laparoscopic Complete
      Mesocolic Excision of Right-Sided Colon Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To treat colon cancer via complete mesocolic excision (CME) with
      central vascular ligation (CVL), dissection along the embryologic fusion planes
      is required. However, this surgery is difficult, especially for right-sided colon
      cancer, because the anatomy and embryology of the transverse mesocolon are not
      familiar to gastrointestinal surgeons. METHODS: In this video article, the
      anatomic details of the transverse mesocolon based on embryology are illustrated
      with a focus on the venous anatomy. Dissection of the transverse mesocolon along
      the embryologic planes using a cranial approach during laparoscopic right
      hemicolectomy also is presented. RESULTS: During the development of the primitive
      gastrointestinal tract, the transverse mesocolon locates between the terminal
      portion of the midgut and the beginning of the hindgut. After 270 degrees 
      counterclockwise rotation of the primary intestinal loop, the transverse
      mesocolon fuses with the frontal surface of the duodenum and pancreas.
      Simultaneously, the greater omentum hangs down from the greater curvature of the
      stomach in front of the transverse colon and fuses with the transverse mesocolon.
      Moreover, the drainage vein of the right colon sometimes joins the right
      gastroepiploic vein, and the gastrocolic trunk is formed. Anatomic complexity of
      the transverse mesocolon is caused by rotation and fusion of the gastrointestinal
      tract during embryologic development. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge concerning these
      embryologic peculiarities of the transverse mesocolon should be useful in the
      performance of laparoscopic CME with CVL for right-sided colon cancer.

PMID- 28871556
TI  - Lessons from a tarantula: new insights into muscle thick filament and myosin
      interacting-heads motif structure and function.
AB  - The tarantula skeletal muscle X-ray diffraction pattern suggested that the myosin
      heads were helically arranged on the thick filaments. Electron microscopy (EM) of
      negatively stained relaxed tarantula thick filaments revealed four helices of
      heads allowing a helical 3D reconstruction. Due to its low resolution (5.0 nm),
      the unambiguous interpretation of densities of both heads was not possible. A
      resolution increase up to 2.5 nm, achieved by cryo-EM of frozen-hydrated relaxed
      thick filaments and an iterative helical real space reconstruction, allowed the
      resolving of both heads. The two heads, "free" and "blocked", formed an
      asymmetric structure named the "interacting-heads motif" (IHM) which explained
      relaxation by self-inhibition of both heads ATPases. This finding made tarantula
      an exemplar system for thick filament structure and function studies. Heads were
      shown to be released and disordered by Ca2+-activation through myosin regulatory
      light chain phosphorylation, leading to EM, small angle X-ray diffraction and
      scattering, and spectroscopic and biochemical studies of the IHM structure and
      function. The results from these studies have consequent implications for
      understanding and explaining myosin super-relaxed state and thick filament
      activation and regulation. A cooperative phosphorylation mechanism for activation
      in tarantula skeletal muscle, involving swaying constitutively Ser35 mono
      phosphorylated free heads, explains super-relaxation, force potentiation and post
      tetanic potentiation through Ser45 mono-phosphorylated blocked heads. Based on
      this mechanism, we propose a swaying-swinging, tilting crossbridge-sliding
      filament for tarantula muscle contraction.

PMID- 28871558
TI  - Examining the accessibility of high-quality physical activity behaviour change
      support freely available online for men with prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While the internet is considered a promising avenue for providing
      physical activity support to prostate cancer survivors, little is known about the
      accessibility of quality websites in the real world. PURPOSE: This work aimed to
      explore what websites prostate cancer survivors are likely to find when seeking
      physical activity support online and to evaluate their quality using evidenced
      based criteria. METHOD: A search strategy was developed in consultation with
      prostate cancer survivors (n = 44) to reflect the most common ways they are
      likely to search the internet. The search was then conducted by a single
      reviewer, and identified websites were assessed for quality by two reviewers
      using an evidence-based quality assessment tool developed for this study.
      Discrepancies were resolved by a third reviewer. RESULTS: Of the 45 identified
      websites, 13 (29%) received a high quality rating, 22 (49%) received a moderate
      rating and 10 (22%) received a low quality rating. Higher-quality websites tended
      to have a .org or .gov domain and tended to be located using searches specific to
      prostate cancer or prostate cancer and exercise. Very few websites contained
      complete information regarding the physical activity guidelines for cancer
      survivors, and no websites provided comprehensive behaviour change support.
      CONCLUSION: There are some good-quality physical activity websites accessible to
      men with prostate cancer. However, they may be difficult to find and/or require
      updating to include complete recommendations and more behaviour change support.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Efforts to improve physical activity
      information online and strategies to direct prostate cancer survivors to higher
      quality websites and support services are needed to ensure safety and efficacy.

PMID- 28871559
TI  - Optical and Electronic Properties of Femtosecond Laser-Induced Sulfur-Hyperdoped
      Silicon N+/P Photodiodes.
AB  - Impurity-mediated near-infrared (NIR) photoresponse in silicon is of great
      interest for photovoltaics and photodetectors. In this paper, we have fabricated
      a series of n+/p photodetectors with hyperdoped silicon prepared by ion
      implantation and femtosecond pulsed laser. These devices showed a remarkable
      enhancement on absorption and photoresponse at NIR wavelengths. The device
      fabricated with implantation dose of 1014 ions/cm2 has exhibited the best
      performance. The proposed method offers an approach to fabricate low-cost
      broadband silicon-based photodetectors.

PMID- 28871560
TI  - Oesophageal coins invisible on chest radiography: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coins are made of metal, which is generally radiopaque, and so
      physicians often have the misconception that all coins are detectable by
      radiography. Here, we report a case of intentionally swallowed coins in the
      oesophagus of an adult; the coins could not be detected on chest radiography but
      were detected using computed tomography (CT). CASE PRESENTATION: A 46-year-old
      woman with a history of depression presented to the emergency department after an
      intentional medication overdose and ingestion of two Japanese 1-yen coins. She
      complained of persistent retrosternal discomfort. In order to confirm whether the
      coins were in the oesophagus or trachea, an anteroposterior chest radiograph was
      obtained; however, no coins were detected. Owing to her persistent symptoms, a
      chest CT was performed. On the initial CT scan, two 1-yen coins were observed in
      the oesophagus: one in the middle oesophagus and the other in the lower
      oesophagus. After the scanning, the patient drank water with permission, but
      vomited. No coins were found in her vomit, and the symptoms of retrosternal
      discomfort had completely disappeared. A subsequent CT scan revealed that the two
      1-yen coins were in the patient's stomach. CONCLUSIONS: Japanese 1-yen coins are
      made of 100% aluminium, which is less radiopaque than the metals that make up
      coins (nickel, bronze, and lead), and so, they were not visible via chest
      radiography in our case. Detecting very small or thin radiolucent foreign bodies
      is not possible using a chest radiograph or contrast oesophagram, but is possible
      via CT. CT is both increasingly convenient and non-invasive, unlike endoscopy or
      bronchoscopy, and so, the use of CT scans should be considered in cases of
      possible radiolucent foreign body ingestion.

PMID- 28871561
TI  - Erratum to: Contribution of clinical and socioeconomic factors to differences in
      breast cancer subtype and mortality between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white
      women.

PMID- 28871562
TI  - Teledermatology: A Review and Update.
AB  - Telemedicine is slowly transforming the way in which healthcare is delivered and
      has the potential to improve access to subspecialty expertise, reduce healthcare
      costs, and improve the overall quality of care. While many subspecialty fields
      within medicine today have either experimented with or begun to implement
      telemedicine platforms to enable remote consultation and care, dermatology is
      particularly suited for this care system as skin disorders are uniquely visible
      to the human eye. Through teledermatology, diagnostic images of skin disorders
      with accompanying clinical histories can be remotely reviewed by
      teledermatologists by any number of modalities, such as photographic clinical
      images or live video teleconferencing. Diagnoses and treatment recommendations
      can then be rendered and implemented remotely. The evidence to date supports both
      its diagnostic and treatment accuracy and its cost effectiveness. Administrative,
      regulatory, privacy, and reimbursement policies surrounding this dynamic field
      continue to evolve. In this review, we examine the history, evidence, and
      administrative landscape surrounding teledermatology and discuss current practice
      guidelines and ongoing controversies.

PMID- 28871563
TI  - Prognostic Value of the Age-Adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (ACCI) on Short-
      and Long-Term Outcome in Patients with Advanced Primary Epithelial Ovarian
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the prognostic impact of the age-adjusted Charlson
      Comorbidity Index (ACCI) on both postoperative morbidity and overall survival
      (OS) in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) treated at a
      tertiary gynecologic cancer center. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Exploratory analysis of
      our prospectively documented tumor registry was performed. Data of all
      consecutive patients with stage IIIB-IV ovarian cancer who underwent primary
      cytoreductive surgery (PDS) from January 2000 to June 2016 were analyzed.
      Patients were divided into three groups, based on their ACCI: low (0-1),
      intermediate (2-3), and high (>=4), and postoperative surgical complications were
      graded according to the Clavien-Dindo classification (CDC). The Fisher's exact
      test, log-rank test, and Cox regression models were used to investigate the
      predictive value of the ACCI on postoperative complications and OS. RESULTS:
      Overall, 793 consecutive patients were identified; 328 (41.4%) patients were
      categorized as low ACCI, 342 (43.1%) as intermediate ACCI, and 123 (15.5%) as
      high ACCI. A high ACCI was significantly associated with severe postoperative
      complications (CDC 3-5; odds ratio 3.27, 95% confidence interval 1.97-5.43, p <
      0.001). Median OS for patients with a low, intermediate, or high ACCI was 50, 40,
      and 23 months, respectively (p < 0.001), and the ACCI remained a significant
      prognostic factor for OS in multivariate analysis (p = 0.001). The same impact
      was observed in a sensitivity analysis including only those patients with
      complete tumor resection. CONCLUSION: The ACCI is associated with perioperative
      morbidity in patients undergoing PDS for EOC, and also has a prognostic impact on
      OS. The potential role of the ACCI as a selection criteria for different therapy
      strategies is currently under investigation in the ongoing, prospective,
      multicenter AGO-OVAR 19 trial.

PMID- 28871564
TI  - Redefining the Positive Margin in Pancreatic Cancer: Impact on Patterns of
      Failure, Long-Term Survival and Adjuvant Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: There is debate regarding the definition and clinical significance of
      margin clearance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). A comprehensive
      archival analysis of surgical resection margins was performed to determine the
      effect on locoregional recurrence and survival, and the impact of adjuvant
      therapy in PDA. METHODS: We identified 105 patients with resected PDA.
      Pancreatic, anterior, bile duct, and posterior surgical resection margins (PM;
      posterior surface, uncinate and vascular groove) were identified. Three
      pathologists reviewed all archival surgical specimens and recategorized each
      margin as tumor at ink/transected, <0.5, 0.5-1, >1-2, or >2 mm from the inked
      surface. The impact of these and other clinical variables was assessed on local
      control, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Among
      all margins, PM clearance up to 2 mm was prognostic of DFS (p = 0.01) and OS (p =
      0.01). Dichotomizing the PM at 2 mm revealed it to be an independent predictor of
      local recurrence-free survival [hazard ratio HR] 0.20, 95% confidence interval
      [CI] 0.048-0.881, p = 0.033), DFS (HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.22-0.96, p = 0.03), and OS
      (HR 0.31, 95% CI 0.14-0.74, p = 0.008). A margin status of >2 mm was also
      prognostic of OS in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy (HR 0.31, 95% CI
      0.11-0.89, p = 0.03), however this difference was mitigated in patients receiving
      adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (HR 0.40, 95% CI 0.10-1.58, p = 0.19). CONCLUSION:
      These data highlight the clinical significance of the PM and the lack of
      significance of other resection margins. Clearance in excess of 2 mm should be
      considered to improve long-term clinical outcomes. The use of adjuvant
      radiotherapy should be strongly considered in patients with PMs <2 mm.

PMID- 28871565
TI  - Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Sensor-Augmented Insulin Pump Therapy with
      Automated Insulin Suspension Versus Standard Insulin Pump Therapy in Patients
      with Type 1 Diabetes in Sweden.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Sweden an estimated 10,000 people with type 1 diabetes use
      continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII). Sensor-augmented pump therapy
      (SAP) is associated with higher acquisition costs but provides additional
      clinical benefits (e.g. reduced rate of hypoglycemic events) over and above that
      of CSII alone. The aim of the analysis was to assess the cost-effectiveness of
      SAP with automated insulin suspension relative to CSII alone in two different
      groups of patients with type 1 diabetes in Sweden. METHODS: Cost-effectiveness
      analyses were performed using the QuintilesIMS CORE Diabetes Model, with clinical
      and economic input data derived from published literature. Separate analyses were
      performed for patients at increased risk of hypoglycemia and for patients with
      uncontrolled glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) at baseline. Analyses were performed
      from a societal perspective over a lifetime time horizon. Future costs and
      clinical outcomes were discounted at 3% per annum. RESULTS: SAP with automated
      insulin suspension was associated with an incremental gain in quality-adjusted
      life expectancy versus the CSII of 1.88 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in
      patients at high risk of hypoglycemia and of 1.07 QALYs in patients with
      uncontrolled HbA1c at baseline. Higher lifetime costs for SAP with automated
      insulin suspension resulted in projected incremental cost-effectiveness ratios
      for the SAP with automated insulin suspension versus CSII of Swedish Krona (SEK)
      139,795 [euros (EUR) 14,648] per QALY gained for patients at increased risk for
      hypoglycemia and SEK 251,896 (EUR 26,395) per QALY gained for patients with
      uncontrolled HbA1c. In both groups, SAP with automated insulin suspension also
      reduced the incidence of diabetes-related complications relative to CSII.
      CONCLUSIONS: In Sweden, SAP with automated insulin suspension likely represents a
      cost-effective treatment option relative to CSII for the management of patients
      with type 1 diabetes with a history of severe hypoglycemic events or patients who
      struggle to achieve good glycemic control despite the use of CSII. FUNDING:
      Medtronic International Trading Sarl.

PMID- 28871566
TI  - Natural killer cells and tumor metastasis.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes that recognize tumor cells or
      stressed cells through 'missing-self' signals, such as altered or absent
      expression of MHC class I molecules. The function of NK cells is regulated by the
      activation or inhibition of receptors present on their surface. The activation of
      NK cells results in cytotoxic activity on target cells through release of toxic
      granules and inflammatory cytokines. However, NK cells infiltrating tumors have
      been frequently shown to exhibit a skewed phenotype that includes decreased
      antitumor activity and enhanced protumor activities, such as angiogenesis and
      metastasis. In fact, many studies have reported that tumor microenvironments
      induce a protumor phenotype in NK cells. Here, we review the biological
      properties of NK cells in the context of tumorigenesis and tumor progression,
      with a specific focus on the interactions between NK cells and critical tumor
      microenvironments, such as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, matrix
      metalloproteinases, and tumor-associated chronic inflammation in tumor
      metastasis.

PMID- 28871567
TI  - A case of biliary atresia with pancreaticobiliary maljunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of biliary atresia (BA) is still unknown. There are
      several reports on the etiology of BA, including pancreaticobiliary maljunction
      (PBM). We experienced a case of Kasai type IIIa BA with PBM, in which we found
      elevation of pancreatic enzymes in the gallbladder. We evaluated whether PBM is
      related to the pathogenesis of BA based on our findings. CASE PRESENTATION: The
      patient was born at 40 weeks of gestation. His body weight at birth was 2850 g.
      At the age of 4 days, he had an acholic stool and was referred to our hospital.
      Abdominal ultrasonography showed that triangular cord sign was negative. The
      gallbladder was isolated with a diameter of 19 mm, and it contracted in response
      to oral feeding. His ultrasonographic findings were atypical for BA, but his
      jaundice did not improve. Therefore, we performed an operation at the age of 56
      days. Intraoperative cholangiography showed a common bile duct and pancreatic
      duct and a common channel patent, while the common hepatic duct or intrahepatic
      duct was not visualized. Bile in the gallbladder contained colorless fluid, which
      showed elevated lipase level (34,100 IU/L). We performed Kasai portoenterostomy
      under the diagnosis of Kasai type IIIa BA with PBM. The patient's postoperative
      course was uneventful, and he was discharged on day 30 after the operation.
      Histopathological evaluation showed that the lumens of the common bile duct and
      cystic duct were patent. However, the common hepatic duct was closed, and only
      bile ductules with diameters of less than 50 MUm were isolated. Infiltration of
      lymphocytes was detected in the porta hepatis. No apparent inflammation was
      observed around the cystic duct, which was constantly exposed to pancreatic juice
      because of reflux through PBM. CONCLUSIONS: Reflux of pancreatic juice through
      PBM might not be an etiological factor for BA, but might be associated with
      patency of the common and cystic bile ducts in Kasai type IIIa BA.

PMID- 28871568
TI  - A mini-overview of single muscle fibre mechanics: the effects of age, inactivity
      and exercise in animals and humans.
AB  - Many basic movements of living organisms are dependent on muscle function. Muscle
      function allows for the coordination and harmonious integrity of movement that is
      necessary for various biological processes. Gross and fine motor skills are both
      regulated at the micro-level (single muscle fibre level), controlled by neuronal
      regulation, and it is therefore important to understand muscle function at both
      micro- and macro-levels to understand the overall movement of living organisms.
      Single muscle mechanics and the cellular environment of muscles fundamentally
      allow for the harmonious movement of our bodies. Indeed, a clear understanding of
      the functionality of muscle at the micro-level is indispensable for explaining
      muscular function at the macro-(whole gross muscle) level. By investigating
      single muscle fibre mechanics, we can also learn how other factors such Ca2+
      kinetics, enzyme activity and contractile proteins can contribute to muscle
      mechanics at the micro- and macro-levels. Further, we can also describe how aging
      affects the capacity of skeletal muscle cells, as well as how exercise can
      prevent aging-based sarcopenia and frailty. The purpose of this review is to
      introduce and summarise the current knowledge of single muscle fibre mechanics in
      light of aging and inactivity. We then describe how exercise mitigates negative
      muscle adaptations that occur under those circumstances. In addition, single
      muscle fibre mechanics in both animal and human models are discussed.

PMID- 28871569
TI  - Treatment strategies and outcome of surgery for synchronous colorectal liver
      metastases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To report survival following different operative strategies and
      perioperative chemotherapy in patients with synchronous colorectal liver
      metastases in a tertiary academic referral centre. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective analysis, based on a prospective database, of patients who
      presented with synchronous colorectal liver metastases. Follow-up data were
      obtained from medical records, letters or telephone contacts. The main endpoint
      was overall survival. An additional event of interest was postoperative mortality
      according to treatment strategy. Predefined variables were analysed to identify
      associated risk factors. RESULTS: Overall, 109 patients undergoing liver
      resection for synchronous colorectal liver metastases between 2000 and 2010 were
      identified. The majority of patients had resection of the primary tumour first (n
      = 82), the classic approach; notably fewer were treated according to a combined
      (n = 20) or a reverse "liver first" strategy (n = 7). Most patients (92%)
      received preoperative, interval and/or postoperative chemotherapy. Median overall
      survival of the entire population was 33.6 months (interquartile range [IQR] 11
      92.7 months). Patients undergoing classic surgery had a median overall survival
      of 40.3 months (IQR 14.9-96.6 months). The 3-year survival rates of the three
      patient groups were 53% in the classic, 47% in the combined and 58% in the
      reverse group. The lowest rate of 180-day mortality (9%) was after the classic
      surgical approach. On a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression
      analysis, patient age >60 years (hazard ratio [HR] 2.1, 95% confidence interval
      [CI] 1.1-3.9; p = 0.018), R2-status (HR 2.08, 95% CI 1.03-4.2; p = 0.040), and >4
      liver metastases (HR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2-4.6; p = 0.011) were associated
      significantly with worse overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing
      surgical resection for synchronous colorectal liver metastases, promising
      survival rates could be achieved, irrespective of the chosen surgical strategy.
      The presence of five or more liver metastases, patient age over 60 years and R2
      status were found to be adverse risk factors.

PMID- 28871570
TI  - Osteoporosis drug treatment: duration and management after discontinuation. A
      position statement from the SVGO/ASCO.
AB  - Antiosteoporotic drugs are recommended in patients with fragility fractures and
      in patients considered to be at high fracture risk on the basis of clinical risk
      factors and/or low bone mineral density. As first-line treatment most patients
      are started with an antiresorptive treatment, i.e. drugs that inhibit osteoclast
      development and/or function (bisphosphonates, denosumab, oestrogens or selective
      oestrogen receptor modulators). In the balance between benefits and risks of
      antiresorptive treatment, uncertainties remain regarding the optimal treatment
      duration and the management of patients after drug discontinuation. Based on the
      available evidence, this position statement will focus on the long-term
      management of osteoporosis therapy, formulating decision criteria for clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28871571
TI  - Acute aortic dissection: pathogenesis, risk factors and diagnosis.
AB  - Acute aortic dissection is a rare but life-threatening condition with a lethality
      rate of 1 to 2% per hour after onset of symptoms in untreated patients.
      Therefore, its prompt and proper diagnosis is vital to increase a patient's
      chance of survival and to prevent grievous complications. Typical symptoms of
      acute aortic dissection include severe chest pain, hypotension or syncope and,
      hence, mimic acute myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolism. Advanced age,
      male gender, long-term history of arterial hypertension and the presence of
      aortic aneurysm confer the greatest population attributable risk. However,
      patients with genetic connective tissue disorders such as Marfan, Loeys Dietz or
      Ehlers Danlos syndrome, and patients with bicuspid aortic valves are at the
      increased risk of aortic dissection at a much younger age. Imaging provides a
      robust foundation for diagnosing acute aortic dissection, as well as for
      monitoring of patients at increased risk of aortic disease. As yet, easily
      accessible blood tests play only a small role but have the potential to make
      diagnosis and monitoring of patients simpler and more cost-effective.

PMID- 28871572
TI  - Early complications after living donor nephrectomy: analysis of the Swiss Organ
      Living Donor Health Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the prospectively collected data about the incidence of
      early peri- and postoperative complications, and potential risk factors for
      adverse outcomes after living kidney donation in Switzerland. METHODS: Peri- and
      postoperative events were prospectively recorded on a questionnaire by the local
      transplant teams of all Swiss transplant centres and evaluated by the Swiss Organ
      Living Donor Health Registry. Complications were classified according to the
      Clavien grading system. A total of 1649 consecutive donors between 1998 and 2015
      were included in the analysis. RESULTS: There was no perioperative mortality
      observed. The overall complication rate was 13.5%. Major complications defined as
      Clavien >=3 occurred in 2.1% of donors. Obesity was not associated with any
      complications. Donor age >70years was associated with major complications (odds
      ratio [OR] 3.99) and genitourinary complications (urinary tract infection OR
      5.85; urinary retention OR 6.61). There were more major complications observed in
      donors with laparoscopic surgery versus open surgery (p = 0.048), but an equal
      overall complication rate (p = 0.094). CONCLUSION: We found a low rate of major
      and minor complications, independent of surgical technique, after living donor
      nephrectomy. There was no elevated complication rate in obese donors. In
      contrast, elderly donors >70 years had an elevated risk for perioperative
      complications.

PMID- 28871573
TI  - More practice - better results: applicable even in visceral surgery.

PMID- 28871574
TI  - The role of pharmacotherapy in the management of chronic subdural haematoma.

PMID- 28871575
TI  - Inert gas washout: background and application in various lung diseases.
AB  - Multiple breath inert gas washout (MBW) is a lung function technique to measure
      ventilation inhomogeneity. The technique was developed more than 60 years ago,
      but not much used for many decades. Technical improvements, easy protocols and
      higher sensitivity compared with standard lung function tests in some disease
      groups have led to a recent renaissance of MBW. The lung clearance index (LCI) is
      a common measure derived from MBW tests, and offers information on lung pathology
      complementary to that from conventional lung function tests such as spirometry.
      The LCI measures the overall degree of pulmonary ventilation inhomogeneity. There
      are other MBW-derived parameters, which describe more regional airway ventilation
      and enable specific information on conductive or acinar ventilation
      inhomogeneity. How this specific ventilation distribution is exactly related to
      different disease processes has not entirely been examined yet. MBW measurements
      are performed during tidal breathing, making this technique attractive for
      children, even young children and infants. These benefits and the additional
      physiological information on ventilation inhomogeneity early in the course of
      lung diseases have led to increasing research activities and clinical application
      of MBW, especially in paediatric lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF). In
      these patients, LCI detects early airway damage and enables monitoring of disease
      progression and treatment response. Guidelines for the standardisation of the MBW
      technique were recently published. These guidelines will, hopefully, increase
      comparability of LCI data obtained in different centres or intervention trials in
      children and adults. In this non-systematic review article, we provide an
      overview of recent developments in MBW, with a special focus on children. We
      first explain the physiological and technical background to this technique with a
      short explanation of several methodological aspects that are important for
      understanding the principle behind the technique and enable high quality
      measurements. We then provide examples of MBW application in different lung
      diseases of children and adults, with regards to both clinical application and
      research activities. Lastly, we report on ongoing clinical trials using MBW as
      outcome and give an outlook on possible future developments.

PMID- 28871576
TI  - First trimester combined screening for preeclampsia and small for gestational age
      - a single centre experience and validation of the FMF screening algorithm.
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: Preeclampsia (PE) is associated with severe maternal and fetal
      morbidity in the acute presentation and there is increasing evidence that it is
      also an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease later in life.
      Therefore, preventive strategies are of utmost importance. The Fetal Medicine
      Foundation (FMF) London recently developed a first trimester screening algorithm
      for placenta-related pregnancy complications, in particular early onset
      preeclampsia (eoPE) requiring delivery before 34 weeks, and preterm small for
      gestational age (pSGA), with a birth weight <5th percentile and delivery before
      37 weeks of gestation, based on maternal history and characteristics, and
      biochemical and biophysical parameters. The aim of this study was to test the
      performance of this algorithm in our setting and to perform an external
      validation of the screening algorithm. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between September
      2013 and April 2016, all consecutive women with singleton pregnancies who agreed
      to this screening were included in the study. The proposed cut-offs of >=1:200
      for eoPE, and >=1:150 for pSGA were applied. Risk calculations were performed
      with Viewpoint(r) program (GE, Mountainview, CA, USA) and statistical analysis
      with GraphPad version 5.0 for Windows. RESULTS: 1372 women agreed to PE
      screening; the 1129 with complete data and a live birth were included in this
      study. Nineteen (1.68%) developed PE: 14 (1.24%) at term (tPE) and 5 (0.44%)
      preterm (pPE, <37 weeks), including 2 (0.18%) with eoPE. Overall, 97/1129 (8.6%)
      screened positive for eoPE, including both pregnancies that resulted in eoPE and
      4/5 (80%) that resulted in pPE. Forty-nine of 1110 (4.41%) pregnancies without PE
      resulted in SGA, 3 (0.27%) of them in pSGA. A total of 210/1110 (18.9%) non-PE
      pregnancies screened positive for pSGA, including 2/3 (66.7%) of the pSGA
      deliveries and 18/46 (39.1%) of term SGA infants. CONCLUSION: Our results show
      that first trimester PE screening in our population performs well and according
      to expectations, whereas screening for SGA is associated with a high false
      positive rate.

PMID- 28871577
TI  - Right retroperitoneoscopic living donor nephrectomy does not increase surgical
      complications in the recipient and leads to excellent long-term outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Right-sided retroperitoneoscopic living donor nephrectomy (LDN) has
      been shown to be safe for the donor but it is unknown whether the short renal
      vein is associated with complications or an impaired long-term outcome in the
      recipient. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, consecutive transplant
      recipients after retroperitoneoscopic LDN were enrolled. Complications occurring
      within 1 year were classified according to the Clavien-Dindo Classification for
      Surgical Complications and analysed using multivariable logistic regression.
      Predictors of 1-year creatinine clearance were analysed with multivariable linear
      regression. Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyse graft survival.
      RESULTS: Of the 251 recipients, 193 (77%) received a left kidney and 58 (23%) a
      right kidney. Surgical complications of Clavien-Dindo grade 3 or higher were
      comparable in recipients of right and left kidneys (33% vs 29%, odds ratio 0.98,
      95% confidence interval [CI] 0.50, 1.94). The occurrence of a surgical
      complication had a significant impact on creatinine clearance at 1 year (decrease
      of 6 ml/min/m2, p = 0.016). Vascular complications in right kidneys were more
      common but were all corrected without impact on graft survival. One-year graft
      survival was similar in recipients of right (98.3%) and left (96.9%) kidneys, as
      was creatinine clearance one year after transplantation (mean difference 3.3
      ml/min/m2, 95% CI -1.5, 8.1; p = 0.175). After a median follow-up of 5 years,
      neither the side (hazard ratio 1.56, 95% CI 0.67, 3.63) nor surgical
      complications (hazard ratio 1.44, 95% CI 0.65, 3.19) were associated with graft
      failure. CONCLUSION: Right retroperitoneoscopic LDN does not compromise the
      outcome of transplantation. Surgical complications, long-term graft function and
      graft survival were comparable in right and left kidneys.

PMID- 28871578
TI  - Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency Following Nivolumab Therapy in a Patient with
      Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - Currently, nivolumab (an anti-programmed cell death-1 receptor monoclonal
      antibody) is available for many types of advanced cancers in Japan. However,
      there have been few detailed case reports about endocrine-related adverse events
      of this therapy. Here, we report a patient with metastatic renal cell carcinoma
      who presented with secondary adrenal insufficiency following nivolumab therapy.
      Endocrinological assessment by rapid adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and
      corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) tests revealed that the patient's disorder
      was a secondary adrenal insufficiency due to pituitary dysfunction. Moreover, the
      results of the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), luteinizing hormone-releasing
      hormone (LH-RH) and growth hormone-releasing peptide-2 (GHRP-2) tests showed that
      only the ACTH function was destroyed (isolated ACTH deficiency). The magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) findings of hypophysitis, which is the major cause of
      isolated ACTH deficiency, usually demonstrate enlargement of the pituitary gland.
      However, the MRI findings of our case showed no abnormalities of the pituitary
      gland and stalk. Therefore, not only oncologists, but also other specialists,
      including doctors in emergency units, should have knowledge of this specific
      feature. Our clinical observation could be useful to avoid a delay in diagnosis
      and to treat life-threatening adverse effects of nivolumab therapy, such as
      secondary adrenal insufficiency.

PMID- 28871579
TI  - A Case of Pedunculated Esophageal Leiomyoma Successfully Treated by Endoscopic
      Mucosal Resection.
AB  - Leiomyoma is one of the most commonly observed esophageal submucosal tumors,
      often appearing as a smooth-surfaced and semicircular protruded lesion. It
      sometimes grows toward the esophageal lumen and may be pedunculated in rare
      cases. We encountered a case of a pedunculated esophageal submucosal tumor
      diagnosed before treatment as a leiomyoma originating in the muscularis mucosae
      of a 68-year-old man. As the tumor arose in the muscularis mucosae, it could be
      safely resected via an endoscopic procedure. Only one case of pedunculated
      leiomyoma has been reported to date, and we herein report the second case, which
      was successfully treated by a minimally invasive endoscopic technique.

PMID- 28871580
TI  - Successful Treatment of Blunt Musculophrenic Artery Injury by Transcatheter
      Arterial Embolization: A Case Report.
AB  - An 86-year-old woman was transported by ambulance after jumping from the second
      floor of a building. Upon arrival, the blood pressure was stable; however,
      computed tomography indicated the presence of an anterior mediastinal hematoma.
      Eight hours after arrival, the patient exhibited shock. The blood pressure
      increased with rapid infusion. Emergency angiography was performed. Extravasation
      from the musculophrenic artery, which branches off from the left internal mammary
      artery, was observed. Transcatheter arterial embolization was performed and
      bleeding was controlled. This is the first report of musculophrenic artery injury
      caused by blunt trauma to the best of our knowledge. Findings suggested that if
      an anterior mediastinal hematoma develops, bleeding must be rapidly controlled.
      If the patient responds to rapid infusion and injury of the internal mammary
      artery or one of its branches is suspected, transcatheter arterial embolization
      is considered appropriate.

PMID- 28871581
TI  - A Case of Overwhelming Postsplenectomy Infection Caused by Streptococcus
      pneumoniae with Fulminant Purpura.
AB  - Severe infection in patients who have lost splenic function is called
      overwhelming postsplenectomy infection (OPSI). Untimely treatment of patients
      with OPSI results in critical conditions with mortality rates as high as 50 %-70
      %. For patients who undergo a splenectomy, vaccination is recommended for the
      prevention of OPSI. However, in Japan, the vaccination utilization rates are low.
      Herein, we report a case of OPSI caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae with a
      fulminant purpura resulting in multi-organ failure, which could be reversed by
      intensive care.

PMID- 28871582
TI  - Pyoderma Gangrenosum after Breast Mastectomy and Primary Rectus Abdominis Flap
      Reconstruction.
AB  - Pyoderma gangrenosum is an intractable disease of unknown cause involving
      recurrent ulcerative lesions on the skin, and may accompany ulcerative colitis,
      rheumatoid arthritis, leukemia, systemic lupus erythematosus, and other
      conditions. Here, we report a rare case of pyoderma gangrenosum in the thoracic
      abdomen following post-mastectomy reconstructive surgery. A 39-year-old presented
      at the hospital with a complaint of left papilla erosion. Skin biopsy at the site
      revealed invasive skin cancer, with Paget-like progression in the cancerous
      nipple and suspected malignancy of skin appendages. After partial mastectomy
      including the areola, invasive ductal breast carcinoma was diagnosed. The patient
      underwent a subsequent full mastectomy with simultaneous sentinel lymph node
      biopsy and primary breast reconstructive surgery using a rectus abdominis
      myocutaneous flap. Two weeks post-surgery, healing of the abdominal surgical
      wound was found to be delayed, and suture abscess was suspected. Despite
      localized treatment, an ulcerative lesion developed in the thoracic region, and
      pyoderma gangrenosum was diagnosed following skin biopsy. After the introduction
      of steroid pulse therapy, no progression of the lesion was observed. This report
      describes the disease characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of post-surgical
      pyoderma gangrenosum and discusses the case in the context of previous
      literature.

PMID- 28871583
TI  - Efficacy of Tape Feedback Therapy on Synkinesis Following Severe Peripheral
      Facial Nerve Palsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mirror feedback rehabilitation is effective in preventing the
      development of oro-ocular synkinesis following severe facial palsy. However, we
      do not have effective maneuvers to prevent the deterioration of oculo-oral
      synkinesis. We developed a new method of biofeedback rehabilitation using tape
      for the prevention of oculo-oral synkinesis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present
      study was to investigate the efficacy of taping feedback rehabilitation. METHODS:
      Twelve consecutive patients with peripheral facial nerve palsy who developed
      synkinesis were divided into 2 groups. Six patients were treated with the new
      training method, and the remaining 6 patients were treated with conventional
      therapy as controls. In the experiment group, tape was placed around the mouth,
      and the patient was instructed to close the eyes so that no movements of the
      mouth would be perceived from sensations of the taped skin. After 4 weeks of
      training, facial movements were recorded and movie images were graded for mouth
      synkinesis using the revised Sunnybrook facial grading system by examiners
      blinded to patient grouping. RESULTS: Mouth corner contraction during eye closure
      was significantly weaker in the experimental group than in the control group.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our new feedback method could help prevent the deterioration of
      oculo-oral synkinesis.

PMID- 28871584
TI  - Selected aspects of medical care for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) in Poland.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Noncompliance with healthcare undoubtedly has a strong influence on
      the high prevalence of uncontrolled obstructive diseases. The aim of our study
      was to evaluate the quality of medical conduct in patients with asthma or chronic
      obstructive lung diseases (COPD), with encompassed two-levelled system of health
      care. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A survey of general practitioners (GP), allergists
      and pulmonologists practicing in Poland was performed between September and
      December 2016. The basic survey included the data concerning the number of
      treated patients, the course of the visits, treatment regimens and whether the
      patients follow the instructions of the physician. The specialist survey recorded
      the details of the specialist visits, their frequency and character, an
      evaluation of the pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and an
      evaluation of the GP's actions. RESULTS: The basic questionnaire was completed by
      807 doctors with an average of 21 +/- 9.85 years of medical experience. Most of
      the interviewed individuals were GPs (56%), followed by pulmonologists (28%) and
      allergists (16%). The GP reported 47 cases/month with obstructive pulmonary
      conditions, including 48.94% asthma and 51.06% COPD patients. They diagnosed
      three new asthma and COPD patients per month. The allergists treated patients
      with asthma (105 patients/ month), with 19 newly-diagnosed patients/month. The
      pulmonologists treated fewer asthma cases than COPD: 71 and 98 patients
      respectively. They reported 14 patients/month of newly-diagnosed COPD cases. The
      patients took inhaled glucocorticoids and long-acting b adrenoceptor agonists in
      separate inhalers. The most frequently-used device was a disc. In opinion of the
      specialists, half of the therapies initiated recently by GPs for patients with
      asthma and COPD required modifications. CONCLUSIONS: There is a disparity between
      the true state of medical care of asthma and COPD patients and globally-accepted
      standards.

PMID- 28871585
TI  - Exhaled nitric oxide atopy, and spirometry in asthma and rhinitis patients in
      India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disorder. Nitric oxide (NO)
      is non-invasively measured in exhaled breath (FeNO). The aim of the study was to
      investigate the anthropometric and physiologic factors that influence FeNO
      measurements. Also, to evaluate FeNO correlation with spirometry and inflammatory
      markers in asthma and rhinitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was a prospective
      analysis of asthma (BA) and rhinitis (AR) in patients enrolled from outpatient
      clinics between 2011 and 2015. Healthy controls (HC) were enrolled from the
      community. All subjects underwent baseline spirometry with reversibility, FeNO
      measurements, skin prick tests, and blood sampling for absolute eosinophil counts
      and serum total IgE levels. RESULTS: Of 528 enrolled participants, 215 were BA,
      248 were BA-AR and 65 were HC. The mean FeNO was higher in atopic versus
      nonatopic subjects (34.14 vs. 25.99; p < 0.001); asthmatics versus non-asthmatics
      (30.46 vs. 12.91; p < 0.001), and in participants with BA-AR, compared to those
      without BA-AR (32.56 vs. 30.46; p < 0.001). The odds ratio for FeNO in the study
      population showed a significant positive association with male gender, absolute
      eosinophil count (AEC), breathlessness, duration of symptoms, family history and
      atopy. In examining the diagnostic accuracy of FeNO for asthma, the AUC for FeNO
      value is 0.833 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.717-0.901), with cut-off levels
      to screen for asthma being 19.45 at 71.2% sensitivity and 81.8% specificity (p <
      0.001). The Positive Predictive Value 96.84% (95% CI: 94.43-98.23) and Negative
      Predictive Value 30% (95% CI: 23.78-37.05) for asthma prediction with FeNO.
      CONCLUSION: The study highlights the importance of estimation of anthropometric
      parameters and dyspnea assessment in the evaluation of FeNO levels. Also, the
      presence of atopy may influence the results in the interpretation of FeNO
      readings. Moreover, the study have demonstrated that spirometry and FeNO have no
      significant correlation, which further lays emphasis on them as being different
      physiological parameters of asthma. &nbsp.

PMID- 28871586
TI  - Using a CD45dim/CD123bright/HLA-DRneg phenotyping protocol to gate basophils in
      FC for airway allergy. CD123 does not decrease.
AB  - Physicians in the field of respiratory medicine are particularly concerned about
      the availability of a reliable diagnostic tool to investigate respiratory
      allergy. Usually, basophils are easy to obtain from peripheral blood and
      therefore they represent a reproducible model to assess allergy in individuals.
      Cell assays called basophil activation tests (BATs) are widespread tools for
      allergy diagnosis and are easily available in most of the medical labs. The
      strategy by which basophils are captured in a flow cytometry protocol has met
      many suggestions, recommendations and experimental novelties in recent years, yet
      the debate needs to be further expanded. Concerns still remain about the
      suitability of the many approaches to make the basophil activation test (BAT) an
      excellent and practical tool to diagnose allergy, while improving its analytical
      performance. This technical report describes the methodological aspects of the
      use of the protocol adopting the panel CD45dim/CD123bright/HLA-DRneg to gate
      basophils in flow cytometry, trying to highlight the main biases related to an
      incorrect use of this protocol.

PMID- 28871587
TI  - Primary pulmonary MALT lymphoma presenting as non-resolving pneumonia.
AB  - Primary lung lymphoma (PLL) is a rare unilateral or bilateral lung disorder that
      is challenging to diagnose solely based on clinical and radiological
      presentation. PLL may be misdiagnosed as pneumonia or a lung tumor due to non
      specific findings. PLL is most frequently a mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue
      (MALT) lymphoma, a type of extranodal low-grade B-cell lymphoma most commonly
      discovered in the gastrointestinal tract. PLL should be considered in the
      differential diagnosis of non-resolving pneumonias. Herein we present a case of
      an 84-year-old patient discovered to have a primary pulmonary MALT lymphoma
      presenting as a non-resolving pneumonia causing a clinical challenge.

PMID- 28871588
TI  - Primary pleuropulmonary synovial sarcoma with brain metastases in a paediatric
      patient: an unusual presentation.
AB  - Primary lung neoplasms are rare in children. The most common primary lung
      malignancies in children are pleuropulmonary blastoma and carcinoid tumour.
      Synovial sarcoma (SS) accounts for approximately 1% of all childhood
      malignancies. In absolute terms, the SS of the lungs and pleura are extremely
      rare and pose a diagnostic difficulty. Soft tissue sarcomas usually have a high
      potential for metastases, however, metastasis to the brain is rare, even in
      widely disseminated disease, and it has been described only in 3 case reports
      previously. Primary pleuropulmonary SS with brain metastases is even rarer. Here
      we present a case of an 11-year-old boy who presented with respiratory
      complaints, viz. fever and cough for 20 days. Initial impression was lung
      abscess, however, on histopathological, immunohistochemical and molecular study,
      the disorder was diagnosed as synovial sarcoma. After a week from the first
      consult, the child developed neurological symptoms, viz., an episode of
      convulsion and gradually worsening power of the lower limb. Computed tomography
      scan and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy was suggestive of brain metastases.
      Given the rarity of primary lung neoplasms in children, clinical detection
      remains a challenge. Delayed diagnoses are common as respiratory symptoms may be
      attributed to inflammatory or infective processes. Primary pleuropulmonary
      synovial sarcoma is a rare tumour and it is not known to commonly metastasise to
      the brain. Though rare, primary pleuropulmonary SS should be considered an
      important differential among peadiatric primary lung neoplasms due to its
      potential for curability if detected early, and more aggressive metastatic
      pattern, e.g. brain metastases making early detection imperative.

PMID- 28871589
TI  - Metastasising leiomyoma of the uterus with pulmonary involvement - case report.
AB  - Benign metastasising leiomyoma (BML) is characterised by extrauterine smooth
      muscle tumours in women after surgical treatment for uterine leiomyoma. Usually
      manifested as solitary or multiple focal lesions in various organs, it imposes a
      scrutinous diagnostic work-up to exclude a malignant disease and requires
      confirmation in microscopic examination of the extrauterine focus. The authors
      present a case of a 56-year-old woman with BML manifesting as bilateral multiple
      pulmonary nodules, with a tentative diagnosis of a disseminated malignant disease
      of mesenchymal origin. The patient underwent multiple diagnostic tests, which
      excluded malignancy. The definite diagnosis was established after the microscopic
      reevaluation of an excised pulmonary nodule. The patient is monitored with chest
      magnetic resonance. BML should be considered in the differential diagnosis of
      multiple pulmonary nodules in asymptomatic women. Patients with BML require long
      term monitoring, therefore the selected imaging method should not carry the risk
      of cumulative side effects.

PMID- 28871590
TI  - Pulmonary hypertension in diffuse parenchymal lung diseases - is there any
      benefit of PAH-specific therapy?
AB  - Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is diagnosed in 40-50% of the patients with end-stage
      diffuse parenchymal lung diseases (DPLD), and it is associated with significant
      worsening of life expectancy. Latest ERS/ESC guidelines recommend best available
      treatment of DPLD, and long-term oxygen therapy in the patients with PaO2 less
      than 60 mm Hg. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)-targeted drugs are not
      recommended in PH-DPLD patients, due to the risk of increasing the ventilation
      perfusion mismatch, and consequently worsening of hypoxaemia. Nevertheless, PAH
      oriented treatment may be beneficial to selected groups of patients. The authors
      try to find the answer to several important questions: is there any benefit of
      PAH-specific therapy in PH-DPLD, who should be the candidate for PAH-specific
      therapy, what class of drugs is most promising, and what outcome measures should
      be employed?

PMID- 28871591
TI  - Network of breathing. Multifunctional role of the diaphragm: a review.
AB  - The diaphragm is the primary muscle involved in active inspiration and serves
      also as an important anatomical landmark that separates the thoracic and
      abdominal cavity. However, the diaphragm muscle like other structures and organs
      in the human body has more than one function, and displays many anatomic links
      throughout the body, thereby forming a 'network of breathing'. Besides
      respiratory function, it is important for postural control as it stabilises the
      lumbar spine during loading tasks. It also plays a vital role in the vascular and
      lymphatic systems, as well as, is greatly involved in gastroesophageal functions
      such as swallowing, vomiting, and contributing to the gastroesophageal reflux
      barrier. In this paper we set out in detail the anatomy and embryology of the
      diaphragm and attempt to show it serves as both: an important exchange point of
      information, originating in different areas of the body, and a source of
      information in itself. The study also discusses all of its functions related to
      breathing.

PMID- 28871592
TI  - Bangladeshi school-age children's experiences and perceptions on child
      maltreatment: A qualitative interview study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment (CM) is a public health problem and is recognized
      as a huge barrier for child development. Most of the research and definitions on
      CM are from the perspective of high-income western countries. Because no major
      studies have been conducted on CM in Bangladesh, the aim of the current study was
      to explore the experiences of and perceptions on CM in school-age children in
      rural and urban Bangladesh in order to understand maltreatment in a local context
      and from a child perspective. METHODS: Semistructured individual interviews with
      24 children (13 boys and 11 girls), between the ages of 9 and 13 years of which
      11 were schoolgoing and 13 non-schoolgoing, were conducted during July 2013 and
      analysed according to qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: CM was a common and
      painful experience with serious physical and emotional consequences but highly
      accepted by the society. Vulnerable groups were especially young children, girls,
      and poor children. The children's voices were not heard due to their low status
      and low position in their families, schools, and working places. The main theme
      that emerged in the analysis was children's subordination, which permeated the
      five categories: (a) perception of children's situation in society, (b)
      understanding children's development and needs, (c) CM associated to school
      achievement, (d) negative impact of CM, and (e) emotional responses. CONCLUSIONS:
      Different kinds of abuse are obviously common in Bangladesh, and the schools do
      not follow the law from 2011 prohibiting corporal punishment at school. The
      society has to take further steps to live up to the UN Convention on the Rights
      of the Child, which was ratified already in 1990, to protect the Bangladeshi
      children from CM.

PMID- 28871593
TI  - Comment on Vitamin D serum levels are cross-sectionally but not prospectively
      associated with late-life depression.

PMID- 28871594
TI  - Do different probing depths exhibit striking differences in microbial profiles?
AB  - AIM: To perform a thorough characterization of the subgingival microbiota of
      shallow, moderate and deep sites in subjects with chronic periodontitis (ChP).
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Subgingival samples were collected from subjects with ChP
      (n = 3/category of probing depth: <=3, 4-6 and >=7 mm) and periodontal health
      (PH). Individual samples were submitted to 16S rDNA high- throughput sequencing
      and the analysis was made using mothur and R packages. RESULTS: Nine subjects
      with ChP and seven with PH were included and 101 samples were evaluated. Thirteen
      phyla, 118 genera and 211 OTUs were detected. Taxa from Chloroflexi and
      Spirochaetes phyla were associated with initial stages of disease.
      Fretibacterium, Eubacterium[XI][G-6], Desulfobulbus, Peptostreptococcaceae[XI][G
      1] and [G-3], Bacteroidetes[G-3], Bacteroidaceae[G-1] genera and Filifactor
      alocis, Fretibacterium fastidiosum, Johnsonella spHOT166,
      Peptostreptococcaceae[XIII][G-1]HOT113, Porphyromonas endodontalis and Treponema
      sp. HOT258, which are not conventionally associated with disease, increased with
      the deepening of the pockets and/or were elevated in ChP; while Streptococcus,
      Corynebacterium and Bergeyella genera were associated with PH (p < .05).
      CONCLUSION: Striking differences were observed between the microbiota of shallow
      and moderate/deep sites, but not between moderate and deep sites in ChP subjects.
      Differences between shallow sites in PH and ChP were also observed. The
      characterized microbiota included known oral microorganisms and newly identified
      periodontal taxa, some of them not-yet-cultured.

PMID- 28871595
TI  - Role of immune microenvironment in gastrointestinal stromal tumours.
AB  - AIMS: The immune microenvironment is a prognostic factor for various
      malignancies. The significance of key players of this immune microenvironment,
      including tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and expression of programmed
      death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and tryptophanyl-tRNA
      synthetase (WARS) in gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) is largely unknown.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Tissue microarrays were constructed from pathology files,
      1996-2016. Immunohistochemistry for PD-L1, IDO and WARS was correlated with
      tumour size, mitoses and outcomes. TILs expressing CD3, CD4, CD8, FoxP3 and GBP5
      were counted. A total of 129 GISTs were analysed. Mean patient age was 62.5
      years; 52.0% were male. Tumour location included 89 stomach (69.0%), 33 small
      bowel (25.6%) and seven other (5.4%). Mean tumour size was 5.6 cm; mean mitoses
      were 7.2 per 50 high-power field. Nineteen patients (15.0%) developed disease
      progression, to abdominal wall (n = 8), liver (n = 6) and elsewhere (n = 5).
      Median progression-free survival was 56.6 months; five patients died of disease.
      PD-L1 was positive in 88 of 127 tumour samples (69.0%), 114 of 127 tumours were
      IDO-positive (89.8%) and 60 of 127 were positive for WARS (47.2%). PD-L1 was
      associated with increased size (P = 0.01), necrosis (P = 0.018) and mitoses (P =
      0.006). Disease progression was not associated with PD-L1 (P = 0.44), IDO (P =
      0.14) or WARS (P = 0.36) expression. PD-L1-positive GISTs with CD8+ or CD3+ TILs
      were significantly smaller than tumours with CD8+ or CD3+ TILs. CONCLUSIONS: PD
      L1 expression was associated with increased size and mitoses. High CD8+ or CD3+
      TIL counts were associated with decreased PD-L1/IDO+ GIST size. PD-L1 and IDO
      could be significant in GIST tumour biology, which invites consideration of
      immunotherapy as a potential treatment option.

PMID- 28871596
TI  - Introduction of a prediction model to assigning periodontal prognosis based on
      survival time.
AB  - AIMS: To develop a prediction model for tooth loss due to periodontal disease
      (TLPD) in patients following periodontal maintenance (PM), and assess its
      performance using a multicentre approach. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A multilevel
      analysis of eleven predictors of TLPD in 500 patients following PM was carried
      out to calculate the probability of TLPD. This algorithm was applied to three
      different TLPD samples (369 teeth) gathered retrospectively by nine periodontist,
      associating several intervals of probability with the corresponding survival
      time, based on significant differences in the mean survival time. The
      reproducibility of these associations was assessed in each sample (One-way ANOVA
      and pairwise comparison with Bonferroni corrections). RESULTS: The model
      presented high specificity and moderate sensitivity, with optimal calibration and
      discrimination measurements. Seven intervals of probability were associated with
      seven survival time and these associations contained close to 80% of the cases:
      the probability predicted the survival time at this percentage. The model
      performed well in the three samples, as the mean survival time of each
      association were significantly different within each sample, while no significant
      differences between the samples were found in pairwise comparisons of means.
      CONCLUSIONS: This model might be useful for predicting survival time in different
      TLPD samples.

PMID- 28871597
TI  - Activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway contributes to methotrexate
      induced small intestinal injury in rats.
AB  - The efficacy of methotrexate (MTX), a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug, is
      limited by intestinal injury. As the mechanism of MTX-induced small intestinal
      injury is not clear, there is no definitive treatment for MTX-induced
      gastrointestinal injury. The present study investigates the role of mitochondrial
      apoptotic pathway in MTX-induced small intestinal injury and examines whether
      aminoguanidine is effective in preventing the damage. Eight Wistar rats were
      administered 3 consecutive i.p. injections of 7 mg/kg body wt. MTX. Some rats
      were pretreated with 30 mg or 50 mg/kg body wt. of aminoguanidine (n = 6 in each
      group). Protein expressions of cytochrome c, caspases 3 and 9, and PARP-1 were
      determined in the small intestines by immunohistochemistry and western blot.
      Mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis was activated in the small intestines of MTX
      treated rats as evidenced by intense immunostaining for cyt c, caspases 9 and 3,
      and PARP-1 and mitochondrial release of cyt c, activation of caspases, and PARP-1
      cleavage by Western blot. Immunofluorescence revealed increased nuclear
      localization of PARP-1. Aminoguanidine pretreatment ameliorated MTX-induced small
      intestinal injury in dose-dependent manner and inactivated the mitochondrial
      apoptotic pathway. Aminoguanidine may possess beneficial intestinal protective
      effects as an adjuvant co-drug against MTX intestinal toxicity during cancer
      chemotherapy. As the mechanism of MTX-induced small intestinal injury is not
      clear, there is no definitive treatment for MTX-induced gastrointestinal injury.
      The results of the present study show that the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis
      plays a role in MTX-induced small intestinal injury as evidenced by cytochrome c
      release, activation of caspases 9 and 3, PARP-1 cleavage, and DNA fragmentation.
      Aminoguanidine (AG) pretreatment attenuates the severity of small-intestinal
      injury induced in rats by MTX treatment. The mechanisms of action of AG involve
      inhibition of iNOS, and mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. It is suggested that
      aminoguanidine may possess beneficial intestinal protective effects as an
      adjuvant co-drug against MTX intestinal toxicity during cancer chemotherapy.

PMID- 28871598
TI  - Introducing universal ultrasound screening for developmental dysplasia of the hip
      doubled the treatment rate.
AB  - AIM: There is no evidence on the effect of universal ultrasound screening on
      developmental dysplasia of the hip. We examined the impact of adding an
      ultrasound examination to a one examiner clinical screening strategy on
      treatment, follow-up rates and the number of cases detected late in a low
      prevalence population. METHODS: All eligible babies born at Kongsberg Hospital,
      Norway, from 1998 to 2006 (n = 4245) underwent both clinical and ultrasound hip
      examinations within three days of life. Indications for immediate treatment were
      positive Barlow or Ortolani manoeuvres and, or, sonographic dysplasia.
      Sonographic immature hips were followed until normalisation. Treatment rates and
      rates from the 1989 to 1997 prestudy period (n = 3594), including late diagnoses,
      were collected from hospital records. RESULTS: Treatment was initiated in 90
      (2.1%) infants (74 girls), 63 (70%) from birth, compared to 33 (0.9%) during the
      prestudy period. The follow-up rate did not change (11%). There were two
      (0.5/1000) and four (1.0/1000) cases detected late, respectively. No one
      underwent surgery during the first year of life and no avascular necrosis was
      seen. CONCLUSION: Adding universal ultrasound to clinical screening performed by
      the same, experienced paediatrician doubled the treatment rate, without
      influencing the already low numbers of late cases.

PMID- 28871599
TI  - Shaken baby syndrome and the risk of losing scientific scrutiny.
AB  - : A systematic review of shaken baby syndrome by the Swedish Agency for Health
      Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services generated numerous
      reactions from professional organisations, even before the review was published.
      There was also a lively debate after a paper summarising its findings were
      published in Acta Paediatrica The various responses are worth debating further,
      as they raise several important issues with regard to research ethics, having an
      open debate and publishing scientific findings. CONCLUSION: The responses to the
      shaken baby syndrome report indicate that scientific scrutiny risks being lost
      when researchers and organisations are not open to challenging established ideas.

PMID- 28871600
TI  - Effect of ghrelin on total antioxidant capacity, lipid peroxidation, sperm
      parameters and fertility in mice against oxidative damage caused by
      cyclophosphamide.
AB  - Cyclophosphamide is a drug used for chemotherapy and as an immune-suppressive in
      the organ transplantation. Despite its many clinical implications in the
      treatment of cancers, this drug has toxic effects on the reproductive system.
      This study aimed to evaluate the effect of ghrelin against the damages caused by
      cyclophosphamide. In this experimental study, 40 male mice were randomly divided
      into four groups: (i) control; (ii) cyclophosphamide; (iii) cyclophosphamide +
      ghrelin; and (iv) ghrelin. Cyclophosphamide (100 mg/kg body weight), once a week,
      and ghrelin (80 MUg/kg body weight), daily, were administered intraperitoneally
      for 5 weeks. After 5 weeks, the epididymides were removed and the lipid
      peroxidation, total antioxidant capacity and sperm parameters were examined. The
      fertility rate was evaluated by performance in vitro fertilisation. In the mice
      exposed to cyclophosphamide, the number of spermatozoa and viability, as well as
      total antioxidant capacity, decreased significantly (p < .05). The increase in
      the abnormal sperm and MDA levels was observed (p < .05). In addition, the
      fertility rate decreased in this group, while the use of ghrelin significantly
      improved the above disorders in the treatment group (p < .05). The findings of
      this study showed that ghrelin attenuates negative effects caused by
      cyclophosphamide in the sperm parameters and enhances the fertility.

PMID- 28871601
TI  - Comparison of donor and general population demographics over time: a BEST
      Collaborative group study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We compared donor and general population demographics over time to
      provide insight into current donation patterns and the future adequacy of the
      blood supply. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Seventeen blood center members of the
      Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative from 12
      countries provided the number of donors and people in the general population by
      demographic category for 2001 and 2011, changes in age criteria, and percentage
      of first-time donors. We calculated the median age of donors and the general
      population and determined the percentage of each group in age and sex cohorts.
      RESULTS: Age criteria vary, with upper limits recently liberalized in several
      countries. In 2011, the percentage of first-time donors ranged from 10% to 41%.
      The median age of the donor and general population increased from 2001 to 2011 in
      most countries, as did the percentage of the general population over 60. The
      youngest donor cohort is overrepresented to a variable degree; this tendency
      increased over time. Although still underrepresented, older donors contributed
      more in 2011. A large middle-aged cohort is aging at a rate exceeding the
      progression of time, while 25- to 45-year-olds are relatively underrepresented.
      CONCLUSIONS: All participating countries are experiencing aging of their general
      population. Donor demographics differ substantially between countries; this can
      be only partly explained by population demographics and age criteria. Many
      countries have an aging middle-aged donor and population cohort and are
      increasingly relying on their youngest donors to contribute disproportionately to
      the blood supply.

PMID- 28871602
TI  - Elective transfers of preterm neonates to regional centres on non-invasive
      respiratory support is cost effective and increases tertiary care bed capacity.
AB  - AIM: Managing capacity at regional facilities caring for sick neonates is
      increasingly challenging. This study estimated the clinical and economic impact
      of the elective transfer of stable infants requiring nasal continuous positive
      airway pressure (NCPAP) from level three to level two neonatal intensive care
      units (NICUs) within an established clinical network of five NICUs. METHODS: We
      retrospectively analysed the records of 99 stable infants transferred on NCPAP
      between two level three NICUs and three level two NICUs in Calgary, Canada,
      between June 2014 and May 2016. RESULTS: The median gestational age and weight at
      birth were 28 weeks and 955 g, and the median corrected gestational age and
      weight at transfer were 33 weeks and 1597 g, respectively. This resulted in cost
      savings of $2.65 million Canadian dollars during the two-year study period, and
      848 level three NICU days were freed up for potentially sick neonates. There were
      no adverse events associated with the transfers. CONCLUSION: The elective
      transfer of stable neonates on NCPAP from level three to level two NICUs within
      an established clinical network led to substantial cost savings, was safe and
      increased the bed capacity at the two level three NICUs.

PMID- 28871603
TI  - Targeting histone-acetyltransferase Tat-interactive protein 60 inhibits
      intestinal allergy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The overproduction of IgE plays a critical role in the pathogenesis
      of allergy; the mechanism is unclear. Histone-acetyltransferase (HAT) activities
      are required in gene transcription of a large number of molecules in the immune
      system of the body. OBJECTIVES: This study tests a hypothesis that HAT Tat
      interactive protein 60 (Tip60) plays an important role in the initiation of IgE
      mediated allergy. METHODS: The effects of Tip60 on regulating IgE expression were
      assessed with B cells. An intestinal allergy mouse model was developed to assess
      the role of Tip60 in the induction of IgE-mediated allergic inflammation.
      RESULTS: High levels of Tip60 were observed in the peripheral B cells of patients
      with FA. Tat-interactive protein 60 (Tip60) was required in the expression of IgE
      and IgG1 in B cells by inducing the chromatin remolding at the gene locus, in
      which histone acetylation, signal transducer and activator of transcription 6
      (STAT6), and nuclear factor-kappaB at the locus of Iepsilon promoter were
      markedly increased. Blocking Tip60 significantly attenuated the allergic
      inflammation in the mouse intestinal mucosa. CONCLUSIONS: Tat-interactive protein
      60 (Tip60) plays an important role in the induction of IgE in B cells. Blocking
      Tip60 inhibits the allergic inflammation in the intestine, suggesting Tip60
      inhibitor may be a potential anti-allergy drug.

PMID- 28871604
TI  - Rethinking contact lens aftercare.
AB  - The evolution of contact lens technology and clinical practice over the past
      three decades has been remarkable, with dramatic improvements in material
      biocompatibility, better lens designs and care systems, and more flexible and
      convenient modalities of wear. However, our approach to the aftercare examination
      has remained conservative, with the general modus operandi having not fully
      evolved from the difficult, early years of fitting non-regular replacement rigid
      and low water content hydrogel lenses. In this paper, we review current aftercare
      practice and in particular, the preferred frequency that lens wearers should
      return for routine visits and the appropriateness of regulations governing
      contact lens prescription expiry. Four key clinical reasons for conducting a
      routine aftercare visit are identified: preserving ocular health, maintaining
      good vision, optimising comfort and ensuring satisfactory lens fitting
      performance. Commercial reasons for conducting aftercare visits are also
      considered. A decision matrix is presented to help practitioners decide on an
      appropriate time interval between routine aftercare visits. The first aftercare
      visit should always take place within one to two weeks of lens dispensing. After
      this, the following time intervals between routine aftercare visits are advised
      as a general guideline: soft daily disposable, 24 months; soft daily reusable and
      rigid daily wear, 12 months; soft and rigid extended wear, six months. These
      aftercare visit frequencies may need to be adjusted when rapid rates of
      refractive change are anticipated, such as every six months during child/teenager
      myopic progression and every 12 months during the advancement of presbyopia.
      Numerous clinical caveats for varying these recommended aftercare frequencies are
      also discussed. Those new to lens wear should be seen within the first two months
      of lens dispensing. Regulatory authorities charged with the responsibility of
      stipulating the validity of a contact lens prescription should continue to allow
      optometrists to set an expiry date relevant to the circumstances of individual
      lens wearers.

PMID- 28871605
TI  - Detection of climate change-driven trends in phytoplankton phenology.
AB  - The timing of the annual phytoplankton spring bloom is likely to be altered in
      response to climate change. Quantifying that response has, however, been limited
      by the typically coarse temporal resolution (monthly) of global climate models.
      Here, we use higher resolution model output (maximum 5 days) to investigate how
      phytoplankton bloom timing changes in response to projected 21st century climate
      change, and how the temporal resolution of data influences the detection of long
      term trends. We find that bloom timing generally shifts later at mid-latitudes
      and earlier at high and low latitudes by ~5 days per decade to 2100. The spatial
      patterns of bloom timing are similar in both low (monthly) and high (5 day)
      resolution data, although initiation dates are later at low resolution. The
      magnitude of the trends in bloom timing from 2006 to 2100 is very similar at high
      and low resolution, with the result that the number of years of data needed to
      detect a trend in phytoplankton phenology is relatively insensitive to data
      temporal resolution. We also investigate the influence of spatial scales on bloom
      timing and find that trends are generally more rapidly detectable after spatial
      averaging of data. Our results suggest that, if pinpointing the start date of the
      spring bloom is the priority, the highest possible temporal resolution data
      should be used. However, if the priority is detecting long-term trends in bloom
      timing, data at a temporal resolution of 20 days are likely to be sufficient.
      Furthermore, our results suggest that data sources which allow for spatial
      averaging will promote more rapid trend detection.

PMID- 28871606
TI  - Risk and outcomes of pulmonary fungal infection after pediatric lung
      transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prospective studies to determine associated risk factors and related
      outcomes for pulmonary fungal infection (PFI) after pediatric lung transplant
      (PLT) are lacking. METHODS: NIH-sponsored Clinical Trials in Organ
      Transplantation in Children enrolled PLT candidates, collecting data
      prospectively for 2 years post-transplant. Demographics, signs/symptoms,
      radiology, pathology and microbiology were collected. Analyses evaluated for PFI
      related risks and outcomes. RESULTS: In 59 PLT, pre-transplant fungal
      colonization occurred in 6 donors and 15 recipients. Cystic fibrosis (CF) was
      associated with pre-transplant colonization (P < .01). Twenty-five (42%) PLT had
      26 post-transplant colonizations (median = 67 days, range = 0-750 days) with
      Candida (13), Aspergillus (4), mold (6) or yeast (3). Post-PLT colonization was
      not associated with CF, age, or pre-PLT colonization. Thirteen PFIs occurred in
      10 (17%) patients, 3 proven (Candida species) and 10 probable (Candida [3],
      Aspergillus [3], Penicillium [3], and mold [1]). Pulmonary fungal infection was
      preceded by post-PLT colonization with the same organism in 4 of 13 PFI, but post
      PLT colonization did not predict subsequent PFI (P = .87). Older age at
      transplant was a risk for PFI (P < .01). No mortality was attributed to PFI.
      Prophylaxis use was not associated with decreased post-PLT colonization (P = .60)
      or PFI (P = .48). CONCLUSION: In PLT, PFI and fungal colonization are common but
      without associated mortality. Post-PLT colonization did not predict PFI. Optimal
      prevention strategies require additional study.

PMID- 28871608
TI  - Paediatric invasive Haemophilus influenzae in Queensland, Australia, 2002-2011:
      Young Indigenous children remain at highest risk.
AB  - AIM: Haemophilus influenzae continues to cause invasive disease in children
      despite widespread Hib immunisation. The significance of non-B serotypes
      continues to be investigated, with evidence of increased invasive non-typeable H.
      influenzae (NTHi) world-wide. The aim of this study was to examine the current
      epidemiological and clinical features of invasive H. influenzae disease in
      children in Queensland, Australia. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed
      of all cases of invasive H. influenzae disease in children <18 years of age in
      Queensland between January 2002 and December 2011. Cases were identified from
      pathology records and data requested from treating hospitals. RESULTS: Laboratory
      data were obtained for 144 cases and clinical/demographic data for 123 cases. The
      majority (72%) of cases were children <5 years of age. Annual incidence rate for
      all children <5 years was 7.4/100 000, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
      Islander children <5 years was 10.2/100 000. Serotype was reported for 132
      isolates, 69 NTHi and 63 encapsulated strains. The most common clinical diagnoses
      were pneumonia, meningitis and bacteraemia without clinical focus. Of the
      patients, 5 patients died, and 12 had significant morbidity at hospital
      discharge. CONCLUSIONS: While rates of invasive H. influenzae disease have
      decreased dramatically following the introduction of Hib vaccination, H.
      influenzae remains a cause of significant morbidity and mortality, and Aboriginal
      and Torres Strait Islander children remain particularly vulnerable.

PMID- 28871607
TI  - Characterization of ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (E-NTPDase; EC
      3.6.1.5) activity in mouse peritoneal cavity cells.
AB  - This study aimed to characterize the activity of ectonucleoside triphosphate
      diphosphohydrolase (E-NTPDase; EC 3.6.1.5) in peritoneal cavity cells from BALB/c
      mice. E-NTPDase was activated in the presence of both calcium (1.5mM) and
      magnesium (1.5mM) ions. However, the activity was higher in the presence of Ca2+
      . A pH of 8.5 and temperature of 37 degrees C were the optimum conditions for
      catalysis. The apparent Km values were 0.51mM and 0.66mM for the hydrolysis of
      adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP), respectively. The
      Vmax values were 136.4 and 120.8 nmol Pi/min/mg of protein for ATPase and ADPase
      activity, respectively. Nucleotide hydrolysis was inhibited in the presence of
      sodium azide (20mM, ATP: P < .05; ADP: P < .001), sodium fluoride (20mM; ATP and
      ADP: P < .001), and suramin (0.3mM; ATP: P < .01; ADP: P < .05), which is a known
      profile for NTPDase inhibition. Although all of the diphosphate and triphosphate
      nucleotides that were tested were hydrolyzed, enzyme activity was increased when
      adenine nucleotides were used as substrates. Finally, we stress that knowledge of
      the E-NTPDase catalytic biochemical properties in mouse peritoneal cavity cells
      is indispensable for properly determining its activity, as well as to fully
      understand the immune response profile in both healthy and sick cells.

PMID- 28871609
TI  - The origin of soil organic matter controls its composition and bioreactivity
      across a mesic boreal forest latitudinal gradient.
AB  - Warmer climates have been associated with reduced bioreactivity of soil organic
      matter (SOM) typically attributed to increased diagenesis; the combined
      biological and physiochemical transformation of SOM. In addition, cross-site
      studies have indicated that ecosystem regime shifts, associated with long-term
      climate warming, can affect SOM properties through changes in vegetation and
      plant litter production thereby altering the composition of soil inputs. The
      relative importance of these two controls, diagenesis and inputs, on SOM
      properties as ecosystems experience climate warming, however, remains poorly
      understood. To address this issue we characterized the elemental, chemical
      (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and total hydrolysable amino acids
      analysis), and isotopic composition of plant litter and SOM across a well
      constrained mesic boreal forest latitudinal transect in Atlantic Canada. Results
      across forest sites within each of three climate regions indicated that (1)
      climate history and diagenesis affect distinct parameters of SOM chemistry, (2)
      increases in SOM bioreactivity with latitude were associated with elevated
      proportions of carbohydrates relative to plant waxes and lignin, and (3) despite
      the common forest type across regions, differences in SOM chemistry by climate
      region were associated with chemically distinct litter inputs and not different
      degrees of diagenesis. The observed climate effects on vascular plant litter
      chemistry, however, explained only part of the regional differences in SOM
      chemistry, most notably the higher protein content of SOM from warmer regions.
      Greater proportions of lignin and aliphatic compounds and smaller proportions of
      carbohydrates in warmer sites' soils were explained by the higher proportion of
      vascular plant relative to moss litter in the warmer relative to cooler forests.
      These results indicate that climate change induced decreases in the proportion of
      moss inputs not only impacts SOM chemistry but also increases the resistance of
      SOM to decomposition, thus significantly altering SOM cycling in these boreal
      forest soils.

PMID- 28871610
TI  - What mediates tree mortality during drought in the southern Sierra Nevada?
AB  - Severe drought has the potential to cause selective mortality within a forest,
      thereby inducing shifts in forest species composition. The southern Sierra Nevada
      foothills and mountains of California have experienced extensive forest dieback
      due to drought stress and insect outbreak. We used high-fidelity imaging
      spectroscopy (HiFIS) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) from the Carnegie
      Airborne Observatory (CAO) to estimate the effect of forest dieback on species
      composition in response to drought stress in Sequoia National Park. Our aims were
      (1) to quantify site-specific conditions that mediate tree mortality along an
      elevation gradient in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, (2) to assess where
      mortality events have a greater probability of occurring, and (3) to estimate
      which tree species have a greater likelihood of mortality along the elevation
      gradient. A series of statistical models were generated to classify species
      composition and identify tree mortality, and the influences of different
      environmental factors were spatially quantified and analyzed to assess where
      mortality events have a greater likelihood of occurring. A higher probability of
      mortality was observed in the lower portion of the elevation gradient, on
      southwest- and west-facing slopes, in areas with shallow soils, on shallower
      slopes, and at greater distances from water. All of these factors are related to
      site water balance throughout the landscape. Our results also suggest that
      mortality is species-specific along the elevation gradient, mainly affecting
      Pinus ponderosa and Pinus lambertiana at lower elevations. Selective mortality
      within the forest may drive long-term shifts in community composition along the
      elevation gradient.

PMID- 28871611
TI  - Long-term trajectories of patients with neck pain and low back pain presenting to
      chiropractic care: A latent class growth analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Information on the course of neck pain (NP) and low back pain (LBP)
      typically relies on data collected at few time intervals during a period of up to
      1 year. METHODS: In this prospective, multicentre practice-based cohort study,
      patients consulting a chiropractor responded weekly for 52 weeks to text messages
      on their cell phones. Data from 448 patients (153 NP, 295 LBP) who had returned
      at least one set of answers in the first 26 weeks were used. Outcome measures
      were pain intensity (VAS) and functional outcome, assessed using four different
      questions: pain intensity, limitation in activities of daily living (ADL), number
      of days with pain in the previous week and number of days limited in ADL.
      Distinct patterns of pain were analysed with quadratic latent class growth
      analysis. RESULTS: The final model was a 4-class model for NP and LBP. The
      'recovering from mild baseline pain' is most common (76.3% of NP patients/58.3%
      of LBP patients) followed by the 'recovering from severe baseline pain' class
      (16.3% NP/29.8% LBP). They follow similar trajectories when considered over a
      period of 6 months. Pain at baseline, duration of complaints, functional status,
      limitations in ADL and the score on psychosocial scales were the variables that
      most contributed to distinguish between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients with
      NP or LBP presenting in chiropractic care show a trajectory of symptoms
      characterized by persistent or fluctuating pain of low or medium intensity. Only
      a minority either experience a rapid complete recovery or develop chronic severe
      pain. SIGNIFICANCE: Ninety percentage of patients with neck pain or low back pain
      presenting to chiropractors have a 30% improvement within 6 weeks and then show a
      trajectory of symptoms characterized by persistent or fluctuating pain of low or
      medium intensity. Only a minority either experience a rapid complete recovery or
      develop chronic severe pain.

PMID- 28871612
TI  - Short-cut diagnostic tool in cystinosis: Bone marrow aspiration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cystinosis is a rare metabolic genetic disorder caused by a mutation
      in cystinosin lysosomal cystine transporter (CTNS). The diagnosis of nephropathic
      cystinosis (NC) is made by observing corneal cystine crystals and/or measuring
      the cystine content of leukocytes. CTNS mutation analysis confirms the diagnosis
      of cystinosis, but leukocyte cystine measurement and CTNS analysis have not been
      widely available, and cystine crystals in the cornea may not be apparent in the
      first months of life. Cystine crystal deposition can be seen in the bone marrow
      earlier than corneal deposition, in patients with NC. METHODS: Ten patients with
      cystinosis diagnosis were enrolled in the study. Medical records were reviewed
      retrospectively to collect demographic and clinical data such as age at
      diagnosis, disease presentation, parental consanguinity, family history, corneal
      cystine deposition, leukocyte cystine level, bone marrow cystine deposition,
      presence of renal failure, follow-up time and prognosis. RESULTS: Cystine
      crystals were seen in all of the patients' fresh bone marrow aspiration samples.
      Eight patients had corneal cystine deposition. Leukocyte cystine measurement
      could have been performed in four patients who had come from another center.
      Complications such as pulmonary hypertension and idiopathic intracranial
      hypertension (IIH) were observed in two patients. CONCLUSIONS: Bone marrow
      aspiration might be an easy and short-cut diagnostic tool for NC especially when
      it is not possible to measure fibroblast cystine content. Additionally some rare
      complications such as pulmonary hypertension and IIH can be encountered during
      the course of NC.

PMID- 28871613
TI  - Quality-assured long-term satellite-based leaf area index product.

PMID- 28871614
TI  - A Decision Instrument to Identify Isolated Traumatic Subdural Hematomas at Low
      Risk of Neurologic Deterioration, Surgical Intervention, or Radiographic
      Worsening.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Subdural hematoma (SDH) is the most common form of traumatic
      intracranial hemorrhage. Severity of disease in patients with SDH varies widely.
      It was hypothesized that a decision rule could identify patients with SDH who are
      at very low risk for neurologic decline, neurosurgical intervention, or
      radiographic worsening. METHODS: Retrospective chart review of consecutive
      patients age >= 16 with Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) >= 13 and computed tomography
      (CT)-documented isolated SDH presenting to a university-affiliated, urban,
      100,000-annual-visit ED from 2009 to 2015. Demographic, historical, and physical
      examination variables were collected. Primary outcome was a composite of
      neurosurgical intervention, worsening repeat CT, and neurologic decline.
      Univariate analysis was performed and statistically important variables were
      utilized to create a logistic regression model. RESULTS: A total of 644 patients
      with isolated SDH were reviewed, 340 in the derivation group and 304 in the
      validation set. Mortality was 2.2%. A total 15.5% of patients required
      neurosurgery. A decision instrument was created: patients were low risk if they
      had none of the following factors-SDH thickness >= 5mm, warfarin use, clopidogrel
      use, GCS < 14, and presence of midline shift. This model had a sensitivity of
      98.6% for the composite endpoint, specificity of 37.1%, and a negative likelihood
      ratio of 0.037. In the validation cohort, sensitivity was 96.3%, specificity was
      31.5%, and negative likelihood ratio was 0.127. CONCLUSION: Subdural hematomas
      are amenable to risk stratification analysis. With prospective validation, this
      decision instrument may aid in triaging these patients, including reducing the
      need for transfer to tertiary centers.

PMID- 28871615
TI  - Controlled oxygenated rewarming up to normothermia for pretransplant
      reconditioning of liver grafts.
AB  - Controlled oxygenated rewarming (COR) up to 20 degrees C during ex vivo machine
      perfusion limits reperfusion-induced tissue injury upon graft implantation.
      Rewarming up to normothermia might add further benefits and provide better
      prediction of post-transplantation organ function. The effect of 90 minutes of
      oxygenated machine perfusion with Aqix RS-I after cold storage combined with
      gentle rewarming up to 20 degrees C (COR20) or 35 degrees C (COR35) was studied
      in rat livers and compared with cold storage alone (CS, n = 6, resp).
      Postpreservation recovery was evaluated upon warm reperfusion using an
      established in vitro system. COR generally resulted in significantly improved
      energetic recovery, increased bile flow, less activities alanine aminotransferase
      (ALT) release, and improved histopathology upon reperfusion as compared to only
      cold-stored livers, without significant differences between COR20 and COR35.
      Parameters obtained during COR, especially during COR35, also allowed for
      prediction of hepatic recovery upon reperfusion. For instance, ulterior bile
      production upon reperfusion was found closely correlated to bile flow observed
      already during COR35 (R2  = 0.91). COR significantly improved liver quality after
      static cold storage. Elevation of machine perfusion temperature up to 35 degrees
      C may prove promising to refine ex vivo evaluation of the graft prior to
      transplantation.

PMID- 28871616
TI  - Rangifer management controls a climate-sensitive tundra state transition.
AB  - Rangifer (caribou/reindeer) management has been suggested to mitigate the
      temperature-driven transition of Arctic tundra into a shrubland state, yet how
      this happens is uncertain. Here we study this much focused ecosystem state
      transition in riparian areas, where palatable willows (Salix) are dominant tall
      shrubs and highly responsive to climate change. For the state transition to take
      place, small life stages must become tall and abundant. Therefore we predicted
      that the performance of small life stages (potential recruits) of the tall shrubs
      were instrumental to the focal transition, where Rangifer managed at high
      population density would keep the small-stage shrubs in a "browse trap"
      independent of summer temperature. We used a large-scale quasi-experimental study
      design that included real management units that spanned a wide range of Rangifer
      population densities and summer temperatures in order to assess the relative
      importance of these two driving variables. Ground surveys provided data on
      density and height of the small shrub life stages, while the distributional limit
      (shrubline) of established shrublands (the tall shrub life stage) was derived
      from aerial photographs. Where Rangifer densities were above a threshold of
      approximately 5 animals/km2 , we found, in accordance with the expectation of a
      "browse trap," that the small life stages of shrubs in grasslands were at low
      height and low abundance. At Rangifer densities below this threshold, the small
      life stages of shrubs were taller and more abundant indicating Rangifer were no
      longer in control of the grassland state. For the established shrubland state, we
      found that the shrubline was at a 100-m lower elevation in the management units
      where Rangifer had been browsing in summer as opposed to the migratory ranges
      with no browsing in summer. In both seasonal ranges, the shrubline increased 100
      m per 1 degrees C increment in temperature. Our study supports the proposal that
      Rangifer management within a sustainable range of animal densities can mitigate
      the much-focused transition from grassland to shrubland in a warming Arctic.

PMID- 28871617
TI  - What is expected in lung function after lung transplantation due to end-stage
      pulmonary silicosis?
AB  - In this study, we aimed to determine the impact of lung transplantation (LTx) on
      pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and survival among patients with end-stage
      silicosis. We included patients with end-stage silicosis on the wait list for
      LTx, between January 1989 and July 2015 (N = 26). Sixteen of these patients
      received LTx; 10 were eligible, but did not undergo LTx (non-LTx) during the
      study period. Retrospective information on PFTs (spirometry [volumes and flows],
      6-minute walking test [6MWT], and DLCO) was retrieved from patients' medical
      charts, including baseline information for all patients and follow-up information
      for the LTx. At baseline, most patients presented with spirometric and 6MWT
      values that were suggestive of severe disease (FEV1 /FVC 76.5 +/- 29.7; 6MWT
      267.4 +/- 104.5 m). Significant increases in these values were observed at follow
      up in the LTx (P = .036 and .151, respectively). The overall median survival of
      patients in the LTx and non-LTx was 3.35 years (95% CI: 0.16-14.38) and 0.78
      years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12-3.65) (P = 0.002), respectively. For
      patients with end-stage silicosis, LTx offers significant benefits regarding
      pulmonary function and survival when compared to non-LTx, and is a reliable tool
      to help this critical population of patients, whose only treatment option is LTx.

PMID- 28871618
TI  - Abdominal emergencies after liver transplantation: Presentation and surgical
      management.
AB  - With an increasing number of liver transplantation (LT) and an enhanced overall
      survival, LT recipients are more likely to be admitted in emergency departments
      of general hospitals. Yet, in LT recipients, common but also benign symptoms may
      reveal a LT-related (or not) severe condition. To improve management of LT
      recipients by emergency physicians and general surgeons and potentially improve
      long-term outcomes, a clinical review was performed. Overall, CT scan and blood
      tests should be systematically performed. Immunosuppressive side effects should
      be excluded using blood tests. LT-related complications are more likely to occur
      during the first three months after LT, including mainly bile leak, arterial
      aneurysm, and pseudoaneurysm. Patients should be referred in emergency to
      tertiary centers. Non-LT-related complications and common abdominal conditions
      may also be diagnosed in LT recipients. Except in case of diffuse peritonitis or
      in hemodynamically unstable patients when surgical procedure should be performed,
      most conditions should be reassessed regarding the immunosuppressive treatment
      and the adhesive abdominal cavity.

PMID- 28871619
TI  - From cytokines to pragmatic designs: changing paradigms.
AB  - Emily Cooley was a well-respected medical technologist and morphologist with a
      remarkable skill set. She was highly regarded both professionally and personally.
      The "Emily Cooley Lectureship and Award" was established to honor her in
      particular and medical technologists in general. This article first reviews how a
      medical laboratory technologist was inspired to become a clinical researcher,
      then goes on to describe research that led to the discovery of cytokines as the
      cause of febrile nonhemolytic transfusion and the use of a pragmatic randomized
      controlled trial design to address evidence of harm when stored red blood cells
      were transfused. Important lessons for performing quality, meaningful research
      are highlighted.

PMID- 28871620
TI  - Oropharyngeal surfactant can improve initial stabilisation and reduce rescue
      intubation in infants born below 25 weeks of gestation.
AB  - AIM: Minimally aggressive and easily performed techniques that facilitate
      spontaneous respiratory stabilisation are required to reduce rescue intubation in
      extremely premature infants. This study evaluated the feasibility and safety of
      administering surfactant into the pharynx of infants born at <25 weeks
      immediately after birth. METHODS: This study of 19 infants was conducted from
      January 2013 to June 2014 in a tertiary perinatal centre in Prague. We
      administered 1.5 mL of Curosurf as a bolus into the pharynx and simultaneously
      performed a sustained inflation manoeuvre (SIM). The extent of the interventions,
      death and severe neonatal morbidity in the study group were compared with 20
      controls born before the study period and 20 born after it. RESULTS: All infants
      received oropharyngeal surfactant within the median (interquartile range) time of
      40 seconds (25-75) after cord camping. The surfactant had to be suctioned in one
      infant because of upper airway obstruction. Although more subsequent surfactant
      was administered in the study group, significantly fewer study period infants
      required intubation than the before and after controls (16% versus 75% and 58%,
      respectively, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Oropharyngeal surfactant with simultaneous
      SIM was feasible and safe and reduced the need for delivery room intubation in
      these fragile infants.

PMID- 28871621
TI  - Systolic blood pressure reduction during the first 24 h in acute heart failure
      admission: friend or foe?
AB  - AIMS: Changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP) during an admission for acute
      heart failure (AHF), especially those leading to hypotension, have been suggested
      to increase the risk for adverse outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analysed
      associations of SBP decrease during the first 24 h from randomization with serum
      creatinine changes at the last time-point available (72 h), using linear
      regression, and with 30- and 180-day outcomes, using Cox regression, in 1257
      patients in the VERITAS study. After multivariable adjustment for baseline SBP,
      greater SBP decrease at 24 h from randomization was associated with greater
      creatinine increase at 72 h and greater risk for 30-day all-cause death,
      worsening heart failure (HF) or HF readmission. The hazard ratio (HR) for each 1
      mmHg decrease in SBP at 24 h for 30-day death, worsening HF or HF
      rehospitalization was 1.01 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00-1.02; P = 0.021].
      Similarly, the HR for each 1 mmHg decrease in SBP at 24 h for 180-day all-cause
      mortality was 1.01 (95% CI 1.00-1.03; P = 0.038). The associations between SBP
      decrease and outcomes did not differ by tezosentan treatment group, although
      tezosentan treatment was associated with a greater SBP decrease at 24 h.
      CONCLUSIONS: In the current post hoc analysis, SBP decrease during the first 24 h
      was associated with increased renal impairment and adverse outcomes at 30 and 180
      days. Caution, with special attention to blood pressure monitoring, should be
      exercised when vasodilating agents are given to AHF patients.

PMID- 28871622
TI  - 'heartfailurematters.org', an educational website for patients and carers from
      the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology: objectives,
      use and future directions.
AB  - AIMS: In 2007, the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of
      Cardiology (ESC) launched the information website heartfailurematters.org (HFM
      site) with the aim of creating a practical tool through which to provide advice
      and guidelines for living with heart failure to patients, their carers, health
      care professionals and the general public worldwide. The website is managed by
      the ESC at the European Heart House and is currently available in nine languages.
      The aim of this study is to describe the background, objectives, use, lessons
      learned and future directions of the HFM site. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data on the
      number of visitor sessions on the site as measured by Google Analytics were used
      to explore use of the HFM site from 2010 to 2015. Worldwide, the annual number of
      sessions increased from 416 345 in 2010 to 1 636 368 in 2015. Most users (72-75%)
      found the site by using a search engine. Desktops and, more recently, smartphones
      were used to visit the website, accounting for 50% and 38%, respectively, of
      visits to the site in 2015. CONCLUSIONS: Although its use has increased, the HFM
      site has not yet reached its full potential: fewer than 2 million users have
      visited the website, whereas the number of people living with heart failure
      worldwide is estimated to be 23 million. Uptake and use could be further improved
      by a continuous process of qualitative assessment of users' preferences, and the
      provision of professional helpdesk facilities, comprehensive information
      technology, and promotional support.

PMID- 28871623
TI  - Clinical course of patients with symptomatic isolated superficial vein
      thrombosis: the ICARO follow-up study.
AB  - : Essentials Late sequelae of isolated superficial vein thrombosis (iSVT) have
      rarely been investigated. We studied 411 consecutive outpatients with acute iSVT
      with a median follow-up of three years. Male sex and cancer are risk factors for
      future deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. Patients without cancer appear
      to be at a negligible risk for death. SUMMARY: Background Studies of long-term
      thromboembolic complications and death following acute isolated superficial vein
      thrombosis (iSVT) of the lower extremities are scarce. Objectives To investigate
      the course of iSVT in the setting of an observational multicenter study. Methods
      We collected longitudinal data of 411 consecutive outpatients with acute,
      symptomatic, objectively diagnosed iSVT who were previously included in the cross
      sectional ICARO study. Four patients followed for < 30 days and 79 with
      concomitant deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) were excluded
      from the present analysis. The primary outcome was symptomatic DVT or PE. The
      safety outcomes were major bleeding and all-cause death. Results The median
      follow-up time was 1026 days (interquartile range 610-1796). Symptomatic DVT/PE
      occurred in 52 (12.9%) patients, giving annualized rates of 1.3% (95% confidence
      interval [CI] 0.3-3.9%) on anticoagulant treatment and 4.4% (95% CI 3.2-5.8%) off
      anticoagulant treatment. Male sex (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 2.03 [95% CI 1.16
      3.54]) and active solid cancer (adjusted HR 3.14 [95% CI 1.11-8.93]) were
      associated with future DVT/PE, whereas prior DVT/PE failed to show significance,
      most likely because of bias resulting from prolonged anticoagulant treatment.
      Three major bleeding events occurred on treatment, giving an annualized rate of
      1.4% (95 CI 0.3-4.0%). Death was recorded in 16 patients (annualized rate: 1.1%
      [95% CI 0.6-1.7%]), and was attributable to cancer (n = 8), PE (n = 1),
      cardiovascular events (n = 3), or other causes (n = 4). Conclusions The long-term
      risk of DVT/PE after anticoagulant discontinuation for acute iSVT is clinically
      relevant, especially in males and in the presence of active cancer. The risk of
      death appears to be negligible in patients without cancer.

PMID- 28871624
TI  - Low skeletal muscle mass is associated with increased hospital costs in patients
      with cirrhosis listed for liver transplantation-a retrospective study.
AB  - Low skeletal muscle mass (sarcopenia) is associated with increased morbidity and
      mortality in liver transplant candidates. We investigated the association between
      sarcopenia and hospital costs in patients listed for liver transplantation.
      Consecutive patients with cirrhosis listed for liver transplantation between 2007
      and 2014 in a Eurotransplant centre were identified. The skeletal muscle index
      (SMI, cm2 /m2 ) was measured on CT performed within 90 days from waiting list
      placement. The lowest sex-spe cific quartile represented patients with
      sarcopenia. In total, 224 patients were included. Median time on the waiting list
      was 170 (IQR 47-306) days, and median MELD score was 16 (IQR 11-20). The median
      total hospital costs in patients with sarcopenia were ?11 294 (IQR 3570-46 469)
      compared with ?6878 (IQR 1305-20 683) in patients without sarcopenia (P = 0.008).
      In multivariable regression analysis, an incremental increase in SMI was
      significantly associated with a decrease in total costs (?455 per incremental
      SMI, 95% CI 11-900, P = 0.045), independent of the total time on the waiting
      list. In conclusion, sarcopenia is independently associated with increased health
      related costs for patients on the waiting list for liver transplantation.
      Optimizing skeletal muscle mass may therefore lead to a decrease in hospital
      expenditure, in addition to greater health benefit for the transplant candidate.

PMID- 28871625
TI  - Rare finding of a giant ischioanal lipoma.

PMID- 28871626
TI  - The muscle hypothesis revisited.

PMID- 28871627
TI  - Important Aspects of Pharmacist-led Medication Reviews in an Acute Medical Ward.
AB  - In some hospitals, clinical pharmacists review the medication to find drug
      related problems (DRPs) in acutely admitted patients. We aimed to identify the
      nature of identified DRPs and investigate factors of potential importance for the
      clinical implementation of pharmacist suggestions. In 100 randomly selected
      medication review (MR) notes, we retrospectively evaluated the clinical
      implementation and classified (1) timing and communication of the review; (2)
      DRPs and related suggestions for the physician; and (3) DRPs' potential clinical
      relevance to patients as 'beneficial', 'somewhat beneficial', 'no relevance' or
      'other relevance'. Of 327 DRPs (0-13 DRPs per patient), 42% were implemented. The
      clinical implementation was higher if the MR note was made prior to (instead of
      after) the physician's admission, and even higher if the suggestions were
      communicated verbally (instead of only in writing) to the physicians (44% versus
      79%, p < 0.05). The clinical relevance of the DRPs was either 'beneficial' (16%),
      'somewhat beneficial' (43%), 'no relevance' (22%) or 'other relevance' (19%). The
      'beneficial' DRPs had a higher clinical implementation (53%) than 'no relevance'
      (34%) (p < 0.05). The most frequently implemented suggestions were based on DRPs
      concerning 'indication for drug treatment not noticed', 'inappropriate drug form'
      and 'drug dose too low', with implementation rates of 83%, 67% and 63%,
      respectively. In our sample, the pharmacist's MR suggestions were only
      implemented by physicians in 42% of the cases, but review prior to physician
      contact and verbal communication of the suggestions, higher clinical relevance
      and specific types of DRPs were associated with a higher implementation rate.

PMID- 28871628
TI  - Response to: stated conclusion about industry funding is opposite to what the
      paper's data show: letter regarding "Selective outcome reporting in obesity
      clinical trials: a cross-sectional review".

PMID- 28871629
TI  - Nonpublication and discontinuation of randomised controlled trials in newborns.
AB  - AIM: To determine the rate of nonpublication and discontinuation of randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs) in newborns. METHODS: This was a retrospective, cross
      sectional study of RCTs registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical
      Trials Registry (ANZCTR) between 2008 and 2012. RESULTS: Fifty trials were
      identified, of which 23 (46%) were retrospectively registered. Thirty trials
      (60%) were published. After a median follow-up of 8.0 (range 4.6-17.4) years from
      Research Ethics Committee approval, 15 of 41 completed trials (37%) remained
      unpublished, representing 5422 neonatal trial participants. Nine trials (18%)
      were discontinued, including four that were published. The most frequent reason
      for discontinuation was poor recruitment (n = 4). Sample size discrepancies
      between registration and publication were found in 17 (65%) of the 26 completed,
      published trials. In nine (35%) of these trials, the calculated sample size in
      the method section of the published article differed from the planned sample size
      in the trial registry (relative difference -20% to +33%). CONCLUSION:
      Nonpublication and discontinuation of RCTs conducted in newborns is common.
      Additional efforts are needed to minimise the number of neonatal trial
      participants that are exposed to interventions without subsequent publication.

PMID- 28871630
TI  - Changes in psychosocial health during a 7-week paediatric weight management
      program.
AB  - Youth with obesity are at increased risk of psychosocial symptoms; however,
      little is known regarding the impact of paediatric weight management (PWM) on
      psychosocial health. The aim of the study was to investigate changes in
      psychosocial health among children who completed a 7-week PWM program.
      Participants aged 5 to 16 years with a BMI >=85th percentile completed a 7-week,
      family-centred PWM program focused on health behaviour education, exercise and
      mentored goal setting. The Paediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) was assessed via
      parent report to evaluate psychosocial symptoms before and after the program, and
      subscales were calculated for internalizing (PSC-IS), externalizing (PSC-ES) and
      attention symptoms (PSC-AS). At baseline, positive screen rates for psychosocial
      symptoms among the 317 patients included 16.1% for PSC, 14.1% for PSC-ES, 18.6%
      for PSC-IS and 12.3% for PSC-AS. Among program completers, total PSC scores
      improved in those with normal (p = 0.010) and elevated p < .001 psychosocial
      symptoms at baseline. Youth with positive screens for elevated PSC subscales
      improved their subscale scores, on average, and the majority reduced scores to
      below elevated levels for PSC (54.2%), PSC-ES (64.7%), PSC-IS (78.3%) and PSC-AS
      (64.7%). Improvements in PSC remained significant after adjusting for BMI changes
      during treatment, but BMI differed across PSC-change groups, including BMI
      increases among participants with PSC deterioration (0.33 +/- 0.64 kg m-2 ) (P =
      0.035) and BMI decreases among patients with no reliable PSC change (-0.26 +/-
      1.04 kg m-2 ) (P = 0.038) or reliable PSC improvement (-0.22 +/- 0.74 kg m-2 ) (P
      = 0.025). Youth with positive screens for psychosocial symptoms can improve
      emotional and behavioural functioning during short-term PWM. Future research is
      needed to elucidate mechanisms and long-term outcome durability.

PMID- 28871632
TI  - Specific and Direct Amplified Detection of MicroRNA with MicroRNA:Argonaute-2
      Cleavage (miRACle) Beacons.
AB  - MicroRNA detection is a valuable method for determining cell identity. Molecular
      beacons are elegant sensors that can transform intracellular microRNA
      concentration into a fluorescence intensity. While target binding enhances beacon
      fluorescence, the degree of enhancement is insufficient for demanding
      applications. The addition of specialty nucleases can enable target recycling and
      signal amplification, but this process complicates the assay. We have developed
      and characterized a class of beacons that are susceptible to the endogenous
      nuclease Argonaute-2 (Ago2). After purification of the complex by co
      immunoprecipitation, microRNA:Ago2 cleavage (miRACle) beacons undergo site- and
      sequence-specific cleavage, and show a 13-fold fluorescence enhancement over
      traditional beacons. The system can be adapted to any microRNA sequence, and can
      cleave nuclease-resistant, non-RNA bases, potentially allowing miRACle beacons to
      be designed for cells without interference from non-specific nucleases.

PMID- 28871631
TI  - Characteristics and outcomes among patients with need for early dialysis after
      lung transplantation surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the introduction of lung allocation score (LAS), increasingly
      sicker patients are undergoing lung transplantation (LT). This study was
      conducted to determine the time trends in need for dialysis after LT, identify
      variables independently associated with need for dialysis, and evaluate its
      association with 1- and 5-year mortality. METHODS: We queried the United Network
      of Organ Sharing database for adult patients undergoing LT between 1994 and 2014.
      We excluded patients with simultaneous dual organ transplantation and where data
      regarding the need for dialysis were not available. RESULTS: Time trends in the
      yearly incidence of the need for dialysis showed a gradual increase (P = .012).
      In the post-LAS era, ethnicity, underlying diagnosis, estimated GFR <90
      mL/min/1.73 m2 and mean pulmonary pressures>35 mm Hg, ventilator or
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support at LT, and >20% increase in serum
      creatinine between listing and match were independently associated with the need
      for dialysis. Patients with need for dialysis had significantly increased hazard
      of 1-year (n = 13 849; adjusted hazard ratio, 95% CI:7.23, 6.2-8.4, P < .001) and
      5-year mortality (n = 7287; adjusted hazard ratio, 95% CI:3.96, 3.43-4.56, P <
      .001). CONCLUSIONS: There is a gradual increase in the incidence of the need for
      early dialysis after LT, and these patients have significantly worse early and
      late survival. Several pre-transplant recipient characteristics are independently
      associated with the need for dialysis.

PMID- 28871633
TI  - Evaluation of Aintree LOSS, a community-based, multidisciplinary weight
      management service: outcomes and predictors of engagement.
AB  - Aintree LOSS is a community-based, multidisciplinary weight management programme
      for patients with severe and complex obesity, focusing on a flexible and
      individualized service with follow-up for up to 2 years. We evaluated all 2472
      patients referred to the service between October 2009 and 2013. Demographic data
      were recorded at baseline, with the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) used to
      measure socioeconomic deprivation. Weight was recorded at each visit. Mean body
      mass index at baseline was 45.6 (standard deviation 6.8), and 58.9% of patients
      lived in areas in the most deprived decile nationally. Of 2315 appropriate
      referrals, 1249 (55.1%) attended >2 visits; mean final weight loss was 3.50 +/-
      8.55 kg, and 24.1% achieved >=5% weight loss. Of the patients, 754 (33.3%)
      attended for over 6 months; mean final weight loss was 4.94 +/- 10 kg, and 34%
      achieved 5% weight loss. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed
      increasing age, residence in a less deprived area and sleep apnoea to be
      independently associated with attendance for >6 months, and there was a linear
      relationship between 6-month attendance and deprivation quintile. Year-on-year
      analyses showed improvement in engagement over time, coinciding with efforts to
      improve access to the service. This work shows a multidisciplinary, community
      based weight loss programme prioritizing a fully flexible and individualized
      approach functioning effectively in real-world practice. Maintaining engagement
      remains a challenge in weight loss programmes, and our results suggest younger
      patients living in areas with greater deprivation should be a target for efforts
      to improve engagement.

PMID- 28871634
TI  - Assembly and analysis of a qingke reference genome demonstrate its close genetic
      relation to modern cultivated barley.
AB  - Qingke, the local name of hulless barley in the Tibetan Plateau, is a staple food
      for Tibetans. The availability of its reference genome sequences could be useful
      for studies on breeding and molecular evolution. Taking advantage of the third
      generation sequencer (PacBio), we de novo assembled a 4.84-Gb genome sequence of
      qingke, cv. Zangqing320 and anchored a 4.59-Gb sequence to seven chromosomes. Of
      the 46,787 annotated 'high-confidence' genes, 31 564 were validated by RNA
      sequencing data of 39 wild and cultivated barley genotypes with wide genetic
      diversity, and the results were also confirmed by nonredundant protein database
      from NCBI. As some gaps in the reference genome of Morex were covered in the
      reference genome of Zangqing320 by PacBio reads, we believe that the Zangqing320
      genome provides the useful supplements for the Morex genome. Using the qingke
      genome as a reference, we conducted a genome comparison, revealing a close
      genetic relationship between a hulled barley (cv. Morex) and a hulless barley
      (cv. Zangqing320), which is strongly supported by the low-diversity regions in
      the two genomes. Considering the origin of Morex from its breeding pedigree, we
      then demonstrated a close genomic relationship between modern cultivated barley
      and qingke. Given this genomic relationship and the large genetic diversity
      between qingke and modern cultivated barley, we propose that qingke could provide
      elite genes for barley improvement.

PMID- 28871635
TI  - Fatty acid synthase as a potential therapeutic target in feline oral squamous
      cell carcinoma.
AB  - Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an aggressive and treatment-resistant
      malignancy in both feline and human patients. Recent work has demonstrated
      aberrant expression of fatty acid synthase (FASN) and an increased capacity for
      lipogenesis in human OSCC and other cancers. In human OSCC, inhibition of FASN
      decreased cell viability and growth in vitro, and diminished tumour growth and
      metastasis in murine preclinical models. This study aimed to characterize FASN as
      a therapeutic target in feline OSCC. Immunohistochemistry revealed high FASN
      expression in primary feline OSCC tumours, and FASN expression was detected in
      OSCC cell lines (3 feline and 3 human) by immunoblotting and quantitative real
      time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Orlistat, a FASN inhibitor,
      substantially reduced cell viability in both feline and human OSCC lines,
      although feline cell lines consistently displayed higher sensitivity to the drug.
      FASN mRNA expression among cell lines mirrored sensitivity to orlistat, with
      feline cell lines expressing higher levels of FASN. Consistent with this
      observation, diminished sensitivity to orlistat treatment and decreased FASN mRNA
      expression were observed in feline OSCC cells following incubation under hypoxic
      conditions. Treatment with orlistat did not potentiate sensitivity to carboplatin
      in the cell lines investigated; instead, combinations of the 2 drugs resulted in
      additive to antagonistic effects. Our results suggest that FASN inhibition is a
      viable therapeutic target for feline OSCC. Furthermore, cats may serve as a
      spontaneous large animal model for human oral cancer, although differences in the
      regulation of lipogenesis between these 2 species require further investigation.

PMID- 28871636
TI  - Age-specific infectious period shapes dynamics of pneumonia in bighorn sheep.
AB  - Superspreading, the phenomenon where a small proportion of individuals contribute
      disproportionately to new infections, has profound effects on disease dynamics.
      Superspreading can arise through variation in contacts, infectiousness or
      infectious periods. The latter has received little attention, yet it drives the
      dynamics of many diseases of critical public health, livestock health and
      conservation concern. Here, we present rare evidence of variation in infectious
      periods underlying a superspreading phenomenon in a free-ranging wildlife system.
      We detected persistent infections of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, the primary
      causative agent of pneumonia in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), in a small
      number of older individuals that were homozygous at an immunologically relevant
      genetic locus. Interactions among age-structure, genetic composition and
      infectious periods may drive feedbacks in disease dynamics that determine the
      magnitude of population response to infection. Accordingly, variation in initial
      conditions may explain divergent population responses to infection that range
      from recovery to catastrophic decline and extirpation.

PMID- 28871638
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28871637
TI  - Deaths and end-of-life decisions differed between neonatal and paediatric
      intensive care units at the same children's hospital.
AB  - AIM: We compared neonatal deaths and end-of-life decisions in a neonatal
      intensive care unit (NICU) and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in a Dutch
      tertiary children's hospital. SUBJECTS: All 235 full-term infants who died within
      28 days of life between 2003 and 2013 in the NICU (n = 199) and PICU (n = 36)
      were retrospectively studied. RESULTS: The median length of stay was three days
      in the NICU and seven days in the PICU (p = 0.003). The main reasons for NICU
      stays were asphyxia (52.8%) and congenital malformations (42.2%), and in the
      PICU, they were congenital malformations (97.2%) and primarily cardiac problems
      (83.3%, p < 0.001). The median age of death was three days in the NICU and eight
      days in the PICU (p < 0.001), and mortality despite full intensive care treatment
      was 4.0% and 25.0%, respectively. Intensive treatment was discontinued because of
      poor survival chances in 25.1% of NICU and 52.8% of PICU cases (p < 0.001), and
      care was redirected because of expected poor quality of life in 70.9% and 22.2%,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Differences between the age at death and end-of-life
      decisions were found between full-term infants in the NICU and PICU in the same
      children's hospital. Underlying disorders and doctors' attitudes may have played
      a role.

PMID- 28871639
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28871640
TI  - A novel approach to monitoring adherence to preventive therapy for tuberculosis
      in adolescence.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the usefulness of a microelectronic tablet-dispenser for
      monitoring adherence to preventive therapy for tuberculosis infection in
      adolescents. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-one patients with positive Mantoux tests were
      treated with isoniazid (INH), dispensed in a microelectronic tablet-dispenser
      that recorded the date, time and duration that the container was opened. Other
      measures of adherence included attendance at clinic, patient self-report, tablet
      count, and measurement of urinary INH metabolites. RESULTS: The mean adherence
      rates were: 83% using attendance at clinic, 91% using tablet counts, 79% using
      urine assays, and 66% using the electronic tablet-dispenser. Self-reporting
      appeared to over-estimate adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to 6 months of INH
      calculated using different measures is higher in this study than in previous
      reports. Microelectronic tablet-dispensers are an effective method to objectively
      measure adherence on a daily basis. Other measures are less helpful.

PMID- 28871641
TI  - Varicella vaccine in non-immune household contacts of children with cancer or
      leukaemia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of a new formulation
      of live attenuated varicella vaccine (Oka strain) in non-immune household
      contacts of children with cancer or leukaemia. METHODOLOGY: This was an open
      study with one group. Healthy varicella-susceptible adults and children living in
      the same household as children with cancer or leukaemia were vaccinated with a
      new live attenuated varicella vaccine (Oka strain) which is stable when stored at
      2-8 degrees C (refrigerator temperature) for at least 24 months (Varilrix).
      Children less than 13 years of age received one dose (0.5 mL containing at least
      103.3 plaque forming units) by subcutaneous injection and those aged over 13
      years received two doses 8 weeks apart. Adverse reactions following vaccination
      were recorded daily by the vaccinees. Post-vaccination antibody estimation was
      determined using indirect immunofluorescence 6 weeks after vaccination. RESULTS:
      Thirty-five seronegative subjects (28 children and 7 adults and adolescents) were
      vaccinated. All subjects tested (34) had seroconverted after vaccination. Local
      injection site reactions were experienced by 15/35. Other adverse reactions were
      uncommon (rash 2/35, fever (>= 37.5 degrees C) 3/35). No cases of clinical
      varicella occurred amongst the high-risk household contacts of the vaccine.
      CONCLUSION: This is the first study of this formulation of varicella vaccine in
      household contacts of children with cancer or leukaemia. The vaccine was found to
      be safe and immunogenic, but further follow-up is needed to document duration of
      immunity.

PMID- 28871642
TI  - Papilloedema secondary to acute purulent sinusitis.
AB  - Upper respiratory tract infections and sinusitis are common, but intracranial
      complications of sinusitis are rare in children and are often clinically
      unremarkable. Papilloedema secondary to purulent sinusitis is a complication
      previously not reported. We report two cases to highlight atypical manifestations
      of sinusitis in children.

PMID- 28871643
TI  - Post-extubation prophylactic nasal continuous positive airway pressure in preterm
      infants: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine whether management with nasal continuous positive airway
      pressure (NCPAP) in preterm infants having their endotracheal tube removed
      following a period of intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV), leads to
      an increased proportion remaining free of additional ventilatory support,
      compared to extubation directly to headbox oxygen. METHODOLOGY: Search Strategy-
      Searches were made of the Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials, Medline, abstracts
      of conferences and symposia proceedings, expert informants, journal hand
      searching mainly in the English language and expert informant searches in the
      Japanese language. Selection criteria- All trials utilising random or quasi
      random patient allocation, in which NCPAP (delivered by any method) was compared
      with headbox oxygen for postextubation care were included. Methodological quality
      was assessed independently by the two authors. Data collection and analysis- Data
      were extracted independently by the two authors. Meta-analysis using event rate
      ratios (ERRs) and event rate differences (ERDs) was performed using Revman 3.0
      statistical software. Prespecified subgroup analysis to determine the impact of
      different levels of NCPAP and use of aminophylline were also performed using the
      same package. Similar analysis to investigate the effect of postnatal age on
      outcomes of interest was also undertaken. RESULTS: Nasal CPAP, when applied to
      preterm infants being extubated following IPPV, reduces the incidence of adverse
      clinical events (apnoea, respiratory acidosis and increased oxygen requirements)
      indicating the need for additional ventilatory support. This result is both
      statistically significant and clinically important; ERR, 0.62 (0.49, 0.79) and
      ERD, - 0.175 (- 0.256, - 0.095). A trend towards reduction in the incidence of
      oxygen dependency at 28 days of age is also seen in the group extubated to NCPAP;
      ERR, 0.86 (0.67, 1.10) and ERD, - 0.069 (- 0.177, 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: Nasal CPAP
      is effective in preventing failure of extubation in preterm infants following a
      period of endotracheal intubation and IPPV. Further definition of the patient
      gestational age and weight groups to whom these results apply is required.
      Optimal levels of NCPAP as well as methods of administration remain to be
      determined.

PMID- 28871645
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28871644
TI  - Retinopathy of prematurity in infants < 32 weeks' gestation at birth in New South
      Wales in 1993 and 1994.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the incidence and severity of retinopathy of prematurity
      (ROP) in infants < 32 weeks' gestation. DESIGN: Review of the records maintained
      in the New South Wales Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Study (NICUS) database on
      infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in NSW from 1
      January 1993 to 31 December 1994. RESULTS: In the more premature infants, 23-26
      weeks' gestation, 65% developed ROP (102 of 157 examined for ROP). Forty-four
      infants (28%) developed severe ROP (Stage >= 3 ROP), 19 infants (12.1%) required
      cryo/laser therapy and one infant (0.6%) in this group had a retinal detachment.
      One hundred and fifty-seven of 159 surviving infants (98.7%) were examined for
      ROP. In the infants 27-28 weeks' gestation, 38.3% developed ROP (103 of 269
      examined for ROP). Fifteen infants (5.6%) developed severe ROP, seven infants
      (2.6%) required cryo/laser therapy for threshold ROP and three infants (1.1%) in
      this group had a retinal detachment. Two hundred and sixty-nine of 299 surviving
      infants (90%) were examined for ROP. In the infants 29-31 weeks' gestation, 10.8%
      developed ROP (48 of 443 examined for ROP). Six infants (1.4%) developed severe
      ROP, one infant (0.2%) required cryo/laser therapy for threshold ROP and no
      infant in this group had a retinal detachment. However, only 443 of 681 surviving
      infants (65.1%) in this group were examined for ROP. Of the four infants with
      detached retinas, one was a 25 week gestation infant weighing 840 g, two were 27
      weeks' gestation weighing 960 and 980 g and one infant was a 28 week gestation
      infant weighing 620 g. No infant developed Stage 5 ROP. CONCLUSION: In the more
      mature infants 29-31 weeks' gestation, the rate of ROP is low, although severe
      ROP still occurs. However, only 65.1% of these infants were examined for ROP and
      we should be diligent in screening for ROP in the sicker infants in this group.
      The incidence of severe ROP as well as the rate of cryo/laser therapy in
      premature infants 23-26 weeks' in NSW has not changed since the increases seen in
      the early 1990s. Retinal detachment also occurs in the infants 27-28 weeks'
      gestation and it is important that all these infants are screened for ROP.

PMID- 28871646
TI  - Effect of nappy liners on temperature stability in very preterm infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether absorbent liners used in posturally supportive
      cloth nappies influence temperature stability in infants < 31 weeks gestation.
      METHODOLOGY: Randomized cross-over trial conducted at King Edward Memorial
      Hospital for Women, Perth, Western Australia. Twenty-three infants nursed in
      incubators on Infant Servo Control were randomly assigned to wear cloth postural
      support nappies alternately with or without absorbent liners for 24-h periods
      over 4 days. Measurements of skin and incubator temperatures were recorded
      hourly. Times of all nappy changes and infant handling procedures were also
      recorded. RESULTS: There was no change in any temperature measurement over time,
      between days, or between day/night periods. Infants nursed with the liner
      demonstrated a higher skin temperature (0.04 degrees C), and a lower incubator
      temperature (1.05 degrees C). A drop in skin temperature of 0.02 degrees C and an
      increase in incubator temperature of 0.28 degrees C occurred following handling
      of infants. There was no effect due to sex, gestational age, or actual age of the
      infants. CONCLUSION: Use of an absorbent liner within a cloth postural support
      nappy promotes better temperature regulation in infants < 31 weeks gestation, by
      reducing incubator temperature and increasing skin temperature.

PMID- 28871647
TI  - Galactosaemia in Chinese.

PMID- 28871648
TI  - Subglottic haemangioma: Controversies in management.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To discuss treatment modalities for subglottic haemangioma (SGH).
      METHODOLOGY: Case report of two children definitively managed by different
      modalities. RESULTS: Management by CO2 laser vaporization in one child, and laser
      followed by interferon 2-alpha in the second child were both successful in
      controlling the SGH without the need for tracheostomy. CONCLUSIONS: The stepped
      care approach at John Hunter Children's Hospital, Newcastle, New South Wales, is
      presented. Both laser surgery and interferon can help control SGH. Careful
      surveillance and interdisciplinary cooperation are essential to achieve a good
      outcome.

PMID- 28871649
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28871650
TI  - Classical galactosaemia in Chinese: A case report and review of disease
      incidence.
AB  - We report a case of galactose-1-phosphate uridyl transferase (GALT) deficiency in
      a full-term Chinese neonate, who presented with atypical biochemical features of
      hyperammonaemia in addition to the classical presenting features of jaundice and
      lethargy after feeding. Red cell GALT activity was virtually absent in the
      patient while 50% of normal activity was found in parents and a sibling. Mutation
      screening excluded both Q188R and N314D as the causative mutation in GALT gene,
      which suggested a possible genetic segregation among ethnic groups. Data from a
      Taiwan screening program suggested that the incidence of the disease was
      approximately 1 in 400 000 in the Chinese population which was a sixth of that in
      Caucasian populations.

PMID- 28871652
TI  - Antibiotic therapy for Salmonella enteritis.

PMID- 28871651
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28871653
TI  - Stress experienced by mothers of Malaysian children with mental retardation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare parenting stress among Malaysian mothers of children with
      mental retardation and a control group, and to determine factors associated with
      stress. METHODOLOGY: Seventy-five mothers of children with mental retardation
      aged 4-12 years and 75 controls (those without disabilities who attended the walk
      in paediatric clinic) participated in the Parenting Stress Index (PSI).
      Intelligence quotient (IQ) and Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) scores, together
      with sociodemographic data, were entered into a multiple stepwise regression
      analysis, using the PSI as the criterion. RESULTS: Mothers of children with
      mental retardation scored significantly higher than control subjects in both the
      child-related domain (difference between means 26.1, 95% confidence interval 19.6
      32.5) and parent-related domain (difference between means 15.0, 95% confidence
      interval 7.9-22.1) of the PSI. The total child behaviour scores from the CBCL (P
      < 0.01), IQ scores (P < 0.01) and sibship size (P < 0.01) were associated with
      child-related domain scores. For the parent-related domain, CBCL (P < 0.01) and
      IQ scores (P = 0.01) remained important factors but Chinese ethnicity (P < 0.01)
      and maternal unemployment (P < 0.01) were also significant predictors of stress.
      CONCLUSION: A large proportion of mothers of children with mental retardation
      experienced substantial parenting stress, especially Chinese and unemployed
      mothers, and this warrants appropriate intervention.

PMID- 28871654
TI  - Transverse cerebellar diameter on cranial ultrasound scan in preterm neonates in
      an Australian population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Fetal measurement of transverse cerebellar diameter (TCD) has been
      shown to correlate well with gestational age (GA), even in the presence of growth
      retardation. The aim of this study was to define the normal range of TCD in
      preterm neonates in an Australian population between 23 and 32 weeks GA.
      METHODOLOGY: Infants admitted to the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, having
      routine cranial ultrasound scans (< 1500 g and/or of gestational age <= 32 weeks
      at birth) had their TCD measured on a cranial scan performed during the first 3
      days of life. The posterior fossa was examined through the asterion using a
      General Electric LOGIQ 500 scanner (GE Medical Systems, Waukesha, USA) and TCD
      measurement was taken in the coronal plane. RESULTS: 106 infants < 1500 g and/or
      of GA <= 32 weeks at birth had their TCD measured between 1 January 1997 and 30
      November 1997. Transverse cerebellar diameter and associated 95% confidence
      intervals are described for infants between 23 and 32 weeks GA. The linear
      regression equation relating TCD and GA was: TCD (mm) = -12.9 + 1.61 * GA
      (weeks). R2 = 0.80, P < 0.001. CONCLUSION: This is the only study of TCD
      measurement using cranial ultrasound in a group of preterm newborns, and forms
      the basis for nomograms of TCD which can be used as a tool to assist in the
      assessment of GA, even in growth-retarded preterm newborns, and in the diagnosis
      of cerebellar hypoplasia.

PMID- 28871655
TI  - Predictive mapping of the biotic condition of conterminous U.S. rivers and
      streams.
AB  - Understanding and mapping the spatial variation in stream biological condition
      could provide an important tool for conservation, assessment, and restoration of
      stream ecosystems. The USEPA's 2008-2009 National Rivers and Streams Assessment
      (NRSA) summarizes the percentage of stream lengths within the conterminous United
      States that are in good, fair, or poor biological condition based on a
      multimetric index of benthic invertebrate assemblages. However, condition is
      usually summarized at regional or national scales, and these assessments do not
      provide substantial insight into the spatial distribution of conditions at
      unsampled locations. We used random forests to model and predict the probable
      condition of several million kilometers of streams across the conterminous United
      States based on nearby and upstream landscape features, including human-related
      alterations to watersheds. To do so, we linked NRSA sample sites to the USEPA's
      StreamCat Dataset; a database of several hundred landscape metrics for all
      1:100,000-scale streams and their associated watersheds within the conterminous
      United States. The StreamCat data provided geospatial indicators of nearby and
      upstream land use, land cover, climate, and other landscape features for
      modeling. Nationally, the model correctly predicted the biological condition
      class of 75% of NRSA sites. Although model evaluations suggested good
      discrimination among condition classes, we present maps as predicted
      probabilities of good condition, given upstream and nearby landscape settings.
      Inversely, the maps can be interpreted as the probability of a stream being in
      poor condition, given human-related watershed alterations. These predictions are
      available for download from the USEPA's StreamCat website. Finally, we illustrate
      how these predictions could be used to prioritize streams for conservation or
      restoration.

PMID- 28871656
TI  - Fabrication of a biomimetic ZeinPDA nanofibrous scaffold impregnated with BMP-2
      peptide conjugated TiO2 nanoparticle for bone tissue engineering.
AB  - A biomimetic Zein polydopamine based nanofiber scaffold was fabricated to deliver
      bone morphogenic protein-2 (BMP-2) peptide conjugated titanium dioxide
      nanoparticles in a sustained manner for investigating its osteogenic
      differentiation potential. To prolong its retention time at the target site, BMP
      2 peptide has been conjugated to titanium dioxide nanoparticles owing to its high
      surface to volume ratio. The effect of biochemical cues from BMP-2 peptide and
      nanotopographical stimulation of electrospun Zein polydopamine nanofiber were
      examined for its enhanced osteogenic expression of human fetal osteoblast cells.
      The sustained delivery of bioactive signals, improved cell adhesion,
      mineralization, and differentiation could be attributed to its highly
      interconnected nanofibrous matrix with unique material composition. Further, the
      expression of osteogenic markers revealed that the fabricated nanofibrous
      scaffold possess better cell-biomaterial interactions. These promising results
      demonstrate the potential of the composite nanofibrous scaffold as an effective
      biomaterial substrate for bone regeneration.

PMID- 28871657
TI  - Seasonality of mortality and graft failure among kidney transplant recipients in
      the US - a retrospective study.
AB  - Mortality in the general population and in patients on chronic hemodialysis is
      significantly higher in winter than summer. It is unknown whether such a seasonal
      difference exists for mortality or graft failure among kidney transplant
      recipients. We analyzed United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) data to assess
      whether the annual distribution of deaths and graft failures differed
      significantly from expected. There was significant annual variation in both
      deaths (n = 52 523) and graft failures (n = 50 301; both P < 0.001). The number
      of observed deaths exceeded the number expected by 8.9% in winter (P < 0.001),
      whereas the number of deaths was 4.8% lower than expected in summer (P < 0.01).
      The pattern was strongest for deaths attributable to cardiovascular disease (n =
      11 509; 21.9%). Similarly, there was an excess of graft failures in winter (3.6%;
      P < 0.01) and a deficit in other seasons (all P <= 0.02). This pattern was
      observed for graft failures due to chronic rejection (P < 0.001) and other causes
      (P < 0.001), but not for acute rejection (P = 0.28) or recurrent disease (P =
      0.27). Potential explanations for this variation include changes in physiologic
      parameters, changes in medication adherence and other behaviors, or changes in
      insurance coverage or clinical care. Further studies are necessary to identify
      specific mechanisms.

PMID- 28871658
TI  - Minimal factor XIII activity level to prevent major spontaneous bleeds: comment.

PMID- 28871659
TI  - Overexpression of HER-2 via immunohistochemistry in canine urinary bladder
      transitional cell carcinoma - A marker of malignancy and possible therapeutic
      target.
AB  - Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most commonly diagnosed neoplasm in the
      urinary bladder. Distant metastases to the regional lymph nodes, lungs, abdominal
      organs or bones are noted in up to 50% of dogs at time of death. Surgical
      excision is often not practical as TCC typically involve the trigone of the
      bladder and/or occurs multifocally throughout the bladder with field
      cancerization. Therapeutic approaches are very challenging and the requirement to
      evaluate alternative therapeutic protocols that may prolong survival times in
      dogs bearing these tumours is compelling. We assessed the immunohistochemical
      expression of HER-2 in 23 cases of canine TCCs of the urinary bladder and compare
      it with non-neoplastic urothelium in order to evaluate a rationale for targeted
      therapies and gene-based vaccines. HER-2 positivity was recorded in 13/23 (56%)
      neoplastic lesions. The receptor was significantly overexpressed in neoplastic
      than in non-neoplastic samples (P = .015). According to our preliminary results,
      it would be of interest to further evaluate the role of HER-2 in canine TCCs as a
      marker of malignancy and a therapeutic target for cancer vaccine and antibodies.
      Moreover, the significantly different overexpression of HER-2 in TCCs than in non
      neoplastic urothelium further supports to investigate its role in the progression
      toward malignancy of non-neoplastic lesions.

PMID- 28871660
TI  - Clinical, echocardiographic, and therapeutic aspects of congenital heart diseases
      of children at Douala General Hospital: A cross-sectional study in sub-Saharan
      Africa.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular diseases in pediatric pathologies have emerged in
      the recent years in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with congenital heart diseases
      (CHDs) being the most frequent. Unfortunately, their diagnosis is usually
      delayed, thereby increasing childhood morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES:
      Describe the clinical, echocardiographic, and therapeutic aspects of CHDs of
      children at Douala General Hospital. METHODS: We carried out a cross-sectional
      descriptive study over a 10-year period, from January 2006 to December 2015.
      Files and reports of cardiac ultrasounds of patients aged <= 15 years were
      reviewed. RESULTS: We reviewed the medical records of 1616 children, of which 370
      (22.9%) had CHD. The age range was 1 day to 15 years, with a mean of 26 months.
      Heart murmur was the most frequent clinical sign, seen in 72.3% of the cases. CHD
      with left-to-right shunt was seen in 61.8%, with ventricular septal defect being
      the most common (29.8% of all cases). The second most common CHDs were those due
      to obstruction (20.4%), mainly pulmonary stenosis (19.6% of all cases).
      Cyanogenic CHDs accounted for 17.8% of cases, dominated by tetralogy of Fallot
      (7.4% of all cases). Indications for surgical treatment was found in 171 (46.2%)
      patients, but due to financial constraints, only 48 (28.1%) patients were
      operated. Among those who underwent surgery, 66.7% were operated abroad, and
      Humanitarian organizations financed the surgical management of 58.3% of those
      operated. CONCLUSIONS: CHDs are seen in one out of five children seen in the
      pediatric cardiology unit of our Hospital for suspected heart disease. Most cases
      are diagnosed late in life as toddlers. The rate of surgical correction remains
      low due to financial constraints, with most cases operated abroad with the
      assistance of Humanitarian organizations.

PMID- 28871662
TI  - Tropical Medicine & International Health.

PMID- 28871664
TI  - Correction to "Rehospitalization in a National Population of Home Health Care
      Patients with Heart Failure".

PMID- 28871661
TI  - Update on Aire and thymic negative selection.
AB  - Twenty years ago, the autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene was associated with
      autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy, and was cloned
      and sequenced. Its importance goes beyond its abstract link with human autoimmune
      disease. Aire identification opened new perspectives to better understand the
      molecular basis of central tolerance and self-non-self distinction, the main
      properties of the immune system. Since 1997, a growing number of immunologists
      and molecular geneticists have made important discoveries about the function of
      Aire, which is essentially a pleiotropic gene. Aire is one of the functional
      markers in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs), controlling their
      differentiation and expression of peripheral tissue antigens (PTAs), mTEC
      thymocyte adhesion and the expression of microRNAs, among other functions. With
      Aire, the immunological tolerance became even more apparent from the molecular
      genetics point of view. Currently, mTECs represent the most unusual cells because
      they express almost the entire functional genome but still maintain their
      identity. Due to the enormous diversity of PTAs, this uncommon gene expression
      pattern was termed promiscuous gene expression, the interpretation of which is
      essentially immunological - i.e. it is related to self-representation in the
      thymus. Therefore, this knowledge is strongly linked to the negative selection of
      autoreactive thymocytes. In this update, we focus on the most relevant results of
      Aire as a transcriptional and post-transcriptional controller of PTAs in mTECs,
      its mechanism of action, and its influence on the negative selection of
      autoreactive thymocytes as the bases of the induction of central tolerance and
      prevention of autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28871663
TI  - Kidney retransplantation from HLA-incompatible living donors: A single-center
      study of 3rd/4th transplants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The demand for kidney retransplantation following graft failure is
      rising. Repeat transplantation is often associated with poorer outcomes due to
      both immunological and surgical challenges. The aim of this study was to compare
      surgical and functional outcomes of kidney retransplantation in recipients that
      had previously had at least two kidney transplants with a focus on those with
      antibody incompatibility. METHODS: We analyzed 66 patients who underwent renal
      transplantation at a single center between 2003 and 2011. Consecutive patients
      receiving their 3rd or 4th kidney were case-matched with an equal number of 1st
      and 2nd transplants. RESULTS: Twenty-two 3rd and 4th kidney transplants were
      matched with 22 first and 22 seconds transplants. Operative times and length of
      stay were equivalent between the subgroups. Surgical complication rates were
      similar in all groups (22.7% in 1st and 2nd transplants, and 27.2% in 3rd/4th
      transplants). There was no significant difference in patient or graft survival
      over 5 years. Graft function was similar between transplant groups at 1, 3, and 5
      years. CONCLUSIONS: Third and fourth kidney transplants can be performed safely
      with similar outcomes to 1st and 2nd transplants. Kidney retransplantation from
      antibody-incompatible donors may be appropriate for highly sensitized patients.

PMID- 28871665
TI  - The Glasgow Prognostic Score as a pre-transplant risk assessment for allogeneic
      hematopoietic cell transplantation.
AB  - Evaluation methods, such as scoring systems for predicting complications in
      advance, are necessary for determining the adaptation of allogeneic hematopoietic
      cell transplantation (HCT) and selecting appropriate conditioning regimens. The
      Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation-specific Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI), which is
      based on functions of main organs, is a useful tool for pre-transplant risk
      assessments and has been widely applied in determining treatment strategies for
      patients with hematological diseases. However, as allogeneic HCT is performed on
      patients with diverse backgrounds, another factor, which reinforces the HCT-CI,
      is required to evaluate pre-transplant risk assessments. The Glasgow Prognostic
      Score (GPS), which assesses the combined C-reactive protein and albumin, was
      reported to predict survival of patients with solid-organ malignancies
      independently of receiving chemo/radiotherapy and stages of cancer. In this
      study, we applied the GPS for pre-transplant risk assessments for allogeneic HCT.
      The GPS successfully stratified the patients into three risk groups of overall
      survival (OS) and non-relapse mortality (NRM). Moreover, the GPS could predict
      outcomes independently of the HCT-CI for OS and NRM in multivariate analysis. The
      GPS is considered to be a useful tool and reinforces the HCT-CI for determining
      adaptation of allogeneic HCT for patients with hematopoietic neoplasms.

PMID- 28871666
TI  - Transperineal rectocele repair: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transperineal rectocele repairs, either as isolated fascial repair or
      in combination with mesh augmentation, are hypothesized to reduce the risk of
      complications compared with alternative techniques. AIM: The aim of this study
      was to ascertain long-term success and complication rates following transperineal
      rectocele repairs. METHOD: A literature search of PubMed and Embase was performed
      using the terms 'transperineal rectocele', 'rectocele', 'transperineal' and
      'repair'. Prospective studies, case series and retrospective case note analyses
      from 1 January 1994 to 1 December 2016 were included. Those that detailed
      outcomes of the transperineal approach or compared it to transanal/transvaginal
      approaches were included. The main outcome measures were reported complications
      and functional outcome scores. RESULTS: A total of 14 studies were included. Of
      566 patients, 333 (58.8%) underwent a transperineal rectocele repair and 220
      (41.2%) a transanal repair. Complications were identified in 27 (12.3%) of the
      220 transanal repairs and in 41 (12.3%) of the 333 transperineal repairs. A
      significant complication following transperineal repair was noted in eight
      studies. There are not enough data to make a reliable comparison between mesh and
      non-mesh transperineal repairs or to compare biological and synthetic mesh use.
      LIMITATIONS: Outcome reporting differed between studies, precluding a full meta
      analysis. CONCLUSION: Transperineal rectocele repair offers an effective method
      of symptom improvement and appears to have a similar complication rate as
      transanal rectocele repair. Concomitant use of synthetic and biological mesh
      augmentation is becoming more common; however, high-quality comparative data are
      lacking, so a direct comparison between surgical approaches is not yet possible.

PMID- 28871667
TI  - Visualizing the Adenylation Activities and Protein-Protein Interactions of Aryl
      Acid Adenylating Enzymes.
AB  - Structural and activity studies have revealed the dynamic and transient actions
      of carrier protein (CP) activity in primary and secondary metabolic pathways. CP
      mediated interactions play a central role in nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis,
      as they serve as covalent tethers for amino acid and aryl acid substrates and
      enable the growth of peptide intermediates. Strategies are therefore required to
      study protein-protein interactions efficiently. Herein, we describe activity
      based probes used to demonstrate the protein-protein interactions between aryl CP
      (ArCP) and aryl acid adenylation (A) domains as well as the substrate
      specificities of the aryl acid A domains. If coupled with in-gel fluorescence
      imaging, this strategy allows visualization of the protein-protein interactions
      required to recognize and transfer the substrate to the partner ArCP. This
      technique has potential for the analysis of protein-protein interactions within
      these biosynthetic enzymes at the molecular level and for use in the
      combinatorial biosynthesis of new nonribosomal peptides.

PMID- 28871671
TI  - [Advances of species identification and quality control for Tibetan medicines].
AB  - Species identification and quality control of Tibetan medicines are an important
      part of its modernization studies, and they have important significance for
      ensuring the safety and effectiveness of Tibetan medicines in clinical
      application. In order to provide a reference for the modernization research of
      Tibetan medicines, this paper summarized the research progress of species
      identification, quality standards and quality evaluation of Tibetan medicines in
      the past 10 years. It also introduces the application examples of some new
      technologies and methods, such as DNA barcoding, infrared spectroscopy and 1H NMR
      based metabolomics.

PMID- 28871672
TI  - [Research progress on resources and quality evaluation of Tibetan medicine in
      Qinghai-Tibet Plateau].
AB  - With the development of Tibetan medicine industry, the demands for Tibetan
      medicine were rising sharply. In addition, with the eco-environment vulnerability
      of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region and the phenomenon of synonymies and homonymies
      in Tibetan medicine, there were a lack of resources and varieties in the clinical
      application of Tibetan medicine. At present, the shortage of Tibetan medicine and
      the inadequacy of its quality standard have become the two major problems that
      seriously restricted the sustainable development of Tibetan medicine industry.
      Therefore, it is important to develop the resources investigation and quality
      evaluation for Tibetan medicine, which were contribute to its resources
      protection and sustainable utilization. In this paper, current status of
      resources investigation, quality standardization, artificial breeding and
      germplasm resources of Tibetan medicine were presented by the integrated
      application of the new technologies, such as DNA barcoding and 1H-NMR, which
      provided a reference information for resources protection, sustainable
      utilization, variety identification and quality standardization of Tibetan
      medicine resources in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

PMID- 28871673
TI  - [Identification of Tibetan medicine "Dida" of Gentianaceae using DNA barcoding].
AB  - The ITS2 barcode was used toidentify Tibetan medicine "Dida", and tosecure its
      quality and safety in medication. A total of 13 species, 151 experimental samples
      for the study from the Tibetan Plateau, including Gentianaceae Swertia, Halenia,
      Gentianopsis, Comastoma, Lomatogonium ITS2 sequences were amplified, and purified
      PCR products were sequenced. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation
      were performed using the CodonCode Aligner V3.7.1. The Kimura 2-Parameter (K2P)
      distances were calculated using MEGA 6.0. The neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic
      trees were constructed. There are 31 haplotypes among 231 bp after alignment of
      all ITS2 sequence haplotypes, and the average G+/-C content of 61.40%. The NJ
      tree strongly supported that every species clustered into their own clade and
      high identification success rate, except that Swertia bifolia and Swertia
      wolfangiana could not be distinguished from each other based on the sequence
      divergences. DNA barcoding could be used as a fast and accurate identification
      method to distinguish Tibetan medicine "Dida" to ensure its safe use.

PMID- 28871674
TI  - [Study on genetic-chemical relation of Pterocephali Herba based on DNA barcode
      and UFLC].
AB  - DNA barcoding technique in combination with UFLC analysis technology was used to
      evaluate the quality of Tibetan medicine Pterocephalus hookeri from species
      identification and chemical qualitative and other aspects. Hybrid identification
      was established by DNA barcoding; UFLC-PDA was adopted to analyse fingerprint of
      different parts of Pterocephali Herba, and SPSS and Grey relation software were
      used for data analysis. The result showed that DNA barcoding is an accurate and
      reliable method in origin identification of Pterocephalus hookeri. The compounds
      in overground is more than underground by analysis of the different part
      fingerprint by UFLC. The genetic gene may be involved in the secondary
      metabolites of iridoid glycosides. Pertinence between gene and chemical
      component, as a new model established, could be suited for quality evaluation and
      resources protection.

PMID- 28871675
TI  - [Genetic and chemical discrimination of traditional Tibetan medicine seabuckthorn
      based on DNA barcode and 1H-NMR metabolic method].
AB  - To differentiate three medicinal Hippopahe species of seabuckthorn, a combined
      genetic and chemical identification method was established in this study. ITS2
      and psbA-trnH were tested for identification of 3 species of seabuckthorn.
      Detection of the kimura 2-parameter (K2P) distance, the neighbor-joining (NJ)
      tree and the barcoding gap were used to assess the identification efficiency. 1H
      NMR based metabolic method was applied to acquire the profile of metabolites. PCA
      was used to analysis the metabolite data. The results indicated that DNA barcode
      combined 1H-NMR based metabolic method is a powerful tool for the identification
      of 3 medicinal Hippopahe species of seabuckthorn. The finding demonstrated that
      different genetic variation and chemical constituents existed among 3 medicinal
      Hippopahe species of seabuckthorn. The combined identification method will
      improve the reliability of species discrimination and could be applicable to much
      other ethnic medicine which has various origins in China.

PMID- 28871676
TI  - [Study on HPLC fingerprint and quantitative analysis of 3 components of Tibetan
      medicine Gyantse Seabuckthorn].
AB  - This study is to establish an HPLC fingerprint and quantitative analysis of 3
      components of Gyantse Seabuckthorn from different producing areas.The separation
      was developed on Shimadzu InertSustain C18column (4.6 mm * 250 mm,5 MUm) by
      gradient elution with acetonitrile and 0.2% phosphoric acid water as mobile phase
      at a flow rate of 1.0 mL*min -1; the detection wavelength was set at 360 nm and
      column temperature was set at 30 C. The data calculation was performed with
      similarity evaluation system for chromatographic fingerprint of traditional
      Chinese medicine(Version 2004A).The fingerprints of 10 batches of Gyantse
      Seabuckthorn were carried out by similarity comparison, and 12 chromatographic
      peaks were extracted as the common peaks of fingerprint, of which three main
      active ingredients were successfully determined. This is the first established
      fingerprint and multi-component quantitative determination of Gyantse
      Seabuckthorn by using HPLC. This method has good precision stability and
      repeatability that could provide basis for quality control and evaluation of
      Gyantse Seabuckthorn.

PMID- 28871677
TI  - [Study on quality standard of Berberidis Cortex].
AB  - In order to establish the quality standard of Berberidis Cortex and improve its
      quality control level, water, total ash, acid-insoluble ash and alcohol-soluble
      extract were determined according to procedures recorded in the Chinese
      Pharmacopoeia (2010 edition). The qualitative and quantitative analyses were
      performed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) methods. The results showed that TLC identification had a
      good resolution with clear spots. The water content was 8.39%-12.23%; total ash
      was 4.50%-9.96%; acid-insoluble ash was 0.10%-0.69%, and the alcohol-soluble
      extraction was 20.62%-37.13%. The average contents of magnoflorine,
      jatrorrhizine, palmatine, and berberine in Berberidis Cortex were 5.98%, 0.63%,
      0.30%, 2.50%, respectively. It was concluded that the developed method was
      accurate and good in specificity, which can be used for quality control of
      Berberidis Cortex in the future.

PMID- 28871678
TI  - [Studies on dosage-efficacy/toxicity relationship of anti-hypoxia effects and
      quality standard of Tibetan medicine Brassicea Radix extract].
AB  - To evaluate the efficacy and safety associated with anti-hypoxia effect and
      establish the quality standard for Brassicea Radix extract, the investigations of
      acute toxicity and subacute toxicity were carried out to preliminarily appraise
      the toxicity, and the models of normal pressure hypoxia, acute cerebral ischemia
      and sodium nitrite poisoning in mice were used to evaluate the effect of
      enhancing anoxia endurance. Then according to the methods described in the
      Appendix of Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010 edition), the sulfuric acid-phenol method
      was applied to determine the content of polysaccharide, and the water, ash and
      insoluble matter in water inspections were carried out and the control medicinal
      herb was identified with the samples by qualitative TLC. The results indicated
      that 1 the toxic effects (LD50) of mice was 56.73 g*kg-1 by oral administration
      of Brassicea Radix extract, while Dm and Dn were respective 86.80 g*kg*d-1 and
      35.55 g*kg*d-1;2the determined effective dosage of Brassicea Radix extract which
      could enhance anoxia endurance was 0.388 g*kg-1*d-1; 3 the methods of TLC and the
      content of polysaccharide were established. The method of quality control has
      been recorded in Sichuan Province Standard for Tibetan Medicine, which is
      reliable, accurate and simple, with good reproducibility. Meanwhile, given the
      prominent effect on anti-hypoxia and good safety, it provided important basis for
      clinic safe and effective usage and the development of health products.

PMID- 28871679
TI  - [Effects of traditional Tibetan drug Liu Tea on proliferation and
      chemotherapeutic sensitivity of drug-resistant human gastric cancer cell BGC823/5
      FU].
AB  - To investigate the effects of Liu Tea extracts(LTE) on proliferation, apoptosis
      and drug sensitivity of drug-resistant gastric cancer cell BGC823/5-FU. MTT assay
      was used to analyze effect of LTE on cell growth and sensitivity chemotherapeutic
      drugs, and synergistic effect of the combination of LTE with 5-FU on BGC823/5-FU
      cells. Combination index (CI) was calculated by CompuSyn. Cell apoptosis was
      measured by flow cytometry (FCM). Protein expressions of P-gp, Bcl-2, Bax and
      Caspase-3 (17KD) were detected by Western blot at different concentrations of LTE
      in BGC823/5-FU cells (100, 200, 400 mg*L-1). The results showed that LTE had an
      inhibitory effect on growth of BGC823/5-FU cell in a dose-time-dependent manner
      and significantly reduced IC50 of 5-FU, CDDP, PTX and ADM to BGC823/5-FU
      cells(P<0.05), indicating it could reverse tolerance of drug resistant cells to
      chemotherapeutic drugs, with reversion multiples of 2.35, 1.68, 1.96, 0.52. The
      combination of LTE with 5-FU had positive synergistic effect on the BGC-823 cell
      line. FCM assay suggested that LTE could induce BGC823/5-FU apoptosis. The
      apoptosis rate was up to 46.2% when the cells were treated with 800 mg*L-1 LTE
      after 24 h(P<0.01). According to the protein detection results, with the increase
      in concentration of LTE, the protein expression of Bcl-2 was gradually
      decreased(P<0.01), the expression of Bax and Caspase-3 were extremely
      increased(P<0.01), with statistical significance in difference(P<0.01) but no
      difference in the expression of P-gp between experiment group and control group.
      LTE can inhibit the growth of drug-resistant human gastric cancer cell BGC823/5
      FU and reverse its chemotherapeutic tolerance to some extent. Inhibition of
      antiapoptotic proteins, activation of proapoptotic proteins and induction of
      apoptosis of resistant cells may be its main mechanisms.

PMID- 28871680
TI  - [Research on origin, property and efficacy of Tibetan medicine "Dida"].
AB  - Tibetan medicine "Dida" isoccasionally misused due to its complex origins, which
      ultimately affects its clinical efficacy. The accurate name, origin, property,
      and efficacy of "Dida"are highly important for its further research and
      development. In the present study, by viewing the classic Tibetan medicine and
      modern literature, and combining the clinical practice of Tibetan medicine, the
      origins, properties and the clinic effects of "Dida" were defined. "Dida"
      originated from multiple plant species of Swertia, Gentianopsis, Halenia,
      Lomatogonium, Comastoma(Gentianaceae), Hedyotis (Saxifragaceae) and Erysimum
      (Cruciferae). The medicinal properties of "Dida" is mainly bitter and cold. It
      has been commonly used to treat febrile diseases and hepatic and gall diseases.
      This study suggested that the relevant herbalogical study, species identification
      and pharmacological effects of "Dida" should be taken based on the Tibetan
      medicine theories and clinical practice. Thus the medicine can be better used and
      ensure its safety and quality simultaneously.

PMID- 28871681
TI  - [Research progress on biological activities of Olea europaea leaf extract].
AB  - Olea europaea oil is one of the most important part of the "Mediterranean dietary
      pattern", and a lot of epidemiological evidences showed that people with the
      Mediterranean diet having a lower morbidity of the cardiovascular system
      diseases, skin cancer and colon cancer. The health benefits of a Mediterranean
      diet not only attributed to monounsaturated fatty acids and vitamins and other
      nutrients in O. europaea oil, but also the phenolic compounds named as
      antioxidant effect. Studies have shown that O. europaea leaf contains much more
      antioxidant activity composition than the fruit, and oleuropein, flavonoids such
      polyphenols are the main active ingredients in O. europaea leaf. A small amount
      of O. europaea was introduced into China in 1956, after widely cultivated in
      Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, and Longnan in Gansu
      province is the biggest O. europaea planting area in the country. In every winter
      pruning O. europaea will produce a large number of the leaves, which could be a
      high added value products (phenolic compounds) of rich source. This article
      through consulting the literature at home and abroad, classified and summarized
      the biological activity research status of O. europaea leaf extract and the
      possible mechanisms, including antimicrobial, antitumor, antioxidation, and on
      the function of brain, cardiovascular system, anti-diabetes, anti-inflammatory
      and analgesia and so on. At the same time looked ahead to its development
      prospects of O. europaea leaf extract, it has variety and high content of active
      ingredients, and antioxidant synergy, which provide a theoretical basis for the
      further development and utilization of O. europaea leaf. And O. europaea leaf
      extract has a rich cheap source and good bioavailability, which provided a broad
      space in the application of medical and health care.

PMID- 28871682
TI  - [Pharmacological activity of Terminalia chebula].
AB  - Terminalia chebula Retz, known as the "king" of Mongolian and Tibetan medicines,
      is a drug for a wide range of diseases. The main chemical components of myrobalan
      include triterpene acid, galloyl glucose, anthraquinonoid. The modern
      pharmacological studies show that myrobalan has multiple biological activities,
      including antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidation as well as anti-tumor.
      Based on domestic and foreign literatures in recent years, this paper gave a
      review on the advance of studies for pharmacological activity of T. chebula. and
      its active components, so as to provide a reference for the in-depth studies on
      the pharmacological action of myrobalan, and the further development and
      utilization of myrobalan.

PMID- 28871683
TI  - [Optimum harvest time of Tulipa edulis based on comparison of biomass
      accumulation and medicinal quality evaluation].
AB  - The optimum harvest time of Tulipa edulis was explored based on biomass
      accumulation and medicinal quality evaluation. Samples were taken from bud stage
      (Feb 13th) to dormancy stage (May 14th) and the growth indexes, organs biomasses,
      drying rate, contents of water-soluble extract and polysaccharides were
      determined. The results showed that biomass distribution of T. edulis varied with
      growth center and the bulb gained maximum biomass allocation in the whole growth
      period. The total biomass accumulation and bulb biomass accumulation increased in
      the whole growth period and peaked in fructescence stage. No differences were
      observed in bulb biomass among fructescence stage, withering stage and dormancy
      stage. The correlation between bulb biomass allocation and other morphological
      indexes varied with the harvest time. Bulb dry weight biomass had negative
      correlation with some morphological indexes of aerial part of T. edulis at bud
      stage, flower stage and fructescence and had significant positive (P<0.05) or
      extremely significant positive correlation(P<0.01)with other morphological
      indexes except for root at bearing fruits stage. The drying rate of bulb of T.
      edulis increased with the extension of harvest time and peaked in dormancy stage.
      The water-soluble extract of T. edulis bulb was the highest in pre-growing-stage.
      The tendency of polysaccharides contents showed a W-shape variation during the
      harvesting period. The polysaccharides content was the lowest in fructescence
      stage and was the highest in dormancy stage. Considering the yield and medicinal
      quality of T. edulis bulb, the optimum harvest time of T. edulis is in the
      withering stage or early stage of dormancy.

PMID- 28871684
TI  - [Identification and bactericidal activity of a novel Cathelicidin family member
      from skin of Bufu bufo gargarizans].
AB  - The skin transcriptome of Bufu bufo gargarizans was determined by conventional
      methods. A novel full length cDNA coding for a Cathelicidin precursor was
      identified by transcriptomic data assembling, annotation and blast search of
      corresponding data banks. According to the known processing methods of
      Cathelicidin family members, present reported novel Cathelicidin precursor of B.
      bufo gargarizans might be cleaved at 2 possible sites of the same precursor and
      generate both BG-CATH25 and BG-CATH29 as mature molecules. The deduced BG-CATH25
      and BG-CATH29 were synthesized with purity>95% to evaluate the properties and
      bactericidal activities. The secondary structural characteristics of both BG
      CATH25 and BG-CATH29 in different solutions were determined by Circular Dichroism
      (CD) Analysis. CD results indicated that random coil conformation were the main
      structural elements for both BG-CATH25 and BG-CATH29 in different buffer systems.
      Antimicrobial activities against tested bacterial strains were carried out by
      plating method. Both BG-CATH25 and BG-CATH29 showed strong antibacterial
      activities against Aeromonas hydrophila, with MIC values of 1.25, 10 mg*L-1,
      respectively. However, both of them showed weak bactericidal activities against
      human pathogenic bacteria, like Escherichia coli (ATCC25922),Staphylococcus
      aureus (ATCC25923)and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853).

PMID- 28871685
TI  - [Cloning and tissue expression of mevalonate disphosphate decarboxylase genes
      from Andrographis paniculata].
AB  - Andrographolide is a main bioactive substance in Andrographis paniculata, and
      extensively used in anti-inflammatory drugs. In order to increase andrographolide
      production in plant, three 1260 bp ORFs encoding mevalonate disphosphate
      decarboxylases with 419 amino acids were cloned from A. paniculata by RACE method
      and analyzed by bioinformatic software. Their tissue expression patterns were
      predicted by real time PCR. Eleven conserved amino acid residues determining
      specificity and activity of these MVDs were predicted in these amino acid
      sequences, but no plastid targeted signal peptides were detected. These MVDs have
      high similarities with the MVD protein (GenBank number: AEZ55675.1) from Salvia
      miltiorrhiza. In stems and leaves, expression levels of these MVD genes were
      constant, and reached the highest level at bud stage and the beginning of
      flowering. The MVD genes we have cloned from A. paniculata could be used in
      genetic engineering of andrographolide biosynthsis pathway in future.

PMID- 28871686
TI  - [Expression of key enzyme genes and content of saikosaponin in saikosaponin
      biosynthesis under drought stress in Bupleurum chinense].
AB  - To research the expression of key enzymes in saikosaponin biosynthesis and the
      content of saikosaponin under the drought stress, the study focused on the gene
      level and the end product responses to environmental change. Taking the five
      months of Bupleurum chinense as research materials, the contents of saikosaponin
      A and saikosaponin D under different stress levels were measured by HPLC. The
      drought was simulated by poly ethylene glycol. The real-time fluorescence
      quantitative PCR was used to analyze the expression of four key enzymes genes
      HMGR, IPPI, FPS, beta-AS and the expression of beta-tubulin was set as a
      reference gene. The results showed that drought stress significantly improved the
      content of saikosaponin. The contents of SSa and SSd were highest researching
      0.648% and 0.781%, respectively when the concentration of PEG was 10%. Meanwhile,
      the results reflected that the expression of four key enzymes had risen
      differently and FPS, beta-AS raised significantly(P<0.01). In addition, the
      results of correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive
      correlation between the expression of the four key enzymes genes and the content
      of saikosaponin. In a word, the contents of secondary metabolites were regulated
      by the expression of key enzymes genes under the drought stress in B. chinense.

PMID- 28871687
TI  - [Screening target genes for bimolecular marking methods of Magnolia quality].
AB  - The study used use bimolecular marking methods to evaluate the lignans of
      Magnolia officinalis and M. officinalis var. biloba. First, we compare the
      chemical constituents between M. officinalis and M. officinalis var.biloba. There
      were significant differences in concentration of magnolignan I between leaves of
      these two varieties. Then we further select the p-hydroxyphenyl lignin to mining
      the key enzyme genes of biosynthesis from Magnolia transcriptome, and screened an
      encoding cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogease gene as the candidate marker of
      bimolecular marking methods of Magnolia quality by comparing of the expression
      level and structure variation in homologous gene between M. officinalis and M.
      officinalis var.biloba. The established method provides the technical support for
      bimolecular marking methods of Magnolia quality evaluation.

PMID- 28871688
TI  - [Application of molecular biotechnology in Pharmacognosy].
AB  - Using the methods of informetrics analysis, articles retrieved from the database
      of CNKI were statistically analyzed on development course and knowledge system,
      so as to reflect the overall situation of pharmacognostical studies by molecular
      biotechnology. The result shows that the research on pharmacognosy by molecular
      biotechnology is an inter-disciplinary research area, the major research fields
      can be divided into 7 categories, including molecular identification of Chinese
      medicinal materials, molecular systematics and genetic diversity analysis of
      Chinese medicinal materials, biosynthesis and bioregulation of secondary
      metabolites in medicinal plants, molecular mechanism and genetic basis of Dao-di
      Herbs, and tissue culture and molecular breeding in medicinal plants. The
      research on pharmacognosy by molecular have achieved remarkable progress in
      recent 20 years, and have broad development prospects.

PMID- 28871689
TI  - [Preparation and characterization of salvianolic acids-tanshinones composite
      powder for inhalation via co-micronized method].
AB  - Salvianolic acids and tanshinones are main hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts
      from Salvia Miltiorrhiza with significant anti-pulmonary fibrosis effects. The
      aim of this study was to prepare a co-micronized salvianolic acids-tanshinones
      composite powder for inhalation using a planetary ball mill. The micronization
      process parameters were optimized by central composite design (CCD) and response
      surface methodology (RSM). Treatment time, rotation speed and the ball/sample
      weight ratio were selected as the independent variables, and the volume fraction
      of particle size in 1-5 MUm was taken as the dependent variable. The powder
      properties were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser
      diffraction and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). The powder flow and
      hygroscopicity were determined with repose angle, compressibility index and
      critical relative humidity(CRH). According to the results, the salvianolic acids
      tanshinones composite powder produced in optimal conditions had a narrow and
      unimodal particle size distribution and a smaller D50 of 2.33 MUm. The volume
      fraction of particle size in 1-5 MUm was 80.82%. The repose angle was (50.60+/
      1.13)  degrees , and the critical relative humidity is about 77%. After being
      micronized, the particle size significantly reduced, and the number of amorphous
      substances slightly increased, with no significant changes in powder flow and
      hygroscopicity. These findings indicate that the grinding method with a planetary
      ball mill can be used to co-micronize various components with different
      properties and prepare composite drug powders for dry powder inhalation.

PMID- 28871690
TI  - [Effects of baicalin, matrine, glycyrrhetinic acid and emodin in three kinds of
      emulsifier cream system on transdermal absorption in vitro].
AB  - To study effects of APG, Span-Tween and A6/25 emulsifier cream system on
      transdermal absorption in vitro of baicalin, matrine, glycyrrhetinic acid and
      emodin in emulsifier. Permeations studies were carried out in vitro with excised
      mice skin by improved Franz diffusion cells. The cumulative penetration amounts
      and the retention amounts of Chinese herbal medicinal ingredients in three kinds
      of emulsifier cream systems were determined by HPLC. The effects of different
      Chinese herbal medicinal ingredients in the same emulsifier system and the same
      herbal medicinal ingredients in different emulsifier systems on cumulative
      permeation amount, skin retention amount and permeation rate were investigated.
      According to the results, the order of different Chinese herbal medicinal
      ingredients in same kinds of emulsifier system by the cumulative permeation
      amount and the permeation rate were matrine>baicalin>glycyrrhetinic acid>emodin.
      With respect to the effect of different emulsifier systems on cumulative
      permeation amount and permeation rate of the same herbal medicinal ingredients,
      glycyrrhetinic acid and emodin showed no significant difference, Span-Tween
      emulsifier cream system had higher cumulative permeation amount and permeation
      rate. The cumulative permeation amount and the permeation rate of Chinese herbal
      medicinal ingredients in the three kinds of emulsifier cream systems had an
      identical regularity. However, the cumulative permeation amount, the skin
      retension amount and the permeation rate of the same herbal medicinal ingredients
      in different emulsifier systems had no regularity.

PMID- 28871691
TI  - [Comparisons on chemical constituents of crude and wine-processed Dipsacus asper
      by using UPLC-Q-TOF/MS].
AB  - To compare the quality control indexes and chemical constituents of crude and
      wine-processed Dipsacus asper. According to Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2015 edition,
      water content, total ash, acid-insoluble ash and water soluble extract of
      different processed products were detected. UPLC-Q-TOF/MS approach was
      established to compare the contents of major constituents in crude and wine
      processed D. asper. Moreover, the linearity, precision, stability, repeatability
      and recoveries of the approach were well studied. The results of water content,
      total ash, acid-insoluble ash and water-soluble extract of crude and wine
      processed D. asper were all in line with the requirements of the Chinese
      Pharmacopoeia 2015 edition. Meanwhile, 20 main chemical constituents were
      identified by using UPLC-Q-TOF/MS. After wine-processing, the contents of
      asperosaponin VI, acetylate analogues and caffeic acid were significantly
      increased, while the contents of other phenolic components such as
      dicaffeoylquinic acid were decreased significantly, which may be which may be the
      main reason for different clinical efficacy of crude and wine-processed D. asper.

PMID- 28871692
TI  - [Fast measurement method based on near infrared spectroscopy in extraction
      process of Tianshu capsules].
AB  - Based on the near infrared spectroscopy, partial least square (PLS) method was
      used to respectively develop the quantitative calibration models to fast measure
      the contents of the total solid and ferulic acid in extraction process of Tianshu
      capsule extracts. The results showed that in the quantitative model of solid
      content, the correlation coefficients (R2) of calibration set and cross
      validation set were 0.967 301 and 0.947 726. The root-mean square error of
      calibration set (RMSEC) was 0.054 7 and root-mean square error of cross
      validation set (RMSECV) was 0.069 8. Besides, in the quantitative model of
      ferulic acid, the correlation coefficients (R2) of calibration set and cross
      validation set were 0.986 879 and 0.962 243. RMSEC was 1.402 6 and RMSECV was
      2.400 2. When the established models were applied to on-line monitoring, the
      correlation coefficients of predicted results and measured values for total solid
      content and ferulic acid were 0.993 3 and 0.991 6; root-mean square error of
      predicted value (RMSEP) was 0.039 3 and 1.669 3 respectively; mean relative
      deviation of predicted value (RSEP) was 3.49% and 3.58%. The results indicated
      that the established models can be used to fast measure the contents of the total
      solid and ferulic acid in extraction process of Tianshu capsule extracts.

PMID- 28871693
TI  - [Optimization of ultrasonic extraction process for Xiaoqinglong granules by Box
      Behnken in condition of medium scale].
AB  - This paper is to investigate the optimization conditions of ultrasonic technique
      for extraction process of Xiaoqinglong granules in medium scale. First of all,
      single factor experiment was used to determine the overall impact tendency and
      range of each factor; secondly, Box-Behnken method was used for optimization and
      detecting the content of paeoniflorin, ephedrine hydrochloride, glycyrrhizic acid
      of the liquid medicine. Their respective extraction rate was calculated and the
      comprehensive evaluation was carried out. The results were used as the evaluation
      basis for the efficacy of Xiaoqinglong granules ultrasonic extraction. The test
      results showed that the optimum extraction process of Xiaoqinglong granules by
      ultrasonic extraction was under the following conditions: ultrasonic power 600 W,
      liquid-solid ratio 10?1, extraction for 31 min. Under this condition, the
      predicted value of extraction rate for Xiaoqinglong granules was 85.90%, and the
      test value was 85.87%. The mathematical model(P<0.01) established in this paper
      was significant, and can be used for the analysis and prediction of the
      ultrasonic extraction process of Xiaoqinglong granules.

PMID- 28871694
TI  - [Chemical structure and bioactivity of cis-5'-oxopropylnicotine].
AB  - In this paper, the chemical constituents and bioactivities of leaves of Nicotiana
      tabacum were investigated. Six compounds were isolated by means of various
      chromatographic techniques (silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, MCI GEL CHP-20P and
      HPLC), and their structures were elucidated as cis-5'-(2-oxopropyl)-nicotine (1),
      3-O-(9, 12, 15-octadecatrienoyl)-glyceryl-beta-D-galactppyranoside (2), (l'R, 2R,
      5S, 10R)-2-(1', 2'-dihydroxy-l'-methylethyl)-6, 10-dimethylspiro [4, 5] dec-6-en
      8-one (3), (l'S, 2R, 5S, l0R)-2-(1', 2'-dihydroxy-l'-methylethyl)-6, 10
      dimethylspiro [4, 5] dec-6-en-8-one (4),2, 3-dihydroxypropyl-beta-D-galactoside
      (5) and phenylethyl beta-D-glucopyranoside (6) by extensive spectroscopic
      analyses (UV, IR, MS, 1D- and 2D-NMR). Among them, compound 1 is a new alkaloid,
      and compounds 2-6 are isolated for the first time from N. tabacum. Compounds 1
      and 2 were assayed for agitating activities on transient receptor potential
      vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), melatonin receptor 1 and 2 (MT1 and MT2), 1 showed agitating
      rate of 55.41% (1.53mmol*L-1) on MT2 and 2 possessed agitating rate of 128.11%
      (0.59 mmol*L-1) and 52.00% (0.73mmol*L-1) on TRPV1 and MT1, respectively.

PMID- 28871695
TI  - [Icaritin promotes chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs by Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling pathway].
AB  - To investigate the effect of icaritin (ICT) combined with GDF-5 on chondrogenic
      differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), and discuss the action of
      Wnt signaling pathway, full bone marrow adherent method was used to isolate and
      culture SD rats BMSCs, and the cells at P3 generation were taken and divided into
      6 groups: BMSCs group, ICT group, GDF-5 group, GDF-5+ICT group, GDF
      5+ICT+SB216763 group, and GDF-5+ICT+ XAV-939 group. The cells were induced and
      cultured for 14 days. The morphology change was observed by inverted microscope.
      Alcian blue staining method was used to detect the changes of proteoglycans. RT
      PCR was used to detect the mRNA expressions of aggrecan, Col2, Sox9, Dvl1,
      Gsk3beta, and beta-catenin. The protein expressions of collagen 2 (COL2) and beta
      catenin were detected by Western blot. The results indicated that, compared with
      the BMSCs group, gradual increase was present in proteoglycan Alcian blue
      staining; mRNA expressions of cartilage differentiation marker genes aggrecan,
      COL2, Sox9 and the protein expression of COL2, as well as mRNA and protein
      expressions of Wnt signaling pathway-related gene beta-catenin, but with gradual
      decrease in Gsk3beta mRNA expressions in GDF-5 group, GDF-5+ICT group and GDF
      5+ICT+SB216763 group. On the contrary, compared with GDF-5+ICT group, there was a
      decrease in expressions of Dvl1, and beta-catenin related to chondrogenic
      differentiation and Wnt signaling pathway, a increase in Gsk3beta mRNA
      expression, and also a decrease in protein expressions of COL2 and beta-catenin
      in GDF-5+ICT+XAV-939 group, with statistically significant difference between two
      groups. GDF-5 in combination with icaritin can induce chondrogenic
      differentiation of BMSCs in rats, and icaritin (ICT) can promote the chondrogenic
      differentiation. ICT can promote the chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs in
      vitro probably by activating the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.

PMID- 28871696
TI  - [Ginsenoside Rh2-induced inhibition of histone deacetylase 6 promotes K562 cells
      autophagy and apoptosis in vivo].
AB  - To study the in vivo inhibition effect of ginsenoside Rh2 on humanleukemia cells,
      and explore its mechanism from autophagy and apoptosis aspects, human leukemia
      K562 cells allograft tumor models were applied, and after administration of
      ginsenosides Rh2 by gavage, the tumor diameter, volume and inhibitory rate were
      measured, and the anti-tumor activity of ginsenosides Rh2 was observed. The
      levels of HAT and HDAC in tumor tissues were detected by chemical colorimetry
      assay, and expressions of HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, HDAC4, HDAC5 and HDAC6 were
      detected by Western blotting assay. The expression levels of vital genes closely
      associated with autophagy and mRNA expressions of HDAC6 and Hsp90 were detected
      by Real time-PCR. HE staining was used to observe apoptosis, and
      immunohistochemistry was used to detect the protein expressions of HDAC6, Hsp90
      and activated caspases 3. The results showed that ginsenoside Rh2 could inhibit
      the growth of k562 cells allograft tumor, with a tumor inhibition rate up to
      53.10%. Ginsenoside Rh2 could significantly decrease HDAC activity and decrease
      the expressions of HDAC1, HDAC2 and HDAC6, and inhibit the expressions of HDAC6
      and HSP90, increase the expressions of vital autophagy genes (beclin-1, LC3A and
      LC3B). Histopathological results showed that ginsenosides Rh2 could significantly
      increase the tumor apoptosis. Therefore, ginsenoside Rh2 had good anti-tumor
      effect in vivo, and the mechanism maybe associated with regulating autophagy and
      apoptosis through HDAC6 and Hsp90 pathways and inhibiting the in vivo
      proliferation of tumor cells.

PMID- 28871697
TI  - [Comparison of anti-inflammatory activity between crude Atractylodes lancea and
      their processed products by stir-baking with bran in rat models of gastric
      ulcer].
AB  - To compare the anti-inflammatory activity of the crude Atractylodes lancea (AL)
      and AL processed products by stir-baking with bran in rat models of gastric
      ulcer, and preliminarily explore the anti-ulcer mechanisms of AL, the model of
      gastric ulcer was imitated by local acetic acid injection into gastric mucosa in
      rats by surgery according to the modified Okabe method. All rats were randomly
      divided into the following 10 groups: sham-operation group, model group,
      omeprazole group, Sanjiu Weitai granule group, crude AL low dose group, crude AL
      middle dose group, crude AL high dose group, processed AL low dose group,
      processed AL middle dose group, and processed AL high dose group. Rats were
      administered via intragastric (ig) two times each day, for 10 consecutive days.
      Blood was collected from the abdominal aorta, serum was separated, and the ulcer
      tissues were taken. The levels of inflammatory factors interleukin 6, 8 (IL-6,
      8), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in serum
      and gastric tissues were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA),
      and the mRNA expressions of TNF-alpha and IL-8 in gastric tissues were detected
      by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT
      PCR). The protein expressions of TNF-alpha and IL-8 in gastric tissues were
      detected by immunohistochemistry. Compared with sham-operation group, the levels
      of TNF-alpha, IL-8, IL-6, PGE2 as well as the mRNA expressions and protein
      expressions of TNF-alpha, IL-8 in gastric tissues were significantly higher in
      model group. The above levels were reduced in different degrees in all treatment
      groups. Compared with the crude AL, same dose of processed AL was more effective
      in decreasing the levels of TNF-alpha, IL-8, IL-6, PGE2 in serum and gastric
      tissues and down-regulating the mRNA expressions of TNF-alpha and IL-8 in gastric
      tissues, with significant difference in middle dose groups and high dose groups.
      The results showed that AL had potent anti-inflammatory effects in rat models of
      gastric ulcer induced by acetic acid, and the processed AL had more obvious
      effect. The anti-ulcer action of AL could be attributed partly to down-regulating
      the levels of TNF-alpha, IL-8, IL-6 and PGE2.

PMID- 28871698
TI  - [Effect of total flavones of hawthorn leafonon expression of COX-2/Nrf2 in liver
      of rats with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis].
AB  - To explore the effect of total flavones from hawthorn leaf on (THFL) on the
      expression of COX-2/Nrf2 in the liver tissues of rats with nonalcoholic
      steatohepatitis (NASH), and discuss its anti-NASH mechanism, thirty-two SD rats
      were randomly divided into the normal group, model group, THFL high dose group
      and low dose group, 8 in each group. High fat diet was given to the rats for 12
      weeks to establish the NASH models, and the high and low dose groups were
      administered with TFHL at the dosage of 250, 125 mg*kg-1*d-1 respectively.
      Steatosis and the inflammatory changes of the liver tissues in rats were observed
      by HE staining; T-AOC level was detected by colorimetry; the level of 8-OHdG and
      the protein expressions of COX-2, Nrf2 and HO-1 in the liver tissues were
      determined by immunohistochemistry; and the mRNA expressions of COX-2, Nrf2 and
      HO-1 in liver tissues were detected by Real time-PCR. Compared with the normal
      group, the liver steatosis, ballooning degeneration for inflammatory degree and
      NAFLD activity scores (NAS) were significantly increased in model group, while
      total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) was decreased, DNA damage marker 8-OHdG level
      was increased, and the mRNA and protein expressions of COX-2, Nrf2 and HO-1 were
      significantly increased. After the administration of high and low dose of TFHL,
      the inflammation degree of the liver tissues and NAS were significantly
      decreased, 8-OHdG level and COX-2mRNA and protein expressions were decreased, and
      the mRNA and protein expressions of Nrf2 and HO-1 were significantly increased
      when compared with the model group. COX-2/Nrf2 pathway was involved in the
      development and progression of NASH induced by high fat diet. TFHL could prevent
      the development of NASH by promoting the expression Nrf2/HO-1, regulating and
      inhibiting the over expression of COX-2, and further attenuating the cell injury
      and hepatic inflammation caused by oxidation reaction.

PMID- 28871699
TI  - [Effect of different fractions of Taohong Siwu decoction on ADP-induced platelet
      aggregation and thrombin activity].
AB  - To evaluate the effect of different fractions of Taohong Siwu decoction on ADP
      induced platelet aggregation and thrombin activity, and to exploit the bioactive
      constituents, ADP-induced platelet aggregation rate in rabbits was determined by
      using the method of turbidity method. A bioassay called thrombin time was
      developed for determining anti-thrombin activities. UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS method was
      used to qualitatively analyze the chemical constituents of different parts.
      Alcohol precipitation deposition fraction, alcohol precipitation supernatant
      fraction and 20% to 30% alcohol elution fraction could significantly inhibit ADP
      induced platelet aggregation. Alcohol precipitation supernatant fraction, water
      insoluble fraction and 40% to 70% alcohol elution fraction could significantly
      inhibit thrombin activity. The main components of alcohol precipitation
      deposition fraction, alcohol precipitation supernatant fraction and 20% to 40%
      alcohol elution fraction were analyzed and identified as aromatic acids,
      glycosides and phthalides. The bioactive constituents of Taohong Siwu decoction
      for inhibiting ADP-induced platelet aggregation and thrombin activity include
      aromatic acids, glycosides and phthalides. This experiment provides scientific
      basis to further explore the bioactive constituents and mechanism of Taohong Siwu
      decoction in treating blood stasis syndrome.

PMID- 28871700
TI  - [Protective effect and mechanism of compound Ginkgo biloba granules on oxidative
      stress injury of HUVEC].
AB  - To reveal the protective and anti-apoptosis effect of compound Ginkgo biloba
      granules on oxidative stress injury of human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVEC). Negative control group, H2O2 model group and 4 drug pretreatment groups
      (80, 160, 320, 640 mg* L-1) were established. The cell proliferation,
      morphological changes in each group after oxidative stress injury was detected by
      MTT assay and through microscope observation respectively. The content of LDH,
      MDA, SOD and NO and SOD activity in supernatant were detected to judge the
      protection effect of the drugs on endothelial cells. The protective effect on
      HUVEC apoptosis was analyzed by Caspase-3 activity test and Annexin V-FITC/PI
      staining. Western blot was used to observe the expression of apoptosis-related
      proteins Bcl-2 and Bax. Results showed that 1 200 MUmol* L-1 H2O2 can induce
      oxidative stress injury in endothelial cells and reduce the cell survival rate;
      cell proliferation inhibition degree is positively correlated with the effect
      time of H2O2. Besides, 80, 160, 320 640 mg*L-1 compound Ginkgo biloba granules
      can protect HUVEC from oxidative stress injury, recover the normal proliferation
      level of cells, improve their state, prohibit cell apoptosis, and can up-regulate
      and down-regulate the expression level of Bcl-2 and Bax respectively. In
      conclusion, compound G. biloba granules can protect HUVEC from the oxidative
      stress injury induced by H2O2, its mechanism may be correlated with inhibition of
      the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in HUVEC.

PMID- 28871701
TI  - [Effect of Yupingfeng granule on cytokines of allergic rhinitis induced by OVA in
      rats].
AB  - To investigate the effects of Yupingfeng granule (YPF) on immune factors of the
      rats with allergic rhinitis (AR) induced by ovalbumin(OVA). OVA 0.3 mg, Al(OH)3
      30 mg and saline 1 mL were mixed and intraperitoneally injected for the initial
      immunization, 4% OVA 200 MUg (50 MUL) was given to the nose on the 15th day for
      the second immunization to establish the allergic rhinitis model. Sixty male SD
      rats were randomly divided into allergic rhinitis(AR) model group, Yupingfeng
      granule three dose (2.7,1.35,0.68 g*kg-1) groups, control drug Biyankang (0.4
      g*kg-1) and normal control group. After 14 days, efforts were made to collect
      blood from abdominal aorta, and take nasopharynx tissues and fasten them into 10%
      formaldehyde for a pathological examination. The levels of HIS, IgE, IL-4 and TNF
      alpha in serum were examined by radioimmunoassay, and nasal mucosa tissues were
      examined by HE staining. According to the results, the levels of HIS, IgE, IL-4
      and TNF-alpha in serum of Yupingfeng granule groups were significantly lower than
      that of AR model group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Nasal mucosa tissues showed slight
      morphological changes and inflammatory cell infiltration, with unobvious
      necrosis. Yupingfeng granule can improve the pathological changes of nasal mucosa
      tissues, and reduce the production and release of immune factors during allergic
      rhinitis (AR) process in vivo by OVA, which may be the important curative
      mechanism of allergic rhinitis.

PMID- 28871702
TI  - [iTRAQ technology combined with 2D-LC-MS/MS to analyze effect of Coptidis Rhizoma
      on cytochrome P450 isoenzyme expression].
AB  - Coptidis Rhizoma is commonly used in clinical medicine. It has been widely used
      in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), with the functions of clearing heat,
      drying dampness, purging intense heat relieve toxins. However, the herb contains
      complex ingredients, and CYP450 isoenzyme is the main metabolic enzyme of the
      drug, so it is of important clinical significance to study the effect of Coptidis
      Rhizoma on cytochrome P450 enzymes. In the experiment, liver tissues of rats were
      selected and liver microsomes were separated by differential centrifugation.
      Bicinchoninic acid (BCA) Protein quantitation was done by enzyme linked
      immunosorbent assay, and iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute
      quantification) was combined with the 2D-LC-MS/MS analysis method for
      identification of CYP450 proteins. With Coptidis Rhizoma, 30 CYP450 isoenzymes
      were identified, with 7 proteins significantly increased and 8 decreased in
      response to Coptidis Rhizoma, while the rest 15 had no change. iTRAQ technology
      combined with 2D-LC-MS/MS method could be used to comprehensively study CYP450
      enzyme, but it is necessary to further evaluate in vitro levels of Coptidis
      Rhizoma and avoid any potential clinical drug-drug interaction.

PMID- 28871703
TI  - [Pharmacokinetics of Tongmai granule in acute myocardialischemic model beagles].
AB  - Tongmai granule (TM) is composed of Puerariae Lobatae Radix (Gegen), Salviae
      Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma(Danshen) and Chuanxiong Rhizoma(Chuanxiong). It
      has been used to treat ischemic cardio-cerebrovascular diseases for decades. For
      the purpose of elucidating its pharmacodynamic material foundation, the
      absorption and pharmacokinetic property of TM were investigated in acute
      myocardial ischemic model beagles. All serum samples were extracted before
      analysis with ethyl acetate after being acidified by hydrochloric acid. Under
      negative ESI detection mode, the chromatographic separation was carried out with
      monolithic C18 column for gradient elution. A simultaneous quantitative analysis
      was made on 15 polyphenols, including 8 from Gegen, 5 from Danshen and 2 from
      Chuanxiong, in 8.5 min. The validation result demonstrated the specificity,
      accuracy and precision of the method in line with the bioanalysis requirements.
      After TM solution was administrated to acute myocardial ischemic model beagles
      through duodenum injection, serum samples were collected after 6 h. The
      quantitative detection proved the prompt absorption of TM, all of the components
      were detectable in the blood samples 5 min later, and reached peak respectively
      at 0.18-3.83 h after administration. The components presented large
      variabilities. The most components were exposed in serum with puerarin and
      salvianic acid A, followed by 3'-methoxypuerarin, mirificin, and 3'
      hydroxypuerarin. The study proves puerarin and salvianic acid A are dominating
      active components of TM in acute myocardial ischemic model beagles.

PMID- 28871704
TI  - [Analysis of clinical use of post-marketing hospital centralized monitoring of
      Xiyanping injection].
AB  - To assess the clinical use and occurrence of adverse reactions of Xiyanping
      injection, and to provide reference for rational drug use in the clinic. Based on
      hospital central monitoring method, the clinical data of Xiyanping injection in
      our hospital in 2014 was tracked and analyzed. A total of 848 inpatients were
      enrolled in this study. Among them, 39.9% were not in accordance with the
      medication purpose. In practice, the dose more than the limits prescribed by the
      instructions of child and adult were accounted for 1.72% and 6.62%, respectively;
      improper choice of solvent, accounting for 3.18%; both the choice of versus
      intravenous drip and aerosol inhalati administration route were reasonable; mixed
      with other drug, accounting for 2.24%. The incidence of ADR of Xiyanping
      injection was 0.12%, which showed good safety. Irrational use of Xiyanping
      injection existed in clinics, and the use should be strengthened and regulated.
      The manufacturer should improve the drug instruction of usage and dosage.

PMID- 28871705
TI  - [Rationality analysis of clinical application of Danhong injection in affiliated
      hospital of Nanjing university of Chinese medicine from 2013 to 2014].
AB  - It is necessary to investigate the influence of the rationality of clinical drug
      use on the benefit and risk factors of traditional Chinese medicine injections.
      The retrospective survey was based on the medical records and information of 4
      950 patients who used Danhong injection in the HIS database of the first
      affiliated hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from 2013 to 2014.
      The basic statistical methods and associated rules analysis were utilized to
      analyze the HIS information of these patients, including the basic information,
      the diagnosis, the department, the dosage, the usage of medication, the drug
      combination and the adverse reactions. And the rationality analysis of the
      clinical application of Danhong injection was carried out to investigate relevant
      factors of the adverse reactions. The results showed that most cases came from
      the department of cardiology (51.95%) and encephalopathy center (20.67%). In the
      statistical period, the patients aged above 40 years old accounted for 96.65%.
      And the two western medicine diagnosis items with the highest confidence level
      were coronary heart disease and angina pectoris (97.15%), while the three items
      were coronary heart disease, angina pectoris and hypertension (97.02%). The
      irrational indications were mainly hypertension (12.93%) and diabetes (4.55%).
      All of them were diagnosed as blood stasis syndrome by the traditional Chinese
      medicine. About 98.93% of the single dosage was within the range stipulated on
      package insert, the duration mainly ranged between 1 and 21 days, and 97.64% of
      the menstrua contained 0.9% NS and 5% GS. According to the medication
      records,99.26% were the use of combined drugs, with 8.41 drugs on average.
      Antiplatelet drugs (72.04%) were the most frequently combined with western
      medicine, followed by the cholesterol-regulating drugs (64.86%) and the
      cerebrovascular drugs (60.26%). When used in the combination with antibiotics for
      the infection, cephalosporin antibiotics were the most frequently applied
      (8.81%). When used with traditional Chinese medicines, traditional Chinese
      medicines for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis or monomer
      traditional Chinese medicine injections (28.93%) were the dominance, in which
      Gastrodin injection was the most frequently applied (16.23%). And 12 cases of
      adverse reactions were reported, with the ADR rate of 0.24%. The indications,
      solvent compatibility and irrational drug combination may be the potential risk
      factors for ADRs induced by Danhong injection. Further experiments are required
      to evaluate the benefits and risks in these three aspects.

PMID- 28871706
TI  - [Common household traditional Chinese medicines].
AB  - With the enhancement in the awareness of self-diagnosis among residents, it's
      very common for each family to prepare common medicines for unexpected needs.
      Meanwhile, with the popularization of the traditional Chinese medicine knowledge,
      the proportion of common traditional Chinese medicines prepared at residents'
      families is increasingly higher than western medicines year by year. To make it
      clear, both pre-research and closed questionnaire research were adopted for
      residents in Chaoyang District, Beijing, excluding residents with a medical
      background. Based on the results of data, a analysis was made to define the role
      and influence on the quality of life of residents and give suggestions for
      relevant departments to improve the traditional Chinese medicine popularization
      and promote the traditional Chinese medicine market.

PMID- 28871707
TI  - Search for relevant indications for selenium supplementation in thyroid diseases.
AB  - Selenium plays a significant role in the thyroid function and its deficiency is
      considered by some authors to be a cause of thyroid disorders. The potential
      therapeutic influence of selenium supplementation in thyroid disease was
      investigated in several studies and some results were encouraging, however
      results were inconsistent and did not allow conclusion to be drawn. For that
      reason, we have performed a review study on relevance of selenium supplementation
      in thyroid disease. Till now, there is no strong evidence that selenium
      supplementation leads to clinical improvement in the course of autoimmune
      thyroiditis, nodular goitre or thyroid cancer. On the other hand, there is some
      evidence that selenium is effective in the treatment of orbitopathy; thus, the
      European Group on Graves' Orbitopathy (EUGOGO) recommends selenium administration
      in mild active orbitopathy.

PMID- 28871708
TI  - Pituitary hyperplasia mimicking macroadenoma associated with primary
      hypothyroidism in a patient with selective L-thyroxine malabsorption.
AB  - We present the case of a 29-year-old woman who developed a severe hypothyroidism
      induced by a thyroxine malabsorption and a secondary pituitary hyperplasia. We
      performed thyroxine absorption tests to diagnose the malabsorption and to
      evaluate the best therapeutic intervention. Once assessed a correct therapy
      lowering TSH, we observed the regression of pituitary mass confirming our
      diagnosis of secondary pituitary hyperplasia. We suggest to evaluate any possible
      reason for thyroxine malabsorption and to consider the hypothesis of pituitary
      hyperplasia in the presence of pituitary mass together with overt hypothyroidism.

PMID- 28871710
TI  - Importance of education in the prevention of diabetic foot syndrome.
AB  - To the Editor, Diabetic foot syndrome (DFS) is defined by the WHO as ulceration
      or destruction of foot tissue in diabetic patients associated with neuropathy,
      with different degrees of the disease existing and frequently also with
      infection. The statistics are frightening: more than million amputations are
      annually carried out worldwide due to diabetic foot (Foster and Lauver 2014) and
      these amputations represent as far as 70% of all non-traumatic amputations. In
      2013, 861 647 patients were treated for diabetes mellitus in Czech Republic,
      including 44 657 patients with diabetic foot syndrome and 11 168 patients had to
      experience the amputation of lower limb due to this condition. Up to 80% of
      ulcerations results from external trauma, most frequently due to poor footwear
      (Zvolsky 2013). Diabetic foot syndrome possesses serious medical, social and
      economic consequences with the length of the therapy and high risk of the
      amputation. Patients with diabetic foot syndrome become marginalised and
      vulnerable after amputations, mainly due to the dependence on family and society,
      whether on the level of self-care or economic.

PMID- 28871709
TI  - Unusual presentations of Carney Complex in patient with a novel PRKAR1A mutation.
AB  - Carney Complex (CNC) is a multiple neoplasia syndrome characterized by skin
      tumors and pigmented lesions, myxomas, and various endocrine tumors. The aim of
      this case report was to describe a case of CNC with a novel PRKAR1A mutation. A
      man aged 46 years with a medical history of surgery for cardiac myxomas at the
      age of 39 was admitted to our hospital because of four newly-developed heart
      masses. The histologic examination confirmed cardiac myxomas. He had many
      presentations of CNC such as growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL)-secreting
      mixed pituitary adenoma, benign thyroid nodule, large-cell calcifying Sertoli
      cell tumor (LCCST), and superficial angiomyxoma. A bilateral adrenalectomy was
      performed because the laboratory findings suggested primary pigmented nodular
      adrenocortical disease (PPNAD). The pathologic examination revealed a focal
      unilateral PPNAD, unilateral nonpigmented adrenocortical nodule, and bilateral
      adrenal medullary hyperplasia. Two years after the second cardiac operation, an
      interatrial septum-derived tumor was detected. An atrial myxoma was confirmed
      with histologic studies. Based on these findings, the patient was confirmed to
      have CNC. A novel insertion mutation in the type 1A regulatory subunit of the
      cAMP-dependent protein kinase A gene (PRKAR1A) in exon 2 was detected in our
      patient through genetic analysis. The presence of multiple myxomas and endocrine
      abnormalities should be an indication to physicians to further investigate for
      CNC. Herein, we described a case of CNC with a novel mutation in exon 2 of the
      PRKAR1A gene with typical and atypical clinical features.

PMID- 28871712
TI  - Some quantitative EEG features in default mode resting state network under
      general anaesthesia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The default mode resting state network (DMRSN) constitutes a circuit
      which is active in conditions when the subject is at rest. We tested the
      hypothesis that its function will be altered during unconsciousness. METHODS:
      Changes in the mean squared coherences in five conventional frequency bands
      (delta to gamma) in DMRSN during general anaesthesia (GA) were investigated in 39
      patients. They were compared with the normal EEG of 86 alert subjects, severely
      abnormal EEG of 112 patients with dementia and/or encephalopathy, and the
      mathematical model of brain death. RESULTS: Anaesthetised patients showed
      significant decrease in the gamma coherence in the posterior area of the DMRSN
      compared to both the control group and the patients with dementia and/or
      encephalopathy. Among the anaesthetized patients 21 had a clear burst suppression
      pattern with prolonged epochs of suppression in EEG. In suppressed EEG segment
      the differences between the connections of the anterior to posterior parts and
      connections between the posterior parts of the DMRSN were almost lost. However,
      they still showed highly significant differences in most items when compared with
      coherences in the mathematical model of brain death. CONCLUSION: The functional
      connectivity in the DMRSN could be a reliable and robust method for assessing the
      depth of anaesthesia and maybe also disorders of consciousness in general. The
      mean squared coherences in the gamma frequency band indicated the highest
      sensitivity for the depth of unconsciousness. The measure is not dependent on the
      diffused slowing in dementia or encephalopathy patients as long as they remain in
      a full consciousness.

PMID- 28871711
TI  - Analysis of the rs13306560 functional variant in the promoter region of the MTHFR
      gene in sporadic Parkinson's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Among susceptibility genes for Sporadic Parkinson's Disease (SPD), the
      MTHFR gene has been suggested as candidate. The A allele of the functional
      variant rs13306560 in its promoter region has been liked to decreased
      transactivation capacity. Therefore, we sought to determine a possible
      association of the rs13306560 and SPD. METHODS: In total, 237 individuals were
      genotyped, 113 patients with SPD diagnosed according to the Queen Square Brain
      Bank criteria and 124 neurologically healthy controls. Genotyping was performed
      using TaqMan probes for the rs13306560 and real-time PCR. RESULTS: The A allelle
      was associated to protection in SPD, under the dominant model, (OR=0.22,
      C.I.=[0.048-1.080], p=0.04), nevertheless, after logistic regression analysis
      with adjustment for gender, resulted only in a trend (Exp (beta)=0.211, [I.C.
      95.0%, 0.042-1.057], p=0.058). CONCLUSION: Although further studies are needed,
      our data suggest an important role of the MTHFR gene variants in the fine-tuning
      regulation of one-carbon metabolism in the brain.

PMID- 28871713
TI  - Cognitive functions and serum cortisol concentration in perimenopausal and
      postmenopausal women working non-manually.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To asses a possible relationship between serum cortisol concentration
      and cognitive function in peri- and postmenopausal women engaging in non-manual
      work. METHODS: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to screen women
      for the study and the Computerized Neurocognitive-assessment Software (CNS) Vital
      Signs to diagnose cognitive functions. RESULTS: Cognitive functions and serum
      cortisol concentration did not differ between women in early and late
      perimenopause and postmenopause. The women in the study obtained lower reaction
      time compared to other cognitive functions studied. Cognitive functions
      correlated negatively with age and educational level, but not BMI. Serum cortisol
      concentration correlated negatively to NCI, motor speed, psychomotor speed and
      reaction time in postmenopausal women, but positively to complex memory in early
      perimenopausal women and to processing speed in early and late perimenopasal
      women. CONCLUSION: Higher serum cortisol concentration may negatively effect
      cognitive functions in women post menopause.

PMID- 28871714
TI  - Borderline personality disorder and unmet needs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disabling psychiatric
      condition with a chronic and challenging course. BPD is reflected as a disorder
      of self-regulation" and is associated with both psychological vulnerabilities and
      social relations that fail to support basic emotional needs. The objective of the
      paper is to provide the up-to-date data on the unmet needs of BPD patients and
      their families. METHOD: A computerized search of the literature printed between
      January 1990 and May 2017 was conducted in PubMed, and additional papers were
      extracted using keywords "borderline personality disorder,"needs,"
      "pharmacotherapy," "psychotherapy," "CBT," and "family" in various combinations.
      According to the eligibility criteria, 57 articles were chosen. Secondary
      articles from the reference lists of primarily identified papers have been
      selected for the eligibility and added to the first list (N=151). RESULTS: The
      results were divided into three categories: the needs connected with (1) the
      symptom control; (2) the treatment; (3) the quality of life. The needs connected
      with symptoms were described issues such as emotional needs, social interactions,
      self-harm, parasuicide, suicidality, comorbidity, mentalization, identity
      disturbance, moreover, barriers to treatment. The needs connected with the
      treatment described are focused on needs for early diagnosis, early intervention,
      holding environment, therapeutic relation, assertive community treatment,
      destigmatization, hospitalization, and primary care. The needs connected with the
      quality of life involve family needs, physical health, spiritual needs, advocacy
      needs, and needs for the separation-individuation. The part focused on
      implications for the treatment presented several treatment approaches, focusing
      mostly on the their basics and efficacy. CONCLUSION: Observing the patients'
      needs may be essential to the treatment of the individuals suffering from BPD.
      However, many needs remain unmet in the areas linked to medical, personal, and
      social factors. A bigger focus on the patients' needs could be beneficial and
      should be targeted in the treatment.

PMID- 28871715
TI  - Personality as significant predictor of post-stroke anxiety.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Anxiety in stroke patients is very frequent. It negatively influences
      the whole recovery process. The study objective is to study personality traits,
      age, gender, and type of stroke as predictors of anxiety in stroke patients.
      METHODS: Research presents a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study. The
      sample consisted of 74 hospitalized stroke patients. The data collection methods
      were the HADS for anxiety measurement and the Mini IPIP for evaluation of five
      personality factors. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to study
      the relationship between anxiety and personality variables, gender, age, and type
      of stroke. RESULTS: We found three statistically significant predictors of
      anxiety in stroke patients. Neuroticism and low Agreeableness explain 50% of the
      variability of anxiety. Another statistically significant predictor was age;
      higher-level anxiety relates to lower age. Other personality traits
      (Extraversion, Openness to experience, and Conscientiousness), gender, and type
      of stroke do not appear as significant predictors of post-stroke anxiety.
      CONCLUSION: Anxiety in stroke patients is predicted mostly by the personality
      traits and young age of patients. Knowing these predictors can result in early
      detection and management of emotional consequences of disease, and thus influence
      the whole recovery process.

PMID- 28871716
TI  - The influence of Eruca sativa (Arugula) on pharmacokinetics of Sildenafil in
      rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A drug like Sildenafil is commonly used for the treatment of erectile
      dysfunction. Eruca sativa is known as a garden plant used in folk medicine to
      enhance the sexual desire in males. Nevertheless, the interaction of Sildenafil
      and Eruca sativa was not studied. In the current study, we aimed to examine the
      influence of Eruca sativa on Sildenafil pharmacokinetics in rats. STUDY DESIGN: A
      crossover experiment with washout period of two weeks was conducted. To one group
      of animals, Eruca sativa was given as food and a drinking solution to rats for 12
      hours before the day of the experiment. On the day of the experiment, the same
      group received 5 ml (50 mg/ml) orally and a half an hour later animals received 1
      ml Sildenafil citrate (2.85 mg/kg) oral administrated to the study group. The
      other group of rats only received Sildenafil. Two-weeks later a cross-over design
      on the same animals was conducted. Blood samples were collected from optical vein
      on different time intervals, samples were analyzed using validated (HPLC-UV)
      method. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Pre-administration of Eruca sativa has increased
      Sildenafil Cmax from 226.72 to 345.25 ng/ml, (p<0.05). In addition, the AUC of
      Sildenafil has significantly increased when it was pre-administered with Eruca
      sativa (550.59 vs. 916.48 ng/ml*hr). Our findings suggest that co-administration
      of Eruca sativa with Sildenafil enhances the pharmacokinetics of Sildenafil in
      rats plasma.

PMID- 28871718
TI  - Clostridium difficile infection a current therapeutic and epidemiological problem
AB  - Clostridium difficile (CD) is the most common etiologic agent of antibiotic
      associated diarrhea. The number of infections has increased dramatically in the
      last decade. Although the diseases caused by CD are mostly related to health care
      and antibiotic therapy, some are community-acquired cases. This article explains
      the pathogenesis of this microorganism, pointing to depletion of intestinal
      microflora diversity and the inadequate response of the immune system as an
      important factor predisposing the development of CD infection. Previous published
      studies have demonstrated an increased incidence of hipervirulent ribotype 027 in
      Poland and Europe and also the emergence of other ribotypes in various parts of
      Europe with increased potential for pathogenicity. A high percentage of CD
      strains, which were isolated in Poland demonstrated resistance to ciprofloxacin,
      imipenem, erythromycin and moxifloxacin and multidrug resistance. In addition,
      there was observed a trend to increase in the value of MIC for vancomycin and
      metronidazole. Factors that may affect the reduction of effectiveness in drug
      therapy include the sublethal doses achieved in the intestinal lumen,
      heterogenicity of resistance to metronidazole, the ability to form the biofilms,
      presence of protein, which repair damaged DNA, transformation of an antibiotic to
      inactive form and mutations leading to changes to the binding sites of
      vancomycin.

PMID- 28871717
TI  - Acromegaly determination using discriminant analysis of the three-dimensional
      facial classification in Taiwanese.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the size, angles and positional
      characteristics of facial anthropometry between "acromegalic" patients and
      control subjects. We also identify possible facial soft tissue measurements for
      generating discriminant functions toward acromegaly determination in males and
      females for acromegaly early self-awareness. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a
      cross-sectional study. Subjects participating in this study included 70 patients
      diagnosed with acromegaly (35 females and 35 males) and 140 gender-matched
      control individuals. Three-dimensional facial images were collected via a camera
      system. Thirteen landmarks were selected. Eleven measurements from the three
      categories were selected and applied, including five frontal widths, three
      lateral depths and three lateral angular measurements. Descriptive analyses were
      conducted using means and standard deviations for each measurement. Univariate
      and multivariate discriminant function analyses were applied in order to
      calculate the accuracy of acromegaly detection. RESULTS: Patients with acromegaly
      exhibit soft-tissue facial enlargement and hypertrophy. Frontal widths as well as
      lateral depth and angle of facial changes were evident. The average accuracies of
      all functions for female patient detection ranged from 80.0-91.40%. The average
      accuracies of all functions for male patient detection were from 81.0-94.30%. The
      greatest anomaly observed was evidenced in the lateral angles, with greater
      enlargement of "nasofrontal" angles for females and greater "mentolabial" angles
      for males. Additionally, shapes of the lateral angles showed changes. The
      majority of the facial measurements proved dynamic for acromegaly patients;
      however, it is problematic to detect the disease with progressive body
      anthropometric changes. CONCLUSION: The discriminant functions of detection
      developed in this study could help patients, their families, medical
      practitioners and others to identify and track progressive facial change patterns
      before the possible patients go to the hospital, especially the lateral "angles"
      which can be calculated by relative point-to-point changes derived from 2D
      lateral imagery without the 3D anthropometric measurements. This study tries to
      provide a novel and easy method to detect acromegaly when the patients start to
      have awareness of abnormal appearance because of facial measurement changes, and
      it also suggests that undiagnosed patients be urged to go to the hospital as soon
      as possible for acromegaly early diagnosis.

PMID- 28871719
TI  - A steady course in health policy.

PMID- 28871720
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871721
TI  - [An inconvenient truth].

PMID- 28871722
TI  - [Eternal life as a medical goal].

PMID- 28871723
TI  - [Expectations on our next minister of health].

PMID- 28871724
TI  - [Norway's health is global health, but do we include everyone?].

PMID- 28871725
TI  - [Do not use the health care finances for political gain!].

PMID- 28871726
TI  - [A 50-year-old man with proximal pareses and heart disease].

PMID- 28871727
TI  - [From social state to minimal state].

PMID- 28871728
TI  - [The expert rule].

PMID- 28871729
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871730
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871731
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871732
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871733
TI  - [E-health and ill health].

PMID- 28871734
TI  - [Hysterectomy at St. Olavs Hospital 1989-2014].

PMID- 28871735
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871736
TI  - [Worthless health policy].

PMID- 28871737
TI  - Decentralised health services.

PMID- 28871738
TI  - New guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28871739
TI  - [Prescription for a better health service?].

PMID- 28871740
TI  - [The family physicians - useful idiots?].

PMID- 28871741
TI  - [The family physician system needs to hurry].

PMID- 28871742
TI  - [Clinical practice for the future of health care].

PMID- 28871743
TI  - [Give us politics back in health policy!].

PMID- 28871744
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871745
TI  - [Four things the election campaign could have been about].

PMID- 28871746
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871747
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871748
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871749
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871750
TI  - [Cancer patient in his 50's with troublesome palpitations].

PMID- 28871751
TI  - [Racing thoughts - a psychiatric term without meaning?].

PMID- 28871752
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871753
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871755
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871754
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871756
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871757
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871759
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871758
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871760
TI  - [Self-reported sources for distribution of cigarettes, snus and e-cigarettes].

PMID- 28871761
TI  - General practice consultations and use of prescription drugs after changes to
      school absence policy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: New rules for absence with stricter requirements for documentation
      were introduced in upper secondary schools in the autumn of 2016. We investigated
      the use of general practice services and dispensing of prescription drugs among
      16 - 18-year-olds in the autumn of 2016 and compared this with equivalent figures
      for the period 2013 - 15. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We retrieved information on
      consultations in general practice (GP) and dispensing of prescription drugs to 15
      - 18-year-olds in the period 2013 - 16 from the Directorate of Health's system
      for control and payment of health reimbursements (KUHR) and the Norwegian
      Prescription Database respectively. The number of consultations and dispensing of
      drugs were compared to previous years using Poisson regression (reference year
      2015). The incidence rate ratio (IRR) was used as an outcome measure. RESULTS:
      The number of GP consultations for 16 - 18-year-olds was 30 % higher in the
      autumn of 2016 than in the autumn of 2015 (IRR 1.30, 95 % confidence interval
      (CI) 1.29 - 1.31). In the same period, the dispensing of drugs to this age group
      increased by 8 % (IRR 1.08, 95 % CI 1.08 - 1.09). Among the diagnosis groups,
      respiratory tract infections had the largest increase (IRR 2.21, 95 % CI 2.17 -
      2.25). The largest increase in drug dispensing was found for remedies for coughs
      and colds (IRR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.65 - 1.80). INTERPRETATION: The increase in
      consultations in general practice and dispensing of drugs to 16 - 18-year-olds
      coincided in time with the introduction of new rules for absence from school. We
      hold it to be highly likely that the changes were caused by the stricter rules
      for documentation of absence from school.

PMID- 28871762
TI  - [Not Available].

PMID- 28871764
TI  - Useful textbook on diabetes.

PMID- 28871765
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871763
TI  - Dietary therapy for epilepsy.
AB  - Children with pharmacoresistant epilepsy should be offered ketogenic dietary
      therapy. The diet, which is rich in fat and low in carbohydrate, has a beneficial
      effect in reducing seizures in this patient group. It may also have a beneficial
      effect in adults, but there is less evidence than in children. Dietary treatment
      of epilepsy is a specialist therapy, and in order to adhere to the diet, strong
      motivation of the patient and relatives as well as close follow-up from the
      specialist health service are necessary.

PMID- 28871766
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871768
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871767
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871769
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871770
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871771
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871772
TI  - ?

PMID- 28871773
TI  - Internal abdominal hernia.

PMID- 28871774
TI  - [When should you choose a non-parametric method?].

PMID- 28871776
TI  - Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Treatment of Poly-epsilon-caprolactone Polymer
      Solutions To Improve Electrospinning.
AB  - An atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) specifically designed for liquid
      treatment has been used in this work to improve the electrospinnability of a 5
      w/v % solution of poly-epsilon-caprolactone (PCL) in a mixture of chloroform and
      N,N-dimethylformamide. Untreated PCL solutions were found to result in nonuniform
      fibers containing a large number of beads, whereas plasma-treated solutions
      (exposure time of 2-5 min) enabled the generation of beadless, uniform nanofibers
      with an average diameter of 450 nm. This enhanced electrospinnability was found
      to be mainly due to the highly increased conductivity of the plasma-modified PCL
      solutions. Consequently, more stretching of the polymer jet occurred during
      electrospinning, leading to the generation of bead-free fibers. Plasma treatment
      also results in an increased viscosity and decreased pH values. To explain these
      observed changes, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) has been used to examine
      the excited species present in the APPJ in contact with the PCL solution. This
      study revealed that the peaks attributed to H, CH, CH2, and C2 species could be
      responsible for the degradation of solvent molecules and/or PCL structures during
      the plasma treatment. Size exclusion chromatography and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy results showed that the molecular weight and the chemical
      composition of PCL were not significantly affected by the APPJ treatment. Plasma
      exposure mainly results in the degradation of the solvent molecules instead of
      modifying the PCL macromolecules, preserving the original polymer as much as
      possible. A hypothesis for the observed macroscopic changes in viscosity and pH
      values could be the generation of new chemical species such as HCl and/or HNO3.
      These species are characterized by their high conductivity, low pH values, and
      strong polarity and could enhance the solvent quality for PCL, leading to the
      expansion of the polymer coil, which could in turn explain the observed enhanced
      viscosity after plasma modification.

PMID- 28871775
TI  - Functionalized 2D-MoS2-Incorporated Polymer Ternary Solar Cells: Role of
      Nanosheet-Induced Long-Range Ordering of Polymer Chains on Charge Transport.
AB  - In this paper, we demonstrated the enhancement in power conversion efficiency
      (PCE) of solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT)/[6,6]-phenyl
      C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) by incorporation of functionalized 2D-MoS2
      nanosheets (NSs) as an additional charge-transporting material. The enhancement
      in PCE of ternary solar cells arises due to the synergic enhancement in exciton
      dissociation and the improvement in mobility of both electrons and holes through
      the active layer of the solar cells. The improved hole mobility is attributed to
      the formation of the long-range ordered nanofibrillar structure of polymer phases
      and improved crystallinity in the presence of 2D-MoS2 NSs. The improved electron
      mobility arises due to the highly conducting 2D network of MoS2 NSs which
      provides additional electron transport channels within the active layer. The
      nanosheet-incorporated ternary blend solar cells exhibit 32% enhancement in PCE
      relative to the binary blend P3HT/PC71BM.

PMID- 28871777
TI  - Developing an Inositol-Phosphate-Actuated Nanochannel System by Mimicking
      Biological Calcium Ion Channels.
AB  - In eukaryotic cells, ion channels, which ubiquitously present as polypeptides or
      proteins, usually regulate the ion transport across biological membranes by
      conformational switching of the channel proteins in response to the binding of
      diverse signaling molecules (e.g., inositol phosphate, abbreviated to InsP). To
      mimic the gating behaviors of natural Ca2+ channels manipulated by InsPs, a smart
      poly[(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-4-(3-acryloylthioureido) benzoic acid)0.2]
      (denoted as PNI-co-ATBA0.2) was integrated onto a porous anodic alumina (PAA)
      membrane, building an InsP-actuated nanochannel system. Driven by the intensive
      hydrogen bonding complexation of ATBA monomer with InsP, the copolymer chains
      displayed a remarkable and reversible conformational transition from a contracted
      state to a swollen one, accompanied with significant changes in surface
      morphology, wettability, and viscoelasticity. Benefiting from these features,
      dynamic gating behaviors of the nanochannels located on the copolymer-modified
      PAA membrane could be precisely manipulated by InsPs, reflected as a satisfactory
      linear relationship between real-time variation in transmembrane ionic current
      and the InsP concentration over a wide range from 1 nmol L-1 to 10 MUmol L-1, as
      well as a clear discrimination among InsP2, InsP3, and InsP6. This study
      indicates the great potential of biomolecule-responsive polymers in the
      fabrication of biomimetic ion nanochannels and other nanoscale biodevices.

PMID- 28871778
TI  - Graphitized Porous Carbon for Rapid Screening of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme
      Inhibitory Peptide GAMVVH from Silkworm Pupa Protein and Molecular Insight into
      Inhibition Mechanism.
AB  - A novel hydrophobic hexapeptide with high angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)
      inhibitory activity was screened from silkworm pupa protein (SPP) hydrolysate via
      graphitized porous carbon and reverse-phase high-performance liquid
      chromatography methods. Graphitized porous carbon derived from dopamine,
      possessing high surface area and high graphitic carbon, was used to rapidly
      screen and enrich hydrophobic peptides from SPP hydrolysate. The ACE inhibition
      pattern and mechanism of the purified peptide were also systematically studied by
      the classic Lineweaver-Burk model and by molecular docking/dynamic simulation.
      The novel hydrophobic hexapeptide was identified as Gly-Ala-Met-Val-Val-His
      (GAMVVH, IC50 = 19.39 +/- 0.21 MUM) with good thermal/antidigestive stabilities.
      Lineweaver-Burk plots revealed that GAMVVH behaved as a competitive ACE
      inhibitor. It formed hydrogen bonds with S1 and S2 pockets of ACE and established
      competitive coordination with Zn(II) of ACE. The synergy of hydrogen bonds with
      active pockets and Zn(II) coordination efficiently changed the three-dimensional
      structure of ACE and thus inhibited bioactivity of ACE.

PMID- 28871779
TI  - Excimer Emission-Based Fluorescent Probe Targeting Caspase-3.
AB  - A fluorescent probe based on an excimer-forming benzothiazolyl-cyanovinylene (CV)
      dye was developed to target the apoptotic protease caspase-3. Upon the action of
      caspase-3, the water-soluble fluorescent probe Ac-DEVD-NH-CV, which is weakly
      green emissive in aqueous solution, is converted to hydrophobic CV-NH2, which
      spontaneously aggregates. Aggregation of CV-NH2 promotes excimer emission of the
      CV dye, which allows for the study of caspase-3 activity in vitro and for imaging
      the activity of the enzyme in living cells because of the large red shift and
      enhanced fluorescence signal of the probe.

PMID- 28871780
TI  - Learning from Natural Nacre: Constructing Layered Polymer Composites with High
      Thermal Conductivity.
AB  - Inspired by the microstructures of naturally layered and highly oriented
      materials, such as natural nacre, we report a thermally conductive polymer
      composite that consists of epoxy resin and Al2O3 platelets deposited with silver
      nanoparticles (AgNPs). Owing to their unique two-dimensional structure, Al2O3
      platelets are stacked together via a hot-pressing technique, resulting in a brick
      and-mortar structure, which is similar to the one of natural nacre. Moreover, the
      AgNPs deposited on the surfaces of the Al2O3 platelets act as bridges that link
      the adjacent Al2O3 platelets due to the reduced melting point of the AgNPs. As a
      result, the polymer composite with 50 wt % filler achieves a maximum thermal
      conductivity of 6.71 W m-1 K-1. In addition, the small addition of AgNPs (0.6 wt
      %) minimally affects the electrical insulation of the composites. Our bioinspired
      approach will find uses in the design and fabrication of thermally conductive
      materials for thermal management in modern electronics.

PMID- 28871781
TI  - Structural and Dynamic Heterogeneity of Capillary Wave Fronts at Aqueous
      Interfaces.
AB  - Using a unique combination of slab-layering analyses and identification of truly
      interfacial molecules, this work examines water/vapor and water/n-hexane
      interfaces, specifically the structural and dynamic perturbations of the
      interfacial water molecules at different locations within the surface capillary
      waves. From both the structural and dynamic properties analyzed, it is found that
      these interfacial water molecules dominate the perturbations within the
      interfacial region, which can extend deep into the water phase relative to the
      Gibbs dividing surface. Of more importance is the demonstration of structural and
      dynamic heterogeneity of the interfacial water molecules at the capillary wave
      front, as indicated by the dipole orientation and the structural and dynamic
      behavior of hydrogen bonds and their networks.

PMID- 28871783
TI  - Temperature-Dependent NO2 Sensing Mechanisms over Indium Oxide.
AB  - The surface species responsible for NO2 gas sensing over indium oxide was studied
      by operando DRIFTS coupled to a multivariate spectral analysis. It revealed the
      important roles of surface nitrites on the temperature-dependent gas sensing
      mechanism and the interaction of such nitrites with surface hydroxyls. A highly
      hydroxylated surface with high concentration of surface adsorbed H2O is
      beneficial to enhance the concentration of adsorbed NO2, present as nitrites,
      thus explaining superior sensing response at lower operating temperatures.

PMID- 28871782
TI  - Antibiotic Treatment Preventing Necrotising Enterocolitis Alters Urinary and
      Plasma Metabolomes in Preterm Pigs.
AB  - Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is a serious gut inflammatory condition in
      premature neonates, onset and development of which depend on the gut microbiome.
      Attenuation of the gut microbiome by antibiotics can reduce NEC incidence and
      severity. However, how the antibiotics-suppressed gut microbiome affects the
      whole-body metabolism in NEC-sensitive premature neonates is unknown. In formula
      fed preterm pigs, used as a model for preterm infants, plasma and urinary
      metabolomes were investigated by LC-MS and 1H NMR, with and without antibiotic
      treatment immediately after birth. While it reduced the gut microbiome density
      and NEC lesions as previously reported, the antibiotic treatment employed in the
      current study affected the abundance of 44 metabolites in different metabolic
      pathways. In antibiotics-treated pigs, tryptophan metabolism favored the
      kynurenine pathway, relative to the serotonin pathway, as shown by specific
      metabolites. Metabolites associated with the gut microbiome, including 3
      phenyllactic acid, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, and phenylacetylglycine, all from
      phenylalanine, and three bile acids showed lower levels in the antibiotics
      treated pigs where the gut microbiome was extensively attenuated. Findings in the
      current study warrant further investigation of metabolic and developmental
      consequences of antibiotic treatment in preterm neonates.

PMID- 28871784
TI  - Graphene- and Phosphorene-like Boron Layers with Contrasting Activities in Highly
      Active Mo2B4 for Hydrogen Evolution.
AB  - Two different boron layers, flat (graphene-like) and puckered (phosphorene-like),
      found in the crystal structure of Mo2B4 show drastically different activities for
      hydrogen evolution, according to Gibbs free energy calculations of H-adsorption
      on Mo2B4. The graphene-like B layer is highly active, whereas the phosphorene
      like B layer performs very poorly for hydrogen evolution. A new Sn-flux synthesis
      permits the rapid single-phase synthesis of Mo2B4, and electrochemical analyses
      show that it is one of the best hydrogen evolution reaction active bulk materials
      with good long-term cycle stability under acidic conditions. Mo2B4 compensates
      its smaller density of active sites if compared with highly active bulk MoB2
      (which contains only the more active graphene-like boron layers) by a 5-times
      increase of its surface area.

PMID- 28871785
TI  - Adsorption of Methyl Ester Sulfonate at the Air-Water Interface: Can Limitations
      in the Application of the Gibbs Equation be Overcome by Computer Purification?
AB  - We describe a new laboratory synthesis of the alpha-methyl ester sulfonates based
      on direct sulfonation of the methyl ester by SO3 introduced from the vapor phase.
      This was used to synthesize a chain deuterated sample of alphaC14MES, which was
      then used to measure the surface excess of alphaC14MES directly at the air/water
      interface over a wide range of concentration using neutron reflection. The
      adsorption isotherm could be fitted to an empirical equation close to a Langmuir
      isotherm and gave a limiting surface excess of (3.4 +/- 0.1) * 10-6 mol m-2 in
      the absence of added electrolyte. The neutron-measured surface excesses were
      combined with the integrated Gibbs equation to fit the variation in surface
      tension with concentration (sigma-ln C curve). The fit was exact provided that we
      used a prefactor consistent with the counterion at the surface being an impurity
      divalent ion, as has previously been found for sodium diethylhexylsulfosuccinate
      (aerosol OT or AOT) and various perfluorooctanoates. The critical micelle
      concentration (CMC) was determined from this fit to be 2.4 +/- 0.3 mM in the
      absence of electrolyte. In the presence of 100 mM NaCl, this contamination was
      suppressed and the sigma-ln C curve could be fitted using the integrated Gibbs
      equation with the expected prefactor of 1. The new data were used to reinterpret
      measurements by Danov et al. on an unpurified sample of alphaC14MES for which
      computer refinement was used to try to eliminate the effects of the impurities.

PMID- 28871786
TI  - Fast, Background-Free DNA-PAINT Imaging Using FRET-Based Probes.
AB  - DNA point accumulation in nanoscale topography (DNA-PAINT) enables super
      resolution microscopy by harnessing the predictable, transient hybridization
      between short dye-labeled "imager" and complementary target-bound "docking"
      strands. DNA-PAINT microscopy allows sub-5 nm spatial resolution, spectrally
      unlimited multiplexing, and quantitative image analysis. However, these abilities
      come at the cost of nonfluorogenic imager strands, also emitting fluorescence
      when not bound to their docking strands. This has thus far prevented rapid image
      acquisition with DNA-PAINT, as the blinking rate of probes is limited by an upper
      bound of imager strand concentrations, which in turn is dictated by the necessity
      to facilitate the detection of single-molecule binding events over the background
      of unbound, freely diffusing probes. To overcome this limitation and enable fast,
      background-free DNA-PAINT microscopy, we here introduce FRET-based imaging
      probes, alleviating the concentration-limit of imager strands and speeding up
      image acquisition by several orders of magnitude. We assay two approaches for
      FRET-based DNA-PAINT (or FRET-PAINT) using either fixed or transient acceptor
      dyes in combination with transiently binding donor-labeled DNA strands and
      achieve high-quality super-resolution imaging on DNA origami structures in a few
      tens of seconds. Finally, we also demonstrate the applicability of FRET-PAINT in
      a cellular environment by performing super-resolution imaging of microtubules in
      under 30 s. FRET-PAINT combines the advantages of conventional DNA-PAINT with
      fast image acquisition times, facilitating the potential study of dynamic
      processes.

PMID- 28871787
TI  - NMR Spectroscopy-based Metabolomics of Drosophila Model of Huntington's Disease
      Suggests Altered Cell Energetics.
AB  - Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder induced by aggregation
      of the pathological form of Huntingtin protein that has expanded polyglutamine
      (polyQ) repeats. In the Drosophila model, for instance, expression of transgenes
      with polyQ repeats induces HD-like pathologies, progressively correlating with
      the increasing lengths of these repeats. Previous studies on both animal models
      and clinical samples have revealed metabolite imbalances during HD progression.
      To further explore the physiological processes linked to metabolite imbalances
      during HD, we have investigated the 1D 1H NMR spectroscopy-based metabolomics
      profile of Drosophila HD model. Using multivariate analysis (PCA and PLS-DA) of
      metabolites obtained from methanolic extracts of fly heads displaying retinal
      deformations due to polyQ overexpression, we show that the metabolite imbalance
      during HD is likely to affect cell energetics. Six out of the 35 metabolites
      analyzed, namely, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), lactate, pyruvate,
      succinate, sarcosine, and acetoin, displayed segregation with progressive
      severity of HD. Specifically, HD progression was seen to be associated with
      reduction in NAD and increase in lactate-to-pyruvate ratio. Furthermore,
      comparative analysis of fly HD metabolome with those of mouse HD model and HD
      human patients revealed comparable metabolite imbalances, suggesting altered
      cellular energy homeostasis. These findings thus raise the possibility of
      therapeutic interventions for HD via modulation of cellular energetics.

PMID- 28871788
TI  - Antifungal Effect of Arabidopsis SGT1 Proteins via Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen
      Species.
AB  - The highly conserved SGT1 (suppressor of the G2 alleles of skp1) proteins from
      Arabidopsis are known to contribute to plant resistance to pathogens. While SGT1
      proteins respond to fungal pathogens, their antifungal activity is not reported
      and the mechanism for this inhibition is not well understood. Therefore,
      recombinant Arabidopsis SGT1 proteins were cloned, expressed, and purified to
      evaluate their antifungal activity, resulting in their potent inhibition of
      pathogen growth. Dye-labeled proteins are localized to the cytosol of Candida
      albicans cells without the disruption of the cell membrane. Moreover, we showed
      that entry of the proteins into C. albicans cells resulted in the accumulation of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cell death via altered mitochondrial potential.
      Morphological changes of C. albicans cells in the presence of proteins were
      visualized by scanning electron microscopy. Our data suggest that AtSGT1 proteins
      play a critical role in plant resistance to pathogenic fungal infection and they
      can be classified to a new plant antifungal protein.

PMID- 28871789
TI  - Production and Purification of the Native Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hsp12 in
      Escherichia coli.
AB  - Hsp12 is a small heat shock protein produced in many organisms, including the
      yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It has been described as an indicator of yeast
      stress rate and has also been linked to the sweetness sensation of wine. To
      obtain a sufficient amount of protein, we produced and purified Hsp12 without tag
      in Escherichia coli. A simple fast two-step process was developed using a
      microplate approach and a design of experiments. A capture step on an anion
      exchange salt-tolerant resin was followed by size exclusion chromatography for
      polishing, leading to a purity of 97%. Thereafter, specific anti-Hsp12 antibodies
      were obtained by rabbit immunization. An ELISA was developed to quantify Hsp12 in
      various strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The antibodies showed high
      specificity and allowed the quantitation of Hsp12 in the yeast. The quantities of
      Hsp12 measured in the strains differed in direct proportion to the level of
      expression found in previous studies.

PMID- 28871790
TI  - Mesoporous Iron Sulfide for Highly Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution.
AB  - We report a facile synthetic protocol to prepare mesoporous FeS2 without the aid
      of hard template as an electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).
      The mesoporous FeS2 materials with high surface area were successfully prepared
      by a sol-gel method following a sulfurization treatment in an H2S atmosphere. A
      remarkable HER catalytic performance was achieved with a low overpotential of 96
      mV at a current density of 10 mA.cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 78 mV per decade under
      alkaline conditions (pH 13). The theoretical calculations indicate that the
      excellent catalytic activity of mesoporous FeS2 is attributed to the exposed
      (210) facets. The mesoporous FeS2 material might be a promising alternative to
      the Pt-based electrocatalysts for water splitting.

PMID- 28871791
TI  - Real-Time Bioimpedance Sensing of Antifibrotic Drug Action in Primary Human
      Cells.
AB  - Fibrotic diseases are among the most serious health issues with severe burdens
      due to their chronic nature and a large number of patients suffering from the
      debilitating effects and long-term sequelae. Collagenase treatment is a
      nonsurgical option but has limited results. To date, there is no potent
      noninvasive solution for fibrosis. Part of the reason for this is the lack of
      appropriate in vitro live cell screening tools to assess the efficacy of new
      therapeutical agents. Here, we demonstrate the utility of a cell-based
      electrochemical impedance biosensor platform to screen the efficacy of potential
      antifibrotic compounds. The platform employs a label-free and noninvasive
      strategy to detect the progression of fibrosis and the potency of the
      antifibrotic molecules in real-time. The fundamental principle that governs this
      novel system is that dynamic changes in cell shape and adhesion during fibrosis
      can be measured accurately by monitoring the changes in the impedance. This is
      achieved by growing the cells on a transparent interdigitated indium tin oxide
      (ITO) electrodes. It was demonstrated by monitoring the efficacy of a model
      antifibrotic compound, PXS64, on cells collected from patients with Dupuytren's
      contracture. We confirmed the validity of the developed biochemical impedance
      biosensor as an tool for in vitro screening of antifibrotic compounds and
      provided quantitative information on subcellular influences of the examined
      chemical molecules using correlative microscopy analyses that monitor the average
      cell area, cell morphology, and the amount and directionality of the deposited
      extracellular matrix protein collagen and measurement of cytosolic Ca2+ changes.

PMID- 28871792
TI  - One-Pot Synthesis of Nickel-Modified Carbon Nitride Layers Toward Efficient
      Photoelectrochemical Cells.
AB  - A new method to significantly enhance the photoelectrochemical properties of
      phenyl-modified carbon nitride layers via the insertion of nickel ions into
      carbon nitride layers is reported. The nickel ions are embedded within the carbon
      nitride layers by manipulating the interaction of Ni ions and molten organic
      molecules at elevated temperature prior to their condensation. A detailed
      analysis of the chemical and photophysical properties suggests that the nickel
      ions dissolve in the molten molecules, leading to the homogeneous distribution of
      nickel atoms within the carbon nitride layers. We found that the nickel atoms can
      alter the growth mechanism of carbon nitride layers, resulting in extended light
      absorption, charge transfer properties, and the total photoelectrochemical
      performance. For the most photoactive electrode, the Ni ions have an oxidation
      state of 2.8, as confirmed by soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore,
      important parameters such as absorption coefficient, exciton lifetime, and
      diffusion length were studied in depth, providing substantial progress in our
      understanding of the photoelectrochemical properties of carbon nitride films.
      This work opens new opportunities for the growth of carbon nitride layers and
      similar materials on different surfaces and provides important progress in our
      understanding of the photophysical and photoelectrochemical properties of carbon
      nitride layers toward their implantation in photoelectronic and other devices.

PMID- 28871793
TI  - Utility of Montreal Cognitive Assessment in Differentiating Dementia With Lewy
      Bodies From Alzheimer's Dementia.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are the 2 most
      common neurodegenerative dementias. Identification of patients with DLB is
      necessary to guide appropriate clinical management and medication trials.
      Patients with DLB are reported to perform poorly on tasks of visuospatial and
      executive function, compared to patients with AD who perform poorly on memory
      tasks. Using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, we found that patients with DLB
      (n = 73) had statistically significant lower performance in clock drawing
      (visuospatial and executive function) and higher performance in delayed recall
      (memory) subscores compared to patients with AD (n = 57). This score pattern
      should raise suspicion for a DLB diagnosis at initial evaluation of patients with
      dementia.

PMID- 28871794
TI  - Differentiating Between Apathy and Depression in Patients With Parkinson Disease
      Dementia.
AB  - In Parkinson disease (PD), apathy and depression often overlap, making it
      difficult to differentiate between them. This study sought to analyze apathy and
      depression in patients with PD dementia (PDD). Forty patients were diagnosed with
      PDD using the Movement Disorder Society criteria. A statistically significant
      correlation was identified between worsening dementia and an improvement in
      depression ( r = .3695; r2 = .1365, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.0985 to
      05.894, P = .0044) and between worsening dementia and worsening apathy ( r = 
      .2578, r2 = .0664, 95% CI: -0.5025 to .0251, P = .036). Depression had a greater
      correlation with advanced motor symptoms ( r = .4988, r2 = .2438, 95% CI: 0.2218
      0.7013, P = .0005]. In conclusion, depression was associated with less advanced
      PDD and more intense motor features, while apathy was associated with more
      advanced cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28871795
TI  - Increasing Burden of Complex Multimorbidity Across Gradients of Cognitive
      Impairment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study evaluates the burden of multimorbidity (MM) across
      gradients of cognitive impairment (CI). METHODS: Using data from the 2010 Health
      and Retirement Study, we identified individuals with no CI, mild CI, and
      moderate/severe CI. In addition, we adopted an expansive definition of complex MM
      by accounting for the occurrence and co-occurrence of chronic conditions,
      functional limitations, and geriatric syndromes. RESULTS: In a sample of 18 913
      participants (weighted n = 87.5 million), 1.93% and 1.84% presented with mild and
      moderate/severe CI, respectively. The prevalence of most conditions constituting
      complex MM increased markedly across the spectrum of CI. Further, the percentage
      of individuals presenting with 10 or more conditions was 19.9%, 39.3%, and 71.3%
      among those with no CI, mild CI, and moderate/severe CI, respectively.
      DISCUSSION: Greater CI is strongly associated with increased burden of complex
      MM. Detailed characterization of MM across CI gradients will help identify
      opportunities for health care improvement.

PMID- 28871796
TI  - Alzheimers' disease and caregiving: a meta-analytic review comparing the mental
      health of primary carers to controls.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To quantitatively review the literature comparing depressed mood,
      anxiety and psychological distress in caregivers (CGs) of older adults with
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) with non-caregivers (NCGs) Methods: Eighteen independent
      studies comparing AD CGs (N = 2378) with NCGs (N = 70,035) were evaluated in
      accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in
      Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. Standardised mean differences (Hedges' g) with
      associated 95% confidence intervals and p-values were calculated using a random
      effects model. RESULTS: Studies generally conformed to STROBE criteria in terms
      of their methodological and procedural detail, although data management issues
      that may contribute to methodological bias were identified. Pooled effect
      estimates revealed medium to large group differences in depression (gw = 1.01
      [CI: 0.73, 1.29] p < 0.01) and anxiety (gw = 0.64 [CI: 0.39, 0.89] p < 0.01): AD
      caregivers reported higher symptom severity. Gender was a significant moderator:
      female caregivers experienced poor self-reported mood (gw = 1.58 [CI: 1.11,
      2.05], p < 0.01), although this analysis was limited in power given the small
      number of contributing studies. DISCUSSION: Caregivers of patients with AD
      experience poor mental health in comparison to the general population, with
      female caregivers being disproportionately affected. Further exploration of the
      psychosocial variables that contribute to these group differences is needed to
      inform effective support services and, in turn, help caregivers manage the
      emotional demands of AD.

PMID- 28871797
TI  - Qualitative Analysis of Dairy and Powder Milk Using Laser-Induced Breakdown
      Spectroscopy (LIBS).
AB  - Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was used to compare various
      types of commercial milk products. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra
      were investigated for the determination of the elemental composition of soy and
      rice milk powder, dairy milk, and lactose-free dairy milk. The analysis was
      performed using radiative transitions. Atomic emissions from Ca, K, Na, and Mg
      lines observed in LIBS spectra of dairy milk were compared. In addition, proteins
      and fat level in milks can be determined using molecular emissions such as CN
      bands. Ca concentrations were calculated to be 2.165 +/- 0.203 g/L in 1% of dairy
      milk fat samples and 2.809 +/- 0.172 g/L in 2% of dairy milk fat samples using
      the standard addition method (SAM) with LIBS spectra. Univariate and multivariate
      statistical analysis methods showed that the contents of major mineral elements
      were higher in lactose-free dairy milk than those in dairy milk. The principal
      component analysis (PCA) method was used to discriminate four milk samples
      depending on their mineral elements concentration. In addition, proteins and fat
      level in dairy milks were determined using molecular emissions such as CN band.
      We applied partial least squares regression (PLSR) and simple linear regression
      (SLR) models to predict levels of milk fat in dairy milk samples. The PLSR model
      was successfully used to predict levels of milk fat in dairy milk sample with the
      relative accuracy (RA%) less than 6.62% using CN (0,0) band.

PMID- 28871799
TI  - Costs and benefits of different methods of esophagectomy for esophageal cancer.
AB  - Background A minimally invasive approach to esophagectomy is being used
      increasingly, but concerns remain regarding the feasibility, safety, cost, and
      outcomes. We performed an analysis of the costs and benefits of minimally
      invasive, hybrid, and open esophagectomy approaches for esophageal cancer
      surgery. Methods The data of 83 consecutive patients who underwent a McKeown's
      esophagectomy at Prince of Songkla University Hospital between January 2008 and
      December 2014 were analyzed. Open esophagectomy was performed in 54 patients,
      minimally invasive esophagectomy in 13, and hybrid esophagectomy in 16. There
      were no differences in patient characteristics among the 3 groups Minimally
      invasive esophagectomy was undertaken via a thoracoscopic-laparoscopic approach,
      hybrid esophagectomy via a thoracoscopic-laparotomy approach, and open
      esophagectomy by a thoracotomy-laparotomy approach. Results Minimally invasive
      esophagectomy required a longer operative time than hybrid or open esophagectomy
      ( p = 0.02), but these patients reported less postoperative pain ( p = 0.01).
      There were no significant differences in blood loss, intensive care unit stay,
      hospital stay, or postoperative complications among the 3 groups. Minimally
      invasive esophagectomy incurred higher operative and surgical material costs than
      hybrid or open esophagectomy ( p = 0.01), but there were no significant
      differences in inpatient care and total hospital costs. Conclusion Minimally
      invasive esophagectomy resulted in the least postoperative pain but the greatest
      operative cost and longest operative time. Open esophagectomy was associated with
      the lowest operative cost and shortest operative time but the most postoperative
      pain. Hybrid esophagectomy had a shorter learning curve while sharing the
      advantages of minimally invasive esophagectomy.

PMID- 28871800
TI  - Clinicopathologic features of minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules.
AB  - Purpose Minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules are incidentally discovered
      in lung specimens. We analyzed the clinicopathologic features of 14 cases
      identified in surgically resected lungs. Methods Among patients who underwent
      lung resection in our hospital from October 2007 to March 2016, 14 were found to
      have minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules. The clinical parameters,
      radiologic findings, and pathologic features of these patients were
      retrospectively reviewed using the medical records. Results The patients included
      4 men and 10 women, with a mean age of 69 years (range 53-82 years). The
      coexisting main disease was adenocarcinoma in 8 patients, squamous cell carcinoma
      in 1, atypical adenomatous hyperplasia in 1, and metastatic pulmonary tumor in 3.
      In one patient, the minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules presented as
      multiple lung nodules on chest computed tomography. The median size of the
      nodules was 1.4 mm (range 0.3-6.0 mm). Similar to meningioma, one case had
      immunoreactivity to progesterone receptor and epithelial membrane antigen,
      although the minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules were not associated
      with a meningioma. Conclusions The relationship between minute pulmonary
      meningothelial-like nodules and meningioma should be investigated. If minute
      pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules are found on preoperative computed
      tomography, thoracoscopic lung biopsy is helpful for differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28871805
TI  - Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Elastography in Determining the Effects of Type
      1 Diabetes on Pancreas and Kidney Elasticity in Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of type 1 diabetes
      on pancreas and kidney elasticity in children, using acoustic radiation force
      impulse ultrasound elastography. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty autoantibody
      positive patients with type 1 diabetes (45% girls; mean [+/- SD] age, 11.7 +/-
      4.4 years; range, 1.9-19.3 years) admitted to the pediatric endocrinology
      outpatient clinic and 32 healthy children (50% girls; mean age, 10.2 +/- 3.8
      years; range, 2.1-17.3 years) were included in the study. Acoustic radiation
      force impulse elastography measurements were performed of the kidneys and
      pancreas in both groups. Body mass index, duration of diabetes, HbA1c levels, and
      insulin dosage of patients with type 1 diabetes were recorded. RESULTS: The mean
      shear-wave velocities of the pancreas were 0.99 +/- 0.25 m/s in patients with
      type 1 diabetes and 1.09 +/- 0.22 m/s in healthy control subjects; the difference
      was not significant (p = 0.08). The median shear-wave velocities of the right and
      left kidneys in patients with type 1 diabetes were 2.43 +/- 0.29 and 2.47 +/-
      0.25 m/s, respectively. There were no significant differences in the shear-wave
      velocities of the right and left kidneys between the patients with type 1
      diabetes and the healthy control subjects (p = 0.91 and p = 0.73, respectively).
      Correlation analysis showed no correlation between the shear-wave velocities of
      the pancreas and kidney versus HbA1c level, duration of diabetes, insulin dosage,
      height, weight, and body mass index of the patients with type 1 diabetes.
      CONCLUSION: The current study showed no significant difference in the shear-wave
      velocity of kidneys in children with type 1 diabetes with normoalbuminuria
      compared with the healthy control subjects. We also observed that the shear-wave
      velocity of the pancreas in children with type 1 diabetes and healthy control
      subjects did not differ significantly.

PMID- 28871806
TI  - Effectiveness of a Mobile Mammography Program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mobile mammography units have increasingly been used to address
      patient health care disparities; however, there are limited data comparing mobile
      units to stationary sites. This study aims to evaluate the characteristics of
      women who underwent mammography screening in a mobile unit versus those who
      underwent mammography screening at a cancer center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this retrospective study, we analyzed all screening mammography examinations
      performed in a mobile unit in 2014 (n = 1433 examinations). For comparison, we
      randomized and reviewed an equivalent number of screening mammography
      examinations performed at our cancer center in 2014 (n = 1434 examinations). BI
      RADS assessment, adherence to follow-up, biopsies performed, cancer detection
      rate, and sociodemographic variables were recorded. An independent-samples t test
      was conducted to identify potential differences in age between cancer center
      patients and mobile unit patients. Chi-square analyses were used to test for
      associations between location and factors such as health insurance, race, marital
      status, geographic area, adherence to screening guidelines, recall rate,
      adherence to follow-up, and cancer detection rates. RESULTS: Patients visiting
      our cancer center (mean = 57.74 years; SD = 10.55) were significantly older than
      those visiting the mobile unit (mean = 52.58 years; SD = 8.19; p < 0.001). There
      was a significant association between location and health insurance status (chi2
      = 610.92; p < 0.001) with more uninsured patients undergoing screening in the
      mobile van (cancer center = 3.70%, mobile unit = 38.73%). There was a significant
      association between screening location and patient race (chi2 = 118.75, p <
      0.001), with more white patients being screened at the cancer center (cancer
      center = 47.28%, mobile unit = 33.30%), more black patients being screened in the
      mobile van (cancer center = 49.30%, mobile unit = 54.15%), and more Hispanic
      patients being screened in the mobile van (cancer center = 1.05%, mobile unit =
      6.77%). There was a significant association between location and patient marital
      status (chi2 = 135.61, p < 0.001), with more married patients screened at the
      cancer center (cancer center = 49.16%, mobile unit = 38.31%), more single
      patients screened in the mobile van (cancer center = 25.17%, mobile unit =
      34.47%), and more widowed patients being screened at the cancer center (cancer
      center = 8.09%, mobile unit = 4.47%). There was a significant association between
      location and geographic area (chi2 = 33.33, p < 0.001), with both locations
      reaching more urban than rural patients (cancer center = 79.99%, mobile unit =
      70.62%). There was a significant association between location and adherence to
      screening guidelines (chi2 = 179.60, p < 0.001), with patients screened at the
      cancer center being more compliant (cancer center = 56.90%, mobile unit =
      34.47%). Finally, there was a significant association between location and recall
      rate (chi2 = 4.06, p < 0.001). The cancer center had a lower recall rate (13.32%)
      than the mobile van (15.98%). Of those patients with BI-RADS 0, there was a
      significant association between location and adherence to follow-up (chi2 =
      22.75, p < 0.001) with patients using the mobile unit less likely to return for
      additional imaging (cancer center = 2.65%, mobile unit = 17.03%). CONCLUSION:
      Significant differences were found among patients visiting the cancer center
      versus the mobile mammography van. The cancer center's population is older and
      more adherent to guidelines, whereas the mobile mammography population exhibited
      greater racial and marital diversity, higher recall rate, and lack of adherence
      to follow-up recommendations. By identifying these characteristics, we can
      develop programs and materials that meet these populations' needs and behaviors,
      ultimately increasing mammography screening and follow-up rates among underserved
      populations.

PMID- 28871807
TI  - Visualizing Carotid Bodies With Doppler Ultrasound Versus CT Angiography:
      Preliminary Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the utility of ultrasound
      in identifying carotid bodies (CBs) in patients with drug-resistant arterial
      hypertension. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We enrolled 13 patients with drug-resistant
      hypertension into a trial for surgical CB excision. CT angiography (CTA) and
      Doppler ultrasound (DUS) of the cervical arteries were performed before surgery.
      CBs were identified in a blind manner at both CTA and DUS. CBs were defined at
      CTA as ovoid avidly enhancing structures at the inferomedial aspect of the
      carotid bifurcation. At DUS, CBs were defined as ovoid solid structures in the
      inferomedial aspect of the bifurcation. RESULTS: CBs were identified in 12 of 13
      patients (23/26 sides) using CTA and in 11 of 13 patients (18/26 sides) using
      DUS. Identification of CB with DUS and CTA correlated in 17 of 18 cases; in one
      instance, CB was identified with DUS but not CTA. There was no statistically
      significant difference in size and volume of CB measured by both methods.
      CONCLUSION: Noncarcinogenic CBs can be visualized using DUS, with good
      correlation of size and location compared with CTA. The findings show that DUS
      can be reliably used to further examine the role of CBs in cardiovascular
      disorders and can be used in conjunction with therapies that target CBs.

PMID- 28871808
TI  - Sex Differences in Radiologist Salary in U.S. Public Medical Schools.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate salary differences between
      male and female academic radiologists at U.S. medical schools. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Laws in several U.S. states mandate public release of government
      records, including salary information of state employees. From online salary data
      published by 12 states, we extracted the salaries of all academic radiologists at
      24 public medical schools during 2011-2013 (n = 573 radiologists). In this
      institutional review board-approved cross-sectional study, we linked these data
      to a physician database with information on physician sex, age, faculty rank,
      years since residency, clinical trial involvement, National Institutes of Health
      (NIH) funding, scientific publications, and clinical volume measured by 2013
      Medicare payments. Sex difference in salary, the primary outcome, was estimated
      using a multilevel logistic regression adjusting for these factors. RESULTS:
      Among 573 academic radiologists, 171 (29.8%) were women. Female radiologists were
      younger (48.5 vs 51.6 years, p = 0.001) and more likely to be assistant
      professors (50.9% [87/171] vs 40.8% [164/402], p = 0.026). Salaries between men
      and women were similar in unadjusted analyses ($290,660 vs $289,797; absolute
      difference, $863; 95% CI, -$18,363 to $20,090), and remained so after adjusting
      for age, faculty rank, years since residency, clinical trial involvement,
      publications, total Medicare payments, NIH funding, and graduation from a highly
      ranked medical school. CONCLUSION: Among academic radiologists employed at 24
      U.S. public medical schools, male and female radiologists had similar annual
      salaries both before and after adjusting for several variables known to influence
      salary among academic physicians.

PMID- 28871809
TI  - Iodine Concentration in Spectral CT: Assessment of Prognostic Determinants in
      Patients With Gastric Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to use virtual monochromatic spectral CT
      to investigate the usefulness of iodine concentration (IC) and its correlation
      with clinicopathologically determined prognostic factors in gastric
      adenocarcinoma. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: From June 2012 to March 2015, 34 patients
      with gastric adenocarcinoma underwent arterial and portal venous phase spectral
      CT. The ICs in the arterial and portal venous phases were calculated and then
      normalized with the aorta as normalized IC (NIC). The surgical specimen was
      evaluated with CD34 staining to determine microvessel density (MVD). The
      correlation between imaging results and clinicopathologic findings was
      investigated for histologic grading, lymph node metastasis, serosal involvement,
      distant metastasis, pathologic TNM stage, and MVD. RESULTS: The mean arterial
      phase NIC value of tumors was 0.12 +/- 0.03, portal venous phase NIC value was
      0.39 +/- 0.06, and MVD was 26.94 +/- 7.87 vessels per high-power field (*400).
      Both arterial phase and portal venous phase NIC values were significantly higher
      in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas (p = 0.005) than in moderately
      differentiated tumors (p = 0.013). There was no significant correlation between
      NIC and serosal involvement or distant metastasis. There was significant
      correlation between the NIC and MVD in gastric adenocarcinoma (arterial phase
      NIC, p = 0.013; portal venous phase NIC, p = 0.001). However, neither the
      arterial nor the portal venous phase NIC of gastric adenocarcinoma had a
      significant relation to lymphatic metastasis or pathologic TNM stage. There was a
      significant difference between the high and low MVD groups with respect to portal
      venous phase NIC (p = 0.045). CONCLUSION: NIC can serve as a useful predictor of
      angiogenesis and degree of differentiation of moderately and poorly
      differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas.

PMID- 28871810
TI  - Mammography Positioning Standards in the Digital Era: Is the Status Quo
      Acceptable?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to evaluate positioning of full-field
      digital mammography (FFDM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) compared with
      film-screen (FS) mammography positioning standards. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective study was conducted of consecutive patients who underwent screening
      FFDM in 2010-2012 and DBT in 2012-2013 at an academic institution. Examinations
      were performed by five experienced technologists who underwent updated
      standardized positioning training. Positioning criteria were assessed by
      consensus reads among three breast radiologists and compared with FS mammography
      data from a 1993 study by Bassett and colleagues. RESULTS: One hundred seventy
      patients (n = 340 examinations) were analyzed, showing significant differences
      between FFDM and DBT examinations (p < 0.05) for medial or inferior skin folds
      (FFDM vs DBT: craniocaudal [CC] view, 16% [n = 56] vs 23% [n = 77]; mediolateral
      oblique [MLO] view, 35% [n = 118] vs 45% [n = 154]), inclusion of lateral
      glandular tissue on CC view (FFDM vs DBT, 73% [n = 247] vs 81% [n = 274]), and
      concave pectoralis muscle shape (FFDM vs DBT, 36% [n = 121] vs 28% [n = 95]). In
      comparison with Bassett et al. data, all positioning criteria for both FFDM and
      DBT examinations were significantly different (p < 0.05). The largest differences
      were found in visualization of the pectoralis muscle on CC views and the
      inframammary fold on MLO views, inclusion of posterior or lateral glandular
      tissue, and inclusion of skin folds, with DBT and FFDM more frequently exhibiting
      all criteria than originally reported Bassett et al. FINDINGS:  CONCLUSION: DBT
      and FFDM mammograms more frequently include posterior or lateral tissue, the
      inframammary fold on MLO views, the pectoralis muscle on CC views, and skin folds
      than FS mammograms. Inclusion of more breast tissue with newer technologies
      suggests traditional positioning standards, in conjunction with updated
      standardized positioning training, are still applicable at the expense of
      including more skin folds.

PMID- 28871811
TI  - Imaging of Uncommon Causes of Large-Bowel Obstruction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The most common causes of large-bowel obstruction (LBO) are colon
      carcinoma and volvulus. Nevertheless, the increased frequency of the condition
      and widespread use of diagnostic imaging have revealed uncommon causes of LBO. We
      review the imaging features of the unusual causes of LBO on several imaging
      modalities, with particular emphasis on CT, along with the current literature.
      CONCLUSION: We propose an algorithmic approach to the radiologic evaluation of
      the uncommon causes of LBO.

PMID- 28871812
TI  - 'This is killing me inside': The impact of having a parent with young-onset
      dementia.
AB  - This study explored the experience of young adults having a parent with young
      onset dementia. In-depth interviews were undertaken with five participants aged
      between 23 and 36 years of age and these were analysed using interpretative
      phenomenological analysis. Participants were found to experience a number of
      stresses in relation to their parent's illness, many of which were linked to loss
      and guilt. Five main themes were identified related to relationship changes,
      shifts in roles and responsibilities, support for the non-affected parent,
      support for self and the impact of living with their own potential risk of
      dementia. These findings are discussed in relation to the existing literature and
      suggest that individuals with a parent with young-onset dementia have needs which
      service providers should consider in the wider context of young-onset dementia
      care.

PMID- 28871813
TI  - Unspecified intestinal malabsorption in patients treated with angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers: a retrospective
      analysis in primary care settings.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possible relationship between the use of
      Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) or Angiotensin-Converting-Enzyme
      Inhibitors (ACE-i) and unspecified intestinal malabsorption (IM) within the
      Italian and German real-life context. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: a
      retrospective cohort of patients with a new unspecified IM diagnosis during the
      period 1 January 2010-31 December 2013 was extracted from Italian IMS Health
      Longitudinal Patient Database and German IMS Disease Analyzer. Only patients with
      at least one prescription of ARB or ACE-i medication during the 6 months
      preceding the IM diagnosis were included and then followed up for 12 months to
      assess treatment exposure. RESULTS: After stratification by year and molecule,
      the proportion of patients experiencing an unspecified IM diagnosis on total
      patients receiving ARBs or ACE-i ranged from 0% to 0.14%, showing no relevant
      differences between molecules and no time trends. CONCLUSIONS: this study
      indicates that ACE-i or ARBs were rarely associated to an unspecified IM
      diagnosis. No relevant difference between each specific ACE-i and ARB was
      highlighted.

PMID- 28871814
TI  - Osseous changes in patients with medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaws.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is a severe side
      effect of antiresorptive agents. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      osseous changes in patients with MRONJ. METHODS: Cone beam CT (CBCT) images of 25
      patients with MRONJ and controls were retrospectively evaluated. Buccal, lingual,
      apical cortical bone thicknesses; buccal, lingual, apical intracortical and
      cancellous bone density; diameter of mental foramen and incisive canal, and width
      of mental foramen were measured. RESULTS: Buccal and apical cortical bone
      thicknesses were increased; however intracortical radiodensity values decreased
      in the Study Group when compared with the Control Group (p = 0.007, p = 0.001).
      Narrowing of incisive canal was observed in patients with MRONJ (p = 0.000).
      CONCLUSIONS: Clinician should have awareness about narrowing of incisive canal,
      apical and buccal cortical bone thickening, decreasing in cancellous bone
      radiodensity, and the lingual cortex destruction in patients with MRONJ.

PMID- 28871815
TI  - Pharmacogenetics of aldo-keto reductase 1C (AKR1C) enzymes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Genetic variation in metabolizing enzymes contributes to variable
      drug response and disease risk. Aldo-keto reductase type 1C (AKR1C) comprises a
      sub-family of reductase enzymes that play critical roles in the biotransformation
      of various drug substrates and endogenous compounds such as steroids. Several
      single nucleotide polymorphisms have been reported among AKR1C encoding genes,
      which may affect the functional expression of the enzymes. Areas covered: This
      review highlights and comprehensively discusses previous pharmacogenetic reports
      that have examined genetic variations in AKR1C and their association with disease
      development, drug disposition, and therapeutic outcomes. The article also
      provides information about the effect of AKR1C genetic variants on enzyme
      function in vitro. Expert opinion: The current evidence that links the effect of
      AKR1C gene polymorphisms to disease progression and development is inconsistent
      and needs further validation, despite of the tremendous knowledge available.
      Information about association of AKR1C genetic variants and drug efficacy,
      safety, and pharmacokinetics is limited, thus, future studies that advance our
      understanding about these relationships and their clinical relevance are needed.
      It is imperative to achieve consistent findings before the potential translation
      and adoption of AKR1C genetic variants in clinical practice.

PMID- 28871816
TI  - Comparative pharmacokinetics study of five alkaloids in rat plasma and related
      compound-herb interactions mechanism after oral administration of Shuanghua Baihe
      tablets.
AB  - Shuanghua Baihe tablet is a traditional Chinese patent medicine which showed
      special advantages in the treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis. Scientists
      have improved and implemented the LC-MS/MS method, which is specific and
      sensitive, for comparative pharmacokinetics study of five alkaloids, including
      palmatine, berberine, epiberberine, jatrorrhizine and coptisine in rat plasma
      after oral administration of Rhizoma Coptidis extract and Shuanghua Baihe
      tablets. The results showed that Shuanghua Baihe tablets could promote the
      absorption of these five alkaloids and improved their bioavailability compared
      with R. Coptidis extract. To further investigate the related mechanism, everted
      intestinal sac model in vitro was used to indicate that alteration of in vivo
      pharmacokinetics of five alkaloids could be attributed to, at least in part, the
      absorption changes by coadministration of other herbs. These discoveries served
      as a theoretical basis for clinical use of Shuanghua Baihe tables.

PMID- 28871817
TI  - Cytotoxicity, In vitro anti-Leishmanial and fingerprint HPLC- photodiode array
      analysis of the roots of Trillium govanianum.
AB  - Trillium govanianum Wall. ex D. Don (Melanthiaceae alt. Trilliaceae), commonly
      known as 'nagchhatry' or 'teen patra', distributed from Pakistan to Bhutan about
      2500-3800 m altitude is indigenous to Himalayas region. In folk medicine the
      plant has been reported for the treatment of wound healing, sepsis and in various
      sexual disorders. This paper reports, for the first time, to evaluate the
      cytotoxicity, in vitro anti-leishmanial (promastigotes) and fingerprint HPLC
      photodiode array analysis of the MeOH extract of the roots of T. govanianum and
      its solid phase extraction fractions. Reverse phase HPLC-PDA based quantification
      revealed the presence of significant amount of quercetin, myrecetin and kaemferol
      ranging from 0.221to 0.528 MUg/mg DW. MeOH extract revealed distinguishable
      protein kinase inhibitory activity against Streptomyces 85E strain with 18 mm
      bald phenotype. The remarkable toxicity profile against brine shrimps and
      leishmanial was manifested by MeOH extract with LC50 10 and 38.5 MUg/mL,
      respectively.

PMID- 28871818
TI  - Optimisation of extraction conditions for total saponins from Cynanchum wallichii
      using response surface methodology and its anti-tumour effects.
AB  - Cynanchum wallichii Wight, is a traditional Chinese medicine herb, which is rich
      in saponins and has varieties of pharmacological activities. In this study, a
      standardized C. wallichii extract was established and the anti-tumor activity of
      the total saponins was evaluated by MTT assay. The extraction conditions of the
      standardized extract was optimized using response surface methodology. The
      experimental value was in good agreement (the yield 4.28%) with predicted values.
      The total saponins of the extract showed significant anti-tumor activity against
      three human tumor cell lines (A549, HepG2 and MCF-7), especially for MCF-7 (IC50.
      67.63 MUg/mL) cells in vitro.

PMID- 28871819
TI  - Cyanide poisoning in Thailand before and after establishment of the National
      Antidote Project.
AB  - CONTEXT: Antidote shortage is a global problem. In Thailand, the National
      Antidote Project (NAP) has operated since November 2010 to manage the national
      antidote stockpile, educate the healthcare providers on appropriate antidote use,
      and evaluate antidote usage. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of NAP
      implementation on mortality rate and antidote use in cyanide poisoning cases
      arising from ingestion of cyanide or cyanogenic glycoside. METHODS: This is a
      retrospective cohort of poisoning cases involving cyanide or cyanogenic glycoside
      ingestion reported to Ramathibodi Poison Center from 1 January 2007 to 31
      December 2015. Mortality rate, antidote use, and appropriateness of antidote use
      (defined as correct indication, proper dosing regimen, and administration within
      90 min) before and after NAP implementation were compared. Association between
      parameters and fatal outcomes was analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 343 cases
      involving cyanide or cyanogenic glycoside ingestion were reported to Ramathibodi
      Poison Center. There were 213 cases (62.1%) during NAP (Project group) and 130
      cases (37.9%) pre-NAP implementation (Before group). Implementation of NAP led to
      increased antidote use (39.9% in Project group versus 24.6% in Before group) and
      a higher rate of appropriate antidote use (74.1% in Project group versus 50.0% in
      Before group). All 30 deaths were presented with initial severe symptoms. Cyanide
      chemical source and self-harm intent were associated with death (OR: 12.919, 95%
      CI: 4.863-39.761 and OR: 10.747, 95% CI: 3.884-28.514, respectively). No
      difference in overall mortality rate (13 [10.0%] deaths before versus 17 [8.0%]
      deaths after NAP) was found. In subgroup analysis of 80 cases with initial severe
      symptoms, NAP and appropriate antidote use reduced mortality (OR: 0.327, 95% CI:
      0.106-0.997 and OR: 0.024, 95% CI: 0.004-0.122, respectively). In the
      multivariate analysis of the cases with initial severe symptoms, presence of the
      NAP and appropriate antidote use independently reduced the risk of death (OR:
      0.122, 95% CI: 0.023-0.633 and OR: 0.034, 95% CI: 0.007-0.167, respectively),
      adjusted for intent of exposure, cyanide source, age, and sex. CONCLUSIONS: After
      NAP implementation, both antidote use and appropriate antidote use increased. In
      cases presenting with severe symptoms, presence of the NAP and appropriate
      antidote use independently reduced the risk of mortality.

PMID- 28871821
TI  - Centruroides sculpturatus envenomation in three adult patients requiring
      treatment with antivenom.
AB  - CONTEXT: Envenomation by Centruroides sculpturatus can manifest with cranial
      nerve dysfunction and neuromuscular hyperactivity. While these symptoms are most
      commonly seen in young children, they may also be seen in adults. CASE DETAILS:
      Three cases of adult patients are presented with grades III & IV scorpion
      envenomation. They reported symptoms including disconjugate, roving eye
      movements, and motor involvement. Also reported were hyposmia, difficulty with
      fine motor movements, and dysgeusia. All were first treated with benzodiazepines
      with little to no effect. They then received a three vial antivenom bolus with
      resolution of severe symptoms within 30-60 min. DISCUSSION: Severe Centruroides
      envenomation can occur in adults as well as children. These three cases
      demonstrate the usefulness, safety, and effectiveness of antivenom therapy to
      quickly relieve symptoms in adult patients with grades III & IV envenomations.

PMID- 28871820
TI  - Acute heart failure presentations and outcomes during the fasting month of
      Ramadan: an observational report from seven Middle Eastern countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fasting during the month of Ramadan is practiced by over 1.5 billion
      Muslims worldwide. It remains unclear, however, how this change in lifestyle
      affects heart failure, a condition that has reached epidemic dimensions. This
      study examined the effects of fasting in patients with acute heart failure (AHF)
      using data from a large multi-center heart failure registry. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Data were derived from Gulf CARE (Gulf aCute heArt failuRe rEgistry), a
      prospective multi-center study of consecutive patients hospitalized with AHF
      during February-November 2012. The study included 4,157 patients, of which 306
      (7.4%) were hospitalized with AHF in the fasting month of Ramadan, while 3,851
      patients (92.6%) were hospitalized in other days. Clinical characteristics,
      precipitating factors, management, and outcome were compared among the two
      groups. Patients admitted during Ramadan had significantly lower prevalence of
      symptoms and signs of volume overload compared to patients hospitalized in other
      months. Atrial arrhythmias were significantly less frequent and cholesterol
      levels were significantly lower in Ramadan. Hospitalization in Ramadan was not
      independently associated with increased immediate or 1-year mortality.
      CONCLUSIONS: The current study represents the largest evaluation of the effects
      of fasting on AHF. It reports an improved volume status in fasting patients.
      There were also favorable effects on atrial arrhythmia and total cholesterol and
      no effects on immediate or long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28871824
TI  - Abstracts for the 11th International Neural Transplantation and Repair Meeting
      Held in Conjunction with the 18th Annual Meeting of the American Society for
      Neural Therapy and Repair.

PMID- 28871823
TI  - Characterization of polysaccharides purified from Lacquer tree seed cakes and its
      antioxidant activity.
AB  - Three polysaccharides, LTPS-1, LTPS-21 and LTPS-31 were isolated and purified
      from the seed cakes of lacquer tree using DEAE-52 cellulose and Sephadex G-200
      column chromatography. The total sugar contents of LTPS-1, LTPS-21 and LTPS-31
      were 931.8, 958.2 and 895.1 g kg-1, respectively. LTPS-1 (3.48 kDa) was mainly
      composed of rhamnose, arabinose, glucose and galactose in a ratio of
      35.36:5.06:1:2. LTPS-21 (11.4 kDa) was mainly composed of rhamnose, arabinose,
      mannose and galactose in a ratio of 41.93:21.8:1.01:9.24. LTPS-31 (19.49 kDa) was
      mainly composed of rhamnose, arabinose and mannose in a ratio of 38.31:16.44:1.1.
      IR analysis suggested they contained lower sulphuric acids, the LTPS-21 and LTPS
      31 belonged to beta-type polysaccharide. Among the three polysaccharides, LTPS-21
      exhibited the strongest reducing power, scavenging activity on ABTS and hydroxyl
      radicals. These findings suggested that polysaccharides from the seed cakes could
      be potentially developed as natural functional ingredients in the food and
      cosmetic industry.

PMID- 28871825
TI  - The effects of ex vivo ozone treatment on human erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase
      enzyme.
AB  - Ozone autohemotherapy is used in the treatment of some diseases. Carbonic
      anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1) are metalloenzymes and play a role in homeostatic
      mechanisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ozone on
      human red blood cell CA (hCA) enzyme activity. Blood samples were treated with
      different doses of ozone (10, 20, 30 ug/ml) and the erythrocyte total CA
      activities were determined. Also, purified hCAI and hCAII isozymes were treated
      with the same doses of ozone and the enzyme activities were measured. About 30
      ug/ml ozone treatment decreased the purified hCAI and hCAII activity and
      increased the total CA activity compared to the control. Because the implication
      of CAs on many physiological and biochemical processes is linked to pathologies,
      it can be suggested that the ozone at a concentration of 30 ug/ml is safely used
      by autohaemotherapy in a well-designed clinical trial.

PMID- 28871826
TI  - Baicalin induces apoptosis in human osteosarcoma cell through ROS-mediated
      mitochondrial pathway.
AB  - Baicalin is extracted from a traditional Chinese herb, Scutellaria baicalensis.
      In this study, the anticancer activity and underlying mechanisms of baicalin
      towards human osteosarcoma cell (HOS) were investigated. Baicalin could inhibit
      HOS cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner. Mitochondrial
      membrane potential decreased obviously after treated with different concentration
      of baicalin by flow cytometry assay and revealed that baicalin triggered a
      significant generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Western blotting assay
      further revealed that baicalin-induced cell apoptosis by suppressing Bcl-2 level,
      then activating caspase-9 and caspase-3. In vivo experiment, baicalin
      significantly suppressed tumour growth in female BALB/C nude mice bearing HOS
      tumours. In addition, baicalin did show toxicity to treated animal by comparing
      the body weight increase and mortality. In general, the present results
      demonstrated that baicalin-induced apoptosis in human osteosarcoma cell via a ROS
      mediated mitochondrial pathway. The paper indicated that baicalin is a promising
      candidate for the treatment of HOS.

PMID- 28871827
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of antitumour activity in vitro and in vivo of chrysin
      salicylate derivatives.
AB  - A series of chrysin salicylate derivatives as potential antitumour agents were
      synthesised and evaluated their antitumour activities in vitro and in vivo. Most
      of the compounds exhibited moderate to good activities against MCF-7 cells, HepG2
      cells, MGC-803cells and MFC cells. Among them, compound 3f showed the most potent
      activity against MGC-803 cells and MFC cells with IC50 values of 23.83 +/- 3.68
      and 27.34 +/- 5.21 MUM, respectively. The flow cytometry assay reconfirmed that
      compound 3f promoted the occurrence of tumour cells' G1/S block under the
      inhibiting effect of compound 3f. Compound 3f possessed higher antitumour
      efficacy in tumour-bearing mice, compared with the positive control 5-Fu and the
      blank control saline.

PMID- 28871828
TI  - Eating behaviors and emotional distress are predicted by treatment and adverse
      outcome in patients with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - Depression and anxiety are hightly prevalent among patients with Type 2 Diabetes
      (T2D), however not commonly related to outcomes, treatment and comorbidities.
      Eating behaviors could also have an implication. To evaluate the relation between
      mood and eating behaviors with demographic, physical, treatment, biochemical
      profiles and chronic comorbidities in T2D we conducted this exploratory cross
      sectional study in a population from Mexico. Hospital Anxiety and Depression
      Scale and the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire Revised 21 (TFEQ-R21) were
      correlated with age, gender, blood pressure, treatment and comorbidities
      (nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy and cardiopathy). Multi-linear regression
      models and 2k factorial analyses were conducted. Sixty-one patients (31 male) 55
      years old (SD 13) with at least 5 years of T2D were included. Anxiety correlated
      with depression (r = 0.25, p < 0.05). Gender (women) (std B 0.026, p < 0.001),
      insulin therapy (std B 0.3, p = 0.11), systolic blood pressure (std B 0.263, p =
      0.02) and cardiovascular disease (std B 0.232, p = 0.035) predicted depression.
      Insulin therapy had a positive effect in cognitive restraint. (std B 0.32, p =
      0.001). Age (std B 0.37, p = 0.003) and systolic blood pressure (std B 0.237, p =
      0.048) predicted positively emotional eating (not previously published). 2k
      factorial analyses proved additive interaction between complications and insulin
      therapy with depression. This study supports the relation between mood disorders
      and eating behaviors with demographic, physical, treatment, biochemical profiles
      and chronic comorbidities in T2D and the additive interaction between factors and
      mood disorders.

PMID- 28871829
TI  - Effects of high hydrostatic pressure on the functional and rheological properties
      of the protein fraction extracted from pine nuts.
AB  - High hydrostatic pressure treatments could increase the protein solubility (200
      MPa), water holding capacity (400 MPa), and oil holding capacity (400 MPa) of
      pine nuts protein fractions, respectively. The exposed sufhydryl content for
      albumin was highest at 100 MPa while for other fractions it was 400 MPa, contrary
      for total sufhydryl content-generally it was at 100 MPa, except glutelin (400
      MPa). Pine nuts protein fractions demonstrated the typical behavior of weak gels
      (G' > G"). After the treatments of high hydrostatic pressure the specific surface
      area of pine nuts protein particle was increased upon pressure, and the surface
      of protein became rough which increased the particle size. The functional groups
      of protein were found to be unchanged, but the characteristic peaks of pine nuts
      protein moved to a low-band displacement and the value of peaks was amplified
      accordingly to the pressure. The high hydrostatic pressure treatments were found
      to improve the functional properties of pine nuts protein isolates by enhancing
      the heat-induced gel strength of pine nuts protein isolates which make proteins
      more stretchable. These results suggest that high hydrostatic pressure treatments
      can increase the functional properties and alter the rheological properties of
      pine nuts protein fractions which will broaden its applications in food industry.

PMID- 28871831
TI  - Identification of some novel xanthine-based derivatives with bronchodilator
      activity.
AB  - AIM: The discovery of new bronchodilators with higher efficacy than theophylline
      is an important issue for asthmatic patients. MATERIALS & METHODS: Theophylline
      2, 8-bromotheophylline 4 and theobromine 6 were reacted with different 2/3-chloro
      N-phenylacetamides 1a-d or their propanamide analogs 1e-g to obtain 3a-g, 5a-g
      and 7a-g, respectively. The target compounds were screened for their in vitro
      bronchodilator activity using isolated guinea pig tracheal rings precontracted
      with histamine and compared with their precursors. RESULTS: Many compounds
      exhibited promising activity especially 3d, 3f, 5d, 7d and 7e. 2D-QSAR study
      resulted in a significant model (N = 24, n = 5, R 2 = 0.848, R 2cvOO = 0.748, R
      2cvMO = 0.745, F = 21.215, s 2 = 0.0002) using CODESSA-Pro software. CONCLUSION:
      These compounds can be considered as promising hits for potent bronchodilators
      that may be useful for further investigations. [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28871830
TI  - Comparison of panoramic radiography and cone beam CT in the assessment of juxta
      apical radiolucency.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the performance of panoramic radiography (PAN) and cone
      beam CT (CBCT) in the detection of juxta-apical radiolucency (JAR), as well as to
      investigate, in CBCT images, if there are factors associated with the detection
      of JAR on PAN. METHODS: Two oral radiologists assessed the presence of JAR in PAN
      and CBCT images of 175 individuals (308 mandibular third molars). The cortical
      plates involvement and the JAR size and location were assessed on CBCT to
      evaluate if these factors were related to JAR detection on PAN. McNemar's test
      and multiple logistic regression were performed. RESULTS: PAN and CBCT differed
      significantly in the detection of JAR (p = 0.001). On PAN, JAR was identified on
      24% of the patients while on CBCT its detection increased to 32.6%. JAR was
      detected only on CBCT and only on PAN in 26 and 7 cases, respectively.
      Distal/mesial surfaces of dental roots were where JAR was mostly located (84.5%),
      cortical thinning was found in 59.2% of cases and the mean (SD) of JAR size was
      5.03 (+/-1.8) mm. However, these factors were not associated with JAR detection
      on PAN (p > 0.05). On the other hand, the location of the cortical involvement
      (if buccal or lingual) was associated with JAR detection on PAN, which was more
      detectable when the thinning was on buccal cortical. CONCLUSIONS: Juxta-apical
      radiolucency is more often detected on CBCT than on PAN. JAR detection on PAN was
      improved when it was related to the buccal cortical plate of the mandible.

PMID- 28871833
TI  - Facing Death in Medical Training: A View From Students in Mexico.
AB  - This study explores how medical students feel about caring for terminally ill
      patients as well as how their medical courses prepare them for addressing end-of
      life (EOL) issues with patients. Four hundred and five Mexican medical students
      were surveyed through the Student Views on Death questionnaire. The vast majority
      of students (94%) felt that physicians should inform patients of their impending
      death. Most students said they felt comfortable talking with (61%) or examining
      (76%) terminally ill patients. However, only half the students actually talked
      with patients about death. Participants in our study were interested in learning
      about EOL medical attention, yet most considered themselves poorly prepared to
      offer this type of care to terminally ill patients. The study provides objective
      data on a topic that has scarcely been explored in Mexico, data that will be
      useful in designing educational activities to improve EOL medical training.

PMID- 28871832
TI  - Adding Fish Oil to Whey Protein, Leucine, and Carbohydrate Over a Six-Week
      Supplementation Period Attenuates Muscle Soreness Following Eccentric Exercise in
      Competitive Soccer Players.
AB  - Soccer players often experience eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage given
      the physical demands of soccer match-play. Since long chain n-3 polyunsaturated
      fatty acids (n-3PUFA) enhance muscle sensitivity to protein supplementation,
      dietary supplementation with a combination of fish oil-derived n-3PUFA, protein,
      and carbohydrate may promote exercise recovery. This study examined the influence
      of adding n-3PUFA to a whey protein, leucine, and carbohydrate containing
      beverage over a six-week supplementation period on physiological markers of
      recovery measured over three days following eccentric exercise. Competitive
      soccer players were assigned to one of three conditions (2 * 200 mL): a fish oil
      supplement beverage (FO; n = 10) that contained n-3PUFA (1100 mg DHA/EPA
      approximately 550 mg DHA, 550 mg EPA), whey protein (15 g), leucine (1.8 g), and
      carbohydrate (20 g); a protein supplement beverage (PRO; n = 10) that contained
      whey protein (15 g), leucine (1.8 g), and carbohydrate (20 g); and a carbohydrate
      supplement beverage (CHO; n = 10) that contained carbohydrate (24 g). Eccentric
      exercise consisted of unilateral knee extension/flexion contractions on both legs
      separately. Maximal force production was impaired by 22% during the 72-hour
      recovery period following eccentric exercise (p < 0.05). Muscle soreness,
      expressed as area under the curve (AUC) during 72-hour recovery, was less in FO
      (1948 +/- 1091 mm * 72 h) than PRO (4640 +/- 2654 mm * 72 h, p < 0.05) and CHO
      (4495 +/- 1853 mm * 72 h, p = 0.10). Blood concentrations of creatine kinase,
      expressed as AUC, were ~60% lower in FO compared to CHO (p < 0.05) and tended to
      be lower (~39%, p = 0.07) than PRO. No differences in muscle function, soccer
      performance, or blood c-reactive protein concentrations were observed between
      groups. In conclusion, the addition of n-3PUFA to a beverage containing whey
      protein, leucine, and carbohydrate ameliorates the increase in muscle soreness
      and blood concentrations of creatine kinase following eccentric exercise in
      competitive soccer players.

PMID- 28871834
TI  - Changing Attitudes Toward Euthanasia and Suicide for Terminally Ill Persons, 1977
      to 2016: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis.
AB  - Several longitudinal studies show that over time the American public has become
      more approving of euthanasia and suicide for terminally ill persons. Yet, these
      previous findings are limited because they derive from biased estimates of
      disaggregated hierarchical data. Using insights from life course sociological
      theory and cross-classified logistic regression models, I better account for this
      liberalization process by disentangling the age, period, and cohort effects that
      contribute to longitudinal changes in these attitudes. The results of the
      analysis point toward a continued liberalization of both attitudes over time,
      although the magnitude of change was greater for suicide compared with
      euthanasia. More fluctuation in the probability of supporting both measures was
      exhibited for the age and period effects over the cohort effects. In addition,
      age-based differences in supporting both measures were found between men and
      women and various religious affiliations.

PMID- 28871835
TI  - Peer Support Services for Bereaved Survivors: A Systematic Review.
AB  - This systematic literature review assesses the evidence regarding benefits of
      peer support services for bereaved survivors of sudden or unexpected death.
      Reports were included that addressed peer support services for adults who
      experienced death of a family member, close friend, or coworker. Of the 32
      studies meeting all inclusion criteria, most showed evidence that peer support
      was helpful to bereaved survivors, reducing grief symptoms and increasing well
      being and personal growth. Studies also showed benefits to providers of peer
      support, including increased personal growth and positive meaning in life.
      Several studies addressed the growing trend of Internet-based peer support
      programs, finding that these are beneficial in part due to their easy
      accessibility. Peer support appears to be especially valuable for survivors of
      suicide loss, a result that may be related to stigma and lack of support from
      family and friends experienced by many suicide survivors. The reviewed studies
      provide consistent evidence that peer support is beneficial to bereaved
      survivors.

PMID- 28871836
TI  - Vocal Fold Immobility due to Birth Trauma: A Systematic Review and Pooled
      Analysis.
AB  - Objectives To describe the present understanding of birth trauma-related vocal
      fold immobility and quantitatively compare it with idiopathic congenital vocal
      fold immobility to explore whether it is a discrete entity. Data Sources PubMed,
      Ovid, and Cochrane databases. Review Methods English-language, observational, or
      experimental studies involving infants with idiopathic congenital or birth trauma
      related vocal fold immobility were included. Data from these studies were pooled
      with our institution's vocal fold immobility database, with the resultant
      idiopathic congenital and birth trauma cohorts compared regarding patterns and
      outcomes of immobility. Results The search returned 288 articles, with 24 meeting
      inclusion criteria. Of studies reviewing all-cause immobility, 8 of 9 (88.9%)
      identified birth trauma as an etiology, although birth trauma definitions and
      proposed mechanisms of immobility varied. The study subjects, combined with our
      institution's database, yielded 188 idiopathic congenital and 113 birth trauma
      cases. Compared with idiopathic congenital cases, birth trauma cases had a higher
      proportion of unilateral immobility (72 of 113 [63.7%] vs 52 of 188 [27.7%], P <
      .001) and rate of resolution (41 of 51 [80.4%] vs 91 of 159 [57.2%], P = .003).
      Resolution occurred in 24 of 26 (91.3%) unilateral and 17 of 25 (68.0%) bilateral
      birth trauma cases and in 30 of 40 (75.0%) unilateral and 59 of 109 (54.1%)
      bilateral idiopathic congenital cases ( P = .11 and .20, respectively).
      Conclusion While the definition and mechanism of birth trauma-related vocal fold
      immobility warrant further investigation, these findings suggest that it is
      distinct from idiopathic congenital vocal fold immobility, with a unique
      presentation and potentially more favorable outcomes. This can inform counseling
      and management for infants with otherwise unexplained immobility but known birth
      trauma.

PMID- 28871837
TI  - Sweat Sodium Concentration: Inter-Unit Variability of a Low Cost, Portable, and
      Battery Operated Sodium Analyzer.
AB  - The B-722 Laqua Twin is a low cost, portable, and battery operated sodium
      analyzer, which can be used for the assessment of sweat sodium concentration. The
      Laqua Twin is reliable and provides a degree of accuracy similar to more
      expensive analyzers; however, its interunit measurement error remains unknown.
      The purpose of this study was to compare the sodium concentration values of 70
      sweat samples measured using three different Laqua Twin units. Mean absolute
      errors, random errors and constant errors among the different Laqua Twins ranged
      respectively between 1.7 mmol/L to 3.5 mmol/L, 2.5 mmol/L to 3.7 mmol/L and -0.6
      mmol/L to 3.9 mmol/L. Proportional errors among Laqua Twins were all < 2%. Based
      on a within-subject biological variability in sweat sodium concentration of +/-
      12%, the maximal allowable imprecision among instruments was considered to be L
      6%. In that respect, the within (2.9%), between (4.5%), and total (5.4%)
      measurement error coefficient of variations were all < 6%. For a given sweat
      sodium concentration value, the largest observed difference in mean and lower and
      upper bound error of measurements among instruments were, respectively, 4.7
      mmol/L, 2.3 mmol/L, and 7.0 mmol/L. In conclusion, our findings show that the
      interunit measurement error of the B-722 Laqua Twin is low and methodologically
      acceptable.

PMID- 28871838
TI  - Availability of Health-Related Programs in Private and Public Prisons.
AB  - Little is known about the resources available to protect inmates' health in
      private prisons compared to their public counterparts. This is the first national
      level study that exclusively examined the availability of health-related programs
      in private and public prisons in the United States. We applied propensity score
      weighting and doubly robust estimation to compare private prisons to comparable
      public prisons. Data were self-reported by prison administrators as part of the
      2005 Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities. We found that
      private prisons offered fewer substance dependency, psychological/psychiatric,
      and HIV/AIDS-related programs. But the differences were progressively reduced
      when the comparison was limited to public prisons most similar on a variety of
      facility-level characteristics. The extent to which the two types of prisons
      differ is closely tied to the characteristics of the facilities that are
      compared.

PMID- 28871839
TI  - Association between Asthma and Chronic Rhinosinusitis Severity in the Context of
      Asthma Control.
AB  - Objective Comorbid asthma is associated with decreased quality of life (QOL) in
      chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). It is unclear whether this association is
      independent of the patients' clinical asthma status. We therefore sought to
      determine if asthma is associated with lower QOL in CRS, independent of asthma
      control. Study Design Cross-sectional cohort study of 350 patients with CRS.
      Setting Tertiary academic rhinology clinic. Subjects and Methods In total, 350
      participants with CRS were recruited and 28.3% were asthmatic. CRS-specific QOL
      was measured using the 22-item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22). Asthma control
      was assessed with the Asthma Control Test (ACT). General health-related QOL was
      assessed with the EuroQoL 5-dimensional general health-related quality of life
      survey visual analog scale (EQ-5D VAS). Associations were sought between SNOT-22
      and EQ-5D VAS (dependent variables) and asthma (independent variable), while
      controlling for ACT. ACT score for patients with CRS without asthma was set at 25
      (indicating completely controlled, asymptomatic asthma). Results Comorbid asthma
      was associated with SNOT-22 (beta = 11.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.2-17.3;
      P < .001) and EQ-5D VAS (beta = -6.2; 95% CI, -11.2 to -1.3; P = .014). After
      controlling for ACT, asthma was no longer associated with SNOT-22 ( P = .147) or
      EQ-5D VAS ( P = .994). Instead, ACT score was associated with SNOT-22 (beta = 
      2.1; 95% CI, -3.2 to -1.1; P < .001) and EQ-5D VAS (beta = 2.1; 95% CI, 1.1 to
      3.0; P < .001). ACT score completely drove the association between asthma and
      worse QOL. Conclusion Comorbid asthma is not necessarily reflective of decreased
      QOL in CRS. The association of comorbid asthma with lower QOL in CRS is related
      to the clinical status (eg, control) of asthma.

PMID- 28871840
TI  - Lingual Tonsillectomy for Pediatric Persistent Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Objective To determine the role of lingual tonsillectomy (LT) in pediatric
      patients with persistent obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) after tonsillectomy and
      adenoidectomy (T&A). Data Sources PubMed, OVID-MEDLINE, and Cochrane Central from
      2006 to 2017. Review Methods Inclusion criteria included English-language studies
      containing original data on LT in pediatric patients with persistent OSA.
      Exclusion criteria included case reports and studies without outcome measures.
      Two investigators independently reviewed all manuscripts and performed quality
      assessment using validated tools. Meta-analysis was performed. Results Of the 866
      abstracts identified, 5 studies met inclusion criteria. All studies were case
      series (level of evidence 4). Outcome measures included apnea-hypopnea index
      (AHI), minimum oxygen saturation (minSaO2), comorbidity status, and adverse
      events. Qualitatively, all studies demonstrated reduction in AHI and increase in
      minSaO2 after LT. Comorbidities may not affect the success of LT for lingual
      tonsil hypertrophy (LTH). LT had similar adverse event rates as T&A. Meta
      analysis was performed on 4 studies. LT showed a mean change in reduction of AHI
      and increase of minSaO2 of -6.64 (95% CI, -8.63 to -4.65) and 4.17 (95% CI, 1.25
      7.08), respectively. The overall success rate, defined as postoperative AHI <5,
      was 52%. Conclusion LT for LTH can be a safe and effective adjunct surgery for
      persistent OSA in patients after T&A. LT may reduce AHI and increase minSaO2,
      though complete resolution of OSA is rare. Given the limited number of patients
      studied, no formal recommendations can be made for the routine use of LT for LTH
      in persistent pediatric OSA.

PMID- 28871841
TI  - Men and suicide prevention: a scoping review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Male suicide rates are higher than their female counterparts in
      almost every country around the world. Several developed countries have attempted
      to implement suicide prevention programmes, but few have specifically targeted
      men. AIMS: To identify what is currently known about suicide prevention
      strategies, programmes, and interventions of relevance to men. METHOD: A scoping
      review guided by Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework. RESULTS: Twenty-two
      studies were included. Thematic analysis identified three categories: (i) male
      suicide prevention interventions; (ii) factors or coping strategies that
      interrupt the suicidal process in men; (iii) men's perspectives on service
      provision. Interventions included awareness campaigns; training of community
      "gatekeepers"; psychological support; and educational initiatives targeted to
      either GPs or depressed or suicidal men. Men emphasised the need to receive
      support from a trusted and respected individual, preferably in an informal
      setting. Connecting with others, reframing help-seeking as masculine, and the use
      of emotional regulation techniques were all identified as factors with potential
      to interrupt the suicidal process. CONCLUSIONS: This review demonstrates the need
      for further research examining the perspectives of suicidal middle-aged men and
      their close family and friends.

PMID- 28871842
TI  - Retraction of Complaints Among Female Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Living
      in Poverty in Nicaragua.
AB  - Retraction among female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) who report
      their abuser is a major problem in all societies. This article describes a study
      of 136 female victims of physical IPV living in poverty in Nicaragua, one of the
      countries with the lowest levels of development in Central America. This article
      analyses the aspects that differentiate women living in poverty who retracted
      after reporting IPV from those who did not. The results show that retraction is
      widespread among female victims of IPV living in poverty in Leon (Nicaragua).
      Although it is difficult to predict the retraction behaviour of the respondents,
      some differences between the women who retracted their complaint and those who
      did not were observed. A combination of five variables (including personal
      circumstances and beliefs about the intimate partner relationship and family) was
      the best alternative for discriminating between women who had retracted and those
      who had not.

PMID- 28871843
TI  - Immunotherapies for advanced melanoma: as promising as they are expensive?

PMID- 28871844
TI  - Management of Bleeding in Exclusive Endoscopic Ear Surgery: Pilot Clinical
      Experience.
AB  - Objective Transcanal exclusive endoscopic ear surgery requires the management of
      the endoscope and the surgical instruments in the external auditory canal.
      Bleeding in this narrow space is one of the most challenging issues, especially
      for novice endoscopic ear surgeons. We aim to assess the severity and occurrence
      of bleeding and describe strategies to control the bleeding during endoscopic ear
      surgery. We hypothesize that bleeding is reasonably controllable in endoscopic
      ear surgery. Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting Tertiary
      referral center. Subjects and Methods We retrospectively assessed 104 consecutive
      cases of exclusive endoscopic ear surgery at the University Hospital of Modena,
      Italy. The surgical videos and the patient charts were carefully investigated and
      analyzed. Results Hemostatic agents included injection of diluted epinephrine
      (1:200,000, 2% mepivacaine), cottonoids soaked with epinephrine (1:1000), mono-
      or bipolar cautery, washing with hydrogen peroxide, and self-suctioning
      instruments. The localization of bleeding in the external auditory canal was most
      frequently the posterior superior part, and inside of the middle ear, it was the
      pathology itself. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences comparing
      the mean arterial pressure and the type of intervention among bleeding scores.
      Conclusion The management of bleeding in endoscopic ear surgery is feasible
      through widely available hemostatic agents in reasonable frequency. This study
      gives an instructive overview on how to manage the bleeding in the exclusive
      endoscopic technique. Even the highest bleeding scores could be managed in an
      exclusively endoscopic technique.

PMID- 28871845
TI  - Accuracy of Parental Perception of Nighttime Breathing in Children with Down
      Syndrome.
AB  - Objective In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a guideline for
      children with Down syndrome (DS), recommending a polysomnogram (PSG) by age 4
      years regardless of symptoms. Their rationale was based on 2 publications with
      small cohorts, where at least 50% of the children had no obstructive sleep apnea
      (OSA) symptoms but their PSG results were abnormal. The American Academy of
      Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation published a clinical practice
      guideline recommending PSG prior to adenotonsillectomy for these children. This
      study aimed to assess parents' accuracy of their children's breathing patterns as
      compared with PSGs in a larger cohort of children with DS. Study Design Case
      series with chart review. Setting Tertiary care academic pediatric hospital.
      Subjects and Methods Sleep intake forms assessing frequency of parent-observed
      apnea, snoring, and restless sleep were analyzed. None of the children had a
      previous tonsillectomy. Two groups were analyzed according to symptoms:
      infrequent (<3 nights per week on all questions answered) and frequent (>=6
      nights per week on at least 1 question). OSA severity was categorized as follows:
      normal, <2 events per hour; mild, 2 to 4.9; moderate, 5 to 9.9; and severe, >=10.
      Results A total of 113 children met inclusion criteria: 34% (n = 38) had
      infrequent symptoms, and 66% (n = 75) had frequent symptoms. Parents were unable
      to predict the presence or absence of OSA by nighttime symptoms ( P = .60). The
      risk of OSA for children with frequent symptoms versus those with infrequent
      symptoms was 1.04 (95% CI, 0.89-1.3). Conclusion Parents of DS children are
      unable to predict the presence or absence of OSA by nighttime symptoms, nor are
      they able to determine its severity.

PMID- 28871846
TI  - Traits of vulnerability in repetitive sexual assaults of mentally disabled
      people.
AB  - The issue of sexual abuse, assault, rape and unwanted pregnancies among mentally
      disabled women is largely under-reported for many reasons. Several myths prevail
      including that mentally disabled women offer little interest to sexual predators,
      together with a negative public attitude and this contributes to the problem. We
      report the case of a single centre in Albania, where repetitive sexual assaults
      were perpetrated against three mentally disabled women. Three unwanted
      pregnancies followed. The issue gained public attention after three criminal
      abortions were performed secretly with the aim of covering up the story. Charges
      were raised against the director of the centre and an employee from the nursing
      staff. Proceedings are still ongoing. We discuss some details from the forensic
      investigation and consider several systemic weaknesses that have exposed this
      vulnerable target group to the risk of being severely and repetitively abused. We
      believe greater staff awareness, and a better medical and legal framework, are
      indispensable to deter further offences especially where facilities are under
      resourced as here.

PMID- 28871847
TI  - Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Carnosinase Genes (CNDP1 and CNDP2) are
      Associated With Power Athletic Status.
AB  - Carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine), abundantly found in skeletal muscle, plays
      an important role during exercise, especially for high-intensity contractions.
      Variability in muscle carnosine content between individuals exists and may also
      be explained by different genetic bases, although no study has addressed the
      association of polymorphisms in genes related to carnosine metabolism in
      athletes. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in the carnosinase genes (CNDP1 and CNDP2) in a large
      Brazilian cohort of athletes and nonathletes. Eight SNPs were compared between a
      representative cohort of elite athletes from Brazil (n = 908) and a paired group
      of nonathletes (n = 967). The athletes were stratified into three groups:
      endurance (n = 328), power (n = 415), and combat (n = 165). The CNDP2 rs6566810
      (A/A genotype) is overrepresented in endurance athletes, but only in
      international-level endurance athletes. Three SNPs (CNDP2 rs3764509, CNDP2-CNDP1
      rs2346061, and CNDP1 rs2887) were overrepresented in power athletes compared with
      nonathletes. Carriers of the minor allele had an increased odds ratio of being a
      power athlete. For the rs2346061, no significant difference was observed in
      genotype frequencies between power and combat sports athletes, but for rs2887 the
      power and combat groups showed an inverse genotype distribution. In conclusion,
      we found that minor alleles carriers for CNDP2 rs3764509 (G-allele), CNDP2-CNDP1
      rs2346061 (C-allele), and CNDP1 rs2887 (A-allele) are more likely to be a power
      athlete. These polymorphisms may be novel genetic markers for power athletes.
      Furthermore, these results are suggestive of a distinct CNDP genotype for
      sporting development.

PMID- 28871848
TI  - Personality characteristics and individual factors associated with PTSD in
      firefighters one month after extended wildfires.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Firefighters participate in activities with intense physical and
      psychological stress and are constantly at risk to develop various
      psychopathological reactions. AIMS: To investigate psychological reactions in
      firefighters one month after devastating wildfires in Greece, during August 2007,
      which lead to the devastation of large areas and the death of 43 people among
      whom three were firefighters. METHODS: One month after the wildfires, a joint
      task force of mental health clinicians was organized in order to provide
      psychological support and to investigate the psychological consequences of
      wildfires to firefighters. One hundred and two firefighters, living within the
      fire-devastated area, who were on duty for the whole period of wildfires were
      interviewed and assessed with the use of several questionnaires and inventories.
      RESULTS: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was detected in 18.6% of
      firefighters. Multiple logistic regression found that existence of fear of dying
      during firefighting, insomnia and increased scores in neuroticism, as well as in
      depression subscale of the SCL-90, were significantly associated with greater
      likelihood for having PTSD. Additionally those firefighters who worked
      permanently had 70% lower probability of having PTSD vs. those seasonally
      employed. CONCLUSIONS: Insomnia, depressive symptoms, as well as personality
      characteristics as neuroticism and the perception of fear of imminent death
      during firefighting operations may precipitate the development of PTSD in
      firefighters. Within this context, mental health clinicians should be aware that
      the early detection of these predisposing factors may facilitate the prevention
      and mitigation of PTSD in firefighters particularly those who are seasonally
      employed.

PMID- 28871849
TI  - Resistance Training Combined With Diet Decreases Body Fat While Preserving Lean
      Mass Independent of Resting Metabolic Rate: A Randomized Trial.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of resistance training
      only (RT; n = 10), dietary intervention only (DIET; n = 10), resistance training
      plus diet (RT+DIET; n = 10), and control (CON; n = 10) on body composition and
      resting metabolic rate (RMR) in a cohort of 40 premenopausal female volunteers.
      Subjects in DIET and RT+DIET were provided with daily macronutrient and calorie
      goals based on DXA and RMR tests, with protein maintained at 3.1 g/kg/day.
      Subjects in the RT and RT+DIET groups performed a supervised progressive RT
      program consisting of exercises for all the major muscle groups of the body.
      Results showed a significant month-by-group interaction for change in fat mass
      with no significant linear trend for control. The three treatment groups all
      showed significant linear decreases in fat mass, but the slope of the decrease
      became progressively steeper from the RT, to DIET, to RT+DIET. A significant
      linear increase for lean mass was seen for resistance training only. There was a
      nonsignificant increase in RMR in all groups from Month 0 to Month 4 but no
      significant month by group interaction. In conclusion, significant reductions in
      fat mass were achieved by all experimental groups, but results were maximized by
      RT+DIET. Only the RT group showed significant increases in lean mass.

PMID- 28871850
TI  - Succinoglycan Production Contributes to Acidic pH Tolerance in Sinorhizobium
      meliloti Rm1021.
AB  - In this work, the hypothesis that exopolysaccharide plays a role in the survival
      of Sinorhizobium meliloti at low pH levels is addressed. When S. meliloti was
      grown at pH 5.75, synthesis of succinoglycan increased, whereas synthesis of
      galactoglucan decreased. Succinoglycan that was isolated from cultures grown at
      low pH had a lower degree of polymerization relative to that which was isolated
      from cultures grown at neutral pH, suggesting that low-molecular weight (LMW)
      succinoglycan might play a role in adaptation to low pH. Mutants unable to
      produce succinoglycan or only able to produce high-molecular weight
      polysaccharide were found to be sensitive to low pH. However, strains unable to
      produce LMW polysaccharide were 10-fold more sensitive. In response to low pH,
      transcription of genes encoding proteins for succinoglycan, glycogen, and cyclic
      beta(1-2) glucans biosynthesis increased, while those encoding proteins necessary
      for the biosynthesis of galactoglucan decreased. While changes in pH did not
      affect the production of glycogen or cyclic beta(1-2) glucan, it was found that
      the inability to produce cyclic beta(1-2) glucan did contribute to pH tolerance
      in the absence of succinoglycan. Finally, in addition to being sensitive to low
      pH, a strain carrying mutations in exoK and exsH, which encode the glycanases
      responsible for the cleavage of succinoglycan to LMW succinoglycan, exhibited a
      delay in nodulation and was uncompetitive for nodule occupancy. Taken together,
      the data suggest that the role for LMW succinoglycan in nodule development may be
      to enhance survival in the colonized curled root hair.

PMID- 28871851
TI  - Reliability and Precision of the Nana Protocol to Assess Body Composition Using
      Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry.
AB  - The Nana positioning protocol is widely used to position participants to minimize
      technical error when undertaking body composition scanning and analysis with a
      Dual energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DXA) machine. Once biological and technical
      errors are accounted for, the only variation in test-retest results is from
      statistical fluctuation or machine error. Therefore, the aim of this study is to
      assess the test-retest reliability of the Nana positioning protocol and establish
      the smallest real difference percentage (SRD%). A gender-balanced group of 30
      participants (15 males, 15 females) underwent two scans in succession using the
      Nana positioning protocol, with repositioning between scans. Percentage change in
      mean with typical error, Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), and standard
      error measurement percentage (SEM%) were used to identify the test-retest
      reliability and error rate of these protocols. Additionally, SRD% was calculated
      to assess the point at which clinically important changes occurred in a
      participant. The reliabilities of the whole body and regional scans were
      excellent. Percentage change in mean ranged between 0.00% and 0.23%. High
      reproducibility of the Nana positioning protocol was evident through an ICC
      ranging between 0.966-1.000. Additionally, typical error, SEM%, and SRD% were all
      low. Interestingly, fat mass was associated with the largest fluctuations
      observed to be associated with any of the parameters assessed. When all sources
      of biological and technical errors have been accounted for, the Nana positioning
      protocol has excellent test-retest reliability and produces low SEM% and SRD%.

PMID- 28871852
TI  - Recombinant human hyaluronidase-facilitated subcutaneous immunoglobulin infusion
      in primary immunodeficiency diseases.
AB  - Most primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDDs) resulting in antibody deficiency
      require intravenous or subcutaneous immunoglobulin G (SCIG) replacement therapy.
      The flow and distribution of SCIG to the vasculature is impeded by the
      glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan in the extracellular matrix, which limits the
      infusion rate and volume per site, necessitating frequent infusions and multiple
      infusion sites. Hyaluronidase depolymerizes hyaluronan and is a spreading factor
      for injectable biologics. Recombinant human hyaluronidase (rHuPH20) increases
      SCIG absorption and dispersion. In patients with PIDD, SCIG facilitated with
      rHuPH20 (IGHy) has been shown to prevent infections, be well-tolerated and reduce
      infusion frequency and number of infusion sites as compared with conventional
      SCIG. This article reviews IGHy clinical studies and real-world practice data in
      patients with PIDD.

PMID- 28871855
TI  - Additional Abstracts for the 13th Annual Meeting of the American Society for
      Neural Therapy and Repair.

PMID- 28871854
TI  - Repairing the Nervous System: A Special Issue Based on the 12th Annual American
      Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR) Meeting.

PMID- 28871853
TI  - Effect of a participatory multisectoral maternal and newborn intervention on
      maternal health service utilization and newborn care practices: a quasi
      experimental study in three rural Ugandan districts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The MANIFEST study in eastern Uganda employed a participatory
      multisectoral approach to reduce barriers to access to maternal and newborn care
      services. OBJECTIVES: This study analyses the effect of the intervention on the
      utilization of maternal and newborn services and care practices. METHODS: The
      quasi-experimental pre- and post-comparison design had two main components:
      community mobilization and empowerment, and health provider capacity building.
      The primary outcomes were utilization of antenatal care (ANC), delivery and
      postnatal care, and newborn care practices. Baseline (n = 2237) and endline (n =
      1946) data were collected from women of reproductive age. The  data was analysed
      using difference in differences (DiD) analysis and  logistic regression. RESULTS:
      The DiD results revealed an 8% difference in early ANC attendance (p < 0.01) and
      facility delivery (p < 0.01). Facility delivery increased from 66% to 73% in the
      intervention area, but remained unchanged in the comparison area (64% vs 63%, p <
      0.01). The DiD results also demonstrated a 20% difference in clean cord care (p <
      0.001) and an 8% difference in delayed bathing (p < 0.001). The intervention
      elements that predicted facility delivery were attending ANC four times [adjusted
      odds ratio (aOR) 1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17-1.74] and saving for
      maternal health (aOR 2.11, 95% CI 1.39-3.21). Facility delivery and village
      health team (VHT) home visits were key predictors for clean cord care and skin-to
      skin care. CONCLUSIONS: The multisectoral approach had positive effects on early
      ANC attendance, facility deliveries and newborn care practices. Community
      resources such as VHTs and savings are crucial to maternal and newborn outcomes
      and should be supported. VHT-led health education should incorporate practical
      measures that enable families to save and access transport services to enhance
      adequate preparation for birth.

PMID- 28871856
TI  - Prolonged Allogeneic Islet Graft Survival by Protoporphyrins.
AB  - Transplantation of islets of Langerhans in patients with type 1 diabetes allows
      for improved metabolic control and insulin independence. The need for chronic
      immunosuppression limits this procedure to selected patients with brittle
      diabetes. Definition of therapeutic strategies allowing permanent engraftment
      without the need for chronic immunosuppression could overcome such limitations.
      We tested the effect of the use of protoporphyrins (CoPP and FePP), powerful
      inducers of the cytoprotective protein hemeoxygenase 1 (HO-1), on allogeneic
      islet graft survival. Chemically induced diabetic C57BL/6 mice received DBA/2
      islets. Treatment consisted in peritransplant administration of CoPP or saline.
      Islets were either cultured in the presence of FePP or vehicle before implant.
      Short-course administration of CoPP led to long-term islet allograft survival in
      a sizable proportion of recipients. Long-term graft-bearing animals rejected
      third-party islets while accepting a second set donor-specific graft permanently,
      without additional treatment. Preconditioning of islets with FePP by itself led
      to improved graft survival in untreated recipients, and provided additional
      advantage in CoPP-treated recipients, resulting in an increased proportion of
      long-term surviving grafts. Preconditioning of the graft with protoporphyrins
      prior to implant resulted in reduction of class II expression. Administration of
      protoporphyrins to the recipients of allogeneic islets also resulted in transient
      powerful immunosuppression with reduced lymphocyte proliferative responses,
      increased proportion of regulatory cells (CD4+CD25+), decreased mononuclear cell
      infiltrating the graft, paralleled by a systemic upregulation of HO-1 expression.
      All these mechanisms may have contributed to the induction of donor-specific
      hyporesponsiveness in a proportion of the protoporphyrintreated animals.

PMID- 28871857
TI  - Encapsulation of Islets in Rough Surface, Hydroxymethylated Polysulfone
      Capillaries Stimulates VEGF Release and Promotes Vascularization after
      Transplantation.
AB  - The transplantation of encapsulated islets of Langerhans is one approach to treat
      type 1 diabetes without the need of lifelong immunosuppression. Capillaries have
      been used for macroencapsulation because they have a favorable surface-to-volume
      ratio and because they can be refilled. It is unclear at present whether the
      outer surface of such capillaries should be smooth to prevent, or rough to
      promote, cell adhesions. In this study we tested a new capillary made of modified
      polysulfone (MWCO: 50 kDa) with a rough, open-porous outer surface for islet
      transplantation. Compared with free-floating islets, encapsulation of freshly
      isolated rat islets affected neither the kinetics nor the efficiency of glucose
      induced insulin release in perifusion experiments. Free-floating islets
      maintained insulin secretion during cell culture but encapsulated islets
      gradually lost their glucose responsiveness and released VEGF. This indicated
      hypoxia in the capillary lumen. Transplantation of encapsulated rat islets into
      diabetic rats significantly reduced blood glucose concentrations from the first
      week of implantation. This hypoglycaemic effect persisted until explantation 4
      weeks later. Transplantation of encapsulated porcine islets into diabetic rats
      reduced blood glucose concentrations depending on the islet purity. With
      semipurified islets a transient reduction of blood glucose concentrations was
      observed (2, 8, 18, 18 days) whereas with highly purified islets a sustained
      normoglycaemia was achieved (more than 28 days). Explanted capillaries containing
      rat islets were covered with blood vessels. Vascularization was also observed on
      capillaries containing porcine islets that were explanted from normoglycaemic
      rats. In contrast, on capillaries containing porcine islets that were explanted
      from hyperglycemic rats a fibrous capsule and lymphocyte accumulations were
      observed. No vascularization on the surface of transplanted capillaries was
      observed in the absence of islets. In conclusion, encapsulated islets can release
      VEGF, which appears to be an important signal for the vascularization of the
      capillary material. The rough, open-porous outer surface of the polysulfone
      capillary provides a site well suited for vascular tissue formation and may allow
      a prolonged islet function after transplantation.

PMID- 28871858
TI  - Evaluating the Effect of Serine Proteases on Collagenase Activity during Human
      Islet Isolation.
AB  - Inconsistencies in human islet yields after collagenase digestion have been
      attributed to the activation of endogenous enzymes of the donor pancreas. It has
      been suggested that pancreatic serine proteases contribute to the proteolysis of
      collagenase. This study defined the effects of endogenous enzymes within the
      pancreas on pancreas dissociation during collagenase digestion. Levels of
      collagenase activity from samples taken throughout several steps in islet
      isolation procedures, both with and without the addition of the serine protease
      inhibitor Pefabloc, were determined by a spectrophotometric assay using N-[3-(2
      furyl)acryloyl]-Leu-Gly-Pro-Ala as the substrate. Results clearly demonstrated
      that the level of collagenase activity remains stable throughout the isolation
      procedure despite differences in the donor factors from several cadaveric donor
      pancreases. This was further demonstrated by observing no difference in activity
      levels after incubating commercial collagenase preparations with serine proteases
      and analyzing by means of collagenase activity and SDS-PAGE. These data show that
      the presence of serine proteases does not affect the level of collagenase
      activity; however, they likely damage the islet cells upon prolonged digestion of
      the pancreatic tissue. Further efforts at examining exogenous and endogenous
      enzyme levels may result in the development of an enzyme cocktail that is both
      stable and effective for digesting the human pancreas while preserving islet
      function and viability.

PMID- 28871859
TI  - Development of a Novel Cytomedical Treatment that can Protect Entrapped Cells
      from Host Humoral Immunity.
AB  - Cell therapy is expected to relieve the shortage of donors needed for organ
      transplantation. When patients are treated with allogeneic or xenogeneic cells,
      it is necessary to develop a means by which to isolate administered cells from an
      immune attack by the host. We have developed "cytomedicine, " which consists of
      functional cells entrapped in semipermeable polymer, and previously reported that
      alginate-poly-l-lysine-alginate microcapsules and agarose microbeads could
      protect the entrapped cells from injury by cellular immunity. However, their
      ability to isolate from humoral immunity was insufficient. It is well known that
      the complement system plays an essential role in rejection of transplanted cells
      by host humoral immunity. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to develop
      a novel cytomedical device containing a polymer capable of inactivating
      complement. In the screening of various polymers, polyvinyl sulfate (PVS)
      exhibited high anticomplement activity and low cytotoxicity. Murine pancreatic
      beta-cell line (MIN6 cell) entrapped in agarose microbeads containing PVS
      maintained viability and physiological insulin secretion, replying in response to
      glucose concentration, and resisted rabbit antisera in vitro. PVS inhibited
      hemolysis of sensitized sheep erythrocytes (EAs) and rabbit erythrocytes by the
      complement system. This result suggests that PVS inhibits both the classical and
      alternative complement pathways of the complement system. Next, the manner in
      which PVS exerts its effects on complement components was examined. PVS was found
      to inhibit generation of C4a and Ba generation in activation of the classical and
      alternative pathways, respectively. Moreover, when the EAC1 cells, which were
      carrying C1 on the EAs, treated with PVS were exposed to C1-deficient serum,
      hemolysis decreased in a PVS dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that
      PVS inhibits C1 in the classical pathway and C3 convertase formation in the
      alternative pathway. Therefore, PVS may be a useful polymer for developing an
      anticomplement device for cytomedical therapy.

PMID- 28871860
TI  - Effects of variable power on tissue ablation dynamics during magnetic resonance
      guided laser-induced thermal therapy with the Visualase system.
AB  - PURPOSE: Magnetic resonance-guided laser-induced thermal therapy (MRgLITT) is a
      minimally invasive procedure used to treat various intracranial pathologies. This
      study investigated the effects of variable power on maximal estimated thermal
      damage during ablation and duration required to reach maximal ablation.
      MATERIALS/METHODS: All ablations were performed using the Visualase Thermal
      Therapy System (Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota), which uses a 980 nm
      diffusing tip diode laser. Cases were stratified into low, medium and high power.
      Maximal thermal damage estimate (TDEmax) achieved in a single plane and time to
      reach maximal damage (ttdemax) were measured and compared between groups using a
      2*3 Fixed Factor Analysis of Covariance. Ablation area change for cases in which
      an initial thermal dose was followed by a subsequent dose, with increased power,
      was also assessed. RESULTS: We used real-time ablation data from 93 patients
      across various intracranial pathologies. ttdemax (mean +/- SEM) decreased
      linearly as power increased (low: 139.2 +/- 10.4 s, medium: 127.5 +/- 4.3 s,
      high: 103.7 +/- 5.8 s). In cases where a second thermal dose was delivered at
      higher power, the TDE expanded an average of 51.4 mm2 beyond the initial TDE
      generated by the first ablation, with the second ablation approaching TDEmax at a
      higher rate than the initial ablation. CONCLUSION: Increased power results in a
      larger TDEmax and an increased ablation rate. In cases where an initial thermal
      dose does not fully ablate the target lesion, a second ablation at higher power
      can increase the area of ablation with an increased ablation rate.

PMID- 28871861
TI  - Reduction of Aspergillus spp. and aflatoxins in peanut sauce processing by oil
      less frying of chilli powder and retort processing.
AB  - Among the many roles played by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the food
      industry is the production of heritage foods such as peanut sauce. Unfortunately,
      the safety of peanut sauce is not always assured as the processing line is not
      controlled. Peanut sauce is usually made of peanuts and chilli, and these
      commodities are normally contaminated with Aspergillus spp. and aflatoxins (AFs).
      Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate the practices related to
      reduction of AF hazard and the effect of interventions in peanut sauce
      processing. Peanut samples were collected from each step of peanut sauce
      processing from a small peanut sauce company according to four designs: (1)
      control; (2) oil-less frying of chilli powder; (3) addition of retort processing;
      and (4) combination of oil-less frying of chilli powder and retort processing.
      Oil-less frying of chilli powder (Design 2) reduced total AFs by 33-41%, retort
      processing (Design 3) reduced total AFs by 49%, while combination of these two
      thermal processes (Design 4) significantly reduced total AFs, by 57%. The present
      work demonstrated that Design 4 yielded the highest reduction of total AFs and is
      therefore recommended to be employed by SME companies.

PMID- 28871862
TI  - Research and analysis of biogas produced from sewage sludge using a batch
      bioreactor.
AB  - The examined equipment is a batch bioreactor intended to produce biogas from
      sewage sludge, vegetal and other organic wastes. The maintenance of an optimal
      temperature and oxygen concentration inside the devise, as well as the intensity
      of mixing a substrate, result in methane CH4 actively generated by methanogenic
      bacterial colonies. Manufacturing biotechnologies and biogas deal with
      environmental protection, energy and economic problems. For research purposes,
      considering organic loading (hereinafter, VS/L), four different types of the
      packing material of sewage sludge, including VS/L = 3.5 g L-1, VS/L = 5.0 g L-1,
      VS/L = 10.0 g L-1 and VS/L = 15.0 g L-1, were used. The highest concentration of
      CH4 (75.1%) and yield of biogas (36.78 L d-1) were found using a packing
      material, the organic loading of which made 15.0 g L-1. Throughout the
      experiment, the temperature of the mesophilic process reached 35-37 degrees C,
      and the concentration of oxygen was 0.0-0.1%. The research carried out has
      disclosed the dependencies of the components of biogas on the number of the days
      of the performed experiment. With reference to experimental research conducted at
      the laboratory, a small-sized batch bioreactor can be designed and successfully
      used in a small farm.

PMID- 28871863
TI  - The HIV aspartyl protease inhibitor ritonavir impairs planktonic growth, biofilm
      formation and proteolytic activity in Trichosporon spp.
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of the protease inhibitor ritonavir (RIT) on
      Trichosporon asahii and Trichosporon inkin. Susceptibility to RIT was assessed by
      the broth microdilution assay and the effect of RIT on protease activity was
      evaluated using azoalbumin as substrate. RIT was tested for its anti-biofilm
      properties and RIT-treated biofilms were assessed regarding protease activity,
      ultrastructure and matrix composition. In addition, antifungal susceptibility,
      surface hydrophobicity and biofilm formation were evaluated after pre-incubation
      of planktonic cells with RIT for 15 days. RIT (200 MUg ml-1) inhibited
      Trichosporon growth. RIT (100 MUg ml-1) also reduced protease activity of
      planktonic and biofilm cells, decreased cell adhesion and biofilm formation, and
      altered the structure of the biofilm and the protein composition of the biofilm
      matrix. Pre-incubation with RIT (100 MUg ml-1) increased the susceptibility to
      amphotericin B, and reduced surface hydrophobicity and cell adhesion. These
      results highlight the importance of proteases as promising therapeutic targets
      and reinforce the antifungal potential of protease inhibitors.

PMID- 28871864
TI  - Quantifying the combined effects of pronase and benzalkonium chloride in removing
      late-stage Listeria monocytogenes-Escherichia coli dual-species biofilms.
AB  - This work presents the assessment of the effectivity of a pronase (PRN)
      benzalkonium chloride (BAC) sequential treatment in removing Listeria
      monocytogenes-Escherichia coli dual-species biofilms grown on stainless steel
      (SS) using fluorescence microscopy and plate count assays. The effects of PRN-BAC
      on the occupied area (OA) by undamaged cells in 168 h dual-species samples were
      determined using a first-order factorial design. Empirical equations
      significantly (r2 = 0.927) described a negative individual effect of BAC and a
      negative interactive effect of PRN-BAC achieving OA reductions up to 46%. After
      treatment, high numbers of remaining attached and released viable and cultivable
      E. coli cells were detected in PRN-BAC combinations when low BAC concentrations
      were used. Therefore, at appropriate BAC doses, in addition to biofilm removal,
      sequential application of PRN and BAC represents an appealing strategy for
      pathogen control on SS surfaces while hindering the dispersion of live cells into
      the environment.

PMID- 28871865
TI  - Proteomic analysis of silica hybrid sol-gel coatings: a potential tool for
      predicting the biocompatibility of implants in vivo.
AB  - The interactions of implanted biomaterials with the host organism determine the
      success or failure of an implantation. Normally, their biocompatibility is
      assessed using in vitro tests. Unfortunately, in vitro and in vivo results are
      not always concordant; new, effective methods of biomaterial characterisation are
      urgently needed to predict the in vivo outcome. As the first layer of proteins
      adsorbed onto the biomaterial surfaces might condition the host response, mass
      spectrometry analysis was performed to characterise these proteins. Four distinct
      hybrid sol-gel biomaterials were tested. The in vitro results were similar for
      all the materials examined here. However, in vivo, the materials behaved
      differently. Six of the 171 adsorbed proteins were significantly more abundant on
      the materials with weak biocompatibility; these proteins are associated with the
      complement pathway. Thus, protein analysis might be a suitable tool to predict
      the in vivo outcomes of implantations using newly formulated biomaterials.

PMID- 28871866
TI  - Ectopic Ossification in the Scar Tissue of Rats with Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - We describe the occurrence of bone-like formations in the left ventricular wall
      of infarcted rats treated or not with bone marrow cells injected systemically or
      locally into the myocardium. The incidence of ectopic calcification in hearts has
      been reported in rare cases in children with infarcts without previous coronary
      artery disease. Recently, ventricular calcification has been correlated with
      unselected bone marrow cell transplantation into infarcted rat hearts.
      Echocardiographic analysis of large infarction in rats frequently reveals the
      presence of echogenic structures in the left ventricular wall, sometimes
      projecting to the lumen of the chamber. The histological examination of these
      echogenic structures exhibited bone, cartilage, and marrowlike formations
      extending from the collagen-rich matrix of the ventricle wall. Microanalytical
      techniques verified the presence of hydroxyapatite in the mineral phase.
      Ossification was found in 25 out of 30 hearts evaluated 90 days postinfarct,
      being observed in 14 out of 17 animals submitted to cell therapy and in 11 out of
      13 infarcted rats not submitted to cell therapy. Our study indicates that chondro
      osteogenic differentiation can take place in the pathological rat heart
      independent of animal treatment with marrow cells.

PMID- 28871867
TI  - Assessment of in Vitro Applicability of Reversibly Immortalized NKNT-3 Cells and
      Clonal Derivatives.
AB  - In vitro applications of human hepatocytes, such as bioartificial livers and
      toxicity assays, require thoroughly testing of human cell lines prior to using
      them as alternative cell sources. The reversibly immortalized NKNT-3 cell line
      was reported to show clear in vivo functionality. Here, NKNT-3 cells were tested
      for their in vitro applicability. Low-passage (P2) and high-passage (P28) NKNT-3
      cells and clonal derivatives were characterized for reversion of immortalization,
      heterogeneity, and hepatic functionality. Reversion with reduced expression of
      immortalizing agent could be established. However, during culturing the cells
      lost the capacity to be selected for completed reversion. The phenotypic
      instability is probably associated with heterogeneity in the culture, as clonal
      derivatives of P2 cells varied in morphology, growth, and reversion
      characteristics. The mRNA levels of genes related with hepatic differentiation
      increased 4-20-fold after reversion. However, the levels never exceeded 0.1% of
      that detected in liver and no urea production nor ammonia elimination was
      detected. Additionally, activities of different cytochrome P450s were limited. In
      conclusion, the NKNT-3 culture is heterogeneous and unstable and the in vitro
      functionality is relatively low. These findings emphasize that in vivo testing of
      hepatic cell lines is little informative for predicting their value for in vitro
      applications.

PMID- 28871868
TI  - Suppression of Human T-Cell Responses to beta-Cells by Activation of B7-H4
      Pathway.
AB  - B7-H4, a recently described member of the B7 family of cosignal molecules, is
      thought to be involved in the regulation of cellular and humoral immune responses
      through receptors on activated T and B cells. Human islet cells express positive
      B7-H4 mRNA in RT-PCR assays, but not B7-H4 protein on cell surface in flow
      cytometric analyses. To investigate the regulatory effects of activation of the
      B7-H4 pathway on the function of activated T cells of patients with type 1
      diabetes (T1D), we have used our in vitro human experimental system, including
      human beta-cell antigen-specific T-cell clones and human beta-cell lines CM and
      HP62, as well as primary islet cells. B7-H4.Ig protein was purified from the
      culture supernatant of 293T cells transfected by a B7-H4.Ig plasmid (pMIgV,
      containing a human B7-H4 cDNA and a mouse IgG2a Fc cDNA). Our preliminary studies
      showed that immobilized fusion protein human B7-H4.Ig (coated with 5 MUg/ml for 2
      h at 37 degrees C), but not control Ig, clearly inhibited the proliferation of
      activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells of patients induced by anti-CD3 antibody in CFSE
      assays. B7-H4.Ig also arrested cell cycle progression of T cells in G0/G1 phase
      and induced T-cell apoptosis as measured by BrdU-7-AAD flow cytometric analysis.
      To determine the cytoprotective effects of B7-H4, we developed transfectants of
      human beta-cell lines CM and HP62 and islet cells transfected with the B7-H4.Ig
      plasmid, using empty vector transfectants as controls. The results demonstrate
      that cell-associated B7-H4.Ig expressed on human beta-cells clearly inhibits the
      cytotoxicity of the T-cell clones to targeted human beta-cells in 51Cr release
      cytotoxicity assays. Activation of the B7-H4 pathway may represent a novel
      immunotherapeutic approach to inhibit T-cell responses for the prevention of beta
      cell destruction in T1D.

PMID- 28871872
TI  - Comparative Study of 2D and 3D Optical Imaging Systems: Laparoendoscopic Single
      Site Surgery in an Ex Vivo Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Usually laparoscopy is performed by means of a 2-dimensional (2D)
      image system and multiport approach. To overcome the lack of depth perception,
      new 3-dimensional (3D) systems are arising with the added advantage of providing
      stereoscopic vision. To further reduce surgery-related trauma, there are new
      minimally invasive surgical techniques being developed, such as LESS
      (laparoendoscopic single-site) surgery. The aim of this study was to compare 2D
      and 3D laparoscopic systems in LESS surgical procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      All participants were selected from different levels of experience in
      laparoscopic surgery-10 novices, 7 intermediates, and 10 experts were included.
      None of the participants had had previous experience in LESS surgery.
      Participants were chosen randomly to begin their experience with either the 2D or
      3D laparoscopic system. The exercise consisted of performing an ex vivo pork
      cholecystectomy through a SILS port with the assistance of a fixed distance
      laparoscope. Errors, time, and participants' preference were recorded.
      Statistical analysis of time and errors between groups was conducted with a
      Student's t test (using independent samples) and the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS:
      In all 3 groups, the average time with the 2D system was significantly reduced
      after having used the 3D system ( P < .05). In the postexercise questionnaire,
      two thirds of participants showed a preference for using the 3D system.
      CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the 3D system may improve the learning curve
      and that learning from the 3D system is transferable to the 2D environment.
      Additionally, the majority of participants prefer 3D equipment.

PMID- 28871876
TI  - Genetic Modification of Hepatocytes towards Hepatocyte Transplantation and Liver
      Tissue Engineering.
AB  - Cell-based therapies, including liver tissue engineering following hepatocyte
      transplantation, have therapeutic potential for several types of liver diseases.
      Modifications in the methodology to manipulate the donor hepatocytes in a more
      simple and timely manner prior to transplantation would enhance the therapeutic
      efficacy of this procedure. Conventional approach for vector-mediated gene
      transduction to the isolated hepatocytes has been performed under primary culture
      conditions that routinely require several days to complete. In our study, we have
      established a clinically feasible approach that requires only 1 h of infection
      time with an adenoviral vector system that results in an extremely efficient
      transduction efficiency (>80%). To optimize transduction efficiency and sustain
      normal cellular function, we determined that the isolated hepatocytes should be
      maintained in UW solution as a suspension medium and infected with adenoviral
      vectors (Ad) for no more than 1 h at a MOI of 1. To establish if the isolated
      hepatocytes could be used as a source for cell-based therapies, we transplanted
      the Ad-transduced hepatocytes into the liver or under the kidney capsule. When
      the cells were transplanted into the liver, Ad-transduced hepatocytes cultured in
      suspension conditions were found to have a significantly higher survival rate (p
      < 0.01) than Ad-transduced hepatocytes cultured under standard conditions. We
      also confirmed that these Ad-transduced hepatocytes have ability to survive long
      term and were able to engineer a biologically active hepatic tissue under the
      kidney capsule. Finally, we obtained high level of transduction into canine,
      porcine, and human isolated hepatocytes in a suspension solution mixed with Ad.
      In conclusion, the present studies demonstrate that isolated hepatocytes could be
      genetically modified using Ad when kept in a suspension solution. For this
      reason, this cell-modified technique could be used for the treatment of liver
      targeted diseases and/or disorders.

PMID- 28871877
TI  - Silicone Oil-Induced Nasal Polyposis: A Case Report.

PMID- 28871878
TI  - Premature Identical Twin Neonates With Sleep Apnea.

PMID- 28871879
TI  - Screen Time Engagement Is Increased in Urban Children With Asthma.
AB  - Physical activity in children has been shown to play a role in its relationship
      to asthma, both in terms of prevalence and incidence. One measure of physical
      activity in children is sedentary behavior, which might be measured by the degree
      of engagement with media electronic screens. We found that children with asthma,
      as compared with children without asthma, engage in significantly more hours of
      screen time (median 35 vs 26 h/wk, P = .004). In this birth cohort, those who
      developed a diagnosis of asthma at 8 years of age were significantly more engaged
      in electronic screen time than their peers. No other clinical or lifestyle
      behaviors were significantly associated with a diagnosis of asthma. Further study
      will be needed to determine directionality of this finding.

PMID- 28871881
TI  - A Child With Right Ear Pain and a Gaze Palsy.

PMID- 28871880
TI  - Clinical Factors Associated With Chest Imaging Findings in Hospitalized Infants
      With Bronchiolitis.
AB  - Despite recommendations against routine imaging, chest radiography (CXR) is
      frequently performed on infants hospitalized for bronchiolitis. We conducted a
      review of 811 infants hospitalized for bronchiolitis to identify clinical factors
      associated with imaging findings. CXR was performed on 553 (68%) infants either
      on presentation or during hospitalization; 466 readings (84%) were normal or
      consistent with viral illness. Clinical factors significantly associated with
      normal/viral imaging were normal temperature (odds ratio = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.03
      2.67) and normal oxygen saturation (odds ratio = 1.77; 95% CI = 1.1-2.83) on
      presentation. Afebrile patients with normal oxygen saturations were nearly 3
      times as likely to have a normal/viral CXR as patients with both fever and
      hypoxia. Our findings support the limited role of radiography in the evaluation
      of hospitalized infants with bronchiolitis, especially patients without fever or
      hypoxia.

PMID- 28871882
TI  - Cultural Differences in Shame and Guilt as Understandable Reasons for Suicide.
AB  - According to the World Health Organization, a major barrier to suicide prevention
      work is the social stigma surrounding suicide. Since clinical research has long
      shown that shame and guilt are often involved in suicide and suicide ideation,
      the present two studies explore the extent to which individuals associate shame
      and guilt with suicide ideation and behavior according to their cultural
      background. Using a scenario approach, 1,147 Americans in two separate studies
      read about a traumatic situation in which the target person experienced intense
      shame or intense guilt. A mini meta-analysis of these studies showed that all
      participants were more likely to link the experience of shame to suicidality than
      guilt. Additionally, participants from U.S. dignity states were more likely to
      report suicide ideation when the target experienced guilt as opposed to shame.
      Our findings support the notion that the centrality of the emotions of shame and
      guilt varies relative to the social context, which has implications on how others
      perceive suicide.

PMID- 28871887
TI  - Residual Cholesteatoma during Second-Look Procedures following Primary Pediatric
      Endoscopic Ear Surgery.
AB  - Objectives To determine the rate of residual cholesteatoma during planned second
      look procedures in pediatric patients following primary cholesteatoma resection
      using endoscopic and microscopic operative approaches. Study Design Case series
      with chart review. Setting Tertiary care center. Subjects and Methods Outcomes
      from pediatric patients undergoing cholesteatoma surgery from January 2011
      through August 2015 were analyzed. Cholesteatoma extent at initial resection was
      staged, and comparison among endoscopic dissection and microscopic or endoscopic
      inspection groups was made. Presence of disease at time of planned second look
      was quantified. Descriptive analysis was performed. Results Fifty-five patients
      (56 ears) with planned second-look procedures were included and underwent a total
      of 120 procedures. Median age was 11 years (6.7-13 years). Endoscopes were used
      for inspection in 25 (39%) primary resections and for dissection in 39 (61%)
      primary resections. Extent of disease at the time of primary resection was
      similar among groups (chi2, P = .72). Cases where the endoscope was used for
      inspection only or not at all during primary resection had a 24% rate of residual
      cholesteatoma at the time of second look compared with a 23% rate for cases with
      endoscopic dissection (chi2, P = .93). Rate of mastoidectomy significantly
      decreased from 63% to 33% over the study period ( P = .04) with similar disease
      extent ( P = .99). Conclusions Residual cholesteatoma rates during planned second
      look procedures were similar between the study groups. Use of the endoscope led
      to a lower rate of mastoidectomy for cases with similar disease extent.

PMID- 28871888
TI  - Subproteomic signature comparison of in vitro selected fluoroquinolone resistance
      and ciprofloxacin stress in Salmonella Typhimurium DT104B.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fluoroquinolone resistance in nontyphoidal Salmonella is a situation
      of serious and international concern, particularly in S. Typhimurium DT104B
      multiresistant strains. Although known to be multifactorial, fluoroquinolone
      resistance is still far from a complete understanding. METHODS: Subproteome
      changes between an experimentally selected fluoroquinolone-resistant strain (Se6
      M) and its parent strain (Se6), and also in Se6-M under ciprofloxacin (CIP)
      stress, were evaluated in order to give new insights into the mechanisms
      involved. Proteomes were compared at the intracellular and membrane levels by a 2
      DE~LC-MS/MS and a shotgun LC-MS/MS approach, respectively. RESULTS: In total, 35
      differentially abundant proteins were identified when comparing Se6 with Se6-M
      (25 more abundant in Se6 and 10 more abundant in Se6-M) and 82 were identified
      between Se6-M and Se6-M+CIP (51 more abundant in Se6-M and 31 more abundant under
      ciprofloxacin stress). CONCLUSION: Several proteins with known and possible roles
      in quinolone resistance were identified which provide important information about
      mechanism-related differential protein expression, supporting the current
      knowledge and also leading to new testable hypotheses on the mechanism of action
      of fluoroquinolone drugs.

PMID- 28871889
TI  - Adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes in women with preeclampsia in Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is relatively a common complication in pregnancy and is
      characterized by high blood pressure and protein in urine during pregnancy.
      Consistent with the adverse outcomes followed by preeclampsia, this study
      designed to investigate the how preeclampsia is associated with preterm, low
      birth weight (LBW), cesarean section, and weigh gain during pregnancy. METHODS:
      In this population-based cross-sectional study, 5166 deliveries from 103
      hospitals in Tehran (Capital of Iran) were included in the analysis in 2015. The
      independent variable was preeclampsia during pregnancy and weight gain during
      pregnancy, preterm birth, cesarean section, and LBW were considered as interested
      outcomes. The data were analyzed by statistical Stata software (version 13, Stata
      Inc., College Station, TX). RESULTS: Adjusted results showed that the mean of
      weight gain in women with preeclampsia was significantly higher than women
      without preeclampsia (mean difference: 1.77 kg, 95%CI: 0.76-12.78, p = .001). The
      adjusted odds ratio for preterm birth, cesarean section, and LBW were 4.19
      (95%CI: 2.71-6.48, p = .001), 1.92 (95%CI: 1.24-2.98, p = .003), and 1.19 (95%CI:
      0.61-2.31, p = .599), respectively. CONCLUSION: Weight gain in women with
      preeclampsia was higher than women without preeclampsia and also the odds of
      preterm birth, cesarean section and LBW in women with preeclampsia was higher
      than women without preeclampsia.

PMID- 28871890
TI  - Association Between Periodontitis With Blood Lipid Levels in Korean Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperlipidemia is a known risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. A
      common biological mechanism between systemic diseases like cardiovascular
      diseases and periodontal diseases has been suggested. We aimed to examine the
      association between blood lipid profile and periodontitis. METHODS: The study
      included 6,905 Korean adults, aged >=20 years. Individuals with incomplete data
      on blood lipid levels, those who lacked results of periodontitis examination by
      using the Community Periodontal Index system in the Fifth Korean National Health
      and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2010 and 2012, and those diagnosed with
      diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidemia were excluded from the study.
      All analyses involved complex sampling design. The association was assessed using
      multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted for covariates. RESULTS: Women
      with low HDL cholesterol levels showed significantly higher risk of periodontitis
      (odds ratio [OR] 95% confidence interval [CI]): 1.65 for the lowest group), and
      those with high LDL cholesterol levels showed higher risk of the disease (OR (95%
      CI): 2.38 (1.01-5.60) for the highest group), than those with high HDL and low
      LDL levels. There was significant dose-response relationships between the disease
      risk and levels of HDL and LDL (p-trend of 0.001 and 0.039, respectively). There
      was no significant difference in the risk between pre- and post-menopausal women.
      Men did not show any significant association between blood lipid levels and
      periodontitis. CONCLUSION: There was a significant association between
      periodontitis and low HDL and high LDL cholesterol levels in women.

PMID- 28871891
TI  - Inhibition of 5-Lipoxygenase (5-Lo) Attenuates Inflammation and Bone Resorption
      in Lipopolysaccharide (Lps)-Induced Periodontal Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arachidonate-5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) activity and increased leukotriene
      B4 (LTB4) production have been implicated in various inflammatory conditions.
      Increased production of leukotrienes has been associated with periodontal
      diseases; however their relative contribution to the tissue destruction is
      unknown. We used an orally-active specific 5-LO inhibitor to assess its role in
      inflammation and bone resorption in a murine model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
      induced periodontal disease. METHODS: Periodontal disease was induced in Balb/c
      mice by direct injections of LPS into the palatal gingival tissues adjacent to
      the upper first molars 3 times/week for four weeks. Animals were treated with the
      biochemical inhibitor (2 mg/Kg/day) or the same volume of the vehicle by oral
      gavage. uCT analysis was used to assess bone resorption. EIA determined
      leukotriene B4, and ELISAs quantified TNF, IL-12 and IL-10 in the gingival
      tissues. Histological sections were used for the morphometric analysis (number
      neutrophils and mononuclear cells). Osteoclasts were counted in TRAP-stained
      sections. RESULTS: Administration of 5-LO inhibitor effectively reduced the
      production of LTB4 (23.7% decrease) and significantly reduced TNF and IL-12
      levels in the gingival tissues. Moreover, reduction of LTB4 levels in the
      gingival tissues was associated with a significant decrease in bone resorption
      and a marked reduction in the number of osteoclasts and inflammatory cells.
      CONCLUSION: 5-LO activity plays a relevant role in inflammation and bone
      resorption associated with the LPS model of experimental periodontal disease.

PMID- 28871892
TI  - Association between asthma and periodontal disease: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this systematic review (SR) is to evaluate the association
      between asthma and periodontal disease. METHODS: An electronic search without
      date or language restrictions was carried out in PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Central
      Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and LILACS until May 2016. In
      addition, manual searches and searches of the gray literature were conducted. The
      search process, data analysis, and quality assessment were performed by two
      independent reviewing authors. Eligibility criteria included prospective and
      retrospective cohort studies, case-controls, and randomized clinical trials.
      RESULTS: The search and selection process yielded 21 studies, published between
      1979 and 2017. The meta-analysis showed a statistically significant difference
      for the parameters of gingival bleeding, plaque index, and gingival index for
      participants with asthma (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Data from this SR strongly
      suggest the association of asthma with periodontal disease.

PMID- 28871893
TI  - Metabolism and Whole-Body Fat Oxidation Following Postexercise Carbohydrate or
      Protein Intake.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study investigated how postexercise intake of placebo (PLA),
      protein (PRO), or carbohydrate (CHO) affected fat oxidation (FO) and metabolic
      parameters during recovery and subsequent exercise. METHODS: In a cross-over
      design, 12 moderately trained women (VO2max 45 +/- 6 ml.min-1.kg-1) performed
      three days of testing. A 23-min control (CON) incremental FO bike test (30-80%
      VO2max) was followed by 60 min exercise at 75% VO2max. Immediately postexercise,
      subjects ingested PLA, 20 g PRO, or 40 g CHO followed by a second FO bike test 2
      h later. RESULTS: Maximal fat oxidation (MFO) and the intensity at which MFO
      occurs (Fatmax) increased at the second FO test compared to the first following
      all three postexercise drinks (MFO for CON = 0.28 +/- 0.08, PLA = 0.57 +/- 0.13,
      PRO = 0.52 +/- 0.08, CHO = 0.44 +/- 0.12 g fat.min-1; Fatmax for CON = 41 +/- 7,
      PLA = 54 +/- 4, PRO = 55 +/- 6, CHO = 50 +/- 8 %VO2max, p < 0.01 for all values
      compared to CON). Resting FO, MFO, and Fatmax were not significantly different
      between PLA and PRO, but lower for CHO. PRO and CHO increased insulin levels at 1
      h postexercise, though both glucose and insulin were equal with PLA at 2 h
      postexercise. Increased postexercise ketone levels only occurred with PLA.
      CONCLUSION: Protein supplementation immediately postexercise did not affect the
      doubling in whole body fat oxidation seen during a subsequent exercise trial 2 h
      later. Neither did it affect resting fat oxidation during the postexercise period
      despite increased insulin levels and attenuated ketosis. Carbohydrate intake
      dampened the increase in fat oxidation during the second test, though a
      significant increase was still observed compared to the first test.

PMID- 28871895
TI  - Allocating a scarce mental health treatment to the underweight and overweight.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This is one of a number of programmatic studies on the allocation of
      scarce medical resources. AIMS: This study investigated whether certain
      characteristics about patients influence the priority they are assigned for a
      scarce mental health treatment. Similar studies for physical treatments have
      found that young, poor, and mentally healthy patients are given the highest
      priority. METHOD: Each participant completed one questionnaire where they ranked
      a list of eight hypothetical patients in order of priority for treatment for
      anorexia or obesity. The patients varied on three dimensions: age, social class
      and mental health history. This involved a ranking of prioritisation for
      treatment. RESULTS: Participants gave the young patients, from a low social class
      background, who had a mental health history the highest priority for treatment.
      This is in contrast to previous studies indicating that the mentally unwell are
      discriminated against. CONCLUSIONS: Participants seemed to be using social class
      as a proxy measure of ability to pay which they weighted very highly.

PMID- 28871894
TI  - Surgeon-Performed Ultrasound for Chronic Obstructive Sialadenitis Helps Predict
      Sialendoscopic Findings and Outcomes.
AB  - Objective To determine the accuracy of surgeon-performed ultrasound (SP-US)
      features for predicting intraoperative sialendoscopic findings and to correlate
      ultrasound features with short-term symptomatic outcomes following sialendoscopy
      assisted salivary duct surgery (SASDS). Study Design Case series with chart
      review. Setting The practices of 2 academic sialendoscopy surgeons. Subjects and
      Methods Between February 2014 and September 2015, 82 patients with 105
      symptomatic glands underwent SASDS, of whom 56 patients (75 glands) met inclusion
      criteria. SP-US and sialendoscopic findings were reviewed for patients with
      chronic obstructive sialadenitis who underwent SASDS and who had been
      prospectively evaluated with the University of California-San Francisco Chronic
      Obstructive Sialadenitis Symptoms (COSS) questionnaire (scored 0-100)
      administered preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively. Results The positive
      predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of SP-US for
      identifying sialoliths intraoperatively were 94% (33/35) and 91% (39/43),
      respectively. Of glands with sialoliths on SP-US, 97% (34/35) had complete
      symptom resolution (COSS <=10) after SASDS. The PPV and NPV of salivary duct
      dilation on SP-US for finding a corresponding stenosis on sialendoscopy were 93%
      (14/15) and 50% (14/28), respectively. Nonsialolith SP-US features with the
      highest PPV for complete or partial symptom resolution (COSS <=25) following
      SASDS included distal duct dilation of all glands (86%; 6/7) and dilation of both
      distal and proximal parotid ducts (75%; 6/8). Conclusion SP-US has high accuracy
      for ruling in and ruling out sialoliths, as well as for ruling in but not for
      necessarily ruling out stenosis presence and location. Ultrasound is helpful in
      estimating degree of short-term symptom response following SASDS.

PMID- 28871896
TI  - Adherence predictors in an Internet-based Intervention program for depression.
AB  - Internet-delivered psychotherapy has been demonstrated to be effective in the
      treatment of depression. Nevertheless, the study of the adherence in this type of
      the treatment reported divergent results. The main objective of this study is to
      analyze predictors of adherence in a primary care Internet-based intervention for
      depression in Spain. A multi-center, three arm, parallel, randomized controlled
      trial was conducted with 194 depressive patients, who were allocated in self
      guided or supported-guided intervention. Sociodemographic and clinical
      characteristics were gathered using a case report form. The Mini international
      neuropsychiatric interview diagnoses major depression. Beck Depression Inventory
      was used to assess depression severity. The visual analogic scale assesses the
      respondent's self-rated health and Short Form Health Survey was used to measure
      the health-related quality of life. Age results a predictor variable for both
      intervention groups (with and without therapist support). Perceived health is a
      negative predictor of adherence for the self-guided intervention when change in
      depression severity was included in the model. Change in depression severity
      results a predictor of adherence in the support-guided intervention. Our findings
      demonstrate that in our sample, there are differences in sociodemographic and
      clinical variables between active and dropout participants and we provide
      adherence predictors in each intervention condition of this Internet-based
      program for depression (self-guided and support-guided). It is important to point
      that further research in this area is essential to improve tailored interventions
      and to know specific patients groups can benefit from these interventions.

PMID- 28871897
TI  - Dissipation kinetics and safety evaluation of tebuconazole and trifloxystrobin in
      tea under tropical field conditions.
AB  - Dissipation kinetics of tebuconazole, trifloxystrobin and its acid metabolite
      residues were studied in tea under tropical field conditions using GC-MS (SIM).
      The average recoveries ranged from 80.7% to 105.8%, with a RSD of <9.3%.
      Dissipation rate for both doses applied followed first-order kinetics, with half
      lives in green leaves in the range of 2.8-3.3 and 2.9-3.3 days; ranges in
      processed tea were 2.7-3.6 days for trifloxystrobin and 3.0-3.1 days for
      tebuconazole. The trifloxystrobin residues were not transferred into the tea
      infusion during the infusion process; tebuconazole did transfer, in the range of
      14.3-18.9%. As the theoretical maximum residue contributions on tea from initial
      deposits were found to be less than the maximum permissible intake values, at the
      recommended application dose a withdrawal period of 23 days before consumption
      should be applied to reduce risk.

PMID- 28871899
TI  - Psychological Risk Factors and Outcomes of Dance Injury: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Historically, dance medicine and science has focused on the physical aspects
      rather than the psychological aspects of dance injury. Psychological variables,
      however, have been shown to influence the occurrence of injury and post-injury
      outcomes. The purpose of this review was to examine the dance psychology
      literature and determine the specific psychological factors reported to be
      associated with the incidence, frequency, and outcome of dance injuries. A
      systematic literature search was conducted using SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE, CINAHL,
      and PsycINFO. All retrieved articles were screened based on criteria developed a
      priori, and selected articles were subsequently assessed for quality. Thirteen
      studies met the inclusion and quality assessment criteria. Psychological factors
      associated with both risk and outcome of dance injury included the following:
      stress, psychological distress, disordered eating, and coping. Factors associated
      only with risk of injury were sleep, personality, and social support. The results
      suggest that psychological variables can affect both the incidence and outcome of
      dance injury among dancers. Therefore, it is critical to gain a well-rounded,
      thorough understanding of all the factors, including psychological, that have a
      negative impact on dancers with respect to dance injury. The findings are
      discussed in terms of the utility of including psychological assessment and
      intervention, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, when implementing
      preventative and treatment measures in dance schools and companies.

PMID- 28871898
TI  - COST-EFFECTIVENESS IMPACTS CANCER CARE FUNDING DECISIONS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA,
      CANADA, EVIDENCE FROM 1998 TO 2008.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Priorities and Evaluation Committee (PEC) funding recommendations
      for new cancer drugs in British Columbia, Canada have been based on both clinical
      and economic evidence. The British Columbia Ministry of Health makes funding
      decisions. We assessed the association between cost-effectiveness of cancer drugs
      considered from 1998 to 2008 and the subsequent funding decisions. METHODS: All
      proposals submitted to the PEC between 1998 and 2008 were reviewed, and the
      association between cost-effectiveness and funding decisions was examined by (i)
      using logistic regression to test the hypothesis that interventions with higher
      incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) have a lower probability of
      receiving a positive funding decision and (ii) using parametric and nonparametric
      tests to determine if a statistically significant difference exists between the
      mean cost-effectiveness of funded versus not funded proposals. A sub-analysis was
      conducted to determine if the findings varied across different outcome measures.
      RESULTS: Of the 149 proposals reviewed, 78 reported cost-effectiveness using
      various outcome measures. In the proposals that used life-years gained as the
      outcome (n = 22), a statistically significant difference of nearly $115,000 was
      observed between the mean ICERs for funded proposals ($42,006) and for unfunded
      proposals ($156,967). An odds ratio indicating higher ICERs have a lower
      probability of being funded was also found to be statistically significant (p <
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: Economic evidence appears to play a role in British Columbia
      cancer funding decisions from 1998 to 2008; other decision-making criteria may
      also have an important role in recommendations and subsequent funding decisions.

PMID- 28871900
TI  - Effects of a Modified Ballet Class on Strength and Jumping Ability in College
      Ballet Dancers.
AB  - The ability to jump high with precision is an important component of the ballet
      dancer's technique. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a
      modified ballet class on strength and jumping ability in high level female
      dancers. Seventeen female ballet students were divided into two groups,
      experimental and control, and tested before and after an 8-week, 2 times/week
      intervention for peak torque of knee extensors and flexors at 60 degrees and 180
      degrees , and jumping ability (squat jump, countermovement jump, countermovement
      with arm swing jump, saute in first position, and saute in first position with
      port de bras). Statistical analysis was performed using Analysis of Variance
      (Anova 2x2) with repeated measure of factor time (pre and post). T-test with
      Bonferroni adjustment was used to assess any differences between groups. The
      experimental group showed improvement in height (7.7%), takeoff velocity (4.0%),
      and power (5.1%) of the squat jump. In addition, increases were revealed in peak
      (60 degrees , 11.9%; 180 degrees , 7.8%) and relative peak torque (60 degrees ,
      13.2%; 180 degrees , 9.2%) of the right knee flexors. Moreover, enhancements of
      the knee flexor-extensor strength ratio in both angular velocities were found (60
      degrees , 10.4%; 180 degrees , 9.7%). These outcomes suggest that the proposed
      program could help ballet dancers improve the height of their vertical jumps and
      leg strength.

PMID- 28871901
TI  - Associations Between Sedentary Behaviors, Sleep Patterns, and BMI in Young
      Dancers Attending a Summer Intensive Dance Training Program.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between sedentary
      behaviors, sleep hours, and body mass index (BMI) in 12- to 17-year-old dancers.
      This was a cross sectional survey in which bivariate correlation and simple
      linear regression were used to determine associations between self-reported
      components. One hundred fifteen dancers were queried, 91.3% of whom were female.
      The mean BMI was 19.6 +/- 2.3 kg/m2. Two-thirds of dancers fell below the 50th
      percentile for age-adjusted BMI, and 30.4% fell below the 25th percentile. Better
      than 12% of dancers reported a history of anxiety, and 2.6% reported depression.
      Mean hours of sleep per night was 7.8 +/- 0.9, with 58% of the dancers getting
      less than 8 hours of sleep per night. The mean total screen time for dancers was
      3.4 +/- 2.1 hours/day, which consisted of tablet and computer usage: 1.6 +/- 1.1
      hours/day; texting: 0.5 +/- 1.1 hours/day; watching television: 1.2 +/- 1.1
      hours/day; and playing video games 1.2 +/- 1.1 hours/ day. Total screen time was
      independently associated positively with BMI, explaining nearly 10% of the
      variability in BMI. Age, hours dancing per day, and hours of sleep per night were
      not independently associated with BMI. To summarize: screen time was associated
      with increased BMI in this young dancer cohort; the majority of dancers slept
      less than 8 hours per night; anticipatory guidance addressing media use and sleep
      hygiene in the adolescent dancer population is needed.

PMID- 28871902
TI  - Height of the Medial Longitudinal Arch During Classical Ballet Steps.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the midfoot longitudinal arch height
      and correlate it with active hip external rotation (ER) in dancers during static
      postures and technical steps of classical ballet (i.e., first position, demi
      plie, battement fondu a la seconde, pas jete a la seconde, and grand jete a la
      seconde). A 3D motion analysis system was used for kinematic analysis. The arch
      height was significantly reduced during the battement fondu a la seconde, pas
      jete a la seconde, and grand jete a la seconde when compared to standing (p =
      0.000 for all comparisons), first position (p = 0.000, p = 0.000, and p = 0.001,
      respectively) and demi-plie (p = 0.015, p = 0.003, and p = 0.006, respectively).
      No significant correlation was found between arch height and active hip external
      rotation (p > 0.05). Hence, active hip external rotation does not seem to be
      related to midfoot pronation in this sample. Other factors, such as intrinsic and
      extrinsic foot muscle strength, may be related to the midfoot arch height. These
      findings contribute to a better understanding of ballet steps, but future studies
      are required to clarify this topic completely.

PMID- 28871903
TI  - Perfectionism, Burnout, and Motivation in Dance: A Replication and Test of the
      2*2 Model of Perfectionism.
AB  - The relationships between multidimensional perfectionism, burnout, and motivation
      were examined. In so doing, this study aimed to replicate and extend the study by
      Cumming and Duda (2012). Ninety-one ballet dancers completed questionnaires
      assessing the target constructs. Using cluster analysis, four profiles emerged
      that replicated Cumming and Duda's findings and generally supported Gaudrau and
      Thompson's 2x2 model of perfectionism. As such, these profiles represented pure
      personal standards perfectionism, mixed perfectionism, pure evaluative concerns
      perfectionism, and non-perfectionism. Extending previous literature, the four
      profiles were then compared on a range of burnout symptoms and motivational
      regulations. It was found that the four clusters differed significantly on these
      constructs, in a manner partly supportive of the hypotheses associated with the
      2x2 model of perfectionism. In particular, our results reflect and extend those
      of Cumming and Duda, in that mixed perfectionism and pure evaluative concerns
      perfectionism did not differ on any of the measures. Thus, the higher personal
      standards of dancers exhibiting mixed perfectionism did not appear to be
      associated with better functioning than that experienced by dancers with pure
      evaluative concerns perfectionism. Altogether, the study extends our current
      understanding of perfectionism in dance and its potential effects, including
      those on burnout and motivation.

PMID- 28871904
TI  - The Biomechanics and Motor Control of Tap Dancing.
AB  - Although tap dancing is a popular dance genre, little is known about the
      biomechanics and motor control of this complex motor skill. We conducted a
      detailed 3D kinematic analysis of movement timing, amplitude, and symmetry in
      three experienced female tap dancers. Kinematic analyzes of three basic tap dance
      steps (nerve beats, brush brush stamps, and heel ball walks) were undertaken. A
      10-camera Vicon motion analysis system was used to collect the data. The results
      showed the feet and knees to play a major role in movement execution. Each step
      required at least 10 degrees  of ankle motion (range: 10 degrees  to 66.8 degrees
      ). Knee range of motion varied from 1.3 degrees  to 147.4 degrees . For each of
      the dance steps the hips showed the smallest amplitude of movement, which was not
      greater than 21 degrees  in two out of the three dance steps. Analyzes of
      movement timing showed that each of the dance steps was fast, accurate, and well
      synchronized. The nerve beats took on average 0.50 seconds, the brush brush
      stamps 1.36 seconds, and the heel ball walks 4.03 seconds. A high degree of
      symmetry in total movement amplitude was evident at the ankles,knees, and hips
      for the nerve beats and heel ball walks. There was a mild degree of asymmetry at
      the hip for the brush brush stamp steps (symmetry index 90%). The results showed
      that experienced dancers had very high levels of proficiency in controlling
      movement amplitude, timing, and inter-limb coordination across the ankles, knees,
      and hips. This resulted in skilled, fast, and well executed dance steps.

PMID- 28871922
TI  - Development and Significance of the E-surveillance System for Contact Allergies
      in Slovenia.
AB  - This paper describes the development and significance of online systems for the
      collection and analysis of medical data (patch test results) with a web
      application. Modern digital tools greatly aid in collecting, combining, and
      preserving the data in a way that is friendly, undemanding and time-efficient for
      the dermatologist. Creating a central database for the results of patch testing
      provides a better picture of contact sensitivity and characteristics of allergic
      contact dermatitis in Slovenia. An electronic database and connected network was
      started in Slovenia in 2010. Data from skin allergy units since 2000 has also
      been included retrospectively. At present (Oct 2016), the database contains the
      data of 19,772 patch tests performed by seven skin allergy units. Creating a
      central database of the results of patch testing provides a larger and therefore
      more credible collection of data. Immediate integration and data processing
      enable a current overview of contact sensitivity for each participating center as
      well as at the national level. Data can be easily transferred to other databases
      or edited with other software tools. This on-line register has worked flawlessly
      for more than five years. We have contributed data to the European Surveillance
      System on Contact Allergies (ESSCA) network database since 2012, which, along
      with the Deutsche Kontaktallergie-Gruppe system of collecting patch test data for
      German-speaking countries, represents the only multicenter surveillance system of
      patch test results in Europe.

PMID- 28871923
TI  - Predictive Value of Intraoperative Sentinel Lymph Node Imprint Cytology Analysis
      for Metastasis in Patients with Melanoma.
AB  - Since there are no standardized protocols regarding the detection of microscopic
      melanoma deposits in sentinel lymph nodes (SLN), the aim of this study was to
      present our experience with intraoperative cytological evaluation of SLN in
      patients with melanoma. The study included 475 SLN biopsies (SLNB) from 201
      patients with primary cutaneous melanoma of intermediate thickness. Each lymph
      node was cut in half; touch imprint cytology (TIC) preparations of all cut
      surfaces were performed and stained according to a modified May-Grunwald-Giemsa
      method. The results were compared to definitive postoperative histology. Twenty
      of 25 SLNB positive on TIC proved to be metastatic when compared to definitive
      histology. Most of 32 SLN that were suspicious but not diagnostic on TIC were
      proven negative (23/32, 71.8%), while 7 nodes had metastases (one micrometastasis
      and one with isolated tumor cells only). The majority (94%) of SLNBs negative on
      TIC remained negative on final histology, while 6% or 25 nodes were positive,
      mostly with micrometastases or isolated tumor cells (17/25). In frozen sections
      performed in cases of suspicious or positive SLN cytology, metastasis was
      confirmed in 80% of positive and in 21.9% of suspicious TIC. Altogether, 49%
      (27/55) of positive SLNB were identified intraoperatively in 57% (24/42) of
      patients, and in those cases a complete regional lymph node dissection was
      performed in the first step. TIC assessment of SLNB with 99% specificity and 57%
      sensitivity for intraoperative identification of metastasis is useful and
      beneficial for avoiding a second operative procedure.

PMID- 28871924
TI  - Comparison of Doxycycline and Benzathine Penicillin G for the Treatment of Early
      Syphilis.
AB  - Doxycycline is the preferred recommended second-line treatment for the treatment
      of early syphilis. Recent reports showed a declining efficacy trend of
      doxycycline in treatment of early syphilis. The aim of our study was to assess
      the serological response to the treatment for early syphilis with doxycycline
      compared with benzathine penicillin G and evaluate whether doxycycline is still
      an effective agent for the treatment of early syphilis. A record-based
      retrospective study was conducted. Patients were diagnosed with early syphilis in
      an sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic from January 1, 2008 to December 31,
      2014. They were treated with a single dose of benzathine penicillin G 2.4MU or
      oral doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for 14 days. Pearson's chi-squared test was
      used for data analysis. 601 cases were included in the final study sample: 105
      (17.5%) patients received a 14-day course of doxycycline (doxycycline group), and
      496 (82.5%) patients received single-dose benzathine penicillin G (BPG group).
      The serological responses at 6 months and 12 months after treatment were
      compared. No statistically significant differences were found between the two
      groups at 6 months (69.52% vs. 75.00%, P=0.245), and at 12 months (92.38% vs.
      96.17%, P=0.115). Doxycycline is still an effective agent for the treatment of
      early syphilis.

PMID- 28871925
TI  - Mast Cell Disorders, Melanoma and Pancreatic Carcinoma: From a Clinical
      Observation to a Brief Review of the Literature.
AB  - Mastocytosis can be associated with other clonal or non-clonal hematologic
      diseases as well as a variety of non-hematologic malignancies. A 75-year-old
      Caucasian male patient was referred to us with a 5-month history of neutrophilic
      leukocytosis and mild splenomegaly. He had developed a cutaneous melanoma sixteen
      years ago. According to the clinical and pathological features, a final diagnosis
      of systemic mastocytosis was established. The patient started treatment with
      interferon-alpha at a dose of 3 MIU/day, combined with low doses of prednisone.
      We observed a rapid disappearance of symptoms. Unfortunately, after 3 months a
      diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma was established. A review of the
      literature suggests that mastocytes could have a pivotal role in several
      malignancies. Different chemokines, mitogenic factors, chemical mediators of
      inflammation, and specific gene mutations could explain the association between
      mastocytosis and other hematologic and non-hematologic disorders.

PMID- 28871926
TI  - Translation and Validation of the Serbian Version of the Skindex-29 Instrument
      for Measuring Impact of Skin Disease on Quality of Life.
AB  - The Skindex-29 instrument, which is intended for measuring the influence of skin
      diseases on quality of life, was developed and validated in several languages.
      However, a Serbian translation of the instrument is not available. The aim of
      this study was to translate the Skindex-29 from English to Serbian, to make
      necessary cultural adaptations, and to test its psychometric properties in a
      sample of outpatients with various skin diseases. The Skindex-29 was translated
      and adapted according to internationally accepted guidelines and then tested on a
      sample of Serbian outpatients with various skin diseases. Internal consistency
      was checked through calculation of Cronbach's alpha and Interclass Correlation
      Coefficient for the instrument's domains. The criterion validity of the
      translation was tested by correlating scores of domains with scores on the
      Serbian version of Dermatological Life Quality Index (DLQI).Validity of the
      construct was tested through comparison of the domains scores in groups of
      patients with different skin diseases. Fifty-three patients (18.6%) suffered from
      acne vulgaris, 48 (16.8%) from verrucae vulgares, 40 (14.0%) from psoriasis, 34
      (11.9%) from an undetermined type of mild dermatitis, 20 (7.0%) from venous
      ulcers, 19 (6.7%) from eczema, and 71 (24.9%) from other skin diseases. The
      Serbian translation of Skindex-29 showed good internal consistency: Cronbach's
      alpha for Emotional, Symptoms, and Functioning domains was 0.885, 0.752, and
      0.901, respectively. Validity of the instrument in all aspects (criterion,
      content, and construct validity) was satisfactory, yet the Symptoms domain could
      not discriminate well between more and less severe skin diseases. The Serbian
      translation of Skindex-29 appears to be a reliable and valid specific instrument
      for measuring the adverse influence of skin diseases on quality of life.

PMID- 28871927
TI  - Sociodemographic, Sexual Behavior, and Microbiological Profiles of Men Attending
      Public Health Laboratories for Testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
AB  - In order to identify the groups at risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),
      we assessed the sociodemographic profiles of men testing for STD, their sexual
      habits, and the results of microbiological analysis. During a three-year period,
      a total of 700 men older than 18 years of age completed the questionnaire
      regarding sociodemographic and sexual behavior. Urethral swabs were taken for
      microbiological analysis. Thirty-three percent of respondents reported not using
      condoms. Those that do not use condoms were predominantly less educated,
      unmarried but in steady relationships, employed, with children, and smokers.
      Alcohol or drug usage before sexual intercourse was disclosed by 21.4% of
      respondents, and 10.3% respondents reported sexual intercourses with commercial
      sex workers. Finally, 24.0% respondents reported sexual relations abroad. In
      28.1% of subjects, one or more pathogens were observed in urethral swabs. The
      most commonly diagnosed microorganism was Ureaplasma urealyticum, followed by
      Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma hominis, Trichomonas vaginalis, and Neisseria
      gonorrhoeae. This study identified several factors that may contribute to the
      general risk of STD transmission, which will serve to better understand the
      transmission dynamics and implementation of adequate prevention programs.

PMID- 28871928
TI  - The Impact of Pyschological Stress on Acne.
AB  - Acne is one of the most common skin disorders. It is a multifactorial and complex
      disease, originating in the pilosebaceous follicle where a hereditary background,
      androgens, skin lipids, disorders of keratinization, inflammatory signaling, and
      regulatory neuropeptides seem to be mainly involved. Even though emotional stress
      has long been suspected to trigger or exacerbate acne, its influence on acne
      severity has been mostly underestimated until recently when studies have brought
      new data about the different mechanisms and possible factors involved in this
      interaction. A point to note is that there have been relatively few studies
      examining stress as a possible cause of acne or acne exacerbation; more studies
      have focused on stress and mental health problems occurring as a result of acne.
      In this review, we have tried to identify the underlying mechanisms that link
      stress to acne according to the latest scientific findings, and we summarize this
      perplexing connection. The basis for the association between emotional stress and
      the onset or exacerbation of acne is in several cutaneous neurogenic factors
      which interact with a pathogenic cascade in acne. This bidirectional intimate
      relationship of the skin and the mind emphasizes the importance of a holistic and
      interdisciplinary approach to caring for patients with acne that involves not
      only dermatologists but also psychologists and psychiatrists.

PMID- 28871929
TI  - Association of Generalized Psoriasis and Mixed Glomerulonephritis in a 10-year
      old Girl.
AB  - Generalized psoriasis and renal function disorder were previously described in
      sporadic adult cases, revealing a new entity - psoriatic nephropathy. So far
      there have been only two cases describing this association in children. We
      present and discuss a case of 10-year-old girl with the unique biopsy findings of
      double glomerulonephritis associated with the simultaneous onset of generalized
      psoriasis.

PMID- 28871930
TI  - Can Hematologic Parameters be an Indicator of Metabolic Disorders Accompanying
      Rosacea?
AB  - Recently, diverse hematologic parameters have been used as an indicator of the
      presence or severity of inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. Our aim was to
      investigate the ratios of neutrophils to lymphocytes (NL), monocytes to high
      density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (MHC), and platelets to lymphocytes (PL) in
      patients with rosacea in comparison with the control group and determine whether
      there was a correlation between these ratios and metabolic disorders in patients
      with rosacea. We conducted a case-control study on 61 patients with rosacea and
      60 healthy controls between January 2015 and January 2016 at the Dermatology
      Outpatient Clinic, Mugla, Turkey. Demographic data, biochemical parameters,
      hematologic parameters and ratios, the presence of metabolic syndrome (MS), and
      the presence of insulin resistance (IR) in the participants were recorded. Sixty
      one patients with rosacea (16 men, 45 women) and 60 controls (13 men, 47 women)
      were included in the study. The NL ratio, mean levels of low-density lipoprotein
      (LDL) and total cholesterol, triglyceride, C-reactive protein (CRP), systolic and
      diastolic blood pressures, and the presence of IR were significantly higher in
      patients with rosacea than in controls. In the rosacea group, the MHC ratio was
      significantly higher in patients with rosacea with IR and MS. Moreover, only the
      MHC ratio was an independent predictor of MS according to univariate logistic
      regression analysis. The cutoff value of MHC on admission for predicting MS in
      patients with rosacea was 0.013.The higher levels of NL ratio and IR in the
      rosacea group corroborate the previous studies demonstrating a high level of
      cardiovascular risk factors in patients with rosacea. The MHC ratio may be used
      as a simple and inexpensive method to predict metabolic disorders in patients
      with rosacea.

PMID- 28871931
TI  - Kerion Celsi due to Microsporum canis with a Dermatophytid Reaction.
AB  - Microsporum (M.) canis is the most common fungus to cause tinea capitis in
      Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region and South and Central Europe.
      Fungal scalp infections caused by M. canis tend to be non-inflammatory. Recently,
      a growing number of cases of tinea capitis characterized by inflammatory
      infection caused by M. canis and M. gypseum have been registered. We present a
      case of highly inflammatory tinea capitis, also known as kerion celsi, caused by
      M. canis in a 6-year-old-patient. Scalp infections due to M. canis are a growing
      problem in dermatological practice. Changes in epidemiology, etiology, and
      clinical patterns of fungal infections due to M. canis are significant. Greater
      awareness of this problem is needed in order to establish proper diagnosis and
      successful treatment strategy for these patients.

PMID- 28871933
TI  - Prognostic Predictors of Thin Melanoma in Clinico-Pathological Practice.
AB  - The latest reviews on thin melanoma (TM) continue to consider it a melanoma
      within 1 mm in thickness, but no consensus exists as to which patients with TM
      are at risk for lymph node metastases (1). Numerous studies have evaluated the
      impact of various predictors (Breslow thickness, Clark level, ulceration,
      regression, vascular invasion, mitotic activity, location, sex) for nodal disease
      in melanoma, but the conclusions have not been homogenous (2,3). For this reason,
      we read the paper by Homolak et al. with great interest, where the authors
      examine the sentinel lymph node biopsies (SLNB) of 184 patients affected by
      melanoma of thickness less than 1.5 mm, defined as thin (4). SLNB was positive in
      22 patients (12%), and 30 patients (7.65%) developed metastatic disease. The
      group of thinnest tumors (<0.50 mm) had the highest proportion of positive nodes
      (33%); the group of thickest tumors (1.26-1.50 mm) had the highest proportion of
      patients with metastatic disease (23%). The authors divided TM into 5 groups: 1)
      <0.50 mm (15 patients, 5 with positive SLNB); 2) 0.50-0.75 mm (18 patients, 3
      with positive SLNB); 3) 0.76-1.00 mm (67 patients, 7 with positive SLNB); 4) 1.01
      1.25 mm (45 patients, 4 with positive SLNB); 5) 1.26-1.50 mm (36 patients, 3 with
      positive SLNB). The current staging system of the American Joint Committee on
      Cancer (AJCC) uses Breslow thickness as the primary attribute, and up to 1 mm
      thick melanoma is defined as 'thin' because it shows a good prognosis after
      surgical excision, with a 10-year survival rate of 85-90% in case of a tumor-free
      margin of at least 1 cm (5). Based on our experience, this limit should be
      maintained at 1 mm because TM includes four main histological subtypes, which
      reflect specific biological attitudes: the intra-epidermal (in situ) radial
      growth phase (RGP), the non-tumorigenic micro-invasive radial growth phase
      without regression, the micro-invasive radial growth phase with regression (>75%)
      of uncertain tumorigenic potential, and the tumorigenic early (<=1 mm) invasive
      vertical growth phase (VGP) (6-10). This proposed sub-typing fits better with the
      AJCC staging system, as elucidated below and in Table 1: intra-epidermal radial
      growth phase (pTis), micro-invasive radial growth phase without regression (pT1),
      micro-invasive radial growth phase with regression (pT1), early invasive vertical
      growth phase (pT1), invasive vertical growth phase >1 mm, <=2 mm (pT2), invasive
      vertical growth phase >2 mm, <=4 mm (pT3), invasive vertical growth phase >4 mm
      (pT4). The in situ RGP and micro-invasive RGP without regression are biologically
      indolent if completely removed, and SLNB is not necessary in these cases (6). In
      micro-invasive RGP with regression, performing SLNB is prudent, in particular if
      accompanied by high mitotic rates, while it is mandatory in early invasive VGP
      (7). Therefore, the prognostic predictors of nodal and distant metastases require
      further research in the four above-mentioned histological subtypes of thin
      melanoma.

PMID- 28871932
TI  - A 12-year-old Girl with Severe Plaque Psoriasis and Down Syndrome Treated
      Successfully with Etanercept.
AB  - The association between Down syndrome and psoriasis is unclear. Immunological
      abnormalities that present in individuals with Down syndrome result in mild
      immune debilitation, thus the risk of infectious complications during
      immunosuppressive therapy might be higher in this group of patients. We present a
      case of 12-year-old girl with severe plaque psoriasis and Down syndrome, who was
      initially treated with cyclosporine with good response. However, the drug was
      withdrawn due to massive viral warts development and loss of efficacy.
      Afterwards, the girl was treated with etanercept in short 10 week and long 24
      week courses with excellent response. The presented case is the first report of a
      child with Down syndrome and concomitant severe plaque psoriasis treated
      successfully with etanercept.

PMID- 28871934
TI  - Diffuse Palmoplantar Keratoderma, Onychodystrophy, universal Hypotrichosis and
      Cysts.
AB  - Dear Editor, Clouston syndrome, also called hidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED),
      is an autosomal dominant ectodermal dysplasia characterized by a clinical triad
      of onychodystrophy, generalized hypotrichosis, and palmoplantar keratoderma (1).
      Herein we report the case of a 24-year-old male with the distinctive clinical
      triad associated with multiple epidermoid cysts, which probably reflects the
      phenotype of Clouston syndrome. A 24-year-old male presented to our Department
      with diffuse thickening of the skin of his palms and soles since infancy. He also
      complained of sparsity to near absence of body hair and also reported thickening
      of the nails and multiple swellings involving the genitals and head since
      childhood. There was no history of consanguinity or of recurrent painful
      paronychia or abnormality in sweating. The patient denied any history of
      deafness, diminution of vision, redness, or watering of the eyes. On examination,
      diffuse hyperkeratosis of the palms and soles was observed (Figure 1 a, b)
      However, there was no extension of this hyperkeratosis to the dorsal aspects of
      the hands and feet or any proximal extension to the forearms or legs. Extensor
      aspects of the elbows and knees did not reveal any hyperkeratotic skin lesions.
      The nails were yellowish-brown, thickened, and hyperconvex, which was more
      pronounced in the finger nails than the toe nails (Figure 1 c, d). There was no
      associated paronychia. The scalp hair was very sparse, fine, and pale in color,
      reaching just a length of 3-4 mm in some places while totally absent in other
      places. The hair from the beard, eyebrows, eyelashes, moustaches, and pubic and
      axillary regions was very sparse to nearly absent (Figure 2 a, b, c). General
      body hair was also absent. In the left pre-auricular area there was a 3*2.5 cm
      swelling, soft to firm in consistency, non-tender, and non-pulsatile with no
      sinus or scar over it (Figure 2c). Multiple similar swellings of variable size
      measuring 0.6 to 1.3 cm were present over the scrotum (Figure 2 d). Systemic
      examination including oro-dental and ophthalmological examination was
      unremarkable. Physical tests for hearing were normal. Nail clippings for KOH
      examination did not reveal any fungal components. Fine needle aspiration from the
      pre-auricular swelling was consistent with epidermoid cyst. The classical triad
      of onychodystrophy, universal hypotrichosis, and palmoplantar hyperkeratosis with
      normal sweating and teeth indicated a diagnosis of Clouston syndrome. Hidrotic
      ectodermal dysplasia was first described in a French-Canadian kindred (2).
      However, it has subsequently been described in other ethnic and geographical
      areas. There is a mutation in the beta gap junction protein gene which codes for
      the protein connexin 30 (Cx30) (3). This condition primarily affects the hair,
      nails, and skin, while sparing the teeth and sweat glands. The hair is sparse and
      pale, and the alopecia can be patchy or total. Hair loss may lead to total
      alopecia by puberty. The eyelashes are short and sparse, and the eyebrows as well
      as axillary and pubic hair are also sparse or absent (1), as in our case. During
      infancy, the nails are typically milky white, gradually thickening throughout
      childhood. The nail plate is short, thick, slow-growing, and discolored, which
      was consistent with our patient's nail changes. Diffuse palmoplantar
      hyperkeratosis is a characteristic sign which may extend to the dorsum of the
      hands and feet (4). However, our case had no transgradient component. There are
      other less common abnormalities reported in Clouston syndrome, which include
      conjunctivitis, strabismus, congenital cataract, oral leucoplakia, diffuse
      eccrine poromatosis, sensorineural hearing loss, thickened skull bones, and
      tufting of the terminal phalanges (2,5-8). However, to the best of our knowledge,
      the presence of epidermoid cysts in Clouston syndrome has not been previously
      reported, making our case a unique clinical presentation. Pachyonychia congenita
      is a very close differential diagnosis for this entity. However, universal
      hypotrichosis and the lack of oral leukokeratosis were the differentiating
      features in our case. Additionally, palmoplantar keratoderma in pachyonychia
      congenita is mainly focal rather than diffuse, as in our case. However, genetic
      studies are needed to establish such a diagnosis.

PMID- 28871935
TI  - Topical Imiquimod is an Effective and Safe Drug for Molluscum Contagiosum in
      Children.
AB  - Dear Editor, Molluscum contagiosum (MC) is a very common skin infection caused by
      a molluscipox virus gene of the poxvirus family. It usually occurs in young
      children, sexually active adults, and immunocompromised individuals. The typical
      clinical picture of this infection is characterized by asymptomatic flesh
      colored, single or multiple papules, measuring 2-6 mm in diameter with a central
      umbilication that occur on the skin and the mucous membranes. In adults, the skin
      lesions are predominantly located in the genital region, whereas in children they
      are found on the trunk, the extremities, and the face. MC is generally regarded
      as a self-limited disease; however, its treatment is usually advisable
      considering its potentially protracted course and the risk of superinfection,
      scarring, autoinoculation, and transmission to other members of the community. A
      large number of approaches to the treatment of MC have been used so far (none of
      them approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)) including ablative
      regimens (curettage, electrodessication, cryotherapy, laser therapy) and topical
      or systemic pharmacologic agents (tretinoin, cantharidin, trichloroacetic and
      salicylic acid, potassium hydroxide, interferon-alfa, and cimetidine). Imiquimod
      is a topically applicable Toll-like receptor (TLR)-7/8 agonist, which is capable
      of stimulating the innate cutaneous immunity and the cellular arm of the adaptive
      immune response and of exerting potent anti-viral, anti-tumor and
      immunoregulatory effects (1). Originally approved for the treatment of external
      genital and perianal warts in adults, imiquimod was later approved for the
      therapy of basal cell carcinomas and actinic keratoses and has also been used in
      the management of several off-label indications including cutaneous infections
      and neoplasms. Our group has successfully used topical imiquimod in the treatment
      of a variety of dermatoses including granuloma annulare, pyogenic granuloma,
      herpes labialis, and lichen striatus (2-6). Moreover, we have examined the
      topical application of imiquimod over the last twelve years in the treatment of
      23 children with MC, the demographic data and the therapeutic response of which
      are summarized in Table 1. Seventeen out of 23 children (73.91%) treated with
      topical imiquimod once daily under occlusion (including two cases with
      disseminated lesions) showed a complete remission within 3 to 8 weeks of
      treatment. Furthermore, 6 other children who switched to other forms of treatment
      showed a partial remission (55.55%-84.61%) after 10 to 12 weeks of therapy. The
      only cutaneous adverse reaction to topical imiquimod was a mild to moderate
      irritation in the application area that was observed in all treated children,
      whereas no systemic side effects could be seen. Our findings are compatible with
      those of other groups, who also demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy and safety
      of topical imiquimod in MC. Interestingly, in two very similar subsequent papers
      Katz and Swetman (7) and Katz (8,9) expressed the view that "imiquimod is neither
      efficacious nor safe in the treatment of MC in children". This view was not the
      result of the author's clinical experience but was exclusively based on the
      findings of two randomized clinical trials (RCTs). These were carried out in 2006
      upon request of the FDA from the drug's original manufacturer (3M) and
      "definitely showed that imiquimod does not effectively treat MC in children".
      Surprisingly, today, 10 years after their completion, these RCTs still remain
      unpublished, whereas the corresponding FDA site provides no information with
      regard to the researchers, the centers in which these trials were conducted,
      their research protocol, and the demographic data of the enrolled patients. In a
      very recent review on childhood skin infections, Rush and Dinulos (10),
      exclusively based on Dr. Katz's paper, fully adopted this view and stated that
      "imiquimod is neither efficacious nor safe in the treatment of MC", although they
      admit that the RCTs cited by the latter still remain unpublished. In contrast to
      these authors, we reject Dr Katz's inexplicable request to the medical community
      to fully ignore all articles published in peer-reviewed journals that demonstrate
      the efficacy and safety of imiquimod in MC. We do not claim that imiquimod is a
      panacea. However, based on our clinical experience and that of other groups, we
      are convinced that this compound represents a very useful and painless tool in
      the dermatologic arsenal for the treatment of MC, an otherwise difficult to
      manage dermatosis, particularly in children.

PMID- 28871936
TI  - Xanthoma-like Skin Changes in an Elderly Woman with a Normal Lipid Profile.
AB  - Dear Editor, An 83-year-old woman developed yellow-brownish infiltrates, nodules,
      and tumors mimicking xanthomas, mostly involving the periorbital and chest area
      within three months (Figure 1). She had no abnormalities in serum cholesterol or
      triglycerides levels. A detailed laboratory analysis revealed the presence of
      mild monoclonal gammopathy with a presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) kappa light
      chains; however, according to hematologist consultation, it did not require
      medical intervention. Imaging assessment and ultrasound examination did not show
      any specific involvement of internal organs. The skin biopsy demonstrated
      necrobiotic areas alternated with foci of xanthogranulomatous infiltration
      throughout the reticular dermis with extension into subcutaneous tissue. The
      granulomatous infiltrate was composed of epithelioid, foamy histiocytes in
      addition to conspicuous giant cells of the Touton type and foreign body type, as
      well as variable numbers of lymphocytes, plasma cells, and neutrophiles. Lipid
      vacuoles were seen within the foci of necrobiosis and xanthogranulomatous
      infiltration (Figure 2). Two months after first admission to our department, the
      first signs of necrosis within the lesions were noted, and massive necrosis of
      skin lesions occurred after the following 5 months (Figure 1). Based on the
      clinical manifestation and histological and laboratory findings, the diagnosis of
      necrobiotic xanthogranuloma (NXG) was established. In our patient, the extremely
      late onset of the disease, its very aggressive course, and the absence of
      malignant hematological disorder were remarkable. The general condition improved
      after local treatment and a low dose of prednisone. However, patient anamnesis
      revealed myocardial infarction in the past, congestive heart failure, and atrial
      fibrillation. Eventually, the patient died due to acute heart failure before
      alkylating agents could be administered; we consider the patient's death to have
      been unrelated to NXG. NXG is a rare, chronic granulomatous disorder which was
      first described in 1980 by Kossard and Winkelmann (1). Currently, less than one
      hundred fifty cases of this syndrome have been reported in the literature
      worldwide (2,3). The disease occurs during adulthood, slightly more frequently in
      women, and usually after the age of 60 years, although the youngest reported
      patient was 17 years old (3). The disease initially manifests as xanthoma-like
      eruptions of yellowish or red-orange papules and nodules that coalesce into
      indurated plaques (4). The size of the lesions typically increases over time or
      with the next recurrences. In comparison to hyperlipemic and normolipemic
      xanthomas, the lesions are firmer, more prominent, and more polymorphic (3) with
      superficial telangiectasias, sometimes erythematous and/or violaceous borders,
      and atrophy (5). Ulcerations of the lesions were observed in about 50% of
      patients and tended to be extensive and progressive (4). Skin lesions of NXG can
      occur anywhere on the body. However, about two-thirds of patients had periorbital
      involvement, particularly on the upper and/or lower eyelids or elsewhere on the
      face. The second most commonly affected site was the trunk, predominantly the
      chest (3-6). However, many skin lesions first appear on the trunk or extremities
      and subsequently involve the periorbital area (4). More than one body area was
      affected in about 90% of the published cases (3,4). In individual cases, the
      occurrence of NXG was noted within scars, after trauma, or in a previously X-ray
      irradiated area (5). Lesions may be asymptomatic; however, over half of patients
      asked reported various symptoms, predominantly itching but also burning,
      tenderness, and even pain (4,5). Periorbital skin lesions are often accompanied
      by ophthalmic manifestations, mainly scleritis, choroiditis, or conjunctivitis
      (3), and with complications such as blepharoptosis, restricted ocular motility,
      and proptosis (4,5). Extracutaneous lesions are most commonly seen in the
      respiratory tract, including the lungs and larynx, followed by the myocardium,
      oral cavity, skeletal muscles, kidneys, ovaries, intestine, and other sites
      (5,6). Extracutaneous involvement was reported in less than 20% of cases (3), but
      its frequency seems to have increased in recent years (5). Regarding laboratory
      abnormalities, the majority of patients with NXG (70% and up to 90% depending on
      the studied population) have a monoclonal gammopathy (more often IgG-kappa than
      IgG-lambda). Elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, anemia, leukopenia, low C1
      and C4 levels, and cryoglobulinemia are also frequently present (3-6). Incisional
      biopsy is recommended to confirm the diagnosis of NXG, but correlations between
      the clinical presentation and specific histopathologic findings have been poorly
      characterized so far. The histopathology shows an inflammatory infiltrate
      composed of macrophages, foam cells, plasma cells, and other inflammatory cells
      as well as Touton and foreign body-type giant cells in the dermis and
      subcutaneous tissue. Necrobiosis is usually present, and nodular lymphoid
      aggregates are common. Cholesterol clefts or asteroid bodies are rare or absent.
      The epidermis may be atrophic or normal. Special stains are not helpful in
      establishing the diagnosis of NXG, but immunohistochemistry for CD68 is positive
      while it is always for CD1a and PS100 negative, like in non-X histiocytosis
      (4,5). In patients without a known myeloproliferative disorder, bone marrow
      biopsy may reveal atypical or increased plasma cells and, very rarely, true
      multiple myeloma (5). As mentioned above, NXG can be a manifestation of multiple
      myeloma. However, chronic lymphocyte leukemia, B-cell lymphoma, and other
      lymphoproliferative diseases have also been reported in patients with NXG (3).
      Remarkably, hematological disorders may emerge many years before or after the
      onset of skin lesions (even up to 11 years) (4). According to available
      literature data, the course of the disease is usually chronic and slowly
      progressive, and the prognosis is relatively good in the absence of co-occurrence
      of malignant hematological disorders ([5-7). Aside from hyperlipemic and
      normolipemic xanthomas, the differential diagnosis of NXG includes multifocal
      necrobiosis lipoidica, granuloma annulare, foreign-body granuloma, juvenile
      xanthogranuloma, rheumatoid nodules, and amyloidosis (4). In 5 cases from the
      literature, xanthoma and NXG were present at the same time (3). Despite several
      hypotheses, the etiopathogenesis of NXG remains unknown (3,4,8). For that reason
      and due to the rarity of the disease, the optimal therapy has not been not
      defined. Frequently, chlorambucil or melphalan have been used alone or in
      combination with prednisone (4). Treatment may result in remission of symptoms on
      the skin, but it does not provide a permanent cure (8). There are also single
      reports of the successful use of thalidomide, lenalidomide, cyclophosphamide,
      dexamethasone, interferon 2a and 2b, plasmapheresis and hydroxychloroquine,
      azathioprine, infliximab, and autologous bone marrow transplantation (3).
      Methotrexate seems to be ineffective (9). Local therapy, including local
      steroids, laser CO2, or radiotherapy, results in partial improvement (3,4). Skin
      lesions which relapsed or were unresponsive to treatment could be excised
      surgically and the defects resurfaced with skin grafts. [2].

PMID- 28871937
TI  - [Pleurotus ferulae polysaccharide adjuvant enhances the immune infertility of
      CZP3DNA vaccine].
AB  - Objective To investigate the effect of Pleurotus ferulae polysaccharide (PFP) as
      an adjuvant on the infertility induced by canine zona pellucida 3 (CZP3) DNA
      vaccine (pcDNA3-CZP3). Methods Female mice were intramuscularly immunized with
      pcDNA3-CZP3 alone or co-immunized with pcDNA3-CZP3 and aluminum adjuvant or PFP
      for three times. CZP3-specific antibody titers of antiserum were determined by
      ELISA. The maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) and the proliferation of T
      lymphocytes were detected by flow cytometry. The litter of the immunized mice
      were counted. Results Compared with pcDNA3-CZP3 alone, pcDNA3-CZP3 combined with
      aluminum or PFP significantly increased the CZP3-specific antibody titers.
      Moreover, PFP as an adjuvant significantly up-regulated the expressions of CD86
      and MHCII on DCs, enhanced the proliferation of T cells, and decreased the
      fertility rate and mean litter. Conclusion PFP can enhance the infertility
      efficacy of CZP3 DNA vaccine through increasing the humoral and cellular immune
      responses, promoting DC maturation and T cell proliferation.

PMID- 28871938
TI  - [Shendi granules regulates the balance of T cell subsets and down-regulates
      podocalyxin in rats with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis].
AB  - Objective To observe the effect of Shendi granules on T cell subsets and podocyte
      marker protein in rats with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN),
      and study possible mechanism. Methods Totally 40 SD rats were randomly divided
      into the model group, valsartan group, Shendi granule group and normal group. The
      Shendi granule group were given 4 g/(kg.d) of Shendi granule by gavage; the
      valsartan group were given 10.3 mg/(kg.d) of valsartan by gavage; the model group
      and normal group were given the same amount of saline per day by gavage. The
      treatments lasted 12 weeks. Routine biochemical method was used to quantify 24
      hour urine protein; the numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were detected by flow
      cytometry; the serum levels of interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL-4 and IL-17, the levels
      of urinary podocalyxin (PCX) and B7-1, the renal calcineurin (CaN) content were
      determined by ELISA. Results Compared with the normal group, the levels of 24
      hour urine protein, CD8+ T cells, serum IL-2 and IL-17, urinary PCX and B7-1, CaN
      in the model group were higher. The above indexes in the valsartan group and
      control group were lower than those in the model group, they were lower in the
      Shendi granule group than in the valsartan group. The whole blood CD4+ T cell
      number and serum IL-4 level in the model group were lower than those in the
      normal group, they were higher in the valsartan group and control group than in
      the model group. Compared with the valsartan group, the Shendi granule group had
      a better improvement. Conclusion Shendi granule could reduce 24-hour urine
      protein effectively. The mechanism may be related to the regulation of CD4+ T and
      CD8+ T cell numbers, the down-regulated expressions of serum IL-2, IL-17, the
      decreased levels of PCX and B7-1 in urine, CaN in kidney tissue, and the up
      regulated level of serum IL-4.

PMID- 28871939
TI  - [Astragalus polysaccharide alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced lung injury in
      rats by inhibiting neutrophil activation].
AB  - Objective To study the effects of Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) on rat lung
      injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Methods A total of 36 adult SD rats
      were randomly divided into control group, LPS model group and APS administration
      group. Acute lung injury was induced by a single intratracheal injection of LPS.
      Lung injury in rats was observed by HE staining. The changes of proinflammatory
      factors such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 1beta (IL
      1beta) were detected by ELISA. The numbers of white blood cells (WBCs) and
      neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were determined by cell
      counting. The activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      were tested by the respective kits. Results Compared with the control group, the
      LPS-induced model group showed pulmonary edema and increased vascular
      permeability, upregulated levels of TNF-alpha and IL-1beta in BALF, significantly
      ascended numbers of WBCs and neutrophils, enhanced MPO activity and increased ROS
      level. However, administration of APS suppressed LPS-induced vascular
      permeability, tissue injury and inflammation in the rat lung. APS also suppressed
      LPS-induced neutrophilic inflammation in BALF. MPO activity and ROS level
      decreased significantly as well. Conclusion Administration of APS suppresses LPS
      induced lung injury via inhibiting of neutrophil activation in rats.

PMID- 28871940
TI  - [The level of IL-2 and IL-6 in stimulated peripheral lymphocyte supernatants of
      kidney transplant recipients can predict acute renal allograft rejection].
AB  - Objective To detect the expressions of interleukin 2 (IL-2) and IL-6 using in
      vitro lymphocyte stimulation and flow cytometric microcarrier assay, and explore
      the feasibility of the method for predicting the acute rejection in kidney
      transplant recipients. Methods Using phorbol myfismte acetate (PMA)/ionomycin, we
      stimulated the peripheral blood lymphocytes in vitro from 52 kidney transplant
      recipients, including 22 ones with acute rejection (AR) and 30 with stable
      allograft function (STA). Eight hours later, we detected the expressions of IL-2
      and IL-6 in cell culture supernatant by flow cytometric microcarrier assay. IL-2
      and IL-6 expressions were compared between in the stimulated cell culture
      supernatant and in the unstimulated plasma, as well as between the two groups to
      evaluate the ability of the method predicting the acute rejection. Results The
      expressions of IL-2 and IL-6 in the AR group were significantly higher than those
      in the STA group after the peripheral blood lymphocytes were stimulated. In both
      of the groups, the expressions of IL-2 and IL-6 in stimulated lymphocyte culture
      supernatants were significantly higher than those in the unstimulated plasma. The
      sensitivity and specificity of combined IL-2 and IL-6 detection in stimulated
      lymphocyte culture supernatants for predicting the acute rejection were 81.8% and
      90%, respectively, which were higher than the individual sensitivity and
      specificity. Conclusion The method of detecting both IL-2 and IL-6 expressions in
      stimulated peripheral lymphocyte culture supernatants by flow microsphere carrier
      assay had good sensitivity and specificity for predicting the acute renal
      allograft rejection in kidney transplant recipients.

PMID- 28871941
TI  - [Elevated expression of endothelin 2 in lung tissues of asthmatic rats after
      exposed to cigarette smoke and its mechanism].
AB  - Objective To study the effect of cigarette smoke exposure on the expression of
      endothelin 2 (ET-2) in bronchial epithelium of asthmatic rats. Methods Asthma
      models were established through intraperitoneal injection of 1 mL chicken
      ovalbumin (OVA)/Al(OH)3 mixture (asthma model group, n=6); based on the asthma
      models, exposure to smoking gas lasted four weeks with 10 cigarettes per day
      (smoke-exposed asthma group, n=6); based on the smoke-exposed asthma models, the
      rats were treated with intraperitoneal injection of dexamethasone 2 mg/(kg.d),
      intragastric administration of ET receptor inhibitor bosentan 100 mg/(kg.d) and
      combined use, respectively named dexamethasone treated group, bosentan treated
      group, and dexamethasone-bosentan treated group, 6 rats in every group. What's
      more, other 6 rats were only subjected to intraperitoneal injection of 1 mL
      normal saline as normal controls; in addition to the injection of saline,
      cigarette smoke control group (n=6) was set up by the exposure to smoking gas for
      four weeks with 10 cigarettes per day. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was
      collected from the upper lobe of the left lung for cell counting and
      classification. Pathological changes of the right upper lung lobe tissues were
      observed by HE staining. In other lung tissues, the expression of JNK1/2 was
      detected by Western blotting; ET-2 was tested by Western blotting and
      immunohistochemistry; thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay and
      trace enzyme standard method were used to measure malondialdehyde (MDA) and
      glutathione (GSH), respectively. Results Compared with normal control group, the
      number of airway inflammation cells increased in the BALF, and the expressions of
      ET-2, JNK1/2, MDA and GSH increased in the lung tissues of cigarette smoke
      control group, asthma model group and cigarette smoke-exposed asthma group.
      Compared with cigarette smoke-exposed asthma group, the number of airway
      inflammation cells decreased in the BALF, and the expressions of ET-2, JNK1/2,
      MDA and GSH decreased in the lung tissues of the dexamethasone treated group,
      bosentan treated group, and dexamethasone-bosentan treated group. Airway
      inflammation was attenuated and the staining intensity of ET-2 in the lung tissue
      was reduced in the dexamethasone treated group, bosentan treated group, and
      dexamethasone-bosentan treated group, which were more obvious in the
      dexamethasone-bosentan treated group. Conclusion Cigarette smoke exposure
      obviously aggravates airway inflammation in asthmatic rats, and bosentan can
      effectively alleviate the airway inflammation. The mechanism of the inflammation
      may be related to ET-2 and JNK1/2 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28871942
TI  - [gamma-secretase inhibitor MW167 reduces the level of GATA3 in peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells in children with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis].
AB  - Objective To study the changes of GATA3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells
      (PBMCs) of children with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis after
      gamma-secretase inhibitor (GSI) MW167 blocks Notch signaling. Methods The study
      enrolled 30 patients with RSV bronchiolitis and 25 normal controls. PBMCs were
      separated and divided into normal control group, RSV group, and MW167 treated
      group. The level of interleukin-4 (IL-4) in supernatant was detected by ELISA;
      level of GATA3 mRNA was determined by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR; and
      the expressions of Notch1 intracellular domain (NICD) and GATA3 proteins were
      examined by Western blotting. Results Compared with RSV group, the levels of IL-4
      decreased, and the levels of GATA3 mRNA, NICD and GATA3 proteins also
      significantly decreased in MW167 treated group. Conclusion GSI can block the
      Notch signaling pathway and decrease the level of GATA3.

PMID- 28871943
TI  - [Immunization with Bifidobacterium bifidum-vectored OprI vaccine of Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa enhances inhibitory effect on P. aeruginosa in mice].
AB  - Objective To study the pulmonary bacterial loads, splenocyte proliferation,
      distributions of T cell subsets and cell apoptosis in mice immunized with
      Bifidobacterium bifidum-vectored OprI (Bb-OprI) vaccine of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      and challenged with P. aeruginosa PA01 strain. Methods BALB/c mice were immunized
      with 5*109 CFUs of vaccine by intragastric administration, 3 times a week for 3
      weeks, and challenged intranasally with 5*106 CFUs of PA01 strain at the fourth
      week after the first immunization. At the second week after the challenge, all
      mice were sacrificed to separate their lungs and spleens, and the pulmonary
      bacterial loads were counted. The proliferation of the splenocytes was determined
      by MTT assay. The splenic CD4+, CD8+ T cell subsets and the apoptotic rate of
      splenocytes were detected by flow cytometry. Results The number of pulmonary
      bacterial colonies in the mice immunized with the vaccine and challenged with
      PA01 strain decreased, while the proliferation of splenocytes and the proportion
      of CD4+ T cells markedly increased, and the apoptosis of splenocytes was notably
      reduced. Conclusion The intragastric vaccination of recombinant Bb-OprI vaccine
      can increase the proportion of CD4+ T cells and enhance the inhibitory effect on
      P. aeruginosa.

PMID- 28871944
TI  - [Effect of Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) over-expression on activities of chicken
      PPARgamma and C/EBPalpha promoters].
AB  - Objective To examine the effect of Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) over-expression
      on the activities of chicken peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma
      (PPARgamma) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (C/EBPalpha) promoters.
      Methods Luciferase reporter assay was used to investigate the effect of KLF2 over
      expression on reporter activities of 6 kinds of chicken PPARgamma promoter
      construct and 5 kinds of chicken C/EBPalpha promoter construct in DF1 cells.
      Results KLF2 over-expression significantly inhibited the reporter activities of 4
      kinds of chicken PPARgamma promoter construct (-1978/-82, -1513/-82, -1254/-82
      and -1019/-82), but had no significant effect on the reporter activities of 2
      kinds of PPARgamma promoter construct (-513/-82 and -320/-82). In addition, the
      effect of KLF2 over-expression on the reporter activities of 2 kinds of PPARgamma
      promoter construct (-1513/-82 and -1254/-82) was significantly greater than that
      on the other 2 kinds of PPARgamma promoter construct (-1978/-82 and -1019/-82).
      Additionally, KLF2 over-expression inhibited the reporter activity of one kind of
      C/EBPalpha promoter construct (-1863/+332), and enhanced the reporter activities
      of 4 kinds of C/EBPalpha promoter construct (-1318/+332, -891/+332, -538/+332 and
      -123/+332). There was no significant difference in the promoting effect of KLF2
      over-expression among the 4 kinds of C/EBPalpha promoter construct (-1318/+332, 
      891/+332, -538/+332 and -123/+332). Conclusion The effect of KLF2 over-expression
      on the activities of chicken PPARgamma and C/EBPalpha promoters are different
      among the constructs containing various lengths.

PMID- 28871945
TI  - [Over-expression of miR-497 promotes the proliferation of U87 glioma cells by
      targeting neuregulin receptor degradation protein 1].
AB  - Objective To investigate the effect of miR-497 over-expression on the
      proliferation of U87 human glioma cells. Methods We packaged both pGLV3/H1-NC
      lentivirus as a negative control group and pGLV3/H1-miR-497 lentivirus as an
      experimental group, and then constructed U87-NC and U87-miR-497 cell lines,
      respectively. The relationship between miR-497 and neuregulin receptor
      degradation protein 1 (Nrdp1) was analyzed by luciferase reporter assay in U87
      cells; cell colony formation assay was used to detect cell proliferation and flow
      cytometry to detect cell cycle; the expressions of Nrdp1, AKT and phosphorylated
      AKT (p-AKT) were determined by Western blotting. Results We successfully packaged
      pGLV3/H1-NC and pGLV3/H1-miR-497 lentivirus, and obtained stable U87-NC and U87
      miR-497 cell lines. When miR-497 was over-expressed in U87 cells, the cell colony
      formation ability was enhanced compared with the control group U87-NC. The
      luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-497 targeted Nrdp1 in U87 cells. In
      the stable infected cells, the level of Nrdp1 protein decreased and p-AKT protein
      increased, while the AKT protein did not change significantly after over
      expression of miR-497. Conclusion Over-expression of miR-497 promotes the
      proliferation of glioma cells U87 by targeting Nrdp1.

PMID- 28871946
TI  - [Mechanism for the inhibition of proliferation and promotion of apoptosis in
      Huh7.5 cells by iron overload].
AB  - Objective To investigate the effect of iron overload on biological activity and
      apoptosis in Huh7.5 cells. Methods Huh7.5 cells were cultured in the medium
      supplemented with 50, 100, 200 MUmol/L ferric ammonium citrate (FAC).
      Fluorescence microscopy was employed to determine cell iron load labeled by Phen
      Green FL; proliferation activity of Huh7.5 cells was evaluated by MTT assay;
      protein and mRNA levels of transferrin receptor (TfR1), TfR2, divalent metal
      transporter 1 (DMT1) and ferroportin 1 (FPN1) in Huh7.5 cells were detected by
      Western blotting and real-time PCR, respectively; cell reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) labeled by dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCFH-DA) and cell apoptosis
      labeled by annexinV-FITC/PI were analyzed by flow cytometry. Results FAC
      treatment increased intracellular iron load in a dose-dependent manner. Compared
      with control group, mRNA and protein expressions of TfR1, TfR2 and DMT1 were down
      regulated, while mRNA and protein expression of FPN1 was significantly up
      regulated in FAC treated groups. With the increasing dose of FAC, intracellular
      ROS level increased significantly and cell proliferation activity decreased
      significantly. The cell apoptosis rate in FAC treated groups were remarkably
      higher than that in control group, but after antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
      was added, the cell apoptosis in FAC treated group was inhibited obviously.
      Conclusion Iron overload can inhibit the proliferation and promote the apoptosis
      of Huh7.5 cells through oxidative stress.

PMID- 28871947
TI  - [Knock-down of KHDRBS3 gene inhibits proliferation of human ovarian cancer CAOV-3
      cells].
AB  - Objective To investigate the effect of KH RNA binding domain-containing, signal
      transduction-associated 3 (KHDRBS3) gene on the proliferation of human ovarian
      cancer CAOV-3 cells in vitro. Methods The logarithmic growth phase cells were
      divided into non-transfection group, unrelated small interfering RNA (siRNA)
      sequence transfection group and KHDRBS3-siRNA transfection group. Reverse
      transcription PCR and Western blotting were used to verify the result of KHDRBS3
      gene silencing. The proliferation of CAOV-3 cells in different groups was
      compared by MTT assay. The cell cycle distribution of CAOV-3 cells in different
      treatment groups was detected by flow cytometry. Results KHDRBS3-siRNA
      transfection significantly decreased the mRNA and protein levels of KHDRBS3 gene
      in CAOV-3 cells. After the knock-down of KHDRBS3 gene in CAOV-3 cells, the
      proliferation of the cells markedly decreased, the percentage of G0/G1 phase
      cells increased, and the percentage of S phase cells decreased, while the
      percentage of G2/M phase cells did not change significantly. Conclusion Down
      regulating the KHDRBS3 gene can cause G0/G1 phase arrest and inhibit cell
      proliferation in CAOV-3 cells.

PMID- 28871948
TI  - [Over-expressed HER2 enhances proliferation, migration and invasion of melanoma
      B16 cells].
AB  - Objective To establish a melanoma B16 cell line stably over-expressing the HER2
      (ErbB2) gene and study its effect on the proliferation, migration and invasion of
      melanoma cells. Methods The recombinant plasmid pCMV3-ErbB2 was transfected into
      B16 melanoma cell line by cationic liposome. The positive clones were screened
      with hygromycin B. Real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) was utilized to determine
      the expression of ErbB2 mRNA. Immunofluorescence was used to evaluate the
      expression of ErbB2 protein. MTT assay was applied to detect the cell
      proliferation ability. The cell migration ability was examined by a scratch
      assay. TranswellTM assay was performed to determine the effect of HER2 over
      expression on the capability of B16s invasion. Results The cell line over
      expressing HER2 was successfully established as showed by qRT-PCR. Over
      expression of HER2 remarkably enhanced the proliferation, invasion and migration
      of B16 cells. Conclusion Over-expression of HER2 can enhance the growth and
      invasion of B16 cells.

PMID- 28871949
TI  - [Knock-down of ZEB1 inhibits the proliferation, invasion and migration of gastric
      cancer cells].
AB  - Objective To down-regulate the expression of zinc-finger E-box binding homeobox 1
      (ZEB1) gene by shRNA, and investigate its effect on invasion, migration and
      proliferation, as well as the related gene expressions of lncRNA HOTAIR and E
      cadherin in human gastric cancer BGC823 cells. Methods RNA interfering (RNAi) was
      used to knock down ZEB1 in gastric cancer BGC823 cells. The recombinant plasmid
      shZEB1 was constructed and transfected into the gastric cancer BGC823 cells by
      LipofectamineTM 2000, and the stably transfected cells were isolated by G418
      selection and limited dilution. The expression of ZEB1 mRNA and protein was
      detected by real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot analysis. Cell
      proliferation was determined by MTT assay, and the invasion and migration
      abilities of BGC823 cells were monitored by TranswellTM invasion assay and wound
      healing assay, respectively. The expressions of lncRNA HOTAIR and E-cadherin mRNA
      were detected by real-time quantitative PCR. Results After ZEB1 expression was
      successfully down-regulated in BGC823 cells by siRNA, the proliferation, invasion
      and migration rates in shZEB1 transfection group were significantly lower than
      those in control group; meanwhile, the expression of lncRNA HOTAIR was reduced
      and E-cadherin expression was enhanced. Conclusion Knock-down of ZEB1 expression
      by RNA interference can decease lncRNA HOTAIR expression and restrain cell
      proliferation, invasion and migration in gastric cancer BGC823 cells.

PMID- 28871950
TI  - [Effect of microRNA-155 on inflammatory response and lipid uptake of macrophages
      and its mechanism].
AB  - Objective To investigate the effect of microRNA-155 on inflammatory response and
      lipid uptake of macrophages after the cells are stimulated by ox-LDL and its
      potential mechanism. Methods Macrophage RAW264.7 cells were treated with 0, 25,
      50 and 100 MUg/mL ox-LDL for 24 hours or with 50 MUg/mL ox-LDL for 0, 6, 12, 24
      hours. The level of miR-155 was evaluated in all above samples through real-time
      quantitative PCR. In our research, RAW264.7 cells were divided into six groups:
      control group, ox-LDL group, ox-LDL/negative control group, ox-LDL/anti-miR-155
      group, ox-LDL/shRNA negative control group and ox-LDL/PPARgamma-shRNA group. Oil
      red O staining was used to observe lipid uptake in the cells. Filipin staining
      was used to evaluate the cellular uptake of ox-LDL. Cholesterol testing was
      performed to examine the levels of total cholesterol (TC) and free cholesterol
      (FC). Real-time quantitative PCR was done to detect the expressions of tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and IL-6 mRNAs.
      According to study purpose, we explored the potential mechanisms of miR-155
      inhibitor (including control group, ox-LDL group, ox-LDL/negative control group
      and ox-LDL/miR-155 inhibitor group), miR-155 mimic (including negative control
      group and miR-155 mimic group), and PPARgamma shRNA (including control group, ox
      LDL group, ox-LDL/shRNA negative control group and ox-LDL/PPARgamma shRNA group)
      in ox-LDL-treated RAW264.7 cells through evaluating the expressions of p-STAT3,
      PPARgamma, CD36 and NF-kappaBp65 using Western blotting. Results Ox-LDL
      stimulation increased the relative expression of miR-155 in a dose- and time
      dependent manner. Through oil red O staining, Filipin staining, cholesterol
      testing and real-time PCR experiment, we found the relative absorbance, levels of
      TC and FC, filipin fluorescence intensity, and levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and
      IL-6 mRNAs were significantly lower in ox-LDL/anti-miR-155 group than in ox-LDL
      and ox-LDL/negative control group. Similarly, the relative absorbance, levels of
      TC and FC, filipin fluorescence intensity and levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and
      IL-6 mRNAs were significantly lower in ox-LDL/ PPARgamma shRNA group than in ox
      LDL group and ox-LDL/shRNA negative control group. The expressions of p-STAT3,
      PPARgamma, CD36 and NF-kappaBp65 proteins were suppressed in ox-LDL/anti-miR-155
      group as compared with ox-LDL group and ox-LDL/negative control group. Similarly,
      p-STAT3, PPARgamma, CD36 and NF-kappaBp65 protein levels decreased in ox
      LDL/PPARgamma shRNA as compared with ox-LDL/vector group. Moreover, p-STAT3,
      PPARgamma, CD36 and NF-kappaBp65 protein levels were higher in miR-155 mimic
      group than in negative control group. Conclusion Mediated by PPARgamma, miR-155
      induced inflammation response and lipid uptake of macrophages via STAT3/NF-kappaB
      signal pathway and CD36.

PMID- 28871951
TI  - [Inhibition of miR-18a increases expression of estrogen receptor 1 and promotes
      apoptosis in human HTR8 trophoblasts].
AB  - Objective To investigate the role of pre-eclampsia related miR-18a in regulating
      estrogen receptor 1 (ER1) expression, cell cycle and apoptosis in HTR8 human
      trophoblasts. Methods HTR8 cells were transfected with synthesized negative
      control (NC) miRNA, miR-18a and miR-18a inhibitor, respectively. The mRNA
      expressions of miR-18a and ER1 were determined by reverse transcription PCR (RT
      PCR). The protein expression level of ER1 was examined by Western blotting. The
      cell cycle and apoptosis were evaluated by flow cytometry. Results The mRNA level
      of miR-18a was significantly up-regulated in miR-18a-transfected group, while
      down-regulated in miR-18a inhibitor group as compared with the NC group in HTR8
      cells. Compared with the NC group, both mRNA and protein expression levels of ER1
      were significantly higher in the miR-18a inhibitor group. Cell cycle analysis
      showed that no significant difference was observed among the three groups. The
      apoptosis rate was significantly higher in the miR-18a inhibitor group as
      compared with the other two groups. Conclusion Inhibition of miR-18a increases
      the expression of ER1 and promotes apoptosis in HTR8 human trophoblasts.

PMID- 28871952
TI  - [Up-regulated expression of NK1R in eosinophil-enriched blood cells from patients
      with chronic spontaneous urticaria].
AB  - Objective To investigate the expressions of substance P (SP) and neurokinin-1
      receptor (NK1R) in eosinophil-enriched blood cells from patients with chronic
      spontaneous urticaria (CSU). Methods Peripheral venous blood samples were
      collected from patients with CSU and healthy controls (HCs), and then stimulated
      with crude extracts of Artemisia pollen, dust mite, and Platanus pollen (all at
      concentrations of 0.1 and 1.0 MUg/mL). The expressions of SP and NK1R in
      eosinophil-enriched blood cells were detected by flow cytometry. Results Compared
      with HCs, eosinophil proportion in peripheral blood of CSU patients increased 1.2
      fold. Percentage of NK1R+ eosinophils in the patients with CSU was elevated up to
      66% compared with HCs when cultured in the medium only. However, the level of SP
      decreased by 40% in the CSU patients. In eosinophil-enriched blood cells from the
      CSU patients, the crude extract of dust mite at 0.1 MUg/mL induced approximately
      1.11-fold increase of NK1R expression. Conclusion Expression of NK1R increases in
      the eosinophils of CSU patients. Blockers of NK1R might be used for CSU
      treatment.

PMID- 28871953
TI  - [Detection and analysis of serum level of anti-Candida enolase IgG antibody in
      patients with autoimmune diseases].
AB  - Objective To detect IgG antibody against Candida enolase in the sera of patients
      with autoimmune diseases. Methods Using purified recombinant Candida enolase as
      the coating antigen, an ELISA was established for enolase IgG antibody detection
      and the reactive conditions were optimized. The enolase IgG antibody in the sera
      from patients with autoimmune diseases and healthy controls were detected by
      ELISA. The specificity of the positive sera was confirmed by Western blotting.
      Results The study collected 70 serum samples from the patients with autoimmune
      diseases and 44 from the healthy individuals. ELISA showed anti-Candida enolase
      IgG antibody in 19 cases of the autoimmune disease group and and 3 cases of the
      healthy control group, the positive rates of which were 27.14% (19/70) and 6.82%
      (3/44), respectively. In the autoimmune disease group, the positive rate of anti
      Candida enolase IgG antibody in the systemic lupus erythematosus patients was
      45.8% (11/24), significant higher than that in the rheumatoid arthritis patients
      (11.8%, 2/17). Western blotting validated the specificity of the positive sera.
      Conclusion The positive rate of anti-Candida enolase IgG antibody in patients
      with autoimmune disease is high, which would be an interference factor in the
      application of IgG antibody detection for the diagnosis of invasive candidiasis.

PMID- 28871954
TI  - [Elevated serum IL-25 levels in rheumatoid arthritis patients with bone erosion
      and interstitial lung disease].
AB  - Objective To detect the serum levels of IL-25 and IL-17 in rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA) patients and investigate the potential relationship with bone erosion and
      concomitant interstitial lung disease (ILD). Methods The study enrolled a total
      of 117 RA patients and 56 healthy subjects as controls. The serum levels of IL-25
      and IL-17 were determined by ELISA, and rheumatoid factor (RF) was detected by
      turbidimetric immunoassay, anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody
      as well as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were
      also tested. ILD was identified on high-resolution computed tomography (HR-CT),
      the degree of bone erosion was inspected by musculoskeletal ultrasonography, and
      radiographic grade was graded by Sharp-van der Heijde Score (SHS). Disease
      activity in RA was scored with the DAS28 and visual analogue scale (VAS).
      Correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlations of IL-25 and IL-17 in
      different groups. Results Compared with healthy control group, the serum levels
      of IL-25 and IL-17 increased significantly in the patients with RA. Compared with
      bone erosion negative group, the serum level of IL-25 was higher significantly in
      bone erosion group. The level of IL-25 was higher in the ILD group of RA patients
      than the non-ILD group. In addition, there were positive correlations between the
      serum level of IL-25 and RF-IgG (r=0.285), RF-IgA (r=0.314), RF-IgM (r=0.380).
      Meanwhile, the serum level of IL-17 had the positive correlations with RF-IgG
      (r=0.198) and RF-IgM (r=0.273). Both of them had no correlations with anti-CCP
      antibody. Conclusion The serum level of IL-25 is raised in RA patients with bone
      erosion and ILD.

PMID- 28871955
TI  - [The polymorphisms of IL-13 rs848G/T and rs1295686A/G in Guangxi population of
      China and comparative analysis].
AB  - Objective To investigate the distribution characteristics of polymorphisms of
      rs848G/T and rs1295686A/G in the interleukin 13 (IL-13) gene in Guangxi normal
      people and compare them with those of Europeans, Beijing peoples, Japanese and
      Africans published in HapMap. Methods The rs848G/T and rs1295686A/G of IL-13 gene
      in 275 cases of Guangxi people were genotyped by SNaPshot and DNA sequencing. The
      differences between groups were analyzed statistically. Results Three genotypes,
      namely GG, GT and TT, were found in rs848G/T with frequency distributions of
      38.2%, 47.3% and 14.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference in each
      genotype and allele frequency between different genders in Guangxi people.
      However, there were significant differences in the genotype frequency of rs848G/T
      in Guangxi people compared with those of Europeans, Japanese and Africans
      published in HapMap. The allele frequency of rs848G/T between Guangxi people and
      the other four groups was statistically different. Three genotypes, namely AA, AG
      and GG, were found in rs1295686A/G with frequency distributions of 11.6%, 46.2%
      and 42.2%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the genotypes and
      allele frequency in rs1295686A/G between different genders in Guangxi people,
      while they were statistically different from those of Europeans and Africans
      published in HapMap. Conclusion There are different degrees of variance in the
      polymorphisms of rs848G/T and rs1295686A/G of IL-13 gene in different regions.

PMID- 28871956
TI  - [Screening of specific IgE-binding epitopes of dust mite allergens using short
      peptide array].
AB  - Objective To screen the possible linear epitopes of major and mid-potency
      allergens in Dermatophagoides farinae (Der f1, Der f2, Der f4, Der f5 and Der
      f7). Methods Short peptides were synthesized on the basis of the amino acid
      sequences in active fraction of Der f1, Der f2, Der f4, Der f5 and Der f7. Each
      peptide had eight amino acids in length and seven of them were overlapped with
      each other. Put these peptides to the chip to build microarrays that would have
      immunoreaction with human serum IgE. Then the chips were scanned to analyze the
      data. Results A total of 1128 short peptides from the above five groups of
      allergens were synthesized, and the microarray chips were constructed. Six serum
      samples from children who were allergic to Dermatophagoides farinae were mixed
      and added to the microarray chips. The chips were scanned and analyzed, and the
      results showed that Der f1 had four epitopes (46-53aa, 71-78aa, 99-110aa and 179
      186aa), that Der f2 had three epitopes (15-22aa, 80-89aa and 106-113aa), that Der
      f 4 had six epitopes (69-82aa, 107-116aa, 225-232aa, 261-268aa, 355-365aa and 483
      496aa), that Der f5 had one epitope (102-109aa), and Der f7 had three epitopes
      (32-39aa, 52-64aa and 100-107aa). Conclusion We identified the linear epitopes of
      Der f1, Der f2, Der f4, Der f5 and Der f7.

PMID- 28871957
TI  - [Expression of BRCA2 in tumor tissues in patients with laryngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma and its clinical significance].
AB  - Objective To determine the role of breast cancer susceptibility gene 2 (BRCA2) in
      laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and investigate its clinical implication.
      Methods The expression of BRCA2 was examined by immunohistochemistry in 62
      tissues of pathologically identified laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and 23
      tissues of vocal fold polyp. The relationships between BRCA2 expression and
      clinicopathological characteristics were further analyzed. The expression of
      BRCA2 mRNA and protein were detected by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and
      Western blot analysis in pathologically identified laryngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma tissues and corresponding normal tissues. Results The
      immunohistochemistry showed that the expression rate of BRCA2 in laryngeal
      carcinoma tissues and vocal fold polyp tissues were 29.03%(18/62) and
      69.56%(16/23), respectively. The expression of BRCA2 was not significantly
      related with patients' gender, age, smoking, differentiation degree, cervical
      lymph node metastasis, and clinical stage. There was a negative correlation
      between BRCA2 expression and T stage. The qRT-PCR and Western blotting showed
      that BRCA2 mRNA and protein expression in the laryngeal squamous carcinoma
      tissues was lower than that in the corresponding normal tissues. Conclusion The
      expression of BRCA2 is low in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and it is
      negatively correlated with T stage.

PMID- 28871958
TI  - Control of AMPA receptor activity by the extracellular loops of auxiliary
      proteins.
AB  - At synapses throughout the mammalian brain, AMPA receptors form complexes with
      auxiliary proteins, including TARPs. However, how TARPs modulate AMPA receptor
      gating remains poorly understood. We built structural models of TARP-AMPA
      receptor complexes for TARPs gamma2 and gamma8, combining recent structural
      studies and de novo structure predictions. These models, combined with peptide
      binding assays, provide evidence for multiple interactions between GluA2 and
      variable extracellular loops of TARPs. Substitutions and deletions of these loops
      had surprisingly rich effects on the kinetics of glutamate-activated currents,
      without any effect on assembly. Critically, by altering the two interacting loops
      of gamma2 and gamma8, we could entirely remove all allosteric modulation of
      GluA2, without affecting formation of AMPA receptor-TARP complexes. Likewise,
      substitutions in the linker domains of GluA2 completely removed any effect of
      gamma2 on receptor kinetics, indicating a dominant role for this previously
      overlooked site proximal to the AMPA receptor channel gate.

PMID- 28871959
TI  - Dipolar extracellular potentials generated by axonal projections.
AB  - Extracellular field potentials (EFPs) are an important source of information in
      neuroscience, but their physiological basis is in many cases still a matter of
      debate. Axonal sources are typically discounted in modeling and data analysis
      because their contributions are assumed to be negligible. Here, we established
      experimentally and theoretically that contributions of axons to EFPs can be
      significant. Modeling action potentials propagating along axons, we showed that
      EFPs were prominent in the presence of terminal zones where axons branch and
      terminate in close succession, as found in many brain regions. Our models
      predicted a dipolar far field and a polarity reversal at the center of the
      terminal zone. We confirmed these predictions using EFPs from the barn owl
      auditory brainstem where we recorded in nucleus laminaris using a multielectrode
      array. These results demonstrate that axonal terminal zones can produce EFPs with
      considerable amplitude and spatial reach.

PMID- 28871960
TI  - Striatal fast-spiking interneurons selectively modulate circuit output and are
      required for habitual behavior.
AB  - Habit formation is a behavioral adaptation that automates routine actions.
      Habitual behavior correlates with broad reconfigurations of dorsolateral striatal
      (DLS) circuit properties that increase gain and shift pathway timing. The
      mechanism(s) for these circuit adaptations are unknown and could be responsible
      for habitual behavior. Here we find that a single class of interneuron, fast
      spiking interneurons (FSIs), modulates all of these habit-predictive properties.
      Consistent with a role in habits, FSIs are more excitable in habitual mice
      compared to goal-directed and acute chemogenetic inhibition of FSIs in DLS
      prevents the expression of habitual lever pressing. In vivo recordings further
      reveal a previously unappreciated selective modulation of SPNs based on their
      firing patterns; FSIs inhibit most SPNs but paradoxically promote the activity of
      a subset displaying high fractions of gamma-frequency spiking. These results
      establish a microcircuit mechanism for habits and provide a new example of how
      interneurons mediate experience-dependent behavior.

PMID- 28871961
TI  - Genetic epidemiology of dengue viruses in phase III trials of the CYD tetravalent
      dengue vaccine and implications for efficacy.
AB  - This study defined the genetic epidemiology of dengue viruses (DENV) in two
      pivotal phase III trials of the tetravalent dengue vaccine, CYD-TDV, and thereby
      enabled virus genotype-specific estimates of vaccine efficacy (VE). Envelope gene
      sequences (n = 661) from 11 DENV genotypes in 10 endemic countries provided a
      contemporaneous global snapshot of DENV population genetics and revealed high
      amino acid identity between the E genes of vaccine strains and wild-type viruses
      from trial participants, including at epitope sites targeted by virus
      neutralising human monoclonal antibodies. Post-hoc analysis of all CYD14/15 trial
      participants revealed a statistically significant genotype-level VE association
      within DENV-4, where efficacy was lowest against genotype I. In subgroup analysis
      of trial participants age 9-16 years, VE estimates appeared more balanced within
      each serotype, suggesting that genotype-level heterogeneity may be limited in
      older children. Post-licensure surveillance is needed to monitor vaccine
      performance against the backdrop of DENV sequence diversity and evolution.

PMID- 28871962
TI  - Aversive stimuli drive hypothalamus-to-habenula excitation to promote escape
      behavior.
AB  - A sudden aversive event produces escape behaviors, an innate response essential
      for survival in virtually all-animal species. Nuclei including the lateral
      habenula (LHb), the lateral hypothalamus (LH), and the midbrain are not only
      reciprocally connected, but also respond to negative events contributing to goal
      directed behaviors. However, whether aversion encoding requires these neural
      circuits to ultimately prompt escape behaviors remains unclear. We observe that
      aversive stimuli, including foot-shocks, excite LHb neurons and promote escape
      behaviors in mice. The foot-shock-driven excitation within the LHb requires
      glutamatergic signaling from the LH, but not from the midbrain. This hypothalamic
      excitatory projection predominates over LHb neurons monosynaptically innervating
      aversion-encoding midbrain GABA cells. Finally, the selective chemogenetic
      silencing of the LH-to-LHb pathway impairs aversion-driven escape behaviors.
      These findings unveil a habenular neurocircuitry devoted to encode external
      threats and the consequent escape; a process that, if disrupted, may compromise
      the animal's survival.

PMID- 28871964
TI  - Ethics in Radiation Oncology and the American Society for Radiation Oncology's
      Role.

PMID- 28871963
TI  - Species-specific modulation of food-search behavior by respiration and
      chemosensation in Drosophila larvae.
AB  - Animals explore their environment to encounter suitable food resources. Despite
      its vital importance, this behavior puts individuals at risk by consuming limited
      internal energy during locomotion. We have developed a novel assay to investigate
      how food-search behavior is organized in Drosophila melanogaster larvae dwelling
      in hydrogels mimicking their natural habitat. We define three main behavioral
      modes: resting at the gel's surface, digging while feeding near the surface, and
      apneic dives. In unstimulated conditions, larvae spend most of their time
      digging. By contrast, deep and long exploratory dives are promoted by olfactory
      stimulations. Hypoxia and chemical repellents impair diving. We report remarkable
      differences in the dig-and-dive behavior of D. melanogaster and the fruit-pest D.
      suzukii. The present paradigm offers an opportunity to study how sensory and
      physiological cues are integrated to balance the limitations of dwelling in
      imperfect environmental conditions and the risks associated with searching for
      potentially more favorable conditions.

PMID- 28871965
TI  - Ethics in Clinical Care.

PMID- 28871966
TI  - Are We for Sale? Awareness of Industry-Related Financial Conflicts of Interest in
      Radiation Oncology.

PMID- 28871967
TI  - Clinical Research Ethics: Considerations for the Radiation Oncologist.
AB  - Consideration of clinical research ethics in radiation oncology is underexplored
      relative to other areas of oncology. A number of ethical challenges related to
      informed consent, randomization, conflicts of interest, and scientific validity
      and social value are shared with other areas of medicine, although their exact
      inflections are specific to radiation oncology. In addition, there are unique
      concerns in radiation oncology arising from the rapid evolution and uneven
      distribution of radiation technologies; the greater unfamiliarity of the general
      public and research oversight committees in regard to radiation oncology clinical
      practice; and the high complexity of managing most radiation oncology research,
      much of which is carried out in high-acuity multidisciplinary oncologic settings.
      To produce the best research, adherence to the highest ethical standards should
      be pursued as an integral component of all radiation oncology research.

PMID- 28871968
TI  - Ethics in the Legal and Business Practices of Radiation Oncology.
AB  - Ethical issues arise when a professional endeavor such as medicine, which seeks
      to place the well-being of others over the self-interest of the practitioner,
      meets granular business and legal decisions involved in making a livelihood out
      of a professional calling. The use of restrictive covenants, involvement in self
      referral patterns, and maintaining appropriate comity among physicians while
      engaged in the marketplace are common challenges in radiation oncology practice.
      A paradigm of analysis is presented to help navigate these management challenges.

PMID- 28871969
TI  - The Ethical Imperative and Evidence-Based Strategies to Ensure Equity and
      Diversity in Radiation Oncology.

PMID- 28871970
TI  - The Ethics of Scientific Publishing: Black, White, and "Fifty Shades of Gray".

PMID- 28871971
TI  - Financial Relationships With Industry of Editorial Board Members of the Three
      Journals of the American Society for Radiation Oncology.
AB  - PURPOSE: To quantitate financial conflicts of interest (FCOIs) among radiation
      oncology peer-reviewers, specifically editorial board members of the 3 American
      Society for Radiation Oncology journals. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The public
      Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments database delineates
      payments in 3 categories (general payments, research funding, and company
      ownership). After excluding non-US and non-MDs, names of board members were
      searched. Values of each FCOI were extracted for 2013 to 2015 and compiled.
      RESULTS: Of 85 board members, 65 (76%) received any form of payment during the
      overall period. The majority of delivered payments were general payments: 59
      (69%) received at least 1 general payment during these 3 years. In each year, 9
      board members (11%) received research funding, and 3 board members (4%) reported
      company ownership. Over the studied period, all board members received a sum
      total of $5,387,985; this was composed of $665,801 (12%) in general payments,
      $3,758,968 (70%) in research funding, and $963,216 (18%) in company ownership.
      The mean general payment and research funding amounts (all members) were $2,621
      and $14,741, respectively. Median (interquartile range) general payments and
      research funding only in board members receiving payments were $419 ($91-$5072)
      and $56,250 ($13,345-$200,000), respectively. When assessing general payments
      according to amount, the vast majority of editorial board members received lower
      quantity or no such payments, along with a smaller proportion that received
      higher-volume payments. The most frequent sources of general payments were
      Varian, Elekta, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Merck and Varian were the most frequent
      funding sources for research payments. CONCLUSIONS: In this population, the
      majority of FCOIs were general payments, but research funding comprised the
      highest monetary sums. Large-volume FCOIs do not apply to the vast majority of
      editorial board members, implying that the maintained integrity of academic peer
      review is likely not influenced to a large extent by FCOIs.

PMID- 28871972
TI  - Retroperitoneal Sarcoma: Setting the Stage for Treatment Strategies Tailored to
      Histologic Subtype and Other Patient and Tumor Factors.

PMID- 28871973
TI  - A Pancreatic Predicament.

PMID- 28871974
TI  - SBRT for Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer Can Improve Local Control With Minimal
      Toxicity.

PMID- 28871975
TI  - Consolidation Chemoradiation Improves Local Control in Unresectable Pancreatic
      Cancer.

PMID- 28871976
TI  - Chemoradiation for Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer Can Improve Quality of Life and
      Does Not Exclude Potential Resection.

PMID- 28871977
TI  - After Neoadjuvant Therapy, Imaging No Longer Provides a Clear Answer.

PMID- 28871978
TI  - Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy With BED >100 Gy May Rival Surgical Outcomes.

PMID- 28871979
TI  - Reducing Bias in Oncology Research: The End of the Radiation Variable in the
      Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.

PMID- 28871981
TI  - Inversed-Planned Respiratory Phase Gating in Lung Conformal Radiation Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess whether the optimal gating window for each beam during lung
      radiation therapy with respiratory gating will be dependent on a variety of
      patient-specific factors, such as tumor size and location and the extent of
      relative tumor and organ motion. METHODS AND MATERIALS: To create optimal gating
      treatment plans, we started from an optimized clinical plan, created a plan per
      respiratory phase using the same beam arrangements, and used an inverse planning
      optimization approach to determine the optimal gating window for each beam and
      optimal beam weights (ie, monitor units). Two pieces of information were used for
      optimization: (1) the state of the anatomy at each phase, extracted from 4
      dimensional computed tomography scans; and (2) the time spent in each state,
      estimated from a 2-minute monitoring of the patient's breathing motion. We
      retrospectively studied 15 lung cancer patients clinically treated by
      hypofractionated conformal radiation therapy, for whom 45 to 60 Gy was
      administered over 3 to 15 fractions using 7 to 13 beams. Mean gross tumor volume
      and respiratory-induced tumor motion were 82.5 cm3 and 1.0 cm, respectively.
      RESULTS: Although patients spent most of their respiratory cycle in end
      exhalation (EE), our optimal gating plans used EE for only 34% of the beams.
      Using optimal gating, maximum and mean doses to the esophagus, heart, and spinal
      cord were reduced by an average of 15% to 26%, and the beam-on times were reduced
      by an average of 23% compared with equivalent single-phase EE gated plans
      (P<.034, paired 2-tailed t test). CONCLUSIONS: We introduce a personalized
      respiratory-gating technique in which inverse planning optimization is used to
      determine patient- and beam-specific gating phases toward enhancing dosimetric
      quality of radiation therapy treatment plans.

PMID- 28871982
TI  - Evaluating the Toxicity Reduction With Computed Tomographic Ventilation
      Functional Avoidance Radiation Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Computed tomographic (CT) ventilation imaging is a new modality that
      uses 4-dimensional (4D) CT information to calculate lung ventilation. Although
      retrospective studies have reported on the reduction in dose to functional lung,
      no work to our knowledge has been published in which the dosimetric improvements
      have been translated to a reduction in the probability of pulmonary toxicity. Our
      work estimates the reduction in toxicity for CT ventilation-based functional
      avoidance planning. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Seventy previously treated lung cancer
      patients who underwent 4DCT imaging were used for the study. CT ventilation maps
      were calculated with 4DCT deformable image registration and a density change
      based algorithm. Pneumonitis was graded on the basis of imaging and clinical
      presentation. Maximum likelihood methods were used to generate normal tissue
      complication probability (NTCP) models predicting grade 2 or higher (2+) and
      grade 3+ pneumonitis as a function of dose (V5 Gy, V10 Gy, V20 Gy, V30 Gy, and
      mean dose) to functional lung. For 30 patients a functional plan was generated
      with the goal of reducing dose to the functional lung while meeting Radiation
      Therapy Oncology Group 0617 constraints. The NTCP models were applied to the
      functional plans and the clinically used plans to calculate toxicity reduction.
      RESULTS: By the use of functional avoidance planning, absolute reductions in
      grade 2+ NTCP of 6.3%, 7.8%, and 4.8% were achieved based on the mean fV20 Gy,
      fV30 Gy, and mean dose to functional lung metrics, respectively. Absolute grade
      3+ NTCP reductions of 3.6%, 4.8%, and 2.4% were achieved with fV20 Gy, fV30 Gy,
      and mean dose to functional lung. Maximum absolute reductions of 52.3% and 16.4%
      were seen for grade 2+ and grade 3+ pneumonitis for individual patients.
      CONCLUSION: Our study quantifies the possible toxicity reduction from CT
      ventilation-based functional avoidance planning. Reductions in grades 2+ and 3+
      pneumonitis were 7.1% and 4.7% based on mean dose-function metrics, with
      reductions as high as 52.3% for individual patients. Our work provides seminal
      data for determining the potential toxicity benefit from incorporating CT
      ventilation into thoracic treatment planning.

PMID- 28871980
TI  - Empowering Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Through Physics and Technology: An
      Overview.
AB  - Considering the clinical potential of protons attributable to their physical
      characteristics, interest in proton therapy has increased greatly in this
      century, as has the number of proton therapy installations. Until recently,
      passively scattered proton therapy was used almost entirely. Notably, the overall
      clinical results to date have not shown a convincing benefit of protons over
      photons. A rapid transition is now occurring with the implementation of the most
      advanced form of proton therapy, intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT). IMPT
      is superior to passively scattered proton therapy and intensity modulated
      radiation therapy (IMRT) dosimetrically. However, numerous limitations exist in
      the present IMPT methods. In particular, compared with IMRT, IMPT is highly
      vulnerable to various uncertainties. In this overview we identify three major
      areas of current limitations of IMPT: treatment planning, treatment delivery, and
      motion management, and discuss current and future efforts for improvement. For
      treatment planning, we need to reduce uncertainties in proton range and in
      computed dose distributions, improve robust planning and optimization, enhance
      adaptive treatment planning and delivery, and consider how to exploit the
      variability in the relative biological effectiveness of protons for clinical
      benefit. The quality of proton therapy also depends on the characteristics of the
      IMPT delivery systems and image guidance. Efforts are needed to optimize the
      beamlet spot size for both improved dose conformality and faster delivery. For
      the latter, faster energy switching time and increased dose rate are also needed.
      Real-time in-room volumetric imaging for guiding IMPT is in its early stages with
      cone beam computed tomography (CT) and CT-on-rails, and continued improvements
      are anticipated. In addition, imaging of the proton beams themselves, using, for
      instance, prompt gamma emissions, is being developed to determine the proton
      range and to reduce range uncertainty. With the realization of the advances
      described above, we posit that IMPT, thus empowered, will lead to substantially
      improved clinical results.

PMID- 28871983
TI  - Phase 1-2 Study of Dual-Energy Computed Tomography for Assessment of Pulmonary
      Function in Radiation Therapy Planning.
AB  - PURPOSE: To quantify lung function according to a dual-energy computed tomography
      (DECT)-derived iodine map in patients treated with radiation therapy for lung
      cancer, and to assess the dosimetric impact of its integration in radiation
      therapy planning. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients treated with stereotactic
      ablative radiation therapy for early-stage or intensity modulated radiation
      therapy for locally advanced lung cancer were prospectively enrolled in this
      study. A DECT in treatment position was obtained at time of treatment planning.
      The relative contribution of each voxel to the total lung function was based on
      iodine distribution. The composition of each voxel was determined on the basis of
      a 2-material decomposition. The DECT-derived lobar function was compared with
      single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT). A
      functional map was integrated in the treatment planning system using 6 subvolumes
      of increasing iodine distribution levels. Percent lung volume receiving 5 Gy
      (V5), V20, and mean dose (MLD) to whole lungs (anatomic) versus functional lungs
      were compared. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients with lung cancer, including 18
      patients treated with stereotactic ablative radiation therapy and 7 patients with
      intensity modulated radiation therapy (locally advanced), were included. Eighty
      four percent had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Median (range) forced
      expiratory volume in 1 second was 62% of predicted (29%-113%), and median
      diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide was 56% (39%-91%). There was a
      strong linear correlation between DECT- and SPECT/CT-derived lobar function
      (Pearson coefficient correlation r=0.89, P<.00001). Mean (range) differences in
      V5, V20, and MLD between anatomic and functional lung volumes were 16% (0%-48%,
      P=.03), 5% (1%-15%, P=.12), and 15% (1%-43%, P=.047), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Lobar function derived from a DECT iodine map correlates well with SPECT/CT, and
      its integration in lung treatment planning is associated with significant
      differences in V5 and MLD to functional lungs. Future work will involve
      integration of the weighted functional volume in the treatment planning system,
      along with integration of an iodine map for functional lung-sparing IMRT.

PMID- 28871986
TI  - Quality of Life After Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer With a Hydrogel
      Spacer: 5-Year Results.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate quality of life changes up to 5 years after prostate cancer
      radiation therapy (RT) with a hydrogel spacer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In the
      years 2010 to 2011, 114 patients received external beam radiation therapy to the
      prostate; 54 patients were selected for a hydrogel injection before the beginning
      of RT. Treatment was performed applying fractions of 2 Gy up to a total dose of
      76 Gy (n=96) or 78 Gy (n=18, all with hydrogel). Patients were surveyed before
      RT; at the last day of RT; and a median time of 2 months, 17 months, and 63
      months after RT using a validated questionnaire (Expanded Prostate Cancer Index
      Composite). A mean score change of >5 points was defined as clinically relevant.
      RESULTS: For patients treated with a hydrogel spacer, mean bowel function and
      bother score changes of >5 points in comparison with baseline levels were found
      only at the end of RT (10-15 points; P<.01). No spacer patient reported moderate
      or big problems with his bowel habits overall. Mean bother score changes of 21
      points at the end of RT, 8 points at 2 months, 7 points at 17 months, and 6
      points at 63 months after RT were found for patients treated without a spacer. A
      bowel bother score change >10 points was found in 6% versus 32% (P<.01) at 17
      months and in 5% versus 14% (P=.2) at 63 months with versus without a spacer.
      CONCLUSIONS: The first 5-year quality of life results in a group of prostate
      cancer patients treated with a hydrogel spacer demonstrate excellent treatment
      tolerability, in particular regarding bowel problems. Further studies with dose
      escalated or re-irradiation concepts can be encouraged.

PMID- 28871984
TI  - Developing and Validating a Survival Prediction Model for NSCLC Patients Through
      Distributed Learning Across 3 Countries.
AB  - PURPOSE: Tools for survival prediction for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      patients treated with chemoradiation or radiation therapy are of limited quality.
      In this work, we developed a predictive model of survival at 2 years. The model
      is based on a large volume of historical patient data and serves as a proof of
      concept to demonstrate the distributed learning approach. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      Clinical data from 698 lung cancer patients, treated with curative intent with
      chemoradiation or radiation therapy alone, were collected and stored at 2
      different cancer institutes (559 patients at Maastro clinic (Netherlands) and 139
      at Michigan university [United States]). The model was further validated on 196
      patients originating from The Christie (United Kingdon). A Bayesian network model
      was adapted for distributed learning (the animation can be viewed at
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJFOxpwqEA). Two-year posttreatment survival was
      chosen as the endpoint. The Maastro clinic cohort data are publicly available at
      https://www.cancerdata.org/publication/developing-and-validating-survival
      prediction-model-nsclc-patients-through-distributed, and the developed models can
      be found at www.predictcancer.org. RESULTS: Variables included in the final model
      were T and N category, age, performance status, and total tumor dose. The model
      has an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.66 on the external validation set and an
      AUC of 0.62 on a 5-fold cross validation. A model based on the T and N category
      performed with an AUC of 0.47 on the validation set, significantly worse than our
      model (P<.001). Learning the model in a centralized or distributed fashion yields
      a minor difference on the probabilities of the conditional probability tables
      (0.6%); the discriminative performance of the models on the validation set is
      similar (P=.26). CONCLUSIONS: Distributed learning from federated databases
      allows learning of predictive models on data originating from multiple
      institutions while avoiding many of the data-sharing barriers. We believe that
      distributed learning is the future of sharing data in health care.

PMID- 28871987
TI  - Low-dose-rate Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer in Low-resource Settings.
AB  - PURPOSE: In areas with limited health care, it is important to identify and
      implement effective treatment methods and to optimize available resources. We
      investigated the implementation of a low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy program
      for the treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) in a low-resource setting such as
      Puerto Rico (PR), where PCa is the main cause of cancer-associated death. METHODS
      AND MATERIALS: After institutional approval, the medical records of patients with
      nonmetastatic PCa undergoing LDR brachytherapy from 2008 to 2013 were reviewed
      from PR. The factors analyzed included adequate D90 (radiation dose delivered to
      90% of the target volume) coverage (>=140 Gy), early and late toxicity (Common
      Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events grade >2), and prostate-specific antigen
      failure. Freedom from biochemical failure was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier
      analysis. RESULTS: The barriers to implementation of LDR brachytherapy in a
      country with limited resources were identified. These included lack of access to
      funding for startup costs, specific referral patterns, lack of trained support
      staff, such as dosimetrists and physicists, and initial opposition from insurance
      companies for reimbursement. The initial results from 191 patients were included
      in the present study with a median follow-up period of 26 months. Prostate
      specific antigen failure occurred in 6 patients (3%). No early or late
      gastrointestinal toxicity (grade >2) developed. Only 3 (2%) and 2 (1%) patients
      experienced early and late genitourinary toxicity (grade >2), respectively. The 2
      and 3-year freedom from biochemical failure in this population was 97% and
      95.9%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: At present, limited data are available
      delineating the barriers faced by low-resource settings in the implementation of
      LDR brachytherapy. Our data highlight the issues unique to this environment and
      support the use of LDR brachytherapy as a reliable and effective treatment
      modality for patients with PCa in low-resource settings.

PMID- 28871988
TI  - Bladder-Preserving Therapy Patterns of Care: A Survey of US Radiation
      Oncologists.
AB  - PURPOSE: Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of bladder-preserving
      chemoradiation therapy (BPT) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer but have differed
      in the radiation therapy dose/fractionations, radiation therapy targets, and
      concurrent chemotherapy regimens used. No data exist on the technical and
      practical approaches actually used in clinical practice throughout the United
      States when delivering BPT. We performed a survey to explore radiation
      oncologists' practice patterns. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We conducted an electronic
      survey of US radiation oncologists regarding the management of patients with cT2
      3N0M0 transitional cell muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The instrument included
      questions regarding the types of patients treated with BPT, as well as several
      aspects of treatment delivery. Descriptive statistics were reported for all
      responses. Pearson chi2 tests were used for univariate analysis. RESULTS: In
      total, 277 physicians completed our survey. Most respondents (58%) stated that
      they only treated 1 to 3 patients in the prior year. Seventy-four percent of
      respondents primarily treated patients deemed unfit for cystectomy, while only
      28% saw patients prior to cystectomy for consultation to discuss BPT. The
      majority of radiation oncologists used conventional fractionation (91%) instead
      of hypofractionation (7.6%), but more variability existed for radiation therapy
      targets. Sixty percent used a small pelvis field, 29% used a whole-pelvis field,
      and 12% treated the bladder only. There was increased use of hypofractionation
      (29%) and bladder-only radiation therapy (34%) in patients who were not
      candidates for cystectomy or chemotherapy (P<.001). Cisplatin-based concurrent
      chemotherapy was most commonly preferred (89%). In non-cisplatin candidates, most
      respondents preferred 5-fluorouracil plus mitomycin C (32%) or carboplatin (32%).
      Intensity modulated radiation therapy use and midtreatment cystoscopic re
      evaluation were variable, while hyperfractionation use was low. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study describes radiation oncologists' practice patterns for patients undergoing
      BPT. Although there are areas of consistency, variability exists in many
      technical and practical aspects of treatment delivery. Further research and
      education are needed to determine the optimal radiation therapy target,
      dose/fractionation, and concurrent chemotherapy regimen.

PMID- 28871985
TI  - Stimulating Innate Immunity to Enhance Radiation Therapy-Induced Tumor Control.
AB  - Novel ligands that target Toll-like receptors and other innate recognition
      pathways represent a potent strategy for modulating innate immunity to generate
      antitumor immunity. Although many of the current clinically successful
      immunotherapies target adaptive T-cell responses, both preclinical and clinical
      studies suggest that adjuvants have the potential to enhance the scope and
      efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Radiation may be a particularly good partner to
      combine with innate immune therapies, because it is a highly efficient means to
      kill cancer cells but may fail to send the appropriate inflammatory signals
      needed to act as an efficient endogenous vaccine. This may explain why although
      radiation therapy is a highly used cancer treatment, true abscopal effects
      regression of disease outside the field without additional systemic therapy-are
      extremely rare. This review focuses on efforts to combine innate immune stimuli
      as adjuvants with radiation, creating a distinct and complementary approach from
      T cell-targeted therapies to enhance antitumor immunity.

PMID- 28871989
TI  - Long-Term Outcomes of Phase 1 and 2 Studies of SBRT for Hepatic Colorectal
      Metastases.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report mature outcomes of prospective phase 1 and 2 studies of
      stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for the treatment of colorectal liver
      metastases (CLMs). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with histologically confirmed
      CLMs unsuitable for resection or standard therapies were eligible for sequential
      phase 1 and 2 studies conducted from 2003 to 2012. RESULTS: Of 60 patients
      treated, 82% had received previous chemotherapy, 23% had undergone previous focal
      liver treatment, and 38% had extrahepatic disease at the time of SBRT. The median
      number of gross tumor volume (GTV) targets per patient was 1 (range, 1-6), with a
      median total target volume of 117.7 cm3 (range, 6.7-3115.4 cm3). The median
      minimum dose to the GTV was 37.6 Gy (range, 22.7-62.1 Gy) in 6 fractions over a
      period of 2 weeks. Other than 1 case of grade 3 nausea, there were no acute
      toxicities greater than grade 2. With a median follow-up period of 28.1 months
      for survivors, no gastrointestinal bleed or biliary or liver toxicity was seen.
      The local control rate per lesion at 1 and 4 years was 49.8% and 26.2%,
      respectively. Increasing minimum dose to the GTV was associated with improved
      local control (P=.003). Median overall survival was 16.0 months (95% confidence
      interval, 11.9-20.5 months). On multivariate analysis, improved survival was
      associated with smaller total GTV (P=.017), performance status of 0 or 1
      (P=.007), no extrahepatic disease at the time of treatment (P=.005), and local
      control of targeted liver disease (P=.001). Two long-term survivors remain
      disease free at 49 and 125 months. CONCLUSIONS: Six-fraction SBRT for CLM is safe
      and may be associated with long-term cure. Local control was significantly
      associated with delivered dose and was lower than seen in other studies using a
      higher SBRT dose. Survival was associated with smaller tumor volume, absence of
      extrahepatic disease, performance status of 0 or 1, and local control of treated
      liver lesions.

PMID- 28871990
TI  - Transarterial Radioembolization Versus Concurrent Chemoradiation Therapy for
      Locally Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: It is unclear whether the efficacy and safety of concurrent
      chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) and transarterial radioembolization (TARE) with 90Y
      are comparable in patients with locally advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: In total, 209 treatment-naive patients with stage B or C
      cancer according to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer classification who were
      treated with TARE or CCRT were analyzed. Propensity scores were calculated and
      matched at a 1:1 ratio for TARE versus CCRT using age, tumor size, tumor number,
      portal vein thrombosis, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging. In the CCRT
      group, concurrent hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil was
      delivered at a dosage of 500 mg/d during the first and last 5 days of radiation
      therapy (median, 45 Gy). Overall survival, freedom from progression, tumor
      response, and complication rate were compared between the TARE and CCRT groups.
      RESULTS: Among 209 patients, 124 (62 undergoing TARE and 62 undergoing CCRT) were
      selected after propensity score matching. Overall survival (TARE vs CCRT, 14.0
      months vs 13.2 months, P=.435) and freedom from progression (6.9 months vs 7.8
      months, P=.437) were comparable between the 2 groups. Objective response rates at
      1 month after treatment were higher for CCRT than for TARE (46.8% vs 16.1%,
      P<.001), while objective response rates at 3 months were significantly higher for
      TARE than for CCRT (39.3% vs 21.4%, P=.04). There was no significant difference
      in long-term response rates (at 6 months and 1 year) between the 2 groups. The
      CCRT group experienced a higher rate of curative resection or liver
      transplantation after treatment than the TARE group, although the statistical
      significance was marginal (24.2% vs 11.3%, P=.060). Treatment-related
      complications were less frequent after TARE than after CCRT. CONCLUSIONS: Both
      treatments yielded comparable survival rates and long-term response rates in
      patients with intermediate- or advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma. The role
      of these modalities as a bridge to curative therapy requires further
      investigation.

PMID- 28871991
TI  - Recursive Partitioning Analysis Identifies Pretreatment Risk Groups for the
      Utility of Induction Chemotherapy Before Definitive Chemoradiation Therapy in
      Esophageal Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the contribution of induction chemotherapy (IC) before
      definitive chemoradiation therapy (dCRT) in patients with esophageal cancer (EC)
      based on recursive partitioning analysis (RPA). METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of
      496 eligible patients with EC staged by positron emission tomography (PET) who
      received dCRT from 1998 to 2015 were included, 162 (32.7%) of whom underwent IC
      before dCRT. RPA was used to risk-stratify patients on the basis of independent
      prognostic factors to predict progression-free survival (PFS). Outcomes were
      compared between treatment groups. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 49.1
      months (range, 7.0-155.9 months) for survivors. Compared with the non-IC group,
      the IC group had a comparable 5-year PFS rate (21.0% vs 23.4%; P=.726) in the
      whole cohort. Multivariate analysis identified age, performance status, primary
      tumor length, baseline PET maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax), and maximum
      lymph node diameter as independent prognostic factors for PFS. RPA segregated
      patients into 3 prognostic groups: low-risk group (PET SUVmax <9.7 and tumor
      length <=5 cm), intermediate-risk group (PET SUVmax >=9.7 and age >=67), and high
      risk group (PET SUVmax <9.7 and tumor length >5 cm, or PET SUVmax >=9.7 and age
      <67). Significant improvements in PFS (P=.006) and locoregional failure-free
      survival (P=.028) in the IC group in comparison with the non-IC group were
      observed in high-risk patients, whereas no differences in survival were found
      between the 2 treatment groups in low-risk or intermediate-risk patients. After
      propensity score matching, the high-risk group still demonstrated a significantly
      improved PFS with IC (P=.009). CONCLUSIONS: The RPA prognostic grouping provides
      a useful method of selecting high-risk EC patients who may benefit from IC before
      receiving dCRT. Prospective validation is warranted.

PMID- 28871992
TI  - Improved Metastasis- and Disease-Free Survival With Preoperative Sequential Short
      Course Radiation Therapy and FOLFOX Chemotherapy for Rectal Cancer Compared With
      Neoadjuvant Long-Course Chemoradiotherapy: Results of a Matched Pair Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare treatment and toxicity outcomes between a phase 2
      institutional trial of near total neoadjuvant therapy (nTNT) for locally advanced
      rectal cancer and a similar historical control cohort treated at Washington
      University in St. Louis with the current US standard of care, defined as
      neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT), total mesorectal excision (TME), and
      adjuvant FOLFOX chemotherapy; to expand the comparison to an additional
      institution, patients treated with similar NCRT at Stanford University were
      included. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Sixty-nine patients with cT3-4N0-2M0 rectal
      adenocarcinoma enrolled on the Washington University in St. Louis phase 2 study
      of nTNT were included for analysis. Patients treated at the same institution with
      conventional NCRT and adjuvant FOLFOX were matched for exact cTNM stage. Forty
      one patients treated with NCRT at Stanford University were included in a second
      analysis. Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank test was used to compare local
      control, distant metastasis-free survival, disease-free survival, and overall
      survival. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 49 and 54 months for nTNT and NCRT,
      respectively. Pathologic complete response and T-downstaging rates were 28%
      versus 16% (P=.21) and 75% versus 41% (P<.001) in the nTNT and NCRT cohorts,
      respectively. Three-year disease-free survival (85% vs 68%, P=.032) was
      significantly better in the nTNT group. Actuarial 3-year local control (92% vs
      96%, P=.36) and overall survival (96% vs 88%, P=.67) were similar. The Stanford
      cohort had significantly lower clinical stage. After controlling for clinical
      stage, age, tumor location, institution, and number of chemotherapy cycles, nTNT
      treatment remained significantly associated with lower risk of recurrence
      (P=.006). CONCLUSIONS: Patients treated with nTNT had higher T-downstaging and
      superior distant metastasis-free survival and disease-free survival compared with
      conventional NCRT when matched for tumor location and exact cTNM stage. Near
      total neoadjuvant therapy remained a significant multivariate predictor for
      improved outcome when including patients treated with NCRT at another
      institution.

PMID- 28871993
TI  - Predicted Rate of Secondary Malignancies Following Adjuvant Proton Versus Photon
      Radiation Therapy for Thymoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Thymic malignancies are the most common tumors of the anterior
      mediastinum. The benefit of adjuvant radiation therapy for stage II disease
      remains controversial, and patients treated with adjuvant radiation therapy are
      at risk of late complications, including radiation-induced secondary malignant
      neoplasms (SMNs), that may reduce the overall benefit of treatment. We assess the
      risk of predicted SMNs following adjuvant proton radiation therapy compared with
      photon radiation therapy after resection of stage II thymic malignancies to
      determine whether proton therapy improves the risk-benefit ratio. METHODS AND
      MATERIALS: Ten consecutive patients treated with double-scattered proton beam
      radiation therapy (DS-PBT) were prospectively enrolled in an institutional review
      board-approved proton registry study. All patients were treated with DS-PBT.
      Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans for comparison were generated.
      SMN risk was calculated based on organ equivalent dose. RESULTS: Patients had a
      median age of 65 years (range, 25-77 years), and 60% were men. All patients had
      stage II disease, and many had close or positive margins (60%). The median dose
      was 50.4 Gy (range, 50.4-54.0 Gy) in 1.8-Gy relative biological effectiveness
      daily fractions. No differences in target coverage were seen with DS-PBT compared
      with IMRT plans. Significant reductions were seen in mean and volumetric lung,
      heart, and esophageal doses with DS-PBT compared with IMRT plans (all P<=.01).
      Significant reductions in SMNs in the lung, breast, esophagus, skin, and stomach
      were seen with DS-PBT compared with IMRT. For patients with thymoma diagnosed at
      the median national age, 5 excess secondary malignancies per 100 patients would
      be avoided by treating them with protons instead of photons. CONCLUSIONS:
      Treatment with proton therapy can achieve comparable target coverage but
      significantly reduced doses to critical normal structures, which can lead to
      fewer predicted SMNs compared with IMRT. By decreasing expected late
      complications, proton therapy may improve the therapeutic ratio of adjuvant
      radiation therapy for patients with stage II thymic malignancies.

PMID- 28871994
TI  - Inclusion of Incidental Radiation Dose to the Cardiac Atria and Ventricles Does
      Not Improve the Prediction of Radiation Pneumonitis in Advanced-Stage Non-Small
      Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated With Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate whether inclusion of incidental radiation dose to the
      cardiac atria and ventricles improves the prediction of grade >=3 radiation
      pneumonitis (RP) in advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (AS-NSCLC) patients
      treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or volumetric modulated
      arc therapy (VMAT). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Using a bootstrap modeling approach,
      clinical parameters and dose-volume histogram (DVH) parameters of lungs and heart
      (assessing atria and ventricles separately and combined) were evaluated for RP
      prediction in 188 AS-NSCLC patients. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 18.4
      months, 26 patients (13.8%) developed RP. Only the median mean lung dose (MLD)
      differed between groups (15.3 Gy vs 13.7 Gy for the RP and non-RP group,
      respectively; P=.004). The MLD showed the highest Spearman correlation
      coefficient (Rs) for RP (Rs = 0.21; P<.01). Most Rs of the lung DVH parameters
      exceeded those of the heart DVH parameters. After predictive modeling using a
      bootstrap procedure, the MLD was always included in the predictive model for
      grade >=3 RP, whereas the heart DVH parameters were seldom included in the model.
      CONCLUSION: Incidental dose to the cardiac atria and ventricles did not improve
      RP risk prediction in our cohort of 188 AS-NSCLC patients treated with IMRT or
      VMAT.

PMID- 28871995
TI  - A Multicenter Study of Carbon-Ion Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck
      Adenocarcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Head and neck (HN) adenocarcinoma is rare, and to date, there have been
      no reports of prospective studies. We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and
      safety of carbon-ion radiation therapy (C-ion RT) for HN adenocarcinoma in
      institutions in Japan. METHODS AND MATERIALS: HN adenocarcinoma patients with
      N0M0 or N1M0 disease who were treated with C-ion RT at institutions in Japan
      between November 2003 and December 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. We
      enrolled 47 patients (30 male and 17 female patients; median age, 60 years) with
      HN adenocarcinoma. RESULTS: Primary sites included the nasal and paranasal sinus
      in 21 patients, orbit in 11, salivary grand in 7, oral cavity and pharynx in 6,
      and acoustic organ in 2. Thirty-two patients had T4 tumors, 6 had T3, and 6 had
      T2. Forty-five patients received a diagnosis of N0 disease, whereas 2 had N1
      disease. The median total dose of C-ion RT and the number of fractions were 64.0
      Gy (relative biological effectiveness) and 16 fractions, respectively. The median
      follow-up period was 51 months (range, 6-118 months). The 2- and 5-year overall
      survival rates were 87.9% and 60.4%, respectively, and the 2- and 5-year local
      control rates were 83.3% and 79.3%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed
      that operability (patients with operable tumors) (P=.045) and fractionation (16
      fractions) (P=.010) were significant independent prognostic factors for better
      overall survival. No grade 5 late morbidities were observed. Grade 4 late
      morbidities were observed in 4 patients, and all of these grade 4 morbidities
      were visual impairments. All 4 patients with grade 4 visual impairment had T4
      tumors in the nasopharynx or paranasal sinuses, which implied inoperable tumors
      with orbital or brain invasion. CONCLUSIONS: C-ion RT resulted in excellent local
      control. C-ion RT could become a curative treatment option for HN adenocarcinoma
      with acceptable toxicities.

PMID- 28871996
TI  - Prognostic Relevance of Treatment Failure Patterns in Pediatric High-Grade
      Glioma: Is There a Role for a Revised Failure Classification System?
AB  - PURPOSE: We sought to investigate the pattern of treatment failure with respect
      to anatomic extent, radiation dose, and criteria for failure according to the
      Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (RANO). We evaluated the corresponding
      prognostic significance of these factors in patients with pediatric high-grade
      glioma (pHGG). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Fifty-six patients with pHGG were enrolled
      in an institutional phase 1 to 2 prospective trial that included maximal safe
      resection and radiation therapy with concurrent and adjuvant erlotinib. The
      radiation therapy dose administered was 54 to 59.4 Gy at 1.8 Gy/d. Tumor
      progression was defined according to clinical symptoms and imaging features and
      was classified in relation to the original extent of the tumor, radiation
      prescription target volume coverage, and RANO criteria (RANOc). RESULTS: With a
      median follow-up period of 90 months (range, 70-124 months), progression occurred
      in 48 patients (85.7%) while 8 (14.3%) were without progression. Central failure
      represented 42.6% of the total cohort, while in-field, marginal, and distant
      failures occurred in 7.4%, 9.3%, and 22.2%, respectively. Patients with biopsy or
      subtotal resection had increased rates of central failure and represented 14.81%
      and 16.67% of the total cohort, respectively. Tumor progression was classified as
      local, local plus distant, or distant. Among patients with local failure as a
      component of failure, 5 were considered to have marginal failure. Patients with
      frontal, temporal, and parietal disease had the highest rates of multifocal
      failure. A comparison between responses defined by RANOc demonstrated varied time
      to death (TTD) from progression. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric high-grade glioma was
      shown to have high rates of central failure, particularly in cases with limited
      resection. Patients with central failure had a trend toward more prolonged TTD
      from failure relative to other failure patterns. The low marginal failure rates
      seen in this group suggest that less conservative radiation target margins may be
      possible. TTD from failure varied according to RANO type, suggesting that adult
      RANOc require modification before being applied to pHGG.

PMID- 28871997
TI  - Single-Fraction Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) Alone Versus Surgical Resection
      and SRS for Large Brain Metastases: A Multi-institutional Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) dose is limited by brain metastasis (BM)
      size. The study goal was to retrospectively determine whether there is a benefit
      for intracranial outcomes and overall survival (OS) for gross total resection
      with single-fraction SRS versus SRS alone for patients with large BMs. METHODS
      AND MATERIALS: A large BM was defined as >=4 cm3 (2 cm in diameter) prior to the
      study. We reviewed the records of consecutive patients treated with single
      fraction SRS alone or surgery with preoperative or postoperative SRS between 2005
      and 2013 from 2 institutions. RESULTS: Overall, 213 patients with 223 treated
      large BMs were included; 66 BMs (30%) were treated with SRS alone and 157 (70%)
      with surgery and SRS (63 preoperatively and 94 postoperatively). The groups (SRS
      vs surgery and SRS) were well balanced except regarding lesion volume (median,
      5.9 cm3 vs 9.6 cm3; P<.001), median number of BMs (1.5 vs 1, P=.002), median SRS
      dose (18 Gy vs 15 Gy, P<.001), and prior whole-brain radiation therapy (33% vs
      5%, P<.001). The local recurrence (LR) rate was significantly lower with surgery
      and SRS (1-year LR rate, 36.7% vs 20.5%; P=.007). There was no difference in
      radiation necrosis (RN) by resection status, but there was a significantly
      increased RN rate with postoperative SRS versus with preoperative SRS and with
      SRS alone (1-year RN rate, 22.6% vs 5% and 12.3%, respectively; P<.001). OS was
      significantly higher with surgery and SRS (2-year OS rate, 38.9% vs 19.8%;
      P=.01). Both multivariate adjusted analyses and propensity score-matched analyses
      demonstrated similar results. CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective study, gross
      total resection with SRS was associated with significantly reduced LR compared
      with SRS alone for patients with large BMs. Postoperative SRS was associated with
      the highest rate of RN. Surgical resection with SRS may improve outcomes in
      patients with a limited number of large BMs compared with SRS alone. Further
      studies are warranted.

PMID- 28871998
TI  - Peripheral Blood Biomarkers Associated With Toxicity and Treatment
      Characteristics After 131I- Metaiodobenzylguanidine Therapy in Patients With
      Neuroblastoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Few tools exist to predict clinical outcomes after radiopharmaceutical
      therapy. Our goal was to identify associations between blood-based biomarkers of
      radiation effect and clinical outcomes after 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I
      MIBG) therapy in patients with neuroblastoma. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We conducted
      a prospective, single-center cohort study in children with advanced neuroblastoma
      treated with 131I-MIBG as monotherapy or in combination with systemic putative
      radiation sensitizers. We collected serial peripheral blood samples after 131I
      MIBG infusions and quantified a panel of protein and messenger RNA markers. We
      plotted relative change from baseline to assess degree of modulation over time
      and then evaluated association of marker modulation with toxicity and response
      endpoints. RESULTS: The cohort included 40 patients (30 male/10 female; median
      age 7 years). We observed significant modulation of the majority of markers
      between baseline and hour 72 after 131I-MIBG. Greater fold increase of plasma
      FLT3 ligand was associated with subsequent grade 4 neutropenia (P=.039).
      Modulation of peripheral blood BCLXL and DDB2 was associated with grade 3+
      nonhematologic toxicity (P=.043 and .048, respectively). No markers were
      associated with tumor response. Greater plasma FLT3 ligand, BCLXL, and BCL2
      modulation was observed in patients receiving 131I-MIBG in combination with
      radiation sensitizers. Among 9 patients who received 2 courses, the degree of
      modulation in serum amylase was significantly lower after the second course
      (P=.012). CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral blood biomarkers relevant to radiation exposure
      are significantly modulated during the acute period after 131I-MIBG. The degree
      of modulation of a subset of these markers is associated with toxicity and
      receipt of concomitant radiation sensitizers.

PMID- 28871999
TI  - Multimodal Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Treatment-Induced Changes to Diffuse
      Infiltrating Pontine Gliomas in Children and Correlation to Patient Progression
      Free Survival.
AB  - PURPOSE: To use multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify treatment
      induced changes in the whole volume of diffuse infiltrating pontine gliomas and
      correlate them with progression-free survival (PFS). METHODS AND MATERIALS: This
      prospective study included 22 children aged 3.3 to 14.7 years (median, 5.9
      years). Multimodal MRI was performed at 3 distinct time points: before treatment,
      the first week following radiation therapy (RT), and 2 months after RT. The
      imaging protocol included morphologic, multi b-value diffusion; arterial spin
      labeling; and dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced perfusion. Morphologic and
      multimodal data-lesion volume, diffusion coefficients, relative cerebral blood
      flow, and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV)-were recorded at the 3
      aforementioned time points. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare each individual
      parameter variation between time points, and its correlation with PFS was
      assessed by the Spearman test. RESULTS: Following RT, the tumors' solid component
      volume decreased by 40% (P<.001). Their median diffusion coefficients decreased
      by 20% to 40% (P<.001), while median relative cerebral blood flow increased by
      60% to 80% (P<.001) and median rCBV increased by 70% (P<.001). PFS was positively
      correlated with rCBV measured immediately after RT (P=.003), and in patients
      whose rCBV was above the cutoff value of 2.46, the median PFS was 4.6 months
      longer (P=.001). These indexes tended to return to baseline 2 months after RT.
      Lesion volume before or after RT was not correlated with survival. CONCLUSIONS:
      Multimodal MRI provides useful information about diffuse infiltrating pontine
      gliomas' response to treatment; rCBV increases following RT, and higher values
      are correlated with better PFS. High rCBV values following RT should not be
      mistaken for progression and could be an indicator of response to therapy.

PMID- 28872000
TI  - Renal Function Outcomes of High-risk Neuroblastoma Patients Undergoing Radiation
      Therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the renal function outcomes in patients undergoing radiation
      therapy for neuroblastoma. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The clinical metrics of renal
      function were analyzed in patients undergoing radiation therapy for high-risk
      neuroblastoma from 2000 to 2015. The blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine
      values before radiation therapy were compared with last available follow-up
      values and analyzed with the clinical circumstances, including follow-up length,
      age at primary irradiation, nephrectomy, and radiation technique. The creatinine
      clearance was estimated using the Shull method. RESULTS: With a median follow-up
      period of 3.5 years, none of the 266 patients studied developed a chronic renal
      insufficiency. For all patients, the creatinine level increased from 0.44 to 0.51
      mg/dL and the BUN increased from 10.53 to 15.52 mg/dL. Three patients required
      antihypertensive medication. The patients who underwent intensity modulated
      radiation therapy did not experience increased creatinine levels during the
      follow-up period; however, they had a reduced median follow-up length compared
      with patients treated with anteroposterior/posteroanterior beams (4.7 vs 3.3
      years). A longer follow-up length was associated with an increased creatinine
      level. The preradiation therapy creatinine level increased with patient age,
      similar to that of the last follow-up creatinine level, suggesting that the
      changes in creatinine could likely be explained by physiologic increases
      associated with aging rather than radiation-induced renal damage. The creatinine
      clearance did not decrease in any circumstance. CONCLUSIONS: The present cohort
      had excellent renal outcomes after radiation therapy for neuroblastoma. No
      patient developed chronic renal insufficiency, and the small increases in BUN and
      creatinine we observed correlated, as expected, with increases in patient age.
      The results of the present study revealed a possible advantage for intensity
      modulated radiation therapy in preserving renal function; however, the follow-up
      length is a recognized confounding variable. The kidneys are vital structures to
      consider when planning radiation therapy for neuroblastoma patients, and we have
      found encouraging evidence that modern techniques to spare them in the setting of
      multiple treatment-related insults have been successful.

PMID- 28872001
TI  - Pulmonary Toxicity Following Proton Therapy for Thoracic Lymphoma.

PMID- 28872002
TI  - In Regard to Rahimi et al.

PMID- 28872003
TI  - In Reply to Gerber et al.

PMID- 28872004
TI  - In Regard to Parikh et al.

PMID- 28872005
TI  - In Reply to Zhang.

PMID- 28872006
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28872007
TI  - In Reply to Tokuuye.

PMID- 28872008
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28872009
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28872010
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28872011
TI  - January 4-10, 2014.

PMID- 28872013
TI  - June 14-20, 2014.

PMID- 28872012
TI  - Department of Error.

PMID- 28872015
TI  - Problem gambling is a public health concern.

PMID- 28872016
TI  - Supporting the need for nation-building in Afghanistan.

PMID- 28872017
TI  - Palliative care in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

PMID- 28872014
TI  - The empress of subterfuge: cancer of the fallopian tube presenting with
      malapropism.

PMID- 28872018
TI  - Classification of maternal deaths: where does the chain of events start?

PMID- 28872019
TI  - Offline: Terrorism and Syria-"a crisis of the world".

PMID- 28872020
TI  - Over 60 children die in a hospital in north India.

PMID- 28872021
TI  - Alvar Agusti: bringing systems biology to COPD.

PMID- 28872022
TI  - Lung cancer.

PMID- 28872023
TI  - Addressing racism: a new approach to promotion of positive policies is needed.

PMID- 28872024
TI  - Public health must confront racism and xenophobia.

PMID- 28872025
TI  - Intertwining migration, ethnicity, racism, and health.

PMID- 28872026
TI  - Anchors aweigh.

PMID- 28872027
TI  - What can Japan learn from tobacco control in the UK?

PMID- 28872028
TI  - Naming of the victims of Nazi medicine.

PMID- 28872030
TI  - What does endotyping mean for treatment in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex and heterogeneous
      disease, both at the clinical and biological level. However, COPD is still
      diagnosed and treated according to simple clinical measures (level of airflow
      limitation, symptoms, and frequency of previous exacerbations). To address this
      clinical and biological complexity and to move towards precision medicine in
      COPD, we need to integrate (bioinformatics) and interpret (clinical science) the
      vast amount of high-throughput information that existing technology provides
      (systems biology and network medicine) so diagnosis, stratification, and
      treatment of patients with COPD can occur on the basis of their pathobiological
      mechanism (ie, endotypes). Therefore, this Series paper discusses a possible new
      taxonomy of COPD, the role of endotypes and associated biomarkers and phenotypes,
      the gaps (and opportunities) in existing knowledge of COPD pathobiology, how
      systems biology and network medicine can improve understanding of the disease and
      help to identify relevant endotypes and their specific biomarkers, and how
      endotypes and their biomarkers can improve the precision, effectiveness, and
      safety of the treatment of patients with COPD.

PMID- 28872029
TI  - Prevention of hearing loss in patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

PMID- 28872031
TI  - Palliative care and management of troublesome symptoms for people with chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - People with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have
      distressing physical and psychological symptoms, often have limited understanding
      of their disease, and infrequently discuss end-of-life issues in routine clinical
      care. These are strong indicators for expert multidisciplinary palliative care,
      which incorporates assessment and management of symptoms and concerns, patient
      and caregiver education, and sensitive communication to elicit preferences for
      care towards the end of life. The unpredictable course of COPD and the difficulty
      of predicting survival are barriers to timely referral and receipt of palliative
      care. Early integration of palliative care with respiratory, primary care, and
      rehabilitation services, with referral on the basis of the complexity of symptoms
      and concerns, rather than prognosis, can improve patient and caregiver outcomes.
      Models of integrated working in COPD could include: services triggered by
      troublesome symptoms such as refractory breathlessness; short-term palliative
      care; and, in settings with limited access to palliative care, consultation only
      in specific circumstances or for the most complex patients.

PMID- 28872032
TI  - Atlas of Electroencephalography, 3rd Edition.
AB  - Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of the electrical activity of the
      brain. EEG is a reliable test to assess cerebral function. It aids in diagnosis,
      classification, and management of patients with epilepsy. It also has practical
      uses in conditions other than epilepsy. Moreover, it is harmless and inexpensive.
      EEG is an important tool for evaluating patients with epilepsy. It may help
      classify the syndrome, identify the likely source of focal seizures, and confirm
      a diagnosis of status epilepticus. EEG is therefore helpful when selecting
      appropriate antiepileptic drugs for patients with epilepsy, is valuable for
      diagnosis and management of status epilepticus as well as predicting the
      prognosis in epilepsy syndromes, and, is finally useful when localizing an area
      for resection in surgery candidates. In addition, despite advances in
      neuroimaging, EEG remains a valuable tool in the evaluation of stuporous and
      comatose patients. A systematic approach is essential for EEG interpretation, and
      when combined with good clinical judgment, it will improve diagnostic sensitivity
      and specificity and may improve therapeutic outcomes. This EEG atlas is designed
      as a practical guide for neurology residents, neurologists, and epileptologists,
      so that they may appropriately identify normal and abnormal findings, while
      reading an EEG. By reading and reviewing the relevant chapter of this well
      organized atlas, that includes many EEG images, the reader will also learn how to
      report an EEG finding. We hope that this atlas fills an unmet need, and leads to
      improved patient care.

PMID- 28872033
TI  - Nursing home in question.

PMID- 28872034
TI  - Interest of a medical surgical geriatric unit in a district hospital: a
      retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Orthogeriatric units have shown through several studies their
      effectiveness on reducing the morbidity and mortality after hip fracture. What
      about other emergency surgeries at the elderly? We evaluated the results of a
      small medical surgical geriatric unit (UMCG) for all the not sheduled surgeries.
      METHODS: A retrospective sudy has been done, analyzing management of patients
      over 75 years after an emergency surgery, between 1st January 2013 and 15
      February 2014 for the surgical unit, and between 15 February 2014 and 15 April
      2014 for the UMCG. 3-month mortality, 6-month mortality and the main early
      complications were compared between the two groups, by a multivariated analysis
      fitting on the data on patient characteristics. RESULTS: 3-month mortality was
      significantly lower in the UMCG group (odds ratio 0.07 [95%IC: 0.004-0.48];
      p=0.02), while the patients in this unit were more likely with dementia, with
      fall antecedent and with more comorbidity. 6-month mortality as well was lower in
      the UMCG group (0.10 [0.02-0.36]; p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Management of not
      sheduled surgeries at the elderly in specific surgical geriatric unit is
      associated in a statistically significant reduction of 3-month mortality and 6
      month mortality.

PMID- 28872035
TI  - Prevalence and severity of peripheral arterial disease among patient with heel
      pressure ulcer: a retrospective study of 42 patients.
AB  - Heel pressure ulcer is a major complication in elderly hospitalized patients. The
      association with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) which is also a frequent
      disease in this population is poorly known. The aim of this study was to assess
      the prevalence of PAD and critical limb ischemia (CLI) in patients with heel
      pressure ulcer. Patients referred to the vascular medicine department for heel
      pressure ulcer from October 2014 to June 2015 were included in the study. The
      assessment of peripheral arterial disease was made with the results of ankle
      brachial index and/or doppler ultra sound of lower limb arteries. Toe systolic
      pressure and transcutaneous pressure (TcPO2) were also recorded, and the
      diagnosis of critical limb ischemia was made according to the TASC 2 criteria.
      The population was composed with 42 patients (women 43%, men 57%). The mean age
      was 81+/-11 years. Heel pressures ulcers were diagnosed in the following
      situations: lower limb fracture (31%), acute medical illness (21%), multiple
      chronic conditions (28%) and critical care unit hospitalization (7%). A
      peripheral arterial disease was present in 31 patients (73%), and a critical limb
      ischemia in 7 patients. For 18 patients, PAD was not known in their past medical
      history, and this was the case of 5 patients among those with critical limb
      ischemia. A revascularization was performed in 12 patients, and 5 patients
      undergo a lower limb amputation. 12 patients were died at 3 months. PAD is
      frequent among patients with heel pressure ulcer, and is often unknown. The
      functional and vital prognostic are poor, and the results of our study emphasize
      the importance of screening PAD in the evaluation of heel pressure ulcer risk.

PMID- 28872036
TI  - Decision-making for gastrostomy after 70 years old: a prospective study about 26
      patients.
AB  - Management of undernutrition is based on young adults analysis. However, enteral
      nutrition is mainly discussed in the elderly. The aim of this study was to
      analyse factors related to laying gastrostomy, in geriatrics. A prospective,
      descriptive study, was conducted in the Loire department, from 2014 to 2016, in
      geriatric and palliative units. All patients over 70 years who had a theorical
      indication of gastrostomy were included. Decision-making process was analyzed
      from data affecting the reflection. Patients were followed for three months.
      Twenty-six patients were included with an average of 81 years old. They were
      frailty with a low mean serum albumin (29.2 g/L), an undernutrition (85%), an
      extended bedridden (73%), a medical history of aspiration pneumonia (46%) and
      with pressure ulcers (27%). The main diagnoses were strokes (38%) and dementia
      (23%). After a singular decision-making, only 15% received a gastrostomy. At
      three months, 69.2% of patients had died. Patients over 70 years old, with a
      vital prognosis at short term, are not good candidates for gastrostomy. In
      geriatrics, decision-making for gastrostomy laying is complex because managed by
      contradictory recommendations. It requires a global assessment to identify risk
      situations. The early detection of undernutrition is the key to successful
      management, for patients requiring gastrostomy.

PMID- 28872037
TI  - Executive dysfunctions as a good predictor of misuse of respiratory inhalers
      among hospitalized patients: a prospective survey.
AB  - The objectives of the study are to determine the prevalence and potential risk
      factors of misuse of respiratory inhalers among hospitalized patients admitted at
      the CHU UcL Namur, site Godinne. Using a cross-sectional design, patients using
      respiratory inhalers since more than 7 days were recruited from a database
      established by the hospital pharmacy. Inhaler technique was assessed using a
      standardised check-list and graded misuse as major or minor errors using
      previously published criteria. Demographic and clinical data were prospectively
      collected using standardised tools. Among the 100 consecutive patients selected
      for the study (median of age: 68 years), the prevalence of misuse was 40%.
      According to univariate analysis, main risk factors of misuse were age, executive
      dysfunction, a low grip strength, a low level of manual dexterity and the type of
      inhaler used. The best predictor of misuse according to multivariate analysis was
      executive dysfunction as assessed by the BREF scale (batterie rapide d'efficience
      frontale) (adjusted odds ratio: 1.35 [CI95%: 1.11-1.64]; p: 0.002). A BREF score
      <= 12/18 was associated with a six-fold increase of respiratory inhaler misuse
      risk. We conclude that executive dysfunction is associated with a higher risk of
      respiratory inhalers misuse. A short screening of executive function, using the
      BREF scale, before starting respiratory inhaler may improve the selection of
      inhaler devices and therefore the compliance to treatment.

PMID- 28872038
TI  - High rate of errors in pillbox filling by cognitively healthy elderly people.
AB  - An appropriate medication management depends on executive system integrity, which
      can be affected by aging. Previous studies showed that seniors commit frequent
      errors when having to fill in a pillbox. Nevertheless, to the best of our
      knowledge, no study has really considered the absence of cognitive disorders in
      the studied sample. The present study aimed to investigate pillbox filling in
      cognitively healthy elderly (specially focusing on executive system preservation)
      for whom no cognitive deterioration neither any depressive episode had occurred
      during a one year period. The filling task has been completed using a weekly
      pillbox and eight fictitious drugs. The selection of the 27 seniors aged from 71
      to 90 years has been based on their results to neuropsychological tests (Trail
      making test, Stroop Victoria, Tower of London, Montreal cognitive assessment) and
      a depression assessment scale (Short geriatric depression scale). Results showed
      that 67% of the participants committed at least one error when filling the
      pillbox and 56% at least 3. The maximal number of errors was 38. Further, the
      errors analysis showed that 85% of the errors had been repeated (e.g. reproduced
      on several days). Finally, the more complex the drug prescriptions are, the
      higher the error rate is. No other variable (age, gender, level education, habit
      of filling a pillbox) had any effect on the number of errors. So, the pillbox
      filing task can be considered as a complex task associated with a high risk of
      errors. Moreover, the absence of cognitive disorders is not a success factor to
      the task. A prospect for the future should be to try to limit the error rate by
      developing, for instance, an external support helping to the filling of the
      pillbox and a learning process for the use of this support.

PMID- 28872039
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28872041
TI  - Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1924): an introduction to the historico-cultural
      psychology and the development of the higher psychological processes.
AB  - In the 1930's LS Vygotsky developed an original conception of the psychology and
      the development of the higher psychological processes, which stands up the
      current theories in Russia and the West. He layed the bases for the study of the
      higher mental processes and their relationship with the brain functioning, which
      will be later on developped by AR Luria. After a brief historical notice, this
      paper will specify the relationships between Vygoski and Marx's and Engels's
      philosophy, the Soviet power and the works of Freud and Piaget.

PMID- 28872042
TI  - Retrieval of memories with the help of music in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - This study focuses on music as a mediator facilitating access to autobiographical
      memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Studies on this topic are rare, but available
      data have shown a beneficial effect of music on autobiographical performance in
      AD patients. Based on the "index word" method, we developed the "index music"
      method for the evaluation of autobiographical memory. The subjects had to tell a
      memory of their choice from the words or music presented to them. The task was
      proposed to 54 patients with diagnosis of AD according to DSM IV and NINCDS-ADRDA
      criteria. All of them had a significant cognitive decline on the MMSE (mean
      score: 14.5). Patients were matched by age, sex and level of education with 48
      control subjects without cognitive impairment (mean score on the MMSE: 28).
      Results showed that autobiographical memory quantity scores of AD patients were
      significantly lower than those of healthy control in both methods. However,
      autobiographical memory quality scores of AD patients increased with "index
      music" whereas autobiographical memory quality scores of healthy control
      decreased. Also, the autobiographical performance of patients with AD in
      condition index music was not correlated with cognitive performance in contrast
      to the autobiographical performances in index word. These results confirm that
      music improves access to personal memories in patients with AD. Personal memories
      could be preserved in patients with AD and music could constitute an interesting
      way to stimulate recollection.

PMID- 28872040
TI  - Structural magnetic resonance imaging in frontotemporal lobar dementia.
AB  - Frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD) is a heterogeneous group of
      neurodegenerative diseases. FTLD encompass: 1) behavioral forms, sometimes
      associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; 2) linguistic forms (semantic and
      non-fluent primary progressive aphasia); 3) atypical parkinsonian syndromes
      (progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome). Standard brain MRI
      allows for strengthening the clinical suspicion of FTLD, by showing a pattern of
      atrophy in relation with the patient's clinical symptoms: frontotemporal anterior
      atrophy in behavioral forms; temporopolar or inferior left frontal atrophy in the
      linguistic forms; mesencephalic or corticosubcortical hemispheric atrophy in
      forms with atypical pakinsonism. MRI is now part of the diagnostic criteria of
      some FTLD (behavioral FTLD, primary progressive aphasia). Genetic forms are
      common in FTLD, especially in behavioral FTLD. The three main mutations (C9ORF72,
      GRN and MAPT) are associated with different imaging patterns, which can thus
      orient the clinician towards a particular mutation in a patient with a familial
      form of FTLD.

PMID- 28872043
TI  - Representations of their own sexuality and aging body by old people:
      phenomenological and psychodynamic approach.
AB  - The sexuality of the elderly is rarely mentioned in general medicine although it
      holds an important place in many old people's life, and sexual well-being is a
      part of the global well-being according to the World Health Organization. To
      explore the representations of their own sexuality and aging body by the elderly.
      Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews in 15 healthy elderly people
      over 65 years of age, living at home. In-depth interviews were transcribed and
      submitted to qualitative content using a phenomenological and a psychodynamic
      analysis. The phenomenological approach allows to explore the meaning and
      significance of the sexuality of older people (their representations and
      individual experience). The psychodynamic approach allows an analysis of defense
      mechanisms in verbal and nonverbal behavior. Some elderly maintain a view of
      their sexuality in accordance with the societal standards existing before the
      sexual liberalization following the events of May 68 in France. For these people,
      sexuality is tabooed and only linked to procreation, no longer part of the aging
      body, and perceived as degraded, then difficult to be approached by general
      practitioners in relation with defense mechanisms. Other elderly people have
      managed to free themselves from those previous societal standards. The notion of
      pleasure is still present in these people and their aging body is perceived as an
      altered body, difficult to be accepted on account of the pressure for conformity
      due to actual societal standards. These standards reserve sexuality to young
      people and convey a picture of a sexuality that would be improper for the
      elderly. Understanding the representations of their sexuality by the elderly
      allows GPs a better approach for helping older patients to improve their sexual
      well-being.

PMID- 28872044
TI  - Insular cognitive impairment at the early stage of dementia with Lewy bodies: a
      preliminary study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The anterior part of the insula appears atrophied in the early stage
      of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) whereas it is not the case in early
      Alzheimer's disease (AD). OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop
      neuropsychological markers supposed to reflect insular dysfunction, which would
      facilitate early diagnosis of DLB, namely in comparison to AD. METHODS: Twelve
      patients with DLB, 12 patients with AD, all at the stage of Mild cognitive
      impairment (MCI) or mild dementia, as well as 10 Controls subjects (CS)
      participated in the study. Cognitive functions supposedly related to the insula
      were evaluated with a battery of tests: a facial expression recognition test, a
      test assessing the feeling of disgust with images, a test evaluating idioms'
      comprehension, an empathy questionnaire and a questionnaire screening for
      disgusting behaviors. RESULTS: Compared to AD patients and CS, DLB patients
      experienced less disgust when they were shown disgusting images, whereas their
      ability to recognize emotional expression of disgust appeared to be preserved.
      Furthermore, DLB patients seemed less empathetic than AD patients. Finally,
      compared to CS, DLB patients were less effective to provide an intuitive decision
      about idioms' signification since they needed significantly more time to answer.
      CONCLUSION: This preliminary study suggests the existence of a potential "
      insular cognitive impairment " profile in DLB at the early stage. These results
      provide interesting leads to develop tools facilitating the differential
      diagnosis of DLB and AD.

PMID- 28872047
TI  - Doing More About Health Care Disparities: Moving Past Description to Action.

PMID- 28872048
TI  - Human-brain ferritin studied by muon spin rotation: a pilot study.
AB  - Muon spin rotation is employed to investigate the spin dynamics of ferritin
      proteins isolated from the brain of an Alzheimer's disease (AD) patient and of a
      healthy control, using a sample of horse-spleen ferritin as a reference. A model
      based on the Neel theory of superparamagnetism is developed in order to interpret
      the spin relaxation rate of the muons stopped by the core of the protein. Using
      this model, our preliminary observations show that ferritins from the healthy
      control are filled with a mineral compatible with ferrihydrite, while ferritins
      from the AD patient contain a crystalline phase with a larger magnetocrystalline
      anisotropy, possibly compatible with magnetite or maghemite.

PMID- 28872046
TI  - Racial and Ethnic Differences in Antibiotic Use for Viral Illness in Emergency
      Departments.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In the primary care setting, there are racial and
      ethnic differences in antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract
      infections (ARTIs). Viral ARTIs are commonly diagnosed in the pediatric emergency
      department (PED), in which racial and ethnic differences in antibiotic
      prescribing have not been previously reported. We sought to investigate whether
      patient race and ethnicity was associated with differences in antibiotic
      prescribing for viral ARTIs in the PED. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort
      study of encounters at 7 PEDs in 2013, in which we used electronic health data
      from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Registry.
      Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between
      patient race and ethnicity and antibiotics administered or prescribed among
      children discharged from the hospital with viral ARTI. Children with bacterial
      codiagnoses, chronic disease, or who were immunocompromised were excluded.
      Covariates included age, sex, insurance, triage level, provider type, emergency
      department type, and emergency department site. RESULTS: Of 39 445 PED encounters
      for viral ARTIs that met inclusion criteria, 2.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]
      2.4%-2.8%) received antibiotics, including 4.3% of non-Hispanic (NH) white, 1.9%
      of NH black, 2.6% of Hispanic, and 2.9% of other NH children. In multivariable
      analyses, NH black (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.44; CI 0.36-0.53), Hispanic (aOR
      0.65; CI 0.53-0.81), and other NH (aOR 0.68; CI 0.52-0.87) children remained less
      likely to receive antibiotics for viral ARTIs. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with NH
      white children, NH black and Hispanic children were less likely to receive
      antibiotics for viral ARTIs in the PED. Future research should seek to understand
      why racial and ethnic differences in overprescribing exist, including parental
      expectations, provider perceptions of parental expectations, and implicit
      provider bias.

PMID- 28872049
TI  - Development of ultralight, super-elastic, hierarchical metallic meta-structures
      with i3DP technology.
AB  - Lightweight and mechanically robust materials show promising applications in
      thermal insulation, energy absorption, and battery catalyst supports. This study
      demonstrates an effective method for creation of ultralight metallic structures
      based on initiator-integrated 3D printing technology (i3DP), which provides a
      possible platform to design the materials with the best geometric parameters and
      desired mechanical performance. In this study, ultralight Ni foams with 3D
      interconnected hollow tubes were fabricated, consisting of hierarchical features
      spanning three scale orders ranging from submicron to centimeter. The resultant
      materials can achieve an ultralight density of as low as 5.1 mg cm-3 and nearly
      recover after significant compression up to 50%. Due to a high compression ratio,
      the hierarchical structure exhibits superior properties in terms of energy
      absorption and mechanical efficiency. The relationship of structural parameters
      and mechanical response was established. The ability of achieving ultralight
      density <10 mg cm-3 and the stable [Formula: see text] scaling through all range
      of relative density, indicates an advantage over the previous stochastic metal
      foams. Overall, this initiator-integrated 3D printing approach provides metallic
      structures with substantial benefits from the hierarchical design and fabrication
      flexibility to ultralight applications.

PMID- 28872050
TI  - Super-resolution reconstruction of 4D-CT lung data via patch-based low-rank
      matrix reconstruction.
AB  - Lung 4D computed tomography (4D-CT), which is a time-resolved CT data
      acquisition, performs an important role in explicitly including respiratory
      motion in treatment planning and delivery. However, the radiation dose is usually
      reduced at the expense of inter-slice spatial resolution to minimize radiation
      related health risk. Therefore, resolution enhancement along the superior
      inferior direction is necessary. In this paper, a super-resolution (SR)
      reconstruction method based on a patch low-rank matrix reconstruction is proposed
      to improve the resolution of lung 4D-CT images. Specifically, a low-rank matrix
      related to every patch is constructed by using a patch searching strategy.
      Thereafter, the singular value shrinkage is employed to recover the high
      resolution patch under the constraints of the image degradation model. The output
      high-resolution patches are finally assembled to output the entire image. This
      method is extensively evaluated using two public data sets. Quantitative analysis
      shows that the proposed algorithm decreases the root mean square error by 9.7%
      33.4% and the edge width by 11.4%-24.3%, relative to linear interpolation, back
      projection (BP) and Zhang et al's algorithm. A new algorithm has been developed
      to improve the resolution of 4D-CT. In all experiments, the proposed method
      outperforms various interpolation methods, as well as BP and Zhang et al's
      method, thus indicating the effectivity and competitiveness of the proposed
      algorithm.

PMID- 28872051
TI  - Optimization of sampling parameters for standardized exhaled breath sampling.
AB  - The lack of standardization of breath sampling is a major contributing factor to
      the poor repeatability of results and hence represents a barrier to the adoption
      of breath tests in clinical practice. On-line and bag breath sampling have
      advantages but do not suit multicentre clinical studies whereas storage and
      robust transport are essential for the conduct of wide-scale studies. Several
      devices have been developed to control sampling parameters and to concentrate
      volatile organic compounds (VOCs) onto thermal desorption (TD) tubes and
      subsequently transport those tubes for laboratory analysis. &#13; We conducted
      three experiments to investigate (i) the fraction of breath sampled (whole vs.
      lower expiratory exhaled breath); (ii) breath sample volume (125, 250, 500 and
      1000ml) and (iii) breath sample flow rate (400, 200, 100 and 50 ml/min). The
      target VOCs were acetone and potential volatile biomarkers for oesophago-gastric
      cancer belonging to the aldehyde, fatty acids and phenol chemical classes. We
      also examined the collection execution time and the impact of environmental
      contamination.&#13; The experiments showed that the use of exhaled breath
      sampling devices requires the selection of optimum sampling parameters. The
      increase in sample volume has improved the levels of VOCs detected. However, the
      influence of the fraction of exhaled breath and the flow rate depends on the
      target VOCs measured. The concentration of potential volatile biomarkers for
      oesophago-gastric cancer was not significantly different between the whole and
      lower airway exhaled breath. While the recovery of phenols and acetone from TD
      tubes was lower when breath sampling was performed at a higher flow rate, other
      VOCs were not affected. A dedicated 'clean air supply' overcomes the
      contamination from ambient air, but the breath collection device itself can be a
      source of contaminants. In clinical studies using VOCs to diagnose gastro
      oesophageal cancer, the optimum parameters are 500mls sample volume of whole
      breath with a flow rate of 200ml/min. &#13.

PMID- 28872052
TI  - Harmonic phase angles used for nanoparticle sensing.
AB  - A series of techniques have been developed to use magnetic nanoparticles as
      biosensors to characterize their local microenvironment. Two approaches have been
      used to obtain quantitative information: model based approaches and scaling based
      approaches. We have favored scaling based approaches, because approximations made
      in models can lead to limitations in the accuracy. Currently all the scaling
      approaches use harmonic ratios to retrieve physical parameters like temperature,
      viscosity and relaxation time. In this work, we showed that the phase angle of
      the signal at a single harmonic frequency is an alternative to the ratio. The
      phase angle is nanoparticle density-independent, and can be used to improve
      sensitivity, enabling us to measure smaller biomedical effects. With the phase
      angle as an example, we showed that scaling methods are general and do not depend
      on specific approximations. We showed that the same scaling techniques can be
      used with both the phase angle and harmonic ratio because they both depend on the
      same combinations of physical parameters. Using the phase angle improves the
      precision and using the combination of phase angles and harmonic ratio provides
      the best precision.

PMID- 28872053
TI  - Ambient pressure phase transitions over Ir(1 1 1): at the onset of CO oxidation.
AB  - In this study we report on the adsorbate structures on an Ir(1 1 1) surface
      during the phase transition from the inactive to the active state during CO
      oxidation. The CO oxidation over Pt(1 1 1) is used as a reference case. Where
      Pt(1 1 1) either is inactive and CO covered or active and O covered, Ir(1 1 1)
      exhibits a transition state with co-existing chemisorbed O and CO. The observed
      structural differences are explained in terms of DFT-calculated adsorption
      energies. For Pt(1 1 1) the repulsive CO-O interaction makes co-existing
      chemisorbed CO and O unfavourable, while for Ir(1 1 1) the stronger O and CO
      adsorption allows for overcoming the repulsive interaction. At the onset of CO
      oxidation over Ir(1 1 1), a CO structure containing defects forms, which enables
      O2 to dissociatively adsorb on the Ir(1 1 1) surface, thus enabling the CO
      oxidation reaction. At the mass transfer limit, the Ir(1 1 1) surface is covered
      by a chemisorbed O structure with defects; hence, the active surface is
      predominately chemisorbed O covered at a total pressure of 0.5 mbar and no oxide
      formation is observed.

PMID- 28872055
TI  - The magnetic properties and structure of the quasi-two-dimensional
      antiferromagnet CoPS3.
AB  - The magnetic properties and magnetic structure are presented for CoPS3, a quasi
      two-dimensional antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice with a Neel temperature of
      [Formula: see text] K. The compound is shown to have XY-like anisotropy in its
      susceptibility, and the anisotropy is analysed to extract crystal field
      parameters. For temperatures between 2 K and 300 K, no phase transitions were
      observed in the field-dependent magnetization up to 10 Tesla. Single-crystal
      neutron diffraction shows that the magnetic propagation vector is k  =  [Formula:
      see text] with the moments mostly along the [Formula: see text] axis and with a
      small component along the [Formula: see text] axis, which largely verifies the
      previously-published magnetic structure for this compound. The magnetic Bragg
      peak intensity decreases with increasing temperature as a power law with exponent
      [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28872054
TI  - Enhancement of multimodality texture-based prediction models via optimization of
      PET and MR image acquisition protocols: a proof of concept.
AB  - Texture-based radiomic models constructed from medical images have the potential
      to support cancer treatment management via personalized assessment of tumour
      aggressiveness. While the identification of stable texture features under varying
      imaging settings is crucial for the translation of radiomics analysis into
      routine clinical practice, we hypothesize in this work that a complementary
      optimization of image acquisition parameters prior to texture feature extraction
      could enhance the predictive performance of texture-based radiomic models. As a
      proof of concept, we evaluated the possibility of enhancing a model constructed
      for the early prediction of lung metastases in soft-tissue sarcomas by optimizing
      PET and MR image acquisition protocols via computerized simulations of image
      acquisitions with varying parameters. Simulated PET images from 30 STS patients
      were acquired by varying the extent of axial data combined per slice ('span').
      Simulated T 1-weighted and T 2-weighted MR images were acquired by varying the
      repetition time and echo time in a spin-echo pulse sequence, respectively. We
      analyzed the impact of the variations of PET and MR image acquisition parameters
      on individual textures, and we investigated how these variations could enhance
      the global response and the predictive properties of a texture-based model. Our
      results suggest that it is feasible to identify an optimal set of image
      acquisition parameters to improve prediction performance. The model constructed
      with textures extracted from simulated images acquired with a standard clinical
      set of acquisition parameters reached an average AUC of [Formula: see text] in
      bootstrap testing experiments. In comparison, the model performance significantly
      increased using an optimal set of image acquisition parameters ([Formula: see
      text]), with an average AUC of [Formula: see text]. Ultimately, specific
      acquisition protocols optimized to generate superior radiomics measurements for a
      given clinical problem could be developed and standardized via dedicated computer
      simulations and thereafter validated using clinical scanners.

PMID- 28872056
TI  - New understanding of nano-scale interstitial dislocation loops in BCC iron.
AB  - Complex states of nanoscale interstitial dislocation loop can be described by its
      habit plane and Burgers vector. Using atomistic simulations, we provide direct
      evidences on the change of the habit plane of a 1/2<1 1 1> loop from {1 1 1} to
      {1 1 0} and {2 1 1}, in agreement with TEM observations. A new {1 0 0} habit
      plane of this loop is also predicted by simulations. The non-conservation of the
      Burgers vector is approved theoretically for: (1) dislocation reactions between
      loops with different Burgers vectors and (2) the transition between <1 0 0> loops
      and 1/2<1 1 1> loops. The rotation from a 1/2<1 1 1> to a <1 0 0> loop has also
      been explored, which occurs at 570 K for time on the order of 10 s. The
      dislocation-precipitate phase duality and change of habit plane are then proposed
      as new features for nano-scale dislocation loops.

PMID- 28872057
TI  - Simulation study on exchange interaction and unique magnetization near
      ferromagnetic morphotropic phase boundary.
AB  - Extensive efforts have been made in searching enhanced functionalities near the
      so-called morphotropic phase boundaries (MPBs) in both ferroelectric and
      ferromagnetic materials. Due to the exchange anti-symmetry of the wave function
      of fermions, it is widely recognized that the exchange interaction plays a
      critical role in ferromagnetism. As a quantum effect, the exchange interaction is
      magnitudes larger than electric interaction, leading to a fundamental difference
      between ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism. In this paper, we establish an
      energetic model capturing the interplay among the anisotropy energy,
      magnetostatic energy and the exchange energy to investigate systematically the
      effects of the exchange energy on the behavior of the ferromagnetic MPB. For the
      first time, it is found that the exchange energy can narrow the width of MPB
      region in the composition temperature phase diagram for ferromagnetic MPB
      systems. As temperature increases, MPB region becomes wider because of the
      weakening of the exchange interaction. Our simulation results suggest that the
      exchange energy play a critical role on the unique behavior of ferromagnetic MPB,
      which is in contrast different from that of ferroelectric MPB.

PMID- 28872059
TI  - Seventy years of publications.

PMID- 28872058
TI  - Nanoparticles target early-stage breast cancer metastasis in vivo.
AB  - Despite advances in cancer therapy, treating cancer after it has metastasized
      remains an unmet clinical challenge. In this study we demonstrate that 100 nm
      liposomes target triple-negative murine breast-cancer metastases post intravenous
      administration. Metastatic breast cancer was induced in BALB/c mice either
      experimentally, by a tail vein injection of 4T1 cells, or spontaneously, after
      implanting a primary tumor xenograft. To track their biodistribution in vivo the
      liposomes were labeled with multi-modal diagnostic agents, including indocyanine
      green and rhodamine for whole-animal fluorescent imaging, gadolinium for magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI), and europium for a quantitative biodistribution
      analysis. The accumulation of liposomes in the metastases peaked at 24 h post the
      intravenous administration, similar to the time they peaked in the primary tumor.
      The efficiency of liposomal targeting to the metastatic tissue exceeded that of a
      non-liposomal agent by 4.5-fold. Liposomes were detected at very early stages in
      the metastatic progression, including metastatic lesions smaller than 2 mm in
      diameter. Surprisingly, while nanoparticles target breast cancer metastasis, they
      may also be found in elevated levels in the pre-metastatic niche, several days
      before metastases are visualized by MRI or histologically in the tissue. This
      study highlights the promise of diagnostic and therapeutic nanoparticles for
      treating metastatic cancer, possibly even for preventing the onset of the
      metastatic dissemination by targeting the pre-metastatic niche.

PMID- 28872060
TI  - Invariom-model refinement and Hirshfeld surface analysis of well-ordered solvent
      free dibenzo-21-crown-7.
AB  - Crown ethers and their supramolecular derivatives are well-known chelators and
      scavengers for a variety of cations, most notably heavier alkali and alkaline
      earth ions. Although they are widely used in synthetic chemistry, available
      crystal structures of uncoordinated and solvent-free crown ethers regularly
      suffer from disorder. In this study, we present the X-ray crystal structure
      analysis of well-ordered solvent-free crystals of dibenzo-21-crown-7 (systematic
      name: dibenzo[b,k]-1,4,7,10,13,16,19-heptaoxacycloheneicosa-2,11-diene,
      C22H28O7). Because of the quality of the crystal and diffraction data, we have
      chosen invarioms, in addition to standard independent spherical atoms, for
      modelling and briefly discuss the different refinement results. The electrostatic
      potential, which is directly deducible from the invariom model, and the Hirshfeld
      surface are analysed and complemented with interaction-energy computations to
      characterize intermolecular contacts. The boat-like molecules stack along the a
      axis and are arranged as dimers of chains, which assemble as rows to form a three
      dimensional structure. Dispersive C-H...H-C and C-H...pi interactions dominate,
      but nonclassical hydrogen bonds are present and reflect the overall rather weak
      electrostatic influence. A fingerprint plot of the Hirshfeld surface summarizes
      and visualizes the intermolecular interactions. The insight gained into the
      crystal structure of dibenzo-21-crown-7 not only demonstrates the power of
      invariom refinement, Hirshfeld surface analysis and interaction-energy
      computation, but also hints at favourable conditions for crystallizing solvent
      free crown ethers.

PMID- 28872061
TI  - Computational, 1H NMR, and X-ray structural studies on 1-arylurazole tetrazane
      dimers.
AB  - Nitrogen-centered urazole radicals exist in equilibrium with tetrazane dimers in
      solution. The equilibrium established typically favors the free-radical form.
      However, 1-arylurazole radicals bearing substituents at the ortho position favor
      the dimeric form. We were able to determine the structure of one of the dimers
      (substituted at both ortho positions with methyl groups), namely 1,2-(2,4
      dimethylphenyl)-2-[2-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)-4-methyl-3,5-dioxo-1,2,4-triazolidin-1
      yl]-4-methyl-1,2,4-triazolidine-3,5-dione, C24H28N6O4, via X-ray crystallography.
      The experimentally determined structure agreed well with the computationally
      obtained geometry at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. The preferred syn
      conformation of these 1-arylurazole dimers results in the two aromatic rings
      being proximate and nearly parallel, which leads to some interesting shielding
      effects of certain signals in the 1H NMR spectrum. Armed with this information,
      we were able to decipher the more complicated 1H NMR spectrum obtained from a
      dimer that was monosubstituted at the ortho position with a methyl group.

PMID- 28872062
TI  - Polymorphism of a widely used building block for halogen-bonded assemblies: 1,3,5
      trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene.
AB  - After reporting the structure of a new polymorph of 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6
      triiodobenzene (denoted BzF3I3), C6F3I3, (I), which crystallized in the space
      group P21/c, we perform a comparative analysis with the already reported P21/n
      polymorph, (II) [Reddy et al. (2006). Chem. Eur. J. 12, 2222-2234]. In polymorph
      (II), type-II I...I halogen bonds and I...pi interactions connect molecules in
      such a way that a three-dimensional structure is formed; however, the way in
      which molecules are connected in polymorph (I), through type-II I...I halogen
      bonds and pi-pi interactions, gives rise to an exfoldable lamellar structure,
      which looks less tightly bound than that of (II). In agreement with this
      structural observation, both the melting point and the melting enthalpy of (I)
      are lower than those of (II).

PMID- 28872063
TI  - Three zinc(II) and cadmium(II) complexes containing 4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-2-yl)
      1,2,4-triazole and polynitrile ligands: synthesis, molecular and supramolecular
      structures, and photoluminescence properties.
AB  - Three photoluminescent complexes containing either ZnII or CdII have been
      synthesized and their structures determined. Bis[4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-2-yl)
      1,2,4-triazole-kappa2N1,N5]bis(dicyanamido-kappaN1)zinc(II),
      [Zn(C12H10N6)2(C2N3)2], (I), bis[4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazole
      kappa2N1,N5]bis(dicyanamido-kappaN1)cadmium(II), [Cd(C12H10N6)2(C2N3)2], (II),
      and bis[4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazole
      kappa2N1,N5]bis(tricyanomethanido-kappaN1)cadmium(II), [Cd(C12H10N6)2(C4N3)2],
      (III), all crystallize in the space group P-1, with the metal centres lying on
      centres of inversion, but neither analogues (I) and (II) nor CdII complexes (II)
      and (III) are isomorphous. A combination of N-H...N and C-H...N hydrogen bonds
      and pi-pi stacking interactions generates three-dimensional framework structures
      in (I) and (II), and a sheet structure in (III). The photoluminescence spectra of
      (I)-(III) indicate that the energies of the pi-pi* transitions in the coordinated
      triazole ligand are modified by minor changes of the ligand geometry associated
      with coordination to the metal centres.

PMID- 28872064
TI  - Weak hydrogen and halogen bonding in 4-[(2,2-difluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium
      iodide and 4-[(3-chloro-2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropoxy)methyl]pyridinium iodide.
AB  - To enable a comparison between a C-H...X hydrogen bond and a halogen bond, the
      structures of two fluorous-substituted pyridinium iodide salts have been
      determined. 4-[(2,2-Difluoroethoxy)methyl]pyridinium iodide, C8H10F2NO+.I-, (1),
      has a -CH2OCH2CF2H substituent at the para position of the pyridinium ring and 4
      [(3-chloro-2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropoxy)methyl]pyridinium iodide, C9H9ClF4NO+.I-,
      (2), has a -CH2OCH2CF2CF2Cl substituent at the para position of the pyridinium
      ring. In salt (1), the iodide anion is involved in one N-H...I and three C-H...I
      hydrogen bonds, which, together with C-H...F hydrogen bonds, link the cations and
      anions into a three-dimensional network. For salt (2), the iodide anion is
      involved in one N-H...I hydrogen bond, two C-H...I hydrogen bonds and one C
      Cl...I halogen bond; additional C-H...F and C-F...F interactions link the cations
      and anions into a three-dimensional arrangement.

PMID- 28872065
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of (cryptand-222)potassium (2
      methylimidazolato)(meso-tetraphenylporphinato)ferrate(II)-2-methylimidazole
      tetrahydrofuran (1/1/2).
AB  - Metalloporphyrin complexes containing an additional imidazole ligand can provide
      information about the effect of deprotonation or hydrogen bonding on the axial
      histidine unit in heme proteins. The title high-spin five-coordinate imidazolate
      ligated iron(II) porphyrinate,
      [K(C18H36N2O6)][Fe(C4H5N2)(C44H28N4)].C4H6N2.2C4H8O, has been synthesized and
      investigated. The solvated salt crystallizes with one 2-methylimidazole molecule,
      two tetrahydrofuran solvent molecules and a potassium cation chelated inside a
      cryptand-222 (4,7,13,16,21,24-hexaoxa-1,10-diazabicyclo[8.8.8]hexacosane)
      molecule. The imidazolate ligand is ordered. The average Fe-Np (Np is a porphyrin
      N atom) bond length is 2.113 (11) A and the axial Fe-NIm (NIm is an imidazolate N
      atom) is 2.0739 (13) A. The out-of-plane displacement of the FeII atom from the
      24-atom mean plane is 0.6098 (5) A, indicating an apparent doming of the
      porphyrin core.

PMID- 28872066
TI  - Crystal structures and new perspectives on Y3Au4 and Y14Au51.
AB  - Y3Au4 (triyttrium tetragold) and Y14Au51 (tetradecayttrium henpentacontagold),
      two binary representatives of Au-rich rare earth (R) systems crystallize with the
      space groups R-3 and P6/m, adopting the Pu3Pd4 and Gd14Ag51 structure types,
      respectively (Pearson symbols hR42 and hP65). A variety of binary R-Au compounds
      have been reported, although only a few have been investigated thoroughly. Many
      reports lack information or misinterpret known compounds reported elsewhere. The
      Pu3Pd4 type is fairly common for group 10 elements Ni, Pd, and Pt, while Au
      representatives are restricted to just five examples, i.e. Ca3Au4, Pr3Au4,
      Nd3Au4, Gd3Au4, and Th3Au4. Sm6Au7 is suspected to be Sm3Au4 due to identical
      symmetry and close unit-cell parameters. The Pu3Pd4 structure type allows for
      full substitution of the position of the rare earth atom by more electronegative
      and smaller elements, i.e. Ti and Zr. The Gd14Ag51 type instead is more common
      for the group 11 metals, while rare representatives of group 12 are known. Y3Au4
      can be represented as a tunnel structure with encapsulated cations and anionic
      chains. Though tunnels are present in Y14Au51, this structure is more complex and
      is best described in terms of polyhedral 'pinwheels' around the tunnel forming
      polyhedra along the c axis.

PMID- 28872067
TI  - A luminescent bis(pyridyl)-substituted benzimidazole platinum(II) complex
      exhibiting an intermolecular anagostic interaction.
AB  - The photophysical properties of transition metal complexes of the 5,6-dimethyl-2
      (pyridin-2-yl)-1-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-1H-benzimidazole ligand are of interest.
      Dichlorido[5,6-dimethyl-2-(pyridin-2-yl)-1-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-1H-benzimidazole
      kappa2N2,N3]platinum(II), [PtCl2(C20H18N4)], is luminescent in the solid state at
      room temperature. The compound displays a distorted square-planar coordination
      geometry. The Pt-N(imidazole) bond length is shorter than the Pt-N(pyridine) bond
      length. The extended structure reveals that symmetry-related molecules display
      weak C-H...N, C-H...Cl, and C-H...Pt hydrogen-bonding interactions that are
      clearly discernable in the Hirshfeld surface and fingerprint plots. The
      intermolecular C-H...Pt and C-H...N interactions have been explored using density
      functional theory. The result of an analysis of the distance dependence of C
      H...Pt yields a value consistent with that observed in the solid-state structure.
      The energy of interaction for the C-H...Pt interaction is found to be about -11
      kJ mol-1.

PMID- 28872068
TI  - A bipyridine-ligated zinc(II) complex with bridging flavonolate ligation:
      synthesis, characterization, and visible-light-induced CO release reactivity.
AB  - Metal-flavonolate compounds are of significant current interest as synthetic
      models for quercetinase enzymes and as bioactive compounds of importance to human
      health. Zinc-3-hydroxyflavonolate compounds, including those of quercetin,
      kampferol, and morin, generally exhibit bidentate coordination to a single ZnII
      center. The bipyridine-ligated zinc-flavonolate compound reported herein, namely
      bis(MU-4-oxo-2-phenyl-4H-chromen-3-olato)-kappa3O3:O3,O4;kappa3O3,O4:O3-bis[(2,2'
      bipyridine-kappa2N,N')zinc(II)] bis(perchlorate),
      {[Zn2(C15H9O3)2(C10H8N2)2](ClO4)2}n, (1), provides an unusual example of bridging
      3-hydroxyflavonolate ligation in a dinuclear metal complex. The symmetry-related
      ZnII centers of (1) exhibit a distorted octahedral geometry, with weak
      coordination of a perchlorate anion trans to the bridging deprotonated O atom of
      the flavonolate ligand. Variable-concentration conductivity measurements provide
      evidence that, when (1) is dissolved in CH3CN, the complex dissociates into
      monomers. 1H NMR resonances for (1) dissolved in d6-DMSO were assigned via HMQC
      to the H atoms of the flavonolate and bipyridine ligands. In CH3CN, (1) undergoes
      quantitative visible-light-induced CO release with a quantum yield [0.004 (1)]
      similar to that exhibited by other mononuclear zinc-3-hydroxyflavonolate
      complexes. Mass spectroscopic identification of the [(bpy)2Zn(O
      benzoylsalicylate)]+ ion provides evidence of CO release from the flavonol and of
      ligand exchange at the ZnII center.

PMID- 28872069
TI  - A fluorophore-labelled copper complex: crystal structure, hybrid cyclic water
      perchlorate cluster and biological properties.
AB  - A fluorophore-labelled copper(II) complex, aquabis(dimethylformamide
      kappaO)(perchlorato-kappaO)[2-(quinolin-2-yl)-1,3-oxazolo[4,5
      f][1,10]phenanthroline]copper(II) perchlorate monohydrate,
      [Cu(ClO4)(C22H12N4O)(C3H7NO)2(H2O)]ClO4.H2O, has been synthesized and
      characterized. A cyclic hydrogen-bonded water-perchlorate anionic cluster, i.e.
      [(ClO4)2(H2O)2]2-, has been identified within the structure. Each cyclic anionic
      cluster unit is interconnected by hydrogen bonding to the cation. The cations
      join into an infinite hydrogen-bonded chain running in the [010] direction.
      Furthermore, interaction of the complex with calf-thymus DNA (CT-DNA) and
      cellular localization within the cells was explored. Spectroscopic studies
      indicate that the compound has a good affinity for DNA and stains the nucleus of
      the cells.

PMID- 28872070
TI  - Hydrogen-bonded structures and interaction energies in two forms of the SGLT-2
      inhibitor sotagliflozin.
AB  - The sotagliflozin molecule exhibits two fundamentally different molecular
      conformations in form 1 {systematic name: (2S,3R,4R,5S,6R)-2-[4-chloro-3-(4
      ethoxybenzyl)phenyl]-6-(methylsulfanyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-3,4,5-triol,
      C21H25ClO5S, (I)} and the monohydrate [C21H25ClO5S.H2O, (II)]. Both crystals
      display hydrogen-bonded layers formed by intermolecular interactions which
      involve the three -OH groups of the xyloside fragment of the molecule. The layer
      architectures of (I) and (II) contain a non-hydrogen-bonded molecule-molecule
      interaction along the short crystallographic axis (a axis) whose total PIXEL
      energy exceeds that of each hydrogen-bonded molecule-molecule pair. The hydrogen
      bonded layer of (I) has the topology of the 4-connected sql net and that formed
      by the water and sotagliflozin molecules of (II) has the topology of a 3,7
      connected net.

PMID- 28872071
TI  - 3-(Pyridin-4-yl)acetylacetone: CdII and HgII compete for nitrogen coordination.
AB  - 3-(Pyridin-4-yl)acetylacetone (HacacPy) acts as a pyridine-type ligand towards
      CdII and HgII halides. With CdBr2, the one-dimensional polymer [Cd(MU
      Br)2(HacacPy)Cd(MU-Br)2(HacacPy)2]infinity is obtained in which five- and six
      coordinated CdII cations alternate in the chain direction. Reaction of HacacPy
      with HgBr2 results in [Hg(MU-Br)Br(HacacPy)]infinity, a polymer in which each
      HgII centre is tetracoordinated. In both compounds, each metal(II) cation is N
      coordinated by at least one HacacPy ligand. Equimolar reaction between these CdII
      and HgII derivatives, either conducted in ethanol as solvent or via grinding in
      the solid state, leads to ligand redistribution and the formation of the well
      ordered bimetallic polymer catena-poly[[bromidomercury(II)]-MU-bromido-[aquabis[4
      hydroxy-3-(pyridin-4-yl)pent-3-en-2-one]cadmium(II)]-di-MU-bromido],
      [CdHgBr4(C10H11NO2)2(H2O)]n or [{HgBr}(MU-Br){(HacacPy)2Cd(H2O)}(MU
      Br)2]infinity. HgII and CdII cations alternate in the [100] direction. The
      HacacPy ligands do not bind to the HgII cations, which are tetracoordinated by
      three bridging and one terminal bromide ligand. The CdII centres adopt an only
      slightly distorted octahedral coordination. Three bromide ligands link them in a
      (2 + 1) pattern to neighbouring HgII atoms; two HacacPy ligands in a cis
      configuration, acting as N-atom donors, and a terminal aqua ligand complete the
      coordination sphere. Classical O-H...Br hydrogen bonds stabilize the polymeric
      chain. O-H...O hydrogen bonds between aqua H atoms and the uncoordinated carbonyl
      group of an HacacPy ligand in a neighbouring strand in the c direction link the
      chains into layers in the (010) plane.

PMID- 28872073
TI  - Supramolecular architectures in the salt trimethoprimium ferrocene-1-carboxylate
      and the cocrystal 4-amino-5-chloro-2,6-dimethylpyrimidine-ferrocene-1-carboxylic
      acid (1/1).
AB  - In the salt trimethoprimium ferrocenecarboxylate [systematic name: 2,4-diamino-5
      (3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)pyrimidin-1-ium ferrocene-1-carboxylate],
      (C14H19N4O3)[Fe(C5H5)(C6H4O2)], (I), of the antibacterial compound trimethoprim,
      the carboxylate group interacts with the protonated aminopyrimidine group of
      trimethoprim via two N-H...O hydrogen bonds, generating a robust R22(8) ring
      motif (heterosynthon). However, in the cocrystal 4-amino-5-chloro-2,6
      dimethylpyrimidine-ferrocene-1-carboxylic acid (1/1),
      [Fe(C5H5)(C6H5O2)].C6H8ClN3, (II), the carboxyl-aminopyrimidine interaction
      [R22(8) motif] is absent. The carboxyl group interacts with the pyrimidine ring
      via a single O-H...N hydrogen bond. The pyrimidine rings, however, form base
      pairs via a pair of N-H...N hydrogen bonds, generating an R22(8) supramolecular
      homosynthon. In salt (I), the unsubstituted cyclopentadienyl ring is disordered
      over two positions, with a refined site-occupation ratio of 0.573 (10):0.427
      (10). In this study, the two five-membered cyclopentadienyl (Cp) rings of
      ferrocene are in a staggered conformation, as is evident from the C...Cg...Cg...C
      pseudo-torsion angles, which are in the range 36.13-37.53 degrees  for (I) and
      22.58-23.46 degrees  for (II). Regarding the Cp ring of the minor component in
      salt (I), the geometry of the ferrocene ring is in an eclipsed conformation, as
      is evident from the C...Cg...Cg...C pseudo-torsion angles, which are in the range
      79.26-80.94 degrees . Both crystal structures are further stabilized by weak pi
      pi interactions.

PMID- 28872074
TI  - A three-dimensional cadmium coordination polymer based on 1,4-bis(1,2,4-triazol-1
      yl)but-2-ene and benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid.
AB  - The CdII three-dimensional coordination poly[[[MU4-1,4-bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)but
      2-ene]bis(MU3-5-carboxybenzene-1,3-dicarboxylato)dicadmium(II)] dihydrate],
      {[Cd2(C9H4O6)2(C8H10N6)].2H2O}n, (I), has been synthesized by the hydrothermal
      reaction of Cd(NO3)2.4H2O, benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (1,3,5-H3BTC) and 1,4
      bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)but-2-ene (1,4-btbe). The IR spectrum suggests the
      presence of protonated carboxylic acid, deprotonated carboxylate and triazolyl
      groups. The purity of the bulk sample was confirmed by elemental analysis and X
      ray powder diffraction. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that
      the CdII ions adopt a five-coordinated distorted trigonal-bipyramidal geometry,
      coordinated by three O atoms from three different 1,3,5-HBTC2- ligands and two N
      atoms from two different 1,4-btbe ligands; the latter are situated on centres of
      inversion. The CdII centres are bridged by 1,3,5-HBTC2- and 1,4-btbe ligands into
      an overall three-dimensional framework. When the CdII centres and the
      tetradentate 1,4-btbe ligands are regarded as nodes, the three-dimensional
      topology can be simplified as a binodal 4,6-connected network. Thermogravimetric
      analysis confirms the presence of lattice water in (I). Photoluminescence studies
      imply that the emission of (I) may be ascribed to intraligand fluorescence.

PMID- 28872072
TI  - A phase transition caught in mid-course: independent and concomitant analyses of
      the monoclinic and triclinic structures of (nBu4N)[Co(orotate)2(bipy)].3H2O.
AB  - The preparation and characterization of the nBu4N+ salts of two bis-orotate(2-)
      complexes of cobalt, namely bis(tetra-n-butylammonium) diaquabis(2,4-dioxo
      1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidin-1-ide-6-carboxylato-kappa2N1,O6)cobalt(II) 1.8
      hydrate, (C16H36N)2[Co(C5H2N2O4)2(H2O)2].1.8H2O, (1), and tetra-n-butylammonium
      (2,2'-bipyridine-kappa2N,N')bis(2,4-dioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidin-1-ide-6
      carboxylato-kappa2N1,O6)cobalt(III) trihydrate,
      (C16H36N)[Co(C5H2N2O4)2(C10H8N2)].3H2O, (2), are reported. The CoIII complex,
      (2), which is monoclinic at room temperature, presents a conservative single
      crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition below 200 K, producing a triclinic
      twin. The transition, which involves a conformational change in one of the nBu
      groups of the cation, is reversible and can be cycled. Both end phases have been
      characterized structurally and the system was also characterized structurally in
      a two-phase intermediate state, using single-crystal diffraction techniques, with
      both the monoclinic and triclinic phases present. Thermal analysis allows a rough
      estimate of the small energy content, viz. 0.25 kJ mol-1, for both the monoclinic
      to-triclinic transformation and the reverse transition, in agreement with the
      nature of the structural changes involving only the nBu4N+ cation.

PMID- 28872075
TI  - A halide-free pyridinium-substituted eta3-cycloheptatrienide-Pd complex.
AB  - We report the synthesis and characterization of a novel 4
      (dimethylamino)pyridinium-substituted eta3-cycloheptatrienide-Pd complex which is
      free of halide ligands. Diacetonitrile{eta3-[4-(dimethylamino)pyridinium-1
      yl]cycloheptatrienido}palladium(II) bis(tetrafluoroborate),
      [Pd(C2H3N)2(C14H16N2)](BF4)2, was prepared by the exchange of two bromide ligands
      for noncoordinating anions, which results in the empty coordination sites being
      occupied by acetonitrile ligands. As described previously, exchange of only one
      bromide leads to a dimeric complex, di-MU-bromido-bis({eta3-[4
      (dimethylamino)pyridinium-1-yl]cycloheptatrienido}palladium(II))
      bis(tetrafluoroborate) acetonitrile disolvate, [Pd2Br2(C14H16N2)2](BF4)2.2CH3CN,
      with bridging bromide ligands, and the crystal structure of this compound is also
      reported here. The structures of the cycloheptatrienide ligands of both complexes
      are analogous to the dibromide derivative, showing the allyl bond in the beta
      position with respect to the pyridinium substituent. This indicates that, unlike
      a previous interpretation, the main reason for the formation of the beta-isomer
      cannot be internal hydrogen bonding between the cationic substituents and bromide
      ligands.

PMID- 28872076
TI  - [Inhibitory effect of BEZ235 on human prostate carcinoma in vitro].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine effects of BEZ235, an inhibitor of phosphoionsitol-3
      kinase (PI3K)/mTOR, on the cell proliferation and migration in human prostate
      carcinoma lines including RWPE-1, PC3, and DU145 cells.? Methods: Viability of
      RWPE-1, PC3, and DU145 cells was detected by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol- 2-yl)-2,5
      diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, while cell migration was analyzed by
      wound healing assay. Western blot and immunofluorescence were used to examine the
      changes of relevant protein expression. ? Results: The proliferation of PC3 and
      DU145 cells was effectively inhibited by BEZ235 (P<0.01), whereas RWPE-1 was not
      obviously inhibited. Invasion and migration of PC3 and DU145 cells were
      attenuated by BEZ235 via EMT pathway.? Conclusion: The PI3K/mTOR dual inhibitor
      BEZ235 shows substantial anti-tumor activity in human prostate carcinoma lines of
      PC3 and DU145 cells, which may be involved in the EMT pathway.

PMID- 28872077
TI  - [Role of PpIX-based photodynamic therapy in promoting the damage and apoptosis of
      colorectal cancer cell and its mechanisms].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX)-mediated
      photodynamic therapy (PDT) on induction of apoptosis and death in colon cancer
      cell and the underlying mechanisms.? Methods: The cell killing effect of PDT on
      HCT116 cell was determined by cell counting kit (CCK). The cells were divided
      into a control group, a single light group, a single PpIX group, and a PDT group.
      Hoechst 33342 and flow cytometry was used to assess the cell apoptosis. Western
      blot was employed to analyze the expressions of bcl-2, bax, and caspase-3.
      Reactive oxygen species (ROS) was detected by flow cytometry.? Results: The
      viability of HCT116 cell was decreased gradually with the increase of irradiation
      dose (P<0.05). Compared to the other 3 groups, ROS production, the number of
      apoptotic cells and the protein expressions of bax and caspase-3 in PDT group
      increased, while bcl-2 expression was decreased (P<0.05).? Conclusion: PpIX
      mediated PDT can enhance the apoptosis in HCT116 cell, which may be related to
      mitochondrial apoptosis pathway.

PMID- 28872078
TI  - [Correlations between the p-Akt-mTOR-p70S6K pathway and clinicopathological
      features or chemoresistance of ovarian cancer].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between alpha seine/threonine-protein kinase
      (p-Akt)-serine/threonine-protein kinase (mTOR)-ribosomal protein S6 kinase
      (p70S6K) signaling pathway and clinicopathological features or chemoresistance of
      ovarian cancer.? Methods: We checked the p-Akt, mTOR and p70S6K protein levels in
      18 tissues with chemoresistance or 25 with chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer by
      immunohistochemistry technique, and analyzed the relationship between those
      proteins and clinicopathological features or chemoresistance of ovarian cancer.?
      Results: The levels of p-Akt protein in ovarian serous carcinoma, mucinous
      carcinoma and endometrioid carcinoma were 77.14%, 50.00% and 66.67%,
      respectively, with no significant difference (P>0.05). The levels of these
      proteins in well-middle differentiated carcinoma and low differentiated carcinoma
      were 73.33% and 75.00%, respectively, with no significant difference (P>0.05).
      The levels of these proteins in I-II stage carcinoma, and III-IV stage carcinoma
      were 18.18% and 93.75%, respectively, with significant difference (P<0.05). The
      levels of mTOR protein in ovarian serous carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma and
      endometrioid carcinoma were 77.14%, 100.00% and 83.33%, respectively, with no
      significant difference (P>0.05). The levels of this protein in well-middle
      differentiated carcinoma and low differentiated carcinoma were 80.00% and 78.57%,
      respectively, with no significant difference (P>0.05). The levels of this protein
      in I-II stage carcinoma, and III-IV stage carcinoma were 27.27% and 96.88%,
      respectively, with significant difference (P<0.05). The levels of p70S6K protein
      in ovarian serous carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma and endometrioid carcinoma were
      80.00%, 100.00% and 100.00%, respectively, with no significant difference
      (P>0.05). The levels of this protein in well-middle differentiated carcinoma and
      low differentiated carcinoma were 93.33% and 78.57%, respectively, with no
      significant difference (P>0.05). The levels of this protein in I-II stage
      carcinoma, and III-IV stage carcinoma were 45.45% and 96.88%, respectively, with
      significant difference (P<0.05). The levels of p-Akt protein in tissue of
      chemoresistance and chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer were 88.89% and 64.00%,
      respectively, with significant difference (P<0.05). The levels of mTOR protein in
      tissue of chemoresistance and chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer were 94.44% and
      68.00%, respectively, with significant difference (P<0.05). The levels of p70S6K
      protein in tissue of chemoresistance and chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer were
      100.00% and 72.00%, respectively, with significant difference (P<0.05).?
      Conclusion: The p-Akt-mTOR-p70S6K signaling pathway may take part in invasion and
      metastasis of ovarian cancer. The up-regulation of these proteins may be
      associated with the chemoresistance of ovarian cancer, and these proteins may
      have potential to be the prognostic markers for the chemoresistance of ovarian
      cancer.

PMID- 28872079
TI  - [Mechanisms for the regulatory effect of prostaglandin E2/prostaglandin E
      receptor 4 on high mobility group box-1 protein in lipopolysaccharide-induced
      sepsis in mouse peritoneal macrophage].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) on the expression of
      high mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) in peritoneal macrophages of septic
      mice and its possible mechanisms.? Methods: The mouse peritoneal macrophages were
      isolated and cultured by conventional methods.The model of inflammation was
      established by using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to incubate with mouse peritoneal
      macrophages. The PGE2, prostaglandin E receptor (EP) 4 agonist, EP4 RNAi, and
      DN.CREB inhibitory plasmid were used to interfere with the LPS-treated mouse
      peritoneal macrophage. The levels of HMGB1 was determined by Western blot.?
      Results: Compared with LPS alone treatment, the expression of HMGB1 in peritoneal
      macrophages was increased obviously after 24 h by treatment with PGE2 and LPS,
      and it was also increased after the combined treatment of EP4 receptor agonist
      with LPS for 24 h (both P<0.05); compared with the PGE2+LPS treatment, the level
      of HMGB1 was decreased after knockdown of EP4 receptor expression (P<0.05);
      compared with EP4 receptor agonist +LPS treatment, there was no difference in
      HMGB1 levels in mice after the treatment with DN.CREB plasmid to suppress CREB
      function (P>0.05); compared with LPS alone treatment, the combined treatment of
      EP4 receptor agonist with LPS for 24 h could up-regulate the phosphorylation of
      epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and protein kinase B (Akt) thr308
      (P<0.05), which were blocked by EGFR inhibitor. Once Akt specific inhibitor was
      used before EP4 and LPS treatment, the expression of HMGB1 was declined
      (P<0.05).? Conclusion: PGE2 can up-regulate the expression of HMGB1 in sepsis of
      peritoneal macrophages through EP4 receptor, which may be related to the
      activation of EGFR/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

PMID- 28872080
TI  - [Role of autophagy in ameliorating sepsis-induced acute lung injury by allicinin
      in mice].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate roles of autophagy in ameliorating sepsis-induced acute
      lung injury by allicinin in mice.? Methods: A total of 152 male Balb/c mice (8
      week old) were randomly divided into a sham group, a septic model group, an
      allicin treatment group, and an autophagy inhibition group. Septic mouse model
      was established by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Mice in the allicin
      treatment group were given allicin (30 mg/kg, intra-peritoneal injection) at 6
      and 12 h, while those in the autophagy inhibition group were given autophagy
      inhibitor 3-MA (15 mg/kg, intra-peritoneal injection) at half an hour after
      allicin administration. Mice in the model and sham group were administered with
      the same amount of saline. Twenty mice in each group were randomly chosen to
      observe the 7 d survival rate. The other 12 mice were killed at 24 h, and the
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) (n=6) and lung tissues (n=6) were collected.
      ELISA was used to detect the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and
      interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the BALF. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was preformed to
      show the morphological changes in the lung tissues. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content
      and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the lung tissues were examined.
      The expression of LC3B and Beclin-1 was determined by immunohistochemical
      analysis.? Results: Compared with the sham group, the 7 d survival rate and lung
      SOD activity were decreased in the CLP group (P<0.05); the lung morphological
      damage score, the levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the BALF, MDA content in the
      lung, and expression of LC3B and Beclin-1 were increased greatly in the CLP group
      (P<0.05). Compared with the CLP group, the 7 d survival rate, lung SOD activity
      and the expressions of LC3B and Beclin-1 were increased significantly in the
      allicin treatment group (P<0.05); the lung morphological damage scores, the
      levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the BALF and MDA content in the lung were
      decreased obviously in the allicin treatment group (P<0.05). Compared with the
      allicin treatment group, the 7 d survival rate, lung SOD activity, and the
      expressions of LC3B and Beclin-1 were decreased in the 3-MA group (P<0.05); the
      lung morphological damage scores, the levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the BALF,
      and MDA content in the lung were increased significantly in the 3-MA group
      (P<0.05).? Conclusion: Allicin may ameliorate sepsis-induced acute lung injury in
      mice by enhancing the level of autophagy.

PMID- 28872081
TI  - [Effect of Shexiang Baoxin Pills on isoprenaline-induced myocardial cell
      hypertrophy and Cx43 expression].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Shexiang Baoxin Pill (SBP) on isoprenaline
      (Iso)-induced changes in myocardial cell volume, shape, and connexin 43 (Cx43)
      expression.? Methods: H9C2 myocardial cells were randomly divided into a control
      group, a Iso group and a Iso+SBP group. After 72 h of culture, the average
      surface area of H9C2 cells was measured under phase contrast microscope.
      Bicinchoninic acid (BCA) protein assay was carried out to determine the
      concentration of proteins. The survival rate of myocardial cells was measured by
      methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and the Cx43 expression
      was detected by Western blot.? Results: The mean surface area and Cx43
      concentration in Iso-treated myocardial cells were increased under the phase
      contrast microscope (P<0.05). Compared with the Iso group, the mean surface area
      was decreased, and the Cx43 concentration was reduced in the Iso+SBP group (both
      P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the Cx43 expression was obviously down
      regulated in the H9C2 cells of the Iso group (P<0.05); while compared with the
      Iso group, the Cx43 expression was obviously up-regulated in the Iso+SBP group
      (P<0.05).? Conclusion: Shexiang Baoxin Pills can prevent Iso-induced myocardial
      hypertrophy and down-regulate Cx43 expression.

PMID- 28872082
TI  - [Relationship between the methylation status of STAT3 promoter DNA in peripheral
      blood CD4+ T cells from patients after allo-HSCT and aGVHD].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between acute graft versus host disease
      (aGVHD) and the methylation status of the STAT3 promoter in peripheral blood CD4+
      T cells from patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (allo-HSCT).? Methods: We collected 40 patients who underwent allo-HSCT from HLA
      identical sibling donors. Serum IL-10, TGF-beta1, IL-17A and IL-17F levels were
      detected by ELISA. Foxp3 cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA4), IL
      10, TGF-beta1, RORgammat, IL-17A and IL-17F mRNA levels in CD4+ T cells were
      measured by real-time PCR. STAT3 expression levels were detected by real-time PCR
      and Western blot, and promoter DNA methylation was analyzed by bisulfite
      sequencing PCR (BSP).? Results: IL-10 and TGF-beta1 levels were significantly
      down-regulated, while IL-17A and IL-17F levels were significantly up-regulated in
      patients with aGVHD compared with patients without aGVHD. Foxp3, CTLA4, IL-10,
      TGF-beta1 mRNA levels were significantly down-regulated, while RORgammat, IL-17A,
      IL-17F mRNA levels were significantly up-regulated in patients with aGVHD
      compared with patients without aGVHD. STAT3 expression was increased, while STAT3
      promoter DNA was hypomethylated in patients with aGVHD compared with those
      without aGVHD. The STAT3 mRNA level was negatively correlated with STAT3 promoter
      DNA methylation.? Conclusion: The imbalance of Treg/Th17 in CD4+ T cells from
      patients after allo-HSCT is a key factor for triggering aGVHD, and the DNA
      hypomethylation of STAT3 promoter could promote its expression in CD4+ T cells
      and contribute to the imbalance.

PMID- 28872083
TI  - [Repair of articular cartilage defects by autologous bone mesenchymal stem cells
      and allogeneic costal chondrocytes in the knee of Wuzhishan miniature pigs].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility of construction of tissue engineered
      cartilage by co-culture of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and costal
      chondrocytes (CCs), and to provide theoretical basis and experimental basis for
      clinical repair of articular cartilage defects by Wuzhishan miniature pig knee
      cartilage defects with co-cultured cells.? Methods: Density gradient
      centrifugation method was used to isolate BMSCs from Wuzhishan miniature pig. The
      double enzyme digestion method was used to isolate CCs. The passage 3 generation
      of BMSCs and passage 2 generation of CCs were randomly divided into 3 groups: a
      co-culture group of BMSCs:CCs for 1:2 (Group A), a simple CCs (Group B), and a
      simple BMSCs (Group C). The cell growth curve was drawn, and the content of
      glycosaminoglycan (GAG) of external separation in chondrocytes was determined.
      The 12 Wuzhishan miniature pigs were randomly divided into a co-culture
      cells/collagen membrane experimental group, a collagen membrane control group and
      the blank group. In the co-culture cells/collagen membrane experimental group,
      the co-cultured cells/collagen membrane were implanted into the cartilage defects
      of the mandibular condyle; in the collagen membrane control group, only collagen
      membrane was implanted; while in the blank group, nothing was implanted. Six
      animals were sacrificed at 8 and 16 weeks after surgery respectively (2 animals
      in each group). General observation, cartilage histological score and
      histopathological examination were carried out.? Results: The BMSCs and co
      culture cells grew well. The biological activity of CCs was good. After 16 weeks
      of operation, the repair tissues in the co-cultured cells/collagen membrane
      experimental group showed hyaline cartilage features: smooth, flat, and
      integrated well with the surrounding cartilage and subchondral bone. The collagen
      membrane in the collagen membrane control group was fibrously repaired. Repair
      tissue gross score in the co-culture cells/collagen membrane experimental group
      was significantly better than that in the collagen membrane control group and the
      blank group (both P<0.05), but there was no significant difference between the
      collagen membrane control group and the blank group (P>0.05).? Conclusion: BMSCs,
      CCs and co-cultured cells can function as the seed cells for cartilage tissue
      engineering, and the co-culture cells (BMSCs:CCs=1:2) possess more advantages;
      the short-term effect of co-culture cells with collagen membrane on repairing
      cartilage defects is satisfied.

PMID- 28872084
TI  - Mortality trend of inpatients with connective tissue diseases: 2005-2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the trend relevant factors leading to death and their
      patterns over a 10-year period in inpatients with connective tissue diseases
      (CTDs).? Methods: All clinical data about death in inpatients with CTDs were
      retrospectively reviewed between 2005 and 2014 at the Department of Rheumatology
      and Immunology in Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.? Results: In the
      10-year time period, the overall hospital mortality was 15.680/00. The disease
      itself accounted for 44.71% of the total causes of death, infection accounted for
      42.94%, and comorbidities accounted for 12.35%. The constituent ratio of deaths
      and the average hospital mortality caused by the disease itself declined
      gradually year by year, and the constituent ratio of deaths caused by infection
      and comorbidities increased gradually year by year (P<0.05). In 2013-2014,
      infection was the leading cause of death, which accounted for 51.06%. The
      survival time for CTDs inpatients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) was
      shorter than that of CTDs inpatients without ILD, and even the risk of death was
      1.722 times of the latter. The proportion of deaths caused by the disease itself
      was the highest in systemic sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus, that by
      infection was the highest in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM), and that by
      comorbidities was the highest in rheumatoid arthritis.? Conclusion: The
      proportion of deaths and the hospital mortality in CTDs inpatients caused by the
      disease itself show a declining trend, while the proportion of deaths caused by
      infection and comorbidities increase. CTDs patients with ILD have shorter
      survival time and an increase in risk of death.

PMID- 28872085
TI  - [Manifestations of the connective tissue associated interstitial lung disease
      under high resolution computed tomography].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the features of the connective tissue associated
      interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD) by high resolution computed tomography
      (HRCT).? Methods: A total of 127 patients with CTD-ILD, who were diagnosed by
      clinic laboratory examination and pathology in Xiangya Hospital of Central South
      University form September 2013 to September 2015, were enrolled for this study.
      Their lung features of HRCT imaging were retrospectively analyzed.? Results: The
      classifications for 127 patients were as follows: 36 cases of rheumatoid
      arthritis (28.3%), 34 cases of dermatomyositis and polymyositis (26.8%), 31 cases
      of systemic sclerosis (24.4%), 18 cases of Sjogren syndrome (14.2%), 7 cases of
      mixed connective tissue disease (5.5%), and 1 cases of systemic lupus
      erythematosus (0.8%). According to the features of HRCT imaging, the patients
      were divided as follows: 77 cases (60.6%) of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia
      (NSIP), 46 cases (36.2%) of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), 2 cases (1.6%) of
      lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LIP), 1 case (0.8%) of cryptogenic
      interstitial pneumonia (COP), and 1 case (0.8%) of acute interstitial pneumonia
      (AIP). The HRCT findings for 36 cases of rheumatoid arthritis associated
      interstitial lung disease were UIP (24 cases, 66.7%) and NSIP (12 cases, 33.3%);
      the HRCT findings for 34 cases of dermatomyositis and polymyositis associated
      interstitial lung disease were NSIP (32 cases, 94.1%), UIP (1 case, 2.9%) and COP
      (1 case, 2.9%); the HRCT findings for 31 cases of systemic sclerosis associated
      interstitial lung disease were NSIP (21 cases, 67.8%), UIP (9 cases, 29%), LIP(1
      case, 3.2%); the HRCT findings for 18 cases of Sjogren syndrome associated
      interstitial lung disease were NSIP (9 cases, 50.0%), UIP (8 cases, 44.4%), LIP
      (1 case, 5.6%); the HRCT findings for 7 cases of mixed connective tissue disease
      associated interstitial lung disease were UIP (4 cases, 57.1%), NSIP (3 cases,
      42.9%). SLE-ILD was rare, with only 1 case of AIP.? Conclusion: Different types
      of CTD-ILD patients display relatively unique manifestation of HRCT.

PMID- 28872086
TI  - [Subclinical hypothyroidism and endocrine metabolic characteristics in women with
      polycystic ovary syndrome].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore associations of subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) with
      endocrine metabolic characteristics in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
      (PCOS).? Methods: A total of 321 women who were newly diagnosed as PCOS were
      recruited from two endocrine outpatient clinics. The diagnosis of PCOS was
      established according to the 2003 Rotterdam consensus criteria. Thyroid function
      was examined by chemiluminescent immunoassay. Patients who had normal free
      thyroxine (FT4) were divided into different SCH subgroups according to two
      thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) cutoff points (4.2 and 2.5 mU/L). Endocrine
      metabolic characteristics in different subgroups were compared and analyzed.?
      Results: In PCOS women with normal FT4, the patients with TSH>=4.2 mU/L had
      higher prolactin (PRL), luteinizing hormone-to-follicle stimulating hormone
      ratio, and visceral adipose index (all P<0.05). There were trends toward an
      increase in triglyceride (P=0.085) and a decrease in high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (HDL-C) (P=0.060) in the patients with TSH>=4.2 mU/L compared with
      that in the patients with TSH<4.2 mU/L. Also in PCOS women with normal FT4, the
      patients with TSH>=2.5 mU/L had higher body mass index, PRL, triglyceride,
      visceral adipose index and lower HDL-C in comparison of that in the patients with
      TSH<2.5 mU/L (all P<0.05).? Conclusion: SCH is associated with more severe
      endocrine abnormality, dyslipidemia, and visceral obesity in PCOS women. PCOS
      women with normal FT4 and endocrine metabolic characteristics are more prone to
      be different between the SCH group and the euthyroid group when setting 2.5 mU/L
      as a TSH cutoff for SCH, indicating that 2.5 mU/L is a good TSH cutoff for SCH in
      PCOS women.

PMID- 28872087
TI  - [Serum level of chemerin and bone mineral density in patients with Graves
      disease].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate relationships between serum chemerin and bone mineral
      density (BMD) in patients with newly diagnosed Graves disease (GD).? Methods: A
      total of 120 newly diagnosed GD patients with a course more than 3 months were
      enrolled from the Department of Endocrinology between June 2013 and June 2015.
      Sixty age- and sex-matched healthy people served as a normal control. Serum
      levels of chemerin, beta-crosslaps (beta-CTX), and N-MID-osteocalcin (N-MID-OT)
      were measured by ELISA. Fat mass and BMD were evaluated by dual energy X-ray
      absorptiometry (DEXA).? Results: Compared with the normal control, the fat mass,
      lean weight, fat mass index (FMI) and body mass index (BMI) in the GD group were
      decreased, and BMD in all skeletal sites was decreased. There was a positive
      correlation between them (all P<0.05). Serum level of chemerin was increased and
      it was positively correlated with beta-CTX or N-MID-OT level and negatively
      correlated with fat mass, FMI or BMI in the GD group. There was a negative
      correlation between chemerin level and BMD in femoral neck, total hip, lumbar or
      right forearm distal 1/3 (rs=-0.352, -0.279, -0.379, -0.289, -0.394; P<0.05).
      After adjusting for age, fat mass or BMI, the correlation of chemerin with total
      hip or bone mineral density remained significant (rs=-0.273, -0.378; P<0.05).
      Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that chemerin or BMI was correlated
      with BMD (P<0.05).? Conclusion: The decrease of bone mineral density in patients
      with GD is not only related to the direct or indirect effect of excessive thyroid
      hormones on systemic and osteoblastic cells, but it is also related to the
      negative regulation of bone metabolism due to the elevated chemerin level.

PMID- 28872088
TI  - [Clinical characteristics and prognosis for 126 patients with severe drug
      eruption].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical characteristics of various types of severe
      drug eruption and common sensitized drugs, and to provide clinical references for
      reducing the incidence of severe drug eruption.? Methods: The clinical data
      regarding 126 cases of severe drug eruption were analyzed retrospectively from
      June 2009 to May 2017 in Xiangya Hospital, Central South University.? Results: In
      the 126 cases of severe drug eruption, the distribution of men and women ratio
      was 1:1.38. The length of stay was (12.7+/-9.8) d. The most common type was
      Steven-Johnson syndrome; the most dangerous type was drug-induced bullosa
      epidermolysis. The most common sensitized drug category in these patients was
      antibiotics; the most common single sensitizing drug was carbamazepine, following
      by allopurinol.? Conclusion: Severe drug eruption occurs mostly in young and
      middle-aged people. Steven-Johnson syndrome is the most common type; drug
      hypersensitive syndrome has the longest length of hospital course. Mortality rate
      of drug-induced bullosa epidermolysis is the highest. Timely stop using of
      allergens, early using glucocorticoids, and timely combination of non
      glucocorticoids treatment (such as intravenous immunogloblin, plasma exchange and
      hemodialysis), can improve the efficacy and reduce the complications and
      mortality. ?.

PMID- 28872089
TI  - [Personal characteristics of paradoxical insomnia: A case-control study].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the personal characteristics between the patients with
      paradoxical insomnia and the patients with primary insomnia or the normal
      sleepers.? Methods: A case-control study with the proportion at 1:1:1 was carried
      out. The patients with paradoxical insomnia were diagnosed in Sleep Medicine
      Center of West China Hospital of Sichuan University between March 2013 and
      December 2013. A case of paradoxical insomnia was matched with two controls: a
      primary insomnia patient and a normal sleeper. A total of 63 matched cases were
      collected. A face-to-face survey was conducted by using the following scales:
      General Data Scale and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).? Results: The
      average scores of psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism for paradoxical
      insomnia cases were (52.1+/-10.2), (49.6+/-9.8), and (56.0+/-12.0), respectively.
      In general, 31.7% of paradoxical insomnia patients had psychoticism or
      psychoticism tendency in their personality, which were more obvious than those in
      primary insomnia patients (7.9%) (chi2=11.228, P<0.0125) and normal sleepers (0)
      (chi2=23.774, P<0.0125). Moreover, 19.0% of paradoxical insomnia patients had
      extroversion or extroversion tendency in their personality, which were more
      significant than those in primary insomnia patients (3.2%) (Z=-4.047, P<0.0125)
      but less obvious than those in normal sleepers (60.3%) (Z=-4.754, P<0.0125).
      Also, 46.0% of paradoxical insomnia patients had neuroticism or neuroticism
      tendency in their personality, which were more significant than those in normal
      sleepers (0) (chi2=37.670, P<0.0125) but similar to those in primary insomnia
      patients (52.4%) (chi2=0.508, P>0.0125).? Conclusion: The personal
      characteristics for paradoxical insomnia patients did not reached obviously
      abnormal level. However, their psychoticism tendency, extroversion tendency and
      neuroticism tendency needed to be paid attention.

PMID- 28872090
TI  - [Therapeutic effect of one-day outpatient on gestational diabetes mellitus
      patients].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of one-day outpatient intervention on gestational
      diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients, and to explore the pregnancy outcome relevant
      to GDM patients and their fetus.? Methods: The GDM patients were divided into two
      groups according to their own intention to the one-day outpatient. According to
      systematic sampling method, we chose 200 GDM patients from the above 2 groups,
      respectively. The 200 GDM patients in the control group were matched the
      observation group with the age and gestational age, then the pregnancy outcome
      was tracked.? Results: The control level and success rate for the two hours blood
      sugar after breakfast and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in the observation group were
      better than those in the control group (P<0.001). The maternal complication rate
      (46.50%) and neonatal complication rate (21.50%) in the observation group were
      lower than those in the control group (71.50%, 41.50%; P<0.001). The maternal
      complications rate of fetal distress, premature and the neonatal complications
      rate of fetal macrosomia, neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS), low
      weight, congenital heart disease, neonatal pneumonia, and rate in neonatal NICU
      were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05).? Conclusion:
      One-day outpatient intervention could control blood sugar effectively, reduce the
      maternal and neonatal complications. It is worth promoting.

PMID- 28872091
TI  - [Demands for cardiac rehabilitation information in patients with coronary
      atherosclerotic heart disease and influential factors].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the demands for cardiac rehabilitation information in
      patients with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CHD) and influential
      factors. ? Methods: Information demands for cardiac rehabilitation in CHD
      patients were surveyed by questionnaire and the influential factors were analyzed
      by one-way ANOVA and multi-factor analysis of variance.? Results: The score of
      demands for cardiac rehabilitation information in CHD patients was 3.86+/-0.53.
      Among them, the most urgent top 5 items were: drug knowledge, diagnosis and
      treatment, basic knowledge of the heart, emergency and safety and nutrition
      knowledge. The top 3-demand modes were: communication with medical workers,
      movies or videos to take home, and lectures. The score of demands for cardiac
      rehabilitation information was different in different age groups. The highest
      score was in the patients with age less than 60. There were different demands in
      different characteristic groups.? Conclusion: The most urgent need and mode are
      drug knowledge and communication with medical workers, respectively. With the age
      increase, the demands for patients' cardiac rehabilitation information decrease.
      An individualized health education strategy should be developed according to the
      characteristics of CHD patients.

PMID- 28872092
TI  - [Vitamin D/vitamin D receptor, autophagy and inflammation relevant diseases].
AB  - The biological effects mediated by vitamin D and vitamin D receptor (VDR) are
      involved in the regulation of multiple pathophysiologic processes, including
      calcium phosphorus metabolism, immune regulation, anti-inflammation, anti
      infection and cancer prevention, etc. Autophagy is a eukaryotic cell lysosome
      mediated catabolic pathway, which is classified into 3 different types:
      macroautophagy, microautophagy, and chaperone-mediated autophagy. Since autophagy
      is vital to maintain energy and metabolism in cells, autophagy dysfunction is
      closely associated with various pathological processes such as inflammation,
      infection and tumor. Studies have shown that vitamin D/VDR can affect the
      different stages of autophagy and regulate inflammation in autophagy. Moreover,
      vitamin D/VDR and autophagy play an important role in autoimmune disease,
      diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28872093
TI  - [Research progress of trimethylamine-N-oxide in the pathogenesis of
      atherosclerosis].
AB  - Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), metabolites of the intestinal microflora, is a
      newly discovered risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The intestinal flora
      converted choline and L-carnitine into trimethylamine in the food. Trimethylamine
      is oxidized to TMAO in liver enzymes. Lowering TMA can stimulate macrophages to
      reverse cholesterol transport and inhibit atherogenesis. TMAO poietin
      monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) is a tool for cholesterol metabolism and reverse
      cholesterol transpor, lowering FMO3 can slow the gallbladder's secretion of bile,
      delay intestinal absorption of cholesterol, and limit the synthesis of oxidized
      cholesterol and cholesterol esters. TMAO in the blood can up regulate scavenger
      receptors in macrophages, and promote accumulation of cholesterol and formation
      of foam cells in macrophages, thereby promoting vascular plaque formation and
      promote the inflammatory response by MAPK and nuclear factor kappa B pathway.
      TMAO concentrates on affecting cholesterol metabolism, increasing insulin
      resistance, promoting platelet aggregation, increasing thrombosis, promoting
      vascular inflammatory response and directly leading to the formation of
      atherosclerotic plaques. Lowering TMAO levels can potentially prevent or treat
      atherosclerotic related diseases and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular and
      cerebrovascular diseases.

PMID- 28872094
TI  - [Transcatheter aortic valve implantation: Present and development trend].
AB  - Currently, although surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) is still the golden
      standard in treatment of severe aortic stenosis according to the guideline,
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is gradually becoming a common
      treatment for patients who are prohibitive or in high risk for SAVR. Recently,
      the valve manufacturers, including medical companies in China, are making their
      utmost to develop valve device, leading remarkable results achieved by TAVI. With
      the complications being controlled, TAVI displays promising future. It is likely
      that TAVI is expected to become a substitute for SAVR to treat patients with
      aortic stenosis or even aortic regurgitation.

PMID- 28872095
TI  - Laparoscopic excision of the choledochal cyst in adult patients: An experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic choledochal cyst excision (LCCE) in adult patients is
      not common. AIMS: The aim is to report our experience of LCCE in adult patients.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study includes a retrospective review of twenty adult
      patients (age >18 years) with choledochal cyst (CC) who underwent LCCE by a
      single surgical team from February 2011 to April 2016. RESULTS: The mean age was
      45.5 years. Nineteen (95%) patients had Type-I CC, and one patient (5%) had Type
      IV CC (Todani's classification). Fifteen patients (75%) presented with pain in
      the abdomen, and five patients (25%) presented with jaundice and/or cholangitis.
      LCCE was successful in 16 (80%) patients, whereas four patients (20%) required
      conversion to open method. The reason for conversion was technical difficulty due
      to the initial learning curve, adhesion and inflammation. The mean blood loss,
      operation time and post-operative stay were 117.5 ml, 299.5 min and 8.15 days,
      respectively. Bilioenteric anastomosis leak and formation of pseudoaneurysm
      occurred in one patient (5%); this patient later died due to uncontrolled intra
      abdominal haemorrhage. There were no remote complications during a mean follow-up
      of 17.2 months. CONCLUSION: LCCE in adult patients is safe and feasible, but
      bilioenteric anastomosis leak may have fatal consequences.

PMID- 28872096
TI  - Clinical reappraisal of vasculobiliary anatomy relevant to laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has many advantages as compared to
      open cholecystectomy. However, vasculobiliary injuries still continue to be a
      matter of concern despite advances in laparoscopic techniques. Misidentification
      and misperception of vasculobiliary structures is considered to be a pivotal
      factor leading to injuries. Although many studies since time immemorial have
      stressed on the importance of anatomy, an insight into laparoscopic anatomy is
      what essentially constitutes the need of the hour. OBJECTIVE: To assess the
      frequency and the relevance of anatomical variations of extrahepatic biliary
      system in patients undergoing LC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study is an
      observational study performed for a period of 2 years from August 2014 to August
      2016. It included all diagnosed patients of cholelithiasis undergoing routine LC
      performed by a single surgeon by achieving a critical view of safety. During
      dissection, vascular and ductal anomalies were noted and assessed for their
      relevance in LC. RESULTS: Seven hundred forty cases of cholelithiasis,
      irrespective of pathology, comprising 280 (37.83%) men and 460 (62.16%) females
      with a mean age of 39.85 +/- 18.82 years were included in the study.
      Photodocumentation and operative recordings were available in 93% of cases.
      Operative findings revealed 197 (26.62%) vascular anomalies and 90 (12.16%)
      ductal anomalies. A single cystic artery was seen in 340 cases, and a normal
      cystic duct was seen in 650 cases. Variations in ductal anatomy were fewer than
      variations in vascular anatomy. CONCLUSION: Extra-biliary anatomy relevant to LC
      is unpredictable and varies from patient to patient. Vascular anomalies are more
      frequent than the ductal anomalies, and surgeon should be alert regarding their
      presence.

PMID- 28872097
TI  - Robot-assisted thyroidectomy using a gasless, transaxillary approach for the
      management of thyroid lesions: Indian experience.
AB  - AIM: Since last decades, more and more thyroidectomies have been performed by the
      minimally invasive method. Compared to conventional thyroidectomy, minimally
      invasive thyroidectomy has a superior cosmetic result. However, the outcome
      depends, in a large extent, on the skill of the operator and the learning curve
      is relatively long. Robotic thyroidectomy (RT) is a relatively new approach in
      treating thyroid lesions with improved ergonomics and surgical outcomes. PURPOSE:
      We performed a prospective study of robotic-assisted transaxillary approach for
      thyroidectomy in Indian patients to examine the feasibility of the procedure.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 35 patients underwent RT. Demographics,
      surgical indications, operative findings, postoperative functional outcome, local
      complications and pathological outcomes were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: The
      median age of the cohort was 28.6 years and 31 of the patients were women. The
      median size of the largest nodule was 3.2 cm (range, 1.0-4.5 cm). The median size
      of the largest nodule was 3.2 cm (range, 1.0-4.5 cm). Eighteen patients underwent
      less than total thyroidectomy and 17 patients underwent total thyroidectomy, with
      no conversion. The mean console time standard deviation was 115 min initially,
      and with experience, it reduced to 106 min for subsequent cases. The mean blood
      loss was 13 ml. Post-operative outcome was good with no serious complication
      noted in our series. CONCLUSION: Robotic-assisted thyroidectomy using a gasless
      transaxillary approach is a feasible, safe and noninferior surgical alternative
      for selected patients. We believe with time RT will be widened and it will be
      performed more often.

PMID- 28872098
TI  - Is a diagnostic video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy an acceptable first-line
      approach to the suspicious anterior mediastinal mass?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The incidental early-stage thymic mass presents a diagnostic
      challenge. Video-assisted thoracoscopic (VAT) thymectomy is an attractive but
      potentially morbid solution. The aim was to show it can be safely applied as a
      first-line modality in those with undiagnosed thymic enlargement with acceptable
      long-term results. METHODS: A total of 45 patients were identified (24 male,
      median age 52 interquartile range [IQR]: 41-66 years) in a 14-year experience who
      had CT evidence of an enlarged, possibly malignant thymic mass, but no tissue
      diagnosis before undertaking VAT thymectomy. The clinical outcomes of both benign
      and malignant diagnoses were compared. RESULTS: Myasthenic symptoms were present
      in 20 patients (44%), whereas 15 (33%) were asymptomatic. Benign lesions were
      resected in 27 patients (60%): thymic hyperplasia (56%), thymic cyst (33%),
      lipoma (7%) and xanthogranulomatous inflammation (4%). Of the 18 malignant
      patients, 82% had thymoma (three had Masaoka Stage I, 11 Stage II and one Stage
      III), 6% thymic carcinoma, 6% teratoma and 6% seminoma. Seven patients required
      radiotherapy for R1 resection. There was no difference in median hospital stay in
      either group: Benign group: 4 versus 5 days (P = 0.07). One patient in both
      groups required conversion to open. Two patients in the malignant group had
      significant morbidity (one myocardial infarction and one pulmonary embolism).
      There were no cases of tumour recurrence or mortality at a median follow-up of
      6.6 years (IQR: 4.4-9.5 years). CONCLUSION: Right-sided diagnostic VAT thymectomy
      is a safe and effective first-line approach to suspected malignant thymic
      enlargement. At 5-year follow-up, there were no cases of recurrence in the
      malignant group.

PMID- 28872099
TI  - Impact of bariatric surgery on obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnea syndrome in
      morbidly obese patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is commonly associated with morbid
      obesity. Weight loss following bariatric surgery results in resolution or
      improvement of OSA. However, few studies have done objective assessment of the
      impact of bariatric surgery on OSA. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      assess the outcome of bariatric surgery on OSA. SETTING: The study was conducted
      in the teaching institution of a tertiary care centre. METHODS: Twenty-seven
      morbidly obese patients seeking bariatric surgery were administered Epworth
      Sleepiness Scale (ESS) health questionnaire and subjected to overnight
      polysomnography. Repeat assessment using ESS and polysomnography was done at 3-6
      months after surgery. RESULTS: Mean age was 42.4 +/- 10.5 years, and majority
      (77.8%) were female. The mean pre-operative weight and body mass index (BMI) were
      126.4 +/- 24.9 kg and 48.4 +/- 8.2 kg/m2, respectively. Nearly 29.6% patients had
      symptoms of excessive daytime somnolence based on ESS score and overnight
      polysomnography detected the presence of OSA in 96.3% patients, of which 51.9%
      had severe OSA. At mean follow-up of 5.2 +/- 2.5 months after surgery, mean
      weight and BMI decreased to 107.4 +/- 24.5 kg and 41.2 +/- 8.2 kg/m2,
      respectively. Mean ESS score and mean apnoea-hypopnea index declined from 8.9 +/-
      3.2 to 4.03 +/- 2.15 (P < 0.001) and from 31.8 +/- 20.4 to 20.2 +/- 23.1 (P =
      0.007), respectively. Number of patients requiring continuous positive airway
      pressure (CPAP) therapy declined from 15 to 3 and average CPAP requirement came
      down from 11.3 cm of H2O to 6 cm of H2O. CONCLUSION: OSA was present in a
      significant proportion of patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Bariatric
      surgery resulted in significant improvement in both subjective and objective
      parameters of OSA.

PMID- 28872100
TI  - Comparison of mid-term clinical outcomes of laparoscopic partial cystectomy
      versus conventional partial cystectomy for the treatment of hepatic hydatid cyst.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare the mid-term outcomes of open
      and laparoscopic partial cystectomy (LPC). METHODS: The medical records of
      patients who underwent conventional partial cystectomy (CPC) and LPC for liver
      hydatid cyst from May 2010 to February 2015 were retrospectively reviewed.
      Operative time, blood loss, length of hospital stay, post-operative morbidity,
      mortality and mid-term follow-up outcomes were evaluated. RESULTS: Amongst 130
      patients, 38 patients were underwent LPC and 92 underwent CPC. Blood loss and
      post-operative complications were similar in both groups. The mean operative time
      in the LPC and the CPC groups was, respectively, 95.4 +/- 13.1 and 63.5 +/- 15.6
      min, which showed a significant difference between the both groups. The mean
      length of hospital stay in CPC group was significantly longer when compared the
      LPC group. The mean diameter of cyst in LPC group was 6.1 +/- 1.1 cm and 7.8 +/-
      2.1 cm in CPC group with a significant difference. The overall complication rates
      were 13.1% in LPC group and 17.3% in CPC group without significant difference.
      The most common complication was biliary leakage and surgical site infection.
      CONCLUSION: LPC for the surgical treatment of liver hydatid cyst appears to be
      safe and effective method with low morbidity rates in selected patients.

PMID- 28872101
TI  - Laparoscopic excision of rare case of recurrent presacral teratoma.
AB  - Tumours of the presacral space are rare to present. Most of them are benign
      masses, very rarely malignant. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment as it
      establishes the diagnosis and prevents the adverse consequences associated with
      malignant degeneration and secondary bacterial infection. Their surgical excision
      is often difficult because of their anatomic location. Very few cases have been
      reported so far concerning a laparoscopic management of presacral tumour. We
      hereby present a young girl with recurrent presacral teratoma. She underwent
      laparoscopic successful excision of tumour with uneventful post-operative
      recovery. Here, we are highlighting the importance of laparoscopic approach for
      this scenario in terms additional advantages of minimally invasive approach such
      as better visualisation of the deep structures in the narrow presacral space,
      precise dissection in a limited space between the tumour and neighbouring
      structures with avoiding injury to neurovascular structure.

PMID- 28872102
TI  - Single-incision laparoscopic excision of symptomatic accessory spleen in the
      pelvis: An initial report.
AB  - An accessory spleen (AS) is commonly located near the spleen's hilum and/or in
      the pancreas tail. However, a symptomatic AS is rarely found in the pelvis. We
      present a resected case with lower abdominal pain whose final diagnosis was
      symptomatic AS caused by torsion in the pelvis. An 18-year-old man was presented
      to our hospital with lower abdominal pain. Enhanced abdominal computed tomography
      showed an inflammatory mass with a cord-like band in the pelvic space. We finally
      diagnosed pelvic neoplasm and performed single-incision laparoscopic surgery
      (SILS) using an access platform. SILS of these tumours located on a pelvic lesion
      has never been reported; this is the first report of torsion of a pelvic AS. SILS
      for AS is a safe, feasible procedure, even when the AS lays in the pelvic space.

PMID- 28872103
TI  - Mini gastric bypass: Un-answered questions.

PMID- 28872104
TI  - Are objections to one anastomosis/mini gastric bypass scientific?

PMID- 28872105
TI  - Using a Split-belt Treadmill to Evaluate Generalization of Human Locomotor
      Adaptation.
AB  - Understanding the mechanisms underlying locomotor learning helps researchers and
      clinicians optimize gait retraining as part of motor rehabilitation. However,
      studying human locomotor learning can be challenging. During infancy and
      childhood, the neuromuscular system is quite immature, and it is unlikely that
      locomotor learning during early stages of development is governed by the same
      mechanisms as in adulthood. By the time humans reach maturity, they are so
      proficient at walking that it is difficult to come up with a sufficiently novel
      task to study de novo locomotor learning. The split-belt treadmill, which has two
      belts that can drive each leg at a different speed, enables the study of both
      short- (i.e., immediate) and long-term (i.e., over minutes-days; a form of motor
      learning) gait modifications in response to a novel change in the walking
      environment. Individuals can easily be screened for previous exposure to the
      split-belt treadmill, thus ensuring that all experimental participants have no
      (or equivalent) prior experience. This paper describes a typical split-belt
      treadmill adaptation protocol that incorporates testing methods to quantify
      locomotor learning and generalization of this learning to other walking contexts.
      A discussion of important considerations for designing split-belt treadmill
      experiments follows, including factors like treadmill belt speeds, rest breaks,
      and distractors. Additionally, potential but understudied confounding variables
      (e.g., arm movements, prior experience) are considered in the discussion.

PMID- 28872107
TI  - Soft Lithographic Procedure for Producing Plastic Microfluidic Devices with View
      ports Transparent to Visible and Infrared Light.
AB  - Infrared (IR) spectro-microscopy of living biological samples is hampered by the
      absorption of water in the mid-IR range and by the lack of suitable microfluidic
      devices. Here, a protocol for the fabrication of plastic microfluidic devices is
      demonstrated, where soft lithographic techniques are used to embed transparent
      Calcium Fluoride (CaF2) view-ports in connection with observation chamber(s). The
      method is based on a replica casting approach, where a polydimethylsiloxane
      (PDMS) mold is produced through standard lithographic procedures and then used as
      the template to produce a plastic device. The plastic device features
      ultraviolet/visible/infrared (UV/Vis/IR) -transparent windows made of CaF2 to
      allow for direct observation with visible and IR light. The advantages of the
      proposed method include: a reduced need for accessing a clean room micro
      fabrication facility, multiple view-ports, an easy and versatile connection to an
      external pumping system through the plastic body, flexibility of the design,
      e.g., open/closed channels configuration, and the possibility to add
      sophisticated features such as nanoporous membranes.

PMID- 28872106
TI  - An In Vitro Model for Studying Cellular Transformation by Kaposi Sarcoma
      Herpesvirus.
AB  - Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is an unusual tumor composed of proliferating spindle cells
      that is initiated by infection of endothelial cells (EC) with KSHV, and develops
      most often in the setting of immunosuppression. Despite decades of research,
      optimal treatment of KS remains poorly defined and clinical outcomes are
      especially unfavorable in resource-limited settings. KS lesions are driven by
      pathological angiogenesis, chronic inflammation, and oncogenesis, and various in
      vitro cell culture models have been developed to study these processes. KS arises
      from KSHV-infected cells of endothelial origin, so EC-lineage cells provide the
      most appropriate in vitro surrogates of the spindle cell precursor. However,
      because EC have a limited in vitro lifespan, and as the oncogenic mechanisms
      employed by KSHV are less efficient than those of other tumorigenic viruses, it
      has been difficult to assess the processes of transformation in primary or
      telomerase-immortalized EC. Therefore, a novel EC-based culture model was
      developed that readily supports transformation following infection with KSHV.
      Ectopic expression of the E6 and E7 genes of human papillomavirus type 16 allows
      for extended culture of age- and passage-matched mock- and KSHV-infected EC and
      supports the development of a truly transformed (i.e., tumorigenic) phenotype in
      infected cell cultures. This tractable and highly reproducible model of KS has
      facilitated the discovery of several essential signaling pathways with high
      potential for translation into clinical settings.

PMID- 28872108
TI  - Induction of Paralysis and Visual System Injury in Mice by T Cells Specific for
      Neuromyelitis Optica Autoantigen Aquaporin-4.
AB  - While it is recognized that aquaporin-4 (AQP4)-specific T cells and antibodies
      participate in the pathogenesis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a human central
      nervous system (CNS) autoimmune demyelinating disease, creation of an AQP4
      targeted model with both clinical and histologic manifestations of CNS
      autoimmunity has proven challenging. Immunization of wild-type (WT) mice with
      AQP4 peptides elicited T cell proliferation, although those T cells could not
      transfer disease to naive recipient mice. Recently, two novel AQP4 T cell
      epitopes, peptide (p) 135-153 and p201-220, were identified when studying immune
      responses to AQP4 in AQP4-deficient (AQP4-/-) mice, suggesting T cell reactivity
      to these epitopes is normally controlled by thymic negative selection. AQP4-/-
      Th17 polarized T cells primed to either p135-153 or p201-220 induced paralysis in
      recipient WT mice, that was associated with predominantly leptomeningeal
      inflammation of the spinal cord and optic nerves. Inflammation surrounding optic
      nerves and involvement of the inner retinal layers (IRL) were manifested by
      changes in serial optical coherence tomography (OCT). Here, we illustrate the
      approaches used to create this new in vivo model of AQP4-targeted CNS
      autoimmunity (ATCA), which can now be employed to study mechanisms that permit
      development of pathogenic AQP4-specific T cells and how they may cooperate with B
      cells in NMO pathogenesis.

PMID- 28872109
TI  - Measurements of Soil Carbon by Neutron-Gamma Analysis in Static and Scanning
      Modes.
AB  - The herein described application of the inelastic neutron scattering (INS) method
      for soil carbon analysis is based on the registration and analysis of gamma rays
      created when neutrons interact with soil elements. The main parts of the INS
      system are a pulsed neutron generator, NaI(Tl) gamma detectors, split electronics
      to separate gamma spectra due to INS and thermo-neutron capture (TNC) processes,
      and software for gamma spectra acquisition and data processing. This method has
      several advantages over other methods in that it is a non-destructive in situ
      method that measures the average carbon content in large soil volumes, is
      negligibly impacted by local sharp changes in soil carbon, and can be used in
      stationary or scanning modes. The result of the INS method is the carbon content
      from a site with a footprint of ~2.5 - 3 m2 in the stationary regime, or the
      average carbon content of the traversed area in the scanning regime. The
      measurement range of the current INS system is >1.5 carbon weight % (standard
      deviation +/- 0.3 w%) in the upper 10 cm soil layer for a 1 hmeasurement.

PMID- 28872110
TI  - A Protocol for the Administration of Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback Training.
AB  - Neurologic disorders are characterized by abnormal cellular-, molecular-, and
      circuit-level functions in the brain. New methods to induce and control
      neuroplastic processes and correct abnormal function, or even shift functions
      from damaged tissue to physiologically healthy brain regions, hold the potential
      to dramatically improve overall health. Of the current neuroplastic interventions
      in development, neurofeedback training (NFT) from functional Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging (fMRI) has the advantages of being completely non-invasive, non
      pharmacologic, and spatially localized to target brain regions, as well as having
      no known side effects. Furthermore, NFT techniques, initially developed using
      fMRI, can often be translated to exercises that can be performed outside of the
      scanner without the aid of medical professionals or sophisticated medical
      equipment. In fMRI NFT, the fMRI signal is measured from specific regions of the
      brain, processed, and presented to the participant in real-time. Through
      training, self-directed mental processing techniques, that regulate this signal
      and its underlying neurophysiologic correlates, are developed. FMRI NFT has been
      used to train volitional control over a wide range of brain regions with
      implications for several different cognitive, behavioral, and motor systems.
      Additionally, fMRI NFT has shown promise in a broad range of applications such as
      the treatment of neurologic disorders and the augmentation of baseline human
      performance. In this article, we present an fMRI NFT protocol developed at our
      institution for modulation of both healthy and abnormal brain function, as well
      as examples of using the method to target both cognitive and auditory regions of
      the brain.

PMID- 28872111
TI  - Method and Instrumented Fixture for Femoral Fracture Testing in a Sideways Fall
      on-the-Hip Position.
AB  - Mechanical testing of femora brings valuable insights into understanding the
      contribution of clinically-measureable variables such as bone mineral density
      distribution and geometry on the femoral mechanical properties. Currently, there
      is no standard protocol for mechanical testing of such geometrically complex
      bones to measure strength, and stiffness. To address this gap we have developed a
      protocol to test cadaveric femora to fracture and to measure their biomechanical
      parameters. This protocol describes a set of adaptable fixtures to accommodate
      the various load magnitudes and directions accounting for possible bone
      orientations in a fall on the hip configuration, test speed, bone size, and left
      leg-right leg variations. The femora were prepared for testing by cleaning,
      cutting, scanning, and potting the distal end and greater trochanter contact
      surfaces in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as presented in a different
      protocol. The prepared specimens were placed in the testing fixture in a position
      mimicking a sideways fall on the hip and loaded to fracture. During testing, two
      load cells measured vertical forces applied to the femoral head and greater
      trochanter, a six-axis load cell measured forces and moments at the distal
      femoral shaft, and a displacement sensor measured differential displacement
      between the femoral head and trochanter contact supports. High speed video
      cameras were used to synchronously record the sequence of fracture events during
      testing. The reduction of this data allowed us to characterize the strength,
      stiffness, and fracture energy for nearly 200 osteoporotic, osteopenic, and
      normal cadaveric femora for further development of engineering-based diagnostic
      tools for osteoporosis research.

PMID- 28872112
TI  - Fat Body Organ Culture System in Aedes Aegypti, a Vector of Zika Virus.
AB  - The insect fat body plays a central role in insect metabolism and nutrient
      storage, mirroring functions of the liver and fat tissue in vertebrates. Insect
      fat body tissue is usually distributed throughout the insect body. However, it is
      often concentrated in the abdomen and attached to the abdominal body wall. The
      mosquito fat body is the sole source of yolk proteins, which are critical for egg
      production. Therefore, the in vitro culture of mosquito fat body tissues
      represents an important system for the study of mosquito physiology, metabolism,
      and, ultimately, egg production. The fat body culture process begins with the
      preparation of solutions and reagents, including amino acid stock solutions,
      Aedes physiological saline salt stock solution (APS), calcium stock solution, and
      fat body culture medium. The process continues with fat body dissection, followed
      by an experimental treatment. After treatment, a variety of different analyses
      can be performed, including RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), qPCR, Western blots,
      proteomics, and metabolomics. In our example experiment, we demonstrate the
      protocol through the excision and culture of fat bodies from the yellow fever
      mosquito, Aedes aegypti, a principal vector of arboviruses including dengue,
      chikungunya, and Zika. RNA from fat bodies cultured under a physiological
      condition known to upregulate yolk proteins versus the control were subject to
      RNA-Seq analysis to demonstrate the potential utility of this procedure for
      investigations of gene expression.

PMID- 28872113
TI  - Organotypic Hippocampal Slice Cultures As a Model to Study Neuroprotection and
      Invasiveness of Tumor Cells.
AB  - In organotypic hippocampal slice cultures (OHSC), the morphological and
      functional characteristics of both neurons and glial cells are well preserved.
      This model is suitable for addressing different research questions that involve
      studies on neuroprotection, electrophysiological experiments on neurons, neuronal
      networks or tumor invasion. The hippocampal architecture and neuronal activity in
      multisynaptic circuits are well conserved in OHSC, even though the slicing
      procedure itself initially lesions and leads to formation of a glial scar. The
      scar formation alters presumably the mechanical properties and diffusive behavior
      of small molecules, etc. Slices allow the monitoring of time dependent processes
      after brain injury without animal surgery, and studies on interactions between
      various brain-derived cell types, namely astrocytes, microglia and neurons under
      both physiological and pathological conditions. An ambivalent aspect of this
      model is the absence of blood flow and immune blood cells. During the progression
      of the neuronal injury, migrating immune cells from the blood play an important
      role. As those cells are missing in slices, the intrinsic processes in the
      culture may be observed without external interference. Moreover, in OHSC the
      composition of the medium-external environment is precisely controlled. A further
      advantage of this method is the lower number of sacrificed animals compared to
      standard preparations. Several OHSC can be obtained from one animal making
      simultaneous studies with multiple treatments in one animal possible. For these
      reasons, OHSC are well suited to analyze the effects of new protective
      therapeutics after tissue damage or during tumor invasion. The protocol presented
      here describes a preparation method of OHSC that allows generating highly
      reproducible, well preserved slices that can be used for a variety of
      experimental research, like neuroprotection or tumor invasion studies.

PMID- 28872114
TI  - Quantification of Information Encoded by Gene Expression Levels During Lifespan
      Modulation Under Broad-range Dietary Restriction in C. elegans.
AB  - Sensory systems allow animals to detect, process, and respond to their
      environment. Food abundance is an environmental cue that has profound effects on
      animal physiology and behavior. Recently, we showed that modulation of longevity
      in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by food abundance is more complex than
      previously recognized. The responsiveness of the lifespan to changes in food
      level is determined by specific genes that act by controlling information
      processing within a neural circuit. Our framework combines genetic analysis, high
      throughput quantitative imaging and information theory. Here, we describe how
      these techniques can be used to characterize any gene that has a physiological
      relevance to broad-range dietary restriction. Specifically, this workflow is
      designed to reveal how a gene of interest regulates lifespan under broad-range
      dietary restriction; then to establish how the expression of the gene varies with
      food level; and finally, to provide an unbiased quantification of the amount of
      information conveyed by gene expression about food abundance in the environment.
      When several genes are examined simultaneously under the context of a neural
      circuit, this workflow can uncover the coding strategy employed by the circuit.

PMID- 28872115
TI  - Quantitative Immunofluorescence to Measure Global Localized Translation.
AB  - The mechanisms regulating mRNA translation are involved in various biological
      processes, such as germ line development, cell differentiation, and
      organogenesis, as well as in multiple diseases. Numerous publications have
      convincingly shown that specific mechanisms tightly regulate mRNA translation.
      Increased interest in the translation-induced regulation of protein expression
      has led to the development of novel methods to study and follow de novo protein
      synthesis in cellulo. However, most of these methods are complex, making them
      costly and often limiting the number of mRNA targets that can be studied. This
      manuscript proposes a method that requires only basic reagents and a confocal
      fluorescence imaging system to measure and visualize the changes in mRNA
      translation that occur in any cell line under various conditions. This method was
      recently used to show localized translation in the subcellular structures of
      adherent cells over a short period of time, thus offering the possibility of
      visualizing de novo translation for a short period during a variety of biological
      processes or of validating changes in translational activity in response to
      specific stimuli.

PMID- 28872116
TI  - Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) Protocol for Low-abundance Embryonic
      Samples.
AB  - Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a widely-used technique for mapping the
      localization of post-translationally modified histones, histone variants,
      transcription factors, or chromatin-modifying enzymes at a given locus or on a
      genome-wide scale. The combination of ChIP assays with next-generation sequencing
      (i.e., ChIP-Seq) is a powerful approach to globally uncover gene regulatory
      networks and to improve the functional annotation of genomes, especially of non
      coding regulatory sequences. ChIP protocols normally require large amounts of
      cellular material, thus precluding the applicability of this method to
      investigating rare cell types or small tissue biopsies. In order to make the ChIP
      assay compatible with the amount of biological material that can typically be
      obtained in vivo during early vertebrate embryogenesis, we describe here a
      simplified ChIP protocol in which the number of steps required to complete the
      assay were reduced to minimize sample loss. This ChIP protocol has been
      successfully used to investigate different histone modifications in various
      embryonic chicken and adult mouse tissues using low to medium cell numbers (5 x
      104 - 5 x 105 cells). Importantly, this protocol is compatible with ChIP-seq
      technology using standard library preparation methods, thus providing global
      epigenomic maps in highly relevant embryonic tissues.

PMID- 28872117
TI  - Electroencephalographic, Heart Rate, and Galvanic Skin Response Assessment for an
      Advertising Perception Study: Application to Antismoking Public Service
      Announcements.
AB  - The evaluation of advertising, products, and packaging is traditionally performed
      through methods based on self-reports and focus groups, but these approaches
      often appear poorly accurate in scientific terms. Neuroscience is increasingly
      applied to the investigation of the neurophysiological bases of the perception of
      and reaction to commercial stimuli to support traditional marketing methods. In
      this context, a particular sector or marketing is represented by public service
      announcements (PSAs). The objective of this protocol is to apply
      electroencephalography (EEG) and autonomic signal analysis to study responses to
      selected antismoking PSAs. Two EEG indices were employed: the frontal alpha band
      EEG asymmetry (the Approach Withdrawal (AW) index) and the frontal theta (effort
      index). Furthermore, the autonomic Emotional Index (EI) was calculated, as
      derived from the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and Heart Rate (HR) signals. The
      present protocol describes a series of operational and computational steps
      required to properly estimate, through the aforementioned indices, the emotional
      and cerebral reaction of a group of subjects towards a selected number of
      antismoking PSAs. In particular, a campaign characterized by a symbolic
      communication style (classified as "awarded" on the basis of the prizes received
      by specialized committees) obtained the highest approach values, as estimated by
      the AW index. A spot and an image belonging to the same PSA campaign based on the
      "fear arousing appeal" and with a narrative/experiential communication style
      (classified as "effective" on the basis of the economical/health-related
      improvements promoted) reported the lowest and highest effort values,
      respectively. This is probably due to the complexity of the storytelling (spot)
      and to the immediateness of the image (a lady who underwent a tracheotomy).
      Finally, the same "effective" campaign showed the highest EI values, possibly
      because of the empathy induced by the testimonial and the explicitness of the
      message.

PMID- 28872118
TI  - Quantification of the Abundance and Charging Levels of Transfer RNAs in
      Escherichia coli.
AB  - Transfer RNA (tRNA) is an essential part of the translational machinery in any
      organism. tRNAs bind and transfer amino acids to the translating ribosome. The
      relative levels of different tRNAs, and the ratio of aminoacylated tRNA to total
      tRNA, known as the charging level, are important factors in determining the
      accuracy and speed of translation. Therefore, the abundance and charging levels
      of tRNAs are important variables to measure when studying protein synthesis, for
      example under various stress conditions. Here, we describe a method for
      harvesting tRNA and directly measuring both the relative abundance and the
      absolute charging level of specific tRNA species in Escherichia coli. The tRNA is
      harvested in such a way that the labile bond between the tRNA and its amino acid
      is preserved. The RNA is then subjected to gel electrophoresis and Northern
      blotting, which results in separation of the charged and uncharged tRNAs. The
      levels of specific tRNAs in different samples can be compared due to the addition
      of spike-in cells for normalization. Prior to RNA purification, we add 5% of E.
      coli cells that overproduce the rare tRNAselC to each sample. The amount of the
      tRNA species of interest in a sample is then normalized to the amount of tRNAselC
      in the same sample. Addition of spike-in cells prior to RNA purification has the
      advantage over addition of purified spike-in RNAs that it also accounts for any
      differences in cell lysis efficiency between samples.

PMID- 28872119
TI  - Intravital Microscopy of Monocyte Homing and Tumor-Related Angiogenesis in a
      Murine Model of Peripheral Arterial Disease.
AB  - The therapeutic goal for peripheral arterial disease and ischemic heart disease
      is to increase blood flow to ischemic areas caused by hemodynamic stenosis.
      Vascular surgery is a viable option in selected cases, but for patients without
      indications for surgery such as progression to rest pain, critical limb ischemia,
      or major disruptions to life or work, there are few possibilities for mitigating
      their disease. Cell therapy via monocyte-enhanced perfusion through the
      stimulation of collateral formation is one of a few non-invasive options. Our
      group examines arteriogenesis after monocyte transplantation into mice using the
      hindlimb ischemia model. Previously, we have demonstrated improvement in hindlimb
      perfusion using tetanus-stimulated syngeneic monocyte transplantation. In
      addition to the effects on the collateral formation, tumor growth could be
      affected by this therapy as well. To investigate these effects, we use a basement
      membrane-like matrix mouse model by injecting the extracellular matrix of the
      Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm sarcoma into the flank of the mouse, after occlusion of the
      femoral artery. After the artificial tumor studies, we use intravital microscopy
      to study in vivo tumor-angiogenesis and monocyte homing within collateral
      arteries. Previous studies have described the histological examination of animal
      models, which presupposes subsequent analysis to post-mortem artifacts. Our
      approach visualizes monocyte homing to areas of collateralization in real time
      sequences, is easy to perform, and investigates the process of arteriogenesis and
      tumor angiogenesis in vivo.

PMID- 28872120
TI  - Dissection of the Mouse Pancreas for Histological Analysis and Metabolic
      Profiling.
AB  - We have been investigating the pancreas specific transcription factor, 1a cre
      recombinase; lox-stop-lox- Kristen rat sarcoma, glycine to aspartic acid at the
      12 codon (Ptf1acre/+;LSL-KrasG12D/+) mouse strain as a model of human pancreatic
      cancer. The goal of our current studies is to identify novel metabolic biomarkers
      of pancreatic cancer progression. We have performed metabolic profiling of urine,
      feces, blood, and pancreas tissue extracts, as well as histological analyses of
      the pancreas to stage the cancer progression. The mouse pancreas is not a well
      defined solid organ like in humans, but rather is a diffusely distributed soft
      tissue that is not easily identified by individuals unfamiliar with mouse
      internal anatomy or by individuals that have little or no experience performing
      mouse organ dissections. The purpose of this article is to provide a detailed
      step-wise visual demonstration to guide novices in the removal of the mouse
      pancreas by dissection. This article should be especially valuable to students
      and investigators new to research that requires harvesting of the mouse pancreas
      by dissection for metabolic profiling or histological analyses.

PMID- 28872121
TI  - Minimally Invasive Muscle Embedding (MIME) - A Novel Experimental Technique to
      Facilitate Donor-Cell-Mediated Myogenesis.
AB  - Skeletal muscle possesses regenerative capacity due to tissue-resident, muscle
      fiber-generating (myogenic) satellite cells (SCs), which can form new muscle
      fibers under the right conditions. Although SCs can be harvested from muscle
      tissue and cultured in vitro, the resulting myoblast cells are not very effective
      in promoting myogenesis when transplanted into host muscle. Surgically exposing
      the host muscle and grafting segments of donor muscle tissue, or the isolated
      muscle fibers with their SCs onto host muscle, promotes better myogenesis
      compared to myoblast transplantation. We have developed a novel technique that we
      call Minimally Invasive Muscle Embedding (MIME). MIME involves passing a surgical
      needle through the host muscle, drawing a piece of donor muscle tissue through
      the needle track, and then leaving the donor tissue embedded in the host muscle
      so that it may act as a source of SCs for the host muscle. Here we describe in
      detail the steps involved in performing MIME in an immunodeficient mouse model
      that expresses a green fluorescent protein (GFP) in all of its cells.
      Immunodeficiency in the host mouse reduces the risk of immune rejection of the
      donor tissue, and GFP expression enables easy identification of the host muscle
      fibers (GFP+) and donor-cell-derived muscle fibers (GFP-). Our pilot data suggest
      that MIME can be used to implant an extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle from a
      donor mouse into the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle of a host mouse. Our data also
      suggest that when a myotoxin (barium chloride, BaCl2) is injected into the host
      muscle after MIME, there is evidence of donor-cell-derived myogenesis in the host
      muscle, with approximately 5%, 26%, 26% and 43% of the fibers in a single host TA
      muscle showing no host contribution, minimal host contribution, moderate host
      contribution, and maximal host contribution, respectively.

PMID- 28872122
TI  - Ammonia Synthesis at Low Pressure.
AB  - Ammonia can be synthesized at low pressure by the use of an ammonia selective
      absorbent. The process can be driven with wind energy, available locally in areas
      requiring ammonia for synthetic fertilizer. Such wind energy is often called
      "stranded," because it is only available far from population centers where it can
      be directly used. In the proposed low pressure process, nitrogen is made from air
      using pressure swing absorption, and hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of
      water. While these gases can react at approximately 400  degrees C in the
      presence of a promoted conventional catalyst, the conversion is often limited by
      the reverse reaction, which makes this reaction only feasible at high pressures.
      This limitation can be removed by absorption on an ammine-like calcium or
      magnesium chloride. Such alkaline metal halides can effectively remove ammonia,
      thus suppressing the equilibrium constraints of the reaction. In the proposed
      absorption-enhanced ammonia synthesis process, the rate of reaction may then be
      controlled not by the chemical kinetics nor the absorption rates, but by the rate
      of the recycle of unreacted gases. The results compare favorably with ammonia
      made from a conventional small scale Haber-Bosch process.

PMID- 28872123
TI  - Ileectomy-induced Bile Overaccumulation in Mouse Intestine.
AB  - Intestinal resection is a common therapeutic approach for human diseases such as
      obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, and colon cancer that often
      results in severe short bowel syndrome-like adverse effects including bile acid
      diarrhea, dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, and nutrient malabsorption. Here
      we introduce a murine ileal resection model, termed ileectomy, to evaluate tissue
      communication and the maintenance of systemic homeostasis. After ileal resection,
      circulating blood is permanently devoid of the ileum-specific endocrine hormone
      fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15), which releases its endocrinal inhibition of
      bile acid synthesis in the liver. In combination with the increased production
      and abolished reabsorption of bile acids after removing the ileum, mice that
      underwent surgery suffer from bile salt overaccumulation in the intestine and
      associated diarrhea, morbidity, and mortality. Novel usage of the surgery model
      introduced in this study may provide mechanistic and functional insights into
      ileal control of systemic metabolic regulation in physiology and disease.

PMID- 28872124
TI  - In Vitro Polymerization of F-actin on Early Endosomes.
AB  - Many early endosome functions, particularly cargo protein sorting and membrane
      deformation, depend on patches of short F-actin filaments nucleated onto the
      endosomal membrane. We have established a microscopy-based in vitro assay that
      reconstitutes the nucleation and polymerization of F-actin on early endosomal
      membranes in test tubes, thus rendering this complex series of reactions amenable
      to genetic and biochemical manipulations. Endosomal fractions are prepared by
      floatation in sucrose gradients from cells expressing the early endosomal protein
      GFP-RAB5. Cytosolic fractions are prepared from separate batches of cells. Both
      endosomal and cytosolic fractions can be stored frozen in liquid nitrogen, if
      needed. In the assay, the endosomal and cytosolic fractions are mixed, and the
      mixture is incubated at 37  degrees C under appropriate conditions (e.g., ionic
      strength, reducing environment). At the desired time, the reaction mixture is
      fixed, and the F-actin is revealed with phalloidin. Actin nucleation and
      polymerization are then analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Here, we report that
      this assay can be used to investigate the role of factors that are involved
      either in actin nucleation on the membrane, or in the subsequent elongation,
      branching, or crosslinking of F-actin filaments.

PMID- 28872125
TI  - Measurements of Long-range Electronic Correlations During Femtosecond Diffraction
      Experiments Performed on Nanocrystals of Buckminsterfullerene.
AB  - The precise details of the interaction of intense X-ray pulses with matter are a
      topic of intense interest to researchers attempting to interpret the results of
      femtosecond X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) experiments. An increasing number of
      experimental observations have shown that although nuclear motion can be
      negligible, given a short enough incident pulse duration, electronic motion
      cannot be ignored. The current and widely accepted models assume that although
      electrons undergo dynamics driven by interaction with the pulse, their motion
      could largely be considered 'random'. This would then allow the supposedly
      incoherent contribution from the electronic motion to be treated as a continuous
      background signal and thus ignored. The original aim of our experiment was to
      precisely measure the change in intensity of individual Bragg peaks, due to X-ray
      induced electronic damage in a model system, crystalline C60. Contrary to this
      expectation, we observed that at the highest X-ray intensities, the electron
      dynamics in C60 were in fact highly correlated, and over sufficiently long
      distances that the positions of the Bragg reflections are significantly altered.
      This paper describes in detail the methods and protocols used for these
      experiments, which were conducted both at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
      and the Australian Synchrotron (AS) as well as the crystallographic approaches
      used to analyse the data.

PMID- 28872126
TI  - Application and Methodology of the Non-destructive 19F Time-domain NMR Technique
      to Measure the Content in Fluorine-containing Drug Products.
AB  - Here, we describe a protocol developed by our group that uses low-field fluorine
      19 (19F) time-domain (TD) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to measure the average
      content of fluorinated drugs in their formulated drug product forms: tablets or
      capsules. This method is specific to fluorinated drugs because it detects only
      the content of fluorine, avoiding interference from the excipients that lack
      fluorine. The advantages of measuring the active content of fluorinated drugs
      using low-field 19F TD-NMR versus high-field 19F solid-state (SS) NMR are the
      simplicity of the method; the low cost; and the non-destructive nature of the
      technique, with all samples recoverable in intact forms (e.g., powders, tablets,
      and capsules), making this technique affordable for any laboratory. We have
      tested the method with three fluorinated drug products available on the market -
      cinacalcet, lansoprazole, and ciprofloxacin - with doses ranging from 15 to 500
      mg. The results of the analyses, measured by low-field 19F TD-NMR, supported the
      reported label claims for the average drug content. Based on the simplicity and
      reproducibility of the analysis, we envision this methodology being implemented
      in any laboratory, including manufacturing plants, as a process analytical
      technology (PAT) tool in the pharmaceutical industry.

PMID- 28872127
TI  - Detection of Rare Mutations in CtDNA Using Next Generation Sequencing.
AB  - The analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) using next-generation sequencing
      (NGS) has become a valuable tool for the development of clinical oncology.
      However, the application of this method is challenging due to its low sensitivity
      in analyzing the trace amount of ctDNA in the blood. Furthermore, the method may
      generate false positive and negative results from this sequencing and subsequent
      analysis. To improve the feasibility and reliability of ctDNA detection in the
      clinic, here we present a technique which enriches rare mutations for sequencing,
      Enrich Rare Mutation Sequencing (ER-Seq). ER-Seq can distinguish a single
      mutation out of 1 x 107 wild-type nucleotides, which makes it a promising tool to
      detect extremely low frequency genetic alterations and thus will be very useful
      in studying disease heterogenicity. By virtue of the unique sequencing adapter's
      ligation, this method enables an efficient recovery of ctDNA molecules, while at
      the same time correcting for errors bidirectionally (sense and antisense). Our
      selection of 1021 kb probes enriches the measurement of target regions that cover
      over 95% of the tumor-related driver mutations in 12 tumors. This cost-effective
      and universal method enables a uniquely successful accumulation of genetic data.
      After efficiently filtering out background error, ER-seq can precisely detect
      rare mutations. Using a case study, we present a detailed protocol demonstrating
      probe design, library construction, and target DNA capture methodologies, while
      also including the data analysis workflow. The process to carry out this method
      typically takes 1-2 days.

PMID- 28872128
TI  - Fabrication of Ultra-thin Color Films with Highly Absorbing Media Using Oblique
      Angle Deposition.
AB  - Ultra-thin film structures have been studied extensively for use as optical
      coatings, but performance and fabrication challenges remain.  We present an
      advanced method for fabricating ultra-thin color films with improved
      characteristics. The proposed process addresses several fabrication issues,
      including large area processing. Specifically, the protocol describes a process
      for fabricating ultra-thin color films using an electron beam evaporator for
      oblique angle deposition of germanium (Ge) and gold (Au) on silicon (Si)
      substrates.  Film porosity produced by the oblique angle deposition induces color
      changes in the ultra-thin film. The degree of color change depends on factors
      such as deposition angle and film thickness. Fabricated samples of the ultra-thin
      color films showed improved color tunability and color purity. In addition, the
      measured reflectance of the fabricated samples was converted into chromatic
      values and analyzed in terms of color. Our ultra-thin film fabricating method is
      expected to be used for various ultra-thin film applications such as flexible
      color electrodes, thin film solar cells, and optical filters. Also, the process
      developed here for analyzing the color of the fabricated samples is broadly
      useful for studying various color structures.

PMID- 28872129
TI  - Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Spermatozoa: Collection,
      Cryopreservation, and Heterologous In Vitro Fertilization.
AB  - The use of cryopreserved dolphin spermatozoa facilitates the exchange of genetic
      material between aquatic parks and makes spermatozoa accessible to laboratories
      for studies to further our understanding of marine mammal reproduction.
      Heterologous IVF, a replacement for homologous IVF, could provide a means to test
      the sperm fertility potential; to study gamete physiology and early embryo
      development; and to avoid the use of valuable dolphin oocytes, which are
      difficult to obtain. Here, we present protocols that have been successfully used
      to collect and cryopreserve dolphin spermatozoa. The collection of semen is
      performed by manual stimulation on trained dolphins. Cryopreservation is
      accomplished using a TRIS egg-yolk based extender with glycerol. In addition, we
      present a protocol that describes heterologous IVF using dolphin spermatozoa and
      bovine oocytes and that verifies the hybrid nature of the resulting embryo using
      PCR. Heterologous fertilization raises questions on fertilization and can be used
      as a tool to study gamete physiology and early embryo development. In addition,
      the success of heterologous IVF demonstrates the potential of this technique to
      test dolphin sperm fertilizing capacity, which is worth further examination.

PMID- 28872130
TI  - A Protocol for Using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis to Identify the Appropriate
      Animal Model for Translational Research.
AB  - Recent studies that compared transcriptomic datasets of human diseases with
      datasets from mouse models using traditional gene-to-gene comparison techniques
      resulted in contradictory conclusions regarding the relevance of animal models
      for translational research. A major reason for the discrepancies between
      different gene expression analyses is the arbitrary filtering of differentially
      expressed genes. Furthermore, the comparison of single genes between different
      species and platforms often is limited by technical variance, leading to
      misinterpretation of the con/discordance between data from human and animal
      models. Thus, standardized approaches for systematic data analysis are needed. To
      overcome subjective gene filtering and ineffective gene-to-gene comparisons, we
      recently demonstrated that gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) has the potential
      to avoid these problems. Therefore, we developed a standardized protocol for the
      use of GSEA to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate animal models
      for translational research. This protocol is not suitable to predict how to
      design new model systems a-priori, as it requires existing experimental omics
      data. However, the protocol describes how to interpret existing data in a
      standardized manner in order to select the most suitable animal model, thus
      avoiding unnecessary animal experiments and misleading translational studies.

PMID- 28872131
TI  - A Standard Methodology to Examine On-site Mutagenicity As a Function of Point
      Mutation Repair Catalyzed by CRISPR/Cas9 and SsODN in Human Cells.
AB  - Combinatorial gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 and single-stranded oligonucleotides
      is an effective strategy for the correction of single-base point mutations, which
      often are responsible for a variety of human inherited disorders. Using a well
      established cell-based model system, the point mutation of a single-copy mutant
      eGFP gene integrated into HCT116 cells has been repaired using this combinatorial
      approach. The analysis of corrected and uncorrected cells reveals both the
      precision of gene editing and the development of genetic lesions, when indels are
      created in uncorrected cells in the DNA sequence surrounding the target site.
      Here, the specific methodology used to analyze this combinatorial approach to the
      gene editing of a point mutation, coupled with a detailed experimental strategy
      to measuring indel formation at the target site, is outlined. This protocol
      outlines a foundational approach and workflow for investigations aimed at
      developing CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing for human therapy. The conclusion of
      this work is that on-site mutagenesis takes place as a result of CRISPR/Cas9
      activity during the process of point mutation repair. This work puts in place a
      standardized methodology to identify the degree of mutagenesis, which should be
      an important and critical aspect of any approach destined for clinical
      implementation.

PMID- 28872132
TI  - Aqueous Droplets Used as Enzymatic Microreactors and Their Electromagnetic
      Actuation.
AB  - For the successful implementation of microfluidic reaction systems, such as PCR
      and electrophoresis, the movement of small liquid volumes is essential. In
      conventional lab-on-a-chip-platforms, solvents and samples are passed through
      defined microfluidic channels with complex flow control installations. The
      droplet actuation platform presented here is a promising alternative. With it, it
      is possible to move a liquid drop (microreactor) on a planar surface of a
      reaction platform (lab-in-a-drop). The actuation of microreactors on the
      hydrophobic surface of the platform is based on the use of magnetic forces acting
      on the outer shell of the liquid drops which is made of a thin layer of
      superhydrophobic magnetite particles. The hydrophobic surface of the platform is
      needed to avoid any contact between the liquid core and the surface to allow a
      smooth movement of the microreactor. On the platform, one or more microreactors
      with volumes of 10 uL can be positioned and moved simultaneously. The platform
      itself consists of a 3 x 3 matrix of electrical double coils which accommodate
      either neodymium or iron cores. The magnetic field gradients are automatically
      controlled. By variation of the magnetic field gradients, the microreactors'
      magnetic hydrophobic shell can be manipulated automatically to move the
      microreactor or open the shell reversibly. Reactions of substrates and
      corresponding enzymes can be initiated by merging the microreactors or bringing
      them into contact with surface immobilized catalysts.

PMID- 28872133
TI  - Peptide and Protein Quantification Using Automated Immuno-MALDI (iMALDI).
AB  - Mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the most commonly used technologies for
      quantifying proteins in complex samples, with excellent assay specificity as a
      result of the direct detection of the mass-to-charge ratio of each target
      molecule. However, MS-based proteomics, like most other analytical techniques,
      has a bias towards measuring high-abundance analytes, so it is challenging to
      achieve detection limits of low ng/mL or pg/mL in complex samples, and this is
      the concentration range for many disease-relevant proteins in biofluids such as
      human plasma. To assist in the detection of low-abundance analytes, immuno
      enrichment has been integrated into the assay to concentrate and purify the
      analyte before MS measurement, significantly improving assay sensitivity. In this
      work, the immuno- Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (iMALDI) technology
      is presented for the quantification of proteins and peptides in biofluids, based
      on immuno-enrichment on beads, followed by MALDI-MS measurement without prior
      elution. The anti-peptide antibodies are functionalized on magnetic beads, and
      incubated with samples. After washing, the beads are directly transferred onto a
      MALDI target plate, and the signals are measured by a MALDI-Time of Flight (MALDI
      TOF) instrument after the matrix solution has been applied to the beads. The
      sample preparation procedure is simplified compared to other immuno-MS assays,
      and the MALDI measurement is fast. The whole sample preparation is automated with
      a liquid handling system, with improved assay reproducibility and higher
      throughput. In this article, the iMALDI assay is used for determining the peptide
      angiotensin I (Ang I) concentration in plasma, which is used clinically as
      readout of plasma renin activity for the screening of primary aldosteronism (PA).

PMID- 28872134
TI  - Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers.
AB  - This article shows how the COLTRIMS (Cold Target Recoil Ion Momentum
      Spectroscopy) or the "reaction microscope" technique can be used to distinguish
      between enantiomers (stereoisomers) of simple chiral species on the level of
      individual molecules. In this approach, a gaseous molecular jet of the sample
      expands into a vacuum chamber and intersects with femtosecond (fs) laser pulses.
      The high intensity of the pulses leads to fast multiple ionization, igniting a so
      called Coulomb Explosion that produces several cationic (positively charged)
      fragments. An electrostatic field guides these cations onto time- and position
      sensitive detectors. Similar to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, the arrival
      time of each ion yields information on its mass. As a surplus, the electrostatic
      field is adjusted in a way that the emission direction and the kinetic energy
      after fragmentation lead to variations in the time-of-flight and in the impact
      position on the detector. Each ion impact creates an electronic signal in the
      detector; this signal is treated by high-frequency electronics and recorded event
      by event by a computer. The registered data correspond to the impact times and
      positions. With these data, the energy and the emission direction of each
      fragment can be calculated. These values are related to structural properties of
      the molecule under investigation, i.e. to the bond lengths and relative positions
      of the atoms, allowing to determine molecule by molecule the handedness of simple
      chiral species and other isomeric features.

PMID- 28872135
TI  - Methods and Tips for Intravenous Administration of Adeno-associated Virus to Rats
      and Evaluation of Central Nervous System Transduction.
AB  - Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are a key reagent in the neurosciences for
      clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), optogenetics,
      cre-lox targeting, etc. The purpose of this manuscript is to aid the investigator
      attempting expansive central nervous system (CNS) gene transfer in the rat via
      tail vein injection of AAV. Wide-scale expression is relevant for conditions with
      widespread pathology, and a rat model is significant due to its greater size and
      physiologic similarities to humans compared to mice. In this example application,
      a wide-scale neuronal transduction is used to mimic a neurodegenerative disease
      that affects the entire spinal cord, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The
      efficient wide-scale CNS transduction can also be used to deliver therapeutic
      protein factors in pre-clinical studies. After a post-injection expression
      interval of several weeks, the effects of the transduction are evaluated. For a
      green fluorescent protein (GFP) control vector, the amount of GFP in the
      cerebellum is estimated quickly and reliably by a basic imaging program. For
      motor disease phenotypes that are induced by the ALS related protein transactive
      response DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43), the deficits are scored by
      escape reflex and rotarod. Beyond disease modeling and gene therapy, there are
      diverse potential applications for the wide-scale gene targeting described here.
      The expanded use of this method will aid in expediting hypothesis testing in the
      neurosciences and neurogenetics.

PMID- 28872136
TI  - Generation of Escape Variants of Neutralizing Influenza Virus Monoclonal
      Antibodies.
AB  - Influenza viruses exhibit a remarkable ability to adapt and evade the host immune
      response. One way is through antigenic changes that occur on the surface
      glycoproteins of the virus. The generation of escape variants is a powerful
      method in elucidating how viruses escape immune detection and in identifying
      critical residues required for antibody binding. Here, we describe a protocol on
      how to generate influenza A virus escape variants by utilizing human or murine
      monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against the viral hemagglutinin (HA). With
      the use of our technique, we previously characterized critical residues required
      for the binding of antibodies targeting either the head or stalk of the novel
      avian H7N9 HA. The protocol can be easily adapted for other virus systems.
      Analyses of escape variants are important for modeling antigenic drift,
      determining single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) conferring resistance and
      virus fitness, and in the designing of vaccines and/or therapeutics.

PMID- 28872137
TI  - Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps.
AB  - Ions trapped in a quadrupole Paul trap have been considered one of the strong
      physical candidates to implement quantum information processing. This is due to
      their long coherence time and their capability to manipulate and detect
      individual quantum bits (qubits). In more recent years, microfabricated surface
      ion traps have received more attention for large-scale integrated qubit
      platforms. This paper presents a microfabrication methodology for ion traps using
      micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, including the fabrication
      method for a 14 um-thick dielectric layer and metal overhang structures atop the
      dielectric layer. In addition, an experimental procedure for trapping ytterbium
      (Yb) ions of isotope 174 (174Yb+) using 369.5 nm, 399 nm, and 935 nm diode lasers
      is described. These methodologies and procedures involve many scientific and
      engineering disciplines, and this paper first presents the detailed experimental
      procedures. The methods discussed in this paper can easily be extended to the
      trapping of Yb ions of isotope 171 (171Yb+) and to the manipulation of qubits.

PMID- 28872138
TI  - Nitrogen Cavitation and Differential Centrifugation Allows for Monitoring the
      Distribution of Peripheral Membrane Proteins in Cultured Cells.
AB  - Cultured cells are useful for studying the subcellular distribution of proteins,
      including peripheral membrane proteins. Genetically encoded fluorescently tagged
      proteins have revolutionized the study of subcellular protein distribution.
      However, it is difficult to quantify the distribution with fluorescent
      microscopy, especially when proteins are partially cytosolic. Moreover, it is
      often important to study endogenous proteins. Biochemical assays such as
      immunoblots remain the gold standard for quantification of protein distribution
      after subcellular fractionation. Although there are commercial kits that aim to
      isolate cytosolic or certain membrane fractions, most of these kits are based on
      extraction with detergents, which may be unsuitable for studying peripheral
      membrane proteins that are easily extracted from membranes. Here we present a
      detergent-free protocol for cellular homogenization by nitrogen cavitation and
      subsequent separation of cytosolic and membrane-bound proteins by
      ultracentrifugation. We confirm the separation of subcellular organelles in
      soluble and pellet fractions across different cell types, and compare protein
      extraction among several common non-detergent-based mechanical homogenization
      methods. Among several advantages of nitrogen cavitation is the superior
      efficiency of cellular disruption with minimal physical and chemical damage to
      delicate organelles. Combined with ultracentrifugation, nitrogen cavitation is an
      excellent method to examine the shift of peripheral membrane proteins between
      cytosolic and membrane fractions.

PMID- 28872139
TI  - In Situ Characterization of Shewanella oneidensis MR1 Biofilms by SALVI and ToF
      SIMS.
AB  - Bacterial biofilms are surface-associated communities that are vastly studied to
      understand their self-produced extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and their
      roles in environmental microbiology. This study outlines a method to cultivate
      biofilm attachment to the System for Analysis at the Liquid Vacuum Interface
      (SALVI) and achieve in situ chemical mapping of a living biofilm by time-of
      flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). This is done through the
      culturing of bacteria both outside and within the SALVI channel with our
      specialized setup, as well as through optical imaging techniques to detect the
      biofilm presence and thickness before ToF-SIMS analysis. Our results show the
      characteristic peaks of the Shewanella biofilm in its natural hydrated state,
      highlighting upon its localized water cluster environment, as well as EPS
      fragments, which are drastically different from the same biofilm's dehydrated
      state. These results demonstrate the breakthrough capability of SALVI that allows
      for in situ biofilm imaging with a vacuum-based chemical imaging instrument.

PMID- 28872140
TI  - Purification of the Membrane Compartment for Endoplasmic Reticulum-associated
      Degradation of Exogenous Antigens in Cross-presentation.
AB  - Dendritic cells (DCs) are highly capable of processing and presenting
      internalized exogenous antigens upon major histocompatibility class (MHC) I
      molecules also known as cross-presentation (CP). CP plays an important role not
      only in the stimulation of naive CD8+ T cells and memory CD8+ T cells for
      infectious and tumor immunity but also in the inactivation of self-acting naive T
      cells by T cell anergy or T cell deletion. Although the critical molecular
      mechanism of CP remains to be elucidated, accumulating evidence indicates that
      exogenous antigens are processed through endoplasmic reticulum-associated
      degradation (ERAD) after export from non-classical endocytic compartments. Until
      recently, characterizations of these endocytic compartments were limited because
      there were no specific molecular markers other than exogenous antigens. The
      method described here is a new vesicle isolation protocol, which allows for the
      purification of these endocytic compartments. Using this purified microsome, we
      reconstituted the ERAD-like transport, ubiquitination, and processing of the
      exogenous antigen in vitro, suggesting that the ubiquitin-proteasome system
      processed the exogenous antigen after export from this cellular compartment. This
      protocol can be further applied to other cell types to clarify the molecular
      mechanism of CP.

PMID- 28872141
TI  - Derivation of Stem Cell Lines from Mouse Preimplantation Embryos.
AB  - Mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) derivation is the process by which pluripotent
      cell lines are established from preimplantation embryos. These lines retain the
      ability to either self-renew or differentiate under specific conditions. Due to
      these properties, mESC are a useful tool in regenerative medicine, disease
      modeling, and tissue engineering studies. This article describes a simple
      protocol to obtain mESC lines with high derivation efficiencies (60-80%) by
      culturing blastocysts from permissive mouse strains on feeder cells in defined
      medium supplemented with leukemia inhibitory factor. The protocol can also be
      applied to efficiently derive mESC lines from non-permissive mouse strains, by
      the simple addition of a cocktail of two small-molecule inhibitors to the
      derivation medium (2i medium). Detailed procedures on the preparation and culture
      of feeder cells, collection and culture of mouse embryos, and derivation and
      culture of mESC lines are provided. This protocol does not require specialized
      equipment and can be carried out in any laboratory with basic mammalian cell
      culture expertise.

PMID- 28872142
TI  - Preparation and Metabolic Assay of 3-dimensional Spheroid Co-cultures of
      Pancreatic Cancer Cells and Fibroblasts.
AB  - Many cancer types, including pancreatic cancer, have a dense fibrotic stroma that
      plays an important role in tumor progression and invasion. Activated cancer
      associated fibroblasts are a key component of the tumor stroma that interact with
      cancer cells and support their growth and survival. Models that recapitulate the
      interaction of cancer cells and activated fibroblasts are important tools for
      studying the stromal biology and for development of antitumor agents. Here, a
      method is described for the rapid generation of robust 3-dimensional (3D)
      spheroid co-culture of pancreatic cancer cells and activated pancreatic
      fibroblasts that can be used for subsequent biological studies. Additionally,
      described is the use of 3D spheroids in carrying out functional metabolic assays
      to probe cellular bioenergetics pathways using an extracellular flux analyzer
      paired with a spheroid microplate. Pancreatic cancer cells (Patu8902) and
      activated pancreatic fibroblast cells (PS1) were co-cultured and magnetized using
      a biocompatible nanoparticle assembly. Magnetized cells were rapidly bioprinted
      using magnetic drives in a 96 well format, in growth media to generate spheroids
      with a diameter ranging between 400-600 um within 5-7 days of culture. Functional
      metabolic assays using Patu8902-PS1 spheroids were then carried out using the
      extracellular flux technology to probe cellular energetic pathways. The method
      herein is simple, allows consistent generation of cancer cell-fibroblast spheroid
      co-cultures and can be potentially adapted to other cancer cell types upon
      optimization of the current described methodology.

PMID- 28872143
TI  - Creating and Applying a Reference to Facilitate the Discussion and Classification
      of Proteins in a Diverse Group.
AB  - Related proteins that have been studied in different labs using varying organisms
      may lack a uniform system of nomenclature and classification, making it difficult
      to discuss the group as a whole and to place new sequences into the appropriate
      context. Developing a reference that prioritizes important sequence features
      related to structure and/or activity can be used in addition to established names
      to add some coherency to a diverse group of proteins. This paper uses the
      cysteine-stabilized alpha-helix (CS-alphabeta) superfamily as an example to show
      how a reference generated in spreadsheet software can clarify relationships
      between existing proteins in the superfamily, as well as facilitate the addition
      of new sequences. It also shows how the reference can help to refine sequence
      alignments generated in commonly used software, which impacts the validity of
      phylogenetic analyses. The use of a reference will likely be most helpful for
      protein groups that include highly divergent sequences from a broad spectrum of
      taxa, with features that are not adequately captured by molecular analyses.

PMID- 28872144
TI  - Volume Segmentation and Analysis of Biological Materials Using SuRVoS (Super
      region Volume Segmentation) Workbench.
AB  - Segmentation is the process of isolating specific regions or objects within an
      imaged volume, so that further study can be undertaken on these areas of
      interest. When considering the analysis of complex biological systems, the
      segmentation of three-dimensional image data is a time consuming and labor
      intensive step. With the increased availability of many imaging modalities and
      with automated data collection schemes, this poses an increased challenge for the
      modern experimental biologist to move from data to knowledge. This publication
      describes the use of SuRVoS Workbench, a program designed to address these issues
      by providing methods to semi-automatically segment complex biological volumetric
      data. Three datasets of differing magnification and imaging modalities are
      presented here, each highlighting different strategies of segmenting with SuRVoS.
      Phase contrast X-ray tomography (microCT) of the fruiting body of a plant is used
      to demonstrate segmentation using model training, cryo electron tomography
      (cryoET) of human platelets is used to demonstrate segmentation using super- and
      megavoxels, and cryo soft X-ray tomography (cryoSXT) of a mammalian cell line is
      used to demonstrate the label splitting tools. Strategies and parameters for each
      datatype are also presented. By blending a selection of semi-automatic processes
      into a single interactive tool, SuRVoS provides several benefits. Overall time to
      segment volumetric data is reduced by a factor of five when compared to manual
      segmentation, a mainstay in many image processing fields. This is a significant
      savings when full manual segmentation can take weeks of effort. Additionally,
      subjectivity is addressed through the use of computationally identified
      boundaries, and splitting complex collections of objects by their calculated
      properties rather than on a case-by-case basis.

PMID- 28872145
TI  - Synthesis of Infectious Bacteriophages in an E. coli-based Cell-free Expression
      System.
AB  - A new generation of cell-free transcription-translation (TXTL) systems,
      engineered to have a greater versatility and modularity, provide novel
      capabilities to perform basic and applied sciences in test tube reactions. Over
      the past decade, cell-free TXTL has become a powerful technique for a broad range
      of novel multidisciplinary research areas related to quantitative and synthetic
      biology. The new TXTL platforms are particularly useful to construct and
      interrogate biochemical systems through the execution of synthetic or natural
      gene circuits. In vitro TXTL has proven convenient to rapidly prototype
      regulatory elements and biological networks as well as to recapitulate molecular
      self-assembly mechanisms found in living systems. In this article, we describe
      how infectious bacteriophages, such as MS2 (RNA), PhiChi174 (ssDNA), and T7
      (dsDNA), are entirely synthesized from their genome in one-pot reactions using an
      all Escherichia coli, cell-free TXTL system. Synthesis of the three coliphages is
      quantified using the plaque assay. We show how the yield of synthesized phage
      depends on the biochemical settings of the reactions. Molecular crowding,
      emulated through a controlled concentration of PEG 8000, affects the amount of
      synthesized phages by orders of magnitudes. We also describe how to amplify the
      phages and how to purify their genomes. The set of protocols and results
      presented in this work should be of interest to multidisciplinary researchers
      involved in cell-free synthetic biology and bioengineering.

PMID- 28872146
TI  - Characterizing Cell Migration Within Three-dimensional In Vitro Wound
      Environments.
AB  - Currently, most in vitro models of wound healing, such as well-established
      scratch assays, involve studying cell migration and wound closure on two
      dimensional surfaces. However, the physiological environment in which in vivo
      wound healing takes place is three-dimensional rather than two-dimensional. It is
      becoming increasingly clear that cell behavior differs greatly in two-dimensional
      vs. three-dimensional environments; therefore, there is a need for more
      physiologically relevant in vitro models for studying cell migration behaviors in
      wound closure. The method described herein allows for the study of cell migration
      in a three-dimensional model that better reflects physiological conditions than
      previously established two-dimensional scratch assays. The purpose of this model
      is to evaluate cell outgrowth via the examination of cell migration away from a
      spheroid body embedded within a fibrin matrix in the presence of pro- or anti
      migratory factors. Using this method, cell outgrowth from the spheroid body in a
      three-dimensional matrix can be observed and is easily quantifiable over time via
      brightfield microscopy and analysis of spheroid body area. The effect of pro
      migratory and/or inhibitory factors on cell migration can also be evaluated in
      this system. This method provides researchers with a simple method of analyzing
      cell migration in three-dimensional wound associated matrices in vitro, thus
      increasing the relevance of in vitro cell studies prior to the use of in vivo
      animal models.

PMID- 28872147
TI  - Generation of a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Model in Mice by Repeated
      Ozone Exposure.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by persistent
      airflow limitation and lung parenchymal destruction. It has a very high incidence
      in aging populations. The current conventional therapies for COPD focus mainly on
      symptom-modifying drugs; thus, the development of new therapies is urgently
      needed. Qualified animal models of COPD could help to characterize the underlying
      mechanisms and can be used for new drug screening. Current COPD models, such as
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or the porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE)-induced
      emphysema model, generate COPD-like lesions in the lungs and airways but do not
      otherwise resemble the pathogenesis of human COPD. A cigarette smoke (CS)-induced
      model remains one of the most popular because it not only simulates COPD-like
      lesions in the respiratory system, but it is also based on one of the main
      hazardous materials that causes COPD in humans. However, the time-consuming and
      labor-intensive aspects of the CS-induced model dramatically limit its
      application in new drug screening. In this study, we successfully generated a new
      COPD model by exposing mice to high levels of ozone. This model demonstrated the
      following: 1) decreased forced expiratory volume 25, 50, and 75/forced vital
      capacity (FEV25/FVC, FEV50/FVC, and FEV75/FVC), indicating the deterioration of
      lung function; 2) enlarged lung alveoli, with lung parenchymal destruction; 3)
      reduced fatigue time and distance; and 4) increased inflammation. Taken together,
      these data demonstrate that the ozone exposure (OE) model is a reliable animal
      model that is similar to humans because ozone overexposure is one of the
      etiological factors of COPD. Additionally, it only took 6 - 8 weeks, based on our
      previous work, to create an OE model, whereas it requires 3 - 12 months to induce
      the cigarette smoke model, indicating that the OE model might be a good choice
      for COPD research.

PMID- 28872148
TI  - Incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury in Italy during 2013-2014: a population
      based study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Observational prospective population-based incidence study.
      OBJECTIVES: The main objective of this study was to assess the incidence of
      traumatic spinal cord injuries (TSCIs) and incidence rates, in order to provide
      estimates by age, gender, characteristics and cause. SETTING: This study was
      conducted at acute-care spinal cord injury (SCI) hospitals and SCI centers from
      11 Italian regions, between 1 October 2013 and 30 September 2014. METHODS: Data
      of all consecutive patients with acute TSCI who met the inclusion criteria were
      obtained through case reporting by clinicians. The data were collected into a web
      database. Incidence rates and incidence rate ratios were calculated and
      stratified by age, gender, cause, level and completeness. RESULTS: From 50% of
      the entire population of Italy, 445 new cases of TSCI were included. The crude
      incidence rate of TSCI was 14.7 cases per million per year (95% CI: 13.4-16.4);
      the overall male to female ratio was 4:1 and the mean age was 54. Complete
      information was available in 85% of the sample and revealed tetraplegia in 58%
      and incomplete lesion in 67% of cases. The leading cause of TSCI was falls
      (40.9%) followed by road traffic accidents (33.5%). The leading cause was falls
      for patients over 55 and road traffic accidents for patients under 55.
      CONCLUSION: The changing trend of TSCI epidemiology concerns the increase in the
      average age of TSCI people and the increase of both cervical and incomplete
      lesions. The etiology shows the primacy of falls over road traffic accidents and
      suggests the need for a change in prevention policies.

PMID- 28872149
TI  - Correlation between diffusion tensor imaging parameters and clinical assessments
      in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy with and without high signal
      intensity.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this
      study is to compare the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional
      anisotropy (FA) between patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) with
      and without high T2-weighted signal intensity, and to correlate each parameter
      with clinical assessments. SETTING: CSM is a common cause of spinal cord
      dysfunction. The significance of T2 high signal intensity in the prognosis of CSM
      remains controversial. METHODS: Diffusion tensor imaging was performed at the
      cervical spinal cord in 40 patients with CSM and 42 healthy subjects. Patients
      with high signal intensity were separated from those without high signal
      intensity. ADC and FA values were compared among different groups, and the
      correlation between each parameter and the modified Japanese Orthopedic
      Association (mJOA) score was examined. RESULTS: The ADC and FA values of C2/3
      differed significantly from those of C5/6 and C6/7 in healthy subjects. Patients
      with CSM had a higher ADC but a lower FA value than did healthy subjects. In all
      patients with CSM, there was a negative linear correlation between ADC and mJOA
      score, but FA value correlated positively with mJOA score. Secondary analysis
      suggested that FA value in patients with high signal intensity was lower than
      that in patients without high signal intensity. FA value showed a positive linear
      correlation with mJOA score in the patients with high signal intensity but not in
      the patients without high signal intensity. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with high
      signal intensity may have more severe spinal cord injury than patients without
      high signal intensity, and FA may be a useful indicator of functional status in
      patients with CSM with high signal intensity.

PMID- 28872150
TI  - Clinical Characteristics and Outcome of Hepatic Sarcoidosis: A Population-Based
      Study 1976-2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Data on clinical manifestations and outcome of hepatic sarcoidosis
      are scarce. This study aimed to use a population-based cohort of patients with
      incident sarcoidosis to better describe the characteristics of hepatic
      sarcoidosis. METHODS: A cohort of incident cases of sarcoidosis in Olmsted
      County, MN, USA, from 1976 to 2013 was identified from the database. Diagnosis
      was verified by individual medical record review. Confirmed cases of sarcoidosis
      were then reviewed for liver involvement. Data on clinical manifestations,
      imaging study, liver biochemical tests, treatment, and outcome were collected.
      Cumulative incidence of cirrhosis adjusted for the competing risk of death was
      estimated. RESULTS: A total of 345 cases of incident sarcoidosis were identified.
      Of these, 19 cases (6%) had liver involvement (mean age 46.1 years, 53% female
      and 79% Caucasian). Most patients had asymptomatic liver disease and were
      discovered in pursuit of abnormal biochemical tests and imaging studies. Alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) were elevated in the
      majority of patients (88 and 90%, respectively). Elevated transaminases were less
      common and less severe. About half of patients had abnormal imaging study with
      hypodense nodular lesions being the most common abnormality (six patients)
      followed by hepatomegaly (three patients). Liver biopsy revealed non-caseating
      granuloma in 88% (14 of 16 patients). A total of four patients developed
      cirrhosis. CONCLUSIONS: Involvement of the liver by sarcoidosis was seen in 6% of
      patients with sarcoidosis. The majority of patients were asymptomatic. Elevated
      ALP and GGT were the most common abnormal biochemical tests. Liver biopsy
      revealed non-caseating granuloma in almost all cases. Cirrhosis was seen in a
      significant number of patients. Generalizability of the observations to other
      populations may be limited, as the studied population was predominantly
      Caucasian. The prevalence of liver disease may be higher in more diverse
      populations.

PMID- 28872152
TI  - From Patient to Patient-Entrepreneur: Development of an Ostomy Bag Sensor.

PMID- 28872151
TI  - Living on Liquids: Surviving and Thriving on Exclusive Enteral Nutrition.

PMID- 28872153
TI  - Breast cancer: Short-term NAT reveals resistance.

PMID- 28872154
TI  - Ethnicity and ERG frequency in prostate cancer.
AB  - Emerging observations emphasize a distinct biology of prostate cancer among men
      of different ethnicities and races, as demonstrated by remarkable differences in
      the frequency of ERG oncogenic activation, one of the most common and widely
      studied prostate cancer driver genes. Worldwide assessment of ERG alterations
      frequencies show consistent trends, with men of European ancestry having the
      highest rates of alteration and men of African or Asian ancestries having
      considerably lower alteration rates. However, data must be interpreted
      cautiously, owing to variations in assay platforms and specimen types, as well as
      ethnic and geographical classifications. Many opportunities and challenges remain
      in assessing cancer-associated molecular alterations at a global level, and these
      need to be addressed in order to realize the true potential of precision medicine
      for all cancer patients.

PMID- 28872155
TI  - The rising incidence of parotid metastases: our experience from four decades of
      parotid gland surgery.
AB  - Secondary neoplasia in the parotid gland is increasingly frequent. We examined
      outcomes from 40 years of parotid surgery to analyse patterns for metastasis,
      review the staging procedure and discuss management. We retrospectively examined
      772 consecutive cases of parotid surgery in a university hospital between 1975
      and 2015 and assessed changes in incidence and management over four decades. In
      all, 71% percent of patients were male and 29% were female, with a mean age of 68
      years, aged between 23 and 93 years. We diagnosed 683 parotid tumours of which
      15.8% (n = 108) were malignant; 44% (n = 48) of all malignant lesions were
      metastases. The incidence of malignant tumours rose from 8% in the first decade,
      14% in the second, 17% in the third to 21% in the fourth. The incidence increased
      even further from 10% in the first to 57% in the final decade. Most frequent
      tumours were metastases of squamous cell carcinoma (79%), and the majority of
      these lesions (87%) arose from above the clavicle, with 30 primary tumours in the
      skin. In most cases, the skin tumour had been excised between 6 and 24 months
      prior to parotid metastasis. Management consisted of surgery with neck
      dissection. 48 patients (67%) received adjuvant therapy, but despite aggressive
      multimodal treatment, disease progressed in the majority of cases, in 57%
      squamous cell carcinoma of the skin primaries, 67% of mucosal primaries above the
      clavicle and 83% of infraclavicular primaries. Parotid malignant tumours are
      increasing in incidence, mostly due to a rise in metastatic malignant tumours
      within the parotid gland, most of which are metastases of skin tumours, commonly
      squamous cell carcinoma. Despite multimodal therapy, their recurrence and
      progression rate remains high. We propose inclusion in head and neck follow-up in
      all cases of head and neck skin cancers.

PMID- 28872156
TI  - Indications of cone beam CT in head and neck imaging in children.
AB  - For imaging of bony structures, especially for the anterior and lateral skull
      base in ORL medicine, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is an increasingly
      used alternative to CT, with a lower exposition to plain radiography that makes
      its use for imaging, particularly in children, very interesting. The aim of this
      study was to analyse possible indications and settings for CBCT in children and
      compare them to those of adults. A total of 554 patients (age range 0-18 years,
      mean age 10.36 years), who underwent CBCT between 01/2004-06/2013 in the ENT
      department at the university clinic of Marburg were enrolled in this
      retrospective analysis to evaluate technical parameters and indications. Data on
      CBCT of all children were compared with previously published data collected from
      1730 adults who were diagnosed with the help of CBCT in the ENT department at the
      university clinic of Marburg, during the years 2012-2013. The most frequent
      indications of CBCT in children vs. adults were in the anterior skull base
      region: mid-facial trauma (60.4%) vs. chronic rhinosinusitis (54.8%), disturbed
      nasal breathing (13.9% vs. 13.0%) and chronic rhinosinusitis (12%) vs. mid-facial
      trauma (10.8%). For the lateral skull base the main indications were
      cholesteatoma (20.3%) vs. position control of cochlear implant (CI) electrode
      (31.2%), chronic otorrhoea (17.5%) vs. cholesteatoma (20.9%), and position
      control of CI electrode (11.8%) vs. chronic otitis media mesotympanalis (6.8%).
      CBCT is a suitable imaging modality for bony structures in adults and children.
      Settings mainly depend on the region of interest. One aim should also be to
      reduce exposure to radiation in both adults and children.

PMID- 28872157
TI  - Laryngectomy: what is the impact of the type of surgery on life quality and
      sexual function?
AB  - The purpose of this study is to compare total and partial larygectomy on private
      life functions and sexuality in patients with laryngeal cancer. The study
      included 31 partial laryngectomy patients (Group 1) and 51 total laryngectomy
      patients (Group 2) who were operated for laryngeal cancer. European Organization
      for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) head and neck cancer module (QLQ
      H&N35) and Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX) forms were filled in by
      interviewing face to face with patients. HNSW (swallowing), HNSE (senses), HNSP
      (speech), HNSO (social eating), HNSX (sexuality), HNTE (problems with teeth),
      HNOM (problems with opening mouth) and HNCO (coughing) scores of EORTC QLQ-H&N35
      were significantly higher in group 2 than in group 1. However, according to
      Arizona test results, there were no significant difference between the two
      groups.

PMID- 28872158
TI  - Stabilometric findings in patients affected by organic dysphonia before and after
      phonomicrosurgery.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to understand if there is any alteration in the
      posture of patients affected by organic dysphonia and describe possible postural
      modifications after phonomicrosurgery on the vocal folds. Forty subjects (22
      males, 18 females; mean age 32.6 +/- 7.5 years) suffering from organic dysphonia
      (15 cases of polyps, 11 submucosal retention cysts, 10 bilateral fibrous vocal
      fold nodules and 4 bilateral Reinke's oedema) were examined by open-eye and
      closed-eye posturography while breathing spontaneously before surgery, 24 hours
      after surgery and after 6 months. The variables taken into account were: the
      coordinates of the centre of pressure on both frontal and sagittal planes, length
      and surface of the track, mean velocity of the oscillations and relative standard
      deviations, spectral analysis of oscillation frequency, statokinesigram and
      stabilogram values. No characteristic pathological pattern was seen in basal
      stabilometry in any of the subgroups (polyps, cysts, Reinke's oedema). Only the
      subgroup of patients with fibrous vocal fold nodules (8/10; 80%) showed a slight
      forward shift from the centre of gravity when analysed in both open-eye and
      closed-eye posturography. A comparison performed within the same subgroup using
      open-eye and closed-eye posturography before and after surgery revealed no
      significant difference in any of the parameters being studied. The use of static
      stabilometry in this study demonstrates the absence of characteristic postural
      alterations in patients affected by organic dysphonia and also excludes that
      simple removal of the vocal fold lesion can change posture.

PMID- 28872159
TI  - Cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhoea following transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary
      adenoma: experience in a Chinese centre.
AB  - The aim of this study was to elucidate the risk factors for cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) rhinorrhoea following transsphenoidal surgery and discuss its prevention
      and treatments. We retrospectively reviewed 474 consecutive cases of pituitary
      adenoma treated with 485 transsphenoidal surgical procedures from January 2008 to
      December 2011 in our department. We analysed the incidence of intra- and post
      operative CSF leakage and outcomes of various repair strategies. Intra-operative
      CSF leakage was encountered in 85 cases (17.9%), and post-operative CSF
      rhinorrhoea in 13 cases (2.7%). Seven of the 13 patients with post-operative CSF
      rhinorrhoea did not experience intra-operative CSF leakage; three of these
      patients had adrenocorticotropic hormone-secreting adenomas. Of the remaining 6
      patients with both intra- and post-operative CSF leakage, 2 were treated for
      giant invasive prolactinomas, and 2 had previously undergone transsphenoidal
      surgery. In eight patients, the leak was resolved by lumbar puncture, lumbar
      external drainage, resting in a semi-reclining position, or other conservative
      treatment. Two CSF leaks were repaired with gelatine foam and fibrin glue using a
      transsphenoidal approach, and two with autologous fat graft and sellar floor
      reconstruction using a transnasal endoscopic approach. After undergoing two
      transnasal endoscopic repairs, one patient with post-operative CSF rhinorrhoea
      was successfully treated by further lumbar subarachnoid drainage. In conclusion,
      procedures using gelatine foam, fibrin glue and autologous fat graft are common
      and effective techniques for the management of CSF rhinorrhoea after
      transsphenoidal surgery. When a CSF leak is detected during transsphenoidal
      surgery, thorough sellar reconstruction and long-term follow-up are necessary.

PMID- 28872160
TI  - A mild phenotype of sensorineural hearing loss and palmoplantar keratoderma
      caused by a novel GJB2 dominant mutation.
AB  - Dominant GJB2 mutations are known to cause a syndromic form of sensorineural
      hearing loss associated with palmo-plantar skin manifestations. We present the
      genotype/phenotype correlations of a new GJB2 mutation identified in three
      generations of an Italian family (proband, mother and grandfather) whose members
      are affected by sensorineural hearing impairment associated with adult-onset
      palmoplantar keratoderma. In all affected members we identified a new
      heterozygous GJB2 mutation (c.66G > T, p.Lys22Asn) whose segregation, population
      frequency and in silico prediction analysis have suggested a pathogenic role. The
      p.Lys22Asn GJB2 mutation causes a dominant form of hearing loss associated with
      variable expression of palmoplantar keratoderma, representing a model of full
      penetrance, with an age-dependent effect on the phenotype.

PMID- 28872161
TI  - Temporal changes in impedance of implanted adults for various cochlear segments.
AB  - Electrode impedance (EI) is the first objective assessment carried out during the
      surgical procedure and follow-up of cochlear implanted patients. This measure
      provides information on the integrity of electrodes and on the surrounding
      environment. It is one of the main factors responsible for energy consumption of
      the cochlear implant (CI). The aim of our study is to investigate changes over
      time in EI in adult recipients implanted with the perimodiolar array by comparing
      differences in various cochlear segments. In addition, we explore the
      relationship between these objective measures and subjective measures such as T
      level and C-level. We studied 28 adult patients. Impedance values (IVs) were
      calculated in "common-ground" (CG) and in monopolar (M1+2) mode for electrode
      groups in basal middle and apical segments. We found significant decreases in IVs
      between activation and 1 month. We obtained higher values for basal impedance,
      whereas lower IVs were found for apical electrodes at all observation times.
      Statistical pairing over time between impedance and T/C values showed significant
      correlation for both global impedance (GI) and T-C levels at CG and M1+2 mode up
      to 6 months. Segregated statistical analysis also showed a significant and
      prolonged correlation of basal IVs and fitting parameters. The higher basal
      impedance over time can be explained by the higher proportion of newly formed
      tissue in this region. The linear correlation of impedances with the fitting
      parameters become not significant after 3/6 months for the apical and middle
      segments and remained significant only for the basal region over time. This
      behaviour underlines the importance of persistence in intra-cochlear factors in
      influencing fitting parameters in the basal segment.

PMID- 28872162
TI  - Conservative treatment of vestibular schwannoma: growth and Penn Acoustic Neuroma
      Quality of Life scale in French language.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the natural history of growth and quality
      of life (QoL) outcomes for vestibular schwannoma (VS) managed conservatively, and
      to validate the disease-specific Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-of-Life (PANQOL)
      scale in French language. We retrospectively studied 26 patients with VS managed
      conservatively. Patient characteristics and radiological findings were collected.
      Two scales were used to measure QoL: the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and
      the PANQOL scale translated into French. Internal consistency and scores were
      compared with previous studies. The mean follow-up was 25 months (range 6-72). We
      observed tumour growth in 14 patients (53.8%), no growth in 12 patients (46.2%)
      and no case of tumour shrinkage. The mean tumour growth was 2.22 mm/year. No
      predictive factor of growth was found. Patients with vertigo or dizziness
      experienced a poorer QoL according to the SF-36 (Social Functioning and Emotional
      Role Limitation dimensions) and to the PANQOL scale (Balance and Energy
      dimensions). Our results were comparable with the literature using the SF-36.
      With the PANQOL scale, our scores were not statistically different with those
      from Dutch and North American studies except in the field of hearing (p = 0.019).
      Quality of life becomes essential in the management of VS. According to these
      results, we support a non-conservative strategy associated with vestibular
      rehabilitation for patients with dizziness or vertigo. The PANQOL is a validated
      specific scale for VS, which can be useful in French.

PMID- 28872164
TI  - RhIII-Catalyzed site-selective amidation with nitrone as a traceless directing
      group: an approach to functionalized arylaldehydes.
AB  - An efficient Rh-catalyzed site-selective amidation of nitrones with 1,4,2
      dioxazol-5-ones has been developed. The reaction can tolerate a number of groups
      and generates functionalized aldehydes in good yields. The significance of the
      amidation is highlighted by the late-stage transformation of the formed
      aldehydes.

PMID- 28872163
TI  - Italian survey on benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.
AB  - Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most common type of peripheral
      vertigo. BPPV often relapses after the first episode, with a recurrence rate
      between 15% and 50%. To date both the aetiopathogenetic processes that lead to
      otoconia detachment and the factors that make BPPV a relapsing disease are still
      unclear, but recent epidemiological studies have shown a possible association
      with cardiovascular risk factors. The aim of the present study (Sesto Senso
      Survey) was to evaluate in the Italian population through an observational
      survey, the main demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with BPPV
      (first episode or recurrent) with particular focus on the potential
      cardiovascular risk factors. The survey was conducted in 158 vestibology centres
      across Italy on 2,682 patients (mean age 59.3 +/- 15.0 years; 39.1% males and
      60.9% females) suffering from BPPV, from January 2013 to December 2014. The
      results showed a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as high
      blood pressure (55.8%), hypercholesterolaemia (38.6%) and diabetes (17.7%), as
      well as a family history of cardiovascular disease (49.4%). A high percentage of
      patients also had hearing loss (42.9%), tinnitus (41.2%), or both (26.8%). The
      presence of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and pre-existing cardiovascular
      comorbidities were significantly related to recurrent BPPV episodes (OR range
      between 1.84 and 2.31). In addition, the association with diabetes and
      thyroid/autoimmune disease (OR range between 1.73 and 1.89) was relevant. The
      survey results confirm the significant association between cardiovascular
      comorbidities and recurrent BPPV and identify them as a potential important risk
      factor for recurrence of BPPV in the Italian population, paving the way for the
      evaluation of new therapeutic strategies in the treatment of this disease.

PMID- 28872165
TI  - On-slide detection of enzymatic activities in selected single cells.
AB  - With increasing recognition of the importance in addressing cell-to-cell
      heterogeneity for the understanding of complex biological systems, there is a
      growing need for assays capable of single cell analyses. In the current study, we
      describe the measurement of human topoisomerase I activity in single CD44
      positive Caco2 cells specifically captured from a mixed population on glass
      slides, which were dual functionalized with anti-CD44-antibodies and specific DNA
      primers. On-slide lysis of captured CD44 positive cells, resulted in the release
      of human topoisomerase I, allowing the enzyme to circularize a specific linear
      DNA substrate added to the slides. The generated circles hybridized to the
      anchored DNA primers and acted as templates for a solid support rolling circle
      amplification reaction leading to the generation of long tandem repeat products
      that were detected at the single molecule level in a fluorescent microscope upon
      hybridization of fluorescent labelled probes. The on-slide detection system was
      demonstrated to be directly quantitative and specific towards CD44 positive
      cells. Moreover, it allowed reproducible detection of human topoisomerase I
      activity in single cells.

PMID- 28872166
TI  - A luminescent heterometallic metal-organic framework for the naked-eye
      discrimination of nitroaromatic explosives.
AB  - A luminescent heterometallic MOF with an interrupted cap topology was synthesized
      and characterized. This compound exhibits a strong blue-light emission and shows
      naked-eye selective detection toward trinitrobenzene (TNB) even in the presence
      of other nitro explosives. Furthermore, the compound is also capable of
      selectively sensing nitroaromatic picric acid (PA) based on the fluorescence
      quenching mechanism.

PMID- 28872167
TI  - Metal-free, direct conversion of alpha-amino acids into alpha-keto gamma-amino
      esters for the synthesis of alpha,gamma-peptides.
AB  - An efficient, metal-free synthesis of unusual alpha-keto gamma-amino esters from
      alpha-amino acids is achieved by a radical scission-oxidation-addition of
      silyloxy acrylates procedure, where no purification of the reaction intermediates
      is needed. This protocol can be applied to the selective modification of the C
      terminal position in peptides to give alpha,gamma-hybrids.

PMID- 28872168
TI  - Amidinoquinoxaline N-oxides: spin trapping of O- and C-centered radicals.
AB  - Amidinoquinoxaline N-oxides represent a novel family of heterocyclic spin traps.
      In this work, their ability to trap O- and C-centered radicals was tested using
      selected derivatives with different structural modifications. All the studied
      nitrones were able to trap radicals forming persistent spin adducts, also in the
      case of OH and OOH radicals which are of wide biological interest as examples of
      ROS. The stability of the adducts was mainly attributed to the wide
      delocalization of the unpaired electron over the whole quinoxaline moiety. The
      nitroxide spectral parameters (hfccs and g-factors) were analyzed and the results
      were supported by DFT calculations. The N-19 hfccs and g-factors were
      characteristic of each aminoxyl and could aid in the identification of the
      trapped radical. The enhanced stability of the OH adducts under the employed
      reaction conditions could be ascribed to their possible stabilization by IHBs
      with two different acceptors: the N-O moiety or the amidine functionality. DFT
      calculations indicate that the preferred IHB is strongly conditioned by the
      amidine ring size. While five membered homologues show a clear preference for the
      IHB with the N-O group, in six membered derivatives this stabilizing interaction
      is preferentially established with the amidine nitrogen as an IHB acceptor.

PMID- 28872169
TI  - Volatiles from the fungal microbiome of the marine sponge Callyspongia cf.
      flammea.
AB  - The volatiles emitted by five fungal strains previously isolated from the marine
      sponge Callyspongia cf. flammea were captured with a closed-loop stripping
      apparatus (CLSA) and analyzed by GC-MS. Besides several widespread compounds, a
      series of metabolites with interesting bioactivities were found, including the
      quorum sensing inhibitor protoanemonin, the fungal phytotoxin 3,4-dimethylpentan
      4-olide, and the insect attractant 1,2,4-trimethoxybenzene. In addition, the
      aromatic polyketides isotorquatone and chartabomone that are both known from
      Eucalyptus and a new O-desmethyl derivative were identified. The biosynthesis of
      isotorquatone was studied by feeding experiments with isotopically labeled
      precursors and its absolute configuration was determined by enantioselective
      synthesis of a reference compound. Bioactivity testings showed algicidal activity
      for some of the identified compounds, suggesting a potential ecological function
      in sponge defence.

PMID- 28872170
TI  - Intermediate scattering function of an anisotropic Brownian circle swimmer.
AB  - Microswimmers exhibit noisy circular motion due to asymmetric propulsion
      mechanisms, their chiral body shape, or by hydrodynamic couplings in the vicinity
      of surfaces. Here, we employ the Brownian circle swimmer model and characterize
      theoretically the dynamics in terms of the directly measurable intermediate
      scattering function. We derive the associated Fokker-Planck equation for the
      conditional probabilities and provide an exact solution in terms of
      generalizations of the Mathieu functions. Different spatiotemporal regimes are
      identified reflecting the bare translational diffusion at large wavenumbers, the
      persistent circular motion at intermediate wavenumbers and an enhanced effective
      diffusion at small wavenumbers. In particular, the circular motion of the
      particle manifests itself in characteristic oscillations at a plateau of the
      intermediate scattering function for wavenumbers probing the radius.

PMID- 28872171
TI  - Regioselective oxidative cross-coupling of benzo[d]imidazo[2,1-b]thiazoles with
      styrenes: a novel route to C3-dicarbonylation.
AB  - A novel I2 promoted, highly efficient metal-free and peroxide-free greener domino
      protocol for the C3-dicarbonylation of benzo[d]imidazo[2,1-b]thiazoles (IBTs)
      with styrenes has been developed via oxidative cleavage of the C(sp2)-H bond,
      followed by C3-nucleophilic attack of IBT and oxidation. Interestingly, under
      these conditions 2-(benzo[d]imidazo[2,1-b]thiazol-2-yl)aniline gave the
      benzo[4',5']thiazolo[2',3':2,3]imidazo[4,5-c]quinoline derivative via oxidative
      cleavage of the C(sp2)-H bond, followed by Pictet-Spengler cyclization and
      aromatization. This method offers the advantages of broad substrate scope,
      ecofriendly feature and high atom economy apart from higher yields.

PMID- 28872172
TI  - A luminescent and colorimetric probe based on the functionalization of gold
      nanoparticles by ruthenium(ii) complexes for heparin detection.
AB  - A sensitive assay was demonstrated for the colorimetric and luminescent detection
      of heparin. Positively charged [Ru(phen)2np]2+ (np: naphtho[2,3
      f][1,10]phenanthroline) can interact with negatively charged AuNPs through
      electrostatic interaction, leading to the luminescence quenching of
      [Ru(phen)2np]2+via energy transfer as well as the aggregation of AuNPs together
      with a color change in solution from red to blue. Upon the addition of negatively
      charged heparin to gold nanoparticles functionalized by ruthenium(ii) complexes,
      the emission of [Ru(phen)2np]2+ recovered due to the competitive adsorption of
      [Ru(phen)2np]2+ to heparin and AuNPs. A linear calibration curve was obtained in
      the 0.4 MUM to 100 MUM range and 0.1 MUM to 6 MUM with a low detection limit of
      0.22 MUM and 0.024 MUM based on 3sigma/s for heparin quantification in buffer
      solution and in 1% fetal bovine serum (FBS), respectively. Interestingly, the
      naked eye alone can judge the presence of 0.02 MUM heparin without the aid of any
      advanced instruments by color change. Thus a convenient and visual method to
      detect heparin was established.

PMID- 28872176
TI  - A general route to coat poly(cyclotriphosphazene-co-4,4'-sulfonyldiphenol) on
      various substrates and the derived N, P, S-doped hollow carbon shells for
      catalysis.
AB  - The construction of core-shell structures through surface coating, and then
      making use of the synergistic effects between the core and shell to design and
      synthesize heterogeneous catalysts is a hot topic in the heterogeneous catalysis
      field. Developing a general coating route with functional shell materials is
      further highly desirable. Here we found that a poly(cyclotriphosphazene-co-4,4'
      sulfonyldiphenol) (PZS) layer can be generally coated on various substrates with
      different components and morphologies, including metal oxides, noble metal
      nanoparticles, carbon materials and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In addition,
      the coating thickness could be well controlled through simply adjusting the
      amount of monomers. Taking advantage of the heteroatoms in the PZS layer and the
      synergistic effect between the core and shell, new methods for fabrication of co
      doped hollow carbon shell catalysts and transition metal phosphide nanoparticles
      were developed. As a proof-of-concept application, the N, P, S-doped hollow
      carbon shells prepared by calcination of a ZnCo-ZIFs@PZS core-shell structure
      could act as a good carbo-catalyst for selective oxidation of C-H bonds in water.

PMID- 28872178
TI  - Unique structural micro-adjustments in a new benzothiadiazole-derived Zn(ii)
      metal organic framework via simple photochemical decarboxylation.
AB  - The first example of micro-adjustments of a metal organic framework (MOF)
      structure was observed in a new Zn(ii) MOF (Zn-BTDC-M1) derived from a
      benzothiadiazole-4,7-dicarboxylic acid (H2BTDC) ligand using a light-driven
      decarboxylation process. Interestingly, such decarboxylation occurs at the non
      chelated wing of the ligand, which induced a change in the capability of the MOF
      for physical N2 adsorption and chemical NH3 gas adsorption.

PMID- 28872179
TI  - Observation of magnetic interactions between localized 4f- and itinerant pi
      electrons in a single crystal of cationic bisphthalocyanine complexes containing
      diluted spin centres.
AB  - Magnetic f-pi interactions between localized 4f-electrons and itinerant pi
      electrons have been observed in a single crystal of bisphthalocyaninato
      yttrium(iii)/terbium(iii) tetrafluoroborate ([Pc2Y0.95Tb0.05][BF4]) by measuring
      electrical conductivity of the crystal in the presence of an external magnetic
      field.

PMID- 28872180
TI  - Rhodium(iii)-catalyzed regio- and stereoselective benzylic alpha
      fluoroalkenylation with gem-difluorostyrenes.
AB  - Rhodium(iii)-catalyzed mild benzylic alpha-fluoroalkenylation of 8
      methylquinolines with gem-difluorostyrenes has been developed. This reaction
      occurred via C-H activation and C-F cleavage and is applicable to a wide range of
      substrates, leading to the synthesis of Z-alkenyl fluorides under mild and redox
      neutral conditions with high regio- and stereoselectivity.

PMID- 28872181
TI  - InP-InxGa1-xAs core-multi-shell nanowire quantum wells with tunable emission in
      the 1.3-1.55 MUm wavelength range.
AB  - The usability and tunability of the essential InP-InGaAs material combination in
      nanowire-based quantum wells (QWs) are assessed. The wurtzite phase core-multi
      shell InP-InGaAs-InP nanowire QWs are characterised using cross-section
      transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence measurements. The InP
      InGaAs direct interface is found to be sharp while the InGaAs-InP inverted
      interface is more diffused, in agreement with their planar counterpart. Bright
      emission is observed from the single nanowires containing the QWs at room
      temperature, with no emission from the InP core or outer barrier. The tunability
      of the QW emission wavelength in the 1.3-1.55 MUm communication wavelength range
      is demonstrated by varying the QW thickness and in the 1.3 MUm range by varying
      the composition. The experiments are supported by simulation of the emission
      wavelength of the wurtzite phase InP-InGaAs QWs in the thickness range
      considered. The radial heterostructure is further extended to design multiple QWs
      with bright emission, therefore establishing the capability of this material
      system for nanowire based optical devices for communication applications.

PMID- 28872182
TI  - Quantum dots in photocatalytic applications: efficiently enhancing visible light
      photocatalytic activity by integrating CdO quantum dots as sensitizers.
AB  - The amalgamation of a wide optical band gap photocatalyst with visible-light
      active CdO quantum dots (QDs) as sensitizers is one of the most efficient ways to
      improve photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation. The
      photocatalytic performance of cadmium benzoate ((Cd(C7H5O2)2)3(CH3CN)1) is
      comprehensively investigated. The estimated optical band gap of cadmium benzoate
      is 2.64 eV and the EPc and EPv are about -0.09 V (vs. NHE) and +2.55 V (vs. NHE),
      respectively, which implies that cadmium benzoate possesses a high negative
      reduction potential of excited electrons due to its higher conduction band
      position, and hence, the locations of the conduction band minimum and the valence
      band maximum meet the redox capacity. Thus, this composite photocatalyst exhibits
      superior activity in visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 evolution. We found
      that introducing the QDs enhance the photocatalytic performance towards the
      visible light region. The electronic band structure shows high k-dispersion bands
      around the Fermi level, which implies low effective masses, and hence, the high
      mobility carriers favor the enhancement of the charge transfer process. The
      mobility of the photogenerated carriers significantly influences the
      photocatalytic efficiency and the higher photogenerated carriers' mobility
      enhances the photocatalytic performance. Moreover, the result shows a great
      effective mass difference between electrons (e-) and holes (h+), which can
      facilitate the e- and h+ migration and separation, and finally improve the
      photocatalytic performance. The large mobility difference is useful for the
      separation of e- and h+, the reduction of the e- and h+ recombination rate, and
      the improvement of the photocatalytic activity. Thus, cadmium benzoate exhibits
      rapid generation of e--h+ pairs with photoexcitation and a high negative
      reduction potential of excited electrons due to its higher CB position. Based on
      these results one can conclude that cadmium benzoate satisfied all requirements
      to be an efficient photocatalyst. This will greatly improve the search efficiency
      and greatly help experimentalists in saving resources in the exploration of new
      photocatalysts with good photocatalytic performance.

PMID- 28872183
TI  - Ex vivo 3D human corneal stroma model for Schnyder corneal dystrophy - role of
      autophagy in its pathogenesis and resolution.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Multilamellar bodies (MLBs) are concentric cytoplasmic membranes
      which form through an autophagy-dependent mechanism. In the cornea, the presence
      of MLBs is associated with Schnyder corneal dystrophy (SCD). Ex vivo 3D modelling
      of the corneal stroma and SCD can help study pathogenesis and resolution of the
      disorder. METHODS: Corneal stroma explants were isolated from cadavers and
      cultivated long-term for more than 3 months to achieve spontaneous 3D outgrowth
      of corneal stroma-derived mesenchymal stem-like cells (CSMSCs). The 3D tissues
      were then examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for presence of
      MLBs, and by immunofluorescent labelling against markers for autophagy (p62,
      LC3). Autophagy was induced by classical serum starvation or rapamycin (RAP)
      treatment (50 nM), and inhibited by the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3
      MA, 10 mM) for 24 hours. RESULTS: CSMSCs can form spontaneously 3D outgrowths
      over a 3-4 weeks period, depositing their own extracellular matrix containing
      collagen I. TEM confirmed the presence of MLBs in the long-term (>3 months) 3D
      cultures, which became more abundant under starvation and RAP treatment, and
      decreased in number under autophagy inhibition with 3-MA. The presence of
      autophagy and its disappearance could be confirmed by an inversely related
      increase and decrease in the expression of LC3 and p62, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: MLB formation in long-standing CSMSC cultures could serve as a
      potential ex vivo model for studying corneal stroma diseases, including SCD.
      Inhibition of autophagy can decrease the formation of MLBs, which may lead to a
      novel treatment of the disease in the future.

PMID- 28872185
TI  - Cognitive diagnosis modelling incorporating item response times.
AB  - To provide more refined diagnostic feedback with collateral information in item
      response times (RTs), this study proposed joint modelling of attributes and
      response speed using item responses and RTs simultaneously for cognitive
      diagnosis. For illustration, an extended deterministic input, noisy 'and' gate
      (DINA) model was proposed for joint modelling of responses and RTs. Model
      parameter estimation was explored using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo
      (MCMC) method. The PISA 2012 computer-based mathematics data were analysed first.
      These real data estimates were treated as true values in a subsequent simulation
      study. A follow-up simulation study with ideal testing conditions was conducted
      as well to further evaluate model parameter recovery. The results indicated that
      model parameters could be well recovered using the MCMC approach. Further,
      incorporating RTs into the DINA model would improve attribute and profile correct
      classification rates and result in more accurate and precise estimation of the
      model parameters.

PMID- 28872186
TI  - Asymptotic confidence intervals for the Pearson correlation via skewness and
      kurtosis.
AB  - When bivariate normality is violated, the default confidence interval of the
      Pearson correlation can be inaccurate. Two new methods were developed based on
      the asymptotic sampling distribution of Fisher's z' under the general case where
      bivariate normality need not be assumed. In Monte Carlo simulations, the most
      successful of these methods relied on the (Vale & Maurelli, 1983, Psychometrika,
      48, 465) family to approximate a distribution via the marginal skewness and
      kurtosis of the sample data. In Simulation 1, this method provided more accurate
      confidence intervals of the correlation in non-normal data, at least as compared
      to no adjustment of the Fisher z' interval, or to adjustment via the sample joint
      moments. In Simulation 2, this approximate distribution method performed
      favourably relative to common non-parametric bootstrap methods, but its
      performance was mixed relative to an observed imposed bootstrap and two other
      robust methods (PM1 and HC4). No method was completely satisfactory. An advantage
      of the approximate distribution method, though, is that it can be implemented
      even without access to raw data if sample skewness and kurtosis are reported,
      making the method particularly useful for meta-analysis. Supporting information
      includes R code.

PMID- 28872184
TI  - Role of toll-like receptor 2 in inflammation and alveolar bone loss in
      experimental peri-implantitis versus periodontitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Peri-implantitis and periodontitis are different
      entities in immune characteristics even though they share similar features in
      clinical and radiologic signs. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR-2), one of the key
      pathogen-recognition receptors in the innate immune system, plays an important
      role in the progression of periodontitis. However, the role of TLR-2 in peri
      implantitis remains unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the
      role of TLR-2 in inflammation and alveolar bone loss in a murine model of
      ligature-induced peri-implantitis and to compare it with ligature-induced
      periodontitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Smooth-surface titanium implants were placed
      in the alveolar bone of the left maxillary molars of wild-type (WT) and Tlr2
      knockout (Tlr2-KO) mice 6 weeks after tooth extraction. Silk ligatures were
      applied to the left implant fixtures and the right maxillary second molars to
      induce peri-implantitis and periodontitis 4 weeks after implant placement. Two
      weeks after ligation, bone loss around the implants and maxillary second molars
      was analysed by micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), and inflammation around the
      implants and maxillary second molars was assessed at the same time point using
      histology and TRAP staining, respectively. Expression of mRNA for proinflammatory
      cytokines (interleukin-1beta [Il1beta], tumor necrosis factor-alpha [Tnfalpha]),
      an anti-inflammatory cytokine (interleukin-10 [Il10]) and osteoclastogenesis
      related cytokines (Rankl, osteoprotegerin [Opg]) were evaluated, in gingival
      tissue, using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). RESULTS: The success rate of
      implant osseointegration was significantly higher in Tlr2-KO mice (85.71%)
      compared with WT mice (53.66%) (P = .0125). Micro-CT revealed significantly
      decreased bone loss in Tlr2-KO mice compared with WT mice (P = .0094) in peri
      implantitis. The levels of mRNA for Il1beta (P = .0055), Tnfalpha (P = .01) and
      Il10 (P = .0019) in gingiva were significantly elevated in the peri-implantitis
      tissues of WT mice, but not in Tlr2-KO mice, compared with controls. However, the
      gingival mRNA ratios of Rankl/Opg in peri-implant tissues were significantly
      upregulated in both WT (P = .0488) and Tlr2-KO (P = .0314) mice. Ligature-induced
      periodontitis exhibited similar patterns of bone loss and inflammatory cytokine
      profile in both groups of mice, except that the level of Il10 was elevated (P =
      .0114) whereas the Rankl/Opg ratio was not elevated (P = .9755) in Tlr2-KO mice
      compared with control mice. Histological findings showed increased numbers of
      TRAP-positive cells and infiltrated inflammatory cells in ligature-induced peri
      implantitis in both WT (P < .01) and Tlr2-KO mice (P < .05), and the numbers of
      both types of cell were significantly higher in WT mice than in Tlr2-KO mice (P <
      .01). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that TLR-2 mediates bone loss in both peri
      implantitis and periodontitis. However, different molecular features may exist in
      the pathogenesis of the two diseases.

PMID- 28872187
TI  - The Attachment Imperative: Parental Experiences of Relation-making in a Danish
      Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - In this article, we explore how parents establish relations with extremely
      premature infants whose lives and futures are uncertain. Drawing on ethnographic
      fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), we engage recent
      discussions of the limits of conventional anthropological thinking on social
      relations and point to the productive aspects of practices of distance and
      detachment. We show that while the NICU upholds an imperative of attachment
      independently of the infant's chances of survival, for parents, attachment is
      contingent on certain hesitations in relation to their infant. We argue that
      there are nuances in practices of relationmaking in need of more attention (i.e.,
      the nexus of attachment and detachment). Refraining from touching, holding, and
      feeding their infants during critical periods, the parents enact detachment as
      integral to their practices of attachment. Such "cuts" in parent-infant relations
      become steps on the way to securing the infant's survival and making kin(ship).
      We conclude that although infants may be articulated as "maybe-lives" by staff,
      in the NICU as well as in Danish society, the ideal of attachment appears to
      leave little room for "maybe-parents."

PMID- 28872188
TI  - Does the adjunctive use of statins provide additional benefits to nonsurgical
      periodontal treatment? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Adjunctive therapeutic agents may be used to improve the response to nonsurgical
      periodontal therapy. Local delivery of statins (simvastatin, artovastatin and
      rosuvastatin) is a promising adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP). Thus, the
      aim of this review is to evaluate if adjunctive local delivery of statins is more
      effective than SRP alone. Randomized clinical trials that presented a test group
      evaluating local delivery of statins as adjuncts in healthy, diabetic and smoking
      patients were included. Medline and the Cochrane library database were searched
      up to November 2016. Random effects meta-analyses were conducted for pocket depth
      change and clinical attachment gain. One hundred and twenty-five studies
      potentially related to the aim of this review were screened, but only 10 were
      included. The majority of the trials reported additional clinical benefits in the
      groups that were treated with adjunctive local delivery of statins. Pooled
      calculations showed that local delivery of statins resulted in additional
      reduction of pocket depth and clinical attachment gain in healthy people, smokers
      and diabetic patients. Local statins may offer additional clinical benefits to
      SRP, even in smokers and diabetics.

PMID- 28872189
TI  - Vascular, inflammatory, and metabolic factors associated with cognition in aging
      persons with chronic epilepsy.
AB  - We examined cognition in aging persons with chronic epilepsy; characterized
      targeted vascular, inflammatory, and metabolic risk factors associated with
      abnormal cognitive aging in the general population; and examined associations
      between cognition and vascular, inflammatory, and metabolic health. Participants
      included 40 persons with chronic localization-related epilepsy and 152 controls,
      aged 54.6 and 55.3, respectively. Participants underwent neuropsychological
      assessment, clinical examination, and fasting blood evaluation for quantification
      of vascular status (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, obesity/body mass
      index [BMI], total and high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol level, and
      homocysteine), inflammatory markers (high sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs
      CRP], and interleukin-6 [IL-6]), and metabolic status (insulin resistance
      [Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR)], glucose).
      Epilepsy participants exhibited impairment across all cognitive factor scores
      (all p's < 0.0001); abnormalities in BMI (p = 0.049), hs-CRP (p = 0.046), HOMA-IR
      (p = 0.0040), and fasting glucose (p = 0.03), with significant relationships
      between higher HOMA-IR with poorer Immediate Memory (p = 0.03) and Visuospatial
      Ability (0.03); elevated hs-CRP with poorer Visuospatial (p = 0.035) and Verbal
      Ability (p = 0.06); elevated BMI with poorer Speed/Flexibility (p = 0.04),
      Visuospatial (p = 0.001) and Verbal Ability (p = 0.02); and lower HDL with poorer
      Verbal Learning/Delayed Memory (p = 0.01), Speed/Flexibility (p = 0.043), and
      Working Memory (p = 0.008). Aging persons with chronic epilepsy exhibit multiple
      abnormalities in metabolic, inflammatory, and vascular health that are associated
      with poorer cognitive function.

PMID- 28872191
TI  - Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma: 2017 update on diagnosis, risk-stratification, and
      management.
AB  - DISEASE OVERVIEW: Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas are a heterogenous group of T-cell
      lymphoproliferative disorders involving the skin, the majority of which may be
      classified as Mycosis Fungoides (MF) or Sezary Syndrome (SS). DIAGNOSIS: The
      diagnosis of MF or SS requires the integration of clinical and histopathologic
      data. RISK-ADAPTED THERAPY: TNMB (tumor, node, metastasis, blood) staging remains
      the most important prognostic factor in MF/SS and forms the basis for a "risk
      adapted," multi-disciplinary approach to treatment. For patients with disease
      limited to the skin, expectant management or skin-directed therapies is
      preferred, as both disease-specific and overall survival for these patients is
      favorable. In contrast, patients with advanced-stage disease with significant
      nodal, visceral or blood involvement are generally approached with biologic
      response modifiers or histone deacetylase inhibitors prior to escalating therapy
      to include systemic, single-agent chemotherapy. In highly-selected patients,
      allogeneic stem-cell transplantation may be considered, as this may be curative
      in some patients.

PMID- 28872194
TI  - Association of polymorphisms in the 5' regulatory region of LEPR gene with meat
      quality traits in Berkshire pigs.

PMID- 28872195
TI  - Goat domestication and breeding: a jigsaw of historical, biological and molecular
      data with missing pieces.
AB  - Domestic goats (Capra hircus) are spread across the five continents with a census
      of 1 billion individuals. The worldwide population of goats descends from a
      limited number of bezoars (Capra aegagrus) domesticated 10 000 YBP (years before
      the present) in the Fertile Crescent. The extraordinary adaptability and
      hardiness of goats favoured their rapid spread over the Old World, reaching the
      Iberian Peninsula and Southern Africa 7000 YBP and 2000 YBP respectively.
      Molecular studies have revealed one major mitochondrial haplogroup A and five
      less frequent haplogroups B, C, D, F and G. Moreover, the analysis of autosomal
      and Y-chromosome markers has evidenced an appreciable geographic differentiation.
      The implementation of new molecular technologies, such as whole-genome sequencing
      and genome-wide genotyping, allows for the exploration of caprine diversity at an
      unprecedented scale, thus providing new insights into the evolutionary history of
      goats. In spite of a number of pitfalls, the characterization of the functional
      elements of the goat genome is expected to play a key role in understanding the
      genetic determination of economically relevant traits. Genomic selection and
      genome editing also hold great potential, particularly for improving traits that
      cannot be modified easily by traditional selection.

PMID- 28872196
TI  - Critical Time Intervention for Homeless People Making the Transition to Community
      Living: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - To help create an evidence base in Europe for effective interventions that
      improve the well-being of homeless people, we tested whether critical time
      intervention (CTI), a time-limited intervention developed to support vulnerable
      people during times of transition, is effective outside the United States. For
      this multicenter, parallel-group randomized controlled trial, 183 adults who were
      moving from shelters in the Netherlands to supported or independent housing were
      allocated to CTI or care-as-usual. The primary outcome was number of days
      rehoused, which was assessed by interviewing participants four times during a 9
      month follow-up. Outcomes were analyzed with three-level mixed-effects models.
      The primary outcome did not differ between groups. CTI had a significant effect
      on family support and, for people experiencing less social support, psychological
      distress. Groups did not differ significantly on social support, fulfillment of
      care needs, quality of life, self-esteem, excessive alcohol use, or cannabis use.
      Because few participants were homeless at 9 months, more research is needed to
      establish whether CTI can prevent long-term recurrent homelessness. Given recent
      emphasis on informal support in public services and positive effects of CTI on
      family support and psychological distress, CTI is a fitting intervention for
      Dutch shelter services.

PMID- 28872197
TI  - Contact allergy to methyldibromo glutaronitrile is still of clinical relevance.

PMID- 28872198
TI  - Allergic contact urticaria secondary to hair dye use.

PMID- 28872199
TI  - Care of pets entails the risk of allergic contact dermatitis caused by plants.

PMID- 28872200
TI  - A first case of erythema multiforme-like contact dermatitis caused by propolis.

PMID- 28872201
TI  - Confocal microscopy in the diagnosis of fibreglass dermatitis.

PMID- 28872202
TI  - Fixed drug eruption induced by ciprofloxacin and cross-reactivity to other
      quinolones.

PMID- 28872203
TI  - Contact urticaria caused by the ultraviolet absorber octocrylene in sunscreens.

PMID- 28872204
TI  - Allergic contact stomatitis caused by camphorquinone in a light cure periodontal
      dressing.

PMID- 28872206
TI  - Generalized systemic allergic dermatitis caused by Cinnamomum zeylanicum in a
      herbal tea.

PMID- 28872209
TI  - International Endodontic Journal 50th Anniversary Editorial.

PMID- 28872207
TI  - Protein contact dermatitis caused by chicken meat in bird-egg syndrome.

PMID- 28872210
TI  - Community health workers' experiences of using video teaching tools during home
      visits-A pilot study.
AB  - Innovations in health, such as the use of tablet computers, show promise in
      broadening the scope of work of community health workers (CHWs), and play an
      important role in keeping CHWs and their clients up to date with advancements in
      health. While the use of mobile phones and tablets is innovative, the
      applicability of these technologies in different contexts remains poorly
      understood. Furthermore, little is known about the acceptability and feasibility
      of the use of video teaching tools on such devices across diverse contexts. In
      this study, we aimed to explore the acceptability and feasibility of using
      tablets with teaching videos (about HIV, alcohol, nutrition and breastfeeding) to
      support the health promotion efforts of 24 CHWs who work with pregnant mothers
      and mothers of young children in an urban township in South Africa. Between
      November 2015 and May 2016, we conducted focus groups and identified four key
      themes (with several sub-themes) that demonstrated factors related to the
      acceptability and feasibility of these devices and their content. Focus group
      transcripts were analysed thematically using qualitative data analysis software.
      The findings indicated that while the devices contained several supportive
      features (such as lightening the workload, and stimulating interest in their
      work), they also contained several restrictive features (safety and
      confidentiality). CHWs considered the video content an important tool to engage
      not only their clients but also family members and the community at large. Issues
      surrounding safety, privacy and confidentiality of using these devices require
      careful consideration prior to implementation in large-scale studies.
      Furthermore, stigma associated with household visits by CHWs and the nature of
      their work also need to be addressed by researchers and programme implementers.
      Overall, CHWs deemed the devices and the video content an acceptable and feasible
      means with which to provide health promotion and education among their clients.

PMID- 28872211
TI  - Genomic signatures of evolution in Nautilus-An endangered living fossil.
AB  - Living fossils are survivors of previously more diverse lineages that originated
      millions of years ago and persisted with little morphological change. Therefore,
      living fossils are model organisms to study both long-term and ongoing adaptation
      and speciation processes. However, many aspects of living fossil evolution and
      their persistence in the modern world remain unclear. Here, we investigate three
      major aspects of the evolutionary history of living fossils: cryptic speciation,
      population genetics and effective population sizes, using members of the genera
      Nautilus and Allonautilus as classic examples of true living fossils. For this,
      we analysed genomewide ddRAD-Seq data for all six currently recognized nautiloid
      species throughout their distribution range. Our analyses identified three major
      allopatric Nautilus clades: a South Pacific clade, subdivided into three
      subclades with no signs of admixture between them; a Coral Sea clade, consisting
      of two genetically distinct populations with significant admixture; and a
      widespread Indo-Pacific clade, devoid of significant genetic substructure. Within
      these major clades, we detected five Nautilus groups, which likely correspond to
      five distinct species. With the exception of Nautilus macromphalus, all
      previously described species are at odds with genomewide data, testifying to the
      prevalence of cryptic species among living fossils. Detailed FST analyses further
      revealed significant genome-wide and locus-specific signatures of selection
      between species and differentiated populations, which is demonstrated here for
      the first time in a living fossil. Finally, approximate Bayesian computation
      (ABC) simulations suggest large effective population sizes, which may explain the
      low levels of population differentiation commonly observed in living fossils.

PMID- 28872213
TI  - Handovers in primary healthcare in Norway: A qualitative study of general
      practitioners' collaborative experiences.
AB  - Worldwide demographic development increases the pressure on healthcare services.
      In Norway, municipal acute wards (MAWs) have been established as a 24-hr acute
      healthcare service as a primary healthcare alternative to hospitalisation.
      General practitioners (GPs) are key holders of referrals to different healthcare
      service levels, yet studies of GPs' experiences with these wards are sparse.
      Suboptimal handovers could lead to hospital readmissions, avoidable morbidity and
      even mortality. The aim of this study was to explore GPs' experiences with
      patient handovers to MAWs as well as to hospitals. A qualitative study including
      semi-structured interviews with 23 GPs in a county in south-eastern Norway was
      conducted. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The results show that GPs
      preferred to collaborate with others in their own profession for patient
      handovers. The GPs had positive collaborative experiences with MAW doctors, while
      collaboration with doctors in hospitals was viewed more negatively, particularly
      as GPs had the impression that hospital doctors felt they had superior medical
      competence. After patient transfer, GPs felt uncertainty related to their own
      responsibilities for the patient. This study contributes new knowledge about GPs'
      experiences with collaboration and distribution of responsibility between primary
      and tertiary healthcare services. This information is essential when developing
      acceptable alternatives to general hospitals.

PMID- 28872212
TI  - Galectin-3 and risk of ischaemic stroke: Reasons for Geographic and Racial
      Differences in Stroke cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Galectin-3 is a biomarker of atherosclerotic and
      cardiovascular disease, and may be a useful marker for ischaemic stroke risk.
      METHODS: The Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS)
      cohort enrolled and examined 30 239 US participants between 2003 and 2007 (41%
      black, 59% white and 55% in the southeastern stroke belt). Baseline galectin-3
      was measured in 526 subjects with incident ischaemic stroke over 5.4 years and in
      a cohort random sample (CRS) of 947 participants. Cox proportional hazards models
      were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) of ischaemic stroke by quartiles of
      galectin-3. RESULTS: In the CRS, galectin-3 was significantly higher with older
      age, black race, female sex, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and
      kidney disease, and also in those who developed incident stroke. Participants
      with galectin-3 levels in the fourth versus first quartile had a 2.3-fold
      increased stroke risk [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6, 3.4] in an unadjusted
      model. An interaction with age was found (P = 0.06), and therefore age-stratified
      analyses were performed. Amongst those younger than age 64, baseline galectin-3
      in the second-fourth quartiles was associated with increased stroke risk (HR 3.0,
      95% CI 1.6, 5.5) compared to the first quartile in an age-, race- and sex
      adjusted model. The HR was 2.0 (95% CI 1.0, 4.0) with multivariable adjustment.
      There was no association amongst older participants. CONCLUSIONS: Galectin-3 was
      associated with incident ischaemic stroke in younger but not older individuals.
      Confirmation of this finding, and elucidation of its implications for stroke
      pathophysiology and prevention, is needed.

PMID- 28872214
TI  - Quality of life after thyroidectomy in patients with nontoxic nodular goiter: A
      prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Using the thoroughly validated Thyroid-Related Quality-of-Life
      Patient-Reported Outcome (ThyPRO) questionnaire, the purpose of this study was to
      investigate changes in disease-specific quality of life (QOL) after surgical
      treatment in patients with benign nontoxic multinodular goiters. METHOD: Patients
      with goiters scheduled for thyroid surgery (n = 106) and individuals from the
      general population (n = 739) were studied. The ThyPRO data before, 3 months, and
      6 months after surgery were compared with normative scores from the general
      population using a linear mixed model and t tests. RESULTS: Before surgery,
      patients with goiters experienced poorer scores on all scales compared to the
      general population. After surgery, moderate to large improvements were seen in
      goiter symptoms, tiredness, anxiety, and overall QOL. After surgery, all scales
      returned to values equal to the general population. The degree of anxiety was, in
      fact, lower than in the general population. CONCLUSION: Thyroid surgery leads to
      significant benefit among patients with benign nontoxic goiters by restoring QOL
      equal to that in the general population.

PMID- 28872215
TI  - Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease, the commonest cause of dementia, is a growing global health
      concern with huge implications for individuals and society. In this review,
      current understanding of the epidemiology, genetics, pathology and pathogenesis
      of Alzheimer's disease is outlined, before its clinical presentation and current
      treatment strategies are discussed. Finally, the review discusses how our
      enhanced understanding of Alzheimer pathogenesis, including the recognition of a
      protracted preclinical phase, is informing new therapeutic strategies with the
      aim of moving from treatment to prevention.

PMID- 28872216
TI  - Perilesional and contralateral white matter evolution and integrity in patients
      with periventricular nodular heterotopia and epilepsy: a longitudinal diffusion
      tensor imaging study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the evolution of perinodular
      and contralateral white matter abnormalities in patients with periventricular
      nodular heterotopia (PNH) and epilepsy. METHODS: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)
      (64 directions) and 3 T structural magnetic resonance imaging were performed in
      29 PNH patients (mean age 27.3 years), and 16 patients underwent a second scan
      (average time between the two scans 1.1 years). Fractional anisotropy and mean
      diffusivity were measured within the perilesional and contralateral white matter.
      RESULTS: Longitudinal analysis showed that white matter located 10 mm from the
      focal nodule displayed characteristics intermediate to tissue 5 mm away, and
      normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) also established evolution profiles of
      perinodular white matter in different cortical lobes. Compared to 29 age- and sex
      matched healthy controls, significant decreased fractional anisotropy and
      elevated mean diffusivity values were observed in regions 5 and 10 mm from
      nodules (P < 0.01), whilst DTI metrics of the remaining NAWM did not differ
      significantly from controls. Additionally, normal DTI metrics were shown in the
      contralateral region in patients with unilateral PNH. CONCLUSIONS:
      Periventricular nodular heterotopia is associated with microstructural
      abnormalities within the perilesional white matter and the extent decreases with
      increasing distance from the nodule. In the homologous contralateral region,
      white matter diffusion metrics were unchanged in unilateral PNH. These findings
      have clinical implications with respect to the medical and surgical interventions
      of PNH-related epilepsy.

PMID- 28872217
TI  - Adverse effects produced by different drugs used in the treatment of Parkinson's
      disease: A mixed treatment comparison.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This mixed treatment comparison is used to compare the adverse effects
      of eleven different drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease (PD). The drugs that
      we compare include the following: ropinirole, rasagiline, rotigotine, entacapone,
      apomorphine, pramipexole, sumanirole, bromocriptine, piribedil, pergolide, and
      levodopa. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library were searched from the
      inception to December 2015. Our analysis combines the evidences of direct
      comparison and indirect comparison between various literatures. We evaluated the
      merging odds ratios (OR) value and surface under the cumulative ranking curves
      (SUCRA) of each of the drugs and used this as a mode of comparison. RESULTS:
      Twenty-four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this study. Our
      results demonstrated that the incidence of adverse reactions of ropinirole,
      rotigotine, entacapone, and sumanirole were obviously higher in terms of nausea
      compared to the placebo. Ropinirole produced the highest incidence rates of
      dyskinesia side effects, whereas pramipexole was significantly higher in terms of
      patients' hallucination. In addition, the SUCRA values of all the drugs showed
      that the incidence of adverse reaction of pergolide was relatively high (nausea:
      83.5%; hallucination: 79.8%); for dyskinesia and somnolence, the incidence of
      ropinirole was higher (dyskinesia: 80.5%; somnolence: 69.4%); the incidence of
      adverse reaction of piribedil was higher on PD in terms of dizziness (67.0%); and
      the incidence of bromocriptine was relatively high in terms of constipation
      (62.3%). CONCLUSIONS: This mixed treatment comparison showed that the drugs
      ropinirole, bromocriptine, and piribedil produced the highest incidence rates of
      nausea, dyskinesia, hallucination, dizziness, constipation, and somnolence
      symptoms. Thus, we conclude that as these three drugs produced the most frequent
      symptoms, they are not recommended for the treatment of patients with Parkinson's
      disease.

PMID- 28872218
TI  - Adolescents' self-perceived and actual weight: Which plays a dominant role in
      weight loss behaviour in Lebanon?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The decision to lose weight among adolescents is complex and is
      guided by a number of body-related factors. This study examined the extent of
      agreement between actual weight, measured as body mass index, and self-perceived
      weight and assessed their relative importance in weight loss behaviour among
      Lebanese adolescents. METHODS: Data on 278 adolescents aged 13-17 years were
      drawn from the nationwide Nutrition and Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor
      Survey (Lebanon, 2009). Binary multivariable logistic regressions were conducted
      to test associations with "effort to lose weight" as the outcome variable,
      controlling for a number of potential confounders. RESULTS: Close to 36% reported
      trying to lose weight. Around 21% and 13% were overweight and obese,
      respectively, and 40% and 10% perceived their weight as slightly high and very
      high, respectively. Inaccurate perceivers, those underestimating or
      overestimating their weight, constituted 39%, with overall percent agreement
      between actual and self-perceived weight being 60.8% (kappa statistic = 0.319,
      95% CI [0.242, 0.396]). About a third of the overweight adolescents (30.5%) and
      more than half of the obese (56.8%) underestimated their weight. In the
      multivariable analysis, self-perceived weight was statistically significant and a
      stronger predictor of weight loss effort than body mass index (adjusted odds
      ratios = 14.42 and 6.42 for slightly high and very high perceived weight,
      respectively, compared to odds ratios = 1.47 and 2.31 for overweight and obese
      adolescents, respectively). CONCLUSION: Health professionals need to consider
      self-perceived weight in conjunction with actual weight in their pursuit of
      weight management goals and in planning prevention programmes that guide weight
      loss behaviours for adolescents.

PMID- 28872220
TI  - A REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA: WHEN A HUMAN LIFE HAS NOT YET BEGUN - ACCORDING TO THE
      LAW.

PMID- 28872221
TI  - FROM THE EDITORS.

PMID- 28872219
TI  - Characterization of sediment bacterial communities in plain lakes with different
      trophic statuses.
AB  - Sediment microbial communities play an important role in lake trophic status.
      This study determined millions of Illumina reads (16S rRNA gene amplicons) to
      compare the bacterial communities in moderately eutrophic, lightly eutrophic, and
      moderately trophic regions using a technically consistent approach. The results
      indicated that the sediments from moderately eutrophic and trophic lake had the
      higher bacterial diversity than lightly eutrophic lake. Proteobacteria was the
      most abundant phylum (22.7%-86.2%) across samples from three regions. The
      sediments from moderately eutrophic region were enriched with Chloroflexi and
      Nitrospirae. Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were
      enriched in the sediments from lightly eutrophic lake. The sediments from
      moderately trophic lake contained a high abundance of Acidobacteria and
      Deltaproteobacteria because of the low pH of the sediments in this lake. In
      moderately eutrophic region, Nitrospira held an absolute predominance, while
      Lysobacter and Flavobacterium were the most predominant genera in lightly
      eutrophic region. Temperature was the main factor influencing the bacterial
      community in the three lakes. The bacterial communities in the sediment samples
      obtained from moderately eutrophic lake were associated with nutrient
      concentration, whereas organic matter and total nitrogen contents mainly
      influenced the bacterial communities in sediments obtained from lightly eutrophic
      lake and moderately trophic lake, respectively.

PMID- 28872222
TI  - PRINCIPAL/AGENT THEORY AND DECISIONMAKING IN HEALTH CARE.

PMID- 28872223
TI  - 'FROM THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION...': THE VATICAN INSTRUCTION ON ARTIFICIAL
      PROCREATION TECHNIQUES.

PMID- 28872224
TI  - Birth weight, early life weight gain and age at menarche: a systematic review of
      longitudinal studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Adiposity in pre- and postnatal life may influence
      menarcheal age. Existing evidence is primarily cross-sectional, failing to
      address temporality, for which the role of adiposity in early life remains
      unclear. The current study sought to systematically review longitudinal studies
      evaluating the associations between birth weight and infant/childhood weight
      status/weight gain in relation to menarcheal age. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of
      Science, Global Health (Ovid) and CINAHL were systematically searched. Selected
      studies were limited to English-language articles presenting multi-variable
      analyses. Seventeen studies reporting risk estimates for birth weight (n = 3),
      infant/childhood weight gain/weight status (n = 4) or both (n = 10), in relation
      to menarcheal age were included. RESULTS: Lower vs. higher birth weight was
      associated with earlier menarche in nine studies and later menarche in one study,
      while three studies reported a null association. Greater BMI or weight gain over
      time and greater childhood weight were significantly associated with earlier
      menarche in nine of nine and six of seven studies, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Studies suggested that lower birth weight and higher body weight and weight gain
      in infancy and childhood may increase the risk of early menarche. The pre- and
      postnatal period may thus be an opportune time for weight control interventions
      to prevent early menarche, and its subsequent consequences.

PMID- 28872225
TI  - Left ventricular ejection time is an independent predictor of incident heart
      failure in a community-based cohort.
AB  - AIMS: Systolic time intervals change in the progress of cardiac dysfunction. The
      usefulness of left ventricular ejection time (LVET) to predict cardiovascular
      morbidity, however, is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied middle-aged
      African-Americans from one of four cohorts of the Atherosclerosis Risk in
      Communities study (Jackson cohort, n=1980) who underwent echocardiography between
      1993 and 1995. Left ventricular ejection time was measured by pulsed-wave Doppler
      of the left ventricular outflow tract and related to outcomes. A shorter LVET was
      associated with younger age, male sex, higher diastolic blood pressure, higher
      proportion of diabetes, higher heart rate, higher blood glucose levels and worse
      fractional shortening. During a median follow-up of 17.6 years, 384 (19%) had
      incident heart failure (HF), 158 (8%) had a myocardial infarction, and 587 (30%)
      died. In univariable analysis, a lower LVET was significantly associated with
      increased risk of all events (P<0.05 for all). However, after multivariable
      adjustment for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, body mass index, heart rate,
      systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fractional shortening and left atrial
      diameter, LVET remained an independent predictor only of incident HF [hazard
      ratio 1.07 (1.02-1.14), P=0.010 per 10 ms decrease]. In addition, LVET provided
      incremental prognostic information to the known risk factors included in the
      Framingham risk score, in regard to predicting all outcomes except for myocardial
      infarction. CONCLUSION: Left ventricular ejection time is an independent
      predictor of incident HF in a community-based cohort and provides incremental
      prognostic information on the risk of future HF and death when added to known
      risk prediction models.

PMID- 28872226
TI  - Prebiopsy multiparametric MRI-based risk score for predicting prostate cancer in
      biopsy-naive men with prostate-specific antigen between 4-10 ng/mL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Risk calculators have traditionally utilized serum prostate-specific
      antigen (PSA) values in addition to clinical variables to predict the likelihood
      of prostate cancer (PCa). PURPOSE: To develop a prebiopsy multiparametric MRI
      (mpMRI)-based risk score (RS) and a statistical equation for predicting the risk
      of PCa in biopsy-naive men with serum PSA between 4-10 ng/mL that may help reduce
      unnecessary biopsies. STUDY TYPE: Prospective cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS: In
      all, 137 consecutive men with PSA between 4-10 ng/mL underwent prebiopsy mpMRI
      (diffusion-weighted [DW]-MRI and MR spectroscopic imaging [MRSI]) during 2009
      2015 were recruited for this study. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 1.5T (Avanto,
      Siemens Health Care, Erlangen, Germany); T1 -weighted, T2 -weighted, DW-MRI, and
      MRSI sequences were used. ASSESSMENT: All eligible patients underwent mpMRI
      directed, cognitive-fusion transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsies.
      STATISTICAL TESTS: An equation model and an RS were developed using receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and a multivariable logistic
      regression approach. A 10-fold crossvalidation and simulation analyses were
      performed to assess diagnostic performance of various combinations of mpMRI
      parameters. RESULTS: Of 137 patients, 32 were diagnosed with PCa on biopsy.
      Multivariable analysis, adjusted with positive pathology, showed apparent
      diffusion coefficient (ADC), metabolite ratio, and PSA as significant predictors
      of PCa (P < 0.05). A statistical equation was derived using these predictors. A
      simple 6-point mpMRI-based RS was derived for calculating the risk of PCa and it
      showed that it is highly predictive for PCa (odds ratio = 3.74, 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 2.24-6.27, area under the curve [AUC] = 0.87). Both models
      (equation and RS) yielded high predictive performance (AUC >=0.85) on validation
      analysis. DATA CONCLUSION: A statistical equation and a simple 6-point mpMRI
      based RS can be used as a point-of-care tool to potentially help limit the number
      of negative biopsies in men with PSA between 4 and 10 ng/mL. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1
      Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:1227-1236.

PMID- 28872227
TI  - Elementspezifische Analyse einer Hyperpigmentierung infolge Levofloxacin
      Therapie.

PMID- 28872228
TI  - Pembrolizumab-induced hepatitis: diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28872229
TI  - Multiple Papeln und Tumoren an Kopf und Gesicht.

PMID- 28872231
TI  - Jahrestagung der Society for Dermatology in the Tropics e. V. in Dresden am 1.
      und 2. April 2017.

PMID- 28872230
TI  - Deutsches "Nationales Krebshilfe-Monitoring" 2015-2019 - Studienprotokoll und
      erste Ergebnisse.
AB  - HINTERGRUND UND ZIELE: Das Projekt "Nationales Krebshilfe-Monitoring zur
      Solariennutzung" (National Cancer Aid Monitoring of Tanning Bed Use, NCAM) ist
      eine deutsche Grobetastudie mit dem Ziel, die wichtigsten Risikofaktoren fur
      Hautkrebs zu beobachten: naturliches Sonnenlicht und kunstliche UV-Strahlung.
      TEILNEHMER UND METHODEN: NCAM ist eine bundesweite Querschnittstudie mit zunachst
      vier Runden der Datenerfassung (sogenannten Wellen) zwischen 2015 und 2018. Jedes
      Jahr wird eine bundesweit reprasentative Stichprobe aus 3.000 Personen im Alter
      von 14 bis 45 Jahren befragt. Die Querschnittsbefragung wird durch eine Kohorte
      von n = 450 aktuellen Solariennutzern erganzt. ERGEBNISSE: Die erste Welle im
      Jahr 2015 ergab eine Gesamtpravalenz der Solariennutzung von 29,5 %. Elf Prozent
      aller Teilnehmer hatten in den vergangenen zwolf Monaten ein Solarium genutzt. Zu
      den Determinanten der aktuellen Solariennutzung gehorten jungeres Alter,
      weibliches Geschlecht und Vollzeit-/Teilzeitbeschaftigung. Die hauptsachlichen
      Beweggrunde, die fur die Nutzung eines Solariums genannt wurden, waren
      Entspannung und Attraktivitatssteigerung. SCHLUSSFOLGERUNGEN: NCAM ist weltweit
      die erste Studie zur Uberwachung der Risikofaktoren fur Hautkrebs in jahrlichen
      Intervallen anhand einer grobetaen, landesweit reprasentativen Stichprobe. Erste
      Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Millionen Deutsche trotz Warnungen der WHO
      Solarien nutzen, und dass viele dieser Nutzer Jugendliche sind - trotz
      gesetzlicher Beschrankungen, die das Ziel haben, die Nutzung von Solarien durch
      Minderjahrige zu verhindern.

PMID- 28872232
TI  - Prognose der erworbenen idiopathischen generalisierten Anhidrose.

PMID- 28872235
TI  - Ausschreibung Forschungspreis Alopecia areata.

PMID- 28872234
TI  - Element-specific analysis of a hyperpigmentation caused by levofloxacin therapy.

PMID- 28872233
TI  - Update on the clinical use of kinase inhibitors in melanoma.
AB  - The identification of targetable molecules in cellular signaling pathways
      represents a milestone in the treatment of melanoma. Selective inhibitors of
      these molecules, known as phosphokinases, allow for individual signaling pathways
      to be "switched off". This is of particular importance for tumors in which these
      pathways are constitutively activated by mutations in genes encoding said
      molecules. Especially patients with BRAF-mutated melanomas significantly benefit
      from kinase inhibitor therapies, with the current standard of combined BRAF and
      MEK inhibition providing very good long-term disease control. Such regimens have
      been shown to achieve a progression-free survival of more than ten months and an
      overall survival of more than two years, along with good quality of life. Given
      that the majority of patients develop secondary resistance during long-term
      kinase inhibitor therapy, current clinical trials are geared towards finding
      suitable drug combinations including inhibitors of other signaling pathways as
      well as immune checkpoint inhibitors. The present review highlights targeted
      therapies for melanoma currently available as well as potential future options
      presently under clinical investigation.

PMID- 28872237
TI  - Anagener Haarverlust, Anti-Desmoglein 1 und Pemphigus Disease Area Index: Ein
      signifikanter Zusammenhang?

PMID- 28872238
TI  - 1 * 1 der Dermatohistologie. Teil 2 - Tumoren der Haut.
AB  - In diesem CME-Artikel werden histopathologische Grundkenntnisse der haufigsten
      Hauttumoren (epidermal, adnexiell, melanozytar, mesenchymal), deren
      labortechnische Aufarbeitung sowie der Stellenwert immunhistochemischer und
      molekularer Zusatzuntersuchungen zusammengefasst. Dies soll dem erfahrenen
      Kliniker bei der Wahl der richtigen Entnahmetechnik und der Interpretation der
      histopathologischen Befundberichte behilflich sein und in dermatologischer
      Weiterbildung befindlichen Arzten ein besseres Verstandnis der Dermatohistologie
      vermitteln. Ahnlich wie bei den entzundlichen Dermatosen sind auch in der
      Diagnostik von Hauttumoren Kliniker und Dermatohistopathologen aufeinander
      angewiesen und konnen die Qualitat der Diagnostik und der daraus resultierenden
      therapeutischen Verstandnisbasis deutlich verbessern.

PMID- 28872239
TI  - Kongresskalender 2017.

PMID- 28872240
TI  - Spiny keratoderma of the palms and soles - once seen, never forgotten.

PMID- 28872241
TI  - Anagen hair loss, anti-desmoglein 1, and pemphigus disease area index: a
      significant relationship?

PMID- 28872242
TI  - Kutane kollagene Vaskulopathie - Remission der perivaskularen Depositionen nach
      Farbstofflasertherapie.

PMID- 28872243
TI  - Pyogenes CD30-positives grobetazelliges anaplastisches T-Zell-Lymphom: Spontane
      Remission bei einem jungen Erwachsenen.

PMID- 28872244
TI  - Durch Pembrolizumab verursachte Hepatitis: Diagnose und Behandlung.

PMID- 28872245
TI  - Symmetrische entzundliche, erosive Plaques und Blasen bei einem Saugling.

PMID- 28872246
TI  - Juckende erythematose Papeln und braunliche Maculae an Rumpf und Beinen.

PMID- 28872248
TI  - Hereditare Hauterkrankungen - Klinisch und genetisch heterogen.

PMID- 28872247
TI  - Update zum klinischen Einsatz von Inhibitoren mutierter Phosphokinasen beim
      Melanom.
AB  - Die Behandlungsstrategie beim metastasierten Melanom hat sich mit der
      Identifizierung therapeutisch angreifbarer molekularer Zielstrukturen innerhalb
      zellularer Signalwege radikal geandert. Durch die Zulassung von Substanzen, die
      gezielt an den zentralen Schaltmolekulen, den Phosphokinasen, angreifen, konnen
      diese Signalwege selektiv abgeschaltet werden. Dies ist insbesondere bei
      denjenigen Tumoren von Interesse, deren Signalwege durch aktivierende Mutationen
      der fur die Schaltmolekule kodierenden Gene konstitutiv aktiviert sind. Aktuell
      ist diese therapeutische Strategie insbesondere fur Patienten bedeutsam, deren
      Melanome eine Mutation im BRAF-Gen aufweisen. Diese Patienten konnen durch eine
      Kombinationstherapie aus Inhibitoren der Phosphokinasen BRAF und MEK langfristig
      mit sehr guter Krankheitskontrolle behandelt werden. Unter dieser
      Kombinationstherapie wird aktuell ein progressionsfreies Uberleben von uber zehn
      Monaten und ein Gesamtuberleben von mehr als zwei Jahren bei guter Lebensqualitat
      erzielt. Da unter langerfristiger Therapie mit Kinaseinhibitoren jedoch bei einem
      Grobetateil der Patienten eine Resistenzbildung auftritt, sind aktuelle klinische
      Therapiestudien auf die Suche nach geeigneten Kombinationspartnern unter
      Blockierung anderer Signalwege oder unter Aktivierung der T-Zell-vermittelten
      Immunantwort ausgerichtet. Der vorliegende Ubersichtsartikel stellt sowohl die
      aktuell verfugbaren als auch die in der klinischen Testung befindlichen
      zukunftigen Optionen der zielgerichteten Therapie des Melanoms dar.

PMID- 28872249
TI  - Spiny Keratoderma der Hand- und Fubetaflachen - einmal gesehen, nie wieder
      vergessen.

PMID- 28872250
TI  - Forschungspreis zur Forderung der experimentellen Dermatologie - Deutsche
      Dermatologische Gesellschaft verleiht Oscar-Gans-Preis.

PMID- 28872251
TI  - Room temperature synthesis and binding studies of solution-processable histamine
      imprinted microspheres.
AB  - Accurate quantification of histamine levels in food and in biological samples is
      important for monitoring the quality of food products and for the detection of
      pathophysiological conditions. In this study, solution processable histamine
      imprinted microspheres were synthesized at 30 degrees C via dilute free radical
      phototochemical polymerization technique using ethylene glycol dimethacrylate
      (EGDMA) as the crosslinker and methacrylic acid (MAA) as the monomer. The
      processability of the resulting polymer is dictated by the monomer feed
      concentration (eg, 4 wt% 80:20 EGDMA:MAA formulation) and solvent (acetonitrile).
      Whereas, the particle size is influenced by the monomer feed concentration, the
      presence of template molecule, and independent of the crosslinker content.
      Evaluation of the binding performance of the photochemically imprinted polymers
      (PCP) with different crosslinker content (80 and 90 wt%) indicated that the
      selective binding capacity was notably higher in PCP-80 (N= 16.0 MUmol/g)
      compared to PCP-90 (N= 10.1 MUmol/g) when analyzed via frontal analysis capillary
      electrophoresis (FACE) using Freundlich isotherm. In addition, PCP-80
      microspheres are more selective toward histamine than conventional thermal
      polymers (CTP-80) prepared at 60 degrees C in the presence of structural analogs
      such as histidine, imidazole, and tryptamine under cross-rebinding and
      competitive conditions. These results demonstrated that histamine-selective
      imprinted polymers can be obtained readily using room temperature photochemical
      polymerization where these materials can be subsequently used as recognition
      element for optical-based histamine sensing.

PMID- 28872252
TI  - Nursing leadership challenges and opportunities.

PMID- 28872253
TI  - Genome-wide scans between two honeybee populations reveal putative signatures of
      human-mediated selection.
AB  - Human-mediated selection has left signatures in the genomes of many domesticated
      animals, including the European dark honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, which
      has been selected by apiculturists for centuries. Using whole-genome sequence
      information, we investigated selection signatures in spatially separated honeybee
      subpopulations (Switzerland, n = 39 and France, n = 17). Three different test
      statistics were calculated in windows of 2 kb (fixation index, cross-population
      extended haplotype homozygosity and cross-population composite likelihood ratio)
      and combined into a recently developed composite selection score. Applying a
      stringent false discovery rate of 0.01, we identified six significant selective
      sweeps distributed across five chromosomes covering eight genes. These genes are
      associated with multiple molecular and biological functions, including regulation
      of transcription, receptor binding and signal transduction. Of particular
      interest is a selection signature on chromosome 1, which corresponds to the WNT4
      gene, the family of which is conserved across the animal kingdom with a variety
      of functions. In Drosophila melanogaster, WNT4 alleles have been associated with
      differential wing, cross vein and abdominal phenotypes. Defining phenotypic
      characteristics of different Apis mellifera ssp., which are typically used as
      selection criteria, include colour and wing venation pattern. This signal is
      therefore likely to be a good candidate for human mediated-selection arising from
      different applied breeding practices in the two managed populations.

PMID- 28872254
TI  - Prevalence odds ratio versus prevalence ratio: choice comes with consequences.

PMID- 28872255
TI  - A multiple imputation strategy for sequential multiple assignment randomized
      trials.

PMID- 28872256
TI  - Deformation strain is the main physical driver for skeletal precursors to undergo
      osteogenesis in earlier stages of osteogenic cell maturation.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells play a major role during bone remodelling and are thus of
      high interest for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.
      Mechanical stimuli, that is, deformation strain and interstitial fluid-flow
      induced shear stress, promote osteogenic lineage commitment. However, the
      predominant physical stimulus that drives early osteogenic cell maturation is not
      clearly identified. The evaluation of each stimulus is challenging, as
      deformation and fluid-flow-induced shear stress interdepend. In this study, we
      developed a bioreactor that was used to culture mesenchymal stem cells harbouring
      a strain-responsive AP-1 luciferase reporter construct, on porous scaffolds. In
      addition to the reporter, mineralization and vitality of the cells was
      investigated by alizarin red staining and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5
      diphenyltetrazolium bromide. Quantification of the expression of genes associated
      to bone regeneration and bone remodelling was used to confirm alizarin red
      measurements. Controlled perfusion and deformation of the 3-dimensional scaffold
      facilitated the alteration of the expression of osteogenic markers, luciferase
      activity, and calcification. To isolate the specific impact of scaffold
      deformation, a computational model was developed to derive a perfusion flow
      profile that results in dynamic shear stress conditions present in periodically
      loaded scaffolds. In comparison to actually deformed scaffolds, a lower
      expression of all measured readout parameters indicated that deformation strain
      is the predominant stimulus for skeletal precursors to undergo osteogenesis in
      earlier stages of osteogenic cell maturation.

PMID- 28872257
TI  - Acellular dermal matrix scaffolds coated with connective tissue growth factor
      accelerate diabetic wound healing by increasing fibronectin through PKC
      signalling pathway.
AB  - The regional injection of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) for diabetic
      wound healing requires multiple components and results in a substantial loss of
      its biological activity. Acellular dermal matrix (ADM) scaffolds are optimal
      candidates for delivering these factors to local ischaemic environments. In this
      study, we explored whether CTGF loaded on ADM scaffolds can enhance fibronectin
      (FN) expression to accelerate diabetic wound healing via the protein kinase C
      (PKC) signalling pathway. The performance of CTGF and CTGF + PKC inhibitor, which
      were loaded on ADM scaffolds to treat dorsal skin wounds in streptozotocin
      induced diabetic mice, was evaluated with naked ADM as a control. Wound closure
      showed that ADM scaffolds loaded with CTGF induced greater diabetic wound healing
      in the early stage of the wound in diabetic mice. Moreover, ADM scaffolds loaded
      with CTGF obviously increased the expression of FN both at the mRNA and protein
      levels, whereas the expression of FN was significantly reduced in the inhibitor
      group. Furthermore, the ADM + CTGF group, which produce FN, obviously promoted
      alpha-smooth muscle actin and transforming growth factor-beta expression and
      enhanced neovasculature and collagen synthesis at the wound sites. ADM scaffolds
      loaded with CTGF + PKC inhibitor delayed diabetic wound healing, indicating that
      FN expression was mediated by the PKC signalling pathway. Our findings offer new
      perspectives for the treatment of diabetic wound healing and suggest a rationale
      for the clinical evaluation of CTGF use in diabetic wound healing.

PMID- 28872258
TI  - Conidia of Penicillium rubens formed at low water activities can attract more
      water.
AB  - To address the problem of indoor fungal growth, understanding the influence of
      moisture conditions on the fungal colonization process is crucial. This paper
      explores the influence of past moisture conditions on current processes.
      Specifically, it studies the growth and water sorption of conidia of Penicillium
      rubens formed at lower water activities (ranging from 0.86 to 0.99). For the
      first time, dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) is applied as a tool to quantify the
      water sorption of conidia as a function of the water activity at conidiation.
      Furthermore, growth experiments on agar and gypsum substrates are reported that
      relate hyphal growth rates of the mycelium from pretreated conidia to the water
      activity at conidiation. No effect of the conidiation water activity on mycelial
      growth rates is found on either gypsum or agar. It is found, however, that
      conidia formed at lower activities have a higher dry weight and attract more
      water from humid air. It is shown that both phenomena can be explained by conidia
      from lower activities carrying higher amounts of compatible solutes, glycerol in
      particular. The enhanced sorption observed in this study might constitute a
      mechanism through which solute reserves contribute to survival during the early
      steps of fungal colonization.

PMID- 28872263
TI  - ESCP President's Report.

PMID- 28872259
TI  - Prevalence and prognostic importance of precipitating factors leading to heart
      failure hospitalization: recurrent hospitalizations and mortality.
AB  - AIMS: Hospitalizations for heart failure (HF) are common and are associated with
      significant morbidity, mortality and cost. However, precipitating factors leading
      to HF hospitalization and their importance with respect to subsequent outcomes
      are not well understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: The symptoms and signs present at
      admission and investigator-identified factors thought to have contributed to the
      first adjudicated HF hospitalization in the Candesartan in Heart Failure:
      Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and Morbidity (CHARM) programme were
      prospectively collected and stratified by ejection fraction (EF). Potential
      precipitants were collected using a specifically designed case report form and
      categorized according to the presence of cardiovascular (CV), non-CV and unknown
      factors. Associations between these factors and subsequent rehospitalization and
      mortality rates were examined. Of 1668 patients who experienced HF
      hospitalization, 1152 had reduced EF (<=40%, HFrEF) and 516 had preserved EF
      (HFpEF). Overall, 54% had CV, 32% had non-CV and 14% had unknown factors thought
      to have precipitated HF, with similar proportions in the HFrEF and HFpEF groups.
      The most common precipitants were arrhythmia (15%), other non-CV factors (11%)
      and respiratory infection (10%). Subsequent CV readmission rates were highest in
      those whose initial HF hospitalization was precipitated by CV factors. However,
      mortality rates were similar among patients with any of the three categories of
      precipitating factors. Results were similar in HFrEF and HFpEF. CONCLUSIONS:
      Among chronic HF patients hospitalized for decompensation, the investigator
      reported precipitating factor was not associated with the subsequent mortality
      rate, but was associated with type of readmission: readmissions for CV reasons
      were more likely when the index precipitant was CV.

PMID- 28872265
TI  - Universal testing of colorectal cancer for deficient mismatch repair - a new era
      has arrived.

PMID- 28872266
TI  - Corrigendum: Biosynthetic Gene Cluster for Surugamide A Encompasses an Unrelated
      Decapeptide, Surugamide F.

PMID- 28872267
TI  - Psychological Pain in Suicidality: A Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Perform a meta-analysis to quantify the association between
      psychological pain and current or lifetime history of suicidal ideation or
      suicide attempt. DATA SOURCES: Search MEDLINE, Web of Science, and PsycINFO from
      1965 to 2015 for (psychache OR mental pain OR psychological pain) AND (suicid*).
      STUDY SELECTION: Observational case-control studies addressing the difference in
      psychological pain between individuals with and without current or lifetime
      history of suicidal ideation or suicide attempt. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were
      independently extracted into a standard electronic form. All authors were
      contacted for unpublished data related to current or lifetime history of suicide
      ideation or attempt. DATA SYNTHESIS: Twenty studies were included. Comparisons
      concerned 760 subjects with versus 8,803 subjects without lifetime history of
      suicide attempt; 344 subjects with versus 357 patients without current suicide
      attempt; 262 patients with versus 64 patients without lifetime history of
      suicidal ideation; and 551 subjects with versus 7,383 subjects without current
      suicidal ideation. The intensity of psychological pain was higher (1) in both
      subjects with lifetime history of suicide attempts and subjects with current
      suicide attempts versus without (effect sizes = 0.72, P < 10-2 and 0.66, P < 10
      2, respectively) and (2) in both subjects with lifetime history of suicide
      ideation and subjects with current suicidal ideation versus without (effect sizes
      = 1.49, P = .01 and 1.15, P < 10-2, respectively). Association between
      psychological pain and suicidality remained significant even when depression
      levels were not different between subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Higher psychological
      pain levels are associated with suicidal ideation and acts. Considering
      psychological pain to be at the core of suicidality is important for daily
      clinical practice and for the promotion of innovative therapeutic strategies for
      suicide prevention.

PMID- 28872268
TI  - Risk of Suicide Attempts Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Autism Spectrum
      Disorder: A Nationwide Longitudinal Follow-Up Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies reported a high prevalence of depression among
      patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and suggested a relationship between
      ASD and suicidality. However, whether ASD independently increases the risk of
      attempted suicide regardless of depression has not been determined. METHODS:
      Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, 5,618 adolescents
      aged 12-17 years and young adults aged 18-29 years with ASD (ICD-9-CM code: 299)
      and 22,472 age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled between 2001 and 2009 and
      followed to the end of 2011. Any suicide attempt was identified during the follow
      up period. RESULTS: Patients with ASD had a higher incidence of suicide attempts
      (3.9% vs 0.7%, P < .001) than did those without ASD. Both adolescents (HR = 5.79;
      95% CI, 3.98-8.41) and young adults (HR = 5.38; 95% CI, 3.58-8.06) with ASD were
      more likely to attempt suicide in later life after adjusting for demographic data
      and psychiatric comorbidities. Sensitivity analyses after excluding the first
      year (HR = 4.52; 95% CI, 3.39-6.03) or first 3 years (HR = 3.36; 95% CI, 2.40
      4.70) of observation showed consistent findings. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with ASD
      had an increased risk of suicide attempts compared with those without ASD. ASD
      was an independent risk factor of attempted suicide. Further studies are needed
      to clarify the underlying pathophysiology between ASD and suicidality and to
      elucidate whether prompt intervention for ASD may reduce this risk.

PMID- 28872269
TI  - Clinical outcomes in children and adolescents initiating antiretroviral therapy
      in decentralized healthcare settings in Zimbabwe.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Decentralized HIV care for adults does not appear to compromise
      clinical outcomes. HIV care for children poses additional clinical and social
      complexities. We conducted a prospective cohort study to investigate clinical
      outcomes in children aged 6-15 years who registered for HIV care at seven primary
      healthcare clinics (PHCs) in Harare, Zimbabwe. METHODS: Participants were
      recruited between January 2013 and December 2014 and followed for 18 months.
      Rates of and reasons for mortality, hospitalization and unscheduled PHC
      attendances were ascertained. Cox proportional modelling was used to determine
      the hazard of death, unscheduled attendances and hospitalization. RESULTS: We
      recruited 385 participants, median age 11 years (IQR: 9-13) and 52% were female.
      The median CD4 count was 375 cells/mm3 (IQR: 215-599) and 77% commenced ART over
      the study period, with 64% of those who had viral load measured achieving an HIV
      viral load <400 copies/ml. At 18 months, 4% of those who started ART vs. 24% of
      those who remained ART-naive were lost-to-follow-up (p < 0.001). Hospitalization
      and mortality rates were low (8.14/100 person-years (pyrs) and 2.86/100 pyrs,
      respectively). There was a high rate of unscheduled PHC attendances (34.94/100
      pyrs), but only 7% resulted in hospitalization. Respiratory disease was the major
      cause of hospitalization, unscheduled attendances and death. CD4 count
      <350cells/mm3 was a risk factor for hospitalization (aHR 3.6 (95%CI 1.6-8.2)).
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite only 64% of participants achieving virological suppression,
      clinical outcomes were good and high rates of retention in care were observed.
      This demonstrates that in an era moving towards differentiated care in addition
      to implementation of universal treatment, decentralized HIV care for children is
      achievable. Interventions to improve adherence in this age-group are urgently
      needed.

PMID- 28872270
TI  - A public health approach to addressing and preventing misdiagnosis in the scale
      up of HIV rapid testing programmes.

PMID- 28872271
TI  - To err is human, to correct is public health: a systematic review examining poor
      quality testing and misdiagnosis of HIV status.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In accordance with global testing and treatment targets, many
      countries are seeking ways to reach the "90-90-90" goals, starting with
      diagnosing 90% of all people with HIV. Quality HIV testing services are needed to
      enable people with HIV to be diagnosed and linked to treatment as early as
      possible. It is essential that opportunities to reach people with undiagnosed HIV
      are not missed, diagnoses are correct and HIV-negative individuals are not
      inadvertently initiated on life-long treatment. We conducted this systematic
      review to assess the magnitude of misdiagnosis and to describe poor HIV testing
      practices using rapid diagnostic tests. METHODS: We systematically searched peer
      reviewed articles, abstracts and grey literature published from 1 January 1990 to
      19 April 2017. Studies were included if they used at least two rapid diagnostic
      tests and reported on HIV misdiagnosis, factors related to potential misdiagnosis
      or described quality issues and errors related to HIV testing. RESULTS: Sixty
      four studies were included in this review. A small proportion of false positive
      (median 3.1%, interquartile range (IQR): 0.4-5.2%) and false negative (median:
      0.4%, IQR: 0-3.9%) diagnoses were identified. Suboptimal testing strategies were
      the most common factor in studies reporting misdiagnoses, particularly false
      positive diagnoses due to using a "tiebreaker" test to resolve discrepant test
      results. A substantial proportion of false negative diagnoses were related to
      retesting among people on antiretroviral therapy. Conclusions HIV testing errors
      and poor practices, particularly those resulting in false positive or false
      negative diagnoses, do occur but are preventable. Efforts to accelerate HIV
      diagnosis and linkage to treatment should be complemented by efforts to improve
      the quality of HIV testing services and strengthen the quality management
      systems, particularly the use of validated testing algorithms and strategies,
      retesting people diagnosed with HIV before initiating treatment and providing
      clear messages to people with HIV on treatment on the risk of a "false negative"
      test result.

PMID- 28872272
TI  - Understanding low sensitivity of community-based HIV rapid testing: experiences
      from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in Zambia and South Africa.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Population-wide HIV testing services (HTS) must be delivered in
      order to achieve universal antiretroviral treatment (ART) coverage. To accurately
      deliver HTS at such scale, non-facility-based HIV point-of-care testing (HIV
      POCT) is necessary but requires rigorous quality assurance (QA). This study
      assessed the performance of community-wide HTS in Zambia and South Africa (SA) as
      part of the HPTN 071 (PopART) study and explores the impact of quality
      improvement interventions on HTS performance. METHODS: Between 2014 and 2016, HIV
      POCT was undertaken within households both as part of the randomly selected HPTN
      071 research cohort (Population Cohort [PC]) and as part of the intervention
      provided by community HIV-care providers. HIV-POCT followed national algorithms
      in both countries. Consenting PC participants provided a venous blood sample in
      addition to being offered HIV-POCT. We compared results obtained in the PC using
      a laboratory-based gold standard (GS) testing algorithm and HIV-POCT.
      Comprehensive QA mechanisms were put in place to support the community-wide
      testing. Participants who were identified as having a false negative or false
      positive HIV rapid test were revisited and offered retesting. RESULTS: We
      initially observed poor sensitivity (45-54%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 31-69)
      of HIV-POCT in the PC in SA compared to sensitivity in Zambia for the same time
      period of 95.8% (95% CI 93-98). In both countries, specificity of HIV-POCT was
      >98%. With enhanced QA interventions and adoption of the same HIV-POCT algorithm,
      sensitivity in SA improved to a similar level as in Zambia. CONCLUSIONS: This is
      one of the first reports of HIV-POCT performance during wide-scale delivery of
      HTS compared to a GS laboratory algorithm. HIV-POCT in a real-world setting had a
      lower sensitivity than anticipated. Appropriate choice of HIV-POCT algorithms,
      intensive training and supervision, and robust QA mechanisms are necessary to
      optimize HIV-POCT test performance when testing is delivered at a community
      level. HIV-POCT in clients who did not disclose that they were on ART may have
      contributed to false negative HIV-POCT results and should be the topic of future
      research.

PMID- 28872273
TI  - Identification of misdiagnosed HIV clients in an Early Access to ART for All
      implementation study in Swaziland.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rapid diagnostic testing has made HIV diagnosis and subsequent
      treatment more accessible. However, multiple factors, including improper
      implementation of testing strategies and clerical errors, have been reported to
      lead to HIV misdiagnosis. The World Health Organization has recommended HIV
      retesting prior to antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation which has become
      pertinent with scaling up of Early Access to ART for All (EAAA). In this
      analysis, misdiagnosed clients are identified from a subgroup of clients enrolled
      in EAAA implementation study in Swaziland. METHODS: The subgroup to assess
      misdiagnosis was identified from enrolled EAAA study clients, who had an
      undetectable viral load prior to ART initiation between September 1, 2014 and May
      31, 2016. One hundred and five of 2533 (4%) clients had an undetectable viral
      load prior to initiation to ART (pre-ART). The HIV status of clients was
      confirmed using the Determine HIV 1/2 and Uni-Gold HIV 1/2 rapid tests performed
      serially as recommended by the national testing algorithm. The status of clients
      on ART was additionally confirmed by fourth-generation HIV Ag/Ab combo tests,
      Architect and Genscreen Ultra. RESULTS: Fourteen of the 105 (13%) clients were
      false positive (HIV negative) on confirmation testing, of whom five (36%) were
      still in pre-ART care, while nine (64%) were in ART care. Overall, proportion of
      false positive was 0.6% (14/2533). The false-positive clients had a median CD4 of
      791 cells/ml (interquartile range (IQR): 628, 967) compared to 549 cells/ml (IQR:
      387, 791) for true positives (HIV positive) (p = 0.0081) and were nearly 20 years
      older (p = 0.0008). CONCLUSIONS: Overall 0.6% of all enrolled EAAA clients were
      misdiagnosed, and 64% of misdiagnosed clients were initiated on ART. With
      adoption of EAAA guidelines by national governments, ART initiation regardless of
      immunological criteria, strengthening of proficiency testing and adoption of
      retesting prior to ART initiation would allow identification of misdiagnosed
      clients and further reduce potential of initiating misdiagnosed clients on ART.

PMID- 28872274
TI  - Misdiagnosis of HIV infection during a South African community-based survey:
      implications for rapid HIV testing.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We describe the overall accuracy and performance of a serial rapid
      HIV testing algorithm used in community-based HIV testing in the context of a
      population-based household survey conducted in two sub-districts of uMgungundlovu
      district, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, against reference fourth-generation HIV
      1/2 antibody and p24 antigen combination immunoassays. We discuss implications of
      the findings on rapid HIV testing programmes. METHODS: Cross-sectional design:
      Following enrolment into the survey, questionnaires were administered to eligible
      and consenting participants in order to obtain demographic and HIV-related data.
      Peripheral blood samples were collected for HIV-related testing. Participants
      were offered community-based HIV testing in the home by trained field workers
      using a serial algorithm with two rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in series. In the
      laboratory, reference HIV testing was conducted using two fourth-generation
      immunoassays with all positives in the confirmatory test considered true
      positives. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value,
      negative predictive value and false-positive and false-negative rates were
      determined. RESULTS: Of 10,236 individuals enrolled in the survey, 3740 were
      tested in the home (median age 24 years (interquartile range 19-31 years), 42.1%
      males and HIV positivity on RDT algorithm 8.0%). From those tested, 3729 (99.7%)
      had a definitive RDT result as well as a laboratory immunoassay result. The
      overall accuracy of the RDT when compared to the fourth-generation immunoassays
      was 98.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 98.5-99.2). The sensitivity, specificity,
      positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 91.1% (95% CI 87.5
      93.7), 99.9% (95% CI 99.8-100), 99.3% (95% CI 97.4-99.8) and 99.1% (95% CI 98.8
      99.4) respectively. The false-positive and false-negative rates were 0.06% (95%
      CI 0.01-0.24) and 8.9% (95% CI 6.3-12.53). Compared to true positives, false
      negatives were more likely to be recently infected on limited antigen avidity
      assay and to report antiretroviral therapy (ART) use. CONCLUSIONS: The overall
      accuracy of the RDT algorithm was high. However, there were few false positives,
      and the sensitivity was lower than expected with high false negatives, despite
      implementation of quality assurance measures. False negatives were associated
      with recent (early) infection and ART exposure. The RDT algorithm was able to
      correctly identify the majority of HIV infections in community-based HIV testing.
      Messaging on the potential for false positives and false negatives should be
      included in these programmes.

PMID- 28872275
TI  - False-negative HIV tests using oral fluid tests in children taking antiretroviral
      therapy from Harare, Zimbabwe.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for HIV infection have high
      sensitivity and specificity, but in the setting of longstanding antiretroviral
      therapy (ART), can give false results that can lead to misinterpretation,
      confusion and inadequate management. The objective of this study was to evaluate
      the proportion of falsely negative results of a RDT performed on oral fluid in
      HIV-infected children on longstanding ART. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-nine
      children with known HIV infection and receiving ART were recruited from the HIV
      Clinic at the Harare Central Hospital, Zimbabwe. HIV testing was performed on
      oral fluid and on finger-stick blood. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Children included
      in the study had a median age of 12 years (IQR 10-14) and 67 (51.9%) were female.
      Median age at HIV diagnosis was 5 years (IQR 3-6) and the median time on ART was
      6.3 years (IQR 4.3-8.1). The oral fluid test was negative in 11 (8.5%) patients
      and indeterminate in 2 (1.6%). Finger-stick blood test was negative in 1 patient.
      Patients with a negative oral fluid test had a higher CD4 cell count (967 vs. 723
      cells/mm3, p = 0.016) and a longer time on ART (8.5 vs. 6 years, p = 0.016).
      CONCLUSIONS: This study found that a substantial proportion of false-negative HIV
      test results in children on longstanding ART when using an oral fluid test. This
      could lead to misinterpretation of HIV test results and in the false perception
      of cure or delayed diagnosis.

PMID- 28872276
TI  - Prevalence and outcomes of HIV-1 diagnostic challenges during universal birth
      testing - an urban South African observational cohort.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: HIV-1 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing at birth aims to
      facilitate earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-infected
      neonates. Data from two years of universal birth testing implementation in a high
      burden South African urban setting are presented to demonstrate the prevalence
      and outcomes of diagnostic challenges in this context. METHODS: HIV-exposed
      neonates born at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital between 5 June 2014 and
      31 August 2016 were routinely screened at birth for HIV-1 on whole blood samples
      using the COBAS(r) AmpliPrep/COBAS(r) TaqMan (CAP/CTM) HIV-1 Qualitative Test,
      version 2.0 (Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., Branchburg, NJ, USA). Virological
      results were interpreted according to standard operating procedures with the
      South African National Health Laboratory Service. All neonates with non-negative
      results were actively followed-up and categorized according to HIV infection
      status as positive, negative, uncertain and lost to follow-up (LTFU). RESULTS:
      104 (1.8%) of 5743 HIV-exposed neonates received a non-negative birth PCR result,
      for which laboratory data were available for 102 (98%) cases - 78 (76%) tested
      positive and 24 (24%) indeterminate. HIV infection status was confirmed positive
      in 83 (81%) infants, negative in 8 (8%), uncertain in 5 (5%) and LTFU in 6 (6%)
      cases. The positive predictive value (excluding cases of uncertain diagnosis and
      inadequate testing) following a non-negative HIV-1 PCR screening test at birth
      was 0.91 (83/91; 95% confidence interval: 0.85-0.96). Neonates testing positive
      at birth had significantly higher viral load (VL) results than those testing
      indeterminate at birth of 4.5 and 3.0 log copies/ml (p = 0.0007), respectively.
      Similarly, mothers of neonates with positive as compared to indeterminate birth
      test results had higher VLs of 4.5 and 2.7 log copies/ml (p = 0.0013),
      respectively. Half of neonates with an indeterminate birth test were shown to be
      HIV-infected on subsequent confirmatory testing, with time to final diagnosis 30
      days longer for these neonates (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Indeterminate HIV-1 PCR
      results accounted for a quarter of non-negative results at birth and were
      associated with a high risk of infection in comparison to the risk of in utero
      transmission. Indeterminate birth results with positive HIV PCR results on repeat
      testing were associated with later final diagnosis. The HIV-1 status remains
      uncertain in a minority of cases because of repeatedly indeterminate results,
      highlighting the need for more sensitive and specific virological tests.

PMID- 28872278
TI  - HIV misdiagnosis in paediatrics: unpacking the complexity.

PMID- 28872277
TI  - Misdiagnosed HIV infection in pregnant women initiating universal ART in South
      Africa.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are the primary diagnostic tools for
      HIV used in resource-constrained settings. Without a proper confirmation
      algorithm, there is concern that false-positive (FP) RDTs could result in
      misdiagnosis of HIV infection and inappropriate antiretroviral treatment (ART)
      initiation, but programmatic data on FP are few. METHODS: We examined the
      accuracy of RDT diagnosis among HIV-infected pregnant women attending public
      sector antenatal services in Cape Town, South Africa. We describe the proportion
      of women found to have started on ART erroneously due to FP RDT results based on
      pre-ART viral load (VL) testing and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
      RESULTS: We analysed 952 consecutively enrolled pregnant women diagnosed as HIV
      infected based on two RDTs per local guideline and found 4.5% (43/952) of pre-ART
      VL results to be <50 copies/ml. After excluding 6 women who had detectable virus
      on subsequent VL measurements, ELISA was performed on the 37 remaining women. Of
      these, 3/952 (0.3%) HIV RDT diagnoses were found to be FP. We estimate that using
      ELISA to confirm all positive RDTs would cost $1110 (uncertainty interval $381
      $5382) to identify one patient erroneously initiated on ART, while it costs $3912
      for a lifetime of antiretrovirals with VL monitoring for one person. CONCLUSIONS:
      Compared to the cost of confirming the RDT-based diagnoses, the cost of HIV
      misdiagnosis is high. While testing programmes based on RDT should strive for
      constant quality improvement, where resources permit, laboratory confirmation
      algorithms can play an important role in strengthening the quality of HIV
      diagnosis in the era of universal ART.

PMID- 28872279
TI  - HIV point of care diagnosis: preventing misdiagnosis experience from a pilot of
      rapid test algorithm implementation in selected communes in Vietnam.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Vietnam, HIV testing services had been available only at
      provincial and district health facilities, but not at the primary health
      facilities. Consequently, access to HIV testing services had been limited
      especially in rural areas. In 2012, Vietnam piloted decentralization and
      integration of HIV services at commune health stations (CHSs). As a part of this
      pilot, a three-rapid test algorithm was introduced at CHSs. The objective of this
      study was to assess the performance of a three-rapid test algorithm and the
      implementation of quality assurance measures to prevent misdiagnosis, at primary
      health facilities. METHODS: The three-rapid test algorithm (Determine HIV-1/2,
      followed by ACON HIV 1/2 and DoubleCheckGold HIV 1&2 in parallel) was piloted at
      CHSs from August 2012 to December 2013. Commune health staff were trained to
      perform HIV testing. Specimens from CHSs were sent to the provincial confirmatory
      laboratory (PCL) for confirmatory and validation testing. Quality assurance
      measures were undertaken including training, competency assessment, field
      technical assistance, supervision and monitoring and external quality assessment
      (EQA). Data on HIV testing were collected from the testing logbooks at commune
      and provincial facilities. Descriptive analysis was conducted. Sensitivity and
      specificity of the rapid testing algorithm were calculated. RESULTS: A total of
      1,373 people received HIV testing and counselling (HTC) at CHSs. Eighty people
      were diagnosed with HIV infection (5.8%). The 755/1244 specimens reported as HIV
      negative at the CHS were sent to PCL and confirmed as negative, and all 80
      specimens reported as HIV positive at CHS were confirmed as positive at the PCL.
      Forty-nine specimens that were reactive with Determine but negative with ACON and
      DoubleCheckGold at the CHSs were confirmed negative at the PCL. The results show
      this rapid test algorithm to be 100% sensitive and 100% specific. Of 21 CHSs that
      received two rounds of EQA panels, 20 CHSs submitted accurate results.
      CONCLUSIONS: Decentralization of HIV confirmatory testing to CHS is feasible in
      Vietnam. The results obtained from this pilot provided strong evidence of the
      feasibility of HIV testing at primary health facilities. Quality assurance
      measures including training, competency assessment, regular monitoring and
      supervision and an EQA scheme are essential for prevention of misdiagnosis.

PMID- 28872282
TI  - Changes in bacterial flora and antibiotic resistance in clinical samples isolated
      from patients hospitalized in the Military Institute of Medicine in Warsaw,
      Poland, between 2005-2012
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital infections have become an important problem. Knowledge of
      microbiological situations both helps in ensuring that the optimal choice of
      antibacterial treatment is made, and in improving the results of the selected
      therapy. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, both the changes in the bacterial flora of
      patients hospitalized in the Military Institute of Medicine, and the bacterial
      resistance to antimicrobials were analyzed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were
      collected between 2005 and 2012. The identification and testing of pathogens,
      susceptibility tests, and analysis of bacterial resistance mechanisms to
      antibiotics were performed according to current guidelines. RESULTS: A total
      number of 28,066 bacterial strains were isolated. The most frequently isolated
      pathogens were Gram-negative bacteria (n=18,021; 64% of all isolated bacteria),
      including Enterobacteriaceae (71%) and non-Enterobacteriaceae (29%). The total
      number of isolated Gram-positive bacteria (n=10,045; 36% of all isolates)
      included Staphylococcus spp. (65%) and Enterococcus spp. (35%). The highest
      increase in the number of infections was caused by Enterobacteriaceae. The number
      of Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative Staphylococcus resistant to
      methicillin decreased. Analyzed alert pathogens with resistance phenotypes were
      highly susceptible to a single type of antibiotic. All multidrug resistant Gram
      negative bacteria (except those naturally resistant to colistin) were susceptible
      to colistin. All methicillin resistant S. aureus and methicillin resistant
      coagulase negative Staphylococci were susceptible to vancomycin and linezolid.
      All MSSA strains were susceptible to cloxacillin, all Enterococcus faecium
      strains to ampicillin, and all VRE strains were susceptible to linezolid and
      tigecycline.

PMID- 28872281
TI  - Transitioning young adults from paediatric to adult care and the HIV care
      continuum in Atlanta, Georgia, USA: a retrospective cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The transition from paediatric to adult HIV care is a particularly
      high-risk time for disengagement among young adults; however, empirical data are
      lacking. METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 72 youth seen in both the
      paediatric and the adult clinics of the Grady Infectious Disease Program in
      Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from 2004 to 2014. We abstracted clinical data on linkage,
      retention and virologic suppression from the last two years in the paediatric
      clinic through the first two years in the adult clinic. RESULTS: Of patients with
      at least one visit scheduled in adult clinic, 97% were eventually seen by an
      adult provider (median time between last paediatric and first adult clinic visit
      = 10 months, interquartile range 2-18 months). Half of the patients were enrolled
      in paediatric care immediately prior to transition, while the other half
      experienced a gap in paediatric care and re-enrolled in the clinic as adults. A
      total of 89% of patients were retained (at least two visits at least three months
      apart) in the first year and 56% in the second year after transition. Patients
      who were seen in adult clinic within three months of their last paediatric visit
      were more likely to be virologically suppressed after transition than those who
      took longer (Relative risk (RR): 1.76; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07-2.9; p
      = 0.03). Patients with virologic suppression (HIV-1 RNA below the level of
      detection of the assay) at the last paediatric visit were also more likely to be
      suppressed at the most recent adult visit (RR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.34-3.9; p = 0.002).
      CONCLUSIONS: Retention rates once in adult care, though high initially, declined
      significantly by the second year after transition. Pre-transition viral
      suppression and shorter linkage time between paediatric and adult clinic were
      associated with better outcomes post-transition. Optimizing transition will
      require intensive transition support for patients who are not virologically
      controlled, as well as support for youth beyond the first year in the adult
      setting.

PMID- 28872284
TI  - HBV or HCV and pregnancy
AB  - Despite effective anti-HBV prophylaxis, cases of acute and chronic inflammation
      are still occurring, including among pregnant women. Studies in Asia suggest
      considering antiviral treatment among pregnant women with viremia above 10 log6
      copies / ml. Current guidelines exclude the use of caesarean section as a method
      to reduce the likelihood of neonatal infection. At the same time, there are no
      grounds to ban the breastfeeding of a baby born to an HBV-infected mother.HCV
      infection can adversely affect the course of pregnancy. As with HBV infection,
      caesarean section does not reduce the risk of infection. Also breastfeeding among
      these patients is not contraindicated. The inability to use appropriate
      prophylaxis in newborns is one of the reasons for the targeted treatment of HCV
      infected women at the procreation age in the first place.

PMID- 28872283
TI  - Impact of selected predictive factors on sustained virologic response in HCV
      genotype 4 infected patients treated with pegylated interferon alpha and
      ribavirin
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dual therapy (PegIFN and ribavirin) (DT) had been the standard of
      care in patients infected with HCV genotype 4 (HCV-4) until 2014. Thereafter, new
      treatment options were available including IFNbased and other IFN-free regimens.
      Objectives: The aim was to assess the efficacy (SVR24) of DT and a selection of
      predictive factors of SVR in HCV-4 infected patients. METHODS: 112 patients (62
      men) of median age 23 years were treated with DT for 48/72 weeks (107/5). Most of
      them were treatment naive (80.4%) and with fibrosis F<=2(83.1%). Individuals with
      prior hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, i.e. positive antibodies to the
      hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc), negative hepatitis B surface antigen and
      undetectable serum HBV DNA were included into the analysis. RESULTS: SVR24 was
      achieved in 46/112(41.1%) patients. Null response (NR) was recognized in 24.1%,
      partial response in 13.4%, relapse in 10.7% and breakthrough in 6.2% of patients.
      SVR24 was associated with lack of previous treatment experience, younger age (<40
      years), pretreatment viral load <2x105 IU/ml, less advanced fibrosis (F<=2) and
      >10% loss of baseline weight. Anti-HBc was detected in 25(22.3%) patients out of
      which four (16%) achieved SVR24 in comparison to 42(48.8%) patients with anti-HBc
      negative (p<0.005); NR was observed in 10(40%) individuals vs 17(19.8%) in anti
      HBc negative patients. CONCLUSIONS: SVR24 was low. The age <40 years, less
      advanced fibrosis, pretreatment viral load <2x105 IU/ml, lack of previous
      treatment experience, loss of body weight were the positive predictive factors of
      SVR24. Prior HBV infection correlated with poorer SVR24 and NR.

PMID- 28872285
TI  - Outbreaks of nosocomial infections in Poland in the years 2011-2015
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In hospitals outbreaks of nosocomial infections are recorded i.e.
      the occurrence of at least two clearly related cases of infections. In these
      outbreaks not only patients but also hospital staff are getting infected. Due to
      the fact, that nosocomial infections are inseparably related to the
      hospitalisation of the patients, there is a need to build a culture of active
      surveillance of emerging infections and their reporting to the authorities of the
      State Sanitary Inspection. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This article was developed on
      the basis of the information gathered in the report about the occurrence of
      outbreaks in entities carrying out the medical activities. This report is the
      result of the analysis of the preliminary reports submitted by the hospitals in
      the cases where there was a suspicion of or an epidemic outbreak and the final
      reports of the epidemic outbreak suppressions. RESULTS: In the years 2011-2015 in
      all hospitals in Poland a total number of 1 912 outbreaks of nosocomial
      infections was reported; in those outbreaks 15 282 patients and 1 226 medical
      personnel were infected. The biggest numbers of outbreaks of nosocomial
      infections were reported in the voivodeships: Masovia and Silesia. The most
      frequently etiological factor was Clostridium difficile; it caused 519 hospital
      outbreaks. Out of the viral factors, most of the outbreaks were due to the
      rotavirus - 359 of such instances. In addition to the numerous bacterial and
      viral factors, the outbreaks of nosocomial infections were also caused by fungi
      and parasites.

PMID- 28872286
TI  - Looking for the new preparations for antibacterial therapy. V. New antimicrobial
      agents from the oxazolidinones groups in clinical trials
AB  - This paper is the fifth part of the series concerning the search for new
      preparations for antibacterial therapy and discussing new compounds belonging to
      the oxazolidinone class of antibacterial chemotherapeutics. This article presents
      five new substances that are currently at the stage of clinical trials
      (radezolid, sutezolid, posizolid, LCB01-0371 and MRX-I). The intensive search for
      new antibiotics and antibacterial chemotherapeutics with effective antibacterial
      activity is aimed at overcoming the existing resistance mechanisms in order to
      effectively fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria, which pose a real threat
      to public health. The crisis of antibiotic resistance can be overcome by the
      proper use of these drugs, based on bacteriological and pharmacological
      knowledge. Oxazolidinones, with their unique mechanism of action and favorable
      pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters, represent an alternative way to
      effectively treat serious infections caused by Gram-positive microorganisms.

PMID- 28872287
TI  - Monitoring adherence to cold chain storage of vaccines in 2014 in the Malopolska
      province
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY: The principles of "cold chain" have been
      developed for the safe transport and storage of vaccines because of their
      sensitivity to temperature and are guidelines for use in all countries. Available
      information on adherence to the principles of the "cold chain" by healthcare
      providers in Poland is insufficient. The aim of the study was to assess
      compliance with these rules in storing vaccines by vaccination centers
      implementing an immunization program in 2014 in the Malopolska province MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: The study was conducted in 111 vaccination centers in 19 districts
      of Malopolska, which represents 12% of all vaccination centers in the Malopolska
      province in 2014. The selection of vaccination centers for the study was not
      random. During a routine inspection of vaccination centers, an employee of the
      District Sanitary-Epidemiological Station conducted a study using a specially
      prepared questionnaire. Inspections in vaccination centers which qualified for
      the study were conducted from March to September 2015. RESULTS: Among the
      analyzed vaccinations centers 90% had a refrigerator or refrigerator-freezer, and
      10% a pharmaceutical refrigerator. 3.6% of refrigerators were produced before
      2000. A 24-hour recording of the temperature was conducted in 67.6% vaccination
      centers. 40.5% of vaccination centers had a 24-hour system of recording and
      notification when temperature parameters had been exceeded in refrigeration
      devices. 22.5% of vaccination centers had emergency power supply. 13.5% of
      vaccination centers a power failure occurred in refrigerators, including 40% of
      the vaccination centers which had a text message notification system.. Total cost
      of destroyed vaccines amounted to over 20 thousand zl. SUMMARY: Correct storage
      conditions are needed for vaccines to maintain their full effectiveness, which is
      why it is necessary to intensify efforts to ensure compliance with the principles
      of the cold chain in the storage of vaccines by healthcare providers.

PMID- 28872288
TI  - Determinants of vaccine hesitancy
AB  - Vaccine hesitancy is a worrying phenomenon due to its range and health-related
      consequences. Secondary epidemiological data on the current situation of
      vaccination in Poland were analyzed. The source of the analyzed data were
      obtained from the reports of the National Sanitary Inspection and the National
      Institute of Public Health-National Institute of Hygiene in Warsaw. Legal basis
      on vaccination and the responsibilities of physicians related to these
      regulations were also discussed. Considering the opinions of ECDC experts,
      factors influencing vaccine hesitancy were identified. Attention was paid to the
      activities of the anti-vaccination movements, their range of activity and a
      strategy of action.

PMID- 28872289
TI  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - epidemiology in Silesian
      voivodeship
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a problem requiring
      constant surveillance, both clinical and epidemiological. AIM: The aim of study
      was to analyze territorial and temporal variability of COPD hospitalization and
      incidence, as far as expenses incurred by the National Health Fund (NHF) due to
      medical treatment of disease in the Silesian Voivodeship based on secondary
      epidemiological data. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The epidemiological situation was
      presented on the basis of available health benefits data registered in adult
      patients with COPD treated from the NHF budget in the Silesian Voivodeship. The
      dynamics of incidence rates in 2006-2010, prevalence rates of hospitalization in
      2000-2011 and costs of treatment of the disease were investigated. We also
      present variability of incidence and prevalence in particular districts of study
      region. RESULTS: The standardized incidence rate of COPD in the Silesian
      Voivodeship is still high, although it slowly decreased from the value of
      656.93/100,000 in 2007 to 470.7/100,000 in 2010. We observed a significant
      decrease of hospitalization from 217.0/100,000 in 2005 to 117.7/100,000 in 2011.
      Higher values of both rates refer to men, besides, we observed their spatial
      variability in particular districts. The average annual cost of new cases of COPD
      treatment in Silesian Voivodeship was approximately 5 million EUR (20 million
      PLN), while the annual cost of all hospital admissions decreased substantially
      from the value of approx.10 million EUR (40 million PLN) in 2003 to approx. 5
      million EUR (20 million PLN) in 2011. CONCLUSIONS: We observed temporal and
      spatial variability of COPD incidence and prevalence in Silesian Voivodeship.
      Asignificant reduction of COPD hospitalization rate implies serious reduction of
      expenses incurred by National Health Found.

PMID- 28872290
TI  - Trends in the incidence of dental caries in 18-year-olds in Lodzkie voivodeship
      in 1995-2014
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper was to assess the dentition status of 18
      year-olds living in Lodzkie voivodeship based on the epidemiological studies
      conducted in 1995-2014. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Study was carried out in 2014.
      Study group was composed of 302 adolescents aged 18 years old living in Lodzki
      and Brzezinski districts, including urban and rural areas selected using three
      stage cluster sampling method. Examinations were conducted pursuant to the WHO
      recommendations. The prevalence of caries, intensity of caries as well as the
      components (D,M,F) of caries intensity, treatment index and the SIC index were
      calculated. Furthermore, the changes in the intensity of caries were assessed,
      beginning from 1995. Statistical analysis was carried out. RESULTS: Dental caries
      was reported in 91.7% of adolescents. The intensity of caries, the SIC index and
      treatment index were estimated to be 5.5, 8.9 and 0.8, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Having analysed the data as of 1995-2014, it may be stated that there is a
      systematic improvement of the dentition status in 18-year-olds living in Lodzkie
      voivodeship.

PMID- 28872291
TI  - Prevention programmes in primary health care - 8 aspects of their effective
      implementation
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Primary health care (PHC) is an optimal setting for the purpose of
      primary and secondary prevention. Health education, vaccinations, screening may
      be successfully introduced to the PHC settings. Consequently, it would ensure
      better access to services and their accessibility for all social groups.
      OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper was to determine factors which have an
      impact on the implementation of prevention programmes in the PHC settings as well
      as actions which improve the effectiveness of such programmes in Europe and
      worldwide with a special attention paid to the prevention programmes concerning
      chronic infectious diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A review of literature was
      conducted in PubMed using the following key words: primary care/general practice,
      prevention, screening, implementation. A total of 540 articles published in 1976
      2016 were subject to analysis. RESULTS: Having developed prevention programmes in
      the PHC settings, it should not be forgotten that it would be an additional task
      for medical personnel. It would be of importance to allocate adequate funds which
      would allow for an optimal execution of the programme - adequate time for visit,
      adequate number of visits, time for education of patients, follow-up visits,
      monitoring of the execution of the programme and care over diagnosed patients.
      Prevention programme must be accompanied by education (especially education of
      medical personnel). Effective execution of the prevention programmes is favoured
      by the following factors: simple inclusion criteria, less invasive diagnostic
      tests, support programmes and the presence of workers which are appointed for
      such a purpose. FINDINGS: Execution of preventive programmes in the PHC settings
      is feasible. Furthermore, there is an evidence which suggests that they may be
      effectively executed there.

PMID- 28872293
TI  - Review of English version of the monograph The Project KIK/35 "Prevention of
      Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infections" as an Example of Integrated Public Health
      Interventions to Reduce Blood-Borne Infections in Poland

PMID- 28872292
TI  - Jerzy Piatkowski (1929-1992) - laboratory technician inscribed in history of the
      Department of Epidemiology - in twenty fifth anniversary of death

PMID- 28872294
TI  - Review of "The Project KIK/35 "Prevention of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infections"
      as an Example of Integrated Public Health Interventions to reduce Blood-Borne
      Infections in Poland

PMID- 28872295
TI  - M13 Virus-Incorporated Biotemplates on Electrode Surfaces To Nucleate Metal
      Nanostructures by Electrodeposition.
AB  - We report a virus-incorporated biological template (biotemplate) on electrode
      surfaces and its use in electrochemical nucleation of metal nanocomposites as an
      electrocatalytic material for energy applications. The biotemplate was developed
      with M13 virus (M13) incorporated in a silicate sol-gel matrix as a scaffold to
      nucleate Au-Pt alloy nanostructures by electrodeposition, together with reduced
      graphene oxide (rGO). The phage when engineered with Y3E peptides could nucleate
      Au-Pt alloy nanostructures, which ensured adequate packing density, simultaneous
      stabilization of rGO, and a significantly increased electrochemically active
      surface area. Investigation of the electrocatalytic activity of the resulting sol
      gel composite catalyst toward methanol oxidation in an alkaline medium showed
      that this catalyst had mass activity greater than that of the biotemplate
      containing wild-type M13 and that of monometallic Pt and other Au-Pt
      nanostructures with different compositions and supports. M13 in the nanocomposite
      materials provided a close contact between the Au-Pt alloy nanostructures and
      rGO. In addition, it facilitated the availability of an OH--rich environment to
      the catalyst. As a result, efficient electron transfer and a synergistic
      catalytic effect of the Au and Pt in the alloy nanostructures toward methanol
      oxidation were observed. Our nanocomposite synthesis on the novel biotemplate and
      its application might be useful for developing novel clean and green energy
      generating and energy-storage materials.

PMID- 28872296
TI  - Development of Selective Peptide Catalysts with Secondary Structural Frameworks.
AB  - Enzymes are biogenic catalysts that enable the vital activity of organisms.
      Enzymes promote reactions in a selective manner with a high level of substrate
      recognition ability. The development of such a sophisticated catalyst has been
      one of the goals for chemists. A synthetic peptide is the prime candidate to
      realize an enzyme-like catalyst. Considering that the catalytic function of
      enzymes derives from their molecular structures, the key for the creation of a
      peptide catalyst might be the introduction of a specific three-dimensional
      structure. Our motivation was to find a peptide catalyst with a versatile
      secondary structural framework and apply the peptide to a variety of selective
      reactions. Although helical-peptide-catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of enones is
      popular, no other highly enantioselective reaction with a helical peptide has
      been reported. It was found that resin-supported alpha-helical polyleucine
      promoted asymmetric conjugate addition of a carbon nucleophile to enones via the
      formation of an iminium intermediate at the N-terminal amino group. By changing
      the helical chain to a repetitive Leu-Leu-Aib (Aib = alpha-aminoisobutyric acid)
      sequence and introducing a few amino acids to the N-terminus, a highly
      enantioselective peptide catalyst was obtained. The helical peptide catalyst was
      applicable for a tandem enamine/iminium-mediated reaction and asymmetric
      epoxidation of enones. Although the extension of the helical peptide to conjugate
      addition of a nucleophile to an enal was not successful simply by attaching
      proline to the N-terminus of the helix, the incorporation of a beta-turn motif
      was effective to improve the catalytic performance. In the sequence of such a
      turn-helix-type peptide, the helical part was seemingly distant from the N
      terminal amino group; however, the hydrophobicity, structure, and chirality of
      the helix largely affected the reaction. The turn-helix-type peptide promoted a
      wide range of asymmetric reactions: conjugated additions of hydride and carbon
      nucleophiles to enals via the iminium activation and alpha-oxyamination of
      aldehydes via the enamine activation. The peptides with turn-helix and helix
      frameworks were also employed for several reactions that were difficult to
      achieve with low-molecular-weight catalysts: enzyme-cocatalyzed asymmetric
      oxidation in water, diastereo- and enantioselective cyclopropanation,
      regioselective reduction of dienals, kinetic resolution of planar-chiral
      compounds, and desymmetrization to induce planar chirality. To explore other
      types of peptide catalysts, a combinatorial library screening was performed. On
      the way, it was revealed that a histidyl residue assisted to accelerate a
      reaction via reversible addition to an iminium intermediate. Through the
      screening of random peptide libraries, novel peptide sequences for efficient and
      enantioselective conjugate addition were discovered. Although we have no
      information about the molecular structure of the newly found peptides, they can
      be an entry point for establishing a versatile framework of peptide catalysts.

PMID- 28872297
TI  - Poly(2,5-benzimidazole)-Grafted Graphene Oxide as an Effective Proton Conductor
      for Construction of Nanocomposite Proton Exchange Membrane.
AB  - To improve proton conduction properties of conventional sulfonated poly(ether
      ether ketone) (SPEEK), poly(2,5-benzimidazole)-grafted graphene oxide (ABPBI-GO)
      was prepared to fabricate nanocomposite membranes, which then were further doped
      with phosphoric acid (PA). The ABPBI-GO was synthesized through the reaction of
      3,4-diaminobenzoic acid with the carboxyl acid groups present on the GO surface.
      The simultaneous incorporation of ABPBI-GO and PA into SPEEK did not only improve
      the physicochemical performance of the membranes in terms of thermal stability,
      water uptake, dimensional stability, proton conductivity, and methanol permeation
      resistance but also relieve PA leaching from the membranes though acid-base
      interactions. The resulting composite membranes exhibited enhanced proton
      conductivities in extended humidity ranges thanks to the hygroscopic character of
      PA and the increased water uptake. Moreover, the unique self-ionization, self
      dehydration, and nonvolatile properties of PA improved the high-temperature
      proton conductivities (sigma) of PA-doped membranes. The PA-doped SPEEK/ABPBI-GO
      3.0 delivered a sigma of 7.5 mS cm-1 at 140  degrees C/0% RH. This value was
      fourfold higher than that of pristine SPEEK membranes. The PA-doped SPEEK/ABPBI
      GO-3.0 based fuel cell membranes delivered power densities of 831.06 and 72.25 mW
      cm-2 at 80  degrees C/95% RH and 120  degrees C/0% RH, respectively. By contrast,
      the PA-doped SPEEK membrane generated only 655.63 and 44.58 mW cm-2 under the
      same testing conditions.

PMID- 28872298
TI  - Selective and Efficient RNA Analysis by Solid-Phase Microextraction.
AB  - In this study, a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method was developed for the
      purification of mRNA (mRNA) from complex biological samples using a real-time
      reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay for
      quantification. The chemical composition of the polymeric ionic liquid (PIL) and
      a polyacrylate (PA) SPME sorbent coating was optimized to enhance the extraction
      performance. Of the studied SPME sorbent coatings, the PIL containing carboxylic
      acid moieties in the monomer and halide-based anions extracted the highest amount
      of mRNA from aqueous solutions, whereas the native PA fiber showed the lowest
      extraction efficiency. On the basis of RT-qPCR data, electrostatic interactions
      and an ion-exchange mechanism between the negatively charged phosphate backbone
      of RNA and the PIL cation framework were the major driving forces for mRNA
      extraction. The optimized PIL-based SPME method purified a high quantity of mRNA
      from crude yeast cell lysate compared to a phenol/chloroform extraction method.
      The reusability and robustness of PIL-based SPME for RNA analysis represents a
      significant advantage over conventional silica-based solid-phase RNA extraction
      kits. The selectivity of the SPME method toward mRNA was enhanced by
      functionalizing the PA sorbent with oligo dT20 using carbodiimide-based amide
      linker chemistry. The oligo dT20-modified PA sorbent coating demonstrated
      superior extraction performance than the native PA sorbent coating with
      quantification cycle (Cq) values 33.74 +/- 0.24 and 39, respectively. The
      modified PA sorbent extracted sufficient mRNA from total RNA at concentrations as
      low as 5 ng MUL-1 in aqueous solutions without the use of organic solvents and
      time-consuming multiple centrifugation steps that are required in traditional RNA
      extraction methods.

PMID- 28872299
TI  - Comparison of alpha-Synuclein Fibril Inhibition by Four Different Amyloid
      Inhibitors.
AB  - Aggregation of alpha-synuclein (alpha-Syn) into toxic oligomers and fibrils leads
      to Parkinson's disease (PD) pathogenesis. Molecules that can inhibit the
      fibrillization and oligomerization of alpha-Syn have potential therapeutic value.
      Here, we studied four selective amyloid inhibitors: dopamine (Dopa), amphotericin
      B (Amph), epigallocatechingallate (EGCG), and quinacrinedihydrochloride (Quin)
      for their effect on oligomerization, fibrillization, and preformed fibrils of
      alpha-Syn. The aggregation kinetics of alpha-Syn using ThT fluorescence and
      conformational transition by circular dichroism (CD) in the presence and absence
      of these four compounds suggest that, except Quin, the remaining three molecules
      inhibit alpha-Syn aggregation in a concentration dependent manner. Consistent
      with the aggregation kinetics data, the morphological study of aggregates formed
      in the presence of these compounds showed corresponding decrease in fibrillar
      size. The analysis of cell viability using MTT assay showed reduction in toxicity
      of alpha-Syn aggregates formed in the presence of these compounds, which also
      correlates with reduction of exposed hydrophobic surface as studied by ANS
      binding. Additionally, these inhibitors, except Quin, demonstrated reduction in
      size as well as the toxicity of oligomeric/fibrillar aggregates of alpha-Syn. The
      residue specific interaction to low molecular weight (LMW) species of alpha-Syn
      by 2D NMR study revealed that, the region and extent of binding are different for
      all these molecules. Furthermore, fibril-binding data using SPR suggested that
      there is no direct relationship between the binding affinity and fibril
      inhibition by these compounds. The present study suggests that sequence based
      interaction of small molecules with soluble alpha-Syn might dictate their
      inhibition or modulation capacity, which might be helpful in designing modulators
      of alpha-Syn aggregation.

PMID- 28872300
TI  - Ultrasensitive MicroRNA Assay via Surface Plasmon Resonance Responses of Au@Ag
      Nanorods Etching.
AB  - Quantification of trace serum circulate microRNAs is extremely important in
      clinical diagnosis but remains a great challenge. Herein we developed an
      ultrasensitive platform for microRNA 141 (miR-141) detection based on a silver
      coated gold nanorods (Au@Ag NRs) etching process accompanied by surface plasmon
      resonance (SPR) shift. Both SPR absorption and scattering responses were
      monitored. Combined amplification cascades of catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA)
      and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) with the sensitive SPR responses of
      plasmonic Au@Ag NRs, the proposed bioassay exhibited ultrahigh sensitivity toward
      miRNA-141 with dynamic range from 5.0 * 10-17 M to 1.0 * 10-11 M. With target
      concentration higher than 1.0 * 10-13 M, the color of the solution changed
      obviously that could be observed with naked eyes. Under dark-field microscopy
      observation of individual particle, a limit of detection down to 50 aM could be
      achieved. Owing to the superior sensitivity and selectivity, the proposed method
      was applied to detecting trace microRNA in serum. Similar SPR assays could be
      developed simply by redesigning the switching aptamer for the detections of other
      microRNAs or targets such as small molecule, DNA, or protein. Considering the
      convenient operation, good performance and simple observation modes of this
      method, it may have great potential in trace bioanalysis for clinical
      applications.

PMID- 28872301
TI  - Undecaprenyl Phosphate Phosphatase Activity of Undecaprenol Kinase Regulates the
      Lipid Pool in Gram-Positive Bacteria.
AB  - Bacteria cell walls contain many repeating glycan structures, such as
      peptidoglycans, lipopolysaccharides, teichoic acids, and capsular
      polysaccharides. Their synthesis starts in the cytosol, and they are constructed
      from a glycan lipid carrier, undecaprenyl phosphate (C55P), which is essential
      for cell growth and survival. The lipid derivative undecaprenol (C55OH) is
      predominant in many Gram-positive bacteria but has not been detected in Gram
      negative bacteria; its origin and role have thus remained unknown. Recently, a
      homologue of diacylglycerol kinase (DgkA) in Escherichia coli (E. coli) was
      demonstrated to be an undecaprenol kinase (UK) in the Gram-positive bacterium
      Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). In this study, we found that S. mutans UK was
      not only an undecaprenol kinase but also a Mg-ADP-dependent undecaprenyl
      phosphate phosphatase (UpP), catalyzing the hydrolysis of C55P to C55OH and a
      free inorganic phosphate. Furthermore, the naturally undetectable C55OH was
      observed in E. coli cells expressing S. mutans dgkA, supporting the phosphatase
      activity of UK/UpP in vivo. These two activities were indispensable to each other
      and utilized identical essential residues binding to their substrates, suggesting
      that both activities share the same active site and might involve a direct
      phosphoryl transfer mechanism. This study revealed a unique membrane enzyme
      displaying bifunctional activities determined by substrate binding and C55OH
      production. The reciprocal conversion of C55P and the undecaprenol pool
      efficiently regulate cell wall synthesis, especially in Gram-positive bacteria.

PMID- 28872302
TI  - High-Affinity Interactions of Beryllium(2+) with Phosphatidylserine Result in a
      Cross-Linking Effect Reducing Surface Recognition of the Lipid.
AB  - Beryllium has multiple industrial applications, but its manufacture is associated
      with a serious occupational risk of developing chronic inflammation in the lungs
      known as berylliosis, or chronic beryllium disease. Although the Be2+-induced
      abnormal immune responses have recently been linked to a specific MHC-II allele,
      the nature of long-lasting granulomas is not fully understood. Here we show that
      Be2+ binds with a micromolar affinity to phosphatidylserine (PS), the major
      surface marker of apoptotic cells. Isothermal titration calorimetry indicates
      that, like that of Ca2+, binding of Be2+ to PS liposomes is largely entropically
      driven, likely by massive desolvation. Be2+ exerts a compacting effect on PS
      monolayers, suggesting cross-linking through coordination by both phosphates and
      carboxyls in multiple configurations, which were visualized in molecular dynamics
      simulations. Electrostatic modification of PS membranes by Be2+ includes complete
      neutralization of surface charges at ~30 MUM, accompanied by an increase in the
      boundary dipole potential. The data suggest that Be2+ can displace Ca2+ from the
      surface of PS, and being coordinated in a tight shell of four oxygens, it can
      mask headgroups from Ca2+-mediated recognition by PS receptors. Indeed, 48 MUM
      Be2+ added to IC-21 cultured macrophages specifically suppresses binding and
      engulfment of PS-coated silica beads or aged erythrocytes. We propose that Be2+
      adsorption at the surface of apoptotic cells may potentially prevent normal
      phagocytosis, thus causing accumulation of secondary necrotic foci and the
      resulting chronic inflammation.

PMID- 28872303
TI  - Hexameric Silver(I) Pyrazolate: Synthesis, Structure, and Isomerization.
AB  - The first binary hexameric silver(I) pyrazolate (Ag6pz6) has been prepared, and X
      ray analysis demonstrated that it takes a rare figure-eight shape (pz- =
      deprotonated tert-butyl 3,5-diphenyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxylate). The hexamer can
      be easily converted to its tetrameric isomer (Ag4pz4) by recrystallization from
      ether. On the basis of the 1H NMR and mass spectrometry measurements, it is
      conjectured that the hexamer, after dissolving in CHCl3, quickly achieves
      equilibrium with Ag4pz4 and Ag3pz3, with the equilibrium lying far to the side of
      smaller rings.

PMID- 28872304
TI  - Development of an Azo-Based Photosensitizer Activated under Mild Hypoxia for
      Photodynamic Therapy.
AB  - Photodynamic therapy (PDT) utilizes photoirradiation in the presence of
      photosensitizers to ablate cancer cells via generation of singlet oxygen (1O2),
      but it is important to minimize concomitant injury to normal tissues. One
      approach for achieving this is to use activatable photosensitizers that can
      generate 1O2 only under specific conditions. Here, we report a novel
      photosensitizer that is selectively activated under hypoxia, a common condition
      in solid tumors. We found that introducing an azo moiety into the conjugated
      system of a seleno-rosamine dye effectively hinders the intersystem crossing
      process that leads to 1O2 generation. We show that the azo group is reductively
      cleaved in cells under hypoxia, enabling production of 1O2 to occur. In PDT in
      vitro, cells under mild hypoxia, within the range typically found in solid tumors
      (up to about 5% O2), were selectively ablated, leaving adjacent normoxic cells
      intact. This simple and practical azo-based strategy should be widely applicable
      to design a range of activatable photosensitizers.

PMID- 28872305
TI  - Increasing the Open-Circuit Voltage of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells via Metal-Ion
      Coordination.
AB  - Considerable efforts are dedicated to increasing the open-circuit voltage (Voc)
      of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by slowing charge recombination dynamics
      using atomic layer deposition, alkyl-substituted dyes, coadsorbents, and other
      strategies. In this report, we introduce metal-ion coordination to a metal oxide
      bound dye as an alternative means of increasing Voc. Metal-ion coordination has
      minimal influence on the photophysical and electrochemical properties of the N3
      dye, but presumably because of increased steric hindrance at the interface, it
      slows charge recombination kinetics and increases Voc by upwards of 130 mV
      relative to the parent N3 DSSC. With respect to the nature of the metal ion, the
      trend in decreasing short-circuit current (Jsc) and increasing Voc correlates
      with the charge of the coordinated metal ion (MIV -> MIII -> MII). We attribute
      this trend to electrostatic interactions between the metal cation and I- or I3-,
      with the more highly charged cations maintaining a higher concentration of
      mediator anions in proximity to the surface and, as a result, increasing the
      regeneration and recombination rates.

PMID- 28872306
TI  - Modulating Supramolecular Peptide Hydrogel Viscoelasticity Using Biomolecular
      Recognition.
AB  - Self-assembled peptide-based hydrogels are emerging materials that have been
      exploited for wound healing, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and other
      applications. In comparison to synthetic polymer hydrogels, supramolecular
      peptide-based gels have advantages in biocompatibility, biodegradability, and
      ease of synthesis and modification. Modification of the emergent viscoelasticity
      of peptide hydrogels in a stimulus responsive fashion is a longstanding goal in
      the development of next-generation materials. In an effort to selectively
      modulate hydrogel viscoelasticity, we report herein a method to enhance the
      elasticity of beta-sheet peptide hydrogels using specific molecular recognition
      events between functionalized hydrogel fibrils and biomolecules. Two distinct
      biomolecular recognition strategies are demonstrated: oligonucleotide Watson
      Crick duplex formation between peptide nucleic acid (PNA) modified fibrils with a
      bridging oligonucleotide and protein-ligand recognition between mannose modified
      fibrils with concanavalin A. These methods to modulate hydrogel elasticity should
      be broadly adaptable in the context of these materials to a wide variety of
      molecular recognition partners.

PMID- 28872307
TI  - Gold Corroles as Near-IR Phosphors for Oxygen Sensing.
AB  - The triplet state of gold(III) corroles is exploited for optical oxygen sensing.
      We report intense phosphorescence for gold(III) corroles in the near-IR, an
      optical window that is ideal for tissue transparency. Moreover, the triplet
      excited-state emission exhibits significant changes in intensity and lifetime
      over the 0-160 Torr O2 pressure range. This renders these compounds sensitive at
      biologically relevant pressures and overcomes the spectral limitations of
      palladium and platinum porphyrins for oxygen sensing in biology.

PMID- 28872308
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative C(sp2)-N Bond Formation via Direct Oxidative
      Activation of an Anilidic N-H Bond: Synthesis of Benzoimidazo[1,2-a]indoles.
AB  - A dehydrogenative C(sp2)-N bond-forming strategy via copper-catalyzed
      intramolecular C-H/N-H coupling has been developed, which systematically
      unraveled the feasibility and practicality for benzoimdazo[1,2-a]indole
      formations through oxidative anilidic N-H activation. The merit of this strategy
      is illustrated by the broad tolerance of functionalities, as well as the
      utilization of extremely cheap copper catalysis to realize potentially useful
      indole-fused tetracycles in a step- and atom-economical manner.

PMID- 28872309
TI  - Recent Progress in Heterogeneous Asymmetric Hydrogenation of C?O and C?C Bonds on
      Supported Noble Metal Catalysts.
AB  - The ease of separation, simple regeneration, and the usually high stability of
      solid catalysts facilitating continuous production processes have stimulated the
      development of heterogeneous asymmetric hydrogenation catalysis. The simplest and
      so far most promising strategy to induce enantioselectivity to solid metal
      catalysts is their modification by chiral organic compounds, as most prominently
      represented by the cinchona-modified Pt and Pd catalysts for the asymmetric
      hydrogenation of activated C?O and C?C bonds. In this Review, we provide a
      systematic account of the research accomplished in the past decade on noble metal
      based heterogeneous asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral C?O and C?C bonds,
      including all important facets of these catalytic systems. The advances made are
      critically analyzed, and future research challenges are identified.

PMID- 28872310
TI  - Mapping the Binding Modes of Hemilabile Pincer-Crown Ether Ligands in Solution
      Using Diamagnetic Anisotropic Effects on NMR Chemical Shift.
AB  - A protocol for identifying ligand binding modes in a series of iridium pincer
      complexes bearing hemilabile aza-crown ether ligands has been developed using
      readily accessible NMR methods. The approach was tested on a collection of 13
      structurally diverse pincer-crown ether complexes that include several newly
      characterized species. New synthetic routes enable facile interconversion of
      coordination modes and supporting ligands. Detailed structural assignments of
      five complexes reveal that the difference in chemical shift (Deltadelta) between
      geminal protons in the crown ether is influenced by diamagnetic anisotropy
      arising from halides and other ligands in the primary coordination sphere. The
      average difference in chemical shift between diastereotopic geminal protons in
      the crown ether macrocycle (Deltadeltaavg), as determined through a single 1H-13C
      HSQC experiment, provides information on the pincer ligand binding mode by
      establishing whether the macrocycle is in close proximity to the metal center.
      The Deltadeltaavg values for binding modes that involve chelating ether(s) bound
      to iridium are roughly 2-fold larger than those for tridentate complexes with no
      Ir-O bonds.

PMID- 28872311
TI  - Debye Process and beta-Relaxation in 1-Propanol Probed by Dielectric Spectroscopy
      and Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering.
AB  - We revisit the reorientational dynamics of 1-propanol as a prototype of a
      monohydroxy alcohol and H-bonding system by dielectric spectroscopy (DS) and
      depolarized dynamic light scattering (DDLS). In particular, we address the
      question of whether the Debye relaxation, which is seen as a dominant process in
      DS, is visible in light scattering and discuss how the Johari-Goldstein (JG) beta
      process, which is also a prominent feature of the dielectric spectrum, appears in
      photon correlation spectroscopy. For that purpose we performed depolarized photon
      correlation experiments with an improved setup and performed additional time
      domain dielectric experiments which gives us the possibility to compare
      dielectric and light scattering data in a broad temperature range. It turns out
      that the improved setup allows to unambiguously identify the JG beta-process,
      which shows almost identical properties in DDLS as in the dielectric spectra, but
      a Debye relaxation is not present in the DDLS data and can be excluded down to a
      level of 2.5% of the alpha-process amplitude.

PMID- 28872312
TI  - Light Adaptation in Phycobilisome Antennas: Influence on the Rod Length and
      Structural Arrangement.
AB  - Phycobilisomes, the light-harvesting antennas of cyanobacteria, can adapt to a
      wide range of environments thanks to a composition and function response to
      stress conditions. We study how structural changes influence excitation transfer
      in these supercomplexes. Specifically, we show the influence of the rod length on
      the photon absorption and subsequent excitation transport to the core. Despite
      the fact that the efficiency of individual disks on the rod decreases with
      increasing rod length, we find an optimal length for which the average rod
      efficiency is maximal. Combining this study with experimental structural
      measurements, we propose models for the arrangement of the phycobiliproteins
      inside the thylakoid membranes, evaluate the importance of rod length, and
      predict the corresponding transport properties for different cyanobacterial
      species. This analysis, which links the functional and structural properties of
      full phycobilisome complexes, thus provides further rationales to help resolve
      their exact structure.

PMID- 28872313
TI  - An Electrochemical Method for Carboxylic Ester Synthesis from N-Alkoxyamides.
AB  - An electrochemical method for the synthesis of carboxylic as well as hindered
      esters from N-alkoxyamides has been reported. The electrochemical reaction
      proceeds through constant current electrolysis (CCE) by taking advantage of the
      dual role of n-Bu4NI (TBAI) as the redox catalyst as well as the supporting
      electrolyte. Besides providing mild reaction conditions, the present protocol is
      free from external oxidants and conducting salts, thereby generating nitrogen as
      the nonhazardous side product. Additionally, the developed procedure is highly
      advantageous due to its short reaction time, wide substrate scope, and gram-scale
      synthesis.

PMID- 28872314
TI  - KuQuinones Equilibria Assessment for Biomedical Applications.
AB  - A small library of pentacyclic quinoid compounds, called KuQuinones (KuQs), has
      been prepared through a one-pot reaction. KuQuinones complex structure is made up
      by two naphthoquinone units connected by a five-membered ring. Due to KuQs
      structural features, keto-enol tautomerization in solution likely occurs, leading
      to the generation of four different species, i.e., the enol, the enolate, the
      external enol and the diquinoid species. The interchange among KuQ tautomers
      leads to substantial spectral variations of the dye depending on the experimental
      conditions used. The comprehension of tautomeric equilibria of this new class of
      quinoid compounds is strongly required in order to explain their behavior in
      solution and in biological environment. UV-vis, 1H NMR spectroscopies, and DFT
      calculations resulted appropriate tools to understand the nature of the prevalent
      KuQuinone species in solution. Moreover, due to the structural similarity of
      KuQuinones with camptothecin (CPT), a largely used anticancer agent, KuQs have
      been tested against Cisplatin-resistant SKOV3 and SW480 cancer cell lines.
      Results highlighted that KuQs are highly active toward the analyzed cell lines
      and almost nontoxic for healthy cell, indicating a high specific activity.

PMID- 28872315
TI  - Universal Equations for the Coalescence Probability and Long-Term Size Stability
      of Phospholipid-Coated Monodisperse Microbubbles Formed by Flow Focusing.
AB  - Resonantly driven monodisperse phospholipid-coated microbubbles are expected to
      substantially increase the sensitivity and efficiency in contrast-enhanced
      ultrasound imaging and therapy. They can be produced in a microfluidic flow
      focusing device, but questions remain as to the role of the device geometry, the
      liquid and gas flow, and the phospholipid formulation on bubble stability. Here,
      we develop a model based on simple continuum mechanics equations that reveals the
      scaling of the coalescence probability with the key physical parameters. It is
      used to characterize short-term coalescence behavior and long-term size stability
      as a function of flow-focusing geometry, bulk viscosity, lipid cosolvent mass
      fraction, lipid concentration, lipopolymer molecular weight, and lipopolymer
      molar fraction. All collected data collapse on two master curves given by
      universal equations for the coalescence probability and the long-term size
      stability. This work is therefore a route to a more fundamental understanding of
      the physicochemical monolayer properties of microfluidically formed bubbles and
      their coalescence behavior in a flow-focusing device.

PMID- 28872316
TI  - Directionality of Cation/Molecule Bonding in Lewis Bases Containing the Carbonyl
      Group.
AB  - Relationship between the C?O-X+ (X = H, Li, Na, K, Al, Cu) angle and covalent
      characteristic of the X+-M (M = CH2O, CH3CHO, acetone, imidazol-2-one (C2H2N2O),
      cytosine, gamma-butyrolactone) was investigated, theoretically. The calculated
      electron densities rho at the bond critical points revealed that the covalency of
      the M-X+ interaction depended on the nature of the cation and varied as H+ > Cu+
      > Al+ > Li+ > Na+ > K+. The alkali cations tended to participate in electrostatic
      interactions and aligned with the direction of the molecule dipole or local
      dipole of C?O group to form linear C?O-X geometries. Because of overlapping with
      lone-pair electrons of the sp2 carbonyl oxygen, the H+ and Cu+ formed a bent C?O
      X angle. Al+ displayed an intermediate behavior; the C?O-Al angle was 180 degrees
      in [CH2O/Al]+ (mainly electrostatic), but when the angle was bent (146 degrees )
      under the effect of local dipole of an adjacent imine group in cytosine, the
      covalency of the CO-Al+ interaction increased. The C?O-X angles in M/X+ adduct
      ions were scanned in different O-X bond lengths. It was found that the most
      favorable C?O-X angle depended on the O-X bond length. This dependency was
      attributed to variation of covalent and electrostatic contributions with O-X
      distance. In addition, the structures of [CH2S/X]+ and [CH2Se/X]+ were studied,
      and only bent C?S-X and C?Se-X angles were obtained for all cations, although the
      dipole vectors of CH2S and CH2Se coincide with the C?S and C?Se bonds. The
      bending of the C?S-X and C?Se-X angles was attributed to the covalent
      characteristic of S-X and Se-X interactions due to high polarizability of S and
      Se atoms.

PMID- 28872317
TI  - Building Complex Kondo Impurities by Manipulating Entangled Spin Chains.
AB  - The creation of molecule-like structures in which magnetic atoms interact
      controllably is full of potential for the study of complex or strongly correlated
      systems. Here, we create spin chains in which a strongly correlated Kondo state
      emerges from magnetic coupling of transition-metal atoms. We build chains up to
      ten atoms in length by placing Fe and Mn atoms on a Cu2N surface with a scanning
      tunneling microscope. The atoms couple antiferromagnetically via superexchange
      interaction through the nitrogen atom network of the surface. The emergent Kondo
      resonance is spatially distributed along the chain. Its strength can be
      controlled by mixing atoms of different transition metal elements and
      manipulating their spatial distribution. We show that the Kondo screening of the
      full chain by the electrons of the nonmagnetic substrate depends on the
      interatomic entanglement of the spins in the chain, demonstrating the
      prerequisites to build and probe spatially extended strongly correlated
      nanostructures.

PMID- 28872318
TI  - Topological Defects in Hexagonal Manganites: Inner Structure and Emergent
      Electrostatics.
AB  - Diverse topological defects arise in hexagonal manganites, such as ferroelectric
      vortices, as well as neutral and charged domain walls. The topological defects
      are intriguing because their low symmetry enables unusual couplings between
      structural, charge, and spin degrees of freedom, holding great potential for
      novel types of functional 2D and 1D systems. Despite the considerable advances in
      analyzing the different topological defects in hexagonal manganites, the
      understanding of their key intrinsic properties is still rather limited and
      disconnected. In particular, a rapidly increasing number of structural variants
      is reported without clarifying their relation, leading to a zoo of seemingly
      unrelated topological textures. Here, we combine picometer-precise scanning
      transmission-electron microscopy with Landau theory modeling to clarify the inner
      structure of topological defects in Er1-xZrxMnO3. By performing a comprehensive
      parametrization of the inner atomic defect structure, we demonstrate that one
      primary length scale drives the morphology of both vortices and domain walls. Our
      findings lead to a unifying general picture of this type of structural
      topological defects. We further derive novel fundamental and universal
      properties, such as unusual bound-charge distributions and electrostatics at the
      ferroelectric vortex cores with emergent U(1) symmetry.

PMID- 28872319
TI  - In Situ Dual Cross-Linking of Neat Biogel with Controlled Mechanical and Delivery
      Properties.
AB  - Injectable biomaterials play a critical role in many biomedical applications.
      These materials, however, often have limitations in mechanical and drug-eluting
      properties attributed to their high water content and the weak secondary forces
      holding them together. Here we describe a new injectable material based on two
      complementary water-free, prepolymers modified with succinimidyl carbonate (SC)
      or with NH2 end groups that form a stiff matrix upon mixing. Cross-linking
      involves an immediate reaction between PEG4-SC and PEG4-NH2 that forms carbamate
      bonds and a delayed reaction of PEG4-SC with hydroxyl functional groups that
      forms carbonate bonds. The mechanical properties, swelling, and erosion kinetics
      of this biomaterial can be fine-tuned by varying the ratio between the two
      prepolymers. Bovine serum albumin and poorly water-soluble free base doxorubicin
      were readily loaded into this system, resulting in a high drug loading content
      attributed to the absence of water in the formulation. Controlled release over a
      period of 1 to 30 days was observed, depending on mixture composition and drug
      properties. The injectable nature of the formulation, its tailored mechanical
      properties, the fact that it can be cross-linked by two separate mechanisms, and
      its ability to incorporate and release hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs make it
      very attractive as a drug delivery system.

PMID- 28872320
TI  - Reassessing Graphene Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy.
AB  - We present a new paradigm for understanding optical absorption and hot electron
      dynamics experiments in graphene. Our analysis pivots on assigning proper
      importance to phonon-assisted indirect processes and bleaching of direct
      processes. We show indirect processes figure in the excess absorption in the UV
      region. Experiments which were thought to indicate ultrafast relaxation of
      electrons and holes, reaching a thermal distribution from an extremely nonthermal
      one in under 5-10 fs, instead are explained by the nascent electron and hole
      distributions produced by indirect transitions. These need no relaxation or ad
      hoc energy removal to agree with the observed emission spectra and fast pulsed
      absorption spectra. The fast emission following pulsed absorption is dominated by
      phonon-assisted processes, which vastly outnumber direct ones and are always
      available, connecting any electron with any hole any time. Calculations are
      given, including explicitly calculating the magnitude of indirect processes,
      supporting these views.

PMID- 28872321
TI  - OleB from Bacterial Hydrocarbon Biosynthesis Is a beta-Lactone Decarboxylase That
      Shares Key Features with Haloalkane Dehalogenases.
AB  - OleB is an alpha/beta-hydrolase found in bacteria that biosynthesize long-chain
      olefinic hydrocarbons, but its function has remained obscure. We report that OleB
      from the Gram-negative bacterium Xanthomonas campestris performs an unprecedented
      beta-lactone decarboxylation reaction, to complete cis-olefin biosynthesis. OleB
      reactions monitored by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed a
      selectivity for decarboxylating cis-beta-lactones and no discernible activity
      with trans-beta-lactones, consistent with the known configuration of pathway
      intermediates. Protein sequence analyses showed OleB proteins were most related
      to haloalkane dehalogenases (HLDs) and retained the canonical Asp-His-Asp
      catalytic triad of HLDs. Unexpectedly, it was determined that an understudied
      subfamily, denoted as HLD-III, is comprised mostly of OleB proteins encoded
      within oleABCD gene clusters, suggesting a misannotation. OleB from X. campestris
      showed very low dehalogenase activity only against haloalkane substrates with
      long alkyl chains. A haloalkane substrate mimic alkylated wild-type X. campestris
      OleB but not OleBD114A, implicating this residue as the active site nucleophile
      as in HLDs. A sequence-divergent OleB, found as part of a natural OleBC fusion
      and classified as an HLD-III, from the Gram-positive bacterium Micrococcus luteus
      was demonstrated to have the same activity, stereochemical preference, and
      dependence on the proposed Asp nucleophile. H218O studies with M. luteus OleBC
      suggested that the canonical alkyl-enzyme intermediate of HLDs is hydrolyzed
      differently by OleB enzymes, as 18O is not incorporated into the nucleophilic
      aspartic acid. This work defines a previously unrecognized reaction in nature,
      functionally identifies some HLD-III enzymes as beta-lactone decarboxylases, and
      posits an enzymatic mechanism of beta-lactone decarboxylation.

PMID- 28872322
TI  - Local vs Nonlocal States in FeTiO3 Probed with 1s2pRIXS: Implications for
      Photochemistry.
AB  - Metal-metal charge transfer (MMCT) is expected to be the main mechanism that
      enables the harvesting of solar light by iron-titanium oxides for photocatalysis.
      We have studied FeTiO3 as a model compound for MMCT with 1s2pRIXS at the Fe K
      edge. The high-energy resolution XANES enables distinguishing five pre-edge
      features. The three first well distinct RIXS features are assigned to electric
      quadrupole transitions to the localized Fe* 3d states, shifted to lower energy by
      the 1s core-hole. Crystal field multiplet calculations confirm the speciation of
      divalent iron. The contribution of electric dipole absorption due to local p-d
      mixing allowed by the trigonal distortion of the cation site is supported by DFT
      and CFM calculations. The two other nonlocal features are assigned to electric
      dipole transitions to excited Fe* 4p states mixed with the neighboring Ti 3d
      states. The comparison with DFT calculations demonstrates that MMCT in ilmenite
      is favored by the hybridization between the Fe 4p and delocalized Ti 3d orbitals
      via the O 2p orbitals.

PMID- 28872323
TI  - Insight of Transmembrane Processes of Self-Assembling Nanotubes Based on a Cyclic
      Peptide Using Coarse Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulation.
AB  - Transmembrane self-assembling cyclic peptide (SCP) nanotubes are promising
      candidates for delivering specific molecules through cell membranes. The detailed
      mechanisms behind the transmembrane processes, as well as stabilization factors
      of transmembrane structures, are difficult to elucidate through experiments. In
      this study, the effects of peptide sequence and oligomeric state on the
      transmembrane capabilities of SCP nanotubes and the perturbation of embedded SCP
      nanotubes acting on the membrane were investigated based on coarse grained
      molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results reveal that hydrophilic SCP
      oligomers result in the elevation of the energy barrier while the oligomerization
      of hydrophobic SCPs causes the reduction of the energy barrier, further leading
      to membrane insertion. Once SCP nanotubes are embedded, membrane properties such
      as density, thickness, ordering state and lateral mobility are adjusted along the
      radial direction. This study provides insight into the transmembrane strategy of
      SCP nanotubes and sheds light on designing novel transport systems.

PMID- 28872324
TI  - Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Solute Retention at Heterogeneous Interfaces.
AB  - Despite considerable effort, a molecular-level understanding of the mechanisms
      governing adsorption/desorption in reversed-phase liquid chromatography is still
      lacking. This impedes rational design of columns and the development of reliable,
      computationally more efficient approaches to predict the selectivity of a
      particular column design. Using state-of-the art, validated force fields and free
      energy simulations, the adsorption thermodynamics of benzene derivatives is
      investigated in atomistic detail and provides a quantitative microscopic
      understanding of retention when compared with experimental data. It is found that
      pure partitioning or pure adsorption is rather the exception than the rule.
      Typically, a pronounced ~1 kcal/mol stabilization on the surface is accompanied
      by a broad trough indicative of partitioning before the probe molecule
      incorporates into the mobile phase. The present findings provide a quantitative
      and rational basis to develop improved effective, coarse-grained computational
      models and to design columns for specific applications.

PMID- 28872325
TI  - Scale Effect on the Interface Reaction between PDMS-E Emulsion Droplets and
      Gelatin.
AB  - In this study, the scale effect on the interface reaction between PDMS-E emulsion
      droplets and gelatin was studied systematically. The monodisperse alpha-[3-(2,3
      epoxy-propoxy)propyl]-omega-butyl-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS-E) emulsion droplets
      on different scales were prepared using a Shirasu porous glass (SPG) membrane
      with a 0.5 MUm pore size. The zeta potential results showed that the surface
      charge density of PDMS-E droplets decreased with the droplet scale, and the
      variation went through three stages, which corresponded to the diameter ranges of
      100-450, 450-680, and 670-800 nm, respectively. The results of Raman spectra
      indicated that the distribution concentration of head groups in surfactants
      decreased but the polar epoxy groups tend to be exposed on the interface with the
      increase in the droplet scale. This was conducive to the nucleophilic attack of
      amino groups in gelatin on the epoxy group. Thus, the conversion of amino groups
      was related to the scale of the PDMS-E droplet. This study might provide a proper
      way to control the rate of interfacial reaction between immiscible macromolecule
      monomers.

PMID- 28872326
TI  - Was it race or merit?: The cognitive costs of observing the attributionally
      ambiguous hiring of a racial minority.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study investigated individual and situational factors that may
      make observing positive treatment of an ingroup member attributionally ambiguous
      and cognitively taxing for ethnic minority perceivers. METHOD: 163 Latino/a
      participants who varied in the perception that Whites are externally motivated to
      behave positively toward minorities (Perceived External Motivation Scale; PEMS)
      observed a Latino candidate selected over 2 White candidates by a White Human
      Resources officer. The selected candidate was or was not the most qualified and a
      diversity rationale was or was not provided. Participants subsequently performed
      a test of cognitive interference. RESULTS: When a less-qualified minority
      candidate was selected, the presence (vs. absence) of a diversity rationale
      increased cognitive interference among low PEMS participants, but decreased
      cognitive interference among high PEMS participants. Results suggest that a
      diversity rationale made the selection of a less qualified minority more
      ambiguous for low PEMS but less ambiguous for high PEMS participants.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present study informs our understanding of when and for whom
      Whites' positive behavior is perceived as attributionally ambiguous. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28872328
TI  - Equal but different: Effects of equality/inclusion and cultural pluralism on
      intergroup outcomes in multiethnic classrooms.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Integrating research on intergroup contact and intercultural
      relations, we investigated effects of 2 types of cultural diversity norms
      (equality/inclusion and cultural pluralism) on outgroup orientation and perceived
      discrimination among students of immigrant and nonimmigrant background. METHOD:
      Our sample comprised 1,975 6th graders (Mage = 11.53, SDage = 0.69, 47% female)
      in Germany, of whom 1,213 (61%) were of immigrant background, defined as having
      at least 1 parent born in a different country. A total of 83 countries of origin
      were represented. We applied a multilevel framework to assess the impact of
      individual-level and class-level predictors on intergroup outcomes, controlling
      for the classroom ethnic composition, school track, and individual-level
      covariates. Immigrant background was treated as a moderator. RESULTS: The 2 types
      of cultural diversity norms were generally associated with more positive
      intergroup outcomes. Some of the associations differed in strength between
      students of immigrant and nonimmigrant background. There were stronger
      associations of equality/inclusion with higher outgroup orientation among
      students of nonimmigrant background and with lower perceived discrimination among
      students of immigrant background. Ethnic composition, as well as the classroom
      aggregated diversity norms (diversity climate) showed weaker relations with the
      outcome variables. CONCLUSIONS: Equality/inclusion norms and cultural pluralism
      norms can make complementary contributions to positive relations between students
      of immigrant and nonimmigrant background. Equality/inclusion norms foster
      positive contact and equal treatment, while cultural pluralism norms emphasize
      that it is also important to value diversity.1 (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872327
TI  - Cultural socialization attitudes and behaviors: Examining mothers' centrality,
      discrimination experiences, and children's effortful control as moderators.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The current study examined whether mothers' cultural socialization
      attitudes predicted cultural socialization behaviors. In addition, we tested
      whether this association was moderated by children's effortful control, mothers'
      ethnic-racial centrality, and mothers' experiences of ethnic discrimination.
      METHOD: Mexican-origin young mothers (N = 181; Mage = 20.97 years) completed the
      Cultural Socialization Attitudes Measure, a revised version of the
      Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity, the Child Behavior Questionnaire
      Very Short Form, and the Perceived Discrimination Scale during an interview and
      then completed the Cultural Socialization Behaviors Measure a year later.
      RESULTS: Findings indicated that mothers' cultural socialization attitudes when
      their children were 4 years of age positively predicted their cultural
      socialization behaviors 1 year later. Furthermore, experiencing higher ethnic
      discrimination strengthened the association between mothers' cultural
      socialization attitudes and behaviors. In addition, mothers' ethnic-racial
      centrality and children's effortful control were positively associated with
      mothers' cultural socialization behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: These findings contribute
      to the literature by underscoring the role of individual characteristics and
      context in cultural socialization efforts with young children over time.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872329
TI  - Sequential effects modulate spatial biases.
AB  - Healthy individuals usually display a bias toward the left side of space. This
      effect can be measured in a line bisection task or, alternatively, in a landmark
      task where prebisected lines are presented to participants. Several factors have
      been shown to influence pseudoneglect, that is, to vary the magnitude of the left
      side bias. We performed 2 landmark experiments: 1 online (n = 801) and a 2nd in
      the laboratory (n = 20). Our results demonstrate that pseudoneglect is strongly
      modulated by the sequence of trials in a landmark task. Of particular relevance
      is the fact that, for some histories of responses, pseudoneglect is inverted such
      that apparently there is a preference for the right side. In addition, we show
      that the way in which the point of subjective equality depends on the previous
      sequence of trials is well approximated by an exponential filter, well known from
      the literature of sequential effects to be related to motor control. In other
      words, the type of sequential effects we encountered in the landmark task is
      consistent with a purely motor contribution, further deepening our understanding
      of the way motor control influences pseudoneglect. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872330
TI  - The effects of verbal descriptions on performance in lineups and showups.
AB  - Verbally describing a face has been found to impair subsequent recognition of
      that face from a photo lineup, a phenomenon known as the verbal overshadowing
      effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). Recently, a large direct replication
      study successfully reproduced that original finding (Alogna et al., 2014).
      However, in both the original study and the replication studies, memory was
      tested using only target-present lineups (i.e., lineups containing the previously
      seen target face), making it possible to compute the correct identification rate
      (correct ID rate; i.e., the hit rate) but not the false identification rate
      (false ID rate; i.e., the false alarm rate). Thus, the lower correct ID rate for
      the verbal condition could reflect either reduced discriminability or a
      conservative criterion shift relative to the control condition. In four verbal
      overshadowing experiments reported here, we measured both correct ID rates and
      false ID rates using photo lineups (Experiments 1 and 2) or single-photo showups
      (Experiments 3 and 4). The experimental manipulation (verbally describing the
      face or not) occurred either immediately after encoding (Experiments 1 and 3) or
      20-min after encoding (Experiments 2 and 4). In the immediate condition,
      discriminability did not differ between groups, but in the delayed condition,
      discriminability was lower in the verbal description group (i.e., a verbal
      overshadowing effect was observed). A fifth experiment found that the effect of
      the immediate-versus-delayed manipulation may be attributable to a change in the
      content of verbal descriptions, with the ratio of diagnostic to generic facial
      features in the descriptions decreasing as delay increases. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28872331
TI  - How do people think about interdependence? A multidimensional model of subjective
      outcome interdependence.
AB  - Interdependence is a fundamental characteristic of social interactions.
      Interdependence Theory states that 6 dimensions describe differences between
      social situations. Here we examine if these 6 dimensions describe how people
      think about their interdependence with others in a situation. We find that people
      (in situ and ex situ) can reliably differentiate situations according to 5, but
      not 6, dimensions of interdependence: (a) mutual dependence, (b) power, (c)
      conflict, (d) future interdependence, and (e) information certainty. This model
      offers a unique framework for understanding how people think about social
      situations compared to another recent model of situation construal (DIAMONDS).
      Furthermore, we examine factors that are theorized to shape perceptions of
      interdependence, such as situational cues (e.g., nonverbal behavior) and
      personality (e.g., HEXACO and Social Value Orientation). We also study the
      implications of subjective interdependence for emotions and cooperative behavior
      during social interactions. This model of subjective interdependence explains
      substantial variation in the emotions people experience in situations (i.e.,
      happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust), and explains 24% of the variance in
      cooperation, above and beyond the DIAMONDS model. Throughout these studies, we
      develop and validate a multidimensional measure of subjective outcome
      interdependence that can be used in diverse situations and relationships-the
      Situational Interdependence Scale (SIS). We discuss how this model of
      interdependence can be used to better understand how people think about social
      situations encountered in close relationships, organizations, and society.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872332
TI  - The road to extremism: Field and experimental evidence that significance loss
      induced need for closure fosters radicalization.
AB  - The present studies examined the hypothesis that loss of personal significance
      fuels extremism via the need for cognitive closure. Situations of significance
      loss-those that make one feel ashamed, humiliated, or demeaned-are inconsistent
      with the desire for a positive self-image, and instill a sense of uncertainty
      about the self. Consequently, individuals become motivated to seek certainty and
      closure that affords the restoration of personal significance. Extremist
      ideologies should thus increase in appeal, because they promise clear-cut
      strategies for such restoration. These notions were supported in a series of
      studies ranging from field surveys of political extremists imprisoned in the
      Philippines (Study 1) and Sri Lanka (Study 2) to experiments conducted with
      American samples (Studies 3-4). Implications of these findings are considered for
      the psychology of extremism, and for approaches to counterradicalization, and
      deradicalization. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872333
TI  - Examining Wellness Programs Over Time: Predicting Participation and Workplace
      Outcomes.
AB  - The return on investment of employer wellness programs has been heavily debated
      in recent years, yet existing research has failed to adequately assess the
      psychological factors that motivate program participation and how participation
      relates to organizationally relevant employee attitudes and behaviors. Using data
      over a 3-year period, we found beliefs about the value of employee wellness
      programs and perceived organizational support (POS) for wellness to be linked to
      wellness program participation through the mediation of intention to participate
      in the wellness program. Those with greater wellness participation were found to
      have higher performance ratings, higher job satisfaction, higher intention to
      stay, and lower turnover. However, the effects for job satisfaction and intention
      to stay disappeared when controlling for prior levels of satisfaction and
      intention to stay in cross-lagged models. Implications for scholars and
      practitioners are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872334
TI  - Disgust sensitivity is primarily associated with purity-based moral judgments.
AB  - Individual differences in disgust sensitivity are associated with a range of
      judgments and attitudes related to the moral domain. Some perspectives suggest
      that the association between disgust sensitivity and moral judgments will be
      equally strong across all moral domains (i.e., purity, authority, loyalty, care,
      fairness, and liberty). Other perspectives predict that disgust sensitivity is
      primarily associated with judgments of specific moral domains (e.g., primarily
      purity). However, no study has systematically tested if disgust sensitivity is
      associated with moral judgments of the purity domain specifically, more generally
      to moral judgments of the binding moral domains, or to moral judgments of all of
      the moral domains equally. Across 5 studies (total N = 1,104), we find consistent
      evidence for the notion that disgust sensitivity relates more strongly to moral
      condemnation of purity-based transgressions (meta-analytic r = .40) than to moral
      condemnation of transgressions of any of the other domains (range meta-analytic
      rs: .07-.27). Our findings are in line with predictions from Moral Foundations
      Theory, which predicts that personality characteristics like disgust sensitivity
      make people more sensitive to a certain set of moral issues. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28872335
TI  - Do emotional control beliefs lead people to approach positive or negative
      situations? Two competing effects of control beliefs on emotional situation
      selection.
AB  - Control beliefs are widely acknowledged to play a critical role in self
      regulation and well-being, but their impact on decisions to approach or avoid
      situations that vary in emotional valence remains unclear. We propose that two
      contradictory, yet equally intuitive, predictions can be made about the impact of
      control beliefs on emotional situation selection. On the one hand, control
      beliefs might encourage individuals to initiate proactive emotion regulatory
      efforts, helping people select positive situations. On the other hand, control
      beliefs might promote a sense of confidence in one's ability to manage emotions
      once they arise, helping people select negative situations. We propose that both
      effects occur via different mechanisms and suppress one another: control beliefs
      facilitate (1) positivity engagement by enhancing awareness of opportunities to
      regulate emotions, and (2) negativity engagement by enhancing confidence in one's
      ability to handle negative situations. We found support for this framework in
      four studies. Consistent with our hypotheses, control beliefs (measured in
      Studies 1-3 and manipulated in Study 4) exerted two simultaneous and competing
      effects on emotional situation selection (assessed via self-report measures in
      Studies 1 and 2 and behaviorally in Studies 3 and 4) via the proposed mechanisms,
      and evidence of suppression was found. New opportunities for research on control
      beliefs, emotion regulation, and motivation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28872336
TI  - Differential effects of rejection and acceptance on feeling shocked, numb, and
      neutral.
AB  - According to the numbness hypothesis, rejection may not result in negative
      affect, but rather create several "nonvalenced" feelings, including feeling
      shocked, neutral, and numb. These feelings are hypothesized to lessen the extent
      to which people respond emotionally to various situations (emotional
      responsiveness). This project investigates (a) whether rejection produces these
      rarely assessed "nonvalenced" states, (b) to what extent these states are similar
      to one another and not negative, and (c) whether these states account for
      rejected individuals' lack of emotional responsiveness. In 3 experiments,
      participants experienced 3 different rejection manipulations. Participants
      reported their positive, negative, and "nonvalenced" feelings (Experiments 1, 2,
      and 3), and completed measures of emotional responsiveness (Experiments 2 and 3).
      A meta-analysis across the 3 experiments indicated that rejection increased
      negative affectivity, anger, hurt feelings, sadness, shock, and numbness, and
      decreased happiness, but did not significantly alter neutrality, positive
      affectivity, nor anxiety. In line with the view that these nonvalenced states are
      discriminable from each other, but in contrast with the numbness hypothesis,
      shock and numbness were positively correlated with negative affective states;
      whereas neutrality displayed weaker to null associations with them. Lastly,
      neither shock, neutrality, nor numbness mediated the link between rejection and
      emotional responding. In fact, increased negative and positive affect mediated
      the association between rejection and enhanced emotional responding. Overall, the
      data are inconsistent with the numbness hypothesis; albeit rejection produces
      shock and numbness, these 2 states are highly associated with increased negative
      affect and did not dampen emotional responsiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872337
TI  - The short-term stability of life satisfaction judgments.
AB  - Life satisfaction judgments are thought to reflect people's overall evaluation of
      the quality of their lives as a whole. Because the circumstances of these lives
      typically do not change very quickly, life satisfaction judgments should be
      relatively stable over time. However, some evidence suggests that these judgments
      can be easily manipulated, which leads to low stability even over very short
      intervals. The current study uses a unique data set that includes multiple
      assessments of life satisfaction over both long (up to 4 years) and short (over
      the course of a single interview) intervals to assess whether information that is
      made salient during the course of an interview affects life satisfaction
      judgments at the end of the interview. Results suggest that this intervening
      information has only small effects on the final judgment and that placement
      within an interview has little influence on the judgment that people provide.
      (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID- 28872338
TI  - Perceptions of valence and arousal uniquely contribute to perceptions of
      ambiguous group membership from faces.
AB  - Although previous research has considered the role of emotional valence in the
      perception and communication of group membership, the influence of perceived
      emotional arousal remains relatively unexplored. Here, we examined how valence
      and arousal simultaneously contribute to perceptions of sexual orientation and
      political affiliation at 3 distinct levels of analysis: within perceivers,
      between perceivers, and between targets. We found that valence distinguished
      targets best, reflecting socioemotional stereotypes, whereas arousal largely
      accounted for individual differences among perceivers, suggesting that
      perceptions of group membership partly depend on how each perceiver evaluates
      targets' level of arousal. Valence and arousal therefore provide distinct
      information during social categorization, highlighting the importance of
      considering different levels of analysis to achieve a more complete understanding
      of person perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights
      reserved).

PMID- 28872339
TI  - Beyond personality traits: Which facial expressions imply dominance in two-person
      interaction scenes?
AB  - The ability to perceive a person's dominance plays an important role in survival
      and pro-social behavior. Perceived dominance has been investigated via
      assessments of facial expressions in 1-on-1 interaction situations, with
      expressions of anger and disgust judged to be more dominant. Given that human
      social interactions are complex, and multiple individuals interact at the same
      time, we investigated perceptions of trait dominance (an individual's competence
      and tendency to engage in dominant behavior) and relative dominance (an
      individual's social dominance within a social group). Participants were asked to
      rate the trait dominance of individuals depicted in pictorial stimuli. Results
      indicated that participants judged individuals expressing anger and disgust
      higher on trait dominance than individuals expressing happiness. Interestingly,
      when participants judged which of 2 individuals were more dominant in a
      confrontation scene, they judged individuals with happy expressions to be more
      dominant. These perceptions were consistent independent of the overall context.
      These results suggest that humans perceive social dominance without comparing
      personality trait dominance, and that criteria for evaluating social and
      personality trait dominance differ. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28872341
TI  - Smelling the space around us: Odor pleasantness shifts visuospatial attention in
      humans.
AB  - The prompt recognition of pleasant and unpleasant odors is a crucial regulatory
      and adaptive need of humans. Reactive answers to unpleasant odors ensure survival
      in many threatening situations. Notably, although humans typically react to
      certain odors by modulating their distance from the olfactory source, the effect
      of odor pleasantness over the orienting of visuospatial attention is still
      unknown. To address this issue, we first trained participants to associate visual
      shapes with pleasant and unpleasant odors, and then we assessed the impact of
      this association on a visuospatial task. Results showed that the use of trained
      shapes as flankers modulates performance in a line bisection task. Specifically,
      it was found that the estimated midpoint was shifted away from the visual shape
      associated with the unpleasant odor, whereas it was moved toward the shape
      associated with the pleasant odor. This finding demonstrates that odor
      pleasantness selectively shifts human attention in the surrounding space.
      (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID- 28872340
TI  - Relations of emotion-related temperamental characteristics to attentional biases
      and social functioning.
AB  - The current study examined whether an important temperamental characteristic,
      effortful control (EC), moderates the associations between dispositional anger
      and sadness, attention biases, and social functioning in a group of preschool
      aged children (N = 77). Preschoolers' attentional biases toward angry and sad
      facial expressions were assessed using eye-tracking, and we obtained teachers'
      reports of children's temperament and social functioning. Associations of
      dispositional anger and sadness with time looking at relevant negative emotional
      stimuli were moderated by children's EC, but relations between time looking at
      emotional faces and indicators of social functioning, for the most part, were
      direct and not moderated by EC. In particular, time looking at angry faces (and
      low EC) predicted high levels of aggressive behaviors, whereas longer time
      looking at sad faces (and high EC) predicted higher social competence. Finally,
      latency to detect angry faces predicted aggressive behavior under conditions of
      average and low levels of EC. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance
      of differentiating between components of attention biases toward distinct
      negative emotions, and implications for attention training. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28872342
TI  - Proactive deprioritization of emotional distractors enhances target perception.
AB  - There are many situations in which it is important to focus on a task in the face
      of emotional distraction. Yet, emotional distractors can impair our ability to
      report items that appear soon after them, an effect known as emotion-induced
      blindness (EIB). To what degree does it help to know about emotional distractors
      ahead of time? Can we deprioritize emotional distractors when forewarned that
      they will appear? To address this question, we tested whether participants could
      overcome EIB when forewarned about the nature of an emotional distractor. On each
      trial, participants searched for 1 target (a rotated picture) presented within a
      rapid serial visual stream of upright images. An aversive, erotic, or neutral
      distractor could precede the target by either 200 or 400 ms. At the start of some
      trials, participants were informed which kind of distractor would appear on that
      trial, but in other trials they received no advance information. Results revealed
      that the provision of distractor information significantly improved target
      perception as early as 200 ms following both aversive and erotic distractors.
      These results suggest that people can "brace themselves" in the service of an
      attentional task by proactively deprioritizing emotional distractors. (PsycINFO
      Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID- 28872343
TI  - In the spirit of full disclosure: Maternal distress, emotion validation, and
      adolescent disclosure of distressing experiences.
AB  - The purpose of the current study was to investigate the dynamic process of
      disclosure within the adolescent-mother relationship by examining how maternal
      personal distress and validation of adolescent negative affect would be related
      to adolescent disclosure of a distressing experience for the first time. A
      community sample of 66 mothers and their adolescent children (M = 14.31 years,
      58% female) participated. The adolescents disclosed an emotionally distressing
      experience to their mothers for the first time. Mothers' validating behaviors and
      personal distress in response to their adolescents' expressions of negative
      emotion were predictive of adolescent disclosure. Adolescents made less detailed
      or substantive disclosures to their mothers when adolescents perceived their
      mothers as less validating of their negative emotions and when mothers were more
      likely to become distressed themselves. Neither adolescent-perceived maternal
      invalidation nor observed maternal validating or invalidating behaviors were
      related to adolescent disclosure. Maternal personal distress was further
      indirectly associated with less substantive disclosures through less maternal
      validation of negative emotion. These findings provide the foundation for future
      research evaluating clinical interventions targeted at increasing mothers'
      emotion regulation skills and validation of children's negative emotions. Such
      interventions may provide an effective way to promote better mother-adolescent
      communication, especially in regard to distressing experiences. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28872344
TI  - Quality of return to work in patients with mild traumatic brain injury: a
      prospective investigation of associations among post-concussion symptoms,
      neuropsychological functions, working status and stability.
AB  - PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Although 'return to work' (RTW) has been always emphasized for
      patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), methodological drawbacks
      weakened its representativeness. This study thus aims to evaluate the 'work
      quality' (WQ) which originated from 'working status' and 'working stability'
      simultaneously, and to further explore the associations among post-concussion
      symptoms (PCS), neuropsychological functions and WQ. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A
      total of 179 participants, which included 132 patients with MTBI and 47 healthy
      participants, were prospectively recruited. The work quality index (WQI) was
      developed to evaluate WQ. All patients were evaluated for their PCS,
      neuropsychological functions and WQ at two weeks post-injury (T1), while PCS and
      WQ were recorded by one month post-injury (T2). RESULTS: More than half of the
      patients were not able to retain their pre-injury jobs at T1, while 26% of the
      patients still failed to regain previous works at T2. Interestingly, WQ was
      significantly associated with educational levels and physical PCS, such as
      headache and dizziness. CONCLUSIONS: Simultaneously considering working status
      and stability to reveal the quality of RTW is merited. A higher educational level
      might be a protective factor for successful RTW, and ameliorating physical
      symptoms is also necessary to get favourable WQ by one month after MTBI.

PMID- 28872345
TI  - Intra-cerebral cannabidiol infusion-induced neuroprotection is partly associated
      with the TNF-alpha/TNFR1/NF-kB pathway in transient focal cerebral ischaemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is a neurological disease, which, in addition to high
      mortality, imposes many financial and mental burdens on families and the society.
      The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of cannabidiol
      (CBD) on one of the major inflammatory pathways in cerebral ischaemia. METHOD:
      Using stereotaxic surgery, the cannula was implanted into the right lateral
      ventricle of rats. CBD (50, 100, and 200 ng/rat; i.c.v.) was administrated for
      five consecutive days. After pretreatment, the rats were subjected to 60 min of
      right middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). After 24 h, neurological deficits
      score, infarct volume, brain oedema, and blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability
      in total, core, and penumbra areas were assessed. The expression of tumour
      necrosis factor alfa (TNF-alpha), tumour necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), and
      nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) in the mentioned regions was also studied.
      RESULTS: Administration of CBD (100 and 200 ng/rat) caused a significant
      reduction in infarction, brain oedema, and BBB permeability compared with the
      vehicle-received group. Down-regulation of TNF-alpha, TNFR1, and NF-kB expression
      was also observed by CBD. CONCLUSION: The results achieved in this study support
      the idea that CBD has a cerebroprotective effect (partly through suppression of
      TNF-alpha, TNFR1, and NF-kB) on ischaemic injury. ABBREVIATIONS: CBD,
      cannabidiol; ANOVA, analysis of variance; PVDF, polyvinylidene difluoride; SDS
      PAGE, sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; SEM, standard
      error of mean.

PMID- 28872346
TI  - Seasonal Variations in Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations and Development
      of Overweight during Adolescence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few longitudinal studies have examined seasonal variation in meeting
      physical activity (PA) recommendations in association with incident overweight
      among adolescents. METHODS: We assessed self-reported, season-specific PA among
      12,949 adolescents in two US cohorts (Growing Up Today Studies 1 and 2). We
      examined the relationship between the number of seasons per year that adolescents
      met the recommended amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and
      vigorous physical activity (VPA), respectively, and the development of incident
      overweight at the next survey period. The sex-specific analyses controlled for
      follow-up time, survey month, age, race/ethnicity, sexual maturation, television
      viewing, region of the country, and intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages and
      fried foods away from home. RESULTS: About one-third (34%) of adolescents met the
      MVPA recommendation of 60 minutes/day, and one-quarter (24%) the VPA
      recommendation of 3 hours/week, for four seasons of the baseline year. The risk
      of becoming overweight was 23% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5%-45%) higher for
      girls who met the MVPA recommendation for 2 (vs. 4) seasons/year. The risk was
      similar for girls who met the recommendation for 1 (vs. 4) season/year (odds
      ratio = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.05-1.44). The number of seasons each year boys met the
      MVPA recommendation, or girls or boys met the VPA recommendation, was not
      associated with an increased risk of incident overweight. CONCLUSIONS: Meeting
      the MVPA recommendation for 1 or 2 (vs. 4) seasons/year is related to higher risk
      of becoming overweight among adolescent girls but not boys. Interventions to
      increase PA levels each season may contribute to overweight prevention efforts
      among girls.

PMID- 28872347
TI  - Central aortic systolic blood pressure can predict prolonged QTc duration better
      than brachial artery systolic blood pressure in rural community residents.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have suggested that prolonged electrocardiogram QTc
      duration was independent risk factor for both increased cardiovascular and all
      cause mortality, but there was no dating about the relationship between central
      aortic systolic blood pressure (CASP) and QTc duration. The aim of this study was
      to analyze the relationship between CASP and QTc duration, and assess whether
      CASP can predict prolonged QTc duration more than BSBP. METHODS: A total of 500
      patients were enrolled in this study, central and brachial aortic blood pressure
      and electrocardiogram QTc duration were measured. Pearson correlation was
      assessed for determining the associations of QTc duration with clinical
      conditions. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine
      the independent predictor of prolonged QTc duration. Receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the utility of blood pressure for
      prolonged QTc duration. RESULTS: We found QTc durations were significantly
      positive with CASP (r = 0.308, p < 0.001), BSBP (r = 0.227, p < 0.001), and age
      (r = 0.154, p = 0.010), but negatively related to heart rate (r = -440, p <
      0.001). A multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the CASP was an
      independent determinant of prolonged QTc (OR = 1.648; 95%CI: 1.032, 2.101; p <
      0.001). CASP had a better predictive value for prolonged QTc duration than (AUC:
      0.771 vs. 0.646, p < 0.001) BSBP. CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that the non
      invasive CASP is independently correlated with QTc duration, and CASP can predict
      prolonged QTc duration more than BSBP.

PMID- 28872348
TI  - Marijuana and Breastfeeding: Applicability of the Current Literature to Clinical
      Practice.
AB  - With recent legalization of marijuana in numerous U.S. states, the risk of
      marijuana exposure via breast milk is a rising concern. This review analyzes the
      available human and animal literature regarding maternal use of marijuana during
      lactation. The findings can be categorized into four areas of analysis: effects
      of marijuana on the mother, transfer into milk, transfer to the offspring, and
      effects on the offspring. Human and animal data have reported decreased prolactin
      levels as well as potential maternal psychological changes. Animal and human
      studies have reported transfer into milk; levels were detected in animal
      offspring, and metabolites were excreted by both human and animal offspring.
      Further, animal data have predominately displayed motor, neurobehavioral, and
      developmental effects, whereas human data suggested possible psychomotor
      outcomes; however, some studies reported no effect. Despite these results, many
      human studies were marred by limitations, including small sample sizes and
      confounding variables. Also, the applicability of animal data to the human
      population is questionable and the true risk of adverse effects is not entirely
      known. There are large gaps in the literature that need to be addressed; in
      particular, studies need to focus on evaluating the short- and long-term
      consequences of maternal marijuana use for the infant and the potential for
      different risks based on the frequency of maternal use. Until further evidence
      becomes available, practitioners need to weigh the benefits of breastfeeding for
      mother and child, with the potential influence of marijuana on infant development
      when determining the infant's most suitable form of nutrition.

PMID- 28872349
TI  - Urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein is associated with subendocardial
      viability ratio in middle- and older-aged adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To identify one of the physiological underlying mechanisms of the
      predictive effects of urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) for
      the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD), we investigated the relationship
      between urinary L-FABP levels and subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR), a marker
      of myocardial perfusion, in middle- and older-aged adults. METHODS: This was a
      cross-sectional study of 249 middle- and older-aged adults (aged 46-83 years). We
      measured urinary L-FABP levels and central hemodynamic parameters, including
      SEVR, calculated by pulse wave analysis using an applanation tonometry. RESULTS:
      In the participants stratified in accordance with the tertiles of urinary L-FABP
      levels, SEVR decreased in a stepwise fashion with increasing tertiles (p <
      0.001). Furthermore, this association remains significant after the consideration
      of various confounders. On the contrary, urinary albumin levels were not
      independently related with SEVR. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that
      urinary L-FABP levels were independently associated with the SEVR of the middle-
      and older-aged adults. This result suggests that the increase in urinary L-FABP
      levels even within the normal range might be related to the decrease in
      myocardial perfusion (SEVR).

PMID- 28872350
TI  - Strategies towards rapid generation of forefoot model incorporating realistic
      geometry of metatarsals encapsulated into lumped soft tissues for personalized
      finite element analysis.
AB  - Use of finite element (FE) foot model as a clinical diagnostics tool is likely to
      improve the specificity of foot injury predictions in the diabetic population.
      Here we proposed a novel workflow for rapid construction of foot FE model
      incorporating realistic geometry of metatarsals encapsulated into lumped
      forefoot's soft tissues. Custom algorithms were implemented to perform
      unsupervised segmentation and mesh generation to directly convert CT data into a
      usable FE model. The automatically generated model provided higher efficiency and
      comparable numerical accuracy when compared to the model constructed using a
      traditional solid-based mesh process. The entire procedure uses MATLAB as the
      main platform, and makes the present approach attractive for creating
      personalized foot models to be used in clinical studies.

PMID- 28872351
TI  - Neuropsychological outcome of children with traumatic brain injury and its
      association with late magnetic resonance imaging findings: A cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate neuropsychological outcome after traumatic brain injury
      (TBI) and its association with trauma severity and late magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) findings. METHODS: Prospective cohort study of patients with TBI
      admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit over 5 years. Trauma severity was
      determined by Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), neurological outcome by King's Outcome
      Scale for Childhood Head Injury (KOSCHI) and neuropsychological outcome by
      Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition. RESULTS: Twenty-five
      children (median age 6 years at trauma) were included. Patients were divided into
      Disability (DIS)(n = 10) and Good Recovery (GR)(n = 15) groups. Initial GCS score
      was not significantly different in both groups (median 6 vs. 10; p = 0.34). DIS
      group had lower values of working memory index (WMI)(median 74 vs. 94; p =
      0.004), perceptual reasoning index (PRI)(75 vs. 96; p = 0.03), verbal
      comprehension index (VCI)(65 vs. 84; p = 0.02), processing speed index (PSI)(74
      vs. 97; p = 0.01) and full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ)(65 vs. 87; p =
      0.008). In the GR group, 60% of patients had normal or minimally altered MRI
      versus 10% of patients in the DIS group (p = 0.018). Fractional anisotropy
      positively correlated with WMI(r = 0.65; p = 0.005), PRI(r = 0.52; p = 0.03) and
      FSIQ(r = 0.50; p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Neuropsychological impairment was observed
      in 40% of children who suffered a TBI and was associated with late MRI
      abnormalities.

PMID- 28872352
TI  - Patient movement characteristics and the impact on CBCT image quality and
      interpretability.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of patient movement characteristics and
      metal/radiopaque materials in the field-of-view (FOV) on CBCT image quality and
      interpretability. METHODS: 162 CBCT examinations were performed in 134
      consecutive (i.e. prospective data collection) patients (age average: 27.2 years;
      range: 9-73). An accelerometer-gyroscope system registered patient's head
      position during examination. The threshold for movement definition was set at
      >=0.5-mm movement distance based on accelerometer-gyroscope recording. Movement
      complexity was defined as uniplanar/multiplanar. Three observers scored
      independently: presence of stripe (i.e. streak) artefacts (absent/"enamel
      stripes"/"metal stripes"/"movement stripes"), overall unsharpness
      (absent/present) and image interpretability (interpretable/not interpretable).
      Kappa statistics assessed interobserver agreement. chi2 tests analysed whether
      movement distance, movement complexity and metal/radiopaque material in the FOV
      affected image quality and image interpretability. Relevant risk factors (p <=
      0.20) were entered into a multivariate logistic regression analysis with "not
      interpretable" as the outcome. RESULTS: Interobserver agreement for image
      interpretability was good (average = 0.65). Movement distance and presence of
      metal/radiopaque materials significantly affected image quality and
      interpretability. There were 22-28 cases, in which the observers stated the image
      was not interpretable. Small movements (i.e. <3 mm) did not significantly affect
      image interpretability. For movements >= 3 mm, the risk that a case was scored as
      "not interpretable" was significantly (p <= 0.05) increased [OR 3.2-11.3; 95% CI
      (0.70-65.47)]. Metal/radiopaque material was also a significant (p <= 0.05) risk
      factor (OR 3.61-5.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patient movement >=3 mm and metal/radiopaque
      material in the FOV significantly affected CBCT image quality and
      interpretability.

PMID- 28872354
TI  - Video and clinical screening of national rugby league players suspected of
      sustaining concussion.
AB  - PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: This study reviewed the available sideline Sport Concussion
      Assessment Tool-Third Edition (SCAT3) performance of players who were removed
      from play using the 'concussion interchange rule' (CIR), the available video
      footage of these incidences, and associated return to play and concussion
      diagnosis decisions. RESEARCH DESIGN: Descriptive, observational case series.
      METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Data were collected from all NRL players who used the CIR
      during the 2014 season. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Complete SCAT3 and video
      analysis data were available for 38 (23%) of 167 uses of the concussion
      interchange rule, of which 20 (52.6%) players were medically diagnosed with
      concussion. Those with video evidence of unresponsiveness performed more poorly
      on the modified Balance Error Scoring System (M-BESS; p = .04; Cohen's d = .69)
      and reported greater symptoms (p = .03; d = .51). Similarly, players with a
      vacant stare reported greater symptoms (p = .05; d = .78). Those who demonstrated
      three signs (unresponsiveness, vacant stare and gait ataxia) performed more
      poorly on the M-BESS (p = .03; d = 1.4) and reported greater symptoms than those
      with no observable signs (p = .03; d = 1.4). CONCLUSIONS: The SCAT3 is sensitive
      to the acute effects of concussion in professional athletes; however, a minority
      of injured athletes might go undetected by this test.

PMID- 28872353
TI  - Quantitative Evidence for Revising the Definition of Primary Graft Dysfunction
      after Lung Transplant.
AB  - RATIONALE: Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is a form of acute lung injury that
      occurs after lung transplantation. The definition of PGD was standardized in
      2005. Since that time, clinical practice has evolved, and this definition is
      increasingly used as a primary endpoint for clinical trials; therefore,
      validation is warranted. OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine whether refinements
      to the 2005 consensus definition could further improve construct validity.
      METHODS: Data from the Lung Transplant Outcomes Group multicenter cohort were
      used to compare variations on the PGD definition, including alternate oxygenation
      thresholds, inclusion of additional severity groups, and effects of procedure
      type and mechanical ventilation. Convergent and divergent validity were compared
      for mortality prediction and concurrent lung injury biomarker discrimination.
      MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 1,179 subjects from 10 centers were
      enrolled from 2007 to 2012. Median length of follow-up was 4 years (interquartile
      range = 2.4-5.9). No mortality differences were noted between no PGD (grade 0)
      and mild PGD (grade 1). Significantly better mortality discrimination was evident
      for all definitions using later time points (48, 72, or 48-72 hours; P < 0.001).
      Biomarker divergent discrimination was superior when collapsing grades 0 and 1.
      Additional severity grades, use of mechanical ventilation, and transplant
      procedure type had minimal or no effect on mortality or biomarker discrimination.
      CONCLUSIONS: The PGD consensus definition can be simplified by combining lower
      PGD grades. Construct validity of grading was present regardless of transplant
      procedure type or use of mechanical ventilation. Additional severity categories
      had minimal impact on mortality or biomarker discrimination.

PMID- 28872355
TI  - The role of stump pressure and cerebral oximetry in predicting ischaemic brain
      damage during carotid endarterectomy.
AB  - Objective is to compare the predictive value of stump pressure (SP) and cerebral
      oximetry (rSO2) levels in the evaluation of ischaemic injury of the cerebrum
      during clamping of the carotid artery (CCA) without temporary shunt (TS). Methods
      We included 84 patients with an asymptomatic stenosis (>70%) of the internal
      carotid artery (ICA) who underwent carotid endarterectomy (CEA) under GA.
      Cerebral ischaemic tolerance (CIT) was determined on the basis of SP, rSO2 and
      ?rSO2 (?rSO2 from baseline) during CCA. The levels of S100 protein (S100) and
      neuron-specific enolase (NSE) were measured on each stage of the study. MRI was
      performed for all patients. Results There were no perioperative strokes and
      myocardial infarctions during the study. Temporary shutdown of blood flow in CAs
      during CEA is accompanied by a significant elevation of S100, NSE concentration
      with their subsequent restoration (three days after surgery). ROC analysis showed
      that none of the methods for CIT assessment (SP, rSO2 and ?rSO2) was a valuable
      predictor of cerebral damage during CEA. Conclusion SP with a threshold value of
      <=40 mmHg has an average quality of prediction (AUC = 63). ?rSO2 of >=20% and a
      threshold value of rSO2 <= 40% have an unsatisfactory quality of prediction (AUC
      < 60).

PMID- 28872356
TI  - Vitamin B6 prevents isocarbophos-induced vascular dementia in rats through N
      methyl-D-aspartate receptor signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We have previously reported that the long-term exposure of
      organophosphorus induces vascular dementia (VD) in rats. As a coenzyme, vitamin
      B6 is mainly involved in the regulation of metabolisms. Whether vitamin B6
      improves VD remains unknown. METHODS: The model of VD was induced by feeding rats
      with isocarbophos (0.5 mg/kg per two day, 12 weeks). The blood flow of the
      posterior cerebral artery (PCA) in rat was assessed by transcranial Doppler
      (TCD). The learning and memory were evaluated by the Morris Water Maze (MWM)
      test. RESULTS: Administration of vitamin B6 increased the blood flow in the right
      and left posterior cerebral arteries and improved the functions of learning and
      memory in isocarbophos-treated rats. Vitamin B6 increased the protein levels of N
      methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) 2B, postsynaptic densities (PSDs) protein 95,
      and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMK-II) in the hippocampus, which
      were decreased by isocarbophos in rats. Morphological analysis by light
      microscope and electronic microscope indicated disruptions of the hippocampus
      caused by isocarbophos were normalized by vitamin B6. Importantly, the antagonist
      of NMDAR signaling by eliprodil abolished these beneficial effects produced by
      vitamin B6 on PCA blood flow, learning, memory, and hippocampus structure in
      rats, as well as the protein expression of NMDAR 2B, PSDs protein 95, and CaMK-II
      in the hippocampus. CONCLUSION: Vitamin B6 activates NMDAR signaling to prevent
      isocarbophos-induced VD in rats.

PMID- 28872357
TI  - ACMT and AACT position statement: preventing occupational fentanyl and fentanyl
      analog exposure to emergency responders.

PMID- 28872358
TI  - Nocturnal diastolic blood pressure decline is associated with higher 25
      hydroxyvitamin D level and standing plasma renin activity in a hypertensive
      population.
AB  - Patients with nondipper hypertension are known to carry a high risk of
      cardiovascular complications. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with
      hypertension. Because vitamin D deficiency activates the renin-angiotensin
      aldosterone system (RAAS), we hypothesized that this vitamin would interact with
      the RAAS to influence blood pressure (BP) in nondipper hypertensive patients. We
      performed a cross-sectional analysis of 1,007 outpatients with hypertension
      (HTN). Dipper and nondipper patterns were detected, and the two groups were
      matched for clinical, laboratory, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels, and
      ambulatory blood pressure recording. Plasma renin activity (PRA), angiotensin II,
      and plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) were assessed in 174 patients treated
      with calcium channel blockers or no medication. The mean 25OHD concentration in
      the entire study population was 12.3ng/dL, and the prevalence of vitamin D
      deficiency was 87.0%. Dipper and nondipper HTN were noted in 187 patients (24.6%)
      and 573 patients (75.4%). 25OHD levels were similar between nondipper and dipper
      HTN groups. Forward stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that BMI and age
      were independent predictors of nondipper HTN. Neither 25OHD levels nor RAAS
      components were included in the model. In correlation analyses, nocturnal decline
      of diastolic BP was positively associated with 25OHD levels and standing PRA (r =
      0.152 p = 0.045, r = 0.165 p = 0.038, respectively). The present study showed
      that vitamin D deficiency was astonishingly prevalent in hypertensive subjects
      residing in Xinjiang, China. There may be a weakly association of nocturnal DBP
      decline with 25OHD levels and standing PRA levels. We found no association
      between vitamin D deficiency and nondipper HTN.

PMID- 28872359
TI  - Ambulatory blood pressure results and heart rate variability in patients with
      premature ventricular contractions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The presence of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) is a sign
      of arrhythmia and typically trigerred by over stimulation of the sympathetic
      nervous system. This study examined the relationships among PVCs, heart rate
      variability (HRV), and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) results. METHODS:
      This observational clinical study evaluated a cohort of 100 consecutive patients
      (58 women and 42 men) with PVCs. The individuals were split into occasional (n =
      50) and frequent (n = 50) PVCs groups. All Holter recordings were performed
      during a working day. RESULTS: Daytime low-frequency power (LFP), daytime low
      frequency/high frequency (LF/HF), nighttime LFP, and nighttime LF/HF and 24-hour
      systolic blood pressure (SBP) were slightly higher in the frequent PVCs group (p
      = 0.046, p = 0.027, p = 0.038, p = 0.032, and p < 0.001, respectively).
      Hypertension, LF, LF/HF, 24-hour SBP were positively correlated with PVCs (r =
      0.305, p = 0.002; r = 0.269, p = 0.007; r = 0.403, p < 0.001, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: Frequent PVCs reflect dominance of the sympathetic system according
      to the results of Holter recordings. This study showed that PVC had a significant
      association with high blood pressure values. Assessment of ABP and HRV in
      patients with PVCs is part of a comprehensive approach to the assessment of
      cardiovascular regulation.

PMID- 28872360
TI  - Cardiorespiratory fitness and walking endurance improvements after 12 months of
      an individualised home and community-based exercise programme for people after
      stroke.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the immediate and longer-term effects of an individually
      tailored, home- and community-based exercise programme with ongoing remote
      support in people with stroke on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), ambulation and
      health-related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: Twenty people 5.3 +/- 3.5 months
      post stroke completed the 12-week HowFITSS? exercise programme aimed at
      increasing CRF and daily physical activity. Support was provided by phone and
      email, which decreased in frequency over time. Participants were assessed at
      baseline, then at 3, 6 and 12 months after initiation of the intervention. CRF
      (VO2peak) was evaluated using a portable metabolic system during the 6-minute
      walk test (6MWT), the Shuttle Walk Test (SWT) and the cycle graded exercise test
      (cGXT). Walking speed, balance, body composition, fatigue, depression and HRQoL
      were also measured. RESULTS: CRF improved significantly from pre-intervention to
      12-month follow-up on the 6MWT (Effect Size, ES = 0.87; p = 0.002) and cGXT (ES =
      0.60; p < 0.001), with more modest improvements on the SWT (ES = 0.52; p =
      0.251). From baseline to 12 months, significant within-participant improvements
      were found for self-selected walking speed, balance and HRQoL. Performances on
      the remaining tests were maintained over the post-intervention period.
      CONCLUSION: There may be health benefits of providing people with stroke an
      exercise intervention with long-term support that encourages increased regular
      physical activity.

PMID- 28872361
TI  - Prevalence of sleep apnea and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with
      hypertension in a day hospital model.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To identify patients at risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
      syndrome at a specialized hypertension center, we administered questionnaires and
      used respiratory polygraphy (RP). RESULTS: We studied 168 patients (64.8% men and
      35.2% women). Patients' body mass index (BMI) was 34.7 +/- 6.79 and Epworth
      Sleepiness Scale (ESS) scores were 8.01 for male and 8.92 for women (p = 0.69).
      RP recordings revealed AHI (Apnea-Hypopnea Index) of 18.03 +/- 15.7, an ODI
      (Oxygen Desaturation Index) of 18.6 +/- 15.2, and a time oxygen saturation <90%
      (%) of 20.8 +/- 24.3. Around 44% of patients had an AHI of >15 events/h, and
      continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was recommended to 69 patients
      (41.07%). Pulse wave velocity (PWV) showed high values in AHI > 15/h (p = 0.050),
      and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) did not correlate with AHI > 15; right
      IMT: 0.83 +/- 1.3 versus 0.78 +/- 0.13 mm (p = 0.41) and 0.82 +/- 0.16 versus
      0.78 +/- 0.19 mm (p = 0.40). However, we find correlation with carotid plaque (p
      = 0.046). The ACC/AHA calculator revealed a gradual increase in the risk of
      cardiovascular events: 8.7% with AHI < 5/h, and 30.3% in severe OSA. CONCLUSIONS:
      In hypertension (HT) patients, RP revealed a high prevalence of OSA associated
      with carotid artery disease, high PWV, and increased cardiovascular risk.

PMID- 28872362
TI  - Ferulic acid but not alpha-lipoic acid effectively protects THP-1-derived
      macrophages from oxidant and pro-inflammatory response to LPS.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The diet supplementation with antioxidants-rich products is a way to
      protect people from free radical-induced diseases. In this study, we compare the
      anti-inflammatory/antioxidant activity of two compounds available as supplements:
      alpha lipoic acid (ALA) and ferulic acid (FA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The free
      radical scavenging capacity of ALA and FA in the cell free system was evaluated
      using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Anti-inflammatory activity of
      both compounds was determined, in vitro, on THP-1 derived macrophages model, both
      resting (not stimulated) and inflammatory (lipopolysaccharide- or tumor-necrosis
      factor alpha-stimulated). RESULTS: We have found that FA exhibits much higher
      radical scavenging activity than ALA, in cell free system. The functional assays
      demonstrated that although both ALA and FA limited the reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) formation in the presence of inflammatory macrophages, the latter acid was
      significantly more effective. Only FA reduced the release of pro-inflammatory
      interleukin 1beta and interleukin 6 by lipopolysaccharide-treated macrophages.
      Neither FA nor ALA affected the viability of macrophages. CONCLUSION: Among those
      two compounds only FA has significant free radical scavenging activity in cell
      free system and acts as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent on macrophages.
      It can be assumed that application of FA in a diet can protect the host from the
      development and/or progression of inflammation.

PMID- 28872363
TI  - Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at the sn-2 position of triacylglycerols increases DHA
      incorporation in brown, but not in white adipose tissue, of hamsters.
AB  - We hypothesised that the incorporation of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) across
      adipose tissues will be higher when it is ingested as triacylglycerols (TAG)
      structured at the sn-2 position. Ten-week old male hamsters were allocated to 4
      dietary treatments (n = 10): linseed oil (LSO-control group), fish oil (FO), fish
      oil ethyl esters (FO-EE) and structured DHA at the sn-2 position of TAG (DHA-SL)
      during 12 weeks. In opposition to the large variations found for fatty acid
      composition in retroperitoneal white adipose tissue (WAT), brown adipose tissue
      (BAT) was less responsive to diets. DHA was not found in subcutaneous and
      retroperitoneal WAT depots but it was successfully incorporated in BAT reaching
      the highest percentage in DHA-SL. The PCA on plasma hormones (insulin, leptin,
      adiponectin) and fatty acids discriminated BAT from WATs pointing towards an
      individual signature on fatty acid deposition, but did not allow for full
      discrimination of dietary treatments within each adipose tissue.

PMID- 28872364
TI  - Can Cyberloafing and Internet Addiction Affect Organizational Information
      Security?
AB  - Researchers have noted potential links between Internet addiction, the use of
      work computers for nonwork purposes and an increased risk of threat to the
      organization from breaches in cybersecurity. However, much of this research
      appears conjectural in nature and lacks clear empirical evidence to support such
      claims. To fill this knowledge gap, a questionnaire-based study explored the link
      between cyberloafing, Internet addiction, and information security awareness
      (ISA). A total of 338 participants completed an online questionnaire, which
      comprised of the Online Cognition Scale, Cyberloafing Scale, and the Human
      Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire. Participants who reported higher
      Internet addiction and cyberloafing tendencies had lower ISA, and Internet
      addiction and cyberloafing predicted a significant 45 percent of the variance in
      ISA. Serious cyberloafing, such as the propensity to visit adult websites and
      online gambling, was shown to be the significant predictor for poorer ISA.
      Implications for organizations and recommendations to reduce or manage
      inappropriate Internet use are discussed.

PMID- 28872365
TI  - Recovery progression and symptom resolution in sport-related mild traumatic brain
      injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To characterize the recovery progression of a group of athletes who
      participated in a concussion management program based on (1) group analysis and
      (2) individual analysis. SETTING: Concussion management clinic. PARTICIPANTS:
      Thirty athletes (22 males, 8 females; baseline age = 16.23 +/- 2.40 years) who
      had undergone four assessments: one baseline and three post-injury assessments at
      3, 8, 15 days post-injury. DESIGN: Retrospective clinical. MAIN MEASURES: Four
      neurocognitive scores of the Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive
      Testing (ImPACT) including verbal memory, visual memory, speed of processing and
      reaction time and also a total symptom score. RESULTS: Group-analysis showed a
      clear decline in verbal memory (F(3, 87) = 7.36, p < 0.000) and an increase in
      self-reported symptoms (chi2(3, N = 30) = 48.703, p < 0.000), 3 days post-injury.
      By day 8, athletes had returned to their baseline levels for verbal memory and
      were not experiencing symptoms. When athletes' scores were examined individually,
      at 3 days post-injury, 60% of the athletes showed deficits on two or more of the
      ImPACT variables. This rate dropped to 23% at 8 days post-injury and remained the
      same (23%) 15 days post-injury. CONCLUSIONS: In concussion recovery, variability
      is the rule, rather than the exception, with regard to both impaired
      neurocognitive functions and recovery duration.

PMID- 28872366
TI  - Breast Cancer Patients' Depression Prediction by Machine Learning Approach.
AB  - One of the most common cancer in females is breasts cancer. This cancer can has
      high impact on the women including health and social dimensions. One of the most
      common social dimension is depression caused by breast cancer. Depression can
      impairs life quality. Depression is one of the symptom among the breast cancer
      patients. One of the solution is to eliminate the depression in breast cancer
      patients is by treatments but these treatments can has different unpredictable
      impacts on the patients. Therefore it is suitable to develop algorithm in order
      to predict the depression range.

PMID- 28872367
TI  - Realizing the Potential of Vascular Targeted Therapy: The Rationale for Combining
      Vascular Disrupting Agents and Anti-Angiogenic Agents to Treat Cancer.
AB  - Vascular targeted therapies (VTTs) are agents that target tumor vasculature and
      can be classified into two categories: those that inhibit angiogenesis and those
      that directly interfere with established tumor vasculature. Although both the
      anti-angiogenic agents (AAs) and the vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) target
      tumor vasculature, they differ in their mechanism of action and therapeutic
      application. Combining these two agents may realize the full potential of VTT and
      produce an effective therapeutic regimen. Here, we review AAs and VDAs
      (monotherapy and in combination with conventional therapies). We also discuss the
      rationale of combined VTT and its potential to treat cancer.

PMID- 28872368
TI  - Cryotherapy Reinvented: Application of Phase Change Material for Recovery in
      Elite Soccer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine whether donning lower-body garments fitted with cooled phase
      change material (PCM) would enhance recovery after a soccer match. METHODS: In a
      randomized, crossover design, 11 elite soccer players from the reserve squad of a
      team in the second-highest league in England wore PCM cooled to 15 degrees C
      (PCMcold) or left at ambient temperature (PCMamb; sham control) for 3 h after a
      soccer match. To assess recovery, countermovement jump height, maximal isometric
      voluntary contraction (MIVC), muscle soreness, and the adapted Brief Assessment
      of Mood Questionnaire (BAM+) were measured before 12, 36, and 60 h after each
      match. A belief questionnaire was completed preintervention and postintervention
      to determine the perceived effectiveness of each garment. RESULTS: Results are
      comparisons between the 2 conditions at each time point postmatch. MIVC at 36 h
      postmatch was greater with PCMcold versus PCMwarm (P = .01; ES = 1.59; 95% CI,
      3.9-17.1%). MIVC also tended to be higher at 60 h postmatch (P = .05; ES = 0.85;
      95% CI, -0.4% to 11.1%). Muscle soreness was 26.5% lower in PCMcold versus
      PCMwarm at 36 h (P = .02; ES = 1.7; 95% CI, -50.4 to -16.1 mm) and 24.3% lower at
      60 h (P = .04; ES = 1.1; 95% CI, -26.9 to -0.874 mm). There were no between
      conditions differences in postmatch countermovement jump height or BAM+ (P >
      .05). The belief questionnaire revealed that players felt the PCMcold was more
      effective than the PCMamb after the intervention (P = .004). CONCLUSIONS: PCM
      cooling garments provide a practical means of delivering prolonged postexercise
      cooling and thereby accelerate recovery in elite soccer players.

PMID- 28872369
TI  - Pacing Strategy and Tactical Positioning During Cyclo-Cross Races.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe pacing strategy and competitive behavior in elite-level
      cyclo-cross races. METHODS: Data from 329 men and women competing in 5 editions
      (2012-2016) of Union Cycliste Internationale Cyclo-Cross World Championships were
      compiled. Individual mean racing speeds from each lap were normalized to the mean
      speeds of the whole race. Lap and overall rankings were also explored. Pacing
      strategy was compared between sexes and between top- and bottom-placed cyclists.
      RESULTS: A significant main effect of laps was found in 8 out of 10 races (4
      positive, 3 variable, 2 even, and 1 negative pacing strategies), and an
      interaction effect of ranking-based groups was found in 2 (2016, male and female
      races). Kendall tau-b correlations revealed an increasingly positive relationship
      between intermediate and overall rankings throughout the races. The number of
      overtakes during races decreased from start to finish, as suggested by
      significant Friedman tests. In the first lap, normalized cycling speeds were
      different in 3 out of 5 editions-men were faster in 1 and slower in 2 editions.
      In the last lap, however, normalized cycling speeds of men were lower than those
      of women in 4 editions. CONCLUSIONS: Elite cyclo-cross competitors adopt slightly
      distinct pacing strategies in each race, but positive pacing strategies are
      highly probable in most events, with more changes in rankings during the first
      laps. Sporadically, top- and bottom-placed groups might adopt different pacing
      strategies during either men's or women's races. Men and women seem to distribute
      their efforts differently, but this effect is of small magnitude.

PMID- 28872370
TI  - Neuromuscular Responses to Conditioned Soccer Sessions Assessed via GPS-Embedded
      Accelerometers: Insights Into Tactical Periodization.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the reliability of field-based running-specific measures of
      neuromuscular function assessed using global positioning system (GPS)-embedded
      accelerometers and their responses to 3 typical conditioned sessions (ie,
      strength, endurance, and speed) in elite soccer players. METHODS: Before and
      immediately after each session, vertical jump (countermovement jump [CMJ]) and
      adductor squeeze strength (groin) performances were recorded. Players also
      performed a 4-min run at 12 km/h followed by four ~60-m runs (run = 12 s, r = 33
      s). GPS (5 Hz) and accelerometer (100 Hz) data collected during the 4 runs and
      the recovery periods, excluding the last recovery period, were used to derive
      vertical stiffness (K), peak loading force (peak force over all the foot strikes
      [Fpeak]), and propulsion efficiency (ie, the ratio between velocity and force
      loads [Vl/Fl]). RESULTS: Typical errors were small (CMJ, groin, K, and Vl/Fl) and
      moderate (Fpeak), with moderate (Fpeak), high (K and Vl/Fl), and very high ICCs
      (CMJ and groin). After all sessions, there were small decreases in groin and
      increases in K, but changes in F were all unclear. By contrast, the CMJ and Vl/Fl
      ratio responses were session dependent. There was a small increase in CMJ after
      speed and endurance, but unclear changes after strength; the Vl/Fl ratio
      increased substantially after strength, but there were a small and a moderate
      decrease after endurance and speed, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Running-specific
      measures of neuromuscular function assessed in the field via GPS-embedded
      accelerometers show acceptable levels of reliability. Although the 3 sessions
      examined may be associated with limited neuromuscular fatigue, changes in
      neuromuscular performance and propulsion efficiency are likely session-objective
      dependent.

PMID- 28872371
TI  - Reliability of Wearable Inertial Measurement Units to Measure Physical Activity
      in Team Handball.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the reliability and sensitivity of commercially available
      inertial measurement units to measure physical activity in team handball. METHOD:
      Twenty-two handball players were instrumented with 2 inertial measurement units
      (OptimEye S5; Catapult Sports, Melbourne, Australia) taped together. They
      participated in either a laboratory assessment (n = 10) consisting of 7 team
      handball-specific tasks or field assessment (n = 12) conducted in 12 training
      sessions. Variables, including PlayerLoadTM and inertial movement analysis (IMA)
      magnitude and counts, were extracted from the manufacturers' software. IMA counts
      were divided into intensity bands of low (1.5-2.5 m.s-1), medium (2.5-3.5 m.s-1),
      high (>3.5 m.s-1), medium/high (>2.5 m.s-1), and total (>1.5 m.s-1). Reliability
      between devices and sensitivity was established using coefficient of variation
      (CV) and smallest worthwhile difference (SWD). RESULTS: Laboratory assessment:
      IMA magnitude showed a good reliability (CV = 3.1%) in well-controlled tasks. CV
      increased (4.4-6.7%) in more-complex tasks. Field assessment: Total IMA counts
      (CV = 1.8% and SWD = 2.5%), PlayerLoad (CV = 0.9% and SWD = 2.1%), and their
      associated variables (CV = 0.4-1.7%) showed a good reliability, well below the
      SWD. However, the CV of IMA increased when categorized into intensity bands (2.9
      5.6%). CONCLUSION: The reliability of IMA counts was good when data were
      displayed as total, high, or medium/high counts. A good reliability for
      PlayerLoad and associated variables was evident. The CV of the previously
      mentioned variables was well below the SWD, suggesting that OptimEye's inertial
      measurement unit and its software are sensitive for use in team handball.

PMID- 28872372
TI  - The Specificity of Rugby Union Training Sessions in Preparation for Match
      Demands.
AB  - PURPOSE: Investigations into the specificity of rugby union training practices in
      preparation for competitive demands have predominantly focused on physical and
      physiological demands. The evaluation of the contextual variance in perceptual
      strain or skill requirements between training and matches in rugby union is
      unclear, yet holistic understanding may assist to optimize training design. This
      study evaluated the specificity of physical, physiological, perceptual, and skill
      demands of training sessions compared with competitive match play in
      preprofessional, elite club rugby union. METHODS: Global positioning system
      devices, video capture, heart rate, and session ratings of perceived exertion
      were used to assess movement patterns, skill completions, physiologic, and
      perceptual responses, respectively. Data were collected across a season (training
      sessions n = 29; matches n = 14). Participants (n = 32) were grouped in playing
      positions as: outside backs, centers, halves, loose forwards, lock forwards, and
      front row forwards. RESULTS: Greater total distance, low-intensity activity,
      maximal speed, and meters per minute were apparent in matches compared with
      training in all positions (P < .02; d > 0.90). Similarly, match heart rate and
      session ratings of perceived exertion responses were higher than those recorded
      in training (P < .05; d > 0.8). Key skill completions for forwards (ie, scrums,
      rucks, and lineouts) and backs (ie, kicks) were greater under match conditions
      than in training (P < .001; d > 1.50). CONCLUSION: Considerable disparities exist
      between the perceptual, physiological, and key skill demands of competitive
      matches versus training sessions in preprofessional rugby union players.
      Practitioners should consider the specificity of training tasks for
      preprofessional rugby players to ensure the best preparation for match demands.

PMID- 28872374
TI  - Changes in Choice Reaction Time During and After 8 Days Exhaustive Cycling Are
      Not Related to Changes in Physical Performance.
AB  - PURPOSE: Reaction time has been proposed as a training monitoring tool, but to
      date, results are equivocal. Therefore, it was investigated whether reaction time
      can be used as a monitoring tool to establish overreaching. METHODS: The study
      included 30 subjects (11 females and 19 males, age: 40.8 [10.8] years, VO2max:
      51.8 [6.3] mL/kg/min) who participated in an 8-day cycling event. The external
      exercise load increased approximately 900% compared with the preparation period.
      Performance was measured before and after the event using a maximal incremental
      cycling test. Subjects with decreased performance after the event were classified
      as functionally overreached (FOR) and others as acutely fatigued (AF). A choice
      reaction time test was performed 2 weeks before (pre), 1 week after (post), and 5
      weeks after (follow-up), as well as at the start and end of the event. RESULTS: A
      total of 14 subjects were classified as AF and 14 as FOR (2 subjects were
      excluded). During the event, reaction time at the end was 68 ms (95% confidence
      interval, 46-89) faster than at the start. Reaction time post event was 41 ms
      (95% confidence interval, 12-71) faster than pre event and follow-up was 55 ms
      faster (95% confidence interval, 26-83). The time by class interaction was not
      significant during (P = .26) and after (P = .43) the event. Correlations between
      physical performance and reaction time were not significant (all Ps > .30).
      CONCLUSIONS: No differences in choice reaction time between AF and FOR subjects
      were observed. It is suggested that choice reaction time is not valid for early
      detection of overreaching in the field.

PMID- 28872373
TI  - Anticarcinogenic activity of Muntingia calabura leaves methanol extract against
      the azoxymethane-induced colon cancer in rats involved modulation of the colonic
      antioxidant system partly by flavonoids.
AB  - CONTEXT: Leaves of Muntingia calabura (Elaeocarpaceae) are widely used in
      traditional medical practice; scientific findings show various pharmacological
      activities. However, its anticancer effect has not been investigated thoroughly
      yet. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to study the chemoprevention
      effects of MEMCL against azoxymethane (AOM)-induced colon cancer and to examine
      the involvement of endogenous antioxidants Materials and methods: Male Sprague
      Dawley rats, divided into five groups (n = 7), were injected intraperitoneally
      once weekly for 2 weeks with 15 mg/kg AOM, except for the normal group (received
      saline). The animals were then administered orally for 8 weeks with 8% Tween-80
      (vehicle; normal group), 8% Tween-80 (vehicle; cancer group) or, 50, 250 or 500
      mg/kg MEMC. After treatments, colon samples were collected from each rat for the
      histopathological analysis, quantification of aberrant crypt foci formed and
      determination of colon antioxidant levels. MEMC was also subjected to HPLC
      analysis. RESULTS: The extract exerted significant (p < 0.05): (i) anti
      carcinogenesis activity, indicated by a decrease in the total aberrant crypt
      formation; (ii) antioxidant activity by increasing the colon tissue antioxidant
      markers [i.e., superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH)]
      and reducing the oxidant marker (i.e., malonaldehyde (MDA) levels in comparison
      with the cancer group. HPLC analysis demonstrated the presence of rutin.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Muntingia calabura leaves exert anticancer effect
      against AOM-induced colon cancer possibly via the action of flavonoids on the
      colon tissue antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28872375
TI  - DNA sequence database as a tool to identify decapod crustaceans on the Sao Paulo
      coastline.
AB  - DNA barcoding has emerged as an efficient tool for taxonomy and other
      biodiversity fields. The vast and speciose group of decapod crustaceans is not an
      exception in the current scenario and comparing short DNA fragments has enabled
      researchers to overcome some taxonomic impediments to help broadening knowledge
      on the diversity of this group of crustaceans. Brazil is considered as an
      important area in terms of global marine biodiversity and some regions stand out
      in terms of decapod fauna, such as the Sao Paulo coastline. Thus, the aim of this
      study is to obtain sequences of the mitochondrial markers (COI and 16S) for
      decapod crustaceans distributed at the Sao Paulo coastline and to test the
      accuracy of these markers for species identification from this region by
      comparing our sequences to those already present in the GenBank database. We
      sampled along almost the 300 km of the Sao Paulo coastline from estuaries to
      offshore islands during the development of a multidisciplinary research project
      that took place for 5 years. All the species were processed to obtain the DNA
      sequences. The diversity of the decapod fauna on the Sao Paulo coastline
      comprises at least 404 species. We were able to collect 256 of those species and
      sequence of at least one of the target genes from 221. By testing the accuracy of
      these two DNA markers as a tool for identification, we were able to check our own
      identifications, including new records in GenBank, spot potential mistakes in
      GenBank, and detect potential new species.

PMID- 28872376
TI  - Caffeine and Physiological Responses to Submaximal Exercise: A Meta-Analysis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to carry out a systematic review and meta-analysis of
      the effects of caffeine supplementation on physiological responses to submaximal
      exercise. A total of 26 studies met the inclusion criteria of adopting double
      blind, randomized crossover designs that included a sustained (5-30 min) fixed
      intensity bout of submaximal exercise (constrained to 60-85% maximal rate of
      oxygen consumption) using a standard caffeine dose of 3-6 mg.kg-1 administered 30
      90 min prior to exercise. Meta-analyses were completed using a random-effects
      model, and data are presented as raw mean difference (D) with associated 95%
      confidence limits (CLs). Relative to placebo, caffeine led to significant
      increases in submaximal measures of minute ventilation (D = 3.36 L.min-1; 95% CL,
      1.63-5.08; P = .0001; n = 73), blood lactate (D = 0.69 mmol.L-1; 95% CL, 0.46
      0.93; P < .00001; n = 208), and blood glucose (D = 0.42 mmol.L-1; 95% CL, 0.29
      0.55; P < .00001; n = 129). In contrast, caffeine had a suppressive effect on
      ratings of perceived exertion (D = -0.8; 95% CL, -1.1 to -0.6; P < .00001; n =
      147). Caffeine had no effect on measures of heart rate (P = .99; n = 207),
      respiratory exchange ratio (P = .18; n = 181), or oxygen consumption (P = .92; n
      = 203). The positive effects of caffeine supplementation on sustained high
      intensity exercise performance are widely accepted, although the mechanisms to
      explain that response are currently unresolved. This meta-analysis has revealed
      clear effects of caffeine on various physiological responses during submaximal
      exercise, which may help explain its ergogenic action.

PMID- 28872377
TI  - The Influence of Rotations on Match Running Performance in Female Australian
      Football Midfielders.
AB  - PURPOSE: With female Australian football (AF) gaining popularity, understanding
      match demands is becoming increasingly important. The aim of this study was to
      compare running performances of rotated and whole-quarter state-level female AF
      players during match quarters. METHODS: Twenty-two state-level female AF
      midfielders wore Global Positioning System units during 14 games to evaluate
      activity profiles. The Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1) was
      used as a measure of high-intensity running ability. Data were categorized into
      whole quarter, rotation bout 1, and rotation bout 2 before being further divided
      into quartiles. Players were separated into high- or low-Yo-Yo IR1 groups using a
      median split based on their Yo-Yo IR1 performance. Short (4-6 min), moderate (6
      12 min), and long (12-18 min) on-field bout activity profiles were compared with
      whole-quarter players. RESULTS: High Yo-Yo IR1 performance allowed players to
      cover greater relative distances (ES = 0.57-0.88) and high-speed distances (ES =
      0.57-0.86) during rotations. No differences were reported between Yo-Yo IR1
      groups when players were required to play whole quarters (ES <= 0.26, likelihood
      <=64%). Players who were on field for short to moderate durations exhibited
      greater activity profiles than whole-quarter players. CONCLUSIONS: Superior high
      speed running ability results in a greater activity profile than for players who
      possess lower high-speed running ability. The findings also highlight the
      importance of short to moderate (4-12 min) rotation periods and may be used to
      increase high-intensity running performance within quarters in female AF players.

PMID- 28872378
TI  - Intralesional corticosteroid injections as treatment for non-infectious orbital
      inflammation.
AB  - A retrospective single-center chart review identified 19 patients treated with
      intralesional corticosteroid injection between 2007 and 2015 for orbital
      inflammatory disease. Patients were treated in the office, or intraoperatively at
      the time of orbital exploration and biopsy, with 5-40 mg of triamcinolone
      acetonide. Average follow up time was 2.44 years. Information recorded included
      visual acuity and eyelid position measurements, pre-injection treatment, post
      injection treatment, complications, and exam findings. Nine of the identified
      patients received intraoperative injections, 9 in the office setting, and one
      received an injection in each. Eight patients (42.1%) were on oral
      corticosteroids prior to the injection. All patients showed initial clinical
      improvement after 1-2 injections and no more than a 1-2 line difference in visual
      acuity. Overall, six patients (31.6%) required repeat injections due to
      recurrence of inflammation, and seven (36.8%) required additional oral
      corticosteroids beyond the initial taper. Patients pre-treated with oral
      corticosteroids were more likely to need repeat injections (83.3% vs 16.7%
      respectively, p = 0.04). Compared to injections performed in the office setting,
      intraoperative injections were associated with fewer repeat injections (0% vs.
      60.0% respectively, p = 0.01) and less need for post-injection oral steroids (0%
      vs. 58.3% respectively, p < 0.01). There were no systemic or permanent side
      effects observed from the injections. Two patients (10.5%) had transient post
      injection intraocular pressure elevation, which resolved. Intralesional orbital
      corticosteroid injection is an effective first-line and adjunctive treatment for
      localized and diffuse non-infectious orbital inflammation.

PMID- 28872379
TI  - Influence of Different Inertial Loads on Basic Training Variables During the
      Flywheel Squat Exercise.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the effects of different inertial loads on power production
      and power maintenance, as well as the number of sessions required for proper
      familiarization during the flywheel quarter-squat. METHODS: Twenty-four high
      level handball players attended 4 testing sessions consisting of 4 sets of 10
      repetitions using 4 different inertial loads (0.025, 0.050, 0.075, and 0.100
      kg.m2). In addition, a 5th set of 15 repetitions was performed. Both concentric
      and eccentric peak power and the eccentric:concentric ratio were recorded.
      RESULTS: The results showed the need to perform 3 sessions for a proper
      familiarization (ie, outcomes stabilization). The inertial load of 0.025 kg.m2
      led to greater concentric peak power compared with the other inertial loads (from
      likely to most likely greater values). Both 0.025 and 0.050 kg.m2 inertial loads
      entailed greater eccentric peak power compared with 0.075 and 0.100 kg.m2 (most
      likely greater). Conversely, the 0.025-kg.m2 inertial load showed a lower
      eccentric:concentric ratio, presenting negative effects (most likely lower
      values) compared with the inertial loads of 0.050, 0.075, and 0.100 kg.m2.
      Participants were able to perform 5-12 repetitions per set without significant
      peak power output decrements. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance
      of performing at least 3 sessions to obtain a stable measure during flywheel
      squat exercise. Lower inertial loads (0.025 kg.m2) are the better option for
      eliciting high concentric peak power output values. In contrast, medium to high
      inertial loads are more appropriate to achieve greater eccentric overload values.

PMID- 28872380
TI  - Optimizing Heat Acclimation for Endurance Athletes: High- Versus Low-Intensity
      Training.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the effect of high- versus low-intensity training in the
      heat and ensuing taper period in the heat on endurance performance. METHODS: In
      total, 19 well-trained triathletes undertook 5 days of normal training and a 1-wk
      taper including either low- (heat acclimation [HA-L], n = 10) or high-intensity
      (HA-H, n = 9) training sessions in the heat (30 degrees C, 50% relative
      humidity). A control group (n = 10) reproduced their usual training in
      thermoneutral conditions. Indoor 20-km cycling time trials (35 degrees C, 50%
      relative humidity) were performed before (Pre) and after the main heat exposure
      (Mid) and after the taper (Post). RESULTS: Power output remained stable in the
      control group from Pre to Mid (effect size: -0.10 [0.26]) and increased from Mid
      to Post (0.18 [0.22]). The HA-L group demonstrated a progressive increase in
      performance from Pre to Mid (0.62 [0.33]) and from Mid to Post (0.53 [0.30]),
      alongside typical physiological signs of HA (reduced core temperature and heart
      rate and increased body-mass loss). While the HA-H group presented similar
      adaptations, increased perceived fatigue and decreased performance at Mid (-0.35
      [0.26]) were evidenced and reversed at Post (0.50 [0.20]). No difference in power
      output was reported at Post between the HA-H and control groups. CONCLUSION: HA-H
      can quickly induce functional overreaching in nonacclimatized endurance athletes.
      As it was associated with a weak subsequent performance supercompensation,
      coaches and athletes should pay particular attention to training monitoring
      during a final preparation in the heat and reduce training intensity when early
      signs of functional overreaching are identified.

PMID- 28872381
TI  - Pneumatic Compression Fails to Improve Performance Recovery in Trained Cyclists.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the efficacy of intermittent sequential pneumatic compression
      (ISPC) on exercise recovery and subsequent performance, when implemented between
      a 20-min cycling bout (simulated scratch race) and a 4-min cycling test
      (simulated individual pursuit), as experienced during an Omnium track cycling
      competition. METHODS: Twenty-one (13 male and 8 female, mean [SD]: age = 36 [14]
      y) trained cyclists completed a familiarization trial followed by 2 experimental
      trials in a counterbalanced, cross-over design. Participants performed a fixed
      intensity 20-min cycling bout on a Wattbike cycle ergometer, followed by a 30-min
      recovery period where ISPC recovery boots or passive recovery was implemented. At
      the conclusion of the recovery period, participants performed a 4-min maximal
      cycling bout (4-min time trial [TT]). Average power (watts) for the 4-min TT,
      blood lactate concentration, and perceived total quality recovery (TQR) during
      the recovery period were used to examine the influence of ISPC. RESULTS: There
      were no significant differences between trials for the 4-min TT (P = .08), with
      the effect deemed to be trivial (d = -0.08). There was an unclear effect (d [+/
      90% confidence interval] = 0.26 [+/-0.78], P = .57) for ISPC vs passive recovery
      in the clearance of blood lactate during the recovery period. There was a small
      but not significant difference for perceived TQR in favor of ISPC (d [+/-90%
      confidence interval] = 0.27 [+/-0.27], P = .07). CONCLUSION: There was little
      additional benefit associated with the use of ISPC to enhance recovery and
      subsequent performance when used during the recovery period between 2 events in a
      simulated Omnium track cycling competition.

PMID- 28872382
TI  - Higher DNA insert fragment sizes improve mitogenomic assemblies from metagenomic
      pyrosequencing datasets: an example using Limenitidinae butterflies (Lepidoptera,
      Nymphalidae).
AB  - A large number of diverse mitogenomic sequences can be obtained more easily and
      affordably via mitochondrial metagenomics, which generates high-throughput
      sequences directly from sheared DNA extractions and assembles mitogenomic
      sequences using a few bioinformatic processing steps. However, following de novo
      assembly analysis, the optimal DNA fragment insert size is unclear. In this
      study, four extracted Limenitidinae butterfly DNA samples were sonically
      fragmented, and two fragment size ranges (200-400 and 400-600 bp) of each sample
      were tagged with different barcodes, producing pyrosequencing datasets. The
      results show that the datasets generated from longer DNA insert fragments result
      in better coverage and more complete mitogenomic sequences, and the phylogenetic
      analysis shows high support at nodes, revealing that Athyma butterflies do not
      represent a monophyletic group. Therefore, we recommend using longer insert DNA
      fragment sizes to generate high-throughput datasets for obtaining complete
      mitogenomic sequences which can improve phylogenetic studies.

PMID- 28872383
TI  - Weight Management Practices of Australian Olympic Combat Sport Athletes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Combat sport athletes undertake chronic and rapid weight loss (RWL)
      practices to qualify for weight divisions lower than their training weight.
      Variation between sports in the prevalence, methods, and magnitude of weight loss
      as well as recovery practices may be influenced by factors including competition
      level and culture. Differences in methodologies of previous research in combat
      sports make direct comparisons difficult; thus, this study aimed to examine
      weight loss practices among all Olympic combat sports in Australia, using
      standardized methodology. METHODS: High-caliber competitors in wrestling, boxing,
      judo, and taekwondo (n = 260) at Australian competitions were surveyed using a
      validated tool that provides quantification of how extreme an athlete's weight
      loss practices are: the rapid weight loss score (RWLS). Additional qualitative
      and quantitative survey data were also collected. RESULTS: Neither sport, sex,
      nor weight division group had an effect on RWLS; however, a significant effect of
      athlete caliber was detected (F2,215 = 4.953, mean square error = 4.757, P =
      .00792). Differences between sports were also evident for most weight ever lost
      in order to compete (H = 19.92, P = .0002), age at which weight cutting began (H
      = 16.34, P = .001), and selected methods/patterns of RWL (P < .001). Weight
      cycling between competitions was common among all sports as were influences on
      athlete's behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Although many similarities in weight loss
      practices and experiences exist between combat sports, specific differences were
      evident. Nuanced, context/culturally specific guidelines should be devised to
      assist fighters' in optimizing performance while minimizing health implications.

PMID- 28872384
TI  - Feasibility of the 2-Point Method for Determining the 1-Repetition Maximum in the
      Bench Press Exercise.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study compared the concurrent validity and reliability of
      previously proposed generalized group equations for estimating the bench press
      (BP) 1-repetition maximum (1RM) with the individualized load-velocity
      relationship modeled with a 2-point method. METHODS: Thirty men (BP 1RM relative
      to body mass: 1.08 [0.18] kg.kg-1) performed 2 incremental loading tests in the
      concentric-only BP exercise and another 2 in the eccentric-concentric BP exercise
      to assess their actual 1RM and load-velocity relationships. A high velocity (~1
      m.s-1) and a low velocity (~0.5 m.s-1) were selected from their load-velocity
      relationships to estimate the 1RM from generalized group equations and through an
      individual linear model obtained from the 2 velocities. RESULTS: The directly
      measured 1RM was highly correlated with all predicted 1RMs (r = .847-.977). The
      generalized group equations systematically underestimated the actual 1RM when
      predicted from the concentric-only BP (P < .001; effect size = 0.15-0.94) but
      overestimated it when predicted from the eccentric-concentric BP (P < .001;
      effect size = 0.36-0.98). Conversely, a low systematic bias (range: -2.3 to 0.5
      kg) and random errors (range: 3.0-3.8 kg), no heteroscedasticity of errors (r2 =
      .053-.082), and trivial effect size (range: -0.17 to 0.04) were observed when the
      prediction was based on the 2-point method. Although all examined methods
      reported the 1RM with high reliability (coefficient of variation <= 5.1%;
      intraclass correlation coefficient  >= .89), the direct method was the most
      reliable (coefficient of variation < 2.0%; intraclass correlation coefficient >=
      .98). CONCLUSIONS: The quick, fatigue-free, and practical 2-point method was able
      to predict the BP 1RM with high reliability and practically perfect validity, and
      therefore, the authors recommend its use over generalized group equations.

PMID- 28872385
TI  - New Records in Human Power.
AB  - Maximal aerobic and anaerobic power are crucial performance determinants in most
      sport disciplines. Numerous studies have published power data from elite athletes
      over the years, particularly in runners, cyclists, rowers, and cross-country (XC)
      skiers. This invited review defines the current "world records" in human upper
      limits of aerobic and anaerobic power. Currently, [Formula: see text]max values
      of ~7.5 and 7.0 L.min-1 in male XC skiers and rowers, respectively, and/or ~90
      mL.kg-1.min-1 in XC skiers, cyclists, and runners can be described as upper human
      limits for aerobic power. Corresponding values for women are slightly below 5.0
      L.min-1 in rowers and XC skiers and ~80 mL.kg-1.min-1 in XC skiers and runners.
      Extremely powerful male athletes may reach ~85 W.kg-1 in countermovement jump
      (peak vertical power) and ~36 W.kg-1 in sprint running (peak horizontal power),
      cycling (instantaneous power during force-velocity testing from a standing
      position), and rowing (instantaneous power). Similarly, their female counterparts
      may reach ~70 W.kg-1 in countermovement jump and ~30 W.kg-1 in sprint running,
      cycling, and rowing. The presented values can serve as reference values for
      practitioners and scientists working with elite athletes. However, several
      methodological considerations should be taken into account when interpreting the
      results. For example, calibrated apparatus and strict procedures are required to
      ensure high measurement validity and reliability, and the sampling rate for
      anaerobic power assessments must be strictly predetermined and carefully
      measured. Doping is also a potential confounding factor when interpreting the
      human upper limits of aerobic and anaerobic power.

PMID- 28872386
TI  - On the Importance of "Front-Side Mechanics" in Athletics Sprinting.
AB  - Practitioners have, for many years, argued that athletic sprinters should
      optimize front-side mechanics (leg motions occurring in front of the extended
      line through the torso) and minimize back-side mechanics. This study aimed to
      investigate if variables related to front- and back-side mechanics can be
      distinguished from other previously highlighted kinematic variables
      (spatiotemporal variables and variables related to segment configuration and
      velocities at touchdown) in how they statistically predict performance. A total
      of 24 competitive sprinters (age: 23.1 [3.4] y, height: 1.81 [0.06] m, body mass:
      75.7 [5.6] kg, and 100-m personal best: 10.86 [0.22] s) performed two 20-m starts
      from block and 2 to 3 flying sprints over 20 m. Kinematics were recorded in 3D
      using a motion tracking system with 21 cameras at a 250 Hz sampling rate. Several
      front- and back-side variables, including thigh (r = .64) and knee angle (r =
      .51) at lift-off and maximal thigh extension (r = .66), were largely correlated
      (P < .05) with accelerated running performance, and these variables displayed
      significantly higher correlations (P < .05) to accelerated running performance
      than nearly all the other analyzed variables. However, the relationship
      directions for most front- and back-side variables during accelerated running
      were opposite in comparison to how the theoretical concept has been described.
      Horizontal ankle velocity, contact time, and step rate displayed significantly
      higher correlation values to maximal velocity sprinting than the other variables
      (P < .05), and neither of the included front- and back-side variables were
      significantly associated with maximal velocity sprinting. Overall, the present
      findings did not support that front-side mechanics were crucial for sprint
      performance among the investigated sprinters.

PMID- 28872387
TI  - Correction to: Nesaratnam, Emeriewen, Smith, David, Wawrzynski, Sharma, and
      Saleh, Scaling the punctum and canaliculus in patients undergoing punctoplasty
      surgery: A prospective cohort study.

PMID- 28872388
TI  - Reasons, Motivational Factors, and Perceived Personal Barriers to Engagement in
      Physical Activity During Pregnancy Vary Within the BMI Classes: The Prenatal
      Prevention Project Germany.
AB  - BACKGROUND: International data indicate that approximately only 20.0% of pregnant
      women reach physical activity recommendations (>=150 min/wk). To find ways for
      increasing physical activity, the reasons for exercising, motivational factors,
      and barriers need to be determined. The aim of this pilot study was to identify
      these factors in respect to body mass index classification in German pregnant
      women. METHODS: A total of 61 women [age: 32.7 (4.8) y; 13.3 (3.4) wk of
      gestation] participated in this study. Before pregnancy, 10.0% of women were
      underweight, 58.3% were normal weight, 18.3% were overweight, and 13.4% were
      obese. Standardized questionnaires were used to evaluate the abovementioned
      factors. RESULTS: "Fun" was one of the main reasons for being active in
      underweight/normal weight compared with overweight/obese women (53.7% vs 10.5%; P
      = .002), whereas "burning fat" was more important in overweight/obese women (9.8%
      vs 36.8%; P = .027). According to motivational factors, differences occurred in
      "calorie burning" (7.3% underweight/normal weight vs 31.6% overweight/obese; P =
      .025) and "fat burning" (7.3% underweight/normal weight vs 47.4%
      overweight/obese; P = .001). Regarding barriers for being active, "tiredness" was
      more often a barrier in overweight/obese (63.2%) compared with normal
      weight/underweight women (31.7%; P = .022). CONCLUSION: Pregnant women should be
      given tailored advice/motivation according to prepregnancy body mass index.
      However, larger studies are necessary to evaluate these factors on pregnant
      women's physical activity level.

PMID- 28872389
TI  - Training-Related Changes in Force-Power Profiles: Implications for the Skeleton
      Start.
AB  - PURPOSE: Athletes' force-power characteristics influence sled velocity during the
      skeleton start, which is a crucial determinant of performance. This study
      characterized force-power profile changes across an 18-month period and
      investigated the associations between these changes and start performance.
      METHODS: Seven elite- and 5 talent-squad skeleton athletes' (representing 80% of
      registered athletes in the country) force-power profiles and dry-land push-track
      performances were assessed at multiple time points over two 6-month training
      periods and one 5-month competition season. Force-power profiles were evaluated
      using an incremental leg-press test (Keiser A420), and 15-m sled velocity was
      recorded using photocells. RESULTS: Across the initial maximum strength
      development phases, increases in maximum force (Fmax) and decreases in maximum
      velocity (Vmax) were typically observed. These changes were greater for talent
      (23.6% and -12.5%, respectively) compared with elite (6.1% and -7.6%,
      respectively) athletes. Conversely, decreases in Fmax (elite -6.7% and talent 
      10.3%) and increases in Vmax (elite 8.1% and talent 7.7%) were observed across
      the winter period, regardless of whether athletes were competing (elite) or
      accumulating sliding experience (talent). When the training emphasis shifted
      toward higher-velocity, sprint-based exercises in the second training season,
      force-power profiles seemed to become more velocity oriented (higher Vmax and
      more negative force-velocity gradient), which was associated with greater
      improvements in sled velocity (r = .42 and -.45, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      These unique findings demonstrate the scope to influence force-power-generating
      capabilities in well-trained skeleton athletes across different training phases.
      To enhance start performance, it seems important to place particular emphasis on
      increasing maximum muscle-contraction velocity.

PMID- 28872390
TI  - Classroom-Based Physical Activity: Minimizing Disparities in School-Day Physical
      Activity Among Elementary School Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence of the positive effects of school physical activity (PA)
      interventions, including classroom-based PA (CBPA), is rapidly growing. However,
      few studies examine how variations in scheduled PA opportunities and teacher
      implemented CBPA affect students' PA outcomes. METHODS: Teachers at 5 elementary
      schools attended training on how to implement CBPA. Data on school-day PA
      opportunities [physical education (PE), recess, and CBPA] were obtained via
      calendar and teacher-recorded CBPA logs. Daily step counts were measured via
      accelerometry in 1346 students across 65 classrooms in first through fifth
      grades. RESULTS: PE, recess, and CBPA contributed significantly to students'
      daily steps. Males accrued more steps than females over the school day, during
      PE, and during recess. No gender disparity was seen in the amount of additional
      steps accrued during CBPA. Overall step counts were lower among fifth-grade
      students versus first-grade students, but CBPA attenuated this difference such
      that grade-level differences were not significant in fifth-grade students who
      received CBPA. CONCLUSIONS: Gender disparities in step totals were present on PE
      and recess days, but not on CBPA days. CBPA appears to provide equal PA benefits
      for both genders and to potentially minimize the decline in PA among older
      students.

PMID- 28872391
TI  - Health for Older Adults: The Role of Social Capital and Leisure-Time Physical
      Activity by Living Arrangements.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purposes of this study were to (1) explore the influence of
      social capital and leisure-time physical activity on older adults' physical and
      mental health and (2) test whether these relationships varied by living
      arrangement. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used national data from the 2013
      National Health Interview Study. The subjects included 7714 adults aged 65 years
      or older. Logistic regressions were used to predict the probability of subjects
      being overweight or obese. Ordinary linear regressions were performed to predict
      mental health outcomes. RESULTS: Older adults living alone were more likely to
      report feeling sad (alone: 1.5; with others: 1.36), hopeless (alone: 1.25; with
      others: 1.18), and worthless (alone: 1.22; with others: 1.15). They were also
      more likely to experience lower levels of social support (alone: 3.24; with
      others: 3.30), trust (alone: 3.34; with others: 3.44), cohesion (alone: 2.95;
      with others: 2.98), and enjoy less leisure-time physical activity (alone: 49.85
      min; with others: 64.64 min) than those living with others. Hispanic and
      divorced/separated older adults who lived alone were prioritized for health
      intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults living alone had poorer mental health,
      less social capital, and engaged in less frequent leisure-time physical activity.
      Promoting social capital could improve mental health in older adults living
      alone.

PMID- 28872392
TI  - The Relation of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviors, and Academic Achievement
      Is Mediated by Fitness and Bedtime.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated the associations of subjectively and
      objectively measured physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior with academic
      achievement. We further examined whether aerobic fitness, obesity, and bedtime
      mediate these associations. METHODS: This study included 970 children aged 9-15
      years (52.3% girls) from 9 schools throughout Finland. Register-based academic
      achievement [grade point average (GPA)] as well as self-reported and
      accelerometer-measured PA/sedentary behavior were assessed during spring 2013.
      Aerobic fitness (assessed via a maximal shuttle run test), body composition
      (assessed via bioimpedance analysis), and self-reported bedtime were collected.
      Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the associations.
      Standardized regression coefficients are presented. RESULTS: Self-reported PA had
      a direct positive [beta = 0.084; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.023 to 0.145]
      and an indirect positive association with GPA through higher aerobic fitness
      (beta = 0.061; 95% CI, 0.033 to -0.087). Accelerometer-based PA was not
      associated with GPA. Self-reported screen time had an indirect negative
      association with GPA through later bedtime (beta = -0.071; 95% CI, -0.096 to 
      0.035) and lower aerobic fitness (beta = -0.039; 95% CI, -0.059 to 0.019).
      Nonscreen sedentary time had a direct positive (beta = 0.193; 95% CI, 0.101 to 
      0.289) and an indirect negative association with GPA through lower aerobic
      fitness (beta = -0.040; 95% CI, -0.063 to -0.016). CONCLUSIONS: Participating in
      PA, avoiding excessive screen time, and going to bed earlier may benefit academic
      achievement.

PMID- 28872393
TI  - The Influence of Source and Type of Support on College Students' Physical
      Activity Behavior.
AB  - BACKGROUND: College is a place where students develop health behaviors that
      persist throughout adulthood, yet a large percentage of students are not engaging
      in adequate physical activity. Social support is associated with physical
      activity; however, the effects of source (ie, family and friend) and type (ie,
      companionship, esteem, and informational) are not fully understood. The current
      study examined the effects of different sources and types of social support on
      college students' physical activity behaviors. METHODS: An online survey tool
      collected data from 733 college students enrolled at a Mid-Atlantic university.
      Structural equation models and a repeated-measures analysis of variance were
      conducted. RESULTS: Support from family and friends was associated with physical
      activity behaviors; however, support from friends exerted a stronger effect.
      Students received different types of support from their network, which
      differentially influenced physical activity behaviors. Students received higher
      levels of companionship support from their friends and higher levels of esteem
      support from their family, which was positively associated with physical activity
      behaviors. Students received higher levels of informational support from their
      families, which was negatively associated with physical activity behaviors.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of examining the independent
      effects of source and type of support on college students' physical activity.

PMID- 28872394
TI  - Abdominal Circumference Versus Body Mass Index as Predictors of Lower Extremity
      Overuse Injury Risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abdominal circumference (AC) is superior to body mass index (BMI) as
      a measure of risk for various health outcomes. Our objective was to compare AC
      and BMI as predictors of lower extremity overuse injury (LEOI) risk. METHODS:
      Retrospective review of electronic medical records of 79,868 US Air Force
      personnel over a 7-year period (2005-2011) for incidence of new LEOI. Subjects
      were stratified by BMI and AC. Injury risk for BMI/AC subgroups was calculated
      using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional-hazards regression. Receiver
      operating characteristic curves with area under the curve were used to compare
      each model's predictive value. RESULTS: Cox proportional-hazards regression
      showed significant risk association between elevated BMI, AC, and all injury
      types, with hazard ratios ranging 1.230-3.415 for obese versus normal BMI and
      1.665-3.893 for high-risk versus low-risk AC (P < .05 for all measures). Receiver
      operating characteristic curves with area under the curve showed equivalent
      performance between BMI and AC for predicting all injury types. However, the
      combined model (AC and BMI) showed improved predictive ability over either model
      alone for joint injury, overall LEOI, and most strongly for osteoarthritis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although AC and BMI alone performed similarly well, a combined
      approach using BMI and AC together improved risk estimation for LEOI.

PMID- 28872395
TI  - Palliation of Bladder Spasms #337.

PMID- 28872396
TI  - Whole-Body Vibration on Performance of Quadriceps After ACL Reconstruction: A
      Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - CONTEXT: Whole-body vibration (WBV) has been widely used in clinical and sport
      practice. These devices produce constant vibrations, originating symmetrical
      waves that move along the vertical axis. It is suggested that mechanical stimuli
      produced by high vibration can be an alternative to improve neuromuscular
      performance and balance in different populations. However, there is still a lack
      of consensus in the literature regarding neurophysiological responses in the
      skeletal muscle immediately after the use of WBV, specifically in individuals
      subjected to anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. OBJECTIVE: To investigate
      the immediate effects of WBV on neuromuscular performance of the quadriceps
      femoris and postural oscillation of individuals subjected to anterior cruciate
      ligament reconstruction. DESIGN: This is a blinded randomized controlled trial.
      SETTING: University laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-four men. INTERVENTION:
      Participants were randomized into 2 groups: control group (n = 22, exercise
      protocol on the vibrating platform turned off) and WBV group (n = 22, exercises
      on the vibrating platform turned on, at a frequency of 50 Hz and amplitude of 4
      mm). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The volunteers underwent a dynamometric evaluation of
      the quadriceps femoris and electromyographic activity of vastus lateralis and
      vastus medialis muscles, in addition to oscillation of the center of pressure at
      2 different moments: before and immediately after the intervention protocol.
      RESULTS: The intragroup comparison evidenced differences between preassessments
      and postassessments for the variables of laterolateral amplitude, peak torque,
      and total work. However, no significant difference was observed in the intergroup
      comparison after WBV protocol. CONCLUSION: The use of WBV did not immediately
      alter the performance of the quadriceps femoris and the electromyographic
      activity of vastus lateralis and vastus medialis muscles. In addition, it also
      did not interfere with pressure center oscillation of individuals subjected to
      anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

PMID- 28872397
TI  - Cancer-Specific Mortality Relative to Engagement in Muscle-Strengthening
      Activities and Lower Extremity Strength.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skeletal muscle strength and engagement in muscle-strengthening
      activities are each inversely associated with all-cause mortality; however, less
      is known on their relationship with cancer-specific mortality. METHODS: Data from
      the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used
      assessing 2773 individuals aged 50 years or older. Individuals being dichotomized
      at the 75th percentile for knee extensor strength, and engagement in muscle
      strengthening activities was acquired through self-report with >=2 sessions per
      week were classified as meeting guidelines. RESULTS: With respect to cancer
      specific mortality, individuals in the upper quartile for muscle strength were at
      a 50% reduced risk (hazard ratio = 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.29-0.85; P =
      .01) and those meeting muscle-strengthening activities were at a nonsignificant
      8% reduced risk (hazard ratio = 0.92; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-1.86, P =
      .81) of cancer-specific mortality after adjusting for covariates. CONCLUSIONS:
      Clinicians should routinely assess lower extremity strength and promote
      engagement in muscle-strengthening activities aimed at increasing muscle
      strength.

PMID- 28872398
TI  - Physical Activity and Sedentary Time Patterns in Children and Adolescents With
      Cystic Fibrosis and Age- and Sex-Matched Healthy Controls.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regular physical activity (PA) is increasingly recognized as
      important in the care of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), but there is a
      dearth of evidence regarding physical activity levels or how these are accrued in
      those with CF. METHODS: PA was measured by a hip-worn accelerometer for 7
      consecutive days in 18 children [10 boys; 12.4 (2.8) y] with mild to moderate CF
      and 18 age- and sex-matched controls [10 boys; 12.5 (2.7) y]. RESULTS: Both
      children with CF and healthy children demonstrated similar physical activity
      levels and patterns of accumulation across the intensity spectrum, with higher
      levels of PA during weekdays in both groups. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second
      was predicted by high light PA in children with CF compared with low light PA in
      healthy children. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight weekends and light PA as
      areas warranting further research for the development of effective intervention
      strategies to increase PA in the youth CF population.

PMID- 28872399
TI  - Meteorologic and Geographic Barriers to Physical Activity in a Workplace Wellness
      Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inclement weather and home environment can act as barriers to
      physical activity. However, it is unclear if they reduce the activity of persons
      participating in activity-promoting programs. METHODS: Data from a 6-month
      workplace financial incentives program were used to establish the association
      between meteorologic (temperature, rain, snow, and wind) and geographic factors
      (urban/nonurban home location and distance between home and work) and moderate to
      vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Multivariable models were built to estimate
      mean weekly minutes of MVPA adjusting for demographic factors, clinical factors,
      and impulsivity. RESULTS: The 292 participants had a mean age of 38 (SD = 11)
      years. Eighty-three percent were female and 62% were white. Twenty-nine percent
      lived within 3 miles of work, and 35% lived in urban areas. Participants who
      lived more than 3 miles from work averaged 75 [95% confidence interval (CI), 65
      84] minutes of weekly MVPA compared with 105 (95% CI, 88-122) minutes for those
      who lived within 3 miles of work. Urban participants averaged 70 (95% CI, 57-83)
      minutes of MVPA compared with 91 (95% CI, 80-102) minutes for nonurban
      participants. Colder temperatures were associated with decreased MVPA, and
      impulsivity modified the effect. CONCLUSIONS: Colder temperatures, greater
      distance from work, and an urban residence are associated with fewer minutes of
      MVPA.

PMID- 28872400
TI  - What Is the Most Effective Training Approach for Preventing Noncontact ACL
      Injuries in High School-Aged Female Athletes?
AB  - Clinical Scenario: A variety of training approaches have been adopted in anterior
      cruciate ligament (ACL) prevention programs, including neuromuscular control
      training, core stability training, balance training, and plyometric exercise.
      This review was conducted to determine if current evidence supports one of these
      training approaches over the others for reducing noncontact ACL injuries in
      adolescent female athletes. Focused Clinical Question: What is the most effective
      training approach for preventing noncontact ACL injuries in adolescent and/or
      high school-aged female athletes? Summary of Key Findings: A literature search
      generated 2 level 1b randomized control trials and 1 level 2b cohort study.
      Plyometric training resulted in decreased knee valgus during landing in 3 studies
      and increased knee flexion at landing in 2 studies. Balance training or
      neuromuscular training led to decreased knee valgus and increased knee-flexion
      angles with landing in 2 studies. Core stability training had conflicting effects
      on knee valgus and knee-flexion angles at landing, with 1 study reporting no
      effect and another reporting an undesirable decrease in knee joint flexion angle
      at landing. Clinical Bottom Line: Based on this review, plyometric training,
      balance training, and neuromuscular training approaches appear sensible to
      include in ACL prevention programs for female athletes to help decrease knee
      valgus and knee flexion during landing. Core stability training may be somewhat
      beneficial for decreasing knee valgus angles at landing, although may have
      nominal or even deleterious effects on knee-flexion angle at landing, and thus
      should be implemented with caution. Strength of Recommendation: Our
      recommendations were derived from the results of 2 level 1b randomized control
      trials and 1 level 2b cohort study.

PMID- 28872401
TI  - Substituting Sedentary Time With Light and Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity
      is Associated With Better Cardiometabolic Health.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of the current study was to apply a more novel approach
      to systematically examine (1) associations of clustered cardiometabolic risk and
      cardiometabolic risk factors and (2) theoretical substitution of sedentary time
      with either sleep, light physical activity (LPA), or moderate to vigorous
      physical activity (MVPA) and substituting LPA with MVPA. METHODS: Physical
      activity and sleep were objectively measured in 410 Flemish adults [55.5 (9.6) y,
      64% men] with a SenseWear Pro 3 Armband. Cardiometabolic risk factors (obesity,
      hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and hypertension) and cardiorespiratory fitness were
      objectively measured. Isotemporal substitution analyses were performed to assess
      the associations between substituting time from a potentially negative behavior
      into another potentially positive behavior. RESULTS: Theoretical substitution of
      sedentary time with MVPA was associated with decreased clustered cardiometabolic
      risk, b = -0.06 (-0.08 to -0.04), and substituting LPA with MVPA was associated
      with a decrease in clustered cardiometabolic risk, b = -0.08 (-0.11 to -0.04).
      Substituting sedentary time with LPA or sleep improved high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and waist circumference.
      CONCLUSION: Theoretical replacement of sedentary time with either sleep, LPA, or
      MVPA was positively associated with improved cardiometabolic risk factor status.
      Interventions for increasing cardiometabolic health can focus on replacing
      sedentary time with either sleep, LPA, or MVPA depending on the risk parameters
      that need to be targeted.

PMID- 28872402
TI  - Overall and Leisure-Time Physical Activity Among Brazilian Adults: National
      Survey Based on the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To describe overall physical activity prevalence measured by the
      Global Physical Activity Questionnaire as well as inequalities in leisure-time
      physical activity among Brazilian adults (15 y and older). METHODS: Data from the
      Brazilian Survey on Medicine Access, Utilization, and Rational Use of Medicines
      were analyzed. The study was carried out between September 2013 and February
      2014. Physical activity was measured through Global Physical Activity
      Questionnaire and classified according to the recommendations of the World Health
      Organization. Additional analysis determined the contribution of each physical
      activity domain to the total amount of physical activity. Inequalities in terms
      of sex, age, and socioeconomic position were explored. RESULTS: About one-third
      of the participants (37.1%; 95% confidence interval, 35.5-38.8) were physically
      inactive. Work-based activities were responsible for 75.7% of the overall
      physical activity. The prevalence of participants achieving physical activity
      guidelines considering only leisure-time activities was 17.8% (95% confidence
      interval, 16.7-19.2). Females and older participants were less active than their
      counterparts for both overall and leisure-time physical activity; socioeconomic
      status was positively associated to leisure-time physical activity. CONCLUSIONS:
      Major overall physical activity is attributed to work-related physical activity.
      Leisure-time physical activity, a key domain for public health, presents
      important gender and socioeconomic inequalities.

PMID- 28872403
TI  - Reliability of a Squat Movement Competency Screen in Individuals With a Previous
      Knee Injury.
AB  - CONTEXT: Movement screens are a common method of assessing movement efficiency
      either against a specific criterion of segments/joint(s) motion (segmental
      method) or a summary label of general quality of the whole movement (overall
      method). While not as commonly utilized within clinical practice as the segmental
      method, the overall method is less time consuming to perform and more reliable.
      OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of the "overall"
      method approach during a squat in individuals with a previous knee joint injury.
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional, clinical measurement. PARTICIPANTS: Two-dimensional
      video recordings of 5 squat trials were recorded for 16 participants with a
      history of a major knee joint injury(s) and were visually rated by 3 novice and 3
      expert raters. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Weighted quadratic Kappa was used to
      determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the squat movement competency
      screen. RESULTS: Good inter-rater reliability for the expert and novice groups
      was observed. Intra-rater reliability was very good between analysis sessions for
      1 expert rater. CONCLUSIONS: The overall method is a reliable method that enables
      allied health professionals of different levels of clinical experience to utilize
      a framework to assess movement quality during a squat in patients with a previous
      knee joint injury.

PMID- 28872405
TI  - Physical Activity Opportunities Within the Schedule of Early Care and Education
      Centers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity has many benefits for young children's health and
      overall development, but few studies have investigated how early care and
      education centers allot time for physical activity, along with measured
      individual physical activity levels for indoor/outdoor activities during a
      typical day. METHODS: Fifty early care and education centers in central North
      Carolina participated in 4 full-day observations, and 559 children aged 3-5 years
      within centers wore accelerometers assessing physical activity during observation
      days. Observation and physical activity data were linked and analyzed for
      associations between child activity and type of classroom activity. RESULTS:
      Children averaged 51 (13) minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical
      activity and 99 (18) minutes per day of light physical activity while in child
      care. Children averaged 6 (10) and 10 (13) minutes per day of observed outdoor
      and indoor daily teacher-led physical activity, respectively. Outdoor time
      averaged 67 (49) minutes per day, and physical activity levels were higher during
      outdoor time than during common indoor activities (center time, circle time, and
      TV time). CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity levels varied between indoor and outdoor
      class activities. Policy and program-related efforts to increase physical
      activity in preschoolers should consider these patterns to leverage opportunities
      to optimize physical activity within early care and education centers.

PMID- 28872404
TI  - Operative Versus Nonoperative Treatment After Acute Patellar Dislocation: Which
      Is More Effective at Reducing Recurrence in Adolescents?
AB  - Clinical Scenario: Acute patellar dislocations during adolescence often lead to
      future patellar instability. Two common treatment options include nonoperative
      treatment or operative repair of injured structures. Focused Clinical Question:
      In adolescents with acute patellar dislocation, how does operative stabilization
      compare with nonoperative treatment for reducing dislocation recurrence? Summary
      of Key Findings: Three studies were included: 2 randomized controlled trials and
      1 nonrandomized study. All studies compared operative and nonoperative treatment
      outcomes in adolescents who experienced an acute patellar dislocation. Each study
      included nonoperative treatment such as patellar bracing and quadriceps
      strengthening. The operative treatments utilized in each study included lateral
      retinacular release and medial retinacular repair. All 3 of the studies included
      a follow-up of at least 6 years. Two of the studies concluded there to be no
      significant difference between treatment groups regarding redislocation rate,
      pain, and function. The third study reported a lower redislocation rate following
      operative treatment. Clinical Bottom Line: Reviewed evidence suggests that
      outcomes are similar when comparing operative and nonoperative treatment
      approaches with little agreement as to which is the optimal plan of action.
      Strength of Recommendation: One level II randomized controlled trial and a level
      III nonrandomized study suggest that patellar dislocation recurrence rates are
      similar among operative and nonoperative treatment approaches, while another
      level II randomized controlled trial suggests that an operative approach is
      superior.

PMID- 28872406
TI  - The Levels and Predictors of Physical Activity Engagement Within the Treatment
      Seeking Transgender Population: A Matched Control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity has been found to alleviate mental health problems
      and could be beneficial for at-risk populations, such as transgender people. This
      study had 3 aims. First, to explore the amount of physical activity that
      treatment-seeking transgender people engage in and to compare this to matched
      cisgender people. Second, to determine whether there was a difference in physical
      activity depending on cross-sex hormone use. Third, to determine factors that
      predict physical activity among treatment-seeking transgender people. METHODS:
      Transgender (n = 360) and cisgender people (n = 314) were recruited from the
      United Kingdom. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires about physical
      activity, symptoms of anxiety and depression, self-esteem, body satisfaction, and
      transphobia. RESULTS: Transgender people engaged in less physical activity than
      cisgender people. Transgender people who were on cross-sex hormone treatment
      engaged in more physical activity than transgender people who were not. In
      transgender people on cross-sex hormones, high body satisfaction was the best
      statistical predictor of physical activity, whereas high self-esteem was the best
      statistical predictor in people who were not. CONCLUSION: Transgender people are
      less active than cisgender people. Cross-sex hormone treatment appears to be able
      to indirectly increase physical activity within this population, which may be
      beneficial for mental well-being.

PMID- 28872407
TI  - Relationship Between Physical Activity, Adiposity, and Attentional Inhibition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity and excess adiposity are thought to be
      detrimental to physical and cognitive health. However, implications of these
      interrelated health factors are rarely examined together; consequently, little is
      known regarding the concomitant contribution of physical activity and adiposity
      to cognition. METHODS: Bivariate correlations and hierarchical linear regressions
      were conducted among a sample of adults between 25 and 45 years (N = 65).
      Attentional inhibition was assessed using an Eriksen Flanker task. Whole-body
      percent body fat (%Fat) was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
      Daily percent time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (%MVPA) was
      monitored using an accelerometer (7 d). RESULTS: After adjusting for significant
      covariates, %MVPA was a positive predictor of accuracy in the incongruent task
      (beta = 0.31, P = .03). Individuals who engaged in greater %MVPA exhibited
      superior attentional inhibition. Additionally, there was an interaction effect of
      %Fat and %MVPA on attentional inhibition (beta = 0.45, P = .04). CONCLUSION: The
      positive influence of MVPA on cognitive control persists following the adjustment
      of significant covariates and adiposity. Additionally, interactive effects
      between %Fat and %MVPA suggest that individuals with lower activity and greater
      adiposity exhibited poorer attentional inhibition. These findings have relevance
      for public health given the elevated rates of physical inactivity and obesity.

PMID- 28872408
TI  - Healing Response of a Structural Hamstring Injury: Perfusion Imaging 8-Week
      Follow-Up.
AB  - CONTEXT: Hamstring injuries are frequently observed in various sports disciplines
      both in elite and recreational sport. OBJECTIVE: To quantify intramuscular tissue
      perfusion via contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the acute phase and during the
      healing of a structural muscle injury confirmed by high-resolution magnetic
      resonance imaging. DESIGN: Case study. SETTING: Laboratory environment. PATIENT:
      A 32-year-old wakeboarder (height = 176 cm, body weight = 76 kg, and body mass
      index = 24.5 kg/m2) with an acute indirect muscle injury of the semimembranosus
      muscle. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Average values of quantifiable contrast-enhanced
      ultrasound, represented as peak enhancement and wash-in area under the curve, as
      well as conventional ultrasound, 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging were assessed at
      48-hour, 3-week, and 8-week postinjury. RESULTS: Average values of the
      quantitative perfusion analysis at 48-hour and 8-week postinjury revealed an
      approximate 5-fold increase in peak enhancement, and the wash-in area under the
      curve increased more than 3-fold in the center of the lesion. Magnetic resonance
      imaging, performed 48 hours after the injury to gather reference data as gold
      standard, revealed a grade III structural muscle tear. CONCLUSIONS: The authors
      are able to demonstrate significant changes in intramuscular tissue perfusion in
      the center of the structural lesion as well as in the adjacent tissue.
      Quantifiable contrast-enhanced ultrasound seems to be able to gather relevant
      data for the assessment and monitoring of muscle injuries and could be
      established as a valuable tool for further studies focusing on healing processes
      or therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28872409
TI  - Considerations for pediatric trial designs and analyses.
AB  - There are challenges in designing pediatric trials arising from special ethical
      issues and the relatively small accessible patient population. The application of
      conventional phase 3 trial designs to pediatrics is not realistic in some
      therapeutic areas. To address this issue, we propose various approaches for
      designing pediatric trials that incorporate data available from adult studies
      using James-Stein shrinkage estimation, empirical shrinkage estimation, and
      Bayesian methods. We also apply the concept of consistency used in multi-regional
      trials to pediatric trials. The performance of these methods is assessed through
      representative scenarios and an example using actual Type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM) trials.

PMID- 28872410
TI  - Epoprostenol for the treatment of increasing oxygenator pressure drop during
      cardiopulmonary bypass. A case report.
AB  - A change of oxygenator during cardiopulmonary bypass is a technically high-risk
      procedure with potential for a serious adverse event for the patient. This case
      report describes a case of increased pressure drop and pre-oxygenator blood
      pressure during cardiopulmonary bypass successfully treated with pre-oxygenator
      administered epoprostenol.

PMID- 28872411
TI  - Smartphone photography utilized to measure wrist range of motion.
AB  - : The purpose was to determine if smartphone photography is a reliable tool in
      measuring wrist movement. Smartphones were used to take digital photos of both
      wrists in 32 normal participants (64 wrists) at extremes of wrist motion. The
      smartphone measurements were compared with clinical goniometry measurements.
      There was a very high correlation between the clinical goniometry and smartphone
      measurements, as the concordance coefficients were high for radial deviation,
      ulnar deviation, wrist extension and wrist flexion. The Pearson coefficients also
      demonstrated the high precision of the smartphone measurements. The Bland-Altman
      plots demonstrated 29-31 of 32 smartphone measurements were within the 95%
      confidence interval of the clinical measurements for all positions of the wrists.
      There was high reliability between the photography taken by the volunteer and
      researcher, as well as high inter-observer reliability. Smartphone digital
      photography is a reliable and accurate tool for measuring wrist range of motion.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.

PMID- 28872412
TI  - The effectiveness of splinting and surgery on sleep disturbance in carpal tunnel
      syndrome.
AB  - : This controlled prospective study assessed the effectiveness of night splinting
      compared with non-splinting and surgery for severity of insomnia in patients with
      carpal tunnel syndrome. Sleep characteristics were observed for several days
      without a brace, with a brace and after surgery. The sleep measurements included
      the use of an actigraph worn on the wrist during night, a 'sleep log' that
      conveyed subjective impressions as to how the patient had slept and a short
      insomnia instrument, the Insomnia Severity Index. The Insomnia Severity Index
      scores showed that a night splint significantly improved insomnia symptoms
      compared with no splinting, and surgery significantly improved insomnia symptoms
      compared with splinting. The sleep log scores showed that the sleep quality and
      the number of awakenings when a splint was not worn were significantly different
      from the scores with the splint and the scores after surgery but showed no
      differences between splint and surgery. The actigraph did not show any
      significant differences between the treatment methods. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28872413
TI  - Restoration of active pick-up function in patients with total brachial plexus
      avulsion injuries.
AB  - : We designed multiple nerve transfers in one surgery to restore active pick-up
      function in patients with total brachial plexus avulsion injuries. Forty patients
      with total brachial plexus avulsion injuries first underwent multiple nerve
      transfers. These included transfer of the accessory nerve onto the suprascapular
      nerve to recover shoulder abduction, contralateral C7 nerve onto the lower trunk
      via the modified prespinal route with direct coaptation to restore lower trunk
      function and onto the musculocutaneous nerve with interpositional bridging by
      medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve arising from lower trunk to restore elbow
      flexion, and the phrenic nerve onto the posterior division of lower trunk to
      recover elbow and finger extension. At least three years after surgery, the
      patients who had a meaningful recovery were selected to perform secondary
      reconstruction to restore active pick-up function. Active pick-up function was
      successfully restored in ten patients after they underwent multiple nerve
      transfers combined with additional secondary functional hand reconstructions.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

PMID- 28872414
TI  - Suprascapular Nerve and Volleyball: A Potentially Dangerous "Sport Match".

PMID- 28872415
TI  - Auditory Statistical Learning During Concurrent Physical Exercise and the
      Tolerance for Pitch, Tempo, and Rhythm Changes.
AB  - Previous studies suggest that statistical learning is preserved when acoustic
      changes are made to auditory sequences. However, statistical learning effects can
      vary with and without concurrent exercise. The present study examined how
      concurrent physical exercise influences auditory statistical learning when
      acoustical and temporal changes are made to auditory sequences. Participants were
      presented with the 500-tone sequences based on a Markov chain while cycling or
      resting in ignored and attended conditions. Learning effects were evaluated using
      a familiarity test with four types of short tone series: tone series in which
      stimuli were same as 500-tone sequence and three tone series in which
      frequencies, tempo, or rhythm was changed. We suggested that, regardless of
      attention, concurrent exercise interferes with tolerance in statistical learning
      for rhythm, rather than tempo changes. There may be specific relationships among
      statistical learning, rhythm perception, and motor system underlying physical
      exercise.

PMID- 28872416
TI  - Retraction.
AB  - Since the following case report was found not to meet the ethical standards of
      Juntendo University, as previously stated by the authors, the article has been
      retracted from Regenerative Medicine: Kantake M, Hirano A, Sano M, Urushihata N,
      Tanemura H, Oki K, Suzaki E. Transplantation of allogeneic adipose-derived
      mesenchymal stem cells in a cerebral palsy patient. Regenerative Medicine
      doi:10.2217/rme-2017-0043 (2017) (Epub ahead of print). The authors and editors
      of Regenerative Medicine regret any negative consequences this publication might
      have caused in the scientific and medical communities.

PMID- 28872417
TI  - How Does the Relationship Between Motor Skill Performance and Body Mass Index
      Impact Physical Activity in Preschool Children?
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine if weight status modifies the relationship between motor
      skill (MS) performance and physical activity (PA) in preschoolers. METHODS:
      Preschoolers (N = 227, age 3-5 y) were recruited from 22 preschools.
      Preschoolers' MS (locomotor, object control, and total MS) were assessed with the
      Children's Activity and Movement in Preschool Study MS protocol. PA was measured
      by accelerometry. Mixed linear models were used to examine the relationship of MS
      performance and body mass index (BMI) z score to PA. Models were adjusted for
      age, race, sex, and parent education, with preschool as a random effect. RESULTS:
      There was a significant correlation between MS performance and PA (r = .14-.17, P
      < .05). A significant interaction was observed between BMI z score and object
      control, and between BMI z score and total MS score on PA (P = .03). Preschoolers
      with higher BMI z scores and high object control scores engaged in significantly
      (P = .03) more PA than preschoolers with lower BMI z scores and high object
      control scores (PA = 15.04 min/h and 13.54 min/h, respectively). Similarly,
      preschoolers with higher BMI z scores and high total MS scores spent
      significantly (P = .01) more time in PA compared with those with lower BMI z
      scores and high total MS scores (PA = 15.65 min/h and 13.91 min/h, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: Preschool children's MS performance is positively correlated with PA,
      and BMI z score modified the relationship between MS performance and PA.

PMID- 28872418
TI  - Pregnancy planning preferences among people and couples affected by human
      immunodeficiency virus: Piloting a discrete choice experiment.
AB  - Decision-making related to pregnancy planning is complex and human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may further complicate the process. With increasing
      rates of pregnancy among individuals affected by HIV, the need to understand
      decision-making is imperative. The primary objectives of this pilot study were to
      confirm the feasibility of using discrete choice experimentation (DCE) to elicit
      an understanding of this process and to determine the acceptability of the choice
      factors that were included in two novel DCEs, while gathering a preliminary
      understanding of preference. The choice attributes were risk of vertical HIV
      transmission, risk of horizontal HIV transmission, cost, probability of
      conception, method of conception, and travel time. Thirteen respondents completed
      a DCE for serodiscordant couples in which the female partner was HIV-positive,
      and 12 respondents completed a DCE for seroconcordant couples. All respondents'
      utility for an increased chance of a successful pregnancy was positive and
      statistically significant. In the serodiscordant dyads, the attributes of risk of
      horizontal transmission, risk of vertical transmission, a 5-h travel time to
      clinic, and cost were significantly associated with decreased utility. In the
      seroconcordant dyads, only the attributes of chance of risk of vertical
      transmission and cost were significantly associated with decreased utility. The
      serodiscordant dyads preferred home insemination with a syringe and the
      seroconcordant couples preferred conception methods within fertility clinics,
      over condomless sex with timed ovulation. On average, participants were willing
      to pay more for greater chance of conception and less willing to pay for
      increased risk of transmission. Couples affected by HIV are willing to
      participate in a DCE and the attributes that were included all seem relevant
      except risk of vertical transmission. There are various real-life trade-offs that
      are made during pregnancy planning with HIV and better understanding of these can
      be useful for clinicians during preconception counseling.

PMID- 28872419
TI  - Impact of Scoliosis Severity on Functional Capacity in Patients With Adolescent
      Idiopathic Scoliosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the walked distance and
      physiological responses during incremental shuttle walk test in patients with
      different degrees of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). METHODS: We evaluated
      20 healthy teenagers and 46 patients with AIS; they were divided into 2 groups:
      AIS > 45 degrees  and AIS < 45 degrees . The volunteers performed an incremental
      shuttle walk test, and the following physiological responses were quantified:
      oxygen consumption, tidal volume, ventilation, and the incremental shuttle walked
      distance. Respiratory muscle strength was quantified, pulmonary function test was
      performed, and the forced vital capacity and expiratory volume in the first
      second were obtained. RESULTS: Patients with AIS > 45 degrees  presented
      significant reduced incremental shuttle walked distance compared with the AIS <
      45 degrees  and control group [447 (85), 487 (95), and 603 (85), respectively].
      Patients with AIS also showed reduced forced vital capacity (P = .001) and
      expiratory volume in the first second (P = .005) compared with control group.
      Moderate correlations between forced vital capacity (r = -.506) and tidal volume
      (r = -.476) with scoliosis angles were found. CONCLUSIONS: The incremental
      shuttle walk test was capable of identifying reduced functional capacity in
      patients with different degrees of AIS. Moreover, the severity of spinal
      curvature may exert influence on ventilatory and metabolic variables.

PMID- 28872420
TI  - Laterality of Motor Control and Induced Gamma-Band Activity During Voluntary
      Movement: A Clinical Perspective of an Inexpensive Paper-and-Pencil Bimanual
      Simultaneous Drawing Test.

PMID- 28872421
TI  - Response to: "On the Nature of Clinical Evaluations With Low Sensitivity for
      Concussion-Related Balance Deficits".

PMID- 28872422
TI  - Bone Turnover Markers and Lean Mass in Pubescent Boys: Comparison Between Elite
      Soccer Players and Controls.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between bone mass and bone
      turnover markers with lean mass (LM) in pubescent soccer players. Two groups
      participated in this study, which included 65 elite young soccer players who
      trained for 6-8 hours per week and 60 controls. Bone mineral density; bone
      mineral content in the whole body, lower limbs, lumbar spine, and femoral neck;
      biochemical markers of osteocalcin; bone-specific alkaline phosphatase; C
      telopeptide type I collagen; and total LM were assessed. Young soccer players
      showed higher bone mineral density and bone mineral content in the whole body and
      weight-bearing sites (P < .001). Indeed, the total LM correlated with whole-body
      bone mineral density and bone mineral content (P < .001). There were significant
      differences within the bone formation markers and osteocalcin (formation)/C
      telopeptide type I collagen (resorption) ratio between young soccer players
      compared with the control group, but no significant difference in C-telopeptide
      type I collagen was observed between the 2 groups. This study showed a
      significant positive correlation among bone-specific alkaline phosphatase,
      osteocalcin, and total LM (r = .29; r = .31; P < .05) only for the young soccer
      players. Findings of this study highlight the importance of soccer practice for
      bone mineral parameters and bone turnover markers during the puberty stage.

PMID- 28872423
TI  - The Use of Relative Speed Zones in Australian Football: Are We Really Measuring
      What We Think We Are?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the difference between absolute and relative workloads,
      injury likelihood, and the acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) in elite
      Australian football. DESIGN: Single-cohort, observational study. METHODS: Forty
      five elite Australian football players from 1 club participated. Running
      workloads of players were tracked using Global Positioning System technology and
      were categorized using either (1) absolute, predefined speed thresholds or (2)
      relative, individualized speed thresholds. Players were divided into 3 equal
      groups based on maximum velocity: (1) faster, (2) moderate, or (3) slower. One-
      and 4-wk workloads were calculated, along with the ACWR. Injuries were recorded
      if they were noncontact in nature and resulted in "time loss." RESULTS: Faster
      players demonstrated a significant overestimation of very high-speed running
      (HSR) when compared with their relative thresholds (P = .01; effect size = 
      0.73). Similarly, slower players demonstrated an underestimation of high-(P =
      .06; effect size = 0.55) and very-high-speed (P = .01; effect size = 1.16)
      running when compared with their relative thresholds. For slower players, (1)
      greater amounts of relative very HSR had a greater risk of injury than less
      (relative risk [RR] = 8.30; P = .04) and (2) greater absolute high-speed chronic
      workloads demonstrated an increase in injury likelihood (RR = 2.28; P = .16),
      whereas greater relative high-speed chronic workloads offered a decrease in
      injury likelihood (RR = 0.33; P = .11). Faster players with a very-high-speed
      ACWR of >2.0 had a greater risk of injury than those between 0.49 and 0.99 for
      both absolute (RR = 10.31; P = .09) and relative (RR = 4.28; P = .13) workloads.
      CONCLUSIONS: The individualization of velocity thresholds significantly alters
      the amount of very HSR performed and should be considered in the prescription of
      training load.

PMID- 28872425
TI  - Babies, Borders and Big Business.

PMID- 28872424
TI  - Intensified Training Period Increases Salivary IgA Responses But Does Not Affect
      the Severity of Upper Respiratory Tract Infection Symptoms in Prepuberal Rhythmic
      Gymnasts.
AB  - This study examined the effect of a 4-week intensified training (IT) period,
      followed by a 2-week tapering period (TP), on salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA),
      salivary cortisol, and the severity of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms
      in 23 rhythmic gymnasts [12.1 (2.6) y; 143.9 (13.7) cm; 37.2 (9.4) kg]. Saliva
      sampling was conducted at pre- and post-IT, and post-TP (analyzed using enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay). The Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey
      (WURSS-21) questionnaire was completed daily to analyze the severity of upper
      respiratory tract infection symptoms. The session rating of the perceived
      exertion was used to determine the internal training load and the acute:chronic
      workload ratio. A higher SIgA concentration [SIgAabs (MUg/mL); F = 7.6; P = .001]
      for post-IT [234 (104)] versus pre-IT [173 (91)], and post-TP [182 (70)], and a
      higher SIgA secretion rate [SIgArate (MUg/min); F = 3.4; P = .04] for post-IT [69
      (28)] versus pre-IT [55 (27)], and post-TP [58 (22)] were observed. No
      significant change was observed for cortisol (F = 0.81; P = .45) or for the
      severity of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms (chi2 = 2.81; P = .24).
      Internal training load was higher during IT (vs TP; effect size = 2.37). The
      acute:chronic workload for the IT weeks varied from 1.2 (0.3) to 1.4 (0.3). These
      results suggest that a 4-week IT may temporarily augment the oral mucosal
      immunity, and an acute:chronic workload of 1.2-1.4 seems to be a safe approach to
      periodized training loads in youth rhythmic gymnasts.

PMID- 28872426
TI  - Enhancing quality practice for prevention and diagnosis of urinary tract
      infection during inpatient spinal cord rehabilitation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To reduce the incidence of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) in subacute
      SCI individuals admitted for tertiary inpatient rehabilitation. DESIGN: A quality
      improvement team was assembled to improve UTI prevention/diagnosis. To plan data
      collection, UTI-related factors were mapped in an Ishikawa (fishbone) driver
      diagram. Data including patient demographics, presence and frequency of signs
      and/or symptoms of UTI and antibiotic initiation from August to December 2015
      were recorded. Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive and Negative Predictive Values
      (PPV, NPV), and Likelihood Ratios (LR) were calculated for each sign and symptom.
      SETTING: Tertiary SCI Rehabilitation Results: Among 55 inpatients with subacute
      SCI who had signs/symptoms prompting urine culture and sensitivity (C&S), 32
      (58.18%) were diagnosed with a UTI. The most frequent symptoms were foul smelling
      urine (41%), change in urine color (31%), and incontinence (25%), and the most
      common sign was fever (34%). Most UTIs (81%) occurred among individuals using
      Clean Intermittent Catheterization (CIC), with 46% of catheterizations performed
      by nurses. Foul smelling urine had the highest sensitivity (0.50, 95% CI: 0.31
      0.69), and new incontinence had the highest specificity (0.88, 95% CI: 0.69-0.97)
      for UTI diagnosis. The highest PPV belonged to the cloudy urine (0.71, 95% CI:
      0.42-0.92). The combination of cloudy and foul smelling urine increased the PPV
      to 78% (95% CI: (0.40-0.97). CONCLUSIONS: The concurrent presence of cloudy and
      foul smelling urine is predicted of UTI diagnosis inpatients tertiary setting.
      SCI inpatients are susceptible to UTI when learning CIC technique from nurses.

PMID- 28872427
TI  - Long-Term Dietary Supplementation with Yerba Mate Ameliorates Diet-Induced
      Obesity and Metabolic Disorders in Mice by Regulating Energy Expenditure and
      Lipid Metabolism.
AB  - This study evaluated whether long-term supplementation with dietary yerba mate
      has beneficial effects on adiposity and its related metabolic dysfunctions in
      diet-induced obese mice. C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into two groups and
      fed their respective experimental diets for 16 weeks as follows: (1) control
      group fed with high-fat diet (HFD) and (2) mate group fed with HFD plus yerba
      mate. Dietary yerba mate increased energy expenditure and thermogenic gene mRNA
      expression in white adipose tissue (WAT) and decreased fatty acid synthase (FAS)
      mRNA expression in WAT, which may be linked to observed decreases in body weight,
      WAT weight, epididymal adipocyte size, and plasma leptin level. Yerba mate also
      decreased levels of plasma lipids (free fatty acids, triglycerides, and total
      cholesterol) and liver aminotransferase enzymes, as well as the accumulation of
      hepatic lipid droplets and lipid content by inhibiting the activities of hepatic
      lipogenic enzymes, such as FAS and phosphatidate phosphohydrolase, and increasing
      fecal lipid excretion. Moreover, yerba mate decreased the levels of plasma
      insulin as well as the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and
      improved glucose tolerance. Circulating levels of gastric inhibitory polypeptide
      and resistin were also decreased in the mate group. These findings suggest that
      long-term supplementation of dietary yerba mate may be beneficial for improving
      diet-induced adiposity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hepatic steatosis.

PMID- 28872429
TI  - The Non-Profit Sector: Leveraging Resources and Strengths to Promote More
      Physically Active Lifestyles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many Americans do not meet current minimum physical activity
      recommendations. Although the choice to be physically active is made by
      individuals, that choice is affected by the social and physical environments in
      which people live, work, play and learn. Creating environments that are more
      supportive of physical activity will require policies, practices and programs
      that individuals may not be able to influence on their own; such changes will
      require comprehensive, coordinated and collaborative action by a variety of
      organizational sectors at national, state and local levels. Because of their core
      and frequently unique-competencies, many non-profit organizations are poised to
      be active players in promoting important changes in policy and community
      environments that can facilitate lifelong physical activity for all Americans.
      METHODS: Review of mission statements and strategic plans of a variety of non
      profit organizations reveal key characteristics and competencies that can be
      leveraged, frequently across multiple levels and sectors, to promote physical
      activity. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: Nonprofit organizations should leverage their
      unique capabilities, particularly in the areas of advocacy, strategic
      collaborations and outreach to their membership, volunteer and/or constituent
      bases to promote policy and environmental changes in support of physical
      activity.

PMID- 28872428
TI  - Community-based physical activity and wheelchair mobility programs for
      individuals with spinal cord injury in Canada: Current reflections and future
      directions.
AB  - RATIONALE: A clear need has been identified to find strategies and opportunities,
      beyond services provided during rehabilitation, to enhance community-based
      mobility and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) participation among members of
      the spinal cord injury (SCI) population. METHOD: This review of existing mobility
      and LTPA programs that are available for individuals with SCI in Canada reflects
      the authors' current knowledge of existing evidence-based and community-based
      programs. The authors aim to highlight the gaps between existing programs and
      future needs. RESULTS: The major gaps identified in this brief clinical report
      include the need for: community-based mobility training programs, patient
      reported outcomes, assessment of long-term impact of programs, identifying the
      best approaches for program delivery, and developing researcher-stakeholder
      partnerships. CONCLUSION: Evidence-based mobility programs and community-based
      LTPA do exist, and the available research shows their promise. Despite the
      growing research for LTPA and mobility programs among adults with SCI, many gaps
      remain. Additional partnerships, community engagement practices, service program
      funding and health policy changes are needed to address the highlighted gaps to
      optimize community-based programs and enhance the lives of adults with SCI.

PMID- 28872430
TI  - A National Physical Activity Plan for the United States.

PMID- 28872431
TI  - National Plan for Physical Activity: Education Sector.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schools must play a central role in combating the prevalence of
      overweight and obesity among children and youths. This cannot be achieved without
      more robust policy and funding programs at both federal and state levels.
      METHODS: Reviews of meta-analyses were used to assess the efficacy of improving
      PA/MVPA through interventions in school physical education programs. Individual
      research studies were reviewed to assess the efficacy of improving PA/MVPA in
      preschool settings, recess, and classroom activity breaks. Legislation at the
      federal and state levels was reviewed along with surveillance and accountability
      mechanisms at the state level. RESULTS: Physical education interventions produce
      improvements in PA/MVPA if protocols relating to use of time are followed.
      PA/MVPA in recess can be increased through careful planning for attractive
      activity opportunities on carefully designed playgrounds. Classroom activity
      breaks provide important PA/MVPA daily and improve student on-task behavior.
      CONCLUSIONS: Federal legislation is needed to provide guidelines and financial
      support for states to improve the quantity and quality of PA in school programs.
      States need to develop clear expectations for quantity and quality of PA programs
      in schools, surveillance systems to monitor district compliance in meeting those
      expectations, and an accountability system aimed at ensuring that state
      expectations are being met with assistance for districts that do not meet
      expectations.

PMID- 28872432
TI  - A Review of the National Physical Activity Plans of Six Countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Architects of the United States national physical activity plan can
      benefit from a thorough understanding of national physical activity plans from
      other nations. The purpose of this paper was to search for and analyze
      comprehensive national physical activity plan documents that can best inform the
      development of the U.S. plan. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched for
      national physical activity plan documents, yielding 252 documents from 56
      countries. After eliminating documents that were not written in English, did not
      address physical activity primarily, and did not meet our definition of a
      national physical activity plan, we were left with physical activity plans from 6
      countries-Australia, United Kingdom, Scotland, Sweden, Northern Ireland, and
      Norway. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: Architects of the U.S. plan can learn as much from
      what was present in many documents as from what was absent. Examples of
      recommended components of national plans have been identified and highlighted for
      each of the 6 countries. Missing from all but 1 national plan document was a
      detailed process for accountability. Providing a clear path and detailed process
      of accountability will assist greatly in measuring short- and long-term success
      of the U.S. plan.

PMID- 28872433
TI  - The Healthcare Sector's Role in the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals are influential sources of health
      information and guidance for people of all ages. However healthcare providers do
      not routinely address physical activity (PA). Engaging health professionals in a
      national plan for physical activity will depend upon whether proven strategies
      can be found to promote PA within clinical settings. METHODS: The literature on
      promoting PA in healthcare settings was reviewed, as were recommendations from
      healthcare organizations and evidence-gathering entities about whether and how PA
      should be promoted in healthcare. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: Evidence is mixed about
      whether interventions based in healthcare settings and offered by healthcare
      providers can improve PA behaviors in patients. Brief stand-alone counseling by
      physicians has not been shown to be efficacious, but office-based screening and
      advice to be active, followed by telephone or community support for PA has proven
      effective in creating lasting PA behavior improvement. Healthcare delivery models
      that optimize the organization of services across clinical and community
      resources may be very compatible with PA promotion in health care. Because of the
      importance of PA to health, healthcare providers are encouraged to consider
      adding PA as a vital sign for each medical visit for individuals aged 6 years and
      older.

PMID- 28872434
TI  - Park, Recreation, Fitness, and Sport Sector Recommendations for a More Physically
      Active America: A White Paper for the United States National Physical Activity
      Plan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The United States' first National Physical Activity Plan is now under
      development. This plan follows the release of new physical activity guidelines
      and seeks to address the nation's ongoing physical inactivity and obesity crisis.
      For this plan to be successful, all facets of American culture need to unify
      behind its recommendations and action steps. Guidance for this plan involves
      active participation from a variety of sectors, including the park, recreation,
      fitness, and sport (PRFS) sector. PURPOSE: In this white paper, we discuss the
      potential of the PRFS sector in addressing America's physical inactivity.
      Specifically, we provide a brief description, history, and scope of the PRFS
      sector; present evidence concerning linkages between this sector and physical
      activity; and discuss existing challenges and emerging opportunities for
      promoting physical activity. We conclude by suggesting PRFS recommendations to
      promote physical activity based on anticipated effectiveness, reach, scope, and
      sustainability. METHODS: Academic articles, professional reports, and physical
      activity plans were reviewed to summarize the evidence concerning PRFS sector
      strategies for increasing physical activity. RECOMMENDATIONS: Based on our
      review, we propose several sector-specific proximity, place, program,
      partnership, promotion, people, policy, and performance indicator recommendations
      for improving physical activity in the United States.

PMID- 28872435
TI  - The Role of the Public Health Sector in Promoting Physical Activity: National,
      State, and Local Applications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regular physical activity has been demonstrated to protect against
      coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, selected cancers, hypertension,
      obesity, and other chronic conditions. Therefore, the public health significance
      of promoting physical activity and preventing inactivity has become a well
      established agenda for public health agencies at all levels. METHODS: A secondary
      search of the literature, focusing on existing evidence reviews, was conducted to
      identify effective or promising public health physical activity interventions.
      Further examination of published evidence-based programs also was carried out to
      supplement the known evidence base. Intervention strategies were selected using
      criteria prescribed by each of the systematic reviews to yield categories of
      intervention effectiveness. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: The selected physical activity
      interventions conformed to the domains identified by The Guide to Community
      Preventive Services. Recommended evidenced-based strategies from within the
      domain of informational approaches include 2 exemplary community-wide campaigns;
      mass media campaigns, represented by VERB; and an emerging practice of delivery
      of short physical activity messages at key community sites. Exemplary
      representative behavioral/social interventions include social support through
      organized walking clubs/partners within communities. Exemplary
      environmental/policy approaches include creating/enhancing access to places for
      physical activity with informational outreach activities and the emerging
      strategy of community-wide policies and planning.

PMID- 28872436
TI  - A National Plan for Physical Activity: The Enabling Role of the Built
      Environment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence shows significant relationships between aspects of the built
      environment and physical activity. Land use and transportation investments are
      needed to create environments that support and promote physical activity.
      METHODS: The policy relevance of recent evidence on the built environment and
      physical activity is discussed, along with an assessment of near, medium, and
      longer term pricing and regulatory actions that could be considered to promote
      physical activity. These actions are evaluated based on their consistency with
      the current evidence on what would support and promote physical activity.
      RESULTS: A wide range of pricing and regulatory strategies are presented that
      would promote physical activity. There is an unmet demand for activity friendly,
      walkable environments. Creating more walkable places is an essential component of
      a national plan to increase physical activity levels of Americans. CONCLUSIONS:
      The built environment is an enabler or disabler of physical activity. Creating
      more walkable environments is an essential step in averting what is currently a
      market failure where the supply and demand for walkable environments is
      misaligned. The desire to be more physically active would be supported through
      investments in walking, biking, and transit. Concentration of development within
      existing urban areas supported by transit and implementing pricing strategies can
      support physical activity.

PMID- 28872437
TI  - The Role of Media in Promoting Physical Activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This paper reviewed a) mass media campaigns and b) 'new media'
      interventions to promote physical activity. They are different kinds of
      interventions, with campaigns being mass-reach communications efforts to increase
      population awareness of physical activity. 'New media' interventions assess the
      impact of web-based, internet, other 'new media' and e-mail-delivered
      interventions to increase physical activity. METHODS: Previous reviews of mass
      media campaigns and 'new media' interventions were assessed, and more recent peer
      reviewed publications identified using routine electronic databases. For each
      area, a framework for interventions was described, and evidence for the
      effectiveness of these interventions, the main outcomes of interest, and
      methodological strengths and weaknesses were identified. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: For
      mass media campaigns, key recommendations were to use consistent and well-branded
      messages, and for campaigns to be integrated across local, State and national
      levels, with sufficient resources to purchase sufficient media. Mass media
      campaigns should be subject to rigorous formative, process and impact evaluation.
      For 'new media' interventions, there is clear evidence of effectiveness, but
      efforts should be made to increase the reach and generalizability of these
      interventions. They should be provided as a low cost component of integrated
      communitywide physical activity programs.

PMID- 28872438
TI  - Physical Activity Promotion in Business and Industry: Evidence, Context, and
      Recommendations for a National Plan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The contemporary workplace setting is in need of interventions that
      effectively promote higher levels of occupational and habitual physical activity.
      It is the purpose of this paper to outline an evidence-based approach to promote
      physical activity in the business and industry sector in support of a National
      Physical Activity Plan. METHODS: Comprehensive literature searches identified
      systematic reviews, comprehensive reviews, and consensus documents on the impact
      of physical activity interventions in the business and industry sector. A
      framework for action and priority recommendations for practice and research were
      generated. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: Comprehensive, multicomponent worksite programs
      that include physical activity components generate significant improvements in
      health, reduce absenteeism and sick leave, and can generate a positive financial
      return. Specific evidence-based physical activity interventions are presented.
      Recommendations for practice include implementing comprehensive, multicomponent
      programs that make physical activity interventions possible, simple, rewarding
      and relevant in the context of a social-ecological model. The business and
      industry sector has significant opportunities to improve physical activity among
      employees, their dependents, and the community at-large and to reap important
      benefits related to worker health and business performance.

PMID- 28872439
TI  - Do Exercisers With Musculoskeletal Injuries Report Symptoms of Depression and
      Stress?
AB  - CONTEXT: Sports injuries in athletes can lead to negative emotional responses in
      terms of anger, anxiety, confusion, and sadness. Severe injuries can be
      understood as a stressful life event with increased levels of psychological
      distress, but injury assessment and rehabilitation typically focus on somatic
      symptoms. OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence
      of depression and emotional stress and to measure self-rated health in regular
      exercisers presenting to a sports medicine clinic with musculoskeletal injury.
      The secondary aim was to identify psychosocial factors associated with depression
      in injured exercisers and the potential need for psychological counseling.
      DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey study. SETTING: A sports medicine clinic for
      injuries of the foot, knee, or shoulder. PARTICIPANTS: Regular exercisers with
      present injuries (N = 694) and exercisers without injuries (N = 494). Regular
      exercisers were defined as those undertaking moderate exercise at least once a
      week. INTERVENTION: A questionnaire survey completed on paper by patients in a
      sports medicine clinic and a web-based version completed by online sports
      communities. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants completed the Major Depression
      Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, health-related quality of life, and questions
      on sociodemographics, exercise habits, and injury history. RESULTS: Symptoms of
      depression were reported by 12% of injured exercisers and 5% of noninjured
      controls (P < .001). Clinical stress was found in 30% of injured exercisers and
      22% of controls (P = .002), and the EQ-5D-5L Visual Analog Scale score was lower
      for injured (69 [SD = 19]) than noninjured exercisers (87 [SD = 13], P < .001).
      Injured exercisers with symptoms of depression reported high stress levels and
      impaired daily functioning, were younger, and were more likely to have over 10
      days injury-related work absence. CONCLUSIONS: The authors recommend
      psychological assessment of exercisers attending a sports medicine clinic for
      musculoskeletal injury and a supplemental clinical psychological interview for
      suspected depression or stress-related psychopathology.

PMID- 28872440
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28872441
TI  - Negotiating sexual safety in the era of biomedical HIV prevention: relationship
      dynamics among male couples using pre-exposure prophylaxis.
AB  - Up to two-thirds of new cases of HIV transmission between gay, bisexual and other
      men who have sex with men in the USA are attributed to primary relationships.
      Understanding the relationship dynamics and sexual agreements of male-male
      couples can provide insight into HIV transmission patterns and prevention needs
      in this population. The daily use of antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis
      (PrEP) is highly effective in preventing HIV, but its negotiation and use within
      social and intimate relationship contexts remain understudied. We conducted semi
      structured qualitative interviews with 20 male couples (n = 40 men) in which at
      least one partner was either using or in the process of initiating PrEP.
      Congruent with a theoretical focus on social theories of relationships and
      negotiated risk, couples were interviewed about relationship dynamics, trust,
      communication and sexual health practices, including their perception and use of
      PrEP. Overall, we found that couples showed heightened trust and communication
      when establishing open, sexual agreements and demonstrated high awareness of
      sexual risks and health practices in the context of PrEP use. This study
      demonstrates how understanding relationship dynamics can better inform HIV
      prevention and sexual health promotion efforts for male couples at risk of HIV.

PMID- 28872443
TI  - PACER Performance of Children Aged 11-14 With Attention-Deficit Hyperactive
      Disorder.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to examine the performance on the
      progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER) test in children with
      and without attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) over the course of a
      school year, and also to investigate the possible influence of age, sex, school
      sport participation, and body mass index on results. METHODS: Utilizing a
      repeated measures design, 892 middle school children aged 11-14 years (mean =
      12.25, SD = 0.94) including 55 children with ADHD participated. While controlling
      for age, sex, sports participation, and body mass index, children were tested on
      the PACER 3 times during the school year. Procedures specified in the FITNESSGRAM
      test manual were explicitly followed. Hierarchical linear modeling was applied to
      analyze the data. RESULTS: Children with ADHD performed 8.6 fewer laps at
      intercept (baseline), than did healthy children without ADHD (t878 = -6.20, P <
      .001). However, no significant differences emerged for time (slope). In addition,
      no significant interactions were found for ADHD with age, sex, sports
      participation, or body mass index. CONCLUSION: A diagnosis of ADHD, independent
      of selected predictor variables, explained lower PACER performance.

PMID- 28872442
TI  - Added Value of Computer-aided CT Image Features for Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis
      with Small Pulmonary Nodules: A Matched Case-Control Study.
AB  - Purpose To test whether computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) approaches can increase
      the positive predictive value (PPV) and reduce the false-positive rate in lung
      cancer screening for small nodules compared with human reading by thoracic
      radiologists. Materials and Methods A matched case-control sample of low-dose
      computed tomography (CT) studies in 186 participants with 4-20-mm noncalcified
      lung nodules who underwent biopsy in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) was
      selected. Variables used for matching were age, sex, smoking status, chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease status, body mass index, study year of the positive
      screening test, and screening results. Studies before lung biopsy were randomly
      split into a training set (70 cancers plus 70 benign controls) and a validation
      set (20 cancers plus 26 benign controls). Image features from within and outside
      dominant nodules were extracted. A CAD algorithm developed from the training set
      and a random forest classifier were applied to the validation set to predict
      biopsy outcomes. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to compare
      the prediction accuracy of CAD with the NLST investigator's diagnosis and
      readings from three experienced and board-certified thoracic radiologists who
      used contemporary clinical practice guidelines. Results In the validation cohort,
      the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for CAD was 0.9154. By
      default, the sensitivity, specificity, and PPV of the NLST investigators were
      1.00, 0.00, and 0.43, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and
      negative predictive value of CAD and the three radiologists' combined reading
      were 0.95, 0.88, 0.86, and 0.96 and 0.70, 0.69, 0.64, and 0.75, respectively.
      Conclusion CAD could increase PPV and reduce the false-positive rate in the early
      diagnosis of lung cancer. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is
      available for this article.

PMID- 28872444
TI  - The Effect of Elevation on Intramuscular Tissue Temperatures.
AB  - CONTEXT: Ice, compression, and elevation, or ICE, is a widely used treatment for
      acute musculoskeletal injuries. The effects of ice and compression on tissue
      temperatures have been established, but whether elevation during cryotherapy
      affects temperature change has not. Elevation has potential to alter local
      perfusion and thereby alter the balance of heat loss/heat gain, potentially
      impacting tissue cooling during cryotherapy. OBJECTIVE: To measure the effect and
      interaction of ice, compression, and elevation on intramuscular temperatures. We
      hypothesized that elevation would not have an effect on intramuscular tissue
      temperature. DESIGN: Randomized crossover study design. SETTING: University
      athletic training facility. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 15 healthy
      volunteers (age 20.93 [1.67] y) provided informed consent and participated.
      INTERVENTIONS: Participants completed 8 treatment conditions: no treatment
      (control), ice only (I), compression only (C), elevation only (E), ice and
      compression (IC), ice and elevation (IE), compression and elevation (CE), or ice,
      compression, and elevation (ICE). All conditions were tested on each participant
      with a minimum of 48 hours between each condition. Intramuscular temperatures
      were recorded every 30 seconds during a 1-minute preapplication, 30-minute
      treatment, and 20-minute postapplication period. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The
      temperature difference between the mean treatment temperature and the mean
      preapplication temperature was compared across each measurement depth and
      treatment condition. RESULTS: Non-ice treatments (control, C, E, and CE; means
      33.4, 34.5, 33.7, and 34.6, respectively) had warmer intramuscular temperatures
      than any treatment that included ice (I, IC, IE, and ICE; means 28.4, 19.8, 28.0,
      and 19.3, respectively). There were no differences between IC and ICE (means 19.8
      and 19.3, respectively). Ice alone was different from everything (Control, C, E,
      IC, CE, and ICE) except IE Conclusions: Elevation does not appear to play a role
      in temperature changes during cryotherapy treatments.

PMID- 28872445
TI  - Parks and Health: Differences in Constraints and Negotiation Strategies for Park
      Based Leisure Time Physical Activity by Stage of Change.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Public parks are increasingly recognized as important places that
      facilitate physical activity. Despite the presence of parks, constraints to
      recreation and physical activity at parks exist. As the health benefits
      identified with physical activity require long-term and regular activity, it is
      important to examine factors pertaining to physical activity participation beyond
      initiation. This study explored differences in reported constraints to park based
      physical activity and negotiation strategies by physical activity stage of
      change. METHODS: Data were collected among visitors to one Minnesota state park
      via onsite and follow-up questionnaires. RESULTS: The average visitor had a
      healthier weight than the average U.S. and Minnesota adult and the majority of
      visitors were meeting the physical activity recommendations (86.4%). Respondents
      in the inactive/insufficient stages were more constrained and used fewer
      negotiation strategies than respondents in the maintenance stage. CONCLUSIONS:
      Results both support and expand on previous research findings. Specifically, this
      study supports research which indicates the adoption and maintenance of physical
      activity are influenced by different individual, social and environmental
      factors, and expands the research base by examining constraints and negotiation
      at different physical activity stages in a park setting. Implications of these
      findings provide directions for future stage-based intervention efforts.

PMID- 28872446
TI  - Formative Research to Develop the IDEFICS Physical Activity Intervention
      Component: Findings from Focus Groups with Children and Parents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current study aimed at describing influencing factors for
      physical activity among young children to determine the best approaches for
      developing the IDEFICS community based intervention. METHODS: In 8 European sites
      a trained moderator conducted a minimum of 4 focus groups using standardized
      questioning guides. A total of 56 focus groups were conducted including 36 focus
      groups with parents and 20 focus groups with children, of which 74 were boys and
      81 girls. Key findings were identified through independent reviews of focus group
      summary reports using content analysis methods. FINDINGS: Findings were generally
      consistent across countries. The greatest emphasis was on environmental physical
      (eg, seasonal influences, availability of facilities and safety), institutional
      (eg, length of breaks at school), and social factors (eg, role modeling of
      parents). Most cited personal factors by parents were age, social economical
      status, and perceived barriers. Both children and parents mentioned the
      importance of children's preferences. CONCLUSIONS: To increase physical activity
      levels of young children the intervention should aim at creating an environment
      (physical, institutional, social) supportive of physical activity. On the other
      hand strategies should take into account personal factors like age and social
      economical status and should consider personal barriers too.

PMID- 28872447
TI  - Measuring Physical Activity Change in Broad-Reach Intervention Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We compared the responsiveness to change (prepost intervention) of 3
      commonly-used self-report measures of physical activity. METHODS: In a cluster
      randomized trial of a telephone-delivered intervention with primary care
      patients, physical activity was assessed at baseline and 4 months (n = 381) using
      the 31-item CHAMPS questionnaire; the 6-item Active Australia Questionnaire
      (AAQ); and, 2 walking for exercise items from the US National Health Interview
      Survey (USNHIS). Responsiveness to change was calculated for frequency
      (sessions/week) and duration (MET.minutes/week) of walking and moderate-to
      vigorous intensity physical activity. RESULTS: The greatest responsiveness for
      walking frequency was found with the USNHIS (0.45, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.72) and AAQ
      (0.43, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.67), and for walking duration with the USNHIS (0.27, 95%CI
      0.13, 0.41) and CHAMPS (0.24, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.36). For moderate-to-vigorous
      activity, responsiveness for frequency was slightly higher for the AAQ (0.50, 95%
      CI: 0.30, 0.69); for duration it was slightly higher for CHAMPS (0.32, 95% CI:
      0.17, 0.47). CONCLUSIONS: In broad-reach trials, brief self-report measures
      (USNHIS and AAQ) are useful for their comparability to population physical
      activity estimates and low respondent burden. These measures can be used without
      a loss in responsiveness to change relative to a more detailed self-report
      measure (CHAMPS).

PMID- 28872448
TI  - Blood pressure variability and leukoaraiosis in acute ischemic stroke.
AB  - Higher blood pressure, blood pressure variability, and leukoaraiosis are risk
      factors for early adverse events and poor functional outcome after ischemic
      stroke, but prior studies differed on whether leukoaraiosis was associated with
      blood pressure variability, including in ischemic stroke. In the Third
      International Stroke Trial, blood pressure was measured in the acute phase of
      ischemic stroke immediately prior to randomization, and at 0.5, 1, and 24 h after
      randomization. Masked neuroradiologists rated index infarct, leukoaraiosis, and
      atrophy on CT using validated methods. We characterized blood pressure variation
      by coefficient of variance and three other standard methods. We measured
      associations between blood pressure, blood pressure variability, and
      leukoaraiosis using generalized estimating equations, adjusting for age, and a
      number of covariates related to treatment and stroke type/severity. Among 3017
      patients, mean (+/-SD) systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased from
      155(+/-24)/82(+/-15) mmHg pre-randomization to 146(+/-23)/78(+/-14) mmHg 24 h
      later ( P < 0.005). Mean within-subject coefficient of variance was 0.09 +/- 0.05
      for systolic and 0.11 +/- 0.06 for diastolic blood pressure. Patients with most
      leukoaraiosis were older and had higher blood pressure than those with least ( P
      < 0.0001). Although statistically significant in simple pairwise comparisons, no
      measures of blood pressure variability were associated with leukoaraiosis when
      adjusting for confounding variables ( P > 0.05), e.g. age. Our results suggest
      that blood pressure variability is not a potential mechanism to explain the
      association between leukoaraiosis and poor outcome after acute stroke.

PMID- 28872449
TI  - The PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization.
AB  - Background The PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization was formed in 2016 as
      an international consortium of medical practitioners involved in pre-hospital
      treatment of patients with acute stroke. Aims PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment
      Organization's mission is to improve stroke outcomes by supporting research and
      advocacy for pre-hospital stroke treatment in Mobile Stroke Units. PRE-hospital
      Stroke Treatment Organization will provide a platform to enhance collaborative
      research across the spectrum of acute stroke management in the pre-hospital
      setting. PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization will also facilitate the
      appropriate proliferation and distribution of Mobile Stroke Units by providing a
      forum for professional communication, resource for public education, and stimulus
      for government, industry, and philanthropic support. Summary of review In this
      "white paper", we describe the evidence supporting pre-hospital stroke treatment,
      progress to date, practical issues such as application in various environments
      and staffing, planned research initiatives, and organizational structure.
      Conclusions PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization is not-for-profit, with
      membership open to anyone involved (or hoping to become involved) in pre-hospital
      stroke care. PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization has a Steering Committee
      comprised of members from Europe, U.S., Canada, Australia, and other regions
      having a Mobile Stroke Unit in operation. PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment
      Organization convenes satellite meetings for membership at the International
      Stroke Conference and European Stroke Congress each year to address the PRE
      hospital Stroke Treatment Organization mission. The first research collaborations
      agreed upon are to: (1) develop a list of common data elements to be collected by
      all Mobile Stroke Unit programs and entered into a common research database, and
      (2) develop a protocol for investigating the natural history of hyper-acute
      Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

PMID- 28872450
TI  - The association between aortic regurgitation and undetermined embolic infarction
      with aortic complex plaque.
AB  - Background Retrograde embolism from the descending thoracic aorta is one possible
      cause of undetermined ischemic stroke. Significant aortic regurgitation can
      increase the amount of reversed flow in the thoracic aorta and thus is associated
      with an increased incidence of stroke. Aims This study aimed to examine the
      association between significant aortic regurgitation and undetermined embolic
      infarction with aortic complex plaques. Methods This study included 380 patients
      with undetermined embolic stroke who did not have abnormal flow such as atrial
      septal defect, patent foramen ovale determined by agitated saline bubble test,
      intracardiac thrombi on transesophageal echocardiography, atrial fibrillation, or
      small vessel stroke, cerebral artery, and carotid stenosis on the brain magnetic
      resonance imaging. The patients were divided into the complex aortic plaques
      group (n = 63), which was defined as having plaque with >4 mm in thickness,
      ulceration, or high mobility, and the no complex aortic plaques group (n = 317).
      Results Transesophageal echocardiography with a bubble study, brain MRI, and
      laboratory tests were performed for all subjects. Significant aortic
      regurgitation was more prevalent in patients with undetermined embolic stroke and
      complex aortic plaques than in patients without complex aortic plaques (adjusted
      OR = 4.981; 95% CI = 1.323-18.876, P = 0.028). In addition, the distribution of
      complex aortic plaques according to the severity of aortic regurgitation in
      patients with undetermined embolic stroke had a tendency toward the ascending
      thoracic aorta and proximal aortic arch. Conclusions Significant aortic
      regurgitation may affect undetermined embolic stroke in patients with complex
      aortic plaques.

PMID- 28872451
TI  - Incidence of seizure in stroke patients treated with recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Background Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator is the only FDA-approved
      thrombolytic agent for acute stroke treatment. However, there are concerns that
      recombinant tissue plasminogen activator may increase the risk of seizures
      (including early and late seizures). Aims We performed a systematic review to
      assess the incidence of seizures and the association of recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator with seizure occurrence. Summary of review We searched
      major databases for articles published between 1995 and February 2016. The pooled
      incidence of post-stroke seizure, early seizure, late seizure, and seizures sub
      types was estimated overall and by status for recombinant tissue plasminogen
      activator treatment, and unadjusted odds ratio used to quantify the effects of
      recombinant tissue plasminogen activator on post-stroke seizure occurrence. In
      all, 4362 stroke participants were included with 49-63% being male and median age
      ranging from 68 to 71 years. A total of 792 received recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator. The incidence of post-stroke seizure per 1000 participants
      (95% CI) was 95 (31-196) overall, 113 (49-202) in recombinant tissue plasminogen
      activator and 169 (6-326) in non-recombinant tissue plasminogen activator-treated
      (all heterogeneity- p<0.0001). Incidence of early seizure per 1000 (95% CI) was
      35 (27-45) overall; 34 (22-50) among recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
      treated patients, and 36 (25-48) among recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
      naive participants (all heterogeneity- p > 0.826). The pool incidence rate per
      1000 (95% CI) of late seizure was 84 (4-263), 46 (2-145), and 212 (184-241),
      respectively, in the overall, the recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
      treated group and non-recombinant tissue plasminogen activator-treated group
      (heterogeneity for overall and recombinant tissue plasminogen activator-treated
      group < 0.0001, non-recombinant tissue plasminogen activator naive = 0.999). The
      pooled odds ratio for post-stroke seizure (recombinant tissue plasminogen
      activator vs. no recombinant tissue plasminogen activator) was 0.94 (95% CI: 0.
      17-5.26, heterogeneity- p < 0.0001). The pooled incidence per 1000 participants
      (95% CI) was 30 (0-144), 17 (2-49), 16 (2-44), and 9 (0-50), respectively, for
      focal seizure without impairment of consciousness, focal seizure with impairment
      of consciousness, generalized convulsive seizure, and status epilepticus; all
      heterogeneity- p < 0.0003. Accompanying pooled odds ratio (recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator vs. no recombinant tissue plasminogen activator) based on
      one study was always in favor of non-significantly lower risk in recombinant
      tissue plasminogen activator-treated patients (all heterogeneity- p = 1). There
      were insufficient data to compute pooled odds ratio for early and late seizure.
      Conclusions Seizures affect nearly 1 out of every 10 stroke patients with
      inconclusive suggestion that rates are similar in recombinant tissue plasminogen
      activator-treated and recombinant tissue plasminogen activator naive patients.
      Large prospective studies are needed to better understand the relationship
      between recombinant tissue plasminogen activator and post-stroke seizure
      occurrence.

PMID- 28872453
TI  - Allium Stents: A Novel Solution for the Management of Upper and Lower Urinary
      Tract Strictures.
AB  - Stents are widely use in endoscopic urological procedures. One of the most
      important indications is the treatment of urinary tract strictures. AlliumTM
      Medical has introduced several types of stents for the treatment of different
      types of urinary tract strictures, based on anatomic location. All the stents are
      made of nitinol and coated with a co-polymer that reduces encrustations. These
      stents are self-expandable and have a large caliber and a high radial force. They
      have different shapes, designed especially for the treatment of each type of
      stricture. One of the most important features of Allium-manufactured stents is
      the ease of removal, due to their special unraveling feature. The company has
      introduced the Bulbar Urethral Stent (BUS) for treatment of bulbar urethral
      strictures; a rounded stent available in different lengths. Initial data on 64
      patients with bulbar urethral stricture treated with the BUS showed a significant
      improvement in symptoms, with minimal complications and few adverse events. For
      treatment of prostate obstruction in patients unfit for surgery or unwilling to
      undergo a classical prostatic surgery, the Triangular Prostatic Stent (TPS) was
      introduced, which has a triangular shape that fits in the prostatic urethra. Its
      body has a high radial force attached to an anchor (which prevents migration)
      through a trans-sphincteric wire (which reduces incontinence rate). Initial data
      on 51 patients showed significant improvement in symptoms and in urinary peak
      flow rate, with a relatively small number of complications. The Round Posterior
      Stent (RPS) was designed for treatment of post radical prostatectomy bladder neck
      contracture. This short, round stent has an anchor, which is placed in the
      bladder neck. This stent being relatively new, the clinical data are still
      limited. Ureteral strictures can be treated with the Ureteral Stent (URS), which
      is round-shaped, available in different lengths, and has an anchor option (for
      very distal or very proximal strictures). We have previously published data on
      107 URSs inserted in patients with ureteral stricture due to several etiologies,
      including patients who failed previous treatment. All patients were asymptomatic
      for a long period of follow-up after stent removal, with only one case of re
      stenosis. In this paper, we review the urological "covered" stents produced by
      Allium Medical with the relevant clinical data available at the present time.

PMID- 28872454
TI  - Review of the Clinical Approaches to the Use of Urine-based Tumor Markers in
      Bladder Cancer.
AB  - Bladder cancer is a common disease with a stable incidence for the past few
      decades despite advancements in molecular and genetic determinants of cancer
      development and progression. Cystoscopy remains the standard for detection and
      surveillance of bladder cancer, but it is an invasive and potentially costly
      procedure. With the knowledge of molecular alterations associated with bladder
      cancer numerous urine-based tumor markers have become commercially available.
      These urine markers have been evaluated in all clinical scenarios for the
      detection of bladder cancer including screening, hematuria, atypical cytology
      evaluation, and surveillance, but given the relative lack of impactful trials
      they are not routinely utilized. The efforts to develop markers with increased
      sensitivity to replace cystoscopy for the detection of bladder cancer have thus
      far been unsuccessful as well. This review addresses role of urine markers for
      screening, detection, and surveillance of bladder cancer.

PMID- 28872456
TI  - Graphene oxide wrapped ZnMn2O4 as high performance lithium ion battery anode.
AB  - Cation distribution between tetrahedral and octahedral sites within the ZnMn2O4
      spinel lattice, along with microstructural features, is affected greatly by the
      temperature of heat treatment. Inversion parameter can easily be tuned, from 5 to
      19%, depending on the annealing temperature. The upper limit of inversion is
      found for T= 400  degrees C as confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction and Raman
      spectroscopy. Excellent battery behavior is found for samples annealed at lower
      temperatures; after 500 cycles the specific capacities for as-prepared ZnMn2O4 is
      909 mAh/g, while ZnMn2O4 heat-treated at 300  degrees C shows 1179 mAh/g which
      amounts to 101 % of its initial capacity. Despite excellent performance of sample
      processed at 300  degrees C at lower charge/discharge rates (100 mAh/g), a drop
      in the specific capacity is observed with rate increase. This issue is solved by
      graphene oxide wrapping; specific capacity obtained after 400th cycle for
      graphene oxide wrapped ZnMn2O4 heat-treated at 300  degrees C is 799 mAh/g at
      charge/discharge rate 0.5 A/g, which is higher by factor 6 compared to sample
      without graphene oxide wrapping.

PMID- 28872458
TI  - Piezotronic Effect tuned AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor.
AB  - The piezotronic effect is about utilizing strain-induced piezoelectric
      polarization charges to tune the carrier transportation across the
      interface/junction. We fabricated a high performance AlGaN/GaN High Electron
      Mobility Transistor (HEMT), and the transport property was proven to be enhanced
      by applying an external stress for the first time. The enhanced source-drain
      current was also observed at any gate voltage and the maximum enhancement of the
      saturation current was up to 21 % with 15 N applied stress (0.18 GPa at center)
      at -1 V gate voltage. The physical mechanism of HEMT with/without external
      compressive stress conditions was carefully illustrated and further confirmed by
      a self-consistent solution of the Schrodinger-Poisson equations. This study
      proves the cause-and-effect relationship between the piezoelectric polarization
      effect and two-dimensional electron gas formation, which provides a tunable
      solution to enhance the device performance. The strain tuned HEMT has potential
      applications in human-machine interface and the security control of the power
      system.

PMID- 28872455
TI  - Magnetic eye tracking in mice.
AB  - Eye movements provide insights about a wide range of brain functions, from
      sensorimotor integration to cognition; hence, the measurement of eye movements is
      an important tool in neuroscience research. We describe a method, based on
      magnetic sensing, for measuring eye movements in head-fixed and freely moving
      mice. A small magnet was surgically implanted on the eye, and changes in the
      magnet angle as the eye rotated were detected by a magnetic field sensor.
      Systematic testing demonstrated high resolution measurements of eye position of
      <0.1 degrees . Magnetic eye tracking offers several advantages over the well
      established eye coil and video-oculography methods. Most notably, it provides the
      first method for reliable, high-resolution measurement of eye movements in freely
      moving mice, revealing increased eye movements and altered binocular coordination
      compared to head-fixed mice. Overall, magnetic eye tracking provides a
      lightweight, inexpensive, easily implemented, and high-resolution method suitable
      for a wide range of applications.

PMID- 28872459
TI  - miR-146a modulates autoreactive Th17 cell differentiation and regulates organ
      specific autoimmunity.
AB  - Autoreactive CD4 T cells that differentiate into pathogenic Th17 cells can
      trigger autoimmune diseases. Therefore, investigating the regulatory network that
      modulates Th17 differentiation may yield important therapeutic insights. miR-146a
      has emerged as a critical modulator of immune reactions, but its role in
      regulating autoreactive Th17 cells and organ-specific autoimmunity remains
      largely unknown. Here, we have reported that miR-146a-deficient mice developed
      more severe experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of
      human multiple sclerosis (MS). We bred miR-146a-deficient mice with 2D2 T cell
      receptor-Tg mice to generate 2D2 CD4 T cells that are deficient in miR-146a and
      specific for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), an autoantigen in the EAE
      model. miR-146a-deficient 2D2 T cells induced more severe EAE and were more prone
      to differentiate into Th17 cells. Microarray analysis revealed enhancements in IL
      6- and IL-21-induced Th17 differentiation pathways in these T cells. Further
      study showed that miR-146a inhibited the production of autocrine IL-6 and IL-21
      in 2D2 T cells, which in turn reduced their Th17 differentiation. Thus, our study
      identifies miR-146a as an important molecular brake that blocks the autocrine IL
      6- and IL-21-induced Th17 differentiation pathways in autoreactive CD4 T cells,
      highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target for treating autoimmune
      diseases.

PMID- 28872460
TI  - Deficiency in Kelch protein Klhl31 causes congenital myopathy in mice.
AB  - Maintenance of muscle structure and function depends on the precise organization
      of contractile proteins into sarcomeres and coupling of the contractile apparatus
      to the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), which serves as the reservoir for calcium
      required for contraction. Several members of the Kelch superfamily of proteins,
      which modulate protein stability as substrate-specific adaptors for
      ubiquitination, have been implicated in sarcomere formation. The Kelch protein
      Klhl31 is expressed in a muscle-specific manner under control of the
      transcription factor MEF2. To explore its functions in vivo, we created a mouse
      model of Klhl31 loss of function using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Mice lacking
      Klhl31 exhibited stunted postnatal skeletal muscle growth, centronuclear
      myopathy, central cores, Z-disc streaming, and SR dilation. We used proteomics to
      identify several candidate Klhl31 substrates, including Filamin-C (FlnC). In the
      Klhl31-knockout mice, FlnC protein levels were highly upregulated with no change
      in transcription, and we further demonstrated that Klhl31 targets FlnC for
      ubiquitination and degradation. These findings highlight a role for Klhl31 in the
      maintenance of skeletal muscle structure and provide insight into the mechanisms
      underlying congenital myopathies.

PMID- 28872461
TI  - Fibroblast-specific inhibition of TGF-beta1 signaling attenuates lung and tumor
      fibrosis.
AB  - TGF-beta1 signaling is a critical driver of collagen accumulation and fibrotic
      disease but also a vital suppressor of inflammation and epithelial cell
      proliferation. The nature of this multifunctional cytokine has limited the
      development of global TGF-beta1 signaling inhibitors as therapeutic agents. We
      conducted phenotypic screens for small molecules that inhibit TGF-beta1-induced
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition without immediate TGF-beta1 receptor (TbetaR)
      kinase inhibition. We identified trihydroxyphenolic compounds as potent blockers
      of TGF-beta1 responses (IC50 ~50 nM), Snail1 expression, and collagen deposition
      in vivo in models of pulmonary fibrosis and collagen-dependent lung cancer
      metastasis. Remarkably, the functional effects of trihydroxyphenolics required
      the presence of active lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2), thereby limiting effects to
      fibroblasts or cancer cells, the major LOXL2 producers. Mechanistic studies
      revealed that trihydroxyphenolics induce auto-oxidation of a LOXL2/3-specific
      lysine (K731) in a time-dependent reaction that irreversibly inhibits LOXL2 and
      converts the trihydrophenolic to a previously undescribed metabolite that
      directly inhibits TbetaRI kinase. Combined inhibition of LOXL2 and TbetaRI
      activities by trihydrophenolics resulted in potent blockade of pathological
      collagen accumulation in vivo without the toxicities associated with global
      inhibitors. These findings elucidate a therapeutic approach to attenuate fibrosis
      and the disease-promoting effects of tissue stiffness by specifically targeting
      TbetaRI kinase in LOXL2-expressing cells.

PMID- 28872462
TI  - Haploinsufficiency for DNA methyltransferase 3A predisposes hematopoietic cells
      to myeloid malignancies.
AB  - The gene that encodes de novo DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) is frequently
      mutated in acute myeloid leukemia genomes. Point mutations at position R882 have
      been shown to cause a dominant negative loss of DNMT3A methylation activity, but
      15% of DNMT3A mutations are predicted to produce truncated proteins that could
      either have dominant negative activities or cause loss of function and
      haploinsufficiency. Here, we demonstrate that 3 of these mutants produce
      truncated, inactive proteins that do not dimerize with WT DNMT3A, strongly
      supporting the haploinsufficiency hypothesis. We therefore evaluated
      hematopoiesis in mice heterozygous for a constitutive null Dnmt3a mutation. With
      no other manipulations, Dnmt3a+/- mice developed myeloid skewing over time, and
      their hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells exhibited a long-term competitive
      transplantation advantage. Dnmt3a+/- mice also spontaneously developed
      transplantable myeloid malignancies after a long latent period, and 3 of 12
      tumors tested had cooperating mutations in the Ras/MAPK pathway. The residual
      Dnmt3a allele was neither mutated nor downregulated in these tumors. The bone
      marrow cells of Dnmt3a+/- mice had a subtle but statistically significant DNA
      hypomethylation phenotype that was not associated with gene dysregulation. These
      data demonstrate that haploinsufficiency for Dnmt3a alters hematopoiesis and
      predisposes mice (and probably humans) to myeloid malignancies by a mechanism
      that is not yet clear.

PMID- 28872466
TI  - If Moses Had an Exoskeleton....

PMID- 28872465
TI  - Increased Reliability of Quantitative Ultrasound Measures of the Supraspinatus
      Tendon Using Multiple Image Analysts and Analysis Runs.
AB  - Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is an inexpensive and promising tool for sensitive
      measurement of tendon pathology. However, few studies have reported the
      psychometric properties of measurements obtained using this technique for
      assessments of the supraspinatus tendon. The present study was undertaken to
      determine the variance contributed by several sources of error (participant,
      ultrasound operator, image analyst, analysis session) to QUS measures of the
      supraspinatus tendon. Transverse images of the supraspinatus tendon were captured
      from eleven subjects (22 shoulders) by two ultrasonographers, and each image was
      analyzed by two image analysts who each completed two analysis runs.
      Generalizability theory and intraclass correlations were used to assess the
      reliability of seven QUS metrics. Measures of tendon/cartilage thickness
      demonstrated the greatest degree of overall dependability (phi = 0.84), followed
      by echogenicity (phi = 0.56), variance (phi = 0.55), and entropy (phi = 0.47),
      suggesting that these measures of the supraspinatus tendon may be promising
      metrics for assessing differences in tendon health. Interrater reliability
      between ultrasound operators ranged from low to moderate for different QUS
      metrics, but using more than one image analyst and performing repeated
      measurement analysis runs on each image help increase reliability of QUS measures
      for the supraspinatus tendon.

PMID- 28872463
TI  - mTORC1 hyperactivation arrests bone growth in lysosomal storage disorders by
      suppressing autophagy.
AB  - The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) kinase promotes cell growth
      by activating biosynthetic pathways and suppressing catabolic pathways,
      particularly that of macroautophagy. A prerequisite for mTORC1 activation is its
      translocation to the lysosomal surface. Deregulation of mTORC1 has been
      associated with the pathogenesis of several diseases, but its role in skeletal
      disorders is largely unknown. Here, we show that enhanced mTORC1 signaling
      arrests bone growth in lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). We found that
      lysosomal dysfunction induces a constitutive lysosomal association and consequent
      activation of mTORC1 in chondrocytes, the cells devoted to bone elongation.
      mTORC1 hyperphosphorylates the protein UV radiation resistance-associated gene
      (UVRAG), reducing the activity of the associated Beclin 1-Vps34 complex and
      thereby inhibiting phosphoinositide production. Limiting phosphoinositide
      production leads to a blockage of the autophagy flux in LSD chondrocytes. As a
      consequence, LSD chondrocytes fail to properly secrete collagens, the main
      components of the cartilage extracellular matrix. In mouse models of LSD,
      normalization of mTORC1 signaling or stimulation of the Beclin 1-Vps34-UVRAG
      complex rescued the autophagy flux, restored collagen levels in cartilage, and
      ameliorated the bone phenotype. Taken together, these data unveil a role for
      mTORC1 and autophagy in the pathogenesis of skeletal disorders and suggest
      potential therapeutic approaches for the treatment of LSDs.

PMID- 28872467
TI  - Irritable bowel syndrome and diet: where are we in 2018?
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim is to review the most recent advances in the evidence
      supporting the use of various dietary interventions for the management of
      irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). RECENT FINDINGS: There is insufficient evidence
      of the effect of fibres other than psyllium in IBS, whereas the recent studies on
      prebiotics suggest a limited effect in IBS. Recent probiotic trials continue to
      provide varying results, with some probiotic strains exhibiting beneficial
      effects, whereas others show no effect. Recent trials have also confirmed the
      clinical effectiveness of a diet low in fermentable oligosaccharides,
      disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (i.e. low FODMAP diet) in IBS.
      Although gluten sensitivity has also been recently investigated, its presence
      cannot be confirmed yet because of the presence of other potential contributing
      compounds in wheat. Studies also suggest a potential beneficial effect of
      peppermint oil, which warrants further research. SUMMARY: It is clear that a low
      FODMAP diet has a beneficial effect in a majority of patients with IBS.
      Probiotics also have great potential in the management of IBS; however, it is
      still unclear which strains and doses are the most beneficial. Further research
      is needed on the effect of different fibres, or combinations of fibres, in IBS.

PMID- 28872468
TI  - Sexual disorders beyond DSM-5: the unfinished affaire.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To provide an overview of post-The Diagnostic and Statistical
      Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed. classifications related to human sexuality.
      After reviewing the literature on classification and clinical practice of sexual
      disorders, some of the most important contributions on main sexological
      classifications and frameworks were selected, especially from January 2016 till
      June 2017. RECENT FINDINGS: New relevant contributions on psychiatric and
      sexological classifications and frameworks have been proposed, such as the
      international classification of diseases 11th revision (ICD-11), research domain
      criteria, the third edition of the Diagnostic Manual in Sexology and the person
      centered psychiatry perspective. SUMMARY: ICD-11 proposals regarding conditions
      related to sexual health including sexual dysfunctions and gender incongruence as
      well as vaginismus, such as sexual pain disorder, paraphilic disorders as mental
      Disorders. The disorders associated with sexual development and orientation, are
      proposed for deletion. The other perspectives aforementioned are also presented.

PMID- 28872464
TI  - CNS inflammation and neurodegeneration.
AB  - There is an increasing recognition that inflammation plays a critical role in
      neurodegenerative diseases of the CNS, including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic
      lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and the prototypic neuroinflammatory
      disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Differential immune responses involving the
      adaptive versus the innate immune system are observed at various stages of
      neurodegenerative diseases, and may not only drive disease processes but could
      serve as therapeutic targets. Ongoing investigations into the specific
      inflammatory mechanisms that play roles in disease causation and progression have
      revealed lessons about inflammation-driven neurodegeneration that can be applied
      to other neurodegenerative diseases. An increasing number of immunotherapeutic
      strategies that have been successful in MS are now being applied to other
      neurodegenerative diseases. Some approaches suppress CNS immune mechanisms, while
      others harness the immune system to clear deleterious products and cells. This
      Review focuses on the mechanisms by which inflammation, mediated either by the
      peripheral immune response or by endogenous CNS immune mechanisms, can affect CNS
      neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28872469
TI  - Extending indication of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors in the adjuvant
      and neoadjuvant setting.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: A burst of recent activity has surrounded the study of cyclin
      dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK 4/6) inhibitors for the treatment of metastatic breast
      cancer. The success of these drugs in the metastatic setting has pushed the
      evaluation of these agents in early-stage disease. The use of CDK 4/6 inhibitors
      as neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy is a hot topic and several studies are
      underway. RECENT FINDINGS: Ongoing studies are exploring the addition of CDK 4/6
      inhibitors to endocrine therapy in early breast cancer. SUMMARY: Identification
      of the optimal treatment combinations is the goal of current research. Finding
      biomarkers for patients' selection will be the goal of future research.

PMID- 28872471
TI  - Lung xenotransplantation.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review describes the most recent progress in xeno lung
      transplantation (XLTx) to date. It describes the potential mechanisms of early
      xeno lung graft loss, as well as the latest therapeutic strategies to overcome
      them. RECENT FINDINGS: Using ex-vivo perfusion models of porcine lungs with human
      blood, the use of genetically modified pig lungs along with novel pharmaceutical
      approaches has recently been studied. Strategies that have demonstrated improved
      lung survival include the knockout of known xenoantigens (GalTKO and N
      glycolylneuraminic acid-KO), genes that regulate complement activation (hCD46 and
      hCD55), as well as the inflammation/coagulation cascade (human leukocyte antigen
      E, human thrombomodulin, human endothelial protein C receptor, hCD47, hCD39,
      hCD73 and heme oxygenase-1). Furthermore, pharmacologic interventions including
      the depletion of pulmonary intravascular macrophages or von Willebrand factor,
      inhibition of thromboxane synthase and blockade of histamine receptors have also
      demonstrated protective effects on xeno lung grafts. Using in-vivo pig to
      nonhuman primate lung transplant models, these approaches have been shown to
      extend pulmonary xenograft survival to 5 days. SUMMARY: The development of new
      multitransgenic GalTKO pigs has demonstrated prolongation of porcine xenograft
      survival; however, advancement in XLTx has remained frustratingly limited.
      Further intensive and innovative strategies including genetic manipulation of
      donors, as well as inflammation/coagulation dysregulation, are required to make
      XLTx a clinical possibility.

PMID- 28872473
TI  - Capsaicin 8% Patch Repeat Treatment in Nondiabetic Peripheral Neuropathic Pain: A
      52-Week, Open-Label, Single-Arm, Safety Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the long-term safety and tolerability of capsaicin 8%
      patch repeat treatment in nondiabetic patients with peripheral neuropathic pain.
      METHODS: A prospective, open-label, observational study in patients with
      postherpetic neuralgia, posttraumatic or postsurgical nerve injury, HIV
      associated distal sensory polyneuropathy, or other peripheral neuropathic pain,
      and average daily pain score >=4, who received <=6 capsaicin 8% patch treatments
      over 52 weeks according to clinical need (retreatment at 9 to 12 wk intervals).
      Sensory testing and analgesic effectiveness were assessed using "bedside tests"
      and Brief Pain Inventory (question 5). RESULTS: Overall, 306 patients received
      treatment. Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and drug-related TEAEs were
      reported by 252 (82.4%) and 207 (67.6%) patients. Application site pain was the
      most common drug-related TEAE (n=112, 36.6%); no drug-related serious TEAEs were
      reported. Sensory category shift analyses from baseline to end of study (EoS) in
      patients attending at least 2 sensory visits (n=278 for all tests except warm,
      n=277) found sensory deterioration/loss in at least 1 modality in 50.4% (n=140);
      deterioration/loss in 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 modalities occurred in 26.6% (n=74), 14.0%
      (n=39), 5.8% (n=16), 2.5% (n=7), and 1.4% (n=4) cases. Newly emergent
      hyperesthesia or allodynia was apparent in 1.1% to 3.6% of the cases (depending
      on modality) by EoS. Between 25.2% and 32.0% of patients reported improvement in
      a sensory modality by EoS. Average daily pain was 6.6 and 4.7 at baseline and
      month 12. CONCLUSIONS: Generally, capsaicin 8% patch repeat treatment over 52
      weeks was well tolerated, with variable alteration in sensory function and
      minimal chance of complete sensory loss.

PMID- 28872470
TI  - Stop and go: hematopoietic cell transplantation in the era of chimeric antigen
      receptor T cells and checkpoint inhibitors.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: For several decades, hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)
      has been considered the standard curative therapy for many patients with
      hematological malignancies. In addition to the cytotoxic effects of the
      chemotherapy and radiation used in the conditioning regimen, the benefits of HCT
      are derived from a reset of the immune system and harnessing the ability of donor
      T cells to eliminate malignant cells. With the dawn of the era of immunotherapies
      in the form of checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells,
      the role of HCT has evolved. RECENT FINDINGS: Immunotherapy with checkpoint
      inhibitors is increasingly being used for relapsed Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin
      lymphoma after autologous HCT. Checkpoint inhibitors are also being tested after
      allogeneic HCT with observable benefits in treating hematological malignancies,
      but with a potential risk of increased graft versus host disease and transplant
      related mortality. Immunotherapy with Cluster of differentiation 19 CAR T cells
      are powerful options with aggressive B-cell malignancies both for therapy and as
      induction leading to allogeneic HCT. SUMMARY: Although immunotherapies with
      checkpoint inhibition and CAR T cells are increasingly being used to treat
      hematological malignancies, HCT remains a standard of care for most of the
      diseases with the best chance of cure. Combination of these therapies with HCT
      has the potential to more effectively treat hematological malignancies.

PMID- 28872474
TI  - Acupuncture for the Treatment of Chronic Pain in the Military Population: Factors
      Associated With Treatment Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Acupuncture is characterized as an alternative or complementary
      medicine with a low complication rate and minimal side effects. There is a lack
      of robust evidence that shows acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic
      pain. The purpose of this study was to determine which (if any) characteristics
      can predict successful response to acupuncture in chronic pain patients treated
      at military treatment facilities. METHODS: Data from 222 patients who received
      treatment for a chronic pain condition were collected from 2 medical centers. The
      patients underwent at least 4 acupuncture treatments and had an average pain
      score of 4 or higher on a 0- to 10-point numerical rating scale or visual analog
      scale in the week before treatment initiation. A successful outcome was defined
      to be a 2-point or greater reduction on the numerical rating scale or visual
      analog scale 12 weeks postinitial treatment. RESULTS: The overall treatment
      success rate was 42.3%. Multivariate logistic regression found a higher baseline
      pain rating and the use of stimulation needles to be associated with a positive
      outcome (odds ratio [OR]=1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.55; P=0.02
      and OR=2.73; 95% CI, 1.39-5.32; P=0.03, respectively). Only the presence of one
      or more psychological comorbidities was found to be associated with treatment
      failure (OR=0.67; 95% CI, 0.49-0.92; P=0.01). DISCUSSION: The use of electrical
      stimulation and higher baseline pain score were associated with a positive
      treatment outcome, while the presence of a psychological comorbidity diminished
      the likelihood of treatment success. Practitioners should consider using
      electrical stimulation more frequently, and addressing psychopathology before or
      concurrent to treatment, when initiating acupuncture.

PMID- 28872476
TI  - Do User-Applied Safety Labels on Medication Syringes Reduce the Incidence of
      Medication Errors During Rapid Medical Response Intervention for Deteriorating
      Patients on Wards? A Systematic Search and Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Intravenous medication errors (MEs) occur during medical emergency
      situations. An initiative, not yet in common practice, that could address these
      errors is safety labeling. The aim of this review was to identify and appraise
      research evidence related to the impact of user-applied medication safety
      labeling on reducing the incidence of MEs during rapid medical response
      intervention for patient deterioration in the ward setting. METHOD: A systematic
      search and review framework was used to conduct the review. A comprehensive
      database search was conducted of BioMed Central, Clinical Trials, Cumulative
      Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Expanded Academic ASAP, Joanna
      Briggs Institute, MEDLINE, OVID, ProQuest Central, PubMed, Wiley Online Library,
      and World Health Organization Library. The Young and Solomon (2009) critical
      appraisal tool was used to critically appraise the identified research articles.
      Each article was then analyzed using a thematic network strategy to identify
      commonality. RESULTS: Four primary themes were identified; they were as follows:
      MEs occur during medical emergency responses (MERs); MEs occur throughout the
      medication administration process; MERs are stressful and are associated with
      MEs; and role of medication labeling in reducing MEs during MERs. DISCUSSION:
      Greater vigilance is required by health professionals during the medication
      administration process. The implementation of specific medication safety labeling
      into the MER could be beneficial in reducing the overall incidence of MEs.
      Further research is required to validate the merits of a MER medication safety
      labeling system.

PMID- 28872477
TI  - Thyroid Metastasis as First Manifestation of a Colon Adenocarcinoma With KRAS
      Mutation: Usefulness of 18F-FDG PET/CT.
AB  - The synchronous diagnosis of a thyroid metastasis and of the primary colon
      adenocarcinoma that produces it is very rare, with only 5 cases reported to date,
      all of them treated with thyroid surgery showing a mean survival of 7 months. An
      18F-FDG PET/CT in an asymptomatic 74-year-old woman with a thyroid cytology
      suggestive of malignancy but uncertain about the origin of the tumor revealed an
      stage IV colon adenocarcinoma with KRAS mutation and multiple metastasis
      (thyroid, lung, and liver). A prompt therapeutic planning with chemotherapy
      allowed 21 months of survival.

PMID- 28872478
TI  - Response to the letter to the editor: "Understanding the impact of preservation
      methods on the integrity and functionality of placental allografts".

PMID- 28872479
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28872480
TI  - A Random-allocation Graded Dose-Response Study of Norepinephrine and
      Phenylephrine for Treating Hypotension during Spinal Anesthesia for Cesarean
      Delivery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Norepinephrine has been investigated as a potential alterative to
      phenylephrine for maintaining blood pressure during spinal anesthesia for
      cesarean delivery with the advantage of less depression of maternal heart rate
      and cardiac output. However, the relative potencies of these two vasopressors
      have not been fully determined in this context. METHODS: In a random-allocation,
      graded dose-response study, 180 healthy patients undergoing spinal anesthesia for
      elective cesarean delivery received a single bolus of norepinephrine in one of
      six different doses ranging from 4 to 12 ug or phenylephrine in one of six
      different doses ranging from 60 to 200 ug to treat the first episode of
      hypotension. The magnitude of response was measured as the percentage of full
      restoration of systolic blood pressure to the baseline value. Dose-response
      analysis was performed using nonlinear regression to derive four-parameter
      logistic dose-response curves, which were compared to determine relative potency.
      RESULTS: Data were analyzed for 180 patients. The estimated ED50 values (dose
      giving a 50% response) were norepinephrine 10 ug (95% CI, 6 to 17 ug) and
      phenylephrine 137 ug (95% CI, 79 to 236 ug). The estimated relative potency ratio
      for the two drugs was 13.1 ug (95% CI, 10.4 to 15.8 ug). CONCLUSIONS: Comparative
      dose-response analysis was completed for norepinephrine and phenylephrine given
      as a bolus to treat the first episode of hypotension in patients undergoing
      spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery. The estimated dose equivalent to
      phenylephrine 100 ug was norepinephrine 8 ug (95% CI, 6 to 10 ug). These results
      may be useful to inform the design of future comparative studies.

PMID- 28872481
TI  - Xenon and Cardioprotection: Is This the Light at the End of the Tunnel?

PMID- 28872482
TI  - Stem Cell-based Therapies for Sepsis.
AB  - Sepsis is a life-threatening syndrome resulting in shock and organ dysfunction
      stemming from a microbial infection. Sepsis has a mortality of 40% and is
      implicated in half of all in-hospital deaths. The host immune response to
      microbial infection is critical, with early-phase sepsis characterized by a
      hyperinflammatory immune response, whereas the later phase of sepsis is often
      complicated by suppression. Sepsis has no treatment, and management remains
      supportive.Stem cells constitute exciting potential therapeutic agents for
      sepsis. In this review, we examine the rationale for stem cells in sepsis,
      focusing on mesenchymal stem/stromal cells, which currently demonstrate the
      greatest therapeutic promise. We examine the preclinical evidence base and
      evaluate potential mechanisms of action of these cells that are important in the
      setting of sepsis. We discuss early-phase clinical trials and critically appraise
      translational barriers to the use of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in patients
      with sepsis.

PMID- 28872483
TI  - "Golf Ball" in the Left Ventricular Outflow Tract?

PMID- 28872485
TI  - What is the Value of a National Football League Draft Pick? An Analysis Based on
      Changes Made in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
AB  - Kraeutler, MJ, Carver, TJ, Belk, JW, and McCarty, EC. What is the value of a
      National Football League draft pick? An analysis based on changes made in the
      collective bargaining agreement. J Strength Cond Res 32(6): 1656-1661, 2018-The
      purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the value of players drafted in
      early rounds of the National Football League (NFL) Draft since the new collective
      bargaining agreement began in 2011. The NFL's player statistics database and
      database of player contract details were searched for players drafted in the
      first 3 rounds of the 2011 to 2013 NFL Drafts. Performance outcomes specific to
      each position were divided by each player's salary to calculate a value
      statistic. Various demographics, NFL Combine results, and total number of games
      missed because of injury were also recorded for each player. These statistics
      were compared within each position between players selected in the first round of
      the NFL Draft (group A) vs. those drafted in the second or third round (group B).
      A total of 147 players were included (group A 35, group B 112). Overall, players
      in group A were significantly taller (p <= 0.01) and heavier (p = 0.037) than
      players in group B. Group B demonstrated significantly greater value statistics
      than group A for quarterbacks (p = 0.028), wide receivers (p <= 0.001), defensive
      tackles (p = 0.019), and cornerbacks (p <= 0.001). No significant differences
      were found between groups with regard to number of games missed because of
      injury. Players drafted in the second or third rounds of the NFL Draft often
      carry more value than those drafted in the first round. NFL teams may wish to
      more frequently trade down in the Draft rather than trading up.

PMID- 28872484
TI  - Effect of Xenon Anesthesia Compared to Sevoflurane and Total Intravenous
      Anesthesia for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery on Postoperative Cardiac
      Troponin Release: An International, Multicenter, Phase 3, Single-blinded,
      Randomized Noninferiority Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ischemic myocardial damage accompanying coronary artery bypass graft
      surgery remains a clinical challenge. We investigated whether xenon anesthesia
      could limit myocardial damage in coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients,
      as has been reported for animal ischemia models. METHODS: In 17 university
      hospitals in France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands, low-risk elective, on
      pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients were randomized to receive
      xenon, sevoflurane, or propofol-based total intravenous anesthesia for anesthesia
      maintenance. The primary outcome was the cardiac troponin I concentration in the
      blood 24 h postsurgery. The noninferiority margin for the mean difference in
      cardiac troponin I release between the xenon and sevoflurane groups was less than
      0.15 ng/ml. Secondary outcomes were the safety and feasibility of xenon
      anesthesia. RESULTS: The first patient included at each center received xenon
      anesthesia for practical reasons. For all other patients, anesthesia maintenance
      was randomized (intention-to-treat: n = 492; per-protocol/without major protocol
      deviation: n = 446). Median 24-h postoperative cardiac troponin I concentrations
      (ng/ml [interquartile range]) were 1.14 [0.76 to 2.10] with xenon, 1.30 [0.78 to
      2.67] with sevoflurane, and 1.48 [0.94 to 2.78] with total intravenous anesthesia
      [per-protocol]). The mean difference in cardiac troponin I release between xenon
      and sevoflurane was -0.09 ng/ml (95% CI, -0.30 to 0.11; per-protocol: P = 0.02).
      Postoperative cardiac troponin I release was significantly less with xenon than
      with total intravenous anesthesia (intention-to-treat: P = 0.05; per-protocol: P
      = 0.02). Perioperative variables and postoperative outcomes were comparable
      across all groups, with no safety concerns. CONCLUSIONS: In postoperative cardiac
      troponin I release, xenon was noninferior to sevoflurane in low-risk, on-pump
      coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients. Only with xenon was cardiac
      troponin I release less than with total intravenous anesthesia. Xenon anesthesia
      appeared safe and feasible.

PMID- 28872486
TI  - Comparison of Different Iron Preparations in the Prophylaxis of Iron-deficiency
      Anemia.
AB  - We compared the efficacy of ferrous sulfate (divalent) and ferric polymaltose
      (trivalent) compounds for the prophylaxis of iron-deficiency anemia (IDA). Study
      infants included exclusively breast milk-fed term infants. Subjects were divided
      randomly into 2 groups at 4 months of age and group 1 (n=56) received divalent
      and group 2 (n=56) received trivalent iron (Fe) preparation at a dose of 2
      mg/kg/d for 5 months. At 9 months of age, after a 5-month prophylaxis, a
      significant increase was observed in hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit, serum Fe
      levels, and transferrin saturation in both groups. However, group 1 had
      significantly higher Hb, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, Fe, and transferrin
      saturation than group 2 (11.7+/-0.6 g/dL, 34.6%+/-1.7%, 76.2+/-2.9 fL, 55.5+/-1.8
      mcg, 20.8+/-3.9 g/L, respectively in group 1 vs. 11.3+/-0.5 g/dL, 33.5%+/-1.5%,
      74.7+/-3.2 fL, 42.5+/-1.8 mcg, 14.1+/-7.5 g/L, respectively in group 2). No
      significant difference was found in ferritin values between the groups. Fe
      deficiency was found in 17 (30.3%) of the subjects in group 1, and 23 (41%) of
      subjects in group 2 whereas 5 (8.9%) subjects had IDA in group 1 and 12 (12%) in
      group 2 which were insignificant between groups. No significant difference was
      found with regard to side effects between 2 Fe preparations. Although divalent Fe
      therapy led to a higher Hb and serum Fe level, both ferrous and ferric Fe
      preparations were effective for prophylactic use in the prevention of Fe
      deficiency and IDA with comparable side effects.

PMID- 28872488
TI  - Acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy related to treatment with MEK
      inhibitors in a patient with advanced melanoma.
AB  - Approximately one-half of advanced cutaneous melanomas have a V600 mutation in
      the BRAF gene that activates the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. The
      combination of BRAF plus MEK inhibitors is one of the most effective treatments
      for these patients. Severe neurological toxicities have been reported in the
      literature. However, these toxicities are very rare. Here, we present one patient
      with acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy, which is a subtype of Guillain
      Barre syndrome, secondary to treatment with MEK inhibitors. This side effect had
      never been described as related to these agents. However, the mitogen-activated
      protein kinase pathway can be involved in Guillain-Barre syndrome, and awareness
      of early neurological injury signs is important in patients treated with MEK
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28872489
TI  - A case of pure red cell aplasia during nivolumab therapy for cardiac metastatic
      melanoma.
AB  - Nivolumab is an antibody against programmed cell death 1 and functions as an
      immune checkpoint inhibitor for various malignancies, including unresectable
      melanomas. Nivolumab causes several immune-related adverse events, which
      typically include skin rash, pneumonitis, thyroid dysfunction, hepatitis, and
      colitis; in rare cases, anemia may be present. There are several reports of
      autoimmune hemolytic anemia that has developed in response to nivolumab; however,
      there are few reports of pure red cell aplasia (PRCA). We describe a patient who
      developed PRCA during nivolumab administration. A 70-year-old Japanese woman
      received nivolumab for cardiac metastasis from malignant melanoma from an unknown
      site. Twenty-one months after nivolumab administration (31 courses), treatment
      was discontinued because she developed severe anemia. Blood test results
      indicated normocytic, normochromic anemia, and reticulocytopenia, but all other
      components were normal. Bone marrow aspiration showed increased megakaryocytes
      and decreased erythroblasts; these findings were consistent with PRCA. Anemia
      improved without recurrence after treatment with corticosteroids and blood
      transfusions. The steroid dosage was reduced gradually, and to date, the patient
      has not experienced recurrence of anemia. The tumor decreased in size and the
      patient has shown a continued response to treatment with decrease in disease for
      3 years. Although it is unclear how nivolumab causes PRCA, hematological
      toxicities have been reported in patients treated with immunotherapy drugs. PRCA
      might be an unrecognized immune-mediated adverse event that did not manifest
      during the clinical trial phase.

PMID- 28872490
TI  - Menopausal hormone therapy for primary prevention: why the USPSTF is wrong.

PMID- 28872491
TI  - Please don't give hormone therapy a D recommendation or state that "harms far
      outweigh benefits for prevention of chronic disease".

PMID- 28872492
TI  - An update on ocular complications of Ebola virus disease.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review provides a summary of our current understanding of
      the ophthalmic manifestations of Ebola virus disease (EVD), pathogenesis,
      treatment options and directions for future study. The individual, public health
      and global health implications of eye disease in EVD survivors are discussed.
      RECENT FINDINGS: The West Africa EVD outbreak was of unprecedented magnitude,
      leading to the largest survivor cohort since the first documented EVD outbreak in
      1976. Because of the magnitude of the recent outbreak, thousands of survivors are
      at-risk of systemic and ophthalmic sequelae termed the 'post Ebola virus disease
      syndrome'. Uveitis is the most common finding during EVD convalescence and may
      lead to severe vision impairment or blindness in 40% of affected individuals.
      Ocular complications leading to vision loss include cataract, retinal scarring,
      optic neuropathy, hypotony and phthisis bulbi. The pathogenesis of eye disease in
      EVD survivors likely involves Ebola virus persistence, severe inflammation and
      tissue edema, which present as acute, rapidly progressive disease or chronic,
      smoldering disease. Further studies into disease pathogenesis including
      mechanisms of viral persistence may provide guidance into therapies for uveitis
      secondary to EVD. SUMMARY: Uveitis is the most common ophthalmic finding in EVD
      survivors and can lead to vision loss. Further studies into the clinical
      manifestations and mechanisms of disease are needed to improve therapies for EVD
      survivors who often have limited access to ophthalmic medical and surgical care.

PMID- 28872495
TI  - Dislocated Dental Prothesis Sitting at the Larynx in an Aphasic Patient:
      Potentially Fatal Situation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Foreign body in respiration tract is a life-threatening emergency
      and requires urgent treatment. The diagnosis and treatment requires awareness and
      suspicion of signs and symptoms of foreign body aspiration. CASE: A unique case
      of total dental prothesis aspiration of a 44-year-old aphasic patient is
      presented. The prothesis is completely removed from the larynx. DISCUSSION:
      Foreign-body aspiration is frequently suspected in children, it is rarely thought
      about in adults with subacute or chronic respiratory symptoms unless an evident
      history of an aspiration event is obtained. Facial trauma, dental procedures,
      central nervous system dysfunction due to stroke, mental retardation, metabolic
      encephalopathy, seizures, and alcoholism are precipitating factors in adults.
      Careful clinical history and physical examination is mandatory. Foreign bodies
      located in the laryngeal region are almost always treated with surgery.
      CONCLUSION: Loose dentures must be avoided especially in mental retarded, aphasic
      patients, and patients with central nervous system dysfunction.

PMID- 28872494
TI  - The genetics of congenital heart disease... understanding and improving long-term
      outcomes in congenital heart disease: a review for the general cardiologist and
      primary care physician.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review has two purposes: to provide an updated review of
      the genetic causes of congenital heart disease (CHD) and the clinical
      implications of these genetic mutations, and to provide a clinical algorithm for
      clinicians considering a genetics evaluation of a CHD patient. RECENT FINDINGS: A
      large portion of congenital heart disease is thought to have a significant
      genetic contribution, and at this time a genetic cause can be identified in
      approximately 35% of patients. Through the advances made possible by next
      generation sequencing, many of the comorbidities that are frequently seen in
      patients with genetic congenital heart disease patients can be attributed to the
      genetic mutation that caused the congenital heart disease. These comorbidities
      are both cardiac and noncardiac and include: neurodevelopmental disability,
      pulmonary disease, heart failure, renal dysfunction, arrhythmia and an increased
      risk of malignancy. Identification of the genetic cause of congenital heart
      disease helps reduce patient morbidity and mortality by improving preventive and
      early intervention therapies to address these comorbidities. SUMMARY: Through an
      understanding of the clinical implications of the genetic underpinning of
      congenital heart disease, clinicians can provide care tailored to an individual
      patient and continue to improve the outcomes of congenital heart disease
      patients.

PMID- 28872496
TI  - Advantages of a Beveled Osteotomy on the Zygomatic Arch During Reduction
      Malarplasty.
AB  - During a conventional reduction malarplasty procedure, a dual approach including
      intraoral incisions and preauricular incisions is made to reduce both the
      zygomatic body and arch. As the preauricular approach is performed to cut the
      zygomatic arch, there are several remarkable advantages that can be achieved by
      simply beveling the osteotomy anteriorly on the zygomatic arch. This has the
      benefits of enhancing bone union by the increase in cross-sectional area for bone
      contact, decreasing palpability on the osteotomy site, placing the osteotomy more
      posteriorly, preventing depression in the anterior malar region, and reducing the
      need for metal fixtures.

PMID- 28872497
TI  - Myoepithelioma of the Nasal Septum.
AB  - Myoepithelioma is defined as myoepithelial cells composed of tumor with solid,
      myxoid, and reticular growth pattern by the World Health Organization. It is a
      rare neoplasm that arises in the major salivary gland or minor salivary gland
      comprising approximately 1% of all salivary gland tumor. This neoplasm occurs in
      the parotid gland and soft palate mostly, which can be found in other organs.
      However, up to now, myoepithelioma of nasal septum has not been reported in
      English medical literature. Histologically, it is grouped as spindle, epitheliod,
      reticular, and clear cell types. Spindle cell type is the most common. In this
      case, a 40-year-old woman presented with complaining of nasal stuffiness and
      accidentally found right nasal cavity mass. Endoscopic surgery for excision of
      the mass was performed under local anesthesia, which was confirmed as
      myoepithelioma. After surgery, the patient's symptom was disappeared and there
      has not been sign of recurrence for 6 months. We present a rare patient of
      myoepithelioma of the nasal septum with review of relevant literature.

PMID- 28872498
TI  - Diagnosis and Management of Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak in a Panfacial Fracture.
AB  - Cerebrospinal fluid fistula caused by head trauma is a potentially dangerous
      problem and precise localization and radical treatment are necessary. We present
      a case of a patient with Panfacial fracture caused by a motorcycle accident,
      resulting in a cerebrospinal fluid leakage. The correct diagnosis was realized by
      computed tomography and auxiliary tests. The successful treatment can be
      confirmed with the support of radionuclide cisternography examination.

PMID- 28872499
TI  - Mean Platelet Volume, Red Cell Distribution Width, and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte
      Ratio Before and After Surgery in Patients With Carotid Body Tumors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Carotid body tumors (CBTs) are rare hypervascular benign tumors that
      originate from the paraganglia at the carotid bifurcation. The red cell
      distribution width (RDW), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and mean platelet
      volume (MPV) may serve as markers in inflammatory, cardiovascular, and neoplastic
      diseases. However, their prognostic value in CBTs is unknown. The purpose of this
      study was to assess the leukocyte count, MPV, RDW, and NLR before and after
      surgery in patients with CBTs. METHODS: This retrospective trial included data
      from 80 patients with CBTs and 65 age-matched healthy controls. The leukocyte,
      neutrophil, lymphocyte and platelet counts, RDW, and MPV were extracted and NLR
      was calculated from the complete blood count results of participants. RESULTS:
      The leukocyte and neutrophil counts as well as RDW levels were significantly
      increased in patients with CBTs compared with healthy controls (P = 0.005, P =
      0.003, and P = 0.026; respectively). Patients with CBTs had lower lymphocytes
      counts (P = 0.241) and higher NLRs (P = 0.054); however, the difference was
      statistically insignificant. Moreover, no statistically significant difference
      was detected between groups in terms of platelet counts and MPV levels.
      Furthermore, the leukocyte count, platelet numbers, MPV, RDW, and NLR levels in
      patients with CBTs were not statistically significant after surgery (all; P >
      0.05). CONCLUSION: This is the first study that documents the increased RDW
      levels and leukocyte count in patients with CBTs. The combined use of RDW and the
      leukocyte count along with other clinical assessments can be used as a biomarker
      for CBTs. Further clinical trials with larger cases series are required to
      determine the actual predictive roles of these systemic biomarkers.

PMID- 28872500
TI  - Simple Septocutaneous Free Flap Design for One-Stage Reconstruction of
      Pharyngocutaneous and Orocutaneous Fistulae.
AB  - Reconstruction of pharyngocutaneous fistula (PCF) or orocutaneous fistula is
      always a challenging task. It has many causes and is especially related to
      radiation therapy after resection of head and neck cancers. There are many
      reports of surgical procedures for fistula repair. For example, 2-stage methods,
      methods of combining multiple flaps, and methods of using chimeric flaps have
      been reported. However, there is no established simple method as a treatment of
      choice. The authors describe 5 patients of head and neck fistulas and recommend a
      useful 1-stage reconstruction method using a double skin paddle free flap.The
      authors modified the free flaps simply with a double skin paddle sharing 1
      pedicle. The skin paddle of the flap was split into 2 parts, one skin island for
      inner mucosal coverage, and the other for outer skin resurfacing. The bridge
      between the 2 skin paddles was deepithelialized and then folded. To prevent
      leakage, a water-tight closure was ensured.The double skin paddle free flap
      method was used in 5 patients. Two patients had orocutaneous fistula, and the
      other 3 patients had PCF due to irradiation. Flap losses did not occur, but wound
      dehiscence was noted in the 3 PCF patients. Repeat wound revision procedures were
      performed in these patients, and the end result was good.Conventional methods are
      complex and require multiple flaps or repeat surgery. However, the double skin
      paddle free flap method allows for simple and effective 1-stage reconstruction
      using 1 flap, 1 pedicle, and 1 microanastomosis even for patients who received
      preoperative radiotherapy.

PMID- 28872501
TI  - Effects of Different Tissue Adhesives in Treating Calvarial Bone Defects.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of the 2 different
      tissue adhesive materials as a barrier for guided bone regeneration and to
      compare them with resorbable collogen membrane on autogenous grafted critical
      sized cortical bone defects. Twenty-four rats were divided into 3 groups: Group
      M, Group G, and Group B. A 5-mm diameter critical-size defect was created in the
      calvarium of each animal. All defects were filled by autogenous graft harvested
      from tibia. In group M, resorbable collogen membrane was applied to defect area.
      In groups G and B, defects were closed by Glubran2 and Bioglue. All animals were
      euthanized at 28 days postoperative. Stereologic analyses were performed. New
      bone area and connective tissue volumes were measured. Mean new bone volumes were
      0.97 +/- 0.28, 0.59 +/- 0.2, and 0.8 +/- 0.32 mm in groups M, G, and B,
      respectively. The differences between groups were not statistically significant
      (P > 0.05). In group M, mean connective tissue volumes were 4.25 +/- 0.7 mm, in
      groups G and B, 2.9 +/- 1.82 and 4.54 +/- 0.64 mm. Connective tissue volume
      differences were not statistically significant between groups. Glubran2 and
      Bioglue may play a role as a barrier for guided bone regeneration in treatment of
      critical size defects.

PMID- 28872502
TI  - Lingual Short Split: A Bilateral Sagittal Split Osteotomy Technique Modification.
AB  - The technique of sagittal split osteotomy of the mandibular ramus is an
      established technique that has been evolving over the years, with significant
      improvements regarding stability, better bone contact between the segments, and
      possibilities of osteosynthesis. However, paresthesia is common in the
      postoperatory, sometimes permanent, and undesirable fractures in the subcondylar
      region can occur leading to longer operative time and extraoral scars. The short
      lingual split technique is an easy technique that simplifies the horizontal
      osteotomy of the ramus and decreases the risk of undesirable fractures with a
      neurosensitive recovery of patients in a much shorter time because of minor
      trauma and nerve manipulation during the execution.

PMID- 28872503
TI  - Postoperative Orthognathic Surgery Edema Assessment With and Without Manual
      Lymphatic Drainage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) on facial
      edema and pain in patients who underwent orthognathic surgery from patient and
      professional perspectives and clinical measures. METHODS: It is a randomized
      double-blind clinical trial, where 30 patients who underwent bimaxillary
      orthognathic surgery were divided into 2 groups (treatment and placebo). One
      group (treatment) received MLD from 2nd postoperative day, besides cryotherapy
      and postoperative medications. The other group (placebo) received cryotherapy,
      medications, and manual superficial sliding movements as placebo. For edema
      evaluation, facial measurements with tape and photographs were used. To evaluate
      patients' perception, visual analog scale for pain and edema was used. In
      statistical analysis, quantitative data were analyzed using Student t test for
      normally distributed variables and Mann-Whitney test for non-normal to find
      differences between groups; 5% significance level was adopted. RESULTS: No
      difference was found between groups in the amount of maximum developed edema (P =
      0.290) nor on what day the edema peak occurred (P = 0.091). However, it was found
      that treatment group showed faster and greater regression of swelling compared
      with placebo (P < 0.001). Manual lymphatic drainage was not effective in
      relieving pain in these patients and nor in edema perception (P = 0.784 and P =
      0.946, respectively). CONCLUSION: Manual lymphatic drainage was effective in
      reducing facial measurements in orthognathic surgery postoperatory. When
      considering patient's pain and swelling perception, no difference was found
      between groups.

PMID- 28872504
TI  - Chondrocutaneous Preauricular Free Flap for Reconstruction of Nasal Defects Aided
      by Interposition Vascular Graft.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Reconstruction of a nose deformity with a full-thickness defect is
      not an easy procedure because the nose is highly noticeable, being located at the
      center of the face, and plays an important role in breathing. Esthetics and
      functionality are equally important. Local flap reconstruction is an option but
      it has limitations for reconstruction of large defects because of the following
      the scar and the deformity at the recipient site. Chondrocutaneous preauricular
      free flaps can be used to provide grafts with satisfactory esthetics. Since the
      chondrocutaneous preauricular free flap has a short pedicle for anastomosis with
      the facial artery and vein, in some patients there is a need for extra vessel
      grafts. The authors have had several successful results using chondrocutaneous
      free flaps aided by interposition vascular grafts with the descending branch of
      the lateral circumflex femoral artery and the accompanying vein. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: A total of 6 patients with full thickness defects of the nose
      participated in chondrocutaneous preauricular free flap operations from 2011 to
      2015. Operations were performed under general anesthesia. After dissection around
      the tissue and scar removal, the flap was designed to be a few centimeters size
      wide to include cartilage from the helical loop and preauricular skin. After
      finding the superficial temporal vein by dissection, the incision was extended to
      the proximal part of the flap and dissection was done below the superficial
      temporal vessels. To elongate the pedicle of the flap, the descending branch of
      the lateral circumflex femoral artery, used as a pedicle for the anterolateral
      femoral flap, and the accompanying vein were harvested together. The harvested
      descending branch of the lateral circumflex femoral artery and the accompanying
      vein were placed on the subcutaneous tunnel. End-to-end anastomosis between the
      pedicle of the flap and the vessel graft as well as between the vessel graft and
      the facial vessels was done. During flap inset, even though remnant parts were
      trimmed, sufficient tissue should be left cautiously, and the donor site was
      closed primarily. RESULTS: All 6 operations were successful. Despite the
      different etiologies in each patient, the nose defects were not different and the
      operations were not different either. The operative time varied from 3.5 to 6
      hours. No major complications were reported. After the operation, necrosis and
      donor site complications did not occur, and scarring and deformity of the donor
      site were minimal. The patients were mostly satisfied with the results.
      CONCLUSION: Use of the chondrocutaneous preauricular free flap is not only
      effective for large defects of the nose, but also makes a good donor if the 3
      floor structure and subunit structures of the nose are taken into consideration.
      Since the pedicle of the flap was short, the authors recruited the descending
      branch of the lateral circumflex femoral artery and the accompanying vein as a
      vessel graft. A year after surgery, all of the patients were satisfied with the
      results.

PMID- 28872505
TI  - Efficacy of Facilitated Capacity Building in Providing Cleft Lip and Palate Care
      in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
AB  - Providing surgical repair for congenital anomalies such as cleft lip and palate
      (CLP) can be challenging in low- and middle-income countries. One nonprofit
      organization seeks to address this need through a partnership model. This model
      provides long-term aid on multiple levels: surgeon and healthcare provider
      education, community outreach, and funding. The authors examined the
      effectiveness of this partnership model in providing CLP care and increasing
      cleft care capacity over time. This organization maintains data on each partner
      and procedure and collected data on hospital and patient characteristics through
      voluntary partner surveys from 2010 to 2014. Effectiveness of care provision
      outcomes included number of surgeries/partner hospital and patient demographics.
      Cleft surgical system strengthening was measured by the complexity of repair,
      waitlist length, and patient follow-up. From 2001 to 2014, the number of
      procedures/hospital/year grew from 15 to 109, and frequency of alveolar bone
      grafts increased from 1% to 3.4%. In addition, 97.9% of partners reported that
      half to most patients come from rural areas. Waitlists decreased, with 9.2% of
      partners reporting a waitlist of >=50 in 2011 versus 2.7% in 2014 (P < 0.001).
      Patient follow-up also improved: 35% of partners in 2011 estimated a follow-up
      rate of >=75%, compared with 51% of partners in 2014 (P < 0.001). The increased
      number of procedures/hospital/year supports the partnership model's effectiveness
      in providing CLP care. In addition, data supports cleft surgical system
      strengthening-more repairs use alveolar bone grafts, waitlists decreased, and
      follow-up improved. These findings demonstrate that the partnership model may be
      effective in providing cleft care and increasing cleft surgical capacity.

PMID- 28872506
TI  - An Aneurysmal Bone Cyst in the Skull Base.
AB  - An aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) is believed to be attributable to intraosseous
      circulatory disturbance. An ABC is a vascular tumor of the bone caused by bony
      expansion after partial vascular occlusion and congestion. Most ABCs are found in
      adolescents (approximately 75% of ABCs are observed in patients under 20 years of
      age). The most common ABC sites are the long bones of the limbs, the vertebrae,
      and the cranial bone. Aneurysmal bone cysts in the skull base or ethmoid sinus
      have been but rarely reported worldwide. The authors report on a patient with a
      very large ABC in the skull base and the ethmoid sinus; this was successfully
      managed by a neurosurgeon.

PMID- 28872507
TI  - Protection of the Temporomandibular Joint During Syndromic Mandibular Distraction
      With a Novel Condylar Offloading Device.
AB  - Mandibular distraction for severe micrognathia in syndromic patients often leads
      to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis, which requires further interventions
      to regain joint motion. The increased incidence of postdistraction ankylosis is
      likely related to increased prevalence of preoperative joint pathology in
      syndromic micrognathic patients. Previous studies have demonstrated that
      offloading the pressure on the condyle during the distraction process can prevent
      such TMJ pathology. In this article, the authors describe a successful new method
      for offloading the condyle to prevent postdistraction ankylosis using an external
      TMJ offloading device.

PMID- 28872508
TI  - A Rare Cause of Dyspnea: Cervicothoracic Cystic Lymphangioma.
AB  - I read with great interest the article reported by Efe et al in Journal of
      Cranofacial Surgery (2016;27:1802-1803), presenting the excellent result obtained
      by the use of sclerotherapy with single-dose OK-432 in a growing cervical
      lymphangioma. Cervicothoracic lymphangioma is a rare congenital anomaly that is
      mostly asymptomatic. We would like to share our experience of a rare cause of
      dyspnea by lymphangioma. In our case, the patient presented with dyspnea and
      paroxysmal cough caused by cervicothoracic lymphangioma and sclerotherapy
      alleviated tracheal compression and relieved the dyspneic symptoms.

PMID- 28872509
TI  - Mandibular Condylar Fractures in Children: Morphofunctional Results After
      Treatment With External Fixation.
AB  - Best treatment for paediatric patients with mandibular condylar fractures is
      still debated, and many approaches have been proposed. Closed treatment is the
      most used, but there is evidence showing long-term problems in patients with
      dislocated fractures. On the other hand, there are concerns on surgical treatment
      with open reduction internal fixation, particularly on the implanted hardware
      during growth. The aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term outcomes of
      paediatric patients treated surgically with external fixation. A total of 21
      paediatric patients were treated. Diagnostic procedures included clinical and
      radiographic examinations. Of those 21 patients, 16 presented monocondylar
      fractures, 5 bicondylar fractures. They were treated surgically with open
      reduction and external fixation. Patients showed good recovery in maximal mouth
      opening, maximal lateral excursion and in vertical height of ramus, and all
      returned to preinjury occlusion. No patient presented permanent facial nerve
      palsy, and none referred pain or stiffness in the operated area. Minimal scars
      were visible. Just 1 patient referred clicking in the operated temporo-mandibular
      joint. Surgical approach using external fixation could be considered an option
      for treatment of mandibular condylar fractures in paediatric patient. Vertical
      height recovery, early mobilization, and good occlusion can be achieved,
      minimizing the risk of facial asymmetry.

PMID- 28872510
TI  - Massive Intradural Dermoid Cyst Without Sinus Tract.
AB  - Dermoid cysts can present as a rare, benign, congenital intracranial tumor of
      neuroectoderm origin trapped during embryogenesis. Past clinical reports have
      reported lesions in the posterior fossa, at the midline, and in the intradural
      region all in conjunction with a superficial sinus tract. The authors present a
      unique patient of a completely intracranial, intradural, dermoid tumor of the
      midline cerebellum devoid of any evidence of sinus tract. The histological
      characteristics, radiological features, and management of this unusual patient
      are described.

PMID- 28872511
TI  - An Innovative Intracystic Negative Pressure System to Treat Odontogenic Cysts.

PMID- 28872512
TI  - The Effects of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Differentiated Into Endothelial Cells
      and Osteoblasts on Healing of Critical Size Calvarial Defects.
AB  - Delayed vascularization and resultant resorption limits the clinical use of
      tissue engineered bony constructs. The objective of this study is to develop a
      strategy to accelerate the neovascularization of tissue-engineered bony
      constructs using endothelial differentiated adipose-derived stem cells (ASC). The
      authors harvested ASC from inguinal fat pads of male Lewis rats (n = 5) and
      induced toward endothelial and osteoblastic lineages. The authors created
      critical size calvarial defects on male Lewis rats (n = 30) and randomized the
      animals into 4 groups. For the repair of the defects the authors used
      hydroxyapatite/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) [HA-PLG] scaffolds in group I, HA-PLG
      scaffolds seeded with ASC in group II, HA-PLG scaffolds seeded with ASC-derived
      endothelial cells in group III, and HA-PLG scaffolds seeded with ASC-derived
      osteoblasts in group IV. The authors evaluated the bone healing histologically
      and with micro-computed tomography (CT) scans 8 weeks later. Adipose-derived stem
      cells exhibited the characteristics of endothelial and osteogenic lineages, and
      attached on HA-PLG scaffolds after differentiation. Micro-CT analysis revealed
      that highest bone mineral density was in group IV (1.46 +/- 0.01 g/cm) followed
      by groups III (1.43 +/- 0.05 g/cm), I (1.42 +/- 0.05 g/cm), and II (1.3 +/- 0.1
      g/cm). Hematoxylin-Eosin and Masson Trichrome staining revealed similar results
      with the highest bone regeneration in group IV followed by groups II, III, and I.
      Regenerated bone in group IV also had the highest vascular density, but none of
      these differences achieved statistical significance (P > 0.05). The ASC-derived
      endothelial cells and osteoblasts provide a limited increase in calvarial bone
      healing when combined with HA-PLG scaffolds.

PMID- 28872513
TI  - Reconstruction of Orbital Floor With Auricular Concha.
AB  - Orbital floor fractures of varying sizes commonly occur after orbital injuries
      and remain a serious challenge. Serious complications of such fractures include
      enopthalmos, restriction of extraocular movement, and diplopia. There is a dearth
      of literature that can be applied widely, easily, and successfully in all such
      situations, and therefore there is no consensus on the treatment protocol of this
      pathology yet. Autogenous grafts and alloplastic and allogenic materials with a
      wide variety of advantages and disadvantages have been discussed. The value of
      preoperative and postoperative ophthalmological examination should be standard of
      care in all orbital fracture patients. An ideal reconstructed orbital floor
      fracture should accelerate the restoration of orbital function with acceptable
      cosmetic results. Management parameters of orbital fractures such as timing of
      surgery, incision type, and implant materials, though widely discussed, remain
      controversial. In this study, 55 patients with orbital floor fractures surgically
      reconstructed with conchal cartilage grafts between 2008 and 2014 were
      retrospectively evaluated. Complications and long-time follow-up visit results
      have been reported with clinical and radiographic findings. The aim of this study
      was to present the authors' clinical experiences of reconstruction of blow-out
      fractures with auricular conchal graft and to evaluate the other materials
      available for use.

PMID- 28872514
TI  - Stimuli-Responsive Biomaterials: Next Wave.

PMID- 28872516
TI  - Corneal Densitometry in Healthy Corneas and Its Correlation With Endothelial
      Morphometry.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the correlations between corneal endothelial cell properties
      and corneal densitometry values and to investigate whether corneal densitometry
      may be used as an indicator of the health of corneal endothelium. METHODS: Two
      hundred fifty-three eyes were analyzed in this prospective cross-sectional study.
      Corneal densitometry was measured with densitometry software of Pentacam HR
      Scheimpflug corneal topography over a 12-mm diameter of the cornea. Furthermore,
      corneal endothelial cell properties including cell density (CD), average cell
      area, SD of the cell area, coefficient of variation (CV) of the cell area,
      maximum cell area, minimum cell area, and percentage of hexagonal cells (HEX)
      were measured by a specular microscope. The correlations were calculated using
      Pearson correlation tests. RESULTS: The average cell area, SD, maximum cell area,
      and minimum cell area values were not statistically significantly correlated with
      the corneal densitometry values in any layer or concentric annulus. CD, CV, and
      HEX were statistically significantly correlated with the corneal densitometry
      values in all layers and concentric annuli (P < 0.05 for each one). Moreover, CD
      and HEX were inversely and moderately correlated with total corneal densitometry
      (r = -0.403, P < 0.001, and r = -0.327, P < 0.001, respectively), whereas the CV
      was positively and moderately correlated with total corneal densitometry (r =
      0.349, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Corneal densitometry might have potential to be
      used as an indicator of the health of corneal endothelium in the future.

PMID- 28872517
TI  - Favorable Outcome in Coccidioides Endophthalmitis-A Combined Medical and Surgical
      Treatment Approach.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe a case of Coccidioides endophthalmitis that resulted in a
      favorable visual outcome after a combined medical and surgical approach. METHODS:
      A 33-year-old previously healthy woman was referred for evaluation of dyspnea and
      left-sided vision loss, which began 3 months before, after a trip to Nevada. She
      was found to have a pulmonary cavitary lesion and fluffy white material in the
      anterior chamber. An aqueous and vitreous paracentesis grew Coccidioides species.
      She was managed medically with a total of 7 weekly intravitreal injections of
      amphotericin B and intravenous liposomal amphotericin B followed by transition to
      oral posaconazole. Seven months after presentation, to ensure ocular
      sterilization and to clear the visual axis, she underwent temporary
      keratoprosthesis implantation, anterior segment reconstruction, removal of a
      cyclitic membrane and the crystalline lens, pars plana vitrectomy, placement of a
      pars plana Ahmed drainage device, and penetrating keratoplasty. RESULTS: After
      surgical intervention and with maintenance posaconazole therapy, the patient had
      resolution of her dyspnea and improved uncorrected (aphakic) vision with a clear
      corneal graft, quiet anterior chamber, and normal optic nerve and retina.
      CONCLUSIONS: A combined medical and surgical approach resulted in a favorable
      visual outcome and avoided the need for enucleation.

PMID- 28872518
TI  - Tear Osmolarity and Correlation With Ocular Surface Parameters in Patients With
      Dry Eye.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the distribution of tear film osmolarity in patients with dry
      eye and its association with other ocular surface parameters. METHODS: Tear
      osmolarity and other quantitative dry eye parameters were obtained from patients
      with 1) clinically significant dry eye (significant symptoms and ocular surface
      staining, n = 131), 2) symptoms-only dry eye (significant symptoms but no
      significant ocular surface staining, n = 52), and 3) controls (no significant
      symptoms or staining, n = 42). RESULTS: Tear osmolarity varied significantly
      across groups (P = 0.01), with patients with clinically significant dry eye
      having the highest tear osmolarity (312.0 +/- 16.9 mOsm/L), control patients
      having the lowest tear osmolarity (305.6 +/- 9.7 mOsm/L), and patients with
      symptoms-only dry eye falling in between (307.4 +/- 5.6 mOsm/L). Patients with
      clinically significant dry eye also tended to have a greater intereye difference
      in osmolarity (12.0 +/- 13.4) than did the individuals with symptoms-only dry eye
      (9.1 +/- 12.4) and controls (9.0 +/- 7.4) (P = 0.06). In multivariable regression
      models, higher tear osmolarity was associated with higher Ocular Surface Disease
      Index, discomfort subscore (P = 0.02), and higher corneal and conjunctival
      staining scores (P < 0.01 for both). Worse eye tear osmolarity was not correlated
      with the corresponding tear film breakup time or Schirmer test (P > 0.05 for
      both). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with symptomatic dry eye that is not yet
      clinically significant seem to have higher and more variable osmolarity
      measurements than controls, potentially indicating that changes in osmolarity
      precede clinical findings.

PMID- 28872519
TI  - Changes in Corneal Density After Accelerated Corneal Collagen Cross-linking With
      Different Irradiation Intensities and Energy Exposures: 1-Year Follow-up.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine and compare the changes in corneal density after 2
      different protocols of accelerated corneal collagen cross-linking (A-CXL) in
      patients with progressive keratoconus. METHODS: Two groups of eyes received A-CXL
      treatment; 20 eyes received A-CXL using continuous UVA light exposure at 9 mW/cm
      for 10 minutes with a total energy dose of 5.4 J/cm, and 24 eyes received A-CXL
      using continuous UVA light exposure at 30 mW/cm for 4 minutes with a total energy
      dose of 7.2 J/cm. Corneal density was measured with Scheimpflug tomography at 1,
      3, 6, and 12 months of follow-up. RESULTS: Densitometry peaked at 1 month (mean:
      16.34 +/- 3.80, P = 0.006, 9-mW/cm A-CXL; mean: 20.90 +/- 2.81, P < 0.0001, 30
      mw/cm A-CXL) in both groups, and it decreased over time in 30-mW/cm A-CXL.
      However, in 9-mW/cm A-CXL, increased corneal densitometry plateaued until 6
      months postoperatively and started to decrease thereafter. Densitometry
      completely returned to baseline after 12 months in both groups. The mean change
      in density at 1- and 3-month follow-up was higher in the 30-mW A-CXL group than
      in the 9-mW A-CXL group (P = 0.003, P = 0.044; respectively). CONCLUSIONS: High
      energy exposure tends to induce more haze in the early posttreatment period, but
      it is reversible.

PMID- 28872520
TI  - Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty Patch for Persistent Corneal Hydrops.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report successful management of a case of persistent keratoconus
      related hydrops with a Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) patch
      graft. METHODS: A case of corneal hydrops persisting for 7 months treated with
      DMEK was identified. The following information was collected: demographic data,
      surgical indications, clinical course, diagnostic tests, and clinical outcome.
      RESULTS: A 55-year-old patient with an established diagnosis of keratoconus was
      followed for 7 months without improvement in his acute corneal hydrops. Because
      of excellent vision and central corneal clarity, the patient was treated with a 5
      mm DMEK covering the Descemet membrane tear, developing cataract secondary to the
      procedure, but with resolution of his corneal hydrops. An uncorrected visual
      acuity of 20/25 was achieved after uncomplicated cataract extraction.
      CONCLUSIONS: DMEK, although technically challenging, can be considered for
      patients with persistent hydrops with preservation of corneal clarity and contour
      in areas of the uninvolved cornea.

PMID- 28872521
TI  - Knowledge and Attitude Toward Corneal Donation Among High School Children in
      Northern India.

PMID- 28872522
TI  - Diagnostic Utility of Repetitive Nerve Stimulation in a Large Cohort of Patients
      With Myasthenia Gravis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Optimizing the diagnostic utility of repetitive nerve stimulation in
      myasthenia gravis (MG) may include tailoring the examination to clinical
      phenotype. Therefore, we analyzed all available repetitive nerve stimulation
      parameters in a large cohort of patients with confirmed MG diagnosis. METHODS:
      All repetitive nerve stimulation examinations at the Uppsala University Hospital
      rendering an MG diagnosis during 1996 to 2014 were analyzed. The deltoid,
      trapezius, anconeus, nasalis, abductor digiti quinti, and frontalis muscles were
      examined. RESULTS: Two hundred one patients with MG were diagnosed. Abnormal
      amplitude decrement was found in 54% of patients with ocular MG, 77% of patients
      with predominantly bulbar fatigue, and in 83% of patients with predominantly limb
      fatigue. The deltoid muscle had the highest sensitivity in all MG subtypes, with
      a mean of 77% sensitivity in all clinical subtypes, and the most pronounced
      decrement for amplitude (P = 0.0002) and area (P < 0.0001). Technical issues were
      rare. CONCLUSIONS: These data contribute to further optimization of repetitive
      nerve stimulation strategies regarding muscle selection and technical performance
      in the electrodiagnostic workup of MG.

PMID- 28872523
TI  - Serum D-Dimer Test Is Promising for the Diagnosis of Periprosthetic Joint
      Infection and Timing of Reimplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the availability of a battery of tests, the diagnosis of
      periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) continues to be challenging. Serum D-dimer
      assessment is a widely available test that detects fibrinolytic activities that
      occur during infection. We hypothesized that patients with PJI may have a high
      level of circulating D-dimer and that the presence of a high level of serum D
      dimer may be a sign of persistent infection in patients awaiting reimplantation.
      METHODS: This prospective study was initiated to enroll patients undergoing
      primary and revision arthroplasty. Our cohort consisted of 245 patients
      undergoing primary arthroplasty (n = 23), revision for aseptic failure (n = 86),
      revision for PJI (n = 57), or reimplantation (n = 29) or who had infection in a
      site other than a joint (n = 50). PJI was defined using the Musculoskeletal
      Infection Society criteria. In all patients, serum D-dimer level, erythrocyte
      sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) level were measured
      preoperatively. RESULTS: The median D-dimer level was significantly higher (p <
      0.0001) for the patients with PJI (1,110 ng/mL [range, 243 to 8,487 ng/mL]) than
      for the patients with aseptic failure (299 ng/mL [range, 106 to 2,571 ng/mL).
      Using the Youden index, 850 ng/mL was determined as the optimal threshold value
      for serum D-dimer for the diagnosis of PJI. Serum D-dimer outperformed both ESR
      and serum CRP, with a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 93%. ESR and CRP
      had a sensitivity of 73% and 79% and a specificity of 78% and 80%, respectively.
      The sensitivity and specificity of ESR and CRP combined was 84% (95% confidence
      interval [CI], 76% to 90%) and 47% (95% CI, 36% to 58%), respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: It appears that serum D-dimer is a promising marker for the
      diagnosis of PJI. This test may also have a great utility for determining the
      optimal timing of reimplantation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Diagnostic Level II. See
      Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28872524
TI  - The Influence of Arthritis in Other Major Joints and the Spine on the One-Year
      Outcome of Total Hip Replacement: A Prospective, Multicenter Cohort Study
      (EUROHIP) Measuring the Influence of Musculoskeletal Morbidity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although arthritis in other affected major joints and back pain are
      known to lead to worse outcomes following total hip replacement, to our
      knowledge, these risk factors have not previously been operationalized as a
      musculoskeletal morbidity profile. The aim of this study was to measure the
      influence of other major joints and the spine (as grades of musculoskeletal
      morbidity) on the 1-year outcome of primary total hip replacement. METHODS: The
      EUROHIP study consists of 1,327 patients undergoing primary total hip replacement
      for arthritis across 20 European orthopaedic centers. The primary outcome was the
      responder rate at 12 months calculated with the relative effect per patient for
      total hip replacement using the total Western Ontario and McMaster Universities
      Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) score. The primary predictor of interest was
      different combinations of arthritis of major joints and the spine grouped into 4
      musculoskeletal morbidity grades: 1 (single major joint), 2 (multiple major
      joints), 3 (single major joint and spine), and 4 (multiple major joints and
      spine). The confounders adjusted for were age, sex, body mass index, living
      situation, years of hip pain, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class,
      anxiety or depression, and preoperative WOMAC subscales. RESULTS: For this
      analysis, 845 patients were included with complete 12-month follow-up WOMAC
      scores. The mean patient age was 65.7 years, and 55.2% of patients were female.
      CONCLUSIONS: The involvement of other major joints and the spine assessed as 1 of
      4 musculoskeletal morbidity grades had a strong influence on the 1-year outcome
      after total hip replacement. The effect size was large compared with other risk
      factors. Even so, the majority of patients in musculoskeletal morbidity grade 4
      had favorable outcomes from the surgical procedure (>74% response to surgical
      procedures). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for
      Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28872525
TI  - Thumb Ossification Composite Index (TOCI) for Predicting Peripubertal Skeletal
      Maturity and Peak Height Velocity in Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Validation Study of
      Premenarchal Girls with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Followed Longitudinally
      Until Skeletal Maturity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate skeletal maturity assessment is important to guide clinical
      evaluation of idiopathic scoliosis, but commonly used methods are inadequate or
      too complex for rapid clinical use. The objective of the study was to propose a
      new simplified staging method, called the thumb ossification composite index
      (TOCI), based on the ossification pattern of the 2 thumb epiphyses and the
      adductor sesamoid bone; to determine its accuracy in predicting skeletal
      maturation when compared with the Sanders simplified skeletal maturity system
      (SSMS); and to validate its interrater and intrarater reliability. METHODS: Hand
      radiographs of 125 girls, acquired when they were newly diagnosed with idiopathic
      scoliosis prior to menarche and during longitudinal follow-up until skeletal
      maturity (a minimum of 4 years), were scored with the TOCI and SSMS. These scores
      were compared with digital skeletal age (DSA) and radius, ulna, and small hand
      bones (RUS) scores; anthropometric data; peak height velocity; and growth
      remaining profiles. Correlations were analyzed with the chi-square test, Spearman
      and Cramer V correlation methods, and receiver operating characteristic curve
      analysis. Reliability analysis using the intraclass correlation (ICC) was
      conducted. RESULTS: Six hundred and forty-five hand radiographs (average, 5 of
      each girl) were scored. The TOCI staging system was highly correlated with the
      DSA and RUS scores (r = 0.93 and 0.92, p < 0.01). The mean peak height velocity
      (and standard deviation) was 7.43 +/- 1.45 cm/yr and occurred at a mean age of
      11.9 +/- 0.86 years, with 70.1% and 51.4% of the subjects attaining their peak
      height velocity at TOCI stage 5 and SSMS stage 3, respectively. The 2 systems
      predicted peak height velocity with comparable accuracy, with a strong Cramer V
      association (0.526 and 0.466, respectively; p < 0.01) and similar sensitivity and
      specificity on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The mean age at
      menarche was 12.57 +/- 1.12 years, with menarche occurring over several stages in
      both the TOCI and the SSMS. The growth remaining predicted by TOCI stage 8
      matched well with that predicted by SSMS stage 7, with a mean of <2 cm/yr of
      growth potential over a mean of <1.7 years at these stages. The TOCI also
      demonstrated excellent reliability, with an overall ICC of >0.97. CONCLUSIONS:
      The new proposed TOCI could provide a simplified staging system for the
      assessment of skeletal maturity of subjects with idiopathic scoliosis. The index
      needs to be subjected to further multicenter validation in different ethnic
      groups.

PMID- 28872526
TI  - Wear of Vitamin E-Infused Highly Cross-Linked Polyethylene at Five Years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In an earlier study with a 2-year follow-up of uncemented cups, we
      had reported low femoral-head penetration of vitamin E-infused highly cross
      linked polyethylene liners (E1) compared with highly cross-linked liners without
      vitamin E (ArComXL). We studied the penetration rate of E1 compared with that of
      ArComXL, with a focus on changes occurring between 2 and 5 years after total hip
      arthroplasty. METHODS: In this randomized controlled study, we performed
      radiostereometric analysis of the penetration rate up to 5 years in 63 hips.
      RESULTS: During the total period of observation, the median proximal penetration
      for E1, 0.13 mm (mean, 0.11 mm [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.08 to 0.14 mm]),
      was lower than that for ArComXL, 0.20 mm (mean, 0.22 mm [95% CI, 0.17 to 0.26
      mm]). The median proximal penetration rate between 2 and 5 years was 0.02 mm/yr
      (mean, 0.01 mm/yr [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.02 mm/yr]) for E1 and 0.04 mm/yr (mean, 0.04
      mm/yr [95% CI, 0.03 to 0.05 mm/yr) for ArComXL. The corresponding median total
      (i.e., 3-dimensional resultant) penetration rates were 0.04 mm/yr (mean, 0.04
      mm/yr [95% CI, 0.03 to 0.05 mm/yr]) for E1 and 0.07 mm/yr (mean, 0.08 mm/yr [95%
      CI, 0.06 to 0.10 mm/yr]) for ArComXL. CONCLUSIONS: From years 2 to 5, we observed
      increased penetration in both groups. The penetration rate was higher for
      ArComXL, resulting in more proximal and total penetration at 5 years than for E1.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a
      complete description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28872528
TI  - Quantitative Measurement of Osseous Pathology in Advanced Glenohumeral
      Osteoarthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis of the glenohumeral joint has typical patterns of
      deformity as described by Walch et al. However, more severe glenoid pathology may
      be difficult to classify. The purpose of this study was to use 3-dimensional
      computed tomography (3-D CT) imaging analysis to define common pathologic
      subtypes that can be differentiated from the current Walch classification.
      METHODS: We performed quantitative measurements of premorbid and pathologic
      anatomy using preoperative 3-D CT scans from 155 cases of advanced glenohumeral
      osteoarthritis that underwent anatomic or reverse total shoulder arthroplasty. We
      defined premorbid glenohumeral anatomy on the basis of previously validated
      methods using 3-D glenoid vault and humeral best-fit circle models including the
      premorbid glenoid version, joint-line medialization, and humeral-glenoid
      alignment (HGA). We determined the anatomic features that differentiate new
      glenoid morphologic subtypes from the existing Walch classification both
      qualitatively and quantitatively. RESULTS: We defined 2 new glenoid subtypes (B3
      and C2) for which the glenoid pathology and humeral alignment were not defined in
      the original Walch classification. The B3 glenoid has high pathologic
      retroversion, normal premorbid version, and acquired central and posterior bone
      loss that, on average, is greater than that of the B2 glenoid. The C2 glenoid is
      dysplastic with high pathologic retroversion, high premorbid version, and
      acquired posterior bone loss, giving it the appearance of a biconcave glenoid
      with posterior translation of the humeral head. This C2 glenoid can be confused
      with the B2 glenoid. CONCLUSIONS: The B3 and C2 patterns have qualitative and
      quantitative differences that may result in different clinical outcomes than
      classic B2 or C types; therefore, our findings suggest that these new subtypes
      should be included in a new or modified classification system.

PMID- 28872527
TI  - Muscle Microvascular Blood Flow, Oxygenation, pH, and Perfusion Pressure Decrease
      in Simulated Acute Compartment Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current gold standard for diagnosing acute compartment syndrome
      (ACS) is an assessment of clinical signs, invasive measurement of intramuscular
      pressure (IMP), and measurement of local perfusion pressure. However, IMP
      measurements have several shortcomings, including pain, risk of infection, risk
      of technique error, plugging of the catheter tip, lack of consensus on the
      diagnostic pressure threshold, and lack of specificity and sensitivity. The
      objective of this study was to evaluate muscle hemodynamics, oxygenation, and pH
      as diagnostic parameters in a human model of ACS. We hypothesized that as IMP
      increases, muscle microvascular blood flow, oxygenation, and pH decrease in the
      anterior compartment of a leg at heart level and that they decrease significantly
      more when the leg is elevated further. METHODS: An external pneumatic leg
      pressure chamber, combined with a venous stasis thigh cuff, was used to increase
      IMP and simulate ACS. Eight healthy subjects (5 males and 3 females; mean age, 26
      years) had photoplethysmography and near-infrared spectroscopy-pH sensors placed
      over the middle aspect of the tibialis anterior muscle of the right
      (experimental) and left (control) legs. Leg chamber pressure conditions (40, 50,
      and 60 mm Hg) were applied in a randomized order after baseline measurements were
      taken. Data were collected continuously for each 11-minute pressure condition,
      with an 11-minute recovery period after each condition, and the average of the
      last 6 minutes was used for data analyses. The same protocol was repeated with
      each subject's legs elevated 12 cm above heart level. Data were analyzed using
      repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: As IMP increased, muscle
      microvascular blood flow (p = 0.01), oxygenation (p < 0.001), and pH (p < 0.001)
      all decreased significantly in the experimental leg compared with the control
      leg. At all IMP levels, leg elevation significantly decreased muscle oxygenation
      (p = 0.013) and perfusion pressure (p = 0.03) compared with the control leg at
      heart level. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that muscle microvascular blood
      flow, oxygenation, pH, and perfusion pressure decrease significantly as IMP
      increases in a human model of ACS. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study identifies
      hemodynamic and metabolic parameters as potential noninvasive diagnostic tools
      for ACS.

PMID- 28872529
TI  - In-Hospital Complications Following Ankle Arthrodesis Versus Ankle Arthroplasty:
      A Matched Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ankle arthrodesis has been the traditional surgical treatment for end
      stage hindfoot arthritis. However, utilization of total ankle arthroplasty (TAA)
      is increasing as surgical techniques and implants have substantially improved.
      The purpose of this study was to compare the U.S. national rates of perioperative
      (in-hospital) complications between a statistically matched cohort of patients
      who underwent either an ankle arthrodesis or a TAA. METHODS: Data from the 2002
      to 2013 Nationwide Inpatient Sample releases were analyzed. The International
      Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM)
      procedure codes were used to identify 4,192 patients treated with TAA (ICD 81.56)
      and 16,278 treated with ankle arthrodesis (ICD 81.11). ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes
      were utilized to identify major and minor in-hospital complications, and
      mortality was determined using the Uniform Bill patient disposition. The
      arthrodesis and TAA groups were matched with regard to age, sex, race, surgery
      year, hospital type, comorbidities, adjunctive procedures, and surgical
      indication. Unadjusted and adjusted in-hospital complication risks were compared
      between groups using the Fisher exact test and multiple logistic regression
      analysis. RESULTS: We were able to statistically match 1,574 patients who
      underwent a TAA (37.5%) with a patient who underwent arthrodesis. A major in
      hospital complication occurred in 8.5% (134) of the 1,574 patients in the ankle
      arthrodesis group compared with 5.3% (84) of the 1,574 in the TAA group (p <
      0.001) whereas a minor complication was found in 4.7% (74) in the ankle
      arthrodesis group compared with 5.9% (93) in the TAA group (p = 0.14). There were
      no deaths in either group. After adjusting for case mix, we found that ankle
      arthrodesis was 1.8 times more likely to be followed by a major complication
      (odds ratio [OR] = 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.32 to 2.39) whereas the
      minor complication rate was 29% lower in that group (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.45 to
      1.13). CONCLUSIONS: In a matched cohort of 3,148 patients treated with either TAA
      or ankle arthrodesis, ankle arthrodesis was associated with a 1.8 times higher
      risk of a major complication but a 29% lower risk of a minor complication. Our
      findings are consistent with other studies that have shown TAA to be a safe
      procedure in the inpatient environment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level III.
      See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28872530
TI  - Modified En Bloc Spondylectomy for Tumors of the Thoracic and Lumbar Spine:
      Surgical Technique and Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total en bloc spondylectomy (TES) for the treatment of spinal tumors
      decreases local recurrence and improves survival compared with intralesional
      resection. TES approaches vary in both the number of stages to complete the
      procedure and instruments with which osteotomies are performed. METHODS: We
      describe a 2-stage technique that employs the use of threadwire saws. We
      performed a retrospective review of cases of primary tumors and solitary
      metastases involving the thoracic or lumbar spine treated with use of our
      modified technique at our institution between 2010 and 2016, identifying eligible
      patients by searching for specific phrases in operative reports found in our
      oncologic database. Clinical notes, operative notes, imaging reports, and
      pathology reports were reviewed for all patients. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients
      underwent our modified technique, in which we pass a threadwire saw between the
      vertebral body and the thecal sac. The most common tumor type was chordoma (64%),
      and tumors were most commonly located in the lumbar spine (61%). There were no
      intraoperative injuries to the spinal cord or great vessels. One patient
      experienced a dural tear secondary to the passage of a saw. Seventeen (52%) of
      the patients had perioperative complications, with 1 death. Seven (22%) of the
      patients had complications occurring within 90 days after discharge, and 8 (25%)
      had complications occurring >90 days after discharge. Instrumentation failure was
      observed in 8 cases (25%). Negative margins were obtained in 94% of the cases.
      Local recurrence was observed in 2 cases (6%). The majority of patients had
      normal motor function at the time of the most recent follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      modified en bloc spondylectomy represents an effective technique for the
      resection of spinal tumors in selected patients, allowing for visualization of
      vessels anterior to the spine and the avoidance of spinal cord injury. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete
      description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28872532
TI  - Trunnionosis in Total Hip Arthroplasty.

PMID- 28872531
TI  - Flexion-Type Supracondylar Humeral Fractures: Ulnar Nerve Injury Increases Risk
      of Open Reduction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The vast majority of displaced pediatric supracondylar humeral
      fractures can be treated successfully with closed reduction and percutaneous
      pinning. The need for open reduction is difficult to determine a priori and is
      typically due to the failure of closed reduction attempts or persistent limb
      ischemia. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of flexion-type
      supracondylar humeral fractures, the rate of open reduction for flexion-type
      fractures, and the predictive impact of ulnar nerve injury on the need for open
      reduction for flexion-type supracondylar humeral fractures. METHODS: We developed
      a database of consecutive pediatric supracondylar humeral fractures treated
      operatively at a tertiary care pediatric trauma center from 2000 to 2015. Data
      recorded included age, mechanism of injury, fracture type (open or closed),
      fracture pattern (flexion-type or extension-type), concomitant skeletal injury,
      neurovascular injury, treatment, and surgeon. Radiographs of all flexion-type
      supracondylar humeral fractures were reviewed in order to confirm the
      classification of the injury pattern. The rate of open reduction for fractures
      with a flexion-type injury pattern and for such fractures with and without ulnar
      nerve injury at presentation was assessed. RESULTS: Of 2,783 consecutive
      pediatric supracondylar humeral fractures treated by surgeons at our center, 95
      (3.4%) were flexion-type fractures. Ulnar nerve injury was noted for 10 (10.5%)
      of the 95 flexion-type fractures. Open injuries were identified at presentation
      in 3 (3.2%) of the 95 cases. Among closed fractures, 21 (22.8%) of 92 flexion
      type fractures required open reduction compared with 50 (1.9%) of 2,647 extension
      type fractures (odds ratio [OR] = 15.4; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 8.8 to
      27.0; p < 0.001). Among closed flexion-type fractures, open reduction was
      performed in 6 (60%) of 10 fractures with associated ulnar nerve injury and in 15
      (18.3%) of 82 fractures without ulnar nerve injury (OR = 6.7; 95% CI = 1.7 to
      26.7; p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Among closed supracondylar humeral fractures, the
      flexion-type injury pattern was associated with a 15.4-fold increase in the odds
      of open reduction. The presence of an ulnar nerve injury at presentation resulted
      in an additional 6.7-fold higher risk of open reduction among flexion-type
      supracondylar humeral fractures. Patients and families should be counseled
      regarding the high rate of open reduction for flexion-type supracondylar humeral
      fractures, particularly those with an associated ulnar nerve injury. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete
      description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28872533
TI  - What's Important: Honesty and Humility.

PMID- 28872534
TI  - Morphological Analysis of True Acetabulum in Hip Dysplasia (Crowe Classes I-IV)
      Via 3-D Implantation Simulation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the 3-dimensional (3D)
      morphological features of the true acetabulum in patients with developmental
      dysplasia of the hip (DDH). METHODS: Seventy-nine hips-53 in patients with
      developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and 36 normal hips-were included in the
      present study. According to the Crowe classification, 26 hips were graded as
      Class I, 31 were Class II or III, and 22 were Class IV. The anterior pelvic plane
      was defined to standardize the measurements in the study. A selected virtual cup
      component was implanted into the true acetabulum of a 3D pelvic model of each
      hip. The acetabular anteversion angle, effective center-edge (CE) angle,
      effective Sharp angle, and thickness of the medial wall were measured to provide
      morphological indices of the true acetabulum. Acetabular sector angles and the
      component coverage ratio were measured to provide coverage indices. RESULTS: The
      acetabular anteversion angle increased with the severity of the DDH. Crowe-II/III
      hips had the smallest effective CE angle and the largest effective Sharp angle.
      The mean medial wall thickness was greatest in the Crowe-II/III hips (8.72 mm;
      95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.52 to 9.92 mm), intermediate in the Crowe-I hips
      (7.17 mm; 95% CI = 6.24 to 8.11 mm), and smallest in the Crowe-IV hips (6.05 mm;
      95% CI = 4.78 to 7.32 mm). The integrated coverage ratio of the Crowe-II/III hips
      was significantly less than that of the Crowe-I and IV hips. CONCLUSIONS: The
      morphological features of the true acetabulum in patients with DDH can be
      evaluated comprehensively by using 3D implantation simulation. Segmental bone
      deficiency was prevalent in the dysplastic hips, especially those in the Crowe
      II/III group. Both the severity and the individual morphology of the acetabular
      dysplasia should be carefully considered in preoperative planning.

PMID- 28872535
TI  - The Opportunity Awaits to Lead Orthopaedic Telehealth Innovation: AOA Critical
      Issues.
AB  - Telehealth is a way to provide health-care services to a patient from a provider
      who is at another location. The most common methods include a live interactive
      visit with the patient, interpretation of imaging, and monitoring of patient
      progress. Principally, telehealth is a way of providing a service rather than a
      type of service. It is about patient care, not data care.Examples of orthopaedic
      applications include conducting patient examinations, interpreting imaging
      studies, and providing postoperative care. Teleconsultation has been shown to be
      cost-effective. Other examples in orthopaedic research include the application of
      telemedicine when measuring patient-reported outcomes. Especially in cases when
      the patient lives far away from the provider, telehealth reduces time, produces
      good patient satisfaction, and costs less than hands-on care. As in everyday
      life, consumers have learned to demand convenience, ease of use, choice, control,
      and direct access. The ubiquity of telecommunications, combined with consumer
      technology savviness, drives the demand for telehealth. Unfortunately, the
      nation's largest payer for health services is one of the most restrictive for
      telehealth coverage. Medicare's restrictions are mostly the work of the U.S.
      Congress under Part B law. Video visits are very narrowly covered. Another major
      policy barrier is that interstate telehealth requires multiple state licenses for
      the physician, who must be licensed in the jurisdiction of each patient as well
      as the provider's physical locations. As Medicare shifts toward capitated payment
      and other value-based methods, there are opportunities to remove such
      restrictions.Despite these challenges, some states have been proactive in
      implementing telehealth systems. Arkansas is one of these states, and being a
      rural state with 2 main population centers, specialty care is relatively sparse.
      Implemented in 2014, the hand trauma program has been a partnership between the
      University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Arkansas Trauma
      Communications Center (ATCC). This program has been very successful in decreasing
      the rate of hand trauma transfer, allowing patients to be treated closer to home
      while having coordinated access to fellowship-trained hand surgeons when
      necessary.More widespread innovation of orthopaedic applications for telehealth
      requires physician buy-in and health-systems partnerships. The regulatory
      environment will need streamlining. Ultimately, consumer demand will drive the
      implementation of technology to make care more accessible, convenient, and cost
      effective.

PMID- 28872536
TI  - Improved Safety and Cost Savings from Reductions in Cast-Saw Burns After
      Simulation-Based Education for Orthopaedic Surgery Residents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this investigation was to characterize the clinical
      efficacy and cost-effectiveness of simulation training aimed at reducing cast-saw
      injuries. METHODS: Third-year orthopaedic residents underwent simulation-based
      instruction on distal radial fracture reduction, casting, and cast removal using
      an oscillating saw. The analysis compared incidences of cast-saw injuries and
      associated costs before and after the implementation of the simulation
      curriculum. Actual and potential costs associated with cast-saw injuries included
      wound care, extra clinical visits, and potential total payment (indemnity and
      expense payments). Curriculum costs were calculated through time-derived,
      activity-based accounting methods. The researchers compared the costs of cast-saw
      injuries and the simulation curriculum to determine overall savings and return on
      investment. RESULTS: In the 2.5 years prior to simulation, cast-saw injuries
      occurred in approximately 4.3 per 100 casts cut by orthopaedic residents. For the
      2.5-year period post-simulation, the injury rate decreased significantly to
      approximately 0.7 per 100 casts cut (p = 0.002). The total cost to implement the
      casting simulation was $2,465.31 per 6-month resident rotation. On the basis of
      historical data related to cast-saw burns (n = 6), total payments ranged from
      $2,995 to $25,000 per claim. The anticipated savings from averted cast-saw
      injuries and associated medicolegal payments in the 2.5 years post-simulation was
      $27,131, representing an 11-to-1 return on investment. CONCLUSIONS: Simulation
      based training for orthopaedic surgical residents was effective in reducing cast
      saw injuries and had a high theoretical return on investment. These results
      support further investment in simulation-based training as cost-effective means
      of improving patient safety and clinical outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic
      Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of
      evidence.

PMID- 28872537
TI  - In Treating Arthritis of the Knee, Beware the Ipsilateral Hip: Commentary on an
      article by Joerg Huber, MD, et al.: "The Influence of Arthritis in Other Major
      Joints and the Spine on the One-Year Outcome of Total Hip Replacement. A
      Prospective, Multicenter Cohort Study (EUROHIP) Measuring the Influence of
      Musculoskeletal Morbidity".

PMID- 28872539
TI  - Moving from "See One, Do One": Simulation Training Can Save Money: Commentary on
      an article by Donald S. Bae, MD, et al.: "Improved Safety and Cost Savings from
      Reductions in Cast-Saw Burns After Simulation-Based Education for Orthopaedic
      Surgery Residents".

PMID- 28872538
TI  - Making the Unfamiliar More Familiar: Good for Patients and Hospitals Alike:
      Commentary on an article by Kelly Flynn et al.: "Flexion-Type Supracondylar
      Humeral Fractures. Ulnar Nerve Injury Increases Risk of Open Reduction".

PMID- 28872540
TI  - Effects on Pulmonary Vascular Mechanics of Two Different Lung-Protective
      Ventilation Strategies in an Experimental Model of Acute Respiratory Distress
      Syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the effects of two lung-protective ventilation strategies
      on pulmonary vascular mechanics in early acute respiratory distress syndrome.
      DESIGN: Experimental study. SETTING: University animal research laboratory.
      SUBJECTS: Twelve pigs (30.8 +/- 2.5 kg). INTERVENTIONS: Acute respiratory
      distress syndrome was induced by repeated lung lavages and injurious mechanical
      ventilation. Thereafter, animals were randomized to 4 hours ventilation according
      to the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network protocol or to an open lung
      approach strategy. Pressure and flow sensors placed at the pulmonary artery trunk
      allowed continuous assessment of pulmonary artery resistance, effective
      elastance, compliance, and reflected pressure waves. Respiratory mechanics and
      gas exchange data were collected. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Acute
      respiratory distress syndrome led to pulmonary vascular mechanics deterioration.
      Four hours after randomization, pulmonary vascular mechanics was similar in Acute
      Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network and open lung approach: resistance (578 +/-
      252 vs 626 +/- 153 dyn.s/cm; p = 0.714), effective elastance, (0.63 +/- 0.22 vs
      0.58 +/- 0.17 mm Hg/mL; p = 0.710), compliance (1.19 +/- 0.8 vs 1.50 +/- 0.27
      mL/mm Hg; p = 0.437), and reflection index (0.36 +/- 0.04 vs 0.34 +/- 0.09; p =
      0.680). Open lung approach as compared to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
      Network was associated with improved dynamic respiratory compliance (17.3 +/- 2.6
      vs 10.5 +/- 1.3 mL/cm H2O; p < 0.001), driving pressure (9.6 +/- 1.3 vs 19.3 +/-
      2.7 cm H2O; p < 0.001), and venous admixture (0.05 +/- 0.01 vs 0.22 +/- 0.03, p <
      0.001) and lower mean pulmonary artery pressure (26 +/- 3 vs 34 +/- 7 mm Hg; p =
      0.045) despite of using a higher positive end-expiratory pressure (17.4 +/- 0.7
      vs 9.5 +/- 2.4 cm H2O; p < 0.001). Cardiac index, however, was lower in open lung
      approach (1.42 +/- 0.16 vs 2.27 +/- 0.48 L/min; p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: In this
      experimental model, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network and open lung
      approach affected pulmonary vascular mechanics similarly. The use of higher
      positive end-expiratory pressures in the open lung approach strategy did not
      worsen pulmonary vascular mechanics, improved lung mechanics, and gas exchange
      but at the expense of a lower cardiac index.

PMID- 28872541
TI  - We're So Excited ... We Just Can't Hide It!

PMID- 28872542
TI  - Editor's Note: This article was previously published in issue 29.1 Reply.

PMID- 28872544
TI  - Soft Tissue Response on 18F-Fluorocholine PET/CT in Metastatic Castrate-Resistant
      Prostate Cancer Treated With 223Ra-Dichloride: A Possible Abscopal Effect?
AB  - Two patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer and symptomatic skeletal
      metastases underwent F-fluorocholine PET/CT prior to treatment with Ra-dichloride
      to reveal additional active lesions in the prostate gland and lymph nodes.
      Subsequent scans performed at the midpoint and end of Ra-dichloride therapy
      showed resolution of this soft tissue activity alongside declining bone lesion
      activity. Concomitant increases in plasma interleukin 6 were detected, suggesting
      that immune system activation may have mediated the soft tissue response.
      Abscopal effects usually encountered with external beam radiotherapy may also be
      occurring with Ra-dichloride therapy.

PMID- 28872545
TI  - Concomitant 177Lu-DOTATATE and Capecitabine Therapy in Patients With Advanced
      Neuroendocrine Tumors: A Long-term-Outcome, Toxicity, Survival, and Quality-of
      Life Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome, toxicity,
      survival, and quality of life in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors.
      METHODS: One hundred sixty-seven patients were enrolled in the study. All
      patients underwent baseline Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT scans. Lu-DOTATATE therapy was
      administered quarterly along with oral capecitabine therapy in group 1 patients
      (n = 88), whereas group 2 patients (n = 79) were treated only with Lu-DOTATATE.
      Hematologic, kidney function, liver function tests and chromogranin A levels were
      recorded before and after therapy at 2-week, 4-week, and 3-month intervals.
      Biochemical and morphological responses were assessed with the trend in
      chromogranin A levels and Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors 1.1
      criteria, respectively. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the
      hemoglobin levels after Lu-DOTATATE therapy (P = 0.4892). In most patients, there
      was a decrease in the platelet levels; however, all the patients had platelet
      counts greater than 100,000/MUL with no platelet toxicity. There was no toxicity
      related to leukocytes. Two patients showed renal insufficiencies. No
      hepatotoxicity was observed in any of the patients. According to Response
      Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors 1.1 criteria, in group 1 patients, the
      response was partial response in 34% of the patients, stable disease in 50.2%,
      and progressive disease in 6.8% versus partial response in 6.3%, stable disease
      in 60.9%, and progressive disease in 26.5% among group 2 patients. The median
      overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) was not reached in
      group 1 patients. The median OS and PFS in group 2 patients were 48 months. Ki-67
      tumor proliferation index was significantly associated with increased risk of
      disease progression. CONCLUSIONS: Addition of capecitabine therapy with Lu
      DOTATATE therapy lengthens the OS and PFS. Patients with aggressive disease may
      benefit from this synergetic therapeutic approach.

PMID- 28872546
TI  - 68Ga-DOTA-TATE PET/CT for Molecular Imaging of Somatostatin Receptor Expression
      in Metastasizing Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma: Comparison With 18F-FDG.
AB  - Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare tumor originating from vascular
      endothelial or pre-endothelial cells. It has the potential to metastasize. We
      present the case of a 51-year-old woman with metastasizing EHE who underwent both
      F-FDG and Ga-DOTA-TATE PET/CT for staging of disease and for evaluation of
      targeted radionuclide therapy potential. On Ga-DOTA-TATE PET scans, intense
      tracer accumulation was observed in metastases. Besides the increased glucose
      metabolism in EHE, this case highlights the potential of Ga-DOTA-TATE PET/CT for
      restaging of EHE and the option of targeted radionuclide therapy in this entity.

PMID- 28872547
TI  - FDG PET/CT in 2 Cases of Renal Metastasis From Esophageal Squamous Cell
      Carcinoma.
AB  - Clinically, renal metastasis from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is uncommon.
      We present 2 cases of renal metastasis from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
      with enhanced CT and FDG PET/CT findings. In the first case, right kidney and
      right renal hilum were the only known metastatic sites. In the second case,
      bilateral kidneys were the only known metastatic sites. All the renal metastatic
      tumors appeared as hypovascular and hypoattenuating masses involving both the
      renal cortex and medulla on enhanced CT and intense FDG uptake on FDG PET/CT.

PMID- 28872548
TI  - Quality and Safety in Health Care, Part XXXII: Additional Outcome Predictors for
      Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - Mortality 12 months after a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is
      partly due to a number of reasons in addition to the usual preprocedural medical
      patient risk factors. In patients who need a permanent pacemaker placed after the
      procedure, the mortality risk goes up. The death rate following a TAVR varies
      considerably at different institutions, and the past death rate of TAVR patients
      at an institution is predictive of the mortality rate of new patients having this
      procedure. In addition, the quality of life of the individual before the
      procedure is predictive of the 12-month mortality outcome after the TAVR is done.

PMID- 28872549
TI  - 89Zr-Trastuzumab PET/CT for Detection of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2
      Positive Metastases in Patients With Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2
      Negative Primary Breast Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine if imaging with Zr-trastuzumab, a
      human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeting PET tracer, can detect
      HER2-positive metastases in patients with HER2-negative primary breast cancer.
      METHODS: As part of an institutional review board-approved, prospective clinical
      trial of Zr-trastuzumab PET/CT (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02286843), a
      second group of 11 patients with HER2-negative primary breast cancer and known
      metastatic disease were recruited. Patients with confirmed HER2-negative primary
      breast cancer underwent Zr-trastuzumab PET/CT to screen for Zr-trastuzumab-avid
      lesions suggestive of unsuspected HER2-positive metastases. Zr-trastuzumab-avid
      lesions on PET/CT were biopsied and pathologically examined to determine HER2
      status. RESULTS: All 11 patients had confirmed HER2-negative primary breast
      cancer. Four patients demonstrated suspicious foci on Zr-trastuzumab PET/CT. Of
      these 4 patients, 1 patient had biopsy-proven HER2-positive metastases. The other
      3 patients with suspicious Zr-trastuzumab-avid foci had biopsy demonstrating a
      metastasis that was HER2-negative and were considered false-positive Zr
      trastuzumab PET foci. Combined with a published report of the first 9 patients,
      there have been a total of 20 HER2-negative primary breast cancer patients, with
      3 patients (15%) having pathologically confirmed HER2-positive distant metastases
      and 6 (30%) with suspicious Zr-trastuzumab-avid foci that were HER2-negative on
      pathology, which were thus considered false-positive Zr-trastuzumab findings.
      CONCLUSIONS: This second group of patients confirms the proof of concept that Zr
      trastuzumab PET/CT detects unsuspected HER2-positive metastases in a subset of
      patients with HER2-negtive primary breast cancer. False-positive Zr-trastuzumab
      avid foci present a challenge to using this tracer.

PMID- 28872550
TI  - Methionine PET Might Be Reliable for the Detection of Low M-Protein-Producing
      Myelomas.
AB  - C-methionine (MET) positron emission tomography (PET) is more sensitive than F
      fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET for detecting myeloma lesion. Many clinical studies
      support this evidence mainly for multiple myeloma cases of IgG or IgA subtypes.
      However, this is not confirmed for low monoclonal protein-producing myelomas,
      such as IgD, IgE, and nonsecretory type. We encountered a 71-year-old man with
      IgD lambda-type myeloma. In this patient, FDG-PET did not reveal any abnormal
      uptake lesions, whereas MET-PET revealed diffuse bone marrow uptake that relieved
      after initial chemotherapy. We speculate that the determinants for high
      serological activity of protein metabolism are transporter system activity or
      proliferation index.

PMID- 28872551
TI  - Diagnostic Challenge of Staging Metastatic Bone Disease in the Morbidly Obese
      Patients: A Primary Study Evaluating the Usefulness of 18F-Sodium Fluoride (NaF)
      PET-CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: Optimizing diagnostic imaging may be challenging in obese patients. The
      quality of conventional bone scintigraphy can be poor in the morbidly obese due
      to a combination of factors including high background soft tissue activity. In
      comparison, sodium fluoride (F-NaF PET-CT) has a better target-to-background
      ratio attributed to rapid single-pass extraction and fast clearance from the soft
      tissues. The aim of the present study is to assess the diagnostic efficacy of F
      NaF PET-CT in the evaluation of bone metastases in obese cancer patients.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two hundred twelve morbidly obese patients (body mass
      index, 45 +/- 5.1 kg/m; mean age, 57 years; range, 32-81 years) with body mass
      index greater than 40 kg/m referred for NaF PET-CT for osseous staging of
      malignancy were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent PET-CT scan by
      injecting 2.2 MBq/kg (0.06 mCi/kg) of F-NaF. RESULTS: F-NaF PET-CT was definitely
      benign in 145, possibly benign in 3, equivocal in 4, possibly malignant in 13,
      and definitely malignant in 47 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive
      predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of F-NaF PET-CT were
      93.1%, 96.1%, 90%, 97.3%, and 95.2%, respectively (95% confidence interval).
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study indicate that F-NaF PET-CT retains
      its high diagnostic accuracy in morbidly obese patients and, by inference, can be
      a preferred functional modality in these patients.

PMID- 28872552
TI  - Pancreatoblastoma With Metastatic Retroperitoneal Lymph Node and PET/CT.
AB  - A previously healthy 4-year-old girl presented with petechial rash and low
      platelet count. There were no other symptoms. On abdominal ultrasound, a 4.7-cm
      heterogeneous mass was demonstrated anterior to the left kidney. An abdominal MRI
      subsequently performed demonstrated a heterogeneously enhancing mass at the same
      location extending to the pancreas and spleen. A surgical biopsy of the mass was
      obtained. Pathology reported a malignant epithelioid neoplasm consistent with
      pancreatoblastoma. The mass demonstrated intense FDG uptake on PET and an FDG
      avid retrocaval lymph node.

PMID- 28872553
TI  - Hybrid SPECT/CT Helps Characterization and Localization of a Dual Thyroid
      Ectopia.
AB  - The presence of ectopic thyroid tissue in 2 or more different sites is rare. A 12
      year-old girl presented with midline anterior neck swelling in the infrahyoid
      region with subclinical hypothyroidism. Thyroid scanning with Tc-pertechnetate
      was performed, and SPECT/CT was ordered for further evaluation. Two hyperdense
      lesions demonstrating intense radiotracer uptake were seen in the midline at the
      base of the tongue and infrahyoid neck. We emphasis the role of hybrid SPECT/CT
      for characterization and localization of suspected ectopic thyroid tissue.

PMID- 28872554
TI  - Detection of Non-FDG-Avid Residual Sinonasal Malignant Melanoma in the Skull Base
      With 11C-Choline PET and Contrast-Enhanced MRI.
AB  - Primary sinonasal melanoma is a rare disease. We present a case of melanoma in
      sinuses without abnormal F-FDG activity anywhere in the scanned portion of the
      body. In further assessment, C-choline PET/CT revealed high activity in the
      paranasal sinuses, skull base, and adjacent brain, in agreement with the high
      signal on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MRI scan, which suggested the residual
      tumor.

PMID- 28872555
TI  - 18F-FDG PET/CT Imaging of Tracheal Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma.
AB  - A 54-year-old woman presented with dry cough for 3 months. An FDG PET/CT was
      performed to evaluate a tracheal nodule, which was revealed by chest CT. The
      PET/CT images showed increased FDG uptake with SUVmax of 3.3 in the known
      tracheal lesion. The results of pathological examination from the specimen of
      bronchoscopy were consistent with tracheal mucoepidermoid carcinoma.

PMID- 28872556
TI  - Early and Delayed 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT Findings in Rheumatoid Arthritis and
      Osteoarthritis.
AB  - We report the case of a 74-year-old man with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA) and radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) who underwent dual-phase high
      resolution Tc-MDP SPECT/CT. Early radiotracer enhancement was noted in 2 RA
      joints of the right hand, both presenting with a ring-like uptake pattern around
      the joint, consistent with synovitis. Insignificant early enhancement was noted
      at the first carpometacarpal joint, despite presentation of CT features of OA.
      The delayed-phase enhancement patterns were distinct, showing asymmetry in RA
      joints, but a symmetric, joint-centered pattern for the OA joint.

PMID- 28872557
TI  - Sodium Thiosulfate in the Treatment of Lung and Breast Calciphylaxis: CT and Bone
      Scintigraphy Findings.
AB  - A 19-year-old woman, with normal kidney function, was diagnosed as having
      visceral calciphylaxis, especially diffuse breast and lung calcification. The
      calcification findings were clearly shown on CT, and bone scintigraphy revealed
      diffuse uptake in the thoracic area. Although there was no standard therapeutic
      approach for this clinical setting, the patient received empiric therapy with
      sodium thiosulfate. After 5 months of consecutive therapy, the calcification
      condition had a striking regression.

PMID- 28872558
TI  - Treatment of Focal Hyperhidrosis With Needleless Injections of Botulinum Toxin
      Into Sites Other than the Axilla, Palm, and Sole.

PMID- 28872559
TI  - Primary Cutaneous Cribriform Carcinoma Treated With Mohs Micrographic Surgery.

PMID- 28872560
TI  - Use of Hypochlorous Acid as a Preoperative Antiseptic Before Placement of Dermal
      Fillers: An Alternative to the Standard Options.

PMID- 28872561
TI  - Topical Imiquimod for Melanoma In Situ? A Word of Caveat.

PMID- 28872562
TI  - GPX1 Pro198Leu polymorphism and GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphisms are not associated
      with the risk of schizophrenia in the Chinese Han population.
AB  - Increasing lines of evidence show that oxidative stress plays a role in the
      pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenia (SCZ). Polymorphic variants of
      oxidative stress-related candidate genes GPX1 and GST1 can affect the antioxidant
      activities of their encoded enzymes. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the
      association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of GPX1 and GSTP1
      and susceptibility to schizophrenia in the Chinese Han population. DNA from 323
      healthy controls and 210 schizophrenic patients was genotyped for SNPs rs1050450
      in GPX1 and rs1695 in GSTP1 using a predesigned TaqMan SNP genotyping assay.
      Differences in genetic distributions between cases and controls were compared
      using the chi-test. No significant differences in allelic or genotypic
      frequencies of GPX1 rs1050450 or GSTP1 rs1695 were detected between cases and
      controls (GPX1 rs1050450: chi=0.370, P=0.831 by genotype, chi=0.377, P=0.539,
      odds ratio=1.145, 95% confidence interval=0.743-1.766 by allele; GSTP1 rs1695:
      chi=1.537, P=0.464 by genotype, chi=1.623, P=0.203, odds ratio=0.813, 95%
      confidence interval=0.592-1.118 by allele). Our results suggest that GPX1
      rs1050450 and GSTP1 rs1695 SNPs are unlikely to play a major role in the
      pathogenesis of schizophrenia in the Chinese Han population. However, these
      results should be validated by replication in larger and independent samples.

PMID- 28872563
TI  - Jejunal atresia, periodic fevers and psoriatic arthropathy in Baraitser-Winter
      malformation syndrome.

PMID- 28872564
TI  - A novel COL1A1 mutation causing a variant of osteogenesis imperfecta.

PMID- 28872565
TI  - Sinus pericranii in achondroplasia: a case report and review of the literature.
AB  - In the field of dysmorphology, achondroplasia is a well-known disorder. Sinus
      pericranii (SP), however, is not. The latter condition is a rare vascular
      malformation characterized by abnormal connections between the intracranial and
      the extracranial venous drainage pathways. The etiology of SP remains unclear,
      and yet, these defects can be present at birth, develop spontaneously later, or
      evolve following head trauma. Here, we report on a 2-year-old male with
      achondroplasia, SP, and craniocervical junction stenosis. The latter two defects
      required surgical correction. SP is an underappreciated malformation that we
      propose may be induced by increased intracranial pressure. This case appears to
      be the first report of this condition in achondroplasia.

PMID- 28872568
TI  - A Teenager With Seizures and Cardiac Arrest After Drug Overdose: Are We Numb to
      the Danger?

PMID- 28872566
TI  - Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the Acute Setting.
AB  - Pediatric mild traumatic brain injuries, most of which are concussions, are an
      increasingly common reason for presentation to emergency departments. The
      diagnosis of concussion has increased dramatically over the past decade,
      necessitating the acute care provider to have up-to-date knowledge of the
      definition, pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, physical examination findings,
      and acute management of pediatric concussion. This article also addresses
      populations most vulnerable to prolonged recovery from pediatric concussion and
      referral recommendations.

PMID- 28872569
TI  - ECGs in the ED.

PMID- 28872570
TI  - When Fever, Leukocytosis, and Right Lower Quadrant Pain Is Not Appendicitis.
AB  - Mesenteric cystic lymphangioma (MCL) is an uncommon, benign, slow-growing
      abdominal tumor that is derived from the lymphatic vessels (World J
      Gastroenterol. 2012;18:6328-6332, Radiographics. 1994;14:729-737). It is most
      often diagnosed in the head and neck of affected children. Rarely, a lymphangioma
      can develop within the small bowel (Pan Afr Med J. 2012;12:7). The clinical
      presentation of patients with an abdominal MCL can range from asymptomatic to
      acute abdominal pain (J Korean Surg Soc. 2012;83:102-106). We report a case of
      small bowel volvulus caused by an MCL in a 3-year-old child who presented to the
      pediatric emergency department with right lower quadrant pain. The child was
      thought to have a perforated appendicitis and was taken to the operating room
      where an MCL was identified and resected. This case illustrates the need to
      consider MCL when a patient presents to the emergency department with right lower
      quadrant pain.

PMID- 28872571
TI  - Glenohumeral Mismatch in Anatomic Total Shoulder Arthroplasty.

PMID- 28872572
TI  - Tandem Spinal Stenosis: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tandem spinal stenosis refers to spinal canal diameter narrowing in
      at least 2 distinct regions of the spine, most commonly the lumbar and cervical
      regions. This entity can be an asymptomatic radiographic finding, or it can
      present with severe myelopathy and lower-extremity symptoms. Tandem spinal
      stenosis may impact surgeon decision-making when planning either cervical or
      lumbar spine surgery, and there is currently no consensus in the literature
      regarding the treatment algorithm for operative intervention. METHODS: A MEDLINE
      literature search was performed using PubMed, the Cochrane Database of Systematic
      Reviews, and Embase from January 1980 to February 2015 using Medical Subject
      Heading queries for the terms "tandem spinal stenosis," "cervical stenosis AND
      lumbar stenosis," and "concomitant spinal stenosis." We included studies
      involving adult patients, tandem spinal stenosis of the cervical and lumbar
      regions, and a minimum of 5 patients. Articles that did not discuss spinal
      disorders or only explored disorders at a single spinal region were excluded.
      RESULTS: The initial database review resulted in 234 articles. After abstracts
      were reviewed, only 17 articles that met inclusion criteria were identified: 2
      cadaveric studies, 5 clinical studies of patients with radiographic tandem spinal
      stenosis, and 10 clinical studies of patients with symptomatic tandem spinal
      stenosis. CONCLUSIONS: Tandem spinal stenosis is a common condition present in up
      to 60% of patients with spinal stenosis. This disorder, however, is often
      overlooked, which can lead to serious complications. Identification of tandem
      spinal stenosis is paramount as a first step in management and, although there is
      still no preferred intervention, both staged and simultaneous procedures have
      been shown to be effective. Surgeons may utilize a single, staged, or combined
      approach to decompression, always addressing cervical myelopathy as a priority.

PMID- 28872573
TI  - The Association of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder With Clinic and Ambulatory Blood
      Pressure in Healthy Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with incident
      cardiovascular risk. We tested the association of PTSD with clinic and ambulatory
      blood pressure (ABP) in a sample of healthy participants and tested ABP
      reactivity to anxiety as a mechanism by which PTSD may influence blood pressure
      (BP). METHODS: Participants were originally enrolled during workplace BP
      screenings at three sites; approximately 6 years (standard deviation = 1.0)
      later, they completed nine clinic BP assessments within three visits, 1 week
      apart. Before the third visit, participants were screened for PTSD (>=33 on the
      PTSD Checklist-Civilian) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory) and then
      completed 24-hour ABP monitoring with electronic diary assessment of anxiety (0
      100) at each awake reading. RESULTS: Of 440 participants, 92 (21%) screened
      positive for PTSD. In regression models adjusted for depression and demographic
      and clinical variables, PTSD was associated with greater mean systolic BP (3.8 mm
      Hg clinic [95% confidence interval {CI}] = 1.1-6.5, p = .006), 3.0 mm Hg awake
      ABP [95% CI = 0.1-5.9, p = .04], and a nonsignificant 2.1 mm Hg ABP during sleep
      [95% CI = -1.0 to 5.1, p = .18]). PTSD was associated with greater 24-hour median
      anxiety (p < .001), and changes in anxiety were positively associated with
      concurrent systolic ABP (p < .001). ABP reactivity to anxiety was greater in
      participants with PTSD, which partially explained the association of PTSD with
      ABP. CONCLUSIONS: PTSD is associated with greater systolic BP, partly because of
      greater anxiety, and systolic BP reactivity to anxiety throughout the day. Daily
      anxiety and related BP reactivity may be targets for interventions to reduce the
      cardiovascular risk associated with PTSD.

PMID- 28872574
TI  - Past, Present, and Future of Psychosomatic Movements in an Ever-Changing World:
      Presidential Address.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The American Psychosomatic Society was founded in 1942 and is
      celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2017. In recognizing the society's
      anniversary, this article provides a historical perspective on its history, the
      field of psychosomatic medicine in general, and anticipated future directions.
      METHODS: Essay and narrative review of the literature on the historic development
      of psychosomatic concepts and their impact on medicine over time. RESULTS: Mind
      body associations have been described in the medical literature for more than
      3500 years. Early concepts of mind-body dualism and attempts to overcome them are
      found in classical Greek medicine. Psychosomatic thinking can be observed ever
      since, but only in the 20th century, a "psychosomatic movement" emerged in Europe
      and North America, aiming at humanizing medicine by introducing a holistic
      understanding of man into what was considered a widely reductionistic practice of
      medicine. This movement led to the inauguration of the American Psychosomatic
      Society during World War II and of national and international societies of
      psychosomatic medicine and its subspecializations thereafter. CONCLUSIONS:
      Psychosomatic medicine has its roots in the beginnings of medicine. During the
      past 75 years, it has made substantial contributions to the science and practice
      of medicine. The field has also changed in response to developments in medicine,
      technology, and society and is facing new challenges and opportunities that may
      require further adaptation of its concepts and practice.

PMID- 28872575
TI  - Partner Loss in Monogamous Rodents: Modulation of Pain and Emotional Behavior in
      Male Prairie Voles.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pain is modulated by psychosocial factors, and social stress-induced
      hyperalgesia is a common clinical symptom in pain disorders. To provide a new
      animal model for studying social modulation of pain, we examined pain behaviors
      in monogamous prairie voles experiencing partner loss. METHODS: After
      cohabitation with novel females, males (n = 79) were divided into two groups on
      the basis of preference test scores. Half of the males of each group were
      separated from their partner (loss group), whereas the other half remained paired
      (paired group). Thus, males from both groups experienced social isolation. Open
      field tests, plantar tests, and formalin tests were then conducted on males to
      assess anxiety and pain-related behaviors. RESULTS: Loss males showing partner
      preferences (n = 20) displayed a significant increase in anxiety-related behavior
      in the open-field test (central area/total distance: 13.65% [1.58%] for paired
      versus 6.45% [0.87%] for loss; p < .001), a low threshold of thermal stimulus in
      the plantar test (withdrawal latencies: 9.69 [0.98] seconds for paired versus
      6.15 [0.75] seconds for loss; p = .037), and exacerbated pain behaviors in the
      formalin test (total number of lifts: 40.33 [4.46] for paired versus 54.42 [1.91]
      for loss; p = .042) as compared with paired males (n = 20). Thermal thresholds in
      the plantar test significantly correlated with anxiety-related behavior in the
      open-field test (r = 0.64). No such differences were observed in the males that
      did not display partner preferences (r = 0.15). CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate
      that social bonds and their disruption, but not social housing without bonding
      followed by isolation, modulate pain and emotion in male prairie voles. The
      prairie vole is a useful model for exploring the neural mechanisms by which
      social relationships contribute to pain and nociceptive processing in humans.

PMID- 28872576
TI  - The renoprotective properties of xenon and argon in kidney transplantation.

PMID- 28872577
TI  - Acute and chronic neuropathic pain after surgery: Still a lot to learn.

PMID- 28872578
TI  - Comparison of polyvinyl chloride and tin stylets for postoperative sore throat
      and hoarseness: A randomised trial.

PMID- 28872579
TI  - Transcutaneous monitoring of partial pressure of carbon dioxide during
      bronchoscopic procedures performed with jet ventilation: Role of the perfusion
      index.

PMID- 28872580
TI  - Effect of intravenous dextrose administration on postoperative nausea and
      vomiting in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy: A randomised
      controlled trial.

PMID- 28872581
TI  - EML4-ALK Variants: Biological and Molecular Properties, and the Implications for
      Patients.
AB  - Since the discovery of the fusion between EML4 (echinoderm microtubule associated
      protein-like 4) and ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase), EML4-ALK, in lung
      adenocarcinomas in 2007, and the subsequent identification of at least 15
      different variants in lung cancers, there has been a revolution in molecular
      targeted therapy that has transformed the outlook for these patients. Our recent
      focus has been on understanding how and why the expression of particular variants
      can affect biological and molecular properties of cancer cells, as well as
      identifying the key signalling pathways triggered, as a result. In the clinical
      setting, this understanding led to the discovery that the type of variant
      influences the response of patients to ALK therapy. Here, we discuss what we know
      so far about the EML4-ALK variants in molecular signalling pathways and what
      questions remain to be answered. In the longer term, this analysis may uncover
      ways to specifically treat patients for a better outcome.

PMID- 28872582
TI  - Reduced Cytokine Release in Ex Vivo Response to Cilengitide and Cetuximab Is a
      Marker for Improved Survival of Head and Neck Cancer Patients.
AB  - Targeting of alphaVbeta3 and alphaVbeta5 integrins by cilengitide may reduce
      growth of solid tumors including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
      Preclinical investigations suggest increased activity of cilengitide in
      combination with other treatment modalities. The only published trial in HNSCC
      (ADVANTAGE) investigated cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and cetuximab (PFE) without
      or with once (PFE+CIL1W) or twice weekly cilengitide (PFE+CIL2W) in
      recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. ADVANTAGE showed good tolerability of the cilengitide
      arms and even lower adverse events (AEs) compared to PFE but not the benefit in
      overall survival expected based on preclinical data. As we found in the FLAVINO
      assay, a short-time ex vivo assay for prediction of chemosensitivity, only a
      subgroup of HNSCC had an increased suppressive effect of cilengitide containing
      combination therapies on colony formation of epithelial cells (CFec) and release
      of pro-angiogenetic and pro-inflammatory cytokines, whereas other HNSCC failed to
      respond. Response to alphaVbeta3 and alphaVbeta5 integrin targeting by
      cilengitide classifies HNSCC regarding outcome. We present FLAVINO data arguing
      for further development of cilengitide plus cetuximab in treatment of a subgroup
      of HNSCC potentially identified by the FLAVINO assay using a set of biomarkers
      for response evaluation.

PMID- 28872583
TI  - Design of a Sensor System for On-Line Monitoring of Contact Pressure in
      Chalcographic Printing.
AB  - Chalcographic printer is the name given to a specific type of press which is used
      to transfer the printing of a metal-based engraved plate onto paper. The printing
      system consists of two rollers for pressing and carrying a metal plate onto which
      an engraved inked plate is placed. When the driving mechanism is operated, the
      pressure exerted by the rollers, also called contact pressure, allows the
      engraved image to be transferred into paper, thereby obtaining the final image.
      With the aim of ensuring the quality of the result, in terms of good and even
      transfer of ink, the contact pressure must be uniform. Nowadays, the strategies
      utilized to measure the pressure are implemented off-line, i.e., when the press
      machines are shut down for maintenance, which poses limitations. This paper
      proposes a novel sensor system aimed at monitoring the pressure exerted by the
      rollers on the engraved plate while chalcographic printer is operating, i.e., on
      line. The purpose is two-fold: firstly, real-time monitoring reduces the number
      of breakdown repairs required, reduces machine downtime and reduces the number of
      low-quality engravings, which increases productivity and revenues; and secondly,
      the on-line monitoring and register of the process parameters allows the printing
      process to be reproducible even with changes in the environmental conditions or
      other factors such as the wear of the parts that constitute the mechanical system
      and a change in the dimensions of the printing materials. The proposed system
      consists of a strain gauge-based load cell and conditioning electronics to sense
      and treat the signals.

PMID- 28872585
TI  - To Nutraceuticals and Back: Rethinking a Concept.
AB  - The concept of nutraceuticals as pharma-foods comes fromfar. This termismade
      fromthe two words "nutrient" and "pharmaceutical", was coined by Stephen
      DeFelice, and is defined as "a food or part of a food that provide medical or
      health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease" [...].

PMID- 28872586
TI  - Examining the Relationship between Free Sugars and Calorie Contents in Canadian
      Prepacked Foods and Beverages.
AB  - To align with broader public health initiatives, reformulation of products to be
      lower in sugars requires interventions that also aim to reduce calorie contents.
      Currently available foods and beverages with a range of nutrient levels can be
      used to project successful reformulation opportunities. The objective of this
      study was to examine the relationship between free sugars and calorie levels in
      Canadian prepackaged foods and beverages. This study was a cross-sectional
      analysis of the University of Toronto's 2013 Food Label Database, limited to
      major sources of total sugar intake in Canada (n = 6755). Penalized B-spline
      regression modelling was used to examine the relationship between free sugar
      levels (g/100 g or 100 mL) and caloric density (kcal/100 g or 10mL), by
      subcategory. Significant relationships were observed for only 3 of 5 beverage
      subcategories and for 14 of 32 food subcategories. Most subcategories
      demonstrated a positive trend with varying magnitude, however, results were not
      consistent across related subcategories (e.g., dairy-based products). Findings
      highlight potential areas of concern for reformulation, and the need for
      innovative solutions to ensure free sugars are reduced in products within the
      context of improving overall nutritional quality of the diet.

PMID- 28872584
TI  - Sample Size Estimation for Detection of Splicing Events in Transcriptome
      Sequencing Data.
AB  - Merging data from multiple samples is required to detect low expressed
      transcripts or splicing events that might be present only in a subset of samples.
      However, the exact number of required replicates enabling the detection of such
      rare events often remains a mystery but can be approached through probability
      theory. Here, we describe a probabilistic model, relating the number of observed
      events in a batch of samples with observation probabilities. Therein, samples
      appear as a heterogeneous collection of events, which are observed with some
      probability. The model is evaluated in a batch of 54 transcriptomes of human
      dermal fibroblast samples. The majority of putative splice-sites (alignment gap
      sites) are detected in (almost) all samples or only sporadically, resulting in an
      U-shaped pattern for observation probabilities. The probabilistic model
      systematically underestimates event numbers due to a bias resulting from finite
      sampling. However, using an additional assumption, the probabilistic model can
      predict observed event numbers within a <10% deviation from the median. Single
      samples contain a considerable amount of uniquely observed putative splicing
      events (mean 7122 in alignments from TopHat alignments and 86,215 in alignments
      from STAR). We conclude that the probabilistic model provides an adequate
      description for observation of gap-sites in transcriptome data. Thus, the
      calculation of required sample sizes can be done by application of a simple
      binomial model to sporadically observed random events. Due to the large number of
      uniquely observed putative splice-sites and the known stochastic noise in the
      splicing machinery, it appears advisable to include observation of rare splicing
      events into analysis objectives. Therefore, it is beneficial to take scores for
      the validation of gap-sites into account.

PMID- 28872587
TI  - Quantification of Pseudouridine Levels in Cellular RNA Pools with a Modified HPLC
      UV Assay.
AB  - Pseudouridine (Psi) is the most abundant post-transcriptionally modified
      ribonucleoside. Different Psi modifications correlate with stress responses and
      are postulated to coordinate the distinct biological responses to a diverse panel
      of cellular stresses. With the help of different guide RNAs, the dyskerin complex
      pseudouridylates ribosomal RNA, small nuclear RNA and selective messenger RNAs.
      To monitor Psi levels quantitatively, a previously reported high performance
      liquid chromatography method coupled with ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) was
      modified to determine total Psi levels in different cellular RNA fractions. Our
      method was validated to be accurate and precise within the linear range of 0.06
      15.36 pmol/MUL and to have absolute Psi quantification levels as low as 3.07
      pmol. Using our optimized HPLC assay, we found that 1.20% and 1.94% of all
      ribonucleosides in nuclear-enriched RNA and small non-coding RNA pools from the
      HEK293 cell line, and 1.77% and 0.98% of ribonucleosides in 18S and 28S rRNA
      isolated from the HeLa cell line, were pseudouridylated. Upon knockdown of
      dyskerin expression, a consistent and significant reduction in total Psi levels
      in nuclear-enriched RNA pools was observed. Our assay provides a fast and
      accurate quantification method to measure changes in Psi levels of different RNA
      pools without sample derivatization.

PMID- 28872588
TI  - Ultrastructural Characterization of Membrane Rearrangements Induced by Porcine
      Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Infection.
AB  - The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a coronavirus (CoV) belonging to
      the alpha-CoV genus and it causes high mortality in infected sucking piglets,
      resulting in substantial losses in the farming industry. CoV trigger a drastic
      reorganization of host cell membranes to promote their replication and egression,
      but a detailed description of the intracellular remodeling induced by PEDV is
      still missing. In this study, we examined qualitatively and quantitatively, using
      electron microscopy, the intracellular membrane reorganization induced by PEDV
      over the course of an infection. With our ultrastructural approach, we reveal
      that, as most of CoV, PEDV initially forms double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) and
      convoluted membranes (CMs), which probably serve as replication/transcription
      platforms. Interestingly, we also found that viral particles start to form almost
      simultaneously in both the endoplasmic reticulum and the large virion-containing
      vacuoles (LVCVs), which are compartments originating from the Golgi, confirming
      that alpha-CoV assemble indistinguishably in two different organelles of the
      secretory pathway. Moreover, PEDV virons appear to have an immature and a mature
      form, similar to another alpha-CoV the transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus
      (TGEV). Altogether, our study underlies the similarities and differences between
      the lifecycle of alpha-CoV and that of viruses belonging to other CoV
      subfamilies.

PMID- 28872589
TI  - Improved Range Estimation Model for Three-Dimensional (3D) Range Gated
      Reconstruction.
AB  - Accuracy is an important measure of system performance and remains a challenge in
      3D range gated reconstruction despite the advancement in laser and sensor
      technology. The weighted average model that is commonly used for range estimation
      is heavily influenced by the intensity variation due to various factors. Accuracy
      improvement in term of range estimation is therefore important to fully optimise
      the system performance. In this paper, a 3D range gated reconstruction model is
      derived based on the operating principles of range gated imaging and time slicing
      reconstruction, fundamental of radiant energy, Laser Detection And Ranging
      (LADAR), and Bidirectional Reflection Distribution Function (BRDF). Accordingly,
      a new range estimation model is proposed to alleviate the effects induced by
      distance, target reflection, and range distortion. From the experimental results,
      the proposed model outperforms the conventional weighted average model to improve
      the range estimation for better 3D reconstruction. The outcome demonstrated is of
      interest to various laser ranging applications and can be a reference for future
      works.

PMID- 28872590
TI  - Synthesis of Nitric Oxide Donors Derived from Piloty's Acid and Study of Their
      Effects on Dopamine Secretion from PC12 Cells.
AB  - This study investigated the mechanisms and kinetics of nitric oxide (NO)
      generation by derivatives of Piloty's acid (NO-donors) under physiological
      conditions. In order to qualitatively and quantitatively measure NO release,
      electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was carried out with NO spin trapping. In
      addition, voltammetric techniques, including cyclic voltammetry and constant
      potential amperometry, were used to confirm NO release from Piloty's acid and its
      derivatives. The resulting data showed that Piloty's acid derivatives are able to
      release NO under physiological conditions. In particular, electron-withdrawing
      substituents favoured NO generation, while electron-donor groups reduced NO
      generation. In vitro microdialysis, performed on PC12 cell cultures, was used to
      evaluate the dynamical secretion of dopamine induced by the Piloty's acid
      derivatives. Although all the studied molecules were able to induce DA secretion
      from PC12, only those with a slow release of NO have not determined an
      autoxidation of DA itself. These results confirm that the time-course of NO
      donors decomposition and the amount of NO released play a key role in dopamine
      secretion and auto-oxidation. This information could drive the synthesis or the
      selection of compounds to use as potential drugs for the therapy of Parkinson's
      disease (PD).

PMID- 28872592
TI  - Application of a Surimi-Based Coating to Improve the Quality Attributes of Shrimp
      during Refrigerated Storage.
AB  - Shrimp is a popular seafood throughout the world. However, shrimp is highly
      perishable due to biochemical, microbiological, or physical changes during
      postmortem storage. In this study, the effect of a surimi-based coating with and
      without montmorillonite (MMT) nanoclay on shrimp quality was evaluated during
      eight days of refrigerator storage. Use of a surimi-based coating resulted in
      reductions of aerobic plate counts (APC) up to 2 log units. The combined effect
      of the MMT and coating was observed. Surimi-based coating with MMT resulted in
      lower APC (p < 0.05) toward the end of storage. The application of surimi-based
      coating with MMT to the shrimp samples improved sensory quality and delayed lipid
      oxidation and color deterioration during storage time. In general, better texture
      was observed when coating was applied either with or without MMT. This study
      suggests that surimi-based coating may improve the quality of shrimp during
      refrigerated storage.

PMID- 28872591
TI  - The Development of a Chinese Healthy Eating Index and Its Application in the
      General Population.
AB  - The objective of this study was to develop a Chinese Healthy Eating Index (CHEI)
      based on the updated Dietary Guidelines for Chinese (DGC-2016) and to apply it in
      the 2011 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS-2011) to assess diet quality and
      its association with typical sociodemographic/economic factors. Data from 14,584
      participants (>=2 years) from the CHNS-2011, including three 24-h dietary recalls
      and additional variables, were used to develop the CHEI. The standard portion
      size was applied to quantify food consumption. The CHEI was designed as a
      continuous scoring system, comprising 17 components; the maximum total score is
      100. The mean, 1st and 99th percentiles of the CHEI score were 52.4, 27.6 and
      78.3, respectively. Young and middle-aged adults scored better than the elderly.
      Diet insufficiency was chiefly manifested in fruits, dairy, whole grains and
      poultry; diet excess was mainly reflected in red meat, cooking oils and sodium.
      The CHEI was positively associated with education and urbanization levels;
      current smokers and unmarried people obtained relative low CHEI scores.
      Occupation and body mass index (BMI) were also related to the CHEI. Our findings
      indicate that the CHEI is capable of recognizing differences in diet quality
      among the Chinese, and it is sensitive to typical sociodemographic/economic
      factors.

PMID- 28872593
TI  - Effect of Different Activated Carbon as Carrier on the Photocatalytic Activity of
      Ag-N-ZnO Photocatalyst for Methyl Orange Degradation under Visible Light
      Irradiation.
AB  - In order to enhance the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) by ZnO under
      visible light irradiation, ZnO nanoparticles co-doped with Ag and N and supported
      on activated carbon (AC) with different properties were synthesized through the
      sol-gel method. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized in terms of the
      structure and properties through X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption,
      ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and electron spin resonance. The
      photocatalytic activities of these photocatalysts followed the order: Ag-N
      ZnO/ACs > Ag-N-ZnO > N, or Ag single-doped ZnO > commercial ZnO. This result was
      attributed to the small particle size, large surface area, narrow band gap, and
      high charge separation of Ag-N-ZnO/ACs. The Ag-N-ZnO/coconut husk activated
      carbon (Ag-N-ZnO/CHAC) exhibited the highest degradation efficiency of 98.82% for
      MO under visible light irradiation. This outcome was due to the abundant pore
      structure of Ag-N-ZnO/CHAC, resulting in stronger adsorption than that of other
      Ag-N-ZnO/ACs. Moreover, the degradation of MO on photocatalysis followed first
      order kinetics. The reactive species .OH and .O2- played more important roles in
      the photocatalytic degradation of MO over composite photocatalyst. Ag-N-ZnO/CHAC
      photocatalyst exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than unsupported Ag-N-ZnO
      after five recycling runs.

PMID- 28872594
TI  - Zebrafish Xenograft: An Evolutionary Experiment in Tumour Biology.
AB  - Though the cancer research community has used mouse xenografts for decades more
      than zebrafish xenografts, zebrafish have much to offer: they are cheap, easy to
      work with, and the embryonic model is relatively easy to use in high-throughput
      assays. Zebrafish can be imaged live, allowing us to observe cellular and
      molecular processes in vivo in real time. Opponents dismiss the zebrafish model
      due to the evolutionary distance between zebrafish and humans, as compared to
      mice, but proponents argue for the zebrafish xenograft's superiority to cell
      culture systems and its advantages in imaging. This review places the zebrafish
      xenograft in the context of current views on cancer and gives an overview of how
      several aspects of this evolutionary disease can be addressed in the zebrafish
      model. Zebrafish are missing homologs of some human proteins and (of particular
      interest) several members of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family of
      proteases, which are known for their importance in tumour biology. This review
      draws attention to the implicit evolutionary experiment taking place when the
      molecular ecology of the xenograft host is significantly different than that of
      the donor.

PMID- 28872595
TI  - Active Transportation on a Complete Street: Perceived and Audited Walkability
      Correlates.
AB  - Few studies of walkability include both perceived and audited walkability
      measures. We examined perceived walkability (Neighborhood Environment Walkability
      Scale-Abbreviated, NEWS-A) and audited walkability (Irvine-Minnesota Inventory,
      IMI) measures for residents living within 2 km of a "complete street"-one
      renovated with light rail, bike lanes, and sidewalks. For perceived walkability,
      we found some differences but substantial similarity between our final scales and
      those in a prior published confirmatory factor analysis. Perceived walkability,
      in interaction with distance, was related to complete street active
      transportation. Residents were likely to have active transportation on the street
      when they lived nearby and perceived good aesthetics, crime safety, and traffic
      safety. Audited walkability, analyzed with decision trees, showed three general
      clusters of walkability areas, with 12 specific subtypes. A subset of walkability
      items (n = 11), including sidewalks, zebra-striped crosswalks, decorative
      sidewalks, pedestrian signals, and blank walls combined to cluster street
      segments. The 12 subtypes yielded 81% correct classification of residents' active
      transportation. Both perceived and audited walkability were important predictors
      of active transportation. For audited walkability, we recommend more exploration
      of decision tree approaches, given their predictive utility and ease of
      translation into walkability interventions.

PMID- 28872596
TI  - Survey of Veterinarians Using a Novel Physical Compression Squeeze Procedure in
      the Management of Neonatal Maladjustment Syndrome in Foals.
AB  - Horses are a precocious species that must accomplish several milestones that are
      critical to survival in the immediate post-birth period for their survival. One
      essential milestone is the successful transition from the intrauterine
      unconsciousness to an extrauterine state of consciousness or awareness. This
      transition involves a complex withdrawal of consciousness inhibitors and an
      increase in neuroactivating factors that support awareness. This process involves
      neuroactive hormones as well as inputs related to factors such as cold, visual,
      olfactory, and auditory stimuli. One factor not previously considered in this
      birth transition is a yet unreported direct neural reflex response to labor
      induced physical compression of the fetus in the birth canal (squeezing).
      Neonatal maladjustment syndrome (NMS) is a disorder of the newborn foal
      characterized by altered behavior, low affinity for the mare, poor awareness of
      the environment, failure to bond to the mother, abnormal sucking, and other
      neurologically-based abnormalities. This syndrome has been associated with
      altered events during birth, and was believed to be caused exclusively by hypoxia
      and ischemia. However, recent findings revealed an association of the NMS
      syndrome with the persistence of high concentrations of in utero neuromodulating
      hormones (neurosteroids) in the postnatal period. Anecdotal evidence demonstrated
      that a novel physical compression (squeeze) method that applies 20 min of
      sustained pressure to the thorax of some neonatal foals with this syndrome might
      rapidly hasten recovery. This survey provides information about outcomes and time
      frames to recovery comparing neonatal foals that were given this squeeze
      treatment to foals treated with routine medical therapy alone. Results revealed
      that the squeeze procedure, when applied for 20 min, resulted in a faster full
      recovery of some foals diagnosed with NMS. The adjunctive use of a non-invasive
      squeeze method may improve animal welfare by hastening recovery and foal-mare
      interactions that minimize health problems. This would also avoid or reduce costs
      arising from hospitalization associated with veterinary and nursing care that
      sometimes leads owners to elect for euthanasia.

PMID- 28872597
TI  - Changes in Daily Steps and Body Mass Index and Waist to Height Ratio during Four
      Year Follow-Up in Adults: Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.
AB  - Aims: Over the study years, there was a significant increase in body mass index
      (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) in middle aged Finnish adults. Methods:
      Data were obtained from 1033 Finnish adults from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young
      Finns Study in 2007 and 2011. Cohort study participants wore an Omron Walking
      Style One (HJ-152R-E) pedometer for five days and were grouped into those who
      increased, maintained and decreased their steps between 2007 and 2011. Paired
      samples t-test was used to compare body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height
      ratio (WtHR) change values between the change groups in study years. Results:
      Among study population BMI and WtHR increase between study years was
      statistically significant (p < 0.001). Only those, who increased their total
      steps for at least 2000 steps, maintained their BMI in the same level, while
      people who decreased or maintained their total steps in the same level, BMI and
      WtHR increased during four years follow-up. Conclusions: This data suggests that
      increasing steps in middle age is associated with maintaining BMI at the same
      level.

PMID- 28872599
TI  - Perfluorinated Compounds as Test Media for Porous Membranes.
AB  - We suggest a failure-free method of porous membranes characterization that gives
      the researcher the opportunity to compare and characterize properties of any
      porous membrane. This proposal is supported by an investigation of eight
      membranes made of different organic and inorganic materials, with nine different
      perfluorinated compounds. It was found that aromatic compounds, perfluorobenzene,
      and perfluorotoluene, used in the current study show properties different from
      other perfluorinated aliphatics. They demonstrate extreme deviation from the
      general sequence indicating the existence of pi-pi-interaction on the pore wall.
      The divergence of the flow for cyclic compounds from ideal e.g., linear compounds
      can be an indication of the pore dimension.

PMID- 28872601
TI  - Erratum: History of U.S. Iodine Fortification and Supplementation; Nutrients
      2012, 4, 1740-1746.

PMID- 28872600
TI  - Effects of Visual Stimulation with Bonsai Trees on Adult Male Patients with
      Spinal Cord Injury.
AB  - Nature therapy has been demonstrated to induce physiological relaxation. The
      psychophysiological effects of nature therapy (stimulation with bonsai trees) on
      adult male patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) were examined. Oxyhemoglobin
      concentration changes in the prefrontal cortex were measured using near-infrared
      spectroscopy, and heart rate variability was analyzed. Psychological responses
      were evaluated using the modified semantic differential method and Profile of
      Mood States (POMS) subscale scores. Visual stimulation of adult male patients
      with SCI elicited significantly decreased left prefrontal cortex activity,
      increased parasympathetic nervous activity, decreased sympathetic nervous
      activity, increased positive feelings, and resulted in lower negative POMS
      subscale scores. Nature therapy can lead to a state of physiological and
      psychological relaxation in patients with SCI.

PMID- 28872602
TI  - An IMM-Aided ZUPT Methodology for an INS/DVL Integrated Navigation System.
AB  - Inertial navigation system (INS)/Doppler velocity log (DVL) integration is the
      most common navigation solution for underwater vehicles. Due to the complex
      underwater environment, the velocity information provided by DVL always contains
      some errors. To improve navigation accuracy, zero velocity update (ZUPT)
      technology is considered, which is an effective algorithm for land vehicles to
      mitigate the navigation error during the pure INS mode. However, in contrast to
      ground vehicles, the ZUPT solution cannot be used directly for underwater
      vehicles because of the existence of the water current. In order to leverage the
      strengths of the ZUPT method and the INS/DVL solution, an interactive multiple
      model (IMM)-aided ZUPT methodology for the INS/DVL-integrated underwater
      navigation system is proposed. Both the INS/DVL and INS/ZUPT models are
      constructed and operated in parallel, with weights calculated according to their
      innovations and innovation covariance matrices. Simulations are conducted to
      evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results indicate that the IMM-aided ZUPT
      solution outperforms both the INS/DVL solution and the INS/ZUPT solution in the
      underwater environment, which can properly distinguish between the ZUPT and non
      ZUPT conditions. In addition, during DVL outage, the effectiveness of the
      proposed algorithm is also verified.

PMID- 28872604
TI  - Deep Eutectic Solvents as Convenient Media for Synthesis of Novel Coumarinyl
      Schiff Bases and Their QSAR Studies.
AB  - Deep eutectic solvents, as green and environmentally friendly media, were
      utilized in the synthesis of novel coumarinyl Schiff bases. Novel derivatives
      were synthesized from 2-((4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yl)oxy)acetohydrazide and
      corresponding aldehyde in choline chloride:malonic acid (1:1) based deep eutectic
      solvent. In these reactions, deep eutectic solvent acted as a solvent and
      catalyst as well. Novel Schiff bases were synthesized in high yields (65-75%)
      with no need for further purification, and their structures were confirmed by
      mass spectra, 1H and 13C NMR. Furthermore, their antioxidant activity was
      determined and compared to antioxidant activity of previously synthesized
      derivatives, thus investigating their structure-activity relationship utilizing
      quantitative structure-activity relationship QSAR studies. Calculation of
      molecular descriptors has been performed by DRAGON software. The best QSAR model
      (Rtr = 0.636; Rext = 0.709) obtained with three descriptors (MATS3m, Mor22u, Hy)
      implies that the pairs of atoms higher mass at the path length 3, three
      dimensional arrangement of atoms at scattering parameter s = 21 A-1, and higher
      number of hydrophilic groups (-OH, -NH) enhanced antioxidant activity.
      Electrostatic potential surface of the most active compounds showed possible
      regions for donation of electrons to 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryhydrazyl (DPPH)
      radicals.

PMID- 28872603
TI  - Ginger Phytochemicals Inhibit Cell Growth and Modulate Drug Resistance Factors in
      Docetaxel Resistant Prostate Cancer Cell.
AB  - Ginger has many bioactive compounds with pharmacological activities. However, few
      studies are known about these bioactive compounds activity in chemoresistant
      cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anticancer properties
      of ginger phytochemicals in docetaxel-resistant human prostate cancer cells in
      vitro. In this study, we isolated 6-gingerol, 10-gingerol, 4-shogaol, 6-shogaol,
      10-shogaol, and 6-dehydrogingerdione from ginger. Further, the antiproliferation
      activity of these compounds was examined in docetaxel-resistant (PC3R) and
      sensitive (PC3) human prostate cancer cell lines. 6-gingerol, 10-gingerol, 6
      shogaol, and 10-shogaol at the concentration of 100 MUM significantly inhibited
      the proliferation in PC3R but 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and 10-shogaol displayed
      similar activity in PC3. The protein expression of multidrug resistance
      associated protein 1 (MRP1) and glutathione-S-transferase (GSTpi) is higher in
      PC3R than in PC3. In summary, we isolated the bioactive compounds from ginger.
      Our results showed that 6-gingerol, 10-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and 10-shogaol
      inhibit the proliferation of PC3R cells through the downregulation of MRP1 and
      GSTpi protein expression.

PMID- 28872606
TI  - Hypophosphite/Graphitic Carbon Nitride Hybrids: Preparation and Flame-Retardant
      Application in Thermoplastic Polyurethane.
AB  - A series of aluminum hypophosphite (AHPi)/graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4)
      (designated as CAHPi) hybrids were prepared, followed by incorporation into
      thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The introduction of CAHPi hybrids into TPU led
      to a marked reduction in the peak of the heat release rate (pHRR), total heat
      release, weight loss rate, smoke production rate and total smoke production
      (TSP). For instance, pHRR and TSP decreased by 40% and 50% for TPU/CAHPi20.
      Furthermore, the increasing fire growth index and decreasing fire performance
      index were obtained for TPU/CAHPi systems, suggesting reduced fire hazards. It
      was found that improved fire safety of TPU nanocomposites was contributed by
      condensed phase and gas phase mechanisms. On one hand, g-C3N4 accelerated the
      thermal decomposition of AHPi for the formation of more char layers. On the other
      hand, g-C3N4 induced AHPi to generate more free radical capture agents when
      exposed to flame, besides protecting AHPi against thermal oxidation.

PMID- 28872598
TI  - The TORC2-Dependent Signaling Network in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - To grow, eukaryotic cells must expand by inserting glycerolipids, sphingolipids,
      sterols, and proteins into their plasma membrane, and maintain the proper levels
      and bilayer distribution. A fungal cell must coordinate growth with enlargement
      of its cell wall. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a plasma membrane-localized
      protein kinase complex, Target of Rapamicin (TOR) complex-2 (TORC2) (mammalian
      ortholog is mTORC2), serves as a sensor and masterregulator of these plasma
      membrane- and cell wall-associated events by directly phosphorylating and thereby
      stimulating the activity of two types of effector protein kinases: Ypk1
      (mammalian ortholog is SGK1), along with a paralog (Ypk2); and, Pkc1 (mammalian
      ortholog is PKN2/PRK2). Ypk1 is a central regulator of pathways and processes
      required for plasma membrane lipid and protein homeostasis, and requires
      phosphorylation on its T-loop by eisosome-associated protein kinase Pkh1
      (mammalian ortholog is PDK1) and a paralog (Pkh2). For cell survival under
      various stresses, Ypk1 function requires TORC2-mediated phosphorylation at
      multiple sites near its C terminus. Pkc1 controls diverse processes, especially
      cell wall synthesis and integrity. Pkc1 is also regulated by Pkh1- and TORC2
      dependent phosphorylation, but, in addition, by interaction with Rho1-GTP and
      lipids phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) and diacylglycerol (DAG). We also describe
      here what is currently known about the downstream substrates modulated by Ypk1
      mediated and Pkc1-mediated phosphorylation.

PMID- 28872605
TI  - Vegetable Oils as Alternative Solvents for Green Oleo-Extraction, Purification
      and Formulation of Food and Natural Products.
AB  - Since solvents of petroleum origin are now strictly regulated worldwide, there is
      a growing demand for using greener, bio-based and renewable solvents for
      extraction, purification and formulation of natural and food products. The ideal
      alternative solvents are non-volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that have high
      dissolving power and flash point, together with low toxicity and less
      environmental impact. They should be obtained from renewable resources at a
      reasonable price and be easy to recycle. Based on the principles of Green
      Chemistry and Green Engineering, vegetable oils could become an ideal alternative
      solvent to extract compounds for purification, enrichment, or even pollution
      remediation. This review presents an overview of vegetable oils as solvents
      enriched with various bioactive compounds from natural resources, as well as the
      relationship between dissolving power of non-polar and polar bioactive components
      with the function of fatty acids and/or lipid classes in vegetable oils, and
      other minor components. A focus on simulation of solvent-solute interactions and
      a discussion of polar paradox theory propose a mechanism explaining the phenomena
      of dissolving polar and non-polar bioactive components in vegetable oils as green
      solvents with variable polarity.

PMID- 28872607
TI  - Design and Antiproliferative Evaluation of Novel Sulfanilamide Derivatives as
      Potential Tubulin Polymerization Inhibitors.
AB  - A series of sulfanilamide-1,2,3-triazole hybrids were designed by a molecular
      hybridization strategy and evaluated for antiproliferative activity against three
      selected cancer cell lines (MGC-803, MCF-7 and PC-3). The detailed structure
      activity relationships for these sulfanilamide-1,2,3-triazole hybrids were
      investigated. All these sulfanilamide-1,2,3-triazole hybrids exhibited moderate
      to potent activity against all cell lines. In particular 4-methyl-N-((1-(3
      phenoxybenzyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)methyl)benzenesulfonamide (11f) showed the
      most potent inhibitory effect against PC-3 cells, with an IC50 value of 4.08 MUM.
      Furthermore, the tubulin polymerization inhibitory activity in vitro of compound
      11f was 2.41 MUM. These sulfanilamide hybrids might serve as bioactive fragments
      for developing more potent antiproliferative agents.

PMID- 28872608
TI  - Study on the Fluorescent Activity of N2-Indolyl-1,2,3-triazole.
AB  - A new type of blue emitter, N2-Indolyl-1,2,3-triazoles (NITs), with the lambdamax
      ranging from 420-480 nm and the Stokes shift from 89-143 nm, were synthesized
      through the coupling reaction of indoles with triazole derivatives. The influence
      of different substitution patterns on the optical properties (efficiency,
      excitation, and emission wavelengths) of the NITs was investigated. In addition,
      one palladium complex were synthesized by using NITs as the ligands, which,
      however, exhibited no fluorescent activity, but did show the enhanced co
      planarity. Lastly, two bio-active molecule derivatives were explored for the
      potential use of these novel dyes in related chemical and biological
      applications.

PMID- 28872609
TI  - Evaluation of VIIRS Land Aerosol Model Selection with AERONET Measurements.
AB  - The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a next-generation polar
      orbiting operational environmental sensor with a capability for global aerosol
      observations. Identifying land aerosol types is important because aerosol types
      are a basic input in retrieving aerosol optical properties for VIIRS. The VIIRS
      algorithm can automatically select the optimal land aerosol model by minimizing
      the residual between the derived and expected spectral surface reflectance. In
      this study, these selected VIIRS aerosol types are evaluated using collocated
      aerosol types obtained from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) level 1.5 from
      23 January 2013 to 28 February 2017. The spatial distribution of VIIRS aerosol
      types and the aerosol optical depth bias (VIIRS minus AERONET) demonstrate that
      misidentifying VIIRS aerosol types may lead to VIIRS retrieval being
      overestimated over the Eastern United States and the developed regions of East
      Asia, as well as underestimated over Southern Africa, India, and Northeastern
      China. Approximately 22.33% of VIIRS aerosol types are coincident with that of
      AERONET. The agreements between VIIRS and AERONET for fine non-absorbing and
      absorbing aerosol types are approximately 36% and 57%, respectively. However, the
      agreement between VIIRS and AERONET is extremely low (only 3.51%). The low
      agreement for coarse absorbing dust may contribute to the poor performance of
      VIIRS retrieval under the aerosol model (R = 0.61). Results also show that an
      appropriate aerosol model can improve the retrieval performance of VIIRS over
      land, particularly for dust type (R increases from 0.61 to 0.72).

PMID- 28872610
TI  - Evaluation of Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate-Polycaprolactone Scaffolds for
      Tissue Engineering Applications.
AB  - Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEGDA) tissue scaffolds having a thickness higher
      than 1 mm and without the presence of nutrient conduit networks were shown to
      have limited applications in tissue engineering due to the inability of cells to
      adhere and migrate within the scaffold. The PEGDA scaffold has been coated with
      polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun nanofiber (ENF) membrane on both sides to
      overcome these limitations, thereby creating a functional PEGDA-PCL scaffold.
      This study examined the physical, mechanical, and biological properties of the
      PEGDA and PEGDA-PCL scaffolds to determine the effect of PCL coating on PEGDA.
      The physical characterization of PEGDA-PCL samples demonstrated the effectiveness
      of combining PCL with a PEGDA scaffold to expand its applications in tissue
      engineering. This study also found a significant improvement of elasticity of
      PEGDA due to the addition of PCL layers. This study shows that PEGDA-PCL
      scaffolds absorb nutrients with time and can provide an ideal environment for the
      survival of cells. Furthermore, cell viability tests indicate that the cell
      adhered, proliferated, and migrated in the PEGDA-PCL scaffold. Therefore, PCL ENF
      coating has a positive influence on PEGDA scaffold.

PMID- 28872611
TI  - Clinical and Physiological Perspectives of beta-Glucans: The Past, Present, and
      Future.
AB  - beta-Glucans are a group of biologically-active fibers or polysaccharides from
      natural sources with proven medical significance. beta-Glucans are known to have
      antitumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-obesity, anti-allergic, anti-osteoporotic, and
      immunomodulating activities. beta-Glucans are natural bioactive compounds and can
      be taken orally, as a food supplement, or as part of a daily diet, and are
      considered safe to use. The medical significance and efficiency of beta-glucans
      are confirmed in vitro, as well as using animal- and human-based clinical
      studies. However, systematic study on the clinical and physiological significance
      of beta-glucans is scarce. In this review, we not only discuss the clinical and
      physiological importance of beta-glucans, we also compare their biological
      activities through the existing in vitro and animal-based in vivo studies. This
      review provides extensive data on the clinical study of beta-glucans.

PMID- 28872612
TI  - Fructus Ligustri Lucidi in Osteoporosis: A Review of its Pharmacology,
      Phytochemistry, Pharmacokinetics and Safety.
AB  - Background: Fructus Ligustri Lucidi (FLL) has now attracted increasing attention
      as an alternative medicine in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. This
      study aimed to provide a general review of traditional interpretation of the
      actions of FLL in osteoporosis, main phytochemical constituents,
      pharmacokinetics, pharmacology in bone improving effect, and safety. Materials
      and Methods: Several databases, including PubMed, China National Knowledge
      Infrastructure, National Science and Technology Library, China Science and
      Technology Journal Database, and Web of Science were consulted to locate
      publications pertaining to FLL. The initial inquiry was conducted for the
      presence of the following keywords combinations in the abstracts: Fructus
      Ligustri Lucidi, osteoporosis, phytochemistry, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology,
      osteoblasts, osteoclasts, salidroside. About 150 research papers and reviews were
      consulted. Results: FLL is assumed to exhibit anti-osteoporotic effects by
      improving liver and kidney deficiencies and reducing lower back soreness in
      Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The data from animal and cell experiments
      demonstrate that FLL is able to improve bone metabolism and bone quality in
      ovariectomized, growing, aged and diabetic rats through the regulation of PTH/FGF
      23/1,25-(OH)2D3/CaSR, Nox4/ROS/NF-kappaB, and OPG/RANKL/cathepsin K signaling
      pathways. More than 100 individual compounds have been isolated from this plant.
      Oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, salidroside, and nuzhenide have been reported to
      exhibit the anti-osteoporosis effect. The pharmacokinetics data reveals that
      salidroside is one of the active constituents, and that tyrosol is hard to detect
      under physiological conditions. Acute and subacute toxicity studies show that FLL
      is well tolerated and presents no safety concerns. Conclusions: FLL provides a
      new option for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, which attracts
      rising interests in identifying potential anti-osteoporotic compounds and
      fractions from this plant. Further scientific evidences are expected from well
      designed clinical trials on its bone protective effects and safety.

PMID- 28872613
TI  - Roles of Long Noncoding RNAs in Recurrence and Metastasis of Radiotherapy
      Resistant Cancer Stem Cells.
AB  - Radiotherapy is a well-established therapeutic regimen applied to treat at least
      half of all cancer patients worldwide. Radioresistance of cancers or failure to
      treat certain tumor types with radiation is associated with enhanced local
      invasion, metastasis and poor prognosis. Elucidation of the biological
      characteristics underlying radioresistance is therefore critical to ensure the
      development of effective strategies to resolve this issue, which remains an
      urgent medical problem. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) comprise a small population of
      tumor cells that constitute the origin of most cancer cell types. CSCs are
      virtually resistant to radiotherapy, and consequently contribute to recurrence
      and disease progression. Metastasis is an increasing problem in resistance to
      cancer radiotherapy and closely associated with the morbidity and mortality rates
      of several cancer types. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that radiation
      induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) accompanied by increased cancer
      recurrence, metastasis and CSC generation. CSCs are believed to serve as the
      basis of metastasis. Previous studies indicate that CSCs contribute to the
      generation of metastasis, either in a direct or indirect manner. Moreover, the
      heterogeneity of CSCs may be responsible for organ specificity and considerable
      complexity of metastases. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of noncoding
      molecules over 200 nucleotides in length involved in the initiation and
      progression of several cancer types. Recently, lncRNAs have attracted
      considerable attention as novel critical regulators of cancer progression and
      metastasis. In the current review, we have discussed lncRNA-mediated regulation
      of CSCs following radiotherapy, their association with tumor metastasis and
      significance in radioresistance of cancer.

PMID- 28872615
TI  - Listeriolysin O Regulates the Expression of Optineurin, an Autophagy Adaptor That
      Inhibits the Growth of Listeria monocytogenes.
AB  - Autophagy, a well-established defense mechanism, enables the elimination of
      intracellular pathogens including Listeria monocytogenes. Host cell recognition
      results in ubiquitination of L. monocytogenes and interaction with autophagy
      adaptors p62/SQSTM1 and NDP52, which target bacteria to autophagosomes by binding
      to microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3). Although studies have
      indicated that L. monocytogenes induces autophagy, the significance of this
      process in the infectious cycle and the mechanisms involved remain poorly
      understood. Here, we examined the role of the autophagy adaptor optineurin
      (OPTN), the phosphorylation of which by the TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1) enhances
      its affinity for LC3 and promotes autophagosomal degradation, during L.
      monocytogenes infection. In LC3- and OPTN-depleted host cells, intracellular
      replicating L. monocytogenes increased, an effect not seen with a mutant lacking
      the pore-forming toxin listeriolysin O (LLO). LLO induced the production of OPTN.
      In host cells expressing an inactive TBK1, bacterial replication was also
      inhibited. Our studies have uncovered an OPTN-dependent pathway in which L.
      monocytogenes uses LLO to restrict bacterial growth. Hence, manipulation of
      autophagy by L. monocytogenes, either through induction or evasion, represents a
      key event in its intracellular life style and could lead to either cytosolic
      growth or persistence in intracellular vacuolar structures.

PMID- 28872617
TI  - A Piezoresponse Force Microscopy Study of CaxBa1-xNb2O6 Single Crystals.
AB  - Polar structures of CaxBa1-xNb2O6 (CBN100x) single crystals were investigated
      using piezoresponse force microscopy. Increasing Ca content results in decreasing
      domain size and enhancement of the polar disorder. For the composition with x =
      0.32 the characteristic domain size is similar to that reported for relaxor
      Sr0.61Ba0.39Nb2O6 (SBN61). However, decay of an artificial macroscopic domain in
      CBN32 takes place below the macroscopic transition temperature, contrary to
      SBN61, where random fields stabilize it above the transition temperature. We can
      conclude that CBN with 0.26 <= x <= 0.32 does not display classical relaxor
      behavior and might be considered as a disordered ferroelectric.

PMID- 28872618
TI  - Magnetic Force Microscopy of Nanostructured Co/Pt Multilayer Films with
      Perpendicular Magnetization.
AB  - We present the results of magnetic force microscopy investigations of domain
      structures in multilayer [Co (0.5 nm)/Pt (1 nm)]5 thin film structures (denoted
      hereafter as Co/Pt) modified by additional Co capping layers and by ion
      irradiation. It is demonstrated that a Co capping layer essentially changes the
      domain structure and decreases the threshold of magnetization reversal, due to
      the formation of noncollinear magnetization in Co/Pt. It is shown that local
      irradiation with a focused He+ ion beam enables the formation of regions with
      decreased easy-axis anisotropy (magnetic bubbles) that have the inverse
      magnetization direction in the demagnetized state of Co/Pt. The experimental
      results demonstrate that the magnetic bubbles can be switched using a probe of a
      magnetic force microscope. The possible application of these effects for the
      development of magnetic logic and data storage systems is discussed.

PMID- 28872616
TI  - Use of a Yeast tRNase Killer Toxin to Diagnose Kti12 Motifs Required for tRNA
      Modification by Elongator.
AB  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells are killed by zymocin, a tRNase ribotoxin complex
      from Kluyveromyces lactis, which cleaves anticodons and inhibits protein
      synthesis. Zymocin's action requires specific chemical modification of uridine
      bases in the anticodon wobble position (U34) by the Elongator complex (Elp1
      Elp6). Hence, loss of anticodon modification in mutants lacking Elongator or
      related KTI (K. lactis Toxin Insensitive) genes protects against tRNA cleavage
      and confers resistance to the toxin. Here, we show that zymocin can be used as a
      tool to genetically analyse KTI12, a gene previously shown to code for an
      Elongator partner protein. From a kti12 mutant pool of zymocin survivors, we
      identify motifs in Kti12 that are functionally directly coupled to Elongator
      activity. In addition, shared requirement of U34 modifications for nonsense and
      missense tRNA suppression (SUP4; SOE1) strongly suggests that Kti12 and Elongator
      cooperate to assure proper tRNA functioning. We show that the Kti12 motifs are
      conserved in plant ortholog DRL1/ELO4 from Arabidopsis thaliana and seem to be
      involved in binding of cofactors (e.g., nucleotides, calmodulin). Elongator
      interaction defects triggered by mutations in these motifs correlate with
      phenotypes typical for loss of U34 modification. Thus, tRNA modification by
      Elongator appears to require physical contact with Kti12, and our preliminary
      data suggest that metabolic signals may affect proper communication between them.

PMID- 28872619
TI  - Preparation of Humidity-Sensitive Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Inverse Opal
      Micropatterns Using Colloidal Lithography.
AB  - Humidity-sensitive poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) inverse opals with micropatterns
      of 2 MUm wide anti-swell-broken grooves were prepared using polystyrene (PS)
      colloidal crystals as templates and colloidal lithography. Monodisperse PS
      colloids were deposited in an ordered manner onto glass slides using a double
      substrate vertical deposition method to form colloidal crystal templates.
      Poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) with photoinitiator was infiltrated into
      the interspaces of the colloidal crystals and photo-crosslinked by UV irradiation
      through a photomask. After removal the PS templates and unexposed PEGDA by
      tetrahydrofuran (THF), PEG hydrogel micropatterns with three-dimensional ordered
      porous structures were obtained. The band gaps of the PS colloidal crystals and
      corresponding PEG hydrogel inverse opals were measured by UV-VIS reflection
      spectrometer, calculated by Bragg law and simulated by Band SOLVE. The obtained
      PEG hydrogel inverse opal micropatterns can be used as sensors for humidity
      sensing due to absorption and desorption of moisture in the band gap structures.
      The sensor had a very reliable performance after repeated humidity sensing, and
      could be mass produced facilely with very low cost. The photopatterned anti-swell
      broken grooves play an important role in the reliability of the sensors.

PMID- 28872620
TI  - Electron Beam Welding of IN792 DS: Effects of Pass Speed and PWHT on
      Microstructure and Hardness.
AB  - Electron Beam (EB) welding has been used to realize seams on 2 mm-thick plates of
      directionally solidified (DS) IN792 superalloy. The first part of this work
      evidenced the importance of pre-heating the workpiece to avoid the formation of
      long cracks in the seam. The comparison of different pre-heating temperatures
      (PHT) and pass speeds (v) allowed the identification of optimal process
      parameters, namely PHT = 300  degrees C and v = 2.5 m/min. The microstructural
      features of the melted zone (MZ); the heat affected zone (HAZ), and base material
      (BM) were investigated by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy
      (SEM), energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), electron back-scattered diffraction
      (EBSD), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and micro-hardness tests. In the as-welded
      condition; the structure of directionally oriented grains was completely lost in
      MZ. The gamma' phase in MZ consisted of small (20-40 nm) round shaped particles
      and its total amount depended on both PHT and welding pass speed, whereas in HAZ,
      it was the same BM. Even if the amount of gamma' phase in MZ was lower than that
      of the as-received material, the nanometric size of the particles induced an
      increase in hardness. EDS examinations did not show relevant composition changes
      in the gamma' and gamma phases. Post-welding heat treatments (PWHT) at 700 and
      750  degrees C for two hours were performed on the best samples. After PWHTs, the
      amount of the ordered phase increased, and the effect was more pronounced at 750 
      degrees C, while the size of gamma' particles in MZ remained almost the same. The
      hardness profiles measured across the joints showed an upward shift, but peak
      valley height was a little lower, indicating more homogeneous features in the
      different zones.

PMID- 28872614
TI  - Aberrant Signaling Pathways in T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive disease caused by
      the malignant transformation of immature progenitors primed towards T-cell
      development. Clinically, T-ALL patients present with diffuse infiltration of the
      bone marrow by immature T-cell blasts high blood cell counts, mediastinal
      involvement, and diffusion to the central nervous system. In the past decade, the
      genomic landscape of T-ALL has been the target of intense research. The
      identification of specific genomic alterations has contributed to identify strong
      oncogenic drivers and signaling pathways regulating leukemia growth.
      Notwithstanding, T-ALL patients are still treated with high-dose multiagent
      chemotherapy, potentially exposing these patients to considerable acute and long
      term side effects. This review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of
      the signaling pathways relevant for the pathogenesis of T-ALL and the
      opportunities offered for targeted therapy.

PMID- 28872621
TI  - Metamaterial Waveguide Devices for Integrated Optics.
AB  - We show the feasibility of controlling the magnetic permeability of optical
      semiconductor devices on InP-based photonic integration platforms. We have
      achieved the permeability control of GaInAsP/InP semiconductor waveguides by
      combining the waveguide with a metamaterial consisting of gate-controlled split
      ring resonators. The split-ring resonators interact magnetically with light
      travelling in the waveguide and move the effective relative permeability of the
      waveguide away from 1 at optical frequencies. The variation in permeability can
      be controlled with the gate voltage. Using this variable-permeability waveguide,
      we have built an optical modulator consisting of a GaInAsP/InP Mach-Zehnder
      interferometer for use at an optical communication wavelength of 1.55 MUm. The
      device changes the permeability of its waveguide arm with controlling gate
      voltage, thereby varying the refractive index of the arm to modulate the
      intensity of light. For the study of variable-permeability waveguide devices, we
      also propose a method of extracting separately the permittivity and permeability
      values of devices from the experimental data of light transmission. Adjusting the
      permeability of optical semiconductors to the needs of device designers will open
      the promising field of 'permeability engineering'. Permeability engineering will
      facilitate the manipulation of light and the management of photons, thereby
      contributing to the development of novel devices with sophisticated functions for
      photonic integration.

PMID- 28872623
TI  - Compression Fracture of CFRP Laminates Containing Stress Intensifications.
AB  - For brittle fracture behaviour of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) under
      compression, several approaches exist, which describe different mechanisms during
      failure, especially at stress intensifications. The failure process is not only
      initiated by the buckling fibres, but a shear driven fibre compressive failure
      beneficiaries or initiates the formation of fibres into a kink-band. Starting
      from this kink-band further damage can be detected, which leads to the final
      failure. The subject of this work is an experimental investigation on the
      influence of ply thickness and stacking sequence in quasi-isotropic CFRP
      laminates containing stress intensifications under compression loading. Different
      effects that influence the compression failure and the role the stacking sequence
      has on damage development and the resulting compressive strength are identified
      and discussed. The influence of stress intensifications is investigated in detail
      at a hole in open hole compression (OHC) tests. A proposed interrupted test
      approach allows identifying the mechanisms of damage initiation and propagation
      from the free edge of the hole by causing a distinct damage state and examine it
      at a precise instant of time during fracture process. Compression after impact
      (CAI) tests are executed in order to compare the OHC results to a different type
      of stress intensifications. Unnotched compression tests are carried out for
      comparison as a reference. With this approach, a more detailed description of the
      failure mechanisms during the sudden compression failure of CFRP is achieved. By
      microscopic examination of single plies from various specimens, the different
      effects that influence the compression failure are identified. First damage of
      fibres occurs always in 0 degrees -ply. Fibre shear failure leads to local
      microbuckling and the formation and growth of a kink-band as final failure
      mechanisms. The formation of a kink-band and finally steady state kinking is
      shifted to higher compressive strains with decreasing ply thickness. Final
      failure mode in laminates with stress intensification depends on ply thickness.
      In thick or inner plies, damage initiates as shear failure and fibre buckling
      into the drilled hole. The kink-band orientation angle is changing with
      increasing strain. In outer or thin plies shear failure of single fibres is
      observed as first damage and the kink-band orientation angle is constant until
      final failure. Decreasing ply thickness increases the unnotched compressive
      strength. When stress intensifications are present, the position of the 0 degrees
      -layer is critical for stability under compression and is thus more important
      than the ply thickness. Central 0 degrees -layers show best results for OHC and
      CAI strength due to higher bending stiffness and better supporting effect of the
      adjacent layers.

PMID- 28872622
TI  - Metabolic Profiling in Association with Vascular Endothelial Cell Dysfunction
      Following Non-Toxic Cadmium Exposure.
AB  - This study aimed to determine the metabolic profile of non-toxic cadmium (Cd)
      induced dysfunctional endothelial cells using human umbilical vein endothelial
      cells (HUVECs). HUVECs (n = 6 per group) were treated with 0, 1, 5, or 10 MUM
      cadmium chloride (CdCl2) for 48 h. Cell phenotypes, including nitric oxide (NO)
      production, the inflammatory response, and oxidative stress, were evaluated in Cd
      exposed and control HUVECs. Cd-exposed and control HUVECs were analysed using gas
      chromatography time-of-flight/mass spectrometry. Compared to control HUVECs, Cd
      exposed HUVECs were dysfunctional, exhibiting decreased NO production, a
      proinflammatory state, and non-significant oxidative stress. Further metabolic
      profiling revealed 24 significantly-altered metabolites in the dysfunctional
      endothelial cells. The significantly-altered metabolites were involved in the
      impaired tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, activated pyruvate metabolism, up
      regulated glucogenic amino acid metabolism, and increased pyrimidine metabolism.
      The current metabolic findings further suggest that the metabolic changes linked
      to TCA cycle dysfunction, glycosylation of the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway
      (HBP), and compensatory responses to genomic instability and energy deficiency
      may be generally associated with dysfunctional phenotypes, characterized by
      decreased NO production, a proinflammatory state, and non-significant oxidative
      stress, in endothelial cells following non-toxic Cd exposure.

PMID- 28872624
TI  - Effect of Silane Coupling Agent on Tribological Properties of Hemp Fiber
      Reinforced Plant-Derived Polyamide 1010 Biomass Composites.
AB  - We have studied the effects of silane coupling agents used for the surface
      treatment of fiber on the tribological properties of hemp fiber (HF) reinforced
      plant-derived polyamide 1010 (PA1010) biomass composites. Hemp fibers were
      surface-treated by two surface treatment methods: (a) alkali treatment by sodium
      hydroxide solution and (b) surface treatment by silane coupling agents. Three
      types of silane coupling agents, namely aminosilane, epoxysilane and ureidosilane
      were used. These HF/PA1010 biomass composites were extruded using a twin
      extruder, and injection-molded. The mechanical and tribological properties were
      evaluated by the ring-on-plate type sliding wear test. It was found that
      tribological properties of HF/PA1010 biomass composites improved with the surface
      treatment by the silane coupling agent. This may be attributed to the change in
      the mode of friction and wear mechanism by the interfacial adhesion between fiber
      and matrix polymer according to the type of silane coupling agent used. In
      particular, the ureidosilane coupling agent showed the best improvement effect
      for the tribological properties of these biomass composites in this study.

PMID- 28872625
TI  - Salivary Gland Derived BDNF Overexpression in Mice Exerts an Anxiolytic Effect.
AB  - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is abundant in the hippocampus and plays
      critical roles in memory and synapse formation, as well as exerting
      antidepressant-like effects in psychiatric disorders. We previously reported that
      BDNF is expressed in salivary glands and affects blood BDNF content. However, the
      function of salivary BDNF remains unclear. The aim of this study was to generate
      transgenic mice overexpressing BDNF in the salivary glands. Hence, we used the
      Lama construct (hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged mouse Bdnf cDNA) to specifically
      express BDNF in mouse salivary glands. Compared with control mice, Bdnf-HA
      transgenic mice showed increased blood BDNF and expressed salivary BDNF-HA.
      Molecular analysis revealed enhanced hippocampal BDNF levels and activation of
      the BDNF receptor, tyrosine kinase B (TrkB), in transgenic mice. In both the open
      field and elevated-plus maze tests, transgenic mice showed anxiolytic-like
      behavioral effects compared with control or sialoadenectomized mice. Among
      downstream components of the BDNF-TrkB signaling pathway, metabolic activation of
      the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) synthetic pathway was found, including higher
      levels of the GABA synthetic enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase 1 (GAD1). Thus, we
      have established a transgenic mouse expressing BDNF in the parotid gland that may
      be useful to examine the hippocampal effects of salivary BDNF.

PMID- 28872626
TI  - Anti-Melanogenic Effects of Flavonoid Glycosides from Limonium tetragonum
      (Thunb.) Bullock via Inhibition of Tyrosinase and Tyrosinase-Related Proteins.
AB  - Overproduction and stimulation of tyrosinase result in increased melanogenesis of
      which several skin disorders such as freckles, spots, and hyperpigmentation
      appear as complications. Limonium tetragonum is a halophyte well-known for its
      antioxidative properties. This study investigated the anti-melanogenic effects of
      solvent-partitioned L. tetragonum extracts (LTEs) and its bioactive constituents,
      two isolated flavonoid glycosides. Current study followed a set of experiments on
      B16-F10 mouse melanoma cell model with a focus on tyrosinase activity and
      production. The anti-melanogenic capacity of LTEs was confirmed by their
      tyrosinase inhibitory effects, prevention of DOPA oxidation, and suppression of
      melanin production. The inhibition of tyrosinase and DOPA oxidation by LTEs was
      suggested to be related with the downregulation of microphthalmia-associated
      transcription factor, tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein-1, and tyrosinase
      related protein-2, verified with mRNA and protein expression levels. Among all
      tested LTEs, 85% aq. MeOH and n-BuOH were found to be the most active fractions
      which later yielded the two known compounds, myricetin 3-galactoside and
      quercetin 3-O-beta-galactopyronaside. The anti-melanogenic potential of the
      compounds were confirmed by their tyrosinase inhibitory effects. These results
      suggested that L. tetragonum may serve as a potential source of bioactive
      substances with effective anti-melanogenesis properties.

PMID- 28872627
TI  - EPuL: An Enhanced Positive-Unlabeled Learning Algorithm for the Prediction of
      Pupylation Sites.
AB  - Protein pupylation is a type of post-translation modification, which plays a
      crucial role in cellular function of bacterial organisms in prokaryotes. To have
      a better insight of the mechanisms underlying pupylation an initial, but
      important, step is to identify pupylation sites. To date, several computational
      methods have been established for the prediction of pupylation sites which
      usually artificially design the negative samples using the verified pupylation
      proteins to train the classifiers. However, if this process is not properly done
      it can affect the performance of the final predictor dramatically. In this work,
      different from previous computational methods, we proposed an enhanced positive
      unlabeled learning algorithm (EPuL) to the pupylation site prediction problem,
      which uses only positive and unlabeled samples. Firstly, we separate the training
      dataset into the positive dataset and the unlabeled dataset which contains the
      remaining non-annotated lysine residues. Then, the EPuL algorithm is utilized to
      select the reliably negative initial dataset and then iteratively pick out the
      non-pupylation sites. The performance of the proposed method was measured with an
      accuracy of 90.24%, an Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.93 and an MCC of 0.81 by 10
      fold cross-validation. A user-friendly web server for predicting pupylation sites
      was developed and was freely available at http://59.73.198.144:8080/EPuL.

PMID- 28872629
TI  - An Adaptive Low-Cost INS/GNSS Tightly-Coupled Integration Architecture Based on
      Redundant Measurement Noise Covariance Estimation.
AB  - The main objective of the introduced study is to design an adaptive Inertial
      Navigation System/Global Navigation Satellite System (INS/GNSS) tightly-coupled
      integration system that can provide more reliable navigation solutions by making
      full use of an adaptive Kalman filter (AKF) and satellite selection algorithm. To
      achieve this goal, we develop a novel redundant measurement noise covariance
      estimation (RMNCE) theorem, which adaptively estimates measurement noise
      properties by analyzing the difference sequences of system measurements. The
      proposed RMNCE approach is then applied to design both a modified weighted
      satellite selection algorithm and a type of adaptive unscented Kalman filter
      (UKF) to improve the performance of the tightly-coupled integration system. In
      addition, an adaptive measurement noise covariance expanding algorithm is
      developed to mitigate outliers when facing heavy multipath and other harsh
      situations. Both semi-physical simulation and field experiments were conducted to
      evaluate the performance of the proposed architecture and were compared with
      state-of-the-art algorithms. The results validate that the RMNCE provides a
      significant improvement in the measurement noise covariance estimation and the
      proposed architecture can improve the accuracy and reliability of the INS/GNSS
      tightly-coupled systems. The proposed architecture can effectively limit
      positioning errors under conditions of poor GNSS measurement quality and
      outperforms all the compared schemes.

PMID- 28872628
TI  - Copper Corrosion and Biocorrosion Events in Premise Plumbing.
AB  - Corrosion of copper pipes may release high amounts of copper into the water,
      exceeding the maximum concentration of copper for drinking water standards.
      Typically, the events with the highest release of copper into drinking water are
      related to the presence of biofilms. This article reviews this phenomenon,
      focusing on copper ingestion and its health impacts, the physicochemical
      mechanisms and the microbial involvement on copper release, the techniques used
      to describe and understand this phenomenon, and the hydrodynamic effects. A
      conceptual model is proposed and the mathematical models are reviewed.

PMID- 28872630
TI  - If these data could talk.
AB  - In the last few decades, data-driven methods have come to dominate many fields of
      scientific inquiry. Open data and open-source software have enabled the rapid
      implementation of novel methods to manage and analyze the growing flood of data.
      However, it has become apparent that many scientific fields exhibit distressingly
      low rates of reproducibility. Although there are many dimensions to this issue,
      we believe that there is a lack of formalism used when describing end-to-end
      published results, from the data source to the analysis to the final published
      results. Even when authors do their best to make their research and data
      accessible, this lack of formalism reduces the clarity and efficiency of
      reporting, which contributes to issues of reproducibility. Data provenance aids
      both reproducibility through systematic and formal records of the relationships
      among data sources, processes, datasets, publications and researchers.

PMID- 28872631
TI  - Electrically conductive pili from pilin genes of phylogenetically diverse
      microorganisms.
AB  - The possibility that bacteria other than Geobacter species might contain genes
      for electrically conductive pili (e-pili) was investigated by heterologously
      expressing pilin genes of interest in Geobacter sulfurreducens. Strains of G.
      sulfurreducens producing high current densities, which are only possible with e
      pili, were obtained with pilin genes from Flexistipes sinusarabici,
      Calditerrivibrio nitroreducens and Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus. The conductance
      of pili from these strains was comparable to native G. sulfurreducens e-pili. The
      e-pili derived from C. nitroreducens, and D. alkaliphilus pilin genes are the
      first examples of relatively long (>100 amino acids) pilin monomers assembling
      into e-pili. The pilin gene from Candidatus Desulfofervidus auxilii did not yield
      e-pili, suggesting that the hypothesis that this sulfate reducer wires itself
      with e-pili to methane-oxidizing archaea to enable anaerobic methane oxidation
      should be reevaluated. A high density of aromatic amino acids and a lack of
      substantial aromatic-free gaps along the length of long pilins may be important
      characteristics leading to e-pili. This study demonstrates a simple method to
      screen pilin genes from difficult-to-culture microorganisms for their potential
      to yield e-pili; reveals new sources for biologically based electronic materials;
      and suggests that a wide phylogenetic diversity of microorganisms may use e-pili
      for extracellular electron exchange.

PMID- 28872632
TI  - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits.
AB  - Current ecological and evolutionary research are increasingly moving from species
      to trait-based approaches because traits provide a stronger link to organism's
      function and fitness. Trait databases covering a large number of species are
      becoming available, but such data remains scarce for certain groups. Amphibians
      are among the most diverse vertebrate groups on Earth, and constitute an abundant
      component of major terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. They are also facing
      rapid population declines worldwide, which is likely to affect trait composition
      in local communities, thereby impacting ecosystem processes and services. In this
      context, we introduce AmphiBIO, a comprehensive database of natural history
      traits for amphibians worldwide. The database releases information on 17 traits
      related to ecology, morphology and reproduction features of amphibians. We
      compiled data from more than 1,500 literature sources, and for more than 6,500
      species of all orders (Anura, Caudata and Gymnophiona), 61 families and 531
      genera. This database has the potential to allow unprecedented large-scale
      analyses in ecology, evolution, and conservation of amphibians.

PMID- 28872633
TI  - The role of policy in red blood cell storage and transfusion in children.

PMID- 28872634
TI  - Advancing The Cancer Genome Atlas glioma MRI collections with expert segmentation
      labels and radiomic features.
AB  - Gliomas belong to a group of central nervous system tumors, and consist of
      various sub-regions. Gold standard labeling of these sub-regions in radiographic
      imaging is essential for both clinical and computational studies, including
      radiomic and radiogenomic analyses. Towards this end, we release segmentation
      labels and radiomic features for all pre-operative multimodal magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) (n=243) of the multi-institutional glioma collections of The Cancer
      Genome Atlas (TCGA), publicly available in The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA). Pre
      operative scans were identified in both glioblastoma (TCGA-GBM, n=135) and low
      grade-glioma (TCGA-LGG, n=108) collections via radiological assessment. The
      glioma sub-region labels were produced by an automated state-of-the-art method
      and manually revised by an expert board-certified neuroradiologist. An extensive
      panel of radiomic features was extracted based on the manually-revised labels.
      This set of labels and features should enable i) direct utilization of the
      TCGA/TCIA glioma collections towards repeatable, reproducible and comparative
      quantitative studies leading to new predictive, prognostic, and diagnostic
      assessments, as well as ii) performance evaluation of computer-aided segmentation
      methods, and comparison to our state-of-the-art method.

PMID- 28872635
TI  - Comprehensive analyses of somatic TP53 mutation in tumors with variable mutant
      allele frequency.
AB  - Somatic mutation of the tumor suppressor gene TP53 is reported in at least 50% of
      human malignancies. Most high-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSC) have a mutant
      TP53 allele. Accurate detection of these mutants in heterogeneous tumor tissue is
      paramount as therapies emerge to target mutant p53. We used a Fluidigm Access
      ArrayTM System with Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) to analyze DNA extracted
      from 76 serous ovarian tumors. This dataset has been made available to
      researchers through the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA; EGAS00001002200).
      Herein, we present analyses of this dataset using HaplotypeCaller and MuTect2
      through the Broad Institute's Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK). We anticipate that
      this TP53 mutation dataset will be useful to researchers developing and testing
      new software to accurately determine high and low frequency variant alleles in
      heterogeneous aneuploid tumor tissue. Furthermore, the analysis pipeline we
      present provides a valuable framework for determining somatic variants more
      broadly in tumor tissue.

PMID- 28872636
TI  - High resolution multibeam and hydrodynamic datasets of tidal channels and inlets
      of the Venice Lagoon.
AB  - Tidal channels are crucial for the functioning of wetlands, though their
      morphological properties, which are relevant for seafloor habitats and flow, have
      been understudied so far. Here, we release a dataset composed of Digital Terrain
      Models (DTMs) extracted from a total of 2,500 linear kilometres of high
      resolution multibeam echosounder (MBES) data collected in 2013 covering the
      entire network of tidal channels and inlets of the Venice Lagoon, Italy. The
      dataset comprises also the backscatter (BS) data, which reflect the acoustic
      properties of the seafloor, and the tidal current fields simulated by means of a
      high-resolution three-dimensional unstructured hydrodynamic model. The DTMs and
      the current fields help define how morphological and benthic properties of tidal
      channels are affected by the action of currents. These data are of potential
      broad interest not only to geomorphologists, oceanographers and ecologists
      studying the morphology, hydrodynamics, sediment transport and benthic habitats
      of tidal environments, but also to coastal engineers and stakeholders for cost
      effective monitoring and sustainable management of this peculiar shallow coastal
      system.

PMID- 28872637
TI  - Mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder
      involve robust and extensive increases in brain network connectivity.
AB  - Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for obsessive compulsive disorder
      (OCD); however, little is understood about its mechanisms related to brain
      network connectivity. We examined connectivity changes from resting-state
      functional magnetic resonance imaging data pre-to-post-CBT in 43 OCD
      participants, randomized to receive either 4 weeks of intensive CBT or 4 weeks
      waitlist followed by 4 weeks of CBT, and 24 healthy controls before and after 4
      weeks of no treatment. Network-based-statistic analysis revealed large-magnitude
      increases in OCD connectivity in eight networks. Strongest increases involved
      connectivity between the cerebellum and caudate/putamen, and between the
      cerebellum and dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortices. Connectivity
      increases were associated with increased resistance to compulsions. Mechanisms of
      CBT may involve enhanced cross-network integration, both within and outside of
      classical cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical regions; those involving cerebellar
      to striatal and prefrontal regions may reflect acquisition of new non-compulsive
      goal-directed behaviors and thought patterns. Our findings have implications for
      identifying targets for enhancing treatment efficacy and monitoring treatment
      progress.

PMID- 28872638
TI  - Modulation of defensive reactivity by GLRB allelic variation: converging evidence
      from an intermediate phenotype approach.
AB  - Representing a phylogenetically old and very basic mechanism of inhibitory
      neurotransmission, glycine receptors have been implicated in the modulation of
      behavioral components underlying defensive responding toward threat. As one of
      the first findings being confirmed by genome-wide association studies for the
      phenotype of panic disorder and agoraphobia, allelic variation in a gene coding
      for the glycine receptor beta subunit (GLRB) has recently been associated with
      increased neural fear network activation and enhanced acoustic startle reflexes.
      On the basis of two independent healthy control samples, we here aimed to further
      explore the functional significance of the GLRB genotype (rs7688285) by employing
      an intermediate phenotype approach. We focused on the phenotype of defensive
      system reactivity across the levels of brain function, structure, and physiology.
      Converging evidence across both samples was found for increased neurofunctional
      activation in the (anterior) insular cortex in GLRB risk allele carriers and
      altered fear conditioning as a function of genotype. The robustness of GLRB
      effects is demonstrated by consistent findings across different experimental fear
      conditioning paradigms and recording sites. Altogether, findings provide
      translational evidence for glycine neurotransmission as a modulator of the
      brain's evolutionary old dynamic defensive system and provide further support for
      a strong, biologically plausible candidate intermediate phenotype of defensive
      reactivity. As such, glycine-dependent neurotransmission may open up new avenues
      for mechanistic research on the etiopathogenesis of fear and anxiety disorders.

PMID- 28872639
TI  - Gene expression associated with suicide attempts in US veterans.
AB  - According to a recent report from the Office of Suicide Prevention in the US
      Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans represent 8.5% of the US population, but
      account for 18% of all deaths from suicide. The aim of this study of psychiatric
      patients (n=39; 87% male) was to compare blood gene expression data from veterans
      with a history of one or more suicide attempts to veterans who had never
      attempted suicide. The attempter and non-attempter groups were matched for age
      and race/ethnicity, and both groups included veterans with a diverse psychiatric
      history that included posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance-use
      disorders. Veterans were interviewed for lifetime psychiatric history, including
      a detailed assessment of prior suicide attempts and provided a blood sample.
      Results of Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) identified several pathways
      associated with suicide attempts, including the mammalian target of rapamycin
      (mTOR) and WNT signaling pathways. These pathways are of particular interest,
      given their role in explaining pharmacological treatments for suicidal behavior,
      including the use of ketamine and lithium. These results suggest that findings
      observed in civilians are also relevant for veterans and provide a context for
      interpreting results observed in post-mortem samples. In conclusion, an emerging
      body of work that shows consistency in findings across blood and brain samples
      suggests that it might be possible to identify molecular predictors of suicide
      attempts.

PMID- 28872640
TI  - Nectin-3 modulates the structural plasticity of dentate granule cells and long
      term memory.
AB  - Nectin-3, a cell adhesion molecule enriched in hippocampal neurons, has been
      implicated in stress-related cognitive disorders. Nectin-3 is expressed by
      granule cells in the dentate gyrus (DG), but it remains unclear whether nectin-3
      in DG modulates the structural plasticity of dentate granule cells and
      hippocampus-dependent memory. In this study, we found that DG nectin-3 expression
      levels were developmentally regulated and reduced by early postnatal stress
      exposure in adult mice. Most importantly, knockdown of nectin-3 levels in all DG
      neuron populations by adeno-associated virus (AAV) mimicked the cognitive effects
      of early-life stress, and impaired long-term spatial memory and temporal order
      memory. Moreover, AAV-mediated DG nectin-3 knockdown increased the density of
      doublecortin-immunoreactive differentiating cells under proliferation and
      calretinin-immunoreactive immature neurons, but markedly decreased calbindin
      immunoreactivity, indicating that nectin-3 modulates the differentiation and
      maturation of adult-born DG granule cells. Using retrovirus to target newly
      generated DG neurons, we found that selective nectin-3 knockdown in new DG
      neurons also impaired long-term spatial memory. In addition, suppressing nectin-3
      expression in new DG neurons evoked a reduction of dendritic spines, especially
      thin spines. Our data indicate that nectin-3 expressed in DG neurons may modulate
      adult neurogenesis, dendritic spine plasticity and the cognitive effects of early
      life stress.

PMID- 28872642
TI  - Climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas.
AB  - High-resolution information on climatic conditions is essential to many
      applications in environmental and ecological sciences. Here we present the CHELSA
      (Climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas) data of
      downscaled model output temperature and precipitation estimates of the ERA
      Interim climatic reanalysis to a high resolution of 30 arc sec. The temperature
      algorithm is based on statistical downscaling of atmospheric temperatures. The
      precipitation algorithm incorporates orographic predictors including wind fields,
      valley exposition, and boundary layer height, with a subsequent bias correction.
      The resulting data consist of a monthly temperature and precipitation climatology
      for the years 1979-2013. We compare the data derived from the CHELSA algorithm
      with other standard gridded products and station data from the Global Historical
      Climate Network. We compare the performance of the new climatologies in species
      distribution modelling and show that we can increase the accuracy of species
      range predictions. We further show that CHELSA climatological data has a similar
      accuracy as other products for temperature, but that its predictions of
      precipitation patterns are better.

PMID- 28872644
TI  - Self-assembly behaviour of hetero-nuclear Janus dumbbells.
AB  - We investigate the fluid structure and self-assembly of a system of Janus
      dumbbells by means of aggregation-volume-bias Monte Carlo simulations and
      Simulated Annealing techniques. In our approach, Janus dumbbells model asymmetric
      colloidal particles constituted by two tangent (touching) spheres (labelled as h
      and s) of different sizes and interaction properties: specifically, the h spheres
      interact with all other spheres belonging to different dumbbells via hard-sphere
      potentials, whereas two s spheres interact via a square-well potential. By
      introducing a parameter alpha ? [0,2] that controls the size ratio between the h
      and s spheres, we are able to investigate the overall phase behaviour of Janus
      dumbbells as a function of alpha. In a previous paper (O'Toole et al., Soft
      Matter, 2017, 13, 803) we focused on the region where the s sphere is larger than
      the h sphere (alpha > 1), documenting the presence of a variety of phase
      behaviours. Here we investigate a different regime of size ratios, predominantly
      where the hard sphere is larger than (or comparable to) the attractive one. Under
      these conditions, we observe the onset of many different self-assembled super
      structures. Depending on the specific value of alpha we document the presence of
      spherical clusters (micelles) progressively evolving into more exotic structures
      including platelets, filaments, networks and percolating fluids, sponge
      structures and lamellar phases. We find no evidence of a gas-liquid phase
      separation for alpha <= 1.1, since under these conditions it is pre-empted by the
      development of self-assembled phases.

PMID- 28872641
TI  - Polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency during neurodevelopment in mice models the
      prodromal state of schizophrenia through epigenetic changes in nuclear receptor
      genes.
AB  - The risk of schizophrenia is increased in offspring whose mothers experience
      malnutrition during pregnancy. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are dietary
      components that are crucial for the structural and functional integrity of neural
      cells, and PUFA deficiency has been shown to be a risk factor for schizophrenia.
      Here, we show that gestational and early postnatal dietary deprivation of two
      PUFAs-arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-elicited schizophrenia
      like phenotypes in mouse offspring at adulthood. In the PUFA-deprived mouse
      group, we observed lower motivation and higher sensitivity to a hallucinogenic
      drug resembling the prodromal symptoms in schizophrenia. Furthermore, a working
      memory task-evoked hyper-neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex was
      also observed, along with the downregulation of genes in the prefrontal cortex
      involved in oligodendrocyte integrity and the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
      ergic system. Regulation of these genes was mediated by the nuclear receptor
      genes Rxr and Ppar, whose promoters were hyper-methylated by the deprivation of
      dietary AA and DHA. In addition, the RXR agonist bexarotene upregulated
      oligodendrocyte- and GABA-related gene expression and suppressed the sensitivity
      of mice to the hallucinogenic drug. Notably, the expression of these nuclear
      receptor genes were also downregulated in hair-follicle cells from schizophrenia
      patients. These results suggest that PUFA deficiency during the early
      neurodevelopmental period in mice could model the prodromal state of
      schizophrenia through changes in the epigenetic regulation of nuclear receptor
      genes.

PMID- 28872643
TI  - Tropism of engineered and evolved recombinant AAV serotypes in the rd1 mouse and
      ex vivo primate retina.
AB  - There is much debate on the adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotype that best
      targets specific retinal cell types and the route of surgical delivery
      intravitreal or subretinal. This study compared three of the most efficacious AAV
      vectors known to date in a mouse model of retinal degeneration (rd1 mouse) and
      macaque and human retinal explants. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) driven by a
      ubiquitous promoter was packaged into three AAV capsids: AAV2/8(Y733F),
      AAV2/2(quad Y-F) and AAV2/2(7m8). Overall, AAV2/2(7m8) transduced the largest
      area of retina and resulted in the highest level of GFP expression, followed by
      AAV2/2(quad Y-F) and AAV2/8(Y733F). AAV2/2(7m8) and AAV2/2(quad Y-F) both
      resulted in similar patterns of transduction whether they were injected
      intravitreally or subretinally. AAV2/8(Y733F) transduced a significantly smaller
      area of retina when injected intravitreally compared with subretinally. Retinal
      ganglion cells, horizontal cells and retinal pigment epithelium expressed
      relatively high levels of GFP in the mouse retina, whereas amacrine cells
      expressed low levels of GFP and bipolar cells were infrequently transduced. Cone
      cells were the most frequently transduced cell type in macaque retina explants,
      whereas Muller cells were the predominant transduced cell type in human retinal
      explants. Of the AAV serotypes tested, AAV2/2(7m8) was the most effective at
      transducing a range of cell types in degenerate mouse retina and macaque and
      human retinal explants.

PMID- 28872645
TI  - Water-stable Eu-MOF fluorescent sensors for trivalent metal ions and
      nitrobenzene.
AB  - Two novel Eu metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), namely {[Eu2(pdba)3(H2O)3].2H2O}n
      (1) and {[Eu3(pdba)4(H2O)4].5H2O}n (2), were prepared with 4'-(1H-pyrazol-3-yl)
      [1,1'-biphenyl]-3,5-dicarboxylic acid (H2pdba) under hydrothermal conditions. MOF
      1 exhibits a 3D supramolecular structure assembled from the pipi interactions
      between the benzene rings of the ligands, whereas 2 comprises a 3D structure
      through coordination connection between nitrogen atom and Eu3+. It is worth
      noting that the two MOFs showed good luminescence performance and high
      sensitivity fluorescence quenching behavior toward Fe3+ (Cr3+) and nitrobenzene.
      Furthermore, the experimental results for stability in water and cycle test show
      that these two MOFs can be used as potential fluorescent probes.

PMID- 28872646
TI  - The impact of ionic liquids on the coordination of anions with solvatochromic
      copper complexes.
AB  - Solvatochromic transition metal (TM)-complexes with weakly associating counter
      anions are often used to evaluate traditional neutral solvent and anion
      coordination ability. However, when employed in ionic liquids (IL) many of the
      common assumptions made are no longer reliable. This study investigates the
      coordinating ability of weakly coordinating IL anions in traditional solvents and
      within IL solvents employing a range of solvatochromic copper complexes.
      Complexes of the form [Cu(acac)(tmen)][X] (acac = acetylacetonate, tmen =
      tetramethylethylenediamine) where [X]- = [ClO4]-, Cl-, [NO3]-, [SCN]-, [OTf]-,
      [NTf2]- and [PF6]- have been synthesised and characterised both experimentally
      and computationally. ILs based on these anions and imidazolium and pyrrolidinium
      cations, some of which are functionalised with hydroxyl and nitrile groups, have
      been examined. IL-anion coordination has been investigated and compared to
      typical weakly coordinating anions. We have found there is potential for
      competition at the Cu-centre and cases of anions traditionally assigned as weakly
      associating that demonstrate a stronger than expected level of coordinating
      ability within ILs. [Cu(acac)(tmen)][PF6] is shown to contain the least
      coordinating anion and is established as the most sensitive probe studied here.
      Using this probe, the donor numbers (DNs) of ILs have been determined. Relative
      donor ability is further confirmed based on the UV-Vis of a neutral complex,
      [Cu(sacsac)2] (sacsac = dithioacetylacetone), and DNs evaluated via23Na NMR
      spectroscopy. We demonstrate that ILs can span a wide donor range, similar in
      breadth to conventional solvents.

PMID- 28872647
TI  - Rapid and high-efficiency discrimination of different sialic acid species using
      dipeptide-based fluorescent sensors.
AB  - A series of dipeptide-based fluorescent sensors were developed that exhibit
      sensitive and distinct responses to six typical sialic acid (SA) species despite
      the interference of 300-fold d-glucose or other saccharides, thus contributing to
      a novel fluorescence sensing matrix allowing the rapid and high-efficiency
      discrimination of different SA species.

PMID- 28872648
TI  - MicroRNAs regulate the main events in rice drought stress response by
      manipulating the water supply to shoots.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small endogenous regulatory RNAs that are involved in a
      variety of biological processes related to proliferation, development, and
      response to biotic and abiotic stresses. miRNA profiles of rice (Oryza sativa L.
      cv. IR64.) leaves in a partial root zone drying (PRD) system were analysed using
      a high-throughput sequencing approach to identify miRNAs associated with drought
      signalling. The treatments performed in this study were as follows: well-watered
      ("wet" roots, WW), wherein both halves of the pot were watered daily; drought
      ("dry" roots, DD), wherein water was withheld from both halves of the pot; and
      well-watered/drought ("wet" and "dry" roots, WD), wherein one half of each pot
      was watered daily, the same as in WW, and water was withheld from the other part,
      the same as in DD. High-throughput sequencing enabled us to detect novel miRNAs
      and study the differential expression of known miRNAs. A total of 209 novel
      miRNAs were detected in this study. Differential miRNA profiling of the DD, WD
      and WW conditions showed differential expression of 159 miRNAs, among which 83,
      44 and 32 miRNAs showed differential expression under both DD and WD conditions.
      The detection of putative targets of the differentially expressed miRNAs and
      investigation of their functions showed that most of these genes encode
      transcription factors involved in growth and development, leaf morphology,
      regulation of hormonal homeostasis, and stress response. The most important
      differences between the DD and WD conditions involved regulation of the levels of
      hormones such as auxin, cytokinin, abscisic acid, and jasmonic acid and also
      regulation of phosphor homeostasis. Overall, differentially expressed miRNAs
      under WD conditions were found to differ from those under DD conditions, with
      such differences playing a role in adaptation and inducing the normal condition.
      The mechanisms involved in regulating hormonal homeostasis and involved in energy
      production and consumption were found to be the most important regulatory
      pathways distinguishing the DD and WD conditions.

PMID- 28872649
TI  - Effect of alloying on thermal conductivity and thermoelectric properties of CoAsS
      and CoSbS.
AB  - The effect of alloying on the thermoelectric properties of cobaltite, CoAsS, and
      paracostibite, CoSbS, has been investigated in this study. Density functional
      theory and the Boltzmann transport equation have been applied to explore the role
      of phonon-phonon scattering and atomistic scattering due to alloying in phonon
      transport. An almost 44% reduction in thermal conductivity of CoAs0.8Sb0.2S alloy
      compared to pure CoAsS and an ~15% reduction in thermal conductivity of
      CoAs0.2Sb0.8S compared to pure CoSbS were found. Simultaneously, the
      thermoelectric (TE) figure of merit (ZT) increased by ~11% in p-type
      CoAs0.8Sb0.2S alloy and ~8% in n-type CoAs0.2Sb0.8S alloy as compared to their
      base pure materials at 800 K. We found that by tuning the composition of
      CoAsxSb(1-x)S alloy, very similar ZT values for both p-type and n-type can be
      achieved in a large temperature range. We also calculated the TE properties of
      CoAsSe(1-x)Sx and CoSbS(1-x)Sex alloys. This study will help in designing
      CoAsxSb(1-x)S based alloys for efficient thermoelectric devices.

PMID- 28872650
TI  - ?
AB  - Prenatal first trimester fetal diagnosis in Sweden today and in the future The
      combined first trimester test for detection of trisomy 21 has been available in
      Sweden the last 10 years but the uptake among pregnant women is still less than
      50% and varies largely between different regions. The non-invasive prenatal test
      (NIPT) has been introduced and is currently recommended to be used as a secondary
      test only in those women who have an increased risk following the combined test.
      With falling costs for NIPT and a general offer of this test as a primary
      screening tool to all women there is concern that the first trimester ultrasound
      scan will be abandoned. There are however many arguments for retaining the scan
      and use this examination to clarify unclear NIPT results, detect major structural
      malformations, date pregnancies, determine chorionicity in twins and predict and
      treat preeclampsia already in the first trimester.

PMID- 28872651
TI  - ?
AB  - Organisation of health care for families with young children with autism in a
      multiethnic community in Gothenburg, Sweden In a project in a multiethnic
      district in Gothenburg a local collaborative model with a multiprofessional team
      for families with young children with autism has been running for three years.
      The model allows assessments and intervention planning close to the family's
      local environment. The project has revealed that the time from identification of
      problems to assessment and intervention has been considerably shortened compared
      to the situation before the local collaborative model was started.

PMID- 28872652
TI  - ?
AB  - Routine pregnancy ultrasound scans can detect malformations. Multidisciplinary
      care of both the foetus and parent is required following diagnosed malformations
      In Sweden, all women are invited to at least one ultrasound examination during
      pregnancy. The "Routine ultrasound screening" is usually performed by a midwife
      around 18 weeks of gestation. There are several aims of the examination: to check
      viability, to detect multiple fetuses, to determine the location of the placenta,
      to check the amount of amniotic fluid, to estimate the date of delivery (if this
      had not been done earlier) and to detect structural fetal malformations. It is
      important to offer an adequate education for all providers and assure the quality
      of the examinations. Nationwide courses are offered once or twice a year, and as
      a goal, all providers should have a "certificate of competence" for this kind of
      examination. When a fetal malformation is suspected, confirmed after further
      investigations and the prospective parents decide to continue the pregnancy,
      multidisciplinary care is offered in cooperation with or at a university
      hospital.

PMID- 28872653
TI  - ?

PMID- 28872654
TI  - ?
AB  - Floorball - a common cause of sport related eye injury The aim of this study was
      to survey the incidence and type of sport related to eye injuries with special
      interest in floorball. A prospective study was conducted December 1st 2013
      through November 30th 2014 at the Department of Ophthalmology, Orebro University
      Hospital. All patients presenting with an acute sports related eye injury were
      offered to be included. Information was collected from a self-administered
      questionnaire and from medical journals. During the study period, 49 patients
      sought care for sports related eye injuries, and 26 (53%) of those were related
      to floorball. The number of patients who agreed to take part in the study was 38,
      of which 25 had injuries related to floorball. Among the floorball players, there
      were two patients where the injury caused permanent vision impairment. None of
      the floorball players wore eye protection at the time of injury. According to
      this study, protective eyewear should be recommended when playing floorball,
      regardless of age or setting.

PMID- 28872655
TI  - ?
AB  - Fetal Cardiology. Experiences from a tertiary referral centre in Stockholm,
      Sweden This review provides a brief overview of the current position and clinical
      experiences of fetal cardiology at a tertiary referral centre in Stockholm,
      Sweden. In Stockholm, more than 60% of congenital cardiac defects requiring
      surgery or catheter intervention before one year of age are detected before
      birth. This not only results in termination of pregnancy in the majority of cases
      carrying a poor prognosis, but also conveys a better postnatal care and prognosis
      in cases of continued pregnancy. Almost all mechanisms generating fetal
      arrhythmias are elucidated using Doppler techniques, and arrhythmia treatment is
      preferably given in utero. Prenatal fetal echocardiography also provides the
      diagnostic tool necessary to detect and follow treatment of extracardiac
      conditions associated with fetal heart failure.

PMID- 28872656
TI  - Comparison of hand use and forelimb posture during vertical climbing in mountain
      gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Studies on grasping and limb posture during arboreal locomotion in
      great apes in their natural environment are scarce and thus, attempts to
      correlate behavioral and habitat differences with variation in morphology are
      limited. The aim of this study is to compare hand use and forelimb posture during
      vertical climbing in wild, habituated mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei
      beringei) and semi-free-ranging chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to assess
      differences in the climbing styles that may relate to variation in hand or
      forelimb morphology and body size. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated hand
      use and forelimb posture during both ascent and descent vertical climbing in 15
      wild mountain gorillas and eight semi-free-ranging chimpanzees, using video
      records obtained ad libitum. RESULTS: In both apes, forelimb posture was
      correlated with substrate size during both ascent and descent climbing. While
      climbing, both apes used power grips and diagonal power grips, including three
      different thumb postures. Mountain gorillas showed greater ulnar deviation of the
      wrist during vertical descent than chimpanzees, and the thumb played an important
      supportive role when gorillas vertically descended lianas. DISCUSSION: We found
      that both apes generally had the same grip preferences and used similar forelimb
      postures on supports of a similar size, which is consistent with their overall
      similarity in hard and soft tissue morphology of the hand and forelimb. However,
      some species-specific differences in morphology appear to elicit slightly
      different grasping strategies during vertical climbing between mountain gorillas
      and chimpanzees.

PMID- 28872657
TI  - How intention and monitoring your thoughts influence characteristics of
      autobiographical memories.
AB  - Involuntary autobiographical memories come to mind effortlessly and unintended,
      but the mechanisms of their retrieval are not fully understood. We hypothesize
      that involuntary retrieval depends on memories that are highly accessible (e.g.,
      intense, unusual, recent, rehearsed), while the elaborate search that
      characterizes voluntary retrieval also produces memories that are mundane,
      repeated or distant - memories with low accessibility. Previous research provides
      some evidence for this 'threshold hypothesis'. However, in almost every prior
      study, participants have been instructed to report only memories while ignoring
      other thoughts. It is possible that such an instruction can modify the
      phenomenological characteristics of involuntary memories. This study aimed to
      investigate the effects of retrieval intentionality (i.e., wanting to retrieve a
      memory) and selective monitoring (i.e., instructions to report only memories) on
      the phenomenology of autobiographical memories. Participants were instructed to
      (1) intentionally retrieve autobiographical memories, (2) intentionally retrieve
      any type of thought (3) wait for an autobiographical memory to spontaneously
      appear, or (4) wait for any type of thought to spontaneously appear. They rated
      the mental content on a number of phenomenological characteristics both during
      retrieval and retrospectively following retrieval. The results support the
      prediction that highly accessible memories mostly enter awareness unintended and
      without selective monitoring, while memories with low accessibility rely on
      intention and selective monitoring. We discuss the implications of these effects.

PMID- 28872659
TI  - It is ethical to recommend against assisted reproductive treatment for women with
      a high body mass index.

PMID- 28872658
TI  - Evidence of hysteresis in propofol pharmacodynamics.
AB  - It is commonly assumed that loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness
      occur at similar concentrations of propofol. However, the 'conscious' and
      'anaesthetised' conditions produced by general anaesthetics may behave as two
      bistable states. We hypothesised that loss of responsiveness and recovery of
      responsiveness occur at different propofol concentrations. Propofol was
      administered to 19 healthy volunteers by effect-site target-controlled infusion
      using increasing and decreasing stable concentration steps of 7 min. Propofol
      serum concentrations were measured from venous blood samples at the end of each 7
      min step. A long step of 14 min was performed at loss of responsiveness. At this
      step, propofol concentrations were measured at 7 and 14 min. Propofol
      concentrations measured at loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness
      were 2.6 (1.2-4.7) MUg.ml-1 and 1.6 (0.6-3.3) MUg.ml-1 , respectively (p <
      0.001). Propofol plasma concentration and the corresponding bispectral index
      values measured at minute 7 and minute 14 of the long step performed at loss of
      responsiveness were 2.6 (1.2-4.7) vs. 2.6 (1.3-4.3) at recovery of
      responsiveness, (p = 0.96) and 61.2 (49.0-77.0) vs. 58.4 (45.0-74.0), (p =
      0.058), respectively. Loss of responsiveness and recovery of responsiveness
      appear to occur at different propofol concentrations. However, it is possible
      that, if equilibration was not achieved between plasma and effect-sites at the
      end of each 7-min step, the higher concentrations found at loss of responsiveness
      compared with those observed during recovery of responsiveness could be explained
      by a possible bias in estimations of the effect-site concentrations of propofol
      by the Schnider model, rather than neural inertia.

PMID- 28872660
TI  - Fabricating PLGA microparticles with high loads of the small molecule antioxidant
      N-acetylcysteine that rescue oligodendrocyte progenitor cells from oxidative
      stress.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS), encompassing all oxygen radical or non-radical
      oxidizing agents, play key roles in disease progression. Controlled delivery of
      antioxidants is therapeutically relevant in such oxidant-stressed environments.
      Encapsulating small hydrophilic molecules into hydrophobic polymer microparticles
      via traditional emulsion methods has long been a challenge due to rapid mass
      transport of small molecules out of particle pores. We have developed a simple
      alteration to the existing water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) drug encapsulation
      method that dramatically improves loading efficiency: doping external water
      phases with drug to mitigate drug diffusion out of the particle during
      fabrication. PLGA microparticles with diameters ranging from 0.6 to 0.9
      micrometers were fabricated, encapsulating high loads of 0.6-0.9 um diameter PLGA
      microparticles were fabricated, encapsulating high loads of the antioxidant N
      acetylcysteine (NAC), and released active, ROS-scavenging NAC for up to 5 weeks.
      Encapsulation efficiencies, normalized to the theoretical load of traditional
      encapsulation without doping, ranged from 96% to 400%, indicating that NAC-loaded
      external water phases not only prevented drug loss due to diffusion, but also
      doped the particles with additional drug. Antioxidant-doped particles positively
      affected the metabolism of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) under H2 O2 
      mediated oxidative stress when administered both before (protection) or after
      (rescue) injury. Antioxidant doped particles improved outcomes of OPCs
      experiencing multiple doses of H2 O2 by increasing the intracellular glutathione
      content and preserving cellular viability relative to the injury control.
      Furthermore, antioxidant-doped particles preserve cell number, number of process
      extensions, cytoskeletal morphology, and nuclear size of H2 O2 -stressed OPCs
      relative to the injury control. These NAC-doped particles have the potential to
      provide temporally-controlled antioxidant therapy in neurodegenerative disorders
      such as multiple sclerosis (MS) that are characterized by continuous oxidative
      stress.

PMID- 28872661
TI  - The Kent Face Matching Test.
AB  - This study presents the Kent Face Matching Test (KFMT), which comprises 200 same
      identity and 20 different-identity pairs of unfamiliar faces. Each face pair
      consists of a photograph from a student ID card and a high-quality portrait that
      was taken at least three months later. The test is designed to complement
      existing resources for face-matching research, by providing a more ecologically
      valid stimulus set that captures the natural variability that can arise in a
      person's appearance over time. Two experiments are presented to demonstrate that
      the KFMT provides a challenging measure of face matching but correlates with
      established tests. Experiment 1 compares a short version of this test with the
      optimized Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). In Experiment 2, a longer version of
      the KFMT, with infrequent identity mismatches, is correlated with performance on
      the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and the Cambridge Face Perception Test
      (CFPT). The KFMT is freely available for use in face-matching research.

PMID- 28872662
TI  - Current options in aerosolised drug therapy for children receiving respiratory
      support.
AB  - Inhalation of aerosolised medications are the mainstay of treatment for a number
      of chronic lung diseases and have several advantages over systemically
      administered medications. These include more rapid onset of action for drugs such
      as beta-adrenergic agonists when compared with oral medication, high luminal
      doses for inhaled antibiotics when used to treat endobronchial infection, and an
      improved therapeutic index compared with systemic delivery for these and other
      classes of drugs such as corticosteroids. The use of aerosolised drugs to treat
      patients whose tracheas are intubated is less well established, in part because
      systemic delivery via the intravenous route can be a simpler alternative for many
      drugs. Consequently, research in this area is largely limited to a number of in
      vitro studies and very few clinical trials. Unfortunately, a lack of focus in
      this area has resulted in a number of practices which at best are ineffective,
      and at worst dangerous for the patient. Although there have been some attempts to
      re-invigorate research in order to improve delivery systems, current devices are,
      to a great extent, based on long-standing technology developed more than 50 years
      ago. In this review, we explore current knowledge and provide guidance as to when
      and how the inhaled route may be of value when treating patients whose tracheas
      are intubated, and we set out the challenges facing those attempting to advance
      the topic. We conclude by reviewing current areas of interest that may lead to
      more effective and widespread use of aerosols in the treatment of intubated
      patients.

PMID- 28872663
TI  - Quality of life in patients with vitiligo using the Short Form-36.

PMID- 28872664
TI  - Middle cerebral artery Doppler reference centile charts for the prediction of
      fetal anemia in a population from India.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To construct reference charts for the fetal middle cerebral artery
      (MCA) peak systolic velocity (PSV,) and the corresponding cord blood hemoglobin
      values at 24-40 weeks of pregnancy for the identification of fetal anemia.
      METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 300 women with a pregnancy duration of 24-40
      weeks planned for delivery within 72 hours underwent a Doppler study of the MCA
      and cord blood hemoglobin estimation at delivery. Regression analysis was used to
      construct reference charts. The validity of the charts was assessed in 40 fetuses
      from Rhesus-isoimmunized pregnancies. RESULTS: The MCA PSV and hemoglobin values
      increased with advancing gestational age. Multiples of the median (MOM) were
      calculated and reference charts were constructed for mild anemia (MCA PSV 1.29
      MOM; hemoglobin 0.8 MOM), moderate anemia (MCA PSV 1.50 MOM; hemoglobin 0.6 MOM),
      and severe anemia (MCA PSV 1.55 MOM; hemoglobin 0.5 MOM). In the validation
      sample, the hemoglobin value estimated on the basis of the MCA PSV corresponded
      with the actual hemoglobin range in 90% of the fetuses. The sensitivity was 92%
      and the specificity was 95%. CONCLUSION: The constructed charts are suitable for
      the evaluation of fetal anemia in the regional population.

PMID- 28872665
TI  - Expression of human cathelicidin peptide LL-37 in inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - Cathelicidin peptide LL-37 plays an important role in the early host response
      against invading pathogens via its broad-spectrum anti-microbial activity. In
      this study, we investigated LL-37 expression in the inflamed mucosa of
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Furthermore, the regulatory mechanism
      of LL-37 induction was investigated in human colonic subepithelial myofibroblasts
      (SEMFs). LL-37 mRNA expression and protein secretion were analysed using real
      time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,
      respectively. Intracellular signalling pathways were analysed using
      immunoblotting and specific small interference RNA (siRNA). The expression of LL
      37 mRNA was increased significantly in the inflamed mucosa of ulcerative colitis
      and Crohn's disease. The Toll-like receptor (TLR)-3 ligand, polyinosinic
      polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C), induced LL-37 mRNA expression and stimulated LL-37
      secretion in colonic SEMFs. The transfection of siRNAs specific for intracellular
      signalling proteins [Toll/IL-1R domain-containing adaptor-inducing interferon
      (IFN) (TRIF), tumour necrosis factor receptor-associated factor (TRAF)6,
      transforming growth factor beta-activated kinase (TAK)1] suppressed the poly(I:C)
      induced LL-37 mRNA expression significantly. Poly(I:C)-induced phosphorylation of
      mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and activated nuclear factor kappa B
      (NF-kappaB) and activating factor protein (AP)-1. siRNAs specific for NF-kappaB
      and c-Jun inhibited poly(I:C)-induced LL-37 mRNA expression. LL-37 suppressed
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 expression
      significantly in colonic SEMFs. The expression of LL-37 was up-regulated in the
      inflamed mucosa of IBD patients. LL-37 was induced by TLR-3 stimulation and
      exhibited an anti-microbial effect via interaction with lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

PMID- 28872666
TI  - Active dissemination of cellular antigens by DCs facilitates CD8+ T-cell priming
      in lymph nodes.
AB  - Antigen (Ag) specific activation of naive T cells by migrating dendritic cells
      (DCs) is a highly efficient process, although the chances for their
      colocalization in lymph nodes (LNs) appear low. Ag presentation may be delegated
      from Ag-donor DCs to the abundant resident DCs, but the routes of Ag transfer and
      how it facilitates T-cell activation remain unclear. We visualized CD8+ T cell-DC
      interactions to study the sites, routes, and cells mediating Ag transfer in mice.
      In vitro, Ag transfer from isolated ovalbumin (OVA)+ bone marrow (BM) DCs
      triggered widespread arrest, Ca2+ flux, and CD69 upregulation in OT-I T cells
      contacting recipient DCs. Intravital two-photon imaging revealed that survival of
      Ag-donor DCs in LNs was required for Ag dissemination among resident CD11c+ DCs.
      Upon interaction with recipient DCs, CD8+ T cells clustered, upregulated CD69,
      proliferated and differentiated into effectors. Few DCs sufficed for activation,
      and for efficient Ag dissemination lymphocyte function associated antigen 1 (LFA
      1) expression on recipient DCs was essential. Similar findings characterized DCs
      infected with a replication-deficient OVA-expressing Vaccinia virus known to
      downregulate MHC-I. Overall, active Ag dissemination from live incoming DCs
      helped activate CD8+ T cells by increasing the number of effective presenting
      cells and salvaged T-cell priming when Ag-donor DCs could not present Ag.

PMID- 28872667
TI  - Cognitive and neuroimaging findings in developmental coordination disorder: new
      insights from a systematic review of recent research.
AB  - AIM: To better understand the neural and performance factors that may underlie
      developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and implications for a multi-component
      account. METHOD: A systematic review of the experimental literature published
      between June 2011 and September 2016 was conducted using a modified PICOS
      (population, intervention, comparison, outcomes, and study type) framework. A
      total of 106 studies were included. RESULTS: Behavioural data from 91 studies
      showed a broad cluster of deficits in the anticipatory control of movement, basic
      processes of motor learning, and cognitive control. Importantly, however,
      performance issues in DCD were often shown to be moderated by task type and
      difficulty. As well, we saw new evidence of compensatory processes and strategies
      in several studies. Neuroimaging data (15 studies, including
      electroencephalography) showed reduced cortical thickness in the right medial
      orbitofrontal cortex and altered brain activation patterns across functional
      networks involving prefrontal, parietal, and cerebellar regions in children with
      DCD than those in comparison groups. Data from diffusion-weighted magnetic
      resonance imaging suggested reduced white matter organization involving
      sensorimotor structures and altered structural connectivity across the whole
      brain network. INTERPRETATION: Taken together, results support the hypothesis
      that children with DCD show differences in brain structure and function compared
      with typically developing children. Behaviourally, these differences may affect
      anticipatory planning and reduce automatization of movement skill, prompting
      greater reliance on slower feedback-based control and compensatory strategies.
      Implications for future research, theory development, and clinical practice are
      discussed.

PMID- 28872668
TI  - Efficacy of oral pharmacological treatments in dyskinetic cerebral palsy: a
      systematic review.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the actual evidence of efficacy of oral pharmacological
      treatments in the management of dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD: A
      systematic review was performed according to the American Academy for Cerebral
      Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) and Preferred Reporting Items for
      Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses methodology. Articles were searched for in
      PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Database of Reviews of
      Effectiveness, OTSeeker, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, REHABDATA, and
      ClinicalTrials.gov. RESULTS: Sixteen articles met the eligibility criteria. Eight
      studies on trihexyphenidyl and two on levodopa showed contradictory results. Low
      efficacy was reported for diazepam, dantrolene sodium, perphenazine, and
      etybenzatropine. Tetrabenazine, gabapentin and levetiracetam should be studied in
      more detail. The updated available evidence does not support any therapeutic
      algorithm for the management of dyskinetic CP. INTERPRETATION: This lack of
      evidence is partially owing to the inconsistency of classifications of patients
      and of outcome measures used in the reviewed studies. Further randomized, double
      blind, placebo-controlled pharmacological trials, optimized for different age
      groups, based on valid, reliable, and disease-specific rating scales are strongly
      needed. Outcome measures should be selected within the framework of the
      International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. WHAT THIS
      PAPER ADDS: Evidence to prove (or disprove) the efficacy of oral drugs in
      dyskinetic cerebral palsy is low. The most investigated drugs, trihexyphenidyl
      and levodopa, show contradictory results. Tetrabenazine, levetiracetam, and
      gabapentin efficacy should be studied in more detail. Lack of evidence is
      partially due to the inconsistency of classifications and outcome measures used.
      Outcome measures should be selected within the framework of the International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in next clinical trials.

PMID- 28872669
TI  - GPCR signalling from within the cell.
AB  - : Traditionally, signal transduction from GPCRs is thought to emanate from the
      cell surface where receptor interactions with external stimuli can be transformed
      into a broad range of cellular responses. However, emergent data show that
      numerous GPCRs are also associated with various intracellular membranes where
      they may couple to different signalling systems, display unique desensitization
      patterns and/or exhibit distinct patterns of subcellular distribution. Although
      many GPCRs can be activated at the cell surface and subsequently endocytosed and
      transported to a unique intracellular site, other intracellular GPCRs can be
      activated in situ either via de novo ligand synthesis, diffusion of permeable
      ligands or active transport of nonpermeable ligands. Current findings reinforce
      the notion that intracellular GPCRs play a dynamic role in various biological
      functions including learning and memory, contractility and angiogenesis. As new
      intracellular GPCR roles are defined, the need to selectively tailor agonists
      and/or antagonists to both intracellular and cell surface receptors may lead to
      the development of more effective therapeutic tools. LINKED ARTICLES: This
      article is part of a themed section on Molecular Pharmacology of GPCRs. To view
      the other articles in this section visit
      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v175.21/issuetoc.

PMID- 28872670
TI  - TCR-pMHC encounter differentially regulates transcriptomes of tissue-resident CD8
      T cells.
AB  - To investigate the role of TCR-pMHC interaction in regulating lung CD8 tissue
      resident T cell (TR ) differentiation, polyclonal responses were compared against
      NP366-374 /Db and PA224-233 /Db , two immunodominant epitopes that arise during
      influenza A infection in mice. Memory niches distinct from iBALTs develop within
      the lamina propria, supporting CD103+ and CD103- CD8 TR generation and
      intraepithelial translocation. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and weighted
      gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) identify dominant TCR, adherens
      junction, RIG-I-like and NOD-like pattern recognition receptor as well as TGF
      beta signaling pathways and memory signatures among PA224-233 /Db T cells
      consistent with T resident memory (TRM ) status. In contrast, NP366-374 /Db T
      cells exhibit enrichment of effector signatures, upregulating pro-inflammatory
      mediators even among TRM . While NP366-374 /Db T cells manifest transcripts
      linked to canonical exhaustion pathways, PA224-233 /Db T cells exploit P2rx7
      purinoreceptor attenuation. The NP366-374 /Db CD103+ subset expresses the
      antimicrobial lactotransferrin whereas PA224-233 /Db CD103+ utilizes pore-forming
      mpeg-1, with <22% of genes correspondingly upregulated in CD103+ (or CD103- )
      subsets of both specificities. Thus, TCR-pMHC interactions among TR and antigen
      presenting cells in a tissue milieu strongly impact CD8 T cell biology.

PMID- 28872672
TI  - The Longitudinal Effects of Early Language Intervention on Children's Problem
      Behaviors.
AB  - Researchers examined whether a parent-implemented language intervention improved
      problem behaviors 1 year after intervention. Ninety-seven children with language
      delays (mean age at 12-month follow-up = 48.22 months) were randomized to receive
      Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) language intervention or business as usual
      treatment. Twelve months after the intervention ended, children in the EMT
      intervention condition displayed lower rates of parent-reported externalizing,
      internalizing, and total problem behaviors. A mediation analysis revealed that
      the relation between EMT and problem behaviors was partially mediated by child
      rate of communication for both internalizing and total problem behaviors. A
      developmental framework is proposed to explain the impact of EMT on problem
      behaviors, and future lines of research are discussed.

PMID- 28872673
TI  - Direction of dependence in measurement error models.
AB  - Methods to determine the direction of a regression line, that is, to determine
      the direction of dependence in reversible linear regression models (e.g., x->y
      vs. y->x), have experienced rapid development within the last decade. However,
      previous research largely rested on the assumption that the true predictor is
      measured without measurement error. The present paper extends the direction
      dependence principle to measurement error models. First, we discuss asymmetric
      representations of the reliability coefficient in terms of higher moments of
      variables and the attenuation of skewness and excess kurtosis due to measurement
      error. Second, we identify conditions where direction dependence decisions are
      biased due to measurement error and suggest method of moments (MOM) estimation as
      a remedy. Third, we address data situations in which the true outcome exhibits
      both regression and measurement error, and propose a sensitivity analysis
      approach to determining the robustness of direction dependence decisions against
      unreliably measured outcomes. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to assess
      the performance of MOM-based direction dependence measures and their robustness
      to violated measurement error assumptions (i.e., non-independence and non
      normality). An empirical example from subjective well-being research is
      presented. The plausibility of model assumptions and links to modern causal
      inference methods for observational data are discussed.

PMID- 28872671
TI  - Wnt7a induces a unique phenotype of monocyte-derived macrophages with lower
      phagocytic capacity and differential expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory
      cytokines.
AB  - The variation of macrophage functions suggests the involvement of multiple
      signalling pathways in fine tuning their differentiation. Macrophages that
      originate from monocytes in the blood migrate to tissue in response to
      homeostatic or 'danger' signals and undergo substantial morphological and
      functional modifications to meet the needs of the dominant signals in the
      microenvironment. Wnts are secreted glycoproteins that play a significant role in
      organ and cell differentiation, yet their impact on monocyte differentiation is
      not clear. In this study, we assessed the role of Wnt1 and Wnt7a on the
      differentiation of monocytes and the subsequent phenotype and function of
      monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs). We show that Wnt7a decreased the expression
      of CD14, CD11b, CD163 and CD206, whereas Wnt1 had no effect. The Wnt7a effect on
      CD11b was also observed in the brain and spleen of Wnt7a-/- adult brain mouse
      tissue and in embryonic Wnt7a-/- tissue. Wnt7a reduced the phagocytic capacity of
      M-MDMs, decreased interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-12 secretion and increased IL-6
      secretion. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that Wnt7a generates an MDM
      phenotype with both pro-inflammatory and alternative MDM cytokine profiles and
      reduced phagocytic capacity. As such, Wnt7a can have a significant impact on
      macrophage responses in health and disease.

PMID- 28872674
TI  - The methylazoxymethanol acetate rat model: molecular and epigenetic effect in the
      developing prefrontal cortex: An Editorial Highlight for 'Epigenetic mechanisms
      underlying NMDA receptor hypofunction in the prefrontal cortex of juvenile
      animals in the MAM model for schizophrenia' on page 320.
AB  - This Editorial highlights an article by Gulchina and colleagues in the current
      issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, in which the authors describe molecular
      and epigenetic changes in the developing prefrontal cortex of the rats exposed to
      methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM). They found an NMDAR hypofunction present in
      the prefrontal cortex of juvenile MAM rats which was associated with abnormal
      epigenetic regulation of the Grin2b gene. These changes may be related to early
      cognitive impairments observed in MAM rats and schizophrenia patients.

PMID- 28872675
TI  - Language and reading comprehension in middle childhood predicts emotional and
      behaviour difficulties in adolescence for those with permanent childhood hearing
      loss.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL) is associated with an
      elevated level of emotional and behaviour difficulties (EBD). In children and
      adolescents with PCHL, EBD has been found to be linked to language ability in
      children with PCHL. The present study was designed to test whether childhood
      language and/or reading comprehension abilities of children with PCHL predict
      subsequent EBD in adolescence. METHODS: Language comprehension (LC) and reading
      comprehension (RC) were measured at ages 6-10 years (Time 1) and 13-20 years
      (Time 2) in participants with PCHL who preferred to communicate using spoken
      language (n = 57) and a hearing comparison group (n = 38). EBD was measured at
      both time points by parent and by teacher ratings on the Strengths and
      Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS: Within the PCHL group there were negative
      correlations between EBD scores and concurrent LC and RC scores at Time 1 and at
      Time 2. Cross-lagged latent variable models fitted to the longitudinal data
      indicated that the associations between LC, RC and teacher-rated EBD were more
      likely to arise from the impact of LC and RC on behaviour rather than the other
      way around. CONCLUSIONS: In those with PCHL, poor language and reading
      comprehension in middle childhood increased the risk of emotional and behaviour
      difficulties at school in the teenage years. The results suggest that effective
      language and literacy interventions for children with hearing loss may also bring
      benefits to their mental health.

PMID- 28872676
TI  - Beliefs About Stress Attenuate the Relation Among Adverse Life Events, Perceived
      Distress, and Self-Control.
AB  - Prior research has shown that adverse events in the lives of adolescents
      precipitate psychological distress, which in turn impairs self-control. This
      study (N = 1,343) examined the protective effects of stress mindsets-beliefs
      about the extent to which stress might be beneficial or strictly detrimental. The
      results confirmed that increasing the number of adverse life events across the
      school year predicted rank order increases in perceived distress, which in turn
      predicted rank order decreases in self-control. Adolescents who believed in the
      potential benefits of stress were less prone to feeling stressed in the wake of
      adverse life events. These findings suggest that changing the way adolescents
      think about stress may help protect them from acting impulsively when confronted
      with adversity.

PMID- 28872677
TI  - Immunogenicity assessment during the development of protein therapeutics.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Here we provide a critical review of the state of the art with respect
      to non-clinical assessments of immunogenicity for therapeutic proteins. KEY
      FINDINGS: The number of studies on immunogenicity published annually has more
      than doubled in the last 5 years. The science and technology, which have reached
      a critical mass, provide multiple of non-clinical approaches (computational, in
      vitro, ex vivo and animal models) to first predict and then to modify or
      eliminate T-cell or B-cell epitopes via de-immunization strategies. We discuss
      how these may be used in the context of drug development in assigning the
      immunogenicity risk of new and marketed therapeutic proteins. SUMMARY: Protein
      therapeutics represents a large share of the pharma market and provide medical
      interventions for some of the most complex and intractable diseases.
      Immunogenicity (the development of antibodies to therapeutic proteins) is an
      important concern for both the safety and efficacy of protein therapeutics as
      immune responses may neutralize the activity of life-saving and highly effective
      protein therapeutics and induce hypersensitivity responses including anaphylaxis.
      The non-clinical computational tools and experimental technologies that offer a
      comprehensive and increasingly accurate estimation of immunogenic potential are
      surveyed here. This critical review also discusses technologies which are
      promising but are not as yet ready for routine use.

PMID- 28872678
TI  - Characterization and pharmacokinetic study of itraconazole solid dispersions
      prepared by solvent-controlled precipitation and spray-dry methods.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Solid dispersion formulations have attracted attention to improve
      solubility and bioavailability of water-insoluble drugs. In this study, the
      variation of solubility and bioavailability by different preparation methods were
      studied using itraconazole (ITZ) solid dispersions. METHODS: Itraconazole solid
      dispersions were prepared by a solvent-controlled precipitation method (SCPM)
      using HPMCAS-LF, HCl antisolvent or a spray-drying method (SDM) for comparison.
      Dissolution tests by pH transition and pharmacokinetic study using male Sprague
      Dawley rats were conducted. KEY FINDINGS: Itraconazole solid dispersion
      dissolution tests by pH transition exhibited better dissolution compared to naive
      ITZ, limited dissolution in acidic conditions and a burst release at neutral pH.
      The ITZ solid dispersions by SCPM indicated a smaller-sized particle dispersion,
      limited dissolution at acidic pH and a higher release at neutral pH compared to
      those by SDM, suggesting that the increased protonation of anionic polymers and
      HPMCAS-LF by acidic antisolvent could form a tighter hydrophobic aggregation with
      ITZ in solid dispersions. ITZ solid dispersion prepared by SCPM also showed
      improved ITZ absorption in male Sprague Dawley rats compared to SDM and naive
      ITZ. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that the SCPM method can be widely used for
      solid dispersion preparations due to improved dissolution and PK profile.

PMID- 28872679
TI  - Potential use of multispectral imaging technology to identify moisture content
      and water-holding capacity in cooked pork sausages.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The traditional detection methods for moisture content (MC) and water
      holding capacity (WHC) in cooked pork sausages (CPS) are destructive, time
      consuming, require skilled personnel and are not suitable for online industry
      applications. The goal of this work was to explore the potential of multispectral
      imaging (MSI) in combination with multivariate analysis for the identification of
      MC and WHC in CPS. RESULTS: Spectra and textures of 156 CPS treated by six salt
      concentrations (0-2.5%) were analyzed using different calibration models to find
      the most optimal results of predicting MC and WHC in CPS. By using the fused data
      of spectra and textures, partial least squares regression models performed well
      for determining the MC and WHC, with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.949 and
      0.832, respectively. Additionally, their spatial distribution in CPS could be
      visualized via applying prediction equations to transfer each pixel in the image.
      CONCLUSION: Results of satisfactory detection and visualization of the MC and WHC
      showed that MSI has the potential to serve as a rapid and non-destructive method
      for use in sausage industry. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28872681
TI  - Development of a direct contact astrocyte-human cerebral microvessel endothelial
      cells blood-brain barrier coculture model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In conventional in-vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) models, primary
      and immortalized brain microvessel endothelial cell (BMEC) lines are often
      cultured in a monolayer or indirect coculture or triculture configurations with
      astrocytes or pericytes, for screening permeation of therapeutic or potentially
      neurotoxic compounds. In each of these cases, the physiological relevancy
      associated with the direct contact between the BMECs, pericytes and astrocytes
      that form the BBB and resulting synergistic interactions are lost. We look to
      overcome this limitation with a direct contact coculture model. METHODS: We
      established and optimized a direct interaction coculture system where primary
      human astrocytes are cultured on the apical surface of a Transwell(r) filter
      support and then human cerebral microvessel endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3) seeded
      directly on the astrocyte lawn. KEY FINDINGS: The studies suggest the direct
      coculture model may provide a more restrictive and physiologically relevant model
      through a significant reduction in paracellular transport of model compounds in
      comparison with monoculture and indirect coculture. In comparison with existing
      methods, the indirect coculture and monoculture models utilized may limit cell
      cell signaling between human astrocytes and BMECs that are possible with direct
      configurations. CONCLUSIONS: Paracellular permeability reductions with the direct
      coculture system may enhance therapeutic agent and potential neurotoxicant
      screening for BBB permeability better than the currently available monoculture
      and indirect coculture in-vitro models.

PMID- 28872680
TI  - Current and novel anti-inflammatory drug targets for inhibition of cytokines and
      leucocyte recruitment in rheumatic diseases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Many studies of disease state mechanisms reveal that unbridled
      inflammation is to blame for many of the symptoms associated with autoimmune
      diseases such as Crohn's and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). While therapies aimed at
      decreasing levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines exist, some have failed
      clinically or have extensive adverse effects. The aim of this review is to
      discuss common drug targets for anti-inflammatory therapies as well as explore
      potential mechanisms of action for new therapies. Various studies done on novel
      mechanisms targeting pro-inflammatory cytokine release as well as leukocyte
      chemotaxis have been researched for discussion here. Both of these contribute to
      tissue injury and patient symptoms in inflammatory and autoimmune disease states.
      KEY FINDINGS: While many current drug targets suppress inflammation via the
      receptor, research aimed at identifying new compounds and signaling mechanisms is
      ongoing to identify new targets within pro-inflammatory signaling pathways, or
      specific immune cell types. CONCLUSIONS: While glucocorticoids and monoclonal
      antibodies have shown to be efficacious, some patients have encountered mixed
      results. Biologic therapies also come with a high price tag Thus, novel compounds
      with new immune drug targets are ideal for patients whose therapies have not been
      successful.

PMID- 28872682
TI  - beta-2-himachalen-6-ol protects against skin cancer development in vitro and in
      vivo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies in our laboratory showed that Daucus carota oil
      extract (DCOE) possesses remarkable in-vitro anticancer activity and antitumour
      promoting effect against DMBA/TPA skin carcinogenesis in mice. Chemical analysis
      of DCOE led to the isolation of the beta-2-himachalen-6-ol (HC), major
      sesquiterpene with a potent anticancer activity against various colon, breast,
      brain and skin cancer cells. This study investigated the anticancer activity of
      HC against invasive epidermal squamous cell carcinoma cells and evaluated its
      effect in a DMBA/TPA skin carcinogenesis Balb/c murine model. METHODS: HaCaT-ras
      II-4 epidermal squamous cells were treated with HC (1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 MUg/ml),
      and cell viability was evaluated with WST 1 assay kit. Cell cycle analysis was
      carried out by flow cytometry, and pro/anti-apoptotic proteins were measured
      using Western blot. The effect of topical and intraperitoneal (IP) treatment with
      HC in mice was assessed using the DMBA/TPA skin carcinogenesis model. Cisplatin
      (2.5 mg/kg; IP) was used as a positive control. Papilloma incidence, yield and
      volume were monitored, and isolated papillomas were assessed for their pro/anti
      apoptotic proteins and morphology. RESULTS: beta-2-himachalen-6-ol showed a dose
      dependent decrease in cell survival with an IC50 and IC90 of 8 and 30 MUg/ml,
      respectively. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that treatment with 10 MUg/ml HC
      significantly increased the number of cells undergoing late apoptosis (28%),
      while 25 MUg/ml caused a larger cell shift towards late apoptosis (46.6%) and
      necrosis (39%). A significant decrease in protein levels of p53 and Bcl-2 and a
      significant increase in p21 and Bax were observed. Also, there was a significant
      decrease in p-Erk and p-Akt protein levels. The treatment of mice (IP and
      topical) with HC caused a significant decrease in papilloma yield, incidence and
      volume. Similar effects were observed with cisplatin treatment, but HC-treated
      groups exhibited twofold to threefold increase in survival rates. Similar
      patterns in the pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins were observed in mice treated
      with HC, except for a significant increase in p53 protein. CONCLUSIONS: In
      conclusion, HC treatment induced cell cycle arrest (low dose) and promoted
      apoptosis partly via inhibition of the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways with no
      significant toxicity to laboratory mice.

PMID- 28872683
TI  - Phytochemistry and pharmacological potential of Cassia absus - a review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cassia absus is a plant of the family fabaceae with Ayurvedic
      ethnomedical records. It is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of
      bronchitis, asthma, cough, conjunctivitis, leucoderma, renal and hepatic
      diseases, constipation, tumors, venereal ulcer, headache, hemorrhoids and wound
      healing. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo studies have provided valuable
      scientific evidence for its use. This review aims to summarize reported
      pharmacognosy, traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological potential of
      C. absus while identifying potential areas of further research of plant. KEY
      FINDINGS: The review comprises literature pertaining to the evidence base
      therapeutic potential, pharmacognosy and phytochemistry of C. absus spanning from
      1935 to 2016 using published articles in peer-reviewed journals, ethno botanical
      text books, and worldwide accepted scientific databases via electronic search
      (Elsevier, Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Springer, Web of Science, Wiley online
      library). Kew Botanical Garden databases and the Plant List were used to
      authenticate the scientific names. Different pharmacological experiments in many
      in-vitro and in-vivo models have proved the potential of C. absus with
      antihypertensive, antifertility, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anti
      hyperglycemic, anti-glycation, antibacterial activity, alpha- amylase inhibitory
      activity, antioxidant and reducing activitity etc. chaksine, iso-chaksine,
      saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, chrysophanol, aloe-emodin and a wide range
      of chemical compounds have also been reported. Toxicity studies reveal the
      nontoxic nature of C. absus at a dose of 2000 mg/kg, however, plant possess
      reproductive toxicity and can be used as birth control or abortifacient. SUMMARY:
      Reported activities suggest that there is sufficient pharmacological potential
      for developing C. absus as a drug for hypertension, infections, diabetes and its
      complications. However, heterogeneity in study protocol and conflicting results
      mask the ability to replicate these studies. So, future studies should be
      replicated in line with best practices. More toxicological studies would aid the
      progress to clinical trial studies. Various ethno medical uses of C. absus have
      not been evaluated yet.

PMID- 28872684
TI  - New perspectives on the development of extrahepatic portosystemic shunts.
AB  - In this essay we use clinical evidence and knowledge of anatomy to examine the
      relationship between blood flow and formation of congenital extrahepatic
      portosystemic shunts in dogs and cats. First we report on the clinical findings
      in a series of 50 dogs and 10 cats and then systematically review peer-reviewed
      data on the detailed anatomy of shunts in dogs and cats. In dogs four types of
      shunt: spleno-caval, left gastro-phrenic, left gastro-azygos and those involving
      the right gastric vein account for 94% of extrahepatic shunts. Cats also exhibit
      four types of shunt: spleno-caval, left gastrophrenic, left gastro-caval and left
      gastro-azygos, and the first three of these account for 92% shunts in this
      species. Our findings lead us to propose that preferential blood flow influences
      the subsequent formation of one of a number of defined and consistent congenital
      extrahepatic portosystemic shunts in dogs and cats.

PMID- 28872685
TI  - Inactivation of Babesia microti in red blood cells and platelet concentrates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With an increasing number of recognized transfusion-transmitted (TT)
      babesiosis cases, Babesia microti is the most frequently TT parasite in the
      United States. We evaluated the inactivation of B. microti in red blood cells
      (RBCs) prepared in Optisol (AS-5) using amustaline and glutathione (GSH) and in
      platelet components (PCs) in 100% plasma using amotosalen and low-energy
      ultraviolet A (UVA) light. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Individual RBCs and
      apheresis PCs were spiked with B. microti-infected hamster RBCs (iRBCs) to a
      final concentration of 106 iRBCs/mL and treated with the respective inactivation
      systems according to the manufacturer's instruction. Samples were collected
      before (control) and after (test) each treatment. Dilutions of the control
      samples to 10-6 were inoculated into hamsters, while the test samples were
      inoculated neat or at 10-1 dilution. At 3 and 5 weeks postinoculation, hamsters
      were evaluated for B. microti infection by microscopic observation of blood
      smears and 50% infectivity titers (ID50 ) were determined. Log reduction was
      calculated as control log ID50 minus test log ID50 . RESULTS: Parasitemia was
      detected in hamsters injected with as low as 100,000-fold diluted control
      samples, while no parasites were detectable in the blood smears of any hamsters
      receiving neat test samples. Mean log reduction was more than 5 log/mL by
      amustaline/GSH for RBCs and more than 4.5 log/mL by amotosalen/UVA for PCs.
      CONCLUSION: B. microti was inactivated to the limit of detection in RBCs and PCs
      after the respective inactivation treatment. Complete inactivation of B. microti
      was achieved in this animal infectivity model, and pathogen reduction treatment
      inhibited transmission of infection.

PMID- 28872686
TI  - Weak bones in diabetes mellitus - an update on pharmaceutical treatment options.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Diabetes mellitus is often associated with a number of complications
      such as nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy and foot ulcers. However, weak bone
      is a diabetic complication that is often overlooked. Although the exact mechanism
      for weak bones within diabetes mellitus is unclear, studies have shown that the
      mechanism does differ in both type I (T1DM) and type II diabetes (T2DM). This
      review, however, investigates the application of mesenchymal stem cells,
      recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2, teriparatide, insulin
      administration and the effectiveness of a peroxisome proliferator-activated
      receptor-Upsilon modulator, netoglitazone in the context of diabetic weak bones.
      KEY FINDINGS: In T1DM, weak bones may be the result of defective osteoblast
      activity, the absence of insulin's anabolic effects on bone, the deregulation of
      the bone-pancreas negative feedback loop and advanced glycation end product (AGE)
      aggregation within the bone matrix as a result of hyperglycaemia. Interestingly,
      T2DM patients placed on insulin administration, thiazolidinediones, SGLT2
      inhibitors and sulfonylureas have an associated increased fracture risk. T2DM
      patients are also observed to have high sclerostin levels that impair osteoblast
      gene transcription, AGE aggregation within bone, which compromises bone strength
      and a decrease in esRAGE concentration resulting in a negative association with
      vertebral fractures. SUMMARY: Effective treatment options for weak bones in the
      context of diabetes are currently lacking. There is certainly scope for discovery
      and development of novel agents that could alleviate this complication in
      diabetes patients.

PMID- 28872687
TI  - Development of extended-release solid dispersion granules of tacrolimus:
      evaluation of release mechanism and human oral bioavailability.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to prepare a once-daily modified-release oral formulation of
      tacrolimus by utilizing an extended-release granules (ERG). METHODS: Extended
      release granules were prepared using ethylcellulose (EC),
      hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) and lactose via a solvent evaporation method
      with ethanol. Physicochemical and biopharmaceutical studies were performed to
      determine the formulation with optimum release profile of tacrolimus from ERG.
      KEY FINDINGS: Tacrolimus existed in an amorphous state in ERG. Tacrolimus release
      from ERG was attenuated by EC and facilitated by lactose, suggesting that drug
      release kinetics could adequately be regulated by these components. Those release
      profiles were consistent with Higuchi's equation, suggesting a diffusion-type
      release mechanism. Smooth surface of ERG changed to the structure with pores
      after the release test, likely derived from the dissolution of HPMC and lactose.
      But ERG structure formed by EC was still maintained after the release test,
      leading to the longer maintenance of diffusion-type release. Two ERG formulations
      selected by blood concentration simulation successfully provided long-term
      retention of tacrolimus in blood in a human absorption study. CONCLUSIONS: We
      successfully developed the formulation exhibiting a significant reduction in Cmax
      , the longer mean residence time and AUC close to that of an immediate-release
      tacrolimus formulation, being preferred from the viewpoint of safe and effective
      immunosuppressant pharmacotherapy.

PMID- 28872688
TI  - Liposomal alpha-galactosylceramide is taken up by gut-associated lymphoid tissue
      and stimulates local and systemic immune responses.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: alpha-Galactosylceramide (alpha-GalCer), a synthetic
      glycosphingolipid that exhibits potent immunostimulatory effects through
      activation of natural killer T (NKT) cells, can be used to treat conditions such
      as atopy, cancer, infection and autoimmunity. Administration of therapeutics
      through the oral route has advantages such as patient convenience, safety and
      reduced cost; however, there has been little research to investigate whether oral
      delivery of alpha-GalCer is possible. The aim of this study was therefore to
      determine whether alpha-GalCer formulated in either DMSO/Tween 80 or in
      liposomes, could access lymphoid tissue and stimulate immune activation following
      oral administration. METHODS: Fluorescently labelled cationic liposomes
      incorporating alpha-GalCer were prepared, characterized and administered by oral
      gavage to fasted mice. KEY FINDINGS: Liposomes were detected inside the Peyer's
      patches (PPs), in the subepithelial dome just under the follicle-associated
      epithelium. CD11b+ cells and CD11c+ were shown to have taken up the formulation
      in a higher proportion compared to the total cell proportion in the PPs,
      suggesting that cells with these markers may be the prominent antigen-presenting
      cells involved in selective uptake. Finally, the liposomal formulation
      demonstrated a higher degree of immune stimulation compared to the DMSO/Tween 80
      solubilized alpha-GalCer in the PPs, mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen as shown
      by the increased expression of IL-4 mRNA expression and increased proportion of
      NKT cells at 6 h and 3 days after administration. CONCLUSIONS: These results show
      that oral delivery of a liposomal alpha-GalCer can stimulate local and systemic
      immune responses to a different degree compared to the non-liposomal form.

PMID- 28872689
TI  - Metabolic interactions between acetaminophen (paracetamol) and two flavonoids,
      luteolin and quercetin, through in-vitro inhibition studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Excessive exposure to acetaminophen (APAP, paracetamol) can cause
      liver injury through formation of a reactive metabolite that depletes hepatic
      glutathione and causes hepatocellular oxidative stress and damage. Generation of
      this metabolite is mediated by Cytochrome-P450 (CYP) isoforms, mainly CYP2E1. A
      number of naturally occurring flavonoids can mitigate APAP-induced hepatotoxicity
      in experimental animal models. Our objective was to determine the mechanism of
      these protective effects and to evaluate possible human applicability. METHODS:
      Two flavonoids, luteolin and quercetin, were evaluated as potential inhibitors of
      eight human CYP isoforms, of six UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) isoforms and
      of APAP glucuronidation and sulfation. The experimental model was based on in
      vitro metabolism by human liver microsomes, using isoform-specific substrates.
      KEY FINDINGS: Luteolin and quercetin inhibited human CYP isoforms to varying
      degrees, with greatest potency towards CYP1A2 and CYP2C8. However, 50% inhibitory
      concentrations (IC50 values) were generally in the micromolar range. UGT isoforms
      were minimally inhibited. Both luteolin and quercetin inhibited APAP sulfation
      but not glucuronidation. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibition of human CYP activity by
      luteolin and quercetin occurred with IC50 values exceeding customary in-vivo
      human exposure with tolerable supplemental doses of these compounds. The findings
      indicate that luteolin and quercetin are not likely to be of clinical value for
      preventing or treating APAP-induced hepatotoxicity.

PMID- 28872690
TI  - Parametric multistate survival models: Flexible modelling allowing transition
      specific distributions with application to estimating clinically useful measures
      of effect differences.
AB  - Multistate models are increasingly being used to model complex disease profiles.
      By modelling transitions between disease states, accounting for competing events
      at each transition, we can gain a much richer understanding of patient
      trajectories and how risk factors impact over the entire disease pathway. In this
      article, we concentrate on parametric multistate models, both Markov and semi
      Markov, and develop a flexible framework where each transition can be specified
      by a variety of parametric models including exponential, Weibull, Gompertz,
      Royston-Parmar proportional hazards models or log-logistic, log-normal,
      generalised gamma accelerated failure time models, possibly sharing parameters
      across transitions. We also extend the framework to allow time-dependent effects.
      We then use an efficient and generalisable simulation method to calculate
      transition probabilities from any fitted multistate model, and show how it
      facilitates the simple calculation of clinically useful measures, such as
      expected length of stay in each state, and differences and ratios of proportion
      within each state as a function of time, for specific covariate patterns. We
      illustrate our methods using a dataset of patients with primary breast cancer.
      User-friendly Stata software is provided.

PMID- 28872691
TI  - Reduce procedure time for cavotricuspid flutter ablation: What is the optimal
      catheter?

PMID- 28872692
TI  - Coomassie staining provides routine (sub)femtomole in-gel detection of intact
      proteoforms: Expanding opportunities for genuine Top-down Proteomics.
AB  - Modified colloidal Coomassie Brilliant Blue (cCBB) staining utilising a novel
      destain protocol and near-infrared fluorescence detection (nIRFD) rivals the in
      gel protein detection sensitivity (DS) of SYPRO Ruby. However, established DS
      estimates are likely inaccurate in terms of 2DE-resolved proteoform 'spots' since
      DS is routinely measured from comparatively diffuse protein 'bands' following
      wide-well 1DE. Here, cCBB DS for 2DE-based proteomics was more accurately
      determined using narrow-well 1DE. As precise estimates of protein standard
      monomer concentrations are essential for accurate quantitation, coupling UV
      absorbance with gel-based purity assessments is described. Further, as cCBB is
      compatible with both nIRFD and densitometry, the impacts of imaging method (and
      image resolution) on DS were assessed. Narrow-well 1DE enabled more accurate
      quantitation of cCBB DS for 2DE, achieving (sub)femtomole DS with either nIRFD or
      densitometry. While densitometry offers comparative simplicity and affordability,
      nIRFD has the unique potential for enhanced DS with Deep Imaging. Higher
      resolution nIRFD also improved analysis of a 2DE-resolved proteome, surpassing
      the DS of standard nIRFD and densitometry, with nIRFD Deep Imaging further
      maximising proteome coverage. cCBB DS for intact proteins rivals that of mass
      spectrometry (MS) for peptides in complex mixtures, reaffirming that 2DE-MS
      currently provides the most routine, broadly applicable, robust, and information
      rich Top-down approach to Discovery Proteomics.

PMID- 28872693
TI  - Modeling continuous response variables using ordinal regression.
AB  - We study the application of a widely used ordinal regression model, the
      cumulative probability model (CPM), for continuous outcomes. Such models are
      attractive for the analysis of continuous response variables because they are
      invariant to any monotonic transformation of the outcome and because they
      directly model the cumulative distribution function from which summaries such as
      expectations and quantiles can easily be derived. Such models can also readily
      handle mixed type distributions. We describe the motivation, estimation,
      inference, model assumptions, and diagnostics. We demonstrate that CPMs applied
      to continuous outcomes are semiparametric transformation models. Extensive
      simulations are performed to investigate the finite sample performance of these
      models. We find that properly specified CPMs generally have good finite sample
      performance with moderate sample sizes, but that bias may occur when the sample
      size is small. Cumulative probability models are fairly robust to minor or
      moderate link function misspecification in our simulations. For certain purposes,
      the CPMs are more efficient than other models. We illustrate their application,
      with model diagnostics, in a study of the treatment of HIV. CD4 cell count and
      viral load 6 months after the initiation of antiretroviral therapy are modeled
      using CPMs; both variables typically require transformations, and viral load has
      a large proportion of measurements below a detection limit.

PMID- 28872694
TI  - Alkaline extractive crude polysaccharide from Russula senecis possesses
      antioxidant potential and stimulates innate immunity response.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Over past decades, investigation on bioactive polysaccharides
      extracted from mushroom by heated water reflux has been an emerging field of
      biomedicine especially in the area of immune stimulation. While studies with
      macromolecules isolated from remainder residue of aqueous extraction are scarce.
      In this context, crude polysaccharide from a traditionally edible macrofungus,
      Russula senecis, was prepared (RuseCap) by alkaline solvent using leftover
      residue of that conventional process and its structural along with therapeutic
      properties were evaluated. KEY FINDINGS: Investigation by FT-IR, HPTLC, GC-MS and
      spectrophotometry showed that the fraction was mainly consisted of carbohydrate
      with backbone of xylose, rhamnose, mannose and glucose (mostly beta-glucan).
      Besides, RuseCap exhibited strong antioxidant activity evident by radical
      scavenging (superoxide, hydroxyl, DPPH, ABTS), chelating ability and reduction
      power where EC50 values ranged from 257 to 4068 MUg/ml concentration. In
      addition, it also exhibited immune-boosting potentiality as the treatment
      effectively induced proliferation, phagocytosis, nitric oxide production,
      intracellular reactive oxygen species generation, morphological changes and
      increased transcription level of iNOS, COX-2, TNF-alpha, IL-6 genes in macrophage
      cells. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the study provided blueprint for extended
      utilization of R. senecis basidiocarps beyond hot water process and defined use
      of RuseCap as potent therapeutic agent against free radicals as well as deprived
      immunity.

PMID- 28872695
TI  - Penalized estimation for proportional hazards models with current status data.
AB  - We provide a simple and practical, yet flexible, penalized estimation method for
      a Cox proportional hazards model with current status data. We approximate the
      baseline cumulative hazard function by monotone B-splines and use a hybrid
      approach based on the Fisher-scoring algorithm and the isotonic regression to
      compute the penalized estimates. We show that the penalized estimator of the
      nonparametric component achieves the optimal rate of convergence under some
      smooth conditions and that the estimators of the regression parameters are
      asymptotically normal and efficient. Moreover, a simple variance estimation
      method is considered for inference on the regression parameters. We perform 2
      extensive Monte Carlo studies to evaluate the finite-sample performance of the
      penalized approach and compare it with the 3 competing R packages: C1.coxph,
      intcox, and ICsurv. A goodness-of-fit test and model diagnostics are also
      discussed. The methodology is illustrated with 2 real applications.

PMID- 28872696
TI  - The light cycle controls the hatching rhythm in Bombyx mori via negative feedback
      loop of the circadian oscillator.
AB  - Hatching behavior is a key target in silkworm (Bombyx mori) rearing, especially
      for the control of Lepidoptera pests. According to previous research, hatching
      rhythms appear to be controlled by a clock mechanism that restricts or "gates"
      hatching to a particular time. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive.
      Under 12-h light:12-h dark photoperiod (LD) conditions, the transcriptional
      levels of the chitinase5 (Cht5) and hatching enzyme-like (Hel) genes, as well as
      the enzymatic activities of their gene products, oscillated in time with ambient
      light cycles, as did the transcriptional levels of the cryptochrome 1,
      cryptochrome 2, period (per), and timeless genes, which are key components of the
      negative feedback loop of the circadian rhythm. These changes were related to the
      expression profile of the ecdysteroid receptor gene and the hatching behavior of
      B. mori eggs. However, under continuous light or dark conditions, the hatching
      behavior, the expression levels of Cht5 and Hel, as well as the enzymatic
      activities of their gene products, were not synchronized unlike under LD
      conditions. In addition, immunohistochemistry experiments showed that light
      promoted the translocation of PER from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. In
      conclusion, LD cycles regulate the hatching rhythm of B. mori via negative
      feedback loop of the circadian oscillator.

PMID- 28872697
TI  - Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Providing Methadone Maintenance Treatment
      Among Rural Community Pharmacists in Southwestern Ontario.
AB  - PURPOSE: Misuse of opioids has become a public health concern across North
      America. Rural patients have limited access to methadone maintenance treatment
      (MMT), an opioid addiction-treatment service that could be offered by community
      pharmacists. The aim of this study was to identify rural community pharmacists'
      perceived barriers, motivations, and solutions to offering MMT to their patients.
      METHODS: One-on-one, semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 community
      pharmacists who practice in rural southwestern Ontario. Interview transcripts
      were analyzed using inductive qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: Increased
      workload, extended operating hours, and concerns about safety, theft, burglary,
      community resistance, and availability of methadone training courses were
      identified as pharmacist-related barriers to providing MMT services. Professional
      satisfaction and community service were primary motivations for offering the
      service. Limited pharmacy staff availability exacerbated concerns about increased
      workload and security. Slower rural emergency-response times were cited among
      safety concerns. Participating pharmacists felt that rural regions had fewer MMT
      prescribers and that rural community members had greater apprehension about
      addiction-treatment services than those in urban communities. Pharmacists
      proposed that coordinating MMT service provision across multiple community
      pharmacies in the region could help improve access to treatment among their
      patients. CONCLUSION: Rural community pharmacy practice has unique barriers to
      implementing and providing MMT services. A coordinated, multipharmacy approach
      may be an option to provide and expand MMT services in rural regions.

PMID- 28872698
TI  - A multivariate distance-based analytic framework for microbial interdependence
      association test in longitudinal study.
AB  - Human microbiome is the collection of microbes living in and on the various parts
      of our body. The microbes living on our body in nature do not live alone. They
      act as integrated microbial community with massive competing and cooperating and
      contribute to our human health in a very important way. Most current analyses
      focus on examining microbial differences at a single time point, which do not
      adequately capture the dynamic nature of the microbiome data. With the advent of
      high-throughput sequencing and analytical tools, we are able to probe the
      interdependent relationship among microbial species through longitudinal study.
      Here, we propose a multivariate distance-based test to evaluate the association
      between key phenotypic variables and microbial interdependence utilizing the
      repeatedly measured microbiome data. Extensive simulations were performed to
      evaluate the validity and efficiency of the proposed method. We also demonstrate
      the utility of the proposed test using a well-designed longitudinal murine
      experiment and a longitudinal human study. The proposed methodology has been
      implemented in the freely distributed open-source R package and Python code.

PMID- 28872699
TI  - Psychosocial Correlates of Ever Having a Pap Test and Abnormal Pap Results in a
      Sample of Rural Appalachian Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite known prevention and screening efforts, there are higher
      invasive cervical cancer rates in Appalachia than in other areas of the United
      States and higher mortality rates in the Appalachian region of Kentucky compared
      to Appalachian regions of other states. PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this
      study was to investigate the association of psychosocial factors relevant to
      cervical cancer and the outcome of ever having a Pap test in a rural sample of
      women. The secondary purpose was to determine whether any of the same
      psychosocial factors were also associated with ever having an abnormal Pap test
      result among women with a self-reported history of having one or more Pap tests
      in their lifetime. METHODS: Data were collected in fall of 2013 from 393 women in
      8 economically distressed counties of rural Appalachian Kentucky. Women completed
      an interviewer-administered survey assessing sociodemographic and health
      information as well as beliefs about cervical cancer. FINDINGS: Multivariate
      logistic regression results indicated that low income and greater perceived local
      fatalism were significant predictors of never having a Pap test. Lack of personal
      control over prevention, and peer and family influences were significant
      predictors of ever having an abnormal Pap test result. CONCLUSIONS: Educational
      efforts targeted in rural Appalachia would be supported by encouraging the
      benefits of early and consistent screening, altering the established norms of
      community fatalism and lack of personal control over prevention, and creating
      targeted messages through public campaigns that convince rural Appalachian women
      that cervical cancer is highly preventable and screenable.

PMID- 28872700
TI  - Optimal procedural sequence for same-day bidirectional endoscopy with moderate
      sedation: A prospective randomized study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Same-day bidirectional endoscopy (BDE) is a commonly
      performed procedure, but the optimal sequence for the procedure with moderate
      conscious sedation is not well established. This study investigated the optimal
      sequence for same-day BDE under moderate conscious sedation and carbon dioxide
      insufflation in terms of sedation doses, patient discomfort, and colonoscopy
      performance. METHODS: A prospective randomized controlled study of 120 patients
      who were scheduled for BDE examination was performed. Colonoscopy followed by
      esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) examination was performed in 60 patients
      (colonoscopy-EGD group), and EGD followed by colonoscopy examination was
      performed in another 60 patients (EGD-colonoscopy group). Endoscopists and
      patients completed a questionnaire to assess objective and subjective discomfort.
      RESULTS: Baseline demographics, procedure indications, bowel preparation quality,
      cecal intubation rate/time, colonoscopy withdrawal time, endoscopic
      interventions, BDE procedure time, colon polyp/adenoma detection rates, patient
      discomfort, and adverse events were similar between the two study groups. The
      total doses of fentanyl and midazolam were significantly higher for the
      colonoscopy-EGD group than for the EGD-colonoscopy group (83.4 +/- 17.7 vs 68.7
      +/- 18.6 MUg and 6.3 +/- 1.4 vs 5.2 +/- 1.3 mg, P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001,
      respectively). The recovery time to discharge was significantly longer for the
      colonoscopy-EGD group than for the EGD-colonoscopy group (43.5 +/- 16.2 vs 34.5
      +/- 8.9 min, P = 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: Esophagogastroduodenoscopy followed by
      colonoscopy is the optimal sequence for same-day BDE under moderate conscious
      sedation and carbon dioxide insufflation. Following this order allows for a
      reduction of sedation doses and for shorter recovery times.

PMID- 28872701
TI  - Natural history of pancreatic cystic lesions: A multicenter prospective
      observational study for evaluating the risk of pancreatic cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aim of this study is to elucidate the natural history of
      pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs), including branch duct-type intraductal
      papillary mucinous neoplasm (BD-IPMN), via midterm follow-up analysis of a
      multicenter prospective observational study (NSPINAL study). METHODS: From July
      2011 to October 2016, 881 patients with PCLs were enrolled in NSPINAL study, and
      664 patients with > 12 months of follow up were analyzed. Every patient was
      asymptomatic, and endoscopic ultrasound was performed at the initial diagnosis to
      exclude high-risk individuals. Follow up included endoscopic ultrasound, computed
      tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging at least once a year. Serial
      morphological changes and the pancreatic cancer (PC) incidence, including
      malignant progression of PCLs, were evaluated. RESULTS: The 664 patients (358
      men) were followed for a median of 33.5 months (interquartile range 29). The cyst
      and main pancreatic duct sizes were 16.6 +/- 9.3 and 2.3 +/- 1.0 mm,
      respectively. Morphologically, 518 cases were multilocular, 137 were unilocular,
      and 9 had a honeycomb pattern; 269 cases involved multifocal lesions. Ninety-six
      patients (14.5%) showed worsening progression on imaging. There were two
      resectable and four unresectable cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and
      three cases of malignant BD-IPMN. The 3-year risk of developing PC was 1.2%. The
      standardized incidence ratio for PC among PCLs was 10.0 (95% confidence interval
      3.5-16.5), and the standardized incidence ratio among BD-IPMN was 16.6 (95%
      confidence interval 5.1-28.1). Multivariate analysis showed that development of
      symptoms and worsening progression were significant predictors of PC.
      CONCLUSIONS: Malignant progression of PCLs, including PC development, is not
      uncommon. Patients with PCLs should be carefully monitored to detect pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma at early stages.

PMID- 28872702
TI  - Enhancement of  l-phenylalanine production in Escherichia coli by heterologous
      expression of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin.
AB  - l-Phenylalanine is an important amino acid that is widely used in the production
      of food flavors and pharmaceuticals. Generally, l-phenylalanine production by
      engineered Escherichia coli requires a high rate of oxygen supply. However, the
      coexpression of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene (vgb), driven bya tac promoter, with
      the genes encoding 3-deoxy-d-arabinoheptulosonate-7-phosphate synthetase (aroF)
      and feedback-resistant chorismate mutase/prephenate dehydratase (pheAfbr ), led
      to increased productivity and decreased demand for aeration by E. coli CICC10245.
      Shake-flask studies showed that vgb-expressing strains displayed higher rates of
      oxygen uptake, and l-phenylalanine production under standard aeration conditions
      was increased. In the aerobic fermentation process, cell growth, l-phenylalanine
      production, and glucose consumption by the recombinant E. coli strain PAPV, which
      harbored aroF, pheAfbr , and tac-vgb genes, were increased compared to that in
      the strain harboring only aroF and pheAfbr (E. coli strain PAP), especially under
      oxygen-limited conditions. The vgb-expressing strain PAPV produced 21.9% more
      biomass and 16.6% more l-phenylalanine, while consuming only approximately 5%
      more glucose after 48 H of fermentation. This study demonstrates a method to
      enhance the l-phenylalanine production by E. coli using less intensive and thus
      more economical aeration conditions.

PMID- 28872703
TI  - Evaluation of beta-Aminocarboxylic Acid Derivatives in Hippocampal Excitatory
      Synaptic Transmission.
AB  - beta-Aminocarboxylic acid derivatives (LINS04 series) were screened with the aim
      to explore their potential functional role in excitatory synaptic transmission in
      the central nervous system. We used field recordings in rat hippocampal slices to
      investigate the effects of the LINS04 series on the synaptic transmission at
      hippocampal CA1 synapses. We found that LINS04008 and LINS04009 increase the size
      of the evoked field excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) in a dose-dependent
      manner. The concentration-response curve shows that the efficacy of LINS04008 is
      highest in the series (EC50  = 91.32 uM; maximum fEPSP 44.97%). The esters
      LINS04006 and LINS04005 did not affect the synaptic evoked activity. These data
      provide the first evidence of synaptic activity enhancement by these compounds
      and the importance of the acidic group to the activity. This set of data may
      provide direction for a strategic procedure to restore the glutamate synaptic
      transmission; however, further studies are needed to establish a more complete
      picture of how these molecules act on the glutamate transmission, which are in
      our mind for the next steps.

PMID- 28872704
TI  - Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of New Peptide Analogues as
      Selective COX-2 Inhibitors.
AB  - A new class of peptide derivatives possessing SO2 Me and N3 pharmacophores at the
      para position of a phenyl ring bound to different aromatic amino acids were
      synthesized based on solid-phase synthesis methodology, and evaluated as
      selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors. One of the analogues, i.e.,
      compound 2a as the representative of this series, was recognized as the highest
      selective COX-2 inhibitor with a COX-2 selectivity index of >500. The structure
      activity relationships (SARs) acquired indicated that compound 2a containing a 4
      (methylsulfonyl)benzoyl group as a pharmacophore and tyrosine as a ring bearing
      amino acid in the second position and glutamic acid as the C-terminal amino acid
      can give the essential geometry to provide selective COX-2 inhibitory activity.
      Antiproliferative activity of the synthesized peptides (1a-7b) was also
      determined against four different human cancer cell lines, including MCF-7,
      HepG2, A549, and HeLa. According to our results, A549, HepG2, and MCF7 seemed to
      be more sensitive cell lines than HeLa cells encountering these compounds, which
      gave inhibitory action with IC50 values from 4.8 to 64.4 uM. In this regard,
      compounds 3a and 2b displayed the best inhibitory activity against the cell
      lines. Moreover, a good correlation was observed between the antiproliferative
      potency and the COX-2 inhibitory activity of compounds 1a, 2a, 2b, and 5b. Such
      findings suggest that one of the mechanism of anticancer activity of these
      peptides may be through the COX-2 inhibitory action.

PMID- 28872705
TI  - Heat stress hardening of oriental armyworms is induced by a transient elevation
      of reactive oxygen species during sublethal stress.
AB  - Pre-exposure to mild heat stress enhances the thermotolerance of insects. Stress
      hardening is a beneficial physiological plasticity, but the mechanism underlying
      it remains elusive. Here we report that reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      concentrations were quickly and transiently elevated in the armyworms, Mythimna
      separata, by exposing them to 40 degrees C, but not other tested temperatures.
      Larvae exposed to 40 degrees C had subsequently elevated antioxidant activity and
      the highest survival of all tested heating conditions. The elevation of ROS after
      lethal heating at 44 degrees C for 1 h was approximately twofold compared to
      heating at 40 degrees C. Injection of an optimal amount of hydrogen peroxide (H2
      O2 ) similarly caused sequential elevation of ROS and antioxidant activity in the
      test larval hemolymph, which led to significantly enhanced survival after lethal
      heat stress. The H2 O2 -induced thermotolerance was abolished by coinjection of
      potent antioxidants such as ascorbic acid or N-acetylcysteine. Both preheating at
      40 degrees C and H2 O2 injection enhanced expression of genes encoding superoxide
      dismutase 1, catalase, and heat shock protein 70 in the fat body of test larvae,
      indicating the adequate heat stress induced a transient elevation of ROS,
      followed by upregulation of antioxidant activity. We infer that thermal stress
      hardening is induced by a small timely ROS elevation that triggers a reduction
      oxidation signaling mechanism.

PMID- 28872707
TI  - Changing diagnosis codes for lower respiratory tract infections can confound
      longitudinal studies.

PMID- 28872706
TI  - Candida bloodstream infections in Serbia: First multicentre report of a national
      prospective observational survey in intensive care units.
AB  - Candida bloodstream infections (BSI) are a significant cause of mortality in
      intensive care units (ICU), hereof the prospective 12-months (2014-2015) hospital
      and laboratory-based survey was performed at the Serbian National Reference
      Medical Mycology Laboratory (NRMML). Candida identification was done by a matrix
      assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry and a
      susceptibility test, according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute
      methodology. Among nine centres (265 beds; 10 820 patient admissions), four
      neonatal/paediatric (NICU/PICUs) and five adult centres (ICUs) participated,
      representing 89 beds and 3446 patient admissions, 166 beds and 7347 patient
      admissions respectively. The NRMML received 43 isolates, 17 from NICU/PICUs and
      26 from adult ICUs. C. albicans dominated highly in NICU/PICUs (~71%), whereas C.
      albicans and C. parapsilosis were equally distributed within adults (46%, each),
      both accounting for ~90% of received isolates. The resistance to itraconazole and
      flucytosine were 25% and 2.4% respectively. In addition, the 2 C. albicans were
      azole cross-resistant (4.6%). The overall incidence of CandidaBSI was ~3.97
      cases/1000 patient admissions (4.93 in NICU/PICU and 3.53 in adult ICU). The 30
      day mortality was ~37%, most associated with C. tropicalis and C. glabrataBSI.
      Data from this national survey may contribute to improving the Balkan and
      Mediterranean region epidemiology of CandidaBSI within ICUs.

PMID- 28872708
TI  - Validation of an automated immune turbidimetric assay for serum gelsolin and its
      possible clinical utility in sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies showing the potential predictive value of the actin-binding
      protein gelsolin, in critically ill patients are scarce. Moreover, even up to now
      a rapid automated measurement of gelsolin has still remained a challenge.
      Therefore, we developed and validated an automated serum gelsolin immune
      turbidimetric assay for possible clinical use. METHODS: Validation of serum
      gelsolin assay was performed on a Cobas 8000/c502 analyzer (Roche) according to
      the second edition of Eurachem guidelines. Furthermore, we also studied the
      diagnostic value of serum gelsolin in sepsis when investigating sera of septic (n
      = 25), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS; n = 8) and control patients
      (n = 14). We compared our previously published Western blot data with those of
      the new turbidimetric assay. RESULTS: The sample volume was 7 MUL and the assay
      time was 10 minutes. The detection limit was 0.72 mg/L, intra- and inter-assay
      imprecision remained in most cases less than 5% expressed as CV. Recovery was
      found to be 84.56%-93.52% and linearity study gave an appropriate correlation
      coefficient by linear regression analysis (r2  = .998). Septic patients exhibited
      lower (P = .015) first-day serum gelsolin levels than SIRS patients, which
      confirmed our previous Western blot results. The determined cut-off point for
      serum gelsolin was 14.05 mg/L (sensitivity: 75%; specificity: 60%) when
      investigating its diagnostic value in sepsis. CONCLUSION: Based on the results,
      our immune turbidimetric measurement offers a rapid and accurate quantitation of
      gelsolin in human serum samples. Serum gelsolin seems a promising additional
      diagnostic marker of sepsis which has to be further investigated.

PMID- 28872709
TI  - Implementing higher oxygen saturation targets reduced the impact of poor weight
      gain as a predictor for retinopathy of prematurity.
AB  - AIM: This study evaluated poor weight gain as a risk factor for infants who
      required treatment for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), by comparing those born
      before and after the implementation of higher oxygen saturation (SpO2 ) targets
      at the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. METHODS: We compared
      infants born at less than 31 weeks, who were screened and, or, treated for ROP:
      127 in 2011-2012 when SpO2 targets were 88-92% and 142 in 2015-2016 when they
      were 91-95%. The subjects were reviewed for birth characteristics, weekly weight
      and ROP treatment. Data were analysed using the weight, insulin-like growth
      factor 1, neonatal, ROP (WINROP) prediction tool. RESULTS: The 2011-2012 infants
      who needed ROP treatment (12.6%) had significantly poorer postnatal weight gain
      than those who did not, but this was not seen in the treated (17.6%) and
      nontreated ROP groups in 2015-2016. WINROP sensitivity decreased from 87.5% in
      2011-12 to 48% in 2015-2016. CONCLUSION: After the SpO2 target range was
      increased from 88-92% to 91-95%, postnatal weight gain was no longer a
      significant risk factor and WINROP lost its ability to predict ROP requiring
      treatment. Risk factors clearly change as neonatal care develops.

PMID- 28872710
TI  - Perceptions of dental treatment need in Australian-born and migrant populations.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate differences in self-perceived and
      dentist-determined treatment need in Australian-born and migrant residents of
      Australia. Participants in the National Survey of Adult Oral Health 2004-06 were
      categorized into six groups according to country of birth. Interview and
      examination data were used to analyze differences between self-perceived and the
      'gold standard' examiner-determined treatment need, and to compare the accuracy
      of self-reporting according to country of birth. Self-reported treatment needs,
      defined as the need for a restoration and/or extraction, were cross-tabulated
      with clinically observed conditions and compared using a multivariable logistic
      regression model. Concordance between self-reported and clinically-determined
      treatment need differed significantly for migrants from Europe and the UK and
      Australian-born individuals. In the logistic regression model, stratification
      according to examiner-determined treatment need revealed significantly greater
      reporting of treatment need by Asian-born migrants than by the Australian-born
      reference group. The results of this study demonstrate that self-perceived
      treatment need was less than the examiner-determined findings in European and UK
      migrant groups and Australian-born individuals. Additionally, Asian migrants were
      more likely than Australian-born individuals to over-report treatment need for a
      filling and/or extraction.

PMID- 28872711
TI  - Candida-reactive T cells for the diagnosis of invasive Candida infection of the
      lumbar vertebral spine.
AB  - Invasive Candida infection is the fourth most common bloodstream infection. Blood
      cultures are the current gold standard diagnostic method, however, false
      negatives remain a clinical challenge. We developed a new technique measuring
      Candida-reactive T cells as diagnostic read-out for invasive Candida infection.
      In a pilot study, we followed the treatment course of a patient with an invasive
      Candida infection of the lumbar vertebral spine. We present the case of a 56-year
      old patient with HIV-associated Burkitt lymphoma who developed septic shock
      during chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. For the first time, we provide flow
      cytometry-based diagnostics with Candida-reactive T cells for invasive
      candidiasis with comprehensive MRI imaging. The Candida-reactive T cell assay has
      potential to complement current diagnostic assays for invasive Candida infection
      and thus to support targeted treatment.

PMID- 28872712
TI  - Regulation of hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing hormone neurone excitability
      by oxytocin.
AB  - Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide that exerts multiple actions throughout the brain
      and periphery. Within the brain, OT regulates diverse neural populations,
      including neural networks controlling responses to stress. Local release of OT
      within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus has been suggested
      to regulate stress responses by modulating the excitability of neighbouring
      corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurones. However, the mechanisms by which
      OT regulates CRH neurone excitability are unclear. In the present study, we
      investigated the morphological relationship between OT and CRH neurones and
      determined the effects of OT on CRH neurone excitability. Morphological analysis
      revealed that the processes of OT and CRH neurones were highly intermingled
      within the PVN, possibly allowing for local cell-to-cell cross-talk. Whole-cell
      patch-clamp recordings from CRH neurones were used to study the impact of OT on
      postsynaptic excitability and synaptic innervation. Bath-applied OT did not alter
      CRH neurone holding current, spiking output or any action potential parameters.
      Recordings of evoked excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents
      (EPSCs/IPSCs) revealed no net effect of OT on current amplitude; however,
      subgroups of CRH neurones appeared to respond differentially to OT. Analysis of
      spontaneous EPSC events uncovered a significant reduction in spontaneous EPSC
      frequency but no change in spontaneous EPSC amplitude in response to OT.
      Together, these data demonstrate that OT exerts a subtle modulation of synaptic
      transmission onto CRH neurones providing one potential mechanism by which OT
      could suppress CRH neurone excitability and stress axis activity.

PMID- 28872713
TI  - Ultrahigh-Efficiency Green PHOLEDs with a Voltage under 3 V and a Power
      Efficiency of Nearly 110 lm W-1 at Luminance of 10 000 cd m-2.
AB  - Maintaining high power efficiency (PE) under high brightness is still a pressing
      problem for the practical application of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).
      Here, ultrahigh-efficiency green phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs) with a record-low
      voltage at luminance above 5000 cd m-2 are fabricated, by developing a novel
      anthracene/pyridine derivative as the electron-transporting material (ETM)
      combined with a material displaying thermally activated delayed fluorescence as
      the host. The pyridine units of the ETM not only facilitate charge injection, but
      also enhance the electron-transporting mobility, profiting from the closely
      packed molecules caused by the intermolecular H-bonding. The optimized green
      PHOLEDs show record-low driving voltages of 2.76 and 2.92 V, with EQEs/PEs of
      28.0%/102 lm W-1 and 27.9%/97 lm W-1 at 5000 and 10 000 cd m-2 , respectively.
      Furthermore, device optimization exhibits an unprecedented high PE of 109 lm W-1
      at 10 000 cd m-2 with voltage under 3 V. Those values are the state-of-the-art
      among all reported green OLEDs so far, paving their way toward practical
      applications.

PMID- 28872714
TI  - Microbial epidemiology of candidaemia in neonatal and paediatric intensive care
      units at the Children's Medical Center, Tehran.
AB  - Invasive candidiasis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children.
      However, limited data are available on the epidemiology of this infection in
      paediatric settings in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the
      prevalence, microbial epidemiology, risk factors and clinical outcomes associated
      with candidaemia in intensive care units at the Children's Medical Center,
      Tehran, Iran. All blood and other normally sterile specimen cultures positive for
      Candida species were included. Isolates were identified by morphological and
      molecular methods. Unidentified/doubtful yeast isolates were subjected to ITS
      sequencing. A total of 156 episodes of invasive candidiasis, with an overall
      incidence of 15.2 per 1000 ICU admissions, was recorded. Risk factors included
      presence of central venous lines (89.1%), mechanical ventilation (55.8%) and
      parenteral nutrition (51.3%). Candida albicans (57.1%) and Candida parapsilosis
      (24.4%) were the most commonly isolated species. Candida orthopsilosis, Candida
      glabrata, Candida dubliniensis, Candida lusitaniae, Candida kefyr and Candida
      intermedia accounted for about 11% of the cases. The overall mortality rate was
      42.5%. Non-albicans Candida species accounted for nearly half of the cases of
      paediatric candidaemia. This is the first prospective study of candidaemia in
      paediatric settings in Iran and serves to inform necessary interventions for the
      prevention of candidaemia.

PMID- 28872715
TI  - Nanohybrids of Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides and Titanium
      Dioxide for Photocatalytic Applications.
AB  - The ever increasing need for renewable and clean energy resources as well as
      environmental concerns are considered as two serious challenges of today's
      society. Photocatalysis has proved to be a reliable and effective technology to
      overcome these issues. However, to bring the full potential of this approach into
      reality, two main hurdles of fast charge recombination and the limited visible
      light absorption should be tackled. To address these obstacles, nanocomposites
      based on titanium dioxide nanostructures and semiconducting two-dimensional
      transition-metal dichalcogenides have been developed and proven to be excellent
      photocatalysts. In this review, we will overview the recent developments on the
      fabrication and rational design of these nanocomposites both for hydrogen
      production and photocatalytic degradation of pollutants with emphasis on those
      appealing structures.

PMID- 28872716
TI  - Parent Thioketene S-Oxide H2 CCSO: Gas-Phase Generation, Structure, and Bonding
      Analysis.
AB  - The parent thioketene S-oxide H2 CCSO has been generated in the gas phase through
      flash vacuum pyrolysis (ca. 1000 K) of vinyl sulfoxide H2 CC(Br)-S(O)CF3 via the
      intermediacy of a novel vinyl sulfinyl radical H2 C=C(Br)-SO (syn and anti
      conformers). Upon irradiation at 266 nm, H2 CCSO decomposes into HCCH/SO and H2
      CS/CO in cryogenic Ar matrix. Whereas, visible-light irradiations result in syn<
      >anti conformational interconversion in H2 C=C(Br)-SO. The molecular structures
      of H2 CCSO and isomers are computationally studied at the CCSD(T)-F12/VTZ-F12
      level of theory, and the bonding properties of H2 CCSO are analyzed with the EDA
      NOCV method at the M06-2X/TZ2P level.

PMID- 28872717
TI  - Role of the Bridging Group in Bis-Pyridyl Ligands: Enhancing Both the Photo- and
      Electroluminescent Features of Cationic (IPr)CuI Complexes.
AB  - We report on the benefits of changing the bridging group X of bis-pyridyl
      ligands, that is, Py-X-Py where X is NH, CH2 , C(CH3 )2 , or PPh, on the photo-
      and electroluminescent properties of a new family of luminescent cationic H
      heterocyclic carbene (NHC) copper(I) complexes. A joint experimental and
      theoretical study demonstrates that the bridging group affects the molecular
      conformation from a planar-like structure (X is NH and CH2 ) to a boat-like
      structure (X is C(CH3 )2 and PPh), leading to i) four-fold enhancement of the
      photoluminescence quantum yield (phiem ) without affecting the thermally
      activated delayed fluorescence mechanism, and ii) one order of magnitude
      reduction of the ionic conductivity (sigma) of thin films. This leads to an
      overall enhancement of the device efficacy and luminance owing to the increased
      phiem and the use of low applied driving currents.

PMID- 28872718
TI  - Stereoselective Arene-Forming Aldol Condensation: Catalyst-Controlled Synthesis
      of Axially Chiral Compounds.
AB  - The fundamental role that aldol chemistry adopts in various disciplines, such as
      stereoselective catalysis or the biosynthesis of aromatic polyketides,
      illustrates its exceptional versatility. On the one hand, numerous aldol addition
      reactions reliably transfer the stereochemical information from catalysts into
      various valuable products. On the other hand, countless aromatic polyketide
      natural products are produced by an ingenious biosynthetic machinery based on
      arene-forming aldol condensations. With the aim of complementing aldol
      methodology that controls stereocenter configuration, we recently combined these
      two tenets by investigating small-molecule-catalyzed aldol condensation reactions
      that stereoselectively form diverse axially chiral compounds through the
      construction of a new aromatic ring.

PMID- 28872719
TI  - Oral herbal medicines marketed in Brazil for the treatment of osteoarthritis: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Herbal medications are commonly used to manage symptoms associated with
      osteoarthritis (OA). This systematic review evaluated the effectiveness and
      safety of oral medications used in Brazil for the treatment of OA. Randomized
      clinical trials involving adults with OA treated by a herbal medicine or a
      control group were eligible. The primary outcomes measured were pain, physical
      function, swelling, stiffness and quality of life; and the secondary outcomes
      were adverse events, activity limitations and treatment satisfaction. Sixteen
      studies were included (n = 1,741 patients) in the systematic review and nine
      studies in the meta-analysis, representing 6 of the 13 herbal medicines studied:
      Boswellia serrata (n = 2), Curcuma longa (n = 3), Harpagophytum procumbens (n =
      1), Salix daphnoides (n = 3), Uncaria guianensis (n = 2) and Zingiber officinale
      (n = 5). B. serrata was more effective than both placebo and valdecoxib for
      improvement of pain and physical function. No difference was observed for H.
      procumbens, C. longa and U. guianensis compared with control. Z. officinale
      showed improvement of pain over placebo. The evidence was insufficient to support
      the effective and safe use of these herbal medicines, because the quality of
      evidence of studies was low. This study guides managers of the Brazilian public
      health system and prescribers in decision-making regarding the use of these
      herbal medicines for OA. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28872720
TI  - Laboratory-Based Investigation of Denture Sonication Method in Patients with
      Candida-Associated Denture Stomatitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Denture stomatitis (DS) is a disease characterized by inflammation and
      erythema of the oral mucosa areas covered by the denture. Multifactorial
      etiological factors contribute to DS, but it seems that Candida plays the key
      role. The aim of the study was to evaluate the denture sonication method to: (i)
      increase the possibility of diagnosing patients with Candida-associated DS; (ii)
      detect and identify the mixed Candida spp., and (iii) determine the Candida
      colony forming units (CFU) and its possible relationship with DS severity, based
      on Newton's classification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cross-sectional study
      conducted at the Clinic for Dental Prosthetics, Belgrade (Serbia) from June 2013
      to December 2014 enrolled edentulous patients with dentures (n = 250). Patients
      without DS (n = 20) were the control group (CG). The patients' data were
      collected, and patients with DS (study group/SG) were selected and divided into
      SG Candida+ and SG Candida-. Based on severity of DS, the SG patients were
      classified in 3 groups (Newton's classification). Four sampling methods were
      applied to detect patients with Candida-associated DS: mucosa swab, denture swab,
      oral rinse, and denture sonication method. The sensitivity and specificity of
      denture sonication method were shown using the receiver operating characteristic
      (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC). RESULTS: In 97 (38.8%), out of
      250 clinically examined patients, DS was diagnosed. In 82 (84.5%), out of 97
      mycologically examined patients, Candida-associated DS was detected when denture
      sonication method was applied. Additionally, using the denture sonication method
      we observed: (i) the largest number of Candida positive patients compared to
      other sampling methods (p < 0.0001); (ii) the highest number of Candida CFU/ml
      (105 ), and (iii) the possibility to detect mixed Candida cultures. The largest
      number of patients with Candida-associated DS showed type II (60%) DS, followed
      by type I (21%), and type III (19%) DS. CONCLUSION: The denture sonication method
      is easy, accurate, and sensitive, and increases the possibility of diagnosing
      patients with Candida-associated DS. Additionally, yeast quantification, mixed
      Candida spp., and non-albicans Candida were detectable when cultivation on
      Candida CHROMagar was performed. It was not possible using conventional methods,
      such as swab or oral rinse.

PMID- 28872721
TI  - On risk in addiction science, policy and debate.

PMID- 28872722
TI  - Impact of Intentional Overload on Joint Stability of Internal Implant-Abutment
      Connection System with Different Diameter.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the axial displacement of the implant-abutment assembly of
      different implant diameter after static and cyclic loading of overload condition.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: An internal conical connection system with three diameters
      (O 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0) applying identical abutment dimension and the same abutment
      screw was evaluated. Axial displacement of abutment and reverse torque loss of
      abutment screw were evaluated under static and cyclic loading conditions. Static
      loading test groups were subjected to vertical static loading of 250, 400, 500,
      600, 700, and 800 N consecutively. Cyclic loading test groups were subjected to
      500 N cyclic loading to evaluate the effect of excessive masticatory loading.
      After abutment screw tightening for 30 Ncm, axial displacement was measured upon
      1, 3, 10, and 1,000,000 cyclic loadings of 500 N. Repeated-measure ANOVA and 2
      way ANOVA were used for statistical analysis (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: The
      increasing magnitude of vertical load and thinner wall thickness of implant
      increased axial displacement of abutment and reverse torque loss of abutment
      screw (p < 0.05). Implants in the O 5.0 diameter group demonstrated significantly
      low axial displacement, and reverse torque loss after static loading than O 4.0
      and O 4.5 diameter groups (p < 0.05). In the cyclic loading test, all diameter
      groups of implant showed significant axial displacement after 1 cycle of loading
      of 500 N (p < 0.05). There was no significant axial displacement after 3, 10, or
      1,000,000 cycles of loading (p = 0.603). CONCLUSIONS: Implants with O 5.0
      diameter demonstrated significantly low axial displacement and reverse torque
      loss after the cyclic and static loading of overload condition.

PMID- 28872723
TI  - Working atmosphere, job satisfaction and individual characteristics of community
      mental health professionals in integrated care.
AB  - Working requirements of community mental healthcare professionals in integrated
      care are complex. There is a lack of research concerning the relation of job
      satisfaction, working atmosphere and individual characteristics. For the current
      study, a survey evaluating job satisfaction and working atmosphere of mental
      healthcare professionals in integrated care was performed. About 321 community
      mental healthcare professionals were included in the survey; the response rate
      was 59.5%. The professional background of community mental healthcare
      professionals included nursing, social work and psychology. Community mental
      healthcare professionals reported the highest satisfaction with colleagues and
      the lowest satisfaction with income. Moreover, it could be shown that more
      responsibility, more recognition and more variety in job tasks lead to an
      increase of overall job satisfaction. Healthcare for mentally ill patients in the
      community setting is complex and requires well-structured care with appropriate
      responsibilities within the team. A co-operative relationship among colleagues as
      well as clearly defined responsibilities seem to be the key for the job
      satisfaction of community mental healthcare professionals in integrated care.

PMID- 28872724
TI  - Successful treatment of bilateral endogenous Fusarium solani endophthalmitis in a
      patient with acute lymphocytic leukaemia.
AB  - Fusarium spp. are an uncommon cause of fungaemia in immunocompromised and
      neutropenic patients that may hematogenously disseminate to the eyes. Herein, we
      describe a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and a prior history of
      extensive corticosteroid exposure who developed disseminated Fusarium solani
      infection following chemotherapy despite posaconazole prophylaxis. She was
      successfully treated with combination liposomal amphotericin B and voriconazole,
      intraocular injections of voriconazole, topical amphotericin B and bilateral
      vitrectomy. We also review published literature describing the management of
      endogenous Fusarium endophthalmitis in immunocompromised hosts.

PMID- 28872726
TI  - Bond Strength of Resin Cement and Glass Ionomer to Nd:YAG Laser-Treated Zirconia
      Ceramics.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet
      (Nd:YAG) laser irradiation on the surface properties and bond strength of
      zirconia ceramics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-eight zirconia ceramic pieces (4
      * 4 * 1 mm3 ) were divided into four groups according to surface treatment as
      follows: two control groups (no treatment) for resin bonding (CRC) and glass
      ionomer (GI) bonding (CGC); two laser treatment groups (Nd:YAG irradiation, 3 W,
      200 MJ, 10 Hz, 180 MUs) for resin bonding (LRC) and GI bonding (LGC). The
      ceramics in the control groups and the laser groups were distinguished by the
      application of different cements (resin cement and GI). Following surface
      treatments, the specimens were cemented to human dentin with resin cement and GI.
      After bonding, the shear bond strength (SBS) of the ceramic to dentin was
      measured, and the failure mode of each specimen was analyzed using a
      stereomicroscope. A one-way ANOVA compared the average bond strength of the four
      groups. Pairwise comparisons among the groups were performed using the Games
      Howell test. The level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The means (+/-
      standard deviation) of SBS values in the CRC, CGC, LRC, and LGC groups were 3.98
      +/- 1.10, 1.66 +/- 0.59, 10.24 +/- 2.46, and 2.21 +/- 0.38 MPa, respectively.
      Data showed that the application of the Nd:YAG laser resulted in a significantly
      greater SBS of the resin cement to the zirconia ceramics (p < 0.001). The highest
      bond strength was recorded in the LRC group. In the CRC group, 75% of the
      failures were of the adhesive type, compared with 66.7% and 83.3% in the LRC and
      LGC groups, respectively. In the CGC group, all failures were adhesive.
      CONCLUSIONS: Pretreatment of zirconia ceramic via Nd:YAG laser improves the bond
      strength of the resin cement to the zirconia ceramic. GI cement does not provide
      sufficient bond strength of zirconia ceramics to dentin.

PMID- 28872725
TI  - Dorsal Root Ganglion Field Stimulation Prevents Inflammation and Joint Damage in
      a Rat Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Electrical stimulation of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), referred to
      here as ganglionic field stimulation (GFS), is effective in reducing clinical
      pain, probably by interrupting transmission of afferent impulse trains on sensory
      neurons as they pass through the DRG. We therefore tested whether efferent
      impulse trains conveyed by sensory neurons, which contribute to neurogenic
      inflammation, may also be interrupted by GFS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Collagen
      induced arthritis, a model of clinical rheumatoid arthritis, was initiated in
      rats concurrently with the insertion of an electrode for GFS at the fourth lumbar
      DRG. Continuous GFS (20 Hz pulse rate, current at 80% of the motor threshold) was
      initiated 6 days later and continued for 14 days. Plantar pain sensitivity, ankle
      arthritis score, and dimensions of the foot and ankle were determined one hour
      after termination of GFS. RESULTS: The foot/ankle contralateral to GFS developed
      hypersensitivity to threshold and noxious mechanical stimulation, swelling, and
      high arthritis score, all of which were normalized in the foot/ankle ipsilateral
      with GFS. Histology showed GFS limited joint destruction. Electrophysiological
      recording showed GFS can block efferent impulse trains. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      show that GFS can reduce neurogenic inflammation and the resulting joint damage
      in a model of rheumatoid arthritis, probably by blocking the transit of impulse
      trains through the DRG. GFS may have clinical utility in limiting joint
      destruction in inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28872727
TI  - Hollow-Structured Graphene-Silicone-Composite-Based Piezoresistive Sensors:
      Decoupled Property Tuning and Bending Reliability.
AB  - A versatile flexible piezoresistive sensor should maintain high sensitivity in a
      wide linear range, and provide a stable and repeatable pressure reading under
      bending. These properties are often difficult to achieve simultaneously with
      conventional filler-matrix composite active materials, as tuning of one material
      component often results in change of multiple sensor properties. Here, a material
      strategy is developed to realize a 3D graphene-poly(dimethylsiloxane) hollow
      structure, where the electrical conductivity and mechanical elasticity of the
      composite can be tuned separately by varying the graphene layer number and the
      poly(dimethylsiloxane) composition ratio, respectively. As a result, the sensor
      sensitivity and linear range can be easily improved through a decoupled tuning
      process, reaching a sensitivity of 15.9 kPa-1 in a 60 kPa linear region, and the
      sensor also exhibits fast response (1.2 ms rising time) and high stability.
      Furthermore, by optimizing the density of the graphene percolation network and
      thickness of the composite, the stability and repeatability of the sensor output
      under bending are improved, achieving a measurement error below 6% under bending
      radius variations from -25 to +25 mm. Finally, the potential applications of
      these sensors in wearable medical devices and robotic vision are explored.

PMID- 28872728
TI  - Changes to Glazed Dental Ceramic Shade, Roughness, and Microhardness after
      Bleaching and Simulated Brushing.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate shade stability, surface roughness, microhardness, and
      compressive strength of a glazed feldspathic ceramic subjected to bleaching and
      simulated brushing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-eight glazed feldspathic
      ceramic specimens were made from microparticulate leucite and divided into eight
      groups (n = 10). The whitening products used were: Opalescence Treswhite Supreme
      (Ultradent), Opalescence(r)? PF 15% (Ultradent), and Oral-B 3D White Whitestrips.
      All substances for whitening were used for 4 hours/day for a period of 14 days;
      the control group was not bleached. Next, half of the specimens were individually
      brushed. Microhardness and surface roughness data were subjected to three-way
      ANOVA and Tukey test. The diametrical tensile strength data were subjected to two
      way ANOVA. The shade change data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis, Mann
      Whitney, and the Student-Newman-Keuls test. The significance level was set at 5%.
      RESULTS: Glazed feldspathic ceramic surface microhardness was significantly
      affected by bleaching agents (p = 0.007). Initially, glazed ceramic microhardness
      was significantly higher than that observed after contact with the bleaching
      agents, whether or not brushing was performed. The specimens submitted to
      bleaching in preloaded trays presented lower surface roughness values after
      brushing (p = 0.037). The surface roughness was significantly lower in the
      brushed specimens (p = 0.044). The diametrical tensile strength was not
      significantly affected by the application of bleaching agents (p = 0.563) or by
      brushing (p = 0.477). When the specimens were brushed, however, shade change was
      significantly influenced by the bleaching agent used (p = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS:
      Bleaching agents associated with brushing cycles can alter surface properties and
      shade stability of glazed feldspathic ceramics, though such findings may not
      reflect the performance of unglazed feldspathic ceramics.

PMID- 28872729
TI  - A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Cumulative Survival Rate of Obturator
      Prostheses for Marsupialization.
AB  - PURPOSE: After marsupialization of benign tumors and jawbone cysts, insertion of
      an obturator prosthesis maintains the surgical opening and improves hygiene. To
      date, there have been no reports clarifying the relationship between the
      obturator design and treatment outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine
      the survival rate of three types of obturator, and to investigate the factors
      that expedite the removal of the obturator. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subject
      group comprised 100 patients who had an obturator inserted after marsupialization
      at Kagoshima University Hospital between May 31, 2012 and March 31, 2015; 73
      patients with lesions in the mandible were eligible. Three types of mandibular
      obturator were designed and inserted, considering the teeth missing, the
      anteroposterior position of the lesion, and the buccolingual direction of
      marsupialization. The endpoint of this study was defined as the removal of the
      obturator. The analyzed predictor values for the endpoint were age, gender,
      remaining teeth, nature of primary disease, anteroposterior location of primary
      disease, buccolingual direction of marsupialization, type of obturator, and dates
      of insertion and removal. RESULTS: No significant differences were found in the
      cumulative survival rate among the three types of obturator. Early obturator
      removal was more frequent in patients with cysts, anterior lesions, and/or
      marsupialization from the occlusal direction CONCLUSIONS: Because obturator
      design had minimal effect on the ability of the appliance to maintain the
      surgical opening, it is preferable to use the least invasive design. Our findings
      also suggest that the follow-up examination should account for the type of
      primary disease, the anteroposterior location of the lesion, and the buccolingual
      direction of marsupialization.

PMID- 28872730
TI  - Volumetric Evaluation of Void/Gap Formation and Microleakage Cementing Fiber
      Posts on Extracted Teeth with Three Different Cements.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate microleakage in roots restored with fiber posts cemented
      using three different luting cements, to measure the volume of voids/gaps within
      the obturated/postcemented root canals, and to examine whether microleakage and
      the volume of voids/gaps were correlated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six
      extracted human mandibular incisors were decoronated, and the root canals were
      obturated using gutta-percha and sealer in the experimental groups (n = 30). Six
      roots were used as controls. A standard post space was prepared, and an
      identically sized fiber post was cemented in each experimental specimen using one
      of three luting cements (Panavia F2.0, Bifix SE, GC FujiCEM; n = 10 each). The
      specimens were scanned using micro-computed tomography, and the volume of
      voids/gaps was determined. The specimens were then subjected to a fluid
      filtration assay to evaluate microleakage. RESULTS: The volume of voids/gaps was
      significantly lower in the GC FujiCEM group, and significantly less microleakage
      occurred in the Bifix SE group compared with other groups (both p < 0.001). A
      significant correlation between the volume of voids/gaps and leakage was found
      only in the Panavia F2.0 group (p = 0.003; r = 0.830). No such correlation was
      found in the analysis of all groups combined. CONCLUSIONS: The group with the
      greatest volume of voids/gaps (Bifix SE) showed the least microleakage, and the
      group with the smallest volume of voids/gaps (GC FujiCEM) showed the most
      microleakage. Panavia F2.0 ranked between and exhibited significant correlation.

PMID- 28872731
TI  - Urbanization reduces and homogenizes trait diversity in stream macroinvertebrate
      communities.
AB  - More than one-half of the world's population lives in urban areas, so quantifying
      the effects of urbanization on ecological communities is important for
      understanding whether anthropogenic stressors homogenize communities across
      environmental and climatic gradients. We examined the relationship of impervious
      surface coverage (a marker of urbanization) and the structure of stream
      macroinvertebrate communities across the state of Maryland and within each of
      Maryland's three ecoregions: Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Appalachian, which
      differ in stream geomorphology and community composition. We considered three
      levels of trait organization: individual traits, unique combinations of traits,
      and community metrics (functional richness, functional evenness, and functional
      divergence) and three levels of impervious surface coverage (low [<2.5%], medium
      [2.5% to 10%], and high [>10%]). The prevalence of an individual trait differed
      very little between low impervious surface and high impervious surface sites. The
      arrangement of trait combinations in community trait space for each ecoregion
      differed when impervious surface coverage was low, but the arrangement became
      more similar among ecoregions as impervious surface coverage increased.
      Furthermore, trait combinations that occurred only at low or medium impervious
      surface coverage were clustered in a subset of the community trait space,
      indicating that impervious surface affected the presence of only a subset of
      trait combinations. Functional richness declined with increasing impervious
      surface, providing evidence for environmental filtering. Community metrics that
      include abundance were also sensitive to increasing impervious surface coverage:
      functional divergence decreased while functional evenness increased. These
      changes demonstrate that increasing impervious surface coverage homogenizes the
      trait diversity of macroinvertebrate communities in streams, despite differences
      in initial community composition and stream geomorphology among ecoregions.
      Community metrics were also more sensitive to changes in the abundance rather
      than the gain or loss of trait combinations, showing the potential for trait
      based approaches to serve as early warning indicators of environmental stress for
      monitoring and biological assessment programs.

PMID- 28872732
TI  - Preferences Related to the Use of Mobile Apps as Dental Patient Educational Aids:
      A Pilot Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Numerous patient education apps have been developed to explain dental
      treatment. The purpose of this study was to assess perceptions and preferences
      regarding the use of apps in dental settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four patient
      education apps describing fixed partial dentures were demonstrated to
      participants (N = 25). Questions about each app were asked using a semi
      structured interview format to assess participants' opinions about each app's
      content, images, features, and use. Sessions were analyzed via note-based methods
      for thematic coding. RESULTS: Participants believed that apps should be used in
      conjunction with a dentist's explanation about a procedure. They desired an app
      that could be tailored for scope of content. Participants favored esthetic images
      of teeth that did not show structural anatomy, such as tooth roots, and preferred
      interactive features. CONCLUSIONS: Patient education apps may be a valuable tool
      to enhance patient-provider communication in dental settings. Participants
      exhibited varying preferences for different features among the apps and expressed
      the desire for an app that could be personalized to each patient. Additional
      research is needed to assess whether the use of apps improves oral health
      literacy and informed consent among patients.

PMID- 28872733
TI  - Cafeteria diet induces neuroplastic modifications in the nucleus accumbens
      mediated by microglia activation.
AB  - High-palatable and caloric foods are widely overconsumed due to hedonic
      mechanisms that prevail over caloric necessities leading to overeating and
      overweight. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key brain area modulating the
      reinforcing effects of palatable foods and is crucially involved in the
      development of eating disorders. We describe that prolonged exposure to high
      caloric chocolate cafeteria diet leads to overeating and overweight in mice. NAc
      functionality was altered in these mice, presenting structural plasticity
      modifications in medium spiny neurons, increased expression of neuroinflammatory
      factors and activated microglia, and abnormal responses after amphetamine-induced
      hyperlocomotion. Chronic inactivation of microglia normalized these
      neurobiological and behavioural alterations exclusively in mice exposed to
      cafeteria diet. Our data suggest that prolonged exposure to cafeteria diet
      produces neuroplastic and functional changes in the NAc that can modify feeding
      behaviour. Microglia activation and neuroinflammation play an important role in
      the development of these neurobiological alterations.

PMID- 28872734
TI  - Xenon as an adjuvant to sevoflurane anesthesia in children younger than 4 years
      of age, undergoing interventional or diagnostic cardiac catheterization: A
      randomized controlled clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Xenon has repeatedly been demonstrated to have only minimal
      hemodynamic side effects when compared to other anesthetics. Moreover, in
      experimental models, xenon was found to be neuroprotective and devoid of
      developmental neurotoxicity. These properties could render xenon attractive for
      the anesthesia in neonates and infants with congenital heart disease. However,
      experience with xenon anesthesia in children is scarce. AIMS: We hypothesized
      that in children undergoing cardiac catheterization, general anesthesia with a
      combination of sevoflurane with xenon results in superior hemodynamic stability,
      compared to sevoflurane alone. METHODS: In this prospective, randomized, single
      blinded, controlled clinical trial, children with a median age of 12 [IQR 3-36]
      months undergoing diagnostic/interventional cardiac catheterization were
      randomized to either general anesthesia with 50-65vol% xenon plus sevoflurane or
      sevoflurane alone. The primary outcome was the incidence of intraprocedural
      hemodynamic instability, defined as the occurrence of: (i) a heart rate change
      >20% from baseline; or (ii) a change in mean arterial blood pressure >20% from
      baseline; or (iii) the requirement of vasopressors, inotropes, chronotropes, or
      fluid boluses. Secondary endpoints included recovery characteristics, feasibility
      criteria, and safety (incidence of emergence agitation and postoperative
      vomiting. RESULTS: After inclusion of 40 children, the trial was stopped as an a
      priori planned blinded interim analysis revealed that the overall rate of
      hemodynamic instability did not differ between groups [100% in both the xenon
      sevoflurane and the sevoflurane group. However, the adjuvant administration of
      xenon decreased vasopressor requirements, preserved better cerebral oxygen
      saturation, and resulted in a faster recovery. Xenon anesthesia was feasible
      (with no differences in the need for rescue anesthetics in both groups).
      CONCLUSION: Our observations suggest that combining xenon with sevoflurane in
      preschool children is safe, feasible, and facilitates hemodynamic management.
      Larger and adequately powered clinical trials are warranted to investigate the
      impact of xenon on short- and long-term outcomes in pediatric anesthesia.

PMID- 28872735
TI  - In vitro efficacy of disinfectants utilised for skin decolonisation and
      environmental decontamination during a hospital outbreak with Candida auris.
AB  - Candida auris has caused nosocomial infections and transmissions within hospital
      settings. As little is known about the efficacy of skin and environmental
      decontamination products to kill C. auris, this study investigated the in vitro
      activity of chlorine, chlorhexidine, iodine povidone and vaporised hydrogen
      peroxide products against C. auris. H2 O2 vapour showed 96.6%-100% effective
      killing of C. auris. All isolates were inhibited by chlorhexidine gluconate
      concentrations at 0.125%-1.5% and for iodinated povidone at 0.07%-1.25%. Other
      species of Candida were also killed at 1000 ppm chlorine except C. parapsilosis
      which failed to be killed at 3 minutes contact time. We conclude that
      chlorhexidine gluconate, iodinated povidone, chlorine and H2 O2 vapour
      demonstrate effective killing activity against C. auris at concentrations used in
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28872736
TI  - Progression of prodromal motor and non-motor symptoms in the premotor phase study
      - 2-year follow-up data.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The neuropathological process starts years before the
      diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Assessment of prodromal features in
      healthy individuals may help to define those with high risk for future PD. Our
      aim was to evaluate the presence and progression of prodromal markers in
      individuals with low risk [healthy controls (HC), n = 14] and high risk for PD
      (HR-PD, n = 34) and early PD (n = 14) patients. METHODS: Several risk or
      prodromal markers were combined to define HR-PD. Other prodromal markers were
      followed in 6-month intervals for 2 years. As recommended by the Movement
      Disorder Society Task Force, likelihood ratios (LRs) of markers, motor scores and
      PD probability scores were calculated and compared. RESULTS: The baseline LR for
      non-motor prodromal markers was significantly higher in PD and HR-PD compared to
      HC. Within 2 years, changes in these LRs did not significantly differ between the
      groups. Motor worsening was significant only in the PD group (50% of the
      patients) against HR-PD (15%) and HC (7%). Change in the non-motor prodromal LR
      did not significantly correlate with motor worsening, but higher baseline non
      motor LRs were associated with Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale III
      values at 2 years of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that the frequency
      of non-motor prodromal markers is higher in the HR-PD group but does not increase
      within 2 years. The progression of motor and non-motor markers seems to be
      independent, but higher baseline non-motor burden is associated with the motor
      status after 2 years. Moreover, our data argue for a high impact of motor markers
      in the risk estimation for future PD.

PMID- 28872737
TI  - Chronic hepatitis caused by hepatitis C virus showing a discrepancy between
      serogroup and genotype because of intergenotypic 2b/1b recombination: A pitfall
      in antiviral therapy with direct-acting antivirals.
AB  - A 40-year-old male patient with virologic relapse after daclatasvir plus
      asunaprevir therapy for a serogroup 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection visited
      our hospital for retreatment. Virologic examinations revealed that a genotype 2b
      HCV strain carrying both NS3-S122N / D168A and NA5A-R30Q / L31M / Q54H / Y93H
      mutations had relapsed. The patient received sofosbuvir plus ribavirin therapy,
      but virologic relapse occurred once again. Sequencing of the HCV genome clarified
      an intergenotypic recombination of 2b and 1b with an estimated crossover point
      between nucleotides 3114 and 3115, corresponding to the N-terminal end of the NS3
      region (DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases accession no. LC273304). The NS5B-S282T
      mutation was not detected in the HCV strain, and resistance-association
      substitutions in the NS3 and NS5A regions were similar to those at baseline.
      Direct sequencing of the core and NS4A regions corresponding to the targeting
      sites of genotyping and serogrouping, respectively, is useful to determine the
      combination of direct-acting antivirals when a discrepancy is observed between
      the serogroup and genotype of HCV strains.

PMID- 28872738
TI  - Chronic post-stroke oropharyngeal dysphagia is associated with impaired cortical
      activation to pharyngeal sensory inputs.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The role of afferent sensory pathways in the
      pathophysiology of post-stroke oropharyngeal dysphagia is not known. We
      hypothesized that patients with chronic post-stroke dysphagia (PSD) would show
      impaired sensory cortical activation in the ipsilesional hemisphere. METHODS: We
      studied 28 chronic unilateral post-stroke patients [17 PSD and 11 post-stroke non
      dysphagic patients (PSnD)] and 11 age-matched healthy volunteers. Event-related
      sensory-evoked potentials to pharyngeal stimulation (pSEP) and sensory thresholds
      were assessed. We analyzed pSEP peak latency and amplitude (N1, P1, N2 and P2),
      and neurotopographic stroke characteristics from brain magnetic resonance
      imaging. RESULTS: Healthy volunteers presented a highly symmetric bihemispheric
      cortical pattern of brain activation at centroparietal areas (N1-P1 and N2-P2) to
      pharyngeal stimuli. In contrast, an asymmetric pattern of reduced ipsilesional
      activation was found in PSD (N2-P2; P = 0.026) but not in PSnD. PSD presented
      impaired safety of swallow (penetration-aspiration score: 4.3 +/- 1.6), delayed
      laryngeal vestibule closure (360.0 +/- 70.0 ms) and higher National Institute of
      Health Stroke Scale (7.0 +/- 6.2 vs. 1.9 +/- 1.4, P = 0.001) and Fazekas scores
      (3.0 +/- 1.4 vs. 2.0 +/- 1.1; P < 0.05) than PSnD. pSEP showed a unilateral delay
      at stroke site exclusively for PSD (peak-latency interhemispheric difference vs.
      PSnD: N1, 6.5 +/- 6.7 vs. 1.1 +/- 1.0 ms; N2, 32.0 +/- 15.8 vs. 4.5 +/- 4.9 ms; P
      < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Chronic post-stroke oropharyngeal dysphagia is associated
      with stroke severity and degree of leukoaraoisis. Impaired conduction and
      cortical integration of pharyngeal sensory inputs at stroke site are key features
      of chronic PSD. These findings highlight the role of sensory pathways in the
      pathophysiology of post-stroke oropharyngeal dysphagia and offer a potential
      target for future treatments.

PMID- 28872739
TI  - Enantioselective Catalysis Coupled with Stereodivergent Cyclization Strategies
      Enables Rapid Syntheses of (+)-Limaspermidine and (+)-Kopsihainanine A.
AB  - Enantioselective Pd-catalyzed allylic alkylations of dihydropyrido[1,2-a]indolone
      (DHPI) substrates were used to construct the C20-quaternary stereocenters of
      multiple monoterpene indole alkaloids. Stereodivergent Pictet-Spengler and
      Bischler-Napieralski cyclization/reduction cascades furnish the cis- and trans
      fused azadecalin subunits present in Aspidosperma and Kopsia alkaloids,
      respectively, en route to highly efficient syntheses of (+)-limaspermidine and
      (+)-kopsihainanine A.

PMID- 28872740
TI  - Enantioselective Direct Mannich-Type Reactions Catalyzed by Frustrated Lewis
      Acid/Bronsted Base Complexes.
AB  - An enantioselective direct Mannich-type reaction catalyzed by a sterically
      frustrated Lewis acid/Bronsted base complex is disclosed. Cooperative functioning
      of the chiral Lewis acid and achiral Bronsted base components gives rise to in
      situ enolate generation from monocarbonyl compounds. Subsequent reaction with
      hydrogen-bond-activated aldimines delivers beta-aminocarbonyl compounds with high
      enantiomeric purity.

PMID- 28872741
TI  - Response to 'Expression of Concern' (Richardson et al, Psycho-Oncology, 2017, 26,
      724-737).

PMID- 28872742
TI  - Association between social support, functional status, and change in health
      related quality of life and changes in anxiety and depression in colorectal
      cancer patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the association between baseline
      social support, functional status, and change in health-related quality of life
      (HRQoL) in colorectal cancer patients and change in anxiety and depression
      measured by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at 1 year after surgery.
      METHODS: Consecutive patients who were due to undergo therapeutic surgery for the
      first time for colon or rectal cancer in 9 hospitals in Spain were eligible for
      the study. Patients completed the following questionnaires before surgery and 12
      months afterward: 1 HRQoL instrument, the European Organization for Research and
      Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire; a social support
      questionnaire, the Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire; the Barthel
      Index, to assess functional status; the HADS, to assess anxiety and depression;
      and questions about sociodemographic information. General linear models were
      built to explore the association between social support, functional status, and
      change in HRQoL and changes in anxiety and depression 12 months after surgery.
      RESULTS: A total of 947 colorectal cancer patients took part in the study.
      Patients' functional status, social support, and change in HRQoL were associated
      with changes in anxiety and depression. Greater social support and improvements
      in physical, cognitive, and social functioning and in insomnia resulted in
      improvements in anxiety and depression. No functionally independent patients were
      associated with lesser improvements in anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS:
      Colorectal cancer patients who have more social support, are functionally
      independent and have higher improvements in HRQoL may have better results in
      anxiety and depression at 1 year after surgery, adjusting for age, gender,
      location, occupation, and baseline HADS scores.

PMID- 28872743
TI  - Expression of concern-inadequate review of the literature (Richardson et al,
      Psycho-Oncology, 2017, 26, 724-737).

PMID- 28872744
TI  - Combining Orthogonal Chain-End Deprotections and Thiol-Maleimide Michael
      Coupling: Engineering Discrete Oligomers by an Iterative Growth Strategy.
AB  - Orthogonal maleimide and thiol deprotections were combined with thiol-maleimide
      coupling to synthesize discrete oligomers/macromolecules on a gram scale with
      molecular weights up to 27.4 kDa (128mer, 7.9 g) using an iterative exponential
      growth strategy with a degree of polymerization (DP) of 2n -1. Using the same
      chemistry, a "readable" sequence-defined oligomer and a discrete cyclic topology
      were also created. Furthermore, uniform dendrons were fabricated using sequential
      growth (DP=2n -1) or double exponential dendrimer growth approaches (DP=22n -1)
      with significantly accelerated growth rates. A versatile, efficient, and metal
      free method for construction of discrete oligomers with tailored structures and a
      high growth rate would greatly facilitate research into the structure-property
      relationships of sophisticated polymeric materials.

PMID- 28872746
TI  - 'We are the eyes and ears of researchers and community': understanding the role
      of community advisory groups in representing researchers and communities in
      Malawi.
AB  - Community engagement to protect and empower participating individuals and
      communities is an ethical requirement in research. There is however limited
      evidence on effectiveness or relevance of some of the approaches used to improve
      ethical practice. We conducted a study to understand the rationale, relevance and
      benefits of community engagement in health research. This paper draws from this
      wider study and focuses on factors that shaped Community Advisory Group (CAG)
      members' selection processes and functions in Malawi. A qualitative research
      design was used; two participatory workshops were conducted with CAG members to
      understand their roles in research. Workshop findings were triangulated with
      insights from ethnographic field notes, key informant interviews with
      stakeholders, focus group discussions with community members and document
      reviews. Data were coded manually and thematic content analysis was used to
      identify main issues. Results have shown that democratic selection of CAG members
      presented challenges in both urban and rural settings. We also noted that CAG
      members perceived their role as a form of employment which potentially led to
      ineffective representation of community interests. We conclude that democratic
      voting is not enough to ensure effective representation of community's interests
      of ethical relevance. CAG members' abilities to understand research ethics,
      identify potential harms to community and communicate feedback to researchers is
      critical to optimise engagement of lay community and avoid tokenistic engagement.

PMID- 28872745
TI  - Neural mechanisms of extinguishing drug and pleasant cue associations in human
      addiction: role of the VMPFC.
AB  - The neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the resistance of drug cue
      associations to extinction in addiction remain unknown. Fear extinction
      critically depends on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Here, we tested
      if this same region plays a role in extinction of non-fear, drug and pleasant cue
      associations. Eighteen chronic cocaine users and 15 matched controls completed
      three functional MRI scans. Participants first learned to associate an abstract
      cue (the conditioned stimulus, CS) with a drug-related (CSD+ ) or pleasant (CSP+
      ) image. Extinction immediately followed where each CS was repeatedly presented
      without the corresponding image. Participants underwent a second identical
      session 24 hours later to assess retention of extinction learning. Results showed
      that like fear extinction, non-fear-based extinction relies on the VMPFC.
      However, extinction-related changes in the VMPFC differed by cue valence and
      diagnosis. In controls, VMPFC activation to the CSD+ (which was unpleasant for
      participants) gradually increased as in fear extinction, while it decreased to
      the CSP+ , consistent with a more general role of the VMPFC in flexible value
      updating. Supporting a specific role in extinction retention, we further observed
      a cross-day association between VMPFC activation and skin conductance, a classic
      index of conditioned responses. Finally, cocaine users showed VMPFC abnormalities
      for both CSs, which, in the case of the CSD+ , correlated with craving. These
      data suggest a global deficit in extinction learning in this group that may
      hinder extinction-based treatment efforts. More broadly, these data show that the
      VMPFC, when functionally intact, supports extinction learning in diverse contexts
      in humans.

PMID- 28872747
TI  - Formation of Stable Tin Perovskites Co-crystallized with Three Halides for Carbon
      Based Mesoscopic Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells.
AB  - We synthesized and characterized methylammonium (MA) mixed tri-halide tin
      perovskites (MASnIBr2-x Clx ) for carbon-based mesoscopic solar cells free of
      lead and hole-transporting layers. Varied SnCl2 /SnBr2 ratios yielded tin
      perovskites with three halides (I, Br, and Cl) co-crystallized inside the tin
      perovskite. When the SnCl2 proportion was >=50 % (x>=1), phase separation
      occurred to give MASnI3-y Bry and MASnCl3-z Brz in the stoichiometric proportions
      of their precursors, confirmed by XRD. A device with MASnIBr1.8 Cl0.2 (SnCl2 =10
      %) showed the best photovoltaic performance: JSC =14.0 mA cm-2 , VOC =380 mV,
      FF=0.573, and PCE=3.1 %, and long-term stability. Electrochemical impedance
      spectra (EIS) show superior charge recombination and dielectric relaxation
      properties for the MASnIBr1.8 Cl0.2 cell. Transient PL decays showed the
      intrinsic problem of tin-based perovskites with average lifetimes less than 100
      ps.

PMID- 28872748
TI  - Thirty-day mortality after systemic anticancer treatment as a real-world, quality
      of-care indicator: the Northland experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic anticancer treatment (SACT) at the end of life is considered
      poor practice due to its futility and associated toxicities. Consequently, 30-day
      mortality after SACT is increasingly recognised as a potential real-world quality
      of-care indicator in medical oncology. AIMS: Whangarei Base Hospital (WBH)
      provides outpatient SACT treatment to all patients living in the Northland region
      of New Zealand. The goal of this study was to report our 30-day mortality after
      SACT and to contribute to the experience of its use in Australasia. METHODS: In
      this retrospective study, the WBH electronic database was searched to identify
      all patients who had received SACT in WBH from 1 January 2012 to 31 December
      2016. Patients who died within 30 days of their last treatment were shortlisted.
      Records were reviewed identifying key demographic, disease, treatment and
      mortality data. Composite 30-day mortality index and that of each tumour stream
      were calculated. Key findings were described using descriptive statistics.
      RESULTS: Over 5 years, 1103 patients received SACT in WBH, with 57 patients dying
      within 30 days of treatment, resulting in a composite 30-day mortality rate of
      5.17%. One patient died receiving curative intent SACT. More deaths occurred in
      SACT-naive patients and during the first two cycles of therapy. Of the deaths,
      28% was attributed to SACT, while 59.7% was attributed to cancer progression.
      CONCLUSION: Thirty-day mortality rates were comparable to studies from larger
      institutions. We demonstrated the feasibility of this index for auditing practice
      in smaller oncology units over a longer timeframe.

PMID- 28872749
TI  - Outstanding contribution to pediatric anesthesiology: An interview with Dr.
      Robert H. Friesen.
AB  - Dr. Robert H. Friesen, (1946-) Professor of Anesthesiology, Children's Hospital
      Colorado, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, has played a pivotal
      and pioneering role in the development of pediatric and congenital cardiac
      anesthesiology. His transformative research included the study of the hemodynamic
      effects of inhalational and intravenous anesthetic agents in the newborn and the
      effects of anesthetic agents on pulmonary vascular resistance in patients with
      pulmonary hypertension. As a model clinician-scientist, educator, and
      administrator, he changed the practice of pediatric anesthesia and shaped the
      careers of hundreds of physicians-in-training, imbuing them with his core values
      of honesty, integrity, and responsibility. Based on a series of interviews with
      Dr. Friesen, this article reviews a career that advanced pediatric and congenital
      cardiac anesthesia during the formative years of the specialties.

PMID- 28872750
TI  - Multi-centre, prospective evaluation of the Seldinger technique for difficult
      male urethral catheter insertions by non-urology trained doctors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Seldinger technique by
      non-urology trained (NUT) doctors for difficult male indwelling urinary catheter
      (IDC) insertions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In all, 115 patients and 57 participating
      NUT doctors were recruited by the urologist or urology registrar, when contacted
      in regards to failed IDC insertion. The successful passage of an IDC by the NUT
      doctors using the Seldinger technique with a straight, hydrophilic guidewire was
      assessed in our prospective, multicentre evaluation. Instruction of this
      technique was via bedside teaching by the urology registrar or via video media.
      RESULTS: The 115 patients, involving 57 NUT doctors, were prospectively evaluated
      across four sites; 93% (107/115) of cases had successful placement of an IDC with
      the Seldinger technique by a NUT doctor. No complications with the Seldinger
      technique were recorded. In 80 patients (69.6%), the technique was successfully
      performed by a NUT doctor without attendance by a urologist or urology registrar,
      with instruction provided from video media or prior bedside teaching by the
      urology registrar. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to validate the safety and
      effectiveness of the Seldinger technique for difficult male IDC insertion
      performed by NUT doctors. This technique can be taught via video education and
      thus has important implications for health services where urological support is
      not readily available.

PMID- 28872751
TI  - Transport Matters: Boosting CO2 Electroreduction in Mixtures of [BMIm][BF4
      ]/Water by Enhanced Diffusion.
AB  - Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are promising new electrolytes for
      efficient carbon dioxide reduction. However, due to their high viscosity, the
      mass transport of CO2 in RTILs is typically slow, at least one order of magnitude
      slower than in aqueous systems. One possibility to improve mass transport in
      RTILs is to decrease their viscosity through dilution with water. Herein, defined
      amounts of water are added to 1-butyl-3methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate
      ([BMIm][BF4 ]), which is a hydrophilic RTIL. Electrochemical measurements on
      quiescent and hydrodynamic systems both indicate enhanced CO2 electroreduction.
      This enhancement has its origin in thermodynamic/kinetic effects (the addition of
      water increases the availability of H+ , which is a reaction partner of CO2
      electroreduction) and in an increased rate of transport due to lower viscosity.
      Electrochemically determined diffusion coefficients for CO2 in [BMIm][BF4 ]/water
      systems agree well with values determined by NMR spectroscopy.

PMID- 28872753
TI  - African tick-bite fever - a tantalizing souvenir from South Africa.

PMID- 28872752
TI  - Time on androgen deprivation therapy and adaptations to exercise: secondary
      analysis from a 12-month randomized controlled trial in men with prostate cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore if duration of previous exposure to androgen deprivation
      therapy (ADT) in men with prostate cancer (PCa) undertaking a year-long exercise
      programme moderates the exercise response with regard to body composition and
      muscle performance, and also to explore the moderator effects of baseline
      testosterone, time since ADT, and baseline value of the outcome. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: In a multicentre randomized controlled trial, 100 men who had previously
      undergone either 6 months (short-term) or 18 months (long-term) of ADT in
      combination with radiotherapy, as part of the TROG 03.04 RADAR trial, were
      randomized to 6 months supervised exercise, followed by a 6-month home-based
      maintenance programme, or to printed physical activity educational material for
      12 months across 13 university-affiliated exercise clinics in Australia and New
      Zealand. The participants were long-term survivors of PCa with a mean age of 71.7
      +/- 6.4 years, and were assessed for lower extremity performance (repeated chair
      rise), with a subset of men (n = 57) undergoing additional measures for upper and
      lower body muscle strength and body composition (lean mass, fat mass,
      appendicular skeletal muscle [ASM]) by dual X-ray absorptiometry. Data were
      analysed using generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Time on ADT
      significantly moderated the exercise effects on chair rise (betainteraction = 
      1.3 s, 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.6 to 0.0), whole-body lean mass
      (betainteraction = 1194 g, 95% CI 234 to 2153) and ASM mass (betainteraction =
      562 g, 95% CI 49 to 1075), and approached significance for fat mass
      (betainteraction = -1107 g, 95% CI -2346 to 132), with greater benefits for men
      previously on long-term ADT. At 6 months, the intervention effects on chair rise
      time -1.5 s (95% CI -2.5 to -0.5), whole-body lean mass 824 g (95% CI 8 to 1640),
      ASM mass 709 g (95% CI 260 to 1158), and fat mass -1377 g (95% CI -2156 to -598)
      were significant for men previously on long-term ADT, but not for men on short
      term ADT. At 12 months, the intervention effects for men on long-term ADT
      remained significant for the chair rise, with improved performance (-2.0 s, 95%
      CI -3.0 to -1.0) and increased ASM (537 g, 95% CI 153 to 921). Time on ADT did
      not moderate the exercise effects on muscle strength, nor did time since ADT
      cessation moderate any intervention effects. Similarly, testosterone and baseline
      values of the outcome had negligible moderator effects. CONCLUSIONS: Men with PCa
      previously treated long-term with ADT respond more favourably to exercise in
      terms of lower body muscle performance and body composition (lean and fat mass,
      and ASM) than those with short-term ADT exposure. As a result, men who were
      formerly on long-term androgen suppression regimens should be especially
      prescribed exercise medicine interventions to alleviate residual treatment
      related adverse effects.

PMID- 28872754
TI  - Contribution of virtual biopsy to the screening of microvascular invasion in
      hepatocellular carcinoma: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Microvascular invasion (mVI) is a major prognostic factor in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that cannot be detected before surgery. Predictive
      biomarkers of mVI are thus urgently needed. We have developed an original
      approach of virtual biopsy to assess the performance of an immunohistochemical
      panel comprising three biomarkers of mVI (H4K16ac, H4K20me2, PIVKA-II) for the
      prediction of mVI in HCC core needle biopsies (CNB). METHODS: A test set of HCC
      surgical specimens (n = 64) and an independent validation set of HCC CNB (n = 42)
      were retrospectively constituted. Immunostainings were first quantified in the
      test set on the whole tissue section, to determine optimal cut-off values for
      each marker. From the digitised image of the whole section, three virtual
      biopsies were provided. Immunostainings and accuracy of the panel for the
      prediction of mVI were further assessed in virtual biopsies and in the validation
      set of CNB. RESULTS: In virtual biopsies, PIVKA-II/H4K16ac had the best
      performance for prediction of mVI, with sensitivity, specificity, predictive
      positive value (PPV), and predictive negative value (PNV) of 30%, 97%, 91%, 56%,
      respectively. In CNB, PIVKA-II/H4K20me2 showed the best accuracy for prediction
      of mVI, with sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of 43%, 95%, 90%, and 62%,
      respectively. The two panels were independent predictive factors of mVI (PIVKA
      II/H4K16ac, P = .037; PIVKA-II/H4K20me2, P = .026). CONCLUSION: This study shows
      that a panel of two markers is able to predict mVI in HCC CNB, and pave the way
      for the future development of prognostic biomarkers in HCC that could guide the
      therapeutic strategy.

PMID- 28872755
TI  - African communal basis for autonomy and life choices.
AB  - I argue that the metaphysical capacity of autonomy is not intrinsically valuable;
      it is valuable only when used in relation to a community's values and
      instrumentally for making the proper choices that will promote one's own and the
      community's well-being. I use the example of the choice to take one's life by
      suicide to illuminate this view. I articulate a plausible African conception of
      personhood as a basis for the idea of relational autonomy. I argue that this
      conception is better understood as a social-moral thesis, and not a metaphysical
      thesis. A metaphysical thesis gives an account of the abstract nature of an
      atomic individual, his agency, and rational choice. The social-moral thesis
      indicates that personhood and autonomy are positive and relational to the life
      plans, well-being, material conditions, and the best means for achieving them
      that are made available and possible by harmonious living in a community. This
      idea of autonomy is not just having the capacity of freewill; it also involves
      how such freewill is used, in terms of how an individual's choices are guided by
      internalized communal values.

PMID- 28872756
TI  - Electrochemical CO2 Reduction: A Classification Problem.
AB  - In this work, we propose four non-coupled binding energies of intermediates as
      descriptors, or "genes", for predicting the product distribution in CO2
      electroreduction. Simple reactions can be understood by the Sabatier principle
      (catalytic activity vs. one descriptor), while more complex reactions tend to
      give multiple very different products and consequently the product selectivity is
      a more complex property to understand. We approach this, as a logistical
      classification problem, by grouping metals according to their major experimental
      product from CO2 electroreduction: H2 , CO, formic acid and beyond CO*
      (hydrocarbons or alcohols). We compare the groups in terms of multiple binding
      energies of intermediates calculated by density functional theory. Here, we find
      three descriptors to explain the grouping: the adsorption energies of H*, COOH*,
      and CO*. To further classify products beyond CO*, we carry out formaldehyde
      experiments on Cu, Ag, and Au and combine these results with the literature to
      group and differentiate alcohol or hydrocarbon products. We find that the oxygen
      binding (adsorption energy of CH3 O*) is an additional descriptor to explain the
      alcohol formation in reduction processes. Finally, the adsorption energy of the
      four intermediates, H*, COOH*, CO*, and CH3 O*, can be used to differentiate,
      group, and explain products in electrochemical reduction processes involving CO2
      , CO, and carbon-oxygen compounds.

PMID- 28872757
TI  - PROCAL: A Set of 40 Peptide Standards for Retention Time Indexing, Column
      Performance Monitoring, and Collision Energy Calibration.
AB  - Beyond specific applications, such as the relative or absolute quantification of
      peptides in targeted proteomic experiments, synthetic spike-in peptides are not
      yet systematically used as internal standards in bottom-up proteomics. A number
      of retention time standards have been reported that enable chromatographic
      aligning of multiple LC-MS/MS experiments. However, only few peptides are
      typically included in such sets limiting the analytical parameters that can be
      monitored. Here, we describe PROCAL (ProteomeTools Calibration Standard), a set
      of 40 synthetic peptides that span the entire hydrophobicity range of tryptic
      digests, enabling not only accurate determination of retention time indices but
      also monitoring of chromatographic separation performance over time. The
      fragmentation characteristics of the peptides can also be used to calibrate and
      compare collision energies between mass spectrometers. The sequences of all
      selected peptides do not occur in any natural protein, thus eliminating the need
      for stable isotope labeling. We anticipate that this set of peptides will be
      useful for multiple purposes in individual laboratories but also aiding the
      transfer of data acquisition and analysis methods between laboratories, notably
      the use of spectral libraries.

PMID- 28872758
TI  - A systematic review of Clostridium difficile infection following reversal of
      ileostomy.
AB  - AIM: The incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has been reported to
      be as high as 4% following ileostomy reversal. CDI can be associated with
      significant morbidity. A systematic review on this subject has not been
      previously reported; our aim was to review the literature to establish incidence
      and to evaluate the factors that may contribute to an increased risk of CDI
      following ileostomy reversal. METHOD: A systematic review of Ovid, Embase and
      Medline was undertaken. Search terms included C. difficile, reversal of ileostomy
      and ileostomy closure. Articles were included where at least one case of C.
      difficile-associated diarrhoea following reversal of defunctioning ileostomy was
      reported. Data extraction for articles was performed by two authors, using
      predefined data fields. The primary outcome measure was incidence of CDI amongst
      patients undergoing ileostomy reversal. Secondary outcomes were defunctioning
      time, antibiotic regime, acid suppression, time to onset of symptoms and study
      conclusions including colectomy and mortality rate. RESULTS: Eleven articles were
      included (five case reports and six cohort studies). The overall incidence of CDI
      was 1.8% (242/13 728). The mean defunctioning time was 8.7 months (range 6-12). A
      variety of antibiotic regimes were described. Mean time to onset of symptoms was
      6 days (range 3-14). Use of acid suppression, colectomy or mortality rate were
      frequently not reported. CONCLUSION: CDI should be recognized as a potentially
      life-threatening complication of ileostomy closure. Careful consideration should
      be given to peri-operative antibiotic regime, acid suppression, timing of
      reversal and appropriate preoperative counselling of patients.

PMID- 28872759
TI  - Hijacking of the nucleolar protein fibrillarin by TGB1 is required for cell-to
      cell movement of Barley stripe mosaic virus.
AB  - Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) Triple Gene Block1 (TGB1) is a multifunctional
      movement protein with RNA-binding, ATPase and helicase activities which mainly
      localizes to the plasmodesmata (PD) in infected cells. Here, we show that TGB1
      localizes to the nucleus and the nucleolus, as well as the cytoplasm, and that
      TGB1 nuclear-cytoplasmic trafficking is required for BSMV cell-to-cell movement.
      Prediction analyses and laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) experiments
      verified that TGB1 possesses a nucleolar localization signal (NoLS) (amino acids
      95-104) and a nuclear localization signal (NLS) (amino acids 227-238). NoLS
      mutations reduced BSMV cell-to-cell movement significantly, whereas NLS mutations
      almost completely abolished movement. Furthermore, neither the NoLS nor NLS
      mutant viruses could infect Nicotiana benthamiana systemically, although the NoLS
      mutant virus was able to establish systemic infections of barley. Protein
      interaction experiments demonstrated that TGB1 interacts directly with the
      glycine-arginine-rich (GAR) domain of the nucleolar protein fibrillarin (Fib2).
      Moreover, in BSMV-infected cells, Fib2 accumulation increased by about 60%-70%
      and co-localized with TGB1 in the plasmodesmata. In addition, BSMV cell-to-cell
      movement in fib2 knockdown transgenic plants was reduced to less than one-third
      of that of non-transgenic plants. Fib2 also co-localized with both TGB1 and BSMV
      RNA, which are the main components of the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) movement
      complex. Collectively, these results show that TGB1-Fib2 interactions play a
      direct role in cell-to-cell movement, and we propose that Fib2 is hijacked by
      BSMV TGB1 to form a BSMV RNP which functions in cell-to-cell movement.

PMID- 28872761
TI  - Granulomatous slack skin with vascular involvement.

PMID- 28872762
TI  - Communicating risk with aneuploidy screening: things are never as simple as they
      appear to be.

PMID- 28872760
TI  - Relating gastric scintigraphy and symptoms to motility capsule transit and
      pressure findings in suspected gastroparesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wireless motility capsule (WMC) findings are incompletely defined in
      suspected gastroparesis. We aimed to characterize regional WMC transit and
      contractility in relation to scintigraphy, etiology, and symptoms in patients
      undergoing gastric emptying testing. METHODS: A total of 209 patients with
      gastroparesis symptoms at NIDDK Gastroparesis Consortium centers underwent
      gastric scintigraphy and WMCs on separate days to measure regional transit and
      contractility. Validated questionnaires quantified symptoms. KEY RESULTS: Solid
      scintigraphy and liquid scintigraphy were delayed in 68.8% and 34.8% of patients;
      WMC gastric emptying times (GET) were delayed in 40.3% and showed 52.8% agreement
      with scintigraphy; 15.5% and 33.5% had delayed small bowel (SBTT) and colon
      transit (CTT) times. Transit was delayed in >=2 regions in 23.3%. Rapid transit
      was rarely observed. Diabetics had slower GET but more rapid SBTT versus
      idiopathics (P <= .02). GET delays related to greater scintigraphic retention,
      slower SBTT, and fewer gastric contractions (P <= .04). Overall gastroparesis
      symptoms and nausea/vomiting, early satiety/fullness, bloating/distention, and
      upper abdominal pain subscores showed no relation to WMC transit. Upper and lower
      abdominal pain scores (P <= .03) were greater with increased colon contractions.
      Constipation correlated with slower CTT and higher colon contractions (P = .03).
      Diarrhea scores were higher with delayed SBTT and CTT (P <= .04). CONCLUSIONS &
      INFERENCES: Wireless motility capsules define gastric emptying delays similar but
      not identical to scintigraphy that are more severe in diabetics and relate to
      reduced gastric contractility. Extragastric transit delays occur in >40% with
      suspected gastroparesis. Gastroparesis symptoms show little association with WMC
      profiles, although lower symptoms relate to small bowel or colon abnormalities.

PMID- 28872764
TI  - Association between metabolic syndrome and intravesical prostatic protrusion in
      patients with benign prostatic enlargement and lower urinary tract symptoms (MIPS
      Study).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and
      morphological features of benign prostatic enlargement (BPE), including total
      prostate volume (TPV), transitional zone volume (TZV) and intravesical prostatic
      protrusion (IPP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2015 and January 2017,
      224 consecutive men aged >50 years presenting with lower urinary tract symptoms
      (LUTS) suggestive of BPE were recruited to this multicentre cross-sectional
      study. MetS was defined according to International Diabetes Federation criteria.
      Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were performed to verify
      factors associated with IPP, TZV and TPV. RESULTS: Patients with MetS were
      observed to have a significant increase in IPP (P < 0.01), TPV (P < 0.01) and TZV
      (P = 0.02). On linear regression analysis, adjusted for age and metabolic factors
      of MetS, we found that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was negatively
      associated with IPP (r = -0.17), TPV (r = -0.19) and TZV (r = -0.17), while
      hypertension was positively associated with IPP (r = 0.16), TPV (r = 0.19) and
      TZV (r = 0.16). On multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and
      factors of MetS, hypertension (categorical; odds ratio [OR] 2.95), HDL
      cholesterol (OR 0.94) and triglycerides (OR 1.01) were independent predictors of
      TPV >= 40 mL. We also found that HDL cholesterol (OR 0.86), hypertension (OR 2.0)
      and waist circumference (OR 1.09) were significantly associated with TZV >= 20
      mL. On age-adjusted logistic regression analysis, MetS was significantly
      associated with IPP >= 10 mm (OR 34.0; P < 0.01), TZV >= 20 mL (OR 4.40; P <
      0.01) and TPV >= 40 mL (OR 5.89; P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: We found an association
      between MetS and BPE, demonstrating a relationship with IPP.

PMID- 28872763
TI  - Anion Layering and Steric Hydration Repulsion on Positively Charged Surfaces in
      Aqueous Electrolytes.
AB  - The molecular structure at charged solid/liquid interfaces is vital for many
      chemical or electrochemical processes, such as adhesion, catalysis, or the
      stability of colloidal dispersions. How cations influence structural hydration
      forces and interactions across negatively charged surfaces has been studied in
      great detail. However, how anions influence structural hydration forces on
      positively charged surfaces is much less understood. Herein we report force
      versus distance profiles on freshly cleaved mica using atomic force microscopy
      with silicon tips. We characterize steric anion hydration forces for a set of
      common anions (Cl- , ClO4- , NO3- , SO42- and PO43- ) in pure acids at pH ~1,
      where protons are the co-ions. Solutions containing anions with low hydration
      energies exhibit repulsive structural hydration forces, indicating significant
      ion and/or water structuring within the first 1-2 nm on a positively charged
      surface. We attribute this to specific adsorption effects within the Stern layer.
      In contrast, ions with high hydration energies show exponentially repulsive
      hydration forces, indicating a lower degree of structuring within the Stern
      layer. The presented data demonstrates that anion hydration forces in the inner
      double layer are comparable to cation hydration forces, and that they
      qualitatively correlate with hydration free energies. This work contributes to
      understanding interaction processes in which positive charge is screened by
      anions within an electrolyte.

PMID- 28872765
TI  - Digital health technology and diabetes management.
AB  - Diabetes care is largely dependent on patient self-management and empowerment,
      given that patients with diabetes must make numerous daily decisions as to what
      to eat, when to exercise, and determine their insulin dose and timing if
      required. In addition, patients and providers are generating vast amounts of data
      from many sources, including electronic medical records, insulin pumps, sensors,
      glucometers, and other wearables, as well as evolving genomic, proteomic,
      metabolomics, and microbiomic data. Multiple digital tools and apps have been
      developed to assist patients to choose wisely, and to enhance their compliance by
      using motivational tools and incorporating incentives from social media and
      gaming techniques. Healthcare teams (HCTs) and health administrators benefit from
      digital developments that sift through the enormous amounts of patient-generated
      data. Data are acquired, integrated, analyzed, and presented in a self
      explanatory manner, highlighting important trends and items that require
      attention. The use of decision support systems may propose data-driven actions
      that, for the most, require final approval by the patient or physician before
      execution and, once implemented, may improve patient outcomes. The digital
      diabetes clinic aims to incorporate all digital patient data and provide
      individually tailored virtual or face-to-face visits to those persons who need
      them most. Digital diabetes care has demonstrated only modest HbA1c reduction in
      multiple studies and borderline cost-effectiveness, although patient satisfaction
      appears to be increased. Better understanding of the barriers to digital diabetes
      care and identification of unmet needs may yield improved utilization of this
      evolving technology in a safe, effective, and cost-saving manner.

PMID- 28872766
TI  - HT-SuperSAGE of the gut tissue of a Vip3Aa-resistant Heliothis virescens
      (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) strain provides insights into the basis of resistance.
AB  - Multitoxin Bt-crops expressing insecticidal toxins with different modes of
      action, for example, Cry and Vip, are expected to improve resistance management
      in target pests. While Cry1A resistance has been relatively well characterized in
      some insect species, this is not the case for Vip3A, for which no mechanism of
      resistance has yet been identified. Here we applied HT-SuperSAGE to analyze the
      transcriptome of the gut tissue of tobacco budworm Heliothis virescens (F.)
      laboratory-selected for Vip3Aa resistance. From a total of 1 324 252 sequence
      reads, 5 895 126-bp tags were obtained representing 17 751 nonsingleton unique
      transcripts (UniTags) from genetically similar Vip3Aa-resistant (Vip-Sel) and
      susceptible control (Vip-Unsel) strains. Differential expression was significant
      (>=2.5 fold or <=0.4; P < 0.05) for 1989 sequences (11.2% of total UniTags),
      where 420 represented overexpressed (OE) and 1569 underexpressed (UE) genes in
      Vip-Sel. BLASTN searches mapped 419 UniTags to H. virescens sequence contigs, of
      which, 416 (106 OE and 310 UE) were unambiguously annotated to proteins in NCBI
      nonredundant protein databases. Gene Ontology distributed 345 of annotated
      UniTags in 14 functional categories with metabolism (including serine-type
      hydrolases) and translation/ribosome biogenesis being the most prevalent. A
      UniTag homologous to a particular member of the REsponse to PAThogen (REPAT)
      family was found among most overexpressed, while UniTags related to the putative
      Vip3Aa-binding ribosomal protein S2 (RpS2) were underexpressed. qRT-PCR of a
      subset of UniTags validated the HT-SuperSAGE data. This study is the first
      providing lepidopteran gut transcriptome associated with Vip3Aa resistance and a
      foundation for future attempts to elucidate the resistance mechanism.

PMID- 28872767
TI  - One hundred twenty-five fat myringoplasties: Does marginal perforation matter?

PMID- 28872768
TI  - Skene's gland adenocarcinoma with intestinal differentiation: A case report and
      literature review.
AB  - Adenocarcinoma of Skene's gland (the female homolog to the male prostate) is
      extremely rare, with only a few cases reported. We present a case of Skene's
      gland adenocarcinoma with intestinal differentiation. The patient was a 69-year
      old Japanese woman who was operated on for a recurrent tumor of the external
      ostium of the urethra. Histopathologically, the tumor showed glandular and
      cribriform patterns with a signet-ring cell component in a mucus lake.
      Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for prostate specific acid
      phosphatase (PSAP), and AMACR, and negative for Nkx3.1 or prostate specific
      antigen (PSA). Although in situ lesion could not be discovered, positive
      immunostainings for Nkx3.1, PSAP, and androgen receptor in the remaining
      paraurethral glands around the tumor indirectly but strongly suggest that the
      tumor had originated from Skene's gland. This tumor also showed intestinal
      differentiation as suggested histologically and by positive immunostainings for
      CDX2, MUC2, and CK20, along with negative immunostaining for CK7. It is often
      very difficult to identify the origin of a female urethral carcinoma. In such
      cases, immunohistochemical features can be an essential clue to the origin. We
      therefore present this instructive case with a literature review.

PMID- 28872769
TI  - Consideration of the Development of the Gastrointestinal Tract in the Choice of
      Species for Regulatory Juvenile Studies.
AB  - Although the rat is close to being the automatic choice for regulatory juvenile
      toxicity studies, there are several shortcomings in this model. Choosing a
      species should take into serious consideration the importance of gastrointestinal
      tract development in the period before weaning as this may have a major effect on
      exposure. A comparison of the anatomical changes in the stomach and small
      intestine of mini-pig and rat show that the mini-pig is a far closer model for
      man than is the rat, although there are a few unusual aspects of small intestinal
      development in the mini-pig. Considerations of the development of the
      gastrointestinal tract and choice of species have the potential to affect safety
      assessment and should be a prime consideration when planning an investigation.
      Birth Defects Research 110:56-62, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28872770
TI  - Hormone-secreting adrenal tumours cause severe hypertension and high rates of
      poor pregnancy outcome; a UK Obstetric Surveillance System study with case
      control comparisons.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the management and outcomes of adrenal tumours in
      pregnancy. DESIGN: A national observational, cohort study over 4 years using the
      UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS). SETTING: Consultant-led obstetric
      units. PATIENTS: Women with phaeochromocytoma, primary aldosteronism or Cushing's
      syndrome diagnosed before or during pregnancy. METHODS: Clinical features of
      UKOSS cases were compared with those of women with adrenal tumours reported from
      1985-2015. Nested case-control comparisons involving the UKOSS cases as well as
      those identified in the literature were performed for pregnancy outcome data
      using UKOSS controls with uncomplicated singleton (n = 2250) pregnancy and data
      from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence,
      management and frequency of adverse maternal and offspring outcomes of adrenal
      tumours in pregnancy. RESULTS: Fifteen pregnant women met the inclusion criteria:
      ten phaeochromocytoma, three primary aldosteronism and two Cushing's syndrome.
      All of the tumours had an incidence rate <2 per 100 000 pregnancies. Clinical
      symptoms were similar to those in non-pregnant women due to the hormones
      released. All women had severe hypertension, and in those diagnosed in pregnancy
      prior to conception. There was a significantly increased risk of adverse
      pregnancy outcomes in affected women, with increased rates of stillbirth, preterm
      labour and operative delivery. CONCLUSIONS: Adrenal tumours are associated with
      increased risks for pregnant women and their babies. Data on these tumours to
      inform practice are limited and international collaborative efforts are likely to
      be needed. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: Study of hormone-secreting adrenal tumours in
      pregnancy linked with high BP and high rates of fetal morbidity.

PMID- 28872772
TI  - President's Letter September 2017.

PMID- 28872771
TI  - Screening for bipolar disorder with self-administered questionnaires: A critique
      of the concept and a call to stop publishing studies of their performance in
      psychiatric samples.

PMID- 28872773
TI  - Exploring provider and parental perceptions to influenza vaccination in the
      inpatient setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospitalization provides an ideal opportunity for immunization, but
      few studies have explored provider and parental attitudes toward pediatric
      inpatient vaccination against influenza. OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to
      determine provider and caregiver attitudes and explore potential barriers to
      inpatient influenza vaccination. METHODS: We developed and distributed two
      surveys to parents/caregivers as well as providers of general pediatric
      inpatients at Children's Hospital Colorado between October 2014 and March 2015
      assessing attitudes toward influenza and inpatient influenza vaccination. We
      analyzed the Likert scale responses using univariate analyses and multiple
      logistic regression to assess associations between responses and vaccination
      status. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 95% and 58% for parents and
      providers, respectively. Parents of hospitalized children who agreed that flu
      vaccines are safe (adjusted OR 2.50 [95%CI 1.76-3.58]), and that the influenza
      vaccine is needed every year had higher odds of having a vaccinated child
      (adjusted OR 3.30 [95%CI 2.30-4.81]). Most providers (91%) agree that influenza
      vaccination is an important priority among inpatients, but believe that parental
      misconceptions and their reluctance for inpatient vaccination are the most
      important barriers to influenza vaccination. Providers forgetting to ask about
      vaccination status and order the vaccine are the next most commonly identified
      barriers. In contrast, most parents surveyed had favorable attitudes toward
      inpatient influenza vaccination and disagreed that their child was too sick to
      receive the vaccine during hospitalization.

PMID- 28872774
TI  - Prospective randomised non-inferiority trial of pelvic drain placement vs no
      pelvic drain placement after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if eliminating the prophylactic placement of a pelvic
      drain (PD) after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) affects the
      incidence of early (90-day) postoperative adverse events. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      In this parallel-group, blinded, non-inferiority trial, we randomised patients
      planning to undergo RARP to one of two arms: no drain placement (ND) or PD
      placement. Patients with demonstrable intraoperative leakage upon bladder
      irrigation were excluded. Randomisation sequence was determined a priori using a
      computer algorithm, and included a stratified design with respect to low vs
      intermediate/high D'Amico risk classifications. Surgeons remained blinded to the
      randomisation arm until final eligibility was verified at the end of the RARP.
      The primary endpoint was overall incidence of 90-day complications which, based
      on our standard treatment using PD retrospectively, was estimated at 13%. The non
      inferiority margin was set at 10%, and the planned sample size was 312. An
      interim analysis was planned and conducted when one-third of the planned accrual
      and follow-up was completed, to rule out futility if the delta margin was in
      excess of 0.1389. RESULTS: From 2012 to 2016, 189 patients were accrued to the
      study, with 92 patients allocated to the ND group and 97 to the PD group. Due to
      lower than expected accrual rates, accrual to the study was halted by regulatory
      entities, and we did not reach the intended accrual goal. The ND and PD groups
      were comparable for median PSA level (6.2 vs 5.8 ng/mL, P = 0.5), clinical stage
      (P = 0.8), D'Amico risk classification (P = 0.4), median lymph nodes dissected
      (17 vs 18, P = 0.2), and proportion of patients receiving an extended pelvic
      lymph node dissection (70.7% vs 79.4%, P = 0.3). Incidence of 90-day overall and
      major (Clavien-Dindo grade >III) complications in the ND group (17.4% and 5.4%,
      respectively) was not inferior to the PD group (26.8% and 5.2%, respectively; P <
      0.001 and P = 0.007 for difference of proportions <10%, respectively).
      Symptomatic lymphocoele rates (2.2% in the ND group, 4.1% in the PD group) were
      comparable between the two arms (P = 0.7). CONCLUSIONS: Incidence of adverse
      events in the ND group was not inferior to the group who received a PD. In
      properly selected patients, PD placement after RARP can be safely withheld
      without significant additional morbidity.

PMID- 28872775
TI  - The impact of unilateral oophorectomy on ovarian reserve in assisted
      reproduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women following unilateral oophorectomy (UO) are occasionally
      encountered during assisted reproduction treatment. OBJECTIVE: To explore the
      impact of UO on ovarian reserve in assisted reproduction. SEARCH STRATEGY: An
      electronic database search was performed using PubMed, EBSCO, ISI, Trip,
      ClinicalTrial.gov and the Cochrane library followed by a manual search to
      identify published research between January 1978 and December 2015. SELECTION
      CRITERIA: Controlled studies that compared infertile women following UO
      undergoing IVF-ET treatment with women with two intact ovaries. DATA COLLECTION
      AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently extracted the data concerning the
      impact of UO on ovarian reserve tests, ovarian response to controlled ovarian
      hyperstimulation and clinical pregnancy rate. Meta-analysis was performed using
      these measures. MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were eligible for quantitative
      analysis. They included 1045 and 18 172 IVF cycles in women with one and two
      intact ovaries, respectively. Basal FSH weighted mean difference (WMD) was
      significant (2.01 IU/l; 95% CI: 0.24-3.79, P = 0.026). Similarly, the WMD of
      serum E2 level on the day of hCG administration was significant (WMD: -431 pg/ml;
      95% CI: -616 to -246, P < 0.001). However, the weighted overall odds ratio (OR)
      of clinical pregnancy between women with a single ovary and women with two
      ovaries was comparable (overall OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.57-1.00, P = 0.054). All
      eligible studies were retrospectively conducted and the heterogeneity among
      ovarian response measures was high. CONCLUSIONS: Available pooled data supports
      an adverse effect of UO on ovarian reserve involving the quantity but not the
      quality of the ovarian pool. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: Review finds women with one
      ovary removed have less IVF capacity but the same pregnancy rate as women with
      two ovaries.

PMID- 28872776
TI  - Social determinants of influenza hospitalization in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Influenza hospitalizations result in substantial morbidity and
      mortality each year. Little is known about the association between influenza
      hospitalization and census tract-based socioeconomic determinants beyond the
      effect of individual factors. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether census tract-based
      determinants such as poverty and household crowding would contribute
      significantly to the risk of influenza hospitalization above and beyond
      individual-level determinants. METHODS: We analyzed 33 515 laboratory-confirmed
      influenza-associated hospitalizations that occurred during the 2009-2010 through
      2013-2014 influenza seasons using a population-based surveillance system at 14
      sites across the United States. RESULTS: Using a multilevel regression model, we
      found that individual factors were associated with influenza hospitalization with
      the highest adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 9.20 (95% CI 8.72-9.70) for those >=65
      vs 5-17 years old. African Americans had an AOR of 1.67 (95% CI 1.60-1.73)
      compared to Whites, and Hispanics had an AOR of 1.21 (95% CI 1.16-1.26) compared
      to non-Hispanics. Among census tract-based determinants, those living in a tract
      with >=20% vs <5% of persons living below poverty had an AOR of 1.31 (95% CI 1.16
      1.47), those living in a tract with >=5% vs <5% of persons living in crowded
      conditions had an AOR of 1.17 (95% CI 1.11-1.23), and those living in a tract
      with >=40% vs <5% female heads of household had an AOR of 1.32 (95% CI 1.25
      1.40). CONCLUSION: Census tract-based determinants account for 11% of the
      variability in influenza hospitalization.

PMID- 28872777
TI  - Orexin A increases sympathetic nerve activity through promoting expression of
      proinflammatory cytokines in Sprague Dawley rats.
AB  - AIM: Accumulating evidence suggests that orexin signalling is involved in the
      regulation of blood pressure and cardiovascular function. However, the underlying
      mechanisms are not clear. Here, we test the hypothesis that upregulated orexin A
      signalling in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) increases sympathetic nerve
      activity (SNA) through stimulating expression of proinflammatory cytokines
      (PICs). METHODS: In vivo sympathetic nerve recordings were performed to test the
      impact of PVN orexin signalling on sympathetic outflow in Sprague Dawley (SD)
      rats. Real-time PCR was carried out to assess effects of central administration
      of orexin A on PVN PICs expression in SD rats. To test whether orexin A-induced
      increases in PICs were exclusively mediated by orexin receptor 1 (OX1R), OX1R
      expressing PC12 (PC12-OX1R) cells were incubated with different dose of orexin A,
      and then, PICs mRNA and immunoreactivity were measured. RESULTS: Orexin A
      microinjection (25 pmol) into the PVN significantly increased splanchnic SNA
      (93.5%) and renal SNA (83.3%) in SD rats, and these increases were attenuated by
      OX1R antagonist SB408124. Intracerebroventricular injection of orexin A (0.2
      nmol) into SD rats increased mRNA levels of PICs including IL-1-beta (2.7-fold),
      IL-6 (1.7-fold) and TNF-alpha (1.5-fold), as well as Fra1 (1.6-fold) in the PVN.
      Orexin A treatment in PC12-OX1R cells resulted in a dose- and time-dependent
      increase in the expression of PICs and Fra1, a subunit of AP1 transcriptional
      factor. The increase in the PICs was blocked by AP1 blocker curcumin. CONCLUSION:
      Paraventricular nucleus orexin system activation is involved in SNA regulation
      maybe through triggering AP1-PICs pathway.

PMID- 28872779
TI  - Metal-Free Boron-Containing Heterogeneous Catalysts.
AB  - Metal-free catalysts have distinct advantages over metal and metal oxide
      catalysts, such as lower cost as well as higher reliability and sustainability.
      Among the nonmetal compounds used in catalysis, boron-containing compounds with a
      few unique properties have been developed. In this Minireview, the recent
      advances in the field of boron-containing metal-free catalysts are presented,
      including binary and ternary boron-containing catalytic materials. Additionally,
      the three main applications in catalysis are considered, namely,
      electrocatalysis, thermal catalysis, and photocatalysis, with the role of boron
      discussed in depth for each specific catalytic application. Boron-containing
      compounds could have a substantial impact on the field of metal-free catalysts in
      the future.

PMID- 28872778
TI  - Effects of thiazolidinedione in patients with active bladder cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of perioperative thiazolidinedione (TZD) on
      cancer-specific outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) undergoing
      radical cystectomy (RC) for urothelial carcinoma (UC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort of 173 patients with DM undergoing RC from 2005 to 2010 was
      identified. Of those, 53 were on TZD treatment at the time of RC, with 33
      patients taking pioglitazone. Baseline clinicopathological characteristics, as
      well as cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and
      overall survival (OS) were compared between the patients on and off TZD therapy
      at the time of RC. In subgroup analysis, outcomes in patients specifically taking
      pioglitazone at the time of RC were compared to those not on a TZD. RESULTS:
      Baseline clinicopathological characteristics were similar between patients on and
      off TZD therapy at the time of RC. Overall, the median CSS rate was not reached
      in either group (P = 0.7). The estimated 5-year CSS was 67.8% in the non-TZD
      group and 66.3% in the TZD group. On multivariate analysis incorporating patient
      age, pathological T-staging, and adjuvant chemotherapy, TZD use was found not to
      be a significant predictor for CSS (hazard ratio 1.20, 95% confidence interval
      0.66-2.17; P = 0.5). Additionally, RFS (P= 0.3) and OS (P = 0.2) were also
      similar between the two groups without adjusting for other variables. Comparison
      between patients taking pioglitazone vs patients not taking TZD yielded similar
      CSS (P = 0.2), RFS (P = 0.5), and OS (P= 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: CSS, as well as RFS
      and OS after RC were not compromised in patients on TZD therapy at the time of
      RC. Additional investigation is warranted in patients with non-muscle-invasive
      bladder cancer and muscle-invasive bladder cancer undergoing bladder-sparing
      procedures to assess the safety of using TZD in the setting of active UC.

PMID- 28872780
TI  - Impaired renal function affects clinical outcomes and management of patients with
      heart failure.
AB  - AIMS: Inpatients with heart failure and renal impairment have poor outcomes and
      variable quality of care. We investigate treatment practice and outcomes in an
      unselected real-world cohort using historical creatinine measurements. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: Admissions between 1/4/2013 and 30/4/2015 diagnosed at discharge
      with heart failure were retrospectively analysed. Stages of chronic kidney
      disease (CKD) and acute kidney injury (AKI) were calculated from creatinine at
      discharge and 3-12 months before admission. We identified 1056 admissions of 851
      patients (mean age 76 years, 56% Caucasian, 36% with diabetes mellitus, 54% with
      ischaemic heart disease, and 57% with valvular heart disease). CKD was common;
      36%-Stage 3a/b, 11%-Stage 4/5; patients were older, more often diabetic, with
      higher potassium, lower haemoglobin, and more oedema but similar prevalence of
      left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) compared patients with Stages 0-2.
      AKI was present in 17.0% (10.4%-Stage 1, 3.7%-Stage 2, and 2.9%-Stage 3); these
      had higher potassium and lower haemoglobin than patients with no AKI. Length of
      stay was longer in Stage 4/5 CKD [11 days; P = 0.008] and AKI [13 days; P =
      0.006]. Mortality was higher with Stage 4/5 CKD (13.8% compared with 7.7% for
      Stages 0-2 CKD (P = 0.036)] and increased with AKI (5%-no AKI, 20.9%-Stage 1,
      35.9%-Stage 2, and 48.4%-Stage 3; P < 0.001). Adjusted for age, diabetes, and
      LVSD, both AKI and Stage 4/5 CKD were independent predictors of in-hospital
      mortality. In survivors with LVSD, the discharge prescription of angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers decreased with
      progressive CKD, [84%-no-mild, 59%-moderate, and 36%-severe CKD; P < 0.001]; this
      was not purely explained by hyperkalaemia. CONCLUSIONS: Inpatients with heart
      failure and renal impairment, acute and chronic, failed to receive recommended
      therapy and had poor outcomes.

PMID- 28872781
TI  - A method for assessment of the dynamic response of the arterial baroreflex.
AB  - AIM: The baroreflex is a key mechanism in cardiovascular regulation, and
      alterations in baroreceptor function are seen in many diseases, including heart
      failure, obesity and hypertension. We propose a new method for analysing
      baroreceptor function from continuous blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in
      both health and disease. METHODS: Forty-eight-hour data series of BP and HR were
      collected with telemetry. Sprague Dawley rats on standard chow (n = 11) served as
      controls, while rats on a high-fat, high-fructose (HFHC) diet (n = 6) constituted
      the obese-hypertensive model. A third group of rats underwent autonomic blockade
      (n = 6). An autoregressive-moving-average with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) model was
      applied to the data and compared with the alpha-coefficient. RESULTS: Autonomic
      blockade caused a significant reduction in the strength of the baroreflex as
      estimated by ARMAX [ARMAX- baroreflex sensitivity (BRS)] -0.03 +/- 0.01 vs. -0.19
      +/- 0.04 bpm heartbeat-1) . Both methods showed a ~50% reduction in BRS in the
      obese-hypertensive group compared with control (body weight 531 +/- 27 vs. 458 +/
      19 g, P < 0.05; mean arterial pressure 119 +/- 3 vs. 102 +/- 1 mmHg, P < 0.05;
      ARMAX-BRS -0.08 +/- 0.01 vs. -0.15 +/- 0.01 bpm heartbeat-1 , P < 0.05; alpha
      coefficient BRS 0.51 +/- 0.07 vs. 0.89 +/- 0.07 ms mmHg-1 , P < 0.05). The ARMAX
      method additionally showed the open-loop gain of the baroreflex to be reduced by
      ~50% in the obese-hypertensive group (-2.3 +/- 0.3 vs. -4.1 +/- 0.3 bpm, P <
      0.05), while the rate constant was similar between groups. CONCLUSION: The ARMAX
      model represents an efficient method for estimating several aspects of the
      baroreflex. The open-loop gain of the baroreflex was attenuated in obese
      hypertensive rats compared with control, while the time response was similar. The
      algorithm can be applied to other species including humans.

PMID- 28872783
TI  - Effect of Video-Assisted Teaching Module (VATM) on Knowledge of ASHAs regarding
      RNTCP in Kuchinda Block of Sambalpur (Odisha).
AB  - Infectious disease is a major public health issue for both developed and
      developing countries. Among infectious diseases, tuberculosis (TB) is most
      prevalent in the develop- ing countries. India is the highest TB burden country
      in the world and accounts for nearly one fifth (20%) of global burden of
      tuberculosis. A pre-experimental design where pre- and post-test without control
      group with experimental approach was undertaken in Kuchinda block of Sambalpur
      district (Odisha) with the objectives to assess effectiveness of Video-assisted
      Teaching Module (VATM) on knowledge of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs)
      regarding Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) Data were
      collected from 52 ASHAs, selected by systematic random sampling technique through
      structured questionnaire. The overall mean score in pre-test was 23.31+/-3.07
      which is 58.27 percent of maximum score and good knowledge whereas it was 34.35+/
      3.56 while post-test it was 85.87 percent of maximum score during post-test
      showing a difference of 27.6 percent effectiveness. Highly significant (p<0.01)
      differ- ence was found between pre- and post-test knowledge score and no
      significant (>0.05) association was found between post-test knowledge score when
      compared to all the demographic variables of ASHAs.

PMID- 28872782
TI  - Erosion of the long process of the incus with incomplete ossicular discontinuity
      in simple chronic otitis media: Should we reconstruct or leave it be?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with simple chronic otitis media and
      incomplete ossicular discontinuity should undergo ossicular reconstruction.
      DESIGN: Prospective, randomised surgical trial comparing no intervention with
      incus interposition over a 5-year period. SETTING: Tertiary referral hospital.
      PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-six participants with simple chronic otitis media and
      erosion of the long process of the incus but apparent good transmission
      throughout the ossicular chain as tested intra-operatively. Forty-four patients
      had partial erosion of the incus but still bony contact with the stapes head
      (Group A-Type I), and 32 had mainly connective tissue binding the incus and
      stapes (Group B-Type II). Each of these groups was randomised to either leaving
      the ossicular chain as it was (A1 and B1) or performing an incus interposition
      (A2 and B2). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Average postoperative air-bone gap and the
      degree of ABG closure. A postoperative air-bone gap under 20 dB was considered a
      successful result. RESULTS: In group A, there was no significant difference
      between no intervention and incus interposition. In group B, patients in the no
      reconstruction subgroup had a significantly worse hearing result than the incus
      interposition subgroup (postoperative air-bone gap of 27.5 dB and 31% closure
      within 20 dB vs 15 dB and 75% closure). CONCLUSIONS: For Type I patients, the
      postoperative hearing results were similar for the reconstruction and no
      reconstruction groups. For Type II patients, the results clearly favour
      reconstruction.

PMID- 28872784
TI  - Determinants of Health Care Services Utilisation for Childhood illness in a
      selected village of Jhajjar, Haryana - A Survey.
AB  - This quantitative community-based study identifies-households, primary caregivers
      (PCGs), child, demographic factors and health care services characteristics and
      the pattern of health care services utilisationfor childhood illnesses. A cross
      sectional household sur- vey was conducted in a ,selected village of Jhajjar
      district of Haryana from June 2011 to June 2012, in which 1265 households were
      contacted. Total 340 primary care givers of children suffering from illness
      currently or during last 2 weeks .were- interviewed using a semi-structured
      interview schedule. One way ANOVA and the chi-square test were used to determine
      the association with selected variables (p<0.05, CI 95%). Major- ity of primary
      care givers were mothers 269 (79.1%), in the age group of 25- 35 years (149,
      43.8%) with mean age 28.2 ? 9.9 years (15-70). Majority of sick children 328
      (96.4%) were between 2 months to 5 years, male (206, 60.6%). Majority of sick
      children suffered from cold and cough (218, 64.1%) During the current illness
      majority of PCGS 205 (60.3%) had been to the private health care facility to seek
      the treatment. Signft- cant relationship- was found between the private health
      care facility utilisation and the selected variables. All primary care givers
      despite low socio economic status, health care services from private sector due
      to availability and accessibility of health care profes- sionals even in the
      evening and night time, quick relief and good individual attention by them
      without loss of wages.

PMID- 28872785
TI  - Health Related Quality of Life of Children with Chronic Illness.
AB  - A descriptive survey was carried out with the aim of determining the health
      related quality of life (HRQOL) of hospitalised children .with chronic illness.
      Data was col- lected from 148 children with chronic illness admitted in selected
      paediatric wards of tertiary care hospitals and their parents. The results showed
      that 51 percent of the children scored below the median of total HRQOL score.
      Children with cancer 34 (91.9%) and thalassemia 33 (89.2%) reported a low HRQOL.
      Children with chronic illness especially cancer and thalassemia had signficantly
      low HRQOL compared to children with other illnesses. Gender, diagnosis, frequency
      of hospitalisation, duration of illness and type of treatment received were the
      predic- tive of HRQOL of these children.

PMID- 28872786
TI  - Effect of Curry Leaves in the Control of Blood Sugar among Diabetic Clients in
      Selected Urban Areas of Mangalore.

PMID- 28872787
TI  - Effect of Knowledge on the Attitude and Practice of Hand Washing Techniques among
      Staff Nurses Working in Paediatric Units of Selected Tertiary Hospital.

PMID- 28872788
TI  - Effect of Structured Teaching Program on Breast Cancer and Breast Self
      Exanination among Students in Nursing Colleges of Assam.
AB  - With a view to assess the effectiveness of structures teaching programme on
      breast can- cer and breast self-examination, a quasi-experimental with pre-test
      post-test without control group design and an evaluative research approach was
      undertaken on, 100 female nursing degree students. Proportionate stratified
      sampling technique was used In select- tg nursing students. Prior to
      imnpleme'nting structured teaching programme the nursing students haid moderate
      knowledge, cattitude and practice, whereas after implementation of structured
      teaching programme nursing 'students' knowledge and ability to peform breast self
      examinationi was significantly improved with difference:'of mean percentage
      revealing effectiveness of structured teaching programme. A positive correlation
      of knowi . edge and attitude of nursing students was also found before the study,
      and there wasl not much change in attitude level of nursing students as it was
      moderately favorable prior to the study. .

PMID- 28872790
TI  - Ruggero Bortolami (1926-2014): in memoriam.

PMID- 28872789
TI  - Clinical Leadership Issues and Qualities among Selected Clinical Nurse Leaders in
      Medical Wards of Christian Medical College, Vellore.

PMID- 28872792
TI  - Obituary: Prof. Laurentiu Mircea Popescu. Bucharest 1944-2015.

PMID- 28872791
TI  - Obituary: Prof. Giuseppe Carlo Balboni, Ferrara 1.12.1923 - Firenze 8.9.2014.

PMID- 28872793
TI  - Tumor angiogenesis. From bench to bedside.
AB  - Starting with the hypothesis of Judah Folkman that tumor growth is angiogenesis
      dependent, this area of research has a solid scientific foundation. More than 30
      years ago, Folkman found a revolutionary new way to think about cancer. He
      postulated that in order to survive and grow, tumors require blood vessels and
      that by cutting off the blood supply a cancer could be starved into remission.
      Several clinical studies have shown a positive correlation between the number of
      vessels in the tumor, metastasis formation and prognosis. The genetic instability
      of tumor cells permits the occurrence of multiple genetic alterations that
      facilitate tumor progression and metastasis, and cell clones with diverse
      biological aggressiveness may coexist within the same tumor. These two properties
      allow tumors to acquire resistance to cytotoxic agents. Inhibiting angiogenesis
      is a major area of therapeutic development for the treatment of cancer. Whereas
      conventional chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy are directed against
      tumor cells, anti-angiogenic therapy is aimed at the vasculature of a tumor and
      will either cause total tumor regression or keep tumors in a state of dormancy.
      Even though numerous compounds inhibit angiogenesis, few of them have proved
      effective in vivo, and only a couple of agents have been able to induce tumor
      regression. Bevacizumab is considered to be the first specific angiogenesis
      inhibitor for clinical oncology.

PMID- 28872794
TI  - Radiological anatomy of the breast.
AB  - Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer site in women (28.8% of all cancer
      sites), the seconc most common in the world with an estimated 1.67 million new
      cases diagnosed in 2012 (25% of all cancers) and an estimated lifetime risk of
      1/9 women. It is the fifth cause of tumor death overall (7.5%) and the first in
      women. Diagnostic senology has the purpose of the early diagno sis of breast
      cancer. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of all imaging techniques
      in studying the norma morphological anatomy of the breast. Knowing the normal
      anatomy of the breast is essentia to integrate all available imaging techniques
      in order to distinguish normal from pathologica structures.

PMID- 28872795
TI  - Osteoimmunology represents a link between skeletal and immune system.
AB  - There is a complex interplay between the cells of the immune system and bone.
      These inter- actions are not only mediated by the release of cytokines and
      chemokines but also by direct cell-cell contact. Studies of intracellular
      signaling mechanisms in osteoclasts have revealed that numerous immunomodulatory
      molecules are involved in the regulation of bone metabolism. Recently, it was
      proposed that immunoreceptors found in the immune cells are also an essen- tial
      signal for osteoclasts activation, along with receptor activator of NF-icB (RANK)
      ligand (RANKL). Collectively, these and similar observations regarding cross
      regulation between the immune and skeletal systems constitute the field of
      osteoimmunology. Here we briefly high- light core areas of interest and selected
      recent advances in this field.

PMID- 28872796
TI  - Stature estimation and formulation of based on ulna length in Kurdish racial
      subgroup.
AB  - Measuring stature is useful for forensic and anthropometrical sciences. The
      present study was con- ducted to calculate the stature from ulna length among
      Kurdish racial subgroup living in Iran. In this study, 50 females aged 19-24 were
      recruited. The ulna length of subjects was taken indepen- dently on left and
      right sides using a digital sliding caliper. The height was measured between
      vertex and floor. The height (Y) was also estimated by linear regression formulas
      from the length of right (X1) or left side ulna (X2). For right side, Y1 = 59.48
      + 4.005 X1 +/- 4.09295 (R=0.753); for left side, Y2 = 63.44 +3.887 X2 +/- 4.24106
      (R=0.731). The derived formulae are population specific and are designed for use
      in forensic and anthropometric skeletal analysis of Kurdish racial subgroup.
      These data provide a scientific basis for further investigations on racial
      subgroups living in Iran.

PMID- 28872797
TI  - Serum relaxin levels in subjects with multiple sclerosis.
AB  - Multiple Sclerosis is an inflammatory, auto-immune, neurodegenerative disease of
      the central nervous system. The disease has a prevalence of approx 1:700 with at
      least 2.5 million cases worldwide. It is the leading, non-trauma cause of
      physical disability among young and mid- dle-aged adults. Recently developed
      therapies do reduce disease activity but only modestly, with all of the available
      agents producing significant side effects that reduce compliance, and/ or serious
      risk for adverse events. Relaxin has been long-recognized to play a critical role
      in pregnancy. Recent investigations have revealed that relaxin may be an
      important regulator of inflammation and immune processes. This is due to the
      ability of relaxin to promote the pro- duction of glucocorticoid receptors,
      increase serum levels of the adrenocorticotropic hormone and inhibiting cell
      mediated pro-inflammatory activity by stimulation of the peroxisome prolif-
      erator-activated receptor gamma. This study found serum relaxin levels to be
      elevated in sub- jects with multiple sclerosis. Production of relaxin is down
      regulated by a negative feedback loop through its own receptor binding. Decreased
      receptor binding may contribute to the high- er level of relaxin seen in these
      patients and may lead to dysregulation of the inflammatory and immune pathways.

PMID- 28872798
TI  - Study on incidence of sacralisation of fifth lumbar vertebra in South Indian
      population.
AB  - The lumbosacral region is of interest because of increased incidence of low back
      pain resulting from stress and strain. The lumbosacral spine supports and
      transmits weight of the body to the inferior extremity and thus plays an
      important role in posture. In lumbosacral transitional vertebra either the fifth
      lumbar vertebra may show assimilation to sacrum (sacralisation) or the first
      lumbar vertebra may show transition to lumbar configuration (lumbarisation). Due
      to the association between lumbosacral vertebral anomalies with low back pain,
      early disc degenera- tion in young individuals and other spinal pathology, the
      present study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, ESIC Medical College &
      PGIMSR, Chennai, India. Sacral bones were observed for sacral cornua, sacral
      hiatus and variations like sacralisation of fifth lumbar verte- bra.
      Sacralisation was observed in three bones, complete in one and incomplete in two
      bones. The possible origin of the anomaly and its relevance to clinics are
      discussed.

PMID- 28872799
TI  - An osteologic study of human ethmoidal foramina with special reference to their
      classification and symmetry.
AB  - The present investigation was designed to study the anatomy of the ethmoidal
      foramina in adult human dry skulls. In addition to investigate the number of
      ethmoidal foramina that can be found on the orbital wall, we also addressed their
      classification and symmetry. The analy- sis of 1089 orbits demonstrated that the
      average number of ethmoidal foramina/orbit was 2.07 (range 0 to 4). As for their
      classification, we devised the relative depth index (RDI) to differenti- ate the
      anterior from the posterior ethmoidal foramina. The index represents the ratio
      "distance of the foramen from the anterior lacrimal crest/length of the medial
      orbital wall". The average index of the anterior and posterior ethmoidal foramina
      were 0.53+/-0.04 and 0.84+/-0.06 respective- ly. As the mean of the two indexes
      was 0.685, we used the latter value as a sort of numerical watershed to define
      the domains of the anterior and of the posterior ethmoidal foramina on the
      orbital wall. Thus all ethmoidal foramina with an RDI : 0.68 were considered
      anterior ethmoi- dal foramina and all ethmoidal foramina with an RDI 0.69 were
      considered posterior ethmoi- dal foramina. In this way it is possible to properly
      classify foramina on orbits with 1,.3 or 4 ethmoidal foramina. As for their
      symmetry, in contrast to what had been previously reported, we observed that in
      most cases ethmoidal foramina have a highly symmetric arrangement both in terms
      of number of foramina on fellow orbits and of position along the orbital wall.

PMID- 28872800
TI  - Morphological study of the effects of aqueous leaf extract of Xylopia aethiopica
      on the pancreas in diabetic rats.
AB  - To investigate the histological and immunohistochemical effects of aqueous leaf
      extract of Xylo- pia aethiopica on the pancreas in streptozotocin-induced
      diabetic rats, 30 adult Wistar rats were divided into three groups (n=10). Group
      A was the control (administered with equivalent vol- ume of citrate buffer),
      group B animals were made diabetic by a single intraperitoneal injection of
      streptozotocin dissolved in citrate buffer (65 mg/kg), group C animals were made
      diabetic as above and treated with 200mg/kg body weight of aqueous leave extract
      of Xylopia aethiop- ica for 25 days. Upon animal sacrifice, the pancreas were
      excised, fixed in 10% formol saline and processed for light microscopy and
      immunohistochemistry.. The results revealed destruc- tion of the islet cells in
      the untreated diabetic group as compared with the controls. The extract treated
      group was characterized by recovery/regenerative processes indicated by
      improvement in islet morphology. In untreated diabetic rats immunoreactive P
      cells were sparse, at variance from the controls. The group treated with aqueous
      leaf extract of Xylopia aethiopica revealed more intense staining for insulin and
      significant (p<0.05) increase in the percentage of immuno- labelled surface area
      when compared with the untreated diabetic group, suggesting the ability of P
      cells to secrete insulin in the extract treated rats. We conclude that the
      aqueous leaf extract of Xylopia aethiopica improves recovery process of P-cells
      in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and might become useful in the management
      of diabetes related complications.

PMID- 28872801
TI  - Persistent median artery of the forearm and palm: a cadaver study into its
      origin, course, fate and clinical significance.
AB  - The median artery is the axis artery of forearm till the 811 week of gestation
      and thereafter nor- mally regresses, only its proximal part remaining patent as
      the companion artery of the medi- an nerve in adults. A large, well developed
      persistent median artery extended to the palm and contributed to its vascular
      supply in 6 out of 100 upper limbs dissected. Dissection was used to demonstrate
      the persistent median arteries from their origin to termination. The persistent
      median artery originated from the ulnar artery in the cubital fossa. It pierced
      the median nerve, descended anterior t4 the nerve'in a common sheath and passed
      deep to the flexor retinaculum. An accessory head of flexor pollicis longus,
      which is a usual finding associated with the persis- tent median artery, was seen
      in one forearm. The superficial palmar arch was not seen in any specimen with
      persistent median artery. In all the specimens with persistent median artery, the
      lateral half of the palm and lateral 21/2 digits were supplied by it, whereas the
      medial half of palm and the medial 21/2 digits were supplied by the ulnar artery.
      The persistent median artery may contribute to median nerve compression
      neuropathy. The variations in the vascular supply of hand have clinical
      implications.

PMID- 28872802
TI  - Ectopic third molar tooth on the infratemporal surface of maxilla.
AB  - Ectopic eruption of a tooth within the dentate region of the jaws is often
      noticed in clinical practice and is well documented in the literature but the
      ectopic eruption into the non dentate region is rare. Diverse anatomical
      locations such as nasal cavity, nasal septum, mandibular condyle, coronoid
      process, the palate and the maxillary sinus can infrequently be non dentate sites
      of ectopic eruptions of teeth. While conducting an anthropometric study on 100
      skulls incidental and interesting case of ectopic maxillary third molar tooth was
      found. The tooth was partially erupted with the unerupted part lying impacted in
      the posterior wall of maxilla. The case is reported and discussed for its
      significant clinical implications.

PMID- 28872803
TI  - Direct origin of the right colic artery from the abdominal aorta.
AB  - An isolated right colic artery originating directly from the abdominal aorta was
      incidentally observed during diagnostic spinal angiography. Variations in origin
      of the right colic artery are reviewed, and their embryology and potential
      clinical implications discussed.

PMID- 28872804
TI  - Ocular anatomy in medieval arabic medicine. A review.
AB  - In medieval Arabic medicine Ophthalmology had a central role. Ocular anatomy was
      described in many ophthalmological treatises of the physicians of the time. These
      physicians followed the doctrines of Galen according ocular anatomy, nevertheless
      their contribution to the history of ocular anatomy was the presentation of
      ocular anatomical sketches in their manuscripts for the fist time in medical
      history.

PMID- 28872805
TI  - Endocrine cells distribution in human proximal small intestine: an
      immunohistochemical and morphometrical study.
AB  - Atrophy of the pancreatic remnant after pancreaticoduodenectomy might be
      consequent to dereg- ulation of pancreatic endocrine stimuli after duodenal
      removal. Relative technical surgical solu- tion could be the anastomosis of the
      1st jejunal loop to the stomach and the 2nd to the pancreatic stump. Data on the
      distribution of endocrine cells within the proximal intestine might represent the
      lacking tile of the problem. Our aims were to investigate the distribution
      pattern of seroto- nin, cholecystokinin and secretin cells in the duodenum, the
      1st and 2nd jejunal loops of humans. Bowel specimens of ten patients submitted to
      pancreaticoduodenectomy were collected; immuno- histochemical reactions and
      morphometric analyses were performed. A general ab-oral decrease of
      enteroendocrine cells was found. The rate of serotonin cells showed a significant
      30.67+/-8.13% reduction starting from the 1s' jejunal loop versus duodenum. The
      rate of both cholecystokinin and secretin cells in the duodenum was
      superimposable to that in the 1st jejunal loop, with a sig- nificant 62.88+/
      4.80% loss of cholecystokinin and 39.5+/-9.31% of secretin cells in the 2nd loop.
      After removal of duodenum, preservation of the 1st jejunal loop could impact the
      function of pancreatic remnant maintaining the physiological enteroendocrine
      stimulus for pancreatic secretion that can compensate, at least in part for the
      abolished duodenal hormonal release.

PMID- 28872806
TI  - A scoping review of the uses of the care index in children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct a scoping review of literature to describe how the care
      index (CI) and restorative index (RI) are used in child populations and to
      determine whether they are fit for purpose. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: Scoping review
      conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework. METHOD: Electronic and
      manual literature searches (1980-2015) were conducted. Titles and abstracts were
      screened, full-texts of potential studies were reviewed two reviewers extracted
      data independently, followed by data charting and summarising. RESULTS: Out of
      104 articles meeting all criteria, most were cross-sectional (92%), and 56% were
      conducted in UK and Brazil. Most commonly (63%) studies used CI and RI to obtain
      epidemiological data on dental care levels. Of the studies that defined CI and
      RI, most used and specified the standard definition. The CI and RI scores varied
      either due to patient related factors such as age, gender or dental care related
      factors including, cost of treatment and method of provider remuneration.
      CONCLUSION: Overall, it is recommended that future studies should clearly state
      the definitions and thresholds used to obtain CI and RI, which would enable
      comparison between communities and allow temporal trends to be studied.
      Additionally, deriving separate CI and RI scores for groups based on caries
      extent would help to highlight inequalities in the provision of care. Further
      research is needed to explore the applicability of CI and RI to changing
      approaches to caries management with current care recommendations emphasising on
      minimal treatment and secondary prevention.

PMID- 28872807
TI  - Using Normalisation Process Theory to investigate the implementation of school
      based oral health promotion.
AB  - : Despite the considerable improvement in oral health of children in the UK over
      the last forty years, a significant burden of dental caries remains prevalent in
      some groups of children, indicating the need for more effective oral health
      promotion intervention (OHPI) strategies in this population. OBJECTIVE: To
      explore the implementation process of a community-based OHPI, in the North East
      of England, using Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) to provide insights on how
      effectiveness could be maximised. METHODS: Utilising a generic qualitative
      research approach, 19 participants were recruited into the study. In-depth
      interviews were conducted with relevant National Health Service (NHS) staff and
      primary school teachers while focus group discussions were conducted with
      reception teachers and teaching assistants. Analyses were conducted using
      thematic analysis with emergent themes mapped onto NPT constructs. RESULTS:
      Participants highlighted the benefits of OHPI and the need for evidence in
      practice. However, implementation of 'best evidence' was hampered by lack of
      adequate synthesis of evidence from available clinical studies on effectiveness
      of OHPI as these generally have insufficient information on the dynamics of
      implementation and how effectiveness obtained in clinical studies could be
      achieved in 'real life'. This impacted on the decision-making process, levels of
      commitment, collaboration among OHP teams, resource allocation and evaluation of
      OHPI. CONCLUSIONS: A large gap exists between available research evidence and
      translation of evidence in OHPI in community settings. Effectiveness of OHPI
      requires not only an awareness of evidence of clinical effectiveness but also
      synthesised information about change mechanisms and implementation protocols.

PMID- 28872808
TI  - The oral health condition and treatment needs assessment of nursing home
      residents in Flanders (Belgium).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A study was conducted of nursing home residents with limited access
      to regular oral health care services to evaluate their oral health status, to
      perform an assessment of the need for oral treatment and to determine the
      possible predicting value of age, gender, care dependency and income level on
      their oral health status and treatment needs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three
      experienced dentists collected clinical oral health data with a mobile dental
      unit in 23 nursing homes. Socio-demographic data were extracted from the
      residents' records in the nursing home. Besides the descriptive and bivariate
      analysis, a general linear mixed model analysis was also performed with the
      nursing home as random effect. RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 1,226
      residents with a mean age of 83.9 years, of which 41.9% were edentulous. The mean
      D3MFt in the dentate group was 24.5 and 77% needed extractions or fillings. In
      the group of residents wearing removable dentures, 36.9% needed repair, rebasing
      or renewal of the denture. The mixed model analysis demonstrated that with each
      year a resident gets older, the oral health outcomes get worse and that men have
      worse oral health and higher treatment needs than women. However, the level of
      income and care dependency had a less extensive role in predicting the oral
      health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The nursing home residents presented a poor overall
      oral health status and high dental and prosthetic treatment needs. Gender and age
      were important predicting variables for the oral health outcomes.

PMID- 28872809
TI  - Prevalence, severity and extent of chronic periodontitis among Sri Lankan adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: to determine the prevalence, severity and extent of chronic
      periodontitis among 30-60 year old adults residing in Colombo district, Sri
      Lanka. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: a cross-sectional study with interviews and oral
      examinations. PARTICIPANTS: 1400, 30-60 year olds residing in Colombo district.
      RESULTS: the prevalence of mild, moderate and severe chronic periodontits was
      1.4%, 36.1% and 13.5% respectively and the prevalence was significantly
      associated with sex, age group, ethnicity, level of education, smoking status and
      self-reported diabetes. The mean probing pocket depth (PPD) was 2.05mm (SE=0.02)
      and of the sample, 77% and 31% had at least one site with PPD of >=4 and >=6mm
      respectively. The mean clinical attachment loss (CAL) was 2.53mm (SE=0.03) and
      99% and 81% of the sample had at least one site with CAL of >=3mm and >=5mm
      respectively. The extent of periodontitis determined according to the mean
      percentage of sites with >=4 and >=6mm of PPD were 8.40 (SE=0.34) and 1.37
      (SE=0.11) respectively. Further, the extent of periodontitis according to the
      mean percentages of sites with >=3 and >=5mm of CAL were 39.73 (SE=0.66) and
      10.95 (SE=0.43) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: the prevalence, severity and extent of
      chronic periodontits are high among adults in Colombo district. Their periodontal
      status was poorer than in previously reported studies conducted in the same
      district.

PMID- 28872810
TI  - The caries experience of 5 year-old children in Scotland in 2013-2014, and in
      England and Wales in 2014-2015. Reports of cross-sectional dental surveys using
      BASCD criteria.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We report the findings from and comment on the surveys of the oral
      health of 5-year-old children undertaken in Scotland (2013-14), Wales (2014-15)
      and England (2014-15). This was the fourteenth survey in Scotland since 1988. In
      England and Wales it is the third survey since 2007 when changes were required in
      consent arrangements. METHOD: Representative samples were drawn within Health
      Boards across Scotland and local authorities across England and Wales. Consent
      was sought via opt-out parental consent in Scotland and opt-in parental consent
      in England and Wales. Children examined were those aged five in England and those
      in Primary 1 (school year aged 5 to 6) in Scotland and Wales. Examinations were
      conducted in schools by trained and calibrated examiners. Caries was visually
      diagnosed at the dentinal threshold. RESULTS: There is a continuing decline in
      d3mft in all three countries. d3mft was 1.27 (opt-out consent) for Scotland, 0.84
      for England (opt-in consent) and 1.29 for Wales (opt-in consent). Tooth decay
      levels remain higher in more deprived areas across Great Britain, with clear
      inequalities gradients demonstrated across all geographies. Attempts to measure
      changes in dental health inequalities across the three countries show no
      conclusive trends. CONCLUSION: Inter-country comparisons provide further oral
      health intelligence despite differences in approach and timing. The third surveys
      in England and Wales using the new consent arrangements have enabled trend
      analysis. Dental health inequalities gradients were shown across all geographies
      and all of the indicators of inequality.

PMID- 28872811
TI  - Preferences for dental decisional control and associations with quality of life
      among third molar patients attending public dental services.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore (1) the prevalence of dental decisional control
      preferences (DDCP) among third molar (TM) patients attending public dental
      services and associated individual's characteristics, and (2) the association
      between DDCP and quality of life (QoL). METHOD: Participants were adult public
      dental patients with internet access referred for TM consultation. Collected data
      included patients' socio-demographic variables, the Control Preferences Scale
      (CPS), the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) and the EuroQol EQ-5D-5L.
      RESULTS: Participants (n=163) were mainly females (73.6%) with a mean age of 26.2
      years (SD=8.3). Most participants preferred an active DDCP (n=71, 44.1%) or a
      collaborative DDCP (n=60, 37.3%) while a minority preferred a passive DDCP (n=30,
      18.6%). Gender (P=.05) and education (P=.03) were associated with DDCP. In a
      multinomial logistic regression model for DDCP, females were more likely to have
      an active DDCP (OR=2.73, P=.04) as were participants who had tertiary education
      (OR=2.72, P=.04). In a linear regression model for OHIP-14, active (P=.05) and
      collaborative DDCP (P=.04) were associated with less impact on oral health
      related QoL. CONCLUSION: Patients attending public dental services preferred to
      be involved (either actively or collaboratively) in dental treatment decision
      making. Being a female and/or having tertiary education were associated with an
      active DDCP. The positive association between patients' involvement in decision
      making and oral health-related QoL might support the benefit for enhancing
      patients' involvement in decision-making.

PMID- 28872812
TI  - Type 2 diabetes as a risk indicator for dental caries in Korean adults: the 2011
      2012 Korea national health and nutrition examination survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The associations between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and untreated dental
      caries was examined. This study hypothesized that there would be a positive
      association between T2D and the prevalence of decayed permanent teeth (DT) in
      representative Korean adults. METHODS: The information was derived from the Korea
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2011-2012.
      Sociodemographic and lifestyle variables, anthropometric and biochemical status,
      metabolic health and glucose tolerance status, oral health behaviors, and dental
      caries index were evaluated. RESULTS: The number of DT had a positive association
      with degree of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level, and glycated hemoglobin
      (HbA1c) (p-value = 0.045 and 0.007, respectively). The levels of FPG and HbA1c
      increased with the number of DT (p for trend = 0.009 and 0.004, respectively).
      The prevalence of untreated caries uncontrolled T2D participants was about 26%
      higher than those with normal glucose tolerance levels after adjusting for
      potential confounders including diets and socioeconomic status (OR [95% CI] =
      1.26 [1.02, 1.56]). CONCLUSIONS: T2D is an independent risk indicator for
      untreated caries in Korean adults.

PMID- 28872813
TI  - Development and validation of the Child Oral Health Impact Profile - Preschool
      version.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Child Oral Health Impact Profile (COHIP) is a validated instrument
      created to measure the oral health-related quality of life of school-aged
      children. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a preschool
      version of the COHIP (COHIP-PS) for children aged 2-5. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: The
      COHIP-PS was developed and validated using a multi-stage process consisting of
      item selection, face validity testing, item impact testing, reliability and
      validity testing, and factor analysis. PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional
      convenience sample of caregivers having children 2-5 years old from four groups
      completed item clarity and impact forms. Groups were recruited from pediatric
      health clinics or preschools/daycare centers, speech clinics, dental clinics, or
      cleft/craniofacial centers. Participants had a variety of oral health-related
      conditions, including caries, congenital orofacial anomalies, and speech/language
      deficiencies such as articulation and language disorders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:
      COHIP-PS. RESULTS: The COHIP-PS was found to have acceptable internal validity (a
      = 0.71) and high test-retest reliability (0.87), though internal validity was
      below the accepted threshold for the community sample. While discriminant
      validity results indicated significant differences across study groups, the
      overall magnitude of differences was modest. Results from confirmatory factor
      analyses support the use of a four-factor model consisting of 11 items across
      oral health, functional well-being, social-emotional well-being, and self-image
      domains. CONCLUSIONS: Quality of life is an integral factor in understanding and
      assessing children's well-being. The COHIP-PS is a validated oral health-related
      quality of life measure for preschool children with cleft or other oral
      conditions.

PMID- 28872814
TI  - Association between excessive Internet use and oral health behaviors of Korean
      adolescents: A 2015 national survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate excessive Internet use's (EIU's)
      association with oral health behaviors among Korean adolescents. BASIC RESEARCH
      DESIGN: This cross-sectional study was based on the 11th Korea Youth Risk
      Behavior Web-based Survey (2015). PARTICIPANTS: 68,043 school students aged 13-18
      years (35,204 boys and 32,839 girls). Data on, 45,271 (23,354 males and 21,917
      females using the Internet on weekdays) and 49,324 (27,448 males and 21,876
      females using the Internet on weekends) were analyzed after excluding
      questionnaires with missing values. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The key variables were
      oral health behaviors (tooth-brushing frequency and tooth brushing after lunch at
      school, and preventive oral health behaviors), EIU (hours of Internet use on
      weekdays and weekends, excluding use for academic purposes). RESULTS: Compared to
      the general groups, the odds ratio (OR) for less tooth-brushing was 4.04
      (95%CI=2.990-5.459) and 3.55-fold higher (95% CI=2.703-4.659) in the high-risk
      groups for weekday and weekend EIU, respectively. For post-lunch tooth-brushing,
      compared to the general groups, the OR for less tooth-brushing was 1.7-fold
      higher in the high-risk groups for EIU during weekdays and weekends. The OR for
      no preventive behavior was significantly higher in the high-risk groups than in
      the potential-risk and general groups. CONCLUSIONS: Policies moderating
      adolescents' EIU may enable appropriate oral health behaviors.

PMID- 28872816
TI  - Superhydrophilic Wrinkle-Free Cotton Fabrics via Plasma and Nanofluid Treatment.
AB  - We demonstrate in this study a wrinkle-free, superhydrophilic cotton fabric
      (contact angle ~0 degrees ) by uniformly attaching specially engineered
      nanoparticles to plasma-pretreated cotton fabric. Because of their highly charged
      nature, the nanoparticles are firmly anchored on the fabric via electrostatic
      interactions, as confirmed by microscopy and chemical analyses. The durability of
      wetting behavior and wrinkle-free property of the nanoparticle-coated fabrics
      were evaluated via aging, laundering, and abrasion tests. The strongly attached
      coatings are stable enough to maintain their superhydrophilic nature even after
      60 days of aging at room temperature, 50 laundering cycles, and 25 000 abrasion
      cycles. Moreover, the nanoparticle-coated superhydrophilic fabrics exhibit great
      wrinkle-recovery property, tensile strength, and abrasion resistance performance
      up to 25 000 abrasion cycles.

PMID- 28872817
TI  - Carboplatin-Loaded, Raman-Encoded, Chitosan-Coated Silver Nanotriangles as
      Multimodal Traceable Nanotherapeutic Delivery Systems and pH Reporters inside
      Human Ovarian Cancer Cells.
AB  - Ovarian cancer is a common cause of cancer death in women and is associated with
      the highest mortality rates of all gynecological malignancies. Carboplatin (CBP)
      is the most used cytotoxic agent in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Herein, we
      design and assess a CBP nanotherapeutic delivery system which allows
      combinatorial functionalities of chemotherapy, pH sensing, and multimodal
      traceable properties inside live NIH:OVCAR-3 ovarian cancer cells. In our design,
      a pH-sensitive Raman reporter, 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4MBA) is anchored onto the
      surface of chitosan-coated silver nanotriangles (chit-AgNTs) to generate a robust
      surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) traceable system. To endow this
      nanoplatform with chemotherapeutic abilities, CBP is then loaded to 4MBA-labeled
      chit-AgNTs (4MBA-chit-AgNTs) core under alkaline conditions. The uptake and
      tracking potential of CBP-4MBA-chit-AgNTs at different Z-depths inside live
      ovarian cancer cells is evaluated by dark-field and differential interference
      contrast (DIC) microscopy. The ability of CBP-4MBA-chit-AgNTs to operate as near
      infrared (NIR)-responsive contrast agents is validated using two noninvasive
      techniques: two-photon (TP)-excited fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy
      (FLIM) and confocal Raman microscopy (CRM). The most informative data about the
      precise localization of nanocarriers inside cells correlated with intracellular
      pH sensing is provided by multivariate analysis of Raman spectra collected by
      scanning CRM. The in vitro cell proliferation assay clearly shows the
      effectiveness of the prepared nanocarriers in inhibiting the growth of NIH:OVCAR
      3 cancer cells. We anticipate that this class of nanocarriers holds great promise
      for application in image-guided ovarian cancer chemotherapy.

PMID- 28872818
TI  - Lowering Band Gap of an Electroactive Metal-Organic Framework via Complementary
      Guest Intercalation.
AB  - A new honeycomb-shaped electroactive metal-organic framework (MOF) has been
      constructed from an electron deficient naphthalenediimide (NDI) ligand equipped
      with two terminal salicylic acid groups. pi-Intercalation of electron-rich planar
      tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) guests between the NDI ligands stacked along the walls
      lowers the electronic band gap of the material by ca. 1 eV. An improved electron
      delocalization through the guest-mediated pi-donor/acceptor stacks is attributed
      to the diminished band gap of the doped material, which forecasts an improved
      electrical conductivity.

PMID- 28872819
TI  - A Facile Approach To Prepare Tough and Responsive Ultrathin Physical Hydrogel
      Films as Artificial Muscles.
AB  - We report a facile approach to prepare ultrathin physical hydrogel films based on
      the Marangoni effect, which drives an ethanol solution of poly(stearyl acrylate
      co-acrylic acid) (P(SA-co-AAc)) to rapidly spread on the water surface. The
      subsequent solvent exchange leads to sol-gel transition, where the long alkyl
      chains of SA units segregate to form physical cross-linking junctions. The
      resultant disk-shaped single-network (SN) gel films are uniform with tunable
      thickness (40-80 MUm) and diameter (5-12 cm) and possess robust mechanical
      properties with tensile breaking stress, sigmab, and breaking strain, epsilonb,
      being 0.3-1.1 MPa and 30-290%, respectively. The mechanical properties of SN gel
      films can be further improved by introducing ductile poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
      (PNIPAm) into the preformed gel matrix, which forms strong hydrogen bonds with
      the first network. The obtained physical double-network (DN) hydrogel films are
      transparent and show excellent mechanical performances with sigmab of 3-5 MPa and
      epsilonb of 100-500%. Due to the ultrathin thickness of gel films and response of
      PNIPAm to saline solutions, the tough DN gel films exhibit fast response (<=60 s)
      and large stroke force (0.5 MPa) after switching the environment from water bath
      to saline solution, making them an ideal material to design artificial muscles,
      soft actuators, and chemomechanical devices.

PMID- 28872820
TI  - Selective Inactivation of Bacteriophage in the Presence of Bacteria by Use of
      Ground Rh-Doped SrTiO3 Photocatalyst and Visible Light.
AB  - Bacteriophage (denoted as phage) infection in the bacterial fermentation industry
      is a major problem, leading to the loss of fermented products such as alcohol and
      lactic acid. Currently, the prevention of phage infection is limited to
      biological approaches, which are difficult to apply in an industrial setting.
      Herein, we report an alternative chemical approach using ground Rh-doped SrTiO3
      (denoted as g-STO:Rh) as a visible-light-driven photocatalyst. The g-STO:Rh
      showed selective inactivation of phage without bactericidal activity when
      irradiated with visible light (lambda > 440 nm). After inactivation, the color of
      g-STO:Rh changed from gray to purple, suggesting that the Rh valence state
      partially changed from 3+ to 4+ induced by photocatalysis, as confirmed by
      diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. To study the effect of the Rh4+ ion on phage
      inactivation under visible-light irradiation, the survival rate of phage for g
      STO:Rh was compared to that for ground Rh,Sb-codoped SrTiO3 (denoted as g
      STO:Rh,Sb), where the change of Rh valence state from 3+ to 4+ is almost
      suppressed under visible-light irradiation due to charge compensation by the Sb5+
      ion. Only g-STO:Rh effectively inactivated phage, which indicated that Rh4+ ion
      induced by photocatalysis particularly contributed to phage inactivation under
      visible-light irradiation. These results suggested that g-STO:Rh has potential as
      an antiphage material in bacterial fermentation.

PMID- 28872821
TI  - Correction to "Organic Field-Effect Transistors with Macroporous Semiconductor
      Films as High-Performance Humidity Sensors".

PMID- 28872822
TI  - Corrugation in the Weakly Interacting Hexagonal-BN/Cu(111) System: Structure
      Determination by Combining Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy and X-ray Standing
      Waves.
AB  - Atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) layers on metallic supports
      represent a promising platform for the selective adsorption of atoms, clusters,
      and molecular nanostructures. Specifically, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
      studies revealed an electronic corrugation of h-BN/Cu(111), guiding the self
      assembly of molecules and their energy level alignment. A detailed
      characterization of the h-BN/Cu(111) interface including the spacing between the
      h-BN sheet and its support-elusive to STM measurements-is crucial to rationalize
      the interfacial interactions within these systems. To this end, we employ
      complementary techniques including high-resolution noncontact atomic force
      microscopy, STM, low-energy electron diffraction, X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy, the X-ray standing wave method, and density functional theory. Our
      multimethod study yields a comprehensive, quantitative structure determination
      including the adsorption height and the corrugation of the sp2 bonded h-BN layer
      on Cu(111). Based on the atomic contrast in atomic force microscopy measurements,
      we derive a measurable-hitherto unrecognized-geometric corrugation of the h-BN
      monolayer. This experimental approach allows us to spatially resolve minute
      height variations in low-dimensional nanostructures, thus providing a benchmark
      for theoretical modeling. Regarding potential applications, e.g., as a template
      or catalytically active support, the recognition of h-BN on Cu(111) as a weakly
      bonded and moderately corrugated overlayer is highly relevant.

PMID- 28872823
TI  - Programmed Self-Assembly of Branched Nanocrystals with an Amphiphilic Surface
      Pattern.
AB  - Site-selective surface modification on the shape-controlled nanocrystals is a key
      approach in the programmed self-assembly of inorganic colloidal materials. This
      study demonstrates a simple methodology to gain self-assemblies of semiconductor
      nanocrystals with branched shapes through tip-to-tip attachment. Short-chained
      water-soluble cationic thiols are employed as a surface ligand for CdSe tetrapods
      and CdSe/CdS core/shell octapods. Because of the less affinity of arm-tip to the
      surface ligands compared to the arm-side wall, the tip-surface becomes uncapped
      to give a hydrophobic nature, affording an amphiphilic surface pattern. The
      amphiphilic tetrapods aggregated into porous agglomerates through tip-to-tip
      connection in water, while they afforded a hexagonally arranged Kagome-like two
      dimensional (2D) assembly by the simple casting of aqueous dispersion with the
      aid of a convective self-assembly mechanism. A 2D net-like assembly was similarly
      obtained from amphiphilic octapods. A dissipative particle dynamics simulation
      using a planar tripod model with an amphiphilic surface pattern reproduced the
      formation of the Kagome-like assembly in a 2D confined space, demonstrating that
      the lateral diffusion of nanoparticles and the firm contacts between the
      hydrophobic tips play crucial roles in the self-assembly.

PMID- 28872824
TI  - Transition State Analysis of Adenosine Triphosphate Phosphoribosyltransferase.
AB  - Adenosine triphosphate phosphoribosyltransferase (ATP-PRT) catalyzes the first
      step in histidine biosynthesis, a pathway essential to microorganisms and a
      validated target for antimicrobial drug design. The ATP-PRT enzyme catalyzes the
      reversible substitution reaction between phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate and ATP.
      The enzyme exists in two structurally distinct forms, a short- and a long-form
      enzyme. These forms share a catalytic core dimer but bear completely different
      allosteric domains and thus distinct quaternary assemblies. Understanding
      enzymatic transition states can provide essential information on the reaction
      mechanisms and insight into how differences in domain structure influence the
      reaction chemistry, as well as providing a template for inhibitor design. In this
      study, the transition state structures for ATP-PRT enzymes from Campylobacter
      jejuni and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (long-form enzymes) and from Lactococcus
      lactis (short-form) were determined and compared. Intrinsic kinetic isotope
      effects (KIEs) were obtained at reaction sensitive positions for the reverse
      reaction using phosphonoacetic acid, an alternative substrate to the natural
      substrate pyrophosphate. The experimental KIEs demonstrated mechanistic
      similarities between the three enzymes and provided experimental boundaries for
      quantum chemical calculations to characterize the transition states. Predicted
      transition state structures support a dissociative reaction mechanism with a
      DN*AN? transition state. Weak interactions from the incoming nucleophile and a
      fully dissociated ATP adenine are predicted regardless of the difference in
      overall structure and quaternary assembly. These studies establish that despite
      significant differences in the quaternary assembly and regulatory machinery
      between ATP-PRT enzymes from different sources, the reaction chemistry and
      catalytic mechanism are conserved.

PMID- 28872825
TI  - Flexible Polymer/Metal/Polymer and Polymer/Metal/Inorganic Trilayer Transparent
      Conducting Thin Film Heaters with Highly Hydrophobic Surface.
AB  - Polymer/metal/polymer and polymer/metal/inorganic trilayer-structured transparent
      electrodes with fluorocarbon plasma polymer thin film heaters have been proposed.
      The polymer/metal/polymer and polymer/metal/inorganic transparent conducting thin
      films fabricated on a large-area flexible polymer substrate using a continuous
      roll-to-roll sputtering process show excellent electrical properties and visible
      light transmittance. They also exhibit water-repelling surfaces to prevent
      wetting and to remove contamination. In addition, the adoption of a
      fluorocarbon/metal/fluorocarbon film permits an outer bending radius as small as
      3 mm. These films have a sheet resistance of less than 5 Omega sq-1, sufficient
      to drive light-emitting diode circuits. The thin film heater with the
      fluorocarbon/Ag/SiNx structure exhibits excellent heating characteristics, with a
      temperature reaching 180  degrees C under the driving voltage of 13 V. Therefore,
      the proposed polymer/metal/polymer and polymer/metal/inorganic transparent
      conducting electrodes using polymer thin films can be applied in flexible and
      rollable displays as well as automobile window heaters and other devices.

PMID- 28872826
TI  - In-Situ Fixation of All-Inorganic Mo-Fe-S Clusters for the Highly Selective
      Removal of Lead(II).
AB  - The selective adsorption by suitable substrate materials is considered one of the
      most economical methods. In this work, an all-inorganic bimetallic Mo-Fe-S
      cluster is facilely achieved through in situ chemical fixation of
      tetrathiomolybdate (TTM) on Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) at room temperature
      (donated as FeMoS NPs). The bimetallic building blocks on the obtained FeMoS NPs
      possess a monovacancy species of sulfur, endowing FeMoS NPs with a selectivity
      order of Zn2+, Mn2+, Ni2+ < Cd2+ ? Cu2+ < Pb2+ for metal-ion adsorption, a novel
      application for the Mo-Fe-S clusters. Particularly, with the highest selectivity
      for Pb2+ (Kd ~ 107), which is about 3 * 103-1 * 106 times higher than those for
      other ions and has exceeded that of a series of outstanding sorbents reported for
      Pb2+, FeMoS NPs can efficiently reduce the concentration of Pb2+ from ~10 ppm to
      an extremely low level of ~1 ppb. This facile and rational fabrication of the Mo
      Fe-S cluster with Fe3O4 represents a feasible approach to cheaply develop novel
      and efficient materials for the selective removal of lead(II).

PMID- 28872827
TI  - Rare Earth Polyoxometalates.
AB  - Longstanding and important applications make use of the chemical and physical
      properties of both rare earth metals and polyoxometalates of early transition
      metals. The catalytic, optical, and magnetic features of rare earth metal ions
      are well-known, as are the reversible multielectron redox and photoredox
      capabilities of polyoxomolybdates and polyoxotungstates. The combination of rare
      earth ions and polyoxometalates in discrete molecules and coordination polymers
      is of interest for the unique combination of chemical and physical properties
      that can arise. This Account surveys our efforts to synthesize and investigate
      compounds with rare earth ions and polyoxometalates (RE-POMs), sometimes with
      carboxylate-based organic coligands. Our general synthetic approach is "bottom
      up", which affords well-defined nanoscale molecules, typically in crystalline
      form and amenable to single-crystal X-ray diffraction for structure
      determination. Our particular focus is on elucidation of the physical properties
      conferred by the different structural components with a view to ultimately being
      able to tune these properties chemically. For this purpose, we employ a variety
      of spectroscopic, magnetochemical, electrochemical, and scattering techniques in
      concert with theoretical modeling and computation. Studies of RE-POM single
      molecule magnets (SMMs) have utilized magnetic susceptibility, inelastic neutron
      scattering, and ab initio calculations. These investigations have allowed
      characterization of the crystal field splitting of the rare earth(III) ions that
      is responsible for the SMM properties of slow magnetic relaxation and
      magnetization quantum tunneling. Such SMMs are promising for applications in
      quantum computing and molecular spintronics. Photophysical measurements of a
      family of hybrid RE-POMs with organic ligands have afforded insights into
      sensitization of Tb(III) and Eu(III) emission through both organic and
      polyoxometalate chromophores in the same molecule. Detailed variable-temperature
      studies have revealed the temperature dependence of the POM-based sensitization,
      which is relevant for potential applications in phosphor thermometry. Novel RE
      POM coordination polymers demonstrate the promise of higher-dimensional materials
      for catalytic and sensing applications that can make use of either or both rare
      earth and polyoxometalate capabilities. Finally, structural, electrochemical, and
      density functional theory studies on a family of modular RE-POMs that incorporate
      molybdotungstates with amino acid coligands have revealed how closed Mo-oxo loops
      that are reduced preferentially can act as electron reservoirs in mixed-metal
      molybdotungstates. This has important implications for mixed-metal
      polyoxometalates in redox and photoredox catalysis. Notably, these hybrid RE-POMs
      are stable in solution and maintain the chirality induced by amino acid ligands.
      The RE-POMs surveyed in this Account provide a glimpse of possible structural
      features that are accessible with this family of compounds. The studies of the
      ensuing chemical and physical properties reveal the promise of RE-POMs for
      diverse and varied applications and lay an excellent foundation for the future
      development of this new class of functional materials.

PMID- 28872828
TI  - Bioengineering Bacterially Derived Immunomodulants: A Therapeutic Approach to
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - Bacterial enteric pathogens have evolved efficient mechanisms to suppress
      mammalian inflammatory and immunoregulatory pathways. By exploiting the
      evolutionary relationship between the gut and pathogenic bacteria, we have
      developed a potential mucosal therapeutic. Our findings suggest that engineered
      preparations of the Salmonella acetyltransferase, AvrA, suppress acute
      inflammatory responses such as those observed in inflammatory bowel disease
      (IBD). We created 125 nm diameter cross-linked protein nanoparticles directly
      from AvrA and carrier protein to deliver AvrA in the absence of Salmonella. AvrA
      nanoparticles are internalized in vitro and in vivo into barrier epithelial and
      lamina propria monocytic cells. AvrA nanoparticles inhibit inflammatory signaling
      and confer cytoprotection in vitro, and in murine colitis models, we observe
      decreased clinical and histological indices of inflammation. Thus, we have
      combined naturally evolved immunomodulatory proteins with modern bioengineering
      to produce AvrA nanoparticles, a potential treatment for IBD.

PMID- 28872829
TI  - Guest-Responsive Metal-Organic Frameworks as Scaffolds for Separation and Sensing
      Applications.
AB  - Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have evolved to be next-generation utility
      materials because of their serviceability in a wide variety of applications.
      Built from organic ligands with multiple binding sites in conjunction with metal
      ions/clusters, these materials have found profound advantages over their other
      congeners in the domain of porous materials. The plethora of applications that
      these materials encompass has motivated material chemists to develop such novel
      materials, and the catalogue of MOFs is thus ever-escalating. One key feature
      that MOFs possess is their responsiveness toward incoming guest molecules,
      resulting in changes in their physical and chemical properties. Such uniqueness
      generally arises owing to the influenceable ligands and/or metal units that
      govern the formation of these ordered architectures. The suitable host-guest
      interactions play an important role in determining the specific responses of
      these materials and thus find important applications in sensing, catalysis,
      separation, conduction, etc. In this Account, we focus on the two most relevant
      applications based on the host-guest interactions that are carried out in our
      lab, viz., separation and sensing of small molecules. Separation of liquid-phase
      aromatic hydrocarbons by less energy-intensive adsorption processes has gained
      attention recently. Because of their tailored structures and functionalized pore
      surfaces, MOFs have become vital candidates in molecular separation.
      Prefunctionalization of MOFs by astute choice of ligands and/or metal centers
      results in targeted separation processes in which the molecular sieving effect
      plays a crucial role. In this view, separation of C6 and C8 liquid aromatic
      hydrocarbons, which are essential feedstock in various chemical industries, is
      one area of research that requires significant attention because of the gruesome
      separation techniques adopted in such industries. Also, from the environmental
      perspective, separation of oil/water mixtures demands significant attention
      because of the hazards of marine oil spillage. We have achieved successful
      separation of such by careful impregnation of hydrophobic moieties inside the
      nanochannels of MOFs, resulting in unprecedented efficiency in oil/water
      separation. Also, recognition of small molecules using optical methods
      (fluorescence, UV, etc.) has been extended to achieve sensing of various neutral
      species and anions that are important from environmental point of view.
      Incorporation of secondary functional groups has been utilized to sense
      nitroaromatic compounds (NACs) and other small molecules such as H2S, NO, and
      aromatic phenols. We have also utilized the postfunctionalization strategy via
      ion exchange to fabricate MOFs for sensing of environmentally toxic and perilous
      anionic species such as CN- and oxoanions. Our current endeavors to explore the
      applicability of MOFs in these two significant areas have widened the scope of
      research, and attempts to fabricate MOFs for real-time applications are underway.

PMID- 28872830
TI  - Probing Photothermal Effects on Optically Trapped Gold Nanorods by Simultaneous
      Plasmon Spectroscopy and Brownian Dynamics Analysis.
AB  - Plasmonic gold nanorods are prime candidates for a variety of biomedical,
      spectroscopy, data storage, and sensing applications. It was recently shown that
      gold nanorods optically trapped by a focused circularly polarized laser beam can
      function as extremely efficient nanoscopic rotary motors. The system holds
      promise for applications ranging from nanofluidic flow control and nanorobotics
      to biomolecular actuation and analysis. However, to fully exploit this potential,
      one needs to be able to control and understand heating effects associated with
      laser trapping. We investigated photothermal heating of individual rotating gold
      nanorods by simultaneously probing their localized surface plasmon resonance
      spectrum and rotational Brownian dynamics over extended periods of time. The data
      reveal an extremely slow nanoparticle reshaping process, involving migration of
      the order of a few hundred atoms per minute, for moderate laser powers and a
      trapping wavelength close to plasmon resonance. The plasmon spectroscopy and
      Brownian analysis allows for separate temperature estimates based on the
      refractive index and the viscosity of the water surrounding a trapped nanorod. We
      show that both measurements yield similar effective temperatures, which
      correspond to the actual temperature at a distance of the order 10-15 nm from the
      particle surface. Our results shed light on photothermal processes on the
      nanoscale and will be useful in evaluating the applicability and performance of
      nanorod motors and optically heated nanoparticles for a variety of applications.

PMID- 28872831
TI  - Novel Vilazodone-Tacrine Hybrids as Potential Multitarget-Directed Ligands for
      the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease Accompanied with Depression: Design,
      Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation.
AB  - Depression is one of the most frequent psychiatric complications of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD), affecting up to 50% of the patients. A novel series of hybrid
      molecules were designed and synthesized by combining the pharmacophoric features
      of vilazodone and tacrine as potential multitarget-directed ligands for the
      treatment of AD with depression. In vitro biological assays were conducted to
      evaluate the compounds; among the 30 hybrids, compound 1e showed relatively
      balanced profiles between acetylcholinesterase inhibition (IC50 = 3.319 +/- 0.708
      MUM), 5-HT1A agonist (EC50 = 107 +/- 37 nM), and 5-HT reuptake inhibition (IC50 =
      76.3 +/- 33 nM). Compound 1e displayed tolerable hepatotoxicity and moderate hERG
      inhibition activity, and could penetrate the blood-brain barrier in vivo.
      Furthermore, an oral intake of 30 mg/kg 1e.HCl could significantly improve the
      cognitive function of scopolamine-induced amnesia mice and alleviate the
      depressive symptom in tail suspension test. The effectivity of 1e validates the
      rationality of our design strategy.

PMID- 28872832
TI  - Chemically Modified, alpha-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole (AMPA) Receptor
      RNA Aptamers Designed for in Vivo Use.
AB  - Glutamate ion channels have three subtypes, that is, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5
      methyl-4-isoxazole (AMPA), kainate, and N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors.
      Excessive activity of these receptor subtypes either individually or collectively
      is involved in various neurological disorders. RNA aptamers as antagonists of
      these receptors are potential therapeutics. For developing aptamer therapeutics,
      the RNA aptamers must be chemically modified to become ribonuclease-resistant or
      stable in biological fluids. Using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential
      enrichment (SELEX) and a chemically modified library, prepared enzymatically
      (i.e., the library contains RNAs with 2'-fluoro modified nucleoside triphosphates
      or ATPs, CTPs and UTPs, but regular GTPs), we have isolated an aptamer. The short
      aptamer (69 nucleotides) FN1040s selectively inhibits the GluA1 and GluA2Qflip
      AMPA receptor subunits, whereas the full-length aptamer (101 nucleotides) FN1040
      additionally inhibits GluK1, but not GluK2, kainate receptor, and GluN1a/2A and
      GluN1a/2B, the two major native NMDA receptors. The two aptamers show similar
      potency (2-4 MUM) and are stable with a half-life of at least 2 days in serum
      containing medium or cerebrospinal fluid. Therefore, these two aptamers are
      amenable for in vivo use.

PMID- 28872833
TI  - Covalent Porphyrin Framework-Derived Fe2P@Fe4N-Coupled Nanoparticles Embedded in
      N-Doped Carbons as Efficient Trifunctional Electrocatalysts.
AB  - A new porous covalent porphyrin framework (CPF) filled with triphenylphosphine
      was designed and synthesized using the rigid tetrakis(p-bromophenyl)porphyrin
      (TBPP) and 1,3,5-benzenetriboronic acid trivalent alcohol ester as building
      blocks. The carbonization of this special CPF has afforded coupled Fe2P and Fe4N
      nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbons (Fe2P/Fe4N@N-doped carbons). This CPF
      serves as an "all in one" precursor of Fe, N, P, and C. The porous property and
      solid skeleton of the CPF endow Fe2P/Fe4N@N-doped carbons with porous structure
      and a high degree of graphitization. As a result, Fe2P/Fe4N@N-doped carbons
      exhibited highly efficient multifunctional electrocatalytic performance for water
      splitting and oxygen electroreduction. Typically, Fe2P/Fe4N@C-800, obtained at a
      heat-treatment temperature of 800  degrees C, showed an ORR half-wave potential
      of 0.80 V in alkaline media and 0.68 V in acidic media, close to that of
      commercial Pt/C catalysts. Fe2P/Fe4N@C-800 also displayed efficient OER and HER
      activities, comparable to other phosphide and nitride electrocatalysts. The
      coupled Fe4N and Fe2P nanoparticles embedded in carbons exert unique catalytic
      efficiency for water splitting and fuel cells.

PMID- 28872834
TI  - The Curious Case of Fluorination of Conjugated Polymers for Solar Cells.
AB  - Organic solar cells (OSCs) have been a rising star in the field of renewable
      energy since the introduction of the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) in 1992. Recent
      advances have pushed the efficiencies of OSCs to over 13%, an impressive
      accomplishment via collaborative efforts in rational materials design and
      synthesis, careful device engineering, and fundamental understanding of device
      physics. Throughout these endeavors, several design principles for the conjugated
      donor polymers used in such solar cells have emerged, including optimizing the
      conjugated backbone with judicious selection of building blocks, side-chain
      engineering, and substituents. Among all of the substituents, fluorine is
      probably the most popular one; improved device characteristics with fluorination
      have frequently been reported for a wide range of conjugated polymers, in
      particular, donor-acceptor (D-A)-type polymers. Herein we examine the effect of
      fluorination on the device performance of solar cells as a function of the
      position of fluorination (on the acceptor unit or on the donor unit), aiming to
      outline a clear understanding of the benefits of this curious substituent. As
      fluorination of the acceptor unit is the most adopted strategy for D-A polymers,
      we first discuss the effect of fluorination of the acceptor units, highlighting
      the five most widely utilized acceptor units. While improved device efficiency
      has been widely observed with fluorinated acceptor units, the underlying reasons
      vary from case to case and highly depend on the chemical structure of the
      polymer. Second, the effect of fluorination of the donor unit is addressed. Here
      we focus on four donor units that have been most studied with fluorination. While
      device-performance-enhancing effects by fluorination of the donor units have also
      been observed, it is less clear that fluorine will always benefit the efficiency
      of the OSC, as there are several cases where the efficiency drops, in particular
      with "over-fluorination", i.e., when too many fluorine substituents are
      incorporated. Finally, while this Account focuses on studies in which the polymer
      is paired with fullerene derivatives as the electron accepting materials, non
      fullerene acceptors (NFAs) are quickly becoming key players in the field of OSCs.
      The effect of fluorination of the polymers on the device performance may be
      different when NFAs are used as the electron-accepting materials, which remains
      to be investigated. However, the design of fluorinated polymers may provide
      guidelines for the design of more efficient NFAs. Indeed, the current highest
      performing OSC (~13%) features fluorination on both the donor polymer and the non
      fullerene acceptor.

PMID- 28872835
TI  - Revisiting the Quinoxalinedione Scaffold in the Construction of New Ligands for
      the Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors.
AB  - More than two decades ago, the quinoxalinedione scaffold was shown to act as an
      alpha-amino acid bioisoster. Following extensive structure-activity relationship
      (SAR) studies, the antagonists DNQX, CNQX, and NBQX in the ionotropic glutamate
      receptor field were identified. In this work, we revisit the quinoxalinedione
      scaffold and explore the incorporation of an acid functionality in the 6
      position. The SAR studies disclose that by this strategy it was possible to tune
      in iGluR selectivity among the AMPA, NMDA, and KA receptors, and to some extent
      also obtain full receptor subtype selectivity. Highlights of the study of 44 new
      analogues are compound 2m being a high affinity ligand for native AMPA receptors
      (IC50= 0.48 MUM), analogues 2e,f,h,k,v all displayed selectivity for native NMDA
      receptors, and compounds 2s,t,u are selective ligand for the GluK1 receptor. Most
      interestingly, compound 2w was shown to be a GluK3-preferring ligand with full
      selectivity over native AMPA, KA and NMDA receptors.

PMID- 28872836
TI  - Catalytic Palladium Film Deposited by Scalable Low-Temperature Aqueous
      Combustion.
AB  - This article describes a novel method for depositing a dense, high quality
      palladium thin film via a one-step aqueous combustion process which can be easily
      scaled up. Film deposition of Pd from aqueous solutions by conventional chemical
      or electrochemical methods is inhibited by hydrogen embrittlement, thus resulting
      in a brittle palladium film. The method outlined in this work allows a direct
      aqueous solution deposition of a mirror-bright, durable Pd film on substrates
      including glass and glassy carbon. This simple procedure has many advantages
      including a very high deposition rate (>10 cm2 min-1) and a relatively low
      deposition temperature (250  degrees C), which makes it suitable for large-scale
      industrial applications. Although preparation of various high-quality oxide films
      has been successfully accomplished via solution combustion synthesis (SCS)
      before, this article presents the first report on direct SCS production of a
      metallic film. The mechanism of Pd film formation is discussed with the
      identification of a complex formed between palladium nitrate and glycine at low
      temperature. The catalytic properties and stability of films are successfully
      tested in alcohol electrooxidation and electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction.
      It was observed that combustion deposited Pd film on a glassy carbon electrode
      showed excellent catalytic activity in ethanol oxidation without using any binder
      or additive. We also report for the first time the concept of a reusable
      "catalytic flask" as illustrated by the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction.
      The Pd film uniformly covers the inner walls of the flask and eliminates the
      catalyst separation step. We believe the innovative concept of a reusable
      catalytic flask is very promising and has the required features to become a
      commercial product in the future.

PMID- 28872837
TI  - Enhanced Solar Cell Conversion Efficiency of InGaN/GaN Multiple Quantum Wells by
      Piezo-Phototronic Effect.
AB  - The piezo-phototronic effect is the tuning of piezoelectric polarization charges
      at the interface to largely enhance the efficiency of optoelectronic processes
      related to carrier separation or recombination. Here, we demonstrated the
      enhanced short-circuit current density and the conversion efficiency of InGaN/GaN
      multiple quantum well solar cells with an external stress applied on the device.
      The external-stress-induced piezoelectric charges generated at the interfaces of
      InGaN and GaN compensate the piezoelectric charges induced by lattice mismatch
      stress in the InGaN wells. The energy band realignment is calculated with a self
      consistent numerical model to clarify the enhancement mechanism of optical
      generated carriers. This research not only theoretically and experimentally
      proves the piezo-phototronic effect modulated the quantum photovoltaic device but
      also provides a great promise to maximize the use of solar energy in the current
      energy revolution.

PMID- 28872839
TI  - Buyid Silk and the Tale of Bibi Shahrbanu: Identification of Biomarkers of
      Artificial Aging (Forgery) of Silk.
AB  - Buyid silk forgery is one of the most famous silk forgeries in the world. In 1924
      1925, excavation of the Bibi Shahrbanu site in Iran unearthed several silk
      textiles. The silks were thought to be of the Buyid period (934-1062 BCE) of the
      Persian Empire and have since been known as the "Buyid silks". In the 1930s, more
      silk appeared and was reported as being from the Buyid period as well.
      Controversy over the authenticity of these silks escalated after the purchase of
      the silks by museums throughout the world. Extensive investigations of several of
      these silks have been conducted over the years with respect to iconography,
      weaving patterns, dyes/mordant, style, and even radiocarbon dating. It was found
      that most of the silks are not from Buyid period. To test the authenticity of
      these silk fabrics, the recently developed silk dating technique using amino acid
      racemization (AAR) in conjunction with capillary electrophoresis mass
      spectrometry was applied to 13 Buyid silk specimens from the Textile Museum
      collections. Among these silk specimens, the AAR ratios of only one specimen were
      consistent with authentic silk fabrics collected from various museums. In
      addition, the aspartic acid racemization ratio of this specimen was also
      consistent with its 14C dating. The other "Buyid silks" showed excessive levels
      of amino acid racemization not only for aspartic acid, but also for phenylalanine
      and tyrosine, inconsistent with racemization rates of these amino acids in
      authentic historical silk fabrics. Treatment of modern silk with a base at
      different pH and temperature reproduced the AAR pattern of the Buyid silks,
      implying that chemical treatment with a base at relatively high temperatures was
      perhaps the method used to artificially age these fabrics. The results imply that
      the racemization ratios of aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and tyrosine can be used
      as biomarkers for identification of naturally versus artificially aged silk.

PMID- 28872838
TI  - Electrochemical Induced Calcium Phosphate Precipitation: Importance of Local pH.
AB  - Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for living organisms and cannot be
      replaced or substituted. In this paper, we present a simple yet efficient
      membrane free electrochemical system for P removal and recovery as calcium
      phosphate (CaP). This method relies on in situ formation of hydroxide ions by
      electro mediated water reduction at a titanium cathode surface. The in situ
      raised pH at the cathode provides a local environment where CaP will become
      highly supersaturated. Therefore, homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of CaP
      occurs near and at the cathode surface. Because of the local high pH, the P
      removal behavior is not sensitive to bulk solution pH and therefore, efficient P
      removal was observed in three studied bulk solutions with pH of 4.0 (56.1%), 8.2
      (57.4%), and 10.0 (48.4%) after 24 h of reaction time. While P removal
      efficiencies are not generally affected by bulk solution pH, the chemical
      physical properties of CaP solids collected on the cathode are still related to
      bulk solution pH, as confirmed by structure characterizations. High initial
      solution pH promotes the formation of more crystalline products with relatively
      high Ca/P molar ratio. The Ca/P molar ratio increases from 1.30 (pH 4.0) to 1.38
      (pH 8.2) and further increases to 1.55 (pH 10.0). The formation of CaP
      precipitates was a typical crystallization process, with an amorphous phase
      formed at the initial stage which then transforms to the most stable crystal
      phase, hydroxyapatite, which is inferred from the increased Ca/P molar ratio from
      1.38 (day 1) to the theoretical 1.76 (day 11) and by the formation of needle-like
      crystals. Finally, we demonstrated the efficiency of this system for real
      wastewater. This, together with the fact that the electrochemical method can work
      at low bulk pH, without dosing chemicals and a need for a separation process,
      highlights the potential application of the electrochemical method for P removal
      and recovery.

PMID- 28872840
TI  - Ancillary Ligand Effects upon the Photochemistry of Mn(bpy)(CO)3X Complexes (X =
      Br-, PhCC-).
AB  - The photochemistry of two Mn(bpy)(CO)3X complexes (X = PhCC-, Br-) has been
      studied in the coordinating solvents THF (terahydrofuran) and MeCN (acetonitrile)
      employing time-resolved infrared spectroscopy. The two complexes are found to
      exhibit strikingly different photoreactivities and solvent dependencies. In MeCN,
      photolysis of 1-(CO)(Br) [1 = Mn(bpy)(CO)2] affords the ionic complex [1
      (MeCN)2]Br as a final product. In contrast, photolysis of 1-(CO)(CCPh) in MeCN
      results in facial to meridional isomerization of the parent complex. When THF is
      used as solvent, photolysis results in facial to meridional isomerization in both
      complexes, though the isomerization rate is larger for X = Br-. Pronounced
      differences are also observed in the photosubstitution chemistry of the two
      complexes where both the rate of MeCN exchange from 1-(MeCN)(X) by THFA
      (tetrahydrofurfurylamine) and the nature of the intermediates generated in the
      reaction are dependent upon X. DFT calculations are used to support analysis of
      some of the experiments.

PMID- 28872841
TI  - Chiral Ramachandran Plots I: Glycine.
AB  - Ramachandran plots (RPs) map the wealth of conformations of the polypeptide
      backbone and are widely used to characterize protein structures. A limitation of
      the RPs is that they are based solely on two dihedral angles for each amino acid
      residue and provide therefore only a partial picture of the conformational
      richness of the protein. Here we extend the structural RP analysis of proteins
      from a two-dimensional (2D) map to a three-dimensional map by adding the
      quantitative degree of chirality-the continuous chirality measure (CCM)-of the
      amino acid residue at each point in the RP. This measure encompasses all bond
      angles and bond lengths of an amino acid residue. We focus in this report on
      glycine (Gly) because, due to its flexibility, it occupies a large portion of the
      2D map, thus allowing a detailed study of the chirality measure, and in order to
      evaluate the justification of classically labeling Gly as the only achiral amino
      acid. We have analyzed in detail 4366 Gly residues extracted from high resolution
      crystallographic data of 160 proteins. This analysis reveals not only that Gly is
      practically always conformationally chiral, but that upon comparing with the
      backbone of all amino acids, the quantitative chirality values of Gly are of
      similar magnitudes to those of the (chiral) amino acids. Structural trends and
      energetic considerations are discussed in detail. Generally we show that adding
      chirality to Ramachandran plots creates far more informative plots that highlight
      the sensitivity of the protein structure to minor conformational changes.

PMID- 28872842
TI  - Core-Shell-Shell Multifunctional Nanoplatform for Intracellular Tumor-Related
      mRNAs Imaging and Near-Infrared Light Triggered Photodynamic-Photothermal
      Synergistic Therapy.
AB  - A multifunctional nanoplatform, which generally integrates biosensing, imaging
      diagnosis, and therapeutic functions into a single nanoconstruct, has great
      important significance for biomedicine and nanoscience. Here, we developed a core
      shell-shell multifunctional polydopamine (PDA) modified upconversion nanoplatform
      for intracellular tumor-related mRNAs detection and near-infrared (NIR) light
      triggered photodynamic and photothermal synergistic therapy (PDT-PTT). The
      nanoplatform was constructed by loading a silica shell on the hydrophobic
      upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with hydrophilic photosensitizer methylene
      blue (MB) entrapped in it, and then modifying PDA shells through an in situ self
      polymerization process, thus yielding a core-shell-shell nanoconstruct UCNP@SiO2
      MB@PDA. By taking advantages of preferential binding properties of PDA for single
      stranded DNA over double-stranded DNA and the excellent quenching property of
      PDA, a UCNP@SiO2-MB@PDA-hairpin DNA (hpDNA) nanoprobe was developed through
      adsorption of fluorescently labeled hpDNA on PDA shells for sensing intracellular
      tumor-related mRNAs and discriminating cancer cells from normal cells. In
      addition, the fluorescence resonance energy transfer from the upconversion
      fluorescence (UCF) emission at 655 nm of the UCNPs to the photosensitizer MB
      molecules could be employed for PDT. Moreover, due to the strong NIR absorption
      and high photothermal conversion efficiency of PDA, the UCF emission at 800 nm of
      the UCNPs could be used for PTT. We demonstrated that the UCNP@SiO2-MB@PDA
      irradiated with NIR light had considerable PDT-PTT effect. These results revealed
      that the developed multifunctional nanoplatform provided promising applications
      in future oncotherapy by integrating cancer diagnosis and synergistic therapy.

PMID- 28872843
TI  - Diffusion-Controllable Biomineralization Conducted In Situ in Hydrogels Based on
      Reversibly Cross-Linked Hyperbranched Polyglycidol.
AB  - We present biocompatible hydrogel systems suitable for biomineralization
      processes based on hyperbranched polyglycidol cross-linked with acrylamide
      copolymer bearing carbonyl-coordinated boronic acid. At neutral pH, diol
      functional groups of HbPGL react with boronic acid of polyacrylamide to generate
      3D network in water by the formation of boronic ester cross-links. The dynamic
      associative/dissociative characteristics of the cross-links makes the network
      reversible. The presented hydrogels display self-healing properties and are
      injectable, facilitating gap filing of bone tissue. The 1H HR MAS DOSY NMR
      studies reveal that acrylamide copolymer plays the role of the network framework,
      whereas HbPGL macromolecules, due to their compact structure, move between
      reactive sites of the copolymer. The influence of the copolymer macromolecules
      entanglements and overall polymer concentrations on macromolecules mobility and
      stress relaxation processes is investigated. The process of hydrogel
      biomineralization results from hydrolysis of 1-naphthyl phosphate calcium salt
      catalyzed by encapsulation in hydrogel alkaline phosphatase. The environment of
      the hydrogel is entirely neutral toward the enzyme. However, the activity of
      alkaline phosphatase encapsulated within the hydrogel structure is diffusion
      limited. In this article, based on the detailed characteristics of three model
      hydrogel systems, we demonstrate the influence of the hydrogel permeability on
      the encapsulated enzyme activity and calcium phosphate formation rate. The 1H HR
      MAS DOSY NMR is used to monitor diffusion low-molecular weight compound within
      hydrogels, whereas 31P HR MAS NMR facilitates monitoring of the progress of
      biomineralization in situ within hydrogels. The results show a direct correlation
      between low molecular diffusivity in hydrogels and network dynamics. We
      demonstrate that the morphology of in situ-generated calcium phosphate within
      three model HbPGL/poly(AM-ran-APBA) hydrogels of different low molecular
      permeability varies substantially from sparsely deployed large, well-defined
      crystals to an even distribution within the polymers polycrystalline continuous
      network.

PMID- 28872844
TI  - MdFDIA: A Mass Defect Based Four-Plex Data-Independent Acquisition Strategy for
      Proteome Quantification.
AB  - Data-independent acquisition (DIA) has recently emerged as a powerful
      quantitative approach for large-scale proteome quantification, providing a
      sensitive and reproducible alternative to data-dependent acquisition (DDA).
      However, lack of compatible multiplexed quantification methods is a bottleneck of
      DIA. To alleviate this challenge, we present a mass defect based four-plex data
      independent acquisition strategy, termed "MdFDIA", for parallel analysis of four
      different protein samples in a DIA experiment without the additional complexity
      of tandem mass spectrometry (MS2) spectra. MdFDIA is a hybrid approach that
      combines stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) and
      dimethyl labeling. Briefly, the isotopes 13C615N2-lysine (+8.0142 Da, light) and
      D8-lysine (+8.0512 Da, heavy) were metabolically embedded in different proteome
      samples during cell culture. Then, two 13C615N2-lysine and D8-lysine labeled
      protein samples were digested with Lys-C, followed by in vitro labeling with
      light (213CD2H, +34.06312 Da) and heavy (2CD3, +34.06896 Da) dimethyl groups,
      respectively, producing four different pseudoisobaric labeled protein samples.
      The labeled samples were then equally mixed and analyzed by DIA. The subtle mass
      differences between the four labeled forms in MS2 scans can be resolved on an
      Orbitrap Fusion Lumos instrument to facilitate quantification without abundance
      information encoded in MS2 spectra. Additionally, a systematic investigation was
      carried out and revealed that MdFDIA enabled a significant decrease of the
      adverse impact on the accuracy of the quantitative assays arising from the
      chromatographic isotope effect, especially the deuterium effect, which typically
      occurs in a DDA experiment. Additionally, MdFDIA provided a method for validating
      the fragment type in the DIA spectra identification result. Furthermore, MdFDIA
      was applied to quantitative proteome analyses of four different breast cancer
      cell lines, demonstrating the feasibility of this strategy for biological
      applications.

PMID- 28872845
TI  - Iron(III) Metallacryptand and Metallacryptate Assemblies Derived from
      Aroylbis(N,N-diethylthioureas).
AB  - The reaction of isophthaloylbis(N,N-diethylthiourea), H2L1, with FeCl3.6H2O gives
      the dinuclear tris-complex [Fe2(L1)3] (5), possessing a cryptand-like structure.
      A similar reaction with the ligand 2,6-dipicolinoylbis(N,N-diethylthiourea),
      H2L2, however, results in the formation of the anionic, mononuclear Fe(III)
      complex [Fe(L2)2]- (6), which could be isolated as its "Tl+ salt" by the
      subsequent addition of Tl(NO3). A tighter view to the solid state structure of
      the obtained product, however, characterizes compound 6 as a one-dimensional
      coordination polymer, in which four-coordinate Tl+ ions connect the {[Fe(L2)2]-}
      units to infinite chains. When Fe3+ ions and Tl+ ions are added to H2L2
      simultaneously in a one-pot reaction, a different product is obtained: a cationic
      trinuclear complex of the composition {M?[Fe2(L2)3]}+. It has been isolated as a
      PF6- salt and represents a {2}-metallacryptate with a nine-coordinate Tl+ ion in
      the central void. Structurally related products of the compositions
      {M?[Fe2(L2)3]}(PF6) (M = Na+, K+, Rb+) (8(PF6)) could be isolated from analogous
      reactions with alkaline salts instead of Tl(NO3). {2}-Metallacryptates with
      larger central voids were synthesized with the ether-spaced aroylbis(N,N
      diethylthiourea) H2L3. The compounds {M?[Fe2(L3)3]}(PF6) (M = K+, Rb+, Tl+ or
      Cs+) (9(PF6)) were prepared by a similar protocol like those with H2L2 with the
      simultaneous addition of the metal ions to a solution of H2L3. Due to the larger
      spacer between the aroylthiourea units, the coordination number of the central M+
      ions is 12 by six carbonyl and six ether oxygen atoms. All products were
      characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, and X-ray structure
      analysis. Cyclic voltammetric studies were carried out with the three
      representative complexes [Fe2(L1)3], {K?[Fe2(L2)3]}(PF6), and
      {K?[Fe2(L3)3]}(PF6). The obtained voltammograms indicate the dependence of the
      redox properties of the oligonuclear systems on the conjugation in the organic
      backbones of the ligands.

PMID- 28872846
TI  - Tuning the Diiron Core Geometry in Carboxylate-Bridged Macrocyclic Model
      Complexes Affects Their Redox Properties and Supports Oxidation Chemistry.
AB  - We introduce a novel platform to mimic the coordination environment of
      carboxylate-bridged diiron proteins by tethering a small, dangling internal
      carboxylate, (CH2)nCOOH, to phenol-imine macrocyclic ligands (H3PIMICn). In the
      presence of an external bulky carboxylic acid (RCO2H), the ligands react with
      [Fe2(Mes)4] (Mes = 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl) to afford dinuclear
      [Fe2(PIMICn)(RCO2)(MeCN)] (n = 4-6) complexes. X-ray diffraction studies revealed
      structural similarities between these complexes and the reduced diiron active
      sites of proteins such as Class I ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) R2 and soluble
      methane monooxygenase hydroxylase. The number of CH2 units of the internal
      carboxylate arm controls the diiron core geometry, affecting in turn the anodic
      peak potential of the complexes. As functional synthetic models, these complexes
      facilitate the oxidation of C-H bonds in the presence of peroxides and oxo
      transfer from O2 to an internal phosphine moiety.

PMID- 28872848
TI  - Trace Material Capture by Controlled Liquid Droplets on a
      Superhydrophobic/Hydrophilic Surface.
AB  - A liquid droplet in contact with a superhydrophobic surface can be used to
      collect dissolved trace materials after evaporating the solvent. This process
      effect enhances detection limits, but a liquid droplet easily rolls off a
      superhydrophobic surface. Keeping it at a specific collecting spot area is
      challenging. Here the means for controlling and capturing a liquid droplet on a
      superhydrophobic surface is demonstrated. To induce a liquid droplet to a
      collecting spot, its rolling direction was controlled by two superhydrophobic
      fabric guides. The liquid droplet was then captured by hydrophilic polymer and
      hydrophilic nanoparticles at the measuring spot. After removing the solvent, the
      trace compounds were evaluated with a colorimetric analysis visible to the naked
      eye.

PMID- 28872849
TI  - Thiol-Induced Synthesis of Phosphine-Protected Gold Nanoclusters with Atomic
      Precision and Controlling the Structure by Ligand/Metal Engineering.
AB  - Efficient synthesis of atomically precise phosphine-capped gold nanocluster (with
      >10 metal atoms) is important to deeply understand the relationship between
      structure and properties. Herein, we successfully utilize the thiol-induced
      synthesis method and obtain three atomically precise phosphine-protected gold
      nanoclusters. Single-crystal X-ray structural analysis reveals that the
      nanoclusters are formulated as [Au13(Dppm)6](BPh4)3, [Au18(Dppm)6Br4](BPh4)2, and
      [Au20(Dppm)6(CN)6] (where Dppm stands for bis(diphenylphosphino)methane), which
      are further confirmed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry,
      thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Meanwhile,
      [Au18(Dppm)6Br4](BPh4)2 could be converted into [Au13(Dppm)6](BPh4)3 and
      [Au20(Dppm)6(CN)6] by engineering the surface ligands under excess PPh3 or
      moderate NaBH3CN, respectively. Furthermore, according to the different binding
      ability of silver with halogen, we successfully achieved target metal exchange on
      [Au18(Dppm)6Br4](BPh4)2 with Ag-SAdm (where HS-Adm stands for 1-adamantane
      mercaptan) complex and obtained [AgxAu18-x(Dppm)6Br4](BPh4)2 (x = 1, 2) alloy
      nanoclusters. Our work will contribute to more intensive understanding on
      synthesizing phosphine-protected nanoclusters as well as shedding light on the
      structure-property correlations in the nanocluster range.

PMID- 28872847
TI  - His-Tag-Mediated Dimerization of Chemoreceptors Leads to Assembly of Functional
      Nanoarrays.
AB  - Transmembrane chemotaxis receptors are found in bacteria in extended hexagonal
      arrays stabilized by the membrane and by cytosolic binding partners, the kinase
      CheA and coupling protein CheW. Models of array architecture and assembly propose
      receptors cluster into trimers of dimers that associate with one CheA dimer and
      two CheW monomers to form the minimal "core unit" necessary for signal
      transduction. Reconstructing in vitro chemoreceptor ternary complexes that are
      homogeneous and functional and exhibit native architecture remains a challenge.
      Here we report that His-tag-mediated receptor dimerization with divalent metals
      is sufficient to drive assembly of nativelike functional arrays of a receptor
      cytoplasmic fragment. Our results indicate receptor dimerization initiates
      assembly and precedes formation of ternary complexes with partial kinase
      activity. Restoration of maximal kinase activity coincides with a shift to larger
      complexes, suggesting that kinase activity depends on interactions beyond the
      core unit. We hypothesize that achieving maximal activity requires building core
      units into hexagons and/or coalescing hexagons into the extended lattice.
      Overall, the minimally perturbing His-tag-mediated dimerization leads to assembly
      of chemoreceptor arrays with native architecture and thus serves as a powerful
      tool for studying the assembly and mechanism of this complex and other
      multiprotein complexes.

PMID- 28872850
TI  - Enhancing the Mass Spectrometry Sensitivity for Oligonucleotide Detection by
      Organic Vapor Assisted Electrospray.
AB  - There are two challenges in oligonucleotide detection by liquid chromatography
      coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS), the serious ion suppression effects
      caused by ion-pair reagents and the low detection sensitivity in positive mode
      MS. In this study, highly concentrated alcohol vapors were introduced into an
      enclosed electrospray ionization chamber, and oligonucleotides could be well
      detected in negative mode MS even with 100 mM triethylammonium acetate (TEAA) as
      an ion-pair reagent. The MS signal intensity was improved 600-fold (for standard
      oligonucleotide dT15) by the isopropanol vapor assisted electrospray, and
      effective ion-pair LC separation was feasibly coupled with high-sensitive MS
      detection. Then, oligonucleotides were successfully detected in positive mode MS
      with few adducts by propanoic acid vapor assisted electrospray. The signal
      intensity was enhanced more than 10-fold on average compared with adding acids
      into the electrospray solution. Finally, oligonucleotides and peptides or
      histones were simultaneously detected in MS with little interference with each
      other. Our strategy provides a useful alternative for investigating the
      biological functions of oligonucleotides.

PMID- 28872851
TI  - Erythrocyte Membrane-Wrapped pH Sensitive Polymeric Nanoparticles for Non-Small
      Cell Lung Cancer Therapy.
AB  - The application of nano drug delivery systems (NDDSs) may enhance the
      effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs in vivo. However, the short blood
      circulation time and poor drug release profile in vivo are still two problems
      with them. Herein, by using red blood cell membrane (RBCm) wrapping and pH
      sensitive technology, we prepared RBCm wrapped pH sensitive poly(l-gamma
      glutamylcarbocistein)-paclitaxel (PGSC-PTX) nanoparticles (PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs), to
      prolong the circulation time in blood and release PTX timely and adequately in
      acidic tumor environment. The PGSC-PTX NPs and PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs showed spherical
      morphology with average sizes about 50 and 100 nm, respectively. The cytotoxicity
      of PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs was considerably decreased compared with that of PGSC-PTX
      NPs. PTX release from PGSC-PTX and PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs at pH 6.5 was remarkably
      higher than those at pH 7.4, respectively. The PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs exhibited
      remarkably decreased uptake by macrophages than PGSC-PTX NPs. The area under the
      curve within 72 h (AUC0-72h) for is significantly higher than PGSC-PTX NPs. The
      PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs also showed significantly stronger growth-inhibiting effect on
      tumor than PGSC-PTX NPs. These results indicated that PGSC-PTX@RBCm NPs have
      acidic drug release sensitivity, the characteristics of long circulation, and
      remarkable tumor growth inhibiting effect. This study may provide an effective
      strategy for improving the antitumor effect of NDDS.

PMID- 28872852
TI  - Hydroxyapatites: Key Structural Questions and Answers from Dynamic Nuclear
      Polarization.
AB  - We demonstrate that NMR/DNP (Dynamic Nuclear Polarization) allows an
      unprecedented description of carbonate substituted hydroxyapatite (CHAp). Key
      structural questions related to order/disorder and clustering of carbonates are
      tackled using distance sensitive DNP experiments using 13C-13C recoupling. Such
      experiments are easily implemented due to unprecedented DNP gain (orders of
      magnitude). DNP is efficiently mediated by quasi one-dimensional spin diffusion
      through the hydroxyl columns present in the CHAp structure (thought of as
      "highways" for spin diffusion). For spherical nanoparticles and phi < 100 nm, it
      is numerically shown that spin diffusion allows their study as a whole. Most
      importantly, we demonstrate also that the DNP study at 100 K leads to data which
      are comparable to data obtained at room temperature (in terms of spin dynamics
      and line shape resolution). Finally, all 2D DNP experiments can be interpreted in
      terms of domains exhibiting well identified types of substitution: local order
      and carbonate clustering are clearly favored.

PMID- 28872854
TI  - Kinetics and Mechanism of the Chlorate-Nitrous Acid Reaction.
AB  - The chlorate-nitrous acid reaction was investigated in acid media, using a high
      concentration of reagents. It was followed via ultraviolet-visible light (UV-vis)
      spectroscopy and presented a complex behavior. The order of reagents, and the
      products formed by this reaction, are dependent on the concentration of reagents.
      For the high concentration set we used, the reaction has shown a first-order
      behavior for H+ and HNO2, and an order equal to 0.79 for chlorate. In this case,
      chlorine dioxide is formed. Moreover, chlorine dioxide starts to form only after
      all HNO2 has been consumed. This is the first time chlorine dioxide was observed
      to be formed by this reaction. Reduction of the concentration of reagents
      decreases the order of HNO2 to 0.91 and no chlorine dioxide is formed. An
      isosbestic point was found at 312 nm, which indicates a 1:1 ratio between nitrate
      ion and nitrous acid species. A model, with 14 independent species and 12
      reactions is presented, which is able to simulate the experimental behavior for
      the low and high concentrations sets of reagents and it is a significant
      improvement in the understanding of the complex nitrogen and chlorine aqueous
      chemistry.

PMID- 28872853
TI  - New Insights into DNA Polymerase Function Revealed by Phosphonoacetic Acid
      Sensitive T4 DNA Polymerases.
AB  - The bacteriophage T4 DNA polymerase (pol) and the closely related RB69 DNA pol
      have been developed into model enzymes to study family B DNA pols. While all
      family B DNA pols have similar structures and share conserved protein motifs, the
      molecular mechanism underlying natural drug resistance of nonherpes family B DNA
      pols and drug sensitivity of herpes DNA pols remains unknown. In the present
      study, we constructed T4 phages containing G466S, Y460F, G466S/Y460F, P469S, and
      V475W mutations in DNA pol. These amino acid substitutions replace the residues
      in drug-resistant T4 DNA pol with residues found in drug-sensitive herpes family
      DNA pols. We investigated whether the T4 phages expressing the engineered mutant
      DNA pols were sensitive to the antiviral drug phosphonoacetic acid (PAA) and
      characterized the in vivo replication fidelity of the phage DNA pols. We found
      that G466S substitution marginally increased PAA sensitivity, whereas Y460F
      substitution conferred resistance. The phage expressing a double mutant
      G466S/Y460F DNA pol was more PAA-sensitive. V475W T4 DNA pol was highly sensitive
      to PAA, as was the case with V478W RB69 DNA pol. However, DNA replication was
      severely compromised, which resulted in the selection of phages expressing more
      robust DNA pols that have strong ability to replicate DNA and contain additional
      amino acid substitutions that suppress PAA sensitivity. Reduced replication
      fidelity was observed in all mutant phages expressing PAA-sensitive DNA pols.
      These observations indicate that PAA sensitivity and fidelity are balanced in DNA
      pols that can replicate DNA in different environments.

PMID- 28872855
TI  - Degrading and Phytoextracting Atrazine Residues in Rice (Oryza sativa) and Growth
      Media Intensified by a Phase II Mechanism Modulator.
AB  - Atrazine (ATZ) residue in farmland is one of the environmental contaminants
      seriously affecting crop production and food safety. Understanding the regulatory
      mechanism for ATZ metabolism and degradation in plants is important to help
      reduce ATZ potential toxicity to both plants and human health. Here, we report
      our newly developed engineered rice overexpressing a novel Phase II metabolic
      enzyme glycosyltransfearse1 (ARGT1) responsible for transformation of ATZ
      residues in rice. Our results showed that transformed lines, when exposed to
      environmentally realistic ATZ concentration (0.2-0.8 mg/L), displayed
      significantly high tolerance, with 8-27% biomass and 36-56% chlorophyll content
      higher, but 37-69% plasma membrane injury lower than untransformed lines. Such
      results were well confirmed by ARGT1 expression in Arabidopsis. ARGT1-transformed
      rice took up 1.6-2.7 fold ATZ from its growth medium compared to its wild type
      (WT) and accumulated ATZ 10%-43% less than that of WT. A long-term study also
      showed that ATZ in the grains of ARGT1-transformed rice was reduced by 30-40%
      compared to WT. The ATZ-degraded products were characterized by UPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS.
      More ATZ metabolites and conjugates accumulated in ARGT1-transformed rice than in
      WT. Eight ATZ metabolites for Phase I reaction and 10 conjugates for Phase II
      reaction in rice were identified, with three ATZ-glycosylated conjugates that
      have never been reported before. These results indicate that ARGT1 expression can
      facilitate uptake of ATZ from environment and metabolism in rice plants.

PMID- 28872856
TI  - Evidence of Coupled Carbon and Iron Cycling at a Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Site
      from Time Lapse Magnetic Susceptibility.
AB  - Conventional characterization and monitoring of hydrocarbon (HC) pollution is
      often expensive and time-consuming. Magnetic susceptibility (MS) has been
      proposed as an inexpensive, long-term monitoring proxy of the degradation of HC.
      We acquired repeated down hole MS logging data in boreholes at a HC-contaminated
      field research site in Bemidji, MN, USA. The MS data were analyzed in conjunction
      with redox conditions and iron availability within the source zone to better
      assess whether MS can serve as a proxy for monitoring HC contamination in
      unconsolidated sediments. The MS response at the site diminished during the
      sampling period, which was found to coincide with depletion of solid phase iron
      in the source zone. Previous geochemical observations and modeling at the site
      suggest that the most likely cause of the decrease in MS is the transformation of
      magnetite to siderite, coupled with the exhaustion of ferrihydrite. Although the
      temporal MS response at this site gives valuable field-scale evidence for
      changing conditions of iron cycling and stability of iron minerals it does not
      provide a simple proxy for long-term monitoring of biodegradation of hydrocarbons
      in the smear zone.

PMID- 28872857
TI  - Cross-Linked Collagen Triple Helices by Oxime Ligation.
AB  - Covalent cross-links are crucial for the folding and stability of triple-helical
      collagen, the most abundant protein in nature. Cross-linking is also an
      attractive strategy for the development of synthetic collagen-based biocompatible
      materials. Nature uses interchain disulfide bridges to stabilize collagen
      trimers. However, their implementation into synthetic collagen is difficult and
      requires the replacement of the canonical amino acids (4R)-hydroxyproline and
      proline by cysteine or homocysteine, which reduces the preorganization and
      thereby stability of collagen triple helices. We therefore explored alternative
      covalent cross-links that allow for connecting triple-helical collagen via
      proline residues. Here, we present collagen model peptides that are cross-linked
      by oxime bonds between 4-aminooxyproline (Aop) and 4-oxoacetamidoproline placed
      in coplanar Xaa and Yaa positions of neighboring strands. The covalently
      connected strands folded into hyperstable collagen triple helices (Tm ~ 80 
      degrees C). The design of the cross-links was guided by an analysis of the
      conformational properties of Aop, studies on the stability and functionalization
      of Aop-containing collagen triple helices, and molecular dynamics simulations.
      The studies also show that the aminooxy group exerts a stereoelectronic effect
      comparable to fluorine and introduce oxime ligation as a tool for the
      functionalization of synthetic collagen.

PMID- 28872858
TI  - Fast and Reliable Thermodynamic Approach for Determining the Protonation State of
      the Asp Dyad.
AB  - The protonation state of the asp dyad is significantly important in revealing
      enzymatic mechanisms and developing drugs. However, it is hard to determine by
      calculating free energy changes between possible protonation states, because the
      free energy changes due to protein conformational flexibility are usually much
      larger than those originating from different locations of protons. Sophisticated
      and computationally expensive methods such as free energy perturbation,
      thermodynamic integration (TI), and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics are
      therefore usually used for this purpose. In the present study, we have developed
      a simple thermodynamic approach to effectively eliminating the free energy
      changes arising from protein conformational flexibility and estimating the free
      energy changes only originated from the locations of protons, which provides a
      fast and reliable method for determining the protonation state of asp dyads. The
      test of this approach on a total of 15 asp dyad systems, including BACE-1 and HIV
      1 protease, shows that the predictions from this approach are all consistent with
      experiments or with the computationally expensive TI calculations. It is clear
      that our thermodynamic approach could be used to rapidly and reliably determine
      the protonation state of the asp dyad.

PMID- 28872859
TI  - Lipophilization of Resveratrol and Effects on Antioxidant Activities.
AB  - Resveratrol (R), a polyphenol, was structurally modified via esterification with
      selected fatty acids to expand its potential application in lipophilic foods,
      drugs, and cosmetics. The esterification was carried out using 12 different fatty
      acids with varying chain lengths and degrees of unsaturation (C3:0-C22:6). Two
      monoesters, two diesters, and one triester were identified by high-performance
      liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the monoesters (R-3-O
      monodocosahexaenoate and R-4'-O-monodocosahexaenoate) were structurally confirmed
      by nuclear magnetic resonance. The lipophilicity of resveratrol and its alkyl
      esters was calculated using ALOGPS 2.1. Resveratrol exhibited greater antioxidant
      activity in both 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and 2,2'-azino
      bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical cation scavenging
      assays. Resveratrol esters with long-chain fatty acids (C18:0 and C18:1) showed
      higher antioxidant activity in the DPPH radical scavenging assay, whereas short
      chain fatty acid (C3:0, C4:0, and C6:0) showed higher antioxidant activity in the
      ABTS radical cation scavenging assay. The results may imply that resveratrol
      derivatives could be used in lipophilic media as health beneficial antioxidants.

PMID- 28872860
TI  - Charge and Energy Transfer Dynamics in Dimethylsilylene-Spaced Aminostyrene
      Stilbene Monomer Using Time-Resolved Techniques.
AB  - We used transient absorption and time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC)
      techniques to investigate the charge transfer reaction in monosilylene-spaced
      aminostyrene stilbene monomer. With 266 nm excitation, both stilbene (sti) and
      aminostyrene (ast) moieties were excited. In nonpolar solvents, the transient
      absorption band centered at 600 nm appeared promptly and is assigned to the
      excited state of sti*; this state relaxes at time constant 1.2-1.4 ps and is
      explained to proceed energy transfer to ast 1pipi*. The second transient band at
      460 nm is assigned to absorption of ast 2pipi*; this state accessed from direct
      excitation has a lifetime 65 ps. This agrees with the observation of 85-89 ps
      emission decay from the TCSPC measurements. In polar solvent, an excited
      absorption band centered at 530 nm appeared with a rise time constant 0.2-0.6 ps.
      This band is assigned to the charge transfer state. This charge transfer process
      occurs as the acceptor fluorophore (sti) is excited and the electron moves from
      the occupied pi orbital of donor ast to sti* forming ast+sti-. This rise time
      corresponds to the combined processes of charge and energy transfers. The second
      rise in this charge-transfer state at time constant 0.74-1.5 ps is observed and
      assigned to occur from electron hopping from ast 2pi* orbital to sti pi*. The
      third time constant 18-31 ps is observed and is attributed to conversion of anti
      to syn form in the charge-transfer state because the syn form is more polar and
      further stabilized in polar environment. A rapid charge transfer process in
      monosilylene-spaced system although two Si-C single bonds are used as spacer is
      possibly because of the short distance of the ast and the sti conjugated systems,
      resulting in pi orbital overlap between donor and acceptor.

PMID- 28872861
TI  - Entropic Anomaly Observed in Lipid Polymorphisms Induced by Surfactant Peptide SP
      B(1-25).
AB  - The N-terminal 25 amino-acid residues of pulmonary surfactant protein B (SP-B1
      25) induces unusual lipid polymorphisms in a model lipid system, 4:1 DPPC/POPG,
      mirroring the lipid composition of native pulmonary surfactant. It is widely
      suggested that SP-B1-25-induced lipid polymorphisms within the alveolar aqueous
      subphase provide a structural platform for rapid lipid adsorption to the air
      water interface. Here, we characterize in detail the phase behavior of DPPC and
      POPG in hydrated lipid assemblies containing therapeutic levels of SP-B1-25 using
      2H and 31P solid state NMR spectroscopy. The appearance of a previously observed
      isotropic lipid phase is found to be highly dependent on the thermal cycling of
      the samples. Slow heating of frozen samples leads to phase separation of DPPC
      into a lamellar phase whereas POPG lipids interact with the peptide to form an
      isotropic phase at physiologic temperature. Rapid heating of frozen samples to
      room temperature leads to strongly isotropic phase behavior for both DPPC and
      POPG lipids, with DPPC in exchange between isotropic and interdigitated phases.
      31P T2 relaxation times confirm the isotropic phase to be consistent with a lipid
      cubic phase. The observed phases exhibit thermal stability up to physiologic
      temperature (37  degrees C) and are consistent with the formation of a ripple
      phase containing a large number of peptide-induced membrane structural defects
      enabling rapid transit of lipids between lipid lamellae. The coexistance of a
      lipid cubic phase with interdigitated lipids suggests a specific role for the
      highly conserved N-terminus of SP-B in stabilizing this unusual lipid
      polymorphism.

PMID- 28872862
TI  - Packing Arrangements and Intersheet Interaction of Alanine Oligopeptides As
      Revealed by Relaxation Parameters Obtained from High-Resolution 13C Solid-State
      NMR.
AB  - Alanine oligopeptides provide a key structure of the crystalline domains of the
      silks from spiders and wild silkworm and also the sequences included in proteins
      such as antifreeze proteins and amyloids. In this paper, the local dynamics of
      alanine oligopeptides, (Ala)3, (Ala)4, and (Ala)6 were examined by high
      resolution 13C solid-state NMR. The 13C spin-lattice relaxation times (T1's) for
      the Cbeta4 carbons of antiparallel (AP)-beta-sheet (Ala)4 significantly prolonged
      and the correlation time was estimated as 3.6 * 10-11 s which was shorter than
      those of other carbons in the AP-beta-sheet (Ala)4 (2.8 * 10-10 s). The T1 values
      for the Cbeta carbons of (Ala)6 showed significantly longer correlation time (8.8
      * 10-9 s) than those of AP-beta-sheet (Ala)4. It is thus revealed that AP-beta
      sheet (Ala)6 exhibited stronger intersheet interaction than those of AP-beta
      sheet (Ala)4. The 13C spin-spin relaxation times (T2's) for the Cbeta4 carbons
      showed longer than those of the other Cbeta1-3 carbons of AP-beta-sheet (Ala)4.
      T2 values of Cbeta carbons reflect the slow time-scale (~70 kHz) backbone
      motions. The C-terminal forms strong hydrogen bonds with water molecules and thus
      the backbone motion is slower than ~70 kHz, while the central backbone motions
      are faster than ~70 kHz in the AP-beta-sheet (Ala)4.

PMID- 28872863
TI  - Metalation and Selective Oxidation of Diphenyl-23-oxa-, -thia-, and -selena-21
      carbaporphyrins.
AB  - The availability of diphenyl-23-oxa-, -thia-, and -selena-21-carbaporphyrins has
      enabled the reactivity of these systems to be investigated and contrasted. All
      three heterocarbaporphyrins reacted with palladium(II) acetate in refluxing
      chloroform-acetonitrile to give organometallic palladium(II) derivatives in good
      yields. These structures are stable and give UV-vis spectra that show increasing
      broadening and bathochromic shifts as the size of the heteroatom increases.
      Nickel(II) acetate in refluxing N,N-dimethylformamide reacted with the oxa- and
      thiacarbaporphyrins under nitrogen to give the corresponding nickel(II)
      complexes, but the selenacarbaporphyrin did not metalate under these conditions.
      The NMR spectra for all of the metal complexes showed that they possess strong
      diamagnetic ring currents, although the palladium complexes gave larger downfield
      shifts that were slightly diminished when larger heteroatoms were present in the
      porphyrinoid cavity. Reactions of the oxacarbaporphyrin with nickel(II) acetate
      in the presence of air led to a unique oxidation reaction that afforded a weakly
      diatropic 21-oxycarbaporphyrin, and low yields of a related product were also
      obtained from the thiacarbaporphyrin.

PMID- 28872864
TI  - Measurement of the Energy and High-Pressure Dependence of X-ray-Induced
      Decomposition of Crystalline Strontium Oxalate.
AB  - We report measurements of the X-ray-induced decomposition of crystalline
      strontium oxalate (SrC2O4) as a function of energy and high pressure in two
      separate experiments. SrC2O4 at ambient conditions was irradiated with
      monochromatic synchrotron X-rays ranging in energy from 15 to 28 keV. A broad
      resonance of the decomposition yield was observed with a clear maximum when
      irradiating with ~20 keV X-rays and ambient pressure. Little or no decomposition
      was observed at 15 keV, which is below the Sr K-shell energy of 16.12 keV,
      suggesting that excitation of core electrons may play an important role in the
      destabilization of the C2O42- anion. A second experiment was performed to
      investigate the high-pressure dependence of the X-ray-induced decomposition of
      strontium oxalate at fixed energy. SrC2O4 was compressed in a diamond anvil cell
      (DAC) in the pressure range from 0 to 7.6 GPa with 1 GPa increments and
      irradiated in situ with 20 keV X-rays. A marked pressure dependence of the
      decomposition yield of SrC2O4 was observed with a decomposition yield maximum at
      around 1 GPa, suggesting that different crystal structures of the material play
      an important role in the decomposition process. This may be due in part to a
      phase transition observed near this pressure.

PMID- 28872865
TI  - A Versatile and Efficient Strategy to Discrete Conjugated Oligomers.
AB  - An efficient and scalable strategy to prepare libraries of discrete conjugated
      oligomers (D = 1.0) using the combination of controlled polymerization and
      automated flash chromatography is reported. From this two-step process, a series
      of discrete conjugated materials from dimers to tetradecamers could be isolated
      in high yield with excellent structural control. Facile and scalable access to
      monodisperse libraries of different conjugated oligomers opens pathways to
      designer mixtures with precise composition and monomer sequence, allowing
      exquisite control over their physical, optical, and electronic properties.

PMID- 28872866
TI  - Switching of Charge Transport Pathways via Delocalization Changes in Single
      Molecule Metallacycles Junctions.
AB  - To explore the charge transport through metalla-aromatics building blocks, three
      metallacycles complexes were synthesized, and their single-molecule conductances
      were characterized by using mechanically controllable break junction technique.
      It is found that the conductance of the metallacycles junction with phosphonium
      group is more than 1 order of magnitude higher than that without phosphonium
      group. X-ray diffraction and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy suggested that the
      attached phosphonium group makes metallacycles more delocalized, which shortened
      the preferred charge transport pathway and significantly enhanced the single
      molecule conductance. This work revealed that the delocalization of metalla
      aromatics could be used to switch the charge transport pathway of single-molecule
      junctions and thus tune the charge transport abilities significantly.

PMID- 28872867
TI  - Multidrug, Anti-HIV Amorphous Solid Dispersions: Nature and Mechanisms of Impacts
      of Drugs on Each Other's Solution Concentrations.
AB  - Drug therapy has been instrumental in prolonging the lives of patients infected
      by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In order to combat development of
      resistance, therapies involving three or more drugs in combination are
      recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to suppress HIV and prevent
      development of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is desirable for
      multidrug combinations to be coformulated into single dosage forms where
      possible, to promote patient convenience and adherence to dosage regimens, for
      which amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) is particularly well-suited. We
      investigated multidrug ASDs of three model anti-HIV drugs, ritonavir (Rit),
      etravirine (Etra), and efavirenz (Efa), in cellulosic polymer matrices. We
      hypothesized that the presence of multiple drugs would reduce crystallization
      tendency, thereby providing stable, supersaturating formulations for
      bioavailability enhancement. We explored new ASD polymers including cellulose
      acetate suberate (DSSub 0.9, CASub) and cellulose acetate adipate propionate
      (DSAd 0.9, CAAdP), and control commercial cellulosic polymers including 6
      carboxycellulose acetate butyrate (CCAB) and carboxymethyl cellulose acetate
      butyrate (CMCAB). We succeeded in preparing three-drug ASDs containing very high
      drug loadings (45% drug total; 15% of each drug); each polymer tested was
      effective at stabilizing the amorphous drugs in the solid phase, as demonstrated
      by XRD, SEM, and DSC studies. In pH 6.8 dissolution studies ASDs released each
      anti-HIV drug over 8 h, affording supersaturated solutions of each drug, but
      unexpectedly failing in some cases to reach maximum possible supersaturation. In
      a second set of dissolution studies (pH 6.8), the cause of the observed solution
      concentration limitations was investigated by studying release from single- and
      two-drug ASDs. Concentrations of Rit, Etra, and Efa achieved from three-drug ASDs
      were higher than those achieved from crystalline drugs. Surprisingly, however,
      there was a decrease in the achieved drug concentrations of both Rit and Efa when
      they dissolved together, while Etra solution concentration was enhanced by the
      presence of Rit and Efa in the ASD. We demonstrate that these effects have to do
      primarily with solution phase interactions between the anti-HIV drugs, rather
      than from the drugs influencing each other's release rate, and we suggest that
      such observations may indicate an important, previously inadequately recognized,
      and general phenomenon for ASDs containing multiple hydrophobic drugs.

PMID- 28872868
TI  - Electronic Substituent Effects of Guests on the Conformational Network and
      Binding Behavior of Oxatub[4]arene.
AB  - A series of quaternary ammonium guests have been synthesized, and their binding
      behavior with oxatub[4]arene have been studied. In particular, remote electronic
      substituents of the guests can significantly affect the binding affinities mainly
      through a field/inductive effect by following a linear free energy relationship.
      More surprisingly, oxatub[4]arene, with a complex conformational network, shows a
      large amplitude of conformational change in response to the remote electronic
      substituents on the guests. This novel mode of synthetic molecular recognition
      may also have biological relevance.

PMID- 28872869
TI  - Demystifying Multitask Deep Neural Networks for Quantitative Structure-Activity
      Relationships.
AB  - Deep neural networks (DNNs) are complex computational models that have found
      great success in many artificial intelligence applications, such as computer
      vision1,2 and natural language processing.3,4 In the past four years, DNNs have
      also generated promising results for quantitative structure-activity relationship
      (QSAR) tasks.5,6 Previous work showed that DNNs can routinely make better
      predictions than traditional methods, such as random forests, on a diverse
      collection of QSAR data sets. It was also found that multitask DNN models-those
      trained on and predicting multiple QSAR properties simultaneously-outperform DNNs
      trained separately on the individual data sets in many, but not all, tasks. To
      date there has been no satisfactory explanation of why the QSAR of one task
      embedded in a multitask DNN can borrow information from other unrelated QSAR
      tasks. Thus, using multitask DNNs in a way that consistently provides a
      predictive advantage becomes a challenge. In this work, we explored why multitask
      DNNs make a difference in predictive performance. Our results show that during
      prediction a multitask DNN does borrow "signal" from molecules with similar
      structures in the training sets of the other tasks. However, whether this
      borrowing leads to better or worse predictive performance depends on whether the
      activities are correlated. On the basis of this, we have developed a strategy to
      use multitask DNNs that incorporate prior domain knowledge to select training
      sets with correlated activities, and we demonstrate its effectiveness on several
      examples.

PMID- 28872870
TI  - Single-Crystal Thin Films of Cesium Lead Bromide Perovskite Epitaxially Grown on
      Metal Oxide Perovskite (SrTiO3).
AB  - High-quality metal halide perovskite single crystals have low defect densities
      and excellent photophysical properties, yet thin films are the most sought after
      material geometry for optoelectronic devices. Perovskite single-crystal thin
      films (SCTFs) would be highly desirable for high-performance devices, but their
      growth remains challenging, particularly for inorganic metal halide perovskites.
      Herein, we report the facile vapor-phase epitaxial growth of cesium lead bromide
      perovskite (CsPbBr3) continuous SCTFs with controllable micrometer thickness, as
      well as nanoplate arrays, on traditional oxide perovskite SrTiO3(100) substrates.
      Heteroepitaxial single-crystal growth is enabled by the serendipitous
      incommensurate lattice match between these two perovskites, and overcoming the
      limitation of island-forming Volmer-Weber crystal growth is critical for growing
      large-area continuous thin films. Time-resolved photoluminescence, transient
      reflection spectroscopy, and electrical transport measurements show that the
      CsPbBr3 epitaxial thin film has a slow charge carrier recombination rate, low
      surface recombination velocity (104 cm s-1), and low defect density of 1012 cm-3,
      which are comparable to those of CsPbBr3 single crystals. This work suggests a
      general approach using oxide perovskites as substrates for heteroepitaxial growth
      of halide perovskites. The high-quality halide perovskite SCTFs epitaxially
      integrated with multifunctional oxide perovskites could open up opportunities for
      a variety of high-performance optoelectronics devices.

PMID- 28872872
TI  - Nucleus-Independent Chemical Shifts:  A Simple and Efficient Aromaticity Probe.

PMID- 28872871
TI  - Chitosan-Promoted Direct Electrochemistry of Human Sulfite Oxidase.
AB  - Direct electrochemistry of human sulfite oxidase (HSO) has been achieved on
      carboxylate-terminated self-assembled monolayers cast on a Au working electrode
      in the presence of the promoter chitosan. The modified electrode facilitates a
      well-defined nonturnover redox response from the heme cofactor (FeIII/II) in 750
      mM Tris, MOPS, and bicine buffer solutions. The formal redox potential of the
      nonturnover response varies slightly depending on the nature of the thiol
      monolayer on the Au electrode. Upon addition of sulfite to the cell a pronounced
      catalytic current from HSO-facilitated sulfite oxidation is observed. The
      measured catalytic rate constant (kcat) is around 0.2 s-1 (compared with 26 s-1
      obtained from solution assays), which indicates that interaction of the enzyme
      with the electrode lowers overall catalysis although native behavior is retained
      in terms of substrate concentration dependence, pH dependence, and inhibition
      effects. In contrast, no catalytic activity is observed when HSO is confined to
      amine-terminated thiol monolayers although well-defined noncatalytic responses
      from the heme cofactor are still observed. These differences are linked to
      flexibility of HSO, which can switch between active and inactive conformations,
      and also competitive ion exchange processes at the electrode surface involving
      the enzyme and substrate.

PMID- 28872873
TI  - Synthesis and Stability of Water-in-Oil Emulsion Using Partially Reduced Graphene
      Oxide as a Tailored Surfactant.
AB  - Graphene oxide (GO) is widely known as an amphiphile having hydrophilic oxygen
      functionality and unoxidized graphitic patches as the hydrophobic domains.
      Exploiting this amphiphilicity, GO serves as a surfactant to stabilize oil-water
      interfaces. While there are numerous reports on GO as a surfactant, most of these
      reports concern oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions, and there are very few on the
      formation of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions. We prepared W/O emulsions using
      partially reduced graphene oxide (prGO) as a surfactant. The partial reduction
      introduces a subtle hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), which favors the
      formation of the W/O emulsion. The morphological features and rheological
      characteristics of the W/O emulsion with 75:25 water-to-oil ratio were
      investigated and analyzed in detail. The W/O emulsion was found to have
      polydispersity with wide range of droplet sizes varying between 2 to 500 MUm.
      Using confocal microscopy, the role of parameters such as extent of reduction,
      continuous phase volume fraction and the concentration of GO on the stability,
      microstructure and variation of droplet size distribution of the W/O emulsion
      were carefully monitored. With prGO concentration as large as 0.05% (w/w), highly
      concentrated emulsion will form, and are stable up to 20 days from formation;
      destabilization occurred from sedimentation and subsequent coalescence as the
      partially reduced GO was limited by its dispersion ability in the oil-phase
      studied here. Understanding the mechanisms behind the transient stability will
      enable the development of novel emulsion compositions containing GO as a
      multifunctional additive.

PMID- 28872874
TI  - Ultralight Conductive Silver Nanowire Aerogels.
AB  - Low-density metal foams have many potential applications in electronics, energy
      storage, catalytic supports, fuel cells, sensors, and medical devices. Here, we
      report a new method for fabricating ultralight, conductive silver aerogel
      monoliths with predictable densities using silver nanowires. Silver nanowire
      building blocks were prepared by polyol synthesis and purified by selective
      precipitation. Silver aerogels were produced by freeze-casting nanowire aqueous
      suspensions followed by thermal sintering to weld the nanowire junctions. As
      prepared silver aerogels have unique anisotropic microporous structures, with
      density precisely controlled by the nanowire concentration, down to 4.8 mg/cm3
      and an electrical conductivity up to 51 000 S/m. Mechanical studies show that
      silver nanowire aerogels exhibit "elastic stiffening" behavior with a Young's
      modulus up to 16 800 Pa.

PMID- 28872875
TI  - Influence of Solvent Relaxation on Ultrafast Excited-State Proton Transfer to
      Solvent.
AB  - A thorough understanding of the microscopic mechanism of excited-state proton
      transfer (ESPT) and the influence of the solvent environment on its dynamics are
      of great fundamental interest. We present here a detailed investigation of an
      ESPT to solvent (DMSO) using time-resolved broadband fluorescence and transient
      absorption spectroscopies. All excited-state species are resolved spectrally and
      kinetically using a global target analysis based on the two-step Eigen-Weller
      model. Reversibility of the initial short-range proton transfer producing excited
      contact ion pairs (CIP*) is observed unambiguously in fluorescence and must be
      explicitly considered to obtain the individual rate constants. Close inspection
      of the early dynamics suggests that the relative populations of the protonated
      form (ROH*) and CIP* are governed by solvent relaxation that influences the
      relative energies of the excited states. This constitutes a breakdown of the
      Eigen-Weller model, although the overall agreement between the data and the
      analysis using classical rate equations is excellent.

PMID- 28872876
TI  - Formation of Spherulitic J-Aggregates from the Coassembly of Lithocholic Acid and
      Cyanine Dye.
AB  - Supramolecular aggregates of organic dyes through noncovalent interactions have
      attracted great interest because they exhibit collective optical and excitonic
      properties. We report the formation of spherulitic J-aggregates from the
      coassembly of lithocholic acid (LCA) and 3,3'-diethylthiacarbocyanine iodide
      (DiSC2(3)) in ammonia solution. Each spherulite contains a core, which serves as
      a nucleus for the growth of radially oriented J-aggregate fibrils. We find that
      the growth of spherulitic J-aggregates exhibits a sigmoidal kinetic curve with an
      initial lag time, followed by a period of rapid growth and a finally slow
      approach to equilibrium.

PMID- 28872877
TI  - Time-Resolved Neutron Reflectivity during Supported Membrane Formation by Vesicle
      Fusion.
AB  - The formation of supported lipid bilayers (SLB) on hydrophilic substrates through
      the method of unilamelar vesicle fusion is used routinely in a wide range of
      biophysical studies. In an effort to control and better understand the fusion
      process on the substrate, many experimental studies employing different
      techniques have been devoted to the elucidation of the fusion mechanism. In the
      present work, we follow the kinetics of membrane formation using time-resolved
      (TR) neutron reflectivity, focusing on the structural changes near the
      solid/liquid interface. A clear indication of stacked bilayer structure is
      observed during the intermediate phase of SLB formation. Adsorbed lipid mass
      decrease is also measured in the final stage of the process. We have found that
      it is essential for the analysis of the experimental results to treat the shape
      of adsorbed lipid vesicles on an attractive substrate theoretically. The overall
      findings are discussed in relation to proposed fusion mechanisms from the
      literature, and we argue that our observations favor a model involving enhanced
      adhesion of incoming vesicles on the edges of already-formed bilayer patches.

PMID- 28872878
TI  - Ultrafast Charge-Transfer Dynamics in the Iron-Sulfur Complex of Rhodobacter
      capsulatus Ferredoxin VI.
AB  - Iron-sulfur proteins play essential roles in various biological processes. Their
      electronic structure and vibrational dynamics are key to their rich chemistry but
      nontrivial to unravel. Here, the first ultrafast transient absorption and
      impulsive coherent vibrational spectroscopic (ICVS) studies on 2Fe-2S clusters in
      Rhodobacter capsulatus ferreodoxin VI are characterized. Photoexcitation
      initiated populations on multiple excited electronic states that evolve into each
      other in a long-lived charge-transfer state. This suggests a potential light
      induced electron-transfer pathway as well as the possibility of using iron-sulfur
      proteins as photosensitizers for light-dependent enzymes. A tyrosine chain near
      the active site suggests potential hole-transfer pathways and affirms this
      electron-transfer pathway. The ICVS data revealed vibrational bands at 417 and
      484 cm-1, with the latter attributed to an excited-state mode. The temperature
      dependence of the ICVS modes suggests that the temperature effect on protein
      structure or conformational heterogeneities needs to be considered during
      cryogenic temperature studies.

PMID- 28872879
TI  - Optically Controlled Electron-Transfer Reaction Kinetics and Solvation Dynamics:
      Effect of Franck-Condon States.
AB  - Experimental results for optically controlled electron-transfer reaction kinetics
      (ETRK) and nonequilibrium solvation dynamics (NESD) of Coumarin 480 in DMPC
      vesicle show their dependence on excitation wavelength lambdaex. However, the
      celebrated Marcus theory and linear-response-theory-based approaches for ETRK and
      NESD, respectively, predict both of the processes to be independent of lambdaex.
      The above said lacuna in these theories prompted us to develop a novel theory in
      1D space, where the effect of innumerable Franck-Condon states is included
      through lambdaex. The present theory not only sheds light on the origin of
      failure of the existing theories but also gives the correct trend for the effect
      of lambdaex on ETRK and NESD. More importantly, the calculated results of NESD
      are in excellent agreement with the experimental results for different values of
      lambdaex. The new theory will therefore advance the knowledge of scientific
      community on the dynamics of photoinduced nonequilibrium processes.

PMID- 28872880
TI  - Identification of Potential Small Molecule Binding Pockets in p38alpha MAP
      Kinase.
AB  - Given the essential role played by protein kinases in regulating cellular
      pathways, their dysregulation can result in the onset and/or progression of
      various human diseases. Structural analysis of diverse protein kinases suggests
      that these proteins exhibit a remarkable plasticity that allows them to adopt
      distinct conformations in response to interactions with other proteins, providing
      an opportunity for designing allosteric modulators. The present work reports the
      results of an in silico screening study aimed at identifying novel prospective
      allosteric binding sites in the paradigmatic p38alpha MAP kinase. The process was
      carried out using a protein ensemble generated from a 6 MUs accelerated molecular
      dynamics simulation. The results of this calculation were first used to study the
      flexibility of the protein using Principal Component Analysis, followed by a
      Cluster Analysis aimed at producing an ensemble of conformations representative
      of the sampling process. Representative structures of the diverse clusters were
      subsequently screened for hot spots using FTMAP. The procedure permitted the
      identification of diverse allosteric sites of p38alpha already described in the
      literature including the DFG pocket, the lipid binding pocket, the DEF site, the
      docking groove, the CD and ED sites, and the backside site as well as a novel
      site recently reported: the A-loop regulatory site. Furthermore, the study also
      permitted the identification of ten novel prospective allosteric sites named NP1
      to NP10, involving in most of the cases protein structural elements that control
      kinase activation including the activation loop, the catalytic loop, the alphaC
      helix, the L16 loop, and the glycine-rich loop.

PMID- 28872881
TI  - Protecting a Diamond Quantum Memory by Charge State Control.
AB  - In recent years, solid-state spin systems have emerged as promising candidates
      for quantum information processing. Prominent examples are the nitrogen-vacancy
      (NV) center in diamond, phosphorus dopants in silicon (Si:P), rare-earth ions in
      solids, and VSi-centers in silicon-carbide. The Si:P system has demonstrated that
      its nuclear spins can yield exceedingly long spin coherence times by eliminating
      the electron spin of the dopant. For NV centers, however, a proper charge state
      for storage of nuclear spin qubit coherence has not been identified yet. Here, we
      identify and characterize the positively charged NV center as an electron-spin
      less and optically inactive state by utilizing the nuclear spin qubit as a probe.
      We control the electronic charge and spin utilizing nanometer scale gate
      electrodes. We achieve a lengthening of the nuclear spin coherence times by a
      factor of 4. Surprisingly, the new charge state allows switching of the optical
      response of single nodes facilitating full individual addressability.

PMID- 28872882
TI  - Two-Dimensional Active Tuning of an Aluminum Plasmonic Array for Full-Spectrum
      Response.
AB  - Color pixels composed of plasmonic nanostructures provide a highly promising
      approach for new display technologies, capable of vivid, robust coloration and
      incorporating the use of low-cost plasmonic materials, such as aluminum. Here we
      report a plasmonic device that can be tuned continuously across the entire
      visible spectrum, based on integrating a square array of aluminum nanostructures
      into an elastomeric substrate. By stretching the substrate in either of its two
      dimensions, the period and therefore the scattering color can be modified to the
      blue or the red of the at-rest structure, spanning the entire visible spectrum.
      The unique two-dimensional design of this structure enables active mechanical
      color tuning, under gentle elastic modulation with no more than 35% strain. We
      also demonstrate active image switching with this structure. This design strategy
      has the potential to open the door for next-generation flexible photonic devices
      for a wide variety of visible-light applications.

PMID- 28872883
TI  - Plastic Poisson's Ratio of Nanoporous Metals: A Macroscopic Signature of Tension
      Compression Asymmetry at the Nanoscale.
AB  - The suggestion, based on atomistic simulation, of a surface-induced tension
      compression asymmetry of the strength and flow stress of small metal bodies so
      far lacks experimental confirmation. Here, we present the missing experimental
      evidence. We study the transverse plastic flow of nanoporous gold under uniaxial
      compression. Performing mechanical tests in electrolyte affords control over the
      surface state. Specifically, the surface tension, gamma, can be varied in situ
      during plastic flow. We find that decreasing gamma leads to an increase of the
      effective macroscopic plastic Poisson ratio, nuP. Finite element simulations of a
      network with surface tension confirm the notion that nuP of nanoporous gold
      provides a signature for a local tension-compression asymmetry of the nanoscale
      struts that form the network. We show that gamma promotes compression while
      impeding tensile elongation. Because the transverse strain is partly carried by
      the elongation of ligaments oriented normal to the load axis, the surface-induced
      tension-compression asymmetry acts to reduce nuP. Our experiment confirms a
      decisive contribution of the surface tension to small-scale plasticity.

PMID- 28872885
TI  - Visible-Light-Triggered Uncaging of Carbonyl Sulfide for Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S)
      Release.
AB  - Generation of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is challenging and few methods are capable
      of localized delivery of this gas. Here, a boron dipyrromethene-based
      carbamothioate (BDP-H2S) that is uncaged by visible light of 470 nm to generate
      carbonyl sulfide (COS), which is rapidly hydrolyzed to H2S in the presence of
      carbonic anhydrase, a widely prevalent enzyme, is reported.

PMID- 28872884
TI  - Facile Synthesis of Catalytic AuPd Nanoparticles within Capillary Microreactors
      Using Polyelectrolyte Multilayers for the Direct Synthesis of H2O2.
AB  - Microreactors present innovative solutions for problems pertaining to
      conventional reactors and therefore have seen successful application in several
      industrial processes. Yet, its application in heterogeneously catalyzed gas
      liquid reactions has been challenging, mainly due to the lack of an easy and
      flexible methodology for catalyst incorporation inside these reactors. Herein, we
      report a facile technique for obtaining small (<2 nm) and well-distributed
      catalytic nanoparticles on the walls of silica-coated capillaries, that act as
      micro(channel) reactors. These particles are formed in situ on the reactor walls
      using polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs), built by layer-by-layer self-assembly.
      Manipulating the PEMs' synthesis condition gives easy control over metal loading,
      without compromising on particle size. Both monometallic (Au and Pd) and
      bimetallic (AuPd) nanoparticles were successfully obtained using this technique.
      Finally, these catalytic microreactors were found to exhibit exceptional activity
      for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from H2 and O2.

PMID- 28872886
TI  - Microwave-convective drying of food materials: A critical review.
AB  - Microwave convective drying (MCD) is gaining increasing interest due to its
      unique volumetric heating capability and ability to significantly reduce drying
      time and improve food quality. The main objective of this paper is to discuss,
      critically analyze and evaluate the recent advances in MCD and suggest the future
      directions in this field. The main focus of this paper is the mathematical
      modeling and experimental investigations in microwave convective drying of food
      materials. Recent developments in mathematical modeling of MCD is discussed and
      existing experimental setup and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed
      and analysed. Long drying time is a concern in food industries. Reductions in
      drying time by applying MCD compared to convection drying are calculated and
      discussed. It was apparent that the proper integration of mathematical modeling
      and experimental technique is the best way to maximize the advantages of this
      drying method. Although a plethora of research is being carried out on this
      topic, there is still need for research to develop fundamental modeling to
      optimize the process parameters and scale up this technology for the industrial
      application. Overall, the review provides an in-depth insight into the latest
      development of MCD and its mathematical modeling approaches and will hopefully
      serve to inspire future work in the field.

PMID- 28872887
TI  - Learning From Mistakes: An Experience of an Evolving Unit.

PMID- 28872888
TI  - Wait Times Less Than 2 Weeks Minimize No-Show Rates in Cardiology Practices.

PMID- 28872889
TI  - Association Between the Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis, the Warfarin
      Maintenance Dose, and CYP2C9*3, CYP2D6*10, and CYP3A5*3 Genetic Polymorphisms: A
      Case-Control Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study explored the association between the
      CYP2C9*3/CYP2D6*10/CYP3A5*3 genetic polymorphisms with lower extremity deep
      venous thrombosis (LEDVT) and the warfarin maintenance dose. METHODS: Five
      hundred thirty-six patients who were pathologically diagnosed with LEDVT after
      surgery were included in the LEDVT group. At the same time, 540 patients without
      LEDVT who underwent surgery were recruited as the control group. Patients were
      given warfarin at an initial dose of 2.5-3.0 mg. Blood samples were collected to
      detect the initial and stable international normalized ratio (INR) values. The
      warfarin maintenance dose was obtained if the INR remained within a range of 2.0
      3.0 for 3 consecutive days. The genotype distribution and haplotype analysis of
      the CYP2C9*3/CYP2D6*10/CYP3A5*3 alleles were analyzed using polymerase chain
      reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) testing and SHEsis
      software, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk
      and protective factors for LEDVT. RESULTS: The A/G genotypes, G/G genotypes, and
      G allele of CYP3A5*3 in the LEDVT group were observed with increased frequency
      compared with the control group. The LEDVT group displayed a higher ACG haplotype
      frequency, and lower ACA and ATA haplotype frequencies than the control group.
      Age, diabetes, low-density lipoprotein, CYP3A5*3 and the ACG haplotype were
      independent risk factors for LEDVT. High-density lipoprotein and the ACA
      haplotype were independent protective factors for LEDVT. The genotype
      distributions of the CYP2C9*3, CYP2D6*10, and CYP3A5*3 genetic polymorphisms were
      associated with the warfarin maintenance dose. CONCLUSION: The CYP3A5*3 genetic
      polymorphism may be an important risk factor for LEDVT. Moreover, CYP2C9*3,
      CYP2D6*10, and CYP3A5*3 are associated with the warfarin maintenance dose.

PMID- 28872890
TI  - Synergistic Association of Genetic Variants with Environmental Risk Factors in
      Susceptibility to Essential Hypertension.
AB  - AIMS: Essential hypertension (EH) is a disease in which both environment and
      genes have an important role. This study was designed to identify the interaction
      model between genetic variants and environmental risk factors that most highly
      potentiates EH development. METHODS: We performed a case-control study with 1641
      participants (mean age 50.6 +/- 8.1 years), specifically 848 patients with EH and
      793 controls, adjusted for gender and age. Traditional risk factors, biochemical
      and genetic parameters, including the genotypic discrimination of 14 genetic
      variants previously associated with EH, were investigated. Multifactorial
      dimensionality reduction (MDR) software was used to analyze gene-environment
      interactions. Validation was performed using logistic regression analysis with
      environmental risk factors, significant genetic variants, and the best MDR model.
      RESULTS: The best model indicates that the interactions among the ADD1 rs4961
      640T allele, diabetes, and obesity (body mass index >=30) increase approximately
      four-fold the risk of EH (odds ratio = 3.725; 95% confidence interval: 2.945
      4.711; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This work showed that the interaction between the
      ADD1 rs4961 variant, obesity, and the presence of diabetes increased the
      susceptibility to EH four-fold. In these circumstances, lifestyle adjustment and
      diabetes control should be intensified in patients who carry the ADD1 variant.

PMID- 28872891
TI  - Closing the Deal: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Treatment Resistance.
AB  - This study investigates patient resistance to doctors' treatment recommendations
      in a cross-national comparison of primary care. Through this lens, we explore
      English and American patients' enacted priorities, expectations, and assumptions
      about treating routine illnesses with prescription versus over-the-counter
      medications. We perform a detailed analysis of 304 (American) and 393 (English)
      naturally occurring treatment discussions and conclude that American and English
      patients tend to use treatment resistance in different prescribing contexts to
      pursue different ends. While American patients are most likely to resist
      recommendations for non-prescription treatment and display an expectation for
      prescription treatment in these interactions, English patients show a high level
      of resistance to recommendations for all types of treatment and display an
      expectation of cautious prescribing. These behavioral trends reflect broader
      structural forces unique to each national context and ultimately maintain
      distinct cultural norms of good-practice prescribing.

PMID- 28872892
TI  - Prepregnancy Body Mass Index Shift Across Gestation: An Association with
      Breastfeeding Practices?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research has shown that mother's obesity and underweight are major
      risk factors for reduced initiation, duration, and exclusivity of breastfeeding.
      OBJECTIVE: We compared breastfeeding practices from discharge until the third
      postnatal month in women, accounting to prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and
      its shift across gestation. STUDY DESIGN: Data on maternal shifts in BMI category
      from prepregnancy to gestational BMI by gestational weight gain (GWG) were
      defined according to 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines. Logistic
      regression models were estimated to assess the effect of prepregnancy and
      gestational BMI on breastfeeding, adjusting for clinically relevant factors.
      RESULTS: The analysis included 658 women. According to prepregnancy BMI, 84
      (12.8%) mothers were underweight, 444 (67.4%) were normal weight, 94 (14.3%) were
      overweight, and 36 (5.5%) were obese. Although in the range defined by IOM 2009,
      GWG shifted across the BMI categories in 445 (67.6%). Thus, while underweight
      women shifted in higher BMI categories, normal weight women category halved (230,
      35%), and both overweight women (301, 45.7%) and obese women (127, 19.3%)
      tripled. Breastfeeding patterns at discharge, at first month, and at third month
      were comparable among prepregnancy and gestational BMI groups, except for
      prepregnancy BMI groups at third month (p 0.03). At multivariable analysis,
      neither prepregnancy BMI nor gestational BMI was associated with reduced
      exclusive breastfeeding within 3 months after discharge. CONCLUSIONS:
      Prepregnancy BMI and gestational BMI, in women with adequate GWG, do not affect
      exclusive breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity until the third
      month postpartum. Women need information and support to gain adequate weight
      during pregnancy.

PMID- 28872893
TI  - Pharmacotherapy Assessment of Patients With Isolation Precautions at a University
      Hospital.

PMID- 28872894
TI  - Knockdown of Long Noncoding RNA Small Nucleolar RNA Host Gene 12 Inhibits Cell
      Growth and Induces Apoptosis by Upregulating miR-138 in Nonsmall Cell Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - Small nucleolar RNA host gene 12 (SNHG12) is a novel long noncoding RNA
      identified to be upregulated and functions as an oncogene in several cancers.
      However, the function of SNHG12 and its target genes in modulating nonsmall cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) development are rarely reported. In the present study, we
      validated that SNHG12 was overexpressed, while miR-138 was low-expressed, in
      NSCLC cells compared with normal human lung epithelial cells. SNHG12 harbored the
      binding site of miR-138 and inversely regulated the expression miR-138. Knockdown
      of SNHG12 inhibited proliferation and colony-forming ability, induced apoptosis,
      and increased caspase-3 activity of NSCLC cells, whereas miR-138 downregulation
      restored these effects. Furthermore, SNHG12 knockdown decreased volumes and
      weight of xenograft tumors in a NSCLC mouse model. Taken together, these findings
      suggested that knockdown of SNHG12 suppressed cell growth and induced apoptosis
      by upregulating miR-138 in NSCLC.

PMID- 28872896
TI  - Factors Affecting Caregivers' Views on Reporting Adverse Events.

PMID- 28872895
TI  - Hyaluronic Acid Accelerates Tendon-to-Bone Healing After Rotator Cuff Repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is growing evidence that the subacromial injection of
      hyaluronic acid (HA) is effective for pain relief in rotator cuff tears; however,
      its effect on tendon-to-bone healing remains unknown. PURPOSE: To examine the
      effect of HA on the chondrogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro and
      on tendon-to-bone healing in a rotator cuff repair model. STUDY DESIGN:
      Controlled laboratory study. METHODS: Bilateral complete tears of the
      infraspinatus tendon were made in rabbits and subsequently repaired. Before
      closure, 1 mL HA was applied to the repaired site, and phosphate-buffered saline
      was used in the opposite side as a control. Biomechanical, histological, and
      immunohistochemical analyses were performed at 4, 8, and 12 weeks after surgery.
      After euthanizing each animal, the bone marrow was isolated from the femoral bone
      in the same rabbits. Then, MSCs were cultured in media for chondrogenic
      differentiation, and the chondral pellet production and cartilage-related gene
      expression levels in the cells were examined at various concentrations of HA.
      RESULTS: At 4 and 8 weeks after surgery, ultimate load-to-failure was
      significantly greater in the HA group than in the control group (45.61 +/- 9.0 N
      vs 32.42 +/- 9.4 N at 4 weeks, 90.7 +/- 16.0 N vs 66.97 +/- 10.0 N at 8 weeks;
      both P < .05) but not at 12 weeks after surgery (109.6 +/- 40.2 N vs 108.1 +/-
      42.6 N, P > .05). Linear stiffness was not significant throughout the time point
      evaluation. The chondroid formation area at the tendon-bone interface stained by
      safranin O (control vs HA group) was 0.33% +/- 0.7% versus 13.5% +/- 12.3% at 4
      weeks after surgery ( P < .05) and 3.0% +/- 5.9% versus 12.9% +/- 12.9% at 8
      weeks after surgery ( P < .05), but there was no significant difference at 12
      weeks after surgery. Maturity of collagen at the repaired site stained by
      PicroSirius Red (control vs HA group) was 16.2 +/- 10.6 versus 43.5 +/- 21.3 at 4
      weeks after surgery ( P < .05), but there were no significant differences at 8
      and 12 weeks after surgery. MSCs were cultured in media for chondrogenic
      differentiation, and the chondral pellet production and cartilage-related gene
      expression levels in the cells were examined at various concentrations of HA. The
      number of CD44-positive cells (control vs HA group) was 8.3% +/- 1.4% versus
      26.2% +/- 5.2% at 3 days after surgery ( P < .05), 1.8% +/- 1.1% versus 26.6% +/-
      11.6% at 4 weeks after surgery ( P < .05), 0.6% +/- 0.9% versus 0.5% +/- 0.6% at
      8 weeks after surgery ( P > .05), and 1.8% +/- 4.0% versus 5.4% +/- 4.2% at 12
      weeks after surgery ( P > .05). Compared with the control group, HA significantly
      increased the volume of cartilaginous pellet produced by MSCs (0.0016 +/- 0.0015
      mm3 at 0 mg/mL of HA, 0.0041 +/- 0.0023 mm3 at 1.0 mg/mL, and 0.0041 +/- 0.0018
      mm3 at 4.0 mg/mL), with increased mRNA expression (relative ratio to control) of
      type 2 collagen (1.34 +/- 0.38), SOX9 (1.58 +/- 0.31), and aggrecan (1.30 +/-
      0.22) genes in the pellet ( P < .01). CONCLUSION: HA accelerated tendon-to-bone
      healing in the rotator cuff repair model, enhancing the biomechanical strength
      and increasing chondroid formation and tendon maturity at the tendon-bone
      interface. Based on the data of in vitro experiments, HA-activated MSCs may play
      a crucial role in the acceleration of tendon-to-bone healing. CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      The data suggest the relevance of clinical application of HA to accelerate tendon
      to-bone healing. It may decrease the number of retears after surgery.

PMID- 28872897
TI  - A Novel Strategy to Seek Biosignatures at Enceladus and Europa.
AB  - A laboratory experiment is suggested in which conditions similar to those in the
      plume ejecta from Enceladus and, perhaps, Europa are established. With the use of
      infrared spectroscopy and polarimetry, the experiment might identify possible
      biomarkers in differential measurements of water from the open ocean,
      hydrothermal vents, and abiotic water samples. Should the experiment succeed,
      large telescopes could be used to acquire sensitive infrared spectra of the
      plumes of Enceladus and Europa, as the satellites transit the bright planetary
      disks. The extreme technical challenges encountered in so doing are similar to
      those of solar imaging spectropolarimetry. The desired signals are buried in
      noisy data in the presence of seeing-induced image motion and a changing natural
      source. Some differential measurements used for solar spectropolarimetry can
      achieve signal-to-noise ratios of 105 even in the presence of systematic errors 2
      orders of magnitude larger. We review the techniques and likelihood of success of
      such an observing campaign with some of the world's largest ground-based
      telescopes, as well as the long-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope. We
      discuss the relative merits of the new 4 m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, as
      well as the James Webb Space Telescope and larger ground-based observatories, for
      observing the satellites of giant planets. As seen from near Earth, transits of
      Europa occur regularly, but transits of Enceladus will begin again only in 2022.
      Key Words: Spectroscopy-Spectropolarimetry-Life origins. Astrobiology 17, 852
      861.

PMID- 28872898
TI  - Effects of a Telephone- and Web-based Coping Skills Training Program Compared
      with an Education Program for Survivors of Critical Illness and Their Family
      Members. A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - RATIONALE: Many survivors of critical illness and their family members experience
      significant psychological distress after patient discharge. OBJECTIVES: To
      compare the effects of a coping skills training (CST) program with an education
      program on patient and family psychological distress. METHODS: In this five
      center clinical trial, adult patients who received mechanical ventilation for
      more than 48 hours and one family member of each patient were randomized to six
      weekly CST telephone sessions plus access to a study website or a critical
      illness education program. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome was
      the patient Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) score at 3 months.
      Secondary outcomes included 3- and 6-month HADS subscales and the Impact of
      Events Scale-Revised. Among the 175 patients randomized to CST (n = 86) or
      education (n = 89), there was no significant difference between CST and education
      in either 3-month HADS scores (difference, 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 
      0.9 to 3.4; P = 0.24) or secondary patient and family outcomes. In prespecified
      analyses, among patients with high baseline distress (n = 60), CST recipients had
      greater improvement in 6-month HADS score (difference, -4.6; 95% CI, -8.6 to 
      0.6; P = 0.02) than the education group. Among patients ventilated longer than 7
      days (n = 47), education recipients had greater improvement in 3-month HADS score
      (difference, -4.0; 95% CI, -8.1 to -0.05; P = 0.047) than the CST group.
      CONCLUSIONS: CST did not improve psychological distress symptoms compared with an
      education program. However, CST improved symptoms of distress at 6 months among
      patients with high baseline distress, whereas the education program improved
      distress at 3 months among those ventilated for more than 7 days. Future efforts
      to address psychological distress among critical illness survivors should target
      high-risk populations. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov
      (NCT01983254).

PMID- 28872899
TI  - Two Novel Variants Affecting CDKL5 Transcript Associated with Epileptic
      Encephalopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Variants in the human X-linked cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5)
      gene have been reported as being etiologically associated with early infantile
      epileptic encephalopathy type 2 (EIEE2). We report on two patients, a boy and a
      girl, with EIEE2 that present with early onset epilepsy, hypotonia, severe
      intellectual disability, and poor eye contact. METHODS: Massively parallel
      sequencing (MPS) of a custom-designed gene panel for epilepsy and epileptic
      encephalopathy containing 112 epilepsy-related genes was performed. Sanger
      sequencing was used to confirm the novel variants. For confirmation of the
      functional consequence of an intronic CDKL5 variant in patient 2, an RNA study
      was done. RESULTS: DNA sequencing revealed de novo variants in CDKL5, a c.2578C>T
      (p. Gln860*) present in a hemizygous state in a 3-year-old boy, and a potential
      splice site variant c.463+5G>A in heterozygous state in a 5-year-old girl.
      Multiple in silico splicing algorithms predicted a highly reduced splice site
      score for c.463+5G>A. A subsequent mRNA study confirmed an aberrant shorter
      transcript lacking exon 7. CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirmed that variants in the
      CDKL5 are associated with EIEE2. There is credible evidence that the novel
      identified variants are pathogenic and, therefore, are likely the cause of the
      disease in the presented patients. In one of the patients a stop codon variant is
      predicted to produce a truncated protein, and in the other patient an intronic
      variant results in aberrant splicing.

PMID- 28872900
TI  - Enceladus Plume Structure and Time Variability: Comparison of Cassini
      Observations.
AB  - During three low-altitude (99, 66, 66 km) flybys through the Enceladus plume in
      2010 and 2011, Cassini's ion neutral mass spectrometer (INMS) made its first high
      spatial resolution measurements of the plume's gas density and distribution,
      detecting in situ the individual gas jets within the broad plume. Since those
      flybys, more detailed Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) imaging observations of the
      plume's icy component have been reported, which constrain the locations and
      orientations of the numerous gas/grain jets. In the present study, we used these
      ISS imaging results, together with ultraviolet imaging spectrograph stellar and
      solar occultation measurements and modeling of the three-dimensional structure of
      the vapor cloud, to constrain the magnitudes, velocities, and time variability of
      the plume gas sources from the INMS data. Our results confirm a mixture of both
      low and high Mach gas emission from Enceladus' surface tiger stripes, with gas
      accelerated as fast as Mach 10 before escaping the surface. The vapor source
      fluxes and jet intensities/densities vary dramatically and stochastically, up to
      a factor 10, both spatially along the tiger stripes and over time between flyby
      observations. This complex spatial variability and dynamics may result from time
      variable tidal stress fields interacting with subsurface fissure geometry and
      tortuosity beyond detectability, including changing gas pathways to the surface,
      and fluid flow and boiling in response evolving lithostatic stress conditions.
      The total plume gas source has 30% uncertainty depending on the contributions
      assumed for adiabatic and nonadiabatic gas expansion/acceleration to the high
      Mach emission. The overall vapor plume source rate exhibits stochastic time
      variability up to a factor ~5 between observations, reflecting that found in the
      individual gas sources/jets. Key Words: Cassini at Saturn-Geysers-Enceladus-Gas
      dynamics-Icy satellites. Astrobiology 17, 926-940.

PMID- 28872901
TI  - Nylon Mesh Device for Vitrification of Large Quantities of Rat Pancreatic Islets.
AB  - The practical requirements of islet transplantation necessitate that a large
      quantity of pancreatic islets be cryopreserved for a long period of time in a
      simple and convenient manner. We cryopreserved rat islets (size range 101-150 MUm
      in mean diameter) by vitrification with either a Cryotop(r) device or a o = 57
      MUm nylon mesh device in units of 10 islets, or by conventional freezing with a
      Bicell(r) vessel in units of 50 islets. Postwarm/thaw survival rates of the
      islets were 68.1% +/- 5.9%, 64.1% +/- 3.5%, and 47.7 +/- 1.2% following Cryotop
      vitrification, nylon mesh vitrification, and Bicell freezing, respectively (p <
      0.05). Glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in the two vitrification groups
      (stimulus index [SI] = 3.1-3.9) was superior to that in the freezing group (SI =
      0.8). Additional experiments involved scaling-up the cryopreservation process
      using the nylon mesh device in units of 10, 50, or 100 islets. Increased numbers
      of islets per device had no adverse effects on cryosurvival (58.6%-68.5%) or
      insulin secretion potential (SI = 2.8-4.2). As the nylon mesh device does not
      require the handling of individual islets with glass pipettes, pre- and
      postvitrification islet treatment is less complicated. Therefore, nylon mesh can
      serve as a simple cryodevice for the vitrification of large quantities of rat
      pancreatic islets.

PMID- 28872902
TI  - Maturational Trajectory of Processing Speed Performance in Pediatric Multiple
      Sclerosis.
AB  - Processing speed is a frequently affected cognitive domain in pediatric multiple
      sclerosis (MS) and is commonly assessed using the Symbol Digit Modalities Test
      (SDMT). The objective of this study was to determine maturational trajectories in
      SDMT performance and baseline factors affecting trajectories in a sample of 82
      pediatric MS individuals. Performance on the SDMT increased with age in patients
      with pediatric MS followed by a subsequent decline. Furthermore, patients who
      were older at disease onset and had a higher IQ showed greater gains with age,
      suggesting that these factors may be protective with respect to cognitive
      maturation in pediatric MS.

PMID- 28872903
TI  - In vitro Biological Effects of Sulforaphane (SFN), Epigallocatechin-3-gallate
      (EGCG), and Curcumin on Breast Cancer Cells: A Systematic Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - Much of the recent research in neoplasia has been focusing on the epigenetics of
      cancer cells, particularly as regards the search for potential molecular
      biomarkers that could be used for early diagnosis, effective treatment, and
      prognosis of several types of cancer. Carcinogenesis often starts with mutations
      in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, and it leads to anomalies in cellular
      processes as vital as cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Because malignant
      changes arise as a result of genetic as well as epigenetic mechanisms, one
      possible means of intervention involves reprogramming gene expression, so as to
      at least in part-revert the molecular alterations. DNA methylation and
      demethylation, acetylation and deacetylation of histones, and microRNAs are a few
      examples of the epigenetic mechanisms responsible for tumor development and
      progression. Many biologically active compounds present in food-including
      sulforaphane, curcumin, and epigallocatechin-have been found to modulate those
      processes. We here systematically review information on the effects of such
      bioactive dietary compounds on human breast cancer cell lines, and explore the
      mechanisms underlying those effects with a view to their potential therapeutic
      application.

PMID- 28872904
TI  - Carvacrol Induces Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-mediated Apoptosis Along with
      Cell Cycle Arrest at G0/G1 in Human Prostate Cancer Cells.
AB  - Carvacrol, a major monoterpenoid phenol from Origanum and Thymus species, has
      been shown to exhibit antiproliferative and anticancer properties in a few recent
      studies. Nevertheless, detailed mechanism of the action of this compound in
      prostate cancer has not been elucidated yet. Therefore, in the current study, we
      examined the anticancer activity and mechanism of the action of carvacrol against
      human prostate cancer cells. It was found that the treatment of DU145 cells with
      carvacrol decreased cell viability in a concentration and time-dependent manner.
      The antiproliferative action of carvacrol leads to induction of apoptosis as
      confirmed by nuclear condensation, Annexin V-FITC/PI positive cells, and caspase
      3 activation. In addition, carvacrol augmented reactive oxygen species generation
      and disruption in the mitochondrial membrane potential which has not been
      reported in the previous studies of carvacrol with prostate cancer. Moreover,
      carvacrol-induced apoptosis of prostate cancer cells was also accompanied by
      significant amount of growth arrest at the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle which
      has also not been documented previously. To sum up, this study has established
      that carvacrol could be a promising chemotherapeutic agent and could have a
      direct practical implication and translational relevance to prostate cancer
      patients as Origanum consumption may retard prostate cancer progression.

PMID- 28872907
TI  - Edaravone and its clinical development for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - The etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is unknown. Oxidative stress
      may be one of the major mechanisms involved. In vitro and in vivo data of
      edaravone suggest that it may possess broad free radical scavenging activity and
      protect neurons, glia, and vascular endothelial cells against oxidative stress.
      During the 1980s and 1990s, edaravone was developed for the treatment of acute
      ischemic stroke. In 2001, a clinical program in ALS was initiated and five
      clinical studies were conducted in Japan. Phase III studies were designed to
      rapidly evaluate (within a 24-week double-blind study window) functional changes
      using the Revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) as a primary endpoint.
      The study populations were selected according to these considerations and were
      further refined as the studies proceeded. Although the first phase III study did
      not meet its primary endpoint, post-hoc analyses showed an apparent effect of
      edaravone, when additional patient inclusion criteria defined by ALSFRS-R score,
      pulmonary function, certainty of ALS diagnosis, and duration of disease were
      applied. This population was hypothesized not only to have retained broad
      functionality and normal respiratory function at study baseline but also to be
      likely to show measurable disease progression over 24 weeks. A second
      confirmatory phase III study applying these refinements in patient selection was
      prospectively designed and successfully documented a statistically significant
      difference between the edaravone and placebo groups in the ALSFRS-R primary
      endpoint. This paper describes and reviews data pertinent to the potential
      mechanism of action of edaravone, and reviews the development history of
      edaravone for the treatment of ALS.

PMID- 28872905
TI  - Web-based Health Information Seeking and eHealth Literacy among Patients Living
      with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
AB  - Many people living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have low
      general health literacy; however, there is little information available on these
      patients' eHealth literacy, or their ability to seek, find, understand, and
      appraise online health information and apply this knowledge to address or solve
      disease-related health concerns. A nationally representative sample of patients
      registered in the COPD Foundation's National Research Registry (N = 1,270) was
      invited to complete a web-based survey to assess socio-demographic (age, gender,
      marital status, education), health status (generic and lung-specific health
      related quality of life), and socio-cognitive (social support, self-efficacy,
      COPD knowledge) predictors of eHealth literacy, measured using the 8-item eHealth
      literacy scale (eHEALS). Over 50% of the respondents (n = 176) were female (n =
      89), with a mean age of 66.19 (SD = 9.47). Overall, participants reported
      moderate levels of eHealth literacy, with more than 70% feeling confident in
      their ability to find helpful health resources on the Internet. However,
      respondents were much less confident in their ability to distinguish between high
      and low-quality sources of web-based health information. Very severe versus less
      severe COPD (beta = 4.15), lower lung-specific health-related quality of life
      (beta = -0.19), and greater COPD knowledge (beta = 0.62) were significantly
      associated with higher eHealth literacy. Higher COPD knowledge was also
      significantly associated with greater knowledge (rho = 0.24, p = .001) and use
      (rho = 0.24, p = .001) of web-based health resources. Findings emphasize the
      importance of integrating skill-building activities into comprehensive patient
      education programs that enable patients with severe cases of COPD to identify
      high-quality sources of web-based health information. Additional research is
      needed to understand how new social technologies can be used to help medically
      underserved COPD patients benefit from web-based self-management support
      resources.

PMID- 28872908
TI  - Pharmacokinetic profile of edaravone: a comparison between Japanese and Caucasian
      populations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affects persons of all races, and
      there continues to be a need for effective therapies to treat the disease.
      OBJECTIVE: To compare the pharmacokinetics (PK) of edaravone between Japanese and
      Caucasian populations. METHODS: Data from five PK studies among Japanese and
      Caucasian healthy volunteers were pooled and evaluated. In population PK (PPK)
      modelling, compartment models and other models with linear elimination were
      evaluated for appropriateness. Covariate effects by race, sex, weight, and age
      were investigated to explain variability in PK parameters. Simulations of the
      final PPK model were performed using a virtual population based on ALS clinical
      trials. RESULTS: The analysis included 86 subjects. A three-compartment model
      with Michaelis-Menten plus linear elimination was selected as the best fit model.
      Race was statistically detected as a covariate for the second peripheral volume
      of distribution (V2), indicating a 26% increase for Caucasian subjects compared
      to Japanese subjects. However, based on simulation of PPK model for a virtual ALS
      population, the small difference of V2 was associated with a difference of Ctau
      around 1 ng/mL after infusion, which was minimal compared to Cmax of
      approximately 1000 ng/ml. CONCLUSION: The PPK analyses demonstrated no clinically
      relevant difference in the PK profiles of edaravone by race, sex, weight, or age.

PMID- 28872909
TI  - Introduction to supplement: the current status of treatment for ALS.
AB  - ALS is a lethal neurodegenerative disease wherein the diagnosis is often delayed.
      Our understanding of the pathobiology is slowly expanding, and the number of new
      genes is rapidly increasing. The development of potential treatments targeting
      specific mechanisms is beginning to offer hope. Evidence-based treatments and the
      development of quality measures have raised the standard of care. The current
      status of treatment for ALS includes one drug riluzole that slows progression
      modestly, and another drug edaravone that was recently approved by FDA to slow
      ALS progression. Multidisciplinary clinics and symptomatic treatments ease the
      burden of ALS and prolong life. An overview of these treatments is provided here.

PMID- 28872910
TI  - Full Issue PDF, Volume 18, Issue S1.

PMID- 28872911
TI  - What can we learn from the edaravone development program for ALS?
AB  - Edaravone's development into an ALS therapeutic has been a process which began
      with preclinical studies regarding its potential in targeting ALS. Despite
      edaravone's inability to show benefit in a general ALS population, an important
      post-hoc analysis showed that a clinical subset of patients had benefit. Most
      importantly, a subsequent study examining the capacity of edaravone to have
      benefit in this specific subset of ALS patients was successful in meeting its
      primary outcome measures. Questions regarding whether the dosing regimen could be
      simplified or improved, the duration of the effects, and the timing of the
      potential treatment to different stages of disease remain to be answered.
      However, the benefit of this compound in delivering a meaningful therapy to ALS
      patients and the lessons learned with regard to its development should widen
      interest in clinical research so that additional strategies for treating ALS may
      become available to patients.

PMID- 28872912
TI  - An assessment of treatment guidelines, clinical practices, demographics, and
      progression of disease among patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in
      Japan, the United States, and Europe.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is an increasing clinical research focus on neuroprotective
      agents in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, it is unclear how
      generalisable clinical study trial results are between different countries and
      regions. OBJECTIVE: To assess similarities and differences in clinical practice
      and treatment guidelines for ALS, and also to compare the demographics and rate
      of progression of disease in patients with ALS enrolled in clinical trials in
      Japan, the US, and Europe. METHODS: We performed a review of clinical studies
      published since 2000 to compare the demographics and characteristics of patients
      with ALS. Progression of ALS disease was assessed in patients receiving placebo.
      The changes per month in ALSFRS-R score were calculated and compared between the
      studies. RESULTS: Overall, diagnostic criteria, recognition of ALS symptoms,
      comorbidities, use of riluzole, and nutritional, and respiratory support were
      similar. Regarding demographics and characteristics, there were no clear
      differences in the incidence of sporadic ALS (range 91-98%), bulbar onset (range
      11-41%), and median time from onset to diagnosis (range 9-14 months) among the
      populations despite the difference in race between regions. However, use of
      tracheostomy-based invasive respiratory support was higher in Japan (29-38%) than
      in the US (4%) and Europe (1-31%). Rate of progression of disease was similar
      between the US and Europe study populations (range -0.89 to -1.60 points/month),
      and the Japanese study populations (range -1.03 to -1.21 points/month).
      CONCLUSION: There is evidence to support the generalisability of data from the
      Japanese ALS trial experience to the US and Europe populations in early to mid
      stage of ALS.

PMID- 28872913
TI  - Post-hoc analysis of randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study (MCI186
      19) of edaravone (MCI-186) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Post-hoc analyses of the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) score
      data, the primary endpoint in the 24-week double-blind placebo-controlled study
      of edaravone (MCI186-19, NCT01492686), were performed to confirm statistical
      robustness of the result. The previously reported original analysis had used a
      last observation carried forward (LOCF) method and also excluded patients with
      fewer than three completed treatment cycles. The post-hoc sensitivity analyses
      used different statistical methods as follows: 1) including all patients
      regardless of treatment cycles received (ALL LOCF); 2) a mixed model for repeated
      measurements (MMRM) analysis; and 3) the Combined Assessment of Function and
      Survival (CAFS) endpoint. Findings were consistent with the original primary
      analysis in showing superiority of edaravone over placebo. We also investigated
      the distribution of change in ALSFRS-R total score across all patients in the
      study as well as which ALSFRS-R items and domains may have contributed to the
      overall efficacy findings. The distribution of changes in ALSFRS-R total score
      from baseline to the end of cycle 6 (ALL LOCF) shifted in favour of edaravone
      compared to placebo. Edaravone was descriptively favoured for each ALSFRS-R item
      and each of the four ALSFRS-R domains at the end of cycle 6 (ALL LOCF),
      suggesting a generalised effect of edaravone in slowing functional decline across
      all anatomical regions. The effect of edaravone appeared to be similar in
      patients with bulbar onset and limb onset. Together, these observations would be
      consistent with its putative neuroprotective effects against the development of
      oxidative damage unspecific to anatomical regions.

PMID- 28872914
TI  - Post-hoc analysis of MCI186-17, the extension study to MCI186-16, the
      confirmatory double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study of edaravone
      in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - In the 24-week double-blind study of edaravone in ALS (MCI186-16), edaravone did
      not show a statistically significant difference versus placebo for the primary
      efficacy endpoint. For post-hoc analyses, two subpopulations were identified in
      which edaravone might be expected to show efficacy: the efficacy-expected
      subpopulation (EESP), defined by scores of >=2 points on all 12 items of the ALS
      Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) and a percent predicted forced vital
      capacity (%FVC) >=80% at baseline; and the definite/probable EESP 2 years
      (dpEESP2y) subpopulation which, in addition to EESP criteria, had definite or
      probable ALS diagnosed by El Escorial revised criteria, and disease duration of
      <=2 years. In the 36-week extension study of MCI186-16, a 24-week double-blind
      comparison followed by 12 weeks of open-label edaravone (MCI186-17; NCT00424463),
      analyses of ALSFRS-R scores of the edaravone-edaravone group and edaravone
      placebo group for the full analysis set (FAS) and EESP, as prospectively defined,
      were reported in a previous article. Here we additionally report results in
      patients who met dpEESP2y criteria at the baseline of MCI186-16. In the dpEESP2y,
      the difference in ALSFRS-R changes from 24 to 48 weeks between the edaravone
      edaravone and edaravone-placebo groups was 2.79 (p = 0.0719), which was greater
      than the differences previously reported for the EESP and the FAS. The pattern of
      adverse events in the dpEESP2y did not show any additional safety findings to
      those from the earlier prospective study. In conclusion, this post-hoc analysis
      suggests a potential effect of edaravone between 24 and 48 weeks in patients
      meeting dpEESP2y criteria at baseline.

PMID- 28872915
TI  - Exploratory double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study of edaravone
      (MCI-186) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Japan ALS severity classification:
      Grade 3, requiring assistance for eating, excretion or ambulation).
AB  - Our objective was to explore the efficacy and safety of edaravone in amyotrophic
      lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with a Japan ALS severity classification of
      Grade 3. In a 24-week, double-blind, randomized study, 25 patients who met all of
      the following criteria were enrolled: Japan ALS severity classification Grade 3;
      definite, probable, or probable-laboratory supported ALS (El Escorial/revised
      Airlie House); forced vital capacity (%FVC) >=60%; duration of disease <=3 years
      at consent; and change in the revised ALS functional rating scale (ALSFRS-R)
      score of -1 to -4 points during the 12-week pre-observation period. Patients
      received edaravone (n = 13) or placebo (n = 12) for six cycles. The efficacy
      outcome was change in the ALSFRS-R score. The least-squares mean change in the
      ALSFRS-R score +/- standard error during the 24-week treatment was -6.52 +/- 1.78
      in the edaravone group and -6.00 +/- 1.83 in the placebo group; the difference of
      -0.52 +/- 2.46 was not statistically significant (p = 0.835). Incidence of
      adverse events was 92.3% (12/13) in the edaravone group and 100.0% (12/12) in the
      placebo group. There was no intergroup difference in the changes in the ALSFRS-R
      score. The incidences of adverse events were similar in the two groups.

PMID- 28872916
TI  - Post-hoc analysis of open-label extension period of study MCI186-19 in
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Study MCI186-19 investigated the safety and efficacy of edaravone in the
      treatment of ALS. The 24-week, double-blind period was followed by a 24-week,
      open-label, active extension period. Patients originally receiving edaravone
      continued edaravone (E-E group, n = 65), and patients originally receiving
      placebo switched to edaravone (P-E group, n = 58). Because no statistical tests
      had been prospectively planned in the open-label period, we performed post-hoc
      analyses to assist in the interpretation of efficacy data. A mixed model for
      repeated measures (MMRM) and the Combined Assessment of Function and Survival
      (CAFS) were assessed. Additionally, slopes of time-dependent change between
      baseline in cycle 1 and the end of cycle 6 (24 weeks double-blind) and between
      the end of cycle 6 and end of cycle 12 (24 weeks open-label) were calculated
      using a random coefficient model including all available data during each period.
      At week 48, the MMRM analysis showed significantly less decline in ALS Functional
      Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) total score in the E-E group than in the P-E
      group (least-squares mean change from baseline +/- standard error, 4.17 +/- 1.40,
      p = 0.0037), meaning that the differences in the ALSFRS-R total score during the
      24-week double-blind period were maintained in patients receiving edaravone for
      an additional 24 weeks. The CAFS endpoint (p = 0.0089) supported this finding.
      The slope analysis during the double-blind period showed a significant difference
      between the treatment groups, while there was no significant difference between
      the groups during the active extension period. These analyses suggest a potential
      benefit of early and continued edaravone treatment over delayed edaravone
      treatment.

PMID- 28872917
TI  - A post-hoc subgroup analysis of outcomes in the first phase III clinical study of
      edaravone (MCI-186) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Our first phase III study failed to demonstrate efficacy of edaravone for
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) compared to placebo. Here, we performed post
      hoc subgroup analysis to identify a subgroup in which edaravone might be expected
      to show efficacy. We focussed on two newly defined subgroups, EESP and dpEESP2y.
      The EESP was defined as the efficacy-expected subpopulation with % forced vital
      capacity of >=80%, and >=2 points for all item scores in the revised ALS
      functional rating scale (ALSFRS-R) score before treatment. The dpEESP2y was
      defined as the greater-efficacy-expected subpopulation within EESP having a
      diagnosis of 'definite' or 'probable' ALS according to the El Escorial revised
      Airlie House diagnostic criteria and onset of disease within two years. The
      primary endpoint of the post-hoc analysis was the change in the ALSFRS-R score
      during the 24-week treatment period. The intergroup differences of the least
      squares mean change in the ALSFRS-R score +/- standard error during treatment
      were 0.65 +/- 0.78 (p = 0.4108) in the full analysis set, 2.20 +/- 1.03 (p =
      0.0360) in the EESP, and 3.01 +/- 1.33 (p = 0.0270) in the dpEESP2y. Edaravone
      exhibited efficacy in the dpEESP2y subgroup. A further clinical study in patients
      meeting dpEESP2y criteria is warranted.

PMID- 28872918
TI  - Exploratory double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled extension study of
      edaravone (MCI-186) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Following the first phase III study of edaravone for amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis (ALS), this extension study was performed to evaluate longer-term
      efficacy and safety. Patients given edaravone in the first 24-week phase III
      study (Cycles 1-6) were randomised to edaravone (E-E) or placebo (E-P) in the
      subsequent 24-week double-blind period (Cycles 7-12). Patients given placebo in
      phase III were switched to edaravone (P-E). Subsequently, all patients received
      edaravone for 12 weeks (Cycles 13-15). Efficacy endpoints included revised ALS
      Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) score. Analysis populations were the full
      analysis set (FAS) and the efficacy-expected subpopulation (EESP) defined by post
      hoc analysis of the first phase III study. The least-squares mean and standard
      error of the intergroup difference (E-E vs. E-P) of change in the ALSFRS-R score
      from Cycles 7-12 was 1.16 +/- 0.93 (p = 0.2176) in the FAS, and 1.85 +/- 1.14 (p
      = 0.1127) in the EESP. The ALSFRS-R score changed almost linearly in the E-E
      group throughout Cycles 1-15 (60 weeks). The incidence of serious adverse events
      associated with ALS progression was higher in E-E than in E-P. Edaravone might
      have potential efficacy for up to 15 cycles when used to treat patients in the
      EESP with careful safety monitoring.

PMID- 28872920
TI  - Open-label 24-week extension study of edaravone (MCI-186) in amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis.
AB  - We aimed to explore the longer-term efficacy and safety of edaravone in an active
      treatment extension period following the double-blind period of the second phase
      III study. Patients who met all the following criteria (scores >=2 points on all
      12 items of the revised amyotrophic lateral sclerosis functional rating scale
      [ALSFRS-R], forced vital capacity >=80%, definite or probable ALS, and disease
      duration <=2 years) were randomised to 60 mg intravenous edaravone or placebo for
      six cycles in the double-blind period, and then offered the opportunity to
      proceed to this 24-week open-label extension period. One hundred and twenty-three
      of 137 patients continued to the extension period: 65 edaravone-edaravone (E-E
      group) and 58 placebo-edaravone (P-E group). Change (mean +/- standard deviation;
      SD) in the ALSFRS-R score from baseline in the double-blind period was -4.1 +/-
      3.4 and -6.9 +/- 5.1 in the E-E group and P-E group, respectively, while it was 
      8.0 +/- 5.6 in the E-E group and -10.9 +/- 6.9 in the P-E group over the whole 48
      week period. The ALSFRS-R score changed almost linearly throughout Cycles 1-12 in
      the E-E group. The most commonly reported adverse events were constipation,
      dysphagia, and contusion. There was no sudden deterioration in the ALSFRS-R score
      of the E-E group. No safety concerns related to edaravone were detected.

PMID- 28872919
TI  - A safety analysis of edaravone (MCI-186) during the first six cycles (24 weeks)
      of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) therapy from the double-blind period in
      three randomized, placebo-controlled studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There continues to be a need for new therapies to treat ALS.
      OBJECTIVE: Provide an overview of safety for edaravone in ALS patients during the
      first six cycles of treatment. METHODS: Analysis was based on three randomised,
      placebo-controlled clinical trials. Endpoints included treatment-emergent adverse
      events (TEAEs), including AEs leading to discontinuation, serious adverse events
      (SAEs), and deaths. RESULTS: The analysis included a total of 368 patients (184
      in the edaravone group and placebo group, respectively). Of those, 94.6% of the
      edaravone group and 90.2% of placebo group completed six cycles of therapy.
      Baseline characteristics were comparable between the two groups. TEAE incidence
      in the edaravone group and placebo group was 87.5% and 87.0%, respectively. TEAEs
      ocurring at >=2% incidence in the edaravone group compared to placebo were
      contusion (14.7% vs. 8.7%), gait disturbance (12.5% vs. 9.2%), headache (8.2% vs.
      5.4%), eczema (6.5% vs. 2.2%), dermatitis contact (6.0% vs. 3.3%), respiratory
      disorder (4.3% vs. 1.1%), and glucose urine present (3.8% vs. 1.6%). There was no
      imbalance in TEAEs leading to discontinuation (2.2% [edaravone], and 5.4%
      [placebo]). SAE incidence was 17.4% in the edaravone group and 22.3% in placebo
      group. Treatment-emergent deaths occurred in 2.2% in the edaravone group and 1.1%
      in placebo group, all respiratory in nature and attributed to worsening ALS.
      CONCLUSION: Data collected from three double-blind assessments found that while
      some TEAEs were more common in the edaravone group compared to placebo, the
      overall incidences of SAEs, deaths, and discontinuations due to AEs were similar
      or less for edaravone compared to placebo.

PMID- 28872921
TI  - Circulating Long Noncoding RNAs as Potential Biomarkers of Sepsis: A Preliminary
      Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are becoming promising biomarker
      candidates in various diseases as assessed via sequencing technologies. Sepsis is
      a life-threatening disease without ideal biomarkers. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the expression profile of lncRNAs in the peripheral blood of sepsis
      patients and to find potential biomarkers of sepsis. METHODS: A lncRNA expression
      profile was performed using peripheral blood from three sepsis patients and three
      healthy volunteers using microarray screening. The differentially expressed
      lncRNAs were validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT
      PCR) in a further set of 22 sepsis patients and 22 healthy volunteers. RESULTS:
      Among 1316 differentially expressed lncRNAs, 771 were downregulated and 545 were
      upregulated. Results of the qRT-PCR were consistent with the microarray data.
      lncRNA ENST00000452391.1, uc001vji.1, and uc021zxw.1 were significantly
      differentially expressed between sepsis patients and healthy volunteers.
      Moreover, lncRNA ENST00000504301.1 and ENST00000452391.1 were significantly
      differentially expressed between sepsis survivors and nonsurvivors. CONCLUSION:
      The lncRNA expression profile in the peripheral blood of sepsis patients
      significantly differed from that of healthy volunteers. Circulating lncRNAs may
      be good candidates for sepsis biomarkers.

PMID- 28872922
TI  - miR-1297 Promotes Cell Proliferation of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells:
      Involving in PTEN/Akt/Skp2 Signaling Pathway.
AB  - Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) is a lipid and
      protein phosphatase and possesses an antitumor effect in lung cancers. miRNAs are
      reportedly abnormally expressed in human lung cancers. However, whether miRNA
      contributes to PTEN expression in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) has not
      been clearly clarified. In the present study, we found that miR-1297 probably
      binds with 3'UTR sequence of PTEN and negatively regulated the levels of PTEN in
      NSCLC cells. First, the expression levels of PTEN and Skp2 were detected by
      western blotting in NSCLC specimens and paired normal tissue specimens. The
      results showed that decreased levels of PTEN were detected in NSCLC tissues,
      compared with paired control tissues (**p < 0.01). The expression levels of PTEN
      were conversely correlated with the levels of Skp2 in clinical NSCLC specimens
      and NSCLC cell line. Transfection with miR-1297 mimic significantly promoted cell
      viability of A549 cells and NCI-H460 cells by downregulating the level of PTEN
      and upregulating the expression of Skp2. Interestingly, knockdown of Skp2 did not
      affect the expression of PTEN in A549 cells. Thus, miR-1297 might work as an
      oncogene by regulating PTEN/Akt/Skp2 signaling pathway in NSCLC cells. PTEN and
      Skp2 might be the potential targets in the clinical therapy of lung cancers.

PMID- 28872923
TI  - Implementing and evaluating an interprofessional minority health conference for
      social work and healthcare professionals.
AB  - Interprofessional education (IPE) is one strategy for addressing health
      inequities; however, little attention has been paid to continuing IPE for
      practicing social work and healthcare professionals. This article offers guidance
      to faculty in social work and health-related academic units on offering
      continuing IPE on the topic of minority health. An interprofessional group of
      faculty offered a day-long conference on minority health, ethics, and social
      justice. The conference goal was to promote interprofessional communication in a
      co-learning environment and promote dialogue on social determinants of health and
      health equity in the state. Data were obtained from surveys and analysis of work
      plans developed during the conference. Workshop participants were majority White
      (62%), social workers (79%), and practiced for 14 years on average. The most
      useful topics were dementia and polypharmacy. Takeaway strategies included
      interprofessional work, being mindful of access to resources, and engagement in
      continuing education. Lessons learned include plan in advance for all
      professions; recruit faculty and students from multiple departments to increase
      interprofessional diversity; offer strategies and incentives to increase student
      participation; be strategic about conference location and format; and identify a
      strategic format and theme. IPE is a means of preparing learners for working
      together in their future careers to provide high-quality patient-centred care and
      reduce health disparities. Professional development can provide an opportunity to
      enhance skills to address health disparities, and learning can be significantly
      enhanced when participants connect with colleagues from different professions,
      discuss diverse opinions, and share successful practices.

PMID- 28872924
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28872926
TI  - Thalidomide: Rebirth of a Gestational Antiemetic?

PMID- 28872925
TI  - Starting Dose of Sorafenib for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A
      Retrospective, Multi-Institutional Study.
AB  - Purpose Sorafenib is currently the only Food and Drug Administration-approved
      first-line therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. There are
      few data examining how sorafenib starting dose may influence patient outcomes and
      costs. Patients and Methods We retrospectively evaluated 4,903 patients from 128
      Veterans Health Administration hospitals who were prescribed sorafenib for
      hepatocellular carcinoma between January 2006 and April 2015. After 1:1
      propensity score matching to account for potential treatment bias, hazard ratios
      (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression and were tested against a
      noninferiority margin of HR = 1.1. A matched multivariate logistic regression was
      performed to adjust for potential confounders. The primary end point was overall
      survival (OS) of patients who were prescribed standard starting dosage sorafenib
      (800 mg/d per os) versus that of patients who were prescribed reduced starting
      dose sorafenib (< 800 mg/d per os). Results There were 3,094 standard dose
      sorafenib patients (63%) and 1,809 reduced starting dose sorafenib patients
      (37%). Reduced starting dose sorafenib patients had more Barcelona Clinic Liver
      Cancer stage D ( P < .001), higher Model for End-Stage Liver Disease Sodium
      scores ( P < .001), higher Child-Turcotte-Pugh scores ( P < .001), and higher
      Cirrhosis Comorbidity Index scores ( P = .01). Consequently, reduced starting
      dose sorafenib patients had lower OS (median, 200 v 233 days, HR = 1.10). After
      propensity score matching and adjusting for potential confounders, there was no
      longer a significant OS difference (adjusted hazard ratio [HRadj], 0.92; 95% CI,
      0.83 to 1.01), and this fell significantly below the noninferiority margin ( P <
      .001). Reduced starting dose sorafenib patients experienced significantly lower
      total cumulative sorafenib cost and were less likely to discontinue sorafenib
      because of gastrointestinal adverse effects (8.7% v 10.8%; P = .047). Conclusion
      The initiation of sorafenib therapy at reduced dosages was associated with
      reduced pill burden, reduced treatment costs, and a trend toward a decreased rate
      of discontinuing sorafenib because of adverse events. Reduced dosing was not
      associated with inferior OS relative to standard dosing.

PMID- 28872927
TI  - An Investigation of Cardiovascular Risks in a Group of Children and Adolescents
      Who Use Atypical Antipsychotics.
AB  - This study was conducted to identify the metabolic parameters and body
      measurements associated with cardiovascular risks in a group of children and
      adolescents who as part of inpatient treatment received atypical antipsychotics
      at a psychiatric hospital in Turkey. Body mass indexes (BMIs), waist
      circumferences (WCs), diastolic blood pressures (DBPs), systolic blood pressures
      (SBPs) and heart rates (HRs) of the patients were evaluated during
      hospitalization and at discharge. A statistically significant difference was
      found among the mean BMIs, WCs, DBPs and HRs of the patients at the stages of
      their hospitalization and discharge (p < 0.05). On the basis of the study
      findings, it is recommended that mental health nurses evaluate these risk factors
      in children and adolescents and provide education on this subject to the patients
      and their families.

PMID- 28872929
TI  - Spatial Distribution of Naturally Occurring 210Po and 226Ra in Children's Teeth.
AB  - Deciduous and permanent teeth extracted from juveniles for orthodontic purposes
      have been analysed using alpha-sensitive plastic track detectors for the spatial
      distribution of total alpha-activity and naturally occurring 210Pb-supported
      210Po and 226Ra. The distribution of these radionuclides is nonuniform, with
      210Po being primarily associated with outer enamel and 226Ra with the pulp. The
      observations suggest that 210Pb/210Po concentrates at the interface of enamel
      with saliva or blood, by means of unidirectional ionic exchange with calcium. In
      contrast, 226Ra concentrates in the predentine band at the interface with pulp
      and with systemic blood circulation, where its uptake is permitted by the
      incomplete calcification in this band. Activity concentration was measured in 900
      teeth. Total concentration on the outer enamel surface of deciduous teeth,
      permanent teeth from children ?10 years and permanent teeth from children > 10
      years give respective mean values of 8.63+/-0.26, 5.76+/-0.48 and 7.00+/-0.15 Bq
      kg-1. 226Ra concentration on the corresponding longitudinal sections comprising
      pulp, dentine and annular enamel give respective mean values of 0.715+/-0.055,
      0.418+/-0.083 and 0.514+/-0.029 Bq kg-1. Mean activity concentration in 32 foetal
      teeth was 2.05+/-0.31 Bq kg-1. The results form the basis of more detailed
      studies of (1) age-dependent uptake of alpha-radionuclides in teeth and their
      microdistribution, and (2) the geographical variation in activity concentration
      with respect to environmental factors such as domestic radon exposure.

PMID- 28872928
TI  - Sex/Gender Differences in Cotinine Levels Among Daily Smokers in the Pennsylvania
      Adult Smoking Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to determine sex/gender differences in smoke
      exposure and to quantify the role of potential predictors including puffing
      behaviors, nicotine dependence, and non-nicotinic factors. METHODS: The
      Pennsylvania Adult Smoking Study (PASS) of 332 adult cigarette smokers utilized
      portable handheld topography devices to capture the smokers' profiles in a
      naturalistic environment. Sex/gender differences in salivary biomarkers were
      modeled using ANCOVA to account for measures of dependence (Fagerstrom Test for
      Nicotine Dependence, nicotine metabolite ratio [3-hydroxycotinine/cotinine]), and
      nondependence covariates including anthropomorphic factors and stress. The
      Blinder-Oaxaca method was used to decompose the sex/gender differences in
      nicotine uptake due to covariates. RESULTS: Men had significantly higher cotinine
      levels (313.5 ng/mL vs. 255.8 ng/mL, p < 0.01), cotinine +3-hydroxycotinine
      levels, (0.0787 mol/L vs. 0.0675 mol/L, p = 0.01), puff volumes (52.95 mL vs.
      44.77 mL, p < 0.01), and a lower nicotine metabolite ratio (0.396 vs. 0.475, p =
      0.01) than women. The mean Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence score did not
      differ between men and women (p = 0.24). Women had a higher mean Hooked on
      Tobacco Checklist score than men (7.64 vs. 6.87, p < 0.01). In multivariate
      analysis, nicotine metabolite levels were not significantly different by sex.
      Decomposition results show that ten predictors can explain 83% of the sex/gender
      differences in cotinine uptake. Height was the greatest contributor to these
      differences, followed by average puff volume. Conclusion and Impact: The higher
      levels of nicotine metabolites in men, compared to women, can be explained by
      height, weight, puff volume, and nicotine metabolism.

PMID- 28872930
TI  - Inconsistence between number and function of autoreactive T cells in the course
      of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mouse experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is widely used
      model of multiple sclerosis (MS). The role of autoreactive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells
      in the development of mouse EAE has been demonstrated. However, little
      information is available about the relation between the frequency and reactivity
      of myelin antigen-reactive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in secondary lymphoid organs and
      their relevance with the inflammation and pathological lesion of CNS during the
      course of EAE mouse model. METHODS: In this study, an EAE model with a clinical
      course containing acute onset, peak and chronic remission stages was established
      in C57BL/6J mice by myelin oligodendrocyte protein (MOG)35-55 peptide
      immunization, and followed by the monitoring of clinical and pathological
      parameters and autoreactive T cells at different stages during the course.
      RESULTS: The dynamic changes of inflammatory infiltration, myelin loss, and
      astrocyte proliferation in brain and spinal cord were highly consistent with
      clinical severity observed in EAE course. However, the frequencies of both MOG
      specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in secondary lymphoid organs presented different
      dynamic trends from the IFN-gamma production by MOG-reactive T cells. Meanwhile,
      the IL-17 production by MOG-reactive CD4+ T cells was consistent with the
      proliferation of MOG-specific CD4+ T cells. CONCLUSIONS: Both CD4+ and CD8+ T
      cells were most sensitive to MOG antigen stimulation for IFN-gamma production
      during the early stage of EAE, but then rapidly lost the function despite their
      vigorous proliferation at the peak stage and later.

PMID- 28872931
TI  - Factors Perceived by Rehabilitation Professionals to Influence the Provision of
      Assistive Technology to Children: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of Assistive Technology (AT) by children with disabilities
      has been associated with significant development and improvement in outcomes
      within all spheres of life. However, AT is often underutilized. Appropriate
      selection of AT by rehabilitation professionals could improve the satisfaction of
      the user and their family with their AT. DATA SOURCES: A systematic search
      identified six studies that investigate the factors that occupational therapists,
      physiotherapists, as well as speech and language pathologists perceive to
      influence their provision of AT to children. Study appraisal: Two qualitative and
      four quantitative articles were identified. Both article types were appraised
      using the Mixed Methods Appraisal tool (Pluye et al., 2011 ). Synthesis method: A
      process of deductive thematic analysis by using themes from the Assistive
      Technology Device Selection Framework (Scherer et al., 2007 ), was followed by
      inductive thematic analysis to uncover subthemes. Data from all six articles are
      synthesized to provide a view of factors that are perceived to influence AT
      selection. Implications of findings: Within a family-centered perspective, both
      family and child expectations and preferences should be considered. Professionals
      should consider the influence of their own preferences and knowledge on the AT
      they recommend.

PMID- 28872932
TI  - Native tissue repair versus mesh repair in pelvic organ prolapse surgery.
AB  - In pelvic organ prolapse, the anatomical defects develop at the anterior
      (anterior vaginal wall), the posterior (posterior vaginal wall) and the apical
      (the uterus/cervix or the apex of the vagina, vaginal vault or cuff scar after
      hysterectomy) compartments. These defects occur in more than one compartment.
      Treatment of pelvic organ prolapse is commonly surgical, aiming to restore the
      anatomy of structures supporting the pelvic organs. The surgical repair
      techniques are classified as 'native tissue repair (NTR)' when only pelvic organ
      support tissues are used and 'augmented repair (AR)' when some other material
      (prosthesis or graft) is used to reinforce the defective support system. In this
      review, issues related to the basic science of meshes, and NTR versus mesh or
      graft AR procedures for pelvic organ prolapse are discussed while considering the
      varying risks and benefits according to the prolapsed compartment.

PMID- 28872934
TI  - Normobaric hyperoxygenation: a potential neuroprotective therapy for acute
      ischemic stroke?

PMID- 28872933
TI  - Improving the asthma disparity gap with legal advocacy? A qualitative study of
      patient-identified challenges to improve social and environmental factors that
      contribute to poorly controlled asthma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify challenges that disadvantaged adults with asthma face in
      mitigating social and environmental factors associated with poor symptom control.
      METHODS: Using a community-engaged approach, we partnered with a community health
      center in New Haven, CT to conduct in-person interviews and a written survey of
      asthmatic adults with poor symptom control. Using the constant comparative
      method, we analyzed participant interviews to establish emerging themes and
      identify common barriers to improved outcomes. Through a written survey utilizing
      clinically validated questions, we assessed information on access to medical
      care, asthma control, and selected social and environmental risk factors.
      RESULTS: Twenty-one patients (mean age 47, 62% female, 71% Black, 95% insured by
      Medicaid) participated. The average Asthma Control Test (ACT) score was 11.6.
      Seventy-six percent of participants were currently employed and of those, 75%
      reported work-related symptoms. Among participants currently in housing, 59%
      reported exposure to domiciliary mice and 47% to mold. We identified three themes
      that summarize the challenges the study participants face: 1) Lack of knowledge
      about home and workplace asthma triggers; 2) Lack of awareness of legal rights or
      resources available to mitigate adverse conditions in the home or work
      environment; and 3) Fear of retaliation from landlords or employers, including
      threats of eviction, sexual assault, and job loss. CONCLUSION: Patients with
      poorly controlled asthma in a disadvantaged urban northeast community identified
      common barriers in both the domestic and work environments that impeded
      attainment of symptom control. These challenges may be best addressed through
      legal advocacy for those most at risk.

PMID- 28872935
TI  - Asthma severity and heterogeneity: Insights from prevalence trends and associated
      demographic variables and anthropometric indices among Israeli adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: While asthma presents various clinical forms with different levels of
      severity, it is unclear whether asthma severities are a consequence of disease
      management or varied etiologies. We sought to investigate this question. METHODS:
      This paper presents a cross-sectional study of 113,671 Israeli adolescents.
      Prevalence rates of mild and moderate-to-severe asthma over a 24-year period were
      calculated and multivariate regression models (outcomes: different asthma
      severity, reference: subjects without asthma) were performed to analyze
      associations with anthropometric indices and socio-demographic variables, in
      males and females separately. RESULTS: The prevalence of mild asthma increased
      until birth years 1976-1980 and then steadily decreased. In contrast, the
      prevalence of moderate-to-severe asthma was relatively stable until birth years
      1976-1980, then rose steeply until 1986-1990 and subsequently plateaued in the
      early 1990s. Obesity was positively associated with both mild and moderate-to
      severe asthma in males (Odds Ratio (OR) [95%CIs]: 1.61 [1.37-1.89] and 1.63 [1.34
      1.98], respectively) and females (1.54 [1.10-2.16] and 1.54 [1.20-1.98],
      respectively). Family size greater than three siblings was negatively associated
      with both mild and moderate-to-severe asthma in males (0.62 [0.56-0.68] and 0.59
      [0.52-0.68]) and females (0.71 [0.60-0.83] and 0.73 [0.63-0.83]). In contrast, in
      males, underweight was only associated with mild asthma (1.54 [1.22-1.94]) but
      not with moderate-to-severe asthma. In females, overweight was only associated
      with moderate-to-severe asthma (1.21 [1.00-1.46]) and rural residence was only
      associated with mild asthma (1.26 [1.09-1.47]). CONCLUSIONS: The differences
      between mild and moderate-to-severe asthma enhance asthma phenotype
      characterization, with respect to secular trends and associated variables, and
      indicate varied etiologies.

PMID- 28872936
TI  - Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluations of the Enhanced Logo-autobiography
      Program for Korean-American Women.
AB  - This study extends Bernstein et al.'s (2016) investigation of the effects of the
      Enhanced Logo-autobiography Program on Korean-American women's depressive
      symptoms, coping strategies, purpose in life, and posttraumatic growth by
      analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. This study's participants
      significantly improved on quantitative measures of depression, coping strategies,
      purpose in life, and post-traumatic growth at eight weeks post-intervention and
      follow-up. The qualitative content analysis revealed 17 themes with five
      essential themes. The program's activity to promote purpose in life through
      posttraumatic growth facilitated participants' recovery from traumatic
      experiences. Standardized guidelines are needed to conduct this program in Korean
      community centers.

PMID- 28872938
TI  - Laps or lengths? The effects of different exercise programs on asthma control in
      children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Exercise training has been shown in numerous studies to improve
      lung function and asthma control in children with asthma. Swimming has been shown
      to be of benefit in children with asthma, but which form of exercise is better
      for asthmatics has not been determined to date. The aim of this study was to
      examine if swimming improved lung function and asthma symptoms in asthmatic
      children when compared with different forms of exercise and a control group.
      METHODS: Subjects with asthma were randomly assigned to either one of three
      different exercise training groups (swimming, football, and basketball) or a
      control group. Spirometry was performed before and after and the subjects were
      asked to keep asthma diaries and perform daily peak flow measurements. RESULTS:
      41 children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 16 participated in the
      study. After completing the training, children across all three exercise programs
      had significantly higher forced vital capacity (FVC) percentage values when
      compared to the control group. The swimming group demonstrated a significant
      increase in the percentage peak expiratory flow (PEF) following the exercise
      program when compared with the control group (78.3 +/- 9.3 versus 89.0 +/- 14.9,
      p = 0.04). All children on exercise training programs reported an improvement in
      their asthma symptoms via asthma diaries. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that a
      swimming training program is more beneficial in terms of peak flow measurements
      when compared with other exercise training programs.

PMID- 28872937
TI  - Treatment of rhinophyma with the VersajetTM Hydrosurgery System and autologous
      cell suspension (ReCELL(r)): A case report.
AB  - This is a case report of a 63-year-old male patient who presented with rhinophyma
      of 17 years duration. Several medical treatments were applied previously, with no
      response or poor improvement. We present our experience by combining the
      VersajetTM Hydrosurgery System and ReCELL(r) in a heavy smoker patient, which led
      to a good aesthetic outcome. With the combined technique, we did not encounter
      any difficulties either within the operation or in the follow-up period. We
      obtained less complications and faster wound healing, which in return led to
      higher patient satisfaction.

PMID- 28872939
TI  - Psychometric Evaluation of the Young Children's Participation and Environment
      Measure (YC-PEM) for use in Singapore.
AB  - AIMS: To estimate the psychometric properties of a culturally adapted version of
      the Young Children's Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) for use among
      Singaporean families. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study. Caregivers of
      151 Singaporean children with (n = 83) and without (n = 68) developmental
      disabilities, between 0 and 7 years, completed the YC-PEM (Singapore)
      questionnaire with 3 participation scales (frequency, involvement, and change
      desired) and 1 environment scale for three settings: home, childcare/preschool,
      and community. Setting-specific estimates of internal consistency, test-retest
      reliability, and construct validity were obtained. RESULTS: Internal consistency
      estimates varied from .59 to .92 for the participation scales and .73 to .79 for
      the environment scale. Test-retest reliability estimates from the YC-PEM
      conducted on two occasions, 2-3 weeks apart, varied from .39 to .89 for the
      participation scales and from .65 to .80 for the environment scale. Moderate to
      large differences were found in participation and perceived environmental support
      between children with and without a disability. CONCLUSIONS: YC-PEM (Singapore)
      scales have adequate psychometric properties except for low internal consistency
      for the childcare/preschool participation frequency scale and low test-retest
      reliability for home participation frequency scale. The YC-PEM (Singapore) may be
      used for population-level studies involving young children with and without
      developmental disabilities.

PMID- 28872941
TI  - A Haplotype Common to Intermediate Radiosensitivity Variants of Ataxia
      telangiectasia in the UK.
AB  - In a study of ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) in the UK, patients in 10 out of 60
      families were shown to have a much lower level of chromosomal radiosensitivity
      compared with the majority of patients. In some patients the level of
      radiosensitivity was hardly distinguishable from normal. Patients in this group,
      however, could be distinguished clinically from the majority either by the later
      onset of severe cerebellar features or the slower rate of progress of the
      disorder. By using highly polymorphic microsatellite repeat markers a chromosome
      11q22-23 haplotype common to the majority of these patients, and not occurring in
      any non-A-T chromosome in 60 families, was identified on one chromosome. The
      haplotype probably defines the region of the A-T gene in these families and the
      mutation associated with this haplotype may be much less severe than the second
      mutation thereby producing the slightly milder phenotype.

PMID- 28872942
TI  - Radiation Checkpoints in Model Systems.
AB  - The response to DNA damaging agents includes a delay to progression through the
      cell cycle. Irradiation of premitotic cells causes a delay to mitosis and
      irradiation of G1 and S phase cells causes a delay to DNA synthesis. These delays
      have become known as checkpoints. The mechanisms that mediate the mitotic (or G2)
      checkpoint delay have recently come under study in yeast model systems. Work in
      the eukaryotic organisms S. cerevisiae and S. pombe has identified at least seven
      proteins controlling the interactions between DNA damage and cell cycle
      progression. Genetic analysis of this checkpoint pathway has identified
      substantial overlap with the feedback controls that co-ordinate progression
      through the cell cycle. Molecular analysis has revealed structural conservation
      between these highly diverged yeasts, which suggests that similar proteins may
      act in related pathways in mammalian cells. In addition, the rad24 and rad25
      genes of S. pombe (which are involved in the radiation checkpoint) encode
      functionally overlapping essential proteins that are highly conserved in
      mammalian cells. Studies of checkpoints in the yeasts may therefore help to
      define the signal pathways that control cell cycle delay in mammalian cells
      following irradiation, some of which have been proposed to be deficient in A-T
      cells.

PMID- 28872940
TI  - Itm2a silencing rescues lamin A mediated inhibition of 3T3-L1 adipocyte
      differentiation.
AB  - Dysregulation of adipose tissue metabolism is associated with multiple metabolic
      disorders. One such disease, known as Dunnigan-type familial partial
      lipodystrophy (FPLD2) is characterized by defective fat metabolism and storage.
      FPLD2 is caused by a specific subset of mutations in the LMNA gene. The
      mechanisms by which LMNA mutations lead to the adipose specific FPLD2 phenotype
      have yet to be determined in detail. We used RNA-Seq analysis to assess the
      effects of wild-type (WT) and mutant (R482W) lamin A on the expression profile of
      differentiating 3T3-L1 mouse preadipocytes and identified Itm2a as a gene that
      was upregulated at 36 h post differentiation induction in these cells. In this
      study we identify Itm2a as a novel modulator of adipogenesis and show that
      endogenous Itm2a expression is transiently downregulated during induction of 3T3
      L1 differentiation. Itm2a overexpression was seen to moderately inhibit
      differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes while shRNA mediated knockdown of Itm2a
      significantly enhanced 3T3-L1 differentiation. Investigation of PPARgamma levels
      indicate that this enhanced adipogenesis is mediated through the stabilization of
      the PPARgamma protein at specific time points during differentiation. Finally, we
      demonstrate that Itm2a knockdown is sufficient to rescue the inhibitory effects
      of lamin A WT and R482W mutant overexpression on 3T3-L1 differentiation. This
      suggests that targeting of Itm2a or its related pathways, including autophagy,
      may have potential as a therapy for FPLD2.

PMID- 28872943
TI  - Genetic Haplotyping of Ataxia-telangiectasia Families Localizes the Major Gene to
      an ~ 850 kb Region on Chromosome 11q23.1.
AB  - The genotyping data given localize the major A-T gene to an ~ 850 kb region. They
      also localize the group A A-T gene (ATA) to a region that contains the ~ 850 kb
      region. They are compatible with linking A-TFresno to 11q22-23. NBS-V2 does not
      link to this region. Four non-linking families contain only single affecteds,
      suggesting that these may be spontaneous mutations rather than evidence for an A
      T gene outside the 11q22-23 region. Finally, two other non-linking families
      contain recombinant haplotypes that are compatible with a second A-T gene at
      11q22-23, slightly distal to the ~ 850 kb region. However, convincing evidence
      for a second gene is still lacking.

PMID- 28872945
TI  - Participants.

PMID- 28872944
TI  - Defect in Radiation Signal Transduction in Ataxia-telangiectasia.
AB  - Exposure of mammalian cells to ionizing radiation causes a delay in progression
      through the cycle at several checkpoints. Cells from patients with ataxia
      telangiectasia (A-T) ignore these checkpoint controls postirradiation. The tumour
      suppressor gene product p53 plays a key role at the G1/S checkpoint preventing
      the progression of cells into S phase. The induction of p53 by radiation is
      reduced and/or delayed in A-T cells, which appears to account for the failure of
      delay at the G1/S checkpoint. We have investigated further this defect in
      radiation signal transduction in A-T. While the p53 response was defective after
      radiation, agents that interfered with cell cycle progression such as mimosine,
      aphidicolin and deprivation of serum led to a normal p53 response in A-T cells.
      None of these agents caused breaks in DNA, as determined by pulse-field gel
      electrophoresis, in order to elicit the response. Since this pathway is mediated
      by protein kinases, we investigated the activity of several of these enzymes in
      control and A-T cells. Ca+2-dependent and -independent protein kinase C
      activities were increased by radiation to the same extent in the two cell types,
      a variety of serine/threonine protein kinase activities were approximately the
      same and anti-tyrosine antibodies failed to reveal any differences in protein
      phosphorylation between A-T and control cells. It is not evident what is the
      nature of the defect in signal transduction in A-T cells. However, it is clear
      that the p53 response is normal in these cells after exposure to some agents and
      it is mediated through protein kinase C or another serine/threonine kinase.

PMID- 28872946
TI  - V(D)J Recombination and Ataxia-telangiectasia: A Review.
AB  - I review one aspect of the A-T phenotype, the remarkable and fascinating increase
      of lymphocytes carrying chromosomal aberrations caused by V(D)J site-specific
      recombination. The review is organized to first present the facts of V(D)J
      recombination and the findings in this regard in A-T patients. Other populations
      that demonstrate similar increases in such chromosomal aberrations are then
      presented and a hypothesis is offered as to the basis and relevance of these
      increases vis-a-vis A-T. The contribution of V(D)J recombination to the clonal
      proliferations and frank lymphoid malignancies seen in A-T patients is briefly
      discussed. I conclude with some speculative comments extending the observations
      presented into a more global consideration of a possible function of an A-T gene.

PMID- 28872947
TI  - Clinical and Genetic Features of Ataxia-telangiectasia.
AB  - There are several variants of ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T): classical A-T with
      marked radiation sensitivity; classical A-T with intermediate levels of radiation
      sensitivity; mild A-T with intermediate levels of radiation sensitivity; A-T
      without telangiectasia; A-T without oculomotor apraxia; and A-T with
      microcephaly. These disorders are probably caused by different allelic mutations,
      because affected sibs resemble the index patients, and because there is an
      association of certain haplotypes of 11q22-23 with specific phenotypes. The
      Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome, with its lack of ataxia, seems on clinical grounds to
      be a different disorder. Although A-T is almost always inherited as an autosomal
      recessive, there are some unusual features; an unexpectedly low parental
      consanguinity rate, an incidence in sibs that is < 0.25, and occurrence of
      disease in many different races and in the offspring of mixed race unions.
      Moreover, looking at haplotypes from 63 UK patients, there is a remarkably low
      incidence of homozygosity. An autosomal recessive condition that is deficient in
      parental consanguinity, and in homozygosity for the region around the gene, can
      be explained by J. H. Edwards' hyopothesis that homozygosity for alleles at a
      neighbouring locus are lethal early in embryogenesis. Other possible mechanisms
      to explain the unusual genetic features are discussed.

PMID- 28872948
TI  - Enhanced Chromosomal Response of Ataxia-telangiectasia Cells to Specific Types of
      DNA Double-strand Breaks.
AB  - The chromosomal response of two ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) lymphoblastoid cell
      lines (A-T-PA and A-T-KM) to restriction endonucleases (RE) is compared with that
      of a normal (N-SW) lymphoblastoid cell line. The RE used were PvuII (generating
      DNA double-strand breaks with blunt termini), BamHI (cohesive termini with 4
      base, 5' overhangs) and PstI (cohesive termini with 4 base 3' overhangs).
      Chromatid aberrations were analysed in cells 5 h after treatment. Cells were
      porated using streptolysin O to allow entry of RE. Both A-T lines showed an
      enhanced frequency of chromatid breaks in G2 phase compared with normal cells in
      response to RE. The enhanced response of A-T cells was most marked in the case of
      PvuII treatment when the enhancement ratios were 2.5 and 4.2 for A-T-PA and A-T
      KM respectively. However, the frequency of DNA double-strand breaks (dsb),
      measured by neutral filter elution, were considerably lower in A-T-PA cells than
      N-SW, due to a lower efficiency of poration. When A-T-PA cells were treated with
      streptolysin O at a higher concentration (0.3 Units/ml), a condition that
      apparently led to a similar level of poration in A-T-PA as in N-SW cells treated
      with 0.06 Units/ml as judged by the similar number of dsb induced in the two
      lines for a given PvuII concentration, the enhancement ratio for A-T-PA cells
      treated with PvuII increased from 2.5 to 5.8. BamHI and PstI were found to be
      less clastogenic in all three cell lines as found previously for Chinese hamster
      cells, although part of this effect may be due to a lower activity, particularly
      in the case of PstI. However, even at a 4-6-fold higher concentration, BamHI was
      still less clastogenic than PvuII. It is concluded that dsb with blunt termini
      are more clastogenic than those with cohesive termini. The results suggest that
      the chromosomal sensitivity of A-T cells may result from a defect causing a
      higher rate of conversion of dsb into chromatid aberrations.

PMID- 28872949
TI  - Expression of the Candidate A-T Gene ATDC Is Not Detectable in a Human Cell Line
      with a Normal Response to Ionizing Radiation.
AB  - Nucleotide sequence analysis of a candidate gene for A-T group D (ATDC)
      demonstrated that it is related to a group of proteins that contain both zinc
      finger and leucine zipper motifs. The presence of a leucine zipper suggested that
      this protein might form homodimers, and this was confirmed by means of the two
      hybrid system in yeast. The activity of some proteins that form homodimers can be
      effectively eliminated by overexpression of inactive forms of the protein that
      bind to the wild-type protein to create a dominant negative phenotype. An ATDC
      cDNA containing a 37 amino acid deletion in the zinc finger region (ATDCDelta)
      was therefore transfected into colorectal carcinoma human tumour cells (RKO) to
      determine whether its expression would produce a response to radiation similar to
      that seen in A-T cells. RKO cells have been shown to have normal radiosensitivity
      and cell cycle regulation and, therefore, seemed ideal for this study. Despite
      the fact that the A-T gene has been found to be important in the radiation damage
      response, no ATDC mRNA transcripts were detectable in the RKO cell line. In
      addition, the RKO subclones expressing the ATDCDelta mRNA showed no change in
      radiosensitivity or cell cycle regulation. These results do not support the
      conclusion that ATDC is an A-T gene, and suggest that the ATDC protein acts
      indirectly to suppress radiosensitivity in A-T cells.

PMID- 28872950
TI  - After-thoughts and Conclusions on the Nature of the A-T Gene.

PMID- 28872952
TI  - Radiation-induced G2 Delay and Spontaneous Chromosome Aberrations in Ataxia
      telangiectasia Homozygotes and Heterozygotes.
AB  - The extent of cell cycle delay of lymphocytes X-irradiated in G2 phase was
      measured by mitotic inhibition determinations in 66 controls, 14 ataxia
      telangiectasia (A-T) homozygotes and 27 obligate heterozygotes. Homozygotes had a
      significantly reduced mitotic index (MI) in unirradiated samples and showed
      significantly less radiation-induced mitotic inhibition than controls. This
      confirms our earlier disputed observations on A-T fibroblasts and demonstrates a
      G2 checkpoint defect in addition to the well-known defects in S phase and at the
      G1-S phase transition. There are two separate and opposite abnormal G2 responses
      of A-T cells; a primary event in which cells in G2 at the time of irradiation
      suffer less delay than controls, and a secondary event in which cells irradiated
      at earlier stages of the cycle are more delayed when they pass into G2. The MI of
      unirradiated heterozygote cells and the extent of mitotic inhibition were
      indistinguishable from controls. Spontaneous unstable chromosome aberrations
      were, as previously reported, significantly higher in homozygotes than in
      controls. This was true for breaks, but not for gaps. There was a suggestion of
      an increase in breaks in heterozygotes, but a much larger study would be required
      to confirm or refute this.

PMID- 28872953
TI  - Expression of a Candidate Ataxia-telangiectasia Group D Gene in Cultured
      Fibroblast Cell Lines and Human Tissues.
AB  - A candidate gene for ataxia-telangiectasia group D (ATDC) has been cloned (Kapp
      et al. 1992), sequenced and found to be a member of a recently reported gene
      family (Leonhardt et al. 1994). Transcriptional behaviour of ATDC has been
      examined in a number of cell lines and human tissues using a 3.0 kb cloned cDNA
      as a probe. Three normal and two ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) group D, non
      transformed fibroblast cell lines produced a 2.4 kb mRNA transcript. The size of
      mRNA transcripts seen and the level of expression differ in different human
      tissues. Many tissues have multiple transcripts of ATDC and the most prominent
      transcripts observed were 3.0, 2.4 and 1.6 kb. Two out of three SV-40 transformed
      normal and one SV-40-transformed A-T group D fibroblast cell lines demonstrated
      no transcription of ATDC by RNA blotting analysis. These results suggest that SV
      40 transformation may affect the expression of ATDC. Reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that ATDC was expressed at low levels
      in all of these cells. Additional Northern blot analysis demonstrated that X
      irradiation with 10 Gy had no effect on ATDC expression at 1, 4 and 24 h after
      irradiation in either SV-40-transformed normal or in SV-40-transformed A-T group
      D fibroblast cell lines. Further understanding of ATDC will require cloning of
      additional transcripts and studies of ATDC protein behaviour.

PMID- 28872954
TI  - Prenatal Diagnosis of Ataxia-telangiectasia and Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome by the
      Assay of Radioresistant DNA Synthesis.
AB  - Prenatal diagnosis was performed in 16 pregnancies at risk of ataxia
      telangiectasia (A-T) or Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS). Radioresistant DNA
      synthesis (RDS) was investigated in cultured chorionic villus (CV) cells and/or
      amniotic fluid (AF) cells. In four pregnancies, an affected foetus was diagnosed
      with increased RDS in cultured CV cells. In three of the four cases confirmation
      of the diagnosis was obtained by analysis of AF cells and/or skin fibroblasts
      from the foetus cultured after termination of the pregnancy; in the fourth case a
      fibroblast culture from the aborted foetus failed. In one case, only AF cells
      could be analysed in a late stage of pregnancy; pregnancy was terminated due to
      intermediate/equivocal results but the foetal fibroblasts showed normal RDS.
      Normal RDS was demonstrated in the other 11 pregnancies at 25% risk either by
      analysis of CV cells (nine cases) or of AF cells (two cases). In some cases the
      (normal) results on the CV cells were corroborated by subsequent analysis of AF
      cells. The results suggest that RDS analysis of CV cells allows reliable prenatal
      diagnosis of A-T/NBS. However, amniocentesis may be necessary to confirm normal
      results on CV cells if the foetus is female (because of the risk of maternal cell
      contamination) or in the rare case of equivocal results.

PMID- 28872956
TI  - Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome: A Progress Report.
AB  - We report the findings in the first 30 patients with the Nijmegen Breakage
      Syndrome (NBS). All had microcephaly from birth, short stature and a 'bird-like'
      face. Most of them suffered from recurrent respiratory tract infections.
      Intelligence was normal in half of the patients. Serum immunoglobulins were
      disturbed in 22/25 patients investigated (IgG deficiency, IgA deficiency, IgG2
      and IgG4 deficiency) and T cell defects were found in 23/24 patients tested. The
      immunodeficiency appears to be more severe than in A-T. Chromosomal aberrations
      in cultured T lymphocytes occurred preferentially in chromosomes 7 and 14 and at
      the same breakpoints as in A-T. However, the percentage of chromosome 7 and/or 14
      rearrangements was significantly higher in NBS patients than in A-T patients (p <
      0.0005). Inv(7) was amongst the most frequently detected aberration in NBS cells
      as it is in A-T cells. Large clones of cells with rearrangements of chromosome 14
      were rare in NBS. Of the first 19 reported patients eight have already developed
      a malignancy: seven a lymphoma and one a meningioma. It is noteworthy that both
      the tendency to express rearrangements of chromosomes 7 and 14 and the tendency
      to develop a malignancy is much higher in NBS than in A-T. Whether there is any
      causal relationship is as yet unknown.

PMID- 28872957
TI  - Cloning Efficiency and Spontaneous Mutant Frequency in Circulating T-lymphocytes
      in Ataxia-telangiectasia Patients.
AB  - The mutant frequency at the hprt locus in circulating T-lymphocytes has been
      determined in 16 ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) patients, 19 A-T heterozygotes and
      12 A-T sibs. Mutant frequency in the A-T patients is highly significantly
      elevated as a group, even when the relatively poor cloning efficiency of many of
      the A-T lymphocyte samples is taken into account. However, within the A-T set,
      considerable variation in both cloning efficiency and mutant frequency is seen.
      Cellular radiation sensitivity, measured by clonal survival assays and chromosome
      breakage, also varies, as do the clinical symptoms of the patients, including the
      age at which they become wheelchair bound and the severity of their
      telangiectasia. Here all the information available to us on this group of
      patients is presented in an attempt to discern if there is any relationship
      between those cellular characteristics we have observed and the severity of the
      symptoms and progression of the disease in the patients. Although we feel that it
      may be relevant that the adult patients in our study all have mutant frequencies
      that are not highly elevated, insufficient data are available at present to
      resolve any relationship between the heterogeneous clinical symptoms and cellular
      responses seen in the A-T patients as a group.

PMID- 28872958
TI  - Genetic and Physical Mapping of the Ataxia-telangiectasia Locus on Chromosome
      11q22-q23.
AB  - The identification of A-T gene(s) using both positional and functional cloning
      techniques has been a major objective in A-T research over the past 10 years.
      Functional cloning, using complementation of the radiosensitivity phenotype, has
      met with some success, although technical problems remain to be overcome. Recent
      progress, however, in both genetic and physical mapping of the A-T locus on
      chromosome 11q22-q23, described in this review, suggests that the positional
      cloning of candidate genes should be achieved in the very near future. The region
      of the chromosome containing the gene(s) has been identified, and is no more than
      1.6 Mb in size. The detailed physical characterization of this region, as a
      preliminary to candidate gene isolation, is now underway. There are, however,
      still some unresolved issues, most notably the existence of four A-T
      complementation groups, with the resulting supposition that these equate to a
      number of different genes. Although genetic linkage evidence does not support the
      hypothesis of genetic heterogeneity, the possibility of a cluster of genes at the
      11q22-23 locus cannot be ruled out. It is likely that the explanations for this
      and other problems such as discrepancies in expected levels of consanguinity, and
      difficulties in the classification of atypical phenotypes will become much more
      obvious once a gene or genes have been cloned.

PMID- 28872959
TI  - Testing the Role of p53 in the Expression of Genetic Instability and Apoptosis in
      Ataxia-telangiectasia.
AB  - We have obtained initial evidence supporting a new model for the human disease
      ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), in which the A-T and p53 genes play crucial roles in
      a signal transduction network that activates multiple cellular functions in
      response to DNA damage. Three of the model's predictions were tested. (1)
      Disrupting cell cycle checkpoints should increase spontaneous rates in normal
      cells. In order to interfere with the G1/S checkpoint, we transfected a normal
      cell line with vectors expressing either a dominant-negative p53ala143 mutant or
      a human papilloma virus E6 gene. These transformants showed 10-80-fold elevations
      in spontaneous recombination rates when compared with their parent. (2) A-T cells
      should be sensitive to DNA damage-induced apoptosis. Widespread apoptosis was
      detectable in four A-T fibroblast lines, but not two control lines, beginning 24
      h after exposure to X-rays or streptonigrin, but not UV. Streptonigrin also
      induced widespread apoptosis in A-T lymphoblasts but not in control lymphoblasts.
      (3) Disruption of p53 function in A-T cells should increase their mutagen
      resistance by interfering with apoptosis. Stable transfection of either the
      p53143ala or the HPV18 E6 construct was associated with acquisition of
      streptonigrin and radiation resistance, while transfection with the p53143ala
      construct did not affect the streptonigrin sensitivity of a control cell line.

PMID- 28872960
TI  - Physical and Genetic Mapping at the ATA/ATC Locus on Chromosome 11q22-23.
AB  - Genetic heterogeneity in ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) points to four different
      genes responsible for this disease. The two major A-T genes, ATA and ATC, were
      localized by genetic analysis close to each other on chromosome 11q22-23,
      prompting efforts of positional cloning. Essential steps in positional cloning
      are long-range cloning of the genomic region of interest, and derivation of
      highly polymorphic markers that would allow further reduction of the interval
      carrying the A-T gene. We constructed genomic contigs across the D11S611-D1S424
      region harbouring the ATA and ATC genes in yeast artificial chromosome (YAC)
      vectors. These contigs were used as a fine mapping tool and enabled us to
      localize along the A-T region, eight microsatellite markers generated randomly by
      genome mapping centres. In addition, we used specific YAC clones to generate five
      new microsatellite markers based on polymorphic CA repeats. Recombination mapping
      based on Israeli A-T families indicates that the ATC gene is distal to the locus
      D11S1817. Further linkage analysis using these markers is expected to reduce the
      major A-T locus considerably to a size appropriate for cosmid cloning and
      identification of transcribed sequences.

PMID- 28872961
TI  - Cellular Radiosensitivity in Ataxia-telangiectasia.
AB  - Hypersensitivity to both the cell-killing and chromosome-damaging effects of
      ionizing radiations, and other agents causing DNA breakage, is a consistent
      feature of cells from individuals with the cancer-prone disorder ataxia
      telangiectasia (A-T). Evidence for a defect in DNA strand break rejoining is
      slight, but a higher-than-normal level of chromosomal breaks persists in
      irradiated A-T cells. There is also evidence for elevated frequencies of DNA
      recombination and deletion mutation in A-T cells; these responses may be linked
      through a loss of fidelity in rejoining DNA breaks through recombination
      mechanisms. Additionally the regulation of cell-cycle responses is altered in A-T
      cells: in all phases of the cycle there is some loss of 'checkpoint' function
      shortly after irradiation, allowing cells to continue cycling despite extensive
      DNA damage. However, on present evidence, radiation hypersensitivity cannot be
      explained simply by this loss of regulatory function. It is suggested that the A
      T gene product acts in the early stages of a DNA damage-recognition pathway,
      normally interacting with regulatory proteins such as p53, but also with proteins
      involved in the processing of DNA breaks. Reduced efficiency in this type of
      signalling function could well explain the link between radiosensitivity and
      cancer proneness.

PMID- 28872962
TI  - The Nature of Ataxia-telangiectasia: Problems and Perspectives.

PMID- 28872963
TI  - Possible Role of Chromatin Alteration in the Radiosensitivity of Ataxia
      telangiectasia.
AB  - Cells derived from individuals with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) are known to
      exhibit increased sensitivity to ionizing radiation and certain radiomimetic
      chemical agents. Here we summarize our findings regarding the role of chromosome
      damage and repair in this radiosensitivity. Lymphoblastoid cells derived from A-T
      homozygotes were characterized for initial chromosome (premature chromosome
      condensation) and DNA (neutral filter elution) damage and repair kinetics in
      cells from G1 and G2 cell cycle phases. Despite initial levels of DNA damage
      being similar to normal controls, A-T cells exhibited nearly a two-fold higher
      initial amount of chromosome damage. Different A-T cell lines exhibited differing
      chromosome repair capacities compared with control lymphoblastoid cell lines.
      These results suggest that A-T cells have an altered chromatin structure whereby
      DNA double-strand breaks are apparently more efficiently converted into
      chromosome breaks. Four A-T heterozygote cell lines were examined for chromosome
      damage and repair in the same fashion and all exhibited increased levels of
      chromosome damage, although the degree of sensitivity was more prominent in G2
      phase cells (two-fold higher) than in G1 phase cells (1.5-fold higher than normal
      controls). These results suggest that A-T heterozygotes also exhibit an altered
      chromatin structure which impacts on chromosome damage expression. Of interest, A
      T cells also exhibited increased chromosome stickiness after irradiation, and
      telomere regions appeared to be frequently involved. While the molecular basis
      for preferential telomere involvement is not understood, these results again
      suggest that structural alterations in the chromatin of A-T cells may play an
      important role in A-T radiosensitivity.

PMID- 28872964
TI  - Ataxia-telangiectasia in Italy: Genetic Analysis.
AB  - Genetic analysis was performed on 72 Italian A-T families ascertained through 91
      probands. The frequency of the A-T gene was estimated through Dahlberg's formula,
      which uses the frequencies of first cousin marriages among the patients' parents
      and in the general population. Data on consanguinity in the general population
      were obtained from the collection of Catholic Church dispensations for the period
      1910-1964. Accurate estimates of the disease frequency were made by subdividing
      data into 5-year periods and between provinces, in order to take into account
      temporal (decrease over time) and spatial (higher frequency in Southern Italy)
      heterogeneity. The estimate of the gene frequency for the whole sample was q =
      0.012 +/- 0.0065, corresponding to a heterozygote frequency of 2.34% and to a
      disease frequency of 1 in 7090. When considering q before and after 1970, there
      was an apparent increase of heterozygote frequency from 1.69 to 3.43%, perhaps
      due to a better ascertainment of the disease in the latter period. A segregation
      ratio of 0.249 +/- 0.043 was obtained by analyzing the offspring of the 72
      families under the model of incomplete multiple selection. This value is not
      significantly different from 0.25, as expected for an autosomal recessive
      disease.

PMID- 28872965
TI  - Functional Complementation Studies with X-ray-sensitive Mutants of Chinese
      Hamster Cells Closely Resembling Ataxia-telangiectasia Cells.
AB  - In order to isolate a human gene complementing the defect in A-T-like hamster
      cell mutants, the mutants were used as recipients for genomic DNA transfection,
      using either HeLa chromosomal DNA or DNA from a human cosmid library. Three
      primary transformants with an intermediate X-ray sensitivity and almost normal
      sensitivity to MMS, but retaining radioresistant DNA synthesis (RDS), were
      obtained. To identify the human chromosome that complements the defect in the A-T
      like mutants, and to assess the degree of complementation for survival and RDS,
      microcell-mediated chromosome transfer was used. At least 20 independent hybrid
      clones between the mutant and each one of the human chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 5, 15,
      17 or 18 were isolated. All hybrid clones remained X-ray sensitive, except one
      with chromosome 4, and another with chromosome 15, both showing an intermediate X
      ray sensitivity. By using in situ hybridization we found that this partial
      correction was due to the presence of a mouse chromosome. In these two hybrids
      containing the mouse chromosome together with human chromosome 4 or 15, RDS was
      fully complemented only in the hybrid with chromosome 4 but not in the one
      containing chromosome 15, suggesting that RDS and X-ray sensitivity may be
      complemented independently.

PMID- 28872967
TI  - DNA Marker D11S384 Shows Zero Recombination with the Ataxia-telangiectasia Locus
      in North American Families.
AB  - At the genetic locus D11S384, one probe detects a Taq1 RFLP and another detects a
      RFMP. In 52 pedigrees of North American A-T patients, parental haplotypes based
      on these two bi-allelic systems have a heterozygosity of 0.69 and a PIC of 0.64.
      No recombinant events between D11S384 and the A-T locus were detected in the 43
      pedigrees in which this marker locus was informative.

PMID- 28872968
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28872969
TI  - Cancer Risks in A-T Heterozygotes.
AB  - It is well established that ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) patients suffer a grossly
      elevated risk of cancer, particularly lymphoma and leukaemia, but the possibility
      of an excess cancer risk of cancer in heterozygotes carriers of A-T mutations is
      more controversial. A number of studies indicate that female relatives of A-T
      patients suffer excess risk of breast cancer; based on an overview of all
      currently available data the estimated relative risk of breast cancer to A-T
      heterozygotes is 3.9-fold (95% CI 2.1-7.2). There is some suggestion that
      relative risk declines with age. In contrast, there is no consistent evidence of
      a risk from any other cancer; the estimated risk from all studies is 1.9 (95% CI
      1.5-2.5) but some studies show a larger effect whilst others show no excess risk.
      On the basis of these results and the likely frequency of the A-T gene, A-T
      heterozygotes would account for between 1 and 13% of breast cancer cases, with
      3.8% being the best estimate. However, unless the breast cancer risk has been
      seriously underestimated, the A-T gene will make little contribution to familial
      breast cancer.

PMID- 28872970
TI  - Interleukin-4 and Interleukin-10 Gene Polymorphisms in Patients with Inflammatory
      Bowel Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Changes in cytokine expression have been frequently found in patients
      with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Cytokine values outside the normal range
      may be somewhat related to common polymorphisms within cytokine genes. OBJECTIVE:
      The present study was designed to investigate the possible association between
      polymorphisms within Interleukin IL-4 and IL-10 genes and susceptibility to and
      clinical features of IBD. METHODS: The study population was composed of 140
      healthy controls and 75 patients with IBD (40 patients with Crohn's disease (CD)
      and 35 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC)). Genotyping was performed using
      polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers. RESULTS: Higher
      frequencies for the C allele of IL-4-590 polymorphism (P < 0.0001; odds ratio
      [OR], 5.68; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 3.28-9.83) and for the T allele of
      IL-4-1098 polymorphism (P = 0.016; OR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.11-3.02) were observed in
      the whole group of IBD patients. The IL-4-590 C allele was also significantly
      overrepresented when IBD patients were subdivided into CD and UC (P < 0.0001; OR,
      5.2-6.28). While the IL-4-1098 T allele was present at higher frequencies in
      patients with UC (P = 0.05; OR, 1.95), but not in CD (P = 0.09). Multiple
      pairwise comparisons indicated that genotypes of all polymorphisms investigated
      within IL-4 gene are correlated with IBD, CD, and UC. Haplotype analysis showed
      that the IL-4-1098/-590 TC haplotype might predispose individuals to IBD, CD, and
      UC whereas the IL-4-1098/-590 TT and GC haplotypes have a protective effect. On
      the contrary, neither allele nor genotype frequencies of IL-10 polymorphisms (IL
      10-1082 A > G, IL-10-592 A > C, and IL-10-819 T > C) were associated with IBD,
      CD, or UC. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that IL-4 polymorphisms might
      play a role in susceptibility to IBD and its major subtypes in the Iranian
      population.

PMID- 28872972
TI  - Expression and Significance of Th17 and Treg Cells in Pulmonary Infections with
      Gram-Negative Bacteria.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and significance of T
      helper type 17 (Th17) and regulatory T (Treg) cells in severe pulmonary infection
      with gram-negative bacteria (GNB). The peripheral venous blood (PVB) and
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected from patients receiving
      mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU) owing to: (1) pulmonary
      GNB infection (group I) and (2) nonpulmonary infection (group NI). Patients from
      the two groups were matched based on their Acute Physiology and Chronic Health
      Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores and were recruited in the same period. The
      levels of Th17 and Treg cells in the PVB and BALF were measured by flow
      cytometry. (1) The levels of Th17 and Treg cells in the PVB and BALF of the
      infection group (I) were significantly higher than those of the noninfection
      group (NI) (p < 0.01), and the levels decreased significantly after treatment (p
      < 0.01). (2) The Treg/Th17 cell ratio in the PVB and BALF of group I was
      significantly lower than those of group NI and after treatment (p < 0.01). (3)
      The levels of Th17 and Treg cells in the PVB and BALF could not predict the 28
      day mortality (p > 0.05). The expression of Th17 and Treg cells was abnormal in
      patients with severe pulmonary GNB infection. Our data suggest an overactive
      immune response in the early stages of inflammation, but the levels of Treg and
      Th17 cells failed to predict the 28-day mortality.

PMID- 28872971
TI  - Phenotypic and Functional Characteristics of Th17 (CD4+IL17A+) Cells in Human
      Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Clinical Relevance.
AB  - Recent studies have suggested an important role of T helper 17 (Th17) cells in
      tumor biology however, their phenotypic and functional aspects are poorly
      understood in context with oral cancer. We therefore, investigated the various
      phenotypic and functional markers of Th17 cells elucidating their relevance in
      oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Multi-color flow cytometry (FACs) was used
      to analyze the frequency and different markers of circulating Th17 cells ex vivo
      in peripheral blood mono-nuclear cells (PBMCs) from 69 OSCC patients and 35
      healthy controls. Percent Mean +/- SEM of different types of cells were compared
      between the two groups using Mann-Whitney U test. We found significantly (p <
      0.0001) increased frequency of Th17 cells in patients as compared to controls.
      These cells were found to express CCR6 profoundly but not CXCR4, CD62L, and CCR7
      as chemokine receptors. Additionally, it expressed HLA-DR, CD69, and CD25
      moderately but CD28 and CD161 highly. The cytokine profiling revealed 3 subsets
      namely Th17/1 (IL17A+IFNgamma+), Th17/inflammatory (IL17A+IL8+), and Th17/2
      (IL17A+IL4+) which were found to be elevated in patients as compared to controls.
      The early stage patients had a shift toward Th17/1 type and vice versa. Our
      results suggest that Th17 cells may have effector immune functions in oral cancer
      immunity through CCR6, CD161, HLA-DR, CD69, CD28 receptors and inducing Th17/1
      type of cells expressing polyfunctional antitumor IFNgamma cytokine. Thus, novel
      immune-boosting regimens based on enhancement of Th17 cells in oral cancer
      patients may provide therapeutic benefits in them.

PMID- 28872974
TI  - The Postoperative Immunosuppressive Phenotypes of Peripheral T Helper Cells Are
      Associated with Poor Prognosis of Breast Cancer Patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: T helper cells play essential roles in anti-tumor immune response.
      However, the postoperative changes of peripheral T cell subsets and their
      clinical significance in breast cancer patients remain largely unknown. METHODS:
      We evaluated the perioperative changes of T lymphocyte subsets in invasive breast
      cancer (IBC) patients and breast fibroadenoma (BF) patients preoperatively
      (preop) and 6, 24, 72 hours postoperatively (POH6, POH24, and POH72). Proportions
      of CD3, CD4, CD8, T helper (Th) 1, Th2, Th17 cells, regulatory T cells (Treg),
      and CD4+/CD8+, Th1/Th2 ratio were detected by flow cytometry. Changes in T helper
      cell quantity were correlated to clinicopathological parameters. Furthermore, we
      explored the association between the perioperative variations of T cell subsets
      and disease-free survival (DFS) of IBC patients. RESULTS: In IBC patients, Th1
      cells diminished while Tregs elevated in postoperative 72 hours in the peripheral
      blood. In contrast, no significant perioperative changes of T cell subsets were
      observed in BF patients. Postoperative lower Th1 cells at POH 72 of IBC patients
      were correlated with greater tumor burden, HER2 positive and Ki67 positive. The
      increased Tregs at POH 72 of IBC patients were correlated with larger tumor size
      and HER2 positive. Th1 cell decline and Treg increment were both associated with
      shorter DFS in IBC patients. CONCLUSIONS: The variations of peripheral T helper
      cell subsets showed postoperative immunosuppression and were associated with poor
      prognosis in IBC patients.

PMID- 28872973
TI  - Splenectomy-Induced Leukocytosis Promotes Intratumoral Accumulation of Myeloid
      Derived Suppressor Cells, Angiogenesis and Metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enlargement of the spleen is commonly observed in animal models of
      cancer. Here, in a breast cancer model, it was aimed to determine the effect of
      splenectomy on circulating and tumor-infiltrating myeloid-derived suppressor
      cells (MDSCs), tumor angiogenesis, and metastasis. METHODS: Mice were inoculated
      with 4T1 breast cancer cells and underwent splenectomy or sham laparotomy. Tumor
      growth and survival of animals were followed. Macroscopic and histopathological
      analyses were performed to determine splenomegaly and metastasis.
      Immunophenotyping of myeloid cells was performed with flow cytometric analysis of
      CD11b, Gr-1, F4/80, CD206, CD11c, and F4/80 markers. Suppressive function of
      MDSCs on T cell proliferation was studied in cocultures. Tumor angiogenesis and
      granulocytic myeloid cell infiltration in the metastatic foci were studied by
      CD31 and Ly6G immunohistochemistry, respectively. RESULTS: The mice bearing
      breast tumors underwent total splenectomy at an early time point of tumorigenesis
      when only low levels of MDSCs had accumulated in the spleen. Circulating and
      tumor-infiltrating MDSCs, and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) were increased
      following splenectomy. Nevertheless, splenectomy could only lead to a temporary
      deceleration in tumor growth but favored lung metastasis and angiogenesis in the
      long run. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrated a link among splenectomy-induced
      leukocytosis, accumulation of circulating and tumor-infiltrating MDSC, and
      enhanced angiogenesis and metastasis. Therefore, as a part of oncological
      surgery, favorable and unfavorable facets of the splenectomy must be considered
      to improve therapeutic efficacy.

PMID- 28872975
TI  - Characterization of Inflammasome Components in Pig Intestine and Analysis of the
      Influence of Probiotic Enterococcus Faecium during an Escherichia Coli Challenge.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate systematically the expression of
      inflammasome components in pig intestine and to analyze the influence of age and
      long-term supplementation with the probiotic Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 (E.
      faecium). In order to examine probiotic effects on the inflammasomes during a
      challenge with pathogens, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and E. faecium
      were directly added to pig jejunum in Ussing chambers. The mRNA expression of
      inflammasome components generally decreased in an oral-aboral direction in
      intestinal tissues. In 29-day-old piglets, the expression levels of NLRP3 were
      significantly higher and ASC (apoptotic speck-like protein containing a caspase
      recruitment domain) expression were lower compared with those in the ileum of 70
      day-old pigs (p <= 0.05). Long-term supplementation with E. faecium significantly
      increased ASC expression levels in the jejunum and ileum of 29-day-old piglets
      compared to control animals (p <= 0.05). Ex vivo addition of ETEC or E. faecium
      did not affect mRNA expression of inflammasome components significantly, whereas
      IL-1beta protein release was significantly elevated in ETEC-incubated jejunum (p
      <= 0.05), providing evidence for the functional activation of the inflammasome,
      which was prevented by pre-incubation with E. faecium. We conclude that pre
      incubation with E. faecium has a protective effect during ETEC challenge; this
      effect is probably not located at the inflammasome transcription level. The
      results of this study of the expression and regulation of inflammasome components
      in pigs are similar to those obtained in humans, reinforcing the use of pigs as a
      suitable model for translational inflammasome research.

PMID- 28872976
TI  - Serum IL-6 and IL-8 Correlate with Prognostic Factors in Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - The aim of the study was to correlate serum levels of IL-2, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL
      10, and TNF-alpha with clinical, laboratory, and pathological prognostic factors
      in patients with primary ovarian malignancy. Patients treated at the Pelvic Mass
      Ambulatory of the Discipline of Gynecology and Obstetrics/Oncology Research
      Institute (IPON) of the UFTM with confirmed diagnosis of malignant ovarian
      neoplasia (n = 26) were evaluated. Serum collection was performed preoperatively
      for the determination of tumor markers. The cytokines IL-2, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL
      10, and TNF-alpha were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The
      prognostic factors were compared using the Mann-Whitney test, with significance
      level lower than 0.05. When evaluating IL6, it was observed that higher serum
      levels were associated with overall survival less than 60 months (p = 0.0382). In
      the evaluation of IL8, higher serum levels were associated with neutrophil-to
      lymphocyte ratio (NLR) >= 4 and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) >= 200 (p =
      0.0198 and p = 0.0072, respectively), altered values of serum CA125 (p = 0.0457),
      and stage IIIC (p = 0.0486). Therefore, increased levels of IL-6 and IL-8 are
      associated with factors of worse prognosis in ovarian cancer. Additional studies
      with a larger sample of patients are needed to confirm the role of cytokines as
      prognostic factors, in the definition of treatment, and in the development of
      future target therapies.

PMID- 28872977
TI  - Growth Differentiation Factor-15 (GDF-15) Level and Relation to Clinical
      Manifestations in Egyptian Systemic Sclerosis patients: Preliminary Data.
AB  - AIM OF THE WORK: This study aims to assess Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF
      15) level in Scleroderma patients and its relation to disease manifestations.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included 55 scleroderma patients and 40 age and
      sex matched healthy volunteers. All patients were subjected to full history
      taking, thorough clinical examination, and laboratory investigations. GDF-15
      serum levels were analyzed in patients and controls using human GDF-15
      immunoassay Quantikine ELISA kit. RESULTS: The GDF-15 serum level was
      significantly higher in Systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients in comparison to
      healthy control individuals, p-value = 0.004. In addition, the GDF-15 serum
      levels increased in a significant way in patients with diffuse SSc than those
      with limited SSc, p = 0.026. Also, we had discovered a significant positive
      correlation between serum GDF-15 levels and the modified Rodnan score of the SSc
      patients, r = 0.442, p = 0.001 and a significant association was found between
      high GDF-15 level and SSc patients with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) as
      compared to healthy controls (p = 0.002). However, no significant difference was
      found between SSc patients without IPF and healthy subjects regarding GDF-15
      level (p = 0.106). CONCLUSION: GDF-15 serum levels were elevated in patients with
      SSc and correlated with the extent of skin fibrosis, and it was found to be
      higher in SSc patients with IPF. Such results may suggest a pivotal role of GDF
      15 in fibrotic changes in SSc, and GDF-15 could be a treatment target in SSc
      patients in future.

PMID- 28872978
TI  - Electing Full Code in Hospice: Patient Characteristics and Live Discharge Rates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is unknown how many hospice enrollees elect to be full code and if
      this is associated with higher hospice live discharge rates. OBJECTIVE: To
      measure the rates of hospice enrollees electing full code, the characteristics
      predicting full code status, and the association of full code status with various
      hospice live discharge patterns. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of electronic
      medical record data. SETTING/SUBJECTS: A total of 25,636 decedents enrolled in
      two Michigan hospices between 2009 and 2014. MEASUREMENTS: Code status was
      defined as full code versus do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders. Covariates include
      demographics, location (home, hospice facility, nursing home, and hospital),
      primary diagnosis, and length of stay. Hospice live discharge was defined as
      short (0-14 days), medium (15-179 days), and long (>179 days). RESULTS: A total
      of 12.9% of hospice enrollees elected full code status. This was significantly (p
      < 0.05) predicted by male sex, younger age, nonwhite race, home setting of care,
      and cancer diagnosis. Those with full code status had 1.76 times the adjusted
      odds of hospice live discharge compared with those with DNR orders (95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.44-2.16) and 2.47 times the odds of short live
      discharge (95% CI 1.69-3.62) with no significant difference in long live
      discharge. The association of full code orders with hospice live discharge was
      stronger for nonwhite enrollees, with a live discharge rate of 23.8% versus 11.6%
      for African Americans with full code versus DNR orders. CONCLUSIONS: Those
      electing full code status on admission to hospice are at high risk of live
      hospice discharge after short enrollments, particularly nonwhite enrollees.

PMID- 28872979
TI  - Bone marrow adipocytes.
AB  - Adipocytes were identified in human bone marrow more than a century ago, yet
      until recently little has been known about their origin, development, function or
      interactions with other cells in the bone marrow. Little functional significance
      has been attributed to these cells, a paradigm that still persists today.
      However, we now know that marrow adipose tissue increases with age and in
      response to a variety of physiologic induction signals. Bone marrow adipocytes
      have recently been shown to influence other cell populations within the marrow
      and can affect whole body metabolism by the secretion of a defined set of
      adipokines. Recent research shows that marrow adipocytes are distinct from white,
      brown and beige adipocytes, indicating that the bone marrow is a distinct adipose
      depot. This review will highlight recent data regarding these areas and the
      interactions of marrow adipose tissue (MAT) with cells within and outside of the
      bone marrow.

PMID- 28872981
TI  - Sex differences in outcomes after discharge from Alberta emergency departments
      for asthma: A large population-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Asthma exacerbations frequently result in emergency department (ED)
      visits. While sex differences have been identified in some asthma studies, there
      is a paucity of literature on sex differences in the ED setting, especially
      population-based ones. This study examines sex differences in important outcomes
      of patients discharged from EDs for acute asthma in Alberta, Canada. METHODS:
      Alberta residents aged from 2 to 55 years discharged from EDs with a primary
      diagnosis of asthma during 1999-2011 were identified from administrative
      databases from a single-payer health care system for the entire geographic region
      of Alberta. Multivariable Cox regression models analyzed time to first follow-up
      physician or specialist visit, and logistic regression models analyzed the binary
      outcome of ED return within 30 days for asthma. RESULTS: There were 115,853
      discharged patients analyzed (40.4% and 59.1% female in pediatric and adult
      groups, respectively). Approximately 26% of patients revisited the ED during 1999
      2011 and 5.1% did so within 30 days. Women had higher odds of a 30-day ED return
      after ED discharge than men (unadjusted odds ratio [uOR] = 1.26; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1.17-1.36). Time to first non-ED physician follow-up was shorter
      for girls (unadjusted hazard ratio [uHR] = 1.05; 95%CI 1.03-1.07) and women (uHR
      = 1.62; 95%CI 1.59-1.64) than for boys and men, respectively. Significant
      interactions between sex and age, socio-economic status, area of residence, and
      comorbidities were identified and changed the effect of sex on outcomes.
      CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, women return to EDs within 30 days of discharge for
      acute asthma more often than men. Time to first non-ED physician follow-up for
      children and adults differed by sex. Multiple factors likely contribute to these
      differences; however, identifying these differences is critical to understand the
      influence of sex on health behaviors and outcomes.

PMID- 28872982
TI  - Amelogenesis Imperfecta: A Non-Invasive Approach to Improve Esthetics in Young
      Patients. Report of Two Cases.
AB  - : Objective-Evaluate esthetic and functional efficacy of infiltrant resin (Icon,
      DMG, Hamburg, Germany) in Amelogenesis Imperfecta's treatment. STUDY DESIGN: Two
      adolescent patients, G.S. (13 years old) and C.M. (15 years old), affected by the
      hypomaturation type of Amelogenesis Imperfecta, were treated with Icon resin and
      were followed for twelve months. RESULTS: Treated teeth show an excellent
      aesthetical result immediately after the resin application, effect that lasts in
      the long-term (six and twelve months follow-up examinations); the dental wear's
      progression seems to be clinically arrested. CONCLUSIONS: Resin infiltration has
      proven to be a minimal invasive treatment for dental discoloration, less
      aggressive than conventional procedures. This approach might be recommended for a
      stable esthetical improvement in moderate AI's lesions especially in children and
      adolescents.

PMID- 28872980
TI  - The recycling endosome protein RAB-10 promotes autophagic flux and localization
      of the transmembrane protein ATG-9.
AB  - Macroautophagy/autophagy involves the formation of an autophagosome, a double
      membrane vesicle that delivers sequestered cytoplasmic cargo to lysosomes for
      degradation and recycling. Closely related, endocytosis mediates the sorting and
      transport of cargo throughout the cell, and both processes are important for
      cellular homeostasis. However, how endocytic proteins functionally intersect with
      autophagy is not clear. Mutations in the DAF-2/insulin-like IGF-1 (INSR) receptor
      at the permissive temperature result in a small increase in GFP::LGG-1 foci, i.e.
      autophagosomes, but a large increase at the nonpermissive temperature, allowing
      us to control the level of autophagy. In a RNAi screen for endocytic genes that
      alter the expression of GFP::LGG-1 in daf-2 mutants, we identified RAB-10, a
      small GTPase that regulates basolateral endocytosis. Loss of rab-10 in daf-2
      mutants results in more GFP::LGG-1-positive foci at the permissive, but less
      GFP::LGG-1 or SQST-1::GFP foci at the nonpermissive temperature. As previously
      reported, loss of rab-10 alone resulted in an increase of GFP:LGG-1 foci.
      Exposure of rab-10 mutant animals to chloroquine, a known inhibitor of autophagic
      flux, failed to increase the number of GFP::LGG-1 foci. Moreover, colocalization
      between LMP-1::tagRFP and GFP::LGG-1 (the lysosome and autophagosome reporters)
      was decreased in daf-2; rab-10 dauers at the nonpermissive temperature.
      Intriguingly, RAB-10 was required to maintain the normal size of GFP::ATG-9
      positive structures in daf-2 mutants at both the permissive and nonpermissive
      temperature. Finally, we found that RAB-10 GTPase cycling was required to control
      the size of GFP::ATG-9 foci. Collectively, our data support a model where rab-10
      controls autophagic flux by regulating autophagosome formation and maturation.

PMID- 28872983
TI  - Prevalence and Associated Factors of Tooth Erosion in 8 -12-Year-Old Brazilian
      Schoolchildren.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study estimated the prevalence, distribution and associated
      factors of tooth erosion in Brazilian schoolchildren. STUDY DESIGN: A cross
      sectional study was carried out in a representative sample of children aged 8-12
      years-old from public and private schools. Six calibrated examiners assessed
      tooth erosion (O'Sullivan index) and other oral conditions (dental trauma, enamel
      defects, plaque, dental caries and dental crowding). Socio-demographic and
      behavioral data were collected using questionnaires. Interviews were conducted in
      children and in parents. Data were analyzed using Poisson regression model
      considering the cluster sample (Prevalence Ratio-PR; 95% Confidence Interval-CI).
      RESULTS: A total of 1,210 children participated and were examined. Tooth erosion
      was observed in 25.1% of the children. Lesions were mostly observed in enamel and
      less than a half of the buccal surface was affected. The type of school and age
      were significant associated with higher prevalence of tooth erosion and dental
      crowding was associated with less probability of tooth erosion significantly.
      Acidic food or drinks were not associated with dental erosion. CONCLUSION: The
      prevalence of tooth erosion in the studied population was high. Erosive lesions
      were not severe, confined in enamel. Tooth erosion was associated with age, type
      of school, socioeconomic level and dental crowding.

PMID- 28872984
TI  - Autotransplantation: A Reliable Treatment Modality for Severely Malpositioned
      Teeth.
AB  - Maxillary canines are the most commonly impacted teeth, second only to third
      molars. Various treatment methods may be used to recover impacted maxillary
      canines. This is a report of a 14-year-old girl with a severely malpositioned
      impacted right maxillary canine which accompanied severe root resorption of
      adjacent tooth, treated by autotransplantation with a computer aided rapid
      prototyping model as a surgical guide. This case report demonstrates that
      autotransplantation can be a reliable treatment alternative, in cases with a
      severely malpositioned impacted canine, providing acceptable prognosis.

PMID- 28872985
TI  - A Controlled Study of Pre-Eruptive Intracoronal Resorption and Dental
      Development.
AB  - AIM: To compare the prevalence of PEIR in Australian and Saudi Arabian children
      and to investigate the relationship of PEIR with dental development. STUDY
      DESIGN: Panoramic (PAN) radiographs of 842 Australian and 456 Saudi children were
      screened for PEIR. The dental ages of the children with and without PEIR were
      assessed from the PAN radiographs using the method of Demirjian and co-workers.
      RESULTS: The subject prevalence of PEIR was not statistically significant between
      Australian (2%) and Saudi children (0.6%) (p>0.1). The teeth most commonly
      affected by PEIR were the mandibular second molars and premolars. Dental
      impaction was observed in 31% of teeth with PEIR compared to only 0.1% of control
      teeth (p<0.0001). Children with PEIR showed a mean delay in dental development of
      0.54+/-0.85 years compared with ageand gender-matched controls (p<0.0001).
      CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides the first evidence that there are no
      differences in PEIR prevalence between Australian and Saudi populations, and that
      dental development is significantly delayed in children with PEIR.

PMID- 28872986
TI  - Effect of Qmix and Other Irrigants on Dentin Adhesives in Pulp Chambers of
      Primary Teeth: SEM Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of different endodontic irrigants on
      microleakage of adhesives used within pulp chamber of primary molars. STUDY
      DESIGN: 72 Primary molars were divided into 6 groups, according to 3 irrigants
      and 2 adhesives used. After de-roofing the pulp chamber, pulp was extirpated. In
      36 samples, pulp chambers were bonded with Xeno V+ after irrigation with either
      QMix (Group1); 17%EDTA+5%NaOCl (Group2) or normal saline (Group3) and in other
      half samples, pulp chambers were bonded with SinglebondUniversal after irrigation
      with either QMix (Group 4); 17%EDTA+5% NaOCl (Group5) or normal saline (Group 6).
      All the samples were restored with Filtek Z350. Ten teeth from each group were
      assessed for dye penetration. Two samples in each group were viewed under
      scanning electron microscope. Data was statistically analyzed using Mann-Whitney
      and Kruskal Wallis tests at a significance level of P < 0.05. RESULTS: Mean
      microleakage scores were: Group 1-1.5+/-0.70, Group 2-1.6+/-.51, Group 3-2.4+/
      0.96, Group 4-1.2+/-0.42, Group 5-1.2+/-0.42, Group 6-1.1+/-0.32. CONCLUSIONS:
      Irrigation with QMix significantly reduced the microleakage of XenoV+ but had no
      significant effect on microleakage of SinglebondUniversal. Irrigation with
      EDTA/NaOCl or QMix had no detrimental effect on the sealing ability of either of
      the adhesive tested.

PMID- 28872987
TI  - Using Quality Improvement Methods to Implement an Early Childhood Oral Health
      Initiative: A Federally Qualified Health Center Pilot Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the use of quality improvement (QI) methods to implement an
      early childhood oral health program (Baby Oral Health Program-bOHP) in four
      federally qualified health center (FQHC) dental clinics. STUDY DESIGN: Using a
      mixed-methods study design, survey responses, administrative data, QI project
      templates, and focus group measures were collected. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)
      cycles as mini-projects to improve the implementation of bOHP were examined. Data
      analysis included descriptive qualitative reviews and quantitative statistics at
      baseline, six, and 12 months following the intervention. RESULTS: Twenty-three
      dental team providers in one urban and three rural clinics participated.
      Successful QI mini-projects included shortening time period between accepted
      referral and patient visits, improved documentation of caregiver interview, and
      efficiency of the infant oral health examination. Lack of change in provider
      confidence was observed, regardless of years of practice (p=0.93), years of
      employment (p=0.39), and dental team age (p=0.85). Qualitative reviews
      highlighted mixed QI results related to training and limited resources invested
      on follow-up of QI implementation. CONCLUSIONS: A low cost, low resource pilot QI
      program as part of bOHP implementation showed mixed success, highlighting the
      critical role of training, staff committment, and leadership support to assure
      sustainable oral health programs in high-risk populations.

PMID- 28872988
TI  - Effect of Sedation with Midazolam and Time to Discharge among Pediatric Dental
      Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the recovery time of children who
      underwent conscious sedation with oral or rectal midazolam. STUDY DESIGN: The
      medical files in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry of all the children who
      underwent conscious sedation with midazolam between 3/2013-4/2016 were examined.
      The total duration of sedation and time to discharge were calculated.
      Descriptions of the children's behavior before and during sedation were compared.
      RESULTS: The files of 120 children were retrieved. They included 64 girls, mean
      (+/- standard deviation) age 5.7 +/- 2.67 years and 56 boys, mean age 4.9 +/-1.06
      years. The mean weight for the entire cohort was 18.7 +/- 5.2 kg. Eighty-one
      children (67.5%) received oral sedation and 39 (32.5%) received rectal sedation.
      The mean total duration of sedation was 105 +/- 26 min, and the mean time to
      discharge after treatment was 55:17 +/- 22:30 min. A hundred and seven children
      exhibited positive behavior before undergoing sedation, but the behavior
      deteriorated during sedation in 36 cases. CONCLUSION: The time to discharge post
      midazolam sedation correlated to the child's age and weight and total amount of
      administered midazolam. Sedation negatively affected behavior in 43.6% of the
      cases.

PMID- 28872989
TI  - Orthodontic Treatment in Conjunction with Twin-bock Treatment and Growth Hormone
      Therapy in Silver Russell Syndrome.
AB  - Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is a very rare genetic disorder characterized by
      intrauterine growth retardation, short stature, and typical craniofacial
      abnormalities including micrognathia. While growth hormone (GH) therapy in
      children with SRS significantly improves somatic growth, functional orthopedic
      treatment can also be effective in adolescents with mandibular deficiency. We
      report the effects of Phase 1 functional orthopedic treatment of a twin-block
      appliance in conjunction with GH administration in a 9-year-old boy with GH
      deficiency and SRS, and the result of the subsequent Phase 2 orthodontic
      treatment.

PMID- 28872990
TI  - Plunging Ranula Occurring Without its Oral Counterpart: A Case Report.
AB  - A ranula is a lesion that arises from mucin spillage from the sublingual or
      submandibular gland ducts, beneath the mucosa of the oral floor. A plunging or
      cervical ranula dissects the mylohyoid muscle and appears as a submandibular
      swelling. Rarely, a plunging ranula is encountered without its oral counterpart.
      Here, we report a rare case of a plunging ranula that occurred without its oral
      counterpart in a 11-year-old male patient. We have also discussed the
      pathogenesis and treatment options for the ranula.

PMID- 28872991
TI  - Understanding and Appraising Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - Systematic reviews and meta-analysis seek to answer a pre-framed research
      question to lead to a valid answer through a systematic, explicit and
      reproducible method of locating; identifying, including and appraising
      appropriate trials. The results are synthesized considering the methodological
      rigor of included trials. While the meta-analysis quantitatively pools the
      results from individual included studies, the systematic review summarizes the
      findings as qualitative conclusions. These reviews are crux of evidence based
      dentistry for various stake-holders, i.e., clinicians, researchers and policy
      makers. Although the meticulous methodology of systematic review and meta
      analysis minimizes the elements of bias, yet the validity and reliability of
      their findings should be explored prior to translating their conclusions to
      practice. The goal of this paper is to familiarize readers with rationale,
      conduct and appraisal of systematic review and meta-analysis. Further, guidance
      is provided on tracing potential elements of bias in the review to enable readers
      to judge the quality of evidence generated from the review.

PMID- 28872992
TI  - Caries Progression Rate in Primary Teeth: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The rate of caries progression in primary teeth has rarely been
      studied, with most studies on early childhood caries reporting the percentage of
      lesions that remain at a certain stage of disease over a period of time. The aim
      of the present study was to examine the prevalence and behavior of proximal and
      occlusal carious lesions in primary teeth among children from low socio-economic
      status. STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective study was based on bite-wing radiographs
      of 95 children aged 5-12 taken at 6-12 months intervals, with a follow-up period
      of at least three years. One hundred thirty-five teeth and 141 tooth surfaces
      were examined. The degree of proximal surfaces and occlusal caries advancement
      was scored and statistical analyses (Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Kaplan
      Meier analysis) were performed to evaluate caries progression rate. RESULTS: The
      results revealed that approximately 0.8 years were required for a carious lesion
      to progress from the outer enamel to the dentino-enamel junction, and an
      additional 1.4 years for it to reach the inner part of the dentin. CONCLUSIONS:
      The caries progression rate found in the present study is more rapid than
      previously found and affects more the lower socio economic population.

PMID- 28872993
TI  - A Clinical Evaluation of Deproteinization and Different Cavity Designs on Resin
      Restoration Performance in MIH-Affected Molars: Two-Year Results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical effects of
      deproteinization of the hypomineralized enamel and different cavity designs on
      the performance of the composite resin restorations(CRRs) placed into the
      cavities of MIH (molar incisor hypomineralization)-affected molars. STUDY DESIGN:
      95 MIH-affected permanent first molars (PFMs) and 31 caries but not MIH-affected
      PFMs (126 teeth in total) were included in the study. The MIH-affected molars
      were divided into three groups. In Group I, all hypomineralized tissue was
      removed until healthy enamel was reached. In Group II, carious and cheesy
      hypomineralized tissue was removed until a reasonable resistance was detected in
      the hypomineralized tissue. In Group III, cavities designed as Group II,
      differently from this group deproteinization of the left hypomineralized tissue
      was performed prior to the placement of CRRs. Group IV served as the control
      group consisting of unaffected carious PFMs. Restorations were evaluated
      according to modified USPHS criteria for 24 months. RESULTS: The retention rates
      were 93.7% for Group I, 80.7% for Group II, 93.5% for Group III and 100% for
      Group IV. The success rate for the restorations in Group II proved significantly
      lower (p<0.05) than that of the other three groups. No significant difference in
      success rates was observed between Group I, Group III and Group IV (p>0.05) at
      the end of 24 months. CONCLUSIONS: Failure of the restorations was predominant in
      the group that the hypomineralized tissue was left surrounding the cavities.
      Deproteinization of the hypomineralized enamel was found to enhance the retention
      rates of CRRs.

PMID- 28872994
TI  - Comparison of Cytotoxicity of New Nanohybrid Composite, Giomer, Glass Ionomer and
      Silver Reinforced Glass Ionomer using Human Gingival Fibroblast Cell Line.
AB  - AIM: The objective of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic effects of new
      nanohybrid composite, giomer, conventional and resin modified and silver
      reinforced glass ionomer cements and compare the biocompatibility of these dental
      materials in cell culture. STUDY DESIGN: Five cylindrical specimens were made of
      each material, using a mold (2mm. thick and 5 mm in diameter). For HGF, cells
      were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium. After attaining 80% confluence, cells were
      treated with different doses of five tested materials for 24h. Then cell
      cytotoxicity was assessed using MTT assay. The data were analyzed using Kruskal
      Wallis and Dunn test. RESULTS: The materials evaluated on HGF cells, showed
      significantly more cytotoxicity in silver reinforced glass ionomer but nanohybrid
      composite shows mild cytotoxic effect. However, giomer shows no significant
      cytotoxicity and conventional and resin modified glass ionomer enhance cell
      proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: Silver reinforced glass ionomer induced a significant
      high cytotoxic effect over a wide range of concentration. Therefore, higher
      attention should be focused on this restorative dental material, which should be
      chosen for further investigations.

PMID- 28872995
TI  - Eva Vacuum-Formed Alternative Splinting of Alveolar Fractures in Primary
      Dentition: A Case Report.
AB  - : Alveolar fractures treatment includes repositioning of displaced segments and
      splinting. In children, splinting procedures may occasionally present clinical
      problems resulting from fewer teeth available for splinting or presence of
      occlusal disturbances. An alternative clinical approach for splinting in alveolar
      fractures of primary dentition is described. CLINICAL CASE: A 4.5-year-old girl
      was referred to our clinic 8 hours after a fall accident. Clinical examination
      revealed mandibular alveolar process segmental fracture in the right canine area
      with frontal dislodgement of the labial cortical bone resulting to occluding
      inability. The area was anaesthetized, cleaned and the dislodged bone was
      manually repositioned, followed by an EVA copolymer splint for fixation as a
      result of patient's deep bite impeding regular wire-composite splint. The cap
      splint that was fabricated on a cast made after an alginate impression, was set
      on the mandibular dentition and immobilized in the primary molars with acid-etch
      adhesive and flowable resin composite. Following splint removal after 4 weeks and
      follow-up visits, successful healing was observed clinically and radiographically
      with no pathological signs and symptoms. CONCLUSION: The described alternative
      splinting method in alveolar fractures of primary dentition is a valuable
      clinical tool for peediatric dentists, easily accepted by children in cases where
      regular splinting methods cannot be used.

PMID- 28872996
TI  - American Society of Clinical Oncology Statement on the Impact of Utilization
      Management Policies for Cancer Drug Therapies.

PMID- 28872997
TI  - Treatment of tumor lysis syndrome in children with leukemia/lymphoma in resource
      limited settings-Efficacy of a fixed low-dose rasburicase.
AB  - Rasburicase is a novel drug used during the management of tumor lysis syndrome.
      In countries with limited resources, it is frequently given at a lower dose and
      only for the treatment of established tumor lysis syndrome and not as
      prophylaxis. A retrospective study was conducted in the department of pediatric
      oncology at a tertiary referral oncology center in south India to analyze the use
      of rasburicase over the past 3 years. Data of all the 18 children (< 14 years of
      age) who were given rasburicase for the management of hyperuricemia were
      collected and analyzed. With a mean rasburicase dose of 0.085 mg/kg,
      hyperuricemia was managed efficiently without the need for a hemodialysis in 16
      children (88.8 %). The fall in mean serum uric acid levels after the
      administration of a single dose of rasburicase at 4, 24, and 48 hours was 31.18
      %, 64.8 %, and 74.5 %, respectively. Rasburicase efficiently decreases the uric
      acid levels to a normal level within a short period. In resource-limited
      settings, rasburicase at a lower dose is a promising option for managing
      hyperuricemia in the event of a tumor lysis syndrome.

PMID- 28872998
TI  - "Being Bipolar": A Qualitative Analysis of the Experience of Bipolar Disorder as
      Described in Internet Blogs.
AB  - In the light of debates about the nature of bipolar disorder (BD), the current
      article presents a thematic analysis of Internet "blogs" by self-identified
      bipolar sufferers. Extreme and frequent fluctuation of mood was considered the
      principal feature of BD, along with a broad range of other problems. BD was often
      invoked as an explanation for life difficulties or lack of achievement, and was
      mostly regarded as a brain disease. Most bloggers emphasized the importance of
      drug treatment, along with the self-management techniques. The blogs present a
      "bipolar identity," which is much broader than traditional definitions, are based
      on a medicalized model of the disorder, and are connected to the moral function
      of enabling people to externalize unwanted aspects of the self.

PMID- 28872999
TI  - Analysis of the early cellular and humoral responses of Galleria mellonella
      larvae to infection by Candida albicans.
AB  - Galleria mellonella larvae were administered an inoculum of Candida albicans and
      the response to infection over 24 hours was monitored. The yeast cell density in
      infected larvae declined initially but replication commenced six hours post
      infection. The hemocyte density decreased from 5.2 * 106/ml to 2.5 * 106/ml at 2
      hours but increased to 4.2 * 106 at 6 hours and decreased subsequently.
      Administration of beta - glucan to larvae also caused a fluctuation in hemocyte
      density (5.1 +/- 0.22 * 106/ml (0 hour) to 6.25 +/- 0.25 * 106/ml (6 hour) (p <
      0.05) to 5 +/- 2.7 * 106 (24 hour)) and the population showed an increase in the
      density of small, granular cells at 24 hours (p < 0.05). Hemocytes from larvae
      inoculated with beta - glucan for 6 or 24 hours showed faster killing of C.
      albicans cells (53 +/- 4.1% (p < 0.01), 64 +/- 3.7%, (p < 0.01), respectively)
      than hemocytes from control larvae (24 +/- 11%) at 60 min. Proteomic analysis
      indicated increased abundance of immune related proteins cecropin-A (5 fold) and
      prophenoloxidase-activating proteinase-1 (5 fold) 6 hours post infection but by
      24 hours there was elevated abundance of muscle (tropomyosin 2 (141 fold),
      calponin (66 fold), troponin I (62 fold)) and proteins indicative of cellular
      stress (glutathione-S-transferase-like protein (114 fold)), fungal dissemination
      (muscle protein 20-like protein (174 fold)) and tissue breakdown (mitochondrial
      cytochrome c (10 fold)). Proteins decreased in abundance at 24 hour included beta
      - 1,3 - glucan recognition protein precursor (29 fold) and prophenoloxidase
      subunit 2 (25 fold).

PMID- 28873000
TI  - Immunohistochemical Analysis Using Antipodocalyxin Monoclonal Antibody PcMab-47
      Demonstrates Podocalyxin Expression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas.
AB  - Podocalyxin is a CD34-related type I transmembrane protein that is highly
      glycosylated with N-glycan, O-glycan, and keratan sulfate. Podocalyxin was
      originally found in the podocytes of rat kidney and is reportedly expressed in
      many types of tumors, including brain tumors, colorectal cancers, and breast
      cancers. Overexpression of podocalyxin is an independent predictor of
      progression, metastasis, and poor outcome. We recently immunized mice with
      recombinant human podocalyxin, which was produced using LN229 glioblastoma cells,
      and produced a novel antipodocalyxin monoclonal antibody (mAb), PcMab-47, which
      reacts with endogenous podocalyxin-expressing cancer cell lines and normal cell
      lines independent of glycosylation in Western blot, flow cytometry, and
      immunohistochemical analyses. In this study, we performed immunohistochemical
      analysis against oral cancers using PcMab-47. PcMab-47-stained oral squamous cell
      carcinoma cells in a cytoplasmic pattern and detected 26/38 (68.4%) of oral
      squamous cell carcinoma cells on tissue microarrays. These results indicate that
      PcMab-47 is useful in detecting podocalyxin of oral cancers for
      immunohistochemical analysis.

PMID- 28873001
TI  - Toward the Drug Factory Microbiome: Microbial Community Variations in Antibiotic
      Producing Clean Rooms.
AB  - Microbiome projects are currently booming around the globe, enabled by advances
      in culture-independent microbial community analysis and high-throughput
      sequencing. One emerging application of microbiome science involves exploring
      microbial diversity in built environments, and one unexplored built environment
      is the pharmaceutical factory, notably factories producing antibiotics, as they
      could be enriched in antibiotic-resistant microbes. To examine the drug factory
      microbiome, we launched this interdisciplinary hypothesis-generating study to
      benchmark culture-independent microbiome analysis in drug manufacturing units
      producing antibiotics and nonantibiotic drugs, against traditional microbial
      identification and quantification techniques. Over a course of 4 months, we
      prospectively collected 234 samples from antibiotic (kanamycin and amoxicillin)
      and nonantibiotic (acetaminophen) production clean rooms within a pharmaceutical
      factory in Egypt. All samples were analyzed by traditional culture-based methods,
      and microbial communities of representative samples were profiled by16S rRNA gene
      sequencing. In addition, antibiotic resistance profiles of some samples were
      determined, and representative resistance genes were screened. The 16S rRNA
      analysis revealed a typical predominance of Proteobacteria (36%), Firmicutes
      (31%), and Bacteroidetes (16%). The microbial composition of the samples was
      highly affected by the use of water, environmental conditions during the
      production process, the presence of personnel, and the type of the product. The
      effect of these factors was confirmed by total aerobic microbial counts and
      identification of biomarker microbes. In conclusion, these observations can aid
      in the future for optimal design and management of pharmaceutical manufacturing
      units, and speak to a greater need for implementing microbiome research in the
      quality assurance of built environments.

PMID- 28873002
TI  - Reduced virulence of a pseudorabies virus isolate from wild boar origin in
      domestic pigs correlates with hampered visceral spread and age-dependent reduced
      neuroinvasive capacity.
AB  - Morbidity and mortality associated with pseudorabies virus (PRV) infection are
      dependent on the age of the pig and the virulence of the strain. PRV strains
      circulating in wild boar are considered to be low virulent, but no mechanistic
      explanation for their reduced virulence is available. Here infection of 2- and 15
      week-old domestic pigs with the PRV wild boar strain BEL24043 did not induce
      clinical symptoms in 15-week-old pigs, but resulted in important neurological and
      respiratory disease in 2-week-old piglets. A detailed study of the (neuro)
      pathogenesis and associated cytokine mRNA expression showed that the reduced
      virulence of the wild boar strain, compared to what was previously reported for
      the virulent domestic NIA3 strain, is due to a severely hampered spread to
      visceral organs in pigs of both age categories and to an efficient suppression of
      viral replication at primary replication sites of 15-week-old pigs and to a
      lesser extent in those of 2-week-old piglets. The age-dependent difference in
      induced symptoms seems to be due to an immature development state of the immune
      and/or nervous system in 2-week-old pigs. An extensive viral replication
      associated with a robust expression of cytokine-related mRNA was found in the
      olfactory bulb of 2-week-old piglets, correlating with observed neurological
      disease. Neuroinvasion also occurred via the trigeminal route in 2-week-old pigs,
      but viral replication was efficiently suppressed in the trigeminal ganglion in
      the presence of a moderate induction of cytokine-related mRNA. Viral replication
      in the peripheral and central nervous system of 15-week-old pigs was limited and
      efficiently suppressed.

PMID- 28873003
TI  - Coordination between bZIP28 and HSFA2 in the regulation of heat response signals
      in Arabidopsis.
AB  - Heat stress can have detrimental effects on yield production worldwide. Although
      bZIP28 and HSFA2 were identified as putative heat sensors in plants, coordination
      between them has not been uncovered. In this study, the deficiency in bZIP28 did
      not affect heat tolerance in plants. However, the plants lacking bZIP28 showed
      enhanced activation of APXs-, MBF1c-and HSPs-dependent pathways as well as higher
      level of HsfA2 transcripts and H2O2 accumulation, suggesting that these pathways
      might compensate for the deficiency in bZIP28 during heat stress. In addition,
      requirement of HSFA2 for the activation of APXs-dependent pathway during heat
      stress was supported by the analyses of plants lacking HSFA2. Our study
      demonstrated the flexible mode of heat response pathways involving bZIP28, HSFA2
      and ROS-dependent signals.

PMID- 28873005
TI  - Recycling the danger via lipid droplet biogenesis after autophagy.
AB  - Fatty acids are an important cellular energy source under starvation conditions.
      However, excessive free fatty acids (FFAs) in the cytoplasm cause lipotoxicity.
      Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which cells mobilize
      lipids and maintain a homeostatic level of fatty acids. Recent evidence suggests
      that cells can break down lipid droplets (LDs), the intracellular organelles that
      store neutral lipids, via PNPLA2/adipose triglyceride lipase and a selective type
      of macroautophagy/autophagy termed lipophagy, to release FFAs under starvation
      conditions. FFAs generated from LD catabolism are either transported to
      mitochondria for beta-oxidation or converted back to LDs. The biogenesis of LDs
      under starvation conditions is mediated by autophagic degradation of membranous
      organelles and requires diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1, which serves as an
      adaptive cellular protective mechanism against lipotoxicity.

PMID- 28873004
TI  - A glutathione peroxidase from Antarctic psychrotrophic bacterium
      Pseudoalteromonas sp. ANT506: Cloning and heterologous expression of the gene and
      characterization of recombinant enzyme.
AB  - A glutathione peroxidase (GPx) gene, designated as PsGPx, was cloned from
      Antarctic psychrotrophic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. ANT506 and expressed in
      Escherichia coli. The full-length PsGPx contained a 585-bp encoding 194 amino
      acids with predicted molecular masses of approx. 21.7 kDa. Multiple sequence
      alignments revealed that PsGPx belonged to the thioredoxin-like superfamily.
      PsGPx was heterologously overexpressed in E. coli, purified and characterized.
      The maximum catalytic temperature and pH value for recombinant PsGPx (rPsGPx)
      were 30 degrees C and pH 9.0, respectively. rPsGPx retained 45% of the maximum
      activity at 0 degrees C and exhibited high thermolability with a half-life of
      approx. 40 min at 40 degrees C. In addition, the enzymatic activity of rPsGPx was
      still manifested under 3 M NaCl. The Km and Vmax values of the recombinant enzyme
      using GSH and H2O2 as substrates were 1.73 mM and 16.28 nmol/mL/min versus 2.46
      mM and 21.50 nmol/mL/min, respectively.

PMID- 28873007
TI  - Bioengineering of crop plants for improved tetrahydrofolate production.
AB  - De novo synthesis of folates in plants is tightly regulated through feedback
      regulation of certain pathway catalysts. Recently, we investigated the prospects
      of incessant production of folates in an evolutionary conjunction, through the
      overexpression of feedback targeted and evolutionarily conserved heterologous
      E.coli dihydroneopterin aldolase (EcDHNA) in tobacco. 1 The enhanced production
      of folates in the transgenic lines was associated with differential allosteric
      regulatory cavities accessible at EcDHNA surface having critical amino-acid
      differences as Ile 64 (His_63), Val 70 (Phe_69), His 75 (Arg_78) and Arg 79
      (Glu_72). These structural characteristics are indicative of evolutionary
      signatures of the catalytic feedback-regulation of folate manufacturing. We
      exploited the biotechnological potential of such allosterically diverged trans
      DHNA for improved folate production in plants. Nonetheless, genetic manipulation
      of single enzymes modulating complex pathways such as folate biosynthesis is
      often inadequate to achieve desired phenotypes; therefore, multi-gene integration
      with explicit genic-combination for folate enrichment in plants has also been
      projected for future folate agri-biofortification schemes.

PMID- 28873008
TI  - Induction of adipose and hepatic SWELL1 expression is required for maintaining
      systemic insulin-sensitivity in obesity.
AB  - Obesity is associated with a loss of insulin-sensitivity and systemic
      dysglycemia, resulting in Type 2 diabetes, however the molecular mechanisms
      underlying this association are unclear. Through adipocyte patch-clamp studies,
      we recently showed that SWELL1 is required for the Volume-Regulated Anion Current
      (VRAC) in adipocytes and that SWELL1-mediated VRAC is activated by both
      mechanical and pathophysiological adipocyte expansion. We also demonstrated that
      adipocyte SWELL1 is required for maintaining insulin signaling and glucose
      homeostasis, particularly in the setting of obesity. Here we show that SWELL1
      protein expression is induced in subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and liver in the
      setting of obesity. Long- term AAV/rec2-shRNA mediated SWELL1 knock-down in both
      fat and liver are associated with increased weight gain, increased adiposity and
      exacerbated insulin resistance in mice raised on a high-fat diet. These data
      further support the notion that SWELL1 induction occurs in insulin- sensitive
      tissues (liver and adipose) in the setting of over-nutrition and contributes to
      improved systemic glycemia by supporting enhanced insulin-sensitivity.

PMID- 28873006
TI  - A role for cellular senescence in birth timing.
AB  - Senescence contributes to the local and systemic aging of tissues and has been
      associated with age-related diseases. Recently, roles for this process during
      pregnancy have come to light, the dysregulation of which has been associated with
      adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth. Here, we summarize recent
      advances that support a role for senescence in birth timing and propose new
      aspects of study in this emerging field.

PMID- 28873009
TI  - 89Zr-mAb3481 PET for HER3 tumor status assessment during lapatinib treatment.
AB  - Treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-driven breast cancer
      with tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib can induce a compensatory HER3 increase,
      which may attenuate antitumor efficacy. Therefore, we explored in vivo HER3 tumor
      status assessment after lapatinib treatment with zirconium-89 (89Zr)-labeled anti
      HER3 antibody mAb3481 positron emission tomography (PET). Lapatinib effects on
      HER3 cell surface expression and mAb3481 internalization were evaluated in human
      breast (BT474, SKBR3) and gastric (N87) cancer cell lines using flow cytometry.
      Next, in vivo effects of daily lapatinib treatment on89Zr-mAb3481 BT474 and N87
      xenograft tumor uptake were studied. PET-scans (BT474 only) were made after daily
      lapatinib treatment for 9 days, starting 3 days prior to 89Zr-mAb3481
      administration. Subsequently, ex vivo 89Zr-mAb3481 organ distribution analysis
      was performed and HER3 tumor levels were measured with Western blot and
      immunohistochemistry. In vitro, lapatinib increased membranous HER3 in BT474,
      SKBR3 and N87 cells, and consequently mAb3481 internalization 1.7-fold (BT474),
      1.4-fold (SKBR3) and 1.4-fold (N87). 89Zr-mAb3481 BT474 tumor uptake was
      remarkably high at SUVmean 5.6+/-0.6 (51.8+/-7.7%ID/g) using a 10 MUg 89Zr
      mAb3481 protein dose in vehicle-treated mice. However, compared to vehicle,
      lapatinib did not affect 89Zr-mAb3481 ex vivo uptake in BT474 and N87 tumors,
      while HER3 tumor expression remained unchanged. In conclusion, lapatinib
      increased in vitro HER3 tumor cell expression, but not when these cells were
      xenografted. 89Zr-mAb3481 PET accurately reflected HER3 tumor status. 89Zr
      mAb3481 PET showed high, HER3-specific tumor uptake, and such an approach might
      sensitively assess HER3 tumor heterogeneity and treatment response in patients.

PMID- 28873010
TI  - Regulatory interplay between LEAFY, APETALA1/CAULIFLOWER and TERMINAL FLOWER1:
      New insights into an old relationship.
AB  - The gene regulatory network comprised of LEAFY (LFY), APETALA1 (AP1), the AP1
      paralog CAULIFLOWER (CAL), and TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) is a major determinant of
      the flowering process in Arabidopsis thaliana. TFL1 activity in the shoot apical
      meristem provides inflorescence identity while the transcription factors LFY and
      AP1/CAL confer floral identity to emerging floral primordia. It has been thought
      that LFY and AP1/CAL control the onset of flowering in part by repressing TFL1
      expression in flowers. However, in the June issue of Plant Physiology, we
      reported that LFY and AP1 act antagonistically in the regulation of several key
      flowering regulators, including TFL1. Specifically, TFL1 transcription was
      suppressed by AP1 but promoted by LFY. Here, we present additional evidence for
      the role of LFY as an activator of TFL1 and propose that this regulatory activity
      is pivotal for the indeterminate growth of the SAM during the reproductive phase
      of development.

PMID- 28873011
TI  - Response to Blood Meal in the Fat Body of Anopheles stephensi Using Quantitative
      Proteomics: Toward New Vector Control Strategies Against Malaria.
AB  - Malaria remains a grand challenge for disruptive innovation in global health
      therapeutics and diagnostics. Anopheles stephensi is one of the major vectors of
      malaria in Asia. Vector and transmission control are key focus areas in the fight
      against malaria, a field of postgenomics research where proteomics can play a
      substantive role. Moreover, to identify novel strategies to control the vector
      population, it is necessary to understand the vector life processes at a global
      and molecular scale. In this context, fat body is a vital organ required for
      vitellogenesis, vector immunity, vector physiology, and vector-parasite
      interaction. Given its central role in energy metabolism, vitellogenesis, and
      immune function, the proteome profile of the fat body and the impact of blood
      meal (BM) ingestion on the protein abundances of this vital organ have not been
      investigated so far. Therefore, using a proteomics approach, we identified the
      proteins expressed in the fat body of An. stephensi and their differential
      expression in response to BM ingestion. In all, we identified 3,218 proteins in
      the fat body using high-resolution mass spectrometry, of which 483 were found to
      be differentially expressed in response to the BM ingestion. Bioinformatics
      analysis of these proteins underscored their role in amino acid metabolism,
      vitellogenesis, lipid transport, signal peptide processing, mosquito immunity,
      and oxidation-reduction processes. Interestingly, we identified five novel genes,
      which were found to be differentially expressed upon BM ingestion. Proteins that
      exhibited altered expression in the present study are potential targets for
      vector control strategies and development of transmission blocking vaccines in
      the fight against malaria.

PMID- 28873014
TI  - Impact of Preanalytical Variations in Blood-Derived Biospecimens on Omics
      Studies: Toward Precision Biobanking?
AB  - Research data and outcomes do vary across populations and persons, but this is
      not always due to experimental or true biological variation. Preanalytical
      components of experiments, be they biospecimen acquisition, preparation, storage,
      or transportation to the laboratory, may all contribute to apparent variability
      in research data, outcomes, and interpretation. The present review article and
      biobanking innovation analysis offer new insights with a summary of such
      preanalytical variables, for example, the type of blood collection tube,
      centrifugation conditions, long-term sample storage temperature, and duration, on
      output of omics analyses of blood-derived biospecimens: whole blood, serum,
      plasma, buffy coat, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Furthermore, we draw
      parallels from the field of precision medicine in this study, with a view to the
      future of "precision biobanking" wherein such preanalytical variations are
      carefully taken into consideration so as to minimize their influence on outcomes
      of omics data, analyses, and sensemaking, particularly in clinical omics
      applications. We underscore the need for using broadly framed, critical,
      independent, social and political science, and humanities research so as to
      understand the multiple possible future trajectories of, and the motivations and
      values embedded in, precision biobanking that is increasingly relevant in the
      current age of Big Data.

PMID- 28873012
TI  - Altered virulence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N8 reassortant
      viruses in mammalian models.
AB  - Recently identified highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N8 viruses (clade
      2.3.4.4) are relatively low to moderately pathogenic in mammalian hosts compared
      with HPAI H5N1 viruses. In this study, we generated reassortant viruses comprised
      of A/MD/Korea/W452/2014(H5N8) with substitution of individual genes from
      A/EM/Korea/W149/2006(H5N1) to understand the contribution of each viral gene to
      virulence in mammals. Substituting the PB2 gene segment or the NA gene segment of
      the H5N8 virus by that from the H5N1 virus resulted in significantly enhanced
      pathogenicity compared with the parental H5N8 virus in mice. Of note,
      substitution of the PB2 gene segment of the H5N8 virus by that from the H5N1
      virus resulted in a 1000-fold increase in virulence for mice compared with the
      parental virus (MLD50 decreased from 105.8 to 102.5 EID50). Further, the
      W452W149PB2 virus also induced the highest virus titers in lungs at all time
      points and the highest levels of inflammatory cytokine responses among all
      viruses tested. This high virulence phenotype was also confirmed by high viral
      titers in the respiratory tracts of infected ferrets. Further, a mini-genome
      assay revealed that W452W149PB2 has significantly increased polymerase activity
      (p < 0.001). Taken together, our study demonstrates that a single gene
      substitution from other avian influenza viruses can alter the pathogenicity of
      recent H5N8 viruses, and therefore emphasizes the need for intensive monitoring
      of reassortment events among co-circulating avian and mammalian viruses.

PMID- 28873013
TI  - Involvement of the specific nucleolar protein SURF6 in regulation of
      proliferation and ribosome biogenesis in mouse NIH/3T3 fibroblasts.
AB  - The nucleolar proteins which link cell proliferation to ribosome biogenesis are
      regarded to be potentially oncogenic. Here, in order to examine the involvement
      of an evolutionary conserved nucleolar protein SURF6/Rrp14 in proliferation and
      ribosome biogenesis in mammalian cells, we established stably transfected mouse
      NIH/3T3 fibroblasts capable of conditional overexpression of the protein. Cell
      proliferation was monitored in real-time, and various cell cycle parameters were
      quantified based on flow cytometry, Br-dU-labeling and conventional microscopy
      data. We show that overexpression of SURF6 accelerates cell proliferation and
      promotes transition through all cell cycle phases. The most prominent SURF6 pro
      proliferative effects include a significant reduction of the population doubling
      time, from 19.8 +/- 0.7 to 16.2 +/- 0.5 hours (t-test, p < 0.001), and of the
      length of cell division cycle, from 17.6 +/- 0.6 to 14.0 +/- 0.4 hours (t-test, p
      < 0.001). The later was due to the shortening of all cell cycle phases but the
      length of G1 period was reduced most, from 5.7 +/- 0.4 to 3.8 +/- 0.3 hours, or
      by ~30%, (t-test, p < 0.05). By Northern blots and qRT-PCR, we further showed
      that the acceleration of cell proliferation was concomitant with an accumulation
      of rRNA species along both ribosomal subunit maturation pathways. It is evident,
      therefore, that like the yeast homologue Rrp14, mammalian SURF6 is involved in
      various steps of rRNA processing during ribosome biogenesis. We concluded that
      SURF6 is a novel positive regulator of proliferation and G1/S transition in
      mammals, implicating that SURF6 is a potential oncogenic protein, which can be
      further studied as a putative target in anti-cancer therapy.

PMID- 28873016
TI  - Minimally Invasive Removal of Nonmobile Zygomatic Dental Implants Affected by
      Peri-Implantitis and Chronic Sinusitis.

PMID- 28873015
TI  - Periodontal pathogens promote epithelial-mesenchymal transition in oral squamous
      carcinoma cells in vitro.
AB  - Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is potentially involved in increasing
      metastasis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Periodontal pathogens are well
      known for their ability to induce intense immune responses and here we
      investigated whether they are involved in inducing EMT. Cultures of OSCC cell
      line (H400) were treated separately with heat-killed periodontal pathogens F.
      nucleatum, or P. gingivalis or E. coli LPS for 8 d. EMT-associated features were
      assayed using sq-PCR and PCR-arrays, for EMT-related markers, and ELISAs for TGF
      beta1, TNF-alpha, and EGF. The migratory ability of cells was investigated using
      scratch and transwell migration assays. E-cadherin and vimentin expression was
      assessed using immunofluorescence while Snail activation was detected with
      immunocytochemistry. In addition, the integrity of the cultured epithelial layer
      was investigated using transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER). PCR data
      showed significant upregulation after 1, 5, and 8 d in transcription of
      mesenchymal markers and downregulation of epithelial ones compared with
      unstimulated controls, which were confirmed by immunofluorescence. Periodontal
      pathogens also caused a significant increase in level of all cytokines
      investigated which could be involved in EMT-induction and Snail activation.
      Exposure of cells to the bacteria increased migration and the rate of wound
      closure. Downregulation of epithelial markers also resulted in a significant
      decrease in impedance resistance of cell monolayers to passage of electrical
      current. These results suggested that EMT was likely induced in OSCC cells in
      response to stimulation by periodontal pathogens.

PMID- 28873017
TI  - Reactive Fibrous Hyperplasia of Peri-implant Mucosa.

PMID- 28873018
TI  - TIP60 Histone Acetyltransferase in Adipose Tissue: Possible Linkages with Breast
      Cancer Development?

PMID- 28873019
TI  - The Effects of In-Hospital Intravenous Cold Saline in Postcardiac Arrest Patients
      Treated with Targeted Temperature Management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent data suggest that rapid infusion of intravenous (IV) cold
      saline for Targeted Temperature Management (TTM) after cardiac arrest is
      associated with higher rates of rearrest, pulmonary edema, and hypoxia, with no
      difference in neurologic outcomes or survival when administered by Emergency
      Medical Services. We sought to determine the effects of IV cold saline
      administration in the hospital setting in postcardiac arrest patients to achieve
      TTM and its effect on clinical parameters and neurologic outcomes. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: A cohort of 132 patients who completed TTM after cardiac arrest in a
      single institution was retrospectively studied. Patients who did not receive cold
      saline were matched by age, gender, Glasgow coma scale, downtime, and presenting
      rhythm to patients who received cold saline. Demographics, cardiac rearrest,
      diuretic use, time to target temperature, and Cerebral Performance Category (CPC)
      scores were recorded among other variables. Patients who received cold saline
      achieved target temperature sooner (280 vs. 345 minutes, p = 0.05), had lower
      lactate levels on day 1 (4.2 +/- 3.5 mM vs. 6.0 +/- 4.9 mM, p = 0.019) and day 2
      (1.3 +/- 2.2 mM vs. 2.2 +/- 3.2 mM, p = 0.046), increased incidence of pulmonary
      edema (51.5% vs. 31.8%, p = 0.006), and increased diuretic utilization (63.6% vs.
      42.4%, p = 0.014). There was no significant difference in cardiac rearrest,
      arterial oxygenation, and CPC scores (ps > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Infusion of IV
      cold saline is associated with shorter time to target temperature, increased
      incidence of pulmonary edema, and diuretic use, with no difference in cardiac
      rearrest, survival, and neurologic outcomes.

PMID- 28873020
TI  - Assessing the Detection of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus IgG in
      Suspected and Proven Cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
      Infection.
AB  - Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes severe respiratory
      disease with significant mortality. Two testing methods are currently used for
      MERS-CoV diagnostics: nucleic acid detection (the gold standard) and serological
      analysis. In this study, we evaluated the detection of MERS-CoV-IgG in suspected
      and proven cases of MERS-CoV infection. We enrolled 174 patients: 113 had
      respiratory symptoms/suspected MERS-CoV infection, 31 had confirmed influenza A
      or B infection, 23 had a recent confirmed MERS-CoV infection, and 7 had confirmed
      MERS-CoV infection 1 year before. All underwent MERS-CoV RNA and MERS-CoV-IgG
      testing. Thirty patients were found to be MERS-CoV RNA positive; however, during
      serological analysis, only 6 (3.4%) patients were positive for MERS-CoV-IgG, 1
      (0.6%) patient was equivocal, and 167 (96%) patients were negative. Among the
      serological positives, four were recently MERS-CoV RNA positive and two were MERS
      CoV RNA negative. No cross-reactivity to influenza A or B was detected. Based on
      the lack of correlation between nucleic acid and serological analysis, we
      conclude that MERS-CoV-IgG testing may not be suitable for diagnosing acute
      infection or estimating its prevalence during an outbreak. In addition, our
      findings show that MERS-CoV-IgG may not have significant value in determining
      disease severity or prognosis.

PMID- 28873021
TI  - Parameters to Define Peri-Implantitis: A Review and a Proposed Multi-Domain
      Scale.
AB  - Peri-implant diseases have received much attention since dental implants are
      generally used in contemporary dentistry. Several contributing factors associated
      with the development of peri-implant diseases have also been investigated. The
      prevalence of peri-implantitis has been reported but with great heterogeneity
      because of a lack of a universally accepted classification system that could
      define the extent and severity of peri-implantitis. Several parameters-including
      radiographic bone loss, probing depth, bleeding on probing, and suppuration-have
      been introduced in these reports to assist with clinical diagnosis. This article
      provides an objective evaluation of these parameters based on currently available
      evidence, offers further recommendations, and proposes a multidomain scale for
      diagnosis of peri-implantitis. Future investigations and modifications may be
      needed to develop a comprehensive, evidence-based classification system that
      addresses the multifactorial etiology of peri-implant diseases.

PMID- 28873022
TI  - Seroprevalence of Leptospirosis, Brucellosis, and Q Fever in a Wild Red Deer
      (Cervus elaphus) Population Kept in a Fenced Reserve in Absence of Contact with
      Livestock.
AB  - Wildlife health is of interest for public and animal health because wild animals
      have been identified as important sentinels for the surveillance for zoonotic
      pathogens. This work investigated Brucella spp., Coxiella burnetii, and
      Leptospira spp. infection seroprevalence in a free-ranging red deer population.
      The study was conducted in a fenced reserve with controlled hunting activity in
      central Spain with animals that did not have any contact with livestock. Sampling
      was performed at two time points before and 5 years after the implementation of
      new management measures, including a reduction in the red deer population in the
      reserve. In addition, the presence of Leptospira DNA was tested in placental and
      fetal samples from seropositive pregnant animals. Antibodies against Brucella and
      Coxiella were not detected in any sample. The seroprevalence of Leptospira was
      9.4% (13/137) in the first sampling for serovars Canicola and Panama. Five years
      later, the prevalence rose to 38.5% (97/252) with Pomona, the only serovar
      detected. Animals older than 2 years (50%; 70/140) were more likely to be Pomona
      seropositive than animals <=2 years old (25.2%; 27/107; p < 0.001). Leptospira
      DNA was not detected in any sample tested. In conclusion, wild red deer in this
      area without contact with livestock seem not to play an important role in
      Brucella spp. and C. burnetii maintenance. The high seroprevalence of Leptospira
      spp. serogroup Pomona could indicate a risk for people with narrow contact with
      these animals, but the carrier status was not assessed. Consequently, it is
      unknown if red deer would represent a risk for human infection. Considering that
      wild boar could be the source of infection to red deer, the role of wild boar in
      the spread of leptospirosis and the risk for human infection should be
      investigated.

PMID- 28873023
TI  - Influence of Bisphosphonates on Implant Failure Rates and Characteristics of
      Postmenopausal Woman Mandibular Jawbone.
AB  - Rehabilitation of oral function using dental implants is clinically effective and
      highly predictable. Both bone quantity and quality at the implant site affect the
      success of the procedure. However, the effect of bisphosphonate (BP) use on
      mandibular bone quality has not been well documented. The purpose of this
      retrospective cohort study was to evaluate the bone mineral density (BMD) and
      cortical thickness of the mandible, as well as the influence of BP use on early
      implant failure. Twenty-five female patients (>=60 years of age) were selected
      from among 93 candidates with partially edentulous posterior mandibles. Eleven
      patients had received BP therapy using alendronate (BP group), and 14 patients
      had received alternate therapy (non-BP group). Cortical and trabecular BMD was
      measured using quantitative computed tomography. Cortical thickness was measured
      using computed tomography. The BMDs and cortical thicknesses of the two groups
      were compared. The results were as follows: (1) Cortical BMD was significantly
      higher in the BP group, (2) trabecular BMD was not affected by BP use, and (3)
      Cortical thickness was affected by the duration of BP use. These results indicate
      that BP use affects the quality and quantity of the cortical bone in the
      partially edentulous posterior mandible of patients with osteoporosis, which
      should be considered prior to treatment with dental implants in patients taking
      BPs.

PMID- 28873024
TI  - Serological Survey of Zoonotic Viruses in Invasive and Native Commensal Rodents
      in Senegal, West Africa.
AB  - Increasing studies on rodent-borne diseases still highlight the major role of
      rodents as reservoirs of numerous zoonoses of which the frequency is likely to
      increase worldwide as a result of accelerated anthropogenic changes, including
      biological invasions. Such a situation makes pathogen detection in rodent
      populations important, especially in the context of developing countries
      characterized by high infectious disease burden. Here, we used indirect
      fluorescent antibody tests to describe the circulation of potentially zoonotic
      viruses in both invasive (Mus musculus domesticus and Rattus rattus) and native
      (Mastomys erythroleucus and Mastomys natalensis) murine rodent populations in
      Senegal (West Africa). Of the 672 rodents tested, we reported 22 seropositive
      tests for Hantavirus, Orthopoxvirus, and Mammarenavirus genera, and no evidence
      of viral coinfection. This study is the first to report serological detection of
      Orthopoxvirus in rodents from Senegal, Mammarenavirus in R. rattus from Africa,
      and Hantavirus in M. m. domesticus and in M. erythroleucus. Further specific
      identification of the viral agents highlighted here is urgently needed for
      crucial public health concerns.

PMID- 28873025
TI  - Analysis of head impacts during sub-elite hurling practice sessions.
AB  - The reported incidence of head and neck injuries in hurling is 0.12 per 1000
      hours, but no previous research has quantified head impact characteristics in
      this sport. Here, a wireless accelerometer and gyroscope captured head impacts,
      in 20 senior club level hurling players. Peak linear and rotational acceleration
      and impact location were recorded during three hurling training sessions, each
      player participating once. A mean of 27.9 impacts (linear acceleration >10g) per
      player, per session were recorded; 1314 impacts during a total exposure time of
      247 minutes. Only 2.6% impacts had peak linear acceleration of >70g and 6.2% had
      peak rotational acceleration >7900 rad/s2. There were significant differences in
      the number and magnitude of impacts, quantified by the accelerometer, between
      three training sessions of differing intensity (n2 0.03-0.09, p < 0.001). This
      study represents a first step in quantifying head impacts during hurling,
      demonstrating the feasibility of this technology in the field. The sensors were
      able to discriminate between sessions of varying intensity. These data can be
      used to develop athlete monitoring protocols and may be useful in developing
      innovative helmet-testing standards for hurling. The potential for this
      technology to provide feedback has clinical utility for team medical personnel.

PMID- 28873026
TI  - Impact of Ionizing Radiation on the Cardiovascular System: A Review.
AB  - Radiation therapy has become one of the main forms of treatment for various types
      of cancers. Cancer patients previously treated with high doses of radiation are
      at a greater risk to develop cardiovascular complications later in life. The
      heart can receive varying doses of radiation depending on the type of therapy and
      can even reach doses in the range of 17 Gy. Multiple studies have highlighted the
      role of oxidative stress and inflammation in radiation-induced cardiovascular
      damage. Doses of ionizing radiation below 200 mGy, however, have been shown to
      have beneficial effects in some experimental models of radiation-induced damage,
      but low-dose effects in the heart is still debated. Low-dose radiation may
      promote heart health and reduce damage from oxidative stress and inflammation,
      however there are few studies focusing on the impact of low-dose radiation on the
      heart. In this review, we summarize recent studies from animal models and human
      data focusing on the effects and mechanism(s) of action of radiation-induced
      damage to the heart, as well as the effects of high and low doses of radiation
      and dose rates.

PMID- 28873027
TI  - The CGL1 (HeLa * Normal Skin Fibroblast) Human Hybrid Cell Line: A History of
      Ionizing Radiation Induced Effects on Neoplastic Transformation and Novel Future
      Directions in SNOLAB.
AB  - Cellular transformation assays have been utilized for many years as powerful in
      vitro methods for examining neoplastic transformation potential/frequency and
      mechanisms of carcinogenesis for both chemical and radiological carcinogens.
      These mouse and human cell based assays are labor intensive but do provide
      quantitative information on the numbers of neoplastically transformed foci
      produced after carcinogenic exposure and potential molecular mechanisms involved.
      Several mouse and human cell systems have been generated to undertake these
      studies, and they vary in experimental length and endpoint assessment. The CGL1
      human cell hybrid neoplastic model is a non-tumorigenic pre-neoplastic cell that
      was derived from the fusion of HeLa cervical cancer cells and a normal human skin
      fibroblast. It has been utilized for the several decades to study the
      carcinogenic/neoplastic transformation potential of a variety of ionizing
      radiation doses, dose rates and radiation types, including UV, X ray, gamma ray,
      neutrons, protons and alpha particles. It is unique in that the CGL1 assay has a
      relatively short assay time of 18-21 days, and rather than relying on
      morphological endpoints to detect neoplastic transformation utilizes a simple
      staining method that detects the tumorigenic marker alkaline phosphatase on the
      neoplastically transformed cells cell surface. In addition to being of human
      origin, the CGL1 assay is able to detect and quantify the carcinogenic potential
      of very low doses of ionizing radiation (in the mGy range), and utilizes a
      neoplastic endpoint (re-expression of alkaline phosphatase) that can be detected
      on both viable and paraformaldehyde fixed cells. In this article, we review the
      history of the CGL1 neoplastic transformation model system from its initial
      development through the wide variety of studies examining the effects of all
      types of ionizing radiation on neoplastic transformation. In addition, we discuss
      the potential of the CGL1 model system to investigate the effects of near zero
      background radiation levels available within the radiation biology lab we have
      established in SNOLAB.

PMID- 28873028
TI  - Randomized Prospective Evaluation of Intraoperative Intravenous Acetaminophen in
      Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy.
AB  - Objective To establish the safety and efficacy of single-dose intraoperative
      intravenous (IV) acetaminophen in postoperative pain management following
      adenotonsillectomy in addition to a standardized regimen of oral pain medication.
      Study Design Randomized, controlled prospective clinical trial. Setting Single
      academic medical center. Subjects and Methods Patients between the ages of 3 and
      17 years scheduled for tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy by a single surgeon
      between December 2014 and November 2016 were recruited. Patients were randomly
      assigned to 1 of 2 groups; group 1 received a single intraoperative dose of IV
      acetaminophen, and group 2 did not. Induction and maintenance of anesthesia, as
      well as operative technique, were standardized. Nursing pain scores, pain
      medications administered, and recovery times were reviewed during the 24-hour
      postoperative period. Postoperative pain regimen included standing alternating
      oral acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Results In total, 260 patients were included in
      the study, and 131 (50.4%) received a single intraoperative dose of IV
      acetaminophen. Patients receiving IV acetaminophen were more likely to experience
      postoperative nausea and vomiting than patients who did not receive IV
      acetaminophen (1.53% vs 0.00%, P = .016). There were no significant differences
      noted for postoperative pain scores, requirements for breakthrough pain
      medications, time to discharge from the recovery room or hospital, or
      postoperative complications. Conclusion The use of a single intraoperative dose
      of IV acetaminophen was associated with minimal additional adverse effects.
      However, a single intraoperative IV dose of acetaminophen added to standard
      narcotic and nonnarcotic pain medication does not provide a statistically
      significant improvement in pain control.

PMID- 28873029
TI  - CYP450 Genotype/Phenotype Concordance in Mexican Amerindian Indigenous
      Populations-Where to from Here for Global Precision Medicine?
AB  - Global precision medicine demands characterization of drug metabolism and
      phenotype variation in diverse populations, including the indigenous societies. A
      related question is the extent to which CYP450 drug metabolizing enzyme genotype
      and phenotype data are concordant and whether they can be used interchangeably.
      These issues are increasingly debated as precision medicine continues to expand
      as a popular research topic worldwide. We report here the first study in
      clinically relevant CYP450 drug metabolism phenotypes and genotypes in Mexican
      Amerindian indigenous subjects. In a large sample of 450 unrelated and medication
      free Mexican Amerindian indigenous healthy persons from four Mexican states
      (Chihuahua, Durango, Nayarit, and Sonora), we performed multiplexed phenotyping
      for the CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 drug metabolizing enzymes
      using the CEIBA cocktail and genotyped the same pathways for functional
      polymorphic variation. Remarkable interindividual variability was found for the
      actual drug metabolizing capacity of all the enzymes analyzed, and, more
      specifically, the metabolic ratios calculated were significantly different across
      individuals with different number of active alleles for CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and
      CYP2D6. The drug metabolizing capacity "predicted" from the genotype determined
      was not in accordance with the actual capacity "measured" by phenotyping in
      several individuals for CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6. Consequently, a more
      extensive genotyping of the main CYP enzymes, including rare variants, together
      with the analysis of the actual drug metabolizing capacity using an appropriate
      phenotyping approach will add valuable information for accurate drug metabolism
      studies, especially useful in understudied populations such as Mexican
      Amerindians. In sum, this study demonstrates that current personalized medicine
      strategies based on "predicted" phenotype from genotyping of alleles with high
      frequency in European populations are not adequate for Mestizos and Native
      American populations.

PMID- 28873030
TI  - Differences in hamstring activation characteristics between the acceleration and
      maximum-speed phases of sprinting.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate activation characteristics of the biceps femoris
      long head (BFlh) and semitendinosus (ST) muscles during the acceleration and
      maximum-speed phases of sprinting. Lower-extremity kinematics and
      electromyographic (EMG) activities of the BFlh and ST muscles were examined
      during the acceleration sprint and maximum-speed sprint in 13 male sprinters
      during an overground sprinting. Differences in hamstring activation during each
      divided phases and in the hip and knee joint angles and torques at each time
      point of the sprinting gait cycle were determined between two sprints. During the
      early stance of the acceleration sprint, the hip extension torque was
      significantly greater than during the maximum-speed sprint, and the relative EMG
      activation of the BFlh muscle was significantly higher than that of the ST
      muscle. During the late stance and terminal mid-swing of maximum-speed sprint,
      the knee was more extended and a higher knee flexion moment was observed compared
      to the acceleration sprint, and the ST muscle showed higher activation than that
      of the BFlh. These results indicate that the functional demands of the medial and
      lateral hamstring muscles differ between two different sprint performances.

PMID- 28873033
TI  - Corrigendum.
AB  - Zhu J, Lu T, Chen F, et al. Choline protects against intestinal failure
      associated liver disease in parenteral nutrition-fed immature rats [published
      online November 17, 2016]. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. (Original DOI:
      10.1177/0148607116677048 ).

PMID- 28873031
TI  - Surgical Treatment for Early Stage Glottic Carcinoma with Involvement of the
      Anterior Commissure.
AB  - Objective Assessment of the value of transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) compared
      with open surgery (OS) for early stage squamous cell carcinoma of the glottic
      larynx with special regard to involvement of the anterior commissure (AC). Study
      Design Case series with chart review. Setting Tertiary care otolaryngology
      clinic. Subjects and Methods Review of clinicopathological data of all patients
      with previously untreated T1a, T1b, and T2 glottic squamous cell carcinoma of the
      larynx who were consecutively enrolled over a 10-year period (January 1, 1992, to
      December 31, 2002). Results Local recurrence rate was 20.4% (10 of 49) for TLM
      and 10.7% (3 of 28) for OS. Comparison of the TLM and OS groups regarding local
      recurrence rates revealed a significant difference only for tumors invading the
      AC ( P = .046). Within the TLM group, tumors with involvement of the AC showed a
      significantly higher recurrence rate (38.1%; 8 of 21) compared with tumors
      without involvement of the AC (7.1%; 2 of 28; P = .008). In the OS group,
      involvement of the AC revealed no significant difference ( P = .45). The overall
      survival in both groups was comparable in both groups (TLM, 93.9%; OS, 89.3%; P =
      .47). Conclusion TLM and OS are equally effective surgical treatments for early
      stage glottic cancer without involvement of the AC, with selection of treatment
      based on pretreatment endoscopy. However, TLM is associated with less morbidity.
      In case of invasion of the AC, OS yields lower recurrence rates.

PMID- 28873034
TI  - The Absence of HCV RNA and NS5A Protein in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Is
      a Prognostic Tool for Sustained Virological Response.
AB  - Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is a major health concern worldwide. The
      presence of both HCV viral RNA and NS5A proteins in peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells (PBMCs) indicate the efficacy of the treatment during sustained virological
      response (SVR) and end of treatment response (ETR). The main objective of this
      study was to detect the absence or presence of HCV RNA and NS5A proteins in
      PBMCs. Blood samples were taken from selected patients (Islamabad, Pakistan)
      before treatment, at ETR, and during SVR. Two hundred HCV responders to pegylated
      IFN-alpha-2a plus ribavirin were selected. HCV RNA was extracted from the
      patients to determine the viral load by reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase
      chain reaction before treatment. Out of 200 patients, 152 (76%) and 48 (24%)
      achieved positive and negative ETR, respectively. Among ETR patients, 134 (88.2%)
      showed SVR, whereas 18 (11.8%) displayed relapse. The male to female ratio was
      92:108 with mean age of 37.4 years. Among 152 ETR-positive patients, 29 (19%)
      patients' PBMCs were positive for HCV RNA and 27 (17.8%) were positive for NS55A
      proteins. Patients having HCV RNA in PBMCs showed higher relapse frequency
      compared with patients lacking it. Similarly, patients having NS5A protein showed
      significantly higher relapse frequency compared with patients lacking it. All
      PBMC-positive samples were of genotype 3a. In addition, patients with positive
      NS5A in their PBMCs showed greater risk of relapse compared with patients having
      HCV RNA. We conclude that the absence of both viral HCV and proteins can be used
      as an indicator for diagnosis of SVR in the future.

PMID- 28873035
TI  - Potential Reservoir and Associated Factors for West Nile Virus in Three Distinct
      Climatological Zones.
AB  - West Nile virus (WNV) is a zoonotic single-strand RNA arbovirus (family
      Flaviviridae: Flavivirus), transmitted among avian hosts in enzootic cycles by a
      mosquito vector. The virus has a significant disease effect on humans and equines
      when it bridges into a cycle with various sequelae with epidemic potential. This
      study was carried out to identify the potential spectrum of WNV hosts in three
      geographic areas with climatologically distinct features: Malaysia, Qatar, and
      the United States of America (U.S.). Serum samples were collected from avian and
      mammal species suspected to be reservoirs for the virus at these areas in a cross
      sectional epidemiologic study. The samples were tested for the presence of
      antibodies against the virus using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data on
      putative risk factors were also collected and analyzed for significance of
      association with seropositivity using the logistic regression analysis. Among the
      tested avian and mammalian species, raccoons had the highest seroconversion rate
      (54%) followed by crows (30%), horses (27%), camels (10%), other avian species
      (7%), and canine species (3%). It was almost twice as likely to detect
      seroconversion among these mammalian and avian species in the fall in comparison
      to other seasons of the year. Only mammalian and avian species and seasons of the
      year were significantly associated with the likelihood of seroconversion to WNV
      when we controlled for other factors in the multivariate analysis. Our data from
      the U.S. showed that raccoons and camels are susceptible to infection by the
      virus and may play a role in the perpetuation of endemic foci for the disease.

PMID- 28873036
TI  - The Effect of Action Observation Training on Balance and Sit to Walk in Chronic
      Stroke: A Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an action observation
      training on balance and sit to walk in chronic stroke. Twenty-four chronic stroke
      patients participated in this study. Participants were randomly allocated to
      either the landscape imagery observation physical training group (LIOPT) or the
      action observation physical training group (AOPT). LIOPT observed a landscape
      picture for 2 min 30 s while the AOPT group observed related video recording.
      Both groups underwent a physical training session after the observation session
      for 12 min 30 s and the sessions were repeated twice a day, 3 times a week for 6
      weeks. Outcome measures included Time Up and Go Test (TUG), Dynamic Gait Index
      (DGI), Weight Distribution Index (WDI), and limit of stability (LOS). Between
      group and within-group comparisons were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test
      and Wilcoxon signed rank test, respectively. The AOPT and LIOPT groups have shown
      statistically significant differences in TUG, DGI, WDI, and LOS over time.
      However, no significant difference was observed in terms of TUG, DGI and WDI, but
      only in LOS between groups. These findings suggest that action observation
      training and physical training are effective to improve sit to walk and balance
      ability of chronic stroke patients.

PMID- 28873037
TI  - Breeding Zebrafish: A Review of Different Methods and a Discussion on
      Standardization.
AB  - In recent years, a rapidly increasing number of scientific papers have been
      published that utilize zebrafish (Danio rerio) as an alternative model organism
      in the study of a wide range of biological phenomena from cancer to behavior.
      This is, in large part, due to the prolific nature, relative ease of maintenance,
      and sufficiently high genetic homology of zebrafish to humans. With the surge of
      zebrafish use in animal research, the variations in methodologies of breeding and
      husbandry of this species have also increased. Investigators usually focus on the
      development and implementation of rigorous laboratory control that is specific to
      their studies. We suggest that the same scrutiny and attention may be required
      for the methods of breeding and housing of zebrafish. This article reviews a
      variety of zebrafish husbandry and breeding techniques and conditions employed
      around the world. It discusses factors ranging from numerous aspects of
      rearing/housing conditions through the sex ratio of the breeding group to the
      composition of the diet of zebrafish that may vary across laboratories. It
      provides some feedback on the potential pros and cons of the different methods.
      It argues that there is a substantial need for systematic analysis of these
      methods, that is, the effects of environmental factors on zebrafish health and
      breeding. It also discusses the question as to whether some degree of
      standardization of these methods is needed to enhance cross-laboratory
      comparability of results.

PMID- 28873040
TI  - The Ways Women Age: Using and Refusing Cosmetic Intervention.

PMID- 28873039
TI  - Especial Skills in Experienced Archers.
AB  - Especial skills are skills that are distinctive by virtue of massive practice
      within the narrow contexts in which they are expressed. In the first
      demonstration of especial skills, Keetch, Schmidt, Lee, and Young (2005) showed
      that experienced basketball players are better at shooting baskets from the foul
      line, where they had massive amounts of practice, than would expected from their
      success at other locations closer to or farther from the basket. Similar results
      were obtained for baseball throwing. The authors asked whether especial skills
      hold in archery, a sport requiring less movement. If the emergence of especial
      skills depends on large-scale movement, one would expect archery to escape so
      called especialism. But if the emergence of especial skills reflects a more
      general tendency for highly specific learning, experienced archers should show
      especial skills. The authors obtained evidence consistent with the latter
      prediction. The expert archers did much better at their most highly practiced
      distance than would be expected by looking at the overall function relating
      shooting score to distance. We offer a mathematical model to account for this
      result. The findings attest to the generality of the especial skills phenomenon.

PMID- 28873041
TI  - "Booster Days": An educational initiative to develop a community of practice of
      primary care collaborative memory clinics.
AB  - This study explores the value of a Booster Day education initiative for
      clinicians working in interprofessional Primary Care Collaborative Memory Clinics
      (PCCMC) to share updates in dementia care, challenging cases, key lessons
      learned, and best practices, as a mechanism to foster learning and support the
      PCCMC Community of Practice (CoP). Between 2010 and 2016, 17 annual Booster Days
      were delivered to health professionals who completed the PCCMC training program.
      All participants were invited to complete an evaluation survey in which they
      identified the ways in which the sessions have been helpful; 89% (1361/1530)
      completed surveys. The Booster Days were valued as opportunities for networking
      to learn from other clinicians, fostering a sense of community, learning new
      information, learning to support practice improvements, and team building. An
      annual Booster Day that incorporates active participant engagement, information
      sharing, and networking may effectively support CoPs, learning, team building,
      and practice change within interprofessional teams.

PMID- 28873038
TI  - Autophagy-mediated regulation of phytohormone metabolism during rice anther
      development.
AB  - Autophagy has recently been shown to be required for postmeiotic anther
      development including anther dehiscence, programmed cell death-mediated
      degradation of the tapetum and pollen maturation in rice. Several phytohormones
      are known to play essential roles during male reproductive development including
      pollen maturation. However, the relationship between phytohormone metabolism and
      autophagy in plant reproductive development is unknown. We here comprehensively
      analyzed the effect of autophagy disruption on phytohormone contents in rice
      anthers at the flowering stage, and found that endogenous levels of active-forms
      of gibberellins (GAs) and cytokinin, trans-zeatin, were significantly lower in
      the autophagy-defective mutant, Osatg7-1, than in the wild type. Treatment with
      GA4 partially recovered maturation of the mutant pollens, but did not recover the
      limited anther dehiscence as well as sterility phenotype. These results suggest
      that autophagy affects metabolism and endogenous levels of GAs and cytokinin in
      rice anthers. Reduction in bioactive GAs in the autophagy-deficient mutant may
      partially explain the defects in pollen maturation of the autophagy-deficient
      mutant, but tapetal autophagy also plays other specific roles in fertilization.

PMID- 28873042
TI  - Too many Asians in universities? The effect of social dominance orientation on
      support for admissions limits.
AB  - This paper tests the hypothesis that support for limits on the admission of Asian
      students into universities is motivated by people's social motivation-namely, the
      desire to maintain the status hierarchy. Study 1 found that, among participants
      who evaluated a proposed limit to the number of Asian applicants admitted to
      universities, social dominance orientation (SDO) was positively related to policy
      support. Conversely, among participants who evaluated a proposed limit on White
      admits, SDO was negatively related to policy support. Study 2 found that the
      perceived threat of the group getting admitted at high rates explained
      differential support of policies that seek to limit group-specific admissions. In
      all, these findings suggest that attitudes toward changes in campus demographics
      may be rooted in a desire to maintain the status hierarchy.

PMID- 28873043
TI  - Recovering Process from Child Sexual Abuse During Adulthood from an Integrative
      Approach to Solution-Focused Therapy: A Case Study.
AB  - In recent times, strengths-based recovery approaches that focus on the present
      and build strategies that look toward the future have become popular. However,
      some cases require the consideration of experiences from previous stages of the
      clients' development. This single-case study explores the psychotherapeutic
      process of a middle-aged woman who presented with a history of child sexual abuse
      (incest) and a long-term adult diagnosis of depression that was treated in public
      health services. This psychotherapy involved an integrative approach to solution
      focused therapy; specifically, the approach proposed by Yvonne Dolan to work with
      adult survivors of sexual abuse, in conjunction with techniques and strategies
      from the transtheoretical model. Measures incorporating therapeutic working
      alliance and outcomes were administered over sessions. Results showed positive
      outcomes from this therapeutic intervention, which remained at 3-month and 12
      month follow-ups. Implications for practitioners' specialist practice in health
      services are discussed, given the complexity of comorbid mental health conditions
      with a history of child sexual abuse.

PMID- 28873044
TI  - Loaded hip thrust-based PAP protocol effects on acceleration and sprint
      performance of handball players.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the acute effects of two barbell hip thrust-based
      (BHT) post-activation potentiation (PAP) protocols on subsequent sprint
      performance. Using a crossover design, eighteen handball athletes performed
      maximal 15-m sprints before and 15s, 4min and 8min after two experimental
      protocols consisting of BHT loaded with either 50% or 85% 1RM (50PAP and 85PAP,
      respectively), in order to profile the transient PAP effects. The resulting
      sprint performances were significantly impaired at 15s only after the 85PAP
      protocol, which induced likely and very likely greater decreases compared to the
      50PAP. At 4min and 8min, significant improvements and very likely beneficial
      effects were observed in the 10m and 15m performances following both protocols.
      Significant differences were found when comparing the two PAPs over time; the
      results suggested very likely greater performance improvements in 10m following
      the 85PAP after 4min and 8min, and possible greater performance improvements in
      15m after 4min. Positive correlations between BHT 1RMs values and the greatest
      individual PAP responses on sprint performance were found. This investigation
      showed that both moderate and intensive BHT exercises can induce a PAP response,
      but the effects may differ according to the recovery following the potentiating
      stimulus and the individual's strength level.

PMID- 28873045
TI  - Gadolinium Chelate Safety in Pregnancy: Barely Detectable Gadolinium Levels in
      the Juvenile Nonhuman Primate after in Utero Exposure.
AB  - Purpose To determine whether gadolinium remains in juvenile nonhuman primate
      tissue after maternal exposure to intravenous gadoteridol during pregnancy.
      Materials and Methods Gravid rhesus macaques and their offspring (n = 10) were
      maintained, as approved by the institutional animal care and utilization
      committee. They were prospectively studied as part of a pre-existing ongoing
      research protocol to evaluate the effects of maternal malnutrition on placental
      and fetal development. On gestational days 85 and 135, they underwent placental
      magnetic resonance imaging after intravenous gadoteridol administration.
      Amniocentesis was performed on day 135 prior to administration of the second dose
      of gadoteridol. After delivery, the offspring were followed for 7 months. Tissue
      samples from eight different organs and from blood were harvested from each
      juvenile macaque. Gadolinium levels were measured by using inductively coupled
      plasma mass spectrometry. Results Gadolinium concentration in the amniotic fluid
      was 0.028 * 10-5 %ID/g (percentage injected dose per gram of tissue) 50 days
      after administration of one gadoteridol dose. Gadolinium was most consistently
      detected in the femur (mean, 2.5 * 10-5 %ID/g; range, [0.81-4.1] * 10-5 %ID/g)
      and liver (mean, 0.15 * 10-5 %ID/g; range, [0-0.26] * 10-5 %ID/g). Levels were
      undetectable in the remaining sampled tissues, with the exception of one juvenile
      skin sample (0.07 * 10-5 %ID/g), one juvenile spleen sample (0.039 * 10-5 %ID/g),
      and one juvenile brain (0.095 * 10-5 %ID/g) and kidney (0.13 * 10-5 %ID/g)
      sample. Conclusion The presence of gadoteridol in the amniotic fluid after
      maternal injection enables confirmation that it crosses the placenta. Extremely
      low levels of gadolinium are found in juvenile macaque tissues after in utero
      exposure to two doses of gadoteridol, indicating that a very small amount of
      gadolinium persists after delivery. (c) RSNA, 2017.

PMID- 28873047
TI  - Gadolinium Retention in the Rat Brain: Assessment of the Amounts of Insoluble
      Gadolinium-containing Species and Intact Gadolinium Complexes after Repeated
      Administration of Gadolinium-based Contrast Agents.
AB  - Purpose To evaluate the speciation of gadolinium-containing species after
      multiple administrations of the gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs)
      gadodiamide and gadoteridol and to quantify the amount of intact gadolinium
      complexes and insoluble gadolinium-containing species. Materials and Methods A
      total dose of 13.2 mmol per kilogram of body weight of each GBCA was administered
      in healthy Wistar rats over a period of 8 weeks. Three days after the final
      administration, rats were sacrificed, and the brains were excised and divided
      into three portions. Each portion of brain homogenate was divided into two parts,
      one for determination of the total gadolinium concentration with inductively
      coupled plasma mass spectrometry and one for determination of the amount of
      intact GBCA and gadolinium-containing insoluble species. Relaxometric
      measurements of gadodiamide and gadolinium trichloride in the presence of
      polysialic acid were also performed. Results The mean total gadolinium
      concentrations for gadodiamide and gadoteridol, respectively, were 0.317 MUg/g +/
      0.060 (standard deviation) and 0.048 MUg/g +/- 0.004 in the cortex, 0.418 MUg/g
      +/- 0.078 and 0.051 MUg/g +/- 0.009 in the subcortical brain, and 0.781 MUg/g +/-
      0.079 and 0.061 MUg/g +/- 0.012 in the cerebellum. Gadoteridol comprised 100% of
      the gadolinium species found in rats treated with gadoteridol. In rats treated
      with gadodiamide, the largest part of gadolinium retained in brain tissue was
      insoluble species. In the cerebellum, the amount of intact gadodiamide accounts
      for 18.2% +/- 10.6 of the total gadolinium found therein. The mass balance found
      for gadolinium implies the occurrence of other soluble gadolinium-containing
      species (approximately 30%). The relaxivity of the gadolinium polysialic acid
      species formed in vitro was 97.8 mM/sec at 1.5 T and 298 K. Conclusion
      Gadoteridol was far less retained, and the entire detected gadolinium was intact
      soluble GBCA, while gadodiamide yielded both soluble and insoluble gadolinium
      containing species, with insoluble species dominating. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online
      supplemental material is available for this article.

PMID- 28873046
TI  - Functional Brain Connectome and Its Relation to Hoehn and Yahr Stage in Parkinson
      Disease.
AB  - Purpose To use resting-state functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and graph
      theory approaches to investigate the brain functional connectome and its
      potential relation to disease severity in Parkinson disease (PD). Materials and
      Methods This case-control study was approved by the local research ethics
      committee, and all participants provided informed consent. There were 153 right
      handed patients with PD and 81 healthy control participants recruited who were
      matched for age, sex, and handedness to undergo a 3-T resting-state functional MR
      examination. The whole-brain functional connectome was constructed by
      thresholding the Pearson correlation matrices of 90 brain regions, and the
      topologic properties were analyzed by using graph theory approaches.
      Nonparametric permutation tests were used to compare topologic properties, and
      their relationship to disease severity was assessed. Results The functional
      connectome in PD showed abnormalities at the global level (ie, decrease in
      clustering coefficient, global efficiency, and local efficiency, and increase in
      characteristic path length) and at the nodal level (decreased nodal centralities
      in the sensorimotor cortex, default mode, and temporal-occipital regions; P <
      .001, false discovery rate corrected). Further, the nodal centralities in left
      postcentral gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus correlated negatively with
      Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale III score (P = .038, false discovery
      rate corrected, r = -0.198; and P = .009, false discovery rate corrected, r = 
      0.270, respectively) and decreased with increasing Hoehn and Yahr stage in
      patients with PD. Conclusion The configurations of brain functional connectome in
      patients with PD were perturbed and correlated with disease severity, notably
      with those responsible for motor functions. These results provide topologic
      insights into understanding the neural functional changes in relation to disease
      severity of PD. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for this
      article. An earlier incorrect version of this article appeared online. This
      article was corrected on September 11, 2017.

PMID- 28873048
TI  - Gene Ontology-Based Analysis of Zebrafish Omics Data Using the Web Tool
      Comparative Gene Ontology.
AB  - Gene Ontology (GO) analysis is a powerful tool in systems biology, which uses a
      defined nomenclature to annotate genes/proteins within three categories:
      "Molecular Function," "Biological Process," and "Cellular Component." GO analysis
      can assist in revealing functional mechanisms underlying observed patterns in
      transcriptomic, genomic, and proteomic data. The already extensive and increasing
      use of zebrafish for modeling genetic and other diseases highlights the need to
      develop a GO analytical tool for this organism. The web tool Comparative GO was
      originally developed for GO analysis of bacterial data in 2013 (
      www.comparativego.com ). We have now upgraded and elaborated this web tool for
      analysis of zebrafish genetic data using GOs and annotations from the Gene
      Ontology Consortium.

PMID- 28873049
TI  - Biomarkers of antioxidant status and lipid peroxidation in elderly patients with
      hypertension.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to examine selected parameters
      of the blood redox system in elderly patients with hypertension.examine selected
      parameters of the blood redox system in elderly patients with hypertension.
      METHODS: We analyzed differences in redox-associated molecules and enzymes among
      elderly hypertensive subjects (age above 65 years, n = 49) and two groups of
      normotensive subjects (<65 years old - Control group I; n = 27, and >65 - Control
      group II; n = 30). RESULTS: Decreased activity of antioxidant enzymes, increased
      lipid peroxidation and reduced production of nitric oxide were observed in
      hypertensive subjects, compared to healthy younger controls, or those of the same
      age. In healthy controls, an age-related decrease in the production of nitric
      oxide and the activities of SOD-1 and GPx-1 was also evident. The pathology of
      hypertension was characterised by further, significant decreases in the values of
      these parameters. When the subgroups of females and males were compared to their
      respective controls, a compromised redox balance was observed that was more
      evident in female hypertensives. DISCUSSION: Hypertension in elderly patients is
      accompanied by changes in biomarkers of antioxidant status and lipid peroxidation
      status, which significantly differ from those observed in healthy ageing
      subjects. Our study also suggests that the relationship of gender and changes in
      redox balance with regard to hypertension should be further explored.

PMID- 28873051
TI  - Mental Health of Transgender People in Hong Kong: A Community-Driven, Large-Scale
      Quantitative Study Documenting Demographics and Correlates of Quality of Life and
      Suicidality.
AB  - A community-driven survey of 106 transgender people (the first such survey in
      Hong Kong) showed that: (1) more than half the sample (50.9%) had a university
      degree or higher qualification; (2) despite this, 43.4% had a monthly income
      below HK$6,000 (about USD$775); (3) 66% reported "fair" or "poor" quality of
      life; (4) 67% of the sample (87.1% of respondents aged 15-24 years) had
      contemplated suicide; and (5) 20.8% of the sample (35.5% of respondents aged 15
      24 years) had attempted suicide. It was found that (1) those who were single, had
      a lower monthly income, and identified as transgender women reported lower
      quality of life; and (2) those who were younger and on a lower income expressed
      higher suicidality. The findings suggest that service providers and policy makers
      urgently need to address the mental health needs of transgender people,
      particular younger transgender people.

PMID- 28873050
TI  - Randomized pilot trial measuring knowledge acquisition of opioid education in
      emergency department patients using a novel media platform.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The number of active opioid analgesic prescriptions has risen
      steadily, causing increases in nonmedical opioid use, addiction, and overdose.
      Insufficient focus on patient discharge instructions has contributed to lack of
      patient awareness regarding dangers of opioids. This study examines whether an
      educational Khan Academy-style animation discharge instruction on the dangers and
      safe usage of opioid analgesics elicits higher knowledge acquisition than current
      standard of care. Additionally, it measures the feasibility of implementing this
      video discharge instruction in the emergency department (ED). METHODS: Fifty-two
      English-speaking patients aged 18 years or older receiving an opioid prescription
      were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomized into 2 groups. The standard
      of care group received verbal instruction and an informational sheet, whereas the
      video animation group received a 6-minute video on proper usage of opioids in
      addition to standard of care. Video content was sourced from samhsa.gov and
      administered within the ED prior to discharge. Both groups received a 26-question
      test regarding the dangers and safe usage of opioids immediately after education.
      An unpaired t test compared knowledge acquisition between the 2 groups. RESULTS:
      Fifty-four patients were approached, 52 patients enrolled; 27 in the standard
      group and 25 in the animation group. The standard of care group averaged 65%
      knowledge acquisition (16.8/26 correct), whereas the animation group averaged 82%
      acquisition (21.2/26 correct). The video animation significantly increased
      patient knowledge acquisition about opioid medications' risks and proper usage
      and disposal (P = .001). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that medical knowledge
      acquisition is improved in the video animation group compared with the current
      standard of care (P = .001). It can also be concluded that it is feasible to
      implement a novel media platform to educate patients receiving opioid analgesics
      in the ED (96.1%).

PMID- 28873052
TI  - The Importance of Holding Water: Salinity and Chemosensory Cues Affect Zebrafish
      Behavior.
AB  - The zebrafish is becoming a popular model organism for studying numerous
      biological phenomena. Among these are brain function and behavior, including
      social behavior. Although usually neglected, few studies have already
      demonstrated that even trivial factors, such as features of the holding water may
      alter zebrafish behavior. In this study, we employed a 2 * 2 between-subject
      experimental design, exposing zebrafish to water of either high or low salinity
      and with chemosensory/olfactory cues of conspecifics either present or absent
      (while maintaining pH, temperature, nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels
      constant). We presented moving images of conspecifics to experimental zebrafish
      and analyzed their behavioral responses using video tracking. We found
      significant interaction between salinity and olfactory cues. For example,
      zebrafish exposed to their home tank water (high salinity with
      chemosensory/olfactory cues present) stayed significantly closer to the bottom of
      their tank compared with fish exposed to the other water conditions, and fish
      exposed to water with chemosensory/olfactory cues significantly reduced their
      turns compared with fish exposed to water without chemosensory/olfactory cues.
      These differences signify the impact environmental factors, for example,
      fluctuations in salinity level and presence or absence of chemosensory/olfactory
      cues, may have on zebrafish behavior. We conclude that maintaining stable
      environmental conditions and specifying and reporting them precisely are
      important for reducing error variation and for making results across independent
      studies more comparable.

PMID- 28873054
TI  - The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time.
AB  - Clarity and accuracy of reporting are fundamental to the scientific process.
      Readability formulas can estimate how difficult a text is to read. Here, in a
      corpus consisting of 709,577 abstracts published between 1881 and 2015 from 123
      scientific journals, we show that the readability of science is steadily
      decreasing. Our analyses show that this trend is indicative of a growing use of
      general scientific jargon. These results are concerning for scientists and for
      the wider public, as they impact both the reproducibility and accessibility of
      research findings.

PMID- 28873055
TI  - SAW Synthesis With IDTs Array and the Inverse Filter: Toward a Versatile SAW
      Toolbox for Microfluidics and Biological Applications.
AB  - Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are versatile tools to manipulate fluids at small
      scales for microfluidics and biological applications. A nonexhaustive list of
      operations that can be performed with SAW includes sessile droplet displacement,
      atomization, division, and merging but also the actuation of fluids embedded in
      microchannels or the manipulation of suspended particles. However, each of these
      operations requires a specific design of the wave generation system, the so
      called interdigitated transducers (IDTs). Depending on the application, it might
      indeed be necessary to generate focused or plane, propagating or standing, and
      aligned or shifted waves. Furthermore, the possibilities offered by more complex
      wave fields such as acoustical vortices for particle tweezing and liquid twisting
      cannot be explored with classical IDTs. In this paper, we show that the inverse
      filter technique coupled with an IDTs array enables us to synthesize all
      classical wave fields used in microfluidics and biological applications with a
      single multifunctional platform. It also enables us to generate swirling SAWs,
      whose potential for the on-chip synthesis of tailored acoustical vortices has
      been demonstrated lately. The possibilities offered by this platform are
      illustrated by performing many operations successively on sessile droplets with
      the same system.

PMID- 28873053
TI  - C. elegans avoids toxin-producing Streptomyces using a seven transmembrane domain
      chemosensory receptor.
AB  - Predators and prey co-evolve, each maximizing their own fitness, but the effects
      of predator-prey interactions on cellular and molecular machinery are poorly
      understood. Here, we study this process using the predator Caenorhabditis elegans
      and the bacterial prey Streptomyces, which have evolved a powerful defense: the
      production of nematicides. We demonstrate that upon exposure to Streptomyces at
      their head or tail, nematodes display an escape response that is mediated by
      bacterially produced cues. Avoidance requires a predicted G-protein-coupled
      receptor, SRB-6, which is expressed in five types of amphid and phasmid
      chemosensory neurons. We establish that species of Streptomyces secrete
      dodecanoic acid, which is sensed by SRB-6. This behavioral adaptation represents
      an important strategy for the nematode, which utilizes specialized sensory organs
      and a chemoreceptor that is tuned to recognize the bacteria. These findings
      provide a window into the molecules and organs used in the coevolutionary arms
      race between predator and potential prey.

PMID- 28873056
TI  - Foreground Detection With Simultaneous Dictionary Learning and Historical Pixel
      Maintenance.
AB  - Foreground detection is fundamental in surveillance video analysis and meaningful
      toward object tracking and higher level tasks, such as anomaly detection and
      activity analysis. Nevertheless, existing methods are still limited in accurately
      detecting the foreground due to the complex scene settings. To robustly handle
      the diverse background variations and foreground challenges, this paper proposes
      a Background REpresentation approach With Dictionary Learning and Historical
      Pixel Maintenance (BREW-DLHPM). Specifically, a dictionary learning problem is
      formulated at the frame level to adaptively represent the background signals with
      the varied structure information captured, while a pixel-level maintenance is
      exploited to grasp the dynamic nature of historical information under the help of
      the learned background. The simultaneous utilization of dictionary learning and
      historical pixel maintenance facilitates the accurate description of the
      background and thus guides a wise foreground detection decision. The proposed
      BREW-DLHPM has been evaluated on the prestigious change detection challenge data
      set against 11 state-of-the-art foreground detection approaches and encouraging
      performances have been achieved by our method.

PMID- 28873057
TI  - Similarity of Scenic Bilevel Images.
AB  - This paper presents a study of bilevel image similarity, including new objective
      metrics intended to quantify similarity consistent with human perception, and a
      subjective experiment to obtain ground truth for judging the performance of the
      objective similarity metrics. The focus is on scenic bilevel images, which are
      complex, natural or hand-drawn images, such as landscapes or portraits. The
      ground truth was obtained from ratings by 77 subjects of 44 distorted versions of
      seven scenic images, using a modified version of the SDSCE testing methodology.
      Based on hypotheses about human perception of bilevel images, several new metrics
      are proposed that outperform existing ones in the sense of attaining
      significantly higher Pearson and Spearman-rank correlation coefficients with
      respect to the ground truth from the subjective experiment. The new metrics
      include adjusted percentage error, bilevel local direction, and connected
      components comparison. Combinations of these metrics are also proposed, which
      exploit their complementarity to attain even better performance. These metrics
      and the ground truth are then used to assess the relative severity of various
      kinds of distortion and the performance of several lossy bilevel compression
      methods.

PMID- 28873058
TI  - DehazeNet: An End-to-End System for Single Image Haze Removal.
AB  - Single image haze removal is a challenging ill-posed problem. Existing methods
      use various constraints/priors to get plausible dehazing solutions. The key to
      achieve haze removal is to estimate a medium transmission map for an input hazy
      image. In this paper, we propose a trainable end-to-end system called DehazeNet,
      for medium transmission estimation. DehazeNet takes a hazy image as input, and
      outputs its medium transmission map that is subsequently used to recover a haze
      free image via atmospheric scattering model. DehazeNet adopts convolutional
      neural network-based deep architecture, whose layers are specially designed to
      embody the established assumptions/priors in image dehazing. Specifically, the
      layers of Maxout units are used for feature extraction, which can generate almost
      all haze-relevant features. We also propose a novel nonlinear activation function
      in DehazeNet, called bilateral rectified linear unit, which is able to improve
      the quality of recovered haze-free image. We establish connections between the
      components of the proposed DehazeNet and those used in existing methods.
      Experiments on benchmark images show that DehazeNet achieves superior performance
      over existing methods, yet keeps efficient and easy to use.

PMID- 28873059
TI  - Traction-assisted Internal Negative Pressure Wound Therapy With Bridging
      Retention Sutures to Facilitate Staged Closure of High-risk Wounds Under Tension.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Loss of domain often complicates attempts at delayed wound
      closure in regions of high tension. Wound temporization with traction-assisted
      internal negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), using bridging retention
      sutures, can minimize the effects of edema and elastic recoil that contribute to
      progressive tissue retraction over time. The investigators evaluated the safety
      and efficacy of this technique for complex wound closure. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Between May 2015 and November 2015, 18 consecutive patients underwent staged
      reconstruction of complex and/or contaminated soft tissue defects utilizing
      either conventional NPWT or modified NPWT with instillation and continuous
      dermatotraction via bridging retention sutures. Instillation of antimicrobial
      solution was reserved for wounds containing infected/exposed hardware or
      prosthetic devices. Demographic data, wound characteristics, reconstructive
      outcomes, and complications were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Eighteen
      wounds were treated with traction-assisted internal NPWT using the conventional
      (n = 11) or modified instillation (n = 7) technique. Defects involved the lower
      extremity (n = 14), trunk (n = 3), and proximal upper extremity (n = 1), with
      positive cultures identified in 12 wounds (67%). Therapy continued for 3 to 8
      days (mean, 4.3 days), resulting in an average wound surface area reduction of
      78% (149 cm2 vs. 33 cm2) at definitive closure. Seventeen wounds (94%) were
      closed directly, whereas the remaining defect required coverage with a local
      muscle flap and skin graft. At final follow-up (mean, 12 months), 89% of wounds
      remained closed. In 2 patients with delayed, recurrent periprosthetic infection
      (mean, 7.5 weeks), serial debridement/hardware removal mandated free tissue
      transfer for composite defect reconstruction. CONCLUSION: Traction-assisted
      internal NPWT provides a safe and effective alternative to reduce wound burden
      and facilitate definitive closure in cases where delayed reconstruction of high
      tension wounds is planned.

PMID- 28873060
TI  - A Retrospective Crossover Study of the Use of Aseptically Processed Placental
      Membrane in the Treatment of Chronic Diabetic Foot Ulcers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In a recently published, prospective randomized controlled trial
      (RCT) comparing aseptically processed dehydrated human amnion/chorion allograft
      (dHACA) to standard of care (SOC), 85% wound closure rates were reported in the
      dHACA arm while only 25% of patients in the SOC arm healed. OBJECTIVE: The
      purpose of this retrospective crossover study is to evaluate the effectiveness of
      dHACA in those patients that failed to respond to the SOC treatments and who
      exited the original study after failing up to 12 weeks of SOC treatment.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with nonhealing wounds from the SOC arm after
      exit from the original study were offered weekly adjunctive applications of dHACA
      (AmnioBand; Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, Edison, NJ) for up to 12
      weeks. The primary endpoint was the proportion of wounds completely healed at 12
      weeks. Secondary endpoints included the difference in wound area from baseline to
      the end of study and the percentage area reduction (PAR). RESULTS: Eleven
      patients were eligible to participate; wounds for 9 of the 11 patients healed
      (82%). The mean wound area decreased from 1.7 cm2 to 0.2 cm2 (P = .0005), with a
      corresponding mean PAR of 92%. Of the 2 wounds that failed to heal, 1 diabetic
      foot ulcer (DFU) decreased in area by 91% and the other by 26%. CONCLUSION: The
      results of this crossover study support the conclusions of the original RCT,
      which determined that aseptically processed dHACA is an effective means to treat
      recalcitrant DFUs. Further studies, including comparative clinical trials, may
      offer additional information on this unique aseptically processed graft in the
      healing of indolent wounds.

PMID- 28873062
TI  - A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial to Assess Use of 2%
      Lidocaine Irrigation to Prevent Abdominal Surgical Site Infection.
AB  - Surgical site infections (SSI) are the third most common nosocomial infection,
      increasing morbidity and mortality rates of patients as well as their costs of
      care, but longer-term follow up studies and data are limited. Lidocaine, in
      addition to being a readily available and accessible local anesthetic, is known
      to have bacteriostatic properties. A prospective, descriptive, controlled,
      randomized clinical trial was conducted among patients scheduled to undergo
      abdominal sur- gery in the general surgical unit of a Mexican hospital. The
      purpose of the study was to assess the incidence of SSIs in general and to
      compare the 30-day postoperative infection outcomes of saline irrigation to
      saline irrigation followed by 2% lidocaine application before skin closure in
      wounds grade II to IV per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surgical
      wound classi cation. All patients received systemic antibiotics before surgery.
      Eighty-four (84) patients (40 men and 44 women; mean age 49.02 +/- 19.9 years,
      range 18-92 years), 39 in the control and 45 in the experimental group, completed
      the 30-day follow-up without experiencing nonsurgery-related complications. The
      overall incidence of SSIs (speci cally, seromas and abscesses) was 17.86%; the
      incidence of abscess formation was 7.14%. The overall incidence of SSIs in the
      lidocaine group was 8.89% compared to 28.2% in the saline only group (P = .02);
      the relative risk was 1.8 (P = .02; 95% CI 1.19-2.74) and 0.45 (P = .02; 95% CI
      0.19-1.06) in the saline and lidocaine groups, respectively. Hemoglobin and
      albumin levels were signi cantly lower in patients who did compared to those who
      did not develop an SSI (P = .02 and .04, respectively). No signi cant SSI rate
      differences were seen between patients who did and did not have a drain placed.
      In patients who developed an abscess, Escherichia coli was the most prevalent
      bacteria and present in 40% of collected uid. While carefully controlled clinical
      studies are needed, lidocaine appears to be a viable option to decrease the
      incidence of SSI if applied as irrigation before wound closure in patients
      undergoing abdominal surgery.

PMID- 28873063
TI  - A Descriptive, Cross-sectional Study to Assess Quality of Life and Sexuality in
      Turkish Patients with a Colostomy.
AB  - A stoma affects personality, self-esteem, and body image, inevitably impacting
      lifestyle and quality of life (QOL). A descriptive, cross-sectional study was
      conducted between May 1, 2015 and May 1, 2016 to evaluate the effect of a stoma
      on sexual function and QOL among patients receiving care in a general surgery
      clinic of a university hospital in the western region of Turkey.Eligibility
      requirements included patients willing to participate, >18 years of age, with a
      colostomy for at least 4 months, who were married and/or with a sexual partner
      and in otherwise good physical and mental health with no rectal nerve damage or
      receiving radio- or chemotherapy. Data were collected during face-to-face
      interviews. Demographic variables (age, gender, body mass index [BMI],
      educational status, income level); and clinical information (duration of the
      precipitating disease, and stoma duration, cause, and type) were collected, and
      the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) measure; the Index of Female
      Sexual Function (IFSF); and a Stoma Quality of Life Scale (SQOLS) were completed.
      Statistical analyses were performed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's
      correlation coefficient, and the Mann-Whitney U test. Of the 57 study
      participants, 57.9% were >60 years old (mean age: 59.81 +/- 10.12), more than
      half (57.92%) were male, 33.3% had a permanent stoma, and the mean duration of
      the stoma was 9.60 +/- 6.40 months. Scores for all 3 outcomes were low; mean IIEF
      score was 3.64 +/- 2.47 (range 2-10), mean IFSF score was 13.04 +/- 5.19 (range 9
      29), and mean SQOLS was 45.10 +/- 18.88 (range 0-100). Eighteen (18) of the 33
      men (54.5%) had severe, 5 (15.2%) had moderate, and 9 (27.3%) had mild erectile
      dysfunction. The IFSF total score for all female patients was <30; all female
      patients experienced sexual dysfunction. A negative correlation between age and
      the SQOLS subscale sexuality/body image was found (rs = -0.305, P <.05). A
      positive correlation was found among BMI, erectile function (rs = 0.350, P <.05),
      sexual desire (rs = 0.474, P <.01), and intercourse satisfaction (rs = 0.385, P
      <.05). These study results provide reference data for future study and underscore
      the importance of assessing and addressing QOL and sexuality concerns among
      patients with a colostomy.

PMID- 28873064
TI  - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Exercise Intervention for the Treatment
      of Calf Muscle Pump Impairment in Individuals with Chronic Venous Insufficiency.
AB  - Exercise intervention for individuals with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) and
      venous leg ulcers (VLUs) is recommended to improve function of the calf muscle
      pump (CMP). A systematic review with meta-analysis was conducted to measure the
      effects of exercise (including function of the CMP, ankle strength, range of
      motion [ROM], and healing rates) for VLUs. Four (4) databases (Cumulative Index
      to Nursing and Applied Health Literature, 1981; MEDLINE, 1964; Scopus, 1966; and
      EMBASE, 1947) were searched for relevant articles from the date of index
      inception to January 2016. All study types that evaluated the effect of exercise
      on the function of the CMP in patients with CVI were included; narrative and
      systematic studies were excluded. All data were extracted by 1 reviewer onto a
      predetermined form and verified by a second reviewer. Data extracted included
      number of patients, primary diagnosis, patient demographics, study location,
      wound characteristics, inclusion/exclusion criteria, exercise group details,
      control group details, co-interventions, primary outcome measures, secondary
      outcome measures, wound healing measures, blinding, intention to treat, and study
      design. A total of 1325 articles was screened; 14 met the inclusion criteria
      (total study participants = 519). CMP hemodynamics were assessed using air
      plethysmography measurement results from the included studies. A meta-analysis of
      8 articles was distilled to 3 with relevant data (83 participants) that found a
      significant increase on CMP ejection fraction in favor of the exercise group
      (Hedge's g = 0.83; 95% CI 0.35-1.30, P <.001) compared to control. CMP residual
      venous fraction also favored the exercise group (Hedge's g = 0.42; 95% CI -0.03
      0.862, P = .066). Ankle ROM was higher in the exercise group (116 participants;
      Hedge's g = 0.62; 95% CI -0.15-1.39, P = .116); however, these differences were
      not significantly different from controls. Exercise directed at improving calf
      muscle strength and ankle ROM for individuals with or at risk for VLUs improves
      CMP hemodynamics and function. Additional research using larger sample sizes to
      confirm the role of exercise in healing VLUs is warranted.

PMID- 28873065
TI  - Mechanisms of tail resorption during anuran metamorphosis.
AB  - Amphibian metamorphosis has historically attracted a good deal of scientific
      attention owing to its dramatic nature and easy observability. However, the
      genetic mechanisms of amphibian metamorphosis have not been thoroughly examined
      using modern techniques such as gene cloning, DNA sequencing, polymerase chain
      reaction or genomic editing. Here, we review the current state of knowledge
      regarding molecular mechanisms underlying tadpole tail resorption.

PMID- 28873066
TI  - Preliminary study of the association between the elimination parameters of
      phenytoin and phenobarbital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Therapeutic drug monitoring is essential for both phenytoin and
      phenobarbital therapy given their narrow therapeutic indexes. Nevertheless, the
      measurement of either phenytoin or phenobarbital concentrations might not be
      available in some rural hospitals. Information assisting individualized phenytoin
      and phenobarbital combination therapy is important. This study's objective was to
      determine the relationship between the maximum rate of metabolism of phenytoin
      (Vmax) and phenobarbital clearance (CLPB), which can serve as a guide to
      individualized drug therapy. METHODS: Data on phenytoin and phenobarbital
      concentrations of 19 epileptic patients concurrently receiving both drugs were
      obtained from medical records. Phenytoin and phenobarbital pharmacokinetic
      parameters were studied at steady-state conditions. The relationship between the
      elimination parameters of both drugs was determined using simple linear
      regression. RESULTS: A high correlation coefficient between Vmax and CLPB was
      found [r=0.744; p<0.001 for Vmax (mg/kg/day) vs. CLPB (L/kg/day)]. Such a
      relatively strong linear relationship between the elimination parameters of both
      drugs indicates that Vmax might be predicted from CLPB and vice versa.
      CONCLUSIONS: Regression equations were established for estimating Vmax from CLPB,
      and vice versa in patients treated with combination of phenytoin and
      phenobarbital. These proposed equations can be of use in aiding individualized
      drug therapy.

PMID- 28873067
TI  - Association of histological chorioamnionitis and magnesium sulfate treatment in
      singleton and dichorionic twin pregnancies with preterm premature rupture of
      membranes: preliminary observations.
AB  - Objective To evaluate the possible association between antenatal magnesium
      sulfate treatment with histological chorioamnionitis in patients with singleton
      or dichorionic twins that had preterm premature rupture of the membranes. Methods
      This was an observational study performed in patients admitted to the hospital
      with rupture of membranes before 34 weeks' gestation. The primary outcome was
      histological chorioamnionitis and the primary predictor was antenatal magnesium
      sulfate treatment. A logistic regression model was used without consideration of
      other antenatal medical treatments. Results Among 107 patients with preterm
      deliveries, 57 were admitted to the hospital before 34 weeks' gestation with
      preterm premature rupture of membranes. Fifty-cases were excluded from the
      analysis because they were admitted after 34 weeks' gestation, delivered before
      24 weeks' gestation or had intrauterine fetal demise or monochorionic twins. The
      logistic regression analysis adjusting for maternal age, gravidity, parity,
      multiple gestation, gestational age at delivery, and birthweight, indicated that
      patients with singleton pregnancies and histological chorioamnionitis had
      received magnesium sulfate antenatally more frequently (chi2=6.46; P=0.01). The
      association between histological chorioamnionitis and magnesium sulfate treatment
      was not found among patients with dichorionic twin pregnancies with one intact
      gestational sac. Conclusions In this cohort of patients with preterm premature
      rupture of membranes admitted to the hospital before 34 week's gestation, those
      with singleton pregnancies treated antenatally with magnesium sulfate for
      neonatal neuroprotection had a greater rate of histological chorioamnionitis.

PMID- 28873068
TI  - Neuroinflammation and physical exercise as modulators of adult hippocampal neural
      precursor cell behavior.
AB  - The dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is a plastic structure where adult
      neurogenesis constitutively occurs. Cell components of the neurogenic niche are
      source of paracrine as well as membrane-bound factors such as Notch, Bone
      Morphogenetic Proteins, Wnts, Sonic Hedgehog, cytokines, and growth factors that
      regulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis and cell fate decision. The integration
      and coordinated action of multiple extrinsic and intrinsic cues drive a
      continuous decision process: if adult neural stem cells remain quiescent or
      proliferate, if they take a neuronal or a glial lineage, and if new cells
      proliferate, undergo apoptotic death, or survive. The proper balance in the
      molecular milieu of this neurogenic niche leads to the production of neurons in a
      higher rate as that of astrocytes. But this rate changes in face of
      microenvironment modifications as those driven by physical exercise or with
      neuroinflammation. In this work, we first review the cellular and molecular
      components of the subgranular zone, focusing on the molecules, active signaling
      pathways and genetic programs that maintain quiescence, induce proliferation, or
      promote differentiation. We then summarize the evidence regarding the role of
      neuroinflammation and physical exercise in the modulation of adult hippocampal
      neurogenesis with emphasis on the activation of progression from adult neural
      stem cells to lineage-committed progenitors to their progeny mainly in murine
      models.

PMID- 28873069
TI  - Fred: a GPU-accelerated fast-Monte Carlo code for rapid treatment plan
      recalculation in ion beam therapy.
AB  - Ion beam therapy is a rapidly growing technique for tumor radiation therapy. Ions
      allow for a high dose deposition in the tumor region, while sparing the
      surrounding healthy tissue. For this reason, the highest possible accuracy in the
      calculation of dose and its spatial distribution is required in treatment
      planning. On one hand, commonly used treatment planning software solutions adopt
      a simplified beam-body interaction model by remapping pre-calculated dose
      distributions into a 3D water-equivalent representation of the patient
      morphology. On the other hand, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, which explicitly
      take into account all the details in the interaction of particles with human
      tissues, are considered to be the most reliable tool to address the complexity of
      mixed field irradiation in a heterogeneous environment. However, full MC
      calculations are not routinely used in clinical practice because they typically
      demand substantial computational resources. Therefore MC simulations are usually
      only used to check treatment plans for a restricted number of difficult cases.
      The advent of general-purpose programming GPU cards prompted the development of
      trimmed-down MC-based dose engines which can significantly reduce the time needed
      to recalculate a treatment plan with respect to standard MC codes in CPU
      hardware. In this work, we report on the development of fred, a new MC simulation
      platform for treatment planning in ion beam therapy. The code can transport
      particles through a 3D voxel grid using a class II MC algorithm. Both primary and
      secondary particles are tracked and their energy deposition is scored along the
      trajectory. Effective models for particle-medium interaction have been
      implemented, balancing accuracy in dose deposition with computational cost.
      Currently, the most refined module is the transport of proton beams in water:
      single pencil beam dose-depth distributions obtained with fred agree with those
      produced by standard MC codes within 1-2% of the Bragg peak in the therapeutic
      energy range. A comparison with measurements taken at the CNAO treatment center
      shows that the lateral dose tails are reproduced within 2% in the field size
      factor test up to 20 cm. The tracing kernel can run on GPU hardware, achieving 10
      million primary [Formula: see text] on a single card. This performance allows one
      to recalculate a proton treatment plan at 1% of the total particles in just a few
      minutes.

PMID- 28873071
TI  - Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Swallowing Dysfunction.
AB  - PURPOSE: Patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), especially severe cases
      that require treatment in intensive care units, often experience swallowing
      difficulties. However, the oropharyngeal function of patients with GBS not
      treated in intensive care units is not typically evaluated using
      neurophysiological techniques. METHODS: Electrophysiological techniques were used
      to determine dysphagia limit and sequential water swallowing values in an
      electromyography laboratory. RESULTS: This study assessed 18 patients with GBS
      who were not treated in the intensive care unit between 4 and 45 days after their
      hospital admission; 18 healthy volunteers were used as a control group. Of the 18
      patients with GBS, 7 exhibited the clinical involvement of either a single
      cranial nerve or a combination of cranial nerves while 11 did not show any lower
      cranial nerve involvement. Clinical dysphagia was observed in seven patients and
      six of these cases involved a lower cranial nerve while five patients without
      cranial nerve involvement had silent dysphagia according to the dysphagia limit
      test. In addition, the duration of sequential swallowing was significantly
      prolonged in all patients with GBS compared with the control subjects.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present findings demonstrated that neurophysiological techniques
      are useful and easily applicable for patients with GBS and that there were no
      complications. Furthermore, cranial nerve involvement in patients with GBS likely
      increased the incidence of oropharyngeal dysphagia, and subclinical dysphagia may
      be present in this population as well. Therefore, neurophysiological techniques
      can be initially used and then repeated during follow-up visits for all types of
      patients with GBS.

PMID- 28873070
TI  - Functional assessment of genetic variants located in the promoter of SHP1
      (NR0B2).
AB  - Small heterodimer partner 1 (SHP1, NR0B2) is a member of the superfamily of
      nuclear receptors (NRs). Even if this orphan receptor, unlike other NRs, lacks
      the DNA-binding domain, it is capable of regulating transcription by repressing
      the activity of other NRs by direct protein-protein interaction. Accordingly,
      SHP1 is part of negative feedback loops of the transcriptional regulation of
      genes involved in drug metabolism and various metabolic pathways including bile
      acid and glucose homeostasis. Although it is known that several interacting
      partners of SHP1 also modulate its expression, there is little information about
      genetic variability of this regulatory mechanism. Our study aimed to identify
      genetic variants in the NR0B2 promoter region and to determine their impact on
      NR0B2 transcription. For this, DNA samples originating from 119 participants of
      the population-based cohort Study of Health in Pomerania were analyzed by Sanger
      sequencing revealing four genetic variants: NR0B2:c.-594T>C (rs71636795),
      NR0B2:c.-414G>C (newly identified), NR0B2:c.-423C>T (rs78182695), and NR0B2:c.
      224delCTGA (rs145613139) localized in the 5' untranslated region of NR0B2. The
      impact of these variants on transactivation of the NR0B2 promoter by NRs known to
      be regulators of SHP1 expression (hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha, liver
      receptor homolog-1, and farnesoid X receptor) was assessed in a cell-based
      reporter gene assay, showing that transactivation by hepatocyte nuclear factor
      4alpha and liver receptor homolog-1 was significantly decreased in the presence
      of the genetic variant NR0B2:c.-594T>C, even though this effect was cell
      specific. However, SHP1 mRNA expression in a small collection of human kidney
      samples was not affected by these genetic variants.

PMID- 28873072
TI  - Amplitude-Integrated EEG and Brain Sparing in Preterm Small-for-Gestational-Age
      Infants.
AB  - PURPOSE: Preterm small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants are at risk for a high
      mortality rate and impaired cognitive development. Only a few studies have
      focused on amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) in preterm SGA infants. They have been
      shown to have a slower rate of brain maturation, but these findings have not
      consistently been related to neurodevelopmental outcomes. The aim of our study
      was to evaluate early aEEG monitoring in SGA compared with adequate-for
      gestational-age preterms. METHODS: This prospective cohort study enrolled infants
      with very low birth weight who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit
      at Hospital Puerta del Mar, Cadiz, Spain, from June 2009 to September 2012. This
      study was a subanalysis of SGA from the global cohort previously described by our
      group. Adverse outcome included severe intraventricular hemorrhage and/or death.
      Cerebral function was monitored using aEEG recordings during the first 72 hours
      of life. RESULTS: Preterm SGA infants (18 SGA in the global cohort of 92
      patients) had lower 1- and 5-minute Apgar scores, higher score for neonatal acute
      physiology perinatal extension II scores, and higher proportion of adverse
      outcomes. When comparing preterm adequate-for-gestational-age infants with SGA
      infants with good prognosis, those with SGA had more mature and continuous aEEG
      patterns. Low margin amplitude depression was not as severe in these patients,
      and a higher proportion of these patients developed sleep-wake cycles.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest that SGA infants with a good
      prognosis have a more mature aEEG pattern than preterm adequate-for-gestational
      age patients with the same outcome. These findings support the brain sparing
      theory in SGA infants.

PMID- 28873073
TI  - EEG Characteristics in Cooled and Rewarmed Periods in Post-cardiac Arrest
      Therapeutic Hypothermia Patients: Erratum.

PMID- 28873074
TI  - Adipose-derived cellular therapies in solid organ and vascularized-composite
      allotransplantation.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Controlling acute allograft rejection following vascularized
      composite allotransplantation requires strict adherence to courses of systemic
      immunosuppression. Discovering new methods to modulate the alloreactive immune
      response is essential for widespread application of vascularized composite
      allotransplantation. Here, we discuss how adipose-derived cellular therapies
      represent novel treatment options for immune modulation and tolerance induction
      in vascularized composite allotransplantation. RECENT FINDINGS: Adipose-derived
      mesenchymal stromal cells are cultured from autologous or allogeneic adipose
      tissue and possess immunomodulatory qualities capable of prolonging allograft
      survival in animal models of vascularized composite allotransplantation. Similar
      immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory effects have been observed with
      noncultured adipose stromal-vascular-fraction-derived therapies, albeit
      publication of in-vivo stromal vascular fraction cell modulation in
      transplantation models is lacking. However, both stromal vascular fraction and
      adipose derived mesenchymal stem cell therapies have the potential to effectively
      modulate acute allograft rejection via recruitment and induction of regulatory
      immune cells. SUMMARY: To date, most reports focus on adipose derived mesenchymal
      stem cells for immune modulation in transplantation despite their phenotypic
      plasticity and reliance upon culture expansion. Along with the capacity for
      immune modulation, the supplemental wound healing and vasculogenic properties of
      stromal vascular fraction, which are not shared by adipose derived mesenchymal
      stem cells, hint at the profound therapeutic impact stromal vascular fraction
      derived treatments could have on controlling acute allograft rejection and
      tolerance induction in vascularized composite allotransplantation. Ongoing
      projects in the next few years will help design the best applications of these
      well tolerated and effective treatments that should reduce the risk/benefit ratio
      and allow more patients access to vascularized composite allotransplantation
      therapy.

PMID- 28873075
TI  - Intraoperative magnesium sulphate decreases agitation and pain in patients
      undergoing functional endoscopic surgery: A randomised double-blind study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative agitation is harmful for the patient as it may be
      associated with removal of catheters, nasal packs, oxygen masks and self-injury,
      and pose a danger to operating theatre staff. OBJECTIVE: The current study
      investigated the potential role of magnesium sulphate in treatment of
      postoperative agitation following functional endoscopic sinus surgery. DESIGN: A
      randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING: ENT operating
      room, Menofia University Hospitals, Egypt. PATIENTS: A total of 312 adult
      patients (171 men and 141 women) were enrolled in the study. Eighteen patients
      (10 men and eight women) were excluded; data from 294 patients were analysed.
      Inclusion criteria were age between 20 and 60 years, American Society of
      Anesthesiologists' physical status 1 or 2 scheduled for functional endoscopic
      sinus surgery. Exclusion criteria were hypertension, cardiac ischaemia,
      cerebrovascular insufficiency, neuromuscular diseases, pregnancy, prolonged
      treatment with calcium-channel blockers, diabetic neuropathy or a known allergy
      to magnesium compounds. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were allocated randomly to either
      the magnesium group (a magnesium infusion of 30 mg kg in the first hour followed
      by 9 mg kg h until the end of the surgical procedure) or the control group (0.9%
      saline at the same volume and rate). Hypotensive anaesthesia was induced by
      nitroglycerine 5 to 20 MUg kg min. In the postanaesthetic care unit (PACU),
      patients were assessed for agitation and pain using the Richmond agitation
      sedation scale and numerical rating scale, respectively. PRIMARY OUTCOME: The
      incidence and severity of agitation measured 5 min after admission to the PACU.
      RESULTS: Magnesium reduced postoperative agitation at time 0 (P = 0.009) and 5,
      10, 15 and 30 min after PACU admission (P < 0.0001) as well as total agitation
      score [3 (0 to 6) versus 9 (0 to 12), P < 0.0001]. Magnesium also reduced pain
      [4.5 (4 to 5) versus 6 (5 to 6.25), P < 0.0001] and length of PACU stay (88 +/-
      23 versus 111 +/- 31 min, P < 0.0001). The magnesium group consumed less
      pethidine in PACU compared with the control group (43 +/- 15 and 59 +/- 19 mg,
      respectively, P < 0.0001). The intraoperative end-tidal CO2 tension was
      comparable between groups (4.7 +/- 0.7 versus 4.8 +/- 1.2 kPa). CONCLUSION:
      Intraoperative infusion of magnesium in patients undergoing endoscopic sinus
      surgery reduced postoperative agitation, pethidine consumption and pain assessed
      in the PACU. It also decreased the length of stay in PACU compared with the
      control group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The current study was registered according to
      WHO and ICMJE standards on 7 January 2014, under registration number PACTR
      201402000737691.

PMID- 28873077
TI  - Strong PSMA Radioligand Uptake by Rectal Carcinoma: Who Put the "S" in PSMA?
      Evaluation and Preliminary Experience on 16 Patients: Erratum.

PMID- 28873076
TI  - Women awaken faster than men after electroencephalogram-monitored propofol
      sedation for colonoscopy: A prospective observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sedation for colonoscopy using intravenous propofol has become
      standard in many Western countries. OBJECTIVE: Gender-specific differences have
      been shown for general anaesthesia in dentistry, but no such data existed for
      gastrointestinal endoscopy. DESIGN: A prospective observational study. SETTING:
      An academic teaching hospital of Hannover Medical School. PATIENTS: A total of
      219 patients (108 women and 111 men) scheduled for colonoscopy. INTERVENTION:
      Propofol sedation using electroencephalogram monitoring during a constant level
      of sedation depth (D0 to D2) performed by trained nurses or physicians after a
      body-weight-adjusted loading dose. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary end-point
      was the presence of gender-specific differences in awakening time (time from end
      of sedation to eye-opening and complete orientation); secondary outcome
      parameters analysed were total dose of propofol, sedation-associated
      complications (bradycardia, hypotension, hypoxaemia and apnoea), patient
      cooperation and patient satisfaction. Multivariate analysis was performed to
      correct confounding factors such as age and BMI. RESULTS: Women awakened
      significantly faster than men, with a time to eye-opening of 7.3 +/- 3.7 versus
      8.4 +/- 3.4 min (P = 0.005) and time until complete orientation of 9.1 +/- 3.9
      versus 10.4 +/- 13.7 min (P = 0.008). The propofol dosage was not significantly
      different, with some trend towards more propofol per kg body weight in women
      (3.98 +/- 1.81 mg versus 3.72 +/- 1.75 mg, P = 0.232). CONCLUSION: The effect of
      gender aspects should be considered when propofol is used as sedation for
      gastrointestinal endoscopy. That includes adequate dosing for women as well as
      caution regarding potential overdosing of male patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT02687568).

PMID- 28873078
TI  - Multidimensional Prognostic Modelling in People With Chronic Axial Low Back Pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To derive prognostic models for people with chronic low back pain
      (CLBP) (n=294) based upon an extensive array of potentially prognostic
      multidimensional factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study entered
      multidimensional data (demographics, pain characteristics, pain responses to
      movement, behaviors associated with pain, pain sensitivity, psychological,
      social, health, lifestyle) at baseline, and interventions undertaken, into
      prognostic models for pain intensity, disability, global rating of change and
      bothersomeness at 1-year. RESULTS: The prognostic model for higher pain intensity
      (explaining 23.2% of the variance) included higher baseline pain intensity and
      punishing spousal interactions, and lower years in education, while participating
      in exercise was prognostic of lower pain intensity. The model for higher
      disability (33.6% of the variance) included higher baseline disability, longer
      forward bending time, psychological principal component scores representing
      negative pain-related cognitions and punishing spousal interactions; while
      exercising was prognostic of lower disability. The odds of reporting global
      rating of change much/very much improved were increased by participating in
      exercise, having leg pain as well as CLBP and having greater chronic pain
      acceptance. The receiver operating characteristic area under the curve was 0.72
      indicating acceptable discrimination. The odds of reporting very/extremely
      bothersome CLBP were increased by having higher baseline pain intensity, longer
      forward bending time and receiving injection(s); while higher age, more years in
      education and having leg pain decreased the odds (receiver operating
      characteristic area under the curve, 0.80; acceptable discrimination).
      DISCUSSION: The variance explained by prognostic models was similar to previous
      reports, despite an extensive array of multidimensional baseline variables. This
      highlights the inherent multidimensional complexity of CLBP.

PMID- 28873079
TI  - A Network Analysis of Depressive Symptoms in Individuals Seeking Treatment for
      Chronic Pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Major depression in the context of chronic pain has been
      conceptualized implicitly as a latent variable, in which symptoms are viewed as
      manifestations of an underlying disorder. A network approach provides an
      alternative model and posits that symptoms are causally connected, rather than
      merely correlated, and that disorders exist as systems, rather than as entities.
      The present study applied a network analysis to self-reported symptoms of major
      depression in patients with chronic pain. The goals of the study were to describe
      the network of depressive symptoms in individuals with chronic pain and to
      illustrate the potential of network analysis for generating new research
      questions and treatment strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients (N=216)
      admitted to an interdisciplinary chronic pain rehabilitation program provided
      symptom self-reports using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Well-established
      network analyses methods were used to illustrate the network of depressive
      symptoms and determine the centrality of each symptom (ie, the degree of
      connection with other symptoms in the network). RESULTS: The most central
      symptoms were difficulty concentrating, loss of interest or pleasure, depressed
      mood, and fatigue, although the relative position of each symptom varied
      slightly, depending on the centrality measure considered. DISCUSSION: Consistent
      with past research with patients undergoing treatment for major depression, the
      current findings are supportive of a model in which depressive symptoms are
      causally connected within a network rather than being manifestations of a common
      underlying disorder. The research and clinical implications of the findings, such
      as developing treatments targeting the most central symptoms, are discussed.

PMID- 28873080
TI  - Multiplex molecular diagnostic tests and the management of diarrhea: the wave of
      the future?

PMID- 28873081
TI  - Impact of Tag Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in CCL11 Gene on Risk of
      Subtypes of Ischemic Stroke in Xinjiang Han Populations.
AB  - BACKGROUND CCL11 is an important inflammatory cytokine associated with
      inflammation-related diseases such as atherosclerosis and stroke. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the relationship between CCL11 gene polymorphism with
      subtypes of ischemic stroke in Xinjiang Han populations. MATERIAL AND METHODS The
      improved multiple ligase detection reaction (iMLDR) method was used to analyze
      the genotypes of 6 tag SNPs in the CCL11 gene (rs1129844, rs17809012, rs1860183,
      rs1860184, rs4795898, and rs4795895) in a case-control study of 406 lacunar
      stroke patients, 214 large-artery atherosclerotic (LAA) stroke patients, and 425
      controls. RESULTS We found the GG genotype of rs4795895 was significantly
      associated with increased risk of lacunar stroke (adjusted OR=1.676, 95%CI=1.117
      2.515), and the GA genotype of rs17809012 was associated with a significant
      increase in risk of LAA stroke (adjusted OR=1.337, 95%CI=1.127-1.585).
      Hypertension stratification analyses showed that the GA genotype of rs17809012
      was significantly associated with LAA stroke in the hypertensive group (adjusted
      OR=1.274, 95%CI=1.015-1.601). In the non-hypertensive group, the GA genotype of
      rs17809012 was significantly associated with LAA stroke (adjusted OR=1.361,
      95%CI=1.041-1.780). The GG genotype of rs4795895 (adjusted OR=1.147, 95%CI=1.115
      4.134) and the TT genotype of rs1860184 were significantly associated with
      lacunar stroke (adjusted OR=2.440, 95%CI=1.550-3.840). CONCLUSIONS This study
      demonstrates that the CCL11 gene could play an important role in the pathogenesis
      of lacunar stroke and LAA stroke in the Han population of China.

PMID- 28873082
TI  - Ffar2 expression regulates leukaemic cell growth in vivo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Activation of free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFAR2) by microbiota
      derived metabolites (e.g., propionate) reduces leukaemic cell proliferation in
      vitro. This study aims to test whether Ffar2 expression per se also influences
      leukaemia cell growth in vivo. METHODS: Bcr-Abl-expressing BaF cells were used as
      a leukaemia model and the role of Ffar2 was evaluated in Balb/c mice after
      lentiviral shRNA transduction. RESULTS: Our data formally establish that reduced
      leukaemic cell proliferation is associated with increased Ffar2 expression in
      vivo and in vitro. Going beyond association, we point out that decreasing Ffar2
      expression fosters cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      demonstrate the role of Ffar2 in the control of leukaemic cell proliferation in
      vivo and indicate that a modulation of Ffar2 expression through nutritional tools
      or pharmacological agents may constitute an attractive therapeutic approach to
      tackle leukaemia progression in humans.

PMID- 28873083
TI  - SKLB188 inhibits the growth of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma by
      suppressing EGFR signalling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) occurs in
      approximately 90% of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and is
      correlated with poor prognosis. Thus, targeting EGFR is a promising strategy for
      treatment of HNSCC. Several small molecule EGFR inhibitors have been tested in
      clinical trials for treatment of HNSCC, but none of them are more effective than
      the current chemotherapeutic drugs. Thus, it is urgently needed to develop novel
      EGFR inhibitors for HNSCC treatment. METHODS: By screening an in-house focused
      library containing approximately 650 000 known kinase inhibitors and kinase
      inhibitor-like compounds containing common kinase inhibitor core scaffolds, we
      identified SKLB188 as a lead compound for inhibition of EGFR. The anticancer
      effects of SKLB188 on HNSCC cells were investigated by in vitro cell growth, cell
      cycle and apoptosis assays, as well as in vivo FaDu xenograft mouse model.
      Molecular docking, in vitro kinase profiling and western blotting were performed
      to characterise EGFR as the molecular target. RESULTS: SKLB188 inhibited HNSCC
      cell proliferation by inducing G1 cell cycle arrest, which was associated with
      downregulating the expression of Cdc25A, cyclins D1/A and cyclin-dependent
      kinases (CDK2/4), and upregulating the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase
      (CDK) inhibitors (p21Cip1 and p27Kip1), leading to decreased phosphorylation of
      Rb. SKLB188 also induced caspase-dependent apoptosis of HNSCC cells by
      downregulating the expression of Mcl-1 and survivin. Molecular docking revealed
      that SKLB188 could bind to the kinase domain of EGFR through hydrogen bonds and
      hydrophobic interactions. In vitro kinase assay showed that SKLB188 inhibited the
      activity of a recombinant human EGFR very potently (IC50=5 nM). Western blot
      analysis demonstrated that SKLB188 inhibited the phosphorylation of EGFR and its
      downstream targets, extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2
      (Erk1/2) and Akt in the cells. In addition, SKLB188 dose-dependently inhibited
      FaDu xenograft growth in nude mice, and concurrently inhibited the
      phosphorylation of Erk1/2 and Akt in the tumours. CONCLUSIONS: SKLB188 potently
      inhibits the growth of HNSCC cells in vitro and in vivo by targeting EGFR
      signalling. The results provide a basis for further clinical investigation of
      SKLB188 as a targeted therapy for HNSCC. Our findings may open a new avenue for
      development of novel EGFR inhibitors for treatment of HNSCC and other cancers.

PMID- 28873085
TI  - The association between fasting blood glucose and the risk of primary liver
      cancer in Chinese males: a population-based prospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To investigate the association between fasting blood glucose (FBG)
      levels and the risk of incident primary liver cancer (PLC) in Chinese males, a
      large prospective cohort was performed in the current study. METHODS: A total of
      109 169 males participating in the routine checkups every two years were
      recruited in the Kailuan male cohort study since May 2006. Cox proportional
      hazards regression models and restricted cubic spline (RCS) were used to evaluate
      the association between levels of baseline FBG and the risk of incident PLC.
      RESULTS: Compared to the males with normal FBG (3.9?FBG<6.1 mmol l-1), the males
      with impaired fasting glucose (IFG: 6.1?FBG<7.0 mmol l-1) and diabetes mellitus
      (DM: FBG ?7.0 mmol l-1) had a 60% (95% CI: 1.09-2.35) and a 58% (95% CI: 1.07
      2.34) higher risk of incident PLC, respectively. Subgroup analysis found that IFG
      increased the risk of PLC among the non-smoker (HR=1.73, 95% CI: 1.01-2.98) and
      current alcohol drinker (HR=1.80, 95% CI: 1.03-3.16). While DM increased the risk
      of PLC especially among the males with normal BMI (<25 kg m-2) (HR=1.76, 95% CI:
      1.05-2.94) and the HBV negativity (HR=1.89, 95% CI: 1.16-3.09), RCS analysis
      showed a positive non-linearly association between the FBG levels and the risk of
      PLC (p-overall=0.041, p-non-linear=0.049). CONCLUSIONS: Increased FBG may be an
      important and potentially modifiable exposure that could have key scientific and
      clinical importance for preventing PLC development.

PMID- 28873084
TI  - A phase I/II study of KW-2478, an Hsp90 inhibitor, in combination with bortezomib
      in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: KW-2478 is a novel non-ansamycin Hsp90 inhibitor with modest single
      agent activity in relapsed/refractory myeloma but which shows synergistic
      antimyeloma activity with bortezomib (BTZ) in preclinical studies. This study
      determined the safety, preliminary clinical activity, and pharmacokinetics of KW
      2478, an Hsp90 inhibitor, in combination with BTZ in patients with
      relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM). METHODS: Phase I dose escalation
      determined the recommended phase II dose (RP2D) of KW-2478 plus BTZ, which was
      then used during phase II. RESULTS: The maximum tolerated dose was not reached
      during phase I and the RP2D was KW-2478 175 mg m-2 plus BTZ 1.3 mg m-2 on days 1,
      4, 8, and 11 every 3 weeks. In the efficacy evaluable phase I/II population
      treated at the RP2D (n=79), the objective response rate was 39.2% (95% confidence
      interval: 28.4-50.9%), clinical benefit rate 51.9% (40.4-63.3%), median
      progression-free survival 6.7 (5.9-not reached (NR)) months, and median duration
      of response 5.5 (4.9-NR) months. In the phase I/II safety population (n=95), the
      most frequently observed treatment-related grade 3/4 adverse events were
      diarrhoea, fatigue, and neutropenia (each in 7.4% of patients), and nausea and
      thrombocytopenia (each in 5.3%). CONCLUSIONS: KW-2478 plus BTZ was well tolerated
      with no apparent overlapping toxicity in patients with relapsed/refractory MM.
      The antimyeloma activity of KW-2478 in combination with BTZ as scheduled in this
      trial appeared relatively modest; however, the good tolerability of the
      combination would support further exploration of alternate dosing schedules and
      combinations.

PMID- 28873087
TI  - Women's and men's reports of past-year prevalence of intimate partner violence
      and rape and women's risk factors for intimate partner violence: A multicountry
      cross-sectional study in Asia and the Pacific.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the past-year prevalence of male-perpetrated intimate
      partner violence (IPV) and risk factors is essential for building evidence-based
      prevention and monitoring progress to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.2, but
      so far, population-based research on this remains very limited. The objective of
      this study is to compare the population prevalence rates of past-year male
      perpetrated IPV and nonpartner rape from women's and men's reports across 4
      countries in Asia and the Pacific. A further objective is to describe the risk
      factors associated with women's experience of past-year physical or sexual IPV
      from women's reports and factors driving women's past-year experience of partner
      violence. METHODS AND FINDINGS: This paper presents findings from the United
      Nations Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific. In the
      course of this study, in population-based cross-sectional surveys, 5,206 men and
      3,106 women aged 18-49 years were interviewed from 4 countries: Cambodia, China,
      Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Sri Lanka. To measure risk factors, we use logistic
      regression and structural equation modelling to show pathways and mediators. The
      analysis was not based on a written plan, and following a reviewer's comments,
      some material was moved to supplementary files and the regression was performed
      without variable elimination. Men reported more lifetime perpetration of IPV
      (physical or sexual IPV range 32.5%-80%) than women did experience (physical or
      sexual IPV range 27.5%-67.4%), but women's reports of past-year experience
      (physical or sexual IPV range 8.2%-32.1%) were not very clearly different from
      men's (physical or sexual IPV range 10.1%-34.0%). Women reported much more
      emotional/economic abuse (past-year ranges 1.4%-5.7% for men and 4.1%-27.7% for
      women). Reports of nonpartner rape were similar for men (range 0.8%-1.9% in the
      past year) and women (range 0.4%-2.3% in past year), except in Bougainville,
      where they were higher for men (11.7% versus 5.7%). The risk factor modelling
      shows 4 groups of variables to be important in experience of past-year sexual
      and/or physical IPV: (1) poverty, (2) all childhood trauma, (3) quarrelling and
      women's limited control in relationships, and (4) partner factors (substance
      abuse, unemployment, and infidelity). The population attributable fraction (PAF)
      was largest for quarrelling often, but the second greatest PAF was for the group
      related to exposure to violence in childhood. The relationship control variable
      group had the third highest PAF, followed by other partner factors. Currently
      married women were also more at risk. In the structural model, a resilience
      pathway showed less poverty, higher education, and more gender-equitable ideas
      were connected and conveyed protection from IPV. These are all amenable risk
      factors. This research was cross-sectional, so we cannot be sure of the temporal
      sequence of exposure, but the outcome being a past-year measure to some extent
      mitigates this problem. CONCLUSIONS: Past-year IPV indicators based on women's
      reported experience that were developed to track SDG 5 are probably reasonably
      reliable but will not always give the same prevalence as may be reported by men.
      Report validity requires further research. Interviews with men to track past-year
      nonpartner rape perpetration are feasible and important. The findings suggest a
      range of factors are associated with past-year physical and/or sexual IPV
      exposure; of particular interest is the resilience pathway suggested by the
      structural model, which is highly amenable to intervention and explains why
      combining economic empowerment of women and gender empowerment/relationship
      skills training has been successful. This study provides additional rationale for
      scaling up violence prevention interventions that combine economic and gender
      empowerment/relationship skills building of women, as well as the value of
      investing in girls' education with a view to long-term violence reduction.

PMID- 28873086
TI  - Anti-Mullerian hormone and endometrial cancer: a multi-cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Mullerian ducts are the embryological precursors of the female
      reproductive tract, including the uterus; anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) has a key
      role in the regulation of foetal sexual differentiation. Anti-Mullerian hormone
      inhibits endometrial tumour growth in experimental models by stimulating
      apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. To date, there are no prospective epidemiologic
      data on circulating AMH and endometrial cancer risk. METHODS: We investigated
      this association among women premenopausal at blood collection in a multicohort
      study including participants from eight studies located in the United States,
      Europe, and China. We identified 329 endometrial cancer cases and 339 matched
      controls. Anti-Mullerian hormone concentrations in blood were quantified using an
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Conditional logistic regression was used to
      estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) across tertiles and
      for a doubling of AMH concentrations (ORlog2). Subgroup analyses were performed
      by ages at blood donation and diagnosis, oral contraceptive use, and tumour
      characteristics. RESULTS: Anti-Mullerian hormone was not associated with the risk
      of endometrial cancer overall (ORlog2: 1.07 (0.99-1.17)), or with any of the
      examined subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Although experimental models implicate AMH in
      endometrial cancer growth inhibition, our findings do not support a role for
      circulating AMH in the aetiology of endometrial cancer.

PMID- 28873088
TI  - Identifying genetic variants that affect viability in large cohorts.
AB  - A number of open questions in human evolutionary genetics would become tractable
      if we were able to directly measure evolutionary fitness. As a step towards this
      goal, we developed a method to examine whether individual genetic variants, or
      sets of genetic variants, currently influence viability. The approach consists in
      testing whether the frequency of an allele varies across ages, accounting for
      variation in ancestry. We applied it to the Genetic Epidemiology Research on
      Adult Health and Aging (GERA) cohort and to the parents of participants in the UK
      Biobank. Across the genome, we found only a few common variants with large
      effects on age-specific mortality: tagging the APOE epsilon4 allele and near
      CHRNA3. These results suggest that when large, even late-onset effects are kept
      at low frequency by purifying selection. Testing viability effects of sets of
      genetic variants that jointly influence 1 of 42 traits, we detected a number of
      strong signals. In participants of the UK Biobank of British ancestry, we found
      that variants that delay puberty timing are associated with a longer parental
      life span (P~6.2 * 10-6 for fathers and P~2.0 * 10-3 for mothers), consistent
      with epidemiological studies. Similarly, variants associated with later age at
      first birth are associated with a longer maternal life span (P~1.4 * 10-3).
      Signals are also observed for variants influencing cholesterol levels, risk of
      coronary artery disease (CAD), body mass index, as well as risk of asthma. These
      signals exhibit consistent effects in the GERA cohort and among participants of
      the UK Biobank of non-British ancestry. We also found marked differences between
      males and females, most notably at the CHRNA3 locus, and variants associated with
      risk of CAD and cholesterol levels. Beyond our findings, the analysis serves as a
      proof of principle for how upcoming biomedical data sets can be used to learn
      about selection effects in contemporary humans.

PMID- 28873090
TI  - Deficiencies in Natura 2000 for protecting recovering large carnivores: A
      spotlight on the wolf Canis lupus in Poland.
AB  - If protected areas are to remain relevant in our dynamic world they must be
      adapted to changes in species ranges. In the EU one of the most notable such
      changes is the recent recovery of large carnivores, which are protected by Natura
      2000 at the national and population levels. However, the Natura 2000 network was
      designed prior to their recent recovery, which raises the question whether the
      network is sufficient to protect the contemporary ranges of large carnivores. To
      investigate this question we evaluated Natura 2000 coverage of the three wolf
      Canis lupus populations in Poland. Wolf tracking data showed that wolves have
      recolonised almost all suitable habitat in Poland (as determined by a recent
      habitat suitability model), so we calculated the overlap between the Natura 2000
      network and all wolf habitat in Poland. On the basis of published Natura 2000
      criteria, we used 20% as the minimum required coverage. At the national level,
      wolves are sufficiently protected (22% coverage), but at the population level,
      the Baltic and Carpathian populations are far better protected (28 and 47%,
      respectively) than the endangered Central European Lowland population (12%). As
      Natura 2000 insufficiently protects the most endangered wolf population in
      Poland, we recommend expansion of Natura 2000 to protect at least an additional
      8% of wolf habitat in western Poland, and discuss which specific forests are most
      in need of additional coverage. Implementation of these actions will have
      positive conservation implications and help Poland to fulfil its Habitats
      Directive obligations. As it is likely that similar gaps in Natura 2000 are
      arising in other EU member states experiencing large carnivore recoveries,
      particularly in Central Europe, we make the case for a flexible approach to
      Natura 2000 and suggest that such coverage evaluations may be beneficial
      elsewhere.

PMID- 28873089
TI  - Tempo and rates of diversification in the South American cichlid genus
      Apistogramma (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae).
AB  - Evaluating biodiversity and understanding the processes involved in
      diversification are noticeable conservation issues in fishes subject to large,
      sometimes illegal, ornamental trade purposes. Here, the diversity and
      evolutionary history of the Neotropical dwarf cichlid genus Apistogramma from
      several South American countries are investigated. Mitochondrial and nuclear
      markers are used to infer phylogenetic relationships between 31 genetically
      identified species. The monophyly of Apistogramma is suggested, and Apistogramma
      species are distributed into four clades, corresponding to three morphological
      lineages. Divergence times estimated with the Yule process and an uncorrelated
      lognormal clock dated the Apistogramma origin to the beginning of the Eocene (~
      50 Myr) suggesting that diversification might be related to marine incursions.
      Our molecular dating also suggests that the Quaternary glacial cycles coincide
      with the phases leading to Apistogramma speciation. These past events did not
      influence diversification rates in the speciose genus Apistogramma, since
      diversification appeared low and constant through time. Further characterization
      of processes involved in recent Apistogramma diversity will be necessary.

PMID- 28873091
TI  - Helicobacter pylori infection perturbs iron homeostasis in gastric epithelial
      cells.
AB  - The iron deficiency anaemia that often accompanies infection with Helicobacter
      pylori may reflect increased uptake of iron into gastric epithelial cells. Here
      we show an infection-associated increase in total intracellular iron levels was
      associated with the redistribution of the transferrin receptor from the cell
      cytosol to the cell surface, and with increased levels of ferritin, an
      intracellular iron storage protein that corresponded with a significant increase
      in lysosomal stores of labile iron. In contrast, the pool of cytosolic labile
      iron was significantly decreased in infected cells. These changes in
      intracellular iron distribution were associated with the uptake and trafficking
      of H. pylori through the cells, and enhanced in strains capable of expressing the
      cagA virulence gene. We speculate that degradation of lysosomal ferritin may
      facilitate H. pylori pathogenesis, in addition to contributing to bacterial
      persistence in the human stomach.

PMID- 28873093
TI  - Machine learning techniques for the optimization of joint replacements:
      Application to a short-stem hip implant.
AB  - Today, different implant designs exist in the market; however, there is not a
      clear understanding of which are the best implant design parameters to achieve
      mechanical optimal conditions. Therefore, the aim of this project was to
      investigate if the geometry of a commercial short stem hip prosthesis can be
      further optimized to reduce stress shielding effects and achieve better short
      stemmed implant performance. To reach this aim, the potential of machine learning
      techniques combined with parametric Finite Element analysis was used. The
      selected implant geometrical parameters were: total stem length (L), thickness in
      the lateral (R1) and medial (R2) and the distance between the implant neck and
      the central stem surface (D). The results show that the total stem length was not
      the only parameter playing a role in stress shielding. An optimized implant
      should aim for a decreased stem length and a reduced length of the surface in
      contact with the bone. The two radiuses that characterize the stem width at the
      distal cross-section in contact with the bone were less influential in the
      reduction of stress shielding compared with the other two parameters; but they
      also play a role where thinner stems present better results.

PMID- 28873094
TI  - Analysis of water level variation of lakes and reservoirs in Xinjiang, China
      using ICESat laser altimetry data (2003-2009).
AB  - This study utilizes ICESat Release 33 GLA14 data to analyse water level variation
      of Xinjiang's lakes and reservoirs from 2003 to 2009. By using Landsat images,
      lakes and reservoirs with area larger than 1 km2 are numerically delineated with
      a software tool. Based on ICESat observations, we analyse the characteristics of
      water level variation in different geographic environments, as well as
      investigate the reasons for the variation. Results indicate that climatic warming
      contributes to rising water levels in lakes in mountainous areas, especially for
      lakes that are recharged by snow and glacial melting. For lakes in oases, the
      water levels are affected jointly by human activity and climate change, while the
      water levels of reservoirs are mainly affected by human activity. Comparing the
      annual average rates of water levels, those of lakes are higher than those of
      reservoirs in oasis areas. The main reasons for the decreasing water levels in
      desert regions are the reduction of recharged runoff and high evaporation. By
      analysing the variation of water levels and water volume in different geologic
      environments, it is found that water level and volume increased in mountainous
      regions, and decreased in oasis regions and desert regions. Finding also
      demonstrate that decreasing volume is greater than increasing volume, which
      results in decreasing total volume of Xinjiang lakes and reservoirs.

PMID- 28873095
TI  - Longistyline C acts antidepressant in vivo and neuroprotection in vitro against
      glutamate-induced cytotoxicity by regulating NMDAR/NR2B-ERK pathway in PC12
      cells.
AB  - Depressive disorder is a common psychiatric disease which ranks among the leading
      cause of disability worldwide. The antidepressants presently used had low cure
      rate and caused a variety of side-effects. The screening of antidepressant drugs
      is usually used classic behavioural tests and neuroprotective strategy.
      Longistyline C, a natural stilbene isolated from the leaves of Cajanuscajan (L.)
      Millsp, was firstly investigated the antidepressant effect using animal
      behavioural tests, and studied the neuroprotection and its possible signaling
      pathways on glutamate-induced injury in PC12 cells. The results of animal test
      demonstrated that longistyline C had the antidepressant activity, which the
      effect is similar to the positive control. In current study, we investigated the
      effect of longistyline C on glutamate-induced injury in PC12 cells and explored
      its possible signaling pathways. The results demonstrated that pretreatment with
      longistyline C at the concentrations of 2-8 MUmol/L for 24 h had a significant
      reduction of the cytotoxicity induced by glutamate (15 mmol/L) in PC12 cells
      using MTT, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay and Annexin V-PI double
      staining. Subsequently, we found that pretreatment with longistyline C (8
      MUmol/L) could drastically down-regulate the over-expression of NMDAR/NR2B and
      Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), up-regulate the expressions
      of p-ERK and p-CREB and alleviate ER stress. In conclusison, longistyline C is
      most possibly through regulating NMDAR/NR2B-ERK1/2 related pathway and restoring
      endoplasmic reticulum function to exert neuroprotective effect against glutamate
      induced injury in PC12 cells.

PMID- 28873096
TI  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease candidate gene prioritization based on
      metabolic networks and functional information.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multi-factor disease, in which
      metabolic disturbances played important roles. In this paper, functional
      information was integrated into a COPD-related metabolic network to assess
      similarity between genes. Then a gene prioritization method was applied to the
      COPD-related metabolic network to prioritize COPD candidate genes. The gene
      prioritization method was superior to ToppGene and ToppNet in both literature
      validation and functional enrichment analysis. Top-ranked genes prioritized from
      the metabolic perspective with functional information could promote the better
      understanding about the molecular mechanism of this disease. Top 100 genes might
      be potential markers for diagnostic and effective therapies.

PMID- 28873092
TI  - Effect of cervical cancer education and provider recommendation for screening on
      screening rates: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although cervical cancer is largely preventable through screening,
      detection and treatment of precancerous abnormalities, it remains one of the top
      causes of cancer-related morbidity and mortality globally. OBJECTIVES: The
      objective of this systematic review is to understand the evidence of the effect
      of cervical cancer education compared to control conditions on cervical cancer
      screening rates in eligible women population at risk of cervical cancer. We also
      sought to understand the effect of provider recommendations for screening to
      eligible women on cervical cancer screening (CCS) rates compared to control
      conditions in eligible women population at risk of cervical cancer. METHODS: We
      used the PICO (Problem or Population, Interventions, Comparison and Outcome)
      framework as described in the Cochrane Collaboration Handbook to develop our
      search strategy. The details of our search strategy has been described in our
      systematic review protocol published in the International Prospective Register of
      systematic reviews (PROSPERO). The protocol registration number is CRD42016045605
      available at:
      http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.asp?src=trip&ID=CRD42016045605.
      The search string was used in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Systematic Reviews and
      Cochrane CENTRAL register of controlled trials to retrieve study reports that
      were screened for inclusion in this review. Our data synthesis and reporting was
      guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis
      (PRISMA). We did a qualitative synthesis of evidence and, where appropriate,
      individual study effects were pooled in meta-analyses using RevMan 5.3 Review
      Manager. The Higgins I2 was used to assess for heterogeneity in studies pooled
      together for overall summary effects. We did assessment of risk of bias of
      individual studies included and assessed risk of publication bias across studies
      pooled together in meta-analysis by Funnel plot. RESULTS: Out of 3072 study
      reports screened, 28 articles were found to be eligible for inclusion in
      qualitative synthesis (5 of which were included in meta-analysis of educational
      interventions and 8 combined in meta-analysis of HPV self-sampling
      interventions), while 45 were excluded for various reasons. The use of theory
      based educational interventions significantly increased CCS rates by more than
      double (OR, 2.46, 95% CI: 1.88, 3.21). Additionally, offering women the option of
      self-sampling for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) testing increased CCS rates by
      nearly 2-fold (OR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.32, 2.22). We also found that invitation
      letters alone (or with a follow up phone contact), making an appointment, and
      sending reminders to patients who are due or overdue for screening had a
      significant effect on improving participation and CCS rates in populations at
      risk. CONCLUSION: Our findings supports the implementation of theory-based
      cervical cancer educational interventions to increase women's participation in
      cervical cancer screening programs, particularly when targeting communities with
      low literacy levels. Additionally, cervical cancer screening programs should
      consider the option of offering women the opportunity for self-sample collection
      particularly when such women have not responded to previous screening invitation
      or reminder letters for Pap smear collection as a method of screening.

PMID- 28873097
TI  - Assessment of the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of different olive
      processing wastewaters.
AB  - Olive processing wastewaters (OPW), namely olive mill wastewater (OMW) and table
      olive wastewaters (TOW) were evaluated for their antibacterial activity against
      five Gram-positive and two Gram-negative bacteria using the standard disc
      diffusion and thin layer chromatography (TLC)-bioautography assays. Disc
      diffusion screening and bioautography of OMW were compared to the phenolic
      extracts of table-olive brines. Positive activity against S. aureus was
      demonstrated. The optimization of chromatographic separation revealed that
      hexane/acetone in the ratio of 4:6 was the most effective for phenolic compounds
      separation. A HPLC-MS analysis was performed showing that only two compounds,
      hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol, were the predominant phenolic compounds in all OPW.
      The phenolic extract of OMW generated by a semi-modern process showed the highest
      free radical-scavenging activity (DPPH assay) compared to the other phenolic
      extracts. It is apparent from the present study that OPW are a rich source of
      antioxidants suitable for use in food, cosmetic or pharmaceutical applications.

PMID- 28873098
TI  - The impact of using chickpea flour and dried carp fish powder on pizza quality.
AB  - Pizza being the most popular food worldwide, quality and sensory appeal are
      important considerations during its modification effort. This study was aimed to
      evaluate the quality of pizza made using two different sources of proteins,
      chickpea (Cicer arietinum) flour and dried carp fish powder (Cyprinus carpio).
      Analysis indicated nutrients richness specificity of chickpea flour (higher
      fiber, energy, iron, zinc, linoleic acid and total nonessential amino acids) and
      dried carp fish powder (higher contents of protein, fats, ash, oleic acid and
      total essential amino acids) complementing wheat flour to enhance nutritional
      value of pizza. Total plate count and thiobarbituric acid were increased (P<0.05)
      in dried carp fish powder after 45 days of storage, but no Coliform were
      detected. Wheat flour was substituted with 5, 7.5 and 10% chickpea flour or dried
      carp fish powder and chemical, textural, sensory and storage evaluation
      parameters of in pizza were investigated. Dried carp fish powder increased
      (P<0.05) contents of protein, ash, fats, zinc and protein digestibility of pizza.
      Chickpea flour increased iron and zinc contents of the pizza. Water activity (aw)
      was decreased in fish powder and chickpea pizza. Pizza firmness and gumminess
      were significantly (p<0.05) increased at every level of protein source, but
      cohesiveness was decreased with 10% chickpea flour. Pizza chewiness was the same
      (P>0.05) across the levels of two protein sources. Springiness was decreased
      (P<0.05) with high level (10%) dried fish powder and low/intermediate level of
      chickpea flour. Chickpea and dried carp fish incorporation up to 7.50% in pizza
      at the expense of wheat flour had no effect (P>0.05) on all sensorial parameters
      except for odor values. The results could be useful in utilization of chickpea
      flour and carp fish powder in designing nutritious pizza for consumers.

PMID- 28873100
TI  - Topical cannabinoids in dermatology.
AB  - Topical cannabinoids are increasingly utilized by dermatology patients for a
      range of disorders; however, the acceptance of these over-the-counter products
      has far outpaced scientific investigation into their safety and efficacy. Here,
      we review the studies of topical cannabinoids in skin conditions and assess their
      current place in dermatology practice.

PMID- 28873099
TI  - Patient safety competency and educational needs of nursing educators in South
      Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nursing educators must be qualified to teach patient safety to
      nursing students to ensure patient safety in the clinical field. The purpose of
      this study was to assess nursing educators' competencies and educational needs
      for patient safety in hospitals and nursing schools. METHOD: A mixed-methods
      sequential explanatory design employed a survey and focus group interview with
      nursing educators (school clinical instructors and hospital nurse preceptors).
      Thirty-eight questionnaires filled out by clinical instructors from six four-year
      nursing universities and 106 questionnaires from nurse preceptors from three high
      level general hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area were analyzed to obtain
      quantitative data. Focus group interviews were conducted among six clinical
      instructors from one nursing school and four nurse preceptors from one high-level
      general hospital in Seoul. RESULTS: Nursing educators had higher levels of
      attitude compared with relatively lower levels of skill and knowledge regarding
      patient safety. They reported educational needs of "medication" and "infection
      prevention" as being higher and "human factors" and "complexity of systems" as
      being lower. Nursing educators desired different types of education for patient
      safety. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to enhance nursing educators' patient safety
      skills and knowledge by developing and providing an integrated program of patient
      safety, with various teaching methods to meet their educational needs. The
      findings of this study provide the basic information needed to reform patient
      safety education programs appropriately to fit nursing educators' needs and their
      patient safety competencies in both clinical practice and academia. Furthermore,
      the findings have revealed the importance of effective communication between
      clinical and academic settings in making patient safety education seamless.

PMID- 28873101
TI  - Rosacea treatment schema: an update.

PMID- 28873102
TI  - Black adherence nodules on the scalp hair shaft.

PMID- 28873103
TI  - Large hyperpigmented nodule on the leg.

PMID- 28873104
TI  - Management of trauma and burn scars: the dermatologist's role in expanding
      patient access to care.
AB  - Recent advances in laser surgery and our understanding of wound healing have
      ushered in a new era of trauma and burn scar management. Traditional therapy has
      centered around scar excision followed by primary closure or tissue replacement
      with flaps and grafts. This approach represents a perpetuation of the common
      fallacy that extensive scar improvement requires extensive surgical intervention.
      Laser surgery in conjunction with pharmacotherapy and minor tissue-conserving
      surgery produces well-healed and remodeled existing tissue that provides the most
      natural appearance and function of the skin. Now, patients' hypertrophic,
      contracted, and disfiguring scars represent their most valuable reconstructive
      anatomy. With this paradigm shift, dermatologists are uniquely positioned to
      provide transformative and cost-effective scar therapy due to their proficiency
      in the necessary treatment modalities and expertise in the utilization of local
      anesthesia. We hope to further expand military and civilian patient access to
      such care in their local community through peer education and advocacy. We
      present a brief overview and outline of scar treatment practices that can be
      performed by dermatologists in office using devices and techniques they often
      already possess.

PMID- 28873105
TI  - Hair and scalp disorders in adult and pediatric patients with skin of color.
AB  - As increasing numbers of patients of African descent seek treatment for hair and
      scalp-related diseases, it is imperative that all dermatologists be adequately
      trained to address the concerns of this patient population. We present must-know
      information to effectively approach the concerns of patients with seborrheic
      dermatitis, acquired trichorrhexis nodosa, acne keloidalis nuchae,
      pseudofolliculitis barbae, alopecia, and common pediatric hair and scalp
      disorders.

PMID- 28873107
TI  - What's eating you? sticktight flea revisited.
AB  - The sticktight flea (Echidnophaga gallinacea) earns its name by embedding its
      head in the host's skin. It has been found in many species of birds and mammals,
      including humans. The sticktight flea is found worldwide in the tropics,
      subtropics, and temperate zones, and it is the only representative of this genus
      found in the United States. Bites from fleas cause irritation and itching for
      hosts including humans, typically resulting in clusters of firm, pruritic,
      erythematous papules. Treatment can be tricky, as the fleas can be difficult to
      remove, and any flea-infested environments should be properly treated to prevent
      further bites.

PMID- 28873106
TI  - Comparison of salicylic acid 30% peel and pneumatic broadband light in the
      treatment of mild to moderately severe facial acne vulgaris.
AB  - Acne patients experience not only a medical disease but also an aesthetic
      condition, and this latter complication greatly motivates patients to seek out
      the best treatment regimen to hasten improvement in their appearance. The
      available clinical procedures for acne treatment include salicylic acid 30% peel
      and pneumatic broadband light (PBBL). The objective of this study was to compare
      the efficacy of salicylic acid 30% peel and PBBL treatments in patients with mild
      to moderately severe facial acne vulgaris. Twelve patients were recruited for a
      12-week prospective, single-blind, randomized, split-face study. Patients were
      treated with a salicylic acid 30% peel on one side of the face and PBBL treatment
      was administered on the opposite side of the face for 6 consecutive weeks without
      other acne treatments. At every visit, treatment evaluations were performed using
      a modified Global Acne Grading Score (mGAGS), acne quality of life (QOL)
      questionnaire, Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale (WBPRS) assessments, and
      clinical photography. Improvement in acne symptoms was observed for both
      treatment procedures without significant differences and with minimal side
      effects. Salicylic acid 30% peel and PBBL were well tolerated in our study, and
      both clinical procedures were efficacious and well-tolerated by the patients.

PMID- 28873108
TI  - Phototherapy coding and documentation in the time of biologics.

PMID- 28873109
TI  - Lack of significant anti-inflammatory activity with clindamycin in the treatment
      of rosacea: results of 2 randomized, vehicle-controlled trials.
AB  - Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin disease of the face. The objective of the
      studies described here was to evaluate the efficacy of clindamycin in the
      treatment of rosacea. Two multicenter, randomized, vehicle-controlled, phase 2
      studies were conducted in participants with moderate to severe rosacea. Study A
      was a 12-week dose-comparison, 5-arm, parallel group comparison of clindamycin
      cream 1% or vehicle once or twice daily and clindamycin cream 0.3% once daily.
      Study B was a 2-arm comparison of twice daily clindamycin gel 1% versus vehicle
      gel. A total of 629 participants (study A, N=416; study B, N=213) were
      randomized. The results of these studies indicated that clindamycin cream 0.3%
      and 1% and clindamycin gel 1% were no more effective than the vehicle in the
      treatment of moderate to severe rosacea, suggesting clindamycin has no intrinsic
      anti-inflammatory activity in rosacea.

PMID- 28873111
TI  - Chronic diffuse erythematous papulonodules.

PMID- 28873110
TI  - Eroded plaque on the lower lip.

PMID- 28873112
TI  - Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.

PMID- 28873113
TI  - Temporal triangular alopecia acquired in adulthood.

PMID- 28873114
TI  - Hereditary hypotrichosis simplex of the scalp.

PMID- 28873116
TI  - Rowell syndrome: targeting a true definition.
AB  - Ever since a rare syndrome of lupus erythematosus (LE) presenting with erythema
      multiforme (EM)-like lesions was described in 1963, clinicians have questioned
      the defining characteristics of the so-called Rowell syndrome (RS) in addition to
      its very existence as a unique pathological entity. In this article, we present a
      new case of RS and investigate the various components and criteria that have been
      outlined in the years since this syndrome's original account.

PMID- 28873115
TI  - Co-occurrence of steatocystoma multiplex, eruptive vellus hair cysts, and
      trichofolliculomas.
AB  - An association between steatocystoma multiplex (SCM) and eruptive vellus hair
      cysts (EVHCs) has been recognized. Steatocystoma multiplex and EVHC have similar
      clinical features but distinctive histologic features. Rare cases of co
      occurrence of these conditions have been known to occur on the trunk and the
      forehead. We report a rare case of the simultaneous occurrence of SCM, EVHC, and
      trichofolliculomas localized to the forehead.

PMID- 28873117
TI  - Evaluating the clinical and demographic features of extrafacial granuloma
      faciale.
AB  - Granuloma faciale (GF) is an uncommon cutaneous disease of uncertain etiology
      that predominantly affects the face. Extrafacial lesions are rare. The purpose of
      this study was to describe the clinical and demographic features of a series of
      patients with extrafacial manifestations of GF who were diagnosed and treated at
      a single center over more than 5 decades. We performed a retrospective medical
      record analysis for all patients diagnosed with extrafacial GF who were treated
      at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) from 1959 through 2013. During the study
      period, extrafacial GF was diagnosed in 10 patients (6 men, 4 women), all of whom
      were white. The mean age was 58.7 years (range, 26-87 years). Seven patients
      presented with both facial and extrafacial lesions. Although extrafacial lesions
      are rare in GF, this condition should be included in the differential diagnosis
      of well-demarcated plaques and nodules found on the arms and legs.

PMID- 28873118
TI  - Topical timolol may improve overall scar cosmesis in acute surgical wounds.
AB  - Acute wounds created by dermatologists following the removal of nonmelanoma skin
      cancers are closed either by primary or secondary intention, and the best
      cosmetic outcome is preferentially desired. One parameter that determines the
      overall cosmesis of the healed wound is its vascularity. Vascular tone results
      from a complex interplay of a variety of chemokines in the body and their
      interaction with receptors located on endothelial cell surfaces. In this study,
      our aim was to determine if topical timolol could improve the overall cosmesis of
      acute surgical wounds. We determined that patients who treated their acute
      surgical wounds with topical timolol had improved cosmesis compared to control.

PMID- 28873119
TI  - The 2017 US Preventive Services Task Force Report on Preschool Vision Screening.

PMID- 28873120
TI  - The Ideal Blood Pressure Target for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease
      Searching for the Sweet Spot.

PMID- 28873122
TI  - Medicine's Firsts.

PMID- 28873123
TI  - Human Immunodeficiency Virus Preexposure Prophylaxis for Adolescent Men: How Do
      We Ensure Health Equity for At-Risk Young Men?

PMID- 28873121
TI  - Truth Telling in the Setting of Cultural Differences and Incurable Pediatric
      Illness: A Review.
AB  - Importance: Navigating requests from parents or family caregivers not to disclose
      poor prognosis to seriously ill children can be challenging, especially when the
      requests seem culturally mediated. Pediatric clinicians must balance obligations
      to respect individual patient autonomy, professional truth telling, and tolerance
      of multicultural values. Observations: To provide suggestions for respectful and
      ethically appropriate responses to nondisclosure requests, we used a hypothetical
      case example of a Middle Eastern adolescent patient with incurable cancer and
      conducted an ethical analysis incorporating (1) evidence from both Western and
      Middle Eastern medical literature and (2) theories of cultural relativism and
      justice. While Western medical literature tends to prioritize patient autonomy
      and corresponding truth telling, the weight of evidence from the Middle East
      suggests high variability between and within individual countries, patient
      physician relationships, and families regarding truth-telling practices and
      preferences. A common reason for nondisclosure in both populations is protecting
      the child from distressing information. Cultural relativism fosters tolerance of
      diverse beliefs and behaviors by forbidding judgment on foreign societal codes of
      conduct. It does not justify assumptions that all individuals within a single
      culture share the same values, nor does it demand that clinicians sacrifice their
      own codes of conduct out of cultural respect. We suggest some phrases that may
      help clinicians explore motivations behind nondisclosure requests and gently
      confront conflict in order to serve the patient's best interest. Conclusions and
      Relevance: It is sometimes ethically permissible to defer to family values
      regarding nondisclosure, but such deferral is not unique to cultural differences.
      Early setting of expectations and boundaries, as well as ongoing exploration of
      family and health care professional concerns, may mitigate conflict.

PMID- 28873124
TI  - Trends in Dementia Incidence in a Birth Cohort Analysis of the Einstein Aging
      Study.
AB  - Importance: Trends in dementia incidence rates have important implications for
      planning and prevention. To better understand incidence trends over time requires
      separation of age and cohort effects, and few prior studies have used this
      approach. Objectives: To examine trends in dementia incidence and concomitant
      trends in cardiovascular comorbidities among individuals aged 70 years or older
      who were enrolled in the Einstein Aging Study between 1993 and 2015. Design,
      Setting, and Participants: In this birth cohort analysis of all-cause dementia
      incidence in persons enrolled in the Einstein Aging Study from October 20, 1993,
      through November 17, 2015, a systematically recruited, population-based sample of
      1348 participants from Bronx County, New York, who were 70 years or older without
      dementia at enrollment and at least one annual follow-up was studied. Poisson
      regression was used to model dementia incidence as a function of age, sex,
      educational level, race, and birth cohort, with profile likelihood used to
      identify the timing of significant increases or decreases in incidence.
      Exposures: Birth year and age. Main Outcomes and Measures: Incident dementia
      defined by consensus case conference based on annual, standardized
      neuropsychological and neurologic examination findings, using criteria from the
      DSM-IV. Results: Among 1348 individuals (mean [SD] baseline age, 78.5 [5.4]
      years; 830 [61.6%] female; 915 [67.9%] non-Hispanic white), 150 incident dementia
      cases developed during 5932 person-years (mean [SD] follow-up, 4.4 [3.4] years).
      Dementia incidence decreased in successive birth cohorts. Incidence per 100
      person-years was 5.09 in birth cohorts before 1920, 3.11 in the 1920 through 1924
      birth cohorts, 1.73 in the 1925 through 1929 birth cohorts, and 0.23 in cohorts
      born after 1929. Change point analyses identified a significant decrease in
      dementia incidence among those born after July 1929 (95% CI, June 1929 to January
      1930). The relative rate for birth cohorts before July 1929 vs after was 0.13
      (95% CI, 0.04-0.41). Prevalence of stroke and myocardial infarction decreased
      across successive birth cohorts, whereas diabetes prevalence increased.
      Adjustment for these cardiovascular comorbidities did not explain the decreased
      dementia incidence rates for more recent birth cohorts. Conclusions and
      Relevance: Analyses confirm decreasing dementia incidence in this population
      based sample. Whether decreasing incidence will contribute to reduced burden of
      dementia given the aging of the population is not known.

PMID- 28873126
TI  - Vision Screening in Very Young Children-Making Sense of an Inexorable Diagnostic
      Process.

PMID- 28873127
TI  - New Approaches for Appendicitis in Children.

PMID- 28873125
TI  - Neurological Complications Associated With Anti-Programmed Death 1 (PD-1)
      Antibodies.
AB  - Importance: Neurological complications are an increasingly recognized consequence
      of the use of anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibodies in the treatment of solid
      organ tumors, with an estimated frequency of 4.2%. To date, the clinical spectrum
      and optimum treatment approach are not established. Objective: To investigate the
      frequency, clinical spectrum, and optimum treatment approach to neurological
      complications associated with anti-PD-1 therapy. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: This single-center, retrospective cohort study was conducted from
      either September or December 2014 (the approval dates of the study drugs by the
      US Food and Drug Administration) to May 19, 2016. All patients receiving anti-PD
      1 monoclonal antibodies were identified using the Mayo Cancer Pharmacy Database.
      Patients with development of neurological symptoms within 12 months of anti-PD-1
      therapy were included. Patients with neurological complications directly
      attributable to metastatic disease or other concurrent cancer-related treatments
      were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures: Clinical and pathological
      characteristics, time to development of neurological symptoms, and modified
      Rankin Scale (mRS) score. Results: Among 347 patients treated with anti-PD1
      monoclonal antibodies (pembrolizumab or nivolumab), 10 (2.9%) developed subacute
      onset of neurological complications. Seven patients were receiving pembrolizumab,
      and 3 patients were receiving nivolumab. The patients included 8 men and 2 women.
      Their median age was 71 years (age range, 31-78 years). Neurological
      complications occurred after a median of 5.5 (range, 1-20) cycles of anti-PD-1
      inhibitors. Complications included myopathy (n = 2), varied neuropathies (n = 4),
      cerebellar ataxia (n = 1), autoimmune retinopathy (n = 1), bilateral internuclear
      ophthalmoplegia (n = 1), and headache (n = 1). Peripheral neuropathies included
      axonal and demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathies (n = 2), length-dependent
      neuropathies (n = 1), and asymmetric vasculitic neuropathy (n = 1). The time to
      maximum symptom severity varied from 1 day to more than 3 months. The median mRS
      score was 2.5 (range, 1-5), indicating mild to moderate disability. Five patients
      experienced other systemic immune-mediated complications, including
      hypothyroidism (n = 3), colitis (n = 2), and hepatitis (n = 1). Treatment with
      anti-PD-1 antibodies was discontinued in 7 patients. Treatment included
      corticosteroids (n = 7), intravenous immunoglobulin (n = 3), and plasma exchange
      (n = 1). Nine patients improved, with a median mRS score of 2 (range, 0-6). One
      patient with severe necrotizing myopathy died. Conclusions and Relevance:
      Neurological adverse events associated with anti-PD-1 therapy have a diverse
      phenotype, with more frequent neuromuscular complications. Although rare, they
      will likely be encountered with increasing frequency as anti-PD-1 therapy expands
      to other cancers. The time of onset is unpredictable, and evolution may be rapid
      and life-threatening. Prompt recognition and discontinuation of anti-PD-1 therapy
      is recommended. In some cases, immune rescue treatment may be required.

PMID- 28873130
TI  - Neurological Complications of Immunotherapies-Beware of the Checkpoint Ahead.

PMID- 28873131
TI  - Navigating Nondisclosure Requests in Pediatrics: Honesty and Sensitivity Are
      Transcultural Practices.

PMID- 28873132
TI  - Health Care Workforce Development to Enhance Mental and Behavioral Health of
      Children and Youths.

PMID- 28873128
TI  - Safety and Feasibility of Antiretroviral Preexposure Prophylaxis for Adolescent
      Men Who Have Sex With Men Aged 15 to 17 Years in the United States.
AB  - Importance: Adolescents represent a key population for implementing preexposure
      prophylaxis (PrEP) interventions worldwide, yet tenofovir disoproxil
      fumarate/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) for PrEP is only licensed for adults. Objective:
      To examine the safety of and adherence to PrEP along with changes in sexual risk
      behavior among adolescent men who have sex with men (MSM). Design, Setting, and
      Participants: Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions 113
      (Project PrEPare) was a PrEP demonstration project that evaluated the safety,
      tolerability, and acceptability of TDF/FTC and patterns of use, rates of
      adherence, and patterns of sexual risk behavior among healthy young MSM aged 15
      to 17 years. Participants were recruited from adolescent medicine clinics and
      their community partners in 6 US cities, had negative test results for human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but were at high risk for acquiring an infection,
      and were willing to participate in a behavioral intervention and accept TDF/FTC
      as PrEP. Exposures: All participants completed an individualized evidence-based
      behavioral intervention and were provided with daily TDF/FTC as PrEP for 48
      weeks. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main objectives were to: (1) provide
      additional safety data regarding TDF/FTC use among young MSM who had negative
      test results for HIV; (2) examine the acceptability, patterns of use, rates of
      adherence, and measured levels of tenofovir diphosphate in dried blood spots; and
      (3) examine patterns of risk behavior when young MSM were provided with a
      behavioral intervention in conjunction with open-label TDF/FTC. Results: Among
      2864 individuals screened (from August 2013 to September 2014), 260 were eligible
      and 78 were enrolled (mean [SD] age, 16.5 [0.73] years), of whom 2 (3%) were
      Asian/Pacific Islander, 23 (29%) were black/African American, 11 (14%) were
      white, 16 (21%) were white Hispanic, and 26 (33%) were other/mixed
      race/ethnicity. Over 48 weeks of PrEP use, 23 sexually transmitted infections
      were diagnosed in 12 participants. The HIV seroconversion rate was 6.4 (95% CI:
      1.3-18.7) per 100 person-years. Tenofovir diphosphate levels consistent with a
      high degree of anti-HIV protection (>700 fmol/punch) were found in 42 (54%), 37
      (47%), 38 (49%), 22 (28%), 13 (17%), and 17 (22%) participants at weeks 4, 8, 12,
      24, 36, and 48, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Adolescent Medicine
      Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions 113 enrolled a diverse sample of
      adolescent MSM at risk for HIV who consented to study participation.
      Approximately half achieved protective drug levels during the monthly visits, but
      adherence decreased with quarterly visits. Youth may need additional contact with
      clinical staff members to maintain high adherence. Trial Registration:
      clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01769456.

PMID- 28873129
TI  - Association of Serum Soluble Urokinase Receptor Levels With Progression of Kidney
      Disease in Children.
AB  - Importance: Conventional methods to diagnose and monitor chronic kidney disease
      (CKD) in children, such as creatinine level and cystatin C-derived estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and assessment of proteinuria in spot or timed
      urine samples, are of limited value in identifying patients at risk of
      progressive kidney function loss. Serum soluble urokinase receptor (suPAR) levels
      strongly predict incident CKD stage 3 in adults. Objective: To determine whether
      elevated suPAR levels are associated with renal disease progression in children
      with CKD. Design, Setting, and Participants: Post hoc analysis of 2 prospectively
      followed up pediatric CKD cohorts, ie, the ESCAPE Trial (1999-2007) and the 4C
      Study (2010-2016), with serum suPAR level measured at enrollment and longitudinal
      eGFR measured prospectively. In the 2 trials, a total of 898 children were
      observed at 30 (ESCAPE Trial; n = 256) and 55 (4C Study; n = 642) tertiary care
      hospitals in 13 European countries. Renal diagnoses included congenital anomalies
      of the kidneys and urinary tract (n = 637 [70.9%]), tubulointerstitial
      nephropathies (n = 92 [10.2%]), glomerulopathies (n = 69 [7.7%]), postischemic
      CKD (n = 42 [4.7%]), and other CKD (n = 58 [6.5%]). Total follow-up duration was
      up to 7.9 years, and median follow-up was 3.1 years. Analyses were conducted from
      October 2016 to December 2016. Exposures: Serum suPAR level was measured at
      enrollment, and eGFR was measured every 2 months in the ESCAPE Trial and every 6
      months in the 4C Study. The primary end point of CKD progression was a composite
      of 50% eGFR loss, eGFR less than 10 mL/min/1.73 m2, or initiation of renal
      replacement therapy. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point in this
      study was renal survival, defined as a composite of 50% loss of GFR that
      persisted for at least 1 month, the start of renal replacement therapy, or an
      eGFR less than 10 mL/min/1.73 m2. Results: Of the 898 included children, 560
      (62.4%) were male, and the mean (SD) patient age at enrollment was 11.9 (3.5)
      years. The mean (SD) eGFR was 34 (16) mL/min/1.73 m2. The 5-year end point-free
      renal survival was 64.5% (95% CI, 57.4-71.7) in children with suPAR levels in the
      lowest quartile compared with 35.9% (95% CI, 28.7-43.0) in those in the highest
      quartile (P < .001). By multivariable analysis, the risk of attaining the end
      point was higher in children with glomerulopathies and increased with age, blood
      pressure, proteinuria, and lower eGFR at baseline. In patients with baseline eGFR
      greater than 40 mL/min/1.73 m2, higher log-transformed suPAR levels were
      associated with a higher risk of CKD progression after adjustment for traditional
      risk factors (hazard ratio, 5.12; 95% CI, 1.56-16.7; P = .007). Conclusions and
      Relevance: Patients with high suPAR levels were more likely to have progression
      of their kidney disease. Further studies should determine whether suPAR levels
      can identify children at risk for future CKD.

PMID- 28873133
TI  - Distribution of Medical Education Debt by Specialty, 2010-2016.

PMID- 28873134
TI  - Infectious Pneumorrhachis Due to Emphysematous Pyelonephritis.

PMID- 28873136
TI  - The Harms of Empirical Bowel Regimens: A Teachable Moment.

PMID- 28873138
TI  - Mistakes Were Made (by Me).

PMID- 28873139
TI  - Using Risk Stratification to Reduce Medical Errors in Cervical Cancer Prevention.

PMID- 28873135
TI  - Photoreceptor-Based Biomarkers in AOSLO Retinal Imaging.
AB  - Improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying inherited retinal
      degenerations has created the possibility of developing much needed treatments
      for these relentless, blinding diseases. However, standard clinical indicators of
      retinal health (such as visual acuity and visual field sensitivity) are
      insensitive measures of photoreceptor survival. In many retinal degenerations,
      significant photoreceptor loss must occur before measurable differences in visual
      function are observed. Thus, there is a recognized need for more sensitive
      outcome measures to assess therapeutic efficacy as numerous clinical trials are
      getting underway. Adaptive optics (AO) retinal imaging techniques correct for the
      monochromatic aberrations of the eye and can be used to provide nearly
      diffraction-limited images of the retina. Many groups routinely are using AO
      imaging tools to obtain in vivo images of the rod and cone photoreceptor mosaic,
      and it now is possible to monitor photoreceptor structure over time with single
      cell resolution. Highlighting recent work using AO scanning light ophthalmoscopy
      (AOSLO) across a range of patient populations, we review the development of
      photoreceptor-based metrics (e.g., density/geometry, reflectivity, and size) as
      candidate biomarkers. Going forward, there is a need for further development of
      automated tools and normative databases, with the latter facilitating the
      comparison of data sets across research groups and devices. Ongoing and future
      clinical trials for inherited retinal diseases will benefit from the improved
      resolution and sensitivity that multimodal AO retinal imaging affords to evaluate
      safety and efficacy of emerging therapies.

PMID- 28873137
TI  - Association Between More Intensive vs Less Intensive Blood Pressure Lowering and
      Risk of Mortality in Chronic Kidney Disease Stages 3 to 5: A Systematic Review
      and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Importance: Trials in patients with hypertension have demonstrated that intensive
      blood pressure (BP) lowering reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and all
      cause mortality but may increase the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD)
      incidence and progression. Whether intensive BP lowering is associated with a
      mortality benefit in patients with prevalent CKD remains unknown. Objectives: To
      conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials
      (RCTs) to investigate if more intensive compared with less intensive BP control
      is associated with reduced mortality risk in persons with CKD stages 3 to 5. Data
      Sources: Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, Science Citation Index,
      Google Scholar, and clinicaltrials.gov electronic databases. Study Selection: All
      RCTs were included that compared 2 defined BP targets (either active BP treatment
      vs placebo or no treatment, or intensive vs less intensive BP control) and
      enrolled adults (>=18 years) with CKD stages 3 to 5 (estimated glomerular
      filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2) exclusively or that included a CKD subgroup
      between January 1, 1950, and June 1, 2016. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Two of
      us independently evaluated study quality and extracted characteristics and
      mortality events among persons with CKD within the intervention phase for each
      trial. When outcomes within the CKD group had not previously been published,
      trial investigators were contacted to request data within the CKD subset of their
      original trials. Main Outcome and Measure: All-cause mortality during the active
      treatment phase of each trial. Results: This study identified 30 RCTs that
      potentially met the inclusion criteria. The CKD subset mortality data were
      extracted in 18 trials, among which there were 1293 deaths in 15 924 participants
      with CKD. The mean (SD) baseline systolic BP (SBP) was 148 (16) mm Hg in both the
      more intensive and less intensive arms. The mean SBP dropped by 16 mm Hg to 132
      mm Hg in the more intensive arm and by 8 mm Hg to 140 mm Hg in the less intensive
      arm. More intensive vs less intensive BP control resulted in 14.0% lower risk of
      all-cause mortality (odds ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76-0.97; P = .01), a finding
      that was without significant heterogeneity and appeared consistent across
      multiple subgroups. Conclusions and Relevance: Randomization to more intensive BP
      control is associated with lower mortality risk among trial participants with
      hypertension and CKD. Further studies are required to define absolute BP targets
      for maximal benefit and minimal harm.

PMID- 28873140
TI  - Association of Evidence-Based Care Processes With Mortality in Staphylococcus
      aureus Bacteremia at Veterans Health Administration Hospitals, 2003-2014.
AB  - Importance: Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia is common and frequently associated
      with poor outcomes. Evidence indicates that specific care processes are
      associated with improved outcomes for patients with S aureus bacteremia,
      including appropriate antibiotic prescribing, use of echocardiography to identify
      endocarditis, and consultation with infectious diseases (ID) specialists. Whether
      use of these care processes has increased in routine care for S aureus bacteremia
      or whether use of these processes has led to large-scale improvements in survival
      is unknown. Objective: To examine the association of evidence-based care
      processes in routine care for S aureus bacteremia with mortality. Design,
      Setting, and Participants: This retrospective observational cohort study examined
      all patients admitted to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) acute care
      hospitals who had a first episode of S aureus bacteremia from January 1, 2003,
      through December 31, 2014. Exposures: Use of appropriate antibiotic therapy,
      echocardiography, and ID consultation. Main Outcomes and Measures: Thirty-day all
      cause mortality. Results: Analyses included 36 868 patients in 124 hospitals
      (mean [SD] age, 66.4 [12.5] years; 36 036 [97.7%] male), including 19 325 (52.4%)
      with infection due to methicillin-resistant S aureus and 17 543 (47.6%) with
      infection due to methicillin-susceptible S aureus. Risk-adjusted mortality
      decreased from 23.5% (95% CI, 23.3%-23.8%) in 2003 to 18.2% (95% CI, 17.9%-18.5%)
      in 2014. Rates of appropriate antibiotic prescribing increased from 2467 (66.4%)
      to 1991 (78.9%), echocardiography from 1256 (33.8%) to 1837 (72.8%), and ID
      consultation from 1390 (37.4%) to 1717 (68.0%). After adjustment for patient
      characteristics, cohort year, and other care processes, receipt of care processes
      was associated with lower mortality, with adjusted odds ratios of 0.74 (95% CI,
      0.68-0.79) for appropriate antibiotics, 0.73 (95% CI, 0.68-0.78) for
      echocardiography, and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.56-0.65) for ID consultation. Mortality
      decreased progressively as the number of care processes that a patient received
      increased (adjusted odds ratio for all 3 processes compared with none, 0.33; 95%
      CI, 0.30-0.36). An estimated 57.3% (95% CI, 48.4%-69.9%) of the decrease in
      mortality between 2003 and 2014 could be attributed to increased use of these
      evidence-based care processes. Conclusions and Relevance: Mortality associated
      with S aureus bacteremia decreased significantly in VHA hospitals, and a
      substantial portion of the decreasing mortality may have been attributable to
      increased use of evidence-based care processes. The experience in VHA hospitals
      demonstrates that increasing application of these care processes may improve
      survival among patients with S aureus bacteremia in routine health care settings.

PMID- 28873142
TI  - Using Outreach to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening.

PMID- 28873141
TI  - Organoids Reveal Clues to Gut-Brain Communication.

PMID- 28873143
TI  - The Potential and Challenges of Expanded Germline Testing in Clinical Oncology.

PMID- 28873145
TI  - Combination Drug for HCV Infection.

PMID- 28873144
TI  - Correcting the Medical Literature: "To Err Is Human, to Correct Divine".

PMID- 28873146
TI  - MRI for Neonates.

PMID- 28873147
TI  - New Formulation of Lupus Drug.

PMID- 28873149
TI  - Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis for Mendelian Conditions.

PMID- 28873151
TI  - "Found: A One Day Cure for Syphilis".

PMID- 28873150
TI  - A Bipartisan "Moonshot" in Health: Improving Care for High-Need Patients.

PMID- 28873152
TI  - Change in Medical Exemptions From Immunization in California After Elimination of
      Personal Belief Exemptions.

PMID- 28873153
TI  - Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Low Back Pain.

PMID- 28873154
TI  - High-Sensitivity Troponin Levels, Ischemia, and Mortality.

PMID- 28873155
TI  - Managing Conflicts of Interest in Practice Guidelines Panels.

PMID- 28873156
TI  - Managing Conflicts of Interest in Practice Guidelines Panels.

PMID- 28873157
TI  - Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Low Back Pain-Reply.

PMID- 28873158
TI  - High-Sensitivity Troponin Levels, Ischemia, and Mortality-Reply.

PMID- 28873159
TI  - Managing Conflicts of Interest in Practice Guidelines Panels-Reply.

PMID- 28873160
TI  - Effect of Physician Notification Regarding Nonadherence to Colorectal Cancer
      Screening on Patient Participation in Fecal Immunochemical Test Cancer Screening:
      A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: Increasing participation in fecal screening tests is a major
      challenge in countries that have implemented colorectal cancer (CRC) screening
      programs. Objective: To determine whether providing general practitioners (GPs) a
      list of patients who are nonadherent to CRC screening enhances patient
      participation in fecal immunochemical testing (FIT). Design, Setting, and
      Participants: A 3-group, cluster-randomized study was conducted from July 14,
      2015, to July 14, 2016, on the west coast of France, with GPs in 801 practices
      participating and involving adult patients (50-74 years) who were at average risk
      of CRC and not up-to-date with CRC screening. The final follow-up date was July
      14, 2016. Interventions: General practitioners were randomly assigned to 1 of 3
      groups: 496 received a list of patients who had not undergone CRC screening
      (patient-specific reminders group, 10 476 patients), 495 received a letter
      describing region-specific CRC screening adherence rates (generic reminders
      group, 10 606 patients), and 455 did not receive any reminders (usual care group,
      10 147 patients). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was patient
      participation in CRC screening 1 year after the intervention. Results: Among 1482
      randomized GPs (mean age, 53.4 years; 576 women [38.9%]), 1446 participated; of
      the 33 044 patients of these GPs (mean age, 59.7 years; 17 949 women [54.3%]),
      follow-up at 1 year was available for 31 229 (94.5%). At 1 year, 24.8% (95% CI,
      23.4%-26.2%) of patients in the specific reminders group, 21.7% (95% CI, 20.5%
      22.8%) in the generic reminders group, and 20.6% (95% CI, 19.3%-21.8%) in the
      usual care group participated in the FIT screening. The between-group differences
      were 3.1% (95% CI, 1.3%-5.0%) for the patient-specific reminders group vs the
      generic reminders group, 4.2% (95% CI, 2.3%-6.2%) for the patient-specific
      reminders group vs the usual care group, and 1.1% (95% CI, -0.6% to 2.8%) for
      generic reminders group vs the usual care group. Conclusions and Relevance:
      Providing French GPs caring for adults at average risk of CRC with a list of
      their patients who were not up-to-date with their CRC screening resulted in a
      small but significant increase in patient participation in FIT screening at 1
      year compared with patients who received usual care. Providing GPs with generic
      reminders about regional rates of CRC screening did not increase screening rates
      compared with usual care. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT02515344.

PMID- 28873161
TI  - Effect of Colonoscopy Outreach vs Fecal Immunochemical Test Outreach on
      Colorectal Cancer Screening Completion: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: Mailed fecal immunochemical test (FIT) outreach is more effective
      than colonoscopy outreach for increasing 1-time colorectal cancer (CRC)
      screening, but long-term effectiveness may need repeat testing and timely follow
      up for abnormal results. Objective: Compare the effectiveness of FIT outreach and
      colonoscopy outreach to increase completion of the CRC screening process
      (screening initiation and follow-up) within 3 years. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: Pragmatic randomized clinical trial from March 2013 to July 2016
      among 5999 participants aged 50 to 64 years who were receiving primary care in
      Parkland Health and Hospital System and were not up to date with CRC screenings.
      Interventions: Random assignment to mailed FIT outreach (n = 2400), mailed
      colonoscopy outreach (n = 2400), or usual care with clinic-based screening (n =
      1199). Outreach included processes to promote repeat annual testing for
      individuals in the FIT outreach group with normal results and completion of
      diagnostic and screening colonoscopy for those with an abnormal FIT result or
      assigned to colonoscopy outreach. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary outcome was
      screening process completion, defined as adherence to colonoscopy completion,
      annual testing for a normal FIT result, diagnostic colonoscopy for an abnormal
      FIT result, or treatment evaluation if CRC was detected. Secondary outcomes
      included detection of any adenoma or advanced neoplasia (including CRC) and
      screening-related harms (including bleeding or perforation). Results: All 5999
      participants (median age, 56 years; women, 61.9%) were included in the intention
      to-screen analyses. Screening process completion was 38.4% in the colonoscopy
      outreach group, 28.0% in the FIT outreach group, and 10.7% in the usual care
      group. Compared with the usual care group, between-group differences for
      completion were higher for both outreach groups (27.7% [95% CI, 25.1% to 30.4%]
      for the colonoscopy outreach group; 17.3% [95% CI, 14.8% to 19.8%] for FIT
      outreach group), and highest in the colonoscopy outreach group (10.4% [95% CI,
      7.8% to 13.1%] for the colonoscopy outreach group vs FIT outreach group; P < .001
      for all comparisons). Compared with usual care, the between-group differences in
      adenoma and advanced neoplasia detection rates were higher for both outreach
      groups (colonoscopy outreach group: 10.3% [95% CI, 9.5% to 12.1%] for adenoma and
      3.1% [95% CI, 2.0% to 4.1%] for advanced neoplasia, P < .001 for both
      comparisons; FIT outreach group: 1.3% [95% CI, -0.1% to 2.8%] for adenoma and
      0.7% [95% CI, -0.2% to 1.6%] for advanced neoplasia, P < .08 and P < .13,
      respectively), and highest in the colonoscopy outreach group (colonoscopy
      outreach group vs FIT outreach group: 9.0% [95% CI, 7.3% to 10.7%] for adenoma
      and 2.4% [95% CI, 1.3% to 3.3%] for advanced neoplasia, P < .001 for both
      comparisons). There were no screening-related harms in any groups. Conclusions
      and Relevance: Among persons aged 50 to 64 years receiving primary care at a
      safety-net institution, mailed outreach invitations offering FIT or colonoscopy
      compared with usual care increased the proportion completing CRC screening
      process within 3 years. The rate of screening process completion was higher with
      colonoscopy than FIT outreach. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT01710215.

PMID- 28873163
TI  - Vision Screening in Children.

PMID- 28873165
TI  - Delivering Emotions.

PMID- 28873162
TI  - Mutation Detection in Patients With Advanced Cancer by Universal Sequencing of
      Cancer-Related Genes in Tumor and Normal DNA vs Guideline-Based Germline Testing.
AB  - Importance: Guidelines for cancer genetic testing based on family history may
      miss clinically actionable genetic changes with established implications for
      cancer screening or prevention. Objective: To determine the proportion and
      potential clinical implications of inherited variants detected using simultaneous
      sequencing of the tumor and normal tissue ("tumor-normal sequencing") compared
      with genetic test results based on current guidelines. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: From January 2014 until May 2016 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
      Center, 10 336 patients consented to tumor DNA sequencing. Since May 2015, 1040
      of these patients with advanced cancer were referred by their oncologists for
      germline analysis of 76 cancer predisposition genes. Patients with clinically
      actionable inherited mutations whose genetic test results would not have been
      predicted by published decision rules were identified. Follow-up for potential
      clinical implications of mutation detection was through May 2017. Exposure: Tumor
      and germline sequencing compared with the predicted yield of targeted germline
      sequencing based on clinical guidelines. Main Outcomes and Measures: Proportion
      of clinically actionable germline mutations detected by universal tumor-normal
      sequencing that would not have been detected by guideline-directed testing.
      Results: Of 1040 patients, the median age was 58 years (interquartile range, 50.5
      66 years), 65.3% were male, and 81.3% had stage IV disease at the time of genomic
      analysis, with prostate, renal, pancreatic, breast, and colon cancer as the most
      common diagnoses. Of the 1040 patients, 182 (17.5%; 95% CI, 15.3%-19.9%) had
      clinically actionable mutations conferring cancer susceptibility, including 149
      with moderate- to high-penetrance mutations; 101 patients tested (9.7%; 95% CI,
      8.1%-11.7%) would not have had these mutations detected using clinical
      guidelines, including 65 with moderate- to high-penetrance mutations. Frequency
      of inherited mutations was related to case mix, stage, and founder mutations.
      Germline findings led to discussion or initiation of change to targeted therapy
      in 38 patients tested (3.7%) and predictive testing in the families of 13
      individuals (1.3%), including 6 for whom genetic evaluation would not have been
      initiated by guideline-based testing. Conclusions and Relevance: In this referral
      population with selected advanced cancers, universal sequencing of a broad panel
      of cancer-related genes in paired germline and tumor DNA samples was associated
      with increased detection of individuals with potentially clinically significant
      heritable mutations over the predicted yield of targeted germline testing based
      on current clinical guidelines. Knowledge of these additional mutations can help
      guide therapeutic and preventive interventions, but whether all of these
      interventions would improve outcomes for patients with cancer or their family
      members requires further study. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov
      Identifier: NCT01775072.

PMID- 28873167
TI  - Vision Screening in Children Aged 6 Months to 5 Years: Evidence Report and
      Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force.
AB  - Importance: Preschool vision screening could allow detection and treatment of
      vision abnormalities during a critical developmental stage, preserving function
      and quality of life. Objective: To review the evidence on screening for and
      treatment of amblyopia, its risk factors, and refractive error in children aged 6
      months to 5 years to inform the US Preventive Services Task Force. Data Sources:
      MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and trial registries through June 2016;
      references; and experts, with surveillance of the literature through June 7,
      2017. Study Selection: English-language randomized clinical trials (RCTs) or
      prospective cohort studies that evaluated screening, studies evaluating test
      accuracy, RCTs of treatment vs inactive controls, and cohort studies or case
      control studies assessing harms. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Dual review of
      abstracts, full-text articles, and study quality; qualitative synthesis of
      findings. Studies were not quantitatively pooled because of clinical and
      methodological heterogeneity. Main Outcomes and Measures: Visual acuity,
      amblyopia, school performance, functioning, quality of life, test accuracy,
      testability, and harms. Results: Forty studies were included (N = 34 709); 34
      evaluated test accuracy. No RCTs compared screening with no screening, and no
      studies evaluated school performance, function, or quality of life. Studies
      directly assessing earlier or more intensive screening were limited by high
      attrition. Positive likelihood ratios were between 5 and 10 for amblyopia risk
      factors or nonamblyogenic refractive error in most studies of test accuracy and
      were greater than 10 in most studies evaluating combinations of clinical tests.
      Inability to cooperate may limit use of some tests in children younger than 3
      years. Studies with low prevalence (<10%) of vision abnormalities showed high
      false-positive rates (usually >75%). Among children with amblyopia risk factors
      (eg, strabismus or anisometropia), patching improved visual acuity of the
      amblyopic eye by a mean of less than 1 line on a standard chart after 5 to 12
      weeks for children pretreated with glasses (2 RCTs, 240 participants); more
      children treated with patching than with no patching experienced improvement of
      at least 2 lines (45% vs 21%; P = .003; 1 RCT, 180 participants). Patching plus
      glasses improved visual acuity by about 1 line after 1 year (0.11 logMAR [95% CI,
      0.05-0.17]) for children not pretreated with glasses (1 RCT, 177 participants).
      Glasses alone improved visual acuity by less than 1 line after 1 year (0.08
      logMAR [95% CI, 0.02-0.15], 1 RCT, 177 participants). Conclusions and Relevance:
      Studies directly evaluating the effectiveness of screening were limited and do
      not establish whether vision screening in preschool children is better than no
      screening. Indirect evidence supports the utility of multiple screening tests for
      identifying preschool children at higher risk for vision problems and the
      effectiveness of some treatments for improving visual acuity outcomes.

PMID- 28873169
TI  - Error in Table.

PMID- 28873168
TI  - Vision Screening in Children Aged 6 Months to 5 Years: US Preventive Services
      Task Force Recommendation Statement.
AB  - Importance: One of the most important causes of vision abnormalities in children
      is amblyopia (also known as "lazy eye"). Amblyopia is an alteration in the visual
      neural pathway in a child's developing brain that can lead to permanent vision
      loss in the affected eye. Among children younger than 6 years, 1% to 6% have
      amblyopia or its risk factors (strabismus, anisometropia, or both). Early
      identification of vision abnormalities could prevent the development of
      amblyopia. Subpopulation Considerations: Studies show that screening rates among
      children vary by race/ethnicity and family income. Data based on parent reports
      from 2009-2010 indicated identical screening rates among black non-Hispanic
      children and white non-Hispanic children (80.7%); however, Hispanic children were
      less likely than non-Hispanic children to report vision screening (69.8%).
      Children whose families earned 200% or more above the federal poverty level were
      more likely to report vision screening than families with lower incomes.
      Objective: To update the 2011 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)
      recommendation on screening for amblyopia and its risk factors in children.
      Evidence Review: The USPSTF reviewed the evidence on the accuracy of vision
      screening tests and the benefits and harms of vision screening and treatment.
      Surgical interventions were considered to be out of scope for this review.
      Findings: Treatment of amblyopia is associated with moderate improvements in
      visual acuity in children aged 3 to 5 years, which are likely to result in
      permanent improvements in vision throughout life. The USPSTF concluded that the
      benefits are moderate because untreated amblyopia results in permanent,
      uncorrectable vision loss, and the benefits of screening and treatment
      potentially can be experienced over a child's lifetime. The USPSTF found adequate
      evidence to bound the potential harms of treatment (ie, higher false-positive
      rates in low-prevalence populations) as small. Therefore, the USPSTF concluded
      with moderate certainty that the overall net benefit is moderate for children
      aged 3 to 5 years. Conclusions and Recommendations: The USPSTF recommends vision
      screening at least once in all children aged 3 to 5 years to detect amblyopia or
      its risk factors. (B recommendation) The USPSTF concludes that the current
      evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of vision
      screening in children younger than 3 years. (I statement).

PMID- 28873172
TI  - Tachyarrhythmia Onset Captured on Telemetry Deciphers the Diagnosis.

PMID- 28873174
TI  - Performing Reliable Lens Capsulotomy in the Presence of Corneal Edema With a
      Femtosecond Laser.
AB  - Purpose: To determine the effects of the Ziemer LDV Z8 liquid interface
      femtosecond laser platform during capsulotomy under different energy settings in
      the presence of corneal edema. Methods: Cadaveric porcine eyes (n = 36) employed
      at less than 6 and greater than 24 post enucleation hours to simulate
      clear/edematous corneas, underwent capsulotomy with the Ziemer LDV Z8 femtosecond
      laser (5-mm diameter, energy 90%, 130%, or 150%). Lens capsules were removed for
      evaluation by scanning electron microscopy and rupture strengths determined by
      the single column universal testing system. Following ethical approval, 23
      patients had lens capsules removed during routine cataract surgery following
      manual or Z8 capsulotomy and subjected to TUNEL assay. Results: There was no
      difference in edge morphology or rupture strength (120, 113, and 118 mN at
      increasing energy, P = 0.42) in the clear cornea. Only 50% of capsulotomies
      succeeded at 90% energy in an edematous cornea, improving with increased energy
      (75% completion at 130%, 100% at 150%). Rupture strength in edematous corneas was
      not significantly different at 112, 133, and 114 mN for 90%, 130%, and 150%,
      respectively (P = 0.3). In human samples, increased TUNEL-positive cells were
      seen at 130% energy, but not at 150% (0.0 manual vs. 0.2 [90%] vs. 2.1 [130%] vs.
      0.6 [150%], P < 0.05). Conclusions: Because of the low energy delivered by a
      femtosecond nanojoule platform, even incremental increases in energy appeared to
      have minimal effect on lens capsule morphology and strength and negligible
      influence on cell death. Furthermore, increasing energy appeared to enhance
      consistency and the ability to complete a capsulotomy in an edematous cornea.

PMID- 28873173
TI  - Automated Photoreceptor Cell Identification on Nonconfocal Adaptive Optics Images
      Using Multiscale Circular Voting.
AB  - Purpose: Adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) has enabled
      quantification of the photoreceptor mosaic in the living human eye using metrics
      such as cell density and average spacing. These rely on the identification of
      individual cells. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach for computer-aided
      identification of cone photoreceptors on nonconfocal split detection AOSLO
      images. Methods: Algorithms for identification of cone photoreceptors were
      developed, based on multiscale circular voting (MSCV) in combination with a
      priori knowledge that split detection images resemble Nomarski differential
      interference contrast images, in which dark and bright regions are present on the
      two sides of each cell. The proposed algorithm locates dark and bright region
      pairs, iteratively refining the identification across multiple scales.
      Identification accuracy was assessed in data from 10 subjects by comparing
      automated identifications with manual labeling, followed by computation of
      density and spacing metrics for comparison to histology and published data.
      Results: There was good agreement between manual and automated cone
      identifications with overall recall, precision, and F1 score of 92.9%, 90.8%, and
      91.8%, respectively. On average, computed density and spacing values using
      automated identification were within 10.7% and 11.2% of the expected histology
      values across eccentricities ranging from 0.5 to 6.2 mm. There was no
      statistically significant difference between MSCV-based and histology-based
      density measurements (P = 0.96, Kolmogorov-Smirnov 2-sample test). Conclusions:
      MSCV can accurately detect cone photoreceptors on split detection images across a
      range of eccentricities, enabling quick, objective estimation of photoreceptor
      mosaic metrics, which will be important for future clinical trials utilizing
      adaptive optics.

PMID- 28873175
TI  - Development of a Poly-epsilon-Lysine Contact Lens as a Drug Delivery Device for
      the Treatment of Fungal Keratitis.
AB  - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a more efficient drug delivery
      device to overcome the limitations of current drop therapy for the treatment of
      fungal keratitis. Methods: Amphotericin B (AmpB), 0 to 30 MUg/mL, was associated
      with a poly-epsilon-lysine (pepsilonK) hydrogel. Fungicidal effect against
      Candida albicans was assessed at 18 and 42 hours by optical density (OD600) and
      growth on agar. Tear film dilution effect was mimicked by storage of AmpB
      pepsilonK gels in 3.4 mL sterile PBS for 24 hours prior to fungal incubation.
      Drug elution over 96 hours was evaluated by HPLC, and drug stability was tested
      while associated with the gel by OD600 up to 48 hours. Lack of cytotoxicity
      toward the HCE-T corneal epithelial cell line was assessed over 7 days. Results:
      AmpB pepsilonK gels show fungicidal activity in normal conditions (0.057 OD600,
      SD 0.003, P < 0.005) and in the presence of horse serum (0.048 OD600, SD 0.028 P
      < 0.005) at 18 hours. The drug release profile was above therapeutic levels
      (0.188 MUg/mL) for up to 72 hours. Tear dilution had no significant effect at
      higher concentrations of AmpB (3 to 10 MUg/mL). AmpB pepsilonK gels were not
      cytotoxic to the HCE-T cell line. Conclusions: We demonstrated that AmpB
      pepsilonK gels confer sustained therapeutic antifungal activity for at least 48
      hours without corneal epithelial cell line cytotoxicity, suggesting their
      potential for in vivo use as an antifungal bandage contact lens. This could avoid
      the need for intensive topical medication in the treatment of fungal keratitis.

PMID- 28873178
TI  - Sentence Added to Author Contributions.

PMID- 28873176
TI  - Pro-Secretory Activity and Pharmacology in Rabbits of an Aminophenyl-1,3,5
      Triazine CFTR Activator for Dry Eye Disorders.
AB  - Purpose: Pharmacological activation of ocular surface cystic fibrosis
      transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) chloride channels is a potential pro
      secretory approach to treat dry eye disorders. We previously reported the
      discovery of aminophenyl-1,3,5-triazines, one of which, N-methyl-N-phenyl-6
      (2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropoxy)-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine (herein called CFTRact
      K267), fully activated human wildtype CFTR with EC50 ~ 30 nM and increased tear
      volume for 8 hours in mice. Here, functional and pharmacological studies of
      CFTRact-K267 were done in adult New Zealand white rabbits. Methods: CFTR chloride
      conductance was measured in vivo by ocular surface potential differences and in
      ex vivo conjunctiva by short-circuit current. Tear volume was measured by the
      Schirmer tear test II and CFTRact-K267 pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution
      by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Toxicity profile was studied for 28
      days with twice-daily topical administration. Results: Electrophysiological
      measurements in vivo and in ex vivo conjunctiva demonstrated CFTR activation by
      CFTRact-K267. A single topical dose of 3 nmol CFTRact-K267 increased tear
      production by >5 mm for 9 hours by the Schirmer tear test, with predicted
      therapeutic concentrations maintained in tear fluid. No tachyphylaxis was seen
      following 28-day twice-daily administration, and changes were not observed in
      corneal surface integrity or thickness, intraocular pressure, or ocular
      histology. At day 28, CFTRact-K267 was concentrated in the cornea and conjunctiva
      and was not detectable in blood or peripheral organs. Conclusions: These studies
      support the development of CFTRact-K267 as a pro-secretory therapy for dry eye
      disorders.

PMID- 28873179
TI  - Incorrect Author Affiliation.

PMID- 28873180
TI  - Omitted Affiliation and Disclaimer.

PMID- 28873181
TI  - Data Transcription Errors and Missing Footnote in Table.

PMID- 28873183
TI  - Benefits of Electronic Medical Record Banks.

PMID- 28873177
TI  - Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-Dependent Expression of Angiopoietin-Like 4 by
      Conjunctival Epithelial Cells Promotes the Angiogenic Phenotype of Pterygia.
AB  - Purpose: Disappointing results from clinical studies assessing the efficacy of
      therapies targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for the treatment
      of pterygia suggest that other angiogenic mediators may also play a role in its
      development. We therefore explore the relative contribution of VEGF, hypoxia
      inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha (the transcription factor that regulates VEGF
      expression in ocular neovascular disease), and a second HIF-regulated mediator,
      angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4), to the angiogenic phenotype of pterygia. Methods:
      Expression of HIF-1alpha, VEGF, and ANGPTL4 were examined in surgically excised
      pterygia, and in immortalized human (ih) and primary rabbit (pr) conjunctival
      epithelial cells (CjECs). Endothelial cell (EC) tubule formation assays using
      media conditioned by ihCjECs in the presence or absence of inducers/inhibitors of
      HIF-1 or RNA interference (RNAi) targeting VEGF, ANGPTL4, or both were used to
      assess their relative contribution to the angiogenic potential of these cells.
      Results: HIF-1alpha and VEGF expression were detected in 6/6 surgically excised
      pterygia and localized to CjECs. Accumulation of HIF-1alpha in was confirmed in
      ihCjECs and prCjECs, including stratified prCjECs grown on collagen vitrigel, and
      resulted in expression of VEGF and the promotion of EC tubule formation; the
      latter effect was partially blocked using RNAi targeting VEGF mRNA expression. We
      demonstrate expression of a second HIF-regulated angiogenic mediator, ANGPTL4, in
      CjECs in culture and in surgically excised pterygia. RNAi targeting ANGPTL4
      inhibited EC tubule formation and was additive to RNAi targeting VEGF.
      Conclusions: Our results support the development of therapies targeting both
      ANGPTL4 and VEGF for the treatment of patients with pterygia.

PMID- 28873184
TI  - Redefining Unexplained Anemia in Elderly.

PMID- 28873185
TI  - Meta-Epidemiology of Testosterone's Risks and Benefits-Will We Ever Know the
      Answer?

PMID- 28873186
TI  - Intensive Blood Pressure Control on Gait Speed and Mobility Limitation for Older
      Adults.

PMID- 28873187
TI  - Inaccuracies Describing Results of a Lung Cancer Screening Demonstration Project.

PMID- 28873188
TI  - Testosterone Replacement Therapy and Cardiovascular Risk-A Closer Look at
      Additional Parameters.

PMID- 28873189
TI  - All Types of Hemorrhagic Stroke Are Not Created Equally.

PMID- 28873190
TI  - Meta-Epidemiology of Testosterone's Risks and Benefits-Will We Ever Know the
      Answer?-Reply.

PMID- 28873191
TI  - Meta-Epidemiology of Testosterone's Risks and Benefits-Will We Ever Know the
      Answer?-Reply.

PMID- 28873192
TI  - Redefining Unexplained Anemia in Elderly-Reply.

PMID- 28873193
TI  - Intensive Blood Pressure Control on Gait Speed and Mobility Limitation for Older
      Adults-Reply.

PMID- 28873194
TI  - Inaccuracies Describing Results of a Lung Cancer Screening Demonstration Project
      Reply.

PMID- 28873195
TI  - All Types of Hemorrhagic Stroke Are Not Created Equally-Reply.

PMID- 28873196
TI  - Testosterone Replacement Therapy and Cardiovascular Risk-A Closer Look to
      Additional Parameters.

PMID- 28873198
TI  - Role of IL17A rs2275913 and rs3748067 polymorphisms in the risk cervical cancer.
AB  - Cervical cancer is a serious public health problem and is associated with high
      cancer-related mortality in females worldwide. The expression of IL17A can
      increase the migration and invasiveness of cervical cancer cells by activating
      the NF-kappaB signal pathway. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can alter
      gene function and protein expression. We examined the association between two
      IL17A SNPs (rs2275913 and rs3748067) and the risk of cervical cancer. We also
      investigated the interaction between IL17A -174G/C and -572C/G mutations and
      environmental factors. Our 1:2 matched case-control study included 185 cervical
      cancer patients and 370 healthy controls. The IL17A rs2275913 and rs3748067 SNPs
      were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length
      polymorphism. Using logistic regression analysis, we found that individuals
      harboring the TT genotype of IL17A rs3748067 had an increased risk of cervical
      cancer compared with those carrying the CC genotype, and the adjusted OR (95%CI)
      was 6.29 (2.30-19.81). Moreover, individuals carrying the T allele of IL17A
      rs3748067 were more susceptible to cervical cancer than those with the C allele,
      and the adjusted OR (95%CI) was 2.31 (1.53-3.50). No significant interaction was
      observed between the IL17A rs2275913 polymorphism and cervical cancer risk. In
      conclusion, our study suggests that the IL17A rs3748067 polymorphism is
      independently associated with the risk of cervical cancer, and has a relationship
      with human papillomavirus infection with regard to the risk of cervical cancer.

PMID- 28873199
TI  - Cloning and functional characterization of the HbSYR1 gene encoding a syntaxin
      related protein in Tibetan hulless barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum HK. f.).
AB  - Tibetan barley is a staple food for the natives of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Drought
      causes a reduction in barley production. In this study, the full-length cDNA of a
      gene encoding a syntaxin-associated protein was cloned from the leaves of a
      drought-resistant variety of barley, "Himalaya 10"; its expression was evaluated
      during drought stress and rehydration via real-time PCR. The cloned HbSYR1 cDNA
      sequence was 1300 bp in length, and included an 840-bp open reading frame that
      encoded 279 amino acids. Sequence analysis predicted the molecular weight of the
      encoded protein to be 42.08 kDa, with an isoelectric point of 4.98. ScanProsite
      analysis showed that the HbSYR1 protein contained a SNARE family characteristic
      motif, five casein kinase II phosphorylation sites, two N-glycosylation sites,
      four protein kinase C phosphorylation sites, and two N-myristoylation sites. The
      TMHMM prediction program indicated that the protein does not contain a
      transmembrane transfer ribbon. According to the SignalP 3.0 server, this protein
      does not contain a signal peptide, and is not a secretory protein. Instead, this
      protein was suggested to be localized in the cytoplasm, as predicted by the
      protein subcellular localization prediction tool (PSORT). Our results indicated
      that HbSYR was induced by drought stress and rehydration, and was determined to
      be a key gene for drought resistance and water retention in barley.

PMID- 28873200
TI  - Mac-1 deficiency induces respiratory failure by affecting type I alveolar
      epithelial cells.
AB  - As a beta2 integrin family member, Mac-1 plays an important role in the
      inflammatory response. Inflammation and lung injury are closely associated, but
      the involvement of Mac-1 in the occurrence and development of such pathologies
      remains poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the relationship between Mac-1
      deficiency and respiratory failure in Mac-1 knockout {Mac-1-/-} mice, using
      C57BL/6J mice as a control. The newborn survival rate of Mac-1-/- mice was
      calculated, and mouse lung tissue was treated with hematoxylin and eosin and
      subjected to immunofluorescent staining. Moreover, western blotting and
      immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of molecules specific to
      type I and type II alveolar epithelial cells, as well as alveolar surfactant
      proteins secreted by the latter. Survival of Mac-1-/- pups was significantly
      lower than that of newborn C57BL/6J mice. In a float test, lung tissues from
      C57BL/6J mice were buoyant, whereas those of Mac-1-/- mice were not. Compared
      with C57BL/6J mice, expression of proSP-C {specific to type II alveolar
      epithelial cells} and alveolar surfactant proteins in Mac-1-/- mice was not
      significantly different, implying that type II cell function was unaltered.
      However, western blotting revealed expression of T1alpha, Aqp5, and Snx5 {type I
      alveolar epithelial cell markers} in Mac-1-/- mice to be significantly decreased
      {P < 0.05}. In conclusion, Mac-1 may play an important role in respiratory
      failure. Its absence leads to this condition not by influencing type II alveolar
      epithelial cells or their secreted surfactant proteins, but rather by reducing
      type I alveolar cell numbers.

PMID- 28873201
TI  - Mutational screening in the LDLR gene among patients presenting familial
      hypercholesterolemia in the Southeast of Brazil.
AB  - Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a dominant, autosomal disease characterized
      by high LDL levels in blood plasma, and is caused by a defect in the gene
      encoding the LDL receptor (LDLR). The clinical diagnosis is based on personal and
      familial history, physical examination findings, and measures of high LDL
      cholesterol concentrations. LDLR is a cell-surface glycoprotein that controls the
      level of blood plasma cholesterol and triglyceride by LDLR-mediated endocytosis.
      Here we sequenced the entire LDLR gene-coding region to screen for mutations in
      32 patients diagnosed with FH, and we have found 20 mutations including
      synonymous, missense, and intronic mutations. Six of them were characterized as
      pathogenic mutations (D178Y, C184Y, S326C, C681X, IVS7+10G>C, and IVS11-10G>A).
      We have also found one intronic mutation not described so far (IVS11-63C>A). Our
      study corroborates the broad spectrum of mutations distributed along the entire
      LDLR gene, and we suggest that the genes APOB and PCSK9 should also be screened
      for mutations when considering the diagnosis of FH. It is already known that
      different types of mutations are directly associated with the phenotype
      heterogeneity presented by patients. Considering that Brazilian population is
      highly admixed, it is important to determine the geographic spectrum of LDLR
      mutations to provide information on the prognosis and treatment of each FH
      patient.

PMID- 28873202
TI  - Suppression of the biological activity of neuroglioma cells by down-regulation of
      miR-1.
AB  - Neuroglioma is associated with high rates of malignancy, metastasis, and
      recurrence. Recently, research on the roles of microRNAs (miR) in cancer
      prognosis has formed an important area of research as differential expression of
      miRNAs has been observed in different cancers. However, the detailed mechanism by
      which miRNAs regulate glioma remains unknown. Thus, we investigated the effect of
      miR-1 on human glioma by inhibiting the expression of miR-1. Anti-miR-1, an anti
      sense oligonucleotide against miR-1, significantly reduced the level of miR-1 in
      the human glioma cell line U87 (P < 0.05). Further, cell proliferation and colony
      formation assays were used to determine the effect of miR-1 on cell growth. The
      scratch assay and cell migration assay were performed to evaluate cell invasion.
      Our data demonstrated that the growth of glioma cells was impeded due to the
      decrease in miR-1 levels, compared to the untransfected control cells (P < 0.05).
      Interestingly, the invasion and mobility of the cells were also retarded after
      transfection with anti-miR-1 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, our results indicate that
      the down-regulation of miR-1 significantly inhibited cell proliferation and
      reduced cell motility, suggesting that anti-miR-1 could be used as a therapeutic
      intervention tool to counter the activity of neuroglioma cells.

PMID- 28873203
TI  - Genetic diversity in a Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L.P. Queiroz population
      assessed by RAPD molecular markers.
AB  - Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L.P. Queiroz is an endemic Caatinga (Brazilian
      savannah biome) species that has been exploited for different purposes, although
      information is necessary about still existing natural populations. The objective
      of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity among 20 P. pyramidalis
      individuals occurring in a population localized in the Caatinga biome of Paraiba
      State, aiming at seed collection, using RAPD markers. For the DNA extraction,
      young shoots of the individuals were used, and amplification was carried out
      using 20 primers. The obtained markers were converted to a binary matrix, from
      which a genetic dissimilarity matrix was built using the arithmetic complement of
      Jaccard's coefficient, and the dendrogram was built by the UPGMA analysis. No
      amplified fragment was monomorphic, resulting in 100% polymorphism of the
      analyzed population. The mean genetic diversity among the matrices was 63.28%,
      ranging from 30.9 to 97.7%. Individuals 09 and 17 showed relevant genetic
      proximity, and thus planting their seedlings at close sites would not be
      indicated. The population evaluated in this study showed high genetic diversity,
      originating twelve groups from the UPGMA hierarchical cluster analysis. Based on
      the results, individuals 09 and 17 can provide plant material for the evaluation
      of the physiological performance of P. pyramidalis seeds, and the set of
      individuals of this population has a high genetic diversity that characterizes
      them as adequate matrices for projects of restoration and conservation of the
      seed species.

PMID- 28873204
TI  - Population genetic structure of three species in the genus Astrocaryum G. Mey.
      (Arecaceae).
AB  - We assessed the level and distribution of genetic diversity in three species of
      the economically important palm genus Astrocaryum located in Para State, in
      northern Brazil. Samples were collected in three municipalities for Astrocaryum
      aculeatum: Belterra, Santarem, and Terra Santa; and in two municipalities for
      both A. murumuru: Belem and Santo Antonio do Taua and A. paramaca: Belem and
      Ananindeua. Eight microsatellite loci amplified well and were used for genetic
      analysis. The mean number of alleles per locus for A. aculeatum, A. murumuru, and
      A. paramaca were 2.33, 2.38, and 2.06, respectively. Genetic diversity was
      similar for the three species, ranging from HE = 0.222 in A. aculeatum to HE =
      0.254 in A. murumuru. Both FST and AMOVA showed that most of the genetic
      variation was found within populations for all three species, but high genetic
      differentiation among populations was found for A. aculeatum. Three loci were not
      in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, with populations of A. paramaca showing a tendency
      for the excess of heterozygotes (FIS = -0.144). Gene flow was high for
      populations of A. paramaca (Nm = 19.35). Our results suggest that the genetic
      diversity within populations followed the genetic differentiation among
      populations due to high gene flow among the population. Greater geographic
      distances among the three collection sites for A. aculeatum likely hampered gene
      flow for this species.

PMID- 28873205
TI  - Molecular mapping and candidate gene analysis for resistance to powdery mildew in
      Cucumis sativus stem.
AB  - Powdery mildew (PM) of cucumber (Cucumis sativus), caused by Podosphaera xanthii,
      is a major foliar disease worldwide and resistance is one of the main objectives
      in cucumber breeding programs. The resistance to PM in cucumber stem is important
      to the resistance for the whole plant. In this study, genetic analysis and gene
      mapping were implemented with cucumber inbred lines NCG-122 (with resistance to
      PM in the stem) and NCG-121 (with susceptibility in the stem). Genetic analysis
      showed that resistance to PM in the stem of NCG-122 was qualitative and
      controlled by a single-recessive nuclear gene (pm-s). Susceptibility was dominant
      to resistance. In the initial genetic mapping of the pm-s gene, 10 SSR markers
      were discovered to be linked to pm-s, which was mapped to chromosome 5 (Chr.5) of
      cucumber. The pm-s gene's closest flanking markers were SSR20486 and
      SSR06184/SSR13237 with genetic distances of 0.9 and 1.8 cM, respectively. One
      hundred and fifty-seven pairs of new SSR primers were exploited by the sequence
      information in the initial mapping region of pm-s. The analysis on the F2 mapping
      population using the new molecular markers showed that 17 SSR markers were
      confirmed to be linked to the pm-s gene. The two closest flanking markers,
      pmSSR27and pmSSR17, were 0.1 and 0.7 cM from pm-s, respectively, confirming the
      location of this gene on Chr.5. The physical length of the genomic region
      containing pm-s was 135.7 kb harboring 21 predicted genes. Among these genes, the
      gene Csa5G623470 annotated as encoding Mlo-related protein was defined as the
      most probable candidate gene for the pm-s. The results of this study will provide
      a basis for marker-assisted selection, and make the benefit for the cloning of
      the resistance gene.

PMID- 28873206
TI  - Characterization and phylogenetic affiliation of Actinobacteria from tropical
      soils with potential uses for agro-industrial processes.
AB  - Secondary metabolites produced by Actinobacteria of tropical soils represent a
      largely understudied source of novel molecules with relevant application in
      medicine, pharmaceutical and food industries, agriculture, and environmental
      bioremediation. The present study aimed to characterize sixty-nine Actinobacteria
      isolated from compost and tropical soils using morphological, biochemical, and
      molecular methods. All the isolates showed high variation for morphological
      traits considering the color of pigments of the aerial and vegetative mycelium
      and spore chain morphology. The enzymatic activity of amylase, cellulase, and
      lipase was highly variable. The amylase activity was detected in 53 (76.81%)
      isolates. Eighteen isolates showed enzymatic index (EI) > 4.0, and the isolates
      ACJ 45 (Streptomyces curacoi) and ACSL 6 (S. hygroscopicus) showed the highest EI
      values (6.44 and 6.42, respectively). The cellulase activity varied significantly
      (P <= 0.05) among the isolates. Twenty-nine isolates (42.02%) showed high
      cellulase activity, and the isolates ACJ 48 (S. chiangmaiensis) and ACJ 53 (S.
      cyslabdanicus) showed the highest EI values (6.56 for both isolates). The lipase
      activity varied statistically (P <= 0.05) with fourteen isolates (20.29%)
      considered good lipase producers (EI > 2.0). The isolate ACSL 6 (S.
      hygroscopicus) showed the highest EI value of 2.60. Molecular analysis of partial
      16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed the existence of 49 species, being 38 species
      with only one representative member and 11 species represented by one or more
      strains. All species belonged to three genera, namely Streptomyces (82.61%),
      Amycolatopsis (7.25%), and Kitasatospora (10.14%). The present results showed the
      high biotechnological potential of different Actinobacteria from tropical soils.

PMID- 28873207
TI  - Characterization of a pepper collection (Capsicum frutescens L.) from Brazil.
AB  - Germplasm banks are essential as sources of genetic variability for plant
      breeding programs. To characterize a Brazilian Capsicum frutescens collection, 21
      malagueta and 5 Tabasco hot pepper accessions were evaluated under field and
      greenhouse conditions regarding morphological and molecular traits, as well as
      resistance to viruses. Morphological characterization was performed using 53
      IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute) descriptors, 15
      vegetative, 13 inflorescence, 22 fruit, and 3 seed. Molecular characterization
      was carried out with 60 polymorphic markers from 29 RAPD primers. The incidence
      of major viruses infecting Capsicum spp, Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV),
      Groundnut ringspot virus (GRSV), Potato virus Y (PVY), Pepper yellow mosaic virus
      (PepYMV), Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was
      evaluated by ELISA. Based on the average genetic distance among genotypes, six
      groups were defined for the 53 IPGRI descriptors. When considering only 11
      quantitative traits (five vegetative and six fruit), six groups were also
      determined, and the traits plant canopy width (56.05%) and days to fruiting
      (25.07%) most explained the genetic diversity among genotypes. Molecular analysis
      defined five groups of accessions with partial correspondence to the
      morphological characterization data. The incidence of viruses in field-grown
      plants varied among genotypes and according to virus species, from 5.6% (GRSV;
      CNPH 3286) to 100% (PMMoV; CNPH2871), and indicated some accessions as potential
      sources of virus resistance. These results demonstrate the genetic variability
      within the group of 26 hot pepper accessions, as well as virus-resistant
      genotypes that can be used in breeding programs.

PMID- 28873208
TI  - A Xanthomonas citri subsp citri hypothetical protein related to virulence
      contains a non-functional HD domain and is implicated in flagellar motility.
AB  - Citrus canker, caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Xanthomonas citri subsp
      citri (Xac), severely affects most economically important citrus varieties
      worldwide. A previous study showed that disruption of the ORF XAC1201 from the
      Xac 306 strain by transposon Tn5 decreased bacterium virulence in the Rangpur
      lime host (Citrus limonia L. Osbeck). However, little is known regarding the
      possible function of the hypothetical protein XAC1201 and how it affects the
      virulence of Xac 306. Here, we confirmed that disruption of ORF XAC1201 reduces
      Xac 306 virulence in two different hosts, delaying the onset of typical symptoms.
      In silico analysis suggested that XAC1201 interacts with the flagellar proteins
      FliM and FliL, known to be an important factor for virulence. In fact, motility
      assays revealed that the XAC1201 mutant has a significant difference in motility
      compared to the wild-type Xac 306. Also, a 3-D structure model revealed modified
      cofactor binding sites and suggested that XAC1201 has a non-functional HD domain.
      This hypothesis was confirmed by enzymatic assays performed in purified, XAC1201
      recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli, which revealed no significant
      activities previously associated with HD domains for the tested substrates. Thus,
      the role of the XAC1201 protein in Xac 306 virulence seems to be related to
      flagellar motility, although a non-classic role for the HD domain cannot be
      dismissed.

PMID- 28873209
TI  - ITS2 as a molecular marker for the identification of Diatraea saccharalis and D.
      flavipennella and possible infection with Cotesia spp.
AB  - In Brazil, the species Diatraea flavipennella and D. saccharalis play an
      important role in the sugar and alcohol agribusiness by causing many damages in
      sugarcane fields. The egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages are very morphologically
      similar between these species, and the identification can be confused. The
      internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS 2) from ribosomal DNA has important features
      as evolutionary divergence. It is a good marker for species identification,
      participates in the rDNA processing, and has been applied in phylogenetic and
      population studies. This study aimed to make available a molecular marker to
      assist on the identification method of pests' species of Diatraea and to identify
      possible traces of Cotesia in the resistant host. The DNA was extracted from the
      egg, larva, and adult samples. PCR amplicons were purified and sequenced. The
      sequences were analyzed in MEGA 5.01. The ITS 2 length was 410 bp in D.
      flavipennella and 448 bp in D. saccharalis. The GC content was similar between
      the species. Three microsatellite loci were present in D. saccharalis and absent
      in D. flavipennella, contributing to differences in ITS 2 length in the species.
      An additional 367-bp band was attributed to Cotesia spp. The differences among
      ITS 2 from D. flavipennella, D. saccharalis, and Cotesia sp were sufficient to
      identify them on electrophoresis gel and sequencing. The presence of Cotesia sp
      traits in adult D. flavipennella showed possible host refractoriness, but further
      studies are necessary.

PMID- 28873210
TI  - Diallel and prediction (REML/BLUP) for yield components in intervarietal maize
      hybrids.
AB  - Genetic improvement is essential to achieve increments in maize (Zea mays L.)
      grain yield components. It may be obtained through crosses, which enable to
      exploit the effects of intervarietal heterosis, allelic complementarity, as well
      as gene actions and effects. This study estimated the components of variance and
      genetic parameters (REML/BLUP) of an intervarietal diallel to select and predict
      the best genotypes for maize yield components. The experimental design was
      randomized blocks containing 60 intervarietal maize hybrids arranged in three
      repetitions. They were obtained through intervarietal crosses and evaluated in a
      diallel scheme, where 14 open-pollinated varieties were designated as parentals.
      Thus, 10 crosses were performed for each hybrid combination to obtain the number
      of seeds necessary for the competition test. The measured traits were: grain
      volume relative index, the mass of one hundred grains, and grain yield. The male
      parents and the additive genetic fraction were determinants for grain volume
      relative index. Mass of one hundred grains and grain yield were defined by the
      specific combining ability, and female parents revealed low narrow sense
      heritability. The female parent Taquarao and male parent Argentino Amarelo
      presented the best general combining abilities for the measured traits. The
      specific combining abilities were expressed for crosses AL 25 x Dente de Ouro
      Roxo, AL 25 x BRS Pampeano, and Taquarao x Argentino Branco. Genetic estimates
      and predictions were consistent and applicable to breeding programs and could be
      applied in future quantitative genetic studies of maize.

PMID- 28873211
TI  - Analysis of genetic variability of commercial melon cultivars using SSR molecular
      markers.
AB  - Taking into account the scenario of melon production (Cucumis melo L.) in Brazil,
      it is notable the importance of the culture in the fruit market. The preference
      of the national market is concentrated in the fruits of the yellow type.
      Therefore, it is possible that the genetic base of the commercial cultivars is
      relatively narrow due to the loss of important genes in the breeding process, and
      it is possible to introgress external genes for increasing recombination
      possibilities that generate sources of resistance to the main diseases and
      superior genotypes. This study evaluated the genetic variability of 87 melon
      accessions composed of 72 commercial cultivars belonging to the Inodorus and
      Cantaloupensis groups and 15 plant introductions (PIs). Forty-four polymorphic
      SSR primers were used to amplify a total of 202 alleles. The expected
      heterozygosity presented an average of 0.519 and the PIC index of 0.458, being
      moderately informative. The dendrogram generated for the 72 cultivars grouped the
      genotypes into 2 main groups, and there was no association with the
      classification of groups of the genotypes in the grouping. The number of SSR
      markers was sufficient to predict wide genetic variability among the cultivars
      studied, with the similarity between 0.35 and 0.98. The dendrogram presented for
      the 72 cultivars and the 15 PI genotypes was not associated with the
      classification of the genotypes in the grouping, and the 15 PIs were well
      dispersed with similarity indexes that resemble the two groups studied. A set of
      25 primers was identified that were useful in distinguishing the 72 cultivars.
      These primers can be used in later research with the cultivars, as well as in
      crop protection situations, being an important tool in the useful and rapid
      distinction of genotypes, and in commercial disputes regarding the certification
      of the main melon cultivars used in the country.

PMID- 28873212
TI  - Simulation analysis of rectifying microfluidic mixing with field-effect-tunable
      electrothermal induced flow.
AB  - We report herein field-effect control on in-phase electrothermal streaming from a
      theoretical point of view, a phenomenon termed "alternating-current
      electrothermal-flow field effect transistor" (ACET-FFET), in the context of a new
      technology for handing analytes in microfluidics. Field-effect control through a
      gate terminal endows ACET-FFET the ability to generate arbitrary symmetry
      breaking in the transverse vortex flow pattern, which makes it attractive for
      mixing microfluidic samples. A computational model is developed to study the
      feasibility of this new microfluidic device design for micromixing. The influence
      of various parameters on developing an efficient mixer is investigated, and an
      integrated layout of discrete electrode array is suggested for achieving high
      throughput mixing. Our physical demonstration with field-effect electrothermal
      flow control using a simple electrode structure proves invaluable for designing
      active micromixers for modern micro total analytical system.

PMID- 28873213
TI  - Bioethics, children, and the environment.
AB  - Queer perspectives have typically emerged from sexual minorities as a way of
      repudiating flawed views of sexuality, mischaracterized relationships, and
      objectionable social treatment of people with atypical sexuality or gender
      expression. In this vein, one commentator offers a queer critique of the
      conceptualization of children in regard to their value for people's identities
      and relationships. According to this account, children are morally problematic
      given the values that make them desirable, their displacement of other beings and
      things entitled to moral protection, not to mention the damaging environmental
      effects that follow in the wake of population growth. Objectionable views of
      children are said even to have colonized the view of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
      trans (LGBT) people who - with the enthusiastic endorsement of bioethics -
      increasingly turn to assisted reproductive treatments to have children. In the
      face of these outcomes, it is better - according to this account - that people
      reconsider their interest in children. This account is not, however, ultimately
      strong enough to override people's interest in having children, relative to the
      benefits they confer and relative to the benefits conferred on children
      themselves. It is certainly not strong enough to justify differential treatment
      of LGBT people in matters of assisted reproductive treatments. Environmental
      threats in the wake of population growth might be managed in ways other than
      devaluing children as such. Moreover, this account ultimately damages the
      interests of LGBT people in matters of access, equity, and children, which
      outcome is paradoxical, given the origins of queer perspectives as efforts to
      assert and defend the social interests of sexual and gender minorities.

PMID- 28873214
TI  - Don't let perfect be the enemy of good: How to improve prognostic communication
      in pediatric oncology.

PMID- 28873215
TI  - Group genetic counseling: An alternate service delivery model in a high risk
      prenatal screening population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To address the growing demand for prenatal genetic services, group
      genetic counseling was explored as an alternative service delivery model for
      women with a positive prenatal screening result. METHOD: Women were recruited
      from a prenatal genetic service and systematically allocated to a traditional
      individual appointment with a genetic counselor or a group genetic counseling
      session. Questionnaires were administered to assess patient psychological
      outcomes, knowledge, and satisfaction following individual and group genetic
      counseling for a positive prenatal screen. Genetic counselor time per type of
      patient was measured. RESULTS: Of 172 participants, 107 (62.2%) received group
      genetic counseling and 65 (37.8%) received individual genetic counseling. Both
      group and individual genetic counseling encounters significantly decreased
      patient anxiety, increased perceived personal control, decreased decisional
      conflict, and increased knowledge. Satisfaction was high following both methods.
      Anxiety was significantly decreased in women who received individual genetic
      counseling compared with group sessions (P < .001). Genetic counselors spent less
      time per group patient seen compared with individual patients. CONCLUSION: Group
      genetic counseling followed by the option of brief individual genetic counseling
      appears acceptable to women in a high-risk prenatal screening population. The
      findings support an alternative service delivery model for prenatal genetic
      services that could optimize the utilization of genetic counseling resources.

PMID- 28873216
TI  - Molecular interactions of milk protein with phenolic components in oat-based
      liquid formulations following UHT treatment and prolonged storage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nowadays there is a growing demand for nutritionally balanced
      breakfast beverages enriched with functional ingredients including wholegrain
      oat, which is rich in phenolic acids. Such beverages typically contain added food
      ingredients (e.g. milk protein, sugar and lipids) and undergo thermal processing
      that initiates many molecular processes. Therefore, this work aims to investigate
      the molecular interactions between milk protein and phenolic acids that govern
      bioactivity in model oat-based beverages. RESULTS: Findings showed the
      susceptibility of ferulic and p-coumaric acids, in model oat beverages, to ultra
      high temperature (UHT) processing at 145  degrees C for 8 s. Among model
      beverages, those with added milk protein demonstrated a considerable loss of
      phenolic acids following UHT processing due to the interaction between these
      micronutrients and the protein. The nature of molecular interactions was mainly
      categorized as covalent with hydrogen bonds playing a supportive role.
      CONCLUSION: UHT processing of oat-based beverage formulations facilitates the
      formation of protein-phenolic acid complexes, which are largely covalent and
      static in nature. This finding underlines the ability of UHT treatment to induce
      chemical modifications of food ingredients. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical
      Industry.

PMID- 28873217
TI  - Geriatrics Literature 2016 Year in Review.
AB  - We present 10 of the most effective articles from 2016 in geriatric medicine.
      They address wide-ranging topics including the use of antipsychotics for delirium
      in palliative care, fall prevention and mobility interventions, efficacy and
      potential risks of testosterone, cranberry capsules and their effect on
      bacteriuria and pyuria, beta-blockers after acute myocardial infarction in a
      nursing home population, the effect of a healthy lifestyle on disability, a goals
      of-care intervention in individuals with advanced dementia, the benefits of
      regional anesthesia in hip repair, and mindfulness in chronic pain management.

PMID- 28873218
TI  - Associations Between Falls and Driving Outcomes in Older Adults: Systematic
      Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine associations between falls and subsequent motor vehicle
      crashes (MVCs), crash-related injuries, driving performance, and driving
      behavior. DESIGN: Systematic review and metaanalysis. PARTICIPANTS: Observational
      studies including drivers aged 55 and older or with a mean age of 65 and older.
      MEASUREMENTS: Two authors independently extracted study and participant
      characteristics, exposures, and outcomes and assessed risk of bias. Pooled risk
      estimates for MVCs and MVC-related injuries were calculated using random-effects
      models. Other results were synthesized narratively. RESULTS: From 3,286
      potentially eligible records, 15 studies (N = 27-17,349 subjects) met inclusion
      criteria. Risk of bias was low to moderate, except for cross-sectional studies (n
      = 3), which all had a high potential for bias. A fall history was associated with
      a significantly greater risk of subsequent MVC (summary risk estimate = 1.40, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) = 1.20-1.63; I2  = 28%, N = 5 studies). One study found
      a significantly greater risk of MVC-related hospitalizations and deaths after a
      fall (hazard ratio = 3.12, 95% CI = 1.71-5.69). Evidence was inconclusive
      regarding an association between falls and driving cessation and showed no
      association between falls and driving performance or behavior. CONCLUSION: Falls
      in older adults appear to be a risk marker for subsequent MVCs and MVC-related
      injury. Given the nature of the evidence, which is limited to observational
      studies, the identified associations may also result at least partly from
      confounding or bias. Further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms linking
      falls to crash risk and to develop effective interventions to ensure driving
      safety in older adults with a history of falls.

PMID- 28873219
TI  - Treatment Effectiveness in Heart Failure with Comorbidity: Lung Disease and
      Kidney Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the clinical effectiveness of beta-blocker therapy in
      individuals with heart failure (HF) and chronic lung disease and of angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs)
      in individuals with HF and chronic kidney disease. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort
      study. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals with HF with reduced
      ejection fraction (HFrEF) or HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
      METHODS: We undertook separate new-user cohort studies to assess the
      effectiveness of beta-blocker therapy in treating HF and chronic lung disease and
      ACE-Is and ARBs in treating HF and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Individuals with
      a chronic lung disease diagnosis were included in the group with HF and chronic
      lung disease (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes 490
      496, 518). Individuals with an estimated glomerular filtration rate less than 60
      mL/min per 1.73 m2 were included in the group with HF and CKD. The clinical
      outcomes of interest were death from any cause, hospitalization for HF, and
      hospitalization for any reason. We fitted pooled logistic marginal structural
      models using inverse probability weighting, stratified according to HF type.
      RESULTS: For individuals with HFrEF with chronic lung disease, beta-blocker
      therapy was protective against death (relative risk (RR) = 0.58, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) = 0.44-0.77) and hospitalization for HF (RR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.60
      1.00). For those with HFpEF, no statistically significant associations between
      beta-blocker therapy use and any of the outcomes were observed. We found ACE-I
      and ARB use to be protective against all three outcomes of interest in
      individuals with HFrEF (death from any cause: RR = 0.60, 95% 0.40-0.91;
      hospitalization for HF: RR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.28-0.67; hospitalization for any
      reason: RR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.45-0.89, respectively) and those with HFpEF (death
      from any cause: RR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.33-0.81; hospitalization for HF: RR = 0.35,
      95% CI = 0.18-0.68; hospitalization for any reason: RR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.47
      0.95). CONCLUSION: Large observational studies may allow for identification of
      important subgroups of individuals with HF that might benefit from existing
      treatment approaches. Our findings may also better inform the design of more
      definitive future observational studies and randomized trials.

PMID- 28873220
TI  - Patterns and Predictors of Frailty Transitions in Older Men: The Osteoporotic
      Fractures in Men Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the natural history of frailty transitions in a large
      cohort of community-dwelling older men and identify predictors associated with
      progression to or improvement from states of greater frailty. DESIGN: Prospective
      cohort study. SETTING: Six U.S. sites. PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling men aged
      65 and older (N = 5,086). MEASUREMENTS: Frailty was measured at baseline and an
      average of 4.6 years later. Frailty was defined as having three or more of the
      following components (low lean mass, weakness, self-reported exhaustion, low
      activity level, and slow walking speed); prefrailty was defined as having one or
      two components. Separate multivariable logistic regression models were analyzed
      for progression and improvement in frailty status. RESULTS: Of the 5,086 men, 8%
      were frail, 46% were prefrail, and 46% were robust at baseline. Between baseline
      and follow-up, 35% progressed in frailty status or died, 56% had no change in
      frailty status, and 15% of prefrail or frail participants improved, although only
      0.5% improved across two levels, from frail to robust. In multivariable models,
      factors associated with improvement in frailty status included greater leg power,
      being married, and good or excellent self-reported health, whereas presence of
      any instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) limitations, low albumin levels,
      high interleukin-6 levels, and presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      or diabetes mellitus were associated with lower likelihood of improvement in
      frailty status. CONCLUSION: Improvement in frailty status was possible in this
      cohort of community-dwelling older men, but improvement from frail to robust was
      rare. Several predictors were identified as possible targets for intervention,
      including prevention and management of comorbid medical conditions, prevention of
      IADL disability, physical exercise, and nutritional and social support.

PMID- 28873221
TI  - Getting Underneath Observed Frailty Transitions: Meaningful Change, Prevention,
      and Intervention.

PMID- 28873222
TI  - Uremic pericarditis, pericardial effusion, and constrictive pericarditis in end
      stage renal disease: Insights and pathophysiology.
AB  - A rising prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has led to a rise in ESRD
      related pericardial syndromes, calling for a better understanding of its
      pathophysiology, diagnoses, and management. Uremic pericarditis, the most common
      manifestation of uremic pericardial disease, is a contemporary problem that calls
      for intensive hemodialysis, anti-inflammatories, and often, drainage of large
      inflammatory pericardial effusions. Likewise, asymptomatic pericardial effusions
      can become large and impact the hemodynamics of patients on chronic hemodialysis.
      Constrictive pericarditis is also well documented in this population, ultimately
      resulting in pericardiectomy for definitive treatment. The management of
      pericardial diseases in ESRD patients involves internists, cardiologists, and
      nephrologists. Current guidelines lack clarity with respect to the management of
      pericardial processes in the ESRD population. Our review aims to describe the
      etiology, classification, clinical manifestations, diagnostic imaging tools, and
      treatment options of pericardial diseases in this population.

PMID- 28873223
TI  - Systemic hypertension in cats with acute kidney injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of systemic hypertension in cats with
      community-acquired acute kidney injury and investigate its relationship with
      disease severity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective study of cats presenting
      to the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Royal Veterinary College with acute
      kidney injury between 2007 and 2015. Systolic blood pressure was measured using
      Doppler sphygmomanometry and systemic hypertension was defined pressures e150
      mmHg. Median systolic blood pressure measurement, grade of acute kidney injury
      (as defined by the International Renal Interest Society), serum creatinine on
      admission, anuria or oliguria, length of hospitalisation, survival to discharge
      and six-month survival were all recorded. RESULTS: Forty-six cats were included;
      21/48 (48.8%) showed systemic hypertension on admission and was severe (e180
      mmHg) in 8/43 (18.6%). During the whole hospitalisation period, systemic
      hypertension was detected in 27/46 (58.7%) cases and severe in 13/46 (28.2%).
      Systemic hypertension did not appear to be statistically associated with grade of
      kidney injury, serum creatinine on presentation, oliguria or anuria. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: Systemic hypertension is common in cats with acute kidney injury
      but does not appear to be associated with its severity.

PMID- 28873224
TI  - Disparities in prognosis communication among parents of children with cancer: The
      impact of race and ethnicity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most parents of children with cancer say they want detailed
      information about their child's prognosis. However, prior work has been conducted
      in populations of limited diversity. The authors sought to evaluate the impact of
      parental race/ethnicity on prognosis communication experiences among parents of
      children with cancer. METHODS: In total, 357 parents of children with cancer and
      the children's physicians were surveyed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston
      Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Outcome measures
      were parental preferences for prognostic information, physician beliefs about
      parental preferences, prognosis communication processes, and communication
      outcomes. Associations were assessed by logistic regression with generalized
      estimating equations to correct for physician clustering. RESULTS: Two hundred
      eighty-one parents (79%) were white, 23 (6%) were black, 29 (8%) were Hispanic,
      and 24 (7%) were Asian/other. Eighty-seven percent of parents wanted as much
      detail as possible about their child's prognosis, with no significant differences
      by race/ethnicity (P = .75). However, physician beliefs about parental
      preferences for prognosis communication varied based on parent race/ethnicity,
      with physicians considering black and Hispanic parents less interested in details
      about prognosis than whites (P = .003). Accurate understanding of a less
      favorable prognosis was greater among white (49%) versus nonwhite parents (range,
      20%-29%), although this difference was not statistically significant (P = .14).
      CONCLUSIONS: Most parents, regardless of racial and ethnic background, want
      detailed prognostic information about their child's cancer. However, physicians
      underestimate the information needs of black and Hispanic parents. To meet
      parents' information needs, physicians should ask about parents' information
      preferences before prognosis discussions. Cancer 2017;123:3995-4003. (c) 2017
      American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28873226
TI  - Doris.

PMID- 28873225
TI  - Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) increases the risk of chronic kidney disease
      (CKD) while effective HCV treatment decreases the incidence of CKD.
AB  - : We assessed the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in chronic hepatitis C
      virus (HCV)-infected patients and the incidence reduction of CKD after receipt of
      HCV treatment. We also evaluated the risk of membranoproliferative
      glomerulonephritis (MPGN) and cryoglobulinemia in chronic HCV patients. A
      retrospective cohort analysis of the Truven Health MarketScan Database (2008
      2015) in the United States was conducted. In a cohort of 56,448 HCV-infected
      patients and 169,344 propensity score (1:3)-matched non-HCV patients, we examined
      the association of HCV infection with the incidence of CKD. Of 55,818 HCV
      patients, 6.6 % (n = 3666), 6.3% (n = 3534), and 8.3% (n = 4628) patients
      received either interferon-based dual, triple, or all-oral direct acting
      antiviral agent therapy, respectively, whereas 79% of patients did not receive
      any HCV treatment. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the risk
      of developing CKD in HCV patients compared with non-HCV patients and treated
      patients compared with untreated HCV patients. In a multivariate time-varying Cox
      regression model, HCV-infected patients had a 27% increased risk of CKD compared
      with non-HCV patients (hazard ratio [HR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI],
      1.18-1.37). Among HCV patients, individuals who received the minimally effective
      HCV treatment for dual, triple, or all-oral therapy had a 30% decreased risk of
      developing CKD (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.55-0.88). In addition, HCV-infected patients
      experienced a twofold and a nearly 17-fold higher risk of MPGN (HR, 2.23; 95% CI,
      1.84-2.71) and cryoglobulinemia (HR, 16.91; 95% CI, 12.00-23.81) respectively,
      compared with non-HCV patients. CONCLUSION: HCV-infected individuals in the
      United States are at greater risk of developing CKD, MPGN, and cryoglobulinemia.
      Minimally effective treatment of HCV infection can prevent the development of
      CKD, although the association was not significant for all-oral therapy.
      (Hepatology 2017).

PMID- 28873228
TI  - Photodegradation of Eumelanin and Pheomelanin and Its Pathophysiological
      Implications.
AB  - Eumelanin is photoprotective for pigmented tissues while pheomelanin is
      phototoxic. In this review, we summarize current understanding of how eumelanin
      and pheomelanin structures are modified by ultraviolet A (UVA) and also by
      visible light and how reactive oxygen species participate in those processes.
      Alkaline hydrogen peroxide oxidation was employed to characterize eumelanin and
      benzothiazole-type pheomelanin, giving pyrrole-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (PTCA)
      and thiazole-2,4,5-tricarboxylic acid (TTCA), respectively. Reductive hydrolysis
      with hydroiodic acid gives 4-amino-3-hydroxyphenylalanine (4-AHP) from the
      benzothiazine moiety of pheomelanin. The results show that the photoaging of
      eumelanin gives rise to free PTCA (produced by peroxidation in situ) and pyrrole
      2,3,4,5-tetracarboxylic acid (PTeCA, produced by cross-linking). The TTCA/4-AHP
      ratio increases with photoaging, indicating the conversion of benzothiazine to
      the benzothiazole moiety. Analysis of those markers and their ratios show that
      both eumelanin and pheomelanin in human retinal pigment epithelium melanosomes
      undergo extensive structural modifications due to their lifelong exposure to blue
      light. Using synthetic melanins, we also found that singlet oxygen, in addition
      to superoxide anions, is photogenerated and quenched upon UVA irradiation. The
      (patho)physiological significance of those findings is discussed in relation to
      the tanning process, to melanomagenesis in the skin and to age-related macular
      degeneration in the eyes.

PMID- 28873227
TI  - Analysis of moisture, oil, and fatty acid composition of olives by near-infrared
      spectroscopy: development and validation calibration models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Olive is a new, expanding crop in Georgia. Its oil content steadily
      increases with maturity, but eventually plateaus at the maximum when the olives
      should be promptly harvested, avoiding overripening and quality degradation. This
      requires frequent testing. However, olive quality analysis by wet chemistry is
      laborious, slow and costly, whereas near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy
      (NIRS), being precise, accurate, rapid and cheap, could be suitable. We developed
      and validated NIRS calibration models for moisture, fresh-matter-oil (oil-FMO),
      dry-matter-oil (oil-DMO) and major fatty acid composition analyses. RESULTS: Of
      the12 models developed, seven constituents - moisture, oil-FMO, oil-DMO, and
      palmitic, palmitoleic, oleic and linoleic acids (representing 88-97% of the total
      fatty acids) had low standard errors and high coefficients of determination (R2 =
      0.81-0.98; 1 - VR = 0.74-0.86) for both calibration and cross-validation. For
      these seven constituents, predictions of an independent validation set yielded
      excellent agreement between the NIRS predicted values and the reference values
      with low standard error of prediction (SEP), low bias, high coefficient of
      determination (r2 = 0.80-0.93) and high ratios of performance to deviation (RPD =
      SD/SEP; 2.21-3.85). CONCLUSION: Precise, accurate and rapid analysis of fresh
      olives for moisture, oil and major fatty acid composition can be done at a low
      cost using NIRS, meeting the analytical needs of the industry. (c) 2017 Society
      of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28873229
TI  - Effect of pore size on performance of monolithic tube chromatography of large
      biomolecules.
AB  - Effect of pore size on the performance of ion-exchange monolith tube
      chromatography of large biomolecules was investigated. Radial flow 1 mL polymer
      based monolith tubes of different pore sizes (1.5, 2, and 6 MUm) were tested with
      model samples such as 20 mer poly T-DNA, basic proteins, and acidic proteins
      (molecular weight 14 000-670 000). Pressure drop, pH transient, the number of
      binding site, dynamic binding capacity, and peak width were examined. Pressure
      drop-flow rate curves and dynamic binding capacity values were well correlated
      with the nominal pore size. While duration of the pH transient curves depends on
      the pore size, it was found that pH duration normalized on estimated surface area
      was constant, indicating that the ligand density is the same. This was also
      confirmed by the constant number of binding site values being independent of pore
      size. The peak width values were similar to those for axial flow monolith
      chromatography. These results showed that it is easy to scale up axial flow
      monolith chromatography to radial flow monolith tube chromatography by choosing
      the right pore size in terms of the pressure drop and capacity.

PMID- 28873230
TI  - Effect of roasting conditions on the composition and antioxidant properties of
      defatted walnut flour.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Walnut oil extraction by pressure systems produces a press cake as a
      by-product, with many of the beneficial walnut properties. The objective of this
      work was to evaluate the composition and antioxidant properties of walnut flours
      submitted to different roasting protocols (50, 100 and 150  degrees C during 30,
      60 and 120 min). RESULTS: All walnut flours had about 42% protein and a
      significant amount of dietary fibre (17%), not being affected by the roasting
      process. Nonetheless, the fat content increased around 50% in walnuts flours
      subjected to longer and higher roasting temperatures (150  degrees C). The lipid
      fraction showed a good nutritional quality with a high vitamin E content (mainly
      gamma-tocopherol) and fatty acid profile rich in linoleic and linolenic acids.
      The high phenolic content also provides great antioxidant capacity to the flours.
      CONCLUSION: Mild roasting of walnuts did not affect the quality of the flours
      that could be used as a functional ingredient in the food industry. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28873231
TI  - Medical Innovation in a Children's Hospital: 'Diseases desperate grown by
      desperate appliance are relieved, or not at all'.
AB  - A balance needs to be struck between facilitating compassionate access to
      innovative treatments for those in desperate need, and the duty to protect such
      vulnerable individuals from the harms of untested/unlicensed treatments. We
      introduced a principle-based framework (2009) to evaluate such requests and
      describe its application in the context of recently evolved UK, US and European
      regulatory processes. 24 referrals (20 individual; four group) were received by
      our quaternary children's hospital Clinical Ethics Committee (CEC) over the 5
      year period (2011-16). The CEC-rapid response group evaluated individual cases
      within 48-hours; the main referrers being haematology/oncology, immunology or
      transplant services (14). Most requests were for drug/vaccine/pre-trial access
      (13) or biological/cellular therapies (8). The majority of individual requests
      were approved (19/20); neutral or negative opinions were given in 5, including 3
      group requests. Recently evolved regulatory processes share common criteria and
      conditions to our framework including: demonstration of clinical need; sound
      scientific basis with lack of viable alternative; risks-benefit/best interests
      evaluation; arrangements for fully informed consent; no compromise of
      arrangements to test treatment for licensing purposes; consideration of resource
      implications. There are differences between individual processes and with our
      framework, with respect to procedures, scope, application format, costs and
      obligation to make available all outcome data. Our experience has emphasized the
      need for an independent, principled, consistent, fair and transparent response to
      the increasing demand for innovative treatment on a compassionate basis. We
      believe that there is a need for harmonization of the recent proliferation of
      regulation and legislation in this area.

PMID- 28873232
TI  - Liver size: Waning by day, Waxing by Night.

PMID- 28873233
TI  - Seasonal variation in hospitalization outcomes in patients admitted for heart
      failure in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is lack of evidence of the impact of varying season on heart
      failure (HF) hospitalization outcomes in the U.S. HYPOTHESIS: HF hospitalization
      outcomes exhibit significant seasonal variation in the U.S. METHODS: Using data
      from the National Inpatient Sample (2011-2013), seasonal variation was classified
      based on meteorological classification of Northern Hemisphere-Spring, Summer,
      Fall, & Winter-and analysis was conducted via multivariable-adjusted mixed-effect
      model. RESULTS: An estimated 2.8 million adults were hospitalized for HF in the
      U.S. from 2011 to 2013. Of all hospitalizations, admissions were highest in
      Winter (27%), followed by Spring (26%), Fall (24%), and Summer (23%). The overall
      mortality rate was 3.1%. Compared with Spring, there was significantly lower
      mortality in Summer (odds ratio [OR]: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.91-0.99) and Fall (OR:
      0.94, 95% CI: 0.89-0.98), but the highest mortality was in Winter (OR: 1.06, 95%
      CI: 1.02-1.11). In addition, mean length of stay and median cost of
      hospitalization were highest in Winter (5.3 days, USD7459, respectively) and
      lowest in Summer (5.1 days, USD7181, respectively). However, age and sex
      differences existed (e.g. seasonal variation in inpatient mortality was only
      significant for patients age >=65 years, and, compared with the Spring season,
      males had higher risk of inpatient mortality in Winter (OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.04
      1.17) and females had lower risk of inpatient mortality in Summer (OR: 0.94, 95%
      CI: 0.88-1.00) and Fall (OR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.87-0.98). CONCLUSIONS: Among HF
      patients in the U.S., hospitalization outcomes were worse in Winter but better in
      Summer.

PMID- 28873234
TI  - Effect of seasonal climate fluctuations on the evolution of glycoconjugates
      during the ripening period of grapevine cv. Muscat a petits grains blancs
      berries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temperature changes and rainfall fluctuations affect the winemaking
      industry by altering vine phenology, crop yield, must composition and wine
      quality. Here, the evolution of the varietal aroma potential during ripening over
      three consecutive seasons has been analyzed considering climate conditions. The
      effect of season, ripening date and climatic conditions on aroma precursor
      accumulation in grapes was studied by multivariate analysis and discussed in
      regard to the potential aromatic quality of the wine. RESULTS: In contrast to
      musts obtained from grapes harvested in warm and dry seasons (2014 and 2015),
      musts obtained from grapes harvested in the coolest and most humid year (2013)
      showed a lower pH, higher total acidity, higher varietal aroma potential index
      (IPAv), and higher aromatic potential of linalool, geraniol and nerol (typical of
      the Muscat flavor). CONCLUSION: Considering the three seasons, grapes synthesized
      and accumulated more precursors when milder temperatures and late rains
      throughout veraison were recorded. However, we observed a high fluctuation of
      aroma precursors during the ripening period, so choosing the correct harvesting
      date (according to grape aroma potential) may overcome some of the negative
      effects linked to climate conditions. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28873235
TI  - A Kantian ethics approach to moral bioenhancement.
AB  - It seems, at first glance, that a Kantian ethics approach to moral enhancement
      would tend towards the position that there could be no place for emotional
      modulation in any understanding of the endeavour, owing to the typically
      understood view that Kantian ethics does not allow any role for emotion in
      morality as a whole. It seems then that any account of moral bioenhancement which
      places emotion at its centre would therefore be rejected. This article argues,
      however, that this assumption is incorrect. Given later writings by Kant on the
      role of sympathy, and taking into account other concerns in Kantian ethics (such
      as bodily integrity), it may in fact be the case that Kantian ethics would allow
      for an account of moral bioenhancement through emotional modulation, and that in
      some (rare) cases such an intervention might even be considered to be a duty.

PMID- 28873236
TI  - Hepatocellular carcinoma complicating hepatitis E virus-related cirrhosis.

PMID- 28873237
TI  - Practice makes better: TIPS procedures in referral centers.

PMID- 28873238
TI  - Cholinergic urticaria patients of different age groups have distinct features.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cholinergic urticaria (CholU) is a common skin disease characterized
      by the development of pinpoint-sized weals and severe itch upon physical
      exercise. Little is known about the epidemiology of CholU. CholU can occur at any
      age and has the highest prevalence among young adults. As of now, it is unclear
      whether patients of different age show differences in the clinical manifestation
      of CholU, duration of disease, comorbidities or response to treatment. METHODS:
      Here, we analysed the demographic data and clinical characteristics including
      disease duration and comorbidities of 200 patients with CholU, 12-76 years of
      age. RESULTS: We identified two distinct types of CholU, one with early onset
      (EO, 71%) and one with late onset (LO, 29%). Patients with EO and LO CholU
      markedly differ in key characteristics: patients with EO, who had a disease onset
      before the age of 36, showed no gender preponderance and had a significantly
      higher rate of concomitant atopic dermatitis (16.9% vs 5.2%; P = .028) and higher
      IgE levels (295.5 vs 267.1 IU/mL; P = .020) as compared to patients with LO, who
      were mainly female (69%), had a shorter duration of disease (33.3 vs 63.7 months;
      P = .005), a higher rate of concomitant other forms of urticaria (48.3% vs 33.1%;
      P = .044) and a higher rate of psychiatric comorbidities (12.1% vs 1.4%; P =
      .001). CONCLUSION: There are two subtypes of CholU patients with different gender
      ratios, disease duration and comorbidities. These findings suggest that two
      distinct underlying pathogenetic pathways are relevant in these two subgroups of
      patients with CholU.

PMID- 28873239
TI  - Interventional radiology in bone metastases.
AB  - Interventional radiology plays a significant role in the treatment of bone
      metastases by various techniques, percutaneous or endovascular. Vertebroplasty is
      the most well-studied technique for stabilisation of spine metastases as it
      induces satisfactory stabilisation of the vertebra and offers clear improvement
      of the quality of life. Due to the success of this technique cementoplasty of
      other bones, mainly pelvic girdle, has been largely developed. The development of
      reinforced cementoplasty allows treatment of pre-fractural osteolysis of some
      long bones. The heat due to the polymerisation of the cement induces carcinolytic
      effect but this effect is not as important as that which results from
      radiofrequency destruction. This last technique appears currently as the most
      important development to definitively destroy bone metastases and is
      progressively replacing percutaneous alcoholic destruction of such lesions.
      Angiographic techniques, such as endovascular embolisation, can also be very
      useful to reduce the risk of surgical treatment of hyper vascular metastases.
      Chemoembolisation is currently developed to associate pain relief induced by
      Endovascular embolisation and the carcinolytic effect obtained by local
      endovascular chemotherapy. All these techniques should develop largely during the
      next years.

PMID- 28873240
TI  - Gastric poorly cohesive carcinoma: a correlative study of mutational signatures
      and prognostic significance based on histopathological subtypes.
AB  - AIMS: Genome-wide next-generation sequencing has revealed several driver
      mutations and has allowed the establishment of a molecular taxonomy of gastric
      cancer. However, there are few detailed studies on the mutational spectrum of
      poorly cohesive gastric carcinoma. Thus, this study aim to investigate its
      mutation profile based on clinicopathological characteristics. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: Herein, we analysed the mutational pattern of 77 genes in a cohort of 91
      patients with poorly cohesive carcinoma by using targeted sequencing, and
      evaluated the clinicopathological significance of the various mutations based on
      histological pattern, either signet ring cell (SRC) or other types of poorly
      cohesive carcinoma (not otherwise specified) (PCC-NOS). Panels of seven (PIK3CA,
      CDH1, PTEN, RHOA, HDCA9, KRAS, and ATM), three (PIK3CA, CTNNB1, and KRAS) and two
      (HDCA9 and IGF1R) genes were associated with a diffuse infiltrative growth
      pattern, lymphovascular invasion, and perineural invasion, respectively.
      Furthermore, PDGFRB mutations were associated with a favourable prognosis,
      whereas MET mutations were associated with a poor prognosis. The PCC-NOS
      predominant type was associated with a greater depth of invasion, lymph node
      metastasis and poorer prognosis than the SRC-predominant type. Mutations in TP53,
      BRAF, PI3CA, SMAD4 and RHOA were associated with PCC-NOS. Interestingly, RHOA
      mutated gastric cancers showed a distinct morphology, as they were characterised
      by a superficial SRC or tubular component and a deep invasive PCC-NOS component
      with desmoplasia. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings demonstrate that
      gastric poorly cohesive carcinomas show several mutational patterns associated
      with specific clinicopathological characteristics, and particularly show distinct
      morphological findings when associated with RHOA mutation.

PMID- 28873241
TI  - A Eutectic Mixture of Natural Fatty Acids Can Serve as the Gating Material for
      Near-Infrared-Triggered Drug Release.
AB  - A smart release system responsive to near-infrared (NIR) light is developed for
      intracellular drug delivery. The concept is demonstrated by coencapsulating
      doxorubicin (DOX) (an anticancer drug) and IR780 iodide (IR780) (an NIR-absorbing
      dye) into nanoparticles made of a eutectic mixture of naturally occurring fatty
      acids. The eutectic mixture has a well-defined melting point at 39  degrees C,
      and can be used as a biocompatible phase-change material for NIR-triggered drug
      release. The resultant nanoparticles exhibit prominent photothermal effect and
      quick drug release in response to NIR irradiation. Fluorescence microscopy
      analysis indicates that the DOX trapped in the nanoparticles can be efficiently
      released into the cytosol under NIR irradiation, resulting in enhanced anticancer
      activity. A new platform is thus offered for designing effective intracellular
      drug-release systems, holding great promise for future cancer therapy.

PMID- 28873242
TI  - Sequential hypoallergenic boiled peanut and roasted peanut oral immunotherapy.

PMID- 28873243
TI  - Circumventing Intrinsic Metal Reactivity: Radical Generation with Redox-Active
      Ligands.
AB  - Nickel complexes have gained sustained attention as efficient catalysts in cross
      coupling reactions and co-catalysts in dual systems due to their ability to react
      with radical species. Central to this reactivity is nickel's propensity to
      shuttle through several accessible redox states from Ni0 to NiIV . Here, we
      report the catalytic generation of trifluoromethyl radicals from a nickel complex
      bearing redox-active iminosemiquinone ligands. This unprecedented reactivity is
      enabled through ligand-based oxidation performing electron transfer to an
      electrophilic CF3+ source while the nickel oxidation state is preserved.
      Additionally, extension of this reactivity to a copper complex bearing a single
      redox equivalent is reported, thus providing a unified reactivity scheme. These
      results open new pathways in radical chemistry with redox-active ligands.

PMID- 28873244
TI  - Aging effects in the expression of macrophages in post-treatment apical
      periodontitis lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the CD68 immunoexpression in post-treatment apical
      periodontitis lesions of older patients and compare them with lesions of
      younger/middle age adults. METHODS: Biopsy specimens from 21 apical periodontitis
      lesions (12 granulomas and 9 cysts) were selected from older patients and 25
      apical periodontitis lesions from younger/middle age adults (12 cysts and 13
      granulomas) were selected and analyzed by immunohistochemistry using silanized
      slides with anti-CD68 antibody. The slides were subdivided in five high-power
      fields and the images were observed under an optical microscope to evaluate the
      epithelial and connective tissues. RESULTS: The results showed that there was no
      statistical difference for the CD68 expression in epithelial tissue of cysts
      between younger/middle age adults and older patients. However, for the connective
      tissue of both cysts and granulomas, there was a statistical difference between
      the two age groups. There was a statistical difference between the epithelial and
      the connective tissues in cysts of younger/middle age adults, and also when the
      epithelial tissue of the cysts was compared with connective tissue of the
      granuloma. In the group of older patients, there was no statistical difference
      between the connective tissue of the cysts and granulomas. CONCLUSION: The
      intensity of the macrophage staining was greater in the connective tissue of
      cysts and granulomas alike in the younger/middle age adult patients, suggesting
      that these cells participate actively in this tissue. Immune responses in older
      patients may be compromised, suggesting that there is a greater tendency for the
      endodontic treatment of these patients to fail.

PMID- 28873245
TI  - Scenario Analysis for the Safety Assessment of Nuclear Waste Repositories: A
      Critical Review.
AB  - A major challenge in scenario analysis for the safety assessment of nuclear waste
      repositories pertains to the comprehensiveness of the set of scenarios selected
      for assessing the safety of the repository. Motivated by this challenge, we
      discuss the aspects of scenario analysis relevant to comprehensiveness.
      Specifically, we note that (1) it is necessary to make it clear why scenarios
      usually focus on a restricted set of features, events, and processes; (2) there
      is not yet consensus on the interpretation of comprehensiveness for guiding the
      generation of scenarios; and (3) there is a need for sound approaches to the
      treatment of epistemic uncertainties.

PMID- 28873246
TI  - Multicriteria Decision Framework for Cybersecurity Risk Assessment and
      Management.
AB  - Risk assessors and managers face many difficult challenges related to novel cyber
      systems. Among these challenges are the constantly changing nature of cyber
      systems caused by technical advances, their distribution across the physical,
      information, and sociocognitive domains, and the complex network structures often
      including thousands of nodes. Here, we review probabilistic and risk-based
      decision-making techniques applied to cyber systems and conclude that existing
      approaches typically do not address all components of the risk assessment triplet
      (threat, vulnerability, consequence) and lack the ability to integrate across
      multiple domains of cyber systems to provide guidance for enhancing
      cybersecurity. We present a decision-analysis-based approach that quantifies
      threat, vulnerability, and consequences through a set of criteria designed to
      assess the overall utility of cybersecurity management alternatives. The proposed
      framework bridges the gap between risk assessment and risk management, allowing
      an analyst to ensure a structured and transparent process of selecting risk
      management alternatives. The use of this technique is illustrated for a
      hypothetical, but realistic, case study exemplifying the process of evaluating
      and ranking five cybersecurity enhancement strategies. The approach presented
      does not necessarily eliminate biases and subjectivity necessary for selecting
      countermeasures, but provides justifiable methods for selecting risk management
      actions consistent with stakeholder and decisionmaker values and technical data.

PMID- 28873247
TI  - Evaluation and comparison of staining patterns of factor XIIIa (AC-1A1),
      adipophilin and GATA3 in sebaceous neoplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reliable nuclear immunohistochemical stains for sebaceous neoplasms
      have not been readily available. Positive nuclear staining has been reported for
      GATA3 and factor XIIIa (AC-1A1). We sought to determine the diagnostic utility of
      these nuclear stains by comparing their staining pattern to adipophilin, a
      consistently positive cytoplasmic stain. METHODS: Cases with the diagnosis of
      sebaceous hyperplasia, sebaceous adenoma, sebaceous epithelioma/sebaceoma,
      sebaceous carcinoma, and nonsebaceous neoplasms (basal cell carcinoma and
      squamous cell carcinoma) were examined. Intensity and extent of staining of the
      basal cells and mature sebocytes were evaluated for each stain. RESULTS: Factor
      XIIIa (AC-1A1) was 87.3% sensitive and 95.1% specific for all sebaceous neoplasms
      sand showed high inter-observer reliability. Adipophilin was 83.2% sensitive and
      87.8% specific. GATA3 was the least sensitive (80.9%) and specific (75.6%)
      marker. When factor XIIIa was compared against composite staining of all three
      markers its staining was still uniquely significant (P = .0210). CONCLUSION:
      Factor XIIIa (AC-1A1) is a sensitive and specific nuclear marker for sebaceous
      differentiation. Its diagnostic utility exceeds that of adipophilin. Factor XIIIa
      should be included in the expanding group of immunohistochemical and special
      stains which can be utilized to aid in the diagnosis of sebaceous neoplasms.

PMID- 28873248
TI  - Hydrogen-Bond Weakening through pi Systems: Resonance-Impaired Hydrogen Bonds
      (RIHB).
AB  - Redefining interactions: The concept of the resonance-impaired hydrogen bond
      (RIHB) as an interaction in which a conjugated pi system strongly impairs the
      formation of a hydrogen bond (HB) is introduced. A typical HB involving charged
      species can have a formation energy of tens of kcal mol-1 , whereas the
      corresponding value for the examined RIHB is only 2.6 kcal mol-1 . Quantum
      chemical topology tools are used to analyse the low formation energy of the
      studied RIHBs.

PMID- 28873249
TI  - Pseudomembranous changes in the dermis: A novel observation and potential clue
      for evolving lipodermatosclerosis?
AB  - Lipodermatosclerosis (LDS) is a well-recognized form of fibrosing panniculitis.
      Although chronic cases are readily diagnosed, early and evolving lesions may be
      clinically mistaken for cellulitis and other forms of panniculitis. Most
      pathologists are familiar with a pseudomembranous type of fat necrosis as a
      useful feature of chronic LDS. Although nonspecific, this distinctive pattern of
      fat necrosis helps in supporting a diagnosis of LDS in the appropriate clinical
      context. The histopathologic features of early and evolving LDS and those
      involving the dermis are less well documented. We report a case of early LDS
      showing extensive pseudomembranous changes in the dermis on a superficial skin
      biopsy where progression to a classic established lesion was documented
      clinically. We suspect that this previously unreported and unusual finding may be
      a histopathologic clue for evolving lesions of LDS.

PMID- 28873250
TI  - Nanolattices: An Emerging Class of Mechanical Metamaterials.
AB  - In 1903, Alexander Graham Bell developed a design principle to generate
      lightweight, mechanically robust lattice structures based on triangular cells;
      this has since found broad application in lightweight design. Over one hundred
      years later, the same principle is being used in the fabrication of nanolattice
      materials, namely lattice structures composed of nanoscale constituents. Taking
      advantage of the size-dependent properties typical of nanoparticles, nanowires,
      and thin films, nanolattices redefine the limits of the accessible material
      property space throughout different disciplines. Herein, the exceptional
      mechanical performance of nanolattices, including their ultrahigh strength,
      damage tolerance, and stiffness, are reviewed, and their potential for
      multifunctional applications beyond mechanics is examined. The efficient
      integration of architecture and size-affected properties is key to further
      develop nanolattices. The introduction of a hierarchical architecture is an
      effective tool in enhancing mechanical properties, and the eventual goal of
      nanolattice design may be to replicate the intricate hierarchies and
      functionalities observed in biological materials. Additive manufacturing and self
      assembly techniques enable lattice design at the nanoscale; the scaling-up of
      nanolattice fabrication is currently the major challenge to their widespread use
      in technological applications.

PMID- 28873251
TI  - Imported fire ant envenomation: A clinicopathologic study of a recognizable form
      of arthropod assault reaction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skin reactions to the sting of the imported fire ant have
      characteristic clinicopathological features. METHODS: One case of experimental
      envenomation was prospectively followed during 48 hours, with biopsies. In
      addition, 6 cases from our laboratory were retrospectively evaluated
      histopathologically for the following features: spongiosis, exocytosis (and type
      of cells), pustule formation, erosion/ulceration, epidermal necrosis,
      scale/crust, papillary dermal edema, inflammatory dermal infiltrate (cell type,
      density, depth, distribution, shape), red blood cell extravasation, vasculopathy
      and vasculitis. RESULTS: The typical lesion follows a very distinctive clinical
      and histopathologic evolution over 48 hours, with the formation of a subepidermal
      pustule overlying a wedge-shaped area of dermal collagen basophilic degeneration
      with scattered neutrophils. In the 6 cases retrieved from our files, the main
      features were a superficial and deep dermal, perivascular, periadnexal and
      interstitial infiltrate consisting of neutrophils, with basophilic degeneration
      of the collagen. A subepidermal pustule was noted in half of the cases.
      CONCLUSIONS: In biopsies taken in a clinical setting, even in the absence of the
      characteristic subepidermal pustule, the diagnosis of imported fire ant sting can
      be suspected if there is a superficial and deep perivascular, periadnexal and
      interstitial infiltrate composed of neutrophils, with some basophilic
      denaturation of collagen.

PMID- 28873252
TI  - Carbonic anhydrase inhibitor acetazolamide shifts synaptic vesicle recycling to a
      fast mode at the mouse neuromuscular junction.
AB  - Acetazolamide (AZ), a molecule frequently used to treat different neurological
      syndromes, is an inhibitor of the carbonic anhydrase (CA), an enzyme that
      regulates pH inside and outside cells. We combined fluorescent FM styryl dyes and
      electrophysiological techniques at ex vivo levator auris longus neuromuscular
      junctions (NMJs) from mice to investigate the modulation of synaptic transmission
      and vesicle recycling by AZ. Transmitter release was minimally affected by AZ, as
      evidenced by evoked and spontaneous end-plate potential measurements. However,
      optical evaluation with FM-styryl dyes of vesicle exocytosis elicited by 50 Hz
      stimuli showed a strong reduction in fluorescence loss in AZ treated NMJ, an
      effect that was abolished by bathing the NMJ in Hepes. The remaining dye was
      quenched by bromophenol, a small molecule capable of diffusing inside vesicles.
      Furthermore, in transgenic mice expressing Synaptophysin-pHluorin (SypHy), the
      fluorescence responses of motor nerve terminals to a 50 Hz train of stimuli was
      decrease to a 50% of controls in the presence of AZ. Immunohistochemistry
      experiments to evaluate the state of the Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), an
      enzyme involved in vesicle recycling, demonstrated that MLCK phosphorylation was
      much stronger in the presence than AZ than in its absence in 50 Hz stimulated
      NMJs. We postulate that AZ, via cytosol acidification and activation of MLCK,
      shifts synaptic vesicle recycling to a fast (kiss-and-run) mode, which changes
      synaptic performance. These changes may contribute to the therapeutic action
      reported in many neurological syndromes like ataxia, epilepsy, and migraine.

PMID- 28873254
TI  - Reduction of Carbonyl Groups by Uranium(III) and Formation of a Stable Amide
      Radical Anion.
AB  - Methyl benzoate, N,N-dimethylbenzamide, and benzophenone were reduced by UIII
      [N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 resulting in uranium(IV) products. Reduction of benzophenone lead
      to UIV [OC?Ph2 )][N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 , (1.1) which forms the dinuclear complex,
      [N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 UIV (OCPhPh-CPh2 O)UIV [N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 (1.2), through coupling of
      the ketyl radical species upon crystallization. Reaction of N,N-dimethylbenzamide
      with UIII [N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 resulted in UIV [OC?(Ph)(NMe2 )][N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 (2), a
      uranium(IV) compound and the first example of a charge-separated amide radical.
      In the case of methyl benzoate, the reduction resulted in UIV (OMe)[N(SiMe3 )2 ]3
      (3) and benzaldehyde as the reduced organic fragment. Compound 2 showed the
      ability to act as a uranium(III) synthon in its reactivity with trimethylsilyl
      azide, a reaction that yielded UV (=NSiMe3 )[N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 . Additionally, 2 was
      reduced with potassium graphite resulting in [U(MU-O)[O=C(NMe2 )(Ph)][N(SiMe3 )2
      ]2 ]2 (4), a dinuclear uranium compound bridged by oxo ligands. Reduction of 2 in
      the presence of 15-crown-5 afforded isolation of the mono-oxo compound, [(15
      crown-5)2 K][UO[N(SiMe3 )2 ]3 ] (5). The results expand the reduction
      capabilities of UIII complexes and demonstrate a strategy for isolating novel
      metal-stabilized radicals.

PMID- 28873253
TI  - TomExpress, a unified tomato RNA-Seq platform for visualization of expression
      data, clustering and correlation networks.
AB  - The TomExpress platform was developed to provide the tomato research community
      with a browser and integrated web tools for public RNA-Seq data visualization and
      data mining. To avoid major biases that can result from the use of different
      mapping and statistical processing methods, RNA-Seq raw sequence data available
      in public databases were mapped de novo on a unique tomato reference genome
      sequence and post-processed using the same pipeline with accurate parameters.
      Following the calculation of the number of counts per gene in each RNA-Seq
      sample, a communal global normalization method was applied to all expression
      values. This unifies the whole set of expression data and makes them comparable.
      A database was designed where each expression value is associated with
      corresponding experimental annotations. Sample details were manually curated to
      be easily understandable by biologists. To make the data easily searchable, a
      user-friendly web interface was developed that provides versatile data mining web
      tools via on-the-fly generation of output graphics, such as expression bar plots,
      comprehensive in planta representations and heatmaps of hierarchically clustered
      expression data. In addition, it allows for the identification of co-expressed
      genes and the visualization of correlation networks of co-regulated gene groups.
      TomExpress provides one of the most complete free resources of publicly available
      tomato RNA-Seq data, and allows for the immediate interrogation of
      transcriptional programs that regulate vegetative and reproductive development in
      tomato under diverse conditions. The design of the pipeline developed in this
      project enables easy updating of the database with newly published RNA-Seq data,
      thereby allowing for continuous enrichment of the resource.

PMID- 28873255
TI  - Accelerated 4D self-gated MRI of tibiofemoral kinematics.
AB  - Anatomical (static) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most useful imaging
      technique for the evaluation and assessment of internal derangement of the knee,
      but does not provide dynamic information and does not allow the study of the
      interaction of the different tissues during motion. As knee pain is often only
      experienced during dynamic tasks, the ability to obtain four-dimensional (4D)
      images of the knee during motion could improve the diagnosis and provide a deeper
      understanding of the knee joint. In this work, we present a novel approach for
      dynamic, high-resolution, 4D imaging of the freely moving knee without the need
      for external triggering. The dominant knee of five healthy volunteers was scanned
      during a flexion/extension task. To evaluate the effects of non-uniform motion
      and poor coordination skills on the quality of the reconstructed images, we
      performed a comparison between fully free movement and movement instructed by a
      visual cue. The trigger signal for self-gating was extracted using principal
      component analysis (PCA), and the images were reconstructed using a parallel
      imaging and compressed sensing reconstruction pipeline. The reconstructed 4D
      movies were scored for image quality and used to derive bone kinematics through
      image registration. Using our method, we were able to obtain 4D high-resolution
      movies of the knee without the need for external triggering hardware. The movies
      obtained with and without instruction did not differ significantly in terms of
      image scoring and quantitative values for tibiofemoral kinematics. Our method
      showed to be robust for the extraction of the self-gating signal even for
      uninstructed motion. This can make the technique suitable for patients who, as a
      result of pain, may find it difficult to comply exactly with instructions.
      Furthermore, bone kinematics can be derived from accelerated MRI without the need
      for additional hardware for triggering.

PMID- 28873257
TI  - Deep Uncertainties in Sea-Level Rise and Storm Surge Projections: Implications
      for Coastal Flood Risk Management.
AB  - Sea levels are rising in many areas around the world, posing risks to coastal
      communities and infrastructures. Strategies for managing these flood risks
      present decision challenges that require a combination of geophysical, economic,
      and infrastructure models. Previous studies have broken important new ground on
      the considerable tensions between the costs of upgrading infrastructure and the
      damages that could result from extreme flood events. However, many risk-based
      adaptation strategies remain silent on certain potentially important
      uncertainties, as well as the tradeoffs between competing objectives. Here, we
      implement and improve on a classic decision-analytical model (Van Dantzig 1956)
      to: (i) capture tradeoffs across conflicting stakeholder objectives, (ii)
      demonstrate the consequences of structural uncertainties in the sea-level rise
      and storm surge models, and (iii) identify the parametric uncertainties that most
      strongly influence each objective using global sensitivity analysis. We find that
      the flood adaptation model produces potentially myopic solutions when formulated
      using traditional mean-centric decision theory. Moving from a single-objective
      problem formulation to one with multiobjective tradeoffs dramatically expands the
      decision space, and highlights the need for compromise solutions to address
      stakeholder preferences. We find deep structural uncertainties that have large
      effects on the model outcome, with the storm surge parameters accounting for the
      greatest impacts. Global sensitivity analysis effectively identifies important
      parameter interactions that local methods overlook, and that could have critical
      implications for flood adaptation strategies.

PMID- 28873256
TI  - NYEs/SGRs-mediated chlorophyll degradation is critical for detoxification during
      seed maturation in Arabidopsis.
AB  - In the seed industry, chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence is often used as a major non
      invasive reporter of seed maturation and quality. Breakdown of Chl is a proactive
      process during the late stage of seed maturation, as well as during leaf
      senescence and fruit ripening. However, the biological significance of this
      process is still unclear. NYE1 and NYE2 are Mg-dechelatases, catalyzing the first
      rate-limiting step of Chl a degradation. Loss-of-function of both NYE1 and NYE2
      not only results in a nearly complete retention of Chl during leaf senescence,
      but also produces green seeds in Arabidopsis. In this study, we showed that Chl
      retention in the nye1 nye2 double-mutant caused severe photo-damage to maturing
      seeds. Upon prolonged light exposure, green seeds of nye1 nye2 gradually bleached
      out and eventually lost their germination capacity. This organ-specific
      photosensitive phenotype is likely due to an over-accumulation of free Chl, which
      possesses photosensitizing properties and causes a burst of reactive oxygen
      species upon light exposure. As expected, a similar, albeit much milder,
      photosensitive phenotype was observed in the seeds of d1 d2, a green-seed mutant
      defective in NYE/SGR orthologous genes in soybean. Taken together, our data
      suggest that efficient NYEs-mediated Chl degradation is critical for
      detoxification during seed maturation.

PMID- 28873258
TI  - The inherent matrix properties of lichen metabolites in matrix-assisted laser
      desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
AB  - RATIONALE: Light-absorbing secondary metabolites from lichens were recently
      reported to exhibit promising Laser Desorption Ionization (LDI) properties,
      enabling their direct detection from crude lichen extracts. In addition, many of
      them display close structural homologies to commercial Matrix-Assisted Laser
      Desorption Ionization (MALDI) matrices, which is incentive for the evaluation of
      their matrical properties. The current study systematically evaluated the matrix
      effects of several structural classes of lichen metabolites: monoaromatic
      compounds, quinone derivatives, dibenzofuran-related molecules and the shikimate
      derived vulpinic acid. Their matrical properties were tested against a wide range
      of structurally diverse analytes including alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids and
      peptides. METHODS: Triplicate automatic positive-ion mode MALDI analyses were
      carried out and ionization efficiencies were compared with those of structurally
      related reference matrices (i.e. DHB, HCCA, dithranol and usnic acid) in terms of
      (i) analyte absolute intensities and (ii) Matrix Suppressing Effect (MSE) scores.
      RESULTS: Monoaromatic lichen metabolites revealed matrical properties similar to
      those of DHB when obtained under comparable experimental conditions. Likewise,
      anthraquinone metabolites triggered ionization of tested analytes in a similar
      way to the structurally related dithranol. Finally, dibenzofuran derivatives
      displayed a broad ionization profile, reminiscent of that of (+)-usnic acid.
      CONCLUSIONS: Lichen metabolites exhibit interesting MALDI matrix properties,
      especially for medium and low molecular weight analytes. For many of the tested
      molecules, matrix ion formation was very limited. This proof-of-concept study
      paves the way for follow-up investigations to assess the matrix properties of
      lichen metabolites against a wider array of analytes as well as adapting
      experimental settings to individually optimize the performance of successfully
      tested candidates.

PMID- 28873259
TI  - Increased enteric glial cells in proximal margin of resection is associated with
      postoperative recurrence of Crohn's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The enteric nervous system can amplify or modulate intestinal
      inflammation through secretion of neuropeptides, and enteric glial cells have
      been implicated in the pathophysiology of Crohn's disease. The goal of the study
      was to search for an association between the density of neurons, neuropeptides,
      and enteric glial cells and postoperative recurrence. METHODS: The ileal proximal
      uninflamed section from ileocolonic sample was studied using immunohistochemistry
      with antibodies directed against vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP),
      substance P (SP), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and the glial marker protein
      S100. The density in the submucosa was calculated, and the relationship of the
      density of VIP, SP, NSE, and S100 and postoperative disease recurrence was
      assessed. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between patients with
      and without postoperative endoscopic recurrence or clinical recurrence for the
      density of NSE-positive, VIP-positive, or SP-positive neurons in the proximal
      margin. Interestingly, the density of S100-positive enteric glial cells was
      significantly increased in patients with endoscopic and clinical recurrence than
      in subjects without disease recurrence (P ? 0.001). The density of S100-positive
      enteric glial cells was independently associated with postoperative disease
      recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Increased S100-positive enteric glial cells are
      associated with a high risk of both endoscopic and clinical recurrence after
      surgery. These findings have implications in individualized postoperative
      prophylaxis for Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28873260
TI  - Rotational Spectroscopy Probes Water Flipping by Full Fluorination of Benzene.
AB  - The topology of the interaction of water with benzene changes drastically upon
      full H->F substitution on the aromatic ring: the weak O-H???pi hydrogen bond is
      replaced by a O???pi linkage, of about the same strength. Hexafluorobenzene-water
      appears to be the prototype system to investigate this kind of weak bond. The
      pulsed Fourier transform microwave technique has been used for the detection of
      the rotational spectra of the normal species and five isotopologues which
      unambiguously led to the identification of the geometry. Quantum mechanical
      calculations have been performed to interpret the experimental evidence.

PMID- 28873261
TI  - Impacts of different land management histories on forest change.
AB  - Many western North American forest types have experienced considerable changes in
      ecosystem structure, composition, and function as a result of both fire exclusion
      and timber harvesting. These two influences co-occurred over a large portion of
      dry forests, making it difficult to know the strength of either one on its own or
      the potential for an interaction between the two. In this study, we used
      contemporary remeasurements of a systematic historical forest inventory to
      investigate forest change in the Sierra Nevada. The historical data
      opportunistically spanned a significant land management agency boundary, which
      protected part of the inventory area from timber harvesting. This allowed for a
      robust comparison of forest change between logged and unlogged areas. In
      addition, we assessed the effects of recent management activities aimed at forest
      restoration relative to the same areas historically, and to other areas without
      recent management. Based on analyses of 22,007 trees (historical, 9,573;
      contemporary, 12,434), live basal area and tree density significantly increased
      from 1911 to the early 2000s in both logged and unlogged areas. Both shrub cover
      and the proportion of live basal area occupied by pine species declined from 1911
      to the early 2000s in both areas, but statistical significance was inconsistent.
      The most notable difference between logged and unlogged areas was in the density
      of large trees, which declined significantly in logged areas, but was unchanged
      in unlogged areas. Recent management activities had a varied impact on the forest
      structure and composition variables analyzed. In general, areas with no recent
      management activities experienced the greatest change from 1911 to the early
      2000s. If approximating historical forest conditions is a land management goal
      the documented changes in forest structure and composition from 1911 to the early
      2000s indicate that active restoration, including fire use and mechanical
      thinning, is needed in many areas.

PMID- 28873263
TI  - Continuous infusion of coagulation factor concentrates during intensive
      treatment.
AB  - In clinical management of bleeds and surgical procedures in patients suffering
      from bleeding disorders either repetitive bolus injections (BI) or continuous
      infusion (CI) can be used for coagulation factor replacement. Continuous infusion
      seems to be an attractive route of administration and may be considered if
      replacement therapy is required for more than 3 days. The strongest argument
      favouring continuous infusion is its superiority in providing the patient with a
      safe and constant level of the deficient coagulation factor by balancing input
      with clearance. Furthermore, several studies have shown that coagulation factor
      consumption may be reduced by CI compared to repetitive bolus injections (BI)
      since unnecessary peaks of factor level are avoided. Concerns have been raised
      whether continuous infusion of coagulation concentrates is associated with an
      increased risk of developing inhibitors. However, available data have so far not
      shown an increased risk for inhibitor development in severe haemophilia patients
      with more than 50 exposure days of coagulation factor concentrates. Further,
      previously reported complications when using CI such as phlebitis at the infusion
      site and pump failure are nowadays very seldom seen when small amounts of heparin
      are added to the infusion bag, and increased quality of the pumps are available.
      Over the last decades, numerous reports have confirmed CI to be a safe and
      effective mode of coagulation factor replacement even in the most challenging
      surgical procedures, such as total joint arthroplasties.

PMID- 28873264
TI  - Patterns of unmet supportive needs and relationship to quality of life in Chinese
      cancer patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to (1) identify distinct patterns of unmet needs in
      Chinese cancer patients; (2) examine whether sociodemographic and medical
      characteristics distinguished these patterns; and (3) examine whether people with
      distinct patterns reported differential quality of life (QoL). METHODS: This
      cross-sectional study recruited 301 cancer patients from 2 hospitals in China.
      The 34-item Supportive Care Needs Survey Short-Form was used to measure unmet
      needs across 5 domains: physical and daily living, psychological, patient care
      and support, health systems and information, and sexuality. Latent class analysis
      was performed to identify patterns of unmet needs across these domains. RESULTS:
      Four patterns of unmet needs were identified, differing in levels and nature of
      unmet needs. Participants in class 1 (47%) reported few unmet needs. Patients in
      class 2 (15%) had moderate levels of unmet needs, displaying similar levels
      across 5 domains. People in class 3 (25%) and class 4 (13%) reported similarly
      high levels on "psychological," "health care system and information," "physical
      and daily living," and "patient care," but differing in "sexuality," with class 3
      reporting low levels while class 4 high on "sexuality." None of sociodemographic
      and medical characteristics distinguished these patterns significantly. Compared
      to other classes, people in class 1 reported highest levels of QoL. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study demonstrates the existence of 4 patterns of unmet supportive needs in
      Chinese cancer patients. Patients with few unmet needs reported the best QoL.

PMID- 28873262
TI  - Reactivation of TWIST1 contributes to Ewing sarcoma metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ewing sarcoma is a cancer of bone and soft tissue. Despite aggressive
      treatment, survival remains poor, particularly in patients with metastatic
      disease. Failure to treat Ewing sarcoma is due to the lack of understanding of
      the molecular pathways that regulate metastasis. In addition, no molecular
      prognostic markers have been identified for Ewing sarcoma to risk stratify
      patients. PROCEDURE: Ewing sarcoma patients were divided into high or low Twist1
      gene expression and survival curves were generated using the R2 microarray-based
      Genomic Analysis platform (http://r2.amc.nl). Tumors from Ewing sarcoma patients
      were also evaluated for TWIST1 expression by immunohistochemistry. Ewing sarcoma
      xenografts were established to evaluate the role of TWIST1 in metastasis. The
      effects of Twist1 on migration and invasion were evaluated using migration and
      invasion assays in A673 and RDES cells. RESULTS: Twist1 expression was a negative
      prognostic marker for overall survival in a public Ewing sarcoma patient data set
      based on Twist1 mRNA levels and in patient tumor samples based on Twist1
      immunohistochemistry. TWIST1 is detected in significantly higher percentage of
      patients with metastatic diseases than localized disease. Using Ewing sarcoma
      tumor xenografts in mice, we found that suppressing TWIST1 levels suppressed
      metastasis without affecting primary tumor development. Knockdown of Twist1
      inhibited the migration and invasion capability, while overexpression of Twist1
      promoted migration and invasion in Ewing sarcoma cells. CONCLUSION: These results
      suggest that TWIST1 promotes metastasis in Ewing sarcoma and could be used as a
      prognostic marker for treatment stratification; however, further validation is
      required in a larger cohort of patients.

PMID- 28873265
TI  - Dyadic effects of coping strategies, time perspectives, and personality on the
      quality of life of cancer patients and their caregivers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Researchers are interested in studying whether the quality of life
      (QoL) of cancer patients and caregivers is influenced by internal
      psychobehavioral processes (temporality and coping strategies) and the
      personality traits that they or their relatives experience. We examined these
      associations in a sample of patient-caregiver dyads by using the actor-partner
      interdependence model. METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved 156 cancer
      patient-caregiver dyads. The self-reported data included QoL (Short-Form 36),
      coping strategies (Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Scale), time
      perspectives (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory), and personality (Big Five
      Inventory). The actor-partner interdependence model was used to test the dyadic
      effect individualizing actor (degree to which the individual's characteristics
      were associated with their QoL) and partner (degree to which the individual's
      characteristics were associated with the QoL of the other dyad member) effects.
      RESULTS: Actor effects were found for patients and caregivers: The use of
      positive thinking and future/present-hedonistic perspectives were associated with
      higher QoL; the use of avoidance and past-negative perspective were associated
      with lower QoL. Partner effects were also found highlighting the specific
      mechanisms of the interconnections in the patient-caregiver dyad. The patient's
      QoL was higher when the caregiver used social support and experienced openness.
      The caregiver's QoL was lower when the patient used social support and avoidance
      strategies and experienced future perspective. CONCLUSIONS: The examination of
      the relationships between individuals' QoL and their internal psychobehavioral
      processes and personality traits will have several applications in the routine
      clinical management. Individual-level and dyad-level interventions should be
      proposed: cognitive-rehabilitation, emotional and cognitive self-regulation for
      time perspectives, and personality constructs.

PMID- 28873266
TI  - Prospective cohort study of risk factors for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase
      producing Escherichia coli urinary tract infections in elderly patients admitted
      to hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli
      are currently common in community-onset infections, limiting therapeutic options.
      In this work we aim to identify the prevalence of and risk factors for ESBL
      producing E. coli in elderly patients with urinary tract infections (UTI)
      admitted to hospital. METHODS: Prospective cohort study on elderly patients with
      E. coli UTI admitted to a university hospital in Spain, from January 2013 to
      December 2015. Clinical features, microbiology and outcomes were recorded from
      the electronic medical records and reviewed by two researchers. Cases were
      segregated according to ESBL-producing E. coli. Risk factors for ESBL-producing
      E. coli were analysed by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of ESBL
      producing E. coli was 27.4% (85/310). Healthcare-associated UTI was the only risk
      factor for ESBL-producing E. coli (OR 6.79; 95% CI 3.22-14.31, P < .001) by
      multivariate analysis. ESBL-producing E. coli was 43.9% in the healthcare
      associated UTI group and 8.9% in the community-acquired UTI group (P < .001).
      Inadequate empirical antibiotic therapy and length of stay in hospital were
      higher in the ESBL-producing E. coli group than in the non-ESBL-producing E. coli
      group (62.3% vs 5.3% and 6.60 +/- 3.69 days vs 5.61 +/- 3.16 days, respectively).
      Mortality was not significantly different between groups (13% in ESBL-producing
      E. coli group vs 7.5% in non-ESBL-producing E. coli group, P = .140). SUMMARY:
      Healthcare-associated UTI was a risk factor for ESBL-producing E. coli in elderly
      patients with UTI admitted to hospital. Our results might help clinicians in
      choosing empirical antibiotics in an overall high rate setting of ESBL-producing
      E. coli.

PMID- 28873267
TI  - Administration of adjuvant chemotherapy in older patients with Stage III colon
      cancer: an observational study.
AB  - AIM: According to established guidelines, patients with Stage III colon cancer
      should receive adjuvant chemotherapy. However, a significant proportion do not.
      This study assessed factors associated with the administration of adjuvant
      chemotherapy and causes of death. METHODS: Patients with Stage III colon cancer
      who underwent surgery between 2000 and 2009 were selected from two hospitals in
      the Netherlands. Patient characteristics including comorbidities and treatment
      preferences, tumour characteristics and follow-up were extracted from the medical
      records. The patient and tumour characteristics of patients who did receive
      chemotherapy were compared with those who did not using chi-squared analysis.
      Differences between the groups in causes of death were recorded together with the
      duration of follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 348 patients were included. The median
      age was 73 years (range 33-93). Over half of the patients received adjuvant
      chemotherapy (50.6%). Patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy were
      significantly older (P < 0.001), had more comorbidities (P < 0.001) and were more
      often living alone (P < 0.001). Patients who received no adjuvant chemotherapy
      had a reduced overall survival, and the cause of death was more often attributed
      to other causes (60%) than colon cancer (40%). For patients who received
      chemotherapy, the cause of death was usually attributed to colon cancer (71%).
      CONCLUSION: Patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy had a worse
      overall survival and the majority died due to other causes than colon cancer. In
      our aging society it will become even more important to develop tools to estimate
      remaining life expectancy in order to improve the selection of older patients for
      adjuvant treatments.

PMID- 28873268
TI  - A novel in vitro model for haematogenous spreading of S. aureus device biofilms
      demonstrating clumping dispersal as an advantageous dissemination mechanism.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is able to disseminate from vascular device biofilms to the
      blood and organs, resulting in life-threatening infections such as endocarditis.
      The mechanisms behind spreading are largely unknown, especially how the bacterium
      escapes immune effectors and antibiotics in the process. Using an in vitro
      catheter infection model, we studied S. aureus biofilm growth, late-stage
      dispersal, and reattachment to downstream endothelial cell layers. The ability of
      the released biofilm material to resist host response and disseminate in vivo was
      furthermore studied in whole blood and phagocyte survival assays and in a short
      term murine infection model. We found that S. aureus biofilms formed in flow of
      human plasma release biofilm thromboemboli with embedded bacteria and bacteria
      secreted polysaccharides. The emboli disseminate as antibiotic and immune
      resistant vehicles that hold the ability to adhere to and initiate colonisation
      of endothelial cell layers under flow. In vivo experiments showed that the
      released biofilm material reached the heart similarly as ordinary broth-grown
      bacteria but also that clumps to some extend were trapped in the lungs. The
      clumping dispersal of S. aureus from in vivo-like vascular biofilms and their
      specific properties demonstrated here help explain the pathophysiology associated
      with S. aureus bloodstream infections.

PMID- 28873269
TI  - Do therapists' subjective variables impact on psychodynamic psychotherapy
      outcomes? A systematic literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite growing attention to the general therapist effects in a wide
      range of clinical settings, little is known about the individual, cross
      situational, and therapy-nonspecific variables that impact on the differential
      effectiveness of clinicians. The current study is a systematic review of the
      evidence relating to the influence of therapist's subjective characteristics on
      outcomes of psychodynamic psychotherapies. METHOD: A multistage and systematic
      search of articles published between 1987 and 2017 identified 30 relevant
      studies, which were organized into 6 areas according to the specific therapist's
      variable considered. RESULTS: Therapists' interpersonal functioning and skills
      showed the strongest evidence of a direct effect on treatment outcomes.
      Furthermore, there were preliminary evidence that therapists' attachment styles,
      their interpersonal history with caregivers, and their self-concept might affect
      outcomes through interaction effects with other constructs, such as technical
      interventions, patient's pathology, and therapeutic alliance. The high
      variability between studies on therapists' overall reflective or introspective
      abilities and personality characteristics suggested the need for more systematic
      research in these areas, whereas therapists' values and attitudes showed small
      effects on therapeutic outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The present review clarifies how a
      deep examination of the contribution of therapists' subjective characteristics
      can help elucidate the complex association between relational and technical
      factors related to the outcome of psychodynamic treatments.

PMID- 28873270
TI  - Practical Chemical Synthesis of Atypical Ubiquitin Chains by Using an Isopeptide
      Linked Ub Isomer.
AB  - Chemical ubiquitination is an effective approach for accessing structurally
      defined, atypical ubiquitin (Ub) chains that are difficult to prepare by other
      techniques. Herein, we describe a strategy that uses a readily accessible premade
      isopeptide-linked 76-mer (isoUb), which has an N-terminal Cys and a C-terminal
      hydrazide, as the key building block to assemble atypical Ub chains in a modular
      fashion. This method avoids the use of auxiliary-modified Lys and instead employs
      the canonical and therefore more robust Cys-based native chemical ligation
      technique. The efficiency and capacity of this isoUb-based strategy is
      exemplified by the cost-effective synthesis of several linkage- and length
      defined atypical Ub chains, including K27-linked tetra-Ub and K11/K48-branched
      tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-Ubs.

PMID- 28873271
TI  - Association of preventable adverse drug events with inpatients' length of stay-A
      propensity-matched cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Using clinical administrative data (CAD) of inpatients, we aimed to
      identify ICD-10 codes coding for potentially preventable inhospital adverse drug
      events (ADE) that affect the length of hospital stay (LOS) and thus patient well
      being and cost. METHODS: We retrospectively assessed CAD of all inpatient stays
      in 2012 of a German university hospital. Predefined ICD-10 codes indicating ADE
      (ADE codes) were further specified based on expert ratings of the ADE mechanism
      and ADE preventability in clinical routine to particularly identify preventable
      inhospital ADE. In a propensity-matched cohort design, we compared patients with
      one or more ADE codes to control patients with regard to differences in LOS for
      three situations: all cases with an ADE code, cases with an inhospital ADE code,
      and cases with a preventable inhospital ADE code. RESULTS: Out of 54 032 cases
      analysed, in 8.3% (N=4 462) at least one ADE code was present. Nine of 128
      evaluated ADE codes were rated as preventable in clinical routine, relating to
      220 inpatients (4.9% of all identified inpatients with at least one ADE code and
      0.4% of the entire cohort, respectively). Out of 48 072 evaluable inpatients for
      propensity score matching, 7 938 controls without ADE code and 4 006 cases with
      ADE code were selected. In all three settings, cases showed prolonged LOS vs
      controls (delta 1.13 d; 0.88 d and 1.88 d, respectively), significantly exceeding
      the maximum LOS as defined for each Diagnosis-Related Group. CONCLUSION:
      Inpatients with ADE codes referring to inhospital, potentially preventable ADE
      exceeded the maximum hospital stay fully reimbursed by insurance companies,
      indicating unnecessary long and costly inpatient stays.

PMID- 28873272
TI  - Pressure-forming method using a single-mouthguard sheet.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Mouthguard thickness is important for the prevention of orofacial
      trauma during sports. However, it is difficult to maintain the necessary
      thickness after forming the mouthguard. The aim of this study was to evaluate a
      pressure-forming method using a single-mouthguard sheet. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      mouthguard sheet of 3.8 mm ethylene vinyl acetate was prepared by cutting 3 mm
      from the anterior margin of the sheet holder with a length of 7 mm and with the
      width being from the buccal cusp of the upper right first premolar to the buccal
      cusp of the upper left first premolar and compared with the original sheet. The
      sheets were pressure-formed when the sheet was heated until the centre was
      displaced by 15 mm from baseline. The thickness of the mouthguard was measured at
      the labial surface of the central incisor, and the buccal and occlusal surfaces
      of the first molar. The fit of the mouthguard was examined at the right central
      incisor and right first molar by measuring the distance between the mouthguard
      and the cervical margin of the working model. Differences in the thickness and
      the fit of the mouthguards between the sheet conditions and the measured regions
      were analysed by two-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: Mouthguard thickness
      varied among the measured regions of the central incisors and first molars (P <
      .01). The greatest thickness was found at the labial surface of the central
      incisor in mouthguards fabricated using the cut sheet (P < .01). Mouthguard fit
      did not differ between the two sheets. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that a
      useful mouthguard with proper thickness and fit can be produced with the pressure
      forming method using a single-mouthguard sheet by cutting the anterior part of
      the sheet.

PMID- 28873273
TI  - Docking of Antibodies into the Cavities of DNA Origami Structures.
AB  - Immobilized antibodies are extensively employed for medical diagnostics, such as
      in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Despite their widespread use, the ability
      to control the orientation of immobilized antibodies on surfaces is very limited.
      Herein, we report a method for the covalent and orientation-selective
      immobilization of antibodies in designed cavities in 2D and 3D DNA origami
      structures. Two tris(NTA)-modified strands are inserted into the cavity to form
      NTA-metal complexes with histidine clusters on the Fc domain. Subsequent covalent
      linkage to the antibody was achieved by coupling to lysine residues. Atomic force
      microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the
      efficient immobilization of the antibodies in the origami structures. This
      increased control over the orientation of antibodies in nanostructures and on
      surfaces has the potential to direct the interactions between antibodies and
      targets and to provide more regular surface assemblies of antibodies.

PMID- 28873274
TI  - Epigenetics at the crossroads between genes, environment and resilience in
      anxiety disorders.
AB  - The pathogenesis of anxiety disorders is multifactorial, involving complex
      interactions between biological factors, environmental influences and
      psychological mechanisms. Recent advances have highlighted the role of
      epigenetics in bridging the gap between multiple contributing risk factors toward
      an increased understanding of the pathomechanisms underlying anxiety. In this
      review, we present an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding
      putative risk mechanisms in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders, placing a
      particular focus on the role of protective factors serving to buffer a risk
      factor constellation and the role of epigenetic processes functioning as a potent
      turnstile changing passage direction toward disorder risk or resilience. We
      discuss promising future directions in epigenetic research regarding the
      prediction, prevention and personalized treatment of anxiety disorders.

PMID- 28873275
TI  - Retrospective evaluation of the prevalence, risk factors, management, outcome,
      and necropsy findings of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress
      syndrome in dogs and cats: 29 cases (2011-2013).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and risk factors for veterinary acute lung
      injury (VetALI) and veterinary acute respiratory distress syndrome (VetARDS),
      assess mechanical ventilation settings and patient outcomes, and to evaluate the
      relationship of clinical diagnoses with necropsy findings. DESIGN: Retrospective
      study. SETTING: University teaching hospital. ANIMALS: Twenty-four dogs and 5
      cats with a clinical diagnosis of VetALI or VetARDS. Control population includes
      24 dogs and 5 cats with a clinical diagnosis of respiratory disease other than
      VetALI or VetARDS. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: VetALI and
      VetARDS were diagnosed in 3.2% of dogs and 1.3% of cats presenting to the ICU.
      Systemic inflammatory response syndrome was the most common inciting condition
      (16/24 dogs, 2/5 cats), followed by vomiting and subsequent aspiration of gastric
      contents (9/24 dogs), sepsis (5/24 dogs, 3/5 cats), multiple transfusions (4/24
      dogs), trauma (3/24 dogs), and adverse drug reactions (1/24 dogs, 1/5 cats). 
      None of these conditions were found to be significantly associated with a risk of
      development of VetALI or VetARDS when compared to controls. Twelve dogs (50%) and
      4 cats (80%) underwent mechanical ventilation for a median duration of 18 hours
      in dogs (range: 6-174 h) and 15.5 hours in cats (range: 6-91 h). Overall, 3/29
      patients survived to discharge including 2/24 dogs and 1/5 cats. Necropsy results
      were available for 8/22 dogs and 3/4 cats. A total of 6/8 dogs (75%) dogs and 3/3
      (100%) cats met the histopathologic criteria for diagnosis of VetALI or VetARDS.
      CONCLUSIONS: VetALI and VetARDS can cause life-threatening respiratory distress
      in dogs and cats necessitating mechanical ventilation in 50% of dogs and 80% of
      cats in this study. These diseases are associated with a poor clinical outcome
      and a high rate of humane euthanasia.

PMID- 28873277
TI  - What are the important outcomes in traumatic dental injuries? An international
      approach to the development of a core outcome set.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: There are numerous treatment options following traumatic dental
      injury (TDI). Systematic reviews of different treatments are challenging owing to
      the diversity of outcomes reported between clinical studies. This issue could be
      addressed through the development and implementation of a agreed and standardized
      collection of outcomes known as a core outcome set (COS). The aim of this study
      was to develop a COS for TDI in children and adults. The secondary aim was to
      establish what, how, when and by whom these outcomes should be measured.
      MATERIALS AND METHOD: The project was registered with Core Outcomes Measures in
      Effectiveness Trials (COMET). A web-based survey was developed to capture the
      opinions of dentists globally as to which outcomes should be recorded. A list of
      outcomes was entered into a Delphi Survey and scored by an Expert Working Group
      (EWG). The scoring was repeated, followed by conference calls to discuss, refine
      and finalize the COS. The EWG split into small groups of subject-specific experts
      to determine how, when and by whom each outcome would be measured. RESULTS: The
      questionnaire was completed by 1476 dentists. The EWG identified 13 core outcomes
      to be recorded for all TDI's. An additional 10 injury-specific outcomes were
      identified. A table has been produced for each outcome detailing what, when, and
      how each outcome should be recorded. CONCLUSIONS: A robust consensus process was
      used to develop an international COS for TDI in children and adults. This
      includes both generic and injury-specific outcomes across all identified domains.

PMID- 28873278
TI  - Long-term trends in trait structure of riverine communities facing predation risk
      increase and trophic resource decline.
AB  - Many large European rivers have undergone multiple pressures that have strongly
      impaired ecosystem functioning at different spatial and temporal scales. Global
      warming and other environmental changes have favored the success of invasive
      species, deeply modifying the structure of aquatic communities in large rivers.
      Some exogenous species could alter trophic interactions within assemblages by
      increasing the predation risk for potential prey species (top-down effect) and
      limiting the dynamics of others via resource availability limitation (bottom-up
      effect). Furthermore, large transboundary rivers are complex aquatic ecosystems
      that have often been poorly investigated so that data for assessing long-term
      ecological trends are missing. In this study, we propose an original approach for
      investigating long-term combined effects of global warming, trophic resource
      decrease, predation risk, and water quality variations on the trait-based
      structure of macroinvertebrate and fish assemblages over 26 yr (1985-2011) and
      427-km stretch of the river Meuse (France and Belgium). The study of temporal
      variations in biological, physiological, and ecological traits of
      macroinvertebrate and fish allowed identifying community trends and
      distinguishing impacts of environmental perturbations from those induced by
      biological alterations. We provide evidence, for this large European river, of an
      increase in water temperature (close to 1 degrees C) and a decrease in
      phytoplankton biomass (-85%), as well as independent effects of these changes on
      both invertebrate and fish communities. The reduction of trophic resources in the
      water column by invasive molluscs has dramatically affected the density of
      omnivorous fish in favor of invertebrate feeders, while scrapers became the major
      feeding guild among invertebrates. Macroinvertebrate and fish communities have
      shifted from large-sized organisms with low fecundity to prolific, small-sized
      organisms, with early maturity, as a response to increased predation pressure.

PMID- 28873276
TI  - MicroRNAs regulate synaptic plasticity underlying drug addiction.
AB  - Chronic use of drugs of abuse results in neurochemical, morphological and
      behavioral plasticity that underlies the emergence of compulsive drug seeking and
      vulnerability to relapse during periods of attempted abstinence. Identifying and
      reversing addiction-relevant plasticity is seen as a potential point of
      pharmacotherapeutic intervention in drug-addicted individuals. Despite
      considerable advances in our understanding of the actions of drugs of abuse in
      the brain, this information has thus far yielded few novel treatment options
      addicted individuals. MicroRNAs are small noncoding RNAs that can each regulate
      the translation of hundreds to thousands of messenger RNAs. The highly
      pleiotropic nature of miRNAs has focused attention on their contribution to
      addiction-relevant structural and functional plasticity in the brain and their
      potential utility as targets for medications development. In this review, we
      discuss the roles of miRNAs in synaptic plasticity underlying the development of
      addiction and then briefly discuss the possibility of using circulating miRNA as
      biomarkers for addiction.

PMID- 28873280
TI  - A Biomimetic Escape Strategy for Cytoplasm Invasion by Synthetic Particles.
AB  - The translocation of nanomaterials or complex delivery systems into the cytosol
      is a major challenge in nanobiotechnology. After receptor-mediated endocytosis,
      most nanomaterials are sequestered and undergo degradation, therapy inactivation,
      or exocytosis. Herein we explore a novel surface particle coating made of
      adsorbed carbon nanotubes that provides coated materials with new properties that
      reproduce the viral cell-invasive mechanisms, namely, receptor-mediated
      endocytosis, endolysosomal escape, and cytosolic particle release preserving cell
      viability. This novel biomimetic coating design will enable the intracytoplasmic
      delivery of many different functional materials endowed with therapeutic,
      magnetic, optical, or catalytic functionalities, thus opening the door to a wide
      array of chemical and physical processes within the cytosolic or nuclear domains,
      and supporting new developments in the biotechnological, pharmaceutical, and
      biomedical industries.

PMID- 28873279
TI  - Differences in bleeding phenotype and provider interventions in postmenarchal
      adolescents when compared to adult women with bleeding disorders and heavy
      menstrual bleeding.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Due to lack of patient/health care provider awareness causing
      delayed diagnosis, the bleeding phenotype and provider interventions in
      adolescents with heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and bleeding disorders (BD) may
      be different when compared to adults. AIM: The aim of this study was to
      compare/characterize bleeding phenotype and provider interventions in
      postmenarchal adolescents < 18 years and premenopausal adults >= 18 years with
      HMB and BD. METHODS: Patient demographics, BD, and provider interventions/therapy
      details for HMB were compared between both age groups enrolled in the Centers for
      Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Female Universal Data Collection (UDC)
      surveillance project in United States hemophilia treatment centres. Cross
      sectional descriptive analyses including frequency distributions, summary
      statistics, bivariate and logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS:
      Of 269 females (79 adolescents; median age 16 years, interquartile range (IQR) =
      2; 190 adults; median age 27 years, IQR = 13) evaluated, BD distribution was
      similar in both groups. Compared to adolescents, adults more often had family
      history of bleeding (Adjusted odds ratios [AOR] = 2.6, 1.3-5.6), delay in
      diagnosis (AOR = 2.5, 1.2-4.9), bleeding with dental procedures (AOR = 2.0, 1.0
      4.0), gastrointestinal bleeding (AOR = 4.6, 1.0-21.9), anaemia (AOR = 2.7, 1.4
      5.2), utilized desmopressin less often (AOR = 0.4, 0.2-0.8) and underwent
      gynaecologic procedure/surgery more frequently (AOR = 5.9, 1.3-27.3). CONCLUSION:
      Bleeding phenotypes of adolescents and adults with HMB and BD were different with
      more frequent bleeding complications, anaemia, gynaecologic procedures/surgeries,
      less desmopressin use and more delay in diagnosing BD in adults. Longitudinal
      studies are needed to determine whether improved patient/provider awareness and
      education will translate to early diagnosis and timely management of BD/HMB in
      adolescents that may prevent/reduce future haematologic/gynaecologic
      complications.

PMID- 28873281
TI  - Passive Picoinjection Enables Controlled Crystallization in a Droplet
      Microfluidic Device.
AB  - Segmented flow microfluidic devices offer an attractive means of studying
      crystallization processes. However, while they are widely employed for protein
      crystallization, there are few examples of their use for sparingly soluble
      compounds due to problems with rapid device fouling and irreproducibility over
      longer run-times. This article presents a microfluidic device which overcomes
      these issues, as this is constructed around a novel design of "picoinjector" that
      facilitates direct injection into flowing droplets. Exploiting a Venturi junction
      to reduce the pressure within the droplet, it is shown that passive injection of
      solution from a side-capillary can be achieved in the absence of an applied
      electric field. The operation of this device is demonstrated for calcium
      carbonate, where highly reproducible results are obtained over long run-times at
      high supersaturations. This compares with conventional devices that use a Y
      junction to achieve solution loading, where in-channel precipitation of calcium
      carbonate occurs even at low supersaturations. This work not only opens the door
      to the use of microfluidics to study the crystallization of low solubility
      compounds, but the simple design of a passive picoinjector will find wide utility
      in areas including multistep reactions and investigation of reaction dynamics.

PMID- 28873282
TI  - Co9 S8 /Co as a High-Performance Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries with an Ether
      Based Electrolyte.
AB  - Co9 S8 has been regarded as a desirable anode material for sodium-ion batteries
      because of its high theoretical capacity. In this study, a Co9 S8 anode material
      containing 5.5 wt % Co (Co9 S8 /Co) was prepared by a solid-state reaction. The
      electrochemical properties of the material were studied in carbonate and ether
      based electrolytes (EBE). The results showed that the material had a longer cycle
      life and better rate capability in EBE. This excellent electrochemical
      performance was attributed to a low apparent activation energy and a low
      overpotential for Na deposition in EBE, which improved the electrode kinetic
      properties. Furthermore, EBE suppressed side reactions of the electrode and
      electrolyte, which avoided the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase film.

PMID- 28873283
TI  - In Vivo-Like Culture Conditions in a Bioreactor Facilitate Improved Tissue
      Quality in Corneal Storage.
AB  - The cornea is the most-transplanted tissue worldwide. However, the availability
      and quality of grafts are limited due to the current methods of corneal storage.
      In this study, a dynamic bioreactor system is employed to enable the control of
      intraocular pressure and the culture at the air-liquid interface. Thereby, in
      vivo-like storage conditions are achieved. Different media combinations for
      endothelium and epithelium are tested in standard and dynamic conditions to
      enhance the viability of the tissue. In contrast to culture conditions used in
      eye banks, the combination of the bioreactor and biochrom medium 1 allows to
      preserve the corneal endothelium and the epithelium. Assessment of transparency,
      swelling, and the trans-epithelial-electrical-resistance (TEER) strengthens the
      impact of the in vivo-like tissue culture. For example, compared to corneas
      stored under static conditions, significantly lower optical densities and
      significantly higher TEER values were measured (p-value <0.05). Furthermore,
      healing of epithelial defects is enabled in the bioreactor, characterized by re
      epithelialization and initiated stromal regeneration. Based on the obtained
      results, an easy-to-use 3D-printed bioreactor composed of only two parts was
      derived to translate the technology from the laboratory to the eye banks. This
      optimized bioreactor facilitates noninvasive microscopic monitoring. The improved
      storage conditions ameliorate the quality of corneal grafts and the storage time
      in the eye banks to increase availability and reduce re-grafting.

PMID- 28873284
TI  - Platelet-rich plasma ultrasound-guided injection in the treatment of carpal
      tunnel syndrome: A placebo-controlled clinical study.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to demonstrate whether and to what extent a single
      injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), under ultrasound guidance, can improve
      the clinical symptoms of patients with a mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome
      (CTS). We conducted a prospective, randomized, clinical study including 50
      patients suffering from mild to moderate CTS for a minimum duration of 3 months.
      Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: Group A (26 patients) received an
      ultrasound-guided PRP injection into the carpal tunnel, whereas Group B (24
      patients) was injected with placebo (0.9% normal saline). The short- and mid-term
      outcomes were determined with the use of the Q-DASH questionnaire and the pain
      scale VAS administered at 0, 4, and 12 weeks follow-up. The success ratio was
      determined by the difference in the Q-DASH obtained pre-injection minus the final
      Q-DASH obtained after 12 weeks follow-up. Success was defined as a difference
      more than 25%. Group A patients demonstrated a 76.9% success as determined by the
      difference Q-DASH, whereas Group B patients demonstrated 33.3% success, which was
      significantly less than Group A (Chi2 , p = .011). The findings of this study
      suggest that a single PRP ultrasound-guided injection has positive effects in
      patients with CTS.

PMID- 28873285
TI  - A new allele, HLA-DQA1*02:01:02.
AB  - The new allele, HLA-DQA1*02:01:02 differs from DQA1*02:01:01:01 by C to T
      substitution in exon 2.

PMID- 28873287
TI  - Selective and Efficient Iridium Catalyst for the Reductive Amination of Levulinic
      Acid into Pyrrolidones.
AB  - The catalytic reductive amination of levulinic acid (LA) into pyrrolidones with
      an iridium catalyst using H2 as hydrogen source is reported. The chemoselective
      iridium catalyst displayed high efficiency for the synthesis of a variety of N
      substituted 5-methyl-2-pyrrolidones and N-arylisoindolinones. N-Substituted 5
      methyl-2-pyrrolidone was also evaluated as a biosourced substitute solvent to NMP
      (N-methylpyrrolidone) in the catalytic arylation of 2-phenylpyridine.

PMID- 28873286
TI  - The impact of asthma on the cost effectiveness of surgery for chronic
      rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of asthma on
      the cost-effectiveness profile of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) compared to
      medical therapy for patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps
      (CRSwNP). METHODS: The study design consisted of a cohort-style Markov decision
      tree cost utility analysis with a 35-year time horizon. Matched cohorts of CRSwNP
      patients with (n = 95) and without (n = 95) asthma who underwent ESS were
      compared with cohorts of patients from the national Medical Expenditures Survey
      Panel (MEPS) database who underwent medical management for chronic rhinosinusitis
      (CRS). Baseline, 1-year, and 2-year health utility values were calculated from
      responses to the EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) instrument in both cohorts. The
      primary outcome measure was the incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) for
      each cohort. RESULTS: The reference cases for CRSwNP patients with and without
      asthma yielded ICERs for ESS vs medical therapy alone of $12,066 per quality
      adjusted life year (QALY) and $7,369 per QALY, respectively. At a willingness-to
      pay threshold of $50,000/QALY, the ICER scatter plots demonstrated 86% and 99%
      certainty that the ESS strategy was the most cost-effective option for CRSwNP
      patients with and without asthma, respectively. ESS was not significantly more
      cost effective for CRSwNP patients without asthma (p = 0.494). CONCLUSION: ESS
      remains cost effective compared to medical therapy for patients both with and
      without asthma. While the comorbidity of asthma results in an inferior ICER
      result, it does not result in a statistically significant negative impact on the
      overall cost effectiveness of ESS.

PMID- 28873288
TI  - Early post-natal development of the mandibular permanent first molar in infants
      with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Studies have shown that the mandibular permanent first molar (M1inf )
      in young children with isolated cleft palate is characterized by delay in
      maturation and has reduced crown width. Consequently, it is of interest to
      investigate the early maturation and width of the follicle and crown of M1inf in
      children with combined cleft lip and palate. DESIGN: Retrospective, longitudinal
      study. Cephalometric X-rays of 47 consecutive Danish children with UCCLP (37
      males; 10 females) and 44 with unilateral incomplete cleft lip (UICL) (29 males;
      15 females) examined at 2 and 22 months of age. UICL served as control group.
      Maturation (according to Haavikko), width of follicle (FW) and crown (CW) of
      M1inf were assessed. RESULTS: The maturation of the first mandibular molar was
      delayed in both genders at 2 and 22 months of age. FW and CW were smaller in
      children with UCCLP at both 2 and 22 months of age. There was a positive
      correlation between maturation and FW. CONCLUSIONS: Maturation of the first
      mandibular molar is delayed in both genders, and FW and CW were reduced in UCCLP
      compared to controls. Maturation was correlated with FW.

PMID- 28873289
TI  - Monitoring joint health in haemophilia: Factors associated with deterioration.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Joint bleeds in patients with haemophilia may result in haemophilic
      arthropathy. Monitoring joint health is essential for identifying early signs of
      deterioration and allows timely adjustment of treatment. AIM: The aim was to
      describe changes in joint health over 5-10 years follow-up and identify factors
      associated with joint health deterioration in patients with haemophilia. METHODS:
      A post hoc analysis was performed from previous cohort studies in patients with
      moderate/severe haemophilia, >=16 years. Joint health of ankles, knees and elbows
      was measured with the Haemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS) from 2006-2008 (T0)
      to 2011-2016 (T1). Analyses were performed on patient level (DeltaHJHS-total) and
      joint level (DeltaHJHS-joint). Deterioration was defined as DeltaHJHS-total >=4
      and DeltaHJHS-joint >=2. RESULTS: Sixty-two patients (median age 25, 73% severe
      haemophilia, median [interquartile range] 0.0 [0.0;2.0] joint bleeds between T0
      to T1) were included. After median 8 years, HJHS-total deteriorated in 37% and
      HJHS-joint in 17%. Ankle joints (31%) showed deterioration more often than elbows
      (19%) and knees (3%). Deterioration of HJHS-total was only associated with severe
      haemophilia. Deterioration of HJHS-joint was weakly associated with a lower HJHS
      at baseline and more self-reported limitations in activities, and strongly with
      more joint bleeds between T0 and T1 and presence of synovitis. CONCLUSION: In 37%
      of patients with moderate/severe haemophilia and low joint bleeding rates, joint
      health deteriorated over 5-10 years. Ankle and elbow joints showed deterioration
      most frequently. Factors found in this study help to identify which joints need
      frequent monitoring in patients with haemophilia with access to early
      prophylaxis.

PMID- 28873290
TI  - Intelligence and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Background: The studies on intelligence in individuals with fetal
      alcohol exposure are conflicting. Some have found a relevant impairment in this
      population, while others found results that were consistent with the population
      at large. OBJECTIVES: Describe the results of studies on intelligence in
      individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. METHODS: Indexed articles of
      the last 10 years were selected for an integrative literature review. After
      inclusion and exclusion criteria were satisfied 37 articles were selected.
      RESULTS: General intelligence, both verbal and non-verbal, is impaired in people
      who are prenatally exposed to alcohol. There is a tendency to a greater reduction
      in the Freedom from Distractibility/Working Memory Index of Wechsler Scales.
      CONCLUSIONS: Reduction in intelligence seems to occur on a continuum similar to
      the fetal alcohol spectrum. The reduction of the Freedom from
      Distractibility/Working Memory Index appears to be a reflection of a greater
      impairment of mathematical ability.

PMID- 28873291
TI  - Increase in Psychoactive Drug Prescriptions in the Years Following Autism
      Spectrum Diagnosis: A Population-Based Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psychoactive medications are commonly prescribed to autistic
      individuals, but little is known about how their use changes after diagnosis.
      OBJECTIVES: This study describes the use of psychoactive drugs in children and
      young adults newly diagnosed with autism spectrum, between the year before and up
      to 5 years after diagnosis. METHODS: Multivariable logistic regression was used
      to examine the relationship between the use psychoactive drugs before the first
      diagnosis of autism spectrum condition (from 1998 to 2010), and the clinical and
      demographic characteristics, identified from public health care databases in
      Quebec. The types of drugs prescribed and psychoactive polypharmacy were
      evaluated over 5 years of follow-up. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were
      used to examine the association of age and time with the use of psychoactive
      drugs. RESULTS: In our cohort of 2,989 individuals, diagnosis of another
      psychiatric disorder before autism spectrum strongly predicted psychoactive drug
      use. We observed that the proportion of users of psychoactive drugs increased
      from 35.6% the year before, to 53.2% 5 years after the autism spectrum diagnosis.
      Psychoactive polypharmacy (>=2 psychoactive drug classes) also increased from 9%
      to 22% in that time. Age and time since diagnosis strongly associated with the
      types and combinations of psychoactive drugs prescribed. CONCLUSIONS:
      Psychoactive drug use and polypharmacy increases substantially over time after
      autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in children.

PMID- 28873292
TI  - Dose-Exposure Simulation for Piperacillin-Tazobactam Dosing Strategies in Infants
      and Young Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extended piperacillin-tazobactam (TZP) infusions have been associated
      with favourable outcomes. There are currently no pediatric dosing
      recommendations. OBJECTIVES: To determine appropriate TZP dosing strategies in
      children 2 months - 6 years according to age and different minimal inhibitory
      concentrations (MICs). METHODS: Age and weight were simulated for 1000 children.
      Post-hoc pharmacokinetic parameter estimates were generated using published
      clearance and volume of distribution data. For different dosing regimens, we
      estimated the probability of target attainment (PTA) over a range of MICs from 4
      to 128 mg/L. The pharmacodynamic (PD) target was defined as free piperacillin
      concentrations above the MIC for >= 50% of the dosing interval. A PTA >= 90% was
      defined as optimal. RESULTS: PTA decreased as MIC and age increased. In all age
      groups, standard dosing regimens (240-300 mg/kg/day, 0.5h infusions) failed to
      reach PTAs >= 90% at MICs >= 16 mg/L. Standard 0.5h infusions reached PTAs >= 90%
      at MICs up to 8 mg/L in infants > 2 to 6m. No 0.5h infusion reached PTAs >= 90%
      for MICs >= 4 mg/L in children > 6m. While none of the tested regimens were
      optimal at MICs > 16 mg/L in children > 6m, 100 mg/kg/dose every 6h as a 3h
      infusion reached PD target at MICs of 32 mg/L in infants > 2 to 6m. CONCLUSIONS:
      Up to MICs of 16 mg/L, 90 mg/kg/dose every 8h as a 2h infusion in infants > 2 to
      6m and 100 mg/kg/dose every 8h as a 4h infusion in children > 6m-6y achieved PTAs
      >= 90%.

PMID- 28873293
TI  - The Role of Midodrine for Hypotension Outside of the Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - Midodrine is an oral, peripherally acting alpha-adrenergic agonist. After gaining
      Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1996 for orthostatic hypotension,
      its use has evolved to target vasoplegic conditions such as intradialytic
      hypotension in the end-stage renal disease population, refractory ascites in
      cirrhotic patients to support diuresis, and in hepatorenal syndrome. Upon oral
      ingestion, the drug undergoes enzymatic hydrolysis to an active metabolite,
      desglymidodrine. Its use has been well tolerated at 2.5 mg, 5 mg, and 10 mg oral
      doses. The most frequently occurring side effects relate directly to its
      sympathomimetic profile and include piloerection, scalp pruritis, generalized
      paresthesias, and urinary retention. The vasoplegic profile of sepsis would be a
      potential target for midodrine therapy. While its use to mediate recovery from
      septic shock has been suggested, there is a paucity of clinical data supporting
      its use. Such therapy may be uniquely appropriate in septic patients who are not
      candidates for intensive care unit (ICU) level of care.

PMID- 28873294
TI  - PdSe2: Pentagonal Two-Dimensional Layers with High Air Stability for Electronics.
AB  - Most studied two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit isotropic behavior due to
      high lattice symmetry; however, lower-symmetry 2D materials such as phosphorene
      and other elemental 2D materials exhibit very interesting anisotropic properties.
      In this work, we report the atomic structure, electronic properties, and
      vibrational modes of few-layered PdSe2 exfoliated from bulk crystals, a
      pentagonal 2D layered noble transition metal dichalcogenide with a puckered
      morphology that is air-stable. Micro-absorption optical spectroscopy and first
      principles calculations reveal a wide band gap variation in this material from 0
      (bulk) to 1.3 eV (monolayer). The Raman-active vibrational modes of PdSe2 were
      identified using polarized Raman spectroscopy, and a strong interlayer
      interaction was revealed from large, thickness-dependent Raman peak shifts,
      agreeing with first-principles Raman simulations. Field-effect transistors made
      from the few-layer PdSe2 display tunable ambipolar charge carrier conduction with
      a high electron field-effect mobility of ~158 cm2 V-1 s-1, indicating the promise
      of this anisotropic, air-stable, pentagonal 2D material for 2D electronics.

PMID- 28873295
TI  - Combination of Functional Nanoengineering and Nanosecond Laser Texturing for
      Design of Superhydrophobic Aluminum Alloy with Exceptional Mechanical and
      Chemical Properties.
AB  - Industrial application of metallic materials is hindered by several shortcomings,
      such as proneness to corrosion, erosion under abrasive loads, damage due to poor
      cold resistance, or weak resistance to thermal shock stresses, etc. In this
      study, using the aluminum-magnesium alloy as an example of widely spread metallic
      materials, we show that a combination of functional nanoengineering and
      nanosecond laser texturing with the appropriate treatment regimes can be
      successfully used to transform a metal into a superhydrophobic material with
      exceptional mechanical and chemical properties. It is demonstrated that laser
      chemical processing of the surface may be simultaneously used to impart
      multimodal roughness and to modify the composition and physicochemical properties
      of a thick surface layer of the substrate itself. Such integration of
      topographical and physicochemical modification leads to specific surface
      nanostructures such as nanocavities filled with hydrophobic agent and hard
      oxynitride nanoinclusions. The combination of superhydrophobic state, nano- and
      micro features of the hierarchical surface, and the appropriate composition of
      the surface textured layer allowed us to provide the surface with the outstanding
      level of resistance of superhydrophobic coatings to external chemical and
      mechanical impacts. In particular, experimental data presented in this study
      indicate high resistance of the fabricated coatings to pitting corrosion,
      superheated water vapor, sand abrasive wear, and rapid temperature cycling from
      liquid nitrogen to room temperatures, without notable degradation of
      superhydrophobic performance.

PMID- 28873296
TI  - Formation and Stability of Lipid Membrane Nanotubes.
AB  - Lipid membrane nanotubes are abundant in living cells, even though tubules are
      energetically less stable than sheet-like structures. According to membrane
      elastic theory, the tubular endoplasmic reticulum (ER), with its high area-to
      volume ratio, appears to be particularly unstable. We explore how tubular
      membrane structures can nevertheless be induced and why they persist. In Monte
      Carlo simulations of a fluid-elastic membrane model subject to thermal
      fluctuations and without constraints on symmetry, we find that a steady increase
      in the area-to-volume ratio readily induces tubular structures. In simulations
      mimicking the ER wrapped around the cell nucleus, tubules emerge naturally as the
      membrane area increases. Once formed, a high energy barrier separates tubules
      from the thermodynamically favored sheet-like membrane structures. Remarkably,
      this barrier persists even at large area-to-volume ratios, protecting tubules
      against shape transformations despite enormous driving forces toward sheet-like
      structures. Molecular dynamics simulations of a molecular membrane model confirm
      the metastability of tubular structures. Volume reduction by osmotic regulation
      and membrane area growth by lipid production and by fusion of small vesicles
      emerge as powerful factors in the induction and stabilization of tubular membrane
      structures.

PMID- 28873297
TI  - Enhancing Upconversion Fluorescence with a Natural Bio-microlens.
AB  - Upconversion fluorescence has triggered extensive efforts in the past decade
      because of its superior physicochemical features and great potential in
      biomedical and biophotonic studies. However, practical applications of
      upconversion fluorescence are often hindered by its relatively low luminescence
      efficiency (<1%). Here, we employ a living yeast or human cell as a natural bio
      microlens to enhance the upconversion fluorescence. The natural bio-microlens,
      which was stably trapped on a fiber probe, could concentrate the excitation light
      into a subwavelength region so that the upconversion fluorescence of core-shell
      NaYF4:Yb3+/Tm3+ nanoparticles was enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude. As a benefit
      of the fluorescence enhancement, single-cell imaging and real-time detection of
      the labeled pathogenic bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus
      aureus, were successfully achieved in the dark fields. This biocompatible,
      sensitive, and miniature approach could provide a promising powerful tool for
      biological imaging, biophotonic sensing, and single-cell analysis.

PMID- 28873298
TI  - GW Vertex Corrected Calculations for Molecular Systems.
AB  - Hedin's scheme is solved with the inclusion of the vertex function (GWGamma) for
      a set of small molecules. The computational scheme allows for the consistent
      inclusion of the vertex both at the polarizability level and in the self-energy.
      A diagrammatic analysis shows that the self-energy formed with this four-point
      vertex does not lead to double counting of diagrams, that can be classified as
      direct "bubbles" and exchange diagrams. By removing the exchange diagrams from
      the self-energy, a simpler approximation is obtained, called GWtc-tc. Very good
      agreement with expensive wave function-based methods is obtained for both
      approximations.

PMID- 28873299
TI  - Redox Controls over the Stability of U(IV) in Floodplains of the Upper Colorado
      River Basin.
AB  - Aquifers in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) exhibit persistent uranium (U)
      groundwater contamination plumes originating from former ore processing
      operations. Previous observations at Rifle, Colorado, have shown that fine
      grained, sulfidic, organic-enriched sediments accumulate U in its reduced form,
      U(IV), which is less mobile than oxidized U(VI). These reduced sediment bodies
      can subsequently act as secondary sources, releasing U back to the aquifer. There
      is a need to understand if U(IV) accumulation in reduced sediments is a common
      process at contaminated sites basin-wide, to constrain accumulated U(IV)
      speciation, and to define the biogeochemical factors controlling its reactivity.
      We have investigated U(IV) accumulation in organic-enriched reduced sediments at
      three UCRB floodplains. Noncrystalline U(IV) is the dominant form of accumulated
      U, but crystalline U(IV) comprises up to ca. 30% of total U at some locations.
      Differing susceptibilities of these species to oxidative remobilization can
      explain this variability. Particle size, organic carbon content, and pore
      saturation, control the exposure of U(IV) to oxidants, moderating its oxidative
      release. Further, our data suggest that U(IV) can be mobilized under deeply
      reducing conditions, which may contribute to maintenance and seasonal variability
      of U in groundwater plumes in the UCRB.

PMID- 28873300
TI  - Cryogenic Photochemical Synthesis and Electronic Spectroscopy of
      Cyanotetracetylene.
AB  - HC9N is a molecule of astrochemical interest. In this study, it was produced in
      cryogenic Ar and Kr matrices from UV-photolyzed diacetylene/cyanodiacetylene
      mixtures. Its strong phosphorescence was discovered and served for the
      identification of the compound. Vibrationally resolved phosphorescence excitation
      spectra gave insight into excited singlet electronic states. Two electronic
      systems were observed around 26 000-34 000 cm-1 and 35 000-50 000 cm-1. Energies
      of the second excited singlet and the lowest triplet state were derived from
      analysis of these systems. Vibrational and electronic spectroscopic features were
      assigned with the assistance of density functional theory calculations. Some
      trends concerning the electronic spectroscopy of HC2n+1N family molecules are
      presented.

PMID- 28873301
TI  - Optimal Tuning of Range-Separated Hybrids for Solvated Molecules with Time
      Dependent Density Functional Theory.
AB  - The applicability range of density functional theory (DFT) can be improved with
      no additional parametrization by imposing some exact conditions. Enforcing
      equality between the orbital energy of the highest occupied Kohn-Sham orbital and
      ionization energy, determined from the total energy difference between neutral
      and ionized states (DeltaKS), leads to the concept of optimally tuned range
      separated hybrid functionals. Here, we present an alternative tuning scheme for
      range-separated hybrid functionals based on enforcing the equality between the
      DeltaKS ionization energy and the ionization energy calculated by means of the
      time-dependent DFT using the concept of ionization as an excitation to the
      distant center (OT-IEDC scheme). The scheme can be naturally applied to solvated
      systems described either within the explicit solvation or dielectric continuum
      models. We test the performance of the scheme on a benchmark set of molecules. We
      further show that the scheme allows for reliably modeling liquid phase
      photoemission spectra.

PMID- 28873302
TI  - Reduced Drought Tolerance by CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated SlMAPK3 Mutagenesis in Tomato
      Plants.
AB  - Drought stress is one of the most destructive environmental factors that affect
      tomato plants adversely. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are important
      signaling molecules that respond to drought stress. In this study, SlMAPK3 was
      induced by drought stress, and the clustered regularly interspaced short
      palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system was
      utilized to generate slmapk3 mutants. Two independent T1 transgenic lines and
      wild-type (WT) tomato plants were used for analysis of drought tolerance.
      Compared with WT plants, slmapk3 mutants exhibited more severe wilting symptom,
      higher hydrogen peroxide content, lower antioxidant enzymes activities, and
      suffered more membrane damage under drought stress. Furthermore, knockout of
      SlMAPK3 led to up- or down-regulated expressions of drought stress-responsive
      genes including SlLOX, SlGST, and SlDREB. The results suggest that SlMAPK3 is
      involved in drought response in tomato plants by protecting cell membranes from
      oxidative damage and modulating transcription of stress-related genes.

PMID- 28873303
TI  - Discovery of Novel Macrocyclic Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitors Acting by Suppressing
      the Gli-Mediated Transcription.
AB  - A systemic medicinal chemistry campaign was conducted based on a literature hit
      compound 5 bearing the 4,5-dihydro-2H-benzo[b][1,5]oxazocin-6(3H)-one core
      through cyclization of two side substituents of the bicyclic skeleton combined
      with N-atom walking or ring walking and the central ring expansion or extraction
      approaches, leading to several series of structurally unique tricyclic compounds.
      Among these, compound 29a was identified as the most potent against the Hedgehog
      (Hh) signaling pathway showing an IC50 value of 23 nM. Mechanism studies
      indicated that compound 29a inhibited the Hh signaling pathway by suppressing the
      expression of the transcriptional factors Gli rather than by interrupting the
      binding of Gli with DNA. We further observed that 29a was equally potent against
      both Smo wild type and the two major resistant mutants (Smo D473H and Smo W535L).
      It potently inhibited the proliferation of medulloblastoma cells and showed
      significant tumor growth inhibition in the ptch+/- ;p53-/- medulloblastoma
      allograft mice model. Though more studies are needed to clarify the precise
      interaction pattern of 29a with Gli, its promising in vitro and in vivo
      properties encourage further profiling as a new-generation Hh signaling inhibitor
      to treat tumors primarily or secondarily resistant to current Smo inhibitors.

PMID- 28873304
TI  - Multifunctional Bacteria-Driven Microswimmers for Targeted Active Drug Delivery.
AB  - High-performance, multifunctional bacteria-driven microswimmers are introduced
      using an optimized design and fabrication method for targeted drug delivery
      applications. These microswimmers are made of mostly single Escherichia coli
      bacterium attached to the surface of drug-loaded polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM)
      microparticles with embedded magnetic nanoparticles. The PEM drug carriers are 1
      MUm in diameter and are intentionally fabricated with a more viscoelastic
      material than the particles previously studied in the literature. The resulting
      stochastic microswimmers are able to swim at mean speeds of up to 22.5 MUm/s.
      They can be guided and targeted to specific cells, because they exhibit biased
      and directional motion under a chemoattractant gradient and a magnetic field,
      respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate the microswimmers delivering doxorubicin
      anticancer drug molecules, encapsulated in the polyelectrolyte multilayers, to
      4T1 breast cancer cells under magnetic guidance in vitro. The results reveal the
      feasibility of using these active multifunctional bacteria-driven microswimmers
      to perform targeted drug delivery with significantly enhanced drug transfer, when
      compared with the passive PEM microparticles.

PMID- 28873305
TI  - Does the Residues Chirality Modify the Conformation of a Cyclo-Dipeptide?
      Vibrational Spectroscopy of Protonated Cyclo-diphenylalanine in the Gas Phase.
AB  - The structure of a protonated diketopiperazine dipeptide, cyclo-diphenylalanine,
      is studied by means of infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy
      combined with quantum chemical calculations. Protonation exclusively occurs on
      the oxygen site and, in the most stable conformer, results to an intramolecular
      OH...pi interaction, accompanied by a CH...pi interaction. Higher-energy
      conformers with free OH and NH...pi interactions are observed as well, due to
      kinetic trapping. Optimization of the intramolecular interactions involving the
      aromatic ring dictates the geometry of the benzyl substituents. Changing the
      chirality of one of the residues has consequences on the CH...pi interaction,
      which is of CalphaH...pi nature for LD, while LL shows a CbetaH...pi interaction.
      Higher-energy conformers also display some differences in the nature of the
      intramolecular interactions.

PMID- 28873307
TI  - Optimizing the Energy with Quantum Monte Carlo: A Lower Numerical Scaling for
      Jastrow-Slater Expansions.
AB  - We present an improved formalism for quantum Monte Carlo calculations of energy
      derivatives and properties (e.g., the interatomic forces), with a
      multideterminant Jastrow-Slater function. As a function of the number Ne of
      Slater determinants, the numerical scaling of O(Ne) per derivative we have
      recently reported is here lowered to O(Ne) for the entire set of derivatives. As
      a function of the number of electrons N, the scaling to optimize the wave
      function and the geometry of a molecular system is lowered to O(N3) + O(NNe), the
      same as computing the energy alone in the sampling process. The scaling is
      demonstrated on linear polyenes up to C60H62 and the efficiency of the method is
      illustrated with the structural optimization of butadiene and octatetraene with
      Jastrow-Slater wave functions comprising as many as 200 000 determinants and 60
      000 parameters.

PMID- 28873306
TI  - Mixing Behavior in Binary Anionic Gemini Surfactant-Perfluorinated Fatty Acid
      Langmuir Monolayers.
AB  - The miscibility and film structure of mixed Langmuir monolayer films composed of
      an anionic gemini N,N,N',N'-dialkyl-N,N'-diacetate ethylenediamine surfactant
      (Ace(12)-2-Ace(12)) with perfluorotetradecanoic acid (C13F27COOH; PF) have been
      investigated using a variety of thermodynamic and structural characterization
      methods. The two film components were found to be miscible in monolayers at the
      air-water interface over a range of compositions and at all but the lowest
      surface pressures, with attractive interactions occurring between the two
      components. While pure PF monolayers formed crystalline lattices with hexagonal
      symmetry and with the surfactant tails oriented normal to the underlying water
      subphase, the pure gemini surfactant formed amorphous films with little tendency
      to orient at the subphase. In mixed films with mole ratios of PF:Ace(12)-2
      Ace(12) < 2.5, the miscibility of the two components resulted in a nearly
      complete loss of crystallinity of the PF, though films at higher mole fractions
      of PF showed some residual crystallinity, albeit with lattice structures that
      were significantly different from that of pure PF. Miscibility and film structure
      in this mixed system are discussed in comparison with other mixed gemini
      surfactant systems in the literature as well as binary mixtures of phospholipids
      or monomeric fatty acids with PF.

PMID- 28873308
TI  - Monitoring Charge Separation Processes in Quasi-One-Dimensional Organic
      Crystalline Structures.
AB  - We perform the transient absorption spectroscopy experiments to investigate the
      dynamics of the low-energy collective electron-hole excitations in alpha-copper
      phthalocyanine thin films. The results are interpreted in terms of the third
      order nonlinear polarization response function. It is found that, initially
      excited in the molecular plane, the intramolecular Frenkel exciton polarization
      reorients with time to align along the molecular chain direction to form coupled
      Frenkel-charge-transfer exciton states, the eigenstates of the one-dimensional
      periodic molecular lattice. The process pinpoints the direction of the charge
      separation in alpha-copper phthalocyanine and similar organic molecular
      structures. Being able to observe and monitor such processes is important both
      for understanding the physical principles of organic thin film solar energy
      conversion device operation and for the development of organic optoelectronics in
      general.

PMID- 28873309
TI  - ITO Modification for Efficient Inverted Organic Solar Cells.
AB  - We demonstrate a facile approach to designing transparent electron-collecting
      electrodes by depositing thin layers of medium and low work function metals on
      top of transparent conductive metal oxides (TCOs) such as ITO and FTO. The
      modified electrodes were fairly stable for months under ambient conditions and
      maintained their electrical characteristics. XPS spectroscopy data strongly
      suggested integration of the deposited metal in the TCO structure resulting in
      additional doping of the conducting oxide at the interface. Kelvin probe
      microscopy measurements revealed a significant decrease in the ITO work function
      after modification. Organic solar cells based on three different conjugated
      polymers have demonstrated state of the art performances in inverted device
      geometry using Mg- or Yb-modified ITO as electron collecting electrode. The
      simplicity of the proposed approach and the excellent ambient stability of the
      modified ITO electrodes allows one to expect their wide utilization in research
      laboratories and electronic industry.

PMID- 28873310
TI  - Vertical InAs/InGaAs Heterostructure Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect
      Transistors on Si.
AB  - III-V compound semiconductors offer a path to continue Moore's law due to their
      excellent electron transport properties. One major challenge, integrating III-V's
      on Si, can be addressed by using vapor-liquid-solid grown vertical nanowires.
      InAs is an attractive material due to its superior mobility, although InAs metal
      oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) typically suffer from band
      to-band tunneling caused by its narrow band gap, which increases the off-current
      and therefore the power consumption. In this work, we present vertical
      heterostructure InAs/InGaAs nanowire MOSFETs with low off-currents provided by
      the wider band gap material on the drain side suppressing band-to-band tunneling.
      We demonstrate vertical III-V MOSFETs achieving off-current below 1 nA/MUm while
      still maintaining on-performance comparable to InAs MOSFETs; therefore, this
      approach opens a path to address not only high-performance applications but also
      Internet-of-Things applications that require low off-state current levels.

PMID- 28873311
TI  - Interaction of DNA with Cationic Lipid Mixtures-Investigation at Langmuir Lipid
      Monolayers.
AB  - Four different binary lipid mixtures composed of a cationic lipid and the
      zwitterionic colipids DOPE or DPPC, which show different DNA transfer activities
      in cell culture models, were investigated at the soft air/water interface to
      identify transfection efficiency determining characteristics. Langmuir films are
      useful models to investigate the interaction between DNA and lipid mixtures in a
      two-dimensional model system by using different surface sensitive techniques,
      namely, epifluorescence microscopy and infrared reflection-absorption
      spectroscopy. Especially, the effect of adsorbed DNA on the properties of the
      lipid mixtures has been examined. Distinct differences between the lipid
      composites were found which are caused by the different colipids of the mixtures.
      DOPE containing lipid mixtures form fluid monolayers with a uniform distribution
      of the fluorescent probe in the presence and absence of DNA at physiologically
      relevant surface pressures. Only at high nonphysiological pressures, the lipid
      monolayer collapses and phase separation was observed if DNA was present in the
      subphase. In contrast, DPPC containing lipid mixtures show domains in the liquid
      condensed phase state in the presence and absence of DNA in the subphase. The
      adsorption of DNA at the positively charged mixed lipid monolayer induces phase
      separation which is expressed in the morphology and the point of appearance of
      these domains.

PMID- 28873312
TI  - Efficient Computation of Sparse Matrix Functions for Large-Scale Electronic
      Structure Calculations: The CheSS Library.
AB  - We present CheSS, the "Chebyshev Sparse Solvers" library, which has been designed
      to solve typical problems arising in large-scale electronic structure
      calculations using localized basis sets. The library is based on a flexible and
      efficient expansion in terms of Chebyshev polynomials and presently features the
      calculation of the density matrix, the calculation of matrix powers for arbitrary
      powers, and the extraction of eigenvalues in a selected interval. CheSS is able
      to exploit the sparsity of the matrices and scales linearly with respect to the
      number of nonzero entries, making it well-suited for large-scale calculations.
      The approach is particularly adapted for setups leading to small spectral widths
      of the involved matrices and outperforms alternative methods in this regime. By
      coupling CheSS to the DFT code BigDFT, we show that such a favorable setup is
      indeed possible in practice. In addition, the approach based on Chebyshev
      polynomials can be massively parallelized, and CheSS exhibits excellent scaling
      up to thousands of cores even for relatively small matrix sizes.

PMID- 28873313
TI  - Large-Scale Condensed Matter DFT Simulations: Performance and Capabilities of the
      CRYSTAL Code.
AB  - Nowadays, the efficient exploitation of high-performance computing resources is
      crucial to extend the applicability of first-principles theoretical methods to
      the description of large, progressively more realistic molecular and condensed
      matter systems. This can be achieved only by devising effective parallelization
      strategies for the most time-consuming steps of a calculation, which requires
      some effort given the usual complexity of quantum-mechanical algorithms,
      particularly so if parallelization is to be extended to all properties and not
      just to the basic functionalities of the code. In this Article, the performance
      and capabilities of the massively parallel version of the Crystal17 package for
      first-principles calculations on solids are discussed. In particular, we present:
      (i) recent developments allowing for a further improvement of the code
      scalability (up to 32 768 cores); (ii) a quantitative analysis of the scaling and
      memory requirements of the code when running calculations with several thousands
      (up to about 14 000) of atoms per cell; (iii) a documentation of the high
      numerical size consistency of the code; and (iv) an overview of recent ab initio
      studies of several physical properties (structural, energetic, electronic,
      vibrational, spectroscopic, thermodynamic, elastic, piezoelectric, topological)
      of large systems investigated with the code.

PMID- 28873314
TI  - Integration of Semiconductor Nanowire Lasers with Polymeric Waveguide Devices on
      a Mechanically Flexible Substrate.
AB  - Nanowire lasers are integrated with planar waveguide devices using a high
      positional accuracy microtransfer printing technique. Direct nanowire to
      waveguide coupling is demonstrated, with coupling losses as low as -17 dB,
      dominated by mode mismatch between the structures. Coupling is achieved using
      both end-fire coupling into a waveguide facet, and from nanowire lasers printed
      directly onto the top surface of the waveguide. In-waveguide peak powers up to
      11.8 MUW are demonstrated. Basic photonic integrated circuit functions such as
      power splitting and wavelength multiplexing are presented. Finally, devices are
      fabricated on a mechanically flexible substrate to demonstrate robust coupling
      between the on-chip laser source and waveguides under significant deformation of
      the system.

PMID- 28873315
TI  - Quantum-Mechanical Prediction of the Averaged Structure, Anharmonic Vibrational
      Frequencies, and Intensities of the H2O...trans-HONO Complex and Comparison with
      the Experiment.
AB  - The geometrical parameters, the frequencies, and absolute intensities of
      vibrational transitions of H2O...trans-HONO hydrogen-bonded complex are
      calculated using the approach earlier tested in calculations of isolated
      molecules of nitrous acid and complexes of this acid with ammonia. The
      equilibrium nuclear configuration and potential energy and dipole moment surfaces
      are calculated by the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ method with the basis set superposition
      error taken into account. The fundamental transition frequencies and intensities
      of the complex are first obtained in the harmonic approximation, and then the
      energy values, vibrational wave functions, and transition frequencies and
      intensities are determined from variational solutions of one- to four-dimensional
      anharmonic equations. The results obtained are compared with the data calculated
      in the same approximation for an isolated trans-HONO molecule and the NH3...trans
      HONO complex. The average discrepancy between the anharmonic frequency values and
      five available experimental data is 15 cm-1. Three absorption bands of trans-HONO
      with the highest intensity are recommended for detecting the presence of
      H2O...trans-HONO.

PMID- 28873316
TI  - On Resolution-of-the-Identity Electron Repulsion Integral Approximations and
      Variational Stability.
AB  - The definiteness of the Mulliken and Dirac electron repulsion integral (ERI)
      matrices is examined for different classes of resolution-of-the-identity (RI) ERI
      approximations with particular focus on local fitting techniques. For global RI,
      robust local RI, and nonrobust local RI we discuss the definiteness of the
      approximated ERI matrices as well as the resulting bounds of Hartree, exchange,
      and total energies. Lower bounds of Hartree and exchange energy contributions are
      crucial as their absence may lead to variational instabilities, causing severe
      convergence problems or even convergence to a spurious state in self-consistent
      field optimizations. While the global RI approximation guarantees lower bounds of
      Hartree and exchange energies, local RI approximations are generally unbounded.
      The robust local RI approximation guarantees a lower bound of the exchange energy
      but not of the Hartree energy. The nonrobust local RI approximation guarantees a
      lower bound of the Hartree energy but not of the exchange energy. These issues
      are demonstrated by sample calculations on carbon dioxide and benzene using the
      pair atomic RI approximation.

PMID- 28873317
TI  - Quantitative Analysis of Different Formation Modes of Platinum Nanocrystals
      Controlled by Ligand Chemistry.
AB  - Well-defined metal nanocrystals play important roles in various fields, such as
      catalysis, medicine, and nanotechnology. They are often synthesized through
      kinetically controlled process in colloidal systems that contain metal precursors
      and surfactant molecules. The chemical functionality of surfactants as
      coordinating ligands to metal ions however remains a largely unsolved problem in
      this process. Understanding the metal-ligand complexation and its effect on
      formation kinetics at the molecular level is challenging but essential to the
      synthesis design of colloidal nanocrystals. Herein we report that spontaneous
      ligand replacement and anion exchange control the form of coordinated Pt-ligand
      intermediates in the system of platinum acetylacetonate [Pt(acac)2], primary
      aliphatic amine, and carboxylic acid ligands. The formed intermediates govern the
      formation mode of Pt nanocrystals, leading to either a pseudo two-step or a one
      step mechanism by switching on or off an autocatalytic surface growth. This
      finding shows the importance of metal-ligand complexation at the prenucleation
      stage and represents a critical step forward for the designed synthesis of
      nanocrystal-based materials.

PMID- 28873318
TI  - Effective Interlayer Engineering of Two-Dimensional VOPO4 Nanosheets via
      Controlled Organic Intercalation for Improving Alkali Ion Storage.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) energy materials have shown the promising electrochemical
      characteristics for lithium ion storage. However, the decreased active surfaces
      and the sluggish charge/mass transport for beyond-lithium ion storage that has
      potential for large-scale energy storage systems, such as sodium or potassium ion
      storage, caused by the irreversible restacking of 2D materials during electrode
      processing remain a major challenge. Here we develop a general interlayer
      engineering strategy to address the above-mentioned challenges by using 2D
      ultrathin vanadyl phosphate (VOPO4) nanosheets as a model material for
      challenging sodium ion storage. Via controlled intercalation of organic
      molecules, such as triethylene glycol and tetrahydrofuran, the sodium ion
      transport in VOPO4 nanosheets has been significantly improved. In addition to
      advanced characterization including X-ray diffraction, high-resolution
      transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray absorption fine structure to
      characterize the interlayer and the chemical bonding/configuration between the
      organic intercalants and the VOPO4 host layers, density functional theory
      calculations are also performed to understand the diffusion behavior of sodium
      ions in the pure and TEG intercalated VOPO4 nanosheets. Because of the expanded
      interlayer spacing in combination with the decreased energy barriers for sodium
      ion diffusion, intercalated VOPO4 nanosheets show much improved sodium ion
      transport kinetics and greatly enhanced rate capability and cycling stability for
      sodium ion storage. Our results afford deeper understanding of the interlayer
      engineering strategy to improve the sodium ion storage performance of the VOPO4
      nanosheets. Our results may also shed light on possible multivalent-ion based
      energy storage such as Mg2+ and Al3+.

PMID- 28873319
TI  - Facile Thermal and Optical Ignition of Silicon Nanoparticles and Micron
      Particles.
AB  - Silicon (Si) particles are widely utilized as high-capacity electrodes for Li-ion
      batteries, elements for thermoelectric devices, agents for bioimaging and
      therapy, and many other applications. However, Si particles can ignite and burn
      in air at elevated temperatures or under intense illumination. This poses
      potential safety hazards when handling, storing, and utilizing these particles
      for those applications. In order to avoid the problem of accidental ignition, it
      is critical to quantify the ignition properties of Si particles such as their
      sizes and porosities. To do so, we first used differential scanning calorimetry
      to experimentally determine the reaction onset temperature of Si particles under
      slow heating rates (~0.33 K/s). We found that the reaction onset temperature of
      Si particles increased with the particle diameter from 805  degrees C at 20-30 nm
      to 935  degrees C at 1-5 MUm. Then, we used a xenon (Xe) flash lamp to ignite Si
      particles under fast heating rates (~103 to 106 K/s) and measured the minimum
      ignition radiant fluence (i.e., the radiant energy per unit surface area of Si
      particle beds required for ignition). We found that the measured minimum ignition
      radiant fluence decreased with decreasing Si particle size and was most sensitive
      to the porosity of the Si particle bed. These trends for the Xe flash ignition
      experiments were also confirmed by our one-dimensional unsteady simulation to
      model the heat transfer process. The quantitative information on Si particle
      ignition included in this Letter will guide the safe handling, storage, and
      utilization of Si particles for diverse applications and prevent unwanted fire
      hazards.

PMID- 28873320
TI  - Influence of Rhodiola rosea on the heat acclimation process in young healthy men.
AB  - The adaptogen Rhodiola rosea (RR) may mitigate stress responses and have
      beneficial effects on endurance capacity (EC) and mental performance. Heat
      acclimation (HA) improves EC in the heat, but the potential impact of RR on the
      HA process is unknown. Therefore, our intent was to determine if RR has a
      positive impact on HA. Twenty male subjects (age, 22.5 +/- 3.0 years) completed 2
      EC tests involving walking (6 km.h-1) until volitional exhaustion in a climate
      chamber (air temperature, 42  degrees C; relative humidity, 18%) before (H1) and
      after (H2) an 8-day HA period. One group (SHR; n = 10) ingested standardised
      extract SHR-5 of RR (a single daily dose of 432 mg), while a second group (PLC; n
      = 10) administered a placebo prior to each HA session. Efficacy of HA was
      evaluated on the basis of changes that occurred from H1 to H2 in the time to
      exhaustion (TTE), exercise heart rate (HR), core and skin temperatures (Tc, Tsk),
      stress hormones, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and fatigue (RPF), and
      thermal sensation (TS). HA significantly increased TTE (133.1 +/- 44.1 min in H1;
      233.4 +/- 59.8 min in H2; p < 0.0001) and decreased (p < 0.0001) HR, Tc, Tsk,
      stress hormones as well as RPE, RPF, and TS. However, the magnitude of all these
      changes was similar (p > 0.05) in the SHR and PLC groups. These results suggest
      that the use of RR during HA has no beneficial performance, physiological, or
      perceptual effects in young healthy males.

PMID- 28873321
TI  - Separate and combined effects of time of day and verbal instruction on knee
      extensor neuromuscular adjustments.
AB  - We examined the effects of time of day and verbal instruction, separately and
      combined, on knee extensor neuromuscular adjustments, with special reference to
      rapid muscle force production capacity. Ten healthy male participants performed 4
      experimental trials in counterbalanced order: morning "hard-and-fast"
      instruction, evening hard-and-fast instruction, morning "fast" instruction, and
      evening fast instruction. During each experimental trial, neuromuscular
      performance was assessed from the completion of 6 maximal isometric voluntary
      contractions (rest = 2 min) of the knee extensors with concomitant quadriceps
      surface electromyography recordings. For each contraction, we determined maximal
      voluntary force (Fmax), maximal rate of force development (RFDmax) and associated
      maximal electromechanical delay (EMDmax), and maximal rate of muscle activation
      (RMAmax). Globally, oral temperature (+2.2%), Fmax (+4.9%) and accompanying
      median frequency (+6.6%)/mean power frequency (+6.0%) as well as RFDmax (+13.5%)
      and RMAmax (+15.5%) were significantly higher in the evening than morning (p <
      0.05). Conversely, evening in reference to morning values were lower for EMDmax (
      4.3%, p < 0.05). Compared with a hard-and-fast instruction, RFDmax (+30.6%) and
      corresponding root mean square activity (+18.6%) were globally higher using a
      fast instruction (p < 0.05), irrespectively of the time of day. There was no
      significant interaction effect of time of day and verbal instruction on any
      parameter, except for EMDmax (p = 0.028). Despite diurnal variation in maximal or
      explosive force production of knee extensors and associated neuromuscular
      parameters, these adjustments occurred essentially independently of the verbal
      instruction provided.

PMID- 28873322
TI  - The effect of exercise preconditioning on stroke outcome in ovariectomized mice
      with permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion.
AB  - Exercise preconditioning has been shown to be effective in improving behavioral
      and neuropathological indices after cerebral ischemia. We evaluated the effect of
      exercise preconditioning, 17beta-estradiol, and their combination on stroke
      outcome using an experimental model of stroke in ovariectomized (OVX) mice. OVX
      mice were randomly assigned to 4 groups as follows: control (stroke), exercise
      (exercise and stroke), estradiol (17beta-estradiol and stroke), and
      exercise+estradiol (exercise and 17beta-estradiol and stroke). Exercise
      preconditioning was performed on a treadmill 5 days/week, 40 min/day, at a speed
      of 18 m/min for 4 weeks. 17beta-estradiol was gavaged (40 MUg/kg per day) for 4
      weeks. Stroke was induced by permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO),
      and neurological deficits were evaluated 1, 2, and 7 days after stroke. Then, the
      serum concentrations of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and interleukin-10 (IL
      10) and infarct volumes were assessed. Exercise preconditioning and 17beta
      estradiol induced a better outcome compared with the control ischemic mice, which
      was manifested by decrease in MMP-9, increase in IL-10, diminished infarct
      volume, and improved neurological deficits. Concomitant administration of 17beta
      estradiol and exercise also significantly improved these parameters. Exercise
      preconditioning or administration of 17beta-estradiol alone or in combination
      before pMCAO induced significant neuroprotection in OVX mice.

PMID- 28873323
TI  - Survey of gene splicing algorithms based on reads.
AB  - Gene splicing is the process of assembling a large number of unordered short
      sequence fragments to the original genome sequence as accurately as possible.
      Several popular splicing algorithms based on reads are reviewed in this article,
      including reference genome algorithms and de novo splicing algorithms (Greedy
      extension, Overlap-Layout-Consensus graph, De Bruijn graph). We also discuss a
      new splicing method based on the MapReduce strategy and Hadoop. By comparing
      these algorithms, some conclusions are drawn and some suggestions on gene
      splicing research are made.

PMID- 28873324
TI  - Proportion and Patterns of Hospice Discharges in Medicare Advantage Compared to
      Medicare Fee-for-Service.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When Medicare Advantage (MA) patients elect hospice, all covered
      services are reimbursed under the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) program. This
      financial arrangement may incentivize MA plans to refer persons to hospice near
      end of life when costs of care typically rise. OBJECTIVE: To characterize hospice
      discharge patterns for MA versus FFS patients and examine whether patterns differ
      by MA concentration across hospital referral regions (HRRs). DESIGN AND
      MEASUREMENT: The rate and pattern of live discharges and length of stay (LOS)
      between FFS and MA patients were examined. A multivariate mixed-effects model
      examined whether hospice patients in MA versus FFS had differential patterns of
      discharges. In addition, we tested whether concentrations of MA hospice patients
      in a patient's HRR were associated with different patterns of discharges.
      RESULTS: In fiscal year 2014, there were 1,199,533 hospice discharges with
      331,142 MA patients having a slightly higher live discharge rate (15.8%) compared
      to 868,391 FFS hospice discharges (15.4%). After controlling for patient
      characteristics, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was 1.01 (95% CI 0.99-1.02). MA
      patients were less likely to have early live discharges (AOR 0.87 95% CI 0.84
      0.91) and burdensome transitions (AOR 0.61 95% CI 0.58-0.64) but did not differ
      in live discharges post 210 days. Among hospice deaths, MA hospice patients were
      less likely to have a three-day or less LOS (AOR 0.95 95% 0.94-0.96) and a LOS
      exceeding 180 days (AOR 0.97 95% 0.96-0.99). The concentration of MA patients in
      a HRR had minimal impact. CONCLUSION: MA hospice patients' discharge patterns
      raised less concerns than FFS.

PMID- 28873325
TI  - Moving Forward: Challenges and Directions for Psychopathological Network Theory
      and Methodology.
AB  - Since the introduction of mental disorders as networks of causally interacting
      symptoms, this novel framework has received considerable attention. The past
      years have resulted in over 40 scientific publications and numerous conference
      symposia and workshops. Now is an excellent moment to take stock of the network
      approach: What are its most fundamental challenges, and what are potential ways
      forward in addressing them? After a brief conceptual introduction, we first
      discuss challenges to network theory: (1) What is the validity of the network
      approach beyond some commonly investigated disorders such as major depression?
      (2) How do we best define psychopathological networks and their constituent
      elements? And (3) how can we gain a better understanding of the causal nature and
      real-life underpinnings of associations among symptoms? Next, after a short
      technical introduction to network modeling, we discuss challenges to network
      methodology: (4) heterogeneity of samples studied with network analytic models,
      and (5) a lurking replicability crisis in this strongly data-driven and
      exploratory field. Addressing these challenges may propel the network approach
      from its adolescence into adulthood and promises advances in understanding
      psychopathology both at the nomothetic and idiographic level.

PMID- 28873326
TI  - External Validation and Comparisons of the Scoring Systems for Predicting
      Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy Outcomes: A Single Center Experience with 506 Cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To validate and compare the stone scoring systems (stone size [S],
      tract length [T], obstruction [O], number of involved calices [N], and essence or
      stone density [E] [S.T.O.N.E.], Guy's Stone Score [GSS], Clinical Research Office
      of the Endourological Society [CROES], and Seoul National University Renal Stone
      Complexity [S-ReSC]) used to predict postoperative stone-free status and
      complications after percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). METHODS: A total of 567
      patients who underwent PCNL for renal stones between January 2012 and August 2015
      were included in the recent retrospective study. Sixty-one patients who had not
      done preoperative CT were excluded from the study. GSS, S.T.O.N.E., S-ReSC, and
      CROES nephrolithometry scores were calculated for each patient, and their
      potential association with stone-free status, operative and fluoroscopy time, and
      length of stay (LOS) was evaluated. Postoperative complications were graded
      according to the modified Clavien classification, and the correlation of scoring
      systems with postoperative complications was also investigated. RESULTS: The mean
      CROES, S.T.O.N.E., GSS, and S-ReSC scores were 203.7 +/- 59.8, 7.52 +/- 1.8, 2.08
      +/- 0.9, and 3.35 +/- 2.2, respectively. The overall stone-free rate was 77.9%.
      All scoring systems were significantly correlated with stone-free status and
      operation time. While GSS, S.T.O.N.E., and CROES systems were significantly
      correlated with complication rates (CR), S-ReSC score failed to predict CR. All
      scoring systems except S.T.O.N.E. were significantly correlated with LOS. CROES
      and S-ReSC scores were predictive of estimated blood loss (EBL), while GSS and
      S.T.O.N.E. failed to predict EBL. CONCLUSIONS: Recent study demonstrated that
      S.T.O.N.E., GSS, CROES, and S-ReSC scoring systems could effectively predict
      postoperative stone-free status. Although S-ReSC scoring system failed to predict
      CR, the rest three scoring systems were significantly correlated with
      postoperative CR.

PMID- 28873327
TI  - Infiltrating leukocytes surround early Buruli ulcer lesions, but are unable to
      reach the mycolactone producing mycobacteria.

PMID- 28873328
TI  - How to Map Theory: Reliable Methods Are Fruitless Without Rigorous Theory.
AB  - Good science requires both reliable methods and rigorous theory. Theory allows us
      to build a unified structure of knowledge, to connect the dots of individual
      studies and reveal the bigger picture. Some have criticized the proliferation of
      pet "Theories," but generic "theory" is essential to healthy science, because
      questions of theory are ultimately those of validity. Although reliable methods
      and rigorous theory are synergistic, Action Identification suggests psychological
      tension between them: The more we focus on methodological details, the less we
      notice the broader connections. Therefore, psychology needs to supplement
      training in methods (how to design studies and analyze data) with training in
      theory (how to connect studies and synthesize ideas). This article provides a
      technique for visually outlining theory: theory mapping. Theory mapping contains
      five elements, which are illustrated with moral judgment and with cars. Also
      included are 15 additional theory maps provided by experts in emotion, culture,
      priming, power, stress, ideology, morality, marketing, decision-making, and more
      (see all at theorymaps.org ). Theory mapping provides both precision and
      synthesis, which helps to resolve arguments, prevent redundancies, assess the
      theoretical contribution of papers, and evaluate the likelihood of surprising
      effects.

PMID- 28873331
TI  - Biosimilar Clinical Development - Scientific Considerations and New
      Methodologies.

PMID- 28873329
TI  - Mitochondrial mutations in human cancer: Curation of translation.
AB  - As a genetic disease, cancer is caused by the activation of oncogenes and the
      inhibition of tumor suppressor genes via genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Given
      the important role of energy metabolism in tumors, we analyzed the cancer-derived
      mutations occurring in the DNA of the mitochondrion. Mutations in the
      mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) compared to nuclear DNA are 62% decreased relative to
      the coding length per chromosome. We find that the majority of these mutations
      affects highly conserved nucleotides - significantly exceeding the conservation
      of the mtDNA - and are devoid of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
      Surprisingly, the leading resources for tumor genetics information universally
      use the standard genetic code for translation of nucleotide into amino acid
      sequences in their online resources. However, the nuclear and mitochondrial
      genetic codes differ for four codons and the usage of incomplete STOP codons.
      Hence, we analyze and curate the consequences for all mutations in the mtDNA and
      comprehensively reclassify missense, nonsense and synonymous mutations
      accordingly. In total, 10% of the mutations are incorrectly translated leading to
      significant changes in the distribution of mutation types with tripling of
      nonsense and 69% loss of nonstop extension mutations. Lastly, we provide a
      curated dataset of coding and non-coding mitochondrial mutations in cancer
      merged, standardized, duplicate-free and aggregated from two databases as a
      resource including orthogonal data on their high conservation and SNPs. This
      study generally highlights the need to universally regard the important
      differences between the standard and mitochondrial genetic code in life science
      research.

PMID- 28873332
TI  - Use of RGD-Functionalized Sandwich Cultures to Promote Redifferentiation of Human
      Pancreatic Beta Cells After In Vitro Expansion.
AB  - Islet transplantation has provided proof of concept that cell therapy can restore
      normoglycemia in patients with diabetes. However, limited availability of islet
      tissue severely restricts the clinical use of the treatment. Thus, there is an
      urgent need to develop new strategies to generate an abundant source of insulin
      producing cells that could be used to treat diabetes. A potential approach is the
      in vitro expansion of pancreatic beta cells obtained from cadaveric organ donors.
      However, when human beta cells are expanded in vitro, they dedifferentiate and
      lose the expression of insulin, probably as a consequence of pancreatic islet
      dissociation into single cells. We have studied whether reestablishment of cell
      cell and cell-matrix relationships with a biomimetic synthetic scaffold could
      induce redifferentiation of expanded dedifferentiated beta cells. Cells isolated
      from human islet preparations were expanded in monolayer cultures and allowed to
      reaggregate into islet-like cell clusters (ICCs). Afterward, ICCs were embedded
      between two thin layers of the noninstructive self-assembling peptide (SAP),
      RAD16-I or RAD16-I functionalized with the integrin-binding motif RGD (RAD16
      I/RGD) (R: arginine, G: glycine, D: aspartic acid), which was expected to promote
      cell-extracellular matrix interactions. ICCs cultured with RAD16-I were viable,
      maintained their cluster conformation, and increased in size by aggregation of
      ICCs, suggesting a self-organizing process. ICCs cultured in RAD16-I/RGD showed
      enhanced cell adhesion to RAD16-I matrix and reexpression of the beta cell
      specific genes, Ins, Pdx1, Nkx6.1, and MafA. Redifferentiation was caused solely
      by bioactive cues introduced to the RAD16-I peptide since no differentiation
      factors were added to the culture medium. The results indicate that RGD
      functionalized SAP in sandwich conformation is a promising three-dimensional
      platform to induce redifferentiation toward a beta cell phenotype and to generate
      insulin-expressing cells that could be used in diabetes therapy.

PMID- 28873330
TI  - Differential expression of virulence genes in Legionella pneumophila growing in
      Acanthamoeba and human monocytes.
AB  - Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, is widely
      distributed throughout natural and artificial water systems and can replicate in
      macrophages and amoebae. Amoebae are the natural hosts of L. pneumophila, whereas
      macrophages are incidentally infected. The life cycle of L. pneumophila comprises
      a replicative phase within the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV) and a
      transmissive phase during which bacterial cells become motile and are released
      via killing of the host. Although the host death mechanisms induced by L.
      pneumophila have been studied, the expression patterns of related L. pneumophila
      genes have not been reported. The present study compared the expression patterns
      of host cell death-associated genes in L. pneumophila grown in the human
      monocytic cell line THP-1 and Acanthamoeba castellanii. Notably, when L.
      pneumophila was grown in THP-1, expression of the gene flaA, which is involved in
      the induction of pyroptosis, was downregulated during the course of infection. In
      contrast, sdhA associated indirectly with host death, was upregulated. Expression
      of the genes vipD and sidF, which are involved in the induction and suppression
      of apoptosis, changed by less than 2-fold. Notably, a lower percentage of
      pyroptotic cells was observed among infected THP-1 cells relative to uninfected
      cells, and the latter exhibited stronger expression of caspase-1. A different
      pattern was observed when L. pneumophila was grown in A. castellanii: flaA and
      vipD were activated, whereas sdhA and sidF were downregulated during the later
      stage of replication. The percentage of non-viable (annexin-V+ PI+ or annexin
      V+PI-) A. castellanii organisms increased with Legionella infection, and the
      expression of metacaspase-1, which is involved in encystation was up-regulated at
      late infection time. In summary, L. pneumophila can multiply intracellularly in
      both amoebae and macrophages to induce cell death and secondary infection, and
      this characteristic is essential for its survival in water and the lungs. The
      gene expression profiles observed in this study indicated the increased
      cytotoxicity of L. pneumophila in A. castellanii, suggesting an increased
      adaptation of Legionella to this host.

PMID- 28873333
TI  - Role of echocardiography in reducing shock reversal time in pediatric septic
      shock: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of echocardiography in reducing shock reversal
      time in pediatric septic shock. METHODS: A prospective study conducted in the
      pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital from September
      2013 to May 2016. Ninety septic shock patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio for
      comparing the serial echocardiography-guided therapy in the study group with the
      standard therapy in the control group regarding clinical course, timely
      treatment, and outcomes. RESULTS: Shock reversal was significantly higher in the
      study group (89% vs. 67%), with significantly reduced shock reversal time (3.3
      vs. 4.5 days). Pediatric intensive care unit stay in the study group was
      significantly shorter (8+/-3 vs. 14+/-10 days). Mortality due to unresolved shock
      was significantly lower in the study group. Fluid overload was significantly
      lower in the study group (11% vs. 44%). In the study group, inotropes were used
      more frequently (89% vs. 67%) and initiated earlier (12[0.5-24] vs. 24[6-72]h)
      with lower maximum vasopressor inotrope score (120[30-325] vs. 170[80-395]),
      revealing predominant use of milrinone (62% vs. 22%). CONCLUSION: Serial
      echocardiography provided crucial data for early recognition of septic myocardial
      dysfunction and hypovolemia that was not apparent on clinical assessment,
      allowing a timely management and resulting in shock reversal time reduction among
      children with septic shock.

PMID- 28873334
TI  - Pregnancy outcome in women with congenital heart disease: A single-center
      experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Pregnancies in patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) are
      often complicated. We aimed to highlight the nature and the rate of these
      complications in a single-center patient population. METHODS: We retrospectively
      studied all the pregnancies of women who presented on an outpatient basis, and
      all pregnancies were reviewed for maternal and fetal outcomes. RESULTS: Of 117
      pregnancies from 52 ACHD patients (age at pregnancy 28.3 +/- 6.6 years), 10 were
      therapeutically aborted. A proportion of 41.1% of the remaining 107 pregnancies
      were complicated either with cardiac (3.7%), obstetric (15.0%), or fetal/neonatal
      (11.2%) adverse events or with spontaneous abortion (17.8%). Hospitalization
      during pregnancy was required in 10 patients. Elective cesarean sections were
      initially planned for 31% of the 87 pregnancies, which were finally completed,
      while 8% required an emergency cesarean section, mostly for obstetric reasons.
      NYHA class deterioration after pregnancy was detected in 9.3% of our cohort.
      Modified WHO class III/IV, prior medication use, and higher body mass index (BMI)
      were related to cardiac complications during pregnancy or NYHA deterioration.
      CONCLUSION: Pregnancies in ACHD patients are at high risk for complications.
      Advanced modified WHO class, prior medication use, and high BMI were related to
      adverse cardiac events.

PMID- 28873335
TI  - Blood pressure response during normocapnic hyperpnoea is blunted in young women
      compared to men.
AB  - We hypothesized that young women have a lower arterial blood pressure (BP)
      response to high inspiratory and expiratory muscle contractions with normocapnic
      hyperpnoea compared to age-matched men. To test this hypothesis, the
      cardiovascular response during voluntary normocapnic incremental hyperpnoea was
      evaluated in young women and compared to that of young men. An incremental
      respiratory endurance test (IRET) was performed as follows: target minute
      ventilation was initially set to 30% of the maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV12)
      and was increased by 10% MVV12 every 3min. The test was terminated when the
      subject could not maintain the target%MVV. Heart rate and mean arterial BP (MBP)
      were continuously recorded. The increase in MBP from the baseline (DeltaMBP)
      during the IRET was lower in women than in men (DeltaMBP, men: +32.1+/-4.6mmHg
      vs. women: +14.9+/-3.5mmHg at 8min during IRET). This result suggests that young
      women exhibit a blunted arterial BP response during high-speed inspiratory and
      expiratory muscle contractions with normocapnic hyperpnoea compared to young men.

PMID- 28873336
TI  - Characteristics of respiratory outbreaks in care homes during four influenza
      seasons, 2011-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Influenza and other respiratory infections can spread rapidly and
      cause severe morbidity and mortality in care home settings. AIM: This study
      describes the characteristics of respiratory outbreaks in care homes in Northern
      Ireland during a four-year period, and aims to identify factors that predict
      which respiratory outbreaks are more likely to be positively identified as
      influenza. METHODS: Epidemiological, virological, and clinical characteristics of
      outbreaks during the study period were described. Variables collected at
      notification were compared to identify predictors for an outbreak testing
      positive for influenza. t-Tests and chi2-tests were used to compare means and
      proportions respectively; significance level was set at 95%. FINDINGS: During the
      four seasons, 95 respiratory outbreaks were reported in care homes, 70 of which
      were confirmed as influenza. More than 1000 cases were reported, with 135
      associated hospitalizations and 22 deaths. Vaccination uptake in residents was
      consistently high (mean: 86%); however, in staff it was poorly reported, and,
      when reported, consistently low (mean: 14%). Time to notification and number of
      cases at notification were both higher than expected according to national
      recommendations for reporting outbreaks. No clinically significant predictors of
      a positive influenza outbreak were identified. CONCLUSION: Respiratory outbreaks
      in care homes were associated with significant morbidity and mortality, despite
      high vaccination uptake. The absence of indicators at notification of an outbreak
      to accurately predict influenza infection highlights the need for prompt
      reporting and laboratory testing. Raising staff awareness, training in the
      management of respiratory outbreaks in accordance with national guidance, and
      improvement of staff vaccination uptake are recommended.

PMID- 28873337
TI  - Thalamic GABA levels and occupational manganese neurotoxicity: Association with
      exposure levels and brain MRI.
AB  - Excessive occupational exposure to Manganese (Mn) has been associated with
      clinical symptoms resembling idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD), impairing
      cognitive and motor functions. Several studies point towards an involvement of
      the brain neurotransmitter system in Mn intoxication, which is hypothesized to be
      disturbed prior to onset of symptoms. Edited Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
      (MRS) offers the unique possibility to measure gamma-amminobutyric acid (GABA)
      and other neurometabolites in vivo non-invasively in workers exposed to Mn. In
      addition, the property of Mn as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast agent
      may be used to study Mn deposition in the human brain. In this study, using MRI,
      MRS, personal air sampling at the working place, work history questionnaires, and
      neurological assessment (UPDRS-III), the effects of chronic Mn exposure on the
      thalamic GABAergic system was studied in a group of welders (N=39) with exposure
      to Mn fumes in a typical occupational setting. Two subgroups of welders with
      different exposure levels (Low: N=26; mean air Mn=0.13+/-0.1mg/m3; High: N=13;
      mean air Mn=0.23+/-0.18mg/m3), as well as unexposed control workers (N=22, mean
      air Mn=0.002+/-0.001mg/m3) were recruited. The group of welders with higher
      exposure showed a significant increase of thalamic GABA levels by 45% (p<0.01,
      F(1,33)=9.55), as well as significantly worse performance in general motor
      function (p<0.01, F(1,33)=11.35). However, welders with lower exposure did not
      differ from the controls in GABA levels or motor performance. Further, in welders
      the thalamic GABA levels were best predicted by past-12-months exposure levels
      and were influenced by the Mn deposition in the substantia nigra and globus
      pallidus. Importantly, both thalamic GABA levels and motor function displayed a
      non-linear pattern of response to Mn exposure, suggesting a threshold effect.

PMID- 28873339
TI  - Non-invasive strategies for stimulating endogenous repair and regenerative
      mechanisms in the damaged heart.
AB  - The adult myocardium, including human, harbours a population of resident multi
      potent cardiac stem cells (CSCs), which when stimulated under the right
      conditions can give rise to new cardiomyocytes and vasculature. Elucidation of
      the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern CSC biology and their role in
      myocardial regeneration will allow the design and development of optimal
      therapeutic interventions. It is now evident that different growth factors and
      cytokines govern CSC survival, proliferation, migration and differentiation, as
      well as playing a role in activating cardiac repair mechanisms such as improving
      angiogenesis, cardiomyocyte survival and limiting fibrosis. This review article
      will summarize the evidence for a role of VEGF, NRG-1, IGF-1, HGF, EGF, FGF and
      TGF-beta1 in modulating the repair and regeneration of cardiac tissue. It will
      also discuss the use of exosomes and exercise training as interventions to
      stimulate the endogenous repair and regenerative mechanisms in the damaged heart.

PMID- 28873338
TI  - Myths and truths about the cellular composition of the human brain: A review of
      influential concepts.
AB  - Over the last 50 years, quantitative methodology has made important contributions
      to our understanding of the cellular composition of the human brain. Not all of
      the concepts that emerged from quantitative studies have turned out to be true.
      Here, I examine the history and current status of some of the most influential
      notions. This includes claims of how many cells compose the human brain, and how
      different cell types contribute and in what ratios. Additional concepts entail
      whether we lose significant numbers of neurons with normal aging, whether chronic
      alcohol abuse contributes to cortical neuron loss, whether there are significant
      differences in the quantitative composition of cerebral cortex between male and
      female brains, whether superior intelligence in humans correlates with larger
      numbers of brain cells, and whether there are secular (generational) changes in
      neuron number. Do changes in cell number or changes in ratios of cell types
      accompany certain diseases, and should all counting methods, even the
      theoretically unbiased ones, be validated and calibrated? I here examine the
      origin and the current status of major influential concepts, and I review the
      evidence and arguments that have led to either confirmation or refutation of such
      concepts. I discuss the circumstances, assumptions and mindsets that perpetuated
      erroneous views, and the types of technological advances that have, in some
      cases, challenged longstanding ideas. I will acknowledge the roles of key
      proponents of influential concepts in the sometimes convoluted path towards
      recognition of the true cellular composition of the human brain.

PMID- 28873342
TI  - Testing the Effect of Internal Genes Derived from a Wild-Bird-Origin H9N2
      Influenza A Virus on the Pathogenicity of an A/H7N9 Virus.

PMID- 28873341
TI  - Unsaturated nitrogen-rich polymer poly(l-histidine) gated reversibly switchable
      mesoporous silica nanoparticles using "graft to" strategy for drug controlled
      release.
AB  - : A novel and intelligent pH-controlled system having an "on-off" switch based on
      poly(l-histidine) (PLH) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) coated mesoporous silica
      nanoparticles (MSNs) (MSNs-PLH-PEG) was designed and evaluated for tumor specific
      drug release. The unsaturated nitrogen-rich polymer, PLH, which can change its
      solubility at different pH values, was employed for establishing the reversible
      "on-off" switch. In vitro drug release results demonstrated that MSNs-PLH-PEG has
      a pH-controlled "on-off" profile with the change of pH value between pH 7.4 and
      5.0. Furthermore, in vitro cellular uptake study results showed that the
      entrapped drug could be efficiently released from MSNs-PLH-PEG under acidic
      endosome/lysosome. In vitro cell cytotoxicity and in vivo antitumor studies
      results indicated that sorafenib loaded MSNs-PLH-PEG exhibited good anti
      proliferation and tumor growth inhibition effects. Haemolysis assay and
      histological analysis of MSNs-PLH-PEG showed negligible haemolysis activity and
      no visible tissue toxicity at the test dose. This study represents a promising
      and intelligent pH-controlled intelligent system for drug delivery and controlled
      release. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: A novel pH-controlled intelligent and
      reversible "on-off" switch system based on poly(l-histidine) and poly(ethylene
      glycol) coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs-PLH-PEG) by "graft to"
      synthesis method was constructed for tumor specific drug release. The unsaturated
      nitrogen-rich pH-sensitive polymer, PLH, which can change its solubility in
      different pH values, was employed as the reversible "on-off" switch in MSNs for
      the first time. The pH-controlled "on-off" switch manner was observed in the drug
      release results in vitro. In the in vivo antitumor studies, sorafenib loaded MSNs
      PLH-PEG could effectively suppressed tumor growth in H22 tumor bearing mice. It
      is expected that the pH-controlled intelligent "on-off" switch system we designed
      holds remarkable promise and provides valuable strategy for possible applications
      in cancer therapy.

PMID- 28873340
TI  - Personalized polyunsaturated fatty acids as a potential adjunctive treatment for
      anorexia nervosa.
AB  - Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex psychiatric disorder with high morbidity and
      mortality rates. While many individuals make full recoveries, up to a third of
      patients develop a chronic, treatment-resistant form of the illness that leads to
      a premature death in 15-20% of those affected. There have been few advances in
      treatment, both in terms of psychological or pharmacologic treatment over the
      last 30 years. Food aversion is commonly cited by patients with AN as a barrier
      to normalizing eating and weight. Our group has a keen interest in examining
      factors that might allow this to be addressed, thus improving treatment outcomes
      through personalized dietary plans or nutritional supplementation related to
      underlying genetic status. We demonstrated that polyunsaturated fatty acids
      (PUFAs)-derived bioactive lipids (eicosanoids) are implicated in not only the
      risk of AN, but also with its comorbid psychopathology. Of interest, the
      differential postprandial omega 6-derived eicosanoid shift observed in AN
      highlights the possibility that the metabolism of PUFAs is an important mechanism
      underlying the profound food version, contributing to pathological food
      restriction in AN. A concise knowledge of the relationships among PUFAs,
      eicosanoids, and AN clinical course and psychopathology could be the key to
      developing personalized nutritional rehabilitative treatments for those suffering
      from AN. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on PUFAs
      in AN. We also selectively reviewed the clinical benefits PUFA treatments exert
      in other psychiatric diseases, on weight and appetite regulation, and for
      resolution of inflammation, all of which are relevant in the disease course and
      outcome of AN. We propose that personalized PUFA formulation be developed and
      tested as a novel adjunctive treatment for patients with AN. We hypothesize that
      with personalized PUFA formulation, food aversion and anxiety about eating will
      decrease while mood, dietary behavior, and weight restoration will improve in AN,
      leading to improvements in the overall treatment outcome.

PMID- 28873343
TI  - Cellular Levels of Signaling Factors Are Sensed by beta-actin Alleles to Modulate
      Transcriptional Pulse Intensity.

PMID- 28873344
TI  - Fasting, but Not Aging, Dramatically Alters the Redox Status of Cysteine Residues
      on Proteins in Drosophila melanogaster.

PMID- 28873346
TI  - Painful posterior shoulder instability: Anticipating and preventing failure. A
      study in 25 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Painful posterior shoulder instability (PPSI) is the least common of
      the three clinical patterns of posterior shoulder instability. PPSI is defined as
      pain combined with anatomical evidence of posterior instability but no
      instability events. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We studied a multicentre cohort of 25
      patients with PPSI; 23 were identified retrospectively and had a follow-up of at
      least 2 years and 2 patients were included prospectively. Most patients engaged
      in sports. RESULTS: All 25 patients underwent surgery, which usually consisted in
      arthroscopic capsulo-labral reconstruction. The outcome was excellent in 43% of
      patients; another 43% had improvements but reported persistent pain. The pain
      remained unchanged or worsened in the remaining 14% of patients. Causes of
      failure consisted of a missed diagnosis of shoulder osteoarthritis with posterior
      subluxation, technical errors, and postoperative complications. The main cause of
      incomplete improvement with persistent pain was presence of cartilage damage.
      CONCLUSION: Outcomes were excellent in patients who were free of cartilage
      damage, bony abnormalities associated with posterior instability (reverse Hill
      Sachs lesion, erosion or fracture of the posterior glenoid), technical errors,
      and postoperative complications.

PMID- 28873347
TI  - Outcomes of capsulolabral reconstruction for posterior shoulder instability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical treatment of isolated posterior shoulder instability-a rare
      and often misdiagnosed condition-is controversial because of poor outcomes.
      Failure of physical therapy in symptomatic young athletes requires capsulolabral
      reconstruction or bone block procedures. The goal of this study was to report the
      outcomes of patients who have undergone surgical capsulolabral reconstruction and
      to look for risk factors that contribute to failure of this procedure. MATERIAL
      AND METHOD: We analyzed the outcomes of 101 patients who underwent capsulolabral
      reconstruction: 83 included retrospectively, 18 included prospectively. The
      procedures were performed alone or in combination with capsular shift, labral
      repair, closure of the rotator interval and notch remplissage. The primary
      endpoint was failure of the procedure, defined as recurrence of the instability
      and/or pain. We also determined the outcomes based on specific (Walch-Duplay,
      modified Rowe) and non-specific (Constant, resumption of activities) scores of
      shoulder instability. RESULTS: The results were satisfactory despite a high
      failure rate: 35% in the retrospective cohort with 4.8+/-2.6 years' follow-up and
      22% in the prospective cohort with 1.1+/-0.3 years' follow-up. The various
      outcome scores improved significantly. Ninety-two percent of patients returned to
      work and 80% of athletes returned to their pre-injury level of sports. Eighty
      five percent of patients were satisfied or very satisfied after the surgery. No
      risk factors for failure were identified; however, failures were more common in
      older patients, those who underwent an isolated procedure and those who had
      unclassified clinical forms. CONCLUSION: Treatment of posterior shoulder
      instability by capsulolabral reconstruction leads to good clinical outcomes;
      however, the recurrence rate is high. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 - retrospective study.

PMID- 28873345
TI  - Neutrophil chemotaxis and transcriptomics in term and preterm neonates.
AB  - Neutrophils play a crucial role in combating life-threatening bacterial
      infections in neonates. Previous studies investigating neonatal cell function
      have been limited because of restricted volume sampling. Here, using novel
      microfluidic approaches, we provide the first description of neutrophil
      chemotaxis and transcriptomics from whole blood of human term and preterm
      neonates, as well as young adults. Ex vivo percent cell migration, neutrophil
      velocity, and directionality to N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine were
      measured from whole blood using time-lapse imaging of microfluidic chemotaxis.
      Genome-wide expression was also evaluated in CD66b+ cells using microfluidic
      capture devices. Neutrophils from preterm neonates migrated in fewer numbers
      compared to term neonates (preterm 12.3%, term 30.5%, P = 0.008) and at a reduced
      velocity compared to young adults (preterm 10.1 MUm/min, adult 12.7 MUm/min, P =
      0.003). Despite fewer neutrophils migrating at slower velocities, neutrophil
      directionality from preterm neonates was comparable to adults and term neonates.
      3607 genes were differentially expressed among the 3 groups (P < 0.001).
      Differences in gene expression between neutrophils from preterm and term neonates
      were consistent with reduced pathogen recognition and antimicrobial activity but
      not neutrophil migration, by preterm neonates. In summary, preterm neonates have
      significant disturbances in neutrophil chemotaxis compared to term neonates and
      adults, and these differences in phenotype appear at the transcriptional level to
      target inflammatory pathways in general, rather than in neutrophil migration and
      chemotaxis.

PMID- 28873348
TI  - Management of traumatic meniscal tear and degenerative meniscal lesions. Save the
      meniscus.
AB  - Meniscectomy remains one of the most frequent orthopedic procedures, despite
      meniscal sparing having been advocated for several decades now. Incidence is
      excessive in the light of scientifically robust studies demonstrating the
      interest of meniscal repair or of nonoperative treatment for traumatic tear and
      of nonoperative treatment for degenerative meniscal lesions. It is high time that
      the paradigm shifted, in favor of meniscal preservation. In traumatic tear, and
      most particularly longitudinal vertical tear in vascularized zones, repair shows
      a high success rates in terms of recovery time, functional outcome and cartilage
      protection. Leaving the meniscus alone may be an option in asymptomatic lesions
      of the lateral meniscus during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.
      Posterior ramp lesions (in associated ACL tear), traumatic root tears and radial
      lesions are also excellent indications for repair, although it has to be borne in
      mind that the natural history of these lesions is not completely understood and
      nonoperative treatment also may be considered. Degenerative meniscal lesions are
      frequently revealed by MRI in middle-aged or elderly subjects. They are closely
      related to tissue aging and thus probably to osteoarthritic processes.
      Meniscectomy was long considered the treatment of choice. All but 1 of the 8
      recent randomized studies reported non-superiority of arthroscopy over
      nonoperative treatment, which should thus be the first-line choice, with
      arthroscopic meniscectomy reserved for cases of failure, or earlier in case of
      "considerable" mechanical symptoms. Horizontal cleavage in young athletes is a
      particular case, requiring meniscal repair, to avoid a meniscectomy, which would
      inevitably be extensive in a young active patient. More than ever, the take-home
      message is: save the meniscus!

PMID- 28873349
TI  - Posterior shoulder instability: Prospective non-randomised comparison of
      operative and non-operative treatment in 51 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The management of posterior shoulder instability remains
      controversial. Consequently, for a symposium on this topic, the French
      Arthroscopy Society (SFA) conducted a prospective multicentre study comparing
      outcomes of operative and non-operative treatment. OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes
      after operative versus non-operative treatment of posterior shoulder instability.
      HYPOTHESIS: The surgical treatment of posterior shoulder instability may achieve
      better clinical outcomes than non-operative treatment in selected patients.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients were included prospectively then
      followed-up for 12months. Three groups were defined based on the clinical
      presentation: recurrent dislocation or subluxation, involuntary instability or
      voluntary instability that had become involuntary, and shoulder pain with
      instability. Of the 51 patients, 19 received non-operative therapy involving a
      three-step rehabilitation programme and 32 underwent surgery with a posterior
      bone block, labral repair and/orcapsule tightening, or bone defect filling. At
      inclusion and at last follow-up, the Subjective Shoulder Value (SSV), Rowe score,
      Walch-Duplay score, and Constant score were determined. RESULTS: The preliminary
      results after the first 12 months are reported here. In the non-operative and
      operative groups, the Constant score was 78 versus 87, the Rowe score 64 versus
      88, and the Walch-Duplay score 69 versus 82, respectively. These differences were
      statistically significant (P<0.05). DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this study is
      the first comparison of non-operative versus operative treatment in a cohort of
      patients with documented posterior shoulder instability. Outcomes were better
      with operative treatment. However, this finding remains preliminary given the
      short follow-up of only 1 year. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III, case-control study.

PMID- 28873350
TI  - Clinical outcomes of posterior bone block procedures for posterior shoulder
      instability: Multicenter retrospective study of 66 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The posterior bone block procedure is a well-known treatment option
      for posterior shoulder instability. The goal of this retrospective multicenter
      study was to evaluate the clinical and radiological outcomes of this procedure.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study cohort consisted of 66 patients (55 men, 11
      women) with an average age of 27.8 years who were evaluated clinically and
      radiologically using a standardized questionnaire after posterior bone block
      surgery. RESULTS: The Constant score significantly improved postoperatively
      (P<0.0001). The postoperative Walch-Duplay score was 81.5. The Rowe score was
      86.5 points. The pain level (VAS) was significantly reduced after this procedure
      (P<0.0001). Eighty-five percent of patients were satisfied or very satisfied with
      the outcome. CONCLUSION: This multicenter study of 66 patients shows that the
      posterior bone block procedure is an effective technique with good subjective and
      objective outcomes; however, the possibility of complications cannot be ignored.
      CLINICAL STUDY: Level of evidence IV.

PMID- 28873351
TI  - Frequency and pathological characteristics of drug-induced liver injury in a
      tertiary medical center.
AB  - Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) accounts for approximately 10% of acute
      hepatitis cases. DILI can arise as idiosyncratic or intrinsic injury from
      hundreds of drugs, herbals, and nutritional supplements and is essential to
      recognize as one of the differential diagnoses of hepatitis in a liver biopsy.
      The purpose of this study is to investigate the frequency and pathological
      characteristics of DILI related to the variety of hepatotoxic agents. We searched
      our pathology database for all patients with hepatitis diagnosed on liver biopsy
      from January 2012 to May 2016, and selected patients with a diagnosis of DILI.
      Electronic medical records were reviewed for patient medication list, history of
      herbal medicine or supplement use, and pre-biopsy liver function test (LFT)
      results. Clinical and pathologic correlation was used to determine the causative
      or related agents for DILI. We then assessed histopathologic features of liver
      injury and categorized biopsy findings as primarily bile duct injury,
      lobular/portal hepatitis, or mixed changes. Six hundred four total liver biopsies
      for hepatitis or liver injury were identified, of which 70 cases (11.6%) carried
      the diagnosis of DILI confirmed by clinical correlation. The most common
      etiologies associated with DILI were supplements and herbal products (31.4%),
      antimicrobials (14.3%), chemotherapeutics (11.4%), antilipidemics (7.1%) and
      immunomodulatory agents (7.1%). LFT results positively correlated with
      histological findings. Nutritional/herbal supplements have emerged as one of the
      major hepatotoxicity agents. DILI can manifest as predominantly hepatitis, bile
      duct injury or combination. Histological pattern recognition in the liver biopsy
      may help identify specific hepatotoxic agents causing DILI.

PMID- 28873352
TI  - Immunophenotypic comparison of testicular sclerosing Sertoli cell tumors and
      Sertoli cell tumors not otherwise specified.
AB  - Testicular Sertoli cell tumors (SCTs) are rare, and most fall into the category
      of SCT-not otherwise specified (SCT-NOS). Only a few additional types of SCT are
      recognized. Sclerosing SCT (S-SCT), originally described in 1991, comprises a
      small fraction of SCTs and was considered a specific entity until the 2016
      revision of the World Health Organization classification of non-germ cell tumors,
      where it was classified as a morphologic variant of SCT-NOS. In a recent study,
      differences in expression of PAX2/PAX8, inhibin, androgen receptor, and S100
      protein between SCT-NOS and S-SCT were noted in a small number of cases. In this
      interinstitutional study, we compared the expression of these markers and beta
      catenin in 11 cases each of SCT-NOS and S-SCT to determine if differences exist
      that could justify keeping a separate classification of these neoplasms.
      PAX2/PAX8 cocktail was the only marker that was significantly overexpressed in S
      SCT. Expression of androgen receptors was strong in S-SCT and variable in SCT-NOS
      but did not reach statistical significance. Expression of beta-catenin was common
      in both, whereas inhibin was infrequent. The available material was insufficient
      for a conclusive evaluation of S100 protein expression. Overall, our results
      support the inclusion of S-SCT as a morphologic variant of SCT-NOS. Expression of
      PAX2/PAX8 in S-SCT may reflect an overactive epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
      as has been shown in experimental models of acute and chronic seminiferous
      tubular injury and might be related to the process generating the stroma in these
      tumors.

PMID- 28873353
TI  - Primary cutaneous NK/T-cell lymphoma of nasal type: an age-related
      lymphoproliferative disease?
AB  - Among extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma of nasal type (NKTL), the extranasal variant
      (ENKTL) is known to have a worse prognosis with advanced clinical stage than the
      nasal variant of NKTL. However, detailed clinicopathological features of the
      localized extranasal disease have not been well documented in English literature.
      Here, we described the clinicopathological profiles of 14 patients with stage I
      ENKTL, including 7 in the skin, 5 in the gastrointestinal tract, and 2 in the
      central nervous system, highlighting the distinctiveness of the first. The 7
      primary cutaneous (PCNKTL) cases were characterized by an older onset age
      (median, 76 versus 53 years, P=.012) and a more favorable clinical course
      (P=.041) compared with 17 patients with stages II-IV ENKTL that showed cutaneous
      involvement. The skin lesions in the PCNKTL group were distributed in the face or
      neck (n=4) and limbs (n=3) but not the trunk, which was most frequently affected
      (60%, P=.017) in the latter group. Furthermore, the stage I cutaneous disease
      showed a female predominance (male-female, 2:5 versus 7:0; P=.021) and a
      significantly more favorable survival compared with the noncutaneous stage I
      ENKTL (P=.037). These results suggest that PCNKTL constitute a distinct subgroup
      in the nasal-type lymphoma spectrum.

PMID- 28873355
TI  - Pulmonary interstitial glycogenosis associated with a spectrum of neonatal
      pulmonary disorders.
AB  - Primary or isolated pulmonary interstitial glycogenosis (PIG) is a rare disease
      presenting as tachypnea and hypoxemia during the perinatal period. A diffuse
      interstitial infiltrate with focal hyperinflation is visible on chest imaging.
      The biopsy findings include diffuse expansion of the interstitium by spindle
      shaped cells with pale cytoplasm that, on electron microscopy (EM), are poorly
      differentiated mesenchymal cells containing abundant monoparticulate glycogen.
      This glycogenosis appears to be a transient abnormality, usually with a favorable
      prognosis. Recently, cases of PIG, some associated with other pulmonary or
      systemic abnormalities, have been described. The clinical significance and
      potential role of PIG changes remain unknown. We report 28 cases of PIG
      associated with a spectrum of pediatric pulmonary and cardiovascular disorders,
      including arterial hypertensive changes with and without abnormal alveolar
      development (n=9), congenital heart disease (CHD; n=4), hyperplasia of pulmonary
      neuroendocrine cells resembling neuroendocrine hyperplasia of infancy (NEHI,
      n=5), congenital pulmonary airway malformation (n=5), congenital lobar emphysema
      (n=4), and Noonan syndrome (n=1). In all cases, PIG was confirmed by positive
      periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining, immunopositivity for vimentin, and EM.
      Although some patients improved with age, 7 died of respiratory failure or
      complications of CHD, suggesting that PIG may be clinically significant when
      associated with other severe disorders. The association of PIG with a spectrum of
      mostly congenital lung disorders supports its origin as a developmental
      abnormality of interstitial fibroblast differentiation rather than a nonspecific
      reactive process.

PMID- 28873354
TI  - Mutation of NRAS is a rare genetic event in ovarian low-grade serous carcinoma.
AB  - Activating mutations involving the members of the RAS signaling pathway,
      including KRAS, NRAS, and BRAF, have been reported in ovarian low-grade serous
      carcinoma and its precursor lesion, serous borderline tumor (SBT). Whether
      additional genetic alterations in the RAS oncogene family accumulate during the
      progression of SBT to invasive low-grade serous carcinoma (LGSC) remains largely
      unknown. Although mutations of KRAS and BRAF occur at a very early stage of
      progression, even preceding the development of SBT, additional driving events,
      such as NRAS mutations, have been postulated to facilitate progression. In this
      study, we analyzed NRAS exon 3 mutational status in 98 cases that were diagnosed
      with SBT/atypical proliferative serous tumor, noninvasive LGSC, or invasive LGSC.
      Of the latter, NRAS Q61R (CAA to CGA) mutations were detected in only 2 of 56
      (3.6%) cases. The same mutation was not detected in any of the SBTs (atypical
      proliferative serous tumors) or noninvasive LGSCs. Mutational analysis for
      hotspots in KRAS and BRAF demonstrated a wild-type pattern of KRAS and BRAF in
      one of the NRAS-mutated cases. Interestingly, another LGSC case with NRAS
      mutation harbored a concurrent BRAF V600L mutation. These findings indicate that,
      although recurrent NRAS mutations are present, their low prevalence indicates
      that NRAS plays a limited role in the development of LGSC. Further studies to
      identify other oncogenic events that drive LGSC progression are warranted.

PMID- 28873356
TI  - Follicular lymphoma with hyaline-vascular Castleman-like features: analysis of 6
      cases and review of the literature.
AB  - Follicular lymphoma (FL) with features reminiscent of hyaline-vascular Castleman
      disease (CD) is an unusual morphologic variant that may create diagnostic
      difficulties. To our knowledge, only 5 cases of this variant have been reported.
      We describe the clinicopathologic features of 6 cases including 2 men and 4 women
      with a median age of 63 years (range, 41-77). Morphologically, all lymph node
      biopsy specimens showed at least a focal area of conventional FL; 4 cases showed
      neoplastic follicles with hyalinized blood vessels penetrating into germinal
      centers (lollipop-like lesions); 4 cases had interfollicular areas with increased
      vascular stroma; 2 cases showed small neoplastic follicles with prominent,
      onionskin-like mantle zones; and 1 case showed 2 or more germinal centers within
      follicles (twinning). The small neoplastic follicles were more cellular than
      lymphocyte-depleted follicles of true hyaline-vascular CD, and the interface
      between germinal centers and mantle zones was ill defined. No cases showed
      dysplastic follicular dendritic cells. Immunohistochemistry for BCL-2 was
      positive in all 6 cases. Flow cytometry immunophenotypic analysis showed a
      monotypic B-cell population in 2 of 3 cases assessed. Conventional cytogenetic or
      fluorescence in situ hybridization studies performed in 3 cases showed
      t(14;18)(q32;q21) or IGH-BCL2, supporting the diagnosis of FL. The cases
      presented here add clinicopathologic data to the few cases of FL with hyaline
      vascular CD-like features reported previously in the literature. Distinguishing
      this variant of FL from hyaline-vascular CD is important given the differences in
      treatment and prognosis of patients with each disease.

PMID- 28873357
TI  - Histone deacetylases inhibition: a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target
      for cancers-reply.

PMID- 28873358
TI  - 'Slamming' among men who have sex with men accessing general drug services, in
      response to Schmidt, AJ et al., 2016, Illicit drug use among gay and bisexual men
      in 44 cities: Findings from the European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS).

PMID- 28873359
TI  - Determination of genotoxic epoxide at trace level in drug substance by direct
      injection GC/MS.
AB  - A novel direct injection gas chromatography method coupled with selective ion
      monitoring mass spectrometry (GC/SIM-MS) was developed for quantitation of trace
      levels of high boiling point (HBP) epoxide genotoxic impurity (GTI) in drug
      substance. The injector temperature was optimized with the aims to minimize
      matrix effects and enhance SIM signal response. The final injector temperature
      160 degrees C was selected after balancing between these two factors. The column
      screening was conducted as well and MN OPTIMA delta-3 silica capillary column was
      selected since it showed good peak symmetry without column bleeding. The good
      linearity was established for the concentration in the range from 0.0045MUg/mL to
      0.5MUg/mL with a R2=0.9999. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of
      quantitation (LOQ) were 0.0014MUg/mL and 0.0045MUg/mL, respectively. The recovery
      which ranged from 95.0% to 112.5% could meet the ICH acceptance criteria. The
      validation results demonstrated the good linearity, precision and accuracy of the
      method which can be further adopted as an adequate quality control tool for
      quantitation of epoxide impurity at trace levels in drug substance and drug
      product.

PMID- 28873360
TI  - Bioanalysis of monomethyl fumarate in human plasma by a sensitive and rapid LC
      MS/MS method and its pharmacokinetic application.
AB  - Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is the methyl ester of fumaric acid, after oral
      administration completely converts to its active metabolite monomethyl fumarate
      (MMF). A simple, rapid and sensitive LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated
      for the quantification of MMF in human plasma. Monomethyl fumarate d3 was used as
      an internal standard (IS). The analyte and the IS were extracted from plasma
      using a selective solid phase extraction technique. The clean samples were
      chromatographed on a C18 column using formic acid and acetonitrile (25:75, v/v)
      as mobile phase. An API-4000 LC-MS/MS system equipped with turbo ion spray (TIS)
      source and operated in multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode was used for the
      study. The method was validated for linearity in the range of 5.03-2006.92ng/mL.
      Also, a number of stability tests were conducted to evaluate the stability of
      analyte, IS in plasma samples and in neat samples, the results comply with recent
      bioanalytical guidelines. A shortest run time helped us to analyze more than 300
      samples in a day. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study in ten
      healthy male Indian subjects and the study data was authenticated by conducting
      incurred sample reanalysis (ISR).

PMID- 28873361
TI  - 1H NMR based pharmacometabolomics analysis of urine identifies metabolic
      phenotype of clopidogrel high on treatment platelets reactivity in coronary
      artery disease patients.
AB  - Clopidogrel high on treatment platelets reactivity (HTPR) has burdened achieving
      optimum therapeutic outcome. Although there are known genetic and non-genetic
      factors associated with clopidogrel HTPR, which explain in part clopidogrel HTPR,
      yet, great portion remains unknown, often hindering personalizing antiplatelet
      therapy. Nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) pharmacometabolomics analysis is
      useful technique to phenotype drug response. We investigated using 1H NMR
      analysis to phenotype clopidogrel HTPR in urine. Urine samples were collected
      from 71 coronary artery disease (CAD) patients who were planned for
      interventional angiographic procedure prior to taking 600mg clopidogrel loading
      dose (LD) and 6h post LD. Patients' platelets function testing was assessed with
      the VerifyNow(r) P2Y12 assay at 6h after LD. Urine samples were analysed using 1H
      NMR. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to identify metabolites
      associated with clopidogrel HTPR. In pre-dose samples, 16 metabolites were
      associated with clopidogrel HTPR. However, 18 metabolites were associated with
      clopidogrel HTPR in post-dose samples. The pathway analysis of the identified
      biomarkers reflected that multifactorial conditions are associated with
      clopidogrel HTPR. It also revealed the implicated role of gut microbiota in
      clopidogrel HTPR. Pharmacometabolomics not only discovered novel biomarkers of
      clopidogrel HTPR but also revealed implicated pathways and conditions.

PMID- 28873363
TI  - Epileptic seizures heralding a relapse in high grade gliomas.
AB  - PURPOSE: Seizures are a common clinical symptom in high-grade gliomas (HGG). The
      aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between seizures and HGG
      relapse (HGG-R). METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 145 patients who were
      surgically treated for HGG-R. By analyzing clinical characteristics in these
      patients (all operated and treated by the same protocol), we identified 37
      patients with seizures during follow-up. This cohort was divided into four
      subgroups according to a) presence or absence of seizures at the time of
      diagnosis and b) temporal relationship between seizure occurrence and HGG-R
      during follow-up: subgroup A (25pts) had seizures at follow-up but not at onset,
      subgroup B (12pts) had seizures both at follow-up and onset, subgroup C (30pts)
      had seizures before MRI-documented HGG-R, and subgroup D (7pts) had seizures
      after MRI-documented HGG-R. RESULTS: Although the datum was not statistically
      significant, survival was longer in patients with seizures during follow-up than
      in those without seizures (59.3% vs 51.4% alive at 2 years). In 30 patients
      (subgroup C) seizures heralded HGG-R. In a correlation analysis for this last
      subgroup, the time interval between seizure and the HGG-R was significantly
      associated with the number of chemotherapy cycles (r=0.470; p=0.009) and follow
      up duration (r=0.566; p=0.001). A linear regression model demonstrated a
      reciprocal association between the above factors and that it may be possible to
      estimate the timing of HGG-R by combining these data. CONCLUSIONS: Seizures may
      herald HGG-R before MRI detection of relapse, thus suggesting that seizures
      should always be considered a red flag during follow-up.

PMID- 28873362
TI  - Impact of hippocampal subfield histopathology in episodic memory impairment in
      mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to analyze preoperative visual and
      verbal episodic memories in a homogeneous series of patients with mesial temporal
      lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) submitted to
      corticoamygdalohippocampectomy and its association with neuronal cell density of
      each hippocampal subfield. METHODS: The hippocampi of 72 right-handed patients
      were collected and prepared for histopathological examination. Hippocampal
      sclerosis patterns were determined, and neuronal cell density was calculated.
      Preoperatively, two verbal and two visual memory tests (immediate and delayed
      recalls) were applied, and patients were divided into two groups, left and right
      MTLE (36/36). RESULTS: There were no statistical differences between groups
      regarding demographic and clinical data. Cornu Ammonis 4 (CA4) neuronal density
      was significantly lower in the right hippocampus compared with the left
      (p=0.048). The groups with HS presented different memory performance - the right
      HS were worse in visual memory test [Complex Rey Figure, immediate (p=0.001) and
      delayed (p=0.009)], but better in one verbal task [RAVLT delayed (p=0.005)].
      Multiple regression analysis suggested that the verbal memory performance of the
      group with left HS was explained by CA1 neuronal density since both tasks were
      significantly influenced by CA1 [Logical Memory immediate recall (p=0.050) and
      Logical Memory and RAVLT delayed recalls (p=0.004 and p=0.001, respectively)].
      For patients with right HS, both CA1 subfield integrity (p=0.006) and epilepsy
      duration (p=0.012) explained Complex Rey Figure immediate recall performance.
      Ultimately, epilepsy duration also explained the performance in the Complex Rey
      Figure delayed recall (p<0.001). SIGNIFICANCE: Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1) hippocampal
      subfield was related to immediate and delayed recalls of verbal memory tests in
      left HS, while CA1 and epilepsy duration were associated with visual memory
      performance in patients with right HS.

PMID- 28873364
TI  - Refractory spasms of focal onset-A potentially curable disease that should lead
      to rapid surgical evaluation.
AB  - PURPOSE: Infantile spasms (IS) can occur as the only seizure type in children
      with surgically amenable epilepsies. Although early surgery has shown positive
      effects, little is known regarding outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed
      all children with IS referred to our tertiary center between 2002 and 2014 and
      try to define factors of outcome. RESULTS: Sixty-eight children with focal onset
      seizures were referred: twenty children with a hemispheric implication and 48
      with one or more lobes involved. The age of onset was significantly earlier in
      the hemispheric population (8.0 versus 16.7 months in the focal population).
      There was no difference in the age of onset between anterior and posterior onset
      zones, as we could expect regarding the maturation gradient. The epilepsy began
      earlier in life in tuberous sclerosis than in DNET. Only three children of the 48
      non-hemispheric patients had a normal MRI at the time of the surgery. Temporal
      lobe was involved only in a third of the population. More than 86% of the
      patients were operated on. Patients with hemispheric lesions were operated on
      younger (2.6 years+/- 2.1 years) compared to 4.6+/- 3.5 years in the whole
      population. The most frequent etiologies were in descending order: dysplasia,
      ganglioglioma or dysembryoplastic tumours and tuberous sclerosis. The global
      seizure outcome was favorable (Engel 1a) in 74.6% of the patients, and 87.9% if
      the delay between the first seizure and the surgery was less than 36 months. It
      fell to 64.7% if the delay exceeded 50 months. CONCLUSION: Spasms of focal onset
      have a similar postsurgical outcome as other seizure types so surgery may be an
      excellent option for treating selected patients with focal infantile spasms.
      Volume and type but not topography of the lesion influence the age of onset. MRI
      is very helpful to locate the pathology in the pediatric population, since only a
      small portion had a normal MRI.

PMID- 28873365
TI  - Deciphering the catalytic amino acid residues of l-2-haloacid dehalogenase (DehL)
      from Rhizobium sp. RC1: An in silico analysis.
AB  - The l-2-haloacid dehalogenases (EC 3.8.1.2) specifically cleave carbon-halogen
      bonds in the L-isomers of halogenated organic acids. These enzymes have potential
      applications for the bioremediation and synthesis of various industrial products.
      One such enzyme is DehL, the l-2-haloacid dehalogenase from Rhizobium sp. RC1,
      which converts the L-isomers of 2-halocarboxylic acids into the corresponding D
      hydroxycarboxylic acids. However, its catalytic mechanism has not been
      delineated, and to enhance its efficiency and utility for environmental and
      industrial applications, knowledge of its catalytic mechanism, which includes
      identification of its catalytic residues, is required. Using ab initio fragment
      molecular orbital calculations, molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface
      area calculations, and classical molecular dynamic simulation of a three
      dimensional model of DehL-l-2-chloropropionic acid complex, we predicted the
      catalytic residues of DehL and propose its catalytic mechanism. We found that
      when Asp13, Thr17, Met48, Arg51, and His184 were individually replaced with an
      alanine in silico, a significant decrease in the free energy of binding for the
      DehL-l-2-chloropropionic acid model complex was seen, indicating the involvement
      of these residues in catalysis and/or structural integrity of the active site.
      Furthermore, strong inter-fragment interaction energies calculated for Asp13 and
      L-2-chloropropionic acid, and for a water molecule and His184, and maintenance of
      the distances between atoms in the aforementioned pairs during the molecular
      dynamics run suggest that Asp13 acts as the nucleophile and His184 activates the
      water involved in DehL catalysis. The results of this study should be important
      for the rational design of a DehL mutant with improved catalytic efficiency.

PMID- 28873366
TI  - Switching-On Adherence in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

PMID- 28873367
TI  - IDH1 Mutation Is an Independent Inferior Prognostic Indicator for Patients with
      Myelodysplastic Syndromes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genomic sequencing technologies have identified isocitrate
      dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations in haematological malignancies. The prognostic
      implications of somatic IDH mutation (mIDH) in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)
      remain controversial. METHODS: Mutations in IDH1 and IDH2 were detected using
      genomic sequencing technologies in 97 patients with MDS. RESULTS: Seven (7.2%)
      mutations were identified: 3 in IDH1 (all R132C) and 4 in IDH2 (3 R140Q and 1
      R140L). The frequency of mutation was 16.6% (2/12) in refractory anaemia with
      excess blasts (RAEB)-1 and 14.7% (5/34) in RAEB-2. IDH1/2 mutations were closely
      associated with higher bone marrow blast counts (median 10.0 vs. 2.3%; p = 0.019)
      and lower absolute neutrophil counts (median 0.44 * 109/L vs. 1.21 * 109/L; p =
      0.027). All IDH mutations were mutually exclusive and heterozygous. IDH mutations
      were not significantly correlated with any specific karyotype. Patients with IDH1
      mutations exhibited shorter overall and progression-free survival (OS and PFS; p
      = 0.039 and p = 0.042, respectively), whereas IDH2 mutations did not affect OS or
      PFS (p = 0.560 and p = 0.218, respectively). Multivariate analysis indicated that
      IDH1 mutation (p = 0.018; hazard ratio [HR] 4.735; 95% confidence interval [CI]
      1.299-17.264), karyotype risk (p = 0.036; HR 1.619; 95% CI 1.033-2.539) and the
      revised International Prognostic Scoring System risk category (p < 0.0001; HR
      2.122; 95% CI 1.401-3.213) were independent inferior prognostic factors.
      CONCLUSIONS: IDH1 mutation is associated with a poor prognosis.

PMID- 28873368
TI  - Kruppel-Like Factor 2 Regulates Degradation of Type II Collagen by Suppressing
      the Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP)-13.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) plays an essential role in the
      inhibition of endothelial cell and macrophage activation during the inflammatory
      process. However, the roles of KLF2 in chondrocytes and the pathological
      progression of osteoarthritis (OA) remain unknown. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the function of KLF2 in the inhibition of cartilage matrix
      destruction in chondrocytes. METHODS: RT-PCR and western blot analysis was used
      to determine the expression of KLF2 in human chondrocytes. Luciferase assay,
      ELISA assay and MMP-13 enzymatic activity assays were used to investigate the
      effects of KLF2 in regulating MMP-13 expression. Western blot analysis was used
      to examine the effects of KLF2 in suppressing degradation of type II collagen.
      RESULTS: KLF2 is expressed in primary chondrocytes and is downregulated in OA
      chondrocytes. Expression of KLF2 in primary chondrocytes was reduced in response
      to IL-1beta. Overexpression of KLF2 robustly inhibited IL-1beta-induced MMP-13
      expression. Conversely, knockdown of KLF2 markedly exacerbated MMP-13 expression.
      Mechanistically, KLF2 could suppress the activation of MMP-13 promoter. However,
      knockdown of KLF2 could promote the activation of MMP-13 promoter. Importantly,
      overexpression of KLF2 ameliorated the degradation of type II collagen while
      silencing of KLF2 exacerbated the degradation of type II collagen induced by IL
      1beta. CONCLUSIONS: KLF2 may be a potential therapeutic target for OA treatment.

PMID- 28873369
TI  - Dexmedetomidine Alleviates Hyperoxia-Induced Acute Lung Injury via Inhibiting
      NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Dexmedetomidine (Dex), a specific agonist of alpha2
      adrenoceptor, has been reported to have extensive pharmacological effects. In
      this study, we focused on the protective effect of Dex on hyperoxia-induced acute
      lung injury and further explored its possible molecular mechanisms. METHODS: The
      model of hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury was established by continuous
      inhalation of oxygen (FiO2= 0.90) for 7 d in neonatal rats in vivo. The in vitro
      experiments were carried out in LPS/ATP or hyperoxia-treated RAW264.7 cells.
      ELISA, western blot, TUNEL staining, and immunohistochemistry staining assays
      were performed and the commercial kits were used to assess the beneficial effect
      of Dex on hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury. RESULTS: According to our results,
      Dex treatment attenuated hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury via decreasing the
      lung wet/dry(W/D) weight ratio and mitigating pathomorphologic changes. Moreover,
      the oxidative stress injury, inflammatory reaction, and apoptosis in lung
      epithelial cells were inhibited by Dex treatment. In addition, the activation of
      NLRP3 inflammasome was restrained by Dex both in lung tissue in vivo and RAW264.7
      cells in vitro. CONCLUSION: These data provide evidence that Dex may ameliorate
      hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury, which suggests a potential clinical
      application of Dex in long-term supplemental oxygen therapy.

PMID- 28873370
TI  - Understanding the Parent Perspective on Prenatal Consultation for Fetuses with
      Congenital Anomalies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An increasing number of congenital anomalies are diagnosed
      prenatally. Understanding the implications of these diagnoses on the life of
      their child is critical for parents, and the surgical consultation is often the
      primary venue for this education. Little is known about the parent perspective on
      prenatal consultation. METHODS: Parents undergoing prenatal consultation were
      identified and in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the following:
      understanding of the diagnosis, preparedness for postnatal course, and
      suggestions for improvement. Qualitative analysis was performed to generate
      themes. RESULTS: Twelve interviews with 16 family members were performed,
      encompassing a variety of prenatal diagnoses and outcomes. Near-ubiquitous
      emotions included fear, anxiety, and self-blame. Surgical consultation relieved
      anxiety for some, but the uncertain outcome increased anxiety in others. Most
      were satisfied with the information communicated during the encounter; however,
      those with worse outcomes wished they were better warned. Parents emphasized the
      importance of support systems and educational materials. CONCLUSIONS: Parents
      appreciate learning about all potential outcomes for the fetus, even though this
      generates anxiety. Surgeons should discuss the range of possible outcomes while
      acknowledging that uncertainty leads to anxiety. It is essential to incorporate
      the parent perspective when conducting prenatal consultation and training
      pediatric surgeons in this important practice.

PMID- 28873371
TI  - Modified Hysterotomy Closure Technique for Open Fetal Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We reviewed our experience with open fetal surgical myelomeningocele
      repair to assess the efficacy of a new modification of the hysterotomy closure
      technique regarding hysterotomy complication rates at the time of cesarean
      delivery. METHODS: A modification of the standard hysterotomy closure was
      performed on all patients undergoing prenatal myelomeningocele repair. The
      closure consisted of an interrupted full-thickness #0 polydioxanone (PDS)
      retention suture as well as a running #0 PDS suture to re-approximate the
      myometrial edges, and the modification was a third imbricating layer resulting in
      serosal-to-serosal apposition. A standard omental patch was placed per our
      routine. Both operative reports and verbal descriptions of hysterotomy from
      delivering obstetricians were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 49 patients underwent
      prenatal repair of myelomeningocele, 43 having adequate follow-up for evaluation.
      Of those, 95.4% had completely intact hysterotomy closures, with only 1 partial
      dehiscence (2.3%) and 1 thinned scar (2.3%). There were no instances of uterine
      rupture. DISCUSSION: In patients undergoing this modified hysterotomy closure
      technique, a much lower than expected complication rate was observed. This simple
      modified closure technique may improve hysterotomy healing and reduce obstetric
      morbidity.

PMID- 28873372
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of the Oral Multikinase Regorafenib in Metastatic Colorectal
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: A clinical trial demonstrated that treatment with oral
      multikinase regorafenib improved overall survival (OS), progression-free survival
      (PFS), and disease control [Garcia-Alfonso et al.: J Clin Transl Oncol
      2016;18:1072-1081; Bertocchi et al.: J Chemother 2017;29:102-105]. In this study,
      we aimed to evaluate its effectiveness in Italian patients with hormone
      refractory metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) progressing
      after chemotherapy with docetaxel plus prednisone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 60
      patients were enrolled. OS has been assessed as the primary endpoint while PFS,
      quality of life, safety, and response rate represented secondary endpoints.
      RESULTS: A modest tolerability was observed in our group showing a manageable
      toxicity profile and a modest objective response rate. It was associated with
      stable disease. A significant correlation between quality of life and OS was also
      noticed. CONCLUSIONS: Regorafenib has been proven to be an effective and well
      tolerated therapeutic option in patients with mCRPC progressing after docetaxel
      plus prednisone treatment.

PMID- 28873374
TI  - Characteristics and Prognosis of Oldest Old Subjects with Amyotrophic Lateral
      Sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is an age-related
      neurodegenerative disease with unclear characteristics and prognosis in the
      oldest old (80 years and over). The aim of this study was to compare the oldest
      old and younger ALS patients in terms of clinical and socio-demographic
      characteristics, and prognosis. METHODS: ALS incident cases from the register of
      ALS in Limousin (FRALim), diagnosed between January 2000 and July 2013, were
      included. Descriptive and comparative analyses by age group were carried out. For
      time to event univariate analysis, Kaplan-Meier estimator and log rank test were
      used. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were carried out with Cox's
      proportional hazard model. RESULTS: Out of 322 patients, 50 (15.5%) were aged 80
      or over ("oldest old" ALS) at the time of diagnosis. Among them, the male:female
      gender-ratio was 1.27, and 32.6% had a bulbar onset (not different from subjects
      aged less than 80 years). With increasing age, there was a worsening of the
      clinical state of the patients at time of diagnosis in terms of weight loss,
      forced vital capacity, ALSFRS-R and manual muscular testing. Access to ALS
      referral centres decreased with age, and the use of riluzole tended to be lower
      in the oldest old group. The median survival of oldest old patients appeared to
      be 10 months shorter than that of subjects aged less than 80 years (7.4 vs. 17.4
      months). CONCLUSION: The survival of oldest old ALS patients is particularly
      short. It relates to prognostic features at baseline and to an independent effect
      of advanced age.

PMID- 28873375
TI  - Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing for Sex Chromosome Aneuploidy in Routine Clinical
      Practice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the accuracy of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for
      sex chromosome aneuploidy (SCA) in routine clinical practice and to review
      counselling and sonographic issues arising in SCA cases. METHODS: Three
      specialist Australian obstetric ultrasound and prenatal diagnosis practices
      offering NIPT after 10 weeks' gestation participated in this study. NIPT was
      reported for chromosomes 21, 18, 13, X, and Y. RESULTS: NIPT screening was
      performed in 5,267 singleton pregnancies. The odds of being affected given a
      positive screening result (OAPR) was lowest for SCAs, most notably for monosomy X
      (20%). Fewer women underwent invasive prenatal testing when counselled regarding
      a high risk for SCA (65.5%) compared with those who had a high risk for another
      aneuploidy (85%). The positive screening rate of NIPT including SCA was 2.3%, but
      1.2% if only the autosomal trisomies were included in the panel. CONCLUSION: The
      addition of SCA testing to NIPT doubles the positive screening rate. The OAPR for
      SCAs (most notably for monosomy X) is reduced compared with the autosomal
      trisomies. Clinicians need a more extensive discussion with women prior to the
      inclusion of the X and Y chromosomes in the NIPT panel, given the complexity in
      counselling regarding further management and the additional anxiety that these
      abnormal results may cause. A benefit of sex chromosome analysis is an
      improvement in antenatal diagnosis of some disorders of sexual development.

PMID- 28873373
TI  - Biomarkers of Renal Injury in Cirrhosis: Association with Acute Kidney Injury and
      Recovery after Liver Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To define urine or serum biomarkers in predicting renal function
      recovery after liver transplantation (LT). METHODS: Adults listed for LT
      (February 2011-July 2014) and with modified diet for renal disease-6 (MDRD-6) <60
      mL/min provided urine/blood samples at baseline and serially until LT for
      biomarkers in serum (pg/mL) and urine (pg/mg creatinine). RESULTS: Of 271 LT
      listed patients (mean age 57 years, 63% males, median listing MELD 17.5), 1 year
      acute kidney injury (AKI) probability was 49%, with odds of 1.3-, 3.0-, 4.6-, and
      8.5-fold times for listing MELD 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, and >30, compared to MELD
      <16. Thirty-seven people died over 1 year from the time of listing, with twofold
      increased odds with AKI. Among 67 patients with MDRD <60, only urinary epidermal
      growth factor was different comparing AKI (increase in serum creatinine >=0.3
      mg/dL from baseline within past 3 months) vs. no AKI (2,254 vs. 4,253, p =
      0.003). Differences between acute tubular necrosis (ATN) and hepatorenal syndrome
      could not be ascertained for a small sample of 3 patients with ATN. Analyzing 15
      of 43 receiving LT and MDRD-6 <30 prior to LT, biomarkers were not different
      comparing 5 patients recovering renal function (MDRD-6 >50 mL/min) at 6 months
      vs. 10 without recovery. CONCLUSIONS: AKI is common among LT listed patients,
      with a negative impact on transplant-free survival. Serum and urine biomarkers
      are not associated with the recovery of renal function after LT. Multicenter
      studies are suggested to (a) develop strategies to reduce the development of AKI
      and (b) derive novel biomarkers for use in accurately predicting renal recovery
      after LT.

PMID- 28873376
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of Cathine (Nor-Pseudoephedrine) in the Treatment of Obesity:
      A Randomized Dose-Finding Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of increasing doses of cathine
      (nor-pseudoephedrine) as a weight-lowering agent in patients with obesity.
      METHODS: Overweight and obese patients (n = 241, mean BMI 34.6 +/- 3.4 kg/m2)
      were randomly allocated to one of three doses of cathine (16 mg, 32 mg, 53.3 mg)
      or placebo in addition to a multimodal lifestyle intervention program in a
      multicenter, double-blind, controlled, dose-finding study for 24 weeks. Primary
      outcome was weight loss. RESULTS: Treatment with the 3 doses of cathine resulted
      in a significantly greater weight loss compared to placebo over 24 weeks: 6.5 +/-
      4.2 kg for 16 mg cathine, 6.2 +/- 4.7 kg for 32 mg cathine, and 9.1 +/- 5.4 kg
      for 53.3 mg cathine versus 2.4 +/- 4.4 kg for placebo (each p < 0.01, ANCOVA).
      The percentage of patients losing > 5% / >10% of initial body weight was
      significantly greater for all doses of cathine than for placebo (each p < 0.01,
      chi-square test). Heart rate increased dose-dependently (by 1.2 bpm under 16 mg,
      5.8 bpm under 32 mg, and 6.2 bpm under 53.3 mg cathine), but no suspected
      unexpected serious adverse reactions were noted. The overall dropout rate was
      24.9%, with the highest rate in the placebo group (42.3%). CONCLUSION: Cathine
      appears to be an effective weight-lowering agent for adjunct treatment of
      obesity, but additional clinical studies on its efficacy and safety are required.

PMID- 28873377
TI  - Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) Oil Improves Atopic Dermatitis-Like Skin
      Lesions via Inhibition of NF-kappaB and STAT1 Activation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the
      topical effects of sea buckthorn (SBT) oil on atopic dermatitis (AD)-like lesions
      in a mouse model generated by repeated topical administration of DNCB in BALB/c
      mice. METHODS: DNCB was applied repeatedly on the dorsal skin of mice to induce
      AD-like lesions. Following AD induction, SBT oil was applied daily on the dorsal
      skin for 4 weeks. The severity of skin lesions was examined macroscopically and
      histologically. We further measured the production of MDC/CCL22 and TARC/CCL17 in
      IFN-gamma/TNF-alpha activated HaCaT cells. RESULTS: Topically applied SBT oil in
      DNCB-treated mice ameliorated the severity score of dermatitis, decreased
      epidermal thickness, reduced spleen and lymph node weights, and prevented mast
      cell infiltration. In addition, SBT oil suppressed the Th2 chemokines TARC and
      MDC via dose-dependent inhibition of NF-kappaB, JAK2/STAT1, and p38-MAPK
      signaling pathways in IFN-gamma/TNF-alpha-activated HaCaT cells. CONCLUSION:
      These results suggest that SBT oil had a beneficial effect on AD-like skin
      lesions, partially via inhibition of the Th2 chemokines TARC and MDC in inflamed
      skin.

PMID- 28873378
TI  - Effect of Cardiac Surgery-Associated Acute Kidney Injury on Long-Term Outcomes of
      Chinese Patients: A Historical Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: To evaluate the long-term outcomes of Chinese patients with
      cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CSA-AKI). METHODS: Patients who
      underwent cardiac surgery with a median 3-year follow-up were enrolled. The long
      term survival rate and the incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) were
      recorded, and related risk factors were analyzed. RESULTS: Of all 1,363 patients,
      457 (33.5%) developed CSA-AKI. The AKI patients had a lower 3-year survival rate
      (88.8 vs. 97.2%, respectively, p < 0.001) and a higher incidence of CKD stages 3
      5 (9.9 vs. 2.3%, respectively, p < 0.001) than the non-AKI patients. Cox
      regression analysis showed that AKI, atrial fibrillation, chronic cardiac
      insufficiency, longer surgical duration, respiratory failure after surgery, and
      longer mechanical ventilation time were associated with long-term mortality,
      while AKI, older age, and lower baseline kidney function were associated with
      incident CKD stages 3-5. CONCLUSION: CSA-AKI increased the risk of 3-year
      mortality and incident CKD stages 3-5.

PMID- 28873379
TI  - A Novel Long Non-Coding RNA, SOX21-AS1, Indicates a Poor Prognosis and Promotes
      Lung Adenocarcinoma Proliferation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to be
      a novel class of regulators of cancer biological processes. Although lncRNAs are
      dysregulated in numerous cancer types, limited data are available on the
      expression profiles and potential functions of lncRNAs in lung adenocarcinoma
      (LUAD). This study evaluated the expression and biological roles of lncRNA SOX21
      antisense RNA 1 (SOX21-AS1) in LUAD. METHODS: Quantitative reverse transcription
      PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect the expression levels of SOX21-AS1 in 68
      pairs of LUAD tissues and corresponding non-tumor tissues. The effect of SOX21
      AS1 on proliferation was evaluated by MTT, colony formation, EdU assays, flow
      cytometric analysis and in vivo tumor formation assays. Real-time PCR, western
      blot and immunohistochemistry were used to evaluate the mRNA and protein
      expression of p57. RESULTS: Higher expression levels of SOX21-AS1 positively
      correlated with tumor size and advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage.
      Multivariate analyses indicated that SOX21-AS1 expression could serve as an
      independent prognostic factor for overall survival of LUAD. Furthermore,
      knockdown of SOX21-AS1 significantly inhibited LUAD cell proliferation both in
      vitro and in vivo and induced cell cycle phase arrest and cell apoptosis.
      Importantly, through qRT-PCR and western blot analysis, we found that inhibition
      of SOX21-AS1 remarkably induced p57 expression. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our
      study demonstrates that SOX21-AS1 is involved in the development and progression
      of LUAD and that SOX21-AS1 may be a potential diagnostic factor as well as a
      target for new therapies for patients with LUAD.

PMID- 28873380
TI  - The Endometriosis Fertility Index Is Useful for Predicting the Ability to
      Conceive without Assisted Reproductive Technology Treatment after Laparoscopic
      Surgery, Regardless of Endometriosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The endometriosis fertility index (EFI) is a novel index for
      predicting pregnancy after surgery. We investigated the utility of the EFI for
      predicting the ability to conceive without assisted reproductive technology (ART)
      treatment after laparoscopic surgery. METHODS: From July 2011 through December
      2012, we recruited 133 infertile patients who underwent laparoscopy, and the EFI
      was calculated. After surgery, 55 of 133 achieved pregnancy without ART
      treatment. We evaluated the factors that predicted a naturally successful
      pregnancy and compared them between the pregnant and non-pregnant subjects.
      RESULTS: On a univariate linear regression analysis, we found that a younger age,
      shorter duration of infertility, and higher EFI were positively associated with a
      successful pregnancy without ART after laparoscopic surgery (p < 0.05). According
      to 50th percentile EFI, the cutoff EFI predicting a successful pregnancy without
      ART was 7, the pregnancy rate in the high-EFI group (EFI; 8-10) was significantly
      higher than that in the low-EFI group (EFI <=7; p < 0.05), but the duration to
      natural conception after surgery was similar between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION:
      The EFI possesses greater predictive power for a successful pregnancy with
      natural intercourse or intrauterine insemination in infertile patients,
      regardless of endometriosis, than the Revised-American Society of Reproductive
      Medicine classification.

PMID- 28873382
TI  - Development and Anatomy of the Enteroendocrine System in Humans.
AB  - The gastrointestinal (GI) tract exhibits an enormous surface area that consists
      mostly of absorptive enterocytes. Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) are found
      scattered along the GI tract between absorptive enterocytes and other secretory
      cells, and comprise around 1% of the epithelial cell population. Interestingly,
      they develop from the same crypt stem cell as the other absorptive or secretory
      cells of the gut. EECs differentiate along the crypt villus axis and are renewed
      every 4-6 days, and hence possess a high plasticity. They constitute the largest
      endocrine system in the human body by secreting multiple peptide hormones to
      control, for example, postprandial digestion, insulin homeostasis, food intake,
      and gut motility. For this purpose, most EECs exhibit luminal sensors that detect
      the GI tract content. Thereafter, they may act either in a classical endocrine
      fashion, or by paracrine effects on nearby neural and immune cells. This creates
      a pivotal role for EECs to influence the GI immune system and the enteric nervous
      system. In this chapter, the anatomical characteristics, development,
      differentiation and maturation of EECs are described, and their important
      biological potential illustrated as part of the gut interacting sensory system.

PMID- 28873381
TI  - The Changing Concept of Gut Endocrinology.
AB  - Gastrointestinal hormones are released from enteroendocrine cells in the
      digestive tract. More than 30 hormone genes are expressed, which make the gut the
      largest endocrine organ in the body. At present, it is feasible to conceive the
      hormones under 5 headings: the structural homology groups most hormones into 9
      families, each of which is assumed to originate from a single gene. Today's
      hormone gene often has multiple phenotypes due to alternative splicing, tandem
      organization or differentiated maturation of the prohormone. By these mechanisms,
      more than 100 different hormonal peptides are released from the gut. Gut hormones
      are also widely expressed in extraintestinal cells. These cells may release
      different fragments of the same prohormone due to cell-specific processing
      pathways. Moreover, endocrine cells, immune cells, neurons, myocytes, kidney
      cells, sperm cells and cancer cells secrete gut peptides in different ways, so
      the same peptide may act for instance as a hormone, a neurotransmitter, a
      cytokine, a growth factor or a fertility factor. The targets of gastrointestinal
      hormones are specific G-protein coupled receptors that are expressed in the cell
      membrane all over the body. Thus, each gut hormone constitutes a regulatory
      system operating in the whole organism.

PMID- 28873383
TI  - Incretins and Their Endocrine and Metabolic Functions.
AB  - Incretins are hormones secreted into the blood stream from the gut mucosa in
      response to nutrient intake. They have been characterized based on their capacity
      to lower blood glucose levels. The more potent reduction of blood glucose coupled
      to a more intensive stimulation of insulin secretion, in response to oral glucose
      uptake, as compared to intravenous glucose infusion has further been termed the
      "incretin effect." As a prototype incretin hormone, the biology of glucagon-like
      peptide 1 (GLP-1) has been intensively studied. GLP-1 actions are mediated
      through cyclic adenosine monophosphate-coupled membrane receptors. Classical
      physiological effects involve stimulation of insulin secretion from pancreatic
      beta cells and reduction of glucagon secretion from pancreatic alpha cells,
      inhibition of gastric motility, and increase of satiety with reduced food uptake.
      The understanding of these metabolic functions has led to the notion that
      incretin hormones, and specifically GLP-1, would represent ideal antidiabetic
      treatment options. As native GLP-1 is degraded by dipeptidyl peptidase type 4
      (DPP-4) within minutes, other pharmacological approaches to exploit GLP-1 actions
      for the treatment of type 2 diabetes have been developed. These include DPP-4
      inhibitors as oral medications and GLP-1 receptor agonists (incretin mimetics) as
      peptide compounds to be injected.

PMID- 28873384
TI  - Role of Incretin Hormones in Bowel Diseases.
AB  - Enteroendocrine cells (EEC) have been studied extensively for their ability to
      regulate gastrointestinal motility and insulin release by secretion of peptide
      hormones. In particular, the L cell-derived incretin glucagon-like peptide 1 has
      gained enormous attention due to its insulinotropic action and relevance in the
      treatment of type 2 diabetes. Yet, accumulating data indicates a critical role
      for EEC and incretins in metabolic adaptation and in orchestrating immune
      responses beyond blood glucose control. EEC actively sense the lamina propria and
      luminal environment including the microbiota via receptors and transporters,
      subsequently mediating signals by secreting hormones and cytokines. Data indicate
      that immune cells and cytokine-mediated signaling impacts EEC numbers and
      function during infection and chronic inflammation of the gut, suggesting EEC not
      only to play a role in these pathologies but also being a target of inflammatory
      processes. This review presents data on the interrelation of incretins and
      inflammatory signaling. It focuses on the impact of intestinal inflammation, in
      particular inflammatory bowel disease, on EEC and the potential role of EEC and
      incretins in these pathologies. Furthermore, it highlights endoplasmic reticulum
      unfolded protein response, cytokines and the intestinal microbiota as possible
      targets of inflammatory and EEC signaling.

PMID- 28873385
TI  - Ghrelin and Growth.
AB  - Ghrelin is a pleiotropic hormone, whose effect on growth hormone secretion,
      through the growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) receptor, is one of its many
      actions. Relationships between GHS receptor gene variants and human height, both
      in healthy individuals and in patients with growth disorders have been
      identified. These include constitutional delay in growth and puberty, idiopathic
      short stature, and isolated growth hormone deficiency. In this review, we provide
      an overview of the role of ghrelin in growth.

PMID- 28873386
TI  - Development of Sweet Taste Perception: Implications for Artificial Sweetener Use.
AB  - Humans have an innate liking for sweetness, which may have an evolutionary basis.
      Sweetness typically signals the presence of calories and nutrients and thus,
      universal liking for sweet taste once served to support survival. In the modern
      food supply, however, sweetness is often delivered via added sugars and
      sweeteners devoid of other beneficial nutrients. Nonnutritive sweeteners (NNS)
      provide sweetness with no or few calories, and therefore may offer a potential
      strategy to maintain food and beverage palatability, while reducing the caloric
      content. Despite marked increases in NNS use, their metabolic and health effects
      are not well-characterized, and particularly little is known about their effects
      when exposure starts early in life. Herein, we critically review existing data on
      NNS exposure in utero, during lactation, and throughout childhood and adolescence
      with respect to taste preferences, weight trajectory, and development of chronic
      disease. We specifically focus on potential mechanisms through which sweetness
      exposure during early development may affect key metabolic outcomes.

PMID- 28873387
TI  - Just a Gut Feeling: Central Nervous Effects of Peripheral Gastrointestinal
      Hormones.
AB  - Despite greater health education, obesity remains one of the greatest health
      challenges currently facing the world. The prevalence of obesity among children
      and adolescents and the rising rates of prediabetes and diabetes are of
      particular concern. A deep understanding of regulatory pathways and development
      of new anti-obesity drugs with increased efficacy and safety are of utmost
      necessity. The 2 major biological players in the regulation of food intake are
      the gut and the brain as peptides released from the gut in response to meals
      convey information about the energy needs to brain centers of energy homeostasis.
      There is evidence that gut hormones not only pass the blood-brain barrier and
      bind to receptors located in different brain areas relevant for body weight
      regulation, but some are also expressed in the brain as part of hedonic and
      homeostatic pathways. Regarding obesity interventions, the only truly effective
      treatment for obesity is bariatric surgery, the long-term benefits of which may
      actually involve increased activity of gut hormones including peptide YY3-36 and
      glucagon-like peptide 1. This review discusses critical gut-hormones involved in
      the regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis and their effects on
      peripheral tissues versus central nervous system actions.

PMID- 28873388
TI  - Gastrointestinal Endocrinology in Bariatric Surgery.
AB  - The long-lasting weight-reducing effect of bariatric surgical procedures cannot
      simply be explained by the malabsorption of nutrients and the subsequent energy
      deficit due to this malabsorption. Clinical studies have shown that the
      reorganization of the anatomy of the gut and the subsequent alterations of
      gastrointestinal physiology have a large impact on the secretion and function of
      gastrointestinal hormones, which regulate hunger and satiety. These changes have
      been named the BRAVE effect: <under>b</under>ile flow alteration,
      <under>r</under>eduction of gastric size, <under>a</under>natomical gut
      rearrangement and altered flow of nutrients, <under>v</under>agal manipulation,
      and <under>e</under>nteric gut modulation. In addition, the metabolic
      improvements, for example, increased insulin secretion and improved glucose
      sensitivity after bariatric surgery cannot simply be explained by the weight loss
      achieved by the operation. Several metabolic improvements occur directly after
      bariatric surgery even before significant weight loss has occurred. Clinical
      studies revealed that the altered gastrointestinal physiology and the
      postoperative profile of gastrointestinal hormones are responsible for these
      metabolic alterations. Further insights into the changes of gastrointestinal
      hormone profiles before and after bariatric surgery may open new ways to prevent
      the surgical procedure and probably obtain equivalent results by nutraceuticals.

PMID- 28873389
TI  - Treatment of Diabetes and Obesity by Rationally Designed Peptide Agonists
      Functioning at Multiple Metabolic Receptors.
AB  - Obesity and its comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes constitute major worldwide
      health threats, and the identification of an effective medical intervention has
      emerged as a global priority. The limited effectiveness of historical, anti
      obesity treatments is commonly attributed to the complexity of the disease and
      the redundancy of metabolic regulatory mechanisms that sustain body weight. At
      the forefront of obesity research is the development of combinational drug
      therapies that simultaneously target multiple regulatory pathways, which promote
      dysfunctional metabolism. Recently, molecularly crafted unimolecular "multi
      agonism" of balanced activity at 3 key receptors involved in metabolism and
      specifically the glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 receptor, glucose-dependent
      insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor and glucagon receptor was reported as
      superior to conventional monoagonist therapy. These mixed peptide agonists are
      designed to pharmacologically integrate the insulinotropic and anorexigenic
      effects of GLP-1, the thermogenic and lipolytic activities of glucagon, and the
      insulinotropic and insulin sensitizing properties of GIP. The molecular mechanism
      of these purposefully promiscuous ligands is not completely understood, however,
      recent studies in pancreatic beta cells point to the prospect of a complex
      signaling network that can magnify the signaling of multi-agonist ligands. The
      activation of this signalosome might explain the additional therapeutic benefit
      inherent to simultaneous cellular activation through multiple metabolic
      receptors.

PMID- 28873390
TI  - Gastrointestinal Hormones Induced the Birth of Endocrinology.
AB  - The physiological studies by British physiologists William Maddock Bayliss and
      Ernest Henry Starling, at the beginning of the last century, demonstrated the
      existence of specific messenger molecules (hormones) circulating in the blood
      that regulate the organ function and physiological mechanisms. These findings led
      to the concept of endocrinology. The first 2 hormones were secretin, discovered
      in 1902, and gastrin, discovered in 1905. Both hormones that have been described
      are produced in the gut. This chapter summarizes the history around the discovery
      of these 2 hormones, which is perceived as the birth of endocrinology. It is
      noteworthy that after the discovery of these 2 gastrointestinal hormones, many
      other hormones were detected outside the gut, and thereafter gut hormones faded
      from both the clinical and scientific spotlight. Only recently, the clinical
      importance of the gut as the body's largest endocrine organ producing a large
      variety of hormones has been realized. Gastrointestinal hormones are essential
      regulators of metabolism, growth, development and behavior and are therefore the
      focus of a modern pediatric endocrinologist.

PMID- 28873391
TI  - High prevalence of thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in early childhood among a
      nationally representative sample of Cambodian women of childbearing age and their
      children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thiamine deficiency is thought to be an issue in Cambodia and
      throughout Southeast Asia due to frequent clinical reports of infantile beriberi.
      However the extent of this public health issue is currently unknown due to a lack
      of population-representative data. Therefore we assessed the thiamine status
      (measured as erythrocyte thiamine diphosphate concentrations; eThDP) among a
      representative sample of Cambodian women of childbearing age (15-49 y) and their
      young children (6-69 mo). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: Samples for this cross
      sectional analysis were collected as part of a national micronutrient survey
      linked to the Cambodian Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) 2014. One-sixth of
      households taking part in the CDHS were randomly selected and re-visited for
      additional blood sampling for eThDP analysis (719 women and 761 children).
      Thiamine status was assessed using different cut-offs from literature. Women were
      mean (SD) 30 (6) y, and children (46% girls) were 41 (17) mo. Women had lower
      mean (95% CI) eThDP of 150 nmol/L (146-153) compared to children, 174 nmol/L (171
      179; P < 0.001). Using the most conservative cut-off of eThDP < 120 nmol/L, 27%
      of mothers and 15% of children were thiamine deficient, however prevalence rates
      of deficiency were as high as 78% for mothers and 58% for children using a cut
      off of < 180 nmol/L. Thiamine deficiency was especially prevalent among infants
      aged 6-12 mo: 38% were deficient using the most conservative cut-off (< 120
      nmol/L). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: There is a lack of consensus on thiamine
      status cut-offs; more research is required to set clinically meaningful cut-offs.
      Despite this, there is strong evidence of suboptimal thiamine status among
      Cambodian mothers and their children, with infants <12 mo at the highest risk.
      Based on eThDP from this nationally-representative sample, immediate action is
      required to address thiamine deficiency in Cambodia, and likely throughout
      Southeast Asia.

PMID- 28873392
TI  - An operational approach to high resolution agro-ecological zoning in West-Africa.
AB  - The objective of this work is to develop a simple methodology for high resolution
      crop suitability analysis under current and future climate, easily applicable and
      useful in Least Developed Countries. The approach addresses both regional
      planning in the context of climate change projections and pre-emptive short-term
      rural extension interventions based on same-year agricultural season forecasts,
      while implemented with off-the-shelf resources. The developed tools are applied
      operationally in a case-study developed in three regions of Guinea-Bissau and the
      obtained results, as well as the advantages and limitations of methods applied,
      are discussed. In this paper we show how a simple approach can easily generate
      information on climate vulnerability and how it can be operationally used in
      rural extension services.

PMID- 28873393
TI  - Impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy cycles
      on survival of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is currently no consensus regarding the optimal number of
      chemotherapy cycles to be administered before and after interval debulking
      surgery (IDS) in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. This study aimed to
      evaluate the impact of the number of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and
      postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (POAC) cycles on the survival of patients
      with advanced ovarian cancer undergoing NAC/IDS/POAC. METHODS: We retrospectively
      reviewed data from 203 patients who underwent NAC/IDS/POAC at Yonsei Cancer
      Hospital between 2006 and 2016. All patients underwent taxane plus carboplatin
      chemotherapy for NAC and POAC. The patient outcomes were analyzed according to
      the number of NAC, POAC, and total chemotherapy (NAC+POAC) cycles. RESULTS:
      Patients who received fewer than 6 cycles of total chemotherapy (n = 8) had
      poorer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) than those
      completing at least 6 cycles (p = 0.005 and p<0.001, respectively). Among
      patients who completed at least 6 cycles of total chemotherapy (n = 189), Kaplan
      Meier analysis revealed no significant difference in either PFS or OS according
      to the number of NAC cycles (1-3 vs. >=4; p = 0.136 and p = 0.267, respectively).
      Among patients who experienced complete remission after 3 cycles of POAC (n =
      98), the addition of further POAC cycles did not improve the PFS or OS (3 vs.
      >=4; p = 0.641 and p = 0.104, respectively). CONCLUSION: IDS after 4 cycles of
      NAC may be a safe and effective option when completing 6 cycles of total
      chemotherapy. Furthermore, the addition of more than 3 cycles of POAC does not
      appear to influence the survival of patients achieving completion remission after
      3 cycles of POAC.

PMID- 28873394
TI  - Systematic review of clinical trials assessing the therapeutic efficacy of
      visceral leishmaniasis treatments: A first step to assess the feasibility of
      establishing an individual patient data sharing platform.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 cases of visceral
      leishmaniasis (VL) annually. A variety of factors are taken into account when
      considering the best therapeutic options to cure a patient and reduce the risk of
      resistance, including geographical area, malnourishment and HIV coinfection.
      Pooled analyses combine data from many studies to answer specific scientific
      questions that cannot be answered with individual studies alone. However, the
      heterogeneity of study design, data collection, and analysis often makes direct
      comparison difficult. Individual Participant Data (IPD) files can be standardised
      and analysed, allowing detailed analysis of this merged larger pool, but only a
      small fraction of systematic reviews and meta-analyses currently employ pooled
      analysis of IPD. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify
      published studies and studies reported in clinical trial registries to assess the
      feasibility of developing a VL data sharing platform to facilitate an IPD-based
      analysis of clinical trial data. Studies conducted between 1983 to 2015 that
      reported treatment outcome were eligible. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: From the 2,271
      documents screened, 145 published VL clinical trials were identified, with data
      from 26,986 patients. Methodologies varied for diagnosis and treatment outcomes,
      but overall the volume of data potentially available on different drugs and dose
      regimens identified hundreds or possibly thousands of patients per arm suitable
      for IPD pooled meta-analyses. CONCLUSIONS: A VL data sharing platform would
      provide an opportunity to maximise scientific use of available data to enable
      assessment of treatment efficacy, contribute to evidence-based clinical
      management and guide optimal prospective data collection.

PMID- 28873395
TI  - Comparing demersal megafaunal species diversity along the depth gradient within
      the South Aegean and Cretan Seas (Eastern Mediterranean).
AB  - Knowledge on biodiversity patterns of demersal megafaunal species in the
      Mediterranean and particularly in its eastern basin is still very scarce. In the
      present study, fine-scale diversity patterns in relation to depth were analyzed
      for three major megafaunal groups (fish, cephalopods and crustaceans) in three
      subareas of the eastern Mediterranean (Crete, Cyclades and Dodecanese islands).
      The analysis was based on data from the Mediterranean International Trawl Survey
      conducted during 2005-2014 and the relationship between depth and two different
      diversity measures (species richness and Shannon-Weaver) was examined using
      Generalized Additive Modeling (GAM) techniques. Species richness of fish
      decreased with depth in two of the three subareas (Cyclades, Dodecanese), while
      the opposite was true for crustaceans in all subareas. Cephalopods had higher
      species richness at intermediate depths, near the shelf break. Significant
      differences among subareas were found, with Crete showing a distinct species
      richness-depth pattern, which was more obvious for fish and cephalopods. The
      differences among subareas were also highlighted based on the occurrence of alien
      species of Indo-Pacific origin, which were more frequent in Crete. Our results
      suggested that the importance of depth-related factors in structuring communities
      was higher for cephalopods and less important for fish, and that Crete showed a
      distinct diversity-depth relationship, a fact that can be attributed to its
      specific geographical and oceanographic characteristics. These results support
      the current GFCM/FAO's characterization of Crete as a unique geographic subarea.
      The findings of the study contribute to understanding the causes of underlying
      diversity patterns and would assist various environmental management actions,
      particularly those related to the establishment of marine-protected areas.

PMID- 28873396
TI  - A mouse mastitis model to study the effects of the intramammary infusion of a
      food-grade Lactococcus lactis strain.
AB  - Lactococcus lactis is one of the most important microorganisms in the dairy
      industry and has "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) status. L. lactis belongs
      to the group of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and is encountered in a wide range of
      environments. Recently, the use of the intramammary infusion of a live culture of
      LAB has been investigated as a new antibiotic alternative for treating mastitis
      in dairy ruminants. Controversial results are described in literature regarding
      its efficacy and safety. In this study we conducted in-depth investigation of the
      mammary gland immune response induced by intramammary inoculum of a live culture
      of L. lactis LMG 7930 using the mouse mastitis model. Overnight cultures either
      of L. lactis (~ 107 CFU) or of the mastitis pathogens Staphylococcus chromogenes
      (~ 105 CFU) or S. aureus (~ 102 CFU/ml) were injected into the mouse inguinal
      glands. A double injection, consisting of S. chromogenes first and then L.
      lactis, was also investigated. Bacterial recovery from the gland and inflammatory
      cell infiltration were assessed. L. lactis-treated and control glands were
      analysed for proinflammatory cytokine production. Microbiological results showed
      that L. lactis was able to survive in the mammary gland 24 h post infection, as
      were the mastitis pathogens S. chromogenes and S. aureus. L. lactis reduced S.
      chromogenes survival in the glands and increased its own survival ability by
      coexisting with the pathogen. Histology showed that L. lactis-treated glands
      presented variable histological features, ranging from undamaged tissue with no
      inflammatory cell infiltrate to severe PMN infiltrate with focal areas of tissue
      damage. S. aureus-treated glands showed the most severe histological grade of
      inflammation despite the fact that the inoculum size was the smallest. In
      contrast, most S. chromogenes-treated glands showed normal structures with no
      infiltration or lesions. Significant increases in IL-1beta and TNF-alpha levels
      were also found in L. lactis-inoculated glands. The above findings seem to
      suggest that food-grade L. lactis at a high-inoculum dose such as an overnight
      culture may elicit a suppurative inflammatory response in the mammary gland, thus
      becoming a potential mastitis-causing pathogen. Because of the unpredictable
      potential of L. lactis in acting as a potential mastitis pathogen, this organism
      cannot be considered a safe treatment for bovine mastitis.

PMID- 28873397
TI  - Long-term intra-individual reproducibility of heart rate dynamics during exercise
      and recovery in the UK Biobank cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The heart rate (HR) response to exercise provides useful information
      about the autonomic function and has prognostic value, but its reproducibility
      over a long period of time, a critical requirement for using it as a clinical
      biomarker, is undetermined. AIM: To determine the intra-individual
      reproducibility of HR dynamics during sub-maximum exercise and one minute
      recovery. METHODS: 1187 individuals from the Cardio physical fitness assessment
      test of the UK Biobank repeated a standard exercise stress test twice (recall
      time 34.2 +/- 2.8 months) and were prospectively studied. RESULTS: 821
      individuals complied with inclusion criteria for reproducibility analysis,
      including peak workload differences between assessments <=10 W. Intra-individual
      correlation between HR profile during the first and the second assessment was
      very high and higher than inter-individual correlation (0.92+/-0.08 vs 0.87+/
      0.11, p<0.01). Intra-individual correlation of indices describing HR dynamics
      was: rho = 0.81 for maximum HR during exercise; rho = 0.71 for minimum HR during
      recovery; rho = 0.70 for HR changes during both exercise and recovery; Intra
      individual correlation was higher for these indices of HR dynamics than for
      resting HR (rho = 0.64). Bland-Altman plots demonstrated good agreement between
      HR indices estimated during the first and second assessment. A small but
      consistent bias was registered for all repeated measurements. The intra
      individual consistency of abnormal values was about 60-70%. CONCLUSIONS: The HR
      dynamics during exercise and recovery are reproducible over a period of 3 years,
      with moderate to strong intra-individual reproducibility of abnormal values.

PMID- 28873398
TI  - Combining dispersal, landscape connectivity and habitat suitability to assess
      climate-induced changes in the distribution of Cunningham's skink, Egernia
      cunninghami.
AB  - The ability of species to track their climate niche is dependent on their
      dispersal potential and the connectivity of the landscape matrix linking current
      and future suitable habitat. However, studies modeling climate-driven range
      shifts rarely address the movement of species across landscapes realistically,
      often assuming "unlimited" or "no" dispersal. Here, we incorporate dispersal rate
      and landscape connectivity with a species distribution model (Maxent) to assess
      the extent to which the Cunningham's skink (Egernia cunninghami) may be capable
      of tracking spatial shifts in suitable habitat as climate changes. Our model was
      projected onto four contrasting, but equally plausible, scenarios describing
      futures that are (relative to now) hot/wet, warm/dry, hot/with similar
      precipitation and warm/wet, at six time horizons with decadal intervals (2020
      2070) and at two spatial resolutions: 1 km and 250 m. The size of suitable
      habitat was projected to decline 23-63% at 1 km and 26-64% at 250 m, by 2070.
      Combining Maxent output with the dispersal rate of the species and connectivity
      of the intervening landscape matrix showed that most current populations in
      regions projected to become unsuitable in the medium to long term, will be unable
      to shift the distance necessary to reach suitable habitat. In particular,
      numerous populations currently inhabiting the trailing edge of the species' range
      are highly unlikely to be able to disperse fast enough to track climate change.
      Unless these populations are capable of adaptation they are likely to be
      extirpated. We note, however, that the core of the species distribution remains
      suitable across the broad spectrum of climate scenarios considered. Our findings
      highlight challenges faced by philopatric species and the importance of
      adaptation for the persistence of peripheral populations under climate change.

PMID- 28873400
TI  - SisLeish: A multi-country standardized information system to monitor the status
      of Leishmaniasis in the Americas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the Americas, leishmaniasis is endemic in 18 countries, and from
      2001 through 2015, 17 countries reported 843,931 cases of cutaneous and
      mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, and 12 countries reported 52,176 cases of visceral
      leishmaniasis. A Regional Information System (SisLeish) was created in order to
      provide knowledge of the distribution and tendency of this disease to analyze and
      monitor the leishmaniasis status. This article analyses the performance and
      progress of SisLeish from 2012-2015. METHODOLOGY: The performance of SisLeish was
      evaluated by country adhesion, data completeness and delay in entering the data,
      and also by the SWOT technique. Furthermore, we outlined the structure and modus
      operandi of the system and indicators utilized. RESULTS: In 2012, only 18% of the
      countries entered the data in SisLeish before the deadline, where 66.7% and 50%
      of the countries with autochthonous CL/ML and VL reported their cases to the
      system, respectively. Whereas in 2015, 59% of the countries reached the deadline,
      where 94.4% and 58.3% of the countries reported their CL/ML and VL data,
      respectively. Regarding data completeness, there was great progress for different
      variables since its launch, such as gender, which had an approximately 100%
      improvement from 2012 to 2015. The SWOT analysis of SisLeish showed 12 strengths,
      11 opportunities, seven weaknesses and six threats. CONCLUSIONS: From 2012-2015
      there has been an improvement in the adhesion, quality and data completeness,
      showing the effort of the majority of the countries to enhance their national
      database. The SWOT analysis demonstrated that strengths and opportunities exceed
      weaknesses and threats; however, it highlighted the system frailties and
      challenges that need to be addressed. Furthermore, it has stimulated several
      National Programs to advance their surveillance system. Therefore, SisLeish has
      become an essential tool to prioritize areas, assist in decision-making
      processes, and to guide surveillance and control actions.

PMID- 28873399
TI  - Systematic analysis of transcription start sites in avian development.
AB  - Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) in combination with single-molecule
      sequencing technology allows precision mapping of transcription start sites
      (TSSs) and genome-wide capture of promoter activities in differentiated and
      steady state cell populations. Much less is known about whether TSS profiling can
      characterize diverse and non-steady state cell populations, such as the
      approximately 400 transitory and heterogeneous cell types that arise during
      ontogeny of vertebrate animals. To gain such insight, we used the chick model and
      performed CAGE-based TSS analysis on embryonic samples covering the full 3-week
      developmental period. In total, 31,863 robust TSS peaks (>1 tag per million
      [TPM]) were mapped to the latest chicken genome assembly, of which 34% to 46%
      were active in any given developmental stage. ZENBU, a web-based, open-source
      platform, was used for interactive data exploration. TSSs of genes critical for
      lineage differentiation could be precisely mapped and their activities tracked
      throughout development, suggesting that non-steady state and heterogeneous cell
      populations are amenable to CAGE-based transcriptional analysis. Our study also
      uncovered a large set of extremely stable housekeeping TSSs and many novel stage
      specific ones. We furthermore demonstrated that TSS mapping could expedite motif
      based promoter analysis for regulatory modules associated with stage-specific and
      housekeeping genes. Finally, using Brachyury as an example, we provide evidence
      that precise TSS mapping in combination with Clustered Regularly Interspaced
      Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR)-on technology enables us, for the first time,
      to efficiently target endogenous avian genes for transcriptional activation.
      Taken together, our results represent the first report of genome-wide TSS mapping
      in birds and the first systematic developmental TSS analysis in any amniote
      species (birds and mammals). By facilitating promoter-based molecular analysis
      and genetic manipulation, our work also underscores the value of avian models in
      unravelling the complex regulatory mechanism of cell lineage specification during
      amniote development.

PMID- 28873401
TI  - Can heat waves change the trophic role of the world's most invasive crayfish?
      Diet shifts in Procambarus clarkii.
AB  - In the Mediterranean basin, the globally increasing temperatures are expected to
      be accompanied by longer heat waves. Commonly assumed to benefit cold-limited
      invasive alien species, these climatic changes may also change their feeding
      preferences, especially in the case of omnivorous ectotherms. We investigated
      heat wave effects on diet choice, growth and energy reserves in the invasive red
      swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii. In laboratory experiments, we fed juvenile
      and adult crayfish on animal, plant or mixed diets and exposed them to a short or
      a long heat wave. We then measured crayfish survival, growth, body reserves and
      Fulton's condition index. Diet choices of the crayfish maintained on the mixed
      diet were estimated using stable isotopes (13C and 15N). The results suggest a
      decreased efficiency of carnivorous diets at higher temperatures, as juveniles
      fed on the animal diet were unable to maintain high growth rates in the long heat
      wave; and a decreased efficiency of herbivorous diets at lower temperatures, as
      juveniles in the cold accumulated less body reserves when fed on the plant diet.
      Heat wave treatments increased the assimilation of plant material, especially in
      juveniles, allowing them to sustain high growth rates in the long heat wave.
      Contrary to our expectations, crayfish performance decreased in the long heat
      wave, suggesting that Mediterranean summer heat waves may have negative effects
      on P. clarkii and that they are unlikely to boost its populations in this region.
      Although uncertain, it is possible that the greater assimilation of the plant
      diet resulted from changes in crayfish feeding preferences, raising the
      hypotheses that i) heat waves may change the predominant impacts of this keystone
      species and ii) that by altering species' trophic niches, climate change may
      alter the main impacts of invasive alien species.

PMID- 28873402
TI  - Gene-environment interaction study for BMI reveals interactions between genetic
      factors and physical activity, alcohol consumption and socioeconomic status.
AB  - Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of
      genetic loci to be associated with body mass index (BMI) and risk of obesity.
      Genetic effects can differ between individuals depending on lifestyle or
      environmental factors due to gene-environment interactions. In this study, we
      examine gene-environment interactions in 362,496 unrelated participants with
      Caucasian ancestry from the UK Biobank resource. A total of 94 BMI-associated
      SNPs, selected from a previous GWAS on BMI, were used to construct weighted
      genetic scores for BMI (GSBMI). Linear regression modeling was used to estimate
      the effect of gene-environment interactions on BMI for 131 lifestyle factors
      related to: dietary habits, smoking and alcohol consumption, physical activity,
      socioeconomic status, mental health, sleeping patterns, as well as female
      specific factors such as menopause and childbirth. In total, 15 lifestyle factors
      were observed to interact with GSBMI, of which alcohol intake frequency, usual
      walking pace, and Townsend deprivation index, a measure of socioeconomic status,
      were all highly significant (p = 1.45*10-29, p = 3.83*10-26, p = 4.66*10-11,
      respectively). Interestingly, the frequency of alcohol consumption, rather than
      the total weekly amount resulted in a significant interaction. The FTO locus was
      the strongest single locus interacting with any of the lifestyle factors.
      However, 13 significant interactions were also observed after omitting the FTO
      locus from the genetic score. Our analyses indicate that many lifestyle factors
      modify the genetic effects on BMI with some groups of individuals having more
      than double the effect of the genetic score. However, the underlying causal
      mechanisms of gene-environmental interactions are difficult to deduce from cross
      sectional data alone and controlled experiments are required to fully
      characterise the causal factors.

PMID- 28873403
TI  - DeepPep: Deep proteome inference from peptide profiles.
AB  - Protein inference, the identification of the protein set that is the origin of a
      given peptide profile, is a fundamental challenge in proteomics. We present
      DeepPep, a deep-convolutional neural network framework that predicts the protein
      set from a proteomics mixture, given the sequence universe of possible proteins
      and a target peptide profile. In its core, DeepPep quantifies the change in
      probabilistic score of peptide-spectrum matches in the presence or absence of a
      specific protein, hence selecting as candidate proteins with the largest impact
      to the peptide profile. Application of the method across datasets argues for its
      competitive predictive ability (AUC of 0.80+/-0.18, AUPR of 0.84+/-0.28) in
      inferring proteins without need of peptide detectability on which the most
      competitive methods rely. We find that the convolutional neural network
      architecture outperforms the traditional artificial neural network architectures
      without convolution layers in protein inference. We expect that similar deep
      learning architectures that allow learning nonlinear patterns can be further
      extended to problems in metagenome profiling and cell type inference. The source
      code of DeepPep and the benchmark datasets used in this study are available at
      https://deeppep.github.io/DeepPep/.

PMID- 28873404
TI  - Fibroblast growth factor signaling is required for early somatic gonad
      development in zebrafish.
AB  - The vertebrate ovary and testis develop from a sexually indifferent gonad. During
      early development of the organism, primordial germ cells (the gamete lineage) and
      somatic gonad cells coalesce and begin to undergo growth and morphogenesis to
      form this bipotential gonad. Although this aspect of development is requisite for
      a fertile adult, little is known about the genetic regulation of early
      gonadogenesis in any vertebrate. Here, we provide evidence that fibroblast growth
      factor (Fgf) signaling is required for the early growth phase of a vertebrate
      bipotential gonad. Based on mutational analysis in zebrafish, we show that the
      Fgf ligand 24 (Fgf24) is required for proliferation, differentiation, and
      morphogenesis of the early somatic gonad, and as a result, most fgf24 mutants are
      sterile as adults. Additionally, we describe the ultrastructural elements of the
      early zebrafish gonad and show that distinct somatic cell populations can be
      identified soon after the gonad forms. Specifically, we show that fgf24 is
      expressed in an epithelial population of early somatic gonad cells that surrounds
      an inner population of mesenchymal somatic gonad cells that are in direct contact
      with the germ cells, and that fgf24 is required for stratification of the somatic
      tissue. Furthermore, based on gene expression analysis, we find that
      differentiation of the inner mesenchymal somatic gonad cells into functional cell
      types in the larval and early juvenile-stage gonad is dependent on Fgf24
      signaling. Finally, we argue that the role of Fgf24 in zebrafish is functionally
      analogous to the role of tetrapod FGF9 in early gonad development.

PMID- 28873405
TI  - kWIP: The k-mer weighted inner product, a de novo estimator of genetic
      similarity.
AB  - Modern genomics techniques generate overwhelming quantities of data. Extracting
      population genetic variation demands computationally efficient methods to
      determine genetic relatedness between individuals (or "samples") in an unbiased
      manner, preferably de novo. Rapid estimation of genetic relatedness directly from
      sequencing data has the potential to overcome reference genome bias, and to
      verify that individuals belong to the correct genetic lineage before conclusions
      are drawn using mislabelled, or misidentified samples. We present the k-mer
      Weighted Inner Product (kWIP), an assembly-, and alignment-free estimator of
      genetic similarity. kWIP combines a probabilistic data structure with a novel
      metric, the weighted inner product (WIP), to efficiently calculate pairwise
      similarity between sequencing runs from their k-mer counts. It produces a
      distance matrix, which can then be further analysed and visualised. Our method
      does not require prior knowledge of the underlying genomes and applications
      include establishing sample identity and detecting mix-up, non-obvious genomic
      variation, and population structure. We show that kWIP can reconstruct the true
      relatedness between samples from simulated populations. By re-analysing several
      published datasets we show that our results are consistent with marker-based
      analyses. kWIP is written in C++, licensed under the GNU GPL, and is available
      from https://github.com/kdmurray91/kwip.

PMID- 28873406
TI  - Estimating short-term synaptic plasticity from pre- and postsynaptic spiking.
AB  - Short-term synaptic plasticity (STP) critically affects the processing of
      information in neuronal circuits by reversibly changing the effective strength of
      connections between neurons on time scales from milliseconds to a few seconds.
      STP is traditionally studied using intracellular recordings of postsynaptic
      potentials or currents evoked by presynaptic spikes. However, STP also affects
      the statistics of postsynaptic spikes. Here we present two model-based approaches
      for estimating synaptic weights and short-term plasticity from pre- and
      postsynaptic spike observations alone. We extend a generalized linear model (GLM)
      that predicts postsynaptic spiking as a function of the observed pre- and
      postsynaptic spikes and allow the connection strength (coupling term in the GLM)
      to vary as a function of time based on the history of presynaptic spikes. Our
      first model assumes that STP follows a Tsodyks-Markram description of vesicle
      depletion and recovery. In a second model, we introduce a functional description
      of STP where we estimate the coupling term as a biophysically unrestrained
      function of the presynaptic inter-spike intervals. To validate the models, we
      test the accuracy of STP estimation using the spiking of pre- and postsynaptic
      neurons with known synaptic dynamics. We first test our models using the
      responses of layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons to simulated presynaptic input with
      different types of STP, and then use simulated spike trains to examine the
      effects of spike-frequency adaptation, stochastic vesicle release, spike sorting
      errors, and common input. We find that, using only spike observations, both model
      based methods can accurately reconstruct the time-varying synaptic weights of
      presynaptic inputs for different types of STP. Our models also capture the
      differences in postsynaptic spike responses to presynaptic spikes following short
      vs long inter-spike intervals, similar to results reported for thalamocortical
      connections. These models may thus be useful tools for characterizing short-term
      plasticity from multi-electrode spike recordings in vivo.

PMID- 28873407
TI  - Photo-affinity labelling and biochemical analyses identify the target of
      trypanocidal simplified natural product analogues.
AB  - Current drugs to treat African sleeping sickness are inadequate and new therapies
      are urgently required. As part of a medicinal chemistry programme based upon the
      simplification of acetogenin-type ether scaffolds, we previously reported the
      promising trypanocidal activity of compound 1, a bis-tetrahydropyran 1,4-triazole
      (B-THP-T) inhibitor. This study aims to identify the protein target(s) of this
      class of compound in Trypanosoma brucei to understand its mode of action and aid
      further structural optimisation. We used compound 3, a diazirine- and alkyne
      containing bi-functional photo-affinity probe analogue of our lead B-THP-T,
      compound 1, to identify potential targets of our lead compound in the procyclic
      form T. brucei. Bi-functional compound 3 was UV cross-linked to its target(s) in
      vivo and biotin affinity or Cy5.5 reporter tags were subsequently appended by
      Cu(II)-catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition. The biotinylated protein adducts
      were isolated with streptavidin affinity beads and subsequent LC-MSMS identified
      the FoF1-ATP synthase (mitochondrial complex V) as a potential target. This
      target identification was confirmed using various different approaches. We show
      that (i) compound 1 decreases cellular ATP levels (ii) by inhibiting oxidative
      phosphorylation (iii) at the FoF1-ATP synthase. Furthermore, the use of GFP-PTP
      tagged subunits of the FoF1-ATP synthase, shows that our compounds bind
      specifically to both the alpha- and beta-subunits of the ATP synthase. The FoF1
      ATP synthase is a target of our simplified acetogenin-type analogues. This
      mitochondrial complex is essential in both procyclic and bloodstream forms of T.
      brucei and its identification as our target will enable further inhibitor
      optimisation towards future drug discovery. Furthermore, the photo-affinity
      labeling technique described here can be readily applied to other drugs of
      unknown targets to identify their modes of action and facilitate more broadly
      therapeutic drug design in any pathogen or disease model.

PMID- 28873408
TI  - "We need people to collaborate together against this disease": A qualitative
      exploration of perceptions of dengue fever control in caregivers' of children
      under 5 years, in the Peruvian Amazon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dengue Fever presents a significant and growing burden of disease to
      endemic countries, where children are at particular risk. Worldwide, no effective
      anti-viral treatment has been identified, thus vector control is key for disease
      prevention, particularly in Peru where no vaccine is currently available. This
      qualitative study aimed to explore the perceptions of dengue control in
      caregivers' of children under 5 years in Peru, to help direct future mosquito
      control programmes and strategy. METHODS: Eighteen semi-structured interviews
      were conducted in one health centre in Iquitos, Peru. Interviews were audio
      recorded, transcribed and translated by an independent translator. Data were
      analysed using an inductive thematic approach. FINDINGS: Three core analytic
      themes were interpreted: (1) awareness of dengue and its control, (2) perceived
      susceptibility of children, rural riverside communities and city inhabitants, and
      (3) perceived responsibility of vector control. Participants were aware of dengue
      symptoms, transmission and larvae eradication strategies. Misconceptions about
      the day-time biting behaviour of the Aedes aegypti mosquito and confusion with
      other mosquito-borne diseases influenced preventative practice. Community-wide
      lack of cooperation was recognised as a key barrier. This was strengthened by
      attitudes that the government or health centre were responsible for dengue
      control and a belief that the disease cannot be prevented through individual
      actions. Participants felt powerless to prevent dengue due to assumed
      inevitability of infection and lack of faith in preventative practices. However,
      children and rural communities were believed to be most vulnerable. CONCLUSIONS:
      Perceptions of dengue control amongst caregivers to under 5's were important in
      shaping their likelihood to participate in preventative practices. There is a
      need to address the perceived lack of community cooperation through strategies
      creating a sense of ownership of community control and enhancing social
      responsibility. The belief that dengue cannot be prevented by individual actions
      in a community also warrants attention. Specific misconceptions about dengue
      should be addressed through the community health worker system and further
      research directed to identify the needs of certain vulnerable groups.

PMID- 28873409
TI  - Fine scale mapping of genomic introgressions within the Drosophila yakuba clade.
AB  - The process of speciation involves populations diverging over time until they are
      genetically and reproductively isolated. Hybridization between nascent species
      was long thought to directly oppose speciation. However, the amount of
      interspecific genetic exchange (introgression) mediated by hybridization remains
      largely unknown, although recent progress in genome sequencing has made measuring
      introgression more tractable. A natural place to look for individuals with
      admixed ancestry (indicative of introgression) is in regions where species co
      occur. In west Africa, D. santomea and D. yakuba hybridize on the island of Sao
      Tome, while D. yakuba and D. teissieri hybridize on the nearby island of Bioko.
      In this report, we quantify the genomic extent of introgression between the three
      species of the Drosophila yakuba clade (D. yakuba, D. santomea), D. teissieri).
      We sequenced the genomes of 86 individuals from all three species. We also
      developed and applied a new statistical framework, using a hidden Markov
      approach, to identify introgression. We found that introgression has occurred
      between both species pairs but most introgressed segments are small (on the order
      of a few kilobases). After ruling out the retention of ancestral polymorphism as
      an explanation for these similar regions, we find that the sizes of introgressed
      haplotypes indicate that genetic exchange is not recent (>1,000 generations ago).
      We additionally show that in both cases, introgression was rarer on X chromosomes
      than on autosomes which is consistent with sex chromosomes playing a large role
      in reproductive isolation. Even though the two species pairs have stable
      contemporary hybrid zones, providing the opportunity for ongoing gene flow, our
      results indicate that genetic exchange between these species is currently rare.

PMID- 28873410
TI  - N-terminally truncated POM121C inhibits HIV-1 replication.
AB  - Recent studies have identified host cell factors that regulate early stages of
      HIV-1 infection including viral cDNA synthesis and orientation of the HIV-1
      capsid (CA) core toward the nuclear envelope, but it remains unclear how viral
      DNA is imported through the nuclear pore and guided to the host chromosomal DNA.
      Here, we demonstrate that N-terminally truncated POM121C, a component of the
      nuclear pore complex, blocks HIV-1 infection. This truncated protein is
      predominantly localized in the cytoplasm, does not bind to CA, does not affect
      viral cDNA synthesis, reduces the formation of 2-LTR and diminished the amount of
      integrated proviral DNA. Studies with an HIV-1-murine leukemia virus (MLV)
      chimeric virus carrying the MLV-derived Gag revealed that Gag is a determinant of
      this inhibition. Intriguingly, mutational studies have revealed that the blockade
      by N-terminally-truncated POM121C is closely linked to its binding to importin
      beta/karyopherin subunit beta 1 (KPNB1). These results indicate that N-terminally
      truncated POM121C inhibits HIV-1 infection after completion of reverse
      transcription and before integration, and suggest an important role for KPNB1 in
      HIV-1 replication.

PMID- 28873411
TI  - Preoperative asymptomatic leukocytosis and postoperative outcome in cardiac
      surgery patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite showing a prognostic value in general surgical patients,
      preoperative asymptomatic elevated white blood cell (WBC) count is not considered
      a risk factor for cardiac surgery. Whereas there is sporadic evidence of its
      value as a preoperative risk marker, it has not been looked at methodically as a
      specific index of outcome during cardiac surgery. Using a national database we
      sought to determine the relationship between preoperative WBC count and
      postoperative outcome in cardiac surgical patients. METHODS: Cardiac surgeries
      were extracted from the 2007-2013 American College of Surgeons National Surgical
      Quality Improvement Program database. Leukocytosis was defined by a preoperative
      WBC count greater than 11,000 cells/MUL. A univariate analysis compared the
      incidence of adverse outcomes for patients with and without leukocytosis. A
      multivariate logistic regression model was constructed in order to test whether
      leukocytosis was an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality. RESULTS:
      Out of a total of 10,979 cardiac surgery patients 863 (7.8%) had preoperative
      leukocytosis. On univariate analysis, patients with leukocytosis experienced
      greater incidences of 30-day mortality, wound complications, and medical
      complications. Wound complications included surgical site infection as well as
      wound dehiscence. The medical complications included all other non-surgical
      causes of increased morbidity and infection leading to urinary tract infection,
      pneumonia, ventilator dependence, sepsis and septic shock. After stepwise model
      adjustment, leukocytosis was a strong predictor of medical complications (OR
      1.22, 95% CI: 1.09-1.36, p = 0.002) with c-statistic of 0.667. However, after
      stepwise model adjustment leukocytosis was not a significant predictor of 30-day
      mortality and wound complications. CONCLUSION: Preoperative leukocytosis is
      associated with adverse postoperative outcome after cardiac surgery and is an
      independent predictor of infection-related postoperative complications.

PMID- 28873412
TI  - Temporal phylogeography of Yersinia pestis in Madagascar: Insights into the long
      term maintenance of plague.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Yersinia pestis appears to be maintained in multiple, geographically
      separate, and phylogenetically distinct subpopulations within the highlands of
      Madagascar. However, the dynamics of these locally differentiated subpopulations
      through time are mostly unknown. To address that gap and further inform our
      understanding of plague epidemiology, we investigated the phylogeography of Y.
      pestis in Madagascar over an 18 year period. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We
      generated whole genome sequences for 31 strains and discovered new SNPs that we
      used in conjunction with previously identified SNPs and variable-number tandem
      repeats (VNTRs) to genotype 773 Malagasy Y. pestis samples from 1995 to 2012. We
      mapped the locations where samples were obtained on a fine geographic scale to
      examine phylogeographic patterns through time. We identified 18 geographically
      separate and phylogenetically distinct subpopulations that display spatial and
      temporal stability, persisting in the same locations over a period of almost two
      decades. We found that geographic areas with higher levels of topographical
      relief are associated with greater levels of phylogenetic diversity and that
      sampling frequency can vary considerably among subpopulations and from year to
      year. We also found evidence of various Y. pestis dispersal events, including
      over long distances, but no evidence that any dispersal events resulted in
      successful establishment of a transferred genotype in a new location during the
      examined time period. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our analysis suggests that
      persistent endemic cycles of Y. pestis transmission within local areas are
      responsible for the long term maintenance of plague in Madagascar, rather than
      repeated episodes of wide scale epidemic spread. Landscape likely plays a role in
      maintaining Y. pestis subpopulations in Madagascar, with increased topographical
      relief associated with increased levels of localized differentiation. Local
      ecological factors likely affect the dynamics of individual subpopulations and
      the associated likelihood of observing human plague cases in a given year in a
      particular location.

PMID- 28873413
TI  - Growth standard charts for monitoring bodyweight in dogs of different sizes.
AB  - Limited information is available on what constitutes optimal growth in dogs. The
      primary aim of this study was to develop evidence-based growth standards for
      dogs, using retrospective analysis of bodyweight and age data from >6 million
      young dogs attending a large corporate network of primary care veterinary
      hospitals across the USA. Electronic medical records were used to generate
      bodyweight data from immature client-owned dogs, that were healthy and had
      remained in ideal body condition throughout the first 3 years of life. Growth
      centile curves were constructed using Generalised Additive Models for Location,
      Shape and Scale. Curves were displayed graphically as centile charts covering the
      age range 12 weeks to 2 years. Over 100 growth charts were modelled, specific to
      different combinations of breed, sex and neuter status. Neutering before 37 weeks
      was associated with a slight upward shift in growth trajectory, whilst neutering
      after 37 weeks was associated with a slight downward shift in growth trajectory.
      However, these shifts were small in comparison to inter-individual variability
      amongst dogs, suggesting that separate curves for neutered dogs were not needed.
      Five bodyweight categories were created to cover breeds up to 40kg, using both
      visual assessment and hierarchical cluster analysis of breed-specific growth
      curves. For 20/24 of the individual breed centile curves, agreement with curves
      for the corresponding bodyweight categories was good. For the remaining 4 breed
      curves, occasional deviation across centile lines was observed, but overall
      agreement was acceptable. This suggested that growth could be described using
      size categories rather than requiring curves for specific breeds. In the current
      study, a series of evidence-based growth standards have been developed to
      facilitate charting of bodyweight in healthy dogs. Additional studies are
      required to validate these standards and create a clinical tool for growth
      monitoring in pet dogs.

PMID- 28873415
TI  - Proliferative endocrine effects of adipose tissue from obese animals on MCF7
      cells are ameliorated by resveratrol supplementation.
AB  - Obesity is clearly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in
      postmenopausal women. The purpose was to determine if obesity alters the
      adipocyte adipokine secretion profile, thereby altering the adipose-dependent
      paracrine/endocrine growth microenvironment surrounding breast cancer cells
      (MCF7). Additionally, we determined whether resveratrol (RSV) supplementation can
      counteract any obesity-dependent effects on breast cancer tumor growth
      microenvironment. Obese ZDF rats received standard chow diet or diet supplemented
      with 200 mg/kg body weight RSV. Chow-fed Zucker rats served as lean controls.
      After 6 weeks, conditioned media (CM) prepared from inguinal subcutaneous adipose
      tissue (scAT) was added to MCF7 cells for 24 hrs. Experiments were also conducted
      using purified isolated adipocytes to determine whether any endocrine effects
      could be attributed specifically to the adipocyte component of adipose tissue.
      scAT from ZDF rats promoted cell cycle entry in MCF7 cells which was counteracted
      by RSV supplementation. RSV-CM had a higher ratio of ADIPO:LEP compared to ZDF
      CM. This altered composition of the CM led to increased levels of pAMPKT172, p27,
      p27T198 and AdipoR1 while decreasing pAktT308 in MCF7 cells grown in RSV-CM
      compared to ZDF-CM. RSV-CM increased number of cells in G0/G1 and decreased cells
      in S-phase compared to ZDF-CM. Co-culture experiments revealed that these obesity
      dependent effects were driven by the adipocyte component of the adipose tissue.
      Obesity decreased the ratio of adiponectin:leptin secreted by adipocytes,
      altering the adipose-dependent growth microenvironment resulting in increased
      breast cancer cell proliferation. Supplementation with RSV reversed these adipose
      dependent effects suggesting a potential for RSV as a nutritional supplementation
      to improve breast cancer treatment in obese patients.

PMID- 28873414
TI  - Influence of transient spatial attention on the P3 component and perception of
      painful and non-painful electric stimuli in crossed and uncrossed hands
      positions.
AB  - Recent reports show that focusing attention on the location where pain is
      expected can enhance its perception. Moreover, crossing the hands over the body's
      midline is known to impair the ability to localise stimuli and decrease tactile
      and pain sensations in healthy participants. The present study investigated the
      role of transient spatial attention on the perception of painful and non-painful
      electrical stimuli in conditions in which a match or a mismatch was induced
      between skin-based and external frames of reference (uncrossed and crossed hands
      positions, respectively). We measured the subjective experience (Numerical Rating
      Scale scores) and the electrophysiological response elicited by brief electric
      stimuli by analysing the P3 component of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). Twenty
      two participants underwent eight painful and eight non-painful stimulus blocks.
      The electrical stimuli were applied to either the left or the right hand, held in
      either a crossed or uncrossed position. Each stimulus was preceded by a direction
      cue (leftward or rightward arrow). In 80% of the trials, the arrow correctly
      pointed to the spatial regions where the stimulus would appear (congruent
      cueing). Our results indicated that congruent cues resulted in increased pain NRS
      scores compared to incongruent ones. For non-painful stimuli such an effect was
      observed only in the uncrossed hands position. For both non-painful and painful
      stimuli the P3 peak amplitudes were higher and occurred later for incongruently
      cued stimuli compared to congruent ones. However, we found that crossing the
      hands substantially reduced the cueing effect of the P3 peak amplitudes elicited
      by painful stimuli. Taken together, our results showed a strong influence of
      transient attention manipulations on the NRS ratings and on the brain activity.
      Our results also suggest that hand position may modulate the strength of the
      cueing effect, although differences between painful and non-painful stimuli
      exist.

PMID- 28873416
TI  - Cost-effectiveness analysis of use of a polypill versus usual care or best
      practice for primary prevention in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical trials suggest that use of fixed-dose combination therapy
      ('polypills') can improve adherence to medication and control of risk factors of
      people at high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to usual care, but
      cost-effectiveness is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a polypill is cost
      effective compared to usual care and optimal guideline-recommended treatment for
      primary prevention in people already on statins and/or blood pressure lowering
      therapy. METHODS: A Markov model was developed to perform a cost-utility analysis
      with a one year time cycle and a 10 year time horizon to compare the polypill
      with usual care and optimal implementation of NICE Guidelines, using patient
      level data from a retrospective cross-sectional study. The model was run for ten
      age (40 years+) and gender-specific sub-groups on treatment for raised CVD risk
      with no history of CVD. Published sources were used to estimate impact of
      different treatment strategies on risk of CVD events. RESULTS: A polypill
      strategy was potentially cost-effective compared to other strategies for most sub
      groups ranging from dominance to up to L18,811 per QALY depending on patient sub
      group. Optimal implementation of guidelines was most cost-effective for women
      aged 40-49 and men aged 75+. Results were sensitive to polypill cost, and if the
      annual cost was less than L150, this approach was cost-effective compared to the
      other strategies. CONCLUSIONS: For most people already on treatment to modify CVD
      risk, a polypill strategy may be cost-effective compared with optimising
      treatment as per guidelines or their current care, as long as the polypill cost
      is sufficiently low.

PMID- 28873417
TI  - Unwanted effects: Is there a negative side of meditation? A multicentre survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Despite the long-term use and evidence-based efficacy of meditation
      and mindfulness-based interventions, there is still a lack of data about the
      possible unwanted effects (UEs) of these practices. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the occurrence of UEs among meditation practitioners, considering
      moderating factors such as the type, frequency, and lifetime duration of the
      meditation practices. METHODS: An online survey was developed and disseminated
      through several websites, such as Spanish-, English- and Portuguese-language
      scientific research portals related to mindfulness and meditation. After
      excluding people who did not answer the survey correctly or completely and those
      who had less than two months of meditation experience, a total of 342 people
      participated in the study. However, only 87 reported information about UEs.
      RESULTS: The majority of the practitioners were women from Spain who were married
      and had a University education level. Practices were more frequently informal,
      performed on a daily basis, and followed by focused attention (FA). Among the
      participants, 25.4% reported UEs, showing that severity varies considerably. The
      information requested indicated that most of the UEs were transitory and did not
      lead to discontinuing meditation practice or the need for medical assistance.
      They were more frequently reported in relation to individual practice, during
      focused attention meditation, and when practising for more than 20 minutes and
      alone. The practice of body awareness was associated with UEs to a lesser extent,
      whereas focused attention was associated more with UEs. CONCLUSIONS: This is the
      first large-scale, multi-cultural study on the UEs of meditation. Despite its
      limitations, this study suggests that UEs are prevalent and transitory and should
      be further studied. We recommend the use of standardized questionnaires to assess
      the UEs of meditation practices.

PMID- 28873418
TI  - Empirical research on Kano's model and customer satisfaction.
AB  - Products are now developed based on what customers desire, and thus attractive
      quality creation has become crucial. In studies on customer satisfaction, methods
      for analyzing quality attributes and enhancing customer satisfaction have been
      proposed to facilitate product development. Although substantial studies have
      performed to assess the impact of the attributes on customer satisfaction, little
      research has been conducted that quantitatively calculate the odds of customer
      satisfaction for the Kano classification, fitting a nonlinear relationship
      between attribute-level performance and customer satisfaction. In the present
      study, the odds of customer satisfaction were determined to identify the
      classification of quality attributes, and took customer psychology into account
      to suggest how decision-makers should prioritize the allocation of resources. A
      novel method for quantitatively assessing quality attributes was proposed to
      determine classification criteria and fit the nonlinear relationship between
      quality attributes and customer satisfaction. Subsequently, a case study was
      conducted on bicycle user satisfaction to verify the novel method. The concept of
      customer satisfaction odds was integrated with the value function from prospect
      theory to understand quality attributes. The results of this study can serve as a
      reference for product designers to create attractive quality attributes in their
      products and thus enhance customer satisfaction.

PMID- 28873419
TI  - Gender and autistic traits modulate implicit motor synchrony.
AB  - Interpersonal motor synchrony during walking or dancing is universally observed
      across cultures, and this joint movement was modulated by physical and social
      parameters. However, human interactions are greatly shaped by our unique traits,
      and self-related factors are surprisingly little studied in the context of
      interpersonal motor synchrony. In this study, we investigated two such factors
      known to be highly associated with motor coordination: gender and autistic
      traits. We employed a real-world task extending our understanding beyond
      laboratory tasks. Participants of the same gender were paired up to walk and chat
      in a natural environment. A cover story was introduced so that participants would
      not know their walking steps were being recorded and instead believed that their
      location was being tracked by a global positioning system (GPS), so they would
      ignore the motor recording. We found that the female pairs' steps were more
      synchronized than those of the males, and higher autistic tendencies (measured by
      the autism-spectrum quotient) attenuated synchronous steps. Those who
      synchronized better had higher impression rating increase for their walking
      partners (measured by interpersonal judgement scale) than those who synchronized
      less well. Our results indicated that the participants' joint movements were
      shaped by predisposed traits and might share similar mechanism with social
      functions such as empathy.

PMID- 28873420
TI  - Discovery of a new subgroup of sulfur dioxygenases and characterization of sulfur
      dioxygenases in the sulfur metabolic network of Acidithiobacillus caldus.
AB  - Acidithiobacillus caldus is a chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacterium
      that is widely used for bioleaching processes. Acidithiobacillus spp. are
      suggested to contain sulfur dioxygenases (SDOs) that facilitate sulfur oxidation.
      In this study, two putative sdo genes (A5904_0421 and A5904_1112) were detected
      in the genome of A. caldus MTH-04 by BLASTP searching with the previously
      identified SDO (A5904_0790). We cloned and expressed these genes, and detected
      the SDO activity of recombinant protein A5904_0421 by a GSH-dependent in vitro
      assay. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that A5904_0421and its homologous SDOs,
      mainly found in autotrophic bacteria, were distantly related to known SDOs and
      were categorized as a new subgroup of SDOs. The potential functions of genes
      A5904_0421 (termed sdo1) and A5904_0790 (termed sdo2) were investigated by
      generating three knockout mutants (Deltasdo1, Deltasdo2 and Deltasdo1&2), two sdo
      overexpression strains (OE-sdo1 and OE-sdo2) and two sdo complemented strains
      (Deltasdo1/sdo1' and Deltasdo2/sdo2') of A. caldus MTH-04. Deletion or
      overexpression of the sdo genes did not obviously affect growth of the bacteria
      on S0, indicating that the SDOs did not play an essential role in the oxidation
      of extracellular elemental sulfur in A. caldus. The deletion of sdo1 resulted in
      complete inhibition of growth on tetrathionate, slight inhibition of growth on
      thiosulfate and increased GSH-dependent sulfur oxidation activity on S0.
      Transcriptional analysis revealed a strong correlation between sdo1 and the
      tetrathionate intermediate pathway. The deletion of sdo2 promoted bacterial
      growth on tetrathionate and thiosulfate, and overexpression of sdo2 altered gene
      expression patterns of sulfide:quinone oxidoreductase and rhodanese. Taken
      together, the results suggest that sdo1 is essential for the survival of A.
      caldus when tetrathionate is used as the sole energy resource, and sdo2 may also
      play a role in sulfur metabolism.

PMID- 28873421
TI  - Russian isolates enlarge the known geographic diversity of Francisella tularensis
      subsp. mediasiatica.
AB  - Francisella tularensis, a small Gram-negative bacterium, is capable of infecting
      a wide range of animals, including humans, and causes a plague-like disease
      called tularemia-a highly contagious disease with a high mortality rate. Because
      of these characteristics, F. tularensis is considered a potential agent of
      biological terrorism. Currently, F. tularensis is divided into four subspecies,
      which differ in their virulence and geographic distribution. Two of them, subsp.
      tularensis (primarily found in North America) and subsp. holarctica (widespread
      across the Northern Hemisphere), are responsible for tularemia in humans. Subsp.
      novicida is almost avirulent in humans. The fourth subspecies, subsp.
      mediasiatica, is the least studied because of its limited distribution and impact
      in human health. It is found only in sparsely populated regions of Central Asia.
      In this report, we describe the first focus of naturally circulating F.
      tularensis subsp. mediasiatica in Russia. We isolated and characterized 18
      strains of this subspecies in the Altai region. All strains were highly virulent
      in mice. The virulence of subsp. mediasiatica in a vaccinated mouse model is
      intermediate between that of subsp. tularensis and subsp. holarctica. Based on a
      multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), we show that the
      Altaic population of F. tularensis subsp. mediasiatica is genetically distinct
      from the classical Central Asian population, and probably is endemic to Southern
      Siberia. We propose to subdivide the mediasiatica subspecies into three
      phylogeographic groups, M.I, M.II and M.III.

PMID- 28873422
TI  - Evaluating multiple causes of persistent low microwave backscatter from Amazon
      forests after the 2005 drought.
AB  - Amazonia has experienced large-scale regional droughts that affect forest
      productivity and biomass stocks. Space-borne remote sensing provides basin-wide
      data on impacts of meteorological anomalies, an important complement to
      relatively limited ground observations across the Amazon's vast and remote humid
      tropical forests. Morning overpass QuikScat Ku-band microwave backscatter from
      the forest canopy was anomalously low during the 2005 drought, relative to the
      full instrument record of 1999-2009, and low morning backscatter persisted for
      2006-2009, after which the instrument failed. The persistent low backscatter has
      been suggested to be indicative of increased forest vulnerability to future
      drought. To better ascribe the cause of the low post-drought backscatter, we
      analyzed multiyear, gridded remote sensing data sets of precipitation, land
      surface temperature, forest cover and forest cover loss, and microwave
      backscatter over the 2005 drought region in the southwestern Amazon Basin (4
      degrees -12 degrees S, 66 degrees -76 degrees W) and in adjacent 8 degrees x10
      degrees  regions to the north and east. We found moderate to weak correlations
      with the spatial distribution of persistent low backscatter for variables related
      to three groups of forest impacts: the 2005 drought itself, loss of forest cover,
      and warmer and drier dry seasons in the post-drought vs. the pre-drought years.
      However, these variables explained only about one quarter of the variability in
      depressed backscatter across the southwestern drought region. Our findings
      indicate that drought impact is a complex phenomenon and that better
      understanding can only come from more extensive ground data and/or analysis of
      frequent, spatially-comprehensive, high-resolution data or imagery before and
      after droughts.

PMID- 28873423
TI  - An ImmunoSignature test distinguishes Trypanosoma cruzi, hepatitis B, hepatitis C
      and West Nile virus seropositivity among asymptomatic blood donors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The complexity of the eukaryotic parasite Trypanosoma (T.) cruzi
      manifests in its highly dynamic genome, multi-host life cycle, progressive
      morphologies and immune-evasion mechanisms. Accurate determination of infection
      or Chagas' disease activity and prognosis continues to challenge researchers. We
      hypothesized that a diagnostic platform with higher ligand complexity than
      previously employed may hold value. METHODOLOGY: We applied the ImmunoSignature
      Technology (IST) for the detection of T. cruzi-specific antibodies among healthy
      blood donors. IST is based on capturing the information in an individual's
      antibody repertoire by exposing their peripheral blood to a library of >100,000
      position-addressable, chemically-diverse peptides. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Initially,
      samples from two Chagas cohorts declared positive or negative by bank testing
      were studied. With the first cohort, library-peptides displaying differential
      binding signals between T. cruzi sero-states were used to train an algorithm. A
      classifier was fixed and tested against the training-independent second cohort to
      determine assay performance. Next, samples from a mixed cohort of donors declared
      positive for Chagas, hepatitis B, hepatitis C or West Nile virus were assayed on
      the same library. Signals were used to train a single algorithm that
      distinguished all four disease states. As a binary test, the accuracy of
      predicting T. cruzi seropositivity by IST was similar, perhaps modestly reduced,
      relative to conventional ELISAs. However, the results indicate that information
      beyond determination of seropositivity may have been captured. These include the
      identification of cohort subclasses, the simultaneous detection and discerning of
      other diseases, and the discovery of putative new antigens. CONCLUSIONS &
      SIGNIFICANCE: The central outcome of this study established IST as a reliable
      approach for specific determination of T. cruzi seropositivity versus disease
      free individuals or those with other diseases. Its potential contribution for
      monitoring and controlling Chagas lies in IST's delivery of higher resolution
      immune-state readouts than obtained with currently-used technologies. Despite the
      complexity of the ligand presentation and large quantitative readouts, performing
      an IST test is simple, scalable and reproducible.

PMID- 28873425
TI  - Control of Phlebotomus argentipes (Diptera: Psychodidae) sand fly in Bangladesh:
      A cluster randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A number of studies on visceral leishmaniasis (VL) vector control
      have been conducted during the past decade, sometimes came to very different
      conclusion. The present study on a large sample investigated different options
      which are partially unexplored including: (1) indoor residual spraying (IRS) with
      alpha cypermethrin 5WP; (2) long lasting insecticide impregnated bed-net (LLIN);
      (3) impregnation of local bed-nets with slow release insecticide K-O TAB 1-2-3
      (KOTAB); (4) insecticide spraying in potential breeding sites outside of house
      using chlorpyrifos 20EC (OUT) and different combinations of the above. METHODS:
      The study was a cluster randomized controlled trial where 3089 houses from 11
      villages were divided into 10 sections, each section with 6 clusters and each
      cluster having approximately 50 houses. Based on vector density (males plus
      females) during baseline survey, the 60 clusters were categorized into 3 groups:
      (1) high, (2) medium and (3) low. Each group had 20 clusters. From these three
      groups, 6 clusters (about 300 households) were randomly selected for each type of
      intervention and control arms. Vector density was measured before and 2, 4, 5, 7,
      11, 14, 15, 18 and 22 months after intervention using CDC light traps. The impact
      of interventions was measured by using the difference-in-differences regression
      model. RESULTS: A total of 17,434 sand flies were collected at baseline and
      during the surveys conducted over 9 months following the baseline measurements.
      At baseline, the average P. argentipes density per household was 10.6 (SD = 11.5)
      in the control arm and 7.3 (SD = 8.46) to 11.5 (SD = 20.2) in intervention arms.
      The intervention results presented as the range of percent reductions of sand
      flies (males plus females) and rate ratios in 9 measurements over 22 months.
      Among single type interventions, the effect of IRS with 2 rounds of spraying
      (applied by the research team) ranged from 13% to 75% reduction of P. argentipes
      density compared to the control arm (rate-ratio [RR] ranged from 0.25 to 0.87).
      LLINs caused a vector reduction of 9% to 78% (RR, 0.22 to 0.91). KOTAB reduced
      vectors by 4% to 73% (RR, 0.27 to 0.96). The combination of LLIN and OUT led to a
      vector reduction of 26% to 86% (RR, 0.14 to 0.74). The reduction for the
      combination of IRS and OUT was 8% to 88% (RR, 0.12 to 0.92). IRS and LLIN
      combined resulted in a vector reduction of 13% to 85% (RR, 0.15 to 0.77). The IRS
      and KOTAB combination reduced vector densities by 16% to 86% (RR, 0.14 to 0.84).
      Some intermediate measurements for KOTAB alone and for IRS plus LLIN; and IRS
      plus KOTAB were not statistically significant. The bioassays on sprayed surfaces
      or netting materials showed favourable results (>80% mortality) for 22 months
      (IRS tested for 12 months). In the KOTAB, a gradual decline was observed after 6
      months. CONCLUSIONS: LLIN and OUT was the best combination to reduce VL vector
      densities for 22 months or longer. Operationally, this is much easier to apply
      than IRS. A cost analysis of the preferred tools will follow. The relationship
      between vector density (males plus females) and leishmaniasis incidence should be
      investigated, and this will require estimates of the Entomological Inoculation
      Rate.

PMID- 28873426
TI  - DNA in a bottle-Rapid metabarcoding survey for early alerts of invasive species
      in ports.
AB  - Biota monitoring in ports is increasingly needed for biosecurity reasons and
      safeguarding marine biodiversity from biological invasion. Present and future
      international biosecurity directives can be accomplished only if the biota
      acquired by maritime traffic in ports is controlled. Methodologies for biota
      inventory are diverse and now rely principally on extensive and labor-intensive
      sampling along with taxonomic identification by experts. In this study, we
      employed an extremely simplified environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling methodology
      from only three 1-L bottles of water per port, followed by metabarcoding (high
      throughput sequencing and DNA-based species identification) using 18S rDNA and
      Cytochrome oxidase I as genetic barcodes. Eight Bay of Biscay ports with
      available inventory of fouling invertebrates were employed as a case study.
      Despite minimal sampling efforts, three invasive invertebrates were detected: the
      barnacle Austrominius modestus, the tubeworm Ficopomatus enigmaticus and the
      polychaete Polydora triglanda. The same species have been previously found from
      visual and DNA barcoding (genetic identification of individuals) surveys in the
      same ports. The current costs of visual surveys, conventional DNA barcoding and
      this simplified metabarcoding protocol were compared. The results encourage the
      use of metabarcoding for early biosecurity alerts.

PMID- 28873424
TI  - Dual specificity phosphatase 6 deficiency is associated with impaired systemic
      glucose tolerance and reversible weight retardation in mice.
AB  - Here, we aimed to investigate the potential role of DUSP6, a dual specificity
      phosphatase, that specifically inactivates extracellular signal-regulated kinase
      (ERK), for the regulation of body weight and glucose homeostasis. We further
      assessed whether metabolic challenges affect Dusp6 expression in selected brain
      areas or white adipose tissue. Hypothalamic Dusp6 mRNA levels remained unchanged
      in chow-fed lean vs. high fat diet (HFD) fed obese C57Bl/6J mice, and in C57Bl/6J
      mice undergoing prolonged fasting or refeeding with fat free diet (FFD) or HFD.
      Similarly, Dusp6 expression levels were unchanged in selected brain regions of
      Lepob mice treated with 1 mg/kg of leptin for 6 days, compared to pair-fed or
      saline-treated Lepob controls. Dusp6 expression levels remained unaltered in
      vitro in primary adipocytes undergoing differentiation, but were increased in
      eWAT of HFD-fed obese C57Bl/6J mice, compared to chow-fed lean controls. Global
      chow-fed DUSP6 KO mice displayed reduced body weight and lean mass and slightly
      increased fat mass at a young age, which is indicative for early-age weight
      retardation. Subsequent exposure to HFD led to a significant increase in lean
      mass and body weight in DUSP6 deficient mice, compared to WT controls.
      Nevertheless, after 26 weeks of high-fat diet exposure, we observed comparable
      body weight, fat and lean mass in DUSP6 WT and KO mice, suggesting overall normal
      susceptibility to develop obesity. In line with the increased weight gain to
      compensate for early-age weight retardation, HFD-fed DUSP6 KO displayed increased
      expression levels of anabolic genes involved in lipid and cholesterol metabolism
      in the epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT), compared to WT controls. Glucose
      tolerance was perturbed in both chow-fed lean or HFD-fed obese DUSP6 KO, compared
      to their respective WT controls. Overall, our data indicate that DUSP6 deficiency
      has limited impact on the regulation of energy metabolism, but impairs systemic
      glucose tolerance. Our data are in conflict to earlier reports that propose
      protection from diet-induced obesity and glucose intolerance in DUSP6 deficient
      mice. Reasons for the discrepancies remain elusive, but may entail differential
      genetic backgrounds, environmental factors such as the type and source of HFD, or
      alterations in the gut microbiome between facilities.

PMID- 28873427
TI  - Computational assessment of the functional role of sinoatrial node exit pathways
      in the human heart.
AB  - AIM: The human right atrium and sinoatrial node (SAN) anatomy is complex. Optical
      mapping experiments suggest that the SAN is functionally insulated from atrial
      tissue except at discrete SAN-atrial electrical junctions called SAN exit
      pathways, SEPs. Additionally, histological imaging suggests the presence of a
      secondary pacemaker close to the SAN. We hypothesise that a) an insulating border
      SEP anatomical configuration is related to SAN arrhythmia; and b) a secondary
      pacemaker, the paranodal area, is an alternate pacemaker but accentuates
      tachycardia. A 3D electro-anatomical computational model was used to test these
      hypotheses. METHODS: A detailed 3D human SAN electro-anatomical mathematical
      model was developed based on our previous anatomical reconstruction. Electrical
      activity was simulated using tissue specific variants of the Fenton-Karma action
      potential equations. Simulation experiments were designed to deploy this complex
      electro-anatomical system to assess the roles of border-SEPs and paranodal area
      by mimicking experimentally observed SAN arrhythmia. Robust and accurate
      numerical algorithms were implemented for solving the mono domain reaction
      diffusion equation implicitly, calculating 3D filament traces, and computing
      dominant frequency among other quantitative measurements. RESULTS: A centre to
      periphery gradient of increasing diffusion was sufficient to permit initiation of
      pacemaking at the centre of the 3D SAN. Re-entry within the SAN, micro re-entry,
      was possible by imposing significant SAN fibrosis in the presence of the
      insulating border. SEPs promoted the micro re-entry to generate more complex SAN
      atrial tachycardia. Simulation of macro re-entry, i.e. re-entry around the SAN,
      was possible by inclusion of atrial fibrosis in the presence of the insulating
      border. The border shielded the SAN from atrial tachycardia. However, SAN micro
      structure intercellular gap junctional coupling and the paranodal area
      contributed to prolonged atrial fibrillation. Finally, the micro-structure was
      found to be sufficient to explain shifts of leading pacemaker site location.
      CONCLUSIONS: The simulations establish a relationship between anatomy and SAN
      electrical function. Microstructure, in the form of intercellular gap junction
      coupling, was found to regulate SAN function and arrhythmia.

PMID- 28873428
TI  - Evaluation of robenidine analog NCL195 as a novel broad-spectrum antibacterial
      agent.
AB  - The spread of multidrug resistance among bacterial pathogens poses a serious
      threat to public health worldwide. Recent approaches towards combating
      antimicrobial resistance include repurposing old compounds with known safety and
      development pathways as new antibacterial classes with novel mechanisms of
      action. Here we show that an analog of the anticoccidial drug robenidine (4,6
      bis(2-((E)-4-methylbenzylidene)hydrazinyl)pyrimidin-2-amine; NCL195) displays
      potent bactericidal activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus
      aureus by disrupting the cell membrane potential. NCL195 was less cytotoxic to
      mammalian cell lines than the parent compound, showed low metabolic degradation
      rates by human and mouse liver microsomes, and exhibited high plasma
      concentration and low plasma clearance rates in mice. NCL195 was bactericidal
      against Acinetobacter spp and Neisseria meningitidis and also demonstrated potent
      activity against A. baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli,
      Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter spp. in the presence of sub-inhibitory
      concentrations of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and polymyxin B. These
      findings demonstrate that NCL195 represents a new chemical lead for further
      medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical development to enhance potency, solubility
      and selectivity against serious bacterial pathogens.

PMID- 28873430
TI  - The impact of rainfall on the temporal and spatial distribution of taxi
      passengers.
AB  - This paper focuses on the impact of rainfall on the temporal and spatial
      distribution of taxi passengers. The main objective is to provide guidance for
      taxi scheduling on rainy days. To this end, we take the occupied and empty states
      of taxis as units of analysis. By matching a taxi's GPS data to its taximeter
      data, we can obtain the taxi's operational time and the taxi driver's income from
      every unit of analysis. The ratio of taxi operation time to taxi drivers' income
      is used to measure the quality of taxi passengers. The research results show that
      the spatio-temporal evolution of urban taxi service demand differs based on
      rainfall conditions and hours of operation. During non-rush hours, taxi demand in
      peripheral areas is significantly reduced under increasing precipitation
      conditions, whereas during rush hours, the demand for highly profitable taxi
      services steadily increases. Thus, as an intelligent response for taxi operations
      and dispatching, taxi services should guide cruising taxis to high-demand regions
      to increase their service time and ride opportunities.

PMID- 28873429
TI  - CD18 deficiency improves liver injury in the MCD model of steatohepatitis.
AB  - Neutrophils and macrophages are important constituents of the hepatic
      inflammatory infiltrate in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. These innate immune
      cells express CD18, an adhesion molecule that facilitates leukocyte activation.
      In the context of fatty liver, activation of infiltrated leukocytes is believed
      to enhance hepatocellular injury. The objective of this study was to determine
      the degree to which activated innate immune cells promote steatohepatitis by
      comparing hepatic outcomes in wild-type and CD18-mutant mice fed a methionine
      choline-deficient (MCD) diet. After 3 weeks of MCD feeding, hepatocyte injury,
      based on serum ALT elevation, was 40% lower in CD18-mutant than wild-type mice.
      Leukocyte infiltration into the liver was not impaired in CD18-mutant mice, but
      leukocyte activation was markedly reduced, as shown by the lack of evidence of
      oxidant production. Despite having reduced hepatocellular injury, CD18-mutant
      mice developed significantly more hepatic steatosis than wild-type mice after MCD
      feeding. This coincided with greater hepatic induction of pro-inflammatory and
      lipogenic genes as well as a modest reduction in hepatic expression of adipose
      triglyceride lipase. Overall, the data indicate that CD18 deficiency curbs MCD
      mediated liver injury by limiting the activation of innate immune cells in the
      liver without compromising intrahepatic cytokine activation. Reduced liver injury
      occurs at the expense of increased hepatic steatosis, which suggests that in
      addition to damaging hepatocytes, infiltrating leukocytes may influence lipid
      homeostasis in the liver.

PMID- 28873431
TI  - Identification of Diatraea spp. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) based on cytochrome
      oxidase II.
AB  - Diatraea spp. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) are a group of insects that are
      agriculture pests in many economically relevant crops such as sugarcane, sorghum,
      corn and rice. Recognized species for this genus respond differentially to
      natural enemies used in their biological control, emphasizing the importance of
      species in a regional approach. Currently, identification is based on the male
      genitalia. However, the availability of specimens collected from field and
      subjectivity based on the character recognition can seriously hamper species
      identification, and therefore result in inadequate pest management. To overcome
      this, individuals of Diatraea spp. preliminarily classified male genitalia and
      obtained from reared conditions and the field (both derived from natural
      populations occurring in Colombia) were analyzed using genitalic morphometry and
      molecular biology specifically using a fragment of the cytochrome oxidase subunit
      II (CO II) mitochondrial gene. Although morphometric analysis did not show any
      overriding results regarding genitalia morphology, the bioinformatics analyses of
      CO II sequences resulted in an adequate classification of the individuals within
      the recognized species. It also, revealed that the occurrence of clades
      associated with geographical distribution may be associated with cryptic species.
      The latter was also confirmed by a Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP)
      methodology evaluating the same fragment of CO II. This experimental approach
      allows properly recognizing each species and in consequence is proposed as an
      effective tool in Diatraea species identification.

PMID- 28873432
TI  - Analysis of inter-country input-output table based on citation network: How to
      measure the competition and collaboration between industrial sectors on the
      global value chain.
AB  - The input-output table is comprehensive and detailed in describing the national
      economic system with complex economic relationships, which embodies information
      of supply and demand among industrial sectors. This paper aims to scale the
      degree of competition/collaboration on the global value chain from the
      perspective of econophysics. Global Industrial Strongest Relevant Network models
      were established by extracting the strongest and most immediate industrial
      relevance in the global economic system with inter-country input-output tables
      and then transformed into Global Industrial Resource Competition Network/Global
      Industrial Production Collaboration Network models embodying the
      competitive/collaborative relationships based on bibliographic coupling/co
      citation approach. Three indicators well suited for these two kinds of weighted
      and non-directed networks with self-loops were introduced, including unit weight
      for competitive/collaborative power, disparity in the weight for
      competitive/collaborative amplitude and weighted clustering coefficient for
      competitive/collaborative intensity. Finally, these models and indicators were
      further applied to empirically analyze the function of sectors in the latest
      World Input-Output Database, to reveal inter-sector competitive/collaborative
      status during the economic globalization.

PMID- 28873433
TI  - Overview of preventive practices provided by primary care physicians: A cross
      sectional study in Switzerland and France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A range of preventive practices are recommended to reduce the burden
      of chronic diseases. The aim of our study was to describe the preventive
      practices of French-speaking primary care physicians. METHODS: A cross-sectional
      survey was conducted in 2015 in a randomly selected sample of 1100 primary care
      physicians (700 in Switzerland, 400 in France). The physicians were asked how
      often they performed the following recommended preventive practices: blood
      pressure, weight and height measurements, screening for dyslipidemia, screening
      for alcohol use and brief intervention, screening for smoking (and brief advice
      for smokers), colon and prostate cancer screening, and influenza immunization.
      Response options on the five points Likert scale were never, rarely, sometimes,
      often, always. The physicians were considered to be performing the preventive
      practice regularly if they declared performing it often or always. RESULTS: 518
      participants (47%) returned the questionnaire. The most commonly reported
      preventive practices were: blood pressure measurement (99%), screening for
      smoking (95%) and brief advice for smokers (95%). The least frequently reported
      practices were annual influenza immunization for at-risk patients <65 years
      (37%), height measurement (53%), screening for excessive alcohol use (60%) and
      brief advice for at-risk drinkers (67%). All other practices were reported by 70
      to 90% of participants. CONCLUSION: Whereas some preventive practices now appear
      to be part of primary care routine, others were not applied by a large proportion
      of primary care physicians in our study. Further studies should explore whether
      these findings are related to miss-knowledge of common guidelines, or other
      implementation barriers in this primary care context.

PMID- 28873434
TI  - The latitudinal diversity gradient in South American mammals revisited using a
      regional analysis approach: The importance of climate at extra-tropical latitudes
      and history towards the tropics.
AB  - The latitudinal diversity gradient has been considered a consequence of a shift
      in the impact of abiotic and biotic factors that limit species distributions from
      the poles to the equator, thus influencing species richness variation. It has
      also been considered the outcome of evolutionary processes that vary over
      geographical space. We used six South American mammal groups to test the
      association of environmental and evolutionary factors and the ecological
      structuring of mammal assemblages with spatial variation in taxonomic richness
      (TR), at a spatial resolution of 110 km x 110 km, at tropical and extra-tropical
      latitudes. Based on attributes that represent what mammal species do in
      ecosystems, we estimated ecological diversity (ED) as a mean pairwise ecological
      distance between all co-occurring taxa. The mean pairwise phylogenetic distance
      between all co-occurring taxa (AvPD) was used as an estimation of phylogenetic
      diversity. Geographically Weighted Regression analyses performed separately for
      each mammal group identified tropical and extra-tropical high R2 areas where
      environmental and evolutionary factors strongly accounted for richness variation.
      Temperature was the most important predictor of TR in high R2 areas outside the
      tropics, as was AvPD within the tropics. The proportion of TR variation accounted
      for by environment (either independently or combined with AvPD) was higher in
      tropical areas of high richness and low ecological diversity than in tropical
      areas of high richness and high ecological diversity. In conclusion, we confirmed
      a shift in the impact of environmental factors, mainly temperature, that best
      account for mammal richness variation in extra-tropical regions, whereas
      phylogenetic diversity best accounts for richness variation within the tropics.
      Environment in combination with evolutionary history explained the coexistence of
      a high number of ecologically similar species within the tropics. Consideration
      of the influence of contemporary environmental variables and evolutionary history
      is crucial to understanding of the latitudinal diversity gradient.

PMID- 28873435
TI  - TGF-beta signaling is an effective target to impair survival and induce apoptosis
      of human cholangiocarcinoma cells: A study on human primary cell cultures.
AB  - : Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and its subtypes (mucin- and mixed-CCA) arise from the
      neoplastic transformation of cholangiocytes, the epithelial cells lining the
      biliary tree. CCA has a high mortality rate owing to its aggressiveness, late
      diagnosis and high resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapeutics. We have
      demonstrated that CCA is enriched for cancer stem cells which express epithelial
      to mesenchymal transition (EMT) traits, with these features being associated with
      aggressiveness and drug resistance. TGF-beta signaling is upregulated in CCA and
      involved in EMT. We have recently established primary cell cultures from human
      mucin- and mixed-intrahepatic CCA. In human CCA primary cultures with different
      levels of EMT trait expression, we evaluated the anticancer effects of: (i) CX
      4945, a casein kinase-2 (CK2) inhibitor that blocks TGF-beta1-induced EMT; and
      (ii) LY2157299, a TGF-beta receptor I kinase inhibitor. We tested primary cell
      lines expressing EMT trait markers (vimentin, N-cadherin and nuclear catenin) but
      negative for epithelial markers, and cell lines expressing epithelial markers
      (CK19-positive) in association with EMT traits. Cell viability was evaluated by
      MTS assays, apoptosis by Annexin V FITC and cell migration by wound-healing
      assay. RESULTS: at a dose of 10 MUM, CX4945 significantly decreased cell
      viability of primary human cell cultures from both mucin and mixed CCA, whereas
      in CK19-positive cell cultures, the effect of CX4945 on cell viability required
      higher concentrations (>30MUM). At the same concentrations, CX4945 also induced
      apoptosis (3- fold increase vs controls) which correlated with the expression
      level of CK2 in the different CCA cell lines (mucin- and mixed-CCA). Indeed, no
      apoptotic effects were observed in CK19-positive cells expressing lower CK2
      levels. The effects of CX4945 on viability and apoptosis were associated with an
      increased number of gamma-H2ax (biomarker for DNA double-strand breaks) foci,
      suggesting the active role of CK2 as a repair mechanism in CCAs. LY2157299 failed
      to influence cell proliferation or apoptosis but significantly inhibited cell
      migration. At a 50 MUM concentration, in fact, LY2157299 significantly impaired
      (at 24, 48 and 120 hrs) the wound-healing of primary cell cultures from both
      mucin-and mixed-CCA. In conclusion, we demonstrated that CX4945 and LY2157299
      exert relevant but distinct anticancer effects against human CCA cells, with
      CX4945 acting on cell viability and apoptosis, and LY2157299 impairing cell
      migration. These results suggest that targeting the TGF-beta signaling with a
      combination of CX-4945 and LY2157299 could have potential benefits in the
      treatment of human CCA.

PMID- 28873436
TI  - Detection of axonal synapses in 3D two-photon images.
AB  - Studies of structural plasticity in the brain often require the detection and
      analysis of axonal synapses (boutons). To date, bouton detection has been largely
      manual or semi-automated, relying on a step that traces the axons before
      detection the boutons. If tracing the axon fails, the accuracy of bouton
      detection is compromised. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm that does not
      require tracing the axon to detect axonal boutons in 3D two-photon images taken
      from the mouse cortex. To find the most appropriate techniques for this task, we
      compared several well-known algorithms for interest point detection and feature
      descriptor generation. The final algorithm proposed has the following main steps:
      (1) a Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) based feature enhancement module to accentuate
      the appearance of boutons; (2) a Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) interest point
      detector to find candidate locations for feature extraction; (3) non-maximum
      suppression to eliminate candidates that were detected more than once in the same
      local region; (4) generation of feature descriptors based on Gabor filters; (5) a
      Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier, trained on features from labelled data,
      and was used to distinguish between bouton and non-bouton candidates. We found
      that our method achieved a Recall of 95%, Precision of 76%, and F1 score of 84%
      within a new dataset that we make available for accessing bouton detection. On
      average, Recall and F1 score were significantly better than the current state-of
      the-art method, while Precision was not significantly different. In conclusion,
      in this article we demonstrate that our approach, which is independent of axon
      tracing, can detect boutons to a high level of accuracy, and improves on the
      detection performance of existing approaches. The data and code (with an easy to
      use GUI) used in this article are available from open source repositories.

PMID- 28873437
TI  - Three-dimensional hard and soft tissue imaging of the human cochlea by scanning
      laser optical tomography (SLOT).
AB  - The present study focuses on the application of scanning laser optical tomography
      (SLOT) for visualization of anatomical structures inside the human cochlea ex
      vivo. SLOT is a laser-based highly efficient microscopy technique which allows
      for tomographic imaging of the internal structure of transparent specimens. Thus,
      in the field of otology this technique is best convenient for an ex vivo study of
      the inner ear anatomy. For this purpose, the preparation before imaging comprises
      decalcification, dehydration as well as optical clearing of the cochlea samples
      in toto. Here, we demonstrate results of SLOT imaging visualizing hard and soft
      tissue structures with an optical resolution of down to 15 MUm using extinction
      and autofluorescence as contrast mechanisms. Furthermore, the internal structure
      can be analyzed nondestructively and quantitatively in detail by sectioning of
      the three-dimensional datasets. The method of X-ray Micro Computed Tomography
      (MUCT) has been previously applied to explanted cochlea and is solely based on
      absorption contrast. An advantage of SLOT is that it uses visible light for image
      formation and thus provides a variety of contrast mechanisms known from other
      light microscopy techniques, such as fluorescence or scattering. We show that
      SLOT data is consistent with MUCT anatomical data and provides additional
      information by using fluorescence. We demonstrate that SLOT is applicable for
      cochlea with metallic cochlear implants (CI) that would lead to significant
      artifacts in MUCT imaging. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates the
      capability of SLOT for resolution visualization of cleared human cochleae ex vivo
      using multiple contrast mechanisms and lays the foundation for a broad variety of
      additional studies.

PMID- 28873439
TI  - CRISPR-FOCUS: A web server for designing focused CRISPR screening experiments.
AB  - The recently developed CRISPR screen technology, based on the CRISPR/Cas9 genome
      editing system, enables genome-wide interrogation of gene functions in an
      efficient and cost-effective manner. Although many computational algorithms and
      web servers have been developed to design single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) with high
      specificity and efficiency, algorithms specifically designed for conducting
      CRISPR screens are still lacking. Here we present CRISPR-FOCUS, a web-based
      platform to search and prioritize sgRNAs for CRISPR screen experiments. With
      official gene symbols or RefSeq IDs as the only mandatory input, CRISPR-FOCUS
      filters and prioritizes sgRNAs based on multiple criteria, including efficiency,
      specificity, sequence conservation, isoform structure, as well as genomic
      variations including Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and cancer somatic
      mutations. CRISPR-FOCUS also provides pre-defined positive and negative control
      sgRNAs, as well as other necessary sequences in the construct (e.g., U6 promoters
      to drive sgRNA transcription and RNA scaffolds of the CRISPR/Cas9). These
      features allow users to synthesize oligonucleotides directly based on the output
      of CRISPR-FOCUS. Overall, CRISPR-FOCUS provides a rational and high-throughput
      approach for sgRNA library design that enables users to efficiently conduct a
      focused screen experiment targeting up to thousands of genes. (CRISPR-FOCUS is
      freely available at http://cistrome.org/crispr-focus/).

PMID- 28873438
TI  - De novo assembly of a transcriptome from the eggs and early embryos of
      Astropecten aranciacus.
AB  - Starfish have been instrumental in many fields of biological and ecological
      research. Oocytes of Astropecten aranciacus, a common species native to the
      Mediterranean Sea and the East Atlantic, have long been used as an experimental
      model to study meiotic maturation, fertilization, intracellular Ca2+ signaling,
      and cell cycle controls. However, investigation of the underlying molecular
      mechanisms has often been hampered by the overall lack of DNA or protein
      sequences for the species. In this study, we have assembled a transcriptome for
      this species from the oocytes, eggs, zygotes, and early embryos, which are known
      to have the highest RNA sequence complexity. Annotation of the transcriptome
      identified over 32,000 transcripts including the ones that encode 13 distinct
      cyclins and as many cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK), as well as the expected
      components of intracellular Ca2+ signaling toolkit. Although the mRNAs of cyclin
      and CDK families did not undergo significant abundance changes through the stages
      from oocyte to early embryo, as judged by real-time PCR, the transcript encoding
      Mos, a negative regulator of mitotic cell cycle, was drastically reduced during
      the period of rapid cleavages. Molecular phylogenetic analysis using the
      homologous amino acid sequences of cytochrome oxidase subunit I from A.
      aranciacus and 30 other starfish species indicated that Paxillosida, to which A.
      aranciacus belongs, is not likely to be the most basal order in Asteroidea. Taken
      together, the first transcriptome we assembled in this species is expected to
      enable us to perform comparative studies and to design gene-specific molecular
      tools with which to tackle long-standing biological questions.

PMID- 28873440
TI  - Risk of gastrointestinal perforation in patients taking oral fluoroquinolone
      therapy: An analysis of nationally representative cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fluoroquinolone is a commonly prescribed antimicrobial agent, and up
      to 20% of its users registers adverse gastroenterological symptoms. We aimed to
      evaluate the association between use of fluoroquinolone and gastrointestinal
      tract perforation. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study on a
      national health insurance claims database between 1998 and 2011. The use of
      fluoroquinolones was classified into current (< 60 days), past (61-365 days prior
      to the index date) and any prior year use of fluoroquinolones. We used the
      conditional logistic regression model to estimate rate ratios (RRs), adjusting or
      matching by a disease risk score (DRS). RESULTS: We identified a cohort of 17,510
      individuals diagnosed with gastrointestinal perforation and matched them to
      1,751,000 controls. Current use of fluoroquinolone was associated with the
      greatest increase in risk of gastrointestinal perforations after DRS score
      adjustment (RR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.62-2.22). The risk of gastrointestinal
      perforation was attenuated for past (RR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.20-1.47) and any prior
      year use (RR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.34-1.59). To gain insights into whether the
      observed association can be explained by unmeasured confounder, we compared the
      risk of gastrointestinal perforation between fluoroquinolone and macrolide. Use
      of macrolide, an active comparator, was not associated with a significant
      increased risk of gastrointestinal perforation (RR, 1.11, 95%CI, 0.15-7.99).
      Sensitivity analysis focusing on perforation requiring in-hospital procedures
      also demonstrated an increased risk associated with current use. To mitigate
      selection bias, we have also excluded people who have never used fluoroquinolone
      before or people with infectious colitis, enteritis or gastroenteritis. In both
      of the analysis, a higher risk of gastrointestinal perforation was still
      associated with the use of fluoroquinolone. CONCLUSIONS: We found that use of
      fluoroquinolones was associated with a non-negligible increased risk of
      gastrointestinal perforation, and physicians should be aware of this possible
      association.

PMID- 28873441
TI  - A fully humanized IgG-like bispecific antibody for effective dual targeting of
      CXCR3 and CCR6.
AB  - Chemokines and their receptors are pivotal for the trafficking of leukocytes
      during immune responses, and host defense. However, immune cell migration also
      contributes to a wide variety of autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases.
      Compelling evidence suggests that both CXCR3 and CCR6 chemokine receptors play
      crucial roles in the migration of pathological Th1 and Th17 cells during the
      course of certain inflammatory diseases. The use of two or more receptors by
      pathogenic cells may explain why targeting of individual receptors has proven
      disappointing in the clinic. We therefore hypothesized that simultaneous
      targeting of both CXCR3 and CCR6 with a bispecific antibody (BsAb) might result
      in decreased chemotaxis and/or specific depletion of pro-inflammatory T cell
      subsets. In this study, we designed and characterized a fully humanized BsAb. We
      show that the BsAb binds to both chemokine receptors, as demonstrated by Flow
      Cytometry and Surface Plasmon Resonance analysis. Furthermore, we demonstrate
      that the BsAb effectively blocks cell chemotaxis and induces specific antibody
      dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) in vitro. Therefore, we propose that
      dual targeting of CXCR3 and CCR6 with a fully humanized BsAb may display a potent
      interventional approach for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune
      diseases.

PMID- 28873443
TI  - Application of carbon nanoparticles in laparoscopic sentinel lymph node detection
      in patients with early-stage cervical cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the value of carbon nanoparticles in identifying
      sentinel lymph nodes in early-stage cervical cancer. METHODS: From January 2014
      to January 2016, 40 patients with cervical cancer stage IA2-IIA, based on the
      International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2009 criteria, were
      included in this study. The normal cervix around the tumor was injected with a
      total of 1 mL of carbon nanoparticles (CNP)at 3 and 9 o'clock. All patients then
      underwent laparoscopic pelvic lymph node dissection and radical hysterectomy. The
      black-dyed sentinel lymph nodes were removed for routine pathological examination
      and immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: Among the 40 patients, 38 patients had
      at least one sentinel lymph node (SLN). The detection rate was 95% (38/40). One
      hundred seventy-three SLNs were detected with an average of 3.9 SLNs per side. 25
      positive lymph nodes, which included 21 positive SLNs, were detected in 8 (20%)
      patients. Sentinel lymph nodes were localized in the obturator (47.97%), internal
      lilac (13.87%), external lilac (26.59%), parametrial (1.16%), and common iliac
      (8.67%) regions. The sensitivity of the SLN detection was 100% (5/5), the
      accuracy was 97.37% (37/38), and the negative predictive value was 100. 0% and
      the false negative rate was 0%. CONCLUSIONS: Sentinel lymph nodes can be used to
      accurately predict the pathological state of pelvic lymph nodes in early cervical
      cancer. The detection rates and accuracy of sentinel lymph node were high. Carbon
      nanoparticles can be used to trace the sentinel lymph node in early cervical
      cancer.

PMID- 28873442
TI  - Use of a novel antigen expressing system to study the Salmonella enterica serovar
      Typhi protein recognition by T cells.
AB  - Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), the causative agent of the typhoid
      fever, is a pathogen of great public health importance. Typhoid vaccines have the
      potential to be cost-effective measures towards combating this disease, yet the
      antigens triggering host protective immune responses are largely unknown. Given
      the key role of cellular-mediated immunity in S. Typhi protection, it is crucial
      to identify S. Typhi proteins involved in T-cell responses. Here, cells from
      individuals immunized with Ty21a typhoid vaccine were collected before and after
      immunization and used as effectors. We also used an innovative antigen expressing
      system based on the infection of B-cells with recombinant Escherichia coli (E.
      coli) expressing one of four S. Typhi gene products (i.e., SifA, OmpC, FliC,
      GroEL) as targets. Using flow cytometry, we found that the pattern of response to
      specific S. Typhi proteins was variable. Some individuals responded to all four
      proteins while others responded to only one or two proteins. We next evaluated
      whether T-cells responding to recombinant E. coli also possess the ability to
      respond to purified proteins. We observed that CD4+ cell responses, but not CD8+
      cell responses, to recombinant E. coli were significantly associated with the
      responses to purified proteins. Thus, our results demonstrate the feasibility of
      using an E. coli expressing system to uncover the antigen specificity of T-cells
      and highlight its applicability to vaccine studies. These results also emphasize
      the importance of selecting the stimuli appropriately when evaluating CD4+ and
      CD8+ cell responses.

PMID- 28873444
TI  - Effects of upper-extremity vascular access creation on cardiac events in patients
      undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting.
AB  - The present study was conducted to investigate whether upper-extremity vascular
      access (VA) creation increases the risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE)
      and death in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with an
      in situ left internal thoracic artery (ITA) graft. A total of 111 patients with
      CABG with a left ITA graft who underwent upper-extremity VA creation were
      analyzed retrospectively; 93 patients received left VA creation (83.8%,
      ipsilateral group) and 18 patients received right VA creation (16.2%,
      contralateral group). The primary outcome was the occurrence of MACE, and the
      secondary outcome was the composite of MACE or late death. There were no
      significant differences in the incidence of primary (P = 0.30) or secondary (P =
      0.09) outcomes between the two groups. Multivariate regression analysis indicated
      that prior cerebrovascular accidents (hazard ratio [HR] 3.30; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1.37-7.97; P = 0.01) and type of VA (HR 3.44; 95% CI 1.34-8.82; P =
      0.01) were independently associated with MACE; prior peripheral arterial
      occlusive disease (HR 4.22; 95% CI 1.62-10.98; P<0.01) and type of VA
      (arteriovenous fistula vs. prosthetic arteriovenous grafting) (HR 3.06; 95% CI,
      1.42-6.61; P<0.01) were associated with the composite of MACE or death. The side
      and location of VA were not associated with MACE or death. Our study showed no
      definite evidence that ipsilateral VA creation affects the subsequent occurrence
      of MACE or late death from any cause. The type of VA (a prosthetic arteriovenous
      grafting) is a significant predictor of the subsequent occurrence of MACE or late
      death.

PMID- 28873446
TI  - Epicuticular chemistry reinforces the new taxonomic classification of the
      Bactrocera dorsalis species complex (Diptera: Tephritidae, Dacinae).
AB  - Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta & White, Bactrocera papayae Drew & Hancock, and
      Bactrocera philippinensis Drew & Hancock, key pest species within the Bactrocera
      dorsalis species complex, have been recently synonymized under the name
      Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel). The closely related Bactrocera carambolae Drew &
      Hancock remains as a discrete taxonomic entity. Although the synonymizations have
      been accepted by most researchers, debate about the species limits remains.
      Because of the economic importance of this group of taxa, any new information
      available to support or deny the synonymizations is valuable. We investigated the
      chemical epicuticle composition of males and females of B. dorsalis, B. invadens,
      B. papayae, B. philippinensis, and B. carambolae by means of one- and two
      dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, followed by multiple factor
      analyses and principal component analysis. Clear segregation of complex cuticule
      profiles of both B. carambolae sexes from B. dorsalis (Hendel) was observed. In
      addition to cuticular hydrocarbons, abundant complex mixtures of sex-specific
      oxygenated lipids (three fatty acids and 22 fatty acid esters) with so far
      unknown function were identified in epicuticle extracts from females of all
      species. The data obtained supports both taxonomic synonymization of B. invadens,
      B. papayae, and B. philippinensis with B. dorsalis, as well as the exclusion of
      B. carambolae from B. dorsalis.

PMID- 28873445
TI  - Deleterious effect of Usutu virus on human neural cells.
AB  - In the last decade, the number of emerging Flaviviruses described worldwide has
      increased considerably. Among them Zika virus (ZIKV) and Usutu virus (USUV) are
      African mosquito-borne viruses that recently emerged. Recently, ZIKV has been
      intensely studied due to major outbreaks associated with neonatal death and birth
      defects, as well as neurological symptoms. USUV pathogenesis remains largely
      unexplored, despite significant human and veterinary associated disorders.
      Circulation of USUV in Africa was documented more than 50 years ago, and it
      emerged in Europe two decades ago, causing massive bird mortality. More recently,
      USUV has been described to be associated with neurological disorders in humans
      such as encephalitis and meningoencephalitis, highlighting USUV as a potential
      health threat. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of USUV to
      infect neuronal cells. Our results indicate that USUV efficiently infects
      neurons, astrocytes, microglia and IPSc-derived human neuronal stem cells. When
      compared to ZIKV, USUV led to a higher infection rate, viral production, as well
      as stronger cell death and anti-viral response. Our results highlight the need to
      better characterize the physiopathology related to USUV infection in order to
      anticipate the potential threat of USUV emergence.

PMID- 28873447
TI  - Flat and complex temperate reefs provide similar support for fish: Evidence for a
      unimodal species-habitat relationship.
AB  - Structural complexity, a form of habitat heterogeneity, influences the structure
      and function of ecological communities, generally supporting increased species
      density, richness, and diversity. Recent research, however, suggests the most
      complex habitats may not harbor the highest density of individuals and number of
      species, especially in areas with elevated human influence. Understanding nuances
      in relationships between habitat heterogeneity and ecological communities is
      warranted to guide habitat-focused conservation and management efforts. We
      conducted fish and structural habitat surveys of thirty warm-temperate reefs on
      the southeastern US continental shelf to quantify how structural complexity
      influences fish communities. We found that intermediate complexity maximizes fish
      abundance on natural and artificial reefs, as well as species richness on natural
      reefs, challenging the current paradigm that abundance and other fish community
      metrics increase with increasing complexity. Naturally occurring rocky reefs of
      flat and complex morphologies supported equivalent abundance, biomass, species
      richness, and community composition of fishes. For flat and complex morphologies
      of rocky reefs to receive equal consideration as essential fish habitat (EFH),
      special attention should be given to detecting pavement type rocky reefs because
      their ephemeral nature makes them difficult to detect with typical seafloor
      mapping methods. Artificial reefs of intermediate complexity also maximized fish
      abundance, but human-made structures composed of low-lying concrete and metal
      ships differed in community types, with less complex, concrete structures
      supporting lower numbers of fishes classified largely as demersal species and
      metal ships protruding into the water column harboring higher numbers of fishes,
      including more pelagic species. Results of this study are essential to the
      process of evaluating habitat function provided by different types and shapes of
      reefs on the seafloor so that all EFH across a wide range of habitat complexity
      may be accurately identified and properly managed.

PMID- 28873448
TI  - Temporal and spatial variation of potassium balance in agricultural land at
      national and regional levels in China.
AB  - Linking potassium (K) balance to soil fertility creates a valuable indicator for
      sustainability assessment in agricultural land-use systems. It is crucial for the
      efficient use of K resources, food security and resource sustainability to
      realize soil K balance status in China. Therefore, temporal and spatial changes
      of K balance for farmland in China from 1980 to 2015 were analyzed at national
      and regional levels using statistical data and related parameters. At the
      national scale, K input increased from 6.78 Mt K2O in 1980 to 23.44 Mt K2O in
      2015 with an average annual increment of 0.48 Mt K2O, and output changed from
      8.10 Mt in 1980 to 21.31 Mt in 2015 with an average annual increment of 0.38 Mt
      K2O as well. On average, K balance was -24.17, -5.92, 21.31 and 19.50 kg K2O ha-1
      in 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, respectively. Moreover, the average balance of
      six regions was considerably different which were -21.37, 1.25, 13.70, -22.79,
      99.22 and 7.18 kg K2O ha-1 from 1980 to 2015. The potassium use efficiency (KUE)
      decreased with time which were 127.09, 104.35, 87.69 and 89.69% in 1980s, 1990s,
      2000s and 2010s, respectively, and the decline of slope could also reflect the
      variation tendency of KUE. Great variation of K balance across different regions
      demonstrated that fertilizer application and management practices need to be
      adjusted to local conditions.

PMID- 28873449
TI  - Benthic community structure on coral reefs exposed to intensive recreational
      snorkeling.
AB  - Chronic anthropogenic disturbances on coral reefs in the form of overfishing and
      pollution can shift benthic community composition away from stony corals and
      toward macroalgae. The use of reefs for recreational snorkeling and diving
      potentially can lead to similar ecological impacts if not well-managed, but
      impacts of snorkeling on benthic organisms are not well understood. We quantified
      variation in benthic community structure along a gradient of snorkeling frequency
      in an intensively-visited portion of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. We determined
      rates of snorkeling in 6 water sections and rates of beach visitation in 4
      adjacent land sections at Akumal Bay, Mexico. For each in-water section at 1-3 m
      depth, we also assessed the percent cover of benthic organisms including taxa of
      stony corals and macroalgae. Rates of recreational snorkeling varied from low in
      the southwestern to very high (>1000 snorkelers d-1) in the northeastern sections
      of the bay. Stony coral cover decreased and macroalgal cover increased
      significantly with levels of snorkeling, while trends varied among taxa for other
      organisms such as gorgonians, fire corals, and sea urchins. We conclude that
      benthic organisms appear to exhibit taxon-specific variation with levels of
      recreational snorkeling. To prevent further degradation, we recommend limitation
      of snorkeler visitation rates, coupled with visitor education and in-water guides
      to reduce reef-damaging behaviors by snorkelers in high-use areas. These types of
      management activities, integrated with reef monitoring and subsequent
      readjustment of management, have the potential to reverse the damage potentially
      inflicted on coral reefs by the expansion of reef-based recreational snorkeling.

PMID- 28873451
TI  - Transfer of the small diatoms Thalassiosira proschkinae and T. spinulata to the
      genus Minidiscus and their taxonomic re-description.
AB  - The marine diatoms Thalassiosira proschkinae and T. spinulata are relatively
      small in size; their taxonomic identities have been debated owing to the diverse
      morphological variations. In the present study, we isolated both morphotypes from
      Korean coastal waters and examined their fine structures and conducted molecular
      sequence comparisons. The morphological and molecular analyses showed that T.
      proschkinae and T. spinulata were certainly distinct, and phenotypic plasticity
      of valve structure was not noted. Based on the morphological similarity and
      phylogenetic relationship, we transferred T. proschkinae and T. spinulata to
      another genus Minidiscus within Thalassiosirales that includes small-sized
      species and proposed new combination names, Minidiscus proschkinae (Makarova)
      Park & Lee comb. nov. and Minidiscus spinulatus (Takano) Park & Lee comb. nov.,
      respectively. The genus description of Minidiscus was emended.

PMID- 28873450
TI  - Bromide supplementation exacerbated the renal dysfunction, injury and fibrosis in
      a mouse model of Alport syndrome.
AB  - A seminal study recently demonstrated that bromide (Br-) has a critical function
      in the assembly of type IV collagen in basement membrane (BM), and suggested that
      Br- supplementation has therapeutic potential for BM diseases. Because salts of
      bromide (KBr and NaBr) have been used as antiepileptic drugs for several decades,
      repositioning of Br- for BM diseases is probable. However, the effects of Br- on
      glomerular basement membrane (GBM) disease such as Alport syndrome (AS) and its
      impact on the kidney are still unknown. In this study, we administered daily for
      16 weeks 75 mg/kg or 250 mg/kg (within clinical dosage) NaBr or NaCl (control)
      via drinking water to 6-week-old AS mice (mouse model of X-linked AS). Treatment
      with 75 mg/kg NaBr had no effect on AS progression. Surprisingly, compared with
      250 mg/kg NaCl, 250 mg/kg NaBr exacerbated the progressive proteinuria and
      increased the serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in AS mice. Histological
      analysis revealed that glomerular injury, renal inflammation and fibrosis were
      exacerbated in mice treated with 250 mg/kg NaBr compared with NaCl. The
      expressions of renal injury markers (Lcn2, Lysozyme), matrix metalloproteinase
      (Mmp-12), pro-inflammatory cytokines (Il-6, Il-8, Tnf-alpha, Il-1beta) and pro
      fibrotic genes (Tgf-beta, Col1a1, alpha-Sma) were also exacerbated by 250 mg/kg
      NaBr treatment. Notably, the exacerbating effects of Br- were not observed in
      wild-type mice. These findings suggest that Br- supplementation needs to be
      carefully evaluated for real positive health benefits and for the absence of
      adverse side effects especially in GBM diseases such as AS.

PMID- 28873452
TI  - Betting on the fastest horse: Using computer simulation to design a combination
      HIV intervention for future projects in Maharashtra, India.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To inform the design of a combination intervention strategy targeting
      HIV-infected unhealthy alcohol users in Maharashtra, India, that could be tested
      in future randomized control trials. METHODS: Using probabilistic compartmental
      simulation modeling we compared intervention strategies targeting HIV-infected
      unhealthy alcohol users on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Maharashtra, India. We
      tested interventions targeting four behaviors (unhealthy alcohol consumption,
      risky sexual behavior, depression and antiretroviral adherence), in three formats
      (individual, group based, community) and two durations (shorter versus longer). A
      total of 5,386 possible intervention combinations were tested across the
      population for a 20-year time horizon and intervention bundles were narrowed down
      based on incremental cost-effectiveness analysis using a two-step probabilistic
      uncertainty analysis approach. RESULTS: Taking into account uncertainty in
      transmission variables and intervention cost and effectiveness values, we were
      able to reduce the number of possible intervention combinations to be used in a
      randomized control trial from over 5,000 to less than 5. The most robust
      intervention bundle identified was a combination of three interventions: long
      individual alcohol counseling; weekly Short Message Service (SMS) adherence
      counseling; and brief sex risk group counseling. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to
      guiding policy design, simulation modeling of HIV transmission can be used as a
      preparatory step to trial design, offering a method for intervention pre
      selection at a reduced cost.

PMID- 28873453
TI  - Satellite tagging of rehabilitated green sea turtles Chelonia mydas from the
      United Arab Emirates, including the longest tracked journey for the species.
AB  - We collected movement data for eight rehabilitated and satellite-tagged green sea
      turtles Chelonia mydas released off the United Arab Emirates between 2005 and
      2013. Rehabilitation periods ranged from 96 to 1353 days (mean = 437 +/- 399
      days). Seven of the eight tagged turtles survived after release; one turtle was
      killed by what is thought to be a post-release spear gun wound. The majority of
      turtles (63%) used shallow-water core habitats and established home ranges
      between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the same area in which they had originally washed
      ashore prior to rescue. Four turtles made movements across international
      boundaries, highlighting that regional cooperation is necessary for the
      management of the species. One turtle swam from Fujairah to the Andaman Sea, a
      total distance of 8283 km, which is the longest published track of a green
      turtle. This study demonstrates that sea turtles can be successfully reintroduced
      into the wild after sustaining serious injury and undergoing prolonged periods of
      intense rehabilitation.

PMID- 28873454
TI  - De novo transcriptome assembly and analysis of differential gene expression in
      response to drought in European beech.
AB  - Despite the ecological and economic importance of European beech (Fagus sylvatica
      L.) genomic resources of this species are still limited. This hampers an
      understanding of the molecular basis of adaptation to stress. Since beech will
      most likely be threatened by the consequences of climate change, an understanding
      of adaptive processes to climate change-related drought stress is of major
      importance. Here, we used RNA-seq to provide the first drought stress-related
      transcriptome of beech. In a drought stress trial with beech saplings, 50 samples
      were taken for RNA extraction at five points in time during a soil desiccation
      experiment. De novo transcriptome assembly and analysis of differential gene
      expression revealed 44,335 contigs, and 662 differentially expressed genes
      between the stress and normally watered control group. Gene expression was
      specific to the different time points, and only five genes were significantly
      differentially expressed between the stress and control group on all five
      sampling days. GO term enrichment showed that mostly genes involved in lipid- and
      homeostasis-related processes were upregulated, whereas genes involved in
      oxidative stress response were downregulated in the stressed seedlings. This
      study gives first insights into the genomic drought stress response of European
      beech, and provides new genetic resources for adaptation research in this
      species.

PMID- 28873457
TI  - Identification of host plant use of adults of a long-distance migratory insect,
      Mythimna separata.
AB  - Adults of many insect species often become contaminated with pollen grains when
      feeding. Identification of plant hosts for M. separata moths could increase our
      understanding of their geographic origin and the coevolution of M. separata moths
      and their host plants. However, identifying the diet of noctuid moths using
      traditional direct observation is limited by their nocturnal and flight habits.
      In this study, we used core barcode markers and pollen morphology to identify
      pollen species. We found pollen from 13 plant species belonging to nine families
      on trapped M. separata moths, mainly from Angiosperm, Dicotyledoneae. Pollen was
      found on 14.4% and 12.3% of females and males, respectively, and the amount of
      pollen transported varied with the body part, with the most pollen on the
      proboscis. We were able to determine from this that the moths visited woody
      plants more than herbaceous plants, but not significantly so, and that they
      carried more pollen earlier in the migration season. In this study, we clarified
      the species and frequencies of pollen deposition on M. separata moths. These
      findings improve our understanding of the coevolution of the moths and their host
      plants. Identification of plant hosts for adult moths provides a new means of
      studying noctuid moth-host plant interactions, and informs the development of
      more efficient management practices for M. separata.

PMID- 28873456
TI  - Molecular prediction of lytic vs lysogenic states for Microcystis phage:
      Metatranscriptomic evidence of lysogeny during large bloom events.
AB  - Microcystis aeruginosa is a freshwater bloom-forming cyanobacterium capable of
      producing the potent hepatotoxin, microcystin. Despite increased interest in this
      organism, little is known about the viruses that infect it and drive nutrient
      mobilization and transfer of genetic material between organisms. The genomic
      complement of sequenced phage suggests these viruses are capable of integrating
      into the host genome, though this activity has not been observed in the
      laboratory. While analyzing RNA-sequence data obtained from Microcystis blooms in
      Lake Tai (Taihu, China), we observed that a series of lysogeny-associated genes
      were highly expressed when genes involved in lytic infection were down-regulated.
      This pattern was consistent, though not always statistically significant, across
      multiple spatial and temporally distinct samples. For example, samples from Lake
      Tai (2014) showed a predominance of lytic virus activity from late July through
      October, while genes associated with lysogeny were strongly expressed in the
      early months (June-July) and toward the end of bloom season (October). Analyses
      of whole phage genome expression shows that transcription patterns are shared
      across sampling locations and that genes consistently clustered by co-expression
      into lytic and lysogenic groups. Expression of lytic-cycle associated genes was
      positively correlated to total dissolved nitrogen, ammonium concentration, and
      salinity. Lysogeny-associated gene expression was positively correlated with pH
      and total dissolved phosphorous. Our results suggest that lysogeny may be
      prevalent in Microcystis blooms and support the hypothesis that environmental
      conditions drive switching between temperate and lytic life cycles during bloom
      proliferation.

PMID- 28873455
TI  - Prediction and analysis of essential genes using the enrichments of gene ontology
      and KEGG pathways.
AB  - Identifying essential genes in a given organism is important for research on
      their fundamental roles in organism survival. Furthermore, if possible,
      uncovering the links between core functions or pathways with these essential
      genes will further help us obtain deep insight into the key roles of these genes.
      In this study, we investigated the essential and non-essential genes reported in
      a previous study and extracted gene ontology (GO) terms and biological pathways
      that are important for the determination of essential genes. Through the
      enrichment theory of GO and KEGG pathways, we encoded each essential/non
      essential gene into a vector in which each component represented the relationship
      between the gene and one GO term or KEGG pathway. To analyze these relationships,
      the maximum relevance minimum redundancy (mRMR) was adopted. Then, the
      incremental feature selection (IFS) and support vector machine (SVM) were
      employed to extract important GO terms and KEGG pathways. A prediction model was
      built simultaneously using the extracted GO terms and KEGG pathways, which
      yielded nearly perfect performance, with a Matthews correlation coefficient of
      0.951, for distinguishing essential and non-essential genes. To fully investigate
      the key factors influencing the fundamental roles of essential genes, the 21 most
      important GO terms and three KEGG pathways were analyzed in detail. In addition,
      several genes was provided in this study, which were predicted to be essential
      genes by our prediction model. We suggest that this study provides more
      functional and pathway information on the essential genes and provides a new way
      to investigate related problems.

PMID- 28873459
TI  - Divergent LysM effectors contribute to the virulence of Beauveria bassiana by
      evasion of insect immune defenses.
AB  - The lysin motif (LysM) containing proteins can bind chitin and are ubiquitous in
      various organisms including fungi. In plant pathogenic fungi, a few LysM proteins
      have been characterized as effectors to suppress chitin-induced immunity in plant
      hosts and therefore contribute to fungal virulence. The effector mechanism is
      still questioned in fungus-animal interactions. In this study, we found that LysM
      proteins are also present in animal pathogenic fungi and have evolved
      divergently. The genome of the insect pathogen Beauveria bassiana encodes 12 LysM
      proteins, and the genes were differentially transcribed by the fungus when grown
      in different conditions. Deletion of six genes that were expressed by the fungus
      growing in insects revealed that two, Blys2 and Blys5, were required for full
      fungal virulence. Both proteins could bind chitin and Blys5 (containing two LysM
      domains) could additionally bind chitosan and cellulose. Truncation analysis of
      Blys2 (containing five LysM domains) indicated that the combination of LysM
      domains could determine protein-binding affinity and specificity for different
      carbohydrates. Relative to the wild-type strain, loss of Blys2 or Blys5 could
      impair fungal propagation in insect hemocoels and lead to the upregulation of
      antifungal gene in insects. Interestingly, the virulence defects of DeltaBlys2
      and DeltaBlys5 could be fully restored by complementation with the Slp1 effector
      from the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In contrast to Slp1 and Blys2,
      Blys5 could potentially protect fungal hyphae against chitinase hydrolysis. The
      results of this study not only advance the understanding of LysM protein
      evolution but also establish the effector mechanism of fungus-animal
      interactions.

PMID- 28873458
TI  - Anti-fibrotic effects of valproic acid in experimental peritoneal fibrosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Progressive fibrous thickening of the peritoneal membrane is a
      complication of long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD). TGF-beta/Smad pathway
      activation, inflammation, and neoangiogenesis play important roles in peritoneal
      membrane (PM) changes induced by PD. Recently, histone deacetilase inhibitors
      (HDACi) have shown anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory effects in different
      experimental models. These drugs prevent deacetylation of histones causing a
      loosen chromatin, which in turn induce the expression of some anti-fibrotic
      genes. In addition, acetylation may increase the activity of proteins involved in
      tissue fibrosis, such as Smad7. Here, we explored the effect of valproic acid
      (VPA), an HDACi, on the development of peritoneal fibrosis (PF) in rats. METHODS:
      PF was induced by daily intraperitoneal injections of 0.1% chlorhexidine
      gluconate (CG) for 15 consecutive days. Male Wistar rats (250-300 g) were divided
      into 3 groups: CONTROL, control rats receiving only vehicle; PF, peritoneal
      fibrosis induced in rats; PF+VPA, rats with PF treated with VPA (300 mg/kg/day by
      gavage). PF was assessed by Masson's trichrome staining. Inflammation and
      fibrosis-associated factors were assessed by immunohistochemistry,
      immunofluorescence, multiplex analysis, and qPCR. RESULTS: Treatment with VPA
      significantly reduced PM thickness and the expression of myofibroblasts, besides
      preventing loss of ultrafiltration capacity of the PM. The upregulation of
      profibrotic factors (TGF-beta, fibronectin, and Smad3) in the PF group was
      significantly ameliorated by VPA. VPA modulated the TGF/Smad pathway, inhibiting
      phosphorylated Smad3 expression and inducing an increased Smad7 expression in the
      FP+VPA group. The neoangiogenesis and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines
      (TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, MCP-1) observed in the PF group was significantly reduced
      by VPA. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that VPA suppressed experimental PF
      through modulation of the TGF-beta/Smad pathway. Interestingly, VPA treatment
      induced a higher expression of antifibrotic factors, such as Smad7. These results
      suggest that VPA may represent a potential strategy for treating long term PD
      complications.

PMID- 28873460
TI  - Perfluorocarbon emulsions radiosensitise brain tumors in carbogen breathing mice
      with orthotopic GL261 gliomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumour hypoxia limits the effectiveness of radiation therapy.
      Delivering normobaric or hyperbaric oxygen therapy elevates pO2 in both tumour
      and normal brain tissue. However, pO2 levels return to baseline within 15 minutes
      of stopping therapy. AIM: To investigate the effect of perfluorocarbon (PFC)
      emulsions on hypoxia in subcutaneous and intracranial mouse gliomas and their
      radiosensitising effect in orthotopic gliomas in mice breathing carbogen (95%O2
      and 5%CO2). RESULTS: PFC emulsions completely abrogated hypoxia in both
      subcutaneous and intracranial GL261 models and conferred a significant survival
      advantage orthotopically (Mantel Cox: p = 0.048) in carbogen breathing mice
      injected intravenously (IV) with PFC emulsions before radiation versus mice
      receiving radiation alone. Carbogen alone decreased hypoxia levels substantially
      and conferred a smaller but not statistically significant survival advantage over
      and above radiation alone. CONCLUSION: IV injections of PFC emulsions followed by
      1h carbogen breathing, radiosensitises GL261 intracranial tumors.

PMID- 28873461
TI  - Interleukin-17 induces human alveolar epithelial to mesenchymal cell transition
      via the TGF-beta1 mediated Smad2/3 and ERK1/2 activation.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and usually progressive lung
      disease and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) may play an important
      role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. IL-17 is a proinflammatory
      cytokine which promotes EMT profiles in lung inflammatory diseases. In this
      study, we investigated the effect of IL-17 on EMT in alveolar epithelial cell
      line A549 and the role of TGFbeta1-Smad and ERK signaling pathways in the
      process. Morphological observation on the cells was performed under inverted
      microscope. The mRNA and protein expressions of E-cad and alpha-SMA were detected
      by quantitative RT-PCR and western blotting. The mRNA and protein expressions of
      TGF-beta1 were analyzed via quantitative RT-PCR and ELISA. Expressions of
      Smad2/3, p-Smad2/3, ERK1/2, p-ERK1/2 and p-JNK were examined by western blotting.
      The results indicated that IL-17 can induce A549 cells to undergo morphological
      changes and phenotypic markers changes, such as down-regulated E-cad expression
      and up-regulated alpha-SMA expression. Additionally, IL-17 enhanced TGF-beta1
      expression and stimulated Smad2/3 and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in A549 cells.
      However, there were no significant differences in the expression of
      phosphorylated JNK in A549 cells with or without IL-17 treatment. SB431542 or
      U0126 treated cells showed inhibited morphological changes and phenotypic markers
      expression, such as up-regulated E-cad expression and down-regulated alpha-SMA
      expression. In summary, our results suggest that IL-17 can induce A549 alveolar
      epithelial cells to undergo EMT via the TGF-beta1 mediated Smad2/3 and ERK1/2
      activation.

PMID- 28873462
TI  - Genetic analysis of indel markers in three loci associated with Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - The causal mutations and genetic polymorphisms associated with susceptibility to
      Parkinson's disease (PD) have been extensively described. To explore the
      potential contribution of insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphisms (indels) to
      the risk of PD in a Chinese population, we performed genetic analyses of indel
      loci in ACE, DJ-1, and GIGYF2 genes. Genomic DNA was extracted from venous blood
      of 348 PD patients and 325 age- and sex-matched controls without
      neurodegenerative disease. Genotyping of the indel loci was performed by fragment
      length analysis after PCR and DNA sequencing. Our results showed a statistically
      significant association for both allele X (alleles without 5) vs. 5 (odds ratio =
      1.378, 95% confidence interval = 1.112-1.708, P = 0.003) and genotype 5/X+X/X vs.
      5/5 (odds ratio = 1.681, 95% confidence interval = 1.174-2.407, P = 0.004) in the
      GIGYF2 locus; however, no significant differences were detected for the ACE and
      DJ-1 indels. After stratification by gender, no significant differences were
      observed in any indels. These results indicate that the GIGYF2 indel may be
      associated with increased risk of PD in northern China.

PMID- 28873463
TI  - Effects of antimony on redox activities and antioxidant defence systems in
      sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants.
AB  - The alterations induced by the toxicity of antimony (Sb) in the roots and leaves
      of sunflower plants were determined. The plants were grown hydroponically with
      different concentrations of Sb, a heavy metal which reduces biomass production
      and growth. There was preferential accumulation of Sb in the tissues of the
      roots, with the concentrations in the leaves being much lower. The accumulation
      of other mineral elements was also altered, especially that of Fe and Zn.
      Chlorophyll content declined, as also did the photosynthetic efficiency, but the
      carotenoid content remained unaltered. The total content of phenolics,
      flavonoids, and phenylpropanoid glycosides rose, evidence of their participation
      in the defence response. Increases were observed in the amount of superoxide
      anion in both roots and leaves, and in lipid peroxidation levels, especially with
      the highest Sb concentration of 1.0 mM. The induced oxidative stress leads to a
      strong increase in the SOD, POX and APX antioxidant activities, while the GR
      activity was only increased in the leaves and at the 1.0 mM Sb concentration. In
      contrast, the DHAR activity increased considerably in both organs. The GSNOR
      activity increased only in roots, and the total RSNOs increased. The total amount
      of AsA + DHA increased in roots and remained unaltered in leaves, whereas that of
      GSH + GSSG decreased considerably in all cases. As a whole, these results are
      evidence for the development of a strong oxidative stress induced by Sb, with
      there being a clear imbalance in the content of the compounds that constitute the
      AsA/GSH cycle. 0.5 mM Sb enhances GST expression, especially in leaves. This,
      together with the increase that was observed in the amount of GSH, may play an
      important part in detoxification. This oxidative stress affects both the phenolic
      and the ROS/RNS metabolic processes, which seems to implicate their involvement
      in the plant's defence and response to the stress.

PMID- 28873464
TI  - Direct integrin binding to insulin-like growth factor-2 through the C-domain is
      required for insulin-like growth factor receptor type 1 (IGF1R) signaling.
AB  - We have reported that integrins crosstalk with growth factors through direct
      binding to growth factors (e.g., fibroblast growth factor-1, insulin-like growth
      factor 1 (IGF1), neuregulin-1, fractalkine) and subsequent ternary complex
      formation with cognate receptor [e.g., integrin/IGF1/IGF1 receptor (IGF1R)]. IGF1
      and IGF2 are overexpressed in cancer and major therapeutic targets. We previously
      reported that IGF1 binds to integrins alphanubeta3 and alpha6beta4, and the
      R36E/R37E mutant in the C-domain of IGF1 is defective integrin binding and
      signaling functions of IGF1, and acts as an antagonist of IGF1R. We studied if
      integrins play a role in the signaling functions of IGF2, another member of the
      IGF family. Here we describe that IGF2 specifically binds to integrins
      alphanubeta3 and alpha6beta4, and induced proliferation of CHO cells (IGF1R+)
      that express alphanubeta3 or alpha6beta4 (beta3- or alpha6beta4-CHO cells). Arg
      residues to Glu at positions 24, 34, 37 and/or 38 in or close to the C-domain of
      IGF2 play a critical role in binding to integrins and signaling functions. The
      R24E/R37E/R38E, R34E/R37E/R38E, and R24E/R34E/R37E/R38E mutants were defective in
      integrin binding and IGF2 signaling. These mutants suppressed proliferation
      induced by WT IGF2, suggesting that they are dominant-negative antagonists of
      IGF1R. These results suggest that IGF2 also requires integrin binding for
      signaling functions, and the IGF2 mutants that cannot bind to integrins act as
      antagonists of IGF1R. The present study defines the role of the C-domain in
      integrin binding and signaling.

PMID- 28873465
TI  - The games economists play: Why economics students behave more selfishly than
      other students.
AB  - Do economics students behave more selfishly than other students? Experiments
      involving monetary allocations suggest so. This article investigates the
      underlying motives for the economic students' more selfish behavior by separating
      three potential explanatory mechanisms: economics students are less concerned
      with fairness when making allocation decisions; have a different notion of what
      is fair in allocations; or are more skeptical about other people's allocations,
      which in turn makes them less willing to comply with a shared fairness norm. The
      three mechanisms were tested by inviting students from various disciplines to
      participate in a relatively novel experimental game and asking all participants
      to give reasons for their choices. Compared with students of other disciplines,
      economics students were about equally likely to mention fairness in their
      comments; had a similar notion of what was fair in the situation; however, they
      expected lower offers, made lower offers, and were less willing to enforce
      compliance with a fair allocation at a cost to themselves. The economics
      students' lower expectations mediated their allocation decisions, suggesting that
      economics students behaved more selfishly because they expected others not to
      comply with the shared fairness norm.

PMID- 28873467
TI  - Obesity and risk of death or dialysis in younger and older patients on
      specialized pre-dialysis care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with increased mortality and accelerated
      decline in kidney function in the general population. Little is known about the
      effect of obesity in younger and older pre-dialysis patients. The aim of this
      study was to assess the extent to which obesity is a risk factor for death or
      progression to dialysis in younger and older patients on specialized pre-dialysis
      care. METHOD: In a multicenter Dutch cohort study, 492 incident pre-dialysis
      patients (>18y) were included between 2004-2011 and followed until start of
      dialysis, death or October 2016. We grouped patients into four categories of
      baseline body mass index (BMI): <20, 20-24 (reference), 25-29, and >=30 (obesity)
      kg/m2 and stratified patients into two age categories (<65y or >=65y). RESULTS:
      The study population comprised 212 patients younger than 65 years and 280
      patients 65 years and older; crude cumulative risk of dialysis and mortality at
      the end of follow-up were 66% and 4% for patients <65y and 64% and 14%,
      respectively, for patients >=65y. Among the <65y patients, the age-sex
      standardized combined outcome rate was 2.3 times higher in obese than those with
      normal BMI, corresponding to an excess rate of 35 events/100 patient-years. After
      multivariable adjustment the hazard ratios (HR) (95% CI) for the combined
      endpoint by category of increasing BMI were, for patients <65y, 0.92 (0.41-2.09),
      1 (reference), 1.76 (1.16-2.68), and 1.81 (1.17-2.81). For patients >=65y the BMI
      specific HRs were 1.73 (0.97-3.08), 1 (reference), 1.25 (0.91-1.71) and 1.30
      (0.79-1.90). In the competing risk analysis, taking dialysis as the event of
      interest and death as a competing event, the BMI-specific multivariable adjusted
      subdistribution HRs (95% CI) were, for patients <65y, 0.90 (0.38-2.12), 1
      (reference), 1.47 (0.96-2.24) and 1.72 (1.15-2.59). For patients >=65y the BMI
      specific SHRs (95% CI) were 1.68 (0.93-3.02), 1 (reference), 1.50 (1.05-2.14) and
      1.80 (1.23-2.65). CONCLUSION: We found that obesity in younger pre-dialysis
      patients and being underweight in older pre-dialysis patients are risk factors
      for starting dialysis and for death, compared with those with a normal BMI.

PMID- 28873466
TI  - Rational design of drug-like compounds targeting Mycobacterium marinum MelF
      protein.
AB  - The mycobacterial mel2 locus (mycobacterial enhanced infection locus, Rv1936
      1941) is Mycobacterium marinum and M. tuberculosis specific, which can withstand
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) induced stress.
      A library of over a million compounds was screened using in silico virtual ligand
      screening (VLS) to identify inhibitors against the modeled structure of MelF
      protein expressed by melF of mel2 locus so that M. marinum's ability to withstand
      ROS/RNS stress could be reduced. The top ranked 1000 compounds were further
      screened to identify 178 compounds to maximize the scaffold diversity by manually
      evaluating the interaction of each compound with the target site. M. marinum melF
      was cloned, expressed and purified as maltose binding protein (MBP)-tagged
      recombinant protein in Escherichia coli. After establishing the flavin dependent
      oxidoreductase activity of MelF (~ 84 kDa), the inhibitors were screened for the
      inhibition of enzyme activity of whole cell lysate (WCL) and the purified MelF.
      Amongst these, 16 compounds could significantly inhibit the enzyme activity of
      purified MelF. For the six best inhibitory compounds, the minimal inhibitory
      concentration (MIC) was determined to be 3.4-19.4 MUM and 13.5-38.8 MUM for M.
      marinum and M. tuberculosis, respectively. Similarly, the minimal bactericidal
      concentration (MBC) was determined to be 6.8-38.8 MUM and 27-38.8 MUM against M.
      marinum and M. tuberculosis, respectively. One compound each in combination with
      isoniazid (INH) also showed synergistic inhibitory effect against M. marinum and
      M. tuberculosis with no cytotoxicity in HeLa cells. Interestingly, these
      inhibitors did not display any non-specific protein-structure destabilizing
      effect. Such inhibitors targeting the anti-ROS/RNS machinery may facilitate the
      efficient killing of replicating and nonreplicating mycobacteria inside the host
      cells.

PMID- 28873469
TI  - The direct healthcare costs associated with psychological distress and major
      depression: A population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada.
AB  - The objective of our study was to estimate direct healthcare costs incurred by a
      population-based sample of people with psychological distress or depression. We
      used the 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey on Mental Health and Well Being
      and categorized individuals as having psychological distress using the Kessler-6,
      major depressive disorder (MDD) using DSM-IV criteria and a comparison group of
      participants without MDD or psychological distress. Costs in 2013 USD were
      estimated by linking individuals to health administrative databases and following
      them until March 31, 2013. Our sample consisted of 9,965 individuals, of whom 651
      and 409 had psychological distress and MDD, respectively. Although the age-and
      sex adjusted per-capita costs were similarly high among the psychologically
      distressed ($3,364, 95% CI: $2,791, $3,937) and those with MDD ($3,210, 95% CI:
      $2,413, $4,008) compared to the comparison group ($2,629, 95% CI: $2,312,
      $2,945), the population-wide excess costs for psychological distress ($441
      million) were more than twice that for MDD ($210 million) as there was a greater
      number of people with psychological distress than depression. We found
      substantial healthcare costs associated with psychological distress and
      depression, suggesting that psychological distress and MDD have a high cost
      burden and there may be public health intervention opportunities to relieve
      distress. Further research examining how individuals with these conditions use
      the healthcare system may provide insight into the allocation of limited
      healthcare resources while maintaining high quality care.

PMID- 28873468
TI  - Neuropsychological functioning, age, and medication adherence in bipolar
      disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Poor adherence to medication is frequent in bipolar disorder (BD) and
      has been associated with several factors. To date, the relationship between low
      adherence and neuropsychological functioning in BD is still unclear. As age and
      neuropsychological functioning might have opposing influences on adherence, our
      aim was to investigate this link with a particular focus on the effect of age.
      METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, we included 353 patients divided into two
      age-groups (16-46; 47-71) from a French cohort diagnosed with BD (type I, II,
      NOS) and strictly euthymic. All patients had a standardized clinical and
      neuropsychological assessment and were categorized as high (n = 186) or low (n =
      167) adherent based on their score from the Medication Adherence Rating Scale.
      Clinical information was collected based on a standardized interview and clinical
      validated scales. Neuropsychological performances were evaluated with an
      established standardized neuropsychological battery for bipolar disorder
      patients. After univariate analysis, neuropsychological and clinical predictors
      of low adherence were included in two age-specific stepwise multiple logistic
      regressions. RESULTS: A smaller number of hospitalizations (OR = 0.846, p =
      0.012), a shorter illness duration (OR = 0.937, p = 0.003) and higher adverse
      effects (OR = 1.082, p<0.001) were associated with a greater risk of low
      adherence in the younger patients. In the older patients, low adherence was also
      predicted by a smaller number of hospitalizations (OR = 0.727, p = 0.008) and
      higher adverse effects (OR = 1.124, p = 0.005). Interestingly poor inhibition
      performance was also a significant predictor of low adherence in older patients
      (OR = 0.924, p = 0.030). CONCLUSIONS: We found an age-specific relationship
      between cognitive functioning and adherence in patients with BD. Poor inhibition
      performances predicted low adherence in older patients only. Our results
      highlight the need to provide age-adapted therapeutic interventions to improve
      adherence in patients with BD.

PMID- 28873472
TI  - Incorporating basic and applied approaches to evaluate the effects of invasive
      Asian Carp on native fishes: A necessary first step for integrated pest
      management.
AB  - Numerous studies throughout North America allege deleterious associations among
      invasive Asian Carp and native fishes; however, no empirical evidence on a system
      wide scale exists. We used Mississippi River Basin fish community data collected
      by the Long Term Resource Monitoring program and the Missouri Department of
      Conservation to evaluate possible interaction between Asian Carp and native
      fishes. Results from two decades of long-term monitoring throughout much of the
      Mississippi River suggest that Silver Carp relative abundance has increased while
      relative abundance (Bigmouth Buffalo [F 3, 8240 = 6.44, P<0.01] and Gizzard Shad
      [F 3, 8240 = 31.04, P<0.01]) and condition (Bigmouth Buffalo [slope = -0.11; t = 
      1.71; P = 0.1014] and Gizzard Shad [slope = -0.39; t = -3.02; P = 0.0073]) of
      native planktivores have declined. Floodplain lake qualitative evaluations
      yielded similar results; floodplain lake fish communities were likely altered
      (i.e., reductions in native species) by Silver Carp. Furthermore, laboratory
      experiments corroborated field evidence; Silver Carp negatively influence native
      planktivores through competition for prey (all comparisons, P > 0.05). To this
      end, this study provides evidence that Silver Carp are likely adversely
      influencing native fishes; however, mere presence of Silver Carp in the system
      does not induce deleterious effects on native fishes. To the best of our
      knowledge, this evaluation is the first to describe the effects of Asian Carp
      throughout the Mississippi River Basin and could be used to reduce the effects of
      Asian Carp on native biota through an integrated pest management program as
      suggested by congressional policy. Despite the simplicity of the data analyzed
      and approach used, this study provides a framework for beginning to identify the
      interactions of invasive fish pests on native fishes (i.e., necessary first step
      of integrated pest management). However, knowledge gaps remain. We suggest future
      efforts should conduct more in depth analyses (i.e., multivariate statistical
      approaches) that investigate the influence on all native species.

PMID- 28873471
TI  - Persistence in soil of Miscanthus biochar in laboratory and field conditions.
AB  - Evaluating biochars for their persistence in soil under field conditions is an
      important step towards their implementation for carbon sequestration. Current
      evaluations might be biased because the vast majority of studies are short-term
      laboratory incubations of biochars produced in laboratory-scale pyrolyzers. Here
      our objective was to investigate the stability of a biochar produced with a
      medium-scale pyrolyzer, first through laboratory characterization and stability
      tests and then through field experiment. We also aimed at relating properties of
      this medium-scale biochar to that of a laboratory-made biochar with the same
      feedstock. Biochars were made of Miscanthus biomass for isotopic C-tracing
      purposes and produced at temperatures between 600 and 700 degrees C. The
      aromaticity and degree of condensation of aromatic rings of the medium-scale
      biochar was high, as was its resistance to chemical oxidation. In a 90-day
      laboratory incubation, cumulative mineralization was 0.1% for the medium-scale
      biochar vs. 45% for the Miscanthus feedstock, pointing to the absence of labile C
      pool in the biochar. These stability results were very close to those obtained
      for biochar produced at laboratory-scale, suggesting that upscaling from
      laboratory to medium-scale pyrolyzers had little effect on biochar stability. In
      the field, the medium-scale biochar applied at up to 25 t C ha-1 decomposed at an
      estimated 0.8% per year. In conclusion, our biochar scored high on stability
      indices in the laboratory and displayed a mean residence time > 100 years in the
      field, which is the threshold for permanent removal in C sequestration projects.

PMID- 28873470
TI  - Comparative genomics and phylogenomic analyses of lysine riboswitch distributions
      in bacteria.
AB  - Riboswitches are cis-regulatory elements that regulate the expression of genes
      involved in biosynthesis or transport of a ligand that binds to them. Among the
      nearly 40 classes of riboswitches discovered so far, three are known to regulate
      the concentration of biologically encoded amino acids glycine, lysine, and
      glutamine. While some comparative genomics studies of riboswitches focusing on
      their gross distribution across different bacterial taxa have been carried out
      recently, systematic functional annotation and analysis of lysine riboswitches
      and the genes they regulate are still lacking. We analyzed 2785 complete
      bacterial genome sequences to systematically identify 468 lysine riboswitches
      (not counting hits from multiple strains of the same species) and obtain a
      detailed phylogenomic map of gene-specific lysine riboswitch distribution across
      diverse prokaryotic phyla. We find that lysine riboswitches are most abundant in
      Firmicutes and Gammaproteobacteria where they are found upstream to both
      biosynthesis and/or transporter genes. They are relatively rare in all other
      prokaryotic phyla where if present they are primarily found upstream to operons
      containing many lysine biosynthesis genes. The genome-wide study of the genetic
      organisation of the lysine riboswitches show considerable variation both within
      and across different Firmicute orders. Correlating the location of a riboswitch
      with its genomic context and its phylogenetic relationship with other
      evolutionarily related riboswitch carrying species, enables identification and
      annotation of many lysine biosynthesis, transporter and catabolic genes. It also
      reveals previously unknown patterns of lysine riboswitch distribution and
      gene/operon regulation and allows us to draw inferences about the possible point
      of origin of lysine riboswitches. Additionally, evidence of horizontal transfer
      of riboswitches was found between Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Our analysis
      provides a useful resource that will lead to a better understanding of the
      evolution of these regulatory elements and prove to be beneficial for exploiting
      riboswitches for developing targeted therapies.

PMID- 28873474
TI  - The woman who could spell backwards.

PMID- 28873475
TI  - Woonsocket teens TEACH community health.

PMID- 28873473
TI  - Comparison of the treatment practice and hospitalization cost of percutaneous
      coronary intervention between a teaching hospital and a general hospital in
      Malaysia: A cross sectional study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The increasing disease burden of coronary artery disease (CAD)
      calls for sustainable cardiac service. Teaching hospitals and general hospitals
      in Malaysia are main providers of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a
      common treatment for CAD. Few studies have analyzed the contemporary data on
      local cardiac facilities. Service expansion and budget allocation require cost
      evidence from various providers. We aim to compare the patient characteristics,
      procedural outcomes, and cost profile between a teaching hospital (TH) and a
      general hospital (GH). METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from the
      healthcare providers' perspective from January 1st to June 30th 2014. TH is a
      university teaching hospital in the capital city, while GH is a state-level
      general hospital. Both are government-funded cardiac referral centers. Clinical
      data was extracted from a national cardiac registry. Cost data was collected
      using mixed method of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Total hospitalization
      cost per PCI patient was summed up from the costs of ward admission and cardiac
      catheterization laboratory utilization. Clinical characteristics were compared
      with chi-square and independent t-test, while hospitalization length and cost
      were analyzed using Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: The mean hospitalization cost was
      RM 12,117 (USD 3,366) at GH and RM 16,289 (USD 4,525) at TH. The higher cost at
      TH can be attributed to worse patients' comorbidities and cardiac status. In
      contrast, GH recorded a lower mean length of stay as more patients had same-day
      discharge, resulting in 29% reduction in mean cost of admission compared to TH.
      For both hospitals, PCI consumables accounted for the biggest proportion of total
      cost. CONCLUSIONS: The high PCI consumables cost highlighted the importance of
      cost-effective purchasing mechanism. Findings on the heterogeneity of the
      patients, treatment practice and hospitalization cost between TH and GH are vital
      for formulation of cost-saving strategies to ensure sustainable and equitable
      cardiac service in Malaysia.

PMID- 28873477
TI  - Senior Physicians: Addressing Age, Ability and Acumen.

PMID- 28873476
TI  - Antipsychotic Medication Use and Reduction: Unanswered Questions and Policy
      Implications.

PMID- 28873478
TI  - The Aging Physician.

PMID- 28873479
TI  - Cognitive Decline in Physicians and their Patients.

PMID- 28873480
TI  - Legal Issues and the Aging Physician.

PMID- 28873481
TI  - Moving Forward: Retirement Opportunities for Senior Physicians.

PMID- 28873482
TI  - Respiratory viral testing in laboratories serving acute care hospitals in Rhode
      Island.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rapid detection of respiratory viral infections is associated
      with several positive health outcomes. However, little is known about the
      availability of rapid respiratory viral testing in acute care hospital
      laboratories. METHODS: A survey was sent to 13 hospital laboratories assessing
      results' turnaround time, the number of ordered tests and positive results.
      RESULTS: Rapid viral panel (RVP), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and rapid
      influenza testing was available in 9 of 13, 13 of 13, and 13 of 13 hospitals,
      respectively. Results were available within 24 hours of specimen collection in 1
      of 9 hospitals for RVP; RSV and rapid influenza results were available within 12
      hours in 8 of 13 and 13 of 13 hospitals, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Rapid
      diagnosis of respiratory viral infections in RI acute care hospitals can be made
      for influenza and RSV. However, rapid results for other respiratory viruses are
      unavailable in most of RI hospitals. [Full article available at
      http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-09.asp].

PMID- 28873483
TI  - A rare case of amelanotic anorectal melanoma.
AB  - We report an exceedingly rare case of amelanotic anorectal melanoma misdiagnosed
      as hemorrhoids. A 74-year-old man presented with a week's history of "blood on
      toilet tissue" without bowel complaints or history of cutaneous melanoma. Skin
      evaluation was normal. Rectal exam was negative for blood, but revealed an anal
      nodule, interpreted as a hemorrhoid. Hemoglobin was normal; bleeding persisted.
      After one month, colonoscopy detected a non-pigmented anal lesion. Biopsy showed
      melanoma. Noncutaneous mucosal melanoma represents 0.03% of new cancer diagnoses
      Anorectal melanoma accounts for 1% of melanomas and 0.4% of anal malignancies.
      Uncommonly, this malignancy lacks melanin pigment, complicating detection.
      Presenting complaints are non-specific rectal bleeding, pain, itching or
      incontinence, mimicking more common disorders. Dangerous misdiagnosis occurs when
      benign disease, not malignancy, is suspected. Risk factors for cutaneous melanoma
      are less frequent. Mucosal melanoma has different genetics. Clinicians must be
      aware of diagnostic difficulties of anorectal melanoma, especially when
      amelanotic. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017
      09.asp].

PMID- 28873484
TI  - Multimodality imaging in the diagnosis of a large accessory papillary muscle.
AB  - An accessory papillary muscle is an uncommon congenital anomaly usually found
      incidentally on routine cardiac imaging. While frequently asymptomatic, it is
      occasionally associated with mitral regurgitation, left ventricular dynamic
      outflow obstruction and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy1 and it is important to
      differentiate it from other pathological processes including papillary
      fibroelastoma, left ventricle thrombus, hemangioma, a single papillary muscle
      with a parachute mitral valve and a left ventricle false tendon. The clinical
      implication of these findings varies according to the degree of left ventricular
      out flow obstruction, location and pathology. We report a case that underscores
      the importance of multimodality imaging in the diagnosis and differentiation of
      an accessory papillary muscle from other intracardiac masses. [Full article
      available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-09.asp].

PMID- 28873485
TI  - Suicide deaths among Rhode Island adults aged 25 years and older: An
      epidemiologic and spatial analysis.

PMID- 28873486
TI  - Meniscal Ramp Lesion Repair Using the FasT-Fix Technique: Evaluating Healing and
      Patient Outcomes with Second-Look Arthroscopy.
AB  - Although the suture-hook technique remains popular for meniscal ramp lesions,
      which frequently occur after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, it is
      unclear whether the all-inside FasT-Fix technique (Smith & Nephew, Andover, MA)
      is appropriate for the repair of ramp lesions. This study evaluated results of
      arthroscopic FasT-Fix meniscal ramp lesion repair using second-look arthroscopy.
      From August 2010 to December 2014, 46 knees diagnosed with combined ACL injury
      and ramp lesion underwent ACL reconstruction with meniscal repair using the FasT
      Fix technique. We classified ramp lesions into three types according to tear
      pattern: meniscotibial ligament tear, meniscocapsular tear, and combined
      meniscotibial/meniscocapsular tear. Second-look arthroscopy was performed
      postoperatively. The healing capacity of the ramp lesion was evaluated
      retrospectively. At the final follow-up (mean = 32 months), the Lysholm knee
      score and the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) objective score
      were compared with preoperative scores. All patients (n = 46) underwent a second
      look arthroscopy, with 45 (97.8%) exhibiting complete or partial healing after
      the FasT-Fix technique was used in conjunction with ACL reconstruction. The
      Lysholm knee score and IKDC objective score were significantly better than
      preoperative scores at final follow-up. The FasT-Fix technique for meniscal ramp
      lesion repair-when performed with concomitant ACL reconstruction-exhibits
      excellent healing results.

PMID- 28873487
TI  - Effectiveness and Safety of Needle Medial Collateral Ligament Pie-Crusting in
      Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Cadaveric Study.
AB  - Medial collateral ligament (MCL) pie-crusting technique in total knee
      arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the methods of medial release. The effects and risks
      of blade pie-crusting have been reported in previous studies. However, only a few
      have reported the safety and efficacy of needle pie-crusting. In this cadaveric
      study, we quantitatively evaluated the amount of gap change by MCL needle pie
      crusting. We investigated five knees of four fresh human cadavers and performed
      posterior-stabilized TKA. Only deep MCL release as the medial release was
      conducted. We punctured the MCL from the deep layer to the superficial layer
      using a 18 G needle in a 90-degree flexion position for 0, 10, 20, 50, 75, and
      100 times. Medial and lateral gaps were measured accurately with a balancer at
      determined times in 0 and 90-degree flexion positions. Changes in medial and
      lateral gaps were not significant differences in flexion and extension position.
      However, in 90-degree flexion, medial gap changes were tended to be larger than
      lateral gap changes. A 0.6 mm additional medial release and a 0.2 mm additional
      lateral release were found per 10 times pie crust in flexion position (100 times,
      p: 0.08). However, large differences existed among the cases. Needle pie-crusting
      is safer than blade pie-crusting because of the small efficacy of one-time pie
      crust. MCL needle pie-crusting showed varied effects for each case. This result
      indicates the risk of relaxation of an unexpected gap. Caution should be taken
      when choosing between needle pie-crusting and blade pie-crusting.

PMID- 28873488
TI  - Corrective Intra-articular Osteotomies for Tibial Plateau Malunion.

PMID- 28873489
TI  - Growth among Twins: Use of Singleton versus Twin-Specific Growth Nomograms.
AB  - OBJECTIVE:  We hypothesized that utilization of a twin-specific nomograms, when
      compared with one based on singleton data, is less likely to classify twins as
      having abnormal growth and more likely to identify perinatal morbidity and
      mortality. MATERIALS AND METHODS:  Data were culled from seven Maternal-Fetal
      Medicine Units (MFMU) studies, the included twin gestations in their study
      population. Each newborn twin's birth weight percentile was categorized using
      Alexander et al (singleton data) and Ananth et al (twin data) nomogram. Logistic
      regression models were adjusted for maternal race and body mass index, neonatal
      sex, study, and twin correlation. RESULTS:  More twins were categorized as small
      for gestational age (SGA) when singleton nomogram was used (33%) compared with
      twin nomogram (4%). The use of singleton nomogram revealed a higher composite
      neonatal morbidity (CNM) and stillbirth rates among SGA twins but a similar
      neonatal mortality rate when compared with appropriate for gestational age.
      Correspondingly, when twin-specific nomogram was utilized, the CNM, odds of
      stillbirth, and neonatal mortality were higher among SGA twins. The rate of large
      for gestational age among twins was increased with the use of twin-specific
      nomograms. CONCLUSION:  Utilization of twin-specific nomogram is less likely to
      categorize twins as SGA and more likely to identify those at risk for stillbirth
      and neonatal mortality.

PMID- 28873490
TI  - Simultaneous duodenal stenting and endoscopic ultrasound-guided
      hepaticogastrostomy using a forward-oblique view echoendoscope.

PMID- 28873492
TI  - [Blood Pressure Measurement and Treatment Targets: Position Paper of the DHL(r)
      Task Force Scientific Statements and Guidelines].

PMID- 28873491
TI  - No Tissue Expression of KRAS or BRAF Mutations in 61 Adult Patients Treated for
      Esophageal Atresia in Early Childhood.
AB  - BACKGROUND:  Previous studies have reported an association among esophageal
      atresia (EA), Barrett's esophagus, and esophageal adenocarcinoma later in life.
      OBJECTIVE:  The objective of the article is to evaluate KRAS and BRAF mutations
      as potential genetic markers for early detection of malignant transformation, we
      used an ultrasensitive technique to detect tissue expression of KRAS and BRAF
      mutations in endoscopic biopsies from 61 adult patients under follow-up after
      treatment for EA. MATERIALS AND METHODS:  RNA was extracted from 112 fresh-frozen
      endoscopic tissue biopsies from 61 adult patients treated for EA in early
      childhood. RNA was reverse transcribed using the extendable blocking probe
      reverse transcription method. KRAS codons 12 and 13, as well as BRAF mutations
      were detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS:  No mutations
      of KRAS codon 12, KRAS codon 13, or BRAF were found in 112 endoscopic biopsy
      samples from 61 patients. CONCLUSION:  Despite the presence of histological
      findings indicating long-standing gastroesophageal reflux in 25%, as well as
      symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux in more than 40%, there was no detectable
      tissue expression of KRAS or BRAF mutations in this cohort of patients.

PMID- 28873493
TI  - [Rare differential diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis
      (CRSwNP)].

PMID- 28873494
TI  - [Acute Flank Pain in Children and Adolescents].
AB  - Acute flank pain in children and adolescents is a clinically demanding symptom
      requiring profound diagnostic work-up. Thorough history taking, careful clinical
      examination as well as urine and laboratory tests in addition to ultrasound are
      required to guide towards the diagnosis. This article presents possible
      underlying conditions with specific diagnostic and therapeutic considerations.

PMID- 28873495
TI  - [Defect coverage of the hand using a rare Siamese combined flap].
AB  - We report 2 cases of extensive soft tissue defects simultaneously affecting the
      palm and dorsum of the hand. The defect was covered with a Siamese flap
      combination consisting of a free, distally extended lateral upper arm flap with
      microvascular anastomosis, and a posterior interosseous artery flap. We discuss
      possible indications, the operative technique and advantages versus disadvantages
      of this rarely applied flap combination.

PMID- 28873496
TI  - [Early active motion management of volar plate disruption of the proximal
      interphalangeal joint after finger hyperextension injury: extension block
      splinting versus buddy taping].
AB  - Background Volar plate disruption of the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIP) is
      a common hand injury following finger hyperextension. At our institution,
      patients presenting with disruptions of the palmar plate (Eaton and Littler types
      I and II) before 2011 were treated with extension block splinting (group A).
      Since 2011, all patients with Eaton and Littler types I and II have received
      buddy taping (group B). The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the
      respective treatment outcomes. Patients and Methods In this retrospective study,
      we analysed the data of 44 patients visiting our department with volar plate
      disruption (Eaton and Littler types I and II) from 2009 to 2012. In group A, 23
      patients were treated with custom-made extension block splinting in 10  degrees 
      flexion, compared with 21 patients treated with buddy taping in group B. Both
      groups received dorsal night splinting in 10  degrees  flexion. Results No
      statistically significant differences between the two groups were found in regard
      to treatment duration (p = 0,981), amount of required treatment sessions (p =
      0,271), total active motion (TAM) (p = 0,693) and extension deficit (p = 0,404)
      in the PIP joint at the end of treatment, time until hand therapy was started (p
      = 0,285) or the Eaton und Littler diagnosis (p = 0,241). In the extension block
      group (group A), 10 out of 23 (44 %) patients after a median of 9 (4-10) weeks of
      treatment had an excellent result, 11 (48 %) had a good result, and 2 (8 %)
      patients had a poor result with a median 90  degrees  (85-100  degrees ) TAM in
      the PIP joint and no extension deficit. In group A, all patients received a
      median of 4 (3-6) treatment sessions. Of those treated with buddy taping (group
      B), 14 out of 21 (66 %) patients at a median of 6 (4-13) weeks had an excellent
      result, 6 (29 %) had a good result, and 1 (5 %) patient had a poor result with a
      median TAM of 95  degrees  (82,5-100  degrees ) and no extension deficit. In this
      group, patients received a total of 4 (3-5) treatment sessions. The type of
      treatment had no significant influence on the Benke and Stableforth outcome (chi2
      = 2,385, df = 3, p = 0,304). No patient developed palmar joint instability.
      Conclusion No treatment option proved to be superior. We consider buddy taping to
      be faster, easier and more flexible to use.

PMID- 28873497
TI  - Calculating Groundwater Response Times for Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media.
AB  - Predicting the amount of time required for a transient groundwater response to
      take place is a practical question that is of interest in many situations. This
      time scale is often called the response time. In the groundwater hydrology
      literature, there are two main methods used to calculate the response time: (1)
      both the transient and steady-state groundwater flow equations are solved, and
      the response time is taken to be amount of time required for the transient
      solution to approach the steady solution within some tolerance; and (2) simple
      scaling arguments are adopted. Certain limitations restrict both of these
      approaches. In this study, we outline a third method, based on the theory of mean
      action time. We derive the governing boundary value problem for both the mean and
      variance of action time for confined flow in two-dimensional heterogeneous porous
      media. Importantly, we show that these boundary value problems can be solved
      using widely available software. Applying these methods to a test case reveals
      the advantages of the theory of mean action time relative to standard methods.

PMID- 28873498
TI  - A Python Script to Compute Isochrones for MODFLOW.
AB  - MODFLOW constitutes today the most popular modeling tool in the study of water
      flow in aquifers and in modeling aquifers. To simplify the interface to MODFLOW
      various GUI have been developed for the creation of model definition files and
      for the visualization and interpretation of results. Recently Bakker et al.
      (2016) developed the FloPy interface to MODFLOW that allows to import and use the
      produced simulation data using Python. This allows to construct model input
      files, run the models, read and plot simulations results through Python scripts.
      In this note, we present a Python program (that uses FloPy) interface that allows
      us to generate time-related capture zones (isochrones) for confined 2D steady
      state groundwater flow in unbounded domains, with one or more wells. As an
      application, we show a validation of the approach and the results of four basic
      test cases: a homogenous aquifer with one well, a heterogeneous aquifer with one
      well, an aquifer with four wells located both longitudinal and perpendicular to
      the flow direction.

PMID- 28873500
TI  - Simultaneous determination of glaucocalyxin A and glaucocalyxin B in rat plasma
      by LC-MS/MS and its application to a pharmacokinetic study after oral
      administration of Rabdosia japonica extract.
AB  - A specific and sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC
      MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the analysis of glaucocalyxin A and
      glaucocalyxin B in rat plasma using praeruptorin A as an internal standard.
      Separation was performed on a Hypurity C18 column (2.1 * 50 mm, 5 MUm) with
      isocratic elution using 0.2% formic acid in water-acetonitrile (20:80, v/v). Mass
      spectrometric detection was conducted using selected reaction monitoring via an
      electrospray ionization source. Both analytes exhibited good linearity within
      their concentration ranges (r2 > 0.9932). The lower limit of quantitation of
      glaucocalyxin A and glaucocalyxin B was 1.10 ng/mL. Intra- and inter-day
      precision exhibited an RSD within 14.5%, and the accuracy (RE) ranged from -12.1
      to 15.0% at the lower limit of quantitation and three quality control levels. The
      developed assay was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of
      glaucocalyxin A and glaucocalyxin B in rats after oral administration of Rabdosia
      japonica extract.

PMID- 28873499
TI  - Bioremediation in Fractured Rock: 2. Mobilization of Chloroethene Compounds from
      the Rock Matrix.
AB  - A mass balance is formulated to evaluate the mobilization of chlorinated ethene
      compounds (CE) from the rock matrix of a fractured mudstone aquifer under pre-
      and postbioremediation conditions. The analysis relies on a sparse number of
      monitoring locations and is constrained by a detailed description of the
      groundwater flow regime. Groundwater flow modeling developed under the site
      characterization identified groundwater fluxes to formulate the CE mass balance
      in the rock volume exposed to the injected remediation amendments. Differences in
      the CE fluxes into and out of the rock volume identify the total CE mobilized
      from diffusion, desorption, and nonaqueous phase liquid dissolution under pre-
      and postinjection conditions. The initial CE mass in the rock matrix prior to
      remediation is estimated using analyses of CE in rock core. The CE mass mobilized
      per year under preinjection conditions is small relative to the total CE mass in
      the rock, indicating that current pump-and-treat and natural attenuation
      conditions are likely to require hundreds of years to achieve groundwater
      concentrations that meet regulatory guidelines. The postinjection CE mobilization
      rate increased by approximately an order of magnitude over the 5 years of
      monitoring after the amendment injection. This rate is likely to decrease and
      additional remediation applications over several decades would still be needed to
      reduce CE mass in the rock matrix to levels where groundwater concentrations in
      fractures achieve regulatory standards.

PMID- 28873501
TI  - ERAS-Value based surgery.
AB  - This paper reviews implementation of ERAS and its financial implications.
      Literature on clinical outcomes and financial implications were reviewed. Reports
      from many different surgery types shows that implementation of ERAS reduces
      complications and shortens hospital stay. These improvements have major impacts
      on reducing the cost of care even when costs for implementation, and investment
      in time for personnel and training is accounted for. The conclusion is that ERAS
      is an excellent example of value based surgery.

PMID- 28873502
TI  - Bioremediation in Fractured Rock: 1. Modeling to Inform Design, Monitoring, and
      Expectations.
AB  - Field characterization of a trichloroethene (TCE) source area in fractured
      mudstones produced a detailed understanding of the geology, contaminant
      distribution in fractures and the rock matrix, and hydraulic and transport
      properties. Groundwater flow and chemical transport modeling that synthesized the
      field characterization information proved critical for designing bioremediation
      of the source area. The planned bioremediation involved injecting emulsified
      vegetable oil and bacteria to enhance the naturally occurring biodegradation of
      TCE. The flow and transport modeling showed that injection will spread amendments
      widely over a zone of lower-permeability fractures, with long residence times
      expected because of small velocities after injection and sorption of emulsified
      vegetable oil onto solids. Amendments transported out of this zone will be
      diluted by groundwater flux from other areas, limiting bioremediation
      effectiveness downgradient. At nearby pumping wells, further dilution is expected
      to make bioremediation effects undetectable in the pumped water. The results
      emphasize that in fracture-dominated flow regimes, the extent of injected
      amendments cannot be conceptualized using simple homogeneous models of
      groundwater flow commonly adopted to design injections in unconsolidated porous
      media (e.g., radial diverging or dipole flow regimes). Instead, it is important
      to synthesize site characterization information using a groundwater flow model
      that includes discrete features representing high- and low-permeability
      fractures. This type of model accounts for the highly heterogeneous hydraulic
      conductivity and groundwater fluxes in fractured-rock aquifers, and facilitates
      designing injection strategies that target specific volumes of the aquifer and
      maximize the distribution of amendments over these volumes.

PMID- 28873503
TI  - Large-scale NMR simulations in liquid state: A tutorial.
AB  - Liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance is the only class of magnetic resonance
      experiments for which the simulation problem is solved comprehensively for spin
      systems of any size. This paper contains a practical walkthrough for one of the
      many available simulation packages - Spinach. Its unique feature is polynomial
      complexity scaling: the ability to simulate large spin systems quantum
      mechanically and with accurate account of relaxation, diffusion, chemical
      processes, and hydrodynamics. This paper is a gentle introduction written with a
      PhD student in mind.

PMID- 28873504
TI  - ERAS-Anticipated outcomes and realistic goals.
AB  - Enhanced recovery programs emphasize implementation of perioperative measures to
      reduce stress and restore baseline function. Complications and length of stay are
      greatly improved as a result, but the field is moving toward more patient centric
      and longer term outcomes that better reflect functional recovery. Programs
      demonstrating value in these domains will undoubtedly see corollary gains in
      traditional metrics. Thus, greater focus on patient well-being and treatment
      success is key to successful implementation of enhanced recovery.

PMID- 28873505
TI  - Enhanced recovery after surgery: Pain management.
AB  - Effective pain management is fundamental to enhanced recovery after surgery.
      Selection of strategies should be tailored to patient and operation. As well as
      improving the quality of recovery, effective analgesia reduces the host stress
      response, facilitates mobilization and allows resumption of oral intake. Multi
      modal regimens combining paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents
      where indicated, a potent opioid and a local anaesthetic technique achieve
      effective analgesia while limiting the dose and thereby side effects of any one
      agent.

PMID- 28873506
TI  - Enhanced recovery after surgery-Summary recommendations.

PMID- 28873507
TI  - Borrelia burgdorferi outer surface protein C (OspC) binds complement component
      C4b and confers bloodstream survival.
AB  - Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) is the causative agent of Lyme disease in the United
      States, a disease that can result in carditis, and chronic and debilitating
      arthritis and/or neurologic symptoms if left untreated. Bb survives in the midgut
      of the Ixodes scapularis tick, or within tissues of immunocompetent hosts. In the
      early stages of infection, the bacteria are present in the bloodstream where they
      must resist clearance by the innate immune system of the host. We have found a
      novel role for outer surface protein C (OspC) from B. burgdorferi and B. garinii
      in interactions with the complement component C4b and bloodstream survival in
      vivo. Our data show that OspC inhibits the classical and lectin complement
      pathways and competes with complement protein C2 for C4b binding. Resistance to
      complement is important for maintenance of the lifecycle of Bb, enabling survival
      of the pathogen within the host as well as in the midgut of a feeding tick when
      ospC expression is induced.

PMID- 28873508
TI  - Fecal Immunochemical Test and Fecal Calprotectin Results Show Different Profiles
      in Disease Monitoring for Ulcerative Colitis.
AB  - Background/Aims: Both fecal immunochemical test (FIT) and fecal calprotectin
      (Fcal) results are useful biomarkers for ulcerative colitis (UC). However, the
      situations in which each marker should be used are largely unknown. Methods: A
      total of 110 colonoscopy intervals of UC patients were assessed, and correlations
      between changes in colonoscopic findings and changes in the two aforementioned
      fecal markers were examined. Results: Among patients with mucosal healing (MH)
      and negative FIT or Fcal results at the initial colonoscopy, FIT and Fcal
      findings exhibited accuracies of 93% (38/41) and 79% (26/33), respectively, for
      predicting the results of the subsequent examination. Among the 24 patients who
      showed endoscopic activity at the precedent colonoscopy and MH at the subsequent
      examination, positive-to-negative conversion of FIT and Fcal findings at the
      subsequent examination was observed in 92% (12/13) and 62% (8/13) of patients,
      respectively. Among the 43 patients who showed endoscopic activity at both the
      precedent and subsequent examinations, Fcal findings reflected the change in
      endoscopic activity better than FIT results (r=0.59, p<0.0001 vs r=0.30,
      p=0.054). Conclusions: The FIT is useful for confirming MH and the occurrence of
      relapse. In contrast, Fcal is useful for monitoring the mucosal status of
      patients with active inflammation.

PMID- 28873509
TI  - Can More Aggressive Treatment Improve Prognosis in Patients with Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma? A Direct Comparison of the Hong Kong Liver Cancer and Barcelona Clinic
      Liver Cancer Algorithms.
AB  - Background/Aims: In addition to the globally endorsed Barcelona Clinic Liver
      Cancer (BCLC) staging system, other algorithms or staging systems have been
      developed, including the Hong Kong Liver Cancer (HKLC) staging system. This study
      aimed to validate the HKLC staging system relative to the BCLC staging system for
      predicting survival for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients in Korea.
      Methods: From 2004 to 2013, 2,571 patients newly diagnosed with HCC were
      consecutively enrolled at three Korea University medical centers. Results: Both
      staging systems differentiated survival well (p<0.001). However, 1-year and 3
      year survival were predicted better using the HKLC system than the BCLC system
      (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.869 vs 0.856 for 1
      year, p=0.002; 0.841 vs 0.827 for 3 years, p=0.010). In hypothetical survival
      curves, the HKLC system exhibited better median overall survival than the BCLC
      system (33.1 months vs 19.2 months). In evaluations of prognosis according to
      either BCLC or HKLC treatment guidelines, risk of death was reduced in the group
      following only HKLC guidelines compared with the group following only BCLC
      guidelines (hazard ratio, 0.601; 95% confidence interval, 0.443 to 0.816;
      p=0.001). Conclusions: Although both staging systems predicted and discriminated
      HCC prognoses well, the HKLC system showed more encouraging survival benefits
      than the BCLC system.

PMID- 28873510
TI  - Knowledge Gaps among Physicians Caring for Multiethnic Populations at Increased
      Gastric Cancer Risk.
AB  - Background/Aims: Although gastric cancer (GC) prevalence in the United States
      overall is low, there is significantly elevated risk in certain racial/ethnic
      groups. Providers caring for high-risk populations may not be fully aware of GC
      risk factors and may underestimate the potential for selective screening. Our aim
      was to identify knowledge gaps among healthcare providers with respect to GC.
      Methods: An Internet-based survey was distributed to primary care providers
      (PCPs) and gastroenterologists in New York City, which included questions
      regarding provider demographics, practice environment, GC risk factors,
      Helicobacter pylori, and screening practices. Three case vignettes were used to
      assess clinical management. Results: Of 151 included providers (111 PCPs, 40
      gastroenterologists), most reported caring for a racially/ethnically diverse
      population and 58% recommended GC screening for select populations. Although >85%
      recommended against testing patients from regions where H. pylori, a known
      carcinogen, is endemic, <50% were able to correctly identify non-Asian endemic
      regions. Minorities of respondents correctly identified Hispanic/Latino (29%),
      Black (22%), and Eastern European/Russian (19.7%) as additional higher-risk
      races/ethnicities. Vignette-based questions highlighted variability in the
      management of potentially higher-risk patients. Conclusions: Despite caring for
      multiracial/ethnic populations, providers demonstrated deficiencies in
      identifying and managing patients with elevated GC risk. Focused educational
      efforts should be considered to address these deficiencies.

PMID- 28873511
TI  - Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment for Crohn's Disease: A Randomized
      Controlled Clinical Trial.
AB  - Background/Aims: Stem cell therapy has been applied to treat a variety of
      autoimmune diseases, including Crohn's disease (CD), but few studies have
      examined the use of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs). This trial
      sought to investigate the efficacy and safety of UC-MSCs for the treatment of CD.
      Methods: Eighty-two patients who had been diagnosed with CD and had received
      steroid maintenance therapy for more than 6 months were included in this study.
      Forty-one patients were randomly selected to receive a total of four peripheral
      intravenous infusions of 1*106 UC-MSCs/kg, with one infusion per week. Patients
      were followed up for 12 months. The Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI), Harvey
      Bradshaw index (HBI), and corticosteroid dosage were assessed. Results: Twelve
      months after treatment, the CDAI, HBI, and corticosteroid dosage had decreased by
      62.5+/-23.2, 3.4+/-1.2, and 4.2+/-0.84 mg/day, respectively, in the UC-MSC group
      and by 23.6+/-12.4, 1.2+/-0.58, and 1.2+/-0.35 mg/day, respectively, in the
      control group (p<0.01, p<0.05, and p<0.05 for UC-MSC vs control, respectively).
      Four patients developed a fever after cell infusion. No serious adverse events
      were observed. Conclusions: UC-MSCs were effective in the treatment of CD and
      produced mild side effects.

PMID- 28873512
TI  - Significantly enhanced substrate tolerance of Pseudomonas putida nitrilase via
      atmospheric and room temperature plasma and cell immobilization.
AB  - The objective of the study was to enhance the substrate tolerance of Pseudomonas
      putida nitrilase via atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) and cell
      immobilization. The mutant library was constructed by ARTP and rapidly screened
      by an OPA-TCA microscale reaction. A mutant strain of mut-D3 was obtained and its
      optimum substrate concentration was improved to 150mM from 100mM. It could
      accumulate 189g/L nicotinic acid (NA) from 3-cyanopyridine (3-CP), which was
      increased by 42% compared with that of wild type (WT). Additionally, composite
      immobilization of mut-D3 was performed and SA-PVA immobilized cells could
      catalyze 250mM 3-CP each batch with finally accumulating 346g/L NA, while free
      cells accumulated 175g/L NA. These results indicated that the free or immobilized
      catalysts of mut-D3 could serve as a good choice for NA production. This is the
      first report on mutation breeding of nitrilase-producing microorganisms by ARTP.

PMID- 28873513
TI  - Lignin and ash balances of sulfur dioxide-ethanol-water fractionation of
      sugarcane straw.
AB  - Lignin and ash material balances of SO2-ethanol-water (AVAP(r)) fractionation of
      sugarcane (SC) straw were thoroughly studied at various conditions. Most of straw
      lignin and ash dissolve in the liquor and 40-80% of lignin is precipitated after
      ethanol removal as a pure (~99%) and sulfur-lean (<2%) fraction. Most of the acid
      soluble ash and its elements (Na, K, Fe, Al) as well as large portion of silica
      are removed from the fiber phase. Straw lignin behavior exhibited differences
      compared to wood lignin including high apparent content in fiber, higher degree
      of sulfonation of dissolved lignin, and dense char-like precipitate formation
      upon ethanol removal. Variation in fractionation conditions did not have
      significant effect on lignin properties, while post-sulfonation was capable of
      changing its form from char-like to colloidal precipitate.

PMID- 28873514
TI  - Effect of dietary vitamin E on physicochemical and fatty acid stability of fresh
      and thawed lamb.
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of dietary vitamin E supplementation (1000mg of
      DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate/kg of basal diet) on physicochemical and fatty acid
      stability of fresh and thawed lamb leg chops, frozen stored for 3, 6 and 9months.
      Legs were chopped, modified atmosphere packaged (70%O2/30%CO2) and maintained
      under retail conditions (4+/-0.5 degrees C, with 14h fluorescent light) for
      9days. Muscle alpha-tocopherol concentration was over 3.5-fold higher in
      supplemented samples than in control lambs. The effect of dietary vitamin E was
      independent of frozen storage, so these effects were analysed separately. Vitamin
      E supplementation reduced lipid oxidation (P<=0.001) and decreased metmyoglobin
      formation, leading to a more attractive colour of meat. Moreover, supplementation
      led to a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Therefore, vitamin E
      supplementation could be recommended for preserving either fresh or thawed lamb.

PMID- 28873515
TI  - Characterization of myofibrils cold structural deformation degrees of frozen pork
      using hyperspectral imaging coupled with spectral angle mapping algorithm.
AB  - The study investigated the possibility of using hyperspectral imaging (HSI) in
      the spectral range of 1000-2200nm to characterize myofibrils cold structural
      deformation degrees of frozen pork samples. The HSI images of pork samples frozen
      under different freezing rates were acquired in the frozen state without thawing.
      The myofibrils cold structural deformation degrees were evaluated by surface
      hydrophobicity (S0ANS) and Ca2+-ATPase activity. Spectral angle mapping (SAM)
      algorithm was used for the first time to extract the spectral information for
      regression. Compared with the optimized partial least square regression (PLSR)
      models based on selected wavebands by successive projections algorithm (SPA), the
      optimized PLSR models developed based on the spectral angles calculated by the
      SAM algorithm achieved comparable or even better performance with R2P of 0.896
      for S0ANS and 0.879 for Ca2+-ATPase activity, respectively. The implications of
      the frozen meat spectrum were also analyzed in the current study.

PMID- 28873516
TI  - Comparative analysis of pigments in red and yellow banana fruit.
AB  - Color is an important characteristic determining the fruit value. Although ripe
      bananas usually have yellow peels, several banana cultivars have red peels. As
      details of the pigments in banana fruits are unknown, we investigated these
      pigments contents and compositions in the peel and pulp of red cultivar
      'Hongjiaowang' and yellow cultivar 'Baxijiao' by UPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS and HPLC-PDA
      techniques. The 'Hongjiaowang' peel color was mainly determined by the presence
      of anthocyanin-containing epidermal cells. Rutinoside derivatives of cyanidin,
      peonidin, petunidin, and malvidin were unique to the red peel, and possibly
      responsible for the red color. 'Hongjiaowang' contained higher total content of
      carotenoids than 'Baxijiao' in both pulp and peel. Lutein, alpha-carotene, and
      beta-carotene were main carotenoids, which might play a more important role than
      flavonoids in producing the yellow banana color owing to the properties and
      distribution in the fruit. The information will help us understand a complete
      profile of pigments in banana.

PMID- 28873518
TI  - Impact of Plasmopara viticola infection of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes
      on wine composition and flavor.
AB  - This work reports the identification of volatile compounds involved in the
      particular and atypical flavor detected in Vitis vinifera red Merlot and Cabernet
      Sauvignon wines made with grapes infected and wilted by brown rot (Plasmopara
      viticola). Must made from withered grapes had green aromas while red wines were
      marked by intense odor reminiscent of green, herbaceous notes but also figs and
      cooked fruit. Thanks to GC-O and GC-MS analysis, cooked fruit notes were
      identified as 3-methyl-2,4-nonanedione, gamma-nonalactone and gamma-decalactone,
      whereas herbaceous and green aromas were identified as (Z)-1,5-octadien-3-one and
      3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine. We show that the organoleptic impact of P. viticola
      is more pronounced in Merlot wines compared to Cabernet Sauvignon ones. The
      highest levels of 3-methyl-2,4-nonanedione (75.3ng/L) were found in old Merlot
      wines made with 20% infected berries, suggesting the incidence of berry quality
      on the ability of a wine to age.

PMID- 28873517
TI  - Preconcentration and extraction of lead ions in vegetable and water samples by N
      doped carbon quantum dot conjugated with Fe3O4 as a green and facial adsorbent.
AB  - Magnetically N-doped Carbon quantum dots has been synthesized via a simple
      chemical method and applied as a sorbent for the preconcentration and extraction
      of trace amounts of Pb2+ from water and vegetable samples followed by flame
      atomic absorption spectrometric detection. The nanoparticles were characterized
      by X-ray diffraction, UV-vis spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
      vibrating sample magnetometer analysis and transmission electron microscopy. A
      central-composite design was used to find the optimum conditions for the
      preconcentration procedure through response surface methodology. The effects of
      various parameters such as the pH value, adsorption time, amount of adsorbent,
      desorption conditions (type, concentration and volume of the eluent and
      desorption time), sample volume and interfering ions have been studied. Under the
      optimized conditions, the calibration graph was linear in the range of 0.3
      300MUgL-1 (R2=9992). The detection limit and pre-concentration factor were found
      to be 0.082MUgL-1 and 265, respectively.

PMID- 28873519
TI  - Differential expression of albumins and globulins of wheat flours of different
      technological qualities revealed by nanoUPLC-UDMSE.
AB  - Soluble proteins were extracted from common wheat flour obtained from nine
      cultivars of different qualities and were analyzed by nanoUPLC and Ultra
      Definition Mass Spectrometry (UDMSE) label-free quantitative approach.
      Collectively, 5894 proteins were identified and quantified with 8
      peptides/protein. A total of 414 proteins were found differentially expressed
      with 85% proteins not yet described in the literature, according to their
      biological function. Quality-related proteins, such as puroindolines and
      chaperones, notably involved in the gluten-protein folding process, were up
      regulated in superior (SP) and medium (MD) flours qualities and down-regulated in
      the low (LW) ones. Domains related to the chaperones activity were also found up
      regulated in SP and MD and down-regulated in LW. In this work, nanoUPLC-UDMSE
      analysis was effective to identify and quantify metabolic proteins, allowing a
      clear distinction of the wheat flours and providing new perspectives for
      evaluating the technological quality based on the low abundant proteins of wheat
      endosperm.

PMID- 28873520
TI  - Improvement of feed pellet characteristics by dietary pre-gelatinized starch and
      their subsequent effects on growth and physiology in tilapia.
AB  - A 9-week study was conducted to compare dietary corn starch (CS) or tapioca
      starch (TS), with or without being pre-gelatinized (PG), on the growth, feeding
      efficiencies, plasma and muscle biochemistry, intestinal short chain fatty acids
      (SCFA), and liver glycogen of triplicate groups of 20 red hybrid tilapia
      (Orecohromis sp.). Various pellet characteristics were evaluated, along with
      their surface and cross sectional microstructure. The PG diets had significantly
      higher water stability, bulk density, and protein solubility, along with a
      smoother surface. Tilapia fed the TS diet had lower growth than had all other
      tilapia, but were significantly improved when diet was pre-gelatinized. In the PG
      treatments, intestinal SCFA significantly decreased while plasma glucose,
      cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as liver glycogen, significantly
      increased. Fish fed the CS diet had significantly more long chain polyunsaturated
      fatty acid than had those fed by other treatments. Pre-gelatinization may improve
      fish productivity and offer greater flexibility during aquafeed production.

PMID- 28873521
TI  - Effect of substituted gelling agents from pomegranate peel on colour, textural
      and sensory properties of pomegranate jam.
AB  - A series of pomegranate jams were prepared from a Tunisian ecotype (Tounsi) with
      different amounts of sugar (10, 20 and 30%) and low-methoxylated pectin (0.2, 0.7
      and 1.2%). The most appreciated formulation was that contaning 30% sugars and
      0.2% pectin. Then, commercial pectin was substituted by other gelling agents
      (pomegranate peel powders dried at 50 degrees C vs lyophilized, pectin and fibre
      extracted from pomegranate peel) for the preparation of pomegranate peel-based
      jams. The elaborated jams were evaluated for physichochemical, colour, texture
      and sensory characteristics. Results revealed that the jam (JPP2) elaborated with
      0.2% pectin extracted from pomegranate peel exhibited similar overall
      acceptability to that prepared with commercial pectin. However, it was more
      acceptable than other pomegranate peel-based jams, which was related to a better
      appreciation of sweetness and colour. According to the colour and texture
      measurements, this sample (JPP2) was more reddish and less firm than other
      samples.

PMID- 28873522
TI  - A bi-layer model for nondestructive prediction of soluble solids content in apple
      based on reflectance spectra and peel pigments.
AB  - Hyperspectral imaging technology was used to investigate the effect of various
      peel colors on soluble solids content (SSC) prediction model and build a SSC
      model insensitive to the color distribution of apple peel. The SSC and peel
      pigments were measured, effective wavelengths (EWs) of SSC and pigments were
      selected from the acquired hyperspectral images of the intact and peeled apple
      samples, respectively. The effect of pigments on the SSC prediction was studied
      and optimal SSC EWs were selected from the peel-flesh layers spectra after
      removing the chlorophyll and anthocyanin EWs. Then, the optimal bi-layer model
      for SSC prediction was built based on the finally selected optimal SSC EWs.
      Results showed that the correlation coefficient of prediction, root mean square
      error of prediction and selected bands of the bi-layer model were 0.9560, 0.2528
      and 41, respectively, which will be more acceptable for future online SSC
      prediction of various colors of apple.

PMID- 28873523
TI  - Influence of different hydrocolloids on dough thermo-mechanical properties and in
      vitro starch digestibility of gluten-free steamed bread based on potato flour.
AB  - The effects of hydrocolloids (hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC),
      Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), xanthan gum (XG), and apple pectin (AP)) at
      different concentrations on dough thermo-mechanical properties and in vitro
      starch digestibility of gluten-free potato steamed bread were investigated.
      Results showed that hydrocolloids addition significantly increased the
      gelatinization temperature (from 52.0 to 64.2 degrees C) and water absorption
      (from 56.22 to 66.50%) of potato dough. Moreover, hydrocolloids may be interacted
      with protein and starch, the density of potato protein bands was decreased by
      hydrocolloids addition, the reason might be that higher molecular weight
      complexes might be formed between proteins-hydrocolloids or proteins-proteins,
      thus change the protein solubility. Furthermore, steamed breads with
      hydrocolloids presented higher specific volume and lower hardness, and the
      rapidly digestible starch and estimated glycemic index were significantly
      decreased from 45.51 to 20.64, from 69.54 to 55.17, respectively. In conclusion,
      HPMC and XG could be used as improvers in the gluten-free potato steamed bread.

PMID- 28873525
TI  - Development of validated high-temperature reverse-phase UHPLC-PDA analytical
      method for simultaneous analysis of five natural isothiocyanates in cruciferous
      vegetables.
AB  - In the present study reverse-phase UHPLC-PDA technique was developed at 60
      degrees C for simultaneous quantification of allyl, 3-butenyl, 4
      (methylthio)butyl, benzyl and phenethyl isothiocyanates. The validation parameter
      showed a very good linearity, with a correlation coefficient of 1.00 for all
      detected standard analytes. Also, high precision and accuracy were observed with
      lowest obtained values of 1.39% and 99.1%, respectively. Different varieties of
      three plants, viz. Brassica rapa var. rapa L., Raphanus sativus L. var.
      oleiformis Pers. and Eruca sativa Mill., were analyzed with this method. After
      analysis, 4-(methylthio)butyl isothiocyanate was observed to be the major
      component in the varieties of arugula. Allyl, benzyl and phenethyl
      isothiocyanates were detected in turnip varieties and, in addition, 3-butenyl
      isothiocyanate was detected in radish varieties.

PMID- 28873524
TI  - Pyridinium ionic liquid-based liquid-solid extraction of inorganic and organic
      iodine from Laminaria.
AB  - A simple, green and effective extraction method, namely, pyridinium ionic liquid-
      (IL) based liquid-solid extraction (LSE), was first designed to extract the main
      inorganic and organic iodine compounds (I-, monoiodo-tyrosine (MIT) and diiodo
      tyrosine (DIT)). The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: ultrasonic
      intensity 100W, IL ([EPy]Br) concentration 200mM, extraction time 30min,
      liquid/solid ratio 10mL/g, and pH value 6.5. The morphologies of Laminaria were
      studied by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The
      recovery values of I-, MIT and DIT from Laminaria were in the range of 88% to
      94%, and limits of detection were in the range of 59.40 to 283.6ng/g. The
      proposed method was applied to the extraction and determination of iodine
      compounds in three Laminaria. The results showed that IL-based LSE could be a
      promising method for rapid extraction of bioactive iodine from complex food
      matrices.

PMID- 28873526
TI  - Characterization and effects of binding of food-derived bioactive phycocyanobilin
      to bovine serum albumin.
AB  - Phycocyanobilin (PCB) is a blue tetrapyrrole chromophore of C-phycocyanin, the
      main protein of the microalga Spirulina, with numerous proven health-related
      benefits. We examined binding of PCB to bovine serum albumin (BSA) and how it
      affects protein and ligand stability. Protein fluorescence quenching and
      microscale thermophoresis demonstrated high-affinity binding (Ka=2*106M-1).
      Spectroscopic titration with molecular docking analysis revealed two binding
      sites on BSA, at the inter-domain cleft and at subdomain IB, while CD
      spectroscopy indicated stereo-selective binding of the P conformer of the pigment
      to the protein. The PCB protein complex showed increased thermal stability.
      Although complex formation partly masked the antioxidant properties of PCB and
      BSA, a mutually protective effect against free radical-induced oxidation was
      found. BSA could be suitable for delivery of PCB as a food colorant or bioactive
      component. Our results also highlight subtle differences between PCB binding to
      bovine vs. human serum albumin.

PMID- 28873527
TI  - Enzymes loaded chitosan/coconut fibre/zinc oxide nanoparticles strip for
      polyamine determination.
AB  - Most often, the immobilized enzyme based quantification is an attractive
      alternative to other chromatographic, electrochemical and mass spectrometry based
      methods due to its specificity and simplicity. In the present study, polyamine
      oxidase specific for spermine and spermidine and diamine oxidase specific for
      putrescine, were co-immobilized onto a novel chitosan/coconut fibre/zinc oxide
      nanoparticles (CS/CF/nZnO) hybrid support to yield a polyamine sensing strip. The
      strip worked optimally at pH 7.0, temperature 25 degrees C and 6min of incubation
      time. Pretty good values for kinetic constants Kmapp (6.60mM), Vmax
      (17.69MUmol/min mg protein) and kcatapp (1987.64s-1) as well as for thermal (<50
      % activity retained at 40 degrees C), storage (half life-40days) and operational
      stabilities (<90 % activity retained after 20 reuses) were obtained. The strip
      was employed for polyamine determination in some of the locally grown fruit and
      vegetables and the results were found to be comparable, reliable and
      reproducible.

PMID- 28873528
TI  - Inhibitory effects of Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum bungeanum) and sanshoamide
      extract on heterocyclic amine formation in grilled ground beef patties.
AB  - This study evaluated the inhibitory effects of Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum
      bungeanum) and sanshoamide extract on the formation of heterocyclic amines (HAs)
      in grilled beef patties. The following major HAs were detected and quantified:
      imidazopyridine (2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine, PhIP),
      imidazoquinoxalines (2-amino-3-methyl-3H-imidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline, IQx; 2-amino
      3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline, MeIOx; 2-amino-3,4,8-trimethyl-3H
      imidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline, 4,8-DiMeIQx) and beta-carbolines (9H-pyrido[3,4
      b]indole, norharman; 1-methyl-9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole, harman). The rates of PhIP,
      IQx, MeIQx and 4,8-DiMeIQx were inhibited significantly by 82%, 61%, 28% and 79%,
      respectively, in patties treated with a low-concentration of pepper (0.5%), and
      by 27%, 45%, 44% and 26%, respectively, following treatment with a low
      concentration sanshoamide extract (0.005%). All inhibition rates exceeded 70% at
      pepper and sanshoamide extract concentrations of 1.0% and 0.010%, respectively.
      Harman and norharman could be significantly (p<0.05) enhanced by the addition of
      all concentrations of Sichuan pepper, however, sanshoamide extract had no
      significant (p>0.05) effect on them, although 0.005% of the extract could
      slightly increase the formation of them. Notably, significant correlations were
      observed between the HA inhibition rates and pepper or sanshoamide extract
      concentrations, especially for PhIP (r=0.87, p=2.30E-3), IQx (r=0.99, p=5.04E-7)
      and 4,8-DiMeIQx (r=0.88, p=1.96E-3). These results indicate that Sichuan pepper
      and sanshoamide extract could inhibit the formation of carcinogenic HAs during
      thermal preparation of protein-rich foods, and therefore might reduce the risk of
      chronic diseases associated with the long-term intake of HA-containing food
      products.

PMID- 28873529
TI  - Structural characterization of proanthocyanidins from adzuki seed coat.
AB  - Adzuki bean seed coats contain a variety of pigments with potential bioactivity,
      including polyphenols, such as proanthocyanidin. To clarify the structure of the
      pigments from adzuki bean seed coats, the MeOH extract of the seed coats and the
      extraction residue were subjected to various instrumental analyses and
      degradation by thiolysis. The MeOH extract was found to contain two types of
      polymeric red pigments. One of these pigments was assumed to be a simple
      proanthocyanidin, whereas the other was a complicated polyphenol produced by
      several modifications and conversions. Direct thiolysis of adzuki seed coat
      yielded three products as extension subunits. From their chemical structures, a
      glyoxylic acid-bridged catechin skeleton was suggested as a partial structure of
      adzuki pigments.

PMID- 28873530
TI  - Antioxidant activities of ginger extract and its constituents toward lipids.
AB  - Lipid oxidation-a major cause of food product deterioration-necessitates the use
      of food additives to inhibit food oxidation. Ginger extract (GE) has been
      reported to possess antioxidant properties. However, components isolated from
      ginger have been rarely reported to inhibit fat oxidation. Herein, antioxidant
      properties of GE and four pure components derived from it (6-gingerol, 8
      gingerol, 10-gingerol, and 6-shogaol) were examined and their properties were
      compared to those of butylated hydroxytoluene. GE and the constituent components
      exhibited antioxidant properties that might be attributed to their hydroxyl
      groups and suitable solubilizing side chains. 6-Shogaol and 10-gingerol exhibited
      higher activity at 60 degrees C than 6-gingerol and 8-gingerol. Low antioxidant
      activity was detected at high temperatures (120/180 degrees C). Overall, GE
      displayed the strongest dose-dependent antioxidant properties, especially at high
      temperatures, thereby demonstrating that GE can be employed as a natural
      antioxidant in lipid-containing processed foods.

PMID- 28873531
TI  - Investigation of color-deepening phenomenon in catechin-(4->8)-dimer as a
      proanthocyanidin model and structural determination of its derivatives by
      oxidation.
AB  - To elucidate the mechanism of the color-deepening phenomenon in aged red rice
      samples, a partial structure of proanthocyanidin, (+)-catechin-(4->8)-dimer (1),
      was synthesized as a model compound and subjected to chemical oxidation. HPLC
      analysis of oxidized 1 revealed new peaks which were isolated; among these, four
      compounds (2-5) having formed intramolecular bonds between the D and B rings were
      determined. These compounds and their derivatives in red rice extracts were
      identified by multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry. The UV-Vis spectra
      of 1-5 were recorded to clarify the correlation between the color-deepening
      effect and their chemical structures. Hence, the spectral absorption maxima
      between 300 and 500nm, corresponding to the oxidation products, increase.
      Therefore, the color-deepening phenomenon of red rice is thought to proceed via
      the formation of intramolecular bonds in proanthocyanidin by oxidation.

PMID- 28873532
TI  - Effect of sodium alginate with three molecular weight forms on the water holding
      capacity of chicken breast myosin gel.
AB  - The effect of 0.1-0.5% (w/w) sodium-alginate (SA) with three molecular-weights
      (2660, 3890 and 4640kDa) on the water-holding capacity (WHC) of chicken-breast
      myosin gels was investigated. The results showed that 0.1-0.5% SA of three
      molecular-weights increased the WHC of myosin-SA gels, and the heavier SA induced
      a higher WHC. Electrostatic-interactions and hydrogen-bonding contributed to the
      intermolecular aggregation in the myosin-SA system and enhanced its
      intermolecular interactions by overcoming the steric hindrance effect of SA with
      heavier molecules. This aggregation induced the increased turbidity, transition
      temperature and the decreased surface hydrophobicity of myosin-SA solutions and
      the formation of an inhomogeneous network with large cavities for entrapping
      water. The combined effects of stronger intermolecular interactions and the
      network induced a higher WHC of the gel with heavier SA. It is interesting to
      understand the gelling mechanism for the protein-polysaccharide system and to
      efficiently select SA for developing low-fat meat products in industry.

PMID- 28873533
TI  - Speciation of Zn, Fe, Ca and Mg in wine with the Donnan Membrane Technique.
AB  - Free concentrations of Zn2+, Fe3+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ in a red wine (Raimat,
      Catalonia, Spain) have been determined, with the Donnan Membrane Technique (DMT)
      for the first time. The required equilibration time benefits from the acceptor
      solution including major cations. K+ and Na+, mainly unbound to any ligand in the
      sample, have been identified as suitable reference ions. A free Zn concentration
      of 1.76MUmolL-1 determined with DMT was in excellent agreement with the free Zn
      concentration independently provided by the electroanalytical technique Absence
      of Gradients and Nernstian Equilibrium Stripping (AGNES), 1.7MUmolL-1, amounting
      to 14.4% of the total Zn. The free concentrations found in this wine were
      1.79MUmolL-1 Fe3+, 1.11mmolL-1 Ca2+ and 3.4mmolL-1Mg2+ (8.82%, 40% and 57% of
      their total concentrations). Prior to the application of the techniques to the
      red wine, they had been cross-validated in Zn-tartrate solutions.

PMID- 28873534
TI  - Magnesium enriched lactic acid bacteria as a carrier for probiotic ice cream
      production.
AB  - The following strains of bacteria: Lactobacillus rhamnosus B 442, Lactobacillus
      rhamnosus 1937, and Lactococcus lactis JBB 500 were enriched with magnesium ions
      using Pulsed Electric Fields. The potentially probiotic strains were added to the
      mixture in the DVS process and applied for the production of ice cream which were
      then analyzed physicochemically and microbiologically. Results showed that
      addition of bacteria enriched with magnesium did not change chemical parameters
      of the ice cream and did not affect the freezing process, meltability, and
      hardness. No significant differences were noted in colour of the samples. The ice
      cream with addition of bacteria enriched with magnesium had higher adhesiveness.
      The results of viability determination showed that the total number of
      microorganisms in the ice cream was higher than in the starter cultures.
      Viability of the bacteria enriched with magnesium in the obtained ice cream was
      lower in comparison to the control samples.

PMID- 28873535
TI  - Effect of ascorbic acid postharvest treatment on enzymatic browning, phenolics
      and antioxidant capacity of stored mung bean sprouts.
AB  - Enzymatic browning limits the postharvest life of minimally processed foods, thus
      the study selected the optimal inhibitors of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and
      evaluated their effect on enzymatic browning, phenolics and antioxidant capacity
      of stored mung bean sprouts. The sprouts treated with 2mM and 20mM ascorbic acid
      had a lowered PPO activity; compared to the control by 51% and 60%, respectively.
      The inhibition was reflected in a significant decrease in enzymatic browning. The
      sprouts treated with 20mM ascorbic acid had 22% and 23% higher phenolic content
      after 3 and 7days of storage, respectively. Both storage and ascorbic acid
      treatment increased potential bioaccessibility of phenolics. Generally, there was
      no effect of the treatments on the antioxidant capacity; however, a significant
      increase in the reducing potential was determined for the sprouts washed with
      20mM ascorbic acid. In conclusion, ascorbic acid treatments may improve consumer
      quality of stored sprouts.

PMID- 28873536
TI  - Development and validation of HPLC method for the determination of ferrocyanide
      ion in food grade salts.
AB  - A rapid, simple, and reliable HPLC method was developed and validated to
      determine the presence of ferrocyanide ions (FeCNs) in food grade salts. An
      analytical column coupled with a guard column and mobile phase comprised of
      sodium perchlorate and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) were employed at a detection
      wavelength of 221nm. Samples were dissolved in 0.02M NaOH solution and filtered.
      For processed salts including herbs and spices, a C18 cartridge was applied to
      minimize interference from salt matrices. The method validation was based on
      linearity, accuracy (recovery), precision, LOD, LOQ, and measurement uncertainty.
      This method exhibits good linearity from 0.1-10mg/L (r2=0.9999). The LOD and LOQ
      values were determined to be 0.02 and 0.07mg/kg, respectively. The FeCN
      recoveries in six salt matrices ranged from 80.3-102.2% (RSD=0.3-4.4%). These
      results indicate that the proposed method is suitable for FeCN ion determination
      in various food grade salts.

PMID- 28873538
TI  - Planar chromatographic screening and quantification of coumarin in food,
      confirmed by mass spectrometry.
AB  - A sensitive quantitative screening of coumarin in 43 commercially available
      cinnamons and cinnamon-containing foods was developed via HPTLC. Complex samples
      like cinnamon, tea, breakfast cereals, milk rice, jam, cinnamon stars and buns
      were extracted with methanol only. Separation was performed on silica gel with a
      mixture of n-hexane, ethyl acetate and ammonia. The specific detection via
      derivatization with an ethanolic potassium hydroxide solution resulted in
      fluorescent coumarin zones, measured at 365/>400nm after stabilization. Limits of
      detection and quantification were 200 and 400pg/band, respectively. Over all
      different sample types, the contents ranged from 0.3 to 5129mg/kg with a mean
      repeatability and mean intermediate precision of 4% each. HPTLC-MS of selected
      zones, eluted via the TLC-MS Interface into MS, confirmed the identity of
      coumarin. Effect-directed detection as bioanalytical tool for risk assessment
      showed coumarin to be active against Aliivibrio fischeri bacteria down to
      100ng/band.

PMID- 28873537
TI  - Extraction and detailed characterization of phospholipid-enriched oils from six
      species of edible clams.
AB  - Phospholipid (PL)-enriched oils were recovered from six species of edible clams,
      namely Cyclina sinensis, Mactra chinensis Philippi, Mactra veneriformis Reeve,
      Meretrix meretrix, Ruditapes phliippinarum and Saxidomus purpurata, using a
      mixture of ethanol and hexane (1:1, v/v). The oils contained a high proportion of
      polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (26.78-45.36% of total FAs), especially
      eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (8.17-10.48% of total FAs) and docosahexaenoic acid
      (DHA) (7.83-21.34% of total FAs). The oils also contained a high percentage of PL
      (39.86-74.05% of total lipids). Among PL, phosphatidylcholine (37.40-52.19mol%)
      and phosphatidylethanolamine (34.74-43.10mol%) were dominant. At least 435, 442,
      513, 438, 433 and 437 glycerophospholipid (GP) molecular species were
      characterized, respectively, in lipids from Cyclina sinensis, Mactra chinensis
      Philippi, Mactra veneriformis Reeve, Meretrix meretrix, Ruditapes phliippinarum
      and Saxidomus purpurata. Most of the predominant GP molecular species contained
      PUFA, mainly EPA and DHA, indicating that clam is a potential resource of PUFA
      enriched GP.

PMID- 28873539
TI  - Development of a SBSE-TD method coupled to GC-MS and chemometrics for the
      differentiation of variety and processing conditions in peach juices.
AB  - Peach juices of distinct varieties, namely yellow- and red-fleshed, and
      commercial and freshly blended were analyzed. The method used was based on Stir
      Bar Sorptive Extraction (SBSE) involving a polydimethylsiloxane-coated stir bar
      with thermal desorption (TD), followed by gas chromatography coupled to mass
      spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The resulting analytical data included 41
      compounds belonging to several chemical classes, such as aldehydes, alcohols,
      lactones, terpenoids, fatty aldehydes, fatty acids and hydrocarbons. Furthermore,
      chemometric data treatment using unsupervised analysis (PCA) proved useful to
      classify peach juices on the basis of variety. Stepwise Linear Discriminant
      Analysis (SLDA) showed that a reduced number of variables (14 compounds),
      including lactones (6-pentyl-alpha-pyrone, gamma-decalactone, gamma
      dodecalactone, and delta-dodecalactone), fatty acids (hexadecanoic acid), fatty
      aldehydes (tetracosanal and octacosanal), hydrocarbons (C23, C26, C27, C29, and
      C33), and alcohols (phytol and alpha-tocopherol), were necessary to classify the
      juice samples according to variety and processing conditions.

PMID- 28873540
TI  - Quantification of extra virgin olive oil in dressing and edible oil blends using
      the representative TMS-4,4'-desmethylsterols gas-chromatographic-normalized
      fingerprint.
AB  - This paper describes and discusses the application of trimethylsilyl (TMS)-4,4'
      desmethylsterols derivatives chromatographic fingerprints (obtained from an off
      line HPLC-GC-FID system) for the quantification of extra virgin olive oil in
      commercial vinaigrettes, dressing salad and in-house reference materials (i-HRM)
      using two different Partial Least Square-Regression (PLS-R) multivariate
      quantification methods. Different data pre-processing strategies were carried out
      being the whole one: (i) internal normalization; (ii) sampling based on The
      Nyquist Theorem; (iii) internal correlation optimized shifting, icoshift; (iv)
      baseline correction (v) mean centering and (vi) selecting zones. The first model
      corresponds to a matrix of dimensions 'n*911' variables and the second one to a
      matrix of dimensions 'n*431' variables. It has to be highlighted that the
      proposed two PLS-R models allow the quantification of extra virgin olive oil in
      binary blends, foodstuffs, etc., when the provided percentage is greater than
      25%.

PMID- 28873541
TI  - Entrapment of proteins and peptides in chitosan-polyphosphoric acid hydrogel
      beads: A new approach to achieve both high entrapment efficiency and controlled
      in vitro release.
AB  - Bovine serum albumin (BSA), whey protein isolate (WPI), insulin and a casein
      hydrolysate were entrapped in chitosan-polyphosphoric acid (PPA) beads. The in
      vitro release of protein from the beads in simulated gastric fluid (SGF, pH 3)
      and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF, pH 7) was evaluated. High entrapment
      efficiencies were achieved for intact proteins (>95% in all cases) but entrapment
      was lower for the casein hydrolysate (circa 50%), possibly indicating a physical
      or steric entrapment of the proteins in these chitosan-PPA beads. Inhibited
      release of BSA, in both SGF and SIF, was achieved with low PPA concentration.
      Insulin and WPI were effectively retained in SGF and gradually released in SIF.
      Peptides from casein hydrolysate were partially (circa 35%) but quickly released
      in SGF with no further release in SIF. Overall, these results indicate that
      chitosan-PPA beads show potential for lower gastrointestinal delivery of
      bioactive protein material.

PMID- 28873542
TI  - Fabrication of curcumin-loaded bovine serum albumin (BSA)-dextran nanoparticles
      and the cellular antioxidant activity.
AB  - Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-dextran conjugate was prepared with glycation. Self
      assembly nanoparticles were synthesized with a green, and facile approach. The
      effects of dry-heating time on the fabrication and characteristics of BSA-dextran
      conjugate nanoparticles were examined. Stable nanoparticles (<200nm) were formed
      after only 6h dry-heating because enough dextran was grafted onto the BSA to
      provide significant steric hindrance. Particle size decreased with the increase
      of dry-heating time and the lowest particle size (51.2nm) was obtained after 24h
      dry-heating. The nanoparticles were stable in a wide pH range (pH 2.0-7.0). The
      particle size of nanoparticles increased to 115nm after curcumin incorporation
      and was stable even after one-month storage. TEM results demonstrated that
      curcumin-loaded nanoparticles displayed a spherical structure and were
      homogeneously dispersed. Curcumin in BSA-dextran nanoparticle showed better
      stability, compared to free curcumin. In addition, BSA-dextran nanoparticles can
      improve the cellular antioxidant activity of curcumin in Caco-2 cells.

PMID- 28873543
TI  - Biochemical degradation and physical migration of polyphenolic compounds in
      osmotic dehydrated blueberries with pulsed electric field and thermal
      pretreatments.
AB  - Fresh blueberries were pretreated by pulsed electric fields (PEF) or thermal
      pretreatment and then were subject to osmotic dehydration. The changes in
      contents of anthocyanins, predominantly phenolic acids and flavonols, total
      phenolics, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity and antioxidant activity in the
      blueberry samples during pretreatment and osmotic dehydration were investigated.
      Biochemical degradation and physical migration of these nutritive compounds from
      fruits to osmotic solutions were observed during the pretreatments and osmotic
      dehydration. PEF pretreated samples had the least degradation loss but the most
      migration loss of these compounds compared to thermally pretreated and control
      samples. Higher rates of water loss and solid gain during osmotic dehydration
      were also obtained by PEF pretreatment, reducing the dehydration time from 130 to
      48h. PEF pretreated and dehydrated fruits showed superior appearance to thermally
      pretreated and control samples. Therefore, PEF pretreatment is a preferred
      technology that balances nutritive quality, appearance, and dehydration rate.

PMID- 28873544
TI  - Importance of salt and temperature in myosin polymerization during surimi
      gelation.
AB  - To address the effect of absence of NaCl on myosin heavy chain polymerization
      during two-step surimi gelation (different setting temperatures/times -5 degrees
      C/24h and 30 degrees C/30min-followed by heating at 90 degrees C/30min) were
      considered. In gel samples made without salt (Lot A), no myosin heavy chain (MHC)
      polymerization was observed, only aggregation, as indicated by the
      electrophoresis in polyacrylamide/agarose gel profile. Moreover, these gels were
      characterized by weakly stabilized protein networks as denoted by the dynamic
      oscillatory measurement and FTIR analysis, resulting in poor quality gels. On the
      other hand, in gels made with added salt, MHC polymerization occurred, as
      evidenced by the electrophoresis, and the gelation resulted in a well-stabilized
      protein network with good physicochemical properties.

PMID- 28873545
TI  - A quick and effective methodology for analyzing dinotefuran and its highly polar
      metabolites in plum using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - A simple and effective method was developed for analyzing dinotefuran and its
      three metabolites (MNG, UF, and DN) in plum using liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Due to the polarity and high water miscibility,
      dinotefuran and some of its metabolites (especially DN) have some limitations to
      be extracted with acetonitrile and salt following the "QuEChERS" sample
      preparation methodology. Alternatively, the samples were extracted with methanol,
      and purified with dispersive-solid phase extraction procedure (d-SPE) using
      primary secondary amine (PSA) and C18 sorbents after filtration, and mass up. Due
      to the suppression effect originated from plum matrix, matrix-matched calibration
      curves, which provided good linearity with coefficient of determination
      (R2)>=0.998, were used for quantification of all analytes. Blank plum samples
      fortified with 2 spiking levels (10*LOQ and 50*LOQ) yielded satisfactory
      recoveries for all tested analytes in the range of 83.01 to 110.18% with relative
      standard deviation (RSD)<=8.91. The method was successfully applied to field
      incurred plum samples and dinotefuran and all metabolites were positively
      detected and quantified. In conclusion, we suggest that the method can be
      expanded to polar compounds having solvent and partitioning problems in any of
      the versions of QuEChERS.

PMID- 28873546
TI  - Reduction of biogenic amines in sufu by ethanol addition during ripening stage.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the content of biogenic amines (BAs) in
      different types of sufu samples obtained from different producers, and the effect
      of ethanol in reducing BA levels during sufu ripening. The results showed that
      different manufacturing processes altered the distribution of BAs in commercial
      sufu. Putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, and tryptamine were the main and common
      BAs in red, white and grey sufu. The contents of putrescine, cadaverine,
      tryptamine, beta-phenylethylamine and tyramine in the grey sufu of all producer
      brands were significantly (p<0.05) higher than those in the white and red sufu.
      The addition of ethanol to the dressing mixture had a significant influence in
      reducing the total content of BAs in laboratory-made sufu. The slight increase in
      polypeptide and amino nitrogen contents after the addition of ethanol indicated a
      reduction in the degradation of water soluble protein.

PMID- 28873547
TI  - Towards an improved global antioxidant response method (GAR+): Physiological
      resembling in vitro digestion-fermentation method.
AB  - The antioxidant capacity of food influences its shelf life and human health. To
      determine this parameter, the corresponding antioxidant species must first be
      extracted. Current methods don't adequately address this issue since they rely on
      extractions with organic solvents or on in vitro digestion without a subsequent
      fermentation. We present an improved protocol to determine the global antioxidant
      response of foods (GAR+) including both in vitro digestion and fermentation. All
      samples should be fermented with the same fresh faecal inoculum in order to
      decrease variability. In addition, the use of a pool of faeces from healthy
      donors is strongly recommended to improve repeatability. Although most
      antioxidant capacity is achieved after digestion, in some foods fermentation
      plays a role. Thus, the GAR+ method provides reliable values of the antioxidant
      capacity of foods that are closer to their in vivo activity by including the
      effects of gut microbiota over non-digested nutrients.

PMID- 28873548
TI  - Resonance Rayleigh scattering method for the determination of chitosan using
      erythrosine B as a probe and PVA as sensitization.
AB  - A highly sensitive resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) method for the
      determination of chitosan (CTS) was developed. In the pH 3.8 Britton-Robinson
      buffer solution, CTS interacted with erythrosine B (Ery B) to form an ion
      association complex of [Ery B-CTS] which increased the RRS intensity of the
      system. With the addition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), the RRS intensity was
      significantly enhanced, and the RRS intensity of the reagent blank(I0)
      dramatically decreased. The enhanced RRS intensity (DeltaI) was linearly
      proportional to the concentration of chitosan. Taking the medium molecular weight
      chitosan as the representative, the linear range of the method was 5.0-100.0ng/mL
      and the detection limit (DL) was 0.47ng/mL. The effect of the molecular weight of
      CTS on its accurate quantification was studied. Furthermore the dispersion and
      stability mechanism of PVA was discussed. Accordingly this assay was applied to
      detect the concentration of CTS in health products with satisfactory results.

PMID- 28873549
TI  - Towards an improved Global Antioxidant Response method (GAR+): Physiological
      resembling in vitro antioxidant capacity methods.
AB  - Many methods have been developed to measure the antioxidant capacity of foods
      under non physiological-relevant conditions. In this study, three methods
      (TEACOH, GEACRED and TEACAAPH) are developed to measure antioxidant capacity at
      physiological pH, using indigo carmine as a redox dye. TEACOH and TEACAAPH
      determine foodstuffs' scavenging capacity against hydroxyl (OH) and AAPH
      radicals, while the third method measures the global reducing capacity of the
      sample. The results obtained for commercial teas, commercial beverages containing
      tea as the main ingredient and different solid foods (spinach, onion, salami,
      etc.) were compared with well-established protocols. The new methods demonstrated
      good linearity-reproducibility, providing reliable data about the antioxidant
      capacity of foods under physiological-resembling conditions. The new methods were
      also useful for evaluating the antioxidant capacity of human plasma after acute
      intake of tea. The physiological-resembling conditions of these assays and the
      use of absorbance readings make them suitable for application by any laboratory.

PMID- 28873550
TI  - Assessment of multiple mycotoxins in breakfast cereals available in the
      Portuguese market.
AB  - Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi that cause toxic and carcinogenic
      effects. Human exposure to multiple mycotoxins constitutes an increasing health
      concern due to potential mycotoxins combined effects. The presence of mycotoxins
      mixtures in foodstuffs as cereals has been reported over the last years, but few
      studies are available concerning its occurrence in cereals primarily marketed for
      children, a particular vulnerable population group. The present study aims to
      assess the co-occurrence of twenty-one mycotoxins and metabolites present in
      breakfast cereals primarily marketed for children in Portugal. Results showed
      that 96% of the analysed breakfast cereal samples were contaminated with several
      mycotoxins. Twenty-two combinations were identified including two to seven
      different mycotoxins. Conclusions pointed out an urgent need to review
      legislative limits in food matrices consumed by children and to perform a more
      accurate risk assessment of children's exposure to mycotoxins mixtures in food.

PMID- 28873551
TI  - Are tropane alkaloids present in organic foods? Detection of scopolamine and
      atropine in organic buckwheat (Fagopyron esculentum L.) products by UHPLC-MS/MS.
AB  - A closer monitoring of tropane alkaloids (TA) in foods is now recommended by the
      European Commission, following a series of alerts related to the contamination of
      buckwheat with weeds of the genus Datura. A novel, accurate UHPLC-MS/MS method
      was developed and validated for the rapid detection of scopolamine and atropine
      in buckwheat foods. A suitable extraction protocol was set up to maximize
      recoveries and detection limits in different raw, processed and baked foods. The
      method offers good performances in terms of sensitivity, accuracy and precision,
      with LOQs at 0.04 and 0.10ug/kg. The established method is suitable for routine
      determination of trace levels of TA and was applied to 26 different buckwheat
      derived organic foods, detecting TA in 3 samples (13.9-83.9ug/kg for atropine and
      5.7-10.4ug/kg for scopolamine). Only in one case the level of contamination was
      relevant in terms of food safety.

PMID- 28873552
TI  - Polyphenol and l-ascorbic acid content in tomato as influenced by high lycopene
      genotypes and organic farming at different environments.
AB  - The accumulation of polyphenols and l-ascorbic acid was evaluated under
      conventional (integrated pest management, IPM) and organic farming, as means to
      increase the accumulation of chemoprotective compounds. The effect of genotype
      was considerably higher than the growing system, in fact it is determining.
      'Kalvert', a high-lycopene cultivar, outstood for the accumulation of most
      polyphenols, though low-carotenoid cultivars with high accumulation were also
      detected. Organic farming significantly increased the levels of caffeic acid by
      20%, but reduced those of ferulic acid and naringenin by 13% and 15%
      respectively. A strong interaction with the environment was detected: in Navarra
      the differences were limited, while in Extremadura lower contents of ferulic acid
      and higher contents of chlorogenic acid and rutin were found in organic farming
      for certain cultivars. The effect of organic farming on l-ascorbic acid was
      dependent on cultivar and environment and it only led to an increase in
      Extremadura by 58%.

PMID- 28873553
TI  - A preliminary study of continuous milk coagulation using Cynara cardunculus
      flower extract and calf rennet immobilized on magnetic particles.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a bioreactor design for continuous milk
      coagulation using a biocatalyst composed of immobilized animal and vegetable
      rennet on aminated magnetic particles, which has been proven to be an appropriate
      carrier for enzyme immobilization. Calf and vegetable (Cynara cardunculus)
      rennets were covalently immobilized on CLEA(r) magnetic supports and the
      immobilization procedure was optimized in batch mode, by evaluating protein
      loading, caseinolytic activity and the coagulation properties of skim milk powder
      and cow's milk. Subsequently the optimal temperature of immobilized coagulant was
      defined and a technically-friendly enzyme bioreactor was developed in order to
      carry out a continuous milk coagulation process with the aim of producing soft
      cheese.

PMID- 28873554
TI  - Influence of the uronic acid composition on the gastroprotective activity of
      alginates from three different genus of Tunisian brown algae.
AB  - Alginates from three genus of Tunisian brown algae were isolated and
      characterized by size exclusion chromatography and Solid-state NMR spectroscopy.
      Alginate from Padina pavonica (APP) had the highest molecular weight (Mw) with
      147,000g/mol while it was 85,000g/mol for alginate from Cystoseira compressa
      (ACC) and 58,000g/mol for alginate from Dictyopteris membranaceae (ADM). The
      mannuronate (M) to guluronate (G) ratios were estimated from spectral
      deconvolution of the 13C CP/MAS spectra and the results has shown that all the
      extracts are mannuronic acid-rich alginates with M/G ratio increased in the order
      ADM - ACC - APP. An interesting gastroprotective effect was observed for the
      extracts; ADM and ACC exhibited the highest inhibition of gastric lesions, at
      50mg/kg, with 83.41% and 75.39% respectively. Otherwise, it has been shown that
      the gastroprotective effect of alginates depends mainly on their uronic acid
      composition.

PMID- 28873555
TI  - The adsorption of orthophosphate onto casein-iron precipitates.
AB  - This study explored the interactions of orthophosphate with casein-iron
      precipitates. Casein-iron precipitates were formed by adding ferric chloride at
      >=10mM to sodium caseinate solutions ranging in concentration from 1 to 3%(w/v).
      The addition of different concentrations of orthophosphate solution to the casein
      iron precipitates resulted in gradual adsorption of the orthophosphate, causing
      re-dispersion of the casein-iron complexes. The interactions of added
      orthophosphate with iron in the presence and absence of caseins are postulated,
      and new mechanisms are proposed. The re-dispersed soluble complexes of casein
      iron-orthophosphate generated using this process could be used as novel iron
      fortificants.

PMID- 28873556
TI  - Effect of porcine plasma protein hydrolysates on long-term retrogradation of corn
      starch.
AB  - The potential effect of porcine plasma protein hydrolysates (PPPH) on the long
      term retrogradation of corn starch (CS) was investigated. The differential
      scanning calorimetry results showed that PPPH significantly reduced the
      retrogradation enthalpies (DeltaHr) of CS (P<0.05), obviously decreased the
      crystallization rate constant (k), and enhanced the Avrami exponent (n) (P<0.05).
      Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance analysis demonstrated that the spin-spin
      relaxation time (T2) remarkably increased with increasing PPPH concentration
      during storage at 4 degrees C for 28days (P<0.05). The X-ray diffraction results
      revealed that the relative crystallinity of retrograded CS decreased from 13.04%
      to 8.73% with the addition of PPPH. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
      analysis demonstrated that the addition of PPPH led to a decrease in hydrogen
      bonds within starch. The results demonstrated that the addition of PPPH
      apparently played a crucial role in retarding the long-term retrogradation of CS.

PMID- 28873558
TI  - Selective and eco-friendly synthesis of lipoaminoacid-based surfactants for food,
      using immobilized lipase and protease biocatalysts.
AB  - Lipoaminoacids, as surfactants, are an excellent option for food industry due to
      the currently trends in consumption of functional and natural ingredients.
      Synthesis of lauroyl glycine lipoaminoacid was carried out with a lipase from
      Pseudomonas stutzeri and a protease from Bacillus subtilis, which were
      immobilized in octyl-glyoxyl silica and glyoxyl-silica supports, respectively,
      comparing their catalytic performance. The enzymatic selectivity towards the
      lipoaminoacid instead of the dipeptide glycylglycine and synthesis yield were
      evaluated with respect to the characteristics of the immobilized biocatalysts and
      synthesis conditions. Three solvents were tested as reaction media for evaluating
      the expressed activity, stability and catalytic behavior during synthesis.
      Results indicate that both enzymes favor the lauroyl glycine synthesis over the
      peptide synthesis, but the immobilized protease has the best balance between
      selectivity and yield: 40% yield for lauroyl glycine and less than 5% for
      dipeptide after 96h of synthesis, at 45 degrees C and acetone as solvent.

PMID- 28873557
TI  - A rapid simultaneous determination of methylxanthines and proanthocyanidins in
      Brazilian guarana (Paullinia cupana Kunth.).
AB  - Paullinia cupana is a plant native to Brazil that is widely used in traditional
      medicine as a physical and mental stimulant. It is also used worldwide to produce
      soft drinks. A method for the simultaneous quantitation of seven markers in
      guarana by HPLC-PDA was developed, and extraction methods for the determination
      of methylxanthines and tannins were investigated. Quantified substances were
      theobromine, theophylline, caffeine, catechin, epicatechin, procyanidins A2 and
      B2. Results confirmed the satisfactory selectivity and linearity (r2>=0.99)
      within the mass ranges. Repeatability (RSD<=2.80%), intermediate precision
      (RSD<=4.47%), accuracy (recoveries from 90.59%-104.67%), and robustness were
      demonstrated. Extract 1 presented the contents: 0.0177% (+/-1.02%) for
      theobromine, 0.0131% (+/-1.14%) for theophylline, 2.9429% (+/-1.27%) for
      caffeine, 0.4563% (+/-1.02%) for catechin, 0.5515% (+/-1.05%) for epicatechin,
      0.0607% (+/-2.80%) for A2 and 0.1035% (+/-1.39%) for B2. The method for
      simultaneous quantitation of seven chemical markers in guarana proved to be
      reliable using a simple and convenient HPLC setup.

PMID- 28873559
TI  - Protective effects of soybean protein and egg white protein on the antibacterial
      activity of nisin in the presence of trypsin.
AB  - The using of nisin to prevent foodborne pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus and
      Listeria monocytogenes) from contamination has received broad attentions during
      meat processing. However, the application of nisin has been limited because its
      antibacterial activity may be inhibited by trypsin. In this study, the protective
      effects of soybean protein and egg white protein on antibacterial activity of
      nisin were evaluated. It could be concluded that exogenous trypsin decreased the
      antibacterial activity of nisin, soybean protein and egg white protein could keep
      the nisin activity from enzymolysis of trypsin. Trypsin inhibitors in soybean
      protein and egg white protein could protect the antibacterial activity of nisin.
      Nisin with soybean protein or egg white protein in cooked meat product presented
      better quality preservation effects than nisin alone in the presence of trypsin.
      The total viable counts (TVC) and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) of nisin
      treated group were significantly higher than these in nisin-soybean protein
      treated and nisin-egg white protein-treated groups with trypsin. This study
      showed the potential of using soybean protein and egg white protein to stabilize
      the antibacterial activity of nisin under high trypsin conditions.

PMID- 28873560
TI  - Portraying and tracing the impact of different production systems on the volatile
      organic compound composition of milk by PTR-(Quad)MS and PTR-(ToF)MS.
AB  - The aim of this study was to discover the unique volatile compositional traits of
      retail milk from different production systems. Forty-four retail milk samples
      were analyzed, including organic milk (n=10), conventional milk (n=14) and
      pasture milk (n=20) from winter (n=22) and summer (n=22). Proton transfer
      reaction quadrupole mass spectrometry (PTR-(Quad)MS) was utilized to obtain the
      mass-resolved fingerprints (76 masses per sample) of volatile organic compounds
      (VOCs). Principal component analysis (PCA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were
      performed to evaluate the differences between the groups. The production systems
      were characterized by six masses, while season showed larger differences, with
      twenty-two masses discriminating between the milks. For 2 masses, a significant
      interaction of systems and seasons was observed. The chemical formula of these
      VOC masses were tentatively identified by Proton Transfer Reaction Time-of-Flight
      Mass Spectrometric (PTR-(ToF)MS). These results illustrate that the type of feed
      is reflected in the VOC composition of milks.

PMID- 28873561
TI  - Magnetic graphene sol-gel hybrid as clean-up adsorbent for acrylamide analysis in
      food samples prior to GC-MS.
AB  - Graphene (G) modified with magnetite (Fe3O4) and sol-gel hybrid tetraethoxysilane
      methyltrimethoxysilane (TEOS-MTMOS) was used as a clean-up adsorbent in magnetic
      solid phase extraction (MSPE) for direct determination of acrylamide in various
      food samples prior to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Good
      linearity (R2=0.9990) was achieved for all samples using matrix-matched
      calibration. The limit of detection (LOD=3*SD/m) obtained was 0.061-2.89ugkg-1
      for the studied food samples. Native acrylamide was found to be highest in fried
      potato with bright-fleshed (900.81ugkg-1) and lowest in toasted bread (5.02ugkg
      1). High acrylamide relative recovery (RR=82.7-105.2%) of acrylamide was obtained
      for spiked (5 and 50ugkg-1) food samples. The Fe3O4@G-TEOS-MTMOS is reusable up
      to 7 times as a clean-up adsorbent with good recovery (>85%). The presence of
      native acrylamide was confirmed by mass analysis at m/z=71 ([C3H5NO]+) and m/z=55
      ([C3H3O]+).

PMID- 28873563
TI  - Application of 3,5-bis-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl isothiocyanate for the
      determination of selected biogenic amines by LC-tandem mass spectrometry and 19F
      NMR.
AB  - 3,5-Bis-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl isothiocyanate, was used as a convenient reagent
      for the derivatization of histamine, tyramine, tryptamine and 2-phenylethylamine,
      which eliminates the purification step. The obtained derivatives were determined
      by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Additionally, the
      total amount of these amines was determined by 19F nuclear magnetic resonance
      analysis. The procedures were optimized and validated for linearity, limit of
      detection and quantification, intra- and inter-day precision and recovery
      resulting in good reproducibility and accuracy. The reagent was applied for
      determination of the above mentioned biogenic amines in beverages, and permitted
      an undemanding separation and determination of the derivatives. Moreover, it is a
      convenient reagent for analysis of the total amine content by quantitative 19F
      NMR.

PMID- 28873562
TI  - Fast analysis of capsaicinoids in Naga Jolokia extracts (Capsicum chinense) by
      high-performance liquid chromatography using fused core columns.
AB  - A rapid high-performance liquid chromatography method with a C18 reverse-phase
      fused-core column has been developed for the determination and quantification of
      the main capsaicinoids (nornordihydrocapsaicin, nordihydrocapsaicin, capsaicin,
      dihydrocapsaicin, homocapsaicin and homodihydrocapsaicin) present in Naga Jolokia
      peppers. A fused-core KinetexTM C18 column (50*2.1mm i.d.; 2.6MUm) was used for
      the analysis. The chromatographic separation was obtained with a gradient method
      in which the mobile phase was water (0.1% acetic acid) as solvent A and
      acetonitrile (0.1% acetic acid) as solvent B. The separation of all compounds was
      achieved in less than 3min with a total analysis time (sample-to-sample) of
      10min. The robustness of the method was evaluated. The method showed excellent
      repeatability and intermediate precision expressed as coefficient of variance of
      less than 2%. The developed method was employed for the quantification of the
      major capsaicinoids present in different peppers and commercial products
      containing chilli peppers.

PMID- 28873564
TI  - Effect of nano packaging on preservation quality of Nanjing 9108 rice variety at
      high temperature and humidity.
AB  - A nano packaging material containing nano Ag, nano TiO2, nano attapulgite and
      SiO2 was prepared, and its impact on quality of Nanjing 9108 rice at 37 degrees C
      and 85% relative humidity was studied. Effects of the packaging on ambient gases
      and chromatic aberration of rice were determined. Moreover, oxidation level,
      molds growth and flavor of rice were also analyzed. Results showed that nano
      packaging material had antimicrobial effects and maintained low O2 and high CO2
      content in the packages. The packages thereby inhibited the growth of molds and
      the production of fatty acids, restrained the increase of lipase activity, and
      reduced the oxidation of fats and proteins. As a result, the production of yellow
      and white-belly rice were inhibited. Furthermore, the color and flavor of rice
      were maintained. Therefore, the nano-packing material could be applied for
      preservation of rice to improve preservation quality.

PMID- 28873565
TI  - The betaine profile of cereal flours unveils new and uncommon betaines.
AB  - We report the LC-ESI-MS/MS determination of betaines in commercial flours of
      cereals and pseudocereals most utilized in human nutrition. Results showed that
      glycine betaine, trigonelline, proline betaine, Nepsilon-trimethyllysine were
      metabolites common to all examined flours, whereas an uncommon betaine, valine
      betaine, and glutamine betaine were present only in flours of barley, rye, oat,
      durum wheat, winter wheat, Triticum dicoccum and Triticum monococcum. Valine
      betaine and glutamine betaine, the latter never reported before in plants and
      animals, are not evenly distributed in the Poaceae family, but their presence or
      absence in flours depends on the subfamily to which the plant belongs.
      Interestingly, we also report for the first time the occurrence of pipecolic acid
      betaine (homostachydrine) and its precursor 1,2-N-methylpipecolic acid in rye
      flour. These two metabolites were not detected in any other cereal or
      pseudocereal flour, suggesting their potential role as markers of rye flour
      occurrence in cereal-based foods.

PMID- 28873566
TI  - Selected chemical composition changes in microwave-convective dried parsley
      leaves affected by ultrasound and steaming pre-treatments - An optimization
      approach.
AB  - Parsley leaves contain a high amount of bioactive components (especially lutein),
      therefore it is crucial to select the most appropriate pre-treatment and drying
      conditions, in order to obtain high quality of dried leaves, which was the aim of
      this study. The optimization was done using response surface methodology (RSM)
      for the following factors: microwave power (100, 200, 300W), air temperature (20,
      30, 40 degrees C) and pre-treatment variant (ultrasound, steaming and dipping as
      a control). Total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity, chlorophyll and
      lutein contents (using UPLC-PDA) were determined in dried leaves. The analysed
      responses were dependent on the applied drying parameters and the pre-treatment
      type. The possibility of ultrasound and steam treatment application was proven
      and the optimal processing conditions were selected.

PMID- 28873567
TI  - Influence of lactic acid bacteria strains on ester concentrations in red wines:
      Specific impact on branched hydroxylated compounds.
AB  - This research investigated the influence of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains on
      ester levels in Bordeaux red wines. These wines were made in five Bordeaux areas
      in two vintages, using three yeast strains. Malolactic fermentation (MLF) was
      carried out using industrial starters or indigenous strains, each in triplicate.
      Ester concentrations were determined by liquid-liquid-extraction- or HS-SPME
      GC/MS at various stages in the winemaking process. The levels of most compounds
      were slightly impacted by LAB, depending on grape variety. Nevertheless, branched
      hydroxylated esters, such as ethyl 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutanoate and ethyl 2
      hydroxy-4-methylpentanoate were the only compounds to be strongly influenced by
      the bacteria strain, regardless of matrix composition or the yeasts used for
      alcoholic fermentation. Moreover, the effect observed after MLF persisted over
      time, for at least 12months. These esters are apparently important markers of LAB
      esterase activity. To our knowledge, this was the first time they had been
      identified in this role.

PMID- 28873568
TI  - Phenolic contents, cellular antioxidant activity and antiproliferative capacity
      of different varieties of oats.
AB  - The objectives of this research were to determine the phenolic contents, oxygen
      radical absorbance capacities (ORAC), cellular antioxidant activities (CAA), and
      antiproliferative capacities of nine oat varieties and four brans in China. Of
      all varieties, Longyan 3 and Beiyan 1 exhibited the highest total avenanthramides
      (146.94+/-7.31 and 120.95+/-6.66ug/g, respectively) and ORAC values (21.03+/-0.56
      and 21.18+/-1.45uM Trolox/g, respectively), while Shaotong exhibited the highest
      total phenolic acids (143.52+/-9.42ug/g) and CAA values (33.38+/-1.74uM
      quercetin/100g). The EC50 of antiproliferative capacities ranged from 167.31+/
      6.42 to 233.42+/-21.31mg/mL, with the lowest in Beixiao 8 while the highest in
      Jinyan 8. ORAC values correlated with avenanthramides while CAA values correlated
      with phenolic acids. Moreover, phenolic contents, antioxidant properties, and
      antiproliferative capacities of oat brans was higher than that of corresponding
      whole oats in most cases.

PMID- 28873569
TI  - Monitoring protein hydrolysis by pepsin using pH-stat: In vitro gastric
      digestions in static and dynamic pH conditions.
AB  - This study intends to demonstrate that acid titration at low pH is very well
      adapted to the monitoring of pepsin activity. After a description of the
      underlying principles, this approach was used during in vitro gastric digestions
      of a model of complex food containing 15wt% of whey proteins, according to both
      static (2h at pH = 3, Infogest protocol) and dynamic pH conditions (from pH 6.3
      down to 2 in 1h). Pepsin activity was quantitatively assessed in all experiments
      through the calculation of degrees of hydrolysis (DH). Final values of 3.7 and
      3.0% were obtained in static and dynamic pH conditions, respectively, and
      validated using an independent method. Results also show that about 92% of the
      peptides were detected at pH = 3, and 100% for pH<=2.5. Overall, the proposed
      approach proved to be very worthy to study protein hydrolysis during in vitro
      gastric digestions.

PMID- 28873570
TI  - Effective production of resistant starch using pullulanase immobilized onto
      magnetic chitosan/Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
AB  - In this study, pullulanase was firstly immobilized by covalent bonding onto
      chitosan/Fe3O4 nanoparticles or encapsulation in sol-gel after bonding onto
      chitosan/Fe3O4 nanoparticles, and then the immobilized pullulanase was used for
      the effective production of resistant starch (RS). The highest RS content (35.1%)
      was obtained under the optimized condition of pH 4.4, enzyme concentration of
      10ASPU/g and hydrolysis time of 12h when debranched by free pullulsanase,
      indicating that RS content was significantly (p<0.05) increased when compared to
      native starch (4.3%) and autoclaved starch (12.5%). Under these conditions, the
      immobilized pullulanase (10ASPU/g dry starch) yielded higher RS content compared
      to free enzyme (10ASPU/g dry starch), especially, the pullulanse immobilized by
      sol-gel encapsulation yielded the highest RS content (43.4%). Moreover, compared
      to starches hydrolyzed by free pullulanase, starches hydrolyzed by immobilized
      pullulanase showed a different saccharide profile of starch hydrolysate,
      including a stronger peak C (MW=5.0*103), as well as exhibited an additional
      absorption peak around 140 degrees C. Reusability results demonstrated that
      pullulanase immobilized by sol-gel encapsulation had the advantages of producing
      higher RS content as well as better operational stability compared to pullulanase
      immobilized by cross-linking. The resulting enhanced RS content generated by the
      process described in this work could be used as an adjunct in food processing
      industries.

PMID- 28873571
TI  - Production of RS4 from rice starch and its utilization as an encapsulating agent
      for targeted delivery of probiotics.
AB  - The research reported in this article is based on the hypothesis that
      crosslinking of starch can make it a potential wall material for targeted
      delivery of probiotics by altering its digestion. Three probiotic strains namely
      Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus brevis and Lactobacillus plantarum were
      microencapsulated with resistant starch. Encapsulation yield (%) of resistant
      starch microspheres was in the range of 43.01-48.46. The average diameter of
      resistant starch microparticles was in the range of 45.53-49.29MUm. Fourier
      transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy of microcapsules showed peaks in the
      region of 900-1300cm-1 and 2918-2925cm-1 which corresponds to the presence of
      bacteria. Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) showed better thermal stability
      of resistant starch microcapsules. Microencapsulated probiotics survived well in
      simulated gastrointestinal conditions and adverse heat conditions. The viability
      of the microcapsulated lactobacilli also remained high (>7 log cfu g-1) for
      2months at 4 degrees C. The results revealed that resistant starch is the
      potential new delivery carrier for oral administration of probiotics.

PMID- 28873572
TI  - Implications of hydration depletion in the in vitro starch digestibility of white
      bread crumb and crust.
AB  - The objective of this study was to provide understanding about the efficacy of
      decreasing dough hydration to slow down starch digestibility in white bread.
      Breads were made with 45 (low hydration bread, LHB), 60 (intermediate hydration
      bread, IHB) and 75% (high hydration bread, HHB) water (flour basis). A hydration
      depletion down to 45%, which is close to the minimum hydration found in
      commercially available white bread, did not prevent the starch in the crumb from
      complete gelatinization. However, LHB and IHB crumbs were more resistant to
      physical breakdown during in vitro digestion than HHB crumbs, resulting in a
      96.81% increase of slowly digestible starch (SDS) from 75 to 45% dough hydration.
      The degree of gelatinization in crust samples was significantly reduced with a
      depletion in the dough hydration, ranging from 29.90 to 44.36%, which led to an
      increase of SDS from 7.41 in HHB to 13.78% in LHB (bread basis).

PMID- 28873573
TI  - Effects of variety, year of cultivation and sulphur supply on the accumulation of
      free asparagine in the grain of commercial wheat varieties.
AB  - Free asparagine concentration, which is the determining factor for acrylamide
      forming potential in cereals, was measured in grain from wheat grown in field
      trials in the United Kingdom in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. There were 25 varieties
      in 2012 and 59 in 2013, with eleven present in both trials. The trials were split
      plot, with half of each plot supplied with sulphur and the other half not. The
      varietal means (mmol per kg) for free asparagine in the sulphur-fed wheat ranged
      from 1.521 to 2.687 in 2011-2012 and 0.708 to 11.29 in 2012-2013. Eight varieties
      were identified as having consistently low free asparagine concentration. There
      was a differential response of varieties to sulphur, and much higher levels of
      free asparagine in 2012-2013 versus 2011-2012. Given the short commercial
      lifespan of some wheat varieties, it is concluded that information on free
      asparagine concentration should be made available when a variety is launched.

PMID- 28873574
TI  - Creaming and oxidative stability of fish oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by
      whey protein-xanthan-locust bean complexes: Impact of pH.
AB  - The impact of pH on the physicochemical properties of 10% menhaden oil-in-water
      (O/W) emulsions containing 2% whey protein isolate (WPI) and 0.1% xanthan (XG)
      locust bean gum (LBG) mixtures was investigated. The O/W emulsions containing
      0.1% XG-LBG mixtures were compared to emulsions with 0.1% XG and 0.1% LBG. The
      results indicated that stability is dependent on pH and biopolymer type. At both
      pH 3 and 5, emulsions containing either XG or XG-LBG mixtures had large particle
      sizes, viscosity, droplet aggregation, and creaming index, resulting in poor
      physical stability which can be related to the adsorbed protein-polysaccharide
      interactions. At pH7, the XG-LBG emulsions showed the greatest resistance to
      phase separation and resulted in stable emulsions. Lipid oxidation measurements
      also indicated that XG-LBG mixtures can be used to form stable emulsions at pH 3
      and pH 7. These results have significant implications for the development of
      novel structures containing lipid phases susceptible to lipid oxidation.

PMID- 28873575
TI  - Development of a comprehensive analytical platform for the detection and
      quantitation of food fraud using a biomarker approach. The oregano adulteration
      case study.
AB  - Due to increasing number of food fraud incidents, there is an inherent need for
      the development and implementation of analytical platforms enabling detection and
      quantitation of adulteration. In this study a set of unique biomarkers of
      commonly found oregano adulterants became the targets in the development of a LC
      MS/MS method which underwent a rigorous in-house validation. The method presented
      very high selectivity and specificity, excellent linearity (R2>0.988) low
      decision limits and detection capabilities (<2%), acceptable accuracy (intra
      assay 92-113%, inter-assay 69-138%) and precision (CV<20%). The method was
      compared with an established FTIR screening assay and revealed a good correlation
      of quali- and quantitative results (R2>0.81). An assessment of 54 suspected
      adulterated oregano samples revealed that almost 90% of them contained at least
      one bulking agent, with a median level of adulteration of 50%. Such innovative
      methodologies need to be established as routine testing procedures to detect and
      ultimately deter food fraud.

PMID- 28873576
TI  - Revalorisation of rapeseed pomace extracts: An in vitro study into its anti
      oxidant and DNA protective properties.
AB  - Rapeseed pomace (RSP) is a waste product obtained after edible oil production
      from Brassica napus. Analysis of ubiquitous secondary metabolites in RSP samples
      (two breeds, harvested in 2012/2014 respectively from North East of Scotland) and
      their ethanol/water (95:5) Soxhlet extracts were carried out. Soxhlet extraction
      of the RSP (petroleum ether followed by 95% ethanol) gave a solid extract. LC
      MS/MS data of the extracts revealed several secondary metabolites, with Sinapic
      acid being the most abundant. Strong antioxidant activities of the Soxhlet
      extracts were confirmed from the results obtained in the FRAP, DPPH and ORAC
      assays. Furthermore, for the very first time, RSP extracts (13.9ug/ml) provided
      complete DNA protection, from oxidative stress induced by AAPH (3.5mM). Therefore
      the strong antioxidant and DNA protecting properties demonstrated by the RSP
      extracts in this study warrants further investigation for their revalorisation
      and potential use as reliable source of antioxidants in different food
      applications.

PMID- 28873577
TI  - Formation and properties of viscoelastic masses made from kafirin by a process of
      simple coacervation from solution in glacial acetic acid using water.
AB  - Stable viscoelastic masses have been formed from kafirin in a mainly aqueous
      system. Kafirin was dissolved in glacial acetic acid (GAA) and simple
      coacervation was performed by rapid addition of 15 degrees C water under low
      shear. Kafirin precipitated out as a network of hydrated fibrils which could be
      hand-kneaded into a viscoelastic mass. These could be formed from a very wide
      range of kafirins, including those where beta- or gamma-subclass expression was
      suppressed. Kafirin composition influenced the appearance of the masses but did
      not fundamentally affect stress-relaxation behaviour. Fresh kafirin masses
      exhibited similar elasticity and viscous flow balance to gluten. They maintained
      functionality when stored for several days at 10 degrees C but their elastic
      component increased. FTIR showed that when kafirin was dissolved in GAA its alpha
      helical conformation increased substantially. Dissociation of the kafirin
      molecules in GAA, assuming a alpha-helical conformation may have enhanced water
      binding, enabling viscoelastic mass formation.

PMID- 28873578
TI  - Effect of post-fermentation and packing stages on the volatile composition of
      Spanish-style green table olives.
AB  - The volatile profile of Spanish-style green table olives after fermentation and
      the changes in volatile compounds that occurred as a result of the post
      fermentation and subsequent packing stage were explored by solid phase micro
      extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
      Three olive cultivars (Manzanilla, Gordal, and Hojiblanca) were processed and
      olive samples were taken at three different times throughout the elaboration:
      after fermentation, after post-fermentation, and after packing. A total of 132
      volatile compounds were identified, including 10 phenols, 25 alcohols, 11 acids,
      39 esters, 8 hydrocarbons, 14 carbonyl compounds, 17 terpenes, and 6 other
      compounds. A varying number of compounds from each chemical family underwent
      significant changes because of the post-fermentation and packing stages. Among
      them, some typical reaction products of lipid oxidation (e.g. (E)-2-decenal and
      (E,E)-2,4-decadienal) increased with the post-fermentation in Manzanilla
      cultivar, and also as a result of packing in all three cultivars.

PMID- 28873579
TI  - Ionic liquid-based air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction followed by high
      performance liquid chromatography for the determination of five fungicides in
      juice samples.
AB  - A novel and simple ionic liquid-based air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction
      technique combined with high performance liquid chromatography was developed to
      analyze five fungicides in juice samples. In this method, ionic liquid was used
      instead of a volatile organic solvent as the extraction solvent. The emulsion was
      formed by pulling in and pushing out the mixture of aqueous sample solution and
      extraction solvent repeatedly using a 10mL glass syringe. No organic dispersive
      solvent was required. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection
      (LODs) were 0.4-1.8MUgL-1 at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The limits of
      quantification (LOQs) set as the lowest spiking levels with acceptable recovery
      in juices were 10MUgL-1, except for fludioxonil whose LOQ was 20MUgL-1. The
      proposed method was applied to determine the target fungicides in juice samples,
      and acceptable recoveries ranging from 74.9% to 115.4% were achieved.

PMID- 28873581
TI  - A single enzyme PCR-RFLP protocol targeting 16S rRNA/tRNAval region to
      authenticate four commercially important shrimp species in India.
AB  - Food authenticity is an issue of major concern for food authorities, as
      mislabeling represents one of the major commercial frauds. In this study, a novel
      PCR-RFLP protocol was developed as a tool to authenticate four shrimp products of
      commercial importance belonging to the family, Penaeidae, viz. Litopenaeus
      vannamei, Penaeus monodon, P. semisulcatus and Fenneropenaeus indicus. PCR
      amplification was performed targeting 16S rRNA/tRNAval region having an amplicon
      size of 530bp using the specific primers for shrimps, 16S-Cru4/16S-Cru3.
      Subsequent restriction analysis with a single restriction enzyme, Tsp5091,
      yielded distinct RFLP pattern for each species of shrimps having fragment sizes
      below 150bp. The unique RFLP patterns were also obtained in processed shrimp
      products without any degradation or alteration in the major fragments. The method
      was also validated with commercial shrimp products. Thus, the developed protocol
      can be performed within 8h using a single enzyme to authenticate four shrimp
      products of commercial significance.

PMID- 28873580
TI  - Thermal degradation kinetics of all-trans and cis-carotenoids in a light-induced
      model system.
AB  - Thermal degradation kinetics of lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin, beta
      carotene was studied at 25, 35, and 45 degrees C in a model system. Qualitative
      and quantitative analyses of all-trans- and cis-carotenoids were conducted using
      HPLC-DAD-MS technologies. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were calculated by
      non-linear regression. A total of 29 geometrical isomers and four oxidation
      products were detected, including all-trans-, keto compounds, mono-cis- and di
      cis-isomers. Degradations of all-trans-lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin,
      and beta-carotene were described by a first-order kinetic model, with the order
      of rate constants as kbeta-carotene>kbeta-cryptoxanthin>klutein>kzeaxanthin.
      Activation energies of zeaxanthin, lutein, beta-cryptoxanthin, and beta-carotene
      were 65.6, 38.9, 33.9, and 8.6kJ/moL, respectively. cis-carotenoids also followed
      with the first-order kinetic model, but they did not show a defined sequence of
      degradation rate constants and activation energies at different temperatures. A
      possible degradation pathway of four carotenoids was identified to better
      understand the mechanism of carotenoid degradation.

PMID- 28873582
TI  - A study of the tyramine/glucose Maillard reaction: Variables, characterization,
      cytotoxicity and preliminary application.
AB  - The tyramine/glucose Maillard reaction was proposed as an emerging tool for
      tyramine reduction in a model system and two commercial soy sauce samples. The
      model system was composed of tyramine and glucose in buffer solutions with or
      without NaCl. The results showed that tyramine was reduced in the model system,
      and the reduction rate was affected by temperature, heating time, initial pH
      value, NaCl concentration, initial glucose concentration and initial tyramine
      concentration. Changes in fluorescence intensity and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis)
      absorption spectra showed three stages of the Maillard reaction between tyramine
      and glucose. Cytotoxicity assay demonstrated that tyramine/glucose Maillard
      reaction products (MRPs) were significantly less toxic than that of tyramine
      (p<0.05). Moreover, tyramine concentration in soy sauce samples was significantly
      reduced when heated with the addition of glucose (p<0.05). Experimental results
      showed that the tyramine/glucose Maillard reaction is a promising method for
      tyramine reduction in foods.

PMID- 28873583
TI  - Analysis of polyphenols in brewer's spent grain and its comparison with corn
      silage and cereal brans commonly used for animal nutrition.
AB  - Brewer's spent grain (BSG) could be tested as an alternative source of
      polyphenols in animal nutrition. Proper extraction and analytical methods are
      critical for quantification. Thus, extraction for BSG, corn silage, and brans of
      rice, corn, and wheat were studied for the highest yield of polyphenols. A method
      for 18 phenolic monomers by HPLC-DAD was developed, validated, and applied to
      samples. An aqueous solution of NaOH (0.75% w/v) using integral samples for
      extraction resulted in the highest values for colorimetric measurements in all
      analyzed sources. Method by maceration showed the highest phenolic yield when
      applied in corn silage and BSG. However, for brans the best method was microwave
      assisted. Results from HPLC-DAD analysis clearly showed that native structures of
      phenolic compounds were simplified to its monomers allowing quantification and
      sample discrimination. BSG had the highest concentration of polyphenols and could
      be a promising and innovative source for animal feed studies.

PMID- 28873584
TI  - Magnetic mesoporous thiourea-formaldehyde resin as selective adsorbent: A simple
      and highly-sensitive electroanalysis strategy for lead ions in drinking water and
      milk by solid state-based anodic stripping.
AB  - A simple and sensitive electroanalysis method has been developed for the direct
      determination of lead ions of nanomolar levels in real samples of drinking water
      and milk by employing magnetic mesoporous thiourea-formaldehyde resin (TUF@Fe3O4)
      nanocomposites as the capturing absorbents. Here, the prepared TUF@Fe3O4 with the
      large-surface-area mesoporous structure and strong Pb2+-binding ligands could
      facilitate the selective and large-scale adsorption of Pb2+ ions from the complex
      sample matrices to be further magnetically separated onto the magnetic
      electrodes. Moreover, the Pb2+ ions magnetically accumulated were
      electrochemically measured alternatively by the solid state-based anodic
      stripping of PbCl2. The detection limit was found to be 0.0070nmolL-1. The as
      developed Pb2+ electroanalysis method with the magnetic electrodes and TUF@Fe3O4
      nanocomposites could avoid the complicated sample preparation and electrode
      modification, thus holding the great potential of applications for the Pb2+
      detection in different real samples.

PMID- 28873585
TI  - Chemical composition and food uses of teff (Eragrostis tef).
AB  - Teff (Eragrostis tef) is a cereal native to Ethiopia and Eritrea. It has an
      excellent adaptability to harsh environmental conditions and plays an important
      role in food security. In recent years, teff is becoming globally popular due to
      the attractive nutritional profile such as gluten free and high dietary fiber
      content. This review documents the recent advances in the genetic diversity,
      nutritional composition and food uses of teff grain. The attractive nutrients of
      teff include protein, dietary fiber, polyphenols, and certain minerals. Whole
      grain teff flour becomes increasingly important in healthy food market, and has
      been used to produce various gluten free food items such as pasta and bread.
      Efforts have been made to enhance the sensory quality of teff based products.
      There is great potential to adapt teff to the other parts of the world for
      healthy food and beverage production.

PMID- 28873586
TI  - Isolation of a novel calcium-binding peptide from wheat germ protein hydrolysates
      and the prediction for its mechanism of combination.
AB  - To isolate a novel peptide with specific calcium-binding capacity, wheat germ
      protein was hydrolyzed. The hydrolysates were purified using ultrafiltration,
      anion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, and reversed-phase
      high performance liquid chromatography. The amino acid sequence of the purified
      peptide was determined and confirmed to be FVDVT (Phe-Val-Asp-Val-Thr). The
      calcium-binding capacity of FVDVT reached 89.94+/-0.75%, increased by 86.37%
      compared to the hydrolysates. The chelating mechanism between FVDVT and calcium
      was further investigated by Ultraviolet-Visible absorption spectroscopy, Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and 1H nuclear magnetic
      resonances spectroscopy. The results indicated that the oxygen atoms of the
      carboxy group and the nitrogen atoms of the amido group provided major binding
      sites. In addition, aspartic acid and threonine show considerable capacity for
      incorporating with calcium by donating electron pairs. This study provides a
      feasible approach to isolate calcium-binding peptides and to clarify the possible
      binding mechanism of calcium and peptide.

PMID- 28873587
TI  - Untargeted screening of sulfonamides and their metabolites in salmon using liquid
      chromatography coupled to quadrupole Orbitrap mass spectrometry.
AB  - An analytical method for the non-target screening of sulfonamides and metabolites
      in salmon was developed, using automated on-line extraction procedure followed by
      ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization
      quadrupole Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC Q-Orbitrap),
      including three systematic workflows (i) fully non-targeted data acquisition with
      fragmentation, (ii) suspect library spectra searching followed by characteristic
      structural fragments filtering and (iii) confirmation of non-target analytes and
      structural characterization of unknown analytes based on the availability of
      reference standards. The estimated performance characteristics were satisfactory
      complying with the requirements of the guidelines specified in European
      Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. Four untargeted compounds were identified and
      confirmed from salmon samples of different origin taken from monitoring control
      program.

PMID- 28873588
TI  - Water accelerated transformation of d-limonene induced by ultraviolet irradiation
      and air exposure.
AB  - d-Limonene is a fragrant chemical that widely exists in aromatic products.
      Isotopic labelling of water molecules plus GC-MS and GC-PCI-Q-TOF analyses were
      used to investigate the influence of water molecules on chemical transformation
      of d-limonene induced by UV irradiation and air exposure. The results showed that
      the synergistic effect of UV irradiation, air exposure and water presence could
      facilitate d-limonene transformation into the limonene oxides: p-mentha-2,8
      dienols, hydroperoxides, carveols, l-carvone and carvone oxide. UV irradiation,
      air exposure, or water alone, however, caused negligible d-limonene
      transformation. With the aid of isotopic labelling of water and oxygen molecules,
      it was found that water molecules were split into hydrogen radicals and hydroxyl
      radicals, and the hydrogen radicals, in particular, promoted the transformation
      reactions. This study has elucidated the mechanism and factors that influence the
      transformation of d-limonene, which will benefit industries involved in
      production and storage of d-limonene-containing products.

PMID- 28873589
TI  - Control of the gastrointestinal digestion of solid lipid nanoparticles using
      PEGylated emulsifiers.
AB  - We prepared solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) with tristearin and various
      emulsifiers which had different chain length PEGs (10-100 times-repetition of
      ethylene glycol) to control their digestion fate in the gastrointestinal tract.
      Fabricated SLNs after acidic/high-ionic-strength media treatment were stable
      regardless of the zeta-potential (ZP) disappearance. Additionally, highly
      PEGylated SLNs successfully hindered the adsorption of both bile acid (BA) and
      lipase on the SLN surface, while lowly PEGylated SLNs interrupted that of only
      lipase. In simulated small intestinal fluid, lipolysis of highly PEGylated SLNs
      increased with decrease of the emulsifier density on the SLNs, whereas lipolysis
      of lowly PEGylated SLNs increased with decrease of the particle size. These
      results suggested that high PEGylation was more efficient than low PEGylation to
      hinder the lipolysis initiated from the competitive replacement of the SLN
      covering emulsifiers with BAs. Consequently, the SLN digestion could be
      controlled by choosing the length and concentration of PEGylated emulsifiers.

PMID- 28873591
TI  - The functional properties and application of gelatin derived from the skin of
      channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus).
AB  - The objective of this work was to extract gelatin from skin of channel catfish
      (Ictalurus punctatus) and to study its functional properties and application in
      ice-cream and beer. SDS-PAGE patterns showed that channel catfish gelatin (CCG)
      had more high molecular weight components (beta and gamma chains) than had calf
      bone gelatin (CBG). The viscosity of CCG was 42mPa.s at 10 degrees C, which was
      three times more than that of CBG. Compared to CBG, CCG presented higher emulsion
      capacity and stability, as well as higher foaming stability. CCG conferred the
      ice-cream samples and beer with better mouth feel and clarification effect,
      respectively. The results indicated that CCG had great potential to be utilized
      in the food industry.

PMID- 28873590
TI  - In silico analysis and molecular docking study of angiotensin I-converting enzyme
      inhibitory peptides from smooth-hound viscera protein hydrolysates fractionated
      by ultrafiltration.
AB  - Smooth-hound viscera hydrolysates (SHVHs) were prepared by treatment with
      Neutrase (SHVH-N) and Purafect (SHVH-P). Hydrolysates were then separated
      according to their molecular weight, using the ultra-filtration membrane system,
      into 5 fractions (>=50, 50-5, 5-3, 3-1 and <=1kDa). Fractions showed different
      amino acid compositions and angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory
      potentials. The SHVH-P-FV (<=1kDa) and SHVH-N-FIV (3-1kDa) fractions showed the
      best ACE-inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 53.31 and 75.05ug/ml,
      respectively. According to their high ACE-inhibitory potential, FIV and FV were
      fractionated by RP-HPLC and then analyzed by LC-MS/MS to identify peptide
      sequences. A systematic peptidomic study resulted in the identification of
      numerous novel sequences. Furthermore, in silico data, based on the molecular
      docking simulation, showed that GPAGPRGPAG, AVVPPSDKM, TTMYPGIA, and VKPLPQSG
      could bind ACE active site with low interaction scores. Indeed, they share
      hydrogen bonds and Van der Waals and electrostatic interactions with ACE
      catalytic pockets.

PMID- 28873592
TI  - Statistical interpretation of chromatic indicators in correlation to
      phytochemical profile of a sulfur dioxide-free mulberry (Morus nigra) wine
      submitted to non-thermal maturation processes.
AB  - The four different methods of color measurement of wine proposed by Boulton,
      Giusti, Glories and Commission International de l'Eclairage (CIE) were applied to
      assess the statistical relationship between the phytochemical profile and
      chromatic characteristics of sulfur dioxide-free mulberry (Morus nigra) wine
      submitted to non-thermal maturation processes. The alteration in chromatic
      properties and phenolic composition of non-thermal aged mulberry wine were
      examined, aided by the used of Pearson correlation, cluster and principal
      component analysis. The results revealed a positive effect of non-thermal
      processes on phytochemical families of wines. From Pearson correlation analysis
      relationships between chromatic indexes and flavonols as well as anthocyanins
      were established. Cluster analysis highlighted similarities between Boulton and
      Giusti parameters, as well as Glories and CIE parameters in the assessment of
      chromatic properties of wines. Finally, principal component analysis was able to
      discriminate wines subjected to different maturation techniques on the basis of
      their chromatic and phenolics characteristics.

PMID- 28873593
TI  - SPR screening of metal chelating peptides in a hydrolysate for their antioxidant
      properties.
AB  - There is a growing need in the industrial sector (health, nutrition and cosmetic)
      to discover new biomolecules with various physico-chemical and bioactive
      properties. Various beneficial effects of peptides - notably those produced from
      protein hydrolysis - are reported in the literature. The antioxidant activity
      involves various mechanisms, among them metal chelation, studied by UV-visible
      spectrophotometry. In this paper, we set up an original method of screening metal
      chelating peptides in a hydrolysate using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) for
      their antioxidant properties. To date, the empirical approach used several cycles
      of hydrolysate fractionation and bioactivity evaluation until the isolation of
      the pure bioactive molecule and its identification. Besides, the detection of
      metal-chelating peptide is not sensitive enough by spectrophotometry. For the
      first time, metal chelating peptides were screened in hydrolysates using SPR and
      a correlation was established between affinity constant determined in SPR and
      metal chelation capacity determined from UV-visible spectrophotometry.

PMID- 28873594
TI  - Stable isotope ratio analysis of different European raspberries, blackberries,
      blueberries, currants and strawberries.
AB  - To date the stable isotope ratios of berries have never been extensively
      explored. In this work the H, C, N and O isotopic ratios of 190 samples of
      different soft fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and
      currants) produced in a northern Italian region and at two sites in Romania and
      Poland collected over three harvest years are presented and discussed. The
      different soft fruits showed a typical range for one or more isotopic parameters
      that can be used to verify the authenticity of the fruit composition declared on
      the label. The delta13C and delta15N of pulp and the delta18O of juice can be
      considered effective tools for identifying the different geographical origin of
      fruit. A significant effect of crop cover on juice delta18O and fertilisation
      practices on pulp delta15N was demonstrated and must be considered with attention
      when evaluating data.

PMID- 28873595
TI  - Protein degradation and peptide release from milk proteins in human jejunum.
      Comparison with in vitro gastrointestinal simulation.
AB  - Human jejunal digests after oral ingestion of casein and whey protein were
      collected by a nasogastric tube and protein degradation and peptide release was
      compared with that found in the digests of the same substrates using a
      standardised protocol. No intact casein was detected in the jejunal nor in the in
      vitro samples taken during the intestinal phase, while beta-lactoglobulin was
      found in one hour-jejunal samples in agreement with the in vitro digestion. In
      vivo and in vitro digests showed comparable peptide profiles and high number of
      common sequences. A selective precipitation step was used to strengthen the
      identification of phosphorylated peptides. Most of the sequences found in
      jejunum, some of them not previously described, were also identified in the
      simulated digests. Common resistant regions to digestion were identified,
      revealing that the in vitro protocol constitutes a good approximation to the
      physiological gastrointestinal digestion of milk proteins.

PMID- 28873596
TI  - Increase of medium-chain fatty acid ethyl ester content in mixed H. uvarum/S.
      cerevisiae fermentation leads to wine fruity aroma enhancement.
AB  - Medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) ethyl esters, as yeast secondary metabolites,
      significantly contribute to the fruity aroma of foods and beverages. To improve
      the MCFA ethyl ester content of wine, mixed fermentations with Hanseniaspora
      uvarum Yun268 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were performed. Final volatiles were
      analyzed by gas solid phase microextraction-chromatography-mass spectrometry, and
      aroma characteristics were quantitated by sensory analysis. Results showed that
      mixed fermentation increased MCFA ethyl ester content by 37% in Cabernet
      Gernischt wine compared to that obtained by pure fermentation. Partial least
      squares regression analysis further revealed that the improved MCFA ethyl esters
      specifically enhanced the temperate fruity aroma of wine. The enhancement of MCFA
      ethyl esters was attributed to the increased contents of MCFAs that could be
      induced by the presence of H. uvarum Yun268 in mixed fermentation. Meanwhile, the
      timing of yeast inoculations significantly affected the involving biomass of each
      strain and the dynamics of ethanol accumulation.

PMID- 28873597
TI  - A novel antioxidant peptide, purified from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, showed
      strong antioxidant potential via Nrf-2 mediated heme oxygenase-1 expression.
AB  - A novel antioxidant peptide YD1 (~1.0kDa), purified from the strain Bacillus
      amyloliquefaciens CBSYD1, displayed activity in several in vitro assays and was
      also efficient against Gram-positive, Gram-negative as well as multidrug
      resistant (MDR) bacteria. Strain growth was adapted to bile-salt conditions where
      a clear halos-zone was observed in a bile-salt plate assay and was viable in
      different digestive track conditions. YD1 treatment on RAW 264.7 cells increased
      the transcriptional and translational activities of NF-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf
      2) through the enhanced levels of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Furthermore, the YD1
      treated group showed higher levels of antioxidant enzymes compared to the
      oxidative stress group. YD1 demonstrated a strong antioxidant activity by
      decreasing nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in RAW 264.7
      cells. This study suggests that YD1 and the strain could be a natural antioxidant
      and a probiotic candidate respectively.

PMID- 28873598
TI  - 1H HR-MAS NMR-based metabolomics study of different persimmon cultivars
      (Diospyros kaki) during fruit development.
AB  - 1H HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy was used to track the metabolic changes throughout the
      whole development of astringent ('Giombo') and non-astringent ('Fuyu') cultivars
      of persimmon (Diospyros kaki). The NMR data revealed the low concentration of
      amino acids (threonine, alanine, citrulline and GABA) and organic acids (malic
      acid). In addition, the signals of carbohydrates (sucrose, glucose and fructose)
      seemed to play the most important role in the fruit development. In both
      cultivars, the growth was characterized by fluctuating sucrose concentration
      along with a constant increase in both glucose and fructose. In the initial
      growth stage, the polyphenol composition was quite different between the
      cultivars. Gallic acid was detected throughout the growth of 'Giombo', while for
      'Fuyu', signals of polyphenols disappeared over time. Additional multivariate
      analysis suggested that these cultivars share many metabolic similarities during
      development. These findings might help the comprehension of fruit development,
      which in turn, impacts the quality of the fruits.

PMID- 28873599
TI  - Peptides derived from tryptic hydrolysate of Bacillus subtilis culture suppress
      fungal spoilage of table grapes.
AB  - This study confirmed the anti-fungal effect of trypsin-treated Bacillus subtilis
      culture (BC) (tryptic hydrolysate, TH) on mold growth on Kyoho grapes. We
      examined the anti-fungal activity of TH by identifying TH peptides and performing
      a computational docking analysis. TH was more potent than untreated BC in
      suppressing fungal growth on grapes. Specifically, TH maintained grape freshness
      by inhibiting respiration and rachis browning, maintaining firmness, and
      preventing weight loss. Thirty-six inhibitory peptides against beta-1,3-glucan
      synthase (GS) were screened from 126 TH peptides identified through proteomic
      analysis. Among them, 13 peptides bound tightly to GS active pockets with lower
      binding energies than that of GppNHp. The most potent peptides, LFEIDEELNEK and
      FATSDLNDLYR, were synthesized, and further experiments showed that these peptides
      had a highly suppressive effect on GS activity and Aspergillus niger and
      Penicillium chrysogenum growth. Our results confirm that tryptic treatment is
      effective for improving the anti-fungal activity of BC.

PMID- 28873600
TI  - Determination of cyanamide residue in 21 plant-derived foods by liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - Cyanamide is widely used in agriculture, and has a modest toxicity in humans. In
      the present study, a simple, sensitive, and widely applicable method for
      detecting cyanamide in 21 plant-derived foods was developed. In the proposed
      method, after the samples were homogenized and extracted, the method employs
      clean-up with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and derivatization with
      dansyl chloride. The derivatized sample extracts were quantified with liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The mean recoveries were in
      the range of 67.4%-107.1%, and the RSDs were between 1.0% and 17.8%. The
      quantification limit in shiitake?, green tea and chinese pepper was 0.05mg/kg,
      and in others 18 plant-derived foods was 0.01mg/kg. Among the data of 5 different
      laboratories, the repeatability limits (r) ranged from 0.0010 to 0.0941, and the
      reproducibility limits (R) ranged from 0.0031 to 0.2667. Moreover, the
      repeatability among different testing personnels in the same laboratory also has
      been examined.

PMID- 28873601
TI  - Production and assessment of Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) hydrolysates as
      cryoprotectants for frozen fish mince.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate application of fish protein hydrolysates
      (FPHs) as cryoprotectants for cod fish mince subjected to freeze-thaw abuse.
      Response surface methodology revealed little difference in cryoprotectant ability
      between FPHs produced from Pacific hake muscle within the range of conditions
      studied, namely Flavourzyme(r) enzyme/substrate ratio (E/S 1-4%), time (1-6h) and
      pH (5-7). When added at 4% or higher concentrations, FPH minimized expressible
      moisture and cook loss, while maximizing salt extractable protein from freeze
      thaw abused fish mince, providing similar or better cryoprotection compared to an
      8% sucrose-sorbitol blend, and a stabilizing effect of FPH on myosin was observed
      by differential scanning calorimetry. Sensory evaluation showed that addition of
      8% FPH in fish ball products increased the perception of fishiness, saltiness,
      bitterness and firmness while decreasing moistness. FPH could be a viable
      alternative to the sugar-based cryoprotectants currently used for frozen fish
      products.

PMID- 28873602
TI  - Application of chemometrics to assess the influence of ultrasound frequency,
      Lactobacillus sakei culture and drying on beef jerky manufacture: Impact on amino
      acid profile, organic acids, texture and colour.
AB  - The effects of ultrasound (US) frequency, addition of Lactobacillus sakei culture
      and drying time on key nutritional (protein, amino acids, and organic acids) and
      physicochemical properties (texture and colour) of cultured and uncultured beef
      jerky were evaluated. Cultured and uncultured jerky samples were subjected to US
      frequencies of 25kHz, 33kHz and 45kHz for 30min prior to marination and drying.
      Principal component analysis demonstrated a significant effect of beef jerky
      processing conditions on physicochemical properties. Taurine content of jerky
      samples was found to increase with an increase in ultrasonic frequencies for
      cultured samples. No significant changes in colour values were observed for
      ultrasound pre-treated and control samples. Interactive effects of culture
      treatment, drying and ultrasonic frequency were observed. This study demonstrates
      that the nutritional profile of beef jerky can be improved through the
      incorporation of L. sakei.

PMID- 28873603
TI  - Further studies on the iodine concentration of conventional, organic and UHT semi
      skimmed milk at retail in the UK.
AB  - Milk is the largest source of iodine in UK diets and earlier studies showed
      organic summer and winter milk to be significantly lower in iodine than
      conventional milk. One study also showed UHT milk to have lower iodine
      concentration. The study on winter and UHT milk was small and accordingly a new
      study is reported here involving conventional, organic and UHT semi-skimmed milk
      from four supermarkets over a six-month period in summer and winter in two
      regions of the UK. The results showed organic milk to be 44% lower in iodine than
      conventional milk (427 vs. 241ug/L, P<0.001) and UHT milk was 27% lower in iodine
      than conventional milk (427 vs. 314ug/L, P<0.001) although the differences tended
      to be less in the summer. The results indicate that replacement of conventional
      milk by organic or UHT milk will increase the risk of sub-optimal iodine status
      especially for pregnant/lactating women.

PMID- 28873604
TI  - Effect of six different starter cultures on the concentration of residual nitrite
      in fermented sausages during in vitro human digestion.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determine the effect of six different starter
      cultures of enterobacteria on the concentration of residual nitrite in fermented
      sausages during in vitro human digestion. Before digestion, the concentration of
      residual nitrite was dependent on starter culture in fermented sausage and ranged
      from 25.2 to 33.2mg/kg. Among the six starter cultures of enterobacteria,
      Pediococcus acidilactici, Pediococcus pentosaceus, and Staphylococcus carnosus
      showed higher nitrite depletion ability than the other three strains in fermented
      sausages. The concentration of residual nitrite in fermented sausages was
      significantly (p<0.05) decreased after stomach digestion and ranged from 17.4 to
      21.6mg/kg. Enterobacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) and/or Lactobacillus casei
      (L. casei) effectively increased the degree of depletion of residual nitrite in
      large intestine digestion. In conclusion, starter cultures could influence the
      concentration of residual nitrite during in vitro human digestion. They could
      deplete residual nitrite in fermented sausages.

PMID- 28873605
TI  - An analysis of the changes on intermediate products during the thermal processing
      of black garlic.
AB  - The thermal processing of black garlic was simulated. Fresh garlic was incubated
      at 55 degrees C with 80% humidity and sampled every 5 or 10days. The changes in
      relevant products were as follows: the fructan content was decreased by 84.79%,
      and the fructose content was increased by 508.11%. The contents of Maillard
      reaction intermediate products were first increased and then decreased. The
      colour of garlic gradually became dark and the pH decreased from 6.13 to 4.00. By
      analyzing these changes, the mechanism of black garlic formation and the changes
      on the Maillard reaction were revealed. The sweetness of black garlic resulted
      mainly from the fructose that was produced, and the black colour was largely due
      to the Maillard reaction between fructose/glucose and amino acids. An
      understanding of this process is useful to explain the formation mechanism of
      black garlic and could lead to better control of the quality of black garlic.

PMID- 28873606
TI  - Effectiveness of electrolyzed oxidizing water treatment in removing pesticide
      residues and its effect on produce quality.
AB  - This study evaluated the effects of electrolyzed oxidizing (EO) water treatment
      on the removal of pesticide residues (diazinon, cyprodinil and phosmet) from
      spinach, snap beans and grapes, and the effect on produce quality. High available
      chlorine content (ACC) and long treatment time of EO water resulted in high
      pesticide removals. Up to 59.2, 66.5 and 37.1% of diazinon; 43.8, 50.0 and 31.5%
      of cyprodinil; 85.7, 73.0 and 49.4% of phosmet; were removed from spinach, snap
      beans and grapes, respectively, after 15min EO water treatment at 120mg/l ACC. EO
      water was also more effective than electrolyzed reduced water, bleach, VegWash
      and DI water on pesticide removal. In addition, no significant colour or texture
      deterioration were found on produce samples treated with EO water. It was
      concluded, EO water can be very effective in pesticide residue removal from fresh
      produce without affecting the produce quality.

PMID- 28873607
TI  - LC-MS/MS profiles and interrelationships between the anti-inflammatory activity,
      total phenolic content and antioxidant potential of Kalasin 2 cultivar peanut
      sprout crude extract.
AB  - Peanut is a potent natural source of phytochemical compounds and is associated
      with human health. In the present study, we determined the biological activity
      and chemical constituents of peanuts germinated for 0-9days. The ungerminated
      seed coat exhibited the highest antioxidant potential, phenolic compound content
      and anti-inflammatory activity. During the germination process, on the first
      germination day, root extract showed the highest antioxidant potential, phenolic
      compound content and anti-inflammatory activity. The kernel exhibited a low
      phenolic compound content and antioxidant activity at the early stage of
      germination and significantly increased after 9days of germination. Resveratrol
      increased to 7.19+/-0.07ug/g dry weight on the second day of germination. LC
      MS/MS showed a variety of phenolic compounds and stilbene derivatives in
      different parts of germinated peanut. These results suggest that the peanut
      sprout exerts high anti-inflammatory effects that may be related to the
      polyphenolic content and antioxidant properties.

PMID- 28873608
TI  - Effects of alkali on protein polymerization and textural characteristics of
      textured wheat protein.
AB  - The impact of alkali addition on the degree of gluten polymerization and textural
      characteristics of textured wheat protein was investigated. Results showed that
      the extrusion process increased the average molecular weight of gluten as
      evidenced by SDS-PAGE and SDS extractable protein. The addition of alkali not
      only promoted the degree of gluten polymerization, but also induced
      dehydroalanine-derived cross-linking. Alkali addition decreased the content of
      cystine and increased the contents of dehydroalanine and lanthionine. The obvious
      decrease of free SH showed that dehydroalanine-derived cross-linking was
      quantitatively less crucial than disulfide cross-linking. Furthermore, the
      protein cross-linking induced by alkali improved the texture properties of gluten
      extrudates. SEM analysis showed extrusion under alkaline condition conferred a
      more fibrous microstructure as a consequence of a compact gluten network.

PMID- 28873609
TI  - In vitro investigation of anticancer and ACE-inhibiting activity, alpha-amylase
      and alpha-glucosidase inhibition, and antioxidant activity of camel milk
      fermented with camel milk probiotic: A comparative study with fermented bovine
      milk.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate in vitro the health-promoting benefits
      (anticancer activity, alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition, angiotensin
      converting-enzyme (ACE)-inhibition, antioxidant and proteolytic activity) of
      camel milk fermented with indigenous probiotic strains of Lactobacillus spp.,
      compared with fermented bovine milk. The three camel milk probiotic strains Lb.
      reuteri-KX881777, Lb. plantarum-KX881772, Lb. plantarum-KX881779 and a control
      strain Lb. plantarum DSM2468 were employed to ferment camel and bovine milks
      separately. The proteolytic and antioxidant activity of water soluble extracts
      (WSEs) from all fermented camel milks were higher than those of fermented bovine
      milk. alpha-Amylase inhibition of WSEs were >34% in both milk types fermented
      with all strains during storage periods, except the WSE of camel milk fermented
      by Lp.K772. The highest ACE-inhibition of the WSE from camel milk fermented by
      Lr.K777 was >80%. The proliferations of Caco-2, MCF-7 and HELA cells were more
      inhibited when treated with the WSE of fermented camel milk.

PMID- 28873610
TI  - Absence of evidence or evidence of absence? A transfer and depletion study of
      Sudan I in eggs.
AB  - Sudan I is a carcinogenic industrial azo-dye, forbidden for use in food. However,
      it has been detected in food on several occasions, such as in paprika, used in
      animal husbandry to enhance egg yolk colour. Therefore, an animal experiment was
      designed to simulate the transfer of Sudan I to eggs after its unintentional
      administration to laying hens. A group of laying hens (n=18) received feed
      contaminated with Sudan I at the raising concentrations: 0.45mg/kg, 4.97mg/kg and
      42.1mg/kg. Residues of Sudan I were detected in egg yolks (0.29+/-0.03ug/kg,
      mean+/-SD) only after the administration of the feed contaminated with the dye at
      the highest concentration. The determined concentrations were much lower than
      expected based on the compound's lipophilicity. In conclusion, the transfer of
      Sudan I to eggs was limited and strongly dependent on its concentration in feed.

PMID- 28873611
TI  - A galactomannoglucan derived from Agaricus brasiliensis: Purification,
      characterization and macrophage activation via MAPK and IkappaB/NFkappaB
      pathways.
AB  - In this study, a novel galactomannoglucan named as TJ2 was isolated from Agaricus
      brasiliensis with microwave extraction, macroporous resin, ion exchange resin and
      high resolution gel chromatography. TJ2 is composed of glucose, mannose and
      galactose in the ratio 99.2:0.2:0.6. Infrared spectra (IR), methylation analysis
      and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra indicated that TJ2 mainly contained a beta
      (1->3) - linked glucopyranosyl backbone. Interestingly, TJ2 significantly
      promoted RAW264.7 cell proliferation, and was able to activate the cells to
      engulf E. coli. In addition, TJ2 induced the expression of Interleukin 1beta (IL
      1beta), Interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and
      cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) in the cells. TJ2 also promoted the production of nitric
      oxide (NO) by inducing the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS).
      Moreover, TJ2 is a potent inducer in activating the mitogen-activated protein
      kinase (MAPK) and inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappa B (IkappaB)/nuclear factor
      kappa B (NFkappaB) pathways.

PMID- 28873612
TI  - Synthesis of magnetic graphene/mesoporous silica composites with boronic acid
      functionalized pore-walls for selective and efficient residue analysis of
      aminoglycosides in milk.
AB  - In this study, magnetic graphene/mesoporous silica composites with boronic acid
      functionalized pore-walls were synthesized for the first time by a two-step post
      graft method. The obtained nano-composites were proven to hold many attractive
      features such as large specific surface area, uniform mesopores, high magnetic
      responsibility, and boronic acid-functionalized inner pore-walls. Aminoglycoside
      residues in milk were extracted using MG@mSiO2-APB composites as restricted
      access matrix dispersive solid phase extraction adsorbents through the
      interaction between boronic acid groups and glucoside structures. Extraction
      conditions were optimized by studying the SPE parameters. Limits of detection of
      the method were as low as 5ngmL-1 for streptomycin) and 2ngmL-1 for
      dihydrostreptomycin. Finally, magnetic graphene/mesoporous silica composites with
      boronic acid-functionalized pore-walls were successfully applied to residue
      analysis in milk samples. Compared to the traditional extraction methods, using
      this nano-composites for aminoglycoside residues analysis in milk is more
      sensitive, effective and convenient.

PMID- 28873613
TI  - Simple coupled ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography and ion chromatography
      technique for simultaneous determination of folic acid and inorganic anions in
      folic acid tablets.
AB  - Folic acid plays a significant role during periods of rapid cells division and
      growth. Pregnant women require folic acid daily, either from dietary supplements
      or folic acid tablets in order to prevent fetal neural tube defects. In this
      work, a simple coupled ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography and ion
      chromatography technique was developed for simultaneous determination of folic
      acid and inorganic anions in folic acid tablets. A reversed-phase C18 column was
      used as the pretreatment column for on-line separating inorganic anions from
      organics. Inorganic anions were concentrated in the concentration column. Under
      the optimal chromatographic conditions, good sensitivity and linear calibration
      curves (r>=0.9992) were obtained. Low detection limits were obtained in the range
      of 0.0032-0.40mgL-1 for all analytes. Repeatability results were satisfactory
      with relative standard deviations less than 1.50% (n=5). The developed method was
      utilized to analyze spiked folic acid tablet samples with good measured
      recoveries (92.4-107.4%).

PMID- 28873614
TI  - Flavor and chiral stability of lemon-flavored hard tea during storage.
AB  - Flavor stability of hard tea beverage was investigated over eight weeks of
      storage. The volatile compounds were analyzed using solid-phase microextraction
      gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) and two-dimensional GC-MS.
      Quantitative analysis showed that the concentrations of linalool, citronellol,
      geranial, neral, geraniol, and nerol decreased dramatically during storage,
      whereas alpha-terpineol showed an increasing trend during storage. Heart-cut two
      dimensional GC-MS (2D-GC-MS) chirality analysis showed that (R)-(+)-limonene, (R)
      (-)-linalool, (S)-(-)-alpha-terpineol and (S)-(-)-4-terpineol dominated in the
      fresh hard tea samples, however, the configuration changed during storage for the
      terpene alcohols. The storage conditions did not change the configuration of
      limonene. A conversion of (R)-(-)-linalool to (S)-(+) form was observed during
      storage. Both (S)-alpha-terpineol and (S)-4-terpineol dominated at beginning of
      the storage, but (R)-(+)-alpha-terpineol became dominated after storage,
      suggested in addition to isomerization from (S)-alpha-terpineol, other precursors
      could also generate alpha-terpineol with (R)-isomer preference.

PMID- 28873615
TI  - Development and validation of LC-MS-based alternative methodologies to GC-MS for
      the simultaneous determination of triterpenic acids and dialcohols in virgin
      olive oil.
AB  - Pentacyclic triterpenes are minor, but very relevant compounds found in virgin
      olive oil (VOO). A rapid and reliable LC-MS method for determining the
      triterpenic acids and dialcohols (after ultrasound assisted extraction) from VOO
      has been developed, giving an alternative to the widely used GC (FID/MS)
      methodologies. The analytical parameters of the proposed method were exhaustively
      checked, establishing limits of detection (from 1 to 95ug/l) and quantification,
      precision (RSD values for inter-day repeatability were found between 4.2 and 7.3%
      considering area values), trueness (within the range 92.7 and 100.5%) and
      evaluating possible matrix effect (which was no significant). The method was
      applied to the analysis of six triterpenic compounds in 11 monovarietal VOOs and
      the results compared with the quantitative GC-MS data. Moreover, the direct
      injection (after a simple dilution) of the samples into the LC-MS system was also
      tested, in an attempt to proffer an even simpler sample treatment.

PMID- 28873616
TI  - Methodological evaluation of DNA-based molecular keys to identify categories of
      mislabelling in commercial products from genus Merluccius spp.
AB  - The large variety of fish formats which are globally commercialized supports use
      of meta-evaluation studies to test discrimination power among molecular keys
      available for traceability of highly-degraded and/or chemically-modified DNA
      material. This paper shows that a combination of DNA identification methods
      validated for genus Merluccius allows 100% species assignment in hake products
      and offers higher diagnostic power (97% on products) than individual methods,
      i.e. Hake-ITS1-RFLP (89%) or Hake-Cytochrome b-RFLP (83%). A global 31% product
      mislabelling involved 15% of products affected by internal species substitution,
      as the main cause of mislabelling in ultrafrozen products, and another 16%
      affected by external species substitution with non-hake species, as the cause of
      mislabelling in processed and cooked hake-based products. The combination of both
      DNA keys minimizes the tool-associated rate of diagnostic failure, allowing
      decoupling of mislabelling categories and maximizing the quantitative adscription
      of products to species on any kind of hake-based products.

PMID- 28873617
TI  - Nutritional and bioactive potential of Myrtaceae fruits during ripening.
AB  - This study aimed to characterize jabuticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora), guabiju
      (Myrcianthes pungens), and jambolan (Syzygium cumini) in relation to its
      individual phenolic compounds (LC-ESI-MS/MS), antioxidant capacity, total
      monomeric anthocyanin, sugars, and minerals during ripening (intermediate and
      ripe stages). In the three studied fruits, 22 phenolic compounds were quantified,
      especially phenolic acids and flavonoids, which presented a higher concentration
      in the intermediate ripening stage. In contrast, the total monomeric anthocyanin,
      fructose, glucose, Ca, Na values were higher in the ripe stage. In addition, all
      studied fruits showed expressive antioxidant capacity in both ripening stages:
      2569.28 to 5066.35mg AAE 100g-1 DW for DPPH; 13777.52 to 26667.45umol Fe+2 100g-1
      DW for FRAP; and 957.72 to 2061.35mg GAE 100g-1 DW for Folin-Ciocalteu reducing
      capacity. Therefore, our results revealed that these fruits represent a supply of
      high-value nutrient and bioactive components, especially in the ripe stage.

PMID- 28873618
TI  - Unravelling proteome changes of chicken egg whites under carbon dioxide modified
      atmosphere packaging.
AB  - Unfertilized chicken eggs within 24h of laying were chosen and stored at 25
      degrees C and 45% humidity for 0, 20, and 40days. The experimental group (EG) was
      the carbon dioxide-modified atmosphere packaging (CDMAP) group, whereas the
      control group (CG) contained eggs without special handling. Egg freshness indexes
      were measured. The proteome of the egg whites was determined by LC-MS/MS using
      isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ). A total of 87
      proteins were detected. The results indicated that CDMAP can control the change
      in protein abundance. Using a correlation analysis between the protein abundance
      and freshness indexes of the EG, Beta-hexosaminidase, Trypsin inhibitor ClTI-1
      and Apolipoprotein D were determined to be potential predictors of egg freshness.
      In comparing the proteomes of the EG and CG, it was concluded that CDMAP could
      affect the proteins related to egg vitelline membranes, eggshell matrix and
      metabolic intensity to maintain egg freshness.

PMID- 28873619
TI  - Long-term field evaluation of the changes in fruit and olive oil chemical
      compositions after agronomic application of olive mill wastewater with rock
      phosphate.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to determine the long-term effects of agronomic
      application of olive mill wastewater (OMW) with rock phosphate (RP) in a field of
      olive trees, on olive fruits and oil quality. The results revealed that olive
      fruits of OMW-RP amended plants had higher contents of polyphenols and mannitol
      indicating that agronomic application of OMW with RP generated an oxidative
      stress. Land spreading of OMW with RP altered the relative proportions of
      individual sugars in leaves and fruits. Consequently, the oil content decreased
      significantly, and a marked decrease in the contents of carotenoids and
      chlorophylls was also observed. Changes also took place in the composition of
      fatty acids, particularly by the increase of linoleic acid and the decrease of
      oleic acid. Our results suggested that the use of OMW in combination with RP is
      expected to have a major negative impact on olive fruit and oil quality.

PMID- 28873621
TI  - Exploitation of alfalfa seed (Medicago sativa L.) flour into gluten-free rice
      cookies: Nutritional, antioxidant and quality characteristics.
AB  - In an effort to increase the nutritional value of common gluten-free (GF) cereal
      based foods, GF cookies using alfalfa seed flour (ASF), at different substitution
      levels to common rice flour (0% as control, 15%, 30% and 45% w/w), were produced.
      Crude protein, total dietary fibre, total polyunsaturated, total n-3 and n-6
      fatty acid contents increased linearly (p<0.05) by raising the substitution
      levels of rice with ASF. The hardness, the total phenolic content, the in vitro
      antioxidant capacity and the resistant starch increased linearly (p<0.05),
      whereas the starch hydrolysis index decreased linearly (p<0.05) by raising the
      substitution levels of rice flour with ASF. Despite the fact that ASF-substituted
      GF cookies had inferior sensory attributes compared to the control, the score
      given by the panellists remained at fairly good levels for all tested parameters,
      showing acceptability of the substituted GF cookies.

PMID- 28873620
TI  - Novel approaches mediated by tailor-made green solvents for the extraction of
      phenolic compounds from agro-food industrial by-products.
AB  - An environmentally friendly method for the phenolic compound extraction from agro
      food industrial by-products was developed in order to contribute with their
      sustainable valorization. A Natural Deep Eutectic Solvent was chemometrically
      designed for the first time and compared with traditional solvents in terms of
      analyte stabilization. The combination of lactic acid, glucose and 15% water (LGH
      15) was selected as optimal. A high-efficiency ultrasound-assisted extraction
      mediated by LGH-15 prior to HPLC-DAD allows the determination of 14 phenols in
      onion, olive, tomato and pear industrial by-products. NADES synthesis as well as
      the extraction procedures were optimized by Response Surface Methodology. Thus,
      phenolic determination in these complex samples was achieved by a simple, non
      expensive, eco-friendly and robust system. The application to different matrices
      demonstrated the versatility of the proposed method. NADES opens interesting
      perspectives for their potential use as vehicles of bioactive compounds as food
      additives or pharmaceuticals.

PMID- 28873622
TI  - Effects of cuticular wax on the postharvest quality of blueberry fruit.
AB  - The blueberry fruit has a light-blue appearance because its blue-black skin is
      covered with a waxy bloom. This layer is easily damaged or removed during fruit
      harvesting and postharvest handling. We investigated the effects of wax removal
      on the postharvest quality of blueberry fruit and their possible mechanisms. The
      removal of natural wax on the fruit was found to accelerate the postharvest water
      loss and decay, reduce the sensory and nutritional qualities, and shorten the
      shelf-life. Wax removal decreased the activities of antioxidant enzymes and
      contents of antioxidants, and accelerated accumulation of ROS and lipid
      peroxidation, especially at the later period of storage. Moreover, the organellar
      membrane structure was disrupted in fruit with wax removed. These results
      indicate that cuticular wax plays an important role in maintaining the
      postharvest quality and delaying fruit senescence. The results should improve our
      understanding for better preservation of postharvest quality of blueberry fruit.

PMID- 28873623
TI  - Waxy flour degradation - Impact of screw geometry and specific mechanical energy
      in a co-rotating twin screw extruder.
AB  - Dextrinization of starch using extrusion processing is crucial to the quality of
      direct expanded products. To determine the extent of dextrinization, flour
      samples were extracted from a twin-screw extruder that had been brought to a
      sudden stop and molecular weights were determined by intrinsic viscosity. The
      screw profile and moisture feed content had the most significant impact on
      molecular weight reduction, reducing intrinsic viscosity from 1.75 to 0.70dL/g at
      the most. The breakdown, as shown by a reduction in intrinsic viscosity, had a
      strong negative correlation (r=-0.96) with specific mechanical energy. However,
      the extruder die did not have a measurable impact on the molecular weight
      reduction of waxy flour. Size exclusion chromatography confirmed intrinsic
      viscosity measurements were associated with reduction of the size of amylopectin
      molecules to approximately 1/10 the original molecular weight while native
      gliadin was nearly eliminated from the waxy flour following the extrusion
      treatments.

PMID- 28873624
TI  - Whey-grape juice drink processed by supercritical carbon dioxide technology:
      Physicochemical characteristics, bioactive compounds and volatile profile.
AB  - The effect of supercritical carbon dioxide technology (SCCD, 14, 16, and 18MPa at
      35+/-2 degrees C for 10min) on whey-grape juice drink characteristics was
      investigated. Physicochemical characterization (pH, titratable acidity, total
      soluble solids), bioactive compounds (phenolic compounds, anthocyanin, DPPH and
      ACE activity) and the volatile compounds were performed. Absence of differences
      were found among treatments for pH, titratable acidity, soluble solids, total
      anthocyanin and DPPH activity (p-value>0.05). A direct relationship between SCCD
      pressure and ACE inhibitory activity was observed, with 34.63, 38.75, and 44.31%
      (14, 16, and 18MPa, respectively). Regards the volatile compounds, it was noted
      few differences except by the presence of ketones. The findings confirm the SCCD
      processing as a potential promising technology to the conventional thermal
      treatment.

PMID- 28873625
TI  - Combination of different antifungal agents in oil-in-water emulsions to control
      strawberry jam spoilage.
AB  - The combination of antifungal agents (cinnamon bark oil, zinc gluconate and trans
      ferulic acid) in oil-in-water emulsions to control the fungal spoilage of
      strawberry jams, minimising essential oil's sensory impact, was evaluated in this
      work. The in vitro assays of free antifungal agents were performed against five
      fungal strains; meanwhile, the emulsions assays were conducted against
      Aspergillus niger given its strong resistance and its relevance in strawberry
      products. The emulsion formulated with 0.08mg/g of essential oil was able to
      inhibit mould growth after the incubation period. The incorporation of zinc
      gluconate or trans-ferulic acid, independently of the concentration used, allowed
      to reduce a 25% the amount of essential oil needed to inhibit the microbial
      growth. The combination of antifungal agents in the emulsions has demonstrated to
      be an effective alternative to reduce the amount of essential oil employed,
      maintaining the hygienic quality and sensory profile of the strawberry jam.

PMID- 28873626
TI  - Effectiveness of water-air and octanol-air partition coefficients to predict
      lipophilic flavor release behavior from O/W emulsions.
AB  - Flavor release from food matrices depends on the partition of volatile flavor
      compounds between the food matrix and the vapor phase. Thus, we herein
      investigated the relationship between released flavor concentrations and three
      different partition coefficients, namely octanol-water, octanol-air, and water
      air, which represented the oil, water, and air phases present in emulsions.
      Limonene, 2-methylpyrazine, nonanal, benzaldehyde, ethyl benzoate, alpha
      terpineol, benzyl alcohol, and octanoic acid were employed. The released
      concentrations of these flavor compounds from oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions were
      measured under equilibrium using static headspace gas chromatography. The results
      indicated that water-air and octanol-air partition coefficients correlated with
      the logarithms of the released concentrations in the headspace for highly
      lipophilic flavor compounds. Moreover, the same tendency was observed over
      various oil volume ratios in the emulsions. Our findings therefore suggest that
      octanol-air and water-air partition coefficients can be used to predict the
      released concentration of lipophilic flavor compounds from O/W emulsions.

PMID- 28873627
TI  - Statistical pattern recognition classification with computer vision images for
      assessing the furan content of fried dough pieces.
AB  - This research tested furan classification models in fried matrices based on the
      pattern recognition of images. Samples were fried at 150, 160, 170, 180, and 190
      degrees C for 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 30min. Furan was measured by GC-MS.
      Corresponding images were acquired and processed to extract 2175 chromatic and
      textural features. Principal component analysis was used to reduce features to 8
      12 principal components. In parallel, sequential forward selection coupled with
      linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was the best strategy to select only 5-7
      features. LDA was the best classifier with 91.39-97.60% recognizing above
      113ug/kg and 69.54-83.80% to classify images from class 1 (0-38ug/kg) from class
      2 (39-113ug/kg). Also, support vector machine recognized 87.71-96.74% of class 3
      (114-398ug/kg) from class 4 (399-646ug/kg). The technique may be used to detect
      high amount of furan in fried starchy matrices.

PMID- 28873628
TI  - GC-FID determination of tetramethylpyrazine and acetoin in vinegars and
      quantifying the dependence of tetramethylpyrazine on acetoin and ammonium.
AB  - 2,3,5,6-Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) is an important health functional composition
      in vinegars, but there are controversial viewpoints about its formation mechanism
      and scarce relevant records on TMP content enhancement in vinegar products. In
      this study, a simple and accurate solvent extraction coupled with GC-FID method
      was developed for the simultaneous determination of TMP and acetoin in vinegars
      and 137 worldwide samples were analyzed. Meanwhile, the ammonium contents of all
      the vinegar samples were determined using the salicylate method. By nonlinear
      surface fitting, the concentrations of TMP in vinegars were found to follow
      second-order polynomial models of acetoin and ammonium concentrations. By
      isotopic tracing using 13C labelled acetoin and 15N ammonium, acetoin and
      ammonium were deduced to be the precursors of TMP in vinegars.

PMID- 28873629
TI  - Phenolic acids, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, antioxidant activity, minerals
      and their correlations in non-pigmented, red, and black rice.
AB  - Soluble-free, soluble-conjugated, insoluble-bound phenolics and antioxidant
      activity, flavonoid (TFC), proanthocyanidins (TPAC), anthocyanins and minerals of
      fifteen whole rice grains with different colors were investigated. Soluble-free
      protocatechuic and vanillic acids were only quantified in black rice, which had
      the most quantities. Non-pigmented rice had no detectable conjugated
      protocatechuic and 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acids both of which were found in black
      and red rice, respectively. The main bound phenolic acids were ferulic and p
      coumaric, as well as 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic in red rice and protocatechuic and
      vanillic acids in black rice. Soluble-conjugated phenolics, TFC, and anthocyanins
      were negatively correlated with L*, b*, C and H degrees  values. TPAC was
      positively correlated with a* (P<0.01). Protocatechuic, vanillic, syringic and
      ferulic acids were associated with TPC and antioxidant activity in the soluble
      conjugated fraction while protocatechuic and ferulic acid were correlated with
      those in the insoluble-bound fraction. Principal component analysis divided
      samples into non-pigmented, red and black rice groups.

PMID- 28873630
TI  - Performances of different protocols for exocellular polysaccharides extraction
      from milk acid gels: Application to yogurt.
AB  - Dextran or xanthan were used as model exocellular polysaccharides (EPS) to
      compare the extraction efficiency of EPS from skim milk acid gels using three
      different protocols. Extraction yields, residual protein concentrations and the
      macromolecular properties of extracted EPS were determined. For both model EPS,
      the highest extraction yield (~80%) was obtained when samples were heated in
      acidic conditions at the first step of extraction (Protocol 1). Protocols that
      contained steps of acid/ethanol precipitation without heating (Protocols 2 and 3)
      show lower extraction yields (~55%) but allow a better preservation of the EPS
      macromolecular properties. Changing the pH of acid gels up to 7 before extraction
      (Protocol 3) improved the extraction yield of anionic EPS without effect on the
      macromolecular properties of EPS. Protocol 1 was then applied for the
      quantification of EPS produced during the yogurt fermentation, while Protocol 3
      was dedicated to their macromolecular characterization.

PMID- 28873631
TI  - Enhancing physicochemical properties of emulsions by heteroaggregation of
      oppositely charged lactoferrin coated lutein droplets and whey protein isolate
      coated DHA droplets.
AB  - The formation and physicochemical stability of mixed functional components
      (lutein & DHA) emulsions through heteroaggregation were studied. It was formed by
      controlled heteroaggregation of oppositely charged lutein and DHA droplets coated
      by cationic lactoferrin (LF) and anionic whey protein isolate (WPI),
      respectively. Heteroaggregation was induced by mixing the oppositely charged LF
      lutein and WPI-DHA emulsions together at pH 6.0. Droplet size, zeta-potential,
      transmission-physical stability, microrheological behavior and microstructure of
      the heteroaggregates formed were measured as a function of LF-lutein to WPI-DHA
      droplet ratio. Lutein degradation and DHA oxidation by measurement of lipid
      hydroperoxides and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances were determined. Upon
      mixing the two types of bioactive compounds droplets together, it was found that
      the largest aggregates and highest physical stability occurred at a droplet ratio
      of 40% LF-lutein droplets to 60% WPI-DHA droplets. Heteroaggregates formation
      altered the microrheological properties of the mixed emulsions mainly by the
      special network structure of the droplets. When LF-coated lutein droplets ratios
      were more than 30% and less than 60%, the mixed emulsions exhibited distinct
      decreases in the Mean Square Displacement, which indicated that their limited
      scope of Brownian motion and stable structure. Mixed emulsions with LF-lutein/WPI
      DHA droplets ratio of 4:6 exhibited Macroscopic Viscosity Index with 13 times and
      Elasticity Index with 3 times of magnitudes higher than the individual emulsions
      from which they were prepared. Compared with the WPI-DHA emulsion or LF-lutein
      emulsion, the oxidative stability of the heteroaggregate of LF-lutein/WPI-DHA
      emulsions was improved. Heteroaggregates formed by oppositely charged bioactive
      compounds droplets may be useful for creating specific food structures that lead
      to desirable physicochemical properties, such as microrheological property,
      physical and chemical stabilities.

PMID- 28873632
TI  - Magnesium affects spinach carotenoid bioaccessibility in vitro depending on
      intestinal bile and pancreatic enzyme concentrations.
AB  - Magnesium may reduce carotenoid bioavailability by forming insoluble complexes
      with bile salts/fatty acids, inhibiting micelle formation. Here, we investigated
      whether altering bile/pancreatin concentration influenced potential negative
      effects of magnesium on carotenoid bioaccessibility. Spinach (4g) was digested in
      vitro with added magnesium (0, 200, 400mg/L) and canola oil/coffee creamer, at
      varying bile extract (1 or 8mM) and pancreatin (100 or 990mg/L) concentrations.
      Bioaccessibility was determined for beta-carotene, lutein, and total carotenoids
      via HPLC. Additionally, lipolysis, particle size, and zeta potential of the
      micellar fractions were investigated. Increasing magnesium concentrations
      negatively affected carotenoid bioaccessibility (p<0.001), lipolysis, particle
      size and zeta potential. The impact of magnesium on carotenoid bioaccessibility
      was modulated mainly by bile concentration, with samples digested with 1mM of
      bile being more susceptible to inhibitory effects of magnesium than those
      digested with 8mM (p<0.001). Thus, magnesium was found to potentially interfere
      with carotenoid bioaccessibility at various physiologically plausible conditions.

PMID- 28873633
TI  - Metabolomics for organic food authentication: Results from a long-term field
      study in carrots.
AB  - Increasing demand for organic products and their premium prices make them an
      attractive target for fraudulent malpractices. In this study, a large-scale
      comparative metabolomics approach was applied to investigate the effect of the
      agronomic production system on the metabolite composition of carrots and to build
      statistical models for prediction purposes. Orthogonal projections to latent
      structures-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was applied successfully to predict
      the origin of the agricultural system of the harvested carrots on the basis of
      features determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. When the training
      set used to build the OPLS-DA models contained samples representative of each
      harvest year, the models were able to classify unknown samples correctly (100%
      correct classification). If a harvest year was left out of the training sets and
      used for predictions, the correct classification rates achieved ranged from 76%
      to 100%. The results therefore highlight the potential of metabolomic
      fingerprinting for organic food authentication purposes.

PMID- 28873634
TI  - Stabilising phycocyanin by anionic micelles.
AB  - Phycocyanins are pigment-protein complexes with potential application as natural
      food colourants. The perceived colour of phycocyanins varies with pH, and a
      method to stabilise the colour over a broad range of pH values is requested by
      the food industry. In this work, the stabilising effect of sodium dodecyl
      sulphate (SDS) micelles on pH-induced colour variations of phycocyanin was
      examined. SDS was shown to stabilise the blue conformation of phycocyanin,
      preventing formation of the green conformation, which is prevalent at low pH. The
      studies indicated that the stabilising effect occurred through interaction or
      entrapment of the non-protonated, circular helical (blue) structure of
      phycocyanin and the anionic SDS micelles. The interaction prevented conversion
      into protonated, partially unfolded (green) phycocyanin species. This information
      opens for new possibilities to stabilise the blue conformation of phycocyanin and
      to apply the stabilised form in food products as a natural blue food colourant.

PMID- 28873635
TI  - Effect of storage time and temperature on parent and oxygenated polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons in crude and refined vegetable oils.
AB  - Changes in polycyclic (PAH) and oxygenated (OPAH) aromatic hydrocarbon
      concentrations in vegetable oils during storage for 270days at 25 degrees C or 4
      degrees C were investigated. The concentrations of OPAHs and PAHs increased with
      storage time. The increase in PAH concentration was mainly caused by light PAHs.
      Total PAH concentrations increased from 33.11-36.77MUg/kg to 45.12-58.04MUg/kg in
      26 crude oil samples, while those in 26 refined oil samples increased from 16.52
      20.02MUg/kg to 25.73-40.01MUg/kg. Acid value (AV) and peroxide value (POV) also
      showed an increase during the storage process from 0.08-0.92mg/kg to 0.33
      2.98mg/kg, and from 0.08-0.12mmol/kg to 0.33-3.45mmol/kg in 52 tested oils,
      respectively. AV and POV were within the regulatory limits of China after storage
      for 270days. However, concentrations of 16 PAHs in all tested oils exceeded
      25MUg/kg. The results indicated PAHs and OPAHs formation was better inhibited in
      oils stored at lower temperature.

PMID- 28873636
TI  - Microstructure and tuber properties of potato varieties with different genetic
      profiles.
AB  - The objectives of this research were to study tuber starch characteristics and
      chemical - thermal properties of 21 potato varieties, and to determine their
      genetic diversity through SSR markers. Starch granular size varied among samples,
      with a wide diameter distribution (5-85MUm), while granule shapes were similar.
      Differential Scanning Calorimeter analysis showed that the transition
      temperatures (69 degrees C-74 degrees C) and enthalpies of gelatinization (0.9J/g
      3.8J/g) of tubers were also variety dependent. SSR analysis allowed the detection
      of 157 alleles across all varieties, with an average value of 6.8 alleles per
      locus. Variety-specific alleles were also identified. SSR-based cluster analysis
      revealed that varieties with interesting quality attributes were distributed
      among all clusters and sub-clusters, suggesting that the genetic basis of traits
      analyzed may differ among our varieties. The information obtained in this study
      may be useful to identify and develop varieties with slowly digestible starch.

PMID- 28873637
TI  - Rapid analysis of fungicides in tea infusions using ionic liquid immobilized
      fabric phase sorptive extraction with the assistance of surfactant fungicides
      analysis using IL-FPSE assisted with surfactant.
AB  - A green, simple, inexpensive, and sensitive ionic liquid immobilized fabric phase
      sorptive extraction method coupled with high performance liquid chromatography
      was developed for rapid screening and simultaneous determination of four
      fungicides (azoxystrobin, chlorothalonil, cyprodinil and trifloxystrobin)
      residues in tea infusions. This IL modified extraction fiber is capable of
      extracting target analytes directly from complicated tea water matrices with the
      addition of surfactant. A series of extraction conditions were investigated by
      one-factor-at-a-time approach and orthogonal test. After a series experiments,
      the optimum conditions were found to be 10% [HIMIM]NTf2 as coating solution, 2min
      vortex time, 500MUL acetonitrile as dispersive solvent and 2min desorption time.
      Under the above conditions, the proposed technique was applied to detect
      fungicides from real tea water samples with satisfactory results.

PMID- 28873638
TI  - Impact of fruit texture on the release and perception of aroma compounds during
      in vivo consumption using fresh and processed mango fruits.
AB  - Two fresh (fresh cubic pieces, fresh puree) and two dried (dried cubic pieces,
      dried powder) products were prepared from a homogenous mango fruit batch to
      obtain four samples differing in texture. The aromatic profiles were determined
      by SAFE extraction technique and GC-MS analysis. VOCs released during consumption
      were trapped by a retronasal aroma-trapping device (RATD) and analysed by GC-MS.
      Twenty-one terpenes and one ester were identified from the exhaled nose-space.
      They were amongst the major mango volatile compounds, 10 of which were already
      reported as being potential key flavour compounds in mango. The in vivo release
      of aroma compounds was affected by the matrix texture. The intact samples (fresh
      and dried cubic pieces) released significantly more aroma compounds than
      disintegrated samples (fresh puree, dried powder). The sensory descriptive
      analysis findings were in close agreement with the in vivo aroma release data
      regarding fresh products, in contrast to the dried products.

PMID- 28873639
TI  - Determination of thiabendazole in orange juice using an MISPE-SERS chemosensor.
AB  - Thiabendazole, a systemic fungicide used to treat vegetables and fruits during
      postharvest process, persists as detrimental residue to consumers. We combine a
      molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy
      (SERS) to form a novel MISPE-SERS chemosensor and determined thiabendazole in
      orange juice. Kinetic and static adsorption tests validated the efficient and
      selective adsorption of thiabendazole using synthesized MIPs via precipitation
      polymerization. Synthesized MIPs were packed into solid phase extraction (SPE)
      cartridge to serve as tailor-made sorbents for the separation of thiabendazole in
      orange juice. Silver colloids synthesized by reduction of AgNO3 by trisodium
      citrate were used as SERS-active substrate to quantify the eluted thiabendazole
      from MISPE. The overall process including sample preparation and detection took
      23min and the limit of detection of this chemosensor was 4ppm for thiabendazole
      in orange juice. This chemosensor can be used for rapid and sensitive detection
      of thiabendazole in agri-foods.

PMID- 28873640
TI  - Evolution of oxidised peptides during the processing of 9months Spanish dry-cured
      ham.
AB  - Sensory and nutritional properties of dry-cured ham can be negatively affected
      due to oxidative modifications of muscle proteins during its processing. In this
      study, a peptidomic approach has been used in order to study the evolution of
      oxidised peptides generated throughout the dry-curing process (0, 2, 3.5, 5, 6.5
      and 9months), focusing on those derived from major myofibrillar proteins. A total
      of 67 peptides showing methionine, proline, and tryptophan oxidations were
      identified in common in all samples by nano liquid chromatography coupled to
      tandem mass spectrometry for their relative quantification using a label-free
      methodology, showing the hydrolysis of some of the peptides during the process.
      So, the peptidomics strategy used in this work has resulted to be very useful as
      a complementary tool to the methods currently used to study protein oxidation,
      allowing a better understanding of the oxidation at peptide level and the
      influence of ham processing conditions.

PMID- 28873641
TI  - An image analysis of TLC patterns for quality control of saffron based on soil
      salinity effect: A strategy for data (pre)-processing.
AB  - Quality of saffron, a valuable food additive, could considerably affect the
      consumers' health. In this work, a novel preprocessing strategy for image
      analysis of saffron thin layer chromatographic (TLC) patterns was introduced.
      This includes performing a series of image pre-processing techniques on TLC
      images such as compression, inversion, elimination of general baseline (using
      asymmetric least squares (AsLS)), removing spots shift and concavity (by
      correlation optimization warping (COW)), and finally conversion to RGB
      chromatograms. Subsequently, an unsupervised multivariate data analysis including
      principal component analysis (PCA) and k-means clustering was utilized to
      investigate the soil salinity effect, as a cultivation parameter, on saffron TLC
      patterns. This method was used as a rapid and simple technique to obtain the
      chemical fingerprints of saffron TLC images. Finally, the separated TLC spots
      were chemically identified using high-performance liquid chromatography-diode
      array detection (HPLC-DAD). Accordingly, the saffron quality from different areas
      of Iran was evaluated and classified.

PMID- 28873642
TI  - Chemical crosslinking improves the gastrointestinal stability and enhances
      nutrient delivery potentials of egg yolk LDL/polysaccharide nanogels.
AB  - Egg yolk low density lipoprotein (LDL)/polysaccharide nanogels are newly explored
      as oral delivery systems with promising encapsulation potentials. Nonetheless,
      the stability of nanogels against aggregation in gastrointestinal tract remains a
      challenge. Therefore, chemical crosslinking by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)
      and carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDC/NHS) was adopted to improve the
      gastrointestinal stability of nanogels. Compared to original uncrosslinked
      nanogels, crosslinking did not change particle size, polydispersity index (PDI)
      and morphology, but it reduced surface charge of nanogels. The nano spray dried
      LDL/CMC/EDC nanogels had relatively poor surface structure with agglomerations.
      The FT-IR spectra confirmed the formation of new peptide bonds, which
      significantly improved stability of nanogels under simulated gastrointestinal
      conditions. Fluorescence spectra evidenced that non-polar microenvironment for
      curcumin embedded in nanogels was strengthened, which therefore enhanced
      encapsulation efficiency. Moreover, curcumin exhibited sustained release profile
      from crosslinked nanogels in simulated gastrointestinal fluids. Overall, our
      study provided a promising strategy to enhance the stability of LDL-based
      nanogels in digestive conditions.

PMID- 28873643
TI  - Influence of seasonal variation and ultra high temperature processing on lipid
      profile and fat globule structure of Swedish cow milk.
AB  - To investigate the effects of seasonal variations and processing on cow milk fat,
      raw milk collected in six individual months and corresponding ultra high
      temperature (UHT) milk were analyzed. Similar seasonal variations in lipid
      classes and fatty acid composition were found in raw and UHT milk. Under
      commercial processing, lipid content was standardized to approximately 1.5% in
      UHT milk. Decreased diameter of fat droplets (around 1um) and thinner globule
      membranes were observed, as revealed using confocal laser scanning microscopy
      (CLSM). The distribution of lipid classes was modified with a decreased
      proportion of triacylglycerol accompanied by the increase of phospholipids and
      free fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids C12:0 and C14:0, trans-fatty acids
      including conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), polyunsaturated fatty acids C18:2(n-6)
      and C18:3(n-3), showed increased proportions in UHT milk. These results provide
      an indication of the effect of UHT processing on milk lipid properties.

PMID- 28873644
TI  - Anti-polymerization activity of tea and fruits extracts during rapeseed oil
      heating.
AB  - The aim of the study was to analyze the influence of natural antioxidants on
      polymerization of partially hydrogenated rapeseed oil heated in 170 degrees C for
      40h. In the research ethanolic extracts of green tea leaves (China Lung Ching),
      yellow tea leaves (China Kakecha), cranberry, blackberry, and lime were used. The
      yellow and green tea extracts were characterized by the highest content of total
      polyphenol and antioxidant activity. Polymers of triacylglycerols were found only
      in the polar fraction of heated oil. During heating, the increase of dimers,
      trimers, and oligomers was observed. However, it was dependent on the used
      additives and not directly related to the content of phenolic compounds and their
      antioxidant activity. The final content of polymers in oil samples increased in
      the fallowing order: green tea<yellow tea<blackberry<BHT<cranberry<lemon<oil
      without additives.

PMID- 28873645
TI  - Mechanisms and kinetics of heme iron nitrosylation in an in vitro gastro
      intestinal model.
AB  - Fresh red meat and cured meat consumption increases the risk of gastro-intestinal
      cancers and it is strongly suspected that nitrosylheme is implicated by
      stimulating the endogenous production of mutagenic aldehydes and N-nitroso
      compounds. To investigate the extent of endogenous heme iron nitrosylation an
      experimental in vitro model that mimics the physicochemical conditions of the
      gastro-intestinal tract was used in association with a mathematical model of
      chemical reaction kinetics. The combined effect of pH (from 7.2 to 3.2) and
      myoglobin oxidation state was evaluated in the reaction of nitrite with heme
      iron, and the observed rate constants of the reactions were determined.
      Nitrosylation was optimal under mildly acidic conditions (pH 6.5-4.7). Up to 20%
      of myoglobin can be nitrosylated under gastro-intestinal conditions in this pH
      range. The effect of various antioxidants (from meat or vegetables) on the
      endogenous nitrosylation process was also tested.

PMID- 28873646
TI  - Determination of fatty acids and lipid classes in salmon oil by near infrared
      spectroscopy.
AB  - Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was evaluated as a rapid method for the
      determination of oleic, palmitic, linoleic and linolenic acids as well as omega
      3, omega-6, and to predict polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fatty
      acids, together with triacylglycerides, diglycerides, free fatty acids and
      ergosterol in salmon oil. To do it, Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression models
      were applied to correlate NIR spectra with aforementioned fatty acids and lipid
      classes. Results obtained were validated in front of reference procedures based
      on high performance thin layer and gas chromatography. PLS-NIR has a good
      predictive capability with relative root mean square error of prediction (RRMSEP)
      values below or equal to 1.8% and provides rapid analysis without the use of any
      chemicals making it an environmentally friendly methodology.

PMID- 28873647
TI  - Influence of biopolymers on the solubility of branched-chain amino acids and
      stability of their solutions.
AB  - This study confirmed the possibility of biopolymer-type stabilizers to increase
      the saturation concentration of branched-chain amino acids by preventing their
      crystallization/precipitation. Although microfluidization increased the initial
      solubility, it failed to increase the saturation concentration of the branched
      chain amino acids. The saturation concentration of the branched-chain amino acids
      increased from 3.81% to 4.42% and 4.85% after the incorporation of food
      hydrocolloids and proteins, respectively. However, the branched-chain amino
      acids:stabilizer ratio did not affect the solubility. In the case of food
      hydrocolloid-based solutions, crystal formation and growth of branched-chain
      amino acids occurred during storage, resulting in the precipitation of branched
      chain amino acid crystals. However, food proteins effectively increased the
      stability of the solubilized branched-chain amino acids. The improved solubility
      and stability of the solubilized branched-chain amino acids could be attributed
      to interactions between the functional groups (carboxyl, amine, sulfate,
      aliphatic, aromatic, etc.) of the stabilizer and the branched-chain amino acid
      molecules.

PMID- 28873648
TI  - Soybean protein-based microparticles for oral delivery of probiotics with
      improved stability during storage and gut resistance.
AB  - The present work describes the encapsulation of probiotics using a by-product as
      wall material and a process feasible to be scaled-up: coacervation of soybean
      protein concentrate (SPC) by using calcium salts and spray-drying. SPC was
      extracted from soybean flour, produced during the processing of soybean milk, by
      alkaline extraction following isoelectric precipitation. Two probiotic strains
      were selected for encapsulation (Lactobacillus plantarum CECT 220 and
      Lactobacillus casei CECT 475) in order to evaluate the ability of SPC to
      encapsulate and protect bacteria from stress conditions. The viability of these
      encapsulated strains under in vitro gastrointestinal conditions and shelf-life
      during storage were compared with the most common forms commercialized nowadays.
      Results show that SPC is a feasible material for the development of probiotic
      microparticles with adequate physicochemical properties and enhanced
      significantly both probiotic viability and tolerance against simulated
      gastrointestinal fluids when compared to current available commercial forms.

PMID- 28873649
TI  - On the use of the fluorescence, ultraviolet-visible and near infrared
      spectroscopy with chemometrics for the discrimination between plum brandies of
      different varietal origins.
AB  - This paper investigates the use of synchronous fluorescence, UV-Vis and near
      infrared (NIR) spectroscopy coupled with chemometric methods to discriminate
      samples of high-quality plum brandies (Slivovica) of different varietal origins
      (Prunus domestica L.). Synchronous fluorescence spectra (SFS) for wavelength
      differences in the range of 70-100nm, NIR spectra in the wavenumber range of 4000
      7500cm-1 and UV-Vis spectra in the wavelength interval of 220-320nm were
      compared. The best discrimination models were created by linear discriminant
      analysis based on principal component analysis applied to SFS recorded with
      wavelength difference either 80nm or 100nm, allowing the classification of plum
      brandy according to harvest time as early (summer) and late (autumn) plum
      varieties; the total correct classifications were 96% and 100% for the
      calibration and prediction steps, respectively.

PMID- 28873650
TI  - Exploring the breakdown of dairy protein gels during in vitro gastric digestion
      using time-lapse synchrotron deep-UV fluorescence microscopy.
AB  - A novel time-lapse synchrotron deep-UV microscopy methodology was developed that
      made use of the natural tryptophan fluorescence of proteins. It enabled the
      monitoring in situ of the microstructural changes of protein gels during
      simulated gastric digestion. Two dairy gels with an identical composition, but
      differing by the coagulation mode, were submitted to static in vitro gastric
      digestion. The kinetics of gel particle breakdown were quantified by image
      analysis and physico-chemical analyses of digesta. The results confirm the
      tendency of rennet gels, but not acid gels, to form compact protein aggregates
      under acidic conditions of the stomach. Consequently, the kinetics of proteolysis
      were much slower for the rennet gel, confirming the hypothesis of a reduced
      pepsin accessibility to its substrate. The particle shapes remained unchanged and
      the disintegration kinetics followed an exponential trend, suggesting that
      erosion was the predominant mechanism of the enzymatic breakdown of dairy gels in
      these experimental conditions.

PMID- 28873651
TI  - Experimental and theoretical determination of pesticide processing factors to
      model their behavior during virgin olive oil production.
AB  - The purpose of the present work was the experimental evaluation of pesticides
      transfer to virgin olive oil during the production step and prediction of their
      processing factors, which could be eventually used for the calculation of maximum
      residue limits (MRLs) in olive oil from the MRLs set in olives. A laboratory
      scale Abencor system was used for the production of olive oil from olives spiked
      with the 104 pesticides studied, three different chromatographic methods being
      used for the analysis of raw olives and the obtained olive oil: (i) gas
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) for GC-amenable pesticides;
      (ii) hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      (HILIC-MS/MS) for polar pesticides, and; (iii) reversed-phase liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) for low to medium polarity
      pesticides. Processing factors experimentally calculated were correlated to their
      octanol-water partitioning coefficient (logKow), enabling the calculation of the
      equivalent MRLs in olive oil from the MRLs in olives, considering the percentage
      of oil extracted (oil yield) and the log Kow of each pesticide.

PMID- 28873653
TI  - Mercury in foods from the first French total diet study on infants and toddlers.
AB  - A very sensitive method using a direct mercury analyser was developed and
      validated according to the accuracy profile procedure to determine mercury levels
      in foods mainly consumed by infants and toddlers. Total mercury was not detected
      (LOD of 0.30ug.kg-1 fresh weight) in 92.4% of the 291 food samples analysed or at
      relatively low concentrations, lesser than or equal to LB/UB 0.5/1.0ug.kg-1 in
      all samples, except in fish samples (mean LB/UB 25ug.kg-1 with a maximum of
      53ug.kg-1). Levels of total mercury in these foods were in all cases within
      permitted Regulatory limits of 500 or 1000ug.kg-1 in fishery products and muscle
      meat of fish.

PMID- 28873652
TI  - A novel magnetic beta-cyclodextrin modified graphene oxide adsorbent with high
      recognition capability for 5 plant growth regulators.
AB  - beta-Cyclodextrin (beta-CD) modified magnetic graphene oxide material
      (Fe3O4@SiO2/GO/beta-CD), a novel magnetic sorbent for enrichment and purification
      of plant growth regulators (PGRs) in vegetables prior to gas chromatograph mass
      spectrometer (GC-MS) detection, was successfully fabricated. The novel magnetic
      sorbent geometrically fitted to selectively recognize and enrich PGR analytes
      especially containing aromatic structure. The selectivity experiment demonstrated
      the higher selectivity of Fe3O4@SiO2/GO/beta-CD toward 5 PGR compounds than that
      of Fe3O4@SiO2/GO. Several parameters affecting extraction efficiency including
      the volume of extraction solvent, amount of adsorbent, extraction time, type and
      the volume of desorption solvent were optimized. Under the optimized condition,
      good linear relationships were obtained in the range of 1-100MUg/kg with
      determination coefficients (R2) from 0.9983 to 0.9996. The limits of detection
      (LODs) of 5 PGRs were from 0.04 to 0.28MUg/kg. The proposed method had good
      potential for the analysis of trace level of 5 PGRs in real vegetable samples.

PMID- 28873654
TI  - The truth is in the isotopes: Authenticating regionally unique South African
      lamb.
AB  - Stable isotope ratios (13C/12C and 15N/14N) of South African lambs from different
      regions were measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Homogenised and
      defatted meat of the Longissimus lumborum muscle was assessed. The Ruens and
      Hantam Karoo regions had the lowest (P<=0.05) delta13C values related to the
      presence of C3 plants (lucerne and Karoo bushes, respectively). The Northern
      Karoo, Namibia and Bushmanland had the highest delta13C values likely due to a
      high proportion of dietary C4 grass species. The delta15N values were highest for
      Central Karoo, Semi-extensive, Namibia and Hantam Karoo, while Ruens and Feedlot
      had the lowest nitrogen isotope values (P<=0.05). Classification of origin (Karoo
      vs. Non-Karoo) using discriminant analysis allowed 95% and 90% correct
      classification of the samples for the estimation model and validation models,
      respectively. The results confirm that IRMS provides sufficient discriminative
      power to classify lamb meat of varying origin.

PMID- 28873655
TI  - Proteomic analysis of sweet algerian apricot kernels (Prunus armeniaca L.) by
      combinatorial peptide ligand libraries and LC-MS/MS.
AB  - An investigation on the proteome of the sweet kernel of apricot, based on
      equalisation with combinatorial peptide ligand libraries (CPLLs), SDS-PAGE, nLC
      ESI-MS/MS, and database search, permitted identifying 175 proteins. Gene ontology
      analysis indicated that their main molecular functions are in nucleotide binding
      (20.9%), hydrolase activities (10.6%), kinase activities (7%), and catalytic
      activity (5.6%). A protein-protein association network analysis using STRING
      software permitted to build an interactomic map of all detected proteins,
      characterised by 34 interactions. In order to forecast the potential health
      benefits deriving from the consumption of these proteins, the two most abundant,
      i.e. Prunin 1 and 2, were enzymatically digested in silico predicting 10 and 14
      peptides, respectively. Searching their sequences in the database BIOPEP, it was
      possible to suggest a variety of bioactivities, including dipeptidyl peptidase-IV
      (DPP-IV) and angiotensin converting enzyme I (ACE) inhibition, glucose uptake
      stimulation and antioxidant properties.

PMID- 28873656
TI  - Characterisation of (poly)phenolic constituents of two interspecific red hybrids
      of Rondo and Regent (Vitis vinifera) by LC-PDA-ESI-MS QTof.
AB  - The aim of this study was to identify and compare phenolic acids, flavan-3-ols,
      flavonols, and anthocyanins in two the most popular interspecific hybrids of red
      grapes, Rondo and Regent, nowadays very popular in red wine production in Poland.
      The phenolic profiles of these hybrids have not yet been reported. Thirty-three
      phenolic compounds, including 2 flavan-3-ols, 3 phenolic acids, 5 flavonols, and
      23 anthocyanins, were determined in the examined samples using the ultra
      performance liquid chromatography photodiode detector-quadrupole/time of flight
      mass spectrometry (UPLC-PDA-Q/TOF-MS) method. Major differences were found in the
      phenolic profiles of investigated cultivars. The Regent hybrid exhibited the
      highest total phenolics content (27029.75mg/kg dry matter) but Rondo was
      characterized by the highest concentration of anthocyanins (19342.36mg/kgdm). The
      dominant fraction was anthocyanin compounds, especially acetylated>diglucosylated
      forms than glucosylated ones. This data represents valuable information that may
      be useful for oenological practices and to valorise these varieties as sources of
      bioactive compounds.

PMID- 28873657
TI  - Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of Cichorium spinosum L. leaves in
      relation to developmental stage.
AB  - In the present study, chemical composition and bioactivity of Cichorium spinosum
      leaves were examined at different growth stages for optimum harvest stage and end
      use assessment. Total fresh weight and number of leaves were higher at 4th growth
      stage; however, at this stage the end-use is not indicated for raw consumption
      but mostly for pickled or dried products. Regarding chemical composition, the
      highest content of tocopherols and minerals was observed in the 1st growth stage,
      whereas sugars content was the highest in 3rd and 4th growth stage.
      Polyunsaturated fatty acids content was the highest during the first two growth
      stages, whereas antioxidant activity, phenolic acids and total phenolic compounds
      content in the 3rd stage. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that
      chemical composition of C. spinosum is highly depended on development stage, and
      harvest stage should be considered for alternative uses of end-products with high
      bioactivity.

PMID- 28873658
TI  - Impact of sulphur fumigation on the chemistry of ginger.
AB  - Ginger (Zingiberis Rhizoma), a commonly-consumed food supplement, is often
      sulphur-fumigated during post-harvest handling, but it remains unknown if sulphur
      fumigation induces chemical transformations in ginger. In this study, the effects
      of sulphur fumigation on ginger chemicals were investigated by ultra-high
      performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS)-based metabolomics. The results showed that
      sulphur fumigation significantly altered the holistic chemical profile of ginger
      by triggering chemical transformations of certain original components. 6
      Gingesulphonic acid, previously reported as a naturally-occurring component in
      ginger, was revealed to be a sulphur fumigation-induced artificial derivative,
      which was deduced to be generated by electrophilic addition of 6-shogaol to
      sulphurous acid. Using UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS extracting ion analysis with 6
      gingesulphonic acid as a characteristic chemical marker, all the commercial
      ginger samples inspected were determined to be sulphur-fumigated. The research
      outcomes provide a chemical basis for further comprehensive safety and efficacy
      evaluations of sulphur-fumigated ginger.

PMID- 28873659
TI  - Searching for an absolute kinetic scale of antioxidant activity against lipid
      peroxidation.
AB  - The inhibition properties of a number of antioxidants against peroxidation,
      started by a 2,2'-azobis[2-(2-imidazolin-2-yl)propane] radical initiator, of
      linoleic acid in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles, have been determined in terms
      of oxygen consumption by a Clark electrode in an oxygen-tight cell. For the 31
      antioxidants investigated at variable concentrations, the experimental results
      well fit the kinetic equation for competitive reactions. The ratio between the
      initial rates, monitored in the absence and in the presence of antioxidants,
      depends linearly on their concentration. From the slopes of these straight lines,
      an absolute scale of inhibition properties of the lipid peroxidation can be
      devised. Furthermore, the little difference of the time of complete oxygen
      consumption on concentration of different antioxidants has been found, indicating
      a restricted difference towards chemical structure and stoichiometric ratio. Some
      considerations regarding the mechanisms of inhibition of the lipid peroxidation
      in micelles, in view of bibliographic data, have been made.

PMID- 28873660
TI  - Formation of polymeric pigments in red wines through sequential fermentation of
      flavanol-enriched musts with non-Saccharomyces yeasts.
AB  - Non-Saccharomyces yeasts may contribute to enrich wine aroma while promoting the
      formation of stable pigments. Yeast metabolites such as acetaldehyde and pyruvate
      participate in the formation of stable pigments during fermentation and wine
      aging. This work evaluated the formation of polymeric pigments in red musts added
      with (+)-Catechin, ProcyanidinB2 and ProcyanidinC1. The non-Saccharomyces yeasts
      used were Lachancea thermotolerans, Metschnikowia pulcherrima and Torulaspora
      delbrueckii in sequential fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and
      Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Use of Lachancea thermotolerans led to larger amounts
      of polymeric pigments in sequential fermentation. (+)-Catechin is the flavanol
      prone to forming such pigments. The species Metschnikowia pulcherrima produced
      higher concentration of esters and total volatile compounds. The sensory analysis
      pointed out differences in fruitiness and aroma quality. The results obtained
      strengthen the fact that metabolites from non-Saccharomyces yeasts may contribute
      to form stable polymeric pigments while also influencing wine complexity.

PMID- 28873661
TI  - Effect of mild thermal treatment on the polymerization behavior, conformation and
      viscoelasticity of wheat gliadin.
AB  - The physicochemical properties of gliadin upon mild thermal treatment were
      studied in terms of polymerization behavior, conformation and viscoelasticity.
      Gliadin samples were heated at 40, 60 and 90 degrees C for up to 20min. Results
      showed that alpha-gliadin started to polymerize via disulfide (SS) bonds before
      gamma-gliadin at 90 degrees C, resulting in the extractability loss in aqueous
      ethanol. beta-Turn and specific beta-sheet structures were partially conversed to
      alpha-helices during thermal treatment. Rearrangement of non-covalent forces
      might contribute to viscosity loss of gliadin at 40 and 60 degrees C. However,
      the elevated elasticity at 90 degrees C was mainly due to gliadin polymerization
      while the viscosity variation was resulted from combined effects of non-covalent
      forces and covalent SS bonds. This study could offer insight into the variation
      of gliadin characteristics during the early baking process.

PMID- 28873662
TI  - Factors influencing inhibition of eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in
      heated meat model system.
AB  - Studies on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) formation have focused on
      dynamic studies or research on cooking conditions of meat. This research aimed to
      elucidate the influence of heating conditions, existence of water, lipid
      precursors and antioxidants on the formation and inhibition of PAHs in meat model
      systems by using GC/MS analysis, while mechanisms were evaluated by electron spin
      resonance (ESR) studies. PAHs formation was more affected by change in
      temperature than of time. Also, existence of water and antioxidants was an
      important factor affecting the inhibition of PAHs. In all heated meat model
      systems the addition of lipid precursors led to significantly increased PAHs
      (p<0.05).

PMID- 28873663
TI  - Chemical composition and redox activity of PM0.25 near Los Angeles International
      Airport and comparisons to an urban traffic site.
AB  - To investigate the relative impacts of emissions from Los Angeles International
      Airport (LAX), as well as the impacts of traffic emissions from freeways, on the
      oxidative potential of particulate matter (PM), PM0.25 were collected at two
      urban background locations in Los Angeles. Redox activity of the PM samples was
      measured by means of an in vitro alveolar macrophage assay that quantifies the
      formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells, and detailed chemical
      analyses were performed to determine the speciated chemical composition of
      collected PM. A molecular marker-based chemical mass balance (MM-CMB) model was
      applied to estimate the relative contributions from the following primary sources
      to the organic carbon (OC) component of PM: mobile sources (combined gasoline and
      diesel vehicles), wood smoke, vegetative detritus, road dust and ship emissions.
      A source profile of aircraft emissions was not included in the model; however its
      contribution was estimated from un-apportioned primary OC in the MM-CMB model
      ("other OC") after accounting for the contribution of secondary organic carbon
      (SOC) to OC. The contribution of mobile sources to OC was 82% and 28% at the
      central Los Angeles site (freeway emissions) and the LAX site, respectively. The
      estimated contribution of aircraft emissions to PM0.25 OC was 36% at the LAX
      site. ROS activity levels showed little spatial variability, with no
      statistically significant difference between the averages observed at LAX
      (24.75+/-4.01MUgZymosan/m3) and central Los Angeles (27.77+/-2
      0.32MUgZymosan/m3), suggesting similar levels of inhalation exposure to redox
      active species of PM0.25. A multiple linear regression analysis indicated that
      the variability in ROS activity is best explained by the chemical markers of
      major identified sources: EC emitted by traffic, and sulfur, considered in our
      study as a potential tracer of aircraft emissions, with statistically
      significantly higher concentrations of sulfur at the LAX site (p<0.001).

PMID- 28873664
TI  - Complementarity of three distinctive phytoremediation crops for multiple-trace
      element contaminated soil.
AB  - Trace element (TE) contaminated land represents an important risk to the
      environment and to human health worldwide. These soils usually contain a variety
      of TEs which can be a challenge for plant-based remediation options. As
      individual plant species often possess a limited range of TE remediation
      abilities, functional complementarity principles could be of value for
      remediation of soil contaminated by multiple TEs using assemblages of species.
      Monocultures and polycultures of Festuca arundinacea, Medicago sativa and Salix
      miyabeana were grown for 4months in aged-polluted soil contaminated by Ag, As,
      Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Se and Zn. Above and belowground biomass yields, root surface
      area (RSA) and TE tissue concentrations were recorded. In monoculture, the
      greatest aboveground biomass was produced by S. miyabeana (S), the greatest
      belowground biomass was from M. sativa (M) and F. arundinacea (F) produced the
      highest RSA. The polycultures of F+M, F+S and F+M+S produced among the highest
      values across all three traits. F. arundinacea monoculture and its combination
      with S. miyabeana (F+S) accumulated the highest amounts of total TEs in
      belowground tissues, whereas the most effective combination (or monoculture) for
      aboveground extraction yields varied depending on the TE considered. The crops
      demonstrated complementarity in their biomass allocation patterns as well as
      facilitative interactions. When considering contamination with a particular TE,
      the best phytomanagement approach could include a specific monoculture option;
      however, when above and belowground biomass allocation patterns, TE-remediation
      abilities as well as nitrogen accessibility are considered, co-cropping all three
      species (F+M+S) was the most robust scenario for remediation of multiple-TE
      contaminated land. By more effectively addressing a diversity of TE, species
      assemblage approaches could represent an important advancement towards enabling
      the use of plants to address contaminated-land issues worldwide.

PMID- 28873665
TI  - Land use regression modelling estimating nitrogen oxides exposure in industrial
      south Durban, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The South Durban (SD) area of Durban, South Africa, has a history of
      air pollution issues due to the juxtaposition of low-income communities with
      industrial areas. This study used measurements of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) to
      develop a land use regression (LUR) model to explain the spatial variation of air
      pollution concentrations in this area. METHODS: Ambient NOx was measured over two
      two-week sampling periods at 32 sites using Ogawa badges. Following the ESCAPE
      approach, an annual adjusted average was calculated for these results and
      regressed against pre-selected geographic predictor variables in a multivariate
      regression model. The LUR model was then applied to predict the NOx exposure of a
      sample of pregnant women living in South Durban. RESULTS: Measured NOx levels
      ranged from 22.3-50.9MUg/m3 with a median of 36MUg/m3. The model developed
      accounts for 73% of the variance in ambient NOx measurements using three input
      variables (length of minor roads within a 1000m radius, length of major roads
      within a 300m radius, and area of open space within a 1000m radius). Model cross
      validation yielded a R2 of 0.59. Subsequent participant exposure estimates
      indicated exposure to ambient NOx ranged from 19.9-53.2MUg/m3, with a mean of
      39MUg/m3. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This is the first study to develop a land
      use regression model that predicts ambient concentrations of NOx in a South
      African context. The findings of this study indicate that the participants in the
      South Durban are exposed to high levels of NOx that can be attributed mainly to
      traffic.

PMID- 28873666
TI  - Carbon dioxide accumulation inside vehicles: The effect of ventilation and
      driving conditions.
AB  - Limiting the air exchange of passenger vehicles by closing windows and
      recirculating cabin air (RC) restricts the influx of roadway pollutants and
      reduces in-vehicle particulate concentrations. However, the carbon dioxide (CO2)
      exhaled by the occupants can accumulate under these conditions to reach high
      concentrations. We characterized the factors (ventilation setting, vehicle age,
      speed, cabin volume, trip duration, and number of occupants) that allow CO2
      accumulation to reach concentration thresholds found in other studies to produce
      cognitive or physiological effects of concern such as fatigue or difficulty
      concentrating. Ventilation setting was the primary determinant of CO2
      accumulation; only the RC setting (and not outside-air intake) ever allows CO2
      accumulations to exceed thresholds of concern. Longer trips with multiple
      occupants are a particular concern. Even so, under RC setting, a 2500ppm
      threshold-the threshold consistently linked to detrimental cognitive effects
      would not be exceeded for most one- or even two-occupant average-duration
      commutes (twenty-six minutes in the U.S.). For multiple passenger commutes and/or
      longer trips, RC ventilation should be periodically interrupted or partially
      mixed with outside air to keep CO2 concentrations below 2500ppm.

PMID- 28873667
TI  - Dietary exposure and neurotoxicity of the environmental free and bound toxin beta
      N-methylamino-l-alanine.
AB  - The growing evidence supporting a link between exposure to the naturally
      occurring toxin beta-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) and progressive
      neurodegenerative diseases, has recently arisen the interest of the scientific
      community. Latest investigations suggest that dietary exposure to this algal
      toxin may have been largely underestimated. This paper reviews the state of the
      art regarding BMAA, with special attention paid to its neurotoxicity, its
      concentration levels in food, and human exposure. As for other environmental
      toxins, dietary intake is most likely the main route of exposure to BMAA for the
      general population. However, data concerning BMAA levels in foodstuffs are still
      scarce. It is concluded that further investigations on dietary intake and
      potential human health effects are clearly necessary to assess the risks to
      public health associated with BMAA exposure. Some critical remarks and
      recommendations on future research in this area are provided, which may help to
      identify approaches to reduce dietary BMAA exposure.

PMID- 28873668
TI  - Modeling cereal starch hydrolysis during simultaneous saccharification and lactic
      acid fermentation; case of a sorghum-based fermented beverage, gowe.
AB  - Gowe is an acidic beverage obtained after simultaneous saccharification and
      fermentation (SSF) of sorghum. A previous paper focused on modeling the growth of
      lactic acid bacteria during gowe processing. This paper focuses on modeling
      starch amylolysis to build an aggregated SSF model. The activity of alpha-amylase
      was modeled as a function of temperature and pH, and the hydrolysis rates of both
      native and soluble starch were modeled via a Michaelis-Menten equation taking
      into account the maltose and glucose inhibition constants. The robustness of the
      parameter estimators was ensured by step by step identification in sets of
      experiments conducted with different proportions of native and gelatinized starch
      by modifying the pre-cooking temperature. The aggregated model was validated on
      experimental data and showed that both the pre-cooking and fermentation
      parameters, particularly temperature, are significant levers for controlling not
      only acid and sugar contents but also the expected viscosity of the final
      product. This generic approach could be used as a tool to optimize the sanitary
      and sensory quality of fermentation of other starchy products.

PMID- 28873669
TI  - Peptide identification in a salmon gelatin hydrolysate with antihypertensive,
      dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitory and antioxidant activities.
AB  - Salmon gelatin (Salmo salar, SG) enzymatic hydrolysates were generated using
      Alcalase 2.4L, Alcalase 2.4L in combination with Flavourzyme 500L, Corolase PP,
      Promod 144MG and Brewer's Clarex. The hydrolysate generated with Corolase PP for
      1h (SG-C1) had the highest angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE, IC50=0.13+/
      0.05mgmL-1) and dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV, IC50=0.08+/-0.01mgmL-1)
      inhibitory activities, and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC, 540.94+/
      9.57MUmolTEg-1d.w.). The in vitro bioactivities of SG-C1 were retained following
      simulated gastrointestinal digestion. Administration of SG and SG-C1 (50mgkg-1
      body weight) to spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) lowered heart rate along
      with systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure. The SG-C1 hydrolysate
      was fractionated using semi-preparative RP-HPLC and the fraction with highest
      overall in vitro bioactivity (fraction 25) was analysed by UPLC-MS/MS. Four
      peptide sequences (Gly-Gly-Pro-Ala-Gly-Pro-Ala-Val, Gly-Pro-Val-Ala, Pro-Pro and
      Gly-Phe) and two free amino acids (Arg and Tyr) were identified in this fraction.
      These peptides and free amino acids had potent ACE and DPP-IV inhibitory, and
      ORAC activities. The results show that SG hydrolysates have potential as
      multifunctional food ingredients particularly for the management of hypertension.

PMID- 28873670
TI  - Novel bioactive peptides from enzymatic hydrolysate of Sardinelle (Sardinella
      aurita) muscle proteins hydrolysed by Bacillus subtilis A26 proteases.
AB  - Sardinelle protein hydrolysate (SPH), prepared by treatment with Bacillus
      subtilis A26 proteases, was found to exhibit antibacterial, antioxidant and ACE
      inhibitory activities. SPH, with a degree of hydrolysis of 4%, was fractionated
      by size exclusion chromatography on a Sephadex G-25 into five major fractions (F1
      F5). F2, which exhibited the highest antibacterial and ACE-inhibitory activities,
      and F4, which exhibited the highest antibacterial and antioxidant activities,
      were further fractionated by reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography
      (RP-HPLC) and then analysed using nano-ESI-LC-MS/MS to identify the sequences of
      peptides. Eight peptides were identified in the sub-fraction F2-A, nine peptides
      in the sub-fraction F4-B, and 45 peptides in F4-C. Identified peptides were found
      to share sequences with previously described bioactive peptides based on Biopep
      database. The results of this study suggest that SPH is a good source of natural
      bioactive peptides. Hence, it can be used as a potential ingredient in
      nutraceutical field.

PMID- 28873671
TI  - Modifications in bacterial groups and short chain fatty acid production in the
      gut of healthy adult rats after long-term consumption of dietary Maillard
      reaction products.
AB  - Bread crust (BC) is one of the major sources of Maillard reaction products (MRPs)
      in the Western diet. This work was designed to analyze the impact of diets
      containing important levels of MRPs from BC on intestinal bacterial growth and
      short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production in adult rats. Additionally, the pools
      of compounds excreted in feces attending to their molecular weights were
      analyzed. Rats were fed for 88days a control diet or diets containing BC or its
      soluble high molecular weight (HMW), soluble low molecular weight (LMW) or
      insoluble fractions, respectively. Intestinal (cecum) microbiota composition was
      determined by qPCR analysis. Consumption of the BC diet lowered (P<0.05)
      Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp. log10 counts (8 and 14%,
      respectively), an effect for which soluble LMW and HMW fractions of BC seemed to
      be responsible. In these same animals, Escherichia/Shigella counts increased by
      around 45% (P<0.05), a fact which correlated with a higher production of formic
      acid in feces (r=0.8197, P=0.0458), and likely caused by the combined consumption
      of all MRPs contained in the BC. A significant 5-fold increment (P<0.05) was
      detected in the fecal proportion of propionic acid in the BC group, one of the
      products that have largely been associated with anti-inflammatory actions.
      Regarding the distribution of MRPs in feces, only the LMW fed group exhibited a
      predominance of those ranging between 90,000-1000Da, whereas the rest of the
      groups presented higher amounts of products above 90,000Da. It is concluded that
      dietary Maillard reaction products are in vivo fermented by the gut microbiota,
      thereby changing both the pattern of SCFAs production and the microbiota
      composition.

PMID- 28873672
TI  - Recent advances in the identification and authentication methods of edible bird's
      nest.
AB  - Edible bird's nest (EBN) is an expensive animal bioproduct due to its reputation
      as a food and delicacy with diverse medicinal properties. One kilogram of EBN
      costs ~$6000 in China. EBN and its products are consumed in mostly Asian
      countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia,
      Vietnam and Thailand, making up almost 1/3 of world population. The rapid growth
      in EBN consumption has led to a big rise in the trade scale of its global market.
      Presently, various fake materials such as tremella fungus, pork skin, karaya gum,
      fish swimming bladder, jelly, agar, monosodium glutamate and egg white are used
      to adulterate EBNs for earning extra profits. Adulterated or fake EBN may be
      hazardous to the consumers. Thus, it is necessary to identify of the adulterants.
      Several sophisticated techniques based on genetics, immunochemistry,
      spectroscopy, chromatography and gel electrophoresis have been used for the
      detection of various types of adulterants in EBN. This article describes the
      recent advances in the authentication methods for EBN. Different genetic,
      immunochemical, spectroscopic and analytical methods such as genetics (DNA) based
      techniques, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, Fourier transform infrared and
      Raman spectroscopic techniques, and chromatographic and gel electrophoretic
      methods have been discussed. Besides, significance of the reported methods that
      might pertain them to applications in EBN industry has been described. Finally,
      efforts have been made to discuss the challenges and future perspectives of the
      authentication methods for EBN.

PMID- 28873673
TI  - Colloidal properties of sodium caseinate-stabilized nanoemulsions prepared by a
      combination of a high-energy homogenization and evaporative ripening methods.
AB  - Nanoemulsions stabilized by sodium caseinate (NaCas) were prepared using a
      combination of a high-energy homogenization and evaporative ripening methods. The
      effects of protein concentration and sucrose addition on physical properties were
      analyzed by dynamic light scattering (DLS), Turbiscan analysis, confocal laser
      scanning microscopy (CLSM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Droplets
      sizes were smaller (~100nm in diameter) than the ones obtained by other methods
      (200 to 2000nm in diameter). The stability behavior was also different. These
      emulsions were not destabilized by creaming. As droplets were so small,
      gravitational forces were negligible. On the contrary, when they showed
      destabilization the main mechanism was flocculation. Stability of nanoemulsions
      increased with increasing protein concentrations. Nanoemulsions with 3 or 4wt%
      NaCas were slightly turbid systems that remained stable for at least two months.
      According to SAXS and Turbiscan results, aggregates remained in the nano range
      showing small tendency to aggregation. In those systems, interactive forces were
      weak due to the small diameter of flocs.

PMID- 28873674
TI  - The effect of algae diets (Skeletonema costatum and Rhodomonas baltica) on the
      biochemical composition and sensory characteristics of Pacific cupped oysters
      (Crassostrea gigas) during land-based refinement.
AB  - Oyster refinement, a common practice in France, is aimed at increasing the weight
      of oyster tissue and influencing the taste properties of the refined oysters.
      Refinement usually takes place in land-based systems where the oysters are fed
      with relatively high concentrations of microalgae. In this study the impact of
      feeding Skeletonema costatum and Rhodomonas baltica on the biochemical
      composition and sensory characteristics of Pacific cupped oysters (Crassostrea
      gigas) from the Eastern Scheldt during land-based refinement was studied. After a
      feeding period of four and seven weeks market-sized oysters were sampled for the
      analysis of fatty acids, free amino acids and volatile organic compounds and for
      a sensory evaluation by consumers and an expert panel. The algae Skeletonema
      costatum showed a lower ?PUFA, ?n-3, ?n-6, C18:2n6, C18:3n3, C18:4n3, C22:6n3
      content as compared with Rhodomonas baltica. These differences were also
      reflected in the fatty acid profile of the oysters fed with the corresponding
      algae diets. Furthermore, general linear model and principal component analysis
      showed marked differences in free amino acids and volatile organic compound
      content between Skeletonema, Rhodomonas fed oysters and reference oysters. For
      example, threonine, glutamine, leucine, histidine, (E)-2-hexenal, (E)-2octenal,
      (E)-2-octen-1-ol, (E,E)-2,4-octadien-1-ol, (E,Z)-3,6-nonadien-1-ol and (Z,E)-2,6
      nonadienal contents were higher in Skeletonema fed oysters compared to Rhodomonas
      fed oysters. Sensory differences between the experimental oyster groups were
      shown. Skeletonema fed Pacific cupped oysters were characterized by a stronger
      seaweed flavor, higher perceived sweetness and a firmer texture in comparison
      with Rhodomonas fed oysters. Naive consumers were only able to differentiate
      between Rhodomonas fed oysters and reference oysters.

PMID- 28873675
TI  - Influence of Brettanomyces ethylphenols on red wine aroma evaluated by consumers
      in the United States and Portugal.
AB  - Brettanomyces may add complexity to wine at low concentrations but at high
      concentrations, can result in objectionable wines. The objective of this study
      was to determine the concentrations at which consumers from two different
      locations were able to detect Brettanomyces volatile compounds present in a red
      wine. A red wine blend, used in both countries, was spiked to create five
      treatments containing different concentrations of 4-ethylphenol (4-EP), 4
      ethylguiacol (4-EG), and 4-ethylcatechol (4-EC) in a 5:1:1 ratio, respectively.
      These treatments were evaluated by consumers in the United States and Portugal
      (n=121) using a difference from control test. Consumers were also classified as
      having low, medium, or high wine knowledge. Among the spiked samples, the
      greatest degree of difference was found between the second and third treatments,
      corresponding to reported detection and recognition threshold ranges of 4-EP and
      4-EG. For some treatments, consumers from Portugal classified in the medium or
      high knowledge level reported significantly higher mean differences from the
      control than those in the low knowledge group (p<0.05). Results demonstrated
      consumers' ability to detect differences in red wines due to Brettanomyces
      volatile compounds. Results provide useful context on how wine knowledge and
      cultural variants may affect the detection of Brettanomyces.

PMID- 28873676
TI  - Encapsulation of lutein in liposomes using supercritical carbon dioxide.
AB  - Liposomes loaded with lutein were prepared utilizing supercritical carbon dioxide
      (SC-CO2). The effects of pressure, depressurization rate, temperature and lutein
      to-lipid ratio on particle size distribution, zeta potential, encapsulation
      efficiency (EE), bioactive loading, morphology, phase transition and
      crystallinity were investigated. Liposomes prepared by the SC-CO2 method had a
      particle size of 147.6+/-1.9nm-195.4+/-2.3nm, an encapsulation efficiency of
      56.7+/-0.7%-97.0+/-0.8% and a zeta potential of -54.5+/-1.2mV to -61.7+/-0.6mV. A
      higher pressure (200-300bar) and depressurization rate (90-200bar/min) promoted a
      higher encapsulation of lutein whereas the lutein-to-lipid ratio had the dominant
      effect on the morphology of vesicles along with size distribution and EE. X-ray
      diffraction data implied a substantial drop in the crystallinity of lutein upon
      its redistribution in the liposome membranes. Differential scanning calorimetry
      indicated a broadened phase transition upon the simultaneous rearrangement of
      lutein and phospholipid molecules into liposomal vesicles. The SC-CO2 method
      resulted in particle characteristics highly associated with the ability of CO2 to
      disperse phospholipids and lutein molecules. It offers a promising approach to
      use dense phase CO2 to homogenize hydrophobic or amphiphilic aggregates suspended
      in an aqueous medium and regulate the vesicular characteristics via pressure and
      depressurization rate. The SC-CO2 method has potential for scalable production of
      liposomal nanovesicles with desirable characteristics and free of organic
      solvents.

PMID- 28873677
TI  - Effect of the phytate and hydrogen peroxide chemical modifications on the
      physicochemical and functional properties of wheat starch.
AB  - To investigate the characteristics of chemically modified wheat starch, such as
      oxidized (OWS), cross-linked (CLWS) and dual-modified wheat starches, cross
      linked oxidized (COWS) and oxidized cross-linked (OCWS) wheat starches were
      obtained by 12% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and 2% sodium phytate treatments,
      respectively. After modifications of wheat starch by cross-linking and
      oxidization, it was determined that native wheat starch was effectively modified
      with respect to the structure and physicochemical characteristics, as detected by
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning
      calorimetry (DSC), Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
      and X-ray diffraction (XRD). DSC analysis demonstrated that peak temperature (Tp)
      64.41 degrees C of the COWS was the highest. The RVA viscosity indexes of CLWS
      were noticeably increased compared with the other four starches, of which three
      oxidized starch samples showed lower RVA profiles because of oxidation. The XRD
      result indicated that cross-linked phosphates from sodium phytate were primarily
      located in the amorphous regions of starch granules. After modifications by
      different treatments, the starch samples exhibited different morphological
      characteristics, including A-type and B-type wheat starch granules, which showed
      much closer contact with each other by the cross-linking reaction under SEM
      observations. The functional characteristics, including solubility, swelling
      power, light transmittance and freeze-thaw stability (FTS), of all five treated
      and untreated wheat starches demonstrated that COWS had the highest solubility at
      0.57 and that CLWS showed the best swelling power at 12.63 (g/g). The paste
      clarity of COWS was improved to 47.72% higher than that of native starch (7.54%),
      and the water loss of COWS (21.62%) was the lowest, which is beneficial to the
      production of quick-frozen food. Our results showed that dual-modified starch by
      using sodium phytate and hydrogen peroxide had significantly altered structural
      and functional properties. The present study provides fundamental information of
      dual-modified wheat starch for its potential industrial application.

PMID- 28873678
TI  - Structural modification by high-pressure homogenization for improved functional
      properties of freeze-dried myofibrillar proteins powder.
AB  - To expand utilization of meat in various products, the structural,
      physicochemical and functional changes of water soluble myofibrillar protein
      powder (WSMP-P) were investigated as affected by high-pressure homogenization
      (HPH) intensities (0-20,000psi). HPH modified the structure of WSMP-P by random
      dissociation (myofibril and myosin polymer dissociation), partial unfolding and
      rearrangement (actin trimer formation), producing an amorphous protein structure
      with high thermal stability. alpha-Helix and beta-turn conversion to beta-sheet
      structures occurred at pressures above 15,000psi, suggesting an increase in
      myosin conformation flexibility with minor aggregation. Moreover, HPH was able to
      improve the water solubility and emulsifying properties of WSMP-P. This might be
      resulted from its unfolded flexible structure with submicron size and high
      surface net charge in aqueous suspensions induced by HPH. The findings regarding
      the improved functionality evidence potential of applying WSMP-P as protein
      supplements in formulated food or beverage at low ionic conditions.

PMID- 28873679
TI  - Aroma profile of malbec red wines from La Mancha region: Chemical and sensory
      characterization.
AB  - The aroma of La Mancha Malbec red wines over four consecutive vintages was
      characterized by chemical and sensory analysis. Solid phase extraction (SPE) and
      gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were used to isolate and analyze
      free volatile compounds. Quantitative Descriptive Sensory Analysis (QDA) was
      carried out to characterize the sensory aroma profile. A total of 79 free
      volatile compounds were identified and quantified in the wines over these four
      vintages. Volatile aroma compounds were classified into seven aromatic series and
      their odour activity values were calculated in order to determine the aroma
      impact compounds in these wines. The aroma sensory profile of these wines was
      characterized by red fruit, fresh, prune, liquorice, clove, caramel, leather,
      tobacco and coffee aromas. This study provides a complete aroma characterization
      of La Mancha Malbec red wines and it is proposed that these wines can be
      considered as an alternative to wines from traditional grape varieties of this
      region.

PMID- 28873680
TI  - Caramel flavour perception: Impact of the non-volatile compounds on sensory
      properties and in-vitro aroma release.

PMID- 28873681
TI  - Characterization of commercial Spanish non-citrus juices: Antioxidant and
      physicochemical aspects.
AB  - The presence of many different antioxidant species makes fruit juices to be
      perceived by populations as a very healthy beverage easy to include in the daily
      diet. These antioxidant actions have been reported in a large number of papers,
      however the information correlating the antioxidant profile with the
      physicochemical characteristics derived from the industrial processing of fruit
      juices is limited. In a previous paper, our research group demonstrated that the
      antioxidant properties of citrus juices were underestimated when measuring by
      traditional methods and that our improved methodology, so-called GAR, is a better
      approach to analyze the global antioxidant response of juices. In this paper, we
      confirm that statement, establishing that the overall antioxidant capacity of non
      citrus juices is 10-times higher with the GAR method (including an in vitro
      gastrointestinal digestion) that with the other methodologies. In some cases,
      such as pineapple juice, the antioxidant action was distributed between the
      soluble and non-soluble fractions almost at 50%. But, surprisingly, in some other
      (like tomato juice) the non-soluble fraction accounted for the higher antioxidant
      capacity. This fact definitively underlines the importance of the non-soluble
      fraction and shows the suitability of the GAR method to consider it.
      Physicochemical parameters, such as color, fluorescence, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural
      and furfural contents were correlated with antioxidant characteristics in some
      samples. Lastly, we unravel a mathematical model to classify non-citrus juices
      depending on their nature or storage conditions.

PMID- 28873682
TI  - Quercetin as a tyrosinase inhibitor: Inhibitory activity, conformational change
      and mechanism.
AB  - Quercetin, a flavonoid compound, was found to inhibit both monophenolase and
      diphenolase activities of tyrosinase, and its inhibition against diphenolase
      activity was in a reversible and competitive manner with an IC50 value of (3.08+/
      0.74)*10-5molL-1. Quercetin bound to tyrosinase driven by hydrophobic
      interaction, thereby resulted in a conformational change of tyrosinase and its
      intrinsic fluorescence quenching. Tyrosinase had one binding site for quercetin
      with the binding constant in the order of magnitude of 104Lmol-1. The molecular
      docking revealed that quercetin bound to the active site of tyrosinase and
      chelated a copper with the 3', 4'-dihydroxy groups. It can be deduced that the
      chelation may prevent the entrance of substrate and then inhibit the catalytic
      activity of tyrosinase. These findings may be helpful to understand the
      inhibition mechanism of quercetin on tyrosinase and functional research of
      quercetin in the treatment of pigmentation disorders.

PMID- 28873683
TI  - Volatile metabolite profiling reveals the changes in the volatile compounds of
      new spontaneously generated loquat cultivars.
AB  - In recent years, the advantageous traits of three new loquat cultivars have drawn
      the attention of breeders and growers. All three have spontaneously arisen from
      the 'Algerie' cultivar: the new 'Xirlero' cultivar is a bud mutant of 'Algerie',
      while 'Amadeo' and 'Raul' arose as chance seedlings. Following a non-targeted
      approach based on HS-SPME-GC-MS, the volatile compounds profile of the fruits
      from the new cultivars were obtained and compared to the original 'Algerie'
      cultivar. Carboxylic acids clearly dominated the volatile profile of all the
      loquat cultivars, but esters, aldehydes, ketones and alcohols were also
      predominant compounds. Interestingly when the bud mutant event did not lead to
      marked changes in the volatile compounds complement, pronounced changes in the
      volatile composition of chance seedling-generated cultivars 'Amadeo' and 'Raul'
      were observed. 'Amadeo' fruits showed lower levels of 2-methyl butanoic acid and
      much higher levels of methylhexanoate, methylbutanoate and 2-hydroxy-5
      methylacetophenone. The 'Raul' cultivar also had a distinctive volatile profile
      characterised by high levels of C6-aldehydes, (E)-2-hexanal, 2-hexenal, (Z)-3
      hexenal and hexanal, and several carotenoid-derived volatiles; e.g. 2-pentene-1,4
      dione 1-(1,2,2-trimethylcyclopentyl), (S)-dihydroactinidiolide, isodurene, cis
      geranyl acetone, beta-damascenone, beta-ionone, alpha-ionone and 3,4-dehydro-beta
      ionone. These changes in volatiles were associated with a more intense flavour in
      cultivars 'Amadeo' and 'Raul', according to the sensory evaluation of the flavour
      intensity carried out by a semi-trained panel. A metabolomic correlation network
      analysis provided insights as to how volatiles were regulated, and revealed that
      the compounds modified in 'Amadeo' were uncoupled from the rest of the
      volatilome, while the volatiles modified in 'Raul' changed according to specific
      groups. To conclude, this work provides a holistic view of how the loquat
      volatilome was affected, and this information was integrated with the physical
      chemical-sensory attributes to understand the changes that occur in the new
      cultivars.

PMID- 28873684
TI  - Triangulation and the importance of establishing valid methods for food safety
      culture evaluation.
AB  - The research evaluates maturity of food safety culture in five multi-national
      food companies using method triangulation, specifically self-assessment scale,
      performance documents, and semi-structured interviews. Weaknesses associated with
      each individual method are known but there are few studies in food safety where a
      method triangulation approach is used for both data collection and data analysis.
      Significantly, this research shows that individual results taken in isolation can
      lead to wrong conclusions, resulting in potentially failing tactics and wasted
      investments. However, by applying method triangulation and reviewing results from
      a range of culture measurement tools it is possible to better direct investments
      and interventions. The findings add to the food safety culture paradigm beyond a
      single evaluation of food safety culture using generic culture surveys.

PMID- 28873685
TI  - Consumer perception of salt-reduced breads: Comparison of single and two-bites
      evaluation.
AB  - Salt-reduction in processed products has been proposed as a high-impact
      intervention for reducing the sodium intake at population level. A major
      limitation for this approach is its potential negative impact on the sensory
      characteristics of products. The current practice in sensory and consumer science
      involves single sip/bite evaluations, which may not properly reflect the sensory
      experience that occurs during product consumption. In this context, the aim of
      the present work was to compare single and two bite evaluations of consumer
      sensory and hedonic perception of salt-reduced breads. Five studies with a total
      of 499 consumers were carried out, in which overall-liking scores of five salt
      reduced bread samples were collected after the first and the second bite
      evaluation. In one of the studies consumers also answered a CATA (check-all-that
      apply) question after the first and the second bite. Neither bite nor the
      interaction between samples and bite had a significant effect on hedonic scores.
      However, when hedonic scores were analysed separately for each bite, the overall
      liking scores from the second bite evaluation better reflected differences among
      samples according to their salt content in two of the five studies. The sensory
      characterization of the samples did not largely vary between the first and the
      second bite. Results suggest that consumers' perception of salt reduced bread
      samples did not largely vary between a single and a two bites evaluation. Further
      research is warranted in this regard, in particular considering more complex
      products.

PMID- 28873686
TI  - Carotenoid profile of three microalgae/cyanobacteria species with peroxyl radical
      scavenger capacity.
AB  - Carotenoids from cyanobacteria Aphanothece microscopica Nageli and green
      microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus were identified. The total
      carotenoid content, based on dry weight of biomass, of A. microscopica Nageli, C.
      vulgaris and S. obliquus were 1398.88MUg/g, 1977.02MUg/g and 2650.70MUg/g,
      respectively. A total of 23 different carotenoids were separated in all the
      extracts, the major ones being all-trans-beta-carotene (29.3%) and all-trans
      lutein (28.1%) in Scenedesmus; all-trans-echinenone (22.8%) and all-trans-beta
      carotene (17.7%) in Chlorella; all-trans-echinenone (28.3%) and all-trans-beta
      carotene (26.2%) in Aphanothece. The carotenoid extracts were shown to be a
      potent scavenger of peroxyl radical, with values of 31.1 (Chlorella), 14.0
      (Scenedesmus) and 7.3 (Aphanothece) times more potent than alpha-tocopherol.

PMID- 28873687
TI  - A comparative study of volatile components in Dianhong teas from fresh leaves of
      four tea cultivars by using chromatography-mass spectrometry, multivariate data
      analysis, and descriptive sensory analysis.
AB  - Dianhong teas produced from fresh leaves of different tea cultivars (YK is
      Yunkang No. 10, XY is Xueya 100, CY is Changyebaihao, SS is Shishengmiao), were
      compared in terms of volatile compounds and descriptive sensory analysis. A total
      of 73 volatile compounds in 16 tea samples were tentatively identified. YK, XY,
      CY, and SS contained 55, 53, 49, and 51 volatile compounds, respectively. Partial
      least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and hierarchical cluster analysis
      (HCA) were used to classify the samples, and 40 key components were selected
      based on variable importance in the projection. Moreover, 11 flavor attributes,
      namely, floral, fruity, grass/green, woody, sweet, roasty, caramel, mellow and
      thick, bitter, astringent, and sweet aftertaste were identified through
      descriptive sensory analysis (DSA). In generally, innate differences among the
      tea varieties significantly affected the intensities of most of the key sensory
      attributes of Dianhong teas possibly because of the different amounts of aroma
      active and taste components in Dianhong teas.

PMID- 28873688
TI  - Combined effects of holy basil essential oil and inlet temperature on lipid
      peroxidation and survival of Lactobacillus reuteri KUB-AC5 during spray drying.
AB  - Lipid peroxidation induced by oxidative stress plays an important role in
      reducing probiotic survival during spray drying. In this study, the probiotic
      Lactobacillus reuteri KUB-AC5 was co-encapsulated with holy basil essential oil,
      HBEO (0, 6, and 12mg/ml), by spray drying using skim milk at inlet air
      temperatures of 130, 140, and 150 degrees C. The microcapsule properties in terms
      of morphology, size, moisture content, water activity, surface oil,
      microencapsulation efficiency, antioxidant activity, lipid peroxidation, and cell
      survival were determined. The result showed that the microcapsules with HBEO had
      much higher antioxidant activity than the ones without HBEO. The optimal
      condition of HBEO (6mg/ml) with inlet temperature (130 degrees C) was effective
      in reducing malondialdehyde (MDA) level and enhancing survival of probiotics.
      This study indicates the potential role of HBEO in decreasing oxidative stress in
      probiotics during spray drying, which contributed to an increase in cell survival
      and health benefits.

PMID- 28873689
TI  - Liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry for the analysis of
      phytochemicals in vegetal-derived food and beverages.
AB  - The recent years witnessed a change in the perception of nutrition. Diet does not
      only provide nutrients to meet the metabolic requirements of the body, but it
      also constitutes an active way for the consumption of compounds beneficial for
      human health. Fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of such compounds,
      thus the growing interest in characterizing phytochemical sources, structures and
      activities. Given the interest for phytochemicals in food, the development of
      advanced and suitable analytical techniques for their identification is
      fundamental for the advancement of food research. In this review, the state of
      the art of phytochemical research in food plants is described, starting from
      sample preparation, throughout extract clean-up and compound separation
      techniques, to the final analysis, considering both qualitative and quantitative
      investigations. In this regard, from an analytical point of view, fruit and
      vegetable extracts are complex matrices, which greatly benefit from the use of
      modern hyphenated techniques, in particular from the combination of high
      performance liquid chromatography separation and high resolution mass
      spectrometry, powerful tools which are being increasingly used in the recent
      years. Therefore, selected applications to real samples are presented and
      discussed, in particular for the analysis of phenols, polyphenols and phenolic
      acids. Finally, some hot points are discussed, such as waste characterization for
      high value-compounds recovery and the untargeted metabolomics approach.

PMID- 28873690
TI  - Nutritional compound analysis and morphological characterization of spider plant
      (Cleome gynandra) - an African indigenous leafy vegetable.
AB  - Spider plant is among the important indigenous African leafy vegetables having
      the potential to contribute to food and nutritional security in sub-Saharan
      Africa. The main objective of this study was to quantify the mineral
      concentration, to identify and quantify glucosinolates and flavonoids in spider
      plant and further to characterize spider plant entries using important
      morphological traits. Thirty spider plant entries from different African
      countries, comprising of farmers' cultivars, gene bank accessions and advanced
      lines were grown in a field experiment and harvested for leaves, stems, flowers
      and siliques at different developmental stages. Five plant types based on the
      stem and petiole colorations were identified. Significant genotypic differences
      were shown for all the morphological traits except for 100 seed weight and
      silique weight. High mineral concentrations in the leaf tissue were observed
      especially for potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, manganese and
      zinc. The aliphatic 3-hydroxypropyl glucosinolate was the main glucosinolate
      detected in all tissues with the highest concentrations in the reproductive
      organs. Glycosides of quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin were the main
      flavonoids. Isorhamnetin glycosides were detected in trace amounts in both,
      leaves and inflorescences, while quercetin and kaempferol glycosides were the
      dominant flavonoids in the leaves and inflorescences, respectively. This
      knowledge of beneficial nutrient contents is an incentive for promoting spider
      plant consumption for improved human health while the morphological diversity
      analysis will be important for the further development of the spider plant
      germplasm.

PMID- 28873691
TI  - Encapsulation of lactase in Ca(II)-alginate beads: Effect of stabilizers and
      drying methods.
AB  - The purpose of the present work was to analyze the effect of trehalose, arabic
      and guar gums on the preservation of beta-galactosidase activity in freeze-dried
      and vacuum dried Ca(II)-alginate beads. Freezing process was also studied as a
      first step of freeze-drying. Trehalose was critical for beta-galactosidase
      conservation, and guar gum as a second excipient showed the highest conservation
      effect (close to 95%). Systems with Tg values ~40 degrees C which were stables at
      ambient temperature were obtained, being trehalose the main responsible of the
      formation of an amorphous matrix. Vacuum dried beads showed smaller size (with
      Feret's diameter below 1.08+/-0.09mm), higher circularity (reaching 0.78+/-0.06)
      and large cracks in their surface than freeze-dried beads, which were more spongy
      and voluminous. Ice crystallization of the beads revealed that the
      crystallization of Ca(II)-alginate system follows the Avrami kinetics of
      nucleation and growth. Particularly, Ca(II)-alginate showed an Avrami index of
      2.03+/-0.07, which means that crystal growing is bidimensional. Neither the
      addition of trehalose nor gums affected the dimension of the ice growing or its
      rate. These results open an opportunity in the development of new lactic products
      able to be consumed by lactose intolerance people.

PMID- 28873692
TI  - Bioaccessibility and antioxidant activity of free phenolic compounds and
      oligosaccharides from corn (Zea mays L.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
      chips during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and simulated colonic
      fermentation.
AB  - Corn (Zea mays L.) and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are alternative
      suitable ingredients for snacks, because of their content of bioactive compounds
      such as phenolic compounds (PC) and oligosaccharides (OS). However, there is no
      information about the transformation of these compounds associated with food
      matrix during gastrointestinal digestion. Therefore, the objective of this work
      was to simulate the whole digestion process (mouth to colon) to estimate
      bioaccessibility and small intestine permeability of free PC and OS, and the
      antioxidant capacity of free PC. Digested nixtamalized corn-cooked common bean
      chips exhibited significant different quantities of free PC and OS, and higher
      antioxidant activity compared to methanolic extract. The free PC showed high
      values of apparent permeability coefficients (0.023-0.729*10-3), related with
      their absorption in the small intestine. Both free PC and OS were retained in the
      non-digestible fraction of chips (10.24-64.4%) and were able to reach the colon.
      Our results suggest the digestion potential to increase chip bioactive compounds
      and antioxidant activity. Additional studies are required to evaluate their in
      vivo effects.

PMID- 28873693
TI  - Comparison and screening of bioactive phenolic compounds in different blueberry
      cultivars: Evaluation of anti-oxidation and alpha-glucosidase inhibition effect.
AB  - This study was aimed to investigate antioxidation and alpha-glucosidase
      inhibition of the bioactive compounds in three cultivars of blueberry
      ('Northland' (NL) from the hybrid blueberry (V. corymbosum L.*V. angustifolium
      Aiton), 'Britewell' (BW), and 'Gardenblue' (GB) from the rabbiteye blueberry
      (Vaccinium ashei Reade)). A total of eighteen anthocyanins were identified and
      quantified in Anthocyanins (ACNs), among which four acylated anthocyanins were
      exclusively found in Northland. The blueberry anthocyanin extracts (BAEs) were
      further measured the antioxidant activity and alpha-glucosidase inhibition
      effect. Northland BAEs exhibited significantly superior antioxidant activity
      compared with BAEs of other cultivars, and the antioxidant activity was
      correlated with the content of anthocyanins. However, alpha-glucosidase
      inhibition test showed that Britewell BAEs had the strongest inhibitory effect.
      BAEs were further separated into anthocyanin fraction (AF) and copigment fraction
      (CF). Fifteen phenolic acids and four iridoids were identified in CF. In terms of
      alpha-glucosidase inhibition effects, the CF from three cultivars could inhibit
      alpha-glucosidase in a dose-dependent manner, while the AF did not show
      significant inhibitory effects. The blueberry exhibits excellent antioxidant
      activity and alpha-glucosidase inhibition.

PMID- 28873694
TI  - Predicting consumer liking and preference based on emotional responses and
      sensory perception: A study with basic taste solutions.
AB  - Traditional methods of sensory testing focus on capturing information about
      multisensory perceptions, but do not necessarily measure emotions elicited by
      these food and beverages. The objective of this study was to develop an optimum
      model of predicting overall liking (rating) and preference (choice) based on
      taste intensity and evoked emotions. One hundred and two participants (51
      females) were asked to taste water, sucrose, citric acid, salt, and caffeine
      solutions. Their emotional responses toward each sample were measured by a
      combination of a self-reported emotion questionnaire (EsSense25), facial
      expressions, and autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses. In addition, their
      perceived intensity and overall liking were measured. After a break, participants
      re-tasted the samples and ranked them according to their preference. The results
      showed that emotional responses measured using self-reported emotion
      questionnaire and facial expression analysis along with perceived taste intensity
      performed best to predict overall liking as well as preference, while ANS
      measures showed limited contribution. Contrary to some previous research, this
      study demonstrated that not only negative emotions, but also positive ones could
      help predict consumer liking and preference. In addition, since there were subtle
      differences in the prediction models of overall liking and preference, both
      aspects should be taken into account to understand consumer behavior. In
      conclusion, combination of evoked emotions along with sensory perception could
      help better understand consumer acceptance as well as preference toward basic
      taste solutions.

PMID- 28873695
TI  - Lipid-modifying enzymes in oat and faba bean.
AB  - The aim was to study lipase, lipoxygenase (LOX) and peroxygenase (POX) activities
      in oat and faba bean samples to be able to evaluate their potential in formation
      of lipid-derived off-flavours. Lipase and LOX activities were measured by
      spectroscopy, and POX activities via the formation of epoxides. An ultra-high
      performance liquid chromatography method was developed to study the formation of
      fatty acid epoxides. The epoxides of esters were measured by gas chromatography.
      Mass spectroscopy was used to verify the identity of the epoxides. Both oat and
      faba bean possessed high lipase activities. In faba bean, LOX catalysed the
      formation of hydroperoxides, whose break-down products are the likely cause of
      off-flavours. Since oat had low LOX activity, autoxidation is needed to initiate
      lipid oxidation. Oat had high POX activity, which is able to convert
      hydroperoxides to epoxy and hydroxy fatty acids that could contribute
      significantly to off-flavours. POX activity in the faba bean was low. Thus, in
      faba bean volatile lipid oxidation products could rapidly be formed by LOX,
      whereas in oat reactions are slower due to the need of autoxidation prior to
      further reactions.

PMID- 28873696
TI  - Enhanced antimicrobial effect of ultrasound by the food colorant Erythrosin B.
AB  - The synergistic combination of the food colorant Erythrosin B (E-B, FD&C 3) (0,
      25, and 50MUM) and low-frequency ultrasound (20kHz, 0.86-0.90WmL-1) was evaluated
      against Listeria innocua. Although E-B was antibacterial by itself, the
      inactivation rate significantly increased in a concentration-dependent manner
      upon exposure to ultrasound and followed a sigmoidal behavior. The enhanced
      antimicrobial effect of E-B in the presence of ultrasound can be explained in
      part from a microbubble disappearance study in which it was confirmed that the
      presence of E-B enhances inertial cavitation, thereby enhancing the antimicrobial
      effect of ultrasound. The inactivation rate in a sequential treatment, where L.
      innocua was sonicated for 4min followed by exposure to 25MUM Erythrosin B, was
      comparable to that obtained by the simultaneous treatment, indicating
      complementary mechanisms of inactivation. Fluorescence microscopy showed
      attachment of E-B to the cells, which may explain its intrinsic antimicrobial
      property. Other mechanism may include the confirmed decrease in the cavitation
      threshold of water by addition of E-B, resulting in more effective cavitation.
      The study offers a proof-of-concept of a novel approach to complement ultrasound
      treatment for enhanced microbial inactivation.

PMID- 28873697
TI  - Inhibitory effect of phosphates on magnesium lactate efflorescence formation in
      dry-fermented sausages.
AB  - This study aimed to prevent the phenomena of efflorescence formation on the
      surface of dry fermented sausages due to the complexation of efflorescence
      forming cations with phosphates. Efflorescence formation is a critical issue
      constituting a major quality defect, especially of dry fermented sausages.
      Different phosphates (di- and hexametaphosphate) were added (3.0g/kg) to the
      sausage batter. As a hypothesis, these additives should complex with one of the
      main efflorescence-causing substances such as magnesium. The formation of
      efflorescences was determined for dry fermented sausages without phosphate
      addition, with diphosphate, or hexametaphosphate addition during 8weeks of
      storage under modified atmosphere. The visual analyses of the sausage surface
      revealed high amounts of efflorescences for the control (42.2%) and for the
      sausages with added diphosphate (40.9%), whereas the sausages containing
      hexametaphosphate had significantly reduced amounts of efflorescence formation,
      showing only 11.9% efflorescences after 8weeks of storage. This inhibition was a
      result of strong complexation of hexametaphosphate with magnesium ions, thus
      preventing the diffusion of magnesium towards the sausage surface. This can be
      explained by the magnesium content on the sausage surface that increased by
      163.9, 127.8, and 52.8% for the sausages without phosphate, diphosphate, and
      hexametaphosphate addition, respectively. The mass transport of lactate and
      creatine was not affected by phosphate addition. Isothermal titration calorimetry
      confirmed that, theoretically, 4.5g/kg of diphosphate or 2.8g/kg
      hexametaphosphate are required to complex 0.2g/kg magnesium ions naturally
      occurring in dry fermented sausages and, thus, the chosen overall phosphate
      concentration of 3.0g/kg was enough when adding hexametaphosphate, but not for
      diphosphate, to inhibit the efflorescence formation.

PMID- 28873698
TI  - Phase behaviors involved in surimi gel system: Effects of phase separation on
      gelation of myofibrillar protein and kappa-carrageenan.
AB  - Phase behaviors of mixtures of myofibrillar protein and kappa-carrageenan at
      different mixing ratios and temperatures were examined by digital images and
      confocal scanning laser microscopy, showing that that the extent of phase
      separation was enhanced as the ratio of polysaccharides and temperature
      increased. The zeta potential of the mixtures became less negative as the protein
      ratio increased, and the complex became saturated at or above the protein/kappa
      carrageenan ratio of R4 (3.2%:0.8%). Gelation process performed by dynamic
      rheological analysis demonstrated that the presence of carrageenan decreased the
      gelation temperature but increased the storage modulus. Analysis of the
      microstructures of the mixed gels showed that the networks were significantly
      influenced by the concentrations of kappa-carrageenan. The present work could be
      applied to evaluate the mechanism of competition between phase separation and
      gelation in mixtures of proteins and polysaccharides.

PMID- 28873699
TI  - Phenolics fate in table olives (Olea europaea L. cv. Nocellara del Belice)
      debittered using the Spanish and Castelvetrano methods.

PMID- 28873700
TI  - Preparation of chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol blended films containing sulfosuccinic
      acid as the crosslinking agent using UV curing process.
AB  - This paper reports on a method of preparing chitosan-based films to which
      sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) is added for crosslinking agent with/without UV curing
      treatment and applications of a coating materials for foods. The physical,
      thermal, and optical properties of the UV cured chitosan-based films are
      investigated including their tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (%E),
      degree of swelling (DS), solubility (S), and water vapor absorption as well as
      their biodegradability in soil and applicability of the coating on a fruit. We
      also evaluated the physical properties of the prepared films to which glycerol
      (GL), xylitol (XL), and sorbitol (SO) are added to be used as plasticizers. The
      surface and topography of the prepared films are investigated by scanning
      electronic microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy analysis (AFM). The
      results indicate that the films UV cured for 20min possess optimal physical and
      thermal properties compared to that of non-cured films. The mechanical, thermal,
      and water barrier properties of SO-added film are also found to be superior to
      other films with added GL and XL. The degree of biodegradability revealed that
      the films are degraded by about 40-65% after 220days.

PMID- 28873701
TI  - Encapsulation of omega-3 fatty acids in nanoemulsions and microgels: Impact of
      delivery system type and protein addition on gastrointestinal fate.
AB  - Carefully designed delivery systems are required to encapsulate and protect omega
      3 fatty acids in commercial food and beverage products, but then release them at
      the required site-of-action within the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT).
      Previously, we showed that the oxidative stability of flaxseed oil (a plant-based
      source of omega-3 fatty acids) encapsulated in nanoemulsion droplets or calcium
      alginate microgels (hydrogel beads) was improved using caseinate as a natural
      antioxidant. In this study, the impact of caseinate on the digestion of flaxseed
      oil encapsulated in these delivery systems was investigated using a simulated
      GIT. The flaxseed oil was incorporated into four delivery systems: nanoemulsions
      (NE); nanoemulsions mixed with caseinate (NE+C); hydrogel beads (HB); and,
      hydrogel beads containing caseinate (HB+C). The gastrointestinal fate of the
      flaxseed oil droplets depended on delivery system type and the presence of
      protein. The flaxseed oil in the nanoemulsions (NE and NE+C) was rapidly
      hydrolyzed within the simulated small intestine, with over 76% and 65% of free
      fatty acids (FFAs) being released in the first 5 minutes, respectively.
      Conversely, the flaxseed oil in the hydrogel beads (HB and HB+C) was digested
      much more slowly, with only around 37% and 22% being released in the same period.
      This knowledge may be useful for designing delivery systems to protect omega-3
      fatty acids from oxidation in functional foods, while still allowing them to be
      released in the GIT.

PMID- 28873702
TI  - Sensory characterization, physico-chemical properties and somatic yields of five
      emerging fish species.
AB  - Aquaculture plays an important role in supplying the fresh fish. However its
      production is dominated by only few long-established species that in turn limit
      the variety of available products in the market. Therefore, new fish species need
      to be properly introduced to create a diversification in the current market. In
      order to achieve this goal, it is important to know, understand and characterize
      their quality features so they can be addressed to local and global markets.
      Sensory, compositional, instrumental texture parameters and somatic properties of
      five emerging fish species, namely wreckfish, greater amberjack, grey mullet,
      meagre, and pikeperch, were examined for characterization purposes. Sensory
      references were specifically developed for the training of the assessors, both
      from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Twenty two sensory descriptors
      were used for describing the samples. Several differences were observed among the
      measured parameters. Somatic measures revealed the filleting yield to be the most
      important of them. Regarding the compositional parameters, fat content was among
      the most relevant discriminating aspect between species, while hardness was among
      the most differentiating ones when dealing with texture. Greater amberjack was
      described with sour flavor, pikeperch was associated to an earthy flavor and grey
      mullet was characterized by bitter flavor. Sensory firmness was clearly
      distinctive for wreckfish, while meagre related to juicy texture. The analysis of
      the relationship between all parameters provided important correlations,
      especially those related to texture parameters, fat content, laminar structure
      and teeth adherence. The species in this study exhibited a wide range of
      physicochemical and sensory characteristics that show their potential for being
      further exploited when designing new products.

PMID- 28873703
TI  - Oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by tyrosinase-crosslinked potato protein.
AB  - Potato protein (PP) holds great promise as a non-allergenic food ingredient with
      high nutritional value. Attempts to modulate its functional properties by
      crosslinking have not been reported to date. The effect of tyrosinase-mediated
      crosslinking of PP on the properties of o/w emulsions was studied in the present
      work. Among the various PPs, protease inhibitors were efficiently crosslinked by
      the enzyme as determined by SDS-PAGE analysis. Concentrated emulsions comprising
      40% olive oil and 6.1% PP (w/w) were fabricated by a shear stress homogenizer.
      The PP-stabilized emulsions were evaluated after one and 4h of incubation with
      tyrosinase. Emulsions were characterized by their droplet size distribution,
      rheological behavior, creaming resistance and microstructure. The crosslinked
      emulsion had a self-standing elastic gel-like structure after 1h of incubation.
      Unlike the Newtonian non-crosslinked emulsion, the crosslinked emulsion exhibited
      a shear-thinning behavior with a 20-fold increase in viscosity. The longer
      incubation time coupled with shaking at 250rpm for up to 4h resulted in the
      disruption of the droplets structure and led to a 2-fold decrease in viscosity,
      compared to the 1-hour crosslinked emulsion. Droplet size distribution showed
      formation of large particles in the crosslinked emulsion. Microscopy imaging
      demonstrated formation of aggregated and dense emulsion droplets network, which
      also contributed to the emulsion gel-like behavior. In the case of the non
      crosslinked emulsion, severe flocculation and coalescence was observed,
      regardless of incubation time. The results suggest that tyrosinase crosslinking
      is a useful method to modulate the properties of PP-based food formulations.

PMID- 28873704
TI  - Fractionation and identification of antioxidant peptides from an enzymatically
      hydrolysed Palmaria palmata protein isolate.
AB  - Proteins derived from the macroalgal species Palmaria palmata have emerged as
      potential substrates for the generation of bioactive peptides. The aim of this
      study was to fractionate, identify and characterize antioxidant peptides from a
      P. palmata protein hydrolysate. The P. palmata protein hydrolysate generated with
      the food-grade proteolytic enzyme Corolase PP was sequentially fractionated using
      solid phase extraction and semi-preparative (SP) RP-HPLC. The most active SP-RP
      HPLC peptide fraction (SP-RP-HPLC-30-F26) was analysed by ESI-MS/MS. Seventeen
      novel peptide sequences were identified in this fraction. Of the peptides
      selected for synthesis, Ser-Asp-Ile-Thr-Arg-Pro-Gly-Gly-Asn-Met, showed the
      highest oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and ferric reducing antioxidant
      power (FRAP) activity with values of 152.43+/-2.73 and 21.23+/-0.90nmolTE/MUmol
      peptide, respectively. The results presented herein indicate that P. palmata
      derived peptides may have potential applications as health enhancing ingredients
      and as food preservatives due to their antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28873705
TI  - Zebra blenny protein hydrolysates as a source of bioactive peptides with
      prevention effect against oxidative dysfunctions and DNA damage in heart tissues
      of rats fed a cholesterol-rich diet.
AB  - High-cholesterol diet (HCD) is suspected to produce in excess free radicals
      having adverse effects on human health and causing atherosclerosis damage in
      heart tissues. In our study, the effects of zebra blenny protein hydrolysates
      (ZBPHs) were investigated on cardiac oxidant/antioxidant status as well as DNA
      damage and histopathological disorders in rats, fed with a hypercholesterolemic
      diet. The molecular weight distribution of the hydrolysates was determined by
      size exclusion chromatography, which analyzed a representative hydrolysate type
      with a weight range of 3-20kDa. ZBPHs effectively protected heart genomic DNA
      against oxidative damage induced by Fenton's reagent. HCD promoted oxidative
      stress with a rise in serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH) activities and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance
      (TBARS), advanced oxidation protein product (AOPP) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
      levels in heart tissues. An increase in glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities as well as a fall in ATPase
      activities and glutathione (GSH) level was also noted in heart of
      hypercholesterolemic rats. Treatment with ZBPHs ameliorated the biochemical
      parameters cited above. In addition, pre-treatment with ZBPHs prevented DNA
      fragmentation. The histopathological findings confirmed the biochemical results
      and the potential antioxidant activities of ZBPHs which can help the cure and
      management of cardiovascular diseases induced by high-cholesterol levels.

PMID- 28873706
TI  - Effect of soft foods on primary human gingival epithelial cell growth and the
      wound healing process.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Investigate the effect of soft diet foods on gingival epithelial cell
      growth, migration, and mediator secretion. METHODS: Human gingival epithelial
      cells were stimulated for various time periods with the following soft diet
      foods: orange juice, drinkable yogurt, and a nutritional drink. Cell growth was
      determined by an MTT assay and cell migration was investigated by a scratch assay
      and F-actin filament staining. Keratin production was analyzed by Western blot
      and wound healing mediators IL-6 and human beta-defensin 2 were quantified by
      ELISA. RESULTS: We demonstrate, for the first time, that certain soft diet foods
      increased the production of keratin 5, 14, and 19 by gingival epithelial cells.
      These proteins were known to be produced by proliferating cells. The soft foods
      tested also stimulated gingival epithelial cells to produce IL-6 and human beta
      defensin 2. Soft foods are capable of promoting gingival epithelial cell
      migration by increasing F-actin production, which is part of the wound healing
      process. Results varied depending on the foods tested. CONCLUSION: Gingival
      epithelial cells interacted with the soft diet foods under study. This
      interaction was shown to upregulate keratin expression, as well as IL-6 and human
      beta-defensin 2 secretions. Furthermore, following cell wound, the soft foods
      upregulated post-scratch cell migration and F-actin production. Overall data
      suggest that the choice of foods in soft diets following oral surgery may
      influence the wound healing process of gingival epithelial cells.

PMID- 28873707
TI  - Green tea supplementation produces better neuroprotective effects than red and
      black tea in Alzheimer-like rat model.
AB  - : Green tea from Camellia sinensis plays a neuroprotective role in different
      neurodegenerative conditions, such as memory deficits in Alzheimer disease (AD).
      However, whether other teas from Camellia sinensis present similar
      neuroprotective effect still is not clear. Here we investigate effects of green,
      red and black tea supplementation on memory and hippocampus oxidative status in a
      rat model of Alzheimer-like disease (AD-like). METHOD: Wistar male rats were
      supplemented with green, red or black tea during 8weeks before Abeta intra
      hippocampal injection (2MUL of Abeta-25-35, CA1 region). AD and sham rats were
      submitted to memory tests. After euthanasia, oxidative status in the bilateral
      hippocampus was quantified. Green and red teas avoid memory deficits in AD rats,
      but only green tea also avoids oxidative stress and damage in the hippocampus.
      Green tea was more effective for neuroprotection than red and black teas from the
      Camellia sinensis in the AD rat model.

PMID- 28873708
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects of egg yolk livetins (alpha, beta, and gamma-livetin)
      fraction and its enzymatic hydrolysates in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW 264.7
      macrophages.
AB  - In this study, the egg yolk livetins (alpha, beta, and gamma-livetin) fraction
      and its hydrolysates, prepared by pepsin and Alcalase, were evaluated for their
      anti-inflammatory effects using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7
      macrophages as an in vitro model. Enzymatic hydrolysis by pepsin and Alcalase
      successfully transformed the large molecular weight livetins into low molecular
      mass peptides mostly below 10kDa. Results revealed that livetins and its
      hydrolysates (peptides) treatment significantly reduced the inflammatory
      responses as evidenced by inhibition of production of nitric oxide (NO) (22.7
      39.2%), pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF
      alpha) (36.9-43.2%), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) (26.1-50.9%) and interleukin-6
      (IL-6) (60.4-69.0%), and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS)
      (58.6-62%). Alcalase hydrolysate showed more effects in inhibiting prostaglandin
      E2 (PGE2) production (30.3%) as well as expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)
      (55.7%). In addition, effect of livetins and its hydrolysates on phagocytic
      capacity of the macrophages was also evaluated. The results indicate that
      livetins and its enzymatic hydrolysates significantly (p<0.001, 0.05) enhanced
      the phagocytic activity of the macrophages. The results suggest that egg yolk
      livetins and its hydrolysates with anti-inflammatory activity can potentially be
      used in health food/nutraceutical/pharmaceutical industry for various
      applications.

PMID- 28873709
TI  - Yacon syrup: Food applications and impact on satiety in healthy volunteers.
AB  - Syrup obtained from yacon roots could be well positioned as a nutritional product
      due to its high fructooligosaccharides (FOS) content. Considering this, we
      examined the potential food applications of yacon syrup, using the focal group
      methodology, and its sensorial acceptability when incorporated in yogurt. The
      beneficial effects of the consumption of yacon syrup were studied over a 2-week
      period in a double-blind placebo-controlled experiment (namely Test A) and other
      consistent of only one day of yacon syrup consumption (namely Test B) were also
      evaluated. The doses of yacon syrup for both experiments were 8.74g of FOS/day.
      Energy intake, hunger, satiety, fullness and prospective food consumption were
      assessed with analogue scales at the end of each test. The results indicate that
      the yogurt was the food most suggested by the focus group, and the average of the
      scores given to the attributes when the yacon syrup was incorporated into a
      yogurt were: 7.78 for appearance; 7.72 for aroma; 7.02 for flavor and 6.96 for
      overall acceptability, corresponding to "like very much" and "like moderately".
      Furthermore, the results indicate that yacon syrup has a positive effect on
      appetite and its effect was dependent on gender and period of intervention, being
      statistically significant (P<0.05) in women, after 2-week period. These findings
      suggested that increasing FOS intake could help to increase satiety, and
      consequently, be helpful in the management of type 2-diabetes or control of the
      current high prevalence of overweight or obesity.

PMID- 28873710
TI  - Ultrasound assisted acidification of model foods: Kinetics and impact on
      structure and viscoelastic properties.
AB  - This work aimed to describe the acidification process of two specific model foods
      using the ultrasound technology, as well as to evaluate the changes on its
      viscoelasticity properties. For that, two types of model food were used, with
      similar composition but different structures: natural melon cylinders and
      restructured melon-agar cylinders. The acidification process was performed using
      a citric acid solution (0.2% w/w) assisted with and without ultrasound (40W/L of
      volumetric power and 20kHz of frequency) at constant temperature (25 degrees C).
      In addition, the stress relaxation analysis was performed on the cylinders in
      order to evaluate the changes on the viscoelastic properties. As a result, both
      ultrasound processing and the different structural conformation of the model
      foods affected the acidification kinetics, being improved by ultrasound. Further,
      the acidification process with and without ultrasound affected the mechanical
      properties of both products, reducing their elasticity. The relaxation data could
      be described by a Maxwell model with two bodies and a residual spring, providing
      a possible explanation of the association between the mechanical model parameters
      and the microstructural conformation of both studied cases.

PMID- 28873711
TI  - Effect of dairy matrices on the survival of Streptococcus thermophilus,
      Brevibacterium aurantiacum and Hafnia alvei during digestion.
AB  - This study evaluated the ability of dairy matrices, different in composition
      (with and without fat) and structure (liquid and gel), to enhance microorganisms
      survival through digestion. The viability of three dairy microorganisms
      Streptococcus thermophilus, Brevibacterium aurantiacum and Hafnia alvei was
      measured during in vitro and in vivo digestion. S. thermophilus was highly
      sensitive to gastric stress, and was not found in the duodenal compartment. B.
      auranticum was moderately sensitive to gastric stress but resistant to duodenal
      stress. H. alvei was highly resistant to both stresses. LIVE/DEAD confocal
      microscopy's images, probed the effect of low pH on microorganisms survival.
      However, in vivo analyses (16S rRNA gene metabarcoding) failed to confirm in
      vitro observations since tested microorganisms were not detected. Despite of the
      different evolutions during digestion on buffer capacity, lipolysis, and
      rheological characteristics, we did not observe any protective effect of the
      dairy matrices on microorganisms survival.

PMID- 28873712
TI  - Identification of potential inhibitory peptides of enzymes involved in the
      metabolic syndrome obtained by simulated gastrointestinal digestion of fermented
      bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) seeds.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the conditions of bean fermentation
      carried out by Lactobacillus plantarum to obtain biologically active peptide
      fractions after in vitro digestion. The results suggest that optimum process
      conditions should be selected according to the specific activity of peptides.
      Only a fraction with a molecular mass of 3.5-7kDa obtained after fermentation at
      22 degrees C for 3h had alpha-amylase inhibitory activity. The optimal
      fermentation conditions for bean seeds to release peptide fractions with a
      molecular mass of 3.5-7.0kDa and the highest lipase or ACE inhibitory activity
      (IC50 1.19 and 0.28mg mL-1, respectively) were determined as 30 degrees C and
      3days. The fractions with the highest inhibitory activity were identified by LC
      MS/MS and the sequences of the peptide derived from bean proteins were determined
      as INEGSLLLPH, FVVAEQAGNEEGFE, SGGGGGGVAGAATASR, GSGGGGGGGFGGPRR, INEGSLLLPH,
      GGYQGGGYGGNSGGGYGNRG, GGSGGGGGSSSGRRP, and GDTVTVEFDTFLSR.

PMID- 28873713
TI  - Bioavailability and new biomarkers of cruciferous sprouts consumption.
AB  - The evaluation of the bioavailability of bioactive compounds from cruciferous
      foods is one challenge in the design of clinical trials for studying their
      functionality. Currently, studies of bioavailability are mainly based of the
      analysis of total isothiocyanates and indoles, and sulforaphane metabolites after
      broccoli consumption. However, as far as we are aware, there are not any
      biomarkers studied or established for the intake of radish sprouts. In this work,
      a 7-days-cross-over study with fourteen women was undertaken to compare the
      bioavailability of glucosinolates from broccoli and radish sprouts. The urinary
      excretion of isothiocyanates, indoles and their metabolites was analysed by UHPLC
      QqQ-MS/MS. For the first time, sulforaphene, sulforaphane-N-acetyl-l-cysteine
      (SFN-NAC) and 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM), were studied as biomarkers of dietary
      exposure to radish. The SFN-NAC and DIM were already considered biomarkers of
      broccoli consumption. Higher excretion of conjugated isothiocyanates and constant
      excretion of indoles were found during the first 12h after ingestion. Metabolites
      were excreted homogeneously during the study, suggesting no accumulation. The
      different urinary biomarker profiles provided new information to distinguish
      between the consumption of broccoli or radish sprouts. The results provide
      valuable information to better understand the bioavailability of cruciferous
      bioactives.

PMID- 28873714
TI  - Comparison of myosin heavy chain content determined by label-free quantification
      between porcine longissimus thoracis, psoas major and semimembranosus muscles.
AB  - The present study was conducted to quantify MHCs in porcine longissimus thoracis
      (LT), psoas major (PM) and semimembranosus (SM) muscles through the label-free
      quantification (LFQ). To estimate the accuracy of LFQ, quantitative RT-PCR (qRT
      PCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and Western-blotting (WB) were performed. MHCs
      2x, 2a, 2b and slow were identified by LC-MS/MS analysis and 279 ion spectra were
      selected for LFQ analysis. The content of MHC 2b was higher in LT and in SM than
      in PM (p<0.05), while the content of MHC slow was highest in PM among the muscles
      (p<0.01) regardless of LFQ types. Positive correlation coefficients of MHC 2b and
      MHC slow between LFQ and IHC (relative area composition) and qRT-PCR results
      partially supported the LFQ results. Though low-abundant peptides should be
      considered to estimate MHC contents via the spectral count method, LFQ enables
      the determination of MHC contents at protein level regardless of LFQ types.

PMID- 28873715
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects of dulse (Palmaria palmata) resulting from the
      simultaneous water-extraction of phycobiliproteins and chlorophyll a.
AB  - The use of dulse (Palmaria palmata) as a source of edible anti-inflammatory
      products was evaluated in this study. Phycobiliproteins and chlorophyll a were
      simultaneously extracted from lyophilized dulse leaves via water-extraction, and
      subjected to thermolysin digestion to produce thermolysin-digested water-extract
      (d-DWE). d-DWE significantly reduced tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6,
      and nitric oxide in LPS-stimulated murine macrophages (RAW 264.7 cells), and
      orally administered d-DWE mitigated acute inflammation in carrageenan-induced paw
      edema of mice. Mass spectrometry revealed d-DWE contained peptide LRDGEIILRY
      (derived from phycoerythrin beta-chain) and chlorophyll a decomposition products,
      and they individually reduced the secretion of the proinflammatory mediators in
      LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. These results indicate the anti-inflammatory
      activity could be from a combined effect of phycobiliprotein and chlorophyll a
      decomposition products prepared from the water-extract of dulse. Thus,
      inexpensive and safe water-extraction method is effective for the extraction of
      anti-inflammatory components from dulse.

PMID- 28873716
TI  - Characterization of four beta-glucosidases acting on isoflavone-glycosides from
      Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum IPLA 36007.
AB  - Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum IPLA 36007 acts on isoflavone glycosides,
      releasing their corresponding aglycones. This strain-specific activity might be a
      key step in making isoflavones bioavailable and harnessing their oestrogenic
      activity. To investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in this activity, four
      glycosyl hydrolase-encoding genes in the IPLA 36007 genome (AW18_01575,
      AW18_09810, AW18_08145, and AW18_08090) were selected, synthesized with
      heterologous promoter and terminator signals (r-beta-gluA, r-beta-gluB, r-beta
      gluD and r-beta-gluE, respectively), cloned into Escherichia coli, overexpressed
      as His-tagged proteins, and the enzymes purified and characterized. All four
      enzymes - GluAHis, GluBHis, GluDHis and GluEHis - proved to have beta-glucosidase
      activity and deglycosylated (although at different rates) the isoflavone
      glycosides daidzin and genistin, releasing the aglycone moieties daidzein and
      genistein, respectively. GluDHis and GluEHis were also shown to hydrolyse beta
      glucosyl disaccharides such as cellobiose and gentiobiose, while GluAHis and
      GluBHis did not. Differences in activity were recorded for all four beta
      glucosidases at different pHs and temperatures under otherwise similar assay
      conditions, suggesting they have complementary activities under different
      environmental conditions. Two of the recombinant genes, r-beta-gluA, and r-beta
      gluD, were cloned and expressed in the model lactic acid bacterium Lactococcus
      lactis, suggesting starter and probiotic organisms could be endowed with beta
      glucosidase activity. B. pseudocatenulatum IPLA 36007 contains additional beta
      glucosidases to those studied in this work, indicating a high level of redundancy
      for this enzymatic activity. Knowledge of glycoside-degrading enzymes should
      facilitate the development of novel, more effective or more selective prebiotics
      or functional foods for the promotion of bifidobacterial numbers in the human
      gut. It might also be of interest in the development of novel probiotics with
      specific health-promoting activities.

PMID- 28873717
TI  - Herbal products containing Hibiscus sabdariffa L., Crataegus spp., and Panax
      spp.: Labeling and safety concerns.
AB  - Herbs have been used from ancient times for infusion preparation based on their
      potential health effects. In particular, the consumption of Hibiscus sabdariffa
      L., Crataegus spp. and Panax spp. has been largely associated to cardiovascular
      benefits. In this work, the label information of 52 herbal products for infusion
      preparation containing the referred herbs was analyzed and discussed, taking into
      consideration the European Union regulation for herbal products, which intends to
      protect public health and harmonize the legal framework in Member States. Details
      about the cardiovascular-related statements and warning notifications about
      consumption were considered. Also, regulatory issues and possible herb-drug
      interactions were explored and discussed. A total of 14 of the 52 herbal products
      selected presented health claims/statements on the label. Hibiscus was present in
      the majority of the products and, in some cases, it was mentioned only in the
      ingredients list and not on the product front-of-pack. Despite the promising
      outcomes of these plants to modulate cardiovascular risk markers, consumers with
      some sort of cardiovascular dysfunction and/or under medication treatments should
      be aware to carefully analyze the labels and consult additional information
      related to these herbal products. Manufacturers have also a huge responsibility
      to inform consumers by presenting awareness statements. Lastly, health
      professionals must advise and alert their patients about possible interactions
      that could occur between the concomitant consumption of drugs and herbs. Overall,
      there is still a real need of additional studies and clinical trials to better
      understand herbs effects and establish a science-based guidance to assess their
      safety.

PMID- 28873718
TI  - Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in food safety: An
      integrative review.
AB  - This study presents an overview of the relationship between knowledge, attitudes
      and practices (KAP) of food handlers with training in food safety, in addition to
      proposing reflections on the training of food handlers, considering its
      responsibility for food safety and health of consumers. The review was based on
      the integrative method. The descriptors used were: (food handler), (knowledge,
      attitudes and practice) and (training). Six databases were searched, 253 articles
      were consulted and 36 original articles were included. Fifty per cent of the
      articles pointed that there was no proper translation of knowledge into
      attitudes/practices or attitudes into practices after training. Knowledge,
      attitudes and practices of food handlers are important for identifying how
      efficient training in food safety is allowing prioritize actions in planning
      training. The evaluation of KAP is the first step to understand the food
      handler's point of view. After this evaluation other diagnostic strategies become
      necessary to enhance this understanding.

PMID- 28873719
TI  - Effect of chemical composition and sonication procedure on properties of food
      grade soy lecithin liposomes with added glycerol.
AB  - The effect of two-step and five-step acetone washing of soybean lecithin (SL) on
      compositional properties of partially purified phosphatidylcholines (PW2 and PW5)
      was studied. Trace amounts of protein were detected in SL, PW2 and PW5, with a
      predominance of glutamic acid and aspartic acid. Increasing the number of acetone
      washing steps significantly reduced the total content of gamma-, delta- and alpha
      tocopherol. Similar reductions (~90%) of neutral lipids were found in both PW2
      and PW5, but the removal of free fatty acids was higher in PW5 than in PW2 (78%
      vs. 71%). Linoleic acid was the main constituent in both the neutral lipids and
      the phospholipid fractions of SL, PW2 and PW5, accounting for around 53-59% of
      total fatty acids; however, a considerable amount of it was removed by increasing
      the number of washing steps. All phospholipid classes were mostly concentrated in
      the first two-step washing of lecithin. Further washing increased the
      concentration of phosphatidylcholine (PC) in PW5, as compared to PW2. Glycerol
      containing liposomes from PW2 and PW5 were produced using two different-intensity
      sonication procedures (method A: 120W, 5min; method B: 30W, 2min) using a probe
      type sonicator (100mL volume suspension). Liposomes of soy lecithin and liposomes
      of PW5 without glycerol were also obtained by using strong sonication (method A).
      The liposomal dispersion with the highest purification and the stronger
      sonication was clearly distinguished from the others, both in particle size and
      in zeta potential. DSC results showed noticeable interference of glycerol in the
      membrane structure, but minimal changes in particle size and surface charge.

PMID- 28873720
TI  - Deciphering the characteristics of soybean oleosome-associated protein in
      maintaining the stability of oleosomes as affected by pH.
AB  - The understanding of the behavior of natural oleosomes is very important for
      leading to advancements in liposome manufacturing. Thus, the aims of this work
      was to evaluate the stable behaviors of oleosomes with regards to a wide pH range
      (2.0-11.0) using soybean oleosomes. The conformation changes and surface
      hydrophobicity of soybean oleosome-associated protein, and as well as zeta
      potential and particle size distribution of oleosome were investigated. The
      particle size and zeta-potential of oleosomes, and surface hydrophobicity of
      oleosome-associated proteins were found to be readily affected by pHs. The
      secondary structure of oleosome-associated proteins was more susceptible to
      alkaline treatment than acidic treatment. The most stable oleosomes suspension
      was occurred at pH9.0. The electrostatic repulsion and hydrophobic interaction
      simultaneously affected the stability of oleosome. At pH2.0 to 6.0, acidic
      treatment did not significantly change the secondary structure of oleosome
      associated proteins. With an increased treatment pH of 8.0-11.0, the contents of
      alpha-helix and random coil structures of oleosome-associated proteins decreased,
      while the amount of beta-sheet structures increased. Results highlighted the
      interesting fact that the aggregation of oleosomes occurring at different pHs was
      attributed to the synergistic effects between conformation changes and
      interaction properties of oleosome-associated proteins.

PMID- 28873721
TI  - Influence of fat structure on the mechanical properties of commercial pate
      products.
AB  - Five commercial brand pates were characterized by examining their texture,
      microstructure, fatty acid composition, melting profile, and polymorphism. Pates
      evaluated at 4 degrees C showed much higher hardness values compared to when
      tested at 22 degrees C. Pates with higher fat content and higher saturated fatty
      acid and triacylglycerol contents were found to be harder. Smaller fat globules
      were also found to be correlated to higher hardness values. Increases in solid
      fat content were correlated to an increased hardness at 4 degrees C vs. room
      temperature but could not explain differences observed at a specific temperature.
      Powder X-ray diffraction studies demonstrated that while the fat extracted from
      one of the pates crystallized in a beta polymorphic form; while embedded in a
      pate protein matrix, it was crystallized in a beta' polymorphic form. This
      implies an effect of the food matrix on fat crystallization and structure and an
      interaction between fat and other components present in the food matrix.

PMID- 28873722
TI  - Comparison between boiling and vacuum cooking (sous-vide) in the bioaccessibility
      of minerals in bovine liver samples.
AB  - Only some of ingested nutrients are available for absorption by the organism. The
      foods generally are submitted to some heat processing that may interfere in the
      bioaccessibility of nutrients. There are no studies of the influence of cooking
      under vacuum (sous vide) on the bioaccessibility of minerals. This study
      evaluated the in vitro bioaccessibility of Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg and Zn in bovine
      liver samples after traditional cooking in water and using the sous vide
      procedure. All heat treatments of bovine liver promoted the increase of the
      bioaccessibility of Ca, Cu, Fe, K and Mg, except for Zn when the effect was the
      opposite. The sous vide method provided higher bioaccessibility of these minerals
      than cooking in boiling water, except for K when both methods presented
      equivalent values. Samples of raw liver and liver cooked using sous vide method
      presented the following percentage of bioaccessible fraction, respectively: 39.7%
      and 95.8% (Ca), 8.78% and 26.9% (Cu), 8.80% and 39.5% (Fe), 30.2% and 42.6% (K),
      26.4% and 43.9% (Mg), 24.8% and 36.3% (Zn). Thus, under the aspect of improvement
      availability of studied minerals by organism, the sous-vide technique was the
      most suitable to cook bovine liver.

PMID- 28873723
TI  - Substrates emulsification process to improve lipase-catalyzed sardine oil
      glycerolysis in different systems. Evaluation of lipid oxidation of the reaction
      products.
AB  - Mono- and diacylglycerols rich in omega-3 have a great interest due to their good
      bioavailability and oxidation stability compared with other kind of omega-3
      concentrates. The main drawback in mono- and diacylglycerols production by
      glycerolysis is the immiscibility of the substrates, oil and glycerol. To improve
      mass transfer rates, avoiding the use of organic solvents, emulsification of both
      reactants as reverse micelles (glycerol-in-oil) was carried out previous to
      lipase-catalyzed sardine oil glycerolysis. Substrate emulsification yielded
      higher reaction rates compared to kinetics with no previous emulsification, but
      still lower than in organic solvents. To avoid the use of organic solvent, SC-CO2
      was used as reaction medium but no kinetic advantages were demonstrated in the
      pressure range from 15 to 25 MPa. By increasing temperature, from 40 to 90
      degrees C, reaction rates increased both in a solvent-free system and in SC-CO2
      medium. It was also found that an increase in temperature does not lead to an
      increase in the final oxidation status of the reaction products. This behavior
      was due to the adsorption capacity of the Lipozyme 435 support, giving lower
      oxidation status at the highest temperature, 80-90 degrees C.

PMID- 28873724
TI  - Combinative effect of sardine peptides and quercetin alleviates hypertension
      through inhibition of angiotensin I converting enzyme activity and inflammation.
AB  - Hypertension had relation to angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) activity and
      inflammation. In our previous research, sardine peptides (SP) with ACE inhibitory
      activity were prepared. However, the combinative effect of SP and quercetin (QC)
      on hypertension alleviation was still unknown. In the present study, the
      antihypertensive effect of SP and QC was discovered and the optimal proportion of
      SP and QC (v/v=8:2, with 20.00mg/mL of SP and 12.99MUg/mL of QC for their
      original concentrations) was screened on ACE activity inhibition in vitro. And
      the in vivo experiment supported it by indicating that the mixture reduced the
      systolic blood pressure, heart, left ventricular and kidney weight and their
      corresponding indices, serum ACE activity, angiotensin-II (ANG-II) and tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) (in high dose) concentration in SHR rats.
      Besides, the mixture also lowers NO, TNF-alpha andinterleukin-6 (IL-6)
      concentration significantly in vitro. Hence, the combinative effect of SP and QC
      in optimal proportion had stronger inhibition on ACE activity than SP or QC
      alone, and could alleviate hypertension through inhibition of ACE activity and
      inflammation.

PMID- 28873725
TI  - Improved gel functionality of myofibrillar proteins incorporation with sugarcane
      dietary fiber.
AB  - The effects of sugarcane dietary fiber (SDF) on the gelation properties of
      porcine myofibrillar proteins (MP) were studied to understand its mechanism of
      action in improving gel functionality. Rheological tests on all composite gels
      (MP with SDF) showed the visco-elastic nature of MP, but the G' significantly
      increased with contents of SDF and with particle size (P<0.05). However, the
      delta exhibited the opposite effect. Light microscopy suggested that SDF affected
      moisture distribution in the gel by drawing water from MP and homogenously
      embedded in gelation. It is proposed that during the heating the more
      concentrated MP promoted the unfolding of MP chains and facilitated the formation
      of beta-sheet instead of alpha-helices, leading to a compact and homogenous three
      dimensioned network. These results indicated that the SDF changed the water
      distribution and resulted in the enhanced gelation which reacted to firmly bind
      SDF and form a synergistic interaction system.

PMID- 28873726
TI  - Effect of high-pressure treatments on proteolysis, volatile compounds, texture,
      colour, and sensory characteristics of semi-hard raw ewe milk cheese.
AB  - High pressure (HP) offers potential industrial applications in cheese
      preservation, but it is essential to provide knowledge concerning their effects
      on the ripening process and sensory characteristics. In this study, we
      investigated the effect of different HP treatments (200-500MPa at 14 degrees C
      for 10min on day 7) on proteolysis, texture, colour, volatile compounds and
      sensory characteristics of semi-hard raw ewe milk cheese. HP treatments did not
      affect pH or dry matter values of 60-day-old cheeses. Treatments at pressure
      levels up to 400MPa led to significant (P<0.01) increases in the total free amino
      acids (FAA) content at 60days, compared to control cheese, although the cell-free
      aminopeptidase activity was lower. HP retarded the formation of some volatile
      compounds in cheeses, the number of compounds affected by HP being higher as the
      pressure level increased. Cheeses pressurized at 300-500MPa had lower levels of 2
      butanone, 2-butanol, 2-propen-1-ol, 1-butanol and acetic acid than control
      cheese, cheeses pressurized at 400-500MPa lower levels of 1-propanol, 2-pentanol,
      and butyric and hexanoic acids, and cheeses pressurized at 500MPa lower levels of
      ethanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol. All HP-treated cheeses
      showed higher fracturability values, and higher Hue angle and lower a* values
      than control cheese. Despite the differences detected by instrumental analyses
      between HP-cheeses and control cheese, few significant differences were found
      between the sensory characteristics of HP-cheeses and control cheese. Only the
      pressurization of cheese at 500MPa affected significantly (P<0.01) some of the
      sensory characteristics, with a negative effect on taste intensity but a positive
      effect on aroma quality. In summary, HP treatments at 200 and 300MPa showed the
      mildest effects on the characteristics of semi-hard raw ewe milk cheese. HP
      treatment of this cheese variety at 300, 400 and 500MPa prevented late blowing
      defect caused by Clostridium tyrobutyricum (Avila et al., 2016, Food Microbiol.
      60, 165-173). Thus, it may be concluded that HP treatment at 300MPa is the most
      adequate procedure, able to prevent late blowing with minimum changes in cheese
      characteristics.

PMID- 28873727
TI  - Impact of fermentation conditions on the quality and sensory properties of a
      probiotic cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum) beverage.
AB  - The aim of the study was to evaluate the conditions of fermentation pH and
      temperature and also the fermentation time of Lactobacillus casei in the cupuassu
      (tropical fruit native to the Brazilian Amazon) beverage. The sugars, organic
      acids, and antioxidant activity during the fermentation also were investigated.
      The sensory characteristics were also evaluated. Moreover, the effect of
      expectation on the acceptability of probiotic and symbiotic cupuassu beverages
      was rated under three conditions. The blind (consumers were informed that the
      samples were probiotic and symbiotic beverages and they tasted them); expected
      (only nutritional claims in short text were informed) and informed (consumers
      were asked to evaluate the product when they had nutritional information). The
      conditions for probiotic beverage production were initial pH5.8, the temperature
      of 30 degrees C, and 18h of fermentation. L. casei had viability higher than
      9.34LogCFU/mL with 18h of fermentation. The fructose was the most consumed sugar
      (84.76%), followed by sucrose (62.10%) and glucose (34.52%). The antioxidant
      activity increased during the fermentation. The organic acids present in the
      cupuassu (citric, ascorbic and quinic acids) also supported L. casei growth,
      being consumed during the fermentation improving the nutritional value of the
      beverage. The acceptance of the probiotic drink increased when the juice was
      presented to the informed tasters. Therefore, the nutrition claims were effective
      in increasing the acceptance. The probiotic cupuassu beverage was well accepted
      as an alternative functional food.

PMID- 28873728
TI  - Development and characterization of a new encapsulating agent from orange juice
      by-products.
AB  - The replacement of maltodextrins as carriers for the spray drying of sticky and
      sugar based bioactives is an important development for the food industry. In this
      work, orange juice industry by-product was used to obtain a high dietary fiber
      powder to be used as carrier material. This powder was characterized with respect
      to its physical and chemical properties related to the process of encapsulation
      by spray drying. Adsorption isotherms of orange waste powder were determined at
      30, 45, and 60 degrees C. The data were fitted to several models including two
      parameter (BET, Halsey, Smith, and Oswin), three-parameter (GAB), and four
      parameter (Peleg) relationships. The GAB model best fitted the experimental data.
      The isosteric heat of sorption was determined from the equilibrium sorption data
      using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. Isosteric heats of sorption were found to
      decrease exponentially with increasing moisture content. The enthalpy-entropy
      compensation theory was applied to the sorption isotherms and indicated an
      enthalpy controlled sorption process. Glass transition temperatures (Tg) of
      orange waste powder conditioned at various water activities were determined and a
      strong plasticizing effect of water on Tg was found. These data were satisfactory
      correlated by the Gordon and Taylor model. The critical water activity and
      moisture content for the orange waste powder were 0.82 and 0.18g water/g solids,
      respectively, at a storage temperature of 25 degrees C.

PMID- 28873729
TI  - A multifactorial approach in characterizing geographical origin of Sicilian
      cherry tomatoes using 1H-NMR profiling.
AB  - In this study, metabolomic analysis of chloroform extracts was performed to
      characterize cherry tomatoes (cv Naomi and Shiren) grown in different Sicilian
      areas, using 1H NMR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistical analysis.
      Principal components analysis showed clear discrimination between extracts of
      cherry tomatoes cultivated in two different seasons (winter and summer) and grown
      in three areas of Sicily (Gela, Licata, Pachino). In particular, carotenoids and
      phospholipids mainly were found to be more discriminating metabolites for both
      cultivars in summer and winter. In the present study, the simple separation only
      based on production area was found to be inadequate to distinguish the three
      groups of tomatoes. A clear separation among the different samples groups was
      obtained using a multifactorial approach not only based on the geographical
      origin classification, but considering also cultivar, year and seasonality.

PMID- 28873730
TI  - Probiotics as potential alternative biocontrol agents in the agriculture and food
      industries: A review.
AB  - Pathogenic microorganisms are a potential threat to the agriculture and food
      industries. Food contamination can be happened in the production levels at any
      point in the chain by pathogenic microorganisms. Conventional methods, such as
      those involving antibiotics, disinfectants, and physical methods, are commonly
      used as microbial control strategies. Owing to the limitations of these methods,
      such as emergence of resistance, low effectiveness, high cost, and detrimental
      effects on food, health, and the environment, many countries have adopted laws
      and regulations restricting their use. To overcome these problems, an
      environmentally friendly, cost-effective alternative approach is urgently needed.
      Probiotics are live microorganisms that offer health benefits to the host, when
      consumed in adequate amounts, by providing pathogen protective action and
      nutritional benefits. From a food microbiological point of view, to use
      probiotics in animals, there is a reduction of zoonotic pathogens in the gastro
      intestinal tract (GIT) among animals which prevent the transmission of these
      pathogens through food. Therefore, probiotics have been proposed as an
      alternative antimicrobial means to protect against pathogenic microorganisms for
      better healthcare and food safety. In this review, we discuss probiotics, their
      selection criteria, mechanisms of action, and their prospects as alternative
      biocontrol agents, with special emphasis on the agriculture (livestock and
      aquaculture sectors), and food industries.

PMID- 28873731
TI  - Comparative proteomic analysis of Cronobacter sakazakii by iTRAQ provides
      insights into response to desiccation.
AB  - Cronobacter sakazakii is a foodborne pathogen throughout the world and survives
      extremely desiccation stress. However, the molecular basis involved in
      desiccation resistance of C. sakazakii is still unknown. In this study, the
      potential desiccation resistance factors of C. sakazakii ATCC 29544 were
      determined using iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis. A total of 2775
      proteins were identified by iTRAQ, of which 233 showed a different protein
      expression between control group and desiccation stress group. Among these 233
      proteins identified as desiccation resistance proteins, there were 146 proteins
      downregulated and 87 proteins upregulated. According to the comprehensive
      proteome coverage analysis, C. sakazakii increased its resistance to desiccation
      by reducing the gene involved with unnecessary survival functions such as those
      used for virulence, adhesion, invasion and flagella assembly, while increasing
      gene expression of genes used in withstanding osmotic stress such as those genes
      involved in trehalose and betaine uptake. However, the mechanism involved in
      amino acid metabolism in an osmotic stress response, including the producing of
      gamma-aminobutyric acid in C. sakazakii is still uncertain. This is the first
      report to determine the potential desiccation resistant factors of C. sakazakii
      at the proteomic levels.

PMID- 28873732
TI  - Unprecedented antioxidative and anti-inflammatory aryl polyketides from the brown
      seaweed Sargassum wightii.
AB  - Previously undescribed aryl polyketide lactones, 4-(8-ethyl-tetrahydro-7-oxo-2H
      pyran-5-yl)-propyl-4'-methylbenzoate (compound 1) and methyl-2-(12-oxo-7-phenyl-8
      vinyl-1-oxa-4,9-cyclododecadien-3-yl)-acetate (compound 2) were purified from
      ethyl acetate-methanol fraction of the brown seaweed Sargassum wightii. The
      structures were proposed based on their NMR and mass spectrometric data. The
      antioxidative activities of the lactones were significantly greater (P<0.05)
      (IC50 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging 0.24-0.32mg/mL) than alpha
      tocopherol (IC50 0.63mg/mL). The title compounds displayed considerably greater 5
      lipoxygenase inhibitory activity (IC50 0.56 and 0.29mg/mL, respectively) in
      conjunction with higher selectivity indices (anti-cycloxygense-1IC50/anti
      cycloxygense-2IC50 >1) compared to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
      (SIaspirin 0.03, SIibuprofen 0.43). Putative biosynthetic pathway of title
      polyketide products through polyketide synthase enzyme cascade catalyzed
      reactions substantiated the structural attributions of the hitherto unreported
      aryl polyketides. This is the first report of the occurrence and characterization
      of two rare skeletal types, oxo-2H-pyranyl and oxa-cyclododecadienyl macrolactone
      featuring the aryl substituent from marine organisms with potential antioxidative
      and anti-inflammatory activities.

PMID- 28873733
TI  - Bioaccessibility and antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds in frozen pulps
      of Brazilian exotic fruits exposed to simulated gastrointestinal conditions.
AB  - This study characterized the phenolic profile in siriguela, umbu-caja and
      mangaba, as well in their frozen pulps (FPs). The bioaccessibility of phenolic
      compounds and the antioxidant activity of the FP dialysates were determined
      following exposure to simulated gastrointestinal conditions. The profile of
      phenolic compounds identified in fruit and FPs were relatively similar. After
      pulp processing, increases of 33.60% and 68.72% in free phenolics were observed
      for mangaba and umbu-caja, respectively, whereas in siriguela, the free phenolic
      was reduced by 56.55%. Generally, phenolic levels decreased after exposure to
      simulated gastric conditions in all FPs. The bioaccessibility of phenolics varied
      among the evaluated FPs. The highest bioaccessibility was observed for gallic
      acid in the umbu-caja FP (73.92%) and the lowest for gentisic acid in the mangaba
      FP (8.71%). Siriguela and umbu-caja FP dialysates presented the highest capacity
      for the capture of the radical 2,2'-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl hydrate, whereas
      the mangaba FP dialysate demonstrated the highest iron reducing capacity.

PMID- 28873734
TI  - Effect of extrusion conditions on the physico-chemical properties and in vitro
      protein digestibility of canola meal.
AB  - Canola meal has potential as a high protein food ingredient. The extrusion
      induced changes in color, pH, extractable protein and in vitro protein
      digestibility of canola meal under different extrusion conditions was assessed.
      The extrusion barrel moisture (24%, 30% or 36%) and screw kneading block length
      (0, 30 or 60mm) were used as independent process parameters. Extrusion at high
      barrel moisture (36%) favored protein aggregation resulting in lower extractable
      protein compared to extrusion at the lowest barrel moisture (24%). At lower
      barrel moisture contents (24% and 30%), a longer kneading block length increased
      extractable protein but this was not the case at 36% barrel moisture. Canola
      protein digestibility was improved upon extrusion at 30% barrel moisture but
      there was no significant change at lower (24%) or higher (36%) barrel moisture.
      The kneading block length of the screw had no significant effect on the canola
      protein digestibility within the same barrel moisture level. The relationship
      between the physico-chemical parameters and in vitro digestibility was examined.
      This study highlighted the complex interplay of extrusion processing variables
      that affect protein degradation and the interaction of components, with
      consequent effects on protein digestibility.

PMID- 28873735
TI  - Physical properties and FTIR analysis of rice-oat flour and maize-oat flour based
      extruded food products containing olive pomace.
AB  - Olive pomace, a waste stream from olive oil processing, was fractionated by
      centrifugation to obtain a supernatant and a flesh-enriched fraction, and freeze
      dried to obtain a powder. The dried supernatant contained 5.8% moisture, 4.8%
      protein, 3.5% fat, 3.5% ash, 82.4% carbohydrate (including 17.2% dietary fiber)
      and polyphenols (2970mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100g). The dried flesh
      enriched fraction, contained 5.9% moisture, 13.4% protein, 14.2% fat, 3.5% ash,
      63.1% carbohydrate (including 42.7% dietary fiber) and polyphenols (1960mg
      GAE/100g). The extruded products using rice-oat flour or maize-oat flour mixtures
      as the base were formulated to contain 5% or 10% olive pomace fractions (dry
      basis). The extruded products with added olive pomace fractions has higher fiber
      (2-7g/100g) and polyphenol contents (67-161mg GAE/100g) compared to the
      corresponding mixtures of rice-oat flour base (0.92g/100g fiber, 20mg GAE/100g)
      or maize-oat flour base (3.2g/100g fiber, 20mg GAE/100g) without olive pomace
      fractions. Addition of olive pomace fractions reduced the die pressure and
      specific mechanical energy during extrusion and resulted in lower radial
      expansion in the extruded product. The impact of the addition of olive pomace
      fraction on physical characteristics of the extruded product is higher for rice
      oat flour base than maize-oat flour base. The underlining mechanism was explained
      by FTIR analysis. FTIR showed that there were significant changes in the
      carbohydrate components and the structure of the proteins on extrusion, with
      consequent effects on the expansion and density of the extruded product. This
      study showed the feasibility of preparing fiber and polyphenol enriched extruded
      products by incorporation of olive pomace. This shows the potential of recovery
      and diversion of edible components from waste streams of olive oil processing for
      formulation of extruded products.

PMID- 28873736
TI  - Formation and characterization of supramolecular structures of beta-lactoglobulin
      and lactoferrin proteins.
AB  - Combination of beta-lactoglobulin (beta-Lg) and lactoferrin (Lf),
      biomacromolecules derived from bovine whey, was used in the formation of
      supramolecular structures by thermal gelation technique to adjust the pH.
      Furthermore, the influence of the molar ratio, temperature, pH, and heating time
      in the formation of supramolecular structures were also studied. The
      characterization of the protein supramolecular structures was performed using
      dynamic light scattering, zeta potential measurements, molecular
      spectrofluorimetry, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The thermal behavior of
      the pure proteins was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. The
      protein denaturation temperatures were of around 85 degrees C for the beta-Lg and
      around 52 degrees C and 85 degrees C (a small portion) for the Lf. The protein
      molar ratio of 2:1 Lf/beta-Lg was used to form the structures, whose
      characterization showed that the best conditions of supramolecular structure
      formation occurred at pH6.5 and at temperatures of 62.5 degrees C. In those
      conditions, more stable systems with reduced hydrophobic surface and average
      sizes between 30 and 100nm were generated. The correlation between pH and
      temperature suggests that the method of preparation of the supramolecular
      structure affects its size during storage.

PMID- 28873737
TI  - An integrated strategy to discover Lactobacillus casei group strains for their
      potential use as aromatic starters.
AB  - Lactic acid bacteria are commonly used in dairy industries to acidify milk and to
      enhance the flavour of the end products thanks to their metabolisms. The
      formation routes of aroma compounds mainly rely on the specific ability of
      different species and strains to convert precursors derived from carbohydrate and
      amino acids catabolism. It is well known that the strains largely involved in the
      aroma formation of the very appreciated Italian long ripened cheeses belong to
      the Lactobacillus casei group and origin from raw milk. In this study, a
      spontaneous fermentation of Parmigiano Reggiano raw milks was carried out to
      isolate new strains potentially usable as adjunctive aromatic starter. For this
      reason, specific selection criteria were chosen to isolate strains belonging to
      L. casei, and L. paracasei species. An integrated approach, by mean of impedance
      microbiology and SPME GC-MS analysis, was applied to investigate the acidifying
      performance and the production of volatile compounds of seven strains in UHT
      whole milk. One of these strains, L. paracasei 4341, appear to be the most
      interesting one from the technological point of view both for its acidifying and
      aromatic features. This approach could be employed for selection of the aromatic
      strains to be potentially used as adjunct starter in dairy sector.

PMID- 28873738
TI  - Impact of volatile composition on the sensorial attributes of dried paprikas.
AB  - Here we characterised the aroma of smoked, oven-dried, and sun-dried paprikas by
      sensorial evaluation and analysis of their volatile profiles. The sensorial panel
      defined smoked paprikas as having an intense, persistent, smoked odour and
      flavour and the highest acceptability. The oven-dried paprikas had a fruity odour
      and flavour related with aroma notes to fresh peppers. The sun-dried paprikas
      were associated with straw aromas and the worse valued. The chemical classes of
      volatile compounds also defined the paprika types. The smoked paprikas were
      richer in alcohols, phenols, pyrroles, and pyranones, whereas the oven-dried
      samples were characterised by their aldehydes and terpenes. The sun-dried
      paprikas had significantly lower amounts of odorant substances than the smoked
      and oven-dried paprikas. The intensity, persistence and smokiness descriptors
      (associated with smoked paprika) were positively associated with phenols and
      alcohols. Aldehydes were positively correlated with a fruity descriptor, which
      defined oven-dried paprikas, and negatively correlated with intensity,
      persistence, smokiness, toasted, and dried pepper descriptors. The descriptor
      straw, which defined sun-dried paprikas, was negatively correlated with alcohols,
      phenols, furans, and pyrroles.

PMID- 28873739
TI  - Effect of symbiotic interaction between a fructooligosaccharide and probiotic on
      the kinetic fermentation and chemical profile of maize blended rice beverages.
AB  - There is an important demand for the development of new non-dairy probiotic
      beverages in the functional food market. This work aimed to develop new fermented
      beverages from maize and rice. Lactobacillus plantarum CCMA 0743, Torulaspora
      delbrueckii CCMA 0235, and the commercial probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus
      LACA 4, were used as a mixed starter culture. Two prebiotic concentrations, 20
      and 50g/L fructooligosaccharide (FOS) were tested. The growth of L. acidophilus
      LACA 4 was favored by 50g/L FOS and after refrigerated storage at 4 degrees C for
      28days, its population remained above 107CFU/mL. Lactic and acetic acids were the
      main organic acids detected, at around 3.7 and 0.5g/L, respectively. Ethanol was
      present at <5g/L in non-alcoholic beverages. Fifty-five volatile compounds
      including acids, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, pyrazines and others, were
      detected. The sensorial analysis demonstrated that >50% of consumers liked
      slightly or liked extremely the beverages (scores from 6-9). Therefore, potential
      symbiotic cereal beverages were successfully obtained using a mix of lactic acid
      bacteria and yeast as a starter culture. This is an important step in the
      commercial production of alternative beverages from common food substrates for
      consumers.

PMID- 28873740
TI  - Identification of peptides with antioxidant and antihypertensive capacities by RP
      HPLC-Q-TOF-MS in dry fermented camel sausages inoculated with different starter
      cultures and ripening times.
AB  - Low molecular weight peptides are produced during meat fermentation. They
      contribute to generate flavor compounds but they can also exert certain
      bioactivities. The aim of this work was to evaluate, for the first time, the
      generation of bioactive peptides during the preparation of dry fermented camel
      sausages and to study the influence of the ripening time and the starter culture
      on bacteria growing, peptide concentration and size, and antioxidant and
      antihypertensive capacities of peptides. Camel meat sausages inoculated with
      different starter bacteria and non-inoculated were ripened up to 28days. Results
      demonstrated that bacteria population, peptide concentration, and peptide size
      were affected by the ripening time and the inoculated bacteria. Moreover, the
      ripening process resulted in an increasing antioxidant and antihypertensive
      capacity showing the highest bioactivities in fractions with peptides below 3kDa.
      Peptides in these fractions were identified by RP-HPLC-Q-TOF-MS analysis.
      Identified peptides showed common features with peptides with antioxidant or
      antihypertensive activity.

PMID- 28873742
TI  - Experimental study of physical and rheological properties of grape juice using
      different temperatures and concentrations. Part I: Cabernet Sauvignon.
AB  - The effect of the temperature and concentration on rheological behavior of
      Cabernet Sauvignon juice concentrates was assessed using a rheometer over a wide
      range of temperature (1-66 degrees C) and concentrations (13.6-45.0Brix) at shear
      rates of 0.84-212.1 1/s. The Ostwald-De Waele was the best rheological model
      fitted the data (R2=0.99957 and relative error=7.77%). The Cabernet Sauvignon
      juice concentrates presented a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior (n<1). The
      consistency levels were significantly reduced with the increase of temperature
      and increased with the increase of the concentrations. The flow activation energy
      ranged from 28.87 (45.0Brix) to 38.05KJ/mol (37.0Brix) with a R2=0.9798 for both
      cases. Density and specific heat were influenced by both temperature and
      concentration; however, thermal conductivity was only influenced by
      concentration. The Cabernet Sauvignon juice concentrates will be useful as wine
      chaptalization agent in future studies.

PMID- 28873741
TI  - Hibiscus sabdariffa L. as a source of nutrients, bioactive compounds and
      colouring agents.
AB  - The nutritional and bioactive composition of plants have aroused much interest
      not only among scientists, but also in people's daily lives. Apart from the
      health benefits, plants are a source of pigments that can be used as natural food
      colorants. In this work, the nutritional composition of Hibiscus sabdariffa L.
      was analysed, as well as its bioactive compounds and natural pigments. Glucose
      (sugar), malic acid (organic acid), alpha-tocopherol (tocopherol) and linoleic
      acid (fatty acid) were the major constituents in the corresponding classes. 5
      (Hydroxymethyl) furfural was the most abundant non-anthocyanin compound, while
      delphinidin-3-O-sambubioside was the major anthocyanin both in its hydroethanolic
      extract and infusion. H. sabdariffa extracts showed antioxidant and antimicrobial
      activities, highlighting that the hydroethanol extract presents not only lipid
      peroxidation inhibition capacity, but also bactericidal/fungicidal inhibition
      ability for all the bacteria and fungi tested. Furthermore, both extracts
      revealed the absence of toxicity using porcine primary liver cells. The studied
      plant species was thus not only interesting for nutritional purposes but also for
      bioactive and colouring applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical
      industries.

PMID- 28873743
TI  - Inhibition of tyrosinase by cherimoya pericarp proanthocyanidins: Structural
      characterization, inhibitory activity and mechanism.
AB  - In this study, the structure of proanthocyanidins purified from cherimoya (Annona
      squamosa) pericarp was analyzed by ESI-QTOF-MS and HPLC analyses. The result
      indicated that these compounds were procyanidin-type proanthocyanidins,
      consisting mainly of (epi)catechin units linked b y B-type interflavan bonds. The
      analyses of enzymology showed that the activities of monophenolase and
      diphenolase of tyrosinase could be powerfully inhibited by the proanthocyanidins.
      Further researches on the inhibition mechanism demonstrated that they were
      reversible and competitive inhibitors with the KI value of 27.1+/-3.1MUg/mL.
      These inhibitors quenched the fluorescence of tyrosinase through a static
      quenching mechanism and spontaneously formed proanthocyanidins-enzyme complex.
      Fluorescence changes of proanthocyanidins in the presence of copper ion suggested
      that the interactions could reduce the fluorescence intensity of these polymers
      and the molecular docking analysis revealed that copper irons of the enzyme could
      be chelated by adjacent hydroxyl groups on the B ring of proanthocyanidins.
      Moreover, proanthocyanidins were proved to be efficient quencher of substrates.
      These results would lay scientific foundation for their farther application in
      food and medicine industry.

PMID- 28873744
TI  - Non-destructive techniques for the detection of fungal infection in cereal
      grains.
AB  - Infection of cereal grains by fungi is a serious problem worldwide. Depending on
      the environmental conditions, cereal grains may be colonised by different species
      of fungi. These fungi cause reduction in yield, quality and nutritional value of
      the grain; and of major concern is their production of mycotoxins which are
      harmful to both humans and animals. Early detection of fungal contamination is an
      essential control measure for ensuring storage longevity and food safety.
      Conventional methods for detection of fungal infection, such as culture and
      colony techniques or immunological methods are either slow, labour intensive or
      difficult to automate. In recent years, there has been an increasing need to
      develop simple, rapid, non-destructive methods for early detection of fungal
      infection and mycotoxins contamination in cereal grains. Methods such as near
      infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, NIR hyperspectral imaging, and electronic nose were
      evaluated for these purposes. This paper reviews the different non-destructive
      techniques that have been considered thus far for detection of fungal infection
      and mycotoxins in cereal grains, including their principles, application and
      limitations.

PMID- 28873745
TI  - Study of the influence of varietal amino acid profiles on the polyfunctional
      mercaptans released from their precursors.
AB  - Polyfunctional mercaptans such as 4-mercapto-4-methyl-2-pentanone, 3
      mercaptohexanol and 3-mercaptohexyl acetate contribute strongly to the varietal
      aroma of wines. These compounds are released during alcoholic fermentation from
      their precursors and their concentration is strongly linked to the grape variety.
      The aim of this work was to determine the effect of nine different amino acid
      profiles of grape varieties on the release of these polyfunctional mercaptans and
      on the consumption of their precursors as well as to determine which are the
      preferred precursors. A set-up of fermentations of synthetic must was prepared,
      which simulated the amino acid profiles of nine different grape varieties,
      containing known amounts of polyfunctional mercaptan precursors as well as the
      elements necessary for the yeast metabolism. The yeast assimilable nitrogen was
      adjusted in percentage to reach 150mgN/L in all the fermentations. Polyfunctional
      mercaptans and their precursors were analyzed in the final wine by gas
      chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with negative chemical ionization and
      ultrahigh liquid performance chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry,
      respectively. The results showed significant differences in the release of these
      polyfunctional mercaptans as well as in the consumption of their precursors
      according to the amino acid profile. Moreover, it was observed that the preferred
      precursor of 4-mercapto-4-methyl-2-pentanone was its cysteinylated precursor.
      These results suggest that the amount of the amino acids as well as the ratio
      between them could modify the amount of polyfunctional mercaptans released. This
      could be a tool for the wine industry to vary the aromatic profile of wines by
      increasing or decreasing these volatile thiols.

PMID- 28873746
TI  - White-fruited strawberry genotypes are not per se hypoallergenic.
AB  - The strawberry fruit Fra a 1-proteins are homologues of the major birch pollen
      allergen Bet v 1 and have essential biological functions in pigment formation
      during fruit ripening. Patients affected by allergy against birch pollen
      tolerated fruits of a naturally occurring white-fruited F.*ananassa genotype,
      which showed reduced levels of Fra a 1 proteins along with enzymes of the
      anthocyanin pigment pathway. We evaluated the cross-reactive allergenic potential
      of a number of naturally occurring white- and red-fruited strawberry varieties to
      detect genotypes with low allergenic reactivity, whose fruit might be tolerated
      by patients with mild allergy. Protein extracts of 51 different strawberry
      varieties (Fragaria*ananassa, F. vesca, and F. nilgerensis) were screened by
      Western blot analysis with a polyclonal Fra a 1.02 antibody. Besides, activation
      of basophils of eight atopic patients allergic to birch pollen were studied using
      Bet v 1a and different concentrations of 15 selected strawberry protein extracts
      out of the 51 strawberry genotypes. Median percentages of activated basophils
      stimulated by extracts from white- and red-fruited genotypes ranged from 36 to
      84% and 44 to 76%, respectively indicating that white-fruited strawberry are not
      per se hypoallergenic. Protein extracts from white-fruited F. vesca cv. Yellow
      Wonder showed the lowest cross-reactivity but high biological variability. The
      knowledge about the allergenic potential of different strawberry genotypes may
      help to improve food safety and can serve as starting point for the development
      of red-fruited hypoallergenic strawberry cultivars.

PMID- 28873748
TI  - Chemical quality and oxidative stability of extra virgin olive oils from San Juan
      province (Argentina).
AB  - This study provides information about the chemical quality (quality indices,
      fatty acid profile, total polyphenols (PPs), tocopherols and pigments) and
      oxidative stability index (OSI) of virgin olive oils of Arbequina, Changlot Real
      and Coratina cultivars (San Juan province, Argentina). The influence of the
      cultivar and the effect of earlier harvest dates on the yields (OY), quality and
      OSI of the oils were also evaluated. All the oils were classified as extra
      virgin. The OY (L/100kg) averaged: Arbequina=13.2, Changlot Real=21.3,
      Coratina=18.3. The oleic acid (O) percentage, oleic to linoleic plus linolenic
      ratio [O/(L+Ln)], PPs and OSI were highly dependent on cultivar
      (Arbequina<Changlot Real<Coratina). The earlier harvest season associated with
      lower maturity indices increased the OSI of all the oils (Arbequina: from 6.3
      13.8h up to 10.6-19.0h, Changlot: from 6.0-12.1h up to 13.7-36.9h and Coratina:
      from 20.5-26.0h up to 24.6-42.4h) due to a more favorable O/(L+Ln) ratio and
      antioxidant composition. Regional producers are recommended to bring forward the
      harvest season to obtain oils with better chemical and nutritional quality,
      higher oxidative stability and a fatty acid profile according to the IOC trade
      standard.

PMID- 28873747
TI  - Application of electrolyzed water for improving pork meat quality.
AB  - The microbiological and oxidative qualities of pork loin sprayed with different
      types (slightly acidic, acidic and basic) and combinations of electrolyzed water
      (EWs) were evaluated. The EWs were applied at two temperatures (18 degrees  and
      30 degrees C) and pressures (30 and 45psi) and the volume corresponded to
      approximately 10% water commonly used in carcass washing. EW after spraying
      exhibited a chlorine concentration between 15 and 25ppm. The application of
      acidic EW (AEW) alone or in combination with basic EW (BEW) decreased (P<0.05)
      the microbial counts shortly after spraying. In addition, the combination of
      BEW+AEW (30psi) reduced the mesophilic and psychrotrophic bacteria counts
      throughout the refrigerated storage (P<0.05). The EWs did not increase the lipid
      oxidation of the samples. On the other hand, a high protein oxidation was
      observed in the samples sprayed with AEW and slightly acidic EW (SAEW), while BEW
      was effective to reduce the oxidation reactions. Therefore, the results showed
      that the combination BEW+AEW may be a viable alternative to reduce the volume of
      water used at slaughter and to improve the microbiological quality of pork meat.

PMID- 28873749
TI  - Annatto carotenoids attenuate oxidative stress and inflammatory response after
      high-calorie meal in healthy subjects.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of annatto carotenoids intake
      associated to a single high-calorie meal (high fat and high carbohydrate) in
      postprandial biochemical, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers. Twelve
      healthy subjects (6 men, 6 women) were included in this randomised, controlled
      crossover study. Baseline blood samples were collected from fasting subjects that
      immediately received high-calorie meal without carotenoid (placebo) or containing
      1.2mg/kg bixin (BIX) or 0.06mg/kg norbixin (NBIX). Blood samples were taken 60,
      120 and 240min after meal intake. NBIX intake did not affect biochemical blood
      markers but reduced the postprandial levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6
      and TNF-alpha) and lipid oxidation 60-120min after meal. BIX only partially
      prevented postprandial-induced lipid oxidation. Results indicate that the intake
      of NBIX may be an alternative to reduce the postprandial inflammatory and
      oxidative stress responses to high-calorie meals.

PMID- 28873750
TI  - Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus L. var. scolymus) waste as a natural source of
      carbonyl trapping and antiglycative agents.
AB  - : The role of polyphenolic compounds extractable from artichoke solid wastes in
      the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) was studied. Outer bracts
      and stems were extracted using different water-ethanol mixtures and HPLC-DAD
      analyses indicated aqueous and hydro-alcoholic 20:80 stem extracts as the richest
      in polyphenols. The samples were characterized in their phenolic composition
      (using mass spectrometry) and antioxidant capacity. Antiglycative capacity was
      evaluated by in vitro BSA-sugars (glucose, fructose, and ribose) and BSA
      methylglyoxal (MGO) tests, formation of Amadori products assay, direct glyoxal
      (GO) and MGO trapping capacity. Results indicated both extracts as effective
      inhibitors of fructosamine formation and antiglycative agents. In particular,
      aqueous extract showed the best activity in the systems containing glucose and
      fructose, differently from ethanolic extract, that was demonstrated able to
      better inhibit AGEs formation when ribose or MGO act as precursors. Ethanolic
      extract was also shown to be able to trap MGO and GO, with efficiency increasing
      after 24hours of incubation time. These activities are partially correlated with
      the antioxidant effect of the extract, as demonstrated by the scavenger capacity
      against ABTS cation and DPPH stable radicals; this relationship is evident when
      the model system, containing protein incubated with ribose or MGO, is considered.
      The different activities of the tested extracts could probably be ascribed to the
      different composition in chlorogenic acids (CQAs), being aqueous extract richer
      in 1-CQA, 3-CQA, and 1,3-di-CQA, and ethanolic extract in 5-CQA, caffeic acid,
      1,5-di-CQA. These findings support further investigations to study the stability
      of the different CQAs in simil-physiological conditions and the feasibility of
      artichoke waste as antiglycative agents in food or pharmacological preparations.
      CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS: 5-caffeoylquinic acid (PubChem CID 5280633); 3-caffeoylquinic
      acid (PubChem CID 1794427); 1-caffeoylquinic acid (PubChem CID 10155076); 1,3-di
      caffeoylquinic acid (PubChem CID 24720973); 1,5 - di-caffeoylquinic acid (PubChem
      CID 122685); caffeic acid (PubChem CID 689043); apigenin-7-glucuronide (PubChem
      CID 5319484); methylglyoxal PubChem CID (880); aminoguanidine hydrochloride
      (PubChem CID 2734687).

PMID- 28873751
TI  - Validation of coffee silverskin extract as a food ingredient by the analysis of
      cytotoxicity and genotoxicity.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to validate the food safety of CSE, by studying
      its effect on cytotoxicity (100-20000MUg/ml) and genotoxicity (10, 100 and
      1000MUg/ml) and also to investigate its preventive potential (1, 10 and
      100MUg/ml) against B(a)P induced DNA damage. Prior to analyses, the antioxidant
      capacity and the microbiological quality of CSE were tested. DNA damage (strand
      breaks and oxidized purines/pyrimidines) was evaluated by the alkaline single
      cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay. HepG2 cells were pre-treated with CSE
      (1, 10 and 100MUg/ml) for 24h followed by the addition of 100MUM B(a)P in
      presence of CSE for other 24h. Detection of oxidized purines and pyrimidines was
      carried out using Formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase or Endonuclease III
      enzymes, respectively. Chlorogenic acid (CGA), the major antioxidant present in
      coffee, was used as a control. Treatment with 100 MUM B(a)P significantly
      increased (p<0.05) levels of DNA strand breaks and oxidized purine and pyrimidine
      bases. Treatment of HepG2 cells with CSE did not induce either cytotoxicity or
      genotoxicity. CSE significantly inhibited (p<0.05) genotoxicity induced by B(a)P
      and the observed effect may be associated to its antioxidant capacity. CGA alone
      at the concentration present in CSE was effective against B(a)P. Thus, CGA seems
      to be a contributor to the preventive effect of CSE against B(a)P induced DNA
      damage in HepG2 cells. In conclusion, CSE presents potential as a natural
      sustainable chemoprotective agent against the chemical carcinogen B(a)P.

PMID- 28873752
TI  - Is cafestol retained on the paper filter in the preparation of filter coffee?
AB  - Coffee brew presents sensory, stimulatory and antioxidant properties highly
      appreciated by consumers, despite being associated with an increase in the level
      of blood cholesterol due to the effects of the diterpenes, especially cafestol,
      present in the lipid fraction. Although it is believed that the paper filter
      retains the brew diterpenes, new studies have shown that sometimes coffee
      filtered through paper can also increase the blood cholesterol level, putting in
      doubt the efficiency of the paper filter in retaining the diterpenes. Thus the
      objective of the present study was to verify the distribution of cafestol between
      the paper filter, the spent coffee and the coffee brew itself, from two coffee
      samples containing high and low cafestol contents selected from 13 samples of
      different cultivars and from different locations. In addition, the effect of the
      roasting degree on the cafestol contents of the roasted coffee was evaluated and
      the relationship between particle size of the roasted coffee and the extraction
      of solids. The highest cafestol content was found in the lightly roasted coffee,
      and the coffee brew presented higher solids contents when the particle size of
      the coffee powder was below 500MUm. The results showed that of the initial
      cafestol concentration present in the roasted coffee, the paper filter retained
      12.41%, the spent coffee 87.45% and the brew 0.15%. Thus, one can conclude that
      the greater part of the coffee cafestol is retained by the spent coffee, due to
      the low extraction of the lipid fraction by the hot water.

PMID- 28873753
TI  - Effect of the fruit position on the cluster on fruit quality, carotenoids,
      phenolics and sugars in cherry tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.).
AB  - Cherry tomato varieties are widely consumed in many countries. They contain
      nutrients and health-promoting compounds like phenolics and carotenoids. The main
      purpose of this study was to determine how the fruit position on the cluster
      affected quality parameters of diverse nature (weight, soluble solids, firmness,
      colour, carotenoids, phenolic compounds and sugars). For this purpose the fourth
      cluster of two cherry varieties (Summerbrix and Lazarino) were studied. The
      results indicated that the fruit position on the cluster decreased the fruit size
      between 14 and 16% and weight 40%; firmness in 'Lazarino' increased 56%; C*ab
      increased 12% in 'Lazarino' and decreased 13% in 'Summerbrix'; hab increased 9%
      in 'Summerbrix'. Total carotenoid levels were not statistically different in two
      positions, and in the other position the contents were higher, with a difference
      of 36% between these two values. The highest total phenolic levels were observed
      in the PII position. However, total sugars increased 36%, fructose 36% and
      glucose 35% from the PI to PIII position in 'Lazarino', while, in 'Summerbrix'
      higher values were observed in the PIII position.

PMID- 28873754
TI  - Combination of mass spectrometry-based targeted lipidomics and supervised machine
      learning algorithms in detecting adulterated admixtures of white rice.
AB  - The mixing of extraneous ingredients with original products is a common
      adulteration practice in food and herbal medicines. In particular, authenticity
      of white rice and its corresponding blended products has become a key issue in
      food industry. Accordingly, our current study aimed to develop and evaluate a
      novel discrimination method by combining targeted lipidomics with powerful
      supervised learning methods, and eventually introduce a platform to verify the
      authenticity of white rice. A total of 30 cultivars were collected, and 330
      representative samples of white rice from Korea and China as well as seven mixing
      ratios were examined. Random forests (RF), support vector machines (SVM) with a
      radial basis function kernel, C5.0, model averaged neural network, and k-nearest
      neighbor classifiers were used for the classification. We achieved desired
      results, and the classifiers effectively differentiated white rice from Korea to
      blended samples with high prediction accuracy for the contamination ratio as low
      as five percent. In addition, RF and SVM classifiers were generally superior to
      and more robust than the other techniques. Our approach demonstrated that the
      relative differences in lysoGPLs can be successfully utilized to detect the
      adulterated mixing of white rice originating from different countries. In
      conclusion, the present study introduces a novel and high-throughput platform
      that can be applied to authenticate adulterated admixtures from original white
      rice samples.

PMID- 28873755
TI  - Characterization of four wild edible Carduus species from the Mediterranean
      region via phytochemical and biomolecular analyses.
AB  - Carduus species (Compositae) are widely distributed in the Mediterranean area,
      and traditionally used for both food and medicinal purposes. The hydroalcoholic
      extracts of four wild edible Carduus species collected in Sardinia (Carduus
      argyroa Biv., Carduus nutans subsp. macrocephalus (Desf.) Nyman, Carduus
      pycnocephalus L., Carduus cephalanthus Viv.) were analyzed and characterized by
      HPLC-PDA-MS/MS and PCR-RFLP of the nrDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS).
      Flavonoids and caffeoylquinic acid derivatives were the predominant classes of
      secondary metabolites characterizing the extracts. The ITS region was sequenced
      in parallel, and a PCR-RFLP method was applied with three selective restriction
      enzymes. Statistical analyses, on both chemical and biomolecular results,
      revealed that individuals clustered according to their taxonomic classification.
      The combination of the two techniques discriminates the four species within the
      genus, giving further information on these little-investigated plants,
      traditionally used in the Mediterranean area and in Sardinia.

PMID- 28873756
TI  - Phytosterols-induced viscoelasticity of oleogels prepared by using
      monoglycerides.
AB  - Monoglycerides (MGs) and phytosterols (PS) are known to form firm oleogels with
      liquid oil. However, the oleogels are prone to undergo polymorphic transition
      over time that lead to crystals' aggregation thus, compromises physical
      properties. Thus, we combined MGs with PS to control the crystallization and
      modify the morphology of the combination oleogels, as both components are
      reported to interact together. The oleogels were prepared at different ratio
      combinations and characterized in their rheological, thermal, morphology, and
      diffraction properties. The results showed that the 8:2 MGP:PS exhibited higher
      storage modulus (G') than the MGP mono-component. The combination oleogels
      exhibited effects on the crystallization and polymorphic transition.
      Consequently, the effects led to change in the morphology of the combination
      oleogels which was visualized using optical and electron microscope. The
      resultant effect on the morphology is associated with crystal defect. Due to
      observable crystals of MGP and PS, it is speculated that the combination oleogels
      formed a mixed crystal system. This was confirmed with diffraction analysis in
      which the corresponding peaks from MGP and PS were observed in the combination
      oleogels. However, the 8:2 oleogel exhibited additional peak at 35.41A.
      Ultimately, the 8:2 was the optimum combination observed in our study.
      Interestingly, this combination is inspired by nature as sterols (phytosterols)
      are natural component of lipid membrane whilst MGP has properties similar to
      phospholipids. Hence, the results of our study not only beneficial for oil
      structuring, but also for the fields of biophysical and pharmaceutical.

PMID- 28873757
TI  - The effect of adding a commercial phytosterol ester mixture on the phase behavior
      of palm oil.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate in depth the non-isothermal
      crystallization and melting behavior of binary blends of palm oil (PO) with a
      commercial, multi-component phytosterol ester (PE) mixture. DSC and time-resolved
      synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were conducted on blends with a
      PE concentration from 0 to 100% at intervals of 10% for DSC and 20% for XRD.
      Based on XRD, two different ordered structures were identified in pure the PEs.
      The structure designated as PEx was truly crystalline and needed a very high
      degree of supercooling for its nucleation from the melt. The structure designated
      PEy formed without supercooling and showed long-range order with multiple
      reflections at small angles but only one broad reflection at high angle, typical
      of liquid crystalline samples. Furthermore, PEy had a high tolerance for
      molecules of different chemical nature. In the PE-PO blends no other ordered
      structures were formed other than the ones observed in the pure PEs and PO. The
      peaks in the DSC runs of the PE-PO blends were linked to transitions of the
      different polymorphic forms. All structural information of the binary blends as a
      function of concentration and temperature was collected in morphology maps. The
      binary blends exhibited eutectic characteristics visualized in the morphology
      maps with a eutectic point at 40% PEs.

PMID- 28873758
TI  - Effects of electron beam irradiation (EBI) on structure characteristics and
      thermal properties of walnut protein flour.
AB  - The effects of electron beam irradiation (EBI) on structure characteristics and
      thermal properties of walnut protein flour (WPF) were evaluated. The WPF was
      irradiated by 0-15.0kGy of the EBI. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray
      diffraction analysis revealed that the EBI irradiation could not change the
      amorphous structure of WPF but resulted in puncture pores and fragmentation on
      microcosmic surface of WPF. Besides, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance results
      showed the EBI irradiation had effects on increasing denaturation temperature of
      WPF to 70 degrees C, and the particle size of WPF hydrolysates (WPFHs) irradiated
      by EBI at dose of 5.0kGy significantly (P<0.05) increased to 753.8+/-21.0nm. The
      molecular weight of WPFHs at dose of 5.0kGy increased compared with that of non
      irradiated sample. These revealed that EBI irradiation led to aggregation or
      cross-linking of the walnut protein. In addition, thermogravimetric analysis and
      zeta potential values indicated that the EBI enhanced thermal stability of WPF
      and didn't affect the physical stability of the WPFHs. Therefore, these results
      provided a theoretical foundation that the EBI applies on improving the
      properties of protein in the future.

PMID- 28873759
TI  - Interactions between wheat starch and cellulose derivatives in short-term
      retrogradation: Rheology and FTIR study.
AB  - The understanding of the interactions between starch and cellulose hydrocolloids
      is crucial for equipment design and definition of operation parameters in the
      food industry. In the present study, the possible interactions of wheat starch
      (WS) with different levels (2-10%) of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) or
      microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) in short-term retrogradation were explored by
      dynamic rheological and Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR) measurements.
      The chains of water-soluble CMC could creep into the continuous phase during
      paste gelation. It was found the amylose network structure was broken and the
      inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bond of WS were weaken after gelation.
      Moreover, there were interactions between the chains of CMC and chains of amylose
      at higher CMC concentration. On other hand, water connected with COO- groups
      blocked the interactions between CMC chains and amylose, and the interactions
      among CMC chains. The amorphous phases of high crystalline MCC were just swollen
      during paste gelation. It results that heterogeneous microstructure with amylose
      and MCC domains unevenly distributed was in WS/MCC paste.

PMID- 28873760
TI  - Butter serums and buttermilks as sources of bioactive lipids from the milk fat
      globule membrane: Differences in their lipid composition and potentialities of
      cow diet to increase n-3 PUFA.
AB  - Improving the nutritional and health properties of food products, e.g. infant
      milk formula, by the addition of functional ingredients is of primary importance.
      This study focused on bioactive milk polar lipids (PLs) recovered from dietary
      sources that are of increasing interest. The chemical compositions of buttermilks
      and butter serums were determined and the modulation of the fatty acid
      composition of milk PLs was investigated. Butter serums contain a higher amount
      of milk PLs than buttermilks (88 vs. 13-18g/kg dry matter), with a higher
      proportion of sphingomyelin (34 vs. 19% of PLs, respectively) interestingly close
      to human milk PL profile. Butter serums are also interesting sources of choline,
      an important nutrient for infant brain development. We demonstrated that the
      unsaturated fatty acid content of milk PLs recovered in the buttermilks and the
      butter serums, mainly the amount of C18:3n-3 and C22:6n-3 (DHA) that are of
      nutritional interest, can be increased by dietary strategies. This work opens
      perspectives for a better valorization of milk PLs in human nutrition (both
      infants and adults) to benefit their functional, nutritional and health
      properties.

PMID- 28873761
TI  - Effects of processing and storage on almond (Prunus dulcis L.) amandin
      immunoreactivity.
AB  - A murine monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA) was used to assess amandin immunoreactivity in processed and long-term
      stored almonds. The results demonstrated that amandin immunoreactivity is stable
      in variously processed almond seeds. Using the ELISA, amandin immunoreactivity
      could be detected in commercial whole raw and processed (blanched, sliced, dry
      roasted, and indicated combinations thereof) almond seeds stored for eleven years
      and eight months, defatted almond seed flours from several almond
      varieties/hybrids and their borate saline buffer-solubilized protein extracts
      stored for ten years and seven months, and several almond varieties grown in
      different California counties (full fat flours and their defatted flour
      counterparts). Roasting Nonpareil whole full fat almond seeds, full fat flour,
      and defatted flour at 170 degrees C for 20min each with 2, 5, 10, and 20% w/w
      corn syrup or sucrose did not prevent amandin detection by ELISA. Similarly,
      amandin detection in select food matrices spiked with Nonpareil almond protein
      extract was not inhibited. In conclusion, amandin is a stable target protein for
      almond detection under the tested processing and storage conditions.

PMID- 28873762
TI  - The novel contributors of anti-diabetic potential in mulberry polyphenols
      revealed by UHPLC-HR-ESI-TOF-MS/MS.
AB  - To explore the comprehensive phenolic profile of mulberry (Morus alba L.) fruit
      and reveal the novel anti-diabetic constituents, mulberry polyphenols (MP) were
      fractionated through gradient ethanol elution and subjected to composition and
      bioactivity analysis. Forty-seven phenolic compounds were identified and
      quantified through UHPLC-HR-ESI-TOF-MS/MS, including twenty-one newly identified
      compounds such as delphinidin 3-rutinoside-5-glucoside and cyanidin 3-rutinoside
      dimer. The antioxidant activity and anti-diabetic potential of fractionated MP
      were analyzed in vitro and ex vivo with HepG2 and pancreatic beta-cell RIN-m5F.
      Hierarchical cluster analysis and Pearson correlation coefficients revealed
      compounds such as syringic acid and galloylcyanidin-glycoside contributed most to
      inhibit alpha-glucosidase activity. Quercetin and cyanidin-glycosides were
      essential for cellular antioxidant activity. Dihydroquercetin and 1,5
      dicaffeoylquinic acid were newly identified and validated as the main
      contributors after rutin to protect RIN-m5F cells against glucotoxicity. Such
      findings suggest the promising role of MP for type II diabetics and lay the
      foundation of further utilization and investigation.

PMID- 28873763
TI  - Effect of high pressure and thermal processing on spoilage-causing enzymes in
      mango (Mangifera indica).
AB  - The aim of the present work was to model the effect of combined pressure
      temperature processing on spoilage-causing enzymes in mango pulp; which
      conventionally are inactivated using high temperatures leading to inevitable
      quality losses. The inactivation of enzymes pectin methylesterase (PME),
      polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) was studied in mango pulp within
      the pressure, temperature and hold-time ranges of 0.1 to 600MPa, 40 to 70 degrees
      C and 1s to 90min, respectively. The enzyme inactivation was described as a dual
      process: initial change in activity during dynamic pressure build-up phase and
      subsequent decrease under isobaric-isothermal conditions. The former led to
      considerable increase in activities of all the three enzymes (p<0.05); however,
      the increased activity reduced with increased intensity of applied pressure
      temperature. On the other hand, isobaric-isothermal conditions led to substantial
      inactivation (p<0.05), with 600MPa/70 degrees C/20min treatment being most
      effective in reducing the activities of PME, PPO and POD to 32, 15 and 26%,
      respectively. The enzyme inactivation data was non-linear under isobaric
      isothermal conditions and fitted to the nth-order reaction model, indicative of
      the occurrence of series of reactions possibly due to pressure-temperature
      interaction effects. The estimated reaction order 'n' was 0.815, 1.106 and 1.137
      for PME, PPO and POD, respectively. The estimated reaction rate constant k (min
      1) depicted PME to be the most baroresistant enzyme followed by POD and PPO.
      Temperature and pressure dependency of k was expressed in terms of activation
      energy and activation volume using the Arrhenius- and Eyring-type relations,
      respectively. An empirical model with good correlation between actual and
      predicted data (R2>0.90) was proposed to simulate the rate of enzyme inactivation
      under isobaric-isothermal conditions as a function of pressure and temperature.

PMID- 28873764
TI  - Thermal inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. in sous-vide
      processed marinated chicken breast.
AB  - The heat resistance of a cocktail of five Salmonella strains and five L.
      monocytogenes strains was determined in teriyaki-marinated chicken breasts.
      Inoculated meat, packaged in bags, were completely immersed in a circulating
      water bath and cooked to a final temperature of 55, 57.5 or 60 degrees C in 1h,
      and then held for predetermined times. The surviving Salmonella and L.
      monocytogenes cells were enumerated by surface plating on XLD agar and Palcam
      agar, respectively. D-values, determined by linear regression, of Salmonella in
      chicken breast ranged from 47.65min at 55 degrees C to 7.48min at 60 degrees C;
      the values for L. monocytogenes ranged from 54.81min at 55 degrees C to 10.39min
      at 60 degrees C. Marination rendered the pathogen more sensitive to the lethal
      effect of heat. The results of this study will assist the food industry in
      ensuring microbiological safety of sous-vide processed marinated chicken breasts.

PMID- 28873765
TI  - Greek PDO saffron authentication studies using species specific molecular
      markers.
AB  - Saffron, the spice produced from the red stigmas of the flower of Crocus sativus
      L. is a frequent target of fraud and mislabeling practices that cannot be fully
      traced using the ISO 3632 trade standard specifications and test methods. A
      molecular approach is proposed herein as a promising branding strategy for the
      authentication of highly esteemed saffron brands such as the Greek Protected
      Designation of Origin (PDO) "Krokos Kozanis". Specific ISSR (inter-simple
      sequence repeat) markers were used to assess for the first time, the within
      species variability of several populations of C. sativus L. from the cultivation
      area of "Krokos Kozanis" as well as the potential differences with the band
      pattern produced by other Crocus species. Then, species-specific markers were
      developed taking advantage of an advanced molecular technique such as the HRM
      analysis coupled with universal DNA barcoding regions (trnL) (Bar-HRM) and
      applied to saffron admixtures with some of the most common plant adulterants
      (Calendula officinalis, Carthamus tinctorius, Gardenia jasminoides, Zea mays and
      Curcuma longa). The sensitivity of the procedure was tested for turmeric as a
      case study whereas HPLC-fluorescence determination of secondary metabolites was
      also employed for comparison. The overall results indicated that the Bar-HRM
      approach is quite effective in terms of specificity and sensitivity. Its
      effectiveness regarding the detection of turmeric was comparable to that of a
      conventional HPLC method (0.5% vs 1.0%, w/w). Yet, the proposed DNA-based method
      is much faster, cost-effective and can be used even by non-geneticists, in any
      laboratory having access to an HRM-capable real-time PCR instrumentation. It can
      be, thus, regarded as a strong analytical tool in saffron authentication studies.

PMID- 28873766
TI  - Occurrence and phenotypic and molecular characterization of Listeriamonocytogenes
      and Salmonella spp. in slaughterhouses in southern Brazil.
AB  - This study addressed the occurrence of Listeriamonocytogenes and Salmonella spp.
      in bovine carcasses at two slaughterhouses in southern Brazil. Then, the
      antimicrobial susceptibility profile and the virulence potential of the isolates
      were evaluated. Two hundred carcasses were sampled at four steps of the slaughter
      process, with L. monocytogenes being isolated in 12 and Salmonella spp. in 17
      carcasses. All L. monocytogenes isolates carried the hlyA, prfA, plcA, plcB,
      actA, iap, mpl, inlA, inlB, inlC, and inlJ genes, while Salmonella spp. carried
      invA and hilA. Among the L. monocytogenes isolates, all of them presented
      virulence determinants and one showed multi-drug resistance. In relationship to
      Salmonella spp. isolates, many serogroups frequently related to outbreaks of
      foodborne diseases were identified and four isolates showed resistance to more
      than one antimicrobial agent. This data highlights the importance of a rigid
      hygienic-sanitary control during the slaughter process to reduce the risk of
      cross-contamination and lower the consumer exposure to L. monocytogenes and
      Salmonella spp. infections.

PMID- 28873767
TI  - Comparing Recent Reviews About Touchscreens for Dementia with Lessons Learnt from
      the Field.
AB  - Conclusions were synthesised from recent reviews on (touchscreen)technologies and
      people with dementia and lessons learnt, using these devices in projects in the
      UK, the Netherlands and Canada. The combined findings provide a strong basis for
      defining new strategies for exploiting touchscreen technology for people with
      dementia.

PMID- 28873768
TI  - Digital Support for Persons with Cognitive Impairment.
AB  - Cognitive impairment may cause difficulties in planning and initiating daily
      activities, as well as remembering to do what is scheduled. This study
      investigates the effectiveness of an interactive web-based mobile reminder
      calendar that sends text messages to the users mobile phone as support in
      everyday life, for persons with cognitive impairment due to neurological
      injury/diagnoses. The study has a randomised controlled trail design with data
      collection at baseline and at follow-up sessions after two and four months. Data
      collection started in August 2016 and continues until December 2017. The
      interactive web-based mobile reminder calendar may give the needed support to
      remind the person and thus increase the ability to perform activities and to be
      independence in everyday life. Preliminary results will be presented regarding
      what effect the interactive web-based mobile reminder calendar have for the
      participants performance of everyday life activities as well as perceived quality
      of life.

PMID- 28873769
TI  - Reconnecting People with Dementia by Using the Interactive Instrument CRDL.
AB  - Dementia is a progressive brain disease with a decline in functioning over time.
      CRDL (pronounced as Cradle) is an interactive instrument, developed to stimulate
      communication between users through sound and touch. It recognises the intention
      of the touch (tickle, holding, grabbing, fondling, kneading, and tapping) and
      will adjust the sound accordingly. This qualitative observational study explores
      whether this innovative product has the potential to be used in elderly care to
      create a moment of interaction between the person with dementia and someone else
      or multiple others. In a nursing home facility in the south of the Netherlands
      CRDL has been studied in one-to-one interaction between a person with dementia
      and a member of their family, a healthcare professional or a recreational
      therapist (n = 7), and group interaction between several people with dementia and
      a healthcare professional or a recreational therapist (n = 5). In the one-to-one
      interaction study professionals and family members reported that the interaction
      with CRDL and the person with dementia was a pleasant experience. They also
      mentioned that it felt familiar and they had the feeling that they were in better
      contact with the person with dementia. The exit interviews with the professionals
      and family members indicate that CRDL has the potential to encourage the
      interaction between the healthcare professional, recreational therapist or family
      member and the person with dementia. Healthcare professionals and recreational
      therapists who used CRDL in a group interaction session reported participants
      were generally fascinated by the object itself, but needed active encouragement
      to interact. The role of the healthcare professional, recreational therapist or
      family member seems very important.

PMID- 28873770
TI  - Independent Living Functions for the Elderly (IN-LIFE): Supporting Communication
      in Dementia.
AB  - Independent Living Functions for the Elderly (IN-LIFE) is a 3 year
      multidisciplinary, multisite European project that aims to prolong and support
      independent living for people with cognitive impairments, through (ICT) services.
      Sheffield is one of six research sites and is focused on enhancing communication
      and conversations using touch screen computers.

PMID- 28873771
TI  - Using Surface Table Computers to Promote the Well-Being of People with Dementia.
AB  - As the demographic change progresses, dementia is going to become a prevalent
      condition in many countries. In order to keep the Quality of Life (QoL) of People
      with Dementia (PwD) on a steady level, Assistive Technologies (AT) implemented on
      table-sized Surface Computers (SC) that promote playful and/or reminiscence
      triggering activities turn out to be valuable tools for dementia care. This
      article gives an overview over two similar multimedia-based AT systems
      implemented on Microsoft PixelSense SCs and field-tested in dementia care
      institutions. The observations indicate that both systems can trigger positive
      emotions and activities as well as memories.

PMID- 28873772
TI  - Home Testing of a Digital Prompter for People with Dementia.
AB  - This technology evaluation study assessed a personalised digital prompter
      designed for people with dementia, by trialling its use in the home by people
      with dementia and their carers. Technology based prompting may be used to support
      people with dementia to complete multi-step tasks in the home, provided that
      suitable tasks can be chosen and that a carer is able to load appropriate task
      steps onto the prompter. A prompter was developed specifically for this purpose,
      along with a detailed guidance manual. Twelve participants with mild or moderate
      dementia carried out cognitive tests and their carers completed carer burden and
      carer competence scales. Each pair attended a training session with a researcher
      and were provided with the prompter and instruction manual. The prompter was
      trialled at home for four weeks after a one-week familiarisation period, for use
      with a simple set task and one or two tasks chosen by the participants. Semi
      structured interviews were used to capture the views of the participants at the
      start and end of the home testing, and to set and evaluate goals. Chosen tasks
      included preparing simple food and drinks, and using home appliances including
      coffee machines and television remote controls. There was a weak correlation
      between greater goal success for the participants and the carer goal success,
      number letter switching within the D-KEFS and ACE-III score. A thematic analysis
      of the interviews revealed three core themes relating to familiarity with
      technology, utility of the prompter and the cost versus benefit in terms of the
      effort required to set up the prompter. Factors influencing success could be
      grouped into: participants' motivation and capability; the design of the
      prompter; and the details of the task being carried out. Barriers to success
      included the difficulty of choosing a suitable task and the effort required to
      break down a task in to appropriate steps. All of the participants with dementia
      could follow the steps on the prompter, and all of the carers were able to
      choose, breakdown and load at least one task onto the prompter during the
      training session, but successful use in the home was varied because of the
      increased complexity of the home context. Changes to the hardware, software and
      manual were made in response to the data gathered during the study, in readiness
      for the planned further testing.

PMID- 28873773
TI  - Mobile Delivery of Health Information for People with Mild Cognitive Impairment.
AB  - The design of a smartphone application (app) for promoting healthy lifestyle
      choices has been investigated for people with mild cognitive impairment. The app
      was designed to provide health-related messages and assist users to keep track of
      activities such as walking, eating and drinking water. A reward scheme with gold,
      silver and bronze awards was incorporated as a means of assisting user
      motivation. Responses to the app and user feedback were gathered for purposes of
      evaluation and improvement. Outcomes indicate that the approach has some
      potential and could have good implications for encouraging positive health
      related behaviour change in this population, hence prompting further
      investigation and development of the concept.

PMID- 28873774
TI  - Interacting with Dementia: The MARIO Approach.
AB  - MARIO is a companion robot that aims to help people with dementia (PWD) to battle
      isolation and loneliness by enabling them to stay socially active by providing a
      number of applications focused on hobbies (music, movies, etc), staying engaged
      with communities (reading headlines, reading local twitter feeds etc.) and
      staying connected with family and friends (telephoning them, reading their news
      from twitter, etc.). This paper presents the results from the initial trials of
      MARIO interacting with PWD involving a limited set of applications. It confirms
      some of the challenges hypothesized at the outset of the study and provides
      guidelines for future development work.

PMID- 28873775
TI  - Citizen and Stakeholder Perspectives About Approaches to Enhance Equitable Access
      to Assistive Technologies for Older Adults.
AB  - Assistive technologies play an important role in promoting healthy aging,
      independent living and aging-in-place, yet many experience unmet needs. This
      project reports on three citizen panels and a stakeholder dialogue convened in
      Canada to spark action towards enhancing equitable access to assistive
      technologies for older adults.

PMID- 28873776
TI  - Cross-Cultural Adaptation of a Decision Support System for AT Selection.
AB  - Older adults may benefit from decision support systems for the selection of
      assistive technologies. We present a case study cross-cultural adaptation in
      Canada of a system developed in the United Kingdom. We describe a conceptual
      framework for examining challenges with cultural and literacy issues and ways to
      address them.

PMID- 28873777
TI  - Ethical Issues Related to IT Adoption by Elderly Persons with Cognitive
      Impairments.
AB  - Ethical issues arise when the risks and benefits of technology use are unclear or
      controversial, or their access inequitable. This paper presents a preliminary
      framework for understanding ethical issues related to IT development and adoption
      by elderly persons with cognitive impairments and their caregivers. The
      development of the framework relied on a hybrid qualitative approach that draws
      on several data sources: 1) systematic literature review, 2) focus groups with IT
      users, and 3) a reflexive researcher-learning diary.Preliminary findings were
      synthesized into a coherent model that views IT adoption as the outcome of
      complex interactions between different factors: 1) Personal factors that include
      the cognitive abilities of the users, as well as their physical and sensory
      limitations, and 2) Environmental factors that are related to the technology, the
      caregivers, and the support networks of the user with cognitive impairment.
      Findings from this project will help better understand, balance, and responsibly
      address the competing ethical issues at play in technology development and
      adoption by elderly persons with cognitive impairments and their caregivers.

PMID- 28873778
TI  - Lived Experience, Stakeholder Evaluation and the Participatory Design of Assisted
      Living Technology.
AB  - This paper presents the theoretical and methodological framework underpinning the
      advancement of new technology enabling seniors domicile in residential homes to
      live with independence, quality of life and dignity. In addition, it presents the
      preliminary findings of this research including the emerging user interface
      design solution.

PMID- 28873779
TI  - ICT Inexperienced Elderlies: What Would Attract Elderlies to Use Items of
      Technology?
AB  - This paper presents the findings of the first end-user research study with
      seniors who are not familiar with operating ICT devices, executed as part of the
      EU-Active and Assisted Living research project Kith & Kin. This project aims at
      developing an ICT device for these seniors by building on their needs and real
      capabilities, encouraging communication and fostering social inclusion.

PMID- 28873781
TI  - Wireless as Enabler of Innovation in 21.
AB  - This paper overviews new and emerging wireless technologies that could positively
      impact on the lives of the elderly or disabled, as Social Care users of Assistive
      Technology (AT) for 'independent living'. Novel Internet of Things (IoT) radio
      systems and wireless locating systems being researched at The University of
      Sheffield are discussed in the context of Social Care technology use-cases.

PMID- 28873780
TI  - Introducing an AT Passport: A Key to Managing Transitions Across the Lifespan.
AB  - The service delivery of Assistive Technology for access to information and
      communications technology is frequently fragmented and inconsistent as evidenced
      by experience in the US and much of Europe (AAATE 2012). AT users can experience
      hiatuses in their access to appropriate assistive technologies as they transition
      from home to education, to employment and in the community. An AT Passport can
      provide a record of Assistive Technology requirement and use across the lifespan.

PMID- 28873782
TI  - Writing Good-Quality Assistive Technology Assessment Reports.
AB  - The study reported in this paper developed criteria and guidelines for writing up
      a good-quality AT Assessment Report - a document which is often required to
      activate an assistive technology intervention for an individual client. The
      Report should provide precise recommendations about the assistive solutions that
      best meet the client's needs, explain the underlying reasoning, provide evidence
      of appropriateness for the funding agency and set the baseline for later
      measurement of the outcomes of the intervention. Within this study, forty-eight
      clients with severe disability conditions were recruited in nine rehabilitation
      Centers in various regions of Italy. They were assessed for assistive solutions
      by their rehabilitation teams according to a common protocol; assessment Reports
      were produced for each client according to the same template, and individual AT
      interventions were activated following the recommendations. Then the Reports
      underwent a blind peer-review exercise involving over fifty professionals, who
      evaluated their quality against ten criteria; based on the findings, the template
      of the AT Assessment Report was revised and good-practice guidelines were
      inferred for the contents of each field. Now the final version is freely
      downloadable and is being used routinely in the Centers that participated in the
      study.

PMID- 28873783
TI  - Observing Remote Prescription of AT.
AB  - A lack of widely accepted guidelines/protocols for remote prescription of
      assistive technology is noted. This paper reports observations from attempts to
      use web based videoconferencing with embedded tools for the provision of
      assistive technology to children with complex needs.

PMID- 28873784
TI  - Development of National Guidelines for the Ground Rules to Lending Assistive
      Technology Devices in Finland.
AB  - Central Hospital Districts (CHD) in Finland provide most of the Assistive
      Technology Device Services (ATDS). ATDSs have been developing their work and
      unifying their practices regionally. Each of these 20 CHDs have their own
      guidelines for the ground rules for lending assistive technology devices. These
      ground rules include principles of ATD Services and lending rules for different
      device groups classified by ISO 9999 standard. There has been a growing pressure
      to unify the practices of ATDS nationally, because of a growing need for devices
      and economy. A project to unify National Guidelines was set up in spring 2016.
      There were four different review rounds among CHD ATD services and patient
      organizations. The Ground Rules will be published in 2017.

PMID- 28873785
TI  - Access Visits Using Video Communication.
AB  - An online video communication system is presented that enables Occupational
      Therapists (OTs) assess patient homes for assistive technology needs before acute
      care discharge to ensure appropriate independence and recovery conditions.
      Explorations under multiple conditions revealed perspectives from OTs and
      volunteer facilitators. Preliminary key findings and insights are reported.

PMID- 28873786
TI  - Remote Care Technology: A Systematic Overview.
AB  - The present study was based on a systematic review of reviews and meta-analyses
      and aimed to identify technologies being used to provide home monitoring to
      support older adults with chronic diseases and to promote their empowerment, as
      well as to identify how these technologies impact health related outcomes.

PMID- 28873787
TI  - The Need for Information on Standards on eAccessibility&eInclusion - Based on the
      Experience of the EU-Project IN LIFE.
AB  - Recent investigations in several EU-projects, incl. IN LIFE revealed that experts
      in the field of eAccessibility & eInclusion (eAcc&eIncl) - but also general ICT
      developers, decision makers in industry and administration - are quite unaware of
      the importance of standards for interoperability and sustainability of ICT
      solutions. Especially, if persons with disabilities (PwD) are concerned, system
      development and the design of services can become unnecessarily costly. For
      accessibility in general and eAcc&eIncl in particular, knowing about pertinent
      standards is becoming an asset of personal competencies of experts and decision
      makers, and particularly benefit small enterprises. Given the complex world of
      standardization and the multitude of standards developing organizations (SDOs)
      easy access to information on standards is critical.

PMID- 28873788
TI  - Validation of European Portuguese Version of the Kwazo Instrument.
AB  - Kwazo instrument was designed to assess the customer's satisfaction with
      prescription and attribution services of assistive technology. This paper
      presents the cross-cultural translation and validation of the European Portuguese
      version of the Kwazo, whose psychometric proprieties were assessed by customers
      of rehabilitation facilities of North and Centre of Portugal.

PMID- 28873789
TI  - Effectiveness of Service Dogs for Veterans with PTSD: Preliminary Outcomes.
AB  - Limited scientific evidence on the effectiveness of psychiatric service dogs used
      by Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is available. This study
      investigated their short-term effectiveness among 15 Canadian veterans who
      received a first psychiatric service dog. Preliminary results suggest potential
      beneficial effects at 3 months on the psychiatric symptoms.

PMID- 28873790
TI  - Measuring AT Usability with the Modified System Usability Scale (SUS).
AB  - The modified System Usability Scale (SUS) is a widely used generic measure of
      product usability. This study concerns the usability of mobile shower commodes
      using correlations between the SUS and AT device-specific measures. Results
      suggest the modified SUS, and corresponding adjective-anchored rating scale, are
      appropriate for measuring MSC usability, and have potential for use with other AT
      devices.

PMID- 28873791
TI  - Dissemination Strategy of Ambient Assisted Living Project Experience.
AB  - In an emerging research area, it is imperative that best practice strategies are
      developed with regard to dissemination of the associated research findings. This
      paper is a review of strategic methods used to disseminate the results of ongoing
      research on two ambient assisted living technologies that are being developed
      with funding.

PMID- 28873792
TI  - Remote Health Care Provision in Care Homes.
AB  - A survey was developed to map provision, knowledge, attitudes and views towards
      videoconferencing in care homes in Yorkshire and The Humber. The survey was sent
      to 859 care homes, with a 14% response rate. Twelve homes reported using
      videoconferencing. Non-users appeared skeptical, managers using the system
      reported improvements in outcomes.

PMID- 28873793
TI  - Smart Clothing for Falls Protection and Detection: User-Centred Co-Design and
      Feasibility Study.
AB  - The prevalence and impact of hip fractures on the health and wealth of nations is
      a global problem and source of health inequalities. This paper reports on the co
      design and feasibility testing of a new range of protective, smart clothing. The
      feasibility of research in a population of older adults in supported living is
      explored, as are the conceptualisation and measurement of adherence.

PMID- 28873794
TI  - Perceptions and Use of Technology to Support Older Adults with Multimorbidity.
AB  - Digital technologies hold great potential to improve and advance home based
      integrated care for older people living with multiple chronic health conditions.
      In this paper, we present the results of a user requirement study for a planned
      digital integrated care system, based on the experiences and needs of key
      stakeholders. We present rich, multi-stakeholder, qualitative data on the
      perceptions and use of technology among older people with multiple chronic health
      conditions and their key support actors. We have outlined our future work for the
      design of the system, which will involve continuous stakeholder engagement
      through a user-centred co-design method.

PMID- 28873795
TI  - Obstacle: A Tool to Assess the Home Environment Designed for All.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Elderly prefer to live as long as possible independent in their own
      home. The occupational therapist can play an important role in this, for instance
      by giving advice regarding home adaptations or the use of assistive technology in
      order for the person to function more independently. There is need for a tool
      that allow to screen the home easily and thorough. AIM: The aim of the study is
      to develop a screening tool that meets the requirements of occupational
      therapists to assess the home environment for persons in order to facilitate
      independent living. METHODS: The screening tool 'Obstacle' was developed and
      tested in 3 phases within an iterative way using a user-centred design. Firstly,
      crucial items based on literature and expertise of researchers and occupational
      therapists in the field were identified and the Obstacle paper version and manual
      was developed. Secondly, the tool was adapted and digitalised to be used on a
      tablet. Thirdly, a mini-version of Obstacle was created, being less time
      consuming and usable as a signalling tool to determine the need for applying the
      extensive version. The tool was tested by screening homes of 96 elderly in total.
      Additionally, opinions of 5 elderly, 5 informal caregivers and 5 professional
      caregivers were gathered with a focus group. RESULTS: The digital screening tool
      Obstacle is developed and includes 13 rooms to be screened with specific items
      for each room to be scored. Obstacle was judged very useful by occupational
      therapists. CONCLUSION: The novelty of this tool is the focus on independent
      living and the starting point of occupational performance, reduce the risk of
      falling and facilitating in advising the optimal home adaptations.

PMID- 28873797
TI  - The Role of Haptics in User Input for People with Motor and Cognitive
      Impairments.
AB  - Most input devices, also traditional ones like keyboard and mouse involve at
      least a certain amount of haptic experience. For instance, they require direct
      physical contact between user and device and provide direct haptic feedback
      (e.g., through the physical resistance of a key). However, in the past years,
      also touchless input devices and techniques gained broader attention as they
      e.g., allow for a restriction of physical boundaries that limit the possible
      range of user input activities. This paper discusses the role of haptics in user
      input with a particular focus on the needs of people with impairments and
      presents the results of a study comparing three input devices, each involving a
      different amount of haptic experience.

PMID- 28873796
TI  - ShopComm: Community-Supported Online Shopping for Older Adults.
AB  - The United Kingdom has an ageing population whose members experience significant
      life transitions as they grow older, for example, losing mobility due to
      deteriorating health. For these adults, digital technology has the potential to
      sustain their independence and improve their quality of life. However older
      adults can be reluctant to use digital solutions. In this paper, we review a
      local charity providing a grocery shopping service for older adults who are
      unable to go themselves. We explore how older adults perceive the benefits and
      drawbacks of both physical and digital shopping. Using these insights, we
      designed ShopComm to enable and support older adults with mobility impairments to
      shop online.

PMID- 28873798
TI  - Inclusive Smartphone Interface Design in Context: Co(Re)designing the PIS.
AB  - User-context optimises smartphone interface-design. Neglect of user-context
      during development, delays or prevents marginalised-consumer benefit. Working
      with People with Learning Disability (PWLD) to develop interfaces refined by
      communication-need will improve User-Experience (UX). In research, a Participant
      Information Sheet (PIS) discloses planned study-activity. This paper explains co
      creation of a PIS based on communication-need of PWLD.

PMID- 28873799
TI  - Human Behavior Drift Detection in a Smart Home Environment.
AB  - The proposed system aims at elderly people independent living by providing an
      early indicator of habits changes which might be relevant for a diagnosis of
      diseases. It relies on Hidden Markov Model to describe the behavior observing
      sensors data, while Likelihood Ratio Test gives the variation within different
      time periods.

PMID- 28873800
TI  - Evaluation Method for an App Involving Kitchen Activities.
AB  - An app, developed for the national Italian project "Design for all", is evaluated
      here. This app supports the user in most of his/her cooking activities. The
      evaluation process integrates different technologies, such as expert interview,
      cognitive walkthrough and focus group, to consider different aspects that
      include, but are not limited to, usability and accessibility.

PMID- 28873801
TI  - Quantitative Indicators for Behaviour Drift Detection from Home Automation Data.
AB  - Smart Homes diffusion provides an opportunity to implement elderly monitoring,
      extending seniors' independence and avoiding unnecessary assistance costs.
      Information concerning the inhabitant behaviour is contained in home automation
      data, and can be extracted by means of quantitative indicators. The application
      of such approach proves it can evidence behaviour changes.

PMID- 28873802
TI  - Electronic Assisted Living Technology: Interim Systematic Review Results - The
      Evidence for Creative Methodologies.
AB  - Despite reported benefits of creative methodologies for the design and
      development of electronic Assisted Living Technologies (eALT), there exists a
      divide between design and health research, leaving health researchers wishing to
      pursue creative methods uninformed with regards choice of appropriate methods.
      This paper describes interim and emerging results from a systematic review which
      aimed to explore the value of creative methodologies for the design and
      development of eALT which may form part of the solution to the challenges of the
      ageing population.

PMID- 28873803
TI  - Exploring the Use of Technology for Active Aging and Thriving.
AB  - The study explores how older adults with limited digital experience become users
      of tablet computers (iPad) with Internet access, and how the tablet computers
      become part of their daily life facilitating active aging and thriving. Volunteer
      adolescents were mobilised to teach and follow up the participants regularly.

PMID- 28873804
TI  - A Study on Evaluations of Living Spaces by Caregivers for Elderly People.
AB  - Caregivers who provide nursing-care visits to the elderly learn to notice changes
      in the physical and mental functions of residents by looking for signs of
      disorder in living spaces and changes in the orderliness of living spaces. In
      this research, to understand what draws caregiver attention and how they evaluate
      them, 15 caregivers are interviewed and asked to evaluate images of 33 living
      spaces. The results show variances in evaluations concerning the degree of
      clutter of living spaces even among experienced caregivers, but that it is
      possible to classify the degree of clutter using a two-axis scale.

PMID- 28873805
TI  - The Application of CSCL Scripts to Support Teaching and Learning for Children
      with Intellectual Disabilities.
AB  - This paper describes the application of collaboration scripts to guide social
      interaction behaviours of children with intellectual disabilities. The use of
      such scripts demonstrate potential as a means of creating CSCL environments that
      can be used to provide children with communication and social interaction
      impairments with a platform for learning and practicing such skills in a
      meaningful social context.

PMID- 28873806
TI  - User Centered Reading Intervention for Individuals with Autism and Intellectual
      Disability.
AB  - Individuals with autism and intellectual disability (ID) have complex learning
      needs and often have difficulty in acquiring reading comprehension skills using
      conventional teaching tools. Evidence based reading interventions for these
      learners and the use of assistive technology and application of behaviour
      analysis to develop user-centered teaching is discussed in this paper.

PMID- 28873807
TI  - Improving the Quality of Life of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities Through
      ICTs.
AB  - Removing barriers to accessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
      by Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (IDPs) is crucial. Being excluded from
      ICTs implies being shut down from the information society, but also from
      accessing essential public services, as well as from the opportunity of living an
      independent life. The IdICT project has the general objective of increasing the
      competences of IDPs, their families and the professionals that work with them to
      exploit ICTs with a Quality of Life approach. To do that, a training platform and
      a training program has been developed and tested by IDPs, relatives and
      professionals in six European Countries.

PMID- 28873808
TI  - Risks of Stigmatisation Resulting from Assistive Technologies for People with
      Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AB  - This short paper presents a philosophical analysis of the ways in which assistive
      technologies (ATs) can result in the stigmatisation of users with ASD. It frames
      the discussion in the context of the medical and social models of disability and
      outlines a number of ethical risks that might arise from the project of
      developing ATs.

PMID- 28873809
TI  - E-Inclusion: Social Inclusion of Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities - A
      Participatory Design.
AB  - By examining the role of digital tools and social media, this paper discusses an
      innovative prospective research study to enhance social inclusion of young adults
      with intellectual disabilities (ID). The paper begins with an overview of how
      individuals with disabilities have historically been excluded from society based
      on limited access and minimal opportunities afforded to them. Next, the paper
      presents the caveats that may hinder the improvement of social inclusion of young
      adults with ID and the oversights when developing digital technologies. Details
      about a prospective intervention research study are described that include a
      mobile application and a social media component. Finally, implications for
      research and practice are highlighted to emphasize the fundamental call for an
      insightful deliberation of these caveats that needs to be addressed in the design
      of a research study of this nature.

PMID- 28873810
TI  - Managing Weight: What Do People with an Intellectual Disability Want from Mobile
      Technology?
AB  - Obesity is a significant health challenge. People with Intellectual Disability
      (ID) are particularly vulnerable to developing obesity. Mobile technology has
      been developed to support the management of weight and obesity in the form of
      apps, although not with people with an ID in mind. As a result existing off-the
      shelf weight management apps currently available may not be functional in
      supporting weight reduction within this population. This paper presents the
      results of consultations with people with ID regarding weight management, comfort
      with mobile technology and desired characteristics in apps designed for people
      with ID that target weight management.

PMID- 28873811
TI  - "Sliders" Android Game - Improving Logical Skills of People with Disabilities.
AB  - Logic is part of our everyday life. However, there are some cases where people
      have difficulties using deductive reasoning. The aim of this work is to help
      people with mild intellectual disability or learning disability to learn the
      basis of logical thinking. We developed an application on Android operating
      system to improve logical thinking.

PMID- 28873812
TI  - Android-Based Daily Routine Organizing Application for Elementary School Students
      Living with ASD.
AB  - Today, more and more children with Autism Spectrum disorder are diagnosed, which
      means that around 1% of the population is concerned. Most of the concerned can
      acquire daily routine tasks by a bit of help and can fit in the society. As Besio
      et al. said, "...play is an instinctive need for both humans....In children with
      disabilities, depending on the type of functional limitations, the spontaneity of
      play is lost and the activity becomes problematic. Children with cognitive and
      intellectual impairments have a difficulties in communication, social
      interactions,....Since play is also a window for children's cognitive
      development, children may be perceived as more developmentally delayed than they
      actually are, leading to reduce expectations on the part of adults." The aim of
      the authors was to create an Android based application which helps 6-9 year old
      children living with Autism Spectrum disorder to learn everyday tasks and acquire
      everyday routine.

PMID- 28873813
TI  - Designing Out the Play: Accessibility and Playfulness in Inclusive Play.
AB  - Play is an important part of child development, yet disabled children are often
      excluded from the opportunity to play, either due to lack of accessible toys and
      games, or social pressures. This paper presents a case study reflecting on the
      development of Button Bash: a switch accessible game intended to encourage
      inclusive play between disabled and non-disabled children. In particular, the
      paper focuses on how changes intended to make the game more accessible tended to
      make it less playful, and reflects on the relationship between playfulness and
      accessibility.

PMID- 28873814
TI  - Interactive Games with an Assistive Robotic System for Hearing-Impaired Children.
AB  - This paper presents an assistive robotic system, which can recognize and express
      sign language words from a predefined set, within interactive games to
      communicate with and teach hearing-impaired children sign language. The robotic
      system uses audio, visual and tactile feedback for interaction with the children
      and the teacher/researcher.

PMID- 28873815
TI  - An Innovative Speech-Based User Interface for Smarthomes and IoT Solutions to
      Help People with Speech and Motor Disabilities.
AB  - A better use of the increasing functional capabilities of home automation systems
      and Internet of Things (IoT) devices to support the needs of users with
      disability, is the subject of a research project currently conducted by Area
      Ausili (Assistive Technology Area), a department of Polo Tecnologico Regionale
      Corte Roncati of the Local Health Trust of Bologna (Italy), in collaboration with
      AIAS Ausilioteca Assistive Technology (AT) Team. The main aim of the project is
      to develop experimental low cost systems for environmental control through
      simplified and accessible user interfaces. Many of the activities are focused on
      automatic speech recognition and are developed in the framework of the CloudCAST
      project. In this paper we report on the first technical achievements of the
      project and discuss future possible developments and applications within and
      outside CloudCAST.

PMID- 28873816
TI  - Restoring Speech Following Total Removal of the Larynx.
AB  - By speech articulator movement and training a transformation to audio we can
      restore the power of speech to someone who has lost their larynx. We sense
      changes in magnetic field caused by movements of small magnets attached to the
      lips and tongue. The sensor transformation uses recurrent neural networks.

PMID- 28873817
TI  - Cloud-Based Speech Technology for Assistive Technology Applications (CloudCAST).
AB  - The CloudCAST platform provides a series of speech recognition services that can
      be integrated into assistive technology applications. The platform and the
      services provided by the public API are described. Several exemplar applications
      have been developed to demonstrate the platform to potential developers and
      users.

PMID- 28873818
TI  - ISi-Speech: A Digital Training System for Acquired Dysarthria.
AB  - Speech impairment like dysarthria poses a major risk to participation in society
      due to reduced speech intelligibility. This paper focuses on the ongoing
      development of the technology-based pilot training system, ISi-Speech, for
      treatment of dysarthria incorporating automatic speech recognition, a
      psychological model of motivation and evidence-based exercises.

PMID- 28873820
TI  - Non-Visually Performing Analytical Tasks on Statistical Charts.
AB  - This article proposes a natural language-based approach to accessibility of
      charts. Formal underpinnings are used to semantically annotate the constituent
      elements of a vector graphic to support accessing and modifying the content by
      natural language queries in a web interface. A prototype which lets blind users
      perform a number of analytical activities on bar charts is introduced.

PMID- 28873819
TI  - Analysis of an Individual's Language to Improve Efficiency of an AAC System.
AB  - The paper discusses the collection and analysis of a three-month language sample
      from an adult using a low-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
      system transcribed to analyse the frequency of words and letters to make
      suggestions for more efficiency.

PMID- 28873821
TI  - The Language and Communication Characteristics of Communication Aids - A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - A systematic review of the language and communication characteristics of
      communication aids considered in identifying the appropriate aid for a child is
      introduced. The aim is to improve the decision-making around the provision of
      symbol communication aids to children.

PMID- 28873822
TI  - The Hollybank Challenges: AT for People with Profound Disabilities.
AB  - The use of Assistive Technology with people with profound and multiple
      disabilities is a specialised subfield. Drawing on its authors' experiences and
      observations at a UK charitable foundation that offers specialised educational,
      residential and therapeutic facilities, this paper describes the distinct
      challenges that present themselves when applying AT to address the needs of this
      often-overlooked sector of the community. It is hoped that this will help raise
      awareness and contribute to improving the overall quality of AT provision in this
      area.

PMID- 28873823
TI  - Democratisation of AAC Symbol Choices Using Technology.
AB  - The use of an online voting system has been developed to enable democratic
      choices of newly designed symbols to support speech, language and literacy skills
      in a localisation situation. The system works for those using and supporting
      Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) symbols on electronic systems by
      the provision of simplified scales of acceptance and adapted grids. The
      methodology and results highlighted the importance of user participation at the
      outset and concrete examples of symbol adaptations that were found necessary to
      ensure higher levels of user satisfaction. Design changes included appropriate
      local dress codes, linguistic nuances, social settings, the built environment and
      religious sensitivities.

PMID- 28873824
TI  - Optimising Service Delivery of AAC AT Devices and Compensating AT for Dyslexia.
AB  - To promote successful use of Assistive Technology (AT) supporting Augmentative
      and Alternative Communication (AAC) and compensating for dyslexia, the last steps
      of their provision, delivery and instruction, use, maintenance and evaluation,
      were optimised. In co-creation with all stakeholders based on a list of
      requirements an integral method and tools were developed.

PMID- 28873825
TI  - Exploring the Perspectives of People Who Use Alternative and Augmentative
      Communication Aids (AAC).
AB  - This paper outlines the clinical doctoral research plan (funded by HEE/NIHR
      Integrated Clinical Academic Programme) to engage the wide range of people who
      use alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) to understand the
      perspectives of users in order to develop a Patient Reported Outcome Measure
      (PROM) to evaluate equipment and services.

PMID- 28873826
TI  - Technology for Early Detection of Depression and Anxiety in Older People.
AB  - Under-diagnosis of depression and anxiety is common in older adults. This project
      took a mixed methods approach to explore the application of machine learning and
      technology for early detection of these conditions. Mood measures collected with
      digital technologies were used to predict depression and anxiety status according
      to the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression
      Scale (HADS). Interactive group activities and interviews were used to explore
      views of older adults and healthcare professionals on this approach respectively.
      The results show good potential for using a machine learning approach with mood
      data to predict later depression, though prospective results are preliminary.
      Qualitative findings highlight motivators and barriers to use of mental health
      technologies, as well as usability issues. If consideration is given to these
      issues, this approach could allow alerts to be provided to healthcare staff to
      draw attention to service users who may go on to experience depression.

PMID- 28873827
TI  - A User-Centred Approach Exploring the Potential of a Novel EMG Switch for Control
      of Assistive Technology.
AB  - This study examines the potential application of an EMG technology as an
      assistive control method for individuals with severe physical disabilities. The
      usability and acceptability of a prototype EMG switch was evaluated with health
      care professionals, researchers and end users using participatory approaches.

PMID- 28873828
TI  - Fuzzy Logic to Determine the Likelihood of Survival for Trauma Injury Patients.
AB  - A system to determine the likelihood of survival for trauma injury patients is
      being developed. It uses a fuzzy logic approach that can model complex processes
      without reliance on sophisticated mathematical formulations and may have the
      potential to be more accurate than the existing approaches. The outline operation
      of the system that is currently in a prototype stage is described.

PMID- 28873829
TI  - Development of Technology for Assisting Violent Psychiatric Patients.
AB  - Forceful restraint of psychiatric patients is lawful only in cases of violent
      uncontrolled behavior. The methods used to limit physical freedom are mainly
      mechanical means of confinement. The study presents a novel "Personal Protective
      System" designed to limit patients' violent actions but allow them free non-
      violent normal functioning.

PMID- 28873830
TI  - Embedded Systems and TensorFlow Frameworks as Assistive Technology Solutions.
AB  - In the field of deep learning, this paper presents the design of a wearable
      computer vision system for visually impaired users. The Assistive Technology
      solution exploits a powerful single board computer and smart glasses with a
      camera in order to allow its user to explore the objects within his surrounding
      environment, while it employs Google TensorFlow machine learning framework in
      order to real time classify the acquired stills. Therefore the proposed aid can
      increase the awareness of the explored environment and it interacts with its user
      by means of audio messages.

PMID- 28873831
TI  - Providing Sources of Self-Efficacy Through Technology Enhanced Post-Stroke
      Rehabilitation in the Home.
AB  - This research explores the impact of receiving feedback through a Personalised
      Self-Managed Rehabilitation System (PSMrS) for home-based post-stroke
      rehabilitation on the users' self-efficacy; more specifically, mastery
      experiences and the interpretation of biomechanical data. Embedded within a
      realistic evaluation methodological approach, exploring the promotion of self
      efficacy from the utilisation of computer-based technology to facilitate post
      stroke upper-limb rehabilitation in the home included; semi-structured
      interviews, quantitative user data (activity and usage), observations and field
      notes. Data revealed that self-efficacy was linked with obtaining positive
      knowledge of results feedback. Encouragingly, this also transferred to functional
      activities such as, confidence to carry out kitchen tasks and bathroom personal
      activities. Findings suggest the PSMrS was able to provide key sources of self
      efficacy by providing feedback which translated key biomechanical data to the
      users. Users could interpret and understand their performance, gain a sense of
      mastery and build their confidence which in some instances led to increased
      confidence to carry out functional activities. However, outcome expectations and
      socio-structural factors impacted on the self-efficacy associated with the use of
      the system. Increasing the understanding of how these factors promote or inhibit
      self-management and self-efficacy is therefore crucial to the successful adoption
      of technology solutions and promotion of self-efficacy.

PMID- 28873832
TI  - Using Machine Learning to Match Assistive Technology to People with Disabilities.
AB  - This paper describes the initial results of work to create a recommender system
      to match technology products to people with I/DD by applying machine learning to
      a large volume of data about: people with I/DD; the technology products they use;
      and the outcomes they aim to achieve with technology.

PMID- 28873833
TI  - Mouthsticks - A Participatory Approach.
AB  - Mouthsticks are quite an old kind of assistive technology (AT) but nevertheless
      they are up to now the Swiss army knives among AT. Unfortunately the popularity
      of mouthsticks massively decreased during the 1990s with the result that
      knowledge about how to produce good mouthsticks got lost and that there are
      hardly any adaptable mouthsticks available on the market. This paper discusses
      the development of a personalized mouthstick with the involvement of end users -
      people with severe physical disabilities - and occupational therapists as experts
      of everyday use. A participatory approach was chosen. The results of the analysis
      of a standardized questionnaire, group discussions and a collaborative workshop
      with IT-designers, polymer engineers, end users, occupational therapists and
      gender and diversity researchers are presented and discussed. This proved the
      necessity of the development of a personalized mouthstick.

PMID- 28873834
TI  - Four Models to Guide AT Projects Intending Innovative Technology Development
      Outcomes.
AB  - Generating innovations - including Assistive Technology products or services -
      requires expertise in project planning and management. University faculty and
      small businesses ventures often lack such expertise for development and
      production tasks, yet governments allocate most funding to these sectors. They
      need help to achieve results. Four evidence-based models now exist to guide
      investigators intending to generate AT innovations in: 1) standards/guidelines;
      2) tools/ instruments; 3) freeware or 4) commercial products.

PMID- 28873835
TI  - Conjuring up New Technology - Using Magic Objects in Co-Ideation with Stroke
      Survivors.
AB  - Ideation means to generate ideas, and when involving non-designers in these
      activities they need to be informed about the scope of the possibilities without
      limiting their imagination. This is a general challenge, which becomes
      particularly important when it comes to advanced technology ideation together
      with participants that may not have in-depth knowledge of technological designs
      and solutions. In this study, we supported the ideation process by presenting a
      kit of magic objects (consisting of cards and physical props) to stroke survivors
      participating in a co-design workshop carried out within the STARR EU project.
      The kit was seen to generally work well, but improvements are suggested for the
      introduction, the design of the cards and the number of objects used.

PMID- 28873836
TI  - Process Development for the Design and Manufacturing of Personalizable Mouth
      Sticks.
AB  - To increase the independence of people with reduced hand/arm functionality, a
      process to generate personalizable mouth sticks was developed based on the
      participatory design principle. In a web tool, anybody can choose the geometry
      and the materials of their mouth piece, stick and tip. Manufacturing techniques
      (e.g. 3D printing) and materials used in the process are discussed and evaluated.

PMID- 28873837
TI  - Designing for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): A Design Anthropological
      Perspective.
AB  - This paper will present a design anthropological perspective on an ongoing
      project called 'Living Well with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)'. The project
      explores how people with MCI (and their families) manage and respond to changes
      in their memory and thinking. One of the primary aims of this project is to
      design an online resource that will support people to 'Live Well' within the
      context of possible cognitive decline. The resource was originally proposed to
      function as a kind of online community, where users could both share and learn
      about home-grown strategies for managing the cognitive changes associated with
      MCI in everyday life. Much of this project has been guided by the methodological
      approach of design anthropology, which encourages project researchers and
      stakeholders to critically examine underlying assumptions and conceptual
      frameworks, which in this case revolve around the disputed MCI category. In this
      paper we will provide some background to the Living Well project before
      highlighting a number of key insights attained from design anthropology.

PMID- 28873838
TI  - Overview of Robotic Devices for Nursing Care Project.
AB  - METI/AMED are conducting a project on the development and deployment of robotic
      devices for nursing care to enhance the autonomy of elderly persons and assist
      care givers. An evaluation protocol is presented and the devices developed in the
      project are introduced. The devices consist of transfer assist devices
      (wearable/non-wearable), walking assist devices (outdoor/indoor), safety
      surveillance sensors (nursing home/private home), bath lift and toilet assist.

PMID- 28873839
TI  - Development of Robotic Rollators and Walking Trolleys in Japan.
AB  - In Japan, several types of robotic rollators and walking trolleys have been
      developed with financial assistance from the Japanese government, and some of
      them have been commercialized in 2015 and 2016. In this paper, the specifications
      and features of these devices are presented. Moreover, the physically assistive
      effects of these devices in elderly users are verified and discussed using the
      results of fundamental function tests and verification experiments.

PMID- 28873840
TI  - An Introduction to the Development of Transfer Assistive Robots in Japan.
AB  - This paper briefly introduces the development of transfer assistive robots in
      terms of development support. In addition, some products that have been developed
      are reviewed. Our study reveals there are two development styles with completely
      opposite directions, namely: complex to simple; and simple to complex.

PMID- 28873841
TI  - Robots for Elderly Care: Their Level of Social Interactions and the Targeted End
      User.
AB  - Robots for older adults have a lot of potential. In order to create an overview
      of the developments in this area a systematic review of robots for older adults
      living independently was conducted. Robots were categorized based on their market
      readiness, the type of provided support (i.e., physical, non-physical, non
      specified), and the activity domain they claim to support. Additionally, the
      commercially available robots are places in a proposed framework to help to
      distinguish the different types of robots and their focus. During the
      presentation an updated version of the state of the art will be presented.

PMID- 28873842
TI  - Development of a Robotic System for Enhancing Children's Motivation in Constraint
      Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT).
AB  - This paper presents a novel robotic system, which aims to enhance children's
      motivation through the gamification of the CIMT process. The system offers
      adjustability of the required movement skills, ensuring children will put
      increasingly more effort to achieve the rehabilitation goal, while keeping the
      task fun and engaging.

PMID- 28873843
TI  - A Robotic Solution for Assisting People with MCI at Home: Preliminary Tests of
      the ENRICHME System.
AB  - Robots have the potential to support care and independence of older adults. The
      ENRICHME project is developing an integrated system composed of a robot, sensors
      and a networking care platform, aiming at assisting older adults with MCI in
      their home environment. This paper reports findings of the tests performed on a
      sample of MCI users and their caregivers, with the first version of the ENRICHME
      system, in a controlled environment.

PMID- 28873844
TI  - Design of a Behavior of Robot That Attracts the Interest of the Mildly Demented
      Elderly.
AB  - In this study, using the unexpected intervention overturning the interaction
      amount of the field and the mental model, an interaction of a robot system that
      enables sustained nonverbal communication with the mildly demented elderly was
      proposed and its effectiveness was shown in the group home of the mildly demented
      elderly.

PMID- 28873846
TI  - Introducing ZORA to Children with Severe Physical Disabilities.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to explore the potential of a ZORA-robot based
      intervention in rehabilitation and special education for children with (severe)
      physical disabilities from the professionals perspective. The qualitative results
      of this study will be presented. Professionals indicated meaningful application
      possibilities for ZORA. Overall, ZORA was able to improve motivation,
      concentration, taking initiative and attention span. Three domains could be
      identified to be most promising for application of ZORA: (re)learning of movement
      skills, cognitive skills and communication/social interaction skills.

PMID- 28873845
TI  - Exploring the Use of a Humanoid Robot to Engage Children with Autism Spectrum
      Disorder (ASD).
AB  - We present a study aimed at exploring whether a humanoid robot may improve the
      effectiveness of educational interventions targeting children with autism
      spectrum disorders (ASD). Preliminary results with three preschool children with
      ASD indicate that interacting with a humanoid robot may facilitate engagement and
      goal achievement in educational activities.

PMID- 28873847
TI  - Evaluation of Dynamic Arm Supports in Real Life Environments.
AB  - Dynamic arm supports facilitate the performance of activities of daily living
      (ADL) in people with upper extremity limitations. For which ADL, and how devices
      are used in daily life differs between users, imposing a difficulty to the
      assessment of outcomes. Therefore this study reports on the instruments used in
      earlier studies. Several instruments in the domains of body functions and
      activities and participation were identified. Instruments used include patient
      reported outcome measures, questionnaires, interviews, and arm and hand function
      tests.

PMID- 28873848
TI  - Investigating the Effect of Social Robot Embodiment.
AB  - The experiment described in this paper is an early assessment to identify if the
      embodiment of a verbal and visual user interaction system in a robot is more
      effective in people with dementia than when using the same system in a simple
      laptop. This study provides input for the robot's design.

PMID- 28873849
TI  - Care Robot ZORA in Dutch Nursing Homes; An Evaluation Study.
AB  - From May 2016 - November 2016 the use of the ZORA robot was investigated in 15
      long-term care facilities for older people. The ZORA robot is built as a social
      robot and used for pleasure and entertainment or to stimulate physical activities
      of the residents.

PMID- 28873850
TI  - Standardization of Care and Assistive Products Involving Robot Technology.
AB  - An ongoing Japan-wide project for the development and deployment of care and
      assistive robotic devices is being followed by a program of standardizing some of
      the outcome technologies while focusing on safe usage. We examine the concept
      defining the required standard as robotic technology is introduced.
      Fundamentally, this involves the application of the existing safety standard for
      service robots used to improve the quality of life. We expect that this program
      will contribute to enhancing safety in device usage, and further expand the
      device market by constructing a structure for sharing roles of supporting both
      the manufacturers and users.

PMID- 28873851
TI  - Estimation of Injury by Falls for Risk Assessment of Robotic Care Devices.
AB  - In order for manufacturers of robotic devices for nursing care to predict injury
      in accidents related to their products, risk assessments are carried out
      according to various standards e.g. ISO 12100. Probabilities of death, bone
      fracture and head injury are estimated by analysing data published in Japan and
      U.S.

PMID- 28873852
TI  - Development of a Risk Assessment Assistance Tool for Robotic Care Devices.
AB  - Aiming to eliminate a labor shortage caused by the aging of society, many kinds
      of service robots are under development. Nursing care for the elderly is
      considered as a typical application of service robots, especially in Japan.
      Elderly care robots or robotic care device must be designed with safety, but not
      a few manufacturers are inexperienced in designing and manufacturing them on the
      basis of safety. In this paper, we introduce a risk assessment assistance tool
      for robotic care device targeted for inexperienced manufacturers of risk
      assessment.

PMID- 28873853
TI  - Standardization of Assistive Products with Robotic Technology - From a
      Perspective of ISO/TC173.
AB  - ISO/TC173 is a technical committee, in charge of international standardization of
      assistive products (APs). Robotic technology (RT) is currently an important topic
      in this field. APs with RT will be included in future revisions of the scope of
      TC173. Cooperation between the AP and RT space is essential to reach suitable
      solutions of future standardization.

PMID- 28873854
TI  - IntelliTable: Inclusively-Designed Furniture with Robotic Capabilities.
AB  - IntelliTable is a new proof-of-principle assistive technology system with robotic
      capabilities in the form of an elegant universal cantilever table able to move
      around by itself, or under user control. We describe the design and current
      capabilities of the table and the human-centered design methodology used in its
      development and initial evaluation. The IntelliTable study has delivered robotic
      platform programmed by a smartphone that can navigate around a typical home or
      care environment, avoiding obstacles, and positioning itself at the user's
      command. It can also be configured to navigate itself to pre-ordained places
      positions within an environment using ceiling tracking, responsive optical
      guidance and object-based sonar navigation.

PMID- 28873855
TI  - Usability of JACO Arm Interfaces Designed with a User-Centred Design Method.
AB  - Utility, usability and acceptability of robotic arm for helping motor impairment
      people (quadriplegic, muscular dystrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) must be
      improved. The robotic arm JACO of company (c)Kinova is controlled by a joystick,
      sometimes unusable by patients. The IRIT laboratory has designed three types of
      virtual interfaces: one based on virtual keyboards and two others on Pie Menu
      concepts. These interfaces were designed by mean of a user centred design
      approach (UCDA) including brain storming, focus group, iterative prototyping and
      trials. Then an experiment is described with two patients (Spinal Muscular
      Atrophy and cerebral palsy). This experiment shows that the three interfaces
      designed by a UCDA are usable by them.

PMID- 28873856
TI  - Development/Testing of a Monitoring System Assisting MCI Patients: The European
      Project INLIFE.
AB  - INLIFE is a project cofounded from the European Union aiming in prolonging
      independent living of elderly people with cognitive impairment based on open,
      seamless ICT services supporting communication, daily activities, providing
      health services and professional care to the elderly. The main innovation stems
      from ICT solutions offering 19 different services adapted on specific
      characteristics elderly people with mild cognitive impairment, early and later
      stages of Dementia, cognitive impairment and co-morbid condition, as well as
      their formal and informal caregivers. All services have different focus areas and
      are incorporated into a unified system based on cloud architecture implemented in
      patients of 6 European countries, including Greece. More than 1200 patients,
      caregivers and healthcare providers participate in the pilot testing of the
      project. Primary parameter for assessing the effectiveness of the interventions
      is their impact on the quality of life of the elderly patients and their
      caregivers, contributing to prolonging independent living of the affected. A
      special digital platform has been developed in the Greek pilot site aiming to
      adapt and monitor all the implemented applications. This includes a medical
      decision support system that receives biosignals from patients and interaction
      interfaces in which all participants are involved. Recruitment and patients'
      participation has already started in the pilot site of Thessaloniki for the
      services that are to be tested in Greece.

PMID- 28873857
TI  - Embracing Technological Development and Salutogenic Health Promotion in the
      Provision of Assistive Technologies.
AB  - The growing incidence of Noncommunicable Diseases has increased focus on the
      promotion of physical activity within the therapeutic environment. Research
      demonstrates a shift in mentality away from the pathogenic orientation of health
      promotion, resulting in the formation of salutogenic health promotion concepts
      and assistive technologies that actively promote health.

PMID- 28873858
TI  - Adaptive Sampling Technique Using Regression Modelling and Fuzzy Inference System
      for Network Traffic.
AB  - Electronic-health relies on extensive computer networks to facilitate access and
      to communicate various types of information in the form of data packets. To
      examine the effectiveness of these networks, the traffic parameters need to be
      analysed. Due to quantity of packets, examining their transmission parameters
      individually is not practical, especially when performed in real time. Sampling
      allows a subset of packets that accurately represents the original traffic to be
      chosen. In this study an adaptive sampling method based on regression and fuzzy
      inference system was developed. It dynamically updates the sampling by responding
      to the traffic changes. Its performance was found to be superior to the
      conventional non-adaptive sampling methods.

PMID- 28873859
TI  - ICT Services for Life Improvement for the Elderly.
AB  - Integrated care ICT Platform to support patients, care-givers and health/social
      professionals in the care of dementia and Parkinson's disease with training,
      empowerment, sensor-based data analysis and cooperation services based on user
      friendly interfaces.

PMID- 28873860
TI  - Applying Game Thinking to Slips, Trips and Falls Prevention.
AB  - Gamification is about the way in which 'game thinking' can engage participants
      and change behaviours in real, non-game contexts. This paper explores how game
      thinking can be applied to help prevent slips, trips and falls (STF), which are
      the largest cause of accidental death in older people across Europe. The paper
      contributes to the assistive technology, digital health and computer
      science/human behaviour communities by responding to a gap in the literature for
      papers detailing the innovation process of developing interventions to improve
      health and quality of life. The aim of the paper is of interest to the many
      stakeholders involved in enabling older people to live independent, confident,
      healthy and safe lives in the community.

PMID- 28873861
TI  - A Mobile Game for the Social and Cognitive Well-Being of Elderly People in China.
AB  - China, like many other countries, is facing the challenges of an ageing
      population. Literature has shown that the lack of social interaction has a
      negative impact on the physical health of the elderly, and playing games can be
      beneficial in maintaining or even improving their cognitive abilities. This study
      describes the design and development process for a social and cognitive mobile
      game and the related user evaluation in terms of well-being. The objective is to
      explore the underlying connections between game playing and the improvement of
      well-being among elderly people in China.

PMID- 28873862
TI  - Customised City Maps in Mobile Applications for Senior Citizens.
AB  - Map services should be used in mobile applications for senior citizens. Do the
      commonly used map services meet the needs of elderly people? - Exemplarily, the
      contrast ratios of common maps in comparison to an optimized custom rendered map
      are examined in the paper.

PMID- 28873863
TI  - Mobile Recommender Apps with Privacy Management for Accessible and Usable
      Technologies.
AB  - The paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing survey of the use of
      computers and mobile devices, interest in recommender apps and knowledge and
      concerns about privacy issues amongst English and Italian speaking disabled
      people. Participants were found to be regular users of computers and mobile
      devices for a range of applications. They were interested in recommender apps for
      household items, computer software and apps that met their accessibility and
      other requirements. They showed greater concerns about controlling access to
      personal data of different types than this data being retained by the computer or
      mobile device. They were also willing to make tradeoffs to improve device
      performance.

PMID- 28873864
TI  - The Use of Apps for Health in Persons with Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's
      Disease and Stroke - Barriers and Facilitators.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The importance of mobile health has increased during recent years
      but few studies have described the use of apps among persons with neurological
      disabilities. AIM: The aim of this paper was to describe how persons ageing with
      a neurological disability experience barriers and facilitators in relation to
      using apps in everyday life. METHOD: A qualitative approach was used. 16 persons
      with neurological disorders participated in two group discussions. Data were
      analyzed by content analysis. RESULTS: The analysis formed four categories;
      Impairments make apps harder to use, Use of apps is increased by learnability and
      sharing, Valuating the information in an app, and Apps act supportive and
      motivating. CONCLUSION: The participants used apps in the same way as persons
      without disabilities. Impairments and trustworthiness were perceived as barriers,
      which need to be acknowledged when developing apps for this population. Use of
      apps was facilitated by the possibility to share data and to connect with others.
      Apps may have the potential to improve self-management for persons ageing with
      disabilities but further research is needed.

PMID- 28873865
TI  - Mobile App Selection Tool (MAST) for Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities.
AB  - This paper discusses research examining the use of a Mobile Apps Selection Tool
      (MAST) designed to facilitate the use of the iPad by post-secondary students with
      disabilities. MAST is a public website that was developed to support students to
      become independent in their use of the iPad to meet their learning needs.

PMID- 28873866
TI  - Involving Users in the Evaluation of Apps for Specific Health Conditions.
AB  - With rapid growth of Internet accessibility over recent years, the way in which
      we engage with healthcare services and make decisions about our own healthcare
      has changed. One form of engagement with the Internet is through the use of
      mobile applications (apps) via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. As
      a result of this, many apps have been developed to target people with varying
      long term conditions. These apps may aim to help educate individuals about their
      condition or help them to manage it. Assessing the quality of these apps is
      crucial especially when considering the risks associated with providing
      misleading information or unsubstantiated claims. This has led to a growing body
      of research assessing the quality of apps aimed at people living with varying
      long term conditions. These attempts have not involved service users to address
      the suitability of apps for their intended target audiences. This paper presents
      two examples of how service users and associated healthcare professionals can be
      involved in the suitability assessment of mobile apps for children and young
      people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and those living with
      dementia.

PMID- 28873867
TI  - Living Lab as an Agile Approach in Developing User-Friendly Welfare Technology.
AB  - This paper discusses living lab as a method of developing user-friendly welfare
      technology, and presents a qualitative evaluation research of how living lab
      tested technologies impacted on the life of healthcare customers and
      professionals over test periods.

PMID- 28873868
TI  - Accapto, a Generic Design and Development Toolkit for Accessible Mobile Apps.
AB  - Smartphones show potential to improve and support the daily lives of people with
      disabilities. User experience of mobile apps is generally good, but rather
      unsatisfying for people with disabilities relying on accessibility support.
      Developers often are not aware of and do not respect this user group. We propose
      a system supporting developers in early stages of app development. The Accapto
      toolkit allows modelling accessible smartphone interaction during the design
      phase. Based on this interaction model the prototype of the resulting app is
      generated. Predefined accessibility features based on standards and expert
      knowledge are automatically integrated to enhance accessibility.

PMID- 28873869
TI  - Designing Web-Apps for All: How Do We Include Those with Cognitive Disabilities?
AB  - Accessibility guidance for the development of web-apps for users with cognitive
      disabilities is sorely lacking despite the availability of extensive web content
      accessibility standards. This paper examines additional requirements suggested by
      specialists in the field, in order to further aid developers looking to create
      accessible interactive web experiences for all.

PMID- 28873870
TI  - "Design for Somebody" - Approach Enabling Mobile Technology Development.
AB  - This paper presents case examples of Design for Somebody (DfS) philosophy used
      both in developing novel technologies and modifying existing main stream
      technologies applicable for users with special needs. DfS embodies variety of
      mobile technology approaches to generate personalised means to enable and
      motivate physical, cognitive and social skills development.

PMID- 28873871
TI  - Recommendations for Age-Appropriate Mobile Application Design.
AB  - This paper presents recommendations for avoiding or eliminating unnecessary
      barriers to mobile application usage by older generations. It sets out ten areas
      of age-appropriate application design. The aim of this paper is to help ensure
      that the design of mobile applications, including assistive applications, is
      accessible for elderly persons.

PMID- 28873872
TI  - Six-and-a-Half-Year Practice of Tactile Map Creation Service.
AB  - To disseminate the use of tactile maps, a tactile map creation service has been
      offered according to the demands of blind people and their helpers. From June
      2010 to December 2016, 151 tactile maps were created. Three quarters of them were
      maps of outdoor areas and one fifth were floor plans of a building or property.
      Half of the outdoor area maps were mobility maps and the other half were city
      maps. The service users' comments confirmed the usefulness of tactile maps as
      route maps and as providing information on a city. However, it was revealed that
      these tactile maps are too complicated for late blind people.

PMID- 28873873
TI  - Towards Standardised Information Exchange Regarding the Accessibility of Public
      Transport in Germany.
AB  - In the innovation project DELFIplus a concept for standardised information on
      accesssibility of public transport facilities in Germany as a basis for a
      nationwide electronic journey planner has been elaborated and demonstrated. A
      handbook describes a pragmatic methodology how to implement the integrated
      information services in a decentralised structure of information providers.

PMID- 28873874
TI  - Definition of "Total Accessibility" for Public Transport.
AB  - The paper describes the approach and results of a German study as an example of
      strategies in German legislation relating to accessibility in public transport.
      In the study a participatory approach was followed to reach consensus about the
      interpretation and definition of a new legislative term "vollstandige
      Barrierefreiheit (total accessibility)".

PMID- 28873875
TI  - Image Based Location Estimation for Walking Out of Visual Impaired Person.
AB  - A new and intelligent walking navigation system could be helpful for visually
      impaired people so that they do not need helpers or guide dogs on going out.
      Conventional navigation systems using GPS are not available indoors or
      undergrounds. A new location estimation method that is available in such
      situations is necessary. We propose to estimate pedestrian's location with only a
      single camera attached to the pedestrian. Our proposed method uses only computer
      vision and no other sensors are needed. The location estimation is achieved by
      image retrieval. The retrieval database is built from a pre-recorded video taken
      along a planned walking path. Simple image retrieval using local image features
      does not work well when the images were taken in different conditions of time and
      weather. In this paper, we especially explore robustness for the change of
      sunlight condition due to its recording time. We propose a new method of robust
      location estimation based on our database built by combining more than one video
      that is taken under different conditions. Experiment results showed that the
      accuracy of the location estimation using the proposed database is better than
      the one from a conventional database built by using a single video.

PMID- 28873876
TI  - Inertial Measurement Techniques for Human Joints' Movement Analysis.
AB  - Development and assessment of techniques that allow inertia measurement units
      consisting of an accelerometer and a gyroscope to be used for monitoring human
      joints' movements are presented. A new wavelet packet decomposition technique was
      developed that denoised the accelerometer signals. Investigations on the use of
      accelerometers to analyse legs' movements are described.

PMID- 28873877
TI  - Modular Gesture Interface for People with Severe Motor Dysfunction: Foot
      Recognition.
AB  - We have collected various gestures from persons with motor dysfunction who cannot
      use normal interface switches to develop contactless, non-constraining, and
      inexpensive gesture interfaces for operating PCs by utilizing a commercially
      available image range sensor. We describe the collection and classification of
      the gestures and the foot gesture recognition module.

PMID- 28873878
TI  - Assessing Gait Impairments Based on Auto-Encoded Patterns of Mahalanobis
      Distances from Consecutive Steps.
AB  - Insole pressure sensors capture the force distribution patterns during the stance
      phase while walking. By comparing patterns obtained from healthy individuals to
      patients suffering different medical conditions based on a given similarity
      measure, automatic impairment indexes can be computed in order to help in
      applications such as rehabilitation. This paper uses the data sensed from insole
      pressure sensors for a group of healthy controls to train an auto-encoder using
      patterns of stochastic distances in series of consecutive steps while walking at
      normal speeds. Two experiment groups are compared to the healthy control group: a
      group of patients suffering knee pain and a group of post-stroke survivors. The
      Mahalanobis distance is computed for every single step by each participant
      compared to the entire dataset sensed from healthy controls. The computed
      distances for consecutive steps are fed into the previously trained autoencoder
      and the average error is used to assess how close the walking segment is to the
      autogenerated model from healthy controls. The results show that automatic
      distortion indexes can be used to assess each participant as compared to normal
      patterns computed from healthy controls. The stochastic distances observed for
      the group of stroke survivors are bigger than those for the people with knee
      pain.

PMID- 28873879
TI  - Attenuating Tremor Using Passive Devices.
AB  - Limb tremor is treated with either medication or surgery, both of which may have
      adverse effects. This paper presents two passive devices for tremor attenuation:
      One for attenuating pronation/supination tremor of the forearm using a dynamic
      vibration absorber, and the other for attenuating flexion/extension tremor of the
      hand using a rotational damper.

PMID- 28873880
TI  - A Review of Physical Activity Monitoring and Activity Trackers for Older Adults.
AB  - The objective assessment of physical activity levels through wearable inertial
      based motion detectors for an automatic, continuous and long-term monitoring of
      people in free-living environments is a well-known research area in literature.
      However, their application to older adults can present particular constraints.
      This paper reviews the methods of measuring physical activity, adoption of
      wearable devices in older adults, describes and compares existing commercial
      products encompassing activity trackers tailored for older participants.

PMID- 28873881
TI  - Developing an Assessment (Tool) for Touch Screen Devices.
AB  - Touch screen devices have become prevalent in our lives. Assistive technology
      experts working with people with disabilities face difficulty in understanding
      and assessing the problems experienced by individuals with disabilities in
      operating touch screen devices. This paper presents the processes of collecting
      and creating the required knowledge needed for assessing the user's skills for
      operating various touch screen devices, in order to develop an application for
      assessing the user's abilities and limitations. A six step procedure was used to
      collect and validate the required knowledge for the assessment from a
      multidisciplinary team. To determine the agreement levels between the experts,
      content validity was calculated. To test correlation between the experts from the
      different disciplines, a comparison was made between the discipline groups and
      their choice of specific skills/measurements. The final number of domains and
      skills/measurements was 15 domains and 50 skills/measurements. The result of
      Cronbach's alpha test for the final assessment questionnaire (50
      skills/measurements) was 0.94, which indicates a high degree of reliability. The
      results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed the lack of any significant difference
      between agreements of the clinicians and the technicians groups, but significant
      differences were found between the educators and the clinicians groups. Each of
      the skills appearing in the final questionnaire was illustrated in a flowchart in
      preparation for developing the assessment (tool) for using touch screen devices.

PMID- 28873882
TI  - Not Just the Right to a Wheelchair but the Right Wheelchair - Improving Brazilian
      Wheelchair Service Delivery.
AB  - This paper discusses the barriers encountered before and after the implementation
      of good practice in the delivery of wheelchair provision services in Belo
      Horizonte city, Brazil. The results demystify some participants' initial idea
      that using an assessment form might take significantly more time. Major barriers
      to implementation had regard to the assessment of pressure sores and a lack of
      wheelchair suppliers.

PMID- 28873883
TI  - One Dimensional Input Device of Electric Wheelchair for Persons with Severe
      Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
AB  - Persons with severe Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) usually have difficult in
      operating electric wheelchairs (EW) using standard input device due to the lack
      of muscular power and the deformation of their hands. This paper proposed a novel
      one dimensional two degree of freedom (1D2F) input device based on the
      quantitative evaluation of hand function which consists of fingertip force and
      active range of motion. The validity and the operating features of this device
      are demonstrated by experiments.

PMID- 28873884
TI  - Efficiency and Rolling Resistance in Manual Wheelchair Propulsion.
AB  - The efficiency and the rolling resistance in wheelchair propulsion play an
      important role in the comfort and the health of wheelchair users in daily life.
      Here we identify these fundamental interactions of wheelchair-user system on
      treadmill and on track. We measured the oxygen uptake (input) and the propelling
      torque (output) as the parameters with velocity and tire pressure. The efficiency
      increased about 9-13% as the velocity increased on treadmill and it increased
      around 11-12% as the tire pressure reduced on track. The mean coefficient of
      rolling resistance was 0.012 on treadmill and that were 0.016 (200 kPa) and 0.026
      (30 kPa) on track. Our experimental results indicated that the efficiency and the
      rolling resistance were strongly dependent on the velocity and tire pressure.

PMID- 28873885
TI  - Advantages of Unstable Manual Wheelchair.
AB  - In this study, many test runs were conducted using experimental manual wheelchair
      on various floor surface conditions. In the result, operability of manual
      wheelchair would be improved by shifting the position of drive wheels forward.

PMID- 28873886
TI  - Servomotor Assistance in the Improvement of Manual Wheelchair Mobility.
AB  - This study reports the development of a servo-controlled power-assisted
      wheelchair, designed to reduce the loads on the upper limbs while maintaining the
      drivability of a manual chair. It is presented the concept and implementation of
      an assisted propulsion system, focusing on the assistance controlling and the
      torque transmission.

PMID- 28873887
TI  - MotorSense: Using Motion Tracking Technology to Support the Identification and
      Treatment of Gross-Motor Dysfunction.
AB  - MotorSense is a motion detection and tracking technology that can be implemented
      across a range of environments to assist in detecting delays in gross-motor
      skills development. The system utilises the motion tracking functionality of
      Microsoft's KinectTM. It features games that require children to perform graded
      gross-motor tasks matched with their chronological and developmental ages. This
      paper describes the rationale for MotorSense, provides an overview of the
      functionality of the system and illustrates sample activities.

PMID- 28873888
TI  - Can Automated Facial Expression Analysis Show Differences Between Autism and
      Typical Functioning?
AB  - Exploratory analyses of emotional expressions using a commercially available
      facial expression recognition software are reported, from the context of a
      serious game for screening purposes. Our results are based on a comparative
      analysis of two matched groups of kindergarten-age children (high-functioning
      children with autism spectrum condition: n=13; typically developing children:
      n=13). Results indicate that this technology has the potential to identify autism
      specific emotion expression features, and may play a role in affective diagnostic
      and assistive technologies.

PMID- 28873889
TI  - Assistive Technology for an Inclusive Society for People with Intellectual
      Disability.
AB  - People with intellectual disability (ID), are some of the most stigmatized and
      marginalized social groups. Ongoing global initiatives such as the United Nations
      Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPD) and Strategic
      Development Goals (SDGs) aim to accelerate their inclusion into the society. In
      many high-income countries, deinstitutionalization of care for people with ID
      forms part of the broader social inclusion agenda for people with ID into the
      society. Access to appropriate assistive technology (AT) can mediate the ongoing
      normalization/inclusion efforts for people with ID. AT can enable users with ID
      to access societal processes such as education, employment, socialization or
      independent living. Effective use of AT can also enhance the formation and/or
      maintenance of interpersonal relationships by people with ID, thus promote their
      social support.

PMID- 28873890
TI  - Participation and Autonomy for Users with ABI Through Easy Social Media Access.
AB  - The Mediata app is a mobile application providing easy access to internet and
      social media for persons with acquired brain injury. This paper presents design,
      working hypotheses and expected results of a participative user experience study
      to evaluate the impact of the Mediata application on participation and autonomy
      of users with acquired brain injury.

PMID- 28873892
TI  - Digital Skills Development and ICT in Inclusive Education: Experiences from
      Cyprus Schools.
AB  - This qualitative research has been a pilot implementation of the ENTELS self
      assessment framework for schools on digital skills development and Information
      and Communication Technologies (ICT) in inclusive education, in Cyprus. Results
      suggest that participant schools overall identified themselves as "getting
      started" to "some progress" in all areas with the highest evaluation in the one
      corresponding to "school commitment in the integration of ICT skills of all
      students, including those with disabilities". The planned and implemented actions
      which followed have taken into consideration the rating of each school and the
      theoretical background, aimed at reinforcing the participation of the diverse
      students and students with disabilities and other educational needs. Final
      analysis of the actions' effectiveness is planned whereas future tool
      implementation could concentrate on how to overcome barriers and concerns related
      to ICT integration for promoting inclusive education.

PMID- 28873891
TI  - A Self-Assessment Framework for Inclusive Schools Supporting Assistive Technology
      Users.
AB  - In order to support schools to assess their performance in supporting children
      with disabilities in their ICT and ICT-AT needs, a self-assessment framework was
      developed by a task force of partners and associate partners of the ENTELIS
      project. The self-assessment tool aims to help educational establishments that
      welcome learners with disabilities to assess their current outcomes and to plan
      improvements in supporting these students in increasing digital literacy and
      developing digital skills. This includes the use of mainstream Information and
      Communication Technology (ICT) and specially designed digital Assistive
      Technologies (ICT-AT). This can only successfully happen if schools fully embrace
      an inclusive approach to education. In this paper the authors describe the
      development of the framework and the further steps for its use.

PMID- 28873893
TI  - Web Widgets Barriers for Visually Impaired Users.
AB  - Currently, websites are mainly composed of web widgets, dynamic elements and
      updatable sections - like autosuggest list, carousel, slideshow etc. In order to
      contribute with the development of accessible rich internet applications, this
      work aims to better understand the interaction of severely visually impaired
      users with these pages, gathering their main barriers and difficulties.

PMID- 28873894
TI  - Extraction Methodology of Implicit Didactics in Math Schoolbooks for the Blind.
AB  - The implicit didactic information embedded in the theoretical part of math
      schoolbooks is one of the keys for successful learning mathematics, but mostly
      reserved for sighted students. Thus, the methodology for analyzing this
      theoretical part of selected math schoolbooks is developed for extracting this
      implicit didactic information, which will be made accessible. Combined with the
      blind students' teaching methods in classrooms, a dialog-based assistant concept
      is suggested for covering core didactics for teaching the blind.

PMID- 28873895
TI  - Toward Emotionally Accessible Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
AB  - This paper outlines an approach to evaluating the emotional content of three
      Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) using the affective computing approach of
      prosody detection on two different text-to-speech voices in conjunction with
      human raters judging the emotional content of course text. The intent of this
      work is to establish the potential variation on the emotional delivery of MOOC
      material through synthetic voice.

PMID- 28873896
TI  - Auditing the Accessibility of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
AB  - The outcome from the research being reported in this paper is the design of an
      accessibility audit to evaluate Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for
      accessibility and to arrive at solutions and adaptations that can meet user
      needs. This accessibility audit includes expert-based heuristic evaluations and
      user-based evaluations of the MOOC platforms and individual courses.

PMID- 28873897
TI  - A Community-Level Perspective on Digitally and Socially Including Disabled
      People.
AB  - A presentation of findings from the evaluation of the Future Digital Inclusion
      programme funded by the UK Government Department of Education. Data show the
      effectiveness of embedding digital inclusion support within wider social
      inclusion services at the local level, mediated by institutions and organisations
      which have established pathways to engage socially excluded people, including
      disabled people.

PMID- 28873898
TI  - Supporting Disabled People's Independence With Digital Skills in the Community.
AB  - This presentation discusses research by Good Things Foundation with community
      organisations supporting disabled people within the national Online Centres
      network, to explore the barriers to digital inclusion (DI) they face. The
      research informed a handbook to help similar organisations get disabled people
      online.

PMID- 28873899
TI  - Building an Accessible Pictograph Interface for Users with Intellectual
      Disabilities.
AB  - This paper presents a pictograph interface for Pictograph-to-Text translation,
      which facilitates the construction of written text on social media platforms for
      users with Intellectual Disabilities. For the design of the interface, a user
      centred approach was adopted. Results show that the target group can appreciate
      accessing social media through pictograph-based technologies.

PMID- 28873900
TI  - Inclusive E-Learning - Towards an Integrated System Design.
AB  - At first sight there seem to be issues combining technical accessibility
      guidelines and educational needs when designing inclusive E-Learning. Furthermore
      Universal Design for Learning seems to contradict individualization. In this
      paper we address both issues with an inclusive E-Learning design for the LAYA
      system, which targets disabled and non-disabled learners.

PMID- 28873901
TI  - Co-Creation Learning Procedures: Comparing Interactive Language Lessons for Deaf
      and Hearing Students.
AB  - This paper discusses co-creation learning procedures of second language lessons
      for deaf students, and sign language lessons by a deaf lecturer. The analyses
      focus on the learning procedure and resulting assessment, considering the
      disability. Through questionnaires ICT-based co-creative learning technologies
      are effective and efficient and promote spontaneous learning motivation goals.

PMID- 28873902
TI  - The WebACS - An Accessible Graphical Editor.
AB  - This paper is about the solution to accessibility problems met when implementing
      a graphical editor, a major challenge being the comprehension of the
      relationships between graphical components, which needs to be guaranteed for
      blind and vision impaired users. In the concrete case the HTML5 canvas and
      Javascript were used. Accessibility was reached by implementing a list view of
      elements, which also enhances the usability of the editor.

PMID- 28873903
TI  - How Accessible is Weibo for People with Visual Impairments?
AB  - Weibo is one of the most popular Chinese social media services. The literature
      has shown that social media have potential to empower people with disabilities.
      However, digital accessibility is a new area in China and very few studies have
      focused on the accessibility of Chinese social media services. This research aims
      to evaluate the accessibility of Weibo for people with visual impairments. A
      survey, interviews and user testing were used to identify accessibility issues of
      Weibo. On the basis of the findings, recommendations are made to improve
      accessibility.

PMID- 28873904
TI  - DUCK: A DeDUCtive Soft Keyboard for Visually Impaired Users.
AB  - Touch screens rapidly and significantly replace physical keyboards on mobile
      devices. Hence, text entry is now dependent on soft keyboards that are widely
      used by sighted people, but raise accessibility issues for visually impaired
      users. These users rely on tactile exploration with vocal feedback of the whole
      screen for entering text, which is time consuming. A software keyboard that aims
      reducing tactile exploration and speeding up text entry for VI users was
      designed. It relies on the selection of the first letter of a word and rapid and
      inaccurate typing of the remaining letters. It then proposes a list of words
      having the same first letter and a similar total distance between letters. The
      evaluation with twelve VI users showed that this keyboard is very efficient for
      words larger than five characters. It also helps preventing certain typing
      errors.

PMID- 28873905
TI  - Evaluation of Orientation Performance of Attention Patterns for Blind Person.
AB  - Tactile walking surface indicators (TWSIs) are installed on footpath to support
      independent travel for the blind. There are two types of TWSIs, attention
      patterns and guiding patterns. The attention pattern is usually installed at the
      crosswalk entrances. The direction of the crossing can be acquired by the row of
      the projection of the attention pattern through the soles of the shoes. In
      addition, truncated domes or cones of the attention pattern were arranged in a
      square grid, parallel or diagonal at 45 degrees to the principal direction of
      travel. However, the international standard organization (ISO) allows a wide
      ranging size. In this research, the direction indicating performance was compared
      at the same intervals for the five diameters specified by the international
      standard. As a result of the experiment, the diagonal array does not indicate the
      direction of travel, but the projection row does indicate the direction of travel
      in the parallel array. When the attention pattern is installed at a crosswalk
      entrance, a parallel array should be installed in the direction of the crossing.

PMID- 28873906
TI  - An Analysis and Proposal of 3D Printing Applications for the Visually Impaired.
AB  - The full 3D printing process is divided into discrete 3 steps. With user-centric
      approach, the study confirmed that people with visual impairments could use CAD
      to carry out 3D printing tasks by managing the entire process as long as they had
      a certain amount of 3D data.

PMID- 28873907
TI  - Accessibility Analysis of the Eclipse IDE for Users with Visual Impairment.
AB  - Integrated Development Environments support software developers during their
      daily work. However, complex graphical interfaces and various functions disable
      an accessible development environment. We present the results of an online
      questionnaire, which identifies accessibility issues regarding the Eclipse IDE,
      and an inclusive tutorial for Eclipse for people with visual impairment.

PMID- 28873908
TI  - Effects of Optimizing the Scan-Path on Scanning Keyboards with QWERTY-Layout for
      English Text.
AB  - Scanning keyboards can be essential tools for individuals with reduced motor
      function. However, most research addresses layout optimization. Learning new
      layouts is time-consuming. This study explores the familiar QWERTY layout with
      alternative scanning paths intended for English text. The results show that
      carefully designed scan-paths can help QWERTY nearly match optimized layouts in
      performance.

PMID- 28873909
TI  - Usability of Optical Mark Reader Sheet as an Answering Tool in Testing.
AB  - The research result on usability of Optical Mark Reader Sheet (OMRS) being used
      as the standard answering tool is reported. The use of OMRS significantly
      requires more answer time than the answer time without OMRS, and the use of
      assistive devices for OMRS has the possibility to reduce the answer time.

PMID- 28873911
TI  - Towards a Cognitive Screenreader.
AB  - This paper describes the current state of development of a tool that assists
      people with cognitive disabilities while using the internet. The support is
      provided by interfaces that give additional or alternative information for
      content or user interaction mechanics that are not understood by the support.

PMID- 28873910
TI  - Use of Scanning Wizard Can Enhance Text Entry Rate: Preliminary Results.
AB  - Scanning Wizard software helps scanning users improve the setup of their switch
      and scanning system. This study is evaluating Scanning Wizard's effectiveness,
      with nine people who use single-switch scanning participating to date. Text entry
      rates have improved by an average of 71%, ranging from 29 to 172% improvement.

PMID- 28873912
TI  - Inclusive Competitive Game Play Through Balanced Sensory Feedback.
AB  - While game accessibility has improved significantly the last few years, there are
      still barriers for equal participation and multiplayer issues have been less
      researched. Game balance is here about making the game fair in a player versus
      player competitive game. One difficult design task is to balance the game to be
      fair regardless of visual or hearing capabilities, with clearly different
      requirements. This paper explores a tentative design method for enabling
      inclusive competitive game-play without individual adaptations of game rules that
      could spoil the game. The method involved applying a unified design method to
      design an unbalanced game, then modifying visual feedback as a hypothetical
      balanced design, and testing the game with totally 52 people with and without
      visual or hearing disabilities in three workshops. Game balance was evaluated
      based on score differences and less structured qualitative data, and a redesign
      of the game was made. Conclusions are a tentative method for balancing a
      multiplayer, competitive game without changing game rules and how the method can
      be applied.

PMID- 28873914
TI  - Universal Design as a Transformative Agent in Education for All Learners.
AB  - Universal Design (UD) offers a "whole systems approach" and has the capacity to
      transform the educational environment to encompass all learners. This paper
      proposes a new framework for a systems change to address the systemic rigidity
      that often characterises the education sector today. A human development
      ecological framework combined with Universal Design (UD) and Universal Design for
      Learning (UDL) with the potential to transform teaching and learning practices
      and associated policies, procedures and services for the benefit of all learners.

PMID- 28873913
TI  - Comparing Accessibility Auditing Methods for Ebooks: Crowdsourced, Functionality
      Led Versus Web Content Methodologies.
AB  - This paper presents a gap analysis between crowdsourced functional accessibility
      evaluations of ebooks conducted by non-experts and the technical accessibility
      standards employed by developers. It also illustrates how combining these
      approaches can provide more appropriate information for a wider group of users
      with print impairments.

PMID- 28873915
TI  - A Self-Service Approach to Promote Self-Sufficiency, Independence and Inclusion
      Amongst Disabled Students.
AB  - This paper presents how SensusAccess has been adapted and is being used in higher
      education to create inclusive educational environments. Reflecting on challenges
      of providing alternate versions of educational material to students with
      disabilities, it also discusses how the service can benefit mainstream learners.

PMID- 28873916
TI  - ICT and UD: Preliminary Study for Recommendations to Design Accessible University
      Courses.
AB  - Starting from the Universal Design in the educational context principles, the
      experiences gained during the FIRB project "Net@ccessibility" and the high
      education courses for teachers' specialization on special education, this
      research will focus on preliminary studies in order to define the recommendations
      for designing accessible university courses.

PMID- 28873917
TI  - Universal Design Across the Curriculum: Training for Students and Teachers.
AB  - Providing an inclusive educational setting for children with disabilities is
      essential if they are to truly benefit from mainstream education. Universal
      design (UD) provides a framework to develop our classrooms, materials and methods
      to accommodate diverse learners and students with special educational needs
      without the need to retrofit or remove the student from the classroom. This paper
      outlines the theory and the approach of two training courses on Universal Design
      developed for teachers and students.

PMID- 28873918
TI  - Machine Learning Based Evaluation of Reading and Writing Difficulties.
AB  - The possibility of auto evaluation of reading and writing difficulties was
      investigated using non-parametric machine learning (ML) regression technique for
      URAWSS (Understanding Reading and Writing Skills of Schoolchildren) [1] test data
      of 168 children of grade 1 - 9. The result showed that the ML had better
      prediction than the ordinary rule-based decision.

PMID- 28873919
TI  - Development of Mathematical Skills Developing Game Software.
AB  - Using basic mathematical operations is not easy for everyone. The AndMaths game
      for Android devices was developed to help elementary school students to learn
      these basic mathematical skills in the number ranges of twenties, fifties,
      hundreds and thousands. The user can freely select the number ranges.

PMID- 28873920
TI  - Lessons from Helen Keller: How to Make the Comics Accessible?
AB  - This paper addresses the lack of accessibility of the comics for deaf or hard-of
      hearing readers. Comics are a major cultural object, used in many different
      contexts with, as much as different purposes (leisure, education, advertising,
      etc.). We report here the results of an experimentation during a communication
      operation, including a regular exhibition made of panels and a digital mirroring
      of the contents, with extra materials and information. This digital part,
      accessible through our institution website, is the basement of this paper.

PMID- 28873921
TI  - Education in Care and Technology; Development and Evaluation of a First Cohort of
      an International Master Course.
AB  - A report written as a personal communication based on the experience gathered by
      developing and delivery of a international professional master course. The
      organization of the curriculum consists of 16 modules. Using a framework of the
      user centered design and development cycle students receive domain knowledge
      related to user-orientation, business, innovation and implementation. Also,
      introduction is given to tools that can be used to investigate certain aspects.
      The course will be completed by the performance of master thesis research related
      of a practice oriented problem relevant to the work environment of the student.
      This master-course has been followed by a first cohort of 8 students. In this
      report, an evaluation is given on this first delivery. Organization of this
      course is complicated by the marketing conditions that have to be used. Students
      and teachers are well supported by the distance based learning environment. The
      16 modules representing the content of the course contains a variety of subjects
      and methods and represents a huge educational load to the students. Translating
      this content to the development of the own applied research subject contributes
      to the learning process. The first cohort of students will complete their master
      thesis in July 2017. Further introduction of new cohorts will mainly depend on
      the possibility to reduce the financial constraints to participation.

PMID- 28873922
TI  - Higher Education Beyond Faculties: Interdisciplinary Education in Care and
      Technology.
AB  - A Centre of Healthcare and Technology of a Dutch University of Applied Sciences,
      is presented - and illustrated by project examples - to show how the transitions
      in the sectors of health care and technology can result in interdisciplinary
      education in care and technology by means of higher education beyond faculties.

PMID- 28873923
TI  - Designing Situated Learning Experiences: Interdisciplinary Collaboration for
      Design Education in Healthcare.
AB  - This paper describes how the DHW Lab facilitates third mission activities, as
      well as advancing undergraduate pedagogy and post-graduate research. It suggests
      there are challenges and opportunities involved in creating a hybrid of two very
      different organizations, that need to be addressed to advance transdisciplinary
      education in the 'transformative university'.

PMID- 28873924
TI  - Simulation in Medical School Education.
AB  - The Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI), Covilha, Portugal in the medical degree
      course uses simulation in an integrated and comprehensive program as a
      pedagogical tool.

PMID- 28873925
TI  - Roles and Responsibilities of Parents and Therapists in a Kindergarten Treatment
      Centre.
AB  - The aim of the study is 1) to gather insights into the current procedure used to
      coordinate/determine the roles and responsibilities between parents and
      therapists from a Kindergarten Treatment centre in The Netherlands with respect
      to the treatment and support of the children and 2) to examine parents and
      professionals experience in this procedure.

PMID- 28873926
TI  - Adoption and Use of a Mobile System at Home Care.
AB  - This research concerns mobile system adoption and use among home care nurses at
      one home care organization in Finland. The aim was to get insights on somewhat
      poor adoption and utilization of a mobile system they use. 12 nurses were
      interviewed and observed at home visit to gain insights on how the system could
      better facilitate their work routines. A requirement analysis was produced based
      on the results and is to be discussed with the management of the organization and
      the service provider.

PMID- 28873927
TI  - Open DeveloperSpace: An Enabling Infrastructure for Stakeholders to Generate New
      Access Solutions.
AB  - The DeveloperSpace, one of the core components of GPII, is a self-sustainable
      infrastructure and collaborative environment, where developers, implementers,
      consumers, prosumers and other directly and indirectly involved actors (e.g.
      teachers, caregivers, clinicians) may interact with and play a role in its
      viability and the development of new access solutions.

PMID- 28873928
TI  - Feed3: A Strategy for a 3-Direction Connection Among AT Consumers and Developers.
AB  - The Feed3 strategy aims to provide AT consumers, developers and manufacturers
      with Feedback, Feedforwards and FeedPeer mechanisms to collaborate in the
      development of novel accessible solutions. This strategy was developed as part of
      the GPII and it is currently adopted by the Unified Listing and DeveloperSpace
      infrastructure components.

PMID- 28873929
TI  - Using the Assistance on Demand Platform to Set Up a Network of Assistance
      Services.
AB  - The Assistance on Demand (AoD) platform is a novel open-source infrastructure
      which enables the set-up and web publication of assistance services. This paper
      focuses on the potential of the AoD functionality to enable the configuration and
      creation of a Network of Assistance Services (NAS) by non-expert users (e.g.
      consumers, family members).

PMID- 28873930
TI  - Use Model for a User Centred Design in Multidisciplinary Teams.
AB  - The Use Model identifies user groups who will be using services and products the
      Prosperity4All infrastructure offers. The Model provides developers a tool to
      keep in mind the full diversity of users while building and designing the
      infrastructure.

PMID- 28873931
TI  - Enabling Accessibility Through Model-Based User Interface Development.
AB  - Adaptive user interfaces (AUIs) can increase the accessibility of interactive
      systems. They provide personalized display and interaction modes to fit
      individual user needs. Most AUI approaches rely on model-based development, which
      is considered relatively demanding. This paper explores strategies to make model
      based development more attractive for mainstream developers.

PMID- 28873932
TI  - Stepping Stones for People with Cognitive Disabilities and Low Digital Literacy.
AB  - The open source components presented have been designed for use by developers
      creating applications for people with cognitive disabilities or low digital
      literacy. They provide easy access to common online activities and include
      configurable levels of complexity to address varying preferences.

PMID- 28873933
TI  - Gaze-Based Assistive Technology - Use in Everyday Life for Individuals with
      Impairments.
AB  - This session focuses on the latest developments of gaze-based assistive
      technology (AT) and the impact of gaze-based AT interventions in the home and at
      school. In particular, for play, communication, assessments and early
      intervention. The discussion focuses on how research findings can advance future
      developments.

PMID- 28873934
TI  - The Benefits of Gaze-Based Assistive Technology in Daily Activities for Children
      with Disabilities.
AB  - This article reports research findings on how gaze-based assistive technology
      contributed to performance of daily activities for a group of children with
      severe physical impairments and without speech.

PMID- 28873935
TI  - Teachers' Experiences of Hope Using Eye Gaze-Controlled Computers.
AB  - Technology to control a computer with eye gaze is a fast growing field and has
      promising implications for people with severe disabilities. 11 school staff was
      interviewed about teaching using an eye gaze computer for pupils with severe
      disabilities. The eye gaze computer creates opportunities for the teachers to get
      a glimpse of emotions and knowledge that is "inside" the pupil's trapped body and
      creates hope concerning the pupil's future possibilities. The implementation of
      the eye gaze computer create new imaginations for the future for the pupil and
      when the teachers are exposing themselves to the uncertainty, hope becomes a
      source of motivation and behavior.

PMID- 28873936
TI  - Parent Perception of Two Eye-Gaze Control Technology Systems in Young Children
      with Cerebral Palsy: Pilot Study.
AB  - Eye-gaze control technology enables people with significant physical disability
      to access computers for communication, play, learning and environmental control.
      This pilot study used a multiple case study design with repeated baseline
      assessment and parents' evaluations to compare two eye-gaze control technology
      systems to identify any differences in factors such as ease of use and impact of
      the systems for their young children. Five children, aged 3 to 5 years, with
      dyskinetic cerebral palsy, and their families participated. Overall, families
      were satisfied with both the Tobii PCEye Go and myGaze(r) eye tracker, found them
      easy to position and use, and children learned to operate them quickly. This
      technology provides young children with important opportunities for learning,
      play, leisure, and developing communication.

PMID- 28873937
TI  - Participation Through Gaze Controlled Computer for Children with Severe Multiple
      Disabilities.
AB  - This paper presents work on developing methodology material for use of gaze
      controlled computers. The target group is families and professionals around
      children with severe multiple disabilities. The material includes software grids
      for children at various levels, aimed for communication, leisure and learning and
      will be available for download.

PMID- 28873938
TI  - Gaze-Based Assistive Technology for a Toddler with Tetraplegia and Without
      Speech.
AB  - This is a case study exploring gaze-based AT as early intervention, for a ten
      month-old non-verbal child with severe physical impairments. Data was collected
      repeatedly over time through questionnaires, videos clips, and field observations
      until the child was three years old.

PMID- 28873939
TI  - Gaze-Based Assistive Technology - Usefulness in Clinical Assessments.
AB  - Gaze-based assistive technology was used in informal clinical assessments.
      Excerpts of medical journals were analyzed by directed content analysis using a
      model of communicative competence. The results of this pilot study indicate that
      gaze-based assistive technology is a useful tool in communication assessments
      that can generate clinically relevant information.

PMID- 28873942
TI  - Biogeochemical gradients and microbial communities in Winogradsky columns
      established with polluted wetland sediments.
AB  - A Winogradsky column is a miniature ecosystem established with enriched sediments
      that can be used to study the relationship between biogeochemical gradients,
      microbial diversity and pollutant transformation. Biogeochemical processes and
      microbial communities changed with time and depth in Winogradsky columns
      incubated with heavy-metal-polluted wetland sediments for 520 days. 16S rRNA
      surveys were complemented by geochemical analyses, including heavy metal
      proportioning, to evaluate gradients in the mostly anoxic columns. Oxygen was
      depleted below the water-sediment interface (WSI), while NH4+, Fe2+, S2- and
      acetate increased by one order of magnitude at the bottom. Microbial niche
      differentiation occurred mainly by depth and from the light-exposed surface to
      the interior of the columns. Chemical gradients resulting from nutrient uptake by
      algae, and from iron and sulphate reduction mainly drove diversification. Heavy
      metal proportioning did not significantly influence microbial diversity as Cu and
      Zn were immobilised at all depths. Proteobacteria were abundant in the top water
      and the WSI layers, whereas Firmicutes and Bacteroida dominated down-core.
      Together with low diversity and richness of communities at the WSI and column
      bottom, changes in the bacterial community coincided with algal-derived carbon
      sources and cellulose fermentation, respectively. We expect this study to be the
      starting point for the use Winogradsky columns to study microbial and geochemical
      dynamics in polluted sediments.

PMID- 28873943
TI  - Novel sequence types of extended-spectrum and acquired AmpC beta-lactamase
      producing Escherichia coli and Escherichia clade V isolated from wild mammals.
AB  - The closer contact with wildlife due to the growing human population and the
      destruction of natural habitats emphasizes the need of gaining insight into the
      role of animals as source of antimicrobial resistance. Here, we aim at
      characterizing the antimicrobial resistance genes and phylogenetic distribution
      of commensal Escherichia coli from 62 wild mammals. Isolates exhibiting
      resistance to >=1 antibiotic were detected in 25.8% of the animals and 6.4%
      carried an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)/AmpC-producing E. coli.
      Genetic mechanisms involved in third-generation cephalosporin resistance were as
      follows: (i) hyperproduction of chromosomal AmpC (hedgehog), (ii) production of
      acquired CMY-2 beta-lactamase (hedgehog), (iii) production of SHV-12 and CTX-M-14
      ESBLs (n = 2, mink and roe-deer). ESBL genes were transferable by conjugation,
      and blaCMY-2 was mobilized by a 95kb IncI1 plasmid. The distribution of the
      phylogenetic groups in the E. coli collection studied was B1 (44.6%), B2 (24.6%),
      E (15.4%), A (4.6%) and F (3.1%). Five isolates (7.7%) were cryptic Escherichia
      clades (clade IV, 4 mice; clade V, 1 mink). ESBL/AmpC-E. coli isolates showed
      different sequence types (STs): ST1128/B1, ST4564/B1 (new), ST4996/B1 (new) and a
      non-registered ST. This study contributes to better understand the E. coli
      population and antimicrobial resistance flow in wildlife and reports new AmpC-E.
      coli STs and a first described ESBL-producing Escherichia clade V isolate.

PMID- 28873944
TI  - Protective efficacy by various doses of a new brucellosis vaccine candidate based
      on Salmonella strains expressing Brucella abortus BSCP31, Omp3b and superoxide
      dismutase against brucellosis in murine model.
AB  - Brucella species are important etiological agents of zoonotic diseases.
      Attenuated Salmonella strains expressing Brucella abortus BCSP31, Omp3b and
      superoxide dismutase proteins were tested as vaccine candidates in this study. In
      order to determine the optimal dose for intraperitoneal (IP) inoculation required
      to obtain effective protection against brucellosis, mice were immunized with
      various doses of a mixture of the three vaccine strains. Fifty BALB/c mice were
      divided into five equal groups (groups A-E). Group A mice were intraperitoneally
      inoculated with 100 MUL of sterile phosphate-buffered saline. Group B, C, D and E
      mice were intraperitoneally immunized with approximately 1.2 * 105 colony-forming
      units (CFU) mL-1 of Salmonella containing pMMP65 in 100 MUL and with 1.2 * 104
      CFU mL-1, 1.2 * 105 CFU mL-1 and 1.2 * 106 CFU mL-1 of the mixture of the three
      strains in 100 MUL, respectively. Serum IgG, tumor necrosis factor alpha and
      interferon gamma concentrations were significantly higher in group E than in
      groups A-D. Following challenge with B. abortus 544, the challenge strain was not
      detected in the spleen of any mouse from group E. Thus, IP immunization with 1.2
      * 106 CFU mL-1 of the mixture of the three vaccine strains induced immune
      responses and provided effective protection against brucellosis in mice.

PMID- 28873946
TI  - Carbon recycling by cyanobacteria: improving CO2 fixation through chemical
      production.
AB  - Atmospheric CO2 levels have reached an alarming level due to industrialization
      and the burning of fossil fuels. In order to lower the level of atmospheric
      carbon, strategies to sequester excess carbon need to be implemented. The CO2
      fixing mechanism in photosynthetic organisms enables integration of atmospheric
      CO2 into biomass. Additionally, through exogenous metabolic pathways in these
      photosynthetic organisms, fixed CO2 can be routed to produce various commodity
      chemicals that are currently produced from petroleum. This review will highlight
      studies and modifications to different components of cyanobacterial CO2-fixing
      systems, as well as the application of these systems toward CO2-derived chemical
      production. 2,3-Butanediol is given particular focus as one of the most
      thoroughly studied systems for conversion of CO2 to a bioproduct.

PMID- 28873945
TI  - Diversity and antimicrobial activity of bacteria isolated from different
      Brazilian coral species.
AB  - Corals harbor a wide diversity of bacteria associated with their mucus. These
      bacteria can play an important role in nutrient cycling, degradation of
      xenobiotics and defense against pathogens by producing antimicrobial compounds.
      However, the diversity of the cultivable heterotrophic bacteria, especially in
      the Brazilian coral species, remains poorly understood. The present work compares
      the diversity of cultivable bacteria isolated from the mucus and surrounding
      environments of four coral species present along the Brazilian coast, and
      explores the antibacterial activity of these bacteria. Bacteria belonging to the
      phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes were isolated.
      The mucus environment presented a significantly different bacteria composition,
      compared to the water and sediment environments, with high abundance of
      Alcanivorax, Acinetobacter, Aurantimonas and Erythrobacter. No difference in the
      inhibition activity was found between the isolates from mucus and from the
      surrounding environment. Eighty-three per cent of the bacteria isolated from the
      mucus presented antimicrobial activity against Serratia marcescens, an
      opportunistic coral pathogen, suggesting that they might play a role in
      maintaining the health of the host. Most of the bacteria isolates that presented
      positive antimicrobial activity belonged to the genus Bacillus.

PMID- 28873947
TI  - First report of sasX-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in
      Japan.
AB  - SasX is a known virulence factor of Staphylococcus aureus involved in
      colonisation and immune evasion of the bacterium. The sasX gene, which is located
      on the phiSPbeta prophage, is frequently found in the sequence type (ST) 239 S.
      aureus lineage, which is the predominant healthcare-associated clone in Asian
      countries. In Japan, ST239 clones have rarely been identified, and sasX-positive
      strains have not been reported to date. Here, we report the first identification
      of 18 sasX-positive methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains in Japanese
      hospitals between 2009 and 2011. All sasX-positive isolates belonged to an ST239
      staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec type III (ST239-III) lineage. However, we
      were unable to identify additional sasX-positive MRSA strains from 2012 to 2016,
      indicating that the small epidemic of sasX-positive isolates observed in this
      study was temporary. The sequence surrounding sasX in the strain TOHH628 lacked
      51 genes that encode phage packaging and structural proteins, and no
      bacteriophage was induced by mitomycin C. Additionally, in the TOHH628 strain,
      the region (64.6 kb) containing sasX showed high identity to the phiSPbeta-like
      element (71.3 kb) of the Taiwanese MRSA strain Z172. The data strongly suggest
      that the present sasX-positive isolates found in Japanese hospitals were
      transmitted incidentally from other countries.

PMID- 28873950
TI  - Plant Cuttings.

PMID- 28873948
TI  - Understanding intraspecific variation of floral scent in light of evolutionary
      ecology.
AB  - Background and Aims: Among the various floral traits involved in pollinator
      attraction and potentially under selection mediated by pollinators, floral
      scent/fragrance has been less investigated than other components of floral
      phenotype. Whether or not pollinator-mediated selection impacts floral scents
      depends on the heritability of scent/fragrance and the occurrence of some
      variation within species. Although most studies have investigated how scent
      varies among species, growing amounts of data are available on variation at the
      intraspecific level. Methods: The results of 81 studies investigating
      intraspecific variation of floral scents in 132 taxa were reviewed. For each
      study, whether variation was found in either identity, proportion or absolute
      quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was recorded, as well as
      information with the potential to explain variation, such as methodology, plant
      origin or pollination biology. Key Results: Variation was found for almost all
      investigated species, both among individuals (among and sometimes within
      populations) and within individuals across different temporal scales. Cases in
      which such variation is a possible result of pollinator-mediated selection were
      analysed, by discussing separately selection related to variation in pollinator
      identity/behaviour among populations or across time, deceit pollination and sex
      specific selection. Not surprisingly, in many cases, pollinator-mediated
      selection alone does not explain the observed variation in floral scent. This led
      us to review current knowledge on less investigated factors, such as selection
      mediated by natural enemies, genetic drift and gene flow, environmental
      constraints, phylogenetic inertia, or biochemical constraints that could be
      invoked to explain scent variation. Conclusions: This review highlights the great
      potential of analysing floral scent variation and including it in integrated
      studies of floral phenotypes. We also have identified the current gaps in our
      understanding of this complex signal and we propose several methodological and
      conceptual future directions in this research area.

PMID- 28873952
TI  - Coronary artery disease: risk factors, haemodynamic significance, anatomic
      complexity, and platelet lipidome.

PMID- 28873951
TI  - Position paper of the European Society of Cardiology-working group of coronary
      pathophysiology and microcirculation: obesity and heart disease.

PMID- 28873953
TI  - Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiling Reveals Epigenetic Adaptation of
      Stickleback to Marine and Freshwater Conditions.
AB  - The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) represents a convenient
      model to study microevolution-adaptation to a freshwater environment. Although
      genetic adaptations to freshwater environments are well-studied, epigenetic
      adaptations have attracted little attention. In this work, we investigated the
      role of DNA methylation in the adaptation of the marine stickleback population to
      freshwater conditions. DNA methylation profiling was performed in marine and
      freshwater populations of sticklebacks, as well as in marine sticklebacks placed
      into a freshwater environment and freshwater sticklebacks placed into seawater.
      We showed that the DNA methylation profile after placing a marine stickleback
      into fresh water partially converged to that of a freshwater stickleback. For six
      genes including ATP4A ion pump and NELL1, believed to be involved in skeletal
      ossification, we demonstrated similar changes in DNA methylation in both
      evolutionary and short-term adaptation. This suggested that an immediate
      epigenetic response to freshwater conditions can be maintained in freshwater
      population. Interestingly, we observed enhanced epigenetic plasticity in
      freshwater sticklebacks that may serve as a compensatory regulatory mechanism for
      the lack of genetic variation in the freshwater population. For the first time,
      we demonstrated that genes encoding ion channels KCND3, CACNA1FB, and ATP4A were
      differentially methylated between the marine and the freshwater populations.
      Other genes encoding ion channels were previously reported to be under selection
      in freshwater populations. Nevertheless, the genes that harbor genetic and
      epigenetic changes were not the same, suggesting that epigenetic adaptation is a
      complementary mechanism to selection of genetic variants favorable for freshwater
      environment.

PMID- 28873955
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28873954
TI  - Bad Clade Deletion Supertrees: A Fast and Accurate Supertree Algorithm.
AB  - Supertree methods merge a set of overlapping phylogenetic trees into a supertree
      containing all taxa of the input trees. The challenge in supertree reconstruction
      is the way of dealing with conflicting information in the input trees. Many
      different algorithms for different objective functions have been suggested to
      resolve these conflicts. In particular, there exist methods based on encoding the
      source trees in a matrix, where the supertree is constructed applying a local
      search heuristic to optimize the respective objective function. We present a
      novel heuristic supertree algorithm called Bad Clade Deletion (BCD) supertrees.
      It uses minimum cuts to delete a locally minimal number of columns from such a
      matrix representation so that it is compatible. This is the complement problem to
      Matrix Representation with Compatibility (Maximum Split Fit). Our algorithm has
      guaranteed polynomial worst-case running time and performs swiftly in practice.
      Different from local search heuristics, it guarantees to return the directed
      perfect phylogeny for the input matrix, corresponding to the parent tree of the
      input trees, if one exists. Comparing supertrees to model trees for simulated
      data, BCD shows a better accuracy (F1 score) than the state-of-the-art algorithms
      SuperFine (up to 3%) and Matrix Representation with Parsimony (up to 7%); at the
      same time, BCD is up to 7 times faster than SuperFine, and up to 600 times faster
      than Matrix Representation with Parsimony. Finally, using the BCD supertree as a
      starting tree for a combined Maximum Likelihood analysis using RAxML, we reach
      significantly improved accuracy (1% higher F1 score) and running time (1.7-fold
      speedup).

PMID- 28873956
TI  - The Estimation of Alzheimer's Disease Causative Genes by Applying an Evolutionary
      Approach to Medicine.

PMID- 28873957
TI  - More to the Bunch: Study Finds Large Chromosomal Swaps Key to Banana
      Domestication.

PMID- 28873958
TI  - Initial experience with potential application of cardiac magnetic resonance
      imaging programme for idiopathic monomorphic ventricular arrhythmia in a limited
      resource environment.

PMID- 28873959
TI  - Sudden cardiac death among the young in Sweden from 2000 to 2010: an autopsy
      based study.
AB  - Aims: To study the incidence and aetiology of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in 1- to
      35-year-olds in Sweden from 2000 to 2010. Methods and results: We used the
      database of the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine and the Swedish Cause
      of Death Registry and identified SCD cases by review of forensic files and death
      certificates. We identified 552 individuals with SCD in 1- to 35-year-olds; 156
      (28%) were women. In 393 (71%), a forensic autopsy had been performed; in 131
      (24%), a clinical autopsy had been performed; in 28 (5%) with no autopsy, a
      cardiac disease was diagnosed before death. The incidence of SCD per 100 000
      person-years was 1.3 in 1- to 35-year-olds and 1.8 in 15- to 35-year-olds. In
      women, the incidence rates yearly decreased during the study period by 11% (95%
      confidence interval 6.6-14.2). The most common aetiology in 1- to 35-year-olds
      was sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (31%) and coronary artery disease (15%). In
      cases with forensic autopsy, death occurred during daily activity (48%), sleep
      (38%), and physical activity (14%); death was unwitnessed in 60%. Co-morbidity in
      15- to 35-year-olds, e.g. psychiatric disorder, obesity, or diabetes, was present
      in 93/340 (27%) (73 men). Conclusion: The incidence of SCD among 1- to 35-year
      olds in Sweden during 2000-10 was 1.3 per 100 000 person-years (28% women);
      incidence was decreasing in women. Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome was the most
      common diagnosis. Co-morbidity such as psychiatric disorders and obesity was
      common among men.

PMID- 28873960
TI  - Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging provides more than a diagnosis.

PMID- 28873961
TI  - Transcriptome analysis of the response of Burmese python to digestion.
AB  - Exceptional and extreme feeding behaviour makes the Burmese python (Python
      bivittatus) an interesting model to study physiological remodelling and metabolic
      adaptation in response to refeeding after prolonged starvation. In this study, we
      used transcriptome sequencing of 5 visceral organs during fasting as well as 24
      hours and 48 hours after ingestion of a large meal to unravel the postprandial
      changes in Burmese pythons. We first used the pooled data to perform a de novo
      assembly of the transcriptome and supplemented this with a proteomic survey of
      enzymes in the plasma and gastric fluid. We constructed a high-quality
      transcriptome with 34 423 transcripts, of which 19 713 (57%) were annotated.
      Among highly expressed genes (fragments per kilo base per million sequenced reads
      > 100 in 1 tissue), we found that the transition from fasting to digestion was
      associated with differential expression of 43 genes in the heart, 206 genes in
      the liver, 114 genes in the stomach, 89 genes in the pancreas, and 158 genes in
      the intestine. We interrogated the function of these genes to test previous
      hypotheses on the response to feeding. We also used the transcriptome to identify
      314 secreted proteins in the gastric fluid of the python. Digestion was
      associated with an upregulation of genes related to metabolic processes, and
      translational changes therefore appear to support the postprandial rise in
      metabolism. We identify stomach-related proteins from a digesting individual and
      demonstrate that the sensitivity of modern liquid chromatography/tandem mass
      spectrometry equipment allows the identification of gastric juice proteins that
      are present during digestion.

PMID- 28873962
TI  - A recurrence-based approach for validating structural variation using long-read
      sequencing technology.
AB  - Although numerous algorithms have been developed to identify structural
      variations (SVs) in genomic sequences, there is a dearth of approaches that can
      be used to evaluate their results. This is significant as the accurate
      identification of structural variation is still an outstanding but important
      problem in genomics. The emergence of new sequencing technologies that generate
      longer sequence reads can, in theory, provide direct evidence for all types of
      SVs regardless of the length of the region through which it spans. However,
      current efforts to use these data in this manner require the use of large
      computational resources to assemble these sequences as well as visual inspection
      of each region. Here we present VaPoR, a highly efficient algorithm that
      autonomously validates large SV sets using long-read sequencing data. We assessed
      the performance of VaPoR on SVs in both simulated and real genomes and report a
      high-fidelity rate for overall accuracy across different levels of sequence
      depths. We show that VaPoR can interrogate a much larger range of SVs while still
      matching existing methods in terms of false positive validations and providing
      additional features considering breakpoint precision and predicted genotype. We
      further show that VaPoR can run quickly and efficiency without requiring a large
      processing or assembly pipeline. VaPoR provides a long read-based validation
      approach for genomic SVs that requires relatively low read depth and computing
      resources and thus will provide utility with targeted or low-pass sequencing
      coverage for accurate SV assessment. The VaPoR Software is available at:
      https://github.com/mills-lab/vapor.

PMID- 28873963
TI  - De novo genome assembly and annotation of Australia's largest freshwater fish,
      the Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii), from Illumina and Nanopore sequencing
      read.
AB  - One of the most iconic Australian fish is the Murray cod, Maccullochella peelii
      (Mitchell 1838), a freshwater species that can grow to ~1.8 metres in length and
      live to age >=48 years. The Murray cod is of a conservation concern as a result
      of strong population contractions, but it is also popular for recreational
      fishing and is of growing aquaculture interest. In this study, we report the
      whole genome sequence of the Murray cod to support ongoing population genetics,
      conservation, and management research, as well as to better understand the
      evolutionary ecology and history of the species. A draft Murray cod genome of 633
      Mbp (N50 = 109 974bp; BUSCO and CEGMA completeness of 94.2% and 91.9%,
      respectively) with an estimated 148 Mbp of putative repetitive sequences was
      assembled from the combined sequencing data of 2 fish individuals with an
      identical maternal lineage; 47.2 Gb of Illumina HiSeq data and 804 Mb of Nanopore
      data were generated from the first individual while 23.2 Gb of Illumina MiSeq
      data were generated from the second individual. The inclusion of Nanopore reads
      for scaffolding followed by subsequent gap-closing using Illumina data led to a
      29% reduction in the number of scaffolds and a 55% and 54% increase in the
      scaffold and contig N50, respectively. We also report the first transcriptome of
      Murray cod that was subsequently used to annotate the Murray cod genome, leading
      to the identification of 26 539 protein-coding genes. We present the whole genome
      of the Murray cod and anticipate this will be a catalyst for a range of genetic,
      genomic, and phylogenetic studies of the Murray cod and more generally other fish
      species of the Percichthydae family.

PMID- 28873964
TI  - The pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii genome and multi-omic analyses provide
      insights into biomineralization.
AB  - Nacre, the iridescent material found in pearls and shells of molluscs, is formed
      through an extraordinary process of matrix-assisted biomineralization. Despite
      recent advances, many aspects of the biomineralization process and its
      evolutionary origin remain unknown. The pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii is
      a well-known master of biomineralization, but the molecular mechanisms that
      underlie its production of shells and pearls are not fully understood. We
      sequenced the highly polymorphic genome of the pearl oyster and conducted multi
      omic and biochemical studies to probe nacre formation. We identified a large set
      of novel proteins participating in matrix-framework formation, many in expanded
      families, including components similar to that found in vertebrate bones such as
      collagen-related VWA-containing proteins, chondroitin sulfotransferases, and
      regulatory elements. Considering that there are only collagen-based matrices in
      vertebrate bones and chitin-based matrices in most invertebrate skeletons, the
      presence of both chitin and elements of collagen-based matrices in nacre suggests
      that elements of chitin- and collagen-based matrices have deep roots and might be
      part of an ancient biomineralizing matrix. Our results expand the current shell
      matrix-framework model and provide new insights into the evolution of diverse
      biomineralization systems.

PMID- 28873965
TI  - An expanded mammal mitogenome dataset from Southeast Asia.
AB  - Southeast (SE) Asia is 1 of the most biodiverse regions in the world, and it
      holds approximately 20% of all mammal species. Despite this, the majority of SE
      Asia's genetic diversity is still poorly characterized. The growing interest in
      using environmental DNA to assess and monitor SE Asian species, in particular
      threatened mammals-has created the urgent need to expand the available reference
      database of mitochondrial barcode and complete mitogenome sequences. We have
      partially addressed this need by generating 72 new mitogenome sequences
      reconstructed from DNA isolated from a range of historical and modern tissue
      samples. Approximately 55 gigabases of raw sequence were generated. From this
      data, we assembled 72 complete mitogenome sequences, with an average depth of
      coverage of *102.9 and *55.2 for modern samples and historical samples,
      respectively. This dataset represents 52 species, of which 30 species had no
      previous mitogenome data available. The mitogenomes were geotagged to their
      sampling location, where known, to display a detailed geographical distribution
      of the species. Our new database of 52 taxa will strongly enhance the utility of
      environmental DNA approaches for monitoring mammals in SE Asia as it greatly
      increases the likelihoods that identification of metabarcoding sequencing reads
      can be assigned to reference sequences. This magnifies the confidence in species
      detections and thus allows more robust surveys and monitoring programmes of SE
      Asia's threatened mammal biodiversity. The extensive collections of historical
      samples from SE Asia in western and SE Asian museums should serve as additional
      valuable material to further enrich this reference database.

PMID- 28873966
TI  - Draft genome of the Antarctic dragonfish, Parachaenichthys charcoti.
AB  - The Antarctic bathydraconid dragonfish, Parachaenichthys charcoti, is an
      Antarctic notothenioid teleost endemic to the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean
      has cooled to -1.8oC over the past 30 million years, and the seawater had
      retained this cold temperature and isolated oceanic environment because of the
      Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Notothenioids dominate Antarctic fish, making up
      90% of the biomass, and all notothenioids have undergone molecular and ecological
      diversification to survive in this cold environment. Therefore, they are
      considered an attractive Antarctic fish model for evolutionary and ancestral
      genomic studies. Bathydraconidae is a speciose family of the Notothenioidei, the
      dominant taxonomic component of Antarctic teleosts. To understand the process of
      evolution of Antarctic fish, we select a typical Antarctic bathydraconid
      dragonfish, P. charcoti. Here, we have sequenced, de novo assembled, and
      annotated a comprehensive genome from P. charcoti. The draft genome of P.
      charcoti is 709 Mb in size. The N50 contig length is 6145 bp, and its N50
      scaffold length 178 362 kb. The genome of P. charcoti is predicted to contain 32
      712 genes, 18 455 of which have been assigned preliminary functions. A total of
      8951 orthologous groups common to 7 species of fish were identified, while 333
      genes were identified in P. charcoti only; 2519 orthologous groups were also
      identified in both P. charcoti and N. coriiceps, another Antarctic fish. Four
      gene ontology terms were statistically overrepresented among the 333 genes unique
      to P. charcoti, according to gene ontology enrichment analysis. The draft P.
      charcoti genome will broaden our understanding of the evolution of Antarctic fish
      in their extreme environment. It will provide a basis for further investigating
      the unusual characteristics of Antarctic fishes.

PMID- 28873967
TI  - Connections between the human gut microbiome and gestational diabetes mellitus.
AB  - The human gut microbiome can modulate metabolic health and affect insulin
      resistance, and it may play an important role in the etiology of gestational
      diabetes mellitus (GDM). Here, we compared the gut microbial composition of 43
      GDM patients and 81 healthy pregnant women via whole-metagenome shotgun
      sequencing of their fecal samples, collected at 21-29 weeks, to explore
      associations between GDM and the composition of microbial taxonomic units and
      functional genes. A metagenome-wide association study identified 154 837 genes,
      which clustered into 129 metagenome linkage groups (MLGs) for species
      description, with significant relative abundance differences between the 2
      cohorts. Parabacteroides distasonis, Klebsiella variicola, etc., were enriched in
      GDM patients, whereas Methanobrevibacter smithii, Alistipes spp., Bifidobacterium
      spp., and Eubacterium spp. were enriched in controls. The ratios of the gross
      abundances of GDM-enriched MLGs to control-enriched MLGs were positively
      correlated with blood glucose levels. A random forest model shows that fecal MLGs
      have excellent discriminatory power to predict GDM status. Our study discovered
      novel relationships between the gut microbiome and GDM status and suggests that
      changes in microbial composition may potentially be used to identify individuals
      at risk for GDM.

PMID- 28873968
TI  - High-precision registration between zebrafish brain atlases using symmetric
      diffeomorphic normalization.
AB  - Atlases provide a framework for spatially mapping information from diverse
      sources into a common reference space. Specifically, brain atlases allow
      annotation of gene expression, cell morphology, connectivity, and activity. In
      larval zebrafish, advances in genetics, imaging, and computational methods now
      allow the collection of such information brain-wide. However, due to technical
      considerations, disparate datasets may use different references and may not be
      aligned to the same coordinate space. Two recent larval zebrafish atlases
      exemplify this problem: Z-Brain, containing gene expression, neural activity, and
      neuroanatomical segmentations, was acquired using immunohistochemical stains,
      while the Zebrafish Brain Browser (ZBB) was constructed from live scans of
      fluorescent reporters in transgenic larvae. Although different references were
      used, the atlases included several common transgenic patterns that provide
      potential "bridges" for transforming each into the other's coordinate space. We
      tested multiple bridging channels and registration algorithms and found that the
      symmetric diffeomorphic normalization algorithm improved live brain registration
      precision while better preserving cell morphology than B-spline-based
      registrations. Symmetric diffeomorphic normalization also corrected for tissue
      distortion introduced during fixation. Multi-reference channel optimization
      provided a transformation that enabled Z-Brain and ZBB to be co-aligned with
      precision of approximately a single cell diameter and minimal perturbation of
      cell and tissue morphology. Finally, we developed software to visualize brain
      regions in 3 dimensions, including a virtual reality neuroanatomy explorer. This
      study demonstrates the feasibility of integrating whole brain datasets, despite
      disparate reference templates and acquisition protocols, when sufficient
      information is present for bridging. Increased accuracy and interoperability of
      zebrafish digital brain atlases will facilitate neurobiological studies.

PMID- 28873969
TI  - Clinical practice recommendations for native vitamin D therapy in children with
      chronic kidney disease Stages 2-5 and on dialysis.
AB  - Vitamin D deficiency is widely prevalent and often severe in children and adults
      with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Although native vitamin D {25-hydroxyvitamin D
      [25(OH)D]} is thought to have pleiotropic effects on many organ systems, its
      skeletal effects have been most widely studied. The 25(OH)D deficiency is
      causally linked with rickets and fractures in healthy children and those with
      CKD, contributing to the CKD-mineral and bone disorder (MBD) complex. There are
      few studies to provide evidence for vitamin D therapy or guidelines for its use
      in CKD. A core working group (WG) of the European Society for Paediatric
      Nephrology (ESPN) CKD-MBD and Dialysis WGs have developed recommendations for the
      evaluation, treatment and prevention of vitamin D deficiency in children with
      CKD. We present clinical practice recommendations for the use of ergocalciferol
      (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) in children with CKD Stages 2-5 and
      on dialysis. A parallel document addresses treatment recommendations for active
      vitamin D analogue therapy. The WG has performed an extensive literature review
      to include meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials in healthy children as
      well as children and adults with CKD, and prospective observational studies in
      children with CKD. The Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and
      Evaluation (GRADE) system has been used to develop and grade the recommendations.
      In the absence of applicable study data, the opinion of experts from the ESPN CKD
      MBD and Dialysis WGs is provided, but clearly GRADE-ed as such and must be
      carefully considered by the treating physician, and adapted to individual patient
      needs as appropriate.

PMID- 28873970
TI  - Immunosuppressive agents in adult kidney transplantation in the National Health
      Service: a model-based economic evaluation.
AB  - Background: Immunosuppression is required in kidney transplantation to prevent
      rejection and prolong graft survival. We conducted an economic evaluation to
      support England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in developing
      updated guidance on the use of immunosuppression, incorporating new
      immunosuppressive agents, and addressing changes in pricing and the evidence
      base. Methods: A discrete-time state transition model was developed to simulate
      adult kidney transplant patients over their lifetime. A total of 16 different
      regimens were modelled to assess the cost-effectiveness of basiliximab and rabbit
      anti-thymocyte globulin (rabbit ATG) as induction agents (with no antibody
      induction as a comparator) and immediate-release tacrolimus, prolonged-release
      tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, mycophenolate sodium, sirolimus, everolimus
      and belatacept as maintenance agents (with ciclosporin and azathioprine as
      comparators). Graft survival was extrapolated from acute rejection rates, graft
      function and post-transplant diabetes rates, all estimated at 12 months post
      transplantation. National Health Service (NHS) and personal social services costs
      were included. Cost-effectiveness thresholds of L20 000 and L30 000 per quality
      adjusted life year were used. Results: Basiliximab was predicted to be more
      effective and less costly than rabbit ATG and induction without antibodies.
      Immediate-release tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil were cost-effective as
      maintenance therapies. Other therapies were either more expensive and less
      effective or would only be cost-effective if a threshold in excess of L100 000
      per quality-adjusted life year were used. Conclusions: A regimen comprising
      induction with basiliximab, followed by maintenance therapy with immediate
      release tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil, is likely to be effective for
      uncomplicated adult kidney transplant patients and a cost-effective use of NHS
      resources.

PMID- 28873972
TI  - Inflamed fat and mitochondrial dysfunction in end-stage renal disease links to
      hypoxia-could curcumin be of benefit?

PMID- 28873971
TI  - Clinical practice recommendations for treatment with active vitamin D analogues
      in children with chronic kidney disease Stages 2-5 and on dialysis.
AB  - In patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), renal synthesis of active vitamin
      D [1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D)] declines and is associated with
      hypocalcaemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism and the spectrum of CKD-mineral and
      bone disorder (MBD). In advanced CKD, active vitamin D analogues, including
      alfacalcidol, calcitriol and paricalcitol, are routinely administered. There are
      few studies on the use of vitamin D analogues in children with CKD and on
      dialysis. It is difficult to define bone-specific outcomes that can guide
      treatment with active vitamin D analogues in children with CKD-MBD. A core
      working group (WG) of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN) CKD
      MBD and Dialysis WGs has developed recommendations for the use of active vitamin
      D therapy in children with CKD and on dialysis. A second document in parallel
      with this one covers treatment recommendations for native vitamin D therapy. The
      WGs have performed an extensive literature review to include systematic reviews
      and randomized controlled trials in adults and children with CKD and prospective
      observational studies in children with CKD. The Grading of Recommendation,
      Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to develop and
      grade the recommendations. In the absence of applicable study data, the opinion
      of experts from the ESPN CKD-MBD and Dialysis WGs is provided, but clearly GRADE
      ed as such and must be carefully considered by the treating physician and adapted
      to individual patient needs as appropriate.

PMID- 28873974
TI  - Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Fluoxetine, Norfluoxetine and Paroxetine: A New
      Tool Based on Microextraction by Packed Sorbent Coupled to Liquid Chromatography.
AB  - The present article reports the first liquid chromatography (LC) assay for the
      simultaneous quantification of fluoxetine (FLU), its metabolite norfluoxetine
      (NFLU) and paroxetine (PAR) in human plasma, applying the microextraction by
      packed sorbent (MEPS) technology in sample preparation. Chromatographic analysis
      of FLU, NFLU and PAR was achieved in <13 min on a reverse-phase C18 column using
      isocratic elution and fluorescence detection (FLD). The mobile phase was composed
      by an aqueous solution of 25 mM sodium phosphate monobasic anhydrous and 7.5 mM
      di-potassium hydrogen phosphate anhydrous (pH 3.0)/acetonitrile/methanol
      (70:23:7, v/v/v). The detector was set at 240/312 nm for FLU, NFLU and IS and at
      295/350 nm for PAR. The method showed linearity in the ranges of 20-750 ng mL-1
      for FLU and NFLU, and 5-750 ng mL-1 for PAR (r2 >= 0.9919). The overall intra-
      and interday precision did not exceed 13.6% and the corresponding accuracy (bias)
      ranged from 0.02 to 16.7%. The method was successfully applied in the analysis of
      authentic plasma samples. Hence, this new MEPS/LC-FLD assay ensures robust and
      low-cost analyses representing, therefore, a good alternative to support
      therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical studies involving these antidepressant
      drugs.

PMID- 28873973
TI  - Effect of renal transcatheter arterial embolization on quality of life in
      patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - Background: Currently, there are few strategies for improving the quality of life
      (QOL) in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and
      massive kidneys. Renal transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) reduces kidney
      volume, but its impact on QOL in ADPKD patients on hemodialysis is unknown. This
      study investigated the influence of renal TAE on QOL in ADPKD patients with
      massive kidneys receiving hemodialysis. Methods: This prospective observational
      study enrolled 188 ADPKD patients on hemodialysis (92 men and 96 women; mean age
      56.7 +/- 9.1 years) who underwent renal TAE at Toranomon Hospital between August
      2010 and July 2014. The 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and our original
      15-item questionnaire were used to evaluate QOL. Results: Using a linear mixed
      model, the least squares mean values of the SF-36 physical component summary
      (PCS), mental component summary (MCS) and role/social component summary (RCS)
      before renal TAE were calculated as 38.21 [95% confidence interval (CI) 36.50
      39.91], 48.45 (47.05-49.86) and 43.04 (40.70-45.37), respectively. These values
      improved to 42.0 (40.22-43.77; P < 0.001 versus before TAE), 51.25 (49.78-52.71;
      P = 0.001) and 49.67 (47.22-52.12; P < 0.001), respectively, 1 year after renal
      TAE. Scores for abdominal fullness, poor appetite and heartburn showed marked
      improvement after renal TAE, while scores for fever, bodily pain and sleep
      disorder also improved slightly, but significantly. Scores for constipation and
      use of analgesics/sleeping medications/laxatives did not improve significantly.
      All of the SF-36 scores and the scores for specific symptoms (except bodily pain,
      snoring and constipation) were significantly correlated with the sequential
      decrease of the height-adjusted total kidney volume. Conclusions: In ADPKD
      patients on hemodialysis, renal TAE was effective in improving abdominal
      fullness, appetite, heartburn and SF-36 scores (MCS and RCS scores), but not for
      sleep disturbance, constipation and physical strength (PCS score).

PMID- 28873975
TI  - Comparison of Post-targeted and Pre-targeted Urine Drug Screening by UHPLC-HR
      QTOFMS.
AB  - The current illicit drug scene, with its unpredictable appearance of new
      psychoactive substances, challenges drug-testing laboratories. Ultra-high
      performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry (UHPLC-HR-QTOFMS) provides an especially versatile analytical
      platform for responding to this continuous change. QTOFMS can be used to collect
      nonselective MS/MS by broadband data-independent acquisition (DIA), recording all
      product ions regardless of the precursor ion. Another approach is to collect
      selective MS/MS by data-dependent acquisition (DDA), using a narrow precursor
      mass window with preset criteria such as the presence of a particular ion among a
      precursor ion list. The present study compared methods based on these two modes
      of data acquisition on a single UHPLC-HR-QTOFMS instrument setup and using
      identical sample preparation. The DIA method relied on a post-targeted reverse
      database search and the DDA method on a spectrum library search, each comprising
      the same selection of 200 drugs of abuse. The performance between the methods was
      compared in terms of the limit of identification (LOI) and specificity. The
      median LOI of the DIA method (8 ng/mL) was lower than that of the DDA method (16
      ng/mL). Among the 20 model compounds, a better LOI was obtained with DIA for 13
      compounds. DIA was superior in resolving closely eluting and co-eluting isomeric
      and isobaric compounds. Comparison between the feasibility of DIA and DDA for
      casework was carried out by analyzing 50 authentic case urine samples. DIA
      produced 266 identifications involving 46 different substances, and DDA produced
      225 identifications involving 42 substances. Moreover, substance identification
      by DIA was more straightforward and the method was easier to deploy in casework.
      Nonetheless, the DDA approach with substance-specific collision energies produced
      informative product ion spectra suitable for occasional confirmatory analyses.

PMID- 28873976
TI  - Rapid Determination of Aconitum Alkaloids from Human Urine by UHPLC-HRMS.
AB  - Aconitum alkaloid poisoning is a type of poisoning caused by accidental ingestion
      and clinical use of herbal drugs in many countries. In this study, we developed
      an in-syringe dispersive micro solid-phase extraction (DMSPE) method for
      selective extraction of aconitine, benzoylaconine and aconine from human urine
      using a type of polymer material. All of the parameters influencing the
      extraction efficiency such as the type and amount of sorbent, the extraction time
      and the desorption solvent and volume in DMSPE were carefully investigated and
      optimized. Using DMSPE method, the absence of evaporation and centrifugation
      steps reduced the consuming time of sample preparation. Samples were analyzed by
      ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry on
      an HSS T3 analytical column. The results showed that the DMSPE method yielded
      fewer relative and absolute matrix effects, which reduced the sample to sample
      variability in human urine. The limits of detection and limits of quantitation of
      this method were determined to be 0.08-0.1 and 0.2-0.3 MUg/L, respectively. The
      average recoveries of the analytes were between 88.6% and 107.2% with the intra-
      and interday precisions ranging from 2.1% to 6.4% and from 5.9% to 13.9%,
      respectively. The method presented here is an efficient, low-cost and selective
      extraction of aconitine, benzoylaconine and aconine from human urine.

PMID- 28873977
TI  - One-Step Derivatization-Extraction Method for Rapid Analysis of Eleven
      Amphetamines and Cathinones in Oral Fluid by GC-MS.
AB  - A simple analytical method was developed for in-matrix derivatization of 11
      amphetamine-like molecules. Ethyl chloroformate as the derivatization reagent and
      ethyl acetate as the extraction solvent were added directly to oral fluid samples
      at alkaline pH. Samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
      Ions monitored for quantification were m/z 44, 91 and 116 for amphetamine (AMP);
      m/z 58, 91 and 130 for methamphetamine (MA); m/z 44, 105 and 116 for 4
      methylamphetamine; m/z 44, 116 and 251 for 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine; m/z 58,
      130 and 265 for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA); m/z 72, 116 and 144 for
      3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine; m/z 44, 105 and 116 for cathinone; m/z 58,
      105 and 130 for methcathinone; m/z 58, 119 and 130 for mephedrone; m/z 58, 107
      and 130 for ephedrine (EPH); m/z 207, 250 and 322 for fenethylline; m/z 48, 92
      and 120 for AMP-D5; m/z 62, 92 and 134 for MA-D5; m/z 48, 120 and 256 for MDA-D5;
      and m/z 62, 134 and 270 for MDMA-D5. The underlined ions were used as quantifier
      ions. Calibration curves were linear in the concentration range of 2.5-1,000
      ng/mL for all analytes except for EPH, which was linear within 5-1,000 ng/mL.
      Precision and accuracy were less than 12.9% (relative standard deviation) and +/
      12.8% (bias), respectively, for all analytes. The method was tested in the
      analysis of oral fluid specimens collected from users.

PMID- 28873978
TI  - Construction and application of multi-host integrative vector system for xylose
      fermenting yeast.
AB  - The xylose-fermenting yeasts (CTG clade yeasts, e.g. Scheffersomyces stipitis,
      Spathaspora passalidarum, Candida amazonensis and Candida jeffriesii) have the
      potential to be superior platforms for the conversion of lignocellulosic
      hydrolysate into fuel-grade ethanol and other chemical products. Here, a genetic
      expression system compatible with the genetic coding characteristics of CTG clade
      yeasts was constructed for use in xylose-fermenting yeasts. The pRACTH-gfpm
      plasmid based on an 18S rDNA shuttle vector was capable of stable integration
      into the genomes of a wide range of heterologous hosts. Green fluorescent protein
      was transformed and functionally expressed in S. stipitis, S. passalidarum, C.
      jeffriesii, C. amazonensis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae under control of the
      SpADH1 promoter and SpCYC1 terminator. Finally, the expression system was useful
      in multiple yeast hosts for construction of the plasmid pRACTH-ldh.
      Scheffersomyces stipitis, S. passalidarum, C. jeffriesii, C. amazonensis and S.
      cerevisiae were enabled to produce lactate from glucose or xylose by pRACTH-based
      expression of a heterologous lactate dehydrogenase. Among them, C. amazonensis
      (pRACTH-ldh) exhibited the highest lactate fermentation capacity, which reached a
      maximum of 44 g L-1 of lactate with a yield of 0.85 g lactate/g xylose.

PMID- 28873979
TI  - The recruitment of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae poly(A)-binding protein into
      stress granules: new insights into the contribution of the different protein
      domains.
AB  - The Saccharomyces cerevisiae poly(A)-binding protein Pab1 is a modular protein
      composed of four RNA recognition motifs (RRM), a proline-rich domain (P) and a C
      terminus. Thanks to this modularity, Pab1 is involved in different interactions
      that regulate many aspects of mRNA metabolism, including the assembly of stress
      granules. In this work, we analyzed the contribution of each domain for the
      recruitment of the protein within stress granules by comparing the intracellular
      distribution of synthetic Pab1-GFP variants, lacking one or more domains, with
      the localization of the endogenous mCherry-tagged Pab1. Glucose starvation and
      heat shock were used to trigger the formation of stress granules. We found that
      Pab1 association into these aggregates relies mainly on RRMs, whose number is
      important for an efficient recruitment of the protein. Interestingly, although
      the P and C domains do not directly participate in Pab1 association to stress
      granules, their presence strengthens or decreases, respectively, the distribution
      of synthetic Pab1 lacking at least one RRM into these aggregates. In addition to
      describing the contribution of domains in determining Pab1 association within
      stress granules, the outcomes of this study suggest the modularity of Pab1 as an
      attractive platform for synthetic biology approaches aimed at rewiring mRNA
      metabolism.

PMID- 28873980
TI  - Human primary myeloid dendritic cells interact with the opportunistic fungal
      pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus via the C-type lectin receptor Dectin-1.
AB  - Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic fungal pathogen causing detrimental
      infections in immunocompromised individuals. Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent
      antigen-presenting cells and recognize the A. fumigatus cell wall component beta
      1,3 glucan via Dectin-1, followed by DC maturation and cytokine release. Here, we
      demonstrate that human primary myeloid DCs (mDCs) interact with different
      morphotypes of A. fumigatus. Dectin-1 is expressed on mDCs and is down-regulated
      after contact with A. fumigatus, indicating that mDCs recognize A. fumigatus via
      this receptor. Blocking of Dectin-1, followed by stimulation with depleted
      zymosan diminished the up-regulation of the T-cell co-stimulatory molecules CD40,
      CD80, HLA-DR and CCR7 on mDCs and led to decreased release of the cytokines TNF
      alpha, IL-8, IL-1beta and IL-10.

PMID- 28873981
TI  - "His Native, Hot Country"1: Racial Science and Environment in Antebellum American
      Medical Thought.
AB  - Relying on a close reading of more than 4,000 medicals student theses, this essay
      explores the evolving medical approaches to race and environment in the early
      national and antebellum United States and highlights the role that medical school
      pedagogy played in disseminating and elaborating racial theory. Specifically, it
      considers the influence of racial science on medical concepts of the relationship
      of bodies to climates. At their core, monogenesis-belief in a single, unified
      human race-and polygenesis-the belief that each race was created separately-were
      theories about the human body's connections to the natural world. As polygenesis
      became influential in Atlantic medical thought, physicians saw environmental
      treatments as a matter of matching bodies to their natural ecology. In the first
      decades of the nineteenth century, Atlantic physicians understood bodies and
      places as in constant states of flux. Through proper treatment, people and
      environments could suffer either degradation or improvement. Practitioners saw
      African Americans and whites as the same species with their differences being
      largely superficial and produced by climate. However, by the 1830s and 1840s
      medical students were learning that each race was inherently different and
      unalterable by time or temperature. In this paradigm, medical students
      articulated a vision of racial health rooted in organic relationships between
      bodies and climates.

PMID- 28873982
TI  - "Forgotten" Chapters in the History of Transcervical Sterilization: Carl Clauberg
      and Hans-Joachim Lindemann.
AB  - Transcervical sterilization is a non-surgical method of permanent female
      sterilization that is widely used and critically discussed. A review of the
      historiography of the method reveals that instances of its coercive use are not
      included in the historical account. This study offers a reexamination of the work
      of Carl Clauberg and Hans-Joachim Lindemann, to more deeply contextualize within
      the framework of current usage the coercive use of transcervical sterilization
      during the Third Reich and in postwar Germany. This inquiry is based on postwar
      criminal trial records on Clauberg, and on archival documents detailing
      Lindemann's activities in 1979. A comparative analysis examines arguments by
      medical historian Karl-Heinz Roth, and identifies shared characteristics and
      differences between Clauberg and Lindemann, their methods and scientific
      connections. The results demonstrate that the technique of transcervical
      sterilization has an abusive potential that may be explained as a function of the
      person of the physician, of the scientific method itself, and of societal and
      political influences. The analysis supports the argument that insights from the
      cases of Clauberg and Lindemann are transferrable geographically and over time,
      and have the potential to inform current medical practice, such as transcervical
      sterilization with the Essure device, whose historiographic exploration remains a
      desideratum.

PMID- 28873983
TI  - Efficient laboratory evolution of computationally designed enzymes with low
      starting activities using fluorescence-activated droplet sorting.

PMID- 28873984
TI  - A role for macromolecular crowding in off-target binding of therapeutic
      antibodies.
AB  - The nonspecific binding of certain therapeutic antibodies to tissues or to
      soluble biomolecules can accelerate their clearance from the circulation and
      undermine their benefit to patients. This article proposes that tandem amino acid
      repeat sequences in antibody hypervariable segments, particularly the
      complementarity determining regions (CDRs), can enhance this off-target binding.
      This hypothesis is based on two sets of observations. First, in a limited number
      of cases, antibodies with clusters of amino acid repeats in their CDRs have
      significantly higher clearance rates in experimental animals than otherwise
      identical antibodies without the repeats. Second, tandem amino acid repeats are
      abundant in intracellular hub proteins where they appear to promote the
      promiscuous binding of these proteins to a wide variety of other molecules. These
      nonspecific hub protein interactions are highly favored by the intense
      macromolecular crowding that permeates the cytoplasm. A survey of the variable
      region sequences of 137 antibodies in various stages of development revealed that
      26 have at least one CDR containing a cluster of three closely spaced amino acid
      repeats. If the overall hypothesis is valid, then it suggests strategies for site
      directed mutagenesis to improve pharmacokinetic behavior and for the design of
      more reliable in vitro binding assays to predict off-target binding in vivo.

PMID- 28873985
TI  - The influence of different linker modifications on the catalytic activity and
      cellulose affinity of cellobiohydrolase Cel7A from Hypocrea jecorina.
AB  - Various cellulases consist of a catalytic domain connected to a carbohydrate
      binding module (CBM) by a flexible linker peptide. The linker if often strongly O
      glycosylated and typically has a length of 20-50 amino acid residues. Functional
      roles, other than connecting the two folded domains, of the linker and its
      glycans, have been widely discussed, but experimental evidence remains sparse.
      One of the most studied cellulose degrading enzymes is the multi-domain
      cellobiohydrolase Cel7A from Hypocrea jecorina. Here, we designed variants of
      Cel7A with mutations in the linker region to elucidate the role of the linker. We
      found that moderate modification of the linker could result in significant
      changes in substrate affinity and catalytic efficacy. These changes were quite
      different for different linker variants. Thus, deletion of six residues near the
      catalytic domain had essentially no effects on enzyme function. Conversely, a
      substitution of four glycosylation sites near the middle of the linker reduced
      substrate affinity and increased maximal turnover. The observation of weaker
      binding provides some support of recent suggestions that linker glycans may be
      directly involved in substrate interactions. However, a variant with several
      inserted glycosylation sites near the CBM also showed lower affinity for the
      substrate compared to the wild-type, and we suggest that substrate interactions
      of the glycans depend on their exact location as well as other factors such as
      changes in structure and dynamics of the linker peptide.

PMID- 28873987
TI  - Understanding the role of residues around the active site tunnel towards
      generating a glucose-tolerant beta-glucosidase from Agrobacterium tumefaciens 5A.
AB  - Most beta-glucosidases are subjected to inhibition by the final hydrolysis
      product glucose resulting in the accumulation of cellobiose and oligosaccharides.
      This accumulated cellobiose and oligosaccharides further inhibit the activities
      of endoglucanase and cellobiohydrolases, resulting in the inhibition of cellulose
      degradation and a more expensive biofuel. To elucidate the mechanism(s) of
      glucose tolerance, we designed and characterised six mutations of a moderately
      glucose-tolerant beta-glucosidase (H0HC94) from the mesophilic bacterium
      Agrobacterium tumefaciens 5A. The hydrophobicity and steric were varied across
      non-conserved residues in specific regions of the active site tunnel. In contrast
      to the uncompetitive inhibition of WT enzyme by glucose, C174V and H229S are
      competitively inhibited pointing towards a possible glucose-binding site in the
      protein at these positions. Increasing hydrophobicity at the +1 subsite and
      increasing hydrophobicity and steric at +2 subsites seemed to be critical for
      glucose tolerance for this BG. Additionally, in L178E, specific activity was 1.8
      times higher on the natural substrate cellobiose while both W127F and L178E
      mutants showed an enhancement in thermostability. The kinetic stability of W127F,
      V176A, L178A and L178E also increased between 2- and 3-folds compared to WT. Our
      results indicate that while the structure between subsites +1 and +2 is critical
      for the glucose tolerance, the specific residues may not be identical across such
      enzymes.

PMID- 28873988
TI  - News From the Foundation for Physical Therapy.

PMID- 28873989
TI  - Decompressive Hemicraniectomy in the Setting of Poststroke Cerebral Edema: A Case
      for Early Intervention.

PMID- 28873990
TI  - Commentary: Results of the ANSWER Trial Using the PulseRider(r) for the Treatment
      of Broad-necked, Bifurcation Aneurysms.

PMID- 28873991
TI  - Thrombolytic Removal of Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Treatment of Severe
      Stroke: Results of the Clot Lysis: Evaluating Accelerated Resolution of
      Intraventricular Hemorrhage Phase III Trial.

PMID- 28873986
TI  - Tuning DNA binding affinity and cleavage specificity of an engineered gene
      targeting nuclease via surface display, flow cytometry and cellular analyses.
AB  - The combination of yeast surface display and flow cytometric analyses and
      selections is being used with increasing frequency to alter specificity of
      macromolecular recognition, including both protein-protein and protein-nucleic
      acid interactions. Here we describe the use of yeast surface display and cleavage
      dependent flow cytometric assays to increase the specificity of an engineered
      meganuclease. The re-engineered meganuclease displays a significantly tightened
      specificity profile, while binding its cognate target site with a slightly lower,
      but still sub-nanomolar affinity. When incorporated into otherwise identical
      megaTAL protein scaffolds, these two nucleases display significantly different
      activity and toxicity profiles in cellulo. The structural basis for reprogrammed
      DNA cleavage specificity was further examined via high-resolution X-ray crystal
      structures of both enzymes. This analysis illustrated the altered protein-DNA
      contacts produced by mutagenesis and selection, that resulted both in altered
      readout of those based and a necessary reduction in DNA binding affinity that
      were necessary to improve specificity across the target site. The results of this
      study provide an illustrative example of the potential (and the challenges)
      associated with the use of surface display and flow cytometry for the retargeting
      and optimization of enzymes that act on nucleic acid substrates in a sequence
      specific manner.

PMID- 28873992
TI  - Genetic Susceptibility for Sciatica and Lumbar Disc Herniation.

PMID- 28873993
TI  - Intraventricular Nimodipine for Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Results of
      the NEWTON Phase 1/2a Study.

PMID- 28873994
TI  - Cognitive Dysfunction of Astronomical Proportions.

PMID- 28873995
TI  - Reduced H3K27me3 is a New Epigenetic Biomarker for Pediatric Posterior Fossa
      Ependymomas.

PMID- 28873997
TI  - Electrical Stimulation of the Mesial Temporal Lobe to Enhance Memory: More
      Questions than Answers.

PMID- 28873996
TI  - Phase I/II Trial of Combination of Temozolomide Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy
      With Fusions of Dendritic and Glioma Cells in Patients With Glioblastoma.

PMID- 28873998
TI  - Food and Drug Administration Issues Warning of Neurodevelopmental Risks With
      General Anesthesia.

PMID- 28874001
TI  - Forty years of NEUROSURGERY.

PMID- 28874000
TI  - Dr. Robert H. Wilkins, Past-CNS President and Founding Editor of Neurosurgery,
      Passes Away.

PMID- 28874002
TI  - The following is the original Editorial Introduction, written by Dr. Robert H.
      Wilkins and published in the inaugural issue of Neurosurgery, July 1977.

PMID- 28874003
TI  - Editorial Notice.

PMID- 28874005
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28874006
TI  - Is the immune response a friend or foe for viral therapy of glioma?

PMID- 28874004
TI  - Glioma groups classified by IDH and TERT promoter mutations remain stable among
      primary and recurrent gliomas.

PMID- 28874008
TI  - STOPPFrail: a misleading name for a potentially useful tool.

PMID- 28874009
TI  - Response to Dr Caballero-Mora's comments.

PMID- 28874007
TI  - New horizons in comprehensive geriatric assessment.
AB  - In this article, we discuss the emergence of new models for delivery of
      comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) in the acute hospital setting. CGA is
      the core technology of Geriatric Medicine and for hospital inpatients it improves
      key outcomes such as survival, time spent at home and institutionalisation.
      Traditionally It is delivered by specialised multidisciplinary teams, often in
      dedicated wards, but in recent years has begun to be taken up and developed quite
      early in the admission process (at the 'front door'), across traditional ward
      boundaries and in specialty settings such as surgical and pre-operative care, and
      oncology. We have scanned recent literature, including observational studies of
      service evaluations, and service descriptions presented as abstracts of
      conference presentations to provide an overview of an emerging landscape of
      innovation and development in CGA services for hospital inpatients.

PMID- 28874010
TI  - Not5-dependent co-translational assembly of Ada2 and Spt20 is essential for
      functional integrity of SAGA.

PMID- 28874012
TI  - Potential Resting and Breeding Sites of Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) and
      Their Habitat Characteristics in Leishmaniasis Foci of Dir Districts, Khyber
      Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
AB  - Despite their medical importance, natural breeding sites of sand flies have been
      poorly explored. Detecting such sites is imperative in vector control strategies.
      This study aimed to identify potential breeding and resting microhabitats of sand
      flies and household risk factors associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis
      transmission in Dir districts, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Survey of indoor and
      outdoor habitats in four tehsils (subdistricts) of upper and lower Dir districts
      was carried out using sticky traps, flit method, and aspirator. To assess risk
      factors associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), questionnaires were
      administered to household heads. Mud houses and plants belonging to Cucurbitaceae
      family sheltered highest number of sand flies. Excessive number of flies were
      collected from indoor sites (common rooms used for both people and animals)
      compared to outdoor habitats (cattle dungs). Phlebotomus salangensis Artemiev,
      1978 and Phlebotomus sergenti were the most widely distributed species, while
      Sergentomyia bailyi peaked in caves with high organic content in soil. Roof
      material and ownership of fans were associated with significant risk of CL.
      Findings of this study present a list of potential breeding sites for sand flies
      and CL risk factors that can be targeted and implemented in control programs for
      CL. Further studies are required to elucidate the breeding behavior and
      preferences of these medically important vectors.

PMID- 28874011
TI  - Abundance and Bloodfeeding Patterns of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in an Oak
      Woodland on the Eastern Slope of the Northern Coast Range of California.
AB  - The abundance and bloodfeeding patterns of mosquitoes was studied from 2008 to
      2010 at an 18 ha. oak woodland in Lake County, CA. Host-seeking females were
      collected weekly from sunset to sunrise by paired dry-ice-baited CDC style traps,
      whereas resting females were aspirated from paired walk-in red boxes. Sequences
      of the COI gene amplified from bloodmeals from engorged resting females were used
      to identify the bloodmeal hosts. Aedes sierrensis (Ludlow) and Aedes increpitus
      Dyar complex mosquitoes were univoltine, although the timing of emergence and
      abundance varied temporally and seemed weather dependent. Abundance of both
      Anopheles franciscanus McCracken and Anopheles freeborni Aitken peaked in mid to
      late summer. Females of both genera bloodfed primarily on mule deer and black
      tailed jackrabbits, and few fed on either dogs or humans that were consistently
      present within the woodland. In contrast, multivoltine Culex tarsalis Coquillett
      and Culex stigmatosoma Dyar were abundant throughout summer, especially from July
      to September. Both Culex species bloodfed on a wide variety of avian hosts, with
      most bloodmeals originating from California scrub-jay, wild turkey, oak titmouse,
      and house finch. Culex tarsalis fed on proportionately more mammals as summer
      progressed, peaking at 33% in September.

PMID- 28874013
TI  - Response: The Geographic Distribution of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae)
      Revisited: The Importance of Assumptions About Error Balance.

PMID- 28874014
TI  - Updated Reported Distribution of Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti and Aedes (Stegomyia)
      albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in the United States, 1995-2016.
AB  - Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (L.) and Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse) are
      potential vectors of Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses in the United States.
      A Zika virus outbreak in Florida in the summer of 2016, driven by Ae. aegypti and
      resulting in > 200 locally acquired cases of human illness, underscored the need
      for up-to-date information on the geographic distribution of Ae. aegypti and Ae.
      albopictus in the United States. In early 2016, we conducted a survey and
      literature review to compile county records for presence of Ae. aegypti and Ae.
      albopictus in the United States from 1995 to 2016. Surveillance for these vectors
      was intensified across the United States during the summer and fall of 2016. At
      the end of 2016, we therefore conducted a follow-up survey of mosquito control
      agencies, university researchers, and state and local health departments to
      document new collection records for Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. The repeated
      survey at the end of the year added Ae. aegypti collection records from 38 new
      counties and Ae. albopictus collection records from 127 new counties,
      representing a 21 and 10 percent increase, respectively, in the number of
      counties with reported presence of these mosquitoes compared with the previous
      report. Moreover, through our updated survey, 40 and 183 counties, respectively,
      added additional years of collection records for Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus
      from 1995 to 2016. Our findings underscore the continued need for systematic
      surveillance of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus.

PMID- 28874015
TI  - Arboviruses Isolated From Mosquitoes Collected in Uganda, 2008-2012.
AB  - A large number of arthropod-borne viruses are endemic to East Africa. As a part
      of the process of undertaking a systematic characterization of the mosquito fauna
      of Uganda, we examined mosquitoes collected from 2008 through early 2012 for
      known and novel viruses. In all, 8,288 mosquito pools containing 157,554
      mosquitoes were tested. Twenty-nine isolations of 11 different viruses were made
      from mosquitoes of nine distinct species and from pools identified only to genus
      Culex. Identified viruses were from family Togaviridae, alphaviruses Sindbis and
      Babanki viruses; family Rhabdoviridae, hapaviruses Mossuril and Kamese viruses;
      family Flaviviridae, flaviviruses West Nile and Usutu viruses; family
      Phenuiviridae, phlebovirus Arumowot virus; and family Peribunyaviridae,
      orthobunyaviruses Witwatersrand, Pongola, and Germiston viruses. In addition, a
      novel orthobunyavirus, provisionally named Mburo virus, was isolated from
      Coquillettidia metallica (Theobald). This is the first report of Babanki,
      Arumowot, and Mossuril virus isolation from Uganda.

PMID- 28874018
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28874016
TI  - Transmission of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia mayonii in Relation to
      Duration of Attachment by Nymphal Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae).
AB  - The recently recognized Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia mayonii, has been
      detected in host-seeking Ixodes scapularis Say ticks and is associated with human
      disease in the Upper Midwest. Although experimentally shown to be vector
      competent, studies have been lacking to determine the duration of time from
      attachment of a single B. mayonii-infected I. scapularis nymph to transmission of
      spirochetes to a host. If B. mayonii spirochetes were found to be transmitted
      within the first 24 h after tick attachment, in contrast to Borrelia burgdorferi
      spirochetes (>24 h), then current recommendations for tick checks and prompt tick
      removal as a way to prevent transmission of Lyme disease spirochetes would need
      to be amended. We therefore conducted a study to determine the probability of
      transmission of B. mayonii spirochetes from single infected nymphal I. scapularis
      ticks to susceptible experimental mouse hosts at three time points postattachment
      (24, 48, and 72 h) and for a complete feed (>72-96 h). No evidence of infection
      with or exposure to B. mayonii occurred in mice that were fed upon by a single
      infected nymph for 24 or 48 h. The probability of transmission by a single
      infected nymphal tick was 31% after 72 h of attachment and 57% for a complete
      feed. In addition, due to unintended simultaneous feeding upon some mice by two
      B. mayonii-infected nymphs, we recorded a single occasion in which feeding for 48
      h by two infected nymphs resulted in transmission and viable infection in the
      mouse. We conclude that the duration of attachment of a single infected nymphal
      I. scapularis tick required for transmission of B. mayonii appears to be similar
      to that for B. burgdorferi: transmission is minimal for the first 24 h of
      attachment, rare up to 48 h, but then increases distinctly by 72 h
      postattachment.

PMID- 28874017
TI  - Environmental Drivers of Seasonal Patterns of Host Utilization by Culiseta
      melanura (Diptera: Culicidae) in Florida.
AB  - Field studies were carried out in four Florida counties to investigate winter and
      spring ecology of host use by Culiseta melanura (Coquillet), the primary vector
      of eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus (EEEV) in North America. Bloodmeal
      analysis by PCR was used to identify 233 host bloodmeals, which mainly originated
      from birds (78.5%) and reptiles (17.2%), primarily Anolis spp. lizards. Across
      counties, the percentage of bloodmeals from reptiles (7-37% depending upon
      county) increased with increasing day length and temperature in the spring.
      Multiple logistic regression revealed that differences in reptile host use across
      collection sites were largely explained by differences in average day length and
      temperature on the day of collection, and is probably owing to environment-driven
      behavioral patterns of ectothermic animals. Although past studies have
      demonstrated reptile biting by epizootic vectors of EEEV, including Culex
      (Melanoconion) spp., this is the first study to demonstrate widespread and common
      feeding upon ectothermic hosts by Cs. melanura. This work suggests that reptiles,
      particularly anole lizards, play a role in the ecology of EEEV in Florida either
      as amplifying hosts or as noncompetent hosts which dilute vector feedings thereby
      suppressing transmission. Detailed laboratory studies investigating impacts of
      environmental variables (temperature and photoperiod) on EEEV competence of
      anoles are needed to assess whether these animals support virus amplification.

PMID- 28874020
TI  - Is PMI the Hypothesis or the Null Hypothesis?
AB  - Over the past several decades, there have been several strident exchanges
      regarding whether forensic entomologists estimate the postmortem interval (PMI),
      minimum PMI, or something else. During that time, there has been a proliferation
      of terminology reflecting this concern regarding "what we do." This has been a
      frustrating conversation for some in the community because much of this debate
      appears to be centered on what assumptions are acknowledged directly and which
      are embedded within a list of assumptions (or ignored altogether) in the
      literature and in case reports. An additional component of the conversation
      centers on a concern that moving away from the use of certain terminology like
      PMI acknowledges limitations and problems that would make the application of
      entomology appear less useful in court-a problem for lawyers, but one that should
      not be problematic for scientists in the forensic entomology community, as
      uncertainty is part of science that should and can be presented effectively in
      the courtroom (e.g., population genetic concepts in forensics). Unfortunately, a
      consequence of the way this conversation is conducted is that even as all
      involved in the debate acknowledge the concerns of their colleagues, parties
      continue to talk past one another advocating their preferred terminology.
      Progress will not be made until the community recognizes that all of the terms
      under consideration take the form of null hypothesis statements and that thinking
      about "what we do" as a null hypothesis has useful legal and scientific
      ramifications that transcend arguments over the usage of preferred terminology.

PMID- 28874019
TI  - Detection in Malaysia of a Borrelia sp. From Haemaphysalis hystricis (Ixodida:
      Ixodidae).
AB  - Spirochetes from the Borrelia genus are known to cause diseases in humans, namely
      Lyme disease and relapsing fever. These organisms are commonly transmitted to
      humans by arthropod vectors including ticks, mite, and lice. Here, we report the
      molecular detection of a Borrelia sp. from a Haemaphysalis hystricis Supino tick
      collected from wildlife in an Orang Asli settlement in Selangor, Malaysia.
      Phylogenetic analyses of partial 16s rRNA and flaB gene sequences revealed that
      the Borrelia sp. is closely related to the relapsing fever group borreliae,
      Borrelia lonestari, Borrelia miyamotoi, and Borrelia theileri, as well as a
      number of uncharacterized Borrelia sp. from ticks in Portugal and Japan. To our
      knowledge, this is the first report of a Borrelia sp. detected in H. hystricis,
      and in Malaysia. The zoonotic potential of this Borrelia sp. merits further
      investigation.

PMID- 28874021
TI  - Comment on Seri Masran and Ab Majid 2017.

PMID- 28874022
TI  - Ex vivo administration of trimetazidine improves post-transplant lung function in
      pig model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) is not only used to assess marginal
      donor lungs but is also used as a platform to deliver therapeutic agents outside
      the body. We previously showed the beneficial effects of trimetazidine (TMZ) on
      ischaemia reperfusion (IR) injury in a rat model. This study evaluated the
      effects of TMZ in a pig EVLP transplant model. METHODS: Pig lungs were retrieved
      and stored for 24 h at 4 degrees C, followed by 4 h of EVLP. Allografts were
      randomly allocated to 2 groups ( n  = 5 each). TMZ (5 mg/kg) was added to the
      prime solution prior to EVLP. After EVLP, left lungs were transplanted and
      recipients were observed for 4 h. Allograft gas exchange function and lung
      mechanics were recorded hourly throughout reperfusion. Microscopic lung injury
      and inflammatory and biochemical parameters were assessed. RESULTS: There was a
      trend towards better oxygenation during EVLP in the TMZ group ( P  = 0.06). After
      transplantation, pulmonary gas exchange was significantly better during the 4-h
      reperfusion period and after isolation of the allografts for 10 min ( P  < 0.05).
      Tissue thiobarbituric acid levels, myeloperoxidase activity and protein
      concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage samples were significantly lower in the
      TMZ group at the end of EVLP ( P  < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Ex vivo treatment of
      donor lungs with TMZ significantly improved immediate post-transplant lung
      function. Further studies are warranted to understand the effect of this strategy
      on long-term lung function.

PMID- 28874023
TI  - Can we make recovered donor lungs look brand-new again?

PMID- 28874025
TI  - Contemporary results of aortic valve repair for congenital disease: lessons for
      management and staged strategy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Any aortic valve (AoV) operation in children (repair, Ross or
      mechanical replacement) is a palliation and reinterventions are frequent. AoV
      repair is a temporary solution primarily aimed at allowing the patient to grow to
      an age when more definitive solutions are available. We retrospectively analysed
      AoV repair effectiveness across the whole age spectrum of children, excluding
      neonates and AoV disease secondary to congenital heart disease. METHODS: From
      2003 to 2015, 193 consecutive patients were included. The mean age was 9.2 +/-
      6.9 years (22% <1 year); 86 (45%) had a preceding balloon valvuloplasty. The
      indications for the procedure were stenotic (n = 123; 64%), regurgitant (n = 63;
      33%) or combined (n = 7; 4%) disease. The procedures performed were
      commissurotomy shaving (n = 74; 38%), leaflet replacement (n = 78; 40%), leaflet
      extension (n = 21; 11%) and neocommissure creation (n = 21; 11%). Post-repair
      geometry was tricuspid in 137 (71%) patients. RESULTS: The 10-year survival rate
      was 97.1%. Freedom from reoperation and replacement at 7 years was, respectively,
      57% (95% confidence interval, 47-66) and 68% (95% confidence interval, 59-76). In
      multivariate analysis, balloon dilatation before 6 months, the absence of a
      developed commissure, a non-tricuspid post-repair geometry and cross-clamp
      duration were predictors for reoperation and replacement. After a mean follow-up
      period of 5.1 +/- 3.0 years, 145 (75%) patients had a preserved native valve,
      with undisturbed valve function (peak gradient <40 mmHg, regurgitation <=mild) in
      113 (58%). CONCLUSIONS: Aortic valve repair in children is safe and effective in
      delaying the timing for more definitive solution. Surgical strategy should be
      individualized according to the age of the patient. Avoidance of early balloon
      dilatation and aiming for a tricuspid post-repair arrangement may improve
      outcomes.

PMID- 28874024
TI  - Transatlantic Editorial on transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

PMID- 28874026
TI  - Percutaneous coronary interventions with second-generation drug-eluting stent
      versus off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting: mid-term results.

PMID- 28874028
TI  - Geographical differences in the ratio of percutaneous and surgical myocardial
      revascularization procedures in the treatment of coronary artery disease.

PMID- 28874029
TI  - Are complex aortic valve repairs a real alternative to replacement in children?

PMID- 28874027
TI  - Coronary artery bypass surgery is superior to second generation drug-eluting
      stents in three-vessel coronary artery disease: a propensity score matched
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Compared with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary
      artery bypass grafting (CABG) appears to be a promising revascularization
      strategy for multivessel coronary disease. Trials comparing these treatments have
      not used second-generation drug-eluting stents (2nd DES). We conducted a
      retrospective evaluation of both treatments using a propensity score-matched
      analysis (PSMA). METHODS: A total of 537 patients with three-vessel with/without
      left-main-trunk coronary artery disease underwent CABG (n = 239) or primary PCI
      using 2nd DES (298) at a single institution. PSMA resulted in 168 matched pairs.
      For both treatments, Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression were used to
      compare all-cause mortality, cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke
      rates and target-vessel revascularization (TVR). RESULTS: The CABG group included
      sicker patients with renal dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease, low ejection
      fraction and current smokers than those in the PCI group. After PSMA, both groups
      were well matched in all parameters. Mean follow-up (months) was 32 in CABG and
      35 in PCI. In the unmatched patient population, there was no difference in the
      incidence of all-cause death, cardiac death, MI, or stroke but the incidence of
      TVR was significantly higher in the PCI group [hazard ratio (HR) 4.63; 95%
      confidence interval (95% CI) 2.43-8.82; P < 0.001] and, after PSMA, the incidence
      of all-cause death (HR 2.71; 95% CI 1.14-6.46; P = 0.019) and TVR (HR 9.0; 95% CI
      2.73-29.67; P < 0.001) was significantly higher in the PCI group than in the CABG
      group. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with three-vessel coronary artery disease, CABG
      is associated with better survival and less revascularization than PCI using 2nd
      DES at mid-term results.

PMID- 28874030
TI  - Synergistic effects of remote perconditioning with terminal blood cardioplegia in
      an in vivo piglet model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study tested the hypothesis that remote perconditioning offers
      effective and synergistic cardioprotection to terminal warm blood cardioplegia
      for prompt ventricular recovery after prolonged cardioplegic arrest in an in vivo
      piglet model. METHODS: Twenty-four piglets were subjected to 120 min of single
      dose cardioplegic arrest and were divided into 4 groups according to the mode of
      reperfusion: control (simple aortic unclamp), remote perconditioning, terminal
      warm blood cardioplegia or remote perconditioning + terminal warm blood
      cardioplegia; remote perconditioning (4 cycles of 5-min ischaemia-reperfusion of
      the lower limb) was applied prior to aortic unclamping. Left ventricular systolic
      and diastolic functions were assessed by pressure-volume loop analysis at
      baseline and after 60 min of reperfusion. Biochemical injury was evaluated by
      plasma troponin T level. RESULTS: The control group showed decreased end-systolic
      elastance, preload recruitable stroke work and inverse of end-diastolic pressure
      volume relationship of 51.3 +/- 14.0%, 46.1 +/- 22.5% and 34.8 +/- 14.9%,
      respectively. Percentage recovery of end-systolic elastance and preload
      recruitable stroke work were significantly better with terminal warm blood
      cardioplegia (with or without remote perconditioning) (end-systolic elastance:
      95% confidence interval, 38.6-84.1; preload recruitable stroke work: 95%
      confidence interval, 0.4-54.3). Percentage recovery of inverse of end-diastolic
      pressure-volume relationship was significantly better in the remote
      perconditioning groups (with or without terminal warm blood cardioplegia) (95%
      confidence interval, 1.6-41.6). No synergistic effects of remote perconditioning
      and terminal warm blood cardioplegia on troponin T release were noted.
      CONCLUSIONS: Remote perconditioning offers promising synergistic cardioprotection
      to terminal warm blood cardioplegia, implicating potential clinical benefit by
      contributing to prompt left ventricular functional recovery during paediatric
      open-heart surgery.

PMID- 28874031
TI  - Standardized definitions of structural deterioration and valve failure in
      assessing long-term durability of transcatheter and surgical aortic bioprosthetic
      valves: a consensus statement from the European Association of Percutaneous
      Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) endorsed by the European Society of
      Cardiology (ESC) and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
      (EACTS).

PMID- 28874032
TI  - Standards defining a 'Heart Valve Centre': ESC Working Group on Valvular Heart
      Disease and European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery Viewpoint.

PMID- 28874033
TI  - Thoracic aortic surgery enters the era of big data.

PMID- 28874034
TI  - The impact of entries and exits on false lumen thrombosis and aortic remodelling.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In DeBakey Type I acute aortic dissection, the frozen elephant trunk
      technique is used for the combined treatment of both the proximal and distal
      thoracic aorta. Anatomical characteristics of the distal aorta and their impact
      on false lumen (FL) thrombosis and aortic remodelling were analysed in this
      study. METHODS: Sufficient pre-, postoperative, and at least one 1-year follow-up
      computed tomography data sets were available for 63 of 94 patients treated with
      the frozen elephant trunk for Type I acute aortic dissection between March 2005
      and March 2015. Aortic remodelling and FL thrombosis quotients were calculated
      volumetrically at the stent graft level (A), from A to the coeliac trunk (B) and
      from B to the bifurcation (C) and were correlated with the number and size of
      entry tears and aortic branches arising from the FL (exits) in each segment.
      RESULTS: Positive or stable remodelling was found in Segments A (94%), B (64%)
      and C (54%), and the FL thrombosis quotient was 98% in A, 68% in B and 39% in C
      within the first year. FL thrombosis correlated negatively with the total size of
      the entry (P<0.001) and the number of exits (P<0.001) and positively with the
      number of true-lumen branches (P<0.001). The exit number was a risk factor for FL
      patency and a predictor of negative remodelling. CONCLUSIONS: Using frozen
      elephant trunk technique to treat Type I acute aortic dissection facilitates
      positive or stable remodelling in nearly all patients at the stent graft level
      and distally in two-thirds of the patients. FL thrombosis and aortic remodelling
      are negatively influenced by the number of exits. New endovascular concepts
      aiming at reducing the number of exits may prevent negative remodelling.

PMID- 28874035
TI  - Neulich Nachts in Houston.

PMID- 28874037
TI  - Spotlight on recently published ICVTS articles.

PMID- 28874036
TI  - Relationship between onset of spontaneous pneumothorax and weather conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) results from the rupture of blebs or
      bullae. It has been suggested that changes in weather conditions may trigger the
      onset of SP. Our aim was to examine the association between the onset of primary
      SP with weather changes in the general population in Sapporo, Japan. METHODS:
      From January 2008 through September 2013, 345 consecutive cases with a diagnosis
      of primary SP were reviewed. All cases of primary SP developed in the area within
      40 km from the Sapporo District Meteorological Observatory. Climatic measurements
      were obtained from the Observatory, which included 1-h readings of weather
      conditions. Logistic regression model was used to obtain predicted risks for the
      onset of SP with respect to weather conditions. RESULTS: SP occurred
      significantly when the atmospheric pressure decreased by - 18 hPa or less during
      96 h before the survey date (odds ratio = 1.379, P = 0.026), when the pressure
      increased by 15 hPa or more during 72 h before the survey date (odds ratio =
      1.095, P = 0.007) and when maximum fluctuation in atmospheric pressure over 22
      hPa was observed during 96 h before the survey date (odds ratio = 1.519, P =
      0.001). Other weather conditions, including the presence of thunderstorms, were
      not significantly correlated with the onset of pneumothorax. CONCLUSIONS: Changes
      in atmospheric pressure influence the onset of SP. Future studies on the
      relationship between the onset of SP and weather conditions on days other than
      before the onset and with large number of patients may enable us to predict the
      onset of SP in various regions and weather conditions.

PMID- 28874039
TI  - Hepatic and Splenic Volumetry Could Be Used as an Imaging Parameter to Evaluate
      Fibrosis Grades of the Diffuse Liver Disease Including Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver
      Disease.

PMID- 28874038
TI  - Atrophic Gastritis Increases the Risk of Gastric Cancer in Asymptomatic
      Population in Korea.

PMID- 28874040
TI  - Direct Acting Antiviral Agents in Korean Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C and
      Hemophilia Who Are Treatment-Naive or Treatment-Experienced.
AB  - Background/Aims: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a major comorbidity in patients
      with hemophilia. Methods: Patients (n=30) were enrolled between September 2015
      and April 2016. Twenty-six patients were genotype 1 (1b, n=21; 1a, n=5) and four
      patients were genotype 2a/2b. Among 21 patients with genotype 1b, Y93H resistance
      associated variants (RAVs) were detected in three patients (14.3%). We evaluated
      sustained virologic response (SVRs) at 12 weeks, as well as relapse and safety.
      Results: Five patients with genotype 1a and three patients with genotype 1b (RAV
      positive) received ledipasvir/sofosbuvir for 12 weeks. SVR12 rate was 100% (8/8).
      Eleven patients with genotype 1b were treatment-naive and received daclatasvir
      plus asunaprevir for 24 weeks. SVR12 rate was 91% (10/11). One patient
      experienced viral breakthrough without RAV at 12 weeks. Seven treatment
      experienced patients with genotype 1b received daclatasvir plus asunaprevir for
      24 weeks. SVR12 rate was 85.7% (6/7). One patient experienced viral breakthrough
      with RAV (L31M, Y93H) at 12 weeks. Four patients with genotype 2a/2b received
      sofosbuvir plus ribavirin for 12 weeks. SVR12 rate was 100% (4/4). No serious
      adverse event-related discontinuations were noted. Conclusions: New direct acting
      antiviral treatment achieved high SVRs rates at 12 weeks in CHC patients with
      hemophilia without serious adverse events.

PMID- 28874041
TI  - The Advantage of an Endoscopic Submucosal Tunneling Technique for Rectal
      Carcinoid Tumors.
AB  - Endoscopic treatment can be a curative option for small carcinoid tumors with an
      extremely low risk of metastasis. Since most carcinoid tumors are characterized
      by a specific growth pattern in the submucosal (SM) layer, specialized endoscopic
      techniques for deeper resection to achieve clear vertical margins are needed. The
      endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) method in the SM space is superior to
      conventional endoscopic mucosal resection. However, the standard ESD technique
      sometimes fails to provide complete deep SM dissection due to insufficient SM
      lifting. Here, to resolve this problem, we describe our initial experience with
      an endoscopic SM tunneling technique that is effective for treating rectal
      carcinoid tumors.

PMID- 28874042
TI  - Adverse drug reaction monitoring during antimicrobial therapy for septicemia
      patients at a university hospital in New Delhi.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is an appreciably harmful or
      unpleasant reaction, resulting from an intervention related to the use of a
      medicinal product. The present study was conducted in order to monitor the
      frequency and severity of ADR during antimicrobial therapy of septicemia.
      METHODS: A prospective, observational, and noncomparative study was conducted
      over a period of 6 months on patients of septicemia admitted at a university
      hospital. Naranjo algorithm scale was used for causality assessment. Severity
      assessment was done by Hartwig severity scale. RESULTS: ADRs in selected
      hospitalized patients of septicemia was found to be in 26.5% of the study
      population. During the study period, 12 ADRs were confirmed occurring in 9, out
      of 34 admitted patients. Pediatric patients experienced maximum ADRs, 44.4%.
      Females experienced a significantly higher incidence of ADRs, 66.7%. According to
      Naranjo's probability scale, 8.3% of ADRs were found to be definite, 58.3% as
      probable, and 33.3% as possible. A higher proportion of these ADRs, 66.7% were
      preventable in nature. Severity assessment showed that more than half of ADRs
      were moderate. Teicoplanin was found to be the commonest antimicrobial agent
      associated with ADRs, followed by gemifloxacin and ofloxacin. CONCLUSION: The
      incidence and severity of ADRs observed in the present study was substantially
      high indicating the need of extra vigilant during the antimicrobial therapy of
      septicemia.

PMID- 28874043
TI  - Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Could Progress to Achalasia.

PMID- 28874044
TI  - Genetic Design via Combinatorial Constraint Specification.
AB  - We present a formal language for specifying via constraints a "design space" of
      DNA constructs composed of genetic parts, and an algorithm for automatically and
      correctly creating a novel representation of the space of satisfying designs. The
      language is simple, captures a large class of design spaces, and possesses
      algorithms for common operations on design spaces. The flexibility of this
      approach is demonstrated using a 16-gene nitrogen fixation pathway and genetic
      logic circuits.

PMID- 28874045
TI  - Anion-Selective Cholesterol Decorated Macrocyclic Transmembrane Ion Carriers.
AB  - Anion transporters play a vital role in cellular processes and their
      dysregulation leads to a range of diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Bartter's
      syndrome and epilepsy. Synthetic chloride transporters are known to induce
      apoptosis in cancer cell lines. Herein, we report triamide macrocycles that are
      easily synthesized and externally functionalized by pendant membrane-permeable
      groups. Among a variety of chains appended onto the macrocycle scaffold,
      cholesterol is found to be the best with an EC50 value of 0.44 MUM. The
      macrocycle is highly anion-selective and transports ions via an OH-/X- antiport
      mechanism. The macrocycle is an interesting scaffold for ion-transport as it is
      able to discriminate between various anions and shows a preference for SCN- and
      Cl-. Such anion-selective transporters are highly attractive model systems to
      study ion-transport mechanisms and could potentially be of high therapeutic
      value.

PMID- 28874046
TI  - Intracellular Proteolytic Disassembly of Self-Quenched Near-Infrared
      Nanoparticles Turning Fluorescence on for Tumor-Targeted Imaging.
AB  - The design of tumor-targeting, intracellular protease-activatable near-infrared
      fluorescence (NIRF) nanoprobes is broadly interesting but remains challenging. In
      this work, we report the rational design of a NIR probe Cys(StBu)-Lys(Biotin)-Lys
      Lys(Cy5.5)-CBT (1) to facilely prepare the self-quenched nanoparticles 1-NPs for
      tumor-targeted imaging in vitro and in vivo. The biotinylated 1-NPs could be
      actively uptaken by biotin receptor-overexpressing tumor cells via receptor
      mediated endocytosis. Upon intracellular proteolytic cleavage, 1-NPs were
      disassembled to yield the small molecular probe Lys(Cy5.5)-Luciferin-Lys(Biotin)
      Lys-OH (1-D-cleaved), accompanied by fluorescence "Turn-On". With this NIRF "Turn
      On" property, 1-NPs were successfully applied for tumor-targeted imaging. We
      envision that our nanoparticles could be applied for fluorescence-guided tumor
      surgery in the near future.

PMID- 28874047
TI  - Concentration of Beneficial Phytochemicals in Harvested Grain of U.S. Yellow Dent
      Maize (Zea mays L.) Germplasm.
AB  - Although previous studies have examined the concentration of various nutritional
      compounds in maize, little focus has been devoted to the study of commercial
      maize hybrids or their inbred parents. In this study, a genetically and
      phenotypically diverse set of maize hybrids and inbreds relevant to U.S.
      commercial maize germplasm was evaluated for its variability in phytochemical
      content. Total protein, unsaturated fatty acids, tocopherols, soluble phenolics,
      and insoluble-bound phenolics were evaluated in this study. Of these compounds,
      only soluble and insoluble-bound phenolic acids exhibited means and variances
      that were at least as large as the means and variances reported for other sets of
      germplasm. This suggests that selection for high phenolic acid content is
      possible in current U.S. commercial germplasm. In contrast, while the total
      protein, unsaturated fatty acid, or tocopherol content could possibly be improved
      using current U.S. commercial germplasm, the results of this study indicate that
      the incorporation of more diverse sources of germplasm would most likely result
      in quicker genetic gains.

PMID- 28874048
TI  - Oxidative Heck Reaction as a Tool for Para-selective Olefination of Aniline: A
      DFT Supported Mechanism.
AB  - This study describes the first para-selective palladium-catalyzed alkenylation of
      tertiary amines. This regioselective C-H activation was conducted without any
      chelation moieties. A series of olefins were reacted under mild reaction
      conditions at 60  degrees C, and the corresponding products were obtained in good
      yields with high selectivity.

PMID- 28874049
TI  - Understanding the Capsanthin Tails in Regulating the Hydrophilic-Lipophilic
      Balance of Carbon Dots for a Rapid Crossing Cell Membrane.
AB  - Here we use natural Chinese paprika to prepare a new kind of amphiphilic carbon
      dot (A-Dot) that exhibits bright, multicolored fluorescence and contains
      hydrophilic groups as well as lipophilic capsanthin tails on the surface. It is
      found that the capsanthin tails in a phospholipid-like structure can promote cell
      internalization of the A-Dots via crossing cell membranes rapidly in an energy
      independent fashion. Compared to highly hydrophilic carbon dots (H-Dots), a
      control sample prepared from the microwave thermolysis of citric acid and
      ethylenediamine, our synthesized A-Dots can be taken up by CHO, HeLa, and HFF
      cells more easily. More importantly, we develop a method to calibrate the
      hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) values of various kinds of carbon dots (C
      Dots). HLB values of A-Dots and H-Dots are determined to be 6.4 and 18.4,
      respectively. Moreover, we discover that the cellular uptake efficiency of C-Dots
      is closely related to their HLBs, and the C-Dots with an HLB value of around 6.4
      cross the cell membrane easier and faster. As we regulate the HLB value of the A
      Dots from 6.4 to 15.3 by removing the capsanthin tails from their surfaces via
      alkali refluxing, it is found that the refluxed A-Dots can hardly cross HeLa cell
      membranes. Our work is an essential step toward understanding the importance of
      regulating the HLB values as well as the surface polarity of the C-Dots for their
      practical use in bioimaging and also provides a simple but effective way to judge
      whether the C-Dots in hand are appropriate for cell imaging.

PMID- 28874050
TI  - Thermal Gradient Mid- and Far-Infrared Spectroscopy as Tools for Characterization
      of Protein Carbohydrate Lyophilizates.
AB  - Protein drugs play an important role in modern day medicine. Typically, these
      proteins are formulated as liquids requiring cold chain processing. To circumvent
      the cold chain and achieve better storage stability, these proteins can be dried
      in the presence of carbohydrates. We demonstrate that thermal gradient mid- and
      far-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR and THz-TDS, respectively) can provide useful
      information about solid-state protein carbohydrate formulations regarding
      mobility and intermolecular interactions. A model protein (BSA) was lyophilized
      in the presence of three carbohydrates with different size and protein
      stabilizing capacity. A gradual increase in mobility was observed with increasing
      temperature in formulations containing protein and/or larger carbohydrates (oligo
      or polysaccharides), lacking a clear onset of fast mobility as was observed for
      smaller molecules. Furthermore, both techniques are able to identify the glass
      transition temperatures (Tg) of the samples. FTIR provides additional information
      as it can independently monitor changes in protein and carbohydrate bands at the
      Tg. Lastly, THz-TDS confirms previous findings that protein-carbohydrate
      interactions decrease with increasing molecular weight of the carbohydrate, which
      results in decreased protein stabilization.

PMID- 28874051
TI  - Mechanism of Particle Formation in Silver/Epoxy Nanocomposites Obtained through a
      Visible-Light-Assisted in Situ Synthesis.
AB  - A detailed understanding of the processes taking place during the in situ
      synthesis of metal/polymer nanocomposites is crucial to manipulate the shape and
      size of nanoparticles (NPs) with a high level of control. In this paper, we
      report an in-depth time-resolved analysis of the particle formation process in
      silver/epoxy nanocomposites obtained through a visible-light-assisted in situ
      synthesis. The selected epoxy monomer was based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol
      A, which undergoes relatively slow cationic ring-opening polymerization. This
      feature allowed us to access a full description of the formation process of
      silver NPs before this was arrested by the curing of the epoxy matrix. In situ
      time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering investigation was carried out to
      follow the evolution of the number and size of the silver NPs as a function of
      irradiation time, whereas rheological experiments combined with near-infrared and
      ultraviolet-visible spectroscopies were performed to interpret how changes in the
      rheological properties of the matrix affect the nucleation and growth of
      particles. The analysis of the obtained results allowed us to propose consistent
      mechanisms for the formation of metal/polymer nanocomposites obtained by light
      assisted one-pot synthesis. Finally, the effect of a thermal postcuring treatment
      of the epoxy matrix on the particle size in the nanocomposite was investigated.

PMID- 28874052
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28874053
TI  - The Unfinished Puzzle of Glutathione Physiological Functions, an Old Molecule
      That Still Retains Many Enigmas.
AB  - Glutathione (GSH) is the most abundant nonprotein thiol found in living
      organisms. Since its discovery 130 years ago, understanding its cellular
      functions has been the subject of intensive research. Common scientific knowledge
      states that GSH is a major nonenzymatic antioxidant and redox buffer. Recent
      approaches that consider GSH compartmentation in the eukaryotic cell challenge
      this traditional view and reveal novel unexpected insights into GSH metabolism
      and physiology. This Forum on GSH features six review articles that focus on GSH
      metabolism and functions in mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum; its
      connection to cellular iron homeostasis, carcinogenesis, and anticancer drug
      resistance; a revisited view of GSH degradation pathways; and reconsiders old
      concepts of its mode of action by highlighting the importance of kinetics over
      thermodynamic redox equilibria. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 1127-1129.

PMID- 28874054
TI  - Critical View on Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Regenerative Medicine.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: The belief in the potency of stem cells has resulted in the medical
      applications of numerous cell types for organ repair, often with the low
      adherence to methodological stringency. Such uncritical enthusiasm is mainly
      presented in the approaches employing so-called mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), for
      the treatment of numerous, unrelated conditions. However, it should be stressed
      that such broad clinical applications of MSC are mostly based on the belief that
      MSC can efficiently differentiate into multiple cell types, not only osteoblasts,
      chondrocytes and adipose cells. Recent Advances: Studies employing lineage
      tracing established more promising markers to characterize MSC identity and
      localization in vivo and confirmed the differences between MSC isolated from
      various organs. Furthermore, preclinical and clinical experiments proved that
      transdifferentiation of MSC is unlikely to contribute to repair of numerous
      tissues, including the heart. Therefore, the salvage hypotheses, like MSC fusion
      with cells in target organs or the paracrine mechanisms, were proposed to justify
      the widespread application of MSC and to explain transient, if any, effects.
      CRITICAL ISSUES: The lack of standardization concerning the cells markers, their
      origin and particularly the absence of stringent functional characterization of
      MSC, leads to propagation of the worrying hype despite the lack of convincing
      therapeutic efficiency of MSC. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: The adherence to rigorous
      methodological rules is necessary to prevent the application of procedures which
      can be dangerous for patients and scientific research on the medical application
      of stem cells. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 00, 000-000.

PMID- 28874055
TI  - Exploring Symptom Clusters in People With Heart Failure.
AB  - Patients with heart failure (HF) experience multiple symptoms or symptom
      clusters. The purposes of this study were to (a) determine if distinct latent
      classes of HF symptoms could be identified, and (b) explore whether
      sociodemographic and clinical characteristics influenced symptom cluster
      membership. A total of 4,011 HF patients recruited from outpatient setting
      completed the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ),
      including five physical symptoms (edema, shortness of breath, fatigue-increased
      need to rest, fatigue-low energy, and sleep difficulties) and three psychological
      symptoms (worrying, feeling depressed, and cognitive problems). Four distinct
      classes using latent class profile analysis were identified: low distress (Class
      1), physical distress (Class 2), psychological distress (Class 3), and high
      distress (Class 4). Significant differences among the four latent classes were
      found for age, education level, and comorbidities. Symptom clusters are useful
      for recognition of HF symptoms, allowing for the development of strategies that
      target symptom groups.

PMID- 28874056
TI  - Ceruloplasmin, a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - AIMS: Ceruloplasmin (CP), a ferrous oxidase enzyme, plays an important role in
      regulating iron metabolism and redox reactions. Previous studies showed that CP
      deficiency contributes to Parkinson's disease by increasing iron accumulation and
      oxidative stress in the substantia nigra. However, the role of CP in Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) is unclear. We hypothesized that the lack of CP gene expression
      would affect the pathogenesis and damage of AD by promoting abnormal iron levels
      and oxidative stress. RESULTS: AD mouse models were induced in CP knockout mouse
      either by injection of Abeta25-35 into the lateral ventricle of the brain or
      transgenic APP expression. CP levels were decreased significantly in the
      hippocampus of AD patients, as well as Abeta-CP+/+ and APP-CP+/+ mice. Compared
      to control AD mice, CP gene deletion increased memory impairment and iron
      accumulation, which could be associated with elevated reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) levels and lead to cell apoptosis mediated through the Bcl-2/Bax and
      Erk/p38 signaling pathways in Abeta-CP-/- and APP-CP-/- mice. In contrast, the
      restoration of CP expression to CP-/- mice through injection of an exogenous
      expression plasmid into the brain ventricle alleviated Abeta-induced neuronal
      damage in the hippocampus. INNOVATION: CP alterations in iron contents were
      mediated through DMT1(-IRE) and changes in ROS levels, which in turn attenuated
      the progression of AD through the Erk/p38 and Bcl-2/Bax signaling pathways.
      CONCLUSION: Our results show a protective role of CP in AD and suggest that
      regulating CP expression in the hippocampus may provide a new neuroprotective
      strategy for AD. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 28, 1323-1337.

PMID- 28874058
TI  - Lacosamide-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.

PMID- 28874060
TI  - Reiki Is Better Than Placebo and Has Broad Potential as a Complementary Health
      Therapy.
AB  - This study reviews the available clinical studies of Reiki to determine whether
      there is evidence for Reiki providing more than just a placebo effect. The
      available English-language literature of Reiki was reviewed, specifically for
      peer-reviewed clinical studies with more than 20 participants in the Reiki
      treatment arm, controlling for a placebo effect. Of the 13 suitable studies, 8
      demonstrated Reiki being more effective than placebo, 4 found no difference but
      had questionable statistical resolving power, and only one provided clear
      evidence for not providing benefit. Viewed collectively, these studies provide
      reasonably strong support for Reiki being more effective than placebo. From the
      information currently available, Reiki is a safe and gentle "complementary"
      therapy that activates the parasympathetic nervous system to heal body and mind.
      It has potential for broader use in management of chronic health conditions, and
      possibly in postoperative recovery. Research is needed to optimize the delivery
      of Reiki.

PMID- 28874059
TI  - A Tale of Two Concepts: Harmonizing the Free Radical and Antagonistic Pleiotropy
      Theories of Aging.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: The two foremost concepts of aging are the mechanistic free radical
      theory (FRT) of how we age and the evolutionary antagonistic pleiotropy theory
      (APT) of why we age. Both date from the late 1950s. The FRT holds that reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) are the principal contributors to the lifelong cumulative
      damage suffered by cells, whereas the APT is generally understood as positing
      that genes that are good for young organisms can take over a population even if
      they are bad for the old organisms. Recent Advances: Here, we provide a common
      ground for the two theories by showing how aging can result from the inherent
      chemical reactivity of many biomolecules, not just ROS, which imposes a
      fundamental constraint on biological evolution. Chemically reactive metabolites
      spontaneously modify slowly renewable macromolecules in a continuous way over
      time; the resulting buildup of damage wrought by the genes coding for enzymes
      that generate such small molecules eventually masquerades as late-acting
      pleiotropic effects. In aerobic organisms, ROS are major agents of this damage
      but they are far from alone. CRITICAL ISSUES: Being related to two sides of the
      same phenomenon, these theories should be compatible. However, the interface
      between them is obscured by the FRT mistaking a subset of damaging processes for
      the whole, and the APT mistaking a cumulative quantitative process for a
      qualitative switch. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: The manifestations of ROS-mediated
      cumulative chemical damage at the population level may include the often-observed
      negative correlation between fitness and the rate of its decline with increasing
      age, further linking FRT and APT. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 29, 1003-1017.

PMID- 28874057
TI  - Emerging Omics Approaches in Aging Research.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: Aging is a complex trait that is influenced by a combination of
      genetic and environmental factors. Although many cellular and physiological
      changes have been described to occur with aging, the precise molecular causes of
      aging remain unknown. Given the biological complexity and heterogeneity of the
      aging process, understanding the mechanisms that underlie aging requires
      integration of data about age-dependent changes that occur at the molecular,
      cellular, tissue, and organismal levels. Recent Advances: The development of high
      throughput technologies such as next-generation sequencing, proteomics,
      metabolomics, and automated imaging techniques provides researchers with new
      opportunities to understand the mechanisms of aging. Using these methods,
      millions of biological molecules can be simultaneously monitored during the aging
      process with high accuracy and specificity. CRITICAL ISSUES: Although the ability
      to produce big data has drastically increased over the years, integration and
      interpreting of high-throughput data to infer regulatory relationships between
      biological factors and identify causes of aging remain the major challenges. In
      this review, we describe recent advances and survey emerging omics approaches in
      aging research. We then discuss their limitations and emphasize the need for the
      further development of methods for the integration of different types of data.
      FUTURE DIRECTIONS: Combining omics approaches and novel methods for single-cell
      analysis with systems biology tools would allow building interaction networks and
      investigate how these networks are perturbed with aging and disease states.
      Together, these studies are expected to provide a better understanding of the
      aging process and could provide insights into the pathophysiology of many age
      associated human diseases. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 29, 985-1002.

PMID- 28874063
TI  - Venous Thromboprophylaxis With Neuromuscular Stimulation: Is It Calf Muscle
      Pumping or Just Twitches and Jerks?
AB  - The common peroneal nerve stimulator (CPNS) is a UK-approved device for reducing
      venous thromboembolism risk. It resembles a wrist watch and is placed over the
      common peroneal nerve to fire at 1 electrical impulse/sec. The aim was to
      quantify the claim that it drives the venous muscle pump and imitates walking.
      Twelve healthy volunteers performed 10 tip-toe maneuvers and 10 ankle
      dorsiflexions to imitate walking movements. The reductions in calf volume were
      recorded using air plethysmography (APG). The common peroneal nerve was
      stimulated for over 10 seconds at each of the 7 increasing electrical impulse
      settings, and the volume reductions were measured for comparison. The results are
      expressed as median (interquartile range) absolute (mL), and percentage reduction
      in calf volume. Tip-toe and dorsiflexion pumping maneuvers were not significantly
      different: 59 (33.6-96.1), 81.9% vs 51.4 (34-68.5), 59.7%, respectively ( P =
      .53). However, they both outperformed the CPNS: 10.8 (7.3-18), 13.2% at P = .002
      and P = .002, respectively. Qualitatively, the CPNS registered on the tracings as
      a small spike (muscle twitch) at low settings, with larger amplitudes (ankle
      jerk) at higher settings. The CPNS activity spikes were discrete, lasting a
      median (range) of 0.24 (0.16- .3) seconds. The claim that the CPNS empties veins
      by pumping is supported statistically. However, the amount is small versus the
      tip-toe and dorsiflexion maneuvers. Furthermore, the CPNS has a short activity
      profile on the APG trace. Innovations that produce sustained contraction and
      involve the posterior calf compartments may improve pumping.

PMID- 28874062
TI  - Biogenesis of Hydrogen Sulfide and Thioethers by Cystathionine Beta-Synthase.
AB  - AIMS: The transsulfuration pathway enzymes cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) and
      cystathionine gamma-lyase are thought to be the major source of hydrogen sulfide
      (H2S). In this study, we assessed the role of CBS in H2S biogenesis. RESULTS: We
      show that despite discouraging enzyme kinetics of alternative H2S-producing
      reactions utilizing cysteine compared with the canonical condensation of serine
      and homocysteine, our simulations of substrate competitions at biologically
      relevant conditions suggest that cysteine is able to partially compete with
      serine on CBS, thus leading to generation of appreciable amounts of H2S. The
      leading H2S-producing reaction is condensation of cysteine with homocysteine,
      while cysteine desulfuration plays a dominant role when cysteine is more abundant
      than serine and homocysteine is limited. We found that the serine-to-cysteine
      ratio is the main determinant of CBS H2S productivity. Abundance of cysteine over
      serine, for example, in plasma, allowed for up to 43% of CBS activity being
      responsible for H2S production, while excess of serine typical for intracellular
      levels effectively limited such activity to less than 1.5%. CBS also produced
      lanthionine from serine and cysteine and a third of lanthionine coming from
      condensation of two cysteines contributed to the H2S pool. INNOVATION: Our study
      characterizes the H2S-producing potential of CBS under biologically relevant
      conditions and highlights the serine-to-cysteine ratio as the main determinant of
      H2S production by CBS in vivo. CONCLUSION: Our data clarify the function of CBS
      in H2S biogenesis and the role of thioethers as surrogate H2S markers. Antioxid.
      Redox Signal. 28, 311-323.

PMID- 28874061
TI  - Time-Resolved Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis:
      Current Status, Challenges, and New Directions.
AB  - Time-resolved analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs
      fMRI) data allows researchers to extract more information about brain function
      than traditional functional connectivity analysis, yet a number of challenges in
      data analysis and interpretation remain. This article briefly summarizes common
      methods for time-resolved analysis and presents some of the pressing issues and
      opportunities in the field. From there, the discussion moves to interpretation of
      the network dynamics observed with rs-fMRI and the role that rs-fMRI can play in
      elucidating the large-scale organization of brain activity.

PMID- 28874064
TI  - The Association of Aging With Von Willebrand Factor Levels and Bleeding Risk in
      Type 1 Von Willebrand Disease.
AB  - Little is known about aging in von Willebrand disease (VWD). It is uncertain
      whether VWD patients experience an age-related increase in von Willebrand factor
      (VWF) levels, and if so, it is unknown whether normalization of VWF levels with
      aging ameliorates bleeding risk. We aimed to determine the association of age
      with VWF levels and bleeding risk in patients with type 1 VWD. This is a
      retrospective chart review of patients with type 1 VWD presenting to the
      Hemophilia Clinic of Western Pennsylvania for regularly scheduled clinic visits.
      Data collected included VWF antigen level and condensed molecular and clinical
      markers for the diagnosis and management of Type 1 (MCMDM-1) VWD bleeding
      assessment tool (BAT) bleeding score based on bleeding symptoms during the
      previous 3 years. Thirty-nine patients participated in the study, and 32 were
      female. The average age of participants was 41.8 +/- 18.0 years. The mean VWF
      antigen level was 0.83 +/- 0.37 IU/mL, and the mean bleeding score was 2.51 +/-
      2.90. The bleeding score was inversely associated with age, beta = -0.080 (SE =
      0.023), P < .01. There was a nonsignificant association between VWF antigen
      levels and age. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing an association
      between aging and decreased bleeding symptoms in patients with type 1 VWD.
      Determining whether or not bleeding risk is reduced in older patients with type 1
      VWD is essential for optimal clinical management. Moreover, VWF concentrate is
      costly, and unwarranted use represents a significant waste of health-care
      dollars. These findings warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28874065
TI  - Associations between adiposity and repetitive element DNA methylation in healthy
      postmenopausal women.
AB  - AIM: To describe the association between adiposity and repetitive element DNA
      methylation in healthy postmenopausal women. PATIENTS & METHODS: A cross
      sectional study was conducted using baseline information from 289 women who
      participated in the Alberta Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention trial.
      RESULTS: After adjusting for important confounders,  long interspersed nuclear
      element-1 methylation was positively associated with intra-abdominal fat area (p
      = 0.03), body fat percent (p = 0.048), fat mass (p = 0.01), waist circumference
      (p = 0.03), hip circumference (p = 0.001), BMI (p = 0.03), current weight (p =
      0.002), weight at age 20 (p = 0.02) and adulthood weight gain (p = 0.03). No
      significant associations were found between any of the adiposity measures and Alu
      methylation. CONCLUSION: Current and historical adiposity measures are positively
      associated with long interspersed nuclear element-1 methylation in healthy
      postmenopausal women.

PMID- 28874066
TI  - The Role of the Accessory Malleolar Ossicles and Malleolar Avulsion Fractures in
      Lateral Ankle Ligament Reconstruction.
AB  - : While it is well known that ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries
      in the United States, predictive factors regarding failure of conservative
      treatment are not well known. There are many biomechanical and epidemiological
      factors that play a role in recurrence and failure of conservative treatment, but
      most cases are able to be treated with immobilization and/or rest, ice,
      elevation, physical therapy, and bracing. We propose that one important risk
      factor is often overlooked simply due to the fact that a vast majority of these
      cases resolve without the need for surgery. Accessory ossicles and avulsion
      fractures of the malleoli or talus may represent a predisposition or marker for
      ligamentous damage that may lead to the need for lateral ankle ligament repair or
      reconstruction in the future. We have identified 61 consecutive patients who
      underwent lateral ankle ligament repair or reconstruction by the primary surgeon
      from the years 2007 to 2017. Out of those patients who met our inclusion and
      exclusion criteria, 66% had the presence of osseous pathology consisting of
      accessory ossicles or avulsion fractures of the medial or lateral malleolus or
      talus. The proportion of osseous pathology seen with lateral ankle ligament
      repair or reconstruction was higher than what has been previously reported in
      both operative and nonoperative settings. This may help identify a risk factor
      for failure of conservative treatment in patients presenting with acute ankle
      sprains or ankle instability especially in the active cohort. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE:
      Level IV: Case series.

PMID- 28874067
TI  - Sural Flap Use for the Treatment of Wounds With Underlying Osteomyelitis: Graft
      Size a Predictor in Outcome, a Systematic Review.
AB  - : The sural flap procedure is a versatile technique that can be used to cover
      many types of defects about the lower extremity. The management of soft tissue
      defects of the lower extremity with underlying osteomyelitis is difficult. The
      goal for any of these patients is to create a biomechanically stable foot for
      weight-bearing purposes with no continued infection. Data were gathered using
      multiple databases from the years 2000 to 2016. Data were compiled looking at the
      number of subjects, age, comorbidities, number of complications, number of
      failures, and average flap size of complications/failures. A total of 110
      patients were gathered using 5 separate articles. Twenty-two of the 110 patients
      had short-term complications. Flap failure was seen in 9/110 patients. A
      significant difference was noticed in flap size between flap failure and
      complication groups and nonfailure groups. The average flap size of patients who
      had some form of complication or failure was 51.87 cm2 in size. The average graft
      size for patients without complications during their recovery was 36.54 cm2.
      Within our study, the failure rate of 8.9% and complication rate of 13.7% are
      consistent with previous reports on sural perforator flaps. Last, with regard to
      the effect of flap size, there were significant differences between patients with
      a successful outcome and those who experienced complications or failures. LEVELS
      OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, Level III: Systematic review.

PMID- 28874068
TI  - Characterization of a novel VIIl sub-genotype of Newcastle disease virus
      circulating in Iran.
AB  - Newcastle disease is an economically important and highly contagious disease
      affecting wild and domestic avian species. Despite extensive vaccination efforts
      within the poultry industry, Newcastle disease virus (NDV) outbreaks causing
      significant economic losses still occur. Rural chickens may act as a potential
      reservoir of NDVs for commercial poultry due to poor biosecurity and inadequate
      vaccination. The aim of this study was to investigate the phylogenetic
      relationship and molecular characterization of eight NDVs isolated from backyard
      poultry in Iran during 2011-2013. The complete coding sequence of fusion (F) and
      haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) genes of eight NDVs were determined and
      compared with other published NDVs. Based on inter-population distances and
      phylogenetic topology between available NDV categories, Iranian isolates formed a
      novel VIIl sub-genotype distinct from previous groups designated in genotype VII.
      Furthermore, both F and HN genes of the Iranian isolates shared high nucleotide
      sequence similarity with viruses isolated in China. All viruses analysed
      contained a polybasic cleavage site motif (111G/RRRQKR?F117), indicating that all
      isolates could be categorized as a virulent pathotype. No mutation was observed
      in the neutralizing epitopes of the F protein. Analysis of amino acids associated
      with neutralizing antigenic sites within the HN protein revealed that all
      isolates exhibited a unique amino acid (Q) at position 347. These results
      emphasize the need for strengthening the biosecurity measures implemented on
      village flocks and practicing a mandatory vaccination programme for local
      poultry. Moreover, continuous monitoring of NDVs in different species of birds
      can help to gain more knowledge about the evolution of this virus and prevent
      future panzootics.

PMID- 28874070
TI  - Phytochemical, cytotoxic and chemotaxonomic study on Ajuga forrestii Diels
      (Labiatae).
AB  - A phytochemical investigation of Ajuga forrestii Diels led to the isolation of 14
      compounds, including eight neo-clerodane diterpenes (1-8), two phytoecdysteroids
      (9, 11), one stigmastane sterol (10) and three iridoid glycosides (12-14). The
      structures of these compounds were identified by spectroscopic methods and a
      comparison of their data with those reported in the literature. This is the first
      report of compounds 1-14 from A. forrestii. The cytotoxic activities of the
      aqueous extract of A. forrestii and several compounds have been studied and the
      chemotaxonomic significance of isolated compounds has also been summarised.

PMID- 28874069
TI  - Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life among People Living with HIV in
      Xinjiang, West China.
AB  - In total, 679 HIV-positive patients from 4 clinics in Urumqi city were given
      structured questionnaires by the doctors or nurses treating them. Health-related
      quality of life (HRQL) was assessed using the Chinese Patient-Reported Outcome
      Quality of Life-HIV questionnaire versions in Mandarin and Uyghur. This tool has
      been used in other parts of China and several countries. Compared to France,
      Australia, United States, Brazil, Thailand, Cambodia, Senegal, and Central
      Southern China (CS China), the HRQL was significantly lower among HIV-positive
      patients in Xinjiang, with regard to the dimension of treatment impact and
      general health score. The health concern was similar to Brazil and Cambodia but
      lower than other countries and CS China. Our findings showed high stigmatization:
      86% of the patients were afraid to tell others they were HIV positive and 69%
      often felt or always felt depressed. Only 1% of the patients were on
      antidepressant treatment.

PMID- 28874071
TI  - Factors Influencing Patient Selection of a Foot and Ankle Surgeon.
AB  - : An increasingly consumer-centric health insurance market has empowered patients
      to select the providers of their choice. There is a lack of studies investigating
      the rationale by which patients select a foot and ankle surgeon. In the present
      study, 824 consecutive new patients seeking treatment from 3 foot-ankle surgeons
      were consecutively administered an anonymous questionnaire prior to their first
      appointment. It included rating the importance of 15 factors regarding specialist
      selection on a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 designated " Very important" and 1
      designated " Not important at all." The remaining questions were multiple choice
      regarding patient perspectives on other surgeon aspects (appointment
      availability, waiting room times, clinic proximity, etc). Of 824 consecutive
      patients administered the survey, 305 (37%) responded. Patients rated board
      certification (9.24 +/- 1.87) and on-site imaging availability (8.48 +/- 2.37)-on
      a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 designated "Very important- as the 2 most important
      criteria in choosing a foot and ankle surgeon. Patients rated advertisements as
      least important. Among the patients, 91% responded that a maximum of 30 minutes
      should elapse between clinic check-in and seeing their physician; 61% responded
      that a maximum of 20 minutes should elapse between clinic check-in and seeing
      their physician. In the context of an increasingly consumer-driven paradigm of
      health care delivery and reimbursement, it is important to understand patients'
      preferences in specialist selection. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level III: Prospective
      questionnaire.

PMID- 28874072
TI  - Liposomal formulations in the pharmacological treatment of leishmaniasis: a
      review.
AB  - Conventional chemotherapy for leishmaniasis includes considerably toxic drugs and
      reports of drug-resistance are not uncommon. Liposomal encapsulated drugs appear
      as an option for the treatment of leishmaniasis, providing greater efficacy for
      the active and reducing its side effects by promoting superior tissue absorption,
      favouring drug penetration into the macrophages, and retarding its clearance from
      the site of action. In this paper, a review on the advances achieved with
      liposome-based anti-leishmaniasis drug delivery systems is presented.
      Formulations prepared with either conventional or modified (sugar-coated,
      cationic, niosomes, peptides- and antibodies-bounded) liposomes for the delivery
      of pentavalent antimonials, amphotericin B, pentamidine, paromomycyn, and
      miltefosine were covered. This literature review depicts a scenario of no
      effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of this neglected disease, where
      liposomal formulations appear to improve the effectiveness of the available
      antileishmania agents.

PMID- 28874073
TI  - Intra-patient dose escalation of panobinostat in patients with
      relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28874074
TI  - Game of TOR - The Target of Rapamycin Rules Four Kingdoms.

PMID- 28874075
TI  - [Formula: see text]Congenital heart disease: A primer for the pediatric
      neuropsychologist.
AB  - Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects millions of people worldwide, including
      over one million children in the United States. Approximately 25% of children
      born with CHD require intensive surgical intervention within the first year of
      life. Despite improved rates of survival into adulthood - rates that exceed 90%
      in the modern era - children and adolescents with CHD remain at risk for
      neurological injury and a range of neurobehavioral and psychosocial challenges
      that pose a threat to quality of life across the lifespan. Consequently, as
      experts in both clinical psychology and brain development, neuropsychologists are
      becoming increasingly involved in cardiac follow-up and monitoring to promote
      optimal developmental outcomes. The primary objective of this paper is to provide
      an evidence-based, clinically-oriented primer on CHD for pediatric
      neuropsychologists working with this growing population of survivors. Following
      an introduction to current standard-of-care guidelines for managing children and
      adolescents with CHD, we present an overview of brain development within the
      context of CHD, review neuropsychological outcomes, examine factors influencing
      variability in outcomes, and discuss implications and strategies for clinical
      assessment.

PMID- 28874076
TI  - Multimodal Fluorescence and Bioluminescence Imaging Reveals Transfection
      Potential of Intratracheally Administered Polyplexes for Breast Cancer Lung
      Metastases.
AB  - Local delivery of anticancer agents or gene therapeutics to lung tumors can
      circumvent side effects or accumulation in non-target organs, but accessibility
      via the alveolar side of the blood-air barrier remains challenging. Polyplexes
      based on plasmid and linear polyethylenimine (LPEI) transfect healthy lung tissue
      when applied intravenously (i.v.) in the mouse, but direct delivery into the
      lungs results in low transfection of lung tissue. Nevertheless, LPEI could offer
      the potential to transfect lung tumors selectively, if accessible from the
      alveolar side. This study combined near infrared fluorescent protein 720
      (iRFP720) and firefly luciferase as reporter genes for detection of tumor lesions
      and transfection efficiency of LPEI polyplexes, after intratracheal microspraying
      in mice bearing 4T1 triple negative breast cancer lung metastases. Simultaneous
      flow cytometric analysis of iRFP720 and enhanced green fluorescent protein
      expression in vitro demonstrated the potential to combine these reporter genes
      within transfection studies. Polyplex biophysics was characterized by single
      nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) to monitor physical integrity after
      microspraying in vitro. 4T1 cells were transduced with iRFP720-encoding
      lentivirus and evaluated by flow cytometry for stable iRFP720 expression. Growth
      of 4T1-iRFP720 cells was monitored in Balb/c mice by tomographic near infrared
      imaging, tissue and tumor morphology by computed tomography and magnetic
      resonance imaging. In 4T1-iRFP720 tumor-bearing mice, intratracheal
      administration of luciferase-encoding plasmid DNA by LPEI polyplexes resulted in
      successful tumor transfection, as revealed by bioluminescence imaging.

PMID- 28874077
TI  - Effects of sunitinib and bevacizumab on VEGF and miRNA levels on corneal
      neovascularization.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the effects of sunitinib (0.5 mg/ml) and bevacizumab (5 mg/ml)
      on VEGF-A, VEGFR-2 and microRNA (miRNA) levels on corneal neovascularization
      (CNV). METHODS: In this study, CNV was induced by silver nitrate application to
      the cornea, and 40 Albino male rats were equally divided into four subgroups:
      Group 1 (sunitinib): After silver nitrate application to the cornea, 0.5 mg/ml
      sunitinib eyedrop was administered twice daily for two weeks (n = 10). Group 2
      (bevacizumab): After silver nitrate application to the cornea, 5 mg/ml
      bevacizumab eyedrop was administered twice daily for two weeks (n = 10). Group 3
      (control): After silver nitrate application to the cornea, normal saline eyedrop
      was administered twice daily for two weeks (n = 10). Group 4 (vehicle): After
      silver nitrate application to the cornea, 1% DMSO eyedrop was administered twice
      daily for two weeks (n = 10). After two weeks from the silver nitrate
      application, corneas were evaluated by hand-held biomicroscope for their
      vascularization status. Then, corneas were excised and the expression levels of
      VEGFR-2, VEGF-A and the common miRNA markers for neovascularization (miR-15 b,
      miR-16, miR-23a, miR-126, miR-188, miR-210, miR-221, miR-222, miR-410 and miR
      423) were evaluated by real-time PCR. RESULTS: It was seen that the CNV was
      decreased in sunitinib- and bevacizumab-administered groups compared to the
      control and DMSO groups. Also, in comparison with the control group; VEGF-A
      expression was downregulated by nearly 0.75 times in sunitinib group and nearly
      0.52 times in bevacizumab group. VEGFR-2 expression was downregulated by 0.89
      times in sunitinib group and 0.68 times in bevacizumab group, compared to the
      control group. miR-15 b, miR-16 and miR-126 levels were statistically lower in
      sunitinib and bevacizumab groups, but miR-188 and miR-410 levels were two-fold
      higher compared to the control group. The miR-210 level was found higher only in
      sunitinib group compared to the control group. There were no statistically
      significant changes in miR-23a, miR-221, miR-222 and miR-423 levels among the
      groups. CONCLUSION: Topical application of bevacizumab (5 mg/ml) and sunitinib
      (0.5 mg/ml) decreases the levels of VEGFR-2 and VEGF-A in CNV. Further studies
      are needed for detailed analysis of genes which are targeted by up- or
      downregulated miRNAs in this study.

PMID- 28874078
TI  - Behavioral Manipulation by Optogenetics in the Nonhuman Primate.
AB  - Given their neuroanatomical similarities to humans and their ability to perform
      complex behaviors, the nonhuman primate has been an important model for
      understanding complex systems such as sensory processing, motor control, social
      interaction, and nervous system disorders. Optogenetics offers cell-type specific
      neural control with millisecond precision, making it a powerful neural modulation
      technique. Combining optogenetics with the nonhuman primate model promises to
      lead to significant advances in both basic and applied research. In the past few
      years, optogenetics has made considerable progress in the nonhuman primate. Here,
      we systematically review the current state-of-art of optogenetics in the nonhuman
      primate with an emphasis on behavioral manipulation. Given its recent successes,
      we believe that the progress in the nonhuman primate will boost the translation
      of optogenetics to clinical applications in the near future.

PMID- 28874079
TI  - Migration, Agency, and the Sex Industry: Practitioners' Perspectives on Foreign
      Sex Workers in Turkey.
AB  - The article presents the political, economic, and sociocultural factors that make
      Turkey an attractive destination for foreign sex workers, and reviews trends in
      official statistics of arrested traffickers, rescued victims, and deportation of
      migrant illegal sex workers. In-depth interviews of 20 law enforcement and
      nongovernmental organizations staff members, who in the course of their work come
      into close contact with foreign sex workers, shed light on the statistics. The
      interview data provide insights into the structure of the Turkish sex market, the
      factors that bring foreign women to work in this market, and the impact of legal
      reforms on the circumstances of foreign sex workers. The article concludes with
      the implications of the findings for public policy.

PMID- 28874081
TI  - Physicochemical investigation and in vivo activity of anti-malarial drugs co
      loaded in Tween 80 niosomes.
AB  - Drugs used for the treatment and prevention of malaria are often plagued by the
      problem of development of resistance. This has hampered their therapeutic
      efficiency and rendered them ineffective for monotherapy. However, if re-packaged
      and combined properly, many of these neglected anti-malarial drugs can possibly
      find their way back into the treatment regime. The present study evaluates the
      use of curcumin (CC) and primaquine (PRI) as an anti-malarial combination,
      packaged within niosomes, in comparison to their respective monotherapy options.
      It was observed that in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice, mice treated with a
      combination of 35 mg/kg of CC along with either 5 mg/kg or 1 mg/kg body weight of
      PRI demonstrated 100% anti-malarial activity and survivability beyond 20 days.
      The niosome-based PRI-CC combination therapy provided increased protection and
      survival rate that was associated with prevention in recrudescence. The findings
      of the study suggest that niosome-based PRI-CC combination therapy may be a
      promising approach in the treatment of malaria.

PMID- 28874080
TI  - Low molecular-weight gel fraction of Aloe vera exhibits gastroprotection by
      inducing matrix metalloproteinase-9 inhibitory activity in alcohol-induced acute
      gastric lesion tissues.
AB  - CONTEXT: Aloe has been used for the prevention and cure of various diseases and
      symptoms including burns, injuries, oedema and pain. OBJECTIVE: This study
      determines the specific inhibitory activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9
      induced by the low molecular-weight gel fraction of Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f.
      (lgfAv) on alcohol-induced acute gastric lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      examined the protective effects of oral (p.o.) administration of lgfAv (molecular
      weight cutoff <50.0 kDa, 150.0 mg/kg body weight) in a Balb/c mouse model of
      alcohol-induced acute gastritis for 1 h exposure. By measuring ulcer index, we
      compared the antiulcerative activity of the fraction. mRNA expression and
      immunohistochemical analysis of various biomarkers were performed. RESULTS: The
      lgfAv-treated mice exhibited drastically fewer ulcer lesions than the untreated
      control mice did. It featured that lgfAv lessened the ulcer lesions than their
      relevant controls. Moreover, the transcriptional level of MMP-9 was completely
      alleviated by lgfAv treatment in alcohol-treated gastritis-induced mice.
      DISCUSSION: The transcriptional level of MMP-9 was significantly alleviated by
      lgfAv treatment of the model. However, reverse transcription-polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry experiments revealed that lgfAv
      treatment in mucosal tissues had the potential to inhibit the mRNA and protein
      expression levels of MMP-9, respectively. The protein expression of MMP-9 was
      closely associated with lgfAv-induced gastroprotection against alcohol-induced
      gastric lesions. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that lgfAv has the
      potential to alleviate alcohol-induced acute gastric lesions, which is mediated
      in part, mainly by the suppression of the mRNA expression of MMP-9.

PMID- 28874082
TI  - Impact of Multiple Daily Clinical Pharmacist-Enforced Assessments on Time in
      Target Sedation Range.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Incorporation of a single daily assessment by a clinical pharmacist
      to improve adherence with a sedation protocol is associated with reduced duration
      of mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS). We
      test the feasibility of incorporating a clinical pharmacist into more frequent
      sedation assessments and observed whether there are any potential differences in
      the sedatives administered. METHODS: Prospective, quasi-experimental, pilot study
      of patients admitted to the medical ICU. Patients were included in the analysis
      if >=18 years of age within the first 24 hours of initiation of mechanical
      ventilation. Our primary intent was to test the clinical feasibility surrounding
      more frequent sedation assessments by a clinical pharmacist by evaluating
      potential differences in time in target sedation range and sedative
      administration. Exploratory efficacy end points included time in target sedation
      range (0 to -2) using the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) and sedative
      exposure. Patients were assigned to receive either 3 assessments with a clinical
      pharmacist per day (intervention) or a single assessment by a clinical pharmacist
      per day (standard of care). During the assessments, clinical pharmacists
      participated in the RASS administration and made dosing adjustments according to
      an established sedation protocol. MAIN RESULTS: Seventeen patients were enrolled
      (n = 6 intervention group, n = 11 standard of care). Duration of mechanical
      ventilation was similar in the 2 groups (intervention 100.0 hours [52.5-197.5] vs
      control 76.0 hours [46.0-201.0], P = .95), but patients in the intervention group
      exhibited a greater percentage time in the target RASS range (intervention 76.0%
      [53.7-81.5%] vs control 45.2% [35.3-67.0], P = .11) that was not statistically
      significant. Patients in the intervention group received less fentanyl per day
      (820.9 ug [227.3-1579.4] vs 1997 ug [1648.2-2477.2], P = .02) than in the control
      group. CONCLUSION: Incorporating a clinical pharmacist into more frequent daily
      sedation assessments was associated with a reduction in fentanyl administration.
      There were no observed differences in time in target sedation range or reduction
      in duration of mechanical ventilation.

PMID- 28874083
TI  - Azathioprine-Induced Pancytopenia and Septic Complications: A Probable Cause of
      Death.
AB  - Azathioprine, an immunosuppressant which is widely used in the management of the
      autoimmune neuromuscular disorder. Myasthenia gravis is known to cause
      myelotoxicity. A 55-year-old male recently diagnosed with myasthenia gravis and
      chronic kidney disease was put on azathioprine (100 mg/d) along with
      pyridostigmine and prednisolone. When the treatment was initiated, the
      hematological reports revealed normal levels of blood count. However,
      approximately within 3 weeks of continuing the prescribed drugs, the patient was
      readmitted for complaints of loose watery stools, weakness, and giddiness.
      Clinical investigations revealed severe pancytopenia, suspecting to be related to
      azathioprine. The suspected drug (azathioprine) was withdrawn, and the management
      for pancytopenia was initiated. However, on the second day of hospitalization,
      the patient underwent cardiac arrest and septic shock which lead to death.
      Adverse drug reaction assessment revealed a plausible and causal relationship of
      azathioprine with pancytopenia and other adverse effects seen in this patient.

PMID- 28874084
TI  - Impaired vagal activity to meal in patients with functional dyspepsia and delayed
      gastric emptying.
AB  - Objective This study was performed to investigate impaired vagal activity to meal
      in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) with delayed gastric emptying (GE).
      Methods Eighty-five patients were studied. GE parameters, including those in the
      overall and proximal stomach, were measured by GE functional tests at the
      Department of Nuclear Medicine. Autonomic nervous function was tested by spectral
      analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). The vagal activity and sympathetic
      activity were analyzed by recording the power in the high-frequency component
      (HF), low-frequency component (LF), and LF/HF ratio. Results Overall and proximal
      GE were delayed in 47.2% and 50.9% of the patients, respectively. Spectral
      analysis of HRV showed that the HF in patients with delayed proximal GE was
      significantly lower and that the LF/HF ratio was significantly higher than those
      in patients with normal proximal GE after a meal. Conclusion Delayed proximal GE
      might be caused by disrupted sympathovagal balance as a result of decreased vagal
      activity after a meal. Improvement in vagal activity may constitute an effective
      treatment method for patients with FD.

PMID- 28874086
TI  - PAcluster: Clustering polyadenylation site data using canonical correlation
      analysis.
AB  - Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a pervasive mechanism that contributes to
      gene regulation. Increasing sequenced poly(A) sites are placing new demands for
      the development of computational methods to investigate APA regulation. Cluster
      analysis is important to identify groups of co-expressed genes. However,
      clustering of poly(A) sites has not been extensively studied in APA, where most
      APA studies failed to consider the distribution, abundance, and variation of APA
      sites in each gene. Here we constructed a two-layer model based on canonical
      correlation analysis (CCA) to explore the underlying biological mechanisms in APA
      regulation. The first layer quantifies the general correlation of APA sites
      across various conditions between each gene and the second layer identifies genes
      with statistically significant correlation on their APA patterns to infer APA
      specific gene clusters. Using hierarchical clustering, we comprehensively
      compared our method with four other widely used distance measures based on three
      performance indexes. Results showed that our method significantly enhanced the
      clustering performance for both synthetic and real poly(A) site data and could
      generate clusters with more biological meaning. We have implemented the CCA-based
      method as a publically available R package called PAcluster, which provides an
      efficient solution to the clustering of large APA-specific biological dataset.

PMID- 28874085
TI  - Comparing the dopaminergic neurotoxic effects of benzylpiperazine and
      benzoylpiperazine.
AB  - Benzylpiperazine has been designated as Schedule I substance under the Controlled
      Substances Act by Drug Enforcement Administration. Benzylpiperazine is a
      piperazine derivative, elevates both dopamine and serotonin extracellular levels
      producing stimulatory and hallucinogenic effects, respectively, similar to
      methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). However, the comparative neurotoxic effects
      of Piperazine derivatives (benzylpiperazine and benzoylpiperazine) have not been
      elucidated. Here, piperazine derivatives (benzylpiperazine and benzoylpiperazine)
      were synthesized in our lab and the mechanisms of cellular-based neurotoxicity
      were elucidated in a dopaminergic human neuroblastoma cell line (SH-SY5Y). We
      evaluated the in vitro effects of benzylpiperazine and benzoylpiperazine on the
      generation of reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation, mitochondrial complex
      I activity, catalase activity, superoxide dismutase activity, glutathione
      content, Bax, caspase-3, Bcl-2 and tyrosine hydroxylase expression.
      Benzylpiperazine and benzoylpiperazine induced oxidative stress, inhibited
      mitochondrial functions and stimulated apoptosis. This study provides a germinal
      assessment of the neurotoxic mechanisms induced by piperazine derivatives that
      lead to neuronal cell death.

PMID- 28874087
TI  - Systematic investigations of gene effects on both topologies and supports: An
      Echinococcus illustration.
AB  - In this paper, we propose a high performance computing toolbox implementing
      efficient statistical methods for the study of phylogenies. This toolbox, which
      implements logit models and LASSO-type penalties, gives a way to better
      understand, measure, and compare the impact of each gene on a global phylogeny.
      As an application, we study the Echinococcus phylogeny, which is often considered
      as a particularly difficult example. Mitochondrial and nuclear genomes (19 coding
      sequences) of nine Echinococcus species are considered in order to investigate
      the molecular phylogeny of this genus. First, we check that the 19 gene trees
      lead to 19 totally different unsupported topologies (a topology is the sister
      relationship when both branch lengths and supports are ignored in a phylogenetic
      tree), while using the 19 genes as a whole are not sufficient for estimating the
      phylogeny. In order to circumvent this issue and understand the impact of the
      genes, we computed 43,796 trees using combinations ranging from 13 to 19 genes.
      By doing so, 15 topologies are obtained. Four particular topologies, appearing
      more robust and frequent, are then selected for more precise investigation.
      Refining further our statistical analysis, a particularly robust topology is
      extracted. We also carefully demonstrate the influence of nuclear genes on the
      likelihood of the phylogeny.

PMID- 28874088
TI  - Focusing solely on the effect of the medication without taking a holistic view of
      the patient does not seem very constructive.

PMID- 28874089
TI  - Outcome of Surgeon-Modified Fenestrated/Branched Stent-Grafts for Symptomatic
      Complex Aortic Pathologies or Contained Rupture.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the outcome of surgeon-modified fenestrated and branched
      stent-grafts (sm-FBSG) in high-risk patients with symptomatic complex aortic
      pathology or contained rupture. METHODS: A single-center retrospective analysis
      was conducted of 21 consecutive patients (mean age 70 years, range 58-87; 16 men)
      treated with a sm-FBSG from April 2014 to September 2016. The indications
      included 11 thoracoabdominal and 10 pararenal aortic pathologies, which presented
      as symptomatic in 8 and as contained rupture in 13 patients. The mean aneurysm
      diameter was 7.4+/-2.3 cm. RESULTS: Technical success was 100%. From 1 to 4 (mean
      3) renovisceral branch vessels were targeted with fenestrations. The mean length
      of in-hospital stay was 19 days (range 1-78). There was 1 death within 30 days
      and 2 further in-hospital deaths. Two patients suffered permanent spinal cord
      injury, 2 developed respiratory failure, and 2 had renal failure requiring
      temporary or permanent dialysis. No myocardial infarction, stroke, or bowel
      ischemia occurred. Six early endoleaks (3 type II and 3 minor type III) were
      detected. Mean follow-up was 11.2 months (range 2-33) in 17 patients. One late
      aneurysm-related death occurred. All 13 follow-up imaging studies showed patent
      target renovisceral vessels, with 1 type I and 2 type II endoleaks. CONCLUSION:
      Sm-FBSG can be utilized for urgent treatment of complex abdominal and
      thoracoabdominal aortic pathologies in high-risk patients with anatomy unsuitable
      for commercially available stent-grafts.

PMID- 28874090
TI  - Open and cautious towards the "minority view".
AB  - According to the 'minority view', the initial afferent processing on C1 can be
      modulated by attention under certain experimental conditions. However, evidence
      supporting this 'minority view' is relatively rare and needs more replication,
      and the optimal conditions for eliciting attentional modulations on C1 have not
      yet been clearly defined. V1-tuned stimuli with distractors, peripheral cuing
      paradigms, and high perceptual loads seem to be important factors in favor of the
      'minority view'. The signal-noise issue for C1, especially between attended and
      unattended conditions, needs to be considered.

PMID- 28874091
TI  - Gender in clinical neuropsychology: practice survey trends and comparisons
      outside the specialty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper describes gender-related trends within clinical
      neuropsychology, based primarily on recurrent practice surveys within the
      specialty and, to a lesser extent, job-related information from medical
      specialties and the general U.S. labor market. METHOD: Chronological and cross
      sectional analyses of professional practice survey data from 2005, 2010, and 2015
      relevant to gender. As is common with survey data, descriptive analysis and
      independent samples t-tests were conducted. Longitudinal data allowed for
      examination of gender trends, as well as observations of change and stability of
      factors associated with gender, over time. RESULTS: Women have become dominant in
      number in clinical neuropsychology, and also comprise a vast majority of
      practitioners entering the specialty. Gender differences are noted in
      professional identity, work status, work settings, types of career satisfaction,
      and retirement expectations. Women are more likely to identify work environment
      and personal/family obstacles to aspects of career satisfaction. A gender pay gap
      was found at all time points and is not narrowing. As is true nationally,
      multiple factors appear related to the gender pay gap in clinical
      neuropsychology. CONCLUSIONS: Women in neuropsychology are now dominant in
      number, and their presence is strongly associated with specific practice
      patterns, such as greater institutional employment, less involvement in forensic
      practice, and strong involvement in pediatric practice, which may be maintaining
      the sizeable gender pay gap in neuropsychology. As the proportion of women
      neuropsychologists continues to increase, flexible work hours, and alternative
      means of remuneration may be needed to offset current disproportionate family
      related responsibilities.

PMID- 28874093
TI  - Comprehensive DNA microarray expression profiles of tumors in tenascin-C-knockout
      mice.
AB  - Tenascin-C (TNC), an extracellular matrix glycoprotein, plays a pivotal role in
      tumor growth. However, the mechanism whereby TNC affects tumor biology remains
      unclear. To investigate the exact role of TNC in primary tumor growth, a mouse
      mammary tumor cell line, GLMT1, was first developed. Subsequently, global gene
      expression in GLMT1-derived tumors was compared between wild-type (WT) and TNC
      knockout (TNKO) mice. Tumors in WT mice were significantly larger than those in
      TNKO mice. DNA microarray analysis revealed 447 up and 667 downregulated in the
      tumors inoculated into TNKO mice as compared to tumors in WT mice. Validation by
      quantitative gene expression analysis showed that Tnc, Cxcl1, Cxcl2, and Cxcr2
      were significantly upregulated in WT mice. We hypothesize that TNC stimulates the
      CXCL1/2-CXCR2 pathway involved in cancer cell proliferation.

PMID- 28874092
TI  - Anxiety and Fear of Recurrence Despite a Good Prognosis: An Interview Study with
      Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite a good prognosis, fear of recurrence is prevalent, even
      several years after a diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). For this
      reason, the aim of this study was to make an in-depth exploration of anxiety,
      sources of anxiety, and protective strategies. METHODS: In order to capture a
      broad description of the phenomenon, a purposeful, maximum variation sampling
      strategy regarding age, sex, stage of disease, educational level, and time since
      diagnosis was used. In total, 21 patients were included in the study. Semi
      structured interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with
      a qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Patients with and without recurrences
      narrated a picture indicating anxiety related to their current situation; future
      risks and threats were central to this picture. However, they initially minimized
      or even denied having anxiety, but subsequently described it as a major problem
      at the end of the interviews. Anxiety was related to risk of recurrence and the
      risk of developing other cancers, but also to fears of a future situation where
      no further treatment options were available. Previous experiences of delayed
      investigations added to these fears. In order to cope, patients developed
      protective strategies in order to keep evasive and frightening thoughts away.
      Everyday life, distractions, and focusing on "the small things in life" were
      examples of such strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety is a common, although partially
      hidden, problem in DTC survivors, as they tended to deny it early in the
      dialogues. As anxiety is clearly related to follow-up routines, these should
      therefore be revaluated.

PMID- 28874094
TI  - The Pursuit of Primary Human Goods in Men Desisting From Sexual Offending.
AB  - The good lives model proposes at least 10 primary human goods that are thought to
      be common to all individuals which, when secured, contribute to enhanced well
      being and life satisfaction. Prosocial attainment of primary human goods is
      thought to promote desistance from crime. However, individuals convicted of
      sexual offenses face significant obstacles upon their reentry into the community
      that likely undermine their ability to obtain such goods. The current study
      explored the pursuit and attainment of primary human goods in a U.S. sample of
      men convicted of sexual offenses. We interviewed 42 men released into the
      community to examine the extent to which they desired and pursued primary human
      goods. Results highlighted that participants valued many of the human goods
      outlined in the good lives model, but their means to achieve them were restricted
      considerably by their correctional status. "Interpersonal relationships" and
      "life/survival" emerged most frequently during the interviews and were identified
      as the two most important goods. We discuss the negative impact of recent
      policies on participants' ability to pursue and attain human goods as well as the
      value of attending regular treatment in obtaining the goods of "knowledge" and
      "community." Implications for policy and directions for future research are
      provided.

PMID- 28874095
TI  - Seasonal Rhythms: The Role of Thyrotropin and Thyroid Hormones.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Seasonal changes in various physiological events have been reported
      in humans, including metabolism, immune function, and mood. However, the
      molecular and endocrine basis of these seasonal changes remains unclear. SUMMARY:
      Animals that breed seasonally, such as Japanese quail and the Siberian hamster,
      have sophisticated seasonal mechanisms, and hence they provide excellent
      opportunities to understand the underlying processes. Functional genomic analysis
      in quail uncovered the photoperiodic signal transduction pathway, which regulates
      avian seasonal reproduction: a long-day stimulus induces secretion of thyrotropin
      (TSH) from the pars tuberalis (PT) of the anterior pituitary gland. This PT
      derived TSH locally activates thyroid hormone within the hypothalamus, which in
      turn induces gonadotropin-releasing hormone and then gonadotropin secretion,
      leading to gonadal growth. CONCLUSIONS: Studies using TSH receptor-null mice
      confirmed the involvement of PT-derived TSH in mammalian seasonal reproduction.
      The pars distalis of the anterior pituitary gland is the major source of
      circulating TSH. Although the pars distalis and PT are in close proximity, tissue
      specific glycosylation of circulating TSH alters its function to avoid cross
      talk.

PMID- 28874097
TI  - Analyzing State Autism Private Insurance Mandates for Allied Health Services: A
      Pilot Study.
AB  - Due to the prevalence, severity, and costs associated with autism spectrum
      disorders (ASDs), it has become a public health issue. In response, state
      governments have adopted ASD-specific private insurance mandates requiring
      coverage of ASD screening, diagnosis, and treatment. Despite rapid uptake of
      these laws, differences exist in the type and levels of coverage, especially for
      allied health services including occupational therapy. We piloted a structured
      legal research methodology to code ASD insurance mandates that impact allied
      health service provisions. State private insurance mandates were obtained from
      WestlawNext. A coding methodology was piloted on 14 states and included variables
      for age and service limits, treatments covered, and medical necessity. Coding
      methods were feasible and highly reliable among raters. Ten of 12 states had a
      coverage mandate, many with specific provisions for allied health providers. A
      full analysis of all 50 states is warranted to identify provisions affecting
      allied health providers serving individuals with ASD.

PMID- 28874096
TI  - The Benefits of Bimodal Aiding on Extended Dimensions of Speech Perception:
      Intelligibility, Listening Effort, and Sound Quality.
AB  - The benefits of combining a cochlear implant (CI) and a hearing aid (HA) in
      opposite ears on speech perception were examined in 15 adult unilateral CI
      recipients who regularly use a contralateral HA. A within-subjects design was
      carried out to assess speech intelligibility testing, listening effort ratings,
      and a sound quality questionnaire for the conditions CI alone, CIHA together, and
      HA alone when applicable. The primary outcome of bimodal benefit, defined as the
      difference between CIHA and CI, was statistically significant for speech
      intelligibility in quiet as well as for intelligibility in noise across tested
      spatial conditions. A reduction in effort on top of intelligibility at the
      highest tested signal-to-noise ratio was found. Moreover, the bimodal listening
      situation was rated to sound more voluminous, less tinny, and less unpleasant
      than CI alone. Listening effort and sound quality emerged as feasible and
      relevant measures to demonstrate bimodal benefit across a clinically
      representative range of bimodal users. These extended dimensions of speech
      perception can shed more light on the array of benefits provided by complementing
      a CI with a contralateral HA.

PMID- 28874098
TI  - Personal support and expressions of care for pregnant women in Soweto, South
      Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pregnancy is life changing, making great demands on women to adapt
      physically, psychologically, and socially. Social relationships and the support
      that flow from these provide a critical role in managing health problems in
      pregnancy. Isolation and lack of care, in contrast, may lead women to experience
      increased distress during this time. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore South
      African women's perception and experience of care and support in pregnancy.
      METHODS: A life history approach was employed to explore women's experiences of
      pregnancy and sexual behaviour, with each participant encouraged to narrate
      important life events from her own perspective. We drew on narrative interviews
      with 15 pregnant women, conducted between July and October 2015, in which we
      explored questions regarding pregnancy planning and the provision and receipt of
      care. A thematic approach was employed to code and analyse the data. RESULTS:
      Themes that emerged from the interviews showed that participants gained a sense
      of stability in their lives when they had support in their pregnancy, especially
      when dealing with challenging situations. This support came variously from
      family, friends, and social networks. Overall, those participants who mentioned
      the most support, and its diversity across different groups, reported a better
      experience of pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Women emphasised the importance of social
      and emotional support in pregnancy. Understanding women's experiences can assist
      in making pregnancy less overwhelming, and can add to a woman's ability to deal
      with different challenges before and after the arrival of the new baby.

PMID- 28874099
TI  - The Health Economics of the spinal cord injury or disease among veterans of war:
      A systematic review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Information on health-care utilization and the economic burden of
      disease are essential to understanding service demands, service accessibility,
      and practice patterns. This information may also be used to enhance the quality
      of care through altered resource allocation. Thus, a systematic review of
      literature on the economic impact of caring for SCI/D veterans would be of great
      value. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and critically appraise the literature
      on the economics of the management of veterans with SCI/D. METHODS: Medline,
      EMBASE and PsycINFO databases were searched for articles on economic impact of
      management of SCI/D veterans, published from 1946 to September/2016. The STROBE
      statement was used to determine publication quality. RESULTS: The search
      identified 1,573 publications of which 13 articles fulfilled the
      inclusion/exclusion criteria with 12 articles focused on costs of management of
      SCI/D veterans; and, one cost-effectiveness analysis. Overall, the health care
      costs for the management of SCI/D veterans are substantial ($30,770 to $62,563 in
      2016 USD per year) and, generally, greater than the costs of caring for patients
      with other chronic diseases. The most significant determinants of the higher
      total health-care costs are cervical level injury, complete injury, time period
      (i.e. first year post-injury and end-of-life year), and presence of pressure
      ulcers. CONCLUSIONS: There is growing evidence for the economic burden of SCI/D
      and its determinants among veterans, whereas there is a paucity of comparative
      studies on interventions including cost-effectiveness analyses. Further
      investigations are needed to fulfill significant knowledge gaps on the economics
      of caring for veterans with SCI/D.

PMID- 28874100
TI  - Immunotherapy options for painful bladder syndrome: what's the potential?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis (PBS/IC) is an
      enigmatic disease characterized by lack of evidence-based knowledge and an
      ongoing scientific debate regarding its definition, pathogenesis, diagnostic and
      treatment algorithm. An autoimmune theory for PBS/IC etiology has suggested
      immunotherapy as a potential treatment choice. Areas covered: In this review, the
      authors report existing and future immunotherapeutic options, potentially
      valuable to the management of PBS/IC while evidence for the immunological aspect
      of PBS/IC pathogenesis are also presented. Relevant data reported in human
      clinical studies but also in experimental studies using animal PBS/IC models have
      been reviewed. Expert opinion: Promising data has emerged lately regarding use of
      immunotherapy drugs for PBS/IC treatment. Specifically, human monoclonal
      antibodies inhibiting nerve growth factor and tumor necrosis factor-a have shown
      high efficacy in pain control for PBS/IC. Also, many other agents modulating
      immunopathways linked to PBS symptom etiology and leading to positive treatment
      effects have been reported lately mainly in experimental animal studies.
      Immunotherapy could potentially improve disease-related and patient-reported
      outcome; nevertheless, lack of consensus regarding PBS/IC diagnostic criteria,
      leading to high heterogeneity of patients enrolled in PBS/IC treatment studies,
      and low number of well-designed randomized clinical trials are limitations which
      must be addressed in the future.

PMID- 28874102
TI  - Ertapenem-associated neurotoxicity in the spinal cord injury (SCI) population: A
      case series.
AB  - Context Ertapenem, a broad spectrum carbapenem antibiotic, is used often in
      Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients due to increased risk factors for multi-drug
      resistant (MDR) infections in this population. Neurotoxicity, specifically
      seizures, due to ertapenem is a known adverse effect and has been described
      previously. Other manifestations such as delirium and visual hallucinations have
      rarely been reported, and no literature, to the best of our knowledge,
      specifically describes these effects solely in the SCI population. Findings Four
      cases of mental status changes and hallucinations in SCI patients attributed to
      ertapenem therapy are described. Onset of symptoms began between one and six days
      following initiation of ertapenem and resolved between two to 42 days following
      discontinuation. Based on the Naranjo probability scale, a probable relationship
      exists between the adverse events and ertapenem for three out of the four cases.
      Possible overestimation of renal function and hypoalbuminemia may be contributing
      factors to the noted adverse reactions. Conclusion/Clinical Relevance The cases
      described highlight the importance of recognizing ertapenem-associated
      hallucinations in SCI patients. The population is particularly vulnerable due to
      risk factors for MDR infections necessitating ertapenem use, possible
      overestimation of renal function, and a high prevalence of hypoalbuminemia.

PMID- 28874101
TI  - The Role of Cellular Proliferation in Adipogenic Differentiation of Human Adipose
      Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - Mitotic clonal expansion has been suggested as a prerequisite for adipogenesis in
      murine preadipocytes, but the precise role of cell proliferation during human
      adipogenesis is unclear. Using adipose tissue-derived human mesenchymal stem
      cells as an in vitro cell model for adipogenic study, a group of cell cycle
      regulators, including Cdk1 and CCND1, were found to be downregulated as early as
      24 h after adipogenic initiation and consistently, cell proliferation activity
      was restricted to the first 48 h of adipogenic induction. Cell proliferation was
      either further inhibited using siRNAs targeting cell cycle genes or enhanced by
      supplementing exogenous growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), at
      specific time intervals during adipogenesis. Expression knockdown of Cdk1 at the
      initiation of adipogenic induction resulted in significantly increased
      adipocytes, even though total number of cells was significantly reduced compared
      to siControl-treated cells. bFGF stimulated proliferation throughout adipogenic
      differentiation, but exerted differential effect on adipogenic outcome at
      different phases, promoting adipogenesis during mitotic phase (first 48 h), but
      significantly inhibiting adipogenesis during adipogenic commitment phase (days 3
      6). Our results demonstrate that cellular proliferation is counteractive to
      adipogenic commitment in human adipogenesis. However, cellular proliferation
      stimulation can be beneficial for adipogenesis during the mitotic phase by
      increasing the population of cells capable of committing to adipocytes before
      adipogenic commitment.

PMID- 28874103
TI  - Neuroendocrine Regulation of Food Intake in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.
AB  - Several peripheral and central signals are involved in the sophisticated
      regulation of food intake. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are prone
      to consume a diet higher in saturated fat and foods with high glycemic index and
      show impaired appetite regulation and measures of satiety. As a consequence,
      obesity, mostly of the central type, is prevalent in the syndrome and worsens the
      endocrine and metabolic profile of the affected patients. This review article
      briefly analyzes the current knowledge about the neuroendocrine mechanisms
      underlying the interplay between feeding behavior, obesity, and reproductive
      abnormalities in PCOS.

PMID- 28874104
TI  - Ovarian Stimulation in Patients With Cancer: Impact of Letrozole and BRCA
      Mutations on Fertility Preservation Cycle Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aromatase inhibitors (AI) have been introduced to reduce estrogen
      exposure in women with estrogen-sensitive cancer undergoing ovarian stimulation
      for oocyte/embryo cryopreservation. There have been questions regarding whether
      the addition of AI and the presence of BRCA mutations affect cycle outcomes. We
      sought to determine the impact of letrozole and BRCA mutations on fertility
      preservation (FP) cycle outcomes of patients undergoing ovarian stimulation with
      an antagonist protocol. METHODS: The data were generated by the secondary
      analysis of a prospective database of all females diagnosed with cancer who
      underwent embryo or oocyte cryopreservation for FP. The final analysis included
      145 patients stimulated with an antagonist protocol either using letrozole
      combined with recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (rFSH; LF, n = 118) or
      rFSH alone (FA, n = 24). RESULTS: The mean number of total (15.6 [7.9] vs 10.2
      [7.8]; P = .004) and mature oocytes (10.4 [5.1] vs 7.8 [3.5]; P = .044) and
      embryos frozen (7.7 [5.3] vs 5.3 [2.7]; P = .043) were significantly higher after
      LF stimulation versus FA. In the LF group, women with BRCA mutations produced
      significantly fewer oocytes (11.0 [8.0] vs 16.4 [7.7], P = .015) and embryos (5.1
      [4.4] vs 8.2 [4.7], P = .013), compared to those who were mutation negative.
      After adjusting for age, body mass index, baseline FSH level, and BRCA status, LF
      protocol still resulted in higher number of total oocytes (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 1.9 to 3.6; P = .002) mature oocyte (95% CI: 0.3 to 1.4; P =
      .028), and embryo yield (95% CI: 0.7 to 1.4; P = .015). CONCLUSION: In women with
      cancer undergoing FP, letrozole appears to enhance response to ovarian
      stimulation while the presence of BRCA mutations is associated with lower oocyte
      and embryo yield.

PMID- 28874105
TI  - 18F-Fluorocholine Uptake and Positron Emission Tomography Imaging in Rat
      Peritoneal Endometriosis.
AB  - Endometriosis is a debilitating disease that still needs surgery to be confirmed.
      Endometriosis is associated with increased plasma levels of phosphatidylcholines.
      18F-fluorocholine ([18F]FCH) is a radiopharmaceutical that is metabolized to
      phosphatidylcholine inside the cells and can be traced by positron emission
      tomography (PET). Here we evaluate [18F]FCH as a potential tool for the
      noninvasive diagnosis of peritoneal endometriosis. Adult female Wistar rats had
      autologous uterine fragments dissected and grafted to the peritoneal wall to
      model peritoneal endometriosis. Ex vivo biodistribution assay and PET imaging
      studies were performed 30 minutes after [18F]FCH administration. The [18F]FCH
      uptake was 3-fold higher in endometriotic implant tissues than in muscle or
      peritoneum. Positron emission tomography imaging revealed the grafted uterine
      tissue in contrast to surrounding structures. Region-of-interest analysis of the
      reconstructed images showed higher accumulation of [18F]FCH by endometriotic
      lesions, 0.34 (0.04)% of injected dose per gram of tissue (ID/g), in comparison
      with muscle tissue, 0.08 (0.01)% ID/g. However, sham implants with fat tissue
      were also detectable in PET imaging. These preliminary findings of [18F]FCH
      uptake by ectopic uterine tissue implants and their localization by PET imaging
      encourage the future evaluation of this technique to detect small superficial
      endometriosis lesions in humans. Study protocols need to be further perfected and
      adapted for tests in women with endometriosis.

PMID- 28874106
TI  - An Opportunity View of Child Sexual Offending: Investigating Nonpersuasion and
      Circumstances of Offending Through Criminological Lens.
AB  - The empirical evidence indicating that sexual offenders against children
      manipulate their victims to participate in sexual activities dominates the
      literature on sex offenders and their modus operandi. However, recent evidence
      suggests that a high proportion of these offenders do not try to persuade their
      victims for sexual contact in the first place by using coercion or manipulation
      but simply assault them when an opportunity arises. Using self-reported data from
      a sample of incarcerated adult sexual offenders against children, we investigate
      whether sexual offenses against children committed by the use of nonpersuasion
      are characterized by little planning and by offense features that are indicative
      of opportunistic offending. We also examine the interaction between the type of
      offending strategy and the context of abuse. Findings reveal that offenders using
      nonpersuasion do not seek out potential victims, but rather seize an opportunity
      to offend. The type of offending strategy also interacts with the context of
      abuse for most preoffense and offense variables. These interactions are
      informative of the conditions favoring opportunistic sex offending against
      children.

PMID- 28874107
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28874108
TI  - Psychometrics and statistics: two pillars of neuropsychological practice.

PMID- 28874110
TI  - "I Know Correlation Doesn't Prove Causation, but . . .": Are We Jumping to
      Unfounded Conclusions About the Causes of Sexual Offending?
AB  - Identifying causes of sexual offending is the foundation of effective and
      efficient assessment, intervention, and policy aimed at reducing sexual
      offending. However, studies vary in methodological rigor and the inferences they
      support, and there are differences of opinion about the conclusions that can be
      drawn from ambiguous evidence. To explore how researchers in this area interpret
      the available empirical evidence, we asked authors of articles published in
      relevant specialized journals to identify (a) an important factor that may lead
      to sexual offending, (b) a study providing evidence of a relationship between
      that factor and sexual offending, and (c) the inferences supported by that study.
      Many participants seemed to endorse causal interpretations and conclusions that
      went beyond the methodological rigor of the study they identified. Our findings
      suggest that some researchers may not be adequately considering methodological
      issues when making inferences about the causes of sexual offending. Although it
      is difficult to conduct research in this area and all research designs can
      provide valuable information, sensitivity to the limits methodology places on
      inferences is important for the sake of accuracy and integrity, and to stimulate
      more informative research. We propose that increasing attention to methodology in
      the research community through better training and standards will advance
      scientific knowledge about the causes of sexual offending, and improve the
      effectiveness and efficiency of practice and policy.

PMID- 28874109
TI  - Prospects and Frontiers of Stem Cell Toxicology.
AB  - The development of stem cell biology has revolutionized regenerative medicine and
      its clinical applications. Another aspect through which stem cells would benefit
      human health is their use in toxicology. In fact, owing to their ability to
      differentiate into all the lineages of the human body, including germ cells, stem
      cells, and, in particular, pluripotent stem cells, can be utilized for the
      assessment, in vitro, of embryonic, developmental, reproductive, organ, and
      functional toxicities, relevant to human physiology, without employing live
      animal tests and with the possibility of high throughput applications. Thus, stem
      cell toxicology would tremendously assist in the toxicological evaluation of the
      increasing number of synthetic chemicals that we are exposed to, of which
      toxicity information is limited. In this review, we introduce stem cell
      toxicology, as an emerging branch of in vitro toxicology, which offers quick and
      efficient alternatives to traditional toxicology assessments. We first discuss
      the development of stem cell toxicology, and we then emphasize its advantages and
      highlight the achievements of human pluripotent stem cell-based toxicity
      research.

PMID- 28874111
TI  - The Fall in Older Adults: Physical and Cognitive Problems.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aging of posture and balance function alters the quality of life
      in older people and causes serious problems in terms of public health and socio
      economic costs for our modern societies. METHOD: This article reviews the various
      causes of imbalance and dizziness in the elderly, and considers how to prevent
      falls, and how to rehabilitate a faller subject in order to regain a good quality
      of life. Two effective ways of intervention are discussed, emphasizing the
      crucial role of physical activity and cognitive stimulation, classic or using the
      latest technical advances in virtual reality and video games. RESULTS: Fall in
      the elderly result from aging mechanisms acting on both the sensorimotor and
      cognitive spheres. The structural and functional integrity of the peripheral
      sensory receptors and the musculoskeletal system deteriorate with age. The brain
      ages and the executive functions, memory, learning, cortical processing of
      information, sharing of attentional resources and concentration, are modified in
      the elderly. Psychological affective factors such as depression, anxiety and
      stress contribute also to speed up the sensorimotor and cognitive decline. The
      rehabilitation of the postural balance in the elderly must take into account all
      of these components. CONCLUSION: The aging of the population and the increased of
      lifespan are a challenge for our modern societies regarding the major health and
      socio-economic questions they raise. The fall in the elderly being one of the
      dramatic consequences of the aging equilibration function, it is therefore
      imperative to develop rehabilitation procedures of balance.

PMID- 28874113
TI  - Editorial:Impacts of Computational Biology to Medicinal Chemistry.

PMID- 28874114
TI  - Dual transcriptome of the immediate neutrophil and Candida albicans interplay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neutrophils are traditionally considered transcriptionally inactive.
      Compared to other immune cells, little is known about their transcriptional
      profile during interaction with pathogens. METHODS: We analyzed the meta
      transcriptome of the neutrophil-Candida albicans interplay and the transcriptome
      of C. albicans challenged with neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) by RNA-Seq,
      considering yeast and hypha individually in each approach. RESULTS: The
      neutrophil response to C. albicans yeast and hyphae was dominated by a morphotype
      independent core response. However, 11 % of all differentially expressed genes
      were regulated in a specific manner when neutrophils encountered the hyphal form
      of C. albicans. While involving genes for transcriptional regulators, receptors,
      and cytokines, the neutrophil core response lacked typical antimicrobial
      effectors genes. Genes of the NOD-like receptor pathway, including NLRP3, were
      enriched. Neutrophil- and NET-provoked responses in C. albicans differed. At the
      same time, the Candida transcriptome upon neutrophil encounter and upon NET
      challenge included genes from various metabolic processes and indicate a mutual
      role of the regulators Tup1p, Efg1p, Hap43p, and Cap1p. Upon challenge with
      neutrophils and NETs, the overall Candida response was partially morphotype
      specific. Yet again, actual oppositional regulation in yeasts and hyphae was only
      detected for the arginine metabolism in neutrophil-infecting C. albicans.
      CONCLUSIONS:  Taken together, our study provides a comprehensive and quantitative
      transcript profile of the neutrophil-C. albicans interaction. By considering the
      two major appearances of both, neutrophils and C. albicans, our study reveals yet
      undescribed insights into this medically relevant encounter. Hence, our findings
      will facilitate future research and potentially inspire novel therapy
      developments.

PMID- 28874115
TI  - Genome-wide analysis and expression profiling of zinc finger homeodomain (ZHD)
      family genes reveal likely roles in organ development and stress responses in
      tomato.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Zinc finger homeodomain proteins (ZHD) constitute a plant-specific
      transcription factor family with a conserved DNA binding homeodomain and a zinc
      finger motif. Members of the ZHD protein family play important roles in plant
      growth, development, and stress responses. Genome-wide characterization of ZHD
      genes has been carried out in several model plants, including Arabidopsis
      thaliana and Oryza sativa, but not yet in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). RESULTS:
      In this study, we performed the first comprehensive genome-wide characterization
      and expression profiling of the ZHD gene family in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).
      We identified 22 SlZHD genes and classified them into six subfamilies based on
      phylogeny. The SlZHD genes were generally conserved in each subfamily, with minor
      variations in gene structure and motif distribution. The 22 SlZHD genes were
      distributed on six of the 12 tomato chromosomes, with segmental duplication
      detected in four genes. Analysis of Ka/Ks ratios revealed that the duplicated
      genes are under negative or purifying selection. Comprehensive expression
      analysis revealed that the SlZHD genes are widely expressed in various tissues,
      with most genes preferentially expressed in flower buds compared to other
      tissues. Moreover, many of the genes are responsive to abiotic stress and
      phytohormone treatment. CONCLUSION: Systematic analysis revealed structural
      diversity among tomato ZHD proteins, which indicates the possibility for diverse
      roles of SlZHD genes in different developmental stages as well as in response to
      abiotic stresses. Our expression analysis of SlZHD genes in various
      tissues/organs and under various abiotic stress and phytohormone treatments sheds
      light on their functional divergence. Our findings represent a valuable resource
      for further analysis to explore the biological functions of tomato ZHD genes.

PMID- 28874116
TI  - Patterns of host gene expression associated with harboring a foregut microbial
      community.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Harboring foregut microbial communities is considered a key
      innovation that allows herbivorous mammals to colonize new ecological niches.
      However, the functions of these chambers have only been well studied at the
      molecular level in ruminants. Here, we investigate gene expression in the foregut
      chamber of herbivorous rodents and ask whether these gene expression patterns are
      consistent with results in ruminants. We compared gene expression in foregut
      tissues of two rodent species: Stephen's woodrat (Neotoma stephensi), which
      harbors a dense foregut microbial community, and the lab rat (Rattus norvegicus),
      which lacks such a community. RESULTS: We found that woodrats have higher
      abundances of transcripts associated with smooth muscle processes, specifically a
      higher expression of the smoothelin-like 1 gene, which may assist in contractile
      properties of this tissue to retain food material in the foregut chamber. The
      expression of genes associated with keratinization and cornification exhibited a
      complex pattern of differences between the two species, suggesting distinct
      molecular mechanisms. Lab rats exhibited higher abundances of transcripts
      associated with immune function, likely to inhibit microbial growth in the
      foregut of this species. CONCLUSIONS: Some of our results were consistent with
      previous findings in ruminants (high expression of facilitative glucose
      transporters, lower expression of B4galnt2), suggestive of possible convergent
      evolution, while other results were unclear, and perhaps represent novel host
      microbe interactions in rodents. Overall, our results suggest that harboring a
      foregut microbiota is associated with changes to the functions and host-microbe
      interactions of the foregut tissues.

PMID- 28874117
TI  - BUFET: boosting the unbiased miRNA functional enrichment analysis using bitsets.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A group of miRNAs can regulate a biological process by targeting
      genes involved in the process. The unbiased miRNA functional enrichment analysis
      is the most precise in silico approach to predict the biological processes that
      may be regulated by a given miRNA group. However, it is computationally intensive
      and significantly more expensive than its alternatives. RESULTS: We introduce
      BUFET, a new approach to significantly reduce the time required for the execution
      of the unbiased miRNA functional enrichment analysis. It derives its strength
      from the utilization of efficient bitset-based methods and parallel computation
      techniques. CONCLUSIONS: BUFET outperforms the state-of-the-art implementation,
      in regard to computational efficiency, in all scenarios (both single- and multi
      core), being, in some cases, more than one order of magnitude faster.

PMID- 28874118
TI  - A miRNA catalogue and ncRNA annotation of the short-living fish Nothobranchius
      furzeri.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The short-lived fish Nothobranchius furzeri is the shortest-lived
      vertebrate that can be cultured in captivity and was recently established as a
      model organism for aging research. Small non-coding RNAs, especially miRNAs, are
      implicated in age dependent control of gene expression. RESULTS: Here, we present
      a comprehensive catalogue of miRNAs and several other non-coding RNA classes
      (ncRNAs) for Nothobranchius furzeri. Analyzing multiple small RNA-Seq libraries,
      we show most of these identified miRNAs are expressed in at least one of seven
      Nothobranchius species. Additionally, duplication and clustering of N. furzeri
      miRNAs was analyzed and compared to the four fish species Danio rerio, Oryzias
      latipes, Gasterosteus aculeatus and Takifugu rubripes. A peculiar characteristic
      of N. furzeri, as compared to other teleosts, was a duplication of the miR-29
      cluster. CONCLUSION: The completeness of the catalogue we provide is comparable
      to that of the zebrafish. This catalogue represents a basis to investigate the
      role of miRNAs in aging and development in this species.

PMID- 28874119
TI  - Automated segmentation of cerebral deep gray matter from MRI scans: effect of
      field strength on sensitivity and reliability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The cerebral subcortical deep gray matter nuclei (DGM) are a common,
      early, and clinically-relevant site of atrophy in multiple sclerosis (MS). Robust
      and reliable DGM segmentation could prove useful to evaluate putative
      neuroprotective MS therapies. The objective of the study was to compare the
      sensitivity and reliability of DGM volumes obtained from 1.5T vs. 3T MRI.
      METHODS: Fourteen patients with MS [age (mean, range) 50.2 (32.0-60.8) years,
      disease duration 18.4 (8.2-35.5) years, Expanded Disability Status Scale score
      3.1 (0-6), median 3.0] and 15 normal controls (NC) underwent brain 3D T1-weighted
      paired scan-rescans at 1.5T and 3T. DGM (caudate, thalamus, globus pallidus, and
      putamen) segmentation was obtained by the fully automated FSL-FIRST pipeline.
      Both raw and normalized volumes were derived. RESULTS: DGM volumes were generally
      higher at 3T vs. 1.5T in both groups. For raw volumes, 3T showed slightly better
      sensitivity (thalamus: p = 0.02; caudate: p = 0.10; putamen: p = 0.02; globus
      pallidus: p = 0.0004; total DGM: p = 0.01) than 1.5T (thalamus: p = 0.05;
      caudate: p = 0.09; putamen: p = 0.03; globus pallidus: p = 0.0006; total DGM: p =
      0.02) for detecting DGM atrophy in MS vs. NC. For normalized volumes, 3T but not
      1.5T detected atrophy in the globus pallidus in the MS group. Across all
      subjects, scan-rescan reliability was generally very high for both platforms,
      showing slightly higher reliability for some DGM volumes at 3T. Raw volumes
      showed higher reliability than normalized volumes. Raw DGM volume showed higher
      reliability than the individual structures. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest
      somewhat higher sensitivity and reliability of DGM volumes obtained from 3T vs.
      1.5T MRI. Further studies should assess the role of this 3T pipeline in tracking
      potential MS neurotherapeutic effects.

PMID- 28874120
TI  - The association between smoking and breast cancer characteristics and outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Smoking is associated with an increased incidence of hormone receptor
      positive breast cancer. Data regarding worse breast cancer outcome in smokers are
      accumulating. Current literature regarding the impact of smoking on breast cancer
      characteristics is limited. We evaluated the impact of smoking on breast cancer
      characteristics and outcome. METHODS: This was a retrospective single center
      study. All women diagnosed from 4/2005 through 3/2012 and treated in our
      institute for early, estrogen receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor
      receptor 2 (HER2) negative breast cancer, whose tumors were sent for Oncotype DX
      analysis were included. Medical records were reviewed for demographics, clinico
      pathological parameters, treatment and outcome. Data regarding smoking were
      retrieved according to patients' history at the first visit in the oncology
      clinic. Patients were grouped and compared according to smoking history (ever
      smokers vs. never smokers), smoking status (current vs. former and never smokers)
      and smoking intensity (pack years >=30 vs. the rest of the cohort). Outcomes were
      adjusted in multivariate analyses and included age, menopausal status, ethnicity,
      tumor size, nodal status and grade. RESULTS: A total of 662 women were included.
      28.2% had a history of smoking, 16.6% were current smokers and 11.3% were heavy
      smokers. Smoking had no impact on tumor size, nodal involvement and Oncotype DX
      recurrence score. Angiolymphatic and perineural invasion rates were higher in
      current smokers than in the rest of the cohort (10.4% vs. 5.1%, p = 0.045, 8.3%
      vs. 3.5%, p = 0.031, respectively). Smoking had no other impact on histological
      characteristics. Five-year disease free survival and overall survival rates were
      95.7% and 98.5%, respectively. Smoking had no impact on outcomes. Adjusted
      disease free survival and overall survival did not influence the results.
      CONCLUSIONS: Smoking had no clinically significant influence on tumor
      characteristics and outcome among women with estrogen receptor positive, HER2
      negative, early breast cancer. As the study was limited to a specific subgroup of
      the breast cancer population in this heterogeneous disease and since smoking is a
      modifiable risk factor for the disease, further research is required to clarify
      the possible impact of smoking on breast cancer.

PMID- 28874121
TI  - Characterization of the role of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) involved in long vase
      life of different carnation cultivars.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) has been previously shown to extend the
      vase life of various cut flowers; however, its positive effect on extending vase
      life of carnations has not been well documented. Moreover, the role of SNP in the
      mechanisms underlying determination of vase life of cut carnations has also not
      been well addressed. RESULTS: SNP increased vase life of Tico Viola carnations
      along with their relative fresh weight (RFW). Among the treatments, the flowers
      treated with 10 mg L-1 SNP had the longest vase life and maximum relative fresh
      weight (RFW). This was achieved through significant suppression of ethylene
      production via downregulation of ethylene biosynthesis and petal senescence
      related genes, and through an increase in the scavenging mechanism of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) by antioxidant activity during flower vase life. In
      addition, the positive efficacy of SNP could also be confirmed using 1
      aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) and different cultivars, resulting in
      similar trends for both experiments. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results
      suggest that SNP plays a crucial role in multiple modes of action that are
      associated with the longevity of cut carnation flowers.

PMID- 28874122
TI  - Doxycycline treatment in dialysis related amyloidosis: discrepancy between
      antalgic effect and inflammation, studied with FDG-positron emission tomography:
      a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No effective treatment is currently available and dialysis related
      amyloidosis continues to be invalidating in long-term dialysis patients. A recent
      case series reported reduction of osteoarticular pain on doxycycline treatment,
      extending the indications of this drug, used in other uncommon forms of
      amyloidosis, to dialysis patients. Explanations of the antalgic effect were the
      anti-inflammatory properties and anti-coiling effects of tetracycline. CASE
      PRESENTATION: Our report regards a 54-year-old woman, who was never transplanted
      and has been on hemodialysis and hemodiafiltration for overall 37 years, due to
      renal hypoplasia. In spite of high efficiency hemodiafiltration, she complained
      of increasing, invalidating osteoarticular pain; history and imaging suggested
      beta-2 microglobulin amyloid. Positron emission tomography (PET scan) identified
      metabolically active lesions in the involved settings. Low-dose doxycycline (100
      mg/day) was started, leading to a considerable decrease in pain (over 6 months,
      from 7 to 8 to 4-5 on a 0-10 scale). At 6 months, a PET scan showed unmodified or
      increased uptake in the involved settings. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the
      previously described antalgic effect of doxycycline in dialysis related
      amyloidosis is confirmed in our case, the first studied using PET scan. The
      pattern at PET can suggests that the antalgic effect is independent from
      inflammation and points to other factors, such as interaction with fibril
      geometry or with bone structure.

PMID- 28874123
TI  - Impact of multi-professional, scenario-based training on postpartum hemorrhage in
      Tanzania: a quasi-experimental, pre- vs. post-intervention study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tanzania has a relatively high maternal mortality ratio of 410 per
      100,000 live births. Severe postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of
      maternal deaths, but in most cases, it is preventable. However, most pregnant
      women that develop PPH, have no known risk factors. Therefore, preventive
      measures must be offered to all pregnant women. This study investigated the
      effects of multi-professional, scenario-based training on the prevention and
      management of PPH at a Tanzanian zonal consultant hospital. We hypothesized that
      scenario-based training could contribute to improved competence on PPH
      management, which would result in improved team efficiency and patient outcome.
      METHODS: This quasi-experimental, pre-vs. post-interventional study involved on
      site multi-professional, scenario-based PPH training, conducted in a two-week
      period in October 2013 and another 2 weeks in November 2014. Training teams
      included nurses, midwives, doctors, and medical attendants in the Department of
      Obstetrics and Gynecology. After technical skill training on the birthing
      simulator MamaNatalie(r), the teams practiced in realistic scenarios on PPH. Each
      scenario was followed by debriefing and repeated scenario. Afterwards, the group
      swapped roles and the observers became the participants. To evaluate the effects
      of training, we measured patient outcomes by determining blood transfusion rates.
      Patient data were collected by randomly sampling Medical birth registry files
      from the pre-training and post-training study periods (n = 1667 and 1641 files,
      respectively). Data were analyzed with the Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U-test,
      and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: The random patient samples (n = 3308)
      showed that, compared to pre-training, post-training patients had a 47% drop in
      whole blood transfusion rates and significant increases in cesarean section
      rates, birth weights, and vacuum deliveries. The logistic regression analysis
      showed that transfusion rates were significantly associated with the time period
      (pre- vs. post-training), cesarean section, patients tranferred from other
      hospitals, maternal age, and female genital mutilation and cutting. CONCLUSIONS:
      We found that multi-professional, scenario-based training was associated with a
      significant, 47% reduction in whole blood transfusion rates. These results
      suggested that training that included all levels of maternity staff, repeated
      sessions with realistic scenarios, and debriefing may have contributed to reduced
      blood transfusion rates in this high-risk maternity setting.

PMID- 28874124
TI  - Telephone counselling by nurses in Norwegian primary care out-of-hours services:
      a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The primary care out-of-hours (OOH) services in Norway are
      characterized by high contact rates by telephone. The telephone contacts are
      handled by local emergency medical communication centres (LEMCs), mainly staffed
      by registered nurses. When assessment by a medical doctor is not required, the
      nurse often handles the contact solely by nurse telephone counselling. Little is
      known about this group of contacts. Thus, the aim of this study was to
      investigate characteristics of encounters with the OOH services that are handled
      solely by nurse telephone counselling. METHODS: Nurses recorded ICPC-2 reason for
      encounter (RFE) codes and patient characteristics of all patients who contacted
      six primary care OOH services in Norway during 2014. Descriptive statistics and
      frequency analyses were applied. RESULTS: Of all telephone contacts (n = 61,441),
      23% were handled solely by nurse counselling. Fever was the RFE most frequently
      handled (7.3% of all nurse advice), followed by abdominal pain, cough, ear pain
      and general symptoms. Among the youngest patients, 32% of the total telephone
      contacts were resolved by nurse advice compared with 17% in the oldest age group.
      At night, 31% of the total telephone contacts were resolved solely by nurse
      advice compared with 21% during the day shift and 23% in the evening. The share
      of nurse advice was higher on weekdays compared to weekends (mean share 25%
      versus 20% respectively). CONCLUSION: This study shows that nurses make a
      significant contribution to patient management in the Norwegian OOH services. The
      findings indicate which conditions nurses should be able to handle by telephone,
      which has implications for training and routines in the LEMCs. There is the
      potential for more nurse involvement in several of the RFEs with a currently low
      share of nurse counselling.

PMID- 28874125
TI  - Prognostic consequences of implementing cancer patient pathways in Denmark: a
      comparative cohort study of symptomatic cancer patients in primary care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer Patient Pathways (CPPs) were introduced in 2000-2015 in
      several European countries, including Denmark, to reduce the time to diagnosis
      and treatment initiation and ultimately improve patient survival. Yet, the
      prognostic consequences of implementing CPPs remain unknown for symptomatic
      cancer patients diagnosed through primary care. We aimed to compare survival and
      mortality among symptomatic patients diagnosed through a primary care route
      before, during and after the CPP implementation in Denmark. METHODS: Based on
      data from the Danish Cancer in Primary Care (CaP) Cohort, we compared one- and
      three-year standardised relative survival (RS) and excess hazard ratios (EHRs)
      before, during and after CPP implementation for seven types of cancer and all
      combined (n = 7725) by using life-table estimation and Poisson regression. RS
      estimates were standardised according to the International Cancer Survival
      Standard (ICSS) weights. In addition, we compared RS and EHRs for CPP and non-CPP
      referred patients to consider potential issues of confounding by indication.
      RESULTS: In total, 7725 cases were analysed: 1202 before, 4187 during and 2336
      after CPP implementation. For all cancers combined, the RS3years rose from 45%
      (95% confidence interval (CI): 42;47) before to 54% (95% CI: 52;56) after CPP
      implementation. The excess mortality was higher before than after CPP
      implementation (EHR3years before vs. after CPP = 1.35 (95% CI: 1.21;1.51)). When
      comparing CPP against non-CPP referred patients, we found no statistically
      significant differences in RS, but we found lower excess mortality among the CPP
      referred (EHR1year CPP vs. non-CPP = 0.86 (95% CI: 0.73;1.01)). CONCLUSION: We
      found higher relative survival and lower mortality among symptomatic cancer
      patients diagnosed through primary care after the implementation of CPPs in
      Denmark. The observed changes in cancer prognosis could be the intended
      consequences of finding and treating cancer at an early stage, but they may also
      reflect lead-time bias and selection bias. The finding of a lower excess
      mortality among CPP referred compared to non-CPP referred patients indicates that
      CPPs may have improved the cancer prognosis independently.

PMID- 28874127
TI  - The values of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and/or prostate-specific antigen in
      discriminating real Gleason score >= 7 prostate cancer from group of biopsy-based
      Gleason score <= 6.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The discrepant concordance between biopsy and radical prostatectomy
      (RP) specimen are well reported. To validate the clinical usefulness of
      neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in discriminating real GS >= 7 PCa from biopsy
      based GS <= 6 PCa in comparison with serum total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA)
      and value of their combination. METHODS: One hundred one patients who underwent
      physical examinations incidentally found elevated tPSA and subsequently received
      biopsy with a conclusion of GS <= 6 and RP with an interval of 4-6 weeks after
      biopsy were enrolled. NLR and tPSA were obtained within 15 days prior to biopsy.
      Logistic regression model was applied appropriately; McNemar tests and AUC model
      were performed to evaluate differences among tPSA, NLR and their combination and
      corresponding diagnostic power respectively. RESULTS: The pathological results
      from RP specimen comprised 61 patients with GS <= 6 and 100 patients with GS >=
      7. Higher tPSA and NLR were significantly associated with patients with actual GS
      >= 7 (All P < 0.05) concurrently. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that
      tPSA (OR = 1.088, 95% C.I. = 1.029-1.151, P = 0.003) and NLR (OR = 1.807, 95%
      C.I. = 1.021-3.200, P = 0.042) could be independent predictors for GS groupings.
      Under cutoff value of 14.09 ng/ml for tPSA and 2.25 for NLR, the sensitivity,
      specificity and accuracy were 60.0%, 80.3% and 67.7% for tPSA, 42%, 88.5% and
      59.6% for NLR, and 71.0%, 75.4% and 72.7% for combination of tPSA and NLR (tPSA +
      NLR) respectively. The sensitivity of tPSA + NLR was significantly higher in
      comparison with tPSA (P = 0.001) and NLR (P < 0.001). Except for sensitivity, no
      significant difference was found between tPSA and NLR in specificity (P = 0.227)
      and accuracy (P = 0.132). tPSA got the largest AUC with 0.732 (p < 0.001, 95%
      C.I.: 0.651-0.813). CONCLUSIONS: Serum tPSA and NLR were significantly elevated
      among GS >= 7 PCa concurrently. The combination of tPSA and NLR might have
      additional benefit to biopsy on discriminating real GS >= 7 Pca from biopsy-based
      GS <= 6 PCa. More stratification models and prospectively multicenter studies are
      necessary.

PMID- 28874126
TI  - Development and external validation of nomograms to predict the risk of skeletal
      metastasis at the time of diagnosis and skeletal metastasis-free survival in
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The skeletal system is the most common site of distant metastasis in
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC); various prognostic factors have been reported for
      skeletal metastasis, though most studies have focused on a single factor. We
      aimed to establish nomograms to effectively predict skeletal metastasis at
      initial diagnosis (SMAD) and skeletal metastasis-free survival (SMFS) in NPC.
      METHODS: A total of 2685 patients with NPC who received bone scintigraphy (BS)
      and/or 18F-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG
      PET/CT) and 2496 patients without skeletal metastasis were retrospectively
      assessed to develop individual nomograms for SMAD and SMFS. The models were
      validated externally using separate cohorts of 1329 and 1231 patients treated at
      two other institutions. RESULTS: Five independent prognostic factors were
      included in each nomogram. The SMAD nomogram had a significantly higher c-index
      than the TNM staging system (training cohort, P = 0.005; validation cohort, P <
      0.001). The SMFS nomogram had significantly higher c-index values in the training
      and validation sets than the TNM staging system (P < 0.001 and P = 0.005,
      respectively). Three proposed risk stratification groups were created using the
      nomograms, and enabled significant discrimination of SMFS for each risk group.
      CONCLUSION: The prognostic nomograms established in this study enable accurate
      stratification of distinct risk groups for skeletal metastasis, which may improve
      counseling and facilitate individualized management of patients with NPC.

PMID- 28874128
TI  - Relationship of genetic causes and inhibin B in non obstructive azoospermia
      spermatogenic failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chromosomal disorders in non obstructive azoospermia (NOA) may have
      an important influence on spermatogenesis, which may be reflected by the serum
      inhibin B levels. Till now, few studies have concerned the relationship of
      genetic causes and inhibin B in NOA. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 322
      men with NOA in Center for Reproductive Medicine, Nanfang Hospital, Southern
      Medical University were collected. The level of follicle stimulating hormone
      (FSH), inhibin B, Y chromosome microdeletion test (YCMD) and karyotype were
      measured. RESULTS: Abnormal karyotypes were present in 38.5% of NOA, and YCMD
      were present in 18.0%, there was a high correlation between karyotypes and YCMD
      (chi2 = 11.892, P < 0.001). The level of inhibin B in chromosomal abnormality
      from lowest to highest was 46,XX (or 45,X), 47, XXY, mosaics, polymorphisms,
      inversion and translocation. And the level of inhibin B within Non-AZF a&b region
      deletion was higher than AZF a&b microdeletion. CONCLUSION: According to the
      level of inhibin B, spermatogenesis in chromosomal abnormality from lowest to
      highest was 46,XX (or 45,X), 47, XXY, mosaics, polymorphisms, inversion and
      translocation. And spermatogenesis within Non-AZF a&b region deletion was better
      than AZF a&b microdeletion.

PMID- 28874129
TI  - Comparative effectiveness of rivaroxaban versus warfarin or dabigatran for the
      treatment of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rivaroxaban is an oral anticoagulant approved in the US for
      prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial
      fibrillation (NVAF). We determined the effectiveness and associated risks of
      rivaroxaban versus other oral anticoagulants in a large real-world population.
      METHODS: We selected NVAF patients initiating oral anticoagulant use in 2010-2014
      enrolled in MarketScan databases. Rivaroxaban users were matched with warfarin
      and dabigatran users by age, sex, enrolment date, anticoagulant initiation date,
      and high-dimensional propensity score. Study endpoints, including ischemic
      stroke, intracranial bleeding (ICB), myocardial infarction (MI), and
      gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, were identified from inpatient diagnostic codes.
      Multivariable Cox models were used to assess associations between type of
      anticoagulant and outcomes. RESULTS: The analysis included 44,340 rivaroxaban
      users matched to 89,400 warfarin and 16,957 dabigatran users (38% female, mean
      age 70) with 12 months of mean follow-up. Anticoagulant-naive rivaroxaban
      initiators, but not those switching from warfarin, had lower risk of ischemic
      stroke [hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval (CI)): 0.75 (0.62, 0.91)] and
      ICB [HR (95%CI): 0.55, (0.39, 0.78)] than warfarin users. In contrast,
      anticoagulant-experienced rivaroxaban initiators had higher risk of GI bleeding
      than warfarin users [HR (95%CI): 1.55 (1.32, 1.83)]. Endpoint rates were similar
      when comparing anticoagulant-naive rivaroxaban and dabigatran initiators, with
      the exception of higher GI bleeding risk in rivaroxaban users [HR (95%CI) 1.28
      (1.06, 1.54)]. There were no significant differences in the risk of MI among the
      comparison groups. CONCLUSION: In this large real-world sample of NVAF patients,
      effectiveness and risks of rivaroxaban versus warfarin differed by prior
      anticoagulant status, while effectiveness of rivaroxaban versus dabigatran
      differed in GI bleeding risk.

PMID- 28874131
TI  - A chronic hemodialysis patient with isolated pulmonary valve infective
      endocarditis caused by non-albicans Candida: a rare case and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Isolated pulmonary valve infective endocarditis caused by Candida is
      rare in chronic hemodialysis patients. The 2009 Infectious Diseases Society of
      America guidelines suggest the combined use of surgery and antibiotics to treat
      candidiasis; however, successful nonsurgical treatment of Candida endocarditis
      has been reported. CASE PRESENTATION: A 63-year-old woman with end-stage kidney
      disease was admitted to our hospital after experiencing disorientation for 5
      days. The patient was permanently bedridden because of depression, and denied
      active intravenous drug use. She received maintenance hemodialysis through a
      tunneled-cuffed catheter. An initial blood culture grew Candida guilliermondii
      without other bacteria. Subsequent blood cultures and tip culture of tunneled
      cuffed catheter also grew C. guilliermondii, even after caspofungin replaced
      fluconazole. A 1.2-cm mobile mass was observed on the pulmonary valve. Surgical
      intervention was suggested, but the family of the patient declined because of her
      multiple comorbidities. The patient was discharged with a prescription of
      fluconazole, but she died soon after. CONCLUSION: Our patient is the first case
      with isolated pulmonary valve endocarditis caused by C. guilliermondii in
      patients with uremia. Hematologic disorders, in addition to long-term central
      venous catheter use, prolonged antibiotic intravenous injection, and congenital
      cardiac anomaly, predispose to the condition. The diagnosis "isolated" pulmonary
      IE is difficult, and combing surgery with antifungal antibiotics is the
      appropriate therapeutic management for Candida related pulmonary IE.

PMID- 28874130
TI  - A survey of the clinicopathological and molecular characteristics of patients
      with suspected Lynch syndrome in Latin America.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genetic counselling and testing for Lynch syndrome (LS) have recently
      been introduced in several Latin America countries. We aimed to characterize the
      clinical, molecular and mismatch repair (MMR) variants spectrum of patients with
      suspected LS in Latin America. METHODS: Eleven LS hereditary cancer registries
      and 34 published LS databases were used to identify unrelated families that
      fulfilled the Amsterdam II (AMSII) criteria and/or the Bethesda guidelines or
      suggestive of a dominant colorectal (CRC) inheritance syndrome. RESULTS: We
      performed a thorough investigation of 15 countries and identified 6 countries
      where germline genetic testing for LS is available and 3 countries where tumor
      testing is used in the LS diagnosis. The spectrum of pathogenic MMR variants
      included MLH1 up to 54%, MSH2 up to 43%, MSH6 up to 10%, PMS2 up to 3% and EPCAM
      up to 0.8%. The Latin America MMR spectrum is broad with a total of 220 different
      variants which 80% were private and 20% were recurrent. Frequent regions included
      exons 11 of MLH1 (15%), exon 3 and 7 of MSH2 (17 and 15%, respectively), exon 4
      of MSH6 (65%), exons 11 and 13 of PMS2 (31% and 23%, respectively). Sixteen
      international founder variants in MLH1, MSH2 and MSH6 were identified and 41
      (19%) variants have not previously been reported, thus representing novel genetic
      variants in the MMR genes. The AMSII criteria was the most used clinical criteria
      to identify pathogenic MMR carriers although microsatellite instability,
      immunohistochemistry and family history are still the primary methods in several
      countries where no genetic testing for LS is available yet. CONCLUSION: The Latin
      America LS pathogenic MMR variants spectrum included new variants, frequently
      altered genetic regions and potential founder effects, emphasizing the relevance
      implementing Lynch syndrome genetic testing and counseling in all of Latin
      America countries.

PMID- 28874132
TI  - Bone turnover markers are associated with bone density, but not with fracture in
      end stage kidney disease: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fracture risk is increased in chronic kidney disease (CKD), but
      assessment of bone fragility remains controversial in these patients. This study
      investigated the associations between bone turnover markers, bone mineral density
      (BMD), and prevalent fragility fracture in a cohort of kidney transplantation
      candidates. METHODS: Volumetric BMD of spine and hip was measured by quantitative
      computed tomography. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), bone-specific alkaline
      phosphatase, procollagen type-1 N-terminal propeptide, tartrate resistant
      alkaline phosphatase, and C- and N-terminal telopeptides of type 1 collagen were
      analyzed from fasting morning blood samples. Fragility fractures included
      prevalent vertebral fractures and previous low-trauma clinical fractures.
      RESULTS: The fracture prevalence was 18% in 157 adult kidney transplant
      candidates. Fractured patients had reduced BMD and Z-score at both spine and hip.
      Levels of bone turnover markers were significantly higher in patients on
      maintenance dialysis than in pre-dialysis patients; but did not differ between
      patients with and without fracture. There were strong, positive correlations
      between PTH and all bone turnover markers. PTH was negatively associated with Z
      score at lumbar spine and total hip; in contrast, bone turnover markers were only
      negatively associated with total hip Z-score. CONCLUSIONS: Bone turnover markers
      were negatively associated with bone density, but not associated with prevalent
      fracture in kidney transplantation candidates. The role of bone turnover markers
      in assessing bone fragility in CKD will require further investigation. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with identifier
      NCT01344434 .

PMID- 28874133
TI  - Sildenafil dosed concomitantly with bosentan for adult pulmonary arterial
      hypertension in a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few controlled clinical trials exist to support oral combination
      therapy in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). METHODS: Patients with PAH
      (idiopathic [IPAH] or associated with connective tissue disease [APAH-CTD])
      taking bosentan (62.5 or 125 mg twice daily at a stable dose for >=3 months) were
      randomized (1:1) to sildenafil (20 mg, 3 times daily; n = 50) or placebo (n =
      53). The primary endpoint was change from baseline in 6-min walk distance (6MWD)
      at week 12, assessed using analysis of covariance. Patients could continue in a
      52-week extension study. An analysis of covariance main-effects model was used,
      which included categorical terms for treatment, baseline 6MWD (<325 m; >=325 m),
      and baseline aetiology; sensitivity analyses were subsequently performed.
      RESULTS: In sildenafil versus placebo arms, week-12 6MWD increases were similar
      (least squares mean difference [sildenafil-placebo], -2.4 m [90% CI: -21.8 to
      17.1 m]; P = 0.6); mean +/- SD changes from baseline were 26.4 +/- 45.7 versus
      11.8 +/- 57.4 m, respectively, in IPAH (65% of population) and -18.3 +/- 82.0
      versus 17.5 +/- 59.1 m in APAH-CTD (35% of population). One-year survival was
      96%; patients maintained modest 6MWD improvements. Changes in WHO functional
      class and Borg dyspnoea score and incidence of clinical worsening did not differ.
      Headache, diarrhoea, and flushing were more common with sildenafil. CONCLUSIONS:
      Sildenafil, in addition to stable (>=3 months) bosentan therapy, had no benefit
      over placebo for 12-week change from baseline in 6MWD. The influence of PAH
      aetiology warrants future study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov
      NCT00323297 (registration date: May 5, 2006).

PMID- 28874134
TI  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis modifies progenitor neural proliferation in adult
      classic neurogenic brain niches.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adult neurogenesis persists through life at least in classic
      neurogenic niches. Neurogenesis has been previously described as reduced in
      neurodegenerative diseases. There is not much knowledge about is adult
      neurogenesis is or not modified in amyotrophy lateral sclerosis (ALS). All
      previous publications has studied the ALS SOD1 (superoxide dismutase) transgenic
      mouse model. The purpose of this study is to examine the process of adult
      neurogenesis in classic niches (subventricular zone [SVZ] and subgranular zone
      [SGZ] of the dentate gyrus) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
      both with (ALS-FTD) and without associated frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
      METHODS: We studied 9 autopsies of patients with ALS (including 2 with ALS-FTD)
      and 4 controls. ALS was confirmed histologically. Studies of the SVZ and SGZ were
      conducted using markers of proliferation (Ki-67, PCNA), of pluripotent neural
      progenitor cells (GFAPdelta), neuroblasts (PSA-NCAM, DCX, TUJ1), and an astrocyte
      marker (GFAP). Results were analyzed with non-parametric tests. We then studied
      correlations between the different markers and the percentage of phosphorylated
      TDP-43 (pTDP-43). RESULTS: We observed a statistically significant increase in
      proliferation in the SVZ in all patients with ALS. While this increase was more
      marked in ALS forms associated with dementia, the small sample size does not
      permit a statistical subgroup analysis. In contrast, proliferation in the SGZ was
      decreased in all patients. These alterations showed a positive and direct
      correlation with the percentage of pTDP-43 in the SVZ, and a negative,
      exponential correlation with that percentage in the SGZ. CONCLUSIONS: We observed
      alterations of the proliferation of neural progenitor in classic adult neurogenic
      niches in patients with ALS. The 2 neurogenic niches exhibited opposite changes
      such that proliferation increased in the SVZ and decreased in the SGZ.

PMID- 28874135
TI  - Cytotoxicity of replication-competent adenoviruses powered by an exogenous
      regulatory region is not linearly correlated with the viral infectivity/gene
      expression or with the E1A-activating ability but is associated with the p53
      genotypes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Replication-competent adenoviruses (Ad) produced cytotoxic effects on
      infected tumors and have been examined for the clinical applicability. A
      biomarkers to predict the cytotoxicity is valuable in a clinical setting.
      METHODS: We constructed type 5 Ad (Ad5) of which the expression of E1A gene was
      activated by a 5' regulatory sequences of survivin, midkine or cyclooxygenase-2,
      which were highly expressed in human tumors. We also produced the same
      replication-competent Ad of which the fiber-knob region was replaced by that of
      Ad35 (AdF35). The cytotoxicity was examined by a colorimetric assay with human
      tumor cell lines, 4 kinds of pancreatic, 9 esophageal carcinoma and 5
      mesothelioma. Ad infectivity and Ad-mediated gene expression were examined with
      replication-incompetent Ad5 and AdF35 which expressed the green fluorescence
      protein gene. Expression of cellular receptors for Ad5 and AdF35 was also
      examined with flow cytometry. A transcriptional activity of the regulatory
      sequences was investigated with a luciferase assay in the tumor cells. We then
      investigated a possible correlation between Ad-mediated cytotoxicity and the
      infectivity/gene expression, the transcriptional activity or the p53 genotype.
      RESULTS: We found that the cytotoxicity was greater with AdF35 than with Ad5
      vectors, but was not correlated with the Ad infectivity/gene expression
      irrespective of the fiber-knob region or the E1A-activating transcriptional
      activity. In contrast, replication-competent Ad produced greater cytotoxicity in
      p53 mutated than in wild-type esophageal carcinoma cells, suggesting a possible
      association between the cytotoxicity and the p53 genotype. CONCLUSIONS:
      Sensitivity to Ad-mediated cytotoxic activity was linked with the p53 genotype
      but was not lineally correlated with the infectivity/gene expression or the E1A
      expression.

PMID- 28874136
TI  - HiMMe: using genetic patterns as a proxy for genome assembly reliability
      assessment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The information content of genomes plays a crucial role in the
      existence and proper development of living organisms. Thus, tremendous effort has
      been dedicated to developing DNA sequencing technologies that provide a better
      understanding of the underlying mechanisms of cellular processes. Advances in the
      development of sequencing technology have made it possible to sequence genomes in
      a relatively fast and inexpensive way. However, as with any measurement
      technology, there is noise involved and this needs to be addressed to reach
      conclusions based on the resulting data. In addition, there are multiple
      intermediate steps and degrees of freedom when constructing genome assemblies
      that lead to ambiguous and inconsistent results among assemblers. METHODS: Here
      we introduce HiMMe, an HMM-based tool that relies on genetic patterns to score
      genome assemblies. Through a Markov chain, the model is able to detect
      characteristic genetic patterns, while, by introducing emission probabilities,
      the noise involved in the process is taken into account. Prior knowledge can be
      used by training the model to fit a given organism or sequencing technology.
      RESULTS: Our results show that the method presented is able to recognize patterns
      even with relatively small k-mer size choices and limited computational
      resources. CONCLUSIONS: Our methodology provides an individual quality metric per
      contig in addition to an overall genome assembly score, with a time complexity
      well below that of an aligner. Ultimately, HiMMe provides meaningful statistical
      insights that can be leveraged by researchers to better select contigs and genome
      assemblies for downstream analysis.

PMID- 28874137
TI  - Mitochondrial genomes of blister beetles (Coleoptera, Meloidae) and two large
      intergenic spacers in Hycleus genera.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insect mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) exhibit high diversity in
      some lineages. The gene rearrangement and large intergenic spacer (IGS) have been
      reported in several Coleopteran species, although very little is known about
      mitogenomes of Meloidae. RESULTS: We determined complete or nearly complete
      mitogenomes of seven meloid species. The circular genomes encode 13 protein
      coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), and
      contain a control region, with gene arrangement identical to the ancestral type
      for insects. The evolutionary rates of all PCGs indicate that their evolution is
      based on purifying selection. The comparison of tRNA secondary structures
      indicates diverse substitution patterns in Meloidae. Remarkably, all mitogenomes
      of the three studied Hycleus species contain two large intergenic spacers (IGSs).
      IGS1 is located between trnW and trnC, including a 9 bp consensus motif. IGS2 is
      located between trnS2 (UCN) and nad1, containing discontinuous repeats of a
      pentanucleotide motif and two 18-bp repeat units in both ends. To date, IGS2 is
      found only in genera Hycleus across all published Coleopteran mitogenomes. The
      duplication/random loss model and slipped-strand mispairing are proposed as
      evolutionary mechanisms for the two IGSs (IGS1, IGS2). The phylogenetic analyses
      using MrBayes, RAxML, and PhyloBayes methods based on nucleotide and amino acid
      datasets of 13 PCGs from all published mitogenomes of Tenebrionoids, consistently
      recover the monophylies of Meloidae and Tenebrionidae. Within Meloidae, the genus
      Lytta clusters with Epicauta rather than with Mylabris. Although data collected
      thus far could not resolve the phylogenetic relationships within Meloidae, this
      study will assist in future mapping of the Meloidae phylogeny. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study presents mitogenomes of seven meloid beetles. New mitogenomes retain the
      genomic architecture of the Coleopteran ancestor, but contain two IGSs in the
      three studied Hycleus species. Comparative analyses of two IGSs suggest that
      their evolutionary mechanisms are duplication/random loss model and slipped
      strand mispairing.

PMID- 28874139
TI  - The association of falls with loneliness and social exclusion: evidence from the
      DEAS German Ageing Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It remains an open question whether falls are related with social
      relations, covering subjective (e.g., perceived loneliness) and more objective
      dimensions (e.g., number of important individuals in regular contact).
      Consequently, we aimed at examining the association between falls and social ties
      comprehensively, including loneliness, social exclusion and the number of
      important people in regular contact. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were used from
      a population-based sample of community-dwelling individuals aged 40 and over (n =
      7808) in Germany. Self-rated loneliness was quantified using a short version of
      the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Perceived social exclusion was measured
      using a scale developed by Bude and Lantermann. Furthermore and in contrast to
      the subjective outcome measures, the more objective number of important people in
      regular contact was also used as outcome variable. The experience of a fall in
      the preceding 12 months (yes; no) was assessed. RESULTS: Controlling for various
      possible confounding variables, linear regressions showed that experiencing a
      fall in the past 12 months was associated with higher social exclusion (beta =
      .08, p < .001), and increased loneliness (beta = .08, p < .001), whereas it was
      not associated with the number of important people in regular contact.
      CONCLUSIONS: Findings stress the relation between falls and feelings of
      loneliness and social exclusion, whereas falls were unrelated to the more
      objective measure of number of important people in regular contact, suggesting
      that falls are particularly related to subjective measures of social ties and
      relations. This underlines the importance of interventions to prevent falls.
      Preventing falls in turn might help to prevent loneliness and social exclusion.

PMID- 28874138
TI  - ERp29 controls invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma by inhibition of
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition via PI3K/Aktsignaling pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) accounts for the fourth most occurring malignancy
      and the third major cause of cancer death. Identifying novel molecular signaling
      pathways participating in gastric tumorigenesis and progression is pivotal for
      rational design of targeted therapies to improve advanced GC outcome. Recently,
      the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein 29 (ERp29) has been shown to inversely
      associate with primary tumor development and function as a tumor suppressor in
      breast cancer. However, the role of ERp29 in GC patients' prognosis and its
      function in GC progression is unknown. METHODS: Clinical importance of ERp29 in
      the prognosis of GC patients was assessed by examining its expression in 148 GC
      tumor samples and correlation with clinicopathological characteristics and
      survival of the patients. The function and underlying mechanisms of ERp29 in GC
      growth, invasion and metastasis were explored both in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS:
      Downregulation of ERp29 was commonly found in GC tissues and highly correlated
      with more aggressive phenotypes and poorer prognosis. Functional assays
      demonstrated that knockdown of ERp29 increased GC cell migration and invasion and
      promoted metastasis. Conversely, ectopic overexpression of ERp29 produced
      opposite effects. Mechanistic studies revealed that loss of ERp29 induced an
      epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the GC cells through activation of
      PI3K/Akt pathway signaling. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that
      downregulation of ERp29 is probably one of the key molecular mechanisms
      responsible for the development and progression of GC.

PMID- 28874140
TI  - The impact of frailty on healthcare utilisation in Ireland: evidence from the
      Irish longitudinal study on ageing.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To examine the impact of frailty on medical and social care
      utilisation among the Irish community-dwelling older population to inform
      strategies of integrated care for older people with complex needs. METHODS:
      Participants aged >=65 years from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)
      representative of the Irish community-dwelling older population were analysed (n
      = 3507). The frailty index was used to examine patterns of utilisation across
      medical and social care services. Multivariate logistic and negative binomial
      regression models were employed to examine the impact of frailty on service
      utilisation outcomes after controlling for other factors. RESULTS: The prevalence
      of frailty and pre-frailty was 24% (95% CI: 23, 26%) and 45% (95% CI: 43, 47%)
      respectively. Frailty was a significant predictor of utilisation of most social
      care and medical care services after controlling for the main correlates of
      frailty and observed individual effects. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty predicts
      utilisation of many different types of healthcare services rendering it a useful
      risk stratification tool for targeting strategies of integrated care. The pattern
      of care is predominantly medical as few of the frail older population use social
      care prompting questions about sub-groups of the frail older population with
      unmet care needs.

PMID- 28874141
TI  - Stress alters the expression of cancer-related genes in the prostate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is a major contributor to mortality worldwide, and
      significant efforts are being undertaken to decipher specific cellular and
      molecular pathways underlying the disease. Chronic stress is known to suppress
      reproductive function and promote tumor progression in several cancer models, but
      our understanding of the mechanisms through which stress contributes to cancer
      development and progression is incomplete. We therefore examined the relationship
      between stress, modulation of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system,
      and changes in the expression of cancer-related genes in the rat prostate.
      METHODS: Adult male rats were acutely or repeatedly exposed to restraint stress,
      and compared to unstressed controls and groups that were allowed 14 days of
      recovery from the stress. Prostate tissue was collected and frozen for gene
      expression analyses by PCR array before the rats were transcardially perfused;
      and brain tissues harvested and immunohistochemically stained for Fos to
      determine neuronal activation. RESULTS: Acute stress elevated Fos expression in
      the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH), an effect that habituated
      with repeated stress exposure. Data from the PCR arrays showed that repeated
      stress significantly increases the transcript levels of several genes associated
      with cellular proliferation, including proto-oncogenes. Data from another array
      platform showed that both acute and repeated stress can induce significant
      changes in metastatic gene expression. The functional diversity of genes with
      altered expression, which includes transcription factors, growth factor
      receptors, apoptotic genes, and extracellular matrix components, suggests that
      stress is able to induce aberrant changes in pathways that are deregulated in
      prostate cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings further support the notion that stress
      can affect cancer outcomes, perhaps by interfering with neuroendocrine mechanisms
      involved in the control of reproduction.

PMID- 28874142
TI  - Risk factors for increased immune reconstitution in response to Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis antigens in tuberculosis HIV-infected, antiretroviral-naive
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known regarding the restoration of the specific immune
      response after combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) and anti-tuberculosis (TB)
      therapy introduction among TB-HIV patients. In this study, we examined the immune
      response of TB-HIV patients to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens to
      evaluate the response dynamics to different antigens over time. Moreover, we also
      evaluated the influence of two different doses of efavirenz and the factors
      associated with immune reconstitution. METHODS: This is a longitudinal study
      nested in a clinical trial, where cART was initiated during the baseline visit
      (D0), which occurred 30 +/- 10 days after the introduction of anti-TB therapy.
      Follow-up visits were performed at 30, 60, 90 and 180 days after cART initiation.
      The production of IFN-gamma upon in vitro stimulation with Mtb antigens purified
      protein derivative (PPD), ESAT-6 and 38 kDa/CFP-10 using ELISpot was examined at
      baseline and follow-up visits. RESULTS: Sixty-one patients, all ART-naive, were
      selected and included in the immune reconstitution analysis; seven (11.5%)
      developed Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (IRIS). The Mtb specific
      immune response was higher for the PPD antigen followed by 38 kDa/CFP-10 and
      increased in the first 60 days after cART initiation. In multivariate analysis,
      the variables independently associated with increased IFN-gamma production in
      response to PPD antigen were CD4+ T cell counts <200 cells/mm3 at baseline, age,
      site of tuberculosis, 800 mg efavirenz dose and follow-up CD4+ T cell counts.
      Moreover, the factors associated with the production of IFN-gamma in response to
      38 kDa/CFP-10 were detectable HIV viral load (VL) and CD4+ T cell counts at
      follow-up visits of >=200 cells/mm3. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the
      differences in immune response according to the specificity of the Mtb antigen,
      which contributes to a better understanding of TB-HIV immunopathogenesis. IFN
      gamma production elicited by PPD and 38 kDa/CFP-10 antigens have a greater
      magnitude compared to ESAT-6 and are associated with different factors. The low
      response to ESAT-6, even during immune restoration, suggests that this antigen is
      not adequate to assess the immune response of immunosuppressed TB-HIV patients.

PMID- 28874143
TI  - CHEK2 c.1100delC mutation is associated with an increased risk for male breast
      cancer in Finnish patient population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several susceptibility genes have been established for female breast
      cancer, of which mutations in BRCA1 and especially in BRCA2 are also known risk
      factors for male breast cancer (MBC). The role of other breast cancer genes in
      MBC is less well understood. METHODS: In this study, we have genotyped 68 MBC
      patients for the known breast or ovarian cancer associated mutations in the
      Finnish population in CHEK2, PALB2, RAD51C, RAD51D, and FANCM genes. RESULTS:
      CHEK2 c.1100delC mutation was found in 4 patients (5.9%), which is significantly
      more frequent than in the control population (OR: 4.47, 95% CI 1.51-13.18, p =
      0.019). Four CHEK2 I157T variants were also detected, but the frequency did not
      significantly differ from population controls (p = 0.781). No RAD51C, RAD51D,
      PALB2, or FANCM mutations were found. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the
      CHEK2 c.1100delC mutation is associated with an increased risk for MBC in the
      Finnish population.

PMID- 28874144
TI  - Circadian disruption promotes tumor growth by anabolic host metabolism;
      experimental evidence in a rat model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Light at night creates a conflicting signal to the biological clock
      and disrupts circadian physiology. In rodents, light at night increases the risk
      to develop mood disorders, overweight, disrupted energy metabolism, immune
      dysfunction and cancer. We hypothesized that constant light (LL) in rats may
      facilitate tumor growth via disrupted metabolism and increased inflammatory
      response in the host, inducing a propitious microenvironment for tumor cells.
      METHODS: Male Wistar rats were exposed to LL or a regular light-dark cycle (LD)
      for 5 weeks. Body weight gain, food consumption, triglycerides and glucose blood
      levels were evaluated; a glucose tolerance test was also performed. Inflammation
      and sickness behavior were evaluated after the administration of intravenous
      lipopolysaccharide. Tumors were induced by subcutaneous inoculation of glioma
      cells (C6). In tumor-bearing rats, the metabolic state and immune cells
      infiltration to the tumor was investigated by using immunohistochemistry and flow
      cytometry. The mRNA expression of genes involved metabolic, growth, angiogenes
      and inflammatory pathways was measured in the tumor microenvironment by qPCR.
      Tumor growth was also evaluated in animals fed with a high sugar diet. RESULTS:
      We found that LL induced overweight, high plasma triglycerides and glucose levels
      as well as reduced glucose clearance. In response to an LPS challenge, LL rats
      responded with higher pro-inflammatory cytokines and exacerbated sickness
      behavior. Tumor cell inoculation resulted in increased tumor volume in LL as
      compared with LD rats, associated with high blood glucose levels and decreased
      triglycerides levels in the host. More macrophages were recruited in the LL tumor
      and the microenvironment was characterized by upregulation of genes involved in
      lipogenesis (Acaca, Fasn, and Ppargamma), glucose uptake (Glut-1), and tumor
      growth (Vegfalpha, Myc, Ir) suggesting that LL tumors rely on these processes in
      order to support their enhanced growth. Genes related with the inflammatory state
      in the tumor microenvironment were not different between LL and LD conditions. In
      rats fed a high caloric diet tumor growth was similar to LL conditions.
      CONCLUSIONS: Data indicates that circadian disruption by LL provides a favorable
      condition for tumor growth by promoting an anabolic metabolism in the host.

PMID- 28874145
TI  - Propensity score analysis of lung cancer risk in a population with high
      prevalence of non-smoking related lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer-related mortality
      worldwide among both men and women in recent years. There is an increase in the
      incidence of nonsmoking-related lung cancer in recent years. The purpose of the
      present study was to investigate multiple potential risk factors for nonsmoking
      related lung cancer among Asian Ethnic Groups. METHODS: We used a propensity
      score-mated cohort analysis for this study. We retrospectively review the medical
      record of 1975 asymptomatic healthy subjects (40 ~ 80 years old) who voluntarily
      underwent low-dose chest CT from August 2013 to October 2014. Clinical
      information and nodule characteristics were recorded. RESULTS: A propensity score
      mated cohort analysis was applied to adjust for potential bias and to create two
      comparable groups according to family history of lung cancer. For our primary
      analysis, we matched 392 pairs of subjects with family history of lung cancer and
      subjects without history. Logistic regression showed that female gender and a
      family history of lung cancer were the two most important predictor of lung
      cancer in the endemic area with high prevalence of nonsmoking-related lung cancer
      (OR = 11.199, 95% CI = 1.444-86.862; OR = 2.831, 95% CI = 1.000136-8.015). In
      addition, the number of nodules was higher in subjects with family history of
      lung cancer in comparison with subjects without family history of lung cancer (OR
      = 1.309, 95% CI = 1.066-1.607). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, risk-based prediction
      model based on the family history of lung cancer and female gender can
      potentially improve efficiency of lung cancer screening programs in Taiwan.

PMID- 28874146
TI  - Effect of short-term heart rate variability biofeedback on long-term abstinence
      in alcohol dependent patients - a one-year follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A randomized controlled study (RCT) recently showed that short-term
      heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback in addition to standard rehabilitation
      care for alcohol dependence can reduce craving, anxiety and improve
      cardiovascular autonomic function. In this one-year follow-up study we aimed to
      explore whether completion of 2-week HRV-Biofeedback training is associated with
      long-term abstinence. Furthermore, we sought to identify potential predictors of
      post-treatment abstinence. METHODS: We conducted a survey on abstinence in
      patients with alcohol dependence 1 year after completion of an RCT comparing HRV
      biofeedback in addition to inpatient rehabilitation treatment alone (controls).
      Abstinence rates were compared and analysed for association with demographic data
      as well as psychometric and autonomic cardiac assessment before and after
      completion of the biofeedback training using bivariate and multivariate
      regression analyses. RESULTS: Out of 48 patients who participated in the RCT, 27
      patients (9 females, ages 42.9 +/- 8.6, mean +/- SD) completed our one-year
      follow-up. When including in the analysis only patients who completed follow-up,
      the rate of abstinence tended to be higher in patients who underwent HRV
      biofeedback 1 year earlier compared to those who received rehabilitative
      treatment alone (66.7% vs 50%, p = ns). This non-significant trend was also
      observed in the intention-to-treat analysis where patients who did not
      participate in the follow-up were assumed to have relapsed (46,7% biofeedback vs.
      33.3% controls, p = ns). Neither cardiac autonomic function nor psychometric
      variables were associated with abstinence 1 year after HRV-biofeedback.
      CONCLUSION: Our follow-up study provide a first indication of possible increase
      in long-term abstinence after HRV-biofeedback for alcohol dependence in addition
      to rehabilitation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The original randomized controlled trial
      was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register ( DRKS00004618 ). This one
      year follow-up survey has not been registered.

PMID- 28874147
TI  - Assessing the activity of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhibition of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) in tumor cells can
      suppress tumor growth through expressing new antigens whose mRNAs otherwise are
      degraded by NMD. Thus NMD inhibition is a promising approach for developing
      cancer therapies. Apparently, the success of this approach relies on the basal
      NMD activity in cancer cells. If NMD is already strongly inhibited in tumors, the
      approach would not work. Therefore, it is crucial to assess NMD activity in
      cancers to forecast the efficacy of NMD-inhibition based therapy. METHODS: Here
      we develop three metrics using RNA-seq data to measure NMD activity, and apply
      them to a dataset consisting of 72 lung cancer (adenocarcinoma) patients.
      RESULTS: We show that these metrics have good correlations, and that the NMD
      activities in adenocarcinoma samples vary among patients: some cancerous samples
      show significantly stronger NMD activities than the normal tissues while some
      others show the opposite pattern. The variation of NMD activities among these
      samples may be partly explained by the varying expression of NMD effectors.
      CONCLUSIONS: In sum, NMD activity varies among lung cancerous samples, which
      forecasts varying efficacies of NMD-inhibition based therapy. The developed
      metrics can be further used in other cancer types to assess NMD activity.

PMID- 28874148
TI  - Evaluating a Dutch cardiology primary care plus intervention on the Triple Aim
      outcomes: study design of a practice-based quantitative and qualitative research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In an attempt to deal with the pressures on the health-care system
      and to guarantee sustainability, changes are needed. This study focuses on a
      cardiology primary care plus intervention. Primary care plus (PC+) is a new
      health-care delivery model focused on substitution of specialist care in the
      hospital setting with specialist care in the primary care setting. The
      intervention consists of a cardiology PC+ centre in which cardiologists,
      supported by other health-care professionals, provide consultations in a primary
      care setting. The PC+ centre aims to improve the health of the population and
      quality of care as experienced by patients, and reduce the number of referrals to
      hospital-based outpatient specialist care in order to reduce health-care costs.
      These aims reflect the Triple Aim principle. Hence, the objectives of the study
      are to evaluate the cardiology PC+ centre in terms of the Triple Aim outcomes and
      to evaluate the process of the introduction of PC+. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is
      a practice-based, quantitative study with a longitudinal observational design,
      and an additional qualitative study to supplement, interpret and improve the
      quantitative study. The study population of the quantitative part will consist of
      adult patients (>=18 years) with non-acute and low-complexity cardiology-related
      health complaints, who will be referred to the cardiology PC+ centre
      (intervention group) or hospital-based outpatient cardiology care (control
      group). All eligible patients will be asked to complete questionnaires at three
      different time points consisting of questions about their demographics, health
      status and experience of care. Additionally, quantitative data will be collected
      about health-care utilization and related health-care costs at the PC+ centre and
      the hospital. The qualitative part, consisting of semi-structured interviews,
      focus groups, and observations, is designed to evaluate the process as well as to
      amplify, clarify and explain quantitative results. CONCLUSIONS: This study will
      evaluate a cardiology PC+ centre using quantitative and supplementary qualitative
      methods. The findings of both sub-studies will fill a gap in knowledge about the
      effects of PC+ and in particular whether PC+ is able to pursue the Triple Aim
      outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NTR6629 (Data registered: 25-08-2017) (registered
      retrospectively).

PMID- 28874149
TI  - Comparison of computed tomography and high-field (3.0 T) magnetic resonance
      imaging of age-related variances in selected equine maxillary cheek teeth and
      adjacent tissues.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Modern imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) and
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have the advantage of producing images without
      superimposition. Whilst CT is a well-established technique for dental
      diagnostics, MRI examinations are rarely used for the evaluation of dental
      diseases in horses. Regarding equine endodontic therapies which are increasingly
      implemented, MRI could help to portray changes of the periodontal ligament and
      display gross pulpar anatomy. Knowledge of age-related changes is essential for
      diagnosis, as cheek teeth and surrounding structures alter with increasing age.
      The aim of the present study was to highlight the advantages of CT and MRI
      regarding age-related changes in selected equine cheek teeth and their adjacent
      structures. RESULTS: The CT and MRI appearances of the maxillary 08 s and 09 s
      and adjacent structures were described by evaluation of post-mortem examinations
      of nine horses of different ages (Group A: <6 years, B: 6-15 years, C: >=16
      years). Most of the tissues selected were imaged accurately with MRI and CT.
      Magnetic resonance imaging gives an excellent depiction of soft endo- and
      periodontal units, and CT of hard dental and bony tissues. Negative correlation
      between dental age and pulpar sizes was found: 71.3% of the changes in pulp
      dimensions can be explained by teeth aging. Pulpar sizes ranged from 14.3 to 1.3
      mm and were significantly smaller in older horses (p < 0.05). A common pulp
      chamber was present in 33% of the teeth with a mean dental age of 2.25 years.
      Ninety-four percent of the 08 and 09 alveoli of all groups were in direct contact
      with the maxillary sinus. An age-related regression was found (R2 = 0.88) for the
      distance between alveoli and the infraorbital canal. CONCLUSIONS: The present
      study provides information about the dental and periodontal age-related
      morphology and its visibility using different imaging techniques. These results
      aid in evaluating diagnostic images and in deciding which is the superior imaging
      modality for clinical cases.

PMID- 28874150
TI  - What are families most grateful for after receiving palliative care? Content
      analysis of written documents received: a chance to improve the quality of care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Family members are involved in the care of palliative patients at
      home and therefore, should be viewed as important sources of information to help
      clinicians better understand the quality palliative care service patients
      receive. The objective of the study was to analyse what is valued most by family
      carers undergoing bereavement of a palliative care home service in order to
      identify factors of quality of care. METHODS: Qualitative exploratory study based
      on documentary analysis. Content analysis of 77 gratitude documents received over
      8 years by a palliative home service in Odivelas, near Lisbon (Portugal) was
      undertaken, through an inductive approach and using investigator triangulation.
      Frequency of distinct categories was quantitatively defined. RESULTS: Three
      different content categories emerged from the analysis: a) Recognition of the
      care received and the value of particular aspects of care within recognised
      difficult situations included aspects such as kindness, listening, attention to
      the family, empathy, closeness, affection and the therapeutic relationships
      established (63/77 documents); b) Family recognition of the achievements of the
      palliative care team (29/77) indicated as relief from suffering for the patient
      and family, opportunity of dying at home, help in facing difficult situations,
      improvement in quality of life and wellbeing, and feeling of serenity during
      bereavement; c) Messages of support (45/77) related to the need of resources
      provided. The relational component emerges as an underlying key aspect of family
      carers' experience with palliative care home service. CONCLUSION: Family carers
      show spontaneous gratitude for the professionalism and humanity found in
      palliative care. The relational component of care emerges as key to achieve a
      high quality care experience of palliative care homes service, and could be one
      indicator of quality of palliative care.

PMID- 28874151
TI  - Effects of Mollugo pentaphylla extract on monosodium urate crystal-induced gouty
      arthritis in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gout is an inflammatory condition induced by the deposition of
      monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in joints and soft tissues, and it can lead to
      acute or chronic arthritis. MSU are pro-inflammatory stimuli that can initiate,
      amplify and sustain an intense inflammatory response. In this study, we evaluated
      the anti-inflammatory effect of an extract of Mollugo pentaphylla (MPE) on MSU
      induced gouty arthritis in a mouse model. METHOD: An MSU crystal suspension (4
      mg/50 MUL) was injected intradermally into the right paw. The mice were orally
      administered MPE (150 mg/kg or 300 mg/kg) or the positive control drug colchicine
      (1 mg/kg) 1 h before the MSU crystals were injected and then once daily for 3
      days. The effects of MPE included inflammatory paw edema and pain upon weight
      bearing activity, and we evaluated the inflammatory cytokine expression and paw
      tissue inflammation-related gene expression. RESULTS: MPE suppressed inflammatory
      paw edema and pain in the MSU-induced mice. MPE showed anti-inflammatory activity
      by inhibiting the production of TNF-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1beta, NLRP3
      inflammasome and NF-kappaB. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that MPE has potent
      anti-inflammatory activities and may be useful as a therapeutic agent against
      gouty arthritis.

PMID- 28874152
TI  - A descriptive qualitative examination of knowledge translation practice among
      health researchers in Manitoba, Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The importance of effective translation of health research findings
      into action has been well recognized, but there is evidence to suggest that the
      practice of knowledge translation (KT) among health researchers is still
      evolving. Compared to research user stakeholders, researchers (knowledge
      producers) have been under-studied in this context. The goals of this study were
      to understand the experiences of health researchers in practicing KT in Manitoba,
      Canada, and identify their support needs to sustain and increase their
      participation in KT. METHODS: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were
      conducted with 26 researchers studying in biomedical; clinical; health systems
      and services; and social, cultural, environmental and population health research.
      Interview questions were open-ended and probed participants' understanding of KT,
      their experiences in practicing KT, barriers and facilitators to practicing KT,
      and their needs for KT practice support. RESULTS: KT was broadly conceptualized
      across participants. Participants described a range of KT practice experiences,
      most of which related to dissemination. Participants also expressed a number of
      negative emotions associated with the practice of KT. Many individual,
      logistical, and systemic or organizational barriers to practicing KT were
      identified, which included a lack of institutional support for KT in both
      academic and non-academic systems. Participants described the presence of good
      relationships with stakeholders as a critical facilitator for practicing KT. The
      most commonly identified needs for supporting KT practice were access to
      education and training, and access to resources to increase awareness and
      promotion of KT. While there were few major variations in response trends across
      most areas of health research, the responses of biomedical researchers suggested
      a unique KT context, reflected by distinct conceptualizations of KT (such as
      commercialization as a core component), experiences (including frustration and
      lack of support), and barriers to practicing KT (for example, intellectual
      property concerns). CONCLUSIONS: The major findings of this study were the
      continued variations in conceptualization of KT, and persisting support needs
      that span basic individual to comprehensive systemic change. Expanding the study
      to additional regions of Canada will present opportunities to compare and
      contrast the state of KT practice and its influencing factors.

PMID- 28874153
TI  - Thioester-containing proteins regulate the Toll pathway and play a role in
      Drosophila defence against microbial pathogens and parasitoid wasps.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Members of the thioester-containing protein (TEP) family contribute
      to host defence in both insects and mammals. However, their role in the immune
      response of Drosophila is elusive. In this study, we address the role of TEPs in
      Drosophila immunity by generating a mutant fly line, referred to as TEPq Delta ,
      lacking the four immune-inducible TEPs, TEP1, 2, 3 and 4. RESULTS: Survival
      analyses with TEPq Delta flies reveal the importance of these proteins in defence
      against entomopathogenic fungi, Gram-positive bacteria and parasitoid wasps. Our
      results confirm that TEPs are required for efficient phagocytosis of bacteria,
      notably for the two Gram-positive species tested, Staphylococcus aureus and
      Enterococcus faecalis. Furthermore, we show that TEPq Delta flies have reduced
      Toll pathway activation upon microbial infection, resulting in lower expression
      of antimicrobial peptide genes. Epistatic analyses suggest that TEPs function
      upstream or independently of the serine protease ModSP at an initial stage of
      Toll pathway activation. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our study brings new insights
      into the role of TEPs in insect immunity. It reveals that TEPs participate in
      both humoral and cellular arms of immune response in Drosophila. In particular,
      it shows the importance of TEPs in defence against Gram-positive bacteria and
      entomopathogenic fungi, notably by promoting Toll pathway activation.

PMID- 28874154
TI  - The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale is an adequate screening
      instrument for depression and anxiety disorder in adults with congential heart
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is an
      instrument that is commonly used to screen for depression in patients with
      chronic disease, but the characteristics of the CES-D in adults with congenital
      heart disease (CHD) have not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the criterion validities and the predictive powers of the CES-D for
      depression and anxiety disorders in adults with CHD. METHODS: Two hundred
      patients were screened with the CES-D and secondarily interviewed with a
      diagnostic instrument, i.e., the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Instrument.
      The sensitivity and specificity values of the CES-D were calculated by cross
      tabulation at different cutoff scores. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curves were used to assess the optimal cutoff point for each disorder and to
      assess the predictive power of the instrument. RESULTS: The CES-D exhibited
      satisfactory criterion validities for depression and for all combinations of
      depression and/or anxiety. With a desired sensitivity of at least 80%, the
      optimal cutoff scores were 18. The predictive power of the CES-D in the patients
      was best for major depression and dysthymia (area under the ROC curve: 0.92)
      followed by the score for any combination of depression and/or anxiety (0.88).
      CONCLUSION: The use of CES-D to simultaneously screen for both depression and
      anxiety disorders may be useful in adults with CHD. TRIAL REGISTRATION: CESDEP
      212. Registered 2 March 2014 (retrospectively registered).

PMID- 28874155
TI  - The regulation of ovary and conceptus on the uterine natural killer cells during
      early pregnancy.
AB  - Uterine natural killer (uNK) cells are short-lived, terminally differentiated and
      the most abundant lymphocytes in the uterus which play a crucial role in the
      spiral arteriole modification and establishment of successful pregnancy.
      Dysregulation of uNK cells has been linked to gestational implications such as
      recurrent pregnancy loss, preeclampsia and fetal growth retardation. There is
      evidence showing that progesterone and estrogen can regulate the recruitment,
      proliferation, differentiation and function of uNK cells via direct action on
      intracellular nuclear receptors or through intermediary cells in the uterus
      during early pregnancy. As the deepening of related research in this field, the
      role of conceptus in such regulation has received extensive attention, it
      utilizes endocrine signaling (hCG), juxtacrine signaling (HLA-C, HLA-E, HLA-G)
      and paracrine signaling (cytokines) to facilitate the activities of uNK cells. In
      addition, under the influence of ovarian hormones, conceptus can increase
      expression of PIBF and HLA-G molecules to reduce cytotoxicity of uNK cells and
      promote angiogenesis. In this review, we aim to concentrate on the novel findings
      of ovarian hormones in the regulation of uNK cells, emphasize the regulatory role
      of conceptus on uNK cells and highlight the proposed issues for future research
      in the field.

PMID- 28874156
TI  - Job satisfaction and turnover intentions among health care staff providing
      services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Dar es Salaam,
      Tanzania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Option B+ for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)
      of HIV (i.e., lifelong antiretroviral treatment for all pregnant and
      breastfeeding mothers living with HIV) was initiated in Tanzania in 2013. While
      there is evidence that this policy has benefits for the health of the mother and
      the child, Option B+ may also increase the workload for health care providers in
      resource-constrained settings, possibly leading to job dissatisfaction and
      unwanted workforce turnover. METHODS: From March to April 2014, a questionnaire
      asking about job satisfaction and turnover intentions was administered to all
      nurses at 36 public-sector health facilities offering antenatal and PMTCT
      services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Multivariable logistic regression models
      were used to identify factors associated with job dissatisfaction and intention
      to quit one's job. RESULTS: Slightly over half (54%, 114/213) of the providers
      were dissatisfied with their current job, and 35% (74/213) intended to leave
      their job. Most of the providers were dissatisfied with low salaries and high
      workload, but satisfied with workplace harmony and being able to follow their
      moral values. The odds of reporting to be globally dissatisfied with one's job
      were high if the provider was dissatisfied with salary (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)
      5.6, 95% CI 1.2-26.8), availability of protective gear (aOR 4.0, 95% CI 1.5
      10.6), job description (aOR 4.3, 95% CI 1.2-14.7), and working hours (aOR 3.2,
      95% CI 1.3-7.6). Perceiving clients to prefer PMTCT Option B+ reduced job
      dissatisfaction (aOR 0.2, 95% CI 0.1-0.8). The following factors were associated
      with providers' intention to leave their current job: job stability
      dissatisfaction (aOR 3.7, 95% CI 1.3-10.5), not being recognized by one's
      superior (aOR 3.6, 95% CI 1.7-7.6), and poor feedback on the overall unit
      performance (aOR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3-5.8). CONCLUSION: Job dissatisfaction and
      turnover intentions are comparatively high among nurses in Dar es Salaam's public
      sector maternal care facilities. Providing reasonable salaries and working hours,
      clearer job descriptions, appropriate safety measures, job stability, and
      improved supervision and feedback will be key to retaining satisfied PMTCT
      providers and thus to sustain successful implementation of Option B+ in Tanzania.

PMID- 28874157
TI  - Male involvement in maternal healthcare through Community- based Health Planning
      and Services: the views of the men in rural Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The need to promote maternal health in Ghana has committed the
      government to extend maternal healthcare services to the door steps of rural
      families through the community-based Health Planning and Services. Based on the
      concerns raised in previous studies that male spouses were indifferent towards
      maternal healthcare, this study sought the views of men on their involvement in
      maternal healthcare in their respective communities and at the household levels
      in the various Community-based Health Planning and Services zones in Awutu-Senya
      West District in the Central Region of Ghana. METHODS: A qualitative method was
      employed. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with married men,
      community health officers, community health volunteers and community leaders. The
      participants were selected using purposive, quota and snowball sampling
      techniques. The study used thematic analysis for analysing the data. RESULTS: The
      study shows varying involvement of men, some were directly involved in feminine
      gender roles; others used their female relatives and co-wives to perform the
      women's roles that did not have space for them. They were not necessarily
      indifferent towards maternal healthcare, rather, they were involved in the spaces
      provided by the traditional gender division of labour. Amongst other things, the
      perpetuation and reinforcement of traditional gender norms around pregnancy and
      childbirth influenced the nature and level of male involvement. CONCLUSIONS:
      Sustenance of male involvement especially, husbands and CHVs is required at the
      household and community levels for positive maternal outcomes. Ghana Health
      Service, health professionals and policy makers should take traditional gender
      role expectations into consideration in the planning and implementation of
      maternal health promotion programmes.

PMID- 28874158
TI  - Associations of the APOB rs693 and rs17240441 polymorphisms with plasma APOB and
      lipid levels: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The associations of the apolipoprotein B gene (APOB) rs693 and
      rs17240441 polymorphisms with plasma levels of APOB and lipids have been widely
      explored, but the results were inconclusive. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify
      the associations of the rs693 and rs17240441 polymorphisms with fasting APOB and
      lipid levels. METHODS: Sixty-one studies (50,018 subjects) and 23 studies (8425
      subjects) were respectively identified for the rs693 and rs17240441 polymorphisms
      by searching in PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Cochrane Library,
      Wanfang, VIP and CNKI databases. The following information was collected for each
      study: first author, age, gender, ethnicity, health condition, sample size,
      genotyping, lipid assay method, mean and standard deviation or standard error of
      APOB and lipid variables by genotypes. A dominant model was used for this meta
      analysis. RESULTS: The carriers of the rs693 variant allele (T) had higher levels
      of APOB [standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.26, 95% confidence interval (CI)
      = 0.16-0.36, P < 0.01], triglycerides (TG) (SMD = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.05-0.20, P <
      0.01), total cholesterol (TC) (SMD = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.17-0.30, P < 0.01) and low
      density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (SMD = 0.22, 95% CI = 0.14-0.30, P <
      0.01), and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (SMD = 
      0.06, 95% CI = -0.11-0.01, P = 0.01) than the non-carriers. The carriers of the
      rs17240441 deletion allele had higher levels of APOB (SMD = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.06
      0.20, P < 0.01), TC (SMD = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.07-0.26, P < 0.01) and LDL-C (SMD =
      0.15, 95% CI = 0.07-0.23, P < 0.01) than the non-carriers. CONCLUSIONS: The rs693
      polymorphism is significantly associated with higher levels of APOB, TG, TC and
      LDL-C, and lower levels of HDL-C. The rs17240441 polymorphism is significantly
      associated with higher levels of APOB, TC and LDL-C. Further studies are needed
      to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

PMID- 28874159
TI  - A critique of the US Surgeon General's conclusions regarding e-cigarette use
      among youth and young adults in the United States of America.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In December 2016, the Surgeon General published a report that
      concluded e-cigarette use among youth and young adults is becoming a major public
      health concern in the United States of America. METHODS: Re-analysis of key data
      sources on nicotine toxicity and prevalence of youth use of e-cigarettes cited in
      the Surgeon General report as the basis for its conclusions. RESULTS: Multiple
      years of nationally representative surveys indicate the majority of e-cigarette
      use among US youth is either infrequent or experimental, and negligible among
      never-smoking youth. The majority of the very small proportion of US youth who
      use e-cigarettes on a regular basis, consume nicotine-free products. The sharpest
      declines in US youth smoking rates have occurred as e-cigarettes have become
      increasingly available. Most of the evidence presented in the Surgeon General's
      discussion of nicotine harm is not applicable to e-cigarette use, because it
      relies almost exclusively on exposure to nicotine in the cigarette smoke and not
      to nicotine present in e-cigarette aerosol emissions. Moreover, the referenced
      literature describes effects in adults, not youth, and in animal models that have
      little relevance to real-world e-cigarette use by youth. The Surgeon General's
      report is an excellent reference document for the adverse outcomes due to
      nicotine in combination with several other toxicants present in tobacco smoke,
      but fails to address the risks of nicotine decoupled from tobacco smoke
      constituents. The report exaggerates the toxicity of propylene glycol (PG) and
      vegetable glycerin (VG) by focusing on experimental conditions that do not
      reflect use in the real-world and provides little discussion of emerging evidence
      that e-cigarettes may significantly reduce harm to smokers who have completely
      switched. CONCLUSIONS: The U.S. Surgeon General's claim that e-cigarette use
      among U.S. youth and young adults is an emerging public health concern does not
      appear to be supported by the best available evidence on the health risks of
      nicotine use and population survey data on prevalence of frequent e-cigarette
      use. Nonetheless, patterns of e-cigarettes use in youth must be constantly
      monitored for early detection of significant changes. The next US Surgeon General
      should consider the possibility that future generations of young Americans will
      be less likely to start smoking tobacco because of, not in spite of, the
      availability of e-cigarettes.

PMID- 28874160
TI  - Preterm birth: the role of knowledge transfer and exchange.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preterm birth (PTB) is the leading cause of death in children under
      age five. Healthcare policy and other decision-making relevant to PTB may rely on
      obsolete, incomplete or inapplicable research evidence, leading to worsened
      outcomes. Appropriate knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) strategies are an
      important component of efforts to reduce the global PTB burden. We sought to
      develop a 'landscape' analysis of KTE strategies currently used in PTB and
      related contexts, and to make recommendations for optimising programmatic
      implementation and for future research. METHODS: In the University of California,
      San Francisco's Preterm Birth Initiative, we convened a multidisciplinary working
      group and examined KTE frameworks. After selecting a widely-used, adaptable,
      theoretically-strong framework we reviewed the literature to identify evidence
      based KTE strategies. We analysed KTE approaches focusing on key PTB stakeholders
      (individuals, families and communities, healthcare providers and policymakers).
      Guided by the framework, we articulated KTE approaches that would likely improve
      PTB outcomes. We further applied the KTE framework in developing recommendations.
      RESULTS: We selected the Linking Research to Action framework. Searches
      identified 19 systematic reviews, including two 'reviews of reviews'. Twelve
      reviews provided evidence for KTE strategies in the context of maternal, neonatal
      and child health, though not PTB specifically; seven reviews provided 'cross
      cutting' evidence that could likely be generalised to PTB contexts. For
      individuals, families and communities, potentially effective KTE strategies
      include community-based approaches, 'decision aids', regular discussions with
      providers and other strategies. For providers, KTE outcomes may be improved
      through local opinion leaders, electronic reminders, multifaceted strategies and
      other approaches. Policy decisions relevant to PTB may best be informed through
      the use of evidence briefs, deliberative dialogues, the SUPPORT tools for
      evidence-informed policymaking and other strategies. Our recommendations for
      research addressed knowledge gaps in regard to partner engagement, applicability
      and context, implementation strategy research, monitoring and evaluation, and
      infrastructure for sustainable KTE efforts. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence-based KTE,
      using strategies appropriate to each stakeholder group, is essential to any
      effort to improve health at the population level. PTB stakeholders should be
      fully engaged in KTE and programme planning from its earliest stages, and ideally
      before planning begins.

PMID- 28874161
TI  - Altered Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test results are associated with oxidative
      stress markers in type 2 diabetic subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Different lines of evidence suggest that oxidative stress (OS) is
      implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy. The Semmes-Weinstein
      monofilament (SWM) test is an efficient tool for evaluating diabetic
      polyneuropathy and diabetic foot. In this study, we analyzed the association
      between OS markers and altered SWM test results in type 2 diabetes (T2DM)
      patients. METHODS: Seventy T2DM patients were studied and 34 showed altered SWM
      results. The clinical and biochemical parameters were determined using
      standardized methods. Levels of oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and malondialdehyde
      (MDA) were measured in circulating mononuclear cells using high-performance
      liquid chromatography. RESULTS: We found that T2DM patients with altered SWM test
      results had significantly higher GSSG (3.53 +/- 0.31 vs. 3.31 +/- 0.35 mmol/ml, p
      < 0.05) and MDA (1.88 +/- 0.16 vs. 1.75 +/- 0.19 nmol/ml, p < 0.01) values
      compared to diabetic patients with normal SWM test outcomes. Moreover, altered
      SWM test results were independently related to age, glycosylated hemoglobin, and
      GSSG levels, but there was no association between OS markers and altered
      neuropathy sensitivity score (NSS) values. CONCLUSIONS: Alteration of the
      glutathione system and MDA values in T2DM patients are associated with loss of
      proprioceptive (pressure) sensitivity, but not with symptomatic polyneuropathy
      (as evaluated by NSS). This finding may be important for understanding how OS
      affects distal symmetric polyneuropathy in diabetic patients.

PMID- 28874162
TI  - Isolation and characterization of the compounds responsible for the antimutagenic
      activity of Combretum microphyllum (Combretaceae) leaf extracts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mutations play a major role in the pathogenesis and development of
      several chronic degenerative diseases including cancer. It follows, therefore
      that antimutagenic compound may inhibit the pathological process resulting from
      exposure to mutagens. Investigation of the antimutagenic potential of traditional
      medicinal plants and compounds isolated from plant extracts provides one of the
      tools that can be used to identify compounds with potential cancer
      chemopreventive properties. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterise
      the compounds responsible for the antimutagenic activity of Combretum
      microphyllum. METHODS: The methanol leaf extract of C. microphyllum was evaluated
      for antimutagenicity in the Ames/microsome assay using Salmonella typhimurium
      TA98. TA100 and TA102. Solvent-solvent fractionation was used to partition the
      extracts and by using bioassay-guided fractionation, three compounds were
      isolated. The antimutagenic activity of the three compounds were determined in
      the Ames test using Salmonella typhimurium TA98, TA100 and TA102. The antioxidant
      activity of the three compounds were determined by the quantitative 2,2-diphenyl
      1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)-free radical scavenging method. The cytotoxicity was
      determined in the MTT assay using human hepatocytes. RESULTS: A bioassay-guided
      fractionation of the crude extracts for antimutagenic activity led to the
      isolation of three compounds; n-tetracosanol, eicosanoic acid and arjunolic acid.
      Arjunolic acid was the most active in all three tested strains with a
      antimutagenicity of 42 +/- 9.6%, 36 +/- 1.5% and 44 +/- 0.18% in S. typhimurium
      TA98, TA100 and TA102 respectively at the highest concentration (500 MUg/ml)
      tested, followed by eicosanoic acid and n-tetracosanol. The antioxidant activity
      of the compounds were determined using the quantitative 2,2 diphenyl-1
      picryhydrazyl (DPPH)-free radical scavenging method. Only arjunolic acid had
      pronounced antioxidant activity (measured as DPPH-free scavenging activity) with
      an EC50 value of 0.51 MUg/ml. The cytotoxicity of the isolated compounds were
      determined in the MTT assay using human hepatocytes. The compounds had low
      cytotoxicity at the highest concentration tested with LC50 values >200 MUg/ml for
      n-tetracosanol and eicosanoic acid and 106.39 MUg/ml for arjunolic acid.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on findings from this study, compounds in leaf extracts of C.
      microphyllum protected against 4-NQO and MMC induced mutations as evident in the
      Ames test. The antimutagenic activity of arjunolic acid may, at least in part, be
      attributed to its antioxidant activity resulting in the detoxification of
      reactive oxygen species produced during mutagenesis.

PMID- 28874163
TI  - Expression of factors involved in apoptosis and cell survival is correlated with
      enzymes synthesizing lysophosphatidic acid and its receptors in granulosa cells
      originating from different types of bovine ovarian follicles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) regulates reproductive processes in the
      cow. Ovarian granulosa cells play a pivotal role in follicle growth and
      development. Nevertheless, the role of LPA in the local regulation of granulosa
      cell function in different follicle categories in the bovine ovary has not been
      investigated. METHODS: Ovarian follicles were divided into healthy, transitional
      and atretic categories. The expression levels of AX, PLA2, LPARs and factors
      involved in apoptosis and cell survival processes in granulosa cells in different
      types of follicles were measured by real-time PCR. The correlations between the
      expression levels of AX, PLA2, LPARs and the examined factors were measured. The
      immunolocalization of AX, PLA2 and LPARs in different ovarian follicles was
      examined by immunohistochemistry. Statistical analyses were conducted in GraphPad
      using a one-way ANOVA followed by the Kruskal-Wallis multiple comparison test or
      a correlation analysis followed by Pearson's test. RESULTS: The expression levels
      of AX, PLA2 and LPARs, with the major role of LPAR2 and PLA2, were found in the
      granulosa cells originating from different follicle types. The expression levels
      of the factors involved in cell apoptosis (TNFalpha and its receptors, FAS, FASL,
      CASP3, CASP8, beta-glycan, and DRAK2) were significantly higher in the granulosa
      cells of the atretic follicles compared to the healthy follicles. A number of
      correlations between LPARs, AX, PLA2 and factors associated with apoptosis were
      observed in the atretic but not in the healthy follicles. A greater expression of
      the factors involved in differentiation and proliferation in the granulosa cells
      (DICE1 and SOX2) was found in the healthy follicles in comparison with the
      atretic. A number of correlations between LPARs, AX, PLA2 and the factors
      associated with cell survival were observed in the healthy but not in the atretic
      follicles. CONCLUSIONS: Granulosa cells are the target of LPA action and the
      source of LPA synthesis in the bovine ovarian follicle. We suggest that the
      participation of LPA in apoptosis in the atretic follicles mainly occurs through
      the regulation of TNF-alpha-dependent and caspase-induced pathways. In the
      transitional follicles, LPA might influence the inhibins to shift the balance
      between the number of healthy and atretic follicles. In the healthy follicle
      type, LPA, acting via LPAR1, might regulate MCL1 and estradiol-stimulating ERbeta
      mRNA expression, leading to the stimulation of anti-apoptotic processes in the
      granulosa cells and their differentiation and proliferation.

PMID- 28874164
TI  - Radiation-free CMR diagnostic heart catheterization in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children with heart disease may require repeated X-Ray cardiac
      catheterization procedures, are more radiosensitive, and more likely to survive
      to experience oncologic risks of medical radiation. Cardiovascular magnetic
      resonance (CMR) is radiation-free and offers information about structure,
      function, and perfusion but not hemodynamics. We intend to perform complete
      radiation-free diagnostic right heart catheterization entirely using CMR
      fluoroscopy guidance in an unselected cohort of pediatric patients; we report the
      feasibility and safety. METHODS: We performed 50 CMR fluoroscopy guided
      comprehensive transfemoral right heart catheterizations in 39 pediatric (12.7 +/-
      4.7 years) subjects referred for clinically indicated cardiac catheterization.
      CMR guided catheterizations were assessed by completion (success/failure),
      procedure time, and safety events (catheterization, anesthesia). Pre and post CMR
      body temperature was recorded. Concurrent invasive hemodynamic and diagnostic CMR
      data were collected. RESULTS: During a twenty-two month period (3/2015 -
      12/2016), enrolled subjects had the following clinical indications: post-heart
      transplant 33%, shunt 28%, pulmonary hypertension 18%, cardiomyopathy 15%,
      valvular heart disease 3%, and other 3%. Radiation-free CMR guided right heart
      catheterization attempts were all successful using passive catheters. In two
      subjects with septal defects, right and left heart catheterization were
      performed. There were no complications. One subject had six such procedures. Most
      subjects (51%) had undergone multiple (5.5 +/- 5) previous X-Ray cardiac
      catheterizations. Retained thoracic surgical or transcatheter implants (36%) did
      not preclude successful CMR fluoroscopy heart catheterization. During the
      procedure, two subjects were receiving vasopressor infusions at baseline because
      of poor cardiac function, and in ten procedures, multiple hemodynamic conditions
      were tested. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive CMR fluoroscopy guided right heart
      catheterization was feasible and safe in this small cohort of pediatric subjects.
      This includes subjects with previous metallic implants, those requiring
      continuous vasopressor medication infusions, and those requiring pharmacologic
      provocation. Children requiring multiple, serial X-Ray cardiac catheterizations
      may benefit most from radiation sparing. This is a step toward wholly CMR guided
      diagnostic (right and left heart) cardiac catheterization and future CMR guided
      cardiac intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02739087
      registered February 17, 2016.

PMID- 28874165
TI  - A prospective study of cancer risk among Agricultural Health Study farm spouses
      associated with personal use of organochlorine insecticides.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Organochlorine insecticides (OCs) have historically been used
      worldwide to control insects, although most have now been banned in developed
      countries. Evidence for an association between OC exposures and cancer
      predominantly comes from occupational and population based-studies among men. We
      evaluated the association between the use of specific OCs and cancer among the
      female spouses of pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study.
      METHODS: At enrollment (1993-1997), spouses of private applicators in the cohort
      provided information about their own use of pesticides, including seven OCs
      (aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, DDT, heptachlor, lindane, and toxaphene), and
      information on potential confounders. We used Poisson regression to estimate
      relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for cancers (n >= 3
      exposed cases) reported to state cancer registries from enrollment through 2012
      (North Carolina) and 2013 (Iowa), and use of the individual OCs, as well as use
      of any of the specific OCs. RESULTS: Among 28,909 female spouses, 2191 (7.58%)
      reported ever use of at least one OC, of whom 287 were diagnosed with cancer.
      Most cancers were not associated with OC use. Risk of glioma was increased among
      users of at least one OC (Nexposed = 11, RR = 3.52, 95% CI 1.72-7.21) and
      specifically among lindane users (Nexposed = 3, RR = 4.45, 95% CI 1.36-14.55).
      Multiple myeloma was associated with chlordane (Nexposed = 6, RR = 2.71, 95% CI
      1.12-6.55). Based on 3 exposed cases each, there were also positive associations
      between pancreatic cancer and lindane, and ER-PR- breast cancer and dieldrin. No
      other associations with breast cancer were found. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, there
      were some associations with OC use and cancer incidence, however we were limited
      by the small number of exposed cancer cases. Future research should attempt to
      expand on these findings by assessing environmental sources of OC exposures, to
      fully evaluate the role of OC exposures on cancer risk in women.

PMID- 28874166
TI  - The porcine virome and xenotransplantation.
AB  - The composition of the porcine virome includes viruses that infect pig cells,
      ancient virus-derived elements including endogenous retroviruses inserted in the
      pig chromosomes, and bacteriophages that infect a broad array of bacteria that
      inhabit pigs. Viruses infecting pigs, among them viruses also infecting human
      cells, as well as porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) are of importance when
      evaluating the virus safety of xenotransplantation. Bacteriophages associated
      with bacteria mainly in the gut are not relevant in this context.
      Xenotransplantation using pig cells, tissues or organs is under development in
      order to alleviate the shortage of human transplants. Here for the first time
      published data describing the viromes in different pigs and their relevance for
      the virus safety of xenotransplantation is analysed. In conclusion, the analysis
      of the porcine virome has resulted in numerous new viruses being described,
      although their impact on xenotransplantation is unclear. Most importantly,
      viruses with known or suspected zoonotic potential were often not detected by
      next generation sequencing, but were revealed by more sensitive methods.

PMID- 28874167
TI  - Forecasting infectious disease emergence subject to seasonal forcing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite high vaccination coverage, many childhood infections pose a
      growing threat to human populations. Accurate disease forecasting would be of
      tremendous value to public health. Forecasting disease emergence using early
      warning signals (EWS) is possible in non-seasonal models of infectious diseases.
      Here, we assessed whether EWS also anticipate disease emergence in seasonal
      models. METHODS: We simulated the dynamics of an immunizing infectious pathogen
      approaching the tipping point to disease endemicity. To explore the effect of
      seasonality on the reliability of early warning statistics, we varied the
      amplitude of fluctuations around the average transmission. We proposed and
      analyzed two new early warning signals based on the wavelet spectrum. We measured
      the reliability of the early warning signals depending on the strength of their
      trend preceding the tipping point and then calculated the Area Under the Curve
      (AUC) statistic. RESULTS: Early warning signals were reliable when disease
      transmission was subject to seasonal forcing. Wavelet-based early warning signals
      were as reliable as other conventional early warning signals. We found that
      removing seasonal trends, prior to analysis, did not improve early warning
      statistics uniformly. CONCLUSIONS: Early warning signals anticipate the onset of
      critical transitions for infectious diseases which are subject to seasonal
      forcing. Wavelet-based early warning statistics can also be used to forecast
      infectious disease.

PMID- 28874168
TI  - Holocentric chromosome evolution in kissing bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae:
      Triatominae): diversification of repeated sequences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The analysis of the chromosomal and genome evolution in organisms
      with holocentric chromosomes is restricted by the lack of primary constriction or
      centromere. An interesting group is the hemipteran subfamily Triatominae, vectors
      of Chagas disease, which affects around 6 to 7 million people worldwide. This
      group exhibits extensive variability in the number and chromosomal location of
      repeated sequences such as heterochromatin and ribosomal genes. This paper tries
      to reveal the significant differences of the repeated sequences among Triatoma
      species through the use of genomic DNA probes. METHODS: We analysed the
      chromosomal distribution and evolution of repeated sequences in Triatoma species
      by genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) using genomic DNA probes from two North
      American Triatoma species. These genomic probes were hybridized both on their own
      chromosomes and on other Triatoma species from North and South America, with
      different amounts and chromosome location of C-heterochromatin. The results were
      compared with those previously described using South American Triatoma genomic
      probes. RESULTS: We observed two chromosomal hybridization patterns: (i) very
      intense hybridization signals concentrated on specific chromosomal regions or
      particular chromosomes; and (ii) lower intensity hybridization signals dispersed
      along all chromosomes. Self-GISH on T. rubrofasciata and T. dimidiata chromosomes
      presented strong hybridization signals on all C-heterochromatin regions. However,
      when we perform genomic cross-hybridizations, only strong signals are detected on
      the Y chromosome, leaving the C-heterochromatic autosomal regions unmarked.
      CONCLUSIONS: We confirm that repeated DNA of the Y chromosome is shared among
      Triatoma species and probably represents an ancestral character of the Triatomini
      tribe. On the contrary, autosomal heterochromatic regions are constituted by
      species-specific DNA repeats, most probably satDNA families, suggesting that
      Triatoma speciation involved the amplification of diverse types of autosomal
      repeats. Molecular characterization of principal repetitive DNAs seems to be an
      appropriate approach to infer evolutionary relationships in triatomines.

PMID- 28874169
TI  - Transfemoral versus transapical approach for transcatheter aortic valve
      implantation: hospital outcome and risk factor analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is indicated in high-risk
      patients with aortic stenosis. We compared the clinical outcome of 180
      consecutive patients who underwent transapical (TA) and transfemoral (TF)
      procedures in a single centre. METHODS: Ninety consecutive TA (TA-group) and 90
      consecutive TF (TF-group) were performed from 2009 to 2014. Clinical variables
      were prospectively collected and retrospectively analysed for hospital outcomes
      and to identify risk factors for hospital mortality, vascular complications and
      stroke. RESULTS: Mean age was 80 +/- 8.5 and 83 +/- 8.4 years, in the TA and TF
      group, respectively. TA-group presented higher prevalence of comorbidities: more
      vascular disease (79% vs 22%, p < 0.001), chronic pulmonary disease (32% vs 10%,
      p < 0.001), previous vascular surgery (14% vs 4%, p = 0.039), coronary disease
      (60% vs 40%, p = 0.007), and previous cardiac surgery (28% vs 17%, p = 0.073).
      Logistic Euroscore was 36 +/- 15% in the TA-group and 25 +/- 14% in the TF-group
      (p < 0.001), but hospital mortality was similar (TA:9%, TF:10%, p = 0.799).
      Access-related vascular complications occurred more often in transfemoral
      patients (TA:3%, TF:11%, p = 0.081) while major bleeding (TA:3%, TF:4%, p = 1)
      and stroke (TA:2%, TF:3%, p = 1) were equally distributed. Postoperative renal
      failure and dialysis were associated with impaired neurological outcome (p =
      0.035 and p = 0.020, respectively). Mild to severe paravalvular leak was more
      prevalent in transfemoral patients (TA:5%, TF:25%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In
      our experience, the TA and TF-group presented different risk profiles but
      mortality rate and adverse neurological outcome had a similar incidence. The
      transfemoral approach carried more vascular complications and paravalvular leaks
      but last-generation devices will improve this outcome.

PMID- 28874170
TI  - Protein recoding by ADAR1-mediated RNA editing is not essential for normal
      development and homeostasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing of dsRNA by ADAR proteins is a
      pervasive epitranscriptome feature. Tens of thousands of A-to-I editing events
      are defined in the mouse, yet the functional impact of most is unknown. Editing
      causing protein recoding is the essential function of ADAR2, but an essential
      role for recoding by ADAR1 has not been demonstrated. ADAR1 has been proposed to
      have editing-dependent and editing-independent functions. The relative
      contribution of these in vivo has not been clearly defined. A critical function
      of ADAR1 is editing of endogenous RNA to prevent activation of the dsRNA sensor
      MDA5 (Ifih1). Outside of this, how ADAR1 editing contributes to normal
      development and homeostasis is uncertain. RESULTS: We describe the consequences
      of ADAR1 editing deficiency on murine homeostasis. Adar1 E861A/E861A Ifih1 -/-
      mice are strikingly normal, including their lifespan. There is a mild, non
      pathogenic innate immune activation signature in the Adar1 E861A/E861A Ifih1 -/-
      mice. Assessing A-to-I editing across adult tissues demonstrates that outside of
      the brain, ADAR1 performs the majority of editing and that ADAR2 cannot
      compensate in its absence. Direct comparison of the Adar1 -/- and Adar1
      E861A/E861A alleles demonstrates a high degree of concordance on both Ifih1 +/+
      and Ifih1 -/- backgrounds, suggesting no substantial contribution from ADAR1
      editing-independent functions. CONCLUSIONS: These analyses demonstrate that the
      lifetime absence of ADAR1-editing is well tolerated in the absence of MDA5. We
      conclude that protein recoding arising from ADAR1-mediated editing is not
      essential for organismal homeostasis. Additionally, the phenotypes associated
      with loss of ADAR1 are the result of RNA editing and MDA5-dependent functions.

PMID- 28874172
TI  - Renal replacement therapy after cardiac surgery: do not ask "When", ask "Why".

PMID- 28874171
TI  - Long-term treatment with low-dose medicine in chronic childhood eczema: a double
      blind two-stage randomized control trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The efficacy of low-dose medicine (LDM) in childhood mild/moderate
      eczema is not known. We conducted a double-blind, two-stage, randomized, placebo
      controlled clinical trial, lasting 23 months, to address this issue. METHOD:
      Eighty children with chronic mild/moderate eczema were randomly allocated to
      Group A (placebo) or Group B (treatment group; Galium-Heel(r), a low-dose
      multicomponent medicine based upon natural substances; Guna-Interleukin 12 and
      Guna-Interferon-gamma administered twice a day for six non-consecutive months for
      each stage). LDM is characterized by the use of biological molecules, such as
      cytokines, neuropeptides, growth factors, hormones at very low concentrations,
      which correspond to physiological levels within the human body. The dosage of the
      cytokines used in this trial (IFN-gamma and IL-12) is 10 fg/ml. The SCORAD index
      was evaluated by the same operator: subjects with a SCORAD index below 20 were
      considered to have mild eczema (61/80; mean: 10.79), whereas a SCORAD index
      between 20-50 indicated moderate eczema (19/80; mean: 26.84). The data of 66/80
      children were analyzed in stage 1 and those of 62/66 children in stage 2. The
      primary outcome measure was reduction of eczema severity assessed by the SCORAD
      index. Secondary outcomes were disease-free interval, and treatment safety and
      tolerability. RESULTS: The decrease in disease severity was greater in Group B
      than in Group A already in stage 1 (a decrease 63.9% versus 53.2%), but the
      difference was not significant (p = 0.16). Moreover, subjective symptoms (itching
      and sleep disturbances) initially decreased and then worsened in Group A, whereas
      itching decreased linearly and sleep disturbances decreased significantly
      (p=0.049) in Group B. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary evidence suggests potential
      benefit, but further work is needed to validate this approach. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: The trial was registered with EudraCT number 2010-018640-13 through
      the database of the National Clinical Trials Monitoring Centre Database
      (Osservatorio delle Sperimentazioni Cliniche, OsSC) of the Italian Medicines
      Agency.

PMID- 28874173
TI  - Ternary cocktail nanoparticles for sequential chemo-photodynamic therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous clinical trials have already demonstrated that combinations
      of two or more drugs were more effective in the cancer treatment, especially
      sequential photodynamic design combing with sequential chemotherapy. In our
      study, we propose a ternary cocktail NP delivery system based on self
      decomposable NPs, which could realize synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy
      through double loading chemo-drugs and multi-level programmable PDT treatment.
      METHODS: PS drug methylene blue (MB) was encapsulated into the center of the
      NPsmall, NPbig&thin, and NPbig&thick carriers through "grown-in" loading
      mechanism, which was released based on the drug concentration difference of the
      drug release environment. NPsmall, NPbig&thin, and NPbig&thick carriers have
      three different drug release profiles, which could realize multi-level
      programmable PDT treatment. At the same time, antitumor drug gemcitabine
      hydrochloride (GM) and Docetaxel (DTX), were chosen as the double loading chemo
      drugs that absorbed onto the NPbig&thin and NPbig&thick surface, respectively. In
      specific, various particle configurations were used for modulating the inner MB
      sequential release with three pulse Tmax. Also, by adjusting the NPbig&thin and
      NPbig&thick configuration, the release interval lag time between absorbed GM and
      DTX can be successfully modulated to achieve maximized chemotherapeutic efficacy.
      RESULTS: In vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that these three pulses Tmax
      and the sustained release of MB could maximize the multi-level programmable PDT
      treatment. And the absorbed GM and DTX also have a release time lag of 12 h,
      which has been proved as the most effectiveness synergistic interval lag time in
      the cancer treatment. CONCLUSION: Such a precise sequential release manner
      ternary cocktail NPs provided a promising platform for efficient and safe chemo
      photodynamic therapy, which serves as a promising drug delivery system to cure
      cancer in the future.

PMID- 28874174
TI  - Bile-stained amniotic fluid: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Green-stained amniotic fluid does not always indicate that meconium
      was passed in utero. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 2280-g Hispanic
      preterm female born at 32 weeks of gestation with congenital jejunal atresia. The
      amniotic fluid was greenish stained; the initial impression was meconium-stained
      amniotic fluid. Postnatal findings revealed no meconium in her rectum. The
      content of her first stool appeared sticky and white. CONCLUSION: In the absence
      of meconium in the rectum, the pediatrician should consider the possibility that
      the greenish amniotic fluid is not meconium stained, but rather stained with bile
      due to the fetus vomiting in utero secondary to intestinal obstruction.

PMID- 28874175
TI  - Effect of exercise type on smoking cessation: a meta-analysis of randomized
      controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise is one choice of additional treatment for smoking cessation
      by relieving nicotine withdrawal symptoms and smoking craving. The possible
      mechanism of the effect of exercise on relieving nicotine withdrawal symptoms and
      smoking craving is including affect, biological, and cognitive hypotheses.
      Evidence suggests that different types of exercise have different effects on
      these mechanisms. Therefore, type of exercise might have effect on smoking
      cessation. The purpose of this study is to systematically review randomized
      controlled trials to gain insight into which types of exercise are effective for
      smoking cessation. METHODS: Publications were systemically searched up to
      November 2016 in several databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, PEDro, Web of Science,
      Scopus and Cochrane Library), using the following keywords: "physical activity",
      "exercise", "smoking", "tobacco" and "cigarette". The methodological quality was
      assessed independently by two authors. Meta-analysis was conducted to examine the
      effectiveness of the type of exercise on smoking cessation. The quality of the
      evidence was assessed and rated according to the GRADE approach. RESULTS: 20
      articles on 19 studies were judged to meet the selection criteria (seven low-risk
      of bias RCTs and 12 high-risk of bias RCTs). The findings revealed low quality
      evidence for the effectiveness of yoga for smoking cessation at the end of the
      treatment. The evidence found for no effect of aerobic exercise, resisted
      exercise, and a combined aerobic and resisted exercise program on smoking
      cessation was of low to moderate quality. Furthermore, very low to low quality
      evidence was found for no effect of physical activity on smoking cessation.
      CONCLUSIONS: There was no effect of aerobic exercise, resisted exercise, physical
      activity and combined aerobic and resisted exercise on smoking cessation. There
      was a positive effect on smoking cessation at the end of treatment in the program
      where yoga plus cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) was used. However, which of
      the two work is still to be studied.

PMID- 28874176
TI  - Evaluative reports on medical malpractice policies in obstetrics: a rapid scoping
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clinical specialty of obstetrics is under particular scrutiny
      with increasing litigation costs and unnecessary tests and procedures done in
      attempts to prevent litigation. We aimed to identify reports evaluating or
      comparing the effectiveness of medical liability reforms and quality improvement
      strategies in improving litigation-related outcomes in obstetrics. METHODS: We
      conducted a rapid scoping review with a 6-week timeline. MEDLINE, EMBASE,
      LexisNexis Academic, the Legal Scholarship Network, Justis, LegalTrac, QuickLaw,
      and HeinOnline were searched for publications in English from 2004 until June
      2015. The selection criteria for screening were established a priori and pilot
      tested. We included reports comparing or evaluating the impact of obstetrics
      related medical liability reforms and quality improvement strategies on cost
      containment and litigation settlement across all countries. All levels of
      screening were done by two reviewers independently, and discrepancies were
      resolved by a third reviewer. In addition, two reviewers independently extracted
      relevant data using a pre-tested form, and discrepancies were resolved by a third
      reviewer. The results were summarized descriptively. RESULTS: The search resulted
      in 2729 citations, of which 14 reports met our eligibility criteria. Several
      initiatives for improving the medical malpractice litigation system were found,
      including no-fault approaches, patient safety policy initiatives, communication
      and resolution, caps on compensation and attorney fees, alternative payment
      system and liabilities, and limitations on litigation. CONCLUSIONS: Only a few
      litigation policies in obstetrics were evaluated or compared. Included documents
      showed that initiatives to reduce medical malpractice litigation could be
      associated with a decrease in adverse and malpractice events. However, due to
      heterogeneous settings (e.g., economic structure, healthcare system) and
      variation in the outcomes reported, the advantages and disadvantages of
      initiatives may vary.

PMID- 28874177
TI  - Improving diets and nutrition through an integrated poultry value chain and
      nutrition intervention (SELEVER) in Burkina Faso: study protocol for a randomized
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The SELEVER study is designed to evaluate the impact of an integrated
      agriculture-nutrition package of interventions (including poultry value chain
      development, women's empowerment activities, and a behavior change communications
      strategy to promote improved diets and feeding, care, and hygiene practices) on
      the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso.
      This paper presents the rationale and study design. METHODS: The impact
      evaluation involves a cluster randomized controlled trial design that will be
      implemented in 120 rural communities/villages within 60 communes supported by
      SELEVER in the Boucle de Mouhoun, Centre-Ouest, and Haut-Bassins regions of
      Burkina Faso. Communities will be randomly assigned to one of three treatment
      arms, including: (1) SELEVER intervention group; (2) SELEVER with an intensive
      WASH component; and (3) control group without intervention. Primary outcomes
      include the mean probability of adequacy of diets for women and children (aged 2
      4 years at baseline), infant and young child feeding practices of caregivers of
      children aged 0-2 years, and household poultry production and sales. Intermediate
      outcomes along the agriculture and nutrition pathways will also be measured,
      including child nutrition status and development. The evaluation will follow a
      mixed-methods approach, including a panel of child-, household-, community-, and
      market-level surveys, and data collection points during post-harvest and lean
      seasons, as well as one year after implementation completion to examine
      sustainability. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this study is the first to
      rigorously examine from a food systems perspective, the simultaneous impact of
      scaling-up nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions through a
      livestock value-chain and community-intervention platform, across nutrition,
      health, and agriculture domains. The findings of this evaluation will provide
      evidence to support the design of market-based nutrition-sensitive interventions.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN16686478 . Registered on 2 December
      2016.

PMID- 28874178
TI  - Relationship between self-efficacy and patient knowledge on adherence to oral
      contraceptives using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preconception care, including family planning, is a vital component
      of healthcare for women of reproductive age. An average female spends the
      majority of her reproductive life trying to prevent a pregnancy. In order to
      prevent unintended pregnancy, women often rely on the use of hormonal
      contraceptives. In the United States, the majority of hormonal contraceptive
      users are prescribed oral contraceptive pills (OCPs). Reduced adherence to OCPs
      decreases their ability to prevent pregnancy. The study aimed to measure OCP
      adherence among female college students, and explore the relationship between OCP
      adherence, knowledge, and self-efficacy. METHODS: This cross-sectional study
      recruited a random sample of female college students to participate in an online
      survey. OCP adherence was based on the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale
      (MMAS-8). Secondary reporting of medication adherence included participant
      reports of the number of missed OCP doses in the previous month and typical month
      of use. RESULTS: Of the 5000 invited, 1559 (31.3%) completed the survey. Of those
      responding, 670 (41.3%) reported use of OCPs. A total of 293 (44.3%) OCP users
      met criteria for low adherence, 241 (36.4%) met criteria for medium adherence,
      and 128 (19.3%) met criteria for high adherence. Those with high adherence had
      higher self-efficacy (P < 0.001) and perceived knowledge (p < 0.001). After
      controlling for other factors, self-efficacy (b = .37) and perceived knowledge (b
      = .09) remained associated with OCP adherence. CONCLUSION: Less than 20% of
      respondents met the criteria for high adherence to OCPs. Self-efficacy and
      knowledge were associated with higher OCP adherence. Targeted interventions from
      healthcare providers, health educators, and other adherence related media to
      increase the knowledge and self-efficacy of patients using OCPs may improve
      adherence rates. Additional research is needed to evaluate the impact of
      innovative interventions focused on social and behavioral patient factors, like
      knowledge and self-efficacy, on adherence to OCPs.

PMID- 28874179
TI  - Report on the development of putative functional SSR and SNP markers in passion
      fruits.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Passionflowers Passiflora edulis and Passiflora alata are diploid,
      outcrossing and understudied fruit bearing species. In Brazil, passion fruit
      cultivation began relatively recently and has earned the country an outstanding
      position as the world's top producer of passion fruit. The fruit's main economic
      value lies in the production of juice, an essential exotic ingredient in juice
      blends. Currently, crop improvement strategies, including those for
      underexploited tropical species, tend to incorporate molecular genetic
      approaches. In this study, we examined a set of P. edulis transcripts expressed
      in response to infection by Xanthomonas axonopodis, (the passion fruit's main
      bacterial pathogen that attacks the vines), aiming at the development of putative
      functional markers, i.e. SSRs (simple sequence repeats) and SNPs (single
      nucleotide polymorphisms). RESULTS: A total of 210 microsatellites were found in
      998 sequences, and trinucleotide repeats were found to be the most frequent
      (31.4%). Of the sequences selected for designing primers, 80.9% could be used to
      develop SSR markers, and 60.6% SNP markers for P. alata. SNPs were all biallelic
      and found within 15 gene fragments of P. alata. Overall, gene fragments generated
      10,003 bp. SNP frequency was estimated as one SNP every 294 bp. Polymorphism
      rates revealed by SSR and SNP loci were 29.4 and 53.6%, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Passiflora edulis transcripts were useful for the development of
      putative functional markers for P. alata, suggesting a certain level of sequence
      conservation between these cultivated species. The markers developed herein could
      be used for genetic mapping purposes and also in diversity studies.

PMID- 28874180
TI  - Ureter metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In most cases, prostate cancer metastasizes to the lymph nodes, bone,
      and liver. In very rare cases, it metastasizes to the ureter. Due to the
      difficulty in making a preoperative diagnosis, ureteral metastasis from prostate
      cancer is typically diagnosed after nephroureterectomy. CASE PRESENTATION: A 77
      year-old Asian Japanese man with right hydronephrosis and hydroureter was
      referred to our hospital to undergo further examination due to the suspicion of
      ureteral cancer. He had been diagnosed 2 years previously with prostate cancer
      with a Gleason score of 4+5=9. He received radiotherapy and androgen deprivation
      therapy. A nephroureterectomy was performed for suspected right ureteral cancer.
      On the basis of a histopathological examination, poorly differentiated
      adenocarcinoma was suspected, and the tumor cells were positive for prostate
      specific antigen immunohistochemically. CONCLUSIONS: We herein report a rare case
      of ureteral metastasis in castration resistant prostate cancer.

PMID- 28874181
TI  - Effect of an intensive nutrition intervention of a high protein and low glycemic
      index diet on weight of kidney transplant recipients: study protocol for a
      randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Excessive weight gain is commonly observed within the first year
      after kidney transplantation and is associated with negative outcomes, such as
      graft loss and cardiovascular events. The purpose of this study is to evaluate
      the effect of a high protein and low glycemic-index diet on preventing weight
      gain after kidney transplantation. METHODS: We designed a prospective, single
      center, open-label, randomized controlled study to compare the efficacy of a high
      protein (1.3-1.4 g/kg/day) and low-glycemic index diet versus a conventional diet
      (0.8-1.0 g/kg/day of protein) on preventing weight gain after kidney
      transplantation. A total of 120 eligible patients 2 months after transplantation
      will be recruited. Patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate through
      the modification of diet of renal disease (MDRD) formula < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 or
      urinary albumin excretion > 300 mg/24 h will be excluded. Patients' diets will be
      allocated through simple sequential randomization. Patients will be followed-up
      for 12 months with nine clinic appointments with a dietitian and the evaluations
      will include nutritional assessment (anthropometrics, body composition, and
      resting metabolic rate) and laboratory tests. The primary outcome is weight
      maintenance or body weight gain under 5% after 12 months. Secondary outcomes
      include body composition, resting metabolic rate, satiety sensation, kidney
      function, and other metabolic parameters. DISCUSSION: Diets with higher protein
      content and lower glycemic index may lead to weight loss because of higher
      satiety sensation. However, there is a concern about the association of high
      protein intake and kidney damage. Nevertheless, there is little evidence on the
      impact of high protein intake on long-term kidney function outcome. Therefore, we
      designed a study to test if a high protein diet with low-glycemic index will be
      an effective and safe nutritional intervention to prevent weight gain in kidney
      transplant patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier,
      NCT02883777 . Registered on 3 August 2016.

PMID- 28874183
TI  - Urethral calculi with a urethral fistula: a case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To explore and summarize the reasons why urethral calculi cause a
      urethral fistula. CASE PRESENTATION: We retrospectively studied 1 patient in
      Xiangya hospital and all relevant literature published in English between 1989
      and 2015. The patients (including those reported in the literature) were
      characterized by age, origin, location of calculus, size of calculus, fistulous
      track, and etiological factors. Most of urethral calculi associated with a
      urethral fistula were native generated. Urethral calculi can be formed in various
      locations of the urethra, and the size of the calculus ranged from small
      (multiple) calculi to giant stones. The fistula external orifice located at the
      root of the penis was relatively common, and there were various etiological
      factors, such as urethral strictures, urethral trauma induced by long-term
      catheterization, lumbar fractures, and congenital anomaly factors. They were
      managed by the excision of the fistulous tract, retrieval of the urethral stones,
      and/or debridement and pus drainage operations. CONCLUSION: Some elements, such
      as trauma, recurrent urinary tract infections, abscess formation induced by long
      term catheterization, and urethral calculus, may be the risk factors for a
      urethral fistula.

PMID- 28874182
TI  - Long-term neurologic and cardiac correction by intrathecal gene therapy in Pompe
      disease.
AB  - Pompe disease is a lysosomal storage disorder caused by acid-alpha-glucosidase
      (GAA) deficiency, leading to glycogen storage. The disease manifests as a fatal
      cardiomyopathy in infantile form. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has recently
      prolonged the lifespan of these patients, revealing a new natural history. The
      neurologic phenotype and the persistence of selective muscular weakness in some
      patients could be attributed to the central nervous system (CNS) storage
      uncorrected by ERT. GAA-KO 6neo/6neo mice were treated with a single intrathecal
      administration of adeno-associated recombinant vector (AAV) mediated gene
      transfer of human GAA at 1 month and their neurologic, neuromuscular, and cardiac
      function was assessed for 1 year. We demonstrate a significant functional
      neurologic correction in treated animals from 4 months onward, a neuromuscular
      improvement from 9 months onward, and a correction of the hypertrophic
      cardiomyopathy at 12 months. The regions most affected by the disease i.e. the
      brainstem, spinal cord, and the left cardiac ventricular wall all show enzymatic,
      biochemical and histological correction. Muscle glycogen storage is not affected
      by the treatment, thus suggesting that the restoration of muscle functionality is
      directly related to the CNS correction. This unprecedented global and long-term
      CNS and cardiac cure offer new perspectives for the management of patients.

PMID- 28874184
TI  - Multipotent stromal cells/mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts combine to
      minimize skin hypertrophic scarring.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) has been proposed to
      improve wound healing. However, as these cells only transiently survive in the
      implantation site, the mechanisms underlying this beneficial healing response are
      associated with restorative paracrine effects of MSC matricellular factors on
      resident stromal cells. However, this requires that the recipient has a robust
      reservoir of viable cells. Here, we examine the influence of MSCs on the behavior
      of cotransplanted fibroblasts, in a manner to provide augmented cellular reserve
      to debilitated individuals, specifically focusing on matrix remodeling following
      in-vivo wounding. METHODS: Using a Hylan-A dermal filler hydrogel containing
      collagen I and tenascin-C for delivery and increased survival of transplanted
      cells, we find that cotransplantation of MSCs with fibroblasts reduces scarring.
      RESULTS: Transplanted xenogeneic MSCs augmented fibroblast proliferation,
      migration, and extracellular matrix deposition critical for wound closure, and
      reduced inflammation following wounding. MSCs also corrected matrix remodeling by
      CXCR3-deficient fibroblasts which otherwise led to hypertrophic scarring. This
      effect was superior to MSC or fibroblast transplantation alone. CONCLUSIONS:
      Taken together, these data suggest that MSCs, even if eventually rejected,
      transplanted with fibroblasts normalize matrix regeneration during healing. The
      current study provides insight into cellular therapies as a viable method for
      antifibrotic treatment and demonstrates that even transiently engrafted cells can
      have a long-term impact via matrix modulation and education of other tissue
      cells.

PMID- 28874185
TI  - A novel susceptibility locus in the IL12B region is associated with the
      pathophysiology of Takayasu arteritis through IL-12p40 and IL-12p70 production.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A previous study revealed the association between susceptibility to
      Takayasu arteritis (TAK) and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs6871626
      located in IL12B, which encodes interleukin (IL)-12p40, a common component of IL
      12p70 and IL-23. We investigated the expression of these cytokines in patients
      with TAK, stratifying them into those with or without the risk allele at the
      rs6871626 SNP. METHODS: Plasma levels of IL-12p40, IL-12p70, and IL-23 were
      quantified in 44 patients with TAK and 19 healthy controls (HCs) by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assays. Monocytes were obtained from 20 patients with TAK and 14
      HCs, treated with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and lipopolysaccharide, and then
      supernatant cytokines were quantified. In addition, the ratio of IFN-gamma+ or IL
      17A+ cells to CD4+ T cells was measured by flow cytometric analysis of peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells. RESULTS: The levels of plasma IL-12p40, plasma IL-12p70,
      and supernatant IL-12p70 were significantly higher in patients with TAK than in
      HCs, whereas there were no significant differences in the levels of plasma IL-23,
      supernatant IL-23, or supernatant IL-12p40. The levels of plasma IL-12p70,
      supernatant IL-12p40, and supernatant IL-12p70 were significantly higher in
      patients with the risk allele than in those without. The ratio of CD4+IFN-gamma+
      cells was significantly higher in patients with the risk allele, whereas CD4+IL
      17A+ cells showed no differences. CONCLUSIONS: The rs6871626 SNP in IL12B may
      influence the increased expression of IL-12p40 and IL-12p70. These enhanced
      cytokines might play roles in the pathophysiology of TAK.

PMID- 28874186
TI  - Age-dependent changes in synaptic plasticity enhance tau oligomerization in the
      mouse hippocampus.
AB  - The aggregation mechanism of phosphorylated tau is an important therapeutic
      target for tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease, although the mechanism by
      which aggregation occurs is still unknown. Because the phosphorylation process of
      tau is involved in the trafficking of AMPA receptors, which accompanies the long
      term depression (LTD) of synapses, we examined the effect of LTD-inducing low
      frequency stimulation (LFS) on the formation of pathological tau aggregates in
      adult and aged wild-type mice. Our biochemical analysis demonstrated that LFS led
      to the formation of sarkosyl-insoluble (SI) tau oligomers in aged hippocampi but
      not in adult hippocampi in wild-type mice. In parallel, electrophysiological
      experiments showed an increased contribution of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway
      (ALP) to LTD during aging, although the other properties of LFS-induced LTD that
      we investigated were not altered. Thus, we anticipate that the increased
      contribution of the ALP to the LTD cascade is involved in the age-dependent
      formation of tau oligomers that results from LFS. Analysis of the LC3 ratio, an
      indicator of autophagosome formation, showed that LFS increased cleaved LC3 (type
      II) in the aged hippocampus relative to type I LC3, suggesting potentiation of
      the ALP accompanied by LTD. Pharmacological inhibition of autophagosome formation
      depressed LFS-induced oligomerization of tau. Prevention of lysosomal function in
      the ALP enhanced the formation of tau oligomers by LFS. These results suggest the
      importance of the autophagosome for the LFS-induced oligomerization of tau and
      suggest a reason for its age dependency. Interestingly, the lysosomal disturbance
      promoted the formation of the fibrillar form of aggregates consisting of hyper
      phosphorylated tau. The LTD-ALP cascade potentially acts as one of the suppliers
      of pathological aggregates of tau in aged neurons.

PMID- 28874187
TI  - Prolonged preoperative treatment of acromegaly with Somatostatin analogs may
      improve surgical outcome in patients with invasive pituitary macroadenoma (Knosp
      grades 1-3): a retrospective cohort study conducted at a single center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate preoperative somatostatin analogs
      (SSAs) treatment on the surgical outcome in patients with acromegaly. METHODS: An
      analysis of 358 patients with acromegaly was conducted. The preoperative medical
      therapy group (81 patients) received SSA treatment for at least 3 months prior to
      surgery, while the primary surgery group (277 patients) underwent transsphenoidal
      surgery directly. Follow-up duration was >=3 months. Tumor invasion was evaluated
      by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and classified according to the Knosp grading
      system. RESULTS: Most patients were diagnosed with macroadenoma. Among all
      patients (Knosp grades 0-4), preoperative SSA therapy did not significantly
      improve the curative effect of surgery, according to the levels of growth hormone
      (GH) and/or insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) markers. In patients with
      macroadenoma (Knosp grades 1-3), the remission rates were significantly higher in
      the SSA group compared to the surgery group when considering GH (56.4% vs. 37.3%,
      P = 0.048) and IGF-1 (43.2% vs. 17.6%, P = 0.004). In the preoperative medical
      therapy group, long-term use of SSAs (>6 months) led to higher remission rates
      (GH, 72.2% vs. 51.0%; and IGF-1, 61.1% vs. 29.8%; P = 0.12 and 0.02,
      respectively]. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term preoperative SSAs treatment may improve
      the surgical curative rate in acromegalic patients with invasive macroadenomas
      (Knosp grades 1-3).

PMID- 28874188
TI  - Determinants of first-time utilization of long-term care services in the
      Netherlands: an observational record linkage study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since in an ageing society more long-term care (LTC) facilities are
      needed, it is important to understand the main determinants of first-time
      utilization of (LTC) services. METHODS: The Andersen service model, which
      distinguishes predisposing, enabling and need factors, was used to develop a
      model for first-time utilization of LTC services among the general population of
      the Netherlands. We used data on 214,821 persons registered in a database of
      general practitioners (NIVEL Primary Care Database). For each person the medical
      history was known, as well as characteristics such as ethnicity, income, home
      ownership, and marital status. Utilization data from the national register on
      long-term care was linked at a personal level. Generalized Linear Models were
      used to determine the relative importance of factors of incident LTC-service
      utilization. RESULTS: Top 5 determinants of LTC are need, measured as the
      presence of chronic diseases, age, household size, household income and
      homeownership. When controlling for all other determinants, the presence of an
      additional chronic disease increases the probability of utilizing any LTC service
      by 45% among the 20+ population (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.41-1.49), and 31% among the
      65+ population (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.27-1.36). With respect to the 20+
      population, living in social rent (OR = 2.45, 95% CI = 2.25-2.67, ref. = home
      owner) had a large impact on utilizing any LTC service. In a lesser degree this
      was the case for living alone (OR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.52-1.75, ref. = not living
      alone). A higher household income was linked with a lower utilization of any LTC
      service. CONCLUSIONS: All three factors of the Anderson model, predisposing,
      enabling, and need determinants influence the likelihood of future LTC service
      utilization. This implies that none of these factors can be left out of the
      analysis of what determines this use. New in our analysis is the focus on
      incident utilization. This provides a better estimate of the effects of
      predictors than a prevalence based analysis, as there is less confounding by
      changes in determinants occurring after LTC initiation. Especially the need of
      care is a strong factor. A policy implication of this relative importance of
      health status is therefore that LTC reforms should take health aspects into
      account.

PMID- 28874189
TI  - Intersectin-1s deficiency in pulmonary pathogenesis.
AB  - Intersectin-1s (ITSN-1s), a multidomain adaptor protein, plays a vital role in
      endocytosis, cytoskeleton rearrangement and cell signaling. Recent studies have
      demonstrated that deficiency of ITSN-1s is a crucial early event in pulmonary
      pathogenesis. In lung cancer, ITSN-1s deficiency impairs Eps8 ubiquitination and
      favors Eps8-mSos1 interaction which activates Rac1 leading to enhanced lung
      cancer cell proliferation, migration and metastasis. Restoring ITSN-1s deficiency
      in lung cancer cells facilitates cytoskeleton changes favoring mesenchymal to
      epithelial transformation and impairs lung cancer progression. ITSN-1s deficiency
      in acute lung injury leads to impaired endocytosis which leads to ubiquitination
      and degradation of growth factor receptors such as Alk5. This deficiency is
      counterbalanced by microparticles which, via paracrine effects, transfer
      Alk5/TGFbetaRII complex to non-apoptotic cells. In the presence of ITSN-1s
      deficiency, Alk5-restored cells signal via Erk1/2 MAPK pathway leading to
      restoration and repair of lung architecture. In inflammatory conditions such as
      pulmonary artery hypertension, ITSN-1s full length protein is cleaved by granzyme
      B into EHITSN and SH3A-EITSN fragments. The EHITSN fragment leads to pulmonary
      cell proliferation via activation of p38 MAPK and Elk-1/c-Fos signaling. In vivo,
      ITSN-1s deficient mice transduced with EHITSN plasmid develop pulmonary vascular
      obliteration and plexiform lesions consistent with pathological findings seen in
      severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. These novel findings have significantly
      contributed to understanding the mechanisms and pathogenesis involved in
      pulmonary pathology. As demonstrated in these studies, genetically modified ITSN
      1s expression mouse models will be a valuable tool to further advance our
      understanding of pulmonary pathology and lead to novel targets for treating these
      conditions.

PMID- 28874190
TI  - Functional changes in hippocampal synaptic signaling in offspring survivors of a
      mouse model of intrauterine inflammation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent evidence suggests that exposure to intrauterine inflammation
      causes acute fetal brain injury and is linked to a spectrum of neurobehavioral
      disorders. In a rodent model of intrauterine inflammation induced by
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure in utero, activated microglia can be detected
      in the hippocampus of offspring survivors, as late as 60 days postnatal (DPN).
      Given that the hippocampus is important for learning and memory, these results
      suggest that in utero inflammation underlies long-term cognitive deficits
      observed in children/survivors. METHODS: An established mouse model of LPS
      induced intrauterine inflammation was used to study hippocampal function from
      offspring at 44-59 DPN. Microgliosis was examined at 45 DPN. Extracellular field
      recordings of synaptic transmission were performed on acute hippocampal slices.
      RESULTS: LPS offspring mice displayed persistent microglial activation and
      increased CA3-CA1 excitatory synaptic strength, which can be explained in part by
      an increase in the probability of glutamate release, and reduced long-term
      synaptic potentiation compared to control mice. CONCLUSIONS: These results offer
      a mechanistic explanation for the cognitive and behavioral deficits observed in
      survivors of preterm birth caused by intrauterine inflammation.

PMID- 28874191
TI  - Internet or dvd for distance learning to isolated rural health professionals,
      what is the best approach?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distance Learning (DL) is a means to overcome the barriers that
      prevent health workers access to medical education and training sessions to
      update their knowledge. The main objective of this study is to compare the
      knowledge acquisition among practitioners Heads of Health Based Center (HBC) for
      the management of hypertension in two training modalities, one interactive, via
      internet (by Visio conferencing and video Conferencing), and other non
      interactive, via DVD in the three regions (Miarinarivo, Moramanga and
      Manjakandriana) of Madagascar. METHODS: This is a quasi-experimental study
      comparing two distance learning methodologies, one via internet (VS or VD) and
      the other via DVD before and after training. Ninety-two (92) Heads of HBC
      participated in the training, including 56 via the Internet (24 doctors and 32
      paramedics) and 36 via DVD (24 doctors and 12 paramedics). RESULTS: According to
      the training mode: the mean score of knowledge of the participants was 7 (+ -2)
      for two terms before training. It is 14 (+ -2.5) in the internet group (VS or VD)
      and 15 (+ -2.7) in the DVD group after training. The difference between the two
      groups was not significant p = 0.076. For doctors, the score was 7 (+ -3.1) via
      internet and 8 (+ -2.3) via DVD in pre test and 14 (+ - 2.4) via internet and 16
      (+ -. 2.7) via DVD in post test, the difference between the two training methods
      was significant (p = 0.008). Among the paramedics, the results are the same for
      both conditions, 7 (+ - 2.4 to + -3.2) in pre test and 14 (+ - 2.2 to + -2.7) in
      post test. CONCLUSION: Both training methods have improved participants'
      knowledge and the DVD mode is the first choice for Heads HBC of Madagascar with
      the majority located in remote areas.

PMID- 28874192
TI  - Plasma metabolomic study in Chinese patients with wet age-related macular
      degeneration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading disease
      associated with blindness. It has a high incidence and complex pathogenesis. We
      aimed to study the metabolomic characteristics in Chinese patients with wet AMD
      by analyzing the morning plasma of 20 healthy controls and 20 wet AMD patients
      for metabolic differences. METHODS: We used ultra-high-pressure liquid
      chromatography and quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry for this analysis.
      The relationship of these differences with AMD pathophysiology was also assessed.
      Remaining data were normalized using Pareto scaling, and then valid data were
      handled using multivariate data analysis with MetaboAnalysis software, including
      unsupervised principal component analysis and supervised partial least squares
      discriminate analysis. The purpose of the present work was to identify
      significant metabolites for the analyses. Hierarchical clustering was conducted
      to identify metabolites that differed between the two groups. Significant
      metabolites were then identified using the established database, and features
      were mapped on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. RESULTS: A total of
      5443 ion peaks were detected, all of them attributable to the same 10
      metabolites. These included some amino acids, isomaltose, hydrocortisone, and
      biliverdin. The heights of these peaks differed significantly between the two
      groups. The biosynthesis of amino acids pathways also differed profoundly between
      patients with wet AMD and controls. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that
      metabolic profiles and and pathways differed between wet AMD and controls and may
      provide promising new targets for AMD-directed therapeutics and diagnostics.

PMID- 28874193
TI  - Extranodal nasal-type natural killer/T-cell lymphoma with penile involvement: a
      case report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) usually presents as
      a localized disease in the nasal cavity; extension to the male genitourinary
      system is very rare and has been characterized only recently. Most cases present
      with predominantly extranodal involvement, advanced stage disease, highly
      aggressive course, and strong association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). While
      metastasis is common in ENKTLs, the penis is rarely involved in both nasal and
      non-nasal ENKTLs and only one report was published to date. CASE PRESENTATION:
      One patient with NK/T-cell lymphoma, presented initially with a penile mass, is
      reported. The 58-year-old man who presented with progressive painless penile
      swelling underwent penectomy for penile tumor. Histologically, the glans and
      foreskin revealed neoplastic infiltration of medium-sized lymphoma cells
      expressing CD56, CD3, granzyme-B, and labeled for EBV-encoded RNA in situ
      hybridization. Findings were consistent with NK/T-cell lymphoma. By detailed
      history, we learned that the patient had nasal obstruction for more than 10
      years. Nasopharyngeal involvement was screened with PET-CT; ENKTL was diagnosed
      after a nasopharyngeal biopsy. The final diagnosis was primary nasal NK/T-cell
      lymphoma, with metastasis to the penis. Additional sites of disease appeared soon
      afterward (adrenal gland, liver, spleen and lymph nodes). The patient died within
      4 months. CONCLUSION: This study suggested that penile NK/T-cell lymphoma tends
      to disseminate early and pursues an aggressive course. It is imperative to
      distinguish nasal NK/T lymphoma from other types of tumors, because the prognosis
      and treatment differ significantly for secondary metastases.

PMID- 28874194
TI  - Prophylactic antibiotic use in pediatric patients undergoing urinary tract
      catheterization: a survey of members of the Society for Pediatric Urology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current organizational guidelines regarding use of antibiotics during
      urinary tract catheterization are based on limited evidence and are not directly
      applicable to the pediatric urology population. We seek to improve understanding
      of this population by first evaluating current practices. This study aims to
      investigate practice patterns and attitudes of pediatric urologists regarding the
      use of antibiotics in the setting of urinary tract catheterization. METHODS: An
      online survey was sent to members of the Society for Pediatric Urology.
      Questionnaire sections included demographics, general questions about antibiotic
      use with catheterization, and specific clinical scenarios. Descriptive statistics
      were used, and chi-square analysis was performed to examine associations between
      demographics and specific responses. RESULTS: Of 448 pediatric urologists
      surveyed, 154 (34%) responded to the survey. A majority of surveyed urologists
      (78%) prescribe daily prophylactic antibiotics with a hypospadias stent in place,
      but extensive variation in use of antibiotics was reported with other catheters
      and tubes. Extensive variation in practice patterns was also reported for three
      case scenarios regarding antibiotic prophylaxis with catheterization. Urologists
      > 50 years of age and fellowship-trained urologists were more likely to prescribe
      antibiotics for hypospadias stents (p = 0.02, p = 0.03), but no other significant
      associations between demographic characteristics and antibiotic use were found.
      CONCLUSIONS: There is substantial variation in practice patterns among surveyed
      pediatric urologists regarding prophylactic antibiotic use with urinary
      catheterization. This variation, combined with a lack of objective data and
      increasing pressure to decrease infectious complications and combat antibiotic
      resistance, highlights the need for development of management guidelines for this
      unique population.

PMID- 28874195
TI  - Malalignment and malposition of quadriceps-sparing approach in primary total knee
      arthroplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quadriceps-sparing (QS) approach is considered to be the most
      minimally invasive surgery for total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We perform this
      meta-analysis to evaluate whether malalignment and malposition are more biased
      towards the QS approach compared to the traditional medial parapatellar (MP)
      approach, which is still controversial. METHODS: According to the PRISMA
      guidelines, a comprehensive search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, the
      Cochrane library, and Embase. Relevant measures were extracted independently by
      two investigators. RESULTS: Five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and eight
      retrospective studies including a total of 1261 cases were identified. The QS
      approach was associated with more outliers of hip-knee-ankle (HKA) angle (p =
      0.03), coronal tibial component angle (p = 0.03), and femoral notch (p = 0.05).
      However, the differences of the outlier of the coronal femoral component angle
      between the two groups were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: This meta
      analysis indicates that the QS approach is related to the high risk of
      malalignment and malposition. However, different studies reported different
      indicators resulting in small samples for analyzing the radiological outcomes. In
      addition, both of the relatively long learning curve and the present instruments
      might increase the risk of malalignment and malposition of the QS approach, which
      needs further study and improvement.

PMID- 28874196
TI  - Eating behavior and psychological profile: associations between daughters with
      distinct eating disorders and their mothers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Associations of eating behaviors and psychological profile between
      mothers and daughters with eating disorders exist, but it is important to dissect
      the influence of the mother in each specific disorder since all eating disorders
      must be seen or treated not as one entity. The aim of the present study was to
      evaluate the association of eating behavior and psychological profile between
      mothers and daughters with different eating disorders and a control group.
      METHODS: The study group included young girls with anorexia nervosa (AN, n = 30),
      bulimia nervosa (BN, n = 30), binge eating disorder (BED, n = 19), and a control
      group of women (Non-ED, n = 54) together with their mothers. BMI was calculated
      for dyads and Eating Disorder Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety
      Inventory, Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire were
      applied. The differences between dyads were tested by Student's t test and
      Pearson's correlation was used to study the association between BMI, variables of
      eating behavior and psychological profile in each dyad. RESULTS: The study found
      significant inverse correlations between the AN dyad; some correlations between
      the BN dyad, and the highest positive correlations exist in BED dyad, especially
      in eating behavior. Finally, between the control dyads, low but significant
      correlations were found in the majority of cases. CONCLUSIONS: The study
      concluded that the associations between mothers and daughters with distinct
      eating disorders varied depending on the specific diagnosis of the daughter,
      indicating it is necessary to analyze them individually, given that there may be
      different implications for treatment.

PMID- 28874197
TI  - Environmental drivers of Ixodes ricinus abundance in forest fragments of rural
      European landscapes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus) transmits infectious diseases
      such as Lyme borreliosis, which constitutes an important ecosystem disservice.
      Despite many local studies, a comprehensive understanding of the key drivers of
      tick abundance at the continental scale is still lacking. We analyze a large set
      of environmental factors as potential drivers of I. ricinus abundance. Our multi
      scale study was carried out in deciduous forest fragments dispersed within two
      contrasting rural landscapes of eight regions, along a macroclimatic gradient
      stretching from southern France to central Sweden and Estonia. We surveyed the
      abundance of I. ricinus, plant community composition, forest structure and soil
      properties and compiled data on landscape structure, macroclimate and habitat
      properties. We used linear mixed models to analyze patterns and derived the
      relative importance of the significant drivers. RESULTS: Many drivers had, on
      their own, either a moderate or small explanatory value for the abundance of I.
      ricinus, but combined they explained a substantial part of variation. This
      emphasizes the complex ecology of I. ricinus and the relevance of environmental
      factors for tick abundance. Macroclimate only explained a small fraction of
      variation, while properties of macro- and microhabitat, which buffer
      macroclimate, had a considerable impact on tick abundance. The amount of forest
      and the composition of the surrounding rural landscape were additionally
      important drivers of tick abundance. Functional (dispersules) and structural
      (density of tree and shrub layers) properties of the habitat patch played an
      important role. Various diversity metrics had only a small relative importance.
      Ontogenetic tick stages showed pronounced differences in their response. The
      abundance of nymphs and adults is explained by the preceding stage with a
      positive relationship, indicating a cumulative effect of drivers. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our findings suggest that the ecosystem disservices of tick-borne diseases, via
      the abundance of ticks, strongly depends on habitat properties and thus on how
      humans manage ecosystems from the scale of the microhabitat to the landscape.
      This study stresses the need to further evaluate the interaction between climate
      change and ecosystem management on I. ricinus abundance.

PMID- 28874198
TI  - Who pays for healthcare in Bangladesh? An analysis of progressivity in health
      systems financing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between payments towards healthcare and ability to
      pay is a measure of financial fairness. Analysis of progressivity is important
      from an equity perspective as well as for macroeconomic and political analysis of
      healthcare systems. Bangladesh health systems financing is characterized by high
      out-of-pocket payments (63.3%), which is increasing. Hence, we aimed to see who
      pays what part of this high out-of-pocket expenditure. To our knowledge, this was
      the first progressivity analysis of health systems financing in Bangladesh.
      METHODS: We used data from Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey,
      2010. This was a cross sectional and nationally representative sample of 12,240
      households consisting of 55,580 individuals. For quantification of progressivity,
      we adopted the 'ability-to-pay' principle developed by O'Donnell, van Doorslaer,
      Wagstaff, and Lindelow (2008). We used the Kakwani index to measure the magnitude
      of progressivity. RESULTS: Health systems financing in Bangladesh is regressive.
      Inequality increases due to healthcare payments. The differences between the Gini
      coefficient and the Kakwani index for all sources of finance are negative, which
      indicates regressivity, and that financing is more concentrated among the poor.
      Income inequality increases due to high out-of-pocket payments. The increase in
      income inequality caused by out-of-pocket payments is 89% due to negative
      vertical effect and 11% due to horizontal inequity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings add
      substantial evidence of health systems financing impact on inequitable financial
      burden of healthcare and income. The heavy reliance on out-of-pocket payments may
      affect household living standards. If the government and people of Bangladesh are
      concerned about equitable financing burden, our study suggests that Bangladesh
      needs to reform the health systems financing scheme.

PMID- 28874199
TI  - Hydrolysed protein enteral nutrition is not superior to polymeric whole protein
      feeding with regard to gastrointestinal feeding tolerance and feeding adequacy.

PMID- 28874200
TI  - First isolation and genetic characterization of pseudocowpox virus from cattle in
      Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pseudocowpox virus (PCPV) infects cattle worldwide with zoonotic
      potential but has not been isolated in Japan. Thus, the epidemiological status of
      PCPV infection in cattle is undetermined. RESULTS: In May 2016, a cattle in a
      farm in Yamaguchi Prefecture showed white vesicles and hyperemia in the mucosa
      under the tongue surface, but not on the teats and coronary cushions. A
      parapoxvirus was isolated from the oral lesion swab and was genetically
      characterized based on the full-length sequence of B2L gene encoding viral
      envelope. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolated virus was classified
      into PCPV. CONCLUSION: This case indicates its potential spread in Japan. This is
      the first report of isolation of PCPV in Japan.

PMID- 28874201
TI  - Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) deficiency is associated with augmented inflammation
      and microvascular degeneration in the retina.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is an essential cofactor in multiple
      metabolic processes and plays an essential role in maintaining the inflammatory
      and neurovascular homeostasis. In this study, we have investigated the
      deleterious effects of BH4 deficiency on retinal vasculature during development.
      METHODS: hph-1 mice, which display deficiency in BH4 synthesis, were used to
      characterize the inflammatory effects and the integrity of retinal
      microvasculature. BH4 levels in retinas from hph-1 and wild type  (WT)  mice were
      measured by LC-MS/MS. Retinal microvascular area and microglial cells number were
      quantified in hph-1 and WT mice at different ages. Retinal expression of pro
      inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, and neuronal-derived factors was analyzed by qPCR.
      BH4 supplementation was evaluated in vitro, ex-vivo, and in vivo models. RESULTS:
      Our findings demonstrated that BH4 levels in the retina from hph-1 mice were
      significantly lower by ~ 90% at all ages analyzed compared to WT mice. Juvenile
      hph-1 mice showed iris atrophy, persistent fetal vasculature, significant
      increase in the number of microglial cells (p < 0.01), as well as a marked
      degeneration of the retinal microvasculature. Retinal microvascular alterations
      in juvenile hph-1 mice were associated with a decreased expression in Norrin (0.2
      fold) and its receptor Frizzled-4 (FZD4; 0.51-fold), as well as with an augmented
      expression of pro-inflammatory factors such as IL-6 (3.2-fold), NRLP-3 (4.4
      fold), IL-1beta (8.6-fold), and the anti-angiogenic factor thrombospondin-1 (TSP
      1; 17.5-fold). We found that TSP-1 derived from activated microglial cells is a
      factor responsible of inducing microvascular degeneration, but BH4
      supplementation markedly prevented hyperoxia-induced microglial activation in
      vitro and microvascular injury in an ex-vivo model of microvascular angiogenesis
      and an in vivo model of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR). CONCLUSION: Our
      findings reveal that BH4 is a key cofactor in regulating the expression of
      inflammatory and anti-angiogenic factors that play an important function in the
      maintenance of retinal microvasculature.

PMID- 28874202
TI  - Ethnobotanical survey of wild food plants traditionally collected and consumed in
      the Middle Agri Valley (Basilicata region, southern Italy).
AB  - BACKGROUND: This research was carried out in a scarcely populated area of the
      Middle Agri Valley (Basilicata region, southern Italy). The aim of the study was
      to record local knowledge on the traditional uses of wild food plants, as well as
      to collect information regarding the practices (gathering, processing and
      cooking) and the medicinal uses related to these plants. METHODS: Fifty-eight
      people still possessing traditional local knowledge (TLK), 74% women and 26% men,
      were interviewed between May-August 2012 and January 2013, using open and semi
      structured ethnobotanical interviews. For each described plant species, the
      botanical family, the Italian common and folk names, the plant parts used, the
      culinary preparation and, when present, the medicinal use, were recorded and the
      relative frequency of citation index (RFC) was determined. RESULTS: The 52 plant
      species mentioned by the respondents belong to 23 botanical families, with
      Asteraceae (12 plants) and Rosaceae (7 plants) being most frequently cited. The
      species with the highest RFC index is Cichorium intybus L. (0.95), followed by
      Sonchus spp. (S. oleraceus L., S. asper L. and S. arvensis L.) (0.76). The plant
      parts preferably used are leaves (22 plants), fruits (12) and stems (7). Only six
      wild plants were indicated as having both food use and therapeutic effect.
      CONCLUSIONS: The survey conducted on the traditional use of wild food plants in
      the Middle Agri Valley revealed that this cultural heritage is only partially
      retained by the population. Over the last few decades, this knowledge has been in
      fact quickly disappearing along with the people and, even in the rural context of
      the study area, is less and less handed down to younger generations.
      Nevertheless, data also revealed that the use of wild plants is recently being
      revaluated in a way closely related to local habits and traditions.

PMID- 28874203
TI  - Behcet's disease with recurrent thoracic aortic aneurysm combined with femoral
      artery aneurysm: a case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aneurysm or pseudoaneurysm is the main vascular complication of
      Behcet's disease. Most hospitals adopt endovascular treatment. CASE PRESENTATION:
      We report a case of Behcet's disease with recurrent thoracic aortic aneurysm
      combined with femoral artery aneurysm. The patient underwent two rounds of
      endovascular surgery, but developed new aneurysms immediately after surgery.
      Eventually, the patient died due to rupture of recurrent aneurysm. CONCLUSIONS:
      For vasculo-Behcet's disease, we suggest performing the operation during the
      stable period. At the same time, glucocorticoids could be used with
      immunosuppressants preoperatively and postoperatively.

PMID- 28874205
TI  - Target volume delineation of anal cancer based on magnetic resonance imaging or
      positron emission tomography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare target volume delineation of anal cancer using positron
      emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with respect to
      inter-observer and inter-modality variability. METHODS: Nineteen patients with
      anal cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy were prospectively included. Planning
      computed tomography (CT) images were co-registered with 18F-fluorodexocyglucose
      (FDG) PET/CT images and T2 and diffusion weighted (DW) MR images. Three
      oncologists delineated the Gross Tumor Volume (GTV) according to national
      guidelines and the visible tumor tissue (GTVT). MRI and PET based delineations
      were evaluated by absolute volumes and Dice similarity coefficients. RESULTS: The
      median volume of the GTVs was 27 and 31 cm3 for PET and MRI, respectively, while
      it was 6 and 11 cm3 for GTVT. Both GTV and GTVT volumes were highly correlated
      between delineators (r = 0.90 and r = 0.96, respectively). The median Dice
      similarity coefficient was 0.75 when comparing the GTVs based on PET/CT (GTVPET)
      with the GTVs based on MRI and CT (GTVMRI). The median Dice coefficient was 0.56
      when comparing the visible tumor volume evaluated by PET (GTVT_PET) with the same
      volume evaluated by MRI (GTVT_MRI). Margins of 1-2 mm in the axial plane and 7-8
      mm in superoinferior direction were required for coverage of the individual
      observer's GTVs. CONCLUSIONS: The rather good agreement between PET- and MRI
      based GTVs indicates that either modality may be used for standard target
      delineation of anal cancer. However, larger deviations were found for GTVT, which
      may impact future tumor boost strategies.

PMID- 28874204
TI  - Spotted fever rickettsiae in wild-living rodents from south-western Poland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rickettsiae are obligate intracellular alpha-proteobacteria. They are
      transmitted via arthropod vectors, which transmit the bacteria between animals
      and occasionally to humans. So far, much research has been conducted to indicate
      reservoir hosts for these microorganisms, but our knowledge is still non
      exhaustive. Therefore, this survey was undertaken to investigate the presence of
      Rickettsia spp. in wild-living small rodents from south-western Poland. RESULTS:
      In total, 337 samples (193 from spleen and 144 from blood) obtained from 193 wild
      living rodents: Apodemus agrarius, Apodemus flavicollis, and Myodes glareolus
      were tested by qPCR for Rickettsia spp. based on a fragment of gltA gene. The
      prevalence of infection was 17.6% (34/193). Subsequently, the positive samples
      were analysed by conventional PCR targeting the gltA gene fragment. The genus
      Rickettsia was confirmed by sequence analysis in four samples from the blood. In
      two blood samples from A. agrarius, the identified pathogen was Rickettsia
      helvetica. The Rickettsia obtained from A. flavicollis was assigned to Rickettsia
      felis-like organisms group. One isolate from A. agrarius could be determined only
      to the genus level. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the presence of Rickettsia DNA
      in tissues of wild-living rodents, suggesting some potential role of these
      animals in temporarily maintaining and spreading the bacteria in enzootic cycles.

PMID- 28874207
TI  - Evaluation of active ingredients and larvicidal activity of clove and cinnamon
      essential oils against Anopheles gambiae (sensu lato).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mosquitoes are well-known vectors of many diseases including malaria
      and lymphatic filariasis. Uses of synthetic insecticides are associated with high
      toxicity, resistance, environmental pollution and limited alternative, effective
      synthetic insecticides. This study was undertaken to evaluate the larvicidal
      efficacy of clove and cinnamon essential oils against laboratory Anopheles
      gambiae (sensu stricto) and wild An. arabiensis larvae. METHODS: The standard WHO
      guideline for larvicides evaluation was used, and the GC-MS machine was used for
      active compounds percentage composition analysis and structures identification.
      Probit regression analysis was used for LC50 and LC95 calculations while a t-test
      was used to test for significant differences between laboratory-reared and wild
      larvae populations in each concentration of plant extract. RESULTS: Mortality
      effect of clove and cinnamon essential oils against wild and laboratory-reared
      larvae had variations indicated by their LC50 and LC95 values. The mortality at
      different concentrations of cinnamon and clove post-exposure for wild and
      laboratory-reared larvae were dosage-dependent and were higher for cinnamon than
      for clove essential oils. The mortality effect following exposure to a blend of
      the two essential oils was higher for blends containing a greater proportion of
      cinnamon oil. In the chemical analysis of the active ingredients of cinnamon
      essential oil, the main chemical content was Eugenol, and the rarest was beta
      Linalool while for clove essential oil, the main chemical content was Eugenol and
      the rarest was Bicyclo. CONCLUSION: The essential oils showed a larvicidal effect
      which was concentration-dependent for both laboratory and wild collected larvae.
      The active ingredient compositions triggered different responses in mortality.
      Further research in small-scale should be conducted with concentrated extracted
      compounds.

PMID- 28874208
TI  - Throat swabs have no influence on the management of patients with sore throats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Throat swabs are neither specific nor sensitive for micro-bacteria
      causing sore throat symptoms; however, current guidelines suggest they are still
      useful in some cases. METHOD: Retrospective and prospective analyses were
      conducted of throat swabs requested within the months of January 2016 and August
      2016, respectively. RESULTS: The study comprised 247 patients. Fifty-nine (24 per
      cent) had a positive culture. Forty-six grew group A beta-haemolytic
      streptococci, with the remainder growing candida (n = 10), coliform (n = 1) and
      klebsiella (n = 2). There was no significant difference in culture rates between
      primary or secondary care sources (chi2 = 0.56, p = 0.45). None of the swabs
      influenced a variation in patient management from local antimicrobial policies.
      Current practice has an estimated annual financial impact of L3 434 340 on the
      National Health Service. CONCLUSION: Throat swabs do not influence the
      antimicrobial treatment for patients with sore throats, even under current
      guidelines, and incur unnecessary cost. Current clinical guidelines could be
      reviewed to reduce the number of throat swabs being conducted unnecessarily.

PMID- 28874209
TI  - Subclinical levels of anxiety but not depression are associated with planning
      performance in a large population-based sample.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major depression and anxiety disorders are known to negatively
      influence cognitive performance. Moreover, there is evidence for greater
      cognitive decline in older adults with generalized anxiety disorder. Except for
      clinical studies, complex executive planning functions and subclinical levels of
      anxiety have not been examined in a population-based sample with a broad age
      range. METHODS: Planning performance was assessed using the Tower of London task
      in a population-based sample of 4240 participants aged 40-80 years from the
      Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) and related to self-reported anxiety and depression
      by means of multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Higher anxiety ratings
      were associated with lower planning performance (beta = -0.20; p < 0.0001)
      independent of age (beta = 0.03; p = 0.47). When directly comparing the
      predictive value of depression and anxiety on cognition, only anxiety attained
      significance (beta = -0.19; p = 0.0047), whereas depression did not (beta = 
      0.01; p = 0.71). CONCLUSIONS: Subclinical levels of anxiety but not of depression
      showed negative associations with cognitive functioning independent of age. Our
      results demonstrate that associations observed in clinical groups might differ
      from those in population-based samples, also with regard to the trajectory across
      the life span. Further studies are needed to uncover causal interrelations of
      anxiety and cognition, which have been proposed in the literature, in order to
      develop interventions aimed at reducing this negative affective state and to
      improve executive functioning.

PMID- 28874210
TI  - Ultrastructural, Elemental and Mineralogical Analysis of Vascular Calcification
      in Atherosclerosis.
AB  - Over the past few decades, remarkable progress has been achieved in terms of
      understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of atherosclerotic vascular
      calcification and the important role of matrix vesicles in initiating and
      propagating pathologic tissue mineralization has been widely recognized. Despite
      these recent advances, however, no definitive data are currently available
      regarding the texture and composition of the minerals that grow in the vessel
      wall during the course of the disease. Using different electron microscopy
      imaging and analysis, we demonstrate that vascular cells can produce and secrete
      more than one type of matrix vesicles which act as sites for initial mineral
      deposition independently of their structural features. Our results reveal that
      apatite formation in the atherosclerotic lesions of the human aorta occur through
      the deposition of amorphous calcium phosphate that matures over time, transforms
      into crystalline hydroxyapatite, and radiates towards the lumen of the vesicles,
      finally forming the calcified spherules. Elemental and mineralogical analyses
      also demonstrate that the presence of mature and stable amorphous calcium
      phosphate deposits in the affected tissues is linked to the incorporation of
      magnesium, which probably delay the conversion to the crystalline phase. Though
      more rarely, the presence of calcium oxalate crystals has been also documented.

PMID- 28874211
TI  - Audiological outcome of stapes surgery for far advanced cochlear otosclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced otosclerosis can present with hearing
      thresholds eligible for cochlear implantation. This study sought to address
      whether stapes surgery in this patient group provides a clinically significant
      audiological benefit. OBJECTIVES: To assess pre- and post-operative hearing
      outcomes of patients with advanced otosclerosis, and to determine what proportion
      of these patients required further surgery including cochlear implantation.
      METHODS: Between 2002 and 2015, 252 patients underwent primary stapes surgery at
      our institution. Twenty-eight ears in 25 patients were deemed to have advanced
      otosclerosis, as defined by pure audiometry thresholds over 80 dB. The patients'
      records were analysed to determine audiological improvement following stapes
      surgery, and assess whether any further surgery was required. RESULTS: The
      audiological outcome for most patients who underwent primary stapes surgery was
      good. A minority of patients (7 per cent) required revision surgery. Patients who
      underwent cochlear implantation after stapes surgery (10 per cent) also
      demonstrated a good audiological outcome. CONCLUSION: Stapes surgery is a
      suitable treatment option for patients with advanced otosclerosis, and should be
      considered mandatory, before offering cochlear implantation, for those with a
      demonstrable conductive component to their hearing loss. A small group of
      patients get little benefit from surgery and subsequently a cochlear implant
      should be considered.

PMID- 28874212
TI  - Mucosal Barrier Injury Central-Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections: What is
      the Impact of Standard Prevention Bundles?

PMID- 28874214
TI  - A histopathological connection between a fatal endolymphatic sac tumour and von
      Hippel-Lindau disease from 1960.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To highlight a case from 1960 connecting endolymphatic sac tumour and
      von Hippel-Lindau disease. CASE REPORT: In 1960, a 24-year-old woman presented
      with unilateral hearing loss, pulsatile tinnitus and a mass visible on otoscopy.
      The patient underwent surgical biopsy, which was complicated by haemorrhage, and
      ultimately resulted in death. At autopsy, a destructive temporal bone neoplasm
      with cystic and papillary architecture was observed that had eroded into the otic
      capsule. Intra-abdominal lesions consistent with von Hippel-Lindau disease were
      also observed, and the surgeon postulated a connection between endolymphatic sac
      tumour and von Hippel-Lindau disease. METHOD: A review of the literature was
      carried out using PubMed. CONCLUSION: Endolymphatic sac tumours are rare
      neoplasms of the temporal bone that can occur sporadically or as part of von
      Hippel-Lindau disease. The connection between endolymphatic sac tumour and von
      Hippel-Lindau disease was first proposed in 1988 and formalised in 1997. We
      believe that this case represents the first documented connection between
      endolymphatic sac tumour and von Hippel-Lindau disease.

PMID- 28874213
TI  - Differences in Neurocognitive Impairment Among HIV-Infected Latinos in the United
      States.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disproportionately affects
      Hispanics/Latinos in the United States, yet little is known about neurocognitive
      impairment (NCI) in this group. We compared the rates of NCI in large well
      characterized samples of HIV-infected (HIV+) Latinos and (non-Latino) Whites, and
      examined HIV-associated NCI among subgroups of Latinos. METHODS: Participants
      included English-speaking HIV+ adults assessed at six U.S. medical centers (194
      Latinos, 600 Whites). For overall group, age: M=42.65 years, SD=8.93; 86% male;
      education: M=13.17, SD=2.73; 54% had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. NCI was
      assessed with a comprehensive test battery with normative corrections for age,
      education and gender. Covariates examined included HIV-disease characteristics,
      comorbidities, and genetic ancestry. RESULTS: Compared with Whites, Latinos had
      higher rates of global NCI (42% vs. 54%), and domain NCI in executive function,
      learning, recall, working memory, and processing speed. Latinos also fared worse
      than Whites on current and historical HIV-disease characteristics, and nadir CD4
      partially mediated ethnic differences in NCI. Yet, Latinos continued to have more
      global NCI [odds ratio (OR)=1.59; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.13-2.23; p<.01]
      after adjusting for significant covariates. Higher rates of global NCI were
      observed with Puerto Rican (n=60; 71%) versus Mexican (n=79, 44%) origin/descent;
      this disparity persisted in models adjusting for significant covariates (OR=2.40;
      CI=1.11-5.29; p=.03). CONCLUSIONS: HIV+ Latinos, especially of Puerto Rican (vs.
      Mexican) origin/descent had increased rates of NCI compared with Whites.
      Differences in rates of NCI were not completely explained by worse HIV-disease
      characteristics, neurocognitive comorbidities, or genetic ancestry. Future
      studies should explore culturally relevant psychosocial, biomedical, and genetic
      factors that might explain these disparities and inform the development of
      targeted interventions. (JINS, 2018, 24, 163-175).

PMID- 28874206
TI  - Variation in monitoring and treatment policies for intracranial hypertension in
      traumatic brain injury: a survey in 66 neurotrauma centers participating in the
      CENTER-TBI study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No definitive evidence exists on how intracranial hypertension should
      be treated in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is therefore likely
      that centers and practitioners individually balance potential benefits and risks
      of different intracranial pressure (ICP) management strategies, resulting in
      practice variation. The aim of this study was to examine variation in monitoring
      and treatment policies for intracranial hypertension in patients with TBI.
      METHODS: A 29-item survey on ICP monitoring and treatment was developed on the
      basis of literature and expert opinion, and it was pilot-tested in 16 centers.
      The questionnaire was sent to 68 neurotrauma centers participating in the
      Collaborative European Neurotrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain
      Injury (CENTER-TBI) study. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 66 centers (97%
      response rate). Centers were mainly academic hospitals (n = 60, 91%) and
      designated level I trauma centers (n = 44, 67%). The Brain Trauma Foundation
      guidelines were used in 49 (74%) centers. Approximately 90% of the participants
      (n = 58) indicated placing an ICP monitor in patients with severe TBI and
      computed tomographic abnormalities. There was no consensus on other indications
      or on peri-insertion precautions. We found wide variation in the use of first-
      and second-tier treatments for elevated ICP. Approximately half of the centers
      were classified as using a relatively aggressive approach to ICP monitoring and
      treatment (n = 32, 48%), whereas the others were considered more conservative (n
      = 34, 52%). CONCLUSIONS: Substantial variation was found regarding monitoring and
      treatment policies in patients with TBI and intracranial hypertension. The
      results of this survey indicate a lack of consensus between European neurotrauma
      centers and provide an opportunity and necessity for comparative effectiveness
      research.

PMID- 28874215
TI  - PARTICIPATORY DESIGN OF PEDIATRIC UPPER LIMB PROSTHESES: QUALITATIVE METHODS AND
      PROTOTYPING.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The study aims to develop an understanding of the views of children
      and adolescents, parents, and professionals on upper limb prosthetic devices to
      develop and improve device design. Previous research has found that children are
      dissatisfied with prostheses but has relied heavily on parent proxy reports and
      quantitative measures (such as questionnaires) to explore their views. METHODS:
      Thirty-four participants (eight children aged 8-15 years with upper limb
      difference, nine parents, eight prosthetists, and nine occupational therapists)
      contributed to the development of new devices through the BRIDGE methodology of
      participatory design, using focus groups and interviews. RESULTS: The study
      identified areas for improving prostheses from the perspective of children and
      adolescents, developed prototypes based on these and gained feedback on the
      prototypes from the children and other stakeholders (parents and professionals)
      of paediatric upper limb prostheses. Future device development needs to focus on
      ease of use, versatility, appearance, and safety. CONCLUSIONS: This study has
      demonstrated that children and adolescents can and should be involved as equal
      partners in the development of daily living equipment and that rapid prototyping
      (three-dimensional printing or additive manufacturing), used within a
      participatory design framework, can be a useful tool for facilitating this.

PMID- 28874216
TI  - Nutrient intake, rumen fermentation and growth performance of dairy calves fed
      extruded full-fat soybean as a replacement for soybean meal.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of extruded full-fat
      soybean (ESB) as a replacement for soybean meal (SBM) on nutrient intake, rumen
      fermentation, and growth performance of dairy calves. A total of 45 male Holstein
      dairy calves (42.0+/-0.5 kg of BW) were randomly assigned to one of three
      experimental diets: (1) 0% ESB (Control): 35.3% SBM no ESB; (2) 25% ESB: 27.0%
      SBM+9.0% ESB; and (3) 50% ESB: 19.0% SBM+19.0% ESB. All calves were weaned on day
      56 of age and remained in the study until day 70 of age. During the pre-weaning
      and overall periods, substituting of SBM with ESB had no effect on intake of
      starter feed, metabolizable energy (ME), CP and non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC).
      Compared with the control, 50% ESB resulted in a decrease in starter feed intake,
      and intakes of other nutrients including CP, NFC and ME during the post-weaning
      period. Substituting SBM with ESB decreased intake of C16 : 0 and increased
      intakes of n-9 C18 : 1, n-6 C18 : 2 and n-3 C18 : 3 during the pre-weaning, post
      weaning and overall periods. Using ESB as a replacement for SBM did not affect
      average daily gain, feed efficiency, rectal temperature and fecal score over the
      trial periods. Compared with control, the rumen concentration of NH3-N decreased
      for 50% ESB on days 35 and 56 of age but not when compared with 25% ESB. Rumen
      pH, total volatile fatty acids concentrations, and the molar proportions of
      ruminal acetate, propionate and butyrate were not different among treatments.
      Body measurements were not affected by the treatments. In conclusion,
      substitution of SBM with ESB may improve nitrogen utilization efficiency in dairy
      calves but slightly reduce post-weaning starter intake with no negative outcomes
      on growth performance and rumen fermentation.

PMID- 28874218
TI  - Suicide risk assessment among psychiatric inpatients: a systematic review and
      meta-analysis of high-risk categories.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clinical care of psychiatric patients is often guided by
      perceptions of suicide risk. The aim of this study was to examine the methods and
      results of studies reporting high-risk models for inpatient suicide. METHODS: We
      conducted a registered meta-analysis according to PRISMA guidelines. We searched
      for relevant peer-reviewed cohort and controlled studies indexed in Medline,
      EMBASE and PsychINFO. RESULTS: The pooled odds ratio (OR) among 18 studies
      reporting high-risk models for inpatient suicide was 7.1 [95% confidence interval
      (CI) 4.2-12.2]. Between-study heterogeneity in ORs was very high (range 0-94.8,
      first quartile 3.4, median 8.8, third quartile 26.1, prediction interval 0.80
      63.1, I2 = 88.1%). The meta-analytically derived sensitivity was 53.1% (95% CI
      38.2-67.5%, I2 = 95.9%) and specificity was 84.2% (95% CI 71.6-91.9%, I2 = 99.9%)
      with an associated meta-analytic area under the curve of 0.83. The positive
      predictive value of risk categorization among six cohort studies was 0.43% (95%
      CI 0.014-1.3%, I2 = 95.9%). A history of suicidal behavior and depressive
      symptoms or affective disorder was included in the majority of high-risk models.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite the strength of the pooled association between high-risk
      categorization and suicide, the very high degree of observed heterogeneity
      indicates uncertainty about our ability to meaningfully distinguish inpatients
      according to suicide risk. The limited sensitivity and low positive predictive
      value of risk categorization suggest that suicide risk models are not a suitable
      basis for clinical decisions in inpatient settings.

PMID- 28874219
TI  - More Than Meets the Eye: Adenoviral Conjunctivitis in Healthcare Settings.

PMID- 28874217
TI  - Impact of pre-operative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D on post-operative serum calcium
      in patients undergoing total thyroidectomy for benign goitre: retrospective study
      of 246 patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether pre-operative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D has an
      impact on post-operative parathyroid hormone and serum calcium levels in patients
      undergoing total thyroidectomy for benign goitre. METHODS: This single-centre,
      retrospective study comprised 246 unselected surgical patients who had undergone
      total thyroidectomy for bilateral, benign, multinodular goitre. The correlation
      between pre-operative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and post-operative serum
      parathyroid hormone and serum calcium was studied to determine whether low pre
      operative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was predictive of post-operative
      hypocalcaemia. RESULTS: Seventy-nine patients (32 per cent) had post-operative
      hypocalcaemia. Eighteen patients (7.32 per cent) experienced unintentional
      parathyroidectomy (1 parathyroid gland in 15 patients, 2 parathyroid glands in 3
      patients). In univariate analysis, pre-operative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was
      not correlated with post-operative serum calcium (p = 0.69) or post-operative
      serum parathyroid hormone (p = 0.5804). Furthermore, in multivariate analysis,
      which took into account unintentional parathyroidectomy, no correlation was found
      (p = 0.33). Bilateral unintentional parathyroidectomy was statistically
      associated with post-operative hypocalcaemia (p = 0.032). CONCLUSION: Pre
      operative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D did not appear to have any impact on post
      operative serum calcium in patients undergoing total thyroidectomy for benign
      goitre.

PMID- 28874220
TI  - Facets of Conscientiousness and risk of dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple studies have found Conscientiousness to be protective
      against dementia. The purpose of this study is to identify which specific
      aspects, or facets, of Conscientiousness are most protective against cognitive
      impairment and whether these associations are moderated by demographic factors
      and/or genetic risk. METHODS: Health and Retirement Study participants were
      selected for analysis if they completed the facets of Conscientiousness measure,
      scored in the range of normal cognitive functioning at the baseline personality
      assessment, and had at least one follow-up assessment of cognition over the up to
      6-year follow-up (N = 11 181). Cox regression was used to test for risk of
      incident dementia and risk of incident cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND).
      RESULTS: Over the follow-up, 278 participants developed dementia and 2186
      participants developed CIND. The facet of responsibility had the strongest and
      most consistent association with dementia risk: every standard deviation increase
      in this facet was associated with a nearly 35% decreased risk of dementia; self
      control and industriousness were also protective. Associations were generally
      similar when controlling for clinical, behavioral, and genetic risk factors.
      These three facets were also independent predictors of decreased risk of CIND.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present research indicates that individuals who see themselves
      as responsible, able to control their behavior, and hard workers are less likely
      to develop CIND or dementia and that these associations persist after accounting
      for some common clinical, behavioral, and genetic risk factors.

PMID- 28874221
TI  - The relationship between tinnitus pitch and parameters of audiometry and
      distortion product otoacoustic emissions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Chronic tinnitus is associated with reduced auditory input, which
      results in changes in the central auditory system. This study aimed to examine
      the relationship between tinnitus pitch and parameters of audiometry and
      distortion product otoacoustic emissions. For audiometry, the parameters
      represented the edge frequency of hearing loss, the frequency of maximum hearing
      loss and the frequency range of hearing loss. For distortion product otoacoustic
      emissions, the parameters were the frequency of lowest distortion product
      otoacoustic emission amplitudes and the frequency range of reduced distortion
      product otoacoustic emissions. METHOD: Sixty-seven patients (45 males, 22
      females) with subjective chronic tinnitus, aged 18 to 73 years, were included.
      RESULTS: No correlation was found between tinnitus pitch and parameters of
      audiometry and distortion product otoacoustic emissions. However, tinnitus pitch
      fell mostly within the frequency range of hearing loss. CONCLUSION: The current
      study seems to confirm the relationship between tinnitus pitch and the frequency
      range of hearing loss, thus supporting the homeostatic plasticity model.

PMID- 28874222
TI  - INTEGRATE-HTA: THE PERSPECTIVE OF EUnetHTA.
AB  - The HTA Core Model (HTACM) of EUnetHTA and the INTEGRATE-HTA Model (IHTAM) both
      provide HTA experts with advanced guidance on how to assess health technologies.
      In this study, we examine the similarities and differences of the two models,
      identifying synergies and opportunities for future collaboration. We also
      consider how such an alignment of the HTACM and IHTAM might be done in practice
      and present some alternative practical approaches. Overall the two models share
      several similarities, primarily the perception of HTA as a multidisciplinary
      analysis that needs to be adjusted according to the properties of the technology
      under assessment.

PMID- 28874223
TI  - Premorbid social adjustment and association with attenuated psychotic symptoms in
      clinical high-risk and help-seeking youth.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Attenuated positive symptom syndrome (APSS), characterized by
      'putatively prodromal' attenuated psychotic-like pathology, indicates increased
      risk for psychosis. Poor premorbid social adjustment predicts severity of APSS
      symptoms and predicts subsequent psychosis in APSS-diagnosed individuals,
      suggesting application for improving detection of 'true' prodromal youth who will
      transition to psychosis. However, these predictive associations have not been
      tested in controls and therefore may be independent of the APSS diagnosis,
      negating utility for improving prediction in APSS-diagnosed individuals. METHOD:
      Association between premorbid social maladjustment and severity of positive,
      negative, disorganized, and general APSS symptoms was tested in 156 individuals
      diagnosed with APSS and 76 help-seeking (non-APSS) controls enrolled in the
      Enhancing the Prospective Prediction of Psychosis (PREDICT) study using
      prediction analysis. RESULTS: Premorbid social maladjustment was associated with
      social anhedonia, reduced expression of emotion, restricted ideational richness,
      and deficits in occupational functioning, independent of the APSS diagnosis.
      Associations between social maladjustment and suspiciousness, unusual thought
      content, avolition, dysphoric mood, and impaired tolerance to normal stress were
      uniquely present in participants meeting APSS criteria. Social maladjustment was
      associated with odd behavior/appearance and diminished experience of emotions and
      self only in participants who did not meet APSS criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Predictive
      associations between poor premorbid social adjustment and attenuated psychotic
      like pathology were identified, a subset of which were indicative of high risk
      for psychosis. This study offers a method for improving risk identification while
      ruling out low-risk individuals.

PMID- 28874224
TI  - Adolescent mental health and behavioural predictors of being NEET: a prospective
      study of young adults not in employment, education, or training.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Young adults who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET)
      are at risk of long-term economic disadvantage and social exclusion. Knowledge
      about risk factors for being NEET largely comes from cross-sectional studies of
      vulnerable individuals. Using data collected over a 10-year period, we examined
      adolescent predictors of being NEET in young adulthood. METHODS: We used data on
      1938 participants from the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study, a community
      based longitudinal study of adolescents in Victoria, Australia. Associations
      between common mental disorders, disruptive behaviour, cannabis use and drinking
      behaviour in adolescence, and NEET status at two waves of follow-up in young
      adulthood (mean ages of 20.7 and 24.1 years) were investigated using logistic
      regression, with generalised estimating equations used to account for the
      repeated outcome measure. RESULTS: Overall, 8.5% of the participants were NEET at
      age 20.7 years and 8.2% at 24.1 years. After adjusting for potential confounders,
      we found evidence of increased risk of being NEET among frequent adolescent
      cannabis users [adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) = 1.74; 95% confidence interval (CI)
      1.10-2.75] and those who reported repeated disruptive behaviours (ORadj = 1.71;
      95% CI 1.15-2.55) or persistent common mental disorders in adolescence (ORadj =
      1.60; 95% CI 1.07-2.40). Similar associations were present when participants with
      children were included in the same category as those in employment, education, or
      training. CONCLUSIONS: Young people with an early onset of mental health and
      behavioural problems are at risk of failing to make the transition from school to
      employment. This finding reinforces the importance of integrated employment and
      mental health support programmes.

PMID- 28874225
TI  - Costs Associated with Ebola Preparedness at a Freestanding Pediatric Assessment
      Center.
AB  - The 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak led US hospitals to prepare to treat
      Ebola patients, with significant attributable costs. A nationwide preparedness
      transition to a tiered approach allowed regional allocation of preparedness
      resources for Ebola frontline, assessment, and treatment hospitals. Preparedness
      costs for assessment centers were significant and largely uncompensated. Infect
      Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1367-1369.

PMID- 28874226
TI  - An updated review of avian-origin Tembusu virus: a newly emerging avian
      Flavivirus.
AB  - Tembusu virus (TMUV, genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae) was first isolated in
      1955 from Culex tritaeniorhynchus mosquitoes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In April
      2010, duck TMUV was first identified as the causative agent of egg-drop syndrome,
      characterized by a substantial decrease in egg laying and depression, growth
      retardation and neurological signs or death in infected egg-laying and breeder
      ducks, in the People's Republic of China. Since 2010, duck TMUV has spread to
      most of the duck-producing regions in China, including many of the coastal
      provinces, neighbouring regions and certain Southeast Asia areas (i.e. Thailand
      and Malaysia). This review describes the current understanding of the genome
      characteristics, host range, transmission, epidemiology, phylogenetic and immune
      evasion of avian-origin TMUV and the innate immune response of the host.

PMID- 28874227
TI  - The impact of virus population diversity on the dynamics of cytomegalovirus
      DNAemia in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients.
AB  - Mixed cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections are associated with delayed viral
      clearance in solid organ transplant recipients. We investigated whether this
      could be extrapolated to allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT) recipients. A
      total of 48 plasma specimens, obtained during 29 episodes of active CMV infection
      in 25 non-consecutive allo-SCT patients, were analysed. Baseline blood specimens,
      drawn shortly prior to the inception of pre-emptive antiviral therapy (pre
      treatment specimen; n=29), as well as follow-up samples obtained either after the
      initiation of antiviral therapy (post-treatment specimen; n=15) or during
      recurrent episodes (n=4) were analysed. Plasma CMV DNA loads were quantified by
      real-time PCR and the CMV genotyping was performed by ultra-deep sequencing of
      hypervariable regions in the genes coding for glycoproteins N (gN) and O (gO). A
      trend towards higher CMV DNA peak loads, longer CMV DNAemia episode durations and
      slower CMV DNAemia decay rates was observed for episodes with mixed CMV genotype
      populations compared to those caused by single CMV variants, although the
      differences did not reach statistical significance. The length of the treatment
      course required to clear DNAemia was significantly longer in these mixed episodes
      (P=0.002). Significant changes in the number or frequency of CMV gN or gO genetic
      variants were documented following the initiation of antiviral therapy or in
      recurrent episodes. CMV diversity may have a major impact on the kinetics of CMV
      DNAemia clearance during the treatment of active CMV infection episodes in allo
      SCT recipients.

PMID- 28874229
TI  - Molecular evolution and phylogeography of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus
      with a focus on its presence in France over the last 30 years.
AB  - Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is among the most important
      pathogens affecting the salmonid industry. Here, we investigated the molecular
      evolution and circulation of isolates from 11 countries or regions all over the
      world, with a special focus on the epidemiological situation in France. The
      phylogeography, time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) and nucleotide
      substitution rate were studied using 118 full-length glycoprotein gene sequences
      isolated from 9 countries (5 genogroups) over a period of 47 years. The TMRCA
      dates back to 1943, with the L genogroup identified as the likely root (67 %),
      which is consistent with the first report of this pathogen in the USA. A Bayesian
      inference approach was applied to the partial glycoprotein gene sequences of 88
      representative strains isolated in France over the period 1987-2015. The genetic
      diversity of these 88 sequences showed mean nucleotide and amino-acid identities
      of 97.1 and 97.8 %, respectively, and a dN/dS ratio (non-synonymous to synonymous
      mutations) of 0.25, indicating purifying selection. The French viral populations
      are divided into eight sub-clades and four individual isolates, with a clear
      spatial differentiation, suggesting the predominant role of local reservoirs in
      contamination. The atypical 'signatures' of some isolates underlined the
      usefulness of molecular phylogeny for epidemiological investigations that track
      the spread of IHNV.

PMID- 28874228
TI  - Multivariate Validated Models for Simultaneous Determination of Ibuprofen and
      Famotidine in the Presence of Related Substances.
AB  - Two multivariate validated spectrophotometric methods, namely partial least
      squares (PLS) and principal component regression (PCR), were developed and
      validated for the determination of ibuprofen and famotidine in presence of
      famotidine degradation products and ibuprofen impurity (4-isobutylacetophenone).
      A calibration set was prepared in which the two drugs together with the
      degradation products and impurity were modeled using a multilevel multifactor
      design. This calibration set was used to build the PLS and PCR models. The
      proposed models successfully predicted the concentrations of both drugs in
      validation samples, with low root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV)
      percentage. The method was validated by the estimate of the figures of merit
      depending on the net analyte signal. The results of the two models showed that
      the simultaneous determination of both drugs could be performed in the
      concentration ranges of 100-500 ug/mL for ibuprofen and 5-25 ug/mL for
      famotidine. The proposed multivariate calibration methods were applied for the
      determination of ibuprofen and famotidine in their pharmaceutical formulation,
      and the results were verified by the standard addition technique.

PMID- 28874230
TI  - Therapeutic effect of autologous compact bone-derived mesenchymal stem cell
      transplantation on prion disease.
AB  - Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders of humans and animals and no
      effective treatments are currently available. Allogenic transplantation of
      immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can prolong the survival of mice
      infected with prions. However, autologous transplantation is an appropriate model
      for evaluating the effects of MSCs on prion diseases. Therefore, we isolated and
      purified MSCs from the femur and tibia of mice as compact bone-derived MSCs (CB
      MSCs). Flow cytometric analysis showed that CB-MSCs were negative for myeloid
      stem cell-derived cell markers CD11b and CD45, but positive for molecules such as
      Sca-1, CD105 and CD90.2, which are reported to be expressed on MSCs. The ability
      of CB-MSCs to migrate to brain extracts from prion-infected mice was confirmed by
      an in vitro migration assay. Intra-hippocampus transplantation of CB-MSCs at 120
      days post-inoculation marginally but significantly prolonged the survival of mice
      infected with the Chandler prion strain. The transplantation of CB-MSCs did not
      influence the accumulation of disease-specific prion protein. However, the CB-MSC
      transplantation enhanced microglial activation, which appeared to be polarized to
      the M2-type activation state. These results suggest that autologous MSC
      transplantation is a possible treatment for prion diseases, while the
      modification of microglial activation may be a therapeutic target for
      neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28874231
TI  - Genomic characterization of a novel iridovirus from redclaw crayfish Cherax
      quadricarinatus: evidence for a new genus within the family Iridoviridae.
AB  - A novel iridovirus, Cherax quadricarinatus iridovirus (CQIV), was identified from
      diseased C. quadricarinatus in 2014. This virus is considered as a new threat to
      crustacean aquaculture because it is lethal to both peneaid shrimp and crayfish.
      Here, we determined the complete genome sequence of CQIV. The double-stranded DNA
      genome is 165 695 bp in length with a G+C content of 34.6 %. A total of 178 open
      reading frames (ORFs) have been predicted, encoding hypothetical proteins ranging
      from 50 to 1327 amino acids. Forty-seven of these exhibit similarities to
      proteins of known functions. Phylogenetic analysis based on multiple alignments
      of conserved proteins shows that CQIV clusters with the members of the family
      Iridoviridae, but is placed in a distinct clade from all the five known genera.
      It indicates that CQIV may represent a new genus in the family Iridoviridae, for
      which we propose the name Cheraxvirus based on the host organism.

PMID- 28874232
TI  - In silico assessment of virulence factors in strains of Streptococcus oralis and
      Streptococcus mitis isolated from patients with Infective Endocarditis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Streptococcus oralis and Streptococcus mitis belong to the Mitis group,
      which are mostly commensals in the human oral cavity. Even though S. oralis and
      S. mitis are oral commensals, they can be opportunistic pathogens causing
      infective endocarditis. A recent taxonomic re-evaluation of the Mitis group has
      embedded the species Streptococcus tigurinus and Streptococcus dentisani into the
      species S. oralis as subspecies. In this study, the distribution of virulence
      factors that contribute to bacterial immune evasion, colonization and adhesion
      was assessed in clinical strains of S. oralis (subsp. oralis, subsp. tigurinus
      and subsp. dentisani) and S. mitis. METHODOLOGY: Forty clinical S. oralis (subsp.
      oralis, subsp. dentisani and subsp. tigurinus) and S. mitis genomes were
      annotated with the pipeline PanFunPro and aligned against the VFDB database for
      assessment of virulence factors.Results/Key findings. Three homologues of pavA,
      psaA and lmb, encoding adhesion proteins, were present in all strains. Seven
      homologues of nanA, nanB, ply, lytA, lytB, lytC and iga, of importance regarding
      survival in blood and modulation of the human immune system, were variously
      present in the genomes. Few S. oralis subspecies specific differences were
      observed. iga homologues were identified in S. oralis subsp. oralis, whereas lytA
      homologues were identified in S. oralis subsp. oralis and subsp. tigurinus.
      CONCLUSION: Differences in the presence of virulence factors among the three S.
      oralis subspecies were observed. The virulence gene profiles of the 40 S. mitis
      and S. oralis (subsp. oralis, subsp. dentisani and subsp. tigurinus) contribute
      with important new knowledge regarding these species and new subspecies.

PMID- 28874233
TI  - Predominance of clarithromycin-susceptible Mycobacterium massiliense subspecies:
      Characterization of the Mycobacterium abscessus complex at a tertiary acute care
      hospital.
AB  - To characterize members of the Mycobacterium abscessus complex, with an emphasis
      on the correlation between species identification and clarithromycin associated
      genetic polymorphisms that contribute to inducible and constitutive macrolide
      resistance. PCR and sequencing analysis was used to elucidate the subspecies,
      erm(41) genotypes and the presence of rrl mutations. M. abscessus subsp.
      massiliense was the dominant subspecies (70.2 %), followed by M. abscessus subsp.
      abscessus (23.8 %) and M. abscessus subsp. bolletii (5.9 %). The majority of M.
      abscessus and M. bolletii isolates possessed T28 erm(41) sequevar and were
      inducibly resistant to clarithromycin. All M. massiliense carried the truncated
      erm(41) and were largely clarithromycin-susceptible (98.3 %). Constitutive
      resistance involving rrl mutations was rare and seen in only 2 isolates (2.2 %).
      Subspecies identification was insufficient to predict clarithromycin
      susceptibility and required the genetic resistance to be determined via
      sequencing. In our context, rrl mutations were uncommon and may not be an
      essential test.

PMID- 28874234
TI  - Retention and topology of the bovine viral diarrhea virus glycoprotein E2.
AB  - Pestiviruses are enveloped viruses that bud intracellularly. They have three
      envelope glycoproteins, Erns, E1, and E2. E2 is the receptor binding protein and
      the main target for neutralizing antibodies. Both Erns and E2 are retained
      intracellularly. Here, E2 of the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) strain CP7
      was used to study the membrane topology and intracellular localization of the
      protein. E2 is localized in the ER and there was no difference between E2
      expressed alone or in the context of the viral polyprotein. The mature E2 protein
      was found to possess a single span transmembrane anchor. For the mapping of a
      retention signal CD72-E2 fusion proteins, as well as E2 alone were analysed. This
      confirmed the importance of the transmembrane domain and arginine 355 for
      intracellular retention, but also revealed a modulating effect on retention
      through the cytoplasmic tail of the E2 protein, especially through glutamine 370.
      Mutants with a strong impact on retention were tested in the viral context and we
      were able to rescue BVDV with certain mutations that in E2 alone impaired
      intracellular retention and lead to export of E2 to the cells surface.

PMID- 28874235
TI  - Efficacy of recombinant human C1 esterase inhibitor for the treatment of severe
      hereditary angioedema attacks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE) are debilitating and
      potentially life threatening, and can increase anxiety and the use of medical
      resources. OBJECTIVE: This post hoc assessment evaluated recombinant human C1
      esterase inhibitor (rhC1-INH) used to treat acute severe HAE attacks. METHODS: In
      a double-blind, randomized-controlled trial (RCT), patients with an HAE attack
      (baseline visual analog scale score of >=50 mm, with severe attacks defined as
      >=75 mm) were randomly assigned to receive rhC1-INH (50 IU/kg for patients who
      weighed <84 kg; 4200 IU for patients who weighed >=84 kg) or placebo. Also, in an
      open-label extension (OLE) study of rhC1-INH, oropharyngeal-laryngeal attacks
      were analyzed. Rescue therapy with rhC1-INH 50 IU/kg (<=4200 IU) was permitted
      after 4 hours or for life-threatening symptoms (in the RCT) or after 1 hour (in
      the OLE study). The primary end point measured the time to the beginning of
      symptom relief by using the Treatment Effects Questionnaire. RESULTS: Of 75
      adults in the RCT, 43 had severe attacks and received either rhC1-INH (n = 24) or
      placebo (n = 19). The median (95% confidence interval) time to the onset of
      symptom relief totaled 90.0 minutes (95% confidence interval, 47.0-120.0 minutes)
      versus 334.0 minutes (95% confidence interval, 105.0 to not calculable minutes;
      hazard ratio, 2.5; p = 0.02), for rhC1-INH and placebo, respectively. Open-label
      rhC1-INH rescue therapy was administered to 1 of 24 in the rhC1-INH group (4.2%)
      and 10 of 19 in the placebo group (52.6%). During the OLE study, the median onset
      of symptom relief with rhC1-INH for eight oropharyngeal-laryngeal HAE attacks was
      69.0 minutes (95% confidence interval, 59.0-91.0 minutes). CONCLUSION: In the
      current study, rhC1-INH was efficacious in resolving severe HAE attacks,
      including oropharyngeal-laryngeal attacks. The rhC1-INH rescue treatment rapidly
      improved symptoms for patients who received placebo and who experienced worsening
      or sustained symptoms.

PMID- 28874236
TI  - Funding antiretroviral treatment for HIV-positive temporary residents in
      Australia prevents transmission and is inexpensive.
AB  - : Background The aim of this study is to estimate the reduction in new HIV
      infections and resultant cost outcomes of providing antiretroviral treatment
      (ART) through Australia's 'universal access' health scheme to all temporary
      residents with HIV infection living legally in Australia, but currently deemed
      ineligible to access subsidised ART via this scheme. METHODS: A mathematical
      model to estimate the number of new HIV infections averted and the associated
      lifetime costs over 5 years if all HIV-positive temporary residents in Australia
      had access to ART and subsidised medical care was developed. Input data came from
      a cohort of 180 HIV-positive temporary residents living in Australia who are
      receiving free ART donated by pharmaceutical companies for up to 4 years.
      RESULTS: Expanding ART access to an estimated total 450 HIV+ temporary residents
      in Australia for 5 years could avert 80 new infections. The model estimated the
      total median discounted (5%) cost for ART and associated care to be A$36million,
      while the total savings in lifetime-discounted costs for the new infections
      averted was A$22million. CONCLUSIONS: It is estimated that expanded access to ART
      for all HIV-positive temporary residents in Australia will substantially reduce
      HIV transmission to their sexual partners at little additional cost. In the
      context of Australia's National HIV strategy and Australia's endorsement of
      global goals to provide universal access to ART for all people with HIV, this is
      an important measure to remove inequities in the provision of HIV-related
      treatment and care.

PMID- 28874237
TI  - [Drowning-induced hyperfibrinolytic disseminated intravascular coagulation].
AB  - This article summarizes the current knowledge of drowning-induced
      hyperfibrinolytic disseminated intravascular coagulation. Drowning induces
      respiratory failure with ensuing cardiac arrest, hypoxaemia and ischaemia. A
      coagulopathy is induced by ischaemia, acidosis and hypothermia, and clinically
      the patient develops uncontrolled bleeding due to hyperfibrinolysis. A rapid
      diagnostic approach is required to recognize this hyperfibrinolytic state, since
      initiation of treatment with antifibrinolytics and fibrinogen concentrate may
      bring this life-threatening condition to cessation.

PMID- 28874238
TI  - [Off-label prescription of psychopharmacological drugs for children and
      adolescents].
AB  - Despite regulatory initiatives, psychopharmacological treatment of adolescents is
      challenged by missing trial data on efficacy and safety. In Denmark, an estimated
      mean off-label prescription rate of 30-40% in clinical child- and adolescent
      mental health services has been found in recent studies. The lowest rates were
      found for drugs treating ADHD (2-3%), and the highest for antipsychotics (96%)
      and melatonin (100%). The use of melatonin is growing, while the use of other
      psychopharmacological drugs appears to be stabilizing or decreasing, in spite of
      an increased number of adolescents treated in Danish mental health services.

PMID- 28874239
TI  - [Atypical subcutaneous presentation of a basal cell carcinoma].
AB  - Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) have many treatment options either by dermatologist,
      with excision or radiotherapy. A 78-year-old woman had a BCC removed surgically,
      and 18 years after she had a subcutaneously located tumour extirpated at the same
      location. The result of pathological examination was BCC located atypically in
      the subcutis. Iatrogenic seeding from primary excision or non-radical primary
      excision may explain this presentation. This is only the second report of
      subcutaneously located BCC.

PMID- 28874240
TI  - [Review of online prescriptions of topical steroids for an obese boy with
      iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome].
AB  - A 14-year-old boy with obesity developed iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome after
      having received topical steroid therapy for psoriasis. The diagnosis was
      suspected when he developed striae, moon face and stunted growth. A review of the
      Danish online registration of prescriptions: Shared Medicine Card, revealed that
      an amount of 5.1 kg topical steroids had been prescribed during a period of
      twelve months. Blood tests showed stunted cortisol release. Primary obesity in
      children is associated with increased growth. Decreased growth warrants further
      investigations for an underlying condition. This case illustrates the usefulness
      of Shared Medicine Card, especially when multiple physicians are involved.

PMID- 28874241
TI  - Infant botulism in Denmark from 1995 to 2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Infant botulism is a rare, probably underdiagnosed, life
      threatening disease caused by the toxin-producing bacterium Clostridium
      botulinum. METHODS: We investigated reported cases of infant botulism in Denmark
      from 1995 to 2015, and compared the incidence with that of other western
      countries. RESULTS: We found nine cases of infant botulism in Denmark from 1995
      to 2015. The incidence of infant botulism in Denmark was similar to that seen in
      other western countries, but likely underestimated. The source of infection was
      only confirmed in a single case. Four cases received botulism immune globulin,
      intravenous (BIG-IV), which was administered within 7-10 days from admission.
      CONCLUSIONS: Infant botulism is probably underdiagnosed. Increased awareness is
      crucial to be able to recognise the condition. The time delay from hospital
      admission to administration of BIG-IV is challenging. Studies have shown that BIG
      IV reduces both mean duration of intensive care and mean length of hospital stay;
      however, this was not confirmed in our work due to the limited number of
      patients. FUNDING: none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

PMID- 28874242
TI  - Effects of low-dose recombinant human erythropoietin treatment on cognitive
      performance.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: High-dose recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEpo) has been shown
      to improve cognitive performance in both healthy volunteers and in patients
      suffering from diseases affecting the brain. The aim of this study was to examine
      whether administration of low-dose and even micro-dose rhEpo improves cognitive
      performance in healthy volunteers. METHODS: We enrolled 25 healthy volunteers in
      a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled study to receive either low-dose
      rhEpo (n = 8, 60 IU/kg/week), micro-dose rhEpo (n = 9, 20 IU/kg/week), or saline
      (n = 8) for four weeks. Two cognitive performance-tests, the Raven Standard
      Progressive Matrices (Raven) and the Number Finder (NUFI), were performed during
      the first and last day of the study period. Semi-structured interviews were
      conducted weekly and were coded according to a scale. RESULTS: Subjects receiving
      micro-dose rhEpo improved significantly measured by the Raven score (p = 0.04),
      and subjects receiving low-dose rhEpo treatment improved significantly measured
      by the NUFI score (p = 0.047), whereas no improvement was found in experienced
      cognitive performance in any of the groups. We found no significant difference in
      either Raven, NUFI or self-reported results between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: In
      this small study, we found no significant effect of low-dose or micro-dose rhEpo
      on visual attention, cognitive performance in complex cognitive tasks or self
      experienced cognitive performance compared with placebo. FUNDING: The Aase and
      Ejnar Danielsen's Foundation. Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher
      Education. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03093506.

PMID- 28874243
TI  - Central regional anaesthesia in patients with aortic stenosis - a systematic
      review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Aortic stenosis is a valvular lesion that poses several
      haemodynamic challenges for the anaesthesiologist. The use of central regional
      anaesthesia is traditionally regarded as contraindicated in patients with severe
      aortic stenosis due to its sympatholytic effect, potentially causing loss of
      vascular tone and ultimately diminished cardiac output. The aim of this paper was
      to review current literature to find evidence for or against the use of
      neuroaxial blockade in patients with aortic stenosis. METHODS: We searched PubMed
      for relevant articles, using the following MeSH terms: "aortic valve stenosis",
      "epidural anesthesia", "spinal anesthesia" and "epidural analgesia". Only English
      language literature was included. Papers concerning aortic stenosis and
      obstetrical anaesthesia were excluded. RESULTS: There are no randomised clinical
      trials on the subject, and existing literature is extremely sparse. Four
      retrospective studies and eight case reports counting a total of ten patients
      were found. All report successful use of neuroaxial blockade in patients with
      aortic stenosis, without severe haemodynamic alterations. In addition, data
      indicate that postepidural analgesia improves outcome compared with conventional
      analgesia. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, there is no clinical
      evidence supporting the notion that central regional anaesthesia has any adverse
      effects on patients with aortic stenosis. Carefully managed neuroaxial blockade
      could become a useful alternative to general anaesthesia in this patient group.
      However, evidence is sparse and of questionable quality. Large prospective
      randomised clinical trials are required to establish best practise.

PMID- 28874244
TI  - The Interplay between Fasting Glucose, Echocardiography, and Biomarkers:
      Pathophysiological Considerations and Prognostic Implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traditional cardiovascular risk stratification tools that employ
      clinical risk factors are limited by their modest discriminative abilities. As
      such, robust cardiovascular risk assessment, including our understanding of the
      complex interplay between risk factors, in the primary preventive setting,
      remains incomplete. Phenotypical heterogeneity may be even greater among subjects
      with hyperglycemic conditions, i.e., prediabetes and diabetes, which is
      worrisome, given the dramatic global rise in mean fasting glucose levels, and the
      strong association with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. The unmet need for
      refinement or restratification of risk based on these conventional prediction
      models is only emphasized by our entrance into the era of precision medicine.
      Potential tools for closing these gaps and increasing our understanding of the
      pathways from risk factors through subclinical changes to manifest disease
      include echocardiography and circulating biomarkers. OBJECTIVES: 1) To examine
      whether greater fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels were associated with left
      ventricular mass (LVM), geometric pattern, diastolic function, and concentrations
      of N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and high
      sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-TnT) in apparently healthy, elderly subjects
      with a preserved LV ejection fraction +/- 50%; 2) To examine whether FPG levels
      modified the prognostic role of abnormal LVM, geometric pattern, diastolic
      dysfunction, NT-proBNP, and hs-TnT, in predicting cardiovascular morbidity and
      mortality; 3) To define the incremental prognostic value of NT-proBNP and hs-TnT
      for predicting incident cardiovascular outcomes, beyond traditional risk factors,
      glycemic status, and subclinical echocardiographic abnormalities; 4) To explore
      the associations of NT-proBNP and hs-TnT with key echocardiographic measures of
      LV structure and function, including the effects of FPG levels. METHODS: The
      thesis was based on a series of cross-sectional and prospective observational
      studies. The study population was derived from the echocardiography subsample
      (n=1,792) of the Malmo Preventive Project Re-Examination Study (MPP-RES) (2002
      2006, n=18,238), a population-based screening program that included inhabitants
      from Malmo, Sweden, who belonged to prespecified birth cohorts between 1921-1949.
      Subjects, who underwent echocardiography, were randomly chosen from the three
      categories defined by base-line FPG, i.e., normal fasting glucose, impaired
      fasting glucose, and diabetes, including use of anti-diabetic medication. Blood
      samples for cardiovascular biomarker assessments were drawn at the time of
      echocardiography and kept frozen until analysis. Outcome data were obtained
      through national and local registries. The original echocardiography subsample
      was stratified into patients and apparently healthy subjects, the latter being
      the focus of this thesis. RESULTS: 1) Subjects with diabetes had a greater
      prevalence of concentric LV hypertrophy (LVH), grade 2 or 3 diastolic
      dysfunction, and higher hs-TnT concentrations. Subjects with impaired fasting
      glucose had the lowest NT-proBNP concentrations. LVMI was primarily associated
      with diastolic function in subjects with hyperglycemia; 2) LV diastolic
      dysfunction was associated with an increased risk of incident cardiovascular
      events, but did not provide discriminative im-provement. Concentric LVH and
      diastolic dysfunction were more strongly associated with adverse prognosis in
      subjects with hyper-glycemia. High concentrations of NT-proBNP and hs-TnT
      predicted incident cardiovascular events, with no effect modification by FPG; 3)
      NT-proBNP, but not hs-TnT, provided discriminative improvement beyond traditional
      risk factors, FPG, and LVH and/or diastolic dysfunction; 4) NT-proBNP and hs-TnT
      were associated with several echocardiographic parameters, but effect sizes were
      generally modest. Associations between biomarkers and echocardiographic measures
      were affected by hyperglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: FPG influenced the interplay between
      subclinical echocardiographic abnormalities, circulating biomarkers, and
      cardiovascular outcomes at multiple stages, in this cohort of apparently healthy,
      elderly subjects. Newly diagnosed diabetes, but not impaired fasting glucose, was
      associated with adverse subclinical changes. The associations between structural
      echocardiographic abnormalities and biomarker concentrations were stronger in
      subjects with hyperglycemia. NT-proBNP, but not echocardiographic measures or hs
      TnT, provided discriminative improvement on top of traditional cardiovascular
      risk factors. FPG further modified the prognosis re-lated to echocardiographic
      alterations, but not that predicted by biomarkers. Therefore, FPG should be
      considered when assessing markers of subclinical cardiovascular alterations.

PMID- 28874245
TI  - Prosthetic Joint Infection following Total Hip Arthroplasty - Incidence,
      Mortality and Validation of the Diagnosis in the Danish Hip Arthroplasty
      Register.
AB  - Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a rare, but devastating complication
      following primary total hip arthroplasty (THA). As PJI is a rare event, large
      cohorts of patients are required in order to study this complication. National
      arthroplasty registers offer such large and unselected cohorts, but studies have
      shown that these registers - used alone - underestimate the incidence of PJI. The
      aim of this thesis was to estimate the incidence of PJI and the mortality risk
      following a PJI by combining data from the Danish Hip Arthroplasty Register
      (DHR), the National Register of Patients (NRP), the Microbiology Databases, the
      Civil Registration System, the medical records, the Danish National Prescription
      Registry and the Clinical Biochemistry Databases. The thesis comprises the
      following four studies: Study I: The aim of this study was to estimate the "true"
      incidence of surgically treated PJI following primary THA. To estimate the true
      incidence, we developed an algorithm that classified the revisions as due to PJI
      or due to other causes. The algorithm incorporated data from the DHR, the NRP,
      medical records, the microbiological databases, the prescription database and the
      clinical biochemistry databases. The one- and five-year cumulative incidences
      were estimated to be 0.86% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.77; 0.97) and 1.03%
      (95% CI: 0.87; 1.22), respectively. These figures are approximately 40% higher
      than the equivalent figures re-ported by the DHR and the NRP. Study II: The aim
      of the second study was to validate the PJI diagnosis in the DHR. We did this by
      comparing the PJI diagnosis in the DHR with the PJI diagnosis derived from the
      algorithm developed in Study I. We found a sensitivity of 67%, a specificity of
      95%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 77%, and a negative predictive value
      (NPV) of 92%. When the data from the DHR were linked with data from the
      microbiology databases, the sensitivity increased to 90% and the specificity also
      increased (to 100%) along with the PPV (98%) and the NPV (98%). Study III: The
      aim of the third study was to examine whether the incidence of PJI observed
      within the first year of primary THA in-creased in the course of the ten-year
      study period from 2005 to 2014. We used the validated PJI diagnosis described in
      Study II and found that the incidence of PJI did not appear to be increasing as
      the relative risk of PJI was 1.05 (95% CI: 0.82; 1.34) for the 2010-2014 period
      compared with the 2005-2010 period. Nor did we find any changes in the
      antimicrobial resistance pattern. Study IV: The aim of the fourth study was to
      estimate the mortality risk following a revision for PJI within one year
      following a primary THA. When combining data from the DHR with data from the
      microbiology databases, we found that the mortality risk of patients with a
      revision for PJI was 2.18 (95% CI: 1.54; 3.08) com-pared with the reference
      population, and 1.87 (95% CI: 1.11; 3.15) when compared with patients who had an
      aseptic revision. In conclusion, the incidence of PJI is approximately 40% higher
      than that reported by the NRP and the DHR. By linkage of the DHR and the
      microbiology databases, the validity of the PJI diagnosis can be improved
      notably. By such a combination of data from the DHR and the microbiology
      databases, we show that the incidence of PJI does not seem to be increasing and
      that revision for PJI is associated with a high mortality.

PMID- 28874246
TI  - Early-onset Coronary Artery Disease Clinical and Hereditary Aspects.
AB  - A family history of coronary artery disease (CAD) is an important risk factor for
      adverse coronary events, in particular if the disease has an early onset. The
      risk of CAD is influenced by genetic and environmental factors with a greater
      genetic contribution earlier in life. Through recent years the advances in
      genetic techniques has led to an increased understanding of the genetic
      background of CAD, which may potentially be translated into clinical use. The
      studies of this thesis aimed to investigate the burden of conventional risk
      factors and control in early-onset CAD (i.e. < 40 years), and to characterize and
      quantify subclinical atherosclerosis in their relatives. Furthermore, the aim was
      to explore the impact of common genetic risk variants on the age of onset,
      familial clustering and disease severity. In study I, 143 patients with early
      onset CAD were recruited from the Western Denmark Heart Registry and risk factor
      control was evaluated. The study revealed that risk factors are common in early
      onset CAD and that a large room for risk factor improvement remains. In study II,
      we used coronary computed tomography angiography to compare the coronary plaque
      burden and characteristics between 88 first-degree relatives of patients with
      early-onset CAD and 88 controls with no familial predisposition. Relatives had a
      significantly increased coronary plaque burden, which displayed characteristics
      associated with myocardial ischemia and adverse coronary events. In study III,
      134 patients with early-onset CAD, a cohort of 446 late-onset CAD patients (onset
      > 55/65 years in males/females), and 89 healthy controls were genotyped for 45
      common genetic risk variants and a genetic risk score was calculated as a measure
      of the polygenetic burden. Early-onset CAD patients had a modestly increased
      genetic burden compared with late-onset CAD patients and healthy controls;
      however, the burden did not associate with familial clustering of CAD.
      Additionally, familial clustering seemed to be stronger associated with CAD
      disease severity than the polygenetic burden. Our findings emphasize the
      hereditary component of coronary atherosclerosis and underpin the need for risk
      factor optimization in early-onset CAD. Furthermore, our data support that yet
      identified common risk variants may have little clinical relevance in the
      clinical setting of early-onset CAD.

PMID- 28874247
TI  - ?

PMID- 28874248
TI  - ?

PMID- 28874249
TI  - ?

PMID- 28874250
TI  - [Interventional radiology in minimally invasive treatments].
AB  - Interventional radiology (IR) is a fast expanding field which includes vascular
      (arterial and venous) as well as non-vascular topics. IR is minimally invasive
      methods, which are performed under guidance of radiological modalities. The
      methods are in general patient-friendly and organ-sparing procedures and can
      often be performed on out-patient basis or with short admission to the hospital
      and with short reconvalescence and economic advantages compared with
      corresponding surgical treatments. IR has in some cases substituted former
      surgical procedures. Technological development has facilitated increasing IR
      treatment offers and indications, and there is a high level of evidence for many
      of the offers.

PMID- 28874251
TI  - [Rapid resolution of acute subdural haematoma with significant impact on clinical
      outcome].
AB  - A 73-year-old woman was admitted to hospital due to anaemia. She suffered a minor
      head trauma and deteriorated to deep unconsciousness. A CT revealed an acute
      subdural haematoma (ASDH). Initially, she was not found to be a candidate for
      neurosurgical intervention, but within 24 hours her level of consciousness
      improved dramatically, and a renewed CT showed resolution of the ASDH. She
      underwent acute craniotomy with good outcome. This illustrates the importance of
      re-evaluation of patients with intracranial haemorrhage.

PMID- 28874252
TI  - [Neurosyphilis as differential diagnosis in psychiatry].
AB  - A 46-year-old previously healthy man was referred to a psychiatric department
      after debuting with persecutory delusions. He had symptoms of Parkinson's disease
      as well as a significant impairment of memory and cognitive function.
      Neurological tests detected discrete balance and rigidity problems. Paraclinical
      tests were normal, and neurologists explained the symptoms as side effects to the
      antipsychotic medication. A lumbar puncture showed high concentrations of
      leukocytes and protein, and syphilis screening was positive. Neurosyphilis often
      debuts with psychiatric symptoms as seen in this case.

PMID- 28874253
TI  - [Benzodiazepines still play a role in modern psychiatric therapy].
AB  - Benzodiazepines (BZ) are widely used for anxiety across psychiatric diagnoses,
      but for the last decades regulation has been increasingly tight due to problems
      with tolerance, addiction, withdrawal symptoms and cognitive side effects. Some
      guidelines claim that BZ only work for a few weeks, and that BZ cause traffic
      accidents, increased mortality and dementia. In Denmark, the use of BZ has been
      substantially reduced. In this article it is argued, that not all patients
      habituate, that most of the epidemiological findings are hampered by confounding,
      and that there still is a role for long-term use of BZ in the treatment of
      anxiety.

PMID- 28874254
TI  - [The significance of HIV to bone mineral density].
AB  - The life expectancy in well-treated HIV-infected persons approaches that of the
      general population, but HIV-infected persons have a greater incidence of
      fractures and osteoporosis. A decrease in bone mineral density is observed
      primarily during the first 1-2 years of antiretroviral therapy. Dual X-ray
      absorptiometry scan should be considered in HIV-infected men >= 50 years and
      postmenopausal women. In case of osteoporosis, bisphosphonate treatment should
      follow guidelines for the general population. Future research should focus on
      pathogenesis and prevention of bone density loss in HIV.

PMID- 28874255
TI  - [Acute meningococcal disease in children and adolescents].
AB  - Meningococcal disease is a rapidly progressing infection, which continues to
      cause deaths among children and adolescents. In this review, clinical signs and
      initial treatment of acute childhood meningococcal disease is described.
      Operational flow charts have been developed for assessment of non-blanching rash
      and initial treatment of meningococcal disease.

PMID- 28874256
TI  - Correction: Impact of nucleic acid and methylated H3K9 binding activities of
      Suv39h1 on its heterochromatin assembly.

PMID- 28874257
TI  - Correction: Behavioral-state modulation of inhibition is context-dependent and
      cell type specific in mouse visual cortex.

PMID- 28874258
TI  - Acoustic dose-behavioral response relationship in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)
      exposed to playbacks of pile driving sounds.
AB  - The foundations of offshore wind turbines are attached to the sea bed by
      percussion pile driving. Pile driving sounds may affect the behavior of fish.
      Acoustic dose-behavioral response relationships were determined for sea bass in a
      pool exposed for 20 min to pile driving sounds at seven mean received root-mean
      square sound pressure levels [SPLrms; range: 130-166 dB re 1 MUPa; single strike
      sound exposure level (SELss) range: 122-158; 6 dB steps]. Initial responses
      (sudden, short-lived changes in swimming speed and direction) and sustained
      responses (changes in school cohesion, swimming depth, and speed) were
      quantified. The 50% initial response threshold occurred at an SELss of 131 dB re
      1 MUPa2 s for 31 cm fish and 141 dB re 1 MUPa2 s for 44 cm fish; the small fish
      thus reacted to lower SELss than the large fish. Analysis showed that there is no
      evidence, even at the highest sound level, for any consistent sustained response
      to sound exposure by the study animals. If wild sea bass are exposed to pile
      driving sounds at the levels used in the present study, there are unlikely to be
      any adverse effects on their ecology, because the initial responses after the
      onset of the piling sound observed in this study were short-lived.

PMID- 28874259
TI  - Outcomes from a university-based low-cost in vitro fertilization program
      providing access to care for a low-resource socioculturally diverse urban
      community.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report on outcomes from a university-based low-cost and low
      complexity IVF program using mild stimulation approaches and simplified protocols
      to provide basic access to ART to a socioculturally diverse low-income urban
      population. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Academic infertility
      center. PATIENT(S): Sixty-five infertile couples were enrolled from a county
      hospital serving a low-resource largely immigrant population. INTERVENTIONS(S):
      Patients were nonrandomly allocated to one of four mild stimulation protocols:
      clomiphene/letrozole alone, two clomiphene/letrozole-based protocols involving
      sequential or flare addition of low-dose gonadotropins, and low-dose
      gonadotropins alone. Clinical fellows managed all aspects of cycle preparation,
      monitoring, oocyte retrieval, and embryo transfer under an attending preceptor.
      Retrieval was undertaken without administration of deep anesthesia, and
      laboratory interventions were minimized. All embryo transfers were performed at
      the cleavage stage. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Sociomedical demographics, treatment
      response, and pregnancy outcomes were recorded. RESULT(S): From August 2010 to
      June 2016, 65 patients initiated 161 stimulation IVF cycles, which resulted in
      107 retrievals, 91 fresh embryo transfers, and 40 frozen embryo transfer cycles.
      The mean age of patients was 33.3 years, and mean reported duration of
      infertility was 5.3 years; 33.5% (54/161) of cycles were cancelled before oocyte
      retrieval, with 13% due to premature ovulation. Overall, cumulative live birth
      rates per retrieval including subsequent use of frozen embryos was 29.0%; 44.6%
      (29/65) of patients enrolled in the program achieved pregnancy. CONCLUSION(S):
      Use of mild stimulation protocols, simplified monitoring, and minimized
      laboratory handling procedures enabled access to care in a low-resource
      socioculturally diverse infertile population.

PMID- 28874260
TI  - Endometriosis and obstetrics complications: a systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of endometriosis on pregnancy outcomes. DESIGN:
      Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): Women
      with or without endometriosis. INTERVENTION(S): Electronic databases searched
      from their inception until February 2017 with no limit for language and with all
      cohort studies reporting the incidence of obstetric complications in women with a
      diagnosis of endometriosis compared with a control group (women without a
      diagnosis of endometriosis) included. MEAN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Primary outcome of
      incidence of preterm birth at <37 weeks with meta-analysis performed using the
      random effects model of DerSimonian and Laird to produce an odds ratio (OR) with
      95% confidence interval (CI). RESULT(S): Twenty-four studies were analyzed
      comprising 1,924,114 women. In most of them, the diagnosis of endometriosis was
      made histologically after surgery. Women with endometriosis had a statistically
      significantly higher risk of preterm birth (OR 1.63; 95% CI, 1.32-2.01),
      miscarriage (OR 1.75; 95% CI, 1.29-2.37), placenta previa (OR 3.03; 95% CI, 1.50
      6.13), small for gestational age (OR 1.27; 95% CI, 1.03-1.57), and cesarean
      delivery (OR 1.57; 95% CI, 1.39-1.78) compared with the healthy controls. No
      differences were found in the incidence of gestational hypertension and
      preeclampsia. CONCLUSION(S): Women with endometriosis have a statistically
      significantly higher risk of preterm birth, miscarriage, placenta previa, small
      for gestational age infants, and cesarean delivery.

PMID- 28874261
TI  - Malignancies and infection due to the human immunodeficiency virus. Are these
      emerging diseases?
AB  - Since the start of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, tumour
      disease among patients has been significant. The collection of malignancies can
      be divided primarily into 2 groups: those associated with HIV (all of which are
      related to viral diseases) and those not associated with HIV (only some of which
      are associated with viral diseases). The origin of these malignancies is
      multifactorial, and the main causes that have led to an increase in tumour
      disease are immunosuppression, coinfection with oncogenic viruses and life
      prolongation secondary to the use of antiretroviral therapy. Establishing the
      general characteristics of the undiagnosed AIDS tumours is difficult, mainly
      because they are a highly heterogeneous group formed by malignancies of a diverse
      nature. The treatments do not differ from those used in the general population,
      although the management can be more difficult due to the late diagnosis, drug
      interactions and associated comorbidities.

PMID- 28874262
TI  - Corrigendum to 'Longitudinal prevalence and faecal shedding of Chlamydia pecorum
      in sheep' [The Veterinary Journal 201 (2014) 322-326].

PMID- 28874263
TI  - Second neoplasms in adult patients submitted to haematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Patients submitted to haematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (HSCT) are at increased risk of late complications, such as
      second neoplasm (SN). The incidence and risk factors of SN in patients receiving
      HSCT at a single centre were analysed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The follow-up of
      adult patients who received a first HSCT (autologous [auto-HSCT] or allogeneic
      [allo-HSCT]) between January 2000 and December 2015 was reviewed. We collected
      their demographic characteristics, the primary disease and type of HSCT, and
      analysed the cumulative incidence of SN and their risk factors. RESULTS: Of 699
      transplanted patients (auto-HSCT, n=451; allo-HSCT, n=248), 42 (6%) developed SN
      (17 haematological and 25 solid), 31 post-auto-HSCT and 11 post-allo-HSCT.
      Haematologic SN were more frequent after auto-HSCT than after allo-HSCT. The
      median time between HSCT and SN was 4.09 years [range 0.07-13.15], with no
      differences between auto-HSCT and allo-HSCT. The cumulative incidence of SN was
      5% (95% CI 3-6) at 5 years, 7% (95% CI 5-10) at 10 years and 11% (95% CI 8-15) at
      15 years, without differences according to the type of HSCT. Only the age over 40
      years correlated with an increased risk of SN. CONCLUSIONS: In this series, the
      incidence of post-HSCT SN was similar to that previously described. Patients
      submitted to an auto-HSCT showed a higher frequency of haematologic SN. A higher
      incidence of SN was detected in patients older than 40 at the time of HSCT.

PMID- 28874264
TI  - Evolutionary processes shaping diversity across the Homo lineage.
AB  - Recent fossil finds have highlighted extensive morphological diversity within our
      genus, Homo, and the co-existence of a number of species. However, little is
      known about the evolutionary processes responsible for producing this diversity.
      Understanding the action of these processes can provide insight into how and why
      our lineage evolved and diversified. Here, we examine cranial and mandibular
      variation and diversification from the earliest emergence of our genus at 2.8 Ma
      until the Late Pleistocene (0.126-0.0117 Ma), using statistical tests developed
      from quantitative genetics theory to evaluate whether stochastic (genetic drift)
      versus non-stochastic (selection) processes were responsible for the observed
      variation. Results show that random processes can account for species
      diversification for most traits, including neurocranial diversification, and
      across all time periods. Where selection was found to shape diversification, we
      show that: 1) adaptation was important in the earliest migration of Homo out of
      Africa; 2) selection played a role in shaping mandibular and maxillary diversity
      among Homo groups, possibly due to dietary differences; and 3) Homo rudolfensis
      is adaptively different from other early Homo taxa, including the earliest known
      Homo specimen. These results show that genetic drift, and, likely, small
      population sizes were important factors shaping the evolution of Homo and many of
      its novel traits, but that selection played an essential role in driving
      adaptation to new contexts.

PMID- 28874265
TI  - Newly discovered Neanderthal remains from Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan, and
      their attribution to Shanidar 5.
AB  - The Neanderthal remains from Shanidar Cave, excavated between 1951 and 1960, have
      played a central role in debates concerning diverse aspects of Neanderthal
      morphology and behavior. In 2015 and 2016, renewed excavations at the site
      uncovered hominin remains from the immediate area where the partial skeleton of
      Shanidar 5 was found in 1960. Shanidar 5 was a robust adult male estimated to
      have been aged over 40 years at the time of death. Comparisons of photographs
      from the previous and recent excavations indicate that the old and new remains
      were directly adjacent to one another, while the disturbed arrangement and
      partial crushing of the new fossils is consistent with descriptions and
      photographs of the older discoveries. The newly discovered bones include
      fragments of several vertebrae, a left hamate, part of the proximal left femur, a
      heavily crushed partial pelvis, and the distal half of the right tibia and fibula
      and associated talus and navicular. All these elements were previously missing
      from Shanidar 5, and morphological and metric data are consistent with the new
      elements belonging to this individual. A newly discovered partial left pubic
      symphysis indicates an age at death of 40-50 years, also consistent with the age
      of Shanidar 5 estimated previously. Thus, the combined evidence strongly suggests
      that the new finds can be attributed to Shanidar 5. Ongoing analyses of
      associated samples, including for sediment morphology, palynology, and dating,
      will therefore offer new evidence as to how this individual was deposited in the
      cave and permit new analyses of the skeleton itself and broader discussion of
      Neanderthal morphology and variation.

PMID- 28874266
TI  - Body size, brain size, and sexual dimorphism in Homo naledi from the Dinaledi
      Chamber.
AB  - Homo erectus and later humans have enlarged body sizes, reduced sexual
      dimorphism, elongated lower limbs, and increased encephalization compared to
      Australopithecus, together suggesting a distinct ecological pattern. The mosaic
      expression of such features in early Homo, including Homo habilis, Homo
      rudolfensis, and some early H. erectus, suggests that these traits do not
      constitute an integrated package. We examined the evidence for body mass,
      stature, limb proportions, body size and dental size dimorphism, and absolute and
      relative brain size in Homo naledi as represented in the Dinaledi Chamber sample.
      H. naledi stature and body mass are low compared to reported values for H.
      erectus, with the exception of some of the smaller bodied Dmanisi H. erectus
      specimens, and overlap with larger Australopithecus and early Homo estimates. H.
      naledi endocranial volumes (465-560 cc) and estimates of encephalization quotient
      are also similar to Australopithecus and low compared to all Homo specimens, with
      the exception of Homo floresiensis (LB1) and the smallest Dmanisi H. erectus
      specimen (D4500). Unlike Australopithecus, but similar to derived members of
      genus Homo, the Dinaledi assemblage of H. naledi exhibits both low levels of body
      mass and dental size variation, with an estimated body mass index of sexual
      dimorphism less than 20%, and appears to have an elongated lower limb. Thus, the
      H. naledi bauplan combines features not typically seen in Homo species (e.g.,
      small brains and bodies) with those characteristic of H. erectus and more recent
      Homo species (e.g., reduced mass dimorphism, elongated lower limb).

PMID- 28874267
TI  - Facing the facts: The Runx2 gene is associated with variation in facial
      morphology in primates.
AB  - The phylogenetic and adaptive factors that cause variation in primate facial form
      including differences among the major primate clades and variation related to
      feeding and/or social behavior-are relatively well understood. However,
      comparatively little is known about the genetic mechanisms that underlie
      diversity in facial form in primates. Because it is essential for osteoblastic
      differentiation and skeletal development, the runt-related transcription factor 2
      (Runx2) is one gene that may play a role in these genetic mechanisms.
      Specifically, polymorphisms in the QA ratio (determined by the ratio of the
      number of polyglutamines to polyalanines in one functional domain of Runx2) have
      been shown to be correlated with variation in facial length and orientation in
      other mammal groups. However, to date, the relationship between variation in this
      gene and variation in facial form in primates has not been explicitly tested. To
      test the hypothesis that the QA ratio is correlated with facial form in primates,
      the current study quantified the QA ratio, facial length, and facial angle in a
      sample of 33 primate species and tested for correlation using phylogenetic
      generalized least squares. The results indicate that the QA ratio of the Runx2
      gene is positively correlated with variation in relative facial length in
      anthropoid primates. However, no correlation was found in strepsirrhines, and
      there was no correlation between facial angle and the QA ratio in any groups.
      These results suggest that, in primates, the QA ratio of the Runx2 gene may play
      a role in modulating facial size, but not facial orientation. This study
      therefore provides important clues about the genetic and developmental mechanisms
      that may underlie variation in facial form in primates.

PMID- 28874268
TI  - Do juveniles help or hinder? Influence of juvenile offspring on maternal behavior
      and reproductive outcomes in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
AB  - Compared to great apes, humans maintain a relatively rapid reproductive pace
      despite long periods of dependency. This seemingly contradictory set of traits is
      made possible by weaning offspring before nutritional independence and
      alloparents who help provide care. In traditional societies, this help may be
      provided to mothers in part by their juvenile offspring who carry, supervise, or
      provision younger siblings. In contrast to humans, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
      are nutritionally independent after weaning, yet juveniles continue to travel
      with their mother and younger sibling for an additional 4-5 years. This continued
      association could be costly to the mother if she continues to invest in weaned
      offspring. Alternately, while juvenile chimpanzees do not typically provision
      younger siblings, their presence and social interaction with infants may allow
      mothers to focus on other tasks. In this study, we investigate the costs and
      benefits to mothers of continued association with juveniles in wild chimpanzees.
      Using 26 years of long-term behavioral data we examined how maternal activity
      budgets varied based on the presence of a dependent juvenile offspring. We found
      that continued social interaction between mothers and juveniles does not
      influence the mother's time allocated to interacting with the younger infant, her
      feeding, resting, or travel time, or time socializing with other community
      members. Instead, mothers may benefit from the additional social interaction
      and/or relationship with their older offspring. Using 45 years of demographic
      data we found that those offspring who had an older sibling tended to be more
      likely to survive each year from birth to 8 years than those without an older
      sibling. Additionally, interbirth intervals were more likely to end when the
      female had an older offspring present. A mutually beneficial mother-juvenile
      dynamic in great apes provides insight into continued association between mothers
      and offspring after nutritional independence and the emergence of juvenile
      helping during hominin evolution.

PMID- 28874269
TI  - Locomotion and basicranial anatomy in primates and marsupials.
AB  - There is ongoing debate in paleoanthropology about whether and how the anatomy of
      the cranium, and especially the cranial base, is evolving in response to
      locomotor and postural changes. However, the majority of studies focus on two
      dimensional data, which fails to capture the complexity of cranial anatomy. This
      study tests whether three-dimensional cranial base anatomy is linked to
      locomotion or to other factors in primates (n = 473) and marsupials (n = 231).
      Results indicate that although there is a small effect of locomotion on cranial
      base anatomy in primates, this is not the case in marsupials. Instead, facial
      anatomy likely drives variation in cranial base anatomy in both primates and
      marsupials, with additional roles for body size and brain size. Although some
      changes to foramen magnum position and orientation are phylogenetically useful
      among the hominoids, they do not necessarily reflect locomotion or positional
      behavior. The interplay between locomotion, posture, and facial anatomy in
      primates requires further investigation.

PMID- 28874271
TI  - In pursuit of our ancestors' hand laterality.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to apply a previously published method (Bargallo and
      Mosquera, 2014) to the archaeological record, allowing us to identify the hand
      laterality of our ancestors and determine when and how this feature, which is
      exhibited most strongly in humans, appeared in our evolutionary history. The
      method focuses on identifying handedness by looking at the technical features of
      the flakes produced by a single knapper, and discovering how many flakes are
      required to ascertain their hand preference. This method can potentially be
      applied to the majority of archaeological sites, since flakes are the most
      abundant stone tools, and stone tools are the most widespread and widely
      preserved remains from prehistory. For our study, we selected two Spanish sites:
      Gran Dolina-TD10.1 (Atapuerca) and Abric Romani (Barcelona), which were occupied
      by pre-Neanderthal and Neanderthal populations, respectively. Our analyses
      indicate that a minimum number of eight flakes produced by the same knapper is
      required to ascertain their hand preference. Even though this figure is
      relatively low, it is quite difficult to obtain from many archaeological sites.
      In addition, there is no single technical feature that provides information about
      handedness, instead there is a combination of eight technical features, localised
      on the striking platforms and ventral surfaces. The raw material is not relevant
      where good quality rocks are used, in this case quartzite and flint, since most
      of them retain the technical features required for the analysis. Expertise is not
      an issue either, since the technical features analysed here only correlate with
      handedness (Bargallo and Mosquera, 2014). Our results allow us to tentatively
      identify one right-handed knapper among the pre-Neanderthals of level TD10.1 at
      Gran Dolina (Atapuerca), while four of the five Neanderthals analysed from Abric
      Romani were right-handed. The hand preference of the fifth knapper from that
      location (AR5) remains unclear.

PMID- 28874270
TI  - The evolution of the platyrrhine talus: A comparative analysis of the phenetic
      affinities of the Miocene platyrrhines with their modern relatives.
AB  - Platyrrhines are a diverse group of primates that presently occupy a broad range
      of tropical-equatorial environments in the Americas. However, most of the fossil
      platyrrhine species of the early Miocene have been found at middle and high
      latitudes. Although the fossil record of New World monkeys has improved
      considerably over the past several years, it is still difficult to trace the
      origin of major modern clades. One of the most commonly preserved anatomical
      structures of early platyrrhines is the talus. This work provides an analysis of
      the phenetic affinities of extant platyrrhine tali and their Miocene counterparts
      through geometric morphometrics and a series of phylogenetic comparative
      analyses. Geometric morphometrics was used to quantify talar shape affinities,
      while locomotor mode percentages (LMPs) were used to test if talar shape is
      associated with locomotion. Comparative analyses were used to test if there was
      convergence in talar morphology, as well as different models that could explain
      the evolution of talar shape and size in platyrrhines. Body mass predictions for
      the fossil sample were also computed using the available articular surfaces. The
      results showed that most analyzed fossils exhibit a generalized morphology that
      is similar to some 'generalist' modern species. It was found that talar shape
      covaries with LMPs, thus allowing the inference of locomotion from talar
      morphology. The results further suggest that talar shape diversification can be
      explained by invoking a model of shifts in adaptive peak to three optima
      representing a phylogenetic hypothesis in which each platyrrhine family occupied
      a separate adaptive peak. The analyses indicate that platyrrhine talar centroid
      size diversification was characterized by an early differentiation related to a
      multidimensional niche model. Finally, the ancestral platyrrhine condition was
      reconstructed as a medium-sized, generalized, arboreal, quadruped.

PMID- 28874272
TI  - Postcrania of the most primitive euprimate and implications for primate origins.
AB  - The fossil record of early primates is largely comprised of dentitions. While
      teeth can indicate phylogenetic relationships and dietary preferences, they say
      little about hypotheses pertaining to the positional behavior or substrate
      preference of the ancestral crown primate. Here we report the discovery of a
      talus bone of the dentally primitive fossil euprimate Donrussellia provincialis.
      Our comparisons and analyses indicate that this talus is more primitive than that
      of other euprimates. It lacks features exclusive to strepsirrhines, like a large
      medial tibial facet and a sloping fibular facet. It also lacks the medially
      positioned flexor-fibularis groove of extant haplorhines. In these respects, the
      talus of D. provincialis comes surprisingly close to that of the pen-tailed
      treeshrew, Ptilocercus lowii, and extinct plesiadapiforms for which tali are
      known. However, it differs from P. lowii and is more like other early euprimates
      in exhibiting an expanded posterior trochlear shelf and deep talar body. In
      overall form, the bone approximates more leaping reliant euprimates. The
      phylogenetically basal signal from the new fossil is confirmed with cladistic
      analyses of two different character matrices, which place D. provincialis as the
      most basal strepsirrhine when the new tarsal data are included. Interpreting our
      results in the context of other recent discoveries, we conclude that the lineage
      leading to the ancestral euprimate had already become somewhat leaping
      specialized, while certain specializations for the small branch niche came after
      crown primates began to radiate.

PMID- 28874273
TI  - Early hominin landscape use in the Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia: Insights from the
      taphonomical analysis of Oldowan occurrences in the Shungura Formation (Member
      F).
AB  - The Oldowan archeological record of the Shungura Formation, Member F (Lower Omo
      valley, Ethiopia) comprises more than one hundred occurrences distributed within
      archeological complexes, where multiple small spots were found in association
      with one or two larger occurrences. Such spatial patterning could reflect hominin
      spatial behavior, repeated occupations within a single sedimentary unit, or
      taphonomic and/or collection biases. Here we test these hypotheses by way of a
      geoarcheological and taphonomical analysis using four criteria to assess the
      preservation of the lithic assemblages: (1) size composition, (2) artifact
      abrasion, (3) bone abrasion, and (4) orientations of lithic artifacts and bones
      (i.e., fabrics). We propose a new model of taphonomically induced spatial
      patterning where the multiple, small, well circumscribed occurrences result
      primarily from post-depositional processes and therefore do not reflect any
      underlying behavioral patterns. The large number of archeological occurrences
      documented in Member F, therefore, corresponds to a limited number of primary
      occupations (<10). The archeological occupation is mainly restricted to the lower
      part of Member F and may reflect a single or a small number of occupation
      episodes, which were located on previous levees of the paleo-Omo River, in nearby
      floodplain areas, or on the riverbank. This strongly suggests that most of the
      knapping activities originally took place close to the river. This preference of
      the Omo toolmakers for riverine environments could explain the scarcity of
      archeological material in the upper part of Member F that comprises primarily
      distal floodplain sedimentary facies.

PMID- 28874274
TI  - Evidence of Neanderthals in the Balkans: The infant radius from Kozarnika Cave
      (Bulgaria).
AB  - Excavations conducted by a Bulgarian-French team at Kozarnika Cave (Balkans,
      Bulgaria) during several seasons yielded a long Paleolithic archaeological
      sequence and led to the discovery of important faunal, lithic, and human samples.
      This paper aims to describe the unpublished radius shaft of an infant who died
      approximately before the sixth month postnatal that was recovered from layer 10b,
      which contained East Balkan Levallois Mousterian with bifacial leaf points. The
      layer was dated between 130 and 200 ka (large mammals biochronology) and between
      128 +/- 13 ka and 183 +/- 14 ka (OSL), i.e. OIS6. Here we show that, given the
      scarcity of Middle Pleistocene infant remains in general, and Middle Paleolithic
      human remains from this part of Eastern Europe in particular, the study of the
      Kozarnika specimen is of special interest. We discuss its place in the Middle
      Pleistocene European hominine record and substantiate the hypothesis of early
      Neanderthal presence in the eastern Balkans.

PMID- 28874275
TI  - Paleolithic subsistence strategies and changes in site use at Klissoura Cave 1
      (Peloponnese, Greece).
AB  - Klissoura Cave 1 in southern Greece preserves a long archaeological sequence that
      spans roughly 90,000 years and includes Middle Paleolithic, Uluzzian, Upper
      Paleolithic, and Mesolithic deposits. The site provides a unique opportunity to
      examine diachronic change and shifts in the intensity of site use across the Late
      Pleistocene. There is an overall picture of the intensified use of faunal
      resources at the site, evidenced by a shift from large to small game, and to
      small fast-moving taxa in particular. This trend is independent of climatic
      change and fluctuations in site use, and most likely reflects a broader, regional
      growth of hominin populations. At the same time, multiple lines of evidence
      (e.g., input of artifacts and features, sedimentation mechanisms, and
      intensification of faunal resources) indicate that the intensity of site use
      changed, with a sharp increase from the Middle Paleolithic to Aurignacian. This
      allows us to address a fundamental issue in the study of human evolution:
      differences in population size and site use between Neandertals and modern
      humans. At Klissoura Cave 1, the increase in occupation intensity might be
      related to population growth or larger group size, but it might also be due to
      changes in season of site use, more favorable environmental conditions at the
      beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, and/or changes in the composition of people
      occupying the site. These explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive,
      and indeed the data support a combination of factors. Ascribing the increase in
      occupation intensity to larger Upper Paleolithic populations more broadly is
      difficult, particularly because there is little consensus on this topic elsewhere
      in Eurasia. The data are complicated and vary greatly between sites and regions.
      This makes Klissoura Cave 1, as the only currently available case study in
      southeastern Europe, a critical example in understanding the range of variation
      in demography and site use across the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition.

PMID- 28874277
TI  - Corrigendum to "The effect of the stability threshold on time to stabilization
      and its reliability following a single leg drop jump landing" [J. Biomech. 49(3)
      (2016) 496-501].

PMID- 28874276
TI  - The costal remains of the El Sidron Neanderthal site (Asturias, northern Spain)
      and their importance for understanding Neanderthal thorax morphology.
AB  - The study of the Neanderthal thorax has attracted the attention of the scientific
      community for more than a century. It is agreed that Neanderthals have a more
      capacious thorax than modern humans, but whether this was caused by a medio
      lateral or an antero-posterior expansion of the thorax is still debated, and is
      key to understanding breathing biomechanics and body shape in Neanderthals. The
      fragile nature of ribs, the metameric structure of the thorax and difficulties in
      quantifying thorax morphology all contribute to uncertainty regarding precise
      aspects of Neanderthal thoracic shape. The El Sidron site has yielded costal
      remains from the upper to the lower thorax, as well as several proximal rib ends
      (frequently missing in the Neanderthal record), which help to shed light on
      Neanderthal thorax shape. We compared the El Sidron costal elements with ribs
      from recent modern humans as well as with fossil modern humans and other
      Neanderthals through traditional morphometric methods and 3D geometric
      morphometrics, combined with missing data estimation and virtual reconstruction
      (at the 1st, 5th and 11th costal levels). Our results show that Neanderthals have
      larger rib heads and articular tubercles than their modern human counterparts.
      Neanderthal 1st ribs are smaller than in modern humans, whereas 5th and 11th ribs
      are considerably larger. When we articulated mean ribs (size and shape) with
      their corresponding vertebral elements, we observed that compared to modern
      humans the Neanderthal thorax is medio-laterally expanded at every level,
      especially at T5 and T11. Therefore, in the light of evidence from the El Sidron
      costal remains, we hypothesize that the volumetric expansion of the Neanderthal
      thorax proposed by previous authors would mainly be produced by a medio-lateral
      expansion of the thorax.

PMID- 28874278
TI  - Characterization of the age-dependent shape of the pediatric thoracic spine and
      vertebrae using generalized procrustes analysis.
AB  - Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) is a superimposition method used to
      generate size-invariant distributions of homologous landmark points. Several
      studies have used GPA to assess the three-dimensional (3D) shapes of or to
      evaluate sex-related differences in the human brain, skull, rib cage, pelvis and
      lower limbs. Previous studies of the pediatric thoracic vertebrae suggest that
      they may undergo changes in shape asa result of normative growth. This study uses
      GPA and second order polynomial equations to model growth and age- and sex
      related changes in shape of the pediatric thoracic spine. We present a thorough
      analysis of the normative 3D shape, size, and orientation of the pediatric
      thoracic spine and vertebrae as well as equations which can be used to generate
      models of the thoracic spine and vertebrae for any age between 1 and 19years.
      Such models could be used to create more accurate 3D reconstructions of the
      thoracic spine, generate improved age-specific geometries for finite element
      models (FEMs) and used to assist clinicians with patient-specific planning and
      surgical interventions for spine deformity.

PMID- 28874279
TI  - Midwifery Education.

PMID- 28874280
TI  - Response to Edith Cowan students.

PMID- 28874281
TI  - Response to Letter to the Editor by Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery.

PMID- 28874282
TI  - SMAD4 gene mutation increases the risk of aortic dilation in patients with
      hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mutations in the genes ENG, ACVRL1 and SMAD4 that are part of the
      transforming growth factor-beta signalling pathway cause hereditary haemorrhagic
      telangiectasia (HHT). Mutations in non-HHT genes within this same pathway have
      been found to associate with aortic dilation. Therefore, we investigated the
      presence of aortic dilation in a large cohort of HHT patients as compared to non
      HHT controls. METHODS: Chest computed tomography of consecutive HHT patients
      (ENG, ACVRL1 and SMAD4 mutation carriers) and non-HHT controls were reviewed.
      Aortic root dilation was defined as a z-score>1.96. Ascending and descending
      aorta dimensions were corrected for age, gender and body surface area. RESULTS:
      In total 178 subjects (57.3% female, mean age 43.9+/-14.9years) were included (32
      SMAD4, 47 ENG, 50 ACVRL1 mutation carriers and 49 non-HHT controls). Aortopathy
      was present in a total of 42 subjects (24% of total). Aortic root dilatation was
      found in 31% of SMAD4, 2% of ENG, 6% of ACVRL1 mutation carriers, and 4% in non
      HHT controls (p<0.001). The aortic root diameter was 36.3+/-5.2mm in SMAD4 versus
      32.7+/-3.9mm in the non-SMAD4 group (p=0.001). SMAD4 was an independent predictor
      for increased aortic root (beta-coefficient 3.5, p<0.001) and ascending aorta
      diameter (beta-coefficient 1.6, p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: SMAD4 gene mutation in HHT
      patients is independently associated with a higher risk of aortic root and
      ascending aortic dilation as compared to other HHT patients and non-HHT controls.

PMID- 28874283
TI  - Mortality in adults with congenital heart disease.
AB  - AIM: Retrospective ascertainment of the causes of mortality in the adult
      congenital heart disease (ACHD) cohort of the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH).
      METHODS: Deceased patients (n=73) of the 2519 ACHD patients in the Royal
      Melbourne Hospital registry (commenced in 1991) were identified. Retrospective
      analysis was undertaken. Age, gender of deceased individuals, and frequency and
      cause of death in different congenital diagnosis groups was explored. RESULTS:
      Between 1991 and 2015, death occurred in 3.3% of the ACHD cohort. Median age at
      death was 32years (IQR 26-41.5) and 51% were male. The most frequent underlying
      cardiac conditions were Eisenmenger's syndrome (22%), pulmonary atresia and
      ventricular septal defect+/-major aorto-pulmonary collateral arteries (12%),
      Tetralogy of Fallot (10%), transposition of great arteries (TGA) with intact
      ventricular septum (8%), single ventricle (8%) and congenitally corrected TGA
      (5%). The cause of death was available from medical records in 60 (82%) of the 73
      patients. The majority of deaths were due to cardiac causes (67%) including
      sudden death (40%), heart failure (13%), and documented ventricular arrhythmias
      (8%). The most common non-cardiac cause of death was sepsis (10%). CONCLUSION:
      The majority of deaths in this group were due to cardiac causes with sudden death
      and heart failure being the most common. Identification of risk factors for
      sudden death might assist identification of patients who may benefit from
      preventative therapies including implantable cardiac defibrillator.

PMID- 28874284
TI  - Gender-specific care for adults with congenital heart disease: A look in the
      future?

PMID- 28874285
TI  - International collaborative initiative towards improving the lives of patients
      after the Fontan operation: A call for action.

PMID- 28874286
TI  - SMAD4 gene mutation and risk of aortic dilation: Lessons from hereditary
      hemorrhagic telangiectasia.

PMID- 28874287
TI  - Can we do more to risk stratify and improve survival in ACHD?

PMID- 28874288
TI  - Atrial fibrillation: Utility of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores as predictors of
      readmission, mortality and resource utilization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores are widely used for thromboembolic
      risk assessment in Atrial Fibrillation(AF) cohort, however further utilization to
      predict outcomes is understudied. METHOD: HCUP's National Readmission Data(NRD)
      2013 was queried for AF admissions using ICD-9-CM code 427.31 in principal
      diagnosis field. Patients with mitral valve disease or repair/or replacement were
      excluded to estimate population with non-valvular AF only. CHADS2 and CHA2DS2
      VASc were calculated for each patient. Hierarchical two-level logistic and linear
      models were used to evaluate study outcomes in terms of mortality, 30 or 90-day
      readmissions, length of stay(LOS) and cost. RESULT: Of 116,450 principal non
      valvular AF admissions(50.2% female and 43.1% age>=75years) 29,179 patients were
      readmitted, with total 40,959 readmissions. Higher CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc score
      were associated with increased mortality from 0.4% for CHADS2 of 0 to 3.2% for
      score of 6 and from 0.2% for CHA2DS2-VASc of 0 to 3.2% for score>=8. LOS
      increased from 2.20days for CHADS2 of 0 to 5.08days for score of 6, while cost
      increased from $7888 to $11,151. 30-day readmission rate increased from 8.9% for
      CHADS2 of 0 to 26.0% for score of 6, and 90-day readmission rate increased from
      15.2% to 39%. CHA2DS2-VASc scoring similarly demonstrated a trend towards
      increasing readmission rate, LOS and cost for higher scores. Also, similar
      results were seen in hierarchical modeling with increment of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2
      VASc scores. CONCLUSION: CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores can be used as quick
      surrogate markers for predicting outcomes beyond thromboembolic risk. Physician
      familiarity with these systems makes them easy to use bedside clinical tools to
      improve outcomes and resource allocation.

PMID- 28874289
TI  - Clinical predictors of challenging atrioventricular node ablation procedure for
      rate control in patients with atrial fibrillation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Atrioventricular node (AVN) ablation is usually a simple procedure
      but may sometimes be challenging. We aimed at identifying pre-procedural clinical
      predictors of challenging AVN ablation. METHODS: Patients referred for AVN
      ablation from 2009 to 2015 were retrospectively included. Baseline clinical data,
      procedural variables and outcomes of AVN ablation were collected. A "challenging
      procedure" was defined 1) total radiofrequency delivery to get persistent AVN
      block>=400s, 2) need for left-sided arterial approach or 3) failure to obtain AVN
      ablation. RESULTS: 200 patients were included (71+/-10years). A total of 37
      (18.5%) patients had "challenging" procedures (including 9 failures, 4.5%), while
      163 (81.5%) had "non-challenging" ablations. In multivariable analysis, male sex
      (Odds ratio (OR)=4.66, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.74-12.46), body mass index
      (BMI, OR=1.08 per 1kg/m2, 95%CI 1.01-1.16), operator experience (OR=0.40, 95%CI
      0.17-0.94), and moderate-to-severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR, OR=3.65, 95%CI
      1.63-8.15) were significant predictors of "challenging" ablations. The proportion
      as a function of number of predictors was analyzed (from 0 to 4, including male
      sex, operator inexperience, a BMI>23.5kg/m2 and moderate-to-severe TR). There was
      a gradual increase in the risk of "challenging" procedure with the number of
      predictors by patient (No predictor: 0%; 1 predictor: 6.3%; 2 predictors: 16.5%;
      3 predictors: 32.5%; 4 predictors: 77.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Operator experience, male
      sex, higher BMI and the degree of TR were independent predictors of "challenging"
      AVN ablation procedure. The risk increases with the number of predictors by
      patient.

PMID- 28874290
TI  - The CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores for predicting healthcare utilization and
      outcomes: Observations on the Appropriate Use and Misuse of Risk scores.

PMID- 28874291
TI  - His bundle ablation. Simple things aren't always easy.

PMID- 28874292
TI  - Malignant cardiac phenotypic expression of Danon disease (LAMP2 cardiomyopathy).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Danon disease is an X-linked lysosomal condition that causes a
      deficiency of lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP2) gene. It is
      characterized clinically by a triad of skeletal myopathy, cardiomyopathy, and
      intellectual disability. METHODS: We examined clinical, echocardiographic, and
      genetic data on 5 patients with Danon disease, highlighting their clinical course
      and outcomes. RESULTS: All patients presented phenotypically with hypertrophic
      cardiomyopathy and later developed systolic dysfunction. The mean age at
      diagnosis was 19years (11-31years). All patients had diastolic dysfunction (mean
      e' of 5cm/s [3.5-6cm/s], mean E/e' of 17 [15-21]). Three patients required
      cardiac transplantation (ages 15, 27, and 42). Of the two deaths in this group,
      both were in women. CONCLUSION: We highlight the aggressive cardiac phenotype of
      Danon disease in our clinical experience with rapid progression to end-stage
      cardiomyopathy; this progression occurred in both men and women. A timely
      diagnosis and an early referral for cardiac transplantation is crucial for
      improved outcomes.

PMID- 28874294
TI  - Cardiac Danon disease: Insights and challenges.

PMID- 28874293
TI  - A plea for an early ultrasound-clinical integrated approach in patients with
      acute heart failure. A proactive comment on the ESC Guidelines on Heart Failure
      2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The European Association of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines on the
      diagnosis and treatment of acute heart failure (AHF) indicate prompt therapy
      initiation and performance of relevant investigations as paramount. Specifically,
      echocardiography prior to treatment is advocated only with hemodynamic
      instability, and the evaluation of clinical signs of peripheral perfusion and
      congestion is suggested as guidance for early interventions. Given the growing
      body of evidence on the diagnostic/monitoring capabilities of bedside ultrasound
      (including focused cardiac ultrasound, comprehensive echocardiography, lung
      ultrasound), we discuss the potential benefit of an integrated
      clinical/ultrasound approach at the very early stages of acute heart failure.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: We proposed a narrative review of the current evidence on
      the clinical-ultrasound integrated approach to AHF, with special emphasis on the
      components of the early diagnostic-therapeutic workup where cardiac, inferior
      vena cava and lung ultrasound showed high diagnostic accuracy and the capability
      of substantially changing an exclusively clinically-oriented patient management.
      A proactive comment to the ESC guidelines is made, suggesting an integration of
      clinical and biochemical assessment, as defined by guidelines, with combined
      bedside ultrasound on may help in the definition of AHF pathophysiology and
      treatment. CONCLUSION: A multi-organ integrated clinical-ultrasound approach
      should be advocated as part of the clinical-diagnostic workup at AHF very early
      phase. Whenever competence and technology available, bedside ultrasound, along
      with clinical and biochemical assessment, should target AHF profiling, identify
      the cause of AHF, and subsequently aid disease course and response to treatment
      monitoring.

PMID- 28874295
TI  - The "hands-on" patient-centered method: An old approach for a new perspective in
      acute heart failure.

PMID- 28874296
TI  - International opinion on priorities in research for small abdominal aortic
      aneurysms and the potential path for research to impact clinical management.

PMID- 28874297
TI  - Patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndromes managed without
      coronary revascularization: A population needing treatment improvement.
AB  - NSTE-ACS patients are a heterogeneous population, with different clinical
      features and prognosis. A large proportion of them is medically managed, without
      any revascularization. In the EYSHOT and FAST-MI registries such patients were
      40% and 35%, respectively. These patients are at higher risk of adverse
      cardiovascular events and have a worse prognosis compared with those receiving
      revascularization. Medically managed NSTE-ACS patients consist of different
      subgroups: those not undergoing coronary angiography, those without significant
      coronary artery disease, and those with coronary stenoses not referred to
      revascularization. Patients with NSTE-ACS for whom a conservative strategy
      without coronary angiogram is planned must be very carefully selected. In
      patients with comorbidities, frailty, or advanced age, a careful balance between
      benefits and risks is needed to choice the management strategy (perform or not
      coronary angiography and/or revascularization), as evidence-based medicine data
      are lacking in the setting of frailty and comorbidities. In this decisional
      process, it should be also taken into consideration the role of coronary anatomy
      in risk stratification and treatment guidance. NSTE-ACS patients managed without
      revascularization less frequently receive guideline-recommended pharmacological
      treatment. Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) is recommended for 12months also in
      medically managed patients, after careful balancing of ischemic and bleeding
      risk. In these patients it is mandatory to optimize pharmacological treatment,
      including antiplatelet therapy, to improve outcome. In NSTE-ACS medically
      managed, the proportion of patients discharged with DAPT should be increased in
      comparison with current practice, and the use of ticagrelor in place of
      clopidogrel should be considered in selected patients.

PMID- 28874298
TI  - Survival and resource utilization in patients with chest pain evaluated with
      cardiac troponin T compared with high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is uncertain how the implementation of high-sensitivity cardiac
      troponin T (hs-cTnT) has affected the survival of patients with chest pain in the
      emergency department (ED). We studied prognosis and resource utilization in terms
      of coronary angiographies and revascularizations (percutaneous coronary
      intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting) in patients evaluated with hs
      cTnT compared with conventional troponin T (cTnT). METHODS: All patients >25years
      presenting with chest pain and at least one troponin level analyzed in the ED at
      the Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden, were included. Hazard ratios (HR) for
      all-cause mortality, coronary angiographies and revascularizations were adjusted
      for age, sex and comorbidities during 1year of follow-up comparing patients
      tested with hs-cTnT (December 10, 2010 to December 31, 2013) with patients tested
      with cTnT (January 1, 2009 to December 9, 2010). RESULTS: In total, 31,904
      patients were included (n=12,485 tested with cTnT and n=24,729 using hs-cTnT).
      Patient characteristics, comorbidities, and medications were similar during the
      study period. The absolute risk of all-cause mortality was 3.7% for those tested
      with cTnT compared with 3.4% for hs-cTnT. After adjustment for confounders, an
      increased all-cause mortality was observed for patients tested with hs-cTnT (HR
      1.15; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-1.29). Coronary angiographies increased
      by 13% (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.00-1.28) and revascularizations by 18% (HR 1.18; 95% CI
      1.01-1.37) when using hs-cTnT. CONCLUSIONS: In an observational cohort study
      including patients with chest pain in the ED we found a small increase in
      mortality, coronary angiographies and revascularizations after the introduction
      of hs-cTnT.

PMID- 28874299
TI  - Aggressive management of non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome:
      Evidence or faith?

PMID- 28874300
TI  - Challenges in using high-sensitive troponin reporting in clinical practice-The
      important role of appropriate use in the context of clinical evaluation.

PMID- 28874301
TI  - Polymer-free amphilimus-eluting stent versus biodegradable polymer biolimus
      eluting stent in patients with and without diabetes mellitus.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to compare clinical outcome of polymer-free
      amphilimus-eluting stent (PF-AES) versus biodegradable-polymer biolimus-eluting
      stent (BD-BES) in "all-comer" diabetes mellitus (DM) and non-DM patients who
      underwent percutaneous coronary intervention. BACKGROUND: The PF-AES has shown
      promising preliminary results in patients with DM. METHODS: Data from 2
      multicentre-national registries (the ASTUTE and the INSPIRE-1) were used to
      analyse 1776 patients stratified in non-DM and DM. A double 1:1 propensity-score
      matched analysis (PF-AES vs. BD-BES) was performed in each group to adjust for
      clinical and procedural characteristics. Primary stent-efficacy and stent-safety
      endpoints were 1-year target-lesion revascularization (TLR) and target-lesion
      failure (TLF, composed of cardiac-death, target-vessel myocardial infarction and
      any TLR). RESULTS: After propensity-score matching, 850 patients were stratified
      as non-DM (425 PF-AES/425 BD-BES) and 480 as DM patients (240 PF-AES/240 BD-BES).
      Both TLF (20 of 425 [5%] vs. 24 of 425 [6%]; Plog-rank=0.527) and TLR (9 of 425
      [2%] vs. 18 of 425 [4%]; Plog-rank=0.079) were similar between PF-AES and BD-BES
      in non-DM patients. In DM, TLF (12 of 240 [5%] vs. 31 of 240 [13%]; Plog
      rank=0.002) and TLR (9 of 240 [4%] vs. 21 of 240 [9%]; Plog-rank=0.019) were
      significantly lower in PF-AES compared to BD-BES. Upon multivariate analysis, the
      most powerful predictors of TLF were chronic kidney disease in non-DM (OR 4.24,
      95% CI: 2.07-8.70, p<0.001) and stent type in DM patients (OR 2.76, 1.36-5.56,
      p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: This matched-cohort study suggests that PF-AES has better
      safety and efficacy profile than BD-BES in patients with DM.

PMID- 28874303
TI  - Airway Management in an Infant with a Large Supraglottic Mass after Failed
      Fiberoptic Intubation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fiberoptic bronchoscope-guided tracheal intubation is the gold
      standard for managing patients with supraglottic growths. In infants with a large
      and overhanging epiglottis, the success of fiberoptic-guided intubation relies
      heavily on the available space between the inferior surface of the epiglottis and
      the posterior pharyngeal wall or, more specifically, the superior surface of the
      supraglottic growth. CASE REPORT: We describe the inability to negotiate the tip
      of the fiberscope between the epiglottis and the supraglottic growth and the
      successful use of direct laryngoscopy to improve the available space along with
      the usefulness of "bubbling of air" to locate the glottic opening in an infant.
      WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: We emphasize the role of the
      emergency physician in managing such patients. Most of the time, the setting is
      not ideal in such emergency situations and the most qualified clinician to treat
      them is the emergency physician. The knowledge and skills of the emergency
      physician, along with awareness of the possible techniques for airway management,
      can be lifesaving.

PMID- 28874302
TI  - Psychiatric Emergencies for Physicians: Clinical Management and Approach to
      Distinguishing Pheochromocytoma From Psychiatric and Thyrotoxic Diseases in the
      Emergency Department.

PMID- 28874305
TI  - Vitamin D supplementation in the critically ill: Response letter to interesting
      points.

PMID- 28874304
TI  - Effect of Cricoid Pressure on the Insertion Efficacy of Six Supraglottic Devices:
      A Crossover Randomized Simulation Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No study has ever compared the efficacy of various types of
      supraglottic devices (SGDs) for securing the airway under cricoid pressure.
      OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of six SGDs, LMA-ProSeal
      (ProSeal), LMA-Classic (Classic), Laryngeal Tube (LT), LMA-Supreme (Supreme), air
      Q (air-Q), and i-gel (i-gel), in airway management under cricoid pressure using a
      manikin. METHODS: Fifteen novice doctors and 16 experienced doctors used the six
      SGDs under cricoid or sham pressure on an adult manikin. Insertion time,
      successful ventilation rate, and subjective insertion difficulty on a visual
      analogue scale (VAS) were measured. RESULTS: Both novice and experienced doctors
      had a significantly lower ventilation success rate under cricoid pressure than
      under sham pressure when using the ProSeal, Classic, and LT, but not when using
      the other three SGDs. Novice doctors required a significantly longer insertion
      time under cricoid pressure than under sham pressure with all SGDs. Experienced
      doctors required a significantly longer insertion time under cricoid pressure
      than with sham pressure when using the ProSeal, Classic, and LT, but not when
      using the other three SGDs. Subjective insertion difficulty on VAS was
      significantly higher under cricoid pressure than under sham pressure with all six
      SGDs. CONCLUSION: Ventilation success rate under cricoid pressure was
      significantly lower than under sham pressure when using the ProSeal, Classic, and
      LT, but not when using the other three SGDs in both novice and experienced
      doctors.

PMID- 28874306
TI  - Visible light photocatalytic disintegration of waste activated sludge for
      enhancing biogas production.
AB  - Biogas production using waste activated sludge (WAS) is one of the most demanding
      technologies for sludge treatment and generating energy in sustainable manner.
      The present study deals with the photocatalytic pretreatment of WAS using ZnO
      ZnS@polyaniline (ZnO-ZnS@PANI) nanocomposite as means for increasing its
      degradability for improved biogas production by anaerobic digestion (AD).
      Photocatalysis accelerated the hydrolysis of WAS and increased the sCOD by 6.7
      folds after 6 h and transform tCOD into bioavailable sCOD. After the AD of WAS, a
      removal of organic matter (60.6%) and tCOD (69.3%) was achieved in photocatalytic
      pretreated sludge. The biogas production was 1.6 folds higher in photocatalytic
      sludge with accumulative biogas up to 1645.1 ml L-1vs after 45 days compared with
      the raw sludge (1022.4 ml L-1VS). Moreover, the photocatalysis decrease the onset
      of methanogenesis from 25 to 12 days while achieve the maximum conversion rate of
      reducing sugars into organic acids at that time. These results suggested that
      photocatalysis is an efficient pretreatment method and ZnO-ZnS@PANI can degrade
      sludge efficiently for enhance biogas production in anaerobic digestion process.

PMID- 28874307
TI  - Prosthetic mitral valve paravalvular leak: A problem that requires dexterity.
AB  - Prosthetic valve paravalvular leak (PVL) is a known and relatively common
      complication of surgical valve replacement, which may lead to significant
      morbidity. Patients with significant mitral valve replacement (MVR) PVL typically
      present with symptoms of heart failure and elevated filling pressures or with
      hemolytic anemia. Percutaneous closure of these leaks has become the preferred
      therapy. Percutaneous closure of MVR PVL can be technically challenging, given
      the anatomy of the approach (trans-septal, trans-apical), the level of associated
      comorbidities and the geographic location of the paravalvular defect. Steerable
      catheters offer a unique ability to position themselves coaxial to the PVL. The
      Dexterity catheter (Spirus Medical LLC, Bridgewater, MA, USA) is a semi-rigid
      steerable catheter used in our lab with the ability to articulate at two separate
      points on the distal tip and flex greater than 360 degrees. We present cases of
      surgical valves that developed PVL which underwent successful repair with a
      Dexterity catheter.

PMID- 28874308
TI  - Accuracy and reproducibility of a newly developed tool for volume measurements of
      the arm using 3D stereophotogrammetry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymph edema of the arm is a common complication after breast cancer
      treatment. To evaluate lymph edema volume and treatment outcome, an easy to use,
      objective quantification method of arm volume is necessary. Most often, water
      displacement is used to measure arm volume, as it is an easy and robust method
      that can be performed at any place with a simple equipment. However, when using
      water displacement, no exact localization of volume difference can be seen. To
      accurately measure hand and forearm volumes separately, an in-house-developed
      device was constructed for an accurate landmark placement. METHOD: An in-house
      developed measurement tool was used for placing artificial landmarks proximal to
      the wrist crease on ten healthy subjects. Three-dimensional (3D) images of the
      hand and forearm were acquired, and volume measurements of the hand and forearm
      were performed. Measurements were repeated to investigate the intra- and inter
      rater variability caused by the landmark placement. RESULTS: Measuring volume of
      the hand and forearm while using artificially placed landmarks turned out to be a
      highly reproducible, quick, and easy procedure. Both intra- and inter-rater
      variability showed high reproducibility for hand (ICC = 0.96 and 0.98,
      respectively) and forearm (ICC = 0.99 and 0.99, respectively) volumes.
      CONCLUSION: Measuring volumes of the hand and forearm while using artificially
      placed landmarks was found to be a highly reproducible, quick, and easy
      procedure. The device enables to analyze the localization of lymph edema in
      greater details.

PMID- 28874309
TI  - [Cor triatriatum, an unusual cause of a cardioembolic cerebrovascular event in
      adults. Presentation of a case].

PMID- 28874310
TI  - Comment on "Orthostatic myoclonus after brain tumor radiation: Insights from two
      lesional cases".

PMID- 28874311
TI  - Reply to van Gerpen and Hassan comment on "Orthostatic myoclonus after brain
      tumor radiation: Insights from two lesional cases".

PMID- 28874312
TI  - Bowel obstruction secondary to an incarcerated Morgagni hernia in an adult
      patient: a rare complication.

PMID- 28874314
TI  - Drug discovery for the treatment of substance use disorders: novel targets,
      repurposing, and the need for new paradigms.
AB  - Drug addiction treatment medications available nowadays are limited in both
      efficacy and number. The increased understanding of drug addiction circuitries
      leads the scientific community to look for better molecules and targets for
      detoxification and relapse prevention. This review focus on known targets (e.g.,
      metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 and GABAB receptor) and on novel potential
      treatment acting on oxytocin system, which interacts with diverse
      neurotransmitters, has proved successful in both preclinical and clinical studies
      on ethanol, cocaine and methamphetamine. A crucial issue is the identification of
      new investigational paradigms, which may help to predict treatment efficacy and
      improve effectiveness.

PMID- 28874313
TI  - New therapeutic perspectives in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
AB  - Management of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis is focused on restitution of
      metabolic derangement, weight loss and drugs able to improve steatosis,
      ballooning and fibrosis. Life-style interventions based on Mediterranean diet and
      increasing physical activity are the first line therapy. In patients with
      unsuccessful life-style intervention several drugs are under development: agonist
      PPAR, agonist GLP-1R and agonist FXR together with drugs focussing on
      inflammation, ballooning, apoptosis and fibrosis. Bariatric surgery or advanced
      endoscopy are reserved for morbid obese without response to life-style
      intervention and weighting loss drugs.

PMID- 28874316
TI  - La Teppe: The Epilepsy Center, Tain l'Hermitage, France.

PMID- 28874315
TI  - Hand eczema as a risk factor for food allergy among occupational kitchen workers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An increasing number of studies in children is highlighting the
      importance of transdermal routes of exposure to food allergens through damaged
      skin in the pathogenesis of food allergies. However, data on this in adults are
      limited. A few case-series studies has documented development of food allergy
      among kitchen workers with hand eczema after direct contact exposure to foods.
      METHODS: To explore the significance of hand eczema as a risk factor for food
      allergies in adults at the epidemiological level, we performed a cross-sectional
      web-based questionnaire survey on kitchen workers whose exposures were classed as
      occupational (cooks and food handlers, n = 1592) or non-occupational (housewives,
      n = 1915). Logistic regression was used to explore the association between the
      presence/severity of hand eczema and the risk of food allergy after adjustment
      for potential confounders. RESULTS: Current hand eczema and current diagnosed
      food allergy were more common among occupational kitchen workers (OKW) than among
      non-occupational kitchen workers (NOKW) (32.3%-vs-29.9% and 9.9%-vs-3.8%,
      respectively). Current hand eczema was significantly associated with increased
      risk of current diagnosed food allergy in OKW (adjusted odds ratio 2.4, 95% CI
      1.6-3.7). Those with more severe hand eczema were more likely to suffer from
      allergic symptoms for foods, and diagnosed food allergy. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      illustrates a significant public health problem in the adult population,
      documenting a major impact of hand eczema on the ongoing adult food allergy
      epidemic.

PMID- 28874317
TI  - Generalized paroxysmal fast activity in EEG: An unrecognized finding in genetic
      generalized epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study generalized paroxysmal fast activity (GPFA) in patients with
      genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE). INTRODUCTION: GPFA is an
      electroencephalographic (EEG) finding in patients with symptomatic generalized
      epilepsy consisting of 15-25Hz bifrontally predominant generalized fast activity
      seen predominantly in sleep. Historically GPFA is linked to epileptic
      encephalopathy with drug resistant epilepsy and intellectual disability. However,
      GPFA has been rarely described as an atypical finding in patients with GGE
      without negative prognostic implication. We report cognitive profile and seizure
      characteristics in seven patients with GGE and GPFA. METHODS: The Vanderbilt EMU
      and EEG reports were searched for the keywords "idiopathic generalized epilepsy",
      "GPFA"and "generalized spike and wave discharges (GSWD)". We reviewed the EEG
      tracings and the electronic medical records of patients thus identified. The
      seizure type, frequency, neurological work-up, clinical profile and imaging data
      were recorded. RESULTS: Awake and sleep states were captured on EEGs of all
      patients. On EEG tracing review six patients were confirmed to have GSWD and
      GPFA; one patient had GPFA but no GSWD. All patients had normal cognitive
      function. Four had a normal brain MRI and one a normal head CT (two were never
      imaged). None of the patients had tonic seizures. The main seizure type was
      generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in five patients, absence in two. Age at
      onset of epilepsy ranged from 4 to 24years. The mean GTC seizure frequency at the
      time of EEG was 3; two patients were seizure free on two antiepileptic drugs
      (AEDs). CONCLUSIONS: GPFA can be an unrecognized electrographic finding in
      patients with genetic generalized epilepsy. While GPFA remains an important
      diagnostic EEG feature for epileptic encephalopathy (Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) it
      is not specific for this diagnosis. Thus, GPFA may have a spectrum of variable
      phenotypic expression. The finding of GPFA is not necessarily indicative of
      unfavorable outcome.

PMID- 28874318
TI  - The Kork Epilepsy Center, Kehl-Kork, Germany.

PMID- 28874319
TI  - Childhood unusual experiences in community Child and Adolescent Mental Health
      Services in South East London: Prevalence and impact.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distressing 'psychotic-like' or unusual experiences (UEDs) signify
      increased mental health risk in the general population, including greater
      likelihood and severity of co-occurring non-psychotic mental health problems,
      and, from fourteen years of age, increased risk of a future psychotic illness.
      Healthcare guidelines for under eighteens recommend psychological intervention
      for UEDs, to reduce current distress and adverse functional impact, and,
      potentially, future mental health risk. Children tend not to report UEDs unless
      directly asked, indicating a need for routine screening. We report on the
      feasibility of a routine screening methodology, and screening outcomes, in Child
      and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in South East London, United
      Kingdom. METHOD: Four general community CAMHS teams were invited to screen, by
      adding a nine-item self-report UED measure to their routine assessment battery.
      Screening data were collected over 18months from 02/2015 to 07/2016. RESULTS: All
      but one team agreed to screen. Each team saw around 300 accepted referrals during
      the audit period (total: 900); 768 of these (85%) were successfully screened; of
      those screened, 68% (n=524) self-reported UEs, 60% (n=461) with associated
      distress/adverse functional impact. Screening was acceptable to clinicians,
      children and families. CONCLUSIONS: Assessing UEDs routinely in CAMHS is
      feasible, and suggests that around two thirds of assessed referrals could
      potentially benefit from interventions targeting UEDs. Additional training may be
      required for the CAMHS workforce to address this need.

PMID- 28874320
TI  - Exercise training for intermittent claudication.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to provide an overview of evidence
      regarding exercise therapies for patients with lower extremity peripheral artery
      disease (PAD). METHODS: This manuscript summarizes the content of a lecture
      delivered as part of the 2016 Crawford Critical Issues Symposium. RESULTS:
      Multiple randomized clinical trials demonstrate that supervised treadmill
      exercise significantly improves treadmill walking performance in people with PAD
      and intermittent claudication symptoms. A meta-analysis of 25 randomized trials
      demonstrated a 180-meter increase in treadmill walking distance in response to
      supervised exercise interventions compared with a nonexercising control group.
      Supervised treadmill exercise has been inaccessible to many patients with PAD
      because of lack of medical insurance coverage. However, in 2017, the Centers for
      Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a decision memorandum to support health
      insurance coverage of 12 weeks of supervised treadmill exercise for patients with
      walking impairment due to PAD. Recent evidence also supports home-based walking
      exercise to improve walking performance in people with PAD. Effective home
      exercise programs incorporate behavioral change interventions such as a remote
      coach, goal setting, and self-monitoring. Supervised treadmill exercise programs
      preferentially improve treadmill walking performance, whereas home-based walking
      exercise programs preferentially improve corridor walking, such as the 6-minute
      walk test. Clinical trial evidence also supports arm or leg ergometry exercise to
      improve walking endurance in people with PAD. Treadmill walking exercise appears
      superior to resistance training alone for improving walking endurance.
      CONCLUSIONS: Supervised treadmill exercise significantly improves treadmill
      walking performance in people with PAD by approximately 180 meters compared with
      no exercise. Recent evidence suggests that home-based exercise is also effective
      and preferentially improves over-ground walking performance, such as the 6-minute
      walk test.

PMID- 28874321
TI  - Design, synthesis, and SAR study of 3-(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)-N
      benzylpropanamide as novel potent synergists against fluconazole-resistant
      Candida albicans.
AB  - Based on our previous discovery and SAR study on the lead compounds 7d, 5 and
      berberine which can significantly enhance the susceptibility of fluconazole
      against fluconazole-resistant Candida albicans, a series of 3
      (benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)-N-(substituted benzyl)propanamides were designed,
      synthesized, and evaluated for their in vitro synergistic activity in combination
      with fluconazole. The series 2a-f were designed by replacing the amide moiety of
      the lead compound 7d with retro-amide moiety, and compounds 2a and 2b showed more
      activity than the lead 7d. Furthermore, introducing biphenyl moiety into series
      2d-f afforded series 3a-r, most of which exhibited significantly superior
      activity to the series 2d-f. Especially, compound 3e, at a concentration of
      1.0ug/ml, can enhance the susceptibility of fluconazole against fluconazole
      resistant Candida albicans from 128.0ug/ml to 0.125-0.25ug/ml. A clear SAR of the
      compounds is discussed.

PMID- 28874322
TI  - Prevaccination epidemiology of herpes zoster in Denmark: Quantification of
      occurrence and risk factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster (HZ) is a vaccine-preventable disease caused by
      reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus. Unfortunately, formulation of
      recommendations on routine immunization is hampered by a lack of data on disease
      burden, since most countries do not record cases of HZ in the general population.
      We developed and validated an algorithm to identify HZ based on routinely
      collected registry data and used it to quantify HZ occurrence and risk factors in
      Denmark prior to marketing of the HZ vaccine. METHODS: We included patients aged
      >=40years with a first-time systemic Acyclovir, Valacyclovir, or Famciclovir
      prescription or a hospital-based HZ diagnosis in the Danish nationwide health
      registries during 1997-2013. In a validation substudy (n=176), we computed the
      proportion of persons with HZ among patients who redeemed antiviral
      prescriptions. In a cohort study, we computed age-specific rates of HZ
      (45,297,258 person-years). In a case-control study, we then computed odds ratios
      (ORs) for common chronic diseases and immunosuppressive factors among HZ cases
      (n=189,025) vs. matched population controls (n=945,111). RESULTS: Medical record
      review confirmed HZ in 87% (95% confidence interval: 79-93%) of persons >=40years
      who dispensed antivirals at doses recommended for HZ. HZ rates increased from
      2.15/1000 person-years in 40-year-olds to 9.45/1000 person-years in 95-year-olds.
      Rates were highest in women. HZ was diagnosed during hospitalization among 3.5%.
      As expected, persons with severe immunosuppressive conditions had the highest ORs
      of HZ (between 1.82 and 4.12), but various autoimmune diseases, asthma, chronic
      kidney disease, and inhaled glucocorticoids were also associated with increased
      ORs (between 1.06 and 1.64). CONCLUSION: This algorithm is a valid tool for
      identifying HZ in routine healthcare data. It shows that HZ is common in Denmark,
      especially in patients with certain chronic conditions. Prioritized vaccination
      of such high-risk patients might be an option in countries considering
      alternatives to universal vaccination.

PMID- 28874323
TI  - The effect of probiotics and zinc supplementation on the immune response to oral
      rotavirus vaccine: A randomized, factorial design, placebo-controlled study among
      Indian infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Strategies are needed to improve oral rotavirus vaccine (RV), which
      provides suboptimal protection in developing countries. Probiotics and zinc
      supplementation could improve RV immunogenicity by altering the intestinal
      microbiota and immune function. METHODS: Infants 5weeks old living in urban
      Vellore, India were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled
      trial with a 4-arm factorial design to assess the effects of daily zinc (5mg),
      probiotic (1010Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) or placebo on the immunogenicity of
      two doses of RV (Rotarix(r), GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals) given at 6 and 10weeks
      of age. Infants were eligible for participation if healthy, available for the
      study duration and without prior receipt of RV or oral poliovirus vaccine other
      than the birth dose. The primary outcome was seroconversion to rotavirus at
      14weeks of age based on detection of VP6-specific IgA at >=20U/ml in previously
      seronegative infants or a fourfold rise in concentration. RESULTS: The study took
      place during July 2012 to February 2013. 620 infants were randomized equally
      between study arms and 551 (88.9%) completed per protocol. Seroconversion was
      recorded in 54/137 (39.4%), 42/136 (30.9%), 40/143 (28.0%), and 37/135 (27.4%)
      infants receiving (1) probiotic and zinc, (2) probiotic and placebo, (3) placebo
      and zinc, (4) two placebos. Seroconversion showed a modest improvement among
      infants receiving probiotic (difference between groups 1, 2 and 3, 4 was 7.5%
      (97.5% Confidence Interval (CI): -1.4%, 16.2%), p=0.066) but not zinc (difference
      between groups 1, 3 and 2, 4 was 4.4% (97.5% CI: -4.4%, 13.2%), p=0.272). 16
      serious adverse events were recorded, none related to study interventions.
      CONCLUSIONS: Zinc or probiotic supplementation did not significantly improve the
      low immunogenicity of rotavirus vaccine given to infants in a poor urban
      community in India. A modest effect of combined supplementation deserves further
      investigation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered in India
      (CTRI/2012/05/002677).

PMID- 28874324
TI  - Complex phenotype linked to a mutation in exon 11 of the lamin A/C gene:
      Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, atrioventricular block, severe dyslipidemia and
      diabetes.
AB  - The lamin A/C (LMNA) gene encodes lamins A and C, which have an important role in
      nuclear cohesion and chromatin organization. Mutations in this gene usually lead
      to the so-called laminopathies, the primary cardiac manifestations of which are
      dilated cardiomyopathy and intracardiac conduction defects. Some mutations,
      associated with lipodystrophy but not cardiomyopathy, have been linked to
      metabolic abnormalities such as diabetes and severe dyslipidemia. Herein we
      describe a new phenotype associated with a mutation in exon 11 of the LMNA gene:
      hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, atrioventricular block, severe dyslipidemia and
      diabetes. A 64-year-old woman with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and a point
      mutation in exon 11 of the LMNA gene (c.1718C>T, Ser573Leu) presented with severe
      symptomatic ventricular hypertrophy and left ventricular outflow tract
      obstruction. She underwent septal alcohol ablation, followed by Morrow myectomy.
      The patient was also diagnosed with severe dyslipidemia, diabetes and obesity,
      and fulfilled diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome. No other
      characteristics of LMNA mutation-related phenotypes were identified. The
      development of type III atrioventricular block with no apparent cause, and mildly
      depressed systolic function, prompted referral for cardiac resynchronization
      therapy. In conclusion, the association between LMNA mutations and different
      phenotypes is complex and not fully understood, and can present with a broad
      spectrum of severity.

PMID- 28874325
TI  - Current Management of Penile Fracture: An Up-to-Date Systematic Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Because of the low incidence of penile fracture, many aspects of
      the diagnostic process and of the surgical and functional outcomes are rarely
      reported. AIM: To systematically review the current literature on the surgical
      management of penile fracture, focusing on etiology, diagnosis, functional
      outcomes, and postoperative complications. METHODS: The present review was
      conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews
      and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) declaration standards for systematic reviews. A
      systematic search for the terms penile fracture, fracture of penis, trauma of
      penis, rupture of corpora cavernosa, and immediate management of penile fracture
      was been carried out in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, SCOPUS, and Science
      Citation Index databases. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Etiology of penile fracture,
      clinical presentation, types of radiologic investigations and their accuracy,
      surgical approach, suture material used for tunica repair, timing of surgical
      exploration, intraoperative findings, surgical complications, and functional
      outcomes. RESULTS: The total number of patients analyzed was 438, and the
      patients' an average age was 36 years. The most frequent reported cause of penile
      fracture was sexual intercourse (80% of cases). The most common finding at
      examination was a penile hematoma (97.5%). Although operator dependent, in
      experienced hands, ultrasonography was found to be a useful tool in confirming
      the location of the albuginea tear and identifying the presence of any
      concomitant urethral injury, helping the surgeon to choose the best surgical
      approach. Early surgical repair of a penile fracture was found to be a safe
      procedure, although long-term complications are not uncommon. Tertiary referral
      centers that managed a larger number of cases seemed to obtain more satisfactory
      long-term results with a significantly smaller number of complications.
      CONCLUSION: A low incidence of postoperative complications and full satisfactory
      functional outcomes are reported when early repair is performed in high-volume
      centers. Falcone M, Garaffa G, Castiglione F, Ralph DJ. Current Management of
      Penile Fracture: An Up-to-Date Systematic Review. Sex Med Rev 2018;6:253-260.

PMID- 28874326
TI  - Ambicor Two-Piece Inflatable Penile Prosthesis: Background and Contemporary
      Outcomes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The two-piece inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP; Ambicor) might be
      a preferred option for men with erectile dysfunction (ED) who have significant
      retroperitoneal scarring, limited manual dexterity, or other issues. There are
      reported differences in outcomes and patient and partner satisfaction between
      three-piece and two-piece IPPs. AIM: To report contemporary outcomes, patient and
      partner satisfaction, and mechanical durability data of the two-piece compared
      with the three-piece IPP. METHODS: A PubMed search was performed related to two
      piece penile prostheses. Emphasis was placed on perioperative outcomes and
      patient and/or partner satisfaction scores. Non-English-language articles were
      excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Use of the Ambicor two-piece penile prosthesis
      was assessed by outlining the contemporary literature. The etiology of ED in this
      population, mechanical attributes, penile morphologic changes, satisfaction, and
      its use in special populations were reviewed. RESULTS: The most common etiology
      of ED for placement of the device remains a vasculogenic cause (range = 11-62%).
      Overall complication rates were 2.1% to 11.2% for the general population.
      Mechanical failure was seen in 0.7% to 6.1%. Infection rates were 0.7% to 4.8%.
      Spontaneous deflation was seen in approximately 25%. Higher complication rates
      were found in transgender patients after neophallus creation and the two-piece
      IPP could offer better durability compared with the three-piece IPP. Longer
      operative times, greater use of advanced dilation techniques, and greater length
      loss also have been reported. Overall satisfaction rates are higher than 85%.
      CONCLUSION: The predominant etiology of ED for two-piece penile prosthesis
      placement is vasculogenic. There is a trend toward IPP insertion in patients
      after radical prostatectomy or who have spinal cord injury. The two-piece device
      has similar complication rates and high patient satisfaction scores compared with
      three-piece IPPs. Further larger prospective studies are needed to validate our
      findings, resolve discrepancies in published outcomes, and contribute to the
      sparse data on this subject. Ko OS, Bennett NE. Ambicor Two-Piece Inflatable
      Penile Prosthesis: Background and Contemporary Outcomes. Sex Med Rev 2018;6:319
      327.

PMID- 28874327
TI  - Collagenase Clostridium histolyticum in the Treatment of Peyronie's Disease-A
      Review of the Literature and a New Modified Protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Peyronie's disease (PD) is a common condition that results in
      penile deformity, which makes sexual intercourse difficult or impossible, and
      causes psychological, emotional, and relationship difficulties for the man
      affected and his partner. Collagenase Clostridium histolyticum (CCH; Xiapex,
      Xiaflex) is the first licensed non-surgical treatment option for PD. The safety
      and efficacy have been demonstrated in two large phase III randomized controlled
      trials (IMPRESS I and IMPRESS II). AIM: To review the safety and efficacy of CCH
      and to introduce a new shortened modified protocol for CCH that was developed by
      the authors to decrease the cost and duration of treatment. METHODS: A review of
      the medical literature on CCH for inclusion in this review was obtained by
      searching the PubMed (from 1946) and Medline (from 1946) medical databases and
      from the screening of relevant bibliographies. The search terms Xiapex, Xiaflex,
      collagenase Clostridial histolyticum, and Peyronie's disease were used. Clinical
      trials in men with PD and scientific articles relating to pharmacologic data were
      included in the review. When possible, large, randomized, and well-designed
      trials were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in the angle of penile
      curvature and in the Peyronie's Disease Questionnaire domains. RESULTS: The
      clinical trials demonstrate the safety and efficacy of CCH in the treatment of
      PD. The new modified protocol developed by the authors is as safe and effective
      as the protocol used in the clinical trials. CONCLUSION: CCH is the first
      licensed non-surgical treatment for PD. Its safety and efficacy have been
      demonstrated in large well-designed clinical trials. The new shortened modified
      protocol decreases the cost and duration of the treatment without compromising
      the safety and efficacy of the drug. This alteration will allow more patients to
      benefit from CCH. Abdel Raheem A, Johnson M, Abdel-Raheem T, et al. Collagenase
      Clostridium histolyticum in the Treatment of Peyronie's Disease-A Review of the
      Literature and a New Modified Protocol. Sex Med Rev 2017;5:529-535.

PMID- 28874328
TI  - Self Made Xeno-pericardial Aortic Tubes to Treat Native and Aortic Graft
      Infections.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The most appropriate material for reconstruction of the aorta for
      native or graft infection remains a matter for debate. This study examines the
      mid-term outcome of patients and graft durability after in situ aortic
      reconstruction with self made bovine pericardial tube grafts. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent in situ aortic
      reconstruction using self made bovine pericardial tube grafts between January
      2008 and December 2015 at a tertiary referral centre. Peri-operative and mid-term
      outcomes including mortality and re-infection were analysed at the end of January
      2017. Available follow-up imaging was reviewed to assess graft durability.
      RESULTS: Bovine pericardial aortic tube grafts were used in 35 patients (86%
      male) with a median age of 69 years (range 38-84) to reconstruct the ascending
      aorta or the aortic arch (7), the descending (7), the thoraco-abdominal (7), or
      the abdominal (14) aorta. Twelve patients (34%) were treated for infection of the
      native aorta and 23 (66%) for prosthetic graft infection. Twenty-two patients
      (63%) underwent emergency surgery. Thirty day mortality was 31% (n = 11).
      Additionally, six patients died during follow-up after a median of 33 months
      (range 3-70). For the remaining patients, mean follow-up was 48 months (+/- 26)
      with a mean Follow-Up Index of 0.98 +/- 0.08. There were no readmissions or re
      operations for re-infection or graft related complications. Follow-up imaging
      showed no signs of graft degeneration after a median of 15 months (range 3-68).
      CONCLUSIONS: Surgical treatment of native and aortic graft or endograft infection
      remains high risk. Self made bovine pericardial tube grafts for in situ
      reconstruction are a promising option offering many advantages. Despite high
      early mortality rates, early radiological and mid-term clinical results are good.
      Definitive eradication of the infection seems feasible after in situ insertion of
      xeno-pericardial material for aortic repair.

PMID- 28874329
TI  - Outcome after Turndown for Elective Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim was to assess the survival of patients who had been turned
      down for repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and to examine the factors
      influencing this. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study of a
      prospectively maintained database of all patients turned down for AAA
      intervention by the Black Country Vascular Network multidisciplinary team (MDT)
      from January 2013 to December 2015. Data on AAA size, cardiopulmonary exercise
      testing (CPET) and cause of death were recorded. RESULTS: There were 112
      patients. The median age at turndown was 83.9 years (IQR 10.2 years). The median
      AAA size at turndown was 63 mm (IQR 16.7 mm). The median follow-up time after
      turndown was 324 days (IQR 537.5 days). Sixty-four patients (57.1%) were deceased
      after 2 years, with a median survival time of 462 days (IQR 579 days). Patients
      who died had a significantly larger AAA dimension (median 65 mm, IQR 18.5 mm)
      than those surviving to date (median 59 mm, IQR 10 mm, p = .004). Using Cox
      regression analysis, the probability of 1 year survival in the whole population
      was 0.614. The probability of 2 year survival was 0.388. When accounting for age,
      gender, AAA dimension, and British Aneurysm Repair risk score, no factors had
      significant influence over survival. Of the 64 deceased patients, 30 had an
      accessible cause of death: 36.7% of these were due to ruptured AAAs. There was no
      significant difference in AAA size between those dying of ruptures and those
      dying of other causes (p = .225, mean 74 mm and 67 mm respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      Being turned down for AAA repair carries a significant short-term risk of
      mortality. Those turned down for repair carried significant levels of comorbid
      disease but no factors considered were found to be independently predictive of
      the length of survival.

PMID- 28874330
TI  - Comparison of RIFLE, AKIN, and KDIGO classifications for assessing prognosis of
      patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Acute kidney injury (AKI) developing during extracorporeal
      membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is associated with very poor outcome. The Kidney
      Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) group published a new AKI definition
      in 2012. This study analyzed the outcomes of patients treated with ECMO and
      identified the relationship between the prognosis and the KDIGO classification.
      METHODS: This study examined total 312 patients initially, and finally reviewed
      the medical records of 167 patients on ECMO support at a tertiary care university
      hospital between March 2002 and November 2011. Demographic, clinical, and
      laboratory variables were retrospectively collected as survival predicators.
      RESULTS: The overall mortality rate was 55.7%. In the analysis of the areas under
      the receiver operating characteristic curves, the KDIGO classification showed
      relatively higher discriminatory power (0.840 +/- 0.032) than the Risk of renal
      failure, Injury to the kidney, Failure of kidney function, Loss of kidney
      function, and End-stage renal failure (RIFLE) (0.826 +/- 0.033) and Acute Kidney
      Injury Network (AKIN) (0.836 +/- 0.032) criteria in predicting in-hospital
      mortality. Furthermore, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that KDIGO,
      hemoglobin, and Glasgow Coma Scale score on the first day of patients on ECMO
      were independent predictors for in-hospital mortality. Finally, cumulative
      survival rates at 6-month follow-up after hospital discharge differed
      significantly for KDIGO stage 3 versus KDIGO stage 0, 1, and 2 (p < 0.001); and
      KDIGO stage 2 versus KDIGO stage 0 (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: For those patients
      with ECMO support, the KDIGO classification proved to be a more reproducible
      evaluation tool with excellent prognostic abilities than RIFLE or AKIN
      classification.

PMID- 28874331
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Collagenase Clostridium histolyticum in the Treatment of
      Acute-Phase Peyronie's Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peyronie's disease (PD), defined as the abnormal formation of fibrous
      plaque(s) in the tunica albuginea of the penis, is a chronic condition that
      afflicts 3% to 13% of the US male population; there is no current research on the
      efficacy and safety of collagenase Clostridium histolyticum (CCH) in the
      treatment of acute phase PD. AIM: To examine the efficacy and safety of CCH in
      the treatment of acute-phase PD. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records
      for all patients treated with CCH for PD from April 2014 through April 2017.
      Patients who reported penile pain and duration of PD no longer than 12 months at
      presentation qualified as being in the acute phase of PD. The primary outcomes of
      interest were final changes in curvature after CCH treatment regardless of the
      number of CCH cycles received and frequency of treatment-related adverse events.
      OUTCOMES: Parameters of efficacy and safety were compared between acute- and
      stable-phase PD. RESULTS: A total of 162 patients were included in the study, of
      which 36 (22%) qualified as having acute-phase PD (group 1) and the remaining 126
      (78%) qualified as having stable-phase PD (group 2). Median duration of PD was
      8.5 months (range = 1-12) for group 1 and 18 months (range = 1-492) for group 2.
      There was no significant difference in final change in curvature between the
      acute and stable phases of PD (16.7 degrees  vs 15.6 degrees ; P = .654). There
      was no statistically significant difference in frequency of treatment-related
      adverse events between the acute phase (4 patients, 11%) and the stable phase (12
      patients, 10%; P = .778). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: CCH therapy is as safe and
      efficacious in acute-phase PD as it is in stable-phase PD. STRENGTHS AND
      LIMITATIONS: This is the first report that assesses the safety and efficacy of
      CCH therapy focusing on acute-phase PD. This study was composed of a large cohort
      of patients receiving CCH therapy in acute- and stable-phase PD. Limitations
      include bias associated with retrospective studies, a small sample, and a single
      center setting. CONCLUSIONS: Although CCH is not clearly indicated for treatment
      during the acute phase of PD, these results suggest that CCH use during this
      phase can be effective and safe. There was no statistically significant
      difference in final change in curvature or treatment-related adverse events after
      CCH therapy delivered between the acute and stable phases of PD. Nguyen HMT,
      Anaissie J, DeLay KJ, et al. Safety and Efficacy of Collagenase Clostridium
      histolyticum in the Treatment of Acute-Phase Peyronie's Disease. J Sex Med
      2017;14:1220-1225.

PMID- 28874332
TI  - The Relationship Between Incontinence and Erectile Dysfunction After Robotic
      Prostatectomy: Are They Mutually Exclusive?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Urinary incontinence (UI) and erectile dysfunction (ED) remain the
      most common long-term complications of prostatectomy, with a significant impact
      on sexual health and quality of life. AIMS: To determine the relation between UI
      and moderate to severe ED and the risk factors for UI in patients undergoing
      robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. METHODS: Patients in our
      institutional database who underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy
      for prostate cancer (2006-2013) and who completed the University of California
      Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index and the Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM)
      surveys at 12 months after prostatectomy were eligible for inclusion. Men who
      reported use of no urinary pads per day were considered continent, whereas men
      who used at least one pad per day were considered incontinent. Men with moderate
      to severe ED based on a SHIM score no higher than 11 were considered to have ED.
      Patients who had preoperative moderate to severe ED and/or UI based on these
      definitions were excluded from further analysis. OUTCOMES: A better understanding
      of what increases the risk for UI after a prostatectomy and how it can co-occur
      with ED. RESULTS: We analyzed 464 patients who met the inclusion criteria. After
      prostatectomy, 36% of patients had UI and 47% of patients had moderate to severe
      ED. Of all patients with ED, 45% (98 of 216) were incontinent compared with 27%
      (67 of 248) of patients without ED (P < .001). On multivariable analysis, older
      age at diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.05, P = .002) and ED (OR = 1.88, P = .005)
      were independent predictors for incontinence. The use of unilateral nerve sparing
      (OR = 1.03, P = .94) or no nerve sparing (OR = 0.53, P = .50) during surgery did
      not have an impact on postoperative incontinence. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS:
      Understanding that ED is an independent predictor of UI after robotic-assisted
      laparoscopic prostatectomy has important clinical implications and suggests a
      common anatomic pathway. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: Our focus on different
      measurements of incontinence and their relation to ED and our use of validated
      questionnaires to define incontinence and ED were important strengths of this
      study. Limitations of our study include its retrospective nature and the fact
      that our results were drawn from a single-center database of a tertiary referral
      hospital. CONCLUSION: Our results show that the presence of moderate to severe ED
      after prostatectomy is an independent risk factor for incontinence, suggesting a
      possible common pathway for these two complications. Further studies to
      investigate the anatomic and clinical bases of this relation are warranted.
      Tsikis ST, Nottingham CU, Faris SF. The Relationship Between Incontinence and
      Erectile Dysfunction After Robotic Prostatectomy: Are They Mutually Exclusive? J
      Sex Med 2017;14:1241-1247.

PMID- 28874333
TI  - Prevalence and Risk Factors for Erectile Dysfunction in Chinese Adult Males.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a lack of nationwide epidemiologic survey data on the
      prevalence estimate of erectile dysfunction (ED) in Chinese men living on the
      mainland China. AIM: To attain the representative prevalence estimate of ED in
      the Chinese male population and to analyze potential risk factors associated with
      ED by demographics, socioeconomic status, and medical comorbidities. METHODS: The
      study was community based. The five-item Internation Index of Erectile Function
      questionnaire and in-person interview were used to obtain data. The survey
      subjects were 5,210 non-institutionalized Chinese men at least 40 years old
      residing in 30 provinces and autonomies of China. Multiple logistic regression
      analysis was used to disclose risk factors associated with ED. OUTCOMES: The
      prevalence estimate of ED was 40.56% in Chinese men at least 40 years old.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of ED increased with increasing age. A significant high
      prevalence of ED was observed in men who smoked heavily, were estranged from a
      partner, had diabetes, and lower urinary tract symptoms from benign prostatic
      hyperplasia. Smoking more than 30 cigarettes daily and obesity (body mass index
      >= 30 kg/m2) significantly increased the risk for ED by multivariable-adjusted
      odds ratios. Stable or erratic sexual partners, personal incomes, alcohol
      consumption, and cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular diseases were not risk
      factors associated with ED prevalence. Other sexual problems commonly seen in
      this group of men included difficulty achieving erectile rigidness, ejaculation,
      and climax during intercourse. CLINICAL TRANSLATION: Knowledge on the prevalence
      of ED and its associated risk factors will help physicians in the clinical
      management and prevention of ED with the use of counseling for lifestyle
      adjustment and drug therapy. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: Data on the influence of
      psychological conditions on ED were not collected. ED was not categorized as
      minor, moderate, or severe for analysis during processing of data. CONCLUSION:
      The national representative prevalence of ED was determined for the first time in
      the Chinese male population. Zhang X, Yang B, Li N, Li H. Prevalence and Risk
      Factors for Erectile Dysfunction in Chinese Adult Males. J Sex Med 2017;14:1201
      1208.

PMID- 28874334
TI  - CYP24A1 Mutation in a Girl Infant with Idiopathic Infantile Hypercalcemia.
AB  - Idiopathic infantile hypercalcemia (IIH) was associated with vitamin-D
      supplementation in the 1950's. Fifty years later, mutations in the CYP241A gene,
      involved in the degradation of vitamin-D, have been identified as being a part of
      the etiology. We report a case of a 21-month old girl, initially hospitalized due
      to excessive consumption of water and behavioral difficulties. Blood tests showed
      hypercalcemia and borderline high vitamin-D levels. Renal ultrasound revealed
      medullary nephrocalcinosis. An abnormality in vitamin-D metabolism was suspected
      and genetic testing was performed. This revealed the patient to be compound
      heterozygous for a common (p.E143del) and a novel (likely) disease-causing
      mutation (p.H83D) in the CYP24A1 gene. The hypercalcemia normalized following a
      calcium depleted diet and discontinuation of vitamin-D supplementation. Increased
      awareness of the typical symptoms of hypercalcemia, such as anorexia, polydipsia,
      vomiting and failure to thrive, is of utmost importance in diagnosing IHH early
      and preventing long-term complications such as nephrocalcinosis. Further
      identification of as many disease-causing mutations in the CYP24A1 gene as
      possible can help identification of predisposed individuals in whom vitamin-D
      supplementation should be reconsidered.

PMID- 28874335
TI  - Mobile Apps for Teaching Intubation: Scoping Review and Critical Analysis in
      eLearning.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Airway management is a core skill in anesthesia ensuring adequate
      oxygenation and delivery of inhalational agents for the patient. OBJECTIVE: The
      goals of this study were to critically evaluate the quality of airway management
      apps and target revised Bloom's Taxonomy cognitive levels. METHODS: An electronic
      search using the keywords "airway" and "airway management" was conducted in May
      2015 across the App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry World, and Windows Store. Apps
      were included in the study if their content was related to airway management. App
      content and characteristics were extracted into a standard form and evaluated.
      RESULTS: A total of 65 apps met the inclusion criteria, and 73% (47/65) of apps
      were developed by companies or industry. Anesthesiology trainees were the target
      audience in only 20% (13/65) of apps. Bag mask ventilation and laryngeal mask
      airways were covered in only 20% (13/65) of apps. Only 2 apps were supported in
      the scientific literature. For Bloom's Taxonomy, 37% (24/65) of apps targeted
      knowledge, 5% (3/65) comprehension, 22% (14/65) application, 28% (18/65)
      analysis, 9% (6/65) evaluation, and 0% synthesis. Multivariate analysis
      identified cost of apps, size of apps (MB), and apps targeting trainees and
      paramedics to be associated with higher levels of cognitive processing of revised
      Bloom's Taxonomy. CONCLUSIONS: Apps developed for teaching intubation target
      lower levels of cognitive processing and are largely not validated by research.
      Cost, app size, and targeted user are associated with higher cognitive levels.
      Trainees and all users should be aware of the paucity of the published evidence
      behind the efficacy of some of these apps.

PMID- 28874336
TI  - Barriers and Facilitators to eHealth Use in Daily Practice: Perspectives of
      Patients and Professionals in Dermatology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The number of eHealth interventions in the management of chronic
      diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) is growing. Despite promising results,
      the implementation and use of these interventions is limited. OBJECTIVES: This
      study aimed to assess opinions of the most important stakeholders influencing the
      implementation and use of eHealth services in daily dermatology practice.
      METHODS: The perspectives of health care professionals and patients towards the
      implementation and use of eHealth services in daily practice were assessed by
      using a mixed method design. A cross-sectional survey based on the eHealth
      implementation toolkit (eHit) was conducted to explore factors influencing the
      adoption of eHealth interventions offering the possibility of e-consultations,
      Web-based monitoring, and Web-based self-management training among dermatologists
      and dermatology nurses. The perspectives of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD)
      regarding the use of eHealth services were discussed in an online focus group.
      RESULTS: Health care professionals (n=99) and patients (n=9) acknowledged the
      value of eHealth services and were willing to use these digital tools in daily
      dermatology practice. Key identified barriers (statements with <50% of the
      participants scoring totally agree or agree) in the implementation and adoption
      of eHealth interventions included concerns about the availability (12/99, 12%)
      and allocation (14/99, 14%) of resources, financial aspects (26/99, 26%),
      reliability, security, and confidentially of the intervention itself (29/99,
      29%), and the lack of education and training (6/99, 6%). CONCLUSIONS: Health care
      professionals and patients acknowledge the benefits arising from the
      implementation and use of eHealth services in daily dermatology practice.
      However, some important barriers were identified that might be useful in
      addressing the implementation strategy in order to enhance the implementation
      success of eHealth interventions in dermatology.

PMID- 28874339
TI  - New Zealand campaign calls for action to prevent suicides.

PMID- 28874338
TI  - Risk assessment for antibiotic resistance in South East Asia.

PMID- 28874340
TI  - Strengthening laboratory surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in South East
      Asia.

PMID- 28874341
TI  - GP who deleted appointment slots to ease workload pressure is spared punishment.

PMID- 28874342
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance communication activities in South East Asia.

PMID- 28874343
TI  - David Oliver: "Progressive dwindling," frailty, and realistic expectations.

PMID- 28874344
TI  - Using information technology to improve surveillance of antimicrobial resistance
      in South East Asia.

PMID- 28874347
TI  - Developing a situation analysis tool to assess containment of antimicrobial
      resistance in South East Asia.

PMID- 28874346
TI  - Progress towards antimicrobial resistance containment and control in Indonesia.

PMID- 28874348
TI  - beta-alanine: performance effects, usage and side effects.

PMID- 28874349
TI  - Inflammation: a key regulator of hematopoietic stem cell fate in health and
      disease.
AB  - Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are responsible for lifelong production of blood
      cells. At the same time, they must respond rapidly to acute needs such as
      infection or injury. Significant interest has emerged in how inflammation
      regulates HSC fate and how it affects the long-term functionality of HSCs and the
      blood system as a whole. Here we detail recent advances and unanswered questions
      at the intersection between inflammation and HSC biology in the contexts of
      development, aging, and hematological malignancy.

PMID- 28874351
TI  - Antimicrobial policy interventions in food animal production in South East Asia.

PMID- 28874350
TI  - Prognostic significance of baseline metabolic tumor volume in relapsed and
      refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.
AB  - Identification of prognostic factors for patients with relapsed/refractory
      Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is essential for optimizing therapy with risk-adapted
      approaches. In our phase 2 study of positron emission tomography (PET)-adapted
      salvage therapy with brentuximab vedotin (BV) and augmented ifosfamide,
      carboplatin, and etoposide (augICE), we assessed clinical factors, quantitative
      PET assessments, and cytokine and chemokine values. Transplant-eligible patients
      with relapsed/refractory HL received 2 (cohort 1) or 3 (cohort 2) cycles of
      weekly BV; PET-negative patients (Deauville score <=2) proceeded to autologous
      stem cell transplantation (ASCT) whereas PET-positive patients received augICE
      before ASCT. Serum cytokine and chemokine levels were measured at baseline and
      after BV. Metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis were measured
      at baseline, after BV, and after augICE. Sixty-five patients enrolled (45, cohort
      1; 20, cohort 2); 49 (75%) achieved complete response and 64 proceeded to ASCT.
      Three-year overall survival and event-free survival (EFS) were 95% and 82%,
      respectively. Factors predictive for EFS by multivariable analysis were baseline
      MTV (bMTV) (P < .001) and refractory disease (P = .003). Low bMTV (<109.5 cm3)
      and relapsed disease identified a favorable group (3-year EFS, 100%). For
      patients who received a transplant, bMTV and pre-ASCT PET were independently
      prognostic; 3-year EFS for pre-ASCT PET-positive patients with low bMTV was 86%.
      In this phase 2 study of PET-adapted therapy with BV and augICE for
      relapsed/refractory HL, bMTV and refractory disease were independent prognostic
      factors for EFS. Furthermore, bMTV improved the predictive power of pre-ASCT PET.
      Future studies should optimize efficacy and tolerability of salvage therapy by
      stratifying patients according to risk factors such as bMTV.

PMID- 28874352
TI  - New chapter in tackling antimicrobial resistance in Thailand.

PMID- 28874353
TI  - Margaret McCartney: Innovation without sufficient evidence is a disservice to
      all.

PMID- 28874354
TI  - The Inhibitory Signaling Receptor Protocadherin-18 Regulates Tumor-Infiltrating
      CD8+ T-cell Function.
AB  - Cancers are infiltrated with antitumor CD8+ T cells that arise during tumor
      growth, but are defective in effector phase functions because of the suppressive
      microenvironment. The reactivation of TILs can result in tumor destruction,
      showing that lytic dysfunction in CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL)
      permits tumor growth. Like all memory T cells, TILs express inhibitory signaling
      receptors (aka checkpoint inhibitor molecules) that downregulate TCR-mediated
      signal transduction upon TIL interaction with cells expressing cognate ligands,
      thereby restricting cell activation and preventing the effector phase.
      Previously, we identified a novel murine CD8+ TIL inhibitory signaling receptor,
      protocadherin-18, and showed that it interacts with p56lck kinase to abrogate
      proximal TCR signaling. Here, we show that TILs from mice deleted in
      protocadherin-18 had enhanced antitumor activity and that coblockade of PD-1 and
      protocadherin-18 in wild-type mice significantly enhanced TIL effector phase
      function. These results define an important role for protocadherin-18 in
      antitumor T-cell activity. Cancer Immunol Res; 5(10); 920-8. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28874355
TI  - Antibiotic residues in the environment of South East Asia.

PMID- 28874356
TI  - Impact of beta-adrenergic signaling in PGC-1alpha-mediated adaptations in mouse
      skeletal muscle.
AB  - PGC-1alpha has been suggested to regulate exercise training-induced metabolic
      adaptations and autophagy in skeletal muscle. The factors regulating PGC-1alpha,
      however, have not been fully resolved. The aim was to investigate the impact of
      beta-adrenergic signaling in PGC-1alpha-mediated metabolic adaptations in
      skeletal muscle with exercise training. Muscle was obtained from muscle-specific
      PGC-1alpha knockout (MKO) and lox/lox mice 1) 3 h after a single exercise bout
      with or without prior injection of propranolol or 3 h after a single injection of
      clenbuterol and 2) after 5 wk of wheel running exercise training with or without
      propranolol treatment or after 5 wk of clenbuterol treatment. A single
      clenbuterol injection and an acute exercise bout similarly increased the mRNA
      content of both N-terminal and full-length PGC-1alpha isoforms, and prior
      propranolol treatment reduced the exercise-induced increase in mRNA of all
      isoforms. Furthermore, a single clenbuterol injection elicited a PGC-1alpha
      dependent increase in cytochrome c and vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA,
      whereas prolonged clenbuterol treatment increased fiber size but reduced
      capillary density. Exercise training increased the protein content of OXPHOS,
      LC3I, and Parkin in a PGC-1alpha-dependent manner without effect of propranolol,
      while an exercise training-induced increase in Akt2 and p62 protein required PGC
      1alpha and was blunted by prolonged propranolol treatment. This suggests that
      beta-adrenergic signaling is not required for PGC-1alpha-mediated exercise
      training-induced adaptations in mitochondrial proteins, but contributes to
      exercise training-mediated adaptations in insulin signaling and autophagy
      regulation through PGC-1alpha. Furthermore, changes observed with acute
      stimulation of compounds like clenbuterol and propranolol may not lead to
      corresponding adaptations with prolonged treatment.

PMID- 28874357
TI  - Reduced obesity, diabetes, and steatosis upon cinnamon and grape pomace are
      associated with changes in gut microbiota and markers of gut barrier.
AB  - Increasing evidence suggests that polyphenols have a significant potential in the
      prevention and treatment of risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome. The
      objective of this study was to assess the metabolic outcomes of two polyphenol
      containing extracts from cinnamon bark (CBE) and grape pomace (GPE) on C57BL/6J
      mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 wk. Both CBE and GPE were able to decrease
      fat mass gain and adipose tissue inflammation in mice fed a HFD without reducing
      food intake. This was associated with reduced liver steatosis and lower plasma
      nonesterified fatty acid levels. We also observed a beneficial effect on glucose
      homeostasis, as evidenced by an improved glucose tolerance and a lower insulin
      resistance index. These ameliorations of the overall metabolic profile were
      associated with a significant impact on the microbial composition, which was more
      profound for the GPE than for the CBE. At the genus level, Peptococcus were
      decreased in the CBE group. In the GPE-treated group, several key genera that
      have been previously found to be linked with HFD, metabolic effects, and gut
      barrier integrity were affected: we observed a decrease of Desulfovibrio,
      Lactococcus, whereas Allobaculum and Roseburia were increased. In addition, the
      expression of several antimicrobial peptides and tight junction proteins was
      increased in response to both CBE and GPE supplementation, indicating an
      improvement of the gut barrier function. Collectively, these data suggest that
      CBE and GPE can ameliorate the overall metabolic profile of mice on a high-fat
      diet, partly by acting on the gut microbiota.

PMID- 28874358
TI  - Soluble interleukin-13ralpha1: a circulating regulator of glucose.
AB  - Soluble IL-13 receptor-alpha1, or sIL13ralpha1, is a soluble protein that binds
      to interleukin-13 (IL-13) that has been previously described in mice. The
      function of sIL13ralpha1 remains unclear, but it has been hypothesized to act as
      a decoy receptor for IL-13. Recent studies have identified a role for IL-13 in
      glucose metabolism, suggesting that a decoy receptor for IL-13 might increase
      circulating glucose levels. Here, we report that delivery of sIL13ralpha1 to mice
      by either gene transfer or recombinant protein decreases blood glucose levels.
      Surprisingly, the glucose-lowering effect of sIL13ralpha1 was preserved in mice
      lacking IL-13, demonstrating that IL-13 was not required for the effect. In
      contrast, deletion of IL-4 in mice eliminated the hypoglycemic effect of
      sIL13ralpha1. In humans, endogenous blood levels of IL13ralpha1 varied
      substantially, although there were no differences between diabetic and
      nondiabetic patients. There was no circadian variation of sIL13ralpha1 in normal
      human volunteers. Delivery of sIL13ralpha1 fused to a fragment crystallizable
      (Fc) domain provided sustained glucose lowering in mice on a high-fat diet,
      suggesting a potential therapeutic strategy. These data reveal sIL13ralpha1 as a
      circulating human protein with an unexpected role in glucose metabolism.

PMID- 28874359
TI  - Postchallenge hyperglycemia in subjects with low body weight: implication for
      small glucose volume.
AB  - A hypothesis that postchallenge hyperglycemia in subjects with low body weight
      (BW) may be due, in part, to small glucose volume (GV) was tested. We studied
      11,411 nondiabetic subjects with a mean BW of 63.3 kg; 5,282 of them were
      followed for a mean of 5.3 yr. In another group of 1,537 nondiabetic subjects,
      insulin sensitivity, secretion, and a product of the two (index of whole body
      insulin action) were determined. Corrected 2 h-plasma glucose (2hPGcorr) during a
      75-g oral glucose tolerance test in subjects with BW <= 59 kg was calculated as
      2hPGcorr = deltaPG2h . ECW/[16.1 (males) or 15.3 (females)] + fasting PG (FPG),
      where deltaPG2h is plasma glucose increment in 2 h; ECW is extracellular water
      (surrogate of GV); FPG is fasting plasma glucose; and 16.1 and 15.3 are ECW of
      men and women, respectively, with BW = 59 kg. Multivariate analyses for BW with
      adjustment for age, sex, and percent body fat were undertaken. BW was, across its
      entire range, positively correlated with FPG (P < 0.01). Whereas BW was
      correlated with 2hPG and deltaPG in a skewed J-shape, with inflections at around
      60 kg (P for nonlinearity < 0.01 for each). Nonetheless, in those with BW <= 59
      kg, insulin sensitivity, secretion, and action were unattenuated, and incident
      diabetes was less compared with heavier counterparts. BW was linearly correlated
      with 2hPGcorr, i.e., the J-shape correlation was mitigated by the correction. In
      conclusion, postchallenge hyperglycemia in low BW subjects is in part due to
      small GV rather than impaired glucose metabolism.

PMID- 28874361
TI  - Over 65s flu vaccination programme was ineffective, data show.

PMID- 28874360
TI  - Antibiotic use in South East Asia and policies to promote appropriate use:
      reports from country situational analyses.

PMID- 28874363
TI  - One Health approach to tackle antimicrobial resistance in South East Asia.

PMID- 28874362
TI  - Drug resistance in malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV in South East Asia: biology,
      programme, and policy considerations.

PMID- 28874364
TI  - Individual clinicians were culpable in blood scandal, says former health
      secretary.

PMID- 28874365
TI  - Antibiotic resistance and its containment in India.

PMID- 28874367
TI  - Leukaemia cutis of the scalp.

PMID- 28874366
TI  - Strengthening infection prevention and control and systematic surveillance of
      healthcare associated infections in India.

PMID- 28874368
TI  - Immunodeficiency and Intermittent Dosing Promote Acquired Rifamycin
      Monoresistance in Murine Tuberculosis.
AB  - More-permissive preclinical models may be useful in evaluating antituberculosis
      regimens for their propensity to select drug-resistant mutants. To evaluate
      whether acquired rifamycin monoresistance could be recapitulated in mice and, if
      so, to evaluate the effects of immunodeficiency, intermittent dosing, and drug
      exposures, athymic nude and BALB/c mice were infected. Controls received daily
      rifapentine alone or 2 months of rifampin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and
      ethambutol, followed by 4 months of rifampin/isoniazid, either daily or twice
      weekly with one of two isoniazid doses. Test groups received the same intensive
      regimen followed by once-weekly rifapentine or isoniazid/rifapentine with
      rifapentine doses of 10, 15, or 20 mg/kg of body weight plus one of two isoniazid
      doses. All combination regimens rendered BALB/c mouse cultures negative but
      selected mutants resistant to isoniazid (8.5%, 12/140) or rifampin (3.5%, 5/140)
      in nude mice (P < 0.001). Intermittently dosed intensive-phase therapy selected
      isoniazid and rifampin resistance in 10% (8/80, P < 0.001) and 20% (16/80, P =
      0.009) of nude mice, respectively, compared to 0% treated with a daily regimen.
      Once-weekly rifapentine-containing continuation-phase regimens selected rifampin
      resistant mutants at a rate of 18.0% (18/100, P = 0.035 compared to
      rifampin/isoniazid regimens). Higher isoniazid doses in the intermittent
      treatment control regimen and higher rifapentine doses in once-weekly regimens
      were associated with less selection of isoniazid resistance. Acquired resistance,
      including rifamycin monoresistance, was more likely to occur in nude mice despite
      administration of combination therapy. These results recapitulate clinical
      outcomes and indicate that nude mice may be useful for evaluating the ability of
      novel regimens to prevent the selection of resistance.

PMID- 28874369
TI  - Transcriptional and Mutational Profiling of an Aminoglycoside-Resistant
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa Small-Colony Variant.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major causative agent of both acute and chronic
      infections. Although aminoglycoside antibiotics are very potent drugs against
      such infections, antibiotic failure is steadily increasing mainly because of
      increasing resistance of the bacteria. Many molecular mechanisms that determine
      resistance, such as acquisition of genes encoding aminoglycoside-inactivating
      enzymes or overexpression of efflux pumps, have been elucidated. However, there
      are additional, less well-described mechanisms of aminoglycoside resistance. In
      this study, we profiled a clinical tobramycin-resistant P. aeruginosa strain that
      exhibited a small-colony variant (SCV) phenotype. Both the resistance and colony
      morphology phenotypes were lost upon passage of the isolate under rich medium
      conditions. Transcriptional and mutational profiling revealed that the SCV
      harbored activating mutations in the two-component systems AmgRS and PmrAB.
      Introduction of these mutations individually into type strain PA14 conferred
      tobramycin and colistin resistance, respectively. However, their combined
      introduction had an additive effect on the tobramycin resistance phenotype.
      Activation of the AmgRS system slightly reduced the colony size of wild-type
      PA14, whereas the simultaneous overexpression of gacA, the response regulator of
      the GacSA two-component system, further reduced colony size. In conclusion, we
      uncovered combinatorial influences of two-component systems on clinically
      relevant phenotypes such as resistance and the expression of the SCV phenotype.
      Our results clearly demonstrate that the combined activation of P. aeruginosa two
      component systems has pleiotropic effects with unforeseen consequences.

PMID- 28874370
TI  - N-Acetylglucosamine-1-Phosphate Transferase, WecA, as a Validated Drug Target in
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - The mycobacterial phosphoglycosyltransferase WecA, which initiates
      arabinogalactan biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been proposed as
      a target of the caprazamycin derivative CPZEN-45, a preclinical drug candidate
      for the treatment of tuberculosis. In this report, we describe the functional
      characterization of mycobacterial WecA and confirm the essentiality of its
      encoding gene in M. tuberculosis by demonstrating that the transcriptional
      silencing of wecA is bactericidal in vitro and in macrophages. Silencing wecA
      also conferred hypersensitivity of M. tuberculosis to the drug tunicamycin,
      confirming its target selectivity for WecA in whole cells. Simple radiometric
      assays performed with mycobacterial membranes and commercially available
      substrates allowed chemical validation of other putative WecA inhibitors and
      resolved their selectivity toward WecA versus another attractive cell wall
      target, translocase I, which catalyzes the first membrane step in the
      biosynthesis of peptidoglycan. These assays and the mutant strain described
      herein will be useful for identifying potential antitubercular leads by screening
      chemical libraries for novel WecA inhibitors.

PMID- 28874371
TI  - Commercial Intravenous Immunoglobulin Preparations Contain Functional
      Neutralizing Antibodies against the Staphylococcus aureus Leukocidin LukAB
      (LukGH).
AB  - The pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus is mediated by an array of important
      virulence factors, including the two-component leukocidin family of toxins. LukAB
      (also known as LukGH), the most recently discovered leukocidin, is potently
      lethal to phagocytes, produced during invasive human disease, and present in all
      known clinical isolates of S. aureus Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is often
      used clinically in severe S. aureus infections. The primary aim of this study was
      to assess the binding and neutralization potential of IVIg against LukAB. A
      secondary aim was to examine the lot-to-lot variability of IVIg in the binding
      and neutralization of LukAB. We studied 24 distinct lots of IVIg and compared
      them to serum from children with invasive S. aureus infection (in the acute and
      convalescent phases) and from healthy, uninfected controls. We found that all
      lots of IVIg contained functional antibodies targeting LukAB. After adjusting for
      total antibody content per sample, we found that the amount of anti-LukAB
      antibody in IVIg was similar to that seen with healthy controls and less than
      that seen with patients with invasive S. aureus infection. IVIg samples had lower
      neutralization capacity than samples from healthy controls and children with
      invasive infection. IVIg had remarkably little lot-to-lot variation in LukAB
      binding but had significantly more variation in toxin neutralization. These
      results represent the first report of functional antibodies against the important
      S. aureus leukocidin LukAB in IVIg. Given the frequent clinical use of IVIg for
      severe S. aureus infections, improving our understanding of functional antibody
      properties exhibited by this therapeutic is essential.

PMID- 28874372
TI  - Multiple Modes of Action of a Monoclonal Antibody against Multidrug-Resistant
      Escherichia coli Sequence Type 131-H30.
AB  - The multidrug-resistant H30 subclone of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia
      coli sequence type 131 (ST131-H30) has spread worldwide. This clone expresses a
      conserved lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O antigen, O25b. Previously, we described
      monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) specific to the O25b antigen and characterized them
      as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. In this study, evidence is provided that
      besides the previously shown complement-mediated bactericidal effect, an O25b
      specific humanized MAb, A1124, also enhances opsonophagocytic uptake by the
      murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7. Both phagocyte-dependent killing and
      phagocyte-independent killing, triggered by A1124, were confirmed in human whole
      blood. Furthermore, A1124 was shown to neutralize endotoxin activity of purified
      LPS of clinical isolates. This activity was demonstrated in vitro using both RAW
      264.7 cells and a human Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) reporter cell line, as well
      as in a murine model of endotoxemia using purified LPS for challenge. Significant
      protective efficacy of A1124 at low doses (<1 mg/kg of body weight) was shown in
      murine and rat models of bacteremia. The contribution of the bactericidal and
      anti-inflammatory effects was dissected in the mouse bacteremia model through
      depletion of complement with cobra venom factor (CVF). Protective efficacy was
      lost in complement-depleted mice, suggesting the essential role of complement
      mediated activities for protection in this model. These data suggest that A1124
      exhibits different mechanisms of action, namely, direct complement-mediated and
      opsonophagocytic killing as well as endotoxin neutralization in various challenge
      models. Which of these activities are the most relevant in a clinical setting
      will need to be addressed by future translational studies.

PMID- 28874373
TI  - Hyperbaric Oxygen Sensitizes Anoxic Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm to
      Ciprofloxacin.
AB  - Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection is characterized by the presence of
      endobronchial antibiotic-tolerant biofilm, which is subject to strong oxygen (O2)
      depletion due to the activity of surrounding polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The
      exact mechanisms affecting the antibiotic susceptibility of biofilms remain
      unclear, but accumulating evidence suggests that the efficacy of several
      bactericidal antibiotics is enhanced by stimulation of aerobic respiration of
      pathogens, while lack of O2 increases their tolerance. In fact, the bactericidal
      effect of several antibiotics depends on active aerobic metabolism activity and
      the endogenous formation of reactive O2 radicals (ROS). In this study, we aimed
      to apply hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) to sensitize anoxic P. aeruginosa
      agarose biofilms established to mimic situations with intense O2 consumption by
      the host response in the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. Application of HBOT resulted
      in enhanced bactericidal activity of ciprofloxacin at clinically relevant
      durations and was accompanied by indications of restored aerobic respiration,
      involvement of endogenous lethal oxidative stress, and increased bacterial
      growth. The findings highlight that oxygenation by HBOT improves the bactericidal
      activity of ciprofloxacin on P. aeruginosa biofilm and suggest that bacterial
      biofilms are sensitized to antibiotics by supplying hyperbaric O2.

PMID- 28874374
TI  - Structure and Dynamics of FosA-Mediated Fosfomycin Resistance in Klebsiella
      pneumoniae and Escherichia coli.
AB  - Fosfomycin exhibits broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and is being
      reevaluated for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant pathogens. Its
      activity in Gram-negative organisms, however, can be compromised by expression of
      FosA, a metal-dependent transferase that catalyzes the conjugation of glutathione
      to fosfomycin, rendering the antibiotic inactive. In this study, we solved the
      crystal structures of two of the most clinically relevant FosA enzymes: plasmid
      encoded FosA3 from Escherichia coli and chromosomally encoded FosA from
      Klebsiella pneumoniae (FosAKP). The structure, molecular dynamics, catalytic
      activity, and fosfomycin resistance of FosA3 and FosAKP were also compared to
      those of FosA from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (FosAPA), for which prior crystal
      structures exist. E. coli TOP10 transformants expressing FosA3 and FosAKP
      conferred significantly greater fosfomycin resistance (MIC, >1,024 MUg/ml) than
      those expressing FosAPA (MIC, 16 MUg/ml), which could be explained in part by the
      higher catalytic efficiencies of the FosA3 and FosAKP enzymes. Interestingly,
      these differences in enzyme activity could not be attributed to structural
      differences at their active sites. Instead, molecular dynamics simulations and
      hydrogen-deuterium exchange experiments with FosAKP revealed dynamic
      interconnectivity between its active sites and a loop structure that extends from
      the active site of each monomer and traverses the dimer interface. This dimer
      interface loop is longer and more extended in FosAKP and FosA3 than in FosAPA,
      and kinetic analyses of FosAKP and FosAPA loop-swapped chimeric enzymes
      highlighted its importance in FosA activity. Collectively, these data yield novel
      insights into fosfomycin resistance that could be leveraged to develop new
      strategies to inhibit FosA and potentiate fosfomycin activity.

PMID- 28874375
TI  - Subinhibitory Dalbavancin Attenuates Exotoxin Production from Methicillin
      Sensitive and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus In Vitro.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of subinhibitory doses of the
      lipoglycopeptide antibiotic dalbavancin on Staphylococcus aureus toxin production
      in vitroS. aureus toxin production levels were compared to those seen with the
      natural glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin and with representative beta-lactam
      and oxazolidinone antibiotics. While neither dalbavancin nor vancomycin adversely
      affected toxin production, of these glycopeptide antibiotics, only dalbavancin
      significantly attenuated toxin production at subinhibitory concentrations. These
      findings support the recent success of dalbavancin for treatment of
      staphylococcal infections.

PMID- 28874377
TI  - High-Level Resistance to Colistin Mediated by Various Mutations in the crrB Gene
      among Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae.
AB  - Mutations in crrAB genes encoding a two-component regulator involved in
      modifications of lipopolysaccharide were searched for among a collection of
      colistin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. Four isolates, respectively,
      producing carbapenemases NDM-1, OXA-181, or KPC-2 showed mutated CrrB proteins
      compared with those in wild-type strains. Complementation assays with a wild-type
      CrrB protein restored the susceptibility to colistin in all cases, confirming the
      involvement of the identified substitutions in the resistance phenotype.

PMID- 28874376
TI  - Genomics and Susceptibility Profiles of Extensively Drug-Resistant Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa Isolates from Spain.
AB  - This study assessed the molecular epidemiology, resistance mechanisms, and
      susceptibility profiles of a collection of 150 extensively drug-resistant (XDR)
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates obtained from a 2015 Spanish multicenter
      study, with a particular focus on resistome analysis in relation to ceftolozane
      tazobactam susceptibility. Broth microdilution MICs revealed that nearly all
      (>95%) of the isolates were nonsusceptible to piperacillin-tazobactam,
      ceftazidime, cefepime, aztreonam, imipenem, meropenem, and ciprofloxacin. Most of
      them were also resistant to tobramycin (77%), whereas nonsusceptibility rates
      were lower for ceftolozane-tazobactam (31%), amikacin (7%), and colistin (2%).
      Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis-multilocus sequence typing (PFGE-MLST) analysis
      revealed that nearly all of the isolates belonged to previously described high
      risk clones. Sequence type 175 (ST175) was detected in all 9 participating
      hospitals and accounted for 68% (n = 101) of the XDR isolates, distantly followed
      by ST244 (n = 16), ST253 (n = 12), ST235 (n = 8), and ST111 (n = 2), which were
      detected only in 1 to 2 hospitals. Through phenotypic and molecular methods, the
      presence of horizontally acquired carbapenemases was detected in 21% of the
      isolates, mostly VIM (17%) and GES enzymes (4%). At least two representative
      isolates from each clone and hospital (n = 44) were fully sequenced on an
      Illumina MiSeq. Classical mutational mechanisms, such as those leading to the
      overexpression of the beta-lactamase AmpC or efflux pumps, OprD inactivation,
      and/or quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDR) mutations, were confirmed
      in most isolates and correlated well with the resistance phenotypes in the
      absence of horizontally acquired determinants. Ceftolozane-tazobactam resistance
      was not detected in carbapenemase-negative isolates, in agreement with sequencing
      data showing the absence of ampC mutations. The unique set of mutations
      responsible for the XDR phenotype of ST175 clone documented 7 years earlier were
      found to be conserved, denoting the long-term persistence of this specific XDR
      lineage in Spanish hospitals. Finally, other potentially relevant mutations were
      evidenced, including those in penicillin-binding protein 3 (PBP3), which is
      involved in beta-lactam (including ceftolozane-tazobactam) resistance, and FusA1,
      which is linked to aminoglycoside resistance.

PMID- 28874378
TI  - Mycobacterium abscessus WhiB7 Regulates a Species-Specific Repertoire of Genes To
      Confer Extreme Antibiotic Resistance.
AB  - Mycobacterium abscessus causes acute and chronic bronchopulmonary infection in
      patients with chronic lung damage, of which cystic fibrosis (CF) patients are
      particularly vulnerable. The major threat posed by this organism is its high
      intrinsic antibiotic resistance. A typical treatment regimen involves a 6- to 12
      month-long combination therapy of clarithromycin and amikacin, with cure rates
      below 50% and multiple side effects, especially due to amikacin. In the present
      work, we show that M. abscessuswhiB7, a homologue of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      and Mycobacterium smegmatis whiB7 with previously demonstrated effects on
      intrinsic antibiotic resistance, is strongly induced when exposed to clinically
      relevant antibiotics that target the ribosome: erythromycin, clarithromycin,
      amikacin, tetracycline, and spectinomycin. The deletion of M. abscessuswhiB7
      results in sensitivity to all of the above-mentioned antibiotics. Further, we
      have defined and compared the whiB7 regulon of M. abscessus with the closely
      related nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) M. smegmatis to demonstrate the
      induction of a species-specific repertoire of genes. Finally, we show that one
      such gene, eis2, is specifically induced in M. abscessus by whiB7 and contributes
      to its higher levels of intrinsic amikacin resistance. This species-specific
      pattern of gene induction might account for the differences in drug
      susceptibilities to other antibiotics and between different mycobacterial
      species.

PMID- 28874379
TI  - Antagonism between Front-Line Antibiotics Clarithromycin and Amikacin in the
      Treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus Infections Is Mediated by the whiB7 Gene.
AB  - Combinations of antibiotics, each individually effective against Mycobacterium
      abscessus, are routinely coadministered based on the concept that this minimizes
      the spread of antibiotic resistance. However, our in vitro data contradict this
      assumption and instead document antagonistic interactions between two antibiotics
      (clarithromycin and amikacin) used to treat M. abscessus infections. Clinically
      relevant concentrations of clarithromycin induced increased resistance to both
      amikacin and itself. The induction of resistance was dependent on whiB7, a
      transcriptional activator of intrinsic antibiotic resistance that is induced by
      exposure to many different antibiotics. In M. abscessus, the deletion of whiB7
      (MAB_3508c) resulted in increased sensitivity to a broad range of antibiotics.
      WhiB7 was required for transcriptional activation of genes that confer resistance
      to three commonly used anti-M. abscessus drugs: clarithromycin, amikacin, and
      tigecycline. The whiB7-dependent gene that conferred macrolide resistance was
      identified as erm(41) (MAB_2297), which encodes a ribosomal methyltransferase.
      The whiB7-dependent gene contributing to amikacin resistance was eis2
      (MAB_4532c), which encodes a Gcn5-related N-acetyltransferase (GNAT).
      Transcription of whiB7 and the resistance genes in its regulon was inducible by
      subinhibitory concentrations of clarithromycin but not by amikacin. Thus,
      exposure to clarithromycin, or likely any whiB7-inducing antibiotic, may
      antagonize the activities of amikacin and other drugs. This has important
      implications for the management of M. abscessus infections, both in cystic
      fibrosis (CF) and non-CF patients.

PMID- 28874380
TI  - The Global Regulatory Cyclic AMP Receptor Protein (CRP) Controls Multifactorial
      Fluoroquinolone Susceptibility in Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium.
AB  - Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are prescribed for the treatment of Salmonella
      enterica infections, but resistance to this family of antibiotics is growing.
      Here we report that loss of the global regulatory protein cyclic AMP (cAMP)
      receptor protein (CRP) or its allosteric effector, cAMP, reduces susceptibility
      to fluoroquinolones. A Deltacrp mutation was synergistic with the primary
      fluoroquinolone resistance allele gyrA83, thus able to contribute to clinically
      relevant resistance. Decreased susceptibility to fluoroquinolones could be partly
      explained by decreased expression of the outer membrane porin genes ompA and ompF
      with a concomitant increase in the expression of the ciprofloxacin resistance
      efflux pump gene acrB in Deltacrp cells. Expression of gyrAB, which encode the
      DNA supercoiling enzyme GyrAB, which is blocked by fluoroquinolones, and
      expression of topA, which encodes the dominant supercoiling-relaxing enzyme
      topoisomerase I, were unchanged in Deltacrp cells. Yet Deltacrp cells maintained
      a more relaxed state of DNA supercoiling, correlating with an observed increase
      in topoisomerase IV (parCE) expression. Surprisingly, the Deltacrp mutation had
      the unanticipated effect of enhancing fitness in the presence of fluoroquinolone
      antibiotics, which can be explained by the observation that exposure of Deltacrp
      cells to ciprofloxacin had the counterintuitive effect of restoring wild-type
      levels of DNA supercoiling. Consistent with this, Deltacrp cells did not become
      elongated or induce the SOS response when challenged with ciprofloxacin. These
      findings implicate the combined action of multiple drug resistance mechanisms in
      Deltacrp cells: reduced permeability and elevated efflux of fluoroquinolones
      coupled with a relaxed DNA supercoiling state that buffers cells against GyrAB
      inhibition by fluoroquinolones.

PMID- 28874381
TI  - Efficacy of a New Recrystallized Enrofloxacin Hydrochloride-Dihydrate against
      Leptospirosis in a Hamster Model.
AB  - A trial on Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) infected with Leptospira
      interrogans serovar Canicola was established to compare treatment efficacies of
      daily intramuscular (i.m.) injections of either 10 mg/kg of 5% enrofloxacin
      (Baytril [BE]; Bayer Animal Health, Mexico) or the same dose of enrofloxacin
      hydrochloride-dihydrate (enro-C). Hamsters were experimentally infected via the
      oral submucosa with 400 microorganisms/animal, in a sequential time schedule
      aligned to the initial treatment day, and were treated in groups as follows: a
      group treated with 5% enrofloxacin daily for 7 days after 24 h of infection
      (group BE24); a group treated as described for group BE24 but with enro-C (enro
      C24); a group also treated with 5% enrofloxacin but starting at 72 h after
      infection (BE74); a group treated as described for group BE74 but with injection
      of enro-C (enro-C74). An untreated-uninfected control group (group CG-) and an
      infected-untreated control group (group CG+) were assembled (n = 18 in all
      groups). Weights and temperatures of the hamsters were monitored daily for 28
      days. After hamsters were euthanatized or following death, necropsy,
      histopathology, macroscopic agglutination tests (MAT), bacterial culture, and PCR
      were performed. The mortality rates were 38.8% in group BE24 and 100% in group
      BE74 No mortality was observed in group enro-C24, and 11.1% mortality was
      recorded in group enro-C74 The mortality rates in groups CG+ and CG- were 100%
      and zero, respectively. Combined necropsy and histopathologic findings revealed
      signs of septicemia and organ damage in groups BE24, BE72, and CG+ Groups enro
      C24 and CG- showed no lesions. Moderated lesions were registered in 3 hamsters in
      group enro-C72 MAT results were positive in 83.3% of BE24 hamsters (83.3%) and
      100% of BE72 and CG+ hamsters; MAT results were positive in 16.7% in group Enro
      C24 and 38.9% in group enro-C72 Only 4/18 were PCR positive in group enro-C72 and
      only 1 in group enro-C24 (P < 0.05). It can be concluded that enro-C may be a
      viable option to treat leptospirosis in hamsters and that this may be the case in
      other species.

PMID- 28874382
TI  - Evaluation of the Innate Immune Modulator Acitretin as a Strategy To Clear the
      HIV Reservoir.
AB  - The persistence of HIV despite suppressive antiretroviral therapy is a major
      roadblock to HIV eradication. Current strategies focused on inducing the
      expression of latent HIV fail to clear the persistent reservoir, prompting the
      development of new approaches for killing HIV-positive cells. Recently, acitretin
      was proposed as a pharmacological enhancer of the innate cellular defense network
      that led to virus reactivation and preferential death of infected cells. We
      evaluated the capacity of acitretin to reactivate and/or to facilitate immune
      mediated clearance of HIV-positive cells. Acitretin did not induce HIV
      reactivation in latently infected cell lines (J-Lat and ACH-2). We could observe
      only modest induction of HIV reactivation by acitretin in latently green
      fluorescent protein-HIV-infected Jurkat cells, comparable to suboptimal
      concentrations of vorinostat, a known latency-reversing agent (LRA). Acitretin
      induction was insignificant, however, compared to optimal concentrations of LRAs.
      Acitretin failed to reactivate HIV in a model of latently infected primary CD4+ T
      cells but induced retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) and mitochondrial
      antiviral signaling (MAVS) expression in infected and uninfected cells,
      confirming the role of acitretin as an innate immune modulator. However, this
      effect was not associated with selective killing of HIV-positive cells. In
      conclusion, acitretin-mediated stimulation of the RIG-I pathway for HIV
      reactivation is modest and thus may not meaningfully affect the HIV reservoir.
      Stimulation of the RIG-I-dependent interferon (IFN) cascade by acitretin may not
      significantly affect the selective destruction of latently infected HIV-positive
      cells.

PMID- 28874383
TI  - Transcriptome Analysis Suggests That Chromosome Introgression Fragments from Sea
      Island Cotton (Gossypium barbadense) Increase Fiber Strength in Upland Cotton
      (Gossypium hirsutum).
AB  - As high-strength cotton fibers are critical components of high quality cotton,
      developing cotton cultivars with high-strength fibers as well as high yield is a
      top priority for cotton development. Recently, chromosome segment substitution
      lines (CSSLs) have been developed from high-yield Upland cotton (Gossypium
      hirsutum) crossed with high-quality Sea Island cotton (G. barbadense). Here, we
      constructed a CSSL population by crossing CCRI45, a high-yield Upland cotton
      cultivar, with Hai1, a Sea Island cotton cultivar with superior fiber quality. We
      then selected two CSSLs with significantly higher fiber strength than CCRI45
      (MBI7747 and MBI7561), and one CSSL with lower fiber strength than CCRI45
      (MBI7285), for further analysis. We sequenced all four transcriptomes at four
      different time points postanthesis, and clustered the 44,678 identified genes by
      function. We identified 2200 common differentially-expressed genes (DEGs): those
      that were found in both high quality CSSLs (MBI7747 and MBI7561), but not in the
      low quality CSSL (MBI7285). Many of these genes were associated with various
      metabolic pathways that affect fiber strength. Upregulated DEGs were associated
      with polysaccharide metabolic regulation, single-organism localization, cell wall
      organization, and biogenesis, while the downregulated DEGs were associated with
      microtubule regulation, the cellular response to stress, and the cell cycle.
      Further analyses indicated that three genes, XLOC_036333 [mannosyl
      oligosaccharide-alpha-mannosidase (MNS1)], XLOC_029945 (FLA8), and XLOC_075372
      (snakin-1), were potentially important for the regulation of cotton fiber
      strength. Our results suggest that these genes may be good candidates for future
      investigation of the molecular mechanisms of fiber strength formation and for the
      improvement of cotton fiber quality through molecular breeding.

PMID- 28874384
TI  - Heart Failure Is Common and Under-Recognized in Patients With Arrhythmogenic
      Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy/Dysplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) prevalence in arrhythmogenic right ventricular
      cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARVC/D) varies depending on study cohort and is not
      well characterized. This study sought to determine prevalence and predictors of
      HF in ARVC/D. METHODS AND RESULTS: Clinical HF, defined as at least 1 HF sign or
      symptom, was retrospectively adjudicated for 289 patients meeting ARVC/D Task
      Force Criteria. HF was present in 142 patients (49%): 113 had isolated RV
      involvement and 29 had evidence of LV dysfunction. Average age of HF onset was
      40+/-14 years. Most commonly reported symptoms were exertional dyspnea (78%) and
      fatigue (73%). Only 40% (n=57/142) had signs of volume overload. Left-sided HF
      signs were rare. Patients with clinical HF before ARVC/D diagnosis (n=31) were
      older (P=0.005) and met fewer Task Force Criteria (P=0.013) than those who
      developed HF after ARVC/D presentation. Female sex (odds ratio, 2.2; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.21-4.01; P=0.01) and lateral precordial T-wave inversions
      (odds ratio, 9.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-91.1; P=0.043) were associated
      with increased odds of HF. Additionally, patients with symptomatic LV dysfunction
      had higher odds of lateral precordial T-wave inversions (odds ratio, 18.4; 95%
      confidence interval, 2.92-116.18; P=0.002). Patients with HF were more likely to
      undergo heart transplantation (15/142 versus 1/147; P<0.001) or die during study
      follow-up period (7 versus 0; P=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: HF symptoms, especially
      exertional dyspnea, are common in ARVC/D; yet, classic left-sided signs are
      typically absent and less than half have evidence of volume overload. Given the
      unique predominately right-sided phenotype, a large portion of patients with HF
      may be under-recognized.

PMID- 28874385
TI  - Do studies calculate the NNT appropriately?

PMID- 28874386
TI  - Value of SMBG in non-insulin-treated type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28874387
TI  - Antibiotic prescribing: patient need or prescriber habit?

PMID- 28874388
TI  - Diagnosis and investigation of fungal skin and nail infections.

PMID- 28874389
TI  - European guideline on antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28874390
TI  - Brimonidine gel and adverse cardiovascular effects.

PMID- 28874391
TI  - ? Vortioxetine for acute depression in adults.

PMID- 28874392
TI  - Zika virus has oncolytic activity against glioblastoma stem cells.
AB  - Glioblastoma is a highly lethal brain cancer that frequently recurs in proximity
      to the original resection cavity. We explored the use of oncolytic virus therapy
      against glioblastoma with Zika virus (ZIKV), a flavivirus that induces cell death
      and differentiation of neural precursor cells in the developing fetus. ZIKV
      preferentially infected and killed glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) relative to
      differentiated tumor progeny or normal neuronal cells. The effects against GSCs
      were not a general property of neurotropic flaviviruses, as West Nile virus
      indiscriminately killed both tumor and normal neural cells. ZIKV potently
      depleted patient-derived GSCs grown in culture and in organoids. Moreover, mice
      with glioblastoma survived substantially longer and at greater rates when the
      tumor was inoculated with a mouse-adapted strain of ZIKV. Our results suggest
      that ZIKV is an oncolytic virus that can preferentially target GSCs; thus,
      genetically modified strains that further optimize safety could have therapeutic
      efficacy for adult glioblastoma patients.

PMID- 28874394
TI  - Looking beyond the thyroid: advances in the understanding of pheochromocytoma and
      hyperparathyroidism phenotypes in MEN2 and of non-MEN2 familial forms.
AB  - Over the last years, the knowledge of MEN2 and non-MEN2 familial forms of
      pheochromocytoma (PHEO) has increased. In MEN2, PHEO is the second most frequent
      disease: the penetrance and age at diagnosis depend on the mutation of RET Given
      the prevalence of bilateral PHEO (50% by age 50), adrenal sparing surgery, aimed
      at sparing a part of the adrenal cortex to avoid adrenal insufficiency, should be
      systematically considered in patients with bilateral PHEO. Non-MEN2 familial
      forms of PHEO now include more than 20 genes: however, only small phenotypic
      series have been reported, suggesting that phenotypic features of isolated
      hereditary PHEO must be better explored, and follow-up series are needed to
      better understand the outcome of patients carrying mutations of these genes. The
      first part of this review will mainly focus on these points. In the second part,
      a focus will be given on MEN2 and non-MEN2 familial forms of hyperparathyroidism
      (HPTH). Again, the management of MEN2 HPTH should be aimed at curing the disease
      while preserving an optimal quality of life by a tailored parathyroidectomy. The
      phenotypes and outcome of MEN1-, MEN4- and HRPT2-related HPTH are briefly
      described, with a focus on the most recent literature data and is compared with
      familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia.

PMID- 28874393
TI  - TOP1MT deficiency promotes GC invasion and migration via the enhancements of LDHA
      expression and aerobic glycolysis.
AB  - Aerobic glycolysis plays an important role in cancer progression. New target
      genes regulating cancer aerobic glycolysis must be explored to improve patient
      prognosis. Mitochondrial topoisomerase I (TOP1MT) deficiency suppresses glucose
      oxidative metabolism but enhances glycolysis in normal cells. Here, we examined
      the role of TOP1MT in gastric cancer (GC) and attempted to determine the
      underlying mechanism. Using in vitro and in vivo experiments and analyzing the
      clinicopathological characteristics of patients with GC, we found that TOP1MT
      expression was lower in GC samples than in adjacent nonmalignant tissues. TOP1MT
      knockdown significantly promoted GC migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo
      Importantly, TOP1MT silencing increased glucose consumption, lactate production,
      glucose transporter 1 expression and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)
      in GC. Additionally, regulation of glucose metabolism induced by TOP1MT was
      significantly associated with lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) expression. A
      retrospective analysis of clinical data from 295 patients with GC demonstrated
      that low TOP1MT expression was associated with lymph node metastasis, recurrence
      and high mortality rates. TOP1MT deficiency enhanced glucose aerobic glycolysis
      by stimulating LDHA to promote GC progression.

PMID- 28874395
TI  - CELF1 Mediates Connexin 43 mRNA Degradation in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - RATIONALE: Downregulation of Cx43 (connexin 43), the major cardiac gap junction
      protein, is often associated with arrhythmia, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and
      heart failure. However, the cause of the reduced expression remains elusive.
      Reinduction of a nuclear RNA-binding protein CELF1 (CUGBP Elav-like family member
      1) in the adult heart has been implicated in the cardiac pathogenesis of myotonic
      dystrophy type 1. However, how elevated CELF1 level leads to cardiac dysfunction,
      such as conduction defect, DCM, and heart failure, remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: We
      investigated the mechanism of CELF1-mediated Cx43 mRNA degradation and determined
      whether elevated CELF1 expression is also a shared feature of the DCM heart.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: RNA immunoprecipitation revealed the involvement of CELF1
      regulated genes, including Cx43, in controlling contractility and conduction.
      CELF1 mediated Cx43 mRNA degradation by binding the UG-rich element in the 3'
      untranslated region of Cx43. Mutation of the nuclear localization signal in CELF1
      abolished the ability to downregulate Cx43 mRNA, so nuclear localization was
      required for its function. We further identified a 3' to 5' exoribonuclease, RRP6
      (ribosomal RNA processing protein 6), as a CELF1-interacting protein. The
      interaction of CELF1 and RRP6 was RNA-independent and nucleus specific. With
      knockdown of endogenous RRP6, CELF1 failed to downregulate Cx43 mRNA, which
      suggests that RRP6 was required for CELF1-mediated Cx43 mRNA degradation. In
      addition, increased CELF1 level accompanied upregulated RRP6, and reduced Cx43
      level was detected in mouse models with DCM, including myotonic dystrophy type 1
      and CELF1 overexpression models and a myocardial infarction model. Importantly,
      depletion of CELF1 in the infarcted heart preserved Cx43 mRNA level and
      ameliorated the cardiac phenotypes of the infarcted heart. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results suggest a mechanism for increased CELF1 expression downregulating Cx43
      mRNA level and a pathogenic role for elevated CELF1 level in the DCM heart.

PMID- 28874396
TI  - Body Height and Incident Risk of Venous Thromboembolism: A Cosibling Design.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Body height has been associated with an increased risk of venous
      thromboembolism (VTE), but the association can be confounded with shared familial
      factors (genetic/environmental). A cosibling design is useful for deeper
      understanding about the relationship between VTE and height. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      From Swedish national registry databases, we used a corelative design with full
      siblings alongside a general Swedish population sample. A cohort of male
      conscripts (n=1 610 870), born in 1951 to 1992 without previous VTE, was followed
      from enlistment (1969-2010) until 2012. Another cohort of first-time pregnant
      women (n=1 093 342) from the medical birth register, without previous VTE, was
      followed from first pregnancy (1982-2012) until 2012. Using the Multi-Generation
      Register, we identified all full-sibling pairs discordant for height. This
      cosibling design allowed for adjustment for familial factors
      (genetic/environmental). Compared with the tallest women (>185 cm) and men (>190
      cm), there was a graded decreased risk by lower height for both men and women.
      The risk was lowest in women and men with the shortest stature (<155 and <160 cm,
      respectively): hazard ratios=0.31 (95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.42) and 0.35
      (95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.55), respectively. There was a graded
      association also in the cosibling design comparing siblings with varying degree
      of discordance for height (reference was the taller sibling): >=10 cm difference
      between brothers hazard ratios=0.69 (95% confidence interval, 0.61-0.78) and
      sisters hazard ratios=0.65 (95% confidence interval, 0.52-0.80), respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Height is an independent predictor of VTE. The use of sibling pairs
      reduces the likelihood that familial confounding explains the results. The
      findings are important for the understanding of the pathogenesis of VTE.

PMID- 28874397
TI  - Insights From the Positive Association of Height With Incident Venous
      Thromboembolism.

PMID- 28874398
TI  - Solid-phase reverse transfection for intracellular delivery of functionally
      active proteins.
AB  - Delivery of large and functionally active biomolecules across cell membranes
      presents a challenge in cell biological experimentation. For this purpose, we
      developed a novel solid-phase reverse transfection method that is suitable for
      the intracellular delivery of proteins into mammalian cells with preservation of
      their function. We show results for diverse application areas of the method,
      ranging from antibody-mediated inhibition of protein function to CRISPR/Cas9
      based gene editing in living cells. Our method enables prefabrication of "ready
      to transfect" substrates carrying diverse proteins. This allows their easy
      distribution and standardization of biological assays across different
      laboratories.

PMID- 28874399
TI  - Children with mental health disorders have lower symptoms of depression 3 years
      after contact with mental health services.

PMID- 28874400
TI  - Sustaining CBE-Life Sciences Education.

PMID- 28874401
TI  - EDC IMPACT: Chemical UV filters can affect human sperm function in a progesterone
      like manner.
AB  - Human sperm cell function must be precisely regulated to achieve natural
      fertilization. Progesterone released by the cumulus cells surrounding the egg
      induces a Ca2+ influx into human sperm cells via the CatSper Ca2+-channel and
      thereby controls sperm function. Multiple chemical UV filters have been shown to
      induce a Ca2+ influx through CatSper, thus mimicking the effect of progesterone
      on Ca2+ signaling. We hypothesized that these UV filters could also mimic the
      effect of progesterone on sperm function. We examined 29 UV filters allowed in
      sunscreens in the US and/or EU for their ability to affect acrosome reaction,
      penetration, hyperactivation and viability in human sperm cells. We found that,
      similar to progesterone, the UV filters 4-MBC, 3-BC, Meradimate, Octisalate,
      BCSA, HMS and OD-PABA induced acrosome reaction and 3-BC increased sperm
      penetration into a viscous medium. The capacity of the UV filters to induce
      acrosome reaction and increase sperm penetration was positively associated with
      the ability of the UV filters to induce a Ca2+ influx. None of the UV filters
      induced significant changes in the proportion of hyperactivated cells. In
      conclusion, chemical UV filters that mimic the effect of progesterone on Ca2+
      signaling in human sperm cells can similarly mimic the effect of progesterone on
      acrosome reaction and sperm penetration. Human exposure to these chemical UV
      filters may impair fertility by interfering with sperm function, e.g. through
      induction of premature acrosome reaction. Further studies are needed to confirm
      the results in vivo.

PMID- 28874402
TI  - Transplantation of Kidneys from HCV-Positive Donors: How to Best Use a Scarce
      Resource.

PMID- 28874403
TI  - New Insights into Fuel Choices of Nephron Progenitor Cells.

PMID- 28874404
TI  - Pediatric Price Transparency: Still Opaque With Opportunities for Improvement.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Price transparency is gaining importance as families' portion of
      health care costs rise. We describe (1) online price transparency data for
      pediatric care on children's hospital Web sites and state-based price
      transparency Web sites, and (2) the consumer experience of obtaining an out-of
      pocket estimate from children's hospitals for a common procedure. METHODS: From
      2015 to 2016, we audited 45 children's hospital Web sites and 38 state-based
      price transparency Web sites, describing availability and characteristics of
      health care prices and personalized cost estimate tools. Using secret shopper
      methodology, we called children's hospitals and submitted online estimate
      requests posing as a self-paying family requesting an out-of-pocket estimate for
      a tonsillectomy-adenoidectomy. RESULTS: Eight children's hospital Web sites (18%)
      listed prices. Twelve (27%) provided personalized cost estimate tool (online form
      n = 5 and/or phone number n = 9). All 9 hospitals with a phone number for
      estimates provided the estimated patient liability for a tonsillectomy
      adenoidectomy (mean $6008, range $2622-$9840). Of the remaining 36 hospitals
      without a dedicated price estimate phone number, 21 (58%) provided estimates
      (mean $7144, range $1200-$15 360). Two of 4 hospitals with online forms provided
      estimates. Fifteen (39%) state-based Web sites distinguished between prices for
      pediatric and adult care. One had a personalized cost estimate tool. CONCLUSIONS:
      Meaningful prices for pediatric care were not widely available online through
      children's hospital or state-based price transparency Web sites. A phone line or
      online form for price estimates were effective strategies for hospitals to
      provide out-of-pocket price information. Opportunities exist to improve pediatric
      price transparency.

PMID- 28874405
TI  - Pediatric Price Transparency: Time to Come Out of the Dark.

PMID- 28874406
TI  - Revisiting the Role of Csp Family Proteins in Regulating Clostridium difficile
      Spore Germination.
AB  - Clostridium difficile causes considerable health care-associated gastrointestinal
      disease that is transmitted by its metabolically dormant spore form. Upon
      entering the gut, C. difficile spores germinate and outgrow to produce vegetative
      cells that release disease-causing toxins. C. difficile spore germination depends
      on the Csp family of (pseudo)proteases and the cortex hydrolase SleC. The CspC
      pseudoprotease functions as a bile salt germinant receptor that activates the
      protease CspB, which in turn proteolytically activates the SleC zymogen. Active
      SleC degrades the protective cortex layer, allowing spores to outgrow and resume
      metabolism. We previously showed that the CspA pseudoprotease domain, which is
      initially produced as a fusion to CspB, controls the incorporation of the CspC
      germinant receptor in mature spores. However, study of the individual Csp
      proteins has been complicated by the polar effects of TargeTron-based gene
      disruption on the cspBA-cspC operon. To overcome these limitations, we have used
      pyrE-based allelic exchange to create individual deletions of the regions
      encoding CspB, CspA, CspBA, and CspC in strain 630Deltaerm Our results indicate
      that stable CspA levels in sporulating cells depend on CspB and confirm that CspA
      maximizes CspC incorporation into spores. Interestingly, we observed that csp and
      sleC mutants spontaneously germinate more frequently in 630Deltaerm than
      equivalent mutants in the JIR8094 and UK1 strain backgrounds. Analyses of this
      phenomenon suggest that only a subpopulation of C. difficile 630Deltaerm spores
      can spontaneously germinate, in contrast with Bacillus subtilis spores. We also
      show that C. difficile clinical isolates that encode truncated CspBA variants
      have sequencing errors that actually produce full-length
      CspBA.IMPORTANCEClostridium difficile is a leading cause of health care
      associated infections. Initiation of C. difficile infection depends on spore
      germination, a process controlled by Csp family (pseudo)proteases. The CspC
      pseudoprotease is a germinant receptor that senses bile salts and activates the
      CspB protease, which activates a hydrolase required for germination. Previous
      work implicated the CspA pseudoprotease in controlling CspC incorporation into
      spores but relied on plasmid-based overexpression. Here we have used allelic
      exchange to study the functions of CspB and CspA. We determined that CspA
      production and/or stability depends on CspB and confirmed that CspA maximizes
      CspC incorporation into spores. Our data also suggest that a subpopulation of C.
      difficile spores spontaneously germinates in the absence of bile salt germinants
      and/or Csp proteins.

PMID- 28874407
TI  - Anaerobic Mycobacterium tuberculosis Cell Death Stems from Intracellular
      Acidification Mitigated by the DosR Regulon.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a strict aerobe capable of prolonged survival in
      the absence of oxygen. We investigated the ability of anaerobic M. tuberculosis
      to counter challenges to internal pH homeostasis in the absence of aerobic
      respiration, the primary mechanism of proton efflux for aerobic bacilli.
      Anaerobic M. tuberculosis populations were markedly impaired for survival under a
      mildly acidic pH relative to standard culture conditions. An acidic environmental
      pH greatly increased the susceptibilities of anaerobic bacilli to the collapse of
      the proton motive force by protonophores, to antimicrobial compounds that target
      entry into the electron transport system, and to small organic acids with
      uncoupling activity. However, anaerobic bacilli exhibited high tolerance against
      these challenges at a near-neutral pH. At a slightly alkaline pH, which was near
      the optimum intracellular pH, the addition of protonophores even improved the
      long-term survival of bacilli. Although anaerobic M. tuberculosis bacilli under
      acidic conditions maintained 40% lower ATP levels than those of bacilli under
      standard culture conditions, ATP loss alone could not explain the drop in
      viability. Protonophores decreased ATP levels by more than 90% regardless of the
      extracellular pH but were bactericidal only under acidic conditions, indicating
      that anaerobic bacilli could survive an extreme ATP loss provided that the
      external pH was within viable intracellular parameters. Acidic conditions
      drastically decreased the anaerobic survival of a DosR mutant, while an alkaline
      environment improved the survival of the DosR mutant. Together, these findings
      indicate that intracellular acidification is a primary challenge for the survival
      of anaerobic M. tuberculosis and that the DosR regulon plays a critical role in
      sustaining internal pH homeostasis.IMPORTANCE During infection, M. tuberculosis
      bacilli are prevalent in environments largely devoid of oxygen, yet the factors
      that influence the survival of these severely growth-limited and metabolically
      limited bacilli remain poorly understood. We determined how anaerobic bacilli
      respond to fluctuations in environmental pH and observed that these bacilli were
      highly susceptible to stresses that promoted internal acidic stress, whereas
      conditions that promoted an alkaline internal pH promoted long-term survival even
      during severe ATP depletion. The DosR regulon, a major regulator of general
      hypoxic stress, played an important role in maintaining internal pH homeostasis
      under anaerobic conditions. Together, these findings indicate that in the absence
      of aerobic respiration, protection from internal acidification is crucial for
      long-term M. tuberculosis survival.

PMID- 28874408
TI  - Defining the Mechanical Determinants of Kingella kingae Adherence to Host Cells.
AB  - Kingella kingae is an important pathogen in young children and initiates
      infection by colonizing the posterior pharynx. Adherence to pharyngeal epithelial
      cells is an important first step in the process of colonization. In the present
      study, we sought to elucidate the interplay of type IV pili (T4P), a trimeric
      autotransporter adhesin called Knh, and the polysaccharide capsule in K. kingae
      adherence to host cells. Using adherence assays performed under shear stress, we
      observed that a strain expressing only Knh was capable of higher levels of
      adherence than a strain expressing only T4P. Using atomic force microscopy and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we established that the capsule had a
      mean depth of 700 nm and that Knh was approximately 110 nm long. Using cationic
      ferritin capsule staining and thin-section transmission electron microscopy, we
      found that when bacteria expressing retractile T4P were in close contact with
      host cells, the capsule was absent at the point of contact between the bacterium
      and the host cell membrane. In a T4P retraction-deficient mutant, the capsule
      depth remained intact and adherence levels were markedly reduced. These results
      support the following model: T4P make initial contact with the host cell and
      mediate low-strength adherence. T4P retract, pulling the organism closer to the
      host cell and displacing the capsule, allowing Knh to be exposed and mediate high
      strength, tight adherence to the host cell surface. This report provides the
      first description of the mechanical displacement of capsule enabling intimate
      bacterial adherence to host cells.IMPORTANCE Adherence to host cells is an
      important first step in bacterial colonization and pathogenicity. Kingella kingae
      has three surface factors that are involved in adherence: type IV pili (T4P), a
      trimeric autotransporter adhesin called Knh, and a polysaccharide capsule. Our
      results suggest that T4P mediate initial contact and low-strength adherence to
      host cells. T4P retraction draws the bacterium closer to the host cell and causes
      the displacement of capsule. This displacement exposes Knh and allows Knh to
      mediate high-strength adherence to the host cell. This work provides new insight
      into the interplay of T4P, a nonpilus adhesin, and a capsule and their effects on
      bacterial adherence to host cells.

PMID- 28874409
TI  - Extracellular SalB contributes to intrinsic cephalosporin resistance and cell
      envelope integrity in Enterococcus faecalis.
AB  - Enterococci are major causes of hospital-acquired infections. Intrinsic
      resistance to cephalosporins is a universal trait among clinically relevant
      enterococci. Cephalosporin resistance enables enterococci to proliferate to high
      densities in the intestines of patients undergoing cephalosporin treatment, a
      precursor to the emergence of infection. However, the genetic and biochemical
      mechanisms of intrinsic cephalosporin resistance in enterococci are not well
      understood. A two-component signal transduction system, CroR/S, is required for
      cephalosporin resistance in enterococci. Although the CroR/S regulon is not well
      defined, one gene reported to be CroR-dependent in Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2
      encodes an extracellular putative peptidoglycan hydrolase, SalB. To test the
      hypothesis that SalB is responsible for CroR-dependent cephalosporin resistance,
      we examined DeltasalB mutants in multiple genetic lineages of E. faecalis,
      revealing that SalB is required not only for intrinsic cephalosporin resistance
      but also for maintenance of cell envelope integrity in the absence of antibiotic
      stress. The N-terminal signal sequence is necessary for SalB secretion, and
      secretion is required for SalB to promote cephalosporin resistance. Functional
      dissection revealed that the C-terminal SCP domain of SalB is essential for
      biological activity, and identified three residues within the SCP domain that are
      required for the stability and function of SalB. Additionally, we found that, in
      contrast to E. faecalis JH2-2, SalB is not regulated by the CroR/S two-component
      system in E. faecalis OG1, suggesting diversity in the CroR/S regulon among
      distinct lineages of E. faecalisImportance Resistance to cephalosporins is
      universal among clinically relevant enterococci, enabling enterococcal
      proliferation to high densities in the intestines of patients undergoing
      cephalosporin treatment, a precursor to the emergence of infection. Disabling
      cephalosporin resistance could therefore reduce the incidence of enterococcal
      infections. However, the genetic and biochemical mechanisms of cephalosporin
      resistance are not well understood. The significance of this work is the
      identification of a novel extracellular factor (SalB) that promotes cephalosporin
      resistance in E. faecalis, which could potentially serve as a target for
      therapeutics that impair enterococcal cephalosporin resistance. Additionally, our
      work highlights the importance of the C-terminal SCP domain of SalB, including
      several conserved residues within the SCP domain, for the ability of SalB to
      promote cephalosporin resistance.

PMID- 28874410
TI  - Identification and Characterization of the Major Porin of Desulfovibrio vulgaris
      Hildenborough.
AB  - Due in large part to their ability to facilitate the diffusion of a diverse range
      of solutes across the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria, the porins
      represent one of the most prominent and important bacterial membrane protein
      superfamilies. Notably, for the Gram-negative bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris
      Hildenborough, a model organism for studies of sulfate-reducing bacteria, no
      genes for porins have been identified or proposed in its annotated genome.
      Results from initial biochemical studies suggested that the product of the
      DVU0799 gene, which is one of the most abundant proteins of the D. vulgaris
      Hildenborough OM and purified as a homotrimeric complex, was a strong porin
      candidate. To investigate this possibility, this protein was further
      characterized biochemically and biophysically. Structural analyses via electron
      microscopy of negatively stained protein identified trimeric particles with stain
      filled depressions and structural modeling suggested a beta-barrel structure for
      the monomer, motifs common among the known porins. Functional studies were
      performed in which crude OM preparations or purified DVU0799 was reconstituted
      into proteoliposomes and the proteoliposomes were examined for permeability
      against a series of test solutes. The results obtained establish DVU0799 to be a
      pore-forming protein with permeability properties similar to those observed for
      classical bacterial porins, such as those of Escherichia coli Taken together,
      these findings identify this highly abundant OM protein to be the major porin of
      D. vulgaris Hildenborough. Classification of DVU0799 in this model organism
      expands the database of functionally characterized porins and may also extend the
      range over which sequence analysis strategies can be used to identify porins in
      other bacterial genomes.IMPORTANCE Porins are membrane proteins that form
      transmembrane pores for the passive transport of small molecules across the outer
      membranes of Gram-negative bacteria. The present study identified and
      characterized the major porin of the model sulfate-reducing bacterium
      Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough, observing its preference for anionic sugars
      over neutral ones. Its predicted architecture appears to be novel for a classical
      porin, as its core beta-barrel structure is of a type typically found in solute
      specific channels. Broader use of the methods employed here, such as assays for
      channel permeability and electron microscopy of purified samples, is expected to
      help expand the database of confirmed porin sequences and improve the range over
      which sequence analysis-based strategies can be used to identify porins in other
      Gram-negative bacteria. Functional characterization of these critical gatekeeping
      proteins from divergent Desulfovibrio species should offer an improved
      understanding of the physiological features that determine their habitat range
      and supporting activities.

PMID- 28874412
TI  - Isolation of a Membrane Protein Complex for Type VII Secretion in Staphylococcus
      aureus.
AB  - The ESAT6-like secretion system (ESS) of Staphylococcus aureus promotes effector
      protein transport across the bacterial envelope. Genes in the ESS cluster are
      required for S. aureus establishment of persistent abscess lesions and the
      modulation of immune responses during bloodstream infections. However, the
      biochemical functions of most of the ESS gene products, specifically the identity
      of secretion machine components, are unknown. Earlier work demonstrated that
      deletion of essB, which encodes a membrane protein, abolishes S. aureus ESS
      secretion. Loss-of-function mutations truncating the essB gene product cause
      dominant-negative phenotypes on ESS secretion, suggesting that EssB is a central
      component of the secretion machinery. To test this prediction, we purified native
      and affinity-tagged EssB from staphylococcal membranes via dodecyl-maltoside
      extraction, identifying a complex assembled from five proteins, EsaA, EssA, EssB,
      EssD, and EsxA. All five proteins are essential for secretion, as knockout
      mutations in the corresponding genes abolish ESS transport. Biochemical and
      bacterial two-hybrid analyses revealed a direct interaction between EssB and EsaA
      that, by engaging a mobile machine component, EsxA, may also recruit EssA and
      EssD.IMPORTANCE Type VII secretion systems support the lifestyle of Gram-positive
      bacteria, including important human pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis,
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Staphylococcus aureus Genes encoding SpoIIIE-FtsK
      like ATPases and WXG100-secreted products are conserved features of type VII
      secretion pathways; however, most of the genes in T7SS clusters are not conserved
      between different bacterial species. Here, we isolate a complex of proteins from
      the membranes of S. aureus that appears to represent the core secretion
      machinery, designated ESS. These results suggest that three membrane proteins,
      EsaA, EssB, and EssA, form a secretion complex that associates with EssC, the
      SpoIIIE-FtsK-like ATPase, and with EsxA, a mobile machine component and member of
      the WXG100 protein family.

PMID- 28874411
TI  - Complementary Methodologies To Investigate Human Gut Microbiota in Host Health,
      Working towards Integrative Systems Biology.
AB  - In 1680, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek noted compositional differences in his oral and
      fecal microbiota, pioneering the study of the diversity of the human microbiome.
      From Leeuwenhoek's time to successful modern attempts at changing the gut
      microbial landscape to cure disease, there has been an exponential increase in
      the recognition of our resident microbes as part of ourselves. Thus, the human
      host and microbiome have evolved in parallel to configure a balanced system in
      which microbes survive in homeostasis with our innate and acquired immune
      systems, unless disease occurs. A growing number of studies have demonstrated a
      correlation between the presence/absence of microbial taxa and some of their
      functional molecules (i.e., genes, proteins, and metabolites) with health and
      disease states. Nevertheless, misleading experimental design on human subjects
      and the cost and lack of standardized animal models pose challenges to answering
      the question of whether changes in microbiome composition are cause or
      consequence of a certain biological state. In this review, we evaluate the state
      of the art of methodologies that enable the study of the gut microbiome,
      encouraging a change in broadly used analytic strategies by choosing effector
      molecules (proteins and metabolites) in combination with coding nucleic acids. We
      further explore microbial and effector microbial product imbalances that relate
      to disease and health.

PMID- 28874414
TI  - A Radiomics Nomogram for the Preoperative Prediction of Lymph Node Metastasis in
      Bladder Cancer.
AB  - Purpose: To develop and validate a radiomics nomogram for the preoperative
      prediction of lymph node (LN) metastasis in bladder cancer.Experimental Design: A
      total of 118 eligible bladder cancer patients were divided into a training set (n
      = 80) and a validation set (n = 38). Radiomics features were extracted from
      arterial-phase CT images of each patient. A radiomics signature was then
      constructed with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm in
      the training set. Combined with independent risk factors, a radiomics nomogram
      was built with a multivariate logistic regression model. Nomogram performance was
      assessed in the training set and validated in the validation set. Finally,
      decision curve analysis was performed with the combined training and validation
      set to estimate the clinical usefulness of the nomogram.Results: The radiomics
      signature, consisting of nine LN status-related features, achieved favorable
      prediction efficacy. The radiomics nomogram, which incorporated the radiomics
      signature and CT-reported LN status, also showed good calibration and
      discrimination in the training set [AUC, 0.9262; 95% confidence interval (CI),
      0.8657-0.9868] and the validation set (AUC, 0.8986; 95% CI, 0.7613-0.9901). The
      decision curve indicated the clinical usefulness of our nomogram. Encouragingly,
      the nomogram also showed favorable discriminatory ability in the CT-reported LN
      negative (cN0) subgroup (AUC, 0.8810; 95% CI, 0.8021-0.9598).Conclusions: The
      presented radiomics nomogram, a noninvasive preoperative prediction tool that
      incorporates the radiomics signature and CT-reported LN status, shows favorable
      predictive accuracy for LN metastasis in patients with bladder cancer.
      Multicenter validation is needed to acquire high-level evidence for its clinical
      application. Clin Cancer Res; 23(22); 6904-11. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28874413
TI  - A Phase II Trial of Neoadjuvant MK-2206, an AKT Inhibitor, with Anastrozole in
      Clinical Stage II or III PIK3CA-Mutant ER-Positive and HER2-Negative Breast
      Cancer.
AB  - Purpose: Hyperactivation of AKT is common and associated with endocrine
      resistance in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. The allosteric pan
      AKT inhibitor MK-2206 induced apoptosis in PIK3CA-mutant ER+ breast cancer under
      estrogen-deprived condition in preclinical studies. This neoadjuvant phase II
      trial was therefore conducted to test the hypothesis that adding MK-2206 to
      anastrozole induces pathologic complete response (pCR) in PIK3CA mutant ER+
      breast cancer.Experimental Design: Potential eligible patients with clinical
      stage II/III ER+/HER2- breast cancer were preregistered and received anastrozole
      (goserelin if premenopausal) for 28 days in cycle 0 pending tumor PIK3CA
      sequencing. Patients positive for PIK3CA mutation in the tumor were eligible to
      start MK-2206 (150 mg orally weekly, with prophylactic prednisone) on cycle 1 day
      2 (C1D2) and to receive a maximum of four 28-day cycles of combination therapy
      before surgery. Serial biopsies were collected at preregistration, C1D1 and
      C1D17.Results: Fifty-one patients preregistered and 16 of 22 with PIK3CA-mutant
      tumors received study drug. Three patients went off study due to C1D17 Ki67 >10%
      (n = 2) and toxicity (n = 1). Thirteen patients completed neoadjuvant therapy
      followed by surgery. No pCRs were observed. Rash was common. MK-2206 did not
      further suppress cell proliferation and did not induce apoptosis on C1D17
      biopsies. Although AKT phosphorylation was reduced, PRAS40 phosphorylation at
      C1D17 after MK-2206 persisted. One patient acquired an ESR1 mutation at
      surgery.Conclusions: MK-2206 is unlikely to add to the efficacy of anastrozole
      alone in PIK3CA-mutant ER+ breast cancer and should not be studied further in the
      target patient population. Clin Cancer Res; 23(22); 6823-32. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28874415
TI  - Cytokine-Mediated Regulation of Human Lymphocyte Development and Function:
      Insights from Primary Immunodeficiencies.
AB  - Cytokine-mediated intracellular signaling pathways are fundamental for the
      development, activation, and differentiation of lymphocytes. These distinct
      processes underlie protection against infectious diseases after natural infection
      with pathogens or immunization, thereby providing the host with long-lived
      immunological memory. In contrast, aberrant cytokine signaling can also result in
      conditions of immune dysregulation, such as early-onset autoimmunity. Thus,
      balanced signals provided by distinct cytokines, and delivered to specific cell
      subsets, are critical for immune homeostasis. The essential roles of cytokines in
      human immunity have been elegantly and repeatedly revealed by the discovery of
      individuals with mutations in cytokine ligands, receptors, and downstream
      transcription factors that cause primary immunodeficiency or autoimmune
      conditions. In this article, we review how the discovery and characterization of
      such individuals has identified nonredundant, and often highly specialized,
      functions of specific cytokines and immune cell subsets in human lymphocyte
      biology, host defense against infections, and immune regulation.

PMID- 28874416
TI  - Growth Differentiation Factor 15 Mediates Systemic Glucose Regulatory Action of T
      Helper Type 2 Cytokines.
AB  - T-helper type 2 (Th2) cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-13 and IL-4, produced
      in adipose tissue, are critical regulators of intra-adipose and systemic lipid
      and glucose metabolism. Furthermore, IL-13 is a potential therapy for insulin
      resistance in obese mouse models. Here, we examined mediators produced by
      adipocytes that are responsible for regulating systemic glucose homeostasis in
      response to Th2 cytokines. We used RNA sequencing data analysis of cultured
      adipocytes to screen factors secreted in response to recombinant IL-13.
      Recombinant IL-13 induced expression of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15)
      via the Janus kinase-activated STAT6 pathway. In vivo administration of alpha
      galactosylceramide or IL-33 increased IL-4 and IL-13 production, thereby
      increasing GDF15 levels in adipose tissue and in plasma of mice; however, these
      responses were abrogated in STAT6 knockout mice. Moreover, administration of
      recombinant IL-13 to wild-type mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) improved glucose
      intolerance; this was not the case for GDF15 knockout mice fed the HFD. Taken
      together, these data suggest that GDF15 is required for IL-13-induced improvement
      of glucose intolerance in mice fed an HFD. Thus, beneficial effects of Th2
      cytokines on systemic glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity are mediated by
      GDF15. These findings open up a potential pharmacological route for reversing
      insulin resistance associated with obesity.

PMID- 28874419
TI  - Early intervention in Crohn's disease: towards disease modification trials.
AB  - Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic progressive destructive inflammatory bowel
      disease. As in rheumatoid arthritis, there is increasing evidence that early
      treatment initiation with disease-modifying agents, such as biological drugs, may
      lead to complete disease control, prevention of disease progression thus
      protecting against irreversible damage and restoration of normal quality of life.
      Data from randomised clinical trials with immunosuppressants and biologics
      suggest that treating patients with a disease duration of <2 years and an absence
      of complications may significantly reduce the risk for complications and increase
      time in remission in patients with CD. Moreover, rapid disease control may
      effectively prevent disease progression and allow dose reduction or even
      withdrawal of treatment, reducing the risk of long-term adverse events and
      healthcare costs. However, prospective disease modification trials are needed to
      confirm these initial results. Here we review the literature regarding early
      intervention in adult patients with CD and propose criteria for future disease
      modification trials.

PMID- 28874417
TI  - alpha-Catenin homodimers are recruited to phosphoinositide-activated membranes to
      promote adhesion.
AB  - A unique feature of alpha-catenin localized outside the cadherin-catenin complex
      is its capacity to form homodimers, but the subcellular localization and
      functions of this form of alpha-catenin remain incompletely understood. We
      identified a cadherin-free form of alpha-catenin that is recruited to the leading
      edge of migrating cells in a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent manner.
      Surface plasmon resonance analysis shows that alpha-catenin homodimers, but not
      monomers, selectively bind phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate-containing
      lipid vesicles with high affinity, where three basic residues, K488, K493, and
      R496, contribute to binding. Chemical-induced dimerization of alpha-catenin
      containing a synthetic dimerization domain promotes its accumulation within
      lamellipodia and elaboration of protrusions with extended filopodia, which are
      attenuated in the alpha-cateninKKR<3A mutant. Cells restored with a full-length,
      natively homodimerizing form of alpha-cateninKKR<3A display reduced membrane
      recruitment, altered epithelial sheet migrations, and weaker cell-cell adhesion
      compared with WT alpha-catenin. These findings show that alpha-catenin homodimers
      are recruited to phosphoinositide-activated membranes to promote adhesion and
      migration, suggesting that phosphoinositide binding may be a defining feature of
      alpha-catenin function outside the cadherin-catenin complex.

PMID- 28874420
TI  - The Evolution of the Use of beta-Blockers to Treat Heart Failure: A Conversation
      With Finn Waagstein, MD.
AB  - Finn Waagstein was born in Copenhagen in 1938. He graduated from Aarhus
      University Medical School in 1964. He received his cardiology training in the
      Sahlgrenska University Hospital at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He was
      appointed Associate Professor in 1980, and he assisted in establishing and
      directing the first Swedish heart transplant program. From 1990 he directed the
      heart failure and cardiomyopathy research programs. He is currently Professor of
      Cardiology and senior physician at Wallenberg Laboratory. In 2002, he was awarded
      the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine.

PMID- 28874418
TI  - Therapeutic endoscopy-related GI bleeding and thromboembolic events in patients
      using warfarin or direct oral anticoagulants: results from a large nationwide
      database analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the risks of postendoscopy outcomes associated with
      warfarin with direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), taking into account heparin
      bridging and various types of endoscopic procedures. DESIGN: Using the Japanese
      Diagnosis Procedure Combination database, we identified 16 977 patients who
      underwent 13 types of high-risk endoscopic procedures and took preoperative
      warfarin or DOACs from 2014 to 2015. One-to-one propensity score matching was
      performed to compare postendoscopy GI bleeding and thromboembolism between the
      warfarin and DOAC groups. RESULTS: In the propensity score-matched analysis
      involving 5046 pairs, the warfarin group had a significantly higher proportion of
      GI bleeding than the DOAC group (12.0% vs 9.9%; p=0.002). No significant
      difference was observed in thromboembolism (5.4% vs 4.7%) or in-hospital
      mortality (5.4% vs 4.7%). The risks of GI bleeding and thromboembolism were
      greater in patients treated with warfarin plus heparin bridging or DOACs plus
      bridging than in patients treated with DOACs alone. Compared with percutaneous
      endoscopic gastrostomy, patients who underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection,
      endoscopic mucosal resection and haemostatic procedures including endoscopic
      variceal ligation or endoscopic injection sclerotherapy were at the highest risk
      of GI bleeding among the 13 types of endoscopic procedures, whereas those who
      underwent lower polypectomy endoscopic sphincterotomy or endoscopic ultrasound
      guided fine needle aspiration were at moderate risk. CONCLUSION: The risk of
      postendoscopy GI bleeding was higher in warfarin than DOAC users. Heparin
      bridging was associated with an increased risk of bleeding and did not prevent
      thromboembolism. The bleeding risk varied by the type of endoscopic procedure.

PMID- 28874421
TI  - Combination Therapy to Target Reperfusion Injury After ST-Segment-Elevation
      Myocardial Infarction: A More Effective Approach to Cardioprotection.

PMID- 28874422
TI  - Chronic Myocardial Infarction: Where Is It Located?

PMID- 28874423
TI  - Effect of Empagliflozin on the Metabolic Signature of Patients With Type 2
      Diabetes Mellitus and Cardiovascular Disease.

PMID- 28874424
TI  - Letter by Jiang et al Regarding Article, "Fire Simulation and Cardiovascular
      Health in Firefighters".

PMID- 28874425
TI  - Letter by Jin-Shan and Xue-Bin Regarding Article, "Fire Simulation and
      Cardiovascular Health in Firefighters".

PMID- 28874426
TI  - Response by Hunter and Mills to Letters Regarding Article, "Fire Simulation and
      Cardiovascular Health in Firefighters".

PMID- 28874427
TI  - Correction to: Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory
      From the American Heart Association.

PMID- 28874428
TI  - Correction to: Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2017 Update: A Report From the
      American Heart Association.

PMID- 28874429
TI  - Correction to: Part 8: Post-Cardiac Arrest Care: 2015 American Heart Association
      Guidelines Update for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular
      Care.

PMID- 28874430
TI  - Kingella kingae: From carriage to infection.

PMID- 28874431
TI  - Association between oropharyngeal carriage of Kingella kingae and osteoarticular
      infection in young children: a case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kingella kingae has been increasingly identified in patients with
      osteoarticular infections. Our main objective was to evaluate the association
      between carriage of K. kingae in the oropharynx of preschool children and
      osteoarticular infections. METHODS: We conducted this prospective case-control
      study in 2 tertiary care pediatric hospitals (Canada and Switzerland) between
      2014 and 2016. Potential cases were children aged 6 to 48 months with a
      presumptive diagnosis of osteoarticular infection according to the treating
      emergency physician. Confirmed cases were those with diagnosis of osteomyelitis
      or septic arthritis proven by positive findings on technetium-labelled bone scan
      or magnetic resonance imaging or identification of a microorganism in joint
      aspirate or blood. For each case, we recruited 4 age-matched controls from among
      children presenting to the same emergency department for trauma. The independent
      variable was presence of oropharyngeal K. kingae DNA identified by a specific
      polymerase chain reaction assay. We determined the association between
      oropharyngeal carriage of K. kingae and definitive osteoarticular infection.
      RESULTS: The parents of 77 children admitted for suspected osteoarticular
      infection and 286 controls were invited to participate and provided informed
      consent. We identified K. kingae in the oropharynx of 46 (71%) of 65 confirmed
      cases and 17 (6%) of 286 controls; these results yielded an odds ratio of 38.3
      (95% confidence interval 18.5-79.1). INTERPRETATION: Detection of oropharyngeal
      K. kingae was strongly associated with osteoarticular infection among children
      presenting with symptoms suggestive of such infection.

PMID- 28874433
TI  - An emerging multidrug-resistant bacteria.

PMID- 28874432
TI  - Stopping anticoagulation in a woman with unprovoked venous thromboembolism.

PMID- 28874434
TI  - Brown tumours of the spine presenting with acute urine incontinence.

PMID- 28874435
TI  - Supporting Bill S-206 protects Canadian children from violence.

PMID- 28874436
TI  - Residual poststroke disability is another opportunity to reduce long-term
      morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28874437
TI  - Doctors mobilize against tax changes.

PMID- 28874438
TI  - Future of health system hinges on collaboration: outgoing CMA pres.

PMID- 28874439
TI  - CMA members gathered in Quebec for 150th annual meeting.

PMID- 28874440
TI  - Blocking gp130 signaling suppresses autotaxin expression in adipocytes and
      improves insulin sensitivity in diet-induced obesity.
AB  - Autotaxin (ATX), which is highly expressed and secreted by adipocytes, functions
      as the key enzyme to generate lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) from
      lysophosphatidylcholine. Adipose tissue is the main source of circulating ATX
      that modulates plasma LPA levels. Upregulation of ATX expression in obese
      patients and mice is closely related with insulin resistance and impaired glucose
      tolerance. However, the mechanism of ATX expression in adipocytes remains largely
      unknown. In this study, we found that glycoprotein 130 (gp130)-mediated Janus
      kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3)
      activation was required for abundant ATX expression in adipocytes. Through gp130,
      the interleukin 6 (IL-6) family cytokines, such as IL-6, leukemia inhibitory
      factor, cardiotrophin-1, and ciliary neurotrophic factor, upregulated ATX
      expression in adipocytes. ATX contributes to the induction of insulin resistance
      and lipolysis in IL-6-stimulated adipocytes. Oral administration of gp130
      inhibitor SC144 suppressed ATX expression in adipose tissue, decreased plasma
      ATX, LPA, and FFA levels, and significantly improved insulin sensitivity and
      glucose tolerance in high-fat diet-fed obese mice. In summary, our results
      indicate that the activation of gp130-JAK-STAT3 pathway by IL-6 family cytokines
      has an important role in regulating ATX expression in adipocytes and that gp130
      is a promising target in the management of obesity-associated glucose metabolic
      diseases.

PMID- 28874441
TI  - Comprehensive analyses of oxidized phospholipids using a measured MS/MS spectra
      library.
AB  - Oxidized phospholipids (OxPLs) are widely held to be associated with various
      diseases, such as arteriosclerosis, diabetes, and cancer. To characterize the
      structure-specific behavior of OxPLs and their physiological relevance, we
      developed a comprehensive analytical method by establishing a measured MS/MS
      spectra library of OxPLs. Biogenic OxPLs were prepared by the addition of
      specific oxidized fatty acids to cultured cells, where they were incorporated
      into cellular phospholipids, and untargeted lipidomics by LC-quadrupole/TOF-MS
      was applied to collect MS/MS spectra for the OxPLs. Based on the measured MS/MS
      spectra for about 400 molecular species of the biogenic OxPLs, we developed a
      broad-targeted lipidomics system using triple quadrupole MS. Separation precision
      of structural isomers was optimized by multiple reaction monitoring analysis and
      this system enabled us to detect OxPLs at levels as low as 10 fmol. When applied
      to biological samples, i.e., mouse peritoneal macrophages, this system enabled us
      to monitor a series of OxPLs endogenously produced in a 12/15-lipoxygenase
      dependent manner. This advanced analytical method will be useful to elucidate the
      structure-specific behavior of OxPLs and their physiological relevance in vivo.

PMID- 28874442
TI  - Use of next-generation sequencing to detect LDLR gene copy number variation in
      familial hypercholesterolemia.
AB  - Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a heritable condition of severely elevated
      LDL cholesterol, caused predominantly by autosomal codominant mutations in the
      LDL receptor gene (LDLR). In providing a molecular diagnosis for FH, the current
      procedure often includes targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) panels for the
      detection of small-scale DNA variants, followed by multiplex ligation-dependent
      probe amplification (MLPA) in LDLR for the detection of whole-exon copy number
      variants (CNVs). The latter is essential because ~10% of FH cases are attributed
      to CNVs in LDLR; accounting for them decreases false negative findings. Here, we
      determined the potential of replacing MLPA with bioinformatic analysis applied to
      NGS data, which uses depth-of-coverage analysis as its principal method to
      identify whole-exon CNV events. In analysis of 388 FH patient samples, there was
      100% concordance in LDLR CNV detection between these two methods: 38 reported
      CNVs identified by MLPA were also successfully detected by our NGS method, while
      350 samples negative for CNVs by MLPA were also negative by NGS. This result
      suggests that MLPA can be removed from the routine diagnostic screening for FH,
      significantly reducing associated costs, resources, and analysis time, while
      promoting more widespread assessment of this important class of mutations across
      diagnostic laboratories.

PMID- 28874443
TI  - Amelioration of diet-induced steatohepatitis in mice following combined therapy
      with ASO-Fsp27 and fenofibrate.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of chronic liver
      disease. NAFLD progresses from benign steatosis to steatohepatitis (NASH) to
      cirrhosis and is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma. No targeted treatment is
      currently approved for NAFLD/NASH. We previously showed that fat-specific protein
      27 (FSP27), a lipid droplet-associated protein that controls triglyceride
      turnover in the hepatocyte, is required for fasting- and diet-induced
      triglyceride accumulation in the liver. However, silencing Fsp27 with antisense
      oligonucleotides (ASOs) did not improve hepatosteatosis in genetic nor
      nutritional mouse models of obesity. Herein, we tested the therapeutic potential
      of ASO-Fsp27 when used in combination with the PPARalpha agonist fenofibrate.
      C57BL/6 mice were fed a high-trans-fat, high-cholesterol, high-fructose diet for
      eight weeks to establish NASH, then kept on diet for six additional weeks while
      dosed with ASOs and fenofibrate, alone or in combination. Data show that ASO
      Fsp27 and fenofibrate synergize to promote resistance to diet-induced obesity and
      hypertriglyceridemia and to reverse hepatic steatosis, inflammation, oxidative
      stress, and fibrosis. This multifactorial improvement of liver disease noted when
      combining both drugs suggests that a course of treatment that includes both
      reduced FSP27 activity and activation of PPARalpha could provide therapeutic
      benefit to patients with NAFLD/NASH.

PMID- 28874444
TI  - Modulation of CD4+ and CD8+ T Cell Function and Cytokine Responses in
      Strongyloides stercoralis Infection by Interleukin-27 (IL-27) and IL-37.
AB  - Strongyloides stercoralis infection is associated with diminished antigen
      specific Th1- and Th17-associated responses and enhanced Th2-associated
      responses. Interleukin-27 (IL-27) and IL-37 are two known anti-inflammatory
      cytokines that are highly expressed in S. stercoralis infection. We therefore
      wanted to examine the role of IL-27 and IL-37 in regulating CD4+ and CD8+ T cell
      responses in S. stercoralis infection. To this end, we examined the frequency of
      Th1/Tc1, Th2/Tc2, Th9/Tc9, Th17/Tc17, and Th22/Tc22 cells in 15 S. stercoralis
      infected individuals and 10 uninfected individuals stimulated with parasite
      antigen following IL-27 or IL-37 neutralization. We also examined the production
      of prototypical type 1, type 2, type 9, type 17, and type 22 cytokines in the
      whole-blood supernatants. Our data reveal that IL-27 or IL-37 neutralization
      resulted in significantly enhanced frequencies of Th1/Tc1, Th2/Tc2, Th17/Tc17,
      Th9, and Th22 cells with parasite antigen stimulation. There was no induction of
      any T cell response in uninfected individuals following parasite antigen
      stimulation and IL-27 or IL-37 neutralization. Moreover, we also observed
      increased production of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), IL-5, IL-9, IL-17, and IL
      22 and decreased production of IL-10 following IL-27 and IL-37 neutralization and
      parasite antigen stimulation in whole-blood cultures. Thus, we demonstrate that
      IL-27 and IL-37 limit the induction of particular T cell subsets along with
      cytokine responses in S. stercoralis infections, which suggest the importance of
      IL-27 and IL-37 in immune modulation in a chronic helminth infection.

PMID- 28874445
TI  - Gamma Interferon Mediates Experimental Cerebral Malaria by Signaling within Both
      the Hematopoietic and Nonhematopoietic Compartments.
AB  - Experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) is a gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-dependent
      syndrome. However, whether IFN-gamma promotes ECM through direct and synergistic
      targeting of multiple cell populations or by acting primarily on a specific
      responsive cell type is currently unknown. Here, using a panel of cell- and
      compartment-specific IFN-gamma receptor 2 (IFN-gammaR2)-deficient mice, we show
      that IFN-gamma causes ECM by signaling within both the hematopoietic and
      nonhematopoietic compartments. Mechanistically, hematopoietic and
      nonhematopoietic compartment-specific IFN-gammaR signaling exerts additive
      effects in orchestrating intracerebral inflammation, leading to the development
      of ECM. Surprisingly, mice with specific deletion of IFN-gammaR2 expression on
      myeloid cells, T cells, or neurons were completely susceptible to terminal ECM.
      Utilizing a reductionist in vitro system, we show that synergistic IFN-gamma and
      tumor necrosis factor (TNF) stimulation promotes strong activation of brain blood
      vessel endothelial cells. Combined, our data show that within the hematopoietic
      compartment, IFN-gamma causes ECM by acting redundantly or by targeting non-T
      cell or non-myeloid cell populations. Within the nonhematopoietic compartment,
      brain endothelial cells, but not neurons, may be the major target of IFN-gamma
      leading to ECM development. Collectively, our data provide information on how IFN
      gamma mediates the development of cerebral pathology during malaria infection.

PMID- 28874447
TI  - Salmonella utilizes zinc to subvert anti-microbial host defense of macrophages
      via modulation of NF-kappaB signaling.
AB  - Zinc sequestration by macrophages is considered a crucial host defense strategy
      against infection with the intracellular bacterium Salmonella Typhimurium.
      However, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In this study we found zinc to
      favor pathogen survival within macrophages. Salmonella-hosting macrophages
      contained higher free zinc levels than uninfected macrophages and cells that
      successfully eliminated bacteria, which was paralleled by impaired production of
      reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species in bacteria-harboring cells. A
      profound, zinc-mediated inhibition of NF-kappaB p65 transcriptional activity
      affecting expression of the ROS- and RNS-forming enzymes phos47 and iNOS provided
      a mechanistic explanation for this phenomenon. Macrophages responded to infection
      by enhanced expression of zinc scavenging methallothioneins-1 and 2, whose
      genetic deletion caused a rise of free zinc levels, reduced ROS and RNS
      production and increased survival of Salmonella Our data suggest that Salmonella
      invasion of macrophages results in a bacteria-driven rise of intracellular zinc
      levels which weakens anti-microbial defense and the ability of macrophages to
      eradicate the pathogen. Thus, limitation of cytoplasmic zinc levels may help to
      control infection with intracellular bacteria.

PMID- 28874446
TI  - Characterization of Two Novel Lipopolysaccharide Phosphoethanolamine Transferases
      in Pasteurella multocida and Their Role in Resistance to Cathelicidin-2.
AB  - The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) produced by the Gram-negative bacterial pathogen
      Pasteurella multocida has phosphoethanolamine (PEtn) residues attached to lipid
      A, 3-deoxy-d-manno-octulosonic acid (Kdo), heptose, and galactose. In this
      report, we show that PEtn is transferred to lipid A by the P. multocida EptA
      homologue, PetL, and is transferred to galactose by a novel PEtn transferase that
      is unique to P. multocida called PetG. Transcriptomic analyses indicated that
      petL expression was positively regulated by the global regulator Fis and
      negatively regulated by an Hfq-dependent small RNA. Importantly, we have
      identified a novel PEtn transferase called PetK that is responsible for PEtn
      addition to the single Kdo molecule (Kdo1), directly linked to lipid A in the P.
      multocida glycoform A LPS. In vitro assays showed that the presence of a
      functional petL and petK, and therefore the presence of PEtn on lipid A and Kdo1,
      was essential for resistance to the cationic, antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin
      2. The importance of PEtn on Kdo1 and the identification of the transferase
      responsible for this addition have not previously been shown. Phylogenetic
      analysis revealed that PetK is the first representative of a new family of
      predicted PEtn transferases. The PetK family consists of uncharacterized proteins
      from a range of Gram-negative bacteria that produce LPS glycoforms with only one
      Kdo molecule, including pathogenic species within the genera Vibrio, Bordetella,
      and Haemophilus We predict that many of these bacteria will require the addition
      of PEtn to Kdo for maximum protection against host antimicrobial peptides.

PMID- 28874448
TI  - Glycinergic Input to the Mouse Basal Forebrain Cholinergic Neurons.
AB  - The basal forebrain (BF) receives afferents from brainstem ascending pathways,
      which has been implicated first by Moruzzi and Magoun (1949) to induce forebrain
      activation and cortical arousal/waking behavior; however, it is very little known
      about how brainstem inhibitory inputs affect cholinergic functions. In the
      current study, glycine, a major inhibitory neurotransmitter of brainstem neurons,
      and gliotransmitter of local glial cells, was tested for potential interaction
      with BF cholinergic (BFC) neurons in male mice. In the BF, glycine receptor alpha
      subunit-immunoreactive (IR) sites were localized in choline acetyltransferase
      (ChAT)-IR neurons. The effect of glycine on BFC neurons was demonstrated by
      bicuculline-resistant, strychnine-sensitive spontaneous IPSCs (sIPSCs; 0.81 +/-
      0.25 * 10-1 Hz) recorded in whole-cell conditions. Potential neuronal as well as
      glial sources of glycine were indicated in the extracellular space of cholinergic
      neurons by glycine transporter type 1 (GLYT1)- and GLYT2-IR processes found in
      apposition to ChAT-IR cells. Ultrastructural analyses identified synapses of
      GLYT2-positive axon terminals on ChAT-IR neurons, as well as GLYT1-positive
      astroglial processes, which were localized in the vicinity of synapses of ChAT-IR
      neurons. The brainstem raphe magnus was determined to be a major source of
      glycinergic axons traced retrogradely from the BF. Our results indicate a direct
      effect of glycine on BFC neurons. Furthermore, the presence of high levels of
      plasma membrane glycine transporters in the vicinity of cholinergic neurons
      suggests a tight control of extracellular glycine in the BF.SIGNIFICANCE
      STATEMENT Basal forebrain cholinergic (BFC) neurons receive various activating
      inputs from specific brainstem areas and channel this information to the cortex
      via multiple projections. So far, very little is known about inhibitory brainstem
      afferents to the BF. The current study established glycine as a major regulator
      of BFC neurons by (1) identifying glycinergic neurons in the brainstem projecting
      to the BF, (2) showing glycine receptor alpha subunit-immunoreactive (IR) sites
      in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-IR neurons, (3) demonstrating glycine
      transporter type 2 (GLYT2)-positive axon terminals synapsing on ChAT-IR neurons,
      and (4) localizing GLYT1-positive astroglial processes in the vicinity of
      synapses of ChAT-IR neurons. The effect of glycine on BFC neurons was
      demonstrated by bicuculline-resistant, strychnine-sensitive spontaneous IPSCs
      recorded in whole-cell conditions.

PMID- 28874449
TI  - Human Amygdala Tracks a Feature-Based Valence Signal Embedded within the Facial
      Expression of Surprise.
AB  - Human amygdala function has been traditionally associated with processing the
      affective valence (negative vs positive) of an emotionally charged event,
      especially those that signal fear or threat. However, this account of human
      amygdala function can be explained by alternative views, which posit that the
      amygdala might be tuned to either (1) general emotional arousal (activation vs
      deactivation) or (2) specific emotion categories (fear vs happy). Delineating the
      pure effects of valence independent of arousal or emotion category is a
      challenging task, given that these variables naturally covary under many
      circumstances. To circumvent this issue and test the sensitivity of the human
      amygdala to valence values specifically, we measured the dimension of valence
      within the single facial expression category of surprise. Given the inherent
      valence ambiguity of this category, we show that surprised expression exemplars
      are attributed valence and arousal values that are uniquely and naturally
      uncorrelated. We then present fMRI data from both sexes, showing that the
      amygdala tracks these consensus valence values. Finally, we provide evidence that
      these valence values are linked to specific visual features of the mouth region,
      isolating the signal by which the amygdala detects this valence
      information.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT There is an open question as to whether human
      amygdala function tracks the valence value of cues in the environment, as opposed
      to either a more general emotional arousal value or a more specific emotion
      category distinction. Here, we demonstrate the utility of surprised facial
      expressions because exemplars within this emotion category take on valence values
      spanning the dimension of bipolar valence (positive to negative) at a consistent
      level of emotional arousal. Functional neuroimaging data showed that amygdala
      responses tracked the valence of surprised facial expressions, unconfounded by
      arousal. Furthermore, a machine learning classifier identified particular visual
      features of the mouth region that predicted this valence effect, isolating the
      specific visual signal that might be driving this neural valence response.

PMID- 28874451
TI  - Mendelism: New Insights from Gregor Mendel's Lectures in Brno.
AB  - Interpretation of Gregor Mendel's work has previously been based on study of his
      published paper "Experiments in Plant Hybridization." In contrast, the lectures
      that he gave preceding publication of this work have been largely neglected for
      more than 150 years. Here, we report on and interpret the content of Mendel's
      previous two lectures, as they were reported in a local newspaper. We
      comprehensively reference both the text of his paper and the historical
      background of his experiments. Our analysis shows that while Mendel had inherited
      the traditional research program on interspecific hybridization in plants, he
      introduced the novel method of ratio analysis for representing the variation of
      unit-characters among offspring of hybrids. His aim was to characterize and
      explain the developmental features of the distributional pattern of unit
      characters in two series of hybrid experiments, using self-crosses and
      backcrosses with parents. In doing so, he not only answered the question of what
      the unit-characters were and the nature of their hierarchical classification, but
      also successfully inferred the numerical principle of unit-character transmission
      from generation to generation. He also established the nature of the composition
      and behaviors of reproductive cells from one generation to the next. Here we
      highlight the evidence from Mendel's lectures, clearly announcing that he had
      discovered the general law of cross-generation transmission of unit-characters
      through reproductive cells containing unit-factors. The recovered content of
      these previous lectures more accurately describes the work he performed with his
      garden peas than his published paper and shows how he first presented it in Brno.
      It is thus an invaluable resource for understanding the origin of the science of
      genetics.

PMID- 28874450
TI  - Hypothalamic Tuberomammillary Nucleus Neurons: Electrophysiological Diversity and
      Essential Role in Arousal Stability.
AB  - Histaminergic (HA) neurons, found in the posterior hypothalamic tuberomammillary
      nucleus (TMN), extend fibers throughout the brain and exert modulatory influence
      over numerous physiological systems. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the
      activity of HA neurons is important in the regulation of vigilance despite the
      lack of direct, causal evidence demonstrating its requirement for the maintenance
      of arousal during wakefulness. Given the strong correlation between HA neuron
      excitability and behavioral arousal, we investigated both the
      electrophysiological diversity of HA neurons in brain slices and the effect of
      their acute silencing in vivo in male mice. For this purpose, we first validated
      a transgenic mouse line expressing cre recombinase in histidine decarboxylase
      expressing neurons (Hdc-Cre) followed by a systematic census of the membrane
      properties of both HA and non-HA neurons in the ventral TMN (TMNv) region.
      Through unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis, we found electrophysiological
      diversity both between TMNv HA and non-HA neurons, and among HA neurons. To
      directly determine the impact of acute cessation of HA neuron activity on sleep
      wake states in awake and behaving mice, we examined the effects of optogenetic
      silencing of TMNv HA neurons in vivo We found that acute silencing of HA neurons
      during wakefulness promotes slow-wave sleep, but not rapid eye movement sleep,
      during a period of low sleep pressure. Together, these data suggest that the
      tonic firing of HA neurons is necessary for the maintenance of wakefulness, and
      their silencing not only impairs arousal but is sufficient to rapidly and
      selectively induce slow-wave sleep.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The function of
      monoaminergic systems and circuits that regulate sleep and wakefulness is often
      disrupted as part of the pathophysiology of many neuropsychiatric disorders. One
      such circuit is the posterior hypothalamic histamine (HA) system, implicated in
      supporting wakefulness and higher brain function, but has been difficult to
      selectively manipulate owing to cellular heterogeneity in this region. Here we
      use a transgenic mouse to interrogate both the characteristic firing properties
      of HA neurons and their specific role in maintaining wakefulness. Our results
      demonstrate that the acute, cell type-specific silencing of HA neurons during
      wakefulness is sufficient to not only impair arousal but to rapidly and
      selectively induce slow-wave sleep. This work furthers our understanding of HA
      mediated mechanisms that regulate behavioral arousal.

PMID- 28874454
TI  - Waddington Redux: De Novo Mutations Underlie the Genetic Assimilation of Stress
      Induced Phenocopies in Drosophila melanogaster.

PMID- 28874456
TI  - Correction for Jutras et al., "Changes in Bacterial Growth Rate Govern Expression
      of the Borrelia burgdorferi OspC and Erp Infection-Associated Surface Proteins".

PMID- 28874457
TI  - Correction for Chenail et al., "Borrelia burgdorferi cp32 BpaB Modulates
      Expression of the Prophage NucP Nuclease and SsbP Single-Stranded DNA-Binding
      Protein".

PMID- 28874453
TI  - DNA Replication Control During Drosophila Development: Insights into the Onset of
      S Phase, Replication Initiation, and Fork Progression.
AB  - Proper control of DNA replication is critical to ensure genomic integrity during
      cell proliferation. In addition, differential regulation of the DNA replication
      program during development can change gene copy number to influence cell size and
      gene expression. Drosophila melanogaster serves as a powerful organism to study
      the developmental control of DNA replication in various cell cycle contexts in a
      variety of differentiated cell and tissue types. Additionally, Drosophila has
      provided several developmentally regulated replication models to dissect the
      molecular mechanisms that underlie replication-based copy number changes in the
      genome, which include differential underreplication and gene amplification. Here,
      we review key findings and our current understanding of the developmental control
      of DNA replication in the contexts of the archetypal replication program as well
      as of underreplication and differential gene amplification. We focus on the use
      of these latter two replication systems to delineate many of the molecular
      mechanisms that underlie the developmental control of replication initiation and
      fork elongation.

PMID- 28874452
TI  - Model Organisms Facilitate Rare Disease Diagnosis and Therapeutic Research.
AB  - Efforts to identify the genetic underpinnings of rare undiagnosed diseases
      increasingly involve the use of next-generation sequencing and comparative
      genomic hybridization methods. These efforts are limited by a lack of knowledge
      regarding gene function, and an inability to predict the impact of genetic
      variation on the encoded protein function. Diagnostic challenges posed by
      undiagnosed diseases have solutions in model organism research, which provides a
      wealth of detailed biological information. Model organism geneticists are by
      necessity experts in particular genes, gene families, specific organs, and
      biological functions. Here, we review the current state of research into
      undiagnosed diseases, highlighting large efforts in North America and
      internationally, including the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) (Supplemental
      Material, File S1) and UDN International (UDNI), the Centers for Mendelian
      Genomics (CMG), and the Canadian Rare Diseases Models and Mechanisms Network
      (RDMM). We discuss how merging human genetics with model organism research guides
      experimental studies to solve these medical mysteries, gain new insights into
      disease pathogenesis, and uncover new therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28874458
TI  - The deubiquitinating enzyme USP48 stabilizes TRAF2 and reduces E-cadherin
      mediated adherens junctions.
AB  - The tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2) is a second
      messenger adaptor protein that plays an essential role in propagating TNF-alpha
      mediated signaling pathways. Modulation of TRAF2 activity by ubiquitination is
      well studied; however, the deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB), which regulates TRAF2
      stability, has not been identified. Here we reveal USP48 as the first identified
      DUB to deubiquitinate and stabilize TRAF2 in epithelial cells. Down-regulation of
      USP48 increases K48-linked polyubiquitination of TRAF2 and reduces TRAF2 protein
      levels. Interestingly, USP48 only targets the TRAF2 related to JNK pathway, not
      the TRAF2 related to NF-kappaB and p38 pathways. USP48 is serine phosphorylated
      in response to TNF-alpha. The phosphorylation is catalyzed by glycogen synthase
      kinase 3beta (GSK3beta), ultimately resulting in increases in USP48 DUB activity.
      Furthermore, we reveal a new biologic function of TRAF2 that contributes to
      epithelial barrier dysfunction, which is attenuated by knockdown of USP48.
      Inhibition of TRAF2/JNK pathway increases E (epithelial)-cadherin expression and
      enhances epithelial barrier integrity, while knockdown of USP48 attenuates TNF
      alpha/JNK pathway and increases E-cadherin expression and cell-cell junction in
      epithelial cells. These data, taken together, indicate that USP48 stabilizes
      TRAF2, which is promoted by GSK3beta-mediated phosphorylation. Further, down
      regulation of USP48 increases E-cadherin expression and epithelial barrier
      integrity through reducing TRAF2 stability.-Li, S., Wang, D., Zhao, J.,
      Weathington, N. M., Shang, D., Zhao, Y. The deubiquitinating enzyme USP48
      stabilizes TRAF2 and reduces E-cadherin-mediated adherens junctions.

PMID- 28874459
TI  - Protease-activated receptor 2 activates airway apical membrane chloride
      permeability and increases ciliary beating.
AB  - Mucociliary clearance, driven by the engine of ciliary beating, is the primary
      physical airway defense against inhaled pathogens and irritants. A better
      understanding of the regulation of ciliary beating and mucociliary transport is
      necessary for identifying new receptor targets to stimulate improved clearance in
      airway diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and chronic rhinosinusitis. In this
      study, we examined the protease-activated receptor (PAR)-2, a GPCR previously
      shown to regulate airway cell cytokine and mucus secretion, and transepithelial
      Cl- current. PAR-2 is activated by proteases secreted by airway neutrophils and
      pathogens. We cultured various airway cell lines, primary human and mouse
      sinonasal cells, and human bronchial cells at air-liquid interface and examined
      them using molecular biology, biochemistry, and live-cell imaging. We found that
      PAR-2 is expressed basolaterally, where it stimulates both intracellular Ca2+
      release and Ca2+ influx, which activates low-level nitric oxide production,
      increases apical membrane Cl- permeability ~3-5-fold, and increases ciliary
      beating ~20-50%. No molecular or functional evidence of PAR-4 was observed. These
      data suggest a novel and previously overlooked role of PAR-2 in airway
      physiology, adding to our understanding of the role of this receptor in airway
      Ca2+ signaling and innate immunity.-McMahon, D. B., Workman, A. D., Kohanski, M.
      A., Carey, R. M., Freund, J. R., Hariri, B. M., Chen, B., Doghramji, L. J.,
      Adappa, N. D., Palmer, J. N., Kennedy, D. W., Lee, R. J. Protease-activated
      receptor 2 activates airway apical membrane chloride permeability and increases
      ciliary beating.

PMID- 28874460
TI  - Citric Acid Metabolism in Resistant Hypertension: Underlying Mechanisms and
      Metabolic Prediction of Treatment Response.
AB  - Resistant hypertension (RH) affects 9% to 12% of hypertensive adults. Prolonged
      exposure to suboptimal blood pressure control results in end-organ damage and
      cardiovascular risk. Spironolactone is the most effective drug for treatment, but
      not all patients respond and side effects are not negligible. Little is known on
      the mechanisms responsible for RH. We aimed to identify metabolic alterations in
      urine. In addition, a potential capacity of metabolites to predict response to
      spironolactone was investigated. Urine was collected from 29 patients with RH and
      from a group of 13 subjects with pseudo-RH. For patients, samples were collected
      before and after spironolactone administration and were classified in responders
      (n=19) and nonresponders (n=10). Nuclear magnetic resonance was applied to
      identify altered metabolites and pathways. Metabolites were confirmed by liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry. Citric acid cycle was the pathway most
      significantly altered (P<0.0001). Metabolic concentrations were quantified and
      ranged from ng/mL malate to MUg/mL citrate. Citrate and oxaloacetate increased in
      RH versus pseudoresistant. Together with alpha-ketoglutarate and malate, they
      were able to discriminate between responders and nonresponders, being the 4
      metabolites increased in nonresponders. Combined as a prediction panel, they
      showed receiver operating characteristiccurve with area under the curve of 0.96.
      We show that citric acid cycle and deregulation of reactive oxygen species
      homeostasis control continue its activation after hypertension was developed. A
      metabolic panel showing alteration before spironolactone treatment and predicting
      future response of patients is shown. These molecular indicators will contribute
      optimizing the rate of control of RH patients with spironolactone.

PMID- 28874461
TI  - Selective Deletion of Renin-b in the Brain Alters Drinking and Metabolism.
AB  - The brain-specific isoform of renin (Ren-b) has been proposed as a negative
      regulator of the brain renin-angiotensin system (RAS). We analyzed mice with a
      selective deletion of Ren-b which preserved expression of the classical renin
      (Ren-a) isoform. We reported that Ren-bNull mice exhibited central RAS activation
      and hypertension through increased expression of Ren-a, but the dipsogenic and
      metabolic effects in Ren-bNull mice are unknown. Fluid intake was similar in
      control and Ren-bNull mice at baseline and both exhibited an equivalent
      dipsogenic response to deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt. Dehydration promoted
      increased water intake in Ren-bNull mice, particularly after deoxycorticosterone
      acetate-salt. Ren-bNull and control mice exhibited similar body weight when fed a
      chow diet. However, when fed a high-fat diet, male Ren-bNull mice gained
      significantly less weight than control mice, an effect blunted in females. This
      difference was not because of changes in food intake, energy absorption, or
      physical activity. Ren-bNull mice exhibited increased resting metabolic rate
      concomitant with increased uncoupled protein 1 expression and sympathetic nerve
      activity to the interscapular brown adipose tissue, suggesting increased
      thermogenesis. Ren-bNull mice were modestly intolerant to glucose and had normal
      insulin sensitivity. Another mouse model with markedly enhanced brain RAS
      activity (sRA mice) exhibited pronounced insulin sensitivity concomitant with
      increased brown adipose tissue glucose uptake. Altogether, these data support the
      hypothesis that the brain RAS regulates energy homeostasis by controlling resting
      metabolic rate, and that Ren-b deficiency increases brain RAS activity. Thus, the
      relative level of expression of Ren-b and Ren-a may control activity of the brain
      RAS.

PMID- 28874462
TI  - beta-Arrestin2 Improves Post-Myocardial Infarction Heart Failure via
      Sarco(endo)plasmic Reticulum Ca2+-ATPase-Dependent Positive Inotropy in
      Cardiomyocytes.
AB  - Heart failure is the leading cause of death in the Western world, and new and
      innovative treatments are needed. The GPCR (G protein-coupled receptor) adapter
      proteins betaarr (beta-arrestin)-1 and betaarr-2 are functionally distinct in the
      heart. betaarr1 is cardiotoxic, decreasing contractility by opposing beta1AR
      (adrenergic receptor) signaling and promoting apoptosis/inflammation post
      myocardial infarction (MI). Conversely, betaarr2 inhibits apoptosis/inflammation
      post-MI but its effects on cardiac function are not well understood. Herein, we
      sought to investigate whether betaarr2 actually increases cardiac contractility.
      Via proteomic investigations in transgenic mouse hearts and in H9c2 rat
      cardiomyocytes, we have uncovered that betaarr2 directly interacts with SERCA2a
      (sarco[endo]plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase) in vivo and in vitro in a beta1AR
      dependent manner. This interaction causes acute SERCA2a SUMO (small ubiquitin
      like modifier)-ylation, increasing SERCA2a activity and thus, cardiac
      contractility. betaarr1 lacks this effect. Moreover, betaarr2 does not
      desensitize beta1AR cAMP-dependent procontractile signaling in cardiomyocytes,
      again contrary to betaarr1. In vivo, post-MI heart failure mice overexpressing
      cardiac betaarr2 have markedly improved cardiac function, apoptosis,
      inflammation, and adverse remodeling markers, as well as increased SERCA2a
      SUMOylation, levels, and activity, compared with control animals. Notably,
      betaarr2 is capable of ameliorating cardiac function and remodeling post-MI
      despite not increasing cardiac betaAR number or cAMP levels in vivo. In
      conclusion, enhancement of cardiac betaarr2 levels/signaling via cardiac-specific
      gene transfer augments cardiac function safely, that is, while attenuating post
      MI remodeling. Thus, cardiac betaarr2 gene transfer might be a novel, safe
      positive inotropic therapy for both acute and chronic post-MI heart failure.

PMID- 28874463
TI  - Is beta-Arrestin 2 a Magic Bullet for Heart Failure Treatment?

PMID- 28874464
TI  - MAS1 Receptor Trafficking Involves ERK1/2 Activation Through a beta-Arrestin2
      Dependent Pathway.
AB  - The MAS1 receptor (R) exerts protective effects in the brain, heart, vessels, and
      kidney. R trafficking plays a critical function in signal termination and
      propagation and in R resensitization. We examined MAS1R internalization and
      trafficking on agonist stimulation and the role of beta-arrestin2 in the
      activation of ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2) and Akt after
      MAS1R stimulation. Human embryonic kidney 293T cells were transfected with the
      coding sequence for MAS1R-YFP (MAS1R fused to yellow fluorescent protein). MAS1R
      internalization was evaluated by measuring the MAS1R present in the plasma
      membrane after agonist stimulation using a ligand-binding assay. MAS1R
      trafficking was evaluated by its colocalization with trafficking markers. MAS1R
      internalization was blocked in the presence of shRNAcaveolin-1 and with dominant
      negatives for Eps15 (a protein involved in endocytosed Rs by clathrin-coated
      pits) and for dynamin. After stimulation, MAS1R colocalized with Rab11-a slow
      recycling vesicle marker-and not with Rab4-a fast recycling vesicle marker-or
      LysoTracker-a lysosome marker. Cells transfected with MAS1R showed an increase in
      Akt and ERK1/2 activation on angiotensin-(1-7) stimulation, which was blocked
      when the clathrin-coated pits pathway was blocked. Suppression of beta-arrestin2
      by shRNA reduced the angiotensin-(1-7)-induced ERK1/2 activation, whereas Akt
      activation was not modified. We conclude that on agonist stimulation, MAS1R is
      internalized through clathrin-coated pits and caveolae in a dynamin-dependent
      manner and is then slowly recycled back to the plasma membrane. MAS1R induced Akt
      and ERK1/2 activation from early endosomes, and the activation of ERK1/2 was
      mediated by beta-arrestin2. Thus, MAS1R activity and density may be tightly
      controlled by the cell.

PMID- 28874465
TI  - Mechanisms and Subclinical Consequences of Aortic Stiffness.

PMID- 28874467
TI  - An Evolutionarily Conserved Pathway Essential for Orsay Virus Infection of
      Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Many fundamental biological discoveries have been made in Caenorhabditis elegans
      The discovery of Orsay virus has enabled studies of host-virus interactions in
      this model organism. To identify host factors critical for Orsay virus infection,
      we designed a forward genetic screen that utilizes a virally induced green
      fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter. Following chemical mutagenesis, two Viro
      (virus induced reporter off) mutants that failed to express GFP were mapped to
      sid-3, a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase, and B0280.13 (renamed viro-2), an ortholog
      of human Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP). Both mutants yielded Orsay
      virus RNA levels comparable to that of the residual input virus, suggesting that
      they are not permissive for Orsay virus replication. In addition, we demonstrated
      that both genes affect an early prereplication stage of Orsay virus infection.
      Furthermore, it is known that the human ortholog of SID-3, activated CDC42
      associated kinase (ACK1/TNK2), is capable of phosphorylating human WASP,
      suggesting that VIRO-2 may be a substrate for SID-3 in C. elegans A targeted RNA
      interference (RNAi) knockdown screen further identified the C. elegans gene nck
      1, which has a human ortholog that interacts with TNK2 and WASP, as required for
      Orsay virus infection. Thus, genetic screening in C. elegans identified critical
      roles in virus infection for evolutionarily conserved genes in a known human
      pathway.IMPORTANCE Orsay virus is the only known virus capable of naturally
      infecting the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which shares many
      evolutionarily conserved genes with humans. We exploited the robust genetic
      tractability of C. elegans to identify three host genes, sid-3, viro-2, and nck
      1, which are essential for Orsay virus infection. Mutant animals that lack these
      three genes are highly defective in viral replication. Strikingly, the human
      orthologs of these three genes, activated CDC42-associated kinase (TNK2), Wiskott
      Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP), and noncatalytic region of tyrosine kinase
      adaptor protein 1 (NCK1) are part of a known signaling pathway in mammals. These
      results suggest that TNK2, WASP, and NCK1 may play important roles in mammalian
      virus infection.

PMID- 28874466
TI  - An Alternative STAT Signaling Pathway Acts in Viral Immunity in Caenorhabditis
      elegans.
AB  - Across metazoans, innate immunity is vital in defending organisms against viral
      infection. In mammals, antiviral innate immunity is orchestrated by interferon
      signaling, activating the STAT transcription factors downstream of the JAK
      kinases to induce expression of antiviral effector genes. In the nematode
      Caenorhabditis elegans, which lacks the interferon system, the major antiviral
      response so far described is RNA interference (RNAi), but whether additional gene
      expression responses are employed is not known. Here we show that, despite the
      absence of both interferon and JAK, the C. elegans STAT homolog STA-1
      orchestrates antiviral immunity. Intriguingly, mutants lacking STA-1 are less
      permissive to antiviral infection. Using gene expression analysis and chromatin
      immunoprecipitation, we show that, in contrast to the mammalian pathway, STA-1
      acts mostly as a transcriptional repressor. Thus, STA-1 might act to suppress a
      constitutive antiviral response in the absence of infection. Additionally, using
      a reverse genetic screen, we identify the kinase SID-3 as a new component of the
      response to infection, which, along with STA-1, participates in the
      transcriptional regulatory network of the immune response. Our work uncovers
      novel physiological roles for two factors in viral infection: a SID protein
      acting independently of RNAi and a STAT protein acting in C. elegans antiviral
      immunity. Together, these results illustrate the complex evolutionary trajectory
      displayed by innate immune signaling pathways across metazoan
      organisms.IMPORTANCE Since innate immunity was discovered, a diversity of
      pathways has arisen as powerful first-line defense mechanisms to fight viral
      infection. RNA interference, reported mostly in invertebrates and plants, as well
      as the mammalian interferon response and JAK/STAT pathway are key in RNA virus
      innate immunity. We studied infection by the Orsay virus in Caenorhabditis
      elegans, where RNAi is known to be a potent antiviral defense. We show that, in
      addition to its RNAi pathway, C. elegans utilizes an alternative STAT pathway to
      control the levels of viral infection. We identify the transcription factor STA-1
      and the kinase SID-3 as two components of this response. Our study defines C.
      elegans as a new example of the diversity of antiviral strategies.

PMID- 28874468
TI  - TIM1 (HAVCR1) Is Not Essential for Cellular Entry of Either Quasi-enveloped or
      Naked Hepatitis A Virions.
AB  - Receptor molecules play key roles in the cellular entry of picornaviruses, and
      TIM1 (HAVCR1) is widely accepted to be the receptor for hepatitis A virus (HAV),
      an unusual, hepatotropic human picornavirus. However, its identification as the
      hepatovirus receptor predated the discovery that hepatoviruses undergo nonlytic
      release from infected cells as membrane-cloaked, quasi-enveloped HAV (eHAV)
      virions that enter cells via a pathway distinct from naked, nonenveloped virions.
      We thus revisited the role of TIM1 in hepatovirus entry, examining both adherence
      and infection/replication in cells with clustered regularly interspaced short
      palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9-engineered TIM1 knockout. Cell culture-derived,
      gradient-purified eHAV bound Huh-7.5 human hepatoma cells less efficiently than
      naked HAV at 4 degrees C, but eliminating TIM1 expression caused no difference in
      adherence of either form of HAV, nor any impact on infection and replication in
      these cells. In contrast, TIM1-deficient Vero cells showed a modest reduction in
      quasi-enveloped eHAV (but not naked HAV) attachment and replication. Thus, TIM1
      facilitates quasi-enveloped eHAV entry in Vero cells, most likely by binding
      phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) residues on the eHAV membrane. Both Tim1-/-Ifnar1-/-
      and Tim4-/-Ifnar1-/- double-knockout mice were susceptible to infection upon
      intravenous challenge with infected liver homogenate, with fecal HAV shedding and
      serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevations similar to those in Ifnar1-/-
      mice. However, intrahepatic HAV RNA and ALT elevations were modestly reduced in
      Tim1-/-Ifnar1-/- mice compared to Ifnar1-/- mice challenged with a lower titer of
      gradient-purified HAV or eHAV. We conclude that TIM1 is not an essential
      hepatovirus entry factor, although its PtdSer-binding activity may contribute to
      the spread of quasi-enveloped virus and liver injury in mice.IMPORTANCE T cell
      immunoglobulin and mucin-containing domain protein 1 (TIM1) was reported more
      than 2 decades ago to be an essential cellular receptor for hepatitis A virus
      (HAV), a picornavirus in the Hepatovirus genus, resulting in its designation as
      "hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 1" (HAVCR1) by the Human Genome Organization
      Gene Nomenclature Committee. However, recent studies have shown that HAV exists
      in nature as both naked, nonenveloped (HAV) virions and membrane-cloaked, quasi
      enveloped infectious virus (eHAV), prompting us to revisit the role of TIM1 in
      viral entry. We show here that TIM1 (HAVCR1) is not an essential cellular
      receptor for HAV entry into cultured cells or required for viral replication and
      pathogenesis in permissive strains of mice, although it may facilitate early
      stages of infection by binding phosphatidylserine on the eHAV surface. This work
      thus corrects the published record and sets the stage for future efforts to
      identify specific hepatovirus entry factors.

PMID- 28874469
TI  - Fibrinogen Activates the Capture of Human Plasminogen by Staphylococcal
      Fibronectin-Binding Proteins.
AB  - Invasive bacterial pathogens can capture host plasminogen (Plg) and allow it to
      form plasmin. This process is of medical importance as surface-bound plasmin
      promotes bacterial spread by cleaving tissue components and favors immune evasion
      by degrading opsonins. In Staphylococcus aureus, Plg binding is in part mediated
      by cell surface fibronectin-binding proteins (FnBPs), but the underlying
      molecular mechanism is not known. Here, we use single-cell and single-molecule
      techniques to demonstrate that FnBPs capture Plg by a sophisticated activation
      mechanism involving fibrinogen (Fg), another ligand found in the blood. We show
      that while FnBPs bind to Plg through weak (~200-pN) molecular bonds, direct
      interaction of the adhesins with Fg through the high-affinity dock, lock, and
      latch mechanism dramatically increases the strength of the FnBP-Plg bond (up to
      ~2,000 pN). Our results point to a new model in which the binding of Fg triggers
      major conformational changes in the FnBP protein, resulting in the buried Plg
      binding domains being projected and exposed away from the cell surface, thereby
      promoting strong interactions with Plg. This study demonstrated a previously
      unidentified role for a ligand-binding interaction by a staphylococcal cell
      surface protein, i.e., changing the protein orientation to activate a cryptic
      biological function.IMPORTANCEStaphylococcus aureus captures human plasminogen
      (Plg) via cell wall fibronectin-binding proteins (FnBPs), but the underlying
      molecular mechanism is not known. Here we show that the forces involved in the
      interaction between Plg and FnBPs on the S. aureus surface are weak. However, we
      discovered that binding of fibrinogen to FnBPs dramatically strengthens the FnBP
      Plg bond, therefore revealing an unanticipated role for Fg in the capture of Plg
      by S. aureus These experiments favor a model where Fg-induced conformational
      changes in FnBPs promote their interaction with Plg. This work uncovers a
      previously undescribed activation mechanism for a staphylococcal surface protein,
      whereby ligand-binding elicits a cryptic biological function.

PMID- 28874470
TI  - Inhibition of the ATP Synthase Eliminates the Intrinsic Resistance of
      Staphylococcus aureus towards Polymyxins.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is intrinsically resistant to polymyxins (polymyxin B and
      colistin), an important class of cationic antimicrobial peptides used in
      treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections. To understand the mechanisms
      underlying intrinsic polymyxin resistance in S. aureus, we screened the Nebraska
      Transposon Mutant Library established in S. aureus strain JE2 for increased
      susceptibility to polymyxin B. Nineteen mutants displayed at least 2-fold
      reductions in MIC, while the greatest reductions (8-fold) were observed for
      mutants with inactivation of either graS, graR, vraF, or vraG or the subunits of
      the ATP synthase (atpA, atpB, atpG, or atpH), which during respiration is the
      main source of energy. Inactivation of atpA also conferred hypersusceptibility to
      colistin and the aminoglycoside gentamicin, whereas susceptibilities to nisin,
      gallidermin, bacitracin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, linezolid, daptomycin, and
      oxacillin were unchanged. ATP synthase activity is known to be inhibited by
      oligomycin A, and the presence of this compound increased polymyxin B-mediated
      killing of S. aureus Our results demonstrate that the ATP synthase contributes to
      intrinsic resistance of S. aureus towards polymyxins and that inhibition of the
      ATP synthase sensitizes S. aureus to this group of compounds. These findings show
      that by modulation of bacterial metabolism, new classes of antibiotics may show
      efficacy against pathogens towards which they were previously considered
      inapplicable. In light of the need for new treatment options for infections with
      serious pathogens like S. aureus, this approach may pave the way for novel
      applications of existing antibiotics.IMPORTANCE Bacterial pathogens that cause
      disease in humans remain a serious threat to public health, and antibiotics are
      still our primary weapon in treating bacterial diseases. The ability to eradicate
      bacterial infections is critically challenged by development of resistance to all
      clinically available antibiotics. Polymyxins constitute an important class of
      antibiotics for treatment of infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens,
      whereas Gram-positive bacteria remain largely insusceptible towards class of
      antibiotics. Here we performed a whole-genome screen among nonessential genes for
      polymyxin intrinsic resistance determinants in Staphylococcus aureus We found
      that the ATP synthase is important for polymyxin susceptibility and that
      inhibition of the ATP synthase sensitizes S. aureus towards polymyxins. Our study
      provides novel insights into the mechanisms that limit polymyxin activity against
      S. aureus and provides valuable targets for inhibitors to potentially enable the
      use of polymyxins against S. aureus and other Gram-positive pathogens.

PMID- 28874471
TI  - Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase A (MsrA) and Its Function in Ubiquitin-Like
      Protein Modification in Archaea.
AB  - Methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MsrA) is an antioxidant enzyme found in all
      domains of life that catalyzes the reduction of methionine-S-sulfoxide (MSO) to
      methionine in proteins and free amino acids. We demonstrate that archaeal MsrA
      has a ubiquitin-like (Ubl) protein modification activity that is distinct from
      its stereospecific reduction of MSO residues. MsrA catalyzes this Ubl
      modification activity, with the Ubl-activating E1 UbaA, in the presence of the
      mild oxidant dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and in the absence of reductant. In
      contrast, the MSO reductase activity of MsrA is inhibited by DMSO and requires
      reductant. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis
      reveals that MsrA-dependent Ubl conjugates are associated with DNA replication,
      protein remodeling, and oxidative stress and include the Ubl-modified MsrA, Orc3
      (Orc1/Cdc6), and Cdc48d (Cdc48/p97 AAA+ ATPase). Overall, we found archaeal MsrA
      to have opposing MSO reductase and Ubl modifying activities that are associated
      with oxidative stress responses and controlled by exposure to mild
      oxidant.IMPORTANCE Proteins that are damaged by oxidative stress are often
      targeted for proteolysis by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). The mechanisms
      that control this response are poorly understood, especially under conditions of
      mild oxidative stress when protein damage is modest. Here, we discovered a novel
      function of archaeal MsrA in guiding the Ubl modification of target proteins in
      the presence of mild oxidant. This newly reported activity of MsrA is distinct
      from its stereospecific reduction of methionine-S-sulfoxide to methionine
      residues. Our results are significant steps forward, first, in elucidating a
      protein factor that guides Ubl modification in archaea, and second, in providing
      an insight into oxidative stress responses that can trigger Ubl modification in a
      cell.

PMID- 28874472
TI  - Dehydrosqualene Desaturase as a Novel Target for Anti-Virulence Therapy against
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus, especially methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), is a
      life-threatening pathogen in hospital- and community-acquired infections. The
      golden-colored carotenoid pigment of S. aureus, staphyloxanthin, contributes to
      the resistance to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and host neutrophil-based
      killing. Here, we describe a novel inhibitor (NP16) of S. aureus pigment
      production that reduces the survival of S. aureus under oxidative stress
      conditions. Carotenoid components analysis, enzyme inhibition, and crtN
      mutational studies indicated that the molecular target of NP16 is dehydrosqualene
      desaturase (CrtN). S. aureus treated with NP16 showed increased susceptibility to
      human neutrophil killing and to innate immune clearance in a mouse infection
      model. Our study validates CrtN as a novel druggable target in S. aureus and
      presents a potent and effective lead compound for the development of virulence
      factor-based therapy against S. aureusIMPORTANCES. aureus staphyloxanthin
      contributes substantially to pathogenesis by interfering with host immune
      clearance mechanisms, but it has little impact on ex vivo survival of the
      bacterium. Agents blocking staphyloxanthin production may discourage the
      establishment and maintenance of bacterial infection without exerting selective
      pressure for antimicrobial resistance. Our newly discovered CrtN inhibitor, NP16,
      may offer an effective strategy for combating S. aureus infections.

PMID- 28874474
TI  - Pyruvate Accumulation Is the First Line of Cell Defense against Heat Stress in a
      Fungus.
AB  - Heat tolerance is well known to be key to fungal survival in many habitats, but
      our mechanistic understanding of how organisms adapt to heat stress is still
      incomplete. Using Metarhizium robertsii, an emerging model organism for assessing
      evolutionary processes, we report that pyruvate is in the vanguard of molecules
      that scavenge heat-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS). We show that, as well
      as inducing a rapid burst of ROS production, heat stress also downregulates genes
      for pyruvate consumption. The accumulating pyruvate is the fastest acting of
      several M. robertsii ROS scavengers, efficiently reducing protein carbonylation,
      stabilizing mitochondrial membrane potential, and promoting fungal growth. The
      acetate produced from pyruvate-ROS reactions itself causes acid stress, tolerance
      to which is regulated by Hog1 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Heat stress also
      induces pyruvate accumulation in several other fungi, suggesting that scavenging
      of heat-induced ROS by pyruvate is widespread.IMPORTANCE Heat is a dangerous
      challenge for most organisms, as it denatures proteins and induces the production
      of ROS that inactivate proteins, lipid membranes, and DNA. How organisms respond
      to this stress is not fully understood. Using the experimentally tractable insect
      pathogen Metarhizium robertsii as a model organism, we show for the first time
      that heat stress induces pyruvate production and that this functions as the first
      line of defense against heat-induced ROS. Heat stress also induces rapid pyruvate
      accumulation in other fungi, suggesting that pyruvate is a common but
      unappreciated defense against stress.

PMID- 28874473
TI  - Revitalization of a Forward Genetic Screen Identifies Three New Regulators of
      Fungal Secondary Metabolism in the Genus Aspergillus.
AB  - The study of aflatoxin in Aspergillus spp. has garnered the attention of many
      researchers due to aflatoxin's carcinogenic properties and frequency as a food
      and feed contaminant. Significant progress has been made by utilizing the model
      organism Aspergillus nidulans to characterize the regulation of sterigmatocystin
      (ST), the penultimate precursor of aflatoxin. A previous forward genetic screen
      identified 23 A. nidulans mutants involved in regulating ST production. Six
      mutants were characterized from this screen using classical mapping (five
      mutations in mcsA) and complementation with a cosmid library (one mutation in
      laeA). The remaining mutants were backcrossed and sequenced using Illumina and
      Ion Torrent sequencing platforms. All but one mutant contained one or more
      sequence variants in predicted open reading frames. Deletion of these genes
      resulted in identification of mutant alleles responsible for the loss of ST
      production in 12 of the 17 remaining mutants. Eight of these mutations were in
      genes already known to affect ST synthesis (laeA, mcsA, fluG, and stcA), while
      the remaining four mutations (in laeB, sntB, and hamI) were in previously
      uncharacterized genes not known to be involved in ST production. Deletion of
      laeB, sntB, and hamI in A. flavus results in loss of aflatoxin production,
      confirming that these regulators are conserved in the aflatoxigenic aspergilli.
      This report highlights the multifaceted regulatory mechanisms governing secondary
      metabolism in Aspergillus Additionally, these data contribute to the increasing
      number of studies showing that forward genetic screens of fungi coupled with
      whole-genome resequencing is a robust and cost-effective technique.IMPORTANCE In
      a postgenomic world, reverse genetic approaches have displaced their forward
      genetic counterparts. The techniques used in forward genetics to identify loci of
      interest were typically very cumbersome and time-consuming, relying on Mendelian
      traits in model organisms. The current work was pursued not only to identify
      alleles involved in regulation of secondary metabolism but also to demonstrate a
      return to forward genetics to track phenotypes and to discover genetic pathways
      that could not be predicted through a reverse genetics approach. While
      identification of mutant alleles from whole-genome sequencing has been done
      before, here we illustrate the possibility of coupling this strategy with a
      genetic screen to identify multiple alleles of interest. Sequencing of
      classically derived mutants revealed several uncharacterized genes, which
      represent novel pathways to regulate and control the biosynthesis of
      sterigmatocystin and of aflatoxin, a societally and medically important
      mycotoxin.

PMID- 28874477
TI  - Market Concentration.

PMID- 28874475
TI  - Broad-Host-Range Expression Reveals Native and Host Regulatory Elements That
      Influence Heterologous Antibiotic Production in Gram-Negative Bacteria.
AB  - Heterologous expression has become a powerful tool for studying microbial
      biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Here, we extend the transformation-associated
      recombination cloning and heterologous expression platform for microbial BGCs to
      include Gram-negative proteobacterial expression hosts. Using a broad-host-range
      expression platform, we test the implicit assumption that biosynthetic pathways
      are more successfully expressed in more closely related heterologous hosts.
      Cloning and expression of the violacein BGC from Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea
      2ta16 revealed robust production in two proteobacterial hosts, Pseudomonas putida
      KT2440 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404, but very little production of the
      antibiotic in various laboratory strains of Escherichia coli, despite their
      closer phylogenetic relationship. We identified a nonclustered LuxR-type quorum
      sensing receptor from P. luteoviolacea 2ta16, PviR, that increases pathway
      transcription and violacein production in E. coli by ~60-fold independently of
      acyl-homoserine lactone autoinducers. Although E. coli harbors the most similar
      homolog of PviR identified from all of the hosts tested, overexpression of
      various E. coli transcription factors did not result in a statistically
      significant increase in violacein production, while overexpression of two A.
      tumefaciens PviR homologs significantly increased production. Thus, this work not
      only introduces a new genetic platform for the heterologous expression of
      microbial BGCs, it also challenges the assumption that host phylogeny is an
      accurate predictor of host compatibility.IMPORTANCE Although Gram-positive
      heterologous hosts such as Streptomyces have been developed and optimized to
      support diverse secondary metabolic reactions, there has been comparatively less
      work on Gram-negative hosts, some of which grow faster and are easier to work
      with. This work presents a new genetic platform for direct cloning and broad-host
      range heterologous expression of BGCs in Gram-negative proteobacterial expression
      hosts, and we leverage this platform to uncover regulatory elements that
      influence violacein expression from Pseudoalteromonas Although it is often
      assumed that BGCs will be more successfully expressed in more closely related
      hosts, our work suggests that this may not be a general rule of thumb, as
      heterologous production of natural products can be influenced by specific host
      regulatory and/or biosynthetic elements, and the identity and effectiveness of
      those elements are difficult to predict. We argue for the use of a diverse set of
      heterologous hosts, which may also provide insights into the BGC biosynthetic
      mechanism and the biological function of BGCs.

PMID- 28874478
TI  - Health Care Market Concentration Trends In The United States: Evidence And Policy
      Responses.
AB  - Policy makers and analysts have been voicing concerns about the increasing
      concentration of health care providers and health insurers in markets nationwide,
      including the potential adverse effect on the cost and quality of health care.
      The Council of Economic Advisers recently expressed its concern about the lack of
      estimates of market concentration in many sectors of the US economy. To address
      this gap in health care, this study analyzed market concentration trends in the
      United States from 2010 to 2016 for hospitals, physician organizations, and
      health insurers. Hospital and physician organization markets became increasingly
      concentrated over this time period. Concentration among primary care physicians
      increased the most, partially because hospitals and health care systems acquired
      primary care physician organizations. In 2016, 90 percent of Metropolitan
      Statistical Areas (MSAs) were highly concentrated for hospitals, 65 percent for
      specialist physicians, 39 percent for primary care physicians, and 57 percent for
      insurers. Ninety-one percent of the 346 MSAs analyzed may have warranted concern
      and scrutiny because of their concentration levels in 2016 and changes in their
      concentrations since 2010. Public policies that enhance competition are needed,
      such as stricter enforcement of antitrust laws, reducing barriers to entry, and
      restricting anticompetitive behaviors.

PMID- 28874476
TI  - Mechanisms of Resistance to Folate Pathway Inhibitors in Burkholderia
      pseudomallei: Deviation from the Norm.
AB  - The trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole combination, co-trimoxazole, plays a vital
      role in the treatment of Burkholderia pseudomallei infections. Previous studies
      demonstrated that the B. pseudomallei BpeEF-OprC efflux pump confers widespread
      trimethoprim resistance in clinical and environmental isolates, but this is not
      accompanied by significant resistance to co-trimoxazole. Using the excluded
      select-agent strain B. pseudomallei Bp82, we now show that in vitro acquired
      trimethoprim versus co-trimoxazole resistance is mainly mediated by constitutive
      BpeEF-OprC expression due to bpeT mutations or by BpeEF-OprC overexpression due
      to bpeS mutations. Mutations in bpeT affect the carboxy-terminal effector-binding
      domain of the BpeT LysR-type activator protein. Trimethoprim resistance can also
      be mediated by dihydrofolate reductase (FolA) target mutations, but this occurs
      rarely unless BpeEF-OprC is absent. BpeS is a transcriptional regulator that is
      62% identical to BpeT. Mutations affecting the BpeS DNA-binding or carboxy
      terminal effector-binding domains result in constitutive BpeEF-OprC
      overexpression, leading to trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole efflux and thus to
      co-trimoxazole resistance. The majority of laboratory-selected co-trimoxazole
      resistant mutants often also contain mutations in folM, encoding a pterin
      reductase. Genetic analyses of these mutants established that both bpeS mutations
      and folM mutations contribute to co-trimoxazole resistance, although the exact
      role of folM remains to be determined. Mutations affecting bpeT, bpeS, and folM
      are common in co-trimoxazole-resistant clinical isolates, indicating that
      mutations affecting these genes are clinically significant. Co-trimoxazole
      resistance in B. pseudomallei is a complex phenomenon, which may explain why
      resistance to this drug is rare in this bacterium.IMPORTANCEBurkholderia
      pseudomallei causes melioidosis, a tropical disease that is difficult to treat.
      The bacterium's resistance to antibiotics limits therapeutic options. The paucity
      of orally available drugs further complicates therapy. The oral drug of choice is
      co-trimoxazole, a combination of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole. These
      antibiotics target two distinct enzymes, FolA (dihydrofolate reductase) and FolP
      (dihydropteroate synthase), in the bacterial tetrahydrofolate biosynthetic
      pathway. Although co-trimoxazole resistance is minimized due to two-target
      inhibition, bacterial resistance due to folA and folP mutations does occur. Co
      trimoxazole resistance in B. pseudomallei is rare and has not yet been studied.
      Co-trimoxazole resistance in this bacterium employs a novel strategy involving
      differential regulation of BpeEF-OprC efflux pump expression that determines the
      drug resistance profile. Contributing are mutations affecting folA, but not folP,
      and folM, a folate pathway-associated gene whose function is not yet well
      understood and which has not been previously implicated in folate inhibitor
      resistance in clinical isolates.

PMID- 28874479
TI  - Insurer Market Power Lowers Prices In Numerous Concentrated Provider Markets.
AB  - Using prices of hospital admissions and visits to five types of physicians, we
      analyzed how provider and insurer market concentration-as measured by the
      Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI)-interact and are correlated with prices. We
      found evidence that in the range of the Department of Justice's and Federal Trade
      Commission's definition of a moderately concentrated market (HHI of 1,500-2,500),
      insurers have the bargaining power to reduce provider prices in highly
      concentrated provider markets. In particular, hospital admission prices were 5
      percent lower and cardiologist, radiologist, and hematologist/oncologist visit
      prices were 4 percent, 7 percent, and 19 percent lower, respectively, in markets
      with high provider concentration and insurer HHI above 2,000, compared to such
      markets with insurer HHI below 2,000. We did not find evidence that high insurer
      concentration reduced visit prices for primary care physicians or orthopedists,
      however. The policy dilemma that arises from our findings is that there are no
      insurer market mechanisms that will pass a portion of these price reductions on
      to consumers in the form of lower premiums. Large purchasers of health insurance
      such as state and federal governments, as well as the use of regulatory
      approaches, could provide a solution.

PMID- 28874480
TI  - Corporate Investors Increased Common Ownership In Hospitals And The Postacute
      Care And Hospice Sectors.
AB  - The sharing of investors across firms is a new antitrust focus because of its
      potential negative effects on competition. Historically, the ability to track
      common investors across the continuum of health care providers has been limited.
      Thus, little is known about common investor ownership structures that might exist
      across health care delivery systems and how these linkages have evolved over
      time. We used data from the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System of
      the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to identify common investor
      ownership linkages across the acute care, postacute care, and hospice sectors
      within the same geographic markets. To our knowledge, this study provides the
      first description of common investor ownership trends in these sectors. We found
      that the percentage of acute care hospitals having common investor ties to the
      postacute or hospice sectors increased from 24.6 percent in 2005 to 48.9 percent
      in 2015. These changes have important implications for antitrust, payment, and
      regulatory policies.

PMID- 28874481
TI  - Physician Practice Consolidation Driven By Small Acquisitions, So Antitrust
      Agencies Have Few Tools To Intervene.
AB  - The growing concentration of physician markets throughout the United States has
      been raising antitrust concerns, yet the Department of Justice and the Federal
      Trade Commission have challenged only a small number of mergers and acquisitions
      in this field. Using proprietary claims data from states collectively containing
      more than 12 percent of the US population, we found that 22 percent of physician
      markets were highly concentrated in 2013, according to federal merger guidelines.
      Most of the increases in physician practice size and market concentration
      resulted from numerous small transactions, rather than a few large transactions.
      Among highly concentrated markets that had increases large enough to raise
      antitrust concerns, only 28 percent experienced any individual acquisition that
      would have been presumed to be anticompetitive under federal merger guidelines.
      Furthermore, most acquisitions were below the dollar thresholds that would have
      required the parties to report the transaction to antitrust authorities. Under
      present mechanisms, federal authorities have only limited ability to counteract
      consolidation in most US physician markets.

PMID- 28874482
TI  - Coping With Concentration.
AB  - Provider market power is a powerful driver of high health care costs in the
      United States. Despite decades of antitrust litigation and regulatory
      interventions, the problem has worsened and threatens to undermine the benefits
      of market-based policies. A critical but neglected challenge for all health care
      reform proposals relying on market competition to address costs is finding
      effective tools to address the extant market power of dominant hospitals,
      hospital systems, and many specialty physician practices. This article analyzes
      the principal market-oriented approaches that have been used in the past and
      proposed for the future. It argues that antitrust law has an important but
      constrained role to play and has proved to be especially inept in dealing with
      extant market power. It finds serious deficiencies in the conduct decrees imposed
      by some courts and in open-ended regulatory regimes such as those established by
      Certificate of Public Advantage laws. Although not without administrative
      complications, policies that target providers who possess market power by capping
      prices may be the most effective means to control costs and retain the benefits
      of a competitive delivery system.

PMID- 28874483
TI  - Beyond Antitrust: Health Care And Health Insurance Market Trends And The Future
      Of Competition.
AB  - The United States relies on competition to balance costs and quality in the
      health care system. But concentration is increasing throughout the hospital,
      physician, and insurer markets. Midsize community hospitals face declining demand
      and growing competition from both larger hospitals and smaller freestanding
      diagnostic and surgical centers, leaving the midsize hospitals vulnerable to
      closure or merger with other facilities. Competition among insurers has been
      limited by the development of hospital systems that extend the bargaining power
      of "must-have" hospitals (those perceived to provide the best care for complex
      and less common conditions) across local health care markets. Government
      antitrust enforcement could play an important role in maintaining competition in
      both the hospital and insurer markets, but in many markets, the impact of that
      enforcement has been limited to date. Policy makers should consider supplementing
      antitrust activities with strategies that combine competition and regulation-for
      example, by regulating selected prices and structuring competition to cover
      entire insurance markets.

PMID- 28874484
TI  - Regulated Medicare Advantage And Marketplace Individual Health Insurance Markets
      Rely On Insurer Competition.
AB  - Two important individual health insurance markets-Medicare Advantage and the
      Marketplaces-are tightly regulated but rely on competition among insurers to
      supply and price health insurance products. Many local health insurance markets
      have little competition, which increases prices to consumers. Furthermore, both
      markets are highly subsidized in ways that can exacerbate the impact of market
      power-that is, the ability to set price above cost-on health insurance prices.
      Policy makers need to foster robust competition in both sectors and avoid
      designing subsidies that make the market-power problem worse.

PMID- 28874485
TI  - A Physician's Perspective On Vertical Integration.
AB  - Vertical integration has been a central feature of health care delivery system
      change for more than two decades. Recent studies have demonstrated that
      vertically integrated health care systems raise prices and costs without
      observable improvements in quality, despite many theoretical reasons why cost
      control and improved quality might occur. Less well studied is how physicians
      view their newfound partnerships with hospitals. In this article I review
      literature findings and other observations on five aspects of vertical
      integration that affect physicians in their professional and personal lives:
      patients' access to physicians, physician compensation, autonomy versus system
      support, medical professionalism and culture, and lifestyle. I conclude that the
      movement toward physicians' alignment with and employment in vertically
      integrated systems seems inexorable but that policy should not promote such
      integration either intentionally or inadvertently. Instead, policy should address
      the flaws in current payment approaches that reward high prices and excessive
      service use-outcomes that vertical integration currently produces.

PMID- 28874486
TI  - Reducing Hospital Readmissions Through Preferred Networks Of Skilled Nursing
      Facilities.
AB  - Establishing preferred provider networks of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) is
      one approach hospital administrators are using to reduce excess thirty-day
      readmissions and avoid Medicare penalties or to reduce beneficiaries' costs as
      part of value-based payment models. However, hospitals are also required to
      provide patients at discharge with a list of Medicare-eligible providers and
      cannot explicitly restrict patient choice. This requirement complicates the
      development of a SNF network. Furthermore, there is little evidence about the
      effectiveness of network development in reducing readmission rates. We used a
      concurrent mixed-methods approach, combining Medicare claims data for the period
      2009-13 with qualitative data gathered from interviews during site visits to
      hospitals in eight US markets in March-October 2015, to examine changes in
      rehospitalization rates and differences in practices between hospitals that did
      and did not develop formal SNF networks. Four hospitals had developed formal SNF
      networks as part of their care management efforts. These hospitals saw a relative
      reduction from 2009 to 2013 in readmission rates for patients discharged to SNFs
      that was 4.5 percentage points greater than the reduction for hospitals without
      formal networks. Interviews revealed that those with networks expanded existing
      relationships with SNFs, effectively managed patient data, and exercised a looser
      interpretation of patient choice.

PMID- 28874487
TI  - High Levels Of Capitation Payments Needed To Shift Primary Care Toward Proactive
      Team And Nonvisit Care.
AB  - Capitated payments in the form of fixed monthly payments to cover all of the
      costs associated with delivering primary care could encourage primary care
      practices to transform the way they deliver care. Using a microsimulation model
      incorporating data from 969 US practices, we sought to understand whether
      shifting to team- and non-visit-based care is financially sustainable for
      practices under traditional fee-for-service, capitated payment, or a mix of the
      two. Practice revenues and costs were computed for fee-for-service payments and a
      range of capitated payments, before and after the substitution of team- and non
      visit-based services for low-complexity in-person physician visits. The
      substitution produced financial losses for simulated practices under fee-for
      service payment of $42,398 per full-time-equivalent physician per year; however,
      substitution produced financial gains under capitated payment in 95 percent of
      cases, if more than 63 percent of annual payments were capitated. Shifting to
      capitated payment might create an incentive for practices to increase their
      delivery of team- and non-visit-based primary care, if capitated payment levels
      were sufficiently high.

PMID- 28874488
TI  - Narrow Networks On The Health Insurance Marketplaces: Prevalence, Pricing, And
      The Cost Of Network Breadth.
AB  - Anecdotal reports and systematic research highlight the prevalence of narrow
      network plans on the Affordable Care Act's health insurance Marketplaces. At the
      same time, Marketplace premiums in the period 2014-16 were much lower than
      projected by the Congressional Budget Office in 2009. Using detailed data on the
      breadth of both hospital and physician networks, we studied the prevalence of
      narrow networks and quantified the association between network breadth and
      premiums. Controlling for many potentially confounding factors, we found that a
      plan with narrow physician and hospital networks was 16 percent cheaper than a
      plan with broad networks for both, and that narrowing the breadth of just one
      type of network was associated with a 6-9 percent decrease in premiums. Narrow
      network plans also have a sizable impact on federal outlays, as they depress the
      premium of the second-lowest-price silver plan, to which subsidy amounts are
      linked. Holding all else constant, we estimate that federal subsidies would have
      been 10.8 percent higher in 2014 had Marketplaces required all plans to offer
      broad provider networks. Narrow networks are a promising source of potential
      savings for other segments of the commercial insurance market.

PMID- 28874489
TI  - Most Marketplace Plans Included At Least 25 Percent Of Local-Area Physicians, But
      Enrollment Disparities Remained.
AB  - The Affordable Care Act allows commercial insurers participating in the
      Marketplaces to vary the size of their provider networks as long as the providers
      are "sufficient" in numbers and types. Concerns have been growing over the
      increasing use of restricted-provider or narrow networks in Marketplace plans
      because of their implications for reduced access to care, but little is known
      about the breadth and stability of these networks over time or what types of
      enrollees choose such plans. Using national data, we found that in 2016, 60
      percent of provider networks in plans offered in the federally facilitated
      Marketplaces included at least one-quarter of local-area physicians, and that
      consumers' access to broad-network plans remained stable between 2015 and 2016.
      Hispanic and low-income people made up a disproportionate share of enrollees in
      smaller-network plans (those with fewer than one-quarter of local-area
      physicians). It will be important to monitor the impact of narrow networks on
      access to and quality of care as well as on health outcomes.

PMID- 28874490
TI  - Networks In ACA Marketplaces Are Narrower For Mental Health Care Than For Primary
      Care.
AB  - There is increasing concern about the extent to which narrow-network plans,
      generally defined as those including fewer than 25 percent of providers in a
      given health insurance market, affect consumers' choice of and access to
      specialty providers-particularly in mental health care. Using data for 2016 from
      531 unique provider networks in the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces, we
      evaluated how network size and the percentage of providers who participate in any
      network differ between mental health care providers and a control group of
      primary care providers. Compared to primary care networks, participation in
      mental health networks was low, with only 42.7 percent of psychiatrists and 19.3
      percent of nonphysician mental health care providers participating in any
      network. On average, plan networks included 24.3 percent of all primary care
      providers and 11.3 percent of all mental health care providers practicing in a
      given state-level market. These findings raise important questions about provider
      side barriers to meeting the goal of mental health parity regulations: that
      insurers cover mental health services on a par with general medical and surgical
      services. Concerted efforts to increase network participation by mental health
      care providers, along with greater regulatory attention to network size and
      composition, could improve consumer choice and complement efforts to achieve
      mental health parity.

PMID- 28874491
TI  - Substantial Churn In Health Insurance Offerings By Small Employers, 2014-15.
AB  - New data for 2014-15 from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance
      Component longitudinal survey show substantial churn in insurance offers by small
      employers (those with fifty or fewer workers), with 14.6 percent of employers
      that offered insurance in 2014 having dropped it in 2015 and 5.5 percent of those
      that did not offer it adding coverage.

PMID- 28874492
TI  - Newly Eligible Enrollees In Medicaid Spend Less And Use Less Care Than Those
      Previously Eligible.
AB  - Understanding the health care spending and utilization of various types of
      Medicaid enrollees is important for assessing the budgetary implications of both
      expansion and contraction in Medicaid enrollment. Despite the intense debate
      surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), however, little information is
      available on the spending and utilization patterns of the nonelderly adult
      enrollees who became newly eligible for Medicaid under the ACA. Using data for
      2012-14 from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we compared health care
      spending and utilization of newly eligible Medicaid enrollees with those of
      nondisabled adults who were previously eligible and enrolled. We found that
      average monthly expenditures for newly eligible enrollees were $180-21 percent
      less than the $228 average for previously eligible enrollees. Utilization
      differences between these groups likely contributed to this differential.

PMID- 28874493
TI  - Medicaid Expansion For Adults Had Measurable 'Welcome Mat' Effects On Their
      Children.
AB  - Before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), most children in low
      income families were already eligible for public insurance through Medicaid or
      the Children's Health Insurance Program. Increased coverage observed for these
      children since the ACA's implementation suggest that the legislation potentially
      had important spillover or "welcome mat" effects on the number of eligible
      children enrolled. This study used data from the 2013-15 American Community
      Survey to provide the first national-level (analytical) estimates of welcome-mat
      effects on children's coverage post ACA. We estimated that 710,000 low-income
      children gained coverage through these effects. The study was also the first to
      show a link between parents' eligibility for Medicaid and welcome-mat effects for
      their children under the ACA. Welcome-mat effects were largest among children
      whose parents gained Medicaid eligibility under the ACA expansion to adults.
      Public coverage for these children increased by 5.7 percentage points-more than
      double the 2.7-percentage-point increase observed among children whose parents
      were ineligible for Medicaid both pre and post ACA. Finally, we estimated that if
      all states had adopted the Medicaid expansion, an additional 200,000 low-income
      children would have gained coverage.

PMID- 28874494
TI  - Despite Boosting Children's Coverage Rates To Historic Levels, Medicaid And CHIP
      Face An Uncertain Future.
AB  - The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which was enacted twenty years
      ago, covers uninsured children who do not qualify for Medicaid but lack access to
      affordable coverage. Together these safety-net programs have boosted the health
      insurance coverage rate among US children to historic levels, exceeding 95
      percent of children in 2015. However, the future of both CHIP and Medicaid is
      uncertain. In the current congressional debate over the Affordable Care Act,
      Medicaid has become a target for potential funding reductions and other changes
      that would undermine the scope of children's coverage. Congress has yet to act to
      extend CHIP funding beyond September 30, 2017, when the current appropriation
      expires. State and federal policy makers should act now to preserve the
      foundation of coverage currently in place while striving to ensure that every
      child in the United States has health coverage.

PMID- 28874495
TI  - Sustained Gains In Coverage, Access, And Affordability Under The ACA: A 2017
      Update.
AB  - The significant gains in health insurance coverage and improvements in health
      care access and affordability that followed the implementation of the key
      coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 have persisted into 2017.
      Adults in all parts of the country, of all ages, and across all income groups
      have benefited from a large and sustained increase in the percentage of the US
      population that has health insurance. The gains have been particularly striking
      among low- and moderate-income Americans living in states that expanded Medicaid.
      Our latest survey data from the Urban Institute's 2017 Health Reform Monitoring
      Survey shows that only 10.2 percent of nonelderly adults are now uninsured-a
      decline of almost 41 percent from the period before implementation of the ACA.
      Nonetheless, repealing and replacing the ACA remained under consideration during
      the summer of 2017, along with more systematic changes to the financing of the
      Medicaid program. Many people will be at substantial risk if key components of
      the law are repealed or otherwise changed without carefully considering the
      health and financial consequences for those projected to lose coverage. Though
      the politics of health reform are challenging, opportunities exist to create a
      more equitable and efficient health care system.

PMID- 28874496
TI  - Access To Obstetric Services In Rural Counties Still Declining, With 9 Percent
      Losing Services, 2004-14.
AB  - Recent closures of rural obstetric units and entire hospitals have exacerbated
      concerns about access to care for more than twenty-eight million women of
      reproductive age living in rural America. Yet the extent of recent obstetric unit
      closures has not yet been measured. Using national data, we found that 9 percent
      of rural counties experienced the loss of all hospital obstetric services in the
      period 2004-14. In addition, another 45 percent of rural US counties had no
      hospital obstetric services at all during the study period. That left more than
      half of all rural US counties without hospital obstetric services. Counties with
      fewer obstetricians and family physicians per women of reproductive age and per
      capita, respectively; a higher percentage of non-Hispanic black women of
      reproductive age; and lower median household incomes and those in states with
      more restrictive Medicaid income eligibility thresholds for pregnant women had
      higher odds of lacking hospital obstetric services. The same types of counties
      were also more likely to experience the loss of obstetric services, which
      highlights the challenge of providing adequate geographic access to obstetric
      care in vulnerable and underserved rural communities.

PMID- 28874497
TI  - Mortality In Rural China Declined As Health Insurance Coverage Increased, But No
      Evidence The Two Are Linked.
AB  - Health insurance holds the promise of improving population health and survival
      and protecting people from catastrophic health spending. Yet evidence from lower-
      and middle-income countries on the impact of health insurance is limited. We
      investigated whether insurance expansion reduced adult mortality in rural China,
      taking advantage of differences across Chinese counties in the timing of the
      introduction of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS). We assembled and
      analyzed newly collected data on NCMS implementation, linked to data from the
      Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on cause-specific, age
      standardized death rates and variables specific to county-year combinations for
      seventy-two counties in the period 2004-12. While mortality rates declined among
      rural residents during this period, we found little evidence that the expansion
      of health insurance through the NCMS contributed to this decline. However, our
      relatively large standard errors leave open the possibility that the NCMS had
      effects on mortality that we could not detect. Moreover, mortality benefits might
      arise only after many years of accumulated coverage.

PMID- 28874499
TI  - Maternal And Child Health: Foundations' Funding.

PMID- 28874498
TI  - 'Go Back To California': When Providers Fail Transgender Patients.
AB  - A transgender doctor is mistreated by a health care provider-and wants to make
      the system better for patients like her.

PMID- 28874500
TI  - Reducing TB Among Central Asia Labor Migrants.

PMID- 28874501
TI  - Retraction.

PMID- 28874502
TI  - Is external fixation a better way than plaster to supplement K-wires in non
      comminuted distal radius fractures?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distal radius fractures represent about one-sixth of all fractures.
      There is still no consensus on the treatment of this fracture. We have several
      issues to assess and address; one of them is the fixation method. We tried to
      compare the effectiveness of two methods of stabilisation of distal radial
      fracture. Comparison between the techniques of Kirschner wire (K-wire) fixation
      with plaster and K-wire fixation with external fixation (Ex-Fix) was undertaken
      to assess which treatment modality gives better results in patients with distal
      radius fracture Frykman VII and VIII with no metaphyseal comminution. METHOD:
      Fifty-six patients were chosen randomly and then allocated to two different
      modalities of stabilisation randomly as well, they were followed up; three of
      them were lost to follow-up because of death and two moved away from the area.
      Fifty-one patients were randomised in two groups: 24 were treated with K-wire and
      spanning Ex-Fix supplementation and 27 were treated with K-wires and plaster.
      Patients were prospectively monitored following the operation with a minimum
      follow-up of 1 year. Measurement of range of motion was obtained after surgery.
      Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores for pain and satisfaction levels were also
      recorded. RESULTS: There was statistically significant difference in favour of
      the Ex-Fix patient group for pain (VAS, Ex-Fix group: mean 14.9; plaster group:
      mean 28.1) and satisfaction (Ex-Fix group: mean 89.7;plaster group: mean 76.3).
      Although one would expect that range of motion would be reduced in the Ex-Fix
      group, there were no statistically significant differences found, with the
      exception of supination where results were in favour of the Ex-Fix group (mean
      54.4; plaster group: mean 45.2). CONCLUSION: In our study, xternal fixator (Ex
      Fix) supplementation of K-wiring favoured patients with distal radius fracture,
      even though there was no metaphyseal comminution, and therefore is suggested in
      contrast to plaster supplementation.

PMID- 28874503
TI  - Risk factors for amendment in type, duration and setting of prescribed outpatient
      parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) for adult patients with cellulitis: a
      retrospective cohort study and CART analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To measure the percentage rate and risk factors for
      amendment in the type, duration and setting of outpatient parenteral
      antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) for the treatment of cellulitis. STUDY DESIGN: A
      retrospective cohort study of adult patients receiving OPAT for cellulitis was
      performed. Treatment amendment (TA) was defined as hospital admission or change
      in antibiotic therapy in order to achieve clinical response. Multivariable
      logistic regression (MVLR) and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis
      were performed. RESULTS: There were 307 patients enrolled. TA occurred in 36
      patients (11.7%). Significant risk factors for TA on MVLR were increased age,
      increased Numerical Pain Scale Score (NPSS) and immunocompromise. The median OPAT
      duration was 7 days. Increased age, heart rate and C reactive protein were
      associated with treatment prolongation. CART analysis selected age <64.5 years,
      female gender and NPSS <2.5 in the final model, generating a low-sensitivity
      (27.8%), high-specificity (97.1%) decision tree. CONCLUSIONS: Increased age, NPSS
      and immunocompromise were associated with OPAT amendment. These identified risk
      factors can be used to support an evidence-based approach to patient selection
      for OPAT in cellulitis. The CART algorithm has good specificity but lacks
      sensitivity and is shown to be inferior in this study to logistic regression
      modelling.

PMID- 28874504
TI  - Proteome Analysis of Hypoxic Glioblastoma Cells Reveals Sequential Metabolic
      Adaptation of One-Carbon Metabolic Pathways.
AB  - Rapidly proliferating tumors are exposed to a hypoxic microenvironment because of
      their density, high metabolic consumption, and interruptions in blood flow
      because of immature angiogenesis. Cellular responses to hypoxia promote highly
      malignant and metastatic behavior, as well as a chemotherapy-resistant state. To
      better understand the complex relationships between hypoxic adaptations and
      cancer progression, we studied the dynamic proteome responses of glioblastoma
      cells exposed to hypoxia via an innovative approach: quantification of newly
      synthesized proteins using heavy stable-isotope arginine labeling combined with
      accurate assessment of cell replication by quantification of the light/heavy
      arginine ratio of peptides in histone H4. We found that hypoxia affects cancer
      cells in multiple intertwined ways: inflammation, typically with over-expressed
      glucose transporter (GLUT1), DUSP4/MKP2, and RelA proteins; a metabolic
      adaptation with overexpression of all glycolytic pathway enzymes for
      pyruvate/lactate synthesis; and the EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) and
      cancer stem cell (CSC) renewal with characteristic morphological changes and
      mesenchymal/CSC protein expression profiles. For the first time, we identified
      the vitamin B12 transporter protein TCN2, which is essential for one-carbon
      metabolism, as being significantly downregulated. Further, we found, by knockdown
      and overexpression experiments, that TCN2 plays an important role in controlling
      cancer cell transformation toward the highly aggressive mesenchymal/CSC stage;
      low expression of TCN2 has an effect similar to hypoxia, whereas high expression
      of TCN2 can reverse it. We conclude that hypoxia induces sequential metabolic
      responses of one-carbon metabolism in tumor cells. Our mass spectrometry data are
      available via ProteomeXchange with identifiers PXD005487 (TMT-labeling) and
      PXD007280 (label-free).

PMID- 28874505
TI  - Molecular recognition of pre-tRNA by Arabidopsis protein-only Ribonuclease P.
AB  - Protein-only ribonuclease P (PRORP) is an enzyme responsible for catalyzing the
      5' end maturation of precursor transfer ribonucleic acids (pre-tRNAs) encoded by
      various cellular compartments in many eukaryotes. PRORPs from plants act as
      single-subunit enzymes and have been used as a model system for analyzing the
      function of the metazoan PRORP nuclease subunit, which requires two additional
      proteins for efficient catalysis. There are currently few molecular details known
      about the PRORP-pre-tRNA complex. Here, we characterize the determinants of
      substrate recognition by the single subunit Arabidopsis thaliana PRORP1 and
      PRORP2 using kinetic and thermodynamic experiments. The salt dependence of
      binding affinity suggests 4-5 contacts with backbone phosphodiester bonds on
      substrates, including a single phosphodiester contact with the pre-tRNA 5'
      leader, consistent with prior reports of short leader requirements. PRORPs
      contain an N-terminal pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) domain, truncation of which
      results in a >30-fold decrease in substrate affinity. While most PPR-containing
      proteins have been implicated in single-stranded sequence-specific RNA
      recognition, we find that the PPR motifs of PRORPs recognize pre-tRNA substrates
      differently. Notably, the PPR domain residues most important for substrate
      binding in PRORPs do not correspond to positions involved in base recognition in
      other PPR proteins. Several of these residues are highly conserved in PRORPs from
      algae, plants, and metazoans, suggesting a conserved strategy for substrate
      recognition by the PRORP PPR domain. Furthermore, there is no evidence for
      sequence-specific interactions. This work clarifies molecular determinants of
      PRORP-substrate recognition and provides a new predictive model for the PRORP
      substrate complex.

PMID- 28874507
TI  - A Specific Gibberellin 20-Oxidase Dictates the Flowering-Runnering Decision in
      Diploid Strawberry.
AB  - Asexual and sexual reproduction occur jointly in many angiosperms. Stolons
      (elongated stems) are used for asexual reproduction in the crop species potato
      (Solanum tuberosum) and strawberry (Fragaria spp), where they produce tubers and
      clonal plants, respectively. In strawberry, stolon production is essential for
      vegetative propagation at the expense of fruit yield, but the underlying
      molecular mechanisms are unknown. Here, we show that the stolon deficiency trait
      of the runnerless (r) natural mutant in woodland diploid strawberry (Fragaria
      vesca) is due to a deletion in the active site of a gibberellin20-oxidase
      (GA20ox) gene, which is expressed primarily in the axillary meristem dome and
      primordia and in developing stolons. This mutation, which is found in all r
      mutants, goes back more than three centuries. When FveGA20ox4 is mutated,
      axillary meristems remain dormant or produce secondary shoots terminated by
      inflorescences, thus increasing the number of inflorescences in the plant. The
      application of bioactive gibberellin (GA) restored the runnering phenotype in the
      r mutant, indicating that GA biosynthesis in the axillary meristem is essential
      for inducing stolon differentiation. The possibility of regulating the runnering
      flowering decision in strawberry via FveGA20ox4 provides a path for improving
      productivity in strawberry by controlling the trade-off between sexual
      reproduction and vegetative propagation.

PMID- 28874508
TI  - ABA-Induced Stomatal Closure Involves ALMT4, a Phosphorylation-Dependent Vacuolar
      Anion Channel of Arabidopsis.
AB  - Stomatal pores are formed between a pair of guard cells and allow plant uptake of
      CO2 and water evaporation. Their aperture depends on changes in osmolyte
      concentration of guard cell vacuoles, specifically of K+ and Mal2- Efflux of Mal2
      from the vacuole is required for stomatal closure; however, it is not clear how
      the anion is released. Here, we report the identification of ALMT4 (ALUMINUM
      ACTIVATED MALATE TRANSPORTER4) as an Arabidopsis thaliana ion channel that can
      mediate Mal2- release from the vacuole and is required for stomatal closure in
      response to abscisic acid (ABA). Knockout mutants showed impaired stomatal
      closure in response to the drought stress hormone ABA and increased whole-plant
      wilting in response to drought and ABA. Electrophysiological data show that ALMT4
      can mediate Mal2- efflux and that the channel activity is dependent on a
      phosphorylatable C-terminal serine. Dephosphomimetic mutants of ALMT4 S382 showed
      increased channel activity and Mal2- efflux. Reconstituting the active channel in
      almt4 mutants impaired growth and stomatal opening. Phosphomimetic mutants were
      electrically inactive and phenocopied the almt4 mutants. Surprisingly, S382 can
      be phosphorylated by mitogen-activated protein kinases in vitro. In brief, ALMT4
      likely mediates Mal2- efflux during ABA-induced stomatal closure and its activity
      depends on phosphorylation.

PMID- 28874510
TI  - Some Like It HOT: Protein Translation and Heat Stress in Plants.

PMID- 28874511
TI  - RETRACTION.

PMID- 28874509
TI  - The Maize Imprinted Gene Floury3 Encodes a PLATZ Protein Required for tRNA and 5S
      rRNA Transcription through Interaction with RNA Polymerase III.
AB  - Maize (Zea mays) floury3 (fl3) is a classic semidominant negative mutant that
      exhibits severe defects in the endosperm but fl3 plants otherwise appear normal.
      We cloned the fl3 gene and determined that it encodes a PLATZ (plant AT-rich
      sequence and zinc binding) protein. The mutation in fl3 resulted in an Asn-to-His
      replacement in the conserved PLATZ domain, creating a dominant allele. Fl3 is
      specifically expressed in starchy endosperm cells and regulated by genomic
      imprinting, which leads to the suppressed expression of fl3 when transmitted
      through the male, perhaps as a consequence the semidominant behavior. Yeast two
      hybrid screening and bimolecular luciferase complementation experiments revealed
      that FL3 interacts with the RNA polymerase III subunit 53 (RPC53) and
      transcription factor class C 1 (TFC1), two critical factors of the RNA polymerase
      III (RNAPIII) transcription complex. In the fl3 endosperm, the levels of many
      tRNAs and 5S rRNA that are transcribed by RNAPIII are significantly reduced,
      suggesting that the incorrectly folded fl3 protein may impair the function of
      RNAPIII. The transcriptome is dramatically altered in fl3 mutants, in which the
      downregulated genes are primarily enriched in pathways related to translation,
      ribosome, misfolded protein responses, and nutrient reservoir activity.
      Collectively, these changes may lead to defects in endosperm development and
      storage reserve filling in fl3 seeds.

PMID- 28874512
TI  - Validation, Quality, Education, Advocacy, and Outreach: SNMMI-TS Goals.

PMID- 28874513
TI  - Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology.

PMID- 28874514
TI  - Technologist News.

PMID- 28874515
TI  - Transitions.

PMID- 28874517
TI  - Ruminant neurological disease: a retrospective cohort study.
AB  - Between January 2006 and June 2016, 96 ruminants with neurological signs were
      donated to the Scottish Centre for Production Animal Health and Food Safety
      (SCPAHFS), University of Glasgow, by veterinarians in the field representing 5.4
      per cent of all submissions. Forty-seven different neurological presenting signs
      were reported with 79 per cent of the donated patients presenting with abnormal
      gait. All cases presenting with abnormalities in more than 4 out of 10
      neurological categories died or were euthanased on welfare grounds. Calves were
      significantly more likely to present with neurological disorders than adult
      cattle compared with the proportion of calves: cows in the Scottish cattle
      population and total case population donated to SCPAHFS. Lesions were most
      commonly localised to the spinal cord in sheep 47 per cent (16), the peripheral
      nervous system in cattle 45 per cent (28) and to the brain in the overall
      population 41 per cent (39). The most common aetiology of neurological
      pathologies observed was infectious or inflammatory 28 per cent (27). Definitive
      diagnoses could be reached in 84 per cent (81) of patients. When postmortem
      reports were available, they produced a diagnosis in 70 per cent (52) of cases
      and contradicted clinical diagnoses in 38 per cent (26) of cases. The most
      frequently diagnosed conditions in ruminants over the 10 years were spastic
      paresis, vertebral osteomyelitis and listeriosis.

PMID- 28874516
TI  - Regulation of AMH by oocyte-specific growth factors in human primary cumulus
      cells.
AB  - The regulation of AMH production by follicular cells is poorly understood. The
      purpose of this study was to determine the role of the oocyte-secreted factors,
      growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) and bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15),
      on AMH production in primary human cumulus cells. Cumulus cells from IVF patients
      were cultured with a combination of GDF9, BMP15, recombinant FSH and specific
      signaling inhibitors. Stimulation with GDF9 or BMP15 separately had no
      significant effect on AMH mRNA levels. In contrast, simultaneous stimulation with
      GDF9 and BMP15 (G + B) resulted in a significant increase in AMH mRNA expression.
      Increasing concentration of G + B (0.6, 2.5, 5 and 10 ng/mL) stimulated AMH in a
      dose-dependent manner, showing a maximal effect at 5 ng/mL. Western blot analyses
      revealed an average 16-fold increase in AMH protein levels in cells treated with
      G + B when compared to controls. FSH co-treatment decreased the stimulation of
      AMH expression by G + B. The stimulatory effect of G + B on the expression of AMH
      was significantly decreased by inhibitors of the SMAD2/3 signaling pathway. These
      findings show for the first time that AMH production is regulated by oocyte
      secreted factors in primary human cumulus cells. Moreover, our novel findings
      establish that the combination of GDF9 + BMP15 potently stimulates AMH
      expression.

PMID- 28874518
TI  - Internal Associations of the Acidic Region of Upstream Binding Factor Control Its
      Nucleolar Localization.
AB  - Upstream binding factor (UBF) is a member of the high-mobility group (HMG) box
      protein family, characterized by multiple HMG boxes and a C-terminal acidic
      region (AR). UBF is an essential transcription factor for rRNA genes and mediates
      the formation of transcriptionally active chromatin in the nucleolus. However, it
      remains unknown how UBF is specifically localized to the nucleolus. Here, we
      examined the molecular mechanisms that localize UBF to the nucleolus. We found
      that the first HMG box (HMG box 1), the linker region (LR), and the AR
      cooperatively regulate the nucleolar localization of UBF1. We demonstrated that
      the AR intramolecularly associates with and attenuates the DNA binding activity
      of HMG boxes and confers the structured DNA preference to HMG box 1. In contrast,
      the LR was found to serve as a nuclear localization signal and compete with HMG
      boxes to bind the AR, permitting nucleolar localization of UBF1. The LR sequence
      binds DNA and assists the stable chromatin binding of UBF. We also showed that
      the phosphorylation status of the AR does not clearly affect the localization of
      UBF1. Our results strongly suggest that associations of the AR with HMG boxes and
      the LR regulate UBF nucleolar localization.

PMID- 28874519
TI  - A Histone Code Reader and a Transcriptional Activator Interact to Regulate Genes
      for Salt Tolerance.
AB  - Plant homeodomain (PHD) finger proteins are involved in various developmental
      processes and stress responses. They recognize and bind to epigenetically
      modified histone H3 tail and function as histone code readers. Here we report
      that GmPHD6 reads low methylated histone H3K4me0/1/2 but not H3K4me3 with its N
      terminal domain instead of the PHD finger. GmPHD6 does not possess
      transcriptional regulatory ability but has DNA-binding ability. Through the PHD
      finger, GmPHD6 interacts with its coactivator, LHP1-1/2, to form a
      transcriptional activation complex. Using a transgenic hairy root system, we
      demonstrate that overexpression of GmPHD6 improves stress tolerance in soybean
      (Glycinemax) plants. Knocking down the LHP1 expression disrupts this role of
      GmPHD6, indicating that GmPHD6 requires LHP1 functions during stress response.
      GmPHD6 influences expression of dozens of stress-related genes. Among these, we
      identified three targets of GmPHD6, including ABA-stress-ripening-induced CYP75B1
      and CYP82C4 Overexpression of each gene confers stress tolerance in soybean
      plants. GmPHD6 is recruited to H3K4me0/1/2 marks and recognizes the G-rich
      elements in target gene promoters, whereas LHP1 activates expression of these
      targets. Our study reveals a mechanism involving two partners in a complex.
      Manipulation of the genes in this pathway should improve stress tolerance in
      soybean or other legumes/crops.

PMID- 28874520
TI  - SIPP, a Novel Mitochondrial Phosphate Carrier, Mediates in Self-Incompatibility.
AB  - In Solanaceae, the S-specific interaction between the pistil S-RNase and the
      pollen S-Locus F-box protein controls self-incompatibility (SI). Although this
      interaction defines the specificity of the pollen rejection response, the
      identification of three pistil essential modifier genes unlinked to the S-locus
      (HT-B, 120K, and NaStEP) unveils a higher degree of complexity in the pollen
      rejection pathway. We showed previously that NaStEP, a stigma protein with
      homology with Kunitz-type protease inhibitors, is essential to SI in Nicotiana
      spp. During pollination, NaStEP is taken up by pollen tubes, where potential
      interactions with pollen tube proteins might underlie its function. Here, we
      identified NaSIPP, a mitochondrial protein with phosphate transporter activity,
      as a novel NaStEP-interacting protein. Coexpression of NaStEP and NaSIPP in
      pollen tubes showed interaction in the mitochondria, although when expressed
      alone, NaStEP remains mostly cytosolic, implicating NaSIPP-mediated translocation
      of NaStEP into the organelle. The NaSIPP transcript is detected specifically in
      mature pollen of Nicotiana spp.; however, in self-compatible plants, this gene
      has accumulated mutations, so its coding region is unlikely to produce a
      functional protein. RNA interference suppression of NaSIPP in Nicotiana spp.
      pollen grains disrupts the SI by preventing pollen tube inhibition. Taken
      together, our results are consistent with a model whereby the NaStEP and NaSIPP
      interaction, in incompatible pollen tubes, might destabilize the mitochondria and
      contribute to arrest pollen tube growth.

PMID- 28874521
TI  - Combinatorial interaction network of abscisic acid receptors and coreceptors from
      Arabidopsis thaliana.
AB  - The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) is induced in response to abiotic stress to
      mediate plant acclimation to environmental challenge. Key players of the ABA
      signaling pathway are the ABA-binding receptors (RCAR/PYR1/PYL), which, together
      with a plant-specific subclade of protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C), form functional
      holoreceptors. The Arabidopsis genome encodes nine PP2C coreceptors and 14
      different RCARs, which can be divided into three subfamilies. The presence of
      these gene families in higher plants points to the existence of an intriguing
      regulatory network and poses questions as to the functional compatibility and
      specificity of receptor-coreceptor interactions. Here, we analyzed all RCAR-PP2C
      combinations for their capacity to regulate ABA signaling by transient expression
      in Arabidopsis protoplasts. Of 126 possible RCAR-PP2C pairings, 113 were found to
      be functional. The three subfamilies within the RCAR family showed different
      sensitivities to regulating the ABA response at basal ABA levels when efficiently
      expressed. At exogenous high ABA levels, the RCARs regulated most PP2Cs and
      activated the ABA response to a similar extent. The PP2C AHG1 was regulated only
      by RCAR1/PYL9, RCAR2/PYL7, and RCAR3/PYL8, which are characterized by a unique
      tyrosine residue. Site-directed mutagenesis of RCAR1 showed that its tyrosine
      residue is critical for AHG1 interaction and regulation. Furthermore, the PP2Cs
      HAI1 to HAI3 were regulated by all RCARs, and the ABA receptor RCAR4/PYL10 showed
      ABA-dependent PP2C regulation. The findings unravel the interaction network of
      possible RCAR-PP2C pairings and their different potentials to serve a rheostat
      function for integrating fluctuating hormone levels into the ABA-response
      pathway.

PMID- 28874522
TI  - Efficient stimulus-secretion coupling at ribbon synapses requires RIM-binding
      protein tethering of L-type Ca2+ channels.
AB  - Fast neurotransmitter release from ribbon synapses via Ca2+-triggered exocytosis
      requires tight coupling of L-type Ca2+ channels to release-ready synaptic
      vesicles at the presynaptic active zone, which is localized at the base of the
      ribbon. Here, we used genetic, electrophysiological, and ultrastructural analyses
      to probe the architecture of ribbon synapses by perturbing the function of RIM
      binding proteins (RBPs) as central active-zone scaffolding molecules. We found
      that genetic deletion of RBP1 and RBP2 did not impair synapse ultrastructure of
      ribbon-type synapses formed between rod bipolar cells (RBCs) and amacrine type-2
      (AII) cells in the mouse retina but dramatically reduced the density of
      presynaptic Ca2+ channels, decreased and desynchronized evoked neurotransmitter
      release, and rendered evoked and spontaneous neurotransmitter release sensitive
      to the slow Ca2+ buffer EGTA. These findings suggest that RBPs tether L-type Ca2+
      channels to the active zones of ribbon synapses, thereby synchronizing vesicle
      exocytosis and promoting high-fidelity information transfer in retinal circuits.

PMID- 28874523
TI  - Escherichia coli responds to environmental changes using enolasic degradosomes
      and stabilized DicF sRNA to alter cellular morphology.
AB  - Escherichia coli RNase E is an essential enzyme that forms multicomponent
      ribonucleolytic complexes known as "RNA degradosomes." These complexes consist of
      four major components: RNase E, PNPase, RhlB RNA helicase, and enolase. However,
      the role of enolase in the RNase E/degradosome is not understood. Here, we report
      that presence of enolase in the RNase E/degradosome under anaerobic conditions
      regulates cell morphology, resulting in Ecoli MG1655 cell filamentation. Under
      anaerobic conditions, enolase bound to the RNase E/degradosome stabilizes the
      small RNA (sRNA) DicF, i.e., the inhibitor of the cell division gene ftsZ,
      through chaperon protein Hfq-dependent regulation. RNase E/enolase distribution
      changes from membrane-associated patterns under aerobic to diffuse patterns under
      anaerobic conditions. When the enolase-RNase E/degradosome interaction is
      disrupted, the anaerobically induced characteristics disappear. We provide a
      mechanism by which Ecoli uses enolase-bound degradosomes to switch from rod
      shaped to filamentous form in response to anaerobiosis by regulating RNase E
      subcellular distribution, RNase E enzymatic activity, and the stability of the
      sRNA DicF required for the filamentous transition. In contrast to Ecoli
      nonpathogenic strains, pathogenic Ecoli strains predominantly have multiple
      copies of sRNA DicF in their genomes, with cell filamentation previously being
      linked to bacterial pathogenesis. Our data suggest a mechanism for bacterial cell
      filamentation during infection under anaerobic conditions.

PMID- 28874524
TI  - Direct dating of Neanderthal remains from the site of Vindija Cave and
      implications for the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition.
AB  - Previous dating of the Vi-207 and Vi-208 Neanderthal remains from Vindija Cave
      (Croatia) led to the suggestion that Neanderthals survived there as recently as
      28,000-29,000 B.P. Subsequent dating yielded older dates, interpreted as ages of
      at least ~32,500 B.P. We have redated these same specimens using an approach
      based on the extraction of the amino acid hydroxyproline, using preparative high
      performance liquid chromatography (Prep-HPLC). This method is more efficient in
      eliminating modern contamination in the bone collagen. The revised dates are
      older than 40,000 B.P., suggesting the Vindija Neanderthals did not live more
      recently than others across Europe, and probably predate the arrival of
      anatomically modern humans in Eastern Europe. We applied zooarchaeology by mass
      spectrometry (ZooMS) to find additional hominin remains. We identified one bone
      that is Neanderthal, based on its mitochondrial DNA, and dated it directly to
      46,200 +/- 1,500 B.P. We also attempted to date six early Upper Paleolithic bone
      points from stratigraphic units G1, Fd/d+G1 and Fd/d, Fd. One bone artifact gave
      a date of 29,500 +/- 400 B.P., while the remainder yielded no collagen. We
      additionally dated animal bone samples from units G1 and G1-G3 These dates
      suggest a co-occurrence of early Upper Paleolithic osseous artifacts,
      particularly split-based points, alongside the remains of Neanderthals is a
      result of postdepositional mixing, rather than an association between the two
      groups, although more work is required to show this definitively.

PMID- 28874525
TI  - Differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using spectrochemical analysis of
      blood.
AB  - The progressive aging of the world's population makes a higher prevalence of
      neurodegenerative diseases inevitable. The necessity for an accurate, but at the
      same time, inexpensive and minimally invasive, diagnostic test is urgently
      required, not only to confirm the presence of the disease but also to
      discriminate between different types of dementia to provide the appropriate
      management and treatment. In this study, attenuated total reflection FTIR (ATR
      FTIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometric techniques were used to analyze
      blood plasma samples from our cohort. Blood samples are easily collected by
      conventional venepuncture, permitting repeated measurements from the same
      individuals to monitor their progression throughout the years or evaluate any
      tested drugs. We included 549 individuals: 347 with various neurodegenerative
      diseases and 202 age-matched healthy individuals. Alzheimer's disease (AD; n =
      164) was identified with 70% sensitivity and specificity, which after the
      incorporation of apolipoprotein epsilon4 genotype (APOE epsilon4) information,
      increased to 86% when individuals carried one or two alleles of epsilon4, and to
      72% sensitivity and 77% specificity when individuals did not carry epsilon4
      alleles. Early AD cases (n = 14) were identified with 80% sensitivity and 74%
      specificity. Segregation of AD from dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB; n = 34) was
      achieved with 90% sensitivity and specificity. Other neurodegenerative diseases,
      such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD; n = 30), Parkinson's disease (PD; n = 32),
      and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP; n = 31), were included in our cohort for
      diagnostic purposes. Our method allows for both rapid and robust diagnosis of
      neurodegeneration and segregation between different dementias.

PMID- 28874526
TI  - Identification of individuals by trait prediction using whole-genome sequencing
      data.
AB  - Prediction of human physical traits and demographic information from genomic data
      challenges privacy and data deidentification in personalized medicine. To explore
      the current capabilities of phenotype-based genomic identification, we applied
      whole-genome sequencing, detailed phenotyping, and statistical modeling to
      predict biometric traits in a cohort of 1,061 participants of diverse ancestry.
      Individually, for a large fraction of the traits, their predictive accuracy
      beyond ancestry and demographic information is limited. However, we have
      developed a maximum entropy algorithm that integrates multiple predictions to
      determine which genomic samples and phenotype measurements originate from the
      same person. Using this algorithm, we have reidentified an average of >8 of 10
      held-out individuals in an ethnically mixed cohort and an average of 5 of either
      10 African Americans or 10 Europeans. This work challenges current conceptions of
      personal privacy and may have far-reaching ethical and legal implications.

PMID- 28874527
TI  - Dissection of the Drosophila neuropeptide F circuit using a high-throughput two
      choice assay.
AB  - In their classic experiments, Olds and Milner showed that rats learn to lever
      press to receive an electric stimulus in specific brain regions. This led to the
      identification of mammalian reward centers. Our interest in defining the neuronal
      substrates of reward perception in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster prompted
      us to develop a simpler experimental approach wherein flies could implement
      behavior that induces self-stimulation of specific neurons in their brains. The
      high-throughput assay employs optogenetic activation of neurons when the fly
      occupies a specific area of a behavioral chamber, and the flies' preferential
      occupation of this area reflects their choosing to experience optogenetic
      stimulation. Flies in which neuropeptide F (NPF) neurons are activated display
      preference for the illuminated side of the chamber. We show that optogenetic
      activation of NPF neuron is rewarding in olfactory conditioning experiments and
      that the preference for NPF neuron activation is dependent on NPF signaling.
      Finally, we identify a small subset of NPF-expressing neurons located in the
      dorsomedial posterior brain that are sufficient to elicit preference in our
      assay. This assay provides the means for carrying out unbiased screens to map
      reward neurons in flies.

PMID- 28874528
TI  - EIN2 mediates direct regulation of histone acetylation in the ethylene response.
AB  - Ethylene gas is essential for developmental processes and stress responses in
      plants. Although the membrane-bound protein EIN2 is critical for ethylene
      signaling, the mechanism by which the ethylene signal is transduced remains
      largely unknown. Here we show the levels of H3K14Ac and H3K23Ac are correlated
      with the levels of EIN2 protein and demonstrate EIN2 C terminus (EIN2-C) is
      sufficient to rescue the levels of H3K14/23Ac of ein2-5 at the target loci, using
      CRISPR/dCas9-EIN2-C. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing
      (ChIP-seq) and ChIP-reChIP-seq analyses revealed that EIN2-C associates with
      histone partially through an interaction with EIN2 nuclear-associated protein1
      (ENAP1), which preferentially binds to the genome regions that are associated
      with actively expressed genes both with and without ethylene treatments.
      Specifically, in the presence of ethylene, ENAP1-binding regions are more
      accessible upon the interaction with EIN2, and more EIN3 proteins bind to the
      loci where ENAP1 is enriched for a quick response. Together, these results reveal
      EIN2-C is the key factor regulating H3K14Ac and H3K23Ac in response to ethylene
      and uncover a unique mechanism by which ENAP1 interacts with chromatin,
      potentially preserving the open chromatin regions in the absence of ethylene; in
      the presence of ethylene, EIN2 interacts with ENAP1, elevating the levels of
      H3K14Ac and H3K23Ac, promoting more EIN3 binding to the targets shared with ENAP1
      and resulting in a rapid transcriptional regulation.

PMID- 28874529
TI  - Synchronous volcanic eruptions and abrupt climate change ~17.7 ka plausibly
      linked by stratospheric ozone depletion.
AB  - Glacial-state greenhouse gas concentrations and Southern Hemisphere climate
      conditions persisted until ~17.7 ka, when a nearly synchronous acceleration in
      deglaciation was recorded in paleoclimate proxies in large parts of the Southern
      Hemisphere, with many changes ascribed to a sudden poleward shift in the Southern
      Hemisphere westerlies and subsequent climate impacts. We used high-resolution
      chemical measurements in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide, Byrd, and other ice
      cores to document a unique, ~192-y series of halogen-rich volcanic eruptions
      exactly at the start of accelerated deglaciation, with tephra identifying the
      nearby Mount Takahe volcano as the source. Extensive fallout from these massive
      eruptions has been found >2,800 km from Mount Takahe. Sulfur isotope anomalies
      and marked decreases in ice core bromine consistent with increased surface UV
      radiation indicate that the eruptions led to stratospheric ozone depletion.
      Rather than a highly improbable coincidence, circulation and climate changes
      extending from the Antarctic Peninsula to the subtropics-similar to those
      associated with modern stratospheric ozone depletion over Antarctica-plausibly
      link the Mount Takahe eruptions to the onset of accelerated Southern Hemisphere
      deglaciation ~17.7 ka.

PMID- 28874530
TI  - Abrupt climate changes during Termination III in Southern Europe.
AB  - The Late Quaternary glacial-interglacial transitions represent the highest
      amplitude climate changes over the last million years. Unraveling the sequence of
      events and feedbacks at Termination III (T-III), including potential abrupt
      climate reversals similar to those of the last Termination, has been particularly
      challenging due to the scarcity of well-dated records worldwide. Here, we present
      speleothem data from southern Europe covering the interval from 262.7 to 217.9
      kyBP, including the transition from marine isotope stage (MIS) 8 to MIS 7e. High
      resolution delta13C, delta18O, and Mg/Ca profiles reveal major millennial-scale
      changes in aridity manifested in changing water availability and vegetation
      productivity. uranium-thorium dates provide a solid chronology for two millennial
      scale events (S8.1 and S8.2) which, compared with the last two terminations, has
      some common features with Heinrich 1 and Heinrich 2 in Termination I (T-I).

PMID- 28874531
TI  - Female exogamy and gene pool diversification at the transition from the Final
      Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in central Europe.
AB  - Human mobility has been vigorously debated as a key factor for the spread of
      bronze technology and profound changes in burial practices as well as material
      culture in central Europe at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
      However, the relevance of individual residential changes and their importance
      among specific age and sex groups are still poorly understood. Here, we present
      ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope data of oxygen, and radiogenic isotope
      ratios of strontium for 84 radiocarbon-dated skeletons from seven archaeological
      sites of the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker Complex and the Early Bronze Age from the
      Lech River valley in southern Bavaria, Germany. Complete mitochondrial genomes
      documented a diversification of maternal lineages over time. The isotope ratios
      disclosed the majority of the females to be nonlocal, while this is the case for
      only a few males and subadults. Most nonlocal females arrived in the study area
      as adults, but we do not detect their offspring among the sampled individuals.
      The striking patterns of patrilocality and female exogamy prevailed over at least
      800 y between about 2500 and 1700 BC. The persisting residential rules and even a
      direct kinship relation across the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze
      Age add to the archaeological evidence of continuing traditions from the Bell
      Beaker Complex to the Early Bronze Age. The results also attest to female
      mobility as a driving force for regional and supraregional communication and
      exchange at the dawn of the European metal ages.

PMID- 28874532
TI  - Schwann cells use TAM receptor-mediated phagocytosis in addition to autophagy to
      clear myelin in a mouse model of nerve injury.
AB  - Ineffective myelin debris clearance is a major factor contributing to the poor
      regenerative ability of the central nervous system. In stark contrast, rapid
      clearance of myelin debris from the injured peripheral nervous system (PNS) is
      one of the keys to this system's remarkable regenerative capacity, but the
      molecular mechanisms driving PNS myelin clearance are incompletely understood. We
      set out to discover new pathways of PNS myelin clearance to identify novel
      strategies for activating myelin clearance in the injured central nervous system,
      where myelin debris is not cleared efficiently. Here we show that Schwann cells,
      the myelinating glia of the PNS, collaborate with hematogenous macrophages to
      clear myelin debris using TAM (Tyro3, Axl, Mer) receptor-mediated phagocytosis as
      well as autophagy. In a mouse model of PNS nerve crush injury, Schwann cells up
      regulate TAM phagocytic receptors Axl and Mertk following PNS injury, and Schwann
      cells lacking both of these phagocytic receptors exhibit significantly impaired
      myelin phagocytosis both in vitro and in vivo. Autophagy-deficient Schwann cells
      also display reductions in myelin clearance after mouse nerve crush injury, as
      has been recently shown following nerve transection. These findings add a
      mechanism, Axl/Mertk-mediated myelin clearance, to the repertoire of cellular
      machinery used to clear myelin in the injured PNS. Given recent evidence that
      astrocytes express Axl and Mertk and have previously unrecognized phagocytic
      potential, this pathway may be a promising avenue for activating myelin clearance
      after CNS injury.

PMID- 28874534
TI  - Treg-specific IL-27Ralpha deletion uncovers a key role for IL-27 in Treg function
      to control autoimmunity.
AB  - Dysregulated Foxp3+ Treg functions result in uncontrolled immune activation and
      autoimmunity. Therefore, identifying cellular factors modulating Treg functions
      is an area of great importance. Here, using Treg-specific Il27ra-/- mice, we
      report that IL-27 signaling in Foxp3+ Tregs is essential for Tregs to control
      autoimmune inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS). Following
      experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) induction, Treg-specific Il27ra-/
      mice develop more severe EAE. Consistent with the severe disease, the numbers of
      IFNgamma- and IL-17-producing CD4 T cells infiltrating the CNS tissues are
      greater in these mice. Treg accumulation in the inflamed CNS tissues is not
      affected by the lack of IL-27 signaling in Tregs, suggesting a functional defect
      of Il27ra-/- Tregs. IL-10 production by conventional CD4 T cells and their CNS
      accumulation are rather elevated in Treg-specific Il27ra-/- mice. Analysis with
      Treg fate-mapping reporter mice further demonstrates that IL-27 signaling in
      Tregs may control stability of Foxp3 expression. Finally, systemic administration
      of recombinant IL-27 in Treg-specific Il27ra-/- mice fails to ameliorate the
      disease even in the presence of IL-27-responsive conventional CD4 T cells. These
      findings uncover a previously unknown role of IL-27 in regulating Treg function
      to control autoimmune inflammation.

PMID- 28874533
TI  - Type 1 diabetes induction in humanized mice.
AB  - There is an urgent and unmet need for humanized in vivo models of type 1 diabetes
      to study immunopathogenesis and immunotherapy, and in particular antigen-specific
      therapy. Transfer of patient blood lymphocytes to immunodeficient mice is
      associated with xenogeneic graft-versus-host reactivity that complicates
      assessment of autoimmunity. Improved models could identify which human T cells
      initiate and participate in beta-cell destruction and help define critical target
      islet autoantigens. We used humanized mice (hu-mice) containing robust human
      immune repertoires lacking xenogeneic graft-versus-host reactivity to address
      this question. Hu-mice constructed by transplantation of HLA-DQ8+ human fetal
      thymus and CD34+ cells into HLA-DQ8-transgenic immunodeficient mice developed
      hyperglycemia and diabetes after transfer of autologous HLA-DQ8/insulin-B:9-23
      (InsB:9-23)-specific T-cell receptor (TCR)-expressing human CD4+ T cells and
      immunization with InsB:9-23. Survival of the infused human T cells depended on
      the preexisting autologous human immune system, and pancreatic infiltration by
      human CD3+ T cells and insulitis were observed in the diabetic hu-mice, provided
      their islets were stressed by streptozotocin. This study fits Koch's postulate
      for pathogenicity, demonstrating a pathogenic role of islet autoreactive CD4+ T
      cell responses in type 1 diabetes induction in humans, underscores the role of
      the target beta-cells in their immunological fate, and demonstrates the capacity
      to initiate disease with T cells, recognizing the InsB:9-23 epitope in the
      presence of islet inflammation. This preclinical model has the potential to be
      used in studies of the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and for testing of
      clinically relevant therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28874535
TI  - A chloroplast thylakoid lumen protein is required for proper photosynthetic
      acclimation of plants under fluctuating light environments.
AB  - Despite our increasingly sophisticated understanding of mechanisms ensuring
      efficient photosynthesis under laboratory-controlled light conditions, less is
      known about the regulation of photosynthesis under fluctuating light. This is
      important because-in nature-photosynthetic organisms experience rapid and extreme
      changes in sunlight, potentially causing deleterious effects on photosynthetic
      efficiency and productivity. Here we report that the chloroplast thylakoid
      lumenal protein MAINTENANCE OF PHOTOSYSTEM II UNDER HIGH LIGHT 2 (MPH2; encoded
      by At4g02530) is required for growth acclimation of Arabidopsis thaliana plants
      under controlled photoinhibitory light and fluctuating light environments.
      Evidence is presented that mph2 mutant light stress susceptibility results from a
      defect in photosystem II (PSII) repair, and our results are consistent with the
      hypothesis that MPH2 is involved in disassembling monomeric complexes during
      regeneration of dimeric functional PSII supercomplexes. Moreover, mph2-and
      previously characterized PSII repair-defective mutants-exhibited reduced growth
      under fluctuating light conditions, while PSII photoprotection-impaired mutants
      did not. These findings suggest that repair is not only required for PSII
      maintenance under static high-irradiance light conditions but is also a
      regulatory mechanism facilitating photosynthetic adaptation under fluctuating
      light environments. This work has implications for improvement of agricultural
      plant productivity through engineering PSII repair.

PMID- 28874537
TI  - Correction to Supporting Information for Kliethermes and Crabbe, Genetic
      independence of mouse measures of some aspects of novelty seeking.

PMID- 28874536
TI  - MicroRNA-277 targets insulin-like peptides 7 and 8 to control lipid metabolism
      and reproduction in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
AB  - Hematophagous female mosquitoes transmit numerous devastating human diseases,
      including malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus, and others. Because of their
      obligatory requirement of a vertebrate blood meal for reproduction, these
      mosquitoes need a lot of energy; therefore, understanding the molecular
      mechanisms linking metabolism and reproduction is of particular importance.
      Lipids are the major energy store providing the fuel required for host seeking
      and reproduction. They are essential components of the fat body, a metabolic
      tissue that is the insect analog of vertebrate liver and adipose tissue. In this
      study, we found that microRNA-277 (miR-277) plays an important role in regulating
      mosquito lipid metabolism. The genetic disruption of miR-277 using the CRISPR
      Cas9 system led to failures in both lipid storage and ovary development. miR-277
      mimic injection partially rescued these phenotypic manifestations. Examination of
      subcellular localization of FOXO protein via CRISPR-assisted, single-stranded
      oligodeoxynucleotide-mediated homology-directed repair revealed that insulin
      signaling is up-regulated in response to miR-277 depletion. In silico target
      prediction identified that insulin-like peptides 7 and 8 (ilp7 and ilp8) are
      putative targets of miR-277; RNA immunoprecipitation and a luciferase reporter
      assay confirmed that ilp7 and ilp8 are direct targets of this miRNA. CRISPR-Cas9
      depletion of ilp7 and ilp8 led to metabolic and reproductive defects. These
      depletions identified differential actions of ILP7 and ILP8 in lipid homeostasis
      and ovarian development. Thus, miR-277 plays a critical role in mosquito lipid
      metabolism and reproduction by targeting ilp7 and ilp8, and serves as a monitor
      to control ILP7 and ILP8 mRNA levels.

PMID- 28874538
TI  - Retraction for Wang et al., Somatic hypermutation maintains antibody
      thermodynamic stability during affinity maturation.

PMID- 28874540
TI  - Correction for Holmes et al., Altered metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 markers
      in PTSD: In vivo and postmortem evidence.

PMID- 28874541
TI  - Correction for Koren and Feingold, Aerosol-cloud-precipitation system as a
      predator-prey problem.

PMID- 28874539
TI  - Detection of immune responses after immunotherapy in glioblastoma using PET and
      MRI.
AB  - Contrast-enhanced MRI is typically used to follow treatment response and
      progression in patients with glioblastoma (GBM). However, differentiating tumor
      progression from pseudoprogression remains a clinical dilemma largely unmitigated
      by current advances in imaging techniques. Noninvasive imaging techniques capable
      of distinguishing these two conditions could play an important role in the
      clinical management of patients with GBM and other brain malignancies. We
      hypothesized that PET probes for deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) could be used to
      differentiate immune inflammatory responses from other sources of contrast
      enhancement on MRI. Orthotopic malignant gliomas were established in syngeneic
      immunocompetent mice and then treated with dendritic cell (DC) vaccination and/or
      PD-1 mAb blockade. Mice were then imaged with [18F]-FAC PET/CT and MRI with i.v.
      contrast. The ratio of contrast enhancement on MRI to normalized PET probe
      uptake, which we term the immunotherapeutic response index, delineated specific
      regions of immune inflammatory activity. On postmortem examination, FACS-based
      enumeration of intracranial tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes directly correlated
      with quantitative [18F]-FAC PET probe uptake. Three patients with GBM undergoing
      treatment with tumor lysate-pulsed DC vaccination and PD-1 mAb blockade were also
      imaged before and after therapy using MRI and a clinical PET probe for dCK.
      Unlike in mice, [18F]-FAC is rapidly catabolized in humans; thus, we used another
      dCK PET probe, [18F]-clofarabine ([18F]-CFA), that may be more clinically
      relevant. Enhanced [18F]-CFA PET probe accumulation was identified in tumor and
      secondary lymphoid organs after immunotherapy. Our findings identify a
      noninvasive modality capable of imaging the host antitumor immune response
      against intracranial tumors.

PMID- 28874542
TI  - Self-report captures 27 distinct categories of emotion bridged by continuous
      gradients.
AB  - Emotions are centered in subjective experiences that people represent, in part,
      with hundreds, if not thousands, of semantic terms. Claims about the distribution
      of reported emotional states and the boundaries between emotion categories-that
      is, the geometric organization of the semantic space of emotion-have sparked
      intense debate. Here we introduce a conceptual framework to analyze reported
      emotional states elicited by 2,185 short videos, examining the richest array of
      reported emotional experiences studied to date and the extent to which reported
      experiences of emotion are structured by discrete and dimensional geometries.
      Across self-report methods, we find that the videos reliably elicit 27 distinct
      varieties of reported emotional experience. Further analyses revealed that
      categorical labels such as amusement better capture reports of subjective
      experience than commonly measured affective dimensions (e.g., valence and
      arousal). Although reported emotional experiences are represented within a
      semantic space best captured by categorical labels, the boundaries between
      categories of emotion are fuzzy rather than discrete. By analyzing the
      distribution of reported emotional states we uncover gradients of emotion-from
      anxiety to fear to horror to disgust, calmness to aesthetic appreciation to awe,
      and others-that correspond to smooth variation in affective dimensions such as
      valence and dominance. Reported emotional states occupy a complex, high
      dimensional categorical space. In addition, our library of videos and an
      interactive map of the emotional states they elicit (https://s3-us-west
      1.amazonaws.com/emogifs/map.html) are made available to advance the science of
      emotion.

PMID- 28874544
TI  - Single rat muscle Na+ channel mutation confers batrachotoxin autoresistance found
      in poison-dart frog Phyllobates terribilis.
AB  - Poison-dart Phyllobates terribilis frogs sequester lethal amounts of steroidal
      alkaloid batrachotoxin (BTX) in their skin as a defense mechanism against
      predators. BTX targets voltage-gated Na+ channels and enables them to open
      persistently. How BTX autoresistance arises in such frogs remains a mystery. The
      BTX receptor has been delineated along the Na+ channel inner cavity, which is
      formed jointly by four S6 transmembrane segments from domains D1 to D4. Within
      the P. terribilis muscle Na+ channel, five amino acid (AA) substitutions have
      been identified at D1/S6 and D4/S6. We therefore investigated the role of these
      naturally occurring substitutions in BTX autoresistance by introducing them into
      rat Nav1.4 muscle Na+ channel, both individually and in combination. Our results
      showed that combination mutants containing an N1584T substitution all conferred a
      complete BTX-resistant phenotype when expressed in mammalian HEK293t cells. The
      single N1584T mutant also retained its functional integrity and became
      exceptionally resistant to 5 uM BTX, aside from a small residual BTX effect.
      Single and combination mutants with the other four S6 residues (S429A, I433V,
      A445D, and V1583I) all remained highly BTX sensitive. These findings, along with
      diverse BTX phenotypes of N1584K/A/D/T mutant channels, led us to conclude that
      the conserved N1584 residue is indispensable for BTX actions, probably
      functioning as an integral part of the BTX receptor. Thus, complete BTX
      autoresistance found in P. terribilis muscle Na+ channels could emerge primarily
      from a single AA substitution (asparagine->threonine) via a single nucleotide
      mutation (AAC->ACC).

PMID- 28874543
TI  - Structure of the Ebola virus envelope protein MPER/TM domain and its interaction
      with the fusion loop explains their fusion activity.
AB  - Ebolavirus (EBOV), an enveloped filamentous RNA virus causing severe hemorrhagic
      fever, enters cells by macropinocytosis and membrane fusion in a late endosomal
      compartment. Fusion is mediated by the EBOV envelope glycoprotein GP, which
      consists of subunits GP1 and GP2. GP1 binds to cellular receptors, including
      Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) protein, and GP2 is responsible for low pH-induced
      membrane fusion. Proteolytic cleavage and NPC1 binding at endosomal pH lead to
      conformational rearrangements of GP2 that include exposing the hydrophobic fusion
      loop (FL) for insertion into the cellular target membrane and forming a six-helix
      bundle structure. Although major portions of the GP2 structure have been solved
      in pre- and postfusion states and although current models place the transmembrane
      (TM) and FL domains of GP2 in close proximity at critical steps of membrane
      fusion, their structures in membrane environments, and especially interactions
      between them, have not yet been characterized. Here, we present the structure of
      the membrane proximal external region (MPER) connected to the TM domain: i.e.,
      the missing parts of the EBOV GP2 structure. The structure, solved by solution
      NMR and EPR spectroscopy in membrane-mimetic environments, consists of a helix
      turn-helix architecture that is independent of pH. Moreover, the MPER region is
      shown to interact in the membrane interface with the previously determined
      structure of the EBOV FL through several critical aromatic residues. Mutation of
      aromatic and neighboring residues in both binding partners decreases fusion and
      viral entry, highlighting the functional importance of the MPER/TM-FL interaction
      in EBOV entry and fusion.

PMID- 28874545
TI  - Increasing the breadth and potency of response to the seasonal influenza virus
      vaccine by immune complex immunization.
AB  - The main barrier to reduction of morbidity caused by influenza is the absence of
      a vaccine that elicits broad protection against different virus strains. Studies
      in preclinical models of influenza virus infections have shown that antibodies
      alone are sufficient to provide broad protection against divergent virus strains
      in vivo. Here, we address the challenge of identifying an immunogen that can
      elicit potent, broadly protective, antiinfluenza antibodies by demonstrating that
      immune complexes composed of sialylated antihemagglutinin antibodies and seasonal
      inactivated flu vaccine (TIV) can elicit broadly protective antihemagglutinin
      antibodies. Further, we found that an Fc-modified, bispecific monoclonal antibody
      against conserved epitopes of the hemagglutinin can be combined with TIV to
      elicit broad protection, thus setting the stage for a universal influenza virus
      vaccine.

PMID- 28874547
TI  - Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the
      landscape scale.
AB  - Experiments have shown positive biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF)
      relationships in small plots with model communities established from species
      pools typically comprising few dozen species. Whether patterns found can be
      extrapolated to complex, nonexperimental, real-world landscapes that provide
      ecosystem services to humans remains unclear. Here, we combine species
      inventories from a large-scale network of 447 1-km2 plots with remotely sensed
      indices of primary productivity (years 2000-2015). We show that landscape-scale
      productivity and its temporal stability increase with the diversity of plants and
      other taxa. Effects of biodiversity indicators on productivity were comparable in
      size to effects of other important drivers related to climate, topography, and
      land cover. These effects occurred in plots that integrated different ecosystem
      types (i.e., metaecosystems) and were consistent over vast environmental and
      altitudinal gradients. The BEF relations we report are as strong or even exceed
      the ones found in small-scale experiments, despite different community assembly
      processes and a species pool comprising nearly 2,000 vascular plant species.
      Growing season length increased progressively over the observation period, and
      this shift was accelerated in more diverse plots, suggesting that a large species
      pool is important for adaption to climate change. Our study further implies that
      abiotic global-change drivers may mediate ecosystem functioning through
      biodiversity changes.

PMID- 28874546
TI  - Combined circulating tumor DNA and protein biomarker-based liquid biopsy for the
      earlier detection of pancreatic cancers.
AB  - The earlier diagnosis of cancer is one of the keys to reducing cancer deaths in
      the future. Here we describe our efforts to develop a noninvasive blood test for
      the detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. We combined blood tests for
      KRAS gene mutations with carefully thresholded protein biomarkers to determine
      whether the combination of these markers was superior to any single marker. The
      cohort tested included 221 patients with resectable pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinomas and 182 control patients without known cancer. KRAS mutations
      were detected in the plasma of 66 patients (30%), and every mutation found in the
      plasma was identical to that subsequently found in the patient's primary tumor
      (100% concordance). The use of KRAS in conjunction with four thresholded protein
      biomarkers increased the sensitivity to 64%. Only one of the 182 plasma samples
      from the control cohort was positive for any of the DNA or protein biomarkers
      (99.5% specificity). This combinatorial approach may prove useful for the earlier
      detection of many cancer types.

PMID- 28874548
TI  - Subnational mobility and consumption-based environmental accounting of US corn in
      animal protein and ethanol supply chains.
AB  - Corn production, and its associated inputs, is a relatively large source of
      greenhouse gas emissions and uses significant amounts of water and land, thus
      contributing to climate change, fossil fuel depletion, local air pollutants, and
      local water scarcity. As large consumers of this corn, corporations in the
      ethanol and animal protein industries are increasingly assessing and reporting
      sustainability impacts across their supply chains to identify, prioritize, and
      communicate sustainability risks and opportunities material to their operations.
      In doing so, many have discovered that the direct impacts of their owned
      operations are dwarfed by those upstream in the supply chain, requiring
      transparency and knowledge about environmental impacts along the supply chains.
      Life cycle assessments (LCAs) have been used to identify hotspots of
      environmental impacts at national levels, yet these provide little subnational
      information necessary for guiding firms' specific supply networks. In this paper,
      our Food System Supply-Chain Sustainability (FoodS3) model connects spatial, firm
      specific demand of corn purchasers with upstream corn production in the United
      States through a cost minimization transport model. This provides a means to link
      county-level corn production in the United States to firm-specific demand
      locations associated with downstream processing facilities. Our model
      substantially improves current LCA assessment efforts that are confined to broad
      national or state level impacts. In drilling down to subnational levels of
      environmental impacts that occur over heterogeneous areas and aggregating these
      landscape impacts by specific supply networks, targeted opportunities for
      improvements to the sustainability performance of supply chains are identified.

PMID- 28874549
TI  - Molecular basis of mammalian transmissibility of avian H1N1 influenza viruses and
      their pandemic potential.
AB  - North American wild birds are an important reservoir of influenza A viruses, yet
      the potential of viruses in this reservoir to transmit and cause disease in
      mammals is not well understood. Our surveillance of avian influenza viruses
      (AIVs) at Delaware Bay, USA, revealed a group of similar H1N1 AIVs isolated in
      2009, some of which were airborne-transmissible in the ferret model without prior
      adaptation. Comparison of the genomes of these viruses revealed genetic markers
      of airborne transmissibility in the Polymerase Basic 2 (PB2), PB1, PB1-F2,
      Polymerase Acidic-X (PA-X), Nonstructural Protein 1 (NS1), and Nuclear Export
      Protein (NEP) genes. We studied the role of NS1 in airborne transmission and
      found that NS1 mutants that were not airborne-transmissible caused limited tissue
      pathology in the upper respiratory tract (URT). Viral maturation was also
      delayed, evident as strong intranuclear staining and little virus at the mucosa.
      Our study of this naturally occurring constellation of genetic markers has
      provided insights into the poorly understood phenomenon of AIV airborne
      transmissibility by revealing a role for NS1 and characteristics of viral
      replication in the URT that were associated with airborne transmission. The
      transmissibility of these viruses further highlights the pandemic potential of
      AIVs in the wild bird reservoir and the need to maintain surveillance.

PMID- 28874551
TI  - Self-healing catalysis in water.
AB  - Principles for designing self-healing water-splitting catalysts are presented
      together with a formal kinetics model to account for the key chemical steps
      needed for self-healing. Self-healing may be realized if the catalysts are able
      to self-assemble at applied potentials less than that needed for catalyst
      turnover. Solution pH provides a convenient handle for controlling the potential
      of these two processes, as demonstrated for the cobalt phosphate (CoPi) water
      splitting catalyst. For Co2+ ion that appears in solution due to leaching from
      the catalyst during turnover, a quantitative description for the kinetics of the
      redeposition of the ion during the self-healing process has been derived. The
      model reveals that OER activity of CoPi occurs with negligible film dissolution
      in neutral pH for typical cell geometries and buffer concentrations.

PMID- 28874550
TI  - Prenatal neurogenesis induction therapy normalizes brain structure and function
      in Down syndrome mice.
AB  - Down syndrome (DS) caused by trisomy of chromosome 21 is the most common genetic
      cause of intellectual disability. Although the prenatal diagnosis of DS has
      become feasible, there are no therapies available for the rescue of DS-related
      neurocognitive impairment. A growth inducer newly identified in our screen of
      neural stem cells (NSCs) has potent inhibitory activity against dual-specificity
      tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) and was found to rescue
      proliferative deficits in Ts65Dn-derived neurospheres and human NSCs derived from
      individuals with DS. The oral administration of this compound, named ALGERNON
      (altered generation of neurons), restored NSC proliferation in murine models of
      DS and increased the number of newborn neurons. Moreover, administration of
      ALGERNON to pregnant dams rescued aberrant cortical formation in DS mouse embryos
      and prevented the development of abnormal behaviors in DS offspring. These data
      suggest that the neurogenic phenotype of DS can be prevented by ALGERNON prenatal
      therapy.

PMID- 28874553
TI  - QnAs with Pardis Sabeti.

PMID- 28874552
TI  - Global transcriptional regulatory network for Escherichia coli robustly connects
      gene expression to transcription factor activities.
AB  - Transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) have been studied intensely for >25 y.
      Yet, even for the Escherichia coli TRN-probably the best characterized TRN
      several questions remain. Here, we address three questions: (i) How complete is
      our knowledge of the E. coli TRN; (ii) how well can we predict gene expression
      using this TRN; and (iii) how robust is our understanding of the TRN? First, we
      reconstructed a high-confidence TRN (hiTRN) consisting of 147 transcription
      factors (TFs) regulating 1,538 transcription units (TUs) encoding 1,764 genes.
      The 3,797 high-confidence regulatory interactions were collected from published,
      validated chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) data and RegulonDB. For 21
      different TF knockouts, up to 63% of the differentially expressed genes in the
      hiTRN were traced to the knocked-out TF through regulatory cascades. Second, we
      trained supervised machine learning algorithms to predict the expression of 1,364
      TUs given TF activities using 441 samples. The algorithms accurately predicted
      condition-specific expression for 86% (1,174 of 1,364) of the TUs, while 193 TUs
      (14%) were predicted better than random TRNs. Third, we identified 10 regulatory
      modules whose definitions were robust against changes to the TRN or expression
      compendium. Using surrogate variable analysis, we also identified three unmodeled
      factors that systematically influenced gene expression. Our computational
      workflow comprehensively characterizes the predictive capabilities and systems
      level functions of an organism's TRN from disparate data types.

PMID- 28874554
TI  - Effects of thymic selection on T cell recognition of foreign and tumor antigenic
      peptides.
AB  - The advent of cancer immunotherapy has generated renewed hope for the treatment
      of many malignancies by introducing a number of novel strategies that exploit
      various properties of the immune system. These therapies are based on the idea
      that cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) directly recognize and respond to tumor
      associated neoantigens (TANs) in much the same way as they would to foreign
      peptides presented on cell surfaces. To date, however, nearly all attempts to
      optimize immunotherapeutic strategies have been empirical. Here, we develop a
      model of T cell selection based on the assumption of random interaction strengths
      between a self-peptide and the various T cell receptors. The model enables the
      analytical study of the effects of selection on the CTL recognition of TANs and
      completely foreign peptides and can estimate the number of CTLs that can detect
      donor-matched transplants. We show that negative selection thresholds chosen to
      reflect experimentally observed thymic survival rates result in near-optimal
      production of T cells that are capable of surviving selection and recognizing
      foreign antigen. These analytical results are confirmed by simulation.

PMID- 28874555
TI  - A trans-acting leader RNA from a Salmonella virulence gene.
AB  - Bacteria use flagella to move toward nutrients, find its host, or retract from
      toxic substances. Because bacterial flagellum is one of the ligands that activate
      the host innate immune system, its synthesis should be tightly regulated during
      host infection, which is largely unknown. Here, we report that a bacterial leader
      mRNA from the mgtCBR virulence operon in the intracellular pathogen Salmonella
      enterica serovar Typhimurium binds to the fljB coding region of mRNAs in the
      fljBA operon encoding the FljB phase 2 flagellin, a main component of bacterial
      flagella and the FljA repressor for the FliC phase 1 flagellin, and degrades
      fljBA mRNAs in an RNase E-dependent fashion during infection. A nucleotide
      substitution of the fljB flagellin gene that prevents the mgtC leader RNA
      mediated down-regulation increases the fljB-encoded flagellin synthesis, leading
      to a hypermotile phenotype inside macrophages. Moreover, the fljB nucleotide
      substitution renders Salmonella hypervirulent, indicating that FljB-based
      motility must be compromised in the phagosomal compartment where Salmonella
      resides. This suggests that this pathogen promotes pathogenicity by producing a
      virulence protein and limits locomotion by a trans-acting leader RNA from the
      same virulence gene during infection.

PMID- 28874556
TI  - RPE65 has an additional function as the lutein to meso-zeaxanthin isomerase in
      the vertebrate eye.
AB  - Carotenoids are plant-derived pigment molecules that vertebrates cannot
      synthesize de novo that protect the fovea of the primate retina from oxidative
      stress and light damage. meso-Zeaxanthin is an ocular-specific carotenoid for
      which there are no common dietary sources. It is one of the three major
      carotenoids present at the foveal center, but the mechanism by which it is
      produced in the eye is unknown. An isomerase enzyme is thought to be responsible
      for the transformation of lutein to meso-zeaxanthin by a double-bond shift
      mechanism, but its identity has been elusive. We previously found that meso
      zeaxanthin is produced in a developmentally regulated manner in chicken embryonic
      retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid in the absence of light. In the present
      study, we show that RPE65, the isomerohydrolase enzyme of the vertebrate visual
      cycle that catalyzes the isomerization of all-trans-retinyl esters to 11-cis
      retinol, is also the isomerase enzyme responsible for the production of meso
      zeaxanthin in vertebrates. Its RNA is up-regulated 23-fold at the time of meso
      zeaxanthin production during chicken eye development, and we present evidence
      that overexpression of either chicken or human RPE65 in cell culture leads to the
      production of meso-zeaxanthin from lutein. Pharmacologic inhibition of RPE65
      function resulted in significant inhibition of meso-zeaxanthin biosynthesis
      during chicken eye development. Structural docking experiments revealed that the
      epsilon ring of lutein fits into the active site of RPE65 close to the nonheme
      iron center. This report describes a previously unrecognized additional activity
      of RPE65 in ocular carotenoid metabolism.

PMID- 28874557
TI  - Mesoscale martensitic transformation in single crystals of topological defects.
AB  - Liquid-crystal blue phases (BPs) are highly ordered at two levels. Molecules
      exhibit orientational order at nanometer length scales, while chirality leads to
      ordered arrays of double-twisted cylinders over micrometer scales. Past studies
      of polycrystalline BPs were challenged by the existence of grain boundaries
      between randomly oriented crystalline nanodomains. Here, the nucleation of BPs is
      controlled with precision by relying on chemically nanopatterned surfaces,
      leading to macroscopic single-crystal BP specimens where the dynamics of
      mesocrystal formation can be directly observed. Theory and experiments show that
      transitions between two BPs having a different network structure proceed through
      local reorganization of the crystalline array, without diffusion of the double
      twisted cylinders. In solid crystals, martensitic transformations between crystal
      structures involve the concerted motion of a few atoms, without diffusion. The
      transformation between BPs, where crystal features arise in the submicron regime,
      is found to be martensitic in nature when one considers the collective behavior
      of the double-twist cylinders. Single-crystal BPs are shown to offer fertile
      grounds for the study of directed crystal nucleation and the controlled growth of
      soft matter.

PMID- 28874559
TI  - Correction for KonDo et al., Toll ligand Spatzle3 controls melanization in the
      stripe pattern formation in caterpillars.

PMID- 28874558
TI  - Glacier shrinkage driving global changes in downstream systems.
AB  - Glaciers cover ~10% of the Earth's land surface, but they are shrinking rapidly
      across most parts of the world, leading to cascading impacts on downstream
      systems. Glaciers impart unique footprints on river flow at times when other
      water sources are low. Changes in river hydrology and morphology caused by
      climate-induced glacier loss are projected to be the greatest of any hydrological
      system, with major implications for riverine and near-shore marine environments.
      Here, we synthesize current evidence of how glacier shrinkage will alter
      hydrological regimes, sediment transport, and biogeochemical and contaminant
      fluxes from rivers to oceans. This will profoundly influence the natural
      environment, including many facets of biodiversity, and the ecosystem services
      that glacier-fed rivers provide to humans, particularly provision of water for
      agriculture, hydropower, and consumption. We conclude that human society must
      plan adaptation and mitigation measures for the full breadth of impacts in all
      affected regions caused by glacier shrinkage.

PMID- 28874560
TI  - Ultrafast fluorescent decay induced by metal-mediated dipole-dipole interaction
      in two-dimensional molecular aggregates.
AB  - Two-dimensional molecular aggregate (2DMA), a thin sheet of strongly interacting
      dipole molecules self-assembled at close distance on an ordered lattice, is a
      fascinating fluorescent material. It is distinctively different from the
      conventional (single or colloidal) dye molecules and quantum dots. In this paper,
      we verify that when a 2DMA is placed at a nanometric distance from a metallic
      substrate, the strong and coherent interaction between the dipoles inside the
      2DMA dominates its fluorescent decay at a picosecond timescale. Our streak-camera
      lifetime measurement and interacting lattice-dipole calculation reveal that the
      metal-mediated dipole-dipole interaction shortens the fluorescent lifetime to
      about one-half and increases the energy dissipation rate by 10 times that
      expected from the noninteracting single-dipole picture. Our finding can enrich
      our understanding of nanoscale energy transfer in molecular excitonic systems and
      may designate a unique direction for developing fast and efficient optoelectronic
      devices.

PMID- 28874561
TI  - Localized CD47 blockade enhances immunotherapy for murine melanoma.
AB  - CD47 is an antiphagocytic ligand broadly expressed on normal and malignant
      tissues that delivers an inhibitory signal through the receptor signal regulatory
      protein alpha (SIRPalpha). Inhibitors of the CD47-SIRPalpha interaction improve
      antitumor antibody responses by enhancing antibody-dependent cellular
      phagocytosis (ADCP) in xenograft models. Endogenous expression of CD47 on a
      variety of cell types, including erythrocytes, creates a formidable antigen sink
      that may limit the efficacy of CD47-targeting therapies. We generated a nanobody,
      A4, that blocks the CD47-SIRPalpha interaction. A4 synergizes with anti-PD-L1,
      but not anti-CTLA4, therapy in the syngeneic B16F10 melanoma model. Neither
      increased dosing nor half-life extension by fusion of A4 to IgG2a Fc (A4Fc)
      overcame the issue of an antigen sink or, in the case of A4Fc, systemic toxicity.
      Generation of a B16F10 cell line that secretes the A4 nanobody showed that an
      enhanced response to several immune therapies requires near-complete blockade of
      CD47 in the tumor microenvironment. Thus, strategies to localize CD47 blockade to
      tumors may be particularly valuable for immune therapy.

PMID- 28874562
TI  - Stability of equidimensional pseudo-single-domain magnetite over billion-year
      timescales.
AB  - Interpretations of paleomagnetic observations assume that naturally occurring
      magnetic particles can retain their primary magnetic recording over billions of
      years. The ability to retain a magnetic recording is inferred from laboratory
      measurements, where heating causes demagnetization on the order of seconds. The
      theoretical basis for this inference comes from previous models that assume only
      the existence of small, uniformly magnetized particles, whereas the carriers of
      paleomagnetic signals in rocks are usually larger, nonuniformly magnetized
      particles, for which there is no empirically complete, thermally activated model.
      This study has developed a thermally activated numerical micromagnetic model that
      can quantitatively determine the energy barriers between stable states in
      nonuniform magnetic particles on geological timescales. We examine in detail the
      thermal stability characteristics of equidimensional cuboctahedral magnetite and
      find that, contrary to previously published theories, such nonuniformly
      magnetized particles provide greater magnetic stability than their uniformly
      magnetized counterparts. Hence, nonuniformly magnetized grains, which are
      commonly the main remanence carrier in meteorites and rocks, can record and
      retain high-fidelity magnetic recordings over billions of years.

PMID- 28874563
TI  - Epigenetic control via allosteric regulation of mammalian protein arginine
      methyltransferases.
AB  - Arginine methylation on histones is a central player in epigenetics and in gene
      activation and repression. Protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) activity has
      been implicated in stem cell pluripotency, cancer metastasis, and tumorigenesis.
      The expression of one of the nine mammalian PRMTs, PRMT5, affects the levels of
      symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) at Arg-3 on histone H4, leading to the
      repression of genes which are related to disease progression in lymphoma and
      leukemia. Another PRMT, PRMT7, also affects SDMA levels at the same site despite
      its unique monomethylating activity and the lack of any evidence for PRMT7
      catalyzed histone H4 Arg-3 methylation. We present evidence that PRMT7-mediated
      monomethylation of histone H4 Arg-17 regulates PRMT5 activity at Arg-3 in the
      same protein. We analyzed the kinetics of PRMT5 over a wide range of substrate
      concentrations. Significantly, we discovered that PRMT5 displays positive
      cooperativity in vitro, suggesting that this enzyme may be allosterically
      regulated in vivo as well. Most interestingly, monomethylation at Arg-17 in
      histone H4 not only raised the general activity of PRMT5 with this substrate, but
      also ameliorated the low activity of PRMT5 at low substrate concentrations. These
      kinetic studies suggest a biochemical explanation for the interplay between PRMT5
      and PRMT7-mediated methylation of the same substrate at different residues and
      also suggest a general model for regulation of PRMTs. Elucidating the exact
      relationship between these two enzymes when they methylate two distinct sites of
      the same substrate may aid in developing therapeutics aimed at reducing PRMT5/7
      activity in cancer and other diseases.

PMID- 28874564
TI  - Endodermal germ-layer formation through active actin-driven migration triggered
      by N-cadherin.
AB  - Germ-layer formation during gastrulation is both a fundamental step of
      development and a paradigm for tissue formation and remodeling. However, the
      cellular and molecular basis of germ-layer segregation is poorly understood,
      mostly because of the lack of direct in vivo observations. We used mosaic
      zebrafish embryos to investigate the formation of the endoderm. High-resolution
      live imaging and functional analyses revealed that endodermal cells reach their
      characteristic innermost position through an active, oriented, and actin-based
      migration dependent on Rac1, which contrasts with the previously proposed
      differential adhesion cell sorting. Rather than being attracted to their
      destination, the yolk syncytial layer, cells appear to migrate away from their
      neighbors. This migration depends on N-cadherin that, when imposed in ectodermal
      cells, is sufficient to trigger their internalization without affecting their
      fate. Overall, these results lead to a model of germ-layer formation in which,
      upon N-cadherin expression, endodermal cells actively migrate away from their
      epiblastic neighbors to reach their internal position, revealing cell-contact
      avoidance as an unexplored mechanism driving germ-layer formation.

PMID- 28874565
TI  - Virulence protein VirD5 of Agrobacterium tumefaciens binds to kinetochores in
      host cells via an interaction with Spt4.
AB  - The bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes crown gall tumor formation in
      plants. During infection the bacteria translocate an oncogenic piece of DNA
      (transferred DNA, T-DNA) into plant cells at the infection site. A number of
      virulence proteins are cotransported into host cells concomitantly with the T-DNA
      to effectuate transformation. Using yeast as a model host, we find that one of
      these proteins, VirD5, localizes to the centromeres/kinetochores in the nucleus
      of the host cells by its interaction with the conserved protein Spt4. VirD5
      promotes chromosomal instability as seen by the high-frequency loss of a
      minichromosome in yeast. By using both yeast and plant cells with a chromosome
      that was specifically marked by a lacO repeat, chromosome segregation errors and
      the appearance of aneuploid cells due to the presence of VirD5 could be
      visualized in vivo. Thus, VirD5 is a prokaryotic virulence protein that
      interferes with mitosis.

PMID- 28874567
TI  - Correction for Schuth et al., Effective intermediate-spin iron in O2-transporting
      heme proteins.

PMID- 28874566
TI  - Cellular responses to human cytomegalovirus infection: Induction of a mesenchymal
      to-epithelial transition (MET) phenotype.
AB  - Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the prototypical human beta-herpes virus. Here we
      perform a systems analysis of the HCMV host-cell transcriptome, using gene set
      enrichment analysis (GSEA) as an engine to globally map the host-pathogen
      interaction across two cell types. Our analysis identified several previously
      unknown signatures of infection, such as induction of potassium channels and
      amino acid transporters, derepression of genes marked with histone H3 lysine 27
      trimethylation (H3K27me3), and inhibition of genes related to epithelial-to
      mesenchymal transition (EMT). The repression of EMT genes was dependent on early
      viral gene expression and correlated with induction E-cadherin (CDH1) and
      mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) genes. Infection of transformed breast
      carcinoma and glioma stem cells similarly inhibited EMT and induced MET, arguing
      that HCMV induces an epithelium-like cellular environment during infection.

PMID- 28874568
TI  - Proteoliposome-based full-length ZnT8 self-antigen for type 1 diabetes diagnosis
      on a plasmonic platform.
AB  - Identified as a major biomarker for type 1 diabetes (T1D) diagnosis, zinc
      transporter 8 autoantibody (ZnT8A) has shown promise for staging disease risk and
      disease diagnosis. However, existing assays for ZnT8 autoantibody (ZnT8A) are
      limited to detection by soluble domains of ZnT8, owing to difficulties in
      maintaining proper folding of a full-length ZnT8 protein outside its native
      membrane environment. Through a combined bioengineering and nanotechnology
      approach, we have developed a proteoliposome-based full-length ZnT8 self-antigen
      (full-length ZnT8 proteoliposomes; PLR-ZnT8) for efficient detection of ZnT8A on
      a plasmonic gold chip (pGOLD). The protective lipid matrix of proteoliposomes
      improved the proper folding and structural stability of full-length ZnT8, helping
      PLR-ZnT8 immobilized on pGOLD (PLR-ZnT8/pGOLD) achieve high-affinity capture of
      ZnT8A from T1D sera. Our PLR-ZnT8/pGOLD exhibited efficient ZnT8A detection for
      T1D diagnosis with ~76% sensitivity and ~97% specificity (n = 307), superior to
      assays based on detergent-solubilized full-length ZnT8 and the C-terminal domain
      of ZnT8. Multiplexed assays using pGOLD were also developed for simultaneous
      detection of ZnT8A, islet antigen 2 autoantibody, and glutamic acid decarboxylase
      autoantibody for diagnosing T1D.

PMID- 28874569
TI  - Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex GABA deficit in older adults with sleep-disordered
      breathing.
AB  - Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a common disorder in aging that is associated
      with cognitive decline, including significant executive dysfunction, for which
      the neurobiological underpinnings remain poorly understood. Using proton magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS), this study assessed whether dysregulation of the
      homeostatic balance of the major inhibitory and excitatory amino acid
      neurotransmitter systems of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate,
      respectively, play a role in SDB. Levels of GABA and those of the combined
      resonances of glutamate and glutamine (Glx), were measured by 1H MRS in the left
      dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-DLPFC) and bilateral hippocampal regions of 19
      older adults (age +/- SD: 66.1 +/- 1.9 years) with moderate to severe SDB,
      defined as having an Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) greater than 15 as assessed by
      polysomnography, and in 14 older adults (age +/- SD: 62.3 +/- 1.3 years) without
      SDB (AHI < 5). In subjects with SDB, levels of l-DLPFC GABA, but not Glx, were
      significantly lower than in control subjects (P < 0.0002). Additionally, there
      was a negative correlation between l-DLPFC GABA levels, but not Glx, and SDB
      severity by AHI (r = -0.68, P < 0.0001), and a positive correlation between l
      DLPFC GABA levels, but not Glx, and minimal oxygen saturation during sleep (r =
      0.62, P = 0.0005). By contrast, no group differences or oxygenation associations
      were found for levels of GABA or Glx in right or left hippocampal region. These
      findings are interpreted in terms of a pathophysiological model of SDB in which
      hypoxia-mediated inhibitory neurotransmission deficit in DLPFC could lead to
      hyperexcitability and, potentially neuronal dysfunction and cognitive decline.

PMID- 28874570
TI  - Loquacious-PD facilitates Drosophila Dicer-2 cleavage through interactions with
      the helicase domain and dsRNA.
AB  - Loquacious-PD (Loqs-PD) is required for biogenesis of many endogenous siRNAs in
      Drosophila In vitro, Loqs-PD enhances the rate of dsRNA cleavage by Dicer-2 and
      also enables processing of substrates normally refractory to cleavage. Using
      purified components, and Loqs-PD truncations, we provide a mechanistic basis for
      Loqs-PD functions. Our studies indicate that the 22 amino acids at the C terminus
      of Loqs-PD, including an FDF-like motif, directly interact with the Hel2
      subdomain of Dicer-2's helicase domain. This interaction is RNA-independent, but
      we find that modulation of Dicer-2 cleavage also requires dsRNA binding by Loqs
      PD. Furthermore, while the first dsRNA-binding motif of Loqs-PD is dispensable
      for enhancing cleavage of optimal substrates, it is essential for enhancing
      cleavage of suboptimal substrates. Finally, our studies define a previously
      unrecognized Dicer interaction interface and suggest that Loqs-PD is well
      positioned to recruit substrates into the helicase domain of Dicer-2.

PMID- 28874571
TI  - Osmotaxis in Escherichia coli through changes in motor speed.
AB  - Bacterial motility, and in particular repulsion or attraction toward specific
      chemicals, has been a subject of investigation for over 100 years, resulting in
      detailed understanding of bacterial chemotaxis and the corresponding sensory
      network in many bacterial species. For Escherichia coli most of the current
      understanding comes from the experiments with low levels of chemotactically
      active ligands. However, chemotactically inactive chemical species at
      concentrations found in the human gastrointestinal tract produce significant
      changes in E. coli's osmotic pressure and have been shown to lead to taxis. To
      understand how these nonspecific physical signals influence motility, we look at
      the response of individual bacterial flagellar motors under stepwise changes in
      external osmolarity. We combine these measurements with a population swimming
      assay under the same conditions. Unlike for chemotactic response, a long-term
      increase in swimming/motor speeds is observed, and in the motor rotational bias,
      both of which scale with the osmotic shock magnitude. We discuss how the speed
      changes we observe can lead to steady-state bacterial accumulation.

PMID- 28874572
TI  - Dendritic space-filling requires a neuronal type-specific extracellular
      permissive signal in Drosophila.
AB  - Neurons sometimes completely fill available space in their receptive fields with
      evenly spaced dendrites to uniformly sample sensory or synaptic information. The
      mechanisms that enable neurons to sense and innervate all space in their target
      tissues are poorly understood. Using Drosophila somatosensory neurons as a model,
      we show that heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) Dally and Syndecan on the
      surface of epidermal cells act as local permissive signals for the dendritic
      growth and maintenance of space-filling nociceptive C4da neurons, allowing them
      to innervate the entire skin. Using long-term time-lapse imaging with intact
      Drosophila larvae, we found that dendrites grow into HSPG-deficient areas but
      fail to stay there. HSPGs are necessary to stabilize microtubules in newly formed
      high-order dendrites. In contrast to C4da neurons, non-space-filling sensory
      neurons that develop in the same microenvironment do not rely on HSPGs for their
      dendritic growth. Furthermore, HSPGs do not act by transporting extracellular
      diffusible ligands or require leukocyte antigen-related (Lar), a receptor protein
      tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP) and the only known Drosophila HSPG receptor, for
      promoting dendritic growth of space-filling neurons. Interestingly, another RPTP,
      Ptp69D, promotes dendritic growth of C4da neurons in parallel to HSPGs. Together,
      our data reveal an HSPG-dependent pathway that specifically allows dendrites of
      space-filling neurons to innervate all target tissues in Drosophila.

PMID- 28874573
TI  - Redefining community based on place attachment in a connected world.
AB  - The concept of community is often used in environmental policy to foster
      environmental stewardship and public participation, crucial prerequisites of
      effective management. However, prevailing conceptualizations of community based
      on residential location or resource use are limited with respect to their utility
      as surrogates for communities of shared environment-related interests, and
      because of the localist perspective they entail. Thus, addressing contemporary
      sustainability challenges, which tend to involve transnational social and
      environmental interactions, urgently requires additional approaches to
      conceptualizing community that are compatible with current globalization. We
      propose a framing for redefining community based on place attachment (i.e., the
      bonds people form with places) in the context of Australia's Great Barrier Reef,
      a World Heritage Area threatened by drivers requiring management and political
      action at scales beyond the local. Using data on place attachment from 5,403
      respondents residing locally, nationally, and internationally, we identified four
      communities that each shared a type of attachment to the reef and that spanned
      conventional location and use communities. We suggest that as human-environment
      interactions change with increasing mobility (both corporeal and that mediated by
      communication and information technology), new types of people-place relations
      that transcend geographic and social boundaries and do not require ongoing direct
      experience to form are emerging. We propose that adopting a place attachment
      framing to community provides a means to capture the neglected nonmaterial bonds
      people form with the environment, and could be leveraged to foster transnational
      environmental stewardship, critical to advancing global sustainability in our
      increasingly connected world.

PMID- 28874574
TI  - Effect of cell cycle arrest on intermediate metabolism in the marine diatom
      Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
AB  - The inhibitor NU 2058 [6-(cyclohexylmethoxy)-9H-purin-2-amine] leads to G1-phase
      cell cycle arrest in the marine diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, by binding to
      two cyclin-dependent kinases, CDKA1 and CDKA2. NU 2058 has no effect on
      photosynthetic attributes, such as Fv/Fm, chlorophyll a/cell, levels of D2 PSII
      subunits, or RbcL; however, cell cycle arrest leads to unbalanced growth whereby
      photosynthetic products that can no longer be used for cell division are
      redirected toward carbohydrates and triacylglycerols (TAGs). Arrested cells up
      regulate most genes involved in fatty acid synthesis, including acetyl-CoA
      carboxylase, and three out of five putative type II diglyceride acyltransferases
      (DGATs), the enzymes that catalyze TAG production. Correlation of transcriptomes
      in arrested cells with a flux balance model for P. tricornutum predicts that
      reactions in the mitochondrion that supply glycerate may support TAG synthesis.
      Our results reveal that sources of intermediate metabolites and macromolecular
      sinks are tightly coupled to the cell cycle in a marine diatom, and that
      arresting cells in the G1 phase leads to remodeling of intermediate metabolism
      and unbalanced growth.

PMID- 28874576
TI  - Eighty years of food-web response to interannual variation in discharge recorded
      in river diatom frustules from an ocean sediment core.
AB  - Little is known about the importance of food-web processes as controls of river
      primary production due to the paucity of both long-term studies and of
      depositional environments which would allow retrospective fossil analysis. To
      investigate how freshwater algal production in the Eel River, northern
      California, varied over eight decades, we quantified siliceous shells (frustules)
      of freshwater diatoms from a well-dated undisturbed sediment core in a nearshore
      marine environment. Abundances of freshwater diatom frustules exported to Eel
      Canyon sediment from 1988 to 2001 were positively correlated with annual biomass
      of Cladophora surveyed over these years in upper portions of the Eel basin. Over
      28 years of contemporary field research, peak algal biomass was generally higher
      in summers following bankfull, bed-scouring winter floods. Field surveys and
      experiments suggested that bed-mobilizing floods scour away overwintering
      grazers, releasing algae from spring and early summer grazing. During wet years,
      growth conditions for algae could also be enhanced by increased nutrient loading
      from the watershed, or by sustained summer base flows. Total annual rainfall and
      frustule densities in laminae over a longer 83-year record were weakly and
      negatively correlated, however, suggesting that positive effects of floods on
      annual algal production were primarily mediated by "top-down" (consumer release)
      rather than "bottom-up" (growth promoting) controls.

PMID- 28874575
TI  - Injectable biomimetic liquid crystalline scaffolds enhance muscle stem cell
      transplantation.
AB  - Muscle stem cells are a potent cell population dedicated to efficacious skeletal
      muscle regeneration, but their therapeutic utility is currently limited by mode
      of delivery. We developed a cell delivery strategy based on a supramolecular
      liquid crystal formed by peptide amphiphiles (PAs) that encapsulates cells and
      growth factors within a muscle-like unidirectionally ordered environment of
      nanofibers. The stiffness of the PA scaffolds, dependent on amino acid sequence,
      was found to determine the macroscopic degree of cell alignment templated by the
      nanofibers in vitro. Furthermore, these PA scaffolds support myogenic progenitor
      cell survival and proliferation and they can be optimized to induce cell
      differentiation and maturation. We engineered an in vivo delivery system to
      assemble scaffolds by injection of a PA solution that enabled coalignment of
      scaffold nanofibers with endogenous myofibers. These scaffolds locally retained
      growth factors, displayed degradation rates matching the time course of muscle
      tissue regeneration, and markedly enhanced the engraftment of muscle stem cells
      in injured and noninjured muscles in mice.

PMID- 28874577
TI  - Stachel-independent modulation of GPR56/ADGRG1 signaling by synthetic ligands
      directed to its extracellular region.
AB  - Adhesion G protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) play critical roles in diverse
      biological processes, including neurodevelopment and cancer progression. aGPCRs
      are characterized by large and diverse extracellular regions (ECRs) that are
      autoproteolytically cleaved from their membrane-embedded signaling domains.
      Although ECRs regulate receptor function, it is not clear whether ECRs play a
      direct regulatory role in G-protein signaling or simply serve as a protective cap
      for the activating "Stachel" sequence. Here, we present a mechanistic analysis of
      ECR-mediated regulation of GPR56/ADGRG1, an aGPCR with two domains [pentraxin and
      laminin/neurexin/sex hormonebinding globulin-like (PLL) and G protein-coupled
      receptor autoproteolysis-inducing (GAIN)] in its ECR. We generated a panel of
      high-affinity monobodies directed to each of these domains, from which we
      identified activators and inhibitors of GPR56-mediated signaling. Surprisingly,
      these synthetic ligands modulated signaling of a GPR56 mutant defective in
      autoproteolysis and hence, in Stachel peptide exposure. These results provide
      compelling support for a ligand-induced and ECR-mediated mechanism that regulates
      aGPCR signaling in a transient and reversible manner, which occurs in addition to
      the Stachel-mediated activation.

PMID- 28874578
TI  - Lawful relation between perceptual bias and discriminability.
AB  - Perception of a stimulus can be characterized by two fundamental psychophysical
      measures: how well the stimulus can be discriminated from similar ones
      (discrimination threshold) and how strongly the perceived stimulus value deviates
      on average from the true stimulus value (perceptual bias). We demonstrate that
      perceptual bias and discriminability, as functions of the stimulus value, follow
      a surprisingly simple mathematical relation. The relation, which is derived from
      a theory combining optimal encoding and decoding, is well supported by a wide
      range of reported psychophysical data including perceptual changes induced by
      contextual modulation. The large empirical support indicates that the proposed
      relation may represent a psychophysical law in human perception. Our results
      imply that the computational processes of sensory encoding and perceptual
      decoding are matched and optimized based on identical assumptions about the
      statistical structure of the sensory environment.

PMID- 28874579
TI  - Nitric oxide blocks the development of the human parasite Schistosoma japonicum.
AB  - Human schistosomiasis, caused by Schistosoma species, is a major public health
      problem affecting more than 700 million people in 78 countries, with over 40
      mammalian host reservoir species complicating the transmission ecosystem. The
      primary cause of morbidity is considered to be granulomas induced by fertilized
      eggs of schistosomes in the liver and intestines. Some host species, like rats
      (Rattus norvegicus), are naturally intolerant to Schistosoma japonicum infection,
      and do not produce granulomas or pose a threat to transmission, while others,
      like mice and hamsters, are highly susceptible. The reasons behind these
      differences are still a mystery. Using inducible nitric oxide synthase knockout
      (iNOS-/-) Sprague-Dawley rats, we found that inherent high expression levels of
      iNOS in wild-type (WT) rats play an important role in blocking growth,
      reproductive organ formation, and egg development in S. japonicum, resulting in
      production of nonfertilized eggs. Granuloma formation, induced by fertilized eggs
      in the liver, was considerably exacerbated in the iNOS-/- rats compared with the
      WT rats. This inhibition by nitric oxide acts by affecting mitochondrial
      respiration and energy production in the parasite. Our work not only elucidates
      the innate mechanism that blocks the development and production of fertilized
      eggs in S. japonicum but also offers insights into a better understanding of host
      parasite interactions and drug development strategies against schistosomiasis.

PMID- 28874580
TI  - Molecular mechanism of water reorientational slowing down in concentrated ionic
      solutions.
AB  - Water dynamics in concentrated ionic solutions plays an important role in a
      number of material and energy conversion processes such as the charge transfer at
      the electrolyte-electrode interface in aqueous rechargeable ion batteries. One
      long-standing puzzle is that all electrolytes, regardless of their "structure
      making/breaking" nature, make water rotate slower at high concentrations. To
      understand this effect, we present a theoretical simulation study of the
      reorientational motion of water molecules in different ionic solutions. Using an
      extended Ivanov model, water rotation is decomposed into contributions from large
      amplitude angular jumps and a slower frame motion which was studied in a coarse
      grained manner. Bearing a certain resemblance to water rotation near large
      biological molecules, the general deceleration is found to be largely due to the
      coupling of the slow, collective component of water rotation with the motion of
      large hydrated ion clusters ubiquitously existing in the concentrated ionic
      solutions. This finding is at variance with the intuitive expectation that the
      slowing down is caused by the change in fast, single-molecular water hydrogen
      bond switching adjacent to the ions.

PMID- 28874581
TI  - Discrete modes of social information processing predict individual behavior of
      fish in a group.
AB  - Individual computations and social interactions underlying collective behavior in
      groups of animals are of great ethological, behavioral, and theoretical interest.
      While complex individual behaviors have successfully been parsed into small
      dictionaries of stereotyped behavioral modes, studies of collective behavior
      largely ignored these findings; instead, their focus was on inferring single,
      mode-independent social interaction rules that reproduced macroscopic and often
      qualitative features of group behavior. Here, we bring these two approaches
      together to predict individual swimming patterns of adult zebrafish in a group.
      We show that fish alternate between an "active" mode, in which they are sensitive
      to the swimming patterns of conspecifics, and a "passive" mode, where they ignore
      them. Using a model that accounts for these two modes explicitly, we predict
      behaviors of individual fish with high accuracy, outperforming previous
      approaches that assumed a single continuous computation by individuals and simple
      metric or topological weighing of neighbors' behavior. At the group level,
      switching between active and passive modes is uncorrelated among fish, but
      correlated directional swimming behavior still emerges. Our quantitative approach
      for studying complex, multimodal individual behavior jointly with emergent group
      behavior is readily extensible to additional behavioral modes and their neural
      correlates as well as to other species.

PMID- 28874582
TI  - Beyond sixfold coordinated Si in SiO2 glass at ultrahigh pressures.
AB  - We investigated the structure of SiO2 glass up to 172 GPa using high-energy X-ray
      diffraction. The combination of a multichannel collimator with diamond anvil
      cells enabled the measurement of structural changes in silica glass with total X
      ray diffraction to previously unachievable pressures. We show that SiO2 first
      undergoes a change in Si-O coordination number from fourfold to sixfold between
      15 and 50 GPa, in agreement with previous investigations. Above 50 GPa, the
      estimated coordination number continuously increases from 6 to 6.8 at 172 GPa. Si
      O bond length shows first an increase due to the fourfold to sixfold coordination
      change and then a smaller linear decrease up to 172 GPa. We reconcile the changes
      in relation to the oxygen-packing fraction, showing that oxygen packing decreases
      at ultrahigh pressures to accommodate the higher than sixfold Si-O coordination.
      These results give experimental insight into the structural changes of silicate
      glasses as analogue materials for silicate melts at ultrahigh pressures.

PMID- 28874584
TI  - A classical view on nonclassical nucleation.
AB  - Understanding and controlling nucleation is important for many crystallization
      applications. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is often used as a model system to
      investigate nucleation mechanisms. Despite its great importance in geology,
      biology, and many industrial applications, CaCO3 nucleation is still a topic of
      intense discussion, with new pathways for its growth from ions in solution
      proposed in recent years. These new pathways include the so-called nonclassical
      nucleation mechanism via the assembly of thermodynamically stable prenucleation
      clusters, as well as the formation of a dense liquid precursor phase via liquid
      liquid phase separation. Here, we present results from a combined experimental
      and computational investigation on the precipitation of CaCO3 in dilute aqueous
      solutions. We propose that a dense liquid phase (containing 4-7 H2O per CaCO3
      unit) forms in supersaturated solutions through the association of ions and ion
      pairs without significant participation of larger ion clusters. This liquid acts
      as the precursor for the formation of solid CaCO3 in the form of vaterite, which
      grows via a net transfer of ions from solution according to z Ca2+ + z CO32- -> z
      CaCO3 The results show that all steps in this process can be explained according
      to classical concepts of crystal nucleation and growth, and that long-standing
      physical concepts of nucleation can describe multistep, multiphase growth
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28874583
TI  - Smad7 enables STAT3 activation and promotes pluripotency independent of TGF-beta
      signaling.
AB  - Smad7 is a negative feedback product of TGF-beta superfamily signaling and fine
      tunes a plethora of pleiotropic responses induced by TGF-beta ligands. However,
      its noncanonical functions independent of TGF-beta signaling remain to be
      elucidated. Here, we show that Smad7 activates signal transducers and activators
      of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling in maintaining mouse embryonic stem cell
      pluripotency in a manner independent of the TGF-beta receptors, yet dependent on
      the leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) coreceptor glycoprotein 130 (gp130). Smad7
      directly binds to the intracellular domain of gp130 and disrupts the SHP2-gp130
      or SOCS3-gp130 complex, thereby amplifying STAT3 activation. Consequently, Smad7
      facilitates LIF-mediated self-renewal of mouse ESCs and is also critical for
      induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming. This finding illustrates an
      uncovered role of the Smad7-STAT3 interplay in maintaining cell pluripotency and
      also implicates a mechanism involving Smad7 underlying cytokine-dependent
      regulation of cancer and inflammation.

PMID- 28874585
TI  - Active molecular iodine photochemistry in the Arctic.
AB  - During springtime, the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer undergoes frequent rapid
      depletions in ozone and gaseous elemental mercury due to reactions with halogen
      atoms, influencing atmospheric composition and pollutant fate. Although bromine
      chemistry has been shown to initiate ozone depletion events, and it has long been
      hypothesized that iodine chemistry may contribute, no previous measurements of
      molecular iodine (I2) have been reported in the Arctic. Iodine chemistry also
      contributes to atmospheric new particle formation and therefore cloud properties
      and radiative forcing. Here we present Arctic atmospheric I2 and snowpack iodide
      (I-) measurements, which were conducted near Utqiagvik, AK, in February 2014.
      Using chemical ionization mass spectrometry, I2 was observed in the atmosphere at
      mole ratios of 0.3-1.0 ppt, and in the snowpack interstitial air at mole ratios
      up to 22 ppt under natural sunlit conditions and up to 35 ppt when the snowpack
      surface was artificially irradiated, suggesting a photochemical production
      mechanism. Further, snow meltwater I- measurements showed enrichments of up to
      ~1,900 times above the seawater ratio of I-/Na+, consistent with iodine
      activation and recycling. Modeling shows that observed I2 levels are able to
      significantly increase ozone depletion rates, while also producing iodine
      monoxide (IO) at levels recently observed in the Arctic. These results emphasize
      the significance of iodine chemistry and the role of snowpack photochemistry in
      Arctic atmospheric composition, and imply that I2 is likely a dominant source of
      iodine atoms in the Arctic.

PMID- 28874586
TI  - Temporal binding function of dorsal CA1 is critical for declarative memory
      formation.
AB  - Temporal binding, the process that enables association between discontiguous
      stimuli in memory, and relational organization, a process that enables the
      flexibility of declarative memories, are both hippocampus-dependent and decline
      in aging. However, how these two processes are related in supporting declarative
      memory formation and how they are compromised in age-related memory loss remain
      hypothetical. We here identify a causal link between these two features of
      declarative memory: Temporal binding is a necessary condition for the relational
      organization of discontiguous events. We demonstrate that the formation of a
      relational memory is limited by the capability of temporal binding, which depends
      on dorsal (d)CA1 activity over time intervals and diminishes in aging.
      Conversely, relational representation is successful even in aged individuals when
      the demand on temporal binding is minimized, showing that relational/declarative
      memory per se is not impaired in aging. Thus, bridging temporal intervals by dCA1
      activity is a critical foundation of relational representation, and a
      deterioration of this mechanism is responsible for the age-associated memory
      impairment.

PMID- 28874587
TI  - Receptor-mediated chitin perception in legume roots is functionally separable
      from Nod factor perception.
AB  - The ability of root cells to distinguish mutualistic microbes from pathogens is
      crucial for plants that allow symbiotic microorganisms to infect and colonize
      their internal root tissues. Here we show that Lotus japonicus and Medicago
      truncatula possess very similar LysM pattern-recognition receptors, LjLYS6/MtLYK9
      and MtLYR4, enabling root cells to separate the perception of chitin oligomeric
      microbe-associated molecular patterns from the perception of lipochitin
      oligosaccharide by the LjNFR1/MtLYK3 and LjNFR5/MtNFP receptors triggering
      symbiosis. Inactivation of chitin-receptor genes in Ljlys6, Mtlyk9, and Mtlyr4
      mutants eliminates early reactive oxygen species responses and induction of
      defense-response genes in roots. Ljlys6, Mtlyk9, and Mtlyr4 mutants were also
      more susceptible to fungal and bacterial pathogens, while infection and
      colonization by rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was maintained.
      Biochemical binding studies with purified LjLYS6 ectodomains further showed that
      at least six GlcNAc moieties (CO6) are required for optimal binding efficiency.
      The 2.3-A crystal structure of the LjLYS6 ectodomain reveals three LysM
      betaalphaalphabeta motifs similar to other LysM proteins and a conserved chitin
      binding site. These results show that distinct receptor sets in legume roots
      respond to chitin and lipochitin oligosaccharides found in the heterogeneous
      mixture of chitinaceous compounds originating from soil microbes. This
      establishes a foundation for genetic and biochemical dissection of the perception
      and the downstream responses separating defense from symbiosis in the roots of
      the 80-90% of land plants able to develop rhizobial and/or mycorrhizal
      endosymbiosis.

PMID- 28874588
TI  - Investigation of the mechanism of the SpnF-catalyzed [4+2]-cycloaddition reaction
      in the biosynthesis of spinosyn A.
AB  - The Diels-Alder reaction is one of the most common methods to chemically
      synthesize a six-membered carbocycle. While it has long been speculated that the
      cyclohexene moiety found in many secondary metabolites is also introduced via
      similar chemistry, the enzyme SpnF involved in the biosynthesis of the
      insecticide spinosyn A in Saccharopolyspora spinosa is the first enzyme for which
      catalysis of an intramolecular [Formula: see text]-cycloaddition has been
      experimentally verified as its only known function. Since its discovery, a number
      of additional standalone [Formula: see text]-cyclases have been reported as
      potential Diels-Alderases; however, whether their catalytic cycles involve a
      concerted or stepwise cyclization mechanism has not been addressed
      experimentally. Here, we report direct experimental interrogation of the reaction
      coordinate for the [Formula: see text]-carbocyclase SpnF via the measurement of
      [Formula: see text]-secondary deuterium kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) at all
      sites of [Formula: see text] rehybridization for both the nonenzymatic and enzyme
      catalyzed cyclization of the SpnF substrate. The measured KIEs for the
      nonenzymatic reaction are consistent with previous computational results
      implicating an intermediary state between formation of the first and second
      carbon-carbon bonds. The KIEs measured for the enzymatic reaction suggest a
      similar mechanism of cyclization within the enzyme active site; however, there is
      evidence that conformational restriction of the substrate may play a role in
      catalysis.

PMID- 28874592
TI  - Your Genes: Getting the Best Fit.

PMID- 28874589
TI  - Dual role of mitochondria in producing melatonin and driving GPCR signaling to
      block cytochrome c release.
AB  - G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are classically characterized as cell-surface
      receptors transmitting extracellular signals into cells. Here we show that
      central components of a GPCR signaling system comprised of the melatonin type 1
      receptor (MT1), its associated G protein, and beta-arrestins are on and within
      neuronal mitochondria. We discovered that the ligand melatonin is exclusively
      synthesized in the mitochondrial matrix and released by the organelle activating
      the mitochondrial MT1 signal-transduction pathway inhibiting stress-mediated
      cytochrome c release and caspase activation. These findings coupled with our
      observation that mitochondrial MT1 overexpression reduces ischemic brain injury
      in mice delineate a mitochondrial GPCR mechanism contributing to the
      neuroprotective action of melatonin. We propose a new term, "automitocrine,"
      analogous to "autocrine" when a similar phenomenon occurs at the cellular level,
      to describe this unexpected intracellular organelle ligand-receptor pathway that
      opens a new research avenue investigating mitochondrial GPCR biology.

PMID- 28874590
TI  - Discovery of peptide ligands through docking and virtual screening at nicotinic
      acetylcholine receptor homology models.
AB  - Venom peptide toxins such as conotoxins play a critical role in the
      characterization of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) structure and
      function and have potential as nervous system therapeutics as well. However, the
      lack of solved structures of conotoxins bound to nAChRs and the large size of
      these peptides are barriers to their computational docking and design. We
      addressed these challenges in the context of the alpha4beta2 nAChR, a widespread
      ligand-gated ion channel in the brain and a target for nicotine addiction
      therapy, and the 19-residue conotoxin alpha-GID that antagonizes it. We developed
      a docking algorithm, ToxDock, which used ensemble-docking and extensive
      conformational sampling to dock alpha-GID and its analogs to an alpha4beta2 nAChR
      homology model. Experimental testing demonstrated that a virtual screen with
      ToxDock correctly identified three bioactive alpha-GID mutants (alpha-GID[A10V],
      alpha-GID[V13I], and alpha-GID[V13Y]) and one inactive variant (alpha-GID[A10Q]).
      Two mutants, alpha-GID[A10V] and alpha-GID[V13Y], had substantially reduced
      potency at the human alpha7 nAChR relative to alpha-GID, a desirable feature for
      alpha-GID analogs. The general usefulness of the docking algorithm was
      highlighted by redocking of peptide toxins to two ion channels and a binding
      protein in which the peptide toxins successfully reverted back to near-native
      crystallographic poses after being perturbed. Our results demonstrate that
      ToxDock can overcome two fundamental challenges of docking large toxin peptides
      to ion channel homology models, as exemplified by the alpha-GID:alpha4beta2 nAChR
      complex, and is extendable to other toxin peptides and ion channels. ToxDock is
      freely available at rosie.rosettacommons.org/tox_dock.

PMID- 28874591
TI  - Mutation in human CLPX elevates levels of delta-aminolevulinate synthase and
      protoporphyrin IX to promote erythropoietic protoporphyria.
AB  - Loss-of-function mutations in genes for heme biosynthetic enzymes can give rise
      to congenital porphyrias, eight forms of which have been described. The genetic
      penetrance of the porphyrias is clinically variable, underscoring the role of
      additional causative, contributing, and modifier genes. We previously discovered
      that the mitochondrial AAA+ unfoldase ClpX promotes heme biosynthesis by
      activation of delta-aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS), which catalyzes the first
      step of heme synthesis. CLPX has also been reported to mediate heme-induced
      turnover of ALAS. Here we report a dominant mutation in the ATPase active site of
      human CLPX, p.Gly298Asp, that results in pathological accumulation of the heme
      biosynthesis intermediate protoporphyrin IX (PPIX). Amassing of PPIX in erythroid
      cells promotes erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) in the affected family. The
      mutation in CLPX inactivates its ATPase activity, resulting in coassembly of
      mutant and WT protomers to form an enzyme with reduced activity. The presence of
      low-activity CLPX increases the posttranslational stability of ALAS, causing
      increased ALAS protein and ALA levels, leading to abnormal accumulation of PPIX.
      Our results thus identify an additional molecular mechanism underlying the
      development of EPP and further our understanding of the multiple mechanisms by
      which CLPX controls heme metabolism.

PMID- 28874593
TI  - EGFR Exon 19 Deletion in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Responds to Erlotinib,
      Followed by T790M-Mediated Resistance.
AB  - The prognosis of metastatic pancreatic cancer remains poor despite recent
      advances in treatment with multidrug chemotherapy regimens. Use of immune
      checkpoint inhibitors and molecular targeted therapies has so far been
      disappointing. This report describes a patient with chemotherapy-refractory
      metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) whose tumor was characterized
      by an activating mutation in exon 19 of the epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR). He experienced response to erlotinib for 10 months, and then developed
      disease progression in association with emergence of the T790M mutation.
      Activating EGFR mutations in cancers other than lung are uncommon, but when
      present may predict response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).
      Development of the T790M mutation in this case suggests that EGFR-targeted TKIs
      may follow similar patterns of resistance regardless of tumor type. Although
      actionable mutations are detected infrequently in PDAC, this case illustrates the
      potential benefit of offering genomic analysis to all patients with advanced
      disease.

PMID- 28874594
TI  - NCCN Guidelines Insights: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Version 1.2017.
AB  - The prognosis for patients with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia
      (ALL) has improved with the use of more intensive chemotherapy regimens, tyrosine
      kinase inhibitors, targeted agents, and allogeneic hematopoietic cell
      transplantation. However, the management of relapsed or refractory (R/R) ALL
      remains challenging and prognosis is poor. The NCCN Guidelines for ALL provide
      recommendations on standard treatment approaches based on current evidence. These
      NCCN Guidelines Insights summarize treatment recommendations for R/R ALL and
      highlight important updates, and provide a summary of the panel's discussion and
      underlying data supporting the most recent recommendations for R/R ALL
      management.

PMID- 28874595
TI  - A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Additional Funding Intervention to Improve
      Clinical Trial Enrollment.
AB  - Background: A low proportion of adults with cancer are recruited to clinical
      trials. Cancer Council Victoria provides funding to clinical trial sites through
      its statewide Cancer Trials Management Scheme (CTMS). Historically, there
      appeared to be a relationship between budget-allocated funding and the number of
      patients recruited. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test whether
      additional funding in 2013 would increase trial recruitment. Methods: A total of
      18 trial centers ("sites") received usual CTMS funds, whereas 16 intervention
      sites received usual funds plus additional funds, proportional to recruitment in
      2011; additional payments to sites in the intervention group ranged from $6,750
      to $234,000 AUD (~$6,750-$234,000 USD at the time). This represented an average
      11.8% (interquartile range [IQR], 8.0%, 12.3%) increase in sites' budgets. Sites
      were required to use the funds with the aim of increasing recruitment. The study
      end point was the number of new participants recruited to trials in 2013. An
      online survey assessed strategies used to increase recruitment. Results: The
      median number of new trial recruits per site in 2013 was 21 (IQR, 5-39) in the
      control arm and 12.5 (IQR, 3.5-44.5) in the intervention arm. The ratio of new
      trial recruitment numbers at the intervention sites compared with control sites
      in 2013, adjusting for respective 2012 numbers and institution type, was 0.99
      (95% CI, 0.69, 1.43; P=.96). The survey revealed most intervention sites used
      funding to increase staffing. Conclusions: Additional funding at a site level did
      not lead to a contemporaneous increase in trial recruitment.

PMID- 28874596
TI  - A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Panax Ginseng for Cancer
      Related Fatigue in Patients With Advanced Cancer.
AB  - Background: Despite the high frequency, severity, and effects of cancer-related
      fatigue (CRF) on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with cancer, limited
      treatment options are available. The primary objective of this study was to
      compare the effects of oral Panax ginseng extract (PG) and placebo on CRF.
      Secondary objectives were to determine the effects of PG on QoL, mood, and
      function. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study,
      patients with CRF >=4/10 on the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) were
      eligible. Based on a pilot study, we randomized patients to receive either 400 mg
      of standardized PG twice daily or a matching placebo for 28 days. The primary end
      point was change in the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue
      (FACIT-F) subscale from baseline to day 29. Results: Of 127 patients, 112 (88.2%)
      were evaluable. The mean (SD) FACIT-F subscale scores at baseline, day 15, and
      day 29 were 22.4 (10.1), 29.9 (10.6), and 30.1 (11.6) for PG (P<.001), and 24.0
      (9.4), 30.0 (10.1), and 30.4 (11.5) for placebo (P<.001). Mean (SD) improvement
      in the FACIT-F subscale at day 29 was not significantly different in the PG than
      in the placebo group (7.5 [12.7] vs 6.5 [9.9]; P=.67). QoL, anxiety, depression,
      symptoms, and functional scores were not significantly different between the PG
      and placebo groups. Improvement in the FACIT-F subscale correlated with baseline
      scores (P=.0005), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale results (P=.032), and sex
      (P=.023). There were fewer any-grade toxicities in the PG versus placebo group
      (28/63 vs 33/64; P=.024). Conclusions: Both PG and placebo result in significant
      improvement in CRF. PG was not significantly superior to placebo after 4 weeks of
      treatment. There is no justification to recommend the use of PG for CRF. Further
      studies are needed. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:
      NCT01375114.

PMID- 28874597
TI  - Risk of Febrile Neutropenia Associated With Select Myelosuppressive Chemotherapy
      Regimens in a Large Community-Based Oncology Practice.
AB  - Background: NCCN has classified commonly used chemotherapy regimens into high
      (>20%), intermediate (10%-20%), or low (<10%) febrile neutropenia (FN) risk
      categories based primarily on clinical trial evidence. Many chemotherapy
      regimens, however, remain unclassified by NCCN or lack FN incidence data in real
      world clinical practice. Patients and Methods: We evaluated incidence proportions
      of FN and grade 4 and 3/4 neutropenia during the first chemotherapy course among
      patients from Kaiser Permanente Southern California who received selected
      chemotherapy regimens without well-established FN risk. Patients given
      granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) prophylaxis were excluded.
      Sensitivity analyses were performed to account for FN misclassification and
      censoring. Results: From 2008 to 2013, 1,312 patients with breast cancer who
      received docetaxel and cyclophosphamide (TC; n=853) or docetaxel, carboplatin,
      and trastuzumab (TCH; n=459); 1,321 patients with colorectal cancer who received
      capecitabine and oxaliplatin (XELOX; n=401) or leucovorin, 5-fluorouracil, and
      oxaliplatin (FOLFOX6; n=920); 307 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who
      received bendamustine with or without rituximab; and 181 patients with multiple
      myeloma who received lenalidomide with or without dexamethasone were included.
      Crude FN risk was >20% for both breast cancer regimens (TC and TCH). Crude FN
      risks for XELOX, FOLFOX6, bendamustine, and lenalidomide were <10%; however, when
      potential FN misclassification and censoring were considered, FN risks were >10%.
      Conclusions: Our results support published literature highlighting the real
      world, "high" FN risk of the TC and TCH regimens for breast cancer. There is
      strong suggestive evidence that FN risks for XELOX, FOLFOX6, bendamustine, and
      lenalidomide are >10%. Calculation of chemotherapy course-level FN incidence
      without controlling for differential censoring for patients who discontinued
      regimens early, or possible FN misclassification, might have resulted in bias
      toward an underestimation of the true FN risk. These findings help define FN risk
      of the selected regimens in the real-world setting and inform prophylactic G-CSF
      use.

PMID- 28874598
TI  - "Standard Care" in Cancer Clinical Trials: An Analysis of Care Provided to Women
      in the Control Arms of Breast Cancer Clinical Trials.
AB  - Background: For trials to validly evaluate new treatments, comparison against the
      best existing alternative treatment is essential. We reviewed the care provided
      to women in control arms of breast cancer clinical trials to estimate the
      proportion consistent with the standard of care as defined in clinical
      guidelines. Methods: We analyzed phase III randomized controlled breast cancer
      trials comparing drug treatments with "standard care," enrolling between 2004 and
      2014, and registered on ClinicalTrials.gov Our primary outcome was the proportion
      of trials in which treatment in the control arm was consistent with concurrent
      NCCN Guidelines. A secondary analysis assessed trials recruiting outside the
      United States that provided control group therapy not consistent with NCCN
      Guidelines, comparing them with the German Gynecological Oncology Group (AGO)
      guidelines. We assessed associations between the primary outcome and a priori
      selected trial characteristics. Results: This study included 210 trials that
      recruited 229,182 women worldwide; 29% of trials (60/210) did not provide control
      group treatment that was consistent with NCCN Guidelines. For trials not
      recruiting in the United States, results were similar; in 21% of trials, control
      arm treatment was inconsistent with both AGO and NCCN Guidelines. Factors
      significantly associated with offering control arm treatment that were
      inconsistent with guidelines were time period (later trials were less likely to
      be consistent), breast cancer stage and type (trials in early-stage breast cancer
      and estrogen receptor-negative disease were less likely consistent), and
      recruitment in >=4 countries and recruitment outside the United States.
      Conclusions: To ensure that clinical trials achieve their goal of obtaining the
      best information to guide patient treatment, the question of how investigators
      chose and describe "standard care" for control arm participants warrants further
      investigation.

PMID- 28874600
TI  - Survivorship Care Planning: Why Is It Taking So Long?
AB  - Survivorship care planning is a process that focuses on the transition from
      active cancer treatment to a coordinated and comprehensive care system to address
      patients' unique needs. Survivorship care plans (SCPs) are increasingly viewed as
      a key component of survivorship care planning. SCPs have been recommended for >10
      years to promote care coordination, communication, and record-keeping efficiency;
      however, SCP implementation has been challenging. We elaborate on the challenges
      of SCP implementation, summarize evidence regarding potential methods of
      promoting SCP implementation, and describe a research agenda for generating more
      definitive evidence to support SCP implementation in practice.

PMID- 28874601
TI  - Trials and Tribulations for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: Measuring
      the Impact of a Community-Based Program.

PMID- 28874603
TI  - Cancer-associated arginine-to-histidine mutations confer a gain in pH sensing to
      mutant proteins.
AB  - The intracellular pH (pHi) of most cancers is constitutively higher than that of
      normal cells and enhances proliferation and cell survival. We found that
      increased pHi enabled the tumorigenic behaviors caused by somatic arginine-to
      histidine mutations, which are frequent in cancer and confer pH sensing not seen
      with wild-type proteins. Experimentally raising the pHi increased the activity of
      R776H mutant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR-R776H), thereby increasing
      proliferation and causing transformation in fibroblasts. An Arg-to-Gly mutation
      did not confer these effects. Molecular dynamics simulations of EGFR suggested
      that decreased protonation of His776 at high pH causes conformational changes in
      the alphaC helix that may stabilize the active form of the kinase. An Arg-to-His,
      but not Arg-to-Lys, mutation in the transcription factor p53 (p53-R273H)
      decreased its transcriptional activity and attenuated the DNA damage response in
      fibroblasts and breast cancer cells with high pHi. Lowering pHi attenuated the
      tumorigenic effects of both EGFR-R776H and p53-R273H. Our data suggest that some
      somatic mutations may confer a fitness advantage to the higher pHi of cancer
      cells.

PMID- 28874605
TI  - Ca2+ and mitochondrial ROS: Both hero and villain in membrane repair.
AB  - Membrane repair is a symphony of signaling, conducted principally by the steep
      influx of Ca2+ through an injured membrane. In this issue of Science Signaling,
      Horn et al reveal unique interplay between Ca2+ influx and mitochondrially
      generated reactive oxygen species (mtROS) to enhance actin-mediated wound closure
      for survival of injured mammalian muscle and nonmuscle cells.

PMID- 28874604
TI  - Mitochondrial redox signaling enables repair of injured skeletal muscle cells.
AB  - Strain and physical trauma to mechanically active cells, such as skeletal muscle
      myofibers, injures their plasma membranes, and mitochondrial function is required
      for their repair. We found that mitochondrial function was also needed for plasma
      membrane repair in myoblasts as well as nonmuscle cells, which depended on
      mitochondrial uptake of calcium through the mitochondrial calcium uniporter
      (MCU). Calcium uptake transiently increased the mitochondrial production of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS), which locally activated the guanosine
      triphosphatase (GTPase) RhoA, triggering F-actin accumulation at the site of
      injury and facilitating membrane repair. Blocking mitochondrial calcium uptake or
      ROS production prevented injury-triggered RhoA activation, actin polymerization,
      and plasma membrane repair. This repair mechanism was shared between myoblasts,
      nonmuscle cells, and mature skeletal myofibers. Quenching mitochondrial ROS in
      myofibers during eccentric exercise ex vivo caused increased damage to myofibers,
      resulting in a greater loss of muscle force. These results suggest a
      physiological role for mitochondria in plasma membrane repair in injured cells, a
      role that highlights a beneficial effect of ROS.

PMID- 28874599
TI  - Survivorship, Version 2.2017, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology.
AB  - Many cancer survivors experience menopausal symptoms, including female survivors
      taking aromatase inhibitors or with a history of oophorectomy or chemotherapy,
      and male survivors who received or are receiving androgen-ablative therapies.
      Sexual dysfunction is also common in cancer survivors. Sexual dysfunction and
      menopause-related symptoms can increase distress and have a significant negative
      impact on quality of life. This portion of the NCCN Guidelines for Survivorship
      provide recommendations for screening, evaluation, and treatment of sexual
      dysfunction and menopausal symptoms to help healthcare professionals who work
      with survivors of adult-onset cancer in the posttreatment period.

PMID- 28874608
TI  - Correction to "6-Mercaptopurine Decreases the Bcl-2/Bax Ratio and Induces
      Apoptosis in Activated Splenic B Lymphocytes".

PMID- 28874606
TI  - Bacterial d-amino acids suppress sinonasal innate immunity through sweet taste
      receptors in solitary chemosensory cells.
AB  - In the upper respiratory epithelium, bitter and sweet taste receptors present in
      solitary chemosensory cells influence antimicrobial innate immune defense
      responses. Whereas activation of bitter taste receptors (T2Rs) stimulates
      surrounding epithelial cells to release antimicrobial peptides, activation of the
      sweet taste receptor (T1R) in the same cells inhibits this response. This
      mechanism is thought to control the magnitude of antimicrobial peptide release
      based on the sugar content of airway surface liquid. We hypothesized that d-amino
      acids, which are produced by various bacteria and activate T1R in taste receptor
      cells in the mouth, may also activate T1R in the airway. We showed that both the
      T1R2 and T1R3 subunits of the sweet taste receptor (T1R2/3) were present in the
      same chemosensory cells of primary human sinonasal epithelial cultures.
      Respiratory isolates of Staphylococcus species, but not Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
      produced at least two d-amino acids that activate the sweet taste receptor. In
      addition to inhibiting P. aeruginosa biofilm formation, d-amino acids derived
      from Staphylococcus inhibited T2R-mediated signaling and defensin secretion in
      sinonasal cells by activating T1R2/3. d-Amino acid-mediated activation of T1R2/3
      also enhanced epithelial cell death during challenge with Staphylococcus aureus
      in the presence of the bitter receptor-activating compound denatonium benzoate.
      These data establish a potential mechanism for interkingdom signaling in the
      airway mediated by bacterial d-amino acids and the mammalian sweet taste receptor
      in airway chemosensory cells.

PMID- 28874609
TI  - Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale in GOLD Classification Better
      Reflects Physical Activities of Daily Living.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In multidimensional Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung
      Disease (GOLD) classification, the choice of the symptom assessment instrument
      (modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale [mMRC] or COPD assessment test
      [CAT]) can lead to a different distribution of patients in each quadrant.
      Considering that physical activities of daily living (PADL) is an important
      functional outcome in COPD, the objective of this study was to determine which
      symptom assessment instrument is more strongly associated with and differentiates
      better the PADL of patients with COPD. METHODS: The study included 115 subjects
      with COPD (GOLD 2-4), who were submitted to spirometry, the mMRC, the CAT, and
      monitoring of PADL (triaxial accelerometer). Subjects were divided into 2 groups
      using the cutoffs proposed by the multidimensional GOLD classification: mMRC < 2
      and >= 2 and CAT < 10 and >= 10. RESULTS: Both mMRC and CAT reflected the PADL of
      COPD subjects. Subjects with mMRC < 2 and CAT < 10 spent less time in physical
      activities < 1.5 metabolic equivalents of task (METs) (mean of the difference
      [95% CI] = -62.9 [-94.4 to -31.4], P < .001 vs -71.0 [-116 to -25.9], P = .002)
      and had a higher number of steps (3,076 [1,999-4,153], P < .001 vs 2,688 [1,042
      4,333], P = .002) than subjects with mMRC > 2 and CAT > 10, respectively.
      Physical activities >= 3 METs differed only between mMRC < 2 and mMRC >= 2 (39.2
      [18.8-59.6], P < .001). Furthermore, only the mMRC was able to predict the PADL
      alone (time active, r2 = 0.16; time sedentary, r2 = 0.12; time >= 3 METs, r2 =
      0.12) and associated with lung function (number of steps, r2 = 0.35; walking
      time, r2 = 0.37; time < 1.5 METs, r2 = 0.25). CONCLUSIONS: The mMRC should be
      adopted as the classification criterion for symptom assessment in the GOLD ABCD
      system when focusing on PADL.

PMID- 28874610
TI  - The 2017 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Report and
      Practice Implications for the Respiratory Therapist.
AB  - Since 1998, the Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) has worked
      with health care professionals, medical researchers, and public health officials
      around the world to optimize the prevention, treatment, and management of COPD.
      GOLD has continually worked to ensure COPD management strategy recommendations
      are aligned with current published research. The 2017 GOLD report represents a
      major revision to GOLD strategy guidelines, the first such major revision in the
      last 5 years. As such, the 2017 report has significant implications for the
      diagnosis of COPD, the management of stable disease, and the treatment of
      exacerbations. As respiratory therapists (RTs) are front-line clinical
      professionals throughout the COPD continuum of care, a thorough understanding of
      the new GOLD recommendations for practice is critical. New recommendations
      regarding diagnosis, severity assessment, and both pharmacologic and
      nonpharmacologic treatment of COPD are presented, and suggestions for how RTs can
      integrate these recommendations into COPD care practices are provided.

PMID- 28874611
TI  - How Should Aerosols Be Delivered During Invasive Mechanical Ventilation?
AB  - The delivery of aerosols to mechanically ventilated patients presents unique
      challenges and differs from inhaled drug delivery in spontaneously breathing
      patients in several respects. Successful aerosol delivery during invasive
      mechanical ventilation requires careful consideration of a host of factors that
      influence the amount of drug inhaled by the patient. Pressurized metered-dose
      inhalers and nebulizers (jet, ultrasonic, and vibrating mesh) are the most
      commonly used aerosol delivery devices in these patients, although other delivery
      devices, such as dry powder inhalers, soft mist inhalers, and intratracheal
      nebulizing catheters, could also be adapted for in-line use. Bronchodilators,
      inhaled corticosteroids, antibiotics, pulmonary surfactant, mucolytics,
      biologicals, genes, prostanoids, and other agents are administered by inhalation
      during mechanical ventilation for a variety of indications. The goals of
      inhalation therapy during mechanical ventilation could be best achieved by (1)
      assuring drug delivery; (2) optimizing drug deposition in the lung; (3) providing
      consistent dosing; (4) avoiding inappropriate therapies; (5) achieving
      reproducible dosing; (6) employing clinically feasible methods; (7) enhancing the
      safety of inhaled drugs; and (8) controlling costs of aerosol therapy. The
      techniques of administration of aerosols with various delivery devices during
      mechanical ventilation are well known, but there continues to be significant
      variation in clinical practice and guidelines are needed to provide best
      practices for a wide range of clinical settings encountered in mechanically
      ventilated patients.

PMID- 28874607
TI  - NO-Sensitive Guanylate Cyclase Isoforms NO-GC1 and NO-GC2 Contribute to Noise
      Induced Inner Hair Cell Synaptopathy.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) activates the NO-sensitive soluble guanylate cyclase (NO-GC,
      sGC) and triggers intracellular signaling pathways involving cGMP. For survival
      of cochlear hair cells and preservation of hearing, NO-mediated cascades have
      both protective and detrimental potential. Here we examine the cochlear function
      of mice lacking one of the two NO-sensitive guanylate cyclase isoforms [NO-GC1
      knockout (KO) or NO-GC2 KO]. The deletion of NO-GC1 or NO-GC2 did not influence
      electromechanical outer hair cell (OHC) properties, as measured by distortion
      product otoacoustic emissions, neither before nor after noise exposure, nor were
      click- or noise-burst-evoked auditory brainstem response thresholds different
      from controls. Yet inner hair cell (IHC) ribbons and auditory nerve responses
      showed significantly less deterioration in NO-GC1 KO and NO-GC2 KO mice after
      noise exposure. Consistent with a selective role of NO-GC in IHCs, NO-GC beta1
      mRNA was found in isolated IHCs but not in OHCs. Using transgenic mice expressing
      the fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based cGMP biosensor cGi500, NO
      induced elevation of cGMP was detected in real-time in IHCs but not in OHCs.
      Pharmacologic long-term treatment with a NO-GC stimulator altered auditory nerve
      responses but did not affect OHC function and hearing thresholds. Interestingly,
      NO-GC stimulation exacerbated the loss of auditory nerve response in aged animals
      but attenuated the loss in younger animals. We propose NO-GC2 and, to some
      degree, NO-GC1 as targets for early pharmacologic prevention of auditory fiber
      loss (synaptopathy). Both isoforms provide selective benefits for hearing
      function by maintaining the functional integrity of auditory nerve fibers in
      early life rather than at old age.

PMID- 28874612
TI  - Role of Integrated Pulmonary Index in Identifying Extubation Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The integrated pulmonary index (IPI) utilizes an algorithm based on
      the measurement of end-tidal carbon dioxide, breathing frequency, heart rate, and
      oxygen saturation to provide an assessment of the patient's ventilatory status.
      This clinical trial was designed to determine whether lower IPI values were
      associated with extubation failure. METHODS: This prospective observational trial
      was conducted in an academic medical center. After institutional review board
      approval, 100 mechanically ventilated subjects were enrolled. A stand-alone
      respiratory monitor that measures IPI was placed on subjects before starting a
      spontaneous breathing trial and continued for up to 48 h postextubation.
      Clinicians were blinded, and data were recorded continuously. Extubation failure
      was defined as the need for positive-pressure ventilation within 48 h after
      extubation. Mixed-effects regression models were employed to examine differences
      in IPI patterns between subjects with extubation success or failure. Significant
      IPI changes from baseline were then evaluated to predict extubation outcome.
      RESULTS: IPI was successfully recorded on 62 subjects (48 successful and 14
      failed extubations). Although mean IPI 5 min before and after extubation were not
      significantly different, mean IPI 1 h after extubation in the failure group was
      significantly lower by 1.19 (P = .044) compared with the successful group.
      Negative change in IPI 1 h after extubation increased odds of failure (odds ratio
      = 1.57, 95% CI 1.001-2.454). The last mean IPI recorded after extubation was also
      significantly lower in the failure group compared with the successful group by
      3.03 (P < .001). Negative change in the last measured IPI increased odds of
      failure (odds ratio = 1.72, 95% CI 1.26-2.34). CONCLUSIONS: Declining IPI
      measurements postextubation are predictive of extubation failure. Further
      clinical trials are needed to assess the role of IPI in guiding interventions in
      extubated patients.

PMID- 28874613
TI  - Diaphragmatic Thickness Fraction in Subjects at High-Risk for COPD Exacerbations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-based diaphragmatic thickness fraction is a reflection of
      the size and function of the diaphragm. This study aimed to examine the value of
      this measurement in identifying patients with COPD who are at high risk for the
      development of symptoms and exacerbations. METHODS: This cross-sectional study
      included 53 subjects with COPD. Respiratory function test results,
      ultrasonography-based diaphragmatic thickness, symptom scores (modified Medical
      Research Council dyspnea scale); COPD Assessment Test results, and number of
      previous exacerbations and admissions were recorded. RESULTS: Only age showed an
      inverse and weak relation with percent thickness fraction (r = -0.37, P = .006).
      None of the other variables tested correlated significantly with percent
      thickness fraction. No association was found between percent thickness fraction
      and exacerbation frequency, modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale and
      COPD Assessment Test symptom scores, or Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive
      Lung Disease ABCD risk/symptom assessments. CONCLUSIONS: Diaphragmatic thickness
      fraction measurements based on diaphragmatic ultrasound assessment in subjects
      with COPD seemed to be unable to identify subjects at high risk of symptoms and
      exacerbations as defined by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung
      Disease ABCD composite disease index.

PMID- 28874616
TI  - Correction for Fan et al., Overexpression of a pH-sensitive nitrate transporter
      in rice increases crop yields.

PMID- 28874617
TI  - Correction for Kidger et al., Dual-specificity phosphatase 5 controls the
      localized inhibition, propagation, and transforming potential of ERK signaling.

PMID- 28874614
TI  - News Feature: Singing in the brain.

PMID- 28874618
TI  - Cholecystectomy in Emilia-Romagna region (Italy): A retrospective cohort study
      based on a large administrative database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to ascertain the variability and to
      identify a trend for the outcome of cholecystectomy surgery when used to treat
      cholelithiasis and acute cholecystitis. METHODS: This was a large retrospective
      cohort study following patients up to 11 years post surgery, based on
      administrative data collected from 2002 to 2012 in the Emilia-Romagna Region
      (Northern Italy) and comparing the effectiveness and efficiency of surgical
      activity (laparoscopic (LC) and open cholecystectomy (OC)). Analyses included
      patient characteristics, length of hospital stay, type of admission and mortality
      risk. Outcomes considered were death from all causes (during the index hospital
      admission or thereafter), hospital readmissions with cholecystitis or
      cholelithiasis as principal diagnosis and time to surgery. RESULTS: A total of
      84,628 cholecystomies were performed from 2002 to 2012 out of 123,061 admissions
      with primary diagnostic category of cholecystitis or cholelitiasis. Laparoscopic
      procedure was used in 69,842 patients. Over time there was a rising linear
      statistically significant trend in the use of LC. Mortality rate at 1 year of OC
      treated patients showed a statistically significant difference compared to LC
      treated patients (using a cohorts match with propensity score). Only a small
      number of patients with acute cholecystitis was operated according guidelines
      within 72 hours. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of aggregate administrative data is a
      powerful tool to support regional health management, improve the quality of
      medical care, and assess the appropriateness of therapeutic or diagnostic
      approaches. It is important to stress a short hospital stay for laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy patients (50% less than open surgery): this shorter hospital stay
      leads to a significant economic advantage. Moreover, mortality is significantly
      higher in open surgery for acute cholecystitis. Interestingly, the same finding
      was confirmed after 30 days and 1 year, probably due to comorbidities that are
      more evident in open surgery. KEY WORDS: Cholecystitis, Cholelithiasis, Delivery
      of health care, Disease management, Surgical.

PMID- 28874619
TI  - Surgical management of primary and recurrent carcinoma showing thymous-like
      elements (CASTLE).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Carcinoma showing thymous-like elements (CASTLE) is a rare tumor
      with only a few cases described in the scientific literature. The aim of the
      present review is to analyze the data available on the therapeutic options
      employed in CASTLE tumors and to outline the best surgical management to adopt.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: English-language articles published from 1985 through
      November 2016, and related to CASTLE cases were retrieved using the Pubmed
      database and specific key-words. RESULTS: Eighty seven cases included in 23
      papers, published in the period under investigation, were analyzed in detail. The
      mean age of the patients was 50.2 years and the male to female ratio 1:1.2. There
      were performed 31 (35.6%) lobectomies, 29 (33.3%) total thyroidectomies, 15
      (17.2%) subtotal thyroidectomies, 4 (4.6%) excisions, 3 (3.4%) partial
      thyroidectomies, 1 (1.1%) hemithyroidectomy, and 8 (9.2%) additional procedures
      including tracheal, pharyngeal, and esophageal resections. Lymph node dissection
      and radiotherapy were associated in 59 (67.8%) and 44 (50.6%) cases respectively.
      Among the patients with available data 62 (75.6%) were free of disease, 16
      (19.5%) were alive with disease, 3 (3.7%) died for the disease, and 1 (1.2%) died
      for cerebrovascular complications at the time of follow-up. Globally 20 (24.4%)
      cases of local or distant recurrence were reported. Surgery and radiotherapy,
      alone or in combination were the treatments most frequently used for recurrences.
      CONCLUSIONS: CASTLE is a rare tumor which generally respond well to complete
      surgical resection and adjuvant radiotherapy. These treatments can be further
      employed for the recurrences, which occur in 24.4% of the cases, along with
      specific chemotherapy regimens and palliative procedures. KEY WORDS: Cancer,
      CASTLE, Excision, Lobectomy, Thymous-like elements, Thyroidectomy.

PMID- 28874620
TI  - Diagnostic value of platelet indices in acute appendicitis and comparison with
      histopathology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies. An
      early and accurate diagnosis of acute appendicitis is vital. Evidence for a link
      between platelets indices and inflammation disease comes from recent studies. We
      aimed to evaluate preoperative diagnostic values of platelet indices (Mean
      platelet volume-MPV, Platelet Distribution Width-PDW, Plateletcrit-PCT) and
      leukocyte count (WBC) in comparison with post-operative histopathology results in
      patients who underwent appendectomy. METHODS: The 165 patients who underwent
      appendectomy, were evaluated retrospectively. Patients' demographic
      characteristics, imaging findings, preoperative laboratory markers and
      postoperative histopathology results were recorded. The patients were divided
      into three groups based on the histopathologic findings; perforated appendicitis,
      acute appendicitis without perforation and negative appendectomy group. The
      specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive
      value (NPV) of the laboratory markers were measured. Additionally potential
      correlation among laboratory markers analysed. RESULTS: The negative appendectomy
      rate was 15.1% in 165 patients. The leukocyte count was statistically higher in
      acute appendicitis (14.9*103/MUL) group than negative appendectomy (6.9*103/MUL)
      group. There was also statistically significant difference between groups
      according to the PCT levels. The leukocyte count achieved sensitivity,
      specificity, PPV, and NPV of 95.9, 24, 99.1, and 92.7% respectively. A
      significant positive correlation between WBC and PCT were obtained. Inflammatory
      markers were not directly related to the severity of the disease. CONCLUSIONS:
      Elevated leukocyte count and PCT levels support diagnosis of acute appendicitis
      in correlation with pathological findings. Thereby combination of the
      inflammatory markers, positive clinical and radiological findings would improve
      diagnostic accuracy in acute appendicitis. KEY WORDS: Acute appendicitis,
      Inflammatory markers, Platelet indices.

PMID- 28874621
TI  - Complications of laparoscopic gastric banding: detection and treatment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is acknownledged as
      a popular and effective surgical option in the management of obesity and related
      metabolic diseases. This procedure is a remarkably safe operation from both a
      general surgical and bariatric perspective. It facilitates brief hospitalization
      and can be performed by single incision. METHODS: We analyzed the most common
      LAGB complications as intraoperative and postoperative gastric perforation,
      stomach slippage/dilatation, port/tubing complications and intragastric band
      migration which occurred in our long decades clinical experience. Detection,
      treatment and rate of presentation of each complication was evaluated. RESULTS:
      LAGB showed good long term results in terms of weight loss and resolution of
      obesity related diseases. Moreover, mortality due to obesity and related diseases
      appeared significantly lower in LAGB patients than in medically treated patients.
      CONCLUSION: Gastric Banding has a very low rate of early and late complications;
      these are also less severe when compared to more invasive procedures and are
      likely to be managed with mini-invasive techniques. In any case referral to a
      bariatric surgeon is deemed appropriate. KEY WORDS: Complication, Laparoscopic
      gastric banding, Morbid obesity.

PMID- 28874622
TI  - Predictors of central lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common malignancy of
      the thyroid gland and although PTC has excellent prognosis, central lymph node
      (CLN) metastases are not uncommon. Studies have shown that CLN metastases are
      associated with an increased recurrence rate. The necessity for prophylactic CLN
      dissection (pCCND) in clinical lymph node negative (cN0) patients remains
      controversial. The aim of this study was to determine predictors of CLN
      metastases in cN0 PTC patients who underwent prophylactic CLN dissection.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical charts of 97 patients with cN0 PTC who had
      undergone total thyroidectomy (TT) and pCCND were evaluated retrospectively. The
      relationship between CLN metastases and risk factors were analyzed. RESULTS: CLN
      metastases were found in 32 (32.9%) patients. Univariate analysis showed that CLN
      metastases were significantly associated with male sex and tumor size. In
      multivariate analysis, tumor size greater than 0.7 cm and male sex were
      independent predictors for CLN metastases. DISCUSSION: Although oncological
      benefits of the pCCND in cN0 PTC patients remain controversial, tumor size
      greater than 0.7cm and male gender may be possible indicators of central lymph
      node metastasis. KEY WORDS: Central lymph node metastasis, Central lymph node
      dissection, Papillary Thyroid Cancer, Total thyroidectomy.

PMID- 28874623
TI  - Factors affecting the conversion to open surgery during laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy in patients with cholelithiasis undergoing ERCP due to
      choledocholithiasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rate of conversion to open surgery is high in laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy (LC) after Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreotocography
      (ERCP). The present study aimed to evaluate the risk factors associated with the
      conversion to open cholecystectomy and minimize the rate of conversion to open
      surgery. METHODS: A total of 157 patients admitted to the Ondokuz Mayis
      University Medical Faculty Hospital due to cholelithiasis and choledocholithiasis
      between January 2002 and December 2012, and they receiving laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy were included in the study. The patients were analyzed
      retrospectively. The predictive factors for conversion to open cholecystectomy
      were evaluated. Patients were compared to each other in terms of time passing
      from ERCP to operation, number of ERCPs, stent usage, stone extraction and
      complications that occurred while waiting for the operation. Patients were
      separated into three groups according to the time passing from ERCP to
      laparoscopic cholecystectomy, as follows; group I (short time intervals: 7 days
      or less): 53 patients, group II (intermediate time intervals: 8-42 days): 70
      patients and group III (long time intervals: 43 days and more): 34 patients.
      RESULTS: Of the 157 patients, 57 were male and 100 were female. The mean age was
      54.5 (range: 19-87) years. Of these 157 patients who received laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy following ERCP, 22 (14%) underwent open surgery. The conversion
      to open cholecystectomy was distributed in groups, as follows: seven (13.2%)
      patients in group I, eight (11.4%) patients in group II and seven (20.6%)
      patients in group III. When the rate of conversion to open surgery was compared
      between groups, there was no statistically significant difference (p=0.406). The
      laparoscopic operations were converted to open surgery in 15 (11.3%) of the 133
      patients who underwent single ERCP, and in seven (29.2%) of the 24 patients who
      underwent two or more ERCPs before surgery (p=0.048). The number of ERCPs was
      determined to be the most important factor that affects the conversion to open
      surgery in laparoscopic cholecystectomies following ERCP. The removal of stones
      from the common bile duct, stent placement in the common bile duct, and existence
      of biliary complications during waiting time from ERCP to LC had no effect on the
      conversion to open surgery (p=0.454, p=0.058, and p=0.465, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study reveal that the timing of LC following
      ERCP, removal of stones from the common bile duct, stent placement in the common
      bile duct and the existence of biliary complications during the waiting period
      have no effect on the rate of conversion to open surgery. The number of ERCPs is
      the only factor that affects the conversion to open surgery in LC following ERCP.
      KEY WORDS: Choledocholitiasis, Conversion, Endoscopic retrograde
      cholangiopancreatography, Laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

PMID- 28874624
TI  - Feasibility of lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel node identification after neo
      adjuvant therapy.
AB  - AIM: To assess the sentinel-node identification rate at lymphoscintigraphy and
      its technical feasibility after neo-adjuvant treatments. MATERIAL OF STUDY:
      Between 2000 and 2013, 444 consecutive patients affected by primary locally
      advanced breast cancer were enrolled in this study. All individuals were
      candidate for neo-adjuvant treatments and for lymphoscintigraphy before surgery.
      RESULTS: The median age was 44 years at onset; almost one sentinel node was
      identified during lymphoscintigraphy in 430 cases. The detection rate at
      lymphoscintigraphy was 96.9% (95% CI, 94.8-98.1%). Considering the correlation
      between specific treatments and sentinel node identification rate, we verified
      that the detection rate did not vary significantly (p=0.53) according to the type
      of neo-adjuvant therapies administered to the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      demonstrated that lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel node identification is a safe
      and feasible procedure after neo-adjuvant therapies, independently of treatment
      types. KEY WORDS: Breast Cancer, Neo-Adjuvant Treatment, Sentinel lymphnode
      biopsy, Lymphoscintigraphy.

PMID- 28874625
TI  - A rare case of squamous cell carcinoma of a proliferating trichilemmal tumour.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) includes several subtypes and these
      can be classified according to their clinical behaviours from the least invasive
      to the most aggressive. Moreover, it is appropriate to analyse their
      clinicalpathological patterns 1. In light of its wide histopathological
      variability, we encountered a rare malignant cutaneous lesion: a SCC of a
      proliferating trichilemmal tumour (PTT) nature. CASE REPORT: We describe the
      clinical and pathologic findings of an 82-year-old woman, who developed a SCC
      with areas of trichilemmal differentiation. It has a surprising thickness of 25
      mm, which passes through the dermis, infiltrates the hypodermis and evolves
      quickly. CONCLUSION: Considering its exophytic growth and the negative results of
      the post operative tests (ultrasounds confirmed absence of metastasis), the
      tumour was eradicated thanks to the surgical approach (a 1 cm border wide
      excision, including the periosteum in the central part of the lesion, followed by
      its reconstruction using a full-thickness skin graft) and the prompt
      intervention, without need for further complimentary treatments. The overall
      aesthetic results were pleasing. KEY WORDS: Adnexal tumour, PPT, SCC, Surgery.

PMID- 28874626
TI  - Anatomical variations of cervical vein drainage in candidates for neck surgery.
AB  - : The knowledge of both normal and abnormal anatomy of the veins of the neck may
      be important for surgeons performing neck surgery, to avoid inadvertent injury to
      vascular structures. In a 75-year-old man candidated to carotid endarterectomy
      preoperative CT-scan showed a rare anomaly of the venous drainage in the area of
      the anterior jugular vein (AJV), that usually begins in the suprahyoid region via
      the confluence of several superficial veins, to open into the ipsilateral
      external jugular vein. A large left sided venous trunk, originating from an
      anomalous proximal confluence with the internal jugular vein, descended in the
      AJV anatomical position, to cross over the sternum draining into the right
      subclavian vein. The knowledge of this abnormal anatomy allowed to perform a safe
      carotid bulb isolation avoiding inadvertent injury to vascular structures. KEY
      WORDS: Anatomic variations, Anterior jugular vein, Jugular veins, Carotid
      endarterectomy, Neck surgery.

PMID- 28874627
TI  - IORT in breast cancer. Our experience of the first patients treated.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the therapeutic effect of intraoperative
      radiotherapy, describe the method and examine the results of our experience.
      BACKGROUND: Breast conserving therapy has recently become a standard treatment
      modality in patients with early invasive cancer. Radiotherapy, along with
      surgery, is an integral part of such treatment. The important thing of
      radiotherapy is to deliver a high dose to the tumour bed. One of the methods is
      the intraoperative radiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The analysis comprised 41
      breast cancer patients treated with breast conserving surgery. Patient's range
      age was 35-80 years. Cancer type distribution inlcuded: 95% ductal carcinoma, 5%
      other carcinoma. Applicator size: 4 cm. (12%), 5 cm. (64%), 6 cm. (17%), 7 cm.
      (7%). Electron energies: 6 MeV (22%), 8 MeV (56%), 10 MeV (22%). Intraoperative
      radiation therapy was delivered in the operating theatre during surgery. After
      that, all patients were treated with whole breast irradiation. RESULTS: 41
      patients treated with IORT procedures completed. In general there were no severe
      postoperative complications and we did not detect tumor recurrence in any patient
      even if the time elapsed from the treatment is still short. CONCLUSIONS: Due to
      its exceptional physical and radiobiological properties, intraoperative radiation
      therapy can be a good alternative to other methods of boosting dose to the
      postoperative site in management. KEY WORDS: Breast cancer, IORT, intraoperative
      radiotherapy, Surgery.

PMID- 28874629
TI  - The effect of intraperitoneal n-acetylcysteine on postoperative adhesions in rat
      models.
AB  - AIM: In this study, we researched the effect of local administration of N
      acetylcysteine (NAC) on postoperative intraabdominal adhesion formation in the
      rat models. METHODS: 20 female Wistar Albino rats which were 5-7 months old are
      used for the study. The rats were divided into two equal groups. Group one was
      administered saline solution (n=10) while group two was administered NAC (n=10)
      after caecal abrasion. They were dissected on postoperative tenth day and were
      examined macroscopically and microscopically for the adhesion formation.
      Intraperitoneal adhesion formation was scored blinded with Evans model. The most
      adherent bowel section was excised for histopathologic examination. Mann Whitney
      U test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: In Group one, all rats have
      had adhesions. None of the rats in Group two had either severe inflammatory cell
      reaction or dense interstitial fibrosis. Macroscopic adhesion formation and
      microscopic inflammatory cell reaction and interstitial fibrosis formation after
      surgery were less at the group two (NAC applied) (p<0.05, p<0.05, p<0.05).
      CONCLUSION: We believe that the intraperitoneal single dose usage of NAC may be
      promising for decreasing the postoperative intraabdominal adhesions. KEY WORDS: N
      acetylcysteine, Postoperative adhesion, Rat, Fibrosis.

PMID- 28874630
TI  - Decellularized human dermal matrix produced by a skin bank A new treatment for
      abdominal wall defects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interest is increasing for human decellularized scaffolds for their
      ability to favor healing and cell infiltration after transplantation, in the
      treatment of abdominal wall defects. The purpose of the present study is to show
      the clinical results obtained after the application of human decellularized
      dermal matrix (HDM) produced by RER Skin Bank, on patients suffering from
      different abdominal wall defects. METHODS: Between 2012 and 2014, 64 patients,
      average age 64 years, received HDM, to replace and cover the damage area during
      abdominal wall surgery. After surgical procedures, all patients were followed
      weekly for the first month and then monthly up to 6 months postoperative and any
      major problem or complication were recorded. Six months follow up included
      abdominal exams, serological tests and MRI analysis in order to evaluate
      integration of HDM with the patient's surroundings tissues and eventual long-term
      complications. RESULTS: Incisional hernia was the most frequent clinical
      condition in which HDM was applied, requiring also the highest amount of human
      decellularized dermal matrix. One month after the surgical operation, 61 patients
      revealed a well tolerability of HDM and a normal wound healing was also
      identified in all the damage areas. Only 3 patients experienced postoperative
      infections. Moreover the follow up after 6 months reported no signs of dermis
      rejection and that none of the patients was positive to serological tests.
      CONCLUSIONS: Human decellularized dermal matrix can be considered a safe and
      useful bioproduct to treat large abdominal defects, characterized by minor
      complications and simplicity to be implanted. KEY WORDS: Abdominal wall defects,
      Human decellularized dermal matrix, Skin Bank, Tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28874631
TI  - The prognostic role of microsatellite instability in colorectal cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data from the literature regarding the prognostic role of DNA
      mismatch repair system (MMR) in colorectal cancer are still controversial. AIM:
      The aim of the study was to identify the prognostic role of different phenotypic,
      clinical and pathological characteristics in microsatellite unstable vs.
      microsatellite stable colorectal cancer in terms of survival and disease free
      interval. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study that included a total of
      103 patients who underwent curative surgery for colorectal cancer.
      Immunohistochemistry testing revealed MLH1, MLH2, MLH6, PMS2 genes and mutations
      of the BRAF gene. We identified three groups of patients: patients with
      colorectal tumors with MSI produced by hypermethylation, (MLH1/BRAF+) group,
      patients with microsatellite instable tumours produced by genetic mutations MSI
      groupb(MLH1, MLH2, MLH6, PMS2) and patients with microsatellite stable tumours
      (MSS). RESULTS: The study shows that: MSI tumours (MLH1/BRAF+) group occur more
      frequently in women (p=0.05), on the right side of the colon (p=0.001). The 5
      year survival rate was higher in patients with MSI tumours (MLH1/BRAF+) group
      than in those with microsatellite stable tumours, the differences were not
      statistically significant ; relapse rate was higher in patients with MSI tumors
      than in those with MSI tumours (MLH1/BRAF+) group (p=0.03) or with MSS tumors
      (p=0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The identification of microsatellite unstable colorectal
      tumours is an important molecular marker with role in recognition subgroups of
      patients with different phenotypic characteristics, survival and relapse rates.
      KEY WORDS: Colorectal cancer, Mismatch repair genes, Prognostic role.

PMID- 28874632
TI  - Duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumor A case report.
AB  - AIM: To report an another case of duodenal GIST in patient that was treated with
      Whipple procedure. MATERIAL OF STUDY: We report a case of 69 years old men that
      was admitted with melena. The preoperative investigations suggested a suspected
      duodenal GIST.A Whipple pancreatico-duodenectomy was performed. Only 3-5% of
      GISTs occur in the duodenum. DISCUSSION: GIST were described as a separate entity
      by Mazur and Clark in 1983. These tumors are the most common among mesenchymal
      tumors of the gastrointeninal tract. The clinical presentations of duodenal GIST
      are highly variable. There is no consensus on the optimal surgical treatment of
      duodenal GIST.The aim was to achieve a R0-type surgery with complete en bloc
      surgical resection of the tumor and the surrounding tissue CONCLUSION: In
      conclusion the duodenal GIST are fairly rare. The clinical symptomatology is very
      variable even if frequently occur with digestive bleeding. the purpose of the
      surgery is the complete removal of the tumor (R0) however looking to perform
      minimum resections. KEY WORDS: GI bleeding, GIST, Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

PMID- 28874633
TI  - Tumor Budding in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - Tumor budding is defined as the presence of a single tumor cell or a small
      cluster of up to five cells in the tumor stroma, linking it to the epithelial
      mesenchymal transition (EMT).1 Imai2 illustrated that tumors with this trait have
      more aggressive qualities and allocated the term "sprouting" instead of
      "budding." The term "tumor budding" was coined by Morodomi et al in 1989.3 Tumor
      budding in vitro or in experiments has been addressed by many names, depending on
      the researcher's background, few of which are tumor cell dissociation, focal
      dedifferentia-tion, or EMT.4.

PMID- 28874634
TI  - Root Canal Morphologies of Mesiobuccal Roots of Maxillary Molars using Cone beam
      Computed Tomography and Periapical Radiographic Techniques in an Iranian
      Population.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the results of cone
      beam computed tomography (CBCT) examinations, confirm the presence or absence of
      the second mesiobuccal (MB2) root canal in maxillary first and second molars,
      estimate the distance between the root canal orifices, observe the root types
      based on Vertucci classification system, and make comparisons between CBCT and
      periapical techniques in relation to the identification of the root canal form
      and the second root canal of the MB root. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The CBCT and
      periapical radiographic data from the Department of Maxillofacial Radiology were
      used to select 156 individuals (78 females and 78 males) for the evaluation of
      the anatomy of maxillary first and second molars. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of
      the second root canal in the MB root in the maxillary first molars was 55.1%,
      with 44.1 and 63.3% in females and males respectively. The prevalence rate in
      maxillary second molars was 23.7%, with 15.7 and 30.2% in females and males
      respectively. In addition, the longest and shortest distances between the root
      canal orifices were 2.4 and 0.3 mm respectively, with a mean of 1.3 mm.
      CONCLUSION: There was a significant difference between the results of periapical
      and CBCT radiographic techniques in relation to the presence or absence of the
      second root canal in the MB roots of maxillary first and second molars (p <
      0.01), with better results being provided by the CBCT technique. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: The results of CBCT images about the existence of the second root
      canal in the MB roots of maxillary first and second molars are more reliable, and
      we can use this technique in the finding of additional canals in the clinic.
      Keyword: Cone beam computed tomography, Dental radiography, Root canal therapy.

PMID- 28874635
TI  - Effect of Ultrasonic Instrumentation in Treatment of Primary Molars.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study is to describe the protocol used in the treatment of
      pulpally necrosed primary molars and to evaluate the effectiveness of ultrasonic
      instrumentation technique in primary dentition. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of
      50 primary molars in 40 children, ranging from 8 to 10 years of age, were
      endodonti-cally treated using standard protocols and ultrasonic instrumentation.
      The follow-up was done for each case ranging from 1 to 2/4 years. RESULTS:
      Clinical and radiographic controls showed a success rate of 97.5%, considering an
      evaluation time of 19 +/- 9.02 months. CONCLUSION: The use of ultrasonic
      instrumentation in primary molars with pulpal necrosis succeeded in reducing
      appointment time and showed a high success rate. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
      Ultrasonic instrumentation should be used as a standard protocol in
      instrumentation of endodontic treatment of primary molars so as to increase the
      success rate of primary teeth pulpectomies.

PMID- 28874636
TI  - Growth and Development of Dentofacial Complex influenced by Genetic and
      Environmental Factors using Monozygotic Twins.
AB  - AIM: The purpose of this study was to determine the possible effects of genetic
      and environmental factors on dentofacial complex using monozygotic twins.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study sample was made of 21 pairs of monozygotic twins
      (14 female pairs and seven male pairs) between 10 and 25 years. Pretreatment
      lateral cephalo-grams were used which were traced and digitized, and various
      landmarks to determine the anteroposterior and vertical proportions were marked.
      Samples were divided into two groups. The correlation between groups was found by
      calculating Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The range
      of the correlation coefficient was from 0.705 to 0.952. Gonial angle showed the
      highest correlation coefficient (0.952), while saddle angle showed the lowest
      correlation coefficient (0.705). CONCLUSION: The growth and development of
      craniofacial complex is under mutifactorial control. However, genetic influences
      do tend to play a dominant role. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: By studying identical
      twins, we can study about the interaction of the environment with the genes and
      how it affects the growth and development of the body in general and dentofacial
      complex in particular. By utilizing twin studies, we can identify whether a
      particular trait, disease, or disorder is influenced more strongly by genetics or
      by the environment. Success of orthodontic treatment depends on a proper
      diagnosis of the problem including its etiological factors. Genetic studies let
      the orthodontists to understand the effects of genetic and environmental factors
      in the growth and development of dentofacial complex better and allows to prevent
      or treat malocclusions and skeletal anomalies in better ways.

PMID- 28874637
TI  - Readiness of Accredited Social Health Activist Workers for Tobacco Cessation
      Counseling after a Brief Intervention in Odisha, India: A Quasi-experimental
      Study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the study was (1) to explore the baseline beliefs and practices
      of accredited social health activist (ASHA) workers of Khurda district of Orissa
      with respect to tobacco cessation and (2) to assess whether a brief intervention
      will be effective in improving the beliefs and practices of ASHA workers. The
      results of this study could be utilized by policy makers for framing important
      strategies for tobacco cessation in rural areas utilizing ASHA workers. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A quasi-experimental study (before and after comparison) was
      performed in Khurda district of Orissa to find out whether a brief intervention
      could improve the beliefs and practices of ASHA workers related to antitobacco
      counseling in rural areas. A 14-item structured, interviewer-administered
      questionnaire, written in English (translated in Odiya), was used. The final
      sample size was estimated as 135. Data were entered into Statistical Package for
      the Social Sciences (version 21) for analysis. RESULTS: All the mean belief
      items, practice items, degree of preparedness, and interest in training scores of
      study population increased significantly from baseline to postintervention. The
      study population showed a statistically significant improvement in
      postintervention composite belief and composite practices score. CONCLUSION: The
      majority of ASHA workers had positive beliefs and favorable practices after
      attending a brief intervention toward smoking cessation in their community. After
      attending the intervention, nearly half of the respondents felt themselves either
      somewhat or very well prepared for tobacco cessation. Most of them showed their
      interest toward getting further training in the field. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
      Training programs and regular tobacco cessation activities should be planned in
      the primary health-care delivery system of India.

PMID- 28874638
TI  - Stigma and Discrimination faced by HIV-infected Adults on Antiretroviral Therapy
      for more than 1 Year in Raichur Taluk, Karnataka, India.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the stress and discrimination faced by
      human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-affected adult patients on antiretroviral
      therapy (ART) for more than 1 year. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional
      study was carried out among 170 adults on ART, reporting to the ART center of the
      District Civil Hospital, for more than 1 year in Raichur Taluk, Karnataka, India.
      Convenience sampling technique was followed. Descriptive statistics was performed
      (Chi-square test) using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0.
      RESULTS: A total of 156 (91.8%) patients' families had knowledge about their
      seropositive status. Seventeen (10.9%) HIV-positive patients reported of change
      in the attitude of their family members. The main reasons for not revealing the
      HIV status were the internalized stigma and fear of rejection. Women faced
      greater discrimination from family, friends, and neighbors than men. CONCLUSION:
      It is necessary to not undermine the effect of rejection due to HIV. It is the
      only infection that has so many associated social and psychological norms which
      we need to tend at the earnest. Till date, there is an existence of
      condescendence toward treatment approach. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The presence of
      stigma and the fear of being discriminated could be a major hurdle in the
      rehabilitation of these patients into the mainstream society. Furthermore, it
      serves as an existing challenge to ascertain these individuals to achieve overall
      health.

PMID- 28874639
TI  - Comparative Analysis of the Water Sorption and Cytotoxicity of Two different
      Denture Base Systems: An in vitro Study.
AB  - AIM: Different biomaterials and techniques have been introduced in the field of
      prosthetic dentistry with the purpose of replacement and rehabilitation of the
      edentulous areas. Due to their shorter setting time, the light-activated
      restorative and prosthetic materials have the capability of releasing few amount
      of cytotoxic materials in the oral cavity. Polymer materials [urethane
      dimethacrylate (UDMA) and bis-acryl] are assumed to have high mechanical
      properties. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) offers numerous advantages of being
      highly esthetic in nature and at the same time being cost-effective. Hence, this
      study aimed to assess and compare the water sorption and cytotoxicity of light
      activated UDMA denture base resin and conventional heat-activated PMMA resin.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included assessment and comparison of water
      sorption and cytotoxicity of heat-activated PMMA resin and light-activated UDMA
      denture base system. Fabrication of heat-activated PMMA resin and UDMA specimens
      was done by investing the wax patterns in stone molds using manufacturer's
      instructions. Contraction of the specimens was done for assessment of
      cytotoxicity and water resorption of the UDMA and PMMA resin samples. All the
      results were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software
      version 18.0. Chi-square test and one-way analysis of variance tests were used
      for the assessment of the level of significance; p < 0.05 was taken as
      significant. RESULTS: Mean lysis score observed in the PMMA and UDMA groups was
      0.4 and 0.3 respectively. While observing at the 3 months time, the mean water
      resorption in the PMMA and UDMA groups was found to be 37.9 and 40.2
      respectively. Significant difference in relation to water resorption was observed
      between the two study groups only at 3 months time. CONCLUSION: Both materials
      used in this study are nontoxic. Furthermore, UDMA resin materials exhibited
      lower water resorption after more than 1 month of time of storage. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: Water resorption is similar for different denture base resin
      systems till 1 months time.

PMID- 28874640
TI  - Factors affecting Clinical Outcomes after Treatment of Oral Leukoplakia with CO2
      and Diode Laser.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To analyze factors that may affect recurrence, development of new
      lesions, and malignant transformation in patients with oral leukoplakia (OL)
      following surgical treatment with lasers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 40
      patients were enrolled in this study, 17 females (mean age of 64.5 years; 33-88
      years) and 23 males (mean age of 56.6 years; 28-84 years) with an overall mean
      age of 60.5 years. A total of 49 lesions were diagnosed and treated; 9 patients
      had more than one site affected. Mean time of follow-up was 22 months (6-71
      months). Data were assessed by univariate Cox and multivariate Cox regression
      analyses. RESULTS: Recurrence (OL at the same site of the initial lesion) was
      observed in 11 patients (27.5%) while 4 patients (10%) developed new lesions, and
      2 patients (5%) experienced malignant transformation. Only two clinical factors
      were statistically associated with the outcome for the development of new
      lesions: patients >= 60 years and female gender (p < 0.1). Neither of the
      outcomes of recurrences and malignant transformations was significantly
      correlated with any of the risk factors analyzed. CONCLUSION: Surgical laser is
      not a deterrent for the outcomes evaluated; additionally, the design of this
      study did not allow us to determine whether the laser treatment had provided a
      great benefit by significantly reducing the rate of malignant transformation
      among the patients. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: It is highly important to inform
      patients with OL that their condition can be treated, when possible, by surgical
      laser, and that this treatment may be helpful in bringing down the odds of
      malignant transformation of their lesions. In addition, the patients should also
      be brought to the attention of the necessity of a continued clinical monitoring
      regardless of the outcome following a surgical intervention.

PMID- 28874641
TI  - Intricate Estimation and Evaluation of Mandibular Movements in Geriatric Patients
      Suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that usually
      affects joints and making them warm, painful, and swollen. The chief purpose of
      this study was to evaluate movements of mandible in geriatric patients suffering
      from RA with or without temporomandibular joint dysfunction. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 45 people were included in this study with age of 60 years
      and above. Partially or completely edentulous patients were divided into
      experimental and control group. Experimental group consists of 20 people
      suffering from arthritis and control group consists of 25 people without
      arthritis. Movements were recorded with or without prosthesis while mastication
      in both experimental and control group. RESULTS: Statistical evaluation of two
      studied groups showed decrease opening angle (p < 0.05) during mastication;
      however, insertion of new prosthesis showd a significant increase in values in
      both groups, with an increase in opening and closing angles. CONCLUSION: Positive
      correlation was found between arthritis and movements of the mandible in older
      people suffering from RA. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Patients suffering from RA are
      having restricted mandibular movements thus imposing an overall negative impact
      however; presence of prosthesis has been shown to enforce a positive effect on
      mandibular movement.

PMID- 28874642
TI  - Measurement of Crestal Cortical Bone Thickness at Implant Site: A Cone Beam
      Computed Tomography Study.
AB  - AIM: Dental implants have emerged as a new treatment modality for the majority of
      patients complaining of missing teeth. Bone quantity and bone quality are among
      various factors which ensure the longevity of dental implant in the patient's
      mouth. The assessment of cortical bone thickness of the outer layer and the
      cancellous bone density by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has proved
      beneficial for the patient. This study aimed at presurgical measurement of
      crestal bone thickness at various implant sites using CBCT images. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This study was conducted in the Department of Prosthodontics in the year
      2015. It included 218 patients who wanted to replace missing teeth. Patients were
      subjected to CBCT scan using NewTom CBCT machine operating at 120 kVp and 5 mA
      with a resolution of 0.1 * 0.1 * 0.1 mm3. New Net Technologies (NNT) software
      with a slice thickness of 0.1 mm was used in this study. A total of 780 implant
      sites were identified on images of 218 patients. In all patients, the measurement
      of crestal bone thickness in the region of implant site was performed with NNT
      software. The buccolingual measurement of crestal bone was done in cross sections
      obtained after CBCT Results: Out of 218 patients, males were 110 and females were
      108. The difference between gender was nonsignificant (p > 0.05). Out of 780
      implant sites, 370 were in the maxilla and 410 were in mandible. The difference
      was nonsignificant (p > 0.05). Out of 780 implant sites, 210 were in anterior
      maxilla and 160 were in the posterior maxilla. Totally, 235 sites were in
      anterior mandible and 175 were in the posterior mandible. The distribution was
      nonsignificant (p = 0.15). The mean crestal bone thickness in anterior maxilla
      was 0.82 mm, in posterior maxilla was 0.76 mm, in anterior mandible was 1.08 mm,
      and in posterior mandible was 1.18 mm. The difference among regions was
      significant (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: The highest thickness of cortical bone was
      observed in posterior mandible followed by anterior mandible, anterior maxilla,
      and posterior maxilla. Thus, considering the less cortical thickness in the
      posterior maxillary region, the implant placement should be done with proper
      attention. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Dental implant is the need of the hour. It is
      beneficial to patients in terms of longer survival rates. With CBCT, all
      measurements, such as bone quality and quantity have become easy because of three
      dimensional nature. This has proved to be beneficial in the analysis of cortical
      bone thickness as well as measuring the distance from anatomical structures.

PMID- 28874643
TI  - Evaluation of Apical Vapor Lock Formation and comparative Evaluation of its
      Elimination using Three different Techniques: An in vitro Study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was (i) to evaluate the formation of air bubbles in
      the apical region of root canal (apical vapor lock) during syringe irrigation,
      using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and (ii) comparative evaluation of the
      elimination of an established vapor lock by EndoActivator, ultrasonics, and
      manual dynamic agitation (MDA), using CBCT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 60
      extracted human single-rooted teeth were equally divided into three groups of 20
      teeth each. The samples were decoronated 17 mm from the apex, cleaned, and shaped
      to size F4 Protaper using 3% sodium hypochlorite. Samples were irrigated with 3%
      sodium hypochlorite + cesium chloride radiopaque dye, and preoperative CBCT
      images were obtained. After formation of apical vapor lock in the scanned teeth,
      EndoActivator (group I), passive ultrasonic irrigation (group II), and MDA with K
      file (group III) were performed and the teeth were again placed in CBCT scanner
      and results analyzed using the chi-square test. RESULTS: The apical vapor lock
      was formed in all the samples. Out of the 20 teeth in each group, the apical
      vapor lock was eliminated in 18 samples of EndoActivator group (90%), 16 samples
      of ultrasonic group (80%), while it was eliminated in 10 samples by MDA (50%).
      CONCLUSION: It is concluded that (1) apical vapor lock is consistently formed
      during endodontic irrigation in closed canal systems and (2) sonic activation
      performs better than the ultrasonics and MDA in eliminating the apical vapor
      lock, with statistically significant difference between all the three groups (p <
      0.05). CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that the apical vapor lock
      (dead water zone) is consistently formed during routine endodontic irrigation
      which impedes irrigant penetration till the working length, thereby leading to
      inefficient debridement. Hence, to eliminate this vapor lock, techniques, such as
      sonics or ultrasonics should be used along with the irrigant after shaping and
      cleaning of the root canal.

PMID- 28874644
TI  - Immunohistochemical Expression of Cathepsin D in Primary and Recurrent Squamous
      Cell Carcinoma.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the immunohistochemical
      expression of cathepsin B in primary oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and
      recurrent OSCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 50 cases were studied
      immunohistochemically for rabbit polyclonal antihuman cathepsin D expression. A
      total of 10 cases of breast carcinoma were taken as positive controls.
      Immunohistochemical staining was performed using labeled streptavidin-biotin
      technique. RESULTS: All the 45 cases of OSCC, both primary and recurrent cases
      included, showed varying grades of cathepsin D immu-noreactivity. Statistical
      significance at 5% level was observed in cathepsin D expression between the
      different grades of well, moderate, and poorly differentiated primary squamous
      cell carcinomas. In the comparison of cathepsin D staining intensity among
      primary squamous cell carcinomas with and without recurrence, a statistical
      significance between the groups was observed when the p-value was at 10%, but the
      same comparison was not significant when the p-value was at 5%. CONCLUSION:
      Cathepsin D expression in primary squamous cell carcinomas with recurrences was
      very variable as compared with primary squamous cell carcinomas without
      recurrences. Comparison of cathepsin D expression in primary with their recurrent
      counterparts showed mostly similar intensity of expression in recurrent
      carcinomas, thus suggesting its limited usefulness in predicting recurrence.
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Although cathepsin D might have shown limited usefulness
      in predicting cancer recurrence, it, however, is a proven valuable tool to detect
      the aggressiveness of various other tumors, and if corroborated with a larger
      sample may hold the key to early, more effective, and more specific treatment
      modalities for cases of oral cancer also.

PMID- 28874645
TI  - Evaluating Effectiveness of Axiostat Hemostatic Material in achieving Hemostasis
      and Healing of Extraction Wounds in Patients on Oral Antiplatelet Drugs.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Axiostat Hemostatic
      Dental dressing in achieving hemostasis postextraction and determining its effect
      on pain and healing of the extraction wound, compared with control, i.e.,
      conventional method of extraction in patients on oral antiplatelet therapy.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Totally, 40 patients on oral antiplatelet drugs were
      included in the study and overall 80 extractions were done applying split mouth
      study design, without altering patient's drug regime. Extraction sites were
      divided into two groups: Group I received Axiostat Hemostatic Dental Dressing
      (study site), and group II received conventional method; pressure pack with
      sterile gauze under biting pressure followed by suturing if required (control
      site) was used to attain hemostasis. RESULTS: Extraction sites treated with
      Axiostat Hemostatic Dressing achieved hemostasis earlier (mean 1 minute 13
      seconds) compared with control sites (mean = 14 minutes 1 second), which was also
      statistically significant (p < 0.001). Postoperative pain was considerably lower
      and significantly better healing was seen in the study group (p < 0.001) compared
      with the control. CONCLUSION: Axiostat demonstrated to be an effective hemo
      static agent that considerably lessens the bleeding time in patients on oral
      antiplatelet drugs postextraction. In addition, it even offered minimal
      postoperative pain and improved healing of the extraction wound. On comparing the
      results of this study with our study on HemCon Dental Dressing, Axiostat Dental
      Dressing (ADD) is found to be as effective and at par in achieving hemostasis in
      patients on oral antiplatelet therapy. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The past few
      decades have seen an upsurge in use of low-dose aspirin either alone or in
      combination with other drugs. When these patients require dental/maxillofacial
      treatment, earlier concept of stopping these medications is associated with
      increased risk of thromboembolic event. The present study highlights an
      alternative approach using ADD which aids in quick hemostasis, accentuates
      healing, and reduce postoperative pain.

PMID- 28874646
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Two Different Flap Designs and Postoperative Outcome in
      the Surgical Removal of Impacted Mandibular Third Molar.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study is to compare triangular and envelope flap designs and
      the postoperative outcome in the surgical removal of impacted mandibular third
      molar. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 50 participants were assessed clinically
      and were divided randomly into two groups. Group I (participants operated by
      triangular flap) and group II (participants operated by envelope flap), with 25
      participants each between the age group of 20 and 30 years. Patient satisfaction
      was assessed subjectively using a graded scale from very satisfied to very
      unsatisfied. The degree of pain was recorded for 7 days with reference to
      predefined values on visual analog scale (VAS). Trismus was evaluated on the day
      3, day 5, and day 7 of the postoperative period in millimeters. Quantitative data
      were analyzed by unpaired t-test and qualitative data were by Fischer's exact
      test. RESULTS: The mean overall age is 25.5 years. There was no statistically
      significant difference between the study groups with respect to age. There was no
      significant association between the patient satisfaction and flap type (p =
      0.684). A significant difference between the study groups on 4th, 5th, and 6th
      days with respect to pain was observed, wherein fewer subjects operated with
      triangular flap reported pain. A highly significant difference in mouth opening
      was observed, with triangular flap group participants having a higher mouth
      opening than envelope flap subjects on day 7. CONCLUSION: The present study
      indicated that participants operated by triangular flap had a better mouth
      opening postoperatively compared with envelope flap participants, whereas there
      were no significant differences in patient satisfaction and pain scores at the
      end of the 7th day after third molar surgery. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Flap design
      is a significant factor in the surgical removal of impacted third molar, and it
      influences the severity of complications. Furthermore, it is important for
      allowing optimal visibility and access to the impacted tooth and also for
      subsequent healing of the surgically created defect.

PMID- 28874647
TI  - Force Decay Characteristics of commonly used Elastomeric Chains on Exposure to
      various Mouth Rinses with different Alcohol Concentration: An in vitro Study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to test the effect of varying alcohol
      concentrations of various commercially available mouth-washes on force decay of
      elastomeric chains in prestretched and unstretched condition. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of five specimen groups were tested with a total sample size of
      180 specimens. A specimen is described as a three-link, short module, clear
      elastomeric chain (3M Unitek, Ortho Plus, Ortho Organizer). The control and test
      groups were independently submerged in separate 37 degrees C artificial saliva to
      simulate the oral conditions. Effects of different solution groups and time
      (initial, 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days) on three different elastomeric chains and
      force (cN) are analyzed with two-way analysis of variance; pair-wise comparisons
      are done by t-test. RESULTS: Higher mean force was recorded initially followed by
      24 hours >7 days >14 days >21 days and 28 days respectively. The difference in
      mean force decay among the different time intervals was found to be statistically
      significant (p < 0.001). Among the different solutions, higher mean force was
      recorded in 21.6% alcohol mixture > Listerine 8.38% > Wokadine > alcohol mixture
      8.38% > artificial saliva. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, alcohol-containing mouth
      rinses cause an increase in force decay of elastomeric chain over time. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: These mouth rinses are commonly recommended during orthodontic
      treatment. The orthodontist can know better that the alcohol content of the mouth
      rinses and the structural and molecular modification results in the decay of
      elastomeric chain.

PMID- 28874648
TI  - Incidence of Prosthetic Complications associated with Implant-borne Prosthesis in
      a Sleep Disorder Center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the common prevalent
      conditions present worldwide. The process of abnormal habits related to clenching
      and grinding of teeth is referred to as bruxism and is characterized under the
      heading of parafunctional activity of the masticatory system. Osseointegrated
      dental implants represent advancements in the field of odontology. Despite its
      high success rate, failure and complications are often associated with dental
      implant treatment due to a number of factors. Hence, we aimed for the present
      study to assess the incidence of prosthetic complications in patients
      rehabilitated with implant-borne prosthesis in a sleep disorder unit. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: The present study included the assessment of all the patients who
      underwent prosthetic rehabilitation by dental implants. An experienced registered
      prosthodontist was given duty for examination of all the cases from the record
      file data. Prosthetic complications in the patients were identified using
      photographs, radiographs, and all other relevant data of the patients obtained
      from the record files. All types of complications and other factors were recorded
      separately and analyzed. RESULTS: While correlating the prosthetic complications
      in OSA patients grouped based on number of dental implants, nonsignificant
      results were obtained. Significant correlation was observed while comparing the
      prosthetic complications divided based on type of prosthesis. Fracture of the
      porcelain was observed in four and eight cases respectively, of screwed and
      cemented dental implant cases. CONCLUSION: Some amount of significant correlation
      existed between the incidences of prosthetic complications and OSA. CLINICAL
      SIGNIFICANCE: Proper history of the patients undergoing dental implant procedures
      should be taken to avoid failure.

PMID- 28874649
TI  - Quantitative Assessment of apically Extruded Bacteria using different
      Instrumentation Techniques and Preparation Taper.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cleaning and shaping of the pulp canal is one of the most important
      steps of endodontic therapy. Serious complications occur by the apical extrusion
      of bacteria during the instrumentation procedures. Both crown-down (CD) and full
      length linear motion (FM) techniques are routinely used as a component of taper
      rotary instrument procedures for achievement of thorough cleaning and shaping of
      the pulp canal space. Hence, we aimed for this study to assess the change in the
      amount of apically extruded bacteria using CD and FM instrumentation techniques
      produced by differences in taper between the instruments used during
      biomechanical preparation of root canals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present
      study included assessments of 132 extracted maxillary central incisor teeth. To
      achieve a uniform teeth length of 21 mm, the height of the tooth crown was
      reduced for preserving the coronal portion of teeth. A modified glass vial model
      was constructed for the estimation of amount of bacterial extrusion through the
      apical region. For filling of each pulp canal specimen, 20 mL of Enterococcus
      faecalis suspension was used followed by the use of a number 10 K-file for
      carrying the bacteria down the lengths of pulp canals. All the contaminated teeth
      specimens were divided into six study groups with groups I to III containing
      specimens prepared in the CD manner, while groups IV to VI contained specimens
      prepared in the FM manner. Six teeth were taken as negative control with three
      specimens with each technique, and another six specimens were taken as positive
      controls. Cultivable bacterial counts were determined by evaluating 100 mL saline
      solution from each vial followed by its inoculation on blood agar. All the colony
      forming unit (CFU) values were log-transformed (base 10), and the results were
      analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software. RESULTS: A
      significantly lower quantity of CFU values was observed during CD instrumentation
      procedures with 0.02 files in comparison with all other study groups. However,
      while comparing both the instrumentation procedures when different taper files,
      other than 0.02 taper, were used for biomechanical preparation of root canal,
      nonsignificant results were obtained. CONCLUSION: With 0.02 taper preparations,
      significantly less amount of extrusion of bacteria is associated when done with
      CD technique. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: No change in the amount of apical extrusion
      of bacteria will be seen by changing the type of instrumentation procedures.
      Amount of bacteria extruded can be minimized using 0.02 taper. Key words:
      Bacteria, Instrumentation, Taper.

PMID- 28874650
TI  - Comparison of Proinflammatory Cytokine Levels in Gingival Crevicular Fluid around
      Dental Implants with Ceramic and Titanium Abutments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Considering the high success rate of osseoin-tegration, there is ever
      increasing use of dental implants. The mechanisms and biologic response of peri
      implant tissues are different depending on the biocompatibility of the implant
      material. The aim of this study was to compare the proinflammatory cytokine
      levels in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) around dental implants with ceramic
      and titanium abutments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the patients with dental
      implants referring to two private offices of two prosthodontists from June to
      August 2016 were examined in relation to implant health, and eligible subjects,
      based on inclusion criteria, were included in this study with a slit-mouth
      design. In this context, on one side titanium implants and, on the other side,
      ceramic implants were used. Samples were collected from the peri-implant sulcus
      in each patient and sent to the immunology laboratory for determination of
      interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1beta proinflammatory cytokine levels using an enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay kit. Data were analyzed with Statistical Package for
      the Social Sciences version 16. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
      RESULTS: The results showed lower levels of IL-1beta and IL-6 in the GCF around
      ceramic abutments compared with titanium implants. In addition, statistical
      comparison between IL-6 and IL-1beta levels showed higher levels of IL-6 around
      titanium and ceramic abutments compared with IL-1beta levels. CONCLUSION: Based
      on the results of this study, the human body immune response to ceramic abutments
      is much better than that to titanium implants. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Considering
      that proinflammatory cytokine levels in GCF around ceramic abutments are lower
      than titanium ones, ceramic abutments are preferred for clinical usage.

PMID- 28874651
TI  - Evaluation of the Effect of recasting Nickel-chromium Base Metal Alloy on the
      Metal-ceramic Bond Strength: An in vitro Study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of recasting base metal
      alloy on the metal-ceramic bond strength. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 60
      test samples were prepared from new and recast nickel-chromium alloy and divided
      into six groups. In group A0, test samples were prepared from 100% new alloy.
      Groups A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5 were prepared from 50% new alloy and 50% casting
      remnants (sprue and buttons) of the previous group by weight. All these samples
      were coated with ceramic (IPS d.SIGN and Ivoclar-Vivadent), and samples were then
      subjected to three-point bending test to evaluate metal-ceramic bond strength.
      RESULTS: The values were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's
      post hoc test. The mean bond strength of group A0 was higher than that of groups
      A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5. CONCLUSION: Metal-ceramic bond strength decreased
      significantly with multiple recastings. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Bond strength
      between metal and ceramic is a crucial factor for the clinical performance of
      metal-ceramic restorations. Recasting of alloys may affect the metal oxide layer
      composition and thickness of metal-ceramic interface, and thereby the metal
      ceramic bond.

PMID- 28874652
TI  - Three-year Prospective Evaluation of Immediately Loaded Mandibular Implant
      Overdentures retained with Locator Attachments.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Immediate implant-loading protocol has progressed because of
      various clinical advantages offered by this treatment approach. However,
      available studies on edentulous patients are still few compared to those in which
      delayed implant-loading protocol was applied. AIM: This prospective study was to
      evaluate the implant survival rate and the peri-implant tissue response in a
      group of patients who received two unsplinted immediately loaded dental implants
      in the mandibular anterior region to retain a complete overdenture using locator
      attachments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 24 edentulous patients with a mean
      age of 63.4 years were involved in this study following certain inclusion
      criteria. All patients received a new set of complete dentures before implant
      positioning. Two Prima Connex tapered implants were put in the interforaminal
      area of the mandible with a flapless surgical procedure, and the prefabricated
      dentures were immediately retained with a zest locator attachment. Clinical and
      radiographic records of the patients were reviewed immediately after placement of
      the implant, at 3 months, and at 1, 2, and 3 years following fixture
      installation. The obtained data were analyzed using paired samples t-test and the
      Wilcoxon signed-rank test at 0.05 significance level. RESULTS: At 3 years, all
      implants had osseointegrated with a 100% survival rate. In addition, the total
      mean marginal bone change was -0.89 +/- 0.14 mm, and the mean periotest value was
      -7.631 +/- 0.921. CONCLUSION: Results of this study propose that immediate
      loading of mandibular implant overdentures that are retained with locator
      attachments was a feasible treatment alternative for this particular group of
      patients. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Immediate implant- loading of mandibular implant
      overdentures that are retained with locator attachments is a reliable treatment
      option Keywords: Immediate implant loading, Implant survival rate, Locator
      attachments, Overdenture.

PMID- 28874653
TI  - Shaping of the Root Canal System: A Multistep Technique.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this scientific work is to illustrate the technique of shaping
      the root canal system using the multistep technique. BACKGROUND: Over time,
      various endodontic instrumentation techniques have been put forward, from the
      "step-back" technique (apical-coronal) to the "crown-down" technique (coronal
      apical), the "double-flared" technique, and the most recent "single-length"
      technique. TECHNIQUE: The multistep technique involves six steps, one of the main
      objectives of these being the safety of the use of mechanical instruments with a
      reduction in the risk that they fracture. This technique ("mixed") provides for
      the use of both manual instruments in stainless steel and mechanical instruments
      in nickel titanium (Ni-Ti). CONCLUSION: The multistep technique is based on a
      standardized, flexible, and clinical protocol, which can provide for a reduction
      in the number of endodontic passages and instruments used and, therefore, a
      simplification of the operating procedure depending on both the difficulty of the
      root canals and the competence of the operator. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This
      technique is a technique for shaping the endodontic space that allows the set
      objectives of endodontic therapy to be reached in a predictable way with a
      reduced risk of iatrogenic complications.

PMID- 28874654
TI  - Agranulocytosis Induced by Sinomenine Hydrochloride.
AB  - BACKGROUND Sinomenine hydrochloride is an alkaloid that is extracted from the
      Chinese herbal plant Sinomenium acutum, and is used as a herbal medicine in the
      treatment or rheumatic disease. This report is the first to describe a case of
      sinomenine hydrochloride-induced agranulocytosis. CASE REPORT A 44-year-old woman
      with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and systemic sclerosis (SSc) was treated
      with sinomenine hydrochloride and developed agranulocytosis with a neutrophil
      count of 0.01*10^9/L. She subsequently developed an opportunistic bacterial
      infection. Bone marrow aspiration showed a severe reduction in the proportion of
      mature granulocytes. The patient discontinued sinomenine hydrochloride therapy
      and was treated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and
      antibiotics. The patient showed a return to normal granulocyte levels within ten
      days of discontinuing treatment with sinomenine hydrochloride. CONCLUSIONS The
      findings of this case report show that monitoring of bone marrow function and
      granulocyte levels should be performed during treatment with sinomenine
      hydrochloride.

PMID- 28874655
TI  - Serum Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin and Urinary Kidney Injury
      Molecule-1 as Potential Biomarkers of Subclinical Nephrotoxicity After Gadolinium
      Based and Iodinated-Based Contrast Media Exposure in Pediatric Patients with
      Normal Kidney Function.
AB  - BACKGROUND New renal biomarkers such as neutrophil gelatinase-associated
      lipocalin (NGAL) and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) show promise in early
      diagnosis of contrast media induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). The purpose of
      our study was to compare the subclinical nephrotoxicity (a condition without
      changes in standard renal biomarkers) of gadolinium-based contrast media (Gd
      DTPA, gadopentetate dimeglumine) and iodinated-based contrast media (iopromide)
      in pediatric patients with normal kidney function. MATERIAL AND METHODS The first
      group (n=58) of patients included in the study were undergoing angiography with
      iopromide, and the second group (n=65) were undergoing magnetic resonance (MR)
      angiography/urography with Gd-DTPA administration. The concentrations of NGAL and
      KIM-1 were measured four times in the urine (pre-contrast, then at four hours, 24
      hours, and 48 hours after contrast administration), and serum NGAL was measured
      at 0 (baseline), 24 hours, and 48 hours after contrast exposure. RESULTS After 24
      hours, serum NGAL increase of >=25% was noticed in 32.6% of the patients in the
      iopromide group and in 25.45% of the patients in the gadolinium group, with
      significantly higher average percent of this increase in first group (62.23% vs.
      36.44%, p=0.002). In the Gd-DTPA group, we observed a statistically significant
      increase in urinary KIM-1 24 hours after the procedure. Normalized urinary KIM-1,
      24 hours after contrast exposure, was a better predictive factor for CI-AKI than
      other biomarkers (AUC 0.757, cut off 214 pg/mg, sensitivity 83.3%, specificity
      54.2%, p=0.035). CONCLUSIONS In children with normal renal function, exposure to
      iodinated-based and gadolinium-based media might lead to subclinical
      nephrotoxicity, which could be detected using serum NGAL and urinary KIM-1.

PMID- 28874656
TI  - Land-locked mammalian Golgi reveals cargo transport between stable cisternae.
AB  - The Golgi is composed of a stack of cis, medial, trans cisternae that are
      biochemically distinct. The stable compartments model postulates that permanent
      cisternae communicate through bi-directional vesicles, while the cisternal
      maturation model postulates that transient cisternae biochemically mature to
      ensure anterograde transport. Testing either model has been constrained by the
      diffraction limit of light microscopy, as the cisternae are only 10-20 nm thick
      and closely stacked in mammalian cells. We previously described the unstacking of
      Golgi by the ectopic adhesion of Golgi cisternae to mitochondria. Here, we show
      that cargo processing and transport continue-even when individual Golgi cisternae
      are separated and "land-locked" between mitochondria. With the increased spatial
      separation of cisternae, we show using three-dimensional live imaging that cis
      Golgi and trans-Golgi remain stable in their composition and size. Hence, we
      provide new evidence in support of the stable compartments model in mammalian
      cells.The different composition of Golgi cisternae gave rise to two different
      models for intra-Golgi traffic: one where stable cisternae communicate via
      vesicles and another one where cisternae biochemically mature to ensure
      anterograde transport. Here, the authors provide evidence in support of the
      stable compartments model.

PMID- 28874657
TI  - Emergence of native peptide sequences in prebiotic replication networks.
AB  - Biopolymer syntheses in living cells are perfected by an elaborate error
      correction machinery, which was not applicable during polymerization on early
      Earth. Scientists are consequently striving to identify mechanisms by which
      functional polymers were selected and further amplified from complex prebiotic
      mixtures. Here we show the instrumental role of non-enzymatic replication in the
      enrichment of certain product(s). To this end, we analyzed a complex web of
      reactions in beta-sheet peptide networks, focusing on the formation of specific
      intermediate compounds and template-assisted replication. Remarkably, we find
      that the formation of several products in a mixture is not critically harmful,
      since efficient and selective template-assisted reactions serve as a backbone
      correction mechanism, namely, for keeping the concentration of the peptide
      containing the native backbone equal to, or even higher than, the concentrations
      of the other products. We suggest that these findings may shed light on molecular
      evolution processes that led to current biology.The synthesis of biopolymers in
      living cells is perfected by complex machinery, however this was not the case on
      early Earth. Here the authors show the role of non-enzymatic replication in the
      enrichment of certain products within prebiotically relevant mixtures.

PMID- 28874659
TI  - Internalized TSH receptors en route to the TGN induce local Gs-protein signaling
      and gene transcription.
AB  - A new paradigm of G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling at intracellular
      sites has recently emerged, but the underlying mechanisms and functional
      consequences are insufficiently understood. Here, we show that upon
      internalization in thyroid cells, endogenous TSH receptors traffic retrogradely
      to the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and activate endogenous Gs-proteins in the
      retromer-coated compartment that brings them to the TGN. Receptor internalization
      is associated with a late cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) response at the Golgi/TGN.
      Blocking receptor internalization, inhibiting PKA II/interfering with its
      Golgi/TGN localization, silencing retromer or disrupting Golgi/TGN organization
      all impair efficient TSH-dependent cAMP response element binding protein (CREB)
      phosphorylation. These results suggest that retrograde trafficking to the TGN
      induces local Gs-protein activation and cAMP/PKA signaling at a critical position
      near the nucleus, which appears required for efficient CREB phosphorylation and
      gene transcription. This provides a new mechanism to explain the functional
      consequences of GPCR signaling at intracellular sites and reveals a critical role
      for the TGN in GPCR signaling.Recent investigations suggest that G-protein
      coupled receptors (GPCRs) can signal during intracellular trafficking. Here the
      authors use fluorescence microscopy approaches to directly visualize and
      investigate functional consequences of GPCR-mediated signaling at the Golgi/trans
      Golgi network.

PMID- 28874658
TI  - Liver X receptors constrain tumor development and metastasis dissemination in
      PTEN-deficient prostate cancer.
AB  - Advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is a clinical challenge as no curative therapeutic
      is available. In this context, a better understanding of metastasis and
      resistance mechanisms in PCa is an important issue. As phosphatase and tensin
      homolog (PTEN) loss is the most common genetic lesion in such cancer, we
      investigate human data sets for mechanisms that can constrain cancer evolution in
      this setting. Here we report a liver X receptor (LXR) signature, which tightly
      correlates with PTEN loss, in PCa. Accordingly, the LXR pathway is deregulated in
      prostate carcinomas in Pten-null mice. Genetic ablation of LXRs in Pten-null
      mice, exacerbates PCa invasiveness and metastatic dissemination, which involves
      mesenchymal transition and accumulation of matrix metalloproteinases.
      Mechanistically, PTEN deletion governed LXR transcriptional activity through
      deregulation of cholesterol de novo synthesis, resulting in accumulation of
      endogenous LXR ligands. Our study therefore reveals a functional circuit linking
      PTEN and LXR, and highlights LXRs as metabolic gatekeepers that are able to
      constrain PCa progression.Treatment of prostate cancer, especially in its
      advanced stage, is still challenging; therefore, strategies to prevent metastatic
      dissemination are of great interest. Here the authors reveal a crucial role for
      liver X receptors in suppressing prostate carcinogenesis and metastatic
      progression in PTEN-null tumors.

PMID- 28874660
TI  - Integrative genomics of microglia implicates DLG4 (PSD95) in the white matter
      development of preterm infants.
AB  - Preterm birth places infants in an adverse environment that leads to abnormal
      brain development and cerebral injury through a poorly understood mechanism known
      to involve neuroinflammation. In this study, we integrate human and mouse
      molecular and neuroimaging data to investigate the role of microglia in preterm
      white matter damage. Using a mouse model where encephalopathy of prematurity is
      induced by systemic interleukin-1beta administration, we undertake gene network
      analysis of the microglial transcriptomic response to injury, extend this by
      analysis of protein-protein interactions, transcription factors and human brain
      gene expression, and translate findings to living infants using imaging genomics.
      We show that DLG4 (PSD95) protein is synthesised by microglia in immature mouse
      and human, developmentally regulated, and modulated by inflammation; DLG4 is a
      hub protein in the microglial inflammatory response; and genetic variation in
      DLG4 is associated with structural differences in the preterm infant brain. DLG4
      is thus apparently involved in brain development and impacts inter-individual
      susceptibility to injury after preterm birth.Inflammation mediated by microglia
      plays a key role in brain injury associated with preterm birth, but little is
      known about the microglial response in preterm infants. Here, the authors
      integrate molecular and imaging data from animal models and preterm infants, and
      find that microglial expression of DLG4 plays a role.

PMID- 28874661
TI  - A potent series targeting the malarial cGMP-dependent protein kinase clears
      infection and blocks transmission.
AB  - To combat drug resistance, new chemical entities are urgently required for use in
      next generation anti-malarial combinations. We report here the results of a
      medicinal chemistry programme focused on an imidazopyridine series targeting the
      Plasmodium falciparum cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase (PfPKG). The most
      potent compound (ML10) has an IC50 of 160 pM in a PfPKG kinase assay and inhibits
      P. falciparum blood stage proliferation in vitro with an EC50 of 2.1 nM. Oral
      dosing renders blood stage parasitaemia undetectable in vivo using a P.
      falciparum SCID mouse model. The series targets both merozoite egress and
      erythrocyte invasion, but crucially, also blocks transmission of mature P.
      falciparum gametocytes to Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. A co-crystal structure
      of PvPKG bound to ML10, reveals intimate molecular contacts that explain the high
      levels of potency and selectivity we have measured. The properties of this series
      warrant consideration for further development to produce an antimalarial
      drug.Protein kinases are promising drug targets for treatment of malaria. Here,
      starting with a medicinal chemistry approach, Baker et al. generate an
      imidazopyridine that selectively targets Plasmodium falciparum PKG, inhibits
      blood stage parasite growth in vitro and in mice and blocks transmission to
      mosquitoes.

PMID- 28874662
TI  - Cre/lox-assisted non-invasive in vivo tracking of specific cell populations by
      positron emission tomography.
AB  - Many pathophysiological processes are associated with proliferation, migration or
      death of distinct cell populations. Monitoring specific cell types and their
      progeny in a non-invasive, longitudinal and quantitative manner is still
      challenging. Here we show a novel cell-tracking system that combines Cre/lox
      assisted cell fate mapping with a thymidine kinase (sr39tk) reporter gene for
      cell detection by positron emission tomography (PET). We generate Rosa26
      mT/sr39tk PET reporter mice and induce sr39tk expression in platelets, T
      lymphocytes or cardiomyocytes. As proof of concept, we demonstrate that our mouse
      model permits longitudinal PET imaging and quantification of T-cell homing during
      inflammation and cardiomyocyte viability after myocardial infarction. Moreover,
      Rosa26-mT/sr39tk mice are useful for whole-body characterization of transgenic
      Cre mice and to detect previously unknown Cre activity. We anticipate that the
      Cre-switchable PET reporter mice will be broadly applicable for non-invasive long
      term tracking of selected cell populations in vivo.Non-invasive cell tracking is
      a powerful method to visualize cells in vivo under physiological and
      pathophysiological conditions. Here Thunemann et al. generate a mouse model for
      in vivo tracking and quantification of specific cell types by combining a PET
      reporter gene with Cre-dependent activation that can be exploited for any cell
      population for which a Cre mouse line is available.

PMID- 28874663
TI  - Biosynthesis of the nosiheptide indole side ring centers on a cryptic carrier
      protein NosJ.
AB  - Nosiheptide is a prototypal thiopeptide antibiotic, containing an indole side
      ring in addition to its thiopeptide-characteristic macrocylic scaffold. This
      indole ring is derived from 3-methyl-2-indolic acid (MIA), a product of the
      radical S-adenosylmethionine enzyme NosL, but how MIA is incorporated into
      nosiheptide biosynthesis remains to be investigated. Here we report functional
      dissection of a series of enzymes involved in nosiheptide biosynthesis. We show
      NosI activates MIA and transfers it to the phosphopantetheinyl arm of a carrier
      protein NosJ. NosN then acts on the NosJ-bound MIA and installs a methyl group on
      the indole C4, and the resulting dimethylindolyl moiety is released from NosJ by
      a hydrolase-like enzyme NosK. Surface plasmon resonance analysis show that the
      molecular complex of NosJ with NosN is much more stable than those with other
      enzymes, revealing an elegant biosynthetic strategy in which the reaction flux is
      controlled by protein-protein interactions with different binding
      affinities.Thiopeptides such as nosiheptide are clinically-interesting
      antimicrobial natural products. Here the authors show the functional dissection
      of a series of enzymes involved in nosiheptide biosynthesis, revealing a unique
      biosynthetic pathway that centers on a previously-unknown carrier protein.

PMID- 28874664
TI  - Signalling strength determines proapoptotic functions of STING.
AB  - Mammalian cells use cytosolic nucleic acid receptors to detect pathogens and
      other stress signals. In innate immune cells the presence of cytosolic DNA is
      sensed by the cGAS-STING signalling pathway, which initiates a gene expression
      programme linked to cellular activation and cytokine production. Whether the
      outcome of the STING response varies between distinct cell types remains largely
      unknown. Here we show that T cells exhibit an intensified STING response, which
      leads to the expression of a distinct set of genes and results in the induction
      of apoptosis. Of note, this proapoptotic STING response is still functional in
      cancerous T cells and delivery of small molecule STING agonists prevents in vivo
      growth of T-cell-derived tumours independent of its adjuvant activity. Our
      results demonstrate how the magnitude of STING signalling can shape distinct
      effector responses, which may permit for cell type-adjusted behaviours towards
      endogenous or exogenous insults.The cGAS/STING signalling pathway is responsible
      for sensing intracellular DNA and activating downstream inflammatory genes. Here
      the authors show mouse primary T cells and T leukaemia are hyperresponsive to
      STING agonist, and this strong STING signalling is associated with apoptosis
      induction.

PMID- 28874665
TI  - Endocytic sorting motif interactions involved in Nef-mediated downmodulation of
      CD4 and CD3.
AB  - Lentiviral Nefs recruit assembly polypeptide complexes and target sorting motifs
      in cellular receptors to induce their internalization. While Nef-mediated CD4
      downmodulation is conserved, the ability to internalize CD3 was lost in HIV-1 and
      its precursors. Although both functions play key roles in lentiviral replication
      and pathogenicity, the underlying structural requirements are poorly defined.
      Here, we determine the structure of SIVmac239 Nef bound to the ExxxLM motif of
      another Nef molecule at 2.5 A resolution. This provides a basis for a structural
      model, where a hydrophobic crevice in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) Nef
      targets a dileucine motif in CD4 and a tyrosine-based motif in CD3. Introducing
      key residues into this crevice of HIV-1 Nef enables CD3 binding but an additional
      N-terminal tyrosine motif is required for internalization. Our resolution of the
      CD4/Nef/AP2 complex and generation of HIV-1 Nefs capable of CD3 downregulation
      provide insights into sorting motif interactions and target discrimination of
      Nef.HIV and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) Nef proteins both stimulate the
      clathrin-mediated endocytosis of CD4 but differ in downmodulation of the immune
      receptor CD3. Here, the authors present the structure of SIV Nef bound to the
      ExxxLM motif of another Nef molecule, which allows them to propose a model how
      Nef recognizes these motifs in CD3 and CD4.

PMID- 28874666
TI  - Lineage overwhelms environmental conditions in determining rhizosphere bacterial
      community structure in a cosmopolitan invasive plant.
AB  - Plant-microbe interactions play crucial roles in species invasions but are rarely
      investigated at the intraspecific level. Here, we study these interactions in
      three lineages of a globally distributed plant, Phragmites australis. We use
      field surveys and a common garden experiment to analyze bacterial communities in
      the rhizosphere of P. australis stands from native, introduced, and Gulf lineages
      to determine lineage-specific controls on rhizosphere bacteria. We show that
      within-lineage bacterial communities are similar, but are distinct among
      lineages, which is consistent with our results in a complementary common garden
      experiment. Introduced P. australis rhizosphere bacterial communities have lower
      abundances of pathways involved in antimicrobial biosynthesis and degradation,
      suggesting a lower exposure to enemy attack than native and Gulf lineages.
      However, lineage and not rhizosphere bacterial communities dictate individual
      plant growth in the common garden experiment. We conclude that lineage is crucial
      for determination of both rhizosphere bacterial communities and plant
      fitness.Environmental factors often outweigh host heritable factors in
      structuring host-associated microbiomes. Here, Bowen et al. show that host
      lineage is crucial for determination of rhizosphere bacterial communities in
      Phragmites australis, a globally distributed invasive plant.

PMID- 28874667
TI  - Erratum: Treating tobacco dependence: guidance for primary care on life-saving
      interventions. Position statement of the IPCRG.
AB  - A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML
      version of this article.

PMID- 28874668
TI  - Topologically associating domains are ancient features that coincide with
      Metazoan clusters of extreme noncoding conservation.
AB  - Developmental genes in metazoan genomes are surrounded by dense clusters of
      conserved noncoding elements (CNEs). CNEs exhibit unexplained extreme levels of
      sequence conservation, with many acting as developmental long-range enhancers.
      Clusters of CNEs define the span of regulatory inputs for many important
      developmental regulators and have been described previously as genomic regulatory
      blocks (GRBs). Their function and distribution around important regulatory genes
      raises the question of how they relate to 3D conformation of these loci. Here, we
      show that clusters of CNEs strongly coincide with topological organisation,
      predicting the boundaries of hundreds of topologically associating domains (TADs)
      in human and Drosophila. The set of TADs that are associated with high levels of
      noncoding conservation exhibit distinct properties compared to TADs devoid of
      extreme noncoding conservation. The close correspondence between extreme
      noncoding conservation and TADs suggests that these TADs are ancient, revealing a
      regulatory architecture conserved over hundreds of millions of years.Metazoan
      genomes contain many clusters of conserved noncoding elements. Here, the authors
      provide evidence that these clusters coincide with distinct topologically
      associating domains in humans and Drosophila, revealing a conserved regulatory
      genomic architecture.

PMID- 28874670
TI  - Sargassum muticum and Jania rubens regulate amino acid metabolism to improve
      growth and alleviate salinity in chickpea.
AB  - The present study evaluates the potential of Sar gassum muticum (Sar) and Jan ia
      rubens (Jan) seaweeds for enhancing growth and mitigating soil-salinity in
      chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Under control conditions, Sar and Jan extracts
      improved chickpea growth which was attributed to their potential for increasing
      photosynthetic pigments, K+ and amino acids, particularly proline, in comparison
      with water-sprayed control. Upon stress imposition, chickpea growth was reduced
      in NaCl concentration-dependent manner, and principal component analysis (PCA)
      revealed Na+ accumulation and oxidative damage as major determinants of
      sensitivity at high salinity. Furthermore, amino acid quantification indicated
      activation/deactivation of overall metabolism in roots/shoots, as an adaptive
      strategy, for maintaining plant growth under salt stress. Sar and Jan extract
      supplementations provided stress amelioration, and PCA confirmed that improved
      growth parameters at high salinity were associated with enhanced activities of
      superoxide dismutase and peroxidase. Besides, four key amino acids, including
      serine, threonine, proline and aspartic acids, were identified from roots which
      maximally contribute to Sar- and Jan-mediated stress amelioration. Sar showed
      higher effectiveness than Jan under both control and salt stress conditions. Our
      findings highlight "bio-stimulant" properties of two seaweeds and provide
      mechanistic insight into their salt-ameliorating action which is relevant for
      both basic and applied research.

PMID- 28874669
TI  - Phenotype-driven precision oncology as a guide for clinical decisions one patient
      at a time.
AB  - Genomics-driven cancer therapeutics has gained prominence in personalized cancer
      treatment. However, its utility in indications lacking biomarker-driven treatment
      strategies remains limited. Here we present a "phenotype-driven precision
      oncology" approach, based on the notion that biological response to
      perturbations, chemical or genetic, in ex vivo patient-individualized models can
      serve as predictive biomarkers for therapeutic response in the clinic. We
      generated a library of "screenable" patient-derived primary cultures (PDCs) for
      head and neck squamous cell carcinomas that reproducibly predicted treatment
      response in matched patient-derived-xenograft models. Importantly, PDCs could
      guide clinical practice and predict tumour progression in two n = 1 co-clinical
      trials. Comprehensive "-omics" interrogation of PDCs derived from one of these
      models revealed YAP1 as a putative biomarker for treatment response and survival
      in ~24% of oral squamous cell carcinoma. We envision that scaling of the proposed
      PDC approach could uncover biomarkers for therapeutic stratification and guide
      real-time therapeutic decisions in the future.Treatment response in patient
      derived models may serve as a biomarker for response in the clinic. Here, the
      authors use paired patient-derived mouse xenografts and patient-derived primary
      culture models from head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, including metastasis,
      as models for high-throughput screening of anti-cancer drugs.

PMID- 28874671
TI  - CRISPR-Cas9 mediated one-step disabling of pancreatogenesis in pigs.
AB  - Genome editing using programmable nucleases has revolutionized biomedical
      research. CRISPR-Cas9 mediated zygote genome editing enables high efficient
      production of knockout animals suitable for studying development and relevant
      human diseases. Here we report efficient disabling pancreatogenesis in pig
      embryos via zygotic co-delivery of Cas9 mRNA and dual sgRNAs targeting the PDX1
      gene, which when combined with chimeric-competent human pluriopotent stem cells
      may serve as a suitable platform for the xeno-generation of human tissues and
      organs in pigs.

PMID- 28874673
TI  - Comparison of musculoskeletal networks of the primate forelimb.
AB  - Anatomical network analysis is a framework for quantitatively characterizing the
      topological organization of anatomical structures, thus providing a way to
      compare structural integration and modularity among species. Here we apply this
      approach to study the macroevolution of the forelimb in primates, a structure
      whose proportions and functions vary widely within this group. We analyzed
      musculoskeletal network models in 22 genera, including members of all major
      extant primate groups and three outgroup taxa, after an extensive literature
      survey and dissections. The modules of the proximal limb are largely similar
      among taxa, but those of the distal limb show substantial variation. Some network
      parameters are similar within phylogenetic groups (e.g., non-primates,
      strepsirrhines, New World monkeys, and hominoids). Reorganization of the modules
      in the hominoid hand compared to other primates may relate to functional changes
      such as coordination of individual digit movements, increased
      pronation/supination, and knuckle-walking. Surprisingly, humans are one of the
      few taxa we studied in which the thumb musculoskeletal structures do not form an
      independent anatomical module. This difference may be caused by the loss in
      humans of some intrinsic muscles associated with the digits or the acquisition of
      additional muscles that integrate the thumb more closely with surrounding
      structures.

PMID- 28874672
TI  - Unravelling a stearidonic acid-rich triacylglycerol biosynthetic pathway in the
      developing seeds of Buglossoides arvensis: A transcriptomic landscape.
AB  - Buglossoides arvensis is an emerging oilseed crop that is rich in stearidonic
      acid (SDA) and has several potential applications in human health and nutrition.
      The molecular basis of SDA biosynthesis in this plant remains unknown due to lack
      of genomic information. To unravel key genes involved in SDA-rich triacylglycerol
      (TAG) biosynthesis, we performed transcriptome sequencing of pooled mRNA from
      five different developmental stages of B. arvensis seeds using Illumina NextSeq
      platform. De novo transcriptome assembly generated 102,888 clustered transcripts
      from 39.83 million high-quality reads. Of these, 62.1% and 55.54% of transcripts
      were functionally annotated using Uniprot-Viridiplantae and KOG databases,
      respectively. A total of 10,021 SSR-containing sequences were identified using
      the MISA tool. Deep mining of transcriptome assembly using in silico tools led to
      the identification of genes involved in fatty acid and TAG biosynthesis.
      Expression profiling of 17 key transcripts involved in fatty acid desaturation
      and TAG biosynthesis showed expression patterns specific to the development stage
      that positively correlated with polyunsaturated fatty acid accumulation in the
      developing seeds. This first comprehensive transcriptome analysis provides the
      basis for future research on understanding molecular mechanisms of SDA-rich TAG
      accumulation in B. arvensis and aids in biotechnological production of SDA in
      other oilseed crops.

PMID- 28874675
TI  - Hidden Criticality of Counterion Condensation Near a Charged Cylinder.
AB  - Counterion condensation onto a charged cylinder, known as the Manning transition,
      has received a great deal of attention since it is essential to understand the
      properties of polyelectrolytes in ionic solutions. However, the current
      understanding is still far from complete and poses a puzzling question: While the
      strong-coupling theory valid at large ionic correlations suggests a discontinuous
      nature of the counterion condensation, the mean-field theory always predicts a
      continuous transition at the same critical point. This naturally leads to a
      question how one can reconcile the mean-field theory with the strong-coupling
      prediction. Here, we study the counterion condensation transition on a charged
      cylinder via Monte Carlo simulations. Varying the cylinder radius systematically
      in relation to the system size, we find that in addition to the Manning
      transition, there exists a novel transition where all counterions are bound to
      the cylinder and the heat capacity shows a drop at a finite Manning parameter. A
      finite-size scaling analysis is carried out to confirm the criticality of the
      complete condensation transition, yielding the same critical exponents with the
      Manning transition. We show that the existence of the complete condensation is
      essential to explain how the condensation nature alters from continuous to
      discontinuous transition.

PMID- 28874674
TI  - Lytic EBV infection investigated by detection of Soluble Epstein-Barr virus ZEBRA
      in the serum of patients with PTLD.
AB  - The ZEBRA protein (encoded by the BZLF1 gene), is the major transcription factor
      of EBV, expressed upon EBV lytic cycle activation. Several studies highlighted
      the critical role of EBV lytic infection as a risk factor for lymphoproliferative
      disorders like post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). Here, we use
      an antigen-capture ELISA assay specifically designed to detecting the circulating
      soluble ZEBRA (sZEBRA) in serum samples (threshold value determined at 40ng/mL).
      We retrospectively investigated a population of 66 transplanted patients
      comprising 35 PTLD. All the samples from a control population (30 EBV
      seronegative subjects and 25 immunocompetent individuals with EBV serological
      reactivation), classified as sZEBRA < 40ng/mL were assigned as negative. At PTLD
      diagnosis, EBV genome (quantified by qPCR with EBV DNA>200 copies/mL) and sZEBRA
      were detectable in 51% and 60% of cases, respectively. In the patients who
      developed a pathologically-confirmed PTLD, the mean sZEBRA value in cases, was
      399 ng/mL +/- 141 versus 53ng/mL +/- 7 in patients who did not (p  < 0,001). This
      is the first report relating to the detection of the circulating ZEBRA in serum
      specimens, as well as the first analysis dealing with the lytic cycle of EBV in
      PTLD patients with this new biomarker.

PMID- 28874676
TI  - Linc-ing Circulating Long Non-coding RNAs to the Diagnosis and Malignant
      Prediction of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms of the Pancreas.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive disease that lacks
      effective biomarkers for early detection. We hypothesized that circulating long
      non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may act as diagnostic markers of incidentally-detected
      cystic PDAC precursors known as intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs)
      and predictors of their pathology/histological classification. Using NanoString
      nCounter(r) technology, we measured the abundance of 28 candidate lncRNAs in pre
      operative plasma from a cohort of pathologically-confirmed IPMN cases of various
      grades of severity and non-diseased controls. Results showed that two lncRNAs
      (GAS5 and SRA) aided in differentiating IPMNs from controls. An 8-lncRNA
      signature (including ADARB2-AS1, ANRIL, GLIS3-AS1, LINC00472, MEG3, PANDA, PVT1,
      and UCA1) had greater accuracy than standard clinical and radiologic features in
      distinguishing 'aggressive/malignant' IPMNs that warrant surgical removal from
      'indolent/benign' IPMNs that can be observed. When the 8-lncRNA signature was
      combined with plasma miRNA data and quantitative 'radiomic' imaging features, the
      accuracy of predicting IPMN pathological classification improved. Our findings
      provide novel information on the ability to detect lncRNAs in plasma from
      patients with IPMNs and suggest that an lncRNA-based blood test may have utility
      as a diagnostic adjunct for identifying IPMNs and their pathology, especially
      when incorporated with biomarkers such as miRNAs, quantitative imaging features,
      and clinical data.

PMID- 28874677
TI  - 2,4-D attenuates salinity-induced toxicity by mediating anatomical changes,
      antioxidant capacity and cation transporters in the roots of rice cultivars.
AB  - Growth regulator herbicides are widely used in paddy fields to control weeds,
      however their role in conferring environmental stress tolerance in the crop
      plants are still elusive. In this study, the effects of recommended dose of 2,4
      dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)  on growth, oxidative damage, antioxidant
      defense, regulation of cation transporter genes and anatomical changes in the
      roots of rice cultivars XS 134 (salt resistant) and ZJ 88 (salt sensitive) were
      investigated under different levels of saline stress. Individual treatments of
      saline stress and 2,4-D application induced oxidative damage as evidenced by
      decreased root growth, enhanced ROS production, more membrane damage and Na+
      accumulation in sensitive cultivar compared to the tolerant cultivar. Conversely,
      combined treatments of 2,4-D and saline stress significantly alleviated the
      growth inhibition and oxidative stress in roots of rice cultivars by modulating
      lignin and callose deposition, redox states of AsA, GSH, and related enzyme
      activities involved in the antioxidant defense system. The expression analysis of
      nine cation transporter genes showed altered and differential gene expression in
      salt-stressed roots of sensitive and resistant cultivars. Together, these results
      suggest that 2,4-D differentially regulates the Na+ and K+ levels, ROS
      production, antioxidant defense, anatomical changes and cation transporters/genes
      in roots of rice cultivars.

PMID- 28874678
TI  - Mitochondrial cyclophilin D ablation is associated with the activation of
      Akt/p70S6K pathway in the mouse kidney.
AB  - The mitochondrial matrix protein cyclophilin D (CypD) is an essential component
      of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP). Here we characterized
      the effects of CypD ablation on bioenergetics in the kidney. CypD loss triggers a
      metabolic shift in Ppif-/- male and female mouse kidneys towards glycolysis and
      Krebs cycle activity. The shift is accompanied by increased glucose consumption
      and a transcriptional upregulation of effectors of glucose metabolism in the
      kidney. These included activation of Akt, AMPK (only in males) and p70S6K
      kinases. Gender specific differences between the Ppif-/- male and female mouse
      kidneys were observed including activation of pro-surviving ERK1/2 kinase and
      inhibited expression of pro-apoptotic and pro-fibrotic JNK and TGFbeta1 proteins
      in Ppif-/- females. They also showed the highest expression of phosphorylated
      ERK1/2 and Akt S473 proteins of all four investigated animal groups. Furthermore,
      Ppif-/- females showed higher lactate concentrations and ATP/ADP-ratios in the
      kidney than males. These metabolic and transcriptional modifications could
      provide an additional level of protection to Ppif-/- females. In summary, loss of
      mitochondrial CypD results in a shift in bioenergetics and in activation of
      glucose-metabolism regulating Akt/AMPK/p70S6 kinase pathways that is expected to
      affect the capability of Ppif-/- mice kidneys to react to stimuli and injury.

PMID- 28874679
TI  - The endosomal neuronal proteins Nsg1/NEEP21 and Nsg2/P19 are itinerant, not
      resident proteins of dendritic endosomes.
AB  - Membrane traffic critically regulates most aspects of neuronal function. Neurons
      express many neuronal-specific proteins that regulate membrane traffic, including
      the poorly understood small transmembrane proteins neural-specific gene 1 and 2
      (Nsg1/NEEP21 and Nsg2/P19). Nsg1 has been implicated in regulating endosomal
      recycling and sorting of several important neuronal receptors. Nsg2 is largely
      unstudied. At steady-state, Nsg1 and Nsg2 only partially co-localize with known
      endosomal compartments, and it was suggested that they mark a neuronal-specific
      endosome. Since Nsg1 localizes to and functions in the dendritic endosome, we set
      out to discover how Nsg1 and Nsg2 localization to endosomes is regulated in
      primary rat hippocampal neurons, using quadruple immunolocalization against
      endogenous proteins, live imaging of dendritic endosomes, and interference
      approaches against the endosomal regulators Rab5 and Rab7. In contrast to
      previous conclusions, we now show that Nsg1 and Nsg2 are not resident endosomal
      proteins, but traffic rapidly from the cell surface to lysosomes and have a half
      life of less than two hours. Their partial co-localization with canonical
      endosomal markers thus reflects their rapid flux towards degradation rather than
      specific targeting to a singular compartment. These findings will require
      rethinking of how this class of endosomal proteins regulates trafficking of much
      longer-lived receptors.

PMID- 28874680
TI  - Prenatal noise stress impairs HPA axis and cognitive performance in mice.
AB  - Noise stress is a common environmental pollutant whose adverse effect on
      offspring performance has been less studied. This study was novel in terms of
      using "noise" as a prenatal stress compared with physical stress to explore the
      effect of stress during gestation on HPA axis activation, cognitive performance,
      and motor coordination, as well as in investigating the effect of behavioral
      assessments on the corticosterone (CORT) levels. Three groups of C57BL/6 mice
      with a gestational history of either noise stress (NS), physical stress (PS), or
      no stress were examined in several behavioral tests. Plasma CORT level was
      significantly higher before starting the behavioral tests in NS group than the
      two other groups. It was significantly increased after the behavioral tests in
      both prenatal stressed groups relative to the controls. Stress caused anxiety
      like behavior and reduced learning and memory performance in both stressed groups
      compared to the controls, as well as decreased motor coordination in the NS group
      relative to the other groups. The findings suggested that: prenatal NS severely
      changes the HPA axis; both prenatal stressors, and particularly NS, negatively
      impair the offspring's cognitive and motor performance; and, they also cause a
      strong susceptibility to interpret environmental experiences as stressful
      conditions.

PMID- 28874681
TI  - Spatial localization of sound elicits early responses from occipital visual
      cortex in humans.
AB  - Much evidence points to an interaction between vision and audition at early
      cortical sites. However, the functional role of these interactions is not yet
      understood. Here we show an early response of the occipital cortex to sound that
      it is strongly linked to the spatial localization task performed by the observer.
      The early occipital response to a sound, usually absent, increased by more than
      10-fold when presented during a space localization task, but not during a time
      localization task. The response amplification was not only specific to the task,
      but surprisingly also to the position of the stimulus in the two hemifields. We
      suggest that early occipital processing of sound is linked to the construction of
      an audio spatial map that may utilize the visual map of the occipital cortex.

PMID- 28874683
TI  - Inter-Patient ECG Heartbeat Classification with Temporal VCG Optimized by PSO.
AB  - Classifying arrhythmias can be a tough task for a human being and automating this
      task is highly desirable. Nevertheless fully automatic arrhythmia classification
      through Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is a challenging task when the inter
      patient paradigm is considered. For the inter-patient paradigm, classifiers are
      evaluated on signals of unknown subjects, resembling the real world scenario. In
      this work, we explore a novel ECG representation based on vectorcardiogram (VCG),
      called temporal vectorcardiogram (TVCG), along with a complex network for feature
      extraction. We also fine-tune the SVM classifier and perform feature selection
      with a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Results for the inter-patient
      paradigm show that the proposed method achieves the results comparable to state
      of-the-art in MIT-BIH database (53% of Positive predictive (+P) for the
      Supraventricular ectopic beat (S) class and 87.3% of Sensitivity (Se) for the
      Ventricular ectopic beat (V) class) that TVCG is a richer representation of the
      heartbeat and that it could be useful for problems involving the cardiac signal
      and pattern recognition.

PMID- 28874682
TI  - Hydrogen peroxide dynamics in subcellular compartments of malaria parasites using
      genetically encoded redox probes.
AB  - Redox balance is essential for the survival, growth and multiplication of malaria
      parasites and oxidative stress is involved in the mechanism of action of many
      antimalarial drugs. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plays an important role in redox
      signalling and pathogen-host cell interactions. For monitoring intra- and
      subcellular redox events, highly sensitive and specific probes are required.
      Here, we stably expressed the ratiometric H2O2 redox sensor roGFP2-Orp1 in the
      cytosol and the mitochondria of Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) NF54-attB
      blood-stage parasites and evaluated its sensitivity towards oxidative stress,
      selected antimalarial drugs, and novel lead compounds. In both compartments, the
      sensor showed reproducible sensitivity towards H2O2 in the low micromolar range
      and towards antimalarial compounds at pharmacologically relevant concentrations.
      Upon short-term exposure (4 h), artemisinin derivatives, quinine and mefloquine
      impacted H2O2 levels in mitochondria, whereas chloroquine and a glucose-6
      phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) inhibitor affected the cytosol; 24 h exposure to
      arylmethylamino steroids and G6PD inhibitors revealed oxidation of mitochondria
      and cytosol, respectively. Genomic integration of an H2O2 sensor expressed in
      subcellular compartments of P. falciparum provides the basis for studying complex
      parasite-host cell interactions or drug effects with spatio-temporal resolution
      while preserving cell integrity, and sets the stage for high-throughput
      approaches to identify antimalarial agents perturbing redox equilibrium.

PMID- 28874684
TI  - Damage-free peripheral nerve stimulation by 12-ns pulsed electric field.
AB  - Modern technologies enable deep tissue focusing of nanosecond pulsed electric
      field (nsPEF) for non-invasive nerve and muscle stimulation. However, it is not
      known if PEF orders of magnitude shorter than the activation time of voltage
      gated sodium channels (VGSC) would evoke action potentials (APs). One plausible
      scenario requires the loss of membrane integrity (electroporation) and resulting
      depolarization as an intermediate step. We report, for the first time, that the
      excitation of a peripheral nerve can be accomplished by 12-ns PEF without
      electroporation. 12-ns stimuli at 4.1-11 kV (3.3-8.8 kV/cm) evoked APs similarly
      to conventional stimuli (100-250 MUs, 1-5 V, 103-515 V/m), except for having
      higher selectivity for the faster nerve fibers. Nerves sustained repeated tetanic
      stimulations (50 Hz or 100 Hz for 1 min) alternately by 12-ns PEF and by
      conventional pulses. Such tetani caused a modest AP decrease, to a similar extent
      for both types of stimuli. Nerve refractory properties were not affected. The
      lack of cumulative damages even from tens of thousands of 12-ns stimuli and the
      similarities with the conventional stimulation prove VGSC activation by nsPEF
      without nerve membrane damage.

PMID- 28874685
TI  - Relative contribution of groundwater to plant transpiration estimated with stable
      isotopes.
AB  - Water stored underground in the saturated and subsurface zones below the soil are
      important sources of water for plants in water-limited ecosystems. The presence
      of deep-rooted plants worldwide, however, suggests that the use of groundwater is
      not restricted to arid and seasonally dry ecosystems. We compiled the available
      data (71 species) on the relative contribution of groundwater to plant water
      estimated using stable isotopes and mixing models, which provided information
      about relative groundwater use, and analyzed their variation across different
      climates, seasons, plant types, edaphic conditions, and landscape positions.
      Plant use of groundwater was more likely at sites with a pronounced dry season,
      and represented on average 49 per cent of transpired water in dry seasons and 28
      per cent in wet seasons. The relative contribution of groundwater to plant-water
      uptake was higher on rocky substrates (saprolite, fractured bedrock), which had
      reduced groundwater uptake when this source was deep belowground. In addition, we
      found that the connectivity between groundwater pools and plant water may be
      quantitatively larger and more widespread than reported by recent global
      estimations based on isotopic averaged values. Earth System Models should account
      for the feedbacks between transpiration and groundwater recharge.

PMID- 28874686
TI  - Targeted error-suppressed quantification of circulating tumor DNA using semi
      degenerate barcoded adapters and biotinylated baits.
AB  - Ultrasensitive methods for rare allele detection are critical to leverage the
      full potential offered by liquid biopsies. Here, we describe a novel molecular
      barcoding method for the precise detection and quantification of circulating
      tumor DNA (ctDNA). The major benefits of our design include straightforward and
      cost-effective production of barcoded adapters to tag individual DNA molecules
      before PCR and sequencing, and better control over cross-contamination between
      experiments. We validated our approach in a cohort of 24 patients with a broad
      spectrum of cancer diagnoses by targeting and quantifying single-nucleotide
      variants (SNVs), indels and genomic rearrangements in plasma samples. By using
      personalized panels targeting a priori known mutations, we demonstrate
      comprehensive error-suppression capabilities for SNVs and detection thresholds
      for ctDNA below 0.1%. We also show that our semi-degenerate barcoded adapters
      hold promise for noninvasive genotyping in the absence of tumor biopsies and
      monitoring of minimal residual disease in longitudinal plasma samples. The
      benefits demonstrated here include broad applicability, flexibility,
      affordability and reproducibility in the research and clinical settings.

PMID- 28874687
TI  - Cell based assay identifies TLR2 and TLR4 stimulating impurities in Interferon
      beta.
AB  - Immunogenicity can have devastating consequences on the safety and efficacy of
      therapeutic proteins. Therefore, evaluating and mitigating the risk of product
      immunogenicity is critical for the development these products. This study, showed
      that Betaseron and Extavia, which are reported to be more immunogenic among
      IFNbeta products in clinical usage, contain residual innate immune response
      modulating impurities (IIRMIs) capable of activating NF-kappaB and induced
      expression of inflammatory mediators. These IIRMIs were undetectable in Rebif or
      Avonex. The stimulatory effect was attributed solely to IIRMIs because it was
      evident in murine cells lacking the interferon receptor (IFNAR). The IIRMIs in
      Betaseron and Extavia triggered NF-kappaB activation in HEK-293 cells bearing
      TLR2 and TLR4 in MyD88 dependent manner. Importantly, the IIRMIs in Betaseron
      induced up-regulation of IL-6, IL-1beta, and ccl5 in the skin of IFNAR knock out
      mice following subcutaneous administration. This indicates that trace level
      IIRMIs in Betaseron could contribute to the higher immunogenicity rates seen in
      clinics. Together these data suggest that cell based assays can reveal subtle but
      clinically relevant differences in IIRMIs following manufacturing changes or
      between products with the same active ingredients but different manufacturing
      processes. Appreciating these differences may inform immunogenicity risk
      assessments.

PMID- 28874688
TI  - Maternal Habitual Midday Napping Duration and Frequency are Associated with High
      Birthweight.
AB  - Habitual midday napping is a common habit in China, especially for pregnant
      women. The purpose of this study was to examine whether duration and frequency of
      maternal habitual midday napping were associated with high birthweight (HBW). A
      total of 10,482 participants from Healthy Baby Cohort were include in our
      analysis. The information of the mothers and their infants were abstracted from
      medical records, or obtained from questionnaire. Logistic regression models were
      used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of
      habitual midday napping duration and frequency with HBW. Of the participants,
      8,705 (83.0%) reported having habitual midday napping. Duration and frequency of
      napping had a positive association with HBW without adjustment. After controlling
      for potential confounders, increasing risk of HBW was observed in participants
      who napped 1.5-2 hours (OR, 1.50, 95% CI, 1.14, 1.98), and >=2 hours (OR, 1.35,
      95% CI, 1.03, 1.78) compared with no habitual midday napping. Participants who
      took naps >=5 days/week had a higher risk of HBW (OR, 1.37, 95% CI, 1.07, 1.77)
      compared with the women without naps. This suggests that longer (>=1.5 hours) and
      more frequent (>=5 days/week) maternal habitual midday napping were associated
      with an increased risk of HBW.

PMID- 28874689
TI  - Modeling protein quaternary structure of homo- and hetero-oligomers beyond binary
      interactions by homology.
AB  - Cellular processes often depend on interactions between proteins and the
      formation of macromolecular complexes. The impairment of such interactions can
      lead to deregulation of pathways resulting in disease states, and it is hence
      crucial to gain insights into the nature of macromolecular assemblies. Detailed
      structural knowledge about complexes and protein-protein interactions is growing,
      but experimentally determined three-dimensional multimeric assemblies are
      outnumbered by complexes supported by non-structural experimental evidence. Here,
      we aim to fill this gap by modeling multimeric structures by homology, only using
      amino acid sequences to infer the stoichiometry and the overall structure of the
      assembly. We ask which properties of proteins within a family can assist in the
      prediction of correct quaternary structure. Specifically, we introduce a
      description of protein-protein interface conservation as a function of
      evolutionary distance to reduce the noise in deep multiple sequence alignments.
      We also define a distance measure to structurally compare homologous multimeric
      protein complexes. This allows us to hierarchically cluster protein structures
      and quantify the diversity of alternative biological assemblies known today. We
      find that a combination of conservation scores, structural clustering, and
      classical interface descriptors, can improve the selection of homologous protein
      templates leading to reliable models of protein complexes.

PMID- 28874690
TI  - A single neonatal administration of Bisphenol A induces higher tumour weight
      associated to changes in tumour microenvironment in the adulthood.
AB  - BPA is an oestrogenic endocrine disrupting chemical compound. Exposure to BPA in
      as early as pregnancy leads to lifelong effects. Since endocrine and immune
      systems interact in a bidirectional manner, endocrine disruption may cause
      permanent alterations of the immune system, affecting a future anti-tumoral
      response. Neonate (PND 3) female syngeneic BALB/c mice were exposed to a single
      dose of 250 ug/kg BPA. Once sexual maturity was reached, a mammary tumour was
      induced injecting 4T1 cells in situ, these cells are derived from a spontaneous
      adenocarcinoma in a BALB/c mouse and therefore allows for an immunocompetent
      recipient. After 25 days of injection, showing no major endocrine alterations,
      BPA-exposed mice developed larger tumours. Tumour leukocytic infiltrate analysis
      revealed a higher proportion of regulatory T lymphocytes in the BPA-exposed
      group. RT-PCR analysis of tumour samples showed a decreased expression of TNF
      alpha and IFN-gamma, as well as the M2 macrophage marker Fizz-1 in the BPA
      exposed group. Flow cytometry analysis revealed differences in ERalpha expression
      by T lymphocytes, macrophages and NK cells, both associated to BPA exposure and
      tumour development. These findings show a new aspect whereby early life BPA
      exposure can contribute to breast cancer development and progression by
      modulating the anti-tumoral immune response.

PMID- 28874691
TI  - Prediction of miRNA-disease Associations using an Evolutionary Tuned Latent
      Semantic Analysis.
AB  - MicroRNAs, small non-coding elements implied in gene regulation, are very
      interesting biomarkers for various diseases such as cancers. They represent
      potential prodigious biotechnologies for early diagnosis and gene therapies.
      However, experimental verification of microRNA-disease associations are time
      consuming and costly, so that computational modeling is a proper solution.
      Previously, we designed MiRAI, a predictive method based on distributional
      semantics, to identify new associations between microRNA molecules and human
      diseases. Our preliminary results showed very good prediction scores compared to
      other available methods. However, MiRAI performances depend on numerous
      parameters that cannot be tuned manually. In this study, a parallel evolutionary
      algorithm is proposed for finding an optimal configuration of our predictive
      method. The automatically parametrized version of MiRAI achieved excellent
      performance. It highlighted new miRNA-disease associations, especially the
      potential implication of mir-188 and mir-795 in various diseases. In addition,
      our method allowed to detect several putative false associations contained in the
      reference database.

PMID- 28874692
TI  - Silver nanoparticle loaded collagen/chitosan scaffolds promote wound healing via
      regulating fibroblast migration and macrophage activation.
AB  - Treatment of full-thickness skin defects poses significant clinical challenges
      including risk of infection and severe scaring. Silver nanoparticle (NAg), an
      effective antimicrobial agent, has provided a promising therapeutic method for
      burn wounds. However, the detailed mechanism remains unknown. Hence, we
      constructed a metallic nanosilver particles-collagen/chitosan hybrid scaffold
      (NAg-CCS) and investigated its potential effects on wound healing. In vitro
      scratch assay, immunofluorescence staining and antibacterial activity of the
      scaffold were all studied. In vivo NAg-CCS was applied in full-thickness skin
      defects in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats and the therapeutic effects of treatment were
      evaluated. The results showed that NAg at a concentration of 10 ppm accelerated
      the migration of fibroblasts with an increase in expression of alpha-smooth
      muscle actin (alpha-SMA). Furthermore, in vivo studies showed increased levels of
      pro-inflammatory and scar-related factors as well as alpha-SMA, while markers for
      macrophage activation were up-regulated. On day 60 post transplantation of ultra
      thin skin graft, the regenerated skin by NAg-CCS had a similar structure to
      normal skin. In summary, we demonstrated that NAg-CCS was bactericidal, anti
      inflammatory and promoted wound healing potentially by regulating fibroblast
      migration and macrophage activation, making it an ideal dermal substitute for
      wound regeneration.

PMID- 28874694
TI  - Focusing analytes from 50 MUL into 500 pL: On-chip focusing from large sample
      volumes using isotachophoresis.
AB  - The use of on-chip isotachophoresis assays for diagnostic applications is often
      limited by the small volumes of standard microfluidic channels. Overcoming this
      limitation is particularly important for detection of 'discrete' biological
      targets (such as bacteria) at low concentrations, where the volume of processed
      liquid in a standard microchannel might not contain any targets. We present a
      novel microfluidic chip that enables ITP focusing of target analytes from initial
      sample volumes of 50 MUL into a concentrated zone with a volume of 500 pL,
      corresponding to a 100,000-fold increase in mean concentration, and a 300,000
      fold increase in peak concentration. We present design considerations for
      limiting sample dispersion in such large-volume focusing (LVF) chips and discuss
      the trade-off between assay time and Joule heating, which ultimately governs the
      scalability of LVF designs. Finally, we demonstrate a 100-fold improvement of ITP
      focusing performance in the LVF chip as compared to conventional microchannels,
      and apply this enhancement to achieve highly sensitive detection of both
      molecular targets (DNA, down to 10 fM) and whole bacteria (down to 100 cfu/mL).

PMID- 28874693
TI  - Comparative secretome analysis of Rhizoctonia solani isolates with different host
      ranges reveals unique secretomes and cell death inducing effectors.
AB  - Rhizoctonia solani is a fungal pathogen causing substantial damage to many of the
      worlds' largest food crops including wheat, rice, maize and soybean. Despite
      impacting global food security, little is known about the pathogenicity
      mechanisms employed by R. solani. To enable prediction of effectors possessing
      either broad efficacy or host specificity, a combined secretome was constructed
      from a monocot specific isolate, a dicot specific isolate and broad host range
      isolate infecting both monocot and dicot hosts. Secretome analysis suggested R.
      solani employs largely different virulence mechanisms to well-studied pathogens,
      despite in many instances infecting the same host plants. Furthermore, the
      secretome of the broad host range AG8 isolate may be shaped by maintaining
      functions for saprophytic life stages while minimising opportunities for host
      plant recognition. Analysis of possible co-evolution with host plants and in
      planta up-regulation in particular, aided identification of effectors including
      xylanase and inhibitor I9 domain containing proteins able to induce cell death in
      planta. The inhibitor I9 domain was more abundant in the secretomes of a wide
      range of necrotising fungi relative to biotrophs. These findings provide novel
      targets for further dissection of the virulence mechanisms and potential avenues
      to control this under-characterised but important pathogen.

PMID- 28874695
TI  - Deep Phospho- and Phosphotyrosine Proteomics Identified Active Kinases and
      Phosphorylation Networks in Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines Resistant to Cetuximab.
AB  - Abnormality in cellular phosphorylation is closely related to oncogenesis. Thus,
      kinase inhibitors, especially tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), have been
      developed as anti-cancer drugs. Genomic analyses have been used in research on
      TKI sensitivity, but some types of TKI resistance have been unclassifiable by
      genomic data. Therefore, global proteomic analysis, especially phosphotyrosine
      (pY) proteomic analysis, could contribute to predict TKI sensitivity and overcome
      TKI-resistant cancer. In this study, we conducted deep phosphoproteomic analysis
      to select active kinase candidates in colorectal cancer intrinsically resistant
      to Cetuximab. The deep phosphoproteomic data were obtained by performing
      immobilized metal-ion affinity chromatography-based phosphoproteomic and highly
      sensitive pY proteomic analyses. Comparison between sensitive (LIM1215 and DLD1)
      and resistant cell lines (HCT116 and HT29) revealed active kinase candidates in
      the latter, most of which were identified by pY proteomic analysis. Remarkably,
      genomic mutations were not assigned in most of these kinases. Phosphorylation
      based signaling network analysis of the active kinase candidates indicated that
      SRC-PRKCD cascade was constitutively activated in HCT116 cells. Treatment with an
      SRC inhibitor significantly inhibited proliferation of HCT116 cells. In summary,
      our results based on deep phosphoproteomic data led us to propose novel
      therapeutic targets against cetuximab resistance and showed the potential for
      anti-cancer therapy.

PMID- 28874696
TI  - Metamaterial Perfect Absorber Analyzed by a Meta-cavity Model Consisting of
      Multilayer Metasurfaces.
AB  - We demonstrate that the metamaterial perfect absorber behaves as a meta-cavity
      bounded between a resonant metasurface and a metallic thin-film reflector. The
      perfect absorption is achieved by the Fabry-Perot cavity resonance via multiple
      reflections between the "quasi-open" boundary of resonator and the "close"
      boundary of reflector. The characteristic features including angle independence,
      ultra-thin thickness and strong field localization can be well explained by this
      meta-cavity model. With this model, metamaterial perfect absorber can be
      redefined as a meta-cavity exhibiting high Q-factor, strong field enhancement and
      extremely high photonic density of states, thereby promising novel applications
      for high performance sensor, infrared photodetector and cavity quantum
      electrodynamics devices.

PMID- 28874697
TI  - Quantum mixed phases of a two-dimensional polarized degenerate Fermi gas in an
      optical cavity.
AB  - The coupling of ultracold fermions to a high-finesse optical cavity can result in
      novel many-body phenomena, and has attracted significant interests at present.
      Here we consider a realization of the Fermi-Dicke model with controllable
      parameters, based on a two-dimensional polarized degenerate Fermi gas coupled to
      an optical cavity. We analytically investigate the ground-state properties of
      such system under the mean-field approximation. We find the system can exhibit a
      rich phase diagram depending on the fermion-photon coupling strength and the
      atomic resonant frequency. Contrasting to the bosonic counterpart, a first-order
      quantum phase transition between the superradiant phase and the normal phase
      featuring two Fermi surfaces can occur for the weak atomic resonant frequency,
      and there is a unique mixed phase where this normal phase and the superradiant
      phase coexist. The experimental detection of our results is also discussed.

PMID- 28874698
TI  - Comparative transcriptome analysis of the Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus
      vannamei) muscle reveals the molecular basis of residual feed intake.
AB  - Feed efficiency is an economically important trait in genetic improvement
      programs of L. vannamei. Residual feed intake (RFI), an ideal measure of feed
      efficiency, is the difference between observed feed intake and expected feed
      requirement predicted from maintenance and production. Exploring the molecular
      basis of RFI is essential to facilitate the genetic breeding of feed efficiency
      in L. vannamei. However, few studies have been reported in this aspect. In this
      study, we sequenced muscle transcriptomes of a high -efficiency group, a low 
      efficiency group and a control group originating from two families, and compared
      the gene expression patterns between each extreme group and the control group. A
      total of 383 differentially expressed genes were identified, most of which were
      involved in cell proliferation, growth and signaling, glucose homeostasis, energy
      and nutrients metabolism. Functional enrichment analysis of these genes revealed
      13 significantly enriched biological pathways, including signaling pathways such
      as PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, AMPK signaling pathway and mTOR signaling pathway,
      as well as some important pathways such as ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, cell
      cycle, pentose phosphate pathway and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis. These genes and
      pathways provide initial insight into the molecular mechanisms driving the feed
      efficiency in L. vannamei.

PMID- 28874700
TI  - Contribution of C1485T mutation in the HBx gene to human and murine
      hepatocarcinogenesis.
AB  - Although Hepatitis B virus (HBV) X gene mutations are frequently detected in HBV
      related human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, causative HBx mutations in
      the development of HCC have not yet been determined. We herein identified C1485T
      and C1653T mutations in the HBx gene as independent risk of HCC for HBV through
      the analysis using serum from chronic hepatitis B patients. We generated
      transgenic mice expressing wild-type (WT-HBxTg) and mutant (C1485T-HBxTg) HBx to
      assess the carcinogenic potential of mutated HBx. C1485T-HBxTg mice were more
      susceptible to diethylnitrosamine-induced hepatocarcinogenesis than WT-HBxTg mice
      and control non-Tg mice. The promotion of hepatocarcinogenesis in C1485T-HBxTg
      mice was accompanied by the activation of beta-catenin and Jun N-terminal kinase
      (JNK) signaling pathways as well as the production of reactive oxygen species,
      whereas the activation of nuclear factor-kappa B in the livers of C1485T-HBxTg
      mice was attenuated. These results demonstrate that the HBx C1485T mutation
      contributes to human and murine hepatocarcinogenesis.

PMID- 28874699
TI  - Metal concentrations and distributions in the human olfactory bulb in Parkinson's
      disease.
AB  - In Parkinson's disease (PD), the olfactory bulb is typically the first region in
      the body to accumulate alpha-synuclein aggregates. This pathology is linked to
      decreased olfactory ability, which becomes apparent before any motor symptoms
      occur, and may be due to a local metal imbalance. Metal concentrations were
      investigated in post-mortem olfactory bulbs and tracts from 17 human subjects.
      Iron (p < 0.05) and sodium (p < 0.01) concentrations were elevated in the PD
      olfactory bulb. Combining laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass
      spectrometry and immunohistochemistry, iron and copper were evident at very low
      levels in regions of alpha-synuclein aggregation. Zinc was high in these regions,
      and free zinc was detected in Lewy bodies, mitochondria, and lipofuscin of cells
      in the anterior olfactory nucleus. Increased iron and sodium in the human PD
      olfactory bulb may relate to the loss of olfactory function. In contrast,
      colocalization of free zinc and alpha-synuclein in the anterior olfactory nucleus
      implicate zinc in PD pathogenesis.

PMID- 28874702
TI  - Non-random transmission of parental alleles into crop-wild and crop-weed hybrid
      lineages separated by a transgene and neutral identifiers in rice.
AB  - It is essential to assess environmental impact of transgene flow from genetically
      engineered crops to their wild or weedy relatives before commercialization.
      Measuring comparative trials of fitness in the transgene-flow-resulted hybrids
      plays the key role in the assessment, where the segregated isogenic hybrid
      lineages/subpopulations with or without a transgene of the same genomic
      background are involved. Here, we report substantial genomic differentiation
      between transgene-present and -absent lineages (F2-F3) divided by a glyphosate
      resistance transgene from a crop-wild/weed hybrid population in rice. We further
      confirmed that such differentiation is attributed to increased frequencies of
      crop-parent alleles in transgenic hybrid lineages at multiple loci across the
      genome, as estimated by SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers. Such preferential
      transmission of parental alleles was also found in equally divided crop-wild/weed
      hybrid lineages with or without a particular neutral SSR identifier. We conclude
      that selecting either a transgene or neutral marker as an identifier to create
      hybrid lineages will result in different genomic background of the lineages due
      to non-random transmission of parental alleles. Non-random allele transmission
      may misrepresent the outcomes of fitness effects. We therefore propose seeking
      other means to evaluate fitness effects of transgenes for assessing environmental
      impact caused by crop-to-wild/weed gene flow.

PMID- 28874701
TI  - Restless legs syndrome in Parkinson disease: Clinical characteristics, abnormal
      iron metabolism and altered neurotransmitters.
AB  - Relationships among clinical characteristics, iron metabolism and
      neurotransmitters in Parkinson disease (PD) patients with restless legs syndrome
      (RLS) remains unclear. We divided 218 patients into PD with and with no RLS (PD
      RLS and PD-NRLS) groups by RLS-rating scale (RLS-RS) score. Motor and non-motor
      symptoms were rated by related scales. Iron and related proteins, and
      neurotransmitters in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum were measured. PD-RLS
      frequency was 40.37%. PD-RLS group had longer duration, higher stage and scores
      of motor symptoms, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, fatigue and apathy, and
      increased transferrin and decreased iron, ferritin, dopamine (DA) and 5
      hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in CSF. In CSF of PD-RLS group, RLS-RS score was
      positively correlated with transferrin level and negatively correlated with iron
      and ferritin levels; RLS-RS score was negatively correlated with DA and 5-HT
      levels; transferrin level was negatively correlated with DA and 5-HT levels, and
      ferritin level was positively correlated with DA level. In serum, PD-RLS group
      had decreased iron and transferrin levels, which were negatively correlated with
      RLS-RS score. PD-RLS was common and severer in motor and some non-motor symptoms.
      Iron deficiency induced by its metabolism dysfunctions in peripheral and central
      systems might cause PD-RLS through decreasing brain DA and 5-HT.

PMID- 28874703
TI  - Exact broadband excitation of two-level systems by mapping spins to springs.
AB  - Designing accurate and high-fidelity broadband pulses is an essential component
      in conducting quantum experiments across fields from protein spectroscopy to
      quantum optics. However, constructing exact and analytic broadband pulses remains
      unsolved due to the nonlinearity and complexity of the underlying spin system
      dynamics. Here, we present a nontrivial dynamic connection between nonlinear spin
      and linear spring systems and show the surprising result that such nonlinear and
      complex pulse design problems are equivalent to designing controls to steer
      linear harmonic oscillators under optimal forcing. We derive analytic broadband
      pi/2 and pi pulses that perform exact, or asymptotically exact, excitation and
      inversion over a defined bandwidth, and also with bounded amplitude. This
      development opens up avenues for pulse sequence design and lays a foundation for
      understanding the control of two-level systems.Coherent control of two-level
      systems is crucial for achieving fidelity in spectroscopy and quantum computing,
      but inherent nonlinearities and parameter variation have, to date, required an
      approximate, numerical approach. Here, Li et al. show how to map a spin ensemble
      to a spring model so analytic pulses can be designed using linear methods.

PMID- 28874704
TI  - NF-kappaB inhibitors, unique gamma-pyranol-gamma-lactams with sulfide and
      sulfoxide moieties from Hawaiian plant Lycopodiella cernua derived fungus
      Paraphaeosphaeria neglecta FT462.
AB  - LC-UV/MS-based metabolomic analysis of the Hawaiian endophytic fungus
      Paraphaeosphaeria neglecta FT462 led to the identification of four unique
      mercaptolactated gamma-pyranol-gamma-lactams, paraphaeosphaerides E-H (1-4)
      together with one gamma-lactone (5) and the methyl ester of compound 2 (11). The
      structures of the new compounds (1-5 and 11) were elucidated through the analysis
      of HRMS and NMR spectroscopic data. The absolute configuration was determined by
      chemical reactions with sodium borohydride, hydrogen peroxide, alpha-methoxy
      alpha-(trifluoromethyl)phenylacetyl chlorides (Mosher reagents), and DP4 + NMR
      calculations. All the compounds were tested against STAT3, A2780 and A2780cisR
      cancer cell lines, E. coli JW2496, and NF-kappaB. Compounds 1 and 3 strongly
      inhibited NF-kappaB with IC50 values of 7.1 and 1.5 MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28874706
TI  - Synthesis of Arbitrary Quantum Circuits to Topological Assembly: Systematic,
      Online and Compact.
AB  - It is challenging to transform an arbitrary quantum circuit into a form protected
      by surface code quantum error correcting codes (a variant of topological quantum
      error correction), especially if the goal is to minimise overhead. One of the
      issues is the efficient placement of magic state distillation sub circuits, so
      called distillation boxes, in the space-time volume that abstracts the
      computation's required resources. This work presents a general, systematic,
      online method for the synthesis of such circuits. Distillation box placement is
      controlled by so-called schedulers. The work introduces a greedy scheduler
      generating compact box placements. The implemented software, whose source code is
      available at www.github.com/alexandrupaler/tqec, is used to illustrate and
      discuss synthesis examples. Synthesis and optimisation improvements are proposed.

PMID- 28874705
TI  - Serum lysophospholipid levels are altered in dyslipidemic hamsters.
AB  - Dyslipidemias are common disorders that predispose individuals to severe
      diseases. It is known that healthy living habits can prevent dyslipidemias if
      they are diagnosed properly. Therefore, biomarkers that assist in diagnosis are
      essential. The aim of this study was to identify biomarkers of dyslipidemia
      progression, which in turn disclose its etiology. These findings will pave the
      way for examinations of the regulatory mechanisms involved in dyslipidemias.
      Hamsters were fed either a normal-fat diet (NFD) or a high-fat diet. Some of the
      NFD-fed animals were further treated with the hyperlipidemic agent Poloxamer 407.
      Non-targeted metabolomics was used to investigate progressive changes in unknown
      serum metabolites. The hepatic expression of putative biomarker-related genes was
      also analyzed. The serum levels of lysophospholipids (Lyso-PLs) and their related
      enzymes lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), secreted phospholipase A2
      (sPLA2) and paraoxonase-1 were altered in dyslipidemic hamsters.
      Lysophosphatidylcholine levels were increased in diet-induced dyslipidemic
      groups, whereas lysophosphatidylethanolamine levels increased in response to the
      chemical treatment. The liver was significantly involved in regulating the levels
      of these molecules, based on the modified expression of endothelial lipase
      (Lipg), sPLA2 (Pla2g2a) and acyltransferases (Lcat and Lpcat3). We concluded that
      Lyso-PL evaluation could aid in the comprehensive diagnosis and management of
      lipid disorders.

PMID- 28874707
TI  - Comprehensive transcriptome profiling of Salvia miltiorrhiza for discovery of
      genes associated with the biosynthesis of tanshinones and phenolic acids.
AB  - Tanshinones and phenolic acids are crucial bioactive compounds biosynthesized in
      Salvia miltiorrhiza. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is an effective elicitor to enhance
      the production of phenolic acids and tanshinones simultaneously, while yeast
      extract (YE) is used as a biotic elicitor that only induce tanshinones
      accumulation. However, little was known about the different molecular mechanism.
      To identify the downstream and regulatory genes involved in tanshinone and
      phenolic acid biosynthesis, we conducted comprehensive transcriptome profiling of
      S. miltiorrhiza hairy roots treated with either MeJA or YE. Total 55588 unigenes
      were assembled from about 1.72 billion clean reads, of which 42458 unigenes
      (76.4%) were successfully annotated. The expression patterns of 19 selected genes
      in the significantly upregulated unigenes were verified by quantitative real-time
      PCR. The candidate downstream genes and other cytochrome P450s involved in the
      late steps of tanshinone and phenolic acid biosynthesis pathways were screened
      from the RNA-seq dataset based on co-expression pattern analysis with specific
      biosynthetic genes. Additionally, 375 transcription factors were identified to
      exhibit a significant up-regulated expression pattern in response to induction.
      This study can provide us a valuable gene resource for elucidating the molecular
      mechanism of tanshinones and phenolic acids biosynthesis in hairy roots of S.
      miltiorrhiza.

PMID- 28874708
TI  - Origins of Dirac cone formation in AB3 and A3B (A, B = C, Si, and Ge) binary
      monolayers.
AB  - Compared to the pure two-dimensional (2D) graphene and silicene, the binary 2D
      system silagraphenes, consisting of both C and Si atoms, possess more diverse
      electronic structures depending on their various chemical stoichiometry and
      arrangement pattern of binary components. By performing calculations with both
      density functional theory and a Tight-binding model, we elucidated the formation
      of Dirac cone (DC) band structures in SiC3 and Si3C as well as their analogous
      binary monolayers including SiGe3, Si3Ge, GeC3, and Ge3C. A "ring coupling"
      mechanism, referring to the couplings among the six ring atoms, was proposed to
      explain the origin of DCs in AB3 and A3B binary systems, based on which we
      discussed the methods tuning the SiC3 systems into self-doped systems. The first
      principles quantum transport calculations by non-equilibrium Green's function
      method combined with density functional theory showed that the electron
      conductance of SiC3 and Si3C lie between those of graphene and silicene,
      proportional to the carbon concentrations. Understanding the DC formation
      mechanism and electronic properties sheds light onto the design principles for
      novel Fermi Dirac systems used in nanoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28874709
TI  - Differences between the most used equations in BAT-human studies to estimate
      parameters of skin temperature in young lean men.
AB  - Cold exposure is necessary to activate human brown adipose tissue (BAT),
      resulting in heat production. Skin temperature is an indirect measure to monitor
      the body's reaction to cold. The aim of this research was to study whether the
      most used equations to estimate parameters of skin temperature in BAT-human
      studies measure the same values of temperature in young lean men (n = 11: 23.4 +/
      0.5 years, fat mass: 19.9 +/- 1.2%). Skin temperature was measured with 26
      ibuttons at 1-minute intervals in warm and cold room conditions. We used 12
      equations to estimate parameters of mean, proximal, and distal skin temperature
      as well as skin temperature gradients. Data were analysed with Temperatus
      software. Significant differences were found across equations to measure the same
      parameters of skin temperature in warm and cold room conditions, hampering
      comparison across studies. Based on these findings, we suggest to use a set of 14
      ibuttons at anatomical positions reported by ISO STANDARD 9886:2004 plus five
      ibuttons placed on the right supraclavicular fossa, right middle clavicular bone,
      right middle upper forearm, right top of forefinger, and right upper chest.

PMID- 28874710
TI  - Effects of toxic Microcystis aeruginosa on the silver carp Hypophthalmichtys
      molitrix revealed by hepatic RNA-seq and miRNA-seq.
AB  - High-throughput sequencing was applied to analyze the effects of toxic
      Microcystis aeruginosa on the silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix. Silver
      carps were exposed to two cyanobacteria species (toxic and non-toxic) for RNA-seq
      and miRNA-seq analysis. RNA-seq revealed that the liver tissue contained 105,379
      unigenes. Of these genes, 143 were significantly differentiated, 82 were markedly
      up-regulated, and 61 were remarkably down-regulated. GO term enrichment analysis
      indicated that 35 of the 154 enriched GO terms were significantly enriched. KEGG
      pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that 17 of the 118 enriched KEGG
      pathways were significantly enriched. A considerable number of disease/immune
      associated GO terms and significantly enriched KEGG pathways were also observed.
      The sequence length determined by miRNA-seq was mainly distributed in 20-23 bp
      and composed of 882,620 unique small RNAs, and 53% of these RNAs were annotated
      to miRNAs. As confirmed, 272 known miRNAs were differentially expressed, 453
      novel miRNAs were predicted, 112 miRNAs were well matched with 7,623 target
      genes, and 203 novel miRNAs were matched with 15,453 target genes. qPCR also
      indicated that Steap4, Cyp7a1, CABZ01088134.1, and PPP1R3G were significantly
      differentially expressed and might play major roles in the toxic, detoxifying,
      and antitoxic mechanisms of microcystin in fish.

PMID- 28874711
TI  - Hemoglobin diffusion and the dynamics of oxygen capture by red blood cells.
AB  - Translational diffusion of macromolecules in cell is generally assumed to be
      anomalous due high macromolecular crowding of the milieu. Red blood cells are a
      special case of cells filled quasi exclusively (95% of the dry weight of the
      cell) with an almost spherical protein: hemoglobin. Hemoglobin diffusion has
      since a long time been recognized as facilitating the rate of oxygen diffusion
      through a solution. We address in this paper the question on how hemoglobin
      diffusion in the red blood cells can help the oxygen capture at the cell level
      and hence to improve oxygen transport. We report a measurement by neutron spin
      echo spectroscopy of the diffusion of hemoglobin in solutions with increasing
      protein concentration. We show that hemoglobin diffusion in solution can be
      described as Brownian motion up to physiological concentration and that
      hemoglobin diffusion in the red blood cells and in solutions at similar
      concentration are the same. Finally, using a simple model and the concentration
      dependence of the diffusion of the protein reported here, we show that hemoglobin
      concentration observed in human red blood cells ([Formula: see text]330 g.L -1)
      corresponds to an optimum for oxygen transport for individuals under strong
      activity.

PMID- 28874713
TI  - Reconstructing complex network for characterizing the time-varying causality
      evolution behavior of multivariate time series.
AB  - In order to explore the characteristics of the evolution behavior of the time
      varying relationships between multivariate time series, this paper proposes an
      algorithm to transfer this evolution process to a complex network. We take the
      causality patterns as nodes and the succeeding sequence relations between
      patterns as edges. We used four time series as sample data. The results of the
      analysis reveal some statistical evidences that the causalities between time
      series is in a dynamic process. It implicates that stationary long-term
      causalities are not suitable for some special situations. Some short-term
      causalities that our model recognized can be referenced to the dynamic adjustment
      of the decisions. The results also show that weighted degree of the nodes obeys
      power law distribution. This implies that a few types of causality patterns play
      a major role in the process of the transition and that international crude oil
      market is statistically significantly not random. The clustering effect appears
      in the transition process and different clusters have different transition
      characteristics which provide probability information for predicting the
      evolution of the causality. The approach presents a potential to analyze
      multivariate time series and provides important information for investors and
      decision makers.

PMID- 28874712
TI  - pGlyco 2.0 enables precision N-glycoproteomics with comprehensive quality control
      and one-step mass spectrometry for intact glycopeptide identification.
AB  - The precise and large-scale identification of intact glycopeptides is a critical
      step in glycoproteomics. Owing to the complexity of glycosylation, the current
      overall throughput, data quality and accessibility of intact glycopeptide
      identification lack behind those in routine proteomic analyses. Here, we propose
      a workflow for the precise high-throughput identification of intact N
      glycopeptides at the proteome scale using stepped-energy fragmentation and a
      dedicated search engine. pGlyco 2.0 conducts comprehensive quality control
      including false discovery rate evaluation at all three levels of matches to
      glycans, peptides and glycopeptides, improving the current level of accuracy of
      intact glycopeptide identification. The N-glycoproteome of samples metabolically
      labeled with 15N/13C were analyzed quantitatively and utilized to validate the
      glycopeptide identification, which could be used as a novel benchmark pipeline to
      compare different search engines. Finally, we report a large-scale glycoproteome
      dataset consisting of 10,009 distinct site-specific N-glycans on 1988
      glycosylation sites from 955 glycoproteins in five mouse tissues.Protein
      glycosylation is a heterogeneous post-translational modification that generates
      greater proteomic diversity that is difficult to analyze. Here the authors
      describe pGlyco 2.0, a workflow for the precise one step identification of intact
      N-glycopeptides at the proteome scale.

PMID- 28874714
TI  - Responses of CH4 and N2O fluxes to land-use conversion and fertilization in a
      typical red soil region of southern China.
AB  - Land-use conversion and fertilization have been widely reported as important
      management practices affecting CH4 and N2O fluxes; however, few long-term in situ
      measurements are available after land-use conversion from rice paddies to upland
      cultivation, especially those including the initial stages after conversion. A 3
      year field experiment was conducted in rice paddies and a newly converted citrus
      orchard to measure CH4 and N2O fluxes in response to land-use conversion and
      fertilization in a red soil region of southern China. Annual CH4 and N2O
      emissions averaged 303.9 kg C ha-1 and 3.8 kg N ha-1, respectively, for the rice
      paddies over three cultivation years. Although annual N2O emissions increased two
      to threefold after the conversion of rice paddies to citrus orchard, the
      substantial reduction in CH4 emissions and even shift into a sink for atmospheric
      CH4 led to significantly lower CO2-eq emissions of CH4 and N2O in the citrus
      orchard compared to the rice paddies. Moreover, distinct CH4 emissions were
      observed during the initial stages and sustained for several weeks after
      conversion. Our results indicated that the conversion of rice paddies to citrus
      orchards in this region for higher economic benefits may also lead to lower
      aggregate CH4 and N2O emissions.

PMID- 28874715
TI  - Molecular spectrum of laterally coupled quantum rings under intense terahertz
      radiation.
AB  - We study the influence of intense THz laser radiation and electric field on
      molecular states of laterally coupled quantum rings. Laser radiation shows the
      capability to dissociate quantum ring molecule and add 2-fold degeneracy to the
      molecular states at the fixed value of the overlapping size between rings. It is
      shown that coupled to decoupled molecular states phase transition points form
      almost a straight line with a slope equal to two. In addition, the electric field
      direction dependent energy spectrum shows unexpected oscillations, demonstrating
      strong coupling between molecular states. Besides, intraband absorption is
      considered, showing both blue and redshifts in its spectrum. The obtained results
      can be useful for the controlling of degeneracy of the discrete energy spectrum
      of nanoscale structures and in the tunneling effects therein.

PMID- 28874716
TI  - Cell Spheroids with Enhanced Aggressiveness to Mimic Human Liver Cancer In Vitro
      and In Vivo.
AB  - We fabricated a spheroid-forming unit (SFU) for efficient and economic production
      of cell spheroids. We optimized the protocol for generating large and homogenous
      liver cancer cell spheroids using Huh7 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. The
      large Huh7 spheroids showed apoptotic and proliferative signals in the centre and
      at the surface, respectively. In particular, hypoxia-induced factor-1 alpha (HIF
      1alpha) and ERK signal activation were detected in the cell spheroids. To
      diminish core necrosis and increase the oncogenic character, we co-cultured
      spheroids with 2% human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). HUVECs
      promoted proliferation and gene expression of HCC-related genes and cancer stem
      cell markers in the Huh7 spheroidsby activating cytokine signalling, mimicking
      gene expression in liver cancer. HUVECs induced angiogenesis and vessel
      maturation in Huh7 spheroids in vivo by activating epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition and angiogenic pathways. The large Huh7 cell spheroids containing
      HUVECs survived at higher concentrations of anti-cancer drugs (doxorubicin and
      sorafenib) than did monolayer cells. Our large cell spheroid provides a useful in
      vitro HCC model to enable intuitive observation for anti-cancer drug testing.

PMID- 28874717
TI  - Correcting for photodestruction in super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging.
AB  - Super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging overcomes the diffraction limit by
      analyzing fluctuations in the fluorophore emission. A key assumption of the
      imaging is that the fluorophores are independent, though this is invalidated in
      the presence of photodestruction. In this work, we evaluate the effect of
      photodestruction on SOFI imaging using theoretical considerations and computer
      simulations. We find that photodestruction gives rise to an additional signal
      that does not present an easily interpretable view of the sample structure. This
      additional signal is strong and the resulting images typically exhibit less
      noise. Accordingly, these images may be mis-interpreted as being more visually
      pleasing or more informative. To address this uncertainty, we develop a procedure
      that can robustly estimate to what extent any particular experiment is affected
      by photodestruction. We also develop a detailed assessment methodology and use it
      to evaluate the performance of several correction algorithms. We identify two
      approaches that can correct for the presence of even strong photodestruction, one
      of which can be implemented directly in the SOFI calculation software.

PMID- 28874718
TI  - Structures of Medicago truncatula L-Histidinol Dehydrogenase Show Rearrangements
      Required for NAD+ Binding and the Cofactor Positioned to Accept a Hydride.
AB  - Plants, lower eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaebacteria synthesise L-histidine
      (His) in a similar, multistep pathway that is absent in mammals. This makes the
      His biosynthetic route a promising target for herbicides, antifungal agents, and
      antibiotics. The last enzyme of the pathway, bifunctional L-histidinol
      dehydrogenase (HDH, EC 1.1.1.23), catalyses two oxidation reactions: from L
      histidinol (HOL) to L-histidinaldehyde and from L-histidinaldehyde to His. Over
      the course of the reaction, HDH utilises two molecules of NAD+ as the hydride
      acceptor. The object of this study was the HDH enzyme from the model legume
      plant, Medicago truncatula (MtHDH). Three crystal structures complexed with
      imidazole, HOL, and His with NAD+ provided in-depth insights into the enzyme
      architecture, its active site, and the cofactor binding mode. The overall
      structure of MtHDH is similar to the two bacterial orthologues whose three
      dimensional structures have been determined. The three snapshots, with the MtHDH
      enzyme captured in different states, visualise structural rearrangements that
      allow for NAD+ binding for the first time. Furthermore, the MtHDH complex with
      His and NAD+ displays the cofactor molecule situated in a way that would allow
      for a hydride transfer.

PMID- 28874720
TI  - Black P/graphene hybrid: A fast response humidity sensor with good reversibility
      and stability.
AB  - Black phosphorus (BP) materials have attracted considerable attention owing to
      their ultra-sensitive humidity sensing characteristics because of the natural
      absorption of water (H2O) molecules on the BP surface caused by the specific 2D
      layer-crystalline structure. On the other hand, the BP-based humidity sensor is
      less repeatable due to the instability of BP with water molecules and the
      stability of the sensor is reduced. In this study, this limitation of the BP
      based humidity sensor was overcome by preparing a BP/graphene hybrid as a novel
      humidity sensing nanostructure. The BP/graphene interface improved the stability
      of the humidity sensor after a few weeks with a linear response within the
      relative humidity (RH) range of 15-70%. The sensor's response/recovery speed of
      the humidity sensor was extremely fast within few seconds. The response (S) of
      the humidity sensor based on the BP/graphene hybrid is 43.4% at RH = 70%. The
      estimated response and recovery time of the sensor is only 9 and 30 seconds at RH
      = 70% at room temperature. The experimental investigation reveals that the
      BP/graphene hybrid not only improves the reversibility and hysteresis factors but
      also enhances the stability of the humidity sensor.

PMID- 28874719
TI  - A mutation in the melon Vacuolar Protein Sorting 41prevents systemic infection of
      Cucumber mosaic virus.
AB  - In the melon exotic accession PI 161375, the gene cmv1, confers recessive
      resistance to Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) strains of subgroup II. cmv1 prevents
      the systemic infection by restricting the virus to the bundle sheath cells and
      impeding viral loading to the phloem. Here we report the fine mapping and cloning
      of cmv1. Screening of an F2 population reduced the cmv1 region to a 132 Kb
      interval that includes a Vacuolar Protein Sorting 41 gene. CmVPS41 is conserved
      among plants, animals and yeast and is required for post-Golgi vesicle
      trafficking towards the vacuole. We have validated CmVPS41 as the gene
      responsible for the resistance, both by generating CMV susceptible transgenic
      melon plants, expressing the susceptible allele in the resistant cultivar and by
      characterizing CmVPS41 TILLING mutants with reduced susceptibility to CMV.
      Finally, a core collection of 52 melon accessions allowed us to identify a single
      amino acid substitution (L348R) as the only polymorphism associated with the
      resistant phenotype. CmVPS41 is the first natural recessive resistance gene found
      to be involved in viral transport and its cellular function suggests that CMV
      might use CmVPS41 for its own transport towards the phloem.

PMID- 28874721
TI  - Aging-related changes in the diversity of women's skin microbiomes associated
      with oral bacteria.
AB  - Skin aging is associated with changes in cutaneous physiology including
      interactions with a skin microbial community. A striking alteration and
      diversification in the skin microbiome with aging was observed between two
      different age groups of 37 healthy Japanese women, i.e. younger adults of 21-37
      years old and older adults of 60-76 years old, using bacterial 16S rRNA gene
      sequencing. The analyses revealed that the alpha diversity/species richness was
      significantly higher in the older than the younger group for the cheek and
      forehead microbiomes, while the beta diversity in the overall structure
      significantly differed particularly for the forearm and scalp microbiomes between
      the two age groups. Taxonomic profiling showed a striking reduction in the
      relative abundance of the majority skin genus Propionibacterium in the cheek,
      forearm and forehead microbiomes of the older adults, and identified 38 species
      including many oral bacteria that significantly differentiated the two age groups
      with a skin site dependency. Furthermore, we found chronological age-related and
      unrelated skin clinical parameters that correlate with the observed changes in
      the skin microbiome diversity. Thus, our data suggested that the diversification
      of skin microbiomes in adult women was largely affected by chronological and
      physiological skin aging in association with oral bacteria.

PMID- 28874722
TI  - Ameliorative effects of melatonin on dark-induced leaf senescence in gardenia
      (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis): leaf morphology, anatomy, physiology and
      transcriptome.
AB  - Cut gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis) foliage is widely used as a vase
      material or flower bouquet indoors; however, insufficient indoor light
      accelerates its senescence, which shortens its viewing time. In this study,
      applying melatonin to delay gardenia leaf senescence when exposed to extremely
      low light condition (darkness), and the results showed that 1.0 mM was the
      effective concentration. At this concentration, chlorophyll contents and
      chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm, Fv/F0 and Y(II)) increased, while the
      carotenoid and flavonoid contents decreased. Meanwhile, stress physiological
      indices decreased in response to exogenous melatonin application, whereas an
      increase in glutamine synthetase activity, water and soluble protein contents was
      observed. Moreover, exogenous melatonin application also reduced leaf programmed
      cell death under darkness, increased the endogenous melatonin level, expression
      levels of tryptophan decarboxylase gene, superoxide dismutase and catalase
      activities and the ascorbate-glutathione cycle, and maintained more intact
      anatomical structures. Furthermore, transcriptome sequencing revealed that
      various biological processes responded to exogenous melatonin application,
      including carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, plant
      hormone signal transduction and pigment biosynthesis. Consequently, dark-induced
      leaf senescence in gardenia was significantly delayed. These results provided a
      better understanding for improving the ornamental value of cut gardenia foliage
      using melatonin.

PMID- 28874723
TI  - Inducing fluorescence of uranyl acetate as a dual-purpose contrast agent for
      correlative light-electron microscopy with nanometre precision.
AB  - Correlative light-electron microscopy (CLEM) combines the high spatial resolution
      of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with the capability of fluorescence
      light microscopy (FLM) to locate rare or transient cellular events within a large
      field of view. CLEM is therefore a powerful technique to study cellular
      processes. Aligning images derived from both imaging modalities is a prerequisite
      to correlate the two microscopy data sets, and poor alignment can limit
      interpretability of the data. Here, we describe how uranyl acetate, a commonly
      used contrast agent for TEM, can be induced to fluoresce brightly at cryogenic
      temperatures (-195  degrees C) and imaged by cryoFLM using standard filter sets.
      This dual-purpose contrast agent can be used as a general tool for CLEM, whereby
      the equivalent staining allows direct correlation between fluorescence and TEM
      images. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by performing multi-colour
      CLEM of cells containing equine arteritis virus proteins tagged with either green
      or red-fluorescent protein, and achieve high-precision localization of virus
      induced intracellular membrane modifications. Using uranyl acetate as a dual
      purpose contrast agent, we achieve an image alignment precision of ~30 nm, twice
      as accurate as when using fiducial beads, which will be essential for combining
      TEM with the evolving field of super-resolution light microscopy.

PMID- 28874724
TI  - Alcohol amplifies ketamine-induced apoptosis in primary cultured cortical neurons
      and PC12 cells through down-regulating CREB-related signaling pathways.
AB  - Recreational use of ketamine (KET) has been increasing worldwide. Previous
      studies have demonstrated that KET induced neurotoxicity; however, few studies
      have examined how alcohol (ALC) affects KET-induced neurotoxicity. In light of
      the fact that some KET abusers combine KET with ALC, the present study was aimed
      to investigate the effects of ALC on KET-induced neurotoxicity and the underlying
      mechanism in vitro. Our data revealed that co-treatment with ALC and KET was more
      detrimental to cell viability than KET single treatment in both PC12 cells and
      primary cultured rat cortical neurons. Furthermore, ALC exacerbated KET-induced
      apoptosis characterized by morphological changes and the sub-G1 phase increase,
      which were mitigated by the pretreatment of CNQX, a known alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5
      methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA)/kainite (KA) receptor antagonist. In
      addition, ALC and KET co-treatment led to intracellular Ca2+ overload, down
      regulation of p-Akt, p-CREB, PKA, CaMK-IV, Bcl-2 and BDNF expression and up
      regulation of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax expression, which can be attenuated by
      CNQX pretreatment. These results indicate that the potentiation of ALC on KET
      induced neurotoxicity was related to the down-regulation of CREB-related
      pathways. Our present study also indicates that ALC and KET co-abuse might cause
      serious neurotoxicity which should be conveyed to the public and drew enough
      attention.

PMID- 28874725
TI  - Manipulating of Different-Polarized Reflected Waves with Graphene-based Plasmonic
      Metasurfaces in Terahertz Regime.
AB  - A graphene-based plasmonic metasurface which can independently control different
      polarized electromagnetic waves with reasonably small losses in terahertz regime
      is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. This metasurface is composed of
      graphene based elements. Owing to anisotropic plasmonic resonance of the graphene
      based elements, the reflected phases and magnitudes of orthogonally polarized
      waves can be independently controlled by varying dimensions of the element. Four
      types of graphene-based plasmonic metasurfaces with different reflected phases
      distributions are synthesized and simulated, exhibiting diverse functions such as
      polarized beam splitting, beam deflection, and linear-to-circular polarization
      conversion. The simulation results demonstrate excellent performances as
      theoretical expectation. The proposed graphene-based plasmonic metasurface can be
      applied to realize extremely light-weight, ultra-compact, and high-performances
      electromagnetic structures for diverse terahertz applications.

PMID- 28874726
TI  - Remarkable plasticity of Na+, K+-ATPase, Ca2+-ATPase and SERCA contributes to
      muscle disuse atrophy resistance in hibernating Daurian ground squirrels.
AB  - We investigated cytosolic calcium (Ca2+) and sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+
      regulation in skeletal muscle fibers of hibernating Daurian ground squirrels
      (Spermophilus dauricus), non-hibernating hindlimb-unloaded (HLU) squirrels, and
      HLU rats to clarify the molecular mechanisms involved in preventing muscle
      atrophy in hibernators. The Na+, K+-ATPase and Ca2+-ATPase activities in the
      soleus muscle (SOL) of squirrels were maintained in hibernation, decreased during
      interbout arousal (IB-A), and increased to autumn/pre-hibernation (AUT/Pre-H)
      levels in torpor after interbout arousal (Post-IBA), whereas activities in the
      extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL) were stable during hibernation, but
      increased during post-hibernation (Post-H). Activities increased in the SOL of
      HLU rats, but were stable in HLU squirrels. Sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+
      ATPase (SERCA) activity in the SOL decreased in IB-A squirrels, but returned to
      AUT/Pre-H levels in the Post-IBA group; no significant changes were found in the
      EDL. SERCA activity increased in the EDL of HLU squirrels and SOL of HLU rats.
      Compared with AUT/Pre-H, SERCA type 2 protein expression increased in the SOL and
      EDL of IB-A and Post-IBA squirrels, but increased in the SOL only in HLU animals.
      We also describe the protein kinase A changes in this paper. Thus, hibernating
      ground squirrels displayed remarkable Na+, K+-ATPase, Ca2+-ATPase, and SERCA
      plasticity.

PMID- 28874727
TI  - Effectiveness of Glenohumeral Joint Dilatation for Treatment of Frozen Shoulder:
      A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - The objective was to explore the effectiveness of glenohumeral joint distension
      for the treatment of frozen shoulder. We searched electronic data sources
      including PubMed, Scopus, and Embase from the earliest records available to
      February 2017. Eleven randomized controlled trials including at least one pair of
      comparisons between capsular distension and a reference treatment were included,
      comprising 747 participants. Patients' characteristics, details of reference
      treatments, aspects of capsular distension therapy, and outcome measurement were
      evaluated at three points in time: baseline, early following intervention, and at
      the trial's end. The primary and secondary outcomes were the between-group
      standardized mean differences of changes in shoulder function and range of
      motion, respectively. Regarding the long-term primary outcome, the superiority of
      capsular distension to reference treatments was not identified. One secondary
      outcome (external rotation limitation) showed a probable early positive response
      to capsular distension when compared to intra-articular corticosteroid injection.
      Aspects of approaches, imaging guiding techniques and doses of distension were
      not found to modify treatment effectiveness. In conclusion, distension of the
      glenohumeral joint provides a similar long-term efficacy to all reference
      treatments. A single dose of a corticosteroid-contained regimen introduced
      through the ultrasound-guided posterior approach is a preferable practice of
      capsular distension for the management of frozen shoulder.

PMID- 28874728
TI  - Unpredictability of escape trajectory explains predator evasion ability and
      microhabitat preference of desert rodents.
AB  - Mechanistically linking movement behaviors and ecology is key to understanding
      the adaptive evolution of locomotion. Predator evasion, a behavior that enhances
      fitness, may depend upon short bursts or complex patterns of locomotion. However,
      such movements are poorly characterized by existing biomechanical metrics. We
      present methods based on the entropy measure of randomness from Information
      Theory to quantitatively characterize the unpredictability of non-steady-state
      locomotion. We then apply the method by examining sympatric rodent species whose
      escape trajectories differ in dimensionality. Unlike the speed-regulated gait use
      of cursorial animals to enhance locomotor economy, bipedal jerboa (family
      Dipodidae) gait transitions likely enhance maneuverability. In field-based
      observations, jerboa trajectories are significantly less predictable than those
      of quadrupedal rodents, likely increasing predator evasion ability. Consistent
      with this hypothesis, jerboas exhibit lower anxiety in open fields than
      quadrupedal rodents, a behavior that varies inversely with predator evasion
      ability. Our unpredictability metric expands the scope of quantitative
      biomechanical studies to include non-steady-state locomotion in a variety of
      evolutionary and ecologically significant contexts.Biomechanical understanding of
      animal gait and maneuverability has primarily been limited to species with more
      predictable, steady-state movement patterns. Here, the authors develop a method
      to quantify movement predictability, and apply the method to study escape-related
      movement in several species of desert rodents.

PMID- 28874729
TI  - Ratiometric Matryoshka biosensors from a nested cassette of green- and orange
      emitting fluorescent proteins.
AB  - Sensitivity, dynamic and detection range as well as exclusion of expression and
      instrumental artifacts are critical for the quantitation of data obtained with
      fluorescent protein (FP)-based biosensors in vivo. Current biosensors designs
      are, in general, unable to simultaneously meet all these criteria. Here, we
      describe a generalizable platform to create dual-FP biosensors with large dynamic
      ranges by employing a single FP-cassette, named GO-(Green-Orange) Matryoshka. The
      cassette nests a stable reference FP (large Stokes shift LSSmOrange) within a
      reporter FP (circularly permuted green FP). GO- Matryoshka yields green and
      orange fluorescence upon blue excitation. As proof of concept, we converted
      existing, single-emission biosensors into a series of ratiometric calcium sensors
      (MatryoshCaMP6s) and ammonium transport activity sensors (AmTryoshka1;3). We
      additionally identified the internal acid-base equilibrium as a key determinant
      of the GCaMP dynamic range. Matryoshka technology promises flexibility in the
      design of a wide spectrum of ratiometric biosensors and expanded in vivo
      applications.Single fluorescent protein biosensors are susceptible to expression
      and instrumental artifacts. Here Ast et al. describe a dual fluorescent protein
      design whereby a reference fluorescent protein is nested within a reporter
      fluorescent protein to control for such artifacts while preserving sensitivity
      and dynamic range.

PMID- 28874731
TI  - Ultrathin Nafion-filled porous membrane for zinc/bromine redox flow batteries.
AB  - In this work, we present a 16 MUm-thick Nafion-filled porous membrane for Zn/Br
      redox flow batteries (ZBBs). By using molecular dynamics simulation and dynamic
      light scattering analysis, we rationally design Nafion solution for Nafion
      impregnation into a porous polypropylene (PP) separator. A void-free Nafion/PP
      membrane is successfully fabricated by using NMP as a solvent for the Nafion
      solution. The resulting membrane shows a smaller area specific resistance in
      comparison with 600 MUm-thick, commercial SF-600 porous membrane. Due to its
      dense morphology, Br2 diffusivity of the Nafion/PP membrane is two orders of
      magnitude lower than that of SF-600, resulting in a comparable Br2 crossover in
      spite of 37.5 times smaller membrane thickness. As a result, the ZBB based on the
      Nafion/PP membrane exhibits a higher energy efficiency, demonstrating that ion
      exchange membrane can outperform the conventional porous membrane by reducing the
      membrane thickness with inexpensive porous substrate.

PMID- 28874730
TI  - A comprehensive characterization of the impact of mycophenolic acid on the
      metabolism of Jurkat T cells.
AB  - Metabolic reprogramming is critical for T cell fate and polarization and is
      regulated by metabolic checkpoints, including Myc, HIF-1alpha, AMPK and mTORC1.
      Our objective was to determine the impact of mycophenolic acid (MPA) in
      comparison with rapamycin (Rapa), an inhibitor of mTORC1, on the metabolism of
      Jurkat T cells. We identified a drug-specific transcriptome signature consisting
      of the key enzymes and transporters involved in glycolysis, glutaminolysis or
      nucleotide synthesis. MPA produced an early and transient drop in the
      intracellular ATP content related to the inhibition of de novo synthesis of
      purines, leading to the activation of the energy sensor AMPK. MPA decreases
      glycolytic flux, consistent with a reduction in glucose uptake, but also in the
      oxidation of glutamine. Additionally, both drugs reduce aerobic glycolysis. The
      expression of HIF-1alpha and Myc, promoting the activation of glycolysis and
      glutaminolysis, was inhibited by MPA and Rapa. In conclusion, we report that MPA
      profoundly impacts the cellular metabolism of Jurkat T cells by generating an
      energetic distress, decreasing the glycolytic and glutaminolytic fluxes and by
      targeting HIF-1alpha and Myc. These findings open interesting perspectives for
      novel combinatorial therapeutic strategies targeting metabolic checkpoints to
      block the proliferation of T cells.

PMID- 28874732
TI  - Observation of transverse coherent backscattering in disordered photonic
      structures.
AB  - Coherent backscattering, also referred to as weak localization, is an exciting
      multidisciplinary phenomenon that appears in disordered systems of multiple
      coherent-wave scattering. Providing proper scattering conditions in (2 + 1)
      dimensional randomized photonic systems, we optically implement, observe, and
      analyse transverse coherent backscattering. Ensembles of disordered wave-guide
      structures are prepared by random-intensity nondiffracting writing entities
      according to the beam's intensity distribution. The structure size of the induced
      potentials naturally define an effective mobility edge, and thus, we identify a
      crucial impact of the plane probe waves' spatial frequency on the strength and
      shape of the spectral coherent backscattering signal. We additionally observe
      transverse elastic scattering as a precursor of weak localization. To testify the
      coherent character as a fundamental condition for coherent backscattering, we
      propose a scheme to continuously reduce the spatial coherence of the probe beam
      which directly reduces the degree of localization and coherent backscattering.
      With our experiments, we propose a testing platform that allows comprehensive
      examination of coherent backscattering with a broad set of preparation parameters
      and under uncritical laboratory conditions. Our results are directly transferable
      to more complex systems of disordered wave potentials, not being restricted to
      photonic systems.

PMID- 28874733
TI  - Mitochondrial permeability transition pore: sensitivity to opening and
      mechanistic dependence on substrate availability.
AB  - Mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake has a key role in cellular Ca2+ homeostasis. Excessive
      matrix Ca2+ concentrations, especially when coincident with oxidative stress,
      precipitate opening of an inner mitochondrial membrane, high-conductance channel:
      the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). mPTP opening has been
      implicated as a final cell death pathway in numerous diseases and therefore
      understanding conditions dictating mPTP opening is crucial for developing
      targeted therapies. Here, we have investigated the impact of mitochondrial
      metabolic state on the probability and consequences of mPTP opening. Isolated
      mitochondria were energised using NADH- or FADH2-linked substrates. The
      functional consequences of Ca2+-induced mPTP opening were assessed by Ca2+
      retention capacity, using fluorescence-based analysis, and simultaneous
      measurements of mitochondrial Ca2+ handling, membrane potential, respiratory rate
      and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Succinate-induced, membrane
      potential-dependent reverse electron transfer sensitised mitochondria to mPTP
      opening. mPTP-induced depolarisation under succinate subsequently inhibited
      reverse electron transfer. Complex I-driven respiration was reduced after mPTP
      opening but sustained in the presence of complex II-linked substrates, consistent
      with inhibition of complex I-supported respiration by leakage of matrix NADH.
      Additionally, ROS generated at complex III did not sensitise mitochondria to mPTP
      opening. Thus, cellular metabolic fluxes and metabolic environment dictate
      mitochondrial functional response to Ca2+ overload.

PMID- 28874734
TI  - Observing the oxidation of platinum.
AB  - Despite its importance in oxidation catalysis, the active phase of Pt remains
      uncertain, even for the Pt(111) single-crystal surface. Here, using a ReactorSTM,
      the catalytically relevant structures are identified as two surface oxides,
      different from bulk alpha-PtO2, previously observed. They are constructed from
      expanded oxide rows with a lattice constant close to that of alpha-PtO2, either
      assembling into spoked wheels, 1-5 bar O2, or closely packed in parallel lines,
      above 2.2 bar. Both are only ordered at elevated temperatures (400-500 K). The
      triangular oxide can also form on the square lattice of Pt(100). Under NO and CO
      oxidation conditions, similar features are observed. Furthermore, both oxides are
      unstable outside the O2 atmosphere, indicating the presence of active O atoms,
      crucial for oxidation catalysts.Improving platinum as an oxidation catalyst
      requires understanding its structure under catalytic conditions. Here, the
      authors discover that catalytically important surface oxides form only when Pt is
      exposed to high pressure and temperature, highlighting the need to study
      catalysts in realistic environments.

PMID- 28874735
TI  - Electronic structure and topological properties of centrosymmetric MoAs2/WAs2
      from first principles.
AB  - We investigate the electronic structure of group VI-B transition metal di
      arsenides (TAs2, T = Mo, W). By comparing the formation energies, the
      centrosymmetric di-arsenides compounds are energetically more stable, in contrast
      to the di-phosphorides (MoP2/WP2). Both compounds can be well described by a two
      band model with a pair of well-separated electron/hole bands. The electron/hole
      carrier density is nearly compensated in MoAs2 (|n e  - n h |/n h  < 1%). The
      [Formula: see text] classification for all partially occupied bands are
      topologically strong (1;001), and therefore robust surface states are expected in
      these materials. Using the adaptive K-mesh method, no energy degenerate state
      could be found except the spin degeneracy in the whole Brillouin zone, excluding
      the possibility of intrinsic Dirac or Weyl points near the Fermi level in the
      system.

PMID- 28874736
TI  - GENFIRE: A generalized Fourier iterative reconstruction algorithm for high
      resolution 3D imaging.
AB  - Tomography has made a radical impact on diverse fields ranging from the study of
      3D atomic arrangements in matter to the study of human health in medicine.
      Despite its very diverse applications, the core of tomography remains the same,
      that is, a mathematical method must be implemented to reconstruct the 3D
      structure of an object from a number of 2D projections. Here, we present the
      mathematical implementation of a tomographic algorithm, termed GENeralized
      Fourier Iterative REconstruction (GENFIRE), for high-resolution 3D reconstruction
      from a limited number of 2D projections. GENFIRE first assembles a 3D Fourier
      grid with oversampling and then iterates between real and reciprocal space to
      search for a global solution that is concurrently consistent with the measured
      data and general physical constraints. The algorithm requires minimal human
      intervention and also incorporates angular refinement to reduce the tilt angle
      error. We demonstrate that GENFIRE can produce superior results relative to
      several other popular tomographic reconstruction techniques through numerical
      simulations and by experimentally reconstructing the 3D structure of a porous
      material and a frozen-hydrated marine cyanobacterium. Equipped with a graphical
      user interface, GENFIRE is freely available from our website and is expected to
      find broad applications across different disciplines.

PMID- 28874737
TI  - Genome Analysis of Staphylococcus capitis TE8 Reveals Repertoire of Antimicrobial
      Peptides and Adaptation Strategies for Growth on Human Skin.
AB  - Staphylococcus capitis TE8 was isolated from skin surface of a healthy human
      foot, and exhibited a strong antibacterial activity against Gram-positive
      bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus. Whole genome sequence of S. capitis
      TE8 was obtained by shotgun and paired-end pyrosequencing with a coverage of 109
      fold. The draft genome contains 2,516,639 bp in 8 scaffolds with 209 total
      contigs. The genome contains 2319 protein coding sequences, 58 tRNA and 3 rRNA.
      Genome sequence analysis revealed 4 distinct gene loci with the ability to encode
      antimicrobial peptides: (i) an epidermicin gene cluster; (ii) a gallidermin gene
      cluster; (iii) a gene cluster encoding six phenol soluble modulin (PSM) beta-type
      peptides (PSMbeta1-beta6) and (iv) an additional gene that belonged to PSMbeta
      family and encoded a 44 residues long peptide, HTP2388. Synthetic peptides with
      sequence identical to seven PSMbeta-like peptides i.e. PSMbeta1-beta6 and peptide
      HTP2388 showed antibacterial activity. Genome sequence also revealed genes for
      adhesins, intracellular adhesins, osmoadaptation, oxidative and acid stress
      tolerance possibly responsible for initial attachment, colonization and survival
      of S. capitis TE8 on human skin. Comparative genome analysis revealed presence of
      a gamut of genes in S. capitis strains in comparison to Staphylococcus
      epidermidis and Staphylococcus caprae indicating towards their possible role in
      better adaptation and survival on human skin.

PMID- 28874738
TI  - Intermittence and connectivity of interactions in pigeon flock flights.
AB  - Collective circular motion is a common yet spectacular behavior of pigeon flocks.
      Efficient and robust inter-individual communication is required for flock
      coordination during this widely-spreaded movement pattern. When a flock hovers
      near the home loft, the rotational direction undergoes regular spontaneous
      variations. Based on intensive analyses of high spatial-temporal resolution GPS
      data, we quantified the intensity of velocity alignment among different
      individuals in terms of their velocity fluctuations. It is found that pigeon
      flocks employ an intermittent interaction (alignment) mechanism, where intra
      group information transmission is not required at every instant. However, the
      union of the topologies of several consecutive interaction networks always keeps
      connected. This biological observation strongly suggests the presence of a
      jointly connected topology in pigeon flocks, which helps substantially reduce the
      communication and/or information processing requirements while retaining the
      agility and stability of the group. Finally, we conducted extensive investigation
      on the interaction mechanism as well as the spontaneous changes in rotational
      direction of pigeon flocks. These results shed some light onto the coordination
      mechanism exploration of bird flocks' collective motions.

PMID- 28874740
TI  - Unusually high ratio of shear modulus to Young's modulus in a nano-structured
      gyroid metamaterial.
AB  - Unlike the constant nature of elastic coefficients of isotropic bulk materials,
      the Young's (E) and shear (MU) moduli of nano-structured (NS) gyroid
      metamaterials change with relative density (rho), but at different rates
      depending on the cell size of the structure. These elastic behaviors displayed by
      E and MU cause crossover/inversion of these two moduli, such that MU of the NS
      gyroid metamaterials is greater than E for the structures with rho < 0.23. This
      peculiar elastic behavior causes NS gyroid metamaterials to display high MU/E
      values (~1.0), which are more than 250% larger than the typical values of the
      bulk material (~0.38), indicating that the NS gyroid metamaterial, even if it is
      light, is resistant to shear deformation. Here, we report the results of
      molecular dynamics simulations performed to elucidate the reason for unusually
      high MU/E values in NS gyroid metamaterials.

PMID- 28874739
TI  - Dioxin Receptor Adjusts Liver Regeneration After Acute Toxic Injury and Protects
      Against Liver Carcinogenesis.
AB  - The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) has roles in cell proliferation,
      differentiation and organ homeostasis, including the liver. AhR depletion induces
      undifferentiation and pluripotency in normal and transformed cells. Here, AhR
      null mice (AhR-/-) were used to explore whether AhR controls liver regeneration
      and carcinogenesis by restricting the expansion of stem-like cells and the
      expression of pluripotency genes. Short-term CCl4 liver damage was earlier and
      more efficiently repaired in AhR-/- than in AhR+/+ mice. Stem-like CK14 + and
      TBX3 + and pluripotency-expressing OCT4 + and NANOG + cells expanded sooner in
      AhR-/- than in AhR+/+ regenerating livers. Stem-like side population cells (SP)
      isolated from AhR-/- livers had increased beta-catenin (beta-Cat) signaling with
      overexpression of Axin2, Dkk1 and Cyclin D1. Interestingly, beta-Cat, Axin2 and
      Dkk1 also increased during regeneration but more notably in AhR-null livers.
      Liver carcinogenesis induced by diethylnitrosamine (DEN) produced large
      carcinomas in all AhR-/- mice but mostly premalignant adenomas in less than half
      of AhR+/+ mice. AhR-null tumoral tissue, but not their surrounding non-tumoral
      parenchyma, had nuclear beta-Cat and Axin2 overexpression. OCT4 and NANOG were
      nevertheless similarly expressed in AhR+/+ and AhR-/- lesions. We suggest that
      AhR may serve to adjust liver repair and to block tumorigenesis by modulating
      stem-like cells and beta-Cat signaling.

PMID- 28874741
TI  - A functional IFN-lambda4-generating DNA polymorphism could protect older
      asthmatic women from aeroallergen sensitization and associate with clinical
      features of asthma.
AB  - Lambda interferons (IFNLs) have immunomodulatory functions at epithelial barrier
      surfaces. IFN-lambda4, a recent member of this family is expressed only in a
      subset of the population due to a frameshift-causing DNA polymorphism
      rs368234815. We examined the association of this polymorphism with atopy
      (aeroallergen sensitization) and asthma in a Polish hospital-based case-control
      cohort comprising of well-characterized adult asthmatics (n = 326) and healthy
      controls (n = 111). In the combined cohort, we saw no association of the
      polymorphism with asthma and/or atopy. However, the IFN-lambda4-generating DeltaG
      allele protected older asthmatic women (>50 yr of age) from atopic sensitization.
      Further, DeltaG allele significantly associated with features of less-severe
      asthma including bronchodilator response and corticosteroid usage in older women
      in this Polish cohort. We tested the association of related IFNL locus
      polymorphisms (rs12979860 and rs8099917) with atopy, allergic rhinitis and
      presence/absence of asthma in three population-based cohorts from Europe, but saw
      no significant association of the polymorphisms with any of the phenotypes in
      older women. The polymorphisms associated marginally with lower occurrence of
      asthma in men/older men after meta-analysis of data from all cohorts. Functional
      and well-designed replication studies may reveal the true positive nature of
      these results.

PMID- 28874742
TI  - Global-local processing relates to spatial and verbal processing: implications
      for sex differences in cognition.
AB  - Sex differences have been reported for a variety of cognitive tasks and related
      to the use of different cognitive processing styles in men and women. It was
      recently argued that these processing styles share some characteristics across
      tasks, i.e. male approaches are oriented towards holistic stimulus aspects and
      female approaches are oriented towards stimulus details. In that respect, sex
      dependent cognitive processing styles share similarities with attentional global
      local processing. A direct relationship between cognitive processing and global
      local processing has however not been previously established. In the present
      study, 49 men and 44 women completed a Navon paradigm and a Kimchi Palmer task as
      well as a navigation task and a verbal fluency task with the goal to relate the
      global advantage (GA) effect as a measure of global processing to holistic
      processing styles in both tasks. Indeed participants with larger GA effects
      displayed more holistic processing during spatial navigation and phonemic
      fluency. However, the relationship to cognitive processing styles was modulated
      by the specific condition of the Navon paradigm, as well as the sex of
      participants. Thus, different types of global-local processing play different
      roles for cognitive processing in men and women.

PMID- 28874743
TI  - Automated analysis of liver fat, muscle and adipose tissue distribution from CT
      suitable for large-scale studies.
AB  - Computed Tomography (CT) allows detailed studies of body composition and its
      association with metabolic and cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this work
      was to develop and validate automated and manual image processing techniques for
      detailed and efficient analysis of body composition from CT data. The study
      comprised 107 subjects examined in the Swedish CArdioPulmonary BioImage Study
      (SCAPIS) using a 3-slice CT protocol covering liver, abdomen, and thighs.
      Algorithms were developed for automated assessment of liver attenuation, visceral
      (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) abdominal adipose tissue, thigh muscles,
      subcutaneous, subfascial (SFAT) and intermuscular adipose tissue. These were
      validated using manual reference measurements. SFAT was studied in selected
      subjects were the fascia lata could be visually identified (approx. 5%). In
      addition, precision of manual measurements of intra- (IPAT) and retroperitoneal
      adipose tissue (RPAT) and deep- and superficial SAT was evaluated using repeated
      measurements. Automated measurements correlated strongly to manual reference
      measurements. The SFAT depot showed the weakest correlation (r = 0.744).
      Automated VAT and SAT measurements were slightly, but significantly overestimated
      (<=4.6%, p <= 0.001). Manual segmentation of abdominal sub-depots showed high
      repeatability (CV <= 8.1%, r >= 0.930). We conclude that the low dose CT-scanning
      and automated analysis makes the setup suitable for large-scale studies.

PMID- 28874744
TI  - Digital holographic high-speed 3D imaging for the vibrometry of fast-occurring
      phenomena.
AB  - Digital holography allows production of high-speed three-dimensional images at
      rates over 100,000 frames per second; however, simultaneously obtaining suitable
      performance and levels of accuracy using digital holography is difficult. This
      problem prevents high-speed three-dimensional imaging from being used for
      vibrometry. In this paper, we propose and test a digital holography method that
      can produce vibration measurements. The method is based on single-shot phase
      shifting interferometry. Herein, we imaged the surface of a loudspeaker diaphragm
      and measured its displacement due to the vibrations produced by a frequency sweep
      signal. We then analyzed the frequency of the experimental data and confirmed
      that the frequency spectra inferred from the reconstructed images agreed well
      with the spectra produced by the sound recorded by a microphone. This method can
      be used for measuring vibrations with three-dimensional imaging for loudspeakers,
      microelectromechanical systems, surface acoustic wave filters, and biological
      tissues and organs.

PMID- 28874745
TI  - Characterization and Metabolic Diversity of Flavonoids in Citrus Species.
AB  - Flavonoids are widely distributed in plants and play important roles in many
      biological processes. Citrus fruits are rich dietary sources of flavonoids.
      However, there have been very few reports about the comprehensive metabolic
      profile and natural diversity of flavonoids in different tissues of various
      Citrus cultivars. In this study, based on the 7416 metabolic signals detected
      with non-targeted metabolomics approach, Principal Component Analysis revealed
      the flavedo has the largest differences from other tissues in metabolite levels;
      as many as 198 flavonoid signals were then detected in 62 Citrus germplasms from
      5 species mainly cultivated worldwide, while 117 flavonoids were identified,
      including 39 polymethoxylated flavonoids (PMFs), 7 flavones, 10 C-O
      glycosylflavonoids, 44 O-glycosylflavonoids, 10 C-glycosylflavonoids and 7 newly
      annotated O-glycosylpolymethoxylated flavonoids. Tissue-specific accumulations
      were observed: O-glycosylated flavonoids were abundant in all fruit tissues,
      while PMFs were accumulated preferentially in the flavedo. Among different
      species, mandarins had the highest levels of PMFs and O-glycosylpolymethoxylated
      flavonoids, followed by sweet oranges. Based on the flavonoid profiles, 62
      germplasms could be clearly grouped into five distinct clusters via hierarchical
      clustering analysis, which were perfectly matched with their species, with sweet
      oranges and mandarins clustering closely and being further away from other three
      species.

PMID- 28874746
TI  - RGMa inhibition with human monoclonal antibodies promotes regeneration,
      plasticity and repair, and attenuates neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury.
AB  - Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) causes a cascade of degenerative events
      including cell death, axonal damage, and the upregulation of inhibitory molecules
      which prevent regeneration and limit recovery. Repulsive guidance molecule A
      (RGMa) is a potent neurite growth inhibitor in the central nervous system,
      exerting its repulsive activity by binding the Neogenin receptor. Here, we show
      for the first time that inhibitory RGMa is markedly upregulated in multiple cell
      types after clinically relevant impact-compression SCI in rats, and importantly,
      also in the injured human spinal cord. To neutralize inhibitory RGMa, clinically
      relevant human monoclonal antibodies were systemically administered after acute
      SCI, and were detected in serum, cerebrospinal fluid, and in the injured tissue.
      Rats treated with RGMa blocking antibodies showed significantly improved recovery
      of motor function and gait. Furthermore, RGMa blocking antibodies promoted
      neuronal survival, and enhanced the plasticity of descending serotonergic
      pathways and corticospinal tract axonal regeneration. RGMa antibody also
      attenuated neuropathic pain responses, which was associated with fewer activated
      microglia and reduced CGRP expression in the dorsal horn caudal to the lesion.
      These results show the therapeutic potential of the first human RGMa antibody for
      SCI and uncovers a new role for the RGMa/Neogenin pathway on neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28874747
TI  - Transcriptome analysis of inflammation-related gene expression in endothelial
      cells activated by complement MASP-1.
AB  - Mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease 1 (MASP-1), the most abundant
      enzyme of the complement lectin pathway, is able to stimulate human umbilical
      vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to alter the expression of several cytokines and
      adhesion molecules. This study has assessed to what extent MASP-1 is able to
      modify the transcriptional pattern of inflammation-related (IR) genes in HUVECs.
      We utilized Agilent microarray to analyse the effects of recombinant MASP-1
      (rMASP-1) in HUVECs, on a set of 884 IR genes. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis
      showed an overall activation of inflammation-related genes in response to rMASP
      1. rMASP-1 treatment up- and down-regulated 19 and 11 IR genes, respectively.
      Most of them were previously unidentified, such as genes of chemokines (CXCL1,
      CXCL2, CXCL3), inflammatory receptors (TLR2, BDKRB2) and other inflammatory
      factors (F3, LBP). Expression of IR genes changed early, during the first 2 hours
      of activation. Both p38-MAPK inhibitor and NFkappaB inhibitor efficiently
      suppressed the effect of rMASP-1. We delineated 12 transcriptional factors as
      possible regulators of rMASP-1-induced IR genes. Our microarray-based data are in
      line with the hypothesis that complement lectin pathway activation, generating
      active MASP-1, directly regulates inflammatory processes by shifting the
      phenotype of endothelial cells towards a more pro-inflammatory type.

PMID- 28874748
TI  - Erosion potential of the Yangtze Delta under sediment starvation and climate
      change.
AB  - Deltas are widely threatened by sediment starvation and climate change. Erosion
      potential is an important indicator of delta vulnerability. Here, we investigate
      the erosion potential of the Yangtze Delta. We found that over the past half
      century the Yangtze's sediment discharge has decreased by 80% due to the
      construction of >50,000 dams and soil conservation, whereas the wind speed and
      wave height in the delta region have increased by 5-7%, and the sea level has
      risen at a rate of 3 mm/yr. According to hydrodynamic measurements and analyses
      of seabed sediments, the period when bed shear stress due to combined current
      wave action under normal weather conditions exceeds the critical bed shear stress
      for erosion (tau cr ) accounts for 63% of the total observed period on average
      and can reach 100% during peak storms. This explains why net erosion has occurred
      in some areas of the subaqueous delta. We also found that the increase with depth
      of tau cr is very gradual in the uppermost several metres of the depositional
      sequence. We therefore expect that the Yangtze subaqueous delta will experience
      continuous erosion under sediment starvation and climate change in the next
      decades of this century or even a few centuries.

PMID- 28874749
TI  - Structural and pharmacological basis for the induction of mitochondrial
      biogenesis by formoterol but not clenbuterol.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with numerous acute and chronic
      degenerative diseases. The beta-2 adrenergic receptor (beta2AR) agonist
      formoterol induces mitochondrial biogenesis (MB), but other beta2AR agonists,
      such as clenbuterol, do not. We sought to identify the MB signaling pathway of
      formoterol and the differences in signaling between these two ligands that result
      in the differential induction of MB. While formoterol and clenbuterol increased
      cAMP, only formoterol increased the phosphorylation of Akt and its downstream
      target eNOS. The increase in Akt phosphorylation was Gbetagamma- and PI3K
      dependent, and the increase in eNOS phosphorylation was Gbetagamma- and Akt
      dependent. Only formoterol increased cGMP. Formoterol induced MB as measured by
      increases in uncoupled cellular respiration and PGC-1alpha and NDUFS1 mRNA
      expression and was blocked by inhibitors of Gbetagamma, Akt, NOS, and soluble
      guanylate cyclase. To identify distinct receptor-ligand interactions leading to
      these differences in signaling, we docked formoterol and clenbuterol to six
      structures of the beta2AR. Compared to clenbuterol, the methoxyphenyl group of
      formoterol interacted more frequently with V114 and F193, while its formamide
      group interacted more frequently with C191. These data indicate that the unique
      structural features of formoterol allow it to interact with the beta2AR to
      activate the Gbetagamma-Akt-eNOS-sGC pathway to induce MB.

PMID- 28874750
TI  - Amixicile, a novel strategy for targeting oral anaerobic pathogens.
AB  - The oral microflora is composed of both health-promoting as well as disease
      initiating bacteria. Many of the disease-initiating bacteria are anaerobic and
      include organisms such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia,
      Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Tannerella forsythia. Here we investigated a novel
      therapeutic, amixicile, that targets pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR), a
      major metabolic enzyme involved in energy generation through oxidative
      decarboxylation of pyruvate. PFOR is present in these anaerobic pathogenic
      bacteria and thus we hypothesized that amixicile would effectively inhibit their
      growth. In general, PFOR is present in all obligate anaerobic bacteria, while
      oral commensal aerobes, including aerotolerant ones, such as Streptococcus
      gordonii, use pyruvate dehydrogenase to decarboxylate pyruvate. Accordingly, we
      observed that growth of the PFOR-containing anaerobic periodontal pathogens,
      grown in both monospecies as well as multispecies broth cultures was inhibited in
      a dose-dependent manner while that of S. gordonii was unaffected. Furthermore, we
      also show that amixicile is effective against these pathogens grown as
      monospecies and multispecies biofilms. Finally, amixicile is the first selective
      therapeutic agent active against bacteria internalized by host cells. Together,
      the results show that amixicile is an effective inhibitor of oral anaerobic
      bacteria and as such, is a good candidate for treatment of periodontal diseases.

PMID- 28874751
TI  - Disease mutations reveal residues critical to the interaction of P4-ATPases with
      lipid substrates.
AB  - Phospholipid flippases (P4-ATPases) translocate specific phospholipids from the
      exoplasmic to the cytoplasmic leaflet of membranes. While there is good evidence
      that the overall molecular structure of flippases is similar to that of P-type
      ATPase ion-pumps, the transport pathway for the "giant" lipid substrate has not
      been determined. ATP8A2 is a flippase with selectivity toward phosphatidylserine
      (PS), possessing a net negatively charged head group, whereas ATP8B1 exhibits
      selectivity toward the electrically neutral phosphatidylcholine (PC). Setting out
      to elucidate the functional consequences of flippase disease mutations, we have
      identified residues of ATP8A2 that are critical to the interaction with the lipid
      substrate during the translocation process. Among the residues pinpointed are I91
      and L308, which are positioned near proposed translocation routes through the
      protein. In addition we pinpoint two juxtaposed oppositely charged residues, E897
      and R898, in the exoplasmic loop between transmembrane helices 5 and 6. The
      glutamate is conserved between PS and PC flippases, whereas the arginine is
      replaced by a negatively charged aspartate in ATP8B1. Our mutational analysis
      suggests that the glutamate repels the PS head group, whereas the arginine
      minimizes this repulsion in ATP8A2, thereby contributing to control the entry of
      the phospholipid substrate into the translocation pathway.

PMID- 28874752
TI  - Investigation of possible phase transition of the frustrated spin-1/2 J 1-J 2-J 3
      model on the square lattice.
AB  - The frustrated spin-1/2 J 1-J 2-J 3 antiferromagnet with exchange anisotropy on
      the two-dimensional square lattice is investigated. The exchange anisotropy is
      presented by eta with 0 <= eta < 1. The effects of the J 1, J 2, J 3 and
      anisotropy on the possible phase transition of the Neel state and collinear state
      are studied comprehensively. Our results indicate that for J 3 > 0 there are
      upper limits [Formula: see text] and eta c values. When 0 < J 3 <= [Formula: see
      text] and 0 <= eta <= eta c , the Neel and collinear states have the same order
      disorder transition point at J 2 = J 1/2. Nevertheless, when the J 3 and eta
      values beyond the upper limits, it is a paramagnetic phase at J 2 = J 1/2. For J
      3 < 0, in the case of 0 <= eta < 1, the two states always have the same critical
      temperature as long as J 2 = J 1/2. Therefore, for J 2 = J 1/2, under such
      parameters, a first-order phase transition between the two states for these two
      cases below the critical temperatures may occur. When J 2 ? J 1/2, the Neel and
      collinear states may also exist, while they have different critical temperatures.
      When J 2 > J 1/2, a first-order phase transition between the two states may also
      occur. However, for J 2 < J 1/2, the Neel state is always more stable than the
      collinear state.

PMID- 28874753
TI  - Identifying DNase I hypersensitive sites as driver distal regulatory elements in
      breast cancer.
AB  - Efforts to identify driver mutations in cancer have largely focused on genes,
      whereas non-coding sequences remain relatively unexplored. Here we develop a
      statistical method based on characteristics known to influence local mutation
      rate and a series of enrichment filters in order to identify distal regulatory
      elements harboring putative driver mutations in breast cancer. We identify ten
      DNase I hypersensitive sites that are significantly mutated in breast cancers and
      associated with the aberrant expression of neighboring genes. A pan-cancer
      analysis shows that three of these elements are significantly mutated across
      multiple cancer types and have mutation densities similar to protein-coding
      driver genes. Functional characterization of the most highly mutated DNase I
      hypersensitive sites in breast cancer (using in silico and experimental
      approaches) confirms that they are regulatory elements and affect the expression
      of cancer genes. Our study suggests that mutations of regulatory elements in
      tumors likely play an important role in cancer development.Cancer driver
      mutations can occur within noncoding genomic sequences. Here, the authors develop
      a statistical approach to identify candidate noncoding driver mutations in DNase
      I hypersensitive sites in breast cancer and experimentally demonstrate they are
      regulatory elements of known cancer genes.

PMID- 28874754
TI  - ROS-induced Oxidative Injury involved in Pathogenesis of Fungal Keratitis via p38
      MAPK Activation.
AB  - This study was to explore the mechanism by which reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      induced oxidative stress involved in the pathogenesis of fungal keratitis using
      an in vivo experimental keratitis mouse model and an in vitro culture model of
      human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs). Compared to normal control mice and
      HCECs, ROS production was markedly increased in fungal corneas and HCECs exposed
      to Candida albicans, accompanied by p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK)
      activation. Increased products of oxidative markers, malondialdehyde (MDA), 4
      hydroxynonenal (HNE), mitochondria DNA 8-OHdG and aconitase-2 were observed in
      fungal infected corneas and HCECs. Fungal infection also increased the mRNA
      expression and protein production of heme oxygenase-1 (HMOX1) and cyclooxygenase
      2 (COX2), with suppressed levels of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase-1
      (SOD1), glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx1) and peroxiredoxin-4 (PRDX4).
      Interestingly, the levels of ROS, oxidative markers and oxygenases were
      significantly reduced by co-cultured p38 inhibitor SB203580. Furthermore,
      SB203580 restored the levels of antioxidant enzymes suppressed by fungus. Our
      findings demonstrated for the first time that ROS-induced oxidative injury is
      involved in pathogenesis of fungal keratitis via p38 MAPK pathway, suggesting the
      novel therapeutic targets for the potential treatment of fungal keratitis.

PMID- 28874755
TI  - SPI-2/CrmA inhibits IFN-beta induction by targeting TBK1/IKKepsilon.
AB  - Viruses modulate the host immune system to evade host antiviral responses. The
      poxvirus proteins serine proteinase inhibitor 2 (SPI-2) and cytokine response
      modifier A (CrmA) are involved in multiple poxvirus evasion strategies. SPI-2 and
      CrmA target caspase-1 to prevent apoptosis and cytokine activation. Here, we
      identified SPI-2 and CrmA as negative regulators of virus-triggered induction of
      IFN-beta. Ectopic expression of SPI-2 or CrmA inhibited virus-triggered induction
      of IFN-beta and its downstream genes. Consistently, knockdown of SPI-2 by RNAi
      potentiated VACV-induced transcription of antiviral genes. Further studies
      revealed that SPI-2 and CrmA associated with TBK1 and IKKepsilon to disrupt the
      MITA-TBK1/IKKepsilon-IRF3 complex. These findings reveal a novel mechanism of SPI
      2/CrmA-mediated poxvirus immune evasion.

PMID- 28874756
TI  - FOXO1 deletion in keratinocytes improves diabetic wound healing through MMP9
      regulation.
AB  - Keratinocyte migration is a key aspect of re-epithelialization during wound
      healing. Matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) contributes to this process and
      deficiencies in the MMP9 lead to impaired healing. Inappropriate expression of
      MMP9 also contributes to impaired re-epithelialization. Previously we
      demonstrated that FOXO1 was activated in wound healing but to higher levels in
      diabetic wounds. To address mechanisms of impaired re-epithelialization we
      examined MMP9 expression in vivo in full thickness dermal scalp wounds created in
      experimental K14.Cre + .Foxo1 L/L mice with lineage-specific Cre recombinase
      deletion of floxed FOXO1 and compared the results to control littermates. MMP9
      was induced during wound healing but at a significantly higher level in diabetic
      compared to normal wounds. FOXO1 deletion substantially blocked this increase. By
      chromatin immunoprecipitation FOXO1 was shown to bind to the MMP9 promoter, FOXO1
      overexpression increased MMP9 transcriptional activity and increased MMP9
      expression stimulated by high glucose was blocked by FOXO1 deletion or FOXO1
      knockdown. We also show for the first time that high glucose impairs keratinocyte
      migration by inducing high levels of MMP9 expression and establish that it
      involves FOXO1. Thus, FOXO1 drives high levels of MMP9 expression in diabetic
      wound healing, which represents a novel mechanism for impaired re-epithelization
      in diabetic wounds.

PMID- 28874757
TI  - Computational approaches for investigating interfacial adhesion phenomena of
      polyimide on silica glass.
AB  - This manuscript provides a comprehensive study of adhesion behavior and its
      governing mechanisms when polyimide undergoes various modes of detachment from
      silica glass. Within the framework of steered molecular dynamics, we develop
      three different adhesion measurement techniques: pulling, peeling, and sliding.
      Such computational methodologies can be applied to investigate heterogeneous
      materials with differing interfacial adhesion modes. Here, a novel hybrid
      potential involving a combination of the INTERFACE force field in conjunction
      with ReaxFF and including Coulombic and Lennard-Jones interactions is employed to
      study such interfaces. The studies indicate that the pulling test requires the
      largest force and the shortest distance to detachment as the interfacial area is
      separated instantaneously, while the peeling test is observed to exhibit the
      largest distance for detachment because it separates via line-by-line adhesion.
      Two kinds of polyimides, aromatic and aliphatic type, are considered to
      demonstrate the rigidity dependent adhesion properties. The aromatic polyimide,
      which is more rigid due to the stronger charge transfer complex between chains,
      requires a greater force but a smaller distance at detachment than the aliphatic
      polyimide for all of the three methodologies.

PMID- 28874758
TI  - Sex-Specific Routes To Immune Senescence In Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - Animal immune systems change dramatically during the ageing process, often
      accompanied by major increases in pathogen susceptibility. However, the extent to
      which senescent elevations in infection mortality are causally driven by
      deteriorations in canonical systemic immune processes is unclear. We studied
      Drosophila melanogaster and compared the relative contributions of impaired
      systemic immune defences and deteriorating barrier defences to increased pathogen
      susceptibility in aged flies. To assess senescent changes in systemic immune
      response efficacy we injected one and four-week old flies with the
      entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana and studied subsequent mortality;
      whereas to include the role of barrier defences we infected flies by dusting the
      cuticle with fungal spores. We show that the processes underlying pathogen
      defence senescence differ between males and females. Both sexes became more
      susceptible to infection as they aged. However, we conclude that for males, this
      was principally due to deterioration in barrier defences, whereas for females
      systemic immune defence senescence was mainly responsible. We discuss the
      potential roles of sex-specific selection on the immune system and behavioural
      variation between males and females in driving these different senescent trends.

PMID- 28874759
TI  - Prior Exposure to Zika Virus Significantly Enhances Peak Dengue-2 Viremia in
      Rhesus Macaques.
AB  - Structural and functional homologies between the Zika and Dengue viruses'
      envelope proteins raise the possibility that cross-reactive antibodies induced
      following Zika virus infection might enhance subsequent Dengue infection. Using
      the rhesus macaque model we show that prior infection with Zika virus leads to a
      significant enhancement of Dengue-2 viremia that is accompanied by neutropenia,
      lympocytosis, hyperglycemia, and higher reticulocyte counts, along with the
      activation of pro-inflammatory monocyte subsets and release of inflammatory
      mediators. Zika virus infection induced detectable Dengue cross-reactive serum
      IgG responses that significantly amplified after Dengue-2 virus infection. Serum
      from Zika virus immune animals collected prior to Dengue-2 infection showed
      significant capacity for in vitro antibody dependent enhancement of Dengue-1, 2,
      3 and 4 serotypes suggesting that pre-existing immunity to Zika virus could
      potentially enhance infection by heterologous Dengue serotypes. Our results
      provide first in vivo evidence that prior exposure to Zika virus infection can
      enhance Dengue infection, which has implications for understanding pathogenesis
      and the development of vaccines.

PMID- 28874761
TI  - Quantitative assessment of aeolian desertification dynamics- A case study in
      north Shanxi of China (1975 to 2015).
AB  - Aeolian desertification is one of the serious environmental issues in North
      Shanxi Province. Accurately assessing aeolian desertification dynamics and its
      causes is essential to formulate an effective strategy for combating aeolian
      desertification. Here, we adopted remote sensing (RS) images from four periods
      (1975, 1990, 2000, and 2015) to classify the intensity of aeolian desertified
      land (ADL). Four intensity grades (i.e., light, moderate, severe, and extremely
      severe) were categorized based on a series of indices. Then, the RS images were
      further interpreted coupled with the local climate and socio-economic data to
      evaluate ADL and its driving force. Results showed that there were 3941.16,
      5389.92, 7526.38, and 3752.74 km2 of ADL in the above 4 periods, accounting for
      28.56%, 39.06%, 54.53%, and 27.19% of the total study area, respectively. ADL
      experienced three major development stages: slower expansion during 1975-1990 at
      a rate of 96.58 km2/year, rapid expansion during 1990-2000 of 213.65 km2/year,
      and a reversion during 2000-2015 with a net decrease of 251.58 km2/year. The ADL
      development in north Shanxi was a result of mutual interaction between natural
      factors and human activities. It is also noted that the human activities were
      identified as the dominant driving force.

PMID- 28874760
TI  - Zinc depletion promotes apoptosis-like death in drug-sensitive and antimony
      resistance Leishmania donovani.
AB  - Micronutrients are essential for survival and growth for all the organisms
      including pathogens. In this manuscript, we report that zinc (Zn) chelator
      N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-pyridinylmethyl)-1,2-ethylenediamine (TPEN) affects growth
      and viability of intracellular pathogen Leishmania donovani (LD) by a
      concentration and time dependent manner. Simultaneous addition of zinc salt
      reverses the effect of TPEN. Further experiments provide evidence of apoptosis
      like death of the parasite due to Zn-depletion. TPEN treatment enhances caspase
      like activity suggesting increase in apoptosis-like events in LD. Specific
      inhibitors of cathepsin B and Endoclease G block TPEN-induced leishmanial death.
      Evidences show involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) potentially of extra
      mitochondrial origin in TPEN-induced LD death. Pentavalent antimonials remained
      the prime source of treatment against leishmaniasis for several decades; however,
      antimony-resistant Leishmania is now common source of the disease. We also reveal
      that Zn-depletion can promote apoptosis-like death in antimony-resistant
      parasites. In summary, we present a new finding about the role of zinc in the
      survival of drug sensitive and antimony-resistant LD.

PMID- 28874762
TI  - Cytocompatible Anti-microbial Dressings of Syzygium cumini Cellulose Nanocrystals
      Decorated with Silver Nanoparticles Accelerate Acute and Diabetic Wound Healing.
AB  - The ever increasing incidences of non-healing skin wounds have paved way for many
      efforts on the convoluted process of wound healing. Unfortunately, the lack of
      relevance and success of modern wound dressings in healing of acute and diabetic
      wounds still remains a matter of huge concern. Here, an in situ three step
      approach was embraced for the development of nanocomposite (NCs) dressings by
      impregnating silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) onto a matrix of cellulose nanocrystals
      (CNCs) isolated from Syzygium cumini leaves using an environmental friendly
      approach. Topical application of NCs (ointments and strips) on acute and diabetic
      wounds of mice documented enhanced tissue repair (~99% wound closure) via
      decrease in inflammation; increase in angiogenesis, collagen deposition, and rate
      of neo-epithelialization that ultimately led to formation of aesthetically sound
      skin in lesser time than controls. Due to the synergistic action of CNCs (having
      high water uptake capacity) and AgNPs (anti-microbial agents), NCs tend to
      increase the expression of essential growth factors (FGF, PDGF and VEGF) and
      collagen while decreasing the pro-inflammatory factors (IL-6 and TNF-alpha) at
      the same time, thus accelerating healing. The results suggested the potential of
      these developed anti-microbial, cytocompatible and nanoporous NCs having
      optimized AgNPs concentration as ideal dressings for effective wound management.

PMID- 28874763
TI  - Brain grey matter volume alterations associated with antidepressant response in
      major depressive disorder.
AB  - Not all patients with major depressive disorder respond to adequate
      pharmacological therapy. Psychoradiological studies have reported that
      antidepressant responders and nonresponders show different alterations in brain
      grey matter, but the findings are inconsistent. The present study reports a meta
      analysis of voxel-based morphometric studies of patients with major depressive
      disorder, both antidepressant responders and nonresponders, using the anisotropic
      effect size version of Seed-based D Mapping to identify brain regions correlated
      to clinical response. A systematic search was conducted up to June 2016 to
      identify studies focussing on antidepressant response. In responders across 9
      datasets grey matter volume (GMV) was significantly higher in the left inferior
      frontal gyrus and insula, while GMV was significantly lower in the bilateral
      anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG). In
      nonresponders across 5 datasets GMV was significantly lower in the bilateral ACC,
      median cingulate cortex (MCC) and right SFG. Conjunction analysis confirmed
      significant differences in the bilateral ACC and right SFG, where GMV was
      significantly lower in nonresponders but higher in responders. The current study
      adds to psychoradiology, an evolving subspecialty of radiology mainly for
      psychiatry and clinical psychology.

PMID- 28874764
TI  - Natural (?9-THC) and synthetic (JWH-018) cannabinoids induce seizures by acting
      through the cannabinoid CB1 receptor.
AB  - Natural cannabinoids and their synthetic substitutes are the most widely used
      recreational drugs. Numerous clinical cases describe acute toxic symptoms and
      neurological consequences following inhalation of the mixture of synthetic
      cannabinoids known as "Spice." Here we report that an intraperitoneal
      administration of the natural cannabinoid Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (10 mg/kg),
      one of the main constituent of marijuana, or the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018
      (2.5 mg/kg) triggered electrographic seizures in mice, recorded by
      electroencephalography and videography. Administration of JWH-018 (1.5, 2.5 and 5
      mg/kg) increased seizure spikes dose-dependently. Pretreatment of mice with AM
      251 (5 mg/kg), a cannabinoid receptor 1-selective antagonist, completely
      prevented cannabinoid-induced seizures. These data imply that abuse of
      cannabinoids can be dangerous and represents an emerging public health threat.
      Additionally, our data strongly suggest that AM-251 could be used as a crucial
      prophylactic therapy for cannabinoid-induced seizures or similar life-threatening
      conditions.

PMID- 28874765
TI  - Identification of neuromedin U precursor-related peptide and its possible role in
      the regulation of prolactin release.
AB  - The discovery of neuropeptides provides insights into the regulation of
      physiological processes. The precursor for the neuropeptide neuromedin U contains
      multiple consensus sequences for proteolytic processing, suggesting that this
      precursor might generate additional peptides. We performed immunoaffinity
      chromatography of rat brain extracts and consequently identified such a product,
      which we designated neuromedin U precursor-related peptide (NURP). In rat brain,
      NURP was present as two mature peptides of 33 and 36 residues. Radioimmunoassays
      revealed NURP immunoreactivity in the pituitary, small intestine, and brain of
      rats, with the most intense reactivity in the pituitary. Intracerebroventricular
      administration of NURP to both male and female rats robustly increased plasma
      concentrations of prolactin but not of other anterior pituitary hormones. In
      contrast, NURP failed to stimulate prolactin release from dispersed anterior
      pituitary cells. Pretreatment of rats with bromocriptine, a dopamine receptor
      agonist, blocked the prolactin-releasing activity of NURP. In rats pretreated
      with the antagonist sulpiride, intracerebroventricular administration of NURP did
      not increase plasma prolactin concentrations more than administration of saline.
      These data suggest that NURP induces prolactin release by acting indirectly on
      the pituitary; dopamine from the hypothalamus, which inhibits prolactin release,
      may be involved in this activity of NURP.

PMID- 28874766
TI  - Magnetic Control of Magneto-Electrochemical Cell and Electric Double Layer
      Transistor.
AB  - A magneto-electrochemical cell and an electric double layer transistor (EDLT),
      each containing diluted [Bmim]FeCl4 solution, have been controlled by applying a
      magnetic field in contrast to the control of conventional field effect devices by
      an applied electric field. A magnetic field of several hundred mT generated by a
      small neodymium magnet is sufficient to operate magneto-electrochemical cells,
      which generate an electromotive force of 130 mV at maximum. An EDLT composed of
      hydrogen-terminated diamond was also operated by applying a magnetic field.
      Although it showed reversible drain current modulation with a magnetoresistance
      effect of 503%, it is not yet advantageous for practical application. Magnetic
      control has unique and interesting characteristics that are advantageous for
      remote control of electrochemical behavior, the application for which
      conventional electrochemical devices are not well suited. Magnetic control is
      opening a door to new applications of electrochemical devices and related
      technologies.

PMID- 28874767
TI  - A cross-sectional comparative study of gut bacterial community of Indian and
      Finnish children.
AB  - The human gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the compositional development of
      gut microbiota. Though well documented in western pediatrics population, little
      is known about how various host conditions affect populations in different
      geographic locations such as the Indian subcontinent. Given the impact of
      distinct environmental conditions, our study assess the gut bacterial diversity
      of a small cohort of Indian and Finnish children and investigated the influence
      of FUT2 secretor status and birth mode on the gut microbiome of these
      populations. Using multiple profiling techniques, we show that the gut bacterial
      community structure in 13-14-year-old Indian (n = 47) and Finnish (n = 52)
      children differs significantly. Specifically, Finnish children possessed higher
      Blautia and Bifidobacterium, while genera Prevotella and Megasphaera were
      predominant in Indian children. Our study also demonstrates a strong influence of
      FUT2 and birth mode variants on specific gut bacterial taxa, influence of which
      was noticed to differ between the two populations under study.

PMID- 28874768
TI  - A new red cell index and portable RBC analyzer for screening of iron deficiency
      and Thalassemia minor in a Chinese population.
AB  - Anemia is a widespread public health problem with 1/4 ~1/3 of the world's
      population being affected. In Southeast Asia, Thalassemia trait (TT) and iron
      deficiency anemia (IDA) are the two most common anemia types and can have a
      serious impact on quality of life. IDA patients can be treated with iron
      supplementation, yet TT patients have diminished capacity to process iron.
      Therefore, distinguishing between types of anemia is essential for effective
      diagnosis and treatment. Here, we present two advances towards low-cost screening
      for anemia. First: a new red-cell-based index, Joint Indicator A, to discriminate
      between IDA, TT, and healthy children in a Chinese population. We collected
      retrospective data from 384 Chinese children and used discriminant function
      analysis to determine the best analytic function to separate healthy and diseased
      groups, achieving 94% sensitivity and 90% specificity, significantly higher than
      reported indices. This result is achieved using only three red cell parameters:
      mean cell volume (MCV), red cell distribution width (RDW) and mean cell
      hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). Our second advance: the development of a low
      cost, portable red cell analyzer to measure these parameters. Taken together,
      these two results may help pave the way for widespread screening for nutritional
      and genetic anemias.

PMID- 28874769
TI  - Effect of Surface Plasmon Coupling to Optical Cavity Modes on the Field
      Enhancement and Spectral Response of Dimer-Based sensors.
AB  - We present a theoretical approach to narrow the plasmon linewidth and enhance the
      near-field intensity at a plasmonic dimer gap (hot spot) through coupling the
      electric localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance of a silver hemispherical
      dimer with the resonant modes of a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity. The strong coupling
      is demonstrated by the large anticrossing in the reflection spectra and a Rabi
      splitting of 76 meV. Up to 2-fold enhancement increase can be achieved compared
      to that without using the cavity. Such high field enhancement has potential
      applications in optics, including sensors and high resolution imaging devices. In
      addition, the resonance splitting allows for greater flexibility in using the
      same array at different wavelengths. We then further propose a practical design
      to realize such a device and include dimers of different shapes and materials.

PMID- 28874770
TI  - Visualizing Phonotactic Behavior of Female Frogs in Darkness.
AB  - Many animals use sounds produced by conspecifics for mate identification. Female
      insects and anuran amphibians, for instance, use acoustic cues to localize,
      orient toward and approach conspecific males prior to mating. Here we present a
      novel technique that utilizes multiple, distributed sound-indication devices and
      a miniature LED backpack to visualize and record the nocturnal phonotactic
      approach of females of the Australian orange-eyed tree frog (Litoria chloris)
      both in a laboratory arena and in the animal's natural habitat. Continuous high
      definition digital recording of the LED coordinates provides automatic tracking
      of the female's position, and the illumination patterns of the sound-indication
      devices allow us to discriminate multiple sound sources including loudspeakers
      broadcasting calls as well as calls emitted by individual male frogs. This
      innovative methodology is widely applicable for the study of phonotaxis and
      spatial structures of acoustically communicating nocturnal animals.

PMID- 28874771
TI  - Immunization with alkyl hydroperoxide reductase subunit C reduces Fusobacterium
      nucleatum load in the intestinal tract.
AB  - Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) is an important tumour-associated bacterium in
      colorectal cancer (CRC). The antioxidant protein alkyl hydroperoxide reductase
      subunit C (AhpC) can induce strong antibacterial immune response during various
      pathogen infections. Our study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Fn-AhpC as a
      candidate vaccine. In this work, by western blot analysis, we showed that Fn-AhpC
      recombinant protein could be recognized specifically by antibodies present in the
      sera of CRC patients; using the mouse Fn-infection model, we observed that
      systemic prophylactic immunization with AhpC/alum conferred significant
      protection against infection in 77.3% of mice. In addition, we measured the anti
      AhpC antibody level in the sera of CRC patients and found that there was no
      obvious increase of anti-AhpC antibodies in the early-stage CRC group.
      Furthermore, we treated Fn with the sera from both immunized mice and CRC
      patients and found that sera with high anti-AhpC antibodies titre could inhibit
      Fn growth. In conclusion, our findings support the use of AhpC as a potential
      vaccine candidate against inhabitation or infection of Fn in the intestinal
      tract, which could provide a practical strategy for the prevention of CRC
      associated with Fn infection.

PMID- 28874772
TI  - Antibody-dependent fragmentation is a newly identified mechanism of cell killing
      in vivo.
AB  - The prevailing view is that therapeutic antibodies deplete cells through
      opsonization and subsequent phagocytosis, complement-dependent lysis or antibody
      dependent cellular-cytotoxicity. We used high resolution in vivo imaging to
      identify a new antibody-dependent cell death pathway where Kupffer cells ripped
      large fragments off crawling antibody-coated iNKT cells. This antibody-dependent
      fragmentation process resulted in lethality and depletion of crawling iNKT cells
      in the liver sinusoids and lung capillaries. iNKT cell depletion was Fcy-receptor
      dependent and required iNKT cell crawling. Blood, spleen or joint iNKT cells that
      did not crawl were not depleted. The antibody required high glycosylation for
      sufficiently strong binding of the iNKT cells to the Fc Receptors on Kupffer
      cells. Using an acetaminophen overdose model, this approach functionally depleted
      hepatic iNKT cells and affected the severity of liver injury. This study reveals
      a new mechanism of antibody-dependent killing in vivo and raises implications for
      the design of new antibodies for cancer and auto-reactive immune cells.

PMID- 28874773
TI  - Cortical and trabecular morphology is altered in the limb bones of mice
      artificially selected for faster skeletal growth.
AB  - Bone strength is influenced by mineral density and macro- and microstructure.
      Research into factors that contribute to bone morphology and strength has focused
      on genetic, environmental and morphological factors (e.g., body mass index), but
      little is known regarding the impact of rates of skeletal elongation on adult
      skeletal morphology and strength. Using micro-CT, we examined the impact of rates
      of skeletal elongation on bone cortical and trabecular morphology, and on rates
      of estrogen-dependent bone loss in the tibia in CD-1 mice, and in mice with
      accelerated skeletal growth (Longshanks). Groups of adult mice (n = 7/group) were
      subjected to ovariectomy or sham surgeries, scanned for 6 weeks, and indices of
      bone morphology were collected. Results show that Longshanks mice had
      significantly less trabecular bone at skeletal maturity, characterized by fewer,
      thinner trabeculae, and furthermore lost trabecular bone more slowly in response
      to ovariectomy. Artificial selection for rapid skeletal growth relative to
      somatic growth thus had a significant impact on trabecular bone morphology in
      Longshanks. Our data do not unequivocally demonstrate a causal relationship
      between rapid bone growth and reduced trabecular bone quality, but suggest that
      rapid linear bone growth may influence the risk of cancellous bone fragility.

PMID- 28874775
TI  - First-principles calculations on Fe-Pt nanoclusters of various morphologies.
AB  - Bimetallic FePt nanoparticles with L1 0 structure are attracting a lot of
      attention due to their high magnetocrystalline anisotropy and high coercivity
      what makes them potential material for storage of ultra-high density magnetic
      data. FePt nanoclusters are considered also as nanocatalysts for growth of carbon
      nanotubes of different chiralities. Using the DFT-LCAO CRYSTAL14 code, we have
      performed large-scale spin-polarized calculations on 19 different polyhedral
      structures of FePt nanoparticles in order to estimate which icosahedral or hcp
      structured morphology is the energetically more preferable. Surface energy
      calculations of all aforementioned nanoparticles indicate that the global minimum
      corresponds to the nanocluster possessing the icosahedron "onion-like" structure
      and Fe43Pt104 morphology where the outer layer consists of Pt atoms. The presence
      of the Pt-enriched layer around FePt core explains high oxidation resistance and
      environmental stability, both observed experimentally.

PMID- 28874774
TI  - Current-direction/amplitude-dependent single channel gating kinetics of mouse
      pannexin 1 channel: a new concept for gating kinetics.
AB  - The detailed single-channel gating kinetics of mouse pannexin 1 (mPanx1) remains
      unknown, although mPanx1 is reported to be a voltage-activated anion-selective
      channel. We investigated characteristics of single-channel conductances and
      opening and closing rates of mPanx1 using patch-clamp techniques. The unitary
      current of mPanx1 shows outward rectification with single-channel conductances of
      ~20 pS for inward currents and ~80 pS for outward currents. The channel open time
      for outward currents (Cl- influx) increases linearly as the amplitude of single
      channel currents increases, while the open time for inward currents (Cl- efflux)
      is constant irrespective of changes in the current amplitude, as if the direction
      and amplitude of the unitary current regulates the open time. This is supported
      by further observations that replacement of extracellular Cl- with gluconate-
      diminishes the inward tail current (Cl- efflux) at a membrane potential of -100
      mV due to the lowered outward current (gluconate- influx) at membrane potential
      of 100 mV. These results suggest that the direction and rate of charge-carrier
      movement regulate the open time of mPanx1, and that the previously reported
      voltage-dependence of Panx1 channel gating is not directly mediated by the
      membrane potential but rather by the direction and amplitude of currents through
      the channel.

PMID- 28874776
TI  - N-P Fertilization Stimulates Anaerobic Selenium Reduction in an End-Pit Lake.
AB  - Selenium (Se), an essential micro nutrient, is toxic to aquatic life at slightly
      higher water concentrations. Watersheds receiving leachate from selenium rich
      sources require large-scale, long-term treatment to mitigate Se toxicity. We
      applied the principles of anaerobic bacterial bioreactors, previously successful
      in small scale Se mitigation, to a whole end-pit lake ecosystem. Fertilization of
      the lake with N and P increased primary production, creating a meromictic, anoxic
      layer, and enhanced the habitat for locally present, anaerobic, Se and sulfur
      reducing bacteria. Within two years, Se concentrations were reduced ten-fold,
      reaching water-quality guideline values. The successful experiment demonstrated a
      novel treatment of large volumes of Se-contaminated water, and introduced an
      inexpensive method to mitigate a persistent aquatic pollutant of global concern.

PMID- 28874777
TI  - Prevalence, Awareness and Associated Risk Factors of Diabetes among Adults in
      Xi'an, China.
AB  - The study aimed to investigate the prevalence, awareness, treatment and glycaemic
      control of diabetes and its associated risk factors among adults in Xi'an, China.
      We collected data among participants aged 18 years or older through a self
      developed questionnaire and an additional health examination. A total of 8150
      participants were included, with an overall prevalence of diabetes of 8.0%. Among
      655 participants with diabetes, 52.5% were aware they had diabetes, 48.1% took
      antidiabetic treatment, and 19.1% had their fasting blood glucose level at less
      than 7.0 mmol/l. Older age, lower educational level, higher body mass index,
      larger waist circumference, having an unhealthy diet and having more
      comorbidities were positively associated with the risk of diabetes. Participants
      who were older, who had higher education and who had more comorbidities were more
      aware that they had diabetes. Being older age, having higher education and having
      more comorbidities were also factors for better treatment. Participants who were
      older were more likely to have their glucose level controlled. The prevalence of
      diabetes among adults in Xi'an is high, with suboptimal awareness, treatment, and
      glycaemic control rates. Comprehensive integrated strategies based on risk
      factors should be implemented to improve the prevention and glycaemic control of
      diabetes.

PMID- 28874778
TI  - The impact of temporal modulations in irradiance under light adapted conditions
      on the mouse suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN).
AB  - Electrophysiological responses of SCN neurons to light steps are well
      established, but responses to more natural modulations in irradiance have been
      much less studied. We address this deficit first by showing that variations in
      irradiance for human subjects are biased towards low temporal frequencies and
      small magnitudes. Using extracellular recordings we show that neurons in the
      mouse SCN are responsive to stimuli with these characteristics, tracking
      sinusoidal modulations in irradiance best at lower temporal frequencies and
      responding to abrupt changes in irradiance over a range of commonly encountered
      contrasts. The spectral sensitivity of these light adapted responses indicates
      that they are driven primarily by cones, but with melanopsin (and/or rods)
      contributing under more gradual changes. Higher frequency modulations in
      irradiance increased time averaged firing of SCN neurons (typically considered to
      encode background light intensity) modestly over that encountered during steady
      exposure, but did not have a detectable effect on the circadian phase resetting
      efficiency of light. Our findings highlight the SCN's ability to encode
      naturalistic temporal modulations in irradiance, while revealing that the
      circadian system can effectively integrate such signals over time such that phase
      resetting responses remain proportional to the mean light exposure.

PMID- 28874779
TI  - Relation between characteristics of carotid atherosclerotic plaques and brain
      white matter hyperintensities in asymptomatic patients.
AB  - White matter hyperintensities (WMH) can be incidentally found in patients with
      carotid atherosclerosis on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We
      investigated the relationship between WMH and characteristics of carotid plaques
      in asymptomatic patients without indication for carotid revascularization. We
      prospectively screened 235 consecutive patients with carotid stenosis <70%. After
      excluding patients with confounding causes of cerebral damage, 67 asymptomatic
      patients underwent carotid computed tomography angiography (CTA), contrast
      enhanced ultrasound and brain MRI. Number and quantitative measurement of volume
      of WMH were associated with history of resistant hypertension, degree of stenosis
      (Doppler) and presence of an ulcerated plaque at CTA (p < 0.05). At multivariate
      regression analysis, resistant hypertension was independently associated with
      both number and volume of WMH, presence of an ulcer with number of WMH and degree
      of stenosis with WMH volume (p < 0.05), although WMH were equally distributed in
      both hemispheres irrespectively of plaque side. In conclusion, in asymptomatic
      patients with carotid plaques <70%, a higher burden of WMHs is associated with
      history of resistant hypertension that could be the expression of microvascular
      damage. Stenosis severity and presence of plaque ulceration are also associated
      with WMH burden although their causative relation is not supported by the
      bilateral distribution of WMH.

PMID- 28874780
TI  - Significance of penile hypersensitivity in premature ejaculation.
AB  - To assess the correlation between penile hypersensitivity and premature
      ejaculation (PE), a total of 420 consecutive subjects attending our andrologic
      clinic for suspected PE were enrolled. The entire cohort was asked to complete
      the self-report intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) by stopwatch.
      According to the IELT, the subjects were classified into 3 groups. Vibratory
      thresholds were recorded at the glans penis and penile shaft using a
      biothesiometer. We found that vibratory thresholds in the glans penis and penile
      shaft were significantly lower in both mild and severe PE group than in the
      control group (3.81 +/- 0.57 and 3.54 +/- 0.43 vs 4.73 +/- 0.77 for glans penis p
      = 0.000; 3.64 +/- 0.52 and 3.37 +/- 0.50 vs 4.62 +/- 0.69 for penile shaft p =
      0.002). The vibratory threshold decreased as the disease aggravated. In the mild
      and severe PE groups, a significant positive correlation was detected between the
      mean values of IELT and the vibratory thresholds. Furthermore, in the receiver
      operating characteristics curve analysis, the area under the curve of the glans
      penis and penile shaft vibratory thresholds predicting severe PE were 0.852 and
      0.893 respectively. Our study established a dose-dependent association between
      penile vibratory threshold and PE. Therefore, the vibratory threshold can serve
      as a potential marker for predicting the severity of PE.

PMID- 28874781
TI  - Immunization of cervidized transgenic mice with multimeric deer prion protein
      induces self-antibodies that antagonize chronic wasting disease infectivity in
      vitro.
AB  - Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is the most contagious prion disease. It is
      expanding rapidly in North America, was found recently in Europe, and the
      potential for transmission to humans cannot be excluded yet. We hypothesized that
      it is possible to prevent peripheral CWD infection and CWD prion shedding by
      inducing auto-antibodies against the cellular prion protein (PrPC) by active
      vaccination. Our objective is to overcome self-tolerance against PrP by using a
      multimeric recombinant PrP (recPrP) as an immunogen. We expressed in E. coli,
      purified and refolded four immunogens: cervid and murine recPrP in monomeric and
      dimeric form. Testing immunogenicity in sera of the vaccinated transgenic mice
      expressing cervid PrP revealed that all four immunogens effectively overcame self
      tolerance against the prion protein as shown by high antibody titers. Confocal
      microscopy analysis revealed effective binding of post-immune sera to surface
      located PrPC in both murine and cervid PrP expressing cultured cells. Remarkably,
      the post-immune auto-antibodies effectively inhibited CWD-induced prion
      conversion in RT-QuIC assay when incubated with either PrP substrate or CWD seed.
      Furthermore, they mitigated prion propagation in CWD-infected cervid-PrP
      expressing RK13 cells. Together, multimeric recombinant cervid PrP effectively
      overcomes self-tolerance to PrP and induces auto-antibodies that interfere with
      CWD conversion in vitro.

PMID- 28874782
TI  - Dihydrocapsaicin Attenuates Blood Brain Barrier and Cerebral Damage in Focal
      Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion via Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory.
AB  - This study investigated the effect of dihydrocapsaicin (DHC) on cerebral and
      blood brain barrier (BBB) damage in cerebral ischemia and reperfusion (I/R)
      models. The models were induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2
      h followed by reperfusion. The rats were divided into five groups: sham, or
      control group; vehicle group; and 2.5 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg BW DHC-treated
      I/R groups. After 24 h of reperfusion, we found that DHC significantly reduced
      the area of infarction, morphology changes in the neuronal cells including
      apoptotic cell death, and also decreased the BBB damage via reducing Evan Blue
      leakage, water content, and ultrastructure changes, in addition to increasing the
      tight junction (TJ) protein expression. DHC also activated nuclear-related factor
      2 (Nrf2) which involves antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD) and
      glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and significantly decreased oxidative stress and
      inflammation via down-regulated reactive oxygen species (ROS), NADPH oxidase
      (NOX2, NOX4), nuclear factor kappa-beta (NF-KB), and nitric oxide (NO), including
      matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) levels. DHC protected the cerebral and the
      BBB from I/R injury via attenuation of oxidative stress and inflammation.
      Therefore, this study offers to aid future development for protection against
      cerebral I/R injury in humans.

PMID- 28874783
TI  - Hyperactive TGF-beta Signaling in Smooth Muscle Cells Exposed to HIV-protein(s)
      and Cocaine: Role in Pulmonary Vasculopathy.
AB  - We earlier demonstrated synergistic increase in the proliferation of pulmonary
      smooth muscle cells on exposure to HIV-proteins and/or cocaine due to severe down
      modulation of bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR) axis: the anti
      proliferative arm of TGF-beta super family of receptors. Here, now we demonstrate
      the effect of HIV-Tat and cocaine on the proliferative TGF-beta signaling
      cascade. We observed a significant increase in the secretion of TGF-beta1 ligand
      along with enhanced protein expression of TGFbeta Receptor (TGFbetaR)-1, TGFbetaR
      2 and phosphorylated SMAD2/3 in human pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells on
      treatment with cocaine and Tat. Further, we noticed an increase in the levels of
      p-TAK1 complexed with TGFbetaR-2. Concomitant to this a significant increase in
      the activation of TAK1-mediated, SMAD-independent downstream signaling molecules:
      p-MKK4 and p-JNK was observed. However, activation of MKK3/6-p38MAPK, another
      axis downstream of TAK1 was found to be reduced due to attenuation in the protein
      levels of BMPR2. Both SMAD and non-SMAD dependent TGFbetaR cascades were found to
      contribute to hyper-proliferation. Finally the increase in the levels of
      phosphorylated TGFbetaR1 and TGFbetaR2 on exposure to HIV-proteins and cocaine
      was confirmed in pulmonary smooth muscle cells from cocaine injected HIV
      transgenic rats and in total lung extracts from HIV infected cocaine and/or
      opioid users.

PMID- 28874784
TI  - Mapping the Spatial Distribution and Characteristics of Lineaments Using Fractal
      and Multifractal Models: A Case Study from Northeastern Yunnan Province, China.
AB  - This study describes the fractal dimensions of the spatial distributions of
      lineaments as an index of the complexity of faults, and the results could provide
      new insights into the migration of ore-bearing fluid. The Segment Tracing
      Algorithm method is employed to extract the lineaments in northeast Yunnan
      Province from a remote sensing image. Box-counting fractal and multifractal
      models are used to analyze the fractal and multifractal spatial distribution
      characteristics of the linear structures. The different directions of the linear
      structure fractal dimensions are similar in the study area. The fractal
      dimensions of all lineaments, northeast trending lineaments and northwest
      trending lineaments are 1.98, 1.94 and 1.95, respectively. The dimensions of four
      large ore deposit fields, Kuangshanchang, Qilinchang, Maozu, and Lemachang, are
      1.93, 1.92, 1.95, and 1.93, respectively. The fractal dimensions of these four
      fields are greater than those of the South China lineaments. The super-large and
      large ore deposits are consistent with fractal dimensions with high values. The
      scale index and the singular index show nonlinear relationships with any real
      number, and the fractal dimension spectrum has a unimodal curve. This study
      provides a useful reference for deposit exploration in areas with topographies
      similar to that in northeastern Yunnan.

PMID- 28874786
TI  - The Exchange Bias of LaMnO3/LaNiO3 Superlattices Grown along Different
      Orientations.
AB  - With the goal of observing and explaining the unexpected exchange bias effect in
      paramagnetic LaNiO3-based superlattices, a wide range of theoretical and
      experimental research has been published. Within the scope of this work, we have
      grown high-quality epitaxial LaMnO3(n)-LaNiO3(n) (LMO/LNO) superlattices (SLs)
      along (001)-, (110)-, and (111)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates. The exchange bias
      effect is observed in all cases, regardless of growth orientation of the LMO/LNO
      SLs. As a result of a combination of a number of synchrotron based x-ray
      spectroscopy measurements, this effect is attributed to the interfacial charge
      transfer from Mn to Ni ions that induces localized magnetic moments to pin the
      ferromagnetic LMO layer. The interaction per area between interfacial Mn and Ni
      ions is nearly consistent and has no effect on charge transfer for different
      orientations. The discrepant charge transfer and orbital occupancy can be
      responsible for the different magnetic properties in LMO/LNO superlattices. Our
      experimental results present a promising advancement in understanding the origin
      of magnetic properties along different directions in these materials.

PMID- 28874785
TI  - Decidualisation and placentation defects are a major cause of age-related
      reproductive decline.
AB  - Mammalian reproductive performance declines rapidly with advanced maternal age.
      This effect is largely attributed to the exponential increase in chromosome
      segregation errors in the oocyte with age. Yet many pregnancy complications and
      birth defects that become more frequent in older mothers, in both humans and
      mice, occur in the absence of karyotypic abnormalities. Here, we report that
      abnormal embryonic development in aged female mice is associated with severe
      placentation defects, which result from major deficits in the decidualisation
      response of the uterine stroma. This problem is rooted in a blunted hormonal
      responsiveness of the ageing uterus. Importantly, a young uterine environment can
      restore normal placental as well as embryonic development. Our data highlight the
      pivotal, albeit under-appreciated, impact of maternal age on uterine adaptability
      to pregnancy as major contributor to the decline in reproductive success in older
      females.Advanced maternal age has been associated with lower reproductive success
      and higher risk of pregnancy complications. Here the authors show that maternal
      ageing-related embryonic abnormalities in mouse are caused by decidualisation and
      placentation defects that can be rescued by transferring the embryo from an old
      to a young uterus.

PMID- 28874787
TI  - Blue Laser Diode Based Free-space Optical Data Transmission elevated to 18 Gbps
      over 16 m.
AB  - Up to 18-Gbps direct encoding of blue laser diode (BLD) is demonstrated for free
      space data transmission. By reshaping the orthogonal frequency multiplexed (16
      QAM OFDM) stream with sidelobe filtering, the raw data rate expedites from 17.2
      to 18.4 Gbps. Employing an ultrafast p-i-n photodiode with smaller active area
      diameter and lower noise equivalent power significantly enlarges the data rate by
      1.6 Gbps or upgrades the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 0.2 dB. Replacing the 80
      mW BLD with the 120-mW one essentially increases the received SNR by 0.4 dB under
      enhanced modulation throughput. Reinforcing the beam collimation and collection
      by increasing the numerical aperture with a plano-convex hyper-hemispherical lens
      further improves the SNR by 0.6 dB. After optimization, the 16-QAM OFDM data with
      and without sidelobe filtering are respectively delivered at raw data rates of
      16.4 and 18 Gbps with spectral-density usage efficiency as high as 4 bit/s/Hz
      over 16 m in free space, wherein the BLD carried QAM-OFDM data stream remains its
      capacity after reformation with sidelobe filtering as the superior inter-carrier
      interference immunity reinforces.

PMID- 28874788
TI  - Comprehensive transcriptome mining of the direct conversion of mesodermal cells.
AB  - The direct reprogramming of somatic cells is a promising approach for
      regenerative medicine, especially in the production of mesoderm layer-derived
      cells. Meta-analysis studies provide precise insight into the undergoing
      processes and help increase the efficiency of reprogramming. Here, using 27 high
      throughput expression data sets, we analyzed the direct reprogramming of
      mesodermal cells in humans and mice. Fibroblast-derived cells showed a common
      expression pattern of up- and down-regulated genes that were mainly involved in
      the suppression of the fibroblast-specific gene expression program, and may be
      used as markers of the initiation of reprogramming. Furthermore, we found a
      specific gene expression profile for each fibroblast-derived cell studied, and
      each gene set appeared to play specific functional roles in its cell type,
      suggesting their use as markers for their mature state. Furthermore, using data
      from protein-DNA interactions, we identified the main transcription factors (TFs)
      involved in the conversion process and ranked them based on their importance in
      their gene regulatory networks. In summary, our meta-analysis approach provides
      new insights on the direct conversion of mesodermal somatic cells, introduces a
      list of genes as markers for initiation and maturation, and identifies TFs for
      which manipulating their expression may increase the efficiency of direct
      conversion.

PMID- 28874789
TI  - Infrared probe of pseudogap in electron-doped Sr2IrO4.
AB  - We report on infrared spectroscopy experiments on the electronic response in (Sr1
      x La x )2IrO4 (x = 0, 0.021, and 0.067). Our data show that electron doping
      induced by La substitution leads to an insulator-to-metal transition. The
      evolution of the electronic structure across the transition reveals the
      robustness of the strong electronic correlations against the electron doping. The
      conductivity data of the metallic compound show the signature of the pseudogap
      that bears close similarity to the analogous studies of the pseudogap in the
      underdoped cuprates. While the low energy conductivity of the metallic compound
      is barely frequency dependent, the formation of the pseudogap is revealed by the
      gradual suppression of the featureless conductivity below a threshold frequency
      of about 17 meV. The threshold structure develops below about 100 K which is in
      the vicinity of the onset of the short-range antiferromagnetic order. Our results
      demonstrate that the electronic correlations play a crucial role in the anomalous
      charge dynamics in the (Sr1-x La x )2IrO4 system.

PMID- 28874790
TI  - Microscale Liquid Transport in Polycrystalline Inverse Opals across Grain
      Boundaries.
AB  - Delivering liquid through the void spaces in porous metals is a daunting
      challenge for a variety of emerging interface technologies ranging from battery
      electrodes to evaporation surfaces. Hydraulic transport characteristics of well
      ordered porous media are governed by the pore distribution, porosity, and
      morphology. Much like energy transport in polycrystalline solids, hydraulic
      transport in semi-ordered porous media is predominantly limited by defects and
      grain boundaries. Here, we report the wicking performances for porous copper
      inverse opals having pore diameters from 300 to 1000 nm by measuring the
      capillary-driven liquid rise. The capillary performance parameter within single
      crystal domain (K ij /R eff  = 10-3 to 10-2 um) is an order of magnitude greater
      than the collective polycrystal (K eff /R eff  = ~10-5 to 10-3 um) due to the
      hydraulic resistances (i.e. grain boundaries between individual grains). Inspired
      by the heterogeneity found in biological systems, we report that the capillary
      performance parameter of gradient porous copper (K eff /R eff  = ~10-3 um),
      comparable to that of single crystals, overcomes hydraulic resistances through
      providing additional hydraulic routes in three dimensions. The understanding of
      microscopic liquid transport physics through porous crystals and across grain
      boundaries will help to pave the way for the spatial design of next-generation
      heterogeneous porous media.

PMID- 28874791
TI  - Disease reservoirs: from conceptual frameworks to applicable criteria.
AB  - Central to the One Health approach and any disease eradication program is the
      question of whether a pathogen has a non-human reservoir. Despite well
      established conceptual frameworks that define a reservoir of infection, empirical
      characterization of reservoirs often remains controversial, challenging and
      sometimes misleading. What is essentially missing are applicable requirements
      that standardize the use of the term 'reservoir of infection' across multiple
      disciplines. We propose an empirical framework, considering maintenance and
      feasible transmission of a pathogen, to standardize the acceptance of a disease
      reservoir across multiple disciplines. We demonstrate the intended use of these
      requirements by applying them to different diseases that are known to infect both
      humans and animals.

PMID- 28874795
TI  - Tailoring the thermal conductivity of the powder bed in Electron Beam Melting
      (EBM) Additive Manufacturing.
AB  - Metallic powder bed additive manufacturing is capable of producing complex,
      functional parts by repeatedly depositing thin layers of powder particles atop of
      each other whilst selectively melting the corresponding part cross-section into
      each layer. A weakness with this approach arises when melting overhanging
      features, which have no prior melted material directly beneath them. This is due
      to the lower thermal conductivity of the powder relative to solid material, which
      as a result leads to an accumulation of heat and thus distortion. The Electron
      Beam Melting (EBM) process alleviates this to some extent as the powder must
      first be sintered (by the beam itself) before it is melted, which results in the
      added benefit of increasing the thermal conductivity. This study thus sought to
      investigate to what extent the thermal conductivity of local regions in a
      titanium Ti-6Al-4V powder bed could be varied by imparting more energy from the
      beam. Thermal diffusivity and density measurements were taken of the resulting
      sintered samples, which ranged from being loosely to very well consolidated. It
      was found that the calculated thermal conductivity at two temperatures, 40 and
      730  degrees C, was more than doubled over the range of input energies explored.

PMID- 28874792
TI  - Surveillance for highly pathogenic influenza A viruses in California during 2014
      2015 provides insights into viral evolutionary pathways and the spatiotemporal
      extent of viruses in the Pacific Americas Flyway.
AB  - We used surveillance data collected in California before, concurrent with, and
      subsequent to an outbreak of highly pathogenic (HP) clade 2.3.4.4 influenza A
      viruses (IAVs) in 2014-2015 to (i) evaluate IAV prevalence in waterfowl, (ii)
      assess the evidence for spill-over infections in marine mammals and (iii)
      genetically characterize low-pathogenic (LP) and HP IAVs to refine inference on
      the spatiotemporal extent of HP genome constellations and to evaluate possible
      evolutionary pathways. We screened samples from 1496 waterfowl and 1142 marine
      mammals collected from April 2014 to August 2015 and detected IAV RNA in 159
      samples collected from birds (n=157) and pinnipeds (n=2). HP IAV RNA was
      identified in three samples originating from American wigeon (Anas americana).
      Genetic sequence data were generated for a clade 2.3.4.4 HP IAV-positive
      diagnostic sample and 57 LP IAV isolates. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the
      HP IAV was a reassortant H5N8 virus with gene segments closely related to LP IAVs
      detected in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) sampled in California and other IAVs
      detected in wild birds sampled within the Pacific Americas Flyway. In addition,
      our analysis provided support for common ancestry between LP IAVs recovered from
      waterfowl sampled in California and gene segments of reassortant HP H5N1 IAVs
      detected in British Columbia, Canada and Washington, USA. Our investigation
      provides evidence that waterfowl are likely to have played a role in the
      evolution of reassortant HP IAVs in the Pacific Americas Flyway during 2014-2015,
      whereas we did not find support for spill-over infections in potential pinniped
      hosts.

PMID- 28874794
TI  - Impact of different promoters, promoter mutation, and an enhancer on recombinant
      protein expression in CHO cells.
AB  - In the present study, six commonly used promoters, including cytomegalovirus
      major immediate-early (CMV), the CMV enhancer fused to the chicken beta-actin
      promoter (CAG), human elongation factor-1alpha (HEF-1alpha), mouse
      cytomegalovirus (mouse CMV), Chinese hamster elongation factor-1alpha (CHEF
      1alpha), and phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK), a CMV promoter mutant and a CAG
      enhancer, were evaluated to determine their effects on transgene expression and
      stability in transfected CHO cells. The promoters and enhancer were cloned or
      synthesized, and mutation at C-404 in the CMV promoter was generated; then all
      elements were transfected into CHO cells. Stably transfected CHO cells were
      identified via screening under the selection pressure of G418. Flow cytometry,
      qPCR, and qRT-PCR were used to explore eGFP expression levels, gene copy number,
      and mRNA expression levels, respectively. Furthermore, the erythropoietin (EPO)
      gene was used to test the selected strong promoter. Of the six promoters, the
      CHEF-1alpha promoter yielded the highest transgene expression levels, whereas the
      CMV promoter maintained transgene expression more stably during long-term culture
      of cells. We conclude that CHEF-1alpha promoter conferred higher level of EPO
      expression in CHO cells, but the CMV promoter with its high levels of stability
      performs best in this vector system.

PMID- 28874796
TI  - Controlled self-organization of polymer nanopatterns over large areas.
AB  - Self-assembly methods allow to obtain ordered patterns on surfaces with exquisite
      precision, but often lack in effectiveness over large areas. Here we report on
      the realization of hierarchically ordered polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)
      nanofibres and nanodots over large areas from solution via a fast, easy and low
      cost method named ASB-SANS, based on a ternary solution that is cast on the
      substrate. Simple changes to the ternary solution composition allow to control
      the transition from nanofibres to nanodots, via a wide range of intermediate
      topologies. The ternary solution includes the material to be patterned, a liquid
      solvent and a solid substance able to sublimate. The analysis of the fibres/dots
      width and inter-pattern distance variations with respect to the ratio between the
      solution components suggests that the macromolecular chains mobility in the
      solidified sublimating substance follows Zimm-like models (mobility of
      macromolecules in diluted liquid solutions). A qualitative explanation of the
      self-assembly phenomena originating the observed nanopatterns is given. Finally,
      ASB-SANS-generated PMMA nanodots arrays have been used as lithographic masks for
      a silicon substrate and submitted to Inductively Coupled Plasma-Reactive Ion
      Etching (ICP-RIE). As a result, nanopillars with remarkably high aspect ratios
      have been achieved over areas as large as several millimeters square,
      highlighting an interesting potential of ASB-SANS in practical applications like
      photon trapping in photovoltaic cells, surface-enhanced sensors, plasmonics.

PMID- 28874797
TI  - Impact of second-line cetuximab-containing therapy in patients with KRAS wild
      type metastatic colorectal cancer: results from the ITACa randomized clinical
      trial.
AB  - The ITACa trial was designed to define the role of cetuximab (Cet) and
      bevacizumab (Bev) in combination with standard chemotherapy (CT, FOLFIRI or
      FOLFOX4) as first- and second-line treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer. All
      patients with WT KRAS tumors who had been enrolled in the first-line trial were
      randomized onto two independent second-line trials: CT or CT + Cet (study 2A) and
      CT + Bev or CT + Bev + Cet (study 2B). Patients with mutated KRAS were not
      eligible for randomization and were treated with CT alone (study 2A) or CT + Bev
      (study 2B). The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). 48 and 56
      KRAS WT patients were randomized while 31 and 40 KRAS mutated patients were
      treated without randomization. Study 2A: median PFS was 3.4 (95%CI 2.3-4.6) and
      6.2 (95%CI 4.3-7.8) months for the CT and CT + Cet arms, respectively, with a
      hazard ratio (HR) = 0.64 (95%CI 0.35-1.16, p = 0.144). Study 2B: median PFS was
      7.7 (95%CI 4.1-10.1) and 4.9 (95%CI 3.2-7.0) months for CT + Bev and CT + Cet +
      Bev arms, respectively, with a HR = 1.31 (95%CI 0.76-2.26, p = 0.330).
      Notwithstanding limitations due to the small sample size, among patients with WT
      KRAS the addition of Cet to second-line CT increased PFS, whereas the addition of
      Cet to CT + Bev was associated with worse PFS.

PMID- 28874798
TI  - A rare-earth free magnesium alloy with improved intrinsic ductility.
AB  - Metals are the backbone of manufacturing owing to their strength and formability.
      Compared to polymers they have high mass density. There is, however, one
      exception: magnesium. It has a density of only 1.7 g/cm3, making it the lightest
      structural material, 4.5 times lighter than steels, 1.7 times lighter than
      aluminum, and even slightly lighter than carbon fibers. Yet, the widespread use
      of magnesium is hampered by its intrinsic brittleness. While other metallic
      alloys have multiple dislocation slip systems, enabling their well-known
      ductility, the hexagonal lattice of magnesium offers insufficient modes of
      deformation, rendering it intrinsically brittle. We have developed a quantum
      mechanically derived treasure map which screens solid solution combinations with
      electronic bonding, structure and volume descriptors for similarity to the
      ductile magnesium-rare earth alloys. Using this insight we synthesized a
      surprisingly simple, compositionally lean, low-cost and industry-compatible new
      alloy which is over 4 times more ductile and 40% stronger than pure magnesium.
      The alloy contains 1 wt.% aluminum and 0.1 wt.% calcium, two inexpensive elements
      which are compatible with downstream recycling constraints.

PMID- 28874799
TI  - A Metabolomics Signature Linked To Liver Fibrosis In The Serum Of Transplanted
      Hepatitis C Patients.
AB  - Liver fibrosis must be evaluated in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) after
      liver transplantation because its severity affects their prognosis and the
      recurrence of HCV. Since invasive biopsy is still the gold standard to identify
      patients at risk of graft loss from rapid fibrosis progression, it becomes
      crucial the development of new accurate, non-invasive methods that allow
      repetitive examination of the patients. Therefore, we have developed a non
      invasive, accurate model to distinguish those patients with different liver
      fibrosis stages. Two hundred and three patients with HCV were histologically
      classified (METAVIR) into five categories of fibrosis one year after liver
      transplantation. In this cross-sectional study, patients at fibrosis stages F0-F1
      (n = 134) were categorised as "slow fibrosers" and F2-F4 (n = 69) as "rapid
      fibrosers". Chloroform/methanol serum extracts were analysed by reverse ultra
      high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. A diagnostic
      model was built through linear discriminant analyses. An algorithm consisting of
      two sphingomyelins and two phosphatidylcholines accurately classifies rapid and
      slow fibrosers after transplantation. The proposed model yielded an AUROC of
      0.92, 71% sensitivity, 85% specificity, and 84% accuracy. Moreover, specific bile
      acids and sphingomyelins increased notably along with liver fibrosis severity,
      differentiating between rapid and slow fibrosers.

PMID- 28874800
TI  - Mechanism of splenic cell death and host mortality in a Plasmodium yoelii malaria
      model.
AB  - Malaria is a fatal disease that displays a spectrum of symptoms and severity,
      which are determined by complex host-parasite interactions. It has been difficult
      to study the effects of parasite strains on disease severity in human infections,
      but the mechanisms leading to specific disease phenotypes can be investigated
      using strains of rodent malaria parasites that cause different disease symptoms
      in inbred mice. Using a unique mouse malaria model, here we investigated the
      mechanisms of splenic cell death and their relationship to control of parasitemia
      and host mortality. C57BL/6 mice infected with Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis N67C
      display high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (IL-6, IFN
      gamma, TNF-alpha, CXCL1, and CCL2) and extensive splenic damage with dramatic
      reduction of splenic cell populations. These disease phenotypes were rescued in
      RAG2-/-, IFN-gamma-/-, or T cell depleted mice, suggesting IFN-gamma and T cell
      mediated disease mechanisms. Additionally, apoptosis was one of the major
      pathways involved in splenic cell death, which coincides with the peaks of pro
      inflammatory cytokines. Our results demonstrate the critical roles of T cells and
      IFN-gamma in mediating splenic cell apoptosis, parasitemia control, and host
      lethality and thus may provide important insights for preventing/reducing
      morbidity associated with severe malaria in humans.

PMID- 28874801
TI  - Divergent Evolution of Carbonaceous Aerosols during Dispersal of East Asian Haze.
AB  - Wintertime East Asia is plagued by severe haze episodes, characterized by large
      contributions of carbonaceous aerosols. However, the sources and atmospheric
      transformations of these major components are poorly constrained, hindering
      development of efficient mitigation strategies and detailed modelling of effects.
      Here we present dual carbon isotope (delta13C and Delta14C) signatures for black
      carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) aerosols
      collected in urban (Beijing and BC for Shanghai) and regional receptors (e.g.,
      Korea Climate Observatory at Gosan) during January 2014. Fossil sources (>50%)
      dominate BC at all sites with most stemming from coal combustion, except for
      Shanghai, where liquid fossil source is largest. During source-to-receptor
      transport, the delta13C fingerprint becomes enriched for WSOC but depleted for
      water-insoluble OC (WIOC). This reveals that the atmospheric processing of these
      two major pools are fundamentally different. The photochemical aging (e.g.,
      photodissociation, photooxidation) during formation and transport can release
      CO2/CO or short-chain VOCs with lighter carbon, whereas the remaining WSOC
      becomes increasingly enriched in delta13C. On the other hand, several processes,
      e.g., secondary formation, rearrangement reaction in the particle phase, and
      photooxidation can influence WIOC. Taken together, this study highlights high
      fossil contributions for all carbonaceous aerosol sub-compartments in East Asia,
      and suggests different transformation pathways for different classes of
      carbonaceous aerosols.

PMID- 28874802
TI  - Erratum: "Calibration-on-the-spot": How to calibrate an EMCCD camera from its
      images.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep28680.

PMID- 28874803
TI  - Tumor cells and their crosstalk with endothelial cells in 3D spheroids.
AB  - Recapitulating the tumor microenvironment is a central challenge in the
      development of experimental model for cancer. To provide a reliable tool for drug
      development and for personalized cancer therapy, it is critical to maintain key
      features that  exist in the original tumor. Along with this effort, 3-dimentional
      (3D) cellular models are being extensively studied. Spheroids are self-assembled
      cell aggregates that possess many important components of the physiological
      spatial growth and cell-cell interactions. In this study we aimed to investigate
      the interconnection between tumor and endothelial cells (EC) in hybrid spheroids
      containing either tumor cell (TC) lines or patient derived cancer cells.
      Preparation protocols of hybrid spheroids were optimized and their morphology and
      tissue-like features were analyzed. Our finding show that capillary-like
      structures are formed upon assembly and growth of TC:EC spheroids and that
      spheroids' shape and surface texture may be an indication of spatial invasiveness
      of cells in the extra-cellular matrix (ECM). Establishing a model of hybrid
      tumor/stroma spheroids has a crucial importance in the experimental approach for
      personalized medicine, and may offer a reliable and low-cost method for the goal
      of predicting drug effects.

PMID- 28874804
TI  - Whole Transcriptome Analysis of Notochord-Derived Cells during Embryonic
      Formation of the Nucleus Pulposus.
AB  - Recapitulation of developmental signals represents a promising strategy for
      treating intervertebral disc degeneration. During development, embryonic
      notochord-derived cells (NDCs) are the direct progenitors of cells that populate
      the adult nucleus pulposus (NP) and are an important source of secreted signaling
      molecules. The objective of this study was to define global gene expression
      profiles of NDCs at key stages of embryonic disc formation. NDCs were isolated
      from Shh-cre;ROSA:YFP mice at embryonic day 12.5 and postnatal day 0,
      representing opposite ends of the notochord to NP transformation. Differences in
      global mRNA abundance across this developmental window were established using RNA
      Seq. Protein expression of selected molecules was confirmed using
      immunohistochemistry. Principal component analysis revealed clustering of gene
      expression at each developmental stage with more than 5000 genes significantly
      differentially expressed between E12.5 and P0. There was significantly lower mRNA
      abundance of sonic hedgehog pathway elements at P0 vs E12.5, while abundance of
      elements of the transforming growth factor-beta and insulin-like growth factors
      pathways, and extracellular matrix components including collagen 6 and aggrecan,
      were significantly higher at P0. This study represents the first transcriptome
      wide analysis of embryonic NDCs. Results suggest signaling and biosynthesis of
      NDCs change dramatically as a function of developmental stage.

PMID- 28874805
TI  - Modular assembly of a protein nanotriangle using orthogonally interacting coiled
      coils.
AB  - Synthetic protein assemblies that adopt programmed shapes would support many
      applications in nanotechnology. We used a rational design approach that exploits
      the modularity of orthogonally interacting coiled coils to create a self
      assembled protein nanotriangle. Coiled coils have frequently been used to
      construct nanoassemblies and materials, but rarely with successful prior
      specification of the resulting structure. We designed a heterotrimer from three
      pairs of heterodimeric coiled coils that mediate specific interactions while
      avoiding undesired crosstalk. Non-associating pairs of coiled-coil units were
      strategically fused to generate three chains that were predicted to
      preferentially form the heterotrimer, and a rational annealing process led to the
      desired oligomer. Extensive biophysical characterization and modeling support the
      formation of a molecular triangle, which is a shape distinct from naturally
      occurring supramolecular nanostructures. Our approach can be extended to design
      more complex nanostructures using additional coiled-coil modules, other protein
      parts, or templated surfaces.

PMID- 28874806
TI  - Self-powered Real-time Movement Monitoring Sensor Using Triboelectric
      Nanogenerator Technology.
AB  - The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has great potential in the field of self
      powered sensor fabrication. Recently, smart electronic devices and movement
      monitoring sensors have attracted the attention of scientists because of their
      application in the field of artificial intelligence. In this article, a TENG
      finger movement monitoring, self-powered sensor has been designed and analysed.
      Under finger movements, the TENG realizes the contact and separation to convert
      the mechanical energy into electrical signal. A pulse output current of 7.8 MUA
      is generated by the bending and straightening motions of the artificial finger.
      The optimal output power can be realized when the external resistance is
      approximately 30 MOmega. The random motions of the finger are detected by the
      system with multiple TENG sensors in series. This type of flexible and self
      powered sensor has potential applications in artificial intelligence and robot
      manufacturing.

PMID- 28874807
TI  - Integrated Analysis of Copy Number Variations and Gene Expression Profiling in
      Hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the top three cancer killers worldwide.
      To identify CNV-driven differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in HBV related HCC,
      this study integrated analysis of copy number variations (CNVs) and gene
      expression profiling. Significant genes in regions of CNVs were overlapped with
      those obtained from the expression profiling. 93 CNV-driven genes exhibiting
      increased expression in the duplicated regions and 45 showing decreased
      expression in the deleted regions were obtained, which duplications and deletions
      were mainly documented at chromosome 1 and 4. Functional and pathway enrichment
      analyses were performed using DAVID and KOBAS, respectively. They were mainly
      enriched in metabolic process and cell cycle. Protein-protein interaction (PPI)
      network was constructed by Cytoscape, then four hub genes were identified.
      Following, survival analyses indicated that only high NPM1 expression was
      significantly and independently associated with worse survival and increased
      recurrence in HCC patients. Moreover, this correlation remained significant in
      patients with early stage of HCC. In addition, we showed that NPM1 was
      overexpressed in HCC cells and in HCC versus adjacent non-tumor tissues. In
      conclusion, these results showed that integrated analysis of genomic and
      expression profiling might provide a powerful potential for identifying CNV
      driven genes in HBV related HCC pathogenesis.

PMID- 28874808
TI  - RERT: A Novel Regression Tree Approach to Predict Extrauterine Disease in
      Endometrial Carcinoma Patients.
AB  - Some aspects of endometrial cancer (EC) preoperative work-up are still
      controversial, and debatable are the roles played by lymphadenectomy and radical
      surgery. Proper preoperative EC staging can help design a tailored surgical
      treatment, and this study aims to propose a new algorithm able to predict
      extrauterine disease diffusion. 293 EC patients were consecutively enrolled, and
      age, BMI, children's number, menopausal status, contraception, hormone
      replacement therapy, hypertension, histological grading, clinical stage, and
      serum HE4 and CA125 values were preoperatively evaluated. In order to identify
      before surgery the most important variables able to classify EC patients based on
      FIGO stage, we adopted a new statistical approach consisting of two-steps: 1)
      Random Forest with its relative variable importance; 2) a novel algorithm able to
      select the most representative Regression Tree (RERT) from an ensemble method.
      RERT, built on the above mentioned variables, provided a sensitivity,
      specificity, NPV and PPV of 90%, 76%, 94% and 65% respectively, in predicting
      FIGO stage > I. Notably, RERT outperformed the prediction ability of HE4, CA125,
      Logistic Regression and single cross-validated Regression Tree. Such algorithm
      has great potential, since it better identifies the true early-stage patients,
      thus providing concrete support in the decisional process about therapeutic
      options to be performed.

PMID- 28874809
TI  - Forensic age prediction for saliva samples using methylation-sensitive high
      resolution melting: exploratory application for cigarette butts.
AB  - There is high demand for forensic age prediction in actual crime investigations.
      In this study, a novel age prediction model for saliva samples using methylation
      sensitive high resolution melting (MS-HRM) was developed. The methylation
      profiles of ELOVL2 and EDARADD showed high correlations with age and were used to
      predict age with support vector regression. ELOVL2 was first reported as an age
      predictive marker for saliva samples. The prediction model showed high accuracy
      with a mean absolute deviation (MAD) from chronological age of 5.96 years among
      197 training samples. The model was further validated with an additional 50 test
      samples (MAD = 6.25). In addition, the age prediction model was applied to saliva
      extracted from seven cigarette butts, as in an actual crime scene. The MAD (7.65
      years) for these samples was slightly higher than that of intact saliva samples.
      A smoking habit or the ingredients of cigarettes themselves did not significantly
      affect the prediction model and could be ignored. MS-HRM provides a quick (2
      hours) and cost-effective (95% decreased compared to that of DNA chips) method of
      analysis. Thus, this study may provide a novel strategy for predicting the age of
      a person of interest in actual crime scene investigations.

PMID- 28874811
TI  - Effect of Fusidic Acid on the Kinetics of Molecular Motions During EF-G-Induced
      Translocation on the Ribosome.
AB  - The translocation step of protein synthesis entails binding and dissociation of
      elongation factor G (EF-G), movements of the two tRNA molecules, and motions of
      the ribosomal subunits. The translocation step is targeted by many antibiotics.
      Fusidic acid (FA), an antibiotic that blocks EF-G on the ribosome, may also
      interfere with some of the ribosome rearrangements, but the exact timing of
      inhibition remains unclear. To follow in real-time the dynamics of the ribosome
      tRNA-EF-G complex, we have developed a fluorescence toolbox which allows us to
      monitor the key molecular motions during translocation. Here we employed six
      different fluorescence observables to investigate how FA affects translocation
      kinetics. We found that FA binds to an early translocation intermediate, but its
      kinetic effect on tRNA movement is small. FA does not affect the synchronous
      forward (counterclockwise) movements of the head and body domains of the small
      ribosomal subunit, but exerts a strong effect on the rates of late translocation
      events, i.e. backward (clockwise) swiveling of the head domain and the transit of
      deacylated tRNA through the E' site, in addition to blocking EF-G dissociation.
      The use of ensemble kinetics and numerical integration unraveled how the
      antibiotic targets molecular motions within the ribosome-EF-G complex.

PMID- 28874810
TI  - Innate immune activating ligand SUMOylation affects tumor cell recognition by NK
      cells.
AB  - Natural Killer cells are innate lymphocytes involved in tumor immunosurveillance.
      They express activating receptors able to recognize self-molecules poorly
      expressed on healthy cells but up-regulated upon stress conditions, including
      transformation. Regulation of ligand expression in tumor cells mainly relays on
      transcriptional mechanisms, while the involvement of ubiquitin or ubiquitin-like
      modifiers remains largely unexplored. Here, we focused on the SUMO pathway and
      demonstrated that the ligand of DNAM1 activating receptor, PVR, undergoes
      SUMOylation in multiple myeloma. Concurrently, we found that PVR is
      preferentially located in intracellular compartments in human multiple myeloma
      cell lines and malignant plasma cells and that inhibition of the SUMO pathway
      promotes its translocation to the cell surface, increasing tumor cell
      susceptibility to NK cell-mediated cytolysis. Our findings provide the first
      evidence of an innate immune activating ligand regulated by SUMOylation, and
      confer to this modification a novel role in impairing recognition and killing of
      tumor cells.

PMID- 28874812
TI  - Towards a new paleotemperature proxy from reef coral occurrences.
AB  - Global mean temperature is thought to have exceeded that of today during the last
      interglacial episode (LIG, ~ 125,000 yrs b.p.) but robust paleoclimate data are
      still rare in low latitudes. Occurrence data of tropical reef corals may provide
      new proxies of low latitude sea-surface temperatures. Using modern reef coral
      distributions we developed a geographically explicit model of sea surface
      temperatures. Applying this model to coral occurrence data of the LIG provides a
      latitudinal U-shaped pattern of temperature anomalies with cooler than modern
      temperatures around the equator and warmer subtropical climes. Our results agree
      with previously published estimates of LIG temperatures and suggest a poleward
      broadening of the habitable zone for reef corals during the LIG.

PMID- 28874813
TI  - FunctionAnnotator, a versatile and efficient web tool for non-model organism
      annotation.
AB  - ABSATRACT: Along with the constant improvement in high-throughput sequencing
      technology, an increasing number of transcriptome sequencing projects are carried
      out in organisms without decoded genome information and even on environmental
      biological samples. To study the biological functions of novel transcripts, the
      very first task is to identify their potential functions. We present a web-based
      annotation tool, FunctionAnnotator, which offers comprehensive annotations,
      including GO term assignment, enzyme annotation, domain/motif identification and
      predictions for subcellular localization. To accelerate the annotation process,
      we have optimized the computation processes and used parallel computing for all
      annotation steps. Moreover, FunctionAnnotator is designed to be versatile, and it
      generates a variety of useful outputs for facilitating other analyses. Here, we
      demonstrate how FunctionAnnotator can be helpful in annotating non-model
      organisms. We further illustrate that FunctionAnnotator can estimate the
      taxonomic composition of environmental samples and assist in the identification
      of novel proteins by combining RNA-Seq data with proteomics technology. In
      summary, FunctionAnnotator can efficiently annotate transcriptomes and greatly
      benefits studies focusing on non-model organisms or metatranscriptomes.
      FunctionAnnotator, a comprehensive annotation web-service tool, is freely
      available online at: http://fa.cgu.edu.tw/ . This new web-based annotator will
      shed light on field studies involving organisms without a reference genome.

PMID- 28874814
TI  - T-bet, but not Gata3, overexpression is detrimental in a neurotropic viral
      infection.
AB  - Intracerebral Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) infection in mice
      induces inflammatory demyelination in the central nervous system. Although
      C57BL/6 mice normally resistant to TMEV infection with viral clearance, we have
      previously demonstrated that RORgammat-transgenic (tg) C57BL/6 mice, which have
      Th17-biased responses due to RORgammat overexpression in T cells, became
      susceptible to TMEV infection with viral persistence. Here, using T-bet-tg
      C57BL/6 mice and Gata3-tg C57BL/6 mice, we demonstrated that overexpression of T
      bet, but not Gata3, in T cells was detrimental in TMEV infection. Unexpectedly, T
      bet-tg mice died 2 to 3 weeks after infection due to failure of viral clearance.
      Here, TMEV infection induced splenic T cell depletion, which was associated with
      lower anti-viral antibody and T cell responses. In contrast, Gata3-tg mice
      remained resistant, while Gata3-tg mice had lower IFN-gamma and higher IL-4
      production with increased anti-viral IgG1 responses. Thus, our data identify how
      overexpression of T-bet and Gata3 in T cells alters anti-viral immunity and
      confers susceptibility to TMEV infection.

PMID- 28874815
TI  - Injectable and thermosensitive TGF-beta1-loaded PCEC hydrogel system for in vivo
      cartilage repair.
AB  - Chondral defects pose a great challenge for clinicians to manage owing to the
      limited capacity for self-healing. Various traditional approaches have been
      adopted for the repair of these defects with unsatisfactory results. Cartilage
      tissue engineering techniques have emerged as promising strategies to enhance
      regeneration and overcome these traditional shortcomings. The cell-homing based
      technique is considered the most promising owing to its unique advantages.
      Thermosensitive hydrogels have been applied as scaffolds for biomedical
      applications with smart sol-gel response for altering environmental temperature.
      Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 is considered to be capable of promoting
      chondrogenesis. In this study, a novel TGF-beta1-loaded poly(epsilon
      caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCEC) hydrogel
      was fabricated using simple procedures. Hydrogel characterization, rheological
      testing, component analysis, and assessment of sol-gel transition, in vitro
      degradation, and TGF-beta1 release confirmed that this material possesses a
      porous microstructure with favorable injectability and sustained drug release.
      Full-thickness cartilage defects were induced on rat knees for in vivo cartilage
      repair for eight weeks. Micro-CT and histological evaluation provided further
      evidence of the optimal capacity of this novel hydrogel for cartilage
      regeneration with respect to that of other methods. Moreover, our results
      demonstrated that the cell-free hydrogel is thermosensitive, injectable,
      biodegradable, and capable of in vivo cartilage repair and possesses high
      potential and benefits for acellular cartilage tissue engineering and clinical
      application in the future.

PMID- 28874816
TI  - Protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor 22 and C-Src tyrosine kinase genes are
      down-regulated in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Several protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor 22 (PTPN22) single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) have been significantly related with rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA) susceptibility. Nevertheless, its potential influence on PTPN22 expression
      in RA has not been completely elucidated. Furthermore, PTPN22 binds to C-Src
      tyrosine kinase (CSK) forming a key complex in autoimmunity. However, the
      information of CSK gene in RA is scarce. In this study, we analyzed the relative
      PTPN22 and CSK expression in peripheral blood from 89 RA patients and 43 controls
      to determine if the most relevant PTPN22 (rs2488457, rs2476601 and rs33996649)
      and CSK (rs34933034 and rs1378942) polymorphisms may influence on PTPN22 and CSK
      expression in RA. The association between PTPN22 and CSK expression in RA
      patients and their clinical characteristics was also evaluated. Our study shows
      for the first time a marked down-regulation of PTPN22 expression in RA patients
      carrying the risk alleles of PTPN22 rs2488457 and rs2476601 compared to controls
      (p = 0.004 and p = 0.007, respectively). Furthermore, CSK expression was
      significantly lower in RA patients than in controls (p < 0.0001). Interestingly,
      a reduced PTPN22 expression was disclosed in RA patients with ischemic heart
      disease (p = 0.009). The transcriptional suppression of this PTPN22/CSK complex
      may have a noteworthy clinical relevance in RA patients.

PMID- 28874817
TI  - Armored CAR T cells enhance antitumor efficacy and overcome the tumor
      microenvironment.
AB  - Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has shown limited efficacy for the
      management of solid tumor malignancies. In ovarian cancer, this is in part due to
      an immunosuppressive cytokine and cellular tumor microenvironment which
      suppresses adoptively transferred T cells. We engineered an armored CAR T cell
      capable of constitutive secretion of IL-12, and delineate the mechanisms via
      which these CAR T cells overcome a hostile tumor microenvironment. In this
      report, we demonstrate enhanced proliferation, decreased apoptosis and increased
      cytotoxicity in the presence of immunosuppressive ascites. In vivo, we show
      enhanced expansion and CAR T cell antitumor efficacy, culminating in improvement
      in survival in a syngeneic model of ovarian peritoneal carcinomatosis. Armored
      CAR T cells mediated depletion of tumor associated macrophages and resisted
      endogenous PD-L1-induced inhibition. These findings highlight the role of the
      inhibitory microenvironment and how CAR T cells can be further engineered to
      maintain efficacy.

PMID- 28874818
TI  - Endothelial Cell Culture Under Perfusion On A Polyester-Toner Microfluidic
      Device.
AB  - This study presents an inexpensive and easy way to produce a microfluidic device
      that mimics a blood vessel, serving as a start point for cell culture under
      perfusion, cardiovascular research, and toxicological studies. Endpoint assays
      (i.e., MTT reduction and NO assays) were used and revealed that the components
      making up the microchip, which is made of polyester and toner (PT), did not
      induce cell death or nitric oxide (NO) production. Applying oxygen plasma and
      fibronectin improved the adhesion and proliferation endothelial cell along the
      microchannel. As expected, these treatments showed an increase in vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) concentration profiles, which is correlated
      with adherence and cell proliferation, thus promoting endothelialization of the
      device for neovascularization. Regardless the simplicity of the device, our "vein
      on-a-chip" mimetic has a potential to serve as a powerful tool for those that
      demand a rapid microfabrication method in cell biology or organ-on-a-chip
      research.

PMID- 28874819
TI  - Selection for energy efficiency drives strand-biased gene distribution in
      prokaryotes.
AB  - Lagging-strand genes accumulate more deleterious mutations. Genes are thus
      preferably located on the leading strand, an observation known as strand-biased
      gene distribution (SGD). Despite of this mechanistic understanding, a
      satisfactory quantitative model is still lacking. Replication-transcription
      collisions induce stalling of the replication machinery, expose DNA to various
      attacks, and are followed by error-prone repairs. We found that mutational biases
      in non-transcribed regions can explain ~71% of the variations in SGDs in 1,552
      genomes, supporting the mutagenesis origin of SGD. Mutational biases introduce
      energetically cheaper nucleotides on the lagging strand, and result in more
      expensive protein products; consistently, the cost difference between the two
      strands explains ~50% of the variance in SGDs. Protein costs decrease with
      increasing gene expression. At similar expression levels, protein products of
      leading-strand genes are generally cheaper than lagging-strand genes; however,
      highly-expressed lagging genes are still cheaper than lowly-expressed leading
      genes. Selection for energy efficiency thus drives some genes to the leading
      strand, especially those highly expressed and essential, but certainly not all
      genes. Stronger mutational biases are often associated with low-GC genomes; as
      low-GC genes encode expensive proteins, low-GC genomes thus tend to have stronger
      SGDs to alleviate the stronger pressure on efficient energy usage.

PMID- 28874820
TI  - Image-based closed-loop feedback for highly mono-dispersed microdroplet
      production.
AB  - Micron-scale droplets isolated by an immiscible liquid can provide miniaturised
      reaction vessels which can be manipulated in microfluidic networks, and has seen
      a rapid growth in development. In many experiments, the precise volume of these
      microdroplets is a critical parameter which can be influenced by many external
      factors. In this work, we demonstrate the combination of imaging-based feedback
      and pressure driven pumping to accurately control the size of microdroplets
      produced in a microfluidic device. The use of fast-response, pressure-driving
      pumps allows the microfluidic flow to be quickly and accurately changed, while
      directly measuring the droplet size allows the user to define the more meaningful
      parameters of droplet size and generation frequency rather than flow rates or
      pressures. The feedback loop enables the drift correction of pressure based
      pumps, and leads to a large increase in the mono-dispersity of the droplets
      produced over long periods. We also show how this can be extended to control
      multiple liquid flows, allowing the frequency of droplet formation or the average
      concentration of living cells per droplet to be controlled and kept constant.

PMID- 28874821
TI  - Sprint interval training decreases left-ventricular glucose uptake compared to
      moderate-intensity continuous training in subjects with type 2 diabetes or
      prediabetes.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with reduced myocardial glucose
      uptake (GU) and increased free fatty acid uptake (FFAU). Sprint interval training
      (SIT) improves physical exercise capacity and metabolic biomarkers, but effects
      of SIT on cardiac function and energy substrate metabolism in diabetic subjects
      are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that SIT is more effective than moderate
      intensity continuous training (MICT) on adaptations in left and right ventricle
      (LV and RV) glucose and fatty acid metabolism in diabetic subjects. Twenty-six
      untrained men and women with T2DM or prediabetes were randomized into two-week
      long SIT (n = 13) and MICT (n = 13) interventions. Insulin-stimulated myocardial
      GU and fasted state FFAU were measured by positron emission tomography and
      changes in LV and RV structure and function by cardiac magnetic resonance. In
      contrast to our hypothesis, SIT significantly decreased GU compared to MICT in
      LV. FFAU of both ventricles remained unchanged by training. RV end-diastolic
      volume (EDV) and RV mass increased only after MICT, whereas LV EDV, LV mass, and
      RV and LV end-systolic volumes increased similarly after both training modes. As
      SIT decreases myocardial insulin-stimulated GU compared to MICT which may already
      be reduced in T2DM, SIT may be metabolically less beneficial than MICT for a
      diabetic heart.

PMID- 28874822
TI  - Carbon Dots-AS1411 Aptamer Nanoconjugate for Ultrasensitive Spectrofluorometric
      Detection of Cancer Cells.
AB  - In the present study, a sensitive and selective signal-on method for aptamer
      based spectrofluorometric detection of cancer cells is introduced. AS1411, a
      nucleolin aptamer, is wrapped around water-soluble carbon dots and used as a
      probe for the detection of several types of cancer cells. Nucleolin, is
      overexpressed on the surface of cancer cells. Mouse breast 4T1, human breast
      MCF7, and human cervical HeLa cancer cells were selected as target cells, while
      human foreskin fibroblast cells HFFF-PI6 served as control cells. For the
      sensitive and selective spectrofluorimetric detection of target cancer cells in
      the presence of control cells, the cells were incubated in carbon dots-aptamer
      solutions, the cell suspensions were subsequently centrifuged and the
      fluorescence intensities were measured as an analytical signal. The specific
      targeting of cancer cells by AS1411 aptamers causes the release of carbon dots
      and enhances the fluorescence intensity. A calibration curve with a dynamic range
      between 10-4500 4T1 cells and detectability of roughly 7 cells was obtained. In
      addition, no significant change in the signal was detected by modifying the
      amount of human foreskin fibroblast control cells. Our results demonstrate
      similar responses to human MCF7 breast and cervical HeLa cancer cells.

PMID- 28874823
TI  - Role of Smad3 and p38 Signalling in Cigarette Smoke-induced CFTR and BK
      dysfunction in Primary Human Bronchial Airway Epithelial Cells.
AB  - Mucociliary clearance (MCC) is a major airway host defence system that is
      impaired in patients with smoking-associated chronic bronchitis. This dysfunction
      is partially related to a decrease of airway surface liquid (ASL) volume that is
      in part regulated by apically expressed cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance
      regulator (CFTR) and large-conductance, Ca2+-activated, and voltage dependent K+
      (BK) channels. Here, data from human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) confirm
      that cigarette smoke not only downregulates CFTR activity but also inhibits BK
      channel function, thereby causing ASL depletion. Inhibition of signalling
      pathways involved in cigarette smoke-induced channel dysfunction reveals that
      CFTR activity is downregulated via Smad3 signalling whereas BK activity is
      decreased via the p38 cascade. In addition, pre-treatment with pirfenidone, a
      drug presently used to inhibit TGF-beta signalling in idiopathic pulmonary
      fibrosis, ameliorated BK dysfunction and ASL volume loss. Taken together, our
      results highlight the importance of not only CFTR but also BK channel function in
      maintaining ASL homeostasis and emphasize the possibility that pirfenidone could
      be employed as a novel therapeutic regimen to help improve MCC in smoking-related
      chronic bronchitis.

PMID- 28874824
TI  - eIF4B phosphorylation at Ser504 links synaptic activity with protein translation
      in physiology and pathology.
AB  - Neuronal physiology requires activity-driven protein translation, a process in
      which translation initiation factors are key players. We focus on eukaryotic
      initiation factor 4B (eIF4B), a regulator of protein translation, whose function
      in neurons is undetermined. We show that neuronal activity affects eIF4B
      phosphorylation and identify Ser504 as a phosphorylation site regulated by casein
      kinases and sensitive to the activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors.
      Ser504 phosphorylation increases eIF4B recruitment to the pre-initiation complex
      and influences eIF4B localization at synapses. Moreover, Ser504 phosphorylation
      modulates the translation of protein kinase Mzeta. Therefore, by sensing synaptic
      activity, eIF4B could adjust translation to neuronal needs, promoting adaptive
      changes in synaptic plasticity. We also show that Ser504 phosphorylation is
      increased in vivo in a rat model of epilepsy during epileptogenesis i.e. when
      translation drives maladaptive synaptic changes. We propose eIF4B as a mediator
      between neuronal activity and translation, with relevance in the control of
      synaptic plasticity.

PMID- 28874825
TI  - Knockout of the ATPase inhibitory factor 1 protects the heart from pressure
      overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy.
AB  - Mitochondrial ATP synthase catalyzes the coupling of oxidative phosphorylation.
      Under pathological conditions, ATP synthase hydrolyzes ATP to replenish protons
      from the matrix into the intermembrane space, sustaining mitochondrial membrane
      potential. ATPase inhibitory factor 1 (IF1) is a nuclear-encoded, ATP synthase
      interacting protein that selectively inhibits the hydrolysis activity of ATP
      synthase, which may render the protective role of IF1 in ischemic hearts.
      However, the in vivo cardiac function of IF1 and the potential therapeutic
      application targeting IF1 remain obscure. In the present study, we uncovered that
      IF1 is upregulated in mouse hearts with pressure overload-induced hypertrophy and
      in human hearts with dilated cardiomyopathy. IF1 knockout (KO) mice were
      protected against cardiac dysfunction and pathological development induced by
      transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or isoproterenol infusion. The reduced ATP
      hydrolysis activated AMPK activity in IF1 KO hearts, which together facilitated
      autophagy. These results suggest that IF1 upregulation in the failing heart may
      be a maladaptive response. Inhibiting IF1 in the hypertrophied heart not only
      prevents cell death from excessive mitochondrial depolarization but also
      activates AMPK signaling and increases autophagy. Therefore, IF1 inhibition may
      serve as a potential therapeutic target in treating pathological cardiac
      hypertrophy and heart failure.

PMID- 28874826
TI  - Deep-level phylogeny of Cicadomorpha inferred from mitochondrial genomes
      sequenced by NGS.
AB  - Recent development and advancement of next-generation sequencing (NGS)
      technologies have enabled the determination of mitochondrial genome (mitogenome)
      at extremely efficiency. In this study, complete or partial mitogenomes for 19
      cicadomorphan species and six fulgoroid species were reconstructed by using the
      method of high-throughput sequencing from pooled DNA samples. Annotation analyses
      showed that the mitogenomes obtained have the typical insect mitogenomic content
      and structure. Combined with the existing hemipteran mitogenomes, a series of
      datasets with all 37 mitochondrial genes (up to 14,381 nt total) under different
      coding schemes were compiled to test previous hypotheses of deep-level phylogeny
      of Cicadomorpha. Thirty-seven species representing Cicadomorpha constituted the
      ingroup. A taxon sampling with nine species from Fulgoroidea and six from
      Heteroptera comprised the outgroup. The phylogenetic reconstructions congruently
      recovered the monophyly of each superfamily within Cicadomorpha. Furthermore, the
      hypothesis (Membracoidea + (Cicadoidea + Cercopoidea)) was strongly supported
      under the heterogeneous CAT model.

PMID- 28874827
TI  - Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A2 and Anthropometry, Lifestyle, and
      Biochemical Factors in a Human Adult Population.
AB  - Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A2 (PAPP-A2), a metalloproteinase purportedly
      related to pregnancy, foetal growth and development, has recently been described
      essential for pre-adult growth. Thus, we measured PAPP-A2 in plasma of a non
      pregnant population and determined its associations with lifestyle,
      anthropometric or biochemical factors. In this cross-sectional study of 387
      participants (20-70 years) randomly drawn from registration offices near Berlin,
      Germany, socio-economic and lifestyle factors were assessed by questionnaires,
      and anthropometric measures and blood samples were taken by trained personnel.
      Blood was analysed for standard clinical parameters. PAPP-A2 concentration was
      measured by ELISA. Generalized linear models were used to estimate associations
      with anthropometric and biochemical factors adjusted for age, sex, and weight.
      Adjusted mean PAPP-A2 concentration was slightly higher in women (283 pg/mL) than
      in men (261 pg/mL, p = 0.05) and positively correlated with age (r = 0.17, p =
      0.001). PAPP-A2 concentration was inversely associated with body mass index (-2.7
      pg/mL per kg/m2, p = 0.03) and weight (-1.0 pg/mL per kg, p = 0.01) and
      positively associated with gamma-glutamyl transferase (13.6 pg/mL per SD, p =
      0.02), aspartate transaminase (18.5 pg/mL per SD, p = 0.002) and lactate
      dehydrogenase (14.9 pg/mL per SD, p = 0.02). Our results support that PAPP-A2,
      beyond its established role in early growth and development is relevant in adult
      metabolisms.

PMID- 28874828
TI  - SRSF1 suppresses selection of intron-distal 5' splice site of DOK7 intron 4 to
      generate functional full-length Dok-7 protein.
AB  - Dok-7 is a non-catalytic adaptor protein that facilitates agrin-induced
      clustering of acetylcholine receptors (AChR) at the neuromuscular junction.
      Alternative selection of 5' splice sites (SSs) of DOK7 intron 4 generates
      canonical and frame-shifted transcripts. We found that the canonical full-length
      Dok-7 enhanced AChR clustering, whereas the truncated Dok-7 did not. We
      identified a splicing cis-element close to the 3' end of exon 4 by block-scanning
      mutagenesis. RNA affinity purification and mass spectrometry revealed that SRSF1
      binds to the cis-element. Knocking down of SRSF1 enhanced selection of the intron
      distal 5' SS of DOK7 intron 4, whereas MS2-mediated artificial tethering of SRSF1
      to the identified cis-element suppressed it. Isolation of an early spliceosomal
      complex revealed that SRSF1 inhibited association of U1 snRNP to the intron
      distal 5' SS, and rather enhanced association of U1 snRNP to the intron-proximal
      5' SS, which led to upregulation of the canonical DOK7 transcript. Integrated
      global analysis of CLIP-seq and RNA-seq also indicated that binding of SRSF1
      immediately upstream to two competing 5' SSs suppresses selection of the intron
      distal 5' SS in hundreds of human genes. We demonstrate that SRSF1 critically
      regulates alternative selection of adjacently placed 5' SSs by modulating binding
      of U1 snRNP.

PMID- 28874829
TI  - Plant-expressed cocaine hydrolase variants of butyrylcholinesterase exhibit
      altered allosteric effects of cholinesterase activity and increased inhibitor
      sensitivity.
AB  - Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is an enzyme with broad substrate and ligand
      specificities and may function as a generalized bioscavenger by binding and/or
      hydrolyzing various xenobiotic agents and toxicants, many of which target the
      central and peripheral nervous systems. Variants of BChE were rationally designed
      to increase the enzyme's ability to hydrolyze the psychoactive enantiomer of
      cocaine. These variants were cloned, and then expressed using the magnICON
      transient expression system in plants and their enzymatic properties were
      investigated. In particular, we explored the effects that these site-directed
      mutations have over the enzyme kinetics with various substrates of BChE. We
      further compared the affinity of various anticholinesterases including
      organophosphorous nerve agents and pesticides toward these BChE variants relative
      to the wild type enzyme. In addition to serving as a therapy for cocaine
      addiction-related diseases, enhanced bioscavenging against other harmful agents
      could add to the practicality and versatility of the plant-derived recombinant
      enzyme as a multivalent therapeutic.

PMID- 28874831
TI  - Converting highly productive arable cropland in Europe to grassland: -a poor
      candidate for carbon sequestration.
AB  - Sequestration of atmospheric CO2 as organic carbon by agricultural soils (SOC) is
      promoted as a climate change mitigation option. IPCC provides guidelines for
      determining carbon stocks and sequestration potential, incentivising policy
      changes towards management of farmland for carbon sequestration. However, the
      basis of the assumption that agricultural soils can sequester significant
      atmospheric CO2 has been questioned. We sought to determine the potential for
      conversion of arable cropland to grassland to sequester carbon in the short to
      medium term and potential limiting factors. There were no differences in SOC
      stocks in the top 30 cm between grassland up to 17 years old and arable cropland
      at 14 sites across the UK. However, SOC showed different distribution patterns,
      being concentrated in the top 10 cm under grassland. Soil microbial communities
      were significantly different between arable and grassland, with higher biomass
      and lesser dominance by bacteria in grassland soils. A land use conversion
      experiment showed these changes occurred within one year of land use change.
      Failure of grassland soils to accumulate SOC was attributed to reduced available
      soil nitrogen, resulting in low productivity. The implications of these results
      for carbon sequestration in soils as a climate change mitigation strategy are
      discussed.

PMID- 28874830
TI  - Riparian plant litter quality increases with latitude.
AB  - Plant litter represents a major basal resource in streams, where its
      decomposition is partly regulated by litter traits. Litter-trait variation may
      determine the latitudinal gradient in decomposition in streams, which is mainly
      microbial in the tropics and detritivore-mediated at high latitudes. However,
      this hypothesis remains untested, as we lack information on large-scale trait
      variation for riparian litter. Variation cannot easily be inferred from existing
      leaf-trait databases, since nutrient resorption can cause traits of litter and
      green leaves to diverge. Here we present the first global-scale assessment of
      riparian litter quality by determining latitudinal variation (spanning 107
      degrees ) in litter traits (nutrient concentrations; physical and chemical
      defences) of 151 species from 24 regions and their relationships with
      environmental factors and phylogeny. We hypothesized that litter quality would
      increase with latitude (despite variation within regions) and traits would be
      correlated to produce 'syndromes' resulting from phylogeny and environmental
      variation. We found lower litter quality and higher nitrogen:phosphorus ratios in
      the tropics. Traits were linked but showed no phylogenetic signal, suggesting
      that syndromes were environmentally determined. Poorer litter quality and greater
      phosphorus limitation towards the equator may restrict detritivore-mediated
      decomposition, contributing to the predominance of microbial decomposers in
      tropical streams.

PMID- 28874833
TI  - Stem cells: R-spondin 3 is a critical regulator of gastric antral stem cell
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28874834
TI  - Immunology: LCMs and the liver: additional surveillance.

PMID- 28874832
TI  - Antibiotic-induced perturbations in microbial diversity during post-natal
      development alters amyloid pathology in an aged APPSWE/PS1DeltaE9 murine model of
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Recent evidence suggests the commensal microbiome regulates host immunity and
      influences brain function; findings that have ramifications for neurodegenerative
      diseases. In the context of Alzheimer's disease (AD), we previously reported that
      perturbations in microbial diversity induced by life-long combinatorial
      antibiotic (ABX) selection pressure in the APPSWE/PS1DeltaE9 mouse model of
      amyloidosis is commensurate with reductions in amyloid-beta (Abeta) plaque
      pathology and plaque-localised gliosis. Considering microbiota-host interactions,
      specifically during early post-natal development, are critical for immune- and
      neuro-development we now examine the impact of microbial community perturbations
      induced by acute ABX exposure exclusively during this period in APPSWE/PS1DeltaE9
      mice. We show that early post-natal (P) ABX treatment (P14-P21) results in long
      term alterations of gut microbial genera (predominantly Lachnospiraceae and S24
      7) and reduction in brain Abeta deposition in aged APPSWE/PS1DeltaE9 mice. These
      mice exhibit elevated levels of blood- and brain-resident Foxp3+ T-regulatory
      cells and display an alteration in the inflammatory milieu of the serum and
      cerebrospinal fluid. Finally, we confirm that plaque-localised microglia and
      astrocytes are reduced in ABX-exposed mice. These findings suggest that ABX
      induced microbial diversity perturbations during post-natal stages of development
      coincide with altered host immunity mechanisms and amyloidosis in a murine model
      of AD.

PMID- 28874835
TI  - Pancreatic cancer: Exosomes for targeting KRAS in the treatment of pancreatic
      cancer.

PMID- 28874836
TI  - Oesophagus: Symptom perception in patients with NERD: do nerves matter?

PMID- 28874837
TI  - Plasmonic trapping of nanoparticles by metaholograms.
AB  - Manipulation of nanoparticles in solution is of great importance for a wide range
      of applications in biomedical, environmental, and material sciences. In this
      work, we present a novel plasmonic tweezers based on metahologram. We show that
      various kinds of nanoparticles can be stably trapped in a surface plasmon (SP)
      standing wave generated by the constructive interference between two coherent
      focusing SPs. The absence of the axial scattering force and the enhanced gradient
      force enable to avoid overheating effect while maintaining mechanical stability
      even under the resonant condition of the metallic nanoparticle. The work
      illustrates the potential of such plasmonic tweezers for further development in
      lab-on-a-chip devices.

PMID- 28874838
TI  - Structural determinants of 5',6'-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid binding to and
      activation of TRPV4 channel.
AB  - TRPV4 cation channel activation by cytochrome P450-mediated derivatives of
      arachidonic acid (AA), epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), constitute a major
      mechanisms of endothelium-derived vasodilatation. Besides, TRPV4
      mechano/osmosensitivity depends on phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activation and
      subsequent production of AA and EETs. However, the lack of evidence for a direct
      interaction of EETs with TRPV4 together with claims of EET-independent mechanical
      activation of TRPV4 has cast doubts on the validity of this mechanism. We now
      report: 1) The identification of an EET-binding pocket that specifically mediates
      TRPV4 activation by 5',6'-EET, AA and hypotonic cell swelling, thereby suggesting
      that all these stimuli shared a common structural target within the TRPV4
      channel; and 2) A structural insight into the gating of TRPV4 by a natural
      agonist (5',6'-EET) in which K535 plays a crucial role, as mutant TRPV4-K535A
      losses binding of and gating by EET, without affecting GSK1016790A, 4alpha
      phorbol 12,13-didecanoate and heat mediated channel activation. Together, our
      data demonstrates that the mechano- and osmotransducing messenger EET gates TRPV4
      by a direct action on a site formed by residues from the S2-S3 linker, S4 and S4
      S5 linker.

PMID- 28874839
TI  - The Schistosoma mansoni genome encodes thousands of long non-coding RNAs
      predicted to be functional at different parasite life-cycle stages.
AB  - Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) strategies, like RNA-Seq, have revealed the
      transcription of a wide variety of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the genomes
      of several organisms. In the present work we assessed the lncRNAs complement of
      Schistosoma mansoni, the blood fluke that causes schistosomiasis, ranked among
      the most prevalent parasitic diseases worldwide. We focused on the long
      intergenic/intervening ncRNAs (lincRNAs), hidden within the large amount of
      information obtained through RNA-Seq in S. mansoni (88 libraries). Our
      computational pipeline identified 7029 canonically-spliced putative lincRNA genes
      on 2596 genomic loci (at an average 2.7 isoforms per lincRNA locus), as well as
      402 spliced lncRNAs that are antisense to protein-coding (PC) genes. Hundreds of
      lincRNAs showed traits for being functional, such as the presence of epigenetic
      marks at their transcription start sites, evolutionary conservation among other
      schistosome species and differential expression across five different life-cycle
      stages of the parasite. Real-time qPCR has confirmed the differential life-cycle
      stage expression of a set of selected lincRNAs. We have built PC gene and lincRNA
      co-expression networks, unraveling key biological processes where lincRNAs might
      be involved during parasite development. This is the first report of a large
      scale identification and structural annotation of lncRNAs in the S. mansoni
      genome.

PMID- 28874840
TI  - UPLC-Q-TOF/MS-based metabonomic studies on the intervention effects of aspirin
      eugenol ester in atherosclerosis hamsters.
AB  - Based on the pro-drug principle, aspirin and eugenol were used to synthesize
      aspirin eugenol ester (AEE) by esterification reaction. In present study, the
      anti-atherosclerosis effects of AEE were investigated in hamsters with the
      utilization of metabonomic approach based on UPLC-Q-TOF/MS. Biochemical
      parameters and histopathological injures in stomach, liver and aorta were
      evaluated. In atherosclerotic hamster, oral administration of AEE normalized
      biochemical profile such as reducing TG, TCH and LDL, and significantly reduced
      body weight gain, alleviated hepatic steatosis and improved pathological lesions
      in aorta. Slight damages in stomach mucous were found in AEE group. Plasma and
      urine samples in control, model and AEE groups were scattered in the partial
      least squares-discriminate analysis (PLS-DA) score plots. Thirteen endogenous
      metabolites in plasma such as lysophosphatidylcholine (LysoPC), leucine and
      valine, and seventeen endogenous metabolites in urine such as citric acid, phenol
      sulphate and phenylacetylglycine were selected as potential biomarkers associated
      with atherosclerosis. They were considered to be in response to anti
      atherosclerosis effects of AEE, mainly involved in glycerophospholipid
      metabolism, amino acid metabolism and energy metabolism. This study extended the
      understanding of endogenous alterations of atherosclerosis and offered insights
      into the pharmacodynamic activity of AEE.

PMID- 28874841
TI  - Epiphyseal bone formation occurs via thyroid hormone regulation of chondrocyte to
      osteoblast transdifferentiation.
AB  - Endochondral ossification in the diaphysis of long bones has been studied in
      depth during fetal development but not postnatally in the epiphysis.
      Immunohistochemical studies revealed that Sox9 and Col2 expressing immature
      chondrocytes in the epiphysis transition into prehypertrophic and hypetrophic
      chondrocytes and finally into osteoblasts expressing Col1 and BSP during
      postnatal day 7-10, when serum levels of thyroid hormone (TH) rise. Lineage
      tracing using Rosa-td tomato Col2-Cre-ERT2 mice treated with tamoxifen indicated
      that the same Col2 expressing chondrocytes expressed prehypertrophic,
      hypertrophic, and subsequently bone formation markers in a sequential manner in
      euthyroid but not hypothyroid mice, thus providing evidence that chondrocyte to
      osteoblast transdifferentiation is TH-dependent. Vascular invasion was apparent
      at the time of bone formation but not earlier. In vitro studies revealed that TH
      acting via TRalpha1 promoted expression of SHH while TRbeta1 activation increased
      IHH but inhibited SHH expression. SHH promoted expression of markers of immature
      chondrocytes but inhibited chondrocyte hypertrophy while IHH promoted chondrocyte
      hypertrophy. Based on our data, we propose a model in which TH acting through
      TRalpha1 and TRbeta1, respectively, fine tune levels of SHH and IHH and, thereby
      control the transit of proliferating immature chondrocytes into mature
      hypertrophic chondrocytes to become osteoblasts at the epiphysis.

PMID- 28874842
TI  - Investigation of Mitochondrial Metabolic Response to Doxorubicin in Prostate
      Cancer Cells: An NADH, FAD and Tryptophan FLIM Assay.
AB  - Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading cancers in men in the USA. Lack of
      experimental tools that predict therapy response is one of the limitations of
      current therapeutic regimens. Mitochondrial dysfunctions including defective
      oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in cancer inhibit apoptosis by modulating ROS
      production and cellular signaling. Thus, correction of mitochondrial dysfunction
      and induction of apoptosis are promising strategies in cancer treatment. We have
      used Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) to quantify mitochondrial
      metabolic response in PCa cells by tracking auto-fluorescent NAD(P)H, FAD and
      tryptophan (Trp) lifetimes and their enzyme-bound fractions as markers, before
      and after treatment with anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. A 3-channel FLIM assay and
      quantitative analysis of these markers for cellular metabolism show in response
      to doxorubicin, NAD(P)H mean fluorescence lifetime (taum) and enzyme-bound (a2%)
      fraction increased, FAD enzyme-bound (a1%) fraction was decreased, NAD(P)H
      a2%/FAD-a1% FLIM-based redox ratio and ROS increased, followed by induction of
      apoptosis. For the first time, a FRET assay in PCa cells shows Trp-quenching due
      to Trp-NAD(P)H interactions, correlating energy transfer efficiencies (E%) vs
      NAD(P)H-a2%/FAD-a1% as sensitive parameters in predicting drug response. Applying
      this FLIM assay as early predictor of drug response would meet one of the
      important goals in cancer treatment.

PMID- 28874843
TI  - Multiple mining impacts induce widespread changes in ecosystem dynamics in a
      boreal lake.
AB  - In order to satisfy the needs of constant economic growth, the pressure to
      exploit natural resources has increased. Since accessible mineral resources are
      becoming scarce, the mining industry is constantly looking for novel techniques
      to allow commercial exploitation of lower-grade deposits. However, mining can
      have considerable impacts on freshwater ecosystems. Here, we present the
      ecological damage inflicted by mine water originating from the massive Terrafame
      Talvivaara polymetal mine (central Finland), where bioheap leaching is being
      applied to high-sulphur low-grade ore. We found that saline mine water has turned
      the lake meromictic, and sediment is heavily contaminated. As a result, important
      zooplankton and phytoplankton groups have been significantly altered. As the
      exploitation of poor-grade deposits is the future of the mining industry
      globally, water management should be taken to a higher level in order to proceed
      towards a sustainable mining sector.

PMID- 28874844
TI  - Serum Monounsaturated Triacylglycerol Predicts Steatohepatitis in Patients with
      Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Chronic Hepatitis B.
AB  - Chronic liver disease is associated with lipid metabolic disruption. We carried
      out a study to determine serum lipidomic features of patients with non-alcoholic
      fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and active chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and explored the
      biomarkers for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Serum lipidomic profiles of
      healthy controls (n = 23) and of biopsy-proven NAFLD (n = 42), CHB with NAFLD (n
      = 22) and without NAFLD (n = 17) were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. There were distinct serum lipidome
      between groups of NAFLD and CHB without NAFLD. Most of the neutral lipids and
      ceramide were elevated in the NAFLD group but were decreased in the CHB without
      NAFLD group. Plasmalogens were decreased in both groups. Triacylglycerols (TAGs)
      with lower carbon numbers and double bonds were increased in subjects with NASH.
      Serum monounsaturated TAG was a significant predictor of NASH (OR = 3.215; 95%CI
      1.663-6.331) and positively correlated with histological activity (r = 0.501; P <
      0.001). It showed good predictability for NASH in the NAFLD group [area under the
      receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) = 0.831] and was validated in
      the CHB group (AUROC = 0.833); this characteristic was superior to that of
      cytokeratin-18 and alanine transaminase. The increase in monounsaturated TAG
      might be a specific marker for NASH in both NAFLD and CHB patients.

PMID- 28874845
TI  - M2-like macrophages in the fibrotic liver protect mice against lethal insults
      through conferring apoptosis resistance to hepatocytes.
AB  - Acute injury in the setting of liver fibrosis is an interesting and still
      unsettled issue. Most recently, several prominent studies have indicated the
      favourable effects of liver fibrosis against acute insults. Nevertheless, the
      underlying mechanisms governing this hepatoprotection remain obscure. In the
      present study, we hypothesized that macrophages and their M1/M2 activation
      critically involve in the hepatoprotection conferred by liver fibrosis. Our
      findings demonstrated that liver fibrosis manifested a beneficial role for host
      survival and apoptosis resistance. Hepatoprotection in the fibrotic liver was
      tightly related to innate immune tolerance. Macrophages undertook crucial but
      divergent roles in homeostasis and fibrosis: depleting macrophages in control
      mice protected from acute insult; conversely, depleting macrophages in fibrotic
      liver weakened the hepatoprotection and gave rise to exacerbated liver injury
      upon insult. The contradictory effects of macrophages can be ascribed, to a great
      extent, to the heterogeneity in macrophage activation. Macrophages in fibrotic
      mice exhibited M2-preponderant activation, which was not the case in acutely
      injured liver. Adoptive transfer of M2-like macrophages conferred control mice
      conspicuous protection against insult. In vitro, M2-polarized macrophages
      protected hepatocytes against apoptosis. Together, M2-like macrophages in
      fibrotic liver exert the protective effects against lethal insults through
      conferring apoptosis resistance to hepatocytes.

PMID- 28874846
TI  - Hyaluronic Acid Coated Chitosan Nanoparticles Reduced the Immunogenicity of the
      Formed Protein Corona.
AB  - Studying the interactions of nanoparticles (NPs) with serum proteins is necessary
      for the rational development of nanocarriers. Optimum surface chemistry is a key
      consideration to modulate the formation of the serum protein corona (PC) and the
      resultant immune response. We investigated the constituent of the PC formed by
      hyaluronic acid-coated chitosan NPs (HA-CS NPs). Non-decorated chitosan NPs (CS
      NPs) and alginate-coated chitosan NPs (Alg-CS NPs) were utilized as controls.
      Results show that HA surface modifications significantly reduced protein
      adsorption relative to controls. Gene Ontology analysis demonstrates that HA-CS
      NPs were the least immunogenic nanocarriers. Indeed, less inflammatory proteins
      were adsorbed onto HA-CS NPs as opposed to CS and Alg-CS NPs. Interestingly, HA
      CS NPs differentially adsorbed two unique anti-inflammatory proteins (ITIH4 and
      AGP), which were absent from the PC of both controls. On the other hand, CS and
      Alg-CS NPs selectively adsorbed a proinflammatory protein (Clusterin) that was
      not found on the surfaces of HA-CS NPs. While further studies are needed to
      investigate abilities of the PCs of only ITIH4 and AGP to modulate the
      interaction of NPs with the host immune system, our results suggest that this
      proof-of-concept could potentially be utilized to reduce the immunogenicity of a
      wide range of nanomaterials.

PMID- 28874847
TI  - A guanine derivative as a new MEK inhibitor produced by Streptomyces sp. MK63
      43F2.
AB  - Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways that direct cellular responses
      are involved in various biological processes; the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK pathway is one
      of the most important MAPK pathways. It is frequently activated in human
      malignant tumors such as melanomas, thyroid tumors and colorectal carcinomas.
      Therefore, targeting this pathway has been considered an attractive strategy for
      new anticancer drugs. In particular, MEK is a promising target because it is a
      kinase that directly phosphorylates ERK. We performed a screening to discover new
      MEK inhibitors, and found a guanine derivative produced by Streptomyces sp. MK63
      43F2. This guanine derivative was identified to be 2-amino-4-methoxy-5
      cyanopyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine (1) through spectroscopic analysis. Compound 1
      inhibited MEK1 kinase activity in an ATP-dependent manner and suppressed the
      phosphorylation of ERK in cancer cells and cell proliferation. Therefore, 1 might
      be a potent lead compound for new MEK inhibitors.The Journal of Antibiotics
      advance online publication, 6 September 2017; doi:10.1038/ja.2017.100.

PMID- 28874848
TI  - Suppressive drug combinations and their potential to combat antibiotic
      resistance.
AB  - Antibiotic effectiveness often changes when two or more such drugs are
      administered simultaneously and unearthing antibiotic combinations with enhanced
      efficacy (synergy) has been a longstanding clinical goal. However, antibiotic
      resistance, which undermines individual drugs, threatens such combined
      treatments. Remarkably, it has emerged that antibiotic combinations whose
      combined effect is lower than that of at least one of the individual drugs can
      slow or even reverse the evolution of resistance. We synthesize and review
      studies of such so-called 'suppressive interactions' in the literature. We
      examine why these interactions have been largely disregarded in the past, the
      strategies used to identify them, their mechanistic basis, demonstrations of
      their potential to reverse the evolution of resistance and arguments for and
      against using them in clinical treatment. We suggest future directions for
      research on these interactions, aiming to expand the basic body of knowledge on
      suppression and to determine the applicability of suppressive interactions in the
      clinic.

PMID- 28874849
TI  - Inhibitory effect of obovatol from Magnolia obovata on the Salmonella type III
      secretion system.
AB  - In many pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria, such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli,
      Yersinia and Chlamydia spp., which cause diseases in humans, the type III
      secretion system (TTSS) is an important virulence factor that translocates
      effector proteins into the cytosol of host cells. Thus, the TTSS is a good target
      for antibacterial agents. Here we used a hemolysis assay to search for TTSS
      inhibitors and found that a compound from Magnolia obovata called obovatol blocks
      the TTSS of Salmonella. Obovatol showed potent inhibitory activity (IC50=19.8
      MUM) against the TTSS-related hemolysis of Salmonella, which was not due to a
      reduction of bacterial growth. Instead, the compound inhibited bacterial
      motility, TTSS-related mRNA expression and effector protein secretion. These data
      demonstrate the inhibitory effect of obovatol on the Salmonella TTSS and suggest
      that it could be useful for the prevention and supplementary treatment of
      bacterial infections.

PMID- 28874851
TI  - Progress towards the total synthesis of hamigerans C and D: a direct approach to
      an elaborated 6-7-5 carbocyclic core.
AB  - The hamigeran family of natural products has been the target of numerous
      synthetic efforts because of its biological activity and interesting structural
      properties. Herein, we disclose our efforts toward the synthesis of hamigerans C
      and D, unique among the initially isolated members because of their 6-7-5
      carbocyclic core. Our approach directly targets this tricyclic motif by
      sequential Negishi and Heck coupling reactions, yielding an advanced intermediate
      with all necessary carbons and sufficient functionality poised for completion of
      the synthesis of these two natural products.

PMID- 28874850
TI  - Structures and biological activities of novel 4'-acetylated analogs of
      chrysomycins A and B.
AB  - Two new 4'-acetylated analogs of chrysomycin were discovered during the screening
      for antitumor agents from the metabolites of actinomycetes. Their structures and
      physicochemical properties were determined by standard spectrometric analyses.
      Their cytotoxicities and antimicrobial activities were evaluated against a panel
      of cancer cell lines and microbes. While acetylation reinforced the cytotoxicity
      of chrysomycin B, it weakened the activity of chrysomycin A. Chrysomycin A and
      its acetylated analog showed high cytotoxicity toward most of the cancer cells
      with IC50s less than 10 ng ml-1. The 4'-acetyl-chrysomycin A was predominantly
      observed in nuclei at concentrations where the autofluorescence was observable.
      Chrysomycins were effective toward Gram-positive bacteria. The 4'-acetylated
      chrysomycin A and B had MICs of 0.5-2 MUg ml-1 and 2 to greater than 64 MUg ml-1,
      respectively, toward Gram-positive bacteria including MRSA and VRE.

PMID- 28874852
TI  - Acoustic allometry revisited: morphological determinants of fundamental frequency
      in primate vocal production.
AB  - A fundamental issue in the evolution of communication is the degree to which
      signals convey accurate ("honest") information about the signaler. In
      bioacoustics, the assumption that fundamental frequency (f o) should correlate
      with the body size of the caller is widespread, but this belief has been
      challenged by various studies, possibly because larynx size and body size can
      vary independently. In the present comparative study, we conducted excised larynx
      experiments to investigate this hypothesis rigorously and explore the
      determinants of f o. Using specimens from eleven primate species, we carried out
      an inter-specific investigation, examining correlations between the minimum f o
      produced by the sound source, body size and vocal fold length (VFL). We found
      that, across species, VFL predicted minimum f o much better than body size,
      clearly demonstrating the potential for decoupling between larynx size and body
      size in primates. These findings shed new light on the diversity of primate
      vocalizations and vocal morphology, highlighting the importance of vocal
      physiology in understanding the evolution of mammal vocal communication.

PMID- 28874853
TI  - Editorial: Direct Antiviral Agents Eliminate the Age Barrier to Treatment of
      Chronic Hepatitis C.
AB  - Interferon-based therapy for chronic hepatitis C in elderly patients, who are at
      greatest risk for advanced disease, resulted in low sustained virologic response
      rates, poor tolerability, a significant frequency of adverse events leading to
      treatment discontinuation, and the occasional precipitation of hepatic
      decompensation. In contrast, in the era of direct-acting antiviral therapy, age
      is no longer a predictor of response rates in those with or without cirrhosis and
      adverse events are much less frequent. The benefits of treatment of the elderly
      appear to outweigh potential risks but long-term follow-up is necessary,
      particularly in those with advanced disease.

PMID- 28874855
TI  - Ileocecal Resection in Crohn's Disease: REMIND Group Study.

PMID- 28874854
TI  - Corrigendum: Rural and Urban Residence During Early Life Is Associated with a
      Lower Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Population-Based Inception and Birth
      Cohort Study.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ajg.2017.208.

PMID- 28874856
TI  - Continuing Medical Education Questions: September 2017: Chronic Pancreatitis and
      Pancreatic Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PMID- 28874857
TI  - Sweet's Syndrome: An Unusual Extraintestinal Manifestation of Inflammatory Bowel
      Disease.

PMID- 28874858
TI  - Continuing Medical Education: September 2017: Fecal Incontinence Is Associated
      With Mortality Among Older Adults With Complex Needs: An Observational Cohort
      Study.

PMID- 28874859
TI  - Editorial: Severe Acute Liver Injury: Cause Connects to Outcome.
AB  - Severe acute liver injury (ALI) is a common condition with little objective study
      of its natural history and outcomes. In this paper by Koch et al. and the Acute
      Liver Failure (ALF) Study Group, the authors utilize a consensus definition of
      ALI requiring newly elevated bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and
      international normalized ration (INR) without evidence of hepatic encephalopathy
      (HE), with HE as the key differentiator of ALI from ALF. They show significantly
      higher rates of progression to ALF, liver transplantation, or death in non
      acetaminophen etiologies of ALI. This study's findings provide guidance in
      supporting careful allocation of scarce critical care and liver transplant
      resources for ALI patients.

PMID- 28874860
TI  - Radiology Prep to the Rescue: Radiocontrast Enema After Failure of Oral Bowel
      Preparation for Patients with an Ileocolonic Fistula.

PMID- 28874861
TI  - Response to Thompson.

PMID- 28874862
TI  - Pre-Study ERCP Practice as a Confounder With Respect to ERCP Results.

PMID- 28874864
TI  - Continuing Medical Education: September 2017: Chronic Pancreatitis and Pancreatic
      Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PMID- 28874863
TI  - Editorial: Widening the Use of the Functional Lumen Imaging Probe to Kids With
      Eosinophilic Esophagitis: Esophageal Narrowing is not Just an Adult Problem.
AB  - The functional lumen imaging probe (FLIP) provides objective measurement of
      esophageal distensibility, thus offering a unique and potentially valuable
      assessment in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Menard-Katcher and colleagues
      report the first study evaluating use of FLIP in pediatric patients that
      demonstrated a reduction in esophageal distensibility in patients with EoE
      compared to patients without EoE. An increase in esophageal distensibility was
      observed with age among pediatric patients without EoE, but not among those with
      EoE. While this study further supports the promise of esophageal distensibility
      assessment in EoE, future work remains needed to optimize FLIP utilization in
      both research and clinical settings.

PMID- 28874865
TI  - Response to Malleo et al.

PMID- 28874866
TI  - Reply to Huang et al.

PMID- 28874867
TI  - Submucosal Tunneling and Endoscopic Resection of a Huge Gastric Lipoma.

PMID- 28874868
TI  - Low Frequency of Follow-Up Examinations in the Initial Years From the Diagnosis
      of Low-Risk Pancreatic BD-IPMNs: The Right Choice?

PMID- 28874869
TI  - Can Transient Elastography Predict Fibrosis Regression in Patients with Chronic
      Hepatitis B During Long-Term Antiviral Therapy?

PMID- 28874872
TI  - Continuing Medical Education Questions: September 2017: Fecal Incontinence Is
      Associated With Mortality Among Older Adults With Complex Needs: An Observational
      Cohort Study.

PMID- 28874871
TI  - Response to Dhoble et al.

PMID- 28874873
TI  - The overlaying oil type influences in vitro embryo production: differences in
      composition and compound transfer into incubation medium between oils.
AB  - The oil overlay micro-drop system is widely used for cultures of mammalian
      gametes and embryos. We evaluated hereby the effects of two unaltered commercial
      oils- Sigma mineral oil (S-MO) and Nidoil paraffin oil (N-PO)-on in vitro embryo
      production (IVP) outcomes using a pig model. The results showed that while either
      oil apparently did not affect oocyte maturation and fertilization rates, S-MO
      negatively affected embryo cleavage rates, blastocyst formation rates, and,
      consequently, total blastocyst efficiency of the system. No differences in the
      oxidation state were found between the oils or culture media incubated under S-MO
      or N-PO. Although both oils slightly differed in elemental composition, there
      were no differences in the concentrations of elements between fresh media and
      media incubated under oils. By contrast, we demonstrated clear oil-type
      differences in both the composition of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and the
      transfer of some of these VOC's (straight-chain alkanes and pentanal and 1,3
      diethyl benzene) to the culture medium, which could have influenced embryonic
      development.

PMID- 28874874
TI  - 3-Mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase produces potential redox regulators cysteine
      and glutathione-persulfide (Cys-SSH and GSSH) together with signaling molecules
      H2S2, H2S3 and H2S.
AB  - Cysteine-persulfide (Cys-SSH) is a cysteine whose sulfhydryl group is covalently
      bound to sulfur (sulfane sulfur). Cys-SSH and its glutathione (GSH) counterpart
      (GSSH) have been recognized as redox regulators, some of which were previously
      ascribed to cysteine and GSH. However, the production of Cys-SSH and GSSH is not
      well understood. Here, we show that 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (3MST)
      produces Cys-SSH and GSSH together with the potential signaling molecules
      hydrogen per- and tri-sulfide (H2S2 and H2S3). Cys-SSH and GSSH are produced in
      the brain of wild-type mice but not in those of 3MST-KO mice. The levels of total
      persulfurated species in the brain of 3MST-KO mice are less than 50% of that in
      the brain of wild-type mice. Purified recombinant 3MST and lysates of COS cells
      expressing 3MST showed that Cys-SSH and GSSH were produced in the presence of
      physiological concentrations of cysteine and glutathione, while those with longer
      sulfur chains, Cys-SSnH and GSSnH, were produced in the presence of lower than
      physiological concentrations of cysteine and glutathione. The present study
      provides new insights into the production and physiological roles of these
      persulfurated species as well as the therapeutic targets for diseases in which
      these molecules are involved.

PMID- 28874875
TI  - The role of histone modification and a regulatory single-nucleotide polymorphism
      (rs2071166) in the Cx43 promoter in patients with TOF.
AB  - Abnormal level of Cx43 expression could result in CHD. Epigenetic modification
      and disease-associated, non-coding SNPs might influence gene transcription and
      expression. Our study aimed to determine the role of histone modification and an
      rSNP (rs2071166) in the Cx43 promoter in patients with TOF. Our results indicate
      that H3K18ac bind to Cx43 promoter and that their levels are reduced in TOF
      patients relative to controls. The relationship between the non-coding SNP in the
      Cx43 gene and TOF patients was evaluated in 158 patients and 300 controls. The C
      allele of rs2071166 was confirmed to result in an increased risk of TOF (OR =
      1.586, 95%CI 1.149-2.189). Individuals with the CC genotype at rs2071166 also
      showed a significant susceptibility to TOF (OR = 2.961, 95%CI 1.452-6.038). The
      mRNA level in TOF who were CC genotype was lower than that in patients with the
      AA/AC genotype. Functional analysis in cells and transgenic zebrafish models
      showed that rs2071166 decreased the activity of the promoter and could block the
      interaction between RXRalpha and RARE. This is the first study to illustrate that
      epigenetic modification and an rSNP in the Cx43 promoter region play a critical
      role in TOF by impacting the transcriptional activity and expression level of
      Cx43.

PMID- 28874876
TI  - An ultra-compact rejection filter based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons.
AB  - In this paper, we propose a scheme to construct a new type of ultra-compact
      rejection filter by loading split-ring resonators (SRRs) on the transmission line
      of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). From the dispersion analysis of the
      spoof SPP transmission line with and without the SRR loading, we clearly reveal
      the mechanism of the rejection characteristic for this compact filter. Meanwhile,
      we fabricate two spoof SPPs waveguides loaded with different amounts of
      metamaterials particles, and experimentally test them using an Agilent Vector
      Network Analyzer (VNA) and a homemade near-field scanning system. Both the
      simulated and measured results agree well with our theoretical analysis and
      demonstrate the excellent filtering characteristics of our design. The isolation
      of both filters can be less than -20 dB, and even reach -40 dB at rejection
      frequencies. The proposed rejection and stop-band filters show important
      potentials to develop integrated plasmonic functional devices and circuits at
      microwave and terahertz frequencies.

PMID- 28874877
TI  - Bone regeneration in minipigs by intrafibrillarly-mineralized collagen loaded
      with autologous periodontal ligament stem cells.
AB  - Biomimetic intrafibrillarly-mineralized collagen (IMC) is a promising scaffold
      for bone regeneration because of its structural and functional similarity to
      natural bone. The objective of this study was to evaluate the bone regeneration
      potential of IMC loaded with autologous periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs)
      in large bone defects in minipigs. A macroporous IMC with a bone-like
      subfibrillar nanostructure was fabricated using a biomimetic bottom-up approach.
      Non-healing full thickness defects were established on the cranial bone in
      minipigs, and IMC and hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds seeded with autologous PDLSCs
      were implanted into these defects. Computed tomographic imaging, histology
      staining, and atomic force microscopy were applied to evaluate to the quantity,
      micro/nano structures, and mechanical performance of the neo-bone after 12 weeks
      of implantation. Compared with HA, IMC showed superior regeneration properties
      characterized by the profuse deposition of new bony structures with a normal
      architecture and vascularization. Immunohistochemistry showed that the runt
      related transcription factor 2 and transcription factor Osterix were highly
      expressed in the neo-bone formed by IMC. Furthermore, the nanostructure and
      nanomechanics of the neo-bone formed by IMC were similar to that of natural bone.
      This study provides strong evidence for the future clinical applications of the
      IMC-based bone grafts.

PMID- 28874878
TI  - Growth, structure, and luminescence properties of novel silica nanowires and
      interconnected nanorings.
AB  - Novel silica nanowires and interconnected nanorings were firstly synthesized on a
      graphite paper by typical thermal catalytic chemical vapor deposition method,
      using silicon and carbon black powders as raw materials. The field emission
      scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, Fourier
      transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and
      transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the composition and
      structure characterization, which indicates that the silica nanowires and
      interconnected nanorings were amorphous. The growth of the as-prepared silica
      nanowires and interconnected nanorings was related to the vapor-liquid-solid
      mechanism, but the nanowire-ring structure may be due to the polycentric
      nucleation and periodic stable growth with gradual direction changes. The room
      temperature photoluminescence emission spectrum showed that the silica
      nanostructures emitted strong blue light at 460 nm, resulting from the
      combination of neutral oxygen vacancy (=Si-Si=) and selftrapped excitons. The as
      synthesized novel silica nanowires and interconnected nanorings could be a
      potential candidate for applications in future light-emitting diodes and
      optoelectronic nanodevices.

PMID- 28874879
TI  - Violet Laser Diode Enables Lighting Communication.
AB  - Violet laser diode (VLD) based white-light source with high color rendering index
      (CRI) for lighting communication is implemented by covering with Y3Al5O12:Ce3+
      (YAG:Ce) or Lu3Al5O12:Ce3+/CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ (LuAG:Ce/CASN:Eu) phosphorous diffuser
      plates. After passing the beam of VLD biased at 70 mA (~2I th ) through the
      YAG:Ce phosphorous diffuser, a daylight with a correlated color temperature (CCT)
      of 5068 K and a CRI of 65 is acquired to provide a forward error correction (FEC)
      certified data rate of 4.4 Gbit/s. By using the VLD biased at 122 mA (~3.5I th )
      to excite the LuAG:Ce/CASN:Eu phosphorous diffuser with 0.85-mm thickness, a warm
      white-light source with a CCT of 2700 K and a CRI of 87.9 is obtained at a cost
      of decreasing transmission capacity to 2.4 Gbit/s. Thinning the phosphor
      thickness to 0.75 mm effectively reduces the required bias current by 32 mA to
      achieve the same CCT for the delivered white light, which offers an enlarged CRI
      of 89.1 and an increased data rate of 4.4 Gbit/s. Further enlarging the bias
      current to 105 mA remains the white-light transmission capacity at 4.4 Gbit/s but
      reveals an increased CCT of 3023 K and an upgraded CRI of 91.5.

PMID- 28874880
TI  - Monitoring Pertussis Infections Using Internet Search Queries.
AB  - This study aims to assess the utility of internet search query analysis in
      pertussis surveillance. This study uses an empirical time series model based on
      internet search metrics to detect the pertussis incidence in Australia. Our
      research demonstrates a clear seasonal pattern of both pertussis infections and
      Google Trends (GT) with specific search terms in time series seasonal
      decomposition analysis. The cross-correlation function showed significant
      correlations between GT and pertussis incidences in Australia and each state at
      the lag of 0 and 1 months, with the variation of correlations between 0.17 and
      0.76 (p < 0.05). A multivariate seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average
      (SARIMA) model was developed to track pertussis epidemics pattern using GT data.
      Reflected values for this model were generally consistent with the observed
      values. The inclusion of GT metrics improved detective performance of the model
      (beta = 0.058, p < 0.001). The validation analysis indicated that the overall
      agreement was 81% (sensitivity: 77% and specificity: 83%). This study
      demonstrates the feasibility of using internet search metrics for the detection
      of pertussis epidemics in real-time, which can be considered as a pre-requisite
      for constructing early warning systems for pertussis surveillance using internet
      search metrics.

PMID- 28874881
TI  - Oceanographic drivers of the vertical distribution of a highly migratory,
      endothermic shark.
AB  - Salmon sharks Lamna ditropis are highly migratory, upper trophic level predators
      in North Pacific ecosystems. We analysed a multi-year satellite tag dataset to
      investigate the habitat use of female salmon sharks across their broad range in
      the eastern North Pacific (NEP) and identified key environmental factors that
      influence vertical distribution. Salmon sharks displayed remarkable plasticity in
      habitat use across disparate oceanographic regions in the NEP and increased
      utilization of deeper waters in offshore habitats. Diel shifts in vertical
      distribution and behaviour were consistently observed across their range and
      likely reflect shifts in their foraging ecology. Salmon sharks utilized a broad
      thermal niche and exhibited submergence behaviour, possibly for thermal refuge,
      when encountering sea surface temperatures outside their preferred temperature
      distribution. Moreover, the vertical distribution of salmon sharks indicates they
      were able to exploit low dissolved oxygen environments (<1-3 ml l-1),
      occasionally for extended periods of time in offshore habitats. However, salmon
      sharks generally reduced their use of deeper waters when encountering the
      combination of cold temperatures (<6  degrees C) and low dissolved oxygen
      concentrations (<1-3 ml l-1). Combining vertical distribution with high
      resolution horizontal movements furthers our understanding of the ecological and
      environmental drivers of movement across short (diel) and long-term (migratory)
      scales.

PMID- 28874883
TI  - xSyn: A Software Tool for Identifying Sophisticated 3-Way Interactions From
      Cancer Expression Data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Constructing gene co-expression networks from cancer expression data
      is important for investigating the genetic mechanisms underlying cancer. However,
      correlation coefficients or linear regression models are not able to model
      sophisticated relationships among gene expression profiles. Here, we address the
      3-way interaction that 2 genes' expression levels are clustered in different
      space locations under the control of a third gene's expression levels. RESULTS:
      We present xSyn, a software tool for identifying such 3-way interactions from
      cancer gene expression data based on an optimization procedure involving the
      usage of UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean) and synergy.
      The effectiveness is demonstrated by application to 2 real gene expression data
      sets. CONCLUSIONS: xSyn is a useful tool for decoding the complex relationships
      among gene expression profiles. xSyn is available at
      http://www.bdxconsult.com/xSyn.html.

PMID- 28874882
TI  - Glucosyltransferase Activity of Clostridium difficile Toxin B Triggers Autophagy
      mediated Cell Growth Arrest.
AB  - Autophagy is a bulk cell-degradation process that occurs through the lysosomal
      machinery, and many reports have shown that it participates in microbial
      pathogenicity. However, the role of autophagy in Clostridium difficile infection
      (CDI), the leading cause of antibiotics-associated diarrhea, pseudomembranous
      colitis and even death in severe cases, is not clear. Here we report that the
      major virulent factor toxin B (TcdB) of Clostridium difficile elicits a strong
      autophagy response in host cells through its glucosyltransferase activity. Using
      a variety of autophagy-deficient cell lines, i.e. HeLa/ATG7 -/-, MEF/atg7 -/-,
      MEF/tsc2 -/-, we demonstrate that toxin-triggered autophagy inhibits host cell
      proliferation, which contributes to TcdB-caused cytopathic biological effects. We
      further show that both the PI3K complex and mTOR pathway play important roles in
      this autophagy induction process and consequent cytopathic event. Although the
      glucosyltransferase activity of TcdB is responsible for inducing both cell
      rounding and autophagy, there is no evidence suggesting the causal relationship
      between these two events. Taken together, our data demonstrate for the first time
      that the glucosyltransferase enzymatic activity of a pathogenic bacteria is
      responsible for host autophagy induction and the following cell growth arrest,
      providing a new paradigm for the role of autophagy in host defense mechanisms
      upon pathogenic infection.

PMID- 28874884
TI  - Quality by Design-Applied Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
      Determination of Enzalutamide Anti-Prostate Cancer Therapy Drug in Spiked Plasma
      Samples.
AB  - This research article presents the Quality by Design (QbD)-finalised conditions
      for a method that uses liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the
      determination of concentration of enzalutamide (ENZ), an atypical anticancer
      drug, in a drug formulation and in spiked plasma samples. Critical process
      attributes (CPA) considered to be the influential parameters in separation,
      identification, and quantification processes by ultrahigh-performance liquid
      chromatography-electrospray ionisation-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS)
      were organic content, buffer strength, pH modifier, flow rate, spray voltage,
      sheath gas, and auxiliary gas that alter critical analytical attributes, such as
      retention time (R1) and area (R2). These factors were evaluated first in a
      factorial design (Taguchi orthogonal array design) and then extensively in a
      central composite design (CCD) to zero-in on the mobile phase for the
      quantification of ENZ standard drug and along with its internal standard (ENZIS)
      in spiked plasma samples and in formulation. Pareto chart from initial factorial
      design (Taguchi orthogonal array design) model suggested which of the CPA factors
      should be given the weightage, that is, to be exhaustively analysed in the CCD
      and response surface analysis. The elaborated parameters proposed by World Health
      Organization were studied by method validation, ie, selectivity, linearity,
      accuracy, precision repeatability system-suitability tests, method
      robustness/ruggedness, sensitivity, and stability. The strategy followed gives an
      insight on the development of a robust QbD-compliant quantitative UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS
      method for ENZ drug containing plasma samples (spiked).

PMID- 28874885
TI  - Ethanol Extract of Blighia sapida Stem Bark Show Remarkable Prophylactic Activity
      in Experimental Plasmodium berghei-Infected Mice.
AB  - This work explores the antiplasmodial potential of ethanol extract of Blighia
      sapida (Lin. Sapindaceae) in chloroquine (CQ)-resistant Plasmodium berghei (ANKA
      strain)-infected mice. Chloroquine-resistant (ANKA) strain of P berghei was
      inoculated intraperitoneally into Swiss albino mice. Mice were treated orally for
      4 consecutive days, before and after inoculation (prophylactic, suppressive, and
      curative models) with graded doses of the plant extracts with Artemether
      Lumefantrine (Coartem) as control. Prophylactically, the extract showed a
      remarkable activity in the chemosuppression of P berghei parasites (P < .01)
      ranging from 57% to 36.5% at doses of 200 to 800 mg/kg, respectively, whereas
      Coartem (10 mg/kg) produced 62.1% chemosuppression. No significant
      chemosuppression was observed in the curative and suppressive models. The plant
      extract appeared to be safe at the highest dose tested (5000 mg/kg) for acute
      toxicity, with no adverse effect on the different organs. The plant extract
      possesses prophylactic antimalarial activity, which supports its use in the
      prevention of malaria.

PMID- 28874887
TI  - When the patient is also a carer.

PMID- 28874886
TI  - In Search for Optimal Targets for Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging of
      Peritoneal Metastasis From Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Peritoneal metastasis (PM) occurs in about 10% of patients with colorectal cancer
      (CRC). Fluorescence imaging can enhance contrast between cancerous and benign
      tissue, enabling the surgeon to clearly visualize PM during cytoreductive
      surgery. This study assessed the suitability of different biomarkers as potential
      targets for tumor-targeted imaging of PM of CRC. Tissue samples from primary
      tumor and PM from patients with CRC were obtained from the pathology archives and
      immunohistochemical stainings were performed. Overexpression of the epithelial
      cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was seen in
      100% of PM samples and the expression was strong in >70% of samples. Tyrosine
      kinase Met (C-Met) and folate receptor alpha overexpression was seen in 20% of PM
      samples. For successful application of tumor-targeted intraoperative fluorescence
      imaging of PM, biomarkers need to be identified. We demonstrated that both EpCAM
      and CEA are suitable targets for fluorescence imaging of PM in patients with CRC.

PMID- 28874888
TI  - Women with cancer in low-income countries.

PMID- 28874889
TI  - User survey of Nanny Angel Network, a free childcare service for mothers with
      cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to determine user satisfaction with
      Nanny Angel Network (nan), a free childcare service for mothers undergoing cancer
      treatment. METHODS: All 243 living mothers who had used the nan service were
      invited by telephone to participate in an online research survey; 197 mothers
      (81%) consented to participate. The survey, sent by e-mail, consisted of 39 items
      divided into these categories: demographics, supports, use, satisfaction, and
      general comments. RESULTS: Of the 197 mothers who consented to receive the e
      mailed survey, 104 (53%) completed it. More than 90% of the mothers were very
      satisfied with the help and support from their Nanny Angel. Many mothers
      mentioned that the Nanny Angel was most helpful during treatment and medical
      appointments, with 75% also mentioning that their Nanny Angel helped them to
      adhere to their scheduled medical appointments. However, 64% felt that they had
      not received enough visits from their Nanny Angel. CONCLUSIONS: Satisfaction with
      the nan childcare provider was high, but mothers wished the service had been
      available to them more often. Our study highlights the importance of providing
      childcare to mothers with inadequate support systems, so as to allow for greater
      adherence to treatment and medical appointments, and for more time to recover.

PMID- 28874890
TI  - Patterns of spread and prognostic implications of lung cancer metastasis in an
      era of driver mutations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the present study, we examined the pattern of metastatic spread in
      patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (nsclc) and the effect of EGFR
      mutations. METHODS: Patients were identified from a provincial cancer registry,
      and individual medical records were reviewed. Patients were included if they had
      stage iv nsclc and underwent diagnostic EGFR mutation testing. Patients were
      divided into EGFR mutation-positive (EGFR+) and EGFR wild type (wt) cohorts. The
      primary endpoint was the cumulative incidence for each metastatic site: lung,
      bone, brain, liver, adrenal glands, distant nodes, and other. Cumulative
      incidence curves were estimated using a competing-risks method. The secondary
      outcome was survival. RESULTS: Of the 543 identified patients, 121 (22.3%) tested
      as EGFR+, and 422 (77.7%) tested as EGFR wt. The incidence of brain (39.2% vs.
      28.2%, p = 0.038) and lung (61.2% vs. 51.0%, p = 0.048) metastasis was higher in
      the EGFR+ cohort than in the EGFR wt cohort. In the EGFR+ cohort, a higher
      incidence of liver metastasis was associated with the exon 21 mutation subtype
      than with the exon 19 deletion subtype [23% vs. 7%, p < 0.01; hazard ratio (hr):
      3.47]. Median survival was significantly longer for the EGFR+ cohort than for the
      EGFR wt cohort (22.4 months vs. 7.9 months, p < 0.001). In multivariable
      analysis, brain (hr: 1.73), liver (hr: 1.69), and bone (hr: 1.89) metastases were
      associated with worse survival. CONCLUSIONS: Rates of lung and brain metastases
      are higher in EGFR mutation carriers, even when adjusted for differences in
      survival. Brain, liver, and bone metastases are independent negative prognostic
      factors for survival.

PMID- 28874891
TI  - Real-life treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer with regorafenib: a single
      centre review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Various tyrosine kinase signalling pathways affect the development
      and progression of colorectal cancer (crc). In clinical trials, regorafenib has
      been associated with a survival benefit in metastatic crc (mcrc). We assessed the
      safety and efficacy of regorafenib in real-world patients. METHODS: In a
      retrospective review of patients with mcrc treated with regorafenib at our
      institution from 2013 to 2015, patient demographics, treatment, and survival data
      were collected. Progression-free survival (pfs) and overall survival (os) were
      estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: In total, 48 patients were
      offered regorafenib, and 35 (73%) started treatment. Of the patients who started
      regorafenib, 57% were men. Median age in the cohort was 61 years, and all
      patients had a performance status in the range 0-2. Time from diagnosis of mcrc
      to regorafenib treatment was more than 18 months in 71% of patients. Starting
      dose was 160 mg in 54% of the patients, 120 mg in 40%, and 80 mg in 6%. Dose
      reductions occurred in 34% of the patients, and interruptions, in 29%. Best
      response was progressive disease (60%) and stable disease (17%); response in the
      rest of the patients was unknown. The most common adverse events on regorafenib
      (any grade) were fatigue (57%), hyperbilirubinemia (43%), thrombocytopenia (37%),
      anorexia (31%), and hypertension (31%). The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse
      events were fatigue (29%), hypophosphatemia (17%), weight loss (11%), and
      hyperbilirubinemia (9%). Common reasons for discontinuing regorafenib included
      progressive disease (51%) and toxicity (26%). In patients treated with
      regorafenib, pfs was 2.4 months (95% confidence interval: 1.8 to 3.3 months) and
      os was 5.6 months (95% confidence interval: 3.7 to 8.9 months). No factors were
      associated with survival in univariate or multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In
      a real-world setting, regorafenib is associated with survival similar to that
      reported in the randomized controlled trials, but at the expense of toxicity
      leading to discontinuation in many patients. Future studies of regorafenib should
      focus on identifying the patients most likely to benefit and on minimizing
      toxicity.

PMID- 28874892
TI  - Treatment patterns and trends in patients dying of prostate cancer in Quebec: a
      population-based study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Since just after the year 2000 in Quebec, the management of
      metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mcrpc) has evolved considerably,
      with the inclusion of docetaxel-based chemotherapy, bone-targeted therapies
      (zoledronic acid and denosumab), and more recently, abiraterone, enzalutamide,
      and cabazitaxel for docetaxel-refractory patients. In the present study, we aimed
      to analyze contemporary mcrpc management patterns and therapy utilization trends
      in Quebec. METHODS: The study cohort consisted of patients dying of prostate
      cancer (pca) between January 2001 and December 2013, selected from Quebec public
      health care insurance databases. Patient selection was based on death from a pca
      related cause or therapy used according to the Canadian Urological Association
      guidelines on mcrpc management. Treatments included chemotherapy (mitoxantrone
      before 2005 and docetaxel after 2005), abiraterone, bone-targeted therapy
      (zoledronic acid or denosumab, or both), and palliative radiation therapy (rt).
      During the study period, neither enzalutamide nor cabazitaxel was publicly
      reimbursed in Quebec, and as a result, no capture of their use was possible for
      this study. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors
      associated with the probability of receiving chemotherapy, bone-targeted
      therapies, and palliative rt before death from pca. RESULTS: Overall, the
      database search identified 3106 patients who died of pca between January 2001 and
      December 2013. Median age of death was 78 years. Of those 3106 patients, just
      2568 (83%) received mcrpc-specific treatments: chemotherapy, abiraterone,
      palliative rt, or bone-targeted therapy; the other 17% of the patients were
      managed solely with maximum androgen blockade (androgen deprivation therapy plus
      anti-androgens) despite a record of pca-related death. Logistic regression
      analyses indicate that patients dying after 2005 were more likely to have
      received chemotherapy [odds ratio (or): 1.51; 95% ci: 1.22 to 1.85] and bone
      targeted therapy (or: 1.97; 95% ci: 1.64 to 2.37). Age was a significant
      predictor for the use of chemotherapy, bone-targeted therapy, and palliative rt
      (ors in the range 0.96-0.98, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patient age seems to be a
      strong determinant in the of selection mcrpc therapy, affecting the probability
      of the use of chemotherapy, bone-targeted therapy, or palliative rt. Although
      chemotherapy is still used only in a small percentage of patients, the
      introduction of new therapies-such as bone-targeted therapy, docetaxel, and
      abiraterone-affected treatment selection over time. The availability of
      enzalutamide since February 2014 will likely produce additional changes in mcrpc
      management.

PMID- 28874893
TI  - Systemic therapy in incurable gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours: a
      clinical practice guideline.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the present review was to determine which antineoplastic
      systemic therapy is most effective in improving clinical outcomes for patients
      with incurable gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (nets). METHODS: A
      systematic search (2008-2016) of the literature in the medline and embase
      databases and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was conducted;
      abstracts from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of
      Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, the European Society for
      Medical Oncology, the European Cancer Congress, the European Neuroendocrine Tumor
      Society, and the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society were reviewed. Draft
      recommendations were created, and a comprehensive review process was undertaken.
      Outcomes-including progression-free survival (pfs), overall survival, objective
      response rate, adverse events, and quality of life-were extracted from each of
      the studies. RESULTS: Eleven randomized controlled trials (rcts), sixteen
      nonrandomized prospective studies, and thirteen retrospective studies met the
      inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with well-or moderately-differentiated
      pancreatic nets (pnets) should receive targeted therapy (that is, everolimus or
      sunitinib), and patients with non-pnets should be offered either targeted therapy
      (that is, everolimus) or somatostatin analogues (ssas-that is, octreotide long
      acting release or lanreotide). Evidence from two phase iii trials demonstrated a
      significant pfs benefit for patients with pnets. For patients with non-pnets, the
      evidence comes from subgroup analyses of rcts, as well as from a planned interim
      analysis. Although the evidence has limitations, the rarity of the disease,
      coupled with the difficulty of conducting methodologically sound trials in the
      affected population, means that treatment decisions have to make use of the best
      available evidence. Because of insufficient evidence for both pnets and non
      pnets, no evidence-based recommendation can be made for or against other types of
      targeted therapy, other ssas, chemotherapy, or combination therapy.

PMID- 28874894
TI  - Acute care hospitalization near the end of life for cancer patients who die in
      hospital in Canada.
AB  - Acute care hospitals have a role in managing the health care needs of people
      affected by cancer when they are at the end of life. However, there is a need to
      provide end-of-life care in other settings, including at home or in hospice, when
      such settings are more appropriate. Using data from 9 provinces, we examined
      indicators that describe the current landscape of acute care hospital use at the
      end of life for patients who died of cancer in hospital in Canada.
      Interprovincial variation was observed in acute care hospital deaths, length of
      stay in hospital, readmission to hospital, and intensive care unit use at the end
      of life. High rates of acute care hospital use near the end of life might suggest
      that community and home-based end-of-life care might not be suiting patient
      needs.

PMID- 28874895
TI  - Wherein the authors attempt to minimize the confusion generated by their study
      "Breast cancer mortality after a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ" by
      several commentators who disagree with them and a few who don't: a qualitative
      study.

PMID- 28874896
TI  - Phase I/II trial of dose-reduced capecitabine in elderly patients with advanced
      colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Combination chemotherapy is associated with improved outcomes in
      trials of selected fit patients with advanced colorectal cancer (acrc). For older
      or less-fit patients, combination chemotherapy is associated with greater
      toxicity and less benefit. Capecitabine monotherapy is a reasonable option for
      those patients, but the optimal dose remains controversial. METHODS: A
      multicentre phase i/ii trial of reduced-dose capecitabine (2000 mg/m2, days 1-14
      every 21 days) was conducted in 221 patients representing one or more of the
      following subsets: age greater than 65 years (n = 167), Eastern Cooperative
      Oncology Group (ecog) performance status of 1 or greater (n = 139), elevated
      lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) (n = 105), or prior pelvic radiation (n = 54). Based
      on phase i results, patients with prior pelvic radiation received capecitabine
      750 mg/m2 twice daily. The goal was to ascertain efficacy in a design that was
      unlikely to cause high levels of toxicity. RESULTS: Median age in the patient
      cohort was 72 years. A median of 5 and a mean of 8 capecitabine cycles were given
      (range: 0-50 cycles). Grade 3 or 4 toxicity occurred in 25% of patients during
      the first 3 cycles (8.1% hand-foot syndrome, 7.7% diarrhea). The response rate
      was 13.6%, with a 69.7% disease control rate. Median progression-free survival
      (pfs) was 5.6 months. Post progression, 56 patients received further capecitabine
      monotherapy (median of 4 additional cycles). Median overall survival duration for
      the patients was 14.3 months. Median survival was significantly higher for those
      who, at baseline, had an ecog performance status of 0 (compared with 1 or more)
      and normal ldh (compared with elevated ldh). CONCLUSIONS: Toxicity is less with
      dose-reduced capecitabine than with historical full-dose capecitabine, with only
      a small trade-off in efficacy, seen as a lower objective response rate. The
      improved tolerability could lead to an increased number of cycles of therapy, and
      pfs appears to be consistently higher at the lower dose. Those observations
      should, in the absence of a head-to-head clinical trial, be viewed as compelling
      evidence that 1000 mg/m2, or even 750 mg/m2, twice daily is an appropriate dose
      in elderly or frail patients with acrc.

PMID- 28874897
TI  - Oral Chinese herbal medicine as maintenance treatment after chemotherapy for
      advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The concept of maintenance therapy in cancer treatment is currently
      under debate because of modest survival benefits, added toxicity, economic
      considerations, and quality-of-life concerns. Traditional Chinese Medicine (tcm)
      is widely used in China for cancer patients, offering the advantages of low
      toxicity and enhancement of quality of life. However, no systematic reviews or
      meta-analyses have assessed the role of tcm as maintenance treatment for non
      small-cell lung carcinoma. METHODS: We searched the Chinese Biomedical Literature
      Database, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, PubMed, embase, and the
      Cochrane Library databases for all eligible studies. The endpoints were overall
      survival (os), progression-free survival (pfs), the 1-year and 2-year survival
      rates, and performance status. Our meta-analysis used a fixed-effects model and a
      random-effects model for heterogeneity in the Stata software application (version
      11.0: StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, U.S.A.), with the results expressed as
      hazard ratios (hrs) or risk ratios (rrs), with their corresponding 95% confidence
      intervals (95% cis). RESULTS: Sixteen randomized studies representing 1150
      patients met the inclusion criteria. Compared with best supportive care,
      observation, or placebo, tcm as maintenance treatment was associated with a
      significant increase in os (hr: 0.49; 95% ci: 0.35 to 0.68; p < 0.001), pfs (hr:
      0.66; 95% ci: 0.51 to 0.84; p = 0.001), and 2-year survival rate (rr: 0.63; 95%
      ci: 0.44 to 0.92, p = 0.017), and a significant improvement in performance status
      (rr: 0.68; 95% ci: 0.61 to 0.75; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: For patients who show
      non-progression-including stable disease, partial response, or complete response
      after first-line chemotherapy, including those with poor quality of life, oral
      Chinese herbal medicine can be considered an efficient and safe maintenance
      therapy strategy.

PMID- 28874898
TI  - Experiences of Canadian oncologists with difficult patient deaths and coping
      strategies used.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to explore and identify what makes patient death more
      emotionally difficult for oncologists and how oncologists cope with patient
      death. METHODS: A convenience sample of 98 Canadian oncologists (50 men, 48
      women) completed an online survey that included a demographics section and a
      section about patient death. RESULTS: More than 80% of oncologists reported that
      patient age, long-term management of a patient, and unexpected disease outcomes
      contributed to difficult patient loss. Other factors included the doctor-patient
      relationship, identification with the patient, caregiver-related factors,
      oncologist-related factors, and "bad deaths." Oncologists reported varying
      strategies to cope with patient death. Most prevalent was peer support from
      colleagues, including nurses and other oncologists. Additional strategies
      included social support, exercise and meditation, faith, vacations, and use of
      alcohol and medications. CONCLUSIONS: Oncologists listed a number of
      interpersonal and structural factors that make patient death challenging for them
      to cope with. Oncologists reported a number of coping strategies in responding to
      patient death, including peer support, particularly from nursing colleagues. No
      single intervention will be suitable for all oncologists, and institutions
      wishing to help their staff cope with the emotional difficulty of patient loss
      should offer a variety of interventions to maximize the likelihood of oncologist
      participation.

PMID- 28874899
TI  - Clinical results of accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy for central-type
      small lung tumours.
AB  - PURPOSE: We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of accelerated hypofractionated
      radiotherapy (ahypof-rt) for central-type small lung tumours. METHODS: Between
      November 2006 and January 2015, 40 patients with central-type small lung tumours
      underwent ahypof-rt delivered using 10 MV X-rays and a coplanar 3-field
      technique. The number of fractions ranged from 24 to 28, with a fraction size of
      2.5-3 Gy. A total dose of 69-75 Gy to the isocentre of the planning target volume
      was administered to each patient. Cumulative survival and local control rates
      were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: The 27 men and 13 women
      enrolled in the study had a median age of 79 years (range: 60-87 years). The
      tumour stage was T1a in 9 patients, T1b in 17 patients, and T2a in 14 patients,
      with a median size of 26.5 cm (range: 11-49 cm). The median follow-up period was
      23 months. A complete response was achieved in 3 patients (7.5%), and a partial
      response, in 17 patients (42.5%). The overall 2-year and 3-year local control
      rates were 87.3% and 81.8% respectively; the 2-year and 3-year overall survival
      rates were 78.9% and 66.7% respectively. Grade 3 pneumonitis occurred in 3
      patients; no other severe adverse events (>=grade 3) were observed in any
      patient. CONCLUSIONS: Accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy using a fraction
      size of 2.5-3 Gy was highly safe and can be a more effective treatment option
      than conventional radiotherapy for patients with central-type small lung tumours.

PMID- 28874900
TI  - Exercise for people with cancer: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This systematic review was completed by the Exercise for People with
      Cancer Guideline Development Group, a group organized by Cancer Care Ontario's
      Program in Evidence-Based Care (pebc). It provides background and guidance for
      clinicians with respect to exercise for people living with cancer in active and
      post treatment. It focuses on the benefits of specific types of exercise, pre
      screening requirements for new referrals, safety concerns, and delivery models.
      METHODS: Using the pebc's standardized approach, medline and embase were
      systematically searched for existing guidelines, systematic reviews, and primary
      literature. RESULTS: The search identified two guidelines, eighteen systematic
      reviews, and twenty-nine randomized controlled trials with relevance to the
      topic. The present review provides conclusions about the duration, frequency, and
      intensity of exercise appropriate for people living with cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The
      evidence shows that exercise is safe and provides benefit in quality of life and
      in muscular and aerobic fitness for people with cancer both during and after
      treatment. The evidence is sufficient to support the promotion of exercise for
      adults with cancer, and some evidence supports the promotion of exercise in group
      or supervised settings and for a long period of time to improve quality of life
      and muscular and aerobic fitness. Exercise at moderate intensities could also be
      sustainable for longer periods and could encourage exercise to be continued over
      an individual's lifetime. It is important that a pre-screening assessment be
      conducted to evaluate the effects of disease, treatments, and comorbidities.

PMID- 28874901
TI  - Adrenocortical carcinoma: patterns of care and role of adjuvant radiation therapy
      a population-based study and review of the literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: We reviewed the experience of a tertiary cancer centre in the management
      of adrenocortical carcinoma (acc) treated over 40 years. We also searched the
      literature for guidelines related to the treatment of acc and for evidence for
      adjuvant radiation therapy (rt). METHODS: In a retrospective chart review, acc
      patients treated between January 1974 and December 2013 were identified, and
      patient demographics and tumour characteristics were extracted. Outcomes data,
      including dates and sites of failure, vital status, and cause of death, were
      collected. Overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan- Meier method. A
      medline search using PubMed, Ovid, and embase was used to review the literature
      about the role of rt and any available management guidelines for acc. RESULTS: Of
      81 patients identified during the chart review, 39 had confirmed acc. In 32
      patients, surgical resection was performed, including in 2 patients with M1
      disease. Of those 32 patients, 16 received adjuvant systemic treatment (mitotane
      or concurrent chemoradiation). Only 6 patients received adjuvant rt, of whom 3
      are still alive (2 living with distant failure). At a median follow-up of 3.8
      years, 28 patients had died (72%), 10 were living (26%), and 1 had been lost to
      follow-up. Of the 22 patients for whom failure data were available, 2 experienced
      local failure, and the rest, distant failure. CONCLUSIONS: The current data are
      insufficient to make treatment recommendations. Use of collaborative databases
      and consensus about diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines are warranted for
      better identification of optimum management. Adjuvant rt could be a reasonable
      option for R1 disease, but further research is needed.

PMID- 28874902
TI  - Lymph node retrieval rates in melanoma: a quality assessment parameter.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Regional lymph node dissection (rlnd) for melanoma with nodal
      metastasis is a specialized procedure that is associated with improved disease
      specific survival in selected patients. Furthermore, there is evidence that a
      higher lymph node retrieval rate (lnrr) is associated with improved local
      control. Currently, no consensus has been reached on the definition of an
      adequate lnrr. A minimum lnrr has been proposed as a quality assessment parameter
      that has to be validated. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis
      at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (University Health Network, Toronto, ON).
      The lnrrs for all patients who underwent rlnd for malignant cutaneous melanoma
      during 2000-2010 were recorded. Indications for rlnd were a positive sentinel
      lymph node biopsy or clinical lymphadenopathy (palpable or radiologically
      detected). RESULTS: Of the 207 identified rlnds, 146 (70.5%) were subsequent to a
      positive sentinel lymph node biopsy, and 61 (29.5%) were performed for clinical
      lymphadenopathy. The median lnrr was 24 nodes (range: 9-47 nodes; 10th
      percentile: 14 nodes) for axillary rlnd, 12 nodes (range: 5-30 nodes; 10th
      percentile: 8 nodes) for inguinal rlnd, and 16 nodes (range: 10-21 nodes; 10th
      percentile: 11 nodes) for ilioinguinal rlnd. The results were similar when
      comparing patients with positive sentinel lymph nodes and those with clinical
      lymphadenopathy, and the same surgical techniques were used in both groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: The lnrrs at our institution are similar to rates reported at other
      tertiary-care melanoma centres. A minimum acceptable lnrr can be considered a
      quality assessment parameter in the surgical management of melanoma with nodal
      metastasis.

PMID- 28874903
TI  - Pomalidomide desensitization in a patient hypersensitive to immunomodulating
      agents.
AB  - Despite progressive treatments with tandem stem-cell transplantation, patients
      with incurable myeloma eventually succumb to relapsed or refractory disease if
      left untreated. Promising agents such as proteasome inhibitors and
      immunomodulating imide drugs (imids), including the newer-generation agent
      pomalidomide, in combination with lower-dose dexamethasone, have been shown to be
      effective and to significantly improve and prolong survival in pretreated
      patients. Although the incidence of pomalidomide hypersensitivity reaction (hsr)
      in this class of drugs is not as well known, we have documented cutaneous
      toxicity (grade 3 by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version
      4) in 2 separate cases (not yet published). Because the imids are chemically,
      structurally, and pharmacologically similar, it is not unreasonable to consider
      possible cross-reactivity in pomalidomide recipients who developed hsr when
      receiving previous lines of imids. As a patient's advocate, it is only prudent to
      provide a responsible, and yet practical, means to better address cross
      sensitivity for patients. Intervention with the use of a rapid desensitization
      program (rdp) as a preventive measure should be introduced before initiating
      pomalidomide. Such a proactive measure for the patient's safety will ensure a
      smooth transition into pomalidomide treatment. A hsr can be either related or non
      related to immunoglobulin E. As imids become an essential treatment backbone for
      myeloma and other plasma-cell diseases, an increasing number of patients could
      experience skin and other life-threatening toxicities, resulting in unnecessary
      discontinuation of these life-prolonging agents. An extemporaneously prepared
      pomalidomide suspension developed at our centre enables patients to undergo rdp
      safely. Patients enjoy a good quality of life and clinical response after the rdp
      procedure.

PMID- 28874905
TI  - Communication and informed consent ... a story.

PMID- 28874904
TI  - Extrahepatic metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma arising from a hepatic
      adenoma without concurrent intrahepatic recurrence.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) arising from a hepatic adenoma is a rare
      phenomenon accounting for fewer than 5% of hcc cases; it seldom recurs after
      resection of the primary tumour. We report a case of extrahepatic metastasis of
      hcc arising from a hepatic adenoma that presented as a solitary sternal
      metastasis without any evidence of intrahepatic recurrence. Our patient was
      initially treated with radiation therapy and bland embolization, without
      response. Subsequently, the patient developed progressive disease while taking
      sorafenib. He later received chemotherapy with docetaxel and gemcitabine, with
      the development of multiple pulmonary and splenic nodules. However, he remained
      free of intrahepatic recurrence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      case of extrahepatic metastasis of hcc arising from a hepatic adenoma without
      evidence of intrahepatic recurrence.

PMID- 28874906
TI  - Megafauna of the UKSRL exploration contract area and eastern Clarion-Clipperton
      Zone in the Pacific Ocean: Annelida, Arthropoda, Bryozoa, Chordata, Ctenophora,
      Mollusca.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is growing interest in mining polymetallic nodules from the
      abyssal Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Despite
      having been the focus of environmental studies for decades, the benthic megafauna
      of the CCZ remain poorly known. To predict and manage the environmental impacts
      of mining in the CCZ, baseline knowledge of the megafauna is essential. The
      ABYSSLINE Project has conducted benthic biological baseline surveys in the UK
      Seabed Resources Ltd polymetallic-nodule exploration contract area (UK-1). Prior
      to ABYSSLINE research cruises in 2013 and 2015, no biological studies had been
      done in this area of the eastern CCZ. NEW INFORMATION: Using a Remotely Operated
      Vehicle and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (as well as several other pieces of
      equipment), the megafauna within the UK Seabed Resources Ltd exploration contract
      area (UK-1) and at a site ~250 km east of the UK-1 area were surveyed, allowing
      us to make the first estimates of megafaunal morphospecies richness from the
      imagery collected. Here, we present an atlas of the abyssal annelid, arthropod,
      bryozoan, chordate, ctenophore and molluscan megafauna observed and collected
      during the ABYSSLINE cruises to the UK-1 polymetallic-nodule exploration contract
      area in the CCZ. There appear to be at least 55 distinct morphospecies (8
      Annelida, 12 Arthropoda, 4 Bryozoa, 22 Chordata, 5 Ctenophora, and 4 Mollusca)
      identified mostly by morphology but also using molecular barcoding for a limited
      number of animals that were collected. This atlas will aid the synthesis of
      megafaunal presence/absence data collected by contractors, scientists and other
      stakeholders undertaking work in the CCZ, ultimately helping to decipher the
      biogeography of the megafauna in this threatened habitat.

PMID- 28874907
TI  - Synergistic Effect of Pleuromutilins with Other Antimicrobial Agents against
      Staphylococcus aureus In Vitro and in an Experimental Galleria mellonella Model.
AB  - Invasive infections due to Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant
      S. aureus are prevalent and life-threatening. Combinations of antibiotic therapy
      have been employed in many clinical settings for improving therapeutic efficacy,
      reducing side effects of drugs, and development of antibiotic resistance.
      Pleuromutilins have a potential to be developed as a new class of antibiotics for
      systemic use in humans. In the current study, we investigated the relationship
      between pleuromutilins, including valnemulin, tiamulin, and retapamulin, and 13
      other antibiotics representing different mechanisms of action, against
      methicillin-susceptible and -resistant S. aureus both in vitro and in an
      experimental Galleria mellonella model. In vitro synergistic effects were
      observed in combination of all three study pleuromutilins with tetracycline (TET)
      by standard checkerboard and/or time-kill assays. In addition, the combination of
      pleuromutilins with ciprofloxacin or enrofloxacin showed antagonistic effects,
      while the rest combinations presented indifferent effects. Importantly, all study
      pleuromutilins in combination with TET significantly enhanced survival rates as
      compared to the single drug treatment in the G. mellonella model caused by S.
      aureus strains. Taken together, these results demonstrated synergy effects
      between pleuromutilins and TET against S. aureus both in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28874908
TI  - Application of the Intuitionistic Fuzzy InterCriteria Analysis Method with
      Triples to a Neural Network Preprocessing Procedure.
AB  - The approach of InterCriteria Analysis (ICA) was applied for the aim of reducing
      the set of variables on the input of a neural network, taking into account the
      fact that their large number increases the number of neurons in the network, thus
      making them unusable for hardware implementation. Here, for the first time, with
      the help of the ICA method, correlations between triples of the input parameters
      for training of the neural networks were obtained. In this case, we use the
      approach of ICA for data preprocessing, which may yield reduction of the total
      time for training the neural networks, hence, the time for the network's
      processing of data and images.

PMID- 28874909
TI  - Identification of Anisomerous Motor Imagery EEG Signals Based on Complex
      Algorithms.
AB  - Motor imagery (MI) electroencephalograph (EEG) signals are widely applied in
      brain-computer interface (BCI). However, classified MI states are limited, and
      their classification accuracy rates are low because of the characteristics of
      nonlinearity and nonstationarity. This study proposes a novel MI pattern
      recognition system that is based on complex algorithms for classifying MI EEG
      signals. In electrooculogram (EOG) artifact preprocessing, band-pass filtering is
      performed to obtain the frequency band of MI-related signals, and then, canonical
      correlation analysis (CCA) combined with wavelet threshold denoising (WTD) is
      used for EOG artifact preprocessing. We propose a regularized common spatial
      pattern (R-CSP) algorithm for EEG feature extraction by incorporating the
      principle of generic learning. A new classifier combining the K-nearest neighbor
      (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) approaches is used to classify four
      anisomerous states, namely, imaginary movements with the left hand, right foot,
      and right shoulder and the resting state. The highest classification accuracy
      rate is 92.5%, and the average classification accuracy rate is 87%. The proposed
      complex algorithm identification method can significantly improve the
      identification rate of the minority samples and the overall classification
      performance.

PMID- 28874910
TI  - Different Angiogenic Potentials of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Derived from Umbilical
      Artery, Umbilical Vein, and Wharton's Jelly.
AB  - Human mesenchymal stem cells derived from the umbilical cord (UC) are a favorable
      source for allogeneic cell therapy. Here, we successfully isolated the stem cells
      derived from three different compartments of the human UC, including perivascular
      stem cells derived from umbilical arteries (UCA-PSCs), perivascular stem cells
      derived from umbilical vein (UCV-PSCs), and mesenchymal stem cells derived from
      Wharton's jelly (WJ-MSCs). These cells had the similar phenotype and
      differentiation potential toward adipocytes, osteoblasts, and neuron-like cells.
      However, UCA-PSCs and UCV-PSCs had more CD146+ cells than WJ-MSCs (P < 0.05).
      Tube formation assay in vitro showed the largest number of tube-like structures
      and branch points in UCA-PSCs among the three stem cells. Additionally, the total
      tube length in UCA-PSCs and UCV-PSCs was significantly longer than in WJ-MSCs (P
      < 0.01). Microarray, qRT-PCR, and Western blot analysis showed that UCA-PSCs had
      the highest expression of the Notch ligand Jagged1 (JAG1), which is crucial for
      blood vessel maturation. Knockdown of Jagged1 significantly impaired the
      angiogenesis in UCA-PSCs. In summary, UCA-PSCs are promising cell populations for
      clinical use in ischemic diseases.

PMID- 28874911
TI  - A Ligation of the Lacrimal Excretory Duct in Mouse Induces Lacrimal Gland
      Inflammation with Proliferative Cells.
AB  - The lacrimal gland secretes tear fluids to ocular surface, which plays an
      indispensable role in maintaining the health of the ocular epithelia and
      protecting the ocular surface from the external environment. The dysfunction of
      the lacrimal glands causes dry eye disease due to a reduction in tear volume. The
      dry eye disease is becoming a popular public disease, for the number of patients
      is increasing, who have subjective symptom and loss of vision, which affect the
      quality of life. Inflammatory change in the damaged lacrimal gland has been
      reported; however, a major challenge is to establish a simple animal model to
      observe the changes. Here, we demonstrated an injury model by ligating the main
      excretory duct of the lacrimal gland, which is a simple and stable way to clearly
      understand the mechanism of lacrimal gland inflammation. We observed the process
      of injury and proliferation of the lacrimal gland and detected a population of
      lacrimal gland epithelial cells with proliferation potential which were also
      nestin-positive cells following duct ligation. This study successfully
      established an injury model to observe the tissue injury process of the lacrimal
      gland, and this model will be useful for analysis of the inflammation and
      proliferation mechanism in the future.

PMID- 28874912
TI  - Prescription database analyses indicates that the asthma medicine montelukast
      might protect against dementia: a hypothesis to be verified.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has recently been shown that the leukotriene receptor antagonist
      montelukast rejuvenates aged brains in rats. The question is whether this
      commonly used, systemic, anti-asthmatic medicine has a similar effect in humans?
      RESULTS: We approached this issue by doing statistical analyses based on the
      Norwegian Prescription Database. The Database lists all prescription-based
      medications in Norway, but not drugs given to people who are in hospitals or
      nursing homes. The question asked was whether users of montelukast, compared to
      users of inhalation asthma medicine, live longer, and are less likely to develop
      dementia. A small, non-significant protective effect on the use of dementia
      medicine became significant when adjusting for other prescriptions (based on the
      notion that montelukast users on average are less healthy). A possible protective
      effect was substantiated by looking at the lack of prescriptions as a proxy for
      dementia-related residency in nursing homes, and the risk of death. CONCLUSIONS:
      The present results suggest that montelukast may alleviate the cognitive decline
      associated with human aging. However, further data, preferably based on
      controlled clinical trials, are required.

PMID- 28874914
TI  - Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine: A Confession.

PMID- 28874913
TI  - Brief internet-based cognitive behavior therapy program with a supplement drink
      improved anxiety and somatic symptoms in Japanese workers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-help cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a useful approach for
      the treatment of psychological problems. Recent research on the effectiveness of
      self-help internet-based CBT (ICBT) indicates that the paradigm moderately
      improves psychological problems. Furthermore, previous studies have shown that
      food and drinks containing supplements improve various health conditions. We
      investigated the effect of a brief self-help ICBT administered with a supplement
      drink on psychological well-being and somatic symptoms. METHODS: In total, 101
      healthy workers were enrolled in the 4-week ICBT program, which consisted of
      psychoeducation on stress management, behavior activation, and cognitive
      restructuring. The supplement soft drink was taken every day during the program.
      The participants were instructed to watch on-demand video clips and read the self
      help guidebook and supporting comic strip weekly on the Internet or smartphone.
      The Japanese version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) was administered before
      and after completion of the program. Scores on the POMS tension-anxiety (POMS
      TA), depression (POMS-D), and fatigue (POMS-F) subscales were used to assess the
      effect of the program. Somatic symptoms were assessed using the Brief Job Stress
      Questionnaire. RESULTS: In total, 75 participants continued the program for 4
      weeks; however, of those, 27 failed to complete all weekly tasks or meet the post
      assessment deadlines. Therefore, the data of 48 participants were included in the
      analysis. Pre-post intervention comparisons using paired t-tests revealed
      significant improvement on the POMS-TA, but not the POMS-D or POMS-F subscales.
      Moreover, participants reported a significant reduction in the severity of low
      back pain. CONCLUSION: Our brief intervention moderately improved anxiety levels
      and the symptom of low back pain. These findings suggest that the brief ICBT
      program is effective in non-patient populations. Future directions for brief ICBT
      are discussed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered on February 10, 2016
      at UMIN. The registration number is UMIN000020962.

PMID- 28874915
TI  - Integrative Medicine for Military Injuries Special Issue of Medical Acupuncture:
      Introduction.

PMID- 28874916
TI  - Evolving Approaches to Care for Those in Harm's Way.

PMID- 28874917
TI  - Discovery of the Healing Highway.

PMID- 28874918
TI  - Integrative Health in the Veterans Health Administration.

PMID- 28874919
TI  - Medical Acupuncture Meets the Military.

PMID- 28874920
TI  - The Manual Stimulation of Acupuncture Points in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic
      Stress Disorder: A Review of Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques.
AB  - Background: The manual stimulation of acupuncture points has been combined with
      components of cognitive and exposure therapies into a clinical and self-help
      approach known as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). More than 40 clinical
      trials and four meta-analytic reviews of EFT treatments have demonstrated large
      effect sizes with a range of conditions, including pain, PTSD (in both civilian
      and military veteran populations), phobias, anxiety, and depression. Objective:
      This review describes the approach, with a focus on PTSD in veterans and service
      members, provides an overview of how EFT is most commonly applied, and outlines
      obstacles and cautions related to its implementation. Methods: Peer-reviewed
      clinical trials and meta-analyses of EFT in the treatment of PTSD are assessed to
      identify the characteristics of the approach that render it suitable for the
      treatment of PTSD. Results: The literature demonstrates that remediation of PTSD
      and comorbid conditions is typically accomplished within brief time frames,
      ranging from one session for phobias to between four and ten sessions for PTSD.
      Clinical EFT has been shown to regulate stress hormones and limbic function and
      to improve various neurologic markers of general health. The epigenetic effects
      of EFT include upregulation of immunity genes and downregulation of inflammation
      genes. Six dismantling studies have indicated that the acupressure component of
      EFT is an active ingredient and not placebo. Conclusions: Seven empirically
      supported strengths of the approach were identified that make it especially
      suitable for use with veterans and active military: (1) the depth and breadth of
      treatment effects; (2) the relatively brief timeframes required for successful
      treatment; (3) the low risk of adverse events; (4) the minimal training time
      required for the approach to be applied effectively; (5) the simultaneous
      reduction of physical and psychologic symptoms; (6) the utility and cost
      effectiveness of clinical EFT in a large group format; and (7) the method's
      adaptability to online and telemedicine applications.

PMID- 28874921
TI  - Functional Medicine Approach to Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - Background: The U.S. military has seen dramatic increases in traumatic brain
      injuries (TBIs) among military personnel due to the nature of modern-day
      conflicts. Conventional TBI treatment for secondary brain injuries has suboptimal
      success rates, and patients, families, and healthcare professionals are
      increasingly turning to alternative medicine treatments. Objective: Effective
      treatments for the secondary injury cascades that occur after an initial brain
      trauma are unclear at this time. The goal of successful treatment options for
      secondary TBI injuries is to reduce oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, and
      inflammation while supporting mitochondrial functions and repair of membranes,
      synapses, and axons. Intervention: A new paradigm of medical care, known as
      functional medicine, is increasing in popularity and acceptance. Functional
      medicine combines conventional treatment methods with complementary, genetic,
      holistic, and nutritional therapies. The approach is to assess the patient as a
      whole person, taking into account the interconnectedness of the body and its
      unique reaction to disease, injury, and illness while working to restore balance
      and optimal health. Functional medicine treatment recommendations often include
      the use of acupuncture, Ayurveda, chiropractic manipulation, detoxification
      programs, herbal and homeopathic supplements, specialized diets, massage,
      meditation and mindfulness practices, neurobiofeedback, nutritional supplements,
      t'ai chi, and yoga. At present, some of these alternative treatments appear to be
      beneficial, but more research is needed to validate reported outcomes.
      Conclusions: Few clinical studies validate the effectiveness of alternative
      therapies for TBIs. However, further clinical trials and empirical studies
      warrant further investigation based on some reported positive results from
      research studies, case histories, anecdotal evidence, and widespread popularity
      of some approaches. To date, only nutritional therapies and hyperbaric oxygen
      therapy have shown the most promise and potential for improved outcomes for the
      treatment of secondary TBI injuries.

PMID- 28874922
TI  - An Overview of the Use of Neurofeedback Biofeedback for the Treatment of Symptoms
      of Traumatic Brain Injury in Military and Civilian Populations.
AB  - Background: Neurofeedback, a type of biofeedback, is an operant conditioning
      treatment that has been studied for use in the treatment of traumatic brain
      injury (TBI) in both civilian and military populations. In this approach, users
      are able to see or hear representations of data related to their own physiologic
      responses to triggers, such as stress or distraction, in real time and, with
      practice, learn to alter these responses in order to reduce symptoms and/or
      improve performance. Objective: This article provides a brief overview of the use
      of biofeedback, focusing on neurofeedback, for symptoms related to TBI, with
      applications for both civilian and military populations, and describes a pilot
      study that is currently underway looking at the effects of a commercial
      neurofeedback device on patients with mild-to-moderate TBIs. Conclusions:
      Although more research, including blinded randomized controlled studies, is
      needed on the use of neurofeedback for TBI, the literature suggests that this
      approach shows promise for treating some symptoms of TBI with this modality. With
      further advances in technology, including at-home use of neurofeedback devices,
      preliminary data suggests that TBI survivors may benefit from improved motivation
      for treatment and some reduction of symptoms related to attention, mood, and
      mindfulness, with the addition of neurofeedback to treatment.

PMID- 28874923
TI  - Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Maladaptive Plasticity, and Bayesian Analysis in
      Phantom Limb Pain.
AB  - Introduction: Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a common and poorly understood pathology
      of difficult medical control that progressively takes place after amputation
      occurs. Objective: This article discusses the multifactorial bases of PLP. These
      bases involve local changes at the stump level, spinal modifications of
      excitability, deafferentation, and central sensitization, leading to the
      development of maladaptive plasticity, and consequentially, defective processing
      of sensory information by associative neural networks. These changes can be
      traced by neurophysiology and imaging topographical studies, indicating a degree
      of cortical reorganization that perpetuates pain and discomfort. Intervention:
      Noninvasive brain stimulation can be an alternative way to manage PLP. This
      article discusses two techniques-transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
      and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)-that have shown promising
      results for controlling PLP. The modulation that both techniques rely on is based
      on synaptic mechanisms linked to long-term potentiation and long-term depression
      phenomena. By applying tDCS or rTMS, clinicians can target processes associated
      with central sensitization and maladaptive plasticity, while promoting adequate
      sensory information processing by integrative cognitive behavioral techniques in
      a comprehensive rehabilitation program. Conclusions: Understanding PLP from a
      dynamic neurocomputational perspective will help to develop better treatments.
      Furthermore, Bayesian analysis of sensory information can help guide and monitor
      therapeutic interventions directed toward PLP resolution.

PMID- 28874924
TI  - Reduction in Pain Medication Prescriptions and Self-Reported Outcomes Associated
      with Acupuncture in a Military Patient Population.
AB  - Background: Acupuncture is being offered to patients as part of routine medical
      care in selected military bases in the United States. There is little published
      information about the clinical outcomes associated with acupuncture in these
      clinical settings. Objective: The goal of this research was to assess clinical
      outcomes observed among adult patients who received acupuncture treatments at a
      United States Air Force medical center. Materials and Methods: This retrospective
      chart review was performed at the Nellis Family Medicine Residency in the Mike
      O'Callaghan Military Medical Center at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, NV.
      The charts were from 172 consecutive patients who had at least 4 acupuncture
      treatments within 1 year. The main outcome measures were prescriptions for opioid
      medications, muscle relaxants, benzodiazepines, and nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) in the 60 days prior to the first acupuncture session
      and in the corresponding 60 days 1 year later; and Measure Yourself Medical
      Outcome Profile (MYMOP2) values for symptoms, ability to perform activities, and
      quality of life. Results: Opioid prescriptions decreased by 45%, muscle relaxants
      by 34%, NSAIDs by 42%, and benzodiazepines by 14%. MYMOP2 values decreased 3.50
      3.11 (P < 0.002) for question 1, 4.18-3.46 (P < 0.00001) for question 3, and 2.73
      2.43 (P < 0.006) for question 4. Conclusions: In this military patient
      population, the number of opioid prescriptions decreased and patients reported
      improved symptom control, ability to function, and sense of well-being after
      receiving courses of acupuncture by their primary care physicians.

PMID- 28874925
TI  - Controlled Rhythmic Yogic Breathing as Complementary Treatment for Post-Traumatic
      Stress Disorder in Military Veterans: A Case Series.
AB  - Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a cluster of symptoms in
      which a person persistently relives a traumatic event, through recurring
      thoughts, nightmares, and flashbacks for at least 1 month or more. There are
      various behavioral and medical treatment options for PTSD. Mind-body techniques,
      such as biofeedback and breathing-based stress reduction, have shown some promise
      in the treatment of PTSD symptoms. The purpose of this case series was to examine
      controlled yogic breathing as a complementary treatment of PTSD in military
      veterans. A retrospective review was performed from 2012 to 2016 in 3 cases, and
      participant demographics, member statements, and PTSD Checklist-Military Version
      (PCL-M) scores, pre-and-post course, were extracted. Cases: Three military
      veterans with PTSD participated in a standardized 5-day course designed to teach
      them controlled rhythmic yogic breathing exercises. Results: Subjectively, all 3
      participants reported a decrease in PTSD symptoms after the course. Objectively,
      all 3 participants had a reduction in their overall PCL-M scores after the
      course. Among all 3 participants, there were score decreases in the Avoidance and
      Increased Arousal categories. The most dramatic improvement occurred in the
      participant with the most severe symptoms. Conclusions: Controlled yogic
      breathing, specifically Sudarshan Kriya (SKY), appeared to reduce the symptoms of
      PTSD in 3 veterans of the Armed Services.

PMID- 28874927
TI  - Six Sessions of Emotional Freedom Techniques Remediate One Veteran's Combat
      Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
AB  - Background: Reports show high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in
      Veterans who served in the Gulf Wars. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
      comprises an evidence-based practice that is highly effective at reducing symptom
      severity in Veterans with PTSD. The case report here is of one of the Veterans
      who participated in a replication study of the first Veteran Stress Research
      Study conducted by Church et al. Results of that study demonstrated that EFT was
      highly effective at treating the psychologic symptoms of PTSD. Similar results
      have been found in the replication study conducted by Geronilla et al. Case: RM
      is a young Marine Reservist who served in Iraq and returned with PTSD. He
      participated in the Veteran Stress Project replication study wherein he received
      6 sessions of EFT. EFT is explained and a sample treatment session is described.
      A discussion of some of the changes that have occurred for RM is included.
      Results: The patient's PTSD scores dropped from a high clinical score of 60
      before treatment to 40 after 6 sessions and to a clinical score of 22 at 6 months
      follow-up. His insomnia, which had been at a clinical level, reduced as did his
      pain and measures of psychologic distress, as measured in the Symptom Assessment
      45 instrument. Conclusion: Six sessions of EFT reduced PTSD scores dramatically
      and improved RM's life. He continues to use EFT to manage any stress in his life.

PMID- 28874926
TI  - CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation: A New Treatment Intervention for
      Concussion Recovery.
AB  - Background: Military service members and veterans face health issues related to
      traumatic brain injury (TBI), especially during combat, use of heavy equipment,
      and exposures to environmental hazards and explosives. There were 400,000 TBIs
      reported in deployed U.S. troops in 2012. Athletes are also subject to TBI.
      Studies have indicated that some manual therapies could be helpful for treating
      patients who have post-concussive syndrome. Objective: This case series report
      describes the effects of CranioSacral Therapy (CST), Visceral Manipulation (VM),
      and Neural Manipulation (NM) modalities for treating patients who have post
      concussion syndrome. The goal of this study was to evaluate these effects on
      immobility, pain intensity, quality of life, sleep disorders, and cognition in
      these patients. Materials and Methods: This single-blinded case series was
      conducted at the Upledger Institute, in West Palm Beach, FL. The patients were 11
      male retired professional football players from the National Football League and
      the Canadian Football League who had been medically diagnosed with post
      concussion syndrome. Each participant received a morning and afternoon 2-hour
      session of these three specific manual therapies, which were capable of accessing
      and addressing the structural, vascular, and neurologic tissues of the cranium
      and brain-as well addressing far-reaching ramifications throughout the body
      following trauma. The main outcome measures were scores on the: Impact
      Neurocognitive Test; Dynavisiontm Test; Short Form-36 Quality of Life Survey,
      Headache Impact Test, Dizziness Handicap Inventory; a numeric pain rating scale;
      orthopedic range of motion tests (ROM); and vestibular testing. Hours of sleep
      were also checked. These outcome measures were registered at baseline, after
      treatment, and after a 3-month follow up. Results: Statistically significant
      differences were seen with a decrease in overall pain rating scale scores (P =
      0.0448), and cervicogenic pain levels decreased (P = 0.0486). There were
      statistically significant increases in Dynavision Average Reaction Time (P =
      0.0332), Memory Test (P = 0.0156) scores, and cervical ROM scores (P = 0.0377).
      Hours of sleep averaged 2 hours on the first day of treatment and increased to
      4.0 hours at the end of treatment and were continuing to increase, as noted at a
      3-month evaluation. Conclusions: Ten sessions of specific CST/VM/NM therapy
      resulted in statistically greater improvements in pain intensity, ROM, memory,
      cognition, and sleep in concussed patients.

PMID- 28874928
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging Utilization in an Emergency Department Observation
      Unit.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Emergency department observation units (EDOUs) are a valuable
      alternative to inpatient admissions for ED patients needing extended care.
      However, while the use of advanced imaging is becoming more common in the ED,
      there are no studies characterizing the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      examinations in the EDOU. METHODS: This institutional review board-approved,
      retrospective study was performed at a 999-bed quaternary care academic Level I
      adult and pediatric trauma center, with approximately 114,000 ED visits annually
      and a 32-bed adult EDOU. We retrospectively reviewed the EDOU patient database
      for all MRI examinations done from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2015. We
      sought to describe the most frequent uses for MRI during EDOU admissions and
      reviewed EDOU length of stay (LOS) to determine whether the use of MRI was
      associated with any change in LOS. RESULTS: A total of 22,840 EDOU admissions
      were recorded during the two-year study period, and 4,437 (19%) of these patients
      had a least one MRI examination during their stay; 2,730 (62%) of these studies
      were of the brain, head, or neck, and an additional 1,392 (31%) were of the
      spine. There was no significant difference between the median LOS of admissions
      in which an MRI study was performed (17.5 hours) and the median LOS (17.7 hours)
      of admissions in which an MRI study was not performed [p=0.33]. CONCLUSION:
      Neuroimaging makes up the clear majority of MRI examinations from our EDOU, and
      the use of MRI does not appear to prolong EDOU LOS. Future work should focus on
      the appropriateness of these MRI examinations to determine potential resource and
      cost savings.

PMID- 28874929
TI  - Trends and Characteristics of Emergency Department Visits for Fall-Related
      Injuries in Older Adults, 2003-2010.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: One third of older adults fall each year, and falls are costly to
      both the patient in terms of morbidity and mortality and to the health system.
      Given that falls are a preventable cause of injury, our objective was to
      understand the characteristics and trends of emergency department (ED) fall
      related visits among older adults. We hypothesize that falls among older adults
      are increasing and examine potential factors associated with this rise, such as
      race, ethnicity, gender, insurance and geography. METHODS: We conducted a
      secondary analysis of data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care
      Survey (NHAMCS) to determine fall trends over time by examining changes in ED
      visit rates for falls in the United States between 2003 and 2010, detailing
      differences by gender, sociodemographic characteristics and geographic region.
      RESULTS: Between 2003 and 2010, the visit rate for falls and fall-related
      injuries among people age >= 65 increased from 60.4 (95% confidence interval
      [CI][51.9-68.8]) to 68.8 (95% CI [57.8-79.8]) per 1,000 population (p=0.03 for
      annual trend). Among subgroups, visits by patients aged 75-84 years increased
      from 56.2 to 82.1 per 1,000 (P <.01), visits by women increased from 67.4 to 81.3
      (p = 0.04), visits by non-Hispanic Whites increased from 63.1 to 73.4 (p < 0.01),
      and visits in the South increased from 54.4 to 71.1 (p=0.03). CONCLUSION: ED
      visit rates for falls are increasing over time. There is a national movement to
      increase falls awareness and prevention. EDs are in a unique position to engage
      patients on future fall prevention and should consider ways they can also partake
      in such initiatives in a manner that is feasible and appropriate for the ED
      setting.

PMID- 28874930
TI  - Prevalence of Intracranial Hemorrhage after Blunt Head Trauma in Patients on Pre
      injury Dabigatran.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Dabigatran etexilate was the first direct-acting oral anticoagulant
      approved in the United States. The prevalence of intracranial hemorrhage after
      blunt head trauma in patients on dabigatran is currently unknown, complicating
      adequate ability to accurately compare the risks and benefits of dabigatran to
      alternative anticoagulants. We aimed to determine the prevalence of intracranial
      hemorrhage for patients on dabigatran presenting to a Level I trauma center.
      METHODS: This is a retrospective observational study of adult patients on
      dabigatran who presented to a Level I trauma center and received cranial computed
      tomography (CT) following blunt head trauma. Patients who met inclusion criteria
      underwent manual chart abstraction. Our primary outcome was intracranial
      hemorrhage on initial cranial CT. RESULTS: We included a total of 33 eligible
      patient visits for analysis. Mean age was 74.8 years (SD 11.2, range 55-91). The
      most common cause of injury was ground-level fall (n = 22, 66.7%). One patient
      (3.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.[1-15.8%]) had intracranial hemorrhage on
      cranial CT. No patients (0%, 95% CI [0-8.7%]) required neurosurgical
      intervention. One in-hospital death occurred from infection. CONCLUSION: To our
      knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the prevalence of intracranial
      hemorrhage after blunt head trauma for patients on dabigatran presenting to the
      emergency department, including those not admitted. The intracranial hemorrhage
      prevalence in our study is similar to previous reports for patients on warfarin.
      Further studies are needed to determine if the prevalence of intracranial
      hemorrhage seen in our patient population is true for a larger patient population
      in more diverse clinical settings.

PMID- 28874931
TI  - Congratulations, You're Pregnant! Now About Your Shifts . . . : The State of
      Maternity Leave Attitudes and Culture in EM.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Increasing attention has been focused on parental leave, but little
      is known about early leave and parental experiences for male and female attending
      physicians. Our goal was to describe and quantify the parental leave experiences
      of a nationally representative sample of emergency physicians (EP). METHODS: We
      conducted a web-based survey, distributed via emergency medicine professional
      organizations, discussion boards, and listservs, to address study objectives.
      RESULTS: We analyzed data from 464 respondents; 56% were women. Most experienced
      childbirth while employed as an EP. Fifty-three percent of women and 60% of men
      reported working in a setting with a formal maternity leave policy; however, 36%
      of women and 18% of men reported dissatisfaction with these policies. Most
      reported that other group members cover maternity-related shift vacancies; a
      minority reported that pregnant partners work extra shifts prior to leave. Leave
      duration and compensation varied widely, ranging from no compensated leave (18%)
      to 12 or more weeks at 100% salary (7%). Supportive attitudes were reported
      during pregnancy (53%) and, to a lesser degree (43%), during leave. Policy
      improvement suggestions included the development of clear, formal policies;
      improving leave duration and compensation; adding paternity and adoption leave;
      providing support for physicians working extra to cover colleagues' leave; and
      addressing breastfeeding issues. CONCLUSION: In this national sample of EPs,
      maternity leave policies varied widely. The duration and compensation during
      leave also had significant variation. Participants suggested formalizing
      policies, increasing leave duration and compensation, adding paternity leave, and
      changing the coverage for vacancies to relieve burden on physician colleagues.

PMID- 28874932
TI  - Emergency Department Use across 88 Small Areas after Affordable Care Act
      Implementation in Illinois.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study analyzes changes in hospital emergency department (ED)
      visit rates before and after the 2014 Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance
      expansions in Illinois. We compare the association between population insurance
      status change and ED visit rate change between a 24-month (2012-2013) pre-ACA
      period and a 24-month post-ACA (2014-2015) period across 88 socioeconomically
      diverse areas of Illinois. METHODS: We used annual American Community Survey
      estimates for 2012-2015 to obtain insurance status changes for uninsured,
      private, Medicaid, and Medicare (disability) populations of 88 Illinois Public
      Use Micro Areas (PUMAs), areas with a mean of about 90,000 age 18-64 residents.
      Over 12 million ED visits to 201 non-federal Illinois hospitals were used to
      calculate visit rates by residents of each PUMA, using population-based mapping
      weights to allocate visits from zip codes to PUMAs. We then estimated n=88
      correlations between population insurance-status changes and changes in ED visit
      rates per 1,000 residents comparing the two years before and after ACA
      implementation. RESULTS: The baseline PUMA uninsurance rate ranged from 6.7% to
      41.1% and there was 4.6-fold variation in baseline PUMA ED visit rates. The top
      quartile of PUMAs had >21,000 reductions in uninsured residents; 16 PUMAs had at
      least a 15,000 person increase in Medicaid enrollment. Compared to 2012-2013,
      2014-2015 average monthly ED visits by the uninsured dropped 42%, but increased
      42% for Medicaid and 10% for the privately insured. Areas with the largest
      increases in Medicaid enrollment experienced the largest growth in ED use; change
      in Medicaid enrollment was the only significant correlate of area change in total
      ED visits and explained a third of variation across the 88 PUMAs. CONCLUSION: ACA
      implementation in Illinois accelerated existing trends towards greater use of
      hospital ED care. It remains to be seen whether providing better access to
      primary and preventive care to the formerly uninsured will reduce ED use over
      time, or whether ACA insurance expansion is a part of continued, long-term
      growth. Monitoring ED use at the local level is critical to the success of new
      home- and community-based care coordination initiatives.

PMID- 28874933
TI  - Head CT for Minor Head Injury Presenting to the Emergency Department in the Era
      of Choosing Wisely.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Choosing Wisely campaign currently recommends avoiding computed
      tomography (CT) of the head in low-risk emergency department (ED) patients with
      minor head injury, based on validated decision rules. However, the degree of
      adherence to this guideline in clinical practice is unknown. The objective of
      this study was to evaluate adherence to the Choosing Wisely campaign's
      recommendations regarding head CT imaging of patients with minor head injury in
      the ED. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult ED patients
      at a Level I trauma center. Patients aged >= 18 years who presented to the ED
      with minor head injury were identified via International Classification of
      Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification codes. Medical record abstraction
      was conducted to determine the presence of clinical symptoms of the NEXUS II
      criteria, medical resource use, and head CT findings. We used descriptive
      statistics to characterize the study sample, and proportions were used to
      quantify guidelines adherence. RESULTS: A total of 489 subjects met inclusion
      criteria. ED providers appropriately applied the Choosing Wisely criteria for
      75.5% of patients, obtaining head CTs when indicated by the NEXUS II rule
      (41.5%), and not obtaining head CTs when the NEXUS II criteria were not met
      (34.0%). However, ED providers obtained non-indicated CTs in 23.1% of patients.
      Less than 2% of the sample did not receive a head CT when imaging was indicated
      by NEXUS II. CONCLUSION: ED providers in our sample had variable adherence to the
      Choosing Wisely head-CT recommendation, especially for patients who did not meet
      the NEXUS II criteria.

PMID- 28874934
TI  - Emergency Physician-performed Transesophageal Echocardiography in Simulated
      Cardiac Arrest.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a well-established method
      of evaluating cardiac pathology. It has many advantages over transthoracic
      echocardiography (TTE), including the ability to image the heart during active
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This prospective simulation study aims to evaluate
      the ability of emergency medicine (EM) residents to learn TEE image acquisition
      techniques and demonstrate those techniques to identify common pathologic causes
      of cardiac arrest. METHODS: This was a prospective educational cohort study with
      40 EM residents from two participating academic medical centers who underwent an
      educational model and testing protocol. All participants were tested across six
      cases, including two normals, pericardial tamponade, acute myocardial infarction
      (MI), ventricular fibrillation (VF), and asystole presented in random order.
      Primary endpoints were correct identification of the cardiac pathology, if any,
      and time to sonographic diagnosis. Calculated endpoints included sensitivity,
      specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for emergency physician
      (EP)-performed TEE. We calculated a kappa statistic to determine the degree of
      inter-rater reliability. RESULTS: Forty EM residents completed both the
      educational module and testing protocol. This resulted in a total of 80 normal
      TEE studies and 160 pathologic TEE studies. Our calculations for the ability to
      diagnose life-threatening cardiac pathology by EPs in a high-fidelity TEE
      simulation resulted in a sensitivity of 98%, specificity of 99%, positive
      likelihood ratio of 78.0, and negative likelihood ratio of 0.025. The average
      time to diagnose each objective structured clinical examination case was as
      follows: normal A in 35 seconds, normal B in 31 seconds, asystole in 13 seconds,
      tamponade in 14 seconds, acute MI in 22 seconds, and VF in 12 seconds. Inter
      rater reliability between participants was extremely high, resulting in a kappa
      coefficient across all cases of 0.95. CONCLUSION: EM residents can rapidly
      perform TEE studies in a simulated cardiac arrest environment with a high degree
      of precision and accuracy. Performance of TEE studies on human patients in
      cardiac arrest is the next logical step to determine if our simulation data hold
      true in clinical practice.

PMID- 28874935
TI  - Increased Computed Tomography Utilization in the Emergency Department and Its
      Association with Hospital Admission.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to investigate trends in computed tomography (CT)
      utilization in emergency departments (EDs) and its association with
      hospitalization. METHODS: We conducted an analysis of an administrative claims
      database of U.S. privately insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees. We
      identified ED visits from 2005 through 2013 and assessed for CT use, associated
      factors, and hospitalization after CT, along with patient demographics. We used
      both descriptive methods and regression models adjusted for year, age, sex, race,
      geographic region, and Hwang comorbidity score to explore associations among CT
      use, year, demographic characteristics, and hospitalization. RESULTS: We
      identified 33,144,233 ED visits; 5,901,603 (17.8%) involved CT. Over time, CT use
      during ED visits increased 59.9%. CT use increased in all age groups but
      decreased in children since 2010. In propensity-matching analysis, odds of
      hospitalization increased with age, comorbidities, male sex, and CT use (odds
      ratio, 2.38). Odds of hospitalization over time decreased more quickly for
      patients with CT. CONCLUSION: CT utilization in the ED has increased
      significantly from 2005 through 2013. For children, CT use after 2010 decreased,
      indicating caution about CT use. Male sex, older age, and higher number of
      comorbidities were predictors of CT in the ED. Over time, odds of hospitalization
      decreased more quickly for patients with CT.

PMID- 28874936
TI  - Factors Influencing Participation in Clinical Trials: Emergency Medicine vs.
      Other Specialties.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study investigated factors that influence emergency medicine
      (EM) patients' decisions to participate in clinical trials and whether the impact
      of these factors differs from those of other medical specialties. METHODS: A
      survey was distributed in EM, family medicine (FM), infectious disease (ID), and
      obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) outpatient waiting areas. Eligibility criteria
      included those who were 18 years of age or older, active patients on the day of
      the survey, and able to complete the survey without assistance. We used the
      Kruskal-Wallis test and ordinal logistic regression analyses to identify
      differences in participants' responses. RESULTS: A total of 2,893 eligible
      subjects were approached, and we included 1,841 surveys in the final analysis.
      Statistically significant differences (p<=0.009) were found for eight of the ten
      motivating factors between EM and one or more of the other specialties.
      Regardless of a patient's gender, race, and education, the relationship with
      their doctor was more motivating to patients seen in other specialties than to EM
      patients (FM [odds ratio {OR}:1.752, 95% confidence interval {CI}{1.285-2.389}],
      ID [OR:3.281, 95% CI{2.293-4.695}], and OB/GYN [OR:2.408, 95% CI{1.741-3.330}]).
      EM's rankings of "how well the research was explained" and whether "the knowledge
      learned would benefit others" as their top two motivating factors were similar
      across other specialties. All nine barriers showed statistically significant
      differences (p<=0.008) between EM and one or more other specialties. Participants
      from all specialties indicated "risk of unknown side effects" as their strongest
      barrier. Regardless of the patients' race, "time commitment" was considered to be
      more of a barrier to other specialties when compared to EM (FM [OR:1.613, 95%
      CI{1.218-2.136}], ID [OR:1.340, 95% CI{1.006-1.784}], or OB/GYN [OR:1.901, 95%
      CI{1.431-2.526}]). Among the six resources assessed that help patients decide
      whether to participate in a clinical trial, only one scored statistically
      significantly different for EM (p<0.001). EM patients ranked "having all material
      provided in my own language" as the most helpful resource. CONCLUSION: There are
      significant differences between EM patients and those of other specialties in the
      factors that influence their participation in clinical trials. Providing material
      in the patient's own language, explaining the study well, and elucidating how
      their participation might benefit others in the future may help to improve
      enrollment in EM-based clinical trials.

PMID- 28874937
TI  - Antimicrobial Therapy for Pneumonia in the Emergency Department: The Impact of
      Clinical Pharmacists on Appropriateness.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pneumonia impacts over four million people annually and is the
      leading cause of infectious disease-related hospitalization and mortality in the
      United States. Appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy decreases hospital
      length of stay and improves mortality. The objective of our study was to test the
      hypothesis that the presence of an emergency medicine (EM) clinical pharmacist
      improves the timing and appropriateness of empiric antimicrobial therapy for
      community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP).
      METHODS: This was a retrospective observational cohort study of all emergency
      department (ED) patients presenting to a Midwest 60,000-visit academic ED from
      July 1, 2008, to March 1, 2016, who presented to the ED with pneumonia and
      received antimicrobial therapy. The treatment group consisted of patients who
      presented during the hours an EM pharmacist was present in the ED (Monday-Friday,
      0900-1800). The control group included patients presenting during the hours when
      an EM clinical pharmacist was not physically present in the ED (Monday-Friday,
      1800-0900, Saturday/Sunday 0000-2400 day). We defined appropriate empiric
      antimicrobial therapy using the Infectious Diseases Society of America consensus
      guidelines on the management of CAP, and management of HCAP. RESULTS: A total of
      406 patients were included in the final analysis (103 treatment patients and 303
      control patients). During the hours the EM pharmacist was present, patients were
      significantly more likely to receive appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy
      (58.3% vs. 38.3%; p<0.001). Regardless of pneumonia type, patients seen while an
      EM pharmacist was present were significantly more likely to receive appropriate
      antimicrobial therapy (CAP, 77.7% vs. 52.9% p=0.008, HCAP, 47.7% vs. 28.8%,
      p=0.005). There were no significant differences in clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION:
      The presence of an EM clinical pharmacist significantly increases the likelihood
      of appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy for patients presenting to the ED
      with pneumonia.

PMID- 28874938
TI  - Availability and Accuracy of EMS Information about Chronic Health and Medications
      in Cardiac Arrest.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Field information available to emergency medical services (EMS)
      about a patient's chronic health conditions or medication therapies could help
      direct patient care or be used to investigate outcome disparities. However,
      little is known about the field availability or accuracy of information of
      chronic health conditions or chronic medication treatments in emergent
      circumstances, especially when the patient cannot serve as an information
      resource. We evaluated the prehospital availability and accuracy of specific
      chronic health conditions and medication treatments among out-of-hospital cardiac
      arrest (OHCA) patients. METHODS: The investigation was a retrospective cohort
      study of adult persons suffering ventricular fibrillation OHCA treated by EMS in
      a large metropolitan county from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2013. The study
      was designed to determine the availability and accuracy of EMS ascertainment of
      selected chronic health conditions and medication treatments. We evaluated
      chronic health conditions of "any heart disease," congestive heart failure (CHF),
      and diabetes and medication treatments of beta blockers and loop diuretics using
      two distinct sources: 1) EMS report, and 2) hospital record specific to the OHCA
      event. Because hospital information was considered the gold standard, we
      restricted the primary analysis to those who were admitted to hospital. RESULTS:
      Of the 1,496 initially eligible patients, 387 could not be resuscitated and were
      pronounced dead in the field, one patient was left alive at scene due to
      Physician's Orders for Life-sustaining Treatment (POLST) orders, 125 expired in
      the emergency department (n=125), and 983 were admitted to hospital. A total of
      832 of 1,496 (55.6%) had both sources of data for comparison and comprised the
      primary analytic group. Using the hospital record as the gold standard, EMS
      ascertainment had a sensitivity of 0.79 (304/384) and a specificity of 0.88
      (218/248) for any prior heart disease; sensitivity 0.45 (47/105) and specificity
      0.87 (477/516) for CHF; sensitivity 0.71 (143/201) and specificity 0.98 (416/424)
      for diabetes; sensitivity 0.70 (118/169) and specificity 0.94 (273/290) for beta
      blockers; sensitivity 0.70 (62/89) and specificity 0.97 (358/370) for loop
      diuretics. CONCLUSION: In this cohort of OHCA, information about selected chronic
      health conditions and medication treatments based on EMS ascertainment was
      available for many patients, generally revealing moderate sensitivity and greater
      specificity.

PMID- 28874939
TI  - Rapid Primary Care Follow-up from the ED to Reduce Avoidable Hospital Admissions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hospital admissions from the emergency department (ED) now account
      for approximately 50% of all admissions. Some patients admitted from the ED may
      not require inpatient care if outpatient care could be optimized. However, access
      to primary care especially immediately after ED discharge is challenging. Studies
      have not addressed the extent to which hospital admissions from the ED may be
      averted with access to rapid (next business day) primary care follow-up. We
      evaluated the impact of an ED-to-rapid-primary-care protocol on avoidance of
      hospitalizations in a large, urban medical center. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective review of patients referred from the ED to primary care (Weill
      Cornell Internal Medicine Associates - WCIMA) through a rapid-access-to-primary
      care program developed at New York-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center.
      Referrals were classified as either an avoided admission or not, and
      classifications were performed by both emergency physician (EP) and internal
      medicine physician reviewers. We also collected outcome data on rapid visit
      completion, ED revisits, hospitalizations and primary care engagement. RESULTS:
      EPs classified 26 (16%) of referrals for rapid primary care follow-up as avoided
      admissions. Of the 162 patients referred for rapid follow-up, 118 (73%) arrived
      for their rapid appointment. There were no differences in rates of ED revisits or
      subsequent hospitalizations between those who attended the rapid follow-up and
      those who did not attend. Patients who attended the rapid appointment were
      significantly more likely to attend at least one subsequent appointment at WCIMA
      during the six months after the index ED visit [N=55 (47%) vs. N=8 (18%),
      P=0.001]. CONCLUSION: A rapid-ED-to-primary-care-access program may allow EPs to
      avoid admitting patients to the hospital without risking ED revisits or
      subsequent hospitalizations. This protocol has the potential to save costs over
      time. A program such as this can also provide a safe and reliable ED discharge
      option that is also an effective mechanism for engaging patients in primary care.

PMID- 28874940
TI  - Pediatric Patients Discharged from the Emergency Department with Abnormal Vital
      Signs.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Children often present to the emergency department (ED) with minor
      conditions such as fever and have persistently abnormal vital signs. We
      hypothesized that a significant portion of children discharged from the ED would
      have abnormal vital signs and that those discharged with abnormal vital signs
      would experience very few adverse events. METHODS: We performed a retrospective
      chart review encompassing a 44-month period of all pediatric patients (aged two
      months to 17 years) who were discharged from the ED with an abnormal pulse rate,
      respiratory rate, temperature, or oxygen saturation. We used a local quality
      assurance database to identify pre-defined adverse events after discharge in this
      population. Our primary aim was to determine the proportion of children
      discharged with abnormal vital signs and the frequency and nature of adverse
      events. Additionally, we performed a sub-analysis comparing the rate of adverse
      events in children discharged with normal vs. abnormal vital signs, as well as a
      standardized review of the nature of each adverse event. RESULTS: Of 33,185
      children discharged during the study period, 5,540 (17%) of these patients had at
      least one abnormal vital sign. There were 24/5,540 (0.43%) adverse events in the
      children with at least one abnormal vital sign vs. 47/27,645 (0.17%) adverse
      events in the children with normal vital signs [relative risk = 2.5 (95%
      confidence interval, 1.6 to 2.4)].However, upon review of each adverse event we
      found only one case that was related to the index visit, was potentially
      preventable by a 23-hour hospital observation, and caused permanent disability.
      CONCLUSION: In our study population, 17% of the children were discharged with at
      least one abnormal vital sign, and there were very few adverse (0.43%) events
      associated with this practice. Heart rate was the most common abnormal vital sign
      leading to an adverse event. Severe adverse events that were potentially related
      to the abnormal vital sign(s) were exceedingly rare. Additional research is
      needed in broader populations to better determine the rate of adverse events and
      possible methods of avoiding them.

PMID- 28874941
TI  - Predictors of Return Visits Among Insured Emergency Department Mental Health and
      Substance Abuse Patients, 2005-2013.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to describe the pattern and identify risk factors of
      early-return ED visits or inpatient admissions following an index mental health
      and substance abuse (MHSA)-related ED visit in the United States. METHODS: We
      performed a retrospective cohort study using Optum Labs Data Warehouse, a
      nationally representative database containing administrative claims data on
      privately insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees. Authors identified patients
      presenting to an ED with a primary diagnosis of MHSA between 2005 and 2013 who
      were discharged home. Study inclusion required continuous insurance enrollment
      for the 12 months preceding and the 31 days following the index ED visit. During
      the study period we included only the first ED visit for each patient. RESULTS: A
      total of 49,672 (14.2%) had a return visit to the ED or had a hospitalization
      within 30 days following discharge. Mean time to the next ED visit or inpatient
      admission was 11.7 days. An increased age (age 65+ vs. age <18 years; OR 1.65,
      95% CI [1.57 to 1.74]), chronic medical comorbidities (Hwang comorbidity 5+ vs 0;
      OR 1.31, 95% CI [1.27 to 1.35]), prior ED and inpatient utilization (4+ visits vs
      0 visits; OR 5.59, 95% CI [5.41 to 5.78]) were associated with return visits
      within 30 days following discharge. CONCLUSION: In an analysis of nearly 350,000
      ED visits for MHSA, 14.2 % of patients returned to the ED or hospital within 30
      days. This study identified a number of factors associated with return visits for
      acute care.

PMID- 28874942
TI  - Effect Of A "No Superuser Opioid Prescription" Policy On ED Visits And Statewide
      Opioid Prescription.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The U.S. opioid epidemic has highlighted the need to identify
      patients at risk of opioid abuse and overdose. We initiated a novel emergency
      department- (ED) based interventional protocol to transition our superuser
      patients from the ED to an outpatient chronic pain program. The objective was to
      evaluate the protocol's effect on superusers' annual ED visits. Secondary
      outcomes included a quantitative evaluation of statewide opioid prescriptions for
      these patients, unique prescribers of controlled substances, and ancillary
      testing. METHODS: Patients were referred to the program with the following
      inclusion criteria: >= 6 visits per year to the ED; at least one visit identified
      by the attending physician as primarily driven by opioid-seeking behavior; and a
      review by a committee comprising ED administration and case management. Patients
      were referred to a pain management clinic and informed that they would no longer
      receive opioid prescriptions from visits to the ED for chronic pain complaints.
      Electronic medical record (EMR) alerts notified ED providers of the patient's
      referral at subsequent visits. We analyzed one year of data pre- and post
      referral. RESULTS: A total of 243 patients had one year of data post-referral for
      analysis. Median annual ED visits decreased from 14 to 4 (58% decrease, 95% CI
      [50 to 66]). We also found statistically significant decreases for these
      patients' state prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) opioid prescriptions
      (21 to 13), total unique controlled-substance prescribers (11 to 7), computed
      tomography imaging (2 to 0), radiographs (5 to 1), electrocardiograms (12 to 4),
      and labs run (47 to 13). CONCLUSION: This program and the EMR-based alerts were
      successful at decreasing local ED visits, annual opioid prescriptions, and
      hospital resource allocation for this population of patients. There is no
      evidence that these patients diverted their visits to neighboring EDs after being
      informed that they would not receive opioids at this hospital, as opioid
      prescriptions obtained by these patients decreased on a statewide level. This
      implies that individual ED protocols can have significant impact on the behavior
      of patients.

PMID- 28874943
TI  - Loaded Questions: Internet Commenters' Opinions on Physician-Patient Firearm
      Safety Conversations.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Medical and public health societies advocate that healthcare
      providers (HCPs) counsel at-risk patients to reduce firearm injury risk.
      Anonymous online media comments often contain extreme viewpoints and may
      therefore help in understanding challenges of firearm safety counseling. To help
      inform injury prevention efforts, we sought to examine commenters' stated
      opinions regarding firearm safety counseling HCPs. METHODS: Qualitative
      descriptive analysis of online comments posted following news items (in May-June,
      2016) about a peer-reviewed publication addressing when and how HCPs should
      counsel patients regarding firearms. RESULTS: Among 871 comments posted by 522
      individuals, most (57%) were generally negative toward firearm discussions, 17%
      were positive, and 26% were neutral/unclear. Two major categories and multiple
      themes emerged. "Areas of agreement" included that discussions may be valuable
      (1) when addressing risk of harm to self or others, (2) in pediatric injury
      prevention, and (3) as general safety education (without direct questioning), and
      that (4) HCPs lack gun safety and cultural knowledge. "Areas of tension" included
      whether (1) firearms are a public health issue, (2) counseling is effective
      prevention practice, (3) suicide could/should be prevented, and (4) firearm
      safety counseling is within HCPs' purview. CONCLUSION: Among this set of
      commenters with likely extreme viewpoints, opinions were generally negative
      toward firearm safety conversations, but with some support in specific
      situations. Providing education, counseling, or materials without asking about
      firearm ownership was encouraged. Engaging firearm advocates when developing
      materials may enhance the acceptability of prevention activities.

PMID- 28874944
TI  - Using Geospatial Mapping to Determine the Impact of All-Terrain Vehicle Crashes
      on Both Rural and Urban Communities.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Deaths and injuries from all-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes result
      in approximately 700 deaths each year and more than 100,000 emergency department
      (ED) visits. Common misconceptions about ATV crashes are a significant barrier to
      injury prevention efforts, as is the lack of key information about where and how
      crashes occur. The purpose of this study was to determine ATV crash patterns
      within a state, and to compare and contrast characteristics of these crashes as a
      function of crash-site rurality. METHODS: We performed descriptive, comparative,
      and regression analyses using a statewide off-road vehicle crash and injury
      database (2002-2013). Comparisons were performed by rurality as defined using the
      Rural Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) coding system, and we used geographic
      information system (GIS) software to map crash patterns at the zip code and
      county levels. RESULTS: ATV crashes occurred throughout the state; 46% occurred
      in urban and 54% in rural zip code areas. Comparisons of rider and crash
      characteristics by rurality showed similarities by sex, age, seating position, on
      vs. off the road, and crash mechanism. Conversely, helmet use was significantly
      lower among victims of isolated rural crashes as compared to other victims
      (p=0.004). Crashes in isolated rural and small rural areas accounted for only 39%
      of all crashes but resulted in 62% of fatalities. In both rural and urban areas,
      less than one-quarter of roadway injuries were traffic related. Relative crash
      rates varied by county, and unique patterns were observed for crashes involving
      youth and roadway riders. During the study period, 10% and 50% of all crashes
      occurred in 2% and 20% of the state's counties, respectively. CONCLUSION: This
      study suggests that ATV crashes are a public health concern for both rural and
      urban communities. However, isolated rural ATV crash victims were less likely to
      be helmeted, and rural victims were over-represented among fatalities. Traffic
      was not the major factor in roadway crashes in either rural or urban areas.
      Unique crash patterns for different riding populations suggest that injury
      prevention experts and public policy makers should consider the potential impact
      of geographical location when developing injury prevention interventions.

PMID- 28874945
TI  - Pediatric Exposures to Topical Benzocaine Preparations Reported to a Statewide
      Poison Control System.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Topical benzocaine is a local anesthetic commonly used to relieve
      pain caused by teething, periodontal irritation, burns, wounds, and insect bites.
      Oral preparations may contain benzocaine concentrations ranging from 7.5% to 20%.
      Pediatric exposure to such large concentrations may result in methemoglobinemia
      and secondarily cause anemia, cyanosis, and hypoxia. METHODS: This is a
      retrospective study of exposures reported to a statewide poison control system.
      The electronic health records were queried for pediatric exposures to topical
      benzocaine treated at a healthcare facility from 2004 to 2014. Cases of
      benzocaine exposure were reviewed for demographic and clinical information, and
      descriptive statistical analysis was performed. RESULTS: The query resulted in
      157 cases; 58 were excluded due to co-ingestants, or miscoding of non-benzocaine
      exposures. Children four years of age and younger represented the majority of
      cases (93%) with a median age of 1 year. There were 88 cases of accidental/
      exploratory exposure, while 6 cases resulted from therapeutic application or
      error, 4 cases from adverse reactions, and 1 case from an unknown cause.
      Asymptomatic children accounted for 75.5% of cases, but major clinical effects
      were observed in 5 patients. Those with serious effects were exposed to a range
      of benzocaine concentrations (7.5-20%), with 4 cases reporting methemoglobin
      levels between 20.2%-55%. Methylene blue was administered in 4 of the cases
      exhibiting major effects. CONCLUSION: The majority of exposures were accidental
      ingestions by young children. Most exposures resulted in minor to no effects.
      However, some patients required treatment with methylene blue and admission to a
      critical care unit. Therapeutic application by parents or caregivers may lead to
      adverse effects from these commonly available products.

PMID- 28874946
TI  - What Did You Google? Describing Online Health Information Search Patterns of ED
      patients and Their Relationship with Final Diagnoses.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Emergency department (ED) patients' Internet search terms prior to
      arrival have not been well characterized. The objective of this analysis was to
      characterize the Internet search terms patients used prior to ED arrival and
      their relationship to final diagnoses. METHODS: We collected data via survey;
      participants listed Internet search terms used. Terms were classified into
      categories: symptom, specific diagnosis, treatment options, anatomy questions,
      processes of care/physicians, or "other." We categorized each discharge diagnosis
      as either symptom-based or formal diagnosis. The relationship between the search
      term and final diagnosis was assigned to one of four categories of
      search/diagnosis combinations (symptom search/symptom diagnosis, symptom
      search/formal diagnosis, diagnosis search/symptom diagnosis, diagnosis
      search/formal diagnosis), representing different "trajectories." RESULTS: We
      approached 889 patients; 723 (81.3%) participated. Of these, 177 (24.5%) used the
      Internet prior to ED presentation; however, seven had incomplete data (N=170).
      Mean age was 47 years (standard deviation 18.2); 58.6% were female and 65.7%
      white. We found that 61.7% searched symptoms and 40.6% searched a specific
      diagnosis. Most patients received discharge diagnoses of equal specificity as
      their search terms (34% flat trajectory-symptoms and 34% flat trajectory
      diagnosis). Ten percent searched for a diagnosis by name but received a symptom
      based discharge diagnosis with less specificity. In contrast, 22% searched for a
      symptom and received a detailed diagnosis. Among those who searched for a
      diagnosis by name (n=69) only 29% received the diagnosis that they had searched.
      CONCLUSION: The majority of patients used symptoms as the basis of their pre-ED
      presentation Internet search. When patients did search for specific diagnoses,
      only a minority searched for the diagnosis they eventually received.

PMID- 28874947
TI  - Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasound for Identifying Shoulder Dislocations and
      Reductions: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with shoulder dislocations commonly present to the
      emergency department. Ultrasound has the potential to save time, radiation
      exposure, healthcare costs, and possible need for re-sedation. We conducted this
      systematic review to compare the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound compared with
      plain radiography in the assessment of shoulder dislocations. METHODS: We
      searched PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the
      Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for relevant trials. Primary data
      and test characteristics were obtained for all included studies. We used QUADAS-2
      to assess study quality. Meta-analysis was not performed due to significant
      heterogeneity. RESULTS: Four studies met our inclusion criteria, comprising 531
      assessments with 202 dislocations. Most studies had a sensitivity of 100% for
      identifying dislocations. One study demonstrated a sensitivity of 54%, and
      another had only one dislocation that was misidentified. All studies were 100%
      specific for detecting dislocation. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound may be considered as
      an alternative diagnostic method for the detection of shoulder dislocation and
      reduction, but further studies are necessary before routine use.

PMID- 28874948
TI  - Impact of Internally Developed Electronic Prescription on Prescribing Errors at
      Discharge from the Emergency Department.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Medication errors are common, with studies reporting at least one
      error per patient encounter. At hospital discharge, medication errors vary from
      15%-38%. However, studies assessing the effect of an internally developed
      electronic (E)-prescription system at discharge from an emergency department (ED)
      are comparatively minimal. Additionally, commercially available electronic
      solutions are cost-prohibitive in many resource-limited settings. We assessed the
      impact of introducing an internally developed, low-cost E-prescription system,
      with a list of commonly prescribed medications, on prescription error rates at
      discharge from the ED, compared to handwritten prescriptions. METHODS: We
      conducted a pre- and post-intervention study comparing error rates in a randomly
      selected sample of discharge prescriptions (handwritten versus electronic) five
      months pre and four months post the introduction of the E-prescription. The
      internally developed, E-prescription system included a list of 166 commonly
      prescribed medications with the generic name, strength, dose, frequency and
      duration. We included a total of 2,883 prescriptions in this study: 1,475 in the
      pre-intervention phase were handwritten (HW) and 1,408 in the post-intervention
      phase were electronic. We calculated rates of 14 different errors and compared
      them between the pre- and post-intervention period. RESULTS: Overall, E
      prescriptions included fewer prescription errors as compared to HW-prescriptions.
      Specifically, E-prescriptions reduced missing dose (11.3% to 4.3%, p <0.0001),
      missing frequency (3.5% to 2.2%, p=0.04), missing strength errors (32.4% to
      10.2%, p <0.0001) and legibility (0.7% to 0.2%, p=0.005). E-prescriptions,
      however, were associated with a significant increase in duplication errors,
      specifically with home medication (1.7% to 3%, p=0.02). CONCLUSION: A basic,
      internally developed E-prescription system, featuring commonly used medications,
      effectively reduced medication errors in a low-resource setting where the costs
      of sophisticated commercial electronic solutions are prohibitive.

PMID- 28874949
TI  - Sepsis Definitions: The Search for Gold and What CMS Got Wrong.
AB  - On October 1, 2015, the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
      (CMS) issued a core measure addressing the care of septic patients. These core
      measures are controversial among healthcare providers. This article will address
      that there is no gold standard definition for sepsis, severe sepsis or septic
      shock and the CMS-assigned definitions for severe sepsis and septic shock are
      premature and inconsistent with evidence-based definitions.

PMID- 28874950
TI  - Appropriateness of Bolus Antihypertensive Therapy for Elevated Blood Pressure in
      the Emergency Department.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: While moderate to severely elevated blood pressure (BP) is present
      in nearly half of all emergency department (ED) patients, the incidence of true
      hypertensive emergencies in ED patients is low. Administration of bolus
      intravenous (IV) antihypertensive treatment to lower BP in patients without a
      true hypertensive emergency is a wasteful practice that is discouraged by
      hypertension experts; however, anecdotal evidence suggests this occurs with
      relatively high frequency. Accordingly, we sought to assess the frequency of
      inappropriate IV antihypertensive treatment in ED patients with elevated BP
      absent a hypertensive emergency. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort
      study from a single, urban, teaching hospital. Using pharmacy records, we
      identified patients age 18-89 who received IV antihypertensive treatment in the
      ED. We defined treatment as inappropriate if documented suspicion for an
      indicated cardiovascular condition or acute end-organ injury was lacking. Data
      abstraction included adverse events and 30-day readmission rates, and analysis
      was primarily descriptive. RESULTS: We included a total of 357 patients over an
      18-month period. The mean age was 55; 51% were male and 93% black, and 127
      (36.4%) were considered inappropriately treated. Overall, labetalol (61%) was the
      most commonly used medication, followed by enalaprilat (18%), hydralazine (18%),
      and metoprolol (3%). There were no significant differences between appropriate
      and inappropriate BP treatment groups in terms of clinical characteristics or
      adverse events. Hypotension or bradycardia occurred in three (2%) patients in the
      inappropriate treatment cohort and in two (1%) patients in the appropriately
      treated cohort. Survival to discharge and 30-day ED revisit rates were
      equivalent. CONCLUSION: More than one in three patients who were given IV bolus
      antihypertensive treatment in the ED received such therapy inappropriately by our
      definition, suggesting that significant resources could perhaps be saved through
      education of providers and development of clearly defined BP treatment protocols.

PMID- 28874951
TI  - Severe Hyperkalemia: Can the Electrocardiogram Risk Stratify for Short-term
      Adverse Events?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The electrocardiogram (ECG) is often used to identify which
      hyperkalemic patients are at risk for adverse events. However, there is a paucity
      of evidence to support this practice. This study analyzes the association between
      specific hyperkalemic ECG abnormalities and the development of short-term adverse
      events in patients with severe hyperkalemia. METHODS: We collected records of all
      adult patients with potassium (K+) >=6.5 mEq/L in the hospital laboratory
      database from August 15, 2010, through January 30, 2015. A chart review
      identified patient demographics, concurrent laboratory values, ECG within one
      hour of K+ measurement, treatments and occurrence of adverse events within six
      hours of ECG. We defined adverse events as symptomatic bradycardia, ventricular
      tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and/or
      death. Two emergency physicians blinded to study objective independently examined
      each ECG for rate, rhythm, peaked T wave, PR interval duration and QRS complex
      duration. Relative risk was calculated to determine the association between
      specific hyperkalemic ECG abnormalities and short-term adverse events. RESULTS:
      We included a total of 188 patients with severe hyperkalemia in the final study
      group. Adverse events occurred within six hours in 28 patients (15%): symptomatic
      bradycardia (n=22), death (n=4), ventricular tachycardia (n=2) and CPR (n=2). All
      adverse events occurred prior to treatment with calcium and all but one occurred
      prior to K+-lowering intervention. All patients who had a short-term adverse
      event had a preceding ECG that demonstrated at least one hyperkalemic abnormality
      (100%, 95% confidence interval [CI] [85.7-100%]). An increased likelihood of
      short-term adverse event was found for hyperkalemic patients whose ECG
      demonstrated QRS prolongation (relative risk [RR] 4.74, 95% CI [2.01-11.15]),
      bradycardia (HR<50) (RR 12.29, 95%CI [6.69-22.57]), and/or junctional rhythm (RR
      7.46, 95%CI 5.28-11.13). There was no statistically significant correlation
      between peaked T waves and short-term adverse events (RR 0.77, 95% CI [0.35
      1.70]). CONCLUSION: Our findings support the use of the ECG to risk stratify
      patients with severe hyperkalemia for short-term adverse events.

PMID- 28874952
TI  - Duration of Mechanical Ventilation in the Emergency Department.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Due to hospital crowding, mechanically ventilated patients are
      increasingly spending hours boarding in emergency departments (ED) before
      intensive care unit (ICU) admission. This study aims to evaluate the association
      between time ventilated in the ED and in-hospital mortality, duration of
      mechanical ventilation, ICU and hospital length of stay (LOS). METHODS: This was
      a multi-center, prospective, observational study of patients ventilated in the
      ED, conducted at three academic Level I Trauma Centers from July 2011 to March
      2013. All consecutive adult patients on invasive mechanical ventilation were
      eligible for enrollment. We performed a Cox regression to assess for a mortality
      effect for mechanically ventilated patients with each hour of increasing LOS in
      the ED and multivariable regression analyses to assess for independently
      significant contributors to in-hospital mortality. Our primary outcome was in
      hospital mortality, with secondary outcomes of ventilator days, ICU LOS and
      hospital LOS. We further commented on use of lung protective ventilation and
      frequency of ventilator changes made in this cohort. RESULTS: We enrolled 535
      patients, of whom 525 met all inclusion criteria. Altered mental status without
      respiratory pathology was the most common reason for intubation, followed by
      trauma and respiratory failure. Using iterated Cox regression, a mortality effect
      occurred at ED time of mechanical ventilation > 7 hours, and the longer ED stay
      was also associated with a longer total duration of intubation. However, adjusted
      multivariable regression analysis demonstrated only older age and admission to
      the neurosciences ICU as independently associated with increased mortality. Of
      interest, only 23.8% of patients ventilated in the ED for over seven hours had
      changes made to their ventilator. CONCLUSION: In a prospective observational
      study of patients mechanically ventilated in the ED, there was a significant
      mortality benefit to expedited transfer of patients into an appropriate ICU
      setting.

PMID- 28874953
TI  - Pleiotropic Effects of Biguanides on Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species
      Production.
AB  - Metformin is widely prescribed as a first-choice antihyperglycemic drug for
      treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and recent epidemiological studies showed
      its utility also in cancer therapy. Although it is in use since the 1970s, its
      molecular target, either for antihyperglycemic or antineoplastic action, remains
      elusive. However, the body of the research on metformin effect oscillates around
      mitochondrial metabolism, including the function of oxidative phosphorylation
      (OXPHOS) apparatus. In this study, we focused on direct inhibitory mechanism of
      biguanides (metformin and phenformin) on OXPHOS complexes and its functional
      impact, using the model of isolated brown adipose tissue mitochondria. We
      demonstrate that biguanides nonspecifically target the activities of all
      respiratory chain dehydrogenases (mitochondrial NADH, succinate, and
      glycerophosphate dehydrogenases), but only at very high concentrations (10-2-10-1
      M) that highly exceed cellular concentrations observed during the treatment. In
      addition, these concentrations of biguanides also trigger burst of reactive
      oxygen species production which, in combination with pleiotropic OXPHOS
      inhibition, can be toxic for the organism. We conclude that the beneficial effect
      of biguanides should probably be associated with subtler mechanism, different
      from the generalized inhibition of the respiratory chain.

PMID- 28874955
TI  - Terahertz endoscopic imaging for colorectal cancer detection: Current status and
      future perspectives.
AB  - Terahertz (THz) imaging is progressing as a robust platform for myriad
      applications in the field of security, health, and material science. The THz
      regime, which comprises wavelengths spanning from microns to millimeters, is non
      ionizing and has very low photon energy: Making it inherently safe for biological
      imaging. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of death in the
      world, while the conventional screening and standard of care yet relies
      exclusively on the physician's experience. Researchers have been working on the
      development of a flexible THz endoscope, as a potential tool to aid in colorectal
      cancer screening. This involves building a single-channel THz endoscope, and
      profiling the THz response from colorectal tissue, and demonstrating endogenous
      contrast levels between normal and diseased tissue when imaging in reflection
      modality. The current level of contrast provided by the prototype THz endoscopic
      system represents a significant step towards clinical endoscopic application of
      THz technology for in-vivo colorectal cancer screening. The aim of this paper is
      to provide a short review of the recent advances in THz endoscopic technology and
      cancer imaging. In particular, the potential of single-channel THz endoscopic
      imaging for colonic cancer screening will be highlighted.

PMID- 28874956
TI  - Use and barriers to chromoendoscopy for dysplasia surveillance in inflammatory
      bowel disease.
AB  - Traditionally, patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have been thought
      to be at increased risk of developing colitis-associated colorectal cancer.
      Although there are recent data suggesting that rates of colitis-associated cancer
      in IBD patients is declining, current guidelines still recommend regular
      dysplasia surveillance for early detection and prevention of neoplasia in
      patients with IBD. White-light endoscopy with random biopsies has been the
      traditional approach for dysplasia detection; however, newer technologies and
      approaches have emerged. One method, dye-based chromoendoscopy, has the potential
      to detect more dysplasia. However, longitudinal data to showing a benefit in
      morbidity or mortality from the use of chromoendoscopy are still lacking. Many
      societies have included recommendation on the use of chromoendoscopy with
      targeted biopsies as a method of surveillance for colitis - associated colorectal
      cancer. This narrative review seeks to outline data on dysplasia detection as
      well as barriers to the implementation of dye-based chromoendoscopy for the
      prevention and early detection of colitis-associated colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28874954
TI  - Aging: Molecular Pathways and Implications on the Cardiovascular System.
AB  - The world's population over 60 years is growing rapidly, reaching 22% of the
      global population in the next decades. Despite the increase in global longevity,
      individual healthspan needs to follow this growth. Several diseases have their
      prevalence increased by age, such as cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause
      of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Understanding the aging biology mechanisms
      is fundamental to the pursuit of cardiovascular health. In this way, aging is
      characterized by a gradual decline in physiological functions, involving the
      increased number in senescent cells into the body. Several pathways lead to
      senescence, including oxidative stress and persistent inflammation, as well as
      energy failure such as mitochondrial dysfunction and deregulated autophagy, being
      ROS, AMPK, SIRTs, mTOR, IGF-1, and p53 key regulators of the metabolic control,
      connecting aging to the pathways which drive towards diseases. In addition,
      senescence can be induced by cellular replication, which resulted from telomere
      shortening. Taken together, it is possible to draw a common pathway unifying
      aging to cardiovascular diseases, and the central point of this process,
      senescence, can be the target for new therapies, which may result in the
      healthspan matching the lifespan.

PMID- 28874957
TI  - Evolution of stereoscopic imaging in surgery and recent advances.
AB  - In the late 1980s the first laparoscopic cholecystectomies were performed
      prompting a sudden rise in technological innovations as the benefits and
      feasibility of minimal access surgery became recognised. Monocular laparoscopes
      provided only two-dimensional (2D) viewing with reduced depth perception and
      contributed to an extended learning curve. Attention turned to producing a usable
      three-dimensional (3D) endoscopic view for surgeons; utilising different
      technologies for image capture and image projection. These evolving visual
      systems have been assessed in various research environments with conflicting
      outcomes of success and usability, and no overall consensus to their benefit.
      This review article aims to provide an explanation of the different types of
      technologies, summarise the published literature evaluating 3D vs 2D laparoscopy,
      to explain the conflicting outcomes, and discuss the current consensus view.

PMID- 28874958
TI  - Endoscopic ultrasonography - emerging applications in hepatology.
AB  - The inspection of the liver is a valuable part of the upper endoscopic
      ultrasonography (EUS) studies, regardless of the primary indication for the
      examination. The detailed images of the liver segments provided by EUS allows the
      use of this technique in the study of parenchymal liver disease and even in the
      diagnosis and classification of focal liver lesions. EUS has also emerged as an
      important tool in understanding the complex collateral circulation in patients
      with portal hypertension and their clinical and prognostic value. Recently, EUS
      guided portal vein catheterization has been performed for direct portal pressure
      measurement as an alternative method to evaluate portal hemodynamics. In this
      review, the authors summarize the available evidence regarding the application of
      EUS to patients with liver diseases and how we can apply it in our current
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28874959
TI  - Clinical impact of confocal laser endomicroscopy in the management of
      gastrointestinal lesions with an uncertain diagnosis.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the clinical impact of confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) in
      the diagnosis and management of patients with an uncertain diagnosis. METHODS: A
      retrospective chart review was performed. Patients who underwent CLE between
      November 2013 and October 2015 and exhibited a poor correlation between
      endoscopic and histological findings were included. Baseline characteristics,
      indications, previous diagnostic studies, findings at the time of CLE, clinical
      management and histological results were analyzed. Interventions based on CLE
      findings were also analyzed. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of CLE and
      target biopsies of surgical specimens. RESULTS: A total of 144 patients were
      included. Of these, 51% (74/144) were female. The mean age was 51 years old. In
      all, 41/144 (28.4%) lesions were neoplastic (13 bile duct, 10 gastric, 8
      esophageal, 6 colonic, 1 duodenal, 1 rectal, 1 ampulloma and 1 pancreatic). The
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value,
      and observed agreement when CLE was used to detect N-lesions were 85.37%, 87.38%,
      72.92%, 93.75% and 86.81%, respectively. Cohen's Kappa was 69.20%, thus
      indicating good agreement. Changes in management were observed in 54% of the
      cases. CONCLUSION: CLE is a new diagnostic tool that has a significant clinical
      impact on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with uncertain diagnosis.

PMID- 28874960
TI  - Impact of laparoscopic liver resection on bleeding complications in patients
      receiving antithrombotics.
AB  - AIM: To assess the impact of laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) on surgical blood
      loss (SBL), especially in patients with antithrombotics for thromboembolic risks.
      METHODS: Consecutive 258 patients receiving liver resection at our institution
      between 2010 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Preoperative antithrombotic
      therapy (ATT; antiplatelets and/or anticoagulation) was regularly used in 100
      patients (ATT group, 38.8%) whereas not used in 158 (non-ATT group, 61.2%). Our
      perioperative management of high thromboembolic risk patients included
      maintenance of preoperative aspirin monotherapy for patients with antiplatelet
      therapy and bridging heparin for patients with anticoagulation. In both ATT and
      non-ATT groups, outcome variables of patients undergoing LLR were compared with
      those of patients receiving open liver resection (OLR), and the independent risk
      factors for increased SBL were determined by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: This
      series included 77 LLR and 181 OLR. There were 3 thromboembolic events (1.2%) in
      a whole cohort, whereas increased SBL (>= 500 mL) and postoperative bleeding
      complications (BCs) occurred in 66 patients (25.6%) and 8 (3.1%), respectively.
      Both in the ATT and non-ATT groups, LLR was significantly related to reduced SBL
      and low incidence of BCs, although LLR was less performed as anatomical
      resection. Multivariate analysis showed that anatomical liver resection was the
      most significant risk factor for increased SBL [risk ratio (RR) = 6.54, P <
      0.001] in the whole cohort, and LLR also had the significant negative impact (RR
      = 1/10.0, P < 0.001). The same effects of anatomical resection (RR = 15.77, P <
      0.001) and LLR (RR = 1/5.88, P = 0.019) were observed when analyzing the patients
      in the ATT group. CONCLUSION: LLR using the two-surgeon technique is feasible and
      safely performed even in the ATT-burdened patients with thromboembolic risks.
      Independent from the extent of liver resection, LLR is significantly associated
      with reduced SBL, both in the ATT and non-ATT groups.

PMID- 28874961
TI  - Correlation of abnormal histology with endoscopic findings among mycophenolate
      mofetil treated patients.
AB  - AIM: To describe all abnormal histological findings and their associated
      endoscopic presentation in patients using mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). METHODS: A
      retrospective review of all individuals prescribed MMF within 6 mo of a
      colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy between 07/2009 and 09/2015 was performed
      within Northwell Health system. Records were analyzed for age, gender, procedure
      indication, MMF indication, and both gross and microscopic findings. Only reports
      with abnormal histology were included. RESULTS: One hundred and eighty-four
      procedures from 170 patients were found, of which 39 met inclusion criteria.
      Fifty-one point three percent were female. MMF was used for solid organ
      transplant in 71.8%. Diarrhea was the indication for 71.8% of colonoscopies.
      Fifty-nine percent of reports revealed gross and microscopic abnormalities while
      41.0% had only microscopic findings. Only 11 patients' reports (28.2%) indicated
      a specific histopathology of MMF colitis. Among the entire group, only 23.1% of
      abnormal histology was isolated proximal to the splenic flexure. CONCLUSION: Our
      results demonstrate a high rate of left sided disease and microscopic findings
      without gross mucosal abnormalities among patients using MMF. Also, a broader
      definition of MMF-colonopathy may be appropriate, with a majority of our abnormal
      histology falling outside of the more narrowly defined MMF-colitis category.
      Given the high frequency of isolated microscopic abnormalities and distal
      disease, sigmoidoscopy with random biopsies may be an appropriate, less invasive
      initial endoscopic examination in selected MMF patients.

PMID- 28874962
TI  - Usefulness of the Hook knife in flexible endoscopic myotomy for Zenker's
      diverticulum.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the outcome of flexible endoscopic myotomy performed with the
      Hook knife in patients with symptomatic Zenker's diverticulum (ZD). METHODS: All
      consecutive patients treated for ZD at our institution between 7/2012 and 12/2016
      were included. The flexible endoscopic soft diverticuloscope-assisted technique
      with endoclips placement and Hook knife myotomy were performed in all patients.
      Here we report a retrospective review of prospectively collected data.
      Demographics, dysphagia score (Dakkak and Bennett), associated symptoms and
      adverse events were collected pre-procedure, at 2 and 6 mo post-procedure, and at
      the end of the follow-up period. Clinical success was defined as at least 1-point
      improvement in dysphagia score and a residual dysphagia score <= 1, with no need
      for reintervention. Dysphagia scores were compared before treatment and at end-of
      follow-up using the Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients were included.
      Mean size of ZD was 3.0 cm (range 2-8 cm). Mean number of sessions was
      1.17/patient (range 1-3 sessions). Overall clinical success was 91.7%. Two
      adverse events (8.3%) occurred, and both were managed conservatively. No bleeding
      or perforation was reported. Mild pain was reported by 9 patients (37.5%). Median
      hospital stay was 1 d (range 1-6). Median follow-up was 19.5 mo (range 6-53).
      Mean +/- SD dysphagia score was 2.25 +/- 0.89 before treatment and decreased to
      0.41 +/- 0.92 at end-of-follow-up (P < 0.001). Regurgitation and cough dropped
      from 91.7% and 50% to 12.5% and 0% at the end of follow-up, respectively.
      Recurrence was observed in 3 patients, and all 3 were symptom-free after one more
      session. CONCLUSION: The Hook knife, used in the soft diverticuloscope-assisted
      technique setting, is efficient and safe for treatment of ZD.

PMID- 28874963
TI  - Russell body gastritis with Dutcher bodies evaluated using magnification
      endoscopy.
AB  - Russell body gastritis (RBG) is an unusual type of chronic gastritis
      characterized by marked infiltration of Mott cells, which are plasma cells filled
      with spherical eosinophilic bodies referred to as Russell bodies. It was
      initially thought that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection was a major
      cause of RBG and that the infiltrating Mott cells were polyphenotypic; however, a
      number of cases of RBG without H. pylori infection or with monoclonal Mott cells
      have been reported. Thus, diagnostic difficulty exists in distinguishing RBG with
      monoclonal Mott cells from malignant lymphoma. Here, we report an unusual case of
      an 86-year-old-Japanese man with H. pylori-positive RBG. During the examination
      of melena, endoscopic evaluation confirmed a 13-mm whitish, flat lesion in the
      gastric antrum. Magnification endoscopy with narrow-band imaging suggested that
      the lesion was most likely a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Biopsy
      findings were consistent with chronic gastritis with many Mott cells with
      intranuclear inclusions referred to as Dutcher bodies. Endoscopic submucosal
      dissection confirmed the diagnosis of RBG with kappa-restricted monoclonal Mott
      cells. Malignant lymphoma was unlikely given the paucity of cytological atypia
      and Ki-67 immunoreactivity of monoclonal Mott cells. This is the first reported
      case of RBG with endoscopic diagnosis of malignant tumor and the presence of
      Dutcher bodies.

PMID- 28874964
TI  - Simultaneous Courvoisier's and double duct signs.
AB  - Presence of Courvoisier's or double duct signs in a jaundiced patient is
      suggestive of malignant obstruction of the pancreaticobiliary ductal system. The
      oncologic impact of the simultaneous occurrence of these signs on the survival of
      patients with periampullary cancer is unknown. We report a case of obstructive
      jaundice secondary to an ampullary cancer demonstrating the Courvoisier's sign on
      clinical examination and a double duct sign on imaging. The patient underwent a
      pancreaticoduodenectomy which confirmed an ampullary adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28874965
TI  - Prorenin receptor acts as a potential molecular target for pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma diagnosis.
AB  - Recent studies have implicated the prorenin receptor (PRR) is associated with
      pancreatic tumorigenesis. We therefore investigated the role of PRR in pancreatic
      tumorigenesis and assessed whether PRR can serve as a target for imaging
      diagnosis at early stages of PDAC. Here we show that aberrant expression of PRR
      in premalignant PanIN lesions, and human PDAC samples, and PDAC cell lines,
      particularly in Panc-1 cells. Interestingly, PRR expression was positively
      associated with PDAC progression. Moreover, overexpression of human PRR resulted
      in increased cell proliferation and decreased apoptosis, while knockdown of human
      PRR caused decreased cell proliferation and enhanced apoptosis in pancreatic
      cancer cells. We also observed that overexpression of human PRR enhanced MAPK and
      PI3K/Akt signaling pathways in PDAC cells, while knockdown of human PRR
      suppressed both of pathways. The confocal imaging analysis showed that human PRR
      was highly expressed in Panc-1, ASPC, and Miapaca cells, whereas BXPC-3, and HPAC
      cells had a significantly lower fluorescent signals. Consistently, the single
      photon emission computed tomography (SPET/CT) showed that the uptake of anti-PRR
      labelled with 125I was higher in Panc-1 and ASPC tumors-bearing mice after 96
      hours injection. Importantly, tumors in pancreas of Pdx1-cre; LSL-KrasG12D mice
      had a significant increased PRR expression and accumulation of radioactivity at
      96 h after injection. These data suggest that 125I-anti-PRR can detect the
      orthotopic tumors in Pdx1-cre; LSL-KrasG12D mice. Therefore, anti-PRR labelled
      with 125I is a promising radiotracer for imaging diagnosis at early stages of
      pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28874967
TI  - Behavior of Injured Lamina in Lumbar Burst Fractures during Reduction Maneuvers:
      A Biomechanical Study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: An experimental biomechanical study. PURPOSE: This study aims to
      investigate the behavior of a lamina injury in lumbar burst fractures during
      reduction maneuvers. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Lumbar burst fractures are
      frequently accompanied by a lamina fracture. Many researchers concluded that any
      reduction maneuver will close the fractured lamina edges and possibly crush the
      entrapped neural elements. This conclusion did not rely on solid biomechanical
      trials and was based primarily on clinical experience. METHODS: Eighteen fresh
      frozen lamb spines were randomly divided into three groups. Using the preinjury
      and the dropped-mass technique, a burst fracture model was developed. A central
      laminectomy of 5 mm of the L3 lumbar spine was created to mimic a complete type
      of lamina fracture. To measure the movement of the fractured laminar edges, two
      holes were drilled on both sides of the upper and lower regions of the lamina to
      allow for optic marker placement. A single specific spine movement was applied to
      each group: traction, flexion, and extension. Gap changes were measured by camera
      extensometers. RESULTS: After traction, the average values of the upper and lower
      aspects of the lamina interval showed narrowing of 1.65+/-0.82 mm and 1.97+/-1.14
      mm, respectively. No statistical significance was detected between the two
      aspects. The upper and lower regions of the lamina gap behaved differently during
      extension. At 10 degrees , 20 degrees , and 30 degrees , the upper part of the
      lamina interval was widened by an average of 0.016+/-0.024, 0.29+/-0.32, and
      1.73+/-1.45 mm, respectively, whereas the lower part was narrowed by an average
      of 0.023+/-0.012, 0.47+/-0.038, and 1.94+/-1.46 mm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Neural element crushing may take place, particularly at the lower aspect of the
      fractured lamina gap during extension and throughout the whole lamina gap during
      traction. The lamina gap widens during flexion. Reduction maneuvers should be
      attempted after exploring the fractured lamina to prevent further neurological
      compromise.

PMID- 28874966
TI  - Characterization of acetate transport in colorectal cancer cells and potential
      therapeutic implications.
AB  - Acetate, together with other short chain fatty acids has been implicated in
      colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention/therapy. Acetate was shown to induce apoptosis
      in CRC cells. The precise mechanism underlying acetate transport across CRC cells
      membrane, that may be implicated in its selectivity towards CRC cells, is not
      fully understood and was addressed here. We also assessed the effect of acetate
      in CRC glycolytic metabolism and explored its use in combination with the
      glycolytic inhibitor 3-bromopyruvate (3BP). We provide evidence that acetate
      enters CRC cells by the secondary active transporters MCT1 and/or MCT2 and SMCT1
      as well as by facilitated diffusion via aquaporins. CRC cell exposure to acetate
      upregulates the expression of MCT1, MCT4 and CD147, while promoting MCT1 plasma
      membrane localization. We also observed that acetate increases CRC cell
      glycolytic phenotype and that acetate-induced apoptosis and anti-proliferative
      effect was potentiated by 3BP. Our data suggest that acetate selectivity towards
      CRC cells might be explained by the fact that aquaporins and MCTs are found
      overexpressed in CRC clinical cases. Our work highlights the importance that
      acetate transport regulation has in the use of drugs such as 3BP as a new
      therapeutic strategy for CRC.

PMID- 28874968
TI  - Posterior-Only Approach with Pedicle Screws for the Correction of Scheuermann's
      Kyphosis.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study (level of evidence: level 3). PURPOSE: The
      purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiological results of
      the posterior-only approach with pedicle screws for the treatment of
      Scheuermann's kyphosis (SK). OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: The correction of SK with
      instrumentation can be performed using posterior-only or combined anterior
      posterior procedures. With the use of all-pedicle screw constructs in spine
      surgery, the posterior-only approach has become a popular option for the
      definitive treatment of SK. In a nationwide study involving 2,796 patients, a
      trend toward posterior-only fusion with lower complication rates was reported.
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients who underwent posterior
      only correction for SK between January 2005 and May 2013. Patients with a
      definite diagnosis of SK who fulfilled the minimum follow-up criterion of 24
      months were included. The thoracic kyphosis (T5-T12), lumbar lordosis (L1-S1),
      and thoracolumbar junction (T10-L2) angles were measured from preoperative,
      postoperative, and last control radiographs. Sagittal balance, thoracic length,
      thoracic diameter, Voutsinas index and the sacral slope, pelvic tilt, proximal
      junction kyphosis, and distal junction kyphosis angles were also measured.
      RESULTS: Forty-five patients underwent surgery for the treatment of SK between
      2005 and 2013. After applying the exclusion criteria, 20 patients (18 males and 2
      females) with a mean age of 19 years were included. The mean thoracic kyphosis
      angle was 79.8 degrees preoperatively, 44.6 degrees postoperatively, and 44.9
      degrees at the last control. There were statistically significant differences
      between preoperative and postoperative values in the thoracic kyphosis and lumbar
      lordosis angles, thoracic length, thoracic diameter, and Voutsinas index
      (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical and radiological results of the current study
      suggest that posterior-only fusion is an efficient technique for the treatment of
      SK.

PMID- 28874969
TI  - Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Validity, and Reliability of the Persian Version of
      the Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Observational study. PURPOSE: To cross-culturally translate the
      Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire (OMPQ) into Persian and then
      evaluate its psychometric properties (reliability, validity, ceiling, and
      flooring effects). OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: To the authors' knowledge, prior to
      this study there has been no validated instrument to screen the risk of
      chronicity in Persian-speaking patients with low back pain (LBP) in Iran. The
      OMPQ was specifically developed as a self-administered screening tool for
      assessing the risk of LBP chronicity. METHODS: The forward-backward translation
      method was used for the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the original
      questionnaire. In total, 202 patients with subacute LBP completed the OMPQ and
      the pain disability questionnaire (PDQ), which was used to assess convergent
      validity. 62 patients completed the OMPQ a week later as a retest. RESULTS:
      Slight changes were made to the OMPQ during the translation/cultural adaptation
      process; face validity of the Persian version was obtained. The Persian OMPQ
      showed excellent test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation
      coefficient=0.89). Its internal consistency was 0.71, and its convergent validity
      was confirmed by good correlation coefficient between the OMPQ and PDQ total
      scores (r=0.72, p<0.05). No ceiling or floor effects were observed. CONCLUSIONS:
      The Persian version of the OMPQ is acceptable for the target society in terms of
      face validity, construct validity, reliability, and consistency. It is therefore
      considered a useful instrument for screening Iranian patients with LBP.

PMID- 28874970
TI  - Prolonged Physiotherapy versus Early Surgical Intervention in Patients with
      Lumbar Disk Herniation: Short-term Outcomes of Clinical Randomized Trial.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. PURPOSE: We compared the disability
      and functional outcome after conservative treatment with prolonged physiotherapy
      versus early surgical intervention in patients with lumbar disk herniation.
      OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Lumbar disk herniation is one of the most common causes
      of job-related disability in individuals less than 45 years old. Conservative
      treatment is the initial pathway for the majority of patients but the duration of
      conservative treatment remains debatable and the adverse effects of prolonged
      conservative treatment are still unclear. Prolonged duration of symptoms before
      surgical intervention is associated with worse outcomes than a short period of
      symptoms. METHODS: From June 2011 to July 2013, 60 patients with lumbar disk
      herniation at our institute were randomized into two groups. Group I was treated
      with prolonged physiotherapy and rehabilitation for 6 months, while group II was
      treated with early surgical discectomy. Oswestry disability index was used to
      assess disability, while the Prolo economic outcome rating scale was used to
      assess the work status. RESULTS: Most patients were males between 21 and 45 years
      old (mean age, 35.88+/-7.15). There was significant improvement in the disability
      and work status in both groups without statistically significant differences in
      the disability score at the second or third assessment. However, the Prolo scale
      became significantly better in group I than in group II patients during the
      second and third assessments. CONCLUSIONS: A prolonged physiotherapy and
      rehabilitation program is a beneficial and successful treatment in patients with
      recently diagnosed lumbar disk herniation.

PMID- 28874971
TI  - Adjacent Disc Stress Following Floating Lumbar Spine Fusion: A Finite Element
      Study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Experimental study. PURPOSE: The study aimed to develop a finite
      element (FE) model to determine the stress on the discs adjacent to the fused
      segment following different types of floating lumbar spinal fusions. OVERVIEW OF
      LITERATURE: The quantification of the adjacent disc stress following different
      types of floating lumbar fusions has not been reported. The magnitude of the
      stress on the discs above and below the floating fusion remains unknown. METHODS:
      A computer-aided engineering-based approach using implicit FE analysis was
      employed to assess the stress on the lumbar discs above and below the floating
      fusion segment (L4-L5) following anterior and posterior lumbar spine fusions at
      one, two, and three levels (with and without instrumentation). RESULTS: Both
      discs suprajacent and infrajacent to the floating fusion experienced increased
      stress, but the suprajacent disc experienced relatively high stress level.
      Instrumentation increased the stress on the discs suprajacent and infrajacent to
      the floating fusion, but the magnitude of stress on the suprajacent disc remained
      relatively high. CONCLUSIONS: The FE model was employed under similar loading and
      boundary conditions to provide quantitative data, which will be useful for
      clinicians to understand the probable long-term effects of floating fusions.

PMID- 28874972
TI  - Microsurgical Treatment of Sporadic and von Hippel-Lindau Disease Associated
      Spinal Hemangioblastomas: A Single-Institution Experience.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. PURPOSE: To examine the clinical
      profile and surgical complications in patients with spinal hemangioblastomas and
      to evaluate the long-term outcome in them. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Although
      considered to be histologically benign, hemangioblastomas may cause significant
      neurological deficits. The proportion of spinal hemangioblastomas associated with
      von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease has been estimated be 13%-59%. Preoperative
      neurological function correlates with postoperative neurological status. Studies
      have shown no difference in outcomes between sporadic and VHL-associated spinal
      hemangioblastomas. METHODS: This retrospective study included 14 consecutive
      patients treated for spinal hemangioblastomas at our institute between January
      2000 and June 2013. The mean follow-up period was 5 years. Magnetic resonance
      imaging of the complete neuraxis was performed in all cases, and preoperative
      embolization was performed in two cases. RESULTS: In total, 14 patients underwent
      18 surgeries, of which 15 were for spinal hemangioblastomas. Of all the patients,
      86% had motor weakness and 79% presented with sensory disturbances. Preoperative
      McCormick functional grades were grade I in 7 (50%), grade II in 3 (21%), and
      grade III in 4 (29%) patients; 50% patients were diagnosed with VHL disease. All
      patients underwent complete resection of the tumor. Eight patients experienced
      deterioration in their neurological status in the immediate postoperative period;
      among them, five had gradual improvement. At 5-year follow-up, 11 (78.57%)
      patients showed good functional outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Microsurgical excision of
      spinal hemangioblastomas can cause postoperative morbidity, mainly in the form of
      neurological deterioration. Almost half of our patients had deterioration in the
      McCormick grade in the immediate postoperative period. However, a complete
      microsurgical excision can result in good long-term functional outcomes, as most
      of the immediate postoperative neurological deterioration in our patients was
      reversible. There was no difference in the long-term functional outcomes between
      sporadic and VHL-associated spinal hemangioblastomas.

PMID- 28874974
TI  - Evaluation of Sagittal Spine-Pelvis-Lower Limb Alignment in Elderly Women with
      Pelvic Retroversion while Standing and Walking Using a Three-Dimensional
      Musculoskeletal Model.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: In vivo biomechanical study using a three-dimensional (3D)
      musculoskeletal model for elderly individuals with or without pelvic
      retroversion. PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of pelvic retroversion on the
      sagittal alignment of the spine, pelvis, and lower limb in elderly females while
      standing and walking. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Patients with hip-spine syndrome
      have concurrent hip-joint and spine diseases. However, the dynamic sagittal
      alignment between the hip joint and spine has rarely been investigated. We used a
      3D musculoskeletal model to evaluate global spinopelvic parameters, including
      spinal inclination and pelvic tilt (PT). METHODS: A total of 32 ambulant females
      (mean age=78 years) without assistance were enrolled in the study. On the basis
      of the radiographic measurement for PT, participants were divided into the pelvic
      retroversion group (R-group; PT>=20 degrees ) and the normal group (N-group;
      PT<20 degrees ). A 3D musculoskeletal motion analysis system was used to analyze
      the calculated value for the alignment of spine, pelvis, and lower limb,
      including calculated (C)-PT, sagittal vertical axis (C-SVA), pelvic incidence,
      lumbar lordosis, T1 pelvic angle (C-TPA), as well as knee and hip flexion angles
      while standing and walking. RESULTS: While standing, C-PT and C-TPA in the R
      group were significantly larger than those in the N-group. Hip angle was
      significantly smaller in the R-group than in the N-group, unlike knee angle,
      which did not show difference. While walking, C-SVA and C-TPA were significantly
      increased, whereas C-PT decreased compared with those while standing. The maximum
      hip-flexion angle was significantly smaller in the R-group than in the N-group.
      There was a significant correlation between the radiographic and calculated
      parameters. CONCLUSIONS: The 3D musculoskeletal model was useful in evaluating
      the sagittal alignment of the spine, pelvis, and leg. Spinopelvic sagittal
      alignment showed deterioration while walking. C-PT was significantly decreased
      while walking in the R-group, indicating possible compensatory mechanisms
      attempting to increase coverage of the femoral head. The reduction in the hip
      flexion angle in the R-group was also considered as a compensatory mechanism.

PMID- 28874973
TI  - Inhibiting Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Injured Intervertebral Discs
      Attenuates Pain-Related Neuropeptide Expression in Dorsal Root Ganglia in Rats.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: An experimental animal study. PURPOSE: To evaluate effects of anti
      vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on the content and distribution of the
      calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the dorsal ganglia in a rat model.
      OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Increased expression of VEGF in degenerative disc disease
      increases the levels of inflammatory cytokines and nerve ingrowth into the
      damaged discs. In animal models, increased levels of VEGF can persist for up to 2
      weeks after an injury. METHODS: Through abdominal surgery, the dorsal root
      ganglia (DRG) innervating L5/L6 intervertebral disc were labeled (FluoroGold
      neurotracer) in 24, 8-week old Sprague Dawley rats. The rats were randomly
      allocated to three groups of eight rats each. The anti-VEGF group underwent L5/6
      intervertebral disc puncture using a 26-gauge needle, intradiscal injection of
      33.3 ug of the pegaptanib sodium, a VEGF165 aptamer. The control-puncture group
      underwent disc puncture and intradiscal injection of 10 uL saline solution, and
      the sham-surgery group underwent labeling but no disc puncture. Two rats in each
      group were sacrificed on postoperative days 1, 7, 14, and 28 after surgery. L1-L6
      DRGs were harvested, sectioned, and immunostained to detect the content and
      distribution of CGRP. RESULTS: Compared with the control, the percentage of CGRP
      positive cells was lower in the anti-VEGF group (p<0.05; 40.6% and 58.1% on
      postoperative day 1, 44.3% and 55.4% on day 7, and 42.4% and 59.3% on day 14).
      The percentage was higher in the control group compared with that of the sham
      group (p<0.05; sham group, 34.1%, 40.7%, and 33.7% on postoperative days 1, 7,
      and 14, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Decreasing CGRP-positive cells using anti
      VEGF therapy provides fundamental evidence for a possible therapeutic role of
      anti-VEGF in patients with discogenic lower back pain.

PMID- 28874975
TI  - Radiologic and Clinical Courses of Degenerative Lumbar Scoliosis (10 degrees -25
      degrees ) after a Short-Segment Fusion.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. PURPOSE: We report the surgical outcomes of
      small degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS) patients treated by a short-segment
      fusion and followed for a minimum of 5 years. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Several
      surgical options are available for the treatment of DLS, such as decompression
      only, decompression plus a short-segment fusion, or decompression with a long
      segment fusion. Few studies have evaluated the results of a short-segment fusion
      in patients with DLS over time. METHODS: Seventy small DLS patients (Cobb's
      angle, 10 degrees -25 degrees ) with a minimum follow-up of 5 years were treated
      with a short-segment fusion between March 2004 and February 2010. The mean
      patient age was 71 (male:female=16:54), with a follow-up of 6.5 years (range, 5.0
      11.6). The Cobb's angle, 1 and 2 segment coronal upper intervertebral angle, 1
      and 2 segment sagittal upper intervertebral angle, the lumbar lordosis angle, and
      the C7 plumb lines (coronal and sagittal) were evaluated using simple
      radiographs, and visual analog scale (VAS), back pain was assessed
      preoperatively, immediately after surgery, and at 3, 6, and 12 months and 3 and 5
      years after surgery. To identify factors influencing the radiologic progression,
      age, number of fusion segments, vertebral levels of fusion, body mass index,
      lowest instrumented vertebra (L5 or S1), bone mineral density (>-2.5, <=-2.5),
      and the presence of an interbody fusion were analyzed. RESULTS: The Cobb's angle
      and 1 segment coronal upper intervertebral angle showed more progression during
      follow up, particularly at 6 and 12 months after surgery. Clinical outcomes and
      radiological results were found to be significantly associated (p=0.041). No
      statistically significant association was found between other factors affecting
      radiologic progression from postoperative 6 months to 1 year. CONCLUSIONS:
      Radiologic variables (the Cobb's angle and coronal upper intervertebral angle-1)
      should be carefully considered and clinical caution exercised from 6 to 12 months
      after short-segment fusion in small DLS (10 degrees -25 degrees ).

PMID- 28874976
TI  - Preliminary Results of Relationship between Preoperative Walking Ability and
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging Morphology in Patients with Lumbar Canal Stenosis:
      Comparison between Trefoil and Triangle Types of Spinal Stenosis.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional. PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) morphology stenosis grades and preoperative
      walking ability in patients with lumbar canal stenosis (LCS). OVERVIEW OF
      LITERATURE: No previous study has analyzed the correlation between MRI morphology
      stenosis grades and walking ability in patients with LCS. METHODS: This
      prospective study included 98 consecutive patients with LCS who were candidates
      for surgery. Using features identified in T2-weighted axial magnetic, stenosis
      type was determined at the maximal stenosis level, and only trefoil and triangle
      stenosis grade types were considered because of sufficient sample size.
      Intraobserver and interobserver reliability were assessed by calculating weighted
      kappa coefficients. Symptom severity was evaluated via the Japanese Orthopedic
      Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ). Walking ability was
      assessed using the Self-Paced Walking Test (SPWT) and JOABPEQ subscales.
      Demographic characteristics, SPWT scores, and JOABPEQ scores were compared
      between patients with trefoil and triangle stenosis types. RESULTS: The mean
      patient age was 58.1 (standard deviation, 8.4) years. The kappa values of the MRI
      morphology stenosis grade types showed a perfect agreement between the stenosis
      grade types. The trefoil group (n=53) and triangle group (n=45) showed similar
      preoperative JOABPEQ subscale scores (e.g., low back pain, lumbar function, and
      mental health) and were not significantly different in age, BMI, duration of
      symptoms, or lumbar stenosis levels (all p>0.05); however, trefoil stenosis grade
      type was associated with a decreased walking ability according to the SPWT and
      JOABPEQ subscale scores. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest preoperative walking
      ability is more profoundly affected in patients with trefoil type stenosis than
      in those with triangle type stenosis.

PMID- 28874977
TI  - Validation of the Iranian Version of the ECOS-16 Questionnaire in Patients with
      Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Prospective clinical study. PURPOSE: To translate and validate the
      Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (ECOS
      16) in patients with osteoporotic vertebral fractures in Iran. OVERVIEW OF
      LITERATURE: It is important to assess the psychometric properties of instruments
      measuring patient-reported outcomes. METHODS: The translation was performed using
      the backward-forward translation method. The final version was generated by
      consensus among the translators. Every woman who had a T-score of <-2.5 completed
      ECOS-16. Patients were divided into two study groups according to the World
      Health Organization's criteria: those with at least one vertebral fracture
      (surgery group) and those with no fractures (control group). They were asked to
      respond to the questionnaire at three points in time: preoperative and twice
      within 1-week interval after surgery assessments (6-month follow-up). The 36-item
      short-form health survey (SF-36) also was completed. The psychometric properties
      of the questionnaire were assessed using internal consistency, test-retest
      reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and responsiveness.
      RESULTS: Of 137 recruited women, 39 underwent surgery and 98 did not. Analysis of
      the ECOS-16 scales showed an appropriate reliability with Cronbach's alpha of
      >0.70 for all scales. Test-retest reliability as indicated by intraclass
      correlation coefficient was found to be 0.85 (0.68-0.91). Additionally, the
      correlation of each item with its hypothesized domain of the ECOS-16 showed
      acceptable results, suggesting that the items had a substantial relationship with
      their own domains. Further analysis also indicated that the questionnaire was
      responsive to change (effect size, 0.85; standardized response mean, 0.93)
      (p<0.001). Significant correlations existed between scores of similar subscales
      of ECOS-16 and SF-36 (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: ECOS-16 is an acceptable, reliable,
      valid, and responsive measure to assess the quality of life in patients with
      osteoporotic vertebral fractures.

PMID- 28874978
TI  - Prevalence, Patterns, and Genetic Association Analysis of Modic Vertebral
      Endplate Changes.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A prospective genetic association study. PURPOSE: The etiology of
      Modic changes (MCs) is unclear. Recently, the role of genetic factors in the
      etiology of MCs has been evaluated. However, studies with a larger patient subset
      are lacking, and candidate genes involved in other disc degeneration phenotypes
      have not been evaluated. We studied the prevalence of MCs and genetic association
      of 41 candidate genes in a large Indian cohort. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: MCs are
      vertebral endplate signal changes predominantly observed in the lumbar spine. A
      significant association between MCs and lumbar disc degeneration and nonspecific
      low back pain has been described, with the etiopathogenesis implicating various
      mechanical, infective, and biochemical factors. METHODS: We studied 809 patients
      using 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging to determine the prevalence, patterns,
      distribution, and type of lumbar MCs. Genetic association analysis of 71 single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 41 candidate genes was performed based on the
      presence or absence of MCs. SNPs were genotyped using the Sequenome platform, and
      an association test was performed using PLINK software. RESULTS: The mean age of
      the study population (n=809) was 36.7+/-10.8 years. Based on the presence of MCs,
      the cohort was divided into 702 controls and 107 cases (prevalence, 13%). MCs
      were more commonly present in the lower (149/251, 59.4%) than in the upper
      (102/251, 40.6%) endplates. L4-5 endplates were the most commonly affected levels
      (30.7%). Type 2 MCs were the most commonly observed pattern (n=206, 82%). The
      rs2228570 SNP of VDR (p=0.02) and rs17099008 SNP of MMP20 (p=0.03) were
      significantly associated with MCs. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic polymorphisms of SNPs of
      VDR and MMP20 were significantly associated with MCs. Understanding the
      etiopathogenetic mechanisms of MCs is important for planning preventive and
      therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28874979
TI  - Serotonergic Antidepressants Are Associated with Increased Blood Loss and Risk
      for Transfusion in Single-Level Lumbar Fusion Surgery.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study. PURPOSE: The purpose of this
      study was to examine the effect of antidepressants on blood loss and transfusion
      requirements in spinal surgery patients. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Several studies
      have shown an increase in perioperative bleeding in orthopedic surgery patients
      on antidepressant drug therapy, yet no study has examined the impact of these
      agents on spinal surgery patients. METHODS: Charts of patients who underwent
      single-level spinal fusion (posterior lumbar interbody fusion with posterior
      instrumentation) performed by five fellowship-trained surgeons at a tertiary
      spine center between 2008 and 2013, were retrospectively reviewed. Exclusion
      criteria included select medical comorbidities, select drug therapy, and Amercian
      Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification score of greater than
      2. Serotonergic antidepressants were examined in multivariate analysis to assess
      their predictive value on estimated blood loss and risk of transfusion. RESULTS:
      A total of 235 patients, of which 52% were female, were included. Allogeneic
      blood was transfused in 7% of patients. The average estimated blood loss was
      682+/-463 mL. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were taken by 10% of all
      patients. Multivariable regression analysis showed that intake of selective
      serotonin reuptake inhibitors was a significant predictor for blood loss (average
      increase of 34%, p=0.015) and for the need of allogeneic blood transfusion (odds
      ratio, 4.550; p=0.029). CONCLUSIONS: There was a statistically significant
      association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and both increased
      blood loss and risk of allogeneic red blood cell transfusion. Surgeons and
      perioperative providers should take these findings into account when assessing
      patients' preoperative risk for blood loss and transfusion.

PMID- 28874980
TI  - Prevalence and Risk Factors for Low Back Pain in 1,355 Young Adults: A Cross
      Sectional Study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PURPOSE: To evaluate the prevalence and
      various risk factors for low back pain (LBP) in young adults in India. OVERVIEW
      OF LITERATURE: LBP is an emerging problem in adolescents, with an incidence that
      is the highest in the third decade of life worldwide. Various risk factors such
      as obesity, smoking, family history, stress, and exercise have been described in
      the literature. This study was conducted because of paucity of data in the Indian
      literature. METHODS: A total of 1,355 (741 males and 641 females) young Indian
      Administrative Service aspirants and medical postgraduate aspirants aged 18-35
      years were enrolled in the study. The subjects completed a detailed, semi
      structured questionnaire that gathered data regarding their sociodemographic
      profile and factors considered to be risk factors for LBP. Anthropometric
      measurements, including height and weight, were measured and body mass index was
      calculated. RESULTS: Most subjects (90.6%) were aged 20-29 years (mean, 24.49;
      range, 18-35 years). Results indicated that the following factors were associated
      with LBP in young adults: marital status, previous history of spine problems,
      strenuous exercise, job satisfaction, monotony, stress, daily number of studying
      hours, and family history of spine problems (p<0.05). However, age, sex, smoking,
      alcoholism, coffee intake, mode and duration of travel, diet, frequency of
      weightlifting, wearing heels, studying posture, and frequency and type of sports
      activities were not associated with LBP. CONCLUSIONS: The study identified
      various modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors that precipitated LBP in young
      adult Indians. Identifying these risk factors at an early stage will prevent LBP
      progression to a chronic disease state, thereby improving an individual's quality
      of life and increasing productivity.

PMID- 28874981
TI  - Functional and Radiological Outcomes of Anterior Decompression and Posterior
      Stabilization via Posterior Transpedicular Approach in Thoracic and Thoracolumbar
      Pott's Disease: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective study. PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy
      and safety of a posterior transpedicular approach with regard to functional and
      radiological outcomes in people with thoracic and thoracolumbar spinal
      tuberculosis. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Spinal tuberculosis can cause serious
      morbidity, including permanent neurological deficits and severe deformities.
      Medical treatment or a combination of medical and surgical strategies can control
      the disease in most patients, thereby decreasing morbidity incidence. A debate
      always existed regarding whether to achieve both decompression and stabilization
      via a combined anterior and posterior approach or a single posterior approach
      exists. METHODS: The study was conducted at the Indian Spinal injuries Centre and
      included all patients with thoracic and thoracolumbar Pott's disease who were
      operated via a Posterior transpedicular approach. Data regarding 60 patients were
      analyzed with respect to the average operation time, preoperative and
      postoperative, 6 months and final follow-up American Spinal Injury Association
      (ASIA) grading, bony fusion, implant loosening, implant failure, preoperative,
      postoperative, 6 months and final follow-up kyphotic angles, a loss of kyphotic
      correction, Oswestry disability index (ODI) score, and visual analog scale (VAS)
      score. Data were analyzed using either a paired t -test or a Wilcoxon Signed Rank
      test. RESULTS: The mean operation time was 260+/-30 minutes. Fifty-five patients
      presented with evidence of successful bony fusion within a mean period of 6+/-1.5
      months. Preoperative dorsal and lumbar angles were significantly larger than
      postoperative angles, which were smaller than final follow-up angles. The mean
      kyphotic correction achieved was 12.11+/-14.8, with a mean decrease of 5.97 and
      19.1 in VAS and ODI scores, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Anterior decompression and
      posterior stabilization via a posterior transpedicular approach are safe and
      effective procedures, with less intraoperative surgical duration and significant
      improvements in clinical and functional status.

PMID- 28874982
TI  - Measurement of Milwaukee Brace Pad Pressure in Adolescent Round Back Deformity
      Treatment.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: In this prospective study, we measured the pad pressures of the
      Milwaukee brace in adolescent hyperkyphosis treatment. PURPOSE: We evaluated the
      skin-brace interface forces exerted by the main pads of the Milwaukee brace.
      OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: A fundamental factor associated with brace effectiveness
      in spinal deformity is pad force adjustment. However, few studies have evaluated
      the in-brace force magnitude and its effect on curve correction. METHODS:
      Interface forces at four pads of the Milwaukee brace were measured in 73 patients
      withround back deformity (mean age, 14.04+/-1.97 years [range, 10-18]; mean
      initial Cobb angle,67.70 degrees +/-9.23 degrees  [range, 50 degrees -86 degrees
      ]). We used a modified aneroid sphygmomanometer to measure the shoulder and
      kyphosis pad pressures. Each patient underwent measurement in the standing and
      sitting positions during inhalation/exhalation. RESULTS: The mean pad pressures
      were significantly higher in the standing than in thesitting position, and
      significantly higher pressures were observed during inhalation compared
      toexhalation (p=0.001).There were no statistically significant differences
      between right and left shoulder pad pressures (p>0.05); however, the pressure
      differences between the right and left kyphosis pads were statistically
      significant (p<0.05). In a comparison of corrective forces with bracing for less
      or more than 6 months, corrective force was larger with bracing for less than 6
      months (p=0.02). In the standing position, there were no statistically
      significant correlations between pad pressures and kyphosis curve correction.
      CONCLUSIONS: In the sitting position, there was a trend toward lower forces at
      the skin-brace interface; therefore, brace adjustment in the standing position
      may be useful and more effective. There was no significant correlation between
      the magnitude of the pad pressures and the degree of in-brace curve correction.

PMID- 28874983
TI  - Posterior Vertebrectomy and Circumferential Fusion for the Treatment of Advanced
      Thoracolumbar Kummell Disease with Neurologic Deficit.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Single-center, retrospective case series. PURPOSE: To investigate
      the effectiveness of posterior vertebrectomy and circumferential fusion in
      patients with advanced Kummell disease with neurologic deficit. OVERVIEW OF
      LITERATURE: Various surgical options exist for the treatment of Kummell disease,
      and determination of the appropriate treatment is based on the clinical and
      radiologic status of the patient. However, surgical intervention is required for
      patients with advanced Kummell disease accompanied by neurologic deficit.
      METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 22 neurologically compromised patients with
      advanced Kummell disease who were treated surgically at Ewha Womans Hospital
      between January 2011 and January 2014. The surgical approach used by us was a
      posterior vertebrectomy with mesh cage insertion and segmental cement-augmented
      pedicle screw fixation. The tissue from the corpectomy was histopathologically
      examined. Anterior vertebral height, kyphotic angle, visual analog scale (VAS)
      score, and the Frankel classification were used to evaluate the efficacy of the
      procedure. RESULTS: The mean follow-up period was 26 months (range, 13-40
      months). VAS score, anterior vertebral height, kyphotic angle, and neurologic
      state were significantly improved immediately postoperatively and at the last
      follow-up compared with preoperatively (p<0.05). Most patients exhibited
      intravertebral clefts on imaging, and postoperative pathology revealed bone
      necrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Posterior vertebrectomy with mesh cage insertion and
      segmental cement-augmented pedicle screw fixation is an effective approach for
      treating patients with advanced Kummell disease with neurologic deficit.

PMID- 28874984
TI  - Neuropathic Pain after Spinal Surgery.
AB  - Neuropathic pain after spinal surgery, the so-called failed back surgery syndrome
      (FBSS), is a frequently observed troublesome disease entity. Although medications
      may be effective to some degree, many patients continue experiencing intolerable
      pain and functional disability. Only gabapentin has been proven effective in
      patients with FBSS. No relevant studies regarding manipulation or physiotherapy
      for FBSS have been published. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been widely
      investigated as a treatment option for chronic neuropathic pain, including FBSS.
      SCS was generally accepted to improve chronic back and leg pain, physical
      function, and sleep quality. Although the cost effectiveness of SCS has been
      proved in many studies, its routine application is limited considering that it is
      invasive and is associated with safety issues. Percutaneous epidural adhesiolysis
      has also shown good clinical outcomes; however, its effects persisted for only a
      short period. Because none of the current methods provide absolute superiority in
      terms of clinical outcomes, a multidisciplinary approach is required to manage
      this complex disease. Further studies concerning the etiology, diagnosis,
      treatment, and cost effectiveness of FBSS are warranted to deepen our
      understanding of this condition.

PMID- 28874985
TI  - An Updated Overview of Low Back Pain Management in Primary Care.
AB  - Currently, guidelines for lower back pain (LBP) treatment are needed. We reviewed
      the current guidelines and high-quality articles to confirm the LBP guidelines
      for the Korean Society of Spine Surgery. We searched available databases for high
      quality articles in English on LBP published from 2000 to the present year.
      Literature searches using these guidelines included studies from MEDLINE, the
      Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials, and Embase. We analyzed a total of 132 randomized clinical
      trials, 116 systematic reviews, 9 meta-analyses, and 4 clinical guideline
      reviews. We adopted the SIGN checklist for the assessment of article quality.
      Data were subsequently abstracted by a reviewer and verified. Many treatment
      options exist for LBP, with a variety of recommendation grades. We assessed the
      recommendation grade for general behavior, pharmacological therapy, psychological
      therapy, and specific exercises. This information should be helpful to physicians
      in the treatment of LBP patients.

PMID- 28874986
TI  - Neuropathic Pain Related with Spinal Disorders: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Systematic literature review. To review the evidence from high-quality studies
      regarding the treatment of neuropathic pain originating specifically from spinal
      disorders. In general, treatment guidelines for neuropathic pain cover all its
      various causes, including medical disease, peripheral neuropathy, and cancer.
      However, the natural history of neuropathic pain originating from spinal
      disorders may differ from that of the pain originating from other causes or
      lesions. An expert research librarian used terms related to neuropathic pain and
      spinal disorders, disc herniation, stenosis, and spinal cord injury to search in
      MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane CENTRAL for primary research from January 2000 to
      October 2015. Among 2,313 potential studies of interest, 25 randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) and 21 systematic reviews (SRs) were included in the analysis. The
      selection was decided based on the agreement of two orthopedic surgeons. There
      was a lack of evidence about medication for radiculopathy arising from disc
      herniation and stenosis, but intervention procedures, including epidural block,
      showed positive efficacy in radiculopathy and also limited efficacy in spinal
      stenosis. There was some evidence based on the short-term follow-up regarding
      surgery being superior to conservative treatments for radiculopathy and stenosis.
      There was limited evidence regarding the efficacy of pharmacological and electric
      or magnetic stimulation therapies for neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury.
      This review of RCTs and SRs with high-quality evidence found some evidence
      regarding the efficacy of various treatment modalities for neuropathic pain
      related specifically to spinal disorders. However, there is a need for much more
      supportive evidence.

PMID- 28874987
TI  - Letter to the editor: Clinical Use, Quality of Life and Cost-Effectiveness of
      Spinal Cord Stimulation Used to Treat Patients with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.

PMID- 28874988
TI  - Response to: Clinical Use, Quality of Life and Cost-Effectiveness of Spinal Cord
      Stimulation Used to Treat Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.

PMID- 28874989
TI  - Evaluation of marginal and internal gaps in single and three-unit metal
      frameworks made by micro-stereolithography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to compare single and three-unit metal
      frameworks that are produced by micro-stereolithography. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Silicone impressions of a selected molar and a premolar were used to make master
      abutments that were scanned into a stereolithography file. The file was processed
      with computer aided design software to create single and three-unit designs from
      which resin frameworks were created using micro-stereolithography. These resin
      frameworks were subjected to investment, burnout, and casting to fabricate single
      and three-unit metal ones that were measured under a digital microscope by using
      the silicone replica technique. The measurements were verified by means of the
      Mann-Whitney U test (alpha=.05). RESULTS: The marginal gap was 101.9 +/- 53.4 um
      for SM group and 104.3 +/- 62.9 um for TUM group. The measurement of non-pontics
      in a single metal framework was 93.6 +/- 43.9 um, and that of non-pontics in a
      three-unit metal framework was 64.9 +/- 46.5 um. The dimension of pontics in a
      single metal framework was 110.2 +/- 61.4 um, and that of pontics in a three-unit
      metal framework was 143.7 +/- 51.8 um. CONCLUSION: The marginal gap was smaller
      for the single metal framework than for the three-unit one, which requires
      further improvement before it can be used for clinical purposes.

PMID- 28874990
TI  - In vitro study of the fracture resistance of monolithic lithium disilicate,
      monolithic zirconia, and lithium disilicate pressed on zirconia for three-unit
      fixed dental prostheses.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine fracture resistance and
      failure modes of three-unit fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) made of lithium
      disilicate pressed on zirconia (LZ), monolithic lithium disilicate (ML), and
      monolithic zirconia (MZ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Co-Cr alloy three-unit metal
      FDPs model with maxillary first premolar and first molar abutments was
      fabricated. Three different FDPs groups, LZ, ML, and MZ, were prepared (n = 5 per
      group). The three-unit FDPs designs were identical for all specimens and cemented
      with resin cement on the prepared metal model. The region of pontic in FDPs was
      given 50,000 times of cyclic preloading at 2 Hz via dental chewing simulator and
      received a static load until fracture with universal testing machine fixed at 10
      degrees . The fracture resistance and mode of failure were recorded. Statistical
      analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test
      with Bonferroni's correction (alpha=0.05/3=0.017). RESULTS: A significant
      difference in fracture resistance was found between LZ (4943.87 +/- 1243.70 N)
      and ML (2872.61 +/- 658.78 N) groups, as well as between ML and MZ (4948.02 +/-
      974.51 N) groups (P<.05), but no significant difference was found between LZ and
      MZ groups (P>.05). With regard to fracture pattern, there were three cases of
      veneer chipping and two interfacial fractures in LZ group, and complete fracture
      was observed in all the specimens of ML and MZ groups. CONCLUSION: Compared to
      monolithic lithium disilicate FDPs, monolithic zirconia FDPs and lithium
      disilicate glass ceramics pressed on zirconia-based FDPs showed superior fracture
      resistance while they manifested comparable fracture resistances.

PMID- 28874991
TI  - Ceramic molar crown reproducibility by digital workflow manufacturing: An in
      vitro study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This in vitro study aimed to analyze and compare the reproducibility of
      zirconia and lithium disilicate crowns manufactured by digital workflow.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A typodont model with a prepped upper first molar was set
      in a phantom head, and a digital impression was obtained with a video intraoral
      scanner (CEREC Omnicam; Sirona GmbH), from which a single crown was designed and
      manufactured with CAD/CAM into a zirconia crown and lithium disilicate crown
      (n=12). Reproducibility of each crown was quantitatively retrieved by
      superimposing the digitized data of the crown in 3D inspection software, and
      differences were graphically mapped in color. Areas with large differences were
      analyzed with digital microscopy. Mean quadratic deviations (RMS) quantitatively
      obtained from each ceramic group were statistically analyzed with Student's t
      test (alpha=.05). RESULTS: The RMS value of lithium disilicate crown was 29.2
      (4.1) um and 17.6 (5.5) um on the outer and inner surfaces, respectively, whereas
      these values were 18.6 (2.0) um and 20.6 (5.1) um for the zirconia crown.
      Reproducibility of zirconia and lithium disilicate crowns had a statistically
      significant difference only on the outer surface (P<.001). The outer surface of
      lithium disilicate crown showed over-contouring on the buccal surface and under
      contouring on the inner occlusal surface. The outer surface of zirconia crown
      showed both over- and under-contouring on the buccal surface, and the inner
      surface showed under-contouring in the marginal areas. CONCLUSION: Restoration
      manufacturing by digital workflow will enhance the reproducibility of zirconia
      single crowns more than that of lithium disilicate single crowns.

PMID- 28874992
TI  - Comparison of traditional and simplified methods for repairing CAD/CAM
      feldspathic ceramics.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the adhesion to CAD/CAM feldspathic blocks by failure
      analysis and shear bond strength test (SBSt) of different restorative systems and
      different surface treatments, for purpose of moderate chipping repair. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A self-adhering flowable composite (Vertise Flow, Kerr) containing
      bi-functional phosphate monomers and a conventional flowable resin composite
      (Premise Flow, Kerr) applied with and without adhesive system (Optibond Solo
      Plus, Kerr) were combined with three different surface treatments (Hydrofluoric
      Acid Etching, Sandblasting, combination of both) for repairing feldspathic
      ceramics. Two commercial systems for ceramic repairing were tested as controls
      (Porcelain Repair Kit, Ultradent, and CoJet System, 3M). SBSt was performed and
      failure mode was evaluated using a digital microscope. A One-Way ANOVA (Tukey
      test for post hoc) was applied to the SBSt data and the Fisher's Exact Test was
      applied to the failure analysis data. RESULTS: The use of resin systems
      containing bi-functional phosphate monomers combined with hydrofluoric acid
      etching of the ceramic surface gave the highest values in terms of bond strength
      and of more favorable failure modalities. CONCLUSION: The simplified repairing
      method based on self-adhering flowable resin combined with the use of
      hydrofluoric acid etching showed high bond strength values and a favorable
      failure mode. Repairing of ceramic chipping with a self-adhering flowable resin
      associated with hydrofluoric acid etching showed high bond strength with a less
      time consuming and technique-sensitive procedure compared to standard procedure.

PMID- 28874993
TI  - Evaluation of internal fit of interim crown fabricated with CAD/CAM milling and
      3D printing system.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study is to evaluate the internal fit of the crown manufactured by
      CAD/CAM milling method and 3D printing method. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The master
      model was fabricated with stainless steel by using CNC machine and the work model
      was created from the vinyl-polysiloxane impression. After scanning the working
      model, the design software is used to design the crown. The saved STL file is
      used on the CAD/CAM milling method and two types of 3D printing method to produce
      10 interim crowns per group. Internal discrepancy measurement uses the silicon
      replica method and the measured data are analyzed with One-way ANOVA to verify
      the statistic significance. RESULTS: The discrepancy means (standard deviation)
      of the 3 groups are 171.6 (97.4) um for the crown manufactured by the milling
      system and 149.1 (65.9) and 91.1 (36.4) um, respectively, for the crowns
      manufactured with the two types of 3D printing system. There was a statistically
      significant difference and the 3D printing system group showed more outstanding
      value than the milling system group. CONCLUSION: The marginal and internal fit of
      the interim restoration has more outstanding 3D printing method than the CAD/CAM
      milling method. Therefore, the 3D printing method is considered as applicable for
      not only the interim restoration production, but also in the dental prosthesis
      production with a higher level of completion.

PMID- 28874994
TI  - Comparison of fit accuracy and torque maintenance of zirconia and titanium
      abutments for internal tri-channel and external-hex implant connections.
AB  - PURPOSE: This in vitro study aimed to evaluate the effect of implant connection
      design (external vs. internal) on the fit discrepancy and torque loss of zirconia
      and titanium abutments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two regular platform dental
      implants, one with external connection (Branemark, Nobel Biocare AB) and the
      other with internal connection (Noble Replace, Nobel Biocare AB), were selected.
      Seven titanium and seven customized zirconia abutments were used for each
      connection design. Measurements of geometry, marginal discrepancy, and rotational
      freedom were done using video measuring machine. To measure the torque loss, each
      abutment was torqued to 35 Ncm and then opened by means of a digital torque
      wrench. Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA and t-test at alpha=0.05 of
      significance. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the geometrical
      measurements and rotational freedom between abutments of two connection groups
      (P<.001). Also, the results showed significant differences between titanium
      abutments of internal and external connection implants in terms of rotational
      freedom (P<.001). Not only customized internal abutments but also customized
      external abutments did not have the exact geometry of prefabricated abutments
      (P<.001). However, neither connection type (P=.15) nor abutment material (P=.38)
      affected torque loss. CONCLUSION: Abutments with internal connection showed less
      rotational freedom. However, better marginal fit was observed in externally
      connected abutments. Also, customized abutments with either connection could not
      duplicate the exact geometry of their corresponding prefabricated abutment.
      However, neither abutment connection nor material affected torque loss values.

PMID- 28874995
TI  - Theoretical axial wall angulation for rotational resistance form in an
      experimental-fixed partial denture.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of long base
      lengths of a fixed partial denture (FPD) to rotational resistance with variation
      of vertical wall angulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Trigonometric calculations
      were done to determine the maximum wall angle needed to resist rotational
      displacement of an experimental-FPD model in 2-dimensional plane. The maximum
      wall angle calculation determines the greatest taper that resists rotation. Two
      different axes of rotation were used to test this model with five vertical
      abutment heights of 3-, 3.5-, 4-, 4.5-, and 5-mm. The two rotational axes were
      located on the mesial-side of the anterior abutment and the distal-side of the
      posterior abutment. Rotation of the FPD around the anterior axis was counter
      clockwise, Posterior-Anterior (P-A) and clockwise, Anterior-Posterior (A-P)
      around the distal axis in the sagittal plane. RESULTS: Low levels of vertical
      wall taper, <= 10-degrees, were needed to resist rotational displacement in all
      wall height categories; 2-to-6-degrees is generally considered ideal, with 7-to
      10-degrees as favorable to the long axis of the abutment. Rotation around both
      axes demonstrated that two axial walls of the FPD resisted rotational
      displacement in each direction. In addition, uneven abutment height combinations
      required the lowest wall angulations to achieve resistance in this study.
      CONCLUSION: The vertical height and angulation of FPD abutments, two rotational
      axes, and the long base lengths all play a role in FPD resistance form.

PMID- 28874997
TI  - Influence of the material for preformed moulds on the polymerization temperature
      of resin materials for temporary FPDs.
AB  - PURPOSE: Temperature increase of 5.5 C can cause damage or necrosis of the pulp.
      Increasing temperature can be caused not only by mechanical factors, e.g.
      grinding, but also by exothermic polymerization reactions of resin materials. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate influences of the form material on the
      intrapulpal temperature during the polymerization of different self-curing resin
      materials for temporary restorations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 30 provisonal
      bridges were made of 5 resin materials: Prevision Temp (Pre), Protemp 4 (Pro),
      Luxatemp Star (Lux), Structure 3 (Str) and an experimental material (Exp). Moulds
      made of alginate (A) and of silicone (S) and vacuum formed moulds (V) were used
      to build 10 bridges each on a special experimental setup. The intrapulpal
      temperatures of three abutment teeth (a canine, a premolar, and a molar,) were
      measured during the polymerization every second under isothermal conditions.
      Comparisons of the maximum temperature (TMax) and the time until the maximum
      temperature (tTMax) were performed using ANOVA and Tukey Test. RESULTS: Using
      alginate as the mould material resulted in a cooling effect for every resin
      material. Using the vacuum formed mould, TMax increased significantly compared to
      alginate (P<.001) and silicone (P<.001). In groups Lux, Pro, and Pre, tTMax
      increased when the vacuum formed moulds were used. In groups Exp and Str, there
      was no influence of the mould material on tTMax. CONCLUSION: All of the mould
      materials are suitable for clinical use if the intraoral application time does
      not exceed the manufacturer's instructions for the resin materials.

PMID- 28874996
TI  - Accuracy of a separating foil impression using a novel polyolefin foil compared
      to a custom tray and a stock tray technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the dimensional accuracy of three impression techniques- a
      separating foil impression, a custom tray impression, and a stock tray
      impression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A machined mandibular complete-arch metal
      model with special modifications served as a master cast. Three different
      impression techniques (n = 6 in each group) were performed with addition-cured
      silicon materials: i) putty-wash technique with a prefabricated metal tray (MET)
      using putty and regular body, ii) single-phase impression with custom tray (CUS)
      using regular body material, and iii) two-stage technique with stock metal tray
      (SEP) using putty with a separating foil and regular body material. All
      impressions were poured with epoxy resin. Six different distances (four intra
      abutment and two inter-abutment distances) were gauged on the metal master model
      and on the casts with a microscope in combination with calibrated measuring
      software. The differences of the evaluated distances between the reference and
      the three test groups were calculated and expressed as mean (+/- SD).
      Additionally, the 95% confidence intervals were calculated and significant
      differences between the experimental groups were assumed when confidence
      intervals did not overlap. RESULTS: Dimensional changes compared to reference
      values varied between -74.01 and 32.57 um (MET), -78.86 and 30.84 (CUS), and
      between -92.20 and 30.98 (SEP). For the intra-abutment distances, no significant
      differences among the experimental groups were detected. CUS showed a
      significantly higher dimensional accuracy for the inter-abutment distances with 
      0.02 and -0.08 percentage deviation compared to MET and SEP. CONCLUSION: The
      separation foil technique is a simple alternative to the custom tray technique
      for single tooth restorations, while limitations may exist for extended
      restorations with multiple abutment teeth.

PMID- 28874998
TI  - Correlation between sagittal condylar guidance angles obtained using radiographic
      and protrusive occlusal record methods.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study compared the SCGAs measured in three types of radiographic
      images (panoramic, CBCT panoramic-section, and CBCT cross-section images) with
      values measured using the protrusive occlusal record. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      SCGAs were measured in 20 patients on a semi-adjustable articulator using the
      protrusive interocclusal record. Panoramic and CBCT images were obtained. SCGAs
      were measured on CBCT images in panoramic and cross sections. In all of the
      radiographic images, SCGAs were measured using the Frankfort horizontal reference
      line and the mean curvature line. The most-superior and most-inferior points of
      the curvatures were identified to determine the mean curvature line. Each
      measurement was performed twice by two operators independently. The data were
      analyzed by the t-test, Pearson's correlation test, and Cronbach's alpha using
      SPSS (alpha=.05). RESULTS: The mean right and left SCGAs were as follows:
      protrusive occlusal record (30.1 and 30.2 degrees, respectively), panoramic (38.9
      and 38.7 degrees), CBCT panoramic sections (35.4 and 36.8 degrees), and CBCT
      cross sections (35.3 and 36.1 degrees). The SCGAs differed significantly among
      the groups. The Pearson coefficients for the correlations with the protrusive
      occlusal record measurements on the left and right sides were as follows:
      panoramic (0.834 and 0.791, respectively), CBCT panoramic-section (0.918 and
      0.837), and CBCT cross-section (0.918 and 0.845) images. CONCLUSION: Strong
      correlations were found between SCGAs obtained using radiographic images and the
      protrusive occlusal record.

PMID- 28874999
TI  - Comparison of retention forces with various fabrication methods and materials in
      double crowns.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the retention force changes and
      wear behaviours of double-crown systems over long-term use. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Ten groups, each consisting of six samples, were evaluated.
      Specifically, casting gold alloy primary crown - casting gold alloy secondary
      crown (AA), laser sintering primary crown - laser sintering secondary crown (LL),
      casting Cr alloy primary crown - casting Cr alloy secondary crown, (CC) zirconia
      primary crown - electroformed secondary crown (ZA), and CAD/CAM titanium alloy
      primary crown - CAD/CAM titanium alloy secondary crown (TT) groups were evaluated
      at cone angles of 4 degrees  and 6 degrees . The samples were subjected to 5,000
      insertion-separation cycles in artificial saliva, and the retention forces were
      measured every 500 cycles. The wear levels were analyzed via SEM at the beginning
      and end of the 5,000 cycles. RESULTS: In all samples, the retention forces
      increased when the conus angle decreased. The highest initial and final retention
      force values were found in the LL-4 degrees  group (32.89 N-32.65 N), and the
      lowest retention force values were found in the ZA6 degrees  group (5.41 N-6.27
      N). The ZA groups' samples showed the least change in the retention force, and no
      wear was observed. In the other groups, wear was observed mostly in the primary
      crowns. CONCLUSION: More predictable, clinically relevant, and less excursive
      retention forces can be observed in the ZA groups. The retention force values of
      the LL groups were statically similar to those of the other groups, except the ZA
      groups.

PMID- 28875000
TI  - Analysis of crown size and morphology, and gingival shape in the maxillary
      anterior dentition in Korean young adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this investigation was to analyze the dimensions of clinical
      crowns and to classify the crown and the gingival type in the anterior teeth in
      Korean young adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Casts were obtained from 50 subjects
      ranging in age from 24 to 32. Measurements of length and width were made on the
      casts using a pair of digital calipers on the entire dentition. Crown thickness
      and papilla height were also measured and MDW/CL (mesiodistal width to clinical
      length) and CW/CL (cervical width to clinical length) ratios of the maxillary
      anterior teeth were calculated. The K-clustering method was used for CW/CL to
      classify the anterior tooth shape into three groups (tapered, ovoid, and square),
      and one-way analysis of variance and Duncan's post-hoc comparison were used to
      evaluate statistical significance between the groups. Pearson's correlation
      analysis was performed between tooth shape and papillary height (PH) to
      demonstrate the correlation between tooth shape and gingival morphological
      characteristics. RESULTS: The average length of the maxillary central incisors
      was 9.89 mm; the mesio-distal width was 8.54 mm; and the ratio of width/length
      was 0.86 in Korean young adults. The average bucco-palatal thickness of the
      central incisor was 3.14 mm at the incisal 1/3 aspect. Ovoid type was the most
      common tooth shape (48%), followed by square type (29%) and taper type (23%) in
      the central incisors of Korean young adults. Tooth shape and gingival type were
      correlated with each other. CONCLUSION: New reference data were established for
      tooth size in Korean young adults and the data show several patterns of tooth
      shape and gingival type. Clinicians should diagnose and treat based on these
      characteristics for better results in the Korean population.

PMID- 28875001
TI  - Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura and Hemolytic Anemia Secondary to Hepatitis A.
AB  - Hepatitis A is common in children and usually is a self-limiting disease.
      Although extrahepatic and hematological immune manifestations following acute
      hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection have rarely been reported, they are frequently
      observed in other viral hepatitis. In this paper, we report the case of a 3-year
      old girl who developed immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and hemolytic anemia
      after HAV infection. She was presented with malaise, pallor, ecchymosis,
      petechiae and purpura on the trunk and extremities.

PMID- 28875002
TI  - Prevalence of G6PD deficiency in Children with Hepatitis A.
AB  - Introduction: Hepatitis A virus is the most prevalent viral hepatitis. It is
      globally a major public health problem with different clinical symptoms. This
      study aimed at investigating the clinical findings and prevalence of glucose 6
      phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in children with hepatitis A. Materials
      and Methods: In this prospective study, demographical information, clinical
      findings, and G6PD level of hepatitis A patients, who were visited at Pediatric
      Hematology clinic, were entered into the database. The diagnosis of hepatitis A
      infection was based on the presence of anti-HAV IgM antibody. The activity of
      G6PD enzyme was measured with florescent spot test. Results: Of the 117 children
      with hepatitis A, 52 (44.4%) were male and 65 (55.6%) were female. The mean age
      of these patients was 2.79+/-5.39 years. The most prevalent clinical
      manifestations were dark yellow urine and anorexia. G6PD deficiency was observed
      in 26 (26.3%) out of 99 patients whose G6PD levels were measured. Conclusion:
      Given the high prevalence of G6PD deficiency in this study, the measurement of
      G6PD level along with other liver and biochemical markers in areas with endemic
      hepatitis A is recommended. In addition, it is recommended that patients
      undertake precise monitoring for hemolysis and renal function.

PMID- 28875003
TI  - Inhibition of Angiogenesis: A Novel Effect of Zataria Multiflora.
AB  - Background: Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting
      ones, is among the most important physiological and pathological processes that
      occur in the body. Under pathological conditions such as tumor growth, psoriasis,
      corneal neovascularization and rheumatoid arthritis, angiogenesis is substantial
      for the development of the disease. Zataria multiflora is a member of the
      Labiatae family with a vast range of traditional uses which has been long known
      and applied in Iran old medicine. The aim of this study was the evaluation of
      anti-angiogenic potential of Zataria multiflora. Materials and Methods: In this
      study, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were isolated from newborn
      umbilical veins and then cultured for cytotoxicity (LDH test) assay. Regarding
      LDH results, following tests such as angiogenesis (cytodex-3 micro carrier) and
      migration (wound healing) tests were designed. Results: The cytotoxicity assays
      showed no toxicity of Z.multiflora toward HUVECs in the range of 10-450ug/mL of
      the extract. This extract was also able to inhibit angiogenesis and migration at
      200ug/mL. Conclusion: Our data clearly demonstrated an inhibitory effect of Z.
      multiflora on angiogenesis and migration of HUVECs. Z. multiflora could be
      introduced as a significant angiogenesis inhibitor for angiogenesis-dependent
      diseases in further complementary studies.

PMID- 28875004
TI  - A Comparative Cytotoxic Evaluation of Disulfiram Encapsulated PLGA Nanoparticles
      on MCF-7 Cells.
AB  - Background: Disulfiram is oral aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) inhibitor that has
      been used in the treatment of alcoholism. Recent studies show that this drug has
      anticancer properties; however, its rapid degradation has limited its clinical
      application. Encapsulation of disulfiram polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) may
      improve its anticancer activities and protect rapid degradation of the drug.
      Materials andMethods: A poly (lactide-co-Glycolide) (PLGA) was developed for
      encapsulation of disulfiram and its delivery into breast cancer cells. Disulfiram
      encapsulated PLGA NPs were prepared by nanoprecipitation method and were
      characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The loading and
      encapsulation efficiency of NPs were determined using UV-Visible spectroscopy.
      Cell cytotoxicity of free and encapsulated form of disulfiram is also determined
      using MTT assay. Results: Disulfiram encapsulated PLGA NPs had uniform size with
      165 nm. Drug loading and entrapment efficiency were 5.35 +/-0.03% and 58.85+/
      1.01%. The results of MTT assay showed that disulfiram encapsulated PLGA NPs were
      more potent in induction of apoptosis compare to free disulfiram. Conclusion:
      Based on the results obtained in the present study it can be concluded that
      encapsulation of disulfiram with PLGA can protect its degradation in improve its
      cytotoxicity on breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28875005
TI  - Iron Profile and Inflammatory Status of Overweight and Obese Women in Sari, North
      of Iran.
AB  - Background: It has been suggested that inflammatory state due to obesity can lead
      to alteration in iron metabolism. Women in reproductive age are at higher risk of
      iron deficiency. In this study, we aimed to evaluate inflammatory status and iron
      markers in young overweight and obese women. Subjects and Methods: In this study,
      120 young and healthy women with a BMI >= 25 kg/m2 were enrolled. Biochemical
      data including iron profile and inflammatory markers were analyzed using mean +/-
      standard deviation or median (interquartile range) and multivariate multiple
      regression model via MANOVA. Results: Iron deficiency anemia (hemoglobin < 120
      g/l) and iron deficiency without anemia (serum ferritin<30.0 mg/l) were detected
      in 21.67% and 33.33% of participants, respectively. Multivariate modeling showed
      that BMI was a significant predictor of transferrin saturation (p = 0.037), CRP
      (p = 0.013), soluble transferrin receptor (p=0.045), and soluble transferrin
      receptor/ ferritin ratio (0.015). Conclusion: The results of this study supported
      the positive association between obesity and inflammation and mild changes in
      iron markers.

PMID- 28875006
TI  - Aberrant Methylation-Mediated Suppression of APAF1 in Myelodysplastic Syndrome.
AB  - Background: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) include a diverse group of clonal
      bone marrow disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis and
      pancytopenia. It was found that down regulation of APAF1, a putative tumor
      suppressor gene (TSG), leads to resistance to chemotherapy and disease
      development in some cancers. In this study, we investigated the relation of APAF1
      methylation status with its expression and clinicopathological factors in
      myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients. Materials andMethods: Methylation
      Sensitive-High Resolution Melting Curve Analysis (MS-HRM) was employed in
      studying the methylation of CpG islands in the APAF1promoter region in MDS. Gene
      expression was analyzed by using real time RT-PCR. Results: 42.6% of patient
      samples were methylated in promoter region of APAF1analyzed, while methylation of
      the gene was not seen in controls (P<0.05). Methylation of APAF1was significantly
      associated with the suppression of its mRNA expression (P=0.00). The methylation
      status of APAF1in advanced-stage MDS patients (80%) was significantly higher than
      that of the early-stage MDS patients (28.2%) (P=0.001). The difference in
      frequency of hypermethylatedAPAF1 gene was significant between good (37.5%) and
      poor (85.71%) cytogenetic risk groups (P=0.043). In addition, a higher frequency
      of APAF1hypermethylation was observed in higher-risk MDS group (69.2%) compared
      to lower-risk MDS group (34.14%) (P=0.026). Conclusion: Our study indicated that
      APAF1hypermethylation in MDS was associated to high-risk disease classified
      according to the IPSS, WHO and cytogenetic risk.

PMID- 28875008
TI  - Renal Hemosiderosis among Iranian Transfusion Dependent beta-Thalassemia Major
      Patients.
AB  - Background: In recent years, the success in management of thalassemic patients,
      has allowed for some previously unrecognized complications including renal
      abnormalities to emerge. This prospective study aimed to investigate kidney iron
      overload by means of MRI T2* and also renal function based on laboratory tests
      for early markers of glomerular and tubular dysfunction among adult Iranian
      transfusion-dependent thalassemia major patients. Subjects and Methods: Two
      hundred and two patients with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia major were
      included in this study in Zafar Adult Thalassemia Center, Tehran, Iran. For all
      patients, kidney MRI T2* as well as evaluation of BUN, creatinine, uric acid,
      calcium, phosphorus, sodium (Na), potassium (K), total protein, albumin, cystatin
      C, serum ferritin beta2-microglobulin, NAG (N-acetyl-beta-D-Glucosaminidase), and
      urine protein were performed. Results: One-hundred and fourteen female and 88
      male transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia major patients with mean age of 30.1
      +/- 9.4 participated in the present study. We found that 77.7% of our patients
      had kidney hemosiderosis based on MRI T2*. Also, 67 patients (33.2%) had
      elevation of serum cystatin C, and 104 patients (51.5%) had reduced estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR). Increased urinary excretion of NAG and
      hypercalciuria were found in 50% and 79.2% of participants, respectively.
      Conclusion: Renal hemosiderosis and asymptomatic renal dysfunction are prevalent
      among transfusion- dependent beta-thalassemia major patients which necessitate
      regular screening with early markers of glomerular and tubular dysfunction.
      Further studies in order to investigate the correlation between renal
      hemosiderosis and early markers of kidney dysfunction among these patients are
      recommended.

PMID- 28875007
TI  - The Impact of Confluence on Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem (BMMSC) Proliferation
      and Osteogenic Differentiation.
AB  - Background: In the field of cellular therapy, the impact of confluence
      degreeonharvesting or differentiation of BMMSCs and the effect of cell-to-cell
      contact remain controversial. Therefore, the effect of confluence on properties
      of BMMSCs was studied and efficiency of confluence-associated osteogenic
      differentiation was identified. Materials andMethods: The impact of 20, 50, 70,
      80 and 100% confluences on proliferation properties of BMMSCs, expression of ERK
      and p-ERK proteins and glucose consumption rate was studied. Efficiency of
      confluence-associated osteogenic differentiation was identified by determining
      calcium deposition, Alizarin Red staining, ALP activity and expression of
      osteopontin and osteocalcin genes. Results: There was a correlation between
      confluence % and BMMSCs density. Viability was declined at the lower and higher
      confluences. The highest CFU-F, Brd-U uptake and population doubling were
      obtained at 80% confluence. ERK band intensity in 100% confluent BMMSCs was lower
      compared to other confluences. Bands of p-ERK were highly detectable in 70% and
      80% confluences. Glucose consumption rate of 70% and 80% confluences in the last
      days were higher than 20% and 100% confluences. Although higher osteogenic
      differentiation was estimated at 80% confluence using calcium deposition,
      Alizarin Red staining and ALP activity, it was also extended at 100% confluence
      Osteopontin gene was expressed among all confluences including 100% confluence,
      while osteocalcin gene was expressed highly in 70% confluent cells. Conclusion:
      We concluded that the optimum seeding density for maximal expansion and
      harvesting purposes is 80% confluence and for osteogenic differentiation up to
      100% confluence is also acceptable.

PMID- 28875009
TI  - ABO Incompatibility and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Outcomes.
AB  - Introduction: The increased risk of hemolytic reactions and erythrocyte recovery
      delay in ABO incompatible hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are well
      established. Effects of ABO incompatibility on other transplantation outcomes are
      evaluated in this study. Subjects and Methods: We prospectively followed 501
      patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation regarding their ABO
      compatibility groups for a median time of 34.7 months. Patients were studied in
      minor, major and bidirectional mismatched and matched groups. Results: Mean
      survival time (OS) was lower in minor mismatched group (p-value= 0.017). Minor
      and bidirectional mismatched groups received significantly more packed cell units
      than matched group (p-value < 0.0001 and p-value =0.002, respectively).Mean
      number of platelet unit infusion was significantly more in major mismatched
      recipients than matched group (p- value=0.031). Death rate was much more than
      expected in minor mismatched group. Two cases of PRCA (pure red cell aplasia)
      were found in major mismatched group. No statistically significant difference was
      found in the incidence of acute GVHD, chronic GVHD, time to neutrophil recovery,
      relapse- free survival, non-relapse mortality and relapse rate among groups.
      Conclusion: In order to prevent complications of ABO-incompatible SCT such as
      decrease in OS and the need for more transfusions, choosing ABO-compatible donors
      would improve transplantation outcomes.

PMID- 28875010
TI  - Anti-Apoptotic Effects of Osteopontin via the Up-Regulation of AKT/mTOR/beta
      Catenin Loop in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells.
AB  - Background: The conventional chemotherapeutic regimens which applied for
      treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) mostly target tumor bulk but not
      leukemic stem cells (LSCs). Aberrant expression or activation of mediators such
      as osteopontin (OPN) or PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTOR pathway plays a key role in making
      prone to develop leukemia. Preventing or treating cancer by curcumin (CUR) has
      been suggested recently. CUR induces apoptosis and growth inhibition through
      various mechanisms in leukemic cells. In present study, we tried to measure the
      toxic response in vitro to CUR for evaluation ofchangesin cell viability,
      survival and molecular-mediated resistance in primary AML cells. Materials and
      Methods: Isolated primary CD34+/CD38- bone marrow derived AML cells were treated
      with CUR, Daunorubicin (DNR) and/or their combination by MTT assay, Annexin V/PI
      staining, and colony-formation. The mRNA expression of OPN/AKT/mTOR/PTEN/beta
      catenin genes was measured by Real-Time PCR. The siRNA against OPN was applied
      for CUR- treated cells. Results: Growth inhibition effect of DNR increased in
      combination with CUR on primary CD34+/CD38- AML cells. Suppression of OPN with
      siRNA increased the cytotoxic effects of CUR. Likewise, OPN gene expression
      increased in response to CUR treatment in AML cells. AKT, mTOR, beta-catenin or
      PTEN gene expression increased by CUR, but OPN siRNA decreased the level of mRNA
      expression of mentioned molecular pathway. Conclusion: The chemo-resistance of
      AML cells against therapy might be relevant to increasing of OPN mRNA expression
      and activity of other mediators including AKT, mTOR, PTEN, and beta-catenin. In
      this context, targeting of OPN might be more impact on CD34+ AML cells.

PMID- 28875011
TI  - Evaluation of E-cadherin Expression in Gastric Cancer and Its Correlation with
      Clinicopathologic Parameters.
AB  - Background: Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. There
      are many genomic and molecular factors that cause gastric cancer to occur. Also,
      many markers that associate with tumor invasiveness have been known. E-cadherin
      is a calcium- mediated cell adhesion molecule. In some studies, abnormal
      expression of E-cadherin has been seen in gastric carcinoma. However, in the
      studies done there has been some conflicting information about abnormal
      expression of this marker in a variety of gastric carcinoma and also about the
      expression of this marker and its correlation with various clinicopathologic
      factors of tumor. Subjects andMethods: A case control study was performed on
      total or partial gastrectomy tissue samples obtained from 70 patients with
      gastric cancer and adjacent non-neoplastic tissues. The immunohistochemistry was
      used to assess E-cadherin expression. The correlation between abnormal E-cadherin
      expression and tumor histopathology was evaluated in all patients. Results: Among
      70 patients who were analyzed, 48.6% showed abnormal E-cadherin expression. A
      significant correlation was seen between abnormal E-cadherin expression and tumor
      stage, grade, lymph node metastasis, tumor phenotype, tumor type, depth of
      invasion and age. Conclusion: Abnormal E-cadherin expression is a common
      phenomenon in gastric cancer. Because there was a strong correlation between
      abnormal E-cadherin expression and tumor stage, tumor grade, depth of invasion
      and regional lymph node involvement, this marker may be used as a predictive
      factor for tumor invasiveness in gastric cancer.

PMID- 28875012
TI  - Xmn1-158 gammaGVariant in B-Thalassemia Intermediate Patients in South-East of
      Iran.
AB  - Background: Xmn-1 polymorphism of ??Gglobin gene (HBG2) is a prominent
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) in beta-thalassemia intermediate (beta-TI). In
      current study, we evaluated the frequency of Xmn-1 polymorphism and its
      association with beta-globin gene (HBB) alleles and Hb F level in beta-TI
      patients in Sistan and Balouchestan province, south-east of Iran. Subjects and
      Methods: 45 beta-TI patients were enrolled. HBB gene mutations and Xmn-1
      polymorphism were determined by amplification-refractory mutation system (ARMS)
      PCR method. Hemoglobin profile was determined using capillary electrophoresis.
      Results: The study participants consisted of 26 (58%) males and 19 (42%) females.
      Mean age of the patients was 10.7+/-3.1 years old. Overall, Xmn-1 polymorphism
      was observed in 28 (62%) patients. Homozygous (TT) and heterozygous (CT)
      genotypes of the polymorphism represented with frequencies of 12 (26%) and 16
      (35%), respectively. Main recognized HBB gene mutation was IVSI-5(G>C) with
      homozygous frequency of 44%. Non-zero (beta+) alleles of HBB gene constituted
      11.1 % (4 patients with heterozygous beta+ and one with homozygous beta+
      genotype). Hb F level was significantly higher in patients with at least one Xmn
      1allele (67.9+/-[Formula: see text]17.9%) than those without the polymorphism
      (19.5+/-20.3%, P<0.0001). Also, patients with homozygous genotype demonstrated
      significantly higher Hb F compared to heterozygous (CT) cases (respective
      percentages of 85+/-[Formula: see text]6.8 and 54.7+/-[Formula: see text]10.5,
      p<0.0001). Conclusion: Our results highlighted the role of Xmn-1 polymorphism as
      the main phenotypic modifier in beta-TI patients in Sistan and Balouchestan
      province.

PMID- 28875013
TI  - Simultaneous oral administration of Salmonella Infantis and S. Typhimurium in
      chicks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To confirm the hypothesis that Salmonella enterica subspecies
      enterica serovar (S.) Infantis has higher basic reproductive rates in chicks
      compared with other Salmonella serovars, 1-day-old specific-pathogen-free chicks
      (n = 8) were challenged simultaneously with S. Infantis and S. Typhimurium per
      os. Challenged chicks (Group A) were then housed with non-infected chicks (Group
      B, n = 4) for 6 days (from 2 to 8 days of age). Group B birds were then housed
      with other non-infected birds (Group C, n = 4), which were then transferred to
      cages containing a further group of untreated chicks (Group D, n = 2). A control
      group consisting of four non-infected chicks was used for comparison. All
      chickens were humanely sacrificed at 18 days of age, and Salmonella from bowel
      and liver samples were enumerated. RESULTS: Both serovars were isolated from all
      groups except the control group. S. Typhimurium was isolated at a greater
      frequency than S. Infantis from the bowel samples of chicks from Groups B, C and
      D, while no differences in colonisation rates were observed between the two
      serovars in liver samples from Groups B, C and D. S. Typhimurium, but not S.
      Infantis, was immunohistochemically detected in the lamina propria of the cecum
      and rectum in five birds of Group A. Despite the competitive administration,
      neither of the two serovars completely excluded the other, and no differences
      were observed in basic reproductive rates between the two serovars. CONCLUSIONS:
      These findings, together with data from previous studies, suggest that the
      initial quantitative domination of S. Infantis in chicken flocks may explain why
      this serovar is predominant in broiler chickens.

PMID- 28868132
TI  - Comprehensive comparison of Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore Technologies
      and their applications to transcriptome analysis.
AB  - Background: Given the demonstrated utility of Third Generation Sequencing
      [Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)] long reads
      in many studies, a comprehensive analysis and comparison of their data quality
      and applications is in high demand. Methods: Based on the transcriptome
      sequencing data from human embryonic stem cells, we analyzed multiple data
      features of PacBio and ONT, including error pattern, length, mappability and
      technical improvements over previous platforms. We also evaluated their
      application to transcriptome analyses, such as isoform identification and
      quantification and characterization of transcriptome complexity, by comparing the
      performance of size-selected PacBio, non-size-selected ONT and their
      corresponding Hybrid-Seq strategies (PacBio+Illumina and ONT+Illumina). Results:
      PacBio shows overall better data quality, while ONT provides a higher yield. As
      with data quality, PacBio performs marginally better than ONT in most aspects for
      both long reads only and Hybrid-Seq strategies in transcriptome analysis. In
      addition, Hybrid-Seq shows superior performance over long reads only in most
      transcriptome analyses. Conclusions: Both PacBio and ONT sequencing are suitable
      for full-length single-molecule transcriptome analysis. As this first use of ONT
      reads in a Hybrid-Seq analysis has shown, both PacBio and ONT can benefit from a
      combined Illumina strategy. The tools and analytical methods developed here
      provide a resource for future applications and evaluations of these rapidly
      changing technologies.

PMID- 28868139
TI  - The choice between surgical scrubbing and sterile covering before or after
      induction of anaesthesia: A prospective study.
AB  - Background : Day surgery is increasing, and safe and effective logistics are
      sought. One part of the in-theatre logistics commonly discussed is whether
      surgical scrub and sterile covering should be done before or after induction of
      anaesthesia. The aim of the present study was to compare the impact of surgical
      scrub and sterile covering before vs. after the induction of anaesthesia in male
      patients scheduled for open hernia repair.    Methods : This is a prospective
      randomised study. Sixty ASA 1-3 patients scheduled for open hernia repair were
      randomised to surgical scrub and sterile covering before or after induction of
      anaesthesia; group "awake" and "anaesthetised". Need for vasoactive medication
      during anaesthesia was primary study objective. Duration of anaesthesia and
      surgery, theatre time, recovery room stay and time to discharge, patients and
      theatre nurses experiences and willingness to have the same logistics on further
      potential surgeries, by a questionnaire provided before discharge was also
      assessed.  Results : The duration of anaesthesia was shorter and doses of
      propofol and remifentanil were reduced by 10 and 13%, respectively, in the awake
      group. We found still no difference in the need for vasoactive medication during
      anaesthesia Time in recovery area was significantly reduced in the awake group 39
      (SD 15) vs. 48 SD 16) (p<0.05), but time to discharge was not different. There
      was further no difference in the patients' assessment of quality of care, and
      only one patient in the awake group would prefer to be anaesthetised on a future
      procedure. All nurses found pre-anaesthesia scrubbing acceptable as routine. 
      Conclusion : Surgical scrub and sterile covering before the induction of
      anaesthesia can be done safely and without jeopardising patients' quality of care
      and possibly improve perioperative logistics. Further studies are warranted
      assessing impact of awake scrubbing and sterile covering on quality and efficacy
      of perioperative care.

PMID- 28875016
TI  - Does crystallography need a new name?
AB  - Our notion of crystallography and how we communicate it needs to adapt to the
      major emerging frontiers of science in order to ensure that our community
      continues to thrive.

PMID- 28875017
TI  - Small crystals, fast dynamics and noisy data are indeed beautiful.
AB  - Structural biology at hard X-ray free-electron lasers is evolving rapidly beyond
      the experimental styles long established at storage ring sources. The
      comprehensive review by John Spence [IUCrJ (2017), 4, 322-339] provides
      magisterial oversight of recent developments.

PMID- 28875018
TI  - Everyone needs good neighbours - the intricate relationship between the
      acetylcholine-receptor channel and its membrane environment.
AB  - A short commentary is given on the article in this issue by Nigel Unwin [IUCrJ
      (2017), 4, 393-399] on 'Segregation of lipids near acetylcholine-receptor
      channels imaged by cryo-EM'.

PMID- 28875019
TI  - Protein crystallography and drug discovery: recollections of knowledge exchange
      between academia and industry.
AB  - The development of structure-guided drug discovery is a story of knowledge
      exchange where new ideas originate from all parts of the research ecosystem.
      Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin obtained insulin from Boots Pure Drug Company in the
      1930s and insulin crystallization was optimized in the company Novo in the 1950s,
      allowing the structure to be determined at Oxford University. The structure of
      renin was developed in academia, on this occasion in London, in response to a
      need to develop antihypertensives in pharma. The idea of a dimeric aspartic
      protease came from an international academic team and was discovered in HIV; it
      eventually led to new HIV antivirals being developed in industry. Structure
      guided fragment-based discovery was developed in large pharma and biotechs, but
      has been exploited in academia for the development of new inhibitors targeting
      protein-protein interactions and also antimicrobials to combat mycobacterial
      infections such as tuberculosis. These observations provide a strong argument
      against the so-called 'linear model', where ideas flow only in one direction from
      academic institutions to industry. Structure-guided drug discovery is a story of
      applications of protein crystallography and knowledge exhange between academia
      and industry that has led to new drug approvals for cancer and other common
      medical conditions by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, as well as
      hope for the treatment of rare genetic diseases and infectious diseases that are
      a particular challenge in the developing world.

PMID- 28875020
TI  - XFELs for structure and dynamics in biology.
AB  - The development and application of the free-electron X-ray laser (XFEL) to
      structure and dynamics in biology since its inception in 2009 are reviewed. The
      research opportunities which result from the ability to outrun most radiation
      damage effects are outlined, and some grand challenges are suggested. By avoiding
      the need to cool samples to minimize damage, the XFEL has permitted atomic
      resolution imaging of molecular processes on the 100 fs timescale under near
      physiological conditions and in the correct thermal bath in which molecular
      machines operate. Radiation damage, comparisons of XFEL and synchrotron work,
      single-particle diffraction, fast solution scattering, pump-probe studies on
      photosensitive proteins, mix-and-inject experiments, caged molecules, pH jump and
      other reaction-initiation methods, and the study of molecular machines are all
      discussed. Sample-delivery methods and data-analysis algorithms for the various
      modes, from serial femtosecond crystallo-graphy to fast solution scattering,
      fluctuation X-ray scattering, mixing jet experiments and single-particle
      diffraction, are also reviewed.

PMID- 28875022
TI  - NMR crystallography: structure and properties of materials from solid-state
      nuclear magnetic resonance observables.
AB  - This topical review provides a brief overview of recent developments in NMR
      crystallography and related NMR approaches to studying the properties of
      molecular and ionic solids. Areas of complementarity with diffraction-based
      methods are underscored. These include the study of disordered systems, of
      dynamic systems, and other selected examples where NMR can provide unique
      insights. Highlights from the literature as well as recent work from my own group
      are discussed.

PMID- 28875021
TI  - What macromolecular crystallogenesis tells us - what is needed in the future.
AB  - Crystallogenesis is a longstanding topic that has transformed into a discipline
      that is mainly focused on the preparation of crystals for practising crystallo
      graphers. Although the idiosyncratic features of proteins have to be taken into
      account, the crystallization of proteins is governed by the same physics as the
      crystallization of inorganic materials. At present, a diversified panel of
      crystallization methods adapted to proteins has been validated, and although only
      a few methods are in current practice, the success rate of crystallization has
      increased constantly, leading to the determination of ~105 X-ray structures.
      These structures reveal a huge repertoire of protein folds, but they only cover a
      restricted part of macromolecular diversity across the tree of life. In the
      future, crystals representative of missing structures or that will better
      document the structural dynamics and functional steps underlying biological
      processes need to be grown. For the pertinent choice of biologically relevant
      targets, computer-guided analysis of structural databases is needed. From another
      perspective, crystallization is a self-assembly process that can occur in the
      bulk of crowded fluids, with crystals being supramolecular assemblies. Life also
      uses self-assembly and supramolecular processes leading to transient, or less
      often stable, complexes. An integrated view of supramolecularity implies that
      proteins crystallizing either in vitro or in vivo or participating in cellular
      processes share common attributes, notably determinants and antideterminants that
      favour or disfavour their correct or incorrect associations. As a result, under
      in vivo conditions proteins show a balance between features that favour or
      disfavour association. If this balance is broken, disorders/diseases occur.
      Understanding crystallization under in vivo conditions is a challenge for the
      future. In this quest, the analysis of packing contacts and contacts within
      oligomers will be crucial in order to decipher the rules governing protein self
      assembly and will guide the engineering of novel biomaterials. In a wider
      perspective, understanding such contacts will open the route towards
      supramolecular biology and generalized crystallogenesis.

PMID- 28875023
TI  - Stochastic polarity formation in molecular crystals, composite materials and
      natural tissues.
AB  - This topical review summarizes the theoretical and experimental findings obtained
      over the last 20 years on the subject of growth-induced polarity formation driven
      by a Markov chain process. When entering the growing surface of a molecular
      crystal, an inorganic-organic composite or a natural tissue, the building blocks
      may undergo 180 degrees  orientational disorder. Driven by configurational
      entropy, faulted orientations can promote the conversion of a growing non-polar
      seed into an object showing polar domains. Similarly, orientational disorder at
      the interface may change a polar seed into a two-domain state. Analytical theory
      and Monte Carlo simulations were used to model polarity formation. Scanning
      pyroelectric, piezoresponse force and phase-sensitive second-harmonic
      microscopies are methods for investigating the spatial distribution of polarity.
      Summarizing results from different types of materials, a general principle is
      provided for obtaining growth-induced polar domains: a non-zero difference in the
      probabilities for 180 degrees  orientational misalignments of building blocks,
      together with uni-directional growth, along with Markov chain theory, can produce
      objects showing polar domains.

PMID- 28875024
TI  - Making crystals with a purpose; a journey in crystal engineering at the
      University of Bologna.
AB  - The conceptual relationship between crystal reactivity, stability and meta
      stability, solubility and morphology on the one hand and shape, charge
      distribution, chirality and distribution of functional groups over the molecular
      surfaces on the other hand is discussed, via a number of examples coming from
      three decades of research in the field of crystal engineering at the University
      of Bologna. The bottom-up preparation of mixed crystals, co-crystals and
      photoreactive materials starting from molecular building blocks across the
      borders of organic, organometallic and metalorganic chemistry is recounted.

PMID- 28875025
TI  - Structure-directing effects of ionic liquids in the ionothermal synthesis of
      metal-organic frameworks.
AB  - Traditional synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) involves the reaction of
      a metal-containing precursor with an organic linker in an organic solvent at an
      elevated temperature, in what is termed a 'solvothermal' reaction. More recently,
      many examples have been reported of MOF synthesis in ionic liquids (ILs), rather
      than an organic solvent, in 'ionothermal' reactions. The high concentration of
      both cations and anions in an ionic liquid allows for the formation of new MOF
      structures in which the IL cation or anion or both are incorporated into the MOF.
      Most commonly, the IL cation is included in the open cavities of the MOF,
      countering the anionic charge of the MOF framework itself and acting as a
      template around which the MOF structure forms. Ionic liquids can also serve other
      structure-directing roles, for example, when an IL containing a single enantiomer
      of a chiral anion leads to a homochiral MOF, even though the IL anion is not
      itself incorporated into the MOF. A comprehensive review of ionothermal syntheses
      of MOFs, and the structure-directing effects of the ILs, is given.

PMID- 28875026
TI  - Segregation of lipids near acetylcholine-receptor channels imaged by cryo-EM.
AB  - Rapid communication at the chemical synapse depends on the action of ion channels
      residing in the postsynaptic membrane. The channels open transiently upon the
      binding of a neurotransmitter released from the presynaptic nerve terminal,
      eliciting an electrical response. Membrane lipids also play a vital but poorly
      understood role in this process of synaptic transmission. The present study
      examines the lipid distribution around nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptors in
      tubular vesicles made from postsynaptic membranes of the Torpedo ray, taking
      advantage of the recent advances in cryo-EM. A segregated distribution of lipid
      molecules is found in the outer leaflet of the bilayer. Apparent cholesterol-rich
      patches are located in specific annular regions next to the transmembrane helices
      and also in a more extended 'microdomain' between the apposed delta subunits of
      neighbouring receptors. The particular lipid distribution can be interpreted
      straightforwardly in relation to the gating movements revealed by an earlier time
      resolved cryo-EM study, in which the membranes were exposed briefly to ACh. The
      results suggest that in addition to stabilizing the protein, cholesterol may play
      a mechanical role by conferring local rigidity to the membrane so that there is
      productive coupling between the extracellular and membrane domains, leading to
      opening of the channel.

PMID- 28875027
TI  - Viscous hydrophilic injection matrices for serial crystallography.
AB  - Serial (femtosecond) crystallography at synchrotron and X-ray free-electron laser
      (XFEL) sources distributes the absorbed radiation dose over all crystals used for
      data collection and therefore allows measurement of radiation damage prone
      systems, including the use of microcrystals for room-temperature measurements.
      Serial crystallography relies on fast and efficient exchange of crystals upon X
      ray exposure, which can be achieved using a variety of methods, including various
      injection techniques. The latter vary significantly in their flow rates - gas
      dynamic virtual nozzle based injectors provide very thin fast-flowing jets,
      whereas high-viscosity extrusion injectors produce much thicker streams with flow
      rates two to three orders of magnitude lower. High-viscosity extrusion results in
      much lower sample consumption, as its sample delivery speed is commensurate both
      with typical XFEL repetition rates and with data acquisition rates at synchrotron
      sources. An obvious viscous injection medium is lipidic cubic phase (LCP) as it
      is used for in meso membrane protein crystallization. However, LCP has limited
      compatibility with many crystallization conditions. While a few other viscous
      media have been described in the literature, there is an ongoing need to identify
      additional injection media for crystal embedding. Critical attributes are
      reliable injection properties and a broad chemical compatibility to accommodate
      samples as heterogeneous and sensitive as protein crystals. Here, the use of two
      novel hydro-gels as viscous injection matrices is described, namely sodium carb
      oxy-methyl cellulose and the thermo-reversible block polymer Pluronic F-127. Both
      are compatible with various crystallization conditions and yield acceptable X-ray
      background. The stability and velocity of the extruded stream were also analysed
      and the dependence of the stream velocity on the flow rate was measured. In
      contrast with previously characterized injection media, both new matrices afford
      very stable adjustable streams suitable for time-resolved measurements.

PMID- 28875028
TI  - Halogen bonding in hypervalent iodine and bromine derivatives: halonium salts.
AB  - Halogen bonds have been identified in a series of ionic compounds involving
      bromonium and iodonium cations and several different anions, some also containing
      hypervalent atoms. The hypervalent bromine and iodine atoms in the examined
      compounds are found to have positive sigma-holes on the extensions of their
      covalent bonds, while the hypervalent atoms in the anions have negative sigma
      holes. The positive sigma-holes on the halogens of the studied halonium salts
      determine the linearity of the short contacts between the halogen and neutral or
      anionic electron donors, as usual in halogen bonds.

PMID- 28875029
TI  - Validation of experimental charge-density refinement strategies: when do we
      overfit?
AB  - A cross-validation method is supplied to judge between various strategies in
      multipole refinement procedures. Its application enables straightforward
      detection of whether the refinement of additional parameters leads to an
      improvement in the model or an overfitting of the given data. For all tested data
      sets it was possible to prove that the multipole parameters of atoms in
      comparable chemical environments should be constrained to be identical. In an
      automated approach, this method additionally delivers parameter distributions of
      k different refinements. These distributions can be used for further error
      diagnostics, e.g. to detect erroneously defined parameters or incorrectly
      determined reflections. Visualization tools show the variation in the parameters.
      These different refinements also provide rough estimates for the standard
      deviation of topological parameters.

PMID- 28875030
TI  - Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) on small periodic targets
      using large beams.
AB  - Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) is often used as a
      versatile tool for the contactless and destruction-free investigation of nano
      structured surfaces. However, due to the shallow incidence angles, the footprint
      of the X-ray beam is significantly elongated, limiting GISAXS to samples with
      typical target lengths of several millimetres. For many potential applications,
      the production of large target areas is impractical, and the targets are
      surrounded by structured areas. Because the beam footprint is larger than the
      targets, the surrounding structures contribute parasitic scattering, burying the
      target signal. In this paper, GISAXS measurements of isolated as well as
      surrounded grating targets in Si substrates with line lengths from 50 um down to
      4 um are presented. For the isolated grating targets, the changes in the
      scattering patterns due to the reduced target length are explained. For the
      surrounded grating targets, the scattering signal of a 15 um * 15 um target
      grating structure is separated from the scattering signal of 100 um * 100 um
      nanostructured surroundings by producing the target with a different orientation
      with respect to the predominant direction of the surrounding structures. As
      virtually all litho-graphically produced nanostructures have a predominant
      direction, the described technique allows GISAXS to be applied in a range of
      applications, e.g. for characterization of metrology fields in the semiconductor
      industry, where up to now it has been considered impossible to use this method
      due to the large beam footprint.

PMID- 28875032
TI  - Healing X-ray scattering images.
AB  - X-ray scattering images contain numerous gaps and defects arising from detector
      limitations and experimental configuration. We present a method to heal X-ray
      scattering images, filling gaps in the data and removing defects in a physically
      meaningful manner. Unlike generic inpainting methods, this method is closely
      tuned to the expected structure of reciprocal-space data. In particular, we
      exploit statistical tests and symmetry analysis to identify the structure of an
      image; we then copy, average and interpolate measured data into gaps in a way
      that respects the identified structure and symmetry. Importantly, the underlying
      analysis methods provide useful characterization of structures present in the
      image, including the identification of diffuse versus sharp features, anisotropy
      and symmetry. The presented method leverages known characteristics of reciprocal
      space, enabling physically reasonable reconstruction even with large image gaps.
      The method will correspondingly fail for images that violate these underlying
      assumptions. The method assumes point symmetry and is thus applicable to small
      angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data, but only to a subset of wide-angle data. Our
      method succeeds in filling gaps and healing defects in experimental images,
      including extending data beyond the original detector borders.

PMID- 28875031
TI  - Serial millisecond crystallography of membrane and soluble protein microcrystals
      using synchrotron radiation.
AB  - Crystal structure determination of biological macromolecules using the novel
      technique of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) is severely limited by the
      scarcity of X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) sources. However, recent and future
      upgrades render microfocus beamlines at synchrotron-radiation sources suitable
      for room-temperature serial crystallography data collection also. Owing to the
      longer exposure times that are needed at synchrotrons, serial data collection is
      termed serial millisecond crystallography (SMX). As a result, the number of SMX
      experiments is growing rapidly, with a dozen experiments reported so far. Here,
      the first high-viscosity injector-based SMX experiments carried out at a US
      synchrotron source, the Advanced Photon Source (APS), are reported. Microcrystals
      (5-20 um) of a wide variety of proteins, including lysozyme, thaumatin,
      phycocyanin, the human A2A adenosine receptor (A2AAR), the soluble fragment of
      the membrane lipoprotein Flpp3 and proteinase K, were screened. Crystals
      suspended in lipidic cubic phase (LCP) or a high-molecular-weight poly(ethylene
      oxide) (PEO; molecular weight 8 000 000) were delivered to the beam using a high
      viscosity injector. In-house data-reduction (hit-finding) software developed at
      APS as well as the SFX data-reduction and analysis software suites Cheetah and
      CrystFEL enabled efficient on-site SMX data monitoring, reduction and processing.
      Complete data sets were collected for A2AAR, phycocyanin, Flpp3, proteinase K and
      lysozyme, and the structures of A2AAR, phycocyanin, proteinase K and lysozyme
      were determined at 3.2, 3.1, 2.65 and 2.05 A resolution, respectively. The data
      demonstrate the feasibility of serial millisecond crystallography from 5-20 um
      crystals using a high-viscosity injector at APS. The resolution of the crystal
      structures obtained in this study was dictated by the current flux density and
      crystal size, but upcoming developments in beamline optics and the planned APS-U
      upgrade will increase the intensity by two orders of magnitude. These
      developments will enable structure determination from smaller and/or weakly
      diffracting microcrystals.

PMID- 28875033
TI  - Exploring the salt-cocrystal continuum with solid-state NMR using natural
      abundance samples: implications for crystal engineering.
AB  - There has been significant recent interest in differentiating multicomponent
      solid forms, such as salts and cocrystals, and, where appropriate, in determining
      the position of the proton in the X-H?A-YX-?H-A+-Y continuum in these systems,
      owing to the direct relationship of this property to the clinical, regulatory and
      legal requirements for an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). In the present
      study, solid forms of simple cocrystals/salts were investigated by high-field
      (700 MHz) solid-state NMR (ssNMR) using samples with naturally abundant 15N
      nuclei. Four model compounds in a series of prototypical salt/cocrystal/continuum
      systems exhibiting {PyN?H-O-}/{PyN+-H?O-} hydrogen bonds (Py is pyridine) were
      selected and prepared. The crystal structures were determined at both low and
      room temperature using X-ray diffraction. The H-atom positions were determined by
      measuring the 15N-1H distances through 15N-1H dipolar interactions using two
      dimensional inversely proton-detected cross polarization with variable contact
      time (invCP-VC) 1H->15N->1H experiments at ultrafast (nuR >= 60-70 kHz) magic
      angle spinning (MAS) frequency. It is observed that this method is sensitive
      enough to determine the proton position even in a continuum where an ambiguity of
      terminology for the solid form often arises. This work, while carried out on
      simple systems, has implications in the pharmaceutical industry where the
      salt/cocrystal/continuum condition of APIs is considered seriously.

PMID- 28875034
TI  - Crystal structure across the beta to alpha phase transition in thermoelectric Cu2
      x Se.
AB  - The crystal structure uniquely imparts the specific properties of a material, and
      thus provides the starting point for any quantitative understanding of
      thermoelectric properties. Cu2-x Se is an intensely studied high performing, non
      toxic and cheap thermoelectric material, and here for the first time, the average
      structure of beta-Cu2-x Se is reported based on analysis of multi-temperature
      single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. It consists of Se-Cu layers with
      additional copper between every alternate layer. The structural changes during
      the peculiar zT enhancing phase transition mainly consist of changes in the inter
      layer distance coupled with subtle Cu migration. Just prior to the transition the
      structure exhibits strong negative thermal expansion due to the reordering of Cu
      atoms, when approached from low temperatures. The phase transition is fully
      reversible and group-subgroup symmetry relations are derived that relate the low
      temperature beta-phase to the high-temperature alpha-phase. Weak superstructure
      reflections are observed and a possible Cu ordering is proposed. The structural
      rearrangement may have a significant impact on the band structure and the Cu
      rearrangement may also be linked to an entropy increase. Both factors potentially
      contribute to the extraordinary zT enhancement across the phase transition.

PMID- 28875035
TI  - Classification of crystal structure using a convolutional neural network.
AB  - A deep machine-learning technique based on a convolutional neural network (CNN)
      is introduced. It has been used for the classification of powder X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) patterns in terms of crystal system, extinction group and space
      group. About 150 000 powder XRD patterns were collected and used as input for the
      CNN with no handcrafted engineering involved, and thereby an appropriate CNN
      architecture was obtained that allowed determination of the crystal system,
      extinction group and space group. In sharp contrast with the traditional use of
      powder XRD pattern analysis, the CNN never treats powder XRD patterns as a
      deconvoluted and discrete peak position or as intensity data, but instead the XRD
      patterns are regarded as nothing but a pattern similar to a picture. The CNN
      interprets features that humans cannot recognize in a powder XRD pattern. As a
      result, accuracy levels of 81.14, 83.83 and 94.99% were achieved for the space
      group, extinction-group and crystal-system classifications, respectively. The
      well trained CNN was then used for symmetry identification of unknown novel
      inorganic compounds.

PMID- 28875036
TI  - Active-site protein dynamics and solvent accessibility in native Achromobacter
      cycloclastes copper nitrite reductase.
AB  - Microbial nitrite reductases are denitrifying enzymes that are a major component
      of the global nitrogen cycle. Multiple structures measured from one crystal (MSOX
      data) of copper nitrite reductase at 240 K, together with molecular-dynamics
      simulations, have revealed protein dynamics at the type 2 copper site that are
      significant for its catalytic properties and for the entry and exit of solvent or
      ligands to and from the active site. Molecular-dynamics simulations were
      performed using different protonation states of the key catalytic residues
      (AspCAT and HisCAT) involved in the nitrite-reduction mechanism of this enzyme.
      Taken together, the crystal structures and simulations show that the AspCAT
      protonation state strongly influences the active-site solvent accessibility,
      while the dynamics of the active-site 'capping residue' (IleCAT), a determinant
      of ligand binding, are influenced both by temperature and by the protonation
      state of AspCAT. A previously unobserved conformation of IleCAT is seen in the
      elevated temperature series compared with 100 K structures. DFT calculations also
      show that the loss of a bound water ligand at the active site during the MSOX
      series is consistent with reduction of the type 2 Cu atom.

PMID- 28875037
TI  - Effect of swap disorder on the physical properties of the quaternary Heusler
      alloy PdMnTiAl: a first-principles study.
AB  - Heusler alloys crystallize in a close-packed cubic structure, having a four-atom
      basis forming a face-centred cubic lattice. By selecting different composite
      elements, Heusler alloys provide a large family of members for frontier research
      of spintronics and magnetic materials and devices. In this paper, the structural,
      electronic and magnetic properties of a novel quaternary Heusler alloy, PdMnTiAl,
      have been investigated using a first-principles computational materials
      calculation. It was found that the stable ordered structure is a non-magnetic Y
      type1, in good agreement with the Slater-Pauling rule. From the band structure
      and the density of states, it is predicted that this Y-type1 configuration is a
      new gapless semi-metal material. Furthermore, it was discovered that the Pd-Mn
      swap-disordered structure is more stable than the Y-type1 structure. The present
      work provides a guide for experiments to synthesize and characterize this Heusler
      alloy.

PMID- 28875040
TI  - A Review of Neurogenic Stunned Myocardium.
AB  - Neurologic stunned myocardium (NSM) is a phenomenon where neurologic events give
      rise to cardiac abnormalities. Neurologic events like stroke and seizures cause
      sympathetic storm and autonomic dysregulation that result in myocardial injury.
      The clinical presentation can involve troponin elevation, left ventricular
      dysfunction, and ECG changes. These findings are similar to Takotsubo
      cardiomyopathy and acute coronary syndrome. It is difficult to distinguish NSM
      from acute coronary syndrome based on clinical presentation alone. Because of
      this difficulty, a patient with NSM who is at high risk for coronary heart
      disease may undergo cardiac catheterization to rule out coronary artery disease.
      The objective of this review of literature is to enhance physician's awareness of
      NSM and its features to help tailor management according to the patient's
      clinical profile.

PMID- 28875039
TI  - Nucleolar and coiled-body phosphoprotein 1 (NOLC1) regulates the nucleolar
      retention of TRF2.
AB  - Telomeric repeat-binding factor 2 (TRF2) was reported to localize in the
      nucleolus of human cells in a cell cycle-dependent manner; however, the
      underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we found that nucleolar and coiled
      body phosphoprotein 1 (NOLC1) interacted with TRF2 and mediated the shuttling of
      TRF2 between the nucleolus and nucleus in human 293T and HepG2 cells. Ablation of
      NOLC1 expression increased the number of nuclear TRF2 foci and decreased the
      nucleolar level of TRF2. Conversely, NOLC1 overexpression promoted the nucleolar
      accumulation of TRF2. NOLC1 overexpression also increased the number of 53BP1
      foci and induced the DNA damage response. In addition, co-expression of TRF2
      rescued NOLC1 overexpression-induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

PMID- 28875038
TI  - Novel Imaging Techniques for Heart Failure.
AB  - Imaging techniques play a main role in heart failure (HF) diagnosis, assessment
      of aetiology and treatment guidance. Echocardiography is the method of choice for
      its availability, cost and it provides most of the information required for the
      management and follow up of HF patients. Other non-invasive cardiac imaging
      modalities, such as cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), nuclear imaging
      positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT) and computed tomography (CT) could provide additional aetiological,
      prognostic and therapeutic information, especially in selected populations. This
      article reviews current indications and possible future applications of imaging
      modalities to improve the management of HF patients.

PMID- 28875041
TI  - Palmitoylethanolamide in the Treatment of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This observational study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of
      ultramicronized palmitoylethanolamide (um-PEA) (Normast(r)) administration, as
      add-on therapy for chronic pain, in the management of pain-resistant patients
      affected by failed back surgery syndrome. METHODS: A total of 35 patients were
      treated with tapentadol (TPD) and pregabalin (PGB). One month after the start of
      standard treatment, um-PEA was added for the next two months. Pain was evaluated
      by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at the time of enrollment (T0) and after one
      (T1), two (T2), and three (T3) months. RESULTS: After the first month with TDP +
      PGB treatment only, VAS score decreased significantly from 5.7 +/- 0.12 at the
      time of enrollment (T0) to 4.3 +/- 0.11 (T1) (p < 0.0001); however, it failed to
      provide significant subjective improvement in pain symptoms. Addition of um-PEA
      led to a further and significant decrease in pain intensity, reaching VAS scores
      of 2.7 +/- 0.09 (T2) and 1.7 +/- 0.11 (T3, end of treatment) (p < 0.0001) without
      showing any side effects. CONCLUSIONS: This observational study provides
      evidence, albeit preliminary, for the efficacy and safety of um-PEA (Normast) as
      part of a multimodal therapeutic regimen in the treatment of pain-resistant
      patients suffering from failed back surgery syndrome.

PMID- 28875042
TI  - Everyday Health among Older People: A Comparison between Two Countries with
      Variant Life Conditions.
AB  - This study described health factors of importance for everyday health, such as
      pain, tiredness, and sleeping problems, in a cross-national context. Data for
      persons 60+ years were obtained from the Poverty and Health in Aging study,
      Bangladesh, and the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care-Blekinge. The
      strongest associations with everyday health in Sweden were found for pain and
      tiredness, while in Bangladesh they were financial status, tiredness, and
      sleeping problems. As similarities were found regarding the associations of
      tiredness on everyday health, tiredness may be a universal predictor of everyday
      health in older adults irrespective of country context.

PMID- 28875043
TI  - The Role of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Cardiovascular Disease and Exercise.
AB  - Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which is highly associated with cardiovascular
      disease, is triggered by a disturbance in ER function because of protein
      misfolding or an increase in protein secretion. Prolonged disruption of ER causes
      ER stress and activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) and leads to
      various diseases. Eukaryotic cells respond to ER stress via three major sensors
      that are bound to the ER membrane: activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6),
      inositol-requiring protein 1alpha (IRE1alpha), and protein kinase RNA-like ER
      kinase (PERK). Chronic activation of ER stress causes damage in endothelial cells
      (EC) via apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress signaling pathways. The
      alleviation of ER stress has recently been accepted as a potential therapeutic
      target to treat cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, and
      atherosclerosis. Exercise training is an effective nonpharmacological approach
      for preventing and alleviating cardiovascular disease. We here review the recent
      viewing of ER stress-mediated apoptosis and inflammation signaling pathways in
      cardiovascular disease and the role of exercise in ER stress-associated diseases.

PMID- 28875044
TI  - Decreased Rivaroxaban Levels in a Patient with Cerebral Vein Thrombosis Receiving
      Phenytoin.
AB  - Combined use of antiepileptic drugs and anticoagulants is common. We describe the
      first case documenting laboratory interaction between rivaroxaban and phenytoin.
      A 48-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital due to cerebral venous
      thrombosis, bilateral pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis. She came from
      a small town with difficult access to warfarin monitoring. She was receiving
      phenytoin 100 mg three times daily (t.i.d.) and started enoxaparin 60 mg twice
      daily (b.i.d.). An abdominal mass was diagnosed and removed by laparoscopy
      (gastrointestinal stromal tumor). On day 5, she was switched to rivaroxaban 15 mg
      b.i.d. First peak anti-Factor Xa was 70 ng/ml (reference value: 100-300 ng/ml).
      She was discharged on rivaroxaban 15 mg b.i.d. and phenytoin 100 mg t.i.d. A week
      later, anti-Xa levels were 90 ng/ml. Due to concerns about thrombosis
      progression, she was switched to dabigatran. During follow-up, she remained
      asymptomatic and thrombin time >180 s was measured several times along 3 months
      as surrogate for dabigatran activity. Phenytoin is a combined CYP3A4 and P
      glycoprotein inducer, which might reduce rivaroxaban levels. Dabigatran is
      substrate of P-glycoprotein, meaning potential malabsorption. Despite
      unavailability of plasmatic dabigatran essays, our patient improved her symptoms
      without further symptomatic thromboembolism. Facing these interactions, either
      monitoring serum levels of anticoagulants or other therapeutic options should be
      considered.

PMID- 28875045
TI  - The Training Effect of Early Intervention with a Hybrid Assistive Limb after
      Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - After total knee arthroplasty (TKA), it is important for patients to show early
      improvements in knee joint function and walking to regain independence in
      performing the activities of daily life. We conducted for 4 weeks an intervention
      one week after TKA using a hybrid assistive limb (HAL: unilateral leg type) as an
      exoskeleton robotic device to facilitate knee joint function and walking. The
      intervention improved the range of knee extension movement safely and without
      pain compared to preoperation. In addition, we found that training with the HAL
      improved walking ability, speed, and rate, as well as the time taken to perform
      the timed up and go (TUG) test compared to preoperation. The strength of the
      quadriceps muscle did not improve with training; however, the patient was able to
      induce a knee extensor moment during the initial stance phase, as measured by
      kinetics and kinematics, and these actions could be performed without pain. HAL
      training soon after TKA improved knee joint function in a 76-year-old patient who
      presented with OA of the knee. The improvements in knee extension lag and knee
      extensor moment allowed the patient to walk without pain and regain ADL in
      comparison with preoperation.

PMID- 28875046
TI  - Ganglioneuroma of the External Auditory Canal and Middle Ear.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We report an extremely rare case of ganglioneuroma involving the
      external auditory canal and middle ear. CASE REPORT: Ganglioneuromas are rare
      benign mature tumors thought to originate from sympathetic ganglions, with the
      highest incidence in the retroperitoneum, adrenal medulla, and posterior
      mediastinum. We present a case of ganglioneuroma of the external auditory canal
      and middle ear. At the age of 12 months, the patient was diagnosed with
      neuroblastoma stage IV with metastasis to the squamous temporal bone, bone
      marrow, and skull base. He received a high-risk protocol regimen resulting in
      complete remission. The patient later presented with recurrent right ear
      discharge at the age of six years and was diagnosed with ganglioneuroma of
      external auditory canal and middle ear after appropriate investigations. We
      report in this article the clinical presentation, investigations, surgical
      intervention, and follow-up. CONCLUSION: After the literature review and to our
      knowledge, this is the first reported case of its kind. Ganglioneuroma maturing
      from neuroblastoma is one of the theories describing pathophysiology of the
      disease. Ganglioneuroma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of
      patients presenting with recurrent ear discharge and decreased hearing in treated
      cases of neuroblastoma with metastases to temporal bone.

PMID- 28875047
TI  - Value-Based Health Technology Assessment and Health Informatics.

PMID- 28875048
TI  - Text Mining in Biomedical Domain with Emphasis on Document Clustering.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: With the exponential increase in the number of articles published
      every year in the biomedical domain, there is a need to build automated systems
      to extract unknown information from the articles published. Text mining
      techniques enable the extraction of unknown knowledge from unstructured
      documents. METHODS: This paper reviews text mining processes in detail and the
      software tools available to carry out text mining. It also reviews the roles and
      applications of text mining in the biomedical domain. RESULTS: Text mining
      processes, such as search and retrieval of documents, pre-processing of
      documents, natural language processing, methods for text clustering, and methods
      for text classification are described in detail. CONCLUSIONS: Text mining
      techniques can facilitate the mining of vast amounts of knowledge on a given
      topic from published biomedical research articles and draw meaningful conclusions
      that are not possible otherwise.

PMID- 28875049
TI  - Fall Detection System for the Elderly Based on the Classification of Shimmer
      Sensor Prototype Data.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Falling in the elderly is considered a major cause of death. In
      recent years, ambient and wireless sensor platforms have been extensively used in
      developed countries for the detection of falls in the elderly. However, we
      believe extra efforts are required to address this issue in developing countries,
      such as Pakistan, where most deaths due to falls are not even reported.
      Considering this, in this paper, we propose a fall detection system prototype
      that s based on the classification on real time shimmer sensor data. METHODS: We
      first developed a data set, 'SMotion' of certain postures that could lead to
      falls in the elderly by using a body area network of Shimmer sensors and
      categorized the items in this data set into age and weight groups. We developed a
      feature selection and classification system using three classifiers, namely,
      support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and neural network (NN).
      Finally, a prototype was fabricated to generate alerts to caregivers, health
      experts, or emergency services in case of fall. RESULTS: To evaluate the proposed
      system, SVM, KNN, and NN were used. The results of this study identified KNN as
      the most accurate classifier with maximum accuracy of 96% for age groups and 93%
      for weight groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this paper, a classification-based fall
      detection system is proposed. For this purpose, the SMotion data set was
      developed and categorized into two groups (age and weight groups). The proposed
      fall detection system for the elderly is implemented through a body area sensor
      network using third-generation sensors. The evaluation results demonstrate the
      reasonable performance of the proposed fall detection prototype system in the
      tested scenarios.

PMID- 28875050
TI  - Development and Evaluation of an Obesity Ontology for Social Big Data Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate an obesity ontology
      as a framework for collecting and analyzing unstructured obesity-related social
      media posts. METHODS: The obesity ontology was developed according to the
      'Ontology Development 101'. The coverage rate of the developed ontology was
      examined by mapping concepts and terms of the ontology with concepts and terms
      extracted from obesity-related Twitter postings. The structure and representative
      ability of the ontology was evaluated by nurse experts. We applied the ontology
      to the density analysis of keywords related to obesity types and management
      strategies and to the sentiment analysis of obesity and diet using social big
      data. RESULTS: The developed obesity ontology was represented by 8 superclasses
      and 124 subordinate classes. The superclasses comprised 'risk factors,' 'types,'
      'symptoms,' 'complications,' 'assessment,' 'diagnosis,' 'management strategies,'
      and 'settings.' The coverage rate of the ontology was 100% for the concepts and
      87.8% for the terms. The evaluation scores for representative ability were higher
      than 4.0 out of 5.0 for all of the evaluation items. The density analysis of
      keywords revealed that the top-two posted types of obesity were abdomen and
      thigh, and the top-three posted management strategies were diet, exercise, and
      dietary supplements or drug therapy. Positive expressions of obesity-related
      postings has increased annually in the sentiment analysis. CONCLUSIONS: It was
      found that the developed obesity ontology was useful to identify the most
      frequently used terms on obesity and opinions and emotions toward obesity posted
      by the geneal population on social media.

PMID- 28875051
TI  - Statistics and Deep Belief Network-Based Cardiovascular Risk Prediction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular predictions are related to patients' quality of life
      and health. Therefore, a risk prediction model for cardiovascular conditions is
      needed. METHODS: In this paper, we propose a cardiovascular disease prediction
      model using the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
      (KNHANES-VI) 2013 dataset to analyze cardiovascular-related health data. First,
      statistical analysis was performed to find variables related to cardiovascular
      disease using health data related to cardiovascular disease. Second, a model of
      cardiovascular risk prediction by learning based on the deep belief network (DBN)
      was developed. RESULTS: The proposed statistical DBN-based prediction model
      showed accuracy and an ROC curve of 83.9% and 0.790, respectively. Thus, the
      proposed statistical DBN performed better than other prediction algorithms.
      CONCLUSIONS: The DBN proposed in this study appears to be effective in predicting
      cardiovascular risk and, in particular, is expected to be applicable to the
      prediction of cardiovascular disease in Koreans.

PMID- 28875052
TI  - Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Confidentiality of health information is an important aspect of the
      physician patient relationship. The use of digital medical records has made data
      much more accessible. To prevent data leakage, many countries have created
      regulations regarding medical data accessibility. These regulations require a
      unique user ID for each medical staff member, and this must be protected by a
      password, which should be kept undisclosed by all means. METHODS: We performed a
      four-question Google Forms-based survey of medical staff. In the survey, each
      participant was asked if he/she ever obtained the password of another medical
      staff member. Then, we asked how many times such an episode occurred and the
      reason for it. RESULTS: A total of 299 surveys were gathered. The responses
      showed that 220 (73.6%) participants reported that they had obtained the password
      of another medical staff member. Only 171 (57.2%) estimated how many time it
      happened, with an average estimation of 4.75 episodes. All the residents that
      took part in the study (45, 15%) had obtained the password of another medical
      staff member, while only 57.5% (38/66) of the nurses reported this. CONCLUSIONS:
      The use of unique user IDs and passwords to defend the privacy of medical data is
      a common requirement in medical organizations. Unfortunately, the use of
      passwords is doomed because medical staff members share their passwords with one
      another. Strict regulations requiring each staff member to have it's a unique
      user ID might lead to password sharing and to a decrease in data safety.

PMID- 28875053
TI  - Validation of Joint Position Sense of Dorsi-Plantar Flexion of Ankle Measurements
      Using a Smartphone.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated and validated the reliability of smartphones as
      measuring equipment for the dorsi-plantar flexion of ankle joint position sense
      (JPS) ability. METHODS: The subjects were 20 healthy young students in their 20s.
      We confirmed the concurrent validity by comparison with existing
      electrogoniometer data. The reliability of the smartphone was confirmed using the
      test-retest method. RESULTS: In the case of dorsiflexion, there was no
      significant difference between the smartphone and electrogoniometer groups (p >
      0.05). Regarding the correlation, it was significantly high (r = 0.65, p < 0.05),
      and ICC(3,1) was good (ICC(3,1) = 0.79). For the case of plantar flexion, there
      was no significant difference between the smartphone and electrogoniometer groups
      (p > 0.05), the correlation was significantly high (r = 0.69, p < 0.05), and the
      ICC(3,1) was very good (ICC(3,1) = 0.82). In the case of dorsiflexion, there was
      no significant difference between test and retest (p > 0.05), the correlation was
      intermediate (r = 0.59, p < 0.05), and the ICC(3,1) value was good (ICC(3,1) =
      0.74). For plantar flexion, there was no significant difference between test and
      retest (p > 0.05), the correlation was significantly high (r = 0.63, p < 0.05),
      and the ICC(3,1) was good (ICC(3,1) = 0.76). CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that
      smartphones provide high validity and reliability as measurement equipment for
      JPS of dorsi-plantar flexion of the ankle. Finally, the study also considers that
      smartphone-based JPS measuring methods may replace the traditional and expensive
      methods that are currently being used for the same purpose.

PMID- 28875054
TI  - Current Status of Electronic Medical Record Systems in Hospitals and Clinics in
      Korea.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Many healthcare organizations and professionals have had interests in
      healthcare information and communication technology (ICT). The objective of this
      study was to investigate the current status of overall healthcare ICT, especially
      focusing on Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems in Korea. METHODS: This study
      used a part of the nationwide survey collected for the OECD benchmarking ICT
      study. The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service conducted the survey
      from November 19, 2013 to January 10, 2014. This study followed the
      methodological guidelines of the OECD. A total of 2,093 hospitals and clinics,
      including long-term care hospitals, participated in the survey. Among them, 554
      hospitals and 906 clinics were included in this study for the generalization of
      the results. RESULTS: The adoption rates of EMR systems were 96.3% in hospitals
      and 95.7% in clinics. Most of the hospitals and clinics had high rates of
      healthcare information exchange (HIE) within the organization; however, there
      were extremely low HIE rates among external organizations. Most of the hospitals
      and clinics had EMR systems with clinical-decision-supporting functionalities.
      Ninety-six percent of the EMR systems of the hospitals and 89.2% of the clinic
      systems had checking functions, such as alerts or reminders, on contraindications
      of drug-drug and drug-age interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Korea has maintained a high
      healthcare ICT status compared to countries in the European Union. The EMR
      systems of hospitals and clinics in Korea had sophisticated functionalities;
      however, their HIE status was extremely low, which indicates the need for
      healthcare ICT standardization.

PMID- 28875055
TI  - Pilot Algorithm Designed to Help Early Detection of HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitor
      Induced Hepatotoxicity.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To enable early detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in
      patients using HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), we developed an algorithm
      that automatically detects liver injury caused by statins from Electronic Medical
      Record (EMR) data. We verified the performance of our algorithm through manual
      ADR assessment and a direct chart review. METHODS: The subjects in this study
      were patients who had been prescribed a statin for the first time among
      outpatients in Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in Korea between January 2009 and
      December 2012. We extracted basic information about the patients, including
      laboratory information, underlying disease, diagnosis information, prescription
      information, and concomitant drugs. We developed an automatic ADR detection
      algorithm by using EMR data. We validated the results of the algorithm through a
      chart review. RESULTS: We developed the algorithm to assess ADR occurrences based
      on alanine transaminase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels. According to
      the proposed algorithm, any of these result options could be attained: ADR-free,
      little association, strong association, and weak association or indeterminable.
      The results of the ADR assessments obtained using the proposed algorithm showed
      that the data of 126 patients (1.4% of all 9,241 patients) included suspicious
      figures, thus indicating the possibility of an ADR. In the EMR chart review for
      verifying the algorithm, ADRs of 33 patients were not associated with statin use;
      therefore, the ADR occurrence rate was found to be 1.0% (93/9,241). Therefore,
      the positive predictive value was calculated to be 73.8% (93/126; 95% confidence
      interval, 69.2%-77.6%). No differences were observed between statin types (p =
      0.472). CONCLUSIONS: For early detection of statin-induced liver injury, we
      developed an automatic ADR assessment algorithm. We expect that algorithms that
      are more reliable can be developed if we conduct supplement clinical studies with
      a focus on adverse drug effects.

PMID- 28875056
TI  - Blogs as Channels for Disseminating Health Technology Innovations.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to describe the features of health
      informatics blogs on the Internet. METHODS: A search was conducted in August,
      2016 using the search engine, Google, and key words: 'mobile health blog,'
      'telehealth/telemedicine blog,' 'Electronic Health Record blog,' 'personalized
      health record blog,' 'population health decision support system blog,' and
      'public/population health dashboard blog.' The first 24 blogs resulting from each
      key word search were recorded, generating 144 blogs. A total of 109 unique blogs
      resulted after removing duplicates and non-functional sites. RESULTS: Blogs with
      '.com' extensions were most prevalent (72%, n = 79). More than half of the blogs
      (79%, n = 86) were created by industries. Mobile health (88%, n = 96), telehealth
      (82%, n = 89), and health IT (78%, n = 85) were the predominant topics covered.
      Health providers (44%, n = 48), industries (33%, n = 36), patients/consumers
      (25%, n = 27) and payers/insurance providers (19%, n = 21) constituted the most
      common target audience. Blogs catering to payers commonly used '.org' extension
      (n = 10 out of 21), compared to '.com' (n = 7) or '.gov' (n = 2) (p < 0.0001).
      Significant differences were also observed by topics covered health IT (p =
      0.007), subscription (p = 0.048) and LinkedIn social media (p = 0.019) across the
      website extensions. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is needed to examine the use of
      blogs as channels of communication of best evidence in health informatics
      research among diverse stakeholders. The role of blogs as policy informatics
      tools need to be evaluated in order for stakeholders to collaborate, coordinate
      and share opportunities and challenges of various public health programs and
      policies.

PMID- 28875057
TI  - Citation Analysis for Biomedical and Health Sciences Journals Published in Korea.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A citation analysis of biomedical and health sciences journals was
      conducted based on their enlistment in journal databases to identify the factors
      contributing to the citation metrics. METHODS: Among the 1,219 academic journals
      managed by the National Center for Medical Information and Knowledge at the Korea
      Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 556 journals were included for
      analysis as of July 2016. The characteristics of the journals include history
      years, publication media, language, open-access policy as well as the status
      enlisted in international and domestic databases, such as Science Citation Index
      (SCI), Scopus, Medline, PubMed Central, Embase, and Korea Citation Index (KCI).
      Six bibliometric measures were collected from SCI, Scopus, and KCI as of 2015,
      the most recent disclosure year. Analyses of group differences and influential
      factors were conducted using t-tests, Mann-Whitney tests, and multiple
      regression. RESULTS: Journal characteristics, such as history years, publication
      media, and open-access policy, were not significant factors influencing global or
      domestical citation of the journals. However, global citations were higher for
      SCI and Medline enlisted journals than for their counterparts. Among KCI
      journals, the KCI impact factors of journals published in English only were
      lower. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts by journals to be enlisted in international
      databases, especially in SCI and Medline, are critical to enhance their global
      circulation. However, articles published in English only hinder the use of
      domestic researchers. Different strategies are required for enhancing
      international and domestic readerships.

PMID- 28875058
TI  - Hierarchical Genetic Algorithm and Fuzzy Radial Basis Function Networks for
      Factors Influencing Hospital Length of Stay Outliers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Controlling hospital high length of stay outliers can provide
      significant benefits to hospital management resources and lead to cost reduction.
      The strongest predictive factors influencing high length of stay outliers should
      be identified to build a high-performance prediction model for hospital outliers.
      METHODS: We highlight the application of the hierarchical genetic algorithm to
      provide the main predictive factors and to define the optimal structure of the
      prediction model fuzzy radial basis function neural network. To establish the
      prediction model, we used a data set of 26,897 admissions from five different
      intensive care units with discharges between 2001 and 2012. We selected and
      analyzed the high length of stay outliers using the trimming method geometric
      mean plus two standard deviations. A total of 28 predictive factors were
      extracted from the collected data set and investigated. RESULTS: High length of
      stay outliers comprised 5.07% of the collected data set. The results indicate
      that the prediction model can provide effective forecasting. We found 10 common
      predictive factors within the studied intensive care units. The obtained main
      predictive factors include patient demographic characteristics, hospital
      characteristics, medical events, and comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: The main initial
      predictive factors available at the time of admission are useful in evaluating
      high length of stay outliers. The proposed approach can provide a practical tool
      for healthcare providers, and its application can be extended to other hospital
      predictions, such as readmissions and cost.

PMID- 28875059
TI  - Comparison of Three Internship Training Sites for an Undergraduate Health
      Information Management Program in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: While internship training is well established for medical records and
      for healthcare quality improvement, it is not quite so for training related to
      IT/health informatics. A comparison was made on the hospital-based IT/health
      informatics internship training received by students completing their training at
      the Imam AbdulRahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in the Eastern province of Saudi
      Arabia. METHODS: The three hospitals studied all have the Joint Commission
      International accreditation and advanced Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.
      Over the period from 2011 to 2015, interns from the IAU prepared 120 reports
      based on their training at these three hospitals. Data abstraction was done on
      the internship reports, and the results were summarized and interpreted. RESULTS:
      The study found wide differences in the training received at these hospitals. The
      main reason for the differences is whether or not the EHR system used in the
      hospital was a commercial one or developed in-house. CONCLUSIONS: The hospital
      that had developed its own EHR system made more use of health information
      management interns during their IT rotation in comparison to hospitals which had
      adopted commercial EHR systems. Recommendations are made of both local relevance
      and of international relevance.

PMID- 28875060
TI  - Assessment of the Drug-Drug Interaction Potential Between Theacrine and Caffeine
      in Humans.
AB  - Objective: Theacrine, a methylurate class purine alkaloid, triggers diverse
      pharmacologic responses, including psychostimulatory activity by modulation of
      adenosinergic and dopaminergic pathways. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled
      study, theacrine increased energy, concentration, and mood, while reducing
      fatigue. Because caffeine, a methylxanthine purine alkaloid, is frequently
      coadministered with theacrine, we sought to determine if a pharmacokinetic and/or
      pharmacodynamic interaction existed between theacrine and caffeine. Methods:
      Eight healthy adults received theacrine, as TeaCrine(r) (25 or 125 mg), caffeine
      (150 mg), or a combination of theacrine (125 mg) and caffeine (150 mg) in a
      randomized, double-blind crossover study. Blood samples were collected over a 24
      hour period and analyzed by Liquid chromatrography-mass spectrometry/mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for theacrine, caffeine, and paraxanthine.
      Pharmacodynamic response markers, heart rate and blood pressure, were recorded.
      Results: Theacrine pharmacokinetics was similar following administration of
      theacrine alone. Caffeine coadministration increased maximum plasma concentration
      and area under the curve of theacrine without altering theacrine half-life.
      Theacrine had no impact on caffeine or paraxanthine pharmacokinetics. There was
      no difference between treatment groups with regard to heart rate or
      systolic/diastolic blood pressure. Conclusions: Coadministration of theacrine and
      caffeine results in a clinically significant pharmacokinetic interaction, viz.,
      increased theacrine exposure. Enhanced oral bioavailability is the most likely
      mechanism by which caffeine alters theacrine exposure. However, further studies
      examining the contribution of presystemic elimination mechanisms, for example,
      efflux transport and/or gut metabolism, to theacrine bioavailability are needed
      to confirm the exact mechanism(s). Hemodynamic parameters were unaltered despite
      the pharmacokinetic interaction, suggesting that coadministration of caffeine and
      theacrine is safe at the doses administered.

PMID- 28875061
TI  - Impact of Caffeine Boluses and Caffeine Discontinuation on Apnea and Hypoxemia in
      Preterm Infants.
AB  - Background: Apnea of prematurity often occurs during and following caffeine
      therapy. We hypothesized that number of apnea events would be impacted by
      adjustments in caffeine therapy. Materials and Methods: An automated algorithm
      was used in all infants <=32 weeks gestation admitted to a level IV Neonatal
      Intensive Care Unit from 2009 to 2014 to analyze chest impedance,
      electrocardiogram, and oxygen saturation data around the time of serum caffeine
      levels, caffeine boluses while on maintenance therapy, and caffeine
      discontinuation. Episodes of central apnea/bradycardia/desaturation (ABDs), and
      percent time with SpO2 <88% and <75% were measured. Results: ABDs were analyzed
      in 302 preterm infants (mean gestational age 27.6 weeks) around the time of 485
      serum caffeine levels, 90 caffeine boluses, and 273 episodes of caffeine
      discontinuation. Higher serum caffeine levels were not associated with fewer ABDs
      or higher heart rate. For caffeine boluses given due to clinically recognized
      spells, hypoxemia and algorithm-detected ABDs decreased day 1-2 after the bolus
      compared to the day before and day of the bolus (mean 4.4 events/day after vs.
      6.6 before, p = 0.004). After caffeine discontinuation, there was no change in
      hypoxemia and a small increase in ABDs (2 events/day 3-5 days after
      discontinuation vs. 1 event/day before and >5 days after, p < 0.01). This
      increase in ABDs occurred irrespective of gestational age, respiratory support,
      or postmenstrual age at the time caffeine was stopped. Conclusions: In this
      retrospective analysis, caffeine boluses and caffeine discontinuation were
      associated with a small change in the number of ABD events in preterm infants.

PMID- 28875062
TI  - Interactions Between Energy Drink Consumption and Sleep Problems: Associations
      with Alcohol Use Among Young Adolescents.
AB  - Background: Energy drink consumption and sleep problems are both associated with
      alcohol use among adolescents. In addition, caffeine consumption (including
      energy drinks) is associated with sleep problems. However, information about how
      these three constructs may interact is limited. The goal of this study was to
      examine potential interactions between energy drink consumption and sleep
      problems in the concurrent prediction of alcohol use among young adolescents.
      Coffee and soda consumption were also examined for comparison. Methods:
      Participants from the Camden Youth Development Study were included (n = 127; mean
      age = 13.1; 68% Hispanic, 29% African American) and questionnaire measures of
      frequency of caffeinated beverage consumption (energy drinks, coffee, and soda),
      sleep (initial insomnia, sleep disturbances, daytime fatigue, and sleep
      duration), and alcohol consumption were used. Regression analyses were conducted
      to examine interactions between caffeinated beverage consumption and sleep in the
      concurrent prediction of alcohol use. Results: Energy drink consumption
      interacted with initial insomnia and daytime fatigue to concurrently predict
      particularly frequent alcohol use among those with either of these sleep-related
      problems and energy drink consumption. The pattern of results for coffee
      consumption was similar for insomnia but reached only a trend level of
      significance. Results of analyses examining soda consumption were nonsignificant.
      Conclusions: Young adolescents who both consume energy drinks and experience
      initial insomnia and/or daytime fatigue are at particularly high risk for alcohol
      use. Coffee consumption appears to be associated with similar patterns.
      Longitudinal research is needed to explain the developmental pathways by which
      these associations emerge, as well as mediators and moderators of these
      associations.

PMID- 28875063
TI  - Organo-Selenium Coatings Inhibit Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Bacterial
      Attachment to Ophthalmic Scleral Buckle Material.
AB  - PURPOSE: Biofilm formation is a problem for solid and sponge-type scleral
      buckles. This can lead to complications that require removal of the buckle, and
      result in vision loss due to related ocular morbidity, primarily infection, or
      recurrent retinal detachment. We investigate the ability of a covalent organo
      selenium coating to inhibit biofilm formation on a scleral buckle. METHODS:
      Sponge and solid Labtican brand scleral buckles were coated with organo-selenium
      coupled to a silyation reagent. Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation was
      monitored by a standard colony-forming unit assay and the confocal laser scanning
      microscopy, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation was examined by
      scanning electron microscopy. Stability studies were done, by soaking in
      phosphate buffer saline (PBS) at room temperature for 2 months. Toxicity against
      human corneal epithelial cell was examined by growing the cells in the presence
      of organo-selenium-coated scleral buckles. RESULTS: The organo-selenium coating
      inhibited biofilm formation by gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The
      buckle coatings also were shown to be fully active after soaking in PBS for 2
      months. The organo-selenium coatings had no effect on the viability of human
      corneal epithelial cells. CONCLUSIONS: Organo-selenium can be used to covalently
      coat a scleral buckle, which is stable and inhibits biofilm formation for gram
      negative and gram-positive bacteria. The organo-selenium buckle coating was
      stable and nontoxic to cell culture. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: This technology
      provides a means to inhibit bacterial attachment to devices attached to the eye,
      without damage to ocular cells.

PMID- 28875064
TI  - Imaging of Retinal Vascular Layers: Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy
      Versus Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: Retinal vascular networks are observed as a layered structure residing
      in a nerve fiber layer and an inner nuclear layer of the retina. This study aimed
      to evaluate reflectance confocal adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy
      (AO-SLO) for imaging of the layered retinal vascular networks. METHODS: This
      study included 16 eyes of 16 healthy cases. On the fovea, 2.8- and 3.0 mm2-areas
      were imaged using a prototype AO-SLO and optical coherence tomography angiography
      (OCTA), respectively. AO-SLO images focused on the nerve fiber and photoreceptor
      layers were recorded in the area. Two different vessel images (capillary networks
      in the superficial layer and in all layers) were generated to examine if the deep
      capillary network could be distinguished. We compared AO-SLO with OCTA in imaging
      of the layered retinal vascular networks. RESULTS: Sufficient images of capillary
      networks for analysis could be generated when the motion contrast was enhanced
      with AO-SLO movies in seven cases (43.8%). The deep capillary network could be
      distinguished in the merged image. Vascular depiction performance in AO-SLO was
      significantly better than in OCTA at both 0.5- and 1.0-mm areas from the fovea (P
      < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Retinal vascular imaging using AO-SLO might be a useful
      adjunct to OCTA as a supportive method to evaluate the retina in healthy patients
      and patients with disease. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: In cases requiring accurate
      and detailed retinal vasculature observation, AO-SLO might be useful for
      evaluating retinal vascular lesions as a supportive imaging method of OCTA.

PMID- 28875065
TI  - BioFuelDB: a database and prediction server of enzymes involved in biofuels
      production.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In light of the rapid decrease in fossils fuel reserves and an
      increasing demand for energy, novel methods are required to explore alternative
      biofuel production processes to alleviate these pressures. A wide variety of
      molecules which can either be used as biofuels or as biofuel precursors are
      produced using microbial enzymes. However, the common challenges in the
      industrial implementation of enzyme catalysis for biofuel production are the
      unavailability of a comprehensive biofuel enzyme resource, low efficiency of
      known enzymes, and limited availability of enzymes which can function under
      extreme conditions in the industrial processes. METHODS: We have developed a
      comprehensive database of known enzymes with proven or potential applications in
      biofuel production through text mining of PubMed abstracts and other publicly
      available information. A total of 131 enzymes with a role in biofuel production
      were identified and classified into six enzyme classes and four broad application
      categories namely 'Alcohol production', 'Biodiesel production', 'Fuel Cell' and
      'Alternate biofuels'. A prediction tool 'Benz' was developed to identify and
      classify novel homologues of the known biofuel enzyme sequences from sequenced
      genomes and metagenomes. 'Benz' employs a hybrid approach incorporating HMMER 3.0
      and RAPSearch2 programs to provide high accuracy and high speed for prediction.
      RESULTS: Using the Benz tool, 153,754 novel homologues of biofuel enzymes were
      identified from 23 diverse metagenomic sources. The comprehensive data of curated
      biofuel enzymes, their novel homologs identified from diverse metagenomes, and
      the hybrid prediction tool Benz are presented as a web server which can be used
      for the prediction of biofuel enzymes from genomic and metagenomic datasets. The
      database and the Benz tool is publicly available at
      http://metabiosys.iiserb.ac.in/biofueldb&
      http://metagenomics.iiserb.ac.in/biofueldb.

PMID- 28875066
TI  - Genes of the major histocompatibility complex highlight interactions of the
      innate and adaptive immune system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A well-functioning immune defence is crucial for fitness, but our
      knowledge about the immune system and its complex interactions is still limited.
      Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules are involved in T-cell mediated
      adaptive immune responses, but MHC is also highly upregulated during the initial
      innate immune response. The aim of our study was therefore to determine to what
      extent the highly polymorphic MHC is involved in interactions of the innate and
      adaptive immune defence and if specific functional MHC alleles (FA) or
      heterozygosity at the MHC are more important. METHODS: To do this we used captive
      house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to survey MHC diversity and immune function
      controlling for several environmental factors. MHC class I alleles were
      identified using parallel amplicon sequencing and to mirror immune function,
      several immunological tests that correspond to the innate and adaptive immunity
      were conducted. RESULTS: Our results reveal that MHC was linked to all immune
      tests, highlighting its importance for the immune defence. While all innate
      responses were associated with one single FA, adaptive responses (cell-mediated
      and humoral) were associated with several different alleles. DISCUSSION: We found
      that repeated injections of an antibody in nestlings and adults were linked to
      different FA and hence might affect different areas of the immune system. Also,
      individuals with a higher number of different FA produced a smaller secondary
      response, indicating a disadvantage of having numerous MHC alleles. These results
      demonstrate the complexity of the immune system in relation to the MHC and lay
      the foundation for other studies to further investigate this topic.

PMID- 28875067
TI  - High incidence of cervical ribs indicates vulnerable condition in Late
      Pleistocene woolly rhinoceroses.
AB  - Mammals as a rule have seven cervical vertebrae, a number that remains remarkably
      constant. Changes of this number are associated with major congenital
      abnormalities (pleiotropic effects) that are, at least in humans, strongly
      selected against. Recently, it was found that Late Pleistocene mammoths
      (Mammuthus primigenius) from the North Sea have an unusually high incidence of
      abnormal cervical vertebral numbers, approximately ten times higher than that of
      extant elephants. Abnormal numbers were due to the presence of large cervical
      ribs on the seventh vertebra, indicating a homeotic change from a cervical rib
      less vertebra into a thoracic rib-bearing vertebra. The high incidence of
      cervical ribs indicates a vulnerable condition and is thought to be due to
      inbreeding and adverse conditions that may have impacted early pregnancies in
      declining populations. In this study we investigated the incidence of cervical
      ribs in another extinct Late Pleistocene megaherbivore from the North Sea and the
      Netherlands, the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis). We show that the
      incidence of abnormal cervical vertebral numbers in the woolly rhinoceros is
      unusually high for mammals (15,6%, n = 32) and much higher than in extant
      Rhinoceratidae (0%, n = 56). This indicates that woolly rhinoceros lived under
      vulnerable conditions, just like woolly mammoths. The vulnerable condition may
      well have contributed to their eventual extinction.

PMID- 28875068
TI  - Skin bacterial microbiome of a generalist Puerto Rican frog varies along
      elevation and land use gradients.
AB  - Host-associated microbial communities are ubiquitous among animals, and serve
      important functions. For example, the bacterial skin microbiome of amphibians can
      play a role in preventing or reducing infection by the amphibian chytrid fungus,
      Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Evidence suggests that environmental bacteria
      likely serve as a source pool for at least some of the members of the amphibian
      skin bacterial community, underscoring the potential for local environmental
      changes to disrupt microbial community source pools that could be critical to the
      health of host organisms. However, few studies have assessed variation in the
      amphibian skin microbiome along clear environmental gradients, and so we know
      relatively little about how local environmental conditions influence microbiome
      diversity. We sampled the skin bacterial communities of Coqui frogs,
      Eleutherodactylus coqui (N = 77), along an elevational gradient in eastern Puerto
      Rico (0-875 m), with transects in two land use types: intact forest (N = 4 sites)
      and disturbed (N = 3 sites) forest. We found that alpha diversity (as assessed by
      Shannon, Simpson, and Phylogenetic Diversity indices) varied across sites, but
      this variation was not correlated with elevation or land use. Beta diversity
      (community structure), on the other hand, varied with site, elevation and land
      use, primarily due to changes in the relative abundance of certain bacterial OTUs
      (~species) within these communities. Importantly, although microbiome diversity
      varied, E. coqui maintained a common core microbiota across all sites. Thus, our
      findings suggest that environmental conditions can influence the composition of
      the skin microbiome of terrestrial amphibians, but that some aspects of the
      microbiome remain consistent despite environmental variation.

PMID- 28875069
TI  - Mutation detection and prenatal diagnosis of XLHED pedigree.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The phenotypic characters of X -linked Hypohidrotic Ectodermal
      Dysplasia (XLHED) are the dysplasia of epithelial- and mesenchymal-derived
      organs. Ectodysplasin (EDA) is the causative gene of XLHED. METHODS: The current
      study reported a large Chinese XLHED pedigree. The genomic DNA of adult and fetus
      was extracted from peripheral blood and shed chorion cell respectively. The
      nucleotide variation in EDA gene was screened through direct sequencing the
      coding sequence. The methylation state of EDA gene's promoter was evaluated by
      pyrosequencing. RESULTS: This Chinese XLHED family had two male patients and
      three carriers. All of them were with a novel EDA frameshift mutation. The
      mutation, c.172-173insGG, which leads to an immediate premature stop codon in
      exon one caused severe structural changes of EDA. Prenatal diagnosis suggested
      that the fetus was a female carrier. The follow-up observation of this child
      indicated that she had mild hypodontia of deciduous teeth at age six. The
      methylation level of EDA gene's promoter was not related to carriers' phenotype
      changes in this family. DISCUSSION: We reported a new frameshift mutation of EDA
      gene in a Chinese family. Prenatal diagnosis can help to predict the disease
      status of the fetus.

PMID- 28875070
TI  - Dinosaur origin of egg color: oviraptors laid blue-green eggs.
AB  - Protoporphyrin (PP) and biliverdin (BV) give rise to the enormous diversity in
      avian egg coloration. Egg color serves several ecological purposes, including
      post-mating signaling and camouflage. Egg camouflage represents a major character
      of open-nesting birds which accomplish protection of their unhatched offspring
      against visually oriented predators by cryptic egg coloration. Cryptic coloration
      evolved to match the predominant shades of color found in the nesting
      environment. Such a selection pressure for the evolution of colored or cryptic
      eggs should be present in all open nesting birds and relatives. Many birds are
      open-nesting, but protect their eggs by continuous brooding, and thus exhibit no
      or minimal eggshell pigmentation. Their closest extant relatives, crocodiles,
      protect their eggs by burial and have unpigmented eggs. This phylogenetic pattern
      led to the assumption that colored eggs evolved within crown birds. The mosaic
      evolution of supposedly avian traits in non-avian theropod dinosaurs, however,
      such as the supposed evolution of partially open nesting behavior in
      oviraptorids, argues against this long-established theory. Using a double
      checking liquid chromatography ESI-Q-TOF mass spectrometry routine, we traced the
      origin of colored eggs to their non-avian dinosaur ancestors by providing the
      first record of the avian eggshell pigments protoporphyrin and biliverdin in the
      eggshells of Late Cretaceous oviraptorid dinosaurs. The eggshell parataxon
      Macroolithus yaotunensis can be assigned to the oviraptor Heyuannia huangi based
      on exceptionally preserved, late developmental stage embryo remains. The analyzed
      eggshells are from three Late Cretaceous fluvial deposits ranging from eastern to
      southernmost China. Reevaluation of these taphonomic settings, and a
      consideration of patterns in the porosity of completely preserved eggs support an
      at least partially open nesting behavior for oviraptorosaurs. Such a nest
      arrangement corresponds with our reconstruction of blue-green eggs for
      oviraptors. According to the sexual signaling hypothesis, the reconstructed blue
      green eggs support the origin of previously hypothesized avian paternal care in
      oviraptorid dinosaurs. Preserved dinosaur egg color not only pushes the current
      limits of the vertebrate molecular and associated soft tissue fossil record, but
      also provides a perspective on the potential application of this unexplored
      paleontological resource.

PMID- 28875071
TI  - Intraclutch eggshell colour variation in birds: are females able to identify
      their eggs individually?
AB  - BACKGROUND: One possibility suggested regarding female post-mating strategies is
      differential allocation into offspring investment. Female birds produce not only
      the largest, but also most colourful eggs of all oviparous taxa. Larger eggs
      provide space for bigger embryos, or more nutrition for their development, but
      the question why eggs are more colourful and why there is variation in eggshell
      colouration remains. In this context, the focus of interest has been to explain
      inter-clutch variation but in many bird species, eggshell colouration also varies
      within a clutch. Surprisingly, less attention has been paid to this phenomenon.
      Therefore, we propose the "female egg recognition" hypothesis, suggesting that
      mothers use colour characteristics to interpret egg attributes and allocate
      further investment into each egg accordingly. To evaluate the feasibility of the
      hypothesis, we tested several underlying predictions and examined their
      suitability using a dataset from our tree sparrow (Passer montanus) study. We
      predict (i) substantial within-clutch variation in eggshell colouration which,
      (ii) should be related to laying sequence, (iii) reflect egg quality and, (iv)
      should stimulate a female response. METHODS: Eggshell coloration data were
      obtained via digital photography under standardized conditions, taken after
      clutch completion. Lightness (L*), representing the achromatic properties of an
      egg has been chosen as the most important predictor in dark cavities and was
      related to egg quality and position in the nest. RESULTS: In our tree sparrows,
      first and mainly last eggs were less pigmented, providing information about
      laying order. Egg volume, which predicts chick quality, positively correlates
      with eggshell coloration. Finally, we could show that female tree sparrows placed
      darker, but not bigger, eggs into more central incubation positions. DISCUSSION:
      All basic prerequisites for the "female egg recognition" hypothesis are
      fulfilled. In this context practicability and feasibility of the hypothesis and
      alternative explanations are discussed. However future work is necessary to
      determine a direct effect on offspring condition.

PMID- 28875072
TI  - PrePhyloPro: phylogenetic profile-based prediction of whole proteome linkages.
AB  - Direct and indirect functional links between proteins as well as their
      interactions as part of larger protein complexes or common signaling pathways may
      be predicted by analyzing the correlation of their evolutionary patterns. Based
      on phylogenetic profiling, here we present a highly scalable and time-efficient
      computational framework for predicting linkages within the whole human proteome.
      We have validated this method through analysis of 3,697 human pathways and
      molecular complexes and a comparison of our results with the prediction outcomes
      of previously published co-occurrency model-based and normalization methods. Here
      we also introduce PrePhyloPro, a web-based software that uses our method for
      accurately predicting proteome-wide linkages. We present data on interactions of
      human mitochondrial proteins, verifying the performance of this software.
      PrePhyloPro is freely available at http://prephylopro.org/phyloprofile/.

PMID- 28875073
TI  - The microbial biosphere of the coral Acropora cervicornis in Northeastern Puerto
      Rico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coral reefs are the most biodiverse ecosystems in the marine realm,
      and they not only contribute a plethora of ecosystem services to other marine
      organisms, but they also are beneficial to humankind via, for instance, their
      role as nurseries for commercially important fish species. Corals are considered
      holobionts (host + symbionts) since they are composed not only of coral polyps,
      but also algae, other microbial eukaryotes and prokaryotes. In recent years,
      Caribbean reef corals, including the once-common scleractinian coral Acropora
      cervicornis, have suffered unprecedented mortality due to climate change-related
      stressors. Unfortunately, our basic knowledge of the molecular ecophysiology of
      reef corals, particularly with respect to their complex bacterial microbiota, is
      currently too poor to project how climate change will affect this species. For
      instance, we do not know how light influences microbial communities of A.
      cervicornis, arguably the most endangered of all Caribbean coral species. To this
      end, we characterized the microbiota of A. cervicornis inhabiting water depths
      with different light regimes. METHODS: Six A. cervicornis fragments from
      different individuals were collected at two different depths (three at 1.5 m and
      three at 11 m) from a reef 3.2 km off the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico. We
      characterized the microbial communities by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene region V4
      with the Illumina platform. RESULTS: A total of 173,137 good-quality sequences
      were binned into 803 OTUs with a 97% similarity. We uncovered eight bacterial
      phyla at both depths with a dominance of 725 Rickettsiales OTUs (Proteobacteria).
      A fewer number (38) of low dominance OTUs varied by depth and taxa enriched in
      shallow water corals included Proteobacteria (e.g. Rhodobacteraceae and Serratia)
      and Firmicutes (Streptococcus). Those enriched in deeper water corals featured
      different Proteobacterial taxa (Campylobacterales and Bradyrhizobium) and
      Firmicutes (Lactobacillus). DISCUSSION: Our results confirm that the microbiota
      of A. cervicornis inhabiting the northeastern region of Puerto Rico is dominated
      by a Rickettsiales-like bacterium and that there are significant changes in less
      dominant taxa at different water depths. These changes in less dominant taxa may
      potentially impact the coral's physiology, particularly with respect to its
      ability to respond to future increases in temperature and CO2.

PMID- 28875074
TI  - Atropos: specific, sensitive, and speedy trimming of sequencing reads.
AB  - A key step in the transformation of raw sequencing reads into biological insights
      is the trimming of adapter sequences and low-quality bases. Read trimming has
      been shown to increase the quality and reliability while decreasing the
      computational requirements of downstream analyses. Many read trimming software
      tools are available; however, no tool simultaneously provides the accuracy,
      computational efficiency, and feature set required to handle the types and
      volumes of data generated in modern sequencing-based experiments. Here we
      introduce Atropos and show that it trims reads with high sensitivity and
      specificity while maintaining leading-edge speed. Compared to other state-of-the
      art read trimming tools, Atropos achieves significant increases in trimming
      accuracy while remaining competitive in execution times. Furthermore, Atropos
      maintains high accuracy even when trimming data with elevated rates of sequencing
      errors. The accuracy, high performance, and broad feature set offered by Atropos
      makes it an appropriate choice for the pre-processing of Illumina, ABI SOLiD, and
      other current-generation short-read sequencing datasets. Atropos is open source
      and free software written in Python (3.3+) and available at
      https://github.com/jdidion/atropos.

PMID- 28875075
TI  - New insights into Mesozoic cycad evolution: an exploration of anatomically
      preserved Cycadaceae seeds from the Jurassic Oxford Clay biota.
AB  - Most knowledge concerning Mesozoic Era floras has come from compression fossils.
      This has been augmented in the last 20 years by rarer permineralized material
      showing cellular preservation. Here, we describe a new genus of anatomically
      preserved gymnosperm seed from the Callovian-Oxfordian (Jurassic) Oxford Clay
      Formation (UK), using a combination of traditional sectioning and synchrotron
      radiation X-ray micro-tomography (SRXMT). Oxfordiana motturii gen. et sp. nov. is
      large and bilaterally symmetrical. It has prominent external ribs, and has a
      three-layered integument comprising: a narrow outer layer of thick walled cells;
      a thick middle parenchymatous layer; and innermost a thin fleshy layer. The
      integument has a longitudinal interior groove and micropyle, enveloping a
      nucellus with a small pollen chamber. The large size, bilateral symmetry and
      integumentary groove demonstrate an affinity for the new species within the
      cycads. Moreover, the internal groove in extant taxa is an autapomorphy of the
      genus Cycas, where it facilitates seed germination. Based upon the unique seed
      germination mechanism shared with living species of the Cycadaceae, we conclude
      that O. motturii is a member of the stem-group lineage leading to Cycas after the
      Jurassic divergence of the Cycadaceae from other extant cycads. SRXMT-for the
      first time successfully applied to fossils already prepared as slides-reveals the
      distribution of different mineral phases within the fossil, and allows us to
      evaluate the taphonomy of Oxfordiana. An early pyrite phase replicates the
      external surfaces of individual cells, a later carbonate component infilling void
      spaces. The resulting taphonomic model suggests that the relatively small size of
      the fossils was key to their exceptional preservation, concentrating sulfate
      reducing bacteria in a locally closed microenvironment and thus facilitating soft
      tissue permineralization.

PMID- 28875076
TI  - Validation and description of two new north-western Australian Rainbow skinks
      with multispecies coalescent methods and morphology.
AB  - While methods for genetic species delimitation have noticeably improved in the
      last decade, this remains a work in progress. Ideally, model based approaches
      should be applied and considered jointly with other lines of evidence, primarily
      morphology and geography, in an integrative taxonomy framework. Deep
      phylogeographic divergences have been reported for several species of Carlia
      skinks, but only for some eastern taxa have species boundaries been formally
      tested. The present study does this and revises the taxonomy for two species from
      northern Australia, Carlia johnstonei and C. triacantha. We introduce an approach
      that is based on the recently published method StarBEAST2, which uses multilocus
      data to explore the support for alternative species delimitation hypotheses using
      Bayes Factors (BFD). We apply this method, jointly with two other multispecies
      coalescent methods, using an extensive (from 2,163 exons) data set along with
      measures of 11 morphological characters. We use this integrated approach to
      evaluate two new candidate species previously revealed in phylogeographic
      analyses of rainbow skinks (genus Carlia) in Western Australia. The results based
      on BFD StarBEAST2, BFD* SNAPP and BPP genetic delimitation, together with
      morphology, support each of the four recently identified Carlia lineages as
      separate species. The BFD StarBEAST2 approach yielded results highly congruent
      with those from BFD* SNAPP and BPP. This supports use of the robust multilocus
      multispecies coalescent StarBEAST2 method for species delimitation, which does
      not require a priori resolved species or gene trees. Compared to the situation in
      C. triacantha, morphological divergence was greater between the two lineages
      within Kimberley endemic C. johnstonei, which also had deeper divergent
      histories. This congruence supports recognition of two species within C.
      johnstonei. Nevertheless, the combined evidence also supports recognition of two
      taxa within the more widespread C. triacantha. With this work, we describe two
      new species, Carlia insularis sp. nov and Carlia isostriacantha sp. nov. in the
      northwest of Australia. This contributes to increasing recognition that this
      region of tropical Australia has a rich and unique fauna.

PMID- 28875077
TI  - Uncovering unseen fungal diversity from plant DNA banks.
AB  - Throughout the world DNA banks are used as storage repositories for genetic
      diversity of organisms ranging from plants to insects to mammals. Designed to
      preserve the genetic information for organisms of interest, these banks also
      indirectly preserve organisms' associated microbiomes, including fungi associated
      with plant tissues. Studies of fungal biodiversity lag far behind those of
      macroorganisms, such as plants, and estimates of global fungal richness are still
      widely debated. Utilizing previously collected specimens to study patterns of
      fungal diversity could significantly increase our understanding of overall
      patterns of biodiversity from snapshots in time. Here, we investigated the fungi
      inhabiting the phylloplane among species of the endemic Hawaiian plant genus,
      Clermontia (Campanulaceae). Utilizing next generation DNA amplicon sequencing, we
      uncovered approximately 1,780 fungal operational taxonomic units from just 20 DNA
      bank samples collected throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. Using these
      historical samples, we tested the macroecological pattern of decreasing community
      similarity with decreasing geographic proximity. We found a significant distance
      decay pattern among Clermontia associated fungal communities. This study provides
      the first insights into elucidating patterns of microbial diversity through the
      use of DNA bank repository samples.

PMID- 28875078
TI  - Genotyping-by-sequencing enables linkage mapping in three octoploid cultivated
      strawberry families.
AB  - Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was used to survey genome-wide single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in three biparental strawberry (Fragaria * ananassa)
      populations with the goal of evaluating this technique in a species with a
      complex octoploid genome. GBS sequence data were aligned to the F. vesca 'Fvb'
      reference genome in order to call SNPs. Numbers of polymorphic SNPs per
      population ranged from 1,163 to 3,190. Linkage maps consisting of 30-65 linkage
      groups were produced from the SNP sets derived from each parent. The linkage
      groups covered 99% of the Fvb reference genome, with three to seven linkage
      groups from a given parent aligned to any particular chromosome. A phylogenetic
      analysis performed using the POLiMAPS pipeline revealed linkage groups that were
      most similar to ancestral species F. vesca for each chromosome. Linkage groups
      that were most similar to a second ancestral species, F. iinumae, were only
      resolved for Fvb 4. The quantity of missing data and heterogeneity in genome
      coverage inherent in GBS complicated the analysis, but POLiMAPS resolved F. *
      ananassa chromosomal regions derived from diploid ancestor F. vesca.

PMID- 28875079
TI  - Distribution and biological implications of plastic pollution on the fringing
      reef of Mo'orea, French Polynesia.
AB  - Coral reef ecosystems of the South Pacific are extremely vulnerable to plastic
      pollution from oceanic gyres and land-based sources. To describe the extent and
      impact of plastic pollution, the distribution of both macro- (>5 mm) and
      microplastic (plastic < 5 mm) of the fringing reef of an isolated South Pacific
      island, Mo'orea, French Polynesia was quantified. Macroplastic was found on every
      beach on the island that was surveyed. The distribution of this plastic was
      categorized by site type and by the presence of Turbinaria ornata, a common
      macroalgae on Mo'orea. Microplastics were discovered in the water column of the
      fringing reef of the island, at a concentration of 0.74 pieces m-2. Additionally,
      this study reports for the first time the ingestion of microplastic by the
      corallimorpha Discosoma nummiforme. Microplastics were made available to
      corallimorph polyps in a laboratory setting over the course of 108 h. Positively
      and negatively buoyant microplastics were ingested, and a microplastic particle
      that was not experimentally introduced was also discovered in the stomach cavity
      of one organism. This study indicates that plastic pollution has the potential to
      negatively impact coral reef ecosystems of the South Pacific, and warrants
      further study to explore the broader potential impacts of plastic pollution on
      coral reef ecosystems.

PMID- 28875080
TI  - Experimental moose reduction lowers wolf density and stops decline of endangered
      caribou.
AB  - The expansion of moose into southern British Columbia caused the decline and
      extirpation of woodland caribou due to their shared predators, a process commonly
      referred to as apparent competition. Using an adaptive management experiment, we
      tested the hypothesis that reducing moose to historic levels would reduce
      apparent competition and therefor recover caribou populations. Nested within this
      broad hypothesis were three specific hypotheses: (1) sport hunting could be used
      to substantially reduce moose numbers to an ecological target; (2) wolves in this
      ecosystem were primarily limited by moose abundance; and (3) caribou were limited
      by wolf predation. These hypotheses were evaluated with a before-after control
      impact (BACI) design that included response metrics such as population trends and
      vital rates of caribou, moose, and wolves. Three caribou subpopulations were
      subject to the moose reduction treatment and two were in a reference area where
      moose were not reduced. When the moose harvest was increased, the moose
      population declined substantially in the treatment area (by 70%) but not the
      reference area, suggesting that the policy had the desired effect and was not
      caused by a broader climatic process. Wolf numbers subsequently declined in the
      treatment area, with wolf dispersal rates 2.5* greater, meaning that dispersal
      was the likely mechanism behind the wolf numerical response, though reduced
      recruitment and starvation was also documented in the treatment area. Caribou
      adult survival increased from 0.78 to 0.88 in the treatment area, but declined in
      the reference. Caribou recruitment was unaffected by the treatment. The largest
      caribou subpopulation stabilized in the treatment area, but declined in the
      reference area. The observed population stability is comparable to other studies
      that used intensive wolf control, but is insufficient to achieve recovery,
      suggesting that multiple limiting factors and corresponding management tools must
      be addressed simultaneously to achieve population growth.

PMID- 28875081
TI  - The jaw is a second-class lever in Pedetes capensis (Rodentia: Pedetidae).
AB  - The mammalian jaw is often modelled as a third-class lever for the purposes of
      biomechanical analyses, owing to the position of the resultant muscle force
      between the jaw joint and the teeth. However, it has been proposed that in some
      rodents the jaws operate as a second-class lever during distal molar bites, owing
      to the rostral position of the masticatory musculature. In particular, the
      infraorbital portion of the zygomatico-mandibularis (IOZM) has been suggested to
      be of major importance in converting the masticatory system from a third-class to
      a second-class lever. The presence of the IOZM is diagnostic of the hystricomorph
      rodents, and is particularly well-developed in Pedetes capensis, the South
      African springhare. In this study, finite element analysis (FEA) was used to
      assess the lever mechanics of the springhare masticatory system, and to determine
      the function of the IOZM. An FE model of the skull of P. capensis was constructed
      and loaded with all masticatory muscles, and then solved for biting at each tooth
      in turn. Further load cases were created in which each masticatory muscle was
      removed in turn. The analyses showed that the mechanical advantage of the
      springhare jaws was above one at all molar bites and very close to one during the
      premolar bite. Removing the IOZM or masseter caused a drop in mechanical
      advantage at all bites, but affected strain patterns and cranial deformation very
      little. Removing the ZM had only a small effect on mechanical advantage, but
      produced a substantial reduction in strain and deformation across the skull. It
      was concluded that the masticatory system of P. capensis acts as a second class
      lever during bites along almost the entire cheek tooth row. The IOZM is clearly a
      major contributor to this effect, but the masseter also has a part to play. The
      benefit of the IOZM is that it adds force without substantially contributing to
      strain or deformation of the skull. This may help explain why the
      hystricomorphous morphology has evolved multiple times independently within
      Rodentia.

PMID- 28875082
TI  - The Brazilian version of the 20-item rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine
      and dentistry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The misunderstanding of specific vocabulary may hamper the patient
      health provider communication. The 20-item Rapid Estimate Adult Literacy in
      Medicine and Dentistry (REALMD-20) was constructed to screen patients by their
      ability in reading medical/dental terminologies in a simple and rapid way. This
      study aimed to perform the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of this
      instrument for its application in Brazilian dental patients. METHODS: The cross
      cultural adaptation was performed through conceptual equivalence, verbatim
      translation, semantic, item and operational equivalence, and back-translation.
      After that, 200 participants responded the adapted version of the REALMD-20, the
      Brazilian version of the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (BREALD
      30), ten questions of the Brazilian National Functional Literacy Index (BNFLI),
      and a questionnaire with socio-demographic and oral health-related questions.
      Statistical analysis was conducted to assess the reliability and validity of the
      REALMD-20 (P < 0.05). RESULTS: The sample was composed predominantly by women
      (55.5%) and white/brown (76%) individuals, with an average age of 39.02 years old
      (+/-15.28). The average REALMD-20 score was 17.48 (+/-2.59, range 8-20). It
      displayed a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.789) and test-retest
      reliability (ICC = 0.73; 95% CI [0.66 - 0.79]). In the exploratory factor
      analysis, six factors were extracted according to Kaiser's criterion. The factor
      I (eigenvalue = 4.53) comprised four terms- "Jaundice", "Amalgam",
      "Periodontitis" and "Abscess"-accounted for 25.18% of total variance, while the
      factor II (eigenvalue = 1.88) comprised other four terms-"Gingivitis",
      "Instruction", "Osteoporosis" and "Constipation"-accounted for 10.46% of total
      variance. The first four factors accounted for 52.1% of total variance. The
      REALMD-20 was positively correlated with the BREALD-30 (Rs = 0.73, P < 0.001) and
      BNFLI (Rs = 0.60, P < 0.001). The scores were significantly higher among health
      professionals, more educated people, and individuals who reported good/excellent
      oral health conditions, and who sought preventive dental services. Distinctly,
      REALMD-20 scores were similar between both participants who visited a dentist <1
      year ago and >=1 year. Also, REALMD-20 was a significant predictor of self
      reported oral health status in a multivariate logistic regression model,
      considering socio-demographic and oral health-related confounding variables.
      CONCLUSION: The Brazilian version of the REALMD-20 demonstrated adequate
      psychometric properties for screening dental patients in relation to their
      recognition of health specific terms. This instrument can contribute to identify
      individuals with important dental/medical vocabulary limitations in order to
      improve the health education and outcomes in a person-centered care model.

PMID- 28875083
TI  - Relying on known or exploring for new? Movement patterns and reproductive
      resource use in a tadpole-transporting frog.
AB  - Animals relying on uncertain, ephemeral and patchy resources have to regularly
      update their information about profitable sites. For many tropical amphibians,
      widespread, scattered breeding pools constitute such fluctuating resources. Among
      tropical amphibians, poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) exhibit some of the most
      complex spatial and parental behaviors-including territoriality and tadpole
      transport from terrestrial clutches to ephemeral aquatic deposition sites. Recent
      studies have revealed that poison frogs rely on spatial memory to successfully
      navigate through their environment. This raises the question of when and how
      these frogs gain information about the area and suitable reproductive resources.
      To investigate the spatial patterns of pool use and to reveal potential
      explorative behavior, we used telemetry to follow males of the territorial
      dendrobatid frog Allobates femoralis during tadpole transport and subsequent
      homing. To elicit exploration, we reduced resource availability experimentally by
      simulating desiccated deposition sites. We found that tadpole transport is
      strongly directed towards known deposition sites and that frogs take similar
      direct paths when returning to their home territory. Frogs move faster during
      tadpole transport than when homing after the deposition, which probably reflects
      different risks and costs during these two movement phases. We found no evidence
      for exploration, neither during transport nor homing, and independent of the
      availability of deposition sites. We suggest that prospecting during tadpole
      transport is too risky for the transported offspring as well as for the
      transporting male. Relying on spatial memory of multiple previously discovered
      pools appears to be the predominant and successful strategy for the exploitation
      of reproductive resources in A. femoralis. Our study provides for the first time
      a detailed description of poison frog movement patterns during tadpole transport
      and corroborates recent findings on the significance of spatial memory in poison
      frogs. When these frogs explore and discover new reproductive resources remains
      unknown.

PMID- 28875084
TI  - Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in Portuguese pregnant women and vaginal
      colonization by Gardnerella vaginalis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the prevalence of vaginal colonization by
      Gardnerella vaginalis and of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in Portuguese pregnant
      women, and to identify risk factors for BV and G. vaginalis colonization in
      pregnancy. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant women
      aged >= 18 years who were attending in two public hospitals of the Northwest
      region of Portugal. Epidemiological data was collected by anonymous
      questionnaire. BV was diagnosed by Nugent criteria and G. vaginalis presence was
      identified by polymerase chain reaction. Crude associations between the study
      variables and BV or G. vaginalis colonization were quantified by odds ratios
      (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: The prevalences of BV
      and of G. vaginalis colonization among Portuguese pregnant women were 3.88% and
      67.48%, respectively. Previous preterm delivery and colonization by G. vaginalis
      were factors with very high OR, but only statistically significant for a 90% CI.
      Conversely, higher rates of G. vaginalis colonization were found in women with
      basic educational level (OR = 2.77, 95% CI [1.33-5.78]), during the second
      trimester of pregnancy (OR = 6.12, 95% CI [1.80-20.85]) and with BV flora (OR =
      8.73, 95% CI [0.50-153.60]). DISCUSSION: Despite the lower number of women with
      BV, prevalence ratios and association with risk factors were similar to recent
      European studies. However, the percentage of healthy women colonized by G.
      vaginalis was significantly higher than many previous studies, confirming that G.
      vaginalis colonization does not always lead to BV development.

PMID- 28875085
TI  - Remote sensing and spatial statistical techniques for modelling Ommatissus
      lybicus (Hemiptera: Tropiduchidae) habitat and population densities.
AB  - In order to understand the distribution and prevalence of Ommatissus lybicus
      (Hemiptera: Tropiduchidae) as well as analyse their current biographical patterns
      and predict their future spread, comprehensive and detailed information on the
      environmental, climatic, and agricultural practices are essential. The spatial
      analytical techniques such as Remote Sensing and Spatial Statistics Tools, can
      help detect and model spatial links and correlations between the presence,
      absence and density of O. lybicus in response to climatic, environmental, and
      human factors. The main objective of this paper is to review remote sensing and
      relevant analytical techniques that can be applied in mapping and modelling the
      habitat and population density of O. lybicus. An exhaustive search of related
      literature revealed that there are very limited studies linking location-based
      infestation levels of pests like the O. lybicus with climatic, environmental, and
      human practice related variables. This review also highlights the accumulated
      knowledge and addresses the gaps in this area of research. Furthermore, it makes
      recommendations for future studies, and gives suggestions on monitoring and
      surveillance methods in designing both local and regional level integrated pest
      management strategies of palm tree and other affected cultivated crops.

PMID- 28875086
TI  - Fourteen new species of Oecetis McLachlan, 1877 (Trichoptera: Leptoceridae) from
      the Neotropical region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The caddisfly genus Oecetis currently contains 534 valid species. Its
      larval stages are found in freshwaters around the world. The adults can be
      distinguished from other Leptoceridae by the unbranched forewing M vein and the
      exceptionally long maxillary palps. In the Neotropical region, 55 species of
      Oecetis have been recorded and most of them can be placed in one of the six
      species groups known from this biogeographical region: the avara-, falicia-,
      inconspicua-, punctata-, punctipennis-, and testacea-groups. More than 50% of the
      known diversity of Neotropical Oecetis has been described in the past 40 years.
      Here, we describe an additional 14 new species of Oecetis to further document the
      diversity of this genus in the Neotropical region. METHODS: The descriptions and
      illustrations presented here are based on male specimens. Specimens were
      collected with Malaise traps or ultraviolet light traps. They were preserved in
      alcohol or pinned as stated in material examined section. Specimens had their
      genitalia prepared in 85% lactic acid to better observe internal characters and
      illustrations were aided by the use of a microscope with drawing tube attached.
      RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: This study raises the number of species of Oecetis in the
      Neotropics from 55 to 69. Eight of the new species presented here could not be
      reliably placed in one of the known species groups (Oecetis acuticlasper n. sp.,
      Oecetis flinti n. sp., Oecetis carinata n. sp., Oecetis cassicoleata n. sp.,
      Oecetis blahniki n. sp., Oecetis gibbosa n. sp., Oecetis licina n. sp., and
      Oecetis pertica n. sp.). The others are placed in the punctata-group (Oecetis
      bidigitata n. sp., Oecetis quasipunctata n. sp.), testacea-group (Oecetis
      plenuspinosa n. sp.), and falicia-group (Oecetis calori n. sp., Oecetis
      hastapulla n. sp., Oecetis machaera n. sp.). Most of the diagnostic characters
      rely on structures of the inferior appendages and phallic apparatus, and the
      shape of tergum X.

PMID- 28875088
TI  - Unique Association of Multiple Seminal Vesicle Cysts with Contralateral Renal
      Agenesis: A Rare Variant of Zinner Syndrome.
AB  - Zinner syndrome is a rare developmental anomaly of the Wolffian (mesonephric)
      duct which is characterised by a triad of obstruction of the ejaculatory duct,
      the ipsilateral seminal vesicle cyst, and the ipsilateral renal agenesis. The aim
      of this case report is to emphasize the importance of radiological imaging in
      diagnosing the condition and to report its rare unusual variant.

PMID- 28875087
TI  - Tracing hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype B5 (formerly B6) evolutionary history in
      the circumpolar Arctic through phylogeographic modelling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indigenous populations of the circumpolar Arctic are considered to be
      endemically infected (>2% prevalence) with hepatitis B virus (HBV), with
      subgenotype B5 (formerly B6) unique to these populations. The distinctive
      properties of HBV/B5, including high nucleotide diversity yet no significant
      liver disease, suggest virus adaptation through long-term host-pathogen
      association. METHODS: To investigate the origin and evolutionary spread of HBV/B5
      into the circumpolar Arctic, fifty-seven partial and full genome sequences from
      Alaska, Canada and Greenland, having known location and sampling dates spanning
      40 years, were phylogeographically investigated by Bayesian analysis (BEAST 2)
      using a reversible-jump-based substitution model and a clock rate estimated at
      4.1 * 10-5 substitutions/site/year. RESULTS: Following an initial divergence from
      an Asian viral ancestor approximately 1954 years before present (YBP; 95% highest
      probability density interval [1188, 2901]), HBV/B5 coalescence occurred almost
      1000 years later. Surprisingly, the HBV/B5 ancestor appears to locate first to
      Greenland in a rapid coastal route progression based on the landscape aware
      geographic model, with subsequent B5 evolution and spread westward. Bayesian
      skyline plot analysis demonstrated an HBV/B5 population expansion occurring
      approximately 400 YBP, coinciding with the disruption of the Neo-Eskimo Thule
      culture into more heterogeneous and regionally distinct Inuit populations
      throughout the North American Arctic. DISCUSSION: HBV/B5 origin and spread
      appears to occur coincident with the movement of Neo-Eskimo (Inuit) populations
      within the past 1000 years, further supporting the hypothesis of HBV/host co
      expansion, and illustrating the concept of host-pathogen adaptation and balance.

PMID- 28875089
TI  - Use of a Teledentistry-based Program for Screening of Early Childhood Caries in a
      School Setting.
AB  - Aim The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and feasibility of using
      teledentistry for the screening and diagnosis of dental caries in children
      between the age groups of three to six years. Design This study included a total
      of 318 school-going children whose caries scores were calculated by visual method
      and using digital photographs generated by an intraoral camera by two examiners:
      examiner 1 and examiner 2 (E1 and E2). Intra-examiner and inter-examiner
      variability were determined. Reliability was compared across the three groups.
      Results Intra-examiner and inter-examiner variability when compared revealed no
      significant difference. A Cronbach's alpha of 0.983 was generated, which shows
      high reliability. Conclusions Effective screening for early childhood caries
      (ECC) in young children was possible with digital images generated in a school
      setting, thus paving the way for the application of teledentistry as effective
      means for the diagnosis of dental caries.

PMID- 28875090
TI  - Regression of a Fungating Tumor After Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy in a
      Patient With Metastatic Breast Cancer.
AB  - Radiation therapy is a well-established palliative treatment for symptomatic
      metastases from breast cancer. This is also true of symptomatic primary breast
      tumors in patients with metastatic disease or in those who are medically
      inoperable. Further, local progression in the chest wall can severely impair
      quality of life, with local pain, bleeding, and significant impact on one's self
      image. Here, we present the case of a patient who showed an exceptional response
      to a palliative hypofractionated radiation course to her bleeding, fungating
      breast primary.

PMID- 28875091
TI  - Demographics of Head and Neck Cancer Patients: A Single Institution Experience.
AB  - Introduction Head and neck cancer (HNC) comprises a diverse group of oncological
      entities, originating from various tissue types and organ localizations, situated
      in the topographical regions of the head and neck (H&N). This single institution
      retrospective study was aimed at establishing the HNC patient demographics and
      categorizing the individual incidence of H&N malignancies, regarding their organ
      of origin and main histopathological type. Materials and methods All
      histologically verified cases of HNC from a single tertiary referral center were
      reviewed in a descriptive retrospective manner. Data sampling period was 47
      months. Results Male to female ratio of the registered HNC cases was 3.24:1. The
      mean age of diagnosis was 63.84 +/- 12.65 years, median 65 years. The most common
      HNC locations include the larynx 30.37% (n = 188), lips and oral cavity 29.08% (n
      = 180), pharynx 20.03% (n = 124) and salivary glands 10.94% (n = 68), with other
      locations such as the external nose, nasal cavity and sinuses and auricle and
      external ear canal harboring a minority of the cases. The main histopathological
      groups include squamous cell carcinoma 76.74% (n = 475) and adenocarcinoma 6.14%
      (n = 38), with other malignant entries such as other epithelial malignancies,
      primary tonsillar, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue or parenchymal lymphomas,
      connective tissue neoplasias, neuroendocrine and vascular malignancies diagnosed
      in a minority of cases. Conclusion Considered to be relatively rare, HNC
      represents a diverse group of oncological entities with individual and specific
      demographic characteristics. The reported single institution results appear
      representative of the national incidence and characteristics of HNC.

PMID- 28875092
TI  - Thoracolumbar Cortical Screw Placement with Interbody Fusion: Technique and
      Considerations.
AB  - A surge in interest in cortical bone trajectory (CBT), first described by Santoni
      in 2009, may be a result of its numerous advantages, including reduced surgical
      incision length and lateral dissection, limited disruption of the facet joints,
      and decreased blood loss. In addition, CBT offers improved screw pullout strength
      and the ability to perform hybrid constructs with pedicle screws using minimally
      invasive approaches. However, one of the main limitations of the technique
      involves the small screw size, which limits the potential for long-segment
      constructs. We describe a technique involving a more in-line anatomical
      trajectory, allowing for larger screw diameters. A feasibility study using a
      cadaveric model was performed and evaluated. Moreover, a focused review of the
      literature on the use of CBT was performed. Screw entry points are located along
      the inferomedial aspect of the facet and angled superolaterally. The use of this
      technique allows for the placement of larger screws (4.5 to 6.5 mm diameter)
      without pedicle breaches along with the alignment of screw heads from L1 to S1.
      In addition, the technique can be performed using stereotactic navigation or
      fluoroscopy. A direct, more in-line technique allows for larger screws to be
      placed using CBT. This technique can be combined with minimally invasive
      approaches. The potential advantages of the CBT technique support its use as a
      probable alternative to traditional pedicle screw fixation techniques.

PMID- 28875093
TI  - Association of Lipid Profile in Pregnancy with Preeclampsia, Gestational Diabetes
      Mellitus, and Preterm Delivery.
AB  - Introduction During the last two trimesters of pregnancy, glucose is spared (for
      the foetus), while the concentration of fatty acids in plasma increases, which
      can create complications like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM),
      and preterm delivery. Aim To study the association of serum lipid levels during
      the second and third trimesters with the development of pregnancy-associated
      diseases, such as preeclampsia, GDM, and preterm delivery. Methods and Materials
      The present study was carried out at MGM Hospital, Navi Mumbai, India. Two
      hundred antenatal cases from October 2012 to October 2014 were enrolled after
      giving an informed consent. A lipid profile was recorded for each subject and was
      later accessed. The lipid profile of the subjects having either GDM, preterm, or
      preeclampsia was further used to find an association with the individual
      disorders. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Package for
      Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY). All reported
      p-values are two-tailed, and confidence intervals were calculated at the 95%
      level. Results In preeclamptic patients, the mean systolic blood pressure was
      151.40 mm/Hg and the mean diastolic blood pressure was 74.03 mm/Hg in the third
      trimester. In preeclamptic patients, the mean serum triglyceride levels in the
      second trimester were 204.00 mg/dl, while the mean was 243.20 mg/dl in the third
      trimester. In GDM patients, the mean serum triglyceride was 214.33 mg/dl in the
      second trimester, while it was 230.50 mg/dl in the third trimester. In patients
      with preterm, the mean triglycerides levels were 212.83 mg/dl and 240.16 mg/dl in
      the second and third trimesters, respectively. In preeclamptic patients, the mean
      serum cholesterol levels in the second trimester were 210 mg/dl, while in the
      third trimester, the mean was 243.60 mg/dl. In GDM patients, the mean serum
      cholesterol was 223.50 mg/dl and 242.83 mg/dl in the second and third trimester,
      respectively. The mean cholesterol levels in patients with preterm in second and
      third trimesters were 213.33 mg/dl and 243.66 mg/dl, respectively. Out of the
      total 200 patients, 168 had no complications, while 20 (10%) had preeclampsia,
      six (3%) had gestational diabetes mellitus, and the other six {3%} had preterm
      deliveries. Conclusion An association between maternal early pregnancy
      triglyceridaemia and the subsequent risk of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes,
      and preterm deliveries was observed. The occurrence of preeclampsia, gestational
      diabetes, and preterm deliveries cannot be predicted based on the values of serum
      cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
      (VLDL-C). Hence, estimation of lipid profile is strongly recommended during
      pregnancy to prevent the deleterious effect of hyperlipidaemia associated with
      pregnancy.

PMID- 28875094
TI  - Successful Trial of Octreotide and Ketorolac for the Management of Increased
      Biliary Drain Output: A Case Report.
AB  - We describe a 69-year-old male patient with the status of obstructive jaundice
      post percutaneous biliary drainage for prior obstructive jaundice and who
      presented with a complaint of generalized weakness and increased output from the
      drainage tube. The patient developed worsening jaundice, which was noted to be
      obstructive in nature with a marked dilatation of the biliary tree and a distal
      obstruction of the common bile duct. Subsequently, a percutaneous biliary drain
      was placed for symptomatic management. However, the patient continued to have
      increased output from the drain, approximating 3-4 liters a day, which made the
      patient dependent on continuous intravenous hydration. The case presented a
      therapeutic challenge in reducing the drainage amount. We have tried a successful
      approach based on the physiologic effect of octreotide and nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the formation of bile secretion. This approach has
      not been clearly described in the literature. We highlight the importance of
      further study to validate the use of these medications in similar clinical
      scenarios.

PMID- 28875095
TI  - Evaluation of Prostatic Lesions by Transrectal Ultrasound, Color Doppler, and the
      Histopathological Correlation.
AB  - Objective To evaluate the role of a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy
      and a color Doppler test in the detection of prostate cancer in patients with
      increased serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and/or an abnormal digital
      rectal examination (DRE). Method A total of 40 cases, ranging in age from 50 to
      80 years and showing increased serum PSA levels (4-10 ng/ml) and/or abnormal DRE,
      were enrolled and underwent TRUS evaluation followed by color Doppler flowmetric
      studies. A TRUS-guided biopsy was performed in all the cases. The findings were
      confirmed histopathologically. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test.
      Results Histopathologically, a total of 13 cases (32.5%) were malignant. On TRUS,
      irregular shape, heterogeneous echotexture loss of differentiation between the
      peripheral and internal zones, less mean weight of the prostate, and capsular
      invasion were significantly associated with malignancy. On flowmetry, moderate
      vascularity and focal asymmetry were significantly associated with malignancy.
      The combined use of TRUS and color Doppler flowmetry was found to be 100%
      sensitive and 92.6% specific and had a positive predictive value (PPV) and a
      negative predictive value (NPV) of 86.7% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion TRUS
      with color Doppler flowmetry was highly sensitive and specific in the detection
      of prostate malignancy.

PMID- 28875097
TI  - Sustained, Long-Term Maintenance of Remission with Single-Agent Veliparib in
      Recurrent Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.
AB  - Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) have poorer outcomes than hormone positive
      or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancers, with
      chemotherapy being the usual standard of care. Veliparib, a poly ADP-ribose
      polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, has been studied in both breast cancer
      susceptibility genes 1 and 2 (BRCA)-mutation related and sporadic cancers as a
      single agent and in combination with chemotherapy. Here, we describe a patient
      whose metastatic recurrence of TNBC was treated with combination chemotherapy and
      veliparib followed by maintenance single-therapy veliparib.

PMID- 28875096
TI  - Narrow Complex Ventricular Tachycardia.
AB  - Myocardial infarctions are frequently complicated by tachyarrhythmias, which
      commonly have wide QRS complexes (QRS duration > 120 milliseconds). Many
      published criteria exist to help differentiate between ventricular and
      supraventricular mechanisms. We present a case of a 61-year-old male with a
      history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and coronary artery disease with prior
      stenting of the right coronary artery (RCA). He had been noncompliant with his
      antiplatelet medication and presented with cardiac arrest secondary to in-stent
      thrombosis. He was resuscitated and his RCA was re-stented, after which he made a
      good neurological recovery. During cardiac rehabilitation several weeks post
      intervention, he was noted to have sustained tachycardia with associated nausea
      and lightheadedness, but no palpitation symptoms, chest pain or loss of
      consciousness. He was sent to the emergency department, where his
      electrocardiogram showed a tachycardia at 173 beats per minute which was regular,
      with a relatively narrow QRS duration (maximum of 115-120 msec in leads I and
      AVL) with a slurred QRS upstroke. This morphology was significantly different
      from his QRS complex during sinus rhythm. Intravenous diltiazem was ineffective
      but an amiodarone bolus terminated the tachycardia. The patient was admitted to
      the coronary care unit and treated with intravenous amiodarone infusion. A
      subsequent electrophysiology study was performed, showing inducibility of the
      clinical tachycardia. Atrioventricular (AV) dissociation was present during the
      induced arrhythmia, confirming the diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia. An
      implantable cardiac defibrillator was placed and the patient was discharged.

PMID- 28875098
TI  - Oxidative stabilization of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and carbon nanofibers
      containing graphene oxide (GO): a spectroscopic and electrochemical study.
AB  - In this study, a precursor for carbon nanofibers (CNF) was fabricated via
      electrospinning and carbonized through a thermal process. Before carbonization,
      oxidative stabilization should be applied, and the oxidation mechanism also plays
      an important role during carbonization. Thus, the understanding of the oxidation
      mechanism is an essential part of the production of CNF. The oxidation process of
      polyacrylonitrile was studied and nanofiber webs containing graphene oxide (GO)
      are obtained to improve the electrochemical properties of CNF. Structural and
      morphological characterizations of the webs are carried out by using attenuated
      total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy,
      scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and transmission electron
      microscopy. Mechanical tests are performed with a dynamic mechanical analyzer,
      and thermal studies are conducted by using thermogravimetric analysis.
      Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry are used to
      investigate capacitive behavior of the products. The proposed equivalent circuit
      model was consistent with charge-transfer processes taking place at interior
      pores filled with electrolyte.

PMID- 28875099
TI  - Surface functionalization of 3D-printed plastics via initiated chemical vapor
      deposition.
AB  - 3D printing is a useful fabrication technique because it offers design
      flexibility and rapid prototyping. The ability to functionalize the surfaces of
      3D-printed objects allows the bulk properties, such as material strength or
      printability, to be chosen separately from surface properties, which is critical
      to expanding the breadth of 3D printing applications. In this work, we studied
      the ability of the initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) process to coat 3D
      printed shapes composed of poly(lactic acid) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.
      The thermally insulating properties of 3D-printed plastics pose a challenge to
      the iCVD process due to large thermal gradients along the structures during
      processing. In this study, processing parameters such as the substrate
      temperature and the filament temperature were systematically varied to understand
      how these parameters affect the uniformity of the coatings along the 3D-printed
      objects. The 3D-printed objects were coated with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic
      polymers. Contact angle goniometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used
      to characterize the functionalized surfaces. Our results can enable the use of
      iCVD to functionalize 3D-printed materials for a range of applications such as
      tissue scaffolds and microfluidics.

PMID- 28875100
TI  - Development of an advanced diagnostic concept for intestinal inflammation:
      molecular visualisation of nitric oxide in macrophages by functional poly(lactic
      co-glycolic acid) microspheres.
AB  - We here describe a new approach to visualise nitric oxide (NO) in living
      macrophages by fluorescent NO-sensitive microspheres based on poly(lactic-co
      glycolic acid) (PLGA). PLGA microspheres loaded with NO550 dye were prepared
      through a modified solvent-evaporation method. Microparticles were characterized
      by a mean hydrodynamic diameter of 3000 nm, zeta potential of -26.000 +/- 0.351
      mV and a PDI of 0.828 +/- 0.298. Under abiotic conditions, NO release was
      triggered through UV radiation (254 nm) of 10 mM sodium nitroprusside dehydrate
      (SNP). After incubation, AZO550 microspheres exhibited an about 8-fold increased
      emission at 550 nm compared to NO550 particles. For biotic NO release, RAW 264.7
      murine macrophages were activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Salmonella
      typhimurium. After treatment with NO550 microparticles, only activated cells
      caused a green particle fluorescence and could be detected by laser scanning
      microscopy. NO release was confirmed indirectly with Griess reaction. Our
      functional NO550 particles enable a simple and early evaluation of inflammatory
      and immunological processes. Furthermore, our results on particle-based NO
      sensing and previous studies in targeting intestinal inflammation via (PLGA)
      based microspheres demonstrate that an advanced concept for visualizing
      intestinal inflammation is tangible.

PMID- 28875101
TI  - Group-13 and group-15 doping of germanane.
AB  - Germanane, a hydrogen-terminated graphane analogue of germanium has generated
      interest as a potential 2D electronic material. However, the incorporation and
      retention of extrinsic dopant atoms in the lattice, to tune the electronic
      properties, remains a significant challenge. Here, we show that the group-13
      element Ga and the group-15 element As, can be successfully doped into a
      precursor CaGe2 phase, and remain intact in the lattice after the topotactic
      deintercalation, using HCl, to form GeH. After deintercalation, a maximum of 1.1%
      As and 2.3% Ga can be substituted into the germanium lattice. Electronic
      transport properties of single flakes show that incorporation of dopants leads to
      a reduction of resistance of more than three orders of magnitude in H2O
      containing atmosphere after As doping. After doping with Ga, the reduction is
      more than six orders of magnitude, but with significant hysteretic behavior,
      indicative of water-activation of dopants on the surface. Only Ga-doped germanane
      remains activated under vacuum, and also exhibits minimal hysteretic behavior
      while the sheet resistance is reduced by more than four orders of magnitude.
      These Ga- and As-doped germanane materials start to oxidize after one to four
      days in ambient atmosphere. Overall, this work demonstrates that extrinsic doping
      with Ga is a viable pathway towards accessing stable electronic behavior in
      graphane analogues of germanium.

PMID- 28875102
TI  - Uptake and intracellular accumulation of diamond nanoparticles - a metabolic and
      cytotoxic study.
AB  - Diamond nanoparticles, known as nanodiamonds (NDs), possess several medically
      significant properties. Having a tailorable and easily accessible surface gives
      them great potential for use in sensing and imaging applications and as a
      component of cell growth scaffolds. In this work we investigate in vitro
      interactions of human osteoblast-like SAOS-2 cells with four different groups of
      NDs, namely high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) NDs (diameter 18-210 nm, oxygen
      terminated), photoluminescent HPHT NDs (diameter 40 nm, oxygen-terminated),
      detonation NDs (diameter 5 nm, H-terminated), and the same detonation NDs further
      oxidized by annealing at 450  degrees C. The influence of the NDs on cell
      viability and cell count was measured by the mitochondrial metabolic activity
      test and by counting cells with stained nuclei. The interaction of NDs with cells
      was monitored by phase contrast live-cell imaging in real time. For both types of
      oxygen-terminated HPHT NDs, the cell viability and the cell number remained
      almost the same for concentrations up to 100 ug/mL within the whole range of ND
      diameters tested. The uptake of hydrogen-terminated detonation NDs caused the
      viability and the cell number to decrease by 80-85%. The oxidation of the NDs
      hindered the decrease, but on day 7, a further decrease was observed. While the O
      terminated NDs showed mechanical obstruction of cells by agglomerates preventing
      cell adhesion, migration and division, the H-terminated detonation NDs exhibited
      rapid penetration into the cells from the beginning of the cultivation period,
      and also rapid cell congestion and a rapid reduction in viability. These findings
      are discussed with reference to relevant properties of NDs such as surface
      chemical bonds, zeta potential and nanoparticle types.

PMID- 28875103
TI  - Process-specific mechanisms of vertically oriented graphene growth in plasmas.
AB  - Applications of plasma-produced vertically oriented graphene nanosheets (VGNs)
      rely on their unique structure and morphology, which can be tuned by the process
      parameters to understand the growth mechanism. Here, we report on the effect of
      the key process parameters such as deposition temperature, discharge power and
      distance from plasma source to substrate on the catalyst-free growth of VGNs in
      microwave plasmas. A direct evidence for the initiation of vertical growth
      through nanoscale graphitic islands is obtained from the temperature-dependent
      growth rates where the activation energy is found to be as low as 0.57 eV. It is
      shown that the growth rate and the structural quality of the films could be
      enhanced by (a) increasing the substrate temperature, (b) decreasing the distance
      between the microwave plasma source and the substrate, and (c) increasing the
      discharge power. The correlation between the wetting characteristics, morphology
      and structural quality is established. It is also demonstrated that morphology,
      crystallinity, wettability and sheet resistance of the VGNs can be varied while
      maintaining the same sp3 content in the film. The effects of the substrate
      temperature and the electric field in vertical alignment of the graphene sheets
      are reported. These findings help to develop and optimize the process conditions
      to produce VGNs tailored for applications including sensing, field emission,
      catalysis and energy storage.

PMID- 28875104
TI  - Air-water interface of submerged superhydrophobic surfaces imaged by atomic force
      microscopy.
AB  - Underwater air retention of superhydrophobic hierarchically structured surfaces
      is of increasing interest for technical applications. Persistent air layers (the
      Salvinia effect) are known from biological species, for example, the floating
      fern Salvinia or the backswimmer Notonecta. The use of this concept opens up new
      possibilities for biomimetic technical applications in the fields of drag
      reduction, antifouling, anticorrosion and under water sensing. Current knowledge
      regarding the shape of the air-water interface is insufficient, although it plays
      a crucial role with regards to stability in terms of diffusion and dynamic
      conditions. Optical methods for imaging the interface have been limited to the
      micrometer regime. In this work, we utilized a nondynamic and nondestructive
      atomic force microscopy (AFM) method to image the interface of submerged
      superhydrophobic structures with nanometer resolution. Up to now, only the
      interfaces of nanobubbles (acting almost like solids) have been characterized by
      AFM at these dimensions. In this study, we show for the first time that it is
      possible to image the air-water interface of submerged hierarchically structured
      (micro-pillars) surfaces by AFM in contact mode. By scanning with zero resulting
      force applied, we were able to determine the shape of the interface and thereby
      the depth of the water penetrating into the underlying structures. This approach
      is complemented by a second method: the interface was scanned with different
      applied force loads and the height for zero force was determined by linear
      regression. These methods open new possibilities for the investigation of air
      retaining surfaces, specifically in terms of measuring contact area and in
      comparing different coatings, and thus will lead to the development of new
      applications.

PMID- 28875105
TI  - Near-infrared-responsive, superparamagnetic Au@Co nanochains.
AB  - This manuscript describes a new type of nanomaterial, namely superparamagnetic
      Au@Co nanochains with optical extinctions in the near infrared (NIR). The Au@Co
      nanochains were synthesized via a one-pot galvanic replacement route involving a
      redox-transmetalation process in aqueous medium, where Au salt was reduced to
      form Au shells on Co seed templates, affording hollow Au@Co nanochains. The Au
      shells serve not only as a protective coating for the Co nanochain cores, but
      also to give rise to the optical properties of these unique nanostructures.
      Importantly, these bifunctional, magneto-optical Au@Co nanochains combine the
      advantages of nanophotonics (extinction at ca. 900 nm) and nanomagnetism
      (superparamagnetism) and provide a potentially useful new nanoarchitecture for
      biomedical or catalytic applications that can benefit from both activation by
      light and manipulation using an external magnetic field.

PMID- 28875107
TI  - Transport characteristics of a silicene nanoribbon on Ag(110).
AB  - We present the transport characteristics of individual silicene nanoribbons
      (SiNRs) grown on Ag(110). By lifting up a single SiNR with a low-temperature
      scanning tunneling microscope tip, a nanojunction consisting of tip, SiNR and Ag
      is fabricated. In the differential conductance spectra of the nanojunctions
      fabricated by this methodology, a peak appears at the Fermi level which is not
      observed in the spectra measured either for the SiNRs before being lifted up or
      the clean Ag substrate. We discuss the origin of the peak as it relates to the
      SiNR.

PMID- 28875106
TI  - Effect of the fluorination technique on the surface-fluorination patterning of
      double-walled carbon nanotubes.
AB  - Double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) are fluorinated using (1) fluorine F2 at
      200  degrees C, (2) gaseous BrF3 at room temperature, and (3) CF4 radio-frequency
      plasma functionalization. These have been comparatively studied using
      transmission electron microscopy and infrared, Raman, X-ray photoelectron, and
      near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. A formation of
      covalent C-F bonds and a considerable reduction in the intensity of radial
      breathing modes from the outer shells of DWCNTs are observed for all samples.
      Differences in the electronic state of fluorine and the C-F vibrations for three
      kinds of the fluorinated DWCNTs are attributed to distinct local surroundings of
      the attached fluorine atoms. Possible fluorine patterns realized through a
      certain fluorination technique are revealed from comparison of experimental
      NEXAFS F K-edge spectra with quantum-chemical calculations of various models. It
      is proposed that fluorination with F2 and BrF3 produces small fully fluorinated
      areas and short fluorinated chains, respectively, while the treatment with CF4
      plasma results in various attached species, including single or paired fluorine
      atoms and -CF3 groups. The results demonstrate a possibility of different
      patterning of carbon surfaces through choosing the fluorination method.

PMID- 28875108
TI  - Three-in-one approach towards efficient organic dye-sensitized solar cells:
      aggregation suppression, panchromatic absorption and resonance energy transfer.
AB  - In the present study, protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) and squarine (SQ2) have been used
      in a co-sensitized dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to apply their high
      absorption coefficients in the visible and NIR region of the solar spectrum and
      to probe the possibility of Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the
      two dyes. FRET from the donor PPIX to acceptor SQ2 was observed from detailed
      investigation of the excited-state photophysics of the dye mixture, using time
      resolved fluorescence decay measurements. The electron transfer time scales from
      the dyes to TiO2 have also been characterized for each dye. The current-voltage
      (I-V) characteristics and the wavelength-dependent photocurrent measurements of
      the co-sensitized DSSCs reveal that FRET between the two dyes increase the
      photocurrent as well as the efficiency of the device. From the absorption spectra
      of the co-sensitized photoanodes, PPIX was observed to be efficiently acting as a
      co-adsorbent and to reduce the dye aggregation problem of SQ2. It has further
      been proven by a comparison of the device performance with a chenodeoxycholic
      acid (CDCA) added to a SQ2-sensitized DSSC. Apart from increasing the absorption
      window, the FRET-induced enhanced photocurrent and the anti-aggregating behavior
      of PPIX towards SQ2 are crucial points that improve the performance of the co
      sensitized DSSC.

PMID- 28875109
TI  - Collembola cuticles and the three-phase line tension.
AB  - The cuticles of most springtails (Collembola) are superhydrophobic, but the
      mechanism has not been described in detail. Previous studies have suggested that
      overhanging surface structures play an important role, but such structures are
      not a universal trait among springtails with superhydrophobic cuticles. A novel
      wetting experiment with a fluorescent dye revealed the extent of wetting on
      exposed surface structures. Using simple wetting models to describe the composite
      wetting of the cuticular surface structures results in underestimating the
      contact angles of water. Including the three-phase line tension allows for a
      prediction of contact angles in the observed range. The discrepancy between the
      contact angle predicted by simple models and those observed is especially large
      in the springtail Cryptopygus clavatus which changes, seasonally, from
      superhydrophobic to wetting without a large change in surface structure; C.
      clavatus does not have overhanging surface structures. This large change in
      observed contact angles can be explained with a modest change of the three-phase
      line tension.

PMID- 28875110
TI  - Monomorphic xanthomatous type of xanthogranuloma: a rare entity.
AB  - Xanthogranuloma is an uncommon tumor in the ocular adnexa. It usually presents as
      diffuse lid swelling with or without orbital involvement. Xanthogranulomas can be
      associated with systemic comorbidities. They are diagnosed by their
      characteristic pathological finding. They are further subclassified based on
      immunohistochemistry. We present two cases with lid swelling which were diagnosed
      to be xanthogranuloma. Our cases were special because of the unique presentation
      as localized monomorphic lesions.

PMID- 28875111
TI  - Carotid cavernous fistula masquerading as delayed suprachoroidal hemorrhage after
      trabeculectomy.
AB  - Objective: Carotid cavernous fistulae (CCFs) are abnormal communications between
      the cavernous sinus and the carotid arterial system. Based on the etiology, CCFs
      can be traumatic, spontaneous and rarely iatrogenic. We report an interesting
      case of new onset CCF associated with shallow choroidal detachment after
      trabeculectomy surgery. Method: Observational case report Result: A 69-year-old
      male patient presented with complain of proptosis, congestion, and gross
      diminution of vision in the left eye following trabeculectomy elsewhere. Delayed
      suprachoroidal hemorrhage was diagnosed by the primary physician and the patient
      was on oral steroids. On USG-B scan, choroidal detachment and a dilated superior
      ophthalmic vein were seen. A digital subtraction angiogram showed type D CCF. In
      view of nil visual prognosis, he was treated conservatively and was referred to a
      neuroradiologist for further management. Conclusion: CCFs have been rarely
      reported after intraocular surgeries. Till date, there is one case report of CCF
      complicating cataract surgery. Interestingly, CCFs has not been reported
      complicating trabeculectomy surgery. Dural CCFs although uncommon should be
      considered a close differential of hemorrhagic choroidal detachment, a relatively
      common complication following intraocular surgery.

PMID- 28875112
TI  - Bilateral corneal perforation due to MRSA keratitis in a crosslinking patient.
AB  - Introduction: The cornea may become infected and perforated after epithelium-on
      collagen crosslinking. Case presentation: A healthy 33-year-old male who
      underwent corneal collagen crosslinking in both eyes developed a purulent
      keratitis and bilateral corneal perforations, requiring bilateral penetrating
      keratoplasties. He was exposed to methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus
      (MRSA) by a family member with a tracheostomy and was treated with MRSA-directed
      antibiotics. After prolonged recovery and treatment of his infection, he had
      acceptable but limited uncorrected visual acuity, with excellent corrected visual
      acuity. Conclusion: While epithelium-on crosslinking is commonly thought to be
      associated with a lower risk of postoperative infection, this case illustrates
      that even epithelium-on treatment may present the patient with a risk of
      infection. Patients in higher risk groups who are exposed to infectious disease
      may be more predisposed.

PMID- 28875113
TI  - Fully Endoscopic Minimally Invasive Transrectus Capitis Posterior Muscle Triangle
      Approach to the Posterolateral Condyle and Jugular Tubercle.
AB  - Background  We evaluated a transrectus capitis posterior muscle triangle approach
      to the posterolateral foramen magnum, occipital condyles, jugular tubercle, and
      the fourth ventricle. We also assessed factors that affect the amount of bone
      removal required. Objective  To evaluate if the proposed approach is as effective
      as standard open approaches to expose the lateral portion of the foramen magnum.
      Methods  The proposed minimally invasive fully endoscopic approach was performed
      in 15 cadaveric specimens using 4-mm (0- and 45-degree) endoscopes. Results 
      Using a 5-cm straight paramedian incision, the rectus capitis posterior minor and
      major muscles were partially removed unilaterally, providing a corridor through
      the muscles to reach the foramen magnum region. After meticulous soft tissue
      dissection, key anatomical landmarks can be identified such as the greater
      occipital nerve, the vertebral artery that wraps around the atlanto-occipital
      joint, and the bony protuberance that heralds the occipital condyle. A
      suboccipital craniotomy associated with the transcondylar, supracondylar or
      paracondylar approach is performed depending on the amount of bone removal
      desired to maximize the surgical view. By doing so, the jugular foramen can be
      exposed laterally as well as the fourth ventricle medially. Conclusion  The
      proposed endoscopic approach can provide access through the transrectus capitis
      posterior muscle triangle leading directly to the occipital condyle. A stepwise
      approach is critical to gain a surgical corridor to the inferolateral petroclival
      region and the fourth ventricle.

PMID- 28875114
TI  - Comparative Proteomic Profiling Using Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis and
      Identification via LC-MS/MS Reveals Novel Protein Biomarkers to Identify
      Aggressive Subtypes of WHO Grade I Meningioma.
AB  - Background  Meningomas represent the most common primary intracranial tumor. The
      majority are benign World Health Organization (WHO) Grade I lesions, but a subset
      of these behave in an aggressive manner. Protein biomarkers are needed to
      distinguish aggressive from benign Grade I lesions. Materials and Methods  Pooled
      protein lysates were derived from five clinically aggressive Grade I and five
      typically benign WHO Grade I tumors snap frozen at the time of surgery. Proteins
      were separated in each group using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DGE) and
      protein spots of interest were identified using liquid chromatography-mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS). Potential biomarker candidates were validated using western
      blot assays in individual tumor samples and by tissue microarray (TMA). Results 
      Seven candidate biomarkers were obtained from the 2DGE and validated via western
      blot and TMA. Biomarker validation data allowed for the creation of predictive
      models using binary logistical regression that correctly identified 85.9% of
      aggressive tumors within the larger cohort of Grade I meningioma. Conclusion 
      Simple protein separation by 2DGE and identification of candidate biomarkers by
      LC-MS allowed for the identification of seven candidate biomarkers that when used
      in predictive models accurately distinguish aggressive from benign behavior in
      WHO Grade I meningioma.

PMID- 28875115
TI  - Advantages and Complications of Fisch Partial Mastoidotympanectomy for Tumors of
      the Retromandibular Fossa and Poststyloid Space.
AB  - Objective  This study aims to characterize a single surgeon's experience with
      resection of tumors of the retromandibular fossa and poststyloid space utilizing
      the Fisch partial mastoidotympanectomy (FPMT) technique of partial temporal bone
      resection. Design  Retrospective review. Setting  Academic medical center.
      Participants  Seven patients who underwent tumor resection with FPMT. Main
      Outcome Measures  Complications. Results  Six males and one female underwent
      FPMT, with ages ranging from 44 to 79 years. The facial nerve was sacrificed in
      six cases, no cases were converted to more extensive temporal bone resection
      procedures, and no postoperative hearing loss occurred. The only intraoperative
      complication experienced was a violation of the external auditory canal in four
      cases, which resulted in postoperative wound healing issues in two cases.
      Conclusions  FPMT allows for the release of tumors of the poststyloid space and
      retromandibular fossa without compromise of hearing status. Preservation of
      external auditory canal soft tissues is challenging, and the violation is
      experienced relatively frequently due to shearing forces during soft tissue
      retraction. When encountered, robust repair of defects is encouraged to prevent
      further wound healing complications.

PMID- 28875116
TI  - Performance of Robotic Assistance for Skull Base Biopsy: A Phantom Study.
AB  - Objectives  This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a custom robot system
      guided by optical cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based navigation for skull
      base biopsy. Design  An accuracy study was conducted. Setting  Platform for
      navigation and robot-aided surgery technology. Participants  Phantom skull. Main
      Outcome Measures  The primary outcome measure was to investigate the accuracy of
      robot-assisted needle biopsy for skull base tumors. A 14-gauge needle was
      automatically inserted by the five degrees of freedom robot into the intended
      target, guided by optical navigation. The result was displayed on the graphical
      user interface after matrix transformation. Postoperative image scanning was
      performed, and the result was verified with image fusion. Results  All 20
      interventions were successfully performed. The mean deviation of the needle tip
      was 0.56 +/- 0.22 mm (measured by the navigation system) versus 1.73 +/- 0.60 mm
      (measured by image fusion) ( p  < 0.05). The mean insertion depth was 52.3 mm
      (range: 49.7-55.2 mm). The mean angular deviations off the x-axis, y-axis, and z
      axis were 1.51 +/- 0.67, 2.33 +/- 1.65, and 1.47 +/- 1.16 degrees, respectively.
      Conclusions  The experimental results show the robot system is efficient,
      reliable, and safe. The navigation accuracy is a significant factor in robotic
      procedures.

PMID- 28875117
TI  - Fascia Lata Free Flap Anastomosed to the Superior Trochlear System for
      Reconstruction of the Anterior Skull Base.
AB  - Objectives  This study aims to introduce a novel technique for the reconstruction
      of the anterior skull base using a free vascularized anterolateral thigh fascia
      lata free flap (FLFF) anastomosed to the superior trochlear artery (STA). Methods
      The diameter of the STA was measured in 38 (76 sides) computed tomography
      angiographies (CTAs). Independently, six cadaver heads were used to measure the
      diameter of the supratrochlear system, and the model was applied to one of them.
      Results  In women, the average diameter of the STA was 2.5 and 2.8 mm 2 for the
      right and left sides, respectively; for men, it was 3.0 and 3.2 mm 2 ,
      respectively. In cadavers, the average diameter of both STA was 2.5 mm 2 . There
      was no statistical difference when comparing the right and left STA diameters
      between the CTA from women and men ( p  < 0.208 and < 0.492, respectively). An
      FLFF advanced through the nose was anastomosed to the STA to reconstruct the
      anterior skull base. Conclusion  The STA is a constant vessel with a 2.5 to 3.0
      mm 2 diameter in men and women that can be used as a recipient free flap vessel.
      The FLFF can cover the entire skull base. This is a novel method to reconstruct
      the anterior skull base when local flaps are not available.

PMID- 28875118
TI  - Multimodality Management of Cavernous Sinus Hemangiomas-An Institutional
      Experience.
AB  - Objective  Cavernous sinus hemangiomas (CSHs) are benign lesions accounting for
      less than 2% of the cavernous sinus tumors. They provide a formidable surgical
      challenge because of their vascularity and their being surrounded by critical
      neurovascular structures. In this study, one of the largest in available
      literature, we analyze our experience in the management of these unusual tumors
      and review the available literature. Materials  This is a retrospective analysis
      of patients who were managed surgically (both microsurgical and Gamma knife
      radiosurgery [GKRS]) for CSH at our Institution from 2007 to 2015. Complete
      demographic, clinical-radiologic surgical records were analyzed. Follow-up data
      were collected from the hospital records. Results  Total 23 patients were
      managed. Among these, 15 patients underwent microsurgery (group 1) whereas 8
      underwent GKRS (group 2). Predominant clinical presentation in both the groups
      included headache and involvement of multiple cranial nerves. Five patients in
      group 1 had deteriorating vision. The volume of tumors ranged from 29 to 115 cm 3
      (mean = 64.57 cm 3 ) in group 1 and from 2.1 to 11.6 cm 3 in group 2. GKRS was
      performed with a mean dose of 13 Gy, an average isodose line of 50% with an
      average coverage of 96%. In group 1, the follow-up period ranged from 6 to 62
      months (mean = 29.4 months). The extraocular movement (EOM) preservation rate in
      our series was not favorable, as most patients presented late with large tumors
      and established deficits. Recurrence/residual tumor was seen in two cases. In
      group 2, the follow-up was 5 to 48 months. All of them showed significant
      reduction in size. Conclusion  Both surgery and radiosurgery are highly effective
      in the management of CSHs. They are complementary to each other, with individual
      characteristics-the size and volume of the lesion-being the main factors in
      deciding the choice of treatment.

PMID- 28875119
TI  - Indocyanine Green Fluorescence to Evaluate Nasoseptal Flap Viability in
      Endoscopic Endonasal Cranial Base Surgery.
AB  - Objectives  The pedicled nasoseptal flap (NSF) has dramatically reduced
      postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage following endoscopic endonasal approach
      (EEA) surgery. Although rare, its arterial supply may be damaged during harvest
      or may be preoperatively damaged for numerous reasons. Early recognition permits
      harvesting a contralateral flap before sacrificing its pedicle as part of the
      surgical exposure or use of an alternative flap. Design  Technical feasibility
      study and case series. Setting  Tertiary care university-associated medical
      center. Participants  Five patients requiring an EEA with NSF reconstruction.
      Main Outcome Measures  During NSF harvest, intravenous indocyanine green (IVICG)
      was administered, and a customized endoscopic system was used to visualize the
      emerging fluorescence. At the end of each case, just before final positioning of
      the NSF, additional IVICG was administered, and the custom endoscope was again
      introduced to evaluate fluorescence. Results  In four patients, the entire NSF
      fluoresced brightly with IVICG on initial harvest and before final positioning.
      One patient showed heterogeneous fluorescence of the pedicle and distal parts of
      the NSF at both stages. All NSFs healed well without complication. Conclusion 
      IVICG facilitates real-time evaluation NSF's arterial supply. This may provide
      early recognition of arterial compromise, allowing the harvest of alternate flaps
      or modification of surgery.

PMID- 28875120
TI  - Rater Reliability of the Hardy Classification for Pituitary Adenomas in the
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging Era.
AB  - Objectives  The Hardy classification is used to classify pituitary tumors for
      clinical and research purposes. The scale was developed using lateral skull
      radiographs and encephalograms, and its reliability has not been evaluated in the
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) era. Design  Fifty preoperative MRI scans of
      biopsy-proven pituitary adenomas using the sellar invasion and suprasellar
      extension components of the Hardy scale were reviewed. Setting  This study was a
      cohort study set at a single institution. Participants  There were six
      independent raters. Main Outcome Measures  The main outcome measures of this
      study were interrater reliability, intrarater reliability, and percent agreement.
      Results  Overall interrater reliability of both Hardy subscales on MRI was
      strong. However, reliability of the intermediate scores was weak, and percent
      agreement among raters was poor (12-16%) using the full scales. Dichotomizing the
      scale into clinically useful groups maintained strong interrater reliability for
      the sellar invasion scale and increased the percent agreement for both scales.
      Conclusion  This study raises important questions about the reliability of the
      original Hardy classification. Editing the measure to a clinically relevant
      dichotomous scale simplifies the rating process and may be useful for
      preoperative tumor characterization in the MRI era. Future research studies
      should use the dichotomized Hardy scale (sellar invasion Grades 0-III versus
      Grade IV, suprasellar extension Types 0-C versus Type D).

PMID- 28875121
TI  - Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea: Association with Body Weight and
      Imaging Data.
AB  - Objective  Spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea (SCSFR) might be the only
      clinical manifestation of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), which has
      been historically related to overweight. Our goal was to search for an
      association between SCSFR and increased body weight on the one hand and SCSFR and
      imaging findings suggestive of IIH on the other hand. Materials and Methods  We
      retrospectively collected clinical and radiological data of patients operated on
      endoscopically for SCSFR in our institution from 1993 to 2013. Analyzed factors
      were body mass index (BMI), extended sphenoid sinus pneumatization on computed
      tomography, and empty sella and distention of the optic nerve sheath on magnetic
      resonance imaging. Results  There were 15 patients: 8 females/7 males; mean age
      50 years. Primary surgical success rate was 86.7%. Regarding body weight, 80%
      were overweight (BMI >= 25) versus 32% in the French general population ( p  <
      0.001). Among patients with SCSFR, 20% were obese (BMI >= 30) versus 15% in
      French individuals without SCSFR ( p  = 0.483). Increased pneumatization of
      sphenoid sinuses was observed in 92.9 versus 27.5% in the general population ( p 
      < 0.0001). Empty sella was found in 46.2 versus 3% in the general population ( p 
      < 0.00001). Dilation of the optic nerve sheath was observed in 46.2 versus 15% in
      the general population ( p  < 0.01). Conclusion  We found statistically
      significant associations between SCSFR and overweight, increased pneumatization
      of sphenoid sinuses, empty sella, and dilation of optic nerve sheath, but not
      with obesity, which did not have any additional impact of CSF leak than did
      overweight.

PMID- 28875122
TI  - The Utility of Sentinel Node Biopsy for Sinonasal Melanoma.
AB  - Objective  Report two positive sentinel node biopsies for sinonasal melanoma.
      Design  Retrospective review. Setting  Academic tertiary care center.
      Participants  Patients who underwent sentinel node biopsy for sinonasal melanoma
      between November 1, 2014 and November 1, 2015. Main Outcome Measures  Clinical
      course. Results  Two patients were identified. Patient 1 (83M) presented with a
      sinonasal melanoma anterior to the left inferior turbinate and was clinically N0
      neck. Lymphoscintigraphy revealed two sentinel nodes in the ipsilateral and three
      in the contralateral cervical basins. The left level I sentinel node was positive
      for melanoma and lymphadenectomy showed no additional metastases. Patient 2 (71F)
      presented after incomplete resection of a sinonasal melanoma of the left
      posterior maxillary sinus wall and was clinically N0 neck. Lymphoscintigraphy
      with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/CT) localization revealed
      one sentinel node in the parapharyngeal space and another in the ipsilateral
      cervical basin. Metastatic melanoma was found in both nodes and completion
      lymphadenectomy was negative for additional disease. Both patients developed
      distant metastasis in less than 1 year after surgical resection but responded
      well to adjuvant immunomodulatory chemotherapeutic agents. Conclusion  Sentinel
      node biopsy for sinonasal melanoma can provide crucial clinical evidence of
      regional metastasis prior to overt clinical signs and symptoms. This
      intraoperative tool has the potential to improve detection of regional metastasis
      and improve long-term outcomes of this aggressive malignancy.

PMID- 28875123
TI  - Costs and Perioperative Outcomes Associated with Open versus Endoscopic Resection
      of Sinonasal Malignancies with Skull Base Involvement.
AB  - Objective  To compare financial and perioperative outcomes between endoscopic and
      open surgical approaches in the surgical management of sinonasal malignancies.
      Design  Retrospective chart review. Setting  Tertiary care hospital. Participants
      Patients undergoing surgical resection of a sinonasal malignancy from January
      2000 to December 2014. Main Outcome Measures  In-hospital costs, complications,
      and length of stay (LOS). Results  Of 106 patients, 91 received open surgery (19
      free flap and 72 non-free flap) and 15 were treated with purely endoscopic
      approaches. Free flaps had a significantly higher average cost, operative time,
      and LOS compared to both non-free flap ( p  < 0.001, < 0.001, and < 0.01) and
      endoscopic ( p  = 0.01, 0.04, and < 0.01) groups. There were no significant
      differences in average costs between endoscopic and non-free flap groups ($19,157
      vs. $14,806, p  = 0.20) or LOS (5.7 vs. 6.4 days, p  = 0.72). Compared with the
      non-free flap group, the endoscopic group had a longer average operative time
      (8.3 vs. 5.5 hours, p  < 0.01) and higher rates of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak
      (13 vs. 0%, p  = 0.01) and intensive care unit (ICU) admission (80 vs. 36%, p  <
      0.01). Surgical approach (open vs. endoscopic) was not a significant predictor of
      any financial or perioperative outcome on multivariable analysis. Conclusion 
      Hospital costs are comparable between endoscopic and open approaches when no free
      tissue reconstruction is required. Longer operative times, higher CSF leak rates,
      and our institutional protocol necessitating ICU admission for endoscopic cases
      may account for the failure to demonstrate cost savings with endoscopic surgery.

PMID- 28875124
TI  - Tetanus attacks an old person with inadequate vaccination showing 'Risus
      Sardonicus' face.

PMID- 28875125
TI  - Ultrasound diagnosis of fractures in mass casualty incidents.
AB  - The role of point-of-care ultrasound in mass casualty incidents (MCIs) is still
      evolving. Occasionally, hospitals can be destroyed by disasters resulting in
      large number of trauma patients. CAVEAT and FASTER ultrasound protocols, which
      are used in MCIs, included extremity ultrasound examination as part of them. The
      literature supports the use of ultrasound in diagnosing extremity fractures both
      in hospitals and MCIs. The most recent systematic review which was reported by
      Douma-den Hamer et al in 2016 showed that the pooled ultrasound sensitivity and
      specificity for detecting distal forearm fractures was 97% and 95% respectively.
      Nevertheless, majority of these studies were in children and they had very high
      heterogeneity. The portability, safety, repeatability, and cost-effectiveness of
      ultrasound are great advantages when treating multiply injured patients in MCIs.
      Its potential in managing fractures in MCIs needs to be further defined. The
      operator should master the technique, understand its limitations, and most
      importantly correlate the sonographic findings with the clinical ones to be
      useful. This editorial critically reviews the literature on this topic, describes
      its principles and techniques, and includes the author's personal learned lessons
      so that trauma surgeons will be encouraged to use ultrasound to diagnose
      fractures in their own clinical practice.

PMID- 28875126
TI  - Postoperative deep shoulder infections following rotator cuff repair.
AB  - Rotator cuff repair (RCR) is one of the most commonly performed surgical
      procedures in orthopaedic surgery. The reported incidence of deep soft-tissue
      infections after RCR ranges between 0.3% and 1.9%. Deep shoulder infection after
      RCR appears uncommon, but the actual incidence may be higher as many cases may go
      unreported. Clinical presentation may include increasing shoulder pain and
      stiffness, high temperature, local erythema, swelling, warmth, and fibrinous
      exudate. Generalized fatigue and signs of sepsis may be present in severe cases.
      Varying clinical presentation coupled with a low index of suspicion may result in
      delayed diagnosis. Laboratory findings include high erythrocyte sedimentation
      rate and C-reactive protein level, and, rarely, abnormal peripheral blood
      leucocyte count. Aspiration of glenohumeral joint synovial fluid with analysis of
      cell count, gram staining and culture should be performed in all patients
      suspected with deep shoulder infection after RCR. The most commonly isolated
      pathogens are Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and
      Staphylococcus aureus. Management of a deep soft-tissue infection of the shoulder
      after RCR involves surgical debridement with lavage and long-term intravenous
      antibiotic treatment based on the pathogen identified. Although deep shoulder
      infection after RCR is usually successfully treated, complications of this
      condition can be devastating. Prolonged course of intravenous antibiotic
      treatment, extensive soft-tissue destruction and adhesions may result in
      substantially diminished functional outcomes.

PMID- 28875127
TI  - Synthesis of evidence for the treatment of intersection syndrome.
AB  - Intersection syndrome is a rare sports overuse injury occurring through friction
      at the intersection of the first and second compartment of the forearm.
      Differential diagnosis must be carefully made, especially from De Quervain
      tendonsynovitis. Clinical examination provides with the necessary information for
      diagnosis, still magnetic resonance imaging scans and ultrasonography may assist
      in diagnosis. Treatment consists mainly of rest, use of a thumb spica splint,
      analgetic and oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and after 2-3 wk
      progressive stretching and muscle strengthening. Should symptoms persist beyond
      this time, corticosteroid injections adjacent to the site of injury may be
      useful. In refractory cases, surgical intervention is warranted.

PMID- 28875128
TI  - Ponseti method treatment of neglected idiopathic clubfoot: Preliminary results of
      a multi-center study in Nigeria.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Ponseti method for initial correction
      of neglected clubfoot cases in multiple centers throughout Nigeria. METHODS:
      Patient charts were reviewed through the International Clubfoot Registry for 12
      different Ponseti clubfoot treatment centers and 328 clubfeet (225 patients) met
      inclusion criteria. All patients were treated by the method described by Ponseti
      including manipulation and casting with percutaneous Achilles tenotomy as needed.
      RESULTS: A painless plantigrade foot was obtained in 255 feet (78%) without the
      need for extensive soft tissue release and/or bony procedures. CONCLUSION: We
      conclude that the Ponseti method is a safe, effective and low-cost treatment for
      initial correction of neglected idiopathic clubfoot presenting after walking age.
      Long-term follow-up will be required to assess outcomes.

PMID- 28875130
TI  - Ipsilateral femur and tibia fractures in pediatric patients: A systematic review.
AB  - AIM: To better understand how pediatric floating knee injuries are managed after
      the wide spread use of new orthopaedic technology. METHODS: We searched EMBASE,
      COCHRANE and MEDLINE computerized literature databases from the earliest date
      available in the databases to February 2017 using the following search term
      including variants and pleural counterparts: Pediatric floating knee. All studies
      were thoroughly reviewed by multiple authors. Reference lists from all articles
      were scrutinized to identify any additional studies of interest. A final database
      of individual patients was assembled from the literature. Univariate and
      multivariate statistical tests were applied to the assembled database to assess
      differences in outcomes. RESULTS: The English language literature contains series
      with a total of 97 pediatric patients who sustained floating knee injuries.
      Patients averaged 9.3 years of age and were mostly male (73). Approximately 25%
      of the fractures were open injuries, more tibia (27) than femur (10). Over 75% of
      the fractures of both the tibia and the femur involved the diaphysis. More than
      half (52) of the patients were treated non-operatively for both fractures. As a
      sequela of the injury 32 (33%) patients were left with a limb length discrepancy,
      24 (25%) patients had lengthening of the injured limb at follow up, while 8 (8%)
      had shortening of the affected limb. Infection developed in 9 patients and 3 had
      premature physeal closure. Younger patients were more likely to be treated non
      operatively (P < 0.001) and patients treated with operative intervention had
      statistically significant shorter hospital length of stays (P = 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Given the predominance of non-operative management in published
      studies, the available literature is not clinically relevant since the
      popularization of internal fixation for pediatric long-bone fractures.

PMID- 28875131
TI  - Femoral positioning influences ipsi-and contralateral anterior cruciate ligament
      rupture following its reconstruction: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIM: To systematically review the incidence of ipsilateral graft re-rupture and
      contralateral anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture following its
      reconstruction, with special attention to the femoral drilling technique.
      METHODS: Systematic review and meta-analysis of high-level prospective studies
      searched in MEDLINE database following PRISMA statement. The rate of ipsilateral
      graft re-rupture and contralateral rupture in patients submitted to either
      transtibial (TT) technique (isometric) or anteromedial (AM) technique (anatomic)
      was compared. RESULTS: Eleven studies met the criteria and were included in final
      analysis. Reconstructions using the AM technique had a similar chance of
      contralateral ACL rupture when compared to the chance of ipsilateral graft
      failure (OR = 1.08, P = 0.746). In reconstructions using TT technique, the chance
      of contralateral ACL rupture was approximately 1.5 times higher than ipsilateral
      graft failure (OR = 1.49, P = 0.048). Incidence of contralateral lesions were
      similar among the techniques TT (7.4%) and AM (7.0%) (P = 0.963), but a trend
      could be noticed with a lower incidence of lesion in the ipsilateral limb when
      using the TT technique (4.9%) compared to the AM technique (6.5%) (P = 0.081).
      CONCLUSION: ACL reconstruction by TT technique leads to lower incidence of graft
      re-injury than contralateral ACL lesion. There is no difference between the
      chance of re-injury after AM technique and the chance of contralateral ACL lesion
      (native ligament) with either technique.

PMID- 28875129
TI  - Functional outcomes of traumatic and non-traumatic rotator cuff tears after
      arthroscopic repair.
AB  - AIM: To compare the functional outcomes of traumatic and non-traumatic rotator
      cuff tears after arthroscopic repair. METHODS: Eighty-seven patients with rotator
      cuff tears following arthroscopic treatment were divided into traumatic and non
      traumatic tear groups. Postoperative muscle strength and outcomes using the
      modified University of California, Los Angeles score were evaluated. Sex, age,
      affected limb and dominant limb were correlated between groups. Muscle strength
      of the repaired and unaffected shoulders was compared. Rotator cuff injury size
      was measured. RESULTS: Of the 87 patients who underwent rotator cuff repairs, 35
      had traumatic tears and 52 had non-traumatic tears. In patients with non
      traumatic tears, the average age was 59 years, 74.5% were female, 96.1% were
      right-hand dominant and 92.3% had their dominant shoulder affected. Patients with
      traumatic tears were 59.5 years old on average, 51.4% were female, 91.4% were
      right-hand dominant and 88.5% had their dominant shoulder affected. No difference
      existed in the mean modified University of California, Los Angeles score between
      patients with traumatic tears (33.7) compared with those with non-traumatic tears
      (32.8). No strength differences were observed between groups: The strength
      difference between the non-affected and affected sides was 1.21 kg in the non
      traumatic group and 1.39 kg in the traumatic group (P = 0.576), while the
      strength ratio between the non-affected/affected sides was 0.805 in the non
      traumatic group and 0.729 in the traumatic group (P = 0.224). CONCLUSION: The
      functional results of traumatic rotator cuff repairs are similar to non-traumatic
      tears. Both outcomes are satisfactory.

PMID- 28875132
TI  - Open wound management of esophagocutaneous fistula in unstable cervical spine
      after corpectomy and multilevel laminectomy: A case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - A 67-year-old female patient developed an esophagocutaneous fistula 4 mo after C4
      and C5 partial corpectomy. Plain radiograph and computed tomography (CT) scan of
      cervical spine showed inferior screws pullout with plate migration that caused
      the esophageal perforation. Management included removal of anterior hardware,
      revision C4-5 corpectomy, iliac crest strut autograft and halo orthosis
      immobilization. The fistula was treated using antibiotics and a 10-french gauge
      rubber tube for daily irrigation and Penrose drain. At 3 mo, the
      esophagocutaneous fistula healed and the patient resumed oral feeding. Six months
      follow-up CT scan showed sound fusion with graft incorporation. At two-year
      follow-up, patient denied any neck pain or dysphagia. This case report presents a
      successful outcome of a conservative open wound management without attempted
      repair. The importance of this case report is to highlight this treatment method
      that may be considered in such a rare complication particularly if surgical
      repair failed.

PMID- 28875133
TI  - Bennett's fracture associated with fracture of Trapezium - A rare injury of first
      carpo-metacarpal joint.
AB  - Association of fracture of trapezium with Bennett's fracture is very rare and
      makes reduction and stabilisation more difficult. We are reporting a rare case of
      Bennett's fracture with fracture of the trapezium and subluxation of the carpo
      metacarpal joint (CMC) joint. The patient was a 47-year-old school teacher who
      fell from his motorbike on his outstretched right dominant hand. Radiographs and
      computed tomography showed fracture of the trapezium with subluxation of the CMC
      joint, associated with Bennett's fracture. Open reduction and internal fixation
      was carried out. Trapezium was reduced first and secured with a 2 mm diameter
      screw. Bennett's fracture was then reduced and fixed with two per-cutaneously
      placed Kirchner's wires. CMC was stabilised with per-cutaneous Kirchner's wires.
      Latest follow up at 12 mo showed a healed fracture with good reduction of the CMC
      joint. Clinically patient had no pain and normal extension, abduction and
      opposition of the thumb. QuickDASH score was 3.9/100. Thus, fracture of trapezium
      associated with a Bennett's fracture is a rare injury and if ignored it may lead
      to poor results. This injury is more challenging to manage than an isolated
      Bennett's fracture as anatomical reduction of the trapezium with reduction of the
      first CMC is needed. Fracture of the trapezium should be fixed first as this will
      provide a stable base for reduction of the Bennett's fracture.

PMID- 28875134
TI  - The conquest of errors.

PMID- 28875135
TI  - Clinical and biological analysis in graftless maxillary sinus lift.
AB  - Maxillary sinus lift for dental implant installation is a well-known and
      versatile technique; new techniques are presented based on the physiology of
      intrasinus bone repair. The aim of this review was to determine the status of
      graftless maxillary sinus lift and analyze its foundations and results. A search
      was conducted of the literature between 1995 and 2015 in the Medline,
      ScienceDirect, and SciELO databases using the keywords "maxillary sinus lift,"
      "blood clot," "graftless maxillary sinus augmentation," and "dental implant
      placement." Ten articles were selected for our analysis of this technique and its
      results. Despite the limited information, cases that were followed for at least
      six months and up to four years had a 90% success rate. Published techniques
      included a lateral window, elevation of the sinus membrane, drilling and dental
      implant installation, descent of the membrane with variations in the installation
      of the lateral wall access and suturing. The physiology behind this new bone
      formation response and the results of the present research were also discussed.
      We concluded that this is a promising and viable technique under certain
      inclusion criteria.

PMID- 28875136
TI  - Maximal strength and endurance scores of the tongue, lip, and cheek in healthy,
      normal Koreans.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to establish normative data for healthy
      Korean adults by measuring the maximal strength and endurance scores of the
      tongue, lip, and cheek, and to examine correlations between these measurements.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 120 subjects that were divided into
      three groups according to age: young (20-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years),
      and older (over 60 years); and by gender. Measurements were taken using the Iowa
      Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI). RESULTS: The mean maximal tongue strengths
      were as follows: young men (46.7+/-10.2 kPa) and women (32.1+/-7.9 kPa), middle
      aged men (40.9+/-9.3 kPa) and women (36.9+/-8.6 kPa), and older men (35.2+/-9.0
      kPa) and women (34.5+/-6.9 kPa). The mean tongue endurance scores were: young men
      (28.8+/-12.6 seconds) and women (20.8+/-13.5 seconds), middle-aged men (17.0+/
      8.5 seconds) and women (15.3+/-5.2 seconds), and older men (15.8+/-6.7 seconds)
      and women (17.9+/-8.1 seconds). The mean maximal lip strengths were: young men
      (11.6+/-3.0 kPa) and women (11.4+/-3.8 kPa), middle-aged men (11.4+/-4.2 kPa) and
      women (11.1+/-5.1 kPa), and older men (14.5+/-3.9 kPa) and women (11.7+/-2.6
      kPa). The mean lip endurance scores were: young men (41.1+/-23.9 seconds) and
      women (22.4+/-21.7 seconds), middle-aged men (24.3+/-10.3 seconds) and women
      (30.5+/-13.4 seconds), and older men (24.9+/-11.0 seconds) and women (12.8+/-7.6
      seconds). The mean maximal cheek strengths were: young men (24.5+/-4.6 kPa) and
      women (20.5+/-4.3 kPa), middle-aged men (25.2+/-6.4 kPa) and women (21.2+/-5.5
      kPa), and older men (22.4+/-5.3 kPa) and women (18.0+/-4.8 kPa). The mean cheek
      endurance scores were: young men (47.8+/-24.4 seconds) and women (43.9+/-25.0
      seconds), middle-aged men (27.3+/-11.3 seconds) and women (20.0+/-14.6 seconds),
      and older men (21.7+/-14.5 seconds) and women (17.2+/-11.4 seconds). CONCLUSION:
      The data collected in this study will provide an important database of
      standardized measurements for maximal strength and endurance scores of the
      tongue, lip and cheek in healthy, normal Koreans.

PMID- 28875137
TI  - Risk factor analysis of additional administration of sedative agent and patient
      dissatisfaction in intravenous conscious sedation using midazolam for third molar
      extraction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the factors
      related with additional administration of sedative agent during intravenous
      conscious sedation (IVS) using midazolam (MDZ). The secondary purpose was to
      analyze the factors affecting patient satisfaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Clinical data for 124 patients who had undergone surgical extraction of
      mandibular third molar under IVS using MDZ were retrospectively investigated in
      this case-control study. The initial dose of MDZ was determined by body mass
      index (BMI) and weight. In the case of insufficient sedation at the beginning of
      surgery, additional doses were injected. During surgery, peripheral oxygen
      saturation, bispectral index score (BIS), heart rate, and blood pressure were
      monitored and recorded. The predictor variables were sex, age, BMI, sleeping time
      ratio, dental anxiety, Pederson scale, and initial dose of MDZ. The outcome
      variables were additional administration of MDZ, observer's assessment of
      alertness/sedation, intraoperative amnesia, and patient satisfaction. Descriptive
      statistics were computed, and the P-value was set at 0.05. RESULTS: Most patients
      had an adequate level of sedation with only the initial dose of MDZ and were
      satisfied with the treatment under sedation; however, 19 patients needed
      additional administration, and 13 patients were unsatisfied. In multivariable
      logistic analysis, lower age (odds ratio [OR], 0.825; P=0.005) and higher dental
      anxiety (OR, 5.744; P=0.003) were related to additional administration; lower
      intraoperative amnesia (OR, 0.228; P=0.002) and higher BIS right before MDZ
      administration (OR, 1.379; P=0.029) had relevance to patient dissatisfaction.
      CONCLUSION: The preoperative consideration of age and dental anxiety is necessary
      for appropriate dose determination of MDZ in the minor oral surgery under IVS.
      The amnesia about the procedure affects patient satisfaction positively.

PMID- 28875138
TI  - New method for an evaluation of the esthetical improvements resulting from a
      mandibular angle reduction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This paper proposes Han's ratio as an objective and quantitative
      comparative result obtained from pre and postoperative data in patients with a
      mandibular angle reduction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients, 12 men and 18
      women, who visited the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery with the
      chief complaints of skeletal mandibular prognathism and prominent mandibular
      angle were selected. The subjects were classified into 3 groups according to the
      types of surgical procedures involved. Group A consisted of patients who
      underwent mandibular angle resection and mandibular setback. Group B was
      comprised of patients with mandibular angle resection, mandibular setback and
      genioplasty. Group C consisted of patients with mandibular angle resection,
      mandibular setback, Le Fort I osteotomy, and genioplasty. The landmarks placed in
      pre and postoperative frontal photographs were used to obtain the Han's ratio in
      each group. The Han's ratios were compared pre- and postoperation and according
      to the surgical techniques applied. RESULTS: Of the 3 groups who had undergone a
      mandibular angle resection, all showed a statistically significant increase in
      Han's ratio. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference
      based on the surgical techniques used. CONCLUSION: The ratio of the lateral lower
      face proposed in this study is a potential indicator of postoperative esthetic
      enhancement in mandibular angle reduction surgery.

PMID- 28875139
TI  - A comparative study of quality of life of families with children born with cleft
      lip and/or palate before and after surgical treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of
      parents/caregivers of children with cleft lip and/or palate before and after
      surgical repair of an orofacial cleft. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Families of
      subjects who required either primary or secondary orofacial cleft repair who
      satisfied the inclusion criteria were recruited. A preoperative and postoperative
      health-related QoL questionnaire, the 'Impact on Family Scale' (IOFS), was
      applied in order to detect the subjectively perceived QoL in the affected family
      before and after surgical intervention. The mean pre- and postoperative total
      scores were compared using paired t-test. Pre- and postoperative mean scores were
      also compared across the 5 domains of the IOFS. RESULTS: The proportion of
      families whose QoL was affected before surgery was 95.7%. The domains with the
      greatest impact preoperatively were the financial domain and social domains.
      Families having children with bilateral cleft lip showed QoL effects mostly in
      the social domain and 'impact on sibling' domain. Postoperatively, the mean total
      QoL score was significantly lower than the mean preoperative QoL score,
      indicating significant improvement in QoL (P<0.001). The mean postoperative QoL
      score was also significantly lower than the mean preoperative QoL score in all
      domains. Only 3.2% of the families reported affectation of their QoL after
      surgery. The domains of mastery (61.3%) with a mean of 7.4+/-1.8 and finance
      (45.1%) with a mean score of 7.2+/-1.6 were those showing the greatest
      postoperative impact. The proportion of families whose QoL was affected by
      orofacial cleft was markedly different after treatment (95.7% preoperative and
      3.2% postoperative). CONCLUSION: Caring for children with orofacial clefts
      significantly reduces the QoL of parents/caregivers in all domains. However,
      surgical intervention significantly improves the QoL of the parents/caregivers of
      these children.

PMID- 28875141
TI  - Intramuscular hemangioma in buccal cheek: a case report.
AB  - Hemangioma is the most common benign tumor of a vascular origin, and is
      characterized by the abnormal proliferation of blood vessels. Intramuscular
      hemangioma (IMH) usually involves the skeletal muscles of the trunk or limbs, but
      rarely occurs in the head and neck region. This case report presents a patient
      with IMH showing multiple phleboliths in the buccal cheek. A 13-year-old boy was
      referred for the evaluation and management of painful swelling of the left cheek
      that had gradually increased in size over a 6 year duration. The examination
      revealed a palpable firm mass. Reddish-blue buccal mucosa color was observed with
      an aciniform shape. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a
      vascular tumor in the left side adjacent to the buccinator and depressor
      orbicularis oris muscles. Surgical resection under general anesthesia was
      performed via the intraoral approach. The mass and phleboliths were extracted
      successfully. A histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of IMH. In
      conclusion, clinicians should be aware of the possibility of IMH in cases of a
      palpable mass with multiple nodules deep within the muscle in the buccal cheek.
      Among the several diagnostic tools, MRI provides essential information on the
      extent and surrounding anatomy of IMH.

PMID- 28875140
TI  - Recording natural head position using an accelerometer and reconstruction from
      computed tomographic images.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The concept of natural head position (NHP) was first introduced by
      Broca in 1862, and was described as a person's stable physiologic position "when
      a man is standing and his visual axis is horizontal." NHP has been used routinely
      for clinical examination; however, a patient's head position is random during
      cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) acquisition. To solve this problem, we
      developed an accelerometer to record patients' NHP and reproduce them for CBCT
      images. In this study, we also tested the accuracy and reproducibility of our
      accelerometer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 15 subjects participated in this
      study. We invented an accelerometer that measured acceleration on three axes and
      that could record roll and pitch calculations. Recorded roll and pitch data for
      each NHP were applied to a reoriented virtual image using three-dimensional (3D)
      imaging software. The data between the 3D models and the clinical photos were
      statistically analyzed side by side. Paired t-tests were used to statistically
      analyze the measurements. RESULTS: The average difference in the angles between
      the clinical photograph and the 3D model was 0.04 degrees  for roll and 0.29
      degrees  for pitch. The paired ttests for the roll data (P=0.781) and the pitch
      data (P=0.169) showed no significant difference between the clinical photographs
      and the 3D model (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: By overcoming the limitations of previous
      NHP-recording techniques, our new method can accurately record patient NHP in a
      time-efficient manner. Our method can also accurately transfer the NHP to a 3D
      virtual model.

PMID- 28875142
TI  - Van der Woude syndrome presenting as a single median lower lip pit with
      associated dental, orofacial and limb deformities: a rare case report.
AB  - Although it is a rare developmental malformation, van der Woude syndrome is the
      most common form of syndromic orofacial clefting, accounting for approximately 2%
      of all cleft cases. The lower lip pits with or without a cleft lip or palate is
      characteristic of the syndrome. Findings, such as hypodontia, limb deformities,
      popliteal webs, ankylogossia, ankyloblepheron, and genitourinary and
      cardiovascular abnormalities, are rarely associated with the syndrome. This paper
      reports a rare case of van der Woude syndrome in a 10-year-old male patient with
      a single median lower lip pit and a repaired bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate
      that were associated with microstomia, hypodontia, and clubbing of the left foot
      with syndactyly of the second to fifth lesser toes of the same foot.

PMID- 28875143
TI  - A case of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw with a particularly
      unfavourable course: a case report.
AB  - Bisphosphonates are drugs used to treat osteoclast-mediated bone resorption,
      including osteoporosis, Paget disease, multiple myeloma, cancer-related
      osteolysis, and malignant hypercalcemia. The use of these drugs has increased in
      recent years as have their complications, especially bisphosphonate-related
      osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ), which more frequently affects the mandible.
      Here we report a case of BRONJ with a particularly unfavorable course due to
      cervical inflammation that developed into necrotizing fasciitis, followed by
      multiorgan involvement leading to septic shock and death.

PMID- 28875144
TI  - Lateral approach for maxillary sinus membrane elevation without bone materials in
      maxillary mucous retention cyst with immediate or delayed implant rehabilitation:
      case reports.
AB  - This case series study demonstrates the possibility of successful implant
      rehabilitation without bone augmentation in the atrophic posterior maxilla with
      cystic lesion in the sinus. Sinus lift without bone graft using the lateral
      approach was performed. In one patient, the cyst was aspirated and simultaneous
      implantation under local anesthesia was performed, whereas the other cyst was
      removed under general anesthesia, and the sinus membrane was elevated in a second
      process, followed by implantation. In both cases, tapered 11.5-mm-long implants
      were utilized. With all of the implants, good stability and appropriate bone
      height were achieved. The mean bone level gain was 5.73 mm; adequate bone
      augmentation around the implants was shown, the sinus floor was moved apically,
      and the cyst was no longer radiologically detected. Completion of all of the
      treatments required an average of 12.5 months. The present study showed that
      sufficient bone formation and stable implantation in a maxilla of insufficient
      bone volume are possible through sinus lift without bone materials. The results
      serve to demonstrate, moreover, that surgical treatment of mucous retention cyst
      can facilitate rehabilitation. These techniques can reduce the risk of
      complications related to bone grafts, save money, and successfully treat antral
      cyst.

PMID- 28875145
TI  - Actinomyces: a deceptive infection of oral cavity.
AB  - Actinomycosis is an infrequent chronic infection regarded as the most
      misdiagnosed disease by experienced clinicians. The Office of Rare Diseases at
      the National Institute of Health has also listed this disease as a "rare
      disease." This article presents a case report of actinomycosis of the alveolus
      with unusual clinical features but a successful resolution. It also states the
      importance of biopsy of deceptive inflammatory lesions that do not respond or
      recur after conventional treatment modalities.

PMID- 28875146
TI  - Importance of serial changes in biomarkers in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - The clinical significance of serial changes in serum biomarkers in patients with
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remains to be established. This retrospective
      study was conducted to clarify the associations of serial changes in serum Krebs
      von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) and surfactant protein-D (SP-D) with changes in
      physiological indices and overall mortality in IPF. The study subjects were 75
      patients with IPF. The 6 month change in serum KL-6 was significantly correlated
      with changes in the percentage of the predicted forced vital capacity (FVC %
      pred) and the percentage of the predicted diffusing capacity of the lung for
      carbon monoxide (% DLCO), while the 6 month change in serum SP-D was correlated
      only with % DLCO. During the mean follow-up period of 647 days, 22 (29.3%)
      patients died. An increase in serum KL-6 over a 6 month period was a significant
      predictor of mortality even after adjustment for %FVC, % DLCO and serum KL-6 at
      the baseline (hazard ratio 1.10 per 100 U.mL-1, 95% CI 1.01-1.18, p=0.03),
      whereas the 6 month increase in serum SP-D was not significant. Serial
      measurements of serum KL-6 may provide additional prognostic information compared
      to that provided by physiological parameters in patients with IPF.

PMID- 28875147
TI  - Protected sampling is preferable in bronchoscopic studies of the airway
      microbiome.
AB  - The aim was to evaluate susceptibility of oropharyngeal contamination with
      various bronchoscopic sampling techniques. 67 patients with obstructive lung
      disease and 58 control subjects underwent bronchoscopy with small-volume lavage
      (SVL) through the working channel, protected bronchoalveolar lavage (PBAL) and
      bilateral protected specimen brush (PSB) sampling. Subjects also provided an oral
      wash (OW) sample, and negative control samples were gathered for each
      bronchoscopy procedure. DNA encoding bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA was sequenced
      and bioinformatically processed to cluster into operational taxonomic units
      (OTU), assign taxonomy and obtain measures of diversity. The proportion of
      Proteobacteria increased, whereas Firmicutes diminished in the order OW, SVL,
      PBAL, PSB (p<0.01). The alpha-diversity decreased in the same order (p<0.01).
      Also, beta-diversity varied by sampling method (p<0.01), and visualisation of
      principal coordinates analyses indicated that differences in diversity were
      smaller between OW and SVL and OW and PBAL samples than for OW and the PSB
      samples. The order of sampling (left versus right first) did not influence alpha-
      or beta-diversity for PSB samples. Studies of the airway microbiota need to
      address the potential for oropharyngeal contamination, and protected sampling
      might represent an acceptable measure to minimise this problem.

PMID- 28875148
TI  - Long-Term Bond Strength of Two Benzalkonium Chloride-Modified Adhesive Systems to
      Eroded Dentin.
AB  - This study investigated the effect of benzalkonium chloride (BAC) modification of
      two adhesive systems on long-term bond strength to normal and artificially eroded
      dentin. A total of 128 extracted human molars were sectioned and the buccal and
      oral surfaces of each molar were ground until the dentin. One half was left
      untreated (normal dentin) while the other half underwent artificial erosion.
      Resin composite was bonded to the buccal or oral surface following treatment with
      Adper Scotchbond 1XT or OptiBond FL without or with 1% BAC incorporation. Shear
      bond strength (SBS) was measured after 24 h (100% humidity, 37 degrees C) or 1
      year (tap water, 37 degrees C). SBS results were statistically analyzed (alpha =
      0.05). SBS was significantly lower to artificially eroded dentin than to normal
      dentin (p < 0.001). Storage for 1 year had no effect on SBS to normal dentin but
      led to a significant decrease in SBS to artificially eroded dentin (p < 0.001).
      BAC incorporation decreased the 24 h SBS to normal dentin (p = 0.018), increased
      the 24 h SBS to eroded dentin (p = 0.001), and had no effect on the 1-year SBS
      for either substrate. Consequently, BAC incorporation did not improve bond
      durability.

PMID- 28875149
TI  - Resistance to Chronic Toxoplasma gondii Infection Induced by a DNA Vaccine
      Expressing GRA16.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii can infect all warm-blooded animals including human beings. T.
      gondii dense granule protein 16 (TgGRA16) as a crucial virulence factor could
      modulate the host gene expression. Here, a DNA vaccine expressing TgGRA16 was
      constructed to explore the protective efficacy against T. gondii infection in
      Kunming mice. The immune responses induced by pVAX-GRA16 were also evaluated.
      Mice immunized with pVAX-GRA16 could elicit higher levels of specific IgG
      antibody and strong cellular response compared to those in controls. The DNA
      vaccination significantly increased the levels of cytokines (IFN-gamma, IL-2, IL
      4, and IL-10) and the percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in mice. After lethal
      challenge, mice immunized with pVAX-GRA16 (8.4 +/- 0.78 days) did not show a
      significant longer survival time than that in controls (7.1 +/- 0.30 days) (p >
      0.05). However, in chronic toxoplasmosis model (administration of 10 brain cysts
      of PRU strain orally), numbers of tissue cysts in mice immunized with pVAX-GRA16
      were significantly reduced compared to those in controls (p < 0.05) and the rate
      of reduction could reach 43.89%. The results indicated that the TgGRA16 would be
      a promising vaccine candidate for further development of effective epitope-based
      vaccines against chronic T. gondii infection in mice.

PMID- 28875150
TI  - Transpseudarthrosis Osteotomy with Interbody Fusion for Kyphotic Spinal
      Pseudarthrosis in Ankylosing Spondylitis by a Single Posterior Approach: A
      Retrospective Study and a Brief Relevant Literature Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the safety and efficacy of transpseudarthrosis osteotomy
      with interbody fusion in the treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) patients
      with kyphotic spinal pseudarthrosis by a single posterior approach. METHODS:
      Twelve consecutive patients with spinal pseudarthrosis underwent
      transpseudarthrosis osteotomy and interbody fusion with a polyetheretherketone
      (PEEK) cage by a single posterior approach. The operative time, intraoperative
      blood loss, and complications were recorded. Radiographic and clinical results
      were assessed preoperatively and at the final follow-up. RESULTS: The average
      operative time was 201.9 min and the mean blood loss was 817.5 ml. The visual
      analogue scale (VAS) improved significantly from 6.7 preoperatively to 1.1 at the
      final follow-up. The average correction of the segmental kyphosis at the level of
      the pseudarthrosis was 22.3 degrees . Bony fusion was achieved in all patients,
      and there was no obvious loss of correction at follow-up. CONCLUSION:
      Transpseudarthrosis osteotomy at the level of the pseudarthrosis can be safely
      performed and surgical repair of pseudarthrosis with interbody fusion by a single
      posterior approach was feasible.

PMID- 28875151
TI  - Molecular Characterization, Structural Modeling, and Evaluation of Antimicrobial
      Activity of Basrai Thaumatin-Like Protein against Fungal Infection.
AB  - A thaumatin-like protein gene from Basrai banana was cloned and expressed in
      Escherichia coli. Amplified gene product was cloned into pTZ57R/T vector and
      subcloned into expression vector pET22b(+) and resulting pET22b-basrai TLP
      construct was introduced into E. coli BL21. Maximum protein expression was
      obtained at 0.7 mM IPTG concentration after 6 hours at 37 degrees C. Western blot
      analysis showed the presence of approximately 20 kDa protein in induced cells.
      Basrai antifungal TLP was tried as pharmacological agent against fungal disease.
      Independently Basrai antifungal protein and amphotericin B exhibited their
      antifungal activity against A. fumigatus; however combined effect of both agents
      maximized activity against the pathogen. Docking studies were performed to
      evaluate the antimicrobial potential of TLP against A. fumigatus by probing
      binding pattern of antifungal protein with plasma membrane ergosterol of targeted
      fungal strain. Ice crystallization primarily damages frozen food items; however
      addition of antifreeze proteins limits the growth of ice crystal in frozen foods.
      The potential of Basrai TLP protein, as an antifreezing agent, in controlling the
      ice crystal formation in frozen yogurt was also studied. The scope of this study
      ranges from cost effective production of pharmaceutics to antifreezing and food
      preserving agent as well as other real life applications.

PMID- 28875152
TI  - Artificial Cardiac Muscle with or without the Use of Scaffolds.
AB  - During the past several decades, major advances and improvements now promote
      better treatment options for cardiovascular diseases. However, these diseases
      still remain the single leading cause of death worldwide. The rapid development
      of cardiac tissue engineering has provided the opportunity to potentially restore
      the contractile function and retain the pumping feature of injured hearts. This
      conception of cardiac tissue engineering can enable researchers to produce
      autologous and functional biomaterials which represents a promising technique to
      benefit patients with cardiovascular diseases. Such an approach will ultimately
      reshape existing heart transplantation protocols. Notable efforts are
      accelerating the development of cardiac tissue engineering, particularly to
      create larger tissue with enhanced functionality. Decellularized scaffolds,
      polymer synthetics fibrous matrix, and natural materials are used to build robust
      cardiac tissue scaffolds to imitate the morphological and physiological patterns
      of natural tissue. This ultimately helps cells to implant properly to obtain
      endogenous biological capacity. However, newer designs such as the hydrogel
      scaffold-free matrix can increase the applicability of artificial tissue to
      engineering strategies. In this review, we summarize all the methods to produce
      artificial cardiac tissue using scaffold and scaffold-free technology, their
      advantages and disadvantages, and their relevance to clinical practice.

PMID- 28875153
TI  - Three Months of Progressive High-Load Versus Traditional Low-Load Strength
      Training Among Patients With Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy: Primary Results From the
      Double-Blind Randomized Controlled RoCTEx Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Progressive high-load exercise (PHLE) has led to positive clinical
      results in patients with patellar and Achilles tendinopathy. However, its effects
      on rotator cuff tendinopathy still need to be investigated. PURPOSE: To assess
      the clinical effects of PHLE versus low-load exercise (LLE) among patients with
      rotator cuff tendinopathy. STUDY DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial; Level of
      evidence, 1. METHODS: Patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy were recruited and
      randomized to 12 weeks of PHLE or LLE, stratified for concomitant administration
      of corticosteroid injection. The primary outcome measure was change from baseline
      to 12 weeks in the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH)
      questionnaire, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. RESULTS: A total of
      100 patients were randomized to PHLE (n = 49) or LLE (n = 51). Mean changes in
      the DASH questionnaire were 7.11 points (95% CI, 3.07-11.16) and 8.39 points (95%
      CI, 4.35-12.44) in the PHLE and LLE groups, respectively; this corresponded to a
      statistically nonsignificant adjusted mean group difference of -1.37 points (95%
      CI, -6.72 to 3.99; P = .61). Similar nonsignificant results were seen for pain,
      range of motion, and strength. However, a significant interaction effect was
      found between the 2 groups and concomitant corticosteroid use (P = .028), with
      the largest positive change in DASH in favor of PHLE for the group receiving
      concomitant corticosteroid. CONCLUSION: The study results showed no superior
      benefit from PHLE over traditional LLE among patients with rotator cuff
      tendinopathy. Further investigation of the possible interaction between exercise
      type and corticosteroid injection is needed to establish optimal and potentially
      synergistic combinations of these 2 factors. REGISTRATION: NCT01984203
      (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier): Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy Exercise Trial
      (RoCTEx).

PMID- 28875154
TI  - Structural and Anatomic Restoration of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Is
      Associated With Less Cartilage Damage 1 Year After Surgery: Healing Ligament
      Properties Affect Cartilage Damage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abnormal joint motion has been linked to joint arthrosis after
      anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. However, the relationships
      between the graft properties (ie, structural and anatomic) and extent of
      posttraumatic osteoarthritis are not well defined. HYPOTHESES: (1) The structural
      (tensile) and anatomic (area and alignment) properties of the reconstructed graft
      or repaired ACL correlate with the total cartilage lesion area 1 year after ACL
      surgery, and (2) side-to-side differences in anterior-posterior (AP) knee laxity
      correlate with the total cartilage lesion area 1 year postoperatively. STUDY
      DESIGN: Controlled laboratory study. METHODS: Sixteen minipigs underwent
      unilateral ACL transection and were randomly treated with ACL reconstruction or
      bridge-enhanced ACL repair. The tensile properties, cross-sectional area, and
      multiplanar alignment of the healing ACL or graft, AP knee laxity, and cartilage
      lesion areas were assessed 1 year after surgery. RESULTS: In the reconstructed
      group, the normalized graft yield and maximum failure loads, cross-sectional
      area, sagittal and coronal elevation angles, and side-to-side differences in AP
      knee laxity at 60 degrees  of flexion were associated with the total cartilage
      lesion area 1 year after surgery (R2 > 0.5, P < .04). In the repaired group,
      normalized ACL yield load, linear stiffness, cross-sectional area, and the
      sagittal and coronal elevation angles were associated with the total cartilage
      lesion area (R2 > 0.5, P < .05). Smaller cartilage lesion areas were observed in
      the surgically treated knees when the structural and anatomic properties of the
      ligament or graft and AP laxity values were closer to those of the contralateral
      ACL-intact knee. Reconstructed grafts had a significantly larger normalized cross
      sectional area and sagittal elevation angle (more vertical) when compared with
      repaired ACLs (P < .02). CONCLUSION: The tensile properties, cross-sectional
      area, and multiplanar alignment of the healing ACLs or grafts and AP knee laxity
      in reconstructed knees were associated with the extent of tibiofemoral cartilage
      damage after ACL surgery. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: These data highlight the need for
      novel ACL injury treatments that can restore the structural and anatomic
      properties of the torn ACL to those of the native ACL in an effort to minimize
      the risk of early-onset posttraumatic osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28875155
TI  - Risk of Tuberculosis Infection and Disease for Health Care Workers: An Updated
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major challenge to global health.
      Healthcare workers (HCWs) appear to be at increased risk of TB compared with the
      general population, despite efforts to scale up infection control and reduce
      nosocomial TB transmission. This review aims to provide an updated estimate of
      the occupational risk of latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB among HCWs
      compared with the general population. METHODS: A systematic review was performed
      to identify studies published over the last 10 years reporting TB prevalence or
      incidence among HCWs and a control group. Pooled effect estimates were calculated
      to determine the risk of infection. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies met the inclusion
      criteria, providing data on 30961 HCWs across 16 countries. Prevalence of LTBI
      among HCWs was 37%, and mean incidence rate of active TB was 97/100000 per year.
      Compared with the general population, the risk of LTBI was greater for HCWs (odds
      ratio [OR], 2.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.61-3.20), and the incidence
      rate ratio for active TB was 2.94 (95% CI, 1.67-5.19). Comparing tuberculin skin
      test and interferon-gamma release assay, OR for LTBI was found to be 1.72 and
      5.61, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The overall risk of both LTBI and TB to HCWs
      continues to be significantly higher than that of the general population,
      consistent with previous findings. This study highlights the continuing need for
      improvements in infection control and HCW screening programs.

PMID- 28875156
TI  - Asporin stably expressed in the surface layer of mandibular condylar cartilage
      and augmented in the deeper layer with age.
AB  - Mandibular condylar cartilage (MCC) exhibits dual roles both articular cartilage
      and growth center. Of many growth factors, TGF-beta has been implicated in the
      growth of articular cartilage including MCC. Recently, Asporin, decoy to TGF
      beta, was discovered and it blocks TGF-beta signaling. Asporin is expressed in a
      variety of tissues including osteoarthritic articular cartilage, though there was
      no report of Asporin expression in MCC. In the present study, we investigated the
      temporal and spatial expression of Asporin in MCC. Gene expression profile of MCC
      and epiphyseal cartilage in tibia of 5 weeks old ICR mice were firstly compared
      with microarray analysis using the laser capture microdissected samples. Variance
      of gene expression was further confirmed by real-time RT-PCR and
      immunohistochemical staining at 1,3,10, and 20 weeks old. TGF-beta and its
      signaling molecule, phosphorylated Smad-2/3 (p-Smad2/3), were also examined by
      immunohistochemical staining. Microarray analysis revealed that Asporin was
      highly expressed in MCC. Real-time RT-PCR analysis confirmed that the fibrous
      layer of MCC exhibited stable higher Asporin expression at any time points as
      compared to epiphyseal cartilage. This was also observed in immunohistochemical
      staining. Deeper layer in MCC augmented Asporin expression with age. Whereas, TGF
      beta was stably highly observed in the layer. The fibrous layer of MCC exhibited
      weak staining of p-Smad2/3, though the proliferating layer of MCC was strongly
      stained as compared to epiphyseal cartilage of tibia at early time point.
      Consistent with the increase of Asporin expression in the deeper layer of MCC,
      the intensity of p-Smad-2/3 staining was decreased with age. In conclusion, we
      discovered that Asporin was stably expressed at the fibrous layer of MCC, which
      makes it possible to manage both articular cartilage and growth center at the
      same time.

PMID- 28875157
TI  - Sex hormones and quantitative ultrasound parameters at the heel in men and women
      from the general population.
AB  - PURPOSE/INTRODUCTION: The present study investigates potential associations
      between liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) measured sex hormones,
      dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and bone
      ultrasound parameters at the heel in men and women from the general population.
      METHODS: Data from 502 women and 425 men from the population-based Study of
      Health in Pomerania (SHIP-TREND) were used. Cross-sectional associations of sex
      hormones including testosterone (TT), calculated free testosterone (FT),
      dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), androstenedione (ASD), estrone (E1) and
      SHBG with quantitative ultrasound (QUS) parameters at the heel, including
      broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), speed of sound (SOS) and stiffness index
      (SI) were examined by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariable quantile
      regression models. RESULTS: Multivariable regression analysis showed a sex
      specific inverse association of DHEAS with SI in men (Beta per SI unit = - 3.08,
      standard error (SE) = 0.88), but not in women (Beta = - 0.01, SE = 2.09).
      Furthermore, FT was positively associated with BUA in men (Beta per BUA unit =
      29.0, SE = 10.1). None of the other sex hormones (ASD, E1) or SHBG was associated
      with QUS parameters after multivariable adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: This cross
      sectional population-based study revealed independent associations of DHEAS and
      FT with QUS parameters in men, suggesting a potential influence on male bone
      metabolism. The predictive role of DHEAS and FT as a marker for osteoporosis in
      men warrants further investigation in clinical trials and large-scale
      observational studies.

PMID- 28875158
TI  - Thirty days of spaceflight does not alter murine calvariae structure despite
      increased Sost expression.
AB  - Previously our laboratory documented increases in calvaria bone volume and
      thickness in mice exposed to 15 days of spaceflight aboard the NASA Shuttle
      mission STS-131. However, the tissues were not processed for gene expression
      studies to determine what bone formation pathways might contribute to these
      structural adaptations. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate both
      the structural and molecular changes in mice calvariae after a longer duration of
      spaceflight. The primary purpose was to determine the calvaria bone volume and
      thickness of mice exposed to 30 days of spaceflight using micro-computed
      tomography for comparison with our previous findings. Because sclerostin, the
      secreted glycoprotein of the Sost gene, is a potent inhibitor of bone formation,
      our second aim was to quantify Sost mRNA expression using quantitative PCR.
      Calvariae were obtained from six mice aboard the Russian 30-day Bion-M1
      biosatellite and seven ground controls. In mice exposed to 30 days of
      spaceflight, calvaria bone structure was not significantly different from that of
      their controls (bone volume was about 5% lower in spaceflight mice, p = 0.534).
      However, Sost mRNA expression was 16-fold (16.4 +/- 0.4, p < 0.001) greater in
      the spaceflight group than that in the ground control group. Therefore, bone
      formation may have been suppressed in mice exposed to 30 days of spaceflight.
      Genetic responsiveness (e.g. sex or strain of animals) or in-flight environmental
      conditions other than microgravity (e.g. pCO2 levels) may have elicited different
      bone adaptations in STS-131 and Bion-M1 mice. Although structural results were
      not significant, this study provides biochemical evidence that calvaria
      mechanotransduction pathways may be altered during spaceflight, which could
      reflect vascular and interstitial fluid adaptations in non-weight bearing bones.
      Future studies are warranted to elucidate the processes that mediate these
      effects and the factors responsible for discordant calvaria bone adaptations
      between STS-131 and Bion-M1 mice.

PMID- 28875159
TI  - Myxoma Virus Optimizes Cisplatin for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer In Vitro and
      in a Syngeneic Murine Dissemination Model.
AB  - A therapeutic approach to improve treatment outcome of ovarian cancer (OC) in
      patients is urgently needed. Myxoma virus (MYXV) is a candidate oncolytic virus
      that infects to eliminate OC cells. We found that in vitro MYXV treatment
      enhances cisplatin or gemcitabine treatment by allowing lower doses than the
      corresponding IC50 calculated for primary OC cells. MYXV also affected OC patient
      ascites-associated CD14+ myeloid cells, one of the most abundant immunological
      components of the OC tumor environment; without causing cell death, MYXV
      infection reduces the ability of these cells to secrete cytokines such as IL-10
      that are signatures of the immunosuppressive tumor environment. We found that
      pretreatment with replication-competent but not replication-defective MYXV
      sensitized tumor cells to later cisplatin treatments to drastically improve
      survival in a murine syngeneic OC dissemination model. We thus conclude that
      infection with replication-competent MYXV before cisplatin treatment markedly
      enhances the therapeutic benefit of chemotherapy. Treatment with replication
      competent MYXV followed by cisplatin potentiated splenocyte activation and
      IFNgamma expression, possibly by T cells, when splenocytes from treated mice were
      stimulated with tumor cell antigen ex vivo. The impact on immune responses in the
      tumor environment may thus contribute to the enhanced antitumor activity of
      combinatorial MYXV-cisplatin treatment.

PMID- 28875160
TI  - Design of ultrathin Pt-Mo-Ni nanowire catalysts for ethanol electrooxidation.
AB  - Developing cost-effective, active, and durable electrocatalysts is one of the
      most important issues for the commercialization of fuel cells. Ultrathin Pt-Mo-Ni
      nanowires (NWs) with a diameter of ~2.5 nm and lengths of up to several
      micrometers were synthesized via a H2-assisted solution route (HASR). This
      catalyst was designed on the basis of the following three points: (i) ultrathin
      NWs with high numbers of surface atoms can increase the atomic efficiency of Pt
      and thus decrease the catalyst cost; (ii) the incorporation of Ni can isolate Pt
      atoms on the surface and produce surface defects, leading to high catalytic
      activity (the unique structure and superior activity were confirmed by spherical
      aberration-corrected electron microscopy measurements and ethanol oxidation
      tests, respectively); and (iii) the incorporation of Mo can stabilize both Ni and
      Pt atoms, leading to high catalytic stability, which was confirmed by experiments
      and density functional theory calculations. Furthermore, the developed HASR
      strategy can be extended to synthesize a series of Pt-Mo-M (M = Fe, Co, Mn, Ru,
      etc.) NWs. These multimetallic NWs would open up new opportunities for practical
      fuel cell applications.

PMID- 28875161
TI  - Crystal structures of a ZIP zinc transporter reveal a binuclear metal center in
      the transport pathway.
AB  - Zrt/Irt-like proteins (ZIPs) play fundamental roles in metal
      metabolism/homeostasis and are broadly involved in numerous physiological and
      pathological processes. The lack of high-resolution structure of the ZIPs hinders
      understanding of the metal transport mechanism. We report two crystal structures
      of a prokaryotic ZIP in lipidic cubic phase with bound metal substrates (Cd2+ at
      2.7 A and Zn2+ at 2.4 A). The structures revealed a novel 3+2+3TM architecture
      and an inward-open conformation occluded at the extracellular side. Two metal
      ions were trapped halfway through the membrane, unexpectedly forming a binuclear
      metal center. The Zn2+-substituted structure suggested asymmetric functions of
      the two metal-binding sites and also revealed a route for zinc release. Mapping
      of disease-causing mutations, structure-guided mutagenesis, and cell-based zinc
      transport assay demonstrated the crucial role of the binuclear metal center for
      human ZIP4. A metal transport mechanism for the ZIP from Bordetella
      bronchiseptica was proposed, which is likely applicable to other ZIPs.

PMID- 28875162
TI  - Antiferroic electronic structure in the nonmagnetic superconducting state of the
      iron-based superconductors.
AB  - A major problem in the field of high-transition temperature (Tc)
      superconductivity is the identification of the electronic instabilities near
      superconductivity. It is known that the iron-based superconductors exhibit
      antiferromagnetic order, which competes with the superconductivity. However, in
      the nonmagnetic state, there are many aspects of the electronic instabilities
      that remain unclarified, as represented by the orbital instability and several in
      plane anisotropic physical properties. We report a new aspect of the electronic
      state of the optimally doped iron-based superconductors by using high-energy
      resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We find spectral evidence
      for the folded electronic structure suggestive of an antiferroic electronic
      instability, coexisting with the superconductivity in the nonmagnetic state of
      Ba1-x K x Fe2As2. We further establish a phase diagram showing that the
      antiferroic electronic structure persists in a large portion of the nonmagnetic
      phase covering the superconducting dome. These results motivate consideration of
      a key unknown electronic instability, which is necessary for the achievement of
      high-Tc superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors.

PMID- 28875163
TI  - Functional vascularized lung grafts for lung bioengineering.
AB  - End-stage lung disease is the third leading cause of death worldwide, accounting
      for 400,000 deaths per year in the United States alone. To reduce the morbidity
      and mortality associated with lung disease, new therapeutic strategies aimed at
      promoting lung repair and increasing the number of donor lungs available for
      transplantation are being explored. Because of the extreme complexity of this
      organ, previous attempts at bioengineering functional lungs from fully
      decellularized or synthetic scaffolds lacking functional vasculature have been
      largely unsuccessful. An intact vascular network is critical not only for
      maintaining the blood-gas barrier and allowing for proper graft function but also
      for supporting the regenerative cells. We therefore developed an airway-specific
      approach to removing the pulmonary epithelium, while maintaining the viability
      and function of the vascular endothelium, using a rat model. The resulting
      vascularized lung grafts supported the attachment and growth of human adult
      pulmonary cells and stem cell-derived lung-specified epithelial cells. We propose
      that de-epithelialization of the lung with preservation of intact vasculature
      could facilitate cell therapy of pulmonary epithelium and enable bioengineering
      of functional lungs for transplantation.

PMID- 28875164
TI  - Increasing drought in Jordan: Climate change and cascading Syrian land-use
      impacts on reducing transboundary flow.
AB  - In countries where severe drought is an anticipated effect of climate change and
      in those that heavily depend on upstream nations for fresh water, the effect of
      drier conditions and consequent changes in the transboundary streamflow regime
      induced by anthropogenic interventions and disasters leads to uncertainty in
      regional water security. As a case in point, we analyze Jordan's surface water
      resources and agricultural water demand through 2100, considering the combined
      impacts of climate change and land-use change driven by the Syrian conflict. We
      use bias-corrected regional climate simulations as input to high-resolution
      hydrologic models to assess three drought types: meteorological (rainfall
      decrease), agricultural (soil moisture deficit), and hydrologic (streamflow
      decline) under future scenarios. The historical baseline period (1981-2010) is
      compared to the future (2011-2100), divided into three 30-year periods. Comparing
      the baseline period to 2070-2100, average temperature increases by 4.5 degrees C,
      rainfall decreases by 30%, and multiple drought-type occurrences increase from ~8
      in 30 years to ~25 in 30 years. There is a significant increase in the
      contemporaneous occurrence of multiple drought types along with an 80% increase
      in simultaneous warm and dry events. Watershed simulations of future
      transboundary Yarmouk-Jordan River flow from Syria show that Jordan would receive
      51 to 75% less Yarmouk water compared to historical flow. Recovery of Syrian
      irrigated agriculture to pre-conflict conditions would produce twice the decline
      in transboundary flow as that due to climate change. In Jordan, the confluence of
      limited water supply, future drought, and transboundary hydrologic impacts of
      land use severely challenges achieving freshwater sustainability.

PMID- 28875166
TI  - Observation of prethermalization in long-range interacting spin chains.
AB  - Although statistical mechanics describes thermal equilibrium states, these states
      may or may not emerge dynamically for a subsystem of an isolated quantum many
      body system. For instance, quantum systems that are near-integrable usually fail
      to thermalize in an experimentally realistic time scale, and instead relax to
      quasi-stationary prethermal states that can be described by statistical
      mechanics, when approximately conserved quantities are included in a generalized
      Gibbs ensemble (GGE). We experimentally study the relaxation dynamics of a chain
      of up to 22 spins evolving under a long-range transverse-field Ising Hamiltonian
      following a sudden quench. For sufficiently long-range interactions, the system
      relaxes to a new type of prethermal state that retains a strong memory of the
      initial conditions. However, the prethermal state in this case cannot be
      described by a standard GGE; it rather arises from an emergent double-well
      potential felt by the spin excitations. This result shows that prethermalization
      occurs in a broader context than previously thought, and reveals new challenges
      for a generic understanding of the thermalization of quantum systems,
      particularly in the presence of long-range interactions.

PMID- 28875165
TI  - Identifying key intermediates generated in situ from Cu(II) salt-catalyzed C-H
      functionalization of aromatic amines under illumination.
AB  - Copper compounds involved in photocatalysis have recently spurred considerable
      interest for their novel transformations. However, mechanistic investigations are
      still in infancy. We find a new type of reaction, that is, Cu(II) salt-catalyzed
      C-H functionalization of aromatic amines triggered by visible light irradiation.
      An array of mechanistic observations, including high-resolution mass
      spectrometry, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum, electron spin resonance, x
      ray absorption near-edge structure, and density functional theory calculation,
      have identified the key intermediates generated in situ in the transformation.
      Integration of single-electron transfer, singlet oxygen (1O2), and new absorption
      species, intermediate I and intermediate II formed in situ from Cu(II) salts and
      substrate amines or imines, respectively, is responsible for the N-H and C-H bond
      activation of secondary amines to couple with nucleophiles in air, thereby
      leading to the formation of quinoline, indolo[3,2-c]quinoline, beta-amino acid,
      and 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives in moderate to good yields under visible
      light irradiation at room temperature.

PMID- 28875167
TI  - Tunable electroresistance and electro-optic effects of transparent molecular
      ferroelectrics.
AB  - Recent progress in molecular ferroelectrics (MOFEs) has been overshadowed by the
      lack of high-quality thin films for device integration. We report a water-based
      air-processable technique to prepare large-area MOFE thin films, controlled by
      supersaturation growth at the liquid-air interface under a temperature gradient
      and external water partial pressure. We used this technique to fabricate ImClO4
      thin films and found a large, tunable room temperature electroresistance: a 20
      fold resistance variation upon polarization switching. The as-grown films are
      transparent and consist of a bamboo-like structure of (2,[Formula: see text],0)
      and (1,0,[Formula: see text]) structural variants of R3m symmetry with a
      reversible polarization of 6.7 MUC/cm2. The resulting ferroelectric domain
      structure leads to a reversible electromechanical response of d33 = 38.8 pm/V.
      Polarization switching results in a change of the refractive index, n, of single
      domains, [Formula: see text]. The remarkable combination of these characteristics
      renders MOFEs a prime candidate material for new nanoelectronic devices. The
      information that we present in this work will open a new area of MOFE thin-film
      technologies.

PMID- 28875168
TI  - Ceftazidime-avibactam has potent sterilizing activity against highly drug
      resistant tuberculosis.
AB  - There are currently many patients with multidrug-resistant and extensively drug
      resistant tuberculosis. Ongoing transmission of the highly drug-resistant strains
      and high mortality despite treatment remain problematic. The current strategy of
      drug discovery and development takes up to a decade to bring a new drug to
      clinical use. We embarked on a strategy to screen all antibiotics in current use
      and examined them for use in tuberculosis. We found that ceftazidime-avibactam,
      which is already used in the clinic for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative
      bacillary infections, markedly killed rapidly growing, intracellular, and
      semidormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the hollow fiber system model.
      Moreover, multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant clinical isolates
      demonstrated good ceftazidime-avibactam susceptibility profiles and were
      inhibited by clinically achievable concentrations. Resistance arose because of
      mutations in the transpeptidase domain of the penicillin-binding protein PonA1,
      suggesting that the drug kills M. tuberculosis bacilli via interference with cell
      wall remodeling. We identified concentrations (exposure targets) for optimal
      effect in tuberculosis, which we used with susceptibility results in computer
      aided clinical trial simulations to identify doses for immediate clinical use as
      salvage therapy for adults and young children. Moreover, this work provides a
      roadmap for efficient and timely evaluation of antibiotics and optimization of
      clinically relevant dosing regimens.

PMID- 28875169
TI  - A polyaromatic nanocapsule as a sucrose receptor in water.
AB  - Selective recognition of saccharides by artificial receptors in water is a
      challenging goal due to their strong hydrophilicities and complex molecular
      structures with subtle regio- and stereochemical differences. We report the
      selective and efficient encapsulation of d-sucrose within a coordination-driven
      molecular capsule from natural saccharide mixtures in water (~100% selectivity,
      >85% yield, and ~103 M-1 binding constant). Unlike previous artificial receptors
      and natural receptors that rely on multiple hydrogen-bonding interactions,
      theoretical calculations and control experiments indicate that the observed
      unique selectivity arises from multiple CH-pi interactions between the sucrose
      hydrocarbon backbone and the shape-complementary polyaromatic cavity (~1 nm in
      diameter) of the capsule.

PMID- 28875170
TI  - Photoinduced nanobubble-driven superfast diffusion of nanoparticles imaged by 4D
      electron microscopy.
AB  - Dynamics of active or propulsive Brownian particles in nonequilibrium status have
      recently attracted great interest in many fields including artificial
      micro/nanoscopic motors and biological entities. Understanding of their dynamics
      can provide insight into the statistical properties of physical and biological
      systems far from equilibrium. We report the translational dynamics of photon
      activated gold nanoparticles (NPs) in water imaged by liquid-cell four
      dimensional electron microscopy (4D-EM) with high spatiotemporal resolution.
      Under excitation of femtosecond laser pulses, we observed that those NPs exhibit
      superfast diffusive translation with a diffusion constant four to five orders of
      magnitude greater than that in the absence of laser excitation. The measured
      diffusion constant follows a power-law dependence on the laser fluence and a
      linear increase with the laser repetition rate, respectively. This superfast
      diffusion of the NPs is induced by a strong random driving force arising from the
      photoinduced steam nanobubbles (NBs) near the NP surface. In contrast, the NPs
      exhibit a superfast ballistic translation at a short time scale down to
      nanoseconds. Combining with a physical model simulation, this study reveals a
      photoinduced NB propulsion mechanism for propulsive motion, providing physical
      insights into better design of light-activated artificial micro/nanomotors. The
      liquid-cell 4D-EM also provides the potential of studying other numerical
      dynamical behaviors in their native environments.

PMID- 28875171
TI  - Perovskite nanocomposites as effective CO2-splitting agents in a cyclic redox
      scheme.
AB  - We report iron-containing mixed-oxide nanocomposites as highly effective redox
      materials for thermochemical CO2 splitting and methane partial oxidation in a
      cyclic redox scheme, where methane was introduced as an oxygen "sink" to promote
      the reduction of the redox materials followed by reoxidation through CO2
      splitting. Up to 96% syngas selectivity in the methane partial oxidation step and
      close to complete conversion of CO2 to CO in the CO2-splitting step were achieved
      at 900 degrees  to 980 degrees C with good redox stability. The productivity and
      production rate of CO in the CO2-splitting step were about seven times higher
      than those in state-of-the-art solar-thermal CO2-splitting processes, which are
      carried out at significantly higher temperatures. The proposed approach can
      potentially be applied for acetic acid synthesis with up to 84% reduction in CO2
      emission when compared to state-of-the-art processes.

PMID- 28875172
TI  - The biodiversity cost of carbon sequestration in tropical savanna.
AB  - Tropical savannas have been increasingly viewed as an opportunity for carbon
      sequestration through fire suppression and afforestation, but insufficient
      attention has been given to the consequences for biodiversity. To evaluate the
      biodiversity costs of increasing carbon sequestration, we quantified changes in
      ecosystem carbon stocks and the associated changes in communities of plants and
      ants resulting from fire suppression in savannas of the Brazilian Cerrado, a
      global biodiversity hotspot. Fire suppression resulted in increased carbon stocks
      of 1.2 Mg ha-1 year-1 since 1986 but was associated with acute species loss. In
      sites fully encroached by forest, plant species richness declined by 27%, and ant
      richness declined by 35%. Richness of savanna specialists, the species most at
      risk of local extinction due to forest encroachment, declined by 67% for plants
      and 86% for ants. This loss highlights the important role of fire in maintaining
      biodiversity in tropical savannas, a role that is not reflected in current
      policies of fire suppression throughout the Brazilian Cerrado. In tropical
      grasslands and savannas throughout the tropics, carbon mitigation programs that
      promote forest cover cannot be assumed to provide net benefits for conservation.

PMID- 28875173
TI  - Enhanced photovoltaic performance and stability with a new type of hollow 3D
      perovskite {en}FASnI3.
AB  - Perovskite solar cells have revolutionized the fabrication of solution
      processable solar cells. The presence of lead in the devices makes this
      technology less attractive, and alternative metals in perovskites are being
      researched as suitable alternatives. We demonstrate a new type of tin-based
      perovskite absorber that incorporates both ethylenediammonium (en) and
      formamidinium (FA), forming new materials of the type {en}FASnI3. The three
      dimensional ASnI3 structure is stable only with methylammonium, FA, and Cs
      cations, and the bandgap can be tuned with solid solutions, such as ASnI3-x Br x
      . We show that en can serve as a new A cation capable of achieving marked
      increases in the bandgap without the need for solid solutions. The en introduces
      a new bandgap tuning mechanism that arises from massive Schottky style defects.
      In addition, incorporation of the en cation in the structure markedly increases
      the air stability and improves the photoelectric properties of the tin-based
      perovskite absorbers. Our best-performing {en}FASnI3 solar cell has the highest
      efficiency of 7.14%, which is achieved for a lead-free perovskite cell, and
      retains 96% of its initial efficiency after aging over 1000 hours with
      encapsulation. Our results introduce a new approach for improving the performance
      and stability of tin-based, lead-free perovskite solar cells.

PMID- 28875174
TI  - Improved base excision repair inhibition and bacteriophage Mu Gam protein yields
      C:G-to-T:A base editors with higher efficiency and product purity.
AB  - We recently developed base editing, the programmable conversion of target C:G
      base pairs to T:A without inducing double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs) or requiring
      homology-directed repair using engineered fusions of Cas9 variants and cytidine
      deaminases. Over the past year, the third-generation base editor (BE3) and
      related technologies have been successfully used by many researchers in a wide
      range of organisms. The product distribution of base editing-the frequency with
      which the target C:G is converted to mixtures of undesired by-products, along
      with the desired T:A product-varies in a target site-dependent manner. We
      characterize determinants of base editing outcomes in human cells and establish
      that the formation of undesired products is dependent on uracil N-glycosylase
      (UNG) and is more likely to occur at target sites containing only a single C
      within the base editing activity window. We engineered CDA1-BE3 and AID-BE3,
      which use cytidine deaminase homologs that increase base editing efficiency for
      some sequences. On the basis of these observations, we engineered fourth
      generation base editors (BE4 and SaBE4) that increase the efficiency of C:G to
      T:A base editing by approximately 50%, while halving the frequency of undesired
      by-products compared to BE3. Fusing BE3, BE4, SaBE3, or SaBE4 to Gam, a
      bacteriophage Mu protein that binds DSBs greatly reduces indel formation during
      base editing, in most cases to below 1.5%, and further improves product purity.
      BE4, SaBE4, BE4-Gam, and SaBE4-Gam represent the state of the art in C:G-to-T:A
      base editing, and we recommend their use in future efforts.

PMID- 28875176
TI  - Lactoferricin Peptides Increase Macrophages' Capacity To Kill Mycobacterium
      avium.
AB  - Mycobacterial infections cause a significant burden of disease and death
      worldwide. Their treatment is long, toxic, costly, and increasingly prone to
      failure due to bacterial resistance to currently available antibiotics. New
      therapeutic options are thus clearly needed. Antimicrobial peptides represent an
      important source of new antimicrobial molecules, both for their direct activity
      and for their immunomodulatory potential. We have previously reported that a
      short version of the bovine antimicrobial peptide lactoferricin with amino acids
      17 to 30 (LFcin17-30), along with its variants obtained by specific amino acid
      substitutions, killed Mycobacterium avium in broth culture. In the present work,
      those peptides were tested against M. avium living inside its natural host cell,
      the macrophage. We found that the peptides increased the antimicrobial action of
      the conventional antibiotic ethambutol inside macrophages. Moreover, the d
      enantiomer of the lactoferricin peptide (d-LFcin17-30) was more stable and
      induced significant killing of intracellular mycobacteria by itself.
      Interestingly, d-LFcin17-30 did not localize to M. avium-harboring phagosomes but
      induced the production of proinflammatory cytokines and increased the formation
      of lysosomes and autophagosome-like vesicles. These results lead us to conclude
      that d-LFcin17-30 primes macrophages for intracellular microbial digestion
      through phagosomal maturation and/or autophagy, culminating in mycobacterial
      killing. IMPORTANCE The genus Mycobacterium comprises several pathogenic species,
      including M. tuberculosis, M. leprae, M. avium, etc. Infections caused by these
      bacteria are particularly difficult to treat due to their intrinsic
      impermeability, low growth rate, and intracellular localization. Antimicrobial
      peptides are increasingly acknowledged as potential treatment tools, as they have
      a high spectrum of activity, low tendency to induce bacterial resistance, and
      immunomodulatory properties. In this study, we show that peptides derived from
      bovine lactoferricin (LFcin) improve the antimicrobial activity of ethambutol
      against Mycobacterium avium growing inside macrophages. Moreover, the d
      enantiomer of a short version of lactoferricin containing amino acids 17 to 30 (d
      LFcin17-30) causes intramacrophagic death of M. avium by increasing the formation
      of lysosomes and autophagosomes. This work opens the way to the use of
      lactoferricin-derived peptides to treat infections caused by mycobacteria and
      highlights important modulatory effects of d-FLcin17-30 on macrophages, which may
      be useful under other conditions in which macrophage activation is needed.

PMID- 28875177
TI  - The Potential Therapeutic Agent Mepacrine Protects Caco-2 Cells against
      Clostridium perfringens Enterotoxin Action.
AB  - Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) causes the diarrhea associated with a
      common bacterial food poisoning and many antibiotic-associated diarrhea cases.
      The severity of some CPE-mediated disease cases warrants the development of
      potential therapeutics. A previous study showed that the presence of mepacrine
      inhibited CPE-induced electrophysiology effects in artificial lipid bilayers
      lacking CPE receptors. However, that study did not assess whether mepacrine
      inactivates CPE or, instead, inhibits a step in CPE action. Furthermore, CPE
      action in host cells is complex, involving the toxin binding to receptors,
      receptor-bound CPE oligomerizing into a prepore on the membrane surface, and beta
      hairpins in the CPE prepore inserting into the membrane to form a pore that
      induces cell death. Therefore, the current study evaluated the ability of
      mepacrine to protect cells from CPE. This drug was found to reduce CPE-induced
      cytotoxicity in Caco-2 cells. This protection did not involve mepacrine
      inactivation of CPE, indicating that mepacrine affects one or more steps in CPE
      action. Western blotting then demonstrated that mepacrine decreases CPE pore
      levels in Caco-2 cells. This mepacrine-induced reduction in CPE pore levels did
      not involve CPE binding inhibition but rather an increase in CPE monomer
      dissociation due to mepacrine interactions with Caco-2 membranes. In addition,
      mepacrine was also shown to inhibit CPE pores when already present in Caco-2
      cells. These in vitro studies, which identified two mepacrine-sensitive steps in
      CPE-induced cytotoxicity, add support to further testing of the therapeutic
      potential of mepacrine against CPE-mediated disease. IMPORTANCEClostridium
      perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) causes the gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms of a
      common bacterial food poisoning and several nonfoodborne human GI diseases. A
      previous study showed that, via an undetermined mechanism, the presence of
      mepacrine blocks CPE-induced electrophysiologic activity in artificial membranes.
      The current study now demonstrates that mepacrine also inhibits CPE-induced
      cytotoxicity in human enterocyte-like Caco-2 cells and that mepacrine does not
      directly inactivate CPE. Instead, this drug reduces both CPE pore formation and
      CPE pore activity in Caco-2 cells. These results suggest mepacrine as a
      therapeutic candidate for treating CPE-mediated GI diseases.

PMID- 28875179
TI  - Ultrasound Diagnoses of an Iliac Artery Aneurysm during the Second Trimester of
      Preganancy.

PMID- 28875178
TI  - Genetic Validation of Leishmania donovani Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase Shows that It Is
      Indispensable for Parasite Growth and Infectivity.
AB  - Leishmania donovani is a protozoan parasite that causes visceral leishmaniasis.
      Increasing resistance and severe side effects of existing drugs have led to the
      need to identify new chemotherapeutic targets. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs)
      are ubiquitous and are required for protein synthesis. aaRSs are known drug
      targets for bacterial and fungal pathogens. Here, we have characterized and
      evaluated the essentiality of L. donovani lysyl-tRNA synthetase (LdLysRS). Two
      different coding sequences for lysyl-tRNA synthetases are annotated in the
      Leishmania genome database. LdLysRS-1 (LdBPK_150270.1), located on chromosome 15,
      is closer to apicomplexans and eukaryotes, whereas LdLysRS-2 (LdBPK_300130.1),
      present on chromosome 30, is closer to bacteria. In the present study, we have
      characterized LdLysRS-1. Recombinant LdLysRS-1 displayed aminoacylation activity,
      and the protein localized to the cytosol. The LdLysRS-1 heterozygous mutants had
      a restrictive growth phenotype and attenuated infectivity. LdLysRS-1 appears to
      be an essential gene, as a chromosomal knockout of LdLysRS-1 could be generated
      when the gene was provided on a rescuing plasmid. Cladosporin, a fungal secondary
      metabolite and a known inhibitor of LysRS, was more potent against promastigotes
      (50% inhibitory concentration [IC50], 4.19 uM) and intracellular amastigotes
      (IC50, 1.09 uM) than were isomers of cladosporin (3-epi-isocladosporin and
      isocladosporin). These compounds exhibited low toxicity to mammalian cells. The
      specificity of inhibition of parasite growth caused by these inhibitors was
      further assessed using LdLysRS-1 heterozygous mutant strains and rescue mutant
      promastigotes. These inhibitors inhibited the aminoacylation activity of
      recombinant LdLysRS. Our data provide a framework for the development of a new
      class of drugs against this parasite. IMPORTANCE Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are
      housekeeping enzymes essential for protein translation, providing charged tRNAs
      for the proper construction of peptide chains. These enzymes provide raw
      materials for protein translation and also ensure fidelity of translation. L.
      donovani is a protozoan parasite that causes visceral leishmaniasis. It is a
      continuously proliferating parasite that depends heavily on efficient protein
      translation. Lysyl-tRNA synthetase is one of the aaRSs which charges lysine to
      its cognate tRNA. Two different coding sequences for lysyl-tRNA synthetases
      (LdLysRS) are present in this parasite. LdLysRS-1 is closer to apicomplexans and
      eukaryotes, whereas LdLysRS-2 is closer to bacteria. Here, we have characterized
      LdLysRS-1 of L. donovani. LdLysRS-1 appears to be an essential gene, as the
      chromosomal null mutants did not survive. The heterozygous mutants showed slower
      growth kinetics and exhibited attenuated virulence. This study also provides a
      platform to explore LdLysRS-1 as a potential drug target.

PMID- 28875175
TI  - Importance of Resolving Fungal Nomenclature: the Case of Multiple Pathogenic
      Species in the Cryptococcus Genus.
AB  - Cryptococcosis is a major fungal disease caused by members of the Cryptococcus
      gattii and Cryptococcus neoformans species complexes. After more than 15 years of
      molecular genetic and phenotypic studies and much debate, a proposal for a
      taxonomic revision was made. The two varieties within C. neoformans were raised
      to species level, and the same was done for five genotypes within C. gattii. In a
      recent perspective (K. J. Kwon-Chung et al., mSphere 2:e00357-16, 2017,
      https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00357-16), it was argued that this taxonomic
      proposal was premature and without consensus in the community. Although the
      authors of the perspective recognized the existence of genetic diversity, they
      preferred the use of the informal nomenclature "C. neoformans species complex"
      and "C. gattii species complex." Here we highlight the advantage of recognizing
      these seven species, as ignoring these species will impede deciphering further
      biologically and clinically relevant differences between them, which may in turn
      delay future clinical advances.

PMID- 28875180
TI  - Lung Ultrasound for the Detection of Pneumothorax Might Be Misleading in Patients
      Following Lung Transplantation.

PMID- 28875181
TI  - Rational design of NIR-emitting iridium(iii) complexes for multimodal
      phosphorescence imaging of mitochondria under two-photon excitation.
AB  - A series of NIR-emitting iridium(iii) complexes were developed for multimodal
      phosphorescence imaging (NIR imaging, phosphorescence lifetime imaging and time
      gated imaging) of mitochondria in living cells, 3D multicellular spheroids
      (MTCCs) and hippocampus slice under two-photon excitation.

PMID- 28875182
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of Lewis base stabilized mono- and di-organo
      aluminum radicals.
AB  - Two cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbene (cAAC) stabilized mononuclear neutral radicals
      of aluminum have been synthesized. They contain an ethyl [(cAAC)2AlClEt (1)] and
      as well a diethyl group [(cAAC)2AlEt2 (2)], and have been prepared from the
      reduction of EtAlCl2 and Et2AlCl, respectively, with KC8. Compounds 1 and 2 are
      monoradicals, which were confirmed by EPR measurements to have the spin located
      on the carbene carbon of one of the cAAC ligands.

PMID- 28875183
TI  - ZORRO: zirconium oxide resonators for all-in-one Raman and whispering-gallery
      mode optical sensing.
AB  - We report the observation of whispering-gallery modes in 2 MUm-sized SiO2/ZrO2
      core/shell beads utilized as all-dielectric Raman enhancers. This allows us to
      achieve simultaneous optical and Raman ultrasensitive detection with a single
      spectral analysis. This opportunity opens exciting perspectives for the
      multimodal chemical sensing and fabrication of optical fiber devices.

PMID- 28875185
TI  - Highly selective tridentate fluorescent probes for visualizing intracellular Mg2+
      dynamics without interference from Ca2+ fluctuation.
AB  - We developed highly selective fluorescent Mg2+ probes based on a novel tridentate
      Mg2+-selective chelator. The superior selectivity for Mg2+ over Ca2+ enabled the
      detection of intracellular Mg2+ concentration changes without any response to
      Ca2+ influx. The new probes are potential keys to elucidating intracellular Mg2+
      dynamics under conditions of extremely sharp Ca2+ fluctuation.

PMID- 28875184
TI  - Applications of vibrational tags in biological imaging by Raman microscopy.
AB  - As a superb tool to visualize and study the spatial-temporal distribution of
      chemicals, Raman microscopy has made a big impact in many disciplines of science.
      While label-free imaging has been the prevailing strategy in Raman microscopy,
      recent development and applications of vibrational/Raman tags, particularly when
      coupled with stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, have generated intense
      excitement in biomedical imaging. SRS imaging of vibrational tags has enabled
      researchers to study a wide range of small biomolecules with high specificity,
      sensitivity and multiplex capability, at a single live cell level, tissue level
      or even in vivo. As reviewed in this article, this platform has facilitated
      imaging distribution and dynamics of small molecules such as glucose, lipids,
      amino acids, nucleic acids, and drugs that are otherwise difficult to monitor
      with other means. As both the vibrational tags and Raman instrumental development
      progress rapidly and synergistically, we anticipate that this technique will shed
      light onto an even broader spectrum of biomedical problems.

PMID- 28875186
TI  - New homoleptic bis(pyrrolylpyridiylimino) Mg(ii) and Zn(ii) complexes as
      catalysts for the ring opening polymerization of cyclic esters via an "activated
      monomer" mechanism.
AB  - The reaction of MgBu2 and ZnEt2 or Zn{N[Si(CH3)3]2}2 with a tridentate
      monoanionic pyrrolylpyridiylimino [N-,N,N] proligand gave homoleptic species, as
      exclusive products, in high yields. The complexes were characterized in solution
      by 1D and 2D NMR analysis and by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The new
      homoleptic complexes were tested as initiators in the polymerization of epsilon
      caprolactone and lactide in the presence of an exogenous alcohol. For both
      complexes, the polymerizations proceed via an "activated monomer" mechanism that,
      in the case of the magnesium complex, was correlated with the coordinative
      flexibility of the ligands, resulting in extremely high productivities under mild
      conditions.

PMID- 28875187
TI  - Volatile heterometallics: structural diversity of Pd-Pb beta-diketonates and
      correlation with thermal properties.
AB  - Volatile heterobimetallics based on Pb(ii) hexafluoroacetylacetonate as a host
      material and a range of Pd(ii) complexes containing both various donor atoms and
      terminal substituents in the beta-diketonate ligand have been studied to trace
      the influence of the nature of the initial monometallic complexes on the
      structure, composition and thermal properties of heterobimetallic compounds. The
      structural variety and stoichiometry of the heterobimetallic compounds are caused
      by various combinations of the competing donor-acceptor interactions between the
      constituting monometallic moieties. The major structure forming factor is the
      metallophilic interaction between Pd and Pb atoms resulting in polynuclear
      structures with a specific topology. The structural motif (discrete or polymeric)
      for the compounds significantly depends on the structure and composition of the
      initial monometallic complexes. The approach for explaining and predicting the
      thermal stability of these compounds is proposed by using their structural data
      and the results of quantum chemistry calculations.

PMID- 28875188
TI  - Alterations to metabolically active bacteria in the mucosa of the small intestine
      predict anti-obesity and anti-diabetic activities of grape seed extract in mice.
AB  - Epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that grapes and grape-derived
      products may reduce the risk for chronic disease. Grape seed extract specifically
      has been gaining interest due to its reported ability to prevent weight gain,
      moderate hyperglycemia, and reduce inflammation. The purpose of this study was to
      examine the long-term effects of two doses of grape seed extract (10 and 100 mg
      kg-1 body wt per d in mice) on markers of metabolic syndrome in the context of a
      moderately high-fat diet. After 12 weeks, the lower dose of grape seed extract
      was more effective at inhibiting fat gain and improving glucose tolerance and
      insulin sensitivity. Neither the high fat diet nor grape seed extract altered
      skeletal muscle substrate metabolism. Most interestingly, when examining the
      profile of metabolically active microbiota in the mucosa of the small intestine,
      cecum, and colonic tissue, grape seed extract seemed to have the most dramatic
      effect on small intestinal tissue, where the population of Firmicutes was lower
      compared to control groups. This effect was not observed in the cecal or colonic
      tissues, suggesting that the main alterations to gut microbiota due to flavan-3
      ol supplementation occur in the small intestine, which has not been reported
      previously. These findings suggest that grape seed extract can prevent early
      changes in glucose tolerance and alter small intestinal gut microbiota, prior to
      the onset of skeletal muscle metabolic derangements, when grape seed extract is
      consumed at a low dose in the context of a moderately high fat diet.

PMID- 28875189
TI  - Dibenzazepinyl ureas as dual NMR and CD probes of helical screw-sense preference
      in conformationally equilibrating dynamic foldamers.
AB  - Conformationally mobile oligomers with helical structures, or 'dynamic
      foldamers', may populate a mixture of screw-sense conformers whose relative
      proportion has been used as a means of communicating information on a molecular
      scale. The dibenzazepinyl urea provides a means of quantifying both the sense and
      degree of this screw-sense preference through a combination of circular dichroism
      (CD) and NMR spectroscopy. The dibenzazepinyl urea probe is synthetically
      versatile, readily accessible, and easy to introduce to the terminus of an amide
      or a urea foldamer.

PMID- 28875190
TI  - Metallic borophene polytypes as lightweight anode materials for non-lithium-ion
      batteries.
AB  - Applications of rechargeable non-lithium-ion batteries (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and
      Al3+ NLIBs) are significantly hampered by the deficiency of suitable electrode
      materials. Searching for anode materials with desirable electrochemical
      performance is urgent for the large-scale energy storage demands of next
      generation renewable energy technologies. In this study, three types of recently
      synthesized borophenes are predicted to serve as high-performing anodes for NLIBs
      based on density functional theory. All the borophenes considered here are
      metallic with favorable in-plane stiffness. Dirac fermions were identified in two
      types of borophenes, guaranteeing their high electron mobility. Moreover,
      borophene configuration-dependent metal-ion migration, theoretical capacities,
      and open-circuit voltages were demonstrated with respect to the different
      adsorption behaviors and atom mass densities of anode materials. Our results
      provide insights into the configuration-dependent electrode performance of
      borophene and the corresponding metal-ion storage mechanism.

PMID- 28875191
TI  - A single-round selection of selective DNA aptamers for mammalian cells by polymer
      enhanced capillary transient isotachophoresis.
AB  - A single-round DNA aptamer selection for mammalian cells was successfully
      achieved for the first time using a capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based
      methodology called polymer-enhanced capillary transient isotachophoresis (PectI).
      The PectI separation yielded a single peak for the human lung cancer cell line
      (PC-9) complexed with DNA aptamer candidates, which was effectively separated
      from a free randomized DNA library peak, ensuring no contamination from free DNA
      in the PC-9-DNA aptamer complex fraction. The DNA aptamer candidates obtained
      after a single-round selection employing counter selection with HL-60 were proven
      to bind selectively and form kinetically stable complexes with PC-9 cells.
      Interestingly, most aptamer candidates showed high binding ability (Kd = 70-350
      nM) with different extents of binding on the cell surface. These facts proved
      that a single-round selection for mammalian cells by PectI is feasible to obtain
      various types of aptamer candidates, which have high-affinity even for non
      overexpressed but unique targets on the cell surface in addition to overexpressed
      targets.

PMID- 28875192
TI  - Phase separation and physico-chemical processes at microscopic and macroscopic
      levels in MWCNT laden polymer blends using a unique droplet based architecture.
AB  - We propose a unique contact-free droplet based architecture in which thermally
      induced instabilities can be used to precisely alter the phase separation
      behavior in a dynamically asymmetric polymer blend (solution of PS/PVME in
      toluene) by controlling the external heating rates and concentration of added
      nanoparticles (multi-walled carbon nanotube particles, MWCNTs). In addition, by
      tuning the heating rates, distinctly different macroscopic morphologies (hollow
      shell or globular mass) can be obtained as a final structure in such droplets.
      Furthermore, the process of separation is temporally aggravated by several orders
      (about 3-5 orders) as compared to the traditional bulk processing techniques
      (thin film of blends). Faster production rate and high throughput promise a new
      spray-based architecture for producing phase separated structures. Addition of
      MWCNTs in the polymer blend delays the separation phenomenon as it interacts with
      the polymers and alters the stability criteria. Furthermore, addition of
      nanoparticles also introduces a different mode of instability at higher external
      heating rates. Heat accumulation due to particles causes boiling of the solvent
      (toluene) trapped inside the droplet which leads to subsequent explosion of the
      entire droplet, in addition to the phase separation phenomena (at the microscopic
      level). Volumetric expansion due to bubble growth leads to the formation of a
      unique hollow structure which is distinctly different from the globular mass
      obtained at lower heating rates.

PMID- 28875193
TI  - Exciton transport in pi-conjugated polymers with conjugation defects.
AB  - In pi-conjugated polymers for photovoltaic applications, intrinsic conjugation
      defects are known to play crucial roles in impacting exciton transport after
      photoexcitation. However, the understanding of the associated microscopic
      processes still remains limited. Here, we present a theoretical investigation of
      the effects of different conjugation defects on the dynamics of exciton transport
      in two linearly coupled poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) molecules. The model
      system is constructed by employing an extended version of the Su-Schrieffer
      Heeger model and the exciton behaviors are simulated by means of a quantum
      nonadiabatic dynamics. We identify two types of conjugation defects, i.e.,
      weakening conjugation and strengthening conjugation, which are demonstrated to
      play different roles in impacting the dynamics of exciton transport in the
      system. The weakening conjugation acts as an energy well inclined to trap a
      moving exciton, while the strengthening conjugation acts as an energy barrier
      inclined to block the exciton. We also systematically simulate both intrachain
      and interchain dynamics of exciton transport, and find that an exciton could
      experience a "short-time delaying", "trapping", "blocking", or "hopping" process,
      which is determined by the defect type, strength, and position. These findings
      provide a microscopic understanding of how the exciton transport dynamics can be
      impacted by conjugation defects in an actual polymer system.

PMID- 28875194
TI  - Correcting transmission losses in short-wave infrared spatially offset Raman
      spectroscopy measurements to enable reduced fluorescence through-barrier
      detection.
AB  - Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a proven technique for sub-surface
      detection. SORS is able to separate Raman signals from a container and its
      contents, thereby demonstrating application to through-barrier detection for
      defence and security. Whilst SORS has been demonstrated to reduce fluorescence
      from the barrier (or surface), fluorescence from the sample (or sub-surface) can
      still be problematic for some materials when using Raman excitation wavelengths
      typical in commercially available instrumentation (e.g. 785 nm). Previous work
      has demonstrated that short-wave infrared (SWIR) excited SORS (e.g. 1064 nm) can
      reduce fluorescence from the sample and barrier, thereby providing the potential
      to detect a wider range of materials through a wider range of barriers. In this
      paper we highlight an additional challenge for detection through some plastic
      container materials (e.g. high density polyethylene (HDPE) and other opaque
      plastics) that absorb and scatter both incident and Raman scattered photons in
      the SWIR band, leading to distortion of the resultant SORS spectrum. The
      existence of this effect and its impact is explored, along with a potential
      solution to overcome this challenge that uses multi-wavelength Raman excitation
      to avoid the detrimental HDPE absorption region.

PMID- 28875195
TI  - Dynamics of ethyl cellulose nanoparticle self-assembly at the interface of a
      nematic liquid crystal droplet.
AB  - Design and fabrication of many next-generation liquid crystal (LC)-based devices
      rely on nematic LC domains in the form of drops or emulsions. In addition to
      surfactants, solid nanoparticles may be used to stabilize LC-in-water Pickering
      emulsions, possibly adding new dimensions to device functionality. In this work
      we quantitatively study the adsorption of ethyl cellulose (EC) nanoparticles, as
      a colloid model system, on the 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB)-water interface
      via a series of dynamic interfacial tension measurements. It is found that the
      planar alignment of 5CB molecules at the interface with water is unaffected by
      particle adsorption, but a significant reduction of the interfacial tension over
      time occurs. It is also found that adsorption of EC nanoparticles to the LC-water
      interface is irreversible and results in close hexagonal packing. This study
      demonstrates a systematic approach to quantitatively investigate the effect of
      nanoparticles on the stabilization of LC emulsions.

PMID- 28875196
TI  - Preparation and antithrombotic activity identification of Perinereis aibuhitensis
      extract: a high temperature and wide pH range stable biological agent.
AB  - In this work, a thermal and wide pH range (from 1 to 13) stable biological agent
      was extracted from Perinereis aibuhitensis (P. aibuhitensis), and the
      antithrombotic activity of this P. aibuhitensis extract (PaE) was investigated.
      In vitro antithrombotic activity test indicated that PaE could significantly
      extend the clotting time of recalcified rabbit blood: the clotting time of the 10
      mg mL-1, 20 mg mL-1 and 40 mg mL-1 PaE groups increased by 24.24%, 68.64% and
      130.76%, respectively. Further platelet poor plasma (PPP) coagulation study
      proved that PaE could obviously inhibit the intrinsic coagulation pathway and
      slightly inhibit the extrinsic coagulation pathway. Moreover, PaE could
      effectively inhibit fibrinogen turning into fibrin induced by thrombin. More
      importantly, PaE exhibited thermal stability, since P. aibuhitensis was boiled in
      the PaE preparation process, as well as tolerance to strong acid and alkali,
      since its fibrinogen inhibition activity was retained after treatment with a wide
      range of pH value conditions. Finally, the antithrombotic activity ingredients in
      PaE were preliminarily identified, the results of which indicated that the
      ingredients were ethanol insoluble, insensitive to papain and pepsin, and could
      be degraded by H2O2. Additionally, we demonstrated that PaE at a concentration of
      not more than 20 mg mL-1, the concentration at which PaE showed high
      anticoagulant activity, exhibited favorable biocompatibility via in vitro
      hemolysis rate test and MTT assay. In summary, the results evidenced that this
      conveniently prepared and stable PaE was a safe and effective antithrombotic
      agent, and had the potential to be utilized for antithrombotic food development.

PMID- 28875197
TI  - Analysis of Warburg's impedance and its equivalent electric circuits.
AB  - The derivation of Warburg's impedance is revisited and critically analyzed. We
      show that the original derivation where the electric current is assumed to be due
      only to the diffusion of ions, as proposed by Warburg, raises some fundamental
      questions. The roles of the drift current, in the absence of which the
      equilibrium is never reached in the dc case, and of the displacement current,
      which is important even in the low frequency region where the Warburg's impedance
      appears, are discussed. Finally, the utility of models based on equivalent
      electric circuits, ladder networks, or transmission lines in the analysis of
      impedance spectroscopy data is investigated.

PMID- 28875198
TI  - The role of amino acid side chains in stabilizing dipeptides: the laser ablation
      Fourier transform microwave spectrum of Ac-Val-NH2.
AB  - The steric effects imposed by the isopropyl group of valine in the conformational
      stabilization of the capped dipeptide N-acetyl-l-valinamide (Ac-Val-NH2) have
      been studied by laser ablation molecular beam Fourier transform microwave (LA-MB
      FTMW) spectroscopy. The rotational and quadrupole coupling constants of the two
      14N nuclei determined in this work show that this dipeptide exists as a mixture
      of C7 and C5 conformers in the supersonic expansion. The conformers are
      stabilized by a C[double bond, length as m-dash]OH-N intramolecular hydrogen bond
      closing a seven- or a five-membered ring, respectively. The observation of both
      conformers is in good agreement with previous results on the related dipeptides
      containing different residues, confirming that the polarity/non-polarity of the
      side chains of the amino acid is responsible for the conformational
      locking/unlocking. The voluminous isopropyl group is not able to prevent the less
      stable C5 conformer from forming but it destabilizes the C[double bond, length as
      m-dash]OH-N interaction.

PMID- 28875199
TI  - Superlinear amplification of the first hyperpolarizability of linear aggregates
      of DANS molecules.
AB  - A bottom-up modelling strategy is adopted to discuss the linear and nonlinear
      optical spectra of a prototypical push-pull dye, 4-dimethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene
      (DANS), in different environments, from solutions to linear aggregates, fully
      accounting for the molecular polarity and polarizability. In particular, we
      demonstrate a large amplification of the first hyperpolarizability of linear
      aggregates with a superlinear dependence on the aggregate size. Results are
      discussed with reference to recent experiments for DANS molecules aligned inside
      single-wall carbon nanotubes, leading to a complete and internally consistent
      description of the observed spectral properties in terms of ~7 aligned molecules,
      reducing by an order of magnitude the size of the aggregate estimated in the
      hypothesis of linear amplification, as expected for non-interacting molecules.
      This has important implications for material design: it is possible to obtain a
      large amplification of the first hyperpolarizability by aligning just a few DANS
      molecules (or more generally, a few polar dyes showing normal solvatochromism)
      without the need to grow large ordered systems.

PMID- 28875200
TI  - Enhanced photocatalytic reduction activity of uranium(vi) from aqueous solution
      using the Fe2O3-graphene oxide nanocomposite.
AB  - Photocatalytic technologies are a potential solution for remediation of
      radioactive wastewater, including the reduction of radioactive hexavalent
      uranium, which is commonly found in wastewater from the nuclear industry. In this
      study, Fe2O3-graphene oxide composites were synthesized by an easy and scalable
      impregnation method as a catalyst for the reduction of U(vi). X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy analysis and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images
      of this composite clearly showed that the Fe2O3 nanoparticles exist in the
      layered structure of graphene oxide. The photocatalytic activity of the Fe2O3
      graphene oxide composite was evaluated by the reduction of U(vi) to U(iv) in
      aqueous solution under visible light. The results showed that the photocatalytic
      process of the Fe2O3-graphene oxide composite was always faster than that of the
      Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Moreover, the experimental kinetic data for the catalytic
      process followed a pseudo-first-order model. The stability of the Fe2O3-graphene
      oxide composites was studied over successive experiments, with the photocatalytic
      reduction efficiency of U(vi) decreasing to 76.0% after four cycles. Based on
      these experimental results, the enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability of
      Fe2O3-graphene oxide composites can be attributed to the improved adsorption
      properties of U(vi) at GO and the electron transfer from iron oxide to GO.

PMID- 28875201
TI  - Ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) oligopeptides regulate innate and adaptive immune
      responses in mice via increased macrophage phagocytosis capacity, NK cell
      activity and Th cells secretion.
AB  - Traditionally used as a restorative medicine, ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) has
      been the most widely used and acclaimed herb in Chinese communities for thousands
      of years. To investigate the immune-modulating activity of ginseng oligopeptides
      (GOP), 420 healthy female BALB/c mice were intragastrically administered
      distilled water (control), whey protein (0.15 g per kg body weight (BW)), and GOP
      0.0375, 0.075, 0.15, 0.3 and 0.6 g per kg BW for 30 days. Blood samples from mice
      were collected from the ophthalmic venous plexus and then sacrificed by cervical
      dislocation. Seven assays were conducted to determine the immunomodulatory
      effects of GOP on innate and adaptive immune responses, followed by flow
      cytometry to investigate spleen T lymphocyte sub-populations, multiplex sandwich
      immunoassays to investigate serum cytokine and immunoglobulin levels, and ELISA
      to investigate intestinally secreted immunoglobulin to study the mechanism of GOP
      affecting the immune system. Our results showed that GOP was able to enhance
      innate and adaptive immune responses in mice by improving cell-mediated and
      humoral immunity, macrophage phagocytosis capacity and NK cell activity. Notably,
      the use of GOP revealed a better immune-modulating activity compared to whey
      protein. We conclude that the immune-modulating activity might be due to the
      increased macrophage phagocytosis capacity and NK cell activity, and the
      enhancement of T and Th cells, as well as IL-2, IL-6 and IL-12 secretion and IgA,
      IgG1 and IgG2b production. These results indicate that GOP could be considered a
      good candidate that may improve immune functions if used as a dietary supplement,
      with a dosage that ranges from 0.3 to 0.6 g per kg BW.

PMID- 28875203
TI  - Gold-catalyzed domino cyclization-alkynylation reactions with EBX reagents: new
      insights into the reaction mechanism.
AB  - Gold-catalyzed domino processes constitute a useful alternative to C-H
      functionalization for the synthesis of functionalized (hetero)arenes. Herein, we
      report computational studies on the gold-catalyzed cyclization alkynylation of
      keto-allenes with ethynylbenziodoxole (EBX) reagents, which identified a gold(i)
      picolinate complex as the active catalyst, giving the first mechanistic insights
      into this transformation.

PMID- 28875202
TI  - Direct self-focusing synthesis of monodisperse [Au8(PPh3)7]2+ nanoclusters.
AB  - Direct and scalable synthesis of monodisperse gold nanoclusters is highly desired
      but remains a great challenge due to the complexity of chemical reactions. In
      this regard, a suitable precursor is important as it can simplify the synthesis
      processes and offer controllability in tuning the product. In this study, we
      found that Au(PPh3)2Cl could be used as an effective precursor for the direct
      synthesis of atomically monodisperse [Au8(PPh3)7]2+ nanoclusters without the need
      of tedious post-synthetic purification steps. The Au(PPh3)2Cl precursor could be
      directly reduced by NaBH4 (0.25 molar equivalent) in a dichloromethane solution;
      this produced Au8 clusters with a 35% reaction yield. Time-dependent mass
      spectrometry and in situ UV-vis absorption spectroscopy reveal that the synthesis
      process is initiated by the rapid formation of the Au6-Au8 mixture, followed by a
      slow spontaneous self-focusing process that converges the mixture into atomically
      monodisperse Au8. The success of this direct synthesis has been hypothesized to
      arise from the relatively stronger Au(i)Au(i) aurophilic attraction between Au(i)
      PPh3 complexes that facilitates the aggregation of Au(i)-PPh3 on Au(0) cores.

PMID- 28875204
TI  - A pentadentate nitrogen-rich copper electrocatalyst for water reduction with pH
      dependent molecular mechanisms.
AB  - The new pentadentate 3d9 complex [CuII(LN2Py3)](PF6)2 (1) based on a nitrogen
      rich framework acts as an electrocatalyst toward dihydrogen production from
      water. This species is active at pHs 7 and 2.5 yielding respective TON3h values
      of 1670 and 3900. Comparison of the molecular structure of 1 with that of the
      reduced [CuI(LN2Py3)]PF6 (2) evidences elongated Cu-N bond lengths resulting from
      an increased electron density around the 3d10 CuI center. The absence of
      nanoparticulate formation indicates that molecular mechanisms prevail at both
      pHs. Furthermore, experimental and DFT data support that distinct mechanisms are
      operative: while the metal center plays a key role at pH 7, one dangling pyridine
      moiety gets protonated at pH 2.5 and becomes actively involved in a relay
      mechanism. In both cases the CuIII-H- intermediate seems to be bypassed by PCET
      processes.

PMID- 28875205
TI  - New insights and perspectives into biological materials for flexible electronics.
AB  - Biological materials have robust hierarchical structures capable of specialized
      functions and the incorporation of natural biologically active components, which
      have been finely tuned through millions of years of evolution. These highly
      efficient architectural designs afford remarkable transport and mechanical
      properties, which render them attractive candidates for flexible electronic
      sensing technologies. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the
      fundamental aspects and applications of biological materials for flexible
      electronic devices and discusses various classes of biological materials by
      describing their unique structures and functions. We discuss the effect of the
      biological activity of biological materials on the improved properties in detail,
      because this effect overcomes the limited bioavailability and restricted
      morphology of materials generally encountered in traditional flexible electronic
      devices. We also summarize various approaches for the design and
      functionalization of natural materials and their applications in flexible
      electronic devices for use in biomedical, electron, energy, environmental and
      optical fields. Finally, we provide new insights and perspectives to further
      describe trends for future generations of biological materials, which are likely
      to be critical components (building blocks or elements) in future flexible
      electronics.

PMID- 28875206
TI  - Embedding heteroatoms: an effective approach to create porphyrin-based functional
      materials.
AB  - Incorporation of planarized heteroatom(s) onto the porphyrin periphery is an
      effective approach to create porphyrin-based functional materials. In the last
      three decades, such an "embedding heteroatom" strategy has been actively explored
      in order to realize attractive electronic, optical, and electrochemical
      properties. This review aims to cover a variety of synthetic methodologies that
      have been developed for the construction of heteroatom-embedded porphyrins.
      Moreover, we also summarize their structure-property relationships as well as
      possible applications in various research fields including artificial
      photosynthesis, molecular engineering, organic electronics, and bioimaging.

PMID- 28875207
TI  - Single-molecule conductance of DNA gated and ungated by DNA-binding molecules.
AB  - The single-molecule conductance of DNA was found to increase by over four fold
      upon intercalation, while the conductance nearly unaltered upon groove-binding.
      These effects are interpreted on the basis of the electronic interaction of the
      DNA-binding molecules with the stacked DNA bases.

PMID- 28875208
TI  - A one-pot multicomponent approach to a new series of morphine derivatives and
      their biological evaluation.
AB  - A novel and facile domino reaction has been developed to synthesize a variety of
      new derivatives from hydromorphone, amines and paraformaldehyde in good yields in
      a catalyst-free fashion with high atom efficiency. The products show a mixed
      MOR/DOR biological characteristic which makes them valuable for further study as
      opioid analgesics.

PMID- 28875209
TI  - Transition metal mediated carbonylative benzannulations.
AB  - In carbonylative benzannulations, feedstock carbon monoxide is converted to a
      benzene ring, which is one of the most fundamentally important and common rings
      in natural products and pharmaceutical compounds. Carbon monoxide, however, is
      rather inert in the absence of transition metals. Historically, carbonylative
      benzannulations have been mediated by stoichiometric chromium and iron in the
      form of Fischer carbenes. Recently, a number of transition metal-catalyzed
      carbonylative benzannulations have been developed, and almost all of them involve
      rhodium catalysts. This review will briefly discuss the mechanism and
      applications of carbonylative benzannulations involving Fischer carbenes and
      compare them with the more recent transition metal-catalyzed processes, including
      [3 + 2 + 1] cycloadditions, [5 + 1] cycloadditions, and other less common
      cycloadditions.

PMID- 28875210
TI  - Tetra-functional double-decker silsesquioxanes as anchors for reactive functional
      groups and potential synthons for hybrid materials.
AB  - A series of double-decker silsesquioxane derivatives with four reactive
      functional groups were designed, efficiently synthesized, and characterized.
      These novel inorganic-organic hybrids show highly attractive features for
      applications as building blocks with Si-O-Si rigid cores (good thermal
      properties) with four reactive moieties, which can be functionalized in further
      processes.

PMID- 28875211
TI  - Recent advances in transition-metal-catalyzed reactions of alkynes with
      isoxazoles.
AB  - Isoxazoles, as masked 1,3-dicarbonyl equivalents, have proven to be versatile
      building blocks and pivotal intermediates for the construction of a variety of
      useful azacycles with molecular complexity. As a result, a range of new reactions
      have been discovered based on isoxazoles in the past decade. However, the
      relevant reactions of isoxazoles with alkynes have seldom been explored. In this
      review, we will focus on the recent progress in the transition-metal-catalyzed
      formal annulations for the efficient synthesis of N-heterocycles between alkynes
      and isoxazoles by highlighting their specificity and applicability, and the
      mechanistic rationale is presented where possible.

PMID- 28875212
TI  - A 2.5D approach to the mechanics of electrospun fibre mats.
AB  - In this paper, a discrete random network modelling approach specific to
      electrospun networks is presented. Owing to the manufacturing process, fibres in
      these materials systems have an enormous length, as compared to their diameters,
      and form sparse networks since fibre contact over thickness is limited to a
      narrow range. Representative volume elements are generated, in which fibres span
      the entire domain, and a technique is developed to apply computationally
      favourable periodic boundary conditions despite the initial non-periodicity of
      the networks. To capture sparsity, a physically motivated method is proposed to
      distinguish true fibre cross-links, in which mechanical interaction takes place,
      from mere fibre intersections. The model is exclusively informed by
      experimentally accessible parameters, demonstrates excellent agreement with the
      mechanical response of electrospun fibre mats, captures typical microscopic
      deformation patterns, and provides information on the kinematics of fibres and
      pores. This ability to address relevant mechanisms of deformation at both micro-
      and macroscopic length scales, together with the moderate computational cost,
      render the proposed modelling approach a highly qualified tool for the computer
      based design and optimization of electrospun networks.

PMID- 28875213
TI  - Mass spectrometry based identification of galectin-3 interacting proteins
      potentially involved in lung melanoma metastasis.
AB  - Adhesive interactions between molecules on tumor cells and those on target organs
      play a key role in organ specific metastasis. Poly-N-acetyl-lactosamine
      (polyLacNAc) substituted N-oligosaccharides on melanoma cell surface
      glycoproteins promote lung specific metastasis via galectin-3 by facilitating
      their arrest and extravasation. This study reports the identification and
      characterization of galectin-3 interacting proteins using a combination of
      galectin-3 sepharose affinity and leucoagglutinating phytohemagglutinin (L-PHA)
      columns. A total of 83 proteins were identified as galectin-3 interacting
      glycoproteins, of which 35 were constituents of the L-PHA bound fraction,
      suggesting that these proteins carry polyLacNAc substituted beta1,6 branched N
      glycans. The identities of some of these proteins, like LAMP-1, LAMP-3, basigin,
      embigin, and alpha5 and beta1 Integrin, have been confirmed by western blotting,
      and functional relevance with respect to metastatic properties has been
      established.

PMID- 28875214
TI  - Diterpenoids of terrestrial origin.
AB  - Covering: January to December, 2016 previous review Nat. Prod. Rep., 2016, 33,
      1227-1238This review covers the isolation and chemistry of diterpenoids from
      terrestrial as opposed to marine sources and includes labdanes, clerodanes,
      abietanes, pimaranes, kauranes, cembrenes and their cyclization products. There
      are 205 references.

PMID- 28875215
TI  - Stereodivergent Mannich reaction of bis(trimethylsilyl)ketene acetals with N-tert
      butanesulfinyl imines by Lewis acid or Lewis base activation, a one-pot protocol
      to obtain chiral beta-amino acids.
AB  - We report a one-pot synthesis of chiral beta2,2,3-amino acids by the Mannich
      addition of bistrimethylsilyl ketene acetals to N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines
      followed by the removal of the chiral auxiliary. The synthesis and isolation of
      pure beta-amino acid hydrochlorides were conducted under mild conditions, without
      strong bases and this method is operationally simple. The stereoselective
      reaction was promoted by two different activation methods that lead to different
      stereoisomers: (1) Lewis Acid (LA) catalysis with boron trifluoride diethyl
      etherate and (2) Lewis Base (LB) catalysis with tetrabutylammonium
      difluorotriphenylsilicate. The reaction presented good diastereoselectivity with
      LB activation and moderate to good dr with LA catalysis. The exceptions in both
      protocols were imines with electron donating groups in the aromatic ring.

PMID- 28875216
TI  - A crystalline AlPO4-5 intermediate: designed synthesis, structure, and phase
      transformation.
AB  - AlPO4-5 is the most extensively studied material in exploring the crystallization
      mechanism of aluminophosphate molecular sieves, and it can be synthesized using 4
      dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) as an organic structure-directing agent (OSDA).
      Achieving the AlPO4-5 intermediate in the crystalline form would be of great
      importance and significance for this purpose. In this study, we proposed a
      concept that by carefully regulating the synthesis conditions, crystalline
      alumimophosphate intermediates could be rationally prepared. A crystalline AlPO4
      5 intermediate, (C7H11N2)2(H3O)(Al3P4O16).(H2O)2.5 (1), was, therefore,
      synthesized by significantly increasing the amounts of orthophosphoric acid and
      DMAP. The intermediate 1 consists of alternating organic DMAP and inorganic
      [Al3P4O16]3- layers with abundant hydrogen bonds and can transform to the AlPO4-5
      framework upon heating in air or through a steam-assisted conversion (SAC)
      method. To unravel the role of DMAP in the transformation, pure AlPO4-5 (2) was
      also synthesized by altering the synthesis conditions. The supramolecular
      assembly templating (SAT) effects of DMAP in 1 and 2 were verified via
      fluorescence spectra. Thus, the pi-pi stacking interactions between the DMAP
      molecules and the abundant hydrogen bonds between the adjacent layers are
      considered to be important for the phase transformation of 1. This crystalline
      intermediate would promote the understanding of the crystallization mechanism in
      the system of aluminophosphate molecular sieves.

PMID- 28875217
TI  - Tandem radical cyclization to construct poly-brominated 2-oxindoles.
AB  - Catalytic amounts of TBHP (15 mol%) promoted tribromomethylation of activated
      alkenes has been developed. This method provided a metal-free aerobic way to
      construct tribromomethylated 2-oxindoles from the reaction of readily available N
      arylacrylamides with CBr4via a proposed tandem radical cyclization process. Air
      is used as an efficient terminal oxidant in this transformation. The formation of
      1,1-dibromoolefin derivatives was also realized at higher temperature under neat
      conditions.

PMID- 28875218
TI  - Synthesis, characterisation and in vitro cytotoxicity of mixed ligand Pt(ii)
      oxadiazoline complexes with hexamethylenetetramine and 7-nitro-1,3,5
      triazaadamantane.
AB  - trans-Platinum(ii) oxadiazoline complexes with 7-nitro-1,3,5-triazaadamantane
      (NO2-TAA) or hexamethylenetetramine (hmta) ligands have been synthesised from
      trans-[PtCl2(PhCN)2] via cycloaddition of nitrones to one of the coordinated
      nitriles, followed by exchange of the other nitrile by NO2-TAA or hmta.
      Stoichiometric control allows for the selective synthesis of mono- and dinuclear
      complexes where 7-NO2TAA and hmta act as mono- and bidentate ligands,
      respectively. Precursors and the target complexes trans
      [PtCl2(hmta)(oxadiazoline)], trans-[PtCl2(NO2-TAA)(oxadiazoline)] and trans
      [{PtCl2(oxadiazoline)}2(hmta)] were characterised by elemental analysis, IR and
      multinuclear (1H, 13C, 195Pt) NMR spectroscopy. DFT (B3LYP/6-31G*/LANL08) and AIM
      calculations suggest a stronger bonding of hmta with the [PtCl2(oxadiazoline)]
      fragment, in agreement with the experimentally observed reactivity in the ligand
      exchange (hmta > 7-NO2TAA). Replacement of the nitrile by hmta is predicted to be
      more exothermic than that with 7-NO2-TAA, although the activation barriers are
      similar. Protonation of the non-coordinated N atoms is anticipated to weaken the
      Pt-N bond and lower the activation barrier for ligand exchange. This effect might
      help activate these compounds in a slightly acidic environment such as some
      tumour tissues. Ten of the new compounds were tested for their in vitro
      cytotoxicity in the human cancer cell lines HeLa and A549. Some of the
      mononuclear complexes are more potent than cisplatin, and their activity is still
      high in A549 where cisplatin shows little effect. The dinuclear complexes are
      inactive, presumably due to their lipophilicity and reduced solubility in water.

PMID- 28875219
TI  - Reproducible fiber optofluidic laser for disposable and array applications.
AB  - Disposable sensors are widely used in biomedical detection due to their inherent
      safety, ease of use and low cost. An optofluidic laser is a sensitive bioassay
      platform; however, demonstrating its fabrication cheaply and reproducibly enough
      for disposable use has been challenging. Here, we report a low-cost, reproducible
      fiber optofluidic laser (FOFL) using a microstructured optical fiber (MOF). The
      MOF not only supports the whispering gallery modes for lasing but also serves as
      a microfluidic channel for sampling the liquid gain medium via capillary force.
      Because of the precise control of its geometry (delta < 0.4%) during the fiber
      drawing process, good reproducibility in laser intensity (delta = 6.5%) was
      demonstrated by changing 10 sections of the MOF. The strong coupling between the
      in-fiber resonator and gain medium enables a low threshold of 3.2 MUJ mm-2. The
      angular dependence of the laser emission was observed experimentally and analyzed
      with numerical simulations. An array of the FOFLs was also demonstrated. This
      technology has great potential for low-cost bioassay applications.

PMID- 28875220
TI  - Nut consumption in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a meta
      analysis 18 prospective studies.
AB  - Several previous meta-analyses show a consistent inverse association between nut
      consumption and all-cause mortality, but the associations with cause-specific
      mortality remain uncertain. A recent meta-analysis on nut consumption and
      multiple health outcomes combined incidence and mortality outcomes across most of
      the analyses, which may have introduced heterogeneity across studies. We
      conducted an updated meta-analysis to evaluate the nut-mortality association. We
      searched PubMed and EMBASE and we contacted authors for additional data. The
      final analyses included 18 prospective studies. The random-effects summary RRs
      for high compared with low nut consumption were 0.81 (95% CI: 0.78-0.84) for all
      cause mortality (18 studies with 81 034 deaths), 0.75 (95% CI: 0.71-0.79) for CVD
      mortality (17 studies with 20 381 deaths), 0.73 (95% CI: 0.67-0.80) for CHD
      mortality (14 studies with 10 438 deaths), 0.82 (95% CI: 0.73-0.91) for stroke
      mortality (13 studies with 4850 deaths) and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.80-0.93) for cancer
      mortality (11 studies 21 353 deaths). These results were broadly consistent
      within subgroups according to various study and population characteristics and
      within sensitivity analyses that took into account potential confounders. Peanut
      (5 studies) and tree nut (3 studies) consumption were similarly associated with
      mortality risks. Dose-response analyses suggested evidence for nonlinear
      associations between nut consumption and mortality (P-nonlinearity <0.001 for all
      outcomes except cancer mortality), with mortality risk levelling off at the
      consumption of about 3 servings per week (12 g d-1). Our findings suggest that
      nut consumption is associated with reduced all-cause and cause-specific
      mortality, with the strongest reduction for CHD mortality. Both tree nuts and
      peanuts may lower mortality and most of the survival benefits may be achieved at
      a relative low level of nut consumption.

PMID- 28875221
TI  - Cardiac tamponade by colon.

PMID- 28875223
TI  - Circulating adipokines are associated with pre-eclampsia in women with type 1
      diabetes.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The incidence of pre-eclampsia, a multisystem disorder of
      pregnancy, is fourfold higher in type 1 diabetic than non-diabetic women; it is
      also increased in women with features of the metabolic syndrome and insulin
      resistance. In a prospective study of pregnant women with type 1 diabetes, we
      measured plasma levels of adipokines known to be associated with insulin
      resistance: leptin, fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), adiponectin (total and
      high molecular weight [HMW]; also known as high molecular mass), retinol binding
      protein 4 (RBP4) and resistin and evaluated associations with the subsequent
      development of pre-eclampsia. METHODS: From an established prospective cohort of
      pregnant type 1 diabetic women, we studied 23 who developed pre-eclampsia and 24
      who remained normotensive; for reference values we included 19 healthy non
      diabetic normotensive pregnant women. Plasma adipokines were measured (by ELISA)
      in stored samples from three study visits (Visit 1- Visit 3) at different
      gestational ages (mean +/- SD): Visit 1, 12.4 +/- 1.8 weeks; Visit 2, 21.7 +/-
      1.4 weeks; and Visit 3, 31.4 +/- 1.5 weeks. All the women were free of
      microalbuminuria and hypertension at enrolment. All study visits preceded the
      clinical onset of pre-eclampsia. RESULTS: In all groups, leptin, the ratio of
      leptin to total or HMW adiponectin, FABP4 concentration, ratio of FABP4 to total
      or HMW adiponectin and resistin level increased, while total and HMW adiponectin
      decreased, with gestational age. At Visit 1: (1) in diabetic women with vs
      without subsequent pre-eclampsia, leptin, ratio of leptin to total or HMW
      adiponectin, and ratio of FABP4 to total or HMW adiponectin, were increased (p <
      0.05), while total adiponectin was decreased (p < 0.05); and (2) in normotensive
      diabetic vs non-diabetic women, total adiponectin was elevated (p < 0.05). At
      Visits 2 and 3: (1) the primary findings in the two diabetic groups persisted,
      and FABP4 also increased in women with subsequent pre-eclampsia (p < 0.05); and
      (2) there were no differences between the two normotensive groups. By logistic
      regression analyses after covariate adjustment (HbA1c, insulin kg-1 day-1 and
      gestational age), the best predictive models for pre-eclampsia were as follows:
      Visit 1, doubling of leptin, OR 9.0 (p < 0.01); Visit 2, doubling of the
      leptin:total adiponectin ratio, OR 3.7 (p < 0.05); and Visit 3, doubling of FABP4
      concentration, OR 25.1 (p < 0.01). The associations were independent of BMI.
      CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: As early as the first trimester in type 1 diabetic
      women, adipokine profiles that suggest insulin resistance are associated with
      subsequent pre-eclampsia, possibly reflecting maternal characteristics that
      precede pregnancy. These associations persist in the second and third trimesters,
      and are independent of BMI. Insulin resistance may predispose women with type 1
      diabetes to pre-eclampsia.

PMID- 28875224
TI  - The influence of fibromyalgia on achieving remission in patients with long
      standing rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - To investigate the influence of fibromyalgia (FM) on achieving remission defined
      on the basis of the Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) remission criteria
      in patients with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This observational
      longitudinal cohort consisted of long-standing RA patients being treated with
      conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) or
      biological DMARDs (bDMARDs). After 6 months of follow-up, the patients fulfilling
      or not fulfilling the remission criteria were identified and compared with each
      other in terms of the presence of FM, neuropathic pain, and other comorbidities.
      At the end of the 6-month observation period, 24 of the 117 patients (20.4%) met
      the SDAI remission criteria. Logistic regression analysis showed that the
      modified Rheumatic Disease Comorbidity Index (mRDCI) (p = 0.0001), the FM
      presence (p = 0.0001), and the 36-item short-form health survey Mental Component
      Summary (SF-36 MCS) Score (p = 0.0088) were the strongest predictors of not being
      in SDAI remission. None of the patients with concomitant FM (17.1%) achieved SDAI
      remission. In comparison with the non-FM patients, the patients with RA and FM
      patients had worse scores on the SF-36 MCS (p = 0.011), on the sleep Visual
      Analogue Scale (VAS) (p = 0.018), on the self-counts of tender joints (p =
      0.039), and on the PainDetect Questionnaire (PDQ) (p = 0.001). To avoid over
      treatment, an assessment of FM should be considered in RA patients who do not
      fulfil the remission criteria.

PMID- 28875225
TI  - Methodological quality evaluation of systematic reviews or meta-analyses on ERCC1
      in non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSES: To assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews (SRs) or
      meta-analysis concerning the predictive value of ERCC1 in platinum chemotherapy
      of non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: We searched the PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane
      library, international prospective register of systematic reviews, Chinese
      BioMedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wan Fang
      and VIP database for SRs or meta-analysis. The methodological quality of included
      literatures was evaluated by risk of bias in systematic review (ROBIS) scale.
      RESULTS: Nineteen eligible SRs/meta-analysis were included. The most frequently
      searched databases were EMbase (74%), PubMed, Medline and CNKI. Fifteen SRs did
      additional retrieval manually, but none of them retrieved the registration
      platform. 47% described the two-reviewers model in the screening for eligible
      original articles, and seven SRs described the two reviewers to extract data. In
      methodological quality assessment, inter-rater reliability Kappa was 0.87 between
      two reviewers. Research question were well related to all SRs in phase 1 and the
      eligibility criteria was suitable for each SR, and rated as 'low' risk bias. But
      the 'high' risk bias existed in all the SRs regarding methods used to identify
      and/or select studies, and data collection and study appraisal. More than two
      third of SRs or meta-analysis were finished with high risk of bias in the
      synthesis, findings and the final phase. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrated poor
      methodological quality of SRs/meta-analysis assessing the predictive value of
      ERCC1 in chemotherapy among the NSCLC patients, especially the high performance
      bias. Registration or publishing the protocol is recommended in future research.

PMID- 28875226
TI  - [Treatment of degenerative meniscal lesions : From eminence to evidence-based
      medicine].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment of degenerative meniscal lesions has received increased
      attention since the publication of several Level 1 studies over the last few
      years. The following review of literature including the consensus statement given
      by ESSKA reports on the management of patients with degenerative meniscal
      lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The analysis includes the literature of Level 1 to
      4 studies and the statement of the consensus group of ESSKA concerning the
      surgical or conservative management of these patients. RESULTS: Meniscal lesions
      cause progression in osteoarthritis. Patients presenting a combination of
      degenerative meniscal lesion and osteoarthritis show inferior clinical outcome.
      The average clinical outcome after surgical treatment was 70 points based on the
      Lysholm score. Level 1 studies show no difference in clinical outcome. However,
      over 30% of these patients require arthroscopy at the second stage after an
      interval of 3 to 6 months. Patients presenting a flap tear or complaining about
      mechanical symptoms show poor outcome after conservative treatment. DISCUSSION:
      Level 1 studies have focused on very selected patients. These patients do not
      represent the daily practice of orthopaedic surgeons. The findings of the level 1
      studies should, therefore, not be generalized. According to the consensus
      statement of ESSKA, the treatment of degenerative meniscal lesions should start
      with conservative management. In the case of persistent symptoms, surgery should
      be considered after 3 months. In the case of mechanical symptoms, arthroscopy
      might be indicated earlier. Arthroscopy in advanced osteoarthritic knees is not
      indicated due to inferior clinical outcome.

PMID- 28875227
TI  - "That is why I have trust": unpacking what 'trust' means to participants in
      international genetic research in Pakistan and Denmark.
AB  - Trust features prominently in a number of policy documents that have been issued
      in recent years to facilitate data sharing and international collaboration in
      medical research. However, it often remains unclear what is meant by 'trust'. By
      exploring a concrete international collaboration between Denmark and Pakistan, we
      develop a way of unpacking trust that shifts focus from what trust 'is' to what
      people invest in relationships and what references to trust do for them in these
      relationships. Based on interviews in both Pakistan and Denmark with people who
      provide blood samples and health data for the same laboratory, we find that when
      participants discuss trust they are trying to shape their relationship to
      researchers while simultaneously communicating important hopes, fears and
      expectations. The types of trust people talk about are never unconditional, but
      involve awareness of uncertainties and risks. There are different things at stake
      for people in different contexts, and therefore it is not the same to trust
      researchers in Pakistan as it is in Denmark, even when participants donate to the
      same laboratory. We conclude that casual references to 'trust' in policy
      documents risk glossing over important local differences and contribute to a de
      politicization of basic inequalities in access to healthcare.

PMID- 28875229
TI  - Scaling to the Organism: An Innovative Model of Dynamic Exposure Hotspots in
      Stream Systems.
AB  - In flowing systems, fluctuations in the frequency, magnitude, and duration of
      exposure occurs due to turbulence and geomorphology, causing spatial and temporal
      variations in chemical exposure at the scale of the organism. Spatial models
      representing toxicant distribution at the appropriate scales of stream organisms
      are noticeably missing from the literature. To characterize the fine scale
      distribution of pollutants in freshwater streams at the scale of a benthic
      organism, nine artificial stream habitats were created (riffle, pool, run, bend,
      woody debris) with either sand or gravel substrate. Dopamine was released as a
      chemical tracer, mimicking a groundwater source, and measurements were recorded
      with a microelectrode and Epsilon electrochemical recording system. Proxies for
      the frequency, magnitude, and duration of chemical exposure were extracted.
      Geographic information systems and an inverse distance weight interpolation
      technique were used to predict spatially the chemical distribution throughout the
      habitats. Spatial and temporal variations of exposure were exhibited within and
      across habitats, indicating that the frequency, magnitude, and duration of
      exposure is influenced by the organism's location within a habitat and the
      habitat it resides in. The run and pool with sand substrate contained the
      greatest frequency, magnitude, and duration of exposure, suggesting a more
      detrimental exposure compared to other habitats. Differences in peak heights
      within and across habitats are orders of magnitude in value. Spatial and temporal
      fluctuations of fine scale exposure need to be considered in both ecotoxicology
      and water quality modeling to represent and understand the exposure of pollutants
      impacting benthic organisms.

PMID- 28875228
TI  - Myocardial deformation assessed by longitudinal strain: Chamber specific
      normative data for CMR-feature tracking from the German competence network for
      congenital heart defects.
AB  - PURPOSE: Left ventricular two-dimensional global longitudinal strain (LS) is
      superior to ejection fraction (EF) as predictor of outcome. We provide reference
      data for atrial and ventricular global LS during childhood and adolescence by CMR
      feature tracking (FT). METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 115 healthy subjects
      (56 male, mean age 12.4 +/- 4.1 years) at a single institution. CMR consisted of
      standard two-dimensional steady-state free-precession acquisitions. CMR-FT was
      performed on ventricular horizontal long-axis images for derivation of right and
      left atrial (RA, LA) and right and left ventricular (RV, LV) peak global LS. End
      diastolic volumes (EDVs) and EF were measured. Correlations were explored for LS
      with age, EDV and EF of each chamber. RESULTS: Mean+/-SD of LS (%) for RA, RV, LA
      and LV were 26.56+/-10.2, -17.96+/-5.4, 26.45+/-10.6 and -17.47+/-5,
      respectively. There was a positive correlation of LS in LA, LV, RA and RV with
      corresponding EF (all P<0.05); correlations with age were weak. Gender-wise
      differences were not significant for atrial and ventricular LS, strain rate and
      displacement. Inter- and intra-observer comparisons showed moderate agreements.
      CONCLUSIONS: Chamber-specific nomograms for paediatric atrial and ventricular LS
      are provided to serve as clinical reference, and to facilitate CMR-based
      deformation research. KEY POINTS: * No normative data exist for CMR-derived
      global longitudinal strain in the young. * This prospective study provides
      reference data for atrial and ventricular longitudinal strain. * The data will
      serve as reference for CMR-based clinical and research use.

PMID- 28875230
TI  - B-Flow Sonography for Evaluation of Basal Cerebral Arteries in Newborns.
AB  - The aim of the study was to evaluate the B-flow sonography (BFS) to image the
      basal cerebral arteries in newborn infants. For this purpose 34 newborns, who
      underwent standardized ultrasound of the brain including BFS, color Doppler (CDS)
      and power Doppler (PDS) techniques were retrospectively assessed. Delineation of
      the anterior communicating (Acom), the posterior communicating (Pcom), the middle
      cerebral (M1 and M2 segments), the anterior cerebral (A1 and A2 segments), and
      the posterior cerebral artery (P1 and P2 segments) were visually scored. Vessel
      delineation was better with BFS compared with CDS and PDS for the M2 segment (p =
      0.0006 and p = 0.0136) and P2 segment (p = 0.0021 and p = 0.0014). Superior
      detectability was also noted for the Pcom with BFS compared with PDS (p =
      0.0062). For all other vessel segments no significant differences were found. In
      conclusion BFS is feasible to image the basal cerebral arteries in newborns with
      an equal or better vessel delineation compared with standard vascular ultrasound
      methods.

PMID- 28875232
TI  - Spatiotemporal variations of the start of thermal growing season for grassland on
      the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during 1961-2014.
AB  - The start of thermal growing season (STGS) is an important indicator for climate
      change effects on regional plant growth and development. This study
      comprehensively investigated and compared the spatiotemporal variations in STGS
      at 0  degrees C (STGS_0), 5  degrees C (STGS_5), and 10  degrees C (STGS_10)
      thresholds for grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) during 1961-2014.
      Although elevation was the predominant influencing factor of the spatial
      variations of STGSs, the effect of latitude should not be ignored at the low
      elevation regions, especially for the STGS with a low-temperature threshold
      (e.g., STGS_0). With the decrease of temperature thresholds, the effect of
      elevation became weaker, while the effect of latitude became stronger.
      Significant advancing trends were observed in all the three STGSs, with greater
      advancing rate for STGS_0 (0.23 days.year-1) than that of STGS_5 (0.15 days.year
      1) and STGS_10 (0.16 days.year-1). More obvious advancing trends were found after
      1980, which coincided with more rapid climate warming. The advancing trends
      weakened after 1998 when climate warming hiatus occurred. Since positive and
      negative impacts may be simultaneously induced by the advanced STGSs, more
      observations are still needed to analyze their impacts on the growth and
      development of alpine grassland on the QTP.

PMID- 28875231
TI  - Cativic acid-caffeic acid hybrid exerts cytotoxic effects and induces apoptotic
      death in human neuroblastoma cells.
AB  - The development of hybrids from natural products is a promising strategy for drug
      discovery. In cancer therapy, there is a need to discover novel agents that can
      induce apoptosis in cancer cells. To contribute to this field of interest, we
      investigated the effect of a synthetic hybrid from cativic acid and caffeic acid
      (5) on viability, proliferation, and apoptosis in human neuroblastoma cells (IMR
      32). Three hybrids were prepared via Mitsunobu esterification from 17
      hydroxycativic acid (1) and natural phenols. Cell viability was analyzed by MTT
      assay. SYTOX green and LDH leakage were used to determine the cytotoxic effect.
      Caspase-3 activity, cell cycle phases, and proliferation were analyzed in order
      to characterize the biological effects of hybrid 5. The mitogen-activated protein
      kinase (MAPK) status was evaluated for elucidating the potential mechanisms
      involved in hybrid 5 effect. Hybrid 5 reduced the viability of IMR-32 cells in a
      time- and concentration-dependent manner (IC50 = 18.0 +/- 1.3 MUM) as a result of
      its antiproliferative effect through changes in the cell cycle distribution and
      induction of apoptosis associated with activation of caspase-3. Exposure to 5
      triggered ERK1/2 activation and nuclear translocation. Hybrid 5 also promoted an
      increase in nuclear localization of the transcription factor c-Jun. Inhibition of
      ERK1/2 and JNK potentiated 5-induced inhibition of IMR-32 viability. Hybrid 5
      displays cell growth inhibition by promoting cell cycle arrest and apoptosis,
      through ERK1/2 and JNK participation.

PMID- 28875233
TI  - Glutamate-Dependent Translational Control of Glutamine Synthetase in Bergmann
      Glia Cells.
AB  - Glutamate is the major excitatory transmitter of the vertebrate brain. It exerts
      its actions through the activation of specific plasma membrane receptors
      expressed both in neurons and in glial cells. Recent evidence has shown that
      glutamate uptake systems, particularly enriched in glia cells, trigger
      biochemical cascades in a similar fashion as receptors. A tight regulation of
      glutamate extracellular levels prevents neuronal overstimulation and cell death,
      and it is critically involved in glutamate turnover. Glial glutamate transporters
      are responsible of the majority of the brain glutamate uptake activity. Once
      internalized, this excitatory amino acid is rapidly metabolized to glutamine via
      the astrocyte-enriched enzyme glutamine synthetase. A coupling between glutamate
      uptake and glutamine synthesis and release has been commonly known as the
      glutamate/glutamine shuttle. Taking advantage of the established model of
      cultured Bergmann glia cells, in this contribution, we explored the gene
      expression regulation of glutamine synthetase. A time- and dose-dependent
      regulation of glutamine synthetase protein and activity levels was found.
      Moreover, glutamate exposure resulted in the transient shift of glutamine
      synthetase mRNA from the monosomal to the polysomal fraction. These results
      demonstrate a novel mode of glutamate-dependent glutamine synthetase regulation
      and strengthen the notion of an exquisite glia neuronal interaction in
      glutamatergic synapses.

PMID- 28875234
TI  - In obesity even young women suffer from urogynecological symptoms.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the occurrence of urogynecological symptoms in obese women
      treated in a university outpatient clinic for obesity, setting a focus on younger
      women. METHODS: In this explorative, prospective, cross-sectional, single-center,
      multidisciplinary clinical trial, all consecutively recruited women received the
      Prolapse Quality of Life questionnaire (P-QOL) for data acquisition. The total
      study population (TSP) and a subgroup (SG) aged 18-49 years were evaluated
      descriptively regarding symptom demonstration. RESULTS: Of the TSP (n = 166, mean
      age 40.2, standard deviation (SD) 12.98, mean body mass index (BMI) 45 kg/m2, SD
      8.44) 105 (63%) and of the SG (n = 125, mean age 34.6, SD 9.29, mean BMI 44.9
      kg/m2, SD 8.26) 72 (58%) women suffered from urinary incontinence (UI) being most
      impaired by stress urinary incontinence (SUI; TSP: 25%; SG: 27%) and least by
      urge urinary incontinence (UUI; TSP: 15%; SG: 11%). A significant correlation in
      the TSP between UI and age was detectable (p < 0.001, r phi = 0.37), but not
      between UI and BMI (p = 0.296, r phi = 0.08). The highest QOL impairment is
      detected for the domain general health perceptions [GHP; TSP & SG score >50
      (score scale 0-100)]. Women with UI are significantly more affected than women
      with pelvic organ prolapse (GHP UI: TSP p = 0.04, SG p = 0.037; GHP POP: TSP p =
      0.081, SG p = 0.659). CONCLUSIONS: A remarkable number of young obese women
      mentioned urogynecological symptoms and quality-of-life impairment. The P-QOL
      questionnaire proved to be an easily applicable tool to scan for concerned obese
      women. Its use in non-urogynecological departments, as performed, enables an
      early introduction of symptomatic women to urogynecologists, possibly preventing
      future growing urogynecological health issues.

PMID- 28875235
TI  - Incidence of bullous pemphigoid in Sweden 2005-2012: a nationwide population
      based cohort study of 3761 patients.
AB  - Studies that report the incidence of bullous pemphigoid from validated nationwide
      population-based registries are rare. The aim of this study was to estimate the
      incidence of bullous pemphigoid in Sweden 2005-2012. A population-based open
      cohort study was designed including all patients diagnosed by a dermatologist
      with bullous pemphigoid (BP) in Sweden from 2005 to 2012 (n = 3761), identified
      from the National Patient Register (NPR). The diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid in
      the NPR was recently validated from medical records, histopathological and
      immunopathological data by our group in a previous study. The average annual
      incidence of bullous pemphigoid was 7.1/100,000 (95% CI 6.5-7.7). Female to male
      ratio was 1.2:1, mean age at diagnosis was 78.9 years. The age-specific incidence
      rate increased markedly after 80 years of age with an incidence peak between 90
      and 99 years of age, 81.9/100,000 (95% CI 75.0-89.2). This large nationwide
      cohort study presents an adjusted incidence of BP of 7.1/100,000 (95% CI 6.5-7.7)
      in Sweden. The incidence of bullous pemphigoid is higher than expected and
      bullous pemphigoid is a common disease in the elderly population.

PMID- 28875236
TI  - Bisphosphonate drug holidays in postmenopausal osteoporosis: effect on clinical
      fracture risk.
AB  - : A cohort of 183 postmenopausal women, who had either discontinued or continued
      bisphosphonates (BPs) after first-line therapy, was used to investigate the
      relationships between "drug holiday" and clinical fracture. The risk of new
      clinical fractures was found to be 40% higher in women who had taken a BP "drug
      holiday." INTRODUCTION: BPs are the most widely used treatment for postmenopausal
      osteoporosis. The optimal treatment duration, however, remains unclear. The
      purpose of this study was to evaluate the fracture risk in postmenopausal women
      with osteoporosis after discontinuing BP treatment (BP "drug holiday"). METHODS:
      A retrospective analysis was performed at Lille University Hospital (LUH) on
      postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who had taken a "drug holiday" or
      continued treatment after first-line BP therapy (3 to 5 years). The occurrence of
      new clinical fractures during follow-up was also explored. Cox proportional
      hazards models were used to investigate the relationships between BP "drug
      holiday" and the occurrence of clinical fractures, while controlling for
      confounding factors. Survival without new clinical fractures was analyzed using
      Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. RESULTS: One hundred eighty-three women
      (mean age: 61.8 years; SD: 8.7) who had previously undergone BP treatment for 3
      to 5 years were enrolled in our study. The patients had received alendronate (n =
      81), risedronate (n = 73), zoledronic acid (n = 20), and ibandronate (n = 9). In
      166 patients ("drug holiday" group: n = 31; continuous-treatment group: n = 135),
      follow-up ranged from 6 to 36 months (mean duration: 31.8 months; SD: 8.2). The
      incidences of new clinical fractures during follow-up were 16.1% (5/31) and 11.9%
      (16/135). After full adjustment, the hazard ratio of new clinical fractures among
      "drug holiday" patients was 1.40 (95% CI: 1.12-1.60; p = 0.0095). CONCLUSIONS:
      After first-line BP therapy in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, the risk
      of new clinical fractures was 40% higher in subjects who took a bisphosphonate
      drug holiday.

PMID- 28875239
TI  - Spatial variance of POPs and heavy metals in transformer oil-contaminated soil
      around Tamil Nadu.
AB  - The persistent organic pollutants in the environment are one of the global issues
      to their unregulated disposal and informal recycling. This study investigates the
      contamination of soil with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic
      hydrocarbons (PAHs), phenolic compounds and heavy metals via spillage of
      transformer oil (TO). Fresh TO (FTO), used TO (UTO) and soil samples were
      analysed using GC-MS to confirm the presence of 8 PCB congeners, 16 PAHs and 24
      types of phenolic compounds and using inductively coupled plasma optical emission
      spectrometry to confirm the presence of 7 heavy metals. The chromatographic
      analysis revealed the levels of mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta-
      and octachlorobiphenyls in FTO to be 5.63, 25.24, 0.195, 0.185, 2.169, 1.023 and
      5.28 mg/L and the level of mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta- and
      hexachlorobiphenyls in UTO to be 0.27, 1.21, 1.31, 0.80, 1.77 and 3.90 mg/L.
      Analysis of soil from 10 different TO-contaminated sites showed the presence of
      PCBs, PAHs, phenolic compounds and heavy metals in the concentration range of
      0.53-42.87 mg/kg, 3.19-246.6 MUg/kg, 0.01-4086.45 MUg/kg and 1.0-401.3 mg/kg,
      respectively. The variation in the concentration of these compounds and heavy
      metals among different sampling sites was determined using principal component
      analysis (PCA), metric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) and Bray-Curtis cluster
      analysis (Bu-CA). The toxicity equivalence factor and the mechanism involved in
      the disruption of endocrine system are discussed. Thus, this study exemplifies
      the need for complete ban of PCB-containing TOs in developing countries and urges
      the need for technology for the disposal of TO.

PMID- 28875237
TI  - Uncoupling Protein 2 Inhibition Exacerbates Glucose Fluctuation-Mediated Neuronal
      Effects.
AB  - Though glucose fluctuations have been considered as an adverse factor for the
      development of several diabetes-related complications, their impact in the
      central nervous system is still not fully elucidated. This study was conducted to
      evaluate the responses of neuronal cells to different glycemic exposures
      alongside to elucidate the role of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in regulating such
      responses. To achieve our goals, primary cortical neurons were submitted to
      constant high (HG)/low (LG) or glucose level variations (GVs), and the
      pharmacological inhibition of UCP2 activity was performed using genipin. Results
      obtained show that GV decreased neuronal cells' viability, mitochondrial membrane
      potential, and manganese superoxide dismutase activity and increased reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) production. GV also caused an increase in the
      glutathione/glutathione disulfide ratio and in the protein expression levels of
      nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (NRF2), UCP2, NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase
      chain 1 (ND1), and mitochondrially encoded cytochrome c oxidase I (MTCO1), both
      mitochondrial DNA encoded subunits of the electron transport chain. Contrariwise,
      genipin abrogated all those compensations and increased the levels of caspase 3
      like activity, potentiated mitochondrial ROS levels, and the loss of neuronal
      synaptic integrity, decreased the protein expression levels of NRF1, and
      increased the protein expression levels of UCP5. Further, in the control and LG
      conditions, genipin increased mitochondrial ROS and the protein expression levels
      of UCP4, postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95), ND1, and MTCO1. Overall, these
      observations suggest that UCP2 is in the core of neuronal cell protection and/or
      adaptation against GV-mediated effects and that other isoforms of neuronal UCPs
      can be upregulated to compensate the inhibition of UCP2 activity.

PMID- 28875241
TI  - Primary Formation Path of Formaldehyde in Hydrothermal Vents.
AB  - Formaldehyde is abundant in the universe and one of the fundamental molecules for
      life. Hydrothermal vents produce a substantial amount of hydrogen molecules by
      serpentinization and promote reductive reactions of single carbon compounds. The
      abundance of formaldehyde is expected to be low due to the high Gibbs free energy
      in hydrothermal vents. We consider two competing formation pathways of
      formaldehyde: (1) the reduction of CO by H2 and (2) the reduction of HCOOH by H2
      to form a methanediol, followed by the dehydration of the methanediol. We
      performed a number of quantum chemical simulations to examine the formation of
      formaldehyde in the gas phase as well as in aqueous solution. The energy barrier
      is significantly reduced by the catalytic effect of water molecules in aqueous
      solution and becomes lowest when a water cluster consisted of 5 water molecules
      catalyzes the reduction. The energy barrier to form a methanediol by the
      reduction of HCOOH is lower by 17.5 kcal/mol than that to form a formaldehyde by
      the reduction of CO. Considering the low energy barrier to dehydrate methanediol,
      the primary pathway to form formaldehyde in hydrothermal vents is concluded to be
      the reduction of HCOOH by H2, followed by the dehydration of methanediol.

PMID- 28875240
TI  - Potential predictive factors for microvascular invasion in hepatocellular
      carcinoma classified within the Milan criteria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microvascular invasion (mvi) is an important risk factor for
      recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), even after curative liver resection or
      orthotopic liver transplantation. However, mvi is difficult to detect
      preoperatively. The aim of this study was to clarify the risk factors of
      postoperative recurrence and investigate predictive factors of mvi before
      hepatectomy for HCC classified within the Milan criteria. METHODS: One hundred
      fifty-nine patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) classified within the
      Milan criteria, who underwent hepatectomy, were enrolled in this study. We
      investigated the risk factors of recurrence. In addition, we divided them into
      two groups: mvi-negative group and mvi-positive group, based on pathological
      findings after surgery. We compared the clinicopathological factors between the
      two groups and determined the risk factors for mvi. RESULTS: Overall survival
      rate at 1, 3, and 5 years were 91.6%, 80.5%, and 74.9%, and the recurrence-free
      survival rate at 1, 3, and 5-years were 72.3%, 51.6%, and 37.2%. Risk factor
      analysis for tumor recurrence revealed that total bilirubin, albumin, ICGR15, AFP
      L3, tumor number, mvi, and tumor stage had a significant predictive value.
      Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor number and mvi were significant
      independent risk factors for tumor recurrence. Predictive analysis for risk
      factors of mvi revealed that multiple tumors and AFP-L3 > 10% were significant
      independent risk factors for mvi in HCC classified within the Milan criteria.
      CONCLUSIONS: The mvi was one of the independent risk factors for tumor recurrence
      in HCC classified within the Milan criteria. Multiple tumors and high AFP-L3
      value were independent predictive factors for mvi.

PMID- 28875242
TI  - Preoperative Needs-Based Education to Reduce Anxiety, Increase Satisfaction, and
      Decrease Time Spent in Day Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Too much or too little information during patient education can
      increase patient anxiety. Needs-based patient education helps to determine the
      appropriate amount of information required to provide education based on patient
      needs. This study aimed to compare needs-based patient education with traditional
      patient education in reducing preoperative anxiety. METHODS: This was a
      prospective, multicenter, single-blind, randomized controlled trial with a 1:1
      allocation ratio. Patients undergoing day surgery were randomized into a study
      group (needs-based education) or a control group (traditional education). The
      primary outcome was patient anxiety. Secondary outcomes were patient satisfaction
      and time spent in patient education. Patients completed questionnaires to
      evaluate their anxiety and satisfaction before patient education, after patient
      education, and after surgery. RESULTS: In total, 450 patients were randomized and
      analyzed (study group n = 225, control group n = 225). Comparisons before
      education, after education, and after surgery showed that there was a significant
      decrease in patient anxiety and an increase in satisfaction in both groups (p <
      0.001). The comparison between needs-based education and traditional education
      showed a greater decrease in anxiety (7.09 +/- 7.02 vs. 5.33 +/- 7.70, p = 0.001)
      and greater increase in satisfaction (21.1 +/- 16.0 vs. 16.0 +/- 21.6, p < 0.001)
      in the needs-based group. The needs-based group also had significantly less
      education time than the traditional group (171.8 +/- 87.59 vs. 236.32 +/- 101.27
      s, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Needs-based patient education is more effective in
      decreasing anxiety, increasing patient satisfaction, and reducing time spent in
      education compared with traditional patient education. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT03003091.

PMID- 28875243
TI  - Outcome after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in estrogen receptor-positive and
      progesterone receptor-negative breast cancer patients: a pooled analysis of
      individual patient data from ten prospectively randomized controlled neoadjuvant
      trials.
AB  - PURPOSE: The estrogen receptor (ER) is involved in control of progesterone
      receptor (PgR) expression and lack of PgR may be also a surrogate of altered
      growth factor signaling. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate PgR
      expression as predictive factor for response to neoadjuvant therapy and long-term
      outcome. METHODS: Five thousand and six hundred and thirteen patients with
      primary breast cancer and positive ER expression from ten German neoadjuvant
      trials of anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy were included. Pathologic
      complete response (pCR), disease-free survival (DFS), distant disease-free
      survival (DDFS), overall survival (OS), and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS)
      were compared according to PgR expression. RESULTS: The lack of PgR expression
      (1172 patients) was associated with grade 3 (38.4 vs. 26.3%; p < 0.001), nodal
      involvement (>cN2) (6.8% vs. 4.7%; p = 0.004), and HER2 positivity (36.2 vs.
      22.3%; p < 0.001). pCR rates of PgR-negative tumors were higher in the entire
      cohort (13.8 vs. 7.5%; p < 0.001) and in the HER2-negative subgroup (11.2 vs.
      5.8%; p < 0.001). In multivariable logistic regression, PgR negativity was an
      independent predictive factor for pCR overall (OR 1.76; p < 0.001) and in the
      HER2-negative patients (OR 1.99; p < 0.001). Patients with PgR-negative disease
      had significantly worse outcome (p < 0.001, respectively). Multivariable Cox
      regression analysis revealed that PgR was an independent prognostic factor for
      DFS, OS, DDFS, and LRFS. CONCLUSION: ER-positive/PgR-negative breast carcinomas
      are associated with higher response but also worse long-term outcome after
      neoadjuvant therapy. PgR negativity is an independent predictive factor for pCR
      after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer.

PMID- 28875244
TI  - Improving Fab' fragment retention in an autonucleolytic Escherichia coli strain
      by swapping periplasmic nuclease translocation signal from OmpA to DsbA.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To reduce unwanted Fab' leakage from an autonucleolytic Escherichia
      coli strain, which co-expresses OmpA-signalled Staphylococcal nuclease and Fab'
      fragment in the periplasm, by substituting in Serratial nuclease and the DsbA
      periplasm translocation signal as alternatives. RESULTS: We attempted to
      genetically fuse a nuclease from Serratia marcescens to the OmpA signal peptide
      but plasmid construction failed, possibly due to toxicity of the resultant
      nuclease. Combining Serratial nuclease to the DsbA signal peptide was successful.
      The strain co-expressing this nuclease and periplasmic Fab' grew in complex media
      and exhibited nuclease activity detectable by DNAse agar plate but its growth in
      defined medium was retarded. Fab' coexpression with Staphylococcal nuclease fused
      to the DsbA signal peptide resulted in cells exhibiting nuclease activity and
      growth in defined medium. In cultivation to high cell density in a 5 l
      bioreactor, DsbA-fused Staphylococcal nuclease co-expression coincided with
      reduced Fab' leakage relative to the original autonucleolytic Fab' strain with
      OmpA-fused staphylococcal nuclease. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully rescued Fab'
      leakage back to acceptable levels and established a basis for future
      investigation of the linkage between periplasmic nuclease expression and leakage
      of co-expressed periplasmic Fab' fragment to the surrounding growth media.

PMID- 28875245
TI  - The relation of somatotypes and stress response to central serous
      chorioretinopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate a possible relationship between central serous
      chorioretinopathy (CSC) and specific body types and compositions (somatotypes),
      and to examine the cortisol stress response among CSC patients of different
      somatotypes in comparison with healthy subjects. METHODS: Prospective case
      control study. A group of 28 patients with a previous or current diagnosis of CSC
      was compared with a group of 26 healthy subjects. Anthropometric measurements
      were used to estimate somatotype ratings in all subjects. Serum cortisol was
      measured at rest and following a stress-inducing computerized test in order to
      estimate response to stress in both groups. The main outcome measures included
      somatotype categorization and the change in serum cortisol following stress in
      both groups. RESULTS: No significant difference in somatotype composition was
      found between the groups. There was no statistically significant difference
      between the groups in the elevation of cortisol following the stress-inducing
      test. The sample size was too small to exclude or find any significant difference
      between the different 13 subgroups of somatotype composition in the elevation of
      cortisol. CONCLUSIONS: Our study did not show a typical somatotype related to
      CSC. While previous studies showed higher cortisol values in CSC patients, we did
      not see a higher elevation in blood cortisol following a stress response in this
      group in comparison with healthy subjects.

PMID- 28875246
TI  - Elevated serum 14-3-3eta protein may be helpful for diagnosis of early rheumatoid
      arthritis associated with secondary osteoporosis in Chinese population.
AB  - Osteoporosis (OP) is one of the signs of bone damage in rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA). The 14-3-3eta protein is an inflammatory protein, which has been reported
      to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This is to determine the serum
      levels of 14-3-3eta protein, evaluate its diagnostic value in early RA, and clear
      out its significance in RA with secondary osteoporosis. Two hundred fifty-nine RA
      patients and 80 age and sex-matched healthy controls were included. Assays of
      serum 14-3-3eta protein were done for all participants by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) was used to
      measure bone mineral density (BMD). Serum 14-3-3eta protein level was
      significantly high in RA (2.49/4.72), compared with controls (P < 0.0001).
      Positive rate of 14-3-3eta protein in RA was 97.3%, which was higher than that in
      controls (chi 2 = 276.641, P < 0.0001). Serum 14-3-3eta protein level in early RA
      was significantly higher than that in established RA (3.91/4.82 vs 2.01/3.29, Z =
      2.624, P < 0.05). The positive rate among three groups (normal control, early RA
      group, established RA group) differed from each other (chi 2 = 131.396, P <
      0.0001). Results of ROC curve indicated the cutoff point of 14-3-3eta protein for
      diagnosis of early RA was 0.879 ng/ml (P < 0.0001). Linear correlation analysis
      found that serum 14-3-3eta protein positively correlated with VAS and HAQ (P <
      0.0001), negatively correlated with BMD at lumbar spine and femur in RA (P <
      0.0001). Serum 14-3-3eta protein among groups of bone mass normal (2.73/3.79),
      osteopenia (3.15/4.86), and osteoporosis (6.34/6.42) was different in early RA
      patients (chi 2 = 7.974, P < 0.05). Serum 14-3-3eta protein levels increase
      significantly in patients with RA (especially in early RA). There are close
      relationships between serum 14-3-3eta protein and clinical symptoms and
      osteoporosis in patients with RA.

PMID- 28875247
TI  - "It Was Supposed To Be a Onetime Thing": Experiences of Romantic and Sexual
      Relationship Typologies Among Young Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex
      with Men.
AB  - Young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are at elevated
      risk for HIV infection, highlighting the need to understand the elements of
      prevention and risk associated with their relationships. We employed a
      phenomenological approach to explore how young MSM become involved in different
      romantic and sexual experiences. We analyzed 28 semi-structured interviews
      conducted with young MSM living in Michigan. Using a phenomenological approach,
      we analyzed the data using an inductive coding strategy and thematic analysis.
      Participants defined their romantic and sexual interactions with a limited set of
      partner classifications (e.g., dating, hooking up, friends-with-benefits), but
      recognized how these classifications were shifting, sometimes unexpectedly so
      (e.g., a date turning into a hook up and vice versa). Young MSM described
      relationships in transition that at times defied available typologies or
      hybridized elements of multiple partner types at once. Based on our analyses, we
      underscore the need to acknowledge the fluctuating and contextual nature of young
      MSM's romantic and sexual experiences. We discuss the relevance of our findings
      in terms of the developmental period of young adulthood and the implications our
      findings have HIV prevention efforts among young MSM.

PMID- 28875248
TI  - Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with breast cancer: a reply
      to Maratia et al.

PMID- 28875249
TI  - From the 7th Joint Italian-German Purine Club Meeting to European Purine Club
      Meetings.

PMID- 28875250
TI  - Effect of iris registration on outcomes of FEMTOLASIK for myopia and myopic
      astigmatism.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the visual and refractive outcomes after FEMTOLASIK with and
      without iris registration. METHODS: In this randomized, prospective, comparative,
      contralateral eye study, 118 eyes of 59 patients with myopia and myopic
      astigmatism underwent LASIK using the Femto LDV femtosecond laser (160 um) and
      the MEL80 with or without iris registration. For each patient, iris registration
      FEMTOLASIK was performed on one eye and non-iris registration FEMTOLASIK was
      performed on the other eye, assigned at random. Patients were evaluated before
      and 12 months. Uncorrected visual acuity, best-corrected visual acuity, manifest
      refraction, contrast sensitivity, and higher-order aberrations (HOAs) were
      evaluated. RESULTS: At 12 months, the mean UDVA was 0.002 +/- 0.07 logMAR (20/19)
      in iris registration eyes and 0.00 +/- 0.06 logMAR (20/24) in non-iris
      registration eyes (P = 0.9). 61% of iris registration eyes and 71.2% of non-iris
      registration eyes achieved a UDVA of 20/20 or better (P = 0.31); 98.3% of eyes
      with the iris registration FEMTOLASIK and 94.9% with the non-iris registration
      FEMTOLASIK were within +/-0.50 D from emmetropia (P = 0.71). No statistically
      significant difference was found in postoperative contrast sensitivity between
      groups at 3, 6, 12, or 18 cycles/degree (P > 0.05). There was significant
      increase in total HOA root mean square in two groups. The mean error magnitude of
      surgically induced astigmatism 12 months postoperatively was -0.33 in iris
      registration eyes and -0.24 in the non-iris registration eyes (P = 0.36).
      CONCLUSIONS: FEMTOLASIK with and without iris registration provides similar
      results in myopic and myopic astigmatism patients.

PMID- 28875251
TI  - The effect of substrate/inoculum ratio on the kinetics of methane production in
      swine wastewater anaerobic digestion.
AB  - Methane production from swine wastewater was evaluated by using sewage sludge as
      inoculum in three substrate to inoculum ratios (SIRs) named A (1:1), B (3:1) and
      C (6:1), with the objective to identify the proportion that optimizes the
      performance of the process. Duplicated batch bioreactors of 1 L capacity under
      mesophilic conditions were used to carry out the experiment. The highest biogas
      yield was observed in A treatment (554 +/- 75 mL/g volatile solid (VS)).
      Cumulative methane production decreased from 382 +/- 22 to 232 +/- 5 mL/g VS when
      SIR increased from 1:1 to 6:1. The first-order model and the modified Gompertz
      equation were used to model the experimental cumulative methane yield giving
      adjustments with coefficients of determination of 96 and 99% respectively. The
      effect of the SIR was analysed based on the kinetic parameters of the Gompertz
      equation, which are methane production potential, maximum methane production rate
      and lag-phase time. The best performance in terms of the kinetic parameters was
      obtained for treatment A; however, treatment B could still ensure a stable
      process. The use of higher inoculum concentration generated 463.1% higher methane
      production rate and required 77.3% shorter adaptation time (lag phase) in the SIR
      range studied. When higher SIR was used (e.g. 14:1, previous work), it could be
      observed that the Gompertz equation also adjusted adequately the experimental
      data (R 2 > 0.99) although the lag-phase time did not remain in a linear
      relationship with SIR but exponentially above SIR = 6:1. These results
      demonstrated that when a low amount of inoculum was used, the adaptation time of
      microorganisms resulted much higher than expected delaying the methane production
      and extending the time needed to achieve adequate performance of the process.

PMID- 28875253
TI  - Health Related Quality of Life in Children and Caregivers with Controlled versus
      Uncontrolled Asthma.

PMID- 28875252
TI  - Childhood Trauma and Two Stages of Alcohol Use in African American and European
      American Women: Findings from a Female Twin Sample.
AB  - The current investigation assessed for moderating effects of childhood trauma on
      genetic and environmental contributions to timing of alcohol use initiation and
      alcohol use disorder in African American (AA) and European American (EA) women.
      Data were drawn from diagnostic telephone interviews conducted with 3786
      participants (14.6% AA) in a longitudinal female twin study. Childhood trauma was
      defined alternately as child maltreatment and more broadly to include other
      events (e.g., witnessing violence). Phenotypic associations between childhood
      trauma and alcohol outcomes were estimated using logistic regression analyses.
      Twin modeling was conducted to test for moderating effects of childhood trauma on
      the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to timing of initiation
      and alcohol use disorder. Under both definitions, childhood trauma was associated
      with early initiation (relative risk ratios: 1.90, 1.72) and alcohol use disorder
      (odds ratios: 1.92, 1.76). Yet gene by environment effects were observed only for
      child maltreatment and timing of initiation in EA women, with heritable
      influences less prominent in those who had experienced child maltreatment (0.35,
      95% CI: 0.05-0.66 vs. 0.52, 95% CI: 0.30-0.73). We found more similarities than
      differences in the association of childhood trauma with alcohol outcomes across
      racial/ethnic groups, trauma type, and stages of alcohol use. However, findings
      suggest that the relative contribution of genetic factors to alcohol outcomes
      differs by childhood maltreatment history in EA women specifically in the
      earliest stage of alcohol use.

PMID- 28875254
TI  - Medical Education Then and Now.

PMID- 28875255
TI  - ERCP or NO ERCP: the case report of a frail patient.

PMID- 28875256
TI  - Response to the Letter to the Editor Regarding "Assessment of Local Adverse
      Reactions to Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin (SCIG) in Clinical Trials".

PMID- 28875257
TI  - Non-participation in systematic screening for osteoporosis-the ROSE trial.
AB  - : Population-based screening for osteoporosis is still controversial and has not
      been implemented. Non-participation in systematic screening was evaluated in
      34,229 women age 65-81 years. Although participation rate was high, non
      participation was associated with comorbidity, aging other risk factors for
      fractures, and markers of low social status, e.g., low income, pension, and
      living alone. A range of strategies is needed to increase participation,
      including development of targeted information and further research to better
      understand the barriers and enablers in screening for osteoporosis. INTRODUCTION:
      Participation is crucial to the success of a screening program. The objective of
      this study was to analyze non-participation in Risk-stratified Osteoporosis
      Strategy Evaluation, a two-step population-based screening program for
      osteoporosis. METHODS: Thirty-four thousand two hundred twenty-nine women aged 65
      to 81 years were randomly selected from the background population and randomized
      to either a screening group (intervention) or a control group. All women received
      a self-administered questionnaire designed to allow calculation of future risk of
      fracture based on FRAX. In the intervention group, women with an estimated high
      risk of future fracture were invited to DXA scanning. Information on individual
      socioeconomic status and comorbidity was obtained from national registers.
      RESULTS: A completed questionnaire was returned by 20,905 (61%) women. Non
      completion was associated with older age, living alone, lower education, lower
      income, and higher comorbidity. In the intervention group, ticking "not
      interested in DXA" in the questionnaire was associated with older age, living
      alone, and low self-perceived fracture risk. Women with previous fracture or
      history of parental hip fracture were more likely to accept screening by DXA.
      Dropping out when offered DXA, was associated with older age, current smoking,
      higher alcohol consumption, and physical impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to
      population-based screening for osteoporosis appear to be both psychosocial and
      physical in nature. Women who decline are older, have lower self-perceived
      fracture risk, and more often live alone compared to women who accept the
      program. Dropping out after primary acceptance is associated not only with aging
      and physical impairment but also with current smoking and alcohol consumption.
      Measures to increase program participation could include targeted information and
      reducing physical barriers for attending screening procedures.

PMID- 28875258
TI  - Molecular analysis of oxalate-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress mediated
      apoptosis in the pathogenesis of kidney stone disease.
AB  - Oxalate, a non-essential end product of metabolism, causes hyperoxaluria and
      eventually calcium oxalate (CaOx) stone disease. Kidney cells exposed to oxalate
      stress results in generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and progression of
      stone formation. Perturbations in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) result in
      accumulation of misfolded proteins and Ca2+ ions homeostasis imbalance and serve
      as a common pathway for various diseases, including kidney disorders. ER stress
      induces up-regulation of pro-survival protein glucose-regulated protein 78
      (GRP78) and pro-apoptotic signaling protein C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP).
      Since the association of oxalate toxicity and ER stress on renal cell damage is
      uncertain, the present study is an attempt to elucidate the interaction of GRP78
      with oxalate by computational analysis and study the role of ER stress in oxalate
      mediated apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. Molecular docking results showed that
      GRP78-oxalate/CaOx interaction takes place. Oxalate stress significantly up
      regulated expression of ER stress markers GRP78 and CHOP both in vitro and in
      vivo. Exposure of oxalate increased ROS generation and altered antioxidant enzyme
      activities. N-Acetyl cysteine treatment significantly ameliorated oxalate
      mediated oxidative stress and moderately attenuated ER stress marker expression.
      The result indicates oxalate toxicity initiated oxidative stress-induced ER
      stress and also activating ER stress mediated apoptosis directly. In addition,
      the up-regulation of transforming growth factor beta-1 revealed oxalate may
      induce kidney fibrosis through ER stress-mediated mechanisms. The present study
      provide insights into the pathogenic role of oxidative and ER stress by oxalate
      exposure in the formation of calcium oxalate stone.

PMID- 28875259
TI  - The impact of obesity on 30-day complications in pediatric surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the effects of obesity on specialty-specific surgical
      outcomes in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective cohort study using the
      National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, Pediatric, 2012-2014. Patients
      included those aged 2-17 years who underwent a surgical procedure in one of six
      specialties. Obesity was the primary patient variable of interest. Outcomes of
      interest were postoperative complications and operative times. Odds ratios for
      development of postoperative complications were calculated using stepwise
      multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: Obesity was associated with a
      significantly greater risk of wound complications (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.13-1.36),
      but decreased risk of non-wound complications (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.63-0.73) and
      morbidity (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.75-0.84). Obesity was not a significant factor in
      predicting postoperative complications in patients undergoing otolaryngology or
      plastic surgery procedures. Anesthesia times and operative times were
      significantly longer for obese patients undergoing most types of pediatric
      surgical procedures. CONCLUSION: Obesity confers an increased risk of wound
      complications in some pediatric surgical specialties and is associated with
      overall decreased non-wound complications and morbidity. These findings suggest
      that the relationship between obesity and postoperative complications is complex
      and may be more dependent on underlying procedure- or specialty-related factors
      than previously suspected.

PMID- 28875260
TI  - Geosmithia-Ophiostoma: a New Fungus-Fungus Association.
AB  - In Europe as in North America, elms are devastated by Dutch elm disease (DED),
      caused by the alien ascomycete Ophiostoma novo-ulmi. Pathogen dispersal and
      transmission are ensured by local species of bark beetles, which established a
      novel association with the fungus. Elm bark beetles also transport the Geosmithia
      fungi genus that is found in scolytids' galleries colonized by O. novo-ulmi.
      Widespread horizontal gene transfer between O. novo-ulmi and Geosmithia was
      recently observed. In order to define the relation between these two fungi in the
      DED pathosystem, O. novo-ulmi and Geosmithia species from elm, including a GFP
      tagged strain, were grown in dual culture and mycelial interactions were observed
      by light and fluorescence microscopy. Growth and sporulation of O. novo-ulmi in
      the absence or presence of Geosmithia were compared. The impact of Geosmithia on
      DED severity was tested in vivo by co-inoculating Geosmithia and O. novo-ulmi in
      elms. A close and stable relation was observed between the two fungi, which may
      be classified as mycoparasitism by Geosmithia on O. novo-ulmi. These results
      prove the existence of a new component in the complex of organisms involved in
      DED, which might be capable of reducing the disease impact.

PMID- 28875261
TI  - The Low-Affinity Binding of Second Generation Radiotracers Targeting TSPO is
      Associated with a Unique Allosteric Binding Site.
AB  - [11C]-PK11195 (PK11195) has been widely used with positron emission tomography
      (PET) to assess levels of the translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO) as a marker of
      neuroinflammation. Recent ligands, such as [11C]-PBR28 and [11C]-DPA713, have
      improved signal-to-noise ratio and specificity for TSPO over PK11195. However,
      these second generation radiotracers exhibit binding differences due to a single
      polymorphism (rs6971) that leads to three genotypes: C/C, C/T and T/T associated
      with high, mixed and low binding affinities, respectively. Here we report that
      [3H]-DPA-713 in the presence of cholesterol or PK11195 has an accelerated
      dissociation rate from TSPO in platelets isolated from individuals with the T/T
      genotype. This allosteric interaction was not observed in platelets isolated from
      individuals with the C/C or C/T genotype. The results provide a molecular
      rationale for low binding affinity of T/T TSPO and further support the exclusion
      of these subjects from PET imaging studies using second generation TSPO ligands.

PMID- 28875262
TI  - Erratum to: Asparagine synthetase deficiency-report of a novel mutation and
      review of literature.

PMID- 28875263
TI  - Pillar of strength: Columnar cactus as a key factor in Yoreme heritage and
      wildland preservation.
AB  - The persistence of traditional cultures and modes of land use within rapidly
      changing, globalized societies is a central issue in understanding ecological and
      cultural change in the Anthropocene. Located in the heart of the Green
      Revolution, the Yoreme (Mayo) people of the Mayo Valley in Mexico still obtain a
      significant proportion of their sustenance from wild ecosystems in the midst of
      this intensive technological and agricultural development. They live in and
      around the thornscrub dominated by pitaya (Stenocereus thurberi (Engelm.) Buxb.).
      In this study, we hypothesize that pitaya supports Yoreme heritage and sustenance
      amidst anthropogenic changes to the landscape, and we asked three specific
      questions: What is the land-use status of the S. thurberi habitat? What are its
      potential uses? Does S. thurberi provide economic value? To address these
      questions, we conducted interviews, vegetation surveys, and land-use analysis
      based on geographic information systems. We found that (a) land conversion of the
      pitaya-rich thornscrub is occurring at a precipitous rate, (b) local producers
      preserve and adapt their traditions, and (c) S. thurberi supports Yoreme heritage
      while providing economic benefit. The resulting land-use projections along with
      the cultural value of pitaya products shows the importance of conserving land and
      promoting sustainable projects instead of clearing land for other uses. If
      habitat shrinking continues at the current rate, it is likely that both Yoreme
      livelihoods and continued cultural practices will suffer.

PMID- 28875264
TI  - Gas-Phase Stability of Negatively Charged Organophosphate Metabolites Produced by
      Electrospray Ionization and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization.
AB  - The formation mechanisms of singly and multiply charged organophosphate
      metabolites by electrospray ionization (ESI) and their gas phase stabilities were
      investigated. Metabolites containing multiple phosphate groups, such as adenosine
      5'-diphosphate (ADP), adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), and D-myo-inositol-1,4,5
      triphosphate (IP3) were observed as doubly deprotonated ions by negative-ion ESI
      mass spectrometry. Organophosphates with multiple negative charges were found to
      be unstable and often underwent loss of PO3-, although singly deprotonated
      analytes were stable. The presence of fragments due to the loss of PO3- in the
      negative-ion ESI mass spectra could result in the misinterpretation of analytical
      results. In contrast to ESI, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)
      produced singly charged organophosphate metabolites with no associated
      fragmentation, since the singly charged anions are stable. The stability of an
      organophosphate metabolite in the gas phase strongly depends on its charge state.
      The fragmentations of multiply charged organophosphates were also investigated in
      detail through density functional theory calculations. Graphical Abstract.

PMID- 28875265
TI  - Possible Role of IL-25 in Eosinophilic Lung Inflammation in Patients with Chronic
      Eosinophilic Pneumonia.
AB  - PURPOSE: Interleukin (IL)-25 and IL-33 induce IL-5 production by various types of
      cells, such as type 2 helper T (Th2) cells and type 2 innate lymphoid cells. The
      number of Th2 cells and concentration of IL-5 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
      (BALF) are increased in patients with eosinophilic pneumonia (EP). To examine the
      contribution of IL-25 and IL-33 to eosinophilic inflammation of the lung in
      humans, we evaluated IL-5, IL-25 and IL-33 levels in the BALF of patients with
      EP. METHODS: IL-5, IL-25, and IL-33 concentrations in the BALF were measured by
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients with acute eosinophilic pneumonia
      (AEP), chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF),
      and sarcoidosis. RESULTS: The absolute number of eosinophils, and IL-5 levels,
      but not IL-33 levels, in the BALF were significantly higher in patients with EP
      than in patients with IPF and sarcoidosis. IL-25 levels in the BALF were
      significantly higher in patients with CEP, but not in patients with AEP, than in
      patients with IPF and sarcoidosis. The absolute number of eosinophils was
      significantly correlated with the IL-5 concentration in the BALF of patients with
      EP. IL-5 concentrations were significantly correlated with IL-25 concentrations
      in the BALF of patients with CEP, but not in patients with AEP. IL-5 levels were
      not correlated with IL-33 levels in the BALF of patients with EP. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our findings suggest that IL-25 plays an important role via IL-5 in eosinophilic
      lung inflammation in patients with CEP.

PMID- 28875266
TI  - CSF-1R Inhibitor Development: Current Clinical Status.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) and its ligands,
      CSF-1 and interleukin 34 (IL-34), regulate the function and survival of tumor
      associated macrophages, which are involved in tumorigenesis and in the
      suppression of antitumor immunity. Moreover, the CSF-1R/CSF-1 axis has been
      implicated in the pathogenesis of pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), a
      benign tumor of the synovium. As advanced or metastatic malignant solid tumors
      and relapsed/refractory PVNS remain unresolved therapeutic problems, new
      approaches are needed to improve the outcome of patients with these conditions.
      RECENT FINDINGS: In solid tumors, targeting CSF-1R via either small molecules or
      antibodies has shown interesting results in vitro but limited antitumor activity
      in vivo. Concerning PVNS, clinical trials assessing CSF-1R inhibitors have
      revealed promising initial outcomes. Blocking CSF-1/CSF-1R signaling represents a
      promising immunotherapy approach and several new potential combination therapies
      for future clinical testing.

PMID- 28875268
TI  - High prevalence of papillary thyroid carcinoma in nodular Hashimoto's thyroiditis
      at the first diagnosis and during the follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The association between Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and papillary
      thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remains to be elucidated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total
      of 484 HT patients were retrospectively subdivided into two groups: 243 without
      thyroid nodules, TNs (HTN-) and 241 with TNs (HTN+). Fine-needle aspiration
      cytology was available in 152 HTN+ patients. This group was compared to a group
      of 161 patients with nodular goiter (NG) without HT. Finally, 70 HTN+ and 37 NG
      patients underwent surgery. RESULTS: A very high prevalence of
      suspicious/malignant cytology (Thy 4-5) at the first diagnosis (38/124; 31%) and
      during the follow-up (6/28; 22%) was found in HTN+ group. In HTN- group, 22/130
      (17%) patients developed TN, but none showed malignant features during the follow
      up. HTN+ patients had higher prevalence of Thy 4-5 (44/152 = 28.9%) compared to
      NG patients (12/161 = 7.4%, p < 0.0001). Increased independent odds ratio (OR)
      for malignancy was conferred by serum TSH > 1.0 MUUI/ml, [OR 1.93, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 1.41-2.64, p < 0.0001], male sex (OR 3.44, CI 1.48-8.02, p = 0.004)
      and HT (OR 3.14; CI 1.08-9.31, p < 0.05). Malignant histology (mostly PTC) was
      confirmed higher in HTN+ (48/70, 68.6%) compared to NG (15/37, 40.5%; p < 0.05).
      Higher prevalence of extrathyroidal infiltration (24/48, 50%) and vascular
      invasion (25/48, 52%) was found in HTN+ vs NG (2/15, 1.3% p < 0.01), (3/16, 1.8%
      p < 0.05), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms higher prevalence of
      suspicious/malignant cytology and PTC at histology in nodular HT compared to NG,
      without evidence of malignancy in non-nodular HT patients during the follow-up.

PMID- 28875269
TI  - The Programming Optimization of Capacitorless 1T DRAM Based on the Dual-Gate
      TFET.
AB  - The larger volume of capacitor and higher leakage current of transistor have
      become the inherent disadvantages for the traditional one transistor (1T)-one
      capacitor (1C) dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Recently, the tunneling FET
      (TFET) is applied in DRAM cell due to the low off-state current and high
      switching ratio. The dual-gate TFET (DG-TFET) DRAM cell with the capacitorless
      structure has the superior performance-higher retention time (RT) and weak
      temperature dependence. But the performance of TFET DRAM cell is sensitive to
      programming condition. In this paper, the guideline of programming optimization
      is discussed in detail by using simulation tool-Silvaco Atlas. Both the writing
      and reading operations of DG-TFET DRAM depend on the band-to-band tunneling
      (BTBT). During the writing operation, the holes coming from BTBT governed by
      Gate2 are stored in potential well under Gate2. A small negative voltage is
      applied at Gate2 to retain holes for a long time during holding "1". The BTBT
      governed by Gate1 mainly influences the reading current. Using the optimized
      programming condition, the DG-TFET DRAM obtains the higher current ratio of
      reading "1" to reading "0" (107) and RT of more than 2 s. The higher RT reduces
      the refresh rate and dynamic power consumption of DRAM.

PMID- 28875267
TI  - Kingdom Chromista and its eight phyla: a new synthesis emphasising periplastid
      protein targeting, cytoskeletal and periplastid evolution, and ancient
      divergences.
AB  - In 1981 I established kingdom Chromista, distinguished from Plantae because of
      its more complex chloroplast-associated membrane topology and rigid tubular
      multipartite ciliary hairs. Plantae originated by converting a cyanobacterium to
      chloroplasts with Toc/Tic translocons; most evolved cell walls early, thereby
      losing phagotrophy. Chromists originated by enslaving a phagocytosed red alga,
      surrounding plastids by two extra membranes, placing them within the endomembrane
      system, necessitating novel protein import machineries. Early chromists retained
      phagotrophy, remaining naked and repeatedly reverted to heterotrophy by losing
      chloroplasts. Therefore, Chromista include secondary phagoheterotrophs (notably
      ciliates, many dinoflagellates, Opalozoa, Rhizaria, heliozoans) or walled
      osmotrophs (Pseudofungi, Labyrinthulea), formerly considered protozoa or fungi
      respectively, plus endoparasites (e.g. Sporozoa) and all chromophyte algae (other
      dinoflagellates, chromeroids, ochrophytes, haptophytes, cryptophytes). I discuss
      their origin, evolutionary diversification, and reasons for making chromists one
      kingdom despite highly divergent cytoskeletons and trophic modes, including
      improved explanations for periplastid/chloroplast protein targeting, derlin
      evolution, and ciliary/cytoskeletal diversification. I conjecture that transit
      peptide-receptor-mediated 'endocytosis' from periplastid membranes generates
      periplastid vesicles that fuse with the arguably derlin-translocon-containing
      periplastid reticulum (putative red algal trans-Golgi network homologue; present
      in all chromophytes except dinoflagellates). I explain chromist origin from
      ancestral corticates and neokaryotes, reappraising tertiary symbiogenesis; a
      chromist cytoskeletal synapomorphy, a bypassing microtubule band dextral to both
      centrioles, favoured multiple axopodial origins. I revise chromist higher
      classification by transferring rhizarian subphylum Endomyxa from Cercozoa to
      Retaria; establishing retarian subphylum Ectoreta for Foraminifera plus Radiozoa,
      apicomonad subclasses, new dinozoan classes Myzodinea (grouping Colpovora gen.
      n., Psammosa), Endodinea, Sulcodinea, and subclass Karlodinia; and ranking
      heterokont Gyrista as phylum not superphylum.

PMID- 28875270
TI  - Molecular evidence of tick-borne pathogens in Hyalomma anatolicum ticks infesting
      cattle in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwestern China.
AB  - Although tick-borne pathogens have been widely reported in ticks in China, there
      is little information available on the prevalence of information in Hyalomma
      ticks from cattle. This study aims to determine the occurrence of pathogens in
      Hyalomma anatolicum collected from cattle in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,
      China, by PCR, sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Borrelia burgdorferi s.s.,
      Rickettsia massiliae and Anaplasma bovis were identified, whereas DNA of
      Ehrlichia species and an Anaplasma platys-like pathogen were also detected. Our
      findings highlight the risk of infection of animals and humans with these
      pathogens in north-western China.

PMID- 28875271
TI  - Comparative Effects of Schisandrin A, B, and C on Acne-Related Inflammation.
AB  - Inflammatory responses induced by Propionibacterium acnes are a major etiological
      factor in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris. Schisandrin A, schisandrin B, and
      schisandrin C are the representative lignans of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.)
      Baill. extract. Although anti-inflammatory effects of the lignans have been
      shown, their effects on acne-related inflammation caused by P. acnes have not
      been investigated and compared. We pretreated THP-1 human monocytic cells with 5,
      10, and 20 MUM schisandrin A, B, and C, and stimulated the cells with P. acnes.
      Schisandrin B and C inhibited the release of inflammatory cytokines at a
      concentration of 5 MUM, while schisandrin A required a concentration of 10 MUM to
      exert the effects. All of the schisandrins decreased the levels of toll-like
      receptor 2, and schisandrin B and C reduced the intracellular mRNA expression of
      the receptor gene. We also studied the influence of schisandrins on the MAPK
      signaling pathway. Schisandrin A suppressed the P. acnes-induced activation of
      JNK, while exerting only a weak effect on ERK and p38. Schisandrin B exerted a
      strong effect on p38, a lesser effect on ERK, and almost no effect on JNK.
      Schisandrin C inhibited the phosphorylation of all three proteins, especially
      ERK. Furthermore, the three lignans also prevented the nuclear translocation of
      NF-kappaB. These results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms
      underlying the effects of the three lignans on P. acnes-induced inflammation and
      suggest that schisandrins might be developed as pharmacological agents for acne
      therapy.

PMID- 28875272
TI  - LARSTM in ACL reconstruction: evaluation of 60 cases with 5-year minimum follow
      up.
AB  - PURPOSE: The injury of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) causes joint instability
      and, in the absence of adequate treatment, progressive joint deterioration,
      meniscal lesions and development of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. METHODS: The
      purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical, functional and radiographic
      outcomes and complications in a consecutive case series of 60 patients with
      minimum follow-up of 5 years who underwent an arthroscopic surgery for ACL
      reconstruction using LARSTM ligament. Patients with concomitant meniscal or
      chondral lesions in the same knee were excluded. RESULTS: The subjective
      evaluation of the patients involved in the study (Lysholm score, IKDC score and
      Tegner activity level scale) shows good/excellent results. The range of movement
      is optimal in most patients, and pain symptoms are considered mild. A total of
      31.25% of the patients did not change their lifestyle that they had before the
      injury. None of the patients underwent resurgery in the same knee. In 85.4% of
      cases, X-ray images showed no signs of osteoarthritis after ACL reconstruction.
      CONCLUSIONS: Comparable with other series showed in the literature, this study
      assesses that the use of LARSTM in reconstruction of ACL is an excellent option
      for treating >40-year-old patients requesting rapid return to daily
      activities/sports also at the first surgery. By restoring knee stability,
      articular degeneration at short and medium follow-up was avoided.

PMID- 28875273
TI  - Host Genotype and Nitrogen Form Shape the Root Microbiome of Pinus radiata.
AB  - A central challenge in community ecology is understanding the role that
      phenotypic variation among genotypes plays in structuring host-associated
      communities. While recent studies have investigated the relationship between
      plant genotype and the composition of soil microbial communities, the effect of
      genotype-by-environment interactions on the plant microbiome remains unclear. In
      this study, we assessed the influence of tree genetics (G), nitrogen (N) form and
      genotype-by-environment interaction (G x N) on the composition of the root
      microbiome. Rhizosphere communities (bacteria and fungi) and root-associated
      fungi (including ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic guilds) were characterised in
      two genotypes of Pinus radiata with contrasting physiological responses to
      exogenous organic or inorganic N supply. Genotype-specific responses to N form
      influenced the composition of the root microbiome. Specifically, (1) diversity
      and composition of rhizosphere bacterial and root-associated fungal communities
      differed between genotypes that had distinct responses to N form, (2) shifts in
      the relative abundance of individual taxa were driven by the main effects of N
      form or host genotype and (3) the root microbiome of the P. radiata genotype with
      the most divergent growth responses to organic and inorganic N was most sensitive
      to differences in N form. Our results show that intraspecific variation in tree
      response to N form has significant consequences for the root microbiome of P.
      radiata, demonstrating the importance of genotype-by-environment interactions in
      shaping host-associated communities.

PMID- 28875274
TI  - A Study of Moisture Sorption and Dielectric Processes of Starch and Sodium Starch
      Glycolate : Theme: Formulation and Manufacturing of Solid Dosage Forms Guest
      Editors: Tony Zhou and Tonglei Li.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study explored the potential of combining the use of moisture
      sorption isotherms and dielectric relaxation profiles of starch and sodium starch
      glycolate (SSG) to probe the location of moisture in dried and hydrated samples.
      METHODS: Starch and SSG samples, dried and hydrated, were prepared. For hydrated
      samples, their moisture contents were determined. The samples were probed by
      dielectric spectroscopy using a frequency band of 0.1 Hz to 1 MHz to investigate
      their moisture-related relaxation profiles. The moisture sorption and desorption
      isotherms of starch and SSG were generated using a vapor sorption analyzer, and
      modeled using the Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer equation. RESULTS: A clear high
      frequency relaxation process was detected in both dried and hydrated starches,
      while for dried starch, an additional slower low frequency process was also
      detected. The high frequency relaxation processes in hydrated and dried starches
      were assigned to the coupled starch-hydrated water relaxation. The low frequency
      relaxation in dried starch was attributed to the local chain motions of the
      starch backbone. No relaxation process associated with water was detected in both
      hydrated and dried SSG within the frequency and temperature range used in this
      study. The moisture sorption isotherms of SSG suggest the presence of high energy
      free water, which could have masked the relaxation process of the bound water
      during dielectric measurements. CONCLUSION: The combined study of moisture
      sorption isotherms and dielectric spectroscopy was shown to be beneficial and
      complementary in probing the effects of moisture on the relaxation processes of
      starch and SSG.

PMID- 28875275
TI  - Decision-Making for the Management of Cystic Lesions of the Pancreas: How
      Satisfied Are Patients with Surgery?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aims to understand patients' perspectives and
      satisfaction with choosing surgery for the treatment of pancreatic cystic lesions
      (PCLs). METHODS: A 62-question survey was administered to 113 patients who had a
      resection for a PCL by 12 surgeons at two pancreatic specialty centers (2004
      2016). Patients' final diagnoses and perioperative outcomes were correlated to
      the survey's results using univariate analysis. RESULTS: Fear of cancer was quite
      or extremely important in most respondents' decision to have surgery (95.4%).
      Respondents were quite or fully satisfied with the outcomes of surgery (91.1%)
      and with the decision-making process (89.3%). Distress from anxiety about the
      cyst before surgery (58.6%) largely outweighed that from postsurgical lifestyle
      changes (14.4%). Furthermore, 88.7% of patients with pathologically non-malignant
      disease were quite or fully satisfied with their decision to have surgery, and
      patients with mucinous neoplasms reported high satisfaction rates independent of
      grade of dysplasia or malignancy (p = 0.641). CONCLUSION: Patients with a
      resected PCL are highly satisfied with their decision to have surgery, regardless
      of the final diagnosis or clinical outcome. Fear of cancer is the main driver in
      the decision-making process, and the anxiety of harboring a cyst is a greater
      cause of distress than are postsurgical lifestyle changes.

PMID- 28875276
TI  - Epigenetic and genetic landscape of uterine leiomyomas: a current view over a
      common gynecological disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Despite the numerous studies on the factors involved in the genesis and
      growth of uterine leiomyomas, the pathogenesis of these tumors remains unknown.
      Intrinsic abnormalities of the myometrium, abnormal myometrial receptors for
      estrogen, and hormonal changes or altered responses to ischemic damage during the
      menstrual period may be responsible for the initiation of (epi)genetic changes
      found in these tumors. Considering these elements, we aimed to offer an overview
      about epigenetic and genetic landscape of uterine leiomyomas. METHODS: Narrative
      overview, synthesizing the findings of literature retrieved from searches of
      computerized databases. RESULTS: Several studies showed that leiomyomas have a
      monoclonal origin. Accumulating evidence converges on the risk factors and
      mechanisms of tumorigenesis: the translocation t (12;14) and deletion of 7q were
      found in the highest percentages of recurrence; dysregulation of the HMGA2 gene
      has been mapped within the critical 12q14-q15 locus. Estrogen and progesterone
      are recognized as promoters of tumor growth, and the potential role of
      environmental estrogens has been poorly explored. The growth factors with
      mitogenic activity, such as transforming growth factor-beta3, fibroblast growth
      factor, epidermal growth factor, and insulin-like growth factor-I are elevated in
      fibroids and may have a role as effectors of the tumor promotion. CONCLUSION: The
      new clues on genetics and epigenetics, as well as about the growth factors that
      control normal and pathological myometrial cellular biology may be of great help
      for the development of new effective and less invasive therapeutic strategies in
      the near future.

PMID- 28875277
TI  - [Critical illness myopathy and polyneuropathy].
AB  - An average of 50-80% of patients treated in the intensive care unit is affected
      by disturbances of neuromuscular functions due to damage to the nerves and
      muscles, which has led to the terms critical illness polyneuropathy and myopathy.
      Both components occur in 30-50% of patients, while the others predominantly show
      a pure myopathy, while pure neuropathy is rare. Meanwhile, the descriptive term
      of the concept as intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICUAW) is preferred. The
      most significant risk factors for the development of ICUAW are sepsis, multiorgan
      dysfunction and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In at least one third
      of patients, persistent impairment by paralysis, sensory disturbances and balance
      problems persist when they leave the ICU. At approximately 10%, these leg
      accentuated and highly everyday relevant disorders persist over the first year
      after ICU therapy. Pure myopathy rarely leads to residual disturbances, while the
      neuropathic component is responsible for long-term impairments.

PMID- 28875278
TI  - Investigation of peri-implant tissue conditions and peri-implant tissue stability
      in implants placed with simultaneous augmentation procedure: a 3-year
      retrospective follow-up analysis of a newly developed bone level implant system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guided bone regeneration (GBR) has been proven to be a reliable
      therapy to regenerate missing bone in cases of atrophy of the alveolar crest. The
      aim of the present retrospective analysis was to assess peri-implant tissue
      conditions and document peri-implant tissue stability in C-Tech implants when
      placed simultaneously with a GBR augmentation procedure. METHODS: A total of 47
      implants, which were placed simultaneously with a GBR procedure with a synthetic
      bone substitute material in 20 patients, were investigated clinically and
      radiologically at least 3 years after loading. Implant survival, the width and
      thickness of peri-implant keratinized gingiva, probing depth, bleeding on probing
      (BOP), the Pink Esthetic Score (PES), peri-implant bone loss, and the presence of
      peri-implant osteolysis were determined. RESULTS: The follow-up investigation
      revealed a survival rate of 100% and only low median rates for probing depths
      (2.7 mm) and BOP (30%). The mean PES was 10.1 from the maximum value of 14. No
      osseous peri-implant defects were obvious, and the mean bone loss was 0.55 mm.
      CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, implants placed in combination with a GBR procedure
      can achieve long-term stable functionally and esthetically satisfying results for
      replacing missing teeth in cases of atrophy of the alveolar crest.

PMID- 28875280
TI  - Metastases to the Parathyroid Glands: A Comprehensive Literature Review of 127
      Reported Cases.
AB  - Metastases to the head and neck organs are uncommon, potentially representing the
      initial presentation of an occult malignancy. Single case reports and small
      series report metastases to the parathyroid gland, but there is no large review
      of the literature on secondary tumors involving the parathyroid glands. A review
      of the English literature between 1950 and 2017 was performed of all metastases
      or secondary involvement of the parathyroid glands. One hundred and twenty-seven
      cases of metastatic tumors were reported, although potentially significantly
      unrepresented in autopsy series (parathyroid glands are not routinely examined)
      and due to reporting bias. Women were affected more commonly than men (5.8:1; 99
      vs. 17, respectively), with a mean age at presentation of 58.5 years, when
      reported. The most common primary sites of malignancies that metastasized to the
      parathyroid glands were breast carcinomas (66.9%, n = 85), melanoma (11.8%, n =
      15), and lung carcinoma (5.5%, n = 7), with carcinomas representing 86.6% of
      metastases. Metastases were nearly always identified as part of widely metastatic
      disease, with only five (3.2%) cases reported as isolated metastases. Tumor-to
      tumor metastases comprised 5.5% of all metastases to the parathyroid glands
      (metastases to parathyroid adenoma). A significant clinical finding of metastases
      to the parathyroid glands was the development of deranged calcium homeostasis,
      well beyond the 9 (7.2%) cases with primary parathyroid gland disease present.
      Although concurrent conditions (renal disease; bone metastases) may partially
      affect calcium metabolism, the onset of calcium derangement seemed to coincide
      with parathyroid gland metastases and not systemic disease. In summary,
      metastases to the parathyroid glands are uncommon, potentially under-recognized
      in patients who have otherwise widely metastatic tumors. Women are affected more
      often than men, with breast carcinomas (66.9%) and melanoma (11.8%) the most
      common primary tumors. Calcium homeostasis is affected, probably as a result of
      parathyroid gland parenchymal destruction.

PMID- 28875279
TI  - Trauma to the Superior Mesenteric Artery and Superior Mesenteric Vein: A
      Narrative Review of Rare but Lethal Injuries.
AB  - Mesenteric vessels, including the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and vein
      (SMV), provide and drain the rich blood supply of the midgut and hindgut. SMA and
      SMV injuries are rare and often lethal. Clinical management of these injuries is
      not well established, but treatment options include operative, non-operative, and
      endovascular strategies. A narrative review of the literature was conducted using
      MEDLINE Complete-EBSCO. Relevant studies, specifically those focusing on
      diagnosis and management of SMA and SMV injuries, were selected. Only original
      reports and collected series were selected to prevent duplication of cases. A
      search of the literature for mesenteric arterial injuries yielded 87 studies.
      Vessel-specific breakdown of the studies yielded 40 with SMA injuries and 41 with
      SMV injuries. These searches were winnowed to 26 individual studies, which were
      included in this collective review. Limitations of this study are similar to all
      narrative literature reviews: the dependence on previously published research and
      availability of references as outlined in our methodology. Although historically
      rare, mesenteric vessel injuries are seen with increasing incidence and continue
      to present a challenge to trauma surgeons due to their daunting mortality rates.
      Currently, universal treatment guidelines do not exist, but the various options
      for their management have been extensively reviewed in the literature.

PMID- 28875281
TI  - Ecotoxicity and antibiotic resistance of a mixture of hospital and urban sewage
      in a wastewater treatment plant.
AB  - Hospital and urban effluents are a source of diverse pollutants such as organic
      compounds, heavy metals, detergents, disinfectants, pharmaceuticals, and
      microorganisms resistant to antibiotics. Usually, these two types of effluent are
      mixed in the sewage network, but a pilot site in France now allows studying them
      separately or mixed to understand more about their characteristics and the
      phenomena that occur following their mixing. In this study, their ecotoxicity
      (Daphnia magna mobility, Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata growth, Brachionus
      calyciflorus reproduction, and SOS Chromotest) and antibiotic resistance
      (integron quantification) were assessed during mixing and treatment steps. The
      main results of this study are (i) the ecotoxicity and antibiotic resistance
      potentials of hospital wastewater are higher than in urban wastewater and (ii)
      mixing two different effluents does not lead to global synergistic or
      antagonistic effects on ecotoxicity and antibiotic resistance potential. The
      global additivity effect observed in this case must be confirmed by other studies
      on hospital and urban effluents on other sites to improve knowledge relating to
      this source of pollution and its management.

PMID- 28875282
TI  - Refining Coats' disease by ultra-widefield imaging and optical coherence
      tomography angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to describe ultra-widefield (UWF) imaging
      and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) findings in affected and
      fellow eyes of patients with Coats' disease. METHODS: Consecutive patients
      affected by Coats' disease were prospectively recruited at the Department of
      Ophthalmology, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy in this cross-sectional,
      observational study. Patients underwent UWF color fundus photographs, UWF green
      autofluorescence, UWF fluorescein angiography (FA), optical coherence tomography
      (OCT), with 3 * 3 mm and 6 * 6 mm OCT-A scans of the macula. Images were
      qualitatively evaluated by two independent operators for the presence of
      pathology. RESULTS: Eleven patients affected by Coats' disease (eight males, mean
      age 17.1 +/- 6.7 years). Nine and two patients had a clinical diagnosis of
      unilateral and bilateral disease, respectively. Five eyes had macular fibrosis.
      All clinically affected eyes exhibited retinal pathology at UWF imaging with the
      temporal sector most involved followed by the inferior, nasal, superior and
      macula. In all eyes with macular fibrosis, OCT-A revealed replacement of the
      foveal avascular zone with coarse vessels suggestive of vascularized fibrosis and
      flow void area in the choriocapillaris due to a masking effect; type 3
      neovascularization was seen in 75% of cases. Seven out of nine clinically
      unaffected fellow eyes showed retinal pathology at UWF FA with the temporal
      quadrant most involved. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that Coats' disease is a
      highly asymmetric bilateral disease and that UWF imaging is able to identify more
      retinal pathology than standard fundus imaging, thus guiding proper retinal
      photocoagulation. OCT-A allowed easy identification of type 3 neovascularization
      in a proportion of patients with macular fibrosis.

PMID- 28875283
TI  - Structural and biochemical characterization of DAXX-ATRX interaction.

PMID- 28875284
TI  - Predictive role of loco-regional radiotherapy among metastatic breast cancer
      patients who had undergone primary tumor surgery.

PMID- 28875285
TI  - Current status of cardiovascular surgery in Japan, 2013 and 2014: a report based
      on the Japan Cardiovascular Surgery Database 5. Thoracic aortic surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although open aortic repair (OAR) is still considered to be a
      standard treatment for thoracic aortic diseases, the indications for thoracic
      endovascular treatment (TEVAR)/hybrid aortic repair (HAR) have expanded in recent
      years. The purpose of this study was to review the current status of treatment of
      thoracic aortic diseases in Japan. METHODS: Data for 2013 and 2014 concerning
      surgery for diseases of the thoracic/thoracoabdominal aorta were extracted from
      the Japan Cardiovascular Surgery Database (JCVSD). The number of cases and
      operative mortality were evaluated in terms of pathologic diagnosis (acute
      dissection, chronic dissection, ruptured aneurysm, unruptured aneurysm),
      treatment modality (OAR, HAR, TEVAR), JapanSCORE (JS; <5%, 5-10%, 10-15%, >=15%),
      and their correlations. RESULTS: There were 30,271 total cases in this study and
      the overall operative mortality was 5.9%. Among the three types of treatment,
      73.2% of patients underwent OAR (root 98.3%; ascending 97.4%; root to arch 95.5%;
      arch 81.7%; descending 34.2%; thoracoabdominal 64.4%). While the rate of OAR was
      negatively correlated with JS for the treatment of the thoracoabdominal region
      (JS < 5, 80.4%; 5% <= JS < 10, 67.6%; 10% <= JS < 15, 58.8%; JS >= 15, 55.7%), a
      correlation was not observed in other anatomic regions. The operative mortality
      associated with OAR was well reflected by JS (JS < 5, 2.1%; 5% <= JS < 10, 5.5%;
      10% <= JS < 15, 10.2%; JS >= 15, 20.3%); however, the operative mortality
      associated with TEVAR/HAR was less than that with JS. CONCLUSIONS: The
      distribution of treatment differs depending on the site of disease and is not
      markedly influenced by JS. It is clear that JS is a reliable tool for estimating
      operative mortality in OAR. However, the observed operative mortality was lower
      than the JS in TEVAR/HAR, and a new risk score for TEVAR/HAR should be
      established.

PMID- 28875286
TI  - Learning About the Management of Physical Illness During the Postgraduate
      Training to Become a Good Psychiatrist.

PMID- 28875287
TI  - The Wandering Spleen.
AB  - ?.

PMID- 28875288
TI  - Severe leptospirosis in Morocco: comparative data from the Amazonian area.

PMID- 28875289
TI  - [Diagnostics of malignant melanoma of the skin : Recommendations of the current
      S3 guidelines on histology and molecular pathology].
AB  - The updated S3 guidelines on malignant melanoma were established in August 2016.
      The principles of diagnostics and classification are based on the
      histopathological results from the primary tumor and if necessary the sentinel
      lymph nodes. The most important factor for prognosis is the tumor thickness
      according to Breslow and the detection of sentinel node micrometastases. The
      surgical safety margin after excision is dependent on the tumor thickness.
      Furthermore, ulceration of the primary tumor and presence of mitosis in melanomas
      less than 1 mm in thickness are also considered in the T-classification. The
      sentinel lymph nodes should be prepared according to established procedures using
      HE staining and immunohistochemical methods. The largest tumor diameter of a
      micrometastasis should be measured in tenths of a millimeter (Rotterdam
      classification). Molecular pathology testing for mutations in the BRAF and NRAS
      oncogenes should be carried out in patients with metastatic disease or surgically
      non-resectable tumors. In addition c-KIT mutations should be tested in acral
      lentiginous and mucosal melanomas. Treatment with signal transduction inhibitors
      is possible when mutations have been detected.

PMID- 28875290
TI  - Evaluation of [99mTc]Radiolabeled Macrophage Mannose Receptor-Specific Nanobodies
      for Targeting of Atherosclerotic Lesions in Mice.
AB  - PURPOSE: Macrophage accumulation characterizes the development of atherosclerotic
      plaques, and the presence of certain macrophage subsets might be an indicator of
      plaque phenotype and (in)stability. The macrophage mannose receptor (MMR) is
      expressed on alternatively activated macrophages and found at sites of
      intraplaque hemorrhage and neovascularization. It has been proposed as target to
      identify vulnerable plaques. Therefore, we aimed to assess the feasibility of
      using anti-MMR nanobodies (Nbs) as molecular tracers for nuclear imaging in an
      animal model of atherosclerosis. PROCEDURE: Anti-MMR and control Nb, radiolabeled
      with Tc-99m, were injected in ApoE-/- and/or C57Bl/6 mice (n = 6). In vivo
      competition studies involving pre-injection of excess of unlabeled anti-MMR Nb (n
      = 3) and injection of anti-MMR Nb in MMR-/- mice (n = 3) were performed to
      demonstrate specificity. At 3 h p.i. radioactive uptake in organs, tissues and
      aorta segments were evaluated. Autoradiography and immunofluorescence were
      performed on aortic sections. RESULTS: Significantly higher uptake was observed
      in all aortic segments of ApoE-/- mice injected with anti-MMR Nb compared to
      control Nb (1.36 +/- 0.67 vs 0.38 +/- 0.13 percent of injected dose per gram
      (%ID/g), p <= 0.001). Surprisingly, high aortic uptake was also observed in
      C57Bl/6 mice (1.50 +/- 0.43%ID/g, p >= 0.05 compared to ApoE-/-), while aortic
      uptake was reduced to background levels in the case of competition and in MMR-/-
      mice (0.46 +/- 0.10 and 0.22 +/- 0.06%ID/g, respectively; p <= 0.001). Therefore,
      expression of MMR along healthy aortas was suggested. Autoradiography showed no
      specific radioactive signal within atherosclerotic plaques, but rather
      localization of the signal along the aorta, correlating with MMR expression in
      perivascular tissue as demonstrated by immunofluorescence. CONCLUSIONS: No
      significant uptake of MMR-specific Nb could be observed in atherosclerotic
      lesions of ApoE-/- mice in this study. A specific perivascular signal causing a
      non-negligible background level was demonstrated. This observation should be
      considered when using MMR as a target in molecular imaging of atherosclerosis, as
      well as use of translational animal models with vulnerable plaques.

PMID- 28875291
TI  - Persistence Behavior of Penoxsulam Herbicide in Two Different Soils.
AB  - Penoxsulam, a new post emergence herbicide is suspected to be toxic to aquatic
      organisms, crop plants and also to soil microbial community even at low
      concentrations. Laboratory studies were therefore performed to examine the
      persistence of, penoxsulam in two different soils at two application rates (0.5
      and 1.0 ug g-1). The study revealed that the dissipation followed the first order
      kinetics with a half life of 3.48 and 3.57 days at 0.5 ug g-1 and 4.1 and 4.17
      days at 1.0 ug g-1 fortification rate. Both microbial- and photo-degradation
      seemed to play a vital role in the dissipation of penoxsulam. The results of LC
      MS/MS revealed that one minor and five major metabolites were formed during the
      degradation process of the herbicide and the cleavage of sulfonamide bridge
      served as the major metabolic pathway.

PMID- 28875292
TI  - Restless farewell.

PMID- 28875293
TI  - Nickel accumulation and its effect on growth, physiological and biochemical
      parameters in millets and oats.
AB  - With the boom in industrialization, there is an increase in the level of heavy
      metals in the soil which drastically affect the growth and development of plants.
      Nickel is an essential micronutrient for plant growth and development, but
      elevated level of Ni causes stunted growth, chlorosis, nutrient imbalance, and
      alterations in the defense mechanism of plants in terms of accumulation of
      osmolytes or change in enzyme activities like guiacol peroxidase (POD), catalase
      (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Ni-induced toxic response was studied in
      seedlings of finger millet, pearl millet, and oats in terms of seedling growth,
      lipid peroxidation, total chlorophyll, proline content, and enzymatic activities.
      On the basis of germination and growth parameters of the seedling, finger millet
      was found to be the most tolerant. Nickel accumulation was markedly lower in the
      shoots as compared to the roots, which was the highest in finger millet and the
      lowest in shoots of oats. Plants treated with a high concentration of Ni showed
      significant reduction in chlorophyll and increase in proline content.
      Considerable difference in level of malondialdehyde (MDA) content and activity of
      antioxidative enzymes indicates generation of redox imbalance in plants due to Ni
      induced stress. Elevated activities of POD and SOD were observed with high
      concentrations of Ni while CAT activity was found to be reduced. It was observed
      that finger millet has higher capability to maintain homeostasis by keeping the
      balance between accumulation and ROS scavenging system than pearl millet and
      oats. The data provide insight into the physiological and biochemical changes in
      plants adapted to survive in Ni-rich environment. This study will help in
      selecting the more suitable crop species to be grown on Ni-rich soils.

PMID- 28875294
TI  - A median sacral artery anterior to the iliocaval junction: a case report
      anatomical considerations and clinical relevance for spine surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANCE: The median sacral artery (MSA) is a relatively small
      vessel that always arises from the posterior, terminal part of the infrarenal
      aorta. In most cases, the MSA runs behind the iliocaval junction. Here, we
      describe a very rare case of an MSA running in front of this junction. CASE
      REPORT: During a human cadaveric dissection of the retroperitoneal area, we
      unexpectedly observed that the MSA passed in front of the left common iliac vein.
      CONCLUSION: The anatomy of the MSA has been extensively described and variations
      are quite rare. On the basis of this specific case, knowledge of the anatomic
      interactions between the MSA and other lumbar retroperitoneal vessels may help to
      avoid potential complications during surgery.

PMID- 28875295
TI  - A prospective randomized comparison among SWL, PCNL and RIRS for lower calyceal
      stones less than 2 cm: a multicenter experience : A better understanding on the
      treatment options for lower pole stones.
AB  - PURPOSE: To prospectively evaluate the efficacy and safety of RIRS, SWL and PCNL
      for lower calyceal stones sized 1-2 cm. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with a
      single lower calyceal stone with an evidence of a CT diameter between 1 and 2 cm
      were enrolled in this multicenter, randomized, unblinded, clinical trial study.
      Patients were randomized into three groups: group A: SWL (194 pts); group B: RIRS
      (207 pts); group C: PCNL (181 pts). Patients were evaluated with KUB radiography
      (US for uric acid stones) at day 10 and a CT scan after 3 months. The CONSORT
      2010 statement was adhered to where possible. The collected data were analyzed.
      RESULTS: The mean stone size was 13.78 mm in group A, 14.82 mm in group B and
      15.23 mm in group C (p = 0.34). Group C compared to group B showed longer
      operative time [72.3 vs. 55.8 min (p = 0.082)], fluoroscopic time [175.6 vs. 31.8
      min (p = 0.004)] and hospital stay [3.7 vs. 1.3 days (p = 0.039)]. The overall
      stone-free rate (SFR) was 61.8% for group A, 82.1% for group B and 87.3% for
      group C. The re-treatment rate was significantly higher in group A compared to
      the other two groups, 61.3% (p < 0.05). The auxiliary procedure rate was
      comparable for groups A and B and lower for group C (p < 0.05). The complication
      rate was 6.7, 14.5 and 19.3% for groups A, B and C, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      RIRS and PCNL were more effective than SWL to obtain a better SFR and less
      auxiliary and re-treatment rate in single lower calyceal stone with a CT diameter
      between 1 and 2 cm. RIRS compared to PCNL offers the best outcome in terms of
      procedure length, radiation exposure and hospital stay. ISRCTN 55546280.

PMID- 28875296
TI  - A Moderator Model of Alcohol Use and Dating Aggression among Young Adults.
AB  - Dating aggression has been identified as a priority public health concern.
      Although alcohol use is a known robust risk factor for dating aggression
      involvement, such usage is neither necessary nor sufficient for dating aggression
      involvement. As such, a growing topic of interest is a better understanding of
      when, and for whom, alcohol use increases risk. A theoretical moderator model
      posits that associations between alcohol use and dating aggression involvement
      vary depending on both background (e.g., psychopathology) and situational (e.g.,
      relationship characteristics) risk factors. Alcohol use is thought to be more
      strongly associated with dating aggression in the context of these other risk
      factors. Using an intensive longitudinal design, we collected six waves of data
      spanning 6 months from 120 participants (60 females; M age W1 = 22.44). Alcohol
      use and relationship risk were both associated with increases in dating
      aggression involvement. Consistent with a moderator model, interactions emerged
      between alcohol use and relationship risk for subsequent dating aggression
      involvement. The findings underscore the importance of alcohol use and
      relationship risk for the development of intervention and prevention programs.

PMID- 28875298
TI  - 2D longitudinal LV speckle tracking strain pattern in breast cancer survivors:
      sports activity vs exercise as prescription model.
AB  - Prevention strategies are important to optimize and to manage heart care in
      breast cancer survivors. Regular physical activity at moderate intensity is
      normally proposed to maintain myocardial performance; however, no data is
      available about the different impact of different levels of physical exercise. 2D
      speckle tracking echocardiography (2DSTE) is an accepted method for early
      detection of myocardial dysfunction. The study aims to monitor the cardiac
      performances in breast cancer survivors by 2DSTE analysis to manage sports
      activity vs physical activity. Two groups of previous breast cancer survivors (33
      BCS) trained at moderate intensity and 55 athletes practicing dragon boat (DBA)
      sport were enrolled. They were matched with two healthy subjects groups: 23
      competitive female athletes practicing different sports and 20 healthy women
      trained with exercise as prescription model. All women were studied by a complete
      echo examination including LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) assessment
      (XStrain-Esaote). EF and GS are only significantly higher in healthy subjects (
      25.4 +/- 2.1). Nevertheless, GLS values are within the normal range for all
      groups. Particularly, GS does not show any significant differences among subjects
      (-19.93 +/- 4) practicing exercise as prescription when compared to the DBA
      competitive trained group. 2DSTE method is an appropriate method to supervise the
      intensity of exercise in breast cancer patients. Particularly, GLS can optimize
      and improve cancer therapy supporting and creating efficiencies within the health
      system confirming the role of the exercise prescription therapy in maintaining
      normal heart function.

PMID- 28875297
TI  - Breathing-motion-compensated robotic guided stereotactic body radiation therapy :
      Patterns of failure analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: We retrospectively evaluated the patterns of failure for robotic guided
      real-time breathing-motion-compensated (BMC) stereotactic body radiation therapy
      (SBRT) in the treatment of tumors in moving organs. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between
      2011 and 2016, a total of 198 patients with 280 lung, liver, and abdominal tumors
      were treated with BMC-SBRT. The median gross tumor volume (GTV) was 12.3 cc (0.1
      372.0 cc). Medians of mean GTV BEDalpha/beta =10 Gy (BED = biological effective
      dose) was 148.5 Gy10 (31.5-233.3 Gy10) and prescribed planning target volume
      (PTV) BEDalpha/beta =10 Gy was 89.7 Gy10 (28.8-151.2 Gy10), respectively. We
      analyzed overall survival (OS) and local control (LC) based on various factors,
      including BEDs with alpha/beta ratios of 15 Gy (lung metastases), 21 Gy (primary
      lung tumors), and 27 Gy (liver metastases). RESULTS: Median follow-up was 10.4
      months (2.0-59.0 months). The 2-year actuarial LC was 100 and 86.4% for primary
      early and advanced stage lung tumors, respectively, 100% for lung metastases,
      82.2% for liver metastases, and 90% for extrapulmonary extrahepatic metastases.
      The 2-year OS rate was 47.9% for all patients. In uni- and multivariate analysis,
      comparatively lower PTV prescription dose (equivalence of 3 * 12-13 Gy) and
      higher average GTV dose (equivalence of 3 * 18 Gy) to current practice were
      significantly associated with LC. For OS, Karnofsky performance score (100%),
      gender (female), and SBRT without simultaneous chemotherapy were significant
      prognostic factors. Grade 3 side effects were rare (0.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Robotic
      guided BMC-SBRT can be considered a safe and effective treatment for solid tumors
      in moving organs. To reach sufficient local control rates, high average GTV doses
      are necessary. Further prospective studies are warranted to evaluate these
      points.

PMID- 28875299
TI  - 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments and secondary structures of cyclophilin 2
      from Trichomonas vaginalis.
AB  - Cyclophilins are peptidyl prolyl isomerases that play an important role in a wide
      variety of biological functions like protein folding and trafficking,
      intracellular and extracellular signaling pathways, nuclear translocation and in
      pre-mRNA splicing. Two cyclophilins have been identified in the parasitic
      organism Trichomonas vaginalis and were named as TvCyP1 and TvCyP2. The 2 enzymes
      have been found to interact with Myb transcription factors in the parasite which
      regulate the iron induced expression of ap65-1 gene leading to cytoadherence of
      the parasite to human vaginal epithelial cells to cause the disease
      trichomoniasis. TvCyP2 was found to interact specifically with Myb3 to regulate
      nuclear translocation of the transcription factor. It would be intriguing to
      identify the binding site of both proteins as it could pave way to newer targets
      for drug discovery. Here we report the 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments and
      secondary structure information of TvCyP2 that could help us investigate the
      interaction between Myb3 and TvCyP2 in detail using NMR.

PMID- 28875301
TI  - No Need for Prophylactic Abdominal Ice Packing During Radioembolization.

PMID- 28875303
TI  - RGO and Three-Dimensional Graphene Networks Co-modified TIMs with High
      Performances.
AB  - With the development of microelectronic devices, the insufficient heat
      dissipation ability becomes one of the major bottlenecks for further
      miniaturization. Although graphene-assisted epoxy resin (ER) display promising
      potential to enhance the thermal performances, some limitations of the reduced
      graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets and three-dimensional graphene networks (3DGNs)
      hinder the further improvement of the resulting thermal interface materials
      (TIMs). In this study, both the RGO nanosheets and 3DGNs are adopted as co
      modifiers to improve the thermal conductivity of the ER. The 3DGNs provide a fast
      transport network for phonon, while the presence of RGO nanosheets enhances the
      heat transport at the interface between the graphene basal plane and the ER. The
      synergy of these two modifiers is achieved by selecting a proper proportion and
      an optimized reduction degree of the RGO nanosheets. Moreover, both the high
      stability of the thermal conductivity and well mechanical properties of the
      resulting TIM indicate the potential application prospect in the practical field.

PMID- 28875302
TI  - Laparoscopic approaches to complicated diverticulitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this article is to review the evolving role of
      laparoscopic surgery in the treatment of complicated diverticulitis. PURPOSE: The
      authors attempted to give readers a concise insight into the evidence available
      in the English language literature. This study does not offer a systematic review
      of the topic, rather it highlights the role of laparoscopy in the treatment of
      complicated diverticulitis. CONCLUSIONS: New level 1 evidence suggest that
      observation rather than elective resection following nonoperative management of
      diverticulitis with abscess and/or extraluminal air is not below the standard of
      care. Implementation of nonoperative management may result in increased
      prevalence of sigmoid strictures.

PMID- 28875304
TI  - Evaluation of the acaricidal activity of thymol incorporated in two formulations
      for topical use against immature stages of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato
      (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae).
AB  - The objective of this study was to assess, for the first time, the in vitro
      acaricidal activity of two topical formulations containing thymol, on immature
      stages of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato. For this purpose, two base
      formulations were prepared: an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion and a hydroalcoholic
      solution, containing different thymol concentrations (0.5 to 20 mg/mL). We used
      the larval packet test for non-engorged larvae and nymphs, and the immersion test
      for engorged larvae and nymphs. For emulsion, a mortality rate of 94.2% was
      achieved at 0.75 mg/mL in non-engorged larvae. For engorged larvae, there was
      95.0% mortality at 5.0 mg/mL. Non-engorged nymphs showed 83.3% mortality at 2.5
      mg/mL, and for engorged nymphs, 86.0% mortality was verified at 5.0 mg/mL. For
      the hydroalcoholic solution, the mortality found for non-engorged larvae was
      88.1% at 2.5 mg/mL. For engorged larvae, the highest mortality was 25.0% at 20
      mg/mL; non-engorged nymphs had 91.0% mortality at 1.0 mg/mL and for engorged
      nymphs; the maximum value verified was 18.3% mortality at 20 mg/mL. Preliminary
      stability tests were carried, and the hydroalcoholic solution remained stable
      under all the conditions analyzed. The O/W emulsion showed signs of early
      instability at the concentration of 5.0 mg/mL. The results obtained indicate that
      the acaricidal activity of thymol, when included in the proposed formulations,
      was enhanced against non-engorged larvae with topical treatment in comparison
      with data in the literature. Although there were variations in toxicity between
      the different stages, these formulations are promising for future therapeutic
      use.

PMID- 28875300
TI  - Advances in the Application and Impact of MicroRNAs as Therapies for Skin
      Disease.
AB  - The advent of RNA interference (RNAi) technology has profoundly impacted
      molecular biology research and medicine but has also advanced the field of skin
      care. Both effector molecules of RNAi, short-interfering RNA molecules and
      microRNAs (miRNAs), have been explored for their relative impact and utility for
      treating a variety of skin conditions. These post-transcriptional RNA regulatory
      molecules down-modulate protein expression through targeting of the 3'
      untranslated regions of messenger RNAs, leading to their degradation or
      repression through sequestration. As researchers hunt for genetic linkages to
      skin diseases, miRNA regulators have emerged as key players in the biology of
      keratinocytes, fibroblasts, melanocytes, and other cells of the skin. Herein, we
      attempt to coalesce the current efforts to combat various skin disorders and
      diseases through the development of miRNA-based technologies.

PMID- 28875305
TI  - Highly efficient base editing in human tripronuclear zygotes.

PMID- 28875306
TI  - Maternal serum calcitriol during pregnancy and risk of childhood onset type 1
      diabetes.

PMID- 28875307
TI  - The parA Region of Broad-Host-Range PromA Plasmids Is a Carrier of Mobile Genes.
AB  - The ecological competences in microbiomes are driven by the adaptive capabilities
      present within microbiome members. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) promoted by
      plasmids provides a rapid adaptive strategy to microbiomes, an interesting
      feature considering the constantly changing conditions in most environments. This
      study examined the parA locus, found in the highly promiscuous PromA class of
      plasmids, as the insertion site for incoming genes. A novel PCR system was
      designed that enabled examining insertions into this locus. Microbiomes of
      mangrove sediments, salt marsh, mycosphere, and bulk soil revealed habitat
      specific sets of insertions in this plasmid region. Furthermore, such habitats
      could be differentiated based on patterns of parA-inserted genes, and the genes
      carried by these plasmids. Thus, a suite of dioxygenase-related genes and
      transposase elements were found in oil-affected mangroves, whereas genes involved
      in nitrogen and carbon cycling were detected in salt marsh and soils. All genes
      detected could be associated with capabilities of members of the microbiome to
      adapt to and survive in each habitat. The methodology developed in this work was
      effective, sensitive, and practical, allowing detection of mobilized genes
      between microorganisms.

PMID- 28875308
TI  - Physical, Social, and Political Inequities Constraining Girls' Menstrual
      Management at Schools in Informal Settlements of Nairobi, Kenya.
AB  - Access to adequate water and sanitation is limited in informal settlements,
      contributing to girls' challenges managing menstruation at school, especially
      when they cannot access materials to absorb menstrual blood and appropriate
      facilities for hygiene. This study documents differences between girls'
      experience of menstruation at public schools (where the Kenyan government
      provides menstrual pads) and private schools (where pads are not provided) in two
      informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. Results showed that supply chains to
      public schools were not reliable, and equitable pad provision was not assured.
      Girls in private schools struggled to access pads because they were not provided.
      Sanitation facilities were physically available, but Muslim girls were unable to
      practice ablution due to the design of toilets in our study schools. Girls
      experienced fear and anxiety due to harassment from male peers and had incomplete
      information about menstruation from teachers. Findings suggest that practitioners
      and policy-makers should acknowledge the diversity of school populations and
      monitor programs to ensure efforts do not contribute to inequity.

PMID- 28875309
TI  - Early life adversity influences stress response association with smoking relapse.
AB  - RATIONALE: We examined the hypothesis that stress-related blunting of cortisol in
      smokers is particularly pronounced in those with a history of severe life
      adversity. OBJECTIVES: The two aims of this study were first to examine hormonal,
      craving, and withdrawal symptoms during ad libitum smoking and after the first 24
      h of abstinence in smokers who experienced high or low levels of adversity.
      Second, we sought to examine the relationship between adversity and hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal (HPA) hormones to predict relapse during the first month of a
      smoking cessation attempt. METHODS: Hormonal and self-report measures were
      collected from 103 smokers (49 women) during ad libitum smoking and after the
      first 24 h of abstinence. HPA hormones were measured during baseline rest and in
      response to acute stress in both conditions. All smokers were interested in
      smoking cessation, and we prospectively used stress response measures to predict
      relapse during the first 4 weeks of the smoking cessation attempt. RESULTS: The
      results showed that high adversity was associated with higher distress and
      smoking withdrawal symptoms. High level of early life adversity was associated
      with elevated HPA activity, which was found in both salivary and plasma cortisol.
      Enhanced adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stress response was evident in high
      adversity but not in low-adversity relapsers. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrated that early life adversity is associated with stress-related HPA
      responses. The study also demonstrated that, among smokers who experienced a high
      level of life adversity, heightened ACTH and cortisol responses were linked with
      increased risk for smoking relapse.

PMID- 28875311
TI  - Bisphenol A exposure perturbs visual function of adult cats by remodeling the
      neuronal activity in the primary visual pathway.
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA), a common environmental xenoestrogen, has been implicated in
      physiological and behavioral impairment, but the neuronal basis remains elusive.
      Although various synaptic mechanisms have been shown to mediate BPA-induced brain
      deficits, there are almost no reports addressing its underlying physiological
      mechanisms at the individual neuron level, particularly in the primary visual
      system. In the present study, using multiple-channel recording technique, we
      recorded the responses of single neurons in the primary visual system of cats to
      various direction stimuli both before and after BPA exposure. The results showed
      that the orientation selectivity of neurons in the primary visual cortex (area
      17, A17) was obviously decreased after 2 h of intravenous BPA administration (0.2
      mg/kg). Moreover, there were worse performances of information transmission of
      A17 neurons, presenting markedly decreased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To some
      extent, these functional decreases were attributable to the altered information
      inputs from lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which showed an increased
      spontaneous activity. Additionally, local injection of BPA (3.3 MUg/ml) in A17
      resulted in an obvious increase in orientation selectivity and a decrease in
      neuronal activity, involving enhanced activity of fast-spiking inhibitory
      interneurons. In conclusion, our results first demonstrate that acute BPA
      exposure can restrict the visual perception of cats, mainly depending on the
      alteration of the LGN projection, not the intercortical interaction. Importantly,
      BPA-induced-brain deficits might not only be confined to the cortical level but
      also occur as early as at the subcortical level.

PMID- 28875310
TI  - Simultaneous analysis of multiple T helper subsets in leprosy reveals distinct
      patterns of Th1, Th2, Th17 and Tregs markers expression in clinical forms and
      reactional events.
AB  - Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Previous
      studies have demonstrated that the difference among clinical forms of leprosy can
      be associated with the immune response of patients, mainly by T helper (Th) and
      regulatory T cells (Tregs). Then, aiming at clarifying the immune response, the
      expression of cytokines related to Th1, Th2, Th17 and Tregs profiles were
      evaluated by qPCR in 87 skin biopsies from leprosy patients. Additionally,
      cytokines and anti-PGL-1 antibodies were determined in serum by ELISA. The
      results showed that the expression of various targets (mRNA) related to Th1, Th2,
      Th17 and Tregs were significantly modulated in leprosy when compared with healthy
      individuals, suggesting the presence of a mixed profile. In addition, the targets
      related to Th1 predominated in the tuberculoid pole and side and Th2 and Tregs
      predominated in the lepromatous pole and side; however, Th17 targets showed a
      mixed profile. Concerning reactional events, Tregs markers were decreased and IL
      15 was increased in reversal reaction and IL-17F, CCL20 and IL-8 in erythema
      nodosum leprosum, when compared with the respective non-reactional leprosy
      patients. Additionally, ELISA analysis demonstrated that IL-22, IL-6, IL-10 and
      anti-PGL-1 antibody levels were significantly higher in the serum of patients
      when compared with healthy individuals, and IL-10 and anti-PGL-1 antibodies were
      also increased in the lepromatous pole and side. Together, these results indicate
      that Th1, Th2 and Th17 are involved in the determination of clinical forms of
      leprosy and suggest that decreased Tregs activity may be involved in the
      pathogenesis of reactional events.

PMID- 28875312
TI  - Indication of extrahepatic bile duct resection for gallbladder cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Extrahepatic bile duct (EHBD) resection is performed as part of radical
      cholecystectomy for gallbladder (GB) cancer. However, the indication for EHBD
      resection is still controversial. The aim of the present study was to evaluate
      the prognostic value of this procedure. METHODS: Patients who underwent surgical
      resection for GB cancer with curative intent were enrolled. We divided GB cancer
      into two categories based on the tumor location: proximal-type and distal-type
      tumors. The former refers to tumors involving the neck or cystic duct, while the
      latter comprises tumors located between the body and fundus. RESULTS: This study
      included 80 patients, 40 each with proximal- and distal-type tumors. Proximal
      tumor location, lymph node metastasis, and a serum carcinoembryonic antigen level
      > 5.0 ng/mL were independent predictors of poor prognosis. The 5-year survival
      rates of patients with proximal-type and distal-type tumors were 33.3 and 73.5%,
      respectively. Patients with proximal-type tumors showed significantly lower rates
      of R0 resection, more frequently had >= 3 metastatic lymph nodes, and exhibited a
      higher rate of perineural invasion. EHBD resection improved prognoses only in
      patients with proximal-type tumors but not in those with distal-type tumors. In
      the former group, EHBD resection significantly reduced the rate of local or
      regional lymph node recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Extended cholecystectomy with EHBD
      resection should be performed for patients with GB cancer involving the neck and
      cystic duct to reduce local and regional lymph node recurrence and achieve better
      prognosis.

PMID- 28875313
TI  - Hip fracture risk in patients with burn injury: a retrospective cohort study in
      Taiwan.
AB  - : This work aimed to evaluate the hip fracture risk for patients with burn
      injury. A total of 16,430 patients with burn injury had an adjusted hazard ratio
      of 1.54 to encounter a hip fracture, compared with controls without the injury.
      These results encourage future studies focusing on mechanisms leading to fracture
      associated with burn injury. INTRODUCTION: The relationship between burn injury
      and hip fracture risk is unclear. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to
      investigate this relationship. METHODS: From insurance data of Taiwan, we
      identified a cohort with 16,430 burn patients in 2000-2010 and a comparison
      cohort of 65,716 persons without the history of burn, frequency matched by sex,
      age, and diagnosis date. Both cohorts were followed up to the end of 2011 to
      evaluate the risk of hip fracture. RESULTS: Patients with burn injury were 1.62
      fold more likely than comparisons to encounter a hip fracture (6.95 vs. 4.28 per
      1000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.54 (95% confidence
      interval (CI) = 1.40-1.68). The fracture incidence increased with age and is
      slightly greater for women than for men in both cohorts. The fracture risk was
      greater for patients with burn in the eyes, face, and head with an incidence of
      7.14 per 1000 person-years, or an aHR of 2.09 (95% CI = 1.53, 2.86). Diabetes and
      osteoporosis were also associated with an increased hip fracture risk.
      CONCLUSION: Burn injury is associated with an increased risk of hip fracture.
      Diabetes and osteoporosis are associated with an enhanced risk.

PMID- 28875314
TI  - A Systematic Literature Review of Economic Evaluations of Antibiotic Treatments
      for Clostridium difficile Infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is associated
      with high management costs, particularly in recurrent cases. Fidaxomicin
      treatment results in lower recurrence rates than vancomycin and metronidazole,
      but has higher acquisition costs in Europe and the USA. This systematic
      literature review summarises economic evaluations (EEs) of fidaxomicin,
      vancomycin and metronidazole for treatment of CDI. METHODS: Electronic databases
      (MEDLINE(r), Embase, Cochrane Library) and conference proceedings (ISPOR, ECCMID,
      ICAAC and IDWeek) were searched for publications reporting EEs of fidaxomicin,
      vancomycin and/or metronidazole in the treatment of CDI. Reference bibliographies
      of identified manuscripts were also reviewed. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated
      according to the overall population of patients with CDI, as well as in subgroups
      with severe CDI or recurrent CDI, or those at higher risk of recurrence or
      mortality. RESULTS: Overall, 27 relevant EEs, conducted from the perspective of
      12 different countries, were identified. Fidaxomicin was cost-effective versus
      vancomycin and/or metronidazole in 14 of 24 EEs (58.3%), vancomycin was cost
      effective versus fidaxomicin and/or metronidazole in five of 27 EEs (18.5%) and
      metronidazole was cost-effective versus fidaxomicin and/or vancomycin in two of
      13 EEs (15.4%). Fidaxomicin was cost-effective versus vancomycin in most of the
      EEs evaluating specific patient subgroups. Key cost-effectiveness drivers were
      cure rate, recurrence rate, time horizon, drug costs and length and cost of
      hospitalisation. CONCLUSIONS: In most EEs, fidaxomicin was demonstrated to be
      cost-effective versus metronidazole and vancomycin in patients with CDI. These
      results have relevance to clinical practice, given the high budgetary impact of
      managing CDI and increasing restrictions on healthcare budgets. OTHER: This
      analysis was initiated and funded by Astellas Pharma Inc.

PMID- 28875315
TI  - Carotid artery stiffness evaluated early by wave intensity in normal left
      ventricular function in post-radiotherapy patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to assess carotid elasticity early in normal left
      ventricular function in post-radiotherapy patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma
      (NPC) by wave intensity. METHODS: Sixty-seven post-radiotherapy patients all with
      normal left ventricular function were classified into group NPC1 and group NPC2
      based on their carotid intima-media thickness. Thirty age- and sex-matched NPC
      patients without any history of irradiation and chemotherapy were included as a
      control group. Carotid parameters, including stiffness constant (beta), pressure
      strain elastic modulus (Ep), arterial compliance (AC), stiffness constant pulse
      wave velocity (PWVbeta), and wave intensity pulse wave velocity (PWVWI) were
      measured. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in conventional
      echocardiographic variables among the three groups. In comparison with the
      control group, beta, Ep, PWVbeta, and PWVWI were significantly increased, while
      AC was significantly decreased in the NPC1 and NPC2 groups, and there were
      differences between the NPC1 group and NPC2 group (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      This study suggested that carotid artery stiffness increased with reduced carotid
      compliance in post-RT with NPC.

PMID- 28875316
TI  - Reply to the letter to the editor concerning: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal
      polyps are associated with chronic otitis media in the elderly.

PMID- 28875317
TI  - Editorial: Do Orthopaedic Surgeons Belong on the Sidelines at American Football
      Games?

PMID- 28875319
TI  - Kisspeptin expression features in the arcuate and anteroventral periventricular
      nuclei of hypothalamus of letrozole-induced polycystic ovarian syndrome in rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder
      of the reproductive system characterized by polycystic ovaries and androgen
      excess. Letrozole is a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor that is used in
      experimental research to induce PCOS. Kisspeptin is an essential protein in
      regulation of cyclicity. Kisspeptin receptor is expressed in the hypothalamus and
      pituitary glands, and kisspeptin containing neurons are affected from sex steroid
      hormones. We aimed to investigate the number of kisspeptin-positive cells in the
      arcuate (Arc) and anteroventral periventricular nuclei (AVPV) of hypothalamus in
      the letrozole-induced PCOS. METHODS: 40 female Wistar rats were divided into the
      proestrus control, diestrus control, proestrus vehicle, diestrus vehicle and
      letrozole. Animals were sacrificed after 3 weeks, and sera, ovary and brain
      samples were harvested for further evaluations. RESULTS: Letrozole group had high
      weight gain, high numbers of ovarian follicular cysts, high levels of luteinizing
      hormone and testosterone and increase number of kisspeptin-positive cells in the
      Arc nucleus, as compared with the control groups (P <= 0.05 vs. proestrus control
      and proestrus vehicle). Letrozole group showed a decrease in the number of
      kisspeptin-positive cells in the AVPV nucleus (P <= 0.05 vs. proestrus control
      and proestrus vehicle). CONCLUSION: Our findings show that the number of
      kisspeptin-positive cells may be affected from letrozole, and that the changes in
      the number of these cells may be in favor of the appearance of PCOS features in
      this group.

PMID- 28875320
TI  - [Low back pain in rheumatoid arthritis].
AB  - Low back pain (LBP) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has so far been of
      little concern in clinical investigations. The main focus of scientific
      publications on spinal problems in RA was the cervical spine. In a recent study,
      we could demonstrate that LBP in RA patients leads to a significantly higher
      degree of disability and depression as well as to a reduction in quality of life
      compared to RA patients without LBP. If there is a specific reason for the
      additional symptom of LBP, such as spinal stenosis or segmental instability,
      surgical treatment may be indicated to improve disability and quality of life.
      For a successful outcome of spinal surgery it is important to address the
      specific aspects of RA patients, such as poor bone quality and the
      immunosuppressive effect of antirheumatic drug treatment. Whenever possible,
      minimally invasive surgical techniques should be used and the immunosuppressive
      medication should be stopped before surgery.

PMID- 28875321
TI  - Admission-to-discharge temperature reduction in decompensated heart failure is
      associated with rehospitalization.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Decreasing body temperature on first follow-up visit-relative to
      discharge-predicts early rehospitalization in heart failure (HF). We studied
      whether admission-to-discharge temperature reduction was associated with
      increased HF rehospitalization in the ESCAPE trial. METHODS: We compared patients
      with or without >=1  degrees C decrease in temperature from admission-to
      discharge. The study endpoint was rehospitalization due to HF for up to 6 months
      after discharge. RESULTS: Among 354 patients (average age 57 years, 73% men) with
      recorded admission and discharge temperature, 22 (6.2%) had an admission-to
      discharge temperature reduction >=1 oC. Patients with admission-to-discharge
      temperature reduction >=1 oC had higher frequency of rehospitalization for HF
      (68.2% vs. 44.3%, estimated odds ratio [OR] 2.697, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      1.072-6.787, P = 0.029) despite a significantly higher admission temperature. On
      multivariate analysis, admission-to-discharge temperature reduction >=1 oC
      predicted rehospitalization for HF (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.028-3.966, P = 0.041) after
      adjustment for age, BMI, baseline Na, creatinine, ejection fraction and discharge
      NYHA class. A standard logistic model treating temperature change as a continuous
      variable, and a model using a restricted cubic spline, did not demonstrate a
      statistically significant relationship between temperature reduction and HF
      rehospitalization. Subsequently, an altered logistic model was fit expressing the
      log odds of HF rehospitalization as a piecewise linear function of temperature
      decrease; this model did demonstrate statistical significance (P = 0.013) with an
      estimated odds ratio of 1.140 per 0.1 oC beyond 0.5 oC. CONCLUSION: Admission-to
      discharge temperature reduction >=1 oC is an unfavorable prognostic sign
      associated with future rehospitalization due to HF.

PMID- 28875318
TI  - Influence of gut microbiota on the development and progression of nonalcoholic
      steatohepatitis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is characterized by the
      presence of steatosis, inflammation, and ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes,
      with or without fibrosis. The prevalence of NASH has increased with the obesity
      epidemic, but its etiology is multifactorial. The current studies suggest the
      role of gut microbiota in the development and progression of NASH. The aim is to
      review the studies that investigate the relationship between gut microbiota and
      NASH. These review also discusses the pathophysiological mechanisms and the
      influence of diet on the gut-liver axis. RESULT: The available literature has
      proposed mechanisms for an association between gut microbiota and NASH, such as:
      modification energy homeostasis, lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-endotoxemia, increased
      endogenous production of ethanol, and alteration in the metabolism of bile acid
      and choline. There is evidence to suggest that NASH patients have a higher
      prevalence of bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine and changes in the
      composition of the gut microbiota. However, there is still a controversy
      regarding the microbiome profile in this population. The abundance of
      Bacteroidetes phylum may be increased, decreased, or unaltered in NASH patients.
      There is an increase in the Escherichia and Bacteroides genus. There is depletion
      of certain taxa, such as Prevotella and Faecalibacterium. CONCLUSION: Although
      few studies have evaluated the composition of the gut microbiota in patients with
      NASH, it is observed that these individuals have a distinct gut microbiota,
      compared to the control groups, which explains, at least in part, the genesis and
      progression of the disease through multiple mechanisms. Modulation of the gut
      microbiota through diet control offers new challenges for future studies.

PMID- 28875322
TI  - Application of in-plant control measures in some Egyptian micro-scale dairy
      enterprises and its impact on heavy metal contents of their products.
AB  - Egypt is encouraging micro-scale enterprises as proved to be one of the most
      important reasons of economic growth. Most of the annual milk production is
      processed in micro-scale dairy enterprises located in squatter areas with high
      health risks and negative environmental impact. The aim of this study was to
      assess the effectiveness of in-plant control measures in controlling lead and
      cadmium levels in dairy products from nine Egyptian micro-scale enterprises. The
      results revealed that white cheese enterprises had the highest mean lead and
      cadmium contents; both in their raw milk (0.712 and 0.134 mg/L, respectively) and
      final products (0.419 and 0.061 mg/kg). Higher compliance percentages were found
      with cadmium levels specified in the Egyptian standards than with lead levels and
      ranged from 59.4% in raw milk to 100% in dry milk for cadmium levels and from
      8.3% in white cheese to 66.7% in ice cream for lead; moreover, none of the
      collected raw milk samples were complying with the lead levels. After
      implementation of in-plant control measures, lower lead levels were found in all
      samples with reduction percentages ranging from 35.2% in raw milk from the ice
      cream enterprises to 73.2% in yoghurt; moreover, higher percentages of samples
      complied with cadmium levels. This study highlights the urgent need for applying
      in-plant control measures to the Egyptian micro-scale dairy enterprises to
      improve both safety and quality of their products.

PMID- 28875323
TI  - Evodiamine Inhibits Angiotensin II-Induced Rat Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of evodiamine (Evo), a component of
      Evodiaminedia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth, on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by
      angiotensin II (Ang II) and further explore the potential mechanisms. METHODS:
      Cardiomyocytes from neonatal Sprague Dawley rats were isolated and characterized,
      and then the cadiomyocyte cultures were randomly divided into control, model (Ang
      II 0.1 MUmol/L), and Evo (0.03, 0.3, 3 MUmol/L) groups. The cardiomyocyte surface
      area, protein level, intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i) concentration, activity
      of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and content of nitric oxide (NO) were measured,
      respectively. The mRNA expressions of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF),
      calcineurin (CaN), extracellular signal-regulated kinase-2 (ERK-2), and
      endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) of cardiomyocytes were analyzed by real
      time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction. The protein expressions of
      calcineurin catalytic subunit (CnA) and mitogen-activated protein kinase
      phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) were detected by Western blot analysis. RESULTS: Compared
      with the control group, Ang II induced cardiomyocytes hypertrophy, as evidenced
      by increased cardiomyocyte surface area, protein content, and ANF mRNA
      expression; increased intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i) concentration and
      expressions of CaN mRNA, CnA protein, and ERK-2 mRNA, but decreased MKP-1 protein
      expression (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Compared with Ang II, Evo (0.3, 3 MUmol/L)
      significantly attenuated Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, decreased the
      [Ca2+]i concentration and expressions of CaN mRNA, CnA protein, and ERK-2 mRNA,
      but increased MKP-1 protein expression (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Most interestingly,
      Evo increased the NOS activity and NO production, and upregulated the eNOS mRNA
      expression (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Evo signifificantly attenuated Ang II-induced
      cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and this effect was partly due to promotion of NO
      production, reduction of [Ca2+]i concentration, and inhibition of CaN and ERK-2
      signal transduction pathways.

PMID- 28875324
TI  - [Extreme obesity-particular aspect of invasive and noninvasive ventilation].
AB  - The obesity rate is increasing worldwide and the percentage of obese patients in
      the intensive care unit (ICU) is rising concomitantly. Ventilatory support
      strategies in obese patients must take into account the altered
      pathophysiological conditions. Unfortunately, prospective randomized multicenter
      trials on this subject are lacking. Therefore, current strategies are based on
      the individual experiences of ICU physicians and single-center studies.
      Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in critically ill patients with acute respiratory
      failure and obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS) is an efficient treatment
      option and should be provided as early as possible is an effort to avoid
      intubation. Patient positioning is also crucial: half-sitting positions (>45
      degrees ) improve lung compliance and functional residual capacity in patients
      with respiratory failure. Transpulmonary pressure measurements or the Acute
      Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) Network tables may help to adjust the
      optimal positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). The tidal volume should be
      adapted to the ideal and not the actual bodyweight (Vt = 6 ml/kg of ideal
      bodyweight) to avoid lung damage and (additional) right ventricular stress. Under
      particular conditions, inspiratory pressures >30 cmH2O may be tolerated for a
      limited duration. Early tracheostomy combined with termination/reduction of
      sedation and relaxation is controversy discussed in the literature as a
      therapeutic option during invasive ventilation of morbidly obese patients.
      However, data on early tracheotomy in obese respiratory failure patients are rare
      and this should be regarded as an individual treatment attempt only. In cases of
      refractory lung failure, venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vv-ECMO)
      is an option despite anatomic changes in morbid obesity.

PMID- 28875325
TI  - [Response evaluation in nuclear medicine : Criteria, results and pitfalls].
AB  - CLINICAL/METHODICAL ISSUE: Established criteria to categorize metabolic tumor
      response to cytotoxic chemotherapies may not be suited to capture the effects of
      therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) or with kinase inhibitors (KI),
      such as BRAF or MEK inhibitors. NUCLEAR MEDICINE STANDARD METHODS: To assess the
      metabolic response to cytotoxic chemotherapy by positron emission tomography
      (PET) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), the criteria of the European
      Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the positron
      emission tomography response criteria in solid tumors (PERCIST) were conceived.
      The salient features of both criteria are detailed in a comparative way.
      PERFORMANCE AND ACHIEVEMENTS: To date only retrospective data exist for the
      evaluation of therapies with either ICI or KI. They show that response to ICI
      cannot be reliably determined using the established criteria. Employing the EORTC
      criteria the responses to KI can be adequately ascertained so that the metabolic
      tumor response in FDG-PET is regarded as a surrogate marker for the efficacy of
      these drugs. PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS: Tumor response to therapy with ICI cannot
      at present be assessed with FDG-PET. Responses to BRAF and MEK inhibitors are,
      however, assessable using the criteria that were originally developed to evaluate
      responses to cytotoxic chemotherapy.

PMID- 28875326
TI  - Neuroradiologic Characteristics of Primary Angiitis of the Central Nervous System
      According to the Affected Vessel Size.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has an important impact in
      diagnosing primary angiitis of the central nervous system (PACNS). However,
      neuroradiologic findings may vary immensely, making an easy and definite
      diagnosis challenging. METHODS: In this retrospective, single center study, we
      analyzed neuroradiologic findings of patients with PACNS diagnosed at our
      hospital between 2009 and 2014. Furthermore, we classified patients according to
      the affected vessel size and compared imaging characteristics between the
      subgroups. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients were included (mean age 43 [+/-15.3]
      years, 17 females) in this study. Patients with positive angiographic findings
      were classified as either medium or large vessel PACNS and presented more
      ischemic lesions (p < 0.001) and vessel wall enhancement (p = 0.017) compared to
      patients with small vessel PACNS. No significant differences were detected for
      the distribution of contrast-enhancing lesions (parenchymal or leptomeningeal),
      hemorrhages, or lesions with mass effect. Twenty-five patients underwent brain
      biopsy. Patients with medium or large vessel PACNS were less likely to have
      positive biopsy results. DISCUSSION: It is essential to differentiate between
      small and medium/large vessel PACNS since results in MRI, digital subtraction
      angiography and brain biopsy may differ immensely. Since image quality of MR
      scanners improves gradually and brain biopsy may often be nonspecific or
      negative, our results emphasize the importance of MRI/MRA in the diagnosis
      process of PACNS.

PMID- 28875327
TI  - The Effects of Selenium Supplementation on Gene Expression Related to Insulin and
      Lipid in Infertile Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Women Candidate for In Vitro
      Fertilization: a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
AB  - : This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of selenium supplementation on
      gene expression related to insulin and lipid in infertile women with polycystic
      ovary syndrome (PCOS) candidate for in vitro fertilization (IVF). This randomized
      double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted among 40 infertile women
      with PCOS candidate for IVF. Subjects were randomly allocated into two groups to
      intake either 200-MUg selenium (n = 20) or placebo (n = 20) per day for 8 weeks.
      Gene expression levels related to insulin and lipid were quantified in
      lymphocytes of women with PCOS candidate for IVF with RT-PCR method. Results of
      RT-PCR demonstrated that after the 8-week intervention, compared with the
      placebo, selenium supplementation upregulated gene expression of peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma) (1.06 +/- 0.15-fold increase
      vs. 0.94 +/- 0.18-fold reduction, P = 0.02) and glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1)
      (1.07 +/- 0.20-fold increase vs. 0.87 +/- 0.18-fold reduction, P = 0.003) in
      lymphocytes of women with PCOS candidate for IVF. In addition, compared with the
      placebo, selenium supplementation downregulated gene expression of low-density
      lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) (0.88 +/- 0.17-fold reduction vs. 1.05 +/- 0.22-fold
      increase, P = 0.01) in lymphocytes of women with PCOS candidate for IVF. We did
      not observe any significant effect of selenium supplementation on gene expression
      levels of lipoprotein(a) [LP(a)] in lymphocytes of women with PCOS candidate for
      IVF. Overall, selenium supplementation for 8 weeks in lymphocytes of women with
      infertile PCOS candidate for IVF significantly increased gene expression levels
      of PPAR-gamma and GLUT-1 and significantly decreased gene expression levels of
      LDLR, but did not affect LP(a). CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      http://www.irct.ir : IRCT201704245623N113.

PMID- 28875328
TI  - [Critical consideration of the European Association for Neuro-Oncology (EANO)
      guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of adult astrocytic and oligodendroglial
      gliomas].

PMID- 28875329
TI  - The STAT3 inhibitor pyrimethamine displays anti-cancer and immune stimulatory
      effects in murine models of breast cancer.
AB  - The transcription factor signal activator and transducer or transcription
      (STAT3), which regulates genes controlling proliferation, survival, and invasion,
      is activated inappropriately in many human cancers, including breast cancer.
      Activation of STAT3 can lead to both malignant cellular behavior and suppression
      of immune cell function in the tumor microenvironment. Through a chemical-biology
      screen, pyrimethamine (PYR), an FDA approved anti-microbial drug, was identified
      as an inhibitor of STAT3 function at concentrations known to be achieved safely
      in humans. We report that PYR shows therapeutic activity in two independent mouse
      models of breast cancer, with both direct tumor inhibitory and immune stimulatory
      effects. PYR-inhibited STAT3 activity in TUBO and TM40D-MB metastatic breast
      cancer cells in vitro and inhibited tumor cell proliferation and invasion into
      Matrigel basement membrane matrix. In tumor-transplanted mice, PYR had both
      direct and indirect tumor inhibitory effects. Tumor-bearing mice treated with PYR
      showed reduced STAT3 activation in tumor cells, attenuated tumor growth, and
      reduced tumor-associated inflammation. In addition, expression of Lamp1 by tumor
      infiltrating CD8+ T cells was elevated, indicating enhanced release of cytotoxic
      granules. These findings suggest that PYR may have beneficial effects in the
      treatment of breast cancer.

PMID- 28875330
TI  - Liposomes co-Loaded with 6-Phosphofructo-2-Kinase/Fructose-2, 6-Biphosphatase 3
      (PFKFB3) shRNA Plasmid and Docetaxel for the Treatment of non-small Cell Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Non-small cell lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths
      globally. Considering the side effects and diminishing chemosensitivity to
      chemotherapy, novel treatment approaches are sought. Hence, we aim to develop a
      liposomal co-delivery system of pDNA expressing shRNA against PFKFB3 (pshPFKFB3)
      and docetaxel (DTX). METHODS: Cationic DTX liposomes complexed with pshPFKFB3
      (PSH-DL) were developed. In vitro cell line studies were performed to evaluate
      transfection, PFKFB3 mRNA silencing, cytotoxicity, pGP inhibition, and protein
      markers expression. In vivo efficacy study was performed in A549 xenograft nude
      mice model. RESULTS: Cytotoxicity studies showed significantly enhanced
      anticancer activity of PSH-DL against individual treatment alone confirming the
      chemoenhancing effect of pshPFKFB3 on DTX activity. Fluorescence microscopy and
      RT-PCR showed effective transfection and RNAi by pshPFKFB3. pGP inhibition assay
      and western blotting revealed that PFKFB3 downregulation caused diminution of pGP
      activity leading to changes in cell cycle (Cdk2), survival (survivin), apoptosis
      (Bcl2 and cleaved caspase 3) and stress (p-JNK and p-p38) markers so that induces
      apoptosis by PSH-DL in NSCLC cells. PSH-DL also showed ~3.8-fold reduction in
      tumor volume in A549 xenograft model which was significantly higher than
      individual treatments alone. CONCLUSION: Targeting PFKFB3 through shRNA based
      RNAi is a promising approach for potentiating activity of DTX in NSCLC.

PMID- 28875331
TI  - Implication of connexin30 on the stemness of glioma: connexin30 reverses the
      malignant phenotype of glioma by modulating IGF-1R, CD133 and cMyc.
AB  - Gap-junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) plays a major role in the
      malignant growth of glioma. Although the mechanistic aspects of GJIC have been
      extensively studied, the role of connexins in the regulation of the malignant
      behavior of glioma stem cells (GSCs) remains unclear. In our previous studies, we
      have shown that connexin30 can interfere with the insulin-like growth factor 1
      receptor (IGF-1R), which is known for self-renewal and pluripotency. Following
      our earlier in vitro observation, in this work, we aimed to study the consequence
      of this influence of Cx30 on IGF-1R by evaluating the marker of GSCs, CD133 and
      oncoprotein, cMyc. We strengthened our basis by examining human glioma samples of
      different grades as well as rat C6 xenografts (Cx30-transfected and -non
      transfected C6 cells) along with the sphere formation assays in vitro.
      Investigation of stemness-related CD133 and cMyc in human samples and rat
      xenografts exhibited a reciprocal relationship between Cx30 and IGF-1R in the low
      and high grades (HG) of glioma. Cx30 was completely abolished in HG; levels of
      IGF-1R, CD133 and cMyc expression were positively correlated with HG. Cx30
      transfection could attenuate the malignant burden of glioma in rat xenografts.
      Cx30 transfection also altered the tumor sphere formation of C6 glioma cells in
      vitro, an important property of GSCs, and there was a significant reduction of
      CD133 and cMyc expression by Cx30 both in vitro and in vivo. These factors
      indicate that dysfunction of Cx30 plays a crucial role in the prevention of the
      stemness of glioma, and the exploitation of this feature will help in the
      management of glioma.

PMID- 28875332
TI  - The Population Education Transition Curve: Education Gradients Across Population
      Exposure to New Health Risks.
AB  - The salutary effect of formal education on health-risk behaviors and mortality is
      extensively documented: ceteris paribus, greater educational attainment leads to
      healthier lives and longevity. Even though the epidemiological evidence has
      strongly indicated formal education as a leading "social vaccine," there is
      intermittent reporting of counter-education gradients for health-risk behavior
      and associated outcomes for certain populations during specific periods. How can
      education have both beneficial and harmful effects on health, and under which
      contexts do particular effects emerge? It is useful to conceptualize the
      influence of education as a process sensitive to the nature, timing of entry, and
      uniqueness of a new pleasurable and desirable lifestyle and/or product (such as
      smoking) with initially unclear health risks for populations. Developed herein is
      a hypothesis that the education gradient comprises multiple potent pathways
      (material, psychological, cognitive) by which health-risk behaviors are
      influenced, and that there can be circumstances under which pathways act in
      opposite directions or are differentially suppressed and enhanced. We propose the
      population education transition (PET) curve as a unifying functional form to
      predict shifting education gradients across the onset and course of a
      population's exposure to new health risks and their associated consequences.
      Then, we estimate PET curves for cases with prior epidemiological evidence of
      heterogeneous education gradients with health-risk behaviors related to mass
      produced cigarettes in China and the United States; saturated fats, sugar, and
      processed food diets in Latin America; and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
      Each offers speculation on interactions between environmental factors during
      population exposure and education pathways to health-risk behaviors that could be
      responsible for the temporal dynamics of PET curves. Past epidemiological studies
      reporting either negative or positive education gradients may not represent
      contradictory findings as much as come from analyses unintentionally limited to
      just one part of the PET process. Last, the PET curve formulation offers richer
      nuances about educational pathways, macro-historical population dynamics, and the
      fundamental cause of disease paradigm.

PMID- 28875333
TI  - Circulating pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic microRNA expressions in patients
      with acute ischemic stroke and their association with disease severity.
AB  - The main objectives of this study are to evaluate 28 selected pro-angiogenic and
      anti-angiogenic microRNA (miRNA) expressions in plasma of acute ischemic stroke
      (AIS) patients and controls and to assess the correlations of these miRNAs with
      risk and severity of AIS. In the exploring stage, 10 AIS patients and 10 controls
      with vascular risk factors were enrolled. And in the validating stage, 106 AIS
      patients and 110 controls with the same eligibility were recruited. Blood samples
      were collected from participants within 24 h post the onset of symptoms, and
      plasma levels of miRNAs were evaluated by the qPCR method. In the exploring
      stage, 11 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEM) were identified and included into
      the validating stage. In the validating stage, the expression of miR-126, miR
      130a, and miR-378 in plasma declined in the AIS patients; however, miR-222, miR
      218, and miR-185 plasma levels were elevated. Univariate and multivariate
      logistic regression analysis disclosed that miR-126, miR-130a, miR-222, miR-218,
      and miR-185 were independent predicting factors for AIS. When these five DEMs
      were combined together, they presented a good diagnostic value with an area under
      curve (AUC) value of 0.767 (95% CI 0.705-0.829), sensitivity of 87.7%, and
      specificity of 54.5% at best cutoff point. Additionally, miR-126, miR-378, miR
      101, miR-222, miR-218, and miR-206 were associated with National Institutes of
      Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score. Circulating miR-126, miR-130a, miR-222, miR
      218, and miR-185 could be served as promising and independent biomarkers for risk
      of AIS, and miR-126, miR-378, miR-222, miR-101, miR-218, and miR-206 could be
      used for disease severity management of AIS.

PMID- 28875334
TI  - Preoperative Prognostic Factors After Liver Resection for Non-Colorectal, Non
      Neuroendocrine Liver Metastases and Validation of the Adam Score in an Asian
      Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Historically, the benefit of liver resection for non-colorectal, non
      neuroendocrine (NCNN) liver metastases has been controversial. This study aims to
      determine the preoperative prognostic factors of liver resection for NCNN liver
      metastases and validate the Adam score in an Asian population. METHODS:
      Consecutive patients who underwent liver resection for NCNN liver metastases were
      identified retrospectively from a prospective liver resection database of the
      single institution between 2001 and 2014. Univariate Cox regression models were
      used to identify associations with outcome variables. Recurrence-free interval
      and overall survival were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared
      using log-rank test. RESULTS: Seventy-eight consecutive patients were identified,
      which met the study criteria. Univariate analysis demonstrated that
      adenocarcinoma histology of primary cancer, disease-free interval and number of
      nodules were significant predictors of survival. Four of the six components of
      Adam score were significant predictors of survival. These were the presence of
      extrahepatic metastases, R2 resection, disease-free interval and type of a
      primary tumour. The total Adam score was also a significant predictor of
      survival. CONCLUSION: Liver resection for NCNN liver metastases is a safe and
      viable treatment option in carefully selected patients. Significant preoperative
      prognostic factors include adenocarcinoma primary tumours, disease-free interval
      and number of nodules. The total Adam score was a good predictor of overall
      survival and can be used to risk stratify patients undergoing hepatic resection
      for NCNN liver metastases.

PMID- 28875335
TI  - Facilitation of Fast Backward Priming After Left Cerebellar Continuous Theta
      Burst Stimulation.
AB  - Traditional theories of backward priming account only for the priming effects
      found at long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Here, we suggest that the
      presence of backward priming at short SOAs may be related to the integrative role
      of the cerebellum. Previous research has shown that the right cerebellum is
      involved in forward associative priming. Functional magnetic resonance imaging
      reveals some activation of the left cerebellar hemisphere during backward
      priming; but what this activation represents is unclear. Here we explore this
      issue using continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) and
      associative priming in a lexical decision task. We tested the hypothesis that the
      left cerebellum plays a role in backward priming and that this is dissociated
      from the role of the right cerebellum in forward priming. Before and after cTBS
      was applied to their left and right cerebellar hemispheres, participants
      completed a lexical decision task. Although we did not replicate the forward
      priming effect reported in the literature, we did find a significant increase in
      backward priming after left relative to right cerebellar cTBS. We consider how
      theories of cerebellar function in the motor domain can be extended to language
      and cognitive models of backward priming.

PMID- 28875336
TI  - Progression of liver fibrosis can be controlled by adequate chelation in
      transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT).
AB  - A substantial proportion of patients with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia
      major suffer from chronic liver disease. Iron overload resulting from repeated
      transfusions and HCV infection has been implicated in the development of liver
      fibrosis. Hepatic siderosis and fibrosis were assessed in 99 transfusion
      dependent thalassemia (TDT) patients using transient elastography (TE) and liver
      iron concentration (LIC) assessed by T2*MRI at baseline and after 4 years. Data
      were analyzed retrospectively. At baseline, the overall mean liver stiffness
      measurement (LSM) was 7.4 +/- 3.2 kPa and the mean LIC was 4.81 +/- 3.82 mg/g dw
      (n = 99). Data available at 4 +/- 1.5 years showed a significant reduction in LSM
      (6.6 +/- 3.2 kPa, p 0.017) and hepatic siderosis measured by LIC (3.65 +/- 3.45
      mg/g dw, p 0.001). This result was confirmed when considering patients with iron
      overload at the time of the first measurement (n = 41) and subjects treated with
      a stable dose of deferasirox over the entire period of observation (n = 39). A
      reduction of LSM, yet not statistically significant, was achieved in patients on
      combined deferoxamine + deferiprone, while the group on deferoxamine (n = 11)
      remained stable over time. HCV-RNA positivity was found in 33 patients at T0, 20
      of which were treated during the observation period. Patients who underwent anti
      HCV therapy showed a more evident reduction in LSM (9 +/- 3 vs 7 +/- 3.1 kPa, p
      0.016). Adequate chelation therapy is mandatory in order to prevent liver disease
      progression in TDT. Patients could benefit from regular non-invasive assessment
      of liver fibrosis by TE to indirectly monitor treatment adequacy and therapeutic
      compliance.

PMID- 28875337
TI  - Clinical and molecular analysis of 6 Chinese patients with isoleucine metabolism
      defects: identification of 3 novel mutations in the HSD17B10 and ACAT1 gene.
AB  - Hydroxysteroid (17beta) dehydrogenase 10 (HSD10) and mitochondrial acetoacetyl
      CoA thiolase (beta-KT) are two adjacent enzymes for the degradation of
      isoleucine, thus HSD10 and beta-KT deficiencies are confusing at an early stage
      because of nearly the same elevation of typical metabolites in urine, such as 2
      methyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid (2M3HBA) and tiglylglycine (TG). In order to better
      understand the differences between these two disorders, we described the clinical
      and molecular characteristics of two HSD10 deficiency patients and four beta-KT
      deficiency patients. beta-KT deficiency patients had a much more favorable
      outcome than that of HSD10 deficiency patients, indicating that the multifunction
      of HSD10, especially neurosteroid metabolic activity, other than only enzymatic
      degradation of isoleucine, is involved in the pathogenesis of HSD10 deficiency.
      Two different mutations, a novel mutation p.Ile175Met and a reported mutation
      p.Arg226Gln, were detected in the HSD17B10 gene of HSD10 deficiency patients. Six
      different mutations, including four known mutations: p.Ala333Pro, p.Thr297Lys,
      c.83_84delAT, c.1006-1G > C, and two novel mutations: p.Thr277Pro and c.121-3C >
      G were identified in the ACAT1 gene of beta-KT deficiency patients. In general,
      DNA diagnosis played an important role in distinguishing between these two
      disorders.

PMID- 28875338
TI  - The Significance of SCC and CEA mRNA in the Pleural Cavity After Lymphadenectomy
      in Esophageal Cancer Patients who Underwent Preoperative Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This report focuses on the surgical manipulation and spread of cancer
      cells. Our previous study suggested an association between a poor prognosis and
      positive pleural lavage cytology after resection of esophageal cancer without
      preoperative treatment. However, little is known regarding the clinical
      significance of the lavage procedure in esophageal cancer patients who undergo
      preoperative treatment. METHODS: A cohort of 94 patients with squamous cell
      carcinoma of the esophagus who underwent esophagectomy with radical lymph node
      dissection was prospectively analyzed for free cancer cells in the pleural cavity
      after mediastinal lymphadenectomy. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain
      reaction was performed to detect free cancer cells in the pleural lavage fluid by
      measuring squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen (SCC) and carcinoembryonic
      antigen (CEA). RESULTS: Forty-two patients (44.7%) were positive for SCC after
      thoracic lymphadenectomy, and 15 patients (15.9%) were positive for CEA. SCC
      positivity was significantly associated with venous invasion (p = 0.037) and with
      the clinical response to preoperative treatment (p = 0.001). Furthermore, SCC
      positivity was associated with poor prognosis compared with negative SCC (p =
      0.026). Multivariate analysis revealed that SCC positivity was an independent
      prognostic factor. Regarding recurrence patterns, SCC positivity tended to be
      associated with hematogenous recurrence (p = 0.063). Conversely, positive CEA was
      not associated with any clinicopathological finding, treatment response,
      prognosis, or recurrence pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor spillage during the
      evaluated surgical manipulation was assessed in esophageal cancer patients who
      underwent preoperative treatment. Tumor spillage as evaluated by SCC mRNA was
      associated with a poor prognosis.

PMID- 28875339
TI  - C-Arm Cone Beam CT for Intraprocedural Image Fusion and 3D Guidance in Portal
      Vein Embolization (PVE).
AB  - PURPOSE: Portal vein embolization (PVE) is applied in patients with extended
      oncologic liver disease to induce hyperplasia of the future liver remnant and
      make resection feasible. Ultrasound (US) guidance is the gold standard for
      percutaneous portal vein access. This study evaluated feasibility and safety of C
      arm cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) for needle guidance. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In 10 patients, puncture was performed under 3D needle guidance in a
      CBCT data set. Contrast-enhanced (CE) CBCT was generated (n = 7), or native CBCT
      was registered to pre-examination CE-CT via image fusion (n = 3). Technical
      success, number of punctures, puncture time (time between CBCT acquisition and
      successful portal vein access), dose parameters and safety were evaluated. For
      comparison, 10 patients with PVE under US guidance were analyzed retrospectively.
      Study and control group were matched for age, BMI, INR, platelets, portal vein
      anatomy. RESULTS: All interventions were technically successful without
      intervention-related complications. In the study group, the mean number of
      puncture attempts was 3.1 +/- 2.5. Mean puncture time was 12 min (+/-10). Mean
      total dose area product (DAP) was 288 Gy cm2 (+/-154). The mean relative share of
      CBCT-related radiation exposure was 6% (+/-3). Intervention times and DAP were
      slightly higher compared to the control group without reaching significance.
      CONCLUSION: CBCT-guided PVE is feasible and safe. The relative dose of CBCT is
      low compared to the overall dose of the intervention. This technique may be a
      promising approach for difficult anatomic situations that limit the use of US for
      needle guidance.

PMID- 28875340
TI  - Corneal features in ocular graft-versus-host disease by in vivo confocal
      microscopy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to determine the morphological features of
      the corneal epithelial layers, sub-basal nerve plexus and anterior stroma in
      patients with ocular graft-versus-host disease (oGVHD) compared to non-GVHD dry
      eyes and normal controls, using in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). METHODS: IVCM
      was used to capture central cornea images from eight volunteers with normal
      healthy eyes, ten patients with non-GVHD dry eye syndrome (DES) and 15 patients
      with clinically diagnosed oGVHD, in a cross-sectional study. Morphological
      changes of the corneal epithelial layers and anterior stroma, characteristics of
      corneal nerves and presence of dendritic cells (DCs) were then evaluated.
      RESULTS: IVCM images obtained from 66 eyes were analyzed. The density of
      superficial epithelial cells was 636.07 +/- 101.05 cells/mm2 in the oGVHD group,
      827 +/- 99.62 cells/mm2 in the DES group and 1277.2 +/- 121.42 cells/mm2 in the
      control group (P < 0.001). The density of wing cells was 4499.79 +/- 976.36
      cells/mm2 in the oGVHD group, 4662.85 +/- 319.72 cells/mm2 in DES group and
      6556.38 +/- 503.99 cells/mm2 in the control group (p < 0.001). The density of
      basal cells was 7850.93 +/- 723.51 cells/mm2 in the oGVHD group, 8570 +/- 913.32
      cells/mm2 in DES group and 9759.8 +/- 251.99 cells/mm2 in the control group (p <
      0.01). The density of nerve fibers was 11.22 +/- 5.46 mm/mm2 in the oGVHD group,
      14.50 +/- 4.27 mm/mm2 in DES group and 19.56 +/- 4.75 mm/mm2 in the control group
      (p < 0.01). The DC density was 67.88 +/- 71.82 cells/mm2 in the oGVHD group,
      40.06 +/- 31.95 cells/mm2 in the DES group and 29.45 +/- 8.1 cells/mm2 in the
      control group (P > 0.05). Visible networks of activated keratocytes were seen in
      the anterior stroma of eyes with oGVHD and DES, but not in normal controls.
      CONCLUSIONS: IVCM revealed distinct microstructural changes in the corneas of
      patients with oGVHD and DES, similar between the two groups. Our findings suggest
      implications for use of IVCM to evaluate and monitor patients with dry eyes
      associated or not with GVHD.

PMID- 28875341
TI  - How to adjust endoscopic findings to histopathological findings of the stomach: a
      "histopathology-oriented" correspondence method helps to understand endoscopic
      findings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic findings have now become nearly as detailed as
      histopathological findings. Thus, one-to-one correspondence and precise feedback
      of histopathological findings is very desirable but may be very difficult to
      accomplish. We describe a systematic process called the Kyoto One-to-One
      Correspondence Method (the KOTO Method) that allows detailed adjustments of
      endoscopic findings to match histopathological findings. METHODS AND RESULTS: By
      comparing endoscopic and stereoscopic images of the gastric mucosa, we could
      obtain one-to-one correspondence between endoscopic images and equivalent
      histology in 44 of 47 fields. CONCLUSIONS: The histological structure of gastric
      cancers of the same histological subtype may not be similar. One-to-one
      correspondence between endoscopic images and gastric mucosal histology
      (histopathology-oriented correspondence) will improve endoscopic diagnosis and
      provide more useful information for pathological diagnosis.

PMID- 28875342
TI  - Undiagnosed renal sarcoidosis in a patient with chronic interstitial nephritis.
AB  - A 53-year-old female was admitted to hospital, with acute elevation of SCr and
      hypercalcemia, on a 5-year history of chronic interstitial nephritis and stage
      III chronic kidney disease (CKD). Extensive workup failed to yield a definitive
      diagnosis concerning the cause of the disorder. Intense uptake of 18F-FDG in the
      spleen and liver was detected by PET/CT imaging with negative angiotensin
      converting enzyme (ACE) in serum. The spleen and the hypermetabolism nodules of
      the liver were resected for histopathologic examination and turned out to be
      noncaseating granulomas, likely sarcoidosis. Combined with clinical features, the
      final diagnosis for this patient was sarcoidosis, involving the kidneys, spleen,
      liver, and lungs.

PMID- 28875343
TI  - Production of tartaric acid using immobilized recominant cis-epoxysuccinate
      hydrolase.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression and immobilization of recombinant cis
      epoxysuccinate hydrolase (ESH), and its application in the biological production
      of L-(+)-tartaric acid. RESULTS: E. coli BL21 (DE3)/pET11a-ESH (His) was
      engineered to express recombinant ESH. The enzyme had an activity of 262 U mg-1.
      The recombinant ESH was immobilized on agarose Ni-IDA matrix with metal ion
      affinity interaction to improve its thermostability and pH stability. The
      immobilization efficiency and activity yield were 94 and 95%, respectively. The
      specific catalytic efficiency of immobilized ESH was 104 mg U-1 h-1 during the
      continuous enzymatic production process. CONCLUSION: ESH with a histidine tag was
      immobilized and used for the continuous production of L-(+)-tartaric acid.

PMID- 28875344
TI  - Sweet's syndrome: a clinical entity need to discriminate against acute
      haematogenous periprosthetic joint infection.
AB  - Sweet's syndrome (SS) or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis is an uncommon
      condition. It is characterized by fever, polymorphonuclear leukocytosis, painful
      erythematous cutaneous plaques, and dense dermal infiltrate of neutrophils
      without vasculitis at the site of skin lesions. Lesions in SS might enlarge and
      coalesce with increasing dermal oedema, resulting in pseudo-vesicular appearance
      mimicking joint infections. Here, a rare case of SS mimicking acute haematogenous
      periprosthetic infection in a 74-year-old woman with a history of total knee
      arthroplasty is reported. This report aims to elaborate clinical various
      manifestations of SS in a patient with a history of total knee arthroplasty. In
      addition, this report describes how to discriminate inflammation between SS and
      periprosthetic joint infection. Level of evidence V.

PMID- 28875345
TI  - Modified Hyperbranched Polyglycerol as Dispersant for Size Control and
      Stabilization of Gold Nanoparticles in Hydrocarbons.
AB  - Hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) is modified with dodecanethiol (DS) via the
      "thiol-ene" click reaction to obtain an amphiphilic product DSHPG. The molecular
      structures of DSHPG samples are characterized by NMR, FTIR, and GPC, and the
      thermal behaviors are characterized by DSC and TGA. Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs)
      are prepared with DSHPG as the stabilizer and surface-modification reagent. The
      size of Au NPs can be tuned by changing the molecular weight of HPG. It is
      observed that the HPG molecular weights of 1123, 3826, and 55,075 lead to the NP
      diameters of 4.1 nm for Au@DSHPG-1, 9.7 nm for Au@DSHPG-2, and 15.1 nm for
      Au@DSHPG-3, respectively. The morphology and size of Au NPs are characterized by
      TEM and DLS. Especially, the dispersion abilities of Au NPs in different pure
      solvents and co-solvent mixtures are investigated. The long alkyl chains on DSHPG
      give the ability of Au NPs to be well dispersed in nonpolar solvents. Hydrocarbon
      based nanofluids can be obtained from the hydrophobic Au NPs dispersed into a
      series of hydrocarbons. The dispersion stability for Au NPs in hydrocarbons is
      monitored by UV-Vis spectroscopy, and the relative concentration of Au NPs is
      observed to still maintain over 80% after 3600 h.

PMID- 28875346
TI  - CFTR supports cell death through ROS-dependent activation of TMEM16F (anoctamin
      6).
AB  - Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is the essential
      chloride and bicarbonate channel in the apical membrane of epithelial cells. CFTR
      was also proposed earlier to conduct glutathione (GSH) out of airway epithelial
      cells to be enriched in the apical airway surface liquid to neutralize reactive
      oxygen species (ROS). Although earlier studies suggested that release of GSH by
      wild type (wt) CFTR may lead to an increase in cytosolic ROS, we did not detect
      different ROS levels in cells expressing wt-CFTR and mutant F508del-CFTR,
      independent of CFTR-activation or exposure to the ROS donor tert-butyl
      hydroperoxide. The Ca2+-activated phospholipid scramblase and ion channel TMEM16F
      (anoctamin 6, ANO6) is also expressed in airway cells. ANO6 produced outwardly
      rectifying Cl- currents (ORCC) and scrambled plasma membrane phospholipids when
      activated by increase in cytosolic ROS and consecutive peroxidation of plasma
      membrane lipids. ANO6 activity is enhanced by CFTR, probably through
      translocation of signaling proteins to the plasma membrane. The present data
      suggest that enhanced cell death in CFTR-expressing cells is due to upregulation
      of ANO6-activity. In ANO6 knockout mice, the number of apoptotic cells in the
      intestinal epithelium was strongly reduced, supporting the role of ANO6 for cell
      death. Thus, ANO6 and CFTR act cooperatively on ROS-mediated cell death, which is
      not further augmented by cAMP-dependent stimulation. We propose that ANO6
      supports cell death correlated with expression of CFTR, possibly by inducing
      ferroptosis.

PMID- 28875347
TI  - The relationship between contrast sensitivity and retinal nerve fiber layer
      thickness in patients with glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the correlation between contrast sensitivity (CS) and
      retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in different areas of vision. METHODS: This
      report is a sub-analysis of a prospective, observational cohort study
      investigating changes in performance-based assessment, vision-related quality of
      life, and clinical measures in patients with moderate to advanced glaucoma. The
      study included 161 participants with at least a 2-year history of glaucoma who
      underwent annual testing for 4 years. Contrast sensitivity was measured using the
      Spaeth/Richman contrast sensitivity (SPARCS) test, while RNFL thickness (RNFLT)
      was measured using Cirrus optical coherence tomography (OCT). Statistical
      analyses were performed to determine correlations between CS and RNFLT; the
      correlations were calculated for each annual visit, totaling four correlation
      coefficients for each patient over the course of 4 years. RESULTS: The SPARCS
      score in the left upper area of vision correlated the most strongly with the
      RNFLT of the inferior quadrant for both eyes at each annual visit, specifically
      in the seven o'clock sector for the left eye and the six o'clock sector for the
      right eye (p < 0.05). There were no discernible trends for the correlations
      between the other areas of CS and RNFL quadrants or clock hours over the 4 years
      of the study. Linear regression between the SPARCS total score and average RNFLT
      showed a significant direct correlation at each visit (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Contrast sensitivity in the left upper area of vision for both eyes correlated
      most strongly with the thickness of the inferior quadrant of the RNFL. These
      fibers project to the temporal portion of the right occipital lobe, implying a
      potential center for contrast perception in this area. The longitudinal nature of
      the study suggests that CS may be a predictive tool for changes in RNFL in
      patients with glaucoma. Despite this finding, retinal damage and its relationship
      to CS was diffuse. In addition, SPARCS was shown to predict RNFLT. Further
      research is warranted to understand how CS can be used as a tool in the clinical
      setting.

PMID- 28875348
TI  - Effects of dominant and non-dominant passive arm manoeuvres on the neurovascular
      coupling response.
AB  - PURPOSE: Models designed to study neurovascular coupling (NVC) describe a
      possible cerebral hemisphere dominance dependent on task completed and preference
      in handedness. We investigated whether passive arm manoeuvre performed with
      dominant (Dom-Arm) or non-dominant arm (ND-Arm) stimulated haemodynamic
      differences in either contralateral (Cont-H) or ipsilateral (Ipsil-H) cerebral
      hemisphere. METHODS: Healthy individuals lying in supine position, had
      measurements of beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP, mmHg), electrocardiogram (HR,
      bpm), end-tidal CO2 (etCO2, mmHg), and bilateral insonation of the middle
      cerebral arteries (MCA, cm s-1). Arm movement was performed for 60 s with passive
      flexion and extension of the elbow (1 Hz), before manoeuvre was repeated on other
      arm. Data were normalised and effect of treatment was analysed for differences
      between manoeuvres and within each time period. RESULTS: Seventeen (eight males)
      healthy volunteers, aged 56 +/- 7 years, were studied. Dom-Arm and ND-Arm
      manoeuvres stimulated a comparable temporal response in peripheral and cerebral
      haemodynamic parameters between Cont-H and Ipsil-H. CONCLUSIONS: Both manoeuvres
      can be used to evoke similar bilateral MCA responses in assessing NVC. This
      finding should lead to more efficient protocols when using passive arm movement
      for NVC studies in healthy subjects.

PMID- 28875349
TI  - Variations in optic nerve head morphology by intraocular pressure in open-angle
      glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare optic disc topography in eyes in three intraocular pressure
      (IOP) groups of <15 mmHg, 15-20 mmHg, and >=21 mmHg using spectral domain optical
      coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy,
      adjusting for the degree of damage, as measured by retinal nerve fiber layer
      (RNFL) thickness and average visual field loss. METHODS: A total of 184 eyes of
      112 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma were recruited into groups based on
      baseline untreated intraocular pressure (IOP) of <15 mmHg (normal-tension
      glaucoma [NTG], very low), 15-20 mmHg (NTG, medium), or >=21 mmHg (high-tension
      glaucoma [HTG]). Patients underwent scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, SD-OCT, and
      Humphrey visual field testing. Univariate and multivariate models were created,
      accounting for degree of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss by either OCT RNFL
      thickness or visual field mean deviation (MD). RESULTS: Univariate and
      multivariate analyses demonstrated no morphological differences in HRT or OCT
      parameters among IOP groups that met Bonferroni-corrected statistical
      significance when using either MD or OCT RNFL as the damage criterion (p <
      0.0063). The mean cup depth was shallower for the IOP <15 mmHg group than the IOP
      >=21 mmHg group (p < 0.05) for both MD (p < 0.011) and OCT RNFL (p < 0.014).
      CONCLUSION: Normal-tension and high-tension glaucoma are not distinguishable by
      optic nerve head topography with HRT and OCT when the degree of damage by
      Humphrey visual field testing is taken into account.

PMID- 28875350
TI  - Enantioconvergent hydrolysis of racemic styrene oxide at high concentration by a
      pair of novel epoxide hydrolases into (R)-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To prepare (R)-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol ((R)-PED) with high enantiomeric
      excess (ee p) and yield from racemic styrene oxide (rac-SO) at high concentration
      by bi-enzymatic catalysis. RESULTS: The bi-enzymatic catalysis was designed for
      enantioconvergent hydrolysis of rac-SO by a pair of novel epoxide hydrolases
      (EHs), a Vigna radiata EH3 (VrEH3) and a variant (AuEH2A250I) of Aspergillus
      usamii EH2. The simultaneous addition mode of VrEH3 and AuEH2A250I, exhibiting
      the highest average turnover frequency (aTOF) of 0.12 g h-1 g-1, was selected, by
      which rac-SO (10 mM) was converted into (R)-PED with 92.6% ee p and 96.3% yield.
      Under the optimized reaction conditions: dry weight ratio 14:1 of VrEH3
      expressing E. coli/vreh3 to AuEH2A250I-expressing E. coli/Aueh2 A250I and
      reaction at 20  degrees C, rac-SO (10 mM) was completely hydrolyzed in 2.3 h,
      affording (R)-PED with 98% ee p. At the weight ratio 0.8:1 of rac-SO to two mixed
      dry cells, (R)-PED with 97.4% ee p and 98.7% yield was produced from 200 mM (24
      mg/ml) rac-SO in 10.5 h. CONCLUSIONS: Enantioconvergent hydrolysis of rac-SO at
      high concentration catalyzed by both VrEH3 and AuEH2A250I is an effective method
      for preparing (R)-PED with high ee p and yield.

PMID- 28875351
TI  - Parents' Perspectives About Adolescent Boys' Involvement in Biomedical HIV
      Prevention Research.
AB  - Research on the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among adolescents at high
      risk for HIV is urgently needed, and parents' perspectives on these studies are
      essential for guiding the responsible conduct of adolescent PrEP research. We
      conducted interviews with 30 parents of adolescent boys (50% known/presumed
      heterosexual; 50% sexual minority) to understand their views of research risks
      and benefits and parental permission regarding their son's involvement in a
      hypothetical PrEP adherence trial. Parents identified several health and
      educational benefits of the study and expressed that waiving parental permission
      would overcome barriers to accessing PrEP, particularly for youth who may benefit
      most. Among their concerns were medication non-adherence and risk compensation.
      Parents provided suggestions to facilitate informed, rational, and voluntary
      participation decisions and protect youth's safety if parental permission was
      waived. These findings can inform ways to increase parental trust in PrEP
      research and create adequate protections for adolescent participants.

PMID- 28875353
TI  - Does shape affect function? Articulatory skills in babbling of infants with
      deformational plagiocephaly.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyse pre-speech/early
      language skills in healthy full-term infants with moderate or severe
      deformational plagiocephaly (DP) and in infants without any skull asymmetry.
      METHODS: At 6 and 12 months, 51 children with DP (41 moderate, 10 severe cases)
      were studied, along with 15 infants serving as control. Deformational
      plagiocephaly (DP) was objectively determined based on cranial vault asymmetry
      (CVA) using 3D stereophotogrammetry (3dMDhead System(r) and Analytics 4.0,
      Cranioform(r)). Articulatory skills in babbling were assessed using the
      articulatory skill (ART-index) and mean syllable number (MSN). At 12 months,
      standardized parental questionnaires were used to evaluate early language
      outcomes. RESULTS: Overall, 3546 vocalizations were studied. Statistical tests
      did not reveal any significant differences of the ART-index between the three
      groups (ANOVA, F[2,63] = 0.24, p = 0.24). MSN likewise did not differ between the
      three shape groups (Kruskal-Wallis, p = 0.84). Among the children assigned to the
      at-risk group for language outcomes at 12 months were seven members of the
      symmetrical shape group (vs. seven assigned to the normally developing group),
      nine of the moderate DP group (vs. 27), and one of the severe DP group (vs. six).
      Fisher's exact test was used to analyse whether helmet therapy in the moderate DP
      group affected the results by influencing language outcomes, but did not reveal
      any significant influence (p = 0.712). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study do
      not support arguments suggesting that DP is a cognitive risk condition. The
      suggestion that a direct neurophysiological relationship exists between a DP
      condition and a cognitive developmental delay remains controversial.

PMID- 28875352
TI  - Specificity of Reward Sensitivity and Parasympathetic-Based Regulation among
      Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity and Disruptive Behavior Disorders.
AB  - Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with disruptionsin
      reward sensitivity and regulatory processes. However, it is unclear whether
      thesedisruptions are better explained by comorbid disruptive behavior disorder
      (DBD)symptomology. This study sought to examine this question using multiple
      levels ofanalysis (i.e., behavior, autonomic reactivity). One hundred seventeen
      children (aged 6 to 12 years; 72.6% male; 69 with ADHD) completed theBalloon
      Analogue Risk Task (BART) to assess external reward sensitivity
      behaviorally.Sympathetic-based internal reward sensitivity and parasympathetic
      based regulationwere indexed via cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and
      respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA), respectively. Children with ADHD exhibited
      reduced internal reward sensitivity (i.e.,lengthened PEP; F(1,112)=4.01, p=0.047)
      compared to healthy controls and werecharacterized by greater parasympathetic
      based dysregulation (i.e., reduced RSAaugmentation F(1,112)=10.12, p=0.002).
      However, follow-up analyses indicated theADHD effect was better accounted for by
      comorbid DBD diagnoses; that is, childrenwith ADHD and comorbid ODD were
      characterized by reduced internal rewardsensitivity (i.e., lengthened PEP;
      t=2.47, p=0.046) and by parasympathetic-baseddysregulation (i.e., reduced RSA
      augmentation; t=3.51, p=0.002) in response to rewardwhen compared to typically
      developing youth. Furthermore, children with ADHD and comorbid CD exhibited
      greater behaviorally-based external reward sensitivity (i.e.,more total pops;
      F(3,110)= 5.96, p=0.001) compared to children with ADHD only (t=3.87, p=0.001)
      and children with ADHD and ODD (t=3.56, p=0.003). Results suggest that
      disruptions in sensitivity to reward may be betteraccounted for, in part, by
      comorbid DBD.Key Words: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autonomic
      nervous system,disruptive behavior disorders, reward sensitivityPowered.

PMID- 28875354
TI  - [Life after Acute Kidney Injury : Long-term consequences  and implications for
      clinical practice].
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication in critically ill patients and
      is accompanied by significantly increased mortality and morbidity. Those
      complications are not limited to the acute phase of the illness, but may also
      affect a patient's risk profile long after AKI. Recovery of renal function is
      observed in the majority of patients although this rate significantly
      deteriorates with increasing severity of the AKI. After an AKI episode, the long
      term risk for the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is considerably
      increased, as well as the risk for cardiovascular and neurological complications.
      Follow-up of these patients should include general nephroprotective measures such
      as controlling hypertension as well as avoiding nephrotoxic drugs, as well as
      repeated evaluations of renal function.

PMID- 28875355
TI  - Is there an association between flow diverter fish mouthing and delayed-type
      hypersensitivity to metals?-a case-control study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Flow diverters are increasingly used in the treatment of complex and
      giant intracranial aneurysms. However, they are associated with complications
      like late aneurysmal rupture. Additionally, flow diverters show focal structural
      decrease in luminal diameter without any intimal hyperplasia. This resembles a
      "fish mouth" when viewed en face. In this pilot study, we tested the hypothesis
      of a possible association between flow diverter fish-mouthing and delayed-type
      hypersensitivity to its metal constituents. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed
      patient records from our center between May 2010 and November 2015. A total of
      nine patients had flow diverter fish mouthing. A control group of 25 patients was
      selected. All study participants underwent prospective patch test to detect
      hypersensitivity to flow diverter metal constituents. Analysis was performed
      using logistic regression analysis and Wilcoxon sign rank sum test. Univariate
      and multivariate analyses were performed to test variables to predict flow
      diverter fish mouthing. RESULTS: The association between flow diverter fish
      mouthing and positive patch test was not statistically significant. In
      multivariate analysis, history of allergy and maximum aneurysm size category was
      associated with flow diverter fish mouthing. This was further confirmed on
      Wilcoxon sign rank sum test. CONCLUSION: The study showed statistically
      significant association between flow diverter fish mouthing and history of
      contact allergy and a small aneurysmal size. Further large-scale studies are
      needed to detect a statistically significant association between flow diverter
      fish mouthing and patch test. We recommend early and more frequent follow-up
      imaging in patients with contact allergy to detect flow diverter fish mouthing
      and its subsequent evolution.

PMID- 28875356
TI  - Response to "Commentary on: Undertreatment trend in elderly lung cancer patients
      in Brazil"-Jing-lan Tang, Chun-jie Hou.

PMID- 28875357
TI  - Combined Effects of Temperature and the Microcystin MC-LR on the Feeding Behavior
      of the Rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the responses in filtration and grazing
      rates of five rotifer strains of the species Brachionus calyciflorus under
      different temperatures and MC-LR concentrations. The results showed that strain
      identity, MC-LR concentration, temperature, and the interactions of these factors
      significantly affected both response variables, with the exception of the
      interaction of strain and MC-LR on the grazing rates. At low MC-LR concentrations
      and for the control group, the filtration and grazing rates increased with
      increasing temperature. The filtering and grazing rates of B. calyciflorus
      exposed to higher MC-LR concentrations, however, showed no evident enhancement
      with increasing of temperature. At high temperatures, the filtration and grazing
      rates of all rotifer strains decreased significantly with increasing
      concentration of MC-LR, however B. calyciflorus exhibited a refractory stability
      in the presence of increased MC-LR levels at lower temperatures.

PMID- 28875358
TI  - Determination of Critical Quality Attributes for a Biotherapeutic in the QbD
      Paradigm: GCSF as a Case Study.
AB  - Estimating impact of the various product-related variants and impurities on a
      biotherapeutic's safety and efficacy is an essential requirement in the quality
      by design paradigm. In view of the limited role that clinical studies offer in
      this regard, we demonstrate a preclinical approach to achieve this for
      granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF). While our repeated-dose toxicity
      data suggest that these variants do not elicit any adverse effects or
      histopathological changes, aggregated GCSF impurity caused sluggishness in animal
      behavior manifested by a possible muscular injury. Cell assay data revealed that
      the cys-64-cys74 disulfide bond in reduced GCSF imparts stabilization in absence
      of the cys-36-cys42 bond. PK data demonstrate variability in half lives of
      different species when compared to the native GCSF. PD data along with
      differential expression of JAK-2 and STAT5a genes show that all the tested
      variants triggered the required signal transduction pathways for neutrophil
      proliferation and activation.

PMID- 28875359
TI  - Volatile Chemical Emission as a Weapon of Rearguard Action: A Game-Theoretic
      Model of Contest Behavior.
AB  - We use a game-theoretic model to explore whether volatile chemical (spiroacetal)
      emissions can serve as a weapon of rearguard action. Our basic model explores
      whether such emissions serve as a means of temporary withdrawal, preventing the
      winner of the current round of a contest from translating its victory into
      permanent possession of a contested resource. A variant of this model explores an
      alternative possibility, namely, that such emissions serve as a means of
      permanent retreat, attempting to prevent a winner from inflicting costs on a
      fleeing loser. Our results confirm that the underlying logic of either
      interpretation of weapons of rearguard action is sound; however, empirical
      observations on parasitoid wasp contests suggest that the more likely function of
      chemical weapons is to serve as a means of temporary withdrawal. While our work
      is centered around the particular biology of contest behavior in parasitoid
      wasps, it also provides the first contest model to explicitly consider self
      inflicted damage costs and thus responds to a recent call by empiricists for
      theory in this area.

PMID- 28875360
TI  - [Recurrent instability and instability arthropathy].
AB  - Capsulolabral reconstruction (Bankart repair) is recommended as the first line
      treatment in young and functionally demanding active patients with anteroinferior
      shoulder instability, due to the high tendency to recurrent dislocation. This has
      become established both for arthroscopic and open primary shoulder stabilization
      with good clinical outcome; nevertheless, recurrence of dislocation is reported
      in up to 25% of patients. Risk factors for failed surgery are patient (e.g. young
      age, male gender and contact sports) and surgery (e.g. primarily underestimated
      glenoid bone loss, Hill-Sachs lesion, non-treatment of bipolar defects or
      malpositioned anchors) related. In the management of recurrent instability, it is
      necessary to carry out a thorough clinical investigation in addition to extended
      diagnostics with X-ray and computed tomography. A second Bankart repair is only
      indicated in patients with low demands and without any glenoid bone loss. In the
      majority of patients, bony augmentation of the glenoid is necessary and realized
      by coracoid or iliac crest bone block transfer. The Latarjet procedure is
      biomechanically advantageous due to the additional sling effect of the conjoined
      tendons and both techniques show good clinical outcomes and a low recurrence
      rate. Furthermore, engaging Hill-Sachs lesions also require additional treatment.
      Remplissage of the infraspinatus muscle, iliac crest bone block transfer and
      partial joint replacement are viable options. A final consensus for treatment of
      Hill-Sachs lesions has yet to be defined. Dislocation arthropathy is an
      underestimated complication as a result of frequent recurrent dislocations. After
      development of dislocation arthropathy, patients reported a painful restriction
      of range of motion rather than instability. Arthroscopic arthrolysis and
      comprehensive arthroscopic management (CAM procedure) are possible joint
      preserving treatment options.

PMID- 28875361
TI  - Solvation free energies and partition coefficients with the coarse-grained and
      hybrid all-atom/coarse-grained MARTINI models.
AB  - We present the estimation of solvation free energies of small solutes in water, n
      octanol and hexane using molecular dynamics simulations with two MARTINI models
      at different resolutions, viz. the coarse-grained (CG) and the hybrid all
      atom/coarse-grained (AA/CG) models. From these estimates, we also calculate the
      water/hexane and water/octanol partition coefficients. More than 150 small,
      organic molecules were selected from the Minnesota solvation database and
      parameterized in a semi-automatic fashion. Using either the CG or hybrid AA/CG
      models, we find considerable deviations between the estimated and experimental
      solvation free energies in all solvents with mean absolute deviations larger than
      10 kJ/mol, although the correlation coefficient is between 0.55 and 0.75 and
      significant. There is also no difference between the results when using the non
      polarizable and polarizable water model, although we identify some improvements
      when using the polarizable model with the AA/CG solutes. In contrast to the
      estimated solvation energies, the estimated partition coefficients are generally
      excellent with both the CG and hybrid AA/CG models, giving mean absolute
      deviations between 0.67 and 0.90 log units and correlation coefficients larger
      than 0.85. We analyze the error distribution further and suggest avenues for
      improvements.

PMID- 28875363
TI  - Implantation of Unibody Single-Branched Stent Graft for Patients with Type B
      Aortic Dissections Involving the Left Subclavian Artery: 1-Year Follow-Up
      Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report the early results of castor device, a kind of unibody single
      branched stent graft, in the treatment of type B aortic dissection (TBAD)
      involving the LSA. METHODS: From April 2013 to February 2014, 21 patients with
      TBADs underwent TEVAR with LSA revascularization by unibody single-branched stent
      grafts. Three patients with penetrating aortic ulcers in the aortic arch received
      additional reconstruction of left common carotid artery with chimney technique.
      Follow-up evaluations were conducted with computed tomography angiography (CTA)
      at 6, 12 months and annually after that. RESULTS: All of the proximal entry tears
      were completely excluded. Good patency of the grafts was found in all cases. A
      small type I endoleak occurred in one patient during the procedure. Perioperative
      mortality is null, and there was no occurrence of serious complications. All
      patients completed the follow-up except one lost contact after discharge. One
      death occurred within 6 months after the operation, resulting from myocardial
      infarction, considered unrelated to the stent implantation. No endoleak occurred
      during follow-up. One compression of a chimney stent and one twist of side branch
      graft of castor were observed in 2 different patients, respectively. In other
      cases, CTA scans showed good patency of both the branched and chimney grafts. Two
      patients had partial thrombosis of the false lumen during follow-up. In other
      patients, complete thrombosis in the false lumen in thoracic aorta was revealed.
      CONCLUSION: The single-branched stent graft was safe and efficient in the 1-year
      follow-up. Further studies are required to determine its long-term outcomes.

PMID- 28875362
TI  - Propofol Attenuates Inflammatory Response in LPS-Activated Microglia by
      Regulating the miR-155/SOCS1 Pathway.
AB  - Propofol is a widely used intravenous anesthetic agent with potential
      neuroprotective effect in diverse models of neuronal injury, including ischemic
      stroke and traumatic brain injury. However, few studies have been carried out to
      determine the effects and molecular mechanisms of propofol in classic microglial
      activation (M1 activation) related to neuronal injury. This study explored the
      anti-inflammatory effects of propofol in LPS-activated BV2 microglia. Propofol
      potently decreased the pro-inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide, TNF
      alpha, and IL-6, at both the transcriptional and translational levels.
      Furthermore, propofol suppressed the expression of miR-155 in LPS-activated
      cells. Knockdown of miR-155 attenuated the anti-inflammatory effect of propofol
      in cells after LPS exposure. miR-155 was also confirmed as a negative regulator
      of SOCS1 expression. The inhibitory effect of propofol on LPS-induced
      inflammation involved the upregulation of SOCS1. Overall, these results suggest
      that propofol can suppress the neuroinflammatory response of microglia to LPS
      through the regulation of the miR-155/SOCS1 pathway.

PMID- 28875364
TI  - Age- and sex-based resource utilisation and costs in patients with acute chest
      pain undergoing cardiac CT angiography: pooled evidence from ROMICAT II and ACRIN
      PA trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine resource utilisation according to age and gender
      specific subgroups in two large randomized diagnostic trials. METHODS: We pooled
      patient-specific data from ACRIN-PA 4005 and ROMICAT II that enrolled subjects
      with acute chest pain at 14 US sites. Subjects were randomized between a standard
      work-up and a pathway utilizing cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA)
      and followed for the occurrence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and resource
      utilisation during index hospitalisation and 1-month follow-up. Study endpoints
      included diagnostic accuracy of CCTA for the detection of ACS as well as resource
      utilisation. RESULTS: Among 1240 patients who underwent CCTA, negative predictive
      value of CCTA to rule out ACS remained very high (>=99.4%). The proportion of
      patients undergoing additional diagnostic testing and cost increased with age for
      both sexes (p < 0.001), and was higher in men as compared to women older than 60
      years (43.1% vs. 23.4% and $4559 +/- 3382 vs. $3179 +/- 2562, p < 0.01;
      respectively). Cost to rule out ACS was higher in men (p < 0.001) and
      significantly higher for patients older than 60 years ($2860-5935 in men, p <
      0.001). CONCLUSIONS: CCTA strategy in patients with acute chest pain results in
      varying resource utilisation according to age and gender-specific subgroups,
      mandating improved selection for advanced imaging. KEY POINTS: * In this
      analysis, CAD and ACS increased with age and male gender. * CCTA in patients with
      acute chest pain results in varying resource utilisation. * Significant increase
      of diagnostic testing and cost with age for both sexes. * Cost to rule out ACS is
      higher in men and patients >60 years. * Improved selection of subjects for
      cardiac CTA result in more resource-driven implementation.

PMID- 28875365
TI  - The preoperative albumin level is an independent prognostic factor for optimally
      debulked epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: A low albumin level has been reported to be a prognostic factor for
      various cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the association between
      preoperative serum albumin level and survival in patients with epithelial ovarian
      cancer (EOC). METHODS: Records of 337 patients with EOC that underwent optimal
      cytoreductive surgery were retrospectively reviewed. Threshold albumin level was
      planned as 32.5 g L-1 due to the statistical analyses. RESULTS: Mean overall
      survival was 51.5 months. Area under the ROC curve was found statistically
      significant for the discriminative role of albumin for survival outcome (AUC =
      0.857, 95% CI 0.813-0.90, P < 0.001). The best cut-off point for albumin was
      determined as 32.5 g L-1. The sensitivity rate, specificity rate, positive and
      negative predictive values, and accuracy rate for this cut-off level were found
      67.2, 91.2, 81.2, 83.1, and 82.5%, respectively. Preoperative hypoalbuminemia was
      noted in 101 (30.0%) of the patients, of which 6.2% had an albumin level <25 g L
      1. The albumin level was independently and significantly associated with overall
      survival (HR 2.6; 95% CI 2.1-3.1; P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that
      patients with an albumin level <32.5 and >=32.5 g L-1 had mean estimated overall
      survival of 40.6 and 96.0 months, respectively. Age, stage, and presence of
      ascites were the other independent significant factors. CONCLUSIONS: The
      preoperative albumin level is an independent prognostic factor for overall
      survival in optimally debulked EOC patients. Further investigations about
      preoperative albumin level in prognostic models will contribute to the
      literature.

PMID- 28875367
TI  - Differential item functioning by language on the PROMIS(r) physical functioning
      items for children and adolescents.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the equivalence of self-reports of physical functioning
      between pediatric respondents to the English- and Spanish-language patient
      reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS(r)) physical functioning
      item banks. METHODS: The PROMIS pediatric physical functioning item banks include
      29 upper extremity items and 23 mobility items. A sample of 5091 children and
      adolescents (mean age = 12 years, range 8-17; 49% male) completed the English
      language version of the items. A sample of 605 children and adolescents (mean age
      = 12 years, range 8-17; 55% male; 96% Hispanic) completed the Spanish-language
      version of the items. RESULTS: We found language (English versus Spanish)
      differential item functioning (DIF) for 4 upper extremity items and 7 mobility
      items. Product-moment correlations between estimated upper extremity and mobility
      scores using the English versus the equated Spanish item parameters for Spanish
      language respondents were 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. After excluding cases with
      significant person misfit, we found DIF for the same 4 upper extremity items that
      had DIF in the full sample and for 12 mobility items (including the same 7
      mobility items that had DIF in the full sample). The identification of DIF items
      between English- and Spanish-language respondents was affected slightly by
      excluding respondents displaying person misfit. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this
      study provide support for measurement equivalence of self-reports of physical
      functioning by children and adolescents who completed the English- and Spanish
      language surveys. Future analyses are needed to replicate the results of this
      study in other samples.

PMID- 28875366
TI  - Saikosaponin D relieves unpredictable chronic mild stress induced depressive-like
      behavior in rats: involvement of HPA axis and hippocampal neurogenesis.
AB  - RATIONALE: Saikosaponin D (SSD), a major bioactive component isolated from Radix
      Bupleuri, has been reported to exert neuroprotective properties. OBJECTIVES: The
      present study was designed to investigate the anti-depressant-like effects and
      the potential mechanisms of SSD. METHODS: Behavioural tests including sucrose
      preference test (SPT), open field test (OFT) and forced swim test (FST) were
      performed to study the antidepressant-like effects of SSD. In addition, we
      examined corticosterone and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) levels to evaluate
      hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function. Furthermore, hippocampal
      neurogenesis was assessed by testing doublecortin (DCX) levels, and neurotrophic
      molecule levels were also investigated in the hippocampus of rats. RESULTS: We
      found that unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) rats displayed lost body
      weight, decreased sucrose consumption in SPT, reduced locomotive activity in OFT,
      and increased immobility time in FST. Chronic treatment with SSD (0.75, 1.50
      mg/kg) remarkably ameliorated the behavioral deficiency induced by UCMS
      procedure. SSD administration downregulated elevated serum corticosterone levels,
      as well as alleviated the suppression of GR expression and nuclear translocation
      caused by UCMS, suggesting that SSD is able to remit the dysfunction of HPA axis.
      In addition, Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis showed that SSD
      treatment significantly increased the generation of neurons in the hippocampus of
      UCMS rats indicated by elevated DCX levels. Moreover, hippocampal neurotrophic
      molecule levels of UCMS rats such as phosphorylated cAMP response element binding
      protein (p-CREB) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were raised after
      SSD treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Together, Our results suggest that SSD opposed UCMS
      induced depressive behaviors in rats, which was mediated, partially, by the
      enhancement of HPA axis function and consolidation of hippocampal neurogenesis.

PMID- 28875368
TI  - Relative abundance of beta-thalassemia-related mutations in southern China
      correlates with geographical coordinates.

PMID- 28875369
TI  - [Personalized oncology].
AB  - CLINICAL ISSUE: Innovative next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and
      comprehensive sequencing investigations in large patient cohorts have paved the
      way for very promising personalized treatment strategies based on the molecular
      characteristics of individual tumors. STANDARD TREATMENT: Targeted therapies,
      such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, antibodies and modern immunotherapeutic
      approaches are well established as monotherapy and combination therapy for many
      hematological and oncological malignancies. TREATMENT INNOVATIONS: A plethora of
      innovative therapies targeting various components of intracellular signaling
      cascades and effective mechanisms against oncogenes as well as the availability
      of NGS technologies enable personalized cancer treatment based on the molecular
      profiles of individual tumors and genetic stratification, within clinical trials.
      DIAGNOSTIC WORK-UP: Comprehensive genetic approaches including cancer gene panel
      sequencing, whole exome, whole genome and transcriptome sequencing are carried
      out to a varying extent and particularly in the academic setting. PERFORMANCE:
      Principally, a comprehensive characterization of tumors in addition to DNA and
      RNA sequencing that also incorporates epigenetic, metabolomic, and proteomic
      alterations would be desirable. A comprehensive clinical implementation of
      integrative, multidimensional genetic typing is, however, currently not possible.
      ACHIEVEMENTS: It remains to be demonstrated whether these approaches will
      translate into significantly better outcomes for patients and whether they can be
      increasingly implemented in the routine diagnostic work-up. PRACTICAL
      RECOMMENDATIONS: The selection of diagnostic tools in individual cases and the
      extent of genomic analyses in the clinical context, need to take the availability
      of methods as well as the present clinical situation into account.

PMID- 28875370
TI  - How prepared are pharmacists to support atrial fibrillation patients in adhering
      to newly prescribed oral anticoagulants?
AB  - Background The New Medicines Service (NMS) was implemented in the United Kingdom
      in 2011 and first evaluated in 2014, showing 10% increase on adherence. Objective
      To assess community pharmacists' current practice, knowledge and confidence in
      supporting patients' adherence as part of the NMS for patients on Oral Anti
      Coagulants (OACs) for stroke prevention in Atrial Fibrillation. Setting Community
      pharmacists in London. Method An online cross-sectional survey was sent to
      pharmacists from their Local Pharmaceutical Committees and advertised by the
      Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Analysis was undertaken in SPSs v23 considering a
      confidence level of 95%. Main outcome measures pharmacists reported confidence of
      providing the NMS on OACs; training needs and skills for supporting adherence.
      Results A total of 257 valid responses were analysed (6.8% response rate;
      {Cronbach's alpha = 0.676-0.892}). Data indicates that over a 2-month period, 25%
      of pharmacists had completed >=6 NMS consultations for all OACs, of which 11% for
      new oral anticoagulants (NOACs). The key priorities in counselling items during
      the NMS consultation were to discuss actions to take when bleeding occurs,
      followed by supporting adherence. Pharmacists were more confident in their
      knowledge, skills and access to resources for Vitamin-K Antagonists (VKAs) than
      for NOACs (p < 0.005). Results also highlight pharmacists' unfamiliarity with
      alert cards, lower for NOACs than VKAs (p < 0.001), albeit perceived as
      critically important. Half the sample mentioned to use the British National
      Formulary as information resource. Conclusion Results suggest the provision of
      NMS for NOACs is low. Supporting pharmacists with tailored education and
      adherence support might foster dissemination.

PMID- 28875371
TI  - The effective systematic heparin pre-treatment on thrombus formation on pulmonary
      artery catheter tips during pulmonary endarterectomy for chronic thromboembolic
      pulmonary hypertension: a randomized, double-blind study.
AB  - Pulmonary artery (PA) catheters are routinely used for hemodynamic management in
      patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) undergoing
      pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA). Tip-associated thrombi are frequently detected
      and might increase the peri-operative risk in these patients. The aim of the
      study was to investigate the effects of low-dose heparinization before the
      insertion of the PA catheter on thrombus formation and thrombus weight during PEA
      surgery. From September 2013 to February 2015, 60 CTEPH patients undergoing PEA
      were included in the study and randomized into two groups of 30 patients each,
      including a heparin group (heparin bolus (70 IU per kg body weight)
      administration before PA catheter insertion) and a control group (pretreatment
      with placebo). During the PEA procedure the distal part of the PA catheter was
      drawn out of the PA and thrombus presence and weight were recorded. There were no
      significant differences in baseline characteristics between the two groups.
      Twelve patients (20%) had thrombophilic disorders. In the control group, thrombi
      were detected in 17 patients (57%) with a median thrombus weight of 27 mg (IQR
      41). In the heparin group, tip-associated thrombi were found in five patients
      (17%) with a median weight of 12 mg (IQR 7). There were no bleeding complications
      in either group. This study demonstrates a high risk of PA catheter-related
      thrombi in patients with CTEPH. Prophylactic administration of low-dose heparin
      reduces thrombus formation and thrombus weight without an increased rate of
      bleeding complications.

PMID- 28875372
TI  - Comparison of EMA-, PMA- and DNase qPCR for the determination of microbial cell
      viability.
AB  - Ethidium monoazide (EMA) quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), propidium
      monoazide (PMA)-qPCR and DNase treatment in combination with qPCR were compared
      for the determination of microbial cell viability. Additionally, varying EMA and
      PMA concentrations were analysed to determine which dye and concentration allowed
      for the optimal identification of viable cells. Viable, heat treated (70  degrees
      C for 15 min) and autoclaved cultures of Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus
      faecalis were utilised in the respective viability assays. Analysis of the viable
      and heat-treated samples indicated that variable log reductions were recorded for
      both EMA [log reductions ranging from 0.01 to 2.71 (viable) and 0.27 to 2.85
      (heat treated)], PMA [log reductions ranging from 0.06 to 1.02 (viable) and 0.62
      to 2.46 (heat treated)] and DNase treatment [log reductions ranging from 0.06 to
      0.82 (viable) and 0.70 to 2.91 (heat treated)], in comparison to the no viability
      treatment controls. Based on the results obtained, 6 MUM EMA and 50 MUM PMA were
      identified as the optimal dye concentrations as low log reductions were recorded
      (viable and heat-treated samples) in comparison to the no viability treatment
      control. In addition, the results recorded for the 6 MUM EMA concentration were
      comparable to the results obtained for both the 50 MUM PMA and the DNase
      treatment. The use of EMA-qPCR (6 MUM) may therefore allow for the rapid
      identification and quantification of multiple intact opportunistic pathogens in
      water sources, which would benefit routine water quality monitoring following
      disinfection treatment.

PMID- 28875373
TI  - Differentiating brain radionecrosis from tumour recurrence: a role for contrast
      enhanced ultrasound?
AB  - Differentiating radionecrosis from tumour recurrence is a major issue in neuro
      oncology. Conventional imaging is far from being validated as an alternative to
      histological assessment. We report the case of a patient operated on for
      suspected recurrence of brain metastasis 9 months after cyberknife radiosurgery.
      While magnetic resonance imaging showed strong enhancement of the lesion,
      intraoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) surprisingly did not
      different from what is expected for brain metastases. Histopathological
      examination documented radionecrosis. For the first time, we describe
      radionecrosis with CEUS; further investigation is needed; however, the lack of
      enhancement could represent an important hallmark in differential diagnosis with
      neoplastic tissue.

PMID- 28875375
TI  - Germ cell line during the seasonal sexual rest of clams: finding niches of cells
      for gonad renewal.
AB  - Reconstitution and renewal of tissues are key topics in developmental biology. In
      this brief work, we analyzed the wintry spent phase of the reproductive cycle in
      the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum (Bivalvia, Veneridae) in order to study
      the gonad rebuilding that in this species occurs at the beginning of the warmer
      months. We labeled VASA homolog protein-a germ cell marker-and compared the
      histological observations of the spent phase with those of the previously
      analyzed gametogenic phase. In R. philippinarum, during the reproductive season,
      most of the body mass is represented by sack-like structures (acini) full of
      developing gametes. In that period, VASA-stained cells are present at the basal
      pole of the gut epithelium, in the connective tissue, and around the acini. We
      here show that during the spent phase large portions of the intestine lack such
      cell type, except for some areas showing a few faintly VASA-stained cells. Cells
      with similar nuclear morphology are present among loosely organized cells of
      connective tissue, sometimes as single units, sometimes in small groups, rarely
      partially organized in primordial gonadic structures. These observations match
      the findings of RNA-targeting studies that during the spent phase identified the
      source of bivalve germ cells within the connective tissue in the form of
      quiescent units and add new information on the possible maintenance of VASA
      stained, multipotent cells among the batiprismatic cells of the intestine during
      the whole life span of these bivalves.

PMID- 28875374
TI  - Yttrium-90 radioembolization treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma:
      a single-centre prognostic factors analysis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and the safety of Y90
      radioembolization (Y90-RE) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) analysing our results and correlating them with independent prognostic
      factors for overall survival (OS) and for complications. Forty-three patients
      with advanced inoperable HCC including those with multiple bilobar lesions or
      portal vein thrombosis (PVT) treated with Y90-RE were reviewed. Treatment
      efficacy and safety were evaluated. Survival was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier
      method. Univariate analyses were performed for identifying potential prognostic
      factors. Radiologic response was evaluated with the modified Response Evaluation
      Criteria in Solid Tumours (mRECIST) criteria. Clinical toxicities were
      prospectively recorded. Median overall progression-free survival and OS were 27.7
      and 16.8 months, respectively. Longer median OS was revealed in those without PVT
      (p = 0.0241) and those whose pre-treatment haemoglobin values was higher (p =
      0.0471). According with mRECIST criteria, we observed a disease control rate of
      69.2 and 61.9% at 3- and 6-month follow-up, respectively. Complications developed
      in 28 patients (65.1%), among which grade 2-3 events were reported in 17
      patients. We noted that activity administered dose presented a correlation with
      intra-procedural toxicity (p = 0.039259) while common hepatic artery use as
      release site was associated with a most frequent presentation of remote adverse
      events. Y90-RE is an alternative treatment with a promising outcome for poor-risk
      advanced inoperable HCC. PVT and pre-treatment haemoglobin values can be
      predictors of efficacy. Activity administered dose and arterial release site can
      be predictors of safety.

PMID- 28875376
TI  - Handling aberrant vessels located in the posterior bladder wall in surgery for
      abnormally invasive placenta: a non/less-touch technique.
AB  - BACKGROUND: At cesarean hysterectomy for abnormally invasive placenta, rupture of
      aberrant vessels around the uterus causes massive bleeding. PURPOSE: This study
      aimed at describing a technique to reduce bleeding from aberrant vessels at the
      posterior bladder wall in this surgery. METHODS: The bladder is filled with 200
      300 mL of water during handling the posterior bladder wall. RESULTS: This
      technique facilitates understanding that some aberrant vessels do not have
      communications with the cervix-uterus. Some aberrant vessels have communication
      with the cervix-uterus and this technique makes cutting and ligation of these
      vessels easy. CONCLUSIONS: Filling the bladder may reduce bleeding from the
      posterior bladder wall at cesarean hysterectomy for abnormally invasive placenta.

PMID- 28875378
TI  - HIV and AIDS Act: What Healthcare Workers Need to Know?

PMID- 28875377
TI  - Chromogranins: from discovery to current times.
AB  - The discovery in 1953 of the chromaffin granules as co-storage of catecholamines
      and ATP was soon followed by identification of a range of uniquely acidic
      proteins making up the isotonic vesicular storage complex within elements of the
      diffuse sympathoadrenal system. In the mid-1960s, the enzymatically inactive,
      major core protein, chromogranin A was shown to be exocytotically discharged from
      the stimulated adrenal gland in parallel with the co-stored catecholamines and
      ATP. A prohormone concept was introduced when one of the main storage proteins
      collectively named granins was identified as the insulin release inhibitory
      polypeptide pancreastatin. A wide range of granin-derived biologically active
      peptides have subsequently been identified. Both chromogranin A and chromogranin
      B give rise to antimicrobial peptides of relevance for combat of pathogens. While
      two of the chromogranin A-derived peptides, vasostatin-I and pancreastatin, are
      involved in modulation of calcium and glucose homeostasis, respectively,
      vasostatin-I and catestatin are important modulators of endothelial permeability,
      angiogenesis, myocardial contractility, and innate immunity. A physiological role
      is now evident for the full-length chromogranin A and vasostatin-I as circulating
      stabilizers of endothelial integrity and in protection against myocardial injury.
      The high circulating levels of chromogranin A and its fragments in patients
      suffering from various inflammatory diseases have emerged as challenges for
      future research and clinical applications.

PMID- 28875379
TI  - Tumor vessel disintegration by maximum tolerable PFKFB3 blockade.
AB  - Blockade of the glycolytic activator PFKFB3 in cancer cells (using a maximum
      tolerable dose of 70 mg/kg of the PFKFB3 blocker 3PO) inhibits tumor growth in
      preclinical models and is currently being tested as a novel anticancer treatment
      in phase I clinical trials. However, a detailed preclinical analysis of the
      effects of such maximum tolerable dose of a PFKFB3 blocker on the tumor
      vasculature is lacking, even though tumor endothelial cells are hyper-glycolytic.
      We report here that a high dose of 3PO (70 mg/kg), which inhibits cancer cell
      proliferation and reduces primary tumor growth, causes tumor vessel
      disintegration, suppresses endothelial cell growth for protracted periods, (model
      dependently) aggravates tumor hypoxia, and compromises vascular barrier
      integrity, thereby rendering tumor vessels more leaky and facilitating cancer
      cell intravasation and dissemination. These findings contrast to the effects of a
      low dose of 3PO (25 mg/kg), which induces tumor vessel normalization,
      characterized by vascular barrier tightening and maturation, but reduces cancer
      cell intravasation and metastasis. Our findings highlight the importance of
      adequately dosing a glycolytic inhibitor for anticancer treatment.

PMID- 28875380
TI  - Balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration of varices: focusing on the
      portal hemodynamics and the recent techniques.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the recent topics of Ballloon-occluded retrograde
      trasnvenous obliteration(B-RTO). METHOD: We overviewed the recent scientific
      papers regarding B-RTO. RESULT: B-RTO is a treatment method for occluding varices
      retrogradely using a sclerosing agent under balloon occlusion of a major draining
      vein. It has been recognized as an effective treatment method for gastric
      varices. Hepatic function reserve is improved and liver volume is increased after
      B-RTO. In recent years, various technical options, such as plug-assisted
      retrograde transvenous obliteration, coil-assisted retrograde transvenous
      obliteration, or foam B-RTO, have also been reported. In performing B-RTO, portal
      hemodynamics must be thoroughly examined radiologically. Judging the
      classification of the grade of collateral venous hemodynamics is important to
      select the appropriate embolization technique of B-RTO and to successfully
      occlude varices. Finally, the word "portosystemic shunt syndrome" has been
      proposed and the condition should be considered while selecting a treatment for
      gastric varices. CONCLUSION: B-RTO is effective for gastrointestinal varices and
      portosystemic shunts.

PMID- 28875381
TI  - Differential apoptotic response of MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts to biodegradable
      magnesium alloys in an in vitro direct culture model.
AB  - The biodegradable magnesium-based implants have been widely utilized in medical
      orthopedic applications in recent years. We have recently shown that direct
      culture on Pure Mg and Mg2Ag alloys lead to a progressive differentiation
      impairment of MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts. In this study, we aimed to analyze the
      apoptotic reaction of MC3T3-E1 cells in response to the direct culture on Pure
      Mg, Mg2Ag and Extreme High Pure Mg (XHP Mg) alloy samples. Our results
      demonstrated that long-term culturing of MC3T3-E1 cells on Pure Mg and Mg2Ag
      alloys induce time-dependent expression of active caspase-3 (active casp-3) and
      cleaved PARP-1 (cl. PARP-1), the hallmark of apoptosis reactions concomitant with
      a significant increase in the number of dead cells. However, direct culture on
      XHP Mg material results in a lower number of dead cells in comparison to Pure Mg
      and Mg2Ag alloys. Furthermore, XHP Mg materials influence expression of apoptotic
      markers in a process resembles that of observed in osteogenic condition
      apparently indicative of MC3T3-E1 osteodifferentiation. This study indicates that
      Mg alloy samples mediated differential apoptotic reactions of MC3T3-E1 cells can
      be ascribed to factors such as distinct topography and hydrophobicity features of
      Mg material surfaces, contrasting nature/composition of corrosion products as
      well as different impurities of these materials. Therefore, initial Mg alloys
      surface preparation, controlling the growth and composition of corrosion products
      and Mg alloys purity enhancement are necessary steps towards optimizing the Mg
      alloys usage in medical orthopedic applications.

PMID- 28875382
TI  - [Tumors of the inner ear and adjacent structures].
AB  - Tumors of the inner ear and adjacent structures often present with hearing loss,
      tinnitus and vertigo due to compression of the traversing cranial nerves. More
      than 90% of the tumors of the inner ear with or without expansion into the
      cerebellopontine angle are histologically diagnosed as vestibular schwannomas.
      Less common tumorous lesions include ectopic meningiomas located in the petrous
      bone, glomus tympanicum paragangliomas or endolymphatic sac tumors (ELST)
      originating in the vestibular recess. Most tumors are sporadic, but hereditary
      disorders have to be considered. Bilateral vestibular schwannomas are indicative
      of neurofibromatosis type 2 and ELST in conjunction with other abdominal tumors
      indicates von Hippel-Lindau disease. The neuropathological diagnostics and
      grading guides the subsequent therapy of these mostly benign lesions.

PMID- 28875383
TI  - Distribution characteristics of heavy metal(loid)s in aggregates of different
      size fractions along contaminated paddy soil profile.
AB  - Soil aggregates exert a significant influence on the retention and availability
      of heavy metal(loid)s in soil. In this study, the concentration distribution and
      chemical forms of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Hg) and a metalloid (As) in
      different aggregate-sized fractions (2-0.25, 0.25-0.05, 0.05-0.002, and < 0.002
      mm) along the profile (0-1, 1-5, 5-15, and 15-25 cm) of a contaminated paddy
      field were investigated. The results showed that the values of pH, free Fe oxides
      (Fed), bulk density, and catalase activity gradually increased, whereas the soil
      organic matter (SOM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), electrical conductivity
      (EC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and urease activity decreased with depth.
      Long-term heavy metal pollution might impact the catalase activity but showed no
      obvious influence on the urease activity. Additionally, there was a notable
      difference in physicochemical properties among the soil aggregates of various
      particle sizes. The 2-0.25-mm fraction aggregates contained more organic matter,
      whereas the highest values of CEC and Fed were observed in the < 0.002-mm
      fraction. The concentrations of all six heavy metals/metalloid decreased with
      depth. In different layers, Cu and Cd showed the highest concentrations in the 2
      0.25 mm-fraction, followed by the < 0.002-mm fraction, whereas the highest
      concentrations of Zn, Pb, and As appeared in the < 0.002-mm fraction. No obvious
      distribution regularity was observed for Hg among the aggregates. All of the
      metal(loid)s had lower activity in the deeper soil layers, except for Hg.
      Furthermore, Cu and Cd displayed more stable forms in the < 0.002-mm fraction
      aggregates.

PMID- 28875384
TI  - Rare cause of delirium and hypoxemia after coronary bypass surgery: transdermal
      lidocaine patch-associated methemoglobinemia.
AB  - We present a case of a patient administered parasternal transdermal lidocaine
      patch therapy as part of a multimodal analgesic regime designed to diminish
      opioid-associated delirium after coronary bypass surgery. The patient presented
      with delirium and severe methemoglobinemia (41%) that responded to
      discontinuation of lidocaine therapy, oxygen administration, and methylene blue
      administration. The clinical contributors and medicolegal implications of this
      degree of lidocaine-associated methemoglobin-mediated delirium are presented in
      the hope of avoiding similar complications in the postoperative setting after
      coronary bypass surgery.

PMID- 28875385
TI  - Possible Probiotic Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Oysters (Crassostrea
      gigas).
AB  - We attempted to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from the marine oyster
      (Crassostrea gigas) and selected several environmental stress-resistant isolates
      for the development of a future probiotic adjuvant for marine aquaculture. Twenty
      six presumptive LAB isolates were extracted from oysters and screened (by an agar
      diffusion assay) for antimicrobial activity toward various pathogens: Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus, Streptococcus iniae, and Edwardsiella tarda. Eight isolates had
      an antibacterial activity toward V. parahaemolyticus; in particular, 6 isolates
      showed a growth-inhibitory activity, with inhibition zone diameters > 15 mm. Of
      these, 5 isolates (JL17, JL18, JL28, HL7, and HL32) were also active against S.
      iniae and E. tarda. Enterococcus faecium HL7 was selected as the isolate most
      resistant to environmental stressors: the minimum NaCl, ethanol, and hydrogen
      peroxide concentrations at which HL7 cells lost their viability were 1.9 M, 11%,
      and 0.013%, respectively. When an antibiotic sensitivity test was performed on E.
      faecium HL7, this isolate was found to be resistant to
      trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, cephalothin, ampicillin, rifampin, gentamicin,
      cefotaxime, cefepime, cefotetan, nalidixic acid, and kanamycin. While the oyster
      model studies provided indication that E. faecium HL7 could be a good candidate
      as biocontrol agent against V. vulnificus, further optimization is needed in the
      actual animal rearing situation.

PMID- 28875386
TI  - Novel SPG20 mutation in an extended family with Troyer syndrome.
AB  - Troyer Syndrome (TRS) is a rare autosomal recessive complicated spastic
      paraplegia disorder characterized by various neurological and musculoskeletal
      manifestations. Pathogenicity stems from mutations in SPG20 which encodes
      Spartin, a multifunctional protein that is thought to be essential for neuron
      viability. Here we report on the clinical and molecular characterization of TRS
      in five patients from an extended consanguineous family in the United Arab
      Emirates. Molecular analysis involved Whole Exome Sequencing and Sanger
      sequencing for identification and confirmation of the causative variant
      respectively. In silico tools including CADD and Polyphen-2 were used to assess
      pathogenicity of the variant. The clinical description of these patients included
      spastic paraparesis, motor and cognitive delay, gait abnormalities,
      musculoskeletal features, as well as white matter abnormalities and emotional
      liability. Molecular analysis revealed a novel homozygous missense mutation in
      SPG20 (c.1324G > C; p.Ala442Pro) occurring at an evolutionarily conserved residue
      in the Plant-Related Senescence domain of Spartin. The mutation segregated with
      the clinical phenotype in all patients. In silico algorithms predict the mutation
      to be disease causing, and the variant had not been previously reported in public
      or ethnic specific variant repositories.

PMID- 28875387
TI  - Intraspecific variation in fruit-frugivore interactions: effects of fruiting
      neighborhood and consequences for seed dispersal.
AB  - The extent of specialization/generalization continuum in fruit-frugivore
      interactions at the individual level remains poorly explored. Here, we
      investigated the interactions between the Neotropical treelet Miconia irwinii
      (Melastomataceae) and its avian seed dispersers in Brazilian campo rupestre. We
      built an individual-based network to derive plant degree of interaction
      specialization regarding disperser species. Then, we explored how intraspecific
      variation in interaction niche breadth relates to fruit availability on
      individual plants in varying densities of fruiting conspecific neighbors, and how
      these factors affect the quantity of viable seeds dispersed. We predicted broader
      interaction niche breadths for individuals with larger fruit crops in denser
      fruiting neighborhoods. The downscaled network included nine bird species and 15
      plants, which varied nearly five-fold in their degree of interaction
      specialization. We found positive effects of crop size on visitation and fruit
      removal rates, but not on degree of interaction specialization. Conversely, we
      found that an increase in the density of conspecific fruiting neighbors both
      increased visitation rate and reduced plant degree of interaction specialization.
      We suggest that tracking fruit-rich patches by avian frugivore species is the
      main driver of density-dependent intraspecific variation in plants' interaction
      niche breadth. Our study shed some light on the overlooked fitness consequences
      of intraspecific variation in interaction niches by showing that individuals
      along the specialization/generalization continuum may have their seed dispersed
      with similar effectiveness. Our study exemplifies how individual-based networks
      linking plants to frugivore species that differ in their seed dispersal
      effectiveness can advance our understanding of intraspecific variation in the
      outcomes of fruit-frugivore interactions.

PMID- 28875388
TI  - Intrinsic renal cells induce lymphocytosis of Th22 cells from IgA nephropathy
      patients through B7-CTLA-4 and CCL-CCR pathways.
AB  - IgA nephropathy (IgAN), the most common glomerulonephritis, has an unclear
      pathogenesis. The role of Th22 cells, which are intimately related to proteinuria
      and progression in IgAN, in mediating infection-related IgAN is unclear. This
      study aimed to characterize the association between intrinsic renal cells
      (tubular epithelial cells and mesangial cells) and Th22 cells in immune
      regulation of infection-related IgAN and to elucidate the impact of Th22
      lymphocytosis; the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha; and CCL
      chemokines on kidney fibrosis. Hemolytic streptococcus infection induced an
      increase in IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha, resulting in Th22 cell differentiation
      from T lymphocytes obtained from patients with IgAN, and the CCL20-CCR6, CCL22
      CCR4, and/or CCL27-CCR10 axes facilitated Th22 cell chemotaxis. The increased
      amount of Th22 cells caused an increase in TGF-beta1 levels, and anti-CD80, anti
      CD86, and CTLA-4Ig treatment reduced TGF-beta1 levels by inhibiting Th22
      lymphocytosis and secretion of cytokines and chemokines, thus potentially
      relieving kidney fibrosis. Our data suggest that Th22 cells might be recruited
      into the kidneys via the CCL20-CCR6, CCL22-CCR4, and/or CCL27-CCR10 axes by
      mesangial cells and tubular epithelial cells in infection-related IgAN. Th22 cell
      overrepresentation was attributed to stimulation of the B7-CTLA-4Ig antigen
      presenting pathway and IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha.

PMID- 28875390
TI  - Core curriculum illustration: pulmonary laceration.
AB  - This is the 44th 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.erad.org/page/CCIP_TOC .

PMID- 28875389
TI  - From "The Depleted Self" to "The Will to Believe": Excavating the Hermeneutics of
      Donald Capps.
AB  - The concept of "reframing" lies at the heart of the pastoral psychology of Donald
      Capps. In previous articles I have argued that the process of reframing follows a
      circular hermeneutics. An excavation of Capps' hermeneutics reveals foundations
      in the fields of philosophy and psychology. This article focuses on the legacy of
      Johann Gottfried von Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher, William James and Paul
      Ricoeur. It explores the differences and commonalities between William James and
      Friedrich Schleiermacher's understanding of religious experience as well as Paul
      Ricoeur's understanding of narrativity and traces these strains to Capps'
      pastoral psychology. As illustration of his pastoral approach to healing and
      wholeness the problem of "the depleted self," so prevalent in "our narcissistic
      age," encounters the healing narrative of Jesus that appeals to "the will to
      believe."

PMID- 28875391
TI  - Dynamics of rebounding Bacillus subtilis spores determined using image-charge
      detection.
AB  - A novel image-charge detection technique was used to investigate the mechanical
      elasticity of bare bacterial spores during high-velocity impact. Spores of
      Bacillus subtilis introduced to vacuum using electrospray and aerodynamic
      acceleration impacted and rebounded off of a glass plate. A dual-stage,
      asymmetric image-charge detector measured the velocity and direction of each
      spore both before and after impact with the glass surface. Two ranges of impact
      velocity were investigated, with average initial velocities of 197 +/- 17 and 145
      +/- 12 m/s. Impacts were strongly inelastic, with most of the translational
      kinetic energy lost upon impact, similar to polystyrene particles of similar size
      under similar impact velocities. Specifically, 69% (+/- 16%) and 74% (+/- 11%) of
      initial kinetic energy was lost in impacts at the two velocity ranges,
      respectively. The average coefficients of restitution for the two velocity
      regimes were 0.53 +/- 0.15 and 0.49 +/- 0.12. There was no statistically
      significant difference in the fractional kinetic energy loss between these two
      populations. The variance of these results is much larger than experiments using
      polystyrene spheres of comparable size. These results imply significant plastic
      deformation of the spore-a striking result given that spores of this strain of B.
      subtilis are known to survive impacts on glass at these velocities. Triboelectric
      charge transfer during impact was also observed. Although much is known about
      spore elasticity from static measurements, this is the first study to investigate
      the elastic properties of bacterial spores in a dynamic scenario, as well as the
      first demonstration of an image charge detector for measurements of rebounding
      particles.

PMID- 28875392
TI  - Method optimization for heavy metal determination in milk powder: application to
      milk samples from Greece.
AB  - The scope of this study was the development, optimization and validation of an
      analytical method for the determination of selected heavy metals and trace
      elements (As, Hg, Se, Cd, Cu, Pb, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Cr) in milk powder, using
      microwave-assisted digestion. A statistical experimental design approach using
      central composite design (CCD) was carried out, to investigate the effects of
      three independent pretreatment variables (final digestion temperature ( degrees
      C), HNO3 concentration (in % w/v), microwave hold time) on the heavy metal
      recovery of spiked undigested milk powder sample and to calculate the variable
      factor values which produce the optimum recovery. CCD results revealed that the
      optimum digestion conditions, with respect to maximum recovery were as follows:
      temperature 190  degrees C, HNO3 56.8% w/v, and digestion time of 8.47 min. The
      method was fully validated. Recoveries for all metals ranged between 92 and 108%
      while intra-day repeatability was below 6.59% (rsd). A certified reference
      material (ERM BD 150) that included 8 out of the total 11 heavy metals of the
      present study (Hg, Se, Cd, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni, and Zn) was used to test the accuracy
      of the method where acceptable recovery values ranging between 96 and 107% were
      obtained. High heavy metal recoveries, short digestion time, and low acid
      consumption were the advantages of the pretreatment method. The analytical
      process was successfully applied for the determination of heavy metals in
      different milk samples from the Greek market. Heavy metal concentrations for Ni,
      Cr, Pb, Cd, Se, Mn, and Cu measured in this study reached 307, 102, 8.01, 5.96,
      60.2, 519, and 438 MUg/kg wet weight (ww), respectively. Zn and Fe were found at
      concentrations ranging 3.21-8.39 and 0.170-10.1 mg/kg ww, respectively. Risk
      assessment based on the WHO tolerable daily intake levels and the calculated
      target hazard quotients revealed that the consumption of the selected milk
      samples is considered safe.

PMID- 28875393
TI  - EAP viewpoint on unpublished data from paediatric clinical trials.
AB  - : European children and paediatricians rely heavily on the fair, complete and
      timely publication of data obtained from paediatric randomised controlled trials
      (RCTs). Selective publication and reporting of paediatric RCTs is common
      practice. Industry-sponsored trials are more likely to remain unpublished, and
      take longer to get published compared with trials sponsored by others. However,
      also academic sponsors contribute to inefficiencies in publishing clinical data.
      Publication bias violates the ethical obligation that investigators have towards
      study participants, leads to considerable inefficiencies in research and a waste
      of financial and human resources, and has the potential to distort evidence for
      treatment approaches. CONCLUSION: The European Academy of Paediatrics (EAP)
      therefore actively supports initiatives that increase the public dissemination of
      paediatric clinical trial data. The EAP will raise awareness about the guidelines
      for Good Publication Practice among European paediatricians and subspecialty
      societies.

PMID- 28875394
TI  - Genomic-based-breeding tools for tropical maize improvement.
AB  - Maize has traditionally been the main staple diet in the Southern Asia and Sub
      Saharan Africa and widely grown by millions of resource poor small scale farmers.
      Approximately, 35.4 million hectares are sown to tropical maize, constituting
      around 59% of the developing worlds. Tropical maize encounters tremendous
      challenges besides poor agro-climatic situations with average yields recorded <3
      tones/hectare that is far less than the average of developed countries. On the
      contrary to poor yields, the demand for maize as food, feed, and fuel is
      continuously increasing in these regions. Heterosis breeding introduced in early
      90 s improved maize yields significantly, but genetic gains is still a mirage,
      particularly for crop growing under marginal environments. Application of
      molecular markers has accelerated the pace of maize breeding to some extent. The
      availability of array of sequencing and genotyping technologies offers unrivalled
      service to improve precision in maize-breeding programs through modern approaches
      such as genomic selection, genome-wide association studies, bulk segregant
      analysis-based sequencing approaches, etc. Superior alleles underlying complex
      traits can easily be identified and introgressed efficiently using these sequence
      based approaches. Integration of genomic tools and techniques with advanced
      genetic resources such as nested association mapping and backcross nested
      association mapping could certainly address the genetic issues in maize
      improvement programs in developing countries. Huge diversity in tropical maize
      and its inherent capacity for doubled haploid technology offers advantage to
      apply the next generation genomic tools for accelerating production in marginal
      environments of tropical and subtropical world. Precision in phenotyping is the
      key for success of any molecular-breeding approach. This article reviews genomic
      technologies and their application to improve agronomic traits in tropical maize
      breeding has been reviewed in detail.

PMID- 28875396
TI  - The Reliability of Bariatric Surgery Videos in YouTube Platform.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The growing number of bariatric surgery videos shared on YouTube
      highlights the need for content and quality assessment. The aim of this study was
      to answer the question 'Is watching these videos useful to surgeons and
      patients?' METHODS: YouTube was searched using the keywords 'obesity surgery',
      'bariatric surgery' and 'weight loss surgery', and 100 videos retrieved using
      each keyword were classified based on their 'usefulness score' as very useful,
      useful and not useful. Video content; source; length and number of views, likes
      and dislikes were recorded. Upload sources included doctors or hospitals (DH),
      medical web sites or TV channels (MW), commercial web sites (CW) or civilians
      (CI). Between-group differences were compared. RESULTS: Of the 300 videos
      watched, 175 were included in the study; 53.7% were useful and 24.6% were very
      useful. There were no between-group differences in the number of likes (p =
      0.480), dislikes (p = 0.592) and views (p = 0.104). Most videos were uploaded by
      MW and DH, also with no significant differences in the number of likes (p =
      0.35), dislikes (p = 0.14) and views (p = 0.93). No videos were found with
      misleading information. CONCLUSIONS: The popularity of bariatric surgery and
      interest of both patients and surgeons are increasing daily. Although videos on
      bariatric surgery on YouTube may be more useful than those on other surgical
      procedures, it is important that the videos are uploaded by medical professionals
      and that specific upload and retrieval filters are applied.

PMID- 28875395
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of orbital atherectomy compared to rotational atherectomy in
      treating patients with severely calcified coronary artery lesions in Japan.
AB  - Compared to rotational atherectomy (RA), orbital atherectomy (OA) has been shown
      to decrease procedure failure and reintervention rates in the treatment of
      severely calcified coronary artery lesions. Our objective was to explore the cost
      effectiveness of OA compared to RA in the Japanese healthcare system. A decision
      analytic model calculated reintervention rates and consequent total 1-year costs.
      Effectiveness inputs were therapy-specific target lesion revascularization (TLR)
      rates and all-cause mortality, pooled from clinical studies. Index and
      reintervention costs were determined based on claims data analysis of n = 33,628
      subjects treated in 2014-2016. We computed incremental cost-effectiveness in
      Japanese Yen (JPY) per life year (LY) gained based on differences in 1-year cost
      and projected long-term survival, assuming OA device cost between JPY 350,000 and
      JPY 550,000. OA was found to be associated with improved clinical outcomes (12
      month TLR rate 5.0 vs. 15.7%) and projected survival gain (8.34 vs. 8.16 LYs
      (+0.17), based on 1-year mortality of 5.5 vs. 6.8%). Total 1-year costs were
      lower for device cost of JPY 430,000 or less, and reached a maximum ICER of JPY
      753,445 per LY at the highest assumed device cost, making OA dominant or cost
      effective across the tested range, at ICERs substantially below the willingness
      to-pay threshold. In conclusion, orbital atherectomy for the treatment of
      severely calcified coronary artery lesions, compared to rotational atherectomy,
      is a cost-effective treatment approach in the Japanese healthcare system due to
      improved clinical performance.

PMID- 28875397
TI  - Boceprevir and Antiretroviral Pharmacokinetic Interactions in HIV/HCV Co-infected
      Persons: AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5309s.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of drug
      interactions between the hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor boceprevir
      (BOC) and antiretroviral (ARV) agents in persons with HIV/HCV co-infection.
      METHODS: Participants taking two nucleos(t)ide analogs with either efavirenz,
      raltegravir, or ritonavir-boosted atazanavir, darunavir, or lopinavir underwent
      intensive pharmacokinetic (PK) sampling for ARV 2 weeks before (week 2) and 2
      weeks after initiating BOC (week 6) and for BOC at week 6. Geometric mean ratios
      (GMRs) and 90% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compare ARV PK at weeks 2
      and 6 and BOC PK at week 6 to historical data (HD) in healthy volunteers and HCV
      mono-infected patients. RESULTS: ARV PK was available for 55 participants. BOC
      reduced atazanavir and darunavir exposures by 30 and 42%, respectively. BOC
      increased raltegravir maximum concentration (C max) by 71%. BOC did not alter
      efavirenz PK. BOC PK was available for 53 participants. BOC exposures were
      similar in these HIV/HCV co-infected participants compared with HD in healthy
      volunteers, but BOC minimum concentrations (C min) were lower with all ARV agents
      (by 34-73%) compared with HD in HCV mono-infected patients. CONCLUSIONS: Effects
      of BOC on ARV PK in these HIV/HCV co-infected individuals were similar to prior
      studies in healthy volunteers. However, some differences in the effects of ARV on
      BOC PK were observed, indicating the magnitude of interactions may differ in HCV
      infected individuals versus healthy volunteers. Findings highlight the need to
      conduct interaction studies with HCV therapies in the population likely to
      receive the combination.

PMID- 28875398
TI  - Total Hilar En Bloc Resection with Left Hemihepatectomy and Caudate Lobectomy: a
      Novel Approach for Treatment of Left-Sided Perihilar Cholangiocarcinoma (with
      Video).
AB  - BACKGROUND: "Hilar en bloc resection" using a no-touch technique has been
      advocated as a standard procedure in right-sided hepatectomies for treatment of
      perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (PHC). In principle, it has never been reported for
      left-sided tumors. The aim is to describe the procedures of total hilar en bloc
      resection with left hemihepatectomy and caudate lobectomy (THER-LH) for advanced
      PHC and discuss feasibility and clinical significance of this novel technique.
      METHODS: A retrospective study using a prospectively maintained database was
      performed to identify eight patients who had received THER-LH for advanced PHC
      from January 2013 to December 2015. The clinicopathological features, surgical
      procedures, and outcomes of these patients form the basis this study. RESULTS:
      The operative time was 546 +/- 158 (380-870) min, and estimated blood loss was
      875 +/- 690 (400-2500) ml. Time of vessel resection and reconstruction was 25.6
      +/- 12.3 min for the portal vein and 19.1 +/- 4.9 min for the hepatic artery.
      Time of hilum clamping was 27.3 +/- 11.9 (15-41) min. Two patients had Clavien
      Dindo grade II and IVa complications of bile leakage with one developing
      intraabdominal abscess and bleeding. There was no perioperative mortality.
      Histopathologic examination revealed that all of eight patients had tubular
      adenocarcinoma with microscopic invasion to the resected hepatic arteries and
      portal veins in seven patients. Negative bile duct margins were achieved in all
      of them. Three patients developed recurrence and died at 11, 18, and 24 months
      postoperatively. The remaining patients were alive at the time of last follow-up.
      The median survival was 24 months with one patient achieving a disease-free
      survival of 50 months. CONCLUSION: THER-LH is a technically demanding procedure
      that is safe and feasible that may have some beneficial effects on the prognosis
      of these patients with advanced PHC. Further studies are required to confirm the
      oncological superiority and survival benefits of this novel technique.

PMID- 28875400
TI  - Empirical Consequences of Current Recommendations for the Design and
      Interpretation of Noninferiority Trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Noninferiority trials are increasingly common, though they have less
      standardized designs and their interpretation is less familiar to clinicians than
      superiority trials. OBJECTIVE: To empirically evaluate a cohort of noninferiority
      trials to determine 1) their interpretation as recommended by CONSORT, 2) choice
      of alpha threshold and its sidedness, and 3) differences between methods of
      analysis such as intention-to-treat and per-protocol. DESIGN: We searched MEDLINE
      for parallel-group randomized controlled noninferiority trials published in the
      five highest-impact general medical journals between 2011 and 2016. MAIN
      MEASURES: Data abstracted included trial design parameters, results, and
      interpretation of results based on CONSORT recommendations. KEY RESULTS: One
      hundred sixty-three trials and 182 noninferiority comparisons were included in
      our analysis. Based on CONSORT-recommended interpretation, 79% of experimental
      therapies met criteria for noninferiority, 13% met criteria for superiority, 20%
      were declared inconclusive, and 2% met criteria for inferiority. However, for 12%
      of trials, the experimental therapy was statistically significantly worse than
      the active control, but CONSORT recommended an interpretation of inconclusive or
      noninferior. A two-sided alpha equivalent of greater than 0.05 was used in 34% of
      the trials, and in five of these trials, the use of a standard two-sided alpha of
      0.05 led to changes in the interpretation of results that disfavored the
      experimental therapy. In four of the five comparisons where different methods of
      analysis (e.g., intention-to-treat and per-protocol) yielded different results,
      the intention-to-treat analysis was the more conservative. In 11% of trials, a
      secondary advantage of the new therapy was neither reported nor could it be
      inferred by reviewers. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort, the design and interpretation
      of noninferiority trials led to significant and systematic bias in favor of the
      experimental therapy. Clinicians should exercise caution when interpreting these
      trials. Future trials may be more reliable if design parameters are standardized.

PMID- 28875403
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28875402
TI  - Stable Scalp EEG Spatiospectral Patterns Across Paradigms Estimated by Group ICA.
AB  - Electroencephalography (EEG) oscillations reflect the superposition of different
      cortical sources with potentially different frequencies. Various blind source
      separation (BSS) approaches have been developed and implemented in order to
      decompose these oscillations, and a subset of approaches have been developed for
      decomposition of multi-subject data. Group independent component analysis (Group
      ICA) is one such approach, revealing spatiospectral maps at the group level with
      distinct frequency and spatial characteristics. The reproducibility of these
      distinct maps across subjects and paradigms is relatively unexplored domain, and
      the topic of the present study. To address this, we conducted separate group ICA
      decompositions of EEG spatiospectral patterns on data collected during three
      different paradigms or tasks (resting-state, semantic decision task and visual
      oddball task). K-means clustering analysis of back-reconstructed individual
      subject maps demonstrates that fourteen different independent spatiospectral maps
      are present across the different paradigms/tasks, i.e. they are generally stable.

PMID- 28875401
TI  - Mechanism of salt-induced activity enhancement of a marine-derived laccase,
      Lac15.
AB  - Laccase (benzenediol: oxygen oxidoreductases, EC1.10.3.2) is a multi-copper
      oxidase capable of oxidizing a variety of phenolic and other aromatic organic
      compounds. The catalytic power of laccase makes it an attractive candidate for
      potential applications in many areas of industry including biodegradation of
      organic pollutants and synthesis of novel drugs. Most laccases are vulnerable to
      high salt and have limited applications. However, some laccases are not only
      tolerant to but also activated by certain concentrations of salt and thus have
      great application potential. The mechanisms of salt-induced activity enhancement
      of laccases are unclear as yet. In this study, we used dynamic light scattering,
      size exclusion chromatography, analytical ultracentrifugation, intrinsic
      fluorescence emission, circular dichroism, ultraviolet-visible light absorption,
      and an enzymatic assay to investigate the potential correlation between the
      structure and activity of the marine-derived laccase, Lac15, whose activity is
      promoted by low concentrations of NaCl. The results showed that low
      concentrations of NaCl exert little influence on the protein structure, which was
      partially folded in the absence of the salt; moreover, the partially folded
      rather than the fully folded state seemed to be favorable for enzyme activity,
      and this partially folded state was distinctive from the so-called 'molten
      globule' occasionally observed in active enzymes. More data indicated that salt
      might promote laccase activity through mechanisms involving perturbation of
      specific local sites rather than a change in global structure. Potential binding
      sites for chloride ions and their roles in enzyme activity promotion are
      proposed.

PMID- 28875399
TI  - Interplay Between n-3 and n-6 Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and the
      Endocannabinoid System in Brain Protection and Repair.
AB  - The brain is enriched in arachidonic acid (ARA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA),
      long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) of the n-6 and n-3 series,
      respectively. Both are essential for optimal brain development and function.
      Dietary enrichment with DHA and other long-chain n-3 PUFA, such as
      eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), has shown beneficial effects on learning and memory,
      neuroinflammatory processes, and synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis. ARA, DHA
      and EPA are precursors to a diverse repertoire of bioactive lipid mediators,
      including endocannabinoids. The endocannabinoid system comprises cannabinoid
      receptors, their endogenous ligands, the endocannabinoids, and their biosynthetic
      and degradation enzymes. Anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) are
      the most widely studied endocannabinoids and are both derived from phospholipid
      bound ARA. The endocannabinoid system also has well-established roles in
      neuroinflammation, synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis, suggesting an overlap in
      the neuroprotective effects observed with these different classes of lipids.
      Indeed, growing evidence suggests a complex interplay between n-3 and n-6 LCPUFA
      and the endocannabinoid system. For example, long-term DHA and EPA
      supplementation reduces AEA and 2-AG levels, with reciprocal increases in levels
      of the analogous endocannabinoid-like DHA and EPA-derived molecules. This review
      summarises current evidence of this interplay and discusses the therapeutic
      potential for brain protection and repair.

PMID- 28875404
TI  - Growth characteristics and nutrient removal capability of eco-ditch plants in
      mesocosm sediment receiving primary domestic wastewater.
AB  - Eco-ditches are being explored to maximize their capability of capturing
      pollutants and mitigate any harmful side effects in rivers. In this study,
      mesocosm plastic drum sediment and field experiments were set up to screen 18
      plant species found in ditches and identify those with potential for high biomass
      production and nutrients removal. Terrestrial plants grown in the mesocosm system
      were shown to be able to acclimate to aquatic conditions and to survive in
      primary domestic sewage. About 73-95% increase in plant biomass was recorded.
      Removal efficiencies for total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and ammonium-nitrogen
      from the sewage of 72-99%, 64-99%, and 75-100%, respectively, were recorded.
      Furthermore, complete removal of the applied nitrate-nitrogen load was achieved
      in mesocosm systems. Findings also show that all species, but especially Acorus
      calamus, Canna indica, Canna lily, Cyperus alternifolius, Colocasia gigantea,
      Eichhornia crassipes, Iris sibirica, and Typha latifolia had the highest
      efficiencies for nitrogen and phosphorous removal. The N and P mass balance
      analysis demonstrated that plant uptake and sediment N and P accumulation
      accounted for 41-86% and 18-49% of the total influent TN and TP loads,
      respectively. In addition, the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous uptake by
      these plant species were influenced significantly by biomass. The field-culture
      experiment further identified Canna indica followed by Cyperus alternifolius as
      the most promising for high biomass production and nutrients uptake. Therefore,
      these plants may be recommended for extensive use in treating highly
      eutrophicated rivers. Outcomes of this work can be useful for model design
      specifications in eco-ditch mitigation of sewage pollution.

PMID- 28875405
TI  - Appraisal of Transdermal Water-in-Oil Nanoemulgel of Selegiline HCl for the
      Effective Management of Parkinson's Disease: Pharmacodynamic, Pharmacokinetic,
      and Biochemical Investigations.
AB  - In the present study, the potential of transdermal nanoemulsion gel of selegiline
      hydrochloride for the treatment of Parkinson's disease was investigated. Water-in
      oil nanoemulsions were developed by comparing low- and high-energy methods and
      were subjected to thermodynamic stability tests, in vitro permeation, and
      characterization studies. In vitro studies indicated that components of
      nanoemulsion acted as permeation enhancers with highest flux of 3.531 +/- 1.94
      MUg/cm2/h from nanoemulsion SB6 containing 0.5 mg selegiline hydrochloride, 3%
      distilled water, 21% S mix (Span 85, Tween 80, PEG 400), and 76% isopropyl
      myristate by weight. SB6 with the least droplet size of 183.4 +/- 0.35 nm,
      polydispersity index of 0.42 +/- 0.06 with pH of 5.9 +/- 0.32 and viscosity of
      22.42 +/- 0.14 cps was converted to nanoemulsion gel NEGS4 (viscosity = 22,200 +/
      400 cps) by addition of Viscup160(r) for ease of application and evaluated for
      permeation, safety, and pharmacokinetic profile in Wistar rats. It provided
      enhancement ratio 3.69 times greater than conventional gel. NEGS4 showed 6.56 and
      5.53 times increase in bioavailability in comparison to tablet and conventional
      gel, respectively, along with sustained effect. Therefore, the developed water-in
      oil nanoemulsion gel promises to be an effective vehicle for transdermal delivery
      of selegiline hydrochloride.

PMID- 28875406
TI  - Subretinal fibrin absorption after 577-nm subthreshold micropulse laser therapy
      in a CSC case: a brief report.

PMID- 28875407
TI  - Karyopherin alpha-2 is a reliable marker for identification of patients with high
      risk stage II colorectal cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) is frequently considered in patients with
      high-risk stage II colorectal cancer (CRC). Among patients with stage II CRC who
      do not receive AC because they are not considered to be at high risk, 20-25% will
      develop recurrence and die from the disease. Elevated levels of KPNA2 have been
      observed in various cancers, and overexpression of KPNA2 is related to CRC
      progression. METHODS: We examined the expression of KPNA2 using 293 CRC tissues,
      including 118 with stage II CRC, and investigated the applicability of KPNA2 as a
      biomarker to predict high-risk stage II CRC. Moreover, we further investigated
      the role of KPNA2 as an oncogene in CRC carcinogenesis using in vitro functional
      studies. RESULTS: High KPNA2 expression was associated with vascular (p = 0.027)
      and lymphatic invasion (p = 0.009) in patients with stage II CRC. On multivariate
      analysis, high KPNA2 expression (HR 3.174, 95% CI 2.060-4.889; p < 0.001) was
      independently associated with survival in patients with CRC. The overall survival
      rate in patients with high KPNA2 expression was higher than that in patients with
      low KPNA2 expression in CRC (p < 0.001), even in patients with stage II CRC (p =
      0.001). Additionally, KPNA2 was associated with tumorigenesis and cancer
      progression in CRC cells; high KPNA2 expression was associated with increased
      cell proliferation (p < 0.05), migration (p = 0.03), invasion (p = 0.001), and
      semisolid agar colony formation (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: KPNA2 expression is
      useful for identification of patients with high-risk stage II CRC who could
      benefit from AC and that KPNA2 may also be a promising therapeutic target.

PMID- 28875408
TI  - Polymer/Amorphous Salt Solid Dispersions of Ciprofloxacin.
AB  - PURPOSE: To improve the pharmaceutical properties of amorphous ciprofloxacin
      (CIP) succinate salts via formulation as polymer/amorphous salt solid dispersions
      (ASSDs). METHODS: ASSDs consisting of an amorphous CIP/succinic acid 1:1 or 2:1
      salt dispersed in PVP or Soluplus were produced by spray drying and ball milling.
      The solid state characteristics, miscibility, stability, solubility and passive
      transmembrane permeability of the ASSDs were then examined. RESULTS: The ASSDs
      had higher glass transition and crystallization temperatures than the
      corresponding amorphous succinate salts, and were also more stable during long
      term stability studies. The results of inverse gas chromatography and thermal
      analysis indicated that the salts and polymers form a miscible mixture. The
      solubility of the pure drug in water and biorelevant media was significantly
      increased by all of the formulations. The permeability of the ASSDs did not
      differ significantly from that of the amorphous CIP succinate salts, however all
      samples were less permeable than the pure crystalline drug. CONCLUSIONS: The
      formulation of amorphous CIP succinate salts as ASSDs with polymer improved their
      long-term stability, but did not significantly affect their solubility or
      permeability.

PMID- 28875409
TI  - Disorganization Theory, Neighborhood Social Capital, and Ethnic Inequalities in
      Intimate Partner Violence between Arab and Jewish Women Citizens of Israel.
AB  - We draw on social disorganization (SD) theory and social capital to examine the
      impact of neighborhood environment on the ethnic gap in intimate partner violence
      (IPV) between Arab and Jewish women in Israel. We linked census data on
      neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) to national data we gathered in 2014-2015
      on 1401 women (436 Arab, 965 Jewish) age 16-48. Women were interviewed while
      visiting 65 maternal and child health clinics throughout Israel. We used General
      Estimated Equation (GEE) multivariate logistic regression models to adjust for
      clinic cluster effects and estimated the contribution of neighborhood collective
      efficacy, problems, relative socioeconomic status (SES), bridging and linking
      social capital, and social support to explaining ethnic inequalities in IPV,
      while adjusting for women's socioeconomic and socio-demographic characteristics.
      We found that any IPV is higher among Arab compared to Jewish women (odds ratio
      (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 4.19 (2.72,6.42)). Collective efficacy
      and social group membership (bridging social capital) had no effect on the ethnic
      inequality in any IPV and types of IPV. Women's active participation in social
      groups (linking social capital), higher social support, and living in
      neighborhoods with relative SES similar to the ethnic group average) had a
      protective effect from any IPV and physical IPV. Neighborhood problems were
      associated with increased any IPV and physical IPV. In the final model, the
      ethnic gap in IPV was reduced but not eliminated (OR (95%CI) = 3.28 (2.01, 5.35).
      Collective efficacy did not explain the ethnic gap in IPV, while women's active
      participation (linking social capital) had a protective effect from IPV. Given
      the protective nature of women's activism in this population, future research
      should investigate how this might be incorporated into solutions to IPV. In
      addition, reducing neighborhood problems, improving neighborhood SES, and
      increasing social support might help reduce IPV among Arab women, thus decreasing
      the ethnic gap in IPV.

PMID- 28875410
TI  - High-Risk Geographic Mobility Patterns among Young Urban and Suburban Persons who
      Inject Drugs and their Injection Network Members.
AB  - Young people in the USA who inject drugs, particularly those at a risk of
      residence instability, experience the highest incidence of hepatitis C (HCV)
      infections. This study examined associations between geographic mobility patterns
      and sociodemographic, behavioral, and social network characteristics of 164 young
      (ages 18-30) persons who inject drugs (PWID). We identified a potential bridge
      sub-population who reported residence in both urban and suburban areas in the
      past year (crossover transients) and higher-risk behaviors (receptive syringe
      sharing, multiple sex partners) compared to their residentially localized
      counterparts. Because they link suburban and urban networks, crossover transients
      may facilitate transmission of HIV and HCV between higher and lower prevalence
      areas. Interventions should address risk associated with residential instability,
      particularly among PWID who travel between urban and suburban areas.

PMID- 28875411
TI  - Visualizing old biological traces on different materials without using chemicals.
AB  - During the investigative process that typically follows a criminal act, it may
      prove necessary to work with and analyze evidence that is not recent but old.
      This could become necessary, for example, when a crime is discovered some time
      after it was committed or when a cold case is reopened. Due to this need, the
      present study focused on the detection and visualization of 2-year-old biological
      traces. To do so, an alternative light source and different filters were used.
      The optical behavior of 2-year-old samples of blood, semen, urine, saliva, and
      sweat located on 19 different materials was documented, analyzed, and compared
      with the optical behavior of the same samples when they were recent [1].

PMID- 28875412
TI  - Characterization of biomarkers in stroke based on ego-networks and pathways.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore potential biomarkers in stroke based on ego-networks and
      pathways. RESULTS: EgoNet method was applied to search for the underlying
      biomarkers in stroke using transcription profiling of E-GEOD-58294 and protein
      protein interaction (PPI) data. Eight ego-genes were identified from PPI network
      according to the degree characteristics at the criteria of top 5% ranked z-sore
      and degree >1. Eight candidate ego-networks with classification accuracy >=0.9
      were selected. After performed randomization test, seven significant ego-networks
      with adjusted p value < 0.05 were identified. Pathway enrichment analysis was
      then conducted with these ego-networks to search for the significant pathways.
      Finally, two significant pathways were identified, and six of seven ego-networks
      were enriched to "3'-UTR-mediated translational regulation" pathway, indicating
      that this pathway performs an important role in the development of stroke.
      CONCLUSIONS: Seven ego-networks were constructed using EgoNet and two significant
      enriched by pathways were identified. These may provide new insights into the
      potential biomarkers for the development of stroke.

PMID- 28875413
TI  - Cardiac Palliative Medicine.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Heart failure is an illness with high morbidity and mortality
      that affects 5.7 million Americans. As advanced heart therapies become more
      prevalent care for patients and families is becoming more complex. The American
      Heart Association has released a policy statement recommending continuous, high
      quality access to palliative care for all patients with heart failure, and the
      Center for Medicare Services requires palliative care involvement in mechanical
      circulatory support teams. RECENT FINDINGS: The National Quality Forum developed
      eight domains of palliative care that are required for high-quality delivery of
      comprehensive palliative care. This article assesses each domain and how it
      pertains to evolving care of patients with advanced heart failure. Leadership
      from heart failure teams should review the domains of palliative care to ensure
      they are improving primary palliative care skills as well as identifying areas
      needed to improve funding so that patients have access to comprehensive specialty
      level palliative care.

PMID- 28875414
TI  - Legal Status, Time in the USA, and the Well-Being of Latinos in Los Angeles.
AB  - In the USA, undocumented Latino immigrants may have poorer health because of
      barriers to health care, stressors, and detrimental effects of immigration
      enforcement. Previous immigrant health research, however, suggests that recently
      arrived Latino immigrants have better health than US-born Latinos and their
      health deteriorates over time. Given the current environments that undocumented
      immigrants face, legal status is a structural factor that likely influences the
      patterns of immigrant health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the
      extent to which physical and mental health differed by legal status and duration
      in the USA for the Latino population in Los Angeles County, California. We
      conducted analysis of Latino respondents (n = 1396) to the Los Angeles Family and
      Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) Wave II. We examined self-reported health,
      depression measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short
      Form, and blood pressure collected by trained interviewers. Respondents reported
      their legal status, time in the USA, and other sociodemographic characteristics.
      Regression models were used to test associations between each outcome and 1)
      legal status and 2) legal status by duration (<= 15 and > 15 years) in the USA.
      Without taking duration into account, we found no significant differences in
      outcomes between undocumented, documented, or US-born Latinos. Taking duration
      into account, shorter duration undocumented immigrants had worse self-reported
      health than the US born. Undocumented immigrants, regardless of duration, had
      higher blood pressure than documented immigrants who had been in the USA for less
      time and the same level of blood pressure as the US born. In contrast, shorter
      duration documented immigrants had lower blood pressure compared to longer
      duration documented immigrants and US-born counterparts, and marginally lower
      blood pressure than shorter duration undocumented immigrants. The findings
      suggest that the "health advantage" generally presumed to exist among immigrants
      may not affect undocumented immigrants.

PMID- 28875416
TI  - NMR study of non-structural proteins-part III: 1H, 13C, 15N backbone and side
      chain resonance assignment of macro domain from Chikungunya virus (CHIKV).
AB  - Macro domains are conserved protein domains found in eukaryotic organisms,
      bacteria, and archaea as well as in certain viruses. They consist of 130-190
      amino acids and can bind ADP-ribose. Although the exact role of these domains is
      not fully understood, the conserved binding affinity for ADP-ribose indicates
      that this ligand is important for the function of the domain. Such a macro domain
      is also present in the non-structural protein 3 (nsP3) of Chikungunya Alphavirus
      (CHIKV) and consists of 160 amino acids. In this study we describe the high yield
      expression of the macro domain from CHIKV and its preliminary structural analysis
      via solution NMR spectroscopy. The macro domain seems to be folded in solution
      and an almost complete backbone assignment was achieved. In addition, the
      alpha/beta/alpha sandwich topology with 4 alpha-helices and 6 beta-strands was
      predicted by TALOS+.

PMID- 28875415
TI  - Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in age-related vascular pathologies.
AB  - Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF, also known as CCN2) is a matricellular
      protein expressed in the vascular wall, which regulates diverse cellular
      functions including cell adhesion, matrix production, structural remodeling,
      angiogenesis, and cell proliferation and differentiation. CTGF is principally
      regulated at the level of transcription and is induced by mechanical stresses and
      a number of cytokines and growth factors, including TGFbeta. In this mini-review,
      the role of age-related dysregulation of CTGF signaling and its role in a range
      of macro- and microvascular pathologies, including pathogenesis of aorta
      aneurysms, atherogenesis, and diabetic retinopathy, are discussed. A potential
      role of CTGF and TGFbeta in regulation and non-cell autonomous propagation of
      cellular senescence is also discussed.

PMID- 28875417
TI  - Chlorogenic acid regulates apoptosis and stem cell marker-related gene expression
      in A549 human lung cancer cells.
AB  - Previous studies indicated that chlorogenic acid, a compound present in many
      fruits and vegetables, has anti-cancer activities. We report that chlorogenic
      acid regulates the expression of apoptosis-related genes and self-renewal-related
      stem cell markers in cancer cells. The lung cancer cell line A549 was cultured
      with or without chlorogenic acid. The presence of chlorogenic acid decreased cell
      proliferation as measured by MTT activity. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) showed
      that treatment of cells with chlorogenic acid reduced the expression of BCL2 but
      increased that of both BAX and CASP3. Chlorogenic acid enhanced annexin V
      expression as measured using fluorescently labeled annexin V. Chlorogenic acid
      also induced p38 MAPK and JNK gene expression. Meanwhile, several agents,
      including SB203580 (p38 MAP kinase inhibitor), N-acetylcysteine (antioxidant
      inhibitor), dipyridamole (phosphodiesterase inhibitor), and apocynin (NADPH
      oxidase inhibitor) blocked chlorogenic acid-induced BAX gene expression.
      Chlorogenic acid reduced gene expression levels of stem cell-associated markers
      NANOG, POU5F1, and SOX2. Together these results indicate that chlorogenic acid
      affects the expression of apoptosis-related genes that are part of oxidative
      stress and p38 MAP-dependent pathways, as well as genes encoding stem cell
      markers. In conclusion, chlorogenic acid may contribute to the polyphenolic anti
      cancer effect associated with consumption of vegetables and fruits.

PMID- 28875418
TI  - Microbial production of poly-gamma-glutamic acid.
AB  - Poly-gamma-glutamic acid (gamma-PGA) is a natural, biodegradable and water
      soluble biopolymer of glutamic acid. This review is focused on nonrecombinant
      microbial production of gamma-PGA via fermentation processes. In view of its
      commercial importance, the emphasis is on L-glutamic acid independent producers
      (i.e. microorganisms that do not require feeding with the relatively expensive
      amino acid L-glutamic acid to produce gamma-PGA), but glutamic acid dependent
      production is discussed for comparison. Strategies for improving production,
      reducing costs and using renewable feedstocks are discussed.

PMID- 28875419
TI  - Lactulose decreases neuronal activation and attenuates motor behavioral deficits
      in hyperammonemic rats.
AB  - Lactulose is a nonabsorbable disaccharide commonly used in clinical practice to
      treat hepatic encephalopathy. However, its effects on neuropsychiatric disorders
      and motor behavior have not been fully elucidated. Male Wistar rats were bile
      duct ligated, and 3 weeks after surgery, treated with lactulose administrated by
      gavage (1.43 or 3.57 g/kg), once a day for seven days. Plasma levels of ammonia,
      aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin, and creatinine were quantified and
      histopathological analysis of the livers was performed. Locomotor activity
      measurements were performed in an open field. The expression of water channel
      aquaporin-4 was investigated and the analysis of Fos protein immunoreactivity was
      used to evaluate the pattern of neural activation in brain areas related to motor
      behavior. Bile-duct ligated rats showed hyperammonemia, loss of liver integrity
      and function, impaired locomotor activity, reduced aquaporin-4 protein
      expression, and neuronal hyperactivity. Lactulose treatment was able to reduce
      ammonia plasma levels, despite not having an effect on biochemical parameters of
      liver function, such as aspartate aminotransferase activity and total bilirubin
      levels, or on the cirrhotic hepatic architecture. Lactulose was also able to
      reduce the locomotor activity impairments and to mitigate or reverse most changes
      in neuronal activation. Lactulose had no effect on reduced aquaporin-4 protein
      expression. Our findings confirm the effectiveness of lactulose in reducing
      hyperammonemia and neuronal hyperactivity in brain areas related to motor
      behavior, reinforcing the importance of its clinical use in the treatment of the
      symptoms of cirrhosis-associated encephalopathy.

PMID- 28875420
TI  - Prognostic Value of Preoperative Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen and Carbohydrate
      Antigen 19-9 After Resection of Ampullary Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to investigate the prognostic value of
      pre-resection serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA)
      19-9 after resection of ampullary cancer (AC) in consideration of intestinal (IT)
      and pancreatobiliary (PT) subtypes. METHODS: Overall survival (OS) analysis of
      patients undergoing curative resection of ampullary cancer. RESULTS: Elevated
      preoperative CEA (P = 0.013) and CA 19-9 levels (P = 0.030) were significant
      prognostic factors. Subgroup analysis, however, showed both markers having
      prognostic value only for the IT subgroup. Pre-resection CEA within normal range
      identified a subgroup of IT patients with an excellent median survival of 145
      months. Compared to other AC patients, this low-risk ITCEA- subpopulation was
      characterized by less frequent advanced pT stages (pT3/pT4, 41 vs. 62%; P =
      0.047) and lymph node involvement (pN+, 30 vs. 65%; P = 0.001). OS of this
      subgroup was significantly better compared to other AC patients (145 vs. 25
      months; HR = 3.8; P < 0.001). By multivariate survival analysis, the patient age,
      the PT subtype, and an elevated pre-resection serum CEA value were identified as
      independent prognostic variables. CONCLUSIONS: In AC, the histomorphologic
      subclassification is highly relevant regarding the prognostic value of
      preoperative serum CEA and CA 19-9. IT-patients with normal preoperative CEA
      represent a favorable subgroup with excellent long-term survival.

PMID- 28875421
TI  - Brief Report: Relationship Between ADOS-2, Module 4 Calibrated Severity Scores
      (CSS) and Social and Non-Social Standardized Assessment Measures in Adult Males
      with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
AB  - The ADOS-2 Modules 1-3 now include a standardized calibrated severity score (CSS)
      from 1 to 10 based on the overall total raw score. Subsequent research published
      CSS for Module 4 (Hus, Lord, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
      44(8):1996-2012, 2014); however more research is needed to examine the
      psychometric properties of this CSS. Forty males with ASD completed an assessment
      battery consisting of ADOS-2 Module 4 and other clinical measures assessing core
      ASD symptomology and comorbidity. Pearson correlation analyses found that CSS did
      not correlate with measures that assessed core social deficits of ASD or general
      psychiatric co-morbidity, but CSS did correlate negatively with intellectual
      quotient. These findings provide information on the limitations and relevance of
      CSS to be taken into account in future clinical evaluations of ASD.

PMID- 28875422
TI  - Public Health and Public Order Outcomes Associated with Supervised Drug
      Consumption Facilities: a Systematic Review.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Supervised drug consumption facilities (SCFs) have
      increasingly been implemented in response to public health and public order
      concerns associated with illicit drug use. We systematically reviewed the
      literature investigating the health and community impacts of SCFs. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Consistent evidence demonstrates that SCFs mitigate overdose-related
      harms and unsafe drug use behaviours, as well as facilitate uptake of addiction
      treatment and other health services among people who use drugs (PWUD). Further,
      SCFs have been associated with improvements in public order without increasing
      drug-related crime. SCFs have also been shown to be cost-effective. This
      systematic review suggests that SCFs are effectively meeting their primary public
      health and order objectives and therefore supports their role within a continuum
      of services for PWUD. Additional studies are needed to better understand the
      potential long-term health impacts of SCFs and how innovations in SCF programming
      may help to optimize the effectiveness of this intervention.

PMID- 28875423
TI  - Glucose homeostasis in GHD children during long-term replacement therapy: a case
      control study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate glucose homeostasis in children with growth hormone (GH)
      deficiency (GHD) receiving long-term replacement therapy. METHODS: We evaluated
      glucose, insulin, HOmeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA-IR), and HbA1c in 100 GHD
      children at diagnosis and during 5 years of therapy. One hundred healthy children
      comparable to patients were evaluated at baseline and after 1 and 5 years.
      RESULTS: No difference was detected at baseline between GHD patients and controls
      in glucose (79.58 +/- 9.96 vs. 77.18 +/- 8.20 mg/dl), insulin (4.50 +/- 3.24 vs.
      4.30 +/- 2.60 uU/ml), HbA1c (5.20 +/- 0.31 vs. 5.25 +/- 0.33%) levels, and HOMA
      IR (0.93 +/- 0.72 vs. 0.86 +/- 0.61). One year of GH was associated with a
      significant increase in insulin (7.21 +/- 4.84, p < 0.001) and HOMA-IR (1.32 +/-
      0.98, p < 0.001) in GHD children, which became different from controls (p < 0.001
      and p = 0.004). These parameters did not change further during the following
      years of treatment in GHD subjects. In contrast, controls did not show
      significant changes in insulin (4.40 +/- 2.60) and HOMA-IR (0.82 +/- 0.60) during
      the first year; however, at the fifth year of the study a significant increase in
      insulin (6.50 +/- 3.50, p = 0.004) and HOMA-IR (1.29 +/- 0.54, p < 0.001) was
      documented, making these parameters comparable between patients and controls.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that growth hormone (GH) treatment is not
      associated with significant impairment of insulin sensitivity in GHD children.
      The slight impairment observed in GHD adolescents after long-term GH is
      comparable to that physiologically occurring in healthy pubertal subjects.

PMID- 28875424
TI  - Structural basis for DAXX interaction with ATRX.

PMID- 28875425
TI  - Initiating human articular chondrocyte re-differentiation in a 3D system after 2D
      expansion.
AB  - Cartilage damage affects a large population via acute and chronic injury and
      disease. Since native cartilage does not self-renew, cartilage tissue engineering
      has gained traction as a potential treatment. However, a limiting factor is that
      the primary cell type in cartilage, the articular chondrocyte, tends to de
      differentiate when grown on 2D surfaces for in vitro expansion. Thus, 3D systems
      are being developed and used to counter this loss of chondrogenic capabilities.
      We hypothesize that a 3D matrix that can be remodeled may be more supportive of
      the chondrogenic phenotype of encapsulated articular chondrocytes than a 2D
      surface and may allow for the re-differentiation of chondrocytes after 2D
      expansion. Hence, in this study, enzymatically degradable polyethylene glycol
      (PEG) hydrogels containing two different protease degradable peptide segments,
      with different degradation rates, were tested in combination with chondrogenic
      medium as a 3D in vitro culture system to better recapitulate the native
      environment of human articular chondrocytes (hACs). In addition, the effect of
      incorporation of the integrin binding ligand Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) in the hydrogels
      was explored. Hydrogels crosslinked with a slower degrading crosslinker and not
      functionalized with RGD maintained hAC viability and led to increased GAG
      production and chondrogenic gene expression over time, suggesting that this
      system can initiate hAC re-differentiation after 2D expansion.

PMID- 28875426
TI  - Analysis of Proteins, Protein Complexes, and Organellar Proteomes Using
      Sheathless Capillary Zone Electrophoresis - Native Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Native mass spectrometry (MS) is a rapidly advancing field in the analysis of
      proteins, protein complexes, and macromolecular species of various types. The
      majority of native MS experiments reported to-date has been conducted using
      direct infusion of purified analytes into a mass spectrometer. In this study,
      capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) was coupled online to Orbitrap mass
      spectrometers using a commercial sheathless interface to enable high-performance
      separation, identification, and structural characterization of limited amounts of
      purified proteins and protein complexes, the latter with preserved non-covalent
      associations under native conditions. The performance of both bare-fused silica
      and polyacrylamide-coated capillaries was assessed using mixtures of protein
      standards known to form non-covalent protein-protein and protein-ligand
      complexes. High-efficiency separation of native complexes is demonstrated using
      both capillary types, while the polyacrylamide neutral-coated capillary showed
      better reproducibility and higher efficiency for more complex samples. The
      platform was then evaluated for the determination of monoclonal antibody
      aggregation and for analysis of proteomes of limited complexity using a ribosomal
      isolate from E. coli. Native CZE-MS, using accurate single stage and tandem-MS
      measurements, enabled identification of proteoforms and non-covalent complexes at
      femtomole levels. This study demonstrates that native CZE-MS can serve as an
      orthogonal and complementary technique to conventional native MS methodologies
      with the advantages of low sample consumption, minimal sample processing and
      losses, and high throughput and sensitivity. This study presents a novel platform
      for analysis of ribosomes and other macromolecular complexes and organelles, with
      the potential for discovery of novel structural features defining cellular
      phenotypes (e.g., specialized ribosomes). Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28875427
TI  - Epileptic seizures in nonalcoholic Wernicke's encephalopathy: a case report and
      literature review.
AB  - Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) is characterized by eye signs, cerebellar
      dysfunction, and confusion. Epileptic seizures are rare in nonalcoholic WE. We
      reviewed the clinical, laboratory, radiological, and prognostic characteristics
      of nonalcoholic WE accompanied by epileptic seizures. We reported 1 case and
      searched similar cases using PubMed, WoK, Ovid, and Embase. WE was diagnosed
      according to dietary deficiencies, clinical symptoms and brain magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI). We reviewed 13 patients (median age, 27 years; 5 men) with clear
      histories of thiamine deficiency and symptoms of typical WE. The type of
      epileptic seizures reported in the 13 cases reviewed was generically reported as
      seizures or convulsions in 4 patients; 7 patients had generalized tonic-clonic
      seizures, 1 partial seizure, and 1 generalized convulsive status epileptics. Two
      patients had epileptic seizures as the first symptom of WE. Laboratory tests
      mainly indicated metabolic acidosis and electrolyte disturbances.
      Electroencephalography may present as normal patterns, increased slow waves or
      epileptic discharge. Six patients had cortical lesions on brain MRI. These
      lesions were usually diffuse and band-like, and sometimes involved all lobes
      either symmetrically or asymmetrically, with the frontal lobe as the most
      susceptible area. All cortical lesions were accompanied by non-cortical lesions
      typical of WE. Brain MRI abnormalities, after thiamine treatment, mostly
      disappeared on follow-up MRIs. The patients had good prognoses. Only 1 patient
      had repeated seizures, and there were no comas or deaths. Patients with
      nonalcoholic WE accompanied by seizures are young and generally have good
      prognoses. Most patients experienced generalized convulsive seizures, which may
      have been related to abnormal cerebral cortical metabolism due to subacute
      thiamine deficiency.

PMID- 28875429
TI  - Regional Differences in Cerebral Glucose Metabolism After Cardiac Arrest and
      Resuscitation in Rats Using [18F]FDG Positron Emission Tomography and
      Autoradiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac arrest is an important cause of morbidity and mortality.
      Brain injury severity and prognosis of cardiac arrest patients are related to the
      cerebral areas affected. To this aim, we evaluated the variability and the
      distribution of brain glucose metabolism after cardiac arrest and resuscitation
      in an adult rat model. METHODS: Ten rats underwent 8-min cardiac arrest, induced
      with a mixture of potassium and esmolol, and resuscitation, performed with chest
      compressions and epinephrine. Eight sham animals received anesthesia and
      experimental procedures identical to the ischemic group except cardiac arrest
      induction. Brain metabolism was assessed using [18F]FDG autoradiography and small
      animal-dedicated positron emission tomography. RESULTS: The absolute glucose
      metabolism measured with [18F]FDG autoradiography 2 h after cardiac arrest and
      resuscitation was lower in the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal
      cortices of cardiac arrest animals, showing, respectively, a 36% (p = 0.006), 32%
      (p = 0.016), 36% (p = 0.009), and 32% (p = 0.013) decrease compared to sham
      group. Striatum, hippocampus, thalamus, brainstem, and cerebellum showed no
      significant changes. Relative regional metabolism indicated a redistribution of
      metabolism from cortical area to brainstem and cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggest that cerebral regions have different susceptibility to moderate global
      ischemia in terms of glucose metabolism. The neocortex showed a higher
      sensibility to hypoxia-ischemia than other regions. Other subcortical regions, in
      particular brainstem and cerebellum, showed no significant change compared to non
      ischemic rats.

PMID- 28875428
TI  - Timed Release of Cerebrolysin Using Drug-Loaded Titanate Nanospheres Reduces
      Brain Pathology and Improves Behavioral Functions in Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Previous studies from our laboratory show that intraperitoneal injections of 1
      metyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridin (MPTP, 20 mg/kg) daily within 2-h
      intervals for 5 days in mice induce Parkinson's disease (PD)-like symptoms on the
      8th day. A significant decrease in dopamine (DA) and its metabolites 3,4
      dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA) along with a
      marked decrease in the number of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cells in the
      substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and striatum (STr) confirms the validity of
      this model for studying PD. Since cerebrolysin (CBL) is a well-balanced
      composition of several neurotrophic factors and active peptide fragments, in the
      present investigation we examined the timed release of CBL using titanate
      nanospheres (TiNS) in treating PD in our mouse model. Our observations show that
      TiNS-CBL (in a dose of 3 ml/kg, i.v.) given after 2 days of MPTP administration
      for 5 days resulted in a marked increase in TH-positive cells in the SNpc and STr
      as compared to normal CBL. Also, TiNS-CBL resulted in significantly higher levels
      of DA, DOPAC, and HVA in SNpc and STr on the 8th day as compared to normal CBL
      therapy. TiNS-CBL also thwarted increased alpha-synuclein levels in the brain and
      in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as well as neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)
      in the in PD brain as compared to untreated group. Behavioral function was also
      significantly improved in MPTP-treated animals that received TiNS-CBL. These
      observations are the first to demonstrate that timed release of TiNS-CBL has far
      more superior neuroprotective effects in PD than normal CBL.

PMID- 28875431
TI  - Concurrent uptake and metabolism of dyestuffs through bio-assisted
      phytoremediation: a symbiotic approach.
AB  - Manipulation of bio-technological processes in treatment of dyestuffs has
      attracted considerable attention, because a large proportion of these synthetic
      dyes enter into natural environment during synthesis and dyeing operations that
      contaminates different ecosystems. Moreover, these dyestuffs are toxic and
      difficult to degrade because of their synthetic origin, durability, and complex
      aromatic molecular structures. Hence, bio-assisted phytoremediation has recently
      emerged as an innovative cleanup approach in which microorganisms and plants work
      together to transform xenobiotic dyestuffs into nontoxic or less harmful
      products. This manuscript will focus on competence and potential of plant-microbe
      synergistic systems for treatment of dyestuffs, their mixtures and real textile
      effluents, and effects of symbiotic relationship on plant performances during
      remediation process and will highlight their metabolic activities during bio
      assisted phytodegradation and detoxification.

PMID- 28875430
TI  - Measurement properties of the EQ-5D-5L compared to the EQ-5D-3L in psoriasis
      patients.
AB  - : The purpose of this study is to assess the measurement properties of EQ-5D-5L
      compared to EQ-5D-3L in psoriasis patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was
      carried out at an academic dermatology clinic in Hungary. Psoriasis patients
      completed the EQ-5D-3L, EQ-5D-5L and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI)
      questionnaires, and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) was assessed. The UK
      value sets were used to calculate the 3L and 5L index scores. We tested the
      feasibility, ceiling effect, redistribution properties, the level of
      inconsistency and informativity (Shannon and Shannon Evenness indices).
      Spearman's rank-order correlations were performed between EQ-5D, EQ VAS, DLQI and
      PASI scores. Known-groups validity was evaluated by comparing age groups,
      clinical subtypes and treatment groups. RESULTS: Mean age of the 238 patients was
      47 years, and 36.6% of them received biological therapy. Mean EQ-5D index score
      was 0.77 (SD: 0.26) with the 3L and 0.84 (SD: 0.19) with the 5L. The overall
      ceiling effect decreased from 37.1 (3L) to 32.9% (5L). Shannon index improved
      significantly for most dimensions, but Shannon Evenness index improved only in
      three dimensions. Compared to the 3L, the 5L version confirmed a better
      convergent validity with PASI, but not with the DLQI. Known-groups validity was
      equally demonstrated both for the 5L and 3L. CONCLUSIONS: The EQ-5D-5L seems to
      improve measurement properties by reducing ceiling effects, strengthening
      correlations with PASI and improving informativity. Follow-up studies are needed
      to test responsiveness and reliability in psoriasis.

PMID- 28875432
TI  - A meta-analytic review of the association between cortisol reactivity in response
      to a stressor and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
AB  - A substantial literature suggests that abnormal cortisol reactivity may be a
      vulnerability for deleterious mental health outcomes, including ADHD. ADHD has
      been linked with difficulty in emotion regulation and increased risk of
      experiencing stressors, both of which may be related to psychobiological
      abnormalities (e.g., abnormal cortisol reactivity). Research has been mixed
      regarding the association between cortisol reactivity and ADHD. Therefore, the
      present meta-analytic review (k = 12) sought to quantify this association and
      review the relevant methodological issues and theoretical implications of this
      area of research. Overall, no effect was found between cortisol reactivity and
      ADHD (r = 0), although significant heterogeneity in the analyses suggested that
      there might be moderators of this association, if one does exist. Results
      highlight the importance of addressing limitations of the current literature on
      cortisol reactivity and ADHD and exploring additional indices of emotion
      regulation that may be associated with ADHD. Implications for future research
      efforts are discussed.

PMID- 28875434
TI  - Nonlinear and Nonsymmetric Single-Molecule Electronic Properties Towards
      Molecular Information Processing.
AB  - This review highlights molecular design for nonlinear and nonsymmetric single
      molecule electronic properties such as rectification, negative differential
      resistance, and switching, which are important components of future single
      molecule information processing devices. Perspectives on integrated "molecular
      circuits" are also provided. Nonlinear and nonsymmetric single-molecule
      electronics can be designed by utilizing (1) asymmetric molecular cores, (2)
      asymmetric anchoring groups, (3) an asymmetric junction environment, and (4)
      asymmetric electrode materials. This review mainly focuses on the design of
      molecular cores.

PMID- 28875433
TI  - Crucial microRNAs and genes in metformin's anti-pancreatic cancer effect explored
      by microRNA-mRNA integrated analysis.
AB  - Despite great improvements in surgical procedures and chemotherapy, pancreatic
      cancer remains one of the most aggressive and fatal human malignancies, with a
      low 5-year survival rate. Therefore, novel therapeutic strategies for the
      prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer are urgently needed. The present
      study aimed to investigate the mechanisms by which metformin exerts its
      anticancer effects on the microRNA-mRNA interactions in human pancreatic cancer.
      Microarray and systematic analyses revealed that the anti-pancreatic cancer
      effects of metformin were correlated with 3 up-regulated microRNAs and 4 of their
      target mRNAs. In addition, the microarray and systematic analyses ultimately
      demonstrated that 3 microRNAs regulated 4 key mRNAs in a sub-pathway of
      pancreatic cancer and then affected growth, angiogenesis, and apoptosis. This
      finding may provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which metformin
      suppresses proliferation and angiogenesis and promotes apoptosis in pancreatic
      cancer cells. Collectively, this experiment improves the understanding of the
      mechanisms by which metformin suppresses pancreatic cancer and indicates that
      metformin, the most commonly used drug for the treatment of diabetes mellitus,
      may be a promising candidate agent for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28875435
TI  - Client and Partner Violence Among Urban Female Exotic Dancers and Intentions for
      Seeking Support and Justice.
AB  - Urban female exotic dancers are thought to experience unique risk for violence
      and barriers to care, though limited research has focused on this aspect of urban
      sex industries. We characterize recent client-perpetrated and intimate partner
      violence (IPV) and their correlates, and describe women's intentions for violence
      related help-seeking, among venue-based exotic dancers in a high-risk urban
      environment. We conducted a cross-sectional study with new female exotic dancers
      (n = 117) in Baltimore, MD. Over one third (36%) reported intimate partner
      violence (IPV), and 16% reported client physical or sexual violence, in the six
      months prior to the survey. Both forms of violence were correlated with arrest,
      sex trade, substance use, and childhood abuse. Violence-related help-seeking
      intentions were highest for club management. Intentions to seek help from police
      and violence-related support hotlines were lowest among those with recent
      experiences of violence. Recent violence, particularly from intimate partners,
      was pervasive in this sample of female exotic dancers, and enabled by substance
      use, criminal history, and sex trade. Preferences for help within venues, rather
      than the justice sector and publicly funded support services, indicate the need
      for systems reform to meet the needs of this high-risk group of women.

PMID- 28875436
TI  - Predictors of Daily Pain Medication Use in Individuals with Recurrent Back Pain.
AB  - PURPOSE: A key component to chronic pain management regimens is the use of
      analgesic medications. Psychological factors, such as mood states, may also
      affect the use of pain medications for individuals with chronic pain, but few
      observational studies have examined how these factors may predict pain medication
      use at the daily level. METHODS: Daily assessments from 104 individuals with back
      pain were used to examine fluctuations in daily pain intensity, mood, sleep
      quality, and physical activity as predictors of the likelihood of pain medication
      (opioid and non-opioid) use and levels of medication use on the same day.
      RESULTS: Pain intensity and mood ratings significantly predicted whether
      participants used pain medication on the same day, while only pain intensity
      predicted whether participants used more medication than usual. Further, current
      opioid users were more likely to increase the amount of their medication use on
      days of higher pain. DISCUSSION: This article identifies fluctuations in daily
      pain intensity and mood as salient predictors of daily pain medication use in
      individuals with recurrent back pain. The current study is among the first to
      highlight both pain and mood states as predictors of daily pain medication use in
      individuals with back pain, though future studies may expand on these findings
      through the use of higher-resolution daily medication use variables.

PMID- 28875437
TI  - Child with Dysuria and/or Hematuria.
AB  - Dysuria and/or hematuria are common and worrisome symptoms for most parents.
      Dysuria results from excessive bladder muscle contraction and peristaltic
      activity of the edematous and inflamed urethral mucosa. Though urinary tract
      infection remains the commonest cause for dysuria, non-infectious causes should
      also be kept in mind. Equating all cases of dysuria to urinary infection is not
      incorrect. Hematuria can be both macroscopic and microscopic and an important
      sign of genitourinary tract disease. However, systemic causes like bleeding
      disorder or malignancy can also present with hematuria. A thorough history and
      physical examination is important for arriving at a diagnosis. The investigations
      for both the symptoms and the urgency with which the tests are required are
      dictated by the patient's clinical presentation.

PMID- 28875438
TI  - Non-invasive Evaluation of NAFLD with Indocyanine Green Clearance Test: a
      Preliminary Study in Morbidly Obese Patients Undergoing Bariatric Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity dramatically increased in the last years.
      Hepatic complication of obesity, integrated in the term of non-alcoholic fatty
      liver disease (NAFLD), is a spectrum of abnormality ranging from steatosis to non
      alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), potentially leading to cirrhosis. Liver biopsy
      remains the gold standard to evaluate the stage of NAFLD; however, the procedure
      is invasive. The indocyanine green (ICG) clearance test is performed since years
      to assess hepatic function before partial hepatectomy, or after liver
      transplantation. This study was designed to detect liver complications with the
      ICG clearance test in a population of obese patients scheduled for bariatric
      surgery. METHODS: In a prospective cohort study, morbidly obese individuals
      receiving bariatric surgery with scheduled hepatic biopsies were investigated.
      Liver function was determined by the ICG test preoperatively, and blood samples
      were collected. Liver biopsy specimens were obtained for each patient and
      classified according to the NAFLD activity score (NAS) by a single pathologist
      that was blinded to the results of the ICG test. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients
      were included (7 male and 19 female). The mean age of participants was 45.8
      years; the mean body mass index was 41.4 kg/m2. According to the NAS, 6 (23.1%)
      patients revealed manifest NASH, and 5 patients were considered borderline
      (19.2%). A closed correlation was observed between the ICG clearance test and
      hepatic steatosis (r = 0.43, p = 0.03), NAS (r = 0.44, p = 0.025), and fibrosis
      (r = 0.49, p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In obese patients, non-invasive evaluation of
      liver function with the indocyanine green clearance test correlated with
      histological features of NAFLD. This may detect non-invasively hepatopathy in
      obese population and could motive biopsy.

PMID- 28875439
TI  - Current status and future prospects for human papillomavirus vaccines.
AB  - Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer among women worldwide. Human
      papillomaviruses (HPVs) cause almost all cervical cancers in low-income
      countries. Three prophylactic HPV virus-like particle-based vaccines have been
      licensed to date, and they have all shown high efficacy and reliable safety
      profiles. However, isolated safety issues have resulted in a reluctance to use
      these vaccinations. In addition, the high prices of the vaccinations have caused
      the inequitable distribution of the vaccine: the prices are unaffordable for low
      income countries. Meanwhile, great effort has been put into the development of
      therapeutic HPV vaccines, including protein/peptide-, live vector-, DNA- and cell
      based vaccines. These new vaccines have considerable therapeutic potential but
      limited practical use. The development of immune checkpoint inhibitors and
      personalized immunotherapy remain challenges for future study. In this article,
      the current status of the licensed vaccines, therapeutic HPV vaccines and
      biosimilars, and new platforms for HPV vaccines, are reviewed, and safety issues
      related to the licensed vaccines are discussed. In addition, the prospects for
      HPV vaccines are considered.

PMID- 28875441
TI  - Letter to the Editor: False-positive Cultures After Native Knee Aspiration: True
      or False.

PMID- 28875440
TI  - Targeting brain tumors by intra-arterial delivery of cell-penetrating peptides: a
      novel approach for primary and metastatic brain malignancy.
AB  - Computational modeling shows that intra-arterial delivery is most efficient when
      the delivered drugs rapidly and avidly bind to the target site. The cell
      penetrating peptide trans-activator of transcription (TAT) is a candidate carrier
      molecule that could mediate such specificity for brain tumor chemotherapeutics.
      To test this hypothesis we first performed in vitro studies testing the uptake of
      TAT by one primary and three potentially metastatic brain cancer cell lines (9L,
      4T-1, LLC, SKOV-3). Then we performed in vivo studies in a rat model where TAT
      was delivered either intra-arterially (IA) or intravenously (IV) to 9L brain
      tumors. We observed robust uptake of TAT by all tumor cell lines in vitro. Flow
      cytometry and confocal microscopy revealed a rapid uptake of fluorescein-labeled
      TAT within 5 min of exposure to the cancer cells. IA injections done under
      transient cerebral hypoperfusion (TCH) generated a four-fold greater tumor TAT
      concentration compared to conventional IV injections. We conclude that it is
      feasible to selectively target brain tumors with TAT-linked chemotherapy by the
      IA-TCH method.

PMID- 28875442
TI  - Erratum to: Assessing Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms as Risk Factors for
      Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

PMID- 28875444
TI  - Erratum to: What is the Difference in Morphologic Features of the Thoracic
      Pedicle Between Patients With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis and Healthy
      Subjects? A CT-based Case-control Study.

PMID- 28875443
TI  - Sinonasal Tract Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma in Adults: A Clinicopathologic and
      Immunophenotypic Study of Fifty-Two Cases with Emphasis on Epithelial
      Immunoreactivity.
AB  - Sinonasal tract (SNT) alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) are frequently
      misdiagnosed, especially in adults. Fifty-two adult (>=18 years) patients with
      SNT ARMS were reviewed and characterized by immunohistochemistry and molecular
      studies. Twenty-six females and 26 males (18-72 years; mean 43.2 years),
      presented after a short duration (mean 2.6 months) with a large (mean 5.5 cm)
      destructive nasal cavity mass, involving multiple contiguous paranasal sites (n =
      46) and with cervical adenopathy (n = 41). The tumors showed an alveolar, nested
      to solid growth pattern below an intact, but often involved (n = 9) epithelium
      with frequent necrosis (n = 37), destructive bone invasion (n = 30), and
      lymphovascular invasion (n = 25). The neoplastic cells were dyshesive and
      dilapidated, with crush artifacts. Rhabdoid features (n = 36) and tumor cell
      multinucleation (n = 28) were common. Mitotic counts were high (mean 17/10 HPFs).
      The neoplastic cells showed the following immunohistochemical positive findings:
      desmin (100%), myogenin (100%), MYOD1 (100%), MSA (96%), SMA (52%), CAM5.2 (50%),
      AE1/AE3 (36%); other positive markers included S100 protein (27%), CD56 (100%),
      synaptophysin (35%), and chromogranin (13%). Overall, 54% show epithelial marker
      reactivity. Molecular studies showed FOXO1 translocations (81%) with PCR
      demonstrating PAX3 in 72.7% tested. Patients presented with high stage (IV 24;
      III 26) and metastatic disease (lymph nodes n = 41; distant metastases n = 25)
      (IRSG grouping). Surgery (n = 16), radiation (n = 41) and chemotherapy (n = 45)
      yielded an overall survival of 36.1 months (mean; range 2.4-286); 18 alive
      without disease (mean 69.6 months); 7 alive with disease (mean 11.0 months); 1
      dead without disease (63.7 months); and 26 dead with disease (mean 18.5 months).
      SNT ARMS frequently present in adults as a large, destructive midline mass of
      short symptom duration, with high stage disease. The alveolar to solid pattern of
      growth of cells with rhabdoid-plasmacytoid features suggests the diagnosis, but
      epithelial immunohistochemistry markers are present in 54% of cases, leading to
      misdiagnosis as carcinomas if muscle markers are not also performed. Overall
      survival of 36.1 months is achieved with multimodality therapy, but 64% have
      incurable disease (16.9 months). Mixed anatomic site (p = 0.02) was a significant
      adverse prognostic indicator, while stage (0.06) and tumor size >5 cm (0.06)
      approached marginal significance.

PMID- 28875445
TI  - Reply to the Letter to the Editor: False-positive Cultures After Native Knee
      Aspiration: True or False.

PMID- 28875446
TI  - Evaluating the potential genotoxicity of phthalates esters (PAEs) in perfumes
      using in vitro assays.
AB  - We previously reported high levels of phthalate esters (PAEs) added as solvents
      or fixatives in 47 brands of perfumes. Diethyl phthalate was the most abundant
      compound (0.232-23,649 ppm), and 83.3% of the perfumes had levels >1 ppm, the
      threshold limit cited by a Greenpeace investigation. All samples had dimethyl
      phthalate levels higher than its threshold limit of 0.1 ppm, and 88, 38, and 7%
      of the perfumes had benzyl butyl phthalate, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and
      dibutyl phthalate levels, respectively, above their threshold limits. The role of
      PAEs as endocrine disruptors has been well documented, but their effect on
      genotoxic behavior has received little attention. We used in vitro single-cell
      gel electrophoresis (comet) and micronucleus (MN) assays with human
      lymphoblastoid TK6 cells to evaluate the genotoxic potency of 42 of the same
      perfumes and to determine its association with PAEs. All perfumes induced more
      DNA damage than a negative control (NEG), >= 90% of the samples caused more
      damage than cells treated with the vehicles possibly used in perfume's
      preparations such as methanol (ME) and ethanol (ET), and 11.6% of the perfumes
      caused more DNA damage than a positive control (hydrogen peroxide). Chromosome
      breakage expressed as MN frequency was higher in cells treated with 71.4, 64.3,
      57.1, and 4.8% of the perfumes than in NEG, cells treated with ME or ET, and
      another positive control (x-rays), respectively. The genotoxic responses in the
      comet and MN assays were not correlated. The comet assay indicated that the
      damage in TK6 cells treated with five PAEs at concentrations of 0.05 and 0.2 ppm
      either individually or as a mixture did not differ significantly from the damage
      in cells treated with the perfumes. Unlike the comet assay, the sensitivity of
      the MN assay to PAEs was weak at both low and high concentrations, and MN
      frequencies were generally low. This study demonstrates for the first time the
      possible contribution of PAEs in perfumes to DNA damage and suggests that their
      use as solvents or fixatives should be regulated. Other ingredients with
      mutagenic/genotoxic properties, however, may also have contributed to the DNA
      damage. Future studies should focus on applying a series of assays that use
      different cellular models with various endpoints to identify the spectrum of
      genotoxic mechanisms involved.

PMID- 28875447
TI  - Public Mistrust of the U.S. Health Care System's Profit Motives: Mixed-Methods
      Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Decision makers are increasingly tasked with reducing health care
      costs, but the public may be mistrustful of these efforts. Public deliberation
      helps gather input on these types of issues by convening a group of diverse
      individuals to learn about and discuss values-based dilemmas. OBJECTIVE: To
      explore public perceptions of health care costs and how they intersect with
      medical mistrust. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: This mixed-methods study analyzed data
      from a randomized controlled trial including four public deliberation groups (n =
      96) and a control group (n = 348) comprising English-speaking adults aged 18
      years and older. Data were collected in 2012 in four U.S. regions. APPROACH: We
      used data from four survey items to compare attitude shifts about costs among
      participants in deliberation groups to participants in the control group. We
      qualitatively analyzed deliberation transcripts to identify themes related to
      attitude shifts and to provide context for quantitative results about attitude
      shifts. KEY RESULTS: Deliberation participants were significantly more likely
      than control group participants to agree that doctors and patients should
      consider cost when making treatment decisions (beta = 0.59; p < 0.01) and that
      people should consider the effect on group premiums when making treatment
      decisions (beta = 0.48; p < 0.01). Qualitatively, participants mistrusted the
      health care system's profit motives (e.g., that systems prioritize making money
      over patient needs); however, after grappling with patient/doctor autonomy and
      learning about and examining their own views related to costs during the process
      of deliberation, they largely concluded that payers have the right to set some
      boundaries to curb costs. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who are informed about costs
      may be receptive to boundaries that reduce societal health care costs, despite
      their mistrust of the health care system's profit motives, especially if decision
      makers communicate their rationale in a transparent manner. Future work should
      aim to develop transparent policies and practices that earn public trust.

PMID- 28875448
TI  - Clinical outcomes of AF patients treated with the first and second-generation of
      circular mapping and ablation catheter: insights from a real world multicenter
      experience.
AB  - PURPOSE: Complete pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is the best documented target
      for catheter ablation, and different technologies have shown comparable outcomes.
      The multielectrode phased-RF/duty cycled (PhRF/DC) pulmonary vein ablation
      catheter (PVAC) and its second generation (PVAC-GOLD) have shown promising
      clinical results in single and multicenter experiences. Our aim is to assess and
      compare the safety and efficacy in the real clinical practice among two
      generations of circular PhRF/DC catheters by performing PVI in patients suffering
      from recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS: Eighty-four AF patients treated
      with PVAC and 64 with PVAC-GOLD were prospectively followed in five Italian
      cardiology centers in the mainframe of the 1STOP-ClinicalService project.
      RESULTS: Fluoroscopic and total procedure time were significantly different in
      the two groups. In particular, in the PVAC-GOLD group, the mean fluoroscopic time
      was 22.8 +/- 12.7 min vs 31.6 +/- 18.9 in the PVAC group (p = 0.002), and the
      mean total procedure duration was 117.6 +/- 36.0 vs 147.4 +/- 40.6, in the PVAC
      GOLD group and the PVAC group, respectively (p = 0.001). Only two out of 148
      patients reported a peri-procedural complication. Over 20.9 +/- 12.0 months of
      follow-up, AF recurrence occurred in 58 patients. Kaplan-Meier freedom from AF
      recurrence did not differ between the two groups (64.1 +/- 10% in the PVAC group
      vs 68.2 +/- 9% in the PVAC-GOLD group at 1 year, p = ns). CONCLUSIONS: In our
      multicenter analysis, AF ablation using two generations of circular PhRF/DC
      catheters is safe and effective. No difference was observed in terms of safety
      and efficacy of the AF ablation between the two catheters, with the mean
      procedural time being shorter in the PVAC-GOLD group.

PMID- 28875450
TI  - Cryo-EM structure of Mycobacterium smegmatis ribosome reveals two unidentified
      ribosomal proteins close to the functional centers.

PMID- 28875449
TI  - An extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) device operating at
      hemodialysis blood flow rates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) systems have gained
      clinical appeal as supplemental therapy in the treatment of acute and chronic
      respiratory injuries with low tidal volume or non-invasive ventilation. We have
      developed an ultra-low-flow ECCO2R device (ULFED) capable of operating at blood
      flows comparable to renal hemodialysis (250 mL/min). Comparable operating
      conditions allow use of minimally invasive dialysis cannulation strategies with
      potential for direct integration to existing dialysis circuitry. METHODS: A
      carbon dioxide (CO2) removal device was fabricated with rotating impellers inside
      an annular hollow fiber membrane bundle to disrupt blood flow patterns and
      enhance gas exchange. In vitro gas exchange and hemolysis testing was conducted
      at hemodialysis blood flows (250 mL/min). RESULTS: In vitro carbon dioxide
      removal rates up to 75 mL/min were achieved in blood at normocapnia (pCO2 = 45
      mmHg). In vitro hemolysis (including cannula and blood pump) was comparable to a
      Medtronic Minimax oxygenator control loop using a time-of-therapy normalized
      index of hemolysis (0.19 +/- 0.04 g/100 min versus 0.12 +/- 0.01 g/100 min, p =
      0.169). CONCLUSIONS: In vitro performance suggests a new ultra-low-flow
      extracorporeal CO2 removal device could be utilized for safe and effective CO2
      removal at hemodialysis flow rates using simplified and minimally invasive
      connection strategies.

PMID- 28875451
TI  - Increase in the circulating endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol is associated
      with gabapentin use in septic ICU patients.

PMID- 28875452
TI  - Long non-coding RNA tagging and expression manipulation via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated
      targeted insertion.

PMID- 28875453
TI  - Laboratory Study Comparing Pharmacopeial Testing of Nebulizers with Evaluation
      Based on Nephele Mixing Inlet Methodology.
AB  - Determination of fine droplet dose with preparations for nebulization, currently
      deemed to be the metric most indicative of lung deposition and thus in vivo
      responses, involves combining two procedures following practice as described in
      the United States Pharmacopeia and the European Pharmacopeia. Delivered dose (DD)
      is established by simulating tidal breathing at the nebulizer, collecting the
      medication on a filter downstream of the nebulizer mouthpiece/facemask. Fine
      droplet fraction (FDF<x MUm) is determined separately using a cooled cascade
      impactor operated at 15 L/min. FDD<x MUm is subsequently calculated as the
      product of DD and FDF<x MUm. Development of the Nephele mixing inlet has allowed
      cascade impactor-based assessments to be made at a constant flow rate while
      simultaneously subjecting the nebulizer to the continuously varying flow profile
      associated with breath simulation. The study purpose was to investigate the
      feasibility of this approach, termed mixing inlet lung simulation (MILS), for
      direct determination of FDD<x MUm. An optimal upper size limit for FDF is not
      given for nebulizers, but 5 MUm was chosen since this limit is the European norm
      when testing other inhalation products. Vibrating membrane nebulizers (eFlow(r)
      Rapid) were used to deliver aqueous salbutamol sulfate, simulating an adult tidal
      breathing pattern (inspiratory to expiratory ratio = 1:1, tidal volume = 500 mL,
      15 breaths per minute, peak inspiratory flow rate = 24 L/min). The two procedures
      were inequivalent, as FDD<5 MUm by the MILS approach was 72% of that obtained
      using the compendial "combination" method. Since the MILS methodology more
      closely mimics clinical use, we infer that the compendial approach likely
      overestimates the dose reaching the human lung.

PMID- 28875454
TI  - Roles of Retinoic Acid Signaling in Shaping the Neuronal Architecture of the
      Developing Amphioxus Nervous System.
AB  - The morphogen retinoic acid (RA) patterns vertebrate nervous systems and drives
      neurogenesis, but how these functions evolved remains elusive. Here, we show that
      RA signaling plays stage- and tissue-specific roles during the formation of
      neural cell populations with serotonin, dopamine, and GABA neurotransmitter
      phenotypes in amphioxus, a proxy for the ancestral chordate. Our data suggest
      that RA signaling restricts the specification of dopamine-containing cells in the
      ectoderm and of GABA neurons in the neural tube, probably by regulating Hox1 and
      Hox3 gene expression, respectively. The two Hox genes thus appear to serve
      distinct functions rather than to participate in a combinatorial Hox code. We
      were further able to correlate the RA signaling-dependent mispatterning of
      hindbrain GABA neurons with concomitant motor impairments. Taken together, these
      data provide new insights into how RA signaling and Hox genes contribute to
      nervous system as well as to motor control development in amphioxus and hence
      shed light on the evolution of these functions within vertebrates.

PMID- 28875455
TI  - Albumin-Conjugated Lipid-Based Multilayered Nanoemulsion Improves Drug
      Specificity and Anti-Inflammatory Potential at the Spinal Cord Injury gSite after
      Intravenous Administration.
AB  - Albumin-conjugated multilayered nanoemulsion (albumin-MNE) of methyl prednisolone
      (MP) was developed to ensure the specificity of the drug at the spinal cord
      injury (SCI) site. MNE was prepared by emulsification followed by ionic
      deposition of oppositely charged polymer followed by albumin conjugation using N
      hydroxysuccinimide. Prepared nanoemulsion was characterized for particle size,
      polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential (Zp), pH, viscosity, and entrapment
      efficiency. It was further evaluated for shape and morphological analysis, in
      vitro release, cell viability, and in vivo efficacy against post SCI-like
      conditions in terms of behavioral assessment, histopathological evaluation, and
      immunoflorescence assay of the histological sections showing Bax-driven
      apoptosis. Entrapment efficiency, particle size, PDI, and Zp of spherical-shaped,
      smooth-surfaced MNE droplets were found to be 68.9%, 83.2 +/- 14.4 nm, 0.231, and
      + 62.7 mV, respectively. In vitro release of MP from MNE and albumin-MNE was
      observed to be 68.5 and 72.2% after 96th hour of the study. MNE showed higher
      viability of astrocytes than MP solution. Albumin-MNE improved behavior of SCI
      rat and histopathological conditions in a very effective manner when compared
      with MNE. Immunoflorescence assay reveals explicit decline in mitochondrial
      mediated apoptosis by sub-cellular upregulation of Bax at spinal cord injury
      site. In conclusion, albumin-MNE delivered MP specifically at SCI site and
      avoided its instant availability inside astrocytes culture. On account of which
      the chitosan stabilized, lecithin-emulsified, multilayered nanoemulsion of MP
      depicts higher efficacy and safety than MNE and may offer safe and effective mean
      for the treatment of post SCI-like conditions in human.

PMID- 28875456
TI  - Phonemes: Lexical access and beyond.
AB  - Phonemes play a central role in traditional theories as units of speech
      perception and access codes to lexical representations. Phonemes have two
      essential properties: they are 'segment-sized' (the size of a consonant or vowel)
      and abstract (a single phoneme may be have different acoustic realisations).
      Nevertheless, there is a long history of challenging the phoneme hypothesis, with
      some theorists arguing for differently sized phonological units (e.g. features or
      syllables) and others rejecting abstract codes in favour of representations that
      encode detailed acoustic properties of the stimulus. The phoneme hypothesis is
      the minority view today. We defend the phoneme hypothesis in two complementary
      ways. First, we show that rejection of phonemes is based on a flawed
      interpretation of empirical findings. For example, it is commonly argued that the
      failure to find acoustic invariances for phonemes rules out phonemes. However,
      the lack of invariance is only a problem on the assumption that speech perception
      is a bottom-up process. If learned sublexical codes are modified by top-down
      constraints (which they are), then this argument loses all force. Second, we
      provide strong positive evidence for phonemes on the basis of linguistic data.
      Almost all findings that are taken (incorrectly) as evidence against phonemes are
      based on psycholinguistic studies of single words. However, phonemes were first
      introduced in linguistics, and the best evidence for phonemes comes from
      linguistic analyses of complex word forms and sentences. In short, the rejection
      of phonemes is based on a false analysis and a too-narrow consideration of the
      relevant data.

PMID- 28875457
TI  - Patient Satisfaction with Care After Coronary Revascularization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Bridging the Divides (Bridges), a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
      Services-funded program, developed a post-hospitalization care management
      infrastructure integrating information technology-enabled informatics with
      patient care for ischemic heart disease patients. The objective of this study was
      to assess patient satisfaction with the Bridges program and determine the patient
      characteristics associated with higher satisfaction. METHODS: All adult English
      speaking patients who underwent a percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary
      artery bypass grafting, or catheterization plus acute myocardial infarction and
      agreed to participate in the Bridges program were eligible. A survey instrument
      was administered to address patient satisfaction of care received, aspects of
      care that patients appreciated, and challenges faced. Descriptive statistics were
      calculated, and primary analyses included comparisons of overall patient
      satisfaction after discharge between procedure type, and according to age, sex,
      race, Elixhauser comorbidity count, and length of stay. RESULTS: Four hundred and
      sixty-seven (46%) had complete or partial response rates. There was a
      statistically significant difference in the overall satisfaction among patients
      undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass grafting,
      or catheterization plus acute myocardial infarction (p = 0.023). There were
      significant procedure by sex (p = 0.052) and procedure by age (p = 0.039)
      interactions. There were no statistically significant differences in overall
      satisfaction according to age, sex, race, comorbidity count, or length of stay.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study identified several important components related to
      patient satisfaction for patients with ischemic heart disease. Results found that
      patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting were reportedly "very
      satisfied" when compared with patients who underwent percutaneous coronary
      intervention and catheterization plus acute myocardial infarction, as well as
      significant age and sex interactions between procedures.

PMID- 28875458
TI  - Screening Intervals for Diabetic Retinopathy and Implications for Care.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this study is to review the evidence that lower
      risk groups who could safely be screened less frequently for sight-threatening
      diabetic retinopathy (DR) than annually. RECENT FINDINGS: Data have demonstrated
      that people with no DR in either eye are at a low risk of progression to sight
      threatening DR over a 2-year period (event rate 4.8 per 1000 person years),
      irrespective of whether the screening method is one-field non-mydriatic or two
      field mydriatic digital photography. Low risk has been defined as no retinopathy
      on two consecutive screening episodes or no retinopathy on one screening episode
      combined with risk factor data. The risk of an extension to 2 years is less than
      5 per 1000 person years in a population with a national screening programme, and
      the general standard of diabetes care is relatively good, whether low risk is
      defined as no retinopathy on two consecutive screening episodes or no retinopathy
      on one screening episode combined with other risk factor data. The definition
      used in different populations is likely to depend on the availability of data.

PMID- 28875459
TI  - Once-Daily Triple Therapy in Patients with Advanced COPD: Healthcare Resource
      Utilization Data and Associated Costs from the FULFIL Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is associated with a high
      healthcare resource and cost burden. Healthcare resource utilization was analyzed
      in patients with symptomatic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at risk of
      exacerbations in the FULFIL study. Patients received either once-daily, single
      inhaler triple therapy (fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol) 100 ug/62.5
      ug/25 ug or twice-daily dual inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta agonist
      therapy (budesonide/formoterol) 400 ug/12 ug. METHODS: FULFIL was a phase III,
      randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, multicenter study. Unscheduled contacts
      with healthcare providers were recorded by patients in a daily electronic diary;
      the costs of healthcare resource utilization were calculated post hoc using UK
      reference costs. RESULTS: Over 24 weeks, slightly fewer patients who received
      fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol (169/911; 18.6%) required contacts
      with healthcare providers compared with budesonide/formoterol (180/899; 20.0%).
      Over 52 weeks in an extension population, fewer patients who received fluticasone
      furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol required unscheduled contacts with healthcare
      providers compared with budesonide/formoterol (25.2% vs. 32.7%). Non-drug costs
      per treated patient per year were lower in the fluticasone
      furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol group than the budesonide/formoterol group over
      24 and 52 weeks (L653.80 vs. L763.32 and L749.22 vs. L988.03, respectively), with
      the total annualized cost over 24 weeks being slightly greater for fluticasone
      furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol than budesonide/formoterol (L1,289.35 vs.
      L1,267.45). CONCLUSIONS: This healthcare resource utilization evidence suggests
      that, in a clinical trial setting over a 24- or 52-week timeframe, non-drug costs
      associated with management of a single inhaler fluticasone
      furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol are lower compared with twice-daily
      budesonide/formoterol. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov number:
      NCT02345161. FUNDING: GSK.

PMID- 28875460
TI  - Retrospective cohort study of rough-surface titanium implants with at least 25
      years' function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The longitudinal clinical outcomes over decades contribute to know
      potential factors leading to implant failure or complications and help in the
      decision of treatment alternatives. METHODS: The cases of all patients who
      received dental implants treated with titanium plasma-sprayed surfaces and whose
      prostheses were set in the period 1984-1990 at seven private practices were
      retrospectively analyzed. The cumulative survival rate, the cumulative incidence
      of peri-implantitis, and the complication-free prosthesis rate were calculated
      with Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and the factors' influence on implant survival
      rate and the incidence of peri-implantitis were determined by a single factor in
      univariate analyses and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: A total of 223 implants
      and 106 prostheses were applied to 92 patients, and approx. 62% of the implants
      and patients dropped out over the 25 years following their treatment. The
      cumulative survival rates of the implants at 10, 15, and 25 years were 97.4,
      95.4, and 89.8%, respectively. A significant difference was observed in the
      implant position. The cumulative incidences of peri-implantitis at 10, 15, and 25
      years were 15.3, 21.0, and 27.9%, respectively. Significant differences were
      observed in the gender, implant type, and width of keratinized mucosa around the
      implant. The cumulative survival rates of mechanical complication-free prostheses
      at 10, 15, and 25 years were 74.9, 68.8, and 56.4%, respectively. The difference
      in the type of prosthesis resulted in significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: The
      high rate of dropout during follow-up indicates the difficulty of determining
      long-term (> 25 years) prognoses. The gender, location, and width of keratinized
      mucosa affected the development of peri-implantitis, resulting in late failures.
      Implant-supported overdentures were frequently repaired. Tooth implant-supported
      prostheses are not recommended for long-term survival.

PMID- 28875461
TI  - The Doctor Is In: Media Portrayals of Psychiatrists and Their Influence on
      Canadian Medical Students' Recruitment into Psychiatry.

PMID- 28875462
TI  - Influence of soil physical properties and vegetation coverage at different slope
      aspects in a reclaimed dump.
AB  - Vegetation coverage is an important parameter for affecting soil erosion and the
      physical and chemical properties of soil. To analyze the mutual influence between
      vegetation coverage and soil quality at different slope aspects in a reclaimed
      dump, fitting analyses were built between the normalized difference vegetation
      index and soil physical properties at each slope aspect. Twenty six quadrats were
      sampled in slope-platform alternate mode. Each quadrat was 10 m * 10 m.
      Vegetation index and soil physical properties were measured and calculated.
      Through curve fitting analysis, the results showed that soil bulk density has a
      negative correlation with the vegetation index on shady and half shady slopes,
      sunny slopes, and half sunny slopes. Soil porosity has a positive correlation
      with the vegetation index on shady and half shady slopes, sunny slope, and half
      sunny slope. The soil mass water content has a concave function relationship with
      the vegetation index on shady and half shady slopes and has a quadratic function
      relationship with the vegetation index on sunny and half sunny slopes, with the
      parabola moving upwards. The soil gravel content has a linear relationship with
      the vegetation index on shady and half shady slopes, and the image has a negative
      slope with a quadratic function relationship to the vegetation index on sunny
      slope and half sunny slope, with the parabola moving downwards. Due to
      differences among hydrothermal conditions, the relationship between vegetation
      coverage and soil quality indicators at different slope aspects is different;
      therefore, reasonable improvement of soil quality indicators on sunny and half
      sunny slopes could help plants to grow. These findings feed into a reference
      document that sets out how vegetation and soil quality may be improved in mining
      areas.

PMID- 28875463
TI  - Assessment of cough strength in patients with a tracheostomy.

PMID- 28875464
TI  - Changes in Tryptophan Catabolite (TRYCAT) Pathway Patterning Are Associated with
      Mild Impairments in Declarative Memory in Schizophrenia and Deficits in Semantic
      and Episodic Memory Coupled with Increased False-Memory Creation in Deficit
      Schizophrenia.
AB  - Evidence indicates that schizophrenia and in particular negative symptoms and
      deficit schizophrenia are accompanied by neurocognitive impairments and changes
      in the patterning of the tryptophan catabolite (TRYCAT) pathway. This cross
      sectional study was carried out to examine the associations between cognitive
      functions (as measured with Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's
      disease (CERAD)) and TRYCAT pathway patterning in patients with (n = 40) and
      without (n = 40) deficit schizophrenia and normal controls (n = 40). Cognitive
      measures were assessed with the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT), Boston Naming Test
      (BNT), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Word List Memory (WLM),
      Constructional Praxis, Word List Recall (WLRecall), and Word List Recognition
      (WLRecognition), while TRYCAT measurements assessed the IgA/IgM responses to
      noxious TRYCATs, namely quinolinic acid (QA), 3-OH-kynurenine (3HK), picolinic
      acid (PA), and xanthurenic (XA) acid, and more protective (PRO) TRYCATs,
      including kynurenic acid (KA) and anthranilic acid (AA). IgA NOX/PRO, IgM KA/3HK,
      and IgA/IgM NOX/PRO ratios were computed. Schizophrenia was accompanied by lower
      VFT and WLM, while BNT (dysnomia) and MMSE are significantly lower in multiple-
      than first-episode schizophrenia. Deficit schizophrenia is strongly associated
      with worse outcomes on VFT, MMSE, WLM, WLRecall, WLRecognition, and delayed
      recall savings and increased false memories. Around 40-50% of the variance in
      negative symptoms' scores was explained by VFT, WLM, WLRecall, and MMSE.
      Increases in IgA NOX/PRO, IgM KA/3HK, and/or IgA/IgM NOX/PRO ratios were
      associated with impairments in VFT, BNT, MMSE, WLM, WLRecall, WLRecognition, and
      false-memory creation. In conclusion, nondeficit schizophrenia is accompanied by
      mild memory impairments, while disease progression is accompanied by broader
      cognitive impairments. Deficit schizophrenia and negative symptoms are strongly
      associated with deficits in working memory, delayed recall and recognition, and
      increased false-memory creation. These cognitive impairments and memory deficits
      are in part explained by increased production and/or attenuated regulation of
      TRYCATs with neurotoxic, excitotoxic, immune-inflammatory, oxidative, and
      nitrosative potential, which may contribute to neuroprogression.

PMID- 28875465
TI  - Measles, Rubella and Varicella IgG Seroprevalence in a Large Refugee Cohort in
      Germany in 2015: A Cross-Sectional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The current extent of migration to the European continent is
      associated with exceptional humanitarian challenges. In 2015, Western Europe
      faced an enormous immigration of refugees with largely unknown protection status
      against communicable diseases. To adapt vaccination strategies, we aimed at
      assessing seroprevalences against three of the most relevant vaccine preventable
      diseases (VPD) in a large representative cohort. METHODS: IgG seroprevalences for
      rubella, varicella (n = 554) and measles (n = 552) were analyzed in inhabitants
      of a Northern German refugee camp in the summer of 2015. RESULTS: Of the
      refugees, 77.9% were male (mean age 27.4 years for male and 26.8 years for female
      migrants). Most refugees came from the Eastern Mediterranean region (83.4%),
      followed by immigrants from Eastern Europe (7.4%), Africa (4.6%), or other
      regions (4.5%). The vast majority of migrants were protected against the three
      VPD: overall IgG seropositivity was 88.5% for measles, 77.9% for rubella and
      95.9% for varicella. However, seroprevalences showed age- and origin-dependent
      differences. Varicella immunity, for example, was lowest in the youngest age
      group of both genders (10.1% of male/4.5% of female seronegative refugees <18
      years vs. 100% seropositivity in men and women >49 years of age), and Sudanese
      migrants displayed particularly low rates of protection against varicella.
      CONCLUSION: In accordance with previous studies, our analyses show an overall
      satisfactory seropositivity against measles, rubella, and varicella in refugees
      entering Europe during the current exodus. However, this rate is not sufficient
      for preventing transmission. For example, the rate of 12.9-17.9% female refugees
      at reproductive age unprotected against measles and the low protection levels
      against varicella in minors observed in our cohort emphasizes the need for
      stringent vaccination strategies in refugees coming to Europe during the current
      crisis.

PMID- 28875467
TI  - Erratum to: Breast Cancer Risk Associated with Genotype Polymorphisms of the
      Aurora Kinase a Gene (AURKA): a Case-Control Study in a High Altitude Ecuadorian
      Mestizo Population.

PMID- 28875466
TI  - Native Mass Spectrometry, Ion mobility, and Collision-Induced Unfolding
      Categorize Malaria Antigen/Antibody Binding.
AB  - Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein (PvDBP) is a promising vaccine candidate
      for P. vivax malaria. Recently, we reported the epitopes on PvDBP region II
      (PvDBP-II) for three inhibitory monoclonal antibodies (2D10, 2H2, and 2C6). In
      this communication, we describe the combination of native mass spectrometry and
      ion mobility (IM) with collision induced unfolding (CIU) to study the
      conformation and stabilities of three malarial antigen-antibody complexes. These
      complexes, when collisionally activated, undergo conformational changes that
      depend on the location of the epitope. CIU patterns for PvDBP-II in complex with
      antibody 2D10 and 2H2 are highly similar, indicating comparable binding topology
      and stability. A different CIU fingerprint is observed for PvDBP-II/2C6,
      indicating that 2C6 binds to PvDBP-II on an epitope different from 2D10 and 2H2.
      This work supports the use of CIU as a means of classifying antigen-antibody
      complexes by their epitope maps in a high throughput screening workflow.
      Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28875468
TI  - Multifunctional, JNK-inhibiting nanotherapeutics for augmented elastic matrix
      regenerative repair in aortic aneurysms.
AB  - Growth of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), localized aortal wall expansions, is
      driven by the disruption and subsequent loss of aortal wall elastic fibers by
      matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). Since elastic fibers do not naturally regenerate
      or repair, arresting/reversing AAA growth has not been possible. Previously, we
      showed utility of doxycycline (DOX), an MMP inhibitor drug, to stimulate elastic
      matrix neoassembly and crosslinking at low microgram per milliliter doses in
      addition to inhibiting MMPs. We currently show in aneurysmal smooth muscle cell
      (SMC) cultures that effects of exogenous DOX in this dose range are linked to its
      upregulation of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta1) via its inhibition of
      the regulatory protein c-Jun-N-terminal kinase 2 (JNK 2). We have identified a
      DOX dose range that stimulates elastogenesis and crosslinking without adversely
      impacting cell viability. Using JNK 2 inhibition as a metric for pro-regenerative
      matrix effects of DOX, we further demonstrate that sustained, steady-state
      release of DOX at the useful dose, from poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(lactic
      glycolic acid) nanoparticles (NPs), provides pro-elastogenic and anti-proteolytic
      effects that could potentially be more pronounced than that of exogenous DOX. We
      attribute these outcomes to previously determined synergistic effects provided by
      cationic amphiphile groups functionalizing the polymer NP surface. Released DOX
      inhibited expression and phosphorylation of JNK to likely increase expression of
      TGF-beta1, which is known to increase elastogenesis and lysyl oxidase-mediated
      crosslinking of elastic matrix. Our results suggest that JNK inhibition is a
      useful metric to assess pro-elastic matrix regenerative effects and point to the
      combinatorial regenerative benefits provided by DOX and cationic-functionalized
      NPs.

PMID- 28875469
TI  - A Panel of Autoantibodies Against Neural Proteins as Peripheral Biomarker for
      Pesticide-Induced Neurotoxicity.
AB  - In the present study, we screened the sera of subjects chronically exposed to
      mixtures of pesticides (composed mainly of organophosphorus compounds (OPs) and
      others) and developed neurological symptoms for the presence of autoantibodies
      against cytoskeletal neural proteins. OPs have a well-characterized clinical
      profile resulting from acute cholinergic crisis. However, some of these compounds
      cause neuronal degeneration and demyelination known as organophosphorus compound
      induced delayed neurotoxicity (OPIDN) and/or organophosphorus compound-induced
      chronic neurotoxicity (OPICN). Studies from our group have demonstrated the
      presence of autoantibodies to essential neuronal and glial proteins against
      cytoskeletal neural proteins in patients with chemical-induced brain injury. In
      this study, we screened the serum of 50 pesticide-exposed subjects and 25 non
      exposed controls, using Western blot analysis against the following proteins:
      neurofilament triplet proteins (NFPs), tubulin, microtubule-associated tau
      proteins (Tau), microtubule-associated protein-2 (MAP-2), myelin basic protein
      (MBP), myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), glial fibrillary acidic protein
      (GFAP), calcium-calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII), glial S100-B protein, and alpha
      synuclein (SNCA). Serum reactivity was measured as arbitrary chemiluminescence
      units. As a group, exposed subjects had significantly higher levels of
      autoantibody reactivity in all cases examined. The folds of increase in of
      autoantibodies against neural proteins of the subjects compared to healthy humans
      in descending order were as follows: MBP, 7.67, MAG 5.89, CaMKII 5.50, GFAP 5.1,
      TAU 4.96, MAP2 4.83, SNCA 4.55, NFP 4.55, S-100B 2.43, and tubulin 1.78. This
      study has demonstrated the presence of serum autoantibodies to central nervous
      system-specific proteins in a group of farmers chronically exposed to pesticides
      who developed neurological signs and symptoms of neural injury. These
      autoantibodies can be used as future diagnostic/therapeutic target for OP-induced
      neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28875470
TI  - The impact of the survivorship care plan on health care use: 2-year follow-up
      results of the ROGY care trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of survivorship care
      plan (SCP) provision and moderating factors on health care use following
      endometrial cancer treatment. METHODS: Women newly diagnosed with endometrial
      cancer were included in a pragmatic cluster randomized trial at 12 hospitals in
      the Netherlands and were randomly assigned to SCP or usual care (n = 221; 75%
      response). The SCP was generated using the web-based Registrationsystem
      Oncological GYnecology (ROGY) and provided tailored information regarding
      disease, treatment, and possible late-effects. Cancer-related use of general
      practitioner, specialist, and additional health care was collected through
      questionnaires after diagnosis and at 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up and
      compared using linear multilevel regression analyses. RESULTS: Women who received
      an SCP had more cancer-related primary care visits compared to the usual care arm
      during the first year after diagnosis (beta = 0.7, p < 0.01). At 6-month follow
      up, women in the SCP group used more additional health care compared to women
      receiving usual care (24 vs. 11%, p = 0.04). Women with anxious symptoms (p =
      0.03) and women who received radiotherapy (p = 0.01) had a higher primary care
      use within the first year after treatment, when receiving an SCP. CONCLUSIONS:
      The SCP increases primary health care consumption the first year after treatment,
      particularly in women treated with radiotherapy and women with anxious symptoms.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: These findings imply that the SCP enables
      women in need of supportive care to seek relevant care at an early stage after
      treatment. Whether this results in improved patient-reported outcomes in the long
      term needs to be further studied.

PMID- 28875471
TI  - Optimization of Curcuma Oil/Quinine-Loaded Nanocapsules for Malaria Treatment.
AB  - Quinine, a treatment used in chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria, was loaded
      into poly(E-caprolactone) or Eudragit(r) RS100 nanocapsules using Curcuma oil as
      the oil-based core. Until now, the effect of cationic nanocapsules on malaria has
      not been reported. A 24 factorial design was adopted using, as independent
      variables, the concentration of Curcuma oil, presence of quinine, type of
      polymer, and aqueous surfactant. Diameter, zeta potential, and pH were the
      responses studied. The formulations were also evaluated for drug content,
      encapsulation efficiency, photostability, and antimalarial activity against
      Plasmodium berghei-infected mice. The type of polymer influenced all of the
      responses studied. Quinine-loaded Eudragit(r) RS100 (F13) and PCL nanocapsules
      (F9), both with polysorbate 80 coating, showed nanometric particle size, positive
      zeta potential, neutral pH, high drug content, and quinine photoprotection
      ability; thus, these nanocapsules were selected for in vivo tests. Both
      formulations showed lower levels of parasitemia from the beginning of the
      experiment (5.78 +/- 3.60 and 4.76 +/- 3.46% for F9 and F13, respectively) and
      highest survival mean time (15.3 +/- 2.0 and 14.9 +/- 5.6 days for F9 and F13,
      respectively). F9 and F13 showed significant survival curve compared to saline,
      thus demonstrating that nanoencapsulation improved bioefficacy of QN and co
      encapsulated curcuminoids, regardless of the surface charge.

PMID- 28875472
TI  - Evaluation of Novel 64Cu-Labeled Theranostic Gadolinium-Based Nanoprobes in HepG2
      Tumor-Bearing Nude Mice.
AB  - Radiation therapy of liver cancer is limited by low tolerance of the liver to
      radiation. Radiosensitizers can effectively reduce the required radiation dose.
      AGuIX nanoparticles are small, multifunctional gadolinium-based nanoparticles
      that can carry radioisotopes or fluorescent markers for single-photon emission
      computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), fluorescence
      imaging, and even multimodality imaging. In addition, due to the high atomic
      number of gadolinium, it can also serve as a tumor radiation sensitizer. It is
      critical to define the biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of these gadolinium
      based nanoparticles to quantitate the magnitude and duration of their retention
      within the tumor microenvironment during radiotherapy. Therefore, in this study,
      we successfully labeled AGuIX with 64Cu through the convenient built-in chelator.
      The biodistribution studies indicated that the radiotracer 64Cu-AGuIX accumulates
      to high levels in the HepG2 xenograft of nude mice, suggesting that it would be a
      potential theranostic nanoprobe for image-guided radiotherapy in HCC. We also
      used a transmission electron microscope to confirm AGuIX uptake in the HepG2
      cells. In radiation therapy studies, a decrease in 18F-FDG uptake was observed in
      the xenografts of the nude mice irradiated with AGuIX, which was injected 1 h
      before. These results provide proof-of-concept that AGuIX can be used as a
      theranostic radiosensitizer for PET imaging to guide radiotherapy for liver
      cancer.

PMID- 28875473
TI  - Visible Light-Driven Photocatalytic Performance of N-Doped ZnO/g-C3N4
      Nanocomposites.
AB  - N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 composites have been successfully prepared via a facile and
      cost-effective sol-gel method. The nanocomposites were systematically
      characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, HRTEM, FT-IR, XPS, and UV-vis DRS. The results
      indicated that compared with the pure N-doped ZnO, the absorption edge of binary
      N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 shifted to a lower energy with increasing the visible-light
      absorption and improving the charge separation efficiency, which would enhance
      its photocatalytic activity. Compared with the pure g-C3N4, ZnO, N-doped ZnO and
      the composite ZnO/g-C3N4, the as-prepared N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 exhibits a greatly
      enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and phenol under visible
      light irradiation. Meanwhile, N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 possesses a high stability.
      Finally, a proposed mechanism for N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 is also discussed. The
      improved photocatalysis can be attributed to the synergistic effect between N
      doped ZnO and g-C3N4, including the energy band structure and enhanced charge
      separation efficiency.

PMID- 28875474
TI  - No advantage for remembering horizontal over vertical spatial locations learned
      from a single viewpoint.
AB  - Previous behavioral and neurophysiological research has shown better memory for
      horizontal than for vertical locations. In these studies, participants navigated
      toward these locations. In the present study we investigated whether the
      orientation of the spatial plane per se was responsible for this difference. We
      thus had participants learn locations visually from a single perspective and
      retrieve them from multiple viewpoints. In three experiments, participants
      studied colored tags on a horizontally or vertically oriented board within a
      virtual room and recalled these locations with different layout orientations
      (Exp. 1) or from different room-based perspectives (Exps. 2 and 3). All
      experiments revealed evidence for equal recall performance in horizontal and
      vertical memory. In addition, the patterns for recall from different test
      orientations were rather similar. Consequently, our results suggest that memory
      is qualitatively similar for both vertical and horizontal two-dimensional
      locations, given that these locations are learned from a single viewpoint. Thus,
      prior differences in spatial memory may have originated from the structure of the
      space or the fact that participants navigated through it. Additionally, the
      strong performance advantages for perspective shifts (Exps. 2 and 3) relative to
      layout rotations (Exp. 1) suggest that configurational judgments are not only
      based on memory of the relations between target objects, but also encompass the
      relations between target objects and the surrounding room-for example, in the
      form of a memorized view.

PMID- 28875475
TI  - Immunological and Virological Responses to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy
      in HIV-1 Infected Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate immunological and virological outcomes in human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected children at six months of highly active
      antiretroviral therapy (HAART). METHODS: Records of HIV infected children <15-y
      old were reviewed to identify those who were initiated highly active
      antiretroviral therapy between 2010 and 2014 and had CD4+ T cell percentage and
      HIV-1 viral load report at baseline visit and after 6 mo of initiation of the
      treatment. RESULTS: Seventy-four HIV infected children [26% girls, median age IQR
      36 (24-108) mo] were included in the study. At the end of six months of HAART,
      median increase of 11% (6-15%) in CD4+ T cell percentage from the baseline levels
      was observed; nineteen (26%) children showed an increase in CD4+ T cell
      percentage of 15% or more at 6 mo. Viral load was undetectable (<47 copies/ml) in
      27 (36.4%) children; 21 (28.3%) children had 47- < 500 copies/ml; 16 (21.6%)
      children had 500- < 10,000 copies/ml and 10 (13.5%) children had >=10,000
      copies/ml. At six months, only 15 (20.2%) children exhibited positive immuno
      virological response to HAART (>= 15% increase in CD4% and <47 HIV-1 RNA
      copies/ml). CONCLUSIONS: While HAART was effective in improving the immunological
      and virological parameters in the index cohort of children, virological responses
      were less robust.

PMID- 28875476
TI  - Treatment of primary membranous nephropathy: where are we now?
AB  - In the last 10 years, basic science and clinical research have made important
      contributions to the understanding and management of primary membranous
      nephropathy (MN). The identification of antibodies directed against the M-type
      phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) and thrombospondin type-1 domain-containing 7A
      protein have added a new perspective on diagnosis, monitoring the immunological
      activity, predicting prognosis and guiding therapy in patients with primary MN.
      Mounting evidence suggests that quantification and follow-up of antiPLA2R Abs
      levels can help in assessing prognosis and evaluate the response to treatment.
      The kidney disease improving global outcomes guidelines published in 2012 have
      not been updated. New data on the use of rituximab suggest it should be
      considered as a potential initial therapy in the treatment of patients with
      primary MN.

PMID- 28875478
TI  - Erratum to: Effectiveness, Adverse Effects and Drug Compliance of Long-Acting
      Injectable Risperidone in Children and Adolescents.

PMID- 28875477
TI  - Effects of PON1 Gene Promoter DNA Methylation and Genetic Variations on the
      Clinical Outcomes of Dual Antiplatelet Therapy for Patients Undergoing
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The relationship between either paraoxonase 1 (PON1)
      gene promoter DNA methylation or genetic variations and bleeding or major adverse
      cardiac events after dual antiplatelet therapy has been incompletely
      characterized. We aimed to systematically investigate the role of genetic
      variations and DNA methylation of the PON1 CpG island promoter on the clinical
      outcomes of dual antiplatelet therapy for patients with coronary artery disease
      (CAD) who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: This study
      included 653 patients with CAD undergoing PCI and receiving dual antiplatelet
      therapy. Genomic DNAs were isolated from whole blood and were genotyped for the
      three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the PON1 gene. The DNA
      methylation levels in the PON1 promoter region were determined by bisulfite
      sequencing or pyrosequencing at five CpG sites (positions -142, -161, -163, -170,
      and -184 from the transcription start site). Clopidogrel and its metabolites in
      plasma were examined using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), and platelet function analysis was performed using the
      VerifyNow assay. RESULTS: Statistically significant associations between
      methylation levels at five PON1 CpG sites and bleeding were observed: -184 [odds
      ratio (OR) 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96-1.00, p = 0.028]; -170 (OR
      0.99, 95% CI 0.97-1.00, p = 0.048); -163 (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-1.00, p = 0.029); 
      161 (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-1.00, p = 0.026); and -142 (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-1.00,
      p = 0.042) at a false discovery rate of <5%. Statistical analysis also revealed
      that aspirin reaction units (ARUs) were significantly associated with PON1
      methylation level at CpG site -163 (p = 0.0342). The ARUs of patients with the
      PON1 126 CC genotype was 527 +/- 94, which was higher than the ARUs (473 +/- 89)
      of patients with the 126 CG genotype (p = 0.0163). Multivariate logistic
      regression analysis indicated that the PON1 methylation level at CpG site -161
      (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98, p = 0.002) and the use of angiotensin-converting
      enzyme inhibitors (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.26-0.89, p = 0.021) were associated with a
      decreased risk of bleeding events. CONCLUSIONS: Hypomethylation of CpGs in the
      PON1 promoter may be a weak, albeit statistically significant, risk factor of
      bleeding after dual antiplatelet therapy. Further large-scale studies are needed
      to verify our results.

PMID- 28875479
TI  - Development of an Enantioselective and Biomarker-Informed Translational
      Population Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Model for Etodolac.
AB  - Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) isoform has a critical role in the development of pain.
      Inhibition of COX-2 in vitro serves as a biomarker for nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The NSAID concentrations yielding 80% COX-2
      inhibition (IC80) correlate with therapeutic doses to achieve analgesia across
      multiple COX-2 inhibitors. However, there are no time-course models relating COX
      2 inhibition with decreased pain. This study aimed to characterize the
      relationship between NSAID concentrations, in vitro COX-2 inhibition, and acute
      pain decrease in humans over time by a translational approach using clinical
      pharmacokinetic and literature reported in vitro and clinical pharmacodynamic
      data. In a two-way cross-over study, eight healthy volunteers received 300 and
      400 mg racemic etodolac, a preferential COX-2 inhibitor. R- and S-etodolac were
      determined by LC-MS/MS and simultaneously modeled. Literature in vitro IC50 data
      for COX-2 inhibition by S-etodolac were used to fit adjusted pain score profiles
      from dental patients receiving etodolac. External model qualification was
      performed using published ibuprofen data. Etodolac absorption was highly variable
      due to gastric transit kinetics and low aqueous solubility. The disposition
      parameters differed substantially between enantiomers with a total clearance of
      2.21 L/h for R-etodolac and 26.8 L/h for S-etodolac. Volume of distribution at
      steady-state was 14.6 L for R-etodolac and 45.8 L for S-etodolac. Inhibition of
      COX-2 by 78.1% caused a half-maximal pain decrease. The time-course of pain
      decrease following ibuprofen was successfully predicted via the developed
      translational model. This proposed enantioselective pharmacodynamic-informed
      approach presents the first quantitative time-course model for COX-2 induced pain
      inhibition in patients.

PMID- 28875480
TI  - Erratum to: Rationale and design of oBservational clinical Research In chronic
      kidney disease patients with renal anemia: renal proGnosis in patients with
      Hyporesponsive anemia To Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, darbepoetiN alfa
      (BRIGHTEN Trial).

PMID- 28875481
TI  - Proteinuria Predicts Resistance to Antiplatelet Therapy in Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - The occurrence of a stroke while on antiplatelet agents presents a therapeutic
      dilemma. One of the main causes for recurrent strokes is antiplatelet resistance
      more commonly known as high on treatment platelet reactivity (HTPR). Prior
      studies have established that proteinuria is associated with HTPR following
      myocardial infarction. Here, we investigated whether dipstick proteinuria
      correlates with HTPR in patients presenting with stroke. We performed a
      retrospective cohort analysis of 102 patients admitted for a recurrent ischemic
      stroke that had either a VerifyNow aspirin or VerifyNow clopidogrel laboratory
      test performed to assess platelet reactivity. Dipstick proteinuria was defined as
      > 30 mg/dl (2+ or more). HTPR was defined as an aspirin resistance unit > 550 for
      aspirin and a P2Y12 reactivity unit > 208 for clopidogrel. Patients with
      proteinuria on dipstick were significantly more likely to have HTPR to either
      aspirin (p value 0.017) or clopidogrel (p value 0.017). After controlling for
      age, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, CAD and GFR, proteinuria was an independent
      predictor of HTPR for patient taking aspirin (p = 0.025). Platelet resistance is
      an entity that undermines the activity of antiplatelet agents in reducing stroke
      risk. Here, we demonstrate an association with increased platelet reactivity and
      proteinuria. This highlights a potential new therapeutic target in reducing
      future stroke risk.

PMID- 28875484
TI  - Women's Auto/Biography and Dissociative Identity Disorder: Implications for
      Mental Health Practice.
AB  - Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is an uncommon disorder that has long been
      associated with exposure to traumatic stressors exceeding manageable levels
      commonly encompassing physical, psychological and sexual abuse in childhood that
      is prolonged and severe in nature. In DID, dissociation continues after the
      traumatic experience and produces a disruption in identity where distinct
      personality states develop. These personalities are accompanied by variations in
      behaviour, emotions, memory, perception and cognition. The use of literature in
      psychiatry can enrich comprehension over the subjective experience of a disorder,
      and the utilisation of 'illness narratives' in nursing research have been
      considered a way of improving knowledge about nursing care and theory
      development. This research explores experiences of DID through close textual
      reading and thematic analysis of five biographical and autobiographical texts,
      discussing the lived experience of the disorder. This narrative approach aims to
      inform empathetic understanding and support the facilitation of therapeutic
      alliances in mental healthcare for those experiencing the potentially
      debilitating and distressing symptoms of DID. Although controversies surrounding
      the biomedical diagnosis of DID are important to consider, the lived experiences
      of those who mental health nurses encounter should be priority.

PMID- 28875483
TI  - Comparison of diagnostic accuracy in sepsis between presepsin, procalcitonin, and
      C-reactive protein: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The soluble cluster of differentiation 14 (or presepsin) is a free
      fragment of glycoprotein expressed on monocytes and macrophages. Although many
      studies have been conducted recently, the diagnostic performance of presepsin for
      sepsis remains debated. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the
      available literature to assess the accuracy of presepsin for the diagnosis of
      sepsis in adult patients and compared the performance between presepsin, C
      reactive protein (CRP), and procalcitonin (PCT). METHODS: A comprehensive
      systemic search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar for studies
      that evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of presepsin for sepsis until January
      2017. The hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic method was used
      to pool individual sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR),
      positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and area under
      the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: Eighteen studies,
      comprising 3470 patients, met our inclusion criteria. The pooled diagnosis
      sensitivity and specificity of presepsin for sepsis were 0.84 (95% CI 0.80-0.87)
      and 0.76 (95% CI 0.67-0.82), respectively. Furthermore, the pooled DOR, PLR, NLR,
      and AUC were 16 (95% CI 10-25), 3.4 (95% CI 2.5-4.6), 0.22 (95% CI 0.17-0.27),
      and 0.88 (95% CI 0.85-0.90), respectively. Significant heterogeneity was found in
      both sensitivities (Cochrane Q = 137.43, p < 0.001, I 2 = 87.63%) and
      specificities (Cochrane Q = 180.76, p < 0.001, I 2 = 90.60%). Additionally, we
      found no significant difference between presepsin and PCT (AUC 0.87 vs. 0.86) or
      CRP (AUC 0.85 vs. 0.85). However, for studies conducted in ICU, the pooled
      sensitivity of presepsin was found to be higher than PCT (0.88, 95% CI 0.82-0.92
      vs. 0.75, 95% CI 0.68-0.81), while the pooled specificity of presepsin was lower
      than PCT (0.58, 95% CI 0.42-0.73 vs. 0.75, 95% CI 0.65-0.83). CONCLUSION: Based
      on the results of our meta-analysis, presepsin is a promising marker for
      diagnosis of sepsis as PCT or CRP, but its results should be interpreted more
      carefully and cautiously since too few studies were included and those studies
      had high heterogeneity between them. In addition, continuing re-evaluation during
      the course of sepsis is advisable.

PMID- 28875486
TI  - Metabolism in Immune Cell Differentiation and Function.
AB  - The immune system is a central determinant of organismal health. Functional
      immune responses require quiescent immune cells to rapidly grow, proliferate, and
      acquire effector functions when they sense infectious agents or other insults.
      Specialized metabolic programs are critical regulators of immune responses, and
      alterations in immune metabolism can cause immunological disorders. There has
      thus been growing interest in understanding how metabolic processes control
      immune cell functions under normal and pathophysiological conditions. In this
      chapter, we summarize how metabolic programs are tuned and what the physiological
      consequences of metabolic reprogramming are as they relate to immune cell
      homeostasis, differentiation, and function.

PMID- 28875485
TI  - Application of the thermostable beta-galactosidase, BgaB, from Geobacillus
      stearothermophilus as a versatile reporter under anaerobic and aerobic
      conditions.
AB  - Use of thermophilic organisms has a range of advantages, but the significant lack
      of engineering tools limits their applications. Here we show that beta
      galactosidase from Geobacillus stearothermophilus (BgaB) can be applicable in a
      range of conditions, including different temperatures and oxygen concentrations.
      This protein functions both as a marker, promoting colony color development in
      the presence of a lactose analogue S-gal, and as a reporter enabling quantitative
      measurement by a simple colorimetric assay. Optimal performance was observed at
      70  degrees C and pH 6.4. The gene was introduced into G. thermoglucosidans. The
      combination of BgaB expressed from promoters of varying strength with S-gal
      produced distinct black colonies in aerobic and anaerobic conditions at
      temperatures ranging from 37 to 60  degrees C. It showed an important advantage
      over the conventional beta-galactosidase (LacZ) and substrate X-gal, which were
      inactive at high temperature and under anaerobic conditions. To demonstrate the
      versatility of the reporter, a promoter library was constructed by randomizing
      sequences around -35 and -10 regions in a wild type groES promoter from
      Geobacillus sp. GHH01. The library contained 28 promoter variants and encompassed
      fivefold variation. The experimental pipeline allowed construction and
      measurement of expression levels of the library in just 4 days. This beta
      galactosidase provides a promising tool for engineering of aerobic, anaerobic,
      and thermophilic production organisms such as Geobacillus species.

PMID- 28875487
TI  - Metabolic Regulation of T Cell Immunity.
AB  - It is becoming increasingly clear that cellular metabolism plays a critical role
      in the propagation of appropriate, effective, and pathologic immune responses. In
      this chapter, we detail the metabolic pathways involved in T cell activation and
      differentiation, highlighting specific factors responsible for directing the
      processes that lead to metabolic programming at important stages in the dynamic
      life cycle of this immune cell lineage. Additionally, this chapter will discuss
      how key metabolites are acquired, touching on the factors and conditions
      regulating the expression of crucial transporter molecules in response to
      activation and pathological states.

PMID- 28875488
TI  - Transcriptional Regulation of T Cell Metabolism Reprograming.
AB  - T cell activation, differentiation, and function are tightly regulated by a
      complex network of transcription factors, epigenetic modifications, and signaling
      pathways of both TCR and cytokines. Over the past decade, it is increasingly
      clear that T cell immune responses are also regulated by their associated
      metabolic reprograming. Compared with relatively well-understood transcriptional
      regulation of T cell activation, differentiation, and function, less is known
      about the transcriptional regulation of T cell metabolic reprograming during T
      cell immune responses. In this review, we first describe how signaling pathways
      of TCR and cytokines regulate metabolic reprograming and then focus on
      transcription factors that control metabolic pathways and outcomes of T cell
      immune responses. A better understanding of T cell metabolic regulation will
      provide new strategies and targets for the treatment of T cell-related diseases.

PMID- 28875489
TI  - Adipose Tissue-Resident Regulatory T Cells.
AB  - Tissue-resident immune cells play critical roles in regulating tissue function
      and homeostasis. Obesity-associated visceral adipose tissue inflammation is
      attributed to the accumulation of M1 macrophages which produce inflammatory
      cytokines like TNF-alpha, IL-6, and expansion of effector T cells like Th1 cells,
      CD8+ cytotoxic T cells which produce interferon-gamma to further add to the
      severity of inflammation in the visceral adipose tissue. Regulatory T cells have
      been reported to exert key roles in suppressing inflammation, thus maintaining
      the homeostasis of immune responses, and visceral adipose Tregs exert critical
      roles in defending against obesity-associated metabolic disorders. They inhibit
      the infiltration of effector T cells and facilitate the reconstitution of adipose
      tissue macrophages from M1 to M2 phenotype. What is more, they can take up lipids
      from the adipocytes through CD36 which is driven by PPARgamma. Here we review the
      recent progress in adipose tissue-resident regulatory T cells (Tregs), a
      subpopulation of CD4+ T cells which suppress adipose tissue inflammation.

PMID- 28875490
TI  - Immune Cell Metabolism in Tumor Microenvironment.
AB  - Tumor microenvironment (TME) is composed of tumor cells, immune cells, cytokines,
      extracellular matrix, etc. The immune system and the metabolisms of glucose,
      lipids, amino acids, and nucleotides are integrated in the tumorigenesis and
      development. Cancer cells and immune cells show metabolic reprogramming in the
      TME, which intimately links immune cell functions and edits tumor immunology.
      Recent findings in immune cell metabolism hold the promising possibilities toward
      clinical therapeutics for treating cancer. This chapter introduces the updated
      understandings of metabolic reprogramming of immune cells in the TME and suggests
      new directions in manipulation of immune responses for cancer diagnosis and
      therapy.

PMID- 28875491
TI  - Regulation of Metabolism Across Different Subsets of T Cells in Cancer.
AB  - T cells play a critical role to defend against tumor and maintain immune
      homeostasis. The diverse functions of T cells require precise regulation of
      metabolic pathways. Recent studies reveal that metabolic changes are tightly
      linked to the activation and function of T cells. Given the importance of these
      cells in tumor progression, it is important to understand how the tumor
      microenvironment regulates metabolism of T cells and how the metabolic
      reprogramming of T cells affects tumor growth. Here, we review new findings and
      discuss how metabolic reprogramming of different types of T cells affects the
      immune response in tumors.

PMID- 28875492
TI  - Innate and Adaptive Immune Cell Metabolism in Tumor Microenvironment.
AB  - During an immune response, leukocytes undergo major changes in growth and
      function that are tightly coupled to dynamic shifts in metabolic processes.
      Immunometabolism is an emerging field that investigates the interplay between
      immunological and metabolic processes. The immune system has a key role to play
      in controlling cancer initiation and progression. Increasing evidence indicates
      the immunosuppressive nature of the local environment in tumor. In tumor
      microenvironment, immune cells collectively adapt in a dynamic manner to the
      metabolic needs of cancer cells, thus prompting tumorigenesis and resistance to
      treatments. Here, we summarize the latest insights into the metabolic
      reprogramming of immune cells in tumor microenvironment and their potential roles
      in tumor progression and metastasis. Manipulating metabolic remodeling and immune
      responses may provide an exciting new option for cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28875493
TI  - Prevalence of high risk HPV DNA in esophagus is high in Brazil but not related to
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS: The first publication that associated Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
      infection and esophageal cancer was published in 1982. However, data are still
      contradictory and require further investigation. The aim of this study was to
      identify high risk HPV DNA in esophageal tissue of patients with and without
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and correlate HPV presence with
      classical risk factors. METHODS: Invited patients signed the informed consent
      form, and interviews were conducted in order to obtain information about
      sociodemographic and lifestyle behavior. During endoscopy, esophageal biopsies
      were collected from case and controls. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction
      genotyping was conducted on endoscopic biopsies to identify HPV types and HPV-16
      was further evaluated by specific PCR real time. RESULTS: Among 87 cases, 12
      (13.8%) had tumors harboring high risk HPV DNA and among 87 controls, 12 (13.8%)
      had high risk HPV DNA (OR:1.025 [CI:0.405:2.592]). Variables regarding
      consumption of alcohol and use of tobacco continued to characterize risk factors
      even after adjustments by presence or absence of high risk HPV. CONCLUSION: HPV
      was demonstrated to be frequently and similarly associated to normal and
      malignant esophageal tissues, but not as an independent risk factor to esophageal
      cancer. IMPACT: To contribute to the Brazilian population data on this subject,
      which is still contradictory.

PMID- 28875495
TI  - Rational design of Meso-2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase by molecular dynamics
      simulation and experimental evaluations.
AB  - Meso-2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase (meso-2,3-BDH) catalyzes NAD+ -dependent
      conversion of meso-2,3-butanediol to acetoin, a crucial external energy storage
      molecule in fermentive bacteria. In this study, the active tunnel of meso-2,3-BDH
      was identified. The two short alpha helixes positioned away from the alpha4-helix
      possibly expose the hydrophobic ligand-binding cavity, gating the exit of product
      and cofactor from the activity pocket. Further MM/GBSA-binding free energy
      analysis shows that Phe212 and Asn146 function as the key product-release sites.
      Site-directed mutagenesis experiments targeted to the sites show that the kcat of
      Phe212Tyr is enhanced up to (4-8)-fold. The original activity of Asn146Gln is
      retained, but the activity of Asn146Ala mutation is lost. These results could
      provide helpful guidance on rational design of short-chain
      dehydrogenases/reductases.

PMID- 28875494
TI  - Abundance of small mammals in the Atlantic Forest (ASMAF): a data set for
      analyzing tropical community patterns.
AB  - Local abundance results from the interaction between populational and
      environmental processes. The abundance of the species in a community is also one
      of the most basic descriptors of its structure. Despite its importance,
      information about species abundances is fragmentary, creating a knowledge gap
      about species abundances known as the Prestonian Shortfall. Here we present a
      comprehensive data set of small mammal abundance in the Atlantic Forest. Data
      were extracted from 114 published sources and from unpublished data collected by
      our research groups spanning from 1943 to 2017. The data set includes 1,902
      records of at least 111 species in 155 localities, totaling 42,617 individuals
      represented. We selected studies that (1) were conducted in forested habitats of
      the Atlantic Forest, (2) had a minimum sampling effort of at least 500 trap
      nights, and (3) contained species abundance data in detail. For each study, we
      recorded (1) latitude and longitude, (2) name of the locality, (3) employed
      sampling effort, (4) type of traps used, (5) study year, (6) country, and (7)
      species name with (8) its respective abundances. For every locality, we also
      obtained information regarding its (9) ecoregion, (10) predominant vegetation
      type, and (11) biogeographic subdivision. Whenever necessary, we also (12)
      updated the species names as new species were described and some genera suffered
      taxonomic revision since the publication. The localities are spread across the
      Atlantic Forest and most of the small mammal species known to occur in Atlantic
      Forest are present in the data set, making it representative of communities of
      the entire biome. This data set can be used to address various patterns in
      community ecology and geographical ecology, as the relation between local
      abundance and environmental suitability, hypothesis regarding local and regional
      factors on community structuring, species abundance distributions (SAD),
      functional and phylogenetic mechanisms on community assembling.

PMID- 28875496
TI  - G protein-coupled receptor GPR55 promotes colorectal cancer and has opposing
      effects to cannabinoid receptor 1.
AB  - The putative cannabinoid receptor GPR55 has been shown to play a tumor-promoting
      role in various cancers, and is involved in many physiological and pathological
      processes of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. While the cannabinoid receptor 1
      (CB1 ) has been reported to suppress intestinal tumor growth, the role of GPR55
      in the development of GI cancers is unclear. We, therefore, aimed at elucidating
      the role of GPR55 in colorectal cancer (CRC), the third most common cancer
      worldwide. Using azoxymethane (AOM)- and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-driven CRC
      mouse models, we found that GPR55 plays a tumor-promoting role that involves
      alterations of leukocyte populations, i.e. myeloid-derived suppressor cells and T
      lymphocytes, within the tumor tissues. Concomitantly, expression levels of COX-2
      and STAT3 were reduced in tumor tissue of GPR55 knockout mice, indicating reduced
      presence of tumor-promoting factors. By employing the experimental CRC models to
      CB1 knockout and CB1 /GPR55 double knockout mice, we can further show that GPR55
      plays an opposing role to CB1 . We report that GPR55 and CB1 mRNA expression are
      differentially regulated in the experimental models and in a cohort of 86 CRC
      patients. Epigenetic methylation of CNR1 and GPR55 was also differentially
      regulated in human CRC tissue compared to control samples. Collectively, our data
      suggest that GPR55 and CB1 play differential roles in colon carcinogenesis where
      the former seems to act as oncogene and the latter as tumor suppressor.

PMID- 28875498
TI  - Comparative Study of Effects of Vonoprazan and Esomeprazole on Antiplatelet
      Function of Clopidogrel or Prasugrel in Relation to CYP2C19 Genotype.
AB  - Drug-drug interaction between antiacid and antiplatelet agents has not been fully
      elucidated. Vonoprazan, a new potassium competitive acid blocker, has been
      available in Japan. CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 are involved in the metabolism of
      clopidogrel, prasugrel, esomeprazole, and vonoprazan. Using a P2Y12 assay, we
      compared the effects of vonoprazan and esomeprazole on the antiplatelet functions
      of clopidogrel or prasugrel in 31 healthy Japanese volunteers (14 CYP2C19 homo
      extensive (homo-EMs), nine hetero-extensive (hetero-EMs), and eight poor
      metabolizers (PMs)). Vonoprazan decreased the median inhibition of platelet
      aggregation (IPA) values of clopidogrel and prasugrel more potently than
      esomeprazole (P < 0.001 for clopidogrel and P = 0.011 for prasugrel). The same
      tendencies were observed when stratified by CYP2C19 genotype groups (P = 0.004 in
      homo-EMs, 0.033 in hetero-EMs, and 0.043 in PMs). Vonoprazan attenuated the
      antiplatelet function of clopidogrel more potently than esomeprazole.
      Esomeprazole did not affect that of prasugrel irrespective of CYP2C19 genotype.

PMID- 28875497
TI  - Cancer Screening of Older Adults in Israel According to Life Expectancy: Cross
      Sectional Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine over-screening of older Israelis for colon and breast
      cancer. DESIGN: Cross sectional. SETTING: Clalit Health Services (CHS), Israel's
      largest health maintenance organization (HMO), provides care for more than half
      of the country's population and operates a national age-based programs for cancer
      screening. PARTICIPANTS: All community-dwelling members aged 65 to 79 in 2014 (N
      = 370,876). MEASUREMENTS: We used CHS data warehouse to evaluate cancer screening
      during 2014. Life expectancy (LE) was estimated using the validated Schonberg
      index. RESULTS: Almost one-quarter (23.1%; 15.6% of adults aged 65-74, 42.7% of
      adults aged 75-79) of the study population had an estimated LE of less than 10
      years. Annual fecal occult blood test and biannual mammography rates among adults
      aged 65 to 74 with a LE of 10 years or longer were 37.1% and 70.0%, respectively.
      Rates dropped after age 75 (4.0%, 19.5%) and to a lesser extent with a LE of less
      than 10 years (31.6%, 56.4%). Prostate-specific antigen testing is not part of
      the national screening program, and the proportion of people tested (42.6%), did
      not vary similarly with age of 75 and older (43.2%) or LE of less than 10 years
      (38.1%). CONCLUSION: The cancer screening inclusion criteria of the national
      referral system have a strong effect on receipt of screening; LE considerations
      are less influential. Some method of estimating LE could be incorporated into
      algorithms to improve individualized cancer screening to reduce over- and
      underscreening of older adults.

PMID- 28875499
TI  - The intestinal microbiota determines the colitis-inducing potential of T-bet
      deficient Th cells in mice.
AB  - Conflicting evidence has been provided as to whether induction of intestinal
      inflammation by adoptive transfer of naive T cells into Rag-/- mice requires
      expression of the transcription factor T-bet by the T cells. Here, we formally
      show that the intestinal microbiota composition of the Rag-/- recipient
      determines whether or not T-bet-deficient Th cells can induce colitis and we have
      resolved the differences of the two microbiomes, permissive or non-permissive to
      T-bet-independent colitis. Our data highlight the dominance of the microbiota
      over particular T cell differentiation programs in the pathogenesis of chronic
      intestinal inflammation.

PMID- 28875500
TI  - Thorny ganglion cells in marmoset retina: Morphological and neurochemical
      characterization with antibodies against calretinin.
AB  - In primates, over 17 morphological types of retinal ganglion cell have been
      distinguished by their dendritic morphology and stratification, but reliable
      markers for specific ganglion cell populations are still rare. The calcium
      binding protein calretinin is known to be expressed in the inner nuclear and the
      ganglion cell layer of marmoset retina, however, the specific cell type(s)
      expressing calretinin in the ganglion cell layer are yet to be determined. Here,
      we identified calretinin positive retinal ganglion cells in the common marmoset
      Callithrix jacchus. Double labeling with the ganglion cell marker RBPMS
      demonstrated that the large majority (80%) of the calretinin positive cells in
      the ganglion cell layer are ganglion cells, and 20% are displaced amacrine cells.
      The calretinin positive ganglion cells made up on average 12% of the total
      ganglion cell population outside of the foveal region and their proportion
      increased with eccentricity. Prelabeling with antibodies against calretinin and
      subsequent intracellular injection with DiI revealed that the large majority of
      the injected cells (n = 74) were either narrow thorny or broad thorny ganglion
      cells, 14 cells were displaced amacrine cells. Narrow thorny cells were further
      distinguished into outer and inner stratifying cells. In addition, weakly labeled
      cells with a large soma were identified as parasol ganglion cells. Our results
      show that three types of thorny ganglion cells in marmoset retina can be
      identified with antibodies against calretinin. Our findings are also consistent
      with the idea that the proportion of wide-field ganglion cell types increases in
      peripheral retina.

PMID- 28875502
TI  - Modified RS-LAMP assay and use of lateral flow devices for rapid detection of
      Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli.
AB  - : Ratoon stunt (RS) caused by bacterium Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli (Lxx) results
      in substantial yield losses in sugarcane (Saccharum sp. L. hybrid). Since RS does
      not produce reliable symptoms in the field, laboratory-based techniques are
      necessary for detection. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay
      overcomes the limitations of laboratory-based techniques which are costly, time
      consuming and cannot be used for near-field detection. A sensitive LAMP assay was
      developed to detect Lxx at 65 degrees C in 30 min. However, carry-over
      contamination affected the reliability of the assay. In the present study,
      contaminants were successfully eliminated by incorporation of uracil nucleoside
      glycosylase (1 U MUl-1 ) into the LAMP assay and incubation for 10 min at 37
      degrees C. To avoid the use of colorimetric reagents, lateral flow devices were
      successfully used for the detection of LAMP products and were equally sensitive
      to detection by agarose gel electrophoresis. The use of exudate from leaf sheath
      discs as an alternate template for the LAMP assay was found to be less sensitive
      than xylem sap. The preprepared master mix could be stored for up to 4 months at 
      20 degrees C without any reduction in performance. These changes make the assay
      suitable for near-field detection in laboratories with basic facilities.
      SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This study presents a modified loop
      mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the detection of Leifsonia
      xyli subsp. xyli. Modifications include incorporation of uracil nucleoside
      glycosylase to eliminate carry-over contamination and substitution of
      colorimetric detection for the use of lateral flow devices. LAMP master mix was
      preprepared and was stably stored up to 4 months at -20 degrees C. Sugarcane leaf
      sheaths worked well as a substitute to xylem sap as template, although the
      sensitivity was lower. These modifications allow the assay to be conducted
      without contamination concerns and reduction in set up time, making it ideal for
      near-field diagnosis.

PMID- 28875503
TI  - Congenital neutropenia in the era of genomics: classification, diagnosis, and
      natural history.
AB  - This review focuses on the classification, diagnosis and natural history of
      congenital neutropenia (CN). CN encompasses a number of genetic disorders with
      chronic neutropenia and, for some, affecting other organ systems, such as the
      pancreas, central nervous system, heart, bone and skin. To date, 24 distinct
      genes have been associated with CN. The number of genes involved makes gene
      screening difficult. This can be solved by next-generation sequencing (NGS) of
      targeted gene panels. One of the major complications of CN is spontaneous
      leukaemia, which is preceded by clonal somatic evolution, and can be screened by
      a targeted NGS panel focused on somatic events.

PMID- 28875501
TI  - The protein kinase C super-family member PKN is regulated by mTOR and influences
      differentiation during prostate cancer progression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phosphoinositide-3 (PI-3) kinase signaling has a pervasive role in
      cancer. One of the key effectors of PI-3 kinase signaling is AKT, a kinase that
      promotes growth and survival in a variety of cancers. Genetically engineered
      mouse models of prostate cancer have shown that AKT signaling is sufficient to
      induce prostatic epithelial neoplasia (PIN), but insufficient for progression to
      adenocarcinoma. This contrasts with the phenotype of mice with prostate-specific
      deletion of Pten, where excessive PI-3 kinase signaling induces both PIN and
      locally invasive carcinoma. We reasoned that additional PI-3 kinase effector
      kinases promote prostate cancer progression via activities that provide
      biological complementarity to AKT. We focused on the PKN kinase family members,
      which undergo activation in response to PI-3 kinase signaling, show expression
      changes in prostate cancer, and contribute to cell motility pathways in cancer
      cells. METHODS: PKN kinase activity was measured by incorporation of 32 P into
      protein substrates. Phosphorylation of the turn-motif (TM) in PKN proteins by
      mTOR was analyzed using the TORC2-specific inhibitor torin and a PKN1 phospho-TM
      specific antibody. Amino acid substitutions in the TM of PKN were engineered and
      assayed for effects on kinase activity. Cell motility-related functions and PKN
      localization was analyzed by depletion approaches and immunofluorescence
      microscopy, respectively. The contribution of PKN proteins to prostate
      tumorigenesis was characterized in several mouse models that express PKN
      transgenes. The requirement for PKN activity in prostate cancer initiated by loss
      of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (Pten), and the
      potential redundancy between PKN isoforms, was analyzed by prostate-specific
      deletion of Pkn1, Pkn2, and Pten. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: PKN1 and PKN2
      contribute to motility pathways in human prostate cancer cells. PKN1 and PKN2
      kinase activity is regulated by TORC2-dependent phosphorylation of the TM, which
      together with published data indicates that PKN proteins receive multiple PI-3
      kinase-dependent inputs. Transgenic expression of active AKT and PKN1 is not
      sufficient for progression beyond PIN. Moreover, Pkn1 is not required for
      tumorigenesis initiated by loss of Pten. Triple knockout of Pten, Pkn1, and Pkn2
      in mouse prostate results in squamous cell carcinoma, an uncommon but therapy
      resistant form of prostate cancer.

PMID- 28875504
TI  - Zenker's diverticulum: Submucosal tunneling endoscopic septum division (Z-POEM).

PMID- 28875506
TI  - Medications Recommended for Secondary Prevention After First Acute Coronary
      Syndrome: Effectiveness of Treatment Combinations in a Real-Life Setting.
AB  - Long-term effectiveness of evidence-based cardiovascular medications (EBCMs)
      indicated after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) needs to be assessed considering
      the combination effects for these drugs recommended in association. Using a
      nationwide database, we conducted a cohort study to evaluate the effectiveness of
      all possible incomplete EBCMs-based combinations as compared to that associating
      the four recommended EBCMs over up to 5 years of follow-up. Among the 31,668
      patients included, 22.9% had ACS recurrence or died during follow-up. The risks
      associated with the use of 3-EBCM based combinations were 1.46 (95% confidence
      interval: 1.33-1.60) for the combinations without statins, 1.30 (1.17-1.43) for
      the combinations without angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin
      receptor blockers, 1.11 (0.98-1.25) for the combinations without antiplatelet
      agents, and 0.99 (0.89-1.10) for the combination without beta-blockers. These
      findings question the interest of maintaining long-term treatment with beta
      blockers in addition to the other EBCMs for post-ACS secondary prevention.

PMID- 28875505
TI  - ATLANTIC BATS: a data set of bat communities from the Atlantic Forests of South
      America.
AB  - Bats are the second most diverse mammal order and they provide vital ecosystem
      functions (e.g., pollination, seed dispersal, and nutrient flux in caves) and
      services (e.g., crop pest suppression). Bats are also important vectors of
      infectious diseases, harboring more than 100 different virus types. In the
      present study, we compiled information on bat communities from the Atlantic
      Forests of South America, a species-rich biome that is highly threatened by
      habitat loss and fragmentation. The ATLANTIC BATS data set comprises 135
      quantitative studies carried out in 205 sites, which cover most vegetation types
      of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest: dense ombrophilous forest, mixed
      ombrophilous forest, semideciduous forest, deciduous forest, savanna, steppe, and
      open ombrophilous forest. The data set includes information on more than 90,000
      captures of 98 bat species of eight families. Species richness averaged 12.1 per
      site, with a median value of 10 species (ranging from 1 to 53 species). Six
      species occurred in more than 50% of the communities: Artibeus lituratus,
      Carollia perspicillata, Sturnira lilium, Artibeus fimbriatus, Glossophaga
      soricina, and Platyrrhinus lineatus. The number of captures divided by sampling
      effort, a proxy for abundance, varied from 0.000001 to 0.77 individuals.h-1 .m-2
      (0.04 +/- 0.007 individuals.h-1 .m-2 ). Our data set reveals a hyper-dominance of
      eight species that together that comprise 80% of all captures: Platyrrhinus
      lineatus (2.3%), Molossus molossus (2.8%), Artibeus obscurus (3.4%), Artibeus
      planirostris (5.2%), Artibeus fimbriatus (7%), Sturnira lilium (14.5%), Carollia
      perspicillata (15.6%), and Artibeus lituratus (29.2%).

PMID- 28875507
TI  - The aetiology of B-cell lymphoid malignancies with a focus on chronic
      inflammation and infections.
AB  - B-cell malignancies are a heterogeneous group of lymphoproliferative disorders
      with different molecular characteristics and clinical course. It is increasingly
      recognized that the group displays considerable heterogeneity also regarding
      aetiologic factors. Here, we summarize the latest developments in the aetiology
      of B-cell lymphoid malignancy subtypes focusing on immune perturbation. Severe
      immune suppression constitutes a strong and well-established risk factor for
      aggressive subtypes (e.g. diffuse large B-cell and Burkitt lymphoma), but appears
      unrelated to risk of common low-grade subtypes (e.g. follicular and mantle cell
      lymphoma). Inflammation and infections are known co-factors amongst the
      immunosuppressed; however, immune stimulation is now recognized as a crucial
      determinant of lymphomagenesis also amongst immunocompetent individuals. This is
      best exemplified in marginal zone lymphomas where local chronic inflammation and
      infection in the stomach, ocular adnexa and salivary glands have been directly
      linked with the development of oligoclonal and monoclonal malignant B-cell
      populations. Aggressive subtypes (e.g. diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) are
      increasingly linked with features of systemic immune stimulation including
      autoimmune/inflammatory disease and subclinical cytokine elevations. Lifestyle
      factors (e.g. high body mass index, cigarette smoking) are associated with risk
      of diffuse large B-cell and follicular lymphoma, respectively, possibly mediated
      through inflammation. Recent genome-wide association studies further underline
      the importance of immune function by linking several subtypes to variations in
      the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class genes. In the future, improved knowledge
      of mechanistic pathways of inflammation/infections in lymphoma development may
      translate to active measures of prevention or treatment, as is already the case
      for some low-grade lymphoma subtypes.

PMID- 28875508
TI  - Evolution of HIV/AIDS response in Brazil: Policy innovations and challenges in
      the fourth decade of the epidemic.
AB  - Brazil was the first low- and middle-income country to provide universal
      treatment access to people living with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
      (AIDS), becoming a widely acclaimed model for best practice to managing this
      epidemic. However, we know little about important challenges to the key pillars
      of Brazil's response. This article discusses how the evolution of the country's
      health system institutions and international advancements in AIDS treatment and
      prevention affected the national response. Decentralization of health system
      resources and policy making brought fresh challenges to the centralized
      governance of the national AIDS program and to civil society, weakening their
      coordination and advocacy capacity. Regardless, AIDS treatment and prevention
      strategies in Brazil remain aligned with the current international protocols, but
      unfortunately have been restricted in some geographic areas and/or populations.

PMID- 28875509
TI  - A Newly Designed Composite Gel Polymer Electrolyte Based on Poly(Vinylidene
      Fluoride-Hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) for Enhanced Solid-State Lithium-Sulfur
      Batteries.
AB  - Developing high-performance solid-state electrolytes is crucial for the
      innovation of next-generation lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, a facile method
      for preparation of a novel gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) based on poly(vinylidene
      fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) is reported. Furthermore, Li1.5 Al0.5
      Ti1.5 (PO4 )3 (LATP) nanoparticles as the active fillers are uniformly embedded
      into the GPE to form the final PVDF-HFP/LATP composite gel polymer electrolyte
      (CPE). Impressively, the obtained CPE demonstrates a high lithium ion
      transference number of 0.51 and improved electrochemical stability as compared to
      commercial liquid electrolyte. In addition, the assembled solid-sate Li-S battery
      with the composite gel polymer electrolyte membrane presents a high initial
      capacity of 918 mAh g-1 at 0.05 C, and better cycle performance than the
      counterparts with liquid electrolyte. Our designed PVDF-HFP/LATP composite can be
      a promising electrolyte for next-generation solid-state batteries with high
      cycling stability.

PMID- 28875510
TI  - Copper-Catalyzed Synthesis and Applications of Yndiamides.
AB  - The first synthetic route to yndiamides, a novel class of double aza-substituted
      alkyne, has been established by the copper(I)-catalyzed cross-coupling of 1,1
      dibromoenamides with nitrogen nucleophiles. The utility of these compounds is
      demonstrated in a range of transition-metal-catalyzed and acid-catalyzed
      transformations to afford a wide variety of 1,2-diamide functionalized products.

PMID- 28875511
TI  - Development and evaluation of a manual for extended brief intervention for
      alcohol misuse for adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities living
      in the community: The EBI-LD study manual.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extended brief interventions for alcohol misuse are effective in the
      general population. The process of manualising the first ever such intervention
      for people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in the UK is the focus
      of this study. METHODS: The manual was an adaptation of existing manuals based on
      Motivational Enhancement and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and was used in a
      feasibility randomized controlled trial, the EBI-LD study. The sessions were
      recorded and scored using an adapted version of the Yale Adherence and Competence
      Scale (YACS II). Feedback was provided by therapists. The trial is closed.
      Registered: isrctn.com; ISRCTN58783633. RESULTS: The quality of the sessions
      provided was rated as good. Therapists were able to cover all topics within each
      session. Main challenges included session duration and homework task completion.
      CONCLUSIONS: We recommend the duration of the sessions to be extended to 40 min
      to accommodate carers in the session and to enhance their support in homework
      task completion.

PMID- 28875512
TI  - Modeling conditional dependence among multiple diagnostic tests.
AB  - When multiple imperfect dichotomous diagnostic tests are applied to an
      individual, it is possible that some or all of their results remain dependent
      even after conditioning on the true disease status. The estimates could be biased
      if this conditional dependence is ignored when using the test results to infer
      about the prevalence of a disease or the accuracies of the diagnostic tests.
      However, statistical methods correcting for this bias by modelling higher-order
      conditional dependence terms between multiple diagnostic tests are not well
      addressed in the literature. This paper extends a Bayesian fixed effects model
      for 2 diagnostic tests with pairwise correlation to cases with 3 or more
      diagnostic tests with higher order correlations. Simulation results show that the
      proposed fixed effects model works well both in the case when the tests are
      highly correlated and in the case when the tests are truly conditionally
      independent, provided adequate external information is available in the form of
      fixed constraints or prior distributions. A data set on the diagnosis of
      childhood pulmonary tuberculosis is used to illustrate the proposed model.

PMID- 28875513
TI  - The Nutrition Care Process Terminology: Changes in perceptions, attitudes,
      knowledge and implementation amongst Australian dietitians after three years.
AB  - AIM: Assessing changes in dietetic perceptions, attitudes and knowledge regarding
      the Nutrition Care Process Terminology (NCPT) is important to determine
      implementation effectiveness. This study aimed to investigate changes in the
      perceptions and attitudes of Australian dietitians over a three-year period,
      identify changes in benefits and barriers to support successful NCPT
      implementation and determine future directions for NCPT progression. METHODS: An
      online survey was performed in 2011 and repeated in 2014 by recruiting members of
      the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) through an email link. The survey
      assessed familiarity, knowledge, attitudes, benefits, barriers, concerns and use
      of educational enablers around the NCPT. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 218
      respondents in 2011 and 205 respondents in 2014. Survey respondents from both
      years were representative of overall DAA membership. Respondent knowledge of NCPT
      increased significantly over the three-years, as did confidence, preparation,
      access to support and training and NCPT usage. Respondent's identification of
      benefits to implementation increased whilst barriers reduced. Attitudes regarding
      NCPT implementation were conflicting. CONCLUSIONS: Over three years, improvements
      were evident in NCPT knowledge, attitudes and usage. However, not all dietitians
      saw reason to implement NCPT in their practice, and some attitudes have become
      less supportive. A collective vision is required to foster positive attitudes
      towards the transformational professional benefits possible from NCPT. With
      ongoing uptake of electronic health records, the potential for NCPT to evaluate
      and justify dietetic interventions is increasing.

PMID- 28875514
TI  - Cancer screening participation in schizophrenic outpatients and the influence of
      their functional disability on the screening rate: A cross-sectional study in
      Japan.
AB  - AIM: The influence of schizophrenic patients' functional disability on cancer
      screening participation worldwide is unclear. There are few findings on the
      disparities in schizophrenic patients' participation in cancer screening programs
      in Asia. The aim of this study was to investigate the screening rate and the
      associations between screening and symptom severity/functional disability in
      patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in
      a psychiatric hospital outpatient clinic in Japan. We recruited schizophrenic
      patients meeting the national program criteria for cancer screening for
      colorectal, gastric, lung, breast, and cervical cancer (n = 224, 223, 224, 110,
      and 175, respectively). Receipt of cancer screenings was assessed using a self
      report questionnaire. Scores on the modified Global Assessment of Functioning
      (mGAF) were evaluated by participants' primary psychiatrists. RESULTS: Rates of
      cancer screenings were as follows: 24.1% for colorectal, 21.5% for gastric, 30.8%
      for lung, 25.5% for breast, and 19.4% for cervical cancer. A multivariable
      logistic analysis showed that a 1-point increase in severity/disability (100
      minus mGAF score) was associated with significantly lower odds ratios (OR) for
      receipt of cancer screenings, except for breast cancer (OR, 0.95, 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 0.93-0.98 for colorectal; OR, 0.96, 95%CI, 0.93-0.98 for gastric;
      OR, 0.95, 95%CI, 0.93-0.97 for lung; OR, 0.97, 95%CI, 0.94-1.00 for breast; and
      OR, 0.95, 95%CI, 0.92-0.98 for cervical cancer). CONCLUSION: The findings
      demonstrated low rates of cancer screenings in schizophrenic patients in Japan.
      Our study suggests the need to encourage attendance at cancer screenings,
      especially in schizophrenic patients with severe symptoms/functional disability.

PMID- 28875515
TI  - Osteogenesis for postoperative temporal bone defects using human ear adipose
      derived stromal cells and tissue engineering: An animal model study.
AB  - Mastoidectomy, the removal of infected mastoid bones, is a common surgical
      procedure for the treatment of chronic otitis media. Persistent and recurrent
      otorrhea and accumulation of keratin debris following open cavity mastoidectomy
      are still bothersome issues for both patients and otologists. In this study, we
      used human ear adipose-derived stromal cells (hEASCs) in combination with
      polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds and osteogenic differentiation medium (ODM) to
      regenerate temporal bone defects. The hEASCs showed stem cell phenotypes, and
      these characteristics were maintained up to passage 5. Mastoid bulla and cranial
      bone defects were induced in Sprague-Dawley rats using AgNO3 and burr hole
      drilling, respectively, and the rats were then divided into five groups: (1)
      control, (2) hEASCs, (3) hEASCs + ODM, (4) hEASCs + PCL scaffolds, and (5) hEASCs
      + PCL scaffolds + ODM. Osteogenesis was evaluated by micro-computed tomography
      and histology. Compared with the control group, the groups transplanted with
      hEASCs and PCL scaffolds had significantly higher bone formation along the
      periphery of the mastoid bulla area. Moreover, ODM synergistically enhanced bone
      formation in mastoid bulla defects. Our results suggest that combining hEASCs
      with PCL scaffolds represents a promising method for anatomical and functional
      reconstruction of postoperative temporal bone defects following mastoidectomy.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3493-3501,
      2017.

PMID- 28875516
TI  - An Imide-Based Pentacyclic Building Block for n-Type Organic Semiconductors.
AB  - A new electron-deficient unit with a fused 5-membered heterocyclic ring was
      developed by replacing a cyclopenta-1,3-diene from electron-rich donor
      indacenodithiophene (IDT) with a cyclohepta-4,6-diene-1,3-diimde unit. The imide
      bridge endows dithienylbenzenebisimide (BBI) with a fixed planar configuration
      and low energy levels for both the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO; 
      6.24 eV) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO; -2.57 eV). Organic
      field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on BBI polymers exhibit electron mobility
      up to 0.34 cm2  V-1  s-1 , which indicates that the BBI is a promising n-type
      building block for optoelectronics.

PMID- 28875517
TI  - Are plants sentient?
AB  - Feelings in humans are mental states representing groups of physiological
      functions that usually have defined behavioural purposes. Feelings, being
      evolutionarily ancient, are thought to be coordinated in the brain stem of
      animals. One function of the brain is to prioritise between competing mental
      states and, thus, groups of physiological functions and in turn behaviour. Plants
      use groups of coordinated physiological activities to deal with defined
      environmental situations but currently have no known mental state to prioritise
      any order of response. Plants do have a nervous system based on action potentials
      transmitted along phloem conduits but which in addition, through anastomoses and
      other cross-links, forms a complex network. The emergent potential for this
      excitable network to form a mental state is unknown, but it might be used to
      distinguish between different and even contradictory signals to the individual
      plant and thus determine a priority of response. This plant nervous system
      stretches throughout the whole plant providing the potential for assessment in
      all parts and commensurate with its self-organising, phenotypically plastic
      behaviour. Plasticity may, in turn, depend heavily on the instructive
      capabilities of local bioelectric fields enabling both a degree of behavioural
      independence but influenced by the condition of the whole plant.

PMID- 28875518
TI  - Quality-of-life evaluation in chronic wounds: comparative analysis of three
      disease-specific questionnaires.
AB  - The study directly compared the feasibility and performance of three instruments
      measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic ulcers: the Freiburg
      Life Quality Assessment for wounds (FLQA-w), the Cardiff Wound Impact Schedule
      (CWIS) and the Wurzburg Wound Score (WWS). The questionnaires were evaluated in a
      randomly assigned order in a longitudinal observational study of leg ulcer
      patients. Psychometric properties (internal consistency, responsiveness and
      construct validity) were analysed. Patient acceptance was recorded. Analysis of n
      = 154 patients revealed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha >= 0.85) for
      all instruments. There were minor floor effects in all questionnaires (<1%) and
      some ceiling effects in the CWIS. Construct validity was satisfactory, for
      example, correlation with EuroQoL-5D was r = 0.70 in the FLQA-w, r =
      0.47/0.67/0.68 in the CWIS dimensions and r = 0.60 in the WWS. The proportion of
      missing values was higher in the CWIS, and overall patient acceptance was highest
      in the FLQA-w for wounds (54% best preferences) and lowest in the WWS (14%). In
      conclusion, the FLQA-w, the CWIS and the WWS are reliable, sensitive and valid
      instruments for the assessment of HRQoL in leg ulcers. However, they show
      differences in clinical feasibility and patient acceptance.

PMID- 28875520
TI  - Concise Total Synthesis of (-)-Affinisine Oxindole, (+)-Isoalstonisine, (+)
      Alstofoline, (-)-Macrogentine, (+)-Na -Demethylalstonisine, (-)-Alstonoxine A,
      and (+)-Alstonisine.
AB  - A highly enantio- and diastereoselective strategy to access any member of the
      sarpagine/macroline family of oxindole alkaloids via internal asymmetric
      induction was developed from readily available d-(+)-tryptophan. At the center of
      this approach was the diastereospecific generation of the spiro[pyrrolidine-3,3'
      oxindole] moiety at an early stage via a tert-butyl hypochlorite-promoted
      oxidative rearrangement of a chiral tetrahydro-beta-carboline derivative. This
      key branching point determined the spatial configuration at the C-7 spiro center
      to be entirely 7R or 7S. Other key stereospecific processes were the asymmetric
      Pictet-Spengler reaction and Dieckmann cyclization, which were scalable to the
      600 and 150 gram levels, respectively. Execution of this approach resulted in
      first enantiospecific total synthesis of (+)-isoalstonisine and (-)-macrogentine
      from the chitosenine series (7R), as well as (+)-alstonisine, (+)-alstofoline, (
      )-alstonoxine A and (+)-Na -demethylalstonisine from the alstonisine series (7S).

PMID- 28875521
TI  - Chronic myocarditis with a long clinical course: Report of an autopsy case of
      probable autoimmune myocarditis.
AB  - The patient was a 54-year-old woman, who died of chronic cardiac insufficiency
      after a clinical course of 2 years and 4 months. She had complained of myalgia,
      muscle weakness, and blepharoptosis before the onset of cardiac symptoms, but
      there was no evidence of myasthenia gravis or collagen-vascular diseases. At
      autopsy, the heart (280 g) showed marked dilatation of the four chambers and
      thinning of the ventricular walls. Diffuse and intense lymphocytic infiltration
      and extensive fibrosis were noted, with the latter being accentuated in the
      subendocardial and subepicardial zones. Small foci of myocardial necrosis were
      scattered and a small number of multinucleated giant cells were found, but
      epithelioid cell granulomas, Aschoff's nodules, and viral inclusion bodies were
      not observed. Some cardiomyocytes showed the aberrant expression of the HLA-DR
      antigen. No viral genomes were detected in myocardial tissue using a multivirus
      real-time polymerase chain reaction. The protracted clinical course, presence of
      active inflammatory changes at autopsy, expression of the HLA-DR antigen on
      cardiomyocytes, and absence of viral genomes in myocardial tissue suggest that
      autoimmune mechanisms played an important role in the pathogenesis and
      persistence of myocarditis in this patient.

PMID- 28875519
TI  - Precision Dosing: Public Health Need, Proposed Framework, and Anticipated Impact.

PMID- 28875522
TI  - Developments in the synthesis of the antiplatelet and antithrombotic drug (S)
      clopidogrel.
AB  - S-(+)-Methyl 2-(2-chlorophenyl)-2-(6,7-dihydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridin-5(4H)
      yl)acetate, also known as (S)-clopidogrel, is marketed under the trade names
      Plavix and Iscover. It is a potent thienopyridine-class of antithrombotic and
      antiplatelet drug (antiaggregant). Among the two available stereoisomers of
      clopidogrel, for pharmaceutical activities only the S-enantiomer is applicable,
      as no antithrombotic activity is observed in the R-enantiomer and causes
      political upheavals and social turmoil in animal experiments. Worldwide sales of
      Plavix amounted to $6.4 billion yearly, which ranks second. Attributed to the
      increased demand of (S)-clopidogrel drug, it provoked the synthetic community to
      devise facile synthetic approaches. This review aims to summarize the synthetic
      methods of (S)-clopidogrel drug reported in the literature. The present review
      discusses the pros and cons of each synthetic methodology, which would be
      beneficial to the scientific community for further developments in the synthetic
      methodologies for (S)-clopidogrel. In addition, the compilation approach of
      literature-reported synthetic strategies of (S)-clopidogrel in one platform is
      advantageous, supportive, and crucial for the synthetic community to elect the
      best synthetic methodology of (S)-clopidogrel and to create new synthesis ideas.

PMID- 28875524
TI  - Iterative hard thresholding for model selection in genome-wide association
      studies.
AB  - : A genome-wide association study (GWAS) correlates marker and trait variation in
      a study sample. Each subject is genotyped at a multitude of SNPs (single
      nucleotide polymorphisms) spanning the genome. Here, we assume that subjects are
      randomly collected unrelateds and that trait values are normally distributed or
      can be transformed to normality. Over the past decade, geneticists have been
      remarkably successful in applying GWAS analysis to hundreds of traits. The
      massive amount of data produced in these studies present unique computational
      challenges. Penalized regression with the l1 penalty (LASSO) or minimax concave
      penalty (MCP) penalties is capable of selecting a handful of associated SNPs from
      millions of potential SNPs. Unfortunately, model selection can be corrupted by
      false positives and false negatives, obscuring the genetic underpinning of a
      trait. Here, we compare LASSO and MCP penalized regression to iterative hard
      thresholding (IHT). On GWAS regression data, IHT is better at model selection and
      comparable in speed to both methods of penalized regression. This conclusion
      holds for both simulated and real GWAS data. IHT fosters parallelization and
      scales well in problems with large numbers of causal markers. Our parallel
      implementation of IHT accommodates SNP genotype compression and exploits multiple
      CPU cores and graphics processing units (GPUs). This allows statistical
      geneticists to leverage commodity desktop computers in GWAS analysis and to avoid
      supercomputing. AVAILABILITY: Source code is freely available at
      https://github.com/klkeys/IHT.jl.

PMID- 28875525
TI  - Efficacy of ketogenic diet for infantile spasms: A systematic review.
AB  - The aim of this systematic review was to collect and analyze all the RCTs and
      observational studies investigating the efficacy of ketogenic diet (KD) in
      infantile spasms (IS) patients after a 1- to 6-month follow-up period, in terms
      of decrease in seizure frequency of >50% or a seizure-free interval. Moreover,
      the potential effect of gender, IS etiology, age at onset of IS, and age at start
      of KD have been investigated. Finally, we evaluated the seizure-free rate at 12
      and 24 months of follow-up. In June 2016, a computer search was performed on
      MedLine (PubMed), EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. Only, English language
      studies conducted after 1980 and those reporting in detail the variation in
      seizure frequency have been selected. Thirteen observational studies (341
      patients) were included in the final analysis. A median rate of 64.7% of patients
      experienced a spasm reduction >50% (IQR: 38.94%). The median spasm-free rate was
      34.61% (IQR: 37.94%). IS of unknown etiology seemed to have an increased
      probability of achieving freedom from seizures (RR: 1.72, 95%CI: 1.18-2.53). Long
      time follow-up data revealed a median seizure-free rate of 9.54% (IQR: 18.23%).
      Although the literature is still lacking in high-quality studies, which could
      provide a stronger level evidence, our findings suggest a potential benefit of KD
      for drug-resistant IS patients.

PMID- 28875526
TI  - Towards physiologically meaningful water-use efficiency estimates from eddy
      covariance data.
AB  - Intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) characterizes the physiological control on
      the simultaneous exchange of water and carbon dioxide in terrestrial ecosystems.
      Knowledge of iWUE is commonly gained from leaf-level gas exchange measurements,
      which are inevitably restricted in their spatial and temporal coverage. Flux
      measurements based on the eddy covariance (EC) technique can overcome these
      limitations, as they provide continuous and long-term records of carbon and water
      fluxes at the ecosystem scale. However, vegetation gas exchange parameters
      derived from EC data are subject to scale-dependent and method-specific
      uncertainties that compromise their ecophysiological interpretation as well as
      their comparability among ecosystems and across spatial scales. Here, we use
      estimates of canopy conductance and gross primary productivity (GPP) derived from
      EC data to calculate a measure of iWUE (G1 , "stomatal slope") at the ecosystem
      level at six sites comprising tropical, Mediterranean, temperate, and boreal
      forests. We assess the following six mechanisms potentially causing discrepancies
      between leaf and ecosystem-level estimates of G1 : (i) non-transpirational water
      fluxes; (ii) aerodynamic conductance; (iii) meteorological deviations between
      measurement height and canopy surface; (iv) energy balance non-closure; (v)
      uncertainties in net ecosystem exchange partitioning; and (vi) physiological
      within-canopy gradients. Our results demonstrate that an unclosed energy balance
      caused the largest uncertainties, in particular if it was associated with
      erroneous latent heat flux estimates. The effect of aerodynamic conductance on G1
      was sufficiently captured with a simple representation. G1 was found to be less
      sensitive to meteorological deviations between canopy surface and measurement
      height and, given that data are appropriately filtered, to non-transpirational
      water fluxes. Uncertainties in the derived GPP and physiological within-canopy
      gradients and their implications for parameter estimates at leaf and ecosystem
      level are discussed. Our results highlight the importance of adequately
      considering the sources of uncertainty outlined here when EC-derived water-use
      efficiency is interpreted in an ecophysiological context.

PMID- 28875523
TI  - Alcohol consumption and bladder cancer risk with or without the flushing
      response: The Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study.
AB  - The association between alcohol consumption and bladder cancer risk has been
      insufficiently investigated in East Asian populations, who frequently have the
      inactive enzyme for metabolizing acetaldehyde. Given that acetaldehyde associated
      with alcohol consumption is assessed as a carcinogen, consideration of
      differences in acetaldehyde exposure would aid accuracy in assessing the bladder
      cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption. Here, we conducted a population
      based cohort study in Japan to examine this association, including information on
      the flushing response as a surrogate marker of the capacity of acetaldehyde
      metabolism. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated
      using multivariate Cox proportional hazard models. During follow up from 1990
      through 2012 for the 95,915 subjects (45,649 men and 50,266 women, aged 40-69
      years), 354 men and 110 women were newly diagnosed with bladder cancer. No
      significant association between alcohol consumption and bladder cancer risk was
      observed in the overall analysis. Among male flushers, HRs were 1.04 (95% CI 0.70
      1.54), 1.67 (1.16-2.42), 1.02 (0.62-1.67) and 0.63 (0.33-1.20) for alcohol
      consumption of 1-150, 151-300, 301-450, >450 g/week of pure ethanol compared with
      non-drinkers and occasional drinkers, respectively, indicating an inverted U
      shaped association between alcohol consumption and bladder cancer risk. In
      contrast, no significant association was identified among male non-flushers. The
      marginally significant interaction between alcohol consumption and the flushing
      response (p for interaction = 0.083) may support our hypothesis that acetaldehyde
      derived from alcohol consumption is associated with bladder cancer risk. A
      prospective study considering polymorphisms of genes involved in acetaldehyde
      metabolism is warranted.

PMID- 28875527
TI  - Management of an uncomplicated crown fracture by reattaching the fractured
      fragment-Case report.
AB  - Coronal fractures of the anterior teeth are common sequelae of traumatic dental
      injuries. Reattachment of fractured tooth fragments using dental adhesive
      techniques offers some advantages, including restoration of the function,
      esthetics, shape, texture, and brightness of the surface. The present report
      describes a clinical case of reattachment with a 4-year clinical and radiographic
      follow up in a permanent maxillary central incisor with an uncomplicated crown
      fracture. Fragment reattachment is a conservative procedure, preserving esthetics
      and functionality, and it can provide an immediate positive emotional response
      from the patient.

PMID- 28875528
TI  - Transplantation of artificial human lymphatic vascular tissues fabricated using a
      cell-accumulation technique and their engraftment in mouse tissue with vascular
      remodelling.
AB  - Transplantation of engineered tissues with microvascular structure is advancing
      towards therapeutic application to improve the flow of blood and/or lymphatic
      fluids. In lymphatic disorders, transplantation of tissue-engineered lymphatic
      grafts can be an ideal treatment for draining excessive lymphatic fluid. In this
      study, we examined the transplantation of 3-dimensional artificial human
      lymphatic network tissue (AHLT) fabricated by the cell accumulation technique
      into the subcutaneous tissue and fascia of mice. At 2 weeks after
      transplantation, the AHLT showed engraftment of artificial lymphatic vessels
      immunopositive for human CD31 and human podoplanin. Notably, we also observed the
      generation of blood vessel-like structure comprising endothelial cells
      immunopositive for human CD34 and mural-like cells immunopositive for human CD90
      and alphaSMA, which were considered as myofibroblasts. In the fabrication of AHLT
      in vitro, the sporadic emergence of human CD34-positive/Prox-1-negative sites was
      observed, followed by the formation of blood vessel-like structure in the graft
      within 7 days after transplantation. The fine structure of engrafted AHLT
      observed by transmission electron microscopy showed that the engrafted artificial
      lymphatic vessels possess the specific structures of native lymphatic capillaries
      such as loose interendothelial connections and anchoring filaments. In contrast,
      blood vessel-like structure showed tight interendothelial connections, thick
      basement membranes, and layers of mural-like cells, which resemble small blood
      vessels. These results suggested the remodelling of artificial lymphatic network
      to form blood vessel-like structure associated with mural-like cells along with
      AHLT fabrication and engraftment.

PMID- 28875529
TI  - Single-incision robotic cholecystectomy is associated with a high rate of trocar
      site infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Single-incision robotic cholecystectomy has been developed to
      decrease post-operative pain and improve cosmetic results. METHODS: Thirty-seven
      patients underwent single-site robotic cholecystectomy between 2014 and 2015.
      Postoperative outcomes and costs were compared to reported outcomes for
      laparoscopic cholecystectomy using the configuration of suprapubic trocars.
      RESULTS: The median age was comparable between the two groups (46 years in the
      robotic group vs. 47 years in the laparoscopic group). The operative time was
      longer in the robotic group (132 minutes) than in the laparoscopic group (53
      minutes). The average length of stay was 1 day in the robotic group and 1.7 days
      in the laparoscopic group. Costs were higher in the robotic group (2229.46 ?)
      than in the laparoscopic group (1141 ?). In the robotic group, the trocar-site
      infection rate was 13.5%. CONCLUSION: The robotic approach does not seem to offer
      additional benefit in terms of surgical outcomes.

PMID- 28875530
TI  - The Revised Basel Statements on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy: What Do They
      Mean for Saudi Arabia?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the current hospital pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia
      according to the revised Basel statements. METHODS: A review of the available
      data based on published literature in the subject area was carried out. KEY
      FINDINGS: The original Basel Statements were developed at the 2008 Global
      Conference on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy in Basel, Switzerland.
      Representatives from 98 countries, including Saudi Arabia, attended this
      conference. The revision of the Basel statements simplified and merged many of
      the original Basel statements. In addition to making the Basel statements more
      concise, the revision added new statements to reflect global trends and the
      expanded responsibilities of hospital pharmacists. CONCLUSION: The release of the
      Basel statements represents an important opportunity to bring Saudi Arabian
      practices into complete concurrence with international standards and to identify
      areas that should be prioritized.

PMID- 28875531
TI  - Pathogen reduction of whole blood: utility and feasibility.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To collect information on pathogen reduction applied to whole blood.
      BACKGROUND: Pathogen reduction (PR) of blood components has been developed over
      the past two decades, and pathogen-reduced fresh-frozen plasma and platelet
      concentrates are currently in clinical use. High cost and incomplete coverage of
      components make PR out of reach for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
      However, should PR become applicable to whole blood (WB), the main product
      transfused in sub-Saharan Africa, and be compatible with the preparation of
      clinically suitable components, cost would be minimised, and a range of safety
      measures in place at high cost in developed areas would become redundant.
      METHODS: All articles called with "pathogen reduction", "pathogen inactivation"
      and "whole blood" were retrieved from Medline. References in articles were
      utilised. RESULTS: One such PR technology (PRT) applied to WB has been developed
      and has shown efficacious against viruses, bacteria and parasites in vitro; and
      has been able to inactivate nucleated blood cells whilst retaining the ability to
      prepare components with acceptable characteristics. The efficacy of this WB PRT
      has been demonstrated in vivo using the inactivation of Plasmodium falciparum as
      a model and showing a high degree of correlation between in vitro and in vivo
      data. Obtaining further evidence of efficacy on other suitable targets is
      warranted. Shortening of the process, which is currently around 50 min, or
      increasing the number of units simultaneously processed would be necessary to
      make PRT WB conducive to LMIC blood services' needs. CONCLUSIONS: Even if not
      100% effective against agents that are present in high pathogen load titres, WB
      PRT could massively impact blood safety in LMIC by providing safer products at an
      affordable cost.

PMID- 28875533
TI  - Expanding Anti-Stokes Shifting in Triplet-Triplet Annihilation Upconversion for
      In Vivo Anticancer Prodrug Activation.
AB  - A strategy to expand anti-Stokes shifting from the far-red to deep-blue region in
      metal-free triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) is presented. The
      method is demonstrated by in vivo titration of the photorelease of an anticancer
      prodrug. This new TTA system has robust brightness and the longest anti-Stokes
      shift of any reported TTA system. TTA core-shell-structured prodrug delivery
      capsules that benefit from these properties were developed; they can operate with
      low-power density far-red light-emitting diode light. These capsules contain
      mesoporous silica nanoparticles preloaded with TTA molecules as the core, and
      amphiphilic polymers encapsulating anticancer prodrug molecules as the shell.
      When stimulated by far-red light, the intense TTA upconversion blue emission in
      the system activates the anticancer prodrug molecules and shows effective tumor
      growth inhibition in vivo. This work paves the way to new organic TTA
      upconversion techniques that are applicable to in vivo photocontrollable drug
      release and other biophotonic applications.

PMID- 28875532
TI  - Axin2-mTurquoise2: A novel reporter mouse model for the detection of canonical
      Wnt signalling.
AB  - The canonical Wnt signalling pathway has been implicated in organogenesis and
      self-renewal of essentially all stem cell systems. In vivo reporter systems are
      crucial to assess the role of Wnt signalling in the biology and pathology of stem
      cell systems. We set out to develop a Turquoise (TQ) fluorescent protein based
      Wnt reporter. We used a CRISPR-Cas9 approach to insert a TQ fluorescent protein
      encoding gene into the general Wnt target gene Axin2, thereby establishing a Wnt
      reporter mouse similar to previously generated Wnt reporter mice but with the
      mTurquoise2 gene instead of E. coli-beta-galactosidase (LacZ). The use of
      mTurquoise2 is especially important in organ systems in which cells need to a be
      alive for further experimentation such as in vitro activation or transplantation
      studies. We here report successful generation of Axin2-TQ mice and show that
      cells from these mice faithfully respond to Wnt signals. High Wnt signals were
      detected in the intestinal crypts, a classical Wnt signalling site in vivo, and
      by flow cytometry in the thymus. These mice are an improved tool to further
      elucidate the role of Wnt signalling in vivo.

PMID- 28875534
TI  - Postmortem DTI reveals altered hippocampal connectivity in wild sea lions
      diagnosed with chronic toxicosis from algal exposure.
AB  - Hundreds of wild California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) exposed to the
      algal neurotoxin domoic acid are treated in veterinary rehabilitation centers
      each year. Common chronic effects of toxic exposure in these animals are seizures
      and hippocampal damage, and they have been proposed as a natural animal model for
      human epilepsy. Humans with medial temporal lobe epilepsy present with white
      matter pathology in a number of tracts including the fornix and increased
      structural connectivity between the hippocampus and thalamus. However, there are
      no prior data on structural connectivity in sea lion brains, with or without
      neuropathology. In the present study, we used a novel diffusion tensor imaging
      technique to obtain high resolution (1mm isotropic) white matter maps in brains
      obtained opportunistically postmortem from wild sea lions with and without
      chronic clinical signs of toxic exposure to domoic acid. All animals had received
      a full veterinary workup and diagnosis prior to euthanasia. We measured
      hippocampal atrophy morphometrically, and all brains were examined
      histopathologically. In animals diagnosed with chronic domoic acid toxicosis, the
      fornix showed signs of altered diffusion properties indicative of pathology;
      these brains also had increased structural connectivity between hippocampus and
      thalamus in comparison to brains from animals with no neurological signs. These
      findings establish further parallels between human medial temporal lobe epilepsy
      and a naturally occurring condition in wild sea lions and simultaneously advance
      general knowledge of the deleterious effects of an increasingly common natural
      toxin.

PMID- 28875535
TI  - Disrupted intrinsic and remote functional connectivity in heterotopia-related
      epilepsy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Several neuroimaging studies have examined neural interactions in
      patients with periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH). However, features of the
      underlying functional network remain poorly understood. In this study, we
      examined alterations in the local (regional) and remote (interregional) cerebral
      networks in this disorder. METHODS: Twenty-eight subjects all having suffered
      from PNH with epilepsy, as well as 28 age- and sex- matched healthy controls,
      were enrolled in this study. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and
      seed-based functional connectivity (FC) were calculated to detect regional neural
      function and functional network integration, respectively. RESULTS: Compared with
      healthy controls, patients with PNH-related epilepsy showed decreased ALFF in the
      ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and precuneus areas. ALFF values in both
      areas were negative correlated with epilepsy duration (P < .05, Bonferroni
      corrected). Furthermore, patients with PNH-related epilepsy had increased remote
      interregional FC mainly in bilateral prefrontal and parietal cortices,
      supramarginal gyrus, dorsal cingulate gyrus, and right insula; lower FC was found
      in posterior brain regions including bilateral parahippocampal gyrus and inferior
      temporal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: Focal spontaneous hypofunction, as assessed by ALFF,
      correlates with epilepsy duration in patients with PNH-related epilepsy.
      Abnormalities existed both within the default-mode network and then across the
      whole brain, demonstrating that intrinsic brain dysfunction may be related to
      specific network interactions. Our findings provide novel understanding of the
      connectivity-based pathophysiological mechanisms of PNH.

PMID- 28875536
TI  - Cottrell Scholars: S. Ardo, A. E. Hargrove, N. B. Shustova, Y. Surendranath /
      TREE Awards: S. M. Cohen, D. S. Ginger / Kolos Medal: W. Thiel / Welch Award: H.
      P. Steinruck / Sachsischer Verdienstorden: A. Beck-Sickinger, E. Hey-Hawkins, B.
      Voit.

PMID- 28875537
TI  - Frequent activity and minimal sedentary time throughout the day: an impractical
      goal with unproven benefits.

PMID- 28875538
TI  - A generalized parametric response mapping method for analysis of multi-parametric
      imaging: A feasibility study with application to glioblastoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Parametric response map (PRM) analysis of functional imaging has been
      shown to be an effective tool for early prediction of cancer treatment outcomes
      and may also be well-suited toward guiding personalized adaptive radiotherapy
      (RT) strategies such as sub-volume boosting. However, the PRM method was
      primarily designed for analysis of longitudinally acquired pairs of single
      parameter image data. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the
      feasibility of a generalized parametric response map analysis framework, which
      enables analysis of multi-parametric data while maintaining the key advantages of
      the original PRM method. METHODS: MRI-derived apparent diffusion coefficient
      (ADC) and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) maps acquired at 1 and 3-months
      post-RT for 19 patients with high-grade glioma were used to demonstrate the
      algorithm. Images were first co-registered and then standardized using normal
      tissue image intensity values. Tumor voxels were then plotted in a four
      dimensional Cartesian space with coordinate values equal to a voxel's image
      intensity in each of the image volumes and an origin defined as the multi
      parametric mean of normal tissue image intensity values. Voxel positions were
      orthogonally projected onto a line defined by the origin and a pre-determined
      response vector. The voxels are subsequently classified as positive, negative or
      nil, according to whether projected positions along the response vector exceeded
      a threshold distance from the origin. The response vector was selected by
      identifying the direction in which the standard deviation of tumor image
      intensity values was maximally different between responding and non-responding
      patients within a training dataset. Voxel classifications were visualized via
      familiar three-class response maps and then the fraction of tumor voxels
      associated with each of the classes was investigated for predictive utility
      analogous to the original PRM method. Independent PRM and MPRM analyses of the
      contrast-enhancing lesion (CEL) and a 1 cm shell of surrounding peri-tumoral
      tissue were performed. Prediction using tumor volume metrics was also
      investigated. Leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) was used in combination with
      permutation testing to assess preliminary predictive efficacy and estimate
      statistically robust P-values. The predictive endpoint was overall survival (OS)
      greater than or equal to the median OS of 18.2 months. RESULTS: Single-parameter
      PRM and multi-parametric response maps (MPRMs) were generated for each patient
      and used to predict OS via the LOOCV. Tumor volume metrics (P >= 0.071 +/- 0.01)
      and single-parameter PRM analyses (P >= 0.170 +/- 0.01) were not found to be
      predictive of OS within this study. MPRM analysis of the peri-tumoral region but
      not the CEL was found to be predictive of OS with a classification sensitivity,
      specificity and accuracy of 80%, 100%, and 89%, respectively (P = 0.001 +/-
      0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The feasibility of a generalized MPRM analysis framework was
      demonstrated with improved prediction of overall survival compared to the
      original single-parameter method when applied to a glioblastoma dataset. The
      proposed algorithm takes the spatial heterogeneity in multi-parametric response
      into consideration and enables visualization. MPRM analysis of peri-tumoral
      regions was shown to have predictive potential supporting further investigation
      of a larger glioblastoma dataset.

PMID- 28875539
TI  - AGO18b negatively regulates determinacy of spikelet meristems on the tassel
      central spike in maize.
AB  - The maize tassel represents an indeterminate male inflorescence. The number of
      primordia that a given inflorescence meristem produces is related to its
      determinacy, i.e., capacity for continued meristem activity. Transcription
      factors (TFs) controlling determinacy in tassel axillary meristems are well
      studied in maize, and small RNAs are known to influence tassel development by
      repressing targets, including tassel-related TFs. As core components of the RNA
      inducible silence complex (RISC), Argonaute (AGO) proteins are required for small
      RNA-mediated repression. Here, we characterized the biological function of
      AGO18b, a tassel-enriched AGO. The abundance of AGO18b transcripts gradually
      increased during tassel development from inception to gametogenesis and were
      enriched in the inflorescence meristem and axillary meristems of the tassel.
      Repressing AGO18b expression resulted in more spikelets, which contributed to a
      longer central spike of the tassel. Additionally, the transcripts of several HD
      ZIP III TFs that were canonical targets of microRNA166 (miR166) accumulated in
      the AGO18b-repressed lines. We propose that AGO18b is a negative regulator of the
      determinacy of inflorescence and axillary meristems, and that it acts by
      interacting with the miR166-HD-ZIP III TF regulatory pathway.

PMID- 28875540
TI  - The physiological motor patterns produced by neurons in the nucleus retroambiguus
      in the rat and their modulation by vagal, peripheral chemosensory, and
      nociceptive stimulation.
AB  - The nucleus retroambiguus (NRA) is a neuronal cell group in the medullary
      ventrolateral tegmentum, rostrocaudally between the obex and the first cervical
      spinal segment. NRA neurons are premotor interneurons with direct projections to
      the motoneurons of soft palate, pharynx, and larynx in the nucleus ambiguus in
      the lateral medulla as well as to the motoneurons in the spinal cord innervating
      diaphragm, abdominal, and pelvic floor muscles and the lumbosacral motoneurons
      generating sexual posture. These NRA premotor interneurons receive very strong
      projections from the periaqueductal gray (PAG) in the context of basic survival
      mechanisms as fight, flight, freezing, sound production, and sexual behavior. In
      the present study in rat we investigated the physiological motor patterns
      generated by NRA neurons, as the result of vagal, peripheral chemosensory, and
      nociceptive stimulation. The results show that the NRA contains phasic
      respiratory modulated neurons, as well as nonphasic tonically modulated neurons.
      Stimulation in the various rostrocaudal levels of the NRA generates site-specific
      laryngeal, respiratory, abdominal, and pelvic floor motor activities. Vagal and
      peripheral chemosensory stimulation induces both excitatory and inhibitory
      modulation of phasic NRA-neurons, while peripheral chemosensory and nociceptive
      stimulation causes excitation and inhibition of nonphasic NRA-neurons. These
      results are in agreement with the concept that the NRA represents a
      multifunctional group of neurons involved in the output of the emotional motor
      system, such as vomiting, vocalization, mating, and changes in respiration.

PMID- 28875541
TI  - Gene duplication and the evolution of phenotypic diversity in insect societies.
AB  - Gene duplication is an important evolutionary process thought to facilitate the
      evolution of phenotypic diversity. We investigated if gene duplication was
      associated with the evolution of phenotypic differences in a highly social
      insect, the honeybee Apis mellifera. We hypothesized that the genetic redundancy
      provided by gene duplication could promote the evolution of social and sexual
      phenotypes associated with advanced societies. We found a positive correlation
      between sociality and rate of gene duplications across the Apoidea, indicating
      that gene duplication may be associated with sociality. We also discovered that
      genes showing biased expression between A. mellifera alternative phenotypes
      tended to be found more frequently than expected among duplicated genes than
      singletons. Moreover, duplicated genes had higher levels of caste-, sex-,
      behavior-, and tissue-biased expression compared to singletons, as expected if
      gene duplication facilitated phenotypic differentiation. We also found that
      duplicated genes were maintained in the A. mellifera genome through the processes
      of conservation, neofunctionalization, and specialization, but not
      subfunctionalization. Overall, we conclude that gene duplication may have
      facilitated the evolution of social and sexual phenotypes, as well as tissue
      differentiation. Thus this study further supports the idea that gene duplication
      allows species to evolve an increased range of phenotypic diversity.

PMID- 28875542
TI  - Analysis on the local structures for 3d1 impurities (Ti3+ and V4+ ) in KTiPO4.
AB  - Making use of the perturbation formulae for 3d1 ions (Ti3+ and V4+ ) under
      orthorhombically compressed octahedra, the spin Hamiltonian parameters (g
      factors: gx , gy , gz and hyperfine structure constants: Ax , Ay , Az ) and local
      structures of the 3d1 impurity centres C1 , C2 , and C3 in KTiOPO4 crystals are
      theoretically analyzed in a consistent way. The remarkable local distortions
      (i.e., the relative axial compression ratios 11.2%, 7.0%, and 5.5% along Z axis
      and the relative planar bond length variation ratios 15.9%, 7.0%, and 6.0%) are
      obtained for the [Ti2O6 ]9- cluster on Ti2 site and [VO6 ]8- clusters on Ti1 and
      Ti2 sites, respectively, in view of the Jahn-Teller effect. The above local
      orthorhombic distortion parameters in the impurity centres are found to be more
      significant than the host Ti1 and Ti2 sites in pure KTiOPO4 . The sequences (C1 
      > C2  > C3 ) of the local orthorhombic distortion parameters rho and tau are in
      accordance with those of the axial and perpendicular anisotropies Deltag and
      deltag of g factors, respectively.

PMID- 28875543
TI  - PDBsum: Structural summaries of PDB entries.
AB  - PDBsum is a web server providing structural information on the entries in the
      Protein Data Bank (PDB). The analyses are primarily image-based and include
      protein secondary structure, protein-ligand and protein-DNA interactions,
      PROCHECK analyses of structural quality, and many others. The 3D structures can
      be viewed interactively in RasMol, PyMOL, and a JavaScript viewer called
      3Dmol.js. Users can upload their own PDB files and obtain a set of password
      protected PDBsum analyses for each. The server is freely accessible to all at:
      http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbsum.

PMID- 28875544
TI  - Identification and characterization of vilazodone metabolites in rats and
      microsomes by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of
      flight tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - RATIONALE: Vilazodone is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) used for
      the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). An extensive literature search
      found few reports on the in vivo and in vitro metabolism of vilazodone.
      Therefore, we report a comprehensive in vivo and in vitro metabolic
      identification and structural characterization of vilazodone using ultrahigh
      performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass
      spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF/MS/MS) and in silico toxicity study of the metabolites.
      METHODS: To identify in vivo metabolites of vilazodone, blood, urine and faeces
      samples were collected at different time intervals starting from 0 h to 48 h
      after oral administration of vilazodone to Sprague-Dawley rats. The in vitro
      metabolism study was conducted with human liver microsomes (HLM) and rat liver
      microsomes (RLM). The samples were prepared using an optimized sample preparation
      approach involving protein precipitation followed by solid-phase extraction. The
      metabolites have been identified and characterized by using LC/ESI-MS/MS.
      RESULTS: A total of 12 metabolites (M1-M12) were identified in in vivo and in
      vitro matrices and characterized by LC/ESI-MS/MS. The majority of the metabolites
      were observed in urine, while a few metabolites were present in faeces and
      plasma. Two metabolites were observed in the in vitro study. A semi-quantitative
      study based on percentage counts shows that metabolites M11, M6 and M8 were
      observed in higher amounts in urine, faeces and plasma, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: The structures of all the 12 metabolites were elucidated by using
      LC/ESI-MS/MS. The study suggests that vilazodone was metabolized via
      hydroxylation, dihydroxylation, glucuronidation, oxidative deamination,
      dealkylation, dehydrogenation and dioxidation. All the metabolites were screened
      for toxicity using an in silico tool.

PMID- 28875545
TI  - Targeted next-generation sequencing in myelodysplastic syndromes and prognostic
      interaction between mutations and IPSS-R.
AB  - A 27-gene panel was used for next-generation sequencing (NGS) in 179 patients
      (median age 73 years) with primary myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS); risk
      distribution according to the revised International Prognostic Scoring System
      (IPSS-R) was 11% very high, 18% high, 17% intermediate, 38% low and 16% very low.
      At least one mutation/variant was detected in 147 (82%) patients; 23% harbored
      three or more mutations/variants. The most frequent mutations/variants included
      ASXL1 (30%), TET2 (25%), SF3B1 (20%), U2AF1 (16%), SRSF2 (16%), TP53 (13%), RUNX1
      (11%), and DNMT3A (10%). At a median follow up of 30 months, 148 (83%) deaths and
      26 (15%) leukemic transformations were recorded. Multivariable analysis of
      mutations/variants identified ASXL1 (HR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.5), SETBP1 (HR 4.1, 95%
      CI 1.6-10.2) and TP53 (HR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.4) as risk factors for overall and
      SRSF2 (HR 3.9, 95% CI 1.5-10.2), IDH2 (HR 3.7, 95% CI 1.2-11.4), and CSF3R (HR
      6.0, 95% CI 1.6-22.6) for leukemia-free survival. Addition of age to the
      multivariable model did not affect these results while accounting for IPSS-R
      weakened the significance of TP53 mutations/variants (P = .1). An apparently
      favorable survival impact of SF3B1 mutations was no longer evident after
      adjustment for IPSS-R. Approximately 41% and 20% of patients harbored at least
      one adverse mutation/variant for overall and leukemia-free survival,
      respectively. Number of mutations/variants did not provide additional prognostic
      value. The survival impact of adverse mutations was most evident in IPSS-R very
      low/low risk patients. These observations suggest that targeted NGS might assist
      in treatment decision-making in lower risk MDS.

PMID- 28875546
TI  - Limiting Assumptions in the Design of Peptidomimetics.
AB  - Preclinical Research Limiting the flexibility of organic compounds to enhance
      their affinity and selectivity for targeting a macromolecule involved in
      molecular recognition has become a well-developed paradigm in medicinal
      chemistry. While the role of reverse-turn motifs as peptidomimetics has received
      the most attention, beta-sheets and helices are also important motifs for
      protein/protein interactions. The more complicated problem of mimicking the
      interacting surface of noncontiguous epitopes will not be considered in this
      review. This limited overview focuses on efforts to use amino acid synthons as
      secondary-structure mimetics as well as providing examples of peptidomimetic
      design focused on nonpeptide synthetic chemistry in contrast. In particular, the
      rationale of optimal design criteria for mimicry and the many naive violations of
      those criteria made in its pursuit are emphasized. Drug Dev Res 78 : 245-267,
      2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28875547
TI  - Immunohistochemical double hit score enhances NCCN-IPI and is associated with
      detrimental outcomes in refractory or relapsing patients with diffuse large B
      cell lymphoma.

PMID- 28875548
TI  - Bacterial contamination of platelet components not detected by BacT/ALERT(r).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the possible causes for false negative results in
      BacT/ALERT(r) 3D Signature System despite bacterial contamination of platelet
      units. BACKGROUND: The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS)
      routinely extends platelet component shelf life to 7 days. Components are sampled
      and screened for bacterial contamination using an automated microbial detection
      system, the BacT/ALERT(r) 3D Signature System. We report on three platelet
      components with confirmed bacterial contamination, which represent false negative
      BacT/ALERT(r) results and near-miss serious adverse events. METHODS: NIBTS
      protocols for risk reduction of bacterial contamination of platelet components
      are described. The methodology for bacterial detection using BacT/ALERT(r) is
      outlined. Laboratory tests, relevant patient details and relevant follow-up
      information are analysed. RESULTS: In all three cases, Staphylococcus aureus was
      isolated from the platelet residue and confirmed on terminal sub-culture using
      BacT/ALERT(r) . In two cases, S. aureus with similar genetic makeup was isolated
      from the donors. CONCLUSION: Risk reduction measures for bacterial contamination
      of platelet components are not always effective. Automated bacterial culture
      detection does not eliminate the risk of bacterial contamination. Visual
      inspection of platelet components prior to release, issue and administration
      remains an important last line of defence.

PMID- 28875550
TI  - Outcomes of endovascular treatment for acute large-vessel ischaemic stroke more
      than 6 h after symptom onset.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Benefit from endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) for large
      vessel occlusion (LVO) acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) is well demonstrated.
      Furthermore, emerging evidence supports efficacy in appropriately selected
      patients treated beyond current recommendations of 6 h. We evaluated clinical
      outcomes in patients undergoing late EVT at our institution. METHODS:
      Retrospective review of prospectively collected clinical database on 355 patients
      who underwent EVT for LVO AIS. Data collected consisted of patient demographics,
      radiological findings and outcome details. Outcomes, including 90-day functional
      status, recanalization, symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (sICH) and 90-day
      mortality, for patients undergoing EVT <6 h, >6 h, and >7.3 h, were compared.
      RESULTS: A total of 355 patients underwent EVT for LVO AIS at our institution
      during the review period, with 74 (21%) patients treated >=6 h from symptom
      onset. Successful recanalization was achieved in 285 (80%) patients, with 228
      (81%) achieving a mTICI >=2b in the <6 h group, and 57 (77%) in the >6 h group (P
      = 0.429). Ninety-day functional independence (mRS 0-2) was achieved in 162 (46%)
      patients, with 130 (46%) achieving a mRS of 0-2 in the <6 h group, and 32 (43%)
      in the >6 h group (P = 0.643). No significant differences were found in rates of
      sICH or 90-day mortality. No significant differences in functional independence,
      recanalization rates, sICH or mortality were identified in patients treated with
      EVT >7.3 h compared to <7.3 h. CONCLUSIONS: In appropriately selected patients,
      EVT >6 h was associated with comparable outcomes to those treated <6 h. These
      data support a physiological approach to patient selection.

PMID- 28875549
TI  - The contribution of toll-like receptor signaling to the development of liver
      fibrosis and cancer in hepatocyte-specific TAK1-deleted mice.
AB  - Hepatocyte death is associated with liver inflammation, fibrosis and
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Damaged cells trigger inflammation through
      activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Although the role of TLR4 in HCC
      development has been reported, the role of TLR9 in the development of HCC remains
      elusive. To investigate the role of TLR4 and TLR9 signaling in liver inflammation
      fibrosis-cancer axis, we took advantage of mice with hepatic deletion of
      transforming growth factor-beta-activated kinase 1 (Tak1DeltaHep) that develop
      spontaneous liver injury, inflammation, fibrosis, and HCC, recapitulating the
      pathology of human HCC. We generated double knockout mice lacking genes of our
      interest with hepatic Tak1. Tak1DeltaHep mice and Tlr4-deficient Tak1DeltaHep
      mice had similar serum ALT levels, but Tlr4-deficient Tak1DeltaHep mice exhibited
      significantly reduced macrophage infiltration, myofibroblast activation and tumor
      formation. Ablation of TLR9 reduced spontaneous liver injury, inflammation,
      fibrosis, and cancer development in Tak1DeltaHep mice. In addition, the common
      adaptor, myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88)-deficient Tak1DeltaHep mice
      also attenuated liver injury, macrophage recruitment, collagen deposition, and
      tumor growth compared with control Tak1DeltaHep mice. Genetic ablation of TNF
      receptor type I (TNFR) in Tak1DeltaHep mice remarkably reduced liver inflammation
      fibrosis-cancer axis. Surprisingly, disruption of interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R)
      had no effect on liver injury and tumor formation, although Il1r-deficient
      Tak1DeltaHep showed attenuated macrophage infiltration and collagen deposition.
      In conclusion, TLR4- and TLR9-MyD88 are driving forces of progression to HCC
      accompanied by liver inflammation and fibrosis in Tak1DeltaHep mice. Importantly,
      TLR4 and TLR9 downstream TNFR, but not IL-1R signaling is crucial for the
      development of HCC in Tak1DeltaHep mice.

PMID- 28875551
TI  - Lung field segmentation using weighted sparse shape composition with robust
      initialization.
AB  - PURPOSE: Lung field segmentation for chest radiography is critical to pulmonary
      disease diagnosis. In this paper, we propose a new deformable model using
      weighted sparse shape composition with robust initialization to achieve robust
      and accurate lung field segmentation. METHODS: Our method consists of three
      steps: initialization, deformation and regularization. The steps of deformation
      and regularization are iteratively employed until convergence. First, since a
      deformable model is sensitive to the initial shape, a robust initialization is
      obtained by using a novel voting strategy, which allows the reliable patches on
      the image to vote for each landmark of the initial shape. Then, each point of the
      initial shape independently deforms to the lung boundary under the guidance of
      the appearance model, which can distinguish lung tissues from nonlung tissues
      near the boundary. Finally, the deformed shape is regularized by weighted sparse
      shape composition (SSC) model, which is constrained by both boundary information
      and the correlations between each point of the deformed shape. RESULTS: Our
      method has been evaluated on 247 chest radiographs from well-known dataset
      Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT) and achieved high overlap
      scores (0.955 +/- 0.021). CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results show that the
      proposed deformable segmentation model is more robust and accurate than the
      traditional appearance and shape model on the JSRT database. Our method also
      shows higher accuracy than most state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28875552
TI  - Diphenyl-2-pyridylamine-Substituted Porphyrins as Hole-Transporting Materials for
      Perovskite Solar Cells.
AB  - The susceptibility of porphyrin derivatives to light-harvesting and charge
      transport operations have enabled these materials to be employed in solar cell
      applications. The potential of porphyrin derivatives as hole-transporting
      materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has recently been
      demonstrated, but knowledge of the relationships between the porphyrin structure
      and device performance remains insufficient. In this work, a series of novel zinc
      porphyrin (PZn) derivatives has been developed and employed as HTMs for low
      temperature processed PSCs. Key to the design strategy is the incorporation of an
      electron-deficient pyridine moiety to down-shift the HOMO levels of porphyrin
      HTMs. The porphyrin HTMs incorporating diphenyl-2-pyridylamine (DPPA) have HOMO
      levels that are in good agreement with the perovskite active layers, thus
      facilitating hole transfers from the perovskite to the HTMs. The DPPA-containing
      zinc porphyrin-based PSCs gave the best performance, with efficiency levels
      comparable to those of PSCs using spiro-OMeTAD, a current state-of-the-art HTM.
      In particular, PZn-DPPA-based PSCs show superior air stability, in both doped and
      undoped forms, to spiro-OMeTAD based devices.

PMID- 28875555
TI  - Midazolam vs diazepam in prolonged seizures in children: A pharmacoeconomic
      approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A previous European cost-utility study reported that use of buccal
      midazolam in the community setting for the treatment of prolonged seizures (ie,
      seizures lasting >=5 minutes) in children was associated with an overall ?12 507
      399 reduction in annual costs charged to the Italian national health service
      compared with rectal diazepam. We re-evaluated these findings by applying a more
      conservative approach. METHODS: The Italian Delphi panel reconvened to apply a
      more conservative assessment of available reports. A decision-tree model was
      used, allowing for different treatment pathways depending on whether or not a
      caregiver administers treatment, an ambulance is required for transport of the
      child to hospital, and an inpatient stay is required. Direct medical costs were
      derived from Italian healthcare system data. Estimates of the annual number of
      prolonged tonic-clonic seizures expected in the country were based on studies
      which assessed seizure duration using video-EEG recordings and medical records.
      RESULTS: Although drug acquisition costs were greater for buccal midazolam than
      for rectal diazepam, the acquisition cost difference was outweighed by larger
      cost savings resulting mostly from a reduction in hospital admissions. Assuming
      that 1.2% of tonic and/or clonic seizures occurring in children and adolescents
      over a 12-month period are prolonged, the annual nationwide reduction in costs
      from preferring buccal midazolam to rectal diazepam was estimated at ?3 577
      587.9. CONCLUSIONS: In this more conservative revised analysis, the high cost of
      buccal midazolam is still counteracted by greater cost savings compared with
      rectal diazepam, but cost reduction was less than previously estimated.

PMID- 28875554
TI  - Histochemical features of aluminum chloride histiocytic reaction and the use of
      PAS stain to provide a clue to prior subtle biopsy sites.

PMID- 28875553
TI  - Human brain imaging of nicotinic acetylcholine alpha4beta2* receptors using [18
      F]Nifene: Selectivity, functional activity, toxicity, aging effects, gender
      effects, and extrathalamic pathways.
AB  - Nicotinic acetylcholinergic receptors (nAChR's) have been implicated in several
      brain disorders, including addiction, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease
      and schizophrenia. Here we report in vitro selectivity and functional properties,
      toxicity in rats, in vivo evaluation in humans, and comparison across species of
      [18 F]Nifene, a fast acting PET imaging agent for alpha4beta2* nAChRs. Nifene had
      subnanomolar affinities for halpha2beta2 (0.34 nM), halpha3beta2 (0.80 nM) and
      halpha4beta2 (0.83 nM) nAChR but weaker (27-219 nM) for hbeta4 nAChR subtypes and
      169 nM for halpha7 nAChR. In functional assays, Nifene (100 MUM) exhibited 14%
      agonist and >50% antagonist characteristics. In 14-day acute toxicity in rats,
      the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL)
      were estimated to exceed 40 MUg/kg/day (278 MUg/m2 /day). In human PET studies,
      [18 F]Nifene (185 MBq; <0.10 MUg) was well tolerated with no adverse effects.
      Distribution volume ratios (DVR) of [18 F]Nifene in white matter thalamic
      radiations were ~1.6 (anterior) and ~1.5 (superior longitudinal fasciculus).
      Habenula known to contain alpha3beta2 nAChR exhibited low levels of [18 F]Nifene
      binding while the red nucleus with alpha2beta2 nAChR had DVR ~1.6-1.7. Females
      had higher [18 F]Nifene binding in all brain regions, with thalamus showing >15%
      than males. No significant aging effect was observed in [18 F]Nifene binding over
      5 decades. In all species (mice, rats, monkeys, and humans) thalamus showed
      highest [18 F]Nifene binding with reference region ratios >2 compared to
      extrathalamic regions. Our findings suggest that [18 F]Nifene PET may be used to
      study alpha4beta2* nAChRs in various CNS disorders and for translational
      research.

PMID- 28875556
TI  - Melatonin alleviates weanling stress in mice: Involvement of intestinal
      microbiota.
AB  - Melatonin influences intestinal microbiota and the pathogenesis of various
      diseases. This study was conducted to explore whether melatonin alleviates
      weanling stress through intestinal microbiota in a weanling mouse model.
      Melatonin supplementation in weanling mice (provided in the drinking water at a
      dosage of 0.2 mg/mL for 2 weeks) significantly improved body weight gain (1.4 +/-
      0.03 g/day in melatonin group vs 1.2 +/- 0.06 g/day in control group) and
      intestinal morphology (ie, villus length, crypt depth, and villus to crypt
      ratio), but had little effect on the proliferation or apoptosis of intestinal
      cells, the numbers of Paneth cells and goblet cells, as well as the expression of
      makers related to enterocytes (sucrase) and endocrine cells (chromogranin A and
      peptide YY) in the ileum. Melatonin supplementation had little effect on serum
      levels of amino acids or stress-related parameters (eg, SOD, TNF-alpha, and
      angiotensin I). 16S rRNA sequencing suggested that melatonin supplementation
      increased the richness indices of intestinal microbiota (observed species, Chao
      1, and ACE) and shaped the composition of intestinal microbiota (eg, increase in
      the abundance of Lactobacillus [19 +/- 3% in melatonin group vs 6 +/- 2% in
      control group]), which was demonstrated using an ex vivo proliferation assay and
      colonic loop proliferation assay. Melatonin supplementation also significantly
      influenced the metabolism of intestinal microbiota, such as amino acid metabolism
      and drug metabolism. More importantly, in antibiotic-treated weanling mice and
      germ-free weanling mice, melatonin failed to affect body weight gain or
      intestinal morphology. Melatonin significantly reduced (by about 60%) the
      bacterial load in enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC)-infected weanling mice,
      but had little effect on ETEC load in antibiotic-pretreated animals. In
      conclusion, melatonin affects body weight gain, intestinal morphology, and
      intestinal ETEC infection through intestinal microbiota in weanling mice. The
      findings highlight the importance of intestinal microbiota in mediating the
      various physiological functions of melatonin in the host.

PMID- 28875558
TI  - Spinal Cord Stimulator Explantation: Motives for Removal of Surgically Placed
      Paddle Systems.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite requiring successful trials prior to implantation, spinal
      cord stimulation (SCS) systems for pain are often later removed. Removing
      surgically implanted hardware subjects patients to the risks and discomfort of a
      second surgery, threatens the cost-effectiveness of SCS, and limits the perceived
      durability of SCS technology for pain problems. OBJECTIVE: To investigate
      patterns of reasons given among patients who underwent SCS explant surgery
      (SCSES). METHODS: Retrospective review of SCSES cases over 17 years at Allegheny
      General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA. RESULTS: 165 patients underwent SCSES between
      1997 and 2014. The top 3 reasons for explantation were inadequate pain control
      (IPC; 73%), hardware discomfort (22%), and need for magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) (10%). Other less frequent reasons were infection (9%), painful
      dysesthesias (9%), electrical arcing (4%), resolution of inciting symptoms (4%),
      weakness (2%), pseudomeningocele (1%) and muscle spasms (1%). CONCLUSION:
      Inadequate pain control is the most common reason for SCSES. Advances in
      technology are needed to improve the quality and duration of pain control, as
      well as to design improvements to make the hardware more comfortable. A
      significant number of implants are removed due to need for MRI, a fact obviating
      the need for MRI-compatible systems. Patients considering SCS paddle lead
      placement should be counseled on the most common reasons for later explantation.

PMID- 28875557
TI  - Establishing core mental health workforce attributes for the effective mental
      health care of people with an intellectual disability and co-occurring mental ill
      health.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disability experience high rates of mental
      ill health but multiple barriers to access to quality mental health care. One
      significant barrier to access is a generalist mental health workforce that lacks
      capacity, and consensus on what constitutes core workforce competencies in this
      area. As such, the first step in developing a comprehensive strategy that
      addresses these barriers is to define the core mental health workforce
      attributes. METHODS: Thirty-six intellectual disability mental health experts
      from across Australia participated in a modified online Delphi which aimed to
      reach consensus on the core attributes required of the generalist mental health
      workforce. At the end of each Delphi round, descriptive analyses and thematic
      analyses were completed. RESULTS: Consensus was reached among the participants
      for 102 attributes across 14 clinical domains. The results highlighted specific
      attributes in all areas of clinical practice, especially for communication (e.g.,
      utilizes assistive communication technology), assessment (e.g., assess
      contributing factors to behaviours) and intervention (e.g., uses integrative
      interventions). CONCLUSION: A comprehensive strategy is required to facilitate
      the generalist mental health workforce to obtain these attributes.

PMID- 28875560
TI  - Not changes in membrane fluidity but proteotoxic stress triggers heat shock
      protein expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
AB  - A conserved reaction of all organisms exposed to heat stress is an increased
      expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs). Several studies have proposed that HSP
      expression in heat-stressed plant cells is triggered by an increased fluidity of
      the plasma membrane. Among the main lines of evidence in support of this model
      are as follows: (a) the degree of membrane lipid saturation was higher in cells
      grown at elevated temperatures and correlated with a lower amplitude of HSP
      expression upon a temperature upshift, (b) membrane fluidizers induce HSP
      expression at physiological temperatures, and (c) membrane rigidifier
      dimethylsulfoxide dampens heat-induced HSP expression. Here, we tested whether
      this holds also for Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We show that heat-induced HSP
      expression in cells grown at elevated temperatures was reduced because they
      already contained elevated levels of cytosolic HSP70A/90A that apparently act as
      negative regulators of heat shock factor 1. We find that membrane rigidifier
      dimethylsulfoxide impaired translation under heat stress conditions and that
      membrane fluidizer benzyl alcohol not only induced HSP expression but also caused
      protein aggregation. These findings support the classical model for the cytosolic
      unfolded protein response, according to which HSP expression is induced by the
      accumulation of unfolded proteins. Hence, the membrane fluidity model should be
      reconsidered.

PMID- 28875559
TI  - Alginate hydrogels of varied molecular weight distribution enable sustained
      release of sphingosine-1-phosphate and promote angiogenesis.
AB  - Alginate hydrogels have been widely validated for controlled release of growth
      factors and cytokines, but studies exploring sustained release of small
      hydrophobic lipids are lacking. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a bioactive lipid,
      is an appealing small molecule for inducing blood vessel formation in the context
      of ischemic conditions. However, there are numerous biological and engineering
      challenges associated with designing biomaterial systems for controlled release
      of this lipid. Thus, the objective of this study was to design an injectable,
      alginate hydrogel formulation that provides controlled release of S1P to
      establish locally sustained concentration gradients that promote
      neovascularization. Herein, we varied the molecular weight distribution of
      alginate polymers within the hydrogel to alter the resultant mechanical
      properties in a manner that provides control over S1P release. With increasing
      high molecular weight (HMW) content, the hydrogels exhibited stiffer material
      properties and released S1P at slower rates. Accordingly, S1P released from
      hydrogels with 100% HMW content led to enhanced directed migration of outgrowth
      endothelial cells and blood vessel development assessed using a chick
      chorioallantoic membrane assay as compared to hydrogels with less HMW content.
      Overall, this study describes how alginate hydrogels of varied molecular weight
      may be used to control S1P release kinetics for therapeutic applications. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 138-146, 2018.

PMID- 28875561
TI  - Enhanced peripheral nerve regeneration through asymmetrically porous nerve guide
      conduit with nerve growth factor gradient.
AB  - In this study, we fabricated a nerve guide conduit (NGC) with nerve growth factor
      (NGF) gradient along the longitudinal direction by rolling a porous
      polycaprolactone membrane with NGF concentration gradient. The NGF immobilized on
      the membrane was continuously released for up to 35 days, and the released amount
      of the NGF from the membrane gradually increased from the proximal to distal NGF
      ends, which may allow a neurotrophic factor gradient in the tubular NGC for a
      sufficient period. From the in vitro cell culture experiment, it was observed
      that the PC12 cells sense the NGF concentration gradient on the membrane for the
      cell proliferation and differentiation. From the in vivo animal experiment using
      a long gap (20 mm) sciatic nerve defect model of rats, the NGC with NGF
      concentration gradient allowed more rapid nerve regeneration through the NGC than
      the NGC itself and NGC immobilized with uniformly distributed NGF. The NGC with
      NGF concentration gradient seems to be a promising strategy for the peripheral
      nerve regeneration. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A:
      106A: 52-64, 2018.

PMID- 28875562
TI  - A new composite hydrogel combining the biological properties of collagen with the
      mechanical properties of a supramolecular scaffold for bone tissue engineering.
AB  - Tissue engineering is a promising alternative to autografts, allografts, or
      biomaterials to address the treatment of severe and large bone lesions.
      Classically, tissue engineering products associate a scaffold and cells and are
      implanted or injected into the lesion. These cells must be embedded in an
      appropriate biocompatible scaffold, which offers a favourable environment for
      their survival and differentiation. Here, we designed a composite hydrogel
      composed of collagen I, an extracellular matrix protein widely used in several
      therapeutic applications, which we associated with a physical hydrogel generated
      from a synthetic small amphiphilic molecule. This composite showed improved
      mechanical and biological characteristics as compared with gels obtained from
      each separate compound. Incorporation of the physical hydrogel prevented
      shrinkage of collagen and cell diffusion out of the gel and yielded a gel with a
      higher elastic modulus than those of gels obtained with each component alone. The
      composite hydrogel allowed cell adhesion and proliferation in vitro and long-term
      cell survival in vivo. Moreover, it promoted the differentiation of human adipose
      derived stem cells in the absence of any osteogenic factors. In vivo, cells
      embedded in the composite gel and injected subcutaneously in immunodeficient mice
      produced lamellar osteoid tissue and differentiated into osteoblasts. This study
      points this new composite hydrogel as a promising scaffold for bone tissue
      engineering applications.

PMID- 28875563
TI  - Theoretical and experimental ethics: advocacy for blood donors and beneficiaries
      of blood transfusions.

PMID- 28875564
TI  - Fluorescent Organic Nanoaggregates for Selective Recognition of d-(-)-Ribose in
      Biological Fluids and Oral Supplements.
AB  - Easily synthesizable, fluorescent, organic nanoaggregates have been utilized, for
      the first time, in the selective recognition of d-(-)-ribose at pH 5.5 in water.
      In the self-assembled form, the reactive sites of the monomer units can be
      properly organized to form an effective "recognition cleft" for ribose (limit of
      detection ~23 MUm), in which binding mainly occurs through a combination of
      hydrogen-bonding and CH???pi interactions. The degree of agglomeration shows a
      profound influence on the extent of ribose sensing. A reduction in the optical
      response (~1.8-fold) is observed when ribose is allowed to interact with
      nanoaggregates of smaller dimensions (a decrease in the hydrodynamic diameter
      from (~212.7+/-10.2) to (~44.6+/-3.5) nm). The protocol is also utilized for the
      estimation of ribose in human urine samples and oral supplements. Low-cost paper
      strips have also been developed for rapid, on-site detection of ribose without
      involving any sophisticated instruments or skilled personnel.

PMID- 28875567
TI  - Influence of neighboring plants on the dynamics of an ant-acacia protection
      mutualism.
AB  - Ant-plant protection symbioses, in which plants provide food and/or shelter for
      ants in exchange for protection from herbivory, are model systems for
      understanding the ecology of mutualism. While interactions between ants, host
      plants, and herbivores have been intensively studied, we know little about how
      plant-plant interactions influence the dynamics of these mutualisms, despite
      strong evidence that plants compete for resources, that hosting ants can be
      costly, and that host-plant provisioning to ants can therefore be constrained by
      resource availability. We used field experiments in a semiarid Kenyan savanna to
      examine interactions between the ant-plant Acacia drepanolobium, neighboring
      grasses, and two species of symbiotic acacia-ants with divergent behaviors:
      Crematogaster mimosae, an aggressive symbiont that imposes high costs to host
      trees via consumption of extrafloral nectar, and Tetraponera penzigi, a less
      protective symbiont that imposes lower costs because it does not consume nectar.
      We hypothesized that by competing with acacias for resources, neighboring grasses
      (1) reduce hosts' ability to support costly C. mimosae, while having little or no
      effect on the ability of hosts to support low-cost T. penzigi, and (2) reduce
      sapling growth rates irrespective of ant occupant. We factorially manipulated the
      presence/absence of grasses and the identity of ant occupants on saplings and
      evaluated effects on colony survivorship and sapling growth rates over 40 weeks.
      Contrary to prediction, the high-cost/high-reward nectar-dependent mutualist C.
      mimosae had higher colony-survival rates on saplings with grass neighbors
      present. Grasses appear to have indirectly facilitated the survival of C. mimosae
      by reducing water stress on host plants; soils under saplings shaded by grasses
      had higher moisture content, and these saplings produced more active nectaries
      than grass-removal saplings. Consistent with prediction, survival of low-cost/low
      reward T. penzigi did not differ significantly between grass-removal treatments.
      Saplings occupied by low-cost/low-reward T. penzigi grew 100% more on average
      than saplings occupied by high-cost/high-reward C. mimosae, demonstrating that
      mutualist-partner identity strongly and differentially influences demographic
      rates of young plants. In contrast, contrary to prediction, grass neighbors had
      no significant net impact on sapling growth rates. Our results suggest that
      neighboring plants can exert strong and counterintuitive effects on ant-plant
      protection symbioses, highlighting the need to integrate plant-plant interactions
      into our understanding of these mutualisms.

PMID- 28875566
TI  - Structure and development of the subesophageal zone of the Drosophila brain. II.
      Sensory compartments.
AB  - The subesophageal zone (SEZ) of the Drosophila brain processes mechanosensory and
      gustatory sensory input from sensilla located on the head, mouth cavity and
      trunk. Motor output from the SEZ directly controls the movements involved in
      feeding behavior. In an accompanying paper (Hartenstein et al., ), we analyzed
      the systems of fiber tracts and secondary lineages to establish reliable criteria
      for defining boundaries between the four neuromeres of the SEZ, as well as
      discrete longitudinal neuropil domains within each SEZ neuromere. Here we use
      this anatomical framework to systematically map the sensory projections entering
      the SEZ throughout development. Our findings show continuity between larval and
      adult sensory neuropils. Gustatory axons from internal and external taste
      sensilla of the larva and adult form two closely related sensory projections, (a)
      the anterior central sensory center located deep in the ventromedial neuropil of
      the tritocerebrum and mandibular neuromere, and (b) the anterior ventral sensory
      center (AVSC), occupying a superficial layer within the ventromedial
      tritocerebrum. Additional, presumed mechanosensory terminal axons entering via
      the labial nerve define the ventromedial sensory center (VMSC) in the maxilla and
      labium. Mechanosensory afferents of the massive array of chordotonal organs
      (Johnston's organ) of the adult antenna project into the centrolateral neuropil
      column of the anterior SEZ, creating the antenno-mechanosensory and motor center
      (AMMC). Dendritic projections of dye back-filled motor neurons extend throughout
      a ventral layer of the SEZ, overlapping widely with the AVSC and VMSC. Our
      findings elucidate fundamental structural aspects of the developing sensory
      systems in Drosophila.

PMID- 28875565
TI  - Predicting the risk of cancer after unprovoked venous thromboembolism: external
      validation of the RIETE score.
AB  - : Essentials Patients at high-risk of occult cancer may benefit from extensive
      screening. We validated the RIETE cancer score in the MVTEP study. One in three
      patients were classified as high-risk, 10% of whom had cancer diagnosed. The
      RIETE score identifies a subgroup at high risk for cancer. SUMMARY: Background
      Most recent trials evaluating extensive screening strategies for occult cancer in
      patients with unprovoked venous thromboembolism have failed, because, among other
      reasons, of an overall low rate of occult cancer. The RIETE investigators
      recently proposed a score aimed at identifying a subgroup at higher risk. Methods
      We retrospectively computed the RIETE score for all patients included in the
      MVTEP study, which evaluated the accuracy of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-positron
      emission tomography in the screening of occult cancer in patients with unprovoked
      venous thromboembolism. Performance of the RIETE score was assessed according to
      the proportion of patients classified in each risk group, and the corresponding
      rates of cancer diagnosis. Results Among the 386 patients included in the
      analysis, 136 patients (35.3%) were classified as high risk by the RIETE score.
      Cancer was diagnosed in 16 (11.8%) of them, whereas it was diagnosed in nine
      (3.6%) of the 250 patients with a low RIETE cancer score: odds ratio of 3.6 (95%
      confidence interval [CI] 1.53-8.32). The area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve was 0.63 (95% CI 0.51-0.74). Conclusion The RIETE score
      seems to be able to identify a subgroup at high risk for cancer (10%) in our
      specific dataset of patients with unprovoked venous thromboembolism.

PMID- 28875568
TI  - Gene Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinases and their Inhibitors (TIMPs) in
      Meningiomas of Dogs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of
      metalloproteinases (TIMPs) are considered to be key mediators of tumor invasion
      and metastasis. MMP-2 and MMP-9 are expressed in meningiomas of dogs, but TIMP
      expression, and variations of specific MMP/TIMP ratios still are unknown in this
      tumor. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Expression of MMP/TIMP might increase progressively
      from grade I to grade III meningioma. Therefore, genetic expression of MMP-2 and
      MMP-9, and specific TIMP-2 and TIMP-1, respectively, has been investigated in
      meningiomas of different grades. ANIMALS: Selected formalin-fixed paraffin
      embedded tissue from 43 meningiomas of dogs was evaluated. METHODS: Genetic
      material was obtained from pathologic samples and used for quantitative reverse
      transcriptase real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). RESULTS: MMP-9 was
      not expressed in all of the tumors, but MMP-2 was significantly more expressed in
      papillary meningioma. Likewise, the MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio was numerically higher in
      papillary meningiomas compared to all grades (>3.5 times) showing a strong bias
      in favor of metalloproteinase. In the papillary meningioma, TIMP-1 gene
      expression was significantly higher than in grades I and III. CONCLUSIONS AND
      CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: MMP-2/TIMP-2 imbalance might contribute to the aggressive
      biologic behavior of papillary meningiomas in dogs. TIMP-1 expression may play a
      role independent of MMP-9 expression in neoplastic progression. These results
      further support that therapeutic and prognostic evaluations of dogs with
      meningioma need to be addressed according to different histologic patterns as is
      performed in humans.

PMID- 28875569
TI  - Group-Based Trajectory Models: Assessing Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication
      in Older Adults in a Community Pharmacy Setting.
AB  - Antihypertensive medication nonadherence is highly prevalent, leading to
      uncontrolled blood pressure. Methods that facilitate the targeting and tailoring
      of adherence interventions in clinical settings are required. Group-Based
      Trajectory Modeling (GBTM) is a newer method to evaluate adherence using pharmacy
      dispensing (refill) data that has advantages over traditional refill adherence
      metrics (e.g. Proportion of Days Covered) by identifying groups of patients who
      may benefit from adherence interventions, and identifying patterns of adherence
      behavior over time that may facilitate tailoring of an adherence intervention. We
      evaluated adherence to antihypertensive medication in 905 patients over a 12
      month period in a community pharmacy setting using GBTM, identifying three
      subgroups of adherence patterns: 52.8%, 40.7%, and 6.5% had very high, high, and
      low adherence, respectively. However, GBTM failed to demonstrate predictive
      validity with blood pressure at 12 months. Further research on the validity of
      adherence measures that facilitate interventions in clinical settings is
      required.

PMID- 28875570
TI  - Is a slow-progression baked milk protocol of oral immunotherapy always a safe
      option for children with cow's milk allergy? A randomized controlled trial.

PMID- 28875571
TI  - Crosslinked basement membrane-based coatings enhance glucose sensor function and
      continuous glucose monitoring in vivo.
AB  - Overcoming sensor-induced tissue reactions is an essential element of achieving
      successful continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in the management of diabetes,
      particularly when used in closed loop technology. Recently, we demonstrated that
      basement membrane (BM)-based glucose sensor coatings significantly reduced tissue
      reactions at sites of device implantation. However, the biocompatible BM-based
      biohydrogel sensor coating rapidly degraded over a less than a 3-week period,
      which effectively eliminated the protective sensor coating. In an effort to
      increase the stability and effectiveness of the BM coating, we evaluated the
      impact of crosslinking BM utilizing glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent,
      designated as X-Cultrex. Sensor performance (nonrecalibrated) was evaluated for
      the impact of these X-Cultrex coatings in vitro and in vivo. Sensor performance
      was assessed over a 28-day time period in a murine CGM model and expressed as
      mean absolute relative difference (MARD) values. Tissue reactivity of Cultrex
      coated, X-Cultrex-coated, and uncoated glucose sensors was evaluated over a 28
      day time period in vivo using standard histological techniques. These studies
      demonstrated that X-Cultrex-based sensor coatings had no effect on glucose sensor
      function in vitro. In vivo, glucose sensor performance was significantly enhanced
      following X-Cultrex coating throughout the 28-day study. Histological evaluations
      of X-Cultrex-treated sensors demonstrated significantly less tissue reactivity
      when compared to uncoated sensors. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed
      Mater Res Part A: 106A: 7-16, 2018.

PMID- 28875572
TI  - Hybrid 3D Printing of Soft Electronics.
AB  - Hybrid 3D printing is a new method for producing soft electronics that combines
      direct ink writing of conductive and dielectric elastomeric materials with
      automated pick-and-place of surface mount electronic components within an
      integrated additive manufacturing platform. Using this approach, insulating
      matrix and conductive electrode inks are directly printed in specific layouts.
      Passive and active electrical components are then integrated to produce the
      desired electronic circuitry by using an empty nozzle (in vacuum-on mode) to pick
      up individual components, place them onto the substrate, and then deposit them
      (in vacuum-off mode) in the desired location. The components are then
      interconnected via printed conductive traces to yield soft electronic devices
      that may find potential application in wearable electronics, soft robotics, and
      biomedical devices.

PMID- 28875573
TI  - People with intellectual disabilities at the end of their lives: The case for
      specialist care?
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disabilities have a shorter life expectancy,
      but healthcare improvements mean that they are beginning to live longer, with
      associated health difficulties. This means that there is an urgent need to focus
      research on ageing as well as end-of-life care. This study aimed to explore a
      specialist intellectual disability service for older people who are dying and how
      it related to their quality of life and to costs associated with care provided.
      METHOD: Data were collected for nine residents and 15 staff members of the
      specialist service. A single case study design with mixed methods including
      observations, interviews, standardized questionnaires and costs analysis was
      utilized. RESULTS: We found positive results regarding overall quality of life,
      although individuals had limited social networks. Placement fees paid by local
      health trusts and social services departments were slightly higher than the
      estimated cost of care reflecting good financial management by a small voluntary
      sector organization. CONCLUSION: Whilst the philosophical arguments around
      "specialist" care persist, this service fills a gap in intellectual disability
      care provision.

PMID- 28875574
TI  - RGD-functionalized polyethylene glycol hydrogels support proliferation and in
      vitro chondrogenesis of human periosteum-derived cells.
AB  - The combination of progenitor cells with appropriate scaffolds and in vitro
      culture regimes is a promising area of research in bone and cartilage tissue
      engineering. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), when encapsulated within hydrogels
      composed of the necessary cues and/or preconditioned using suitable culture
      conditions, have been shown to differentiate into bone or cartilage. Here, we
      utilized human periosteum-derived cells (hPDCs), a progenitor cell population
      with MSC characteristics, paired with protease-degradable, functionalized
      polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels to create tissue-engineered constructs. The
      objective of this study was to investigate the effects of scaffold composition,
      exploring the addition of the cell-binding motif Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic Acid
      (RGD), in combination with various in vitro culture conditions on the
      proliferation, chondrogenic gene expression, and matrix production of
      encapsulated hPDCs. In growth medium, the hPDCs in the RGD-functionalized
      hydrogels maintained high levels of viability and demonstrated an enhanced
      proliferation when compared with hPDCs in non-functionalized hydrogels.
      Additionally, the RGD-containing hydrogels promoted higher glycosaminoglycan
      (GAG) synthesis and chondrogenic gene expression of the encapsulated hPDCs, as
      opposed to the non-functionalized constructs, when cultured in two different
      chondrogenic media. These results demonstrate the potential of hPDCs in
      combination with enzymatically degradable PEG hydrogels functionalized with
      adhesion ligands for cartilage regenerative applications. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 33-42, 2018.

PMID- 28875575
TI  - Can weight gain be prevented in women receiving treatment for breast cancer? A
      systematic review of intervention studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity and weight gain have been associated with poor disease
      specific and health-related outcomes in women with breast cancer. OBJECTIVES:
      This review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of weight gain prevention
      interventions among women with breast cancer. METHODS: Completed and ongoing
      trials evaluating a behaviourally based dietary intervention with or without
      physical activity and with a focus on weight gain prevention during treatment for
      breast cancer were reviewed. Weight change and body composition data were
      extracted. Within-group weight change of +/-1 kg and between-group (intervention
      versus control) weight difference of >=2 kg were defined as successful weight
      gain prevention. RESULTS: Five completed trials (seven intervention arms) and
      five ongoing trials were identified. Completed trials exclusively recruited
      premenopausal or premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Within-group weight gain
      was prevented in two intervention arms, two arms achieved weight loss and three
      arms reported weight gain. Of the five comparisons with control groups, two
      reported significant differences in weight change between groups. Ongoing trials
      will provide further evidence on longer-term outcomes, cost-effectiveness and
      blood markers. CONCLUSION: This small but growing number of studies provides
      preliminary and promising evidence that weight gain can be prevented in women
      with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy.

PMID- 28875576
TI  - Moral foundations, worldviews, moral absolutism and belief in conspiracy
      theories.
AB  - In the present research, we examined whether individual differences in basic
      moral concerns might be related to a greater endorsement of conspiracy theories.
      Building on the notion that conspiracy theories often deal with super-individual
      relevant events in which a group perspective is central, we proposed that
      individual differences in moral concerns pertaining to group- and community
      concerns (i.e., binding moral foundations) rather than to individual well-being
      (i.e., individualising moral foundations) would be positively associated with
      conspiracy beliefs. We further hypothesised that such relations would be totally
      mediated by beliefs in a dangerous world and by embracing moral absolutism. We
      found support for these predictions in two community samples (Ns: 319; 514).
      Theoretical implications were discussed.

PMID- 28875577
TI  - Biocompatibility assessment of cyclic olefin copolymers: Impact of two additives
      on cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammatory reactions, and hemocompatibility.
AB  - This work reports the biocompatibility evaluation of cyclic olefin copolymers
      (COC) as candidates for implantable medical devices. The focus was to establish
      the influence of two major additives (antioxidant and lubricant) on the overall
      biocompatibility. The cytotoxicity was evaluated according to ISO 10993-5
      guidelines using L929 fibroblasts, HUVEC, and THP-1-derived macrophages.
      Oxidative stress (ROS, GSH/GSSG, and SOD analysis) and pro-inflammatory cytokines
      (Il-6 and TNF-alpha secretion) were quantified using THP-1 cells in direct
      contact with films. Hemocompatibility was assessed through haemolysis testing,
      dynamic blood coagulation, platelet adhesion, and activation (membranous P
      selectin expression). Results show that the different types of COC have
      successfully passed the in vitro biocompatibility tests. The presence of
      antioxidant induces however a slight decrease in ROS production in correlation
      with a high SOD activity and a modification in blood coagulation profile probably
      linked to antioxidant recrystallization phenomenon on the surface of COC. The
      lubricant presence reduced haemolysis, fibrinogen adhesion, and platelet
      activation. Surface nanotopography of COC highlights different types of needles
      and globules according to the present additive. Those primary results indicate
      that COC are promising biomaterial. However, additives influenced some biological
      parameters pointing out the necessity of a global approach of risk analysis for
      biocompatibility evaluation. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res
      Part A: 105A: 3333-3349, 2017.

PMID- 28875578
TI  - Are tanning salons in compliance with German law? An evaluation based on a
      nationwide representative survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given the evidence for increased skin cancer risk due to the sunbed
      use, a regulation of hazardous artificial ultraviolet radiation (UVR regulation)
      was passed in Germany in 2012. The aim of this study was to explore the advisory
      services in tanning studios as reported by sunbed users and to evaluate the
      information provided by the personnel of tanning salons after the UVR regulation
      was enacted. METHODS: The first wave of the representative National Cancer Aid
      Monitoring on Sunbed Use included a subgroup of 357 German citizens between 14
      and 45 years who had used sunbeds since the UVR regulation was implemented. The
      participants provided data on sunbed use and related issues in telephone
      interviews. RESULTS: Although sunbed operators are mandated to offer their
      customers certain services at least once since the implementation of the UVR
      regulation, 15.4% of sunbed users were never advised to use protective eyewear
      during tanning and 13.1% were not provided with eyewear during their last sunbed
      use. Overall, 66.0% were never offered to develop a tanning schedule, 56.9% were
      never advised on the risks of UVR, 43.4% were never offered a determination of
      their skin type and 40.0% of users were never advised on how to use a sunbed
      safely. CONCLUSIONS: The data showed that 3 years after the UVR regulation was
      enacted, compliance with this legislation is still not optimal. Binding wording
      in the legal text and making them applicable to unsupervised sunbeds as well is
      necessary to extend the impact of this legislation.

PMID- 28875580
TI  - Silver-Sulfur Hybrid Supertetrahedral Clusters: The Hitherto Missing Members in
      the Metal-Chalcogenide Tetrahedral Clusters.
AB  - The synthesis of Group 11 metal chalcogenide supertetrahedral clusters (SCs)
      still remains a great challenge mainly due to the high tendency of metal
      aggregation through metallophilicity and global charge balance. Demonstrated
      herein are the preparation, crystallographic characterization, and optical
      properties of two stable silver-sulfur SCs through ligand-control; one as a
      discrete zero-dimensional (0D) V3,4-type cluster and the other as a one
      dimensional (1D) zigzag chain extended by alternating V3,2-type clusters. The
      notation Vn,m (where n is the number of metal layers, and m is the number of
      vacant corners) is used to describe a new series of vacant-corner SCs, which can
      be derived from the regular Tn clusters. The existence of vacant-corner-type SCs
      may be ascribed to the low valence and tri-coordinated environment of silver
      ions. These are the first representatives of structurally determined silver
      sulfur tetrahedral clusters thus far. This work enriches the coinage-metal
      chalcogenide tetrahedral cluster portfolio, discovers vacant-corner SCs present
      in silver-sulfur hybrid tetrahedral clusters, and provides effective means for
      further development of Group 11 coinage-metal chalcogenide SCs.

PMID- 28875579
TI  - A cardiac patch from aligned microvessel and cardiomyocyte patches.
AB  - Cardiac tissue engineering aims to produce replacement tissue patches in the lab
      to replace or treat infarcted myocardium. However, current patches lack preformed
      microvascularization and are therefore limited in thickness and force production.
      In this study, we sought to assess whether a bilayer patch composed of a layer
      made from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and a
      microvessel layer composed of self-assembled human blood outgrowth endothelial
      cells and pericytes was capable of engrafting on the epicardial surface of a nude
      rat infarct model and becoming perfused by the host 4 weeks after acute
      implantation. The bilayer configuration was found to increase the twitch force
      production, improve human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte
      survival and maturation, and increase patent microvessel lumens compared with
      time-matched single layer controls after 2 weeks of in vitro culture. Upon
      implantation, the patch microvessels sprouted into the cardiomyocyte layer of the
      patch and inosculated with the host vasculature as evidenced by species-specific
      perfusion labels and erythrocyte staining. Our results demonstrate that the added
      microvessel layer of a bilayer patch substantially improves in vitro
      functionality and that the bilayer patch is capable of engraftment with rapid
      microvessel inosculation on injured myocardium. The bilayer format will allow for
      scaling up in size through the addition of layers to obtain thicker tissues
      generating greater force in the future.

PMID- 28875581
TI  - European guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia.
AB  - This European guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia was developed
      by a task force of the European Sleep Research Society, with the aim of providing
      clinical recommendations for the management of adult patients with insomnia. The
      guideline is based on a systematic review of relevant meta-analyses published
      till June 2016. The target audience for this guideline includes all clinicians
      involved in the management of insomnia, and the target patient population
      includes adults with chronic insomnia disorder. The GRADE (Grading of
      Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) system was used to grade
      the evidence and guide recommendations. The diagnostic procedure for insomnia,
      and its co-morbidities, should include a clinical interview consisting of a sleep
      history (sleep habits, sleep environment, work schedules, circadian factors), the
      use of sleep questionnaires and sleep diaries, questions about somatic and mental
      health, a physical examination and additional measures if indicated (i.e. blood
      tests, electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram; strong recommendation, moderate-
      to high-quality evidence). Polysomnography can be used to evaluate other sleep
      disorders if suspected (i.e. periodic limb movement disorder, sleep-related
      breathing disorders), in treatment-resistant insomnia, for professional at-risk
      populations and when substantial sleep state misperception is suspected (strong
      recommendation, high-quality evidence). Cognitive behavioural therapy for
      insomnia is recommended as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia in
      adults of any age (strong recommendation, high-quality evidence). A
      pharmacological intervention can be offered if cognitive behavioural therapy for
      insomnia is not sufficiently effective or not available. Benzodiazepines,
      benzodiazepine receptor agonists and some antidepressants are effective in the
      short-term treatment of insomnia (<=4 weeks; weak recommendation, moderate
      quality evidence). Antihistamines, antipsychotics, melatonin and
      phytotherapeutics are not recommended for insomnia treatment (strong to weak
      recommendations, low- to very-low-quality evidence). Light therapy and exercise
      need to be further evaluated to judge their usefulness in the treatment of
      insomnia (weak recommendation, low-quality evidence). Complementary and
      alternative treatments (e.g. homeopathy, acupuncture) are not recommended for
      insomnia treatment (weak recommendation, very-low-quality evidence).

PMID- 28875582
TI  - Identification of Signaling Pathways Targeted by the Food Contaminant FB1:
      Transcriptome and Kinome Analysis of Samples from Pig Liver and Intestine.
AB  - SCOPE: Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species. In
      mammals, this toxin causes widespread organ-specific damage; it promotes
      hepatotoxicity, is immunotoxic, alters intestinal functions etc. Despite its
      inhibitory effect on de novo ceramide synthesis, its molecular mechanism of
      action and toxicity is not totally elucidated. METHODS AND RESULTS: To explore
      the mechanism of FB1 toxicity, we analyzed the transcriptome and the kinome of
      two organs targeted by FB1: the liver and the jejunum. Pigs were fed for 4 weeks
      a control diet or a FB1-contaminated diet (10 mg/kg). As expected, FB1-exposed
      pigs gained less weight and displayed a higher sphinganine/sphingosine ratio.
      Comparison of the transcriptomes and the kinomes of treated versus control pigs
      showed striking differences. Among the disrupted pathways in liver and jejunum,
      we highlight Protein Kinase B (AKT) / Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) at
      the intersection of the FB1-modulated pathways. CONCLUSION: Most of the effects
      of FB1 are mediated by the regulation of ceramide level, which influences protein
      phosphatase 2 (PP2A) and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling
      pathway. This pathway might be a new target to counteract toxic effect of
      Fumonisin B1, which is one of the most spread food contaminant in the world.

PMID- 28875583
TI  - Quantum Chemical Modeling of Homogeneous Water Oxidation Catalysis.
AB  - The design of efficient and robust water oxidation catalysts has proven
      challenging in the development of artificial photosynthetic systems for solar
      energy harnessing and storage. Tremendous progress has been made in the
      development of homogeneous transition-metal complexes capable of mediating water
      oxidation. To improve the efficiency of the catalyst and to design new catalysts,
      a detailed mechanistic understanding is necessary. Quantum chemical modeling
      calculations have been successfully used to complement the experimental
      techniques to suggest a catalytic mechanism and identify all stationary points,
      including transition states for both O-O bond formation and O2 release. In this
      review, recent progress in the applications of quantum chemical methods for the
      modeling of homogeneous water oxidation catalysis, covering various transition
      metals, including manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, ruthenium, and
      iridium, is discussed.

PMID- 28875584
TI  - Euphorbia tirucalli beta-Amyrin Synthase: Critical Roles of Steric Sizes at
      Val483 and Met729 and the CH-pi Interaction between Val483 and Trp534 for
      Catalytic Action.
AB  - The functions of Val483, Trp534, and Met729 in Euphorbia tirucalli beta-amyrin
      synthase were revealed by comparing the enzyme activities of site-directed
      mutants against that of the wild type. The Gly and Ala variants with a smaller
      bulk size at position 483 predominantly afforded monocyclic camelliol C, which
      suggested that the orientation of the (3S)-2,3-oxidosqualene substrate was not
      appropriately arranged in the reaction cavity as a result of the decreased bulk
      size, leading to failure of its normal folding into the chair-chair-chair-boat
      boat conformation. The Ile variant, with a somewhat larger bulk, afforded beta
      amyrin as the dominant product. Intriguingly, various variants of Trp534
      exhibited significantly decreased enzymatic activities and provided no aberrantly
      cyclized products, although the aromatic Phe and Tyr residues were incorporated
      and the steric sizes of the aliphatic residues were altered. Therefore, the
      Trp534 residue does not stabilize the transient cation through a cation-pi
      interaction. Furthermore, the Trp residue, with the largest steric bulk among all
      natural amino acids, is essential for high enzymatic activity. Robust CH-pi
      complexation between the Val483 and Trp534 residues is proposed herein. Altering
      the steric bulk at the Met729 position afforded the pentacyclic skeletons. Thus,
      Met729 is positioned at the E-ring formation site. More detailed insights into
      the functions of the Val483, Trp534, and Met729 residues are provided by homology
      modeling.

PMID- 28875585
TI  - Peristome-Mimetic Curved Surface for Spontaneous and Directional Separation of
      Micro Water-in-Oil Drops.
AB  - Separation of micro-scaled water-in-oil droplets is important in environmental
      protection, bioassays, and saving functional inks. So far, bulk oil-water
      separation has been achieved by membrane separation and sponge absorption, but
      micro-drop separation still remains a challenge. Herein we report that instead of
      the "plug-and-go" separation model, tiny water-in-oil droplets can be separated
      into pure water and oil droplets through "go-in-opposite ways" on curved
      peristome-mimetic surfaces, in milliseconds, without energy input. More
      importantly, this overflow controlled method can be applied to handle oil-in-oil
      droplets with surface tension differences as low as 14.7 mN m-1 and viscous
      liquids with viscosities as high as hundreds centipoises, which markedly
      increases the range of applicable liquids for micro-scaled separation.
      Furthermore, the curved peristome-mimetic surface guides the separated drops in
      different directions with high efficiency.

PMID- 28875586
TI  - 'It's like a frog leaping about in your chest': Illness and treatment perceptions
      in persistent atrial fibrillation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) is an abnormal heart rhythm
      associated with low quality of life (QoL) and significant health-related costs.
      The purpose of the study was to examine patients' illness and treatment beliefs
      and ways of coping with AF symptoms, to provide insight into promoting better QoL
      and treatment-specific management. DESIGN: Beliefs were explored across three
      procedural treatment groups using a qualitative cross-sectional design. METHODS:
      Thirty semi-structured interviews were carried out with patients undertaking
      cardioversion (n = 10), catheter ablation (n = 11) and atrioventricular node
      ablation (n = 9). Interviews were transcribed and analysed using inductive
      thematic analysis with elements of grounded theory. RESULTS: An overarching theme
      of a vicious cycle was evident, which related to perceived lack of knowledge and
      understanding of AF, attempts to control symptoms and negative emotional
      reactions to failed control attempts. This vicious cycle related to three
      subordinate themes: (1) unpredictability and uncertainty of AF and symptoms; (2)
      coping with symptoms through (a) avoidance (b) all-or-nothing- (c) slowing down
      behaviours; and (3) concerns and expectations about treatment. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients outlined a need to gain control of unpredictable symptoms by monitoring
      and varying activity levels. These behaviours were often appraised as ineffective
      at controlling symptoms, leading to heightened uncertainty and increased activity
      avoidance. Treatment concerns escalated with increasing number and invasiveness
      of procedures. Improving AF patients' perceived understanding of their illness
      and treatment and promoting more effective symptom-management strategies may
      alleviate psychological distress and improve QoL. Themes elaborated on the common
      sense model whereby patients' beliefs about illness and treatment interact with
      coping behaviours. Statement of contribution What is already known about this
      subject? Quality of life (QoL) is disproportionately low in people with
      persistent atrial fibrillation (psAF). The common-sense model suggests illness
      perceptions and coping predict QoL in chronic illnesses. No previous studies have
      examined the idiosyncratic beliefs and coping behaviours of psAF patients. What
      does this study add? A vicious cycle of perceived lack of understanding of AF,
      attempts to control AF and distress at failed attempts at control, was a key
      theme. PsAF patients reported continued avoidance/all-or-nothing behaviours
      despite symptomatic relief post-procedure, and disengagement from enjoyable
      activities. PsAF patients reported procedure-specific concerns/expectations,
      which could be targeted in future interventions aimed at reducing distress.

PMID- 28875587
TI  - A new mouse line for cell ablation by diphtheria toxin subunit A controlled by a
      Cre-dependent FLEx switch.
AB  - Recombinase responsive mouse lines expressing diphtheria toxin subunit A (DTA)
      are well established tools for targeted ablation of genetically defined cell
      populations. Here we describe a new knock-in allele at the Gt(Rosa)26Sor locus
      that retains the best features of previously described DTA alleles-including a
      CAG promoter, attenuated mutant DTA cDNA, and ubiquitous EGFP labeling-with the
      addition of a Cre-dependent FLEx switch for tight control of expression. The FLEx
      switch consists of two pairs of antiparallel lox sites requiring Cre-mediated
      recombination for inversion of the DTA to the proper orientation for
      transcription. We demonstrate its utility by Cre-dependent ablation of both a
      broad domain in the embryonic nervous system and a discrete population of cells
      in the fetal gonads. We conclude that this new DTA line is useful for targeted
      ablation of genetically-defined cell populations.

PMID- 28875588
TI  - Health beliefs of salt intake among patients undergoing haemodialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High salt intake has been recognised as a risk factor that
      contributes to a poor outcome in patients with end stage kidney disease (ESKD).
      This study examined health beliefs about salt intake among patients undergoing
      haemodialysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study using a
      convenience sample. 307 outpatients completed the health beliefs of sodium intake
      scale (HBSIS). RESULTS: In this cohort, the score for the perceived self-efficacy
      subscale (3.59 +/- 0.76) was highest, while the score for perceived barriers
      (2.52 +/- 0.67) subscale was lowest. These perceived benefits, susceptibility for
      the reduction, and no reduction of sodium intake subscale scores were
      significantly higher in female than in male patients (p < 0.05). The scores for
      the subscale of perceived barriers, and the seriousness for the reduction and no
      reduction of sodium intake were significantly higher in haemodialysis patients
      who had been educated above high school compared with patients with middle school
      education and below (p < 0.05). The scores for the subscale of perceived
      benefits, susceptibility, and self-efficacy for reduction or no reduction of
      sodium intake were also significantly higher in haemodialysis patients with
      higher income compared to those with lower income (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001). The
      score for the subscale of perceived seriousness for no reduction of sodium intake
      was significantly higher in patients who had received transplants than in
      patients who had not received a transplant (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Patients
      undergoing haemodialysis have a low level of health belief about salt intake.

PMID- 28875589
TI  - Genetic dissection of top three leaf traits in rice using progenies from a
      japonica * indica cross.
AB  - The size of the top three leaves of rice plants is strongly associated with
      yield; thus, it is important to consider quantitative traits representing leaf
      size (e.g., length and width) when breeding novel rice varieties. It is
      challenging to measure such traits on a large scale in the field, and little is
      known about the genetic factors that determine the size of the top three leaves.
      In the present study, a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and
      reciprocal single chromosomal segment substitution lines (SSSLs) derived from the
      progeny of a japonica Asominori * indica IR24 cross were grown under four diverse
      environmental conditions. Six morphological traits associated with leaf size were
      measured, namely length and flag leaf, length and flag, second and third leaves.
      In the RIL population, 49 QTLs were identified that clustered in 30 genomic
      region. Twenty-three of these QTLs were confirmed in the SSSL population. A
      comparison with previously reported genes/QTLs revealed eight novel genomic
      regions that contained uncharacterized ORFs associated with leaf size. The QTLs
      identified in this study can be used for marker-assisted breeding and for fine
      mapping of novel genetic elements controlling leaf size in rice.

PMID- 28875590
TI  - Introduction to passive electron intensity modulation.
AB  - This work introduces a new technology for electron intensity modulation, which
      uses small area island blocks within the collimating aperture and small area
      island apertures in the collimating insert. Due to multiple Coulomb scattering,
      electrons contribute dose under island blocks and lateral to island apertures. By
      selecting appropriate lateral positions and diameters of a set of island blocks
      and island apertures, for example, a hexagonal grid with variable diameter
      circular island blocks, intensity modulated beams can be produced for appropriate
      air gaps between the intensity modulator (position of collimating insert) and the
      patient. Such a passive radiotherapy intensity modulator for electrons (PRIME) is
      analogous to using physical attenuators (metal compensators) for intensity
      modulated x-ray therapy (IMXT). For hexagonal spacing, the relationship between
      block (aperture) separation (r) and diameter (d) and the local intensity
      reduction factor (IRF) is discussed. The PRIME principle is illustrated using
      pencil beam calculations for select beam geometries in water with half beams
      modulated by 70%-95% and for one head and neck field of a patient treated with
      bolus electron conformal therapy. Proof of principle is further illustrated by
      showing agreement between measurement and calculation for a prototype PRIME.
      Potential utilization of PRIME for bolus electron conformal therapy, segmented
      field electron conformal therapy, modulated electron radiation therapy, and
      variable surface geometries is discussed. Further research and development of
      technology for the various applications is discussed. In summary, this paper
      introduces a practical, new technology for electron intensity modulation in the
      clinic, demonstrates proof of principle, discusses potential clinical
      applications, and suggests areas of further research and development.

PMID- 28875591
TI  - Osteogenic potential of adipogenic predifferentiated human bone marrow-derived
      multipotent stromal cells for bone tissue-engineering.
AB  - In the present study, we evaluated the benefits of an adipogenic
      predifferentiation, the pathway most closely related to osteoblastogenesis, on
      the pro-osteogenic potential of human adult multipotent bone marrow stromal cells
      (hBMSCs), both in vitro and in vivo. Adipogenic differentiation of hBMSCs for 14
      days resulted in a heterogeneous cell population from which the most adipogenic
      committed cells were eliminated by their lack of readhesion ability. Our results
      provided evidence that the select adherent adipogenic differentiated hBMSCs (sAD+
      cells) express a gene profile characteristic of both adipogenic and osteogenic
      lineages. In vitro, when cultured in osteogenic medium, sAD+ differentiated along
      the osteogenic lineage faster than undifferentiated hBMSCs. In vivo, in an
      ectopic mouse model, sAD+ exhibited a significantly higher bone formation
      capability compared with undifferentiated hBMSCs. We sought, then, to investigate
      the underlying mechanisms responsible for such beneficial effects of adipogenic
      predifferentiation on bone formation and found that this outcome was not linked
      to a better cell survival post-implantation. The secretome of sAD+ was both
      proangiogenic and chemoattractant, but its potential did not supersede the one of
      undifferentiated hBMSCs. However, using co-culture systems, we observed that the
      sAD+ paracrine factors were pro-osteogenic on undifferentiated hBMSCs. In
      conclusion, adipogenic priming endows hBMSCs with high osteogenic potential as
      well as pro-osteogenic paracrine-mediated activity. This preconditioning appears
      as a promising strategy for bone tissue engineering technology in order to
      improve the hBMSC osteogenic potency in vivo.

PMID- 28875592
TI  - Comparison of linear intrascan and interscan dynamic ranges of Orbitrap and ion
      mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometers.
AB  - RATIONALE: The linear intrascan and interscan dynamic ranges of mass
      spectrometers are important in metabolome and residue analysis. A large linear
      dynamic range is mandatory if both low- and high-abundance ions have to be
      detected and quantitated in heavy matrix samples. These performance criteria, as
      provided by modern high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), were systematically
      investigated. METHODS: The comparison included two generations of Orbitraps, and
      an ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) system In addition, different
      scan modes, as provided by the utilized instruments, were investigated.
      Calibration curves of different compounds covering a concentration range of five
      orders of magnitude were measured to evaluate the linear interscan dynamic range.
      The linear intrascan dynamic range and the resulting mass accuracy were evaluated
      by repeating these measurements in the presence of a very intense background.
      RESULTS: Modern HRMS instruments can show linear dynamic ranges of five orders of
      magnitude. Often, however, the linear dynamic range is limited by the detection
      capability (sensitivity and selectivity) and by the electrospray ionization.
      Orbitraps, as opposed to TOF instruments, show a reduced intrascan dynamic range.
      This is due to the limited C-trap and Orbitrap capacity. The tested TOF
      instrument shows poorer mass accuracies than the Orbitraps. In contrast,
      hyphenation with an ion-mobility device seems not to affect the linear dynamic
      range. CONCLUSIONS: The linear dynamic range of modern HRMS instrumentation has
      been significantly improved. This also refers to the virtual absence of
      systematic mass shifts at high ion abundances. The intrascan dynamic range of the
      current Orbitrap technology may still be a limitation when analyzing complex
      matrix extracts. On the other hand, the linear dynamic range is not only limited
      by the detector technology, but can also be shortened by peripheral devices,
      where the ionization and transfer of ions take place.

PMID- 28875593
TI  - Implementing an evidence-based clinical decision support tool to improve the
      detection, evaluation, and referral patterns of adult chronic kidney disease
      patients in primary care.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is undertreated and under
      recognized in primary care. The majority of primary care providers (PCPs) are not
      aware or knowledgeable of current CKD guidelines. The purpose of this project was
      to develop a quality improvement intervention for PCPs through the delivery of
      evidence-based guidelines at the point of care. METHODS: An evidence-based
      clinical algorithm was developed in the electronic medical record for providers
      to access within one organization comprising 11 primary care offices with 80
      PCPs. Baseline knowledge surveys and baseline data were obtained in August 2016.
      A CKD educational intervention and tutorial on a clinical decision support (CDS)
      tool was presented to physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.
      Postimplementation data and knowledge surveys were collected in December 2016.
      CONCLUSIONS: Most PCPs were willing to use a CKD CDS tool to help them with CKD
      patients. A CDS tool in addition to an educational intervention can improve PCP
      knowledge and identification of CKD and early referral to nephrology.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: CDS tools can promote evidence-based guided care for
      PCPs and CKD patients. By using these applications, patients can be properly
      identified, managed, treated, and appropriately referred to nephrology.

PMID- 28875594
TI  - Automatic x-ray image contrast enhancement based on parameter auto-optimization.
AB  - PURPOSE: Insufficient image contrast associated with radiation therapy daily
      setup x-ray images could negatively affect accurate patient treatment setup. We
      developed a method to perform automatic and user-independent contrast enhancement
      on 2D kilo voltage (kV) and megavoltage (MV) x-ray images. The goal was to
      provide tissue contrast optimized for each treatment site in order to support
      accurate patient daily treatment setup and the subsequent offline review.
      METHODS: The proposed method processes the 2D x-ray images with an optimized
      image processing filter chain, which consists of a noise reduction filter and a
      high-pass filter followed by a contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization
      (CLAHE) filter. The most important innovation is to optimize the image processing
      parameters automatically to determine the required image contrast settings per
      disease site and imaging modality. Three major parameters controlling the image
      processing chain, i.e., the Gaussian smoothing weighting factor for the high-pass
      filter, the block size, and the clip limiting parameter for the CLAHE filter,
      were determined automatically using an interior-point constrained optimization
      algorithm. RESULTS: Fifty-two kV and MV x-ray images were included in this study.
      The results were manually evaluated and ranked with scores from 1 (worst,
      unacceptable) to 5 (significantly better than adequate and visually praise
      worthy) by physicians and physicists. The average scores for the images processed
      by the proposed method, the CLAHE, and the best window-level adjustment were
      3.92, 2.83, and 2.27, respectively. The percentage of the processed images
      received a score of 5 were 48, 29, and 18%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The
      proposed method is able to outperform the standard image contrast adjustment
      procedures that are currently used in the commercial clinical systems. When the
      proposed method is implemented in the clinical systems as an automatic image
      processing filter, it could be useful for allowing quicker and potentially more
      accurate treatment setup and facilitating the subsequent offline review and
      verification.

PMID- 28875595
TI  - Association of Obesity or Overweight with Bone Health in Childhood and
      Adolescence: Another Health Risk Never to Be Underestimated.

PMID- 28875596
TI  - Smartphone Addiction of Adolescents, Not a Smart Choice.

PMID- 28875597
TI  - Total Occlusion of Pulmonary Arteries by Embolization of Myxoma.

PMID- 28875598
TI  - Recovery of Proprioception in the Upper Extremity by Robotic Mirror Therapy: a
      Clinical Pilot Study for Proof of Concept.
AB  - A novel robotic mirror therapy system was recently developed to provide
      proprioceptive stimulus to the hemiplegic arm during a mirror therapy. Validation
      of the robotic mirror therapy system was performed to confirm its synchronicity
      prior to the clinical study. The mean error angle range between the intact arm
      and the robot was 1.97 to 4.59 degrees. A 56-year-old male who had right middle
      cerebral artery infarction 11 months ago received the robotic mirror therapy for
      ten 30-minute sessions during 2 weeks. Clinical evaluation and functional
      magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were performed before and after the
      intervention. At the follow-up evaluation, the thumb finding test score improved
      from 2 to 1 for eye level and from 3 to 1 for overhead level. The Albert's test
      score on the left side improved from 6 to 11. Improvements were sustained at 2
      month follow-up. The fMRI during the passive motion revealed a considerable
      increase in brain activity at the lower part of the right superior parietal
      lobule, suggesting the possibility of proprioception enhancement. The robotic
      mirror therapy system may serve as a useful treatment method for patients with
      supratentorial stroke to facilitate recovery of proprioceptive deficit and
      hemineglect.

PMID- 28875600
TI  - Validation of the World Health Organization Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for
      the Quantitation of Immunoglobulin G Serotype-Specific Anti-Pneumococcal
      Antibodies in Human Serum.
AB  - The World Health Organization (WHO) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
      guideline is currently accepted as the gold standard for the evaluation of
      immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies specific to pneumococcal capsular
      polysaccharide. We conducted validation of the WHO ELISA for 7 pneumococcal
      serotypes (4, 6B, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F, and 23F) by evaluating its specificity,
      precision (reproducibility and intermediate precision), accuracy, spiking
      recovery test, lower limit of quantification (LLOQ), and stability at the Ewha
      Center for Vaccine Evaluation and Study, Seoul, Korea. We found that the
      specificity, reproducibility, and intermediate precision were within acceptance
      ranges (reproducibility, coefficient of variability [CV] <= 15%; intermediate
      precision, CV <= 20%) for all serotypes. Comparisons between the provisional
      assignments of calibration sera and the results from this laboratory showed a
      high correlation > 94% for all 7 serotypes, supporting the accuracy of the ELISA.
      The spiking recovery test also fell within an acceptable range. The
      quantification limit, calculated using the LLOQ, for each of the serotypes was
      0.05-0.093 MUg/mL. The freeze-thaw stability and the short-term temperature
      stability were also within an acceptable range. In conclusion, we showed good
      performance using the standardized WHO ELISA for the evaluation of serotype
      specific anti-pneumococcal IgG antibodies; the WHO ELISA can evaluate the immune
      response against pneumococcal vaccines with consistency and accuracy.

PMID- 28875599
TI  - The Impact of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Outbreak on Trends in Emergency
      Department Utilization Patterns.
AB  - Changes occurred in the patterns of utilization of emergency medical services
      during the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak. The purpose of this
      study was to analyze the patterns of adult and pediatric patients who visited the
      emergency department (ED) during the outbreak. This retrospective study was
      conducted by analyzing changes in the patterns of visits among adult and
      pediatric patients in the ED at one tertiary teaching hospital in Korea. The
      study was performed from June 1, 2013 to July 31, 2015. The MERS outbreak period
      was from June 1 to July 31, 2015, and we compared that period to the same periods
      in 2013 and 2014. We compared and analyzed the patients' characteristics,
      emergency severity index (ESI) level at the visit, cause of visit, diagnosis,
      final dispositions, injury/non-injury, length of stay at the ED (EDLOS), and
      hospitalization rate. A total of 9,107 patients visited the ED during this
      period. Of these patients, 2,572 (28.2%) were pediatric patients and 6,535
      (71.8%) were adult patients. The most common cause of an ED visit was fever
      (adult patients: 21.6%, pediatric patients: 56.2%). The proportion of non-urgent
      visits involving an ESI level of 4 or 5 and the EDLOS decreased significantly in
      pediatric and adult patients in comparison to that during the past two years.
      This change was significant in pediatric patients. Among adult patients, the rate
      of injury decreased, whereas it increased among pediatric patients. During the
      MERS outbreak period, pediatric ED visits due to non-urgent cases decreased
      significantly and there were more pronounced differences in ED utilization
      patterns in pediatric patients than in adult patients.

PMID- 28875601
TI  - Can the Thiol/Disulfide Imbalance Be a Predictor of Colchicine Resistance in
      Familial Mediterranean Fever?
AB  - Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a chronic autoinflammatory condition
      characterized by fever attacks and recurrent polyserositis. Subclinical
      inflammation that persists during attack-free periods can result in oxidative
      stress (OS) damage. Thiol groups bind to reactive oxygen radicals and protect
      cells and tissues from OS damage. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      relationship between thiol-disulfide balance and colchicine resistance in FMF
      patients during an attack or attack-free period. A newly developed
      spectrophotometric method was used to measure native thiol (NT) and disulfide
      (DS) levels in FMF patients and an age-sex matched group of healthy controls. NT
      and DS levels were compared in FMF patients 1) with vs. without colchicine
      resistance; and 2) during an attack (FMF-AP) vs. attack-free period (FMF-AFP). A
      total of 118 FMF patients and 60 healthy controls were studied. NT (P < 0.001)
      and total thiol (TT) (P < 0.001) levels in FMF patients were significantly lower
      compared to healthy controls. NT (P = 0.030) and TT (P = 0.010) levels of FMF-AP
      patients were significantly lower than that of FMF-AFP patients. FMF-AP patients
      had significantly higher DS levels than FMF-AFP patients (P = 0.039). Compared to
      FMF patients without colchicine resistance, elevated levels of DS (P = 0.019) but
      not NT (P = 0.620) and TT (P = 0.718) were found in those with colchicine
      resistance. Thiol-disulfide homeostasis is altered in FMF patients during an
      attack period and this imbalance may be associated with colchicine resistance.

PMID- 28875602
TI  - Poorly Differentiated Clusters in Colorectal Adenocarcinomas Share Biological
      Similarities with Micropapillary Patterns as well as Tumor Buds.
AB  - In colorectal carcinoma, poorly differentiated clusters (PDCs) are a poor
      prognostic indicator and show morphological continuity and behavioral
      similarities to micropapillary patterns (MPPs) as well as tumor buds (TBs).
      Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and inhibition of cancer-stromal
      interactions may contribute to the development of PDCs. To clarify the biological
      nature of PDCs, we examined immunohistochemical stainings for beta-catenin, Ki
      67, E-cadherin, epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), MUC1, and epithelial
      membrane antigen (EMA), which are associated with EMT and cancer-stromal
      interactions. The expression frequencies and patterns of PDCs, TBs, and
      differentiated neoplastic glands from the tumor center (TC) were compared. In the
      study group (117 cases), the nuclear beta-catenin staining index was higher in
      PDCs (37.3%) and TBs (43.3%) than in neoplastic glands from TC (8.9%, P < 0.001).
      The mean Ki-67 labeling index in TC was 71.5%, whereas it was decreased in PDCs
      (31.2%) and TBs (10.2%, P < 0.001). E-cadherin and EpCAM displayed a tendency to
      be found along the cell membrane in TC samples (91.5% and 92.3%, respectively),
      whereas they showed loss of membranous staining in PDC (44.4% and 36.8%,
      respectively) and TB samples (60.7% and 68.4%, respectively). An inside-out
      pattern for MUC1 and EMA was frequently observed in PDC (48.7% and 45.3%,
      respectively) and TB samples (46.2% and 45.3%, respectively), but not in TC
      samples. Our data demonstrate that there is a pathogenetic overlap among PDCs,
      TBs, and MPPs and suggest that they might represent sequential growth patterns
      that branch from common biological processes such as dedifferentiation and
      alteration in cancer-stromal interactions.

PMID- 28875603
TI  - Incidence, Predictors, and Clinical Outcomes of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus after
      Percutaneous Coronary Intervention with Drug-Eluting Stent.
AB  - We investigated the incidence, predictors, and long-term clinical outcomes of new
      onset diabetes mellitus (DM) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with
      drug-eluting stent (DES). A total of 6,048 patients treated with DES were
      retrospectively reviewed and divided into three groups: 1) known DM (n = 2,365;
      fasting glucose > 126 mg/dL, glycated hemoglobin > 6.5%, already receiving DM
      treatment, or previous history of DM at the time of PCI); 2) non-DM (n = 3,247;
      no history of DM, no laboratory findings suggestive of DM at PCI, and no
      occurrence of DM during follow-up); and 3) new-onset DM (n = 436; non-DM features
      at PCI and occurrence of DM during follow-up). Among 3,683 non-DM patients, 436
      (11.8%) patients were diagnosed with new-onset DM at 3.4 +/- 1.9 years after PCI.
      Independent predictors for new-onset DM were high-intensity statin therapy, high
      body mass index (BMI), and high level of fasting glucose and triglycerides. The 8
      year cumulative rate of major adverse cardiac events (a composite of
      cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, or any
      revascularization) in the new-onset DM group was 19.5%, which was similar to
      20.5% in the non-DM group (P = 0.467), but lower than 25.0% in the known DM group
      (P = 0.003). In conclusion, the incidence of new-onset DM after PCI with DES was
      not low. High-intensity statin therapy, high BMI, and high level of fasting
      glucose and triglycerides were independent predictors for new-onset DM. Long-term
      clinical outcomes of patients with new-onset DM after PCI were similar to those
      of patients without DM.

PMID- 28875604
TI  - The Incidence of Riata Defibrillator Lead Failure: a Single-Center Experience.
AB  - Riata defibrillator leads were recalled due to a high failure rate. This study
      measured the incidence of externalized conductor (EC) and electrical dysfunction
      (ED) and sought to determine the predictors of ED with Riata defibrillator leads.
      We enrolled patients who received Riata(r) or Riata(r) ST silicone defibrillator
      leads at our center between January 2003 and December 2010. The presence of EC
      was evaluated with chest radiography. The incidence rates were measured at < 3
      years, 3-5 years, and > 5 years after lead implantation. We also investigated the
      rates of ED and other clinical events during the follow-up period. A total of 44
      patients were analyzed. The total cumulative incidence of EC was 27.3%. During
      the median dwell time (80 months), the incidence of ED was 22.7%. Patients with
      ED were younger (46.5 vs. 56.5 years, P = 0.018) and had a higher prevalence of
      cardiomyopathy than those without ED (60.0% vs. 20.6%, P = 0.043). ECs were most
      frequently detected in patients who underwent X-ray analysis 3-5 years after lead
      implantation (44.4%). In contrast, ED had a bimodal incidence pattern, with peaks
      at 5 years (7.0%) and 9 years (5.3%). There was no difference in ED-free survival
      rate between patients with and without EC (P = 0.628). Given the delayed
      occurrence of EC and ED after implantation of Riata defibrillator leads, long
      term close monitoring is critically important.

PMID- 28875605
TI  - Fate of Neutrophils during the Recovery Phase of Ischemia/Reperfusion Induced
      Acute Kidney Injury.
AB  - Effective clearance of inflammatory cells is required for resolution of
      inflammation. Here, we show in vivo evidence that apoptosis and reverse
      transendothelial migration (rTEM) are important mechanisms in eliminating
      neutrophils and facilitating recovery following ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI)
      of the kidney. The clearance of neutrophils was delayed in the Bax knockout
      (KO)(BM) -> wild-type (WT) chimera in which bone marrow derived cells are
      partially resistant to apoptosis, compared to WT(BM) -> WT mice. These mice also
      showed delayed functional, histological recovery, increased tissue cytokines, and
      accelerated fibrosis. The circulating intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1)+
      Gr-1+ neutrophils displaying rTEM phenotype increased during the recovery phase
      and blockade of junctional adhesion molecule-C (JAM-C), a negative regulator of
      rTEM, resulted in an increase in circulating ICAM-1+ neutrophils, faster
      resolution of inflammation and recovery. The presence of Tamm-Horsfall protein
      (THP) in circulating ICAM-1+ neutrophils could suggest that they are derived from
      injured kidneys. In conclusion, we suggest that apoptosis and rTEM are critically
      involved in the clearance mechanisms of neutrophils during the recovery phase of
      IRI.

PMID- 28875606
TI  - The Relationship between Subclinical Thyroid Disease and Cardiovascular Disease
      Risk Score in Koreans.
AB  - Subclinical hyperthyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism are characterized by
      abnormal thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) with normal free thyroxine.
      Subclinical thyroid diseases, to date, have received less attention compared with
      other thyroid diseases since they are asymptomatic. This study aimed to verify
      the association between subclinical thyroid diseases and cardiovascular diseases
      (CVDs) risk score in the Korean population. This was a population-based cohort
      study using data collected from 3,722 subjects (aged >= 30 years) during the 6th
      Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI; 2013-2015).
      Gender-specific Framingham risk scores were calculated to identify the
      association between subclinical thyroid diseases and 10-year CVD risk score.
      Complex survey, with consideration of sampling weight, was analyzed using
      generalized linear models after stratification by gender. The TSH reference range
      was between 0.61 and 6.91 mIU/L in this study. TSH showed a positive association
      with the 10-year CVD risk score only in the female population (P = 0.001). There
      were significant differences in the least squares means of 10-year CVD risk score
      by the effect of subclinical hypothyroidism compared with euthyroidism (normal
      group) in females, after adjusting for body mass index, white blood cell, and
      urine iodine (P = 0.006 and Bonferroni corrected P = 0.012). In conclusion,
      subclinical hypothyroidism is associated with increased 10-year CVD risk score in
      the female Korean population aged 30 years or more. Therefore, we recommend to
      clinically checkup major CVD risk factors in female patients with subclinical
      hypothyroidism aged 30 years or more.

PMID- 28875607
TI  - The Role of Overweight and Obesity on Bone Health in Korean Adolescents with a
      Focus on Lean and Fat Mass.
AB  - As the associations between pediatric overweight/obesity and bone health remain
      controversial, we investigated the effects of overweight/obesity as well as lean
      mass (LM) and fat mass (FM) on bone parameters in adolescents. Bone parameters
      were evaluated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) data of 982
      adolescents (aged 12-19 years) from the Korea National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey (2009-2010). Z-scores for LM, FM, bone mass, bone mineral
      density (BMD), and bone mineral apparent density (BMAD) using Korean pediatric
      reference values were used for analysis. Adolescents with overweight/obesity had
      significantly higher bone mass and density of the total-body-less-head (TBLH),
      lumbar spine, and femur neck than underweight or normal-weight adolescents (P <
      0.001) after adjusting for vitamin D deficiency, calcium intake, and insulin
      resistance in both sexes. LM was positively associated with bone parameters at
      all skeletal sites in both sexes (P < 0.001). FM was negatively related to TBLH
      BMD in boys (P = 0.018) but was positively associated to BMD and BMAD of the
      lumbar spine and femur neck in girls. In conclusion, overweight/obesity and LM
      play a positive role in bone health in adolescents. The effect of FM on bone
      parameters is sex- and site-specific.

PMID- 28875608
TI  - Clinical Characteristics of Macrolide-Resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae from
      Children in Jeju.
AB  - Mycoplasma pneumoniae is the major pathogen of community-acquired pneumonia in
      children. The prevalence of macrolide-resistant M. pneumoniae (MRMP) is important
      owing to the limited alternative therapies for children. We analyzed 111 M.
      pneumoniae obtained from 107 children admitted for lower respiratory tract
      infection at Jeju National University Hospital between 2010 and 2015. Macrolide
      resistance of M. pneumoniae was searched for using polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR) and sequencing. Of 107 clinical M. pneumoniae, 11 (10.3%) carried macrolide
      resistance mutations in the 23S rRNA gene. All macrolide resistance mutations
      were A2063G transitions. We found an acquired A2063G mutation of M. pneumoniae
      from a patient during macrolide treatment. Patients' characteristics and clinical
      severity did not differ between those with MRMP and macrolide-sensitive M.
      pneumoniae, with the exception of frequent pleural effusion in the MRMP group.
      The prevalence of MRMP (10.3%) in Jeju Island was relatively lower than those of
      surrounding countries in East Asia. Previous antimicrobial usage and timing of
      diagnostic test should be considered when determining of macrolide resistance of
      M. pneumoniae.

PMID- 28875610
TI  - Analysis of Pregnancy Outcomes among Interracial Couples in Korea.
AB  - Although the prevalence of interracial marriages in Korea is increasing, little
      is known regarding the pregnancy outcomes of interracial couples. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the differences in pregnancy outcomes between Korean and
      interracial Korean-foreign couples. Data for infants born in 2011 and 2012 were
      obtained from the national birth registry of the Korean Statistical Office. The
      couples were subdivided into Korean father-Korean mother, Korean father-foreign
      mother, and foreign father-Korean mother groups. Pregnancy outcomes included
      neonates with low birth weight (< 2,500 g) and those with high birth weight (>
      4,000 g). In 2010 and 2011, 888,447 Korean father-Korean mother, 36,024 Korean
      father-foreign mother, and 4,955 foreign father-Korean mother neonates were
      delivered in Korea. After adjustment for parental age, educational level, parity,
      gestational age at delivery, and neonatal sex, the birth weights were found to be
      different between groups, with the highest number of foreign father-Korean mother
      and lowest number of Korean father-foreign mother pregnancies. Based on
      multivariate logistic regression analysis, the risk of low and large birth
      weights was higher in the Korean father-foreign mother and foreign father-Korean
      mother groups, respectively, compared with that in the Korean father-Korean
      mother group. There are significant differences in pregnancy outcomes including
      birth weights between Korean and interracial Korean-foreign couples.

PMID- 28875611
TI  - Oncologic Outcomes and Predictive Factors for Recurrence Following Robot-Assisted
      Radical Cystectomy for Urothelial Carcinoma: Multicenter Study from Korea.
AB  - The aim of our study was to evaluate intermediate-term oncologic outcomes,
      predictive factors for recurrence, and recurrence patterns in a multicenter
      series of patients treated with robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) for
      urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder. Between 2007 and 2015, 346 patients
      underwent RARC at multiple tertiary referral centers in Korea. Descriptive
      statistics were used for demographics and perioperative variables. Survival and
      recurrence were estimated with Kaplan-Meier analysis. Logistic regression models
      were used to determine predictors of recurrence. Median follow-up was 33 months
      (interquartile range [IQR], 7-50). The numbers of patients with organ-confined
      and lymph node (LN)-positive disease were 237 (68.4%) and 68 (19.7%),
      respectively. LN density (1-20 vs. > 20) was 13.6% and 6.1%, with a median of 17
      nodes removed (IQR, 9-23). In logistic regression analysis, type of LN
      dissection, and pathologic tumor stage were significant predictors of cancer
      recurrence and death from cancer. Local, distal recurrence and secondary UC
      occurred in 7 (2.0%), 53 (15.3%), and 4 (1.2%) patients, respectively. The 5-year
      overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and recurrence-free
      survival (RFS) were 78%, 84%, and 73%, respectively. At last follow-up, RFS for
      extended pelvic LN dissection vs. standard pelvic LN dissection was 70% and 47%
      (P = 0.038). In addition, at last follow-up, LN density (0 vs. 1-20 vs. over 20)
      was 67%, 41%, and 29%, respectively (P < 0.001). Patients undergoing RARC in this
      multi-institutional cohort demonstrated intermediate-term oncologic outcomes,
      predictive factors for recurrence, and recurrence patterns that were not unusual.

PMID- 28875612
TI  - Trends in Testicular Injury in Korea, 1986-2015.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to investigate patients treated for scrotal
      trauma at our institute for the last three decades to describe our experience
      with an emphasis on the etiologies and ultrasonographic findings in these
      patients. We reviewed medical records of patients who underwent scrotal
      ultrasonography for evaluation of testicular trauma at our institutes from 1986
      to 2015. Trends regarding the etiology of scrotal trauma were evaluated during
      each decade. The echo pattern and contour definition of the testicular parenchyma
      and the pattern of hematoma development were recorded to evaluate radiographic
      findings of testicular injury. The correlation between ultrasonographic and
      intraoperative findings was assessed. A total of 115 patients were analyzed. Most
      patients (92.2%) presented with blunt trauma. The most common etiology of
      testicular trauma was assault during the first and second decades, while injury
      related to a fall was most common during the third decade. Of the 77 patients
      (67.0%) who underwent urgent exploration, 46 patients (59.7%) had testicular
      rupture. Loss of contour definition, heterogeneous echo pattern of the testicular
      parenchyma, and testicular hematoma showed a moderate to strong degree of
      correlation with testicular rupture (Spearman correlation co-efficient: 0.5-0.8).
      Over the past 30 years, the etiology of testicular injury changed from assault to
      falls or athletic injury and the severity of injury has decreased. Our findings
      demonstrate the importance of ultrasonography for determining an appropriate
      management strategy in scrotal trauma. Surgical exploration should be considered
      in patients with abnormal ultrasonographic findings.

PMID- 28875609
TI  - Epidemiological Correlation between Fecal Adenovirus Subgroups and Pediatric
      Intussusception in Korea.
AB  - We investigated the adenoviral etiology and seasonal epidemic trends in
      intussusception and each adenoviral subgroup. Also we confirmed whether we can
      use the adenovirus data of Acute Infectious Agents Laboratory Surveillance Report
      (AIALSR) as an epidemic predictor of intussusception. Patients with
      intussusception (n = 126), < 5 years old, were enrolled and matched by age and
      sex with controls suffering acute gastroenteritis without intussusception (n =
      106), all recruited at 8 centers. All fecal specimens were assayed for
      adenovirus, including subgroups A, B, C, E, and F, with reverse transcriptase
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Adenovirus was detected in 53 cases and 13
      controls (P < 0.001). Nonenteric adenoviruses (NEAds) were detected in 51 cases
      and four controls (P < 0.001). We used Spearman's correlation analysis to analyze
      the incidence of intussusception and adenoviral epidemic trends, and compared
      them with fecal and respiratory adenoviral epidemic trends in the AIALSR. The
      trend of intussusception correlated with total NEAds (r = 0.635; P = 0.011), as
      did the fecal AIALSR adenovirus trends (r = 0.572; P = 0.026). Among the NEAd
      subgroups, subgroup C was dominant (P < 0.001), but subgroups B (P = 0.007) and E
      (P = 0.013) were also significant to intussusception. However, only subgroup C
      showed a significant epidemic correlation (r = 0.776; P = 0.001) with
      intussusception. Not respiratory but fecal AIALSR adenovirus trends correlated
      with the incidence of NEAds and intussusception. We suggest the possibility of
      using fecal AIALSR adenovirus data as an approximate epidemic predictor of
      intussusception.

PMID- 28875613
TI  - Risk Factors for Smartphone Addiction in Korean Adolescents: Smartphone Use
      Patterns.
AB  - With widespread use of the smartphone, clinical evidence for smartphone addiction
      remains unclear. Against this background, we analyzed the effect of smartphone
      use patterns on smartphone addiction in Korean adolescents. A total of 370 middle
      school students participated. The severity of smartphone addiction was measured
      through clinical interviews and the Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale.
      As a result, 50 (13.5%) were in the smartphone addiction group and 320 (86.5%)
      were in the healthy group. To investigate the effect of smartphone use patterns
      on smartphone addiction, we performed self-report questionnaires that assessed
      the following items: smartphone functions mostly used, purpose of use,
      problematic use, and parental attitude regarding smartphone use. For smartphone
      functions mostly used, the addiction group showed significantly higher scores in
      "Online chat." For the purpose of use, the addiction group showed significantly
      higher "habitual use," "pleasure," "communication," "games," "stress relief,"
      "ubiquitous trait," and "not to be left out." For problematic use, the addiction
      group showed significantly higher scores on "preoccupation," "tolerance," "lack
      of control," "withdrawal," "mood modification," "conflict," "lies," "excessive
      use," and "loss of interest." For parental attitude regarding children's
      smartphone use, the addiction group showed significantly higher scores in
      "parental punishment." Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that
      "female," "use for learning," "use for ubiquitous trait," "preoccupation," and
      "conflict" were significantly correlated with smartphone addiction. This study
      demonstrated that the risk factors for smartphone addiction were being female,
      preoccupation, conflict, and use for ubiquitous trait; the protective factor was
      use for learning. Future studies will be required to reveal the additional
      clinical evidence of the disease entity for smartphone addiction.

PMID- 28875615
TI  - Prescription Trends of Psychotropics in Children and Adolescents with Autism
      Based on Nationwide Health Insurance Data.
AB  - Children with autism are often medicated to manage emotional and behavioral
      symptoms; yet, data on such pharmacotherapy is insufficient. In this study, we
      investigated the Korean National Health Insurance Claims Database (NHICD)
      information related to autism incidence and psychotropic medication use. From the
      2010-2012 NHICD, we selected a total of 31,919,732 subjects under 19 years old.
      To examine the diagnostic incidence, we selected patients who had at least one
      medical claim containing an 10th revision of International Statistical
      Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) code for
      pervasive developmental disorder, F84, not diagnosed in the previous 360 days.
      Psychotropics were categorized into seven classes. Then, we analyzed the data to
      determine the mean annual diagnostic incidence and psychotropic prescription
      trends. Diagnostic incidence was 17,606 for the 3 years, with a mean annual
      incidence per 10,000 population of 5.52. Among them, 5,348 patients were
      prescribed psychotropics. Atypical antipsychotics were the most commonly used,
      followed by antidepressants. An older age, male sex, and the availability of
      medical aid were associated with a higher rate of prescription than observed for
      a younger age, female sex, and the availability of health insurance. Psychotropic
      drugs were used for less than one-third of patients newly diagnosed with autism,
      and prescription differed by sex and age. Increased diagnostic incidence is
      associated with an increased prescription of psychotropic drugs. Therefore,
      medication-related safety data and policies for psychotropic drugs in autism
      should be prepared.

PMID- 28875614
TI  - Post-Traumatic Cognition Mediates the Relationship between a History of Sexual
      Abuse and the Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Sexual Assault Victims.
AB  - More than half of all sexual assault victims report experiencing sexual
      victimization more than once. The aim of this paper was to determine the role
      post-traumatic cognition plays in the relationship between a history of sexual
      abuse and post-traumatic stress symptoms in sexual assault victims. The
      relationship between a history of sexual assault and the severity of post
      traumatic stress symptoms was investigated retrospectively using data from a
      sexual assault crisis center in Korea. Data on psychological symptoms were
      collected in person at the initial assessment and by telephone 1 month later
      using the Post-traumatic Cognitions Inventory and the Post-traumatic Stress
      Disorder Symptoms Scale: Self-report Version. Of 105 women included in the
      analysis, 10 (9.5%) reported prior sexual abuse and were classified as sexually
      revictimized. Revictimized women had more post-traumatic negative cognition at
      initial assessment (t = -2.98; P = 0.004) and more post-traumatic symptoms at 1
      month follow-up (t = -2.39; P = 0.019) than singly victimized women. At 1 month
      follow-up, the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms had increased in
      revictimized women but had decreased slightly in singly victimized women.
      Negative post-traumatic cognition fully mediated the association between a
      history of sexual abuse and the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Early
      detection of sexually revictimized women and tailored service and treatment
      intervention is needed to better serve this group of victims. Interventions
      targeted at preventing revictimization or post crime victimization may also help
      victims recover from the trauma and prevent future abuse.

PMID- 28875616
TI  - Prescription Pattern of Antidepressants for Children and Adolescents in Korea
      Based on Nationwide Data.
AB  - Antidepressant prescription for youths has recently been on the increase. There
      is a growing concern over the increasing off-label usage of antidepressants.
      Current data on off-label antidepressant usage vary across countries and
      healthcare systems. Therefore, we examined the extent and pattern of
      antidepressant prescription for Korean children and adolescents using population
      based data. Our data was retrieved from the Korean National Health Insurance
      Service National Sample Cohort of the year 2013. Among 0.2 million children and
      adolescents aged 6-18 years from the cohort, subjects who had received any
      antidepressant medication in the year 2013 were investigated for the prescribed
      medication, concomitant psychotropic medication, and the associated diagnosis. A
      total of 2,190 children and adolescents (boys, 55.4%) received antidepressant
      medication. The most common diagnosis was depressive disorders (n = 469, 21.4%),
      followed by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (n = 442, 20.2%). Among the
      prescriptions (n = 3,370), escitalopram (n = 650, 24.1%) and fluoxetine (n = 553,
      20.5%) were the two most frequently prescribed drugs. A majority of prescriptions
      (n = 2,039, 60.5%) included concomitant psychotropic agents, consisting of
      antipsychotics (n = 901, 26.7%), sedatives (n = 263, 26.3%), medication for
      attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (n = 822, 24.4%), and some others. Our
      study shows the prescription pattern of antidepressants for children and
      adolescents in Korea, of which a large proportion is off-label. The results call
      for close monitoring by clinicians treating this population.

PMID- 28875617
TI  - Clinical Considerations When Applying Vital Signs in Pediatric Korean Triage and
      Acuity Scale.
AB  - Initial vital signs of children at the emergency department may be abnormal
      because of anxiety and irritability, resulting in unrealistic triage levels. This
      study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of pediatric triage by clinical
      decision based on the patient's general condition. The Pediatric Korean Triage
      and Acuity Scale (PedKTAS) has been used nationwide for triage since 2016. The
      triage level, as assessed by an experienced triage nurse and based on the
      patient's clinical condition, was defined as the 'real practice (RP)-level,'
      while the re-calculated triage level, as assessed by the direct application of
      initial vital signs, was defined as the 'simulation (S)-level.' A total of 22,841
      patients were triaged during the study period. The hospitalization rate according
      to RP-PedKTAS levels exhibited a significant correlation with the expected
      hospitalization rate suggested by the Pediatric Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale
      (CTAS) (P = 0.002), whereas the S-PedKTAS levels did not (P = 0.151). Compared
      with the previously reported pediatric CTAS level-specific hospitalization rate
      and intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate, RP-PedKTAS was significantly
      correlated with both hospitalization rate and ICU admission rate (P = 0.001 and P
      = 0.012, respectively). However, S-PedKTAS showed no significant correlation in
      both (P = 0.267 and P = 0.188, respectively). The determination of triage levels
      based on clinical decision rather than the direct application of abnormal initial
      vital signs to PedKTAS is more accurate in predicting the hospitalization rate
      and ICU admission rate.

PMID- 28875618
TI  - Intramyocardial Injection of Stem Cells in Pig Myocardial Infarction Model: The
      First Trial in Korea.
AB  - Although cell therapy is emerged for cardiac repair, its efficacy is modest by
      intracoronary infusion. Therefore, we established the intramyocardial delivery
      technique using a left ventricular (LV) mapping system (NOGA(r) XP) using 18
      pigs. After adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ATSCs) were delivered
      intramyocardially to porcine infarcted heart, LV ejection fraction (EF) was
      increased, and LV chamber size was decreased. We proved the therapeutic effect of
      intramyocardial injection of ATSC through a LV mapping system in the porcine
      model for the first time in Korea. The adoption of this technique may accelerate
      the translation into a clinical application in the near future.

PMID- 28875619
TI  - Lead Poisoning at an Indoor Firing Range.
AB  - In March 2014, a 39-year-old Korean male presented with a 6-month history of
      various nonspecific symptoms including dizziness, fatigue, asthenia,
      irritability, elevated blood pressure, palpitation, eyestrain, and tinnitus. His
      occupational history revealed that he had been working as an indoor firing range
      manager for 13 months; therefore, he was subjected to a blood lead level (BLL)
      test. The test results showed a BLL of 64 MUg/dL; hence, he was diagnosed with
      lead poisoning and immediately withdrawn from work. As evident from the workplace
      environmental monitoring, the level of lead exposure in the air exceeded its
      limit (0.015-0.387 mg/m3). He received chelation treatment with calcium-disodium
      ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (1 g/day) for 5 days without any adverse effects.
      In the follow-up results after 2 months, the BLL had decreased to 9.7 MUg/dL and
      the symptoms resolved. This report represents the first occupational case of lead
      poisoning in firing ranges in Korea, and this necessitates institutional
      management to prevent the recurrence of poisoning through this route. Workplace
      environmental monitoring should be implemented for indoor firing ranges, and the
      workers should undergo regularly scheduled special health examinations. In
      clinical practice, it is essential to question the patient about his occupational
      history.

PMID- 28875621
TI  - Rare Manifestations of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma: the Role of BRAF Mutation
      Analysis.
AB  - Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is difficult to distinguish from other
      cancers, especially when its pathological features are atypical for ATC or when
      the tumor is totally undifferentiated and occurs after a considerable lapse of
      time, in an area remote from the original site of the tumor. Here, we present two
      patients (68-year-old man and 56-year-old woman) with rare manifestations of ATC,
      which were initially thought to be other malignancies. Immunohistochemical tests,
      using various markers, failed to provide information about the origin of these
      tumors. However, both patients had a history of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC)
      from several years ago and BRAF mutations were observed in the undifferentiated
      tumors, as well as in the previous PTCs. Therefore, we could make a diagnosis of
      ATC derived from PTC. As such, BRAF mutation analysis may serve as a useful tool
      for ATC diagnosis in challenging ATC cases.

PMID- 28875622
TI  - Primary Pulmonary Extranodal Natural Killer/T-cell Lymphoma, Nasal Type
      Presenting as Diffuse Ground Glass Opacities: a Case Report.
AB  - Extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTCL) is a rare
      type of lymphoma that accounts for only 5%-18% of all cases of non-Hodgkin
      lymphoma (NHL). In published series, 60%-90% of NK/T-cell lymphomas are localized
      to the nasal and upper airway. We describe a 55-year man who presented with
      cough, sputum, dyspnea on exertion, and a chest computed tomography scan shows
      diffuse ground glass opacities (GGOs), suggestive of an interstitial lung
      disease. He was treated with a corticosteroid and his symptoms improved. However,
      when the corticosteroid was tapered, his symptoms recurred. The patient underwent
      a surgical lung biopsy and ENKTCL was diagnosed. We present this case because
      ENKTCL involving only the lung is very rare but very informative. To our
      knowledge, our patient is the first case that primary pulmonary ENKTCL is
      presented with GGOs.

PMID- 28875620
TI  - MERS-CoV Infection in a Pregnant Woman in Korea.
AB  - Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a lethal respiratory disease - caused
      by MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which was first identified in 2012. Especially,
      pregnant women can be expected as highly vulnerable candidates for this viral
      infection. In May 2015, this virus was spread in Korea and a pregnant woman was
      confirmed with positive result of MERS-CoV polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Her
      condition was improved only with conservative treatment. After a full recovery of
      MERS, the patient manifested abrupt vaginal bleeding with rupture of membrane.
      Under an impression of placenta abruption, an emergent cesarean section was
      performed. Our team performed many laboratory tests related to MERS-CoV and all
      results were negative. We report the first case of MERS-CoV infection during
      pregnancy occurred outside of the Middle East. Also, this case showed relatively
      benign maternal course which resulted in full recovery with subsequent healthy
      full-term delivery without MERS-CoV transmission.

PMID- 28875623
TI  - Photoacoustic thermal flowmetry with a single light source.
AB  - We report a photoacoustic thermal flowmetry based on optical-resolution
      photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) using a single laser source for both thermal
      tagging and photoacoustic excitation. When an optically absorbing medium is
      flowing across the optical focal zone of OR-PAM, a small volume of the medium
      within the optical focus is repeatedly illuminated and heated by a train of laser
      pulses with a high repetition rate. The average temperature of the heated volume
      at each laser pulse is indicated by the photoacoustic signal excited by the same
      laser pulse due to the well-established linear relationship between the
      Grueneisen coefficient and the local temperature. The thermal dynamics of the
      heated medium volume, which are closely related to the flow speed, can therefore
      be measured from the time course of the detected photoacoustic signals. Here, we
      have developed a lumped mathematical model to describe the time course of the
      photoacoustic signals as a function of the medium's flow speed. We conclude that
      the rising time constant of the photoacoustic signals is linearly dependent on
      the flow speed. Thus, the flow speed can be quantified by fitting the measured
      photoacoustic signals using the derived mathematical model. We first performed
      proof-of-concept experiments using defibrinated bovine blood flowing in a plastic
      tube. The experiment results have demonstrated that the proposed method has high
      accuracy (~+/-6%) and a wide range of measurable flow speeds. We further
      validated the method by measuring the blood flow speeds of the microvasculature
      in a mouse ear in vivo.

PMID- 28875624
TI  - [Study on status of criteria for formulating specification and grade of Chinese
      medicinal materials based on filed survey in medicine market].
AB  - The commodity specification and grade is an important factor affecting the price
      of Chinese medicinal materials. Specification and grade standard play an
      important role in transferring quality information in Chinese medicinal market,
      which is characterized by highly information asymmetry. This paper analyses and
      expounds six classification methods of commodity specification and grade of
      Chinese medicinal materials based on the market investigation carried out in the
      medicine markets in Anguo, Bozhou, Yulin, Chengdu and so on. This study proposes
      that to formulate the commodity specification and grade standard of Chinese
      medicinal materials, their efficacy, inspection, purity and beauty should be
      taken into account orderly.

PMID- 28875625
TI  - [Formation and evolution of commodity specification and grade of traditional
      Chinese medicine].
AB  - As an important reference index to evaluate the quality of Chinese medicinal
      materials, the commodity specification and grade of traditional Chinese medicine
      has an effect on the medicinal material's price, can promote "high quality and
      high price" of the traditional Chinese medicine, prompt market transactions more
      convenient and standard, and has a great significance to the development of the
      whole traditional Chinese medicine industry. The formation of traditional Chinese
      medicine specifications and grades experienced a long historical development
      process. In order to provide the reference for modification of the product
      specifications and grades standards and management of traditional Chinese
      medicine products, the author consulted a large number of materia medica books
      and related references, sorted and analyzed the historical development process.
      The author divided the formation and development process into four stages,
      including germination stage before the Southern and Northern Dynasties,
      development stage of Tang and Song Dynasty, mature period of the Ming and Qing
      Dynasties and the inheritance development stage since the foundation of the
      People's Republic. The author believes that the clinical curative effect is the
      driving force to promote the development of commodity specifications and grades.
      In addition, the national pharmaceutical policy, international status, the level
      of science and technology also influence the development of commodity
      specifications and grades in some extents. Finally, the author provides three
      piece of suggestions for the modification of the product specifications and
      grades standards, according to the historical development rule.

PMID- 28875626
TI  - [Research model on commodity specification standard of radix Chinese materia
      medica].
AB  - As an important part of the market commodity circulation, the standard grade of
      Chinese traditional medicine commodity is very important to restrict the market
      order and guarantee the quality of the medicinal material. The State Council
      issuing the "protection and development of Chinese herbal medicine (2015-2020)"
      also make clear that the important task of improving the circulation of Chinese
      herbal medicine industry norms and the commodity specification standard of common
      traditional Chinese medicinal materials. However, as a large class of Chinese
      herbal medicines, the standard grade of the radix is more confused in the market
      circulation, and lack of a more reasonable study model in the development of the
      standard. Thus, this paper summarizes the research background, present situation
      and problems, and several key points of the commodity specification and grade
      standard in radix herbs. Then, the research model is introduced as an example of
      Pseudostellariae Radix, so as to provide technical support and reference for
      formulating commodity specifications and grades standard in other radix
      traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

PMID- 28875627
TI  - [Qualitative characteristics and classification study on commodity specification
      and grade standard of Panax notoginseng].
AB  - Through the markets investigations and literature surveying, this paper
      investigates and analyzes the qualitative characteristics and commodity condition
      of Panax notoginseng. And the samples collected from market and origin were
      analyzed in order to revise the commodity specification and grade standard of P.
      notoginseng combined with production practice. In this paper, the authors divide
      the P. notoginseng into 4 commodity specification which are root (including Cunqi
      and Dongqi ), Rhizome and rootlet according to different parts and harvest time.
      And the root were divided into 8 grade which are 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 120,
      countless and substandard. The density and internal components between the
      different commodity specification and grade of P. notoginseng were also compared.
      As well as the effect of different producing area, cultivation years and
      harvesting time on the commodity specification and grade of P. notoginseng were
      researched. On this basis, we revise and improve the commodity specification and
      grade standard of P. notoginseng. Moreover, we suggest the quality control
      indexes of P. notoginseng should be developed according to the different
      medicinal part and commodity specification in CHP. In order to guide the
      standardized production of traditional Chinese medicine and ensure the quality of
      medicinal materials, the cultivation years and density of each medicinal
      materials should also be indicated in CHP.

PMID- 28875628
TI  - [Analysis of commercial specifications and grades of wild and cultivated
      Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix based on multi-indicative constituents].
AB  - The study is aimed to analyze the commercial specifications and grades of wild
      and cultivated Gentianae Macrophllae Radix based on multi-indicative
      constituents. The seven kinds of main chemical components containing in Gentianae
      Macrophyllae Radix were determined by UPLC, and then the quality levels of
      chemical component of Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix were clustered and classified
      by modern statistical methods (canonical correspondence analysis, Fisher
      discriminant analysis and so on). The quality indices were selected and their
      correlations were analyzed. Lastly, comprehensively quantitative grade division
      for quality under different commodity-specifications and different grades of same
      commodity-specifications of wild and planting were divided. The results provide a
      basis for a reasonable division of specification and grade of the commodity of
      Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix. The range of quality evaluation of main index
      components (gentiopicrin, loganin acid and swertiamarin) was proposed, and the
      Herbal Quality Index (HQI) was introduced. The rank discriminant function was
      established based on the quality by Fisher discriminant analysis. According to
      the analysis, the quality of wild and cultivated Luobojiao, one of the commercial
      specification of Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix was the best, Mahuajiao, the other
      commercial specification, was average , Xiaoqinjiao was inferior. Among grades,
      the quality of first-class cultivated Luobojiao was the worst, of second class
      secondary, and the third class the best; The quality of the first-class of wild
      Luobojiao was secondary, and the second-class the best; The quality of the second
      class of Mahuajiao was secondary, and the first-class was the best; the quality
      of first-class Xiaoqinjiao was secondary, and the second-class was the better one
      between the two grades, but not obvious significantly. The method provides a new
      idea and method for evaluation of comprehensively quantitative on the quality of
      Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix.

PMID- 28875629
TI  - [Correspondence analysis between traditional commercial specifications and
      quantitative quality indices of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix].
AB  - This paper aims to explore a comprehensive assessment method combined traditional
      Chinese medicinal material specifications with quantitative quality indicators.
      Seventy-six samples of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix were collected on market and
      at producing areas. Traditional commercial specifications were described and
      assigned, and 10 chemical components and volatile oils were determined for each
      sample. Cluster analysis, Fisher discriminant analysis and correspondence
      analysis were used to establish the relationship between the traditional
      qualitative commercial specifications and quantitative chemical indices for
      comprehensive evaluating quality of medicinal materials, and quantitative
      classification of commercial grade and quality grade. A herb quality index (HQI)
      including traditional commercial specifications and chemical components for
      quantitative grade classification were established, and corresponding
      discriminant function were figured out for precise determination of quality grade
      and sub-grade of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix. The result showed that
      notopterol, isoimperatorin and volatile oil were the major components for
      determination of chemical quality, and their dividing values were specified for
      every grade and sub-grade of the commercial materials of Notopterygii Rhizoma et
      Radix. According to the result, essential relationship between traditional
      medicinal indicators, qualitative commercial specifications, and quantitative
      chemical composition indicators can be examined by K-mean cluster, Fisher
      discriminant analysis and correspondence analysis, which provide a new method for
      comprehensive quantitative evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine quality
      integrated traditional commodity specifications and quantitative modern chemical
      index.

PMID- 28875630
TI  - [Study on commercial specification of atractylodes based on Delphi method].
AB  - This research adopts "Delphi method" to evaluate atractylodes traditional traits
      and rank correlation. By using methods of mathematical statistics the
      relationship of the traditional identification indicators and atractylodes goods
      rank correlation was analyzed, It is found that the main characteristics
      affectingatractylodes commodity specifications and grades of main characters
      wereoil points of transaction,color of transaction,color of surface,grain of
      transaction,texture of transaction andspoilage. The study points out that the
      original "seventy-six kinds of medicinal materials commodity specification
      standards of atractylodes differentiate commodity specification" is not in
      conformity with the actual market situation, we need to formulate corresponding
      atractylodes medicinal products specifications and grades.This study combined
      with experimental results "Delphi method" and the market actual situation,
      proposed the new draft atractylodes commodity specifications and grades, as the
      new atractylodes commodity specifications and grades standards. It provides a
      reference and theoretical basis.

PMID- 28875632
TI  - [Research progress of anti-drug resistance in traditional Chinese medicine].
AB  - Bacterial drug resistance has been always the focus of the world. With the abuse
      of antibiotics and the emerging of "Superbug" in the world, the harm of drug
      resistance to human beings is more and more serious, with an uncontrollable
      trend. Today, with the relative lack of antibiotics, people pay more attention to
      Chinese herbal medicines with a wide range of sources, high security, less toxic
      side effects and mysterious anti-drug resistance mechanism, hoping to find new
      ways or new ideas to solve the problem of drug resistance. In recent years, the
      screening, extracting and isolating of effective drug resistance inhibitors from
      natural plants and traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as the investigation in
      mechanism of anti-drug resistance, have become a hot research in the field of
      medicine. In this paper, we would analyze and summarize the action mechanism of
      bacterial drug resistance, characteristics and advantages of anti-drug resistance
      of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as the herbal ingredients with anti-drug
      resistance effect, hoping to provide certain theoretical basis and research ideas
      for solving the problem of bacterial drug resistance and developing new green
      Chinese antibiotics.

PMID- 28875631
TI  - [Research progress on salvianolic acids of Salvia miltiorrhiza].
AB  - Salvia miltiorrhiza is one of the most common traditional Chinese medicines. It
      has rich resources in China. According to modern studies, phenolic acids are the
      main effective components in S. miltiorrhiza. These components have
      cardiovascular and cerebrovascular protective effect, and anti-tumor,
      antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic activities, etc. It has been
      widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and
      others. In this paper, the chemicals and pharmacological effects of phenolic
      acids from S. miltiorrhiza were summarized in the last decade. Its researches and
      development prospects were also analyzed for further studying and comprehensive
      utilization of these phenolic acids.

PMID- 28875633
TI  - [Balance between cardiovascular pharmacological and hemolytic effects of saponins
      of Panax notogenseng].
AB  - PNS (total saponins of Panax notognseng, PNS) has a clear effect and wide
      application prospect for cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, saponins have
      hemolytic properties, which are related to its molecular structure type and
      dosage. On one hand, this article summarizes the research progress of PNS in
      heart cerebrovascular pharmacology pharmacological in recent five years, a number
      of studies both in vitro and in vivo for overall body, organs, cells and
      molecules, show that PNS could improve myocardial and cerebral ischemia injury,
      and it has effects in resisting thrombosis, inflammation, oxidation,
      atherosclerosis, and modulating vascular endothelial cells function and improving
      the cerebral ischemia injury etc. On the other hand, the hemolysis effect of PNS
      is closely related to its molecular structure type and administrating dosage.
      Different structures bring about different hemolysis activities. Structure
      activity relationship suggests that the length of sugar side chains attached to C
      20 and the disaccharide connection mode on C-3 may influence the hemolysis
      activity of PNS. Within the dose range from 2.5 to 250 mg*L-1, PNS has no
      hemolysis activity. However, PNS exhibits hemolytic properties at high
      concentrations(>=500 mg*L-1). Based on the hemolytic or anti-hemolysis
      characteristics of saponins, and dose-response relationship, the rational
      clinical application of PNS can be guaranteed by controlling the ratio of
      hemolytic monosaponins in PNS and improving the hemolytic test method.

PMID- 28875634
TI  - [SIC algorithm based model updating for near infrared analysis of Salvia
      miltiorrhiza alcohol extraction process].
AB  - The near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for offline monitoring of alcohol extraction
      process of Salvia miltiorrhiza was investigated, with high performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) determination of value for reference. The partial least
      squares method was adopted to establish the tanshinone IIA quantitative
      calibration model, so as to detect extraction process of Salvia miltiorrhiza.
      Because the differences between batches of raw materials may endanger the
      robustness of the original model, the simple interval calculation (SIC) was
      applied in updating the near-infrared quantitative model for traditional Chinese
      medicine extraction process for the first time, and compared with Random
      Selection (RS) method. SIC's final updating results showed that root mean square
      with cross validation (RMSECV), root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and
      residual predictive deviation (RPD) of tanshinone IIA were 0.006 8 g*L-1, 0.005 4
      g*L-1 and 3.14, respectively; but RS' final updating results showed that RMSECV,
      RMSEP and RPD were 0.006 4 g*L-1, 0.006 8 g*L-1 and 2.50, respectively. This
      study suggested that SIC is superior to RS, and provided a research foundation
      for quality control and monitoring of S. miltiorrhiza extraction process in the
      future.

PMID- 28875635
TI  - [Isothermal adsorption, desorptionand thermodynamic properties of Scutellaria
      baicalensis pieces].
AB  - To study the characteristics of adsorption and desorption of Scutellaria
      baicalensis pieces. On the basic thermodynamic theory, thestatic method was
      adopted to obtain S. baicalensis pieces' isothermal adsorption and desorption
      data at 25, 35, 45 C, with the water activity between 0.10 and 0.85. Eight
      moisture models were selected to fit the data and then evaluated to determine the
      thermodynamic properties of S. baicalensis pieces. The results show that, among
      the eight adsorption models, Peleg fit the best, in which absolutely-safe and the
      relatively-safe moisture contents of S. baicalensis pieces were around 9.22% and
      13.51% respectively; the net equivalent heat adsorption and desorption and the
      differential entropy of S. baicalensis pieces were closely related to moisture
      content, and decrease within crease of water content; when drying the pieces,
      12.0% of moisture content can be taken as the drying end; both of adsorption and
      desorption processes were driven by enthalpy and non-spontaneous. The study on S.
      baicalensis pieces' isothermal adsorption and desorption rules can help advance
      studies on adsorption and desorption rules of Chinese herbal pieces, and play a
      good guiding role in optimizing storage conditions and drying process of Chinese
      herbal pieces.

PMID- 28875636
TI  - [Preparation and in vitro evaluation of tetrandrine-loaded composite microspheres
      embedded with PLGA nanoparticles].
AB  - In this paper, we prepared a type of composite microspheres embedded with poly
      (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles for efficient inhalation delivery
      of tetrandrine (Tet), which is a traditional Chinese medicine for anticancer, and
      studied its morphology, drug release profile, cytotoxicity and cellular uptake
      behavior. PLGA nanoparticles loading tetrandrine were prepared by emulsion
      solvent diffusion method, and composite microspheres were prepared by spray
      drying method with mannitol as matrix due to its osmotic effect. Scanning
      electronic microscopy, dynamic light scattering laser particle analyzer and
      confocal microscopy were applied to characterize the morphology and size of the
      microspheres. The drug loading rate, drug encapsulation efficiency and drug
      release properties were explored by RP-HPLC. The cytotoxicity in A549 cells
      between crude drug of Tet and Tet-loaded microspheres were compared by MTT assay.
      The cellular uptake behavior of microspheres in A549 cells was investigated using
      confocal laser scanning microscopy. The resultant microspheres were composed of
      189 nm PLGA nanoparticles exhibited sizes ranging from 1 to 3 MUm, with the
      highest deposition efficiency. The microspheres can easily be dissolved in a
      mimic lung environment and release redispersible PLGA nanoparticles. Compared
      with crude drug of Tet, Tet-loaded microspheres showed a certain sustained
      release property and higher cytotoxicity effect to A549 cells. The cellular
      uptake experiment demonstrated a higher excellent penetration ability of cells to
      nanoparticles and time-dependent uptake process. This study provides a basis for
      developing new inhalation therapies for lung cancer.

PMID- 28875637
TI  - [Effect of heating treatment on stability of two coumarins in Angelica dahurica
      and activity of tyrosinase].
AB  - To study the heating treatment of Angelica dahurica under different temperature
      and time conditions on the stability of coumarins and tyrosinase activity. HPLC
      method was used to determine the contents of imperatorin and isoimperatorin, and
      tyrosinase activity was assayed by measuring the oxidation rate of L-DOPA in
      vitro. After heated, the contents of imperatorin increased. Expect for being
      heated at 90 C for 2 h, the content of isoimperatorin was higher than crude one.
      Before and after being heated, A. dahurica showed an activating effect on
      tyrosinase. In the same temperature and time conditions, the activation rate
      increased with the rise of concentration of tyrosinase extracts. Heating process
      for A. dahurica could change the contents of imperatorin and isoimperatorin,
      mainly increasing their concentrations.

PMID- 28875638
TI  - [Simultaneous determination of six components in water extract and alcohol
      precipitation liquid in Astragali Radix by HPLC-UV-ELSD].
AB  - A HPLC-UV-ELSD method was established for simultaneous determination of six
      components in two intermediates of Shenqi Fuzheng injection (SFI) and the
      feasibility of establishing quantitative analysis of multi-components by single
      marker (QAMS) methods on different detectors was further explored. Calycosin-7-O
      beta-D-glucoside and astragloside IV were selected as internal reference
      substances for respectively flavonoids and saponins, and relative correlation
      factors (RCF) of formononetin-7-O-beta-D-glucoside, 9, 10-dimethoxypterocarpan-3
      O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, 2'-dihydroxy-3', 4'-dimethoxyisoflavan-7-O-beta-D
      glucopyranoside and astragloside II were calculated. Eventually, quantitative
      results of the 14 samples were compared between QAMS and external standard
      method. The sample concentrations calculated by QAMS were similar with
      concentrations calculated by external standard method, and the absolute values of
      relative deviations were generally less than 5% according to the UV detection of
      flavonoids. On the basis of ELSD detection for saponins, however, the absolute
      values of relative deviation of the two methods ranged from 0.48% to 23.17%. The
      QAMS method built on ultraviolet (UV) detectors was stable and can be used as a
      substitute method to reduce the consumption of standard compounds; meanwhile, the
      accuracy of QAMS method built on evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD) was
      inferior to that of external standard method, and the working principle of ELSD
      and feasible concentration range remain to be further studied.

PMID- 28875639
TI  - [Chemical constituents from Mylabris phalerata and their cytotoxic activity in
      vitro].
AB  - Ten compounds were isolated from Mylabris phalerata by using preparative HPLC and
      column chromatography over MCI gel. On the basis of physical-chemical properties,
      NMR and MS data analysis, the compounds were identified as 5'-[(1 R,2 R,3 S,6R)-1
      hydroxymethyl-2-methyl-3,6-epoxycyclohexane-1,2-dicarboximide]- ethyl-2'-methyl
      2'-butenoate (1),cantharidin (2), cyclo-(L-Pro-L-Ala) (3), cyclo-(R-Pro-R-Leu)
      (4), cyclo-(S-Pro-R-Leu) (5), cyclo-(D-Pro-L-Tyr) (6), indole-3-aldehyde (7), 3
      indoleacetic acid (8), valerolactam (9), and 4-hydroxyphthalid (10).Compound 1
      was a new compound, and compounds 2-10 were obtained from this genus for the
      first time. Compounds 1-9 were subjected to cytotoxic activity on HCT-116, HepG2,
      BGC-823, NCI-H1650, A2780 cell lines, and only compound 2 showed inhibitory
      effect on all cancer cell lines.

PMID- 28875640
TI  - [Flavonoids from Picris davurica].
AB  - Eleven compounds were purified from the anti-inflammatory extract of Picris
      davurica by column chromatograph on HP20 macroporous resin, MCI, sephadex LH-20
      and ODS.Their structures were determined by the spectra data of NMR and MS as
      isoestin 7-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-2'-O-alpha-L-arabinopyranoside(1), isoetin-7-O
      beta-D-glucopyranosyl-2'-O-beta-D-xyloypyranoside(2), isoetin-7-O-beta-D
      glucopyranosyl-2'-O-alpha-D-glucopy- ranoside(3), isoetin 5'-O-beta-D
      glucopyranoside(4), isoetin-2'-O-beta-D-xyloypyranoside(5), isoetin-4'-O-beta-D-O
      beta-D-glucopyranoside(6), isoetin-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside(7), isoestin-2'-O
      alpha-L-arabinopyranoside(8), luteolin-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranosie(9), isoetin(10)
      and luteolin (11). All compounds were isolated from this plantfor the first
      time.Among them, compounds 1-8 were isolated from the genus Picris for the first
      time.

PMID- 28875641
TI  - [Studies on flavonoids from Cirsium setosum].
AB  - To investigate the chemical constituents of ethyl acetate from Cirsium setosum,
      fifteen flavonoids were obtained by column chromatography on silica gel, MCI,
      Sephadex LH-20, and preparative HPLC. Their structures were identified as 4',5,6
      trihydroxy-7-methoxyflavone(1), 4',5-dihydroxy-7,8-dimethoxyflavone(2),
      sorbifolin-6-O-beta-glucopyranoside(3), kaempferol-7-O-alpha-L-rhamnoside(4),
      kaempferol(5), quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucosyl-7-O-alpha-L-rhamnoside(6),
      myricetin(7), myricetin-3-O-beta-D-glucoside(8), 5,7- dihydroxy -3',4'-
      dimethoxyflavone(9), 3',4',5- trihydroxy-3,7-dimethoxyflavone(10), 3',3,4',5
      tetrahydroxy-7-methoxyflavone(11), 3'-hydroxy-4',5,7-trimethoxyflavone(12), 7
      hydroxy-3',4',5-trimethoxyflavone(13), 4',5-dihydroxy-2',3',7,8
      tetramethoxylflavone(14), and 5-hydroxy-2',3',7,8-tetramethoxylflavone(15) by
      spectroscopic data analysis. All compounds were isolated from this plant for the
      first time.Compounds(1-15) were evaluated for their hypoglycemic activities by
      PTP1B enzyme model. Among them, compounds 2, 12, and 14 showed significant PTP1B
      inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 2.54, 1.85, 2.11 MUmol*L-1,
      respectively.

PMID- 28875642
TI  - [Research on concentration of 5 different ginsenosides in Panax japonica
      collected from different cultivated geographic regions].
AB  - In this paper, an HPLC-QqQ-MS method for determination of 5 different
      ginsenosides of Panax japonica collected from different cultivated geographic
      regions was established. The separation was performed on a Zorbax XDB-C18 (4.6
      mm*100 mm, 1.8 MUm) column with the gradient elution of acetonitrile (contained
      0.1% formic acid)-0.1% formic acid water. The flow rate was 0.5 mL*min-1. The
      colunm temperature was maintained at 30 C. The analytes were detected using
      electrospray ionization (ESI) in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) modes.
      Reaction selected ions were 203.2 for ginsenoside Re, 202.9 for ginsenoside Rg1,
      365.0 for ginsenoside Rf, 789.1 for ginsenoside Rd, 360.9 for ginsenoside Ro.
      Ginsenosides Re, ginsenosides Rg1, ginsenosides Rf, ginsenosides Rd, ginsenosides
      Ro had good linearity in the ranges of 3.33-66.60 MUg (r=0.999 1),2.83-56.54 MUg
      (r=0.999 2), 0.32-6.51 MUg (r=0.999 2), 12.55-251.00 MUg (r=0.999 3), 0.85-16.90
      MUg (r=0.999 5), respectively. The results of recovery were among 100.8% to
      104.6%, and the values of RSD were blow 3.0%. This method is simple, reliable and
      accurate, and can provide basis for P. japonica basic research.

PMID- 28875643
TI  - [Simultaneous determination of 5 compounds in Tripterygium hypoglaucum based on
      ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid coupled with HPLC].
AB  - Using six kinds of ionic liquids as extractants, ultrasonic-assisted extraction
      coupled with HPLC method was developed for the simultaneous determination of
      wilforgine, wiforizine, triptophenolide, wilforine and triptoquinone A in
      Tripterygium hypoglaucum. The separation was performed on an Inertsil ODS-4
      column with the mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid in gradient
      elution at a flow rate of 0.75 mL*min-1. Detection wavelength was 220 nm and the
      column temperature was 30C. Under the optimal extractions, the results showed
      that triptophenolide and triptoquinone A had the highest extraction yield by
      using 0.6 mol*L-1 [BMIm]PF6 methanol solution as extraction solvent with the
      solid-liquid ratio of 1?10. The calibration curves of triptophenolide and
      triptoquinone A showed a good linearity in the range of 0.000 65-0.026, 0.066 55
      2.662 MUg (r=0.999 9)respectively. The average recovery was 102.4% and 97.90%
      with RSD of 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively. Wilforgine, wiforizine and wilforine had
      the highest extraction yield when using 0.6 mol* L-1 [BMIm]PF6absolute ethanol
      solution as extraction solvent with the solid-liquid ratio of 1?10. The content
      of wilforgine, wiforizine and wilforine from 0.023 9-0.956, 0.002 7-0.108, 0.006
      4-0.256 MUg showed a good linearity (r=0.999 9), and the average recovery was
      100.6%,99.50% and 98.70% with RSD of 2.1%,1.9% and 2.7%, respectively. The
      results indicated that this method is convenient, reliable and green, and can be
      used as a reliableanalytical method for the quality control of T.hypoglaucum.

PMID- 28875644
TI  - [Research on Chinese medicine pairs effects of Panax notoginseng and Bletilla
      striata before and after compatibility on contents of notoginsenosides].
AB  - To discuss the synergistic mechanism of compatible use of two medicinal
      herbs,Panax notoginseng and Bletilla striata, an HPLC was established to
      determine two ginseng saponins (20S)-ginseng saponin Rg3 and ginseng saponin Rh4
      contained in single decoction of Panax notoginseng as well as in compound
      decoction of Panax notoginseng and Bletillastriata in different compatibility
      ratio (1?0.5, 1?1, 1?2), followed by analyzing the impact of amount of
      notoginsenosides after compatibility. As a result, compared with the single
      decoction of Panax notoginseng, the contents of ginseng saponin Rg3 and ginseng
      saponin Rh4 in the compound decoction of Panax notoginseng and Bletillastriata
      were on the rise as the increasement of the amount of Bletillastriata. The
      contents of the notoginsengsaponin R1, ginseng saponin Rg1 and ginseng saponin
      Rb1 of Panax notoginseng single decoction were significantly decreased after
      compatibility. Therefore, after compatibility, it was more easy to produce (20S)
      ginseng saponin Rg3 and ginseng saponin Rh4.This study can extend to a method of
      preparation of (20S)-ginseng saponin Rg3 and ginseng saponin Rh4. Furthermore,
      after compatibility, two ginseng saponins which had lipase inhibitory effect were
      both increased significantly, indicating that the compatibility of these two herb
      medicines may have effect on losing weight.

PMID- 28875645
TI  - [Inhibitory effects of extracts from Moutan Cortex on formation of advanced
      glycation end-products (AGEs) in vitro and specificity screening of its potential
      active components].
AB  - In this study, bovine serum albumin (BSA)/methylglyoxal (MGO) non-enzymatic
      glycosylation reaction system was used for the evaluation of the inhibitory
      effects of Moutan Cortex extracts on the formation of AGEs. The HPLC-LC-ESI-MS/MS
      technology was adopted to test and indentify active components in Moutan Cortex
      against AGEs formation. The different concentrations of extracts (crude herb
      concentration 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 g*L-1) from Moutan Cortexwas determined by
      fluorospectrophotometry, indicating an activity against AGEs formation in
      different concentrations of extracts, the inhibition ratio were (36.2+/-5.3)%,
      (43.5+/-6.2)%, (55.4+/-7.8)%, (68.6+/-6.7)%, (70.4+/-8.2)%, respectively after 6
      day reaction in a dose dependent manner. Besides, the forming speed of AGEs
      tended to be steady after 24 h reaction. The HPLC technology was used to analyze
      chromatograms before and after the incubation of Moutan Cortex and methylglyoxal,
      identify changes in five chromatographic peaks and show decrease or increase in
      chromatographic peaks. These substances were trigalloyl glucose, tetragalloyl
      glucose, galloylpaeoniflorin, hexagalloyl glucose and benzoylpaeoniflorin after
      LC-ESI-MS/MS identification. Extracts from Moutan Cortex showed the remarkable
      inhibitory effects against formation of AGEs in BSA/glucose system. Furthermore,
      these potential active components might be associated with the efficacy of Moutan
      Cortex on treatment of diabetic nephropathy, which enriches basic studies for
      Moutan Cortex and provides ideas and reference basis for subsequent studies.

PMID- 28875646
TI  - [Synergistic protective effect of Scutellariae Radix with Phellodendri Chinensis
      Cortex on Dioscoreae Bulibferae Rhizoma liver toxicity in rats].
AB  - Dioscoreae Bulibferae Rhizoma (RDB) is commonly used in clinical Chinese
      medicine. It has been used in many kinds of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM),
      but the toxicity of RDB, easily leads to hepatotoxicity. The objective of the
      present study is to investigate the synergistic protective effect of Scutellariae
      Radix (SR) with Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex (PCC) on RDB caused liver toxicity
      in rats. SD female rats were adopted to establish the hepatotoxicity models by
      RDB (9 g*kg-1, ig) once daily for 28 consecutive days. After 28 days, liver
      histological changes were observed, and the activity of transaminase and
      antioxidant enzymes was evaluated. Morphological and biochemical indicators
      evaluation showed that, Dioscoreae Bulibferae Rhizoma-induced hepatotoxicity
      models were successful, and the liver cells were dissolved and swelling with
      fatty degeneration; inflammatory cells were present in gaps; local punctiformed
      or lamellar hydropic degeneration was found in liver tissues, with partial
      necrosis. Indexes of liver function (ALT, AST and ALP) were significantly
      increased (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The combination of SR and PCC has protective effect
      on RDB-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. SR+PCC exerted the strongest protective
      effects against RDB-induced hepatotoxicity. SR, PCC, and SB+CP were observed to
      exhibit hepatoprotective effect as demonstrated by significant decrease in serum
      levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST),
      alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (P<0.05 or P<0.01), and MAD level in liver tissue
      (P<0.001), significant increase in GSH content in liver tissue (P<0.001), and
      significant improvement in his to pathologic changes of liver tissues in rats.
      SR, PCC and their combinations could achieve liver protection effect by reducing
      ALT, ALP and AST level in serum, increasing GSH level and anti-oxidantability of
      liver tissues, and reducing hepatic tissue cells injury.

PMID- 28875648
TI  - [Effect of salvianolic acid A on anesthetized canine experimental myocardial
      infarction].
AB  - Salvianolic acid A (SAA), one of the major active water-soluble salvianolic acids
      of traditional Chinese medicine Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, has been reported to
      be effective on anti-myocardial ischemia, anti-oxidation and anti-thrombus. This
      study aimed to investigate appropriate administration route on dogs with acute
      myocardial ischemia(AMI). Twenty-four dogs were randomized into four groups
      (n=6), model, oral administration of SAA (8 mg*kg-1), intravenous administration
      of SAA (4 mg*kg-1), intravenous administration of Herbesser(0.5 mg*kg-1) as
      positive drug group. AMI model was established by ligating left anterior
      descending coronary arteries(LAD) of dogs. Changes of ST segment were determined
      by epicardial electrocardiogram(ECG), coronary blood flow (CBF) and myocardial
      oxygen consumption were measured by ultrasonic Doppler flow meter, serum creatine
      kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were observed by fully automatic
      biochemical analyser. Myocardial infarct size was assessed by nitro blue
      tetrazolium (NBT) staining. Both oral and intravenous administration of SAA
      reduced the myocardial infarct area/left ventricle area significantly [(16.73+/
      6.52)% and (13.19+/-2.38)%, compared with (24.35+/-4.89)% in model group,
      P<0.01). Oral administration of SAA improved the ECG performance of Sigma-ST from
      30-190 min after ischemia (P<0.05-0.01), while intravenous SAA had a rapid onset
      (10-190 min after ischemia, P<0.05-0.01). Compared with model group, oral and
      intravenous SAA both decreased serum CK and LDH significantly (P<0.05-0.01),
      while the difference of intravenous administration is more significant. SAA
      protects myocardium in canine experimental myocardial infarction models.
      Intravenous administration of SAA alleviates myocardial infarction with greater
      significance than oral route.

PMID- 28875649
TI  - [Effect of Cynomorium songaricum polysaccharide on telomere of lung cancer A549
      cells].
AB  - To study the effect of Cynomorium songaricum polysaccharide (CSRP) on A549 cells
      telomere of human non-small cell lung cancer, the mice were intragastric
      administrated with CSRP (0.08 g*kg-1) once daily for 4 days. Then their serum was
      taken for preparing CSRP drug serum. A549 cells were treated by the drug serum,
      and the effect of drug serum with different concentrations and different treating
      time on the proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells was determined
      by MTT test. After treating for 48 hours by the drug serum of different
      concentrations, the telomere length of the cells was determined by fluorescence
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR); the mRNA expression of telomerase
      reverse transcriptase (TERT) was determined by RT-qPCR; the cells apoptosis was
      determined by TUNEL assay. The results demonstrated that CSRP of various
      concentrations could inhibit the proliferation of the lung cancer A549 cells
      significantly, and the inhibition effect was strongest at 48 hours with the
      concentration of 6.0 mL*L-1. At 48 h, that CSRP of the concentrations from 1.5 to
      12.0 mL*L-1 could significantly shorten the telomere length of A549 cells, and
      the effect was strongest with the concentration of 1.5 mg*L-1. CSRP of various
      concentrations could significantly inhibit the mRNA expression of TERT in A549
      cells, and the inhibition effect was stronger when the concentration was >=6.0
      mL*L-1. CSRP of various concentrations could promote A549 cells apoptosis, and
      the effect was stronger when the concentration was >=6.0 mL*L-1. In conclusion,
      CSRP has the anti-cancer effect, and the action mechanism may be associated with
      inhibiting TERT mRNA expression, shortening telomere length, inhibiting cells
      proliferation and promoting cells apoptosis.

PMID- 28875647
TI  - [Antiemetic activity of effective extract and bioactive compounds in ginger].
AB  - To investigate the antiemetic effect of the active extract (ginger ether extract,
      GEE) and its bioactive compounds in ginger, the pica vomiting model in rats and
      the gastric emptying model in mice were used to observe the antiemetic effect of
      GEE in cisplatin-induced pica and gastric emptying, and the main components in
      GEE were detected by RP-HPLC; in vitro, the antagonist effect of GEE and the four
      components in it were explored by the contraction of guinea-pig ileum induced by
      SR57227A and carbachol. The results showed that the amount of Kaolin ingested by
      rats were declined significantly in all the three groups of GEE (25,50,100 mg*kg
      1) (P<0.01), while cisplatin-induced gastric emptying in mice was also suppressed
      in all the three groups (P<0.01), and 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol,10-gingerol and 6
      shogaol were found mainly in GEE by RP-HPLC; the maximum contraction of isolated
      guinea-pig ileum could be reduced by addition of GEE (2.3, 4.6, 11.5 mg*L-1), 6
      gingerol,8-gingerol,10-gingerol or 6-shogaol (1, 2, 5 MUmol*L-1) when the
      concentration of SR5727A was 1*10-5 mol*L-1 and that of carbachol was 1*10-4
      mol*L-1 (P<0.05, P<0.01). In conclusion, 5-HT3 and M3 receptors could be
      antagonized by GEE and its bioactive compounds 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol, 10
      gingerol and 6-shogaol, which may be correlated with the antiemetic mechanism of
      ginger maybe related to it.

PMID- 28875650
TI  - [Active compounds from Baoyuan decoction with myocardial protection activities
      and their potential targets].
AB  - Baoyuan decoction (BYD) is a classical Chinese formula for coronary heart disease
      with Qi deficiency, blood stasis tonifying Qi and Yang deficiency. However, the
      chemical material basis and underlying action mechanisms of BYD still lack
      systemic study. In order to clarify the active compounds and the potential action
      mechanisms of BYD, the oxygen-glucose deprivation/recovery (OGD/R)-induced H9c2
      cells injury models was used to screen the monomeric compounds of BYD with
      myocardial protection activity. PubChem's BioAssay database was then used to
      analyze the potential targets of active monomeric compounds, classify the
      predicted biological targets, and analyze the internal relation between active
      compounds of BYD and biological targets. The screening results showed that BYD
      aqueous extract and 17 monomeric compounds could significantly increase the
      survival rate of OGD/R-induced H9c2 myocardial cells. The results of virtual
      targets screening study showed that 15 monomeric compounds and the potential
      mechanisms for myocardial protection were related to oxidative stress pathway,
      calcium ion pathway, mitochondrial protection, anti-apoptosis, etc. These results
      verified that BYD had myocardial protection effect, which was obtained by network
      regulation of multi-components and multi-targets. All these results provide the
      theoretical basis and references for the clinical usage of BYD in treatment of
      coronary heart disease.

PMID- 28875651
TI  - [Effect of different processed volatile oils from Angelica sinensis on urinary
      metabolomics rats].
AB  - Different processed volatile oils from AS on urine metabolites of normal rats
      were analyzed to reveal the possible metabolic pathways. Totally 50 male Waster
      rats were randomly divided into normal control group, C-ASVO group, J-ASVO group,
      T-ASVO group and Y-ASVO group, with 10 rats in each group. The normal group was
      given isovolumetric 0.5% polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid ester(Tween-80),
      while the other groups were given 0.176 mL*kg-1 different processed volatile oils
      from AS. Drugs were given for 3 successive days. The urine was collected at 48 h
      with metabolic cages. GC-MS was employed to detect the metabolic fingerprint of
      rat urine in different times. Principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal
      partial least-squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) were adopted for a
      multivariate statistical analysis. Metabolites with potential differences were
      selected based on the results of variable importance in the projection(VIP) and t
      test. The metabolic pathway analysis(MetPA) database was built for different
      metabolites' metabolic pathways. The results showed that compared with the normal
      group, 31 kinds of endogenous metabolites in the different processed volatile
      oils from AS groups change significantly(P<0.05). And there were differences in
      normal rat urine metabolites among the different processed volatile oils from AS,
      of which the influence degree of J-ASVO was slightly stronger than C-ASVO, T
      ASVO, and Y-ASVO. Therefore, the metabolism effect may be focused on energy
      metabolism, amino acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism and glucose metabolism.
      This study focused on metabolism and mechanism of different processed volatile
      oils from AS, and provided new ideas for pharmacological actions of traditional
      Chinese medicines.

PMID- 28875652
TI  - [Effects of different preparation technologies on concentrations of puerarin and
      catalpol in plasma and brain of rats after oral administration].
AB  - To compare the effects of different preparation technologies on the
      concentrations of puerarin and catalpol in plasma and brain of rats after oral
      administration, in order to lay an experimental basis for developing new oral
      Zige preparations. The nanocrystal, self-microemulsions (tween-80 and Cremophor
      RH-40 as emulsifiers) and inclusion complex of HP-beta-CD containing puerarin and
      catalpol were prepared. The concentrations of puerarin and catalpol in plasma and
      brain of rats after oral administration were determined by HPLC-MS/MS method. The
      pharmacokinetic parameters and brain target index were compared. The results
      showed that preparation technologies had different influences on the
      concentrations of puerarin and catalpol in plasma and brain. The self
      microemulsion (tween-80) could significantly increase the oral absorption of
      puerarin than other technologies(P<0.05), and inclusion complex could remarkably
      increase the oral absorption of catalpol than nanocrystal(P<0.01). For puerarin,
      the brain targeting index of inclusion complex was the highest (P<0.05); but for
      catalpol, the brain targeting index of inclusion complex and self-microemulsions
      were both higher than nanocrystal (P<0.05). The self-microemulsion(tween-80) had
      the highest AUCbrain of puerarin than other groups (P<0.01); the inclusion
      complex had the highest AUCbrain for catalpol, but there was no significant
      difference compared with self-microemulsions. In conclusion, the self
      microemulsion (tween-80) technology could increase the amount of puerarin and
      catalpol in brain, and was expected to be used in new oral Zige preparations.

PMID- 28875653
TI  - [Effects of combined administration of Paeoniae Radix Alba on local
      pharmacokinetics of six aconite alkaloids by skin microdialysis in vivo].
AB  - The Aconiti Radix Cocta gel and Aconiti Radix Cocta combined with Paeoniae Radix
      Alba gel were administered to mice. Physiological saline was taken as perfusate.
      The perfusion rate was 2 MUL*min-1 and the microdialysis samples were collected
      every 0.5 h intervals for eight times. The six aconitine alkaloids concentration
      in perfusate were determined by HPLC-MS/MS. The concentration-time curves were
      plotted, and the pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated and analyzed by SPSS.
      The effects of Paeoniae Radix Alba on transdermal permeation role of six
      aconitine alkaloids in herb couple of Paeoniae Radix Alba-Aconiti Radix Cocta
      were investigated. According to the results, Tmax of the three mono-ester
      aconitum alkaloids of Aconiti Radix Cocta combined with Paeoniae Radix Alba
      groups were shortened, meanwhile, Cmax and AUC of benzoylaconine and
      benzoylhypaconine were increased. However, AUC of the three diester-type
      alkaloids were reduced, with Tmax of hypaconitine prolonged and Cmax lowered. The
      study suggested that the combined administration of Aconiti Radix Cocta and
      Paeoniae Radix Alba promoted the transdermal permeation of mono-ester aconitum
      alkaloids, and inhibited the absorption of parts of diester-type alkaloids. This
      study proved the decreasing toxicity and increasing efficacy of the combination
      of Aconiti Radix Cocta and Paeoniae Radix Alba on the transdermal permeation, and
      provided a reference for studies on the prescription combination regularity and
      relevant practices.

PMID- 28875655
TI  - [Clinical characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine and 40 cases of
      infertility patients].
AB  - In order to understand the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)
      syndrome types, the typical symptoms of different patients and the analysis of
      professor MA's medication characteristics of the treatment for infertility
      patients were analyzed. Totally 40 cases of infertile women treated in Xiyuan
      hospital and TCM out-patient department of China Academy of Chinese Medical
      Sciences in the past five years were randomly selected to classify their
      symptoms, signs and the four diagnostic situations in the first diagnosis,
      summarize syndromes and typical symptoms and analyze the characteristics of
      medication with Ma. Randomly selected nearly five years in 40 cases of infertile
      women with China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Xiyuan hospital and Chinese
      medicine out-patient department treatment, first diagnosed by symptoms, signs and
      the four diagnostic situation. According to the results, kidney yang deficiency:
      10 cases (25%), kidney yin deficiency: 6 cases (15%), phlegm dampness: 3 cases
      (7.5%), liver qi stagnation: 3 cases (7.5%), blood stasis in the uterus: 7 cases
      (17.5%), deficiency of kidney yin deficiency and phlegm dampness: 1 cases (2.5%),
      kidney yin deficiency syndrome of liver qi stagnation: 2 cases (accounted for
      5%), deficiency of kidney yang deficiency syndrome of liver qi stagnation: 1
      cases (2.5%), phlegm dampness syndrome of liver qi stagnation:1 cases (2.5%),
      kidney yin deficiency syndrome, blood stasis and stagnation in the uterus 2 cases
      (accounted for 5%), liver qi stagnation syndrome and blood stasis in the uterus 2
      cases (accounted for 5%), deficiency of kidney yang deficiency syndrome of liver
      qi stagnation syndrome and blood stasis in the uterus, 1 cases (2.5%). Typical
      symptoms were dominated by backache, pain and cold in the lower abdomen, followed
      by thirst, dry throat, more menstrual blood clots, more petechial hemorrhages at
      tongue, dysphoria, premenstrual breast pain, irritability, chest distress and
      greasy in mouth, leucorrhea, semiliquid stool or coprostasis. 40 cases of
      infertility patients showed obvious curative effect after the treatment of
      professor Ma's medication.

PMID- 28875654
TI  - [Unsupervised data mining for prescription and medication regularity for
      treatment of cervical vertigo].
AB  - Vertebral artery type cervical spondylosis is a common type of cervical
      spondylosis, also known as cervical vertigo. In recent years, with the increase
      of people's life pace and the number of office staff, the incidence rate has been
      rising year by year, with a trend of younger age. Because traditional Chinese
      medicine has unique advantages in treating cervical vertigo, it is necessary to
      study the regularity of the Chinese medicine for cervical vertigo. But at
      present, the research is mainly based on the statistics for frequency and
      proportion of herbs. In addition, in the process of diagnosis and treatment of
      Chinese medicine, personal experience also caused differences in prescription
      compatibility and drug dosage, which makes difficult guarantee for the safety and
      effectiveness of drug treatment. So, this paper is based on literatures about the
      traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of cervical vertigo in the past 5
      years, by using association rules algorithm, complex system entropy clustering
      and other non supervised data mining methods. Analysis was made for the use of
      various drugs in the frequency, the association rules, the core drug combination
      and the new prescriptions. The traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support
      system(TCMISS) was utilized to analyze 154 drugs from the 101 prescriptions,
      determine the use frequency of drugs, analyze the characteristics and the
      compatibility of core drugs, and dig out 14 core drug combinations and 7 new
      prescription combinations. The prescription and medication regularities
      illustrates the drugs for treatment of cervical vertigo, including those for
      flating liver and suppressing yang, invigorating the circulation of blood to
      remove blood stasis, reducing water and permeating dampness, increasing qi and
      activating blood, and nourishing the liver and kidney mainly. Treatment rules are
      nourishing liver and kidney, invigorating the circulation of blood stasis
      Tongqiao, reducing phlegm and dampness, flating liver and suppressing yan,
      dredging collaterals, supplementing qi and nourishing blood. This study aims to
      summarize frequently used single herbs for vertebral artery type cervical
      spondylosis, combinations of frequently used herbs and dosage of frequently used
      herbs with significant efficacy, define the current prescription and medication
      regularities for treating cervical vertigo and give guidances for clinical
      mediation.

PMID- 28875656
TI  - [Comparative analysis between origin of cooked traditional Chinese medicine
      powder and modern formula granules].
AB  - In this study, the origin and causes of cooked traditional Chinese medicine
      powder were reviewed, and a comprehensive analysis was made for the time
      background of modern traditional Chinese medicine formula granules and the future
      development trend, in order to provide reference for application and promotion of
      traditional Chinese medicine formula granules. By reference to ancient medical
      books of previous dynasties, a system review was conducted for infancy,
      formation, maturity and transition of cooked traditional Chinese medicine powder,
      and a comprehensive analysis was made for the six factors of cooked traditional
      Chinese medicine powder's maturity in the Song Dynasty. Efforts were made to
      collect domestic and foreign research literatures of modern formula granules,
      understand the detailed development, and conduct an objective analysis of the
      current clinical application of modern formula granules. According to the
      comparative analysis for the application characteristics of cooked traditional
      Chinese medicine powder and modern formula granules, 1the popularity of cooked
      traditional Chinese medicine powder in the Song Dynasty has six factors: soaring
      numbers of medical students and medical practitioners, high medical expenses due
      to huge army, rapid population growth, frequent epidemics and increasing
      diseases, and insufficient finances of central and local governments. 2On the
      basis of clinical application characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine
      formula granules, traditional Chinese medicine formula granules contain extracted
      and concentrated effective components, which guarantee the curative effect, meet
      modern people's demands for "quick, simple and convenience" traditional Chinese
      medicine decoctions, show a relatively high cost performance; however, formula
      granules are restricted by their varieties and lack unified quality control
      standards, and single-extract formula granules have not synergy and attenuation
      effects of combined traditional Chinese medicine decoctions, which also restricts
      its clinical application and promotion. 3Both have advantages in the process of
      clinical application, and shall be used based on syndromes. In conclusion,
      traditional Chinese medicine formula granules do not have disadvantages of
      "difficult, complicated, turbid and disorderly" cooked traditional Chinese
      medicine powder, and solve such problems as "inflexibility, expensiveness,
      restriction, disorder and inefficacy", which is the important basis for promoting
      traditional Chinese medicine formula granules.

PMID- 28875657
TI  - [Research and development on efficacy of Chinese herbal compound].
AB  - The efficacy not only is summarized by clinical effect of Chinese herbal compound
      on theory of traditional Chinese medicine, but also is manifested to clinical
      effect by interaction of many intricate chemical substances. The efficacy of
      Chinese herbal compound is current research focus in field of traditional Chinese
      medicine. By currently knowing in different aspects which included the
      progression in efficacy of Chinese herbal compound, symptomatic efficacy of
      Chinese herbal compound, the relationship between the efficacy and pharmacologic
      effect of Chinese herbal compound, the efficacy related pharmacodynamic substance
      and the evaluation of efficacy, it had been summarized mainly problems and
      methods in research and development process of the efficacy of Chinese herbal
      compound in this paper. Paper also elucidated problems that need to pay attention
      in research of efficacy in order to provide references for clinical and
      experimental studies of efficacy in Chinese herbal compound, boost research and
      development level of new traditional Chinese drug and facilitate modernization of
      traditional Chinese medicines.

PMID- 28875658
TI  - [Steroidal saponins and their pharmacological activities in Solanum plants].
AB  - The genus Solanum which is the largest genus in Solanaceae consists of more than
      2 000 species, most of them are distributed in tropics and subtropics areas, and
      only a small amount in temperate regions throughout the world. Steroidal saponins
      could be found in many species of the Solanum, and they are an important group of
      natural products exhbiting a number of potent beneficent properties, such as anti
      tumor, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant,
      hypoglycemic, and antihyperlipidemic effects. As supplement, this paper gives a
      review of different structural categories of steroidal saponins and their
      pharmacological effects from the solanum plants over the past decade, and it is
      intended to provide a point of reference for further research on steroidal
      saponins in Solanum plants.

PMID- 28875659
TI  - [Advance in treatment of pediatric leukemia through modulating signaling pathways
      induced by traditional Chinese medicine].
AB  - Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in childhood, which is also one of the
      malignant tumors that can be cured by chemotherapy. However, infection and the
      side effects of chemotherapy drugs are the causes of death in children with
      leukemia. Chemotherapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine is used to
      treatment of pediatric leukemia in clinic. Although traditional Chinese medicine
      has extensive clinical experience in the treatment of leukemia, the mechanism is
      not clear. The targeted drugs are attractive for the advantages of the high
      selectivity and little side effects. Targeted therapies in pediatric leukemia are
      targeting BCR/ABL, TARA and FLT3 proteins, which activation results in the
      downstream activation of multiple signaling pathways, including the PI3K/AKT,
      JNK/STAT, Ras/ERK pathways. In recent years, the target site or the signaling
      pathways are clear for the traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of
      leukemia. In this paper, we review recent studies, summary the traditional
      Chinese medicine prescriptions and effective ingredients which can regulate the
      signaling pathways. We view to provide a basis for the treatment of childhood
      leukemia with traditional Chinese medicine combined with chemotherapy drugs or
      targeted drugs.

PMID- 28875660
TI  - [Effects of stocking density and exchanging water frequency on growth and inner
      quality of Whitmania pigra].
AB  - The effects of stocking density and exchanging water frequency on growth,
      digestive enzyme activity, anti-oxidative enzyme and inner quality of Whitmania
      pigra Whitman were evaluated with corresponding measures. The results showed that
      the eventual biomass, specific growth rate, gained weight rate, activities of
      amylase, lipase, protease, SOD, CAT, and ALP correlated positively with stocking
      density and negatively with exchanging water frequency (P<0.05). Exchanging water
      frequency had negative correlation with ammonia nitrogen, nitrite, and hydrogen
      sulfide while revealed positive correlation with dissolved oxygen in the water.
      Stocking density and exchanging water frequency showed no significant effects on
      the contents of moisture, total ash, and acid-insoluble ash. It suggested that
      the optimum stocking density was 7.5 million per hectare and the appropriate
      exchanging water interval was 72 h.

PMID- 28875661
TI  - [Effects of different stocking density and diet on development of Bufo
      gargarizans tadpoles].
AB  - The effects of four different stocking densities and five different diets on the
      growth of Bufo gargarizans tadpoles were studied to determine the optimum
      stocking density and diet. For stocking density experiment, the tadpoles were fed
      respectively at different density of 200, 500, 1 000 and 2 000 tadpoles per
      square meter. For diet experiment, the tadpoles were divided into five groups fed
      respectively with five different diets. The body weight, snout-vent length and
      tail length were measured every seven days, and mortality was recorded. The
      results showed that: the survival rates of tadpole before metamorphosis and after
      metamorphosis were from 68.7% to 96.3% and from 5.7% to 36.0%, respectively; the
      optimum stocking density is 1 000 tadpoles per square meter for the stocking
      density had no effect on the survival rate of tadpole before metamorphosis, and
      the tadpoles had the relative large body weight and survival numbers in 1000
      tadpoles per square meter; the diet II(37.9% crude protein and 5.7% crude fat),
      IV (25.1% crude protein and 4.0% crude fat), and V (egg yolk) were all the
      optimum diets for the diet had no effect on the survival rate of tadpole before
      metamorphosis and the tadpoles fed with three kinds of diet above had relatively
      large body weight, and one of these three diets based on their availability and
      cost should be adopted during breeding period.

PMID- 28875662
TI  - [Construction of cell factories for production of lupeol in Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae].
AB  - Lupane-type triterpenoids, such as betulinic acid, are derived from lupeol and
      have excellent properties in anti-HIV, anti-cancer activities and so on. For
      realizing heterogenous production of lupane-type triterpenoids, our research
      firstly integrated all the seven genes in the MVA pathway in Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae to increase the supply of squalene (triterpenoids universal precursor)
      in a single step using the DNA assembler method. Next, cell factories for
      production of lupeol was constructed by integrating Arabidopsis thaliana lupeol
      synthetic gene (AtLUP) into chromosome of triterpenoid chassis strain. Results
      showed that the MVA pathway, about 20 kb nucleotide length, could be assembled in
      one-pot process and the doubled MVA pathway could significantly improve squalene
      by 500-fold, reaching 354.00 mg*L-1. NK2-LUP was obtained by introducing AtLUP
      gene on chromosome, and could produce 8.23 mg*L-1 lupeol. This study supports the
      possibility of large-scale biosynthetic pathway assembly in S.cerevisiae and lays
      the foundation of obtaining cell factories for production of lupan-type
      triterpenoids at the same time.

PMID- 28875663
TI  - [Mitogen-activated protein kinase genes of Artemisia annua and their expression
      analysis under Cadmium stress].
AB  - In order to study Artemisia annua under cadmium stress, whether there are
      corresponding MAPK genes involved in transduction of the cadmium signal. 17
      AaMAPK genes, named AaMAPK1-AaMAPK17 repectively, were finally obtained by using
      Trinity method for de novo assembly of transcripts from SRA database and BLAST
      search against AtMAPK genes and determing conserved domain using a series of
      bioinformatics tools. There exist 16 MAPK genes contained T[D/E]Y conserved
      domains among the obtained genes. The expressions of these genes were analyzed by
      Real-time PCR under cadmium stress. The results showed that the expressions level
      of AaMAPK3 and AaMAPK10 were down-regulated and MAPK7, MAPK9 and MAPK12 were up
      regulated. These indicated that there exist corresponding MAPK genes involved in
      transduction of the cadmium signal.

PMID- 28875664
TI  - [Cloning and prokaryotic expression analysis of DNA methyltransferas 1(MET1) in
      Ganoderma lucidum].
AB  - DNA methyltransferase is the key enzyme in the process of DNA methylation,
      playing an important role in regulation of gene expression in vivo. According to
      the Ganoderma lucidum transcriptome data, a full-length cDNA sequence of MET1
      from G. lucidum was cloned for the first time, the GenBank registration number is
      KU239998, and we conducted a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of the genetic
      characteristics and spatial structure. The prokaryotic expression analysis showed
      that E.coli[pET28a(+)-GlMET1] in BL21(DE3) could induce objective protein,
      shaking the culture at 16 C until the host bacterium(A600) was approximately 0.8,
      and added IPTG to finally concentration of 0.2 mmol*L-1, and then the optimal
      expression of GlMET1 recombinant protein was accumulated for the induction time
      of 20 h. The real-time PCR results showed that the expression levels of GlMET1
      had obvious differences among varieties of G. lucidum. During the maturity stage,
      the expression levels of GlMET1 were lower than that in juvenile stage, the
      results showed that with the growth of G. lucidum, the expression levels of
      GlMET1 were on the decline. The research provided an important basis for studying
      the mechanism of DNA methyltransferase thoroughly.

PMID- 28875665
TI  - [Which one is more important, raw materials or productive technology?--a case
      study for quality consistency control of Gegen Qinlian decoction].
AB  - To investigate the effect of Chinese medicine raw materials and production
      technology on quality consistency of Chinese patent medicines with Gegen Qinlian
      decoction as an example, and establish a suitable method for the quality
      consistency control of Chinese patent medicines. The results showed that the
      effect of production technology on the quality consistency was generally not more
      than 5%, while the effect of raw materials was even more than 30%, indicating
      that the effect of raw materials was much greater than that of the production
      technology. In this study, blend technology was used to improve the quality
      consistency of raw materials. As a result, the difference between the product
      produced by raw materials and reference groups was less than 5%, thus increasing
      the quality consistence of finished products. The results showed that under the
      current circumstances, the main factor affecting the quality consistency of
      Chinese patent medicines was raw materials, so we shall pay more attention to the
      quality of Chinese medicine's raw materials. Finally, a blend technology can
      improve the quality consistency of Chinese patent medicines.

PMID- 28875666
TI  - [Influence of specification on chemical composition of dissolution and
      hepatocytes toxicity of Polygonum multiflorum].
AB  - According to different toxicities of various aqueous extracts of Polygonum
      multiflorum on hepatocyte, the impacts of chemical composition on the safety of
      P. multiforum was studied. In this study, 8 main chemical compositions in aqueous
      extracts of P. multiflorum were determined by the established HPLC method; at the
      same time, the inhibition ratios of different aqueous extracts of P. multiflorum
      on L02 cell were determined. Afterwards, the potential compounds related to the
      toxicity of P. multiforum were tentatively found through a multiple correlation
      analysis. The results showed that P. multiforum with different chemical
      compositions exhibited great differences in dissolution. The hepatocyte toxicity
      of P. multiflorum powder was much greater than P. multiflorum lumps. In addition,
      three constituents closely related to toxicity of P. multiflorum were found by
      multiple correlation analysis. The study revealed that chemical composition of P.
      multiflorum is closely related to the hepatotoxicity, and the hepatotoxicity of
      P. multiflorum powder is greater than that of other dosage forms. This study
      indicates that P. multiflorum with different chemical compositions show varying
      toxicity, which therefore shall be given high attention.

PMID- 28875667
TI  - [Chinese medicine preparation supramolecular imprinting templates based on in
      vitro release characteristics of BYHW sustained-release tablet].
AB  - The study focused on the in vitro release of Buyanghuanwu (BYHW) elementary
      osmotic pump sustained release tablets. Its band similarity was calculated by the
      total quantum statistical moment. Meanwhile, in vitro release characteristics
      were analyzed to discuss the existence of supramolecular imprinting templates.
      The results show that the same imprint templates may exist in different
      structures of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)'s multi-components. The BYHW
      sustained release tablets prepared by elementary osmotic pump can meet the
      objectives of "overall control, synchronous release". However, the supramolecular
      imprinting templates in TCM compound prescriptions should be further explored,
      the overall and synchronous release of different components was controlled
      through imprinting templates, so as to seek the more suitable sustained release
      preparation technology for multiple components of TCM, and make it in line with
      the characteristics of TCM.

PMID- 28875668
TI  - [Matrix formulation of chaizhi cataplasma optimized by D-optimal mixture design
      combined with multiple mechanical indicators and its in vitro evaluation].
AB  - To optimize the matrix formulation of Chaizhi cataplasma (CC) and investigate its
      release and transdermal absorption properties in vitro. The optimized matrix
      formulation of cataplasma containing liquid herbal extract is determined by using
      D-optimal mixture design, with initial bonding strength, endurance bonding
      strength and gel strength as the evaluating indicators. Modified Franz diffusion
      cells were used to study the in vitro release and transdermal absorption of
      geniposide in CC. The optimized matrix formulation of CC contained NP700,
      aluminum glycinate, tartaric acid, glycerin, PVPK90 and water
      (9?0.7?0.8?30?5?30.5). Cumulative release rate of geniposide in CC was (77.02+/
      3.73)% in 24 h. The percutaneous penetration rate of geniposide was 7.25 MUg*cm
      2*h-1 and the 24 h permeated amount was (156.22+/-4.90) MUg*cm-2. The optimized
      CC prepared by the D-optimal mixture design showed a good adhesion and
      formability. The in vitro release of the geniposide in CC was in accordance with
      the first order equation, while its in vitro transdermal absorption was close to
      the zero order equation.

PMID- 28875669
TI  - [Preparation and in vitro evaluation of ampelopsin-loaded nanomicelles].
AB  - To improve the solubility and antitumor activity of ampelopsin, ampelopsin-loaded
      nanomicelles from the mixture of pluronic F127 and D-alpha-tocopheryl
      polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS1000) were prepared by film-thin
      hydration method, in order to optimize the process conditions and physicochemical
      properties. The antitumor activities against MCF-7 cells between ampelopsin and
      nanomicelles were compared by MTT method, respectively. The results showed that
      the optimal nanomicelles were round with the nanometric size of (22.6+/-0.5) nm,
      encapsulation efficiency rate of (80.42+/-1.13)%, and drug-loading rate of
      (4.41+/-0.26)%. The solubility of ampelopsin in mixed nanomicelles significantly
      increased by 16 times. In different release media, the mixed nanomicelles could
      release more than 90% of drug in 8 h, and showed stronger cytotoxicity and
      inhibition against MCF-7 cells (P<0.01). The mixed nanomicelles can be used as
      new drug delivery system of ampelopsin.

PMID- 28875670
TI  - [Purification technology of puerarin by agar gel microspheres].
AB  - Puerarin is the main active component of flavonoids in Puerariae Lobatae Radix.
      In this study, agar gel microspheres bonded with beta-cyclodextrin (AG-beta-CD)
      were synthesized by using economical agar, and then high-purity puerarin was
      obtained with AB-8 through high-yield separation. With purity and yield of
      puerarin, and chromatographic purity of related impurities as indexes, four
      macroporous resins of different properties, namely ADS-7 (high polarity), ADS-17
      (medium polarity), ADS-21 (polarity) and AB-8 (weak polarity), were selected for
      separation of puerarin and technological optimization. In addition, the AG-beta
      CD purification process was optimized and verified. The results showed that, AB-8
      resins showed the best effect and selected as the pre-treatment resins for crude
      puerarin, and puerarin with the purity of 87.68% showed a recovery rate of
      89.66%. The optimized purification process parameters of AG-beta-CD included
      mobile phase (15% ethanol), loading capacity (the ratio of loading amount to
      column volume) (1.33 g*L-1), sample concentration (8 g*L-1) and flow rate (1
      mL*min-1), puerarin with the purity of 95% showed a recovery rate of more than
      97%.

PMID- 28875671
TI  - [Chemical structure of cyperotundic acid from rhizomes of Cyperus rotundus].
AB  - Thirteen compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the rhizomes
      of Cyperus rotundus(Xiangfu) by means of various chromatographic
      techniques(silica gel, Al2O3, Sephadex LH-20, MCI GEL CHP-20P and HPLC), and
      their structures were identified as cyperotundic acid(1),(4S, 5E, 10R)-7-oxo
      trinoreudesm-5-en-4beta-ol(2), 4-hydroxy-4, 7-dimethyl-1-tetralone(3),
      taraxerone(4), dammaradienyl acetate(5), zeorin(6), sarmentine(7),
      guineensine(8), pellitorine(9), caprolactam(10), liriodendrin(11), 3-hydroxy-1-(4
      hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-[4-(3-hydroxy-1-(E)-propenyl)-2,6
      dimethoxyphenoxy]propyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside(12)and 1-(3, 4
      methylenedioxyphenyl)-1E-tetradecene(13) by extensive spectroscopic analyses(IR,
      MS, 1D-and 2D-NMR). Compound 1 was a new rearranged sesquiterpene and named as
      cyperotundic acid, which did not obey the isoprene rule.Compounds 2-13 were
      obtained from the genus Cyperus for the first time.

PMID- 28875672
TI  - [Phenanthrenes from aerial part of Juncus setchuensis with anxiolyticactivity].
AB  - Ten phenanthrenes, two organic acids, one organic acid ester and one flavonoid
      were isolated from the aerial part of Juncus setchuensis by various
      chromatographic techniques usingsilica gel, polyamide, Sephadex LH-20 as solid
      phases, and preparative HPLC. Their structures were identified by MS and NMR
      spectroscopic data as effusol(1), juncusol(2), juncuenin D(3), dehydroeffusol(4),
      dehydrojuncusol(5), juncuenin B(6),dehydrojuncuenin B(7), 2-methoxyl-7-hydroxyl-1
      methyl-5-vinyl phenanthrene(8), 2-hydroxyl-7-carboxy-1-methyl-5-vinyl-9,10
      dihydrophenanthrene(9), 2-hydroxyl-7-carboxyl-1-methyl-5-vinylphenanthrene(10),
      luteolin(11), vanillic acid(12), daphnetin(13), p-coumaric acid(14),
      respectively. Compound 13 was isolated from the genus Juncus for the first time
      and compounds 5, 8-12 were isolated from J. setchuensis for the first time. The
      elevated plus-maze(EPM) was used to evaluate the anxiolytic activity of compounds
      6 and 7. Compound 6 at 5 mg*kg-1 and 10 mg*kg-1 showed anxiolytic activity as
      well as compound 7 at 10 mg*kg-1 and 20 mg*kg-1.

PMID- 28875673
TI  - [Triterpenoids from Ganoderma theaecolum].
AB  - Fifteenlanostane triterpenoids were isolated from the ethanol extract of
      Ganoderma theaecolum by means of preparative HPLC,column chromatography over
      silica gel,ODS and were identified as lucidone C(1),lucidone D(2),7-oxo-ganoderic
      acid Z2(3),7-oxo-ganoderic acid Z(4),ganoderenicacid H(5),ganoderenic acid
      B(6),3beta,7beta-dihydroyl-11,15,23-trioxo-lanost-8,16-dien-26-oic
      acid(7),3beta,7beta-dihydroyl-11,15,23-trioxo-lanost-8,16-dien-26-oic acid methyl
      ester(8),ganolucidic acid B(9),ganolucidate F(10),methyl ganoderate
      C2(11),ganoderic acid zeta(12),ganoderic acid AP3(13),methyl ganoderate B(14),and
      ganoderol B(15). Compounds 1-15 were isolated from this specie for the first
      time.

PMID- 28875674
TI  - [Determination of ten stilbenes and their antioxidant activity of peony seed
      coat, seed kernel and seed coat extracts].
AB  - The seed of tree peony and herbaceous peony contained a variety of stilbenes
      which possess many pharmacological activities, such as antitumor, anti
      inflammatory, allergy and neuraminidase inhibition. In order to develop and use
      peony seed resources, a simple and sensitive HPLC-DAD was developed for
      simultaneous determination of 10 stilbenes in peony samples, i.e.,suffruticosol
      A,suffruticosol B,suffruticosol C,trans-resveratrol,cis-epsilon-viniferin,trans
      epsilon-viniferin,cis-suffruticosol D,cis-gnetin H,trans-suffruticosol D and
      trans-gnetin H. At the same time, the scavenging activity of DPPH free radicals
      was employed to evaluate their antioxidant effect. The results showed that the 10
      stilbenes are mainly present in peony seed coat (total content of more than
      16.7%) compared to peony seed kernel (total content less than 0.3%), and can be
      enriched in the extract of peony seed coat (total content of more than 75%) The
      extract of peony seed coat and 10 stilbenes exhibited significant antioxidant
      properties. This work provides a foundation for comprehensive utilization of the
      tree peony and herbaceous peony seed resources.

PMID- 28875675
TI  - [Antagonism mechanism of gingerols against inflammatory effect of toxic raphides
      from Pinella pedatisecta].
AB  - This study was to investigate the mechanism of gingerols antagonizing the
      inflammatory effect of toxic raphides from Pinella pedatisecta. Mice peritonitis
      models induced by toxic raphides from P. pedatisecta were applied to observe the
      effect of gingerols on inflammatory mediators PGE2 in the exudates of abdominal
      inflammation in mice; rats peritoneal macrophage in vitro culture models were
      adopted to study the anti-inflammatory effects of gingerol against toxic
      raphides, with TNF-alpha and IL-1beta in supernatant as indexes. Scanning
      electron microscopy was used to observe the changes in surface morphology of
      macrophages treated by raphides and gingerols. Macrophages-neutrophils co
      cultured models were used to study the antagonism of gingerols against the effect
      of toxic raphides' stimulation on neutrophils migration. Results showed that
      gingerols could significantly inhibit the production of PGE2 in the exudates of
      abdominal inflammation induced by toxic raphides from P. pedatisecta in mice.
      Gingerols could significantly inhibit the toxic raphides from P. pedatisecta to
      induce the release of inflammatory factors, with certain dose dependence.
      Scanning electron microscopy showed that gingerols could significantly inhibit
      phagocytosis of macrophages, cytomembrane injury, and neutrophils migration
      induced by toxic raphides from P. pedatisecta. The results showed that the
      antagonism mechanism of gingerols against the toxic raphides from P. pedatisecta
      may be associated with inhibiting the pro-inflammatory toxicity including
      macrophage activation, inflammatory factors release, and neutrophils migration.

PMID- 28875676
TI  - [Regulatory effect of Tripterygium wilfordii polycoride (TWP) towards TLR4/MyD88
      independent pathway in TNBS/ethanol ulcerative colitis (UC) rat model].
AB  - In order to study the regulatory effect of Tripterygium wilfordii polycoride
      (TWP) towards TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway in TNBS/ethanol ulcerative colitis
      (UC) rat model, TNBS/ethanol enema was adopted to build TNBS/ethanol UC rat
      model. After the successful modeling procedure, 90 male Wistar rats are were
      divided into 6 groups, including namely normal group, model group, TWP low,
      middle, high dose groups (3, 6, 12 mg*kg-1)and azathioprine (AZA) group (6 g*kg
      1), with 15 rats in each group. All rats in each group were administrated with
      corresponding medicines for 14 days. After 14 days of administration,
      corresponding colon tissues were taken for general and microscopic evaluation.
      Western blotting analysis and RT-PCR were adopted to test the mRNA and protein
      expressions of TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway-related molecules, namely TLR4,
      TRAM, TRIF, NF-kappaB and IFN-gamma. The results showed that DAI, general and
      microscopic evaluations all indicated that TNBS/ethanol UC rat model was
      successful. TWP can improve UC-related clinical manifestation and heal colonic
      mucosa, which was equal to AZA. RT-PCR and WB results showed that the expression
      of TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway-related molecules in model group were
      significantly superior to that in normal group at either mRNA or protein level
      (P<0.01). Compared with model group, TWP can inhibit the expression of each node
      in TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibitory
      effect of TWP with high dose towards the above molecules was inferior to that in
      model group at either mRNA or protein level (P<0.05). The inhibitory effect of
      TWP with high dose towards upstream molecules of TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway
      (TLR4, TRAM, TRIF, NF-kappaB) was slightly superior to AZA group at either mRNA
      or protein level. However, such inhibitory effect towards terminal inflammatory
      cytokines (IFN-gamma) was inferior to AZA group at either mRNA or protein level.
      All the above differences had no statistical significance. Therefore, in
      TNBS/ethanol UC rat model, TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway took part in regulating
      inflammation. TWP exerted its anti-inflammation effect by inhibiting the
      expression of TLR4/MyD88 independent pathway in a dose-dependent manner.

PMID- 28875677
TI  - [Effects of Shaoyao Gancao decoction on contents of amino acids and expressions
      of receptors in brains of spastic paralysis rats].
AB  - To explore the effects of Shaoyao Gancao decoction on contents of amino acids and
      expressions of receptors in the brains of spastic paralysis rats, the spastic
      paralysis rat models of stroke convalescence were made by line tethering method.
      Baclofen was used as the control group, and the experiment group received Shaoyao
      Gancao decoction at 3?1 proportions. After 3 weeks, the neurobehavioral scores,
      muscular tension and pain threshold were measured and compared. High performance
      liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the contents of GABA, Gly, Glu,
      Asp in cerebral cortex. The protein expressions of GABA receptors Aalpha1, B;
      NMDA receptor NR1, NR2A and NR2B in cerebral cortex were determined by
      immunohistochemistry assay. The results showed that the Shaoyao Gancao decoction
      at 3?1 proportion could improve the spastic paralysis state after stroke,
      significantly improve neurological symptoms (P<0.01), decrease muscular tension
      (P<0.01) and improve pain threshold (P<0.05) as compared with model group.
      Simultaneously, the contents of inhibitory amino acids GABA and Gly were
      increased significantly (P<0.01), while with a decrease tendency in excitatory
      amino acids Glu and Asp (with no statistical significance). In addition, it could
      significantly increase the protein expressions of neurotransmitter GABA receptors
      Aalpha1, and B (P<0.05); reduce the expressions of neurotransmitter NMDA
      receptors NR1, NR2A and NR2B (P<0.05). These results suggested that the Shaoyao
      Gancao decoction at 3:1 proportion could effectively relieve spasm and pain. The
      mechanism might be associated with increasing the contents of inhibitory amino
      acids and increasing the expressions of their receptors in spastic paralysis rats
      after stroke, which would consequently enhance the signal transduction of
      inhibitory amino acids. Meanwhile, there was a decrease tendency in excitatory
      amino acids, although no significant effect was observed, and it could suppress
      the expressions of excitatory amino acids receptors, thus weaken the excitatory
      signal transduction. Thereby the neurotoxicity was relieved eventually. These
      findings indicated that Shaoyao Gancao decoction could regulate the balance of
      neurotransmitter system to relieve the spasticity, and eventually achieve tendon
      tonifying and spasm relieving effect.

PMID- 28875678
TI  - [Protective effect of seven kinds of phenolic acids of total salvianolic acids
      components on human umbilical vein endothelial cells with hypoxic injury].
AB  - In this paper, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) hypoxic injury
      models were established by sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4). With the protective
      effects of total salvianolic acids components (TSAC) against oxidative damage of
      HUVEC as a starting point, cellviability was measured by MTT colorimetric method;
      intracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA),
      lactatedehydrogenase (LDH) level, nitric oxide (NO) level, interleukin6 (IL-6),
      and human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) expression were measured by
      kits, to investigate the effect of seven kinds of phenolic acids of TSAC on
      Na2S2O4-induced HUVEC hypoxic injury. Based on the "component structure" theory,
      the contribution of the main components in TSAC for the protective effect on
      hypoxic injury of HUVEC was studied. The results showed that salvianolic acid B,
      posrnarinic acid A, salvianolic acid A, lactic acid, and lithospermic acid in
      TSAC play a larger role in protective effect of hypoxic injury of HUVEC. These
      five components were administered in combinations respectively, and it was
      concluded that the four components including salvianolic acid B, posrnarinic acid
      A, salvianolic acid A, lactic acid could be used as the representative components
      of TSAC.

PMID- 28875679
TI  - [Screening of effective ingredients of Yinzhihuang injection against cholestasis
      and their mechanism].
AB  - Chinese herbal medicinal formulation Yinzhihuang injection is widely used in
      clinic for jaundice and chronic liver diseases in eastern Asian countries.
      However, the pharmacologically active components and the underlying mechanism are
      unclear. In this study, 30 male ICR mice were randomly assigned into 6 groups:
      normal control, model control, chlorogenic acid group, geniposide group, baicalin
      group and wogonoside group. The liver function, liver pathological changes and
      bile acid metabolism-related gene expression in mice were assayed. The serum
      levels of ALT, AST, ALP, TBA in chlorogenic acid group (15.89+/-2.53), (18.32+/
      2.56), (26.38+/-9.87) U*L-1, (40.63+/-7.67) MUmol*L-1, respectively and
      geniposide group (20.54+/-2.36), (24.28+/-5.19), (35.09+/-5.03) U*L-1, (42.86+/
      7.11) MUmol*L-1, respectively were lower than those in the model control group
      (59.52+/-10.94), (128.37+/-17.97),(169.52+/-9.62) U*L-1, (132.50+/-33.00) MUmol*L
      1, respectively. Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed necrosis, infiltration of
      inflammation cell in chlorogenic acid group and geniposide group were milder than
      those in the model control group. Q-PCR analysis revealed the expression of bile
      acid metabolism-related genes was normalized after treatment with chlorogenic
      acid or geniposide. Chlorogenic acid and geniposide improved the liver injury and
      cholestasis effectively, and reversed the mRNA expression of bile acid metabolism
      related genes induced by ANIT. So, chlorogenic acid and geniposide were
      protective for cholestasis, suggesting their pharmacodynamic effect in
      Yinzhihuang injection.

PMID- 28875680
TI  - [Effects of Tongluo Xingnao effervescent tablets on blood rheology, iNOS, VEGF
      and LDH-5 in MID rats].
AB  - The study was to explore effects of Tongluo Xingnao effervescent tablets on the
      blood rheology, iNOS, VEGF and LDH-5 in multi-infarct dementia(MID) model rats.
      Establish MID model rats were induced by microthrombosis, from which 50
      successful model rats were randomly divided into five groups, such as the model
      control group, the dihydroergotoxine mesylate tablets(hydergine) group(0.7 mg*kg
      1), Tongluo Xingnao effervescent tablets high-dose, medium-dose and low-dose
      groups(7.56, 3.78, 1.89 g*kg-1). Another ten rats in the sham group were randomly
      selected as the parallel control group. Each group was orally administered with
      drugs for 90 days. The learning and memory ability was evaluated with the Morris
      water maze test, while the whole blood viscosity and the erythrocyte aggregation
      index derived from abdominal aorta were measured in different shear rates. In
      addition, the levels of VEGF and iNOS in the serum were determined by ELISA kits.
      The expression of LDH-5 in hippocampus of rats was measured with
      immunohistochemistry and image quantitative analysis. The result showed that
      Tongluo Xingnao effervescent tablets notably decreased the escape latency of MID
      model rats, increased times of entering into the escape platform and prolonged
      retention time in medium ring, meanwhile the whole blood viscosity in MID model
      rats was also notably reduced in four shear rates, i.e. 1, 5, 30, 200 S-1,
      erythrocyte aggregation index, serum VEGF and iNOS, and average optical density
      value of LDH-5, with a statistically significant differences compared with the
      model control group (P<0.05). In conclusion, Tongluo Xingnao effervescent tablets
      could improve the ability of learning and memory of MID model rats and the blood
      rheology, reduce the level of iNOS, VEGF and the expression of LDH-5, and then
      improved the brain energy supply.

PMID- 28875681
TI  - [Metabolomics analysis of Tripterygium wilfordii formulation based on theory of
      detoxicity compatibility].
AB  - Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. induced-hepatotoxicity was the main limitation
      for its usage in clinic. Qingluo Tongbi formulation showed obvious attenuation
      for hepatotoxicity in clinic and fundamental research in vivo. To explore the
      potential mechanism of the attenuation, we conducted a study on the plasma
      metabolomic profiles of T. wilfordii and Qingluo Tongbi formulation in rats by a
      sensitive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method. In plasma
      samples, a total of 72 compounds were analyzed by EI source MS, and were
      successfully identified by matching NIST database. The semi-quantification
      results were then calculated by OPLS-DA model with SIMCA-P 13.0 software. The
      three groups were clearly distinguished in OPLS-DA score plot. In addition, the
      observation values of Qingluo Tongbi formulation showed the obvious trend towards
      the control levels, suggesting the detoxicity effect of the formulation.
      Variation metabolites were further analyzed by VIP and One Way ANOVAs, and the
      results showed a significant increase in compounds of glycogenic amino acids,
      such as alanine, proline, serine and glutamine after the administration of T.
      wilfordii, indicated that the tissue proteins were decomposed and amino acids
      were leakage into blood. Qingluo Tongbi formulation could reverse the amino acids
      into normal level. On the contrary, the levels of glucose, lactic acid and
      hydroxy butyrate decrease, and the formulation can relieve the disorder in the
      levels of lactic acid, suggesting the regulation of the energy metabolism.
      Additionally, the level of branched chain amino acid was decreased, suggested the
      toxicity was induced, but the formulation cannot increase it into the normal
      levels. Nevertheless, all the above results suggested that the classical Qingluo
      Tongbi formulation displayed the liver protection effect by adjusting the amino
      acid levels and regulating the energy metabolism. Qingluo Tongbi formulation was
      developed based on traditional Chinese medicine theory "detoxicity
      compatibility", and contained Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F. H. Chen to nourish
      blood and absorb clots. Modern pharmacology suggested that its liver protection
      effect was correlated with the promotion of protein synthesis. Another important
      herb is Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch., which can regulate the energy metabolism.
      Both were consistent with the metabolomic results in this study, which explained
      the potential mechanism of "detoxicity compatibility" theory. Therefore, the
      currently developed metabolomic approach and the obtained results would be highly
      useful for the comprehensive toxicity studies for other herbal medicines and
      various complex deoxicity formulations.

PMID- 28875682
TI  - [Comparison of bioavailability of two kinds of solid dispersion from 10
      hydroxycamptothecin in SD rats in vivo].
AB  - To improve the bioavailability of 10-hydroxycamptothecin, 10-hydroxycamptothecin
      solid dispersion(HCPT-SD) and 10-hydroxycamptothecin-phospholipid complex-solid
      dispersion(HCPT-PC-SD) were prepared, and their solubility and dissolution rate
      were evaluated in this study. SD rates were administered intragastrically with
      HCPT-SD or HCPT-PC-SD respectively, then their blood samples were collected at
      different time intervals. The concentration of HCPT in blood was detected by HPLC
      method with camptothecin as internal standard, and then its pharmacokinetic
      parameters were calculated and obtained. The results showed that the Cmax, AUC0-t
      and AUC0-infinity of both kinds of solid dispersion of HCPT were significantly
      increased than those of crude drug. The AUC0-t of HCPT-SD was increased by
      176.87%, and AUC0-t of HCPT-PC-SD was increased by 254.31% as compared with crude
      drug. Therefore, the two kinds of solid dispersion of HCPT could significantly
      enhance the bioavailability of HCPT in SD rates, and the effect of HCPT-PC-SD was
      more obvious.

PMID- 28875683
TI  - [Lipid metabolomics in serum of hyperuricemic rats induced by fructose based on
      UPC2-Q/TOF-MS].
AB  - To explore the differences in lipid metabolites in serum of hyperuricemic rats
      induced by fructose and normal rats by using lipid metabolomics technology, and
      screen the potential biomarkers related to hyperuricemia. The metabolic
      fingerprint spectrum of the serum in hyperuricemic rats(model group) and normal
      rats(control group) was obtained and analyzed by using ultra performance
      convergence chromatography-tandem-Q-time of flight mass spectrometry(UPC 2 -Q/TOF
      MS) method and the differences of metabolic spectra between two groups were
      compared via the multivariate statistical methods to screen differential
      metabolites. The results indicated that there was significant difference in
      metabolic spectra between model group and control group, and 11 differential
      metabolites were screened. Then eight potential biomarkers such as arachidonic
      acid, palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid were tentatively identified by
      using the exact mass number and secondary mass spectrometry(MS/MS spectrum).
      Therefore, a new research method for lipid metabolomics in serum of hyperuricemic
      rats induced by fructose was established successfully based on UPC 2 -Q/TOF-MS.
      What's more, it was speculated that the abnormal metabolism of fatty acid might
      be associated with the pathogenesis of hyperuricemia, which would provide
      scientific basis for early detection and prevention of hyperuricemia.

PMID- 28875684
TI  - [Herbal textural and original plants research on medicines from Salvia in China].
AB  - On the basis of review and study on literatures of Chinese medicine, combining
      the history of medicinal plants of Salvia in China, and investigating the
      morphological description, geography distribution and therapeutic effects, herbal
      textural research were carried on the medicinal plants from Salvia. The results
      showed that the original plant of Danshen is S. miltiorrhiza and related species,
      the original plant of Dian Danshen is S. yunnanensis, the original plant of Li
      Zhi Cao is S. plebeia, the original plant of Shi Jian Chuan is Bidens pilosa. or
      S.chinensis, the original plant of Shu Wei Cao is S. japanica, the original plant
      of Ye Xia Hong is S. kiangsiensis. And the article aimed to point out the
      relationship of medicinal plants from Salvia and provided new insight and proof
      to explore the new natural medicine from medicinal plants of Salvia.

PMID- 28875685
TI  - [Anti-aging traditional Chinese medicine: potential mechanisms involving AMPK
      pathway and calorie restriction based on "medicine-food homology" theory].
AB  - There have been many reports about the anti-aging effect of traditional Chinese
      medicine (TCM), but the material basis and mechanism of action have not been
      clearly elucidated. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is the receptor of energy
      metabolism and its life extending effect has been confirmed in different
      experiments. Over expression or activation with metform in of AAK-2/AMPK has been
      shown to extend life expectancy in nematodes and Drosophila. The possible
      downstream pathways of AMPK against aging include TOR/S6k pathway, FOXOs pathway
      and CRTC pathway. One of the core concepts of traditional Chinese medicine is
      disease prevention, for which one of manifestations is to improve the body with
      the same source of medicine and food to achieve longevity. It is possible to
      activate AMPK to achieve the goal of health preservation and prolonging the life
      by some of the "medicine-food harmony" treatments. Our survey finds that in
      "medicine-food harmony" compound TCM, "invigorating the kidney deficiency and
      promoting blood circulation" class dominates and Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix
      Rhizoma, Astragali Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma, Poria, Atractylodes Macrocephalae
      Rhizoma, Radix et Rhizoma Rhei, and Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma are used in high
      frequency. Network pharmacology analysis using ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA)
      software revealed that TCM-derived drugs interacting with AMPK target proteins
      included berberine, emodin, curcumin, resveratrol, alcohol, cordyceps, arctiin,
      suggesting in a certain extent the feasibility of "medicine -food homology" drugs
      to extend the lifespan through the AMPK pathway. Our study combines a
      comprehensive database query and an IPA network pharmacology analysis to identify
      Chinese medicine monomer and components that may activate AMPK pathway to delay
      aging and to discuss the potential of these medicine by improving energy
      metabolism to delay the aging process, based on the concept of traditional
      Chinese medicine "medicine-food homology".

PMID- 28875686
TI  - [Dispute for Japanese(wild) honeysuckle flower based on supermolecular imprinting
      templates].
AB  - More and more disputes have happened to confront us continuously since the
      separation of Japanese(wild) honeysuckle flower in Chinese Pharmacopoeia in 2005.
      The state pharmacopeia committee decided to separate Japanese(wild) honeysuckle
      flower into two species for japanese(wild) honeysuckle flower, but didn't define
      their the convincing reasons still did not provide to us as a result that two
      medicines are not described the differences in natural properties, efficiency and
      indication, usage and dosage, as well as not given a resolving methodand specific
      solution. It was known for us that in the history of traditional Chinese
      medicine(TCM), the phenomenenphenomena of the "one drug from multi-species" and
      "one species for multi-drug" are very ordinary thingswere ubiquitous. Whether
      separation of the drug species are separated shall be decided to by clinical
      efficiency. Through Chinese pharmacopoeia (2015 edition) issue of Chinese
      Pharmacopoeia the 2015 issue of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, we still cannot find a
      scientific solution for the dispute of for Japanese (wild) honeysuckle flower,
      perhaps because of insufficient reorganization of TCM clinical medication
      regularities, such as "treatment of different diseases with same drug", "
      treatment of the same disease with different drugs" and "treatment of the same
      syndrome with multi-prescriptions", and "one prescription treating multiple
      syndromes"; lack of in-depth analysis for multi-component TCM compounds and
      autonomisation of "supermolecular template" for organs and meridians; less
      attention to the advance of efficacy and safety evaluation technologies for multi
      component TCM compounds; impacts from the medication mode of "one ingredient-one
      composition-one effect"; as well as insufficient research methods for
      bioequivalent evaluation in preclinic and clinic studies . The dispute for
      species combination or separation for Japanese(wild) honeysuckle flower was
      apparently caused by regional economy, drug biological equivalent of efficacy and
      safety, but arising from clinical principles for systematical syndrome treatment
      with TCM, or concepts in the treatment of diseases with TCM or western medicines.
      This paper focused on current studies on Japanese(wild) honeysuckle flower in the
      combination with TCM clinical medication regularities, such as "treatment of
      different diseases with same drug", "treatment of the same disease with different
      drugs" and "treatment of the same syndrome with multi-prescriptions", and "one
      prescription treating multiple syndromes", expounded the specific pharmacological
      regularity of "heterogeneous equivalence" of Japanese (wild) honeysuckle flower,
      and put forward methods for studying bioequivalence of Japanese(wild) honeysuckle
      flower, in order to solve the combination and separation of Japanese(wild)
      honeysuckle flower and lay a foundation for promoting the development of Chinese
      herbal medicine industry.

PMID- 28875687
TI  - [Development of molecular pharmacognosy in China based on bibliometric analysis].
AB  - The method of bibliometrics was used to analyze the literature about the
      application of molecular biotechnique to pharmacognosy which were searched and
      obtained from the CNKI database and Shanghai intellectual property information
      platform from the year 1995 to 2015.It was found that 22 462 articles were
      published and the 63% were funded, 50 core institutions and 888 authors, 18 core
      journals were engaged in this subject.496 items of patents were authorized and 90
      kinds of Chinese Materia Medica were involved.In the view of the quantity and
      quality of published literature, the scale and influence of journals,
      institutions, and the extent of subject categories have made remarkable
      achievement. Molecular pharmacognosy has completed the germination stage of a new
      subject, and has been in a relatively mature and stable development status.

PMID- 28875688
TI  - Clinical utility of the patency capsule: a large volume center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In patients with suspected or known obstructive gastrointestinal
      pathology, the use of patency capsule (PC) aims to minimize the risk of
      subsequent retention of the endoscopic capsule. However, its clinical utility is
      not consensual. The aim was to evaluate the indications, results and safety
      profile of the PC. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of PCs (agile patency capsule)
      conducted between 2011 and 2015. Patency evaluation was performed after 30 hours,
      with radiological confirmation if PC was detected. RESULTS: We included 369 PCs,
      54% female. The average age was 42+/-16 years. Main indications included
      suspected Crohn disease (CD) (45%), CD staging (32%), neoplastic diseases (9%),
      radic enteritis (3%), prior surgery (3%), NSAIDs enteropathy (2%) and anemia
      (2%). Before the exam 5% of patients were taking constipation-induced medications
      and 5% reported occlusive symptoms; 38% of patients had previous abdominal
      surgeries, most often ileal resection due to CD (24%); 42% of patients had
      previous imaging studies, revealing strictures in 20% and bowel dilation in 11%.
      Patency capsule was negative (patent gastrointestinal tract) in 73% of cases at
      30h and 2% of PCs were fully recovered in the following days. Seven patients
      (2.5%) showed self-limiting occlusive symptoms during the procedure. All patients
      with negative PC subsequently performed capsule endoscopy with no cases of
      retention. History of occlusive symptoms (P=0.023) and strictures in imaging
      studies (P=0.029) were associated with the detection of the PC at 30 hours.
      CONCLUSIONS: PC is a safe and effective exam. Occlusive symptoms and imaging
      strictures were significantly associated with the retention. The retention rate
      was 25%, a similar result to that described in other series but higher than
      expected for the various indications, suggesting the importance of new research
      studies.

PMID- 28875689
TI  - Liver fibrosis in the context of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: the role of
      adipokines.
AB  - Liver fibrosis is a multifaceted process that occurs as a consequence of chronic
      liver injury. This process is characterized by inflammation, activation of matrix
      producing cells, matrix deposition and remodeling, and epithelial cell
      regeneration. In subjects with chronic liver damage, fibrogenesis is favored by
      the presence of obesity and insulin resistance, which are also relevant risk
      factors for the development and progression of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
      (NASH). It is now well-known that adipose tissue is not only involved in energy
      storage but also functions as an endocrine organ that secretes various bioactive
      substances known as adipokines. This term identifies a group of polypeptide
      molecules, which exert local, peripheral and/or central actions. Additionally to
      their well-established role in controlling adipose tissue physiology, energy
      homeostasis, inflammation and immune function, adipokines have been shown to be
      involved in different obesity-related diseases, such as hypertension,
      atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes. In liver diseases, the biologic actions of
      these factors may contribute to the mechanisms leading to NASH. In this review,
      we focus on the role of adipokines in liver fibrogenesis and discuss their
      potential as regulators of this pathological condition and as targets for future
      pharmacological treatment strategies of chronic liver diseases.

PMID- 28875690
TI  - Use of fully covered self-expanding metal stents for benign biliary etiologies: a
      large multi-center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fully-covered self-expandable metal stents (FCSEMS) have been used in
      benign biliary diseases although reported data is limited. These devices are most
      commonly used to treat biliary leaks, strictures, or both. The aim of this study
      was to evaluate effectiveness of FCSEMS in treating benign biliary disease and
      recognize the associated complications. METHODS: We performed a multicenter
      longitudinal retrospective cohort study of patients with benign biliary disease
      needing FCSEMS between 2011 and 2016. Descriptive statistics were performed using
      SPSS version 24 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) and continuous variables were
      presented as mean+/-standard deviation. RESULTS: 75, 57% M/43% F, with a mean age
      of 58.5+/-14.9 years, were included. 64 (85%) had benign strictures, 7 patients
      had leaks, and 4 patients had both a leak and a stricture. Chronic pancreatitis
      was the most common cause of BBS (47%) and cholecystectomy was the most common
      cause of leaks. FCSEMS placement was technically successful in all patients. Four
      patients died of unrelated causes. A recurrent stricture was observed in 24 (32%)
      of the patients. Recurrent strictures were most commonly seen in patients with
      chronic pancreatitis 12/35 (34%). Stent migration occurred in 8/75 patients
      (10.7%). Seven patients (9.3%) had adverse events, acute pancreatitis (N.=4) was
      most common. CONCLUSIONS: FCSEMS are safe and effective for treating biliary
      strictures and leaks. We report decreased rates of stent migration compared to
      previous studies. Prospective studies are needed to compare plastic stents with
      FCSEMS, determine optimal stent in-dwell times and cost effectiveness of FCSEMS.

PMID- 28875691
TI  - Construction and Evaluation of a Targeted Hyaluronic Acid
      Nanoparticle/Photosensitizer Complex for Cancer Photodynamic Therapy.
AB  - Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel treatment modality that is under intensive
      preclinical investigations for a variety of diseases, including cancer. Despite
      extensive studies in this area, selective and effective photodynamic agents that
      can specifically accumulate in tumors to reach a therapeutic concentration are
      limited. Although recent attempts have produced photosensitizers (PSs) complexed
      with various nanomaterials, the tedious preparation steps and poor tumor
      efficiency of therapy hamper their utilization. Here, we developed a CD44
      targeted nanophotodynamic agent by physically encapsulating a photosensitizer,
      Ce6, into a hyaluronic acid nanoparticle (HANP), which was hereby denoted
      HANP/Ce6. Its physical features and capability for photodynamic therapy were
      characterized in vitro and in vivo. Systemic delivery of HANP/Ce6 resulted in its
      accumulation in a human colon cancer xenograft model. The tumor/muscle ratio
      reached 3.47 +/- 0.46 at 4 h post injection, as confirmed by fluorescence
      imaging. Tumor growth after HANP/Ce6 treatment with laser irradiation (0.15
      W/cm2, 630 nm) was significantly inhibited by 9.61 +/- 1.09-fold compared to that
      in tumor control groups, which showed no change in tumor growth. No apparent
      systemic and local toxic effects on the mice were observed. HANP/Ce6-mediated
      tumor growth inhibition was accessed and observed for the first time by 18F
      fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography as early as 1 day after
      treatment and persisted for 14 days within our treatment time window. In sum, our
      results highlight the imaging properties and therapeutic effects of the novel
      HANP/Ce6 theranostic nanoparticle for CD44-targeted PDT cancer therapy that may
      be potentially utilized in the clinic. This HANP system may also be applied for
      the delivery of other hydrophobic PSs, particularly those that could not be
      chemically modified.

PMID- 28875692
TI  - Facile Synthesis of Si@SiC Composite as an Anode Material for Lithium-Ion
      Batteries.
AB  - Here, we propose a simple method for direct synthesis of a Si@SiC composite
      derived from a SiO2@C precursor via a Mg thermal reduction method as an anode
      material for Li-ion batteries. Owing to the extremely high exothermic reaction
      between SiO2 and Mg, along with the presence of carbon, SiC can be spontaneously
      produced with the formation of Si. The synthesized Si@SiC was composed of well
      mixed SiC and Si nanocrystallites. The SiC content of the Si@SiC was adjusted by
      tuning the carbon content of the precursor. Among the resultant Si@SiC materials,
      the Si@SiC-0.5 sample, which was produced from a precursor containing 4.37 wt %
      of carbon, exhibits excellent electrochemical characteristics, such as a high
      first discharge capacity of 1642 mAh g-1 and 53.9% capacity retention following
      200 cycles at a rate of 0.1C. Even at a high rate of 10C, a high reversible
      capacity of 454 mAh g-1 was obtained. Surprisingly, at a fixed discharge rate of
      C/20, the Si@SiC-0.5 electrode delivered a high capacity of 989 mAh g-1 at a
      charge rate of 20C. In addition, a full cell fabricated by coupling a lithiated
      Si@SiC-0.5 anode and a LiCoO2 cathode exhibits excellent cyclability over 50
      cycles. This outstanding electrochemical performance of Si@SiC-0.5 is attributed
      to the SiC phase, which acts as a buffer layer that stabilizes the nanostructure
      of the Si active phase and enhances the electrical conductivity of the electrode.

PMID- 28875693
TI  - Influence of Luminol Doping of Poly(o-phenylenediamine) on the Spectral,
      Morphological, and Fluorescent properties: A Potential Fluorescent Marker for
      Early detection and Diagnosis of Leishmania donovani.
AB  - There has been a steady progress in the development of doped conjugated polymers
      to remarkably improve their photo physical properties for their application as
      biomarkers. With a view to enhance the spectral, morphological, and photo
      physical properties of poly(o-phenylenediamine) (POPD), the present work reports
      the synthesis of poly(o-phenylenediamine) and doping of this polymer using
      luminol. The formation of luminol-doped POPD was confirmed by infrared and
      ultraviolet-visible spectroscopies and X-ray diffraction studies. The energy band
      gap values and oscillator strength of luminol in acidic, basic, and neutral media
      were computed by density functional theory calculations using the B3LYP/6-31G (d)
      basis set and were compared with experimental data. The luminol doped POPDs show
      significant in vitro anti-leishmanial activity. Live cell imaging also proved
      that these molecules bind with the organelle of Leishmania also. These luminol
      doped POPDs were found non-toxic at the used concentrations on THP-1 derived
      human macrophage cells through methyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay. The results
      revealed that luminol doped POPDs were potentially non-toxic to human cells
      though exhibited immense potential to be used as a fluorescent marker to label
      Leishmania donovani for diagnostic and other studies.

PMID- 28875694
TI  - Small Molecular TGF-beta1-Inhibitor-Loaded Electrospun Fibrous Scaffolds for
      Preventing Hypertrophic Scars.
AB  - Hypertrophic scarring (HS) is a disorder that occurs during wound healing and
      seriously depresses the quality of human life. Scar-inhibiting scaffolds, though
      bringing promise to HS prevention, face problems such as the incompatibility of
      the scaffold materials and the instability of bioactive molecules. Herein, we
      present a TGF-beta1-inhibitor-doped poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL)/gelatin (PG)
      coelectrospun nanofibrous scaffold (PGT) for HS prevention during wound healing.
      The appropriate ratio of PCL to gelatin can avoid individual defects of the two
      materials and achieve an optimized mechanical property and biocompatibility. The
      TGF-beta1 inhibitor (SB-525334) is a small molecule and is highly stable during
      electrospinning and drug release processes. The PGT effectively inhibits
      fibroblast (the major cell type contributing to scar formation) proliferation in
      vitro and successfully prevents HS formation during the healing of full-thickness
      model wounds on rabbit ear. Our strategy offers an excellent solution for
      potential large-scale production of scaffolds for clinical HS prevention.

PMID- 28875695
TI  - BODIPY Derivatives for Photodynamic Therapy: Influence of Configuration versus
      Heavy Atom Effect.
AB  - Heavy atom effect and configuration are important for BODIPY derivatives to
      generate singlet oxygen (1O2) for photodynamic therapy. Herein, a series of
      BODIPY derivatives with different halogens were synthesized. 1O2 quantum yields
      (QYs) and MTT assay confirm that incorporation of more heavy atoms onto dimeric
      BODIPY cannot effectively enhance the 1O2 QYs. Rather, the dark toxicity
      increases. This phenomenon can be attributed to the competition of heavy atom
      effect and configuration of dimeric BODIPY. In addition the BODIPY derivative
      with two iodine atoms (BDPI) owns the highest 1O2 QYs (73%) and the lowest
      phototoxicity IC50 (1 MUM). Furthermore, an in vivo study demonstrates that BDPI
      NPs can effectively inhibit tumor growth and can be used as a promising
      threanostic agent for photodynamic therapy in clinic.

PMID- 28875696
TI  - Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy-Based Sandwich Immunoassays for Multiplexed
      Detection of Zika and Dengue Viral Biomarkers.
AB  - Zika and dengue are mosquito-borne diseases that present similar nonspecific
      symptoms but possess dramatically different outcomes. The first line of defense
      in epidemic outbreaks are rapid point-of-care diagnostics. Because many outbreaks
      occur in areas that are resource poor, assays that are easy to use, inexpensive,
      and require no power have become invaluable in patient treatment, quarantining,
      and surveillance. Paper-based sandwich immunoassays such as lateral flow assays
      (LFAs) are attractive as point-of-care solutions as they have the potential for
      wider deployability than lab-based assays such as PCR. However, their low
      sensitivity imposes limitations on their ability to detect low biomarker levels
      and early diagnosis. Here, we exploit the high sensitivity of surface-enhanced
      Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in a multiplexed assay that can distinguish between
      Zika and dengue nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) biomarkers. SERS-encoded gold
      nanostars were conjugated to specific antibodies for both diseases and used in a
      dipstick immunoassay, which exhibited 15-fold and 7-fold lower detection limits
      for Zika NS1 and dengue NS1, respectively. This platform combines the simplicity
      of a LFA with the high sensitivity of SERS and could not only improve Zika
      diagnosis but also detect diseases sooner after infection when biomarker levels
      are low.

PMID- 28875697
TI  - Transpiration-Inspired Fabrication of Opal Capillary with Multiple
      Heterostructures for Multiplex Aptamer-Based Fluorescent Assays.
AB  - In this work we report a method for the fabrication of opal capillary with
      multiple heterostructures for aptamer-based assays. The method is inspired by
      plant transpiration. During the fabrication, monodisperse SiO2 nanoparticles
      (NPs) self-assemble in a glass capillary, with the solvent gradually evaporating
      from the top end of the capillary. By a simple change of the colloid solution
      that wicks through the capillary, multiple heterostructures can be easily
      prepared inside the capillary. On the surface of the SiO2 NPs, polydopamine is
      coated for immobilization of aminomethyl-modified aptamers. The aptamers are used
      for fluorescent detection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and thrombin. Owing to
      fluorescence enhancement effect of the photonic heterstructures, the fluorescent
      signal for detection is amplified up to 40-fold. The limit of detection is 32 MUM
      for ATP and 8.1 nM for thrombin. Therefore, we believe this method is promising
      for the fabrication of analytical capillary devices for point-of-care testing.

PMID- 28875698
TI  - Large-Area Synthesis of a Ni2P Honeycomb Electrode for Highly Efficient Water
      Splitting.
AB  - Transition metal phosphides have recently been regarded as robust, inexpensive
      electrocatalysts for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen
      evolution reaction (OER). Thus far, tremendous scientific efforts have been
      applied to improve the catalytic activity of the catalyst, whereas the scale-up
      fabrication of morphology-controlled catalysts while maintaining their desired
      performance remains a great challenge. Herein, we present a facile and scalable
      approach to fabricate the macroporous Ni2P/nickel foam electrode. The obtained
      electrocatalyst exhibits superior bifunctional catalytic activity and durability,
      as evidenced by a low overpotential of 205 and 300 mV required to achieve a high
      current density of 100 mA cm-2 for HER and OER, respectively. Such a spray-based
      strategy is believed to widely adapt for the preparation of electrodes with
      uniform macroporous structures over a large area (e.g., 100 cm2), which provides
      a universal strategy for the mass fabrication of high performance water-splitting
      electrodes.

PMID- 28875699
TI  - Microwave-Assisted Direct Thioesterification of Carboxylic Acids.
AB  - A one-pot synthesis of thioesters directly from carboxylic acids, N,N'
      diphenylthiourea, triethylamine, and primary alkyl halides is described.
      Microwave-assisted heating and a catalytic amount of 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine
      (DMAP) further improved the yields. Both aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic acids
      were converted to the corresponding thioesters, and many functional groups were
      compatible with this reaction. Several possible reaction intermediates were
      investigated, and the quaternary ammonium salts, derived from alkyl halides and
      tertiary amines, were the intermediates to yield thioesters. A new reaction
      mechanism for this thioesterification is proposed.

PMID- 28875700
TI  - One-Pot Synthesis of beta-Hydroxysulfones and Its Application in the Preparation
      of Anticancer Drug Bicalutamide.
AB  - An efficient one-pot multistep strategy has been developed, comprising auto
      oxidative difunctionalization of alkenes, oxidation of sulfides, and a further
      reduction of peroxides for the synthesis of complex beta-hydroxysulfone
      derivatives from phenthiols and alkenes. This method has several advantageous
      characteristics, including readily available substrates, low-cost and
      environmental benign reagents, nontoxic and renewable solvents, and mild reaction
      conditions. The application of this transformation to the multigram-scale
      preparation of the anticancer drug bicalutamide is accomplished.

PMID- 28875701
TI  - Effect of Loop Length and Sequence on the Stability of DNA Pyrimidine Triplexes
      with TAT Base Triplets.
AB  - We report the thermodynamic contributions of loop length and loop sequence to the
      overall stability of DNA intramolecular pyrimidine triplexes. Two sets of
      triplexes were designed: in the first set, the C5 loop closing the triplex stem
      was replaced with 5'-CTnC loops (n = 1-5), whereas in the second set, both the
      duplex and triplex loops were replaced with a 5'-GCAA or 5'-AACG tetraloop. For
      the triplexes with a 5'-CTnC loop, the triplex with five bases in the loop has
      the highest stability relative to the control. A loop length lower than five
      compromises the strength of the base-pair stacks without decreasing the thermal
      stability, leading to a decreased enthalpy, whereas an increase in the loop
      length leads to a decreased enthalpy and a higher entropic penalty. The
      incorporation of the GCAA loop yielded more stable triplexes, whereas the
      incorporation of AACG in the triplex loop yielded a less stable triplex due to an
      unfavorable enthalpy term. Thus, addition of the GCAA tetraloop can cause an
      increase in the thermodynamics of the triplex without affecting the sequence or
      melting behavior and may result in an additional layer of genetic regulation.

PMID- 28875702
TI  - Synthesis, Structures, and Properties of Hexapole Helicenes: Assembling Six
      [5]Helicene Substructures into Highly Twisted Aromatic Systems.
AB  - Hexapole helicenes 1, which contain six [5]helicene substructures, were
      synthesized by Pd-catalyzed [2+2+2]cycloadditions of aryne precursor 6. Among the
      possible 20 stereoisomers, which include ten pairs of enantiomers, HH-1 was
      obtained selectively. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations identified HH
      1 as the second most stable isomer that quantitatively isomerizes under thermal
      conditions into the most stable isomer (HH-2). Both enantiomers of HH-2 can be
      separated by chiral HPLC. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses revealed a
      saddle-like structure for (P,M,P,P,M,P) HH-1 and a propeller-like structure for
      (P,M,P,M,P,M) HH-2. Because of the helical assembly and the resulting steric
      repulsion, the structure of HH-1 is significantly distorted and exhibits the
      largest twisting angle reported so far (up to 35.7 degrees  per benzene unit).
      Electrochemical studies and DFT calculations indicated a narrow HOMO-LUMO gap on
      account of the extended pi-system. Kinetic studies of the isomerization from HH-1
      to HH-2 and the racemization of enantiomerically pure HH-2 were conducted based
      on 1H NMR spectroscopy, HPLC analysis, and DFT calculations.

PMID- 28875703
TI  - Doubly Excited Character or Static Correlation of the Reference State in the
      Controversial 21Ag State of trans-Butadiene?
AB  - Butadiene is the simplest polyene and has long served as a model system for many
      chemical and spectroscopic properties. However, this small molecule has presented
      significant challenges to theoretical chemistry. The 21Ag state, which is dark
      but photochemically important, is a prime source of this difficulty. Previous
      studies attributed the notorious difficulty in treating this state to strong
      double excitation character of the 21Ag state, which prevents the application of
      linear response (LR) methods. Therefore, one would require methods with much
      higher computational cost, especially for the analogues of this state in longer
      polyenes, and consequently studies of longer polyenes are very limited. In the
      present work, we argue that the difficulty stems more significantly from the
      inherently multiconfigurational character of the ground state. In addition, we
      validate the possibility of employing LR time-dependent density functional theory
      to investigate such a state with reasonable accuracy.

PMID- 28875704
TI  - Amplifying Progress toward Multiple Development Goals through Resource Recovery
      from Sanitation.
AB  - The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize that current
      sanitation gaps must be closed to better serve those without access to safely
      managed systems (Target 6.2: universal sanitation coverage) and those connected
      to sewers without wastewater treatment (Target 6.3: halving the proportion of
      untreated wastewater). Beyond mitigating environmental and health concerns,
      implementing resource recovery sanitation systems could simultaneously improve
      the availability of agricultural nutrients (SDG 2) and household energy (SDG 7).
      This study estimates the potential for global, regional, and country-level
      resource recovery to impact nutrient and household electricity use through 2030.
      We distinguish impacts from newly installed sanitation systems (to achieve
      universal coverage), newly treated wastewater systems (to halve the proportion of
      untreated wastewater), and existing system replacement, while also considering
      urban and rural disparities and spatial colocation of nutrients with agricultural
      needs. This work points toward country-specific strategies for deriving the
      greatest benefit from sanitation investments while also identifying overarching
      trends to guide international research efforts. Globally, potential nutrient
      gains are an order of magnitude larger than electricity (a small fraction of
      total energy), and considerable impacts are possible in the least-developed
      countries, six of which could double or offset all projected nutrient and
      electricity use through newly installed sanitation systems.

PMID- 28875705
TI  - Realizing Synergy between In2O3 Nanocubes and Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene
      Oxide: An Excellent Nanocomposite for the Selective and Sensitive Detection of CO
      at Ambient Temperatures.
AB  - Hierarchical mesoporous In2O3 nanocubes and nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide
      indium oxide nanocube (InNrGO) composites were prepared for carbon monoxide (CO)
      sensing. The as-synthesized materials were systematically investigated by
      different characterization techniques such as field emission scanning electron
      microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetic
      analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, micro-Raman, Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy, and photoluminesce analysis. The obtained results are
      consistent with each other. The CO-sensing characteristics of the In2O3 nanocubes
      and InNrGO composites were examined at different operating temperatures (35 
      degrees C < Ts < 300  degrees C) and CO concentrations (1-1000 ppm). Owing to
      their large surface-to-volume ratio and porosity, the In2O3 nanocubes exhibited a
      superior sensitivity with a detection limit of 1 ppm at 250  degrees C.
      Furthermore, to enhance the sensing characteristics and reduce the operating
      temperature, a composite of NrGO and In2O3 nanocubes was fabricated. The
      incorporation of NrGO drastically improved the sensing performance of the In2O3
      nanocubes, showing an excellent sensitivity (SR ~ 3.6-5 ppm of CO at ~35  degrees
      C) with appreciably fast response (GammaRES ~ 22 s) and recovery (GammaREC ~ 32
      s) times. The sensing studies supported by the structural and morphological
      material characteristics lead to the plausible sensing mechanism proposed.

PMID- 28875706
TI  - Dietary Flavonoids and Acarbose Synergistically Inhibit alpha-Glucosidase and
      Lower Postprandial Blood Glucose.
AB  - The inhibition of porcine pancreatic alpha-amylase and mammalian alpha
      glucosidase by 16 individual flavonoids was determined. The IC50 values for
      baicalein, (+)-catechin, quercetin, and luteolin were 74.1 +/- 5.6, 175.1 +/-
      9.1, 281.2 +/- 19.2, and 339.4 +/- 16.3 MUM, respectively, against alpha
      glucosidase. The IC50 values for apigenin and baicalein were 146.8 +/- 7.1 and
      446.4 +/- 23.9 MUM, respectively, against alpha-amylase. The combination of
      baicalein, quercetin, or luteolin with acarbose showed synergistic inhibition,
      and the combination of (+)-catechin with acarbose showed antagonistic inhibition
      of alpha-glucosidase. The combination of baicalein or apigenin with acarbose
      showed additive inhibition of alpha-amylase at lower concentrations and
      antagonistic inhibition at a higher concentration. Kinetic studies of alpha
      glucosidase activity revealed that baicalein alone, acarbose alone, and the
      combination showed noncompetitive, competitive, and mixed-type inhibition,
      respectively. Molecular modeling revealed that baicalein had higher affinity to
      the noncompetitive binding site of maltase, glucoamylase, and isomaltase subunits
      of alpha-glucosidase, with glide scores of -7.64, -6.98, and -6.88, respectively.
      (+)-Catechin had higher affinity to the active sites of maltase and glucoamylase
      and to the noncompetitive site of isomaltase. After sucrose loading, baicalein
      dose-dependently reduced the postprandial blood glucose (PBG) level in mice. The
      combination of 80 mg/kg baicalein and 1 mg/kg acarbose synergistically lowered
      the level of PBG, and the hypoglycemic effect was comparable to 8 mg/kg acarbose.
      The results indicated that baicalein could be used as a supplemental drug or
      dietary supplement in dietary therapy for diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28875707
TI  - Remote Manipulation of Ligand Nano-Oscillations Regulates Adhesion and
      Polarization of Macrophages in Vivo.
AB  - Macrophages play crucial roles in various immune-related responses, such as host
      defense, wound healing, disease progression, and tissue regeneration. Macrophages
      perform distinct and dynamic functions in vivo, depending on their polarization
      states, such as the pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype and pro-healing M2 phenotype.
      Remote manipulation of the adhesion of host macrophages to the implants and their
      subsequent polarization in vivo can be an attractive strategy to control
      macrophage polarization-specific functions but has rarely been achieved. In this
      study, we grafted RGD ligand-bearing superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles
      (SPIONs) to a planar matrix via a long flexible linker. We characterized the
      nanoscale motion of the RGD-bearing SPIONs grafted to the matrix, in real time by
      in situ magnetic scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and in situ
      atomic force microscopy. The magnetic field was applied at various oscillation
      frequencies to manipulate the frequency-dependent ligand nano-oscillation speeds
      of the RGD-bearing SPIONs. We demonstrate that a low oscillation frequency of the
      magnetic field stimulated the adhesion and M2 polarization of macrophages,
      whereas a high oscillation frequency suppressed the adhesion of macrophages but
      promoted their M1 polarization, both in vitro and in vivo. Macrophage adhesion
      was also temporally regulated by switching between the low and high frequencies
      of the oscillating magnetic field. To the best of our knowledge, this is the
      first demonstration of the remote manipulation of the adhesion and polarization
      phenotype of macrophages, both in vitro and in vivo. Our system offers the
      promising potential to manipulate host immune responses to implanted
      biomaterials, including inflammation or tissue reparative processes, by
      regulating macrophage adhesion and polarization.

PMID- 28875708
TI  - FKBP5 methylation as a possible marker for cortisol state and transient cortisol
      exposure in healthy human subjects.
AB  - : Current glucocorticoid replacement regimens, in adrenal insufficiency, fail to
      mimic the physiological cortisol secretion, thereby fostering serious side
      effects. AIM: To experimentally evaluate the impact of CpG methylation within the
      FKBP5 gene as a possible short- and long-term marker for cortisol exposure in
      humans. MATERIALS & METHODS: An ACTH-stimulation test was carried out and
      methylation status of the FKBP5 gene in leukocytes was determined. RESULTS: A
      negative correlation between basal levels of methylation and serum cortisol was
      observed. Individual changes in FKBP5 methylation after 24 h correlated with
      cortisol responses. CONCLUSION: Considering previous studies conducted with
      murine leucocytes, FKBP5 methylation may be suitable as a long-term biomarker,
      rather than acute glucocorticoid exposure, also in humans.

PMID- 28875709
TI  - Continuous epidural infusion versus programmed intermittent epidural bolus for
      labor analgesia: optimal configuration of parameters to reduce physician
      administered top-ups.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) is a
      delivery mode associated with decreased local analgesia dosing, motor block, and
      physician-administered top-ups (PATUs) during labor analgesia. We hypothesized
      that PIEB delivery at different settings will result in fewer PATUs for labor
      analgesia than the same hourly volume of a continuous epidural infusion (CEI).
      METHODS: "Before and after" study design of combined spinal-epidural (CSE) for
      labor, with bupivacaine 0.0625%-fentanyl 2 mcg/ml and patient-controlled epidural
      analgesia (PCEA; 5 ml bolus with 10 min lock-out). The "before" group (N = 120)
      received a CEI at 10 ml/hour. PIEB groups received a programmed bolus of 10 ml:
      every 60 min (PIEB60, N = 120), every 45 min (PIEB45, N = 140), or every 45 min
      with high flow (500 ml/hour) (PIEB45HF, N = 25). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of
      women requesting a PATU, time intervals from CSE to PATU and to delivery, and
      obstetric outcomes. RESULTS: There was no difference in the proportion of women
      requesting PATUs between the CEI and PIEB60 groups (45/120 versus 52/120,
      respectively; p > .05). The PATU rate was lower in the PIEB45 group compared with
      the PIEB60 and CEI groups (23/140 versus 52/120 and 45/120, p < .005 and p < .05,
      respectively), and in the PIEB45HF versus PIEB60 groups (5/25 versus 52/120, p <
      .05). No difference in other outcomes was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The number of
      women requesting a PATU was lowest with the PIEB45 and PIEB45HF settings. There
      were no differences in any other outcomes between groups. This study emphasizes
      the many variations in programming that need to be further tested to establish
      the benefits of PIEB delivery compared with traditional CEI with PCEA.

PMID- 28875710
TI  - Arterial Wall Characteristics in Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease.
      Preliminary Data Obtained at Different Arterial Sites by Radiofrequency-Based
      Wall Tracking System.
AB  - The common carotid artery (CCA) and the common femoral artery (CFA) have
      different characteristics. We compared CCA and CFA intima-media thickness (IMT),
      diameter and stiffness in 50 healthy controls, 50 patients with cardiovascular
      risk factors (CV-RFs), and 50 patients with peripheral artery diseases (PADs)
      using radiofrequency-based ultrasound (Rf-US). Common femoral artery-IMT was
      significantly and similarly increased in patients with both CV-RF and PAD,
      whereas CCA-IMT was significantly greater only in patients with PAD. Common
      carotid artery diameter was increased and CFA diameter was decreased in patients
      with PAD. Common carotid artery and CFA pulse wave velocity (PWV) was increased
      only in patients with PAD. In the study population, age was directly related to
      CCA-IMT, diameter, and PWV ( r = .52, .31, and .38; P < .0001 for all) but not to
      CFA vascular parameters ( P = .10, .62, and .67). Common femoral artery-PWV was
      inversely related to the ankle-brachial index ( r = -.30; P < .0001). Common
      femoral artery parameters are less linked to aging than the CCA parameters and
      may provide additional information on the atherosclerotic process. The Rf-US may
      be a useful tool for the more complex evaluation of arteries and assessing the
      impact of age and RFs on arteries.

PMID- 28875711
TI  - Chemical characterization of polyphenols from Daucus muricatus growing in Algeria
      by RP-UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS.
AB  - In the present work, reversed phase (RP) ultra-high-performance liquid
      chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to quadrupole-time-of-flight (QTOF) mass
      spectrometry in tandem has been used for the identification of the main phenolic
      compounds in the aerial parts of Daucus muricatus. The characterisation of the
      compounds was carried out taking into account retention time, mass accurate
      measurements, the generated molecular formulae and fragmentation pattern. These
      data were contrasted with literature and databases, as well as with those of
      authentic standards when possible. The proposed method provided tentative
      identification of 30 phenolic and other polar compounds, including
      hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, flavonoids and hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives.
      As a note, hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives were found to be the most diverse
      phenolic class of Daucus muricatus.

PMID- 28875712
TI  - Political violence and mental health of Bedouin children in the West Bank,
      Palestine: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - The Bedouin population is among the most vulnerable in Palestine, subject to
      forced relocation and lacking basic necessities, including water and electricity.
      To our knowledge, there are no studies on the mental health of Palestinian
      Bedouin children. A cross-sectional household survey was conducted examining
      exposures to traumatic events and mental health among 455 refugee children
      between the ages of 5-16 years old, and randomly selected from 18 Bedouin
      communities throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Mental health
      status was measured using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Based on
      reports by mothers, teachers and children, 44% of the participants in the study
      had a probable psychiatric disorder. Exposure to traumatic events, fair/poor
      maternal self-rated mental health, and younger age were positively associated
      with child mental health problems. The findings highlight the importance of
      maternal mental health as a contributing factor affecting children's
      vulnerability. Bedouin mothers and their children need immediate psychosocial
      intervention, as well as the protection of their basic human rights.

PMID- 28875713
TI  - The impact of fathers' military deployment on child adjustment. The support needs
      of primary school children and their families separated during active military
      service: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although direct exposure to war-related trauma negatively impacts
      children's psychological well-being, little is known about this impact within the
      context of parental military deployment to a combat zone and 'indirect'
      experience of the effects of armed conflict. This study investigates the impact
      of father's military deployment to Afghanistan on child well-being in primary
      schoolchildren and compares measures of adjustment with a matched group of
      children with fathers deployed on military training (non-combat) deployment.
      METHOD: Data were collected within primary schools in 2011-2012 from 52 children
      aged 8-11 years with fathers deploying to Afghanistan ( n = 26) and fathers
      deploying on military training ( n = 26) via self-completion of questionnaires
      assessing symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress and levels of self-esteem. Data
      were collected in both groups, at pre-, mid- and post-parental deployment. Class
      teachers and parents (non-deployed) completed a measure of child behaviour and
      parents completed a measure of parenting stress and general health. RESULTS:
      Unexpectedly child adjustment difficulties were not significantly raised in
      children whose parents deployed to Afghanistan. Ratings of behavioural
      difficulties and depression were low in both groups. However, clinically elevated
      levels of anxiety and stress symptoms were reported by both groups of children at
      each stage of deployment. No associations between parental stress, parental
      mental health and child adjustment were found. CONCLUSION: High levels of
      children's anxiety and stress reported during fathers' active military service
      warrant further investigation. Implications for school and health monitoring and
      CAMHS community liaison work are discussed.

PMID- 28875714
TI  - Effects of co-exposure to imidacloprid and gibberellic acid on redox status,
      kidney variables and histopathology in adult rats.
AB  - Data on the individual nephrotoxic effects of imidacloprid (IMI) and gibberellic
      acid (GA3) are scarce. Moreover, there is a lack of information about their
      combined effects on the renal tissue. Our study investigated the effects of IMI
      and GA3 separately or together on rats kidney. IMI (64 mg/kg bw) was given for 3
      weeks by gavage either individually or in combination with GA3 (200 mg/L) via
      drinking water. IMI associated or no with GA3 increased the levels of kidney
      malondialdehyde, advanced oxidation protein products, protein carbonyls and
      metallothionein, plasma creatinine, urea, blood urea nitrogen and lactate
      dehydrogenase activity. A decline of kidney uric acid level and antioxidant
      status was also observed. All these changes were supported by histopathological
      observations. Our results highlighted the role of IMI and/or GA3-induced
      nephrotoxicity. Co-exposure to IMI and GA3 exhibited synergism in biochemical
      kidney variables and histopathology and antagonism in physical and morphological
      parameters.

PMID- 28875716
TI  - Correction to: Zhu et al., Common and uncommon adverse cutaneous reactions to
      erlotinib: a study of 20 Chinese patients with cancer.

PMID- 28875715
TI  - The emerging molecular biology toolbox for the study of long noncoding RNA
      biology.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in many biological processes.
      However, due to the unique nature of lncRNAs and the consequential difficulties
      associated with their characterization, there is a growing disparity between the
      rate at which lncRNAs are being discovered and the assignment of biological
      function to these transcripts. Here we present a molecular biology toolbox
      equipped to help dissect aspects of lncRNA biology and reveal functionality. We
      outline an approach that begins with a broad survey of genome-wide, high
      throughput datasets to identify potential lncRNA candidates and then narrow the
      focus on specific methods that are well suited to interrogate the transcripts of
      interest more closely. This involves the use of imaging-based strategies to
      validate these candidates and observe the behaviors of these transcripts at
      single molecule resolution in individual cells. We also describe the use of gene
      editing tools and interactome capture techniques to interrogate functionality and
      infer mechanism, respectively. With the emergence of lncRNAs as important
      molecules in healthy and diseased cellular function, it remains crucial to deepen
      our understanding of their biology.

PMID- 28875717
TI  - SULT1A1 copy number variation: ethnic distribution analysis in an Indian
      population.
AB  - Cytosolic sulfotransferases (SULTs) are phase II detoxification enzymes involved
      in metabolism of numerous xenobiotics, drugs and endogenous compounds.
      Interindividual variation in sulfonation capacity is important for determining an
      individual's response to xenobiotics. SNPs in SULTs, mainly SULT1A1 have been
      associated with cancer risk and also with response to therapeutic agents. Copy
      number variation (CNVs) in SULT1A1 is found to be correlated with altered enzyme
      activity. This short report primarily focuses on CNV in SULT1A1 and its
      distribution among different ethnic populations around the globe. Frequency
      distribution of SULT1A1 copy number (CN) in 157 healthy Indian individuals was
      assessed using florescent-based quantitative PCR assay. A range of 1 to >4
      copies, with a frequency of SULT1A1 CN =2 (64.9%) the highest, was observed in
      our (Indian) population. Upon comparative analysis of frequency distribution of
      SULT1A1 CN among diverse population groups, a statistically significant
      difference was observed between Indians (our data) and African-American (AA) (p =
      0.0001) and South African (Tswana) (p < 0.0001) populations. Distribution of CNV
      in the Indian population was found to be similar to that in European-derived
      populations of American and Japanese. CNV of SULT1A1 varies significantly among
      world populations and may be one of the determinants of health and diseases.

PMID- 28875718
TI  - Effect of Field Spread on Resting-State Magneto Encephalography Functional
      Network Analysis: A Computational Modeling Study.
AB  - A popular way to analyze resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) and magneto
      encephalography (MEG) data is to treat them as a functional network in which
      sensors are identified with nodes and the interaction between channel time series
      and the network connections. Although conceptually appealing, the network
      theoretical approach to sensor-level EEG and MEG data is challenged by the fact
      that EEG and MEG time series are mixtures of source activity. It is, therefore,
      of interest to assess the relationship between functional networks of source
      activity and the ensuing sensor-level networks. Since these topological features
      are of high interest in experimental studies, we address the question of to what
      extent the network topology can be reconstructed from sensor-level functional
      connectivity (FC) measures in case of MEG data. Simple simulations that consider
      only a small number of regions do not allow to assess network properties;
      therefore, we use a diffusion magnetic resonance imaging-constrained whole-brain
      computational model of resting-state activity. Our motivation lies behind the
      fact that still many contributions found in the literature perform network
      analysis at sensor level, and we aim at showing the discrepancies between source-
      and sensor-level network topologies by using realistic simulations of resting
      state cortical activity. Our main findings are that the effect of field spread on
      network topology depends on the type of interaction (instantaneous or lagged) and
      leads to an underestimation of lagged FC at sensor level due to instantaneous
      mixing of cortical signals, instantaneous interaction is more sensitive to field
      spread than lagged interaction, and discrepancies are reduced when using planar
      gradiometers rather than axial gradiometers. We, therefore, recommend using
      lagged interaction measures on planar gradiometer data when investigating network
      properties of resting-state sensor-level MEG data.

PMID- 28875719
TI  - The 2016 RANZCP Guidelines for the Management of Schizophrenia and Related
      Disorders - what's next?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The recently published RANZCP guidelines for schizophrenia and
      related disorders reviewed recent scientific evidence, and, where lacking,
      referred to clinical expertise to supply a template for raising the standard of
      care. This paper builds on the guidelines and recommends how they might be used
      to improve outcomes. METHODS: The guidelines call for evidence-based mental
      health policies, inclusive of mobilising affected families, communities and the
      public in support of policies that ensure better care and protect the wellbeing
      of people with severe mental disorders. The process of preparing the guidelines
      highlighted the limits of our scientific understanding of schizophrenia and
      shortcomings in the care currently provided. RESULTS: Writing the guidelines
      evinced the need for a culture of measuring outcomes and response to treatment,
      and harnessing such data to monitoring and optimising patient care. CONCLUSIONS:
      We recommend creation of a national case cohort for mental health research
      involving a collaborative network of clinical research centres, using the
      guidelines and generating scientific evidence for translation into clinical
      practice protocols that enable personalised treatment plans for patients and
      criteria for the performance of clinical services.

PMID- 28875720
TI  - Psychiatric advance directives in Australian mental-health legislation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Following the recent widespread reform of mental-health legislation in
      Australia, psychiatric advance directives (PADs) have now been incorporated in
      four jurisdictions. We contextualise the potential role for PADs within the
      Australian legal framework and note their varying introduction across
      jurisdictions, with a focus on progressive legislation in the Australian Capital
      Territory (ACT). CONCLUSION: The formal recognition of PADs effectively shifts
      the trajectory of mental-health law towards a stronger recognition of consumer
      autonomy, albeit to varying degrees across jurisdictions. The most inspiring of
      these changes may be seen in the ACT Act, where an innovative framing of PAD
      provisions creates a safe space for clinicians and patients to engage, build
      therapeutic alliances and develop appropriate frameworks for further change.

PMID- 28875721
TI  - When a rash has two names: pese sorcery and kisigo spirits at Lake Tanganyika.
AB  - This explorative and qualitative study, based on 27 interviews during two months
      of fieldwork, describes pese, an affliction of the skin that has conspicuously
      stayed under the radar of medico-anthropological research in Kigoma, a rural city
      in the northwest Tanzania. The condition reminds of a locally better known
      condition labeled kisigo, raising the question why two concepts of the same
      affliction exist side by side. It seems indicative that the two illness concepts
      stem from different cultures and that each specializes in an explanatory model:
      the former witchcraft (sorcery) and the latter spirit possession. Moreover, a
      symbiotic relation seems to exist between the healing traditions of the Bembe and
      the Ha. Government policies prohibiting witchcraft and targeting traditional
      healers seem to have created a situation where witchcraft practices and beliefs
      have come to represent the periphery and survive there, clandestinely.

PMID- 28875722
TI  - Diabetes injectable therapy: type 2 diabetes management in Danish practice.
AB  - Most diabetes care is done by GPs in Denmark. This study aimed to identify the
      barriers for GPs in initiating injectable therapies and reasons for referral to
      specialists. The web interview conducted included 85 GPs and 30 specialists
      experienced in type 2 diabetes (T2D). GPs felt more comfortable with initiating
      the first injectable therapy (defined as a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor
      agonist (GLP-1 RA) or basal insulin) than the second (defined as adding a basal
      insulin in patients treated with a GLP-1 RA (+/- oral anti-diabetic treatments
      [OADs]), or adding either a GLP-1 RA or a bolus insulin in patients treated with
      basal insulin (+/- OADs). The main barriers to initiating injectables were
      related to the complexity of available injectable therapies and the lack of
      comfort with complex patient profiles, namely patients with difficult glycemia
      control or significant comorbidities, whom GPs would rather refer to specialists.
      Main attributes that would increase the GPs' comfort level with initiation of
      injectables are low risk of hypoglycemia, glycemic control improvement and ease
      of use of the treatment. An injectable therapy with such attributes could help to
      overcome barriers to initiating injectable in primary care.

PMID- 28875723
TI  - Ribociclib for post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast
      cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The introduction of CDK4/6 inhibitors, such as ribociclib, has
      changed the treatment landscape for post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced
      or metastatic breast cancer. As first-line treatment of HR+/HER2- MBC, the
      addition of a CDK4/6 inhibitor to an aromatase inhibitor improves progression
      free survival compared to an aromatase inhibitor alone. Areas covered: In this
      drug profile, we review the current market for HR+/HER2- MBC, as well as the
      characteristics, mechanism, pharmacology, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics,
      metabolism, clinical efficacy, toxicities, monitoring, and dosing modification of
      the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib. Expert commentary: CDK4/6 inhibitors, such as
      ribociclib, improve outcomes in post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- MBC. The
      most common toxicity of ribociclib is neutropenia, which is generally not
      complicated and can be managed with dose modification and/or supportive care
      measures. Additional research will help better define the optimal clinical use of
      ribociclib.

PMID- 28875724
TI  - The Long and Winding Road Toward Personalized Glycemic Control in the Critically
      Ill.
AB  - Hyperglycemia is very common in critically ill patients and interventional
      studies of intensive insulin therapy with the goal of returning ICU glycemia to
      normal levels have demonstrated mixed results. A large body of literature has
      demonstrated that diabetes, per se, is not independently associated with
      increased risk of mortality in this population and that the relationship of
      glucose metrics to mortality is different for patients with and without diabetes.
      Moreover, these relationships are confounded by preadmission glycemia; in this
      regard, patients with diabetes and good preadmission glucose control, as
      reflected by HbA1c levels obtained at the time of ICU admission, are similar to
      patients without diabetes. These data point the way toward an era when blood
      glucose targets in the ICU will be "personalized," based on assessment of
      preadmission glycemia.

PMID- 28875725
TI  - IL-1beta haplotype influences the effect of NOx exposure on gestational age in
      the South African MACE birth cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cytokines, molecules within the immune system that affect either a pro
      or anti-inflammatory response, have previously been shown to influence birth
      outcomes. The maternal cytokine gene-environment interactions are thought to
      alter their expression, potentially influencing susceptibility to adverse birth
      outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the association between the
      maternal interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) haplotype and expression variation with
      oxides of nitrogen (NOx) levels, and thereafter investigate the IL-1beta
      haplotype-specific effects of NOx exposure levels, IL-1beta mRNA expression and
      other variables on gestational age. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Using the prospective
      Mother and Child in the Environment (MACE) birth cohort in Durban, South Africa,
      335 participants were genotyped for the IL-1beta haplotype. Previous studies
      showed that three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), IL-1beta-1464G/C, 
      511C/T and -31C/T, constitute the IL-1beta functional haplotype. These SNPs were
      genotyped using a restriction fragment length polymorphism assay, while IL-1beta
      mRNA expression was measured using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain
      reaction assay. Individual estimates of NOx exposure were obtained by land use
      regression modelling. A multivariate linear regression analysis was employed to
      test for significant effects on gestational age. RESULTS: IL-1beta mRNA
      expression was found to possess a haplotype-dependent effect ( p = 0.0001) and
      its expression levels positively correlated with NOx levels ( r = 0.34; p =
      0.006). In the high haplotype model, a unit increase in NOx exposure level was
      associated with a decrease in gestational age by 1 week ( p = 0.02). Furthermore,
      gestational age decreased by 0.9 weeks for every unit increase of IL-1beta mRNA
      expression level ( p = 0.025). HIV-1 positivity was associated with a 0.2-week
      decrease in gestational age ( p = 0.035) in the intermediate haplotype model and
      a 0.4-week decrease in the high haplotype model ( p = 0.044). CONCLUSION: These
      data have implications for better understanding the effect of prenatal NOx
      exposure on gestational age and demonstrate the role of the IL-1beta haplotype in
      modulating the effects of NOx exposure.

PMID- 28875726
TI  - Elevated expression of a pharmacologic Polycomb signature predicts poor prognosis
      in gastric and breast cancer.
AB  - AIM: Polycomb Group complexes are epigenetic repressors that silence tumor
      suppressive genes. Studies demonstrated that pharmacologic inhibition of Polycomb
      Group complexes with 3-deazaneplanocin A (DZNeP) induces cancer cell death by re
      expressing silenced genes. Here we evaluate the prognostic significance of DZNeP
      target genes in gastric and breast cancer. Patients & methods/materials: The
      prognostic impact of a DZNeP-regulated gene signature was investigated using the
      KM Plotter and cBio Portal resources containing microarray data from tumor
      tissue. RESULTS: We report that elevated expression of DZNeP targets is
      associated with poor clinical outcome in gastric and breast cancer. In gastric
      cancer, elevated expression of DZNeP signature is inversely correlated with
      decreased overall survival. In breast cancer, DZNeP signature predicted poor
      prognosis in HER2+ tumors but not in HER2- neoplasms. CONCLUSION: These findings
      demonstrate that DZNeP target genes are not predictive of better but rather of
      poor clinical outcome in gastric and breast cancer.

PMID- 28875727
TI  - Personality disorder: Good reasons to reclassify.

PMID- 28875728
TI  - Latent Classes of Maltreatment: A Systematic Review and Critique.
AB  - This article reviews and critically evaluates available research on latent
      classes of maltreatment. Three major databases (PsycINFO, Web of Knowledge, and
      Academic Search Complete) were used to identify studies on latent classes of
      maltreatment published before June 1, 2016. Of 365 potentially relevant studies,
      14 met inclusion criteria for review. Our analysis was guided by the following
      questions: (a) What observed indicators are being used to model classes of
      maltreatment? (b) What are the most commonly identified classes of maltreatment?
      and (c) What are the predictors and outcomes of classes of maltreatment? Across
      the studies, findings demonstrated how person-centered methods (i.e., latent
      class/profile analysis) may facilitate the study of maltreatment by concurrently
      addressing several methodological limitations common to the study of
      maltreatment, while also addressing heterogeneity in experiences of maltreatment.
      After providing an account of existing trends within the literature employing
      person-centered methodology in the study of maltreatment, we offer a critique of
      extant research, note recent methodological developments, and make numerous
      recommendations for future research using person-centered approaches to
      understanding maltreatment.

PMID- 28875729
TI  - Role of cardiac pacing in congenital complete heart block.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Congenital complete heart block affects 1/15,000 live-born infants,
      predominantly due to atrioventricular nodal injury from maternal antibodies of
      mothers with systemic lupus erythermatosus or Sjogren's syndrome. The majority of
      these children will need a pacemaker implanted prior to becoming young adults.
      This article will review the various patient and technical factors that influence
      the type of pacemaker implanted, and the current literature on optimal pacing
      practices. Areas covered: A literature search was performed using PubMed, Embase
      and Web of Science. Data regarding epicardial versus transvenous implants, pacing
      induced ventricular dysfunction, alternative pacing strategies (including
      biventricular pacing, left ventricular pacing, and His bundle pacing), and
      complications with pacemakers in the pediatric population were reviewed. Expert
      commentary: There are numerous pacing strategies available to children with
      congenital complete heart block. The risks and benefits of the initial implant
      should be weighed against the long-term issues inherent with a life-time of
      pacing.

PMID- 28875731
TI  - Outpatient Palliative Cardiology Service Embedded Within a Heart Failure Clinic:
      Experiences With an Emerging Model of Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of palliative care consultation in the outpatient treatment
      of patients with symptomatic heart failure (HF) is poorly studied. In August
      2015, we created an outpatient palliative care service embedded within the HF
      clinic at Cleveland Clinic main campus. AIM: To characterize patients cared for
      by our novel outpatient palliative cardiology service, including their degree of
      HF, symptoms, comorbidities, topics addressed in clinic, palliative treatments
      prescribed, advanced directives status, and mortality. DESIGN: We conducted a
      retrospective chart review of all patients evaluated by this outpatient service.
      RESULTS: Eighty patients were seen in 229 outpatient encounters. The most
      commonly reported symptoms were tiredness (74%), pain (64%), dyspnea (57%),
      drowsiness (45%), anxiety (45%), and depression (43%). The most frequently
      addressed issues were pain management (55%) and advanced care planning (54%). The
      most common palliative medications prescribed in palliative care clinic were
      opiates (48%), laxatives (22%), antineuropathics (22%), and antidepressants
      (16%). The 1-year survival rate was 70% (CI 65-75%). CONCLUSIONS: Embedding
      palliative medicine services in an HF outpatient clinic is feasible. Patients
      seen in this setting had an array of quality-of-life limiting symptoms and were
      medically managed with several interventions familiar to palliative medicine
      specialists. Outpatients with chronic HF have a significant symptom burden and
      may benefit from outpatient specialist palliative care.

PMID- 28875730
TI  - Liquid biopsy for brain tumors.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Minimally invasive methods will augment the clinical approach for
      establishing the diagnosis or monitoring treatment response of central nervous
      system tumors. Liquid biopsy by blood or cerebrospinal fluid sampling holds
      promise in this regard. Areas covered: In this literature review, the authors
      highlight recent studies describing the analysis of circulating tumor cells, cell
      free nucleic acids, and extracellular vesicles as strategies to accomplish liquid
      biopsy in glioblastoma and metastatic tumors. The authors then discuss the
      continued efforts to improve signal detection, standardize the liquid biopsy
      handling and preparation, develop platforms for clinical application, and
      establish a role for liquid biopsies in personalized medicine. Expert commentary:
      As the technologies used to analyze these biomarkers continue to evolve, we
      propose that there is a future potential to precisely diagnose and monitor
      treatment response with liquid biopsies.

PMID- 28875732
TI  - Pain Management Concerns From the Hospice Family Caregivers' Perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pain management is a challenging task for family caregivers in home
      hospice care. However, there are limited studies that examine the challenges
      regarding pain management in hospice care from family caregivers' perspectives.
      OBJECTIVES: To identify the challenges related to pain management faced by family
      caregivers in hospice care and to examine the validity of an existing framework
      that outlines pain management challenges for hospice family caregivers. DESIGN:
      We conducted a theory-driven, deductive content analysis of secondary data
      obtained from hospice family caregivers' interviews from a randomized clinical
      trial. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: We included baseline interviews of 15 hospice
      caregivers of patients from hospice agencies in the States of Washington. The
      majority of the participants were white and female caregivers. They were
      spouse/partner or adult child living with the patient. RESULTS: The study
      identified 5 out of the 6 major themes in the original framework and confirmed
      that hospice family caregivers face a variety of challenges: caregiver-centric
      issues, caregiver's medication skills and knowledge, communication and teamwork,
      organizational skill, and patient-centric issues. A couple of the subthemes in
      the original framework were not present in our findings. We also expanded the
      original framework by adding 1 subtheme and revised 2 definitions in the original
      framework. CONCLUSION: The study provided an investigation on hospice family
      caregivers' difficulties in pain management. The results can inform health-care
      providers and researchers of family caregivers' challenges and provide insights
      for future designs of educational tools targeting pain management strategies, so
      that family caregivers can perform pain management effectively at home.

PMID- 28875733
TI  - Are Bereaved Family Members Satisfied With Information Provision About Palliative
      Care Units in Japan?
AB  - This study clarified the evaluation of the information about palliative care
      units (PCUs) from the oncologists by the bereaved family members of Japanese
      patients with cancer at the time of their first referral. A multicenter
      questionnaire survey examining the amount, timing, and adequacy of information
      received about PCUs was conducted. Half of the respondents (N = 465, mean age =
      60 years) were spouses. Findings showed that 55% of the respondents thought the
      amount of information was inadequate and 33% thought the timing of the
      information about PCU from the oncologist was inadequate. Greater perceived
      inadequacy of the amount of information was significantly associated with (1)
      obtaining information from other patients and/or family member who had no
      experience with PCUs and (2) not acquiring information about the availability of
      medical staff and medical treatments at PCUs. Greater perceived inadequacy of the
      timing of the information was significantly associated with acts by the
      oncologist and/or nurses, such as providing insufficient information or saying
      there is nothing more that can be done any longer; however, this was not
      significantly associated with the actual timing of the oncologists' information.
      Medical staff should understand what information families desire and provide
      enough detail for patients to imagine accurately what time spent in a PCU would
      be like. Moreover, practitioners should strive to improve methods of
      communication and engagement after the information provision, rather than
      prioritizing the timing of the information.

PMID- 28875734
TI  - Characterization of the scope and magnitude of biotin interference in susceptible
      Roche Elecsys competitive and sandwich immunoassays.
AB  - Background Biotin interference is a significant problem to which at-risk
      laboratories must now be attuned. We sought to systematically characterize the
      nature of this interference in Roche immunoassays. Methods Known concentrations
      of biotin were titrated into serum samples and the effects on competitive and
      sandwich immunoassays were analysed. The maximum and minimum concentrations
      examined reflect those likely to be achieved in individuals on 5 to 10 mg
      supplements at the lower end, and 100 to 300 mg biotin at the high end. Results A
      high variability in biotin tolerance was observed. Some assays, such as troponin
      T, TSH and antithyroid antibodies, were extremely sensitive to the lower
      concentrations of biotin (15.6 and 31.3 ng/mL), whereas the majority of assays
      were relatively resistant. At concentrations >=500 ng/mL, all assays showed
      significant interference from biotin but, again, the magnitude of the
      interference was variable. The more sensitive assays showed profound analytical
      bias at biotin concentrations that occur with high-dose therapy. Conclusion Our
      data demonstrate high variability in biotin tolerance across Roche immunoassays.
      The shape of the dose-response curves provides more detailed information than the
      single manufacturer-quoted figure for biotin tolerance. Accordingly, these data
      may be used by laboratories for more accurate risk assessment in predicting the
      effects of biotin. Our data may also be extrapolated to guide timing of blood
      tests in patients on high-dose biotin therapy: it demonstrates the number of half
      lives required to withhold biotin in order to decrease its concentration to below
      a given assay tolerance.

PMID- 28875735
TI  - The influence of subliminal crosstalk in dementia narratives.
AB  - Ethnographic audio-visual research data recorded in a busy dementia care
      environment were initially considered to be 'contaminated' by unwanted background
      noise. This included a variety of elements: ambient sound, mechanical noise, non
      narrative vocalisation and narrative fragments from parallel conversation. Using
      the methodological lens of conversation analysis, we present an exploration of
      the striking temporal and sequential resonances between the narrative of one man
      with dementia and a group of care staff holding a separate conversation some
      distance away. We suggest that in this and similar settings, where random and
      intrusive background sounds and conversation form a ubiquitous backdrop, the
      presence of such 'noise' can have a detectable influence on the content and
      direction of situated narratives. We argue that rather than attempting to filter
      out these apparently intrusive sounds from micro-interactional data, interference
      elements can usefully be incorporated into the analysis of interactions.

PMID- 28875736
TI  - What makes extra care housing an appropriate setting for people with dementia? An
      exploration of staff decision-making.
AB  - Extra care housing facilities in the UK are intended to offer a community-based
      alternative to care home placement. However, little is known about staff's views
      of the appropriateness of extra care housing for people with dementia. This paper
      describes a mixed-methods study which explored this issue using statistical
      modelling of frontline staff's recommendations of the best care setting for care
      home entrants; thematic analysis of transcripts from a simulated Resource
      Allocation Management Panel meeting; and content analysis of care coordinators'
      reasons for not considering extra care housing in actual care home applications.
      Frontline practitioners saw extra care housing as a valuable alternative for a
      significant minority of care home entrants. However, extra care housing was not
      recommended if people needed care at night. Social care managers expressed
      general support for the idea of extra care housing, but appeared overwhelmingly
      focused on maintaining people at home and unsure where in the care pathway extra
      care housing sat. More evidence is needed on whether extra care housing can be an
      alternative to care homes and how services should be arranged to meet the needs
      of people living in extra care housing.

PMID- 28875737
TI  - The lived experiences of dementia in married couple relationships.
AB  - : Background and purpose There are a growing number of couples who become
      affected by dementia as one partner develops the condition while the other
      becomes a carer. However, our knowledge about the experiences of couples affected
      by dementia is limited. Very little knowledge about the impact of dementia on
      couples has been gained in previous research. The aim of this study was to
      explore the dyadic perspective of dementia within a couple relationship.
      METHODOLOGY: Six couples were interviewed about their experience of living with
      dementia. Interview transcripts were subjected to interpretive phenomenological
      analysis to identify themes across participants' accounts. RESULTS AND
      CONCLUSION: The analysis revealed three themes: (i) maintaining a bond, (ii)
      change and adjustment, and (iii) the challenge of coping. The results highlight
      the importance of studying the dyadic perspective and including people with
      dementia in research. Couples experienced an enduring commitment to one another
      as they adjusted to life with dementia.

PMID- 28875738
TI  - An evaluation of discharge documentation for people with dementia discharged home
      from hospital - A cross-sectional pilot study.
AB  - This study evaluated discharge documentation for people with dementia who were
      discharged home, against expected discharge criteria and determined relationships
      between compliance scores and outcomes. This cross-sectional study audited
      discharge documentation and conducted a post discharge survey of carers. There
      were 73 eligible discharges and clinically significant documentation deficits for
      people with dementia included: risk assessments of confusion (48%), falls and
      pressure injury (56%); provision of medication dose-decision aids (53%),
      provision of contact information for patient support groups (6%) and advance care
      planning (9%). There was no significant relationship between compliance scores
      and outcomes. Carer strain was reported to be high for many carers. People with
      dementia and their carers are more vulnerable and at higher risk of poor outcomes
      after discharge. There are opportunities for improved provision of medications
      and risk assessment for people with dementia, provision of information for
      patient support groups and advanced care planning.

PMID- 28875739
TI  - Promising effects of nanomedicine in cancer drug delivery.
AB  - Successful ushering of nanomedicine has shown immense potential in advancing
      cancer treatment regimens. The unique characteristics of nanoparticles such as
      their optimal size, shape, efficient surface to volume ratio, surfaces that can
      be optimally tailored make them very attractive delivery candidates for highly
      hydrophobic chemotherapeutic agents. Moreover, their inherent capacity to
      encapsulate these drugs and enhance their solubility profiles offers them unique
      advantages over conventional treatments. Surface modification with targeting
      ligands, increased intracellular uptake and prolonged circulation profiles in
      vivo establish their overall superiority over other treatment regimens. This
      article attempts to highlight some of these salient features of nanoparticles as
      drug delivery agents, which makes them more attractive in terms of providing
      promising opportunities in targeted drug delivery.

PMID- 28875740
TI  - Smart-device environmental control systems: experiences of people with cervical
      spinal cord injuries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Environmental control systems (ECS) are devices that enable people
      with severe physical limitations to independently control household appliances.
      Recent advancements in the area of environmental control technology have led to
      the development of ECS that can be controlled through mainstream smart-devices.
      There is limited research on ECS within Australia and no known research
      addressing smart-device ECS. The current study sought to explore users'
      experiences with smart-device ECS within Australia. METHODS: The study followed a
      single embedded case study method. Participants (n = 5) were existing ECS users
      with a cervical spinal cord injury. Data were collected through semi-structured
      interviews with participants, reflexive journals and field notes. An inductive
      approach was used to analyze the data thematically. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The
      experience of using a smart-device ECS presented both opportunities and costs to
      users. The opportunities included: independent control, choice, peace of mind,
      connection, effective resource use, and control over smart-phone functions and
      applications. The associated costs included: financial, time, frustration, and
      technical limitations. While findings are similar to previous research into
      traditional ECS this study indicates that smart-device ECS also offered a new
      opportunity for users to access mainstream smart-device functions and
      applications. Future research should investigate methods and resources that
      practitioners could utilize to better support new users of smart-device ECS.
      Implications for Rehabilitation As with traditional environmental control
      systems, users of smart environmental control systems report increased
      independence, choice and control. Smart-device environmental control systems
      provide users with access to mainstream smart-device functions and applications,
      which facilitate connection to family and the outside world. The costs to the
      user of smart-device environmental control systems include monetary and time
      investment, dealing with technical limitations and resulting frustration.
      Prescribers and installers must consider ways to mitigate these costs experienced
      by users.

PMID- 28875741
TI  - Analysis of damage in relation to different classifications of pre-collapse
      osteonecrosis of the femoral head.
AB  - Objective This study aimed to investigate the damage pattern of the stress
      transfer path (STP) for the Japanese Investigation Committee (JIC) classification
      of pre-collapse osteonecrosis of the femoral head. We aimed to provide a specific
      biomechanical basis for treatment decisions of each subtype. Methods Five
      computational models were used in the experiment. Different necrotic
      classifications were simulated based on the JIC classification system. Damage
      patterns of the STP were used for qualitative assessment and average stresses
      were used for quantitative analysis. Results The STP of type A showed a strong
      similarity to the healthy level, which was consistent with the bone density
      distribution in X-rays and previous simulations results. The damaged area of
      principal stress of type B was approximately 25% of the healthy level. The STPs
      of types C1 and C2 were broken and the damaged areas of principal stress were
      more than 50% of the healthy level. The efficiency of stress transfer was
      reduced. Conclusions These results indicate that the damage patterns and stress
      transfer efficiency of the femoral head are associated with necrotic
      classifications.

PMID- 28875742
TI  - Medicated ocular bandages and corneal health: potential excipients and active
      pharmaceutical ingredients.
AB  - Corneal blindness can occur due to improper healing of the corneal tissues after
      induced injury or abrasion which can be accidental, pathogenic, or after corneal
      surgery. Abnormal regulation of the healing mechanisms can lead to corneal
      opacity. Reducing inflammation and promoting epithelial wound healing are crucial
      for scar-free corneal recovery without eyesight complications. Current approaches
      for corneal wound healing involve amniotic membrane (AM) bandages, bandage
      contact lenses (BCL), and collagen shields in conjunction with frequent
      administration of therapeutic eye drops. The problem with eye drops is poor
      bioavailability and patient incompliance that might lead to corneal wound healing
      complications and poor clinical outcomes. Various methods have been proposed for
      loading drugs into medicated bandage lenses. There are advantages and limitations
      associated with each technique regarding the ease of manufacture, drug loading,
      release kinetics, and suitability with various therapeutics and hydrogel types.
      There is still, however, no drug-eluting corneal bandage on the market despite
      the need for such a convenient and cost-efficient strategy for corneal wound
      healing. This review will highlight materials and therapeutics that can be used
      in medicated ocular bandages and various ways of incorporating drugs, while
      discussing the limitations and challenges associated with bringing medicated
      ocular bandages in the market.

PMID- 28875743
TI  - Different routes and forms of uterotonics for treatment of retained placenta:
      methodological issues.

PMID- 28875744
TI  - Folic acid-conjugated cationic Ag2S quantum dots for optical imaging and
      selective doxorubicin delivery to HeLa cells.
AB  - AIM: We aim to develop folic acid (FA)-conjugated cationic Ag2S near-infrared
      quantum dots (NIRQDs) for the delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) selectively to folate
      receptor (FR)-positive cancer cells to achieve enhanced drug efficacy and optical
      tracking in the NIR region. MATERIALS & METHODS: Cationic Ag2S NIRQDs were
      decorated with FA using a PEG bridge and loaded with DOX. In vitro studies were
      performed on FR-positive human cervical carcinoma cells and FR-negative A549
      cells. RESULTS: Significantly higher uptake of DOX by human cervical carcinoma
      cells cells and a greater therapeutic effect along with a strong intracellular
      optical signal were obtained with DOX-loaded FA-conjugated Ag2S NIRQDs.
      CONCLUSION: These Ag2S NIRQDs are promising theranostic nanoparticles for
      receptor-mediated delivery of DOX with enhanced drug efficacy combined with
      optical imaging.

PMID- 28875745
TI  - Age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index predicts prognosis of laryngopharyngeal
      cancer treated with radiation therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the ability of comorbidity indices to predict the
      prognosis of laryngopharyngeal cancer and their association with treatment
      modalities. METHODS: This retrospective study included 198 patients with
      laryngeal, hypopharyngeal, and oropharyngeal cancers. The effect of comorbidity
      indices on overall survival between surgery and (chemo)-radiation therapy ((C)RT)
      groups was analyzed. The cumulative incidence rates for cancer mortality and
      other mortalities according to the age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (ACCI)
      and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) were compared. RESULTS: Univariate survival
      analyses showed a significant association between the ACCI and overall survival
      in the (C)RT group, but not in the surgery group. The association between the CCI
      and overall survival was not significant in either group. In multivariate
      analyses, a high ACCI score was an independent prognostic factor in the (C)RT
      group (HR 2.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28-6.49), but not in the surgery
      group (HR 1.39, 95%CI 0.27-5.43). The higher ACCI group had increased mortality
      from other causes compared with the lower ACCI group (5-year cumulative
      incidence, 8.5% and 17.8%, respectively, p = .003). CONCLUSION: The ACCI was a
      better prognostic factor than the CCI. Surgery may be more beneficial than
      radiation for patients with a high ACCI.

PMID- 28875747
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875746
TI  - Plasma renin activity in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection
      fraction on optimal medical therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) activation in heart
      failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFREF) is detrimental through promotion
      of ventricular remodeling and salt and water retention. AIMS: The aims of this
      article are to describe RAAS activity in distinct HFREF populations and to assess
      its prognostic impact. METHODS: Venous blood samples were prospectively obtained
      in 76 healthy volunteers, 72 patients hospitalized for acute decompensated HFREF,
      and 78 ambulatory chronic HFREF patients without clinical signs of congestion.
      Sequential measurements were performed in patients with acute decompensated
      HFREF. RESULTS: Plasma renin activity (PRA) was significantly higher in
      ambulatory chronic HFREF (7.6 ng/ml/h (2.2; 18.1)) compared to patients with
      acute decompensated HFREF (1.5 ng/ml/h (0.8; 5.7)) or healthy volunteers (1.4
      ng/ml/h (0.6; 2.3)) (all p < 0.05). PRA was significantly associated with
      arterial blood pressure and renin-angiotensin system blocker dose. A progressive
      rise in PRA (+4 ng/ml/h (0.4; 10.9); p < 0.001) was observed in acute
      decompensated HFREF patients after three consecutive days of decongestive
      treatment. Only in acute HFREF were PRA levels associated with increased
      cardiovascular mortality or HF readmissions ( p = 0.035). CONCLUSION: PRA is
      significantly elevated in ambulatory chronic HFREF patients but is not associated
      with worse outcome. In contrast, in acute HFREF patients, PRA is associated with
      cardiovascular mortality or HF readmissions.

PMID- 28875748
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875749
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875751
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875750
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875752
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875753
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875754
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875755
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875756
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875757
TI  - ?

PMID- 28875759
TI  - Kaposi sarcoma: An unconventional cause of lower extremity lymphedema.

PMID- 28875758
TI  - Review of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapy of vulvar leiomyoma, a rare
      gynecological tumor.
AB  - The objective of this article is to discuss the pathophysiology, diagnosis,
      differential diagnosis, and therapy of vulvar leiomyoma. We performed a review of
      all English-language reports of vulvar leiomyoma published in PubMed from 1978 to
      2015 using the following search terms: "vulval leiomyoma," "vulvar leiomyoma,"
      "vulval smooth muscle tumor," and "external genitalia smooth muscle tumor."
      Vulvar leiomyomas, which are rare benign monoclonal tumors, most commonly occur
      in the fourth and fifth decades of life. The genetics of vulvar leiomyoma remain
      undefined. Three principal histological patterns have been identified: spindled,
      epithelioid, and myxoid. Imaging tests such as ultrasound, endoscopic ultrasound,
      and magnetic resonance imaging are used in diagnosis. Surgical excision is the
      only curative treatment for vulvar leiomyomas. Establishment of a full
      differential diagnosis list and correct final diagnosis before surgery are
      essential for optimal clinical management. Although recurrence of vulvar
      leiomyoma is extremely rare, long-term follow-up of all cases is advisable.

PMID- 28875760
TI  - Redo surgery using IntraLase femtosecond laser for treating a decentered laser in
      situ keratomileusis flap.
AB  - Objective Decentered flaps are rarely reported after femtosecond laser-assisted
      in situ keratomileusis flap procedures. We present a patient with a decentered
      flap after preparation of a corneal flap using the Femto LDV technique. Methods
      The 22-year-old man required a redo operation because of a decentered corneal
      flap. It was performed the same day at the patient's insistence and with his
      consent. The new corneal flap for the redo surgery was prepared using the
      femtosecond laser technique and IntraLase. Results Uncorrected visual acuity for
      each eye was 1.2 during the 12-month follow-up. The results of the Femtosecond
      laser technique showed good predictability and repeatability regarding the
      preparation of corneal flaps, but it still may cause some intraoperative
      complications. Conclusion Once redo surgery is needed, the size and depth of the
      initially prepared flap should be determined using anterior segment optical
      coherence tomography to pre-set the parameters for preparation of the redo flap.

PMID- 28875761
TI  - An Ultralow-Dose 1-Day Protocol With Activities Lower Than 20 MBq for the
      Detection of Sentinel Lymph Nodes in Breast Cancer-Experiences After 150 Cases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Common protocols for the detection of sentinel lymph nodes in early
      breast cancer often include the injection of the tracer 1 day before surgery. In
      order to detect enough activity on the day of surgery, the applied activity in
      many protocols is as high as several hundred MBq. So far, very few protocols with
      an activity below 20 MBq have been reported. We developed an ultralow-dose 1-day
      protocol with a mean activity lower than 20 MBq in order to reduce radiation
      exposure for patients and staff. Here, we are presenting our experiences in 150
      consecutive cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 150 patients with clinically
      and sonographically negative axilla and no multicentricity underwent a sentinel
      lymph node biopsy using an ultralow-dose protocol performed on the day of
      surgery. No patient received systemic therapy prior to sentinel node biopsy.
      After peritumoral injection of the tracer Technetium-99m, a lymphoscintigraphy
      was performed in all cases. Seven minutes before the first cut, we injected 5 mL
      of blue dye in the region of the areola. RESULTS: In 148 (98.7%) of 150 patients,
      at least 1 sentinel lymph node could be identified by lymphoscintigraphy; the
      detection rate during surgery with combined tracers Technetium-99m and blue dye
      was 100%. The mean applied activity was 17.8 MBq (9-20). A mean number of 1.3 (0
      5) sentinel lymph nodes were identified by lymphoscintigraphy and a mean number
      of 1.8 (1-5) sentinel lymph nodes were removed during sentinel lymph node biopsy.
      CONCLUSION: Ultralow-dose 1-day protocols with an activity lower than 20 MBq are
      a safe alternative to 1-day or 2-day protocols with significantly higher
      radiation doses in primary surgery for early breast cancer. Using Technetium-99m
      and blue dye in a dual tracer approach, detection rates of 100% are possible in
      clinical routine in order to reduce radiation exposure for patients and staff.

PMID- 28875762
TI  - Predictors of infection in viral-hepatitis related acute liver failure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Infections are common and associated with complications and mortality
      in acute liver failure (ALF). The temporal relationship between ammonia and
      infection in ALF patients is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the predictors of
      infection and its relationship with arterial ammonia levels. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Consecutive ALF patients hospitalized between January 2004 and December
      2015, without signs of infection at/within 48 h of admission, were included.
      Occurrence of infection after 48 h was documented and ammonia levels were
      estimated for five consecutive days. Multivariate logistic regression analysis
      was used to assess factors associated with development of infection. Generalized
      estimating equations (GEE) were used to evaluate five-day time trend of ammonia
      in patients with and without infection. RESULTS: Of 540 consecutive patients, 120
      were infected at admission/within 48 h and were excluded. Of the rest 420
      patients, 144 (34.3%) developed infection after 48 h and 276 (65.7%) remained non
      infected. Infected patients had higher mortality than non-infected patients
      (61.8% vs 40.0%, p < .001). On multivariate analysis, presence of cerebral
      edema(HR 2.049; 95%CI, 1.30-3.23), ammonia level on day 3 of admission (HR 1.006;
      95%CI, 1.003-1.008), and model for end stage liver disease (MELD) score (HR
      1.051; 95%CI, 1.026-1.078) were associated with development of infection. GEE
      showed group difference in serial ammonia values between infected and non
      infected patients indicating lack of ammonia decline in infected patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cerebral edema, elevated ammonia on day 3, and higher MELD score
      predict the development of infection in ALF. Ammonia persists at high levels in
      infected patients, and elevated ammonia on day 3 is associated with complications
      and death.

PMID- 28875763
TI  - Porosity effects of natural latex (Hevea brasiliensis) on release of compounds
      for biomedical applications.
AB  - Natural rubber latex biomedical (NRLb) obtained from the rubber tree Hevea
      brasiliensis has shown great potential in biomedicine and biomaterial
      applications. NRLb has been utilized as a physical barrier against infectious
      agents and in the controlled release of drugs and extracts. In the present work,
      NRLb was polymerized in a lyophilizer using different volumes of water to control
      the resultant membrane porosity and characterized regarding the surface
      morphology, water vapour permeability (WVP), mechanical properties, haemolytic
      activity and cytotoxicity. The release of bovine serum albumin protein from the
      latex membranes was evaluated. Drug release rates increased with porosity and
      membranes were able to control protein release up to 12 h. In addition, WVP
      increased with the quantity of pores. The cell viability observed for the porous
      membrane was higher than that noted for conventional membranes. In summary, the
      porosity control of natural latex membranes can be used to modulate properties
      and make them suitable for biomedical applications, such as wound dressings,
      modulated gas-exchange membranes and controlled drug delivery systems.

PMID- 28875764
TI  - Evaluation of adiponectin and leptin levels and oxidative stress in bipolar
      disorder patients with metabolic syndrome treated by valproic acid.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An increased risk for metabolic syndrome (MS) has been described
      for people with psychotic and mood disorders. The aim of this study was to
      determine the influence of valproic acid (VPA) treatment on adiponectin, leptin
      levels and oxidative stress in bipolar disorder (BD). METHODS: Forty patients
      with BD receiving VPA monotherapy and 20 healthy control subjects were included
      in this study. BD patients were divided into two groups with and without MS as
      group 1 and group 2, respectively. Twenty BD patients diagnosed according to the
      Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM IV) were assessed for
      MS according to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment
      Panel (ATP III) criteria. Adiponectin, leptin, protein carbonyls, sulfhydryl (
      SH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in 40 BD patients and 20
      control subjects. RESULTS: Serum adiponectin levels were significantly lower in
      group 1 patients than in group 2 and control subjects ( p<.001). Serum leptin
      levels were significantly higher in group 1 patients than in group 2 and control
      subjects ( p<.001). Serum -SH levels were significantly lower in group 2 patients
      than in group 1 ( p<.001) and control subjects ( p<.05). Serum carbonyl levels
      were significantly higher in group 1 and group 2 patients than in control
      subjects ( p<.001). Serum MDA levels were significantly higher in group 1
      patients than in group 2 and control subjects ( p<.001). CONCLUSION: These
      results provide further evidence that VPA treatment for patients with BD
      contributed to the metabolic disturbances, such as the decreased serum
      adiponectin and -SH levels, as well as the increased serum leptin, MDA and
      carbonyl levels.

PMID- 28875765
TI  - Factors associated with early diagnosis in pediatric vs adult nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To improve understanding of the initial symptom between pediatric and
      adult nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to improve the early diagnosis of NPC.
      METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included all 353 patients with a primary
      diagnosis of NPC in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from
      January 2010 to December 2016. Of these, 34 patients were 21 years or younger
      (pediatric); 319 patients, older than 21 years (adult). Data were analyzed after
      data collection. RESULTS: We found no difference between pediatric and adult
      patients in terms of their sex distribution (p > .05).Type III, undifferentiated
      carcinoma is the most common subtype in Pediatric patients, while adult patients
      had more squamous cell tumors (p < .01). Pediatric patients were more likely to
      present with stage IV disease (p <  .05). Of the 353 patients, 120 (34.0%) had
      only one presenting symptom initially; however, most patients presented two or
      more episodes. Neck mass was the most common presenting symptom initially in
      children and adolescents, while multiple ear symptoms in adult patients (p =
      .003). The median time from onset of the presenting symptom to diagnosis is three
      months, adult patient presented longer history (64.7% vs 44.55, p < .05). Of the
      319 adult patients, there were 142 which the time from onset of the presenting
      symptom to diagnosis is less than 3 months and there were 177 more than 3 months,
      the difference was significant between the two groups (p < .05). There were no
      differences in the misdiagnosis rate between pediatric and adult (35.1 vs 31.0, p
      > .05). Among pediatric patients, 31 (91.2%) had positive EBV DNA in peripheral
      plasma. EBV DNA was significantly associated with stage (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Although uncommon, pediatric NPC appears to affect a different patient
      demographic relative to adult NPC. NPC in children is associated with
      undifferentiated carcinoma and more advanced disease presentation.

PMID- 28875766
TI  - Postprandial glucose and healthcare resource use: a cross-sectional survey of
      adults with diabetes treated with basal-bolus insulin.
AB  - AIMS: Postprandial glucose (PPG) control is a well-known challenge for diabetes
      management, yet there is limited research on how PPG affects healthcare resource
      utilization. This study investigated the association between PPG levels and
      healthcare resource utilization among adults with diabetes treated with basal
      bolus insulin. METHODS: A web-based, cross-sectional survey (n = 940) of adults
      with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and treated with basal and bolus insulins was
      conducted in Italy, the UK, and the US. Descriptive analyses included
      frequencies, cross-tabulations, and comparison of means. Incidence-rate ratios
      (IRR) were calculated using negative binomial regression analysis to investigate
      the relationship between elevated PPG and healthcare resource utilization. Models
      controlled for demographic characteristics, duration of diabetes, and diabetes
      related complications. RESULTS: Among respondents who measured PPG regularly and
      reported their two highest PPG values in the past week (n = 691), the mean
      average highest PPG value was 11.9 mmol/L (SD = 4.0). On average, holding other
      variables constant at their means, a 1 mmol/L increase in PPG was associated with
      an increase in healthcare resource utilization related to diabetes and elevated
      PPG, including the expected number of healthcare provider (HCP) visits in the
      past 6 months (IRR [95% CI] = 1.14 [1.08-1.21], p < .001), the expected number of
      calls/emails to HCPs in the past 6 months (IRR [95% CI] = 1.12 [1.06-1.19], p <
      .001), and the expected number of overnight hospitalizations in the past year
      (IRR [95% CI] = 1.14 [1.07-1.23], p < .001). LIMITATIONS: The study relied on
      self-reported data, which may be subject to recall bias. Given the cross
      sectional nature of the study, results should be interpreted with caution.
      CONCLUSIONS: Increased PPG levels were significantly associated with increased
      healthcare resource utilization among adults with diabetes. Additional education
      regarding PPG monitoring may help improve the day-to-day management of diabetes
      and reduce healthcare costs.

PMID- 28875767
TI  - Applying stated-preference methods to improve health systems in sub-Saharan
      Africa: a systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sub-Saharan African health systems must balance shifting disease
      burdens with desires for robust institutions. Stated-preference methods have been
      applied extensively to elicit health care workers' preferences and priorities for
      rural practice. This systematic review characterizes the range of their
      applications to African health systems problems. Areas covered: A PRISMA protocol
      was submitted to PROSPERO. Six databases were queried for peer-reviewed articles
      using quantitative stated-preference methods to evaluate a health systems-related
      trade-off. Quality was assessed using the PREFS checklist. Seventy-seven articles
      published between 1996 and 2017 met review criteria. Methods were primarily
      choice-based: discrete-choice experiments (n = 46), ranking/allocation techniques
      (n = 21), conjoint analyses (n = 7), and best-worst scaling (n = 3). Trade-offs
      fell into six 'building blocks': service features (n = 27), workforce incentives
      (n = 17), product features (n = 14), system priorities (n = 14), insurance
      features (n = 4), and research priorities (n = 1). Five countries dominated:
      South Africa (n = 11), Ghana (n = 9), Malawi (n = 9), Uganda (n = 9), and
      Tanzania (n = 8). Discrete-choice experiments were of highest quality (mean
      score: 3.36/5). Expert commentary: Stated-preference methods have been applied to
      many health systems contexts throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Studies examined
      established strategic areas, especially primary health care for women, prevention
      and treatment of infectious diseases, and workforce development. Studies have
      neglected the emerging areas of non-communicable diseases.

PMID- 28875768
TI  - Measuring balance confidence after spinal cord injury: the reliability and
      validity of the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale.
AB  - CONTEXT/OBJECTIVE: The study objectives were to evaluate the test-retest
      reliability, convergent validity, and discriminative validity of the Activities
      specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale in individuals with incomplete spinal
      cord injury (iSCI). DESIGN: Prospective, cross-sectional study. SETTING:
      Laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-six community-dwelling individuals with chronic
      iSCI (20 males, 59.7 + 18.9 years old) and 26 age- and sex-matched able-bodied
      (AB) individuals participated. INTERVENTIONS: None. OUTCOME MEASURES: Measures of
      balance and gait were collected over two days. Clinical measures included the ABC
      scale, Mini-Balance Evaluation System's Test, 10-meter Walk Test, SCI Functional
      Ambulation Profile, manual muscle testing of lower extremity muscles, and
      measures of lower extremity proprioception and cutaneous pressure sensitivity.
      Biomechanical measures included the velocity and sway area of centre of pressure
      (COP) movement during quiet standing. RESULTS: The ABC scale demonstrated high
      test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.93) among
      participants with iSCI. The minimal detectable change was 14.87%. ABC scale
      scores correlated with performance on all clinical measures (rho=0.60-0.80,
      P<0.01), with the exception of proprioception and cutaneous pressure sensitivity
      (P=0.20-0.70), demonstrating convergent validity. ABC scale scores also
      correlated with overall COP velocity (rho=-0.69, P<0.001) and COP velocity in the
      anterior-posterior direction (rho=-0.71, P<0.001). Participants with iSCI scored
      significantly lower on the ABC scale than the AB participants (P<0.001), and the
      area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.95, demonstrating
      discriminative validity. CONCLUSION: The ABC scale is a reliable and valid
      measure of balance confidence in community-dwelling, ambulatory individuals with
      chronic iSCI.

PMID- 28875770
TI  - Evaluating Web-Based Nursing Education's Effects: A Systematic Review and Meta
      Analysis.
AB  - This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated whether using web-based
      nursing educational programs increases a participant's knowledge and clinical
      performance. We performed a meta-analysis of studies published between January
      2000 and July 2016 and identified through RISS, CINAHL, ProQuest Central, Embase,
      the Cochrane Library, and PubMed. Eleven studies were eligible for inclusion in
      this analysis. The results of the meta-analysis demonstrated significant
      differences not only for the overall effect but also specifically for blended
      programs and short (2 weeks or 4 weeks) intervention periods. To present more
      evidence supporting the effectiveness of web-based nursing educational programs,
      further research is warranted.

PMID- 28875769
TI  - Understanding the cryptic nature of Lassa fever in West Africa.
AB  - Lassa fever (LF) is increasingly recognized by global health institutions as an
      important rodent-borne disease with severe impacts on some of West Africa's
      poorest communities. However, our knowledge of LF ecology, epidemiology and
      distribution is limited, which presents barriers to both short-term disease
      forecasting and prediction of long-term impacts of environmental change on Lassa
      virus (LASV) zoonotic transmission dynamics. Here, we synthesize current
      knowledge to show that extrapolations from past research have produced an
      incomplete picture of the incidence and distribution of LF, with negative
      consequences for policy planning, medical treatment and management interventions.
      Although the recent increase in LF case reports is likely due to improved
      surveillance, recent studies suggest that future socio-ecological changes in West
      Africa may drive increases in LF burden. Future research should focus on the
      geographical distribution and disease burden of LF, in order to improve its
      integration into public policy and disease control strategies.

PMID- 28875771
TI  - The experience of being a participant in one's own care at discharge and at home,
      following a severe acute exacerbation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a
      longitudinal study.
AB  - PURPOSE: In healthcare related to hospital discharge and follow-up, it is
      acknowledged that patient participation can strengthen self-management in
      patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, the meaning of
      participation in care following a severe acute exacerbation is less described.
      Therefore, the aim of this part of a larger study was to explore patients'
      experiences of participating in their care around discharge and in their
      subsequent day-to-day care at home. METHOD: The study was designed as a
      qualitative, longitudinal study. Data were collected by repeated participant
      observations and in-depth interviews with 15 patients within a period of 18
      months post-discharge. A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach was used to
      interpret the data. RESULTS: Before discharge, the patients struggled to regain a
      sense of control in their efforts to build up strength, and acquire sufficient
      clarity and confidence to face self-management at home. At home, the patients
      strived to comply with advice and encouragement in a struggle to stay motivated
      and confident, and to ask for help. CONCLUSIONS: With more knowledge about
      patients' participation in care, healthcare professionals can encounter patients
      in ways that are sensitive to their specific care and support needs and, thereby,
      contribute to the promotion of patients' health and well-being.

PMID- 28875772
TI  - Atypical caudal regression syndrome with agenesis of lumbar spine and presence of
      sacrum - case report and literature review.
AB  - CONTEXT: Caudal regression syndrome is a rare disorder, not well described in the
      literature. FINDINGS: Authors treated two patients with congenital absence of
      thoracolumbar vertebrae and lower limbs paraplegia. Patients had hypoplasia of
      the lower trunk and extremities with motion between upper and lower torso.
      Imaging showed caudal spine agenesis, but cleft sacrum was present. Due to severe
      kyphotic deformity and spinal instability, deformity correction and posterior
      fusion was performed at the age 6 and 8. Finally, fusion was achieved in one case
      and stable but non-fusion kyphotic posture was observed in second. CONCLUSION:
      surgery in caudal regression syndrome is challenging and bears high risk of
      complications.

PMID- 28875773
TI  - Use of mechanical and pharmacological restraint over an eight-year period and its
      relation to clinical factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of restraint and finding the balance between security and ethics
      is a continuous dilemma in clinical psychiatry. In daily clinic and in planning
      health-care service, knowledge on the characteristics of restraint situations is
      necessary to optimize its use and avoid abuse. METHODS: We describe
      characteristics in the use of pharmacological and mechanical restraint in
      psychiatric acute wards in a hospital in Middle Norway over an eight-year period.
      Data on all cases of mechanical and pharmacological restraint from 2004 to 2011
      were retrospectively collected from hand-written protocols. Complementary
      information on the patients was obtained from the hospital patient administrative
      system. RESULTS: Restraint in acute wards was used on 13 persons per 100,000
      inhabitants annually. The percentage of admitted patients exposed to restraint
      was 1.7%, with a mean of 4.5 cases per exposed patient. Frequency per 100
      admitted patients varied from 3.7 (in 2007) to 10 (in 2009). The majority of
      restraint cases concerned male patients under 50 years and with substance-abuse,
      psychotic, or affective disorders. Significantly more coercive means were used
      during daytime compared to night and morning. There was a significant increase in
      pharmacological coercion during spring and mechanical coercion during summer.
      CONCLUSIONS: Restraint was used on 1.7% of admitted patients, representing 13 per
      100,000 inhabitants per year. Use of restraint was higher during certain periods
      of the day and was associated with the patient's diagnosis, age, gender, and
      legal status of hospitalization. There was a marked variation over the years.

PMID- 28875780
TI  - Role of patient education in postoperative pain management.
AB  - Postoperative pain continues to be a significant issue in healthcare, with a
      considerable proportion of patients experiencing severe pain after surgery and
      finding pain management at home challenging. There are several barriers to
      effective pain management, involving both patients and healthcare professionals.
      Patient education may be a useful way to overcome many of these barriers. This
      article outlines the four stages of the education process, which can be used to
      provide patient education: assessing the patient's educational needs and
      potential barriers to learning; setting educational objectives; teaching; and
      evaluating the patient's learning. This article discusses the issue of
      postoperative pain and how structured patient education, from admission to
      discharge, provided by skilled healthcare professionals, may improve
      postoperative recovery.

PMID- 28875781
TI  - Student life - Fast track into nursing.
AB  - A partnership between a specialist mental health charity and a university is
      helping healthcare assistants (HCAs) take a fast track to becoming registered
      mental health or learning disability nurses.

PMID- 28875782
TI  - Improving communication with families in the intensive care unit.
AB  - Families ('family' will be used in this article to refer to anyone the patient
      considers significant, whether they are an actual family member or not) of
      patients who are critically ill have heightened communication needs. Nurses are
      an important source of information, particularly about day-to-day patient events
      and progress. Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses are valued by families because
      they provide clear, jargon-free information about the patient and their
      condition. However, they have sometimes been criticised for focusing on short
      term issues while avoiding potentially difficult conversations about long-term
      outcomes and prognosis. A family conference or meeting is held when bad news has
      to be communicated to families, prognosis discussed or major decisions made,
      particularly about treatment withdrawal or resuscitation. These meetings should
      involve physicians and ICU nurses. Despite family conferences, family members'
      understanding of patient prognosis, diagnosis and treatment is often suboptimal.
      A planned and structured approach for these meetings, using quantitative
      statements for prognostic information, recording and communicating what has been
      said, and supporting meetings with written information, can improve their
      effectiveness. These supportive strategies increase understanding and consensus,
      and prevent the provision of conflicting information. It is important for nurses
      to be willing to follow up these meetings by supporting families to clarify their
      understanding and encouraging them to raise concerns and ask questions.

PMID- 28875783
TI  - Nurses lead the way with webcam consultations.
AB  - More than a decade ago, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire began
      using a video link to deliver consultations to prisoners at a high-security jail.
      It meant prisoners no longer had to be escorted to the outpatient department.

PMID- 28875785
TI  - Student drop-out rates put profession at further risk.
AB  - Competition is fierce for a place on an undergraduate nursing course, yet a
      Nursing Standard investigation reveals one in four students who do make the grade
      end up dropping out.

PMID- 28875787
TI  - Observing the best of care.
AB  - In my second year of training as a children's nursing student, I was on placement
      on a paediatric intensive care unit when I had the opportunity to observe an 11
      year-old boy with rheumatic heart disease undergo cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28875790
TI  - Outdoor spaces improve dementia care.
AB  - Rachel Potter saw many examples of great practice when she visited residential
      homes as part of her research into their physical environment. But none sticks in
      her memory quite as much as the giant rabbits, which were kept as pets at one
      care home.

PMID- 28875798
TI  - Singing their way to better health.
AB  - There's a good reason why I Can Breathe Clearly Now is the signature tune of
      Edinburgh-based singing group The Cheyne Gang.

PMID- 28875796
TI  - Resuscitation equipment.
AB  - What was the nature of the CPD activity, practice-related feedback and/or event
      and/or experience in your practice? The article detailed the cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation (CPR) equipment required in a standard resuscitation trolley, and
      outlined the optimal method for arranging this equipment to assist nurses in
      assessing and managing a patient's airway, breathing and circulation.

PMID- 28875803
TI  - 'Establish trusting relationships'.
AB  - Jayne Marshall trained as a nurse at Guy's Hospital in London before starting
      midwifery training at King's College Hospital in 1982. She became the head of the
      school of midwifery at Kingston University and St George's University of London
      in 2014, and in July became the first professor of midwifery at the University of
      Leicester.

PMID- 28875806
TI  - District nurse's dedicated care enabled our son to die at home.
AB  - Our son Stephen died from a brain tumour at the age of just 26.

PMID- 28875804
TI  - Hepatitis B vaccine shortage.
AB  - Essential facts The hepatitis B vaccine is highly effective in preventing
      infection if given before exposure and is also effective post-exposure. Post
      exposure vaccination should start immediately, ideally within 24 hours.

PMID- 28875807
TI  - 2020 is too late to solve nurse staffing crisis.
AB  - The year 2020 appears to be a magical one for the Department of Health (DH). In
      early August it announced plans to fund an extra 10,000 training places for
      nurses, midwives and allied health professionals by 2020.

PMID- 28875808
TI  - Vacancies at all time high.
AB  - Headlines about the soaring number of vacancies in the NHS in England have
      prompted warnings that the service is facing desperate problems of understaffing.
      According to NHS Digital, the number of full-time-equivalent posts available rose
      from 26,424 in March 2016 to 30,613 in March 2017 - the highest number on record.

PMID- 28875809
TI  - Women are dying early from drug misuse.
AB  - Women who misuse drugs are dying prematurely and in increasing numbers. The past
      decade has seen a 95% rise in the number of women dying as a result of drug
      misuse: 357 died in 2006, while 697 died in 2016.

PMID- 28875810
TI  - How to take the strain out of moving jobs.
AB  - Starting a new job usually means saying goodbye to day-to-day familiarity. Facing
      change head-on can be exciting but it can also be stressful, and everyone copes
      differently.

PMID- 28875816
TI  - Readers' panel - Is it unprofessional for nurses to have tattoos?
AB  - Our experts consider a hot topic of the day.

PMID- 28875815
TI  - Why don't people use the phone any more?
AB  - 'Ping me an email'. To most people, those four words are quite innocuous, nothing
      to stir the soul or incite anyone to wrath. But to a nurse....

PMID- 28875817
TI  - Shameful silence over the attrition rate for nursing students.
AB  - One in four nursing students drop out of their training courses, yet the bodies
      responsible remain complacent, showing a shameful disregard for the future of the
      profession.

PMID- 28875821
TI  - Be part of the future.
AB  - One of the busiest university teaching hospitals in the north of England, the
      Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust provides a range of
      specialist services to more than 750,000 people a year.

PMID- 28875822
TI  - We can all help maximise organ donation opportunities.
AB  - Almost 1,200 families who were approached to donate theirrelative's organs last
      year declined. For many, this is because they didn't know what their loved one
      would have wanted.

PMID- 28875823
TI  - Useful Immunochromatographic Assay of Calprotectin in Gingival Crevicular Fluid
      for Diagnosis of Diseased Sites in Patients with Periodontal Diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calprotectin, an inflammation-related protein, is present in gingival
      crevicular fluid (GCF) and the determination of calprotectin is useful for
      diagnosing periodontal diseases. We have recently developed a novel
      immunochromatographic (IC) chip system (SI-101402) to determine calprotectin
      levels in GCF. In the present study, the usefulness of this diagnostic system was
      investigated in patients with periodontal diseases. METHODS: Thirty-six patients
      with periodontal diseases participated in this clinical test at multiple centers.
      Periodontitis sites (n=118) and non-periodontitis (healthy) sites (n=120) were
      selected after periodontal examination. GCF collection and periodontal
      examination were performed at baseline, after supragingival and subgingival
      scaling and root planing. Calprotectin amount in GCF was determined using a novel
      IC chip system and evaluated as a visual score and an IC reader value. The
      correlation between GCF calprotectin levels, clinical indicators and changes in
      calprotectin levels by periodontal treatments were investigated. Receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of IC reader value for GCF calprotectin
      was performed to predict periodontal diseases. RESULTS: The visual score of GCF
      calprotectin was highly correlated the IC reader value. IC reader values of GCF
      calprotectin in periodontitis group were higher than those of healthy group at
      three dental examination stages and they significantly decreased with periodontal
      treatments. Visual scores and IC reader values of GCF calprotectin were
      correlated to the levels of clinical indicators. ROC analysis for GCF
      calprotectin showed an optimal cutoff value to predict periodontal diseases.
      CONCLUSION: Determination of GCF calprotectin using a novel IC chip system is
      useful for diagnosis of periodontal diseases.

PMID- 28875824
TI  - Applications of bauxite residue: A mini-review.
AB  - Bauxite residue is the waste generated during alumina production by Bayer's
      process. The amount of bauxite residue (40-50 wt%) generated depends on the
      quality of bauxite ore used for the processing. High alkalinity and high caustic
      content in bauxite residue causes environmental risk for fertile soil and ground
      water contamination. The caustic (NaOH) content in bauxite residue leads to human
      health risks, like dermal problems and irritation to eyes. Moreover, disposal of
      bauxite residue requires a large area; such problems can only be minimised by
      utilising bauxite residue effectively. For two decades, bauxite residue has been
      used as a binder in cement industries and filler/reinforcement for composite
      materials in the automobile industry. Valuable metals and oxides, like alumina
      (Al2O3), titanium oxide (TiO2) and iron oxide Fe2O3, were extracted from bauxite
      residue to reduce waste. Bauxite residue was utilised in construction and
      structure industries to make geopolymers. It was also used in the making of glass
      ceramics and a coating material. Recently bauxite residue has been utilised to
      extract rare earth elements like scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La),
      cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy). In this review article, the
      mineralogical characteristics of bauxite residue are summarised and current
      progresses on utilisation of bauxite residue in different fields of science and
      engineering are presented in detail.

PMID- 28875825
TI  - Study of Irisin Hormone Level in Type 2 Diabetic Patients and Patients with
      Diabetic Nephropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetic patients with diabetic nephropathy are associated
      with multifactorial abnormal energy metabolism. Irisin has been recently
      introduced as a hormone that is exercise-induced and is secreted by skeletal
      muscles. It is hypothesized that patients with chronic kidney disease usually
      have abnormal irisin levels. AIM: We aimed to study the level of Irisin hormone
      in patients with type 2 diabetes and to document that it is related to diabetic
      nephropathy. METHODS: The current study included 60 subjects with type 2 diabetes
      and 30 healthy subjects as a control group. Diabetic subjects were divided into
      30 without diabetic complications and 30 with diabetic nephropathy (DN). Serum
      Irisin levels, fasting blood glucose (FBG), 2hours plasma glucose (2hPG),
      hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), kidney functions including serum creatinine and albumin/
      creatinine ratio were assessed. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant
      decrease in Irisin levels in diabetic patients compared to controls (34.46 +/-
      15.28 ng/ml vs. 152.600 +/- 39.581 ng/ml, p<0.001). Irisin levels were lower in
      diabetic patients with DN than in those without complications (20.967 +/- 4.476
      ng/ml vs. 47.967 +/- 8.853 ng/ml, p<0.01). There was a statistically significant
      negative correlation between irisin and serum creatinine (r=-0.729), systolic
      blood pressure (r=-0.493), diastolic blood pressure (r=-0.625), duration of
      diabetes (r=-0.942), BMI(r=-0.396), albumin/creatinine ratio (r=-0.696), and
      HbA1c (r=-0.305) in all type 2 diabetic patients (p<0.05). On performing
      multivariate regression analysis, we found that the duration of diabetes was the
      only independent determinant of irisin level. CONCLUSION: There is a decrease in
      serum irisin level in type 2 diabetic patients with even more significant
      reduction in patients with diabetic nephropathy.

PMID- 28875826
TI  - Current Treatment Options for Osteoarthritis.
AB  - Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease and a leading cause for
      impaired function and disability with significant treatment costs and socio
      economic burden. Despite recent achievements in the knowledge on disease
      pathogenesis, the treatment is still a challenge and contrary to the inflammatory
      joint diseases, no disease-modifying drugs are currently available for OA.
      Different response in different localizations of the disease further complicates
      the therapeutic choice. The standard pharmacological treatment includes agents
      for control of pain and inflammation (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,
      analgesics including opioids, intraarticular corticosteroids) and the group of
      the symptomatic slow acting drugs for OA such as glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin
      sulfate, diacerein, unsaponifiables extract of soybean and avocado administered
      orally and intrarticular hyaluronic acid. In addition, a number of studies
      investigate the efficacy of classic disease-modifying drugs used in inflammatory
      arthritides and antiresoptive agents as potential future therapies that could
      prevent structural progression of the disease. In a number of small studies,
      therapeutic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCT) in OA has been suggested, but
      the results are contradictory. The first results from a multicenter, randomized,
      double-blind, placebo-controlled trial focused on symptomatic hand OA were
      recently reported (British HERO study). It has been concluded that HCQ was not
      superior than placebo as analgesic treatment or for reduction of the radiographic
      progression in hand OA. Placebo-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of HCT
      in inflammatory and erosive hand OA is under way (OA TREAT study). Another field
      of recent research is the efficacy of TNF-alpha blockers based on the knowledge
      of their high efficacy in the inflammatory joint diseases and the significant
      role of TNF-alpha in the pathogenesis of OA. However, current evidence from the
      available studies does not support the use of TNF-alpha blockers in OA. The
      benefit of TNF-alpha blockers in specific sub-groups of patients with higher
      level of inflammation, objective criteria for the expected responders as well as
      cost-effectiveness of such treatment is a matter of further research and
      discussion. New biologic agents that target the nerve growth factor-beta are
      other currently investigated drugs as a potential symptomatic therapeutic option
      in OA. Significant research has been also focused on revealing potential
      symptomatic or eventually disease-modifying efficacy of drugs that target bone
      metabolism due to contemporary notion for the crucial role of the subchondral
      bone in OA pathology and the positive association between the increased
      subchondral bone turnover and the progressive cartilage loss. A significant delay
      of joint width narrowing vs. placebo has been observed in patients with
      symptomatic knee OA after treatment with strontium renelate. The intraarticular
      administration of platelet-rich plasma is evaluated as potential future therapy
      and has been tried in knee and hip OA with beneficial effect. Based on the
      current knowledge about the OA pathogenesis and the undergoing studies, new
      therapies for OA are awaited both as a safe symptomatic treatment - alternative
      to the conventional treatment options and as a disease-modifying therapy that
      would revolutionize the contemporary approach to OA.

PMID- 28875827
TI  - Multiple Myeloma Associated Intestinal Amyloidosis: Intestinal Pseudoobstruction
      Falsely Considered as an Ascites.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Amyloidosis is a group of diseases pathohistologically diagnosed by
      characteristic extracellular deposition of an abnormal fibrillary protein (i.e.
      amyloid) into organs, leading to organ dysfunction secondary to destruction of
      normal tissue architecture. METHODS: Case-report of a 44 year-old female,
      presenting with massive abdominal distension clinically suspected of ascites.
      RESULTS: On admission, the patient was complaining of nausea, vomiting, abdominal
      pain, distension and bloating associated with weight loss and diarrhoea. Her
      prior medical history revealed a treatment naive viral hepatitis C (HCV)
      infection with normal liver tests. She was on long term haemodialysis due to end
      stage renal disease. Based on clinical, laboratory and radiology findings we
      established the diagnosis of light chain amyloidosis associated with multiple
      myeloma, complicated with amyloid bowel depositions and intestinal pseudo
      obstruction. On imaging, diffuse liver enlargement was seen. Liver biopsy could
      have rendered the possible cause of hepatomegaly, but patient's noncompliance
      hindered the answer whether liver involvement was the consequence of a chronic
      hepatitis due to HCV infection or amyloid accumulation. Unfortunately, consequent
      patient's death prevented specific treatment implementation. CONCLUSION: Patients
      with multiple myeloma and obscure abdominal complaints should be worked up for
      amyloidosis. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction due to amyloidosis can imitate in
      certain instances ascites hence complicating diagnostic algorithm. In such
      complex clinical cases, close collaboration between surgeon,
      gastroenterohepatologist and haematologist is necessary.

PMID- 28875828
TI  - Synergistic Effect of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors and Ionization
      Radiation in Cancer Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in a variety
      of cancers and is associated with poor prognosis, low survival rate, and
      resistance of cancer cells to treatment. OBJECTIVE: This review discusses the
      combined effect of EGFR inhibitor and radiation therapy in cancer treatment.
      METHOD: The recent literature and patent applications were considered in which
      the role of EGFR in cancer and EGFR inhibitors, as well as the preclinical and
      clinical studies are related to synergistic effects of EGFR inhibitors and
      ionizing radiation in the treatment of various cancers. RESULTS: The specific
      inhibition has been introduced as targeted therapy for treatment of cancers. Two
      major pharmacological approaches for inhibition of EGFR are monoclonal antibodies
      and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The use of these agents in
      combination with ionizing radiation results in increasing the cytotoxicity on
      tumors that are rich in expression of EGFR. CONCLUSION: The combination of EGFR
      inhibitor and ionizing radiation has synergistic effect and resulted in
      improvement of radiotherapy in patients.

PMID- 28875829
TI  - Letter to the Editor: The Versatility of Tumor Suppressor Proteins and its
      Therapeutic Potential.

PMID- 28875830
TI  - Is there an Association Between Periodontitis and Atherosclerosis in Adults? A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial inflammatory disease of the
      cardiovascular system. It has been suggested that periodontitis, an infectious
      disease of oral cavity caused by gramnegative anaerobic bacteria, could be linked
      to atherosclerosis. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review was to
      assess the evidence between the association of periodontitis and atherosclerosis
      in adults. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted in 7 databases
      up to January 2017, according to the Preferential Reports for Systematic Review
      and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies in humans with atherosclerosis
      were considered eligible when considering a group exposed to periodontitis and a
      control group (absence of periodontitis), in which the primary outcome was the
      association between the 2 diseases (atherosclerosis and periodontitis). The
      synthesis of the qualitative studies included was evaluated using previously
      validated checklist for assessing the risk of bias. RESULTS: Among the 2138
      studies found, 4 observational studies met the eligibility criteria and were
      included in the qualitative synthesis. All articles were considered adequate,
      presenting consistent and valid information. The results of the selected studies
      show the expected effects, being considered as low risk of bias. CONCLUSION: The
      available evidence indicates an association between the 2 diseases, with elevated
      levels of inflammatory markers, mainly C-reactive protein and interleukin 6.

PMID- 28875831
TI  - Animal Models of Focal Cerebral Ischaemia and Haemorrhagic Transformation:
      Considerations in Experimental Stroke Study Design.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ischaemic stroke is often complicated with haemorrhage within the
      infarct zone or in a remote location especially when treated with intravenous
      thrombolysis and/or thrombectomy. While these early recanalisation treatments are
      highly effective, some of the benefit is lost because of haemorrhagic
      complications and consequential neurological deterioration of the patients. A
      number of mechanisms have been described that mediate the haemorrhagic changes
      and several agents have been tested in experimental models for inhibiting post
      stroke haemorrhage. METHODS: Here, we review and discuss the small animal models
      of focal cerebral ischaemia and postischaemic stroke haemorrhagic transformation
      and how these models can best be utilised for developing further insights as well
      as potential treatment approaches for this serious clinical complication.
      RESULTS: The need to use appropriate animal models with relevant stroke risk
      factors to improve the clinical relevance and applicability of findings is
      becoming ever more apparent. Current focal ischaemia models can be adapted for
      the study of haemorrhagic transformation post-stroke. CONCLUSION: A number of
      factors can be added to the animal model design to increase the incidence and/or
      severity of haemorrhagic transformation post-ischaemic stroke, which can improve
      clinical relevance, aid the study of the pathophysiology and the future
      development of novel interventions.

PMID- 28875833
TI  - Phytocompounds as Potential Agents to Treat Obesity-Cardiovascular Ailments.
AB  - Obesity is no longer considered as a cosmetic issue as it is a potential risk
      factor to develop hypertension, type-2 diabetes, cardio vascular diseases (CVDs),
      infertility, arthritis etc. Apart from genetic factors, changes in life styles,
      food and work habits have lead to alarming raise in obesity ailments in both
      developed and developing countries. The excess and unutilized food takenin is
      converted into lipid components, primarily triglycerides and is stored in the
      liver, adipose and other tissues; if the positive energy balance extends a longer
      period it will lead to overweight, obesity and CVDs. Cardiovascular diseases are
      a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and cause greater mortality
      rate worldwide. Although a number of drugs have been developed to contain these
      diseases, most of them suffer from significant side effects and some of them have
      been even withdrawn from markets. In view of this, there is a growing emphasis
      for natural product based drugs. In this book chapter, the present scenario of
      obesity-CVDs and their causative factors are described besides mentioning
      currently available medications to treat them. The role of phytochemicals in
      treating obesity-CVDs and their possible mode of action is also highlighted. This
      study strengthens our understanding on obesity-CVDs and paves the way to develop
      novel and cost-effective plant based drugs/formulations with minimum side effects
      to treat these lifestyle based diseases.

PMID- 28875834
TI  - Argemone mexicana: A Boon to Medicinal and Pharmacological Approaches in Current
      Scenario.
AB  - Nature is God's gift to human beings. Natural products are a source of new
      chemical diversity and are the choice of today's world. Nature itself gives
      remedy to all our health problems. The sources of natural product are plants,
      animals and microorganisms. Among them plant and its products are more reliable
      for its renewability and therefore, considered as fortunate thing for human
      welfare. Our traditional system of medicine which has been followed by our
      ancestors has its own impact on human life. Due to the inadequate knowledge many
      plant derived products (drugs) has not yet been explored to the society. We are
      having many side effects and long term complications in synthetic drugs. Our aim
      is to mine the precious data about the plant Argemone mexicana. Now-a-days people
      prefer a drug which has no side effects. For that, the plant Argemone mexicana is
      a boon to the human being as it has a number of miraculous compounds to cure a
      various types of diseases. Single plant has a lot of uncountable benefits in drug
      discovery and which gives a base for new drug discovery. This plant is a weed,
      easily available and it does not require any special care which forms the base to
      develop a drug in socio economic form so that it could be made available to all
      people. This chapter provides an insight into various interesting pharmacological
      properties viz., Antidiabetic activity , Anti-Cancer activity, Anti-HIV activity,
      CNS related activities, Wound recovering action, Anti microbial activity,
      Antioxidant activity, Anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic activity,
      Hepatoprotective activity, Anti-fertility activity, Antiallergic activity,
      Nematicidal activity, Allelopathic effect, Antihelmintic activity, Larvicidal
      activity, Antifeedant action etc., which has been reviewed from different
      literatures in scientific journals. This present review would kindle many of the
      young minds to turn towards the nature i.e., plant based novel drug discovery
      with in-depth and extensive studies in all relevant aspects. Hence the paramount
      importance of this review about Argemone mexicana will be very much useful to the
      society.

PMID- 28875832
TI  - Structure, Gating and Basic Functions of the Ca2+-activated K Channel of
      Intermediate Conductance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The KCa3.1 channel is the intermediate-conductance member of the Ca2+
      activated K channel superfamily. It is widely expressed in excitable and non
      excitable cells, where it plays a major role in a number of cell functions. This
      paper aims at illustrating the main structural, biophysical and modulatory
      properties of the KCa3.1 channel, and providing an account of experimental data
      on its role in volume regulation and Ca2+ signals. METHODS: Research and online
      content related to the structure, structure/function relationship, and
      physiological role of the KCa3.1 channel are reviewed. RESULTS: Expressed in
      excitable and non-excitable cells, the KCa3.1 channel is voltage independent, its
      opening being exclusively gated by the binding of intracellular Ca2+ to
      calmodulin, a Ca2+- binding protein constitutively associated with the C-terminus
      of each KCa3.1 channel alpha subunit. The KCa3.1 channel activates upon high
      affinity Ca2+ binding, and in highly coordinated fashion giving steep Hill
      functions and relatively low EC50 values (100-350 nM). This high Ca2+ sensitivity
      is physiologically modulated by closely associated kinases and phosphatases. The
      KCa3.1 channel is normally activated by global Ca2+ signals as resulting from
      Ca2+ released from intracellular stores, or by the refilling influx through store
      operated Ca2+ channels, but cases of strict functional coupling with Ca2+
      selective channels are also found. KCa3.1 channels are highly expressed in many
      types of cells, where they play major roles in cell migration and death. The
      control of these complex cellular processes is achieved by KCa3.1 channel
      regulation of the driving force for Ca2+ entry from the extracellular medium, and
      by mediating the K+ efflux required for cell volume control. CONCLUSION: Much
      work remains to be done to fully understand the structure/function relationship
      of the KCa3.1 channels. Hopefully, this effort will provide the basis for a
      beneficial modulation of channel activity under pathological conditions.

PMID- 28875835
TI  - The Biological Potentialsof Indian Traditional Medicine, Curcumin for Treating
      Human Diseases.
AB  - Curcumin is an active compound extracted from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa L.
      (Turmeric). It possesses a di phenolic structure and there are three important
      fractions of curcumin namely curcumin, mono-desmethoxycurcumin and bis
      desmethoxycurcumin. Curcumin is having high medicinal value. It is widely in
      Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine formulations to treat various diseases. It is
      effective against microbial pathogens like bacteria, virus and fungi. It is
      highly potent and kills cancerous cells. Curcumin exhibits antioxidant activity
      and reduces lipoperoxidation. Cardioprotective nature of curcumin is also
      reported. It can protect the brain from neurodegenerative disorders caused by
      oxidative stress. It is safe to use in humans and animals. In addition to its
      medicinal value, it is also having numerous commercial applications like dyeing,
      cooking purposes and antiseptics etc. The cultivation of turmeric by means of
      inorganic inputs makes it contaminated with heavy metals is reported. Improving
      the biological use of curcumin provides healthy humankind and increases the
      economic status of a country.

PMID- 28875836
TI  - Coinhibitory Molecule PD-1 as a Therapeutic Target in the Microenvironment of
      Multiple Myeloma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with Multiple Myeloma suffer from dysregulation of the
      immune system and new therapeutic options targeting the immune systems such as
      monoclonal antibodies or specific Cell therapy such as CAR-T cells have entered
      clinical practice, but the exhausted immune system hampered a more effective
      immunotherapy. Targeting the immunological dysfunction in the microenviroment
      might be a potential target for immune-mediated therapies. METHOD: Here we review
      the current literature and knowledge about the programmed death 1 (PD-1) receptor
      which is expressed on the surface of exhausted T and B cells and its ligand PD-L1
      is expressed on myeloma cells and inhibits T cell-mediated apoptosis. RESULTS:
      The programmed death 1 (PD-1) receptor is expressed on the surface of exhausted T
      and B cells and its ligand PD-L1 is expressed on myeloma cells and inhibits Tcell
      mediated apoptosis. Inhibiting such "checkpoint" by monoclonal antibodies
      recently has been shown high activity in solid tumors and malignant lymphomas. In
      patients with multiple myelomaPD-L1 is overexpressed on myeloma cells and PD1 on
      T-cells suggesting an active role of PD-1/PD-L1 in the immunosuppressive
      microenvironment. CONCLUSION: Immunotherapies using anti-PD-1/PD-L1 strategies
      are a promising treatment options for patients with multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28875837
TI  - Nanoparticles for SPECT and PET imaging: towards personalized medicine and
      theranostics.
AB  - PET and SPECT imaging methods can be of excellent assistance for the development
      of new nanoparticle drug delivery systems, and at the same time, these
      investigations also offer the opportunity to produce exceptional new diagnostic
      and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, as well. With a multifunctional, nano
      scaled drug delivery system, the diagnostic (imaging) methods and the therapy
      (delivering drugs or beta-emitter radionuclides) can be carried out using the
      same biological and pharmacological mechanisms. By combining therapy and
      diagnostics in one method or in one specifically targeted nanoparticle system, we
      can product theranostic pharmaceuticals, and its applications are important
      elements of personalized medicine. This review takes a short historical look back
      to the radiocolloids, the great ancestors of (radiolabeled) nanoparticles and
      then describes the general features of current types of PET and SPECT imaging
      associated nanoparticle-based products and key radiolabeling methods; entering
      into details of potential prospective challenges related to radiotheranostic
      approaches and imaging guided therapy.

PMID- 28875838
TI  - Biomarkers in atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia encountered in
      clinical practice and an important contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and
      mortality. Although the exact mechanisms behind AF are not completely elucidated,
      the underlying pathophysiological changes have been well described. Predisposal
      factors for AF include the older age, the increased left atrial size, the
      decreased left atrial function, the presence of heart failure and left
      ventricular systolic dysfunction and the presence of coronary heart disease or
      pulmonary or mitral valve disease. In addition to these factors, emerging
      evidence demonstrate that myocardial strain, fibrosis and inflammation, are
      associated with AF as well as the pathogenesis of the arrhythmia. The natruretic
      peptide system including Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP), Brain Natriuretic
      Peptide (BNP) and C-type Natriuretic Peptide (CNP) is indicative of the level of
      myocardial strain which may predispose to AF. As a result, the aforementioned
      peptides are increased in AF patients. The levels of myocardial fibrosis
      biomarkers, such as ST2 and Galectin-3, are elevated suggesting atrial structural
      abnormalities, while the increased levels of CRP and Interleukin-6 supplement the
      inflammatory profile of AF patients. Emerging data for the aforementioned
      biomarkers are discussed in the present review.

PMID- 28875839
TI  - Repositioning Drugs for Rare Immune Diseases: Hopes and Challenges for a
      Precision Medicine.
AB  - Human primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs) are a large group of rare diseases
      and are characterized by a great genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity. A large
      subset of PIDs is genetically defined, which has a crucial impact for the
      understanding of the molecular basis of disease and the development of precision
      medicine. Discovery and development of new therapies for rare diseases has long
      been de-privileged due to the length and cost of the processes involved. Interest
      has increased due to stimulatory regulatory and supportive reimbursement
      environments enabling viable business models. Advancements in biomedical and
      computational sciences enable the development of rational, designed approaches
      for identification of novel indications of already approved drugs allowing faster
      delivery of new medicines. Drug repositioning is based either on clinical
      analogies of diseases or on understanding of the molecular mode of drug action
      and mechanisms of the disease. All of these are the basis for the development of
      precision medicine.

PMID- 28875840
TI  - Stimuli-responsive carriers for controlled intracellular drug release.
AB  - Stimuli-responsive carriers are a class of drug delivery systems which can change
      their physicochemical properties and/or structural conformations in response to
      specific stimuli. Although passive and active drug targeting has proved to reduce
      the side effects to normal cells, controlled intracellular drug release should be
      included in drug carriers to enhance the bioavailability of drugs at the disease
      site. This review focuses on several recent advances in the development of
      stimuli-responsive carriers for spatially and temporally controlled release of
      therapeutic agents in response to intracellular stimuli, such as pH, redox
      potential, reactive oxygen species, enzyme and temperature. Great efforts are
      needed to the optimization of stimuli-responsive materials, with emphasis on
      their molecular designs and formulations, to enable multi-functionality and
      multiple stimuli-responsiveness in improving the clinical drug efficacy.

PMID- 28875841
TI  - New Molecular Targets and Strategies for Antimalarial Discovery.
AB  - Malaria remains a major health problem, especially because of the emergence of
      resistant P. falciparum strains to artemisinin derivatives. In this context, safe
      and affordable antimalarial drugs are desperately needed. New proteins have been
      investigated as molecular targets for research and development of innovative
      compounds with well-defined mechanism of action. In this review, we highlight
      genetically and clinically validated plasmodial proteins as drug targets for the
      next generation of therapeutics. The enzymes described herein are involved in
      hemoglobin hydrolysis, the invasion process, elongation factors for protein
      synthesis, pyrimidine biosynthesis, post-translational modifications such as
      prenylation, phosphorylation and histone acetylation, generation of ATP in
      mitochondrial metabolism and aminoacylation of RNAs. Significant advances on
      proteomics, genetics, structural biology, computational and biophysical methods
      provided invaluable molecular and structural information about these drug
      targets. Based on this, several strategies and models have been applied to
      identify and improve lead compounds. This review presents the recent progresses
      in the discovery of antimalarial drug candidates, highlighting the approaches,
      challenges, and perspectives to deliver affordable, safe and low single-dose
      medicines to treat malaria.

PMID- 28875843
TI  - Dihydroresveratrol Type Dihydrostilbenoids: Chemical Diversity, Chemosystematics,
      and Bioactivity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dihydrostilbenoids, a diverse class of natural products differing
      from stilbenoids by the missing double bond in the ethylene chain linking the
      aromatic moieties, have been reported from fungi, mosses, ferns, and flowering
      plants. OBJECTIVE: Occurrence, structure, and bioactivity of naturally occurring
      dihydroresveratrol type dihydrostilbenoids are discussed in this review. METHOD:
      A Reaxys database search for dihydroresveratrol derivatives with possible
      substitutions on all atoms, but excluding non-natural products and compounds
      featuring additional rings involving the ethyl connecting chain, was performed.
      RESULTS: Structures include simple dihydroresveratrol derivatives, compounds
      substituted with complex side chains composed of acyl moieties and sugars, and
      compounds containing polycyclic cores attached to dihydrostilbenoid units.
      Dihydrostilbenoids have a wide spectrum of bioactivities ranging from expectable
      antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities to interesting neuroprotective and
      anticancer activity. The anticancer activity in particular is very pronounced for
      some plant-derived dihydrostilbenoids and makes them interesting lead compounds
      for drug development. Apart from some reports on dihydroresveratrol derivatives
      as phytoalexins against plant-pathogenic fungi, only very limited information is
      available on the ecological role of these compounds for the organisms producing
      them. CONCLUSION: Dihydrostilbenoids are a class of natural products possessing
      significant biological activities; their scattered but not ubiquitous occurrence
      throughout the kingdoms of plants and fungi is not easily explained. We are
      convinced that future studies will identify new sources of dihydrostilbenoids,
      and we hope that the present review will inspire such studies and will help in
      directing such efforts to suitable source organisms and towards promising
      bioactivities.

PMID- 28875844
TI  - The Clinical translation of Organic Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapy: A Focus on
      Polymeric Nanoparticles, Micelles, Liposomes and Exosomes.
AB  - The application of nanotechnology in the medical field is called nanomedicine.
      Nowadays, this new branch of science is a point of interest for many
      investigators due to the important advances in which we assisted in the lasts
      decades, in particular for cancer treatment. Cancer nanomedicine has been applied
      in different fields such as drug delivery, nanoformulation and nanoanalytical
      contrast reagents. The application of nanotechnology to pharmaceutical science
      allowed to build up nanosystems based on at least two stage vectors
      (drug/nanomaterial), which often shown a better pharmacokinetics (PK),
      bioavailability and biodistribution. As result of these advantages, the
      nanomaterials accumulate passively in the tumor (enhanced permeability and
      retention, EPR) decreasing side effects of free drug. In the last decades, many
      new drug formulations have been translated from the bench to the bedside. In this
      review, we describe the main drug nanoformulations based on different types of
      organic nanoparticles (NPs), the advantages that the new formulations have over
      to their free drug counterparts and how nanodrugs have improved the clinical
      care.

PMID- 28875845
TI  - New trends in anti-cancer therapy: combining conventional chemotherapeutics with
      novel immunomodulators.
AB  - Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and current research has
      focused on the discovery of novel approaches to effectively treat this disease.
      Recently, a considerable number of clinical trials have demonstrated the success
      of immunomodulatory therapies for the treatment of cancer. Monoclonal antibodies
      can target components of the immune system to either i) agonise co-stimulatory
      molecules, such as CD137, OX40 and CD40; or ii) inhibit immune checkpoints, such
      as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death-1
      (PD-1) and its corresponding ligand PD-L1. Although tumour regression is the
      outcome for some patients following immunotherapy, many patients still do not
      respond. Furthermore, chemotherapy has been the standard of care for most
      cancers, but the immunomodulatory capacity of these drugs has only recently been
      uncovered. The ability of chemotherapy to modulate the immune system through a
      variety of mechanisms, including immunogenic cell death (ICD), increased antigen
      presentation and depletion of regulatory immune cells, highlights the potential
      for synergism between conventional chemotherapy and novel immunotherapy. In
      addition, recent pre-clinical trials indicate dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) enzyme
      inhibition, an enzyme that can regulate immune cell trafficking to the tumour
      microenvironment, as a novel cancer therapy. The present review focuses on the
      current immunological approaches for the treatment of cancer, and summarizes
      clinical trials in the field of immunotherapy as a single treatment and in
      combination with chemotherapy.

PMID- 28875846
TI  - Computational Identification of microRNA-17-3p in Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, highly conserved non-coding RNA
      molecules involved in the RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of
      gene expression. miRNAs are well conserved in both plants and animals, and are
      thought to be a vital and evolutionarily ancient component of gene regulation and
      also act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. It is known that Express Sequence
      Tags (EST) are a short sub-sequence of cDNA sequence, which contain information
      of condition or tissue specific transcripts (coding and non-coding) of an
      organism. METHODS: In the present study, we have applied the bioinformatics tools
      to identify miRNA from breast cancer using EST resource. Through bioinformatics
      approach, the presence of an EST encoding hsa-miR-17- 3p of breast cancer was
      identified. RESULTS: Further studies reveal that hsa-miR-17 is confirmed in the
      breast cancer specific EST sequence among the predicted miRNAs secondary
      structure. Moreover, miR-17-3p could be responsible for a tumor suppression,
      which plays a major role in human breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Further studies are
      required to investigate the molecular mechanisms behind miR-17-3p involves in the
      suppression of breast cancer cells. Interestingly, our target analysis suggesting
      that all the targets involved in multiple signaling pathways in different cell
      regulations moreover, we need to have more number of in vitro and in vivo studies
      that prove miR-17-3p as candidate microRNA for breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28875842
TI  - Targeting CXCL12/CXCR4 Axis in Tumor Immunotherapy.
AB  - Chemokines, which have chemotactic abilities, are comprised of over 50 family
      members. Through binding to the 7-transmembrane domain of G-protein-coupled
      receptors (GPCR), they function in immune cells by trafficking and regulating
      cell prolif!eration, differentiation, activation, and migration, homing under
      both physiologic and pathologic conditions. The alpha-chemokine receptor CXCR4
      for the alpha-chemokine stromal cell-derived-factor-1 (SDF-1) is most widely
      expressed by tumors. CXCL12/CXCR4 axis is a major culprit for human tumor because
      of its crucial role in tumor initiation and progression by activating a number of
      signaling pathways, such as ERK1/2, ras, PLC/ MAPK, p38 MAPK, and SAPK/ JNK, as
      well as regulating cancer stem cells. CXCL12/CXCR4 antagonists have been
      developed, which have shown promising results in both in vitro and in vivo anti
      cancer activity in several tumor types. This review provides an evaluation of
      CXCL12/CXCR4 as a potential therapeutic target for human tumors; it also focuses
      on the synergistic effects of inhibition of CXCL12/CXCR4 axis and immunotherapy
      as well as chemotherapy. Together, CXCL12/CXCR4 axis can be a potential
      therapeutic target for tumors and used with immunotherapy for additive effects.

PMID- 28875847
TI  - Management of Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertension is considered a major health problem in patients with
      chronic kidney disease (CKD) as approximately 80-85% of CKD patients' suffer from
      hypertension in the United States. Hypertension is the second leading cause of
      CKD after diabetes and is strongly related to morbidity and mortality. It has
      been found that there is a relation among hypertension, glomerular filtration
      rate (GFR) and creatinine levels. OBJECTIVE: Since there is a strong relation
      between hypertension and CKD, and hypertension seems to lead to cardiovascular
      diseases, which have epidemic proportions in CKD, this review article discusses
      the etiology of hypertension and the existing optimal therapies that contribute
      to the hypertension and heart rate management. RESULTS: There are many approaches
      that contribute to the management of hypertension and heart rate in CKD patients.
      Lifestyle modifications in combination with drug therapy lead to the better
      control of hypertension in CKD patients. CONCLUSION: Hypertension is strongly
      related to cardiovascular diseases in CKD patients. Since this relation exists
      and hypertension leads to cardiovascular diseases, the management of hypertension
      and increased heart rate should be a main therapeutic target in these patients.

PMID- 28875848
TI  - Polymeric Nanocarriers: A New Horizon for the Effective Management of Breast
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs for the diagnosis and treatment of
      cancer is becoming advanced day by day. However, the challenge of the effective
      delivery system still does exist. In various types of cancers, breast cancer is
      the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Breast cancer is a combination of
      different diseases. It cannot be considered as only one entity because there are
      many specific patient factors, which are involved in the development of this
      disease. Nanotechnology has opened a new area in the effective treatment of
      breast cancer due to the several benefits offered by this technology. METHODS:
      Polymeric nanocarriers are among one of the effective delivery systems, which has
      given promising results in the treatment of breast cancers. Nanocarriers does
      exert their anticancer effect either through active or passive targeting mode.
      RESULTS: The use of nanocarriers has been resolute about the adverse effects of
      chemotherapeutic drugs such as poor solubility and less penetrability in tumor
      cells. CONCLUSION: The present review is focused on recent developments regarding
      polymeric nanocarriers, such as polymeric micelles, polymeric nanoparticles,
      dendrimers, liposomes, nanoshells, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNT) and quantum
      dots, etc. for their recent advancements in breast cancer therapy.

PMID- 28875849
TI  - Modulation of both Insulin Resistance and Cancer Growth by Inositol.
AB  - Insulin resistance indicates a deregulated set of biochemical pathways and
      physiological functions involved in the pathogenesis of a number of diseases,
      including type 2 diabetes and cancer. Conversely, a number of synthetic and
      natural insulin sensitizers, including inositol, have been recognized to exert
      both anti-diabetic as well as anti-cancer properties. Inositol participates in
      insulin transduction signaling, and deregulated inositol metabolism has been
      ascertained in several conditions associated with insulin resistance. Two
      distinct inositolphosphoglycans released upon insulin stimulation act as insulin
      mimetic by counteracting hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia and their metabolic
      complications. Additionally, inositol may directly interfere with both glucose
      metabolism and carcinogenesis by modulating a number of critical processes
      downstream of insulin stimulation, including anti-oxidant defenses, oxidative
      glucose metabolism and endocrine modulation. A selected cluster of biochemical
      factors (PI3K/Akt, PDH and AMPK-related pathways), that are presently considered
      putative targets for anticancer treatments, are also specifically modulated by
      inositol or its derivatives. What is more, studies on inositol mechanism of
      action paved the way in understanding that both insulin resistance and cancer
      share a few perturbed, critical biochemical pathways. Asides from the basic
      investigations, preliminary studies in vivo demonstrated the beneficial effect of
      inositol in fostering glucose homeostasis as well as in antagonizing cancer
      growth. Thereby, inositol fulfills the requirement to target both insulin
      resistance and cancer, and its clinical usefulness deserves to be adequately
      addressed by specific, randomized trials.

PMID- 28875850
TI  - Pharmacological Aspects of Neuro-Immune Interactions.
AB  - The use of systematic approach for the analysis of mechanism of action of drugs
      at different levels of biological organization of organisms is an important task
      in experimental and clinical pharmacology for drug designing and increasing the
      efficacy and safety of drugs. The analysis of published data on pharmacological
      effects of psychotropic drugs possessing immunomodulatory and/or antiviral
      properties have shown a correlation between central effects of examined drugs
      associated with the impact on the processes of neurogenesis of adult brain and
      survival of neurons, and their ability to alter levels of key proinflammatory
      cytokines. The changes that occur as a result of the influence of pharmacological
      agents at one of the systems should inevitably lead to the functional
      reorganization at another. Integrative mechanisms underlying the neuro-immune
      interactions may explain the "pleiotropic" pharmacological effects of some
      antiviral and immunomodulatory drugs. Amantadine, which was originally considered
      as an antiviral agent, was approved as anti-parkinsonic drug after its wide
      medical use. The prolonged administration of interferon alpha caused depression
      in 30-45% of patients, thus limiting its clinical use. The antiviral drug
      "Oseltamivir" may provoke the development of central side effects, including
      abnormal behavior, delirium, impaired perception and suicides. Anti-herpethetical
      drug "Panavir" shows pronounced neuroprotective properties. The purpose of this
      review is to analyze the experimental and clinical data related to central
      effects of drugs with antiviral or/and immunotropic activity, and to discover the
      relationship of these effects with changes in reactivity of immune system and
      proinflammatory response.

PMID- 28875851
TI  - Urotensin II: Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Activity.
AB  - Urotensin II (UT II) is an important factor of cellular homeostasis. This
      regulatory peptide is involved in the pathophysiology of many disorders. For
      example, it plays an important role in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic
      diseases, stressful and adaptive reactions of the body, in the development of
      cardiovascular pathologies, metabolic syndrome, inflammation, liver cirrhosis,
      renal failure, diabetic nephropathy, reproductive dysfunction, progression of
      psychosomatic, psychoendocrinal and psychiatric disorders. In this concern, the
      involvement of UT II in the pathophysiology of many processes determines the
      perspectives for the development of blockers of urotensin receptors for the
      treatment of the aforementioned diseases. It is important that even today this
      kind of perspective is feasible due to the synthesis of a series of GPR14
      blockers. The objective of this review is to discuss current molecular mechanisms
      of biological activity, regulatory functions of UT II, its role in the
      pathogenesis of different nosologies, as well as analysis of the possible routes
      of exposure to GPR14 as potential therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28875852
TI  - Molecular Modeling Studies of Novel Fluoroquinolone Molecules.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fluoroquinolones have been the centre of considerable scientific and
      clinical interest due to their broad spectrum pharmacological activities.
      Pefloxacin is an analogue of norfloxacin, which is a 3rd generation of
      fluoroquinolone antibiotic similar to ciprofloxacin. Pefloxacin is used to treat
      a variety of bacterial infections like respiratory tract, ear, nose and throat
      (ENT) infections, skin infections, and urinary tract infections. Hydrazone as a
      pharmacophore unit that attracts the medicinal chemists because of structure
      activity relationship (SAR) studies of fluoroquinolones especially the
      functionality at C-3 position. Consequently, recognition and development of
      potential ligands specifically for a protein target forms the primary goal in
      drug discovery process. Among the different theoretical approaches available,
      Gold and Glide are the molecular docking methods which find application protein
      ligand studies. In the current study, the DNA gyrase of Staphylococcus aureus has
      been used as the target protein to understand their possible interactions.
      METHODS: The crystal structure of DNA gyrase (topoisomerase II) was downloaded
      from the Protein Data Bank (PDB ID: 2XCS, 3FOE) and molecular docking studies
      were performed using the docking programs like Gold 3.2 (Genetic Algorithm for
      Ligand Docking), Glide 5.0 (Grid Based Ligand Docking with Energetic). Melting
      points were uncorrected and determined in open capillary tubes in a melting point
      apparatus. TLC was performed on silica gel-G and spotting was done using iodine/
      KMnO4 staining or UV-light. The following experimental procedures are
      representive of the general procedures used to synthesize all compounds. RESULTS:
      The docking experiments of the title compounds with 2.1 A crystal structure of
      DNA gyrase 2XCS, 3FOE using Gold 3.2 and Glide 5.0 is carried out to understand
      the binding interactions of the novel ligands with the protein, contributing for
      antibacterial activity. The compounds in general exhibited good binding
      interactions like H-bonding interaction and pi-pi interactions which stabilize
      the protein-ligand complexes and responsible for good fitness scores in both the
      protocols. CONCLUSION: In summary, a new series of novel pefloxacin hydrazones 5a
      5n were studied for their interactions with Staphylococcus aureus DNA gyrase
      protein by Glide 5.0 and Gold 3.2 molecular docking protocols [PDB IDS: 2XCS,
      3FOE]. Among the tested molecules, compound 5g exhibited a good Glide score value
      of - 7.73 and Glide energy -51.24 with emodel value of -66.16. The nice docking
      scores of 5g, 5a, 8h, 5m and 5b revealed that these compounds are well
      accommodated on the active site residues of DNA gyrase enzyme. From the docking
      study, we have explored the probable binding mode and the binding pattern of
      compounds 5f, 5l, 5h, 5d, and 5n showed that they strongly interact with in the
      active site of Staphylococcus aureus of DNA gyrase enzyme. From screening results
      it is found that compounds having aromatic ring substituted with electron
      releasing groups are showing potent docking scores and exhibited better fitness
      than reference compounds CPF and CA4. An efficient combination of molecular
      modeling and biological activity provided an insight into QSAR guide lines that
      could aid in further development and optimization of the pefloxacin derivatives.

PMID- 28875853
TI  - Effectiveness of Cicer arietinum in Cutaneous Problems: Viewpoint of Avicenna and
      Razi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cicer arietinum is one of the popular legumes in the most parts of
      the world. It is known for a long time in Asia because of the many possibilities
      of its application. Cicer arietinum has benefits for the skin regarding safe
      ingredients. Some of these ingredients are recommended in skin care. METHODS:
      This study aimed to introduce the benefits of Cicer arietinum by reviewing of
      traditional literature from 10th to 21th century and also conventional medicine
      for its safe ingredients by searching the electronic data banks such as ISI, Pub
      Med and Scopus. RESULTS: The results showed that Cicer arietinum has many
      ingredients such as Phenolic compounds, allantoin and amino acids that affect the
      skin problems. Also, great traditional Persian scientists such as Avicenna and
      Razi suggested about the cutaneous benefits of Cicer arietinum. CONCLUSION: The
      findings of this study can help the researchers in producing better cosmetic and
      therapeutic products.

PMID- 28875854
TI  - Cytomegalovirus Infection: The Neurodevelopmental Peptide Signatures.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: HCMV infection may cause neurodevelopmental disorders,
      including intellectual disability, hearing loss, cortical malformations, and
      calcifications. Theorizing about the still unknown molecular basis of HCMV
      related diseases, this study analyzes the peptide sharing between HCMV, strains
      AD169 and Merlin, and human proteins, searching for shared sequences that might
      lead to crossreactive autoimmune injuries in the brain during immune responses
      following HCMV infection. METHOD: HCMV proteins were analyzed for peptides shared
      with the human proteome using the Pir Peptide Match resource. RESULT: Numerous
      HCMV peptides (ranging from 9 to 13 mer in length) are disseminated through
      hundreds of human proteins. The peptide sharing mostly involves crucial
      neurodevelopmental antigens such as PITX3, implicated in the differentiation of
      meso-diencephalic dopaminergic neurons; SIX3, which controls proper
      anterioposterior patterning of the diencephalon and formation of the rostral
      diencephalon during forebrain development; and ZIC2, which plays a fundamental
      role in the early stage of organogenesis of the central nervous system.
      CONCLUSION: This study describes a HCMV vs human peptide overlap that may
      represent a crossreactive platform linking the pathologic sequelae of HCMV
      infection to the immune anti-HCMV response. The data could inform development of
      effective and safe immune therapeutic/preventive approaches against HCMV
      infections.

PMID- 28875855
TI  - Impurity Profile of Bronchodilators used in Asthma: A Critical Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asthma is defined as a heterogeneous disease usually characterized by
      chronic airway inflammation (GINA 2016) affecting almost 334 million people
      worldwide (Global asthma report 2014). Treatment of asthma with a long-acting
      bronchodilator is important because it reduces the symptoms that occur at night
      or in the early morning and it is very effective to use as a long term control
      medication for asthma by preventing asthmatic symptoms. The main objective of
      this review is to describe the impurity profile and force degradation studies for
      three major classes of bronchodilators namely beta2-adrenoceptor agonists,
      muscarinic receptor antagonists and xanthine. Unidentified and potential toxic
      impurities are hazardous to health, so in order to increase the safety of drug
      therapy; impurities should be identified and determined by selective analytical
      methods. METHODS: Different conditions for degradations like hydrolytic (acidic,
      basic and neutral), oxidative, photolytic and thermolytic have been discussed in
      detail for bronchodilators. Furthermore, it is discussed with the name along with
      number of impurities and degradants present in different matrices including its
      clinical implication. The name as well as structures of all the observed
      impurities in different bronchodilators is included, which can aid in impurity
      profiling. Various analytical methods, including Chromatographic techniques like
      TLC; HPTLC; HPLC; GC, Spectroscopic techniques like UV; IR; NMR; MS and
      hyphenated techniques like GC-MS; LC-MS; CE-MS; SFC-MS; LC-NMR; CENMR; LC-FTIR
      has been used for the identification and quantification of impurities. A general
      scheme has been presented for the impurity profiling. RESULT: Nineteen articles,
      six patents and fifteen drugs are included in this review. In that, majority (7)
      of papers are based on HPLC-UV, 5 papers are based on LC-MS, 2 papers are based
      on LC-MS-NMR, 1 paper is based on LC-NMR, 1 paper is based on GC-MSNMR, 1 paper
      is based on GC-UV and 1 paper is based on TLC-UV technique for isolation and
      characterization of impurities. In salbutamol, 7 degradants were found by LC-MS
      as compare to 4 degradants by HPLC-UV. In bambuterol, 12 degradants were found by
      LC-MS-NMR as compare to 4 degradants by LC-MS. CONCLUSION: After a thorough
      literature search, LC-MS and LC-MS-NMR techniques are found most useful for
      impurity profiling. In future, LC-DAD-NMR-MS, CE-ESI-FTICR- MS can also be
      explored for the isolation and characterization of impurities.

PMID- 28875856
TI  - Identification of 1-Aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles as Potential New Antiretroviral
      Agents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low molecular weight 1-Aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles are endowed with
      various types of biological activities, such as against cancer, HIV and bacteria.
      Despite the existence of six different classes of antiretroviral drugs in
      clinical use, HIV/AIDS continue to be an on growing public health problem.
      OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we synthesized and evaluated thirty 1-Aryl-1H
      1,2,3-triazoles against HIV replication. METHOD: The compounds were prepared by
      Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition protocol catalyzed by Cu(I) between aryl azides
      and propargylic alcohol followed by further esterification and etherification
      from a nucleophilic substitution with acid chlorides or alkyl bromides in good
      yields. The compounds were submitted to the inhibition of HIV replication and
      evaluation of their cytotoxicity. Initially, the compounds were screened at 10 uM
      and the most active were further evaluated in order to obtain some
      pharmacological parameters. RESULTS: Thirty molecules were evaluated, six were
      selected - because they inhibited more than 80% HIV replication. We further
      showed that two of these compounds are 8-times more potent, and less cytotoxic,
      than nevirapine, an antiretroviral drug in clinical use. CONCLUSION: We
      identified very simple triazoles with promissing antiretroviral activities that
      led to the development of new drugs against AIDS.

PMID- 28875857
TI  - Is there a Link between Vitamin B and Multiple Sclerosis?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Damage to the myelin sheath (demyelination) is one of the main
      manifestations of multiple sclerosis (MS). Interestingly, both MS and vitamin B
      deficiencies result in severe myelin degeneration, leading to loss in neuronal
      signal transmission. OBJECTIVE: Deficiency in vitamin B complex vary, although
      common symptoms include fatigue, increased oxidative stress, inflammation and
      demyelination. In particular, vitamin B12 (cobalamin) has had increased attention
      for its role in the methylation process, involvement in myelination and
      remyelination, and reversal of MS symptoms. METHOD: Here, we discuss the role of
      vitamin B complex (B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12) in MS. RESULTS: The anti
      inflammatory and re-myelinating attributes of vitamin B complex members are
      promising, despite limited clinical studies. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need
      for larger studies to determine the role of vitamin B supplementation alone, or
      in combination with other therapeutic agents, in prevention or reversal of MS,
      and aid in improved quality of life of MS patients.

PMID- 28875858
TI  - Managing Neuropathic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis: Pharmacological Interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating
      disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Of the plethora of motor and sensory
      disturbances experienced by sufferers, neuropathic pain is a highly prevalent and
      debilitating symptom, and at present remains extremely difficult to treat. Common
      forms of neuropathic pain seen in MS patients include central neuropathic pain,
      Lhermitte's phenomenon and trigeminal neuralgia, which are all speculated to
      arise from specific patterns of lesion formation. OBJECTIVE: Efficacious
      pharmacological interventions for the treatment of neuropathic pain associated
      with MS are lacking, and have been largely informed by drug trials in peripheral
      neuropathies and spinal cord injury. METHOD/RESULTS: Neuropathic pain in MS is
      inadequately relieved by conventional analgesics, and first-line therapies are
      generally comprised of anti-depressive and anti-convulsive drugs. A range of
      alternatives have been proposed and tested with variable success, including
      cannabinoids and certain opioid analgesics. Animals with experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis (EAE), an autoimmune model of MS, also exhibit neuropathic pain
      symptoms. CONCLUSION: Studies aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying
      EAE-induced neuropathic pain and investigating the efficacy of novel
      pharmacological interventions at the animal level offer an exciting area of
      future research, and may inform future therapeutic options for MS-associated
      neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28875859
TI  - Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein and Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) is located on the external
      surface of myelin, a membranous component of the central nervous system (CNS)
      that forms the insulating lipid layer around neurons. The major MOG splicing
      variant (a1 transcript) encodes a transmembrane protein with an extracellular
      domain of an Ig variable (IgV) fold. MOG IgV domains from the same or different
      cells dimerize and contribute to the organization and maintenance of the myelin
      sheath in neurons. The encepalitogenic T cells recognize MOG and its
      immunodominant epitopes (epitopes 1-22, 35-55 and 92-106 located at the dimer
      interface) as foreign antigens and cause the destruction of myelin
      (demyelination) leading to the clinical condition known as multiple sclerosis
      (MS). Recognition of the antigen takes place in the context of the trimolecular
      complex formed by HLA, MOGpeptides and TCR. OBJECTIVE: Understanding the role of
      MOG in MS. METHOD/RESULTS: We have reviewed herein, the genomic organization of
      the human MOG gene, the structural characteristics of the MOG protein, the
      involvement of MOG in MS and clinical studies for the treatment of MS based on
      MOG peptide analogues. CONCLUSION: Conjugates of antigenic MOG peptides to mannan
      and combinations of antigenic MOG and other peptides chemically linked to cells
      of the immune system may modify the immune response, alleviating in some cases
      the symptoms of MS.

PMID- 28875860
TI  - Scaffold Hopping Strategy for the Design, Synthesis and Biological Activity
      Evaluation of Novel Hexacyclic Scutellarein Derivatives with a 1,3-Oxazine Ring
      Fused at A-ring.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Discovery of novel agents with anticoagulant and antioxidant activity
      is very important to treat cerebrovascular disease. Lead compound LR3d discovered
      in our laboratory exhibited stronger anticoagulant ability and good antioxidant
      activity, compared with scutellarein (2), which is the major in vivo active
      metabolite of the natural product scutellarin (1). OBJECTIVE: Design and
      synthesis novel scutellarein derivatives with improved anticoagulant and
      antioxidant activity. METHODS: By utilizing a scaffold hopping strategy on LR3d,
      we describe the design and synthesis of a series of novel hexacyclic scutellarein
      derivatives 4 with a 1,3-oxazine ring fused at positions 7 and 8 in A ring. The
      thrombin inhibitory activities of all these new compounds were studied by the
      analysis of thrombin time (TT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT),
      prothrombin time (PT) and fibrinogen (FIB). The antioxidant abilities of these
      analogs were evaluated by using 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-y1)-3,5-di
      phenytetrazoliumromide (MTT) method through 1,1- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl
      radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl) hydrazyl (DPPH) assay. RESULTS:
      Nine new hexacyclic scutellarein derivatives with a 1,3-oxazine ring fused at A
      ring were synthesized, the results of the biological activity evaluation showed
      that compound 4e exhibited stronger anticoagulant and antioxidant ability
      compared to LR3d. CONCLUSION: 4e could be used for further development to treat
      ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

PMID- 28875861
TI  - Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies and Multiple Sclerosis: The Essentials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are now established as targeted
      therapies for malignancies, transplant rejection, autoimmune and infectious
      diseases. Two monoclonal antibodies are available for treatment and other
      antibodies are currently being tested in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.
      OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present review paper is to outline the antibody
      engineering technologies, the immunologic and pharmacologic concepts of mbs and
      the current status of treatment in MS with emphasis on clinical efficacy and
      safety. METHOD: We conducted a through review of the scientific literature
      published until 31 December 2014 (print and electronic publications) concerning
      the production, applications and side effects of the use of Mabs. Sixty five
      articles were used in total (both original research and review papers).
      CONCLUSION: With the introduction of mAbs the treatment of MS has entered a new
      era, both with respect to efficacy and target specificity. However,
      administration of mAbs carries the risk of immune reactions such as acute
      anaphylaxis, serum sickness, infection and other autoimmune diseases. In
      addition, unexpected consequences arise from our incomplete knowledge of the
      immune system. For example, natalizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting alpha4
      integrin on leukocytes increases the risk of developing progressive multifocal
      leukoencephalopathy, without causing notable immunosuppression. Further study on
      the use of mabs is required, both in vitro and in the clinical field, in order to
      increase our knowledge upon these new revolutionary therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28875862
TI  - An Update on the Role of Matrix Metalloproteinases in the Pathogenesis of
      Multiple Sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are zinc-containing endopeptidases,
      proteins essential to the degradation of various tissue extracellular matrix
      proteins. Under normal conditions, MMPs participate in several physiological
      processes, both in the developing organism and the adult. Multiple sclerosis (MS)
      is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS),
      affecting primarily young adults. Inflammatory infiltrations of the CNS
      parenchyma by autoreactive immune cells, that mediate myelin degradation in the
      form of the demyelination "plaque", are the pathological hallmark of the disease.
      Due to their capacity to orchestrate tissue penetration from various cells, MMPs
      have been elucidated in MS as mediators of blood-brain barrier disruption and CNS
      inflammation, thus contributing to the disease pathogenesis. OBJECTIVE: This
      review focuses on clinical and experimental evidence of MMPs' pathogenetic role
      in MS and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).
      METHOD: A MEDLINE search was performed for using the following terms:
      "metalloproteinases", "multiple sclerosis", "experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis", "central nervous system" and "autoimmunity". RESULTS:
      Expression patterns of MMPs and their specific inhibitor molecules at the sites
      of MS and EAE lesions, as well as by specific cell types of the immune system,
      provide evidence of MMPs' role in the pathogenesis of CNS autoimmunity. Clinical
      evidence suggests differential profile of MMPs' expression in serum and
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) between MS patients with various disease types and
      healthy adults, rendering MMPs potential biomarkers for disease incidence and
      activity. CONCLUSION: MMPs' role in the processes of CNS inflammation, de- and
      remyelination, confers implications as therapeutic targets, either alone, or in
      relation with widely-used disease modifying treatments in MS.

PMID- 28875864
TI  - Pulmonary embolism with cardiac arrest: a STEMI patient's unexpected course.
AB  - We describe the successful use and complications of bolus-dose alteplase to treat
      strongly suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) with cardiac arrest in a patient
      initially presenting as ST-elevation myocardial infarcation (MI). Case
      description is followed by a review of the indications, safety, and dosing of
      systemic thrombolytic therapy for high-risk PE in the emergency department (ED).
      Diagnostic and therapeutic approach to PE in critically ill patients is also
      considered, including the potential utility of point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS)
      in the ED.

PMID- 28875863
TI  - The Basic Mechanism of Hair Growth Stimulation by Adipose-derived Stem Cells and
      Their Secretory Factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)
      within the stromal vascular fraction of subcutaneous adipose tissue. ADSCs
      secrete growth factors and other proteins, and have been used to regenerate skin
      with satisfactory results. OBJECTIVE: This review focuses on the effect of ADSCs
      and their secretory factors on the stimulation of hair growth in vitro, ex vivo
      and in vivo. RESULTS: The conditioned media of ADSCs (ADSC-CM) increases the
      proliferation rate of human follicular cells. ADSCs-derived proteins improve hair
      growth and protect human dermal papilla cells against cytotoxic injury caused by
      androgen and reactive oxygen species. Moreover, ADSC-CM induces the anagen phase
      and promotes hair growth in mice, and enhances the elongation of hair shafts in
      ex vivo human hair organ cultures. CONCLUSION: ADSC-CM promotes hair growth in
      vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo. Given that ADSCs are one of the most accessible
      sources of MSCs, ADSC-derived proteins may be feasible clinical therapeutic
      agents for the treatment of hair loss.

PMID- 28875865
TI  - Predictors and correlates of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in young
      women: results from the Safe-D study.
AB  - Vitamin D deficiency is a global public health concern. Studies of serum 25
      hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) determinants in young women are limited and few
      include objective covariates. Our aims were to define the prevalence of vitamin D
      deficiency and examine serum 25(OH)D correlates in an exploratory study of women
      aged 16-25 years. We studied 348 healthy females living in Victoria, Australia,
      recruited through Facebook. Data collected included serum 25(OH)D assayed by
      liquid chromatography-tandem MS, relevant serum biochemistry, soft tissue
      composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, skin melanin density,
      Fitzpatrick skin type, sun exposure using UV dosimeters and lifestyle factors.
      Mean serum 25(OH)D was 68 (sd 27) nmol/l and 26 % were vitamin D deficient
      (25(OH)D 2 h in the sun in summer daily, holidaying in the most recent summer
      period, serum Fe levels, height and multivitamin use were positively associated
      with 25(OH)D. Fat mass and a blood draw in any season except summer was inversely
      associated with 25(OH)D. Vitamin D deficiency is common in young women. Factors
      such as hormonal contraception, sun exposure and sun-related attitudes, as well
      as dietary supplement use are essential to consider when assessing vitamin D
      status. Further investigation into methods to safely optimise vitamin D status
      and to improve understanding of the impact of vitamin D status on long-term
      health outcomes is required.

PMID- 28875866
TI  - In Haitian women and preschool children, iron absorption from wheat flour-based
      meals fortified with sodium iron EDTA is higher than that from meals fortified
      with ferrous fumarate, and is not affected by Helicobacter pylori infection in
      children.
AB  - Fe fortification of wheat flour was proposed in Haiti to combat Fe deficiency,
      but Fe bioavailability from fortificants has never been investigated in Haitian
      women or preschool children, two key target groups. We aimed to investigate the
      bioavailability of ferrous fumarate (FeFum), NaFeEDTA and their combination from
      fortified wheat flour. We recruited twenty-two healthy mother-child pairs in Port
      au Prince, Haiti, for an Fe-absorption study. We administered stable Fe isotopes
      as FeFum or NaFeEDTA individually in low-extraction wheat flour bread rolls
      consumed by all participants in a randomised, cross-over design. In a final,
      identical meal, consumed only by the women, FeFum+NaFeEDTA was administered. We
      measured Fe absorption by using erythrocyte incorporation of stable isotopes 14 d
      after consumption of each meal, and determined Fe status, inflammatory markers
      and Helicobacter pylori infection. Fe absorption (geometric mean was 9.24 (95 %
      CI 6.35, 13.44) and 9.26 (95 % CI 7.00, 12.31) from FeFum and 13.06 (95 % CI
      9.23, 19.10) and 12.99 (95 % CI 9.18, 18.39) from NaFeEDTA in mothers and
      children, respectively (P<0.05 between compounds). Fe absorption from
      FeFum+NaFeEDTA was 11.09 (95 % CI 7.45, 17.34) and did not differ from the other
      two meals. H. pylori infection did not influence Fe absorption in children. In
      conclusion, in Haitian women and children, Fe absorption from NaFeEDTA was 40 %
      higher than from FeFum, and the combination FeFum+NaFeEDTA did not significantly
      increase Fe absorption compared with FeFum alone. In the context of Haiti, where
      the high costs of NaFeEDTA may not be affordable, the use of FeFum at 60 mg Fe/kg
      flour may be a preferable, cost-effective fortification strategy.

PMID- 28875867
TI  - Growth performance, nutrient utilisation and carcass composition respond to
      dietary protein concentrations in broiler chickens but responses are modified by
      dietary lipid levels.
AB  - A total of ten experimental diets with protein concentrations ranging from 154 to
      400 g/kg and two lipid levels (46 and 85 g/kg) with identical energy densities
      were offered to 240 male Ross 308 broilers from 7 to 28 d post-hatch. Growth
      performance was monitored and nutrient utilisation (apparent metabolisable energy
      (AME), N-corrected AME (AMEn), AME daily intake, AME:gross energy ratios, N
      retention) was determined. The weight gain response of broiler chickens to
      dietary protein concentrations in diets containing high and low lipid levels was
      diverse, with the relevant quadratic regressions being significantly different
      (P0.05). AMEn was also linearly (P<0.0001) increased with dietary protein
      concentrations but regressions in diets with low and high lipid content were
      significantly different (P<0.03). Carcass protein content increased linearly with
      dietary protein content in diets containing high lipid concentrations (r 0.933,
      P<0.0001); by contrast, this relationship was quadratic (R 2=0.93, P<0.0001) in
      diets with low lipid levels. In conclusion, predictably, the effects of dietary
      protein concentrations on broiler performance were profound; however, the impact
      of dietary protein on performance in broiler chickens was modified by dietary
      lipid concentrations.

PMID- 28875868
TI  - Nutrient intake and dietary changes during a 2-year multi-domain lifestyle
      intervention among older adults: secondary analysis of the Finnish Geriatric
      Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER)
      randomised controlled trial.
AB  - Advancing age increases the risk for diseases and health concerns like cognitive
      decline, constituting a major public health challenge. Lifestyle, especially
      healthy diet, affects many risk factors related to chronic diseases, and thus
      lifestyle interventions among older adults may be beneficial in promoting
      successful ageing. We completed a randomised 2-year multi-domain lifestyle
      intervention trial aiming at prevention of cognitive decline among 631
      participants in the intervention and 629 in the control group, aged 60-77 years
      at baseline. Dietary counselling was one of the intervention domains together
      with strength exercise, cognitive training and management of CVD risk factors.
      The aim of this paper was to describe success of the intervention - that is, how
      an intervention based on national dietary recommendations affected dietary habits
      as a part of multi-intervention. Composite dietary intervention adherence score
      comprising nine distinct goals (range 0-9 points from none to achieving all
      goals) was 5.0 at baseline, and increased in the intervention group after the 1st
      (P<0.001) and 2nd (P=0.005) year. The difference in change compared with the
      control group was significant at both years (P<0.001 and P=0.018). Intake of
      several vitamins and minerals decreased in the control group but remained
      unchanged or increased in the intervention group during the 2 years. Well
      targeted dietary counselling may prevent age-related decline in diet quality and
      help in preventing cognitive decline.

PMID- 28875869
TI  - Red meat intake is positively associated with non-fatal acute myocardial
      infarction in the Costa Rica Heart Study.
AB  - The adverse effect of red meat consumption on the risk for CVD is a major
      population health concern, especially in developing Hispanic/Latino countries in
      which there are clear trends towards increased consumption. This population-based
      case-control study examined the associations between total, processed and
      unprocessed red meat intakes and non-fatal acute myocardial infarction (MI) in
      Costa Rica. The study included 2131 survivors of a first non-fatal acute MI and
      2131 controls individually matched by age, sex and area of residence. Dietary
      intake was assessed with a FFQ. OR were estimated by using conditional logistic
      regression. Higher intakes of total and processed red meat were associated with
      increased odds of acute MI. The OR were 1.31 (95 % CI 1.04, 1.65) and 1.29 (95 %
      CI 1.01, 1.65) for the highest quintiles of total red meat (median: 110.8 g or 1
      serving/d) and processed red meat intake (median: 36.1 g or 5 servings/week),
      respectively. There were increasing trends in the odds of acute MI with higher
      total (P trend=0.01) and processed (P trend=0.02) red meat intakes. Unprocessed
      red meat intake was not associated with increased odds of acute MI. Substitutions
      of 50 g of alternative foods (fish, milk, chicken without skin and chicken
      without fat) for 50 g of total, processed and unprocessed red meat were
      associated with lower odds of acute MI. The positive association between red meat
      intake and acute MI in Costa Rica highlights the importance of reducing red meat
      consumption in middle-income Hispanic/Latino populations.

PMID- 28875872
TI  - Undergraduate antimicrobial stewardship training for pharmacy students: Creating
      a foundation for containment of antimicrobial resistance in South Africa.

PMID- 28875870
TI  - A priori-defined diet quality indices, biomarkers and risk for type 2 diabetes in
      five ethnic groups: the Multiethnic Cohort.
AB  - Dietary indices have been related to risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) predominantly
      in white populations. The present study evaluated this association in the
      ethnically diverse Multiethnic Cohort and examined four diet quality indices in
      relation to T2D risk, homoeostatic model assessment-estimated insulin resistance
      (HOMA-IR) and biomarkers of dyslipidaemia, inflammation and adipokines. The T2D
      analysis included 166 550 white, African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese
      American and Latino participants (9200 incident T2D cases). Dietary intake was
      assessed at baseline using a quantitative FFQ and T2D status was based on three
      self-reports and confirmed by administrative data. Biomarkers were assessed about
      10 years later in a biomarker subcohort (n 10 060). Sex- and ethnicity-specific
      hazard ratios were calculated for the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), the
      alternative HEI-2010 (AHEI-2010), the alternate Mediterranean diet score (aMED)
      and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH). Multivariable-adjusted
      means of biomarkers were compared across dietary index tertiles in the biomarker
      subcohort. The AHEI-2010, aMED (in men only) and DASH scores were related to a 10
      20 % lower T2D risk, with the strongest associations in whites and the direction
      of the relationships mostly consistent across ethnic groups. Higher scores on the
      four indices were related to lower HOMA-IR, TAG and C-reactive protein
      concentrations, not related to leptin, and the DASH score was directly associated
      with adiponectin. The AHEI-2010 and DASH were directly related to HDL-cholesterol
      in women. Potential underlying biological mechanisms linking diet quality and T2D
      risk are an improved lipid profile and reduced systemic inflammation and, with
      regards to DASH alone, an improved adiponectin profile.

PMID- 28875873
TI  - South African student protests, 2015 - 2016: The aftermath viewed through Medical
      Science Honours students at the University of Cape Town.

PMID- 28875874
TI  - Use of social media by health professionals in South Africa.

PMID- 28875871
TI  - Wheat germ supplementation alleviates insulin resistance and cardiac
      mitochondrial dysfunction in an animal model of diet-induced obesity.
AB  - Obesity is strongly associated with insulin resistance (IR), along with
      mitochondrial dysfunction to metabolically active tissues and increased
      production of reactive O2 species (ROS). Foods rich in antioxidants such as wheat
      germ (WG), protect tissues from damage due to ROS and modulate some negative
      effects of obesity. This study examined the effects of WG supplementation on
      markers of IR, mitochondrial substrate metabolism and innate antioxidant markers
      in two metabolically active tissues (i.e. liver and heart) of C57BL/6 mice fed a
      high-fat-high-sucrose (HFS) diet. Male C57BL/6 mice, 6-week-old, were randomised
      into four dietary treatment groups (n 12 mice/group): control (C, 10 % fat kcal),
      C+10 % WG, HFS (60 % fat kcal) or HFS+10 % WG (HFS+WG). After 12 weeks of
      treatment, HFS+WG mice had significantly less visceral fat (-16 %, P=0.006)
      compared with the HFS group. WG significantly reduced serum insulin (P=0.009),
      the insulinotropic hormone, gastric inhibitory peptide (P=0.0003), and the
      surrogate measure of IR, homoeostatic model assessment of IR (P=0.006). HFS diet
      significantly elevated (45 %, P=0.02) cardiac complex 2 mitochondrial VO2,
      suggesting increased metabolic stress, whereas WG stabilised this effect to the
      level of control. Consequently, genes which mediate antioxidant defense and
      mitochondrial biogenesis (superoxide dismutase 2 (Sod2) and PPARgamma coactivator
      1-alpha (Pgc1a), respectively) were significantly reduced (P<0.05) in the heart
      of the HFS group, whereas WG supplementation tended to up-regulate both genes. WG
      significantly increased hepatic gene expression of Sod2 (P=0.048) but not Pgc1a.
      Together, these results showed that WG supplementation in HFS diet, reduced IR
      and improved cardiac mitochondrial metabolic functions.

PMID- 28875875
TI  - Work-based assessment: A critical element of specialist medical training.

PMID- 28875876
TI  - Commercial herbal medicines used as African traditional medicines: Ngoma Herbal
      Tonic Immune Booster interferes with a rapid urine drug screening test.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalent use of African traditional medicine by the general
      public has been reported. With commercialisation and marketing, some of the
      herbal medicines (HMs) used are readily available over the counter, most of them
      promoted as immune boosters. These commercial HMs have not been taken through
      clinical trials and other tests that would validate their composition and safety,
      and other properties such as their effect on laboratory diagnostic tests.
      OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cross-reactivity of selected HMs with commonly
      tested drugs of abuse (DoA) using a qualitative rapid urinalysis assay. METHODS:
      The six HMs selected were bought from local pharmacies. A rapid urinalysis
      screening test was performed with the Instant View Multi-Drug of Abuse Test kit
      from Labstix Diagnostics. Drug-free urine (DFU) was pooled from samples donated
      by healthy volunteers. Urine samples that had tested positive for DoA were
      obtained from a pharmacology laboratory. Aliquots of the urine samples were
      spiked with the HMs in neat and diluted form, and tested at various time
      intervals. RESULTS: The results for the DFU samples spiked with the HMs remained
      negative. There were no significant changes in pH or specific gravity of the
      samples. The results of samples that had tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol
      (THC) were not altered by five of the HMs when spiked at 40% v/v. The HM Ngoma
      Herbal Tonic Immune Booster caused false-negative results for the THC test.
      CONCLUSION: An important finding is that the herbal mixture Ngoma Herbal Tonic
      Immune Booster caused false-negative results for the cannabinoid screening test.
      It adds to the list of substances that may be potential adulterants of urine for
      screening tests.

PMID- 28875877
TI  - How front-line healthcare workers respond to stock-outs of essential medicines in
      the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
AB  - Shortages of essential medicines are a daily occurrence in many of South Africa
      (SA)'s public health facilities. This study focuses on the responses of
      healthcare workers to stock-outs, investigating how actors at the 'front line' of
      public health delivery understand, experience and respond to shortages of
      essential medicines and equipment in their facilities. Findings are based on
      focus groups, observations and interviews with healthcare workers and patients at
      healthcare facilities in the Eastern Cape Province of SA, conducted as part of
      the Mzantsi Wakho study. The research revealed a discrepancy between 'informal'
      definitions of stock-outs and their reporting through formal stock-out management
      channels. Front-line healthcare workers had designed their own systems for
      classifying the severity of stock-outs, based on the product in question, and on
      their potential to access stocks from other facilities. Beyond formal systems of
      procurement and supply, healthcare workers had established vast networks of
      alternative communication and action, often using personal resources to procure
      medical supplies. Stock-outs were only reported when informal methods of stock
      sharing did not secure top-up supplies. These findings have implications for
      understanding the frequency and severity of stock-outs, and for taking action to
      prevent and manage stock-outs effectively.

PMID- 28875878
TI  - Facilitating access to adolescent sexual and reproductive health services through
      legislative reform: Lessons from the South African experience.
AB  - South Africa (SA) has progressive legislation enabling adolescents to access
      various sexual- and reproductive-health services (SRH) independently, without
      consent from parents or legal guardians. This article reviews the SA legislative
      framework for adolescent access to SRH interventions. It outlines the five
      approaches adopted in current legislation to address adolescents' capacity to
      independently consent to specified health interventions, based on age, capacity
      and public policy requirements, or combinations thereof. Rather than subsume
      various health interventions under the umbrella of medical treatment, SA has
      separately legislated on many SRH interventions (e.g. HIV testing, contraceptives
      and terminations of pregnancy, among others). We identify strengths and
      weaknesses of the SA approach, and conclude with lessons learned from the SA
      experience which could inform discussion and debate on the most appropriate ways
      for countries to consider law reform that facilitates adolescent access to SRH
      services.

PMID- 28875879
TI  - Building capacity for development and implementation of clinical practice
      guidelines.
AB  - Robust, reliable and transparent methodologies are necessary to ensure that
      clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) meet international criteria. In South Africa
      (SA) and other low- and middle-income countries, upskilling and training of
      individuals in the processes of CPG development is needed. Since de novo CPG
      development is time-consuming and expensive, new emerging CPG-development
      approaches (adopting, contextualising, adapting and updating existing good
      quality CPGs) are potentially more appropriate for our context. These emerging
      CPG-development methods are either not included or sparsely covered in existing
      training opportunities. The SA Guidelines Excellence (SAGE) team has responded
      innovatively to the need for CPG training in SA. We have revised an existing SA
      course and developed an online, open-access CPG-development toolkit. This
      Guideline Toolkit is a comprehensive guideline resource designed to assist
      individuals who are interested in knowing how to develop CPGs. Findings from the
      SAGE project can now be implemented with this innovative CPG training programme.
      This level of CPG capacity development has the potential to influence CPG
      knowledge, development, practices and uptake by clinicians, managers, academics
      and policy-makers around the country.

PMID- 28875880
TI  - Orbital apex syndrome after trauma in a 6-year-old - a rare occurrence.
AB  - Orbital apex syndrome is rare, but can occur as a consequence of trauma from
      fracture of the medial orbit. This case report highlights the fact that a high
      index of suspicion is needed when a patient presents with a facial injury,
      especially in children who cannot give an account of the actual events that
      transpired. Radiological investigation should be done early when an underlying
      injury is suspected in a trauma patient. A low threshold for computed tomography
      should be maintained when proptosis and vision loss are present.

PMID- 28875882
TI  - Osteosarcoma patient outcomes at a South African tertiary hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumour. There
      is a high incidence of late presentation in the developing world, posing
      additional challenges in the treatment of this aggressive disease. OBJECTIVE: To
      evaluate clinical outcomes of patients with osteosarcoma at Charlotte Maxeke
      Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH), a tertiary hospital in South Africa, and
      compare these with similar studies in the developing world. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective study of 61 patients treated at CMJAH between 2007 and 2011, with a
      minimum follow-up of 1.3 years (range 1.3 - 6.3). RESULTS: An average of 4.5
      months elapsed before patients were first seen at the CMJAH tumour unit. Fifty
      eight patients (95.1%) initially sought conventional medical care. Three patients
      (4.9%) presented with pathological fractures. All the patients underwent biopsy,
      performed an average of 3 weeks after arrival at the tumour unit. In most cases
      the delay was due to limited access to magnetic resonance imaging. Most patients
      (n=41, 67.2%) were at Enneking stage 2B, 4 (6.6%) were at stage 2A and 16 (26.2%)
      were at stage 3. Of the patients, 13 (21.3%) underwent limb salvage procedures,
      33 (54.1%) had amputations, 4 (6.6%) refused further treatment and 11 (18.0%)
      received palliative care only; 55 patients (90.2%) received chemotherapy. Two
      patients developed local recurrence, one of whom had an amputation and the other
      further wide excision. Two patients received palliative radiotherapy. Of the
      patients, 82.0% were HIV-negative, 4.9% HIV-positive and the rest of unknown
      status. At the time of the study, all but two patients, who came from other
      countries, were traceable or known to have died. Our overall 1-year and 5-year
      survival rates were 62.7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 49.1 - 73.9) and 38.1%
      (95% CI 24.6 - 51.4), respectively. Male patients and those with a higher
      Enneking stage had a poorer prognosis. CONCLUSION: Although most patients sought
      conventional medical care, unacceptable delays worsened survival. However, our
      survival rates are better than those in other developing countries. We advocate
      that professional, public and political awareness of osteosarcoma be improved as
      a matter of urgency, to facilitate rapid tertiary referral and expedite
      management.

PMID- 28875881
TI  - Declining prevalence of duodenal ulcer at endoscopy in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Duodenal ulcer is the most common peptic ulcer disease worldwide. In
      the past, sub-Saharan Africa has been described as an area of mixed prevalence
      for peptic ulcer disease, but recent reports have disputed this. Changes in the
      prevalence of duodenal ulcer have been reported, with various reasons given for
      these. OBJECTIVE: To describe the change in endoscopic prevalence of duodenal
      ulcer at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, Nigeria,
      between January 2000 and December 2010. METHODS: This was a retrospective,
      descriptive study of patients who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in
      the endoscopy unit of OAUTH between January 2000 and December 2010. The data were
      obtained from the endoscopy register, demographic indices, presenting symptoms
      and post-endoscopic diagnoses being retrieved for each patient. The study period
      was divided into the years 2000 - 2004 and 2005 - 2010, the frequencies of
      duodenal ulcer and other post-endoscopic diagnoses being compared between these
      two time periods to see whether there were changes. RESULTS: Over the study
      period, 292 patients (15.8%) were diagnosed with duodenal ulcer, second only to
      471 patients (26.2%) with acute gastritis. The prevalence of duodenal ulcer for
      2000 - 2004 was 22.9% (n=211 patients) compared with 9.2% (n=81) for 2005 - 2010
      (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: There was a significant decline in the endoscopic
      prevalence of duodenal ulcer over the decade.

PMID- 28875883
TI  - Central-line-associated bloodstream infections in a resource-limited South
      African neonatal intensive care unit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rate of central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) in
      South African (SA) public sector neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) is
      unknown. Tygerberg Children's Hospital (TCH), Cape Town, introduced a neonatal
      CLABSI surveillance and prevention programme in August 2012. OBJECTIVES: To
      describe CLABSI events and identify risk factors for development of CLABSI in a
      resource-limited NICU. METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was conducted
      using prospectively collected NICU CLABSI events matched to four randomly
      selected controls, sampled from the NICU registry between 9 August 2012 and 31
      July 2014. Clinical data and laboratory records were reviewed to identify
      possible risk factors, using stepwise forward logistic regression analysis.
      RESULTS: A total of 706 central lines were inserted in 530 neonates during the
      study period. Nineteen CLABSI events were identified, with a CLABSI rate of 5.9/1
      000 line days. CLABSI patients were of lower gestational age (28 v. 34 weeks;
      p=0.003), lower median birth weight (1 170 g v. 1 975 g; p=0.014), had longer
      catheter dwell times (>4 days) (odds ratio (OR) 5.1 (95% confidence interval (CI)
      1.0 - 25.4); p=0.04) and were more likely to have had surgery during their NICU
      stay (OR 3.5 (95% CI 1.26 - 10); p=0.01). Significant risk factors for CLABSI
      were length of stay >30 days (OR 20.7 (95% CI 2.1 - 203.2); p=0.009) and central
      line insertion in the operating theatre (OR 8.1 (95% CI 1.2 - 54.7); p=0.03).
      Gram-negative pathogens predominated (12/22; 54%), with most isolates (10/12;
      83%) exhibiting multidrug resistance. CONCLUSION: The TCH NICU CLABSI rate is
      similar to that reported from resource-limited settings, but exceeds that of high
      income countries. Prolonged NICU stay and central-line insertion in the operating
      theatre were important risk factors for CLABSI development. Intensified neonatal
      staff training regarding CLABSI maintenance bundle elements and hand hygiene are
      key to reducing CLABSI rates.

PMID- 28875884
TI  - Residual allergenicity of amino acid-based and extensively hydrolysed cow's milk
      formulas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Criteria for labelling infant feeds as suitable for the dietary
      management of cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA) rely on proving the
      hypoallergenicity of such feeds or clinical studies showing that the feeds are
      tolerated by 90% of children with proven CMPA. South African (SA) labelling
      legislation does not indicate what testing is necessary to prove
      hypoallergenicity. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate all extensively hydrolysed cow's milk
      formulas and amino acid-based formulas available in SA for residual allergen
      content, protein size and amino-acid content. RESULTS: All amino-acid and
      extensively hydrolysed formulas were found to be similar in composition, with no
      residual cow's milk allergens detectable by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
      Furthermore, proteins were absent and only small molecules in the size range of
      amino acids and possibly of very small oligopeptides were detected. CONCLUSIONS:
      These findings indicate that the formulas are extremely likely to be compliant
      with the definition of hypoallergenicity as tolerance in 90% of proven sufferers
      from cow's milk allergy. The formulas may therefore be labelled as suitable for
      the dietary management of infants with CMPA.

PMID- 28875885
TI  - A review of antenatal corticosteroid use in premature neonates in a middle-income
      country.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antenatal corticosteroid (ANS) use in premature neonates has become a
      standard of practice. However, there is low ANS coverage in low- to middle-income
      countries (LMICs). Recent studies have questioned the efficacy of ANSs in such
      countries. OBJECTIVE: To review the use of ANSs in preterm neonates at Charlotte
      Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH), South Africa. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective observational study of all neonates with a birth weight of 500 - 1
      800 g born at CMJAH between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2016. Neonatal and
      maternal characteristics of neonates exposed to ANSs were compared with those of
      neonates who were not exposed. RESULTS: The ANS coverage of the final sample was
      930/2 109 (44.1%). The mean (standard deviation (SD)) birth weight was 1 292.4
      (323.2) g and the mean gestational age 30.2 (2.9) weeks. Attending antenatal care
      and maternal hypertension were associated with increased use of ANSs, whereas
      vaginal delivery was associated with decreased use. In neonates weighing <1 500
      g, the use of ANSs was associated with decreased mortality, decreased
      intraventricular haemorrhage and decreased patent ductus arteriosus. There was no
      association between ANSs and respiratory distress syndrome, necrotising
      enterocolitis, sepsis or need for respiratory support in all premature neonates,
      and no association with improved outcomes in those weighing >=1 500 g.
      CONCLUSION: The benefits of ANSs in terms of neonatal morbidity in this study
      were not as marked as those published in high-income countries. A randomised
      controlled trial may be indicated in LMICs.

PMID- 28875886
TI  - White blood cell count and C-reactive protein together remain useful for
      diagnosis and staging of acute appendicitis in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common acute surgical condition
      of the abdomen, and the most commonly misdiagnosed. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the
      white blood cell count (WBCC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) contribution to the
      diagnosis of AA in children. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 943
      consecutive patients operated on with the preoperative diagnosis of AA, in whom
      preoperative WBCC and CRP had both been measured. Postoperatively, the patients
      were divided into three groups: normal appendix (no AA), simple AA and
      complicated AA. RESULTS: Of the 943 patients, 616 (65.3%) had simple AA. The mean
      (standard deviation (SD)) age for this group was 9.8 (3.2) years (p<0.01 v.
      complicated AA), the mean WBCC was 16.5 (5.0) * 109/L (p<0.01 v. complicated AA
      and no AA), and the mean CRP level was 304.8 (409.5) nmol/L (p<0.01 v.
      complicated AA). The mean age of the patients with complicated AA (283/943,
      30.0%) was 7.9 (3.7) years, the mean WBCC was 17.7 (6.2) * 109/L (p<0.01 v. no
      AA) and the mean CRP level was 1 076.2 (923.8) nmol/L (p<0.01 v. no AA). The mean
      age of the patients with no AA (44/943, 4.7%) was 8.8 (3.2) years, the mean WBCC
      was 13.1 (5.3) * 109/L and the mean CRP was 361.9 (447.6) nmol/L. The WBCC was
      normal in 113/899 patients with appendicitis (12.6%) and CRP in 139 (15.5%). Both
      the WBCC and CRP were normal in 17 patients with appendicitis (1.9%). The best
      receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was obtained for WBCC when
      comparing all AA with no AA: cut-off point 15.0 * 109/L, sensitivity 65%,
      specificity 68%, area under the curve 0.70. The best ROC curve for CRP was
      obtained when comparing simple AA with complicated AA: cut-off point 361.9
      nmol/L, sensitivity 74%, specificity 74%, area under the curve 0.81. CONCLUSIONS:
      The WBCC is helpful in diagnosing simple AA and CRP in diagnosing complicated AA.
      If both are normal, AA is very unlikely. Together the WBCC and CRP are useful
      tools in diagnosing and staging AA.

PMID- 28875887
TI  - The spectrum and outcome of paediatric traumatic brain injury in KwaZulu-Natal
      Province, South Africa has not changed over the last two decades.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This retrospective review of a prospectively entered and maintained
      hybrid electronic trauma registry was intended to develop a comprehensive
      overview of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children and adolescents and to
      compare it with previous audits from our local environment and from other
      developing world centres. All TBI patients admitted to hospital were included in
      this study. We reviewed the age, gender, outcomes, radiological findings and
      treatment of the patients. METHODS: All patients aged <=18 years old who were
      admitted by the Pietermaritzburg Metropolitan Trauma Service (PMTS) with TBI
      between December 2012 and December 2016 were included in this audit. RESULTS:
      During the 4-year period under review, a total of 563 children and adolescents
      were treated for TBI by the PMTS.  The median age was 6.4 years and 29% (n=165)
      were females. The mechanism of TBI was blunt trauma in 96% (n=544) of cases, with
      4% (n=19) suffering penetrating trauma. The penetrating mechanisms included
      impalement by a cow horn and miscellaneous injuries due to saws, axes, barbed
      wire, spades, stones and knives. The blunt mechanisms included falls (n=102),
      assaults (n=108), collapse of a building (n=28), bicycle-related injury (n=14),
      falling off a moving vehicle (n=280), motor vehicle accident (MVA; n=59),
      pedestrian vehicle accident (PVA; n=183) and animal-related injuries (n=8). There
      were 454 (80%) mild, 67 (12%) moderate and 42 (7%) severe cases of TBI. A total
      of 48 patients were admitted to the intensive care unit and 23 were admitted to
      the high care unit. Nine patients died.  All the deaths were in the MVA and PVA
      group. The spectrum of TBI as diagnosed on computed tomography scans was
      nonspecific cerebral contusion (n=92), depressed skull fracture (n=70), sub
      arachnoid haemorrhage (n=60), extradural haemorrhage (n=41), intracerebral
      haemorrhage (n=19), free air (n=19), subdural haemorrhage (n=13),
      intraventricular haemorrhage (n=9). A total of 62 (11%) patients required
      surgery. CONCLUSION: There is a significant burden of paediatric TBI in
      Pietermaritzburg. The majority of TBI was related to blunt trauma and assaults
      were very common.  Although the short-term outcomes are good, the long-term
      consequences are poorly understood. Injury prevention programmes are needed to
      help reduce this burden of disease and a nationwide trauma registry is long
      overdue.

PMID- 28875888
TI  - Concomitant HIV infection in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients is hard to
      recognise and should be tested for routinely in areas of high endemicity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over the past three decades much has changed in the treatment and
      outcomes of patients suffering concurrently from both multiple myeloma (MM) and
      HIV. While the prevalence of MM appears to be higher in HIV-positive individuals
      than in those who are uninfected, early recognition of patients suffering from
      both diseases is difficult and little information is available on their
      demographics and clinical presentation. OBJECTIVE: To compare the presenting
      features of HIV-positive patients diagnosed with MM with those of HIV-negative
      patients. METHODS: A single-centre, retrospective cohort study included 16 HIV
      positive and 73 HIV-negative patients diagnosed with MM, in order to compare
      variables related to the clinical presentation of both conditions. RESULTS: HIV
      positive patients presented with MM at a significantly younger age, and had fewer
      osteolytic lesions, less renal impairment and lower neutrophil counts. Disease
      stage, gender, pathological fractures, bone marrow plasmacytosis, plasmacytomas
      and lymphocyte counts were comparable, emphasising the difficulty of identifying
      these patients. The HIV-positive patients had relatively high CD4 counts and a
      low prevalence of abnormal Freelite kappa/lambda ratios. All HIV-positive
      patients presented with paraproteins of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) type, implying
      a possible relationship between MM and an IgG response to HIV antigens.
      CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of our findings and literature on the treatment of both
      diseases, we suggest that HIV be tested for routinely in younger MM patients,
      especially in areas with a high prevalence of HIV. The integration of our results
      into the sparse knowledge on the role of HIV infection-related MM provides
      possible new insights into the interaction between these diseases.

PMID- 28875889
TI  - A third of patients treated at a tertiary-level surgical service could be treated
      at a secondary-level facility.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South Africa (SA) has an overburdened public healthcare system. Some
      patients admitted to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH), SA,
      may not require tertiary care, but the numbers and details are uncertain.
      Clinical research in SA is limited by scarce skills and limited access to data.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion of and length of stay for secondary-,
      tertiary- and quaternary-level patients discharged from the Department of Surgery
      at CMJAH over 1 year. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of electronic
      discharge (ED) summaries from the Department of Surgery at CMJAH between 1 April
      2015 and 1 April 2016. An SQL query of the database generated a .csv file of all
      discharges with the following fields: database reference number, length of stay
      and level of care. The details of each record were verified by MBBCh V students,
      using a defined level-ofcare template and the full discharge summary. The data
      were reviewed by a senior clinician. RESULTS: There were 3 007 discharge
      summaries - 97 were not classifiable, two were test records and one was a
      duplicate. These 100 records were excluded. There were no primary-level records.
      Secondary-level patients represented 29% (854) of those discharged and 19% of
      total bed days. Tertiary- and quaternary-level patients together represented 71%
      of the total and 81% of bed days. The average length of stay was 4.31 days for
      secondary, 6.98 days for tertiary and 9.77 days for quaternary level-of-care
      allocation. CONCLUSION: Almost one-third (29%) of patients discharged from
      CMJAH's Department of Surgery were deemed suitable for secondarylevel care. These
      patients had a shorter length of stay and comprised 19% of total bed days.
      Students and electronic databases represent an important research resource.

PMID- 28875890
TI  - New-onset diabetes after transplant: Incidence, risk factors and outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The outcome of renal transplantation depends on achieving effective
      immunosuppression while minimising the consequences of such treatment. The
      occurrence of new-onset diabetes in the post-transplant period has been
      associated with several risk factors including some immunosuppressive medication.
      Better understanding of the clinical and genetic risk factors associated with new
      onset diabetes after transplant (NODAT) could enable risk stratification of
      patients in the pre-transplant period, with the goal of applying measures that
      will reduce the incidence. OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the incidence of and clinical
      and genetic risk factors that predispose to NODAT, and to examine its effect on
      the outcome of renal transplantation. METHODS: We performed a retrospective
      cohort review of all renal transplants at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town,
      South Africa, between 2004 and 2008. Patients who were lost to follow-up or had
      pre-transplant diabetes or primary non-function were excluded. A subset of the
      cohort who gave informed consent was enlisted for genetic tests. RESULTS: We
      identified 111 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The incidence of NODAT
      was 18.0% (n=20 patients). Risk factors for NODAT included age at transplant
      (p=0.03), body weight (p=0.04), treatment for acute cellular rejection (p=0.02)
      and polycystic kidney disease as the cause of renal failure (p=0.005). None of
      the genes investigated (TCF7L2 rs11196205, rs12255372 and rs7903146 and HNF1beta
      rs1800575, rs121918671 and rs121918672) was found to be significantly associated
      with the risk of NODAT. The genotype frequencies for the single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms studied were closer (although not identical) to those reported for
      Caucasians than to those reported for the Yoruba (black) population in West
      Africa. Overall patient survival was 78% at five years, while graft survival was
      72%. There was no significant difference in patient or graft survival between the
      group with NODAT and the group without. CONCLUSIONS: NODAT was common in renal
      transplant recipients. Some risk factors predate transplant and could be used to
      risk-stratify patients to determine appropriate risk-reduction strategies. The
      genetic determinants for NODAT in this population may differ from those reported
      elsewhere. NODAT had no impact on patient or graft survival in this cohort.

PMID- 28875891
TI  - Age-group differences in risk perceptions of non-communicable diseases among
      adults in Diepsloot township, Johannesburg, South Africa: A cross-sectional study
      based on the Health Belief Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Africa (SA) occur
      simultaneously with an ageing HIV-positive population, resulting in premature
      deaths in persons <70 years of age. Poor risk perception of NCDs results in poor
      adoption practices of NCD preventive measures. There is a gap in age-related
      research regarding risk perceptions of NCDs among the SA population. OBJECTIVE:
      To investigate age-group differences in risk perceptions of NCDs based on the
      Health Belief Model. METHODS: This cross-sectional design used secondary data
      obtained from Community AIDS Response (CARe), Johannesburg, SA. Data were
      collected by means of a cross-sectional survey in Extension 2 (Blocks I, J, K and
      L) of Diepsloot township, Johannesburg, SA. The Pearson chi2 test of independence
      was used to examine the relationship between age groups and risk perceptions of
      NCDs. A p<0.05 value was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total
      of 2 135 participants were included in the analysis, of whom 71.5% were young
      adults (18 - 35 years). The mean age of the study participants was 32.1 (standard
      deviation 9.87) years. Significant associations were found between age groups and
      risk perceptions of NCDs. More middle-aged adults than young adults and older
      aged adults perceived family history (74.00% v. 72.74% v. 62.39%, p=0.045) and
      smoking (83.80% v. 77.20% v. 74.31%, p=0.004) as risk factors that would increase
      their risk of NCDs. A higher proportion of older-aged adults than young adults
      and middle-aged adults perceived effects on life and family (89.91% v. 77.39% v.
      75.40%, p=0.004) as risks of NCD morbidities. More middle-aged adults than young
      adults and older-aged adults perceived the usefulness of not smoking (84.60% v.
      81.06% v. 74.31%, p=0.028) as an effective NCD preventive measure. More young
      adults than middle-aged and older-aged adults considered health check-ups (59.31%
      v. 58.00% v. 41.28%, p=0.001) as a time-consuming process to prevent risks of
      NCDs. CONCLUSION: Young adults had poorer risk perceptions of NCDs than middle
      aged and older-aged adults in Diepsloot township, resulting in poor practice of
      NCD preventive measures among young adults in the area. This may be due to the
      misunderstanding of the concept of invulnerability, possibly resulting from the
      limited access and exposure to NCD-related information among young adults
      compared with middle-aged and older-aged groups. This highlights the need to
      expand public health education programmes to increase outreach to the young adult
      population and increase accessibility to information relating to NCD risks, and
      encourage adoption of NCD preventive measures.

PMID- 28875892
TI  - Rhodopseudomonas telluris sp. nov., a phototrophic alphaproteobacterium isolated
      from paddy soil.
AB  - A strain of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria isolated from paddy soil (designated
      strain TUT3615T) was studied taxonomically in comparison with
      Rhodopseudomonasstrain ATCC 17005 as its nearest phylogenetic relative. Strains
      TUT3615T and ATCC 17005 had budding rod-shaped cells and showed in vivo
      absorption maxima at 804 and 860 nm in the near infrared region, indicating the
      presence of bacteriochlorophyll a. The intracytoplasmic membrane system was of
      the lamellar type parallel to the cytoplasmic membrane. 16S rRNA gene sequence
      comparisons showed that strains TUT3615T and ATCC 17005 had a 99.7 % level of
      similarity to one another and were closest to Rhodopseudomonas palustris ATCC
      17001T (98.6 % similarity) among the established species of the genus
      Rhodopseudomonas. Genomic DNA-DNA hybridization studies revealed that strains
      TUT3615T and ATCC 17005 had an average similarity level of 65 % to one another
      and of less than 40 % to the available type strains of Rhodopseudomonas species.
      Results of phenotypic studies showed that strains TUT3615T and ATCC 17005 could
      be differentiated from one another and from any previously described species of
      Rhodopseudomonas. The G+C contents of the genomic DNA of strain TUT3615T and ATCC
      17005 were 66.3 and 66.5 mol%, respectively. Based on these data, we propose the
      name Rhodopseudomonas telluris sp. nov. for strain TUT3615T. The type strain is
      TUT3615T (=KCTC 23279T=NBRC 107609T). We suspend a proposal to reclassify strain
      ATCC 17005 as a novel species or subspecies until a genome-wide analysis provides
      more definite information on its taxonomic position.

PMID- 28875893
TI  - Description of Oceanispirochaeta sediminicola gen. nov., sp. nov., an obligately
      anaerobic bacterium isolated from coastal marine sediments, and reclassification
      of Spirochaeta litoralis as Oceanispirochaeta litoralis comb. nov.
AB  - An obligately anaerobic spirochaete (strain SY2T) was isolated from coastal
      marine sediments of Tongyeong-Si, South Korea. Strain SY2T was helical-shaped and
      Gram-stain-negative. Strain SY2T was able to grow at 10-40  degrees C (optima, 25
      30  degrees C), pH 6.3-8.8 (optima, pH 7.0-8.0) and with 1-7 % (optimum, 2-3 %)
      NaCl concentration. Strain SY2T was negative for catalase and oxidase activity.
      The major end-products of glucose fermentation were acetate, ethanol, hydrogen
      and carbon dioxide. C14 : 0, C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C14 : 0 3-OH, iso-C15 : 1
      H/C13 : 0 3-OH and iso-C17 : 1omega9c were predominant fatty acids (>5 %) with
      minor amounts (<5 %) of C18 : 0, iso-C13 : 0, iso-C17 : 0, iso-C17 : 1/anteiso
      C17 : 1 B and C16 : 1omega6c/C16 : 1omega7c. Diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine were major polar lipids. The
      genomic DNA G+C content was 53.5 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons
      indicated that strain SY2T represents a member of the family Spirochaetaceae in
      the phylum Spirochaetes. Strain SY2T has a sequence similarity of 95.1 % with
      Spirochaeta litoralis R1T and <90.1 % with other members of the genus
      Spirochaeta. Distinct morphological, physiological and genotypic differences from
      the previously described taxa support the classification of strain SY2T as a
      representative of a novel genus and species in the family Spirochaetaceae, for
      which the name Oceanispirochaeta sediminicola gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed.
      The type strain is SY2T (=KEMB 3001-381T=DSM 104770T=KCTC 15593T).
      Reclassification of Spirochaeta litoralis as Oceanispirochaeta litoralis comb.
      nov. is also proposed based on polyphasic taxonomic analyses.

PMID- 28875894
TI  - Altererythrobacter aquiaggeris sp. nov., isolated from water of an estuary bank.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, oval- or short-rod-shaped and non-motile bacterial strain,
      designated KEM-3T, was isolated from water of Geumgang Estuary Bank, South Korea,
      and was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain KEM-3T grew optimally
      at pH 7.0-8.0, at 25  degrees C and in the presence of 2-3% (w/v) NaCl. The
      neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that
      strain KEM-3T fell within the clade comprising Altererythrobacter species,
      clustering with Altererythrobacter confluentis KEM-4T and Altererythrobacter
      gangjinensis KJ7T, with which it exhibited 97.3 and 96.0 % sequence similarity,
      respectively. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values between strain KEM-3T
      and the type strains of other Altererythrobacter species were 92.9-95.2 %. The
      DNA G+C content of strain KEM-3T was determined to be 59.0 mol% and its mean DNA
      DNA relatedness with A. confluentis KEM-4T was 8.6+/-3.1 %. Strain KEM-3T
      contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and summed feature 8 (C18:1omega7c
      and/or C18:1omega6c), C17:1omega6c and summed feature 3 (C16:1omega6c and/or
      C16:1omega7c) as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids were
      phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, a
      sphingoglycolipid, an unidentified glycolipid and an unidentified phospholipid.
      Differential phenotypic properties, together with phylogenetic distinctiveness,
      demonstrated that strain KEM-3T is distinguishable from other Altererythrobacter
      species. On the basis of the data presented, strain KEM-3T is considered to
      represent a novel species of the genus Altererythrobacter, for which the name
      Altererythrobacter aquiaggeris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KEM-3T
      (=KCTC 52471T=NBRC 112425T).

PMID- 28875895
TI  - Lysinimicrobium sediminis sp. nov., an actinobacterium isolated from estuary
      sediment.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-positive actinobacterium, designated HT7-17T, was isolated
      from a sediment sample collected from the estuary of the Tama River, Japan, and
      its taxonomic position was investigated using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic
      analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain HT7-17T
      was closely related to members of the genus Lysinimicrobium, with a similarity
      range of 97.1-98.2 %. The peptidoglycan type of strain HT7-17T was A4alpha, the
      predominant menaquinone was demethylmenaquinone DMK-9(H4) and the major fatty
      acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The DNA G+C content was 69.9
      mol%. These chemotaxonomic features corresponded to those of the genus
      Lysinimicrobium. Meanwhile, the differences in some phenotypic characteristics,
      along with the result of DNA-DNA hybridization, indicated that strain HT7-17T
      should be distinguished from the recognized species of the genus Lysinimicrobium.
      Therefore, strain HT7-17T represents a novel species of the genus
      Lysinimicrobium, for which the name Lysinimicrobium sediminis sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is HT7-17T (=NBRC 112286T=TBRC 7037T).

PMID- 28875896
TI  - Kryptousia macronema gen. nov., sp. nov. and Kryptousia microlepis sp. nov.,
      nostocalean cyanobacteria isolated from phyllospheres.
AB  - Tropical ecosystems worldwide host very diverse microbial communities, but are
      increasingly threatened by deforestation and climate change. Thus,
      characterization of biodiversity in these environments, and especially of
      microbial communities that show unique adaptations to their habitats, is a very
      urgent matter. Information about representatives of the phylum Cyanobacteria in
      tropical environments is scarce, even though they are fundamental primary
      producers that help other microbes to thrive in nutrient-depleted habitats,
      including phyllospheres. In order to increase our knowledge of cyanobacterial
      diversity, a study was conducted to characterize isolates from Avicennia
      schaueriana and Merostachys neesii leaves collected at a mangrove and an Atlantic
      forest reserve located at the littoral of Sao Paulo state, south-east Brazil. The
      morphological, ultrastructural, phylogenetic, molecular and ecological features
      of the strains led to the recognition of the new genus Kryptousia, comprising two
      new species, Kryptousiamacronema gen. nov., sp. nov. and Kryptousiamicrolepis sp.
      nov., described here according to the International Code of Nomenclature for
      algae, fungi and plants. The new genus and species were classified in the
      nostocalean family Tolypotrichaceae. This finding advances knowledge on the
      microbial diversity of South American ecosystems and sheds further light on the
      systematics of cyanobacteria.

PMID- 28875897
TI  - Chitinophaga rhizosphaerae sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere soil of a tomato
      plant.
AB  - An aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming, non-flagellated, rod-shaped
      or filamentous bacterial strain, T16R-86T, was isolated from rhizosphere of a
      tomato plant collected from a farm on Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea.
      It grew at the temperature range 10-37  degrees C (optimum, 28  degrees C) and pH
      range 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0), and tolerated up to 2 % (w/v) NaCl. According to
      16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain T16R-86T shared the highest similarity
      with Chitinophaga barathri YLT18T (96.8 %) and C. pinensis DSM 2588T (96.7 %),
      forming a subcluster with C. barathri YLT18T, C. cymbidii R156-2T and C.
      niabensis JS13-10T in the phylogenetic tree. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 :
      0, C16 : 1omega5c and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. The predominant respiratory quinone was
      menaquinone MK-7. Polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, five unknown
      aminolipids, an unknown aminophospholipid, one unknown phospholipid and two
      unknown lipids. The DNA G+C content was 53.6 mol%. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic
      and phylogenetic data showed that strain T16R-86T represents a novel species of
      the genus Chitinophaga, for which the name Chitinophaga rhizosphaerae sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is T16R-86T (=KACC 18790T=JCM 31600T).

PMID- 28875898
TI  - Microbacterium hibisci sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere of mugunghwa (Hibiscus
      syriacus L.).
AB  - A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, short-rod shaped actinobacterium,
      designated THG-T2.14T, was isolated from soil sampled from the rhizosphere of
      mugunghwa. Growth occurred at 10-40  degrees C (optimum 30  degrees C), at pH 5.0
      10.0 (optimum 7.0) and at 0-7.0 % NaCl (optimum 3.0 %). Based on 16S rRNA gene
      sequence analysis, the nearest phylogenetic neighbours of strain THG-T2.14T were
      identified as Microbacterium yannicii DSM 23203T (98.8 %), Microbacterium
      trichothecenolyticum DSM 8608T (98.8 %), Microbacterium arthrosphaerae DSM 22421T
      (98.7 %) and Microbacterium jejuense KACC 17124T (98.4 %). The major fatty acids
      were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The polar lipids were
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified lipid, two
      unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified phosphoglycolipids. The
      menaquinones were MK-12, and MK-13. The major polyamine was spermidine. The
      peptidoglycan contained ornithine, alanine, glycine, homoserine and glutamic
      acid. The diagnostic diamino acid was ornithine. The acyl type of the muramic
      acid was glycolyl. The whole-cell sugars were rhamnose, ribose, galactose,
      arabinose, xylose and glucose. The DNA G+C content of strain THG-T2.14T was 71.2
      mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain THG-T2.14T and its closest reference
      strains were significantly lower than the threshold value of 70 %. On the basis
      of the phylogenetic analysis, chemotaxonomic data, physiological characteristics
      and DNA-DNA hybridization data, strain THG-T2.14T represents a novel species of
      the genus Microbacterium, for which the name Microbacterium hibisci sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is THG-T2.14T (=KACC 18931T=CCTCC AB 2016180T).

PMID- 28875899
TI  - Reyranella aquatilis sp. nov., an alphaproteobacterium isolated from a eutrophic
      lake.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and non-motile bacterial strain,
      designated strain Seoho-37T, was isolated from a eutrophic lake in South Korea.
      Polyphasic studies were performed to investigate the taxonomic position of the
      new isolate. The isolate grew aerobically with 0-1.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0 %),
      at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum pH 7.0-9.0) and at temperatures of 15-36  degrees C
      (optimum 25-30  degrees C) on R2A medium. In the phylogenetic analysis of 16S
      rRNA gene sequences, strain Seoho-37T formed a clear cluster with the strains of
      Reyranella graminifolii, Reyranella massiliensis and Reyranella soli with a
      bootstrap resampling value of 100 %. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain Seoho-37T
      and the type strains of each species in the genus Reyranella was <20 %. The
      genomic DNA G+C content of strain Seoho-37T was 66.5 mol%. Ubiquinone-10 (Q-10)
      and ubiquinone-9 (Q-9) were found as the respiratory quinones. The cellular polar
      lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and
      phosphatidylmethylethanolamine. The major fatty acid components included C16 : 0,
      summed feature 8 (C18 : 1omega7c and/or C18 : 1omega6c) and C18 : 1 2-OH. Based
      on the above evidence from a polyphasic study, strain Seaho-37T represents a
      novel species of the genus Reyranella, for which the name Reyranella aquatilis
      sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Seoho-37T (=KCTC 52223T=JCM 31892T).

PMID- 28875900
TI  - Sulfurivermis fontis gen. nov., sp. nov., a sulfur-oxidizing autotroph, and
      proposal of Thioprofundaceae fam. nov.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-negative, chemolithoautotrophic sulfur oxidizer, strain JG42T,
      was isolated from a hot spring microbial mat. As an electron donor for
      autotrophic growth, strain JG42T utilized sulfide, thiosulfate, tetrathionate and
      elemental sulfur. Cells of strain JG42T were oxidase-positive and catalase
      negative. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 65 mol%. The predominant
      cellular fatty acid was C16 : 0. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene
      indicated that strain JG42T belonged to the order Chromatiales, but sequence
      similarities to the known species were less than 94 %. On the basis of its
      properties, strain JG42T (=DSM 104776T=NBRC 112696T) is proposed as the type
      strain of a novel species of a new genus, Sulfurivermis fontis gen. nov., sp.
      nov., which belongs to the family Thioalkalispiraceae. A new family,
      Thioprofundaceae fam. nov., is also proposed to accommodate the genus
      Thioprofundum, transferred from the family Thioalkalispiraceae.

PMID- 28875901
TI  - Rubrobacter spartanus sp. nov., a moderately thermophilic oligotrophic bacterium
      isolated from volcanic soil.
AB  - Bacterial strain HPK2-2T was isolated from soil adjacent to the caldera of
      Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. HPK2-2T is a
      chemoorganoheterotroph that shows optimal growth at 50  degrees C (range 45-55 
      degrees C) and pH 8.0 (range 5.0-10.0). Sequence analysis of the 16S subunit of
      the rRNA gene showed that HPK2-2T is most closely related to the type strain of
      Rubrobactertaiwanensis (ATCC BAA-406T), with which it shared 94.5 % sequence
      identity. The major fatty acids detected in HPK2-2T were C18 : 0 14-methyl and
      C16 : 0 12-methyl; internally branched fatty acids such as these are
      characteristic of the genus Rubrobacter. The only respiratory quinone detected
      was MK-8, which is the major respiratory quinone for all members of the family
      Rubrobacteraceae examined thus far. We propose that HPK2-2T represents a novel
      species of the genus Rubrobacter, for which we propose the name
      Rubrobacterspartanus (type strain HPK2-2T; DSM 102139T; LMG 29988T).

PMID- 28875902
TI  - Nocardioides agrisoli sp. nov., isolated from farmland soil.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-positive bacterium, designated djl-8T, was isolated from
      farmland soil in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, PR China. Cells of strain djl-8T were
      aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped. The organism grew at 25-37
      degrees C, pH 5.5-8.0 and 0.5-4.0 % NaCl (w/v). The DNA G+C content was 69.3
      mol%. The diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was LL-2, 6
      diaminopimelic acid. The major fatty acids (>5 %) were iso-C16 : 0, anteiso-C17 :
      0, iso-C15 : 0, 10-Me C17 : 0 and C17 : 1omega8c. The respiratory quinone was MK
      8 (H4) and the major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylinositol, diphosphatidylglycerol and unknown phospholipids.
      Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain djl-8T
      is a member of the genus Nocardioides and shared the highest similarity with
      Nocardioides ginkgobilobae SYP-A7303T (97.1 %), followed by Nocardioides soli mbc
      2T (96.9 %), Nocardioide spyridinolyticus OS4T (96.6 %) and Nocardioides
      maradonensis RP-B30T (96.6 %). Strain djl-8T exhibited low DNA-DNA relatedness
      with Nocardioides ginkgobilobae SYP-A7303T (26.9+/-2.1 %). On the basis of the
      morphological, physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic characteristics
      presented in this study, strain djl-8T represents a novel species of the genus
      Nocardioides, for which the name Nocardioides agrisoli sp. nov. is proposed. The
      type strain is djl-8T (=KCTC 39844T=CCTCC AB 2017058T).

PMID- 28875903
TI  - Pacificibacter aestuarii sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated KJ21T, was isolated
      from a tidal flat in South Korea. Cells were non-motile rods showing oxidase- and
      catalase-positive activities. Growth of strain KJ21T was observed at 10-35 
      degrees C (optimum, 30  degrees C), at pH 6.0-8.5 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the
      presence of 1-5 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2 %). Strain KJ21T contained summed
      feature 8 (comprising C18 : 1omega7c/C18 : 1omega6c), C16 : 0, 10-methyl C19 : 0
      and C10 : 0 3-OH as the major fatty acids and ubiquinone-10 as the major
      isoprenoid quinone. Phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylcholine, an unknown aminolipid and an unknown lipid were detected as
      the major polar lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 53.9 mol%.
      Phylogenic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain KJ21T
      formed a tight phylogenetic lineage with the members of the genus Pacificibacter
      with a 100 % bootstrap value. Strain KJ21T was most closely related to
      Pacificibacter maritimus KMM 9031T (98.7 %) and Pacificibacter marinus HDW-9T
      (98.4 %), and the DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain KJ21T and the type
      strains of P. maritimus and P. marinus were 46.9+/-4.2 % and 39.8+/-5.7,
      respectively. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular
      properties, it is clear that strain KJ21T represents a novel species of the genus
      Pacificibacter, for which the name Pacificibacter aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed.
      The type strain is KJ21T (=KACC 19098T=JCM 31805T).

PMID- 28875904
TI  - Lewinella maritima sp. nov., and Lewinella lacunae sp. nov., novel bacteria from
      marine environments.
AB  - Two Gram-staining-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, marine bacteria, designated
      HME9321T and HME9359T, were isolated from seawater and lagoon water samples in
      the Republic of Korea. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of
      the two strains revealed that they belonged to the genus Lewinella within the
      family Saprospiraceae. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of strain HME9321T
      showed highest similarities with Lewinella aquimaris HDW-36T (95.2 %), Lewinella
      marina MKG-38T (94.7 %) and Lewinella xylanilytica 13-9-B8T (94.0 %). Strain
      HME9359T had highest sequence similarities with Lewinella agarilytica SST-19T
      (94.7 %), Lewinella persica T-3T (94.1 %) and Lewinella antarctica IMCC3223T
      (93.3 %). The predominant fatty acids of strain HME9321T were summed feature 3
      (comprising C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c), iso-C15 : 0 and summed feature
      9 (comprising iso-C16 : 0 10-methyl and/or C17 : 1omega9c) while those of strain
      HME9359T were summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c)
      and iso-C15 : 0. The major isoprenoid quinone of both strains was MK-7. Strain
      HME9321T contained the polar lipids, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified
      aminolipid, one unidentified phospholipid and nine unidentified polar lipids,
      while strain HME9359T contained phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified
      phospholipid and nine unidentified polar lipids. The DNA G+C contents of strains
      HME9321T and HME9359T were 58.7 and 62.0 mol%, respectively. Based on the results
      of the phenotypic, genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic investigation, two
      novel species, Lewinella maritima sp. nov. and Lewinella lacunae sp. nov. are
      proposed. The type strains are HME9321T (=KACC 17619T=CECT 8419T) and HME9359T
      (=KCTC 42187T=CECT 8679T), respectively.

PMID- 28875905
TI  - Draft genome and description of Consotaella salsifontis gen. nov. sp. nov., a
      halophilic, free-living, nitrogen-fixing alphaproteobacterium isolated from an
      ancient terrestrial saline spring.
AB  - A free-living, nitrogen-fixing, mesophilic and facultative aerobe, designated
      strain USBA 369T, was isolated from a terrestrial saline spring of the Colombian
      Andes. The non-sporulating rods (1.5*0.8 um) with rounded ends stained Gram
      negative and were motile by means of lophotrichous flagella. The strain grew
      optimally at 30  degrees C, at pH 6.9-7.5 and with 1.5 % (w/v) NaCl. The major
      fatty acids detected were C18 : 1omega7c and C19 : 0 cyclo omega8c, and the
      respiratory lipoquinone ubiquinone 10 (Q-10) was present. The genome consisted of
      4.65 Mb with a DNA G+C content of 64.3 mol%. A total of 4371 genes were predicted
      and, of those, 4300 were protein coding genes and 71 were RNA genes. Phylogenetic
      analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain USBA 369T formed a
      different lineage within the class Alphaproteobacteria, order Rhizobiales, and
      DNA homology studies with the most closely related genera, Aurantimonas,
      Aureimonas and Rhizobium (95 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), showed values
      of <15 %. The phylogenomic analysis provided evidence for clear phylogenetic
      divergence between strain USBA 369T and the closely related genera. On the basis
      of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenomic evidence, strain USBA 369T is
      considered to represent a novel genus and a novel species for which the name
      Consotaella salsifontis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is USBA
      369T (=KCTC 22549T=CMPUJ U369T).

PMID- 28875906
TI  - Nocardia heshunensis sp. nov., an actinomycete isolated from soil.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile and acid-fast actinomycete
      strain, designated CFH S0067T, was isolated from a soil sample collected from
      Heshun old town in Tengchong, Yunnan province, in south-west PR China. The
      taxonomic position of strain CFH S0067T was studied in detail using a polyphasic
      approach. Phylogenetic analysis, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, revealed that
      strain CFH S0067T belongs to the genus Nocardia and is closely related to
      Nocardia concava JCM 12351T (99.3 % similarity), forming a separated branch with
      this type strain. However, the strain shared 96.0 % gyrB gene sequence similarity
      with N. concava JCM 12351T. Furthermore, DNA-DNA hybridization showed 56.5+/-0.6
      % DNA relatedness between the novel strain and N. concava JCM 12351T. The whole
      cell hydrolysates contained meso-diaminopimelic acid (type IV) and arabinose,
      galactose, fructose and mannose. The major polar lipids were
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol,
      phosphatidylinositol mannoside and one unidentified lipid. Strain CFH S0067T
      contained MK-8 (H4omega-cycl) as the predominant menaquinone. C16 : 0, summed
      feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c), C18 : 1omega9c and C18 : 0 10
      methyl (TBSA) were the major cellular fatty acids. Mycolic acids were also
      detected. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was determined to be 66.9 mol%. A
      combination of the low DNA-DNA hybridization values and phenotypic properties
      demonstrated that strain CFH S0067Tis clearly distinguishable from its most
      closely related strain, N. concava JCM 12351T. On the basis of this polyphasic
      study, it is concluded that strain CFH S0067T should be considered to represent a
      novel species of the genus Nocardia, for which the name Nocardia heshunensis sp.
      nov. is proposed. The type strain is CFH S0067T (=DSM 46764T=JCM 30085T).

PMID- 28875907
TI  - Salinirussus salinus gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a marine solar saltern.
AB  - A halophilic archaeal strain, YGH44T, was isolated from the Yinggehai marine
      solar saltern in Hainan Province of China. Cells were rod-shaped, stained Gram
      negative and formed red-pigmented colonies on agar plates. Optimal growth was
      obtained with 3.4 M NaCl (range: 2.6-4.8 M), 0.5 M MgCl2 (range: 0.005-1.0 M), at
      37  degrees C (range: 25-55  degrees C) and at pH 7.0 (range: pH 5.0-9.0). The
      cells lysed in distilled water, and the minimal NaCl concentration to prevent
      cell lysis was 1.7 M. Phylogenetic tree reconstructions based on 16S rRNA genes
      and rpoB' genes revealed that strain YGH44T was distinct from the related genera,
      Halovenus, Halapricum, Halorientalis, Halorhabdus and Halosimplex of the order
      Halobacteriales. The major polar lipids of the strain were phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester and three unidentified glycolipids.
      The DNA G+C content of strain YGH44Twas 69.0 mol%. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic
      and phylogenetic properties suggested that strain YGH44T (=CGMCC 1.12234T=JCM
      18646T) represents a novel species of a new genus within the order
      Halobacteriales, for which the name Salinirussus salinus gen. nov., sp. nov. is
      proposed.

PMID- 28875908
TI  - Cryptotrichosporon argae sp. nov., Cryptotrichosporon brontae sp. nov. and
      Cryptotrichosporon steropae sp. nov., isolated from forest soils.
AB  - Yeast strains belonging to the basidiomycetous genus Cryptotrichosporon were
      isolated from forest soils in Serra da Arrabida Natural Park in Portugal. Similar
      to the already-known representatives of this genus, the new isolates formed
      pigmented colonies of a distinctive pale orange colour. Phylogenetic analyses
      employing concatenated sequences of the D1/D2 domains of the 26S (large subunit)
      rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region supported the
      recognition of three novel species: Cryptotrichosporon argae sp. nov. (type
      strain CM 19T=CBS 14376T=PYCC 7010T=DSM 104550T; MycoBank accession number MB
      817168), Cryptotrichosporon brontae sp. nov. (type strain CM 1562T=CBS
      14303T=PYCC 7011T=DSM 104551T; MycoBank accession number MB 817077) and
      Cryptotrichosporon steropae sp. nov. (type strain OR 395T=CBS 14302T=PYCC
      7012T=DSM 104552T; MycoBank accession number MB 817078).

PMID- 28875909
TI  - Brenneria populi subsp. brevivirga subsp. nov. isolated from symptomatic bark of
      Populus * euramericana canker, and description of Brenneria populi subsp. populi
      subsp. nov.
AB  - Two Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic, motile bacterial strains
      isolated from symptomatic bark of Populus * euramericana canker in China were
      investigated using a polyphasic approach, including 16S rRNA gene sequencing,
      multilocus sequence analysis, and biochemical and physiological assays. 16S rRNA
      gene sequencing indicated that these strains belonged to the genus Brenneria,
      family Pectobacteriaceae, and had the highest sequence similarity with Brenneria
      populi CFCC 11963T (98 %). DNA-DNA hybridization experiments revealed DNA-DNA
      relatedness values of 72.1-78.2 % between the new isolates and strains of B.
      populi, revealing that these strains belonged to the same species. The 16S rRNA
      gene sequencing and multilocus sequence analysis suggested that the two novel
      strains and those of B. populi are phylogenetically closely related but form two
      clearly separated subgroups. Based on the data, the two novel isolates represent
      a subspecies of B. populi for which the name B. populi subsp. brevivirga subsp.
      nov. is proposed with D8-10-4-5T (=CFCC 11935T=KCTC 42841T) as the type strain,
      with the automatic creation of B. populi subsp. populi subsp. nov. (type strain
      D9-5T=CFCC 11963T=KCTC 42088T).

PMID- 28875910
TI  - The spa typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates by High
      Resolution Melting (HRM) analysis.
AB  - Molecular typing is an important tool for control and prevention of infection. A
      suitable molecular typing method for epidemiological investigation must be easy
      to perform, highly reproducible, inexpensive, rapid and easy to interpret. In
      this study, two molecular typing methods including the conventional PCR
      sequencing method and high resolution melting (HRM) analysis were used for
      staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing of 30 Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus (MRSA) isolates recovered from clinical samples. Based on PCR-sequencing
      method results, 16 different spa types were identified among the 30 MRSA
      isolates. Among the 16 different spa types, 14 spa types separated by HRM method.
      Two spa types including t4718 and t2894 were not separated from each other.
      According to our results, spa typing based on HRM analysis method is very rapid,
      easy to perform and cost-effective, but this method must be standardized for
      different regions, spa types, and real-time machinery.

PMID- 28875911
TI  - Cellvibrio zantedeschiae sp. nov., isolated from the roots of Zantedeschia
      aethiopica.
AB  - A bacterial strain, designated TPY-10T, was isolated from calla lily roots in
      Taiwan and characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomy approach. Cells of strain
      TPY-10T were Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, motile and creamy white rods.
      Growth occurred at 15-35  degrees C (optimum, 25-30  degrees C), at pH 6-7
      (optimum, pH 6) and with 0-1 % NaCl (optimum, 0 %). Phylogenetic analyses based
      on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain TPY-10T belonged to the genus
      Cellvibrio and was most closely related to Cellvibriomixtus ACM 2601T with
      sequence similarity of 97.8 %. Strain TPY-10T contained C16 : 0, summed feature 3
      (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and C18 : 1omega7c as the predominant
      fatty acids. The only isoprenoid quinone was Q-9. The major polar lipids were
      phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. The DNA G+C content of the
      genomic DNA was 49.8 mol%. The DNA-DNA hybridization value for strain TPY-10T
      with Cellvibriomixtus ACM 2601T was less than 21 %. On the basis of the
      phylogenetic inference and phenotypic data, strain TPY-10T should be classified
      as a novel species, for which the name Cellvibrio zantedeschiae sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is TPY-10T (=BCRC 80525T=LMG 27291T=KCTC 32239T).

PMID- 28875912
TI  - Labrys soli sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere of ginseng.
AB  - In this study, we describe strain DCY64T that was isolated from the rhizosphere
      of three-year-old Korean ginseng root. Cells were Gram-reaction negative, oxidase
      and catalase-positive, strictly aerobic, capsulated, non-motile, non-sporulating
      and spherical to short rod-shaped. Multiplicative budding cells were produced.
      Vesicles covered the surface of cells. Phylogenetic analysis placed strain DCY64T
      within the genus Labrys with the highest similarity to Labrys monachus VKM B
      1479T (97.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), followed by Labrys okinawensis
      MAFF 210191T (97.5 %), Labrys miyagiensis G24103T (97.4) and Labrys portucalensis
      F11T (97.0 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 63 mol%. The presences of summed
      feature 8 (C18 : 1omega7c and/or C18 : 1omega6c), C19 : 1 cyclo omega8c and C16 :
      0 as major fatty acids; phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylcholine and diphosphatidylglycerol as major polar lipids; ubiquinone
      Q-10 as the predominant quinone and sym-homospermidine as the dominant polyamine
      were found in strain DCY64T. These chemotaxonomic results were in accordance with
      those of members of the genus Labrys. However, the absence of C16 : 0 2-OH, C16 :
      0 3-OH and C18 : 1 2-OH from the fatty acids profile and differences in minor
      polar lipids and phenotypic characteristics distinguished strain DCY64T from the
      closest type strains. The discrimination was also supported by unique
      enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR)
      fingerprints, as well as DNA-DNA hybridization values ( <= 48 %) between strain
      DCY64T and related type strains. Therefore, we propose that strain DCY64T
      represents a novel species of the genus Labrys. The name Labrys soli sp. nov. is
      proposed, with DCY64T ( = KCTC 32173T = JCM 19895T) as the type strain.

PMID- 28875913
TI  - Pedobacter alpinus sp. nov., isolated from a plateau lake.
AB  - Two Gram-staining-negative, aerobic, non-motile, red-pigment and rod-shaped
      bacterial strains, designated RSP19T and RSR28, were isolated from lake water and
      subjected to polyphasic taxonomic studies. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence
      analysis, strains RSP19T and RSR28 exhibited 91.4-95.7 % similarity to the type
      strains of existing species of the genus Pedobacter. The species most closely
      related phylogenetically were Pedobacter daechungensis (95.7 % sequence
      similarity), Pedobacter lentus (95.4 %), Pedobacter glucosidilyticus (94.5 %),
      Pedobacter panaciterrae (94.5 %) and Pedobacter terricola (94.2 %). MK-7 was the
      sole respiratory quinone. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine,
      one unidentified aminolipid and several unidentified polar lipids. The
      predominant fatty acids were C16 : 1omega7c, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH.
      The genomic DNA G+C contents were 34.3 and 33.9 mol% for strains RSP19T and
      RSR28, respectively. Based on the phenotypic characteristics, biochemical
      properties and genetic analysis, strains RSP19T and RSR28 clearly represent a
      novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter alpinus is
      proposed. The type strain is RSP19T ( = CGMCC 1.14040T = KCTC 42456T = NBRC
      110967T).

PMID- 28875914
TI  - Bacillus formosensis sp. nov., isolated from pesticide wastewater.
AB  - A Gram-stain-positive, endospore-forming rod (designated strain CC-LY275T) was
      isolated from a pesticide wastewater sample. The isolate grew at a temperature 20
      45  degrees C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and tolerated NaCl 6 % (w/v). The most closely
      related strains in terms of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity were Bacillus
      horneckiae (97.1 %) and Bacillus oceanisediminis (96.8 %), respectively. The G+C
      content of the genomic DNA was 37.9 mol%. Strain CC-LY275T was determined to
      possess iso-C14 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0 as predominant fatty acids.
      The major polar lipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. Cell-wall peptidoglycan
      contained meso-diaminopimelic acid; menaquinone (MK-7) was the predominant
      respiratory quinone. According to the distinct phylogenetic, phenotypic and
      chemotaxonomic properties, the name Bacillus formosensis sp. nov. (type strain CC
      LY275T = BCRC 80443T = JCM 18448T) is proposed.

PMID- 28875915
TI  - Paenibacillus yunnanensis sp. nov., isolated from Pu'er tea.
AB  - A novel Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterial
      strain, YN2T, was isolated from ripened Pu'er tea. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S
      rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain represented a novel species of the
      genus Paenibacillus. The strains most closely related to strain YN2T were
      Paenibacillus vulneris JCM 18268T and Paenibacillus rigui JCM 16352T, with 16S
      rRNA similarities of 98.6 and 95.5 %, respectively. Chemotaxonomic data supported
      the affiliation of the new isolate to the genus Paenibacillus, including MK-7 as
      the major menaquinone, DNA G+C content of 51 mol%, cell-wall type A1gamma (meso
      diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid) and anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso
      C16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. Major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine and phospholipid. Strain YN2T could be
      differentiated from recognized species of the genus Paenibacillus based on
      phenotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic differences, phylogenetic analysis and
      DNA-DNA hybridization data. On the basis of evidence from this polyphasic study,
      Paenibacillus yunnanensis sp. nov., is proposed, with strain YN2T ( = CGMCC
      1.12968T = JCM 30953T) as the type strain.

PMID- 28875916
TI  - Flavobacterium endophyticum sp. nov., a nifH gene-harbouring endophytic bacterium
      isolated from maize root.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain
      522T, was isolated from surface-sterilized root tissue of maize planted in
      Fangshan District of Beijing, China. A polyphasic taxonomic study was performed
      on the new isolate. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies,
      this isolate belonged to the genus Flavobacterium and showed less than 93.9 %
      similarity to the type strains of all recognized species of the genus
      Flavobacterium. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6 and the
      polar lipid profile was composed of the major lipids phosphatidylethanolamine,
      phosphatidylserine and two unidentified amino lipids. The major fatty acids were
      C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G and iso-C16 : 0.The G+C content of the DNA
      was 37.7 mol%. The results of physiological and biochemical tests and the
      differences in fatty acid profiles allowed the clear phenotypic differentiation
      of strain 522T from closely related species of the genus Flavobacterium. Strain
      522T therefore represents a novel species within the genus Flavobacterium, for
      which the name Flavobacterium endophyticum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain
      is 522T ( = ACCC 19708T = DSM 29537T).

PMID- 28875917
TI  - Aureibacillus halotolerans gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from marine sediment.
AB  - A Gram-staining-positive, strictly aerobic, spore-forming and rod-shaped motile
      bacterium with peritrichous flagellae, designated strain S1203T, was isolated
      from the sediment of the northern Okinawa Trough. Phylogenetic analysis based on
      16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain S1203T formed a lineage within the
      family Bacillaceae that was distinct from the most closely related genera
      Bacillus, Bhargavaea, Planomicrobium and Virgibacillus with gene sequence
      similarities ranging from 86.2 to 93.76 %. Optimal growth occurred in the
      presence of 4-8 % (w/v) NaCl, at pH 7.0-8.0 and 25-32  degrees C. The cell-wall
      peptidoglycan was based on meso-diaminopimelic acid and unsaturated menaquinone
      with seven isoprene units (MK-7) as the predominant respiratory quinone. The
      major fatty acids (>10 % of total fatty acids) were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0
      and C16 : 0.The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol,
      diphosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified glycolipid and an unidentified
      phospholipid. The DNA G+C content of strain S1203T was 47.7 mol%. On the basis of
      polyphasic analysis, strainS1203T was considered to represent a novel species in
      a new genus of the family Bacillaceae, for which the name Aureibacillus
      halotolerans gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain of Aureibacillus
      halotolerans is S1203T ( = DSM 28697T = JCM 30067T = MCCC 1K00259T).

PMID- 28875918
TI  - Amycolatopsis stemonae sp. nov., isolated from a Thai medicinal plant.
AB  - A novel actinomycete, strain ST1-08T, was isolated from the stem of Stemona sp.
      in Thailand. The taxonomic position of this isolate was determined by using a
      polyphasic approach. Strain ST1-08T contained meso-diaminopimelic acid in the
      cell-wall peptidoglycan, and arabinose and galactose as diagnostic sugars of the
      whole-cell hydrolysate, which are typical properties of members of the genus
      Amycolatopsis. Strain ST1-08T grew at 15-40  degrees C, pH 6-9 and on 5 % (w/v)
      NaCl. Gelatin liquefaction, starch hydrolysis and skimmed milk peptonization were
      positive. The strain utilized l-arabinose, d-glucose, glycerol, myo-inositol, d
      mannitol and l-rhamnose. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H4) and the major
      cellular fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0.The major polar lipids were
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyl
      phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylglycerol. The 16S
      rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the strain was closely related to
      Amycolatopsis pretoriensis JCM 12673T (98.99 %) and Amycolatopsis lexingtonensis
      JCM 12672T (98.87 %). The DNA G+C content of strain ST1-08T was 71.2 mol%. The
      DNA-DNA relatedness values among strain ST1-08T, A. pretoriensis JCM 12673T and
      A. lexingtonensis JCM 12672T were lower than 70 %, the cut-off level for
      assigning strains to the same species. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic
      characteristics, strain ST1-08T represents a novel species of the genus
      Amycolatopsis, for which the name Amycolatopsis stemonae is proposed. The type
      strain is ST1-08T( = JCM 30050T = PCU 339T = TISTR 2278T).

PMID- 28875919
TI  - Paenibacillus medicaginis sp. nov. a chitinolytic endophyte isolated from a root
      nodule of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.).
AB  - A Gram-stain-variable, short-rod-shaped, endospore-forming, strictly aerobic, non
      motile, chitinolytic and endophytic bacterium, designated strain CC-Alfalfa-19T,
      exhibiting unusual bipolar appendages was isolated from a root nodule of alfalfa
      (Medicago sativa L.) in Taiwan and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study.
      Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain CC-Alfalfa-19T was found to be
      most closely related to Paenibacillus puldeungensis CAU 9324T (95.2 %), whereas
      other species of the genus Paenibacillus shared <= 95.0 % sequence similarity.
      The phylogenetic analysis revealed a distinct phyletic lineage established by
      strain CC-Alfalfa-19T with respect to other species of the genus Paenibacillus.
      Fatty acids comprised predominantly anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and
      iso-C16 : 0. Menaquinone 7 (MK-7) was identified as the sole respiratory quinone
      and the genomic DNA G+C content was 42.7 mol%. Polar lipids included
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine,
      phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified glycolipid and an unidentified lipid.
      The diagnostic diamino acid found in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso
      diaminopimelic acid. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic evidence that was in line
      with the genus Paenibacillus and additional distinguishing characteristics,
      strain CC-Alfalfa-19T is considered to represent a novel species, for which the
      name Paenibacillus medicaginis sp. nov. (type strain CC-Alfalfa-19T = BCRC 80441T
      = JCM 18446T) is proposed.

PMID- 28875920
TI  - Pedobacter ardleyensis sp. nov., isolated from soil in Antarctica.
AB  - A red-pigmented, non-motile, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, strain R2
      28T, was isolated from a soil sample collected from Ardley Island, South Shetland
      Islands, Antarctica, and was characterized taxonomically by using a polyphasic
      approach. The organism grew optimally at 18  degrees C in TSB. On the basis of
      phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain R2-28T was most
      closely related to the genus Pedobacter of the family Sphingobacteriaceae. The
      highest levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity were found with respect to
      Pedobacter alluvionis NWER-II11T (95.6 %) and Pedobacter terrae DS-57T (95.2 %).
      The DNA G+C content was 39.9 mol%, and MK-7 was the only respiratory quinone. The
      major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and a sphingolipid. The
      predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3
      OH and summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c). These
      chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data supported the allocation of strain R2-28T to
      the genus Pedobacter. Additionally, the results of physiological and biochemical
      tests allowed phenotypic differentiation of strain R2-28T from species of the
      genus Pedobacter with validly published names. Therefore, strain R2-28T
      represents a novel species within the genus Pedobacter, for which the name
      Pedobacter ardleyensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is R2-28T ( = CCTCC
      AB 2013365T = LMG 28255T).

PMID- 28875921
TI  - Halobellus ramosii sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon isolated from a
      saline-wetland wildfowl reserve.
AB  - An extremely halophilic archaeon, strain S2FP14T, was isolated from a brine
      sample from the inland hypersaline lake Fuente de Piedra, a saline-wetland
      wildfowl reserve located in the province of Malaga in southern Spain. Colonies
      were red-pigmented and the cells were Gram-staining-negative, motile and
      pleomorphic. S2FP14T was able to grow in media containing 12.5-30 % (w/v) total
      salts (optimum 20 %) at pH 7-8.5 (optimum 7.5) and at 25-50  degrees C (optimum
      37  degrees C). The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that this strain
      represented a member of the genus Halobellus. S2FP14T showed a similarity of 99.5
      % to Halobellus inordinatus YC20T, 96.1 % to Halobellus litoreus GX31T, 95.9 % to
      Halobellus limi TBN53T, 95.5 % to Halobellus rarus YC21T, 95.2 % to Halobellus
      rufus CBA1103T, 94.6 % to Halobellus salinus CSW2.24.4T and 94.6 % to Halobellus
      clavatus TNN18T. The rpoB' gene sequence similarity of strain S2FP14T was 97.4 %
      to 87.6 % with members of genus Halobellus. The major phospholipids of strain
      S2FP14T were phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester and
      phosphatidylglycerosulfate, plus a very small amount of phosphatidylglycerol and
      an archaeal analogue of bisphosphatidylglycerol. With regard to glycolipid
      composition, the most abundant glycolipids were the sulfated diglycosyl
      diphytanilglyceroldiether and a glycosyl-cardiolipin. The G+C content of strain
      S2FP14T genomic DNA was 61.4 mol%. The DNA-DNA hybridization between strain
      S2FP14T and Halobellus inordinatus JCM 18361T was 51 %. Based on the
      phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features, a novel species, Halobellus
      ramosii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S2FP14T ( = CECT 8167T = DSM
      26177T).

PMID- 28875922
TI  - Marinibactrum halimedae gen. nov., sp. nov., a gammaproteobacterium isolated from
      a marine macroalga.
AB  - Phylogenetic and taxonomic characterization was performed for a bacterium,
      designated strain Q-192T, isolated from the surface of the green macroalga
      Halimeda sp., collected from the subtropical Ishigaki Island, Japan. The isolate
      was a polysaccharide-producing, Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, motile
      bacterium with a polar flagellum. The isolate was slightly halophilic, required
      Na+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions for growth, but did not require growth factors. The only
      isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone-8.The major cellular fatty acids were C18 :
      1omega7c, C16 : 0 and C14 : 0. The main hydroxy fatty acid was C10 : 0 3-OH. The
      DNA G+C content was 45.9 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences
      placed the isolate in the class Gammaproteobacteria. The phylogenetically closest
      relatives with validly published names were Pseudomaricurvus alkylphenolicus
      KU41GT, Teredinibacter turnerae T7902T, Pseudoteredinibacter isoporae SW-11T and
      Simiduia agarivorans SA1T with sequence similarities of 94.5, 94.1, 93.7 and 93.6
      %, respectively. The isolate was distinguished from members of these genera by a
      combination of DNA G+C content, chemotaxonomic characteristics (respiratory
      quinone system, fatty acid profile and polar lipid composition) and other
      phenotypic features. Based on phylogenetic, genotypic, chemotaxonomic and
      phenotypic characteristics, strain Q-192T is considered to represent a novel
      species of a new genus, for which the name Marinibactrum halimedae gen. nov., sp.
      nov. is proposed. The type strain of Marinibactrum halimedae is Q-192T ( = NBRC
      110095T = NCIMB 14932T).

PMID- 28875923
TI  - Halarchaeum grantii sp. nov., a moderately acidophilic haloarchaeon isolated from
      a commercial salt sample.
AB  - Three moderately acidophilic, halophilic archaeal strains, MH1-243-3T, MH1-243-5
      and MH1-243-6, were isolated from a commercial salt sample made from seawater in
      Okinawa, Japan. Cells of the three strains were pleomorphic and stained Gram
      negative. Colonies of the strains were orange-red-pigmented. Strain MH1-243-3T
      was able to grow at 15-27 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 24  degrees C), at pH 4.5-6.5 (pH
      5.5) and at 35-50  degrees C (45  degrees C). Strains MH1-243-5 and MH1-243-6
      grew within slightly different ranges (shown in text). The 16S rRNA gene
      sequences of the three strains were identical, and the closest phylogenetic
      relative was Halarchaeum salinum MH1-34-1T with 97.0 % similarity. The rpoB' gene
      sequences of the three strains were also identical, and the closest phylogenetic
      relative was Halarchaeum acidiphilum JCM 16109T with 92.0 % similarity. The DNA
      G+C content of MH1-243-3T, MH1-243-5 and MH1-243-6 was 65.2 mol%. The levels of
      DNA-DNA relatedness amongst the three strains were 84.1-99.8 %, while that
      between MH1-243-3T and H. salinum MH1-34-1T was 30.6 % and 31.6 % (reciprocally),
      and those between MH1-243-3T and type strains of other species in the genus
      Halarchaeum were 42.3-29.4 %. Based on the phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic
      analyses, it is proposed that the isolates should represent a novel species of
      the genus Halarchaeum, for which the name Halarchaeum grantii sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is MH1-243-3T ( = JCM 19585T = KCTC 4142T), isolated
      from commercial sea salt produced in Okinawa, Japan. MH1-243-5 ( = JCM 19586) and
      MH1-243-6 ( = JCM 18422) are additional strains of the species.

PMID- 28875924
TI  - Borrelia yangtzensis sp. nov., a rodent-associated species in Asia, is related to
      Borrelia valaisiana.
AB  - Twenty-nine isolates of Lyme borreliosis (LB) group spirochaetes collected from
      ticks and rodents in China and Japan were included in a multilocus sequence
      analysis (MLSA). Using a different typing system, three of these strains had
      previously been identified as being divergent from other LB spirochaete species
      and the name 'Borrelia yangtze' sp. nov. was proposed. The data presented here
      confirm that the genetic distance, calculated using sequences of MLSA
      housekeeping genes, to other known LB group spirochaete species was < 95 % and to
      Borrelia valaisiana was 96.67 % (which represents the most closely related
      species within the group of LB spirochaetes). This and the fact that these
      strains are ecologically distinct from B. valaisiana (rodent-transmitted vs bird
      transmitted) provide strong support for the validation of the proposed species
      status. We suggest the name Borrelia yangtzensis sp. nov. The type strain is
      Okinawa-CW62T ( = DSM 24625T = JCM 17189T).

PMID- 28875925
TI  - Cavicella subterranea gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a deep mineral-water
      aquifer, and emended description of the species Perlucidibaca piscinae.
AB  - One strain designated W2.09-231T was isolated from an aquifer through a 150-metre
      deep borehole feeding a mineral-water bottling plant in Central Portugal. Based
      on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the novel organism is most closely related to
      the species of the genera Perlucidibaca and Paraperlucidibaca, belonging to the
      family Moraxellaceae, with 16S rRNA gene pairwise sequence similarity of 94.5 and
      93.1 %, respectively. The strain was not pigmented and formed Gram-stain
      negative, non-motile, short rod-shaped cells. The organism was strictly aerobic,
      and oxidase- and catalase-positive. Strain W2.09-231T was organotrophic, but grew
      only on a very limited number of single carbon sources. The major polar lipids
      were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and
      one major unknown phospholipid. Ubiquinone 12 (U-12) was the major respiratory
      quinone. The DNA G+C content of strain W2.09-231T was 62.0 mol%. Based on
      phylogenetic, physiological and biochemical characteristics, we describe a novel
      species of a novel genus represented by strain W2.09-231T ( = CECT 8582T = LMG
      28332T) for which we propose the name Cavicella subterranea gen. nov., sp. nov.
      We also propose to emend the description of the species Perlucidibaca piscinae to
      reflect new results obtained in this study.

PMID- 28875926
TI  - Multilocus sequence analysis of the genus Kurthia, and a description of Kurthia
      populi sp. nov.
AB  - Four novel bacterial strains belonging to the genus Kurthia were isolated from
      the surface of a weevil of the family Curculionidae (strain 10y-14T), and from
      bark samples of hybrid poplar, Populus * euramericana (strains 6-3, 2-5 and 06C10
      3-14), in Puyang, Henan Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA
      gene and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) data showed that the four strains
      form a distinct cluster in the genus Kurthia, indicating that they all belong to
      a single taxon within the genus. DNA-DNA hybridization levels between strain 10y
      4T and Kurthia huakuii LAM0618T and Kurthia massiliensis DSM 24639T were 58.31
      and 53.92 %, respectively. This indicates that the four novel strains represent a
      species distinct from these two closely related species. The DNA G+C content of
      the novel strains was 42.1-42.6 %. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 and
      anteiso-C15 : 0.The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unknown phospholipid and
      unidentified aminophospholipids. The predominant menaquinones were MK-7 (90 %)
      and MK-6 (10 %). The major cell-wall amino acids were lysine, alanine, glutamic
      acid and glycine. On the basis of the MLSA and 16S rRNA gene sequence
      phylogenetic analyses, DNA-DNA reassociation values, DNA base composition, and
      biochemical and phenotypic characteristics, the four strains are considered to
      represent a novel species within the genus Kurthia, for which the name Kurthia
      populi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 10y-14T ( = CFCC 11600T = KCTC
      33522T).

PMID- 28875927
TI  - Ascending aortic diameter is associated with hypertension in Korean men.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between
      ascending aortic diameter (AAD) as measured with low-dose chest computed
      tomography (LDCT) and hypertension in Korean men. METHODS: Korean men (n=1,050)
      who were screened for lung cancer using LDCT imaging at a health promotion center
      in Seoul, Korea between January 1 and December 31were recruited for the study.
      AAD is the longest length of ascending aorta measured from approximately 15 mm
      above left main coronary ostium to the mid-slice level of the right pulmonary
      artery. RESULTS: AAD were divided into quartiles, and the degree of hypertension
      was determined based on the quartiles of the AAD using logistic regression. Odds
      ratios (OR) for the proportion of hypertension in Q2 (1.70, 95% CI: 1.11-2.59),
      Q3 (2.72, 95% CI: 1.81-4.09) and Q4 (3.94, 95% CI: 2.63-5.89) were significantly
      greater than that of Q1 (P for trend < 0.001). Even after controlling for
      confounding covariates of age, BMI, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, fasting
      glucose, GGT, ALT, eGFR, smoking status and alcohol intake, there was significant
      correlation. CONCLUSION: AAD was significantly associated with the degree of
      hypertension.

PMID- 28875928
TI  - The association of HLA-DQB1*0602 but not HLA-DRB1*15 with obstructive sleep
      apnea.
AB  - PURPOSE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep breathing disorder with unclear
      multifactorial pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the association
      between OSA and two human leukocyte antigens (HLA) alleles; DQB1*0602 and
      DRB1*15. METHODS: Forty patients with OSA and 40 control subjects were enrolled
      in the study. OSA diagnosis was made utilizing the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI)>=5
      in overnight polysomnography (PSG). AHI was also used to determine OSA severity.
      Controls were randomly selected from healthy volunteers who had a low risk for
      OSA, utilizing the Berlin Questionnaire. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using
      Sequence Specific Primers (PCR-SSPs) was used to determine the association
      between HLA (HLA-DQB1*0602 and HLA-DRB1*15) and OSA, then statistical analyses of
      the results were performed. RESULTS: HLA-DQB1*0602 allele was found in 85% of all
      OSA patients and 50% of controls (P< 0.001). In patients with severe OSA, HLA
      DQB1*0602 was present in the 92.9% compared with 66.7% in non-severe OSA
      (P=0.05). HLA-DRB1*15 allele was found in 15% of OSA patients and 20% of
      controls, with no difference between the two groups (P=0.556). So statistical
      difference was found in HLA-DRB1*15 between severe and non-severe OSA (P=0.499).
      After adjusting for gender, HLA-DQB1*0602 allele was associated with increased
      odds of OSA (OR = 6.17, 95% CI 1.87-20.3, p = 0.003), but HLA-DRB1*15 allele was
      not associated with OSA (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.12-1.73, p = 0.242). CONCLUSIONS: The
      presence of HLA-DQB1*0602 allele, but not HLA-DRB1*15 allele, was significantly
      associated with OSA.

PMID- 28875929
TI  - Pediatric cervical spine injuries with neurological deficits, treatment options,
      and potential for recovery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to highlight the challenges in
      managing cervical spine injuries in children with neurological deficits.
      INTRODUCTION: Cervical spine injuries in children are relatively rare. Pattern,
      severity, and level of these injuries are age dependent. Neurological deficits in
      young children are uncommon and usually have a good potential for recovery.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: This report includes four cases with pediatric cervical
      spine injuries with variable degrees of spinal cord injuries and neurological
      deficits. All the four patients were five years old or younger at the time of
      injury. Those patients were presented with different patterns of injuries and the
      treatment was customized for every patient. Marked neurological improvement
      occurred in all patients at the last follow-up. CONCLUSION: The treatment of
      pediatric cervical spine injuries should be individualized. Children with stable
      injuries should do well with non-operative treatment while operative treatment is
      recommended when the indication is appropriate and the expertise is available.
      Neurological deficits due to spinal cord injuries in pediatric patients have a
      high potential for recovery, provided that adequate management is considered.

PMID- 28875930
TI  - Light reintroduction after dark exposure reactivates plasticity in adults via
      perisynaptic activation of MMP-9.
AB  - The sensitivity of ocular dominance to regulation by monocular deprivation is the
      canonical model of plasticity confined to a critical period. However, we have
      previously shown that visual deprivation through dark exposure (DE) reactivates
      critical period plasticity in adults. Previous work assumed that the elimination
      of visual input was sufficient to enhance plasticity in the adult mouse visual
      cortex. In contrast, here we show that light reintroduction (LRx) after DE is
      responsible for the reactivation of plasticity. LRx triggers degradation of the
      ECM, which is blocked by pharmacological inhibition or genetic ablation of matrix
      metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). LRx induces an increase in MMP-9 activity that is
      perisynaptic and enriched at thalamo-cortical synapses. The reactivation of
      plasticity by LRx is absent in Mmp9-/- mice, and is rescued by hyaluronidase, an
      enzyme that degrades core ECM components. Thus, the LRx-induced increase in MMP-9
      removes constraints on structural and functional plasticity in the mature cortex.

PMID- 28875931
TI  - Transient hypothyroidism favors oligodendrocyte generation providing functional
      remyelination in the adult mouse brain.
AB  - In the adult brain, both neurons and oligodendrocytes can be generated from
      neural stem cells located within the Sub-Ventricular Zone (SVZ). Physiological
      signals regulating neuronal versus glial fate are largely unknown. Here we report
      that a thyroid hormone (T3)-free window, with or without a demyelinating insult,
      provides a favorable environment for SVZ-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor
      generation. After demyelination, oligodendrocytes derived from these newly-formed
      progenitors provide functional remyelination, restoring normal conduction. The
      cellular basis for neuronal versus glial determination in progenitors involves
      asymmetric partitioning of EGFR and TRalpha1, expression of which favor glio- and
      neuro-genesis, respectively. Moreover, EGFR+ oligodendrocyte progenitors, but not
      neuroblasts, express high levels of a T3-inactivating deiodinase, Dio3. Thus,
      TRalpha absence with high levels of Dio3 provides double-pronged blockage of T3
      action during glial lineage commitment. These findings not only transform our
      understanding of how T3 orchestrates adult brain lineage decisions, but also
      provide potential insight into demyelinating disorders.

PMID- 28875932
TI  - H+- and Na+- elicited rapid changes of the microtubule cytoskeleton in the
      biflagellated green alga Chlamydomonas.
AB  - Although microtubules are known for dynamic instability, the dynamicity is
      considered to be tightly controlled to support a variety of cellular processes.
      Yet diverse evidence suggests that this is not applicable to Chlamydomonas, a
      biflagellate fresh water green alga, but intense autofluorescence from
      photosynthesis pigments has hindered the investigation. By expressing a bright
      fluorescent reporter protein at the endogenous level, we demonstrate in real time
      discreet sweeping changes in algal microtubules elicited by rises of
      intracellular H+ and Na+. These results from this model organism with
      characteristics of animal and plant cells provide novel explanations regarding
      how pH may drive cellular processes; how plants may respond to, and perhaps sense
      stresses; and how organisms with a similar sensitive cytoskeleton may be
      susceptible to environmental changes.

PMID- 28875933
TI  - lncRNA requirements for mouse acute myeloid leukemia and normal differentiation.
AB  - A substantial fraction of the genome is transcribed in a cell-type-specific
      manner, producing long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), rather than protein-coding
      transcripts. Here, we systematically characterize transcriptional dynamics during
      hematopoiesis and in hematological malignancies. Our analysis of annotated and de
      novo assembled lncRNAs showed many are regulated during differentiation and mis
      regulated in disease. We assessed lncRNA function via an in vivo RNAi screen in a
      model of acute myeloid leukemia. This identified several lncRNAs essential for
      leukemia maintenance, and found that a number act by promoting leukemia stem cell
      signatures. Leukemia blasts show a myeloid differentiation phenotype when these
      lncRNAs were depleted, and our data indicates that this effect is mediated via
      effects on the MYC oncogene. Bone marrow reconstitutions showed that a lncRNA
      expressed across all progenitors was required for the myeloid lineage, whereas
      the other leukemia-induced lncRNAs were dispensable in the normal setting.

PMID- 28875934
TI  - ME31B globally represses maternal mRNAs by two distinct mechanisms during the
      Drosophila maternal-to-zygotic transition.
AB  - In animal embryos, control of development is passed from exclusively maternal
      gene products to those encoded by the embryonic genome in a process referred to
      as the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). We show that the RNA-binding
      protein, ME31B, binds to and represses the expression of thousands of maternal
      mRNAs during the Drosophila MZT. However, ME31B carries out repression in
      different ways during different phases of the MZT. Early, it represses
      translation while, later, its binding leads to mRNA destruction, most likely as a
      consequence of translational repression in the context of robust mRNA decay. In a
      process dependent on the PNG kinase, levels of ME31B and its partners, Cup and
      Trailer Hitch (TRAL), decrease by over 10-fold during the MZT, leading to a
      change in the composition of mRNA-protein complexes. We propose that ME31B is a
      global repressor whose regulatory impact changes based on its biological context.

PMID- 28875935
TI  - Golgi-independent secretory trafficking through recycling endosomes in neuronal
      dendrites and spines.
AB  - Neurons face the challenge of regulating the abundance, distribution and
      repertoire of integral membrane proteins within their immense, architecturally
      complex dendritic arbors. While the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) supports dendritic
      translation, most dendrites lack the Golgi apparatus (GA), an essential organelle
      for conventional secretory trafficking. Thus, whether secretory cargo is locally
      trafficked in dendrites through a non-canonical pathway remains a fundamental
      question. Here we define the dendritic trafficking itinerary for key synaptic
      molecules in rat cortical neurons. Following ER exit, the AMPA-type glutamate
      receptor GluA1 and neuroligin 1 undergo spatially restricted entry into the
      dendritic secretory pathway and accumulate in recycling endosomes (REs) located
      in dendrites and spines before reaching the plasma membrane. Surprisingly, GluA1
      surface delivery occurred even when GA function was disrupted. Thus, in addition
      to their canonical role in protein recycling, REs also mediate forward secretory
      trafficking in neuronal dendrites and spines through a specialized GA-independent
      trafficking network.

PMID- 28875938
TI  - Secretion Systems Used by Bacteria to Subvert Host Functions.
AB  - In this review we examine the use of secretion systems by bacteria to subvert
      host functions. Bacteria have evolved multiple systems to interact with and
      overcome their eukaryotic host and other prokaryotes. Secretion systems are
      required for the release of several effectors through the bacterial membrane(s)
      into the extracellular space or directly into the cytoplasm of the host. We
      review the secretion systems of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and
      describe briefly the structural composition of the seven secretion systems that
      have been associated with increased virulence through subversion of host
      functions. Some of the effects of such systems on eukaryotic host processes have
      been studied extensively. We also describe the best-characterized effectors of
      each secretion system to give an overview of the molecular mechanisms employed by
      bacteria to hide from the immune system and convert eukaryotic cells into optimal
      ecological niches for their replication.

PMID- 28875936
TI  - High mTOR activity is a hallmark of reactive natural killer cells and amplifies
      early signaling through activating receptors.
AB  - NK cell education is the process through which chronic engagement of inhibitory
      NK cell receptors by self MHC-I molecules preserves cellular responsiveness. The
      molecular mechanisms responsible for NK cell education remain unclear. Here, we
      show that mouse NK cell education is associated with a higher basal activity of
      the mTOR/Akt pathway, commensurate to the number of educating receptors. This
      higher activity was dependent on the SHP-1 phosphatase and essential for the
      improved responsiveness of reactive NK cells. Upon stimulation, the mTOR/Akt
      pathway amplified signaling through activating NK cell receptors by enhancing
      calcium flux and LFA-1 integrin activation. Pharmacological inhibition of mTOR
      resulted in a proportional decrease in NK cell reactivity. Reciprocally, acute
      cytokine stimulation restored reactivity of hyporesponsive NK cells through mTOR
      activation. These results demonstrate that mTOR acts as a molecular rheostat of
      NK cell reactivity controlled by educating receptors and uncover how cytokine
      stimulation overcomes NK cell education.

PMID- 28875937
TI  - Notch/Her12 signalling modulates, motile/immotile cilia ratio downstream of
      Foxj1a in zebrafish left-right organizer.
AB  - Foxj1a is necessary and sufficient to specify motile cilia. Using transcriptional
      studies and slow-scan two-photon live imaging capable of identifying the number
      of motile and immotile cilia, we now established that the final number of motile
      cilia depends on Notch signalling (NS). We found that despite all left-right
      organizer (LRO) cells express foxj1a and the ciliary axonemes of these cells have
      dynein arms, some cilia remain immotile. We identified that this decision is
      taken early in development in the Kupffer's Vesicle (KV) precursors the readout
      being her12 transcription. We demonstrate that overexpression of either her12 or
      Notch intracellular domain (NICD) increases the number of immotile cilia at the
      expense of motile cilia, and leads to an accumulation of immotile cilia at the
      anterior half of the KV. This disrupts the normal fluid flow intensity and
      pattern, with consequent impact on dand5 expression pattern and left-right (L-R)
      axis establishment.

PMID- 28875939
TI  - Within-Host Envelope Remodelling and its Impact in Bacterial Pathogen
      Recognition.
AB  - Following colonization of host tissues, bacterial pathogens encounter new niches
      in which they must gain access to nutrients and cope with stresses and defence
      signals generated by the host. For some pathogens, the adaptation to a new
      'within-host' lifestyle involves modifications of envelope components that bear
      molecular patterns normally recognized by the host innate immune system. These
      new modified patterns limit host recognition, therefore promoting immune evasion
      and pathogenicity. In this review, we describe how envelope components like the
      peptidoglycan or lipopolysaccharide can be altered within the host to impair
      responses triggered by pattern recognition receptors (PRR). We also discuss the
      few cases reported to date of chemical modifications that occur in the envelope
      of some intracellular bacterial pathogens when they reside inside eukaryotic
      cells. These envelope alterations may have evolved due to the sentinel role
      performed by PRRs over pathogen-specific molecular patterns. The available data
      indicate that only selected pathogens seem to evade recognition due to 'within
      host' envelope changes, with most of them displaying such patterns also in non
      host environments. Given the importance of these alterations, future studies
      should focus in the responsible pathogen regulators, most yet unknown, that could
      be targeted to prevent immune evasion.

PMID- 28875940
TI  - Subversion of Macrophage Functions by Bacterial Protein Toxins and Effectors.
AB  - Macrophages represent one of the first lines of host immune defenses against the
      invasion of pathogenic bacteria. Many receptors, immune signaling pathways and
      cellular processes in macrophages, including Toll-like receptors, Nod-like
      receptors, phagocytosis, autophagy and programmed cell death, are involved in
      combating the infection of bacterial pathogens. For efficient colonization in the
      host, bacterial pathogens have evolved diverse mechanisms to interfere with
      macrophage functions to evade host defenses. The major weapons utilized by
      bacterial pathogens are protein toxins and effectors secreted via specific
      bacterial secretion systems, including type I-VII secretion apparatuses. In
      recent years, great advances have been achieved in understanding how bacterial
      toxins and effectors subvert immune signaling and cellular processes of
      macrophages. In this review, we focus on the toxins and effectors that modulate
      the phagocytosis, intracellular immune signaling pathways, autophagy and
      programmed cell death processes of macrophages from the bacterium Legionella
      pneumophila, Shigella flexneri, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Yersinia
      spp., enteropathogenic E. coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

PMID- 28875941
TI  - Manipulation of Autophagy by Bacterial Pathogens Impacts Host Immunity.
AB  - Autophagy is a highly conserved catabolic process, degrading unnecessary or
      damaged components in the eukaryotic cell to maintain cellular homeostasis, but
      it is also an intrinsic cellular defence mechanism to remove invading pathogens.
      A crosstalk between autophagy and innate or adaptive immune responses has been
      recently reported, whereby autophagy influences both, innate and adaptive
      immunity like the production and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines or MHC
      class II antigen presentation to T cells. Pathogenic bacteria have evolved
      diverse strategies to manipulate autophagy, mechanisms that also impact host
      immune responses at different levels. Here we discuss the influence of autophagy
      on self-autonomous, innate and adaptive immunity and then focus on how bacterial
      mechanisms that shape autophagy may impact the host immune system.

PMID- 28875942
TI  - Inflammasome-dependent Mechanisms Involved in Sensing and Restriction of
      Bacterial Replication.
AB  - Inflammasomes are multiprotein platforms assembled in the cytosol in response to
      pathogens and cell stress. Inflammasomes are recognized by their important role
      on defenses against bacterial infections and have been also implicated in a range
      of human inflammatory disorders. Intracellular sensors such as NLRP1, NLRP3,
      NLRC4, AIM2 and Pyrin induce assembly of inflammasomes, while caspase-11 induces
      the non-canonical pathway for activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. The formation
      of the inflammasome leads to caspase-1 activation that triggers pyroptosis and
      activation of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and IL-18. Pyroptotic cell death and
      cytokines production are involved in restriction of bacterial replication by
      limiting the replication niche of intracellular bacteria and by inducing
      inflammatory responses. In this review we focus on the mechanisms mediated by
      inflammasome activation that leads to inflammatory responses and restriction of
      bacterial infection.

PMID- 28875943
TI  - Molecular Mechanisms Used by Salmonella to Evade the Immune System.
AB  - Human and animal pathogens are able to circumvent, at least temporarily, the
      sophisticated immune defenses of their hosts. Several serovars of the Gram
      negative bacterium Salmonella enterica have been used as models for the study of
      pathogen-host interactions. In this review we discuss the strategies used by
      Salmonella to evade or manipulate three levels of host immune defenses: physical
      barriers, innate immunity and adaptive immunity. During its passage through the
      digestive system, Salmonella has to face the acidic pH of the stomach, bile and
      antimicrobial peptides in the intestine, as well as the competition with resident
      microbiota. After host cell invasion, Salmonella manipulates inflammatory
      pathways and the autophagy process. Finally, Salmonella evades the adaptive
      immune system by interacting with dendritic cells, and T and B lymphocytes.
      Mechanisms allowing the establishment of persistent infections are also
      discussed.

PMID- 28875944
TI  - Immune-evasion Strategies of Mycobacteria and Their Implications for the
      Protective Immune Response.
AB  - Mycobacteria are intracellular pathogens that have macrophages as their main host
      cells. However, macrophages are also the primary line of defense against invading
      microorganisms. To survive in the intracellular compartment, virulent
      mycobacteria have developed several strategies to modulate the activation and the
      effector functions of macrophages. Despite this, antigen-specific T cells develop
      during infection. While T cell responses are critical for protection they can
      also contribute to the success of mycobacteria as human pathogens, as
      immunopathology associated with these responses facilitates transmission. Here,
      we provide a brief overview of different immune-evasion strategies of
      mycobacteria and their impact on the protective immune response. This
      understanding will further our knowledge in host-pathogen interactions and may
      provide critical insights for the development of novel host-specific therapies.

PMID- 28875945
TI  - Role of Cyclic di-GMP in the Bacterial Virulence and Evasion of the Plant
      Immunity.
AB  - Plant pathogenic bacteria are responsible for the loss of hundreds of millions of
      dollars each year, impacting a wide range of economically relevant agricultural
      crops. The plant immune system detects conserved bacterial molecules and deploys
      an arsenal of effective defense measures at different levels; however, during
      compatible interactions, some pathogenic bacteria suppress and manipulate the
      host immunity and colonize and infect the plant host. Different bacteria employ
      similar strategies to circumvent plant innate immunity, while other tactics are
      specific to certain bacterial species. Recent studies have highlighted the
      secondary messenger c-di-GMP as a key molecule in the transmission of
      environmental cues in an intracellular regulatory network that controls virulence
      traits in many plant pathogenic bacteria. In this review, we focus on the recent
      knowledge of the molecular basis of c-di-GMP signaling mechanisms that promote or
      prevent the evasion of bacterial phytopathogens from the plant immune system.
      This review will highlight the considerable diversity of mechanisms evolved in
      plant-associated bacteria to elude plant immunity.

PMID- 28875946
TI  - PVA/Dextran hydrogel patches as delivery system of antioxidant astaxanthin: a
      cardiovascular approach.
AB  - After myocardial infarction, the heart's mechanical properties and its intrinsic
      capability to recover are compromised. To improve this recovery, several groups
      have developed cardiac patches based on different biomaterials strategies. Here,
      we developed polyvinylalcohol/dextran (PVA/Dex) elastic hydrogel patches,
      obtained through the freeze thawing (FT) process, with the aim to deliver locally
      a potent natural antioxidant molecule, astaxanthin, and to assist the heart's
      response against the generated myofibril stress. Extensive rheological and dynamo
      mechanical characterization of the effect of the PVA molecular weight, number of
      freeze-thawing cycles and Dex addition on the mechanical properties of the
      resulting hydrogels, were carried out. Hydrogel systems based on PVA 145 kDa and
      PVA 47 kDa blended with Dex 40 kDa, were chosen as the most promising candidates
      for this application. In order to improve astaxanthin solubility, an inclusion
      system using hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin was prepared. This system was
      posteriorly loaded within the PVA/Dex hydrogels. PVA145/Dex 1FT and PVA47/Dex 3FT
      showed the best rheological and mechanical properties when compared to the other
      studied systems; environmental scanning electron microscope and confocal imaging
      evidenced a porous structure of the hydrogels allowing astaxanthin release. In
      vitro cellular behavior was analyzed after 24 h of contact with astaxanthin
      loaded hydrogels. In vivo subcutaneous biocompatibility was performed in rats
      using PVA145/Dex 1FT, as the best compromise between mechanical support and
      astaxanthin delivery. Finally, ex vivo and in vivo experiments showed good
      mechanical and compatibility properties of this hydrogel. The obtained results
      showed that the studied materials have a potential to be used as myocardial
      patches to assist infarcted heart mechanical function and to reduce oxidative
      stress by the in situ release of astaxanthin.

PMID- 28875947
TI  - Improved prediction of bimanual movements by a two-staged (effector-then
      trajectory) decoder with epidural ECoG in nonhuman primates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In arm movement BCIs (brain-computer interfaces), unimanual research
      has been much more extensively studied than its bimanual counterpart. However, it
      is well known that the bimanual brain state is different from the unimanual one.
      Conventional methodology used in unimanual studies does not take the brain stage
      into consideration, and therefore appears to be insufficient for decoding
      bimanual movements. In this paper, we propose the use of a two-staged (effector
      then-trajectory) decoder, which combines the classification of movement
      conditions and uses a hand trajectory predicting algorithm for unimanual and
      bimanual movements, for application in real-world BCIs. APPROACH: Two micro
      electrode patches (32 channels) were inserted over the dura mater of the left and
      right hemispheres of two rhesus monkeys, covering the motor related cortex for
      epidural electrocorticograph (ECoG). Six motion sensors (inertial measurement
      unit) were used to record the movement signals. The monkeys performed three types
      of arm movement tasks: left unimanual, right unimanual, bimanual. To decode these
      movements, we used a two-staged decoder, which combines the effector classifier
      for four states (left unimanual, right unimanual, bimanual movements, and
      stationary state) and movement predictor using regression. MAIN RESULTS: Using
      this approach, we successfully decoded both arm positions using the proposed
      decoder. The results showed that decoding performance for bimanual movements were
      improved compared to the conventional method, which does not consider the
      effector, and the decoding performance was significant and stable over a period
      of four months. In addition, we also demonstrated the feasibility of epidural
      ECoG signals, which provided an adequate level of decoding accuracy.
      SIGNIFICANCE: These results provide evidence that brain signals are different
      depending on the movement conditions or effectors. Thus, the two-staged method
      could be useful if BCIs are used to generalize for both unimanual and bimanual
      operations in human applications and in various neuro-prosthetics fields.

PMID- 28875948
TI  - The tongue microbiome in healthy subjects and patients with intra-oral halitosis.
AB  - Intra-oral halitosis (IOH) is an unpleasant odor emanating from the oral cavity.
      It is thought that the microbiota of the dorsal tongue coating plays a crucial
      role in this condition. The aim of the study was to investigate the composition
      of the tongue microbiome in subjects with and without IOH. A total of 26
      subjects, 16 IOH patients and 10 healthy subjects were recruited based on their
      organoleptic score and volatile sulfur compound (VSC) measurements. The
      composition of the tongue microbiome was studied using the 16s amplicon
      sequencing of the V3-V4 hyper variable region with an Illumina MiSeq. The
      sequenced data were analyzed using QIIME, and the sequences obtained were
      distributed across 7 phyla, 27 genera and 825 operational taxonomic units (OTUs).
      At a higher taxon level, TM7 was associated with IOH patients whereas Gemellaceae
      was significantly abundant in the healthy subjects. At OTU level, we found
      several significant OTUs that differentiated the IOH patients from the controls.
      These included Aggregatibacter (OTU id 4335776), Aggregatibacter segnis (A.
      segnis), Campylobacter, Capnocytophaga, Clostridiales, Dialister, Leptotrichia,
      Parvimonas, Peptostreptococcus, Peptococcus, Prevotella, Selenomonas, SR1,
      Tannerella, TM7-3 and Treponema in the IOH group. In the control group,
      Aggregatibacter (OTU id 4363066), Haemophilus, Haemophilus parainfluenza (H.
      parainfluenza), Moryella, Oribacterium, Prevotella, several Streptococcus, Rothia
      dentocariosa (R. dentocariosa) and OTU from Gemellaceae were significantly
      abundant. Based on our observation, it was concluded that the bacterial
      qualitative composition of the IOH and the control group was almost the same,
      except for the few above-mentioned bacterial species and genera.

PMID- 28875949
TI  - Community Hemodialysis in China: Opportunities and Challenges.

PMID- 28875950
TI  - Blocking Posttranslational Core Fucosylation Ameliorates Rat Peritoneal
      Mesothelial Cell Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition.
AB  - Background:: Core fucosylation (CF), catalyzed by alpha-1,6 fucosyltransferase
      (Fut8) in mammals, plays an important role in pathological processes through
      posttranslational modification of key signaling receptor proteins, including
      transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta receptors and platelet-derived growth
      factor (PDGF) receptors. However, its effect on peritoneal fibrosis is unknown.
      Here, we investigated its influence on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of
      rat peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs) in vitro induced by a high-glucose (HG)
      culture solution. Methods:: Rat PMCs were first cultured in a HG (2.5%) culture
      solution to observe the CF expression level (fluorescein isothiocyanate-lens
      culinaris agglutinin), we next established a knockdown model of rat PMCs in vitro
      with Fut8 small interfering RNA (siRNA) to observe whether inhibiting CF
      decreases the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and protein expression of Fut8 and
      reverses EMT status. Rat PMCs were randomly divided into control group, mock
      group (transfected with scrambled siRNA), Fut8 siRNA group, HG group, HG + mock
      group, and HG + Fut8 siRNA group. Finally, we examined the activation of TGF
      beta/Smad2/3 signaling and PDGF/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)
      signaling to observe the influence of CF on them. Results:: CF, Fut8 mRNA, and
      protein expression were all significantly upregulated in HG- induced EMT model
      than those in the control rat PMCs (P < 0.05). Fut8 siRNA successfully blocked CF
      of TGF-beta receptors and PDGF receptors and attenuated the EMT status (E
      cadherin and alpha-SMA and phenotypic changes) in HG-induced rat PMCs. In TGF
      beta/Smad2/3 signaling, Fut8 siRNA did not suppress the protein expression of TGF
      beta receptors and Smad2/3; however, it significantly suppressed the
      phosphorylation of Smad2/3 (relative expression folds of HG + Fut8 group vs. HG
      group: 7.6 +/- 0.4 vs. 15.1 +/- 0.6, respectively, P < 0.05). In PDGF/ERK
      signaling, Fut8 siRNA did not suppress the protein expression of PDGF receptors
      and ERK, but it significantly suppressed the phosphorylation of ERK (relative
      expression folds of HG + Fut8 group vs. HG group: 8.7 +/- 0.9 vs. 15.6 +/- 1.2,
      respectively, P < 0.05). Blocking CF inactivated the activities of TGF-beta and
      PDGF signaling pathways, and subsequently blocked EMT. Conclusions:: These
      results demonstrate that CF contributes to rat PMC EMT, and that blocking it
      attenuates EMT. CF regulation is a potential therapeutic target of peritoneal
      fibrosis.

PMID- 28875951
TI  - Effects of Cyclosporine A on the Development of Metanephros in the Pregnant
      BALB/c Mice.
AB  - Background:: Cyclosporine A (CsA) is a commonly used clinical immunosuppressant.
      However, CsA exposure in rabbits during the gestation period was shown to cause a
      postnatal decrease in the number of nephrons, with the effects remaining unknown.
      In this study, we aimed to explore the effects of CsA on metanephros development
      in the pregnant BALB/c mice. Methods:: Pregnant mice were randomly divided into
      two groups, and CsA (10 mg.kg-1.d-1) was subcutaneously injected from gestation
      day 10.5 to day 16.5 in the CsA group, whereas a comparable volume of normal
      saline was given to the control group. All of the mice were sacrificed on
      gestation day 17.5 and serum CsA concentration was measured. The fetuses were
      removed and weighed, and their kidneys were prepared for histological assessment
      and polymerase chain reaction assay. In an in vitro experiment, embryo kidneys of
      fetal mice on gestation day 12.5 were used, and CsA (10 MUmol/L) was added in the
      culture of the CsA group. The growth pattern of the ureteric bud and nephrons was
      assessed by lectin staining. Results:: No significant differences in the weight
      of embryo (4.54 +/- 1.22 vs. 3.26 +/- 1.09 mg) were observed between the CsA and
      control groups, the thickness of the cortical (510.0 +/- 30.3 vs. 350.0 +/- 29.7
      MUm, P < 0.05) and nephrogenic zone (272.5 +/- 17.2 vs. 173.3 +/- 24.0 MUm, P <
      0.05), and the number of glomeruli (36.5 +/- 0.7 vs. 27.5 +/- 2.1, P < 0.05) were
      reduced in the CsA group when compared to the control group. The cell
      proliferation of Ki-67 positive index between control and CsA group (307.0 +/-
      20.0 vs. 219.0 +/- 25.0, P < 0.05) in the nephrogenic zone was decreased with the
      increase of apoptotic cells (17.0 +/- 2.0 vs. 159.0 +/- 33.0, P < 0.05). The mRNA
      expression of WT-1, Pax2, and Pax8 was downregulated by CsA treatment. As for the
      in vitro CsA group, the branch number of the ureteric bud was decreased in the
      CsA-treated group with the nephrons missing in contrast to control after the
      incubation for 24 h and 72 h (all P < 0.0001). Conclusion:: Treatment of CsA
      suppressed metanephros development in the pregnant mice; however, the potential
      action of mechanism needs to be further investigated.

PMID- 28875952
TI  - Role of R.E.N.A.L. Nephrometry Score in Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy.
AB  - Background:: Preoperative anatomical scoring system is conducive to comparison
      between treatment options and evaluation of postoperative outcomes in patients
      with small renal tumors. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical application
      efficacy of the R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry score (RNS) in predicting perioperative
      outcomes in patients with renal tumor who underwent laparoscopic partial
      nephrectomy (LPN). Methods:: The clinical data of 139 patients with renal tumors
      who underwent LPN between 2009 and 2015 were collected and analyzed. Patients
      were divided into three groups according to their RNS (low, moderate, and high).
      Clinical characteristics including perioperative variables, complications, and
      RNS were compared to evaluate the differences between the three groups.
      Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors
      of postoperative complications. Results:: According to the RNS, there were 74,
      50, and 15 patients in the low, moderate, and high RNS groups, respectively.
      There were significant differences in estimated blood loss (EBL; chi2 = 7.285, P
      = 0.026), warm ischemia time (WIT; chi2 = 13.718, P = 0.001), operation time (OT;
      chi2 = 6.882, P = 0.032), perioperative creatinine clearance change (PCCC; chi2 =
      6.206, P = 0.045), and number of patients with complications (NPC; P = 0.002)
      among the three groups. The values for EBL, WIT, OT, PCCC, and NPC for patients
      in the high RNS group were higher than those for patients in the low RNS group.
      After adjustment for OT, WIT, and EBL, RNS was statistically significantly
      associated with the risk of postoperative complications in a multivariable
      logistic regression model (odds ratio = 1.541, 95% confidence interval: 1.059
      2.242, P = 0.024). Conclusions:: The RNS is a valuable tool for evaluating the
      complexity of renal tumor anatomy. It can aid surgeons in preoperative decision
      making concerning management therapy. Future multicenter, large sample size
      studies are warranted for evaluating its predicting performance of perioperative
      outcomes.

PMID- 28875953
TI  - Roles of Loss of Chromosome 14q Allele in the Prognosis of Renal Cell Carcinoma
      with C-reactive Protein Abnormity.
AB  - Background:: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is frequently associated with
      paraneoplastic inflammatory syndrome (PIS). This study aimed at exploring the
      connections between the survival rate and specific gene alterations and the
      potential mechanism. Methods:: We retrospectively studied 69 surgical RCC cases
      from August 2014 to February 2016, including 18 cases of clear cell RCC (ccRCC)
      demonstrating elevated pretreatment serum C-reactive protein (CRP, Group A).
      Twelve of the 18 cases were symptomized with febrile episode. We also selected 49
      cases of ccRCC with normal pretreatment CRP (Group B). Using 22 microsatellite
      markers, we compared the incidence of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) between Group
      A and Group B. All statistical tests are two-sided. Results:: The 3p LOH was
      common in both Group A (89%) and Group B (92%). The frequency of 14q LOH in Group
      A (16 of 18) was higher than Group B (4 of 49, chi2 = 40.97 P < 0.0001). The 3p
      and 14q LOH were the characteristics of ccRCC with elevated acute phase
      reactants, including PIS, regardless of the presence of metastasis. On the
      contrary, 14q LOH was a rare genomic alternation in advanced-staged ccRCC without
      PIS. The overall survival of patients with elevated CRP (33.3%) was lower than
      its counterparts (6.1%, hazard ratio=1.852, P < 0.0001) in Kaplan-Meier curve.
      Conclusions:: The results imply that the disruption of a 14q gene(s) might result
      in not only the inflammatory manifestations in the tumor host but also the poor
      survival rate as well. The isolation of the gene(s) on 14q might be a vital goal
      in the treatment of PIS-associated RCC.

PMID- 28875954
TI  - Stenting of the Portal Vein Combined with Different Numbers of Iodine-125 Seed
      Strands: Dosimetric Analyses.
AB  - Background:: Portal-vein stent combined with one iodine-125 (125I) seed strand
      has become a new treatment for portal vein tumor thrombosis. However, dosimetric
      aspects of this irradiation stent have not been reported. Therefore, we aimed to
      undertake dosimetric analyses comparing portal-vein stents combined with
      different numbers of 125I seed strands. Methods:: A water cylinder was created by
      a treatment-planning system to simulate a portal-vein stent. The stent was
      combined with one, two, or three 125I seed strands (Groups I, II, and III,
      respectively). At different prescribed doses (PDs), 125I seeds of identical
      activities were loaded on Groups I-III. Conformation number (CN), external volume
      index, and homogeneity index were calculated. Linear regression analyses were
      used to evaluate the obtained data. Results:: For identical 125I seed activity,
      when the 125I seed strand increased from one chain to two, D90 (dose delivered to
      90% of the target volume) increased by >=184%; when it increased from two chains
      to three, D90 increased by >=63%. When the PD was 105 Gy and 125I seed strands
      increased from one chain to two, V100 (percentage of the target volume receiving
      >=90% of the PD) increased by 158-249%; when it increased from two chains to
      three, V100 increased by 7-175%. CN was correlated positively with 125I seed
      activity (B = 0.479, P < 0.001) and number of 125I seed strands (B = 0.201, P <
      0.001) and was independent of PD (B = -0.002, P = 0.078). Conclusions:: A portal
      vein stent combined with a single 125I seed strand could not meet dosimetry
      requirements. For a stent combined with two 125I seed strands, when the PD was
      105 Gy and seed activity was 0.7 mCi, the dose distribution could satisfy
      dosimetry requirements. For a stent combined with three 125I seed strands, if the
      PD was 105, 125, or 145 Gy, the recommended seed activities were 0.5, 0.5, and
      0.6 mCi, respectively.

PMID- 28875955
TI  - Efficacy of Real-world Entecavir Therapy in Treatment-naive Chronic Hepatitis B
      Patients.
AB  - Background:: Entecavir (ETV) has been shown to be effective in randomized
      controlled trials in highly selected patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)
      infection. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of ETV in chronic hepatitis
      B (CHB) patients in the real-world setting. Methods:: A total of 233 treatment
      naive, CHB patients who received at least 12 months of ETV treatment were
      included in this retrospective study. Rates of virological response (VR),
      hepatitis B s antigen (HBsAg) loss, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)
      clearance/seroconversion, virological breakthrough, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular
      carcinoma were evaluated. Results:: Of 233 patients, 175 patients were male, with
      mean age of 43 years old, and 135 patients were HBeAg positive. The mean baseline
      levels of serum alanine aminotransferase and HBV DNA in all patients were 230 U/L
      and 6.6 log 10 IU/ml, respectively. The mean follow-up period was 28 months. The
      cumulative rates of achieving VR increased from 3.4% at 3 months to 94.4% at 60
      months. Primary nonresponse occurred in 3 (1.3%) patients. Partial VR (PVR)
      occurred in 61 (26.2%) patients at 12 months. The baseline serum HBV DNA level
      (hazard ratio [HR], 2.054; P < 0.001) was an independent risk factor for PVR.
      HBsAg loss did not occur. The cumulative rates of HBeAg clearance increased from
      2.2% at 3 months to 28.2% at 60 months. PVR was the significant determinant of
      HBeAg clearance (HR, 0.341; P = 0.026). Age (HR, 1.072; P = 0.013) and PVR (HR,
      5.131; P = 0.017) were the significant determinants of cirrhosis. Conclusions::
      ETV treatment was effective for HBV DNA suppression in this study, but HBsAg loss
      and HBeAg clearance/seroconversion rates were lower compared with previous
      clinical trials. PVR was associated with HBeAg clearance and cirrhosis.

PMID- 28875956
TI  - Seroepidemiology of Syphilis Infection among 2 Million Reproductive-age Women in
      Rural China: A Population-based, Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - Background:: Quantifying syphilis prevalence is important for planning
      interventions and advocating for resources on syphilis. However, data on large
      sample studies regarding the prevalence of syphilis among reproductive-age women
      in rural China were not available for analysis. The aim of the study was to
      determine the prevalence, epidemiological characteristics, and related factors of
      syphilis infection among reproductive-age women in rural China. Methods:: Data
      were obtained from a nationwide, population-based, cross-sectional study under
      the National Free Preconception Health Examination Project which covered all the
      31 provinces in Mainland China. Women intending to get pregnant within the next 6
      months were enrolled between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2012.
      Sociodemographic, gynecological and obstetric characteristics, and other relevant
      information were obtained through face-to-face interviews. Treponema pallidum
      particle agglutination assay test was used to detect positive samples of
      syphilis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to
      assess the associations between syphilis seropositivity and related factors.
      Results:: The overall seroprevalence of syphilis (SPS) among the 2,044,126 women
      who received syphilis screening test during 2010-2012 was 0.37% (95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 0.36-0.37%). The SPS appeared 0.24% (95% CI: 0.23-0.26%) and 0.66%
      (95% CI: 0.59-0.72%) in women at 21-24 and 40-44 years of age, respectively,
      showing an increase of SPS, parallel with age, and the difference was
      significant. SPS was significantly higher in ethnic minorities than that in Han
      nationality (0.58% vs. 0.35%, respectively, odds ratio [OR] = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.30
      1.53) and higher in workers than that in farmers (0.45% vs. 0.36%, respectively,
      OR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.14-1.41). Women with primary school or below level had a
      higher SPS as compared to those with college or above educational level (0.61%
      vs. 0.32%, respectively, OR = 2.49, 95% CI: 2.14-2.89), and the increase
      reversely correlated with the levels of education. Women whose spouses were
      syphilis seropositive had significant greater risk (OR = 48.26, 95% CI: 44.38
      52.48) as compared those whose spouses were seronegative. Women who reported
      having had a history of sexually transmitted infections were more likely to be
      tested positive for serological syphilis (OR = 27.17, 95% CI: 20.44-36.11) as
      compared to those without. Conclusions:: High SPS is seen among reproductive-age
      women in rural China that calls for targeted interventions on syphilis prevention
      and control in this target population, with emphasis on those who are 35 years of
      age and above, less educated, being minor ethnicity, workers, and living in the
      western regions of China.

PMID- 28875957
TI  - Transition from Tumor Tissue to Bone Marrow in Patients with Appendicular
      Osteosarcoma after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.
AB  - Background:: Limb-salvage surgery is the standard procedure for the treatment of
      appendicular osteosarcoma. Precise resection is the trend in limb-salvage
      surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate a large series of cases to
      identify the histological relationship between the tumor and marrow and determine
      the intramedullary transition type and width from the tumor to normal marrow in
      patients with osteosarcoma after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods:: One hundred
      and six osteosarcoma specimens were evaluated. The tissue specimens were
      sectioned through the coronal axis by an electronic saw. The tissue was immersed
      in formalin solution for fixation and subsequently decalcified. The interface
      between the tumor and normal bone marrow was grossly determined and submitted for
      microscopic evaluation to detect the relationship between the tumor and bone
      marrow and identify the transition type and width. All histological slides were
      examined by experienced orthopedic pathologists. Results:: Histologically, the
      interface between the tumor and normal bone marrow was classified into two
      patterns: "clear" and "infiltrated." The clear pattern, characterized by a clear
      boundary between the tumor and marrow, was identified in sixty cases (56.6%). A
      subtype of the clear type, characterized by fibrous bands between the tumor and
      marrow, was found in 13 cases (12.3%). The infiltrated pattern, characterized by
      a boundary with tumor cell clusters embedded in the marrow, was found in 46 cases
      (43.4%). The infiltrating depth varied from 1 to 4 mm (mean, 2.6 +/- 0.7 mm). No
      tumor cells were observed in the normal bone marrow areas next to the interface.
      Conclusions:: The transition from osteosarcoma tissue to bone marrow after
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy can be divided into two histological patterns: clear and
      infiltrated. The greatest infiltration width was 4 mm from tumor to normal marrow
      in this study. This depth should be considered in the presurgical plan.

PMID- 28875958
TI  - 5-Hydroxytryptamine Changes under Different Pretreatments on Rat Models of
      Myocardial Infarction and/or Depression.
AB  - Background:: Psychocardiological researches have suggested a central role of 5
      hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) on psychocardiological mechanism. This study aimed to
      further explore the central role of 5-HT and pretreatment effects of XinLingWan
      on rats with myocardial infarction (MI) and/or depression. Methods:: Ninety
      Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: MI group, depression
      group, and MI + depression group (n = 30 in each group). Each group was then
      divided into three subgroups (n = 10 in each subgroup): a negative control
      subgroup (NCS), a Western medicine subgroup (WMS), and a traditional Chinese
      medicine subgroup (TCMS), which were received pretreatment once a day for 4 weeks
      by saline, 20 mg/kg sertraline mixed with 2 ml saline, and 40 mg/kg XingLingWan
      mixed with 2 ml saline, respectively. Different rat models were established after
      different pretreatments. Rats were then sacrificed for detection of serum 5-HT,
      platelet 5-HT, 5-HT2A receptors (5-HT2AR), and serotonin transporter (SERT). Data
      were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least-significant
      difference (LSD) testing. Results:: MI group: compared with NCS, there was a
      significant increase in WMS and TCMS of serum 5-HT (176.15 +/- 11.32 pg/ml vs.
      334.50 +/- 29.09 pg/ml and 474.04 +/- 10.86 pg/ml, respectively, both P = 0.000),
      platelet 5-HT (129.74 +/- 27.17 pg/ml vs. 322.24 +/- 11.60 pg/ml and 340.4 5 +/-
      17.99 pg/ml, respectively, both P = 0.000); depression group: compared with NCS,
      there was a significant increase in WMS and TCMS of serum 5-HT (194.69 +/- 5.09
      pg/ml vs. 326.21 +/- 39.98 pg/ml and 456.33 +/- 23.12 pg/ml, respectively, both P
      = 0.000), platelet 5-HT (175.15 +/- 4.07 pg/ml vs. 204.56 +/- 18.59 pg/ml and
      252.03 +/- 22.26 pg/ml, respectively, P = 0.004 and P = 0.000, respectively); MI
      + depression group: compared with NCS, there was a significant increase in both
      WMS and TCMS of serum 5-HT (182.50 +/- 10.23 pg/ml vs. 372.55 +/- 52.23 pg/ml and
      441.76 +/- 23.38 pg/ml, respectively, both P = 0.000) and platelet 5-HT (180.83
      +/- 11.08 pg/ml vs. 221.12 +/- 22.23 pg/ml and 265.37 +/- 29.49 pg/ml,
      respectively, P = 0.011 and P = 0.000, respectively). Conclusions:: By elevating
      the amount of 5-HT and modulating 5-HT2AR and SERT levels in serum and platelets,
      XinLingWan and sertraline were found to exert pretreatment effect on rat models
      of MI and/or depression.

PMID- 28875959
TI  - Downregulation of Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger Isoform 1 Protects Isolated Hearts by
      Sevoflurane Postconditioning but Not by Delayed Remote Ischemic Preconditioning
      in Rats.
AB  - Background:: Calcium regulatory proteins-L-type Ca2+ channels (LTCCs), ryanodine
      receptor 2 (RyR2), and Na+/Ca2+ exchanger isoform 1 (NCX1) have been recognized
      as important protective mechanisms during myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury
      (I/RI). Both sevoflurane postconditioning (SevoPoC) and delayed remote ischemic
      preconditioning (DRIPC) have been shown to protect the heart against I/RI. In
      this study, we aimed to compare the effects of SevoPoC and DRIPC on the
      expression of the three calcium regulatory proteins in an isolated rat heart
      model. Methods:: After 30-min balanced perfusion, isolated hearts from rats were
      subjected to 30-min ischemia followed by 60-min reperfusion. Totally 40 isolated
      hearts were randomly assigned to four groups (n = 10/group): time control group,
      I/RI group, SevoPoC group, and DRIPC group. The effect of SevoPoC (3% v/v) and
      DRIPC were observed. Myocardial infarct size (IS), cardiac troponin I level, and
      heart function were measured. The protein and messenger RNA levels of LTCCs,
      RyR2, and NCX1 were determined. Results:: Both SevoPoC and DRIPC improved the
      recovery of myocardial function, and reduced cardiac troponin I release after
      I/RI. The decrease in IS was more significant in the SevoPoC group than that in
      the DRIPC group (16.50% +/- 4.54% in the SevoPoC group [P = 0.0006], and 22.34%
      +/- 4.02% in the DRIPC group [P = 0.0007] vs. 35.00% +/- 5.24% in the I/RI group,
      respectively). SevoPoC, but not DRIPC significantly inhibited the activity of
      NCX1 (0.59 +/- 0.09 in the I/RI group vs. 0.32 +/- 0.16 in the SevoPoC group, P =
      0.006; vs. 0.57 +/- 0.14 in the DRIPC group, P = 0.072). No statistical
      significant differences were observed in the expression of LTCCs and RyR2 between
      SevoPoC and DRIPC. In addition, subsequent correlation analysis showed a
      significantly positive relationship between the cardiac troponin I level and the
      protein expression of NCX1 (r = 0.505, P = 0.023). Conclusion:: SevoPoC may be
      more effective in the cardioprotection than DRIPC partly due to the deactivation
      of NCX1.

PMID- 28875960
TI  - Analysis of Macular and Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Children with
      Refractory Amblyopia after Femtosecond Laser-assisted Laser In situ
      Keratomileusis: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - Background:: Localized macular edema and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL)
      thinning have been reported shortly after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) in
      adults. However, it is still unclear how LASIK affects the retina of children.
      This study aimed to investigate the macular retina and RNFL thickness in children
      with refractive amblyopia who underwent femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK (FS
      LASIK). Methods:: In this study, we included 56 eyes of 32 patients with
      refractive amblyopia who underwent FS-LASIK in our hospital from January 2012 to
      December 2016. Foveal (foveal center retinal, parafoveal retinal, and
      perifoveal), macular inner retinal (superior and inferior), and peripapillary
      RNFL thicknesses (superior, inferior, temporal, and nasal) were measured using
      Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography before surgery and 1 day, 3 days, and
      1 week after surgery. We divided these patients into three groups based on their
      refractive error: High myopic group with 22 eyes (equivalent sphere, >6.00 D),
      mild myopic group with 19 eyes (equivalent sphere, 0-6.00 D), and hyperopic group
      with 15 eyes (equivalent sphere, >+0.50 D). We compared the macular retina and
      RNFL thickness before and after LASIK. A paired simple t-test was used for data
      analysis. Results:: One week after surgery, the visual acuity for all 56 eyes of
      the 32 patients reached their preoperative best-corrected vision. Visual acuity
      improved two lines or better for 31% of the patients. The residual refractive
      errors in 89% of the patients were within +/-0.5 D. In the high myopic group, the
      foveal center retinal and parafoveal retinal thicknesses were thicker 1 day and 3
      days after surgery than before surgery (t = 2.689, P = 0.012; t = 2.383, P =
      0.018, respectively); no significant difference was found 1 week after surgery (P
      > 0.05). The foveal center retinal and parafoveal retinal thicknesses were
      greater 1 day after surgery than they were before surgery (P = 0.000 and P =
      0.005, respectively) in the mild myopic and hyperopic groups. No significant
      difference was found 3 days or 1 week after surgery (P > 0.05). In all three
      groups, no significant difference was found in the macular inner retinal or
      peripapillary RNFL thickness 1 day, 3 days, or 1 week after surgery (P > 0.05).
      Conclusions:: The foveal center retinal edema after FS-LASIK is mild and
      reversible in children, that mostly occurred in the high myopic group with no
      effect on the visual acuity, and is always relieved within 1 week.

PMID- 28875961
TI  - High Spicy Food Intake and Risk of Cancer: A Meta-analysis of Case-control
      Studies.
AB  - Background:: Studies on the association between spicy food intake and cancer risk
      have reported inconsistent results. We quantitatively assessed this association
      by conducting a meta-analysis based on evidence from case-control studies.
      Methods:: PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible
      publications. Combined odds ratios (OR s) with their 95% confidence interval (CI)
      were calculated using a random- or fixed-effects model. The methodological
      quality of the included articles was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale
      (NOS). All data were analyzed using STATA 11.0 software (version 11.0;
      StataCorp., College Station, TX, USA). Subgroup analyses were also performed with
      stratification by region, sex, number of cases, cancer subtype, source of the
      control group, and NOS score. Results:: A total 39 studies from 28 articles
      fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis (7884 patients with cancer
      and 10,142 controls). Comparison of the highest versus lowest exposure category
      in each study revealed a significant OR of 1.76 (95% CI = 1.35-2.29) in spite of
      significant heterogeneity (P < 0.001). In the subgroup analyses, this positive
      correlation was still found for gastric cancer, different regions, different
      numbers of cases, different sources of the control group, and high-quality
      articles (NOS score of >= 7). However, no statistically significant association
      was observed for women, esophageal cancer, gallbladder cancer, or low-quality
      articles (NOS score of <7). No evidence of publication bias was found.
      Conclusions:: Evidence from case-control studies suggested that a higher level of
      spicy food intake may be associated with an increased incidence of cancer despite
      significant heterogeneity. More studies are warranted to clarify our
      understanding of the association between high spicy food intake and the risk of
      cancer.

PMID- 28875962
TI  - Urinary Biomarkers for Chronic Kidney Disease with a Focus on Gene Transcript.
AB  - Objective:: In the upcoming era of precision medicine, searching for the early,
      noninvasive biomarkers has been the cornerstone and major challenge in the
      management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Urine contains rich biological
      information which could be the ideal source for noninvasive biomarkers of CKD.
      This review will discuss the recent advance in urinary biomarker. Data Sources::
      This review was based on data in articles published in the PubMed databases up to
      June 20, 2017, with the following keywords: "Chronic kidney disease",
      "Biomarker", and "Urine". Study Selection:: Original articles and important
      reviews on urinary biomarker were selected for this review. Results:: Urinary
      biomarker studies of CKD mainly focused on urine sediment, supernatant, and
      urinary extracellular vesicles. The gene transcript (microRNA [miRNA], messenger
      RNA [mRNA]) biomarkers have been recently shown with diagnostic potential for CKD
      reflecting kidney function and histological change. However, challenges regarding
      technique and data analysis need to be resolved before translation to clinic.
      Conclusions:: Different fractions of urine contain rich information for biomarker
      discovery, among which urine (extracellular vesicles) mRNA, miRNA, might
      represent promising biomarker for CKD.

PMID- 28875963
TI  - An Infant with Abernethy Malformation Associated with Heterotaxy and Pulmonary
      Hypertension.

PMID- 28875964
TI  - Vascular Graft Bridged En Bloc Resection for Biliopancreatic Cancer Invading the
      Portal System.

PMID- 28875965
TI  - Fibronectin Glomerulopathy: A Rare Autosomal Dominant Glomerular Disease.

PMID- 28875966
TI  - Unexpected Pulmonary Events during Endotracheal Intubation in a Pediatric
      Patient.

PMID- 28875967
TI  - Effectiveness of Laparoscopic Sacral Colpopexy for Pelvic Organs Prolapse
      Diseases.

PMID- 28875968
TI  - Endoscope-assisted Transoral Approach for Parapharyngeal Space Tumor Resection.

PMID- 28875969
TI  - [Gastroenterological manifestations of von Hippel-Lindau disease].
AB  - Von Hippel-Lindau disease is rare autosomal dominant disorder that results from
      mutation of VHL gene. Typical manifestations of this syndrome include
      haemangioblastomas of retina, cerebellum and spinal cord, endolymphatic sac
      tumors, clear cell cancer and kidney cysts, pheochromocytoma, pancreatic cysts
      and neuroendocrine tumors. The differential diagnosis of pancreatic lesions in
      patients with von Hippel Lindau syndrome plays an important role. The pancreas in
      VHL disease is not only site of benign lesions (cysts, serous systic adenomas)
      but also of potentially malignant (neuroendocrine) and malignant
      tumors(metastases).The gastroenterological manifestations can be the first
      symptoms of von Hippel-Lindau disease.

PMID- 28875970
TI  - [Evaluation of selected vascular active factors in patients after myocardial
      infarction subjected to cardiac rehabilitation].
AB  - : Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process that develops in the coronary
      arteries. Clinically active agents such as proinflammatory interleukins, TNF
      alpha, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (including TIMP-1), and vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF), are important factors in the development of
      acute coronary syndromes. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of
      cardiac rehabilitation (stage II) on the concentration of selected vascular
      active factors (IL- 1, IL-6, TIMP-1, VEGF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study
      involved 24 patients after ACS who underwent complex cardiac rehabilitation
      (stage II) in the Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiac Rehabilitation at
      the Medical University of Lodz. The study involved 20 men and 4 women aged 42-78
      years (average age 58.75 +/- 8.45 years). The ELISA method was used in the
      vascular endothelial cell assay using readymade sets for determining individual
      molecules: Human Quantum ELISA Kit (DTM100; R & D Systems, BIOKOM, Poland), Human
      VEGF Quantikine ELISA Kit (DVE00; R & D Systems, BIOKOM, Poland) Human IL-1 beta
      / IL-1F2 Quantikine ELISA Kit (DLB50; R & D Systems, BIOKOM, Poland), Human IL-6
      Quantikine ELISA Kit (D6050, R & D Systems, BIOKOM, Poland). TIMP-1 concentration
      is expressed in ng / ml, VEGF in pg / ml, IL-1 in pg / ml, IL-6 pg / ml. The
      results of the study were analyzed statistically at significance level p <0,05.
      RESULTS: There was no significant effect of cardiac rehabilitation on vascular
      endothelial factors: TIMP-1, VEGF, IL-6. Significant effect of cardiac
      rehabilitation was observed on the increase of IL-1 concentration (p=0.016).
      CONCLUSIONS: The absence of post-cardiac rehabilitation in patients after ACS,
      significant changes in vascular endothelial activity, confirm the hypothesis that
      adequate physical effort does not involve changes in blood concentrations and
      justifies perception of rehabilitation as a safe and risk-free intervention.

PMID- 28875971
TI  - [Exercise capacity in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis].
AB  - : Exertional dyspnea is a common manifestation of sarcoidosis. Cardiopulmonary
      exercise testing (CPET) is a useful tool to evaluate exercise tolerance of
      sarcoid patients. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate of exercise capacity
      in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis with regard to duration of the disease.
      Analysis of differences in physical tolerance between patients with cardiac
      sarcoidosis and without cardiac sarcoidosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 39 patients
      diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis were enrolled to our study. Cardiopulmonary
      exercise test was used to assess exercise capacity. According to time passed from
      diagnosis of sarcoidosis patients were grouped into 2 groups. Cardiac sarcoidosis
      was diagnosed in 9 subjects (23.07%). The control group consisted of 33 healthy
      volunteers. RESULTS: The results of the ergospirometry test in patients with lung
      sarcoidosis showed statistically significant differences in comparison to the
      control group. The age of patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis correlated
      negatively with maximal heart rate, oxygen consumption at peak exercise and at
      anaerobic threshold, breathing frequency at peak exercise, minute ventilation at
      peak exercise and metabolic equivalent. There was a negative, statistically
      significant correlation between the oxygen pulse at the peak of exercise and the
      treatment of steroids in the past. CONCLUSIONS: Exercise limitation in patients
      with pulmonary sarcoidosis is a consequence of both ventilatory and
      cardiocirculatory impairment. Patients with longer disease history of sarcoidosis
      achieved worse results at cardiopulmonary exercise test than patients with
      shorter disease history. Trend towards worse exercise tolerance in patients with
      cardiac sarcoidosis compared to patients without cardiac sarcoidosis was
      observed.

PMID- 28875972
TI  - [Gastroenterological manifestations of von Hippel-Lindau disease - a case
      report].
AB  - Gastrointestinal organs are involved in the course of von Hippel Lindau disease.
      Typically pancreas in von Hippel Lindau syndrome is a site of cystic and solid
      tumors. Differential diagnosis of pancreatic lesions includes benign lesions
      (cysts, serous cystic adenomas), potentially malignant (neuroendocrine) and
      malignant tumors(metastases).In this work we present a patient with VHL syndrome
      with pancreatic cysts and neuroendocrine tumor.

PMID- 28875973
TI  - [Butamirate citrate in control of cough in respiratory tract inflammation].
AB  - Cough is the reflex defense response of the respiratory tract to the present
      secretions in the throat, trachea and bronchi, and ongoing inflammation in the
      mucous membranes of the upper and lower respiratory tract. From a practical point
      of view, cough is dry (unproductive) and productive cough with expulsion of
      significant amounts of secretion. Drugs used to treat cough differ in both
      mechanism of action and pharmacokinetic activity. Butamirate citrate belongs to a
      new class of cough suppressants acting centrally through the receptors in the
      brainstem. In addition, it has a very beneficial effect, because it reduces the
      resistance in the airways by inhibiting bronchospasm and anti-inflammatory
      effect. It is rapidly absorbed after oral administration and its therapeutic
      plasma concentration is determined after 5-10 minutes of administration,
      irrespective of the dose. Possible side effects are rarely seen in 0.5-1% of
      patients, mainly in the form of skin rash, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, which
      usually resolves during treatment. The cough effect of most cough suppressants is
      good, but their mechanisms are different and for that reason they should be
      individually selected. An important asset of this group of drugs is peripheral
      activity and effects on bronchodilator muscles, such as in the case of
      butamirate. Inclusion of this feature is particularly beneficial in chronic
      inflammatory bronchial diseases.

PMID- 28875974
TI  - [Functional gastrointestinal disorders in children and adolescents. The Rome IV
      criteria].
AB  - In the work diagnostic criteria of functional disorders of the gastrointestinal
      tract in children and adolescents aged 4 to 18 years are presented. The criteria
      were elaborated by experienced experts in pediatrics and gastroenterology and
      were presented on Digestive Disease Week in San Diego in 2016 as modified IV Rome
      Criteria. In the work the following functional disorders are discussed: cyclic
      vomiting syndrome, functional nausea and vomiting, rumination syndrome,
      aerophagia, functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, abdominal migraine,
      functional abdominal pain - not otherwise specified, functional constipation,
      nonretentive fecal incontinence.

PMID- 28875975
TI  - [Autobiographical memory in depressive disorders].
AB  - Contemporary research studies regarding autobiographical memory (AM) indicate
      that its deficits have a significant impact on the development of mental
      disorders. We find particularly many reports regarding the comorbidity of AM
      deficits and depressive disorders. The characteristic feature of AM in the people
      suffering from depressive disorders is the presence of overgeneral
      autobiographical memory (OGM), i.e. the reminiscences which contain a summary of
      many emotion-laden situations, yet without significant detail. This type of
      reminiscences is observed in the patients with depressive disorders and the ones
      susceptible to the disease but not experiencing presently an episode of
      depression, as well as the ones being in the phase of disease remission. In
      recent years, the interest in the significance of negative thinking processes,
      such as ruminations, as risk factors in the development of depression has been
      growing. It is emphasized that they are significantly associated with the
      occurrence of OGM. Research shows that people suffering from OGM and
      characterised by a rumination-based style of processing experience a greater
      number of depressive episodes. There are also research studies which confirm that
      the activities aimed at reducing the number of ruminations influence an
      improvement of the detail level of reminiscences. These data may serve as
      valuable therapeutic advice in depression disorders. The aim of the paper is to
      present results of contemporary research regarding mutual interrelations between
      autobiographical memory dysfunctions and the occurrence of symptoms of depression
      and its course.

PMID- 28875976
TI  - [Atopic dermatitis - risk factors and treatment].
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease characterized by
      severe itching and eczematic skin lesions. In Poland from 1.5 to 2.5 million
      people suffer from AD. The pathophysiologic complexity and the wide spectrum of
      clinical phenotypes cause diagnostic and therapeutic problems and this is the
      basis for the division of the disease into subtypes. Heterogeneity of the disease
      is also confirmed in the study of the genotype of the disease. In relation with
      AZS more than 1000 loci in chromosomes were demonstrated. The roles of certain
      genes and the pathophysiology of lesions caused by their polymorphism were
      described. Wide spectrums of AD risk factors are: cigarette smoking, alcohol
      consumption during pregnancy, obesity and high and low birth weight. The quality
      of life in patients with AD is impaired, the disease disrupts family and
      professional relationships. Biological medical products are an example of an
      individual approach to the treatment of AD. It seems, individual approach to
      disease and treatment can be a successive solution to the problem.

PMID- 28875979
TI  - Abstracts from the 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting of the British and Irish
      Hypertension Society (BIHS).

PMID- 28875977
TI  - The life and death of immune cell types: the role of BCL-2 anti-apoptotic
      molecules.
AB  - Targeting survival mechanisms of immune cells may provide an avenue for immune
      intervention to dampen unwanted responses (e.g. autoimmunity, immunopathology and
      transplant rejection) or enhance beneficial ones (e.g. immune deficiency,
      microbial defence and cancer immunotherapy). The selective survival mechanisms of
      the various immune cell types also avails the possibility of specific tailoring
      of such interventions. Here, we review the role of the BCL-2 anti-apoptotic
      family members (BCL-2, BCL-XL, BCL-W, MCL-1 and A1) on cell death/survival of the
      major immune cell types, for example, T, NK, B, dendritic cell (DC) lineages.
      There is both selectivity and redundancy among this family. Selectivity comes
      partly from the expression levels in each of the cell types. For example,
      plasmacytoid DC express abundant BCL-2 and are susceptible to BCL-2 antagonism or
      deficiency, whereas conventional DC express abundant A1 and are susceptible to A1
      deficiency. There is, however, also functional redundancy; for example,
      overexpression of MCL-1 can override BCL-2 antagonism in plasmacytoid DC.
      Moreover, susceptibility to another anti-apoptotic family member can be unmasked,
      when one or other member is removed. These dual principles of selectivity and
      redundancy should guide the use of antagonists for manipulating immune cells.

PMID- 28875978
TI  - IL4 and IL21 cooperate to induce the high Bcl6 protein level required for
      germinal center formation.
AB  - Bcl6 (B-cell lymphoma 6) is a transcriptional repressor and critical mediator of
      the germinal center reaction during a T-cell-dependent antibody response, where
      it enables somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes and inhibits terminal
      differentiation via repression of Blimp1. It can also contribute to the
      development of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma when expressed inappropriately. Bcl6
      regulation is mediated both at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional
      levels, and in particular a strong signal through the B-cell receptor causes
      rapid proteasomal degradation of Bcl6. Despite the importance of Bcl6 in both
      immunity and cancer, little is known about how other extrinsic factors regulate
      Bcl6 in B cells. Here we show that Bcl6 is indeed highly unstable in B cells
      after a B-cell receptor (BCR) signal, but that the T-cell-derived cytokines
      interleukin 4 (IL4) and IL21 counteract BCR-mediated degradation, preserving Bcl6
      protein levels. Stat6, downstream of IL4, can induce Bcl6 transcription directly.
      In vivo, B-cell intrinsic loss of IL4 or IL21 signaling reduces the magnitude or
      duration of the GC response, respectively, while their combined loss almost
      completely eliminates the GC response. This work provides key insights into the
      effect mediated by T-follicular helper cytokines on Bcl6 regulation.

PMID- 28875980
TI  - Autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis: CERS3 mutations identified by a next
      generation sequencing panel targeting ichthyosis genes.
AB  - There are at least 38 mutant genes known to be associated with the ichthyosis
      phenotypes, and autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis (ARCI) is a specific
      subgroup caused by mutations in 13 different genes. Mutations in some of these
      genes, such as CERS3 with only two previous reports, are rare. In this study, we
      identified mutations in candidate genes in consanguineous families with ARCI with
      a next generation sequencing (NGS) array that incorporates 38 ichthyosis
      associated genes. We applied this sequencing array to DNA from 140 ichthyosis
      families with high prevalence of consanguinity. Among these patients we
      identified six distinct, previously unreported mutations in CERS3 in six Iranian
      families. These mutations in each family co-segregated with the ichthyosis
      phenotype. The patients demonstrated collodion membrane at birth, acrogeria,
      generalized scaling, and hyperlinearity of the palms and soles. The presence of a
      significant percentage of CERS3 mutations in our cohort depicts a marked
      difference between the etiology of ichthyoses in genetically poorly characterized
      regions and well-characterized western populations. Also, it shows that rare
      alleles are more prevalent in the gene pool of consanguineous populations and
      emphasizes the importance of these population studies for better understanding of
      ichthyosis pathogenesis.

PMID- 28875983
TI  - Enter the Nanoman.

PMID- 28875982
TI  - Cancer Immunotherapy: From local to global.

PMID- 28875981
TI  - Unraveling genetic predisposition to familial or early onset gastric cancer using
      germline whole-exome sequencing.
AB  - Recognition of individuals with a genetic predisposition to gastric cancer (GC)
      enables preventive measures. However, the underlying cause of genetic
      susceptibility to gastric cancer remains largely unexplained. We performed
      germline whole-exome sequencing on leukocyte DNA of 54 patients from 53 families
      with genetically unexplained diffuse-type and intestinal-type GC to identify
      novel GC-predisposing candidate genes. As young age at diagnosis and familial
      clustering are hallmarks of genetic tumor susceptibility, we selected patients
      that were diagnosed below the age of 35, patients from families with two cases of
      GC at or below age 60 and patients from families with three GC cases at or below
      age 70. All included individuals were tested negative for germline CDH1 mutations
      before or during the study. Variants that were possibly deleterious according to
      in silico predictions were filtered using several independent approaches that
      were based on gene function and gene mutation burden in controls. Despite a
      rigorous search, no obvious candidate GC predisposition genes were identified.
      This negative result stresses the importance of future research studies in large,
      homogeneous cohorts.

PMID- 28875985
TI  - Nanolasing: Multimode superlattice arrays.

PMID- 28875986
TI  - The power of the tiniest shoot.

PMID- 28875988
TI  - A cautionary note on graphene anti-corrosion coatings.

PMID- 28875984
TI  - Multiscale technologies for treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy.
AB  - The adult mammalian heart possesses only limited capacity for innate regeneration
      and the response to severe injury is dominated by the formation of scar tissue.
      Current therapy to replace damaged cardiac tissue is limited to cardiac
      transplantation and thus many patients suffer progressive decay in the heart's
      pumping capacity to the point of heart failure. Nanostructured systems have the
      potential to revolutionize both preventive and therapeutic approaches for
      treating cardiovascular disease. Here, we outline recent advancements in
      nanotechnology that could be exploited to overcome the major obstacles in the
      prevention of and therapy for heart disease. We also discuss emerging trends in
      nanotechnology affecting the cardiovascular field that may offer new hope for
      patients suffering massive heart attacks.

PMID- 28875989
TI  - The Current State of Pharmacological Treatments for Cannabis Use Disorder and
      Withdrawal.
AB  - Cannabis use disorder (CUD) commonly occurs and carries a notable economic and
      functional burden at both individual and societal levels. While there are no
      clearly efficacious medication treatments for CUD, 20 years of committed and high
      quality research in the human laboratory and clinical settings have resulted in
      medications with demonstrated effectiveness in the treatment of cannabis
      withdrawal, the ability to reduce cannabis use, and results that point to
      promising future work. The current state of pharmacology research for CUD
      highlights the need to consider particular characteristics of patients, such as
      gender, impulsivity, and severity of cannabis use, when selecting a medication in
      the off-label treatment of CUD or cannabis withdrawal. As a field, the body of
      work also exposes some areas in need of improvement in study design, selection of
      outcome measures, interpretation of results, and the overall process of
      evaluating candidate medications. Coming to a consensus as a field and addressing
      these gaps in future research will likely lend itself to further advances in
      improving the lives of patients with CUD.

PMID- 28875991
TI  - Nuclear Envelope: Chromosomes: one BAF layer to bind them all.

PMID- 28875992
TI  - Fluorescence nanoscopy in cell biology.
AB  - Fluorescence nanoscopy uniquely combines minimally invasive optical access to the
      internal nanoscale structure and dynamics of cells and tissues with molecular
      detection specificity. While the basic physical principles of 'super-resolution'
      imaging were discovered in the 1990s, with initial experimental demonstrations
      following in 2000, the broad application of super-resolution imaging to address
      cell-biological questions has only more recently emerged. Nanoscopy approaches
      have begun to facilitate discoveries in cell biology and to add new knowledge.
      One current direction for method improvement is the ambition to quantitatively
      account for each molecule under investigation and assess true molecular
      colocalization patterns via multi-colour analyses. In pursuing this goal, the
      labelling of individual molecules to enable their visualization has emerged as a
      central challenge. Extending nanoscale imaging into (sliced) tissue and whole
      animal contexts is a further goal. In this Review we describe the successes to
      date and discuss current obstacles and possibilities for further development.

PMID- 28875993
TI  - Cell organization by liquid phase separation.

PMID- 28875990
TI  - Clinical and Preclinical Evidence for Functional Interactions of Cannabidiol and
      Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol.
AB  - The plant Cannabis sativa, commonly called cannabis or marijuana, has been used
      for its psychotropic and mind-altering side effects for millennia. There has been
      growing attention in recent years on its potential therapeutic efficacy as
      municipalities and legislative bodies in the United States, Canada, and other
      countries grapple with enacting policy to facilitate the use of cannabis or its
      constituents for medical purposes. There are >550 chemical compounds and >100
      phytocannabinoids isolated from cannabis, including Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol
      (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is thought to produce the main psychoactive
      effects of cannabis, while CBD does not appear to have similar effects. Studies
      conflict as to whether CBD attenuates or exacerbates the behavioral and cognitive
      effects of THC. This includes effects of CBD on THC-induced anxiety, psychosis,
      and cognitive deficits. In this article, we review the available evidence on the
      pharmacology and behavioral interactions of THC and CBD from preclinical and
      human studies, particularly with reference to anxiety and psychosis-like
      symptoms. Both THC and CBD, as well as other cannabinoid molecules, are currently
      being evaluated for medicinal purposes, separately and in combination. Future
      cannabis-related policy decisions should include consideration of scientific
      findings, including the individual and interactive effects of CBD and THC.

PMID- 28875996
TI  - Nanoporous gold assemblies of calixarene-phosphine-capped colloids.
AB  - The synthesis of high surface-area colloidal assemblies of calixarene-phosphine
      capped nanoporous gold is reported under reductive electrochemical conditions.
      These materials uniquely exhibit a remarkably thin wall thickness down to 10 nm,
      while possessing pore sizes on the order of up to hundreds of nanometers, which
      can be controlled via choice of organic ligand.

PMID- 28875997
TI  - Molecular conformations of DNA targets captured by model nanoarrays.
AB  - An open question in single molecule nanoarrays is how the chemical and
      morphological heterogeneities of the solid support affect the properties of
      biomacromolecules. We generated arrays that allowed individually-resolvable DNA
      molecules to interact with tailored surface heterogeneities and revealed how
      molecular conformations are impacted by surface interactions.

PMID- 28875995
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects of octadecylamine-functionalized nanodiamond on primary
      human macrophages.
AB  - Chronic inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis are characterized by
      excessive pro-inflammatory or "M1" activation of macrophages, the primary cells
      of the innate immune system. Current treatments include delivery of
      glucocorticoids (e.g. dexamethasone - Dex), which reduce pro-inflammatory M1
      behaviour in macrophages. However, these treatments have many off-target effects
      on cells other than macrophages, resulting in broad immunosuppression. To limit
      such side effects, drug-incorporated nano- and microparticles may be used to
      selectively target macrophages via phagocytosis, because of their roles as highly
      effective phagocytes in the body. In this study, surface-modified nanodiamond
      (ND) was explored as a platform for the delivery of dexamethasone to macrophages
      because of ND's rich surface chemistry, which contributes to ND's high potential
      as a versatile drug delivery platform. After finding that octadecylamine
      functionalized nanodiamond (ND-ODA) enhanced adsorption of Dex compared to
      carboxylated ND, the effects of Dex, ND-ODA, and Dex-adsorbed ND-ODA on primary
      human macrophage gene expression were characterized. Surprisingly, even in the
      absence of Dex, ND-ODA had strong anti-inflammatory effects, as determined by
      multiplex gene expression via NanoString and by protein secretion analysis via
      ELISA. ND-ODA also inhibited expression of M2a markers yet increased the
      expression of M2c markers and phagocytic receptors. Interestingly, the adsorption
      of Dex to ND-ODA further increased some anti-inflammatory effects, but abrogated
      the effect on phagocytic receptors, compared to its individual components.
      Overall, the ability of ND-ODA to promote anti-inflammatory and pro-phagocytic
      behaviour in macrophages, even in the absence of loaded drugs, suggests its
      potential for use as an anti-inflammatory therapeutic to directly target
      macrophages through phagocytosis.

PMID- 28875994
TI  - The emerging complexity of the tRNA world: mammalian tRNAs beyond protein
      synthesis.
AB  - The discovery of the genetic code and tRNAs as decoders of the code transformed
      life science. However, after establishing the role of tRNAs in protein synthesis,
      the field moved to other parts of the RNA world. Now, tRNA research is blooming
      again, with demonstration of the involvement of tRNAs in various other pathways
      beyond translation and in adapting translation to environmental cues. These roles
      are linked to the presence of tRNA sequence variants known as isoacceptors and
      isodecoders, various tRNA base modifications, the versatility of protein binding
      partners and tRNA fragmentation events, all of which collectively create an
      incalculable complexity. This complexity provides a vast repertoire of tRNA
      species that can serve various functions in cellular homeostasis and in
      adaptation of cellular functions to changing environments, and it likely arose
      from the fundamental role of RNAs in early evolution.

PMID- 28875998
TI  - Large-scale immuno-magnetic cell sorting of T cells based on a self-designed high
      throughput system for potential clinical application.
AB  - In this contribution, we designed four types of immuno-magnetic nanoparticles for
      separation of different T cells (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD14+ T cells), and we
      established a new large-scale immuno-magnetic cell sorting procedure to achieve
      an enrichment of particular T cells using our designed auto-IMACS device. This
      device could achieve recyclable large-scale cell sorting, for which the
      throughput of the system reached ~4000 mL and the maximum cell capacity was 4 *
      1010. The collected cells were analyzed by flow cytometry and visual cytology
      data, and the effective selection rates of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD14+ T cells
      were 79.3%, 74.1%, 57.1% and 67.9%, respectively. The sorted CD8+ T cells still
      retained good cytotoxic activity against specific cells. In addition, the sorted
      T cells can also be further incubated in vitro and proliferated, and even could
      be infused back into patients for immunotherapy in the near future.

PMID- 28875999
TI  - A comparison of the human and mouse protein corona profiles of functionalized
      SiO2 nanocarriers.
AB  - Nanoparticles are a promising cancer therapy for their use as drug carriers given
      their versatile functionalization with polyethylene glycol and proteins that can
      be recognized by overexpressed receptors in tumor cells. However, it has been
      suggested that in biological fluids, proteins cover nanoparticles, which gives
      the proteins a biological identity that could be responsible for unexpected
      biological responses: the so-called protein corona. A relevant biological event
      that is usually ignored in protein-corona formation is the interspecies
      differences in protein binding, which can be involved in the discrepancies
      observed in preclinical studies and the nanoparticle safety and efficiency.
      Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the differences between human and
      mouse plasma protein corona profiles in an active therapy model using silicon
      dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2 nanoparticles) functionalized with polyethylene
      glycol and transferrin. Functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles were made with a
      primary particle size of 25 nm and a transferrin content of 50 MUg mg-1 of
      nanoparticles and were PEGylated with a cross-linker. The proteomic analysis by
      nanoliquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS) showed
      interspecies differences. The most abundant proteins found in the human protein
      corona profile were immunoglobulins, actin cytoplasmic 1, hemoglobin subunit
      beta, serotransferrin, ficolin-3, complement C3, and apolipoprotein A-1.
      Meanwhile, the mouse protein corona adsorbed the serine protease inhibitor A3K,
      serotransferrin, alpha-1-antitrypsin 1-2, hemoglobin subunit beta, and fibrinogen
      gamma and beta chains. These protein-corona profile differences in the
      functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles indicate that biological responses observed in
      in vivo models could not be translated to clinical use and must be considered in
      the interpretation of preclinical trials in order to design more efficient and
      safer nanomedicines.

PMID- 28876000
TI  - Efficient and long-lifetime full-color light-emitting diodes using high
      luminescence quantum yield thick-shell quantum dots.
AB  - We report full-color quantum-dot-based light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) with high
      efficiency and long-lifetime by employing high quantum-yield core/shell QDs with
      thick shells. The increased shell thickness improves the confinement of excitons
      in the QD cores, and helps to suppress Auger recombination and Forster resonant
      energy transfer among QDs. Along with optimizing the QD emitting layer thickness
      and hole transport materials, we achieved significant improvements in device
      performance as a result of increasing the QD shell thickness to above 5 nm. By
      using poly[9,9-dioctylfluorene-co-N-[4-(3-methylpropyl)]-diphenylamine] (TFB) as
      a HTL with a 38 nm thick QD layer, these QLEDs show maximum current efficiencies
      of 18.9 cd A-1, 53.4 cd A-1, and 2.94 cd A-1, and peak external quantum
      efficiencies (EQEs) of 10.2%, 15.4%, and 15.6% for red, green, and blue QLEDs,
      respectively, all of which are well maintained over a wide range of luminances
      from 102 to 104 cd m-2. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of
      blue QLEDs with etaEQE > 15%. Most importantly, these devices also possess long
      lifetimes with T70 (the time at which the brightness is reduced to 70% of its
      initial value) of 117 h (red, with an initial luminance of 8000 cd m-2), 84 h
      (green, 6000 cd m-2) and 47 h (blue, 420 cd m-2). With further optimization of QD
      processing and device structures, these LEDs based on thick-shell QDs show great
      promise for use in next-generation full-color displays and lighting devices.

PMID- 28876002
TI  - Engineering biodegradable guanidyl-decorated PEG-PCL nanoparticles as robust
      exogenous activators of DCs and antigen cross-presentation.
AB  - Nanoparticles (NPs)-based adjuvants are attracting much attention in the
      development of vaccines. Previously, we reported a type of guanidyl-decorated
      polymeric NPs used as antigen delivery carriers for the first time. However, its
      un-degradability may restrict potential clinical translation. More importantly,
      the specific cellular pathway by which dendritic cells (DCs) endocytosed these
      NPs and the relationship among guanidyl with the antigen cross-presentation,
      cytokine secretion, and lymph node targeting still remain unclear. Here, we show
      NPs assembled by biodegradable methoxyl poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(epsilon
      caprolactone)-graft-poly(2-(guanidyl) ethyl methacrylate) (mPEG-b-PCL-g-PGEM,
      PECG) copolymers can robustly activate DCs and promote their maturation;
      additionally antigen cross-presentation was improved both in vitro and in vivo.
      Significantly, our results also demonstrate the increase of surface guanidyl on
      nanoparticles modulates the depot effect and lymph node drainage of PECG NPs
      based adjuvants, as well as immune responses, by regulating the secretion of
      cytokines including IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. Our study provides insights into the
      action of guanidyl-decorated nanoscale adjuvants and new adjuvants for vaccines
      containing protein antigens. We anticipate the strategy of guanidyl decoration to
      be a starting point for the development of more exciting immunoadjuvants.

PMID- 28876001
TI  - Smart candle soot coated membranes for on-demand immiscible oil/water mixture and
      emulsion switchable separation.
AB  - Oil/water separation is of great importance for the treatment of oily wastewater,
      including immiscible light/heavy oil-water mixtures, oil-in-water or water-in-oil
      emulsions. Smart surfaces with responsive wettability have received extensive
      attention especially for controllable oil/water separation. However, traditional
      smart membranes with a switchable wettability between superhydrophobicity and
      superhydrophilicity are limited to certain responsive materials and continuous
      external stimuli, such as pH, electrical field or light irradiation. Herein, a
      candle soot coated mesh (CSM) with a larger pore size and a candle soot coated
      PVDF membrane (CSP) with a smaller pore size with underwater superoleophobicity
      and underoil superhydrophobicity were successfully fabricated, which can be used
      for on-demand immiscible oil/water mixtures and surfactants-stabilized oil/water
      emulsion separation, respectively. Without any continuous external stimulus, the
      wettability of our membranes could be reversibly switched between underwater
      superoleophobicity and underoil superhydrophobicity simply by drying and washing
      alternately, thus achieving effective and switchable oil/water separation with
      excellent separation efficiency. We believe that such smart materials will be
      promising candidates for use in the removal of oil pollutants in the future.

PMID- 28876003
TI  - Preventing sintering of nanoclusters on graphene by radical adsorption.
AB  - Metal nanoclusters, supported on inert substrates, exhibiting well-defined shapes
      and sizes in a broad range of temperatures are a major object of desire in
      nanotechnology. Here, a technique is presented that improves the thermal
      stability of monodisperse and crystalline transition metal nanoclusters grown in
      a regular array on metal-supported graphene. To stabilize the clusters after
      growth under ultrahigh vacuum the system composed of the aggregates and the
      graphene/metal interface is exposed to radicals resulting from the dissociation
      of diatomic gases. As a model system we have used Pt as the metal element for
      cluster growth and the template consisting of the moire pattern resulting from
      the lattice mismatch between graphene and the Ir(111) surface. The study has been
      performed for deuterium and oxygen radicals, which interact very differently with
      graphene. Our results reveal that after radical exposure the thermally activated
      motion of Pt nanoclusters to adjacent moire cells and the subsequent sintering of
      neighbor aggregates are avoided, most pronounced for the case of atomic O. For
      the case of D the limits of the improvement are given by radical desorption,
      whereas for the case of O they are defined by an interplay between coalescence
      and graphene etching followed by Pt intercalation, which can be controlled by the
      amount of exposure. Finally, we determined the mechanism of how radical
      adsorption improves the thermal stability of the aggregates.

PMID- 28876004
TI  - Graphite particles induce ROS formation in cell free systems and human cells.
AB  - It is commonly accepted that the toxicity of carbonaceous particulate matter (PM)
      is due to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which induce biological
      damage in the exposed cells. It is also known that PM produced during the
      combustion processes consists of a carbonaceous core "dressed" with other organic
      and/or inorganic materials. In spite of this knowledge, the role of these
      materials in the production of ROS has not yet been clear. This work aims at
      understanding whether "naked" carbonaceous particles are capable of forming ROS
      either in cell-free or in-cell systems. The problem has been treated based on the
      data collected from pure graphite samples of different sizes obtained by ball
      milling pure graphite for various lengths of time. The experimental approach
      considered Raman, ESR (spin trapping), cell viability and fluorescence
      spectroscopy measurements. These techniques allowed us to carry out measurements
      both in cell and cell-free systems and the results consistently indicate that
      also pure naked carbonaceous particles can catalyze the electron transfer that
      produces superoxide ions. The process depends on the particle size and enlightens
      the role of the edges of the graphitic platelets. Evidence has been collected
      that even "naked" graphitic nanoparticles are capable of producing ROS and
      decreasing the cell viability thus representing a potential danger to human
      health.

PMID- 28876005
TI  - The mechanism of excimer formation: an experimental and theoretical study on the
      pyrene dimer.
AB  - The understanding of excimer formation in organic materials is of fundamental
      importance, since excimers profoundly influence their functional performance in
      applications such as light-harvesting, photovoltaics or organic electronics. We
      present a joint experimental and theoretical study of the ultrafast dynamics of
      excimer formation in the pyrene dimer in a supersonic jet, which is the archetype
      of an excimer forming system. We perform simulations of the nonadiabatic
      photodynamics in the frame of TDDFT that reveal two distinct excimer formation
      pathways in the gas-phase dimer. The first pathway involves local excited state
      relaxation close to the initial Franck-Condon geometry that is characterized by a
      strong excitation of the stacking coordinate exhibiting damped oscillations with
      a period of 350 fs that persist for several picoseconds. The second excimer
      forming pathway involves large amplitude oscillations along the parallel shift
      coordinate with a period of ~900 fs that after intramolecular vibrational energy
      redistribution leads to the formation of a perfectly stacked dimer. The
      electronic relaxation within the excitonic manifold is mediated by the presence
      of intermolecular conical intersections formed between fully delocalized
      excitonic states. Such conical intersections may generally arise in stacked pi
      conjugated aggregates due to the interplay between the long-range and short-range
      electronic coupling. The simulations are supported by picosecond photoionization
      experiments in a supersonic jet that provide a time-constant for the excimer
      formation of around 6-7 ps, in good agreement with theory. Finally, in order to
      explore how the crystal environment influences the excimer formation dynamics we
      perform large scale QM/MM nonadiabatic dynamics simulations on a pyrene crystal
      in the framework of the long-range corrected tight-binding TDDFT. In contrast to
      the isolated dimer, the excimer formation in the crystal follows a single
      reaction pathway in which the initially excited parallel slip motion is strongly
      damped by the interaction with the surrounding molecules leading to the slow
      excimer stabilization on a picosecond time scale.

PMID- 28876006
TI  - Charge storage performances and mechanisms of MnO2 nanospheres, nanorods,
      nanotubes and nanosheets.
AB  - Manganese dioxide (MnO2) has been widely used as an active material for high
      performance supercapacitors due to its high theoretical capacitance, high cycling
      stability, low cost, and environmental friendliness. However, the effect of its
      crystallographic phase on charge storage performances and mechanisms is not yet
      clear. Herein, MnO2-based supercapacitors with different structures including
      nanospheres, nanorods, nanotubes, and nanosheets have been fabricated and
      investigated. Among such structures, delta-MnO2 nanosheets exhibit the highest
      specific capacitance of 194.3 F g-1 at 1 A g-1 when compared with other phases
      and shapes. The maximum specific energy of the delta-MnO2 nanosheet
      supercapacitor is 23.4 W h kg-1 at 971.6 W kg-1 and the maximum specific power is
      4009.2 W kg-1 at 15.9 W h kg-1 with a capacity retention of 97% over 15 000
      cycles. The delta-MnO2 nanosheet mainly stores charges via a diffusion-controlled
      mechanism at the scan rates of 10-100 mV s-1, whilst the alpha-MnO2 with
      different morphologies including nanospheres, nanorods, and nanotubes store
      charges via a non-faradaic or non-diffusion controlled process especially at fast
      scan rates (50-100 mV s-1). Understanding the charge storage performance and
      mechanism of the MnO2 nanostructures with different crystallographic phases and
      morphologies may lead to the further development of supercapacitors.

PMID- 28876007
TI  - Calcium stilbene complexes: structures and dual reactivity.
AB  - Addition of a calcium hydride complex to diphenylacetylene gave a complex in
      which the stilbene dianion symmetrically bridges two Ca2+ ions. DFT calculations
      discuss the effect of the metal stilbene coordination. The stilbene complex
      reacts as a base (with H2) or an electron donor (with I2) and catalyzes the
      reduction of diphenylacetylene.

PMID- 28876008
TI  - A two-step solid-state reaction to synthesize the yellow persistent
      Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce3+ phosphor with an enhanced optical performance for AC-LEDs.
AB  - By using a two-step solid-state reaction to synthesize the yellow-persistent
      Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce3+ phosphor, both the luminescence and afterglow properties were
      greatly enhanced. Its internal quantum efficiency reaches as high as 81.9%,
      indicating its promising application in reducing the flicker effect in AC-LED
      based white light systems.

PMID- 28876009
TI  - Cyclohexa-1,3-diene-based dihydrogen and hydrosilane surrogates in B(C6F5)3
      catalysed transfer processes.
AB  - The cyclohexa-1,3-diene motif is introduced as an equally effective alternative
      to the cyclohexa-1,4-diene platform in B(C6F5)3-catalysed transfer processes. The
      transfer hydrogenation of alkenes is realised with alpha-terpinene and the
      related transfer hydrosilylation is achieved with 5-trimethylsilyl-substituted
      cyclohexa-1,3-diene. Both yields and substrate scope are comparable with the
      prior systems.

PMID- 28876010
TI  - Rapid synthesis of lipid nanoparticles containing hydrophobic inorganic
      nanoparticles.
AB  - A straightforward "bottom-up" synthesis is described for efficient entrapment of
      inorganic hydrophobic nanoparticles (HNPs) consisting of iron oxide, gold, or
      quantum dots within the hydrophobic core of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). These
      LNPs consist of hydrophobic "core" lipids such as triolein surrounded by a
      monolayer of amphipathic "surface" lipids, such as phosphatidylcholine and
      polyethylene-glycol-lipid. It is shown that rapid, controlled mixing of HNPs,
      core lipids and surface lipids in an organic solvent with an aqueous phase
      resulted in stable, monodisperse LNPs containing HNPs (LNP-HNP). This method
      allows 40-fold more hydrophobic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) to be entrapped
      within an LNP than previous methods and can be readily extended to encapsulate
      other HNPs. The LNP-HNP diameter can be modulated over the range of 35-150 nm by
      varying the flow rate during particle synthesis or by varying the core-to-surface
      lipid ratio. LNP-IONPs can be generated using a variety of "core" lipids,
      including other triglycerides as well as cholesteryl-palmitate and tocopherol.
      Finally, it is shown that LNP-IONPs are accumulated in the liver, resulting in
      enhanced contrast for in vivo MRI. It is concluded that the bottom-up approach
      for encapsulating HNPs within LNPs has advantages of homogeneity, reproducibility
      and stability required for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28876011
TI  - A study of the prebiotic-like effects of tomato juice consumption in rats with
      diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
AB  - Gut microbiota may play a role in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. We investigated
      whether tomato juice consumption for 5 weeks could ameliorate high-fat diet
      induced alterations in certain intestinal bacterial groups and products arising
      from their metabolism (short-chain fatty acids and microbial phenolic
      catabolites). For this, we used a rat model with NAFLD induced by a high-fat
      diet, involving four experimental groups: NA (standard diet and water), NL
      (standard diet and tomato juice), HA (high-fat diet and water) and HL (high-fat
      diet and tomato juice). The onset of NAFLD impacted the gut microbiota profile,
      reducing the abundance of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus and increasing that
      of Enterobacteriaceae. Also, reduced concentrations of propionate, butyrate and
      phenolic catabolites and an increased acetate to propionate (Ac : Pr) ratio were
      observed. Tomato juice intake partially ameliorated high-fat diet-induced
      disturbances, particularly by increasing Lactobacillus abundance and diminishing
      the Ac : Pr ratio, suggesting a potential improvement of the metabolic pattern of
      NAFLD.

PMID- 28876012
TI  - First-principles investigation of quantum emission from hBN defects.
AB  - Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has recently emerged as a fascinating platform for
      room-temperature quantum photonics due to the discovery of robust visible light
      single-photon emitters. In order to utilize these emitters, it is necessary to
      have a clear understanding of their atomic structure and the associated
      excitation processes that give rise to this single photon emission. Here, we
      performed density-functional theory (DFT) and constrained DFT calculations for a
      range of hBN point defects in order to identify potential emission candidates. By
      applying a number of criteria on the electronic structure of the ground state and
      the atomic structure of the excited states of the considered defects, and then
      calculating the Huang-Rhys (HR) factor, we found that the CBVN defect, in which a
      carbon atom substitutes a boron atom and the opposite nitrogen atom is removed,
      is a potential emission source with a HR factor of 1.66, in good agreement with
      the experimental HR factor. We calculated the photoluminescence (PL) line shape
      for this defect and found that it reproduces a number of key features in the
      experimental PL lineshape.

PMID- 28876013
TI  - Synthesis of lipo-chitooligosaccharide analogues and their interaction with LYR3,
      a high affinity binding protein for Nod factors and Myc-LCOs.
AB  - Lipo-chitotetrasaccharide analogues where one central GlcNAc residue was replaced
      by a triazole unit have been synthesized from a derivative obtained by chitin
      depolymerization and a functionalized N-acetyl-glucosamine via the copper
      catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition. Their evaluation in a binding assay using
      LYR3, a putative lipo-chitooligosaccharide receptor in Medicago truncatula, shows
      a complete loss of binding.

PMID- 28876014
TI  - Tracking the restructuring of oxidized silver-indium nanoparticles under a
      reducing atmosphere by environmental HRTEM.
AB  - Multimetallic nano-alloys display a structure and consequently physicochemical
      properties evolving in a reactive environment. Following and understanding this
      evolution is therefore crucial for future applications in gas sensing and
      heterogeneous catalysis. In view hereof, the structural evolution of oxidized
      Ag25In75 bimetallic nanoparticles under varying H2 partial pressures (PH2) and
      substrate temperatures (Ts) has been investigated in real-time through
      environmental transmission microscopy (E-TEM) while maintaining the atomic
      resolution. Small Ag25In75 bimetallic nanoparticles, produced by laser
      vaporization, are found (after air transfer) to contain an indium-oxide shell
      surrounding a silver-rich alloyed phase. For high PH2 and Ts, the direct
      reduction of the indium oxide shell, immediately followed by the melting or the
      diffusion onto the carbon substrate of the reduced indium atoms, is found to be
      the dominant mechanism. This reduction is concomitant with the growth of the
      core, indicating a partial diffusion of indium atoms from the shell towards the
      particle volume. The "surviving" particles therefore consist of a silver-indium
      alloy, very stable and remarkably resistant against oxidation contrary to native
      clusters. Interestingly, in the (PH2, Ts) space, the transition from "soft" (core
      shell particles for low (PH2, Ts) values) to "strong" reduction conditions
      (silver-rich alloys for high (PH2, Ts) products) defines an intermediate domain
      where the preferred formation of Janus structures is detected. These results are
      discussed in terms of thermodynamic driving forces in relation to alloying and
      interface energies. This work shows the potential of high-resolution ETEM for
      unravelling the mechanisms of nanoparticle reorganization in a chemically
      reactive environment.

PMID- 28876015
TI  - Molecular attochemistry in non-polar liquid environments: ultrafast charge
      migration dynamics through gold-thiolate and gold-selenolate linkages.
AB  - Molecular attosecond science has already started contributing to our fundamental
      understanding of ultrafast purely electron dynamics in isolated molecules under
      vacuum. Extending attosecond science to the liquid phase is expected to offer new
      insight into the influence of a surrounding solvent environment on the attosecond
      electron dynamics in solvated molecules. A systematic theoretical investigation
      of the attochemistry of solvated molecules would help one design attosecond
      experiments under ambient conditions to explore the attochemistry in a liquid
      environment. With this goal in mind, for the first time, we have explored the
      attochemistry of molecules surrounded by different non-polar solvent
      environments. For this work, we have focused on the attosecond charge conduction
      through gold-thiolate and gold-selenolate linkages following the vertical
      ionization of the S/Se(CH3)-CH2-phenyl-X unit anchored to a gold dimeric cluster
      (Au2), where X represents either a strong electron donating N(CH3)2 group or a
      strong electron withdrawing NO2 group. To model solvation effects on the
      attochemistry of molecules containing gold-chalcogen linkages, we have used an
      implicit solvent model (Polarizable Continuum Model) under the density functional
      theory (DFT) formalism for non-polar solvents. We have found that the charge
      migration time scale in molecules becomes faster in the presence of the solvent
      environment as compared to that under vacuum. Charge oscillation does not damp
      quickly in molecules surrounded by the solvent environment as compared to that
      under vacuum. Furthermore, the direction of the charge migration may change in
      molecules when they are surrounded by the solvent environment as compared to that
      under vacuum. Thus, the present work has laid the foundation, for the first time,
      for thinking of the attochemistry into the realm of liquids.

PMID- 28876017
TI  - Catalyst-free synthesis of 3-sulfone nitrile from sulfonyl hydrazides and
      acrylonitrile in water.
AB  - A novel catalyst-free sulfonation reaction for synthesizing 3-sulfone nitrile
      compounds from sulfonyl hydrazides and acrylonitriles in water, without any metal
      catalyst, ligand or organic solvent, was demonstrated. This catalyst-free
      protocol provides a new synthetic method for the construction of 3-sulfone
      nitrile compounds with excellent yields. The D2O experiment adequately proved
      that the catalyst-free sulfonation reaction occurs via a Michael addition
      mechanism and that the hydrogen of 3-sulfone nitrile comes from water.

PMID- 28876016
TI  - Bioaccumulation of hexachlorobutadiene in pumpkin seedlings after waterborne
      exposure.
AB  - Hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) has been listed as a persistent organic pollutant
      (POP) in the Stockholm Convention, and is now drawing more and more research
      interest. However, the understanding of its bioaccumulation, especially in
      plants, is still very limited. In this work, the behavior of HCBD in aqueous
      solution and pumpkin seedlings was studied through in-lab hydroponic exposure
      experiments. It was found that 69% of HCBD volatilized from water to the
      atmosphere after one day of exposure, and only 1% remained in the solution after
      four days. This high volatility might be the main cause of the low HCBD levels in
      aqueous environments. Although a great amount of HCBD volatilized into the
      atmosphere, only a small proportion of airborne HCBD was captured by the leaves
      and stems of the blank pumpkin seedling controls. The translocation of HCBD from
      the leaves to the bottom roots, as well as its release from the roots into the
      water, was detected. For the exposure groups, the pumpkin seedlings absorbed HCBD
      from both the hydroponic solution and the air via the roots and leaves,
      respectively. The concentration of HCBD in the exposed pumpkin roots linearly
      increased with the continuous addition of HCBD into the exposure system. Upward
      translocation from the roots to the leaves and downward translocation from the
      leaves to the roots existed simultaneously in the exposed pumpkin seedlings.
      However, the concentrations of HCBD in the leaves, stems and roots in the
      exposure group were much higher than those of the blank plant controls,
      suggesting little contribution from the airborne HCBD in the hydroponically
      exposed pumpkin seedlings. The lipid content did not show obvious effects on the
      bioaccumulation and biodistribution of HCBD in the pumpkin seedlings, indicating
      that the translocation of HCBD within the pumpkin seedlings might be an active
      process. This study provided new findings on the environmental behavior of HCBD,
      which will be helpful for understanding the exposure risks.

PMID- 28876018
TI  - Gold-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization/condensation sequence: synthesis of 1,2
      dihydro[c][2,7]naphthyridines.
AB  - An efficient gold-catalyzed synthetic protocol for the construction of 1,2
      dihydro[c][2,7]naphthyridines from 2-aminophenyl prop-2-yn-1-yl enaminones has
      been developed. In this organic transformation new C-C and C-N bond formations
      occur via 6-endo-dig cyclization and condensation. 1,2
      Dihydro[c][2,7]naphthyridine derivatives were obtained in good to excellent
      yields in a one-pot synthesis at ambient temperature.

PMID- 28876019
TI  - Cerium-catalyzed, oxidative synthesis of annulated, tetrasubstituted dihydrofuran
      derivatives.
AB  - Densely functionalized, annulated dihydrofuran derivatives are prepared by a
      cerium-catalyzed aerobic oxidation reaction. The operationally simple
      transformation is environmentally and economically benign, since the precatalyst
      CeCl3.7H2O is non-toxic and inexpensive and the oxidant is simply dioxygen from
      air. Starting materials are beta-oxoesters and silylenolethers, and the latter
      are derived from acetoacetate or acetylacetone. The reaction sequence is
      performed in one flask and consists of alpha-oxidation and Mukaiyama aldol
      reaction. Apart from tetrahydrocyclopenta[b]furan derivatives one example of a
      tetrahydrofuro[3,4-b]furan and one tetrahydro-3aH-furo[2,3-c]pyrrole derivative
      are prepared.

PMID- 28876020
TI  - Photophysics of N,N-dimethyl-3-(1-indolyl)propan-1-ammonium chloride and related
      derivatives.
AB  - The photophysical properties of two new indole derivatives have been examined by
      steady-state and dynamic spectroscopic methods. The ground-state structures and
      conformations of 3-(1-indolyl)-N,N-dimethylpropan-1-ammonium chloride (InCl) and
      3-(1-indolyl)-N,N,N-trimethylpropan-1-ammonium chloride (MeInCl) have been
      examined through density functional theory calculations. These calculations
      reveal a preference for a 'closed' conformation which places the cationic
      ammonium group in proximity to the pi-electron cloud in low polarity
      environments. This interaction is best described as an intramolecular hydrogen-pi
      bond in the case of InCl and a cation-pi interaction for MeInCl. The ground-state
      conformational equilibria are influenced by changes in the dielectric constant of
      the solvent, resulting in a variety of photophysical behaviors. The
      excitation/emission spectra, fluorescence quantum yields, and excited-state
      lifetimes, are reported for InCl, MeInCl, and a reference compound, 1
      methylindole, in 1,4-dioxane (epsilon = 2), acetonitrile (epsilon = 37), and
      water (epsilon = 78) where solubility allows. Data from these solvents provide
      evidence for independent fluorescence quenching pathways for InCl and MeInCl. In
      addition, they lead to insights into the complexities of indole photophysics by
      demonstrating the sensitivity of the locally-excited states to changes in charge
      density and solvent environment.

PMID- 28876021
TI  - First principles study of the Mn-doping effect on the physical and chemical
      properties of mullite-family Al2SiO5.
AB  - Transition metal (TM) modification is a common strategy for converting an earth
      abundant mineral into a cost-effective catalyst for industrial applications.
      Among a variety of minerals, Al2SiO5, which has three phases, andalusite,
      sillimanite and kyanite, is emerging as a promising candidate for new catalyst
      development. In this paper, we use Mn to demonstrate the rationale of 3d TM
      doping at the Al sites in each of these three phases through first-principles
      calculations and the cluster expansion method. The results of cluster expansion
      show that Mn has a strong site preference for the six-coordinated Al octahedral
      chains in the andalusite and sillimanite phases, while distributing randomly in
      the kyanite phase. Moreover, Mn can only replace Al in sillimanite and kyanite in
      low concentrations; however, higher concentrations of Mn can replace Al in
      andalusite. We found that the concentration sensitivity is due to the Jahn-Teller
      distortion and 3d orbital splitting. This finding can also explain the low doping
      concentrations of other 3d TMs (Fe, Cr and V) in Al2SiO5 compounds. Based on the
      calculated Helmholtz free energy, we constructed a (MnxAl1-x)AlSiO5 temperature
      composite phase diagram, which explains the physical mechanisms behind the
      results for 3d transition metal doping and phase transitions in Al2SiO5. This
      work could shed light on the related physics, chemistry, and geoscience of
      (MnxAl1-x)AlSiO5, and more importantly, a design rationale for the engineering of
      cheap catalysts.

PMID- 28876022
TI  - Shape and size dependent nonlinear refraction and absorption in citrate
      stabilized, near-IR plasmonic silver nanopyramids.
AB  - Using a combination of a mild stabilizer and a mild reductant, sodium citrate and
      hydrazine hydrate, anisotropic silver nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized with
      tunable plasmon peaks at 550 nm, 700 nm, 800 nm, 900 nm and 1010 nm (the samples
      are named Ag-550, Ag-700, Ag-800, Ag-900 and Ag-1010, respectively). TEM
      investigations revealed that Ag-550 NCs were pentagonal nanoplates while the
      other four samples were nanopyramids with a pentagonal base with the edge length
      varying between 15 and 30 nm. The non-linear optical (NLO) properties of these
      NCs were studied by the Z-scan technique using the CW He-Ne laser (632.8 nm, 15
      mW). The shape change from 2D nanoplates (Ag-550) to 3D nanopyramids (Ag-700)
      resulted in sign reversal of the non-linear refractive index, n2, from a negative
      (-3.164 * 10-8 cm2 W-1) to a positive one (1.195 * 10-8 cm2 W-1). This
      corresponds to a change from a self-defocussing effect to a self-focussing one.
      Besides shape, the size effect is also prominently observed. Amongst
      nanopyramids, as the edge length increases, n2 increases linearly and reaches a
      maximum of 3.124 * 10-8 cm2 W-1. Doubling the edge length from 15 nm to 30 nm
      resulted in 162% increase in n2. On moving from Ag-550 to Ag-900 NCs, with the
      increasing plasmon wavelength, the non-linear absorption (NLA) coefficient
      increased exponentially to a high value of 8.52 * 10-4 cm W-1. However, Ag-1010
      showed 29% decrease in NLA which is attributed to twinning present in the crystal
      structure as seen in the HR-TEM images. Due to the tunable NLO properties, these
      anisotropic Ag NCs hold great potential for applications in optical limiting,
      switching and data storage.

PMID- 28876023
TI  - Finite size effects of ionic species sensitively determine load bearing
      capacities of lubricated systems under combined influence of electrokinetics and
      surface compliance.
AB  - The behaviour and health of lubricated systems in various natural and artificial
      settings are often characterized by their load bearing capacity. This capacity
      stemming from the lift force associated with confined fluid flow can be
      significantly altered due to surface compliance and electrokinetic effects. Here,
      we highlight the influence of finite size of the ionic species participating in
      electrokinetic transport with substrate compliance in determining the
      electromechanical characteristics of lubricated systems. With these new
      considerations, anomalous trends previously observed for the load bearing
      capacity corresponding to high values of zeta potential are corrected.
      Simultaneously, trends associated with the finite ionic size are also found to be
      reversed, but fall in line with the consistent theory. Importantly, despite an
      intricate interplay among the various influences - electrokinetic, hydrodynamic,
      geometric, and elastic - previously established trends due to geometric (non
      parallel slider geometry) and elastic effects are found to persist. Specifically,
      in the presence of electrokinetic effects, an increase in the obliqueness of the
      slider geometry results in lower values of load bearing capacity while an
      increase in the stiffness leads to higher values. These results point to a
      certain robustness in the overall theory and it is hoped that they can contribute
      to better practical designs of slider bearings and an improved understanding of
      lubricated sliding surfaces in biological settings.

PMID- 28876024
TI  - Direct diversification of unmasked quinazolin-4(3H)-ones through orthogonal
      reactivity modulation.
AB  - Here we report a set of direct functionalization methods of unmasked 2
      phenylquinazolin-4(3H)-ones, a privileged alkaloid core, without the
      installation/removal event of protecting groups or exogenous coordinating
      moieties. Divergent pathways were modulated with transition-metal catalysts by
      suppressing competitive reactivities, leading to N-arylation, annulative pi
      extension, or C-H fluorination.

PMID- 28876025
TI  - Progress towards the broad use of non-peptide synthetic macrocycles in drug
      discovery.
AB  - We discuss progress towards addressing three key questions pertaining to the
      design of screening libraries of synthetic non-peptidic macrocycles (MCs) for
      drug discovery: What structural and physicochemical properties of MCs maximize
      the likelihood of achieving strong and specific binding to protein targets? What
      features render a protein target suitable for binding MCs, and can this
      information be used to identify suitable targets for inhibition by MCs? What
      properties of synthetic MCs confer good pharmaceutical properties, and
      particularly good aqueous solubility coupled with passive membrane permeability?
      We additionally discuss how the criteria that define a meaningful MC screening
      hit are linked to the size of the screening library and the synthetic methodology
      employed in its preparation.

PMID- 28876026
TI  - [Advances in platform compounds and polymers from vegetable oils].
AB  - Vegetable oil is one of the most potential alternatives of petroleum and has
      become a hot issue in recent years. This review focuses on the influence of
      vegetable oil structure on platform compounds and polymers properties, and
      further systematically introduces their developments and the latest progress.
      Meanwhile, we also summarized the main confronting problems and the future
      development directions in the research of oil-based platform compounds and
      polymers. The review provides useful information for readers to fully understand
      biochemical engineering of vegetable oils and their prospects.

PMID- 28876027
TI  - [Detection of toxic substances in microbial fuel cells].
AB  - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is a highly promising bioelectrochemical technology
      and uses microorganisms as catalyst to convert chemical energy directly to
      electrical energy. Microorganisms in the anodic chamber of MFC oxidize the
      substrate and generate electrons. The electrons are absorbed by the anode and
      transported through an external circuit to the cathode for corresponding
      reduction. The flow of electrons is measured as current. This current is a linear
      measure of the activity of microorganisms. If a toxic event occurs, microbial
      activity will change, most likely decrease. Hence, fewer electrons are
      transported and current decreases as well. In this way, a microbial fuel cell
      based biosensor provides a direct measure to detect toxicity for samples. This
      paper introduces the detection of antibiotics, heavy metals, organic pollutants
      and acid in MFCs. The existing problems and future application of MFCs are also
      analyzed.

PMID- 28876028
TI  - [Program optimization before enucleation on ovine somatic cell nuclear transfer].
AB  - Ovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) efficiency remains lower. Therefore,
      we optimized the program before oocyte enucleation on ovine SCNT. Four
      experiments were done including exposure duration of ovaries (3 h or 3 to 5 h),
      duration of oocytes maturation (18 h and 24 h), rate of donor adherent and
      enucleation time of maturate oocyte. The maturation rates of oocyte, fusion rates
      and cleavation rates of cloned embryos were used to assess the efficiency of
      different procedures. The maturation rates of ovaries with 3 h exposure was
      higher than that of 3 to 5 h (60.18% vs 52.50%) (P<0.05). Embryonic development
      competence had no significant difference (P>0.05). The maturation rates were
      significantly different between group18 h and 24 h (53.81% vs 89.06%, P<0.01).
      Embryonic development competence had no significant difference (P>0.05); fusion
      rates of donor adherent 30% group was higher than that of 10% group. Embryonic
      development competence had no significant difference (P>0.05). Different adherent
      donor characterizes the difference in plateau phase. The cleavation rates of 18
      hpm group was higher than that of 16 hpm group. Embryonic development competence
      had no significant difference (P>0.05), the enucleation of 16 hpm group obtained
      one clone fetus, we got four clone fetus to repeat the 16 hpm group. Five
      microsatellite was analyzed by PAGE, the bands indicated that fingerprint of
      cloned fetus were completely the same as those of donor cells. Our data therefore
      suggests program optimization before enucleation assurance quality of material
      which be able to improve the quantity and quality of clone embryos, and optimized
      scheme can obtain clone sheep offspring.

PMID- 28876029
TI  - [Bioassay-guided isolation of functional components from hot water extract of
      Chlorella pyrenoidosa].
AB  - The main functional ingredients of hot water extract of Chlorella pyrenoidosa
      (CPE) were investigated through a bioassay-guided fractionation based on free
      radical scavenging and macrophage proliferation effects. The main functional
      ingredients of CPE were polysaccharides (PS) that were isolated by high pressure
      extraction, Sevag method, ethanol precipitation and ultrafiltration separation.
      Crude polysaccharides were further separated and purified by ion exchange
      chromatography DEAE52 and size exclusion chromatography Sephadex G-100. The
      purified fractions were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography. Molecular
      weights of the purified fractions PS-1-4-2, PS-1-3-2 and PS-2-3-3 were 3.97*104,
      2.28*104 and 4.1*103 Da, respectively. Bioassay-guided fractionation results
      indicated that CPE could remove free radicals and promote Ana-1 cells
      proliferation, mainly due to its various components working together. The
      components of free radicals scavenging mainly concentrated in PS-1-3, PS-1-4, PS
      2-3 and PS-2-4. The components of Ana-1 proliferation mainly concentrated in PS-1
      3, PS-1-4 and PS-2-3. This study established the activity screening method of
      main functional component from CPE, and got three new functional ingredients. It
      can be used to guide the development of high value products, further promote the
      industrialization process of microalgae energy, and realize microalgae 'high
      value products, microalgae energy and microalgae carbon' integration of exemplary
      role.

PMID- 28876030
TI  - [Overexpression and characterization of endo-cellulase A10 from Aspergillus
      nidulans in Pichia pastoris].
AB  - Endo-cellulases are important to efficiently hydrolyze cellulose, and widely used
      in biotechnology. In this study, we overexpressed and characterized an endo
      cellulase from Aspergillus nidulans. This endo-cellulase was successfully
      overexpressed in flasks and fermentor, and its concentration in fermentor reached
      0.89 mg/mL. The optimal pH and temperature of the were 4.0 and 80 C respectively,
      and it was very stable between pH 2.0 and 12.0. It was thermally stable below 60
      C, whereas it was inactivated very quickly above 70 C. Its CMCase activity could
      be enhanced by Co2+, Mn2+ and Fe2+, whereas it was inhibited by Pb2+, Ni2+ and
      Cu2+. Therefore, this endo-cellulase exhibited good pH stability and
      thermostability below 60 C, and has the potential as commercial enzymes.

PMID- 28876031
TI  - [Breeding of peanut variety Yuhua 4 by in vitro mutagenesis].
AB  - The embryonic leaflets of peanut (Arachis hypogaea) variety Huayu 20 were used as
      explants and pingyangmycin as a mutagen to induce somatic embryos. Four weeks
      after the inoculation, the survived explants were transferred to somatic embryo
      germination medium containing screening reagent hydroxyproline, and finally 15
      regenerated plants were obtained. Pedigree breeding method was used during the
      following selection breeding, and three lines with significantly increased yield
      and 23 lines with high oil content were obtained from these mutant offsprings.
      The line with both high yield and high oil content has passed peanut variety
      multi-location in Anhui province and was named "Yuhua 4". Its yield was 16.63%
      higher than that of the control variety Baisha 1016, ranking the first in all the
      testing varieties. Yuhua 4 showed the characteristics of early maturity, small
      pod and high oil content. The oil content of kernels was 56.10%, higher than that
      of original parent Huayu 20 with 49.50% oil content, tested by the Ministry of
      Agriculture of Oil and Products Quality Supervision, Inspection and Test Center
      (Wuhan), and the yield was 15% higher than that of Huayu 20. It was concluded
      that in vitro mutagenesis and target screening was an effective way on creating
      new germplasm and breeding new variety in peanut.

PMID- 28876032
TI  - [Efficient identification of gene knockout mutant mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 by CELI
      crude extracts].
AB  - CRISPR/Cas9, emerged as an efficient and powerful gene editing technology, has
      become the mainstream genome editing technology. Constructing mutants using
      CRISPR/Cas9 system is of great significance to the functional study and breeding
      application of useful genes. As the basis of the technology, a method for
      identification of mutation with efficiency and lower cost is needed. In this
      report, we studied the factors influencing mutation detected by CEL I crude
      extracts, such as the amount of protein, enzyme incubation time, PCR buffers.
      Under the optimized conditions, we can integrate the mutation detection steps
      into one-tube reaction. We used this system to examine the mutation types and
      frequency of rice stn1 mediated by CRISPR/Cas9. We also used this method to
      identify different mutation types including homozygous, heterozygous and bi
      allelic mutations. The accuracy of this method reached 100% verified by
      sequencing. Altogether, our results showed that using CELI crude extracts was an
      efficient and low cost method for identification of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated
      mutation.

PMID- 28876033
TI  - [High-level expression and characterization of Selenomonas ruminantium beta
      xylosidase in Pichia pastoris].
AB  - beta-xylosidase (EC 3.2.1.37) is an important part of the xylanolytic enzymes
      system. In the present research, beta-xylosidase gene Sxa derived from
      Selenomonas ruminantium was expressed in Pichia pastoris GS115. According to the
      codon bias and rare codons of P. pastoris, mRNA secondary structure and GC
      content, Sxa gene was optimized. The optimized full-length gene mSxa was obtained
      by gene synthesis technique and the recombinant yeast expression vector pPIC9K
      mSxa was constructed. After being digested by restriction enzyme BglII, the mSxa
      gene was transformed into P. pastoris GS115. Then, phenotype and geneticin G418
      resistance screening, and PCR were adopted to identify the positive
      transformants. Finally, the recombinant P. pastoris GS115-pPIC9K-mSxa was
      obtained. Based on enzymatic activity assay, a high-level expression clone was
      picked up and then the enzymatic characteristics of the recombinant beta
      xylosidase were studied. The results showed that the molecular weight of the mSxa
      expressed in P. pastoris G115 was about 66 kDa. The maximum activity was achieved
      287.61 IU/mL at fermenter level. Enzymatic characterization showed the beta
      xylosidase was stable between 40 C and 60 C, and pH between 5.0 and 7.0. The
      optimal reaction temperature and pH were 55 C and 6.0, and preferentially
      degrading the beta-xylose glycosidic bond. The enzymatic activity was activated
      by Mn2+ and Ca2+, and inhibited by Fe3+, Cu2+, Co2+, Mg2+, EDTA and SDS. The
      study indicates that the modified beta-xylosidase gene mSxa from Selenomonas
      ruminantium can express successfully with high activity in P. pastoris. The study
      lays a foundation for further industrial application of the beta-xylosidase.

PMID- 28876034
TI  - [Purification, characterization and partial primary structure analysis of rutin
      degrading enzyme in tartary buckwheat seeds].
AB  - Rutin-degrading enzymes (RDE) can degrade rutin into poorly water soluble
      compound, quercetin, and cause the bitter taste in tartary buckwheat. In the
      present study RDE from Yu 6-21 tartary buckwheat seeds was purified by ammonium
      sulphate precipitation, followed by hydrophobic interaction chromatography on
      Phenyl Sepharose CL-4B, ion exchange chromatography on CM-Cellulose and gel
      filtration chromatography on Sephadex G-150. Purified RDE showed single band with
      molecular weight of 66 kDa on SDS-PAGE. The optimum pH and temperature of RDE
      were 5.0 and 50 C respectively. The Km was 0.27 mmol/L, and the Vmax was 39.68
      U/mg. The RDE activity could be inhibited by Cu2+, Zn2+, Mn2+ and EDTA, and
      showed tolerance to 50% methanol (V/V). The N terminal sequence (TVSRSSFPDGFLFGL)
      was obtained by Edman degradation method and 15 internal peptide sequences were
      determined by MALDI-TOF-MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of
      flight mass spectrometry). These results established the foundations for
      identification of the candidate gene of RDE via transcriptome data and further
      studying RDE biological function.

PMID- 28876035
TI  - [Separation, purification and antioxidant activity of polysaccharide from
      Coprinus comatus].
AB  - We compared the ways of deproteinization for crude polysaccharides of Coprinus
      comatus, and finally selected Sevage method as the optimal method. Two main
      fractions of Ccp-I-A and Ccp-I-B were obtained after DEAE-52 cellulose and
      Sephadex G-200 chromatography, both were white-floc, soluble in water, insoluble
      in absolute ethyl alcohol, acetone and other organic solvents. Additionally,
      Fehling reagent, CTAB, Sulphuric acid-carbazole, I-KI and FeCl3 reaction were all
      negative. GC analysis showed Ccp-I-A was composed of mannitose, glucose and
      galactose in molar ratios of 2.03:9.52:1, whereas Ccp-I-B was composed of fucose
      and galactose with molar ratios of 1:5.21. Antioxidant activity test showed that
      Ccp-I-A and Ccp-I-B had good scavenging abilities on DPPH and .OH. Compared to
      Ccp-I-B,the scavenging activity of Ccp-I-A was much stronger, and the scavenging
      rate could reach 72.1% and 55.3% respectively when the concentration was 300
      MUg/mL.

PMID- 28876036
TI  - [Rapid cryopreservation for Siraitia grosvenorii cells based on cells'
      capacitance detection].
AB  - A rapid quantitative evaluation method for Siraitia grosvenorii cells was
      successfully developed based on plant cells' capacitance value detected by a
      viable cell mass monitor and the cryopreservation of S. grosvenorii suspension
      cells was optimized. The survival rate of S. grosvenorii cells was quantitatively
      measured by viable cell mass monitor and 2, 3, 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride
      (TTC). An optimum cryoprotectant recipe is that the growth medium contained 10%
      sucrose and 10% DMSO. The experimental results also showed higher cell survival
      rates and cell viabilities were achieved when suspension cells were treated with
      pretreatment of 0.2 mol/L sucrose. With the increase of concentration of sucrose,
      however, the cell survival rate was decreased. And the cell survival rate
      represented a bell shape with the increase of pretreatment time. The highest cell
      survival rate and cell viability were obtained with the 9 h' s pretreatment. In
      addition, there was a good correlation between the cell survival rate measured by
      cell recovery test and that measured by viable cell mass monitor, while there
      were no significant differences in the cell morphology and the ability of
      mogrosides V production by S. grosvenorii cells cultured in suspension after
      cryopreservation. Therefore, the evaluation method developed based on the viable
      cell mass monitor has good feasibility and reliability.

PMID- 28876038
TI  - [Preparation of catalitaxol-deficient defective strains by using ultraviolet
      mutagenesis].
AB  - Secondary metabolites of endophytic fungi FSN002 from Juglans mandshurica Maxim
      have excellent liver cancer resistance. Preparation of mutant strains is an
      important means to study the biosynthesis mechanism of catalitaxol. Fungal spores
      germinating young hyphae with 4 to 6 cells after culturing for 13 hours were used
      as starting materials of ultraviolet (UV) mutagenesis. UV light intensity and
      irradiation time have a linear relationship with fungal mortality. The two
      factors had no obvious interactions. When UV light was 90 000 MUJ/cm2 and
      irradiation time for 6 s, the mortality of fungi was around 95%. Under the
      optimization mutation condition, two mutant strains were obtained, of which one
      lost the synthesis ability of catalitaxol completely, and the another synthetized
      only 16% catalitaxol of the wild strain. Our findings may serve basis for further
      study on the biosynthesis mechanism and efficient production of catalitaxol.

PMID- 28876037
TI  - [Expression, purification, stability and transduction efficiency of GST-SOD1-R9
      fusion protein].
AB  - The fusion of cell permeable peptide TAT and bifunctional antioxidant enzymes,
      GST (Glutathione sulfur transferase)-TAT-SOD1 (Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase), is
      an intracellular superoxide scavenger. Compared with SOD1-TAT, GST-TAT-SOD1 has
      better protective effect on oxidative damage but less transduction efficiency. A
      novel cell permeable bifunctional antioxidant enzymes with the fusion of GST,
      SOD1 and polyarginine R9 was constructed for higher transduction efficiency. The
      full nucleotide sequence of SOD1-R9 was synthesized and inserted into the
      prokaryotic expression vector pGEX-4T-1 with the GST tag. After the successful
      construction of the prokaryotic expression vectors of GST-SOD1-R9, the
      recombinant vector was then transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) and the
      GST-SOD1-R9 fusion protein was produced with the induction of IPTG. The soluble
      expression of GST-SOD1-R9 fusion protein was combining with the induction
      temperature and time. The best soluble expression was obtained with the induction
      temperature of 25 C and the induction time of 11 h. The fusion protein was
      purified through the combination of 80% ammonium sulfate precipitation and
      affinity chromatography using glutathione agarose, and verified by SDS-PAGE and
      special enzymatic activity. The thermal and pH stability of GST-SOD1-R9 fusion
      protein were analyzed and the SOD and GST activity of fusion protein were proved
      to be well maintained under physiological conditions. Finally, the transduction
      efficiency of GST-SOD1-R9 fusion protein was proved to be better than GST-TAT
      SOD1 fusion protein (P<0.05). These works establish a foundation for further
      study of the protective effect of GST-SOD1-R9 fusion protein against oxidative
      damage.

PMID- 28876039
TI  - [Enhancing hRANKL production in Escherichia coli by optimizing culture conditions
      and lysing program].
AB  - RANKL/RANK/OPG axis is important in bone metabolism regulation, and becomes a
      popular research area in bone diseases. RANKL is a critical part of
      RANKL/RANK/OPG axis, and widely required in bone metabolism research. However,
      the yield of recombinant soluble human RANKL (hRANKL) in Escherichia coli is much
      lower than mouse RANKL (mRANKL). In this study, by adjusting and stabilizing the
      pH value of LB medium at 7.5, lowering the inducing temperature to 16 C and
      optimizing the lysis program, the yield of soluble hRANKL increased by
      approximately 5 to 12-fold over the non-adjusted group. Our experiment
      effectively enhanced soluble hRANKL expression in E. coli and might constitute a
      meaningful attempt to obtain soluble expression of recombinant protein in E.
      coli.

PMID- 28876040
TI  - [Secreted expression of Japanese encephalitis virus prME in Pichia pastoris and
      immunogenicity evaluation of the virus-like particles in mice].
AB  - The study was to express prME protein of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in
      Pichia pastoris and then to evaluate the immunological properties of the
      recombinant protein in mice, so as to explore a new way for subunit vaccine
      development of JEV. The JEV prME gene was amplified by RT-PCR with genome RNA of
      JEV vaccine strain SA14-14-2 and subcloned into pPICZa-A vector, designated as
      pPICZalpha-prME. pPICZalpha-SprME was constructed same as pPICZalpha-prME besides
      with the additional 19 Aa signal peptides coding gene of the JEV cap protein C
      terminal. The linearized expression vector was integrated into the genome of
      Pichia pastoris X33 under the control of the alcohol oxidase (AOX1) promoter and
      induced with methanol during fermentation expression. The expression of JEV prME
      protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting, and then it was purified
      by S-400 High Resolution HiPrep 16/60 Sephacry. The expressed products of Pichia
      pastoris were visualized by electron microscopy. In the immunization test, four
      groups of four-week old female mice were immunized subcutaneously with different
      doses purified JEV prME protein with complete Freund's adjuvant at a volumetric
      ratio of 1:1 and a control group was injected with sterile PBS. 10 MUg/dose
      purified JEV prME protein mixing different doses nucleic acid adjuvant (Naa) was
      vaccinated in mice as the same mode. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting indicate that
      JEV prME was not cleaved between prM and E during secreted expression in Pichia
      pastoris. The purified recombinant prME was eluted in the first eluting peak
      which indicated that its molecular weight about 1*106 Da to 20*106 Da and may
      form a multimeric. Both the culture supernatant and the purified protein,
      examined by electron microscopy, we found to contain JEV virus like particles
      (VLPs) with diameters of 30-50 nm. The anti-JEV VLPs antibody titration reached
      peak at 3 wpi and still maintained in mice at 7 wpi inoculated with 10 MUg and 15
      MUg prME. The strong antibody response was observed when the mice immunized with
      prME mixing nucleic acid adjuvant, which elicited high neutralizing antibody
      titer among 1:80 to 1:160. In conclusion, although JEV prME protein expressed in
      Pichia pastoris was not cleaved, which formed VLPs and showed efficient
      immunological properties in mice experiments.

PMID- 28876041
TI  - [Biocatalytic access to beta-alanine by a two-enzyme cascade synthesis].
AB  - Enzymatic synthesis is an important way to produce beta-alanine, but the
      biological method is expensive generally because of the high price of substrate.
      In this paper, a two-step enzymatic cascade system was developed, combining L
      aspartase from Escherichia coli DH5alpha and L-aspartate alpha-decarboxylase from
      Corynebacterium glutamicum. This system catalyzes Fumarate and ammonia to beta
      alanine. The optimal ratio of AspA and PanD was 1:80 (W/W), and the concentration
      of AspA was 10 MUg/mL, at 37 C and pH 7.0. When the concentration of Fumarate was
      100 mmol/L, the reaction reached its equilibrium after 8 h, and the yield of beta
      alanine was 90 mmol/L (7 g/L). The yield of beta-alanine can reach 126 mmol/L
      (9.8 g/L) when the concentration of Fumarate increased to 200 mmol/L. Extending
      reaction time, the conversion rate did not change obviously. Using this two-step
      enzymatic cascade system, beta-alanine from cheaper substrate Fumarate can be
      obtained.

PMID- 28876042
TI  - Graphene Oxide-Polycarbonate Track-Etched Nanosieve Platform for Sensitive
      Detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Envelope Glycoprotein.
AB  - Solid-state nanopores within graphene-based materials are on the brink of
      fundamentally changing the sensing of desired bioanalytes through ion trafficking
      across nanoporous membranes. Here, we report on a two-electrode electrochemical
      biosensor comprised of a graphene oxide-polycarbonate track-etched nanosieve
      platform for the rapid and sensitive detection of the Human Immunodeficiency
      Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein ectodomain (gp140MS). We have
      covalently linked an engineered high-affinity one-domain soluble CD4 fused to a
      human domain targeting HIV-1 coreceptor binding site and ferrocene (Fc) (2Dm2m)
      to the nanosieve platform. An exponential decrease in the ionic current resulted
      from a partial blockade of the nanosieve due to the specific interactions of
      gp140MS with the 2Dm2m protein, which was immobilized on the nanosieve platform
      by biolinkage as a function of applied voltages of 0.1-2.0 V. There was no change
      in current when a nonspecific antigen bovine serum albumin was tested under
      identical conditions. This platform had high sensitivity, and when the receptor
      binding phenomenon was tested to identify the minimum concentration of target
      analyte, the lowest detection limit was as short as 8.3 fM and with sensitivity
      and response times of 0.87 mA mM-1 cm-1 and 12 s, respectively. In addition to
      this remarkable sensitivity, our nanobiorecognition platform has the advantage of
      superior stability due to the few layered graphene oxide laminates. It also
      exhibits exceptional biomolecule binding and higher reusability, sustainability,
      and ease of fabrication in a soft mechanism. Real samples of HIV positive and
      negative patients were successfully tested to confirm the virus by the developed
      platform. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time prosperous
      pervious remembrance surface has been employed in a nanobiosensing application.
      In light of the recent great trend of using graphene-based nanopore surfaces
      created by sophisticated ion-beam methods in sensing and sequencing, this hybrid
      surface nanolayer fabricated by the simple vacuum filtration of a few layered
      graphene oxide laminates may serve as a good alternative in terms of ease of
      fabrication without expensive instrumental prerequisites.

PMID- 28876043
TI  - Solvent-Mediated Intragranular-Coarsening of CH3NH3PbI3 Thin Films toward High
      Performance Perovskite Photovoltaics.
AB  - The deposition of dense and uniform perovskite films with large grains is crucial
      for fabricating high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). High-quality
      CH3NH3PbI3 films were produced by a self-induced intragranular-coarsening
      approach. The perovskite precursor solution contained a Lewis base, N,N-dimethyl
      sulfoxide (DMSO), and was deposited using a gas-assisted, one-step, spin-coating
      method that was followed by a solvent vapor-assisted annealing treatment using a
      mix of DMSO and chlorobenzene (CBZ). Combining solvent-engineering with gas
      assisted deposition helps to form intermediate crystalline entities upon
      evaporation of the parent solvent but retards the otherwise fast reaction between
      the precursor ingredients. Subsequent cosolvent annealing induces further grain
      coarsening via a facilitated dissolution-precipitation process. This technique
      produced flat CH3NH3PbI3 films featuring large grain microstructures, with well
      coarsened subgrains and a reduction of intragranular defects that minimized
      carrier recombination. The optimized CH3NH3PbI3 films exhibited enhanced
      crystallinity, excellent carrier transport and injection, as well as suppressed
      charge recombination. Benefiting from these advantages, PSCs based on the
      optimized perovskite films delivered a power conversion efficiency of 17.99% and
      a stabilized power output above 17.30%. This study presents an effective strategy
      for the fabrication of high-quality, hybrid perovskite films with potential
      applications in optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28876044
TI  - High-Performance Nano-Photoinitiators with Improved Safety for 3D Printing.
AB  - In this work, we report the first hybrid nanosized photoinitiators with low
      cytotoxicity and migration by coupling of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes
      (POSS) to benzophenone derivatives. This new series of photoinitiators were fully
      characterized and showed many favorable properties such as uniform sizes,
      extremely low tendency to migrate, less effect on resin viscosity, enhanced
      thermal stability and mechanical strength, increased photoactivity, and
      significantly lower cell toxicity compared to their corresponding benzophenone
      molecules. The utility of these hybrid nanosized photoinitiators in 3D printing
      was demonstrated in printing of various 3D structures with high resolution and
      accuracy.

PMID- 28876045
TI  - Versatile Donor-pi-Acceptor-Type Aggregation-Enhanced Emission Active
      Fluorophores as Both Highly Efficient Nondoped Emitter and Excellent Host.
AB  - By employing triphenylamine (TPA) and/or carbazole as donor and cyano group as
      acceptor, three donor-pi-acceptor (D-pi-A)-type fluorophores, 4,6-di(4
      (diphenylamino)phenyl)isophthalonitrile (DTPAIPN), 4-(4-(diphenylamino)phenyl)-6
      (3,5-(9,9'-dicarbazolyl)phenyl)isophthalonitrile (TPAmCPIPN), and 4,6-di(3,5
      (9,9'-dicarbazolyl)phenyl)isophthalonitrile (DmCPIPN), were designed,
      synthesized, and characterized for their thermal, photophysical, electrochemical,
      and electroluminescent properties. All three compounds exhibited excellent
      thermal and morphological stabilities with thermal decomposition (Td) and glass
      transition temperature (Tg) values ranging from 396 to 516  degrees C and from
      114 to 211  degrees C, respectively. The investigation into the photophysical
      properties revealed the aggregation-enhanced emission (AEE) feature of these
      chromophores. The performances of the nondoped devices were significantly
      improved as compared to those of the doped devices, further confirming the AEE
      nature. In particular, DmCPIPN-based nondoped device rendered the maximum current
      efficiency (CE), power efficiency (PE), and external quantum efficiency (EQE)
      values of 26.6 cd A-1, 22.4 lm W-1, and 8.3%, respectively, in comparison with
      9.1 cd A-1, 4.9 lm W-1, and 4.2% for the doped device. The versatility of these
      new luminogens was demonstrated through the utilization of them as host for
      highly efficient red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs). The
      EQE of the DmCPIPN-hosted device reached as high as 19.3% with a reduced
      efficiency roll-off of 10.3% at 1000 cd m-2. These results demonstrate that the
      new luminogens of this work can be used as both nondoped emitter and host for
      high-performance OLEDs, which facilitates the development of multifunctional
      materials for OLEDs applications.

PMID- 28876046
TI  - Electron Bifurcation: Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Two-Electron Brokering in
      Biological Redox Chemistry.
AB  - How can proteins drive two electrons from a redox active donor onto two acceptors
      at very different potentials and distances? And how can this transaction be
      conducted without dissipating very much energy or violating the laws of
      thermodynamics? Nature appears to have addressed these challenges by coupling
      thermodynamically uphill and downhill electron transfer reactions, using two
      electron donor cofactors that have very different potentials for the removal of
      the first and second electron. Although electron bifurcation is carried out with
      near perfection from the standpoint of energy conservation and electron delivery
      yields, it is a biological energy transduction paradigm that has only come into
      focus recently. This Account provides an exegesis of the biophysical principles
      that underpin electron bifurcation. Remarkably, bifurcating electron transfer
      (ET) proteins typically send one electron uphill and one electron downhill by
      similar energies, such that the overall reaction is spontaneous, but not
      profligate. Electron bifurcation in the NADH-dependent reduced ferredoxin: NADP+
      oxidoreductase I (Nfn) is explored in detail here. Recent experimental progress
      in understanding the structure and function of Nfn allows us to dissect its
      workings in the framework of modern ET theory. The first electron that leaves the
      two-electron donor flavin (L-FAD) executes a positive free energy "uphill"
      reaction, and the departure of this electron switches on a second
      thermodynamically spontaneous ET reaction from the flavin along a second pathway
      that moves electrons in the opposite direction and at a very different potential.
      The singly reduced ET products formed from the bifurcating flavin are more than
      two nanometers distant from each other. In Nfn, the second electron to leave the
      flavin is much more reducing than the first: the potentials are said to be
      "crossed." The eventually reduced cofactors, NADH and ferredoxin in the case of
      Nfn, perform crucial downstream redox processes of their own. We dissect the
      thermodynamics and kinetics of electron bifurcation in Nfn and find that the key
      features of electron bifurcation are (1) spatially separated transfer pathways
      that diverge from a two-electron donor, (2) one thermodynamically uphill and one
      downhill redox pathway, with a large negative shift in the donor's reduction
      potential after departure of the first electron, and (3) electron tunneling and
      activation factors that enable bifurcation, producing a 1:1 partitioning of
      electrons onto the two pathways. Electron bifurcation is found in the CO2
      reducing pathways of methanogenic archaea, in the hydrogen pathways of
      hydrogenases, in the nitrogen fixing pathway of Fix, and in the mitochondrial
      charge transfer chain of complex III, cytochrome bc1. While crossed potentials
      may offer the biological advantage of producing tightly regulated high energy
      reactive species, neither kinetic nor thermodynamic considerations mandate
      crossed potentials to generate successful electron bifurcation. Taken together,
      the theoretical framework established here, focusing on the underpinning electron
      tunneling barriers and activation free energies, explains the logic of electron
      bifurcation that enables energy conversion and conservation in Nfn, points toward
      bioinspired schemes to execute multielectron redox chemistry, and establishes a
      roadmap for examining novel electron bifurcation networks in nature.

PMID- 28876047
TI  - Recent Transport History of Fukushima Radioactivity in the Northeast Pacific
      Ocean.
AB  - The large inventory of radioactivity released during the March, 2011 Fukushima
      Dai-ichi nuclear reactor accident in Japan spread rapidly across the North
      Pacific Ocean and was first observed at the westernmost station on Line P, an
      oceanographic sampling line extending 1500 km westward of British Columbia (BC),
      Canada in June 2012. Here, time series measurements of 134Cs and 137Cs in
      seawater on Line P and on the CLIVAR-P16N 152 degrees W line reveal the recent
      transport history of the Fukushima radioactivity tracer plume through the
      northeast Pacific Ocean. During 2013 and 2014 the Fukushima plume spread onto the
      Canadian continental shelf and by 2015 and early 2016 it reached 137Cs values of
      6-8 Bq/m3 in surface water along Line P. Ocean circulation model simulations that
      are consistent with the time series measurements of Fukushima 137Cs indicate that
      the 2015-2016 results represent maximum tracer levels on Line P and that they
      will begin to decline in 2017-2018. The current elevated Fukushima 137Cs levels
      in seawater in the eastern North Pacific are equivalent to fallout background
      levels of 137Cs that prevailed during the 1970s and do not represent a
      radiological threat to human health or the environment.

PMID- 28876048
TI  - Size Controllable and Surface Tunable Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8
      Poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) Nanocomposites for pH Responsive Drug Release and
      Enhanced in Vivo Cancer Treatment.
AB  - Nanoscale size controllable and surface modifiable zeolitic imidazolate framework
      8-poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) (ZIF-8-PAAS) nanocomposites are fabricated by
      employing PAAS nanospheres as a soft template. These ZIF-8-PAAS nanocomposites
      have different sizes ranging from 30 to 200 nm and exhibit different
      crystallinity, and pH sensitivity. These nanocomposites can be employed as
      vectors to deliver doxorubicin for anticancer therapy, leading to greatly
      enhanced drug therapeutic efficacy when tested in cell lines and mice model.
      Systematic toxicity investigation including hematoxylin and eosin staining
      analysis of tumor and major organs, hematology analysis, and blood chemistry
      analysis indicates that the nanocomposites possess high biocompatibility. This
      work provides a strategy to make metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) nanocomposites
      with size tunability in nanoscale and flexible surface modification for various
      applications.

PMID- 28876049
TI  - Periplasmic Binding Protein Dimer Has a Second Allosteric Event Tied to Ligand
      Binding.
AB  - The ligand-induced conformational changes of periplasmic binding proteins (PBP)
      play a key role in the acquisition of metabolites in ATP binding cassette (ABC)
      transport systems. This conformational change allows for differential recognition
      of the ligand occupancy of the PBP by the ABC transporter. This minimizes futile
      ATP hydrolysis in the transporter, a phenomenon in which ATP hydrolysis is not
      coupled to metabolite transport. In many systems, the PBP conformational change
      is insufficient at eliminating futile ATP hydrolysis. Here we identify an
      additional state of the PBP that is also allosterically regulated by the ligand.
      Ligand binding to the homodimeric apo PBP leads to a tightening of the interface
      alpha-helices so that the hydrogen bonding pattern shifts to that of a 310 helix,
      in-turn altering the contacts and the dynamics of the protein interface so that
      the monomer exists in the presence of ligand.

PMID- 28876050
TI  - A New Mechanism of Sediment Attachment to Oil in Turbulent Flows: Projectile
      Particles.
AB  - The interaction of oil and sediment in the environment determines, to a large
      extent, the trajectory and fate of oil. Using confocal microscope imaging
      techniques to obtain detailed 3D structures of oil-particle aggregates (OPAs)
      formed in turbulent flows, we elucidated a new mechanism of particle attachment,
      whereby the particles behave as projectiles penetrating the oil droplets to
      depths varying from ~2 to 10 MUm due to the hydrodynamic forces in the water.
      This mechanism results in a higher attachment of particles on oil in comparison
      with adsorption, as commonly assumed. The projectile hypothesis also explains the
      fragmentation of oil droplets with time, which occurred after long hours of
      mixing, leading to the formation of massive OPA clusters. Various lines of
      inquiry strongly suggested that protruding particles get torn from oil droplets
      and carry oil with them, causing the torn particles to be amphiphillic so that
      they contribute to the formation of massive OPAs of smaller oil droplets (<~5-10
      MUm). Low particle concentration resulted in large, irregularly shaped oil blobs
      over time, the deformation of which without fragmentation could be due to partial
      coverage of the oil droplet surface by particles. The findings herein revealed a
      new pathway for the fate of oil in environments containing non-negligible
      sediment concentrations.

PMID- 28876051
TI  - Comprehensive Characterization of the Interaction between Pulsed Electric Fields
      and Live Cells by Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy.
AB  - This study reports a comprehensive analysis of the effect of 100 MUs electric
      pulses on the biochemical composition of live cells using a label-free approach,
      confocal Raman microspectroscopy. We investigated different regions of interest
      around the nucleus of the cells and the dose-effect relationship related to
      different electric pulse parameters. We also extended the study to another cell
      type. Membrane resealing was monitored by pulsing the cells in reversible or
      irreversible electropermeabilization condition at different temperatures. Our
      results confirmed a previous publication showing that proteins and lipids were
      highly impacted by the delivery of electric pulses. These chemical changes were
      similar in different locations around the cell nucleus. By sweeping the field
      magnitude, the number of electric pulses, or their repetition rate, the Raman
      signatures of live cells appeared to be related to the electropermeabilization
      state, verified by Yo-Pro-1 uptake. We also demonstrated that the chemical
      changes in the Raman signatures were cell-dependent even if common features were
      noticed between the two cell types used.

PMID- 28876052
TI  - The Phe-Ile Zipper: A Specific Interaction Motif Drives Antiparallel Coiled-Coil
      Hexamer Formation.
AB  - Coiled coils are a robust motif for exploring amino acid interactions, generating
      unique supramolecular structures, and expanding the functional properties of
      biological materials. A recently discovered antiparallel coiled-coil hexamer (ACC
      Hex, peptide 1) exhibits a unique interaction in which Phe and Ile residues from
      adjacent alpha-helices interact to form a Phe-Ile zipper within the hydrophobic
      core. Analysis of the X-ray crystallographic structure of ACC-Hex suggests that
      the stability of the six-helix bundle relies on specific interactions between the
      Phe and Ile residues. The Phe-Ile zipper is unprecedented and represents a
      powerful tool for utilizing the Phe-Ile interactions to direct supramolecular
      assembly. To further probe and understand the limits of the Phe-Ile zipper, we
      designed peptide sequences with natural and unnatural amino acids placed at the
      Phe and Ile residue positions. Using size exclusion chromatography and small
      angle X-ray scattering, we found that the proper assembly of ACC-Hex from
      monomers is sensitive to subtle changes in side chain steric bulk and
      hydrophobicity introduced by mutations at the Phe and Ile residue positions. Of
      the sequence variants that formed ACC-Hex, mutations in the hydrophobic core
      significantly affected the stability of the hexamer, from a DeltaGuw of 2-8 kcal
      mol-1. Additional sequences were designed to further probe and enhance the
      stability of the ACC-Hex system by maximizing salt bridging between the solvent
      exposed residues. Finally, we expanded on the generality of the Phe-Ile zipper,
      creating a unique sequence that forms an antiparallel hexamer that is
      topologically similar to ACC-Hex but atomistically unique.

PMID- 28876053
TI  - Development of Oxygen Consumption Analysis with an on-Chip Electrochemical Device
      and Simulation.
AB  - The O2 consumption rate of embryos has been attracting much attention as a key
      indicator of cell metabolisms and development. In this study, we propose an on
      chip device that enables the accurate, easy, and noninvasive measurement of O2
      consumption rates of single embryos. Pt electrodes and micropits for embryo
      settlement were fabricated on Si chips via microfabrication techniques. The
      configuration of the device enables the detection of O2 concentration profiles
      surrounding the embryos by settling embryos into the pits with a mouth pipet.
      Moreover, as the detection is based on an electrochemical method, the influence
      of O2 consumption on the electrodes was also considered. By using a simulator
      (COMSOL Multiphysics), we estimated the O2 concentration profiles in the device
      with and without the effects of the electrodes. Based on the simulation results,
      we developed a normalization process to calculate the precise O2 consumption rate
      of the sample. Finally, using both the measurement system and the algorithm for
      the analysis, the respiratory activities of mouse embryos were successfully
      measured.

PMID- 28876054
TI  - Probing the Role of the Heme Distal and Proximal Environment in Ligand Dynamics
      in the Signal Transducer Protein HemAT by Time-Resolved Step-Scan FTIR and
      Resonance Raman Spectroscopy.
AB  - HemAT is a heme-containing oxygen sensor protein that controls aerotaxis. Time
      resolved step-scan FTIR studies were performed on the isolated sensor domain and
      full-length HemAT proteins as well as on the Y70F (B-helix), L92A (E-helix), T95A
      (E-helix), and Y133F (G-helix) mutants to elucidate the effect of the site
      specific mutations on the ligand dynamics subsequent to CO photolysis. The
      mutations aimed to perturb H-bonding and electrostatic interactions near the heme
      Fe-bound gaseous ligand (CO) and the heme proximal environment. Rebinding of CO
      to the heme Fe is biphasic in the sensor domain and full-length HemAT as well as
      in the mutants, with the exception of the Y133F mutant protein. The monophasic
      rebinding of CO in Y133F suggests that in the absence of the H-bond between Y133
      and the heme proximal H123 residue the ligand rebinding process is significantly
      affected. The role of the proximal environment is also probed by resonance Raman
      photodissociation experiments, in which the Fe-His mode of the photoproduct of
      sensor domain HemAT-CO is detected at a frequency higher than that of the deoxy
      form in the difference resonance Raman spectra. The role of the conformational
      changes of Y133 (G-helix) and the role of the distal L92 and T95 residues (E
      helix) in regulating ligand dynamics in the heme pocket are discussed.

PMID- 28876056
TI  - Paramagnetism in Metallacarboranes: The Polyhedral Chromadicarbaborane Systems.
AB  - The chromadicarbaboranes CpCrC2Bn-3Hn-1 (8 <= n <= 12) are of interest in
      providing stable paramagnetic deltahedral metallaboranes among which the 12
      vertex CpCrC2B9H11 has been synthesized by Hawthorne and co-workers. Density
      functional theory shows that the lowest-energy such structures are quartet spin
      state Cr(III) structures in which the central CrC2Bn-3 units exhibit most
      spherical closo deltahedral geometries similar to those found in the borane
      dianions BnHn2-. Higher-energy doublet CpCrC2Bn-3Hn-1 (8 <= n <= 11) structures
      are found exhibiting central CrC2Bn-3 isocloso deltahedral geometries, thereby
      providing a degree 6 vertex for the chromium atom. The lowest-energy CpCrC2Bn-3Hn
      1 (8 <= n <= 11) structures all have both carbon atoms at degree 4 vertices.
      However, the lowest-energy CpCrC2B9H11 structures all have central CrC2B9
      icosahedra and thus lack degree 4 vertices for the carbon atoms. For all of the
      CpCrC2Bn-3Hn-1 (8 <= n <= 12) systems the lowest-energy isomers are those with
      the maximum number of Cr-C edges in contrast to the related CpCoC2Bn-3Hn-1
      systems.

PMID- 28876055
TI  - Supramolecular Assembly of Peptide Amphiphiles.
AB  - Peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are small molecules that contain hydrophobic components
      covalently conjugated to peptides. In this Account, we describe recent advances
      involving PAs that consist of a short peptide sequence linked to an aliphatic
      tail. The peptide sequence can be designed to form beta-sheets among the amino
      acids near the alkyl tail, while the residues farthest from the tail are charged
      to promote solubility and in some cases contain a bioactive sequence. In water,
      beta-sheet formation and hydrophobic collapse of the aliphatic tails induce
      assembly of the molecules into supramolecular one-dimensional nanostructures,
      commonly high-aspect-ratio cylindrical or ribbonlike nanofibers. These
      nanostructures hold significant promise for biomedical functions due to their
      ability to display a high density of biological signals on their surface for
      targeting or to activate pathways, as well as for biocompatibility and
      biodegradable nature. Recent studies have shown that supramolecular systems, such
      as PAs, often become kinetically trapped in local minima along their self
      assembly reaction coordinate, not unlike the pathways associated with protein
      folding. Furthermore, the assembly pathway can influence the shape, internal
      structure, and dimension of nanostructures and thereby affect their bioactivity.
      We discuss methods to map the energy landscape of a PA structure as a function of
      thermal energy and ionic strength and vary these parameters to convert between
      kinetically trapped and thermodynamically favorable states. We also demonstrate
      that the pathway-dependent morphology of the PA assembly can determine biological
      cell adhesion and survival rates. The dynamics associated with the nanostructures
      are also critical to their function, and techniques are now available to probe
      the internal dynamics of these nanostructures. For example, by conjugating
      radical electron spin labels to PAs, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy
      can be used to study the rotational diffusion rates within the fiber, showing a
      liquidlike to solidlike transition through the cross section of the nanofiber.
      PAs can also be labeled with fluorescent dyes, allowing the use of super
      resolution microscopy techniques to study the molecular exchange dynamics between
      PA fibers. For a weak hydrogen-bonding PA, individual PA molecules or clusters
      exchange between fibers in time scales as short as minutes. The amount of
      hydrogen bonding within PAs that dictates the dynamics also plays an important
      role in biological function. In one case, weak hydrogen bonding within a PA
      resulted in cell death through disruption of lipid membranes, while in another
      example reduced hydrogen bonding enhanced growth factor signaling by increasing
      lipid raft mobility. PAs are a promising platform for designing advanced hybrid
      materials. We discuss a covalent polymer with a rigid aromatic imine backbone and
      alkylated peptide side chains that simultaneously polymerizes and interacts with
      a supramolecular PA structure with identical chemistry to that of the side
      chains. The covalent polymerization can be "catalyzed" by noncovalent
      polymerization of supramolecular monomers, taking advantage of the dynamic nature
      of supramolecular assemblies. These novel hybrid structures have potential in
      self-repairing materials and as reusable scaffolds for delivery of drugs or other
      chemicals. Finally, we highlight recent biomedical applications of PAs and
      related structures, ranging from bone regeneration to decreasing blood loss
      during internal bleeding.

PMID- 28876057
TI  - Hemilability of the 1,2-Bis(dimethylphosphino)ethane (dmpe) Ligand in
      Cp*Mo(NO)(kappa2-dmpe).
AB  - Reaction of Cp*Mo(NO)Cl2 with 1 equiv of 1,2-bis(dimethylphosphino)ethane (dmpe)
      in THF at ambient temperature forms [Cp*Mo(NO)(Cl)(kappa2-dmpe)]Cl (1), which is
      isolable as an analytically pure yellow powder in 65% yield. Further addition of
      2 equiv of Cp2Co to 1 in CH2Cl2 affords dark red Cp*Mo(NO)(kappa2-dmpe) (2),
      which was isolated in 36% yield by recrystallization from Et2O at -30  degrees C.
      Reaction of a benzene solution of 2 with an equimolar amount of elemental sulfur
      results in the immediate production of dark blue (MU-S)[Cp*Mo(NO)(kappa1-dmpeS)]2
      (3), which is a rare example of a bimetallic transition-metal complex bridged by
      only a single sulfur atom and involving Mo?S?Mo bonding. In contrast, reaction of
      2 with an excess of sulfur in benzene results in the formation of Cp*Mo(NO)(eta2
      S2)(kappa1-dmpeS) (4). Complex 4 can also be formed by the addition of elemental
      sulfur to 3, thereby indicating that 3 is a precursor to 4. Cp*Mo(NO)(kappa2
      dmpe) (2) also undergoes interesting transformations when treated with organic
      bromides. For instance, reaction of 2 with 5 equiv benzyl bromide in THF produces
      the bimetallic complex (MU-dmpe)[Cp*Mo(NO)Br2]2 (5) and bibenzyl after 4 d at 70 
      degrees C probably via radical intermediates. In contrast to its reaction with
      benzyl bromide, complex 2 forms [Mo(NO)Br2(kappa2-dmpe)]2 (6), olefin, alkane,
      and Cp*H when treated with 5 equiv of 1-bromopropane or 1-bromooctane in THF at
      70  degrees C for 72 h. Interestingly, complex 2 does not display any reactivity
      with bromobenzene or 1-bromoadamantane even after being heated for several days
      at 70  degrees C. All new complexes were characterized by conventional
      spectroscopic and analytical methods, and the solid-state molecular structures of
      most of them were established by single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analyses.

PMID- 28876058
TI  - Systematic Adjustment of Pitch and Particle Dimensions within a Family of Chiral
      Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticle Single Helices.
AB  - Systematically controlling the assembly architecture within a class of chiral
      nanoparticle superstructures is important for fine-tuning their chiroptical
      properties. Here, we report a family of chiral gold nanoparticle single helices,
      varying in helical pitch and nanoparticle dimensions, that is assembled using a
      series of peptide conjugate molecules Cx-(PEPAuM-ox)2 (PEPAuM-ox =
      AYSSGAPPMoxPPF; x = 16-22). We demonstrate that the aliphatic tail length (i) can
      be used as a handle to systematically tune the helical pitch from 80 to 130 nm;
      and (ii) influences the size, shape, and aspect ratio of the component
      nanoparticles. Certain members of this family of materials exhibit intense
      plasmonic chiroptical activity. These studies highlight the multiple levels of
      structural control that can be achieved within a class of chiral nanoparticle
      superstructures via careful design and selection of peptide conjugate precursor.

PMID- 28876060
TI  - Selective Molecular Separation by Interfacially Crystallized Covalent Organic
      Framework Thin Films.
AB  - Exponential interest in the field of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) stems
      from the direct correlation between their modular design principle and various
      interesting properties. However, existing synthetic approaches to realize this
      goal mainly result in insoluble and unprocessable powders, which severely
      restrict their widespread applicability. Therefore, developing a methodology for
      easy fabrication of these materials remains an alluring goal and a much desired
      objective. Herein, we have demonstrated a bottom-up interfacial crystallization
      strategy to fabricate these microcrystalline powders as large-scale thin films
      under ambient conditions. This unique design principle exploits liquid-liquid
      interface as a platform, allowing simultaneous control over crystallization and
      morphology of the framework structure. The thin films are grown without any
      support in free-standing form and can be transferred onto any desirable
      substrate. The porous (with Tp-Bpy showing highest SBET of 1 151 m2 g-1) and
      crystalline thin films, having high chemical as well as thermal stability, also
      hold the merit to tune the thickness as low as sub-100 nm. These nanostructured
      thin COF films demonstrate remarkable solvent-permeance and solute-rejection
      performance. A prominent instance is the Tp-Bpy thin film, which displays an
      unprecedented acetonitrile permeance of 339 L m-2 h-1 bar-1.

PMID- 28876059
TI  - Pentalinonsterol, a Constituent of Pentalinon andrieuxii, Possesses Potent
      Immunomodulatory Activity and Primes T Cell Immune Responses.
AB  - The use of natural products as adjuvants has emerged as a promising approach for
      the development of effective vaccine formulations. Pentalinonsterol (PEN) is a
      recently isolated compound from the roots of Pentalinon andrieuxii and has been
      shown to possess antileishmanial activity against Leishmania spp. The objective
      of this study was to examine the immunomodulatory properties of PEN and evaluate
      its potential as an adjuvant. Macrophages and bone-marrow-derived dendritic cells
      (BMDCs) were stimulated with PEN and tested for gene expression, cytokine
      production, and their ability to activate T cells in vitro. PEN was also
      evaluated for its ability to generate antigen-specific Th1 and Th2 responses in
      vivo, following ovalbumin (OVA) immunization using PEN as an adjuvant. The
      results obtained demonstrate that PEN enhances the expression of NF-kappaB and
      AP1 transcription factors, promotes gene expression of Tnfalpha, Il6, Nos2, and
      Arg1, and upregulates MHCII, CD80, and CD86 in macrophages. PEN also enhanced IL
      12 production in BMDCs and promoted BMDC-mediated production of IFN-gamma by T
      cells. Further, mice immunized with OVA and PEN showed enhanced antigen-specific
      Th1 and Th2 cytokines in their splenocytes and lymph node cells, as well as
      increased levels of IgG1 and IgG2 in their sera. Taken together, this study
      demonstrates that PEN is a potent immunomodulatory compound and potentially can
      be used as an adjuvant for vaccine development against infectious diseases.

PMID- 28876061
TI  - Triggered Release from Lipid Bilayer Vesicles by an Artificial Transmembrane
      Signal Transduction System.
AB  - The on-demand delivery of drug molecules from nanoscale carriers with
      spatiotemporal control is a key challenge in modern medicine. Here we show that
      lipid bilayer vesicles (liposomes) can be triggered to release an encapsulated
      molecular cargo in response to an external control signal by employing an
      artificial transmembrane signal transduction mechanism. A synthetic signal
      transducer embedded in the lipid bilayer membrane acts as a switchable catalyst,
      catalyzing the formation of surfactant molecules inside the vesicle in response
      to a change in external pH. The surfactant permeabilizes the lipid bilayer
      membrane to facilitate release of an encapsulated hydrophilic cargo. In the
      absence of the pH control signal, the catalyst is inactive, and the cargo remains
      encapsulated within the vesicle.

PMID- 28876062
TI  - Modulation of Glycine-Mediated Spinal Neurotransmission for the Treatment of
      Chronic Pain.
AB  - Chronic pain constitutes a significant and expanding worldwide health crisis.
      Currently available analgesics poorly serve individuals suffering from chronic
      pain, and new therapeutic agents that are more effective, safer, and devoid of
      abuse liabilities are desperately needed. Among the myriad of cellular and
      molecular processes contributing to chronic pain, spinal disinhibition of pain
      signaling to higher cortical centers plays a critical role. Accumulating evidence
      shows that glycinergic inhibitory neurotransmission in the spinal cord dorsal
      horn gates nociceptive signaling, is essential in maintaining physiological pain
      sensitivity, and is diminished in pathological pain states. Thus, it is
      hypothesized that agents capable of enhancing glycinergic tone within the dorsal
      horn could obtund nociceptor signaling to the brain and serve as analgesics for
      persistent pain. This Perspective highlights the potential that pharmacotherapies
      capable of increasing inhibitory spinal glycinergic neurotransmission hold in
      providing new and transformative analgesic therapies for the treatment of chronic
      pain.

PMID- 28876063
TI  - Magnetic Interaction Affecting the Zero-Field Single-Molecule Magnet Behaviors in
      Isomorphic {NiII2DyIII2} and {CoII2DyIII2} Tetranuclear Complexes.
AB  - Great interest is being shown in investigating magnetic interactions that
      efficiently influence lanthanide single-molecule magnet behavior. A series of
      heterometallic complexes [M2Ln2(Hhms)2(CH3COO)6(CH3OH)2(H2O)2].(NO3)2 (M = NiII,
      Ln = DyIII (1), GdIII (2), and YIII (3); M = CoII, Ln = DyIII (4), GdIII (5), and
      YIII (6)) have been prepared with a compartmental Schiff-base ligand, 1-(2
      hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)-semicarbazide (H2hms), featuring a zigzag-shaped
      MII-LnIII-LnIII-MII metallic core arrangement. In complexes 1-6, a unique
      monophenoxo/diacetate asymmetric bridging connects MII ion with LnIII ion, and
      four acetates bridge two LnIII ions where acetates play essential roles as
      coligand in generating the tetranuclear units. Magnetic studies reveal the
      presence of predominant ferromagnetic coupling in DyIII and GdIII derivatives,
      and slow relaxation of magnetization is observed for {Ni2IIDy2III} and
      {CoII2DyIII2} with an energy barrier of 16.0 K for {Ni2IIDy2III} and 6.7 K for
      {CoII2DyIII2} under zero static field. Compared with the analogue {CoII2DyIII2},
      the {Ni2IIDy2III} shows longer relaxation time and an absence of the quantum
      tunnelling of the magnetization (QTM) at low temperatures. Ab initio calculations
      suggest that the zero-field QTM of {Ni2IIDy2III} is effectively interrupted
      thanks to the ferromagnetic exchange coupling generated between NiII and DyIII
      ions. The presence of ferromagnetic exchange between NiII and DyIII ions is more
      conducive to zero-field single-molecule magnet behaviors than in isomorphic
      {CoII2DyIII2} where the exchange is antiferromagnetic.

PMID- 28876064
TI  - Improving the Performance of Long-Range-Corrected Exchange-Correlation Functional
      with an Embedded Neural Network.
AB  - A machine-learning-based exchange-correlation functional is proposed for general
      purpose density functional theory calculations. It is built upon the long-range
      corrected Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr (LC-BLYP) functional, along with an embedded neural
      network which determines the value of the range-separation parameter MU for every
      individual system. The structure and the weights of the neural network are
      optimized with a reference data set containing 368 highly accurate thermochemical
      and kinetic energies. The newly developed functional (LC-BLYP-NN) achieves a
      balanced performance for a variety of energetic properties investigated. It
      largely improves the accuracy of atomization energies and heats of formation on
      which the original LC-BLYP with a fixed MU performs rather poorly. Meanwhile, it
      yields a similar or slightly compromised accuracy for ionization potentials,
      electron affinities, and reaction barriers, for which the original LC-BLYP works
      reasonably well. This work clearly highlights the potential usefulness of machine
      learning techniques for improving density functional calculations.

PMID- 28876065
TI  - Carbon Monoxide and Its Controlled Release: Therapeutic Application, Detection,
      and Development of Carbon Monoxide Releasing Molecules (CORMs).
AB  - Carbon monoxide (CO) is attracting increasing attention because of its role as a
      gasotransmitter with cytoprotective and homeostatic properties. Carbon monoxide
      releasing molecules (CORMs) are spatially and temporally controlled CO releasers
      that exhibit superior and more effective pharmaceutical traits than gaseous CO
      because of their chemistry and structure. Experimental and preclinical research
      in animal models has shown the therapeutic potential of inhaled CO and CORMs, and
      the biological effects of CO and CORMs have also been observed in preclinical
      trials via the genetic modulation of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). In this review, we
      describe the pharmaceutical use of CO and CORMs, methods of detecting CO release,
      and developments in CORM design and synthesis. Many valuable clinical CORMs
      formulated using macromolecules and nanomaterials are also described.

PMID- 28876067
TI  - Kinetic Analysis of the Multivalent Ligand Binding Interaction between Protein
      A/G and IgG: A Standard System Setting.
AB  - Recombinant protein A/G (PAG) has a sequence coding for eight IgG binding sites
      and has enhanced interspecies affinity. High-frequency sampling of a PAG
      titration with IgG produces concentration profiles that are sensitive to the
      kinetic availability of the binding sites. The full kinetic model developed here
      for IgG binding sequentially to PAG shows only two distinct kinetic processes,
      describing an initial rapid association of two antibodies to PAG with a rate
      constant k-fast = (1.86 +/- 0.08) * 106 M-1 s-1 and a slower antibody binding
      process to all remaining sites, k-slow = (1.24 +/- 0.05) * 104 M-1 s-1. At
      equilibrium (after 1 h), the maximum IgG occupancy of PAG is 2.8 +/- 0.5,
      conflicting with the genetic evidence of eight binding sites and suggesting
      significant steric hindrance of the neighboring IgG binding sites. The phosphate
      buffered saline (PBS) solution defines a standard system setting, and this may be
      compared with other settings. The mean association rate of PAG-IgGn in the
      standard setting is 282 +/- 20% higher than when PAG is tethered to a surface. A
      systems biology approach requires that a model parameter set that defines a
      system in a standard setting should be transferable to another system. The
      transfer of parameters between settings may be performed using activity
      coefficients characterizing an effective concentration of species in a system, ai
      = gammaici. The activity correction, gamma, for the eight-site occupancy is gamma
      = 0.35 +/- 0.06, and mapping from the standard setting to the solution setting
      suggests gammaPAG-IgG = 0.4 +/- 0.03. The role of activity coefficients and
      transferability of kinetic parameters between system settings is discussed.

PMID- 28876066
TI  - Photoactivation of the BLUF Protein PixD Probed by the Site-Specific
      Incorporation of Fluorotyrosine Residues.
AB  - The flavin chromophore in blue-light-using FAD (BLUF) photoreceptors is
      surrounded by a hydrogen bond network that senses and responds to changes in the
      electronic structure of the flavin on the ultrafast time scale. The hydrogen bond
      network includes a strictly conserved Tyr residue, and previously we explored the
      role of this residue, Y21, in the photoactivation mechanism of the BLUF protein
      AppABLUF by the introduction of fluorotyrosine (F-Tyr) analogues that modulated
      the pKa and reduction potential of Y21 by 3.5 pH units and 200 mV, respectively.
      Although little impact on the forward (dark- to light-adapted form) photoreaction
      was observed, the change in Y21 pKa led to a 4000-fold increase in the rate of
      dark-state recovery. In the present work we have extended these studies to the
      BLUF protein PixD, where, in contrast to AppABLUF, modulation in the Tyr (Y8) pKa
      has a profound impact on the forward photoreaction. In particular, a decrease in
      Y8 pKa by 2 or more pH units prevents formation of a stable light state,
      consistent with a photoactivation mechanism that involves proton transfer or
      proton-coupled electron transfer from Y8 to the electronically excited FAD.
      Conversely, the effect of pKa on the rate of dark recovery is markedly reduced in
      PixD. These observations highlight very significant differences between the
      photocycles of PixD and AppABLUF, despite their sharing highly conserved FAD
      binding architectures.

PMID- 28876068
TI  - Relating Nanoscale Accessibility within Plant Cell Walls to Improved Enzyme
      Hydrolysis Yields in Corn Stover Subjected to Diverse Pretreatments.
AB  - Simultaneous chemical modification and physical reorganization of plant cell
      walls via alkaline hydrogen peroxide or liquid hot water pretreatment can alter
      cell wall structural properties impacting nanoscale porosity. Nanoscale porosity
      was characterized using solute exclusion to assess accessible pore volumes, water
      retention value as a proxy for accessible water-cell walls surface area, and
      solute-induced cell wall swelling to measure cell wall rigidity. Key findings
      concluded that delignification by alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment
      decreased cell wall rigidity and that the subsequent cell wall swelling resulted
      increased nanoscale porosity and improved enzyme binding and hydrolysis compared
      to limited swelling and increased accessible surface areas observed in liquid hot
      water pretreated biomass. The volume accessible to a 90 A dextran probe within
      the cell wall was found to be correlated to both enzyme binding and glucose
      hydrolysis yields, indicating cell wall porosity is a key contributor to
      effective hydrolysis yields.

PMID- 28876069
TI  - Short Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (-)-Rhazinilam Using a Gold(I)
      Catalyzed Cyclization.
AB  - (R)-(-)-Rhazinilam has been synthesized in nine steps and 20% overall yield. The
      key steps involve two metal-catalyzed processes: the enantioselective gold(I)
      catalyzed cycloisomerization of an allene-functionalized pyrrole and the
      palladium-catalyzed hydrocarboxylation of a vinyl moiety with formate as a CO
      surrogate. This novel strategy represents the shortest and highest yielding
      enantioselective total synthesis of (-)-rhazinilam.

PMID- 28876070
TI  - Role of Salt, Pressure, and Water Activity on Homogeneous Ice Nucleation.
AB  - Pure water can be substantially supercooled below the melting temperature without
      transforming into ice. The achievable supercooling can be enhanced by adding
      solutes or by applying hydrostatic pressure. Avoiding ice formation is of great
      importance in the cryopreservation of food or biological samples. In this Letter,
      we investigate the similarity between the effects of pressure and salt on ice
      formation using a combination of state-of-the-art simulation techniques. We find
      that both hinder ice formation by increasing the energetic cost of creating the
      ice-fluid interface. Moreover, we examine the widely accepted proposal that the
      ice nucleation rate for different pressures and solute concentrations can be
      mapped through the activity of water [ Koop , L. ; Tsias , P. Nature , 2000 , 406
      , 611 ]. We show that such a proposal is not consistent with the nucleation rates
      predicted in our simulations because it does not include all parameters affecting
      ice nucleation. Therefore, even though salt and pressure have a qualitatively
      similar effect on ice formation, they cannot be quantitatively mapped onto one
      another.

PMID- 28876071
TI  - Tabercorymines A and B, Two Vobasinyl-Ibogan-Type Bisindole Alkaloids from
      Tabernaemontana corymbosa.
AB  - Tabercorymines A (1) and B (2), two new vobasinyl-ibogan-type bisindole alkaloids
      with an unprecedented skeleton, were isolated from Tabernaemontana corymbosa.
      Their structures were established by a combination of spectroscopic data,
      chemical transformation, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and ECD calculation.
      Compound 1 represents a novel bisindole alkaloid, characterized by a caged
      heteropentacyclic ring system incorporating an unprecedented C-7/C-20 bond in the
      vobasinyl unit. Alkaloids 1 and 2 showed potent antiproliferative activity
      against several human cancer cell lines, including vincristine-resistant KB.

PMID- 28876072
TI  - Binary Colloidal Crystal Films Grown by Vertical Evaporation of Silica
      Nanoparticle Suspensions.
AB  - Despite intensive research efforts in the synthesis of binary colloidal crystals,
      the production of well ordered binary colloidal crystal films over large areas
      continues to be synthetically challenging. In this paper, we investigate the
      phase behavior of binary mixtures of l-arginine-stabilized 36 and 22 nm silica
      nanoparticles deposited as centimeter-scale thin films onto a vertical substrate
      via evaporative assembly. By adjusting the temperature and relative colloid
      composition under high humidity conditions, we controlled the order of the
      resultant colloidal crystal films. The domain size of the AB2 binary crystalline
      phase increased with an excess of small (B) particles and a very slow evaporation
      rate below 45  degrees C, with the best results obtained at 30 degrees  and 35 
      degrees C.

PMID- 28876073
TI  - Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Water Nanodroplet Bounce Back from Flat and
      Nanopillared Surface.
AB  - Molecular dynamics simulations of impinging nanodroplets were performed to study
      the bounce-back condition for flat and nanopillared surfaces. We found that the
      bounce-back condition can be closely related to the degree of droplet deformation
      upon collision with the solid surface. When the droplets have little or small
      deformation, the bounce-back condition solely depends on the hydrophobicity of
      the surface. On the other hand, when the droplet deformation is large, the
      impinging velocity dependence of the bounce-back condition becomes stronger due
      to the increase of the liquid-vapor interfacial area of colliding droplet, which
      is proportional to the liquid-vapor surface energy. The impinging droplet
      simulations with nanopillared hydrophobic surfaces were also performed. The
      contribution of droplet deformation in this case is relatively small because the
      surface hydrophobicity is enhanced due to the existence of pillars. Finally, we
      find that the maximum spreading diameter of the impinging droplets exhibits a
      consistent trend, in terms of the Weber number dependence, as the experimental
      measurements with macrodroplets.

PMID- 28876074
TI  - Synthetic Study toward Total Synthesis of (+/-)-Germine: Synthesis of (+/-)-4
      Methylenegermine.
AB  - The total synthesis of 4-methylenegermine is described.

PMID- 28876075
TI  - Structural Evolution and Formation Mechanism of the Soft Colloidal Arrays in the
      Core of PAAm Nanofibers by Electrospun Packing.
AB  - Electrospinning provides a facile and versatile method for generating nanofibers
      from a large variety of starting materials, including polymers, ceramic,
      composites, and micro-/nanocolloids. In particular, incorporating functional
      nanoparticles (NPs) with polymeric materials endows the electrospun fibers/sheets
      with novel or better performance. This work evaluates the spinnability of
      polyacrylamide (PAAm) solution containing thermoresponsive poly(N
      isopropylacrylamide-co-tert-butyl acrylate) microgel nanospheres (PNTs) prepared
      by colloid electrospinning. In the presence of a suitable weight ratio (1:4) of
      PAAm and PNTs, the in-fiber arrangements of PNTs-electrospun fibers will evolve
      into chain-like arrays and beads-on-string structures by confining of PAAm
      nanofibers, and then the free amide groups of PAAm can bind amide moieties on the
      surfaces of PNTs, resulting in the assembling of PNTs in the cores of PAAm
      fibers. The present work serves as a reference in the fabrication of novel
      thermoresponsive hybrid fibers involving functional nanospheres via electrospun
      packing. The prepared nanofibers with chain-like and thermoresponsive colloid
      arrays in the cores are expected to have potential application in various fields.

PMID- 28876078
TI  - Prolactin monitoring in schizophrenia should be indicated by symptomatology not
      time.

PMID- 28876076
TI  - Supramolecular Electronic Interactions in Porphyrin-SWCNT Hybrids through
      Amidinium-Carboxylate Connectivity.
AB  - New supramolecular (metal)porphyrin/SWCNT hybrids have been synthesized through a
      combination of hydrogen bond and electrostatic interactions. Our experimental
      findings reveal through different techniques (XPS, TGA, UV-vis, Raman, and TEM)
      an efficient n-doping of the SWCNT from the electron donor (metal)porphyrin
      through the efficient and strong amidinium-carboxylate connectivity.

PMID- 28876077
TI  - Biomimetic Synthesis of Macahydantoins A and B from Lepidium meyenii, and
      Structure Revision of Macahydantoin B as a Class of Thiohydantoin with a 4-Methyl
      hexahydropyrrolo[1,2-c]imidazole Skeleton.
AB  - Phytochemical investigation on Lepidium meyenii led to the discovery of
      macahydantoin C (3), a new thiohydantoin with a 1,3-diazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane
      core, the spectral properties of which indicate a potential structural
      misassignment of its previously reported analogue, macahydantoin B (2a). To probe
      this hypothesis, a concise, scalable, and biomimetic synthesis of the originally
      proposed 2a and its revised structure (2b) was efficiently accomplished using the
      modified Edman degradation as the key step from commercially available materials
      in 65% (three steps) and 52% (three steps) overall yields, respectively. These
      synthetic endeavors undoubtedly reassigned the structure of macahydantoin B as an
      unreported type of thiohydantoin featuring a 4-methyl-hexahydropyrrolo[1,2
      c]imidazole scaffold.

PMID- 28876079
TI  - Commentary on Phillipou et al. (2018), Anorexia nervosa: Eating disorder or body
      image disorder?

PMID- 28876080
TI  - Cancer Impact, Complementary/Alternative Medicine Beliefs, and Quality of Life in
      Cancer Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among
      cancer impact, belief in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), CAM use,
      and quality of life (QOL). DESIGN: The study used a cross-sectional, descriptive
      correlational design with convenience sampling. A total of 122 cancer patients
      participated. Data were collected at a medical center in Chunghua, Taiwan. The
      questionnaires included the Chinese version of the Cancer Problem in Living Scale
      (CPILS), Complementary and Alternative Medicine Belief Inventory (CAMBI),
      Complementary and Alternative Medicine scale, and Chinese versions of QOL scales,
      including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). RESULTS:
      The mean age was 56.5 years, and most participants were male (n = 69, 56.6%), had
      completed high school or above (n = 56, 45.9%), and were married (n = 109,
      89.3%). The most common type of cancer was oral (n = 17, 13.9%), followed by
      esophageal (n = 15, 12.3%) and colorectal (n = 13, 10.7%). Cancer patients, on
      average, use one or two types of CAM. The impact of cancer is significantly
      related to age (F = 7.12, p < 0.05), and income is related to QOL (F = 3.61, p <
      0.05). Pearson correlations showed that the use of CAM was positively associated
      with belief in CAM (CAMBI) (r = 0.26, p = 0.01), and the impact of cancer was
      highly negatively associated with QOL (r = -0.71, p = 0.001). The predictors of
      QOL were the impact of cancer and use of CAM, and the impact of cancer accounted
      for 51% of the variance in QOL. CONCLUSION: This study supports research on the
      impact of cancer, belief in CAM, and use of CAM as related to QOL in cancer
      patients. These results can be used to provide options to clinicians and cancer
      patients.

PMID- 28876081
TI  - Legislation to Protect Nursing Mothers, Again: A Matter of Public Health and
      National Security.

PMID- 28876082
TI  - Co-production of NDM-1 and OXA-232 by ST16 Klebsiella pneumoniae, Italy, 2016.
AB  - Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, New Delhi metallo-beta
      lactamase-1 producers, are still rare in Italy, being endemic in Southeast
      Asiatic region. In October 2016, a multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae was isolated
      from blood and urine of an Italian long-hospitalized patient with urosepsis
      without travel history abroad. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      report of bacteremia caused by an ST16 K. pneuomoniae New Delhi metallo-beta
      lactamase-1 and OXA-232 co-producing carbapenemase, in Italy.

PMID- 28876083
TI  - The redesign of oxazolidinone antibiotics in response to Staphylococcus aureus.

PMID- 28876084
TI  - Trifluoperazine Activates FOXO1-Related Signals to Inhibit Tumor Growth in
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Schizophrenic patients tend to have reduced incidence of some cancers due to the
      treatment of antipsychotic drugs with antitumor effects, such as chlorpromazine
      and trifluoperazine (TFP). Forkhead Box O1 (FOXO1) as tumor suppressor in many
      malignancies is often inactivated by nuclear export, which could be inhibited by
      TFP. However, the antitumor efficiency of TFP and related role of FOXO1 in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are unclear. Thus, two HCC cell lines SMMC-7721
      and Bel-7402 were treated with different concentrations of TFP and the IC50 was
      determined. We found that TFP could inhibit the vitality of two cell lines and
      induce cell cycle arrest at G0/G1. Meanwhile, the apoptosis was also increased
      and the ability of migration or invasion was found to be impaired by TFP.
      Interestingly, TFP reversed the cytoplasmic localization of FOXO1 to nuclear and
      increased its expression in nuclear, and increased the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2.
      However,  knockdown of FOXO1 significantly abrogated the TFP-inducedapoptosis by
      decreasing the Bcl-2 expression [corrected]. Furthermore, we found that TFP in
      vivo could effectively restrict the angiogenesis and tumor growth with reduced
      expression of VEGF, Bcl-2, and PCNA, and increased the nuclear localization of
      FOXO1, which indicated its antitumor role in HCC.

PMID- 28876085
TI  - Joint Analysis of SNP-SNP-Environment Interactions for Chronic Dialysis by an
      Improved Branch and Bound Algorithm.
AB  - In previous studies, both single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-SNP or gene-gene
      (G * G) interactions and SNP-environmental factor (G * E) interactions were
      reported to partially account for "missing" heritability. However, (G * G) * E
      interactions were less commonly addressed. The purpose of this study was to
      develop a novel strategy to evaluate possible (G * G) * E interactions in D-loop
      based chronic dialysis association. Using values from our previously published
      data set (704 controls and 193 cases) of 77 D-loop SNPs and 7 environmental
      factors (coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, triglyceride,
      cholesterol, blood thiol, and TBARS levels), we compared the performances of G, G
      * G, G * E, and (G * G) * E. We found that the interactions of four individual
      SNPs previously associated with a significantly high risk of chronic dialysis
      [odds ratio (OR) = 1.56-4.93] with environmental factors (G * E) increased the
      risk of chronic dialysis (maximum OR = 35.43). We then used an improved branch
      and bound algorithm to identify combinations of two to four SNPs that were most
      highly associated with chronic dialysis (OR = 9.27-34.39). When the interactions
      of the two- and three-SNP combinations with environmental factors were evaluated,
      we found that the (G * G) * E effects increased the risk of chronic dialysis
      (maximum OR = 8.32-57.54 and OR = 12.52-57.81, respectively; adjusted OR = 8.67
      81.81 and OR = 12.29-81.95, respectively). Taken together, the (G * G) * E
      interactions identified chronic dialysis-associated SNPs that would not have been
      found using G * G or G * E interactions, suggesting that (G * G) * E interactions
      may be helpful to solve the problems of missing heritability in association
      studies.

PMID- 28876086
TI  - miR-26a-5p Regulates TNRC6A Expression and Facilitates Theca Cell Proliferation
      in Chicken Ovarian Follicles.
AB  - Ovarian theca cells play an indispensable role in ovarian follicular development
      and hormone secretion. miR-26a-5p was reported to be differentially expressed in
      mature and immature chicken ovaries in our previous study; however, the role of
      miR-26a-5p in regulating ovarian follicle function is still unclear. In this
      study, we demonstrated that the expression dynamics of TNRC6A mRNA in either
      chicken ovaries or follicles showed an opposite trend compared with that of
      chicken miR-26a-5p expression. miR-26a-5p inhibited TNRC6A mRNA expression by
      directly targeting its 3'-untranslated region in cultured chicken theca cells.
      Overexpression of miR-26a-5p promoted chicken follicular theca cell proliferation
      in vitro. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-26a-5p and knockdown of TNRC6A
      significantly upregulated the antiapoptotic BCL-2 gene. Taken together, this
      study revealed the expression dynamics of miR-26a-5p and TNRC6A in chicken
      ovaries and ovarian follicles and the relationship between the expression of miR
      26a-5p and TNRC6A in chicken ovarian theca cells. These results suggest that miR
      26a-5p facilitates chicken ovarian theca cell proliferation by targeting the
      TNRC6A gene.

PMID- 28876088
TI  - Frontiers in Neural Transplantation and Repair: A Special Issue Based on the 11th
      ASNTR Meeting.

PMID- 28876087
TI  - Preparation and Evaluation of 177Lu-Labeled Gemcitabine: An Effort Toward
      Developing Radiolabeled Chemotherapeutics for Targeted Therapy Applications.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Gemcitabine, a nucleoside analogue, is used as a chemotherapeutic drug
      for the treatment of a wide variety of cancers. Therefore, radiolabeled
      gemcitabine may have potential as a radiotherapeutic agent for the treatment of
      various types of cancers. In the present work, an attempt has been made to
      radiolabel gemcitabine with 177Lu and study the preliminary biological behavior
      of 177Lu-labeled gemcitabine in tumor-bearing animal model. EXPERIMENTAL:
      Gemcitabine was coupled with p-NCS-benzyl-DOTA, a bifunctional chelating agent,
      to facilitate radiolabeling with 177Lu. The p-NCS-benzyl-DOTA-gemcitabine
      conjugate was radiolabeled with 177Lu, produced in-house and characterized by
      high-performance liquid chromatography. Tumor targeting potential of the
      radiolabeled agent was determined by biodistribution studies in Swiss mice
      bearing fibrosarcoma tumors. RESULTS: 177Lu-gemcitabine was prepared with a
      radiochemical purity of 95.7% +/- 0.3% under the optimized reaction conditions.
      The radiolabeled agent showed adequate in vitro stability in normal saline as
      well as in human blood serum. Preliminary biological studies revealed rapid and
      significant accumulation of the radiotracer in the tumorous lesions along with
      fast clearance of activity from blood and other vital organs/tissue. Although
      tumor uptake gradually reduced with time, tumor to blood and tumor to muscle
      ratios were improved due to the comparatively faster clearance of activity from
      the nontarget organs/tissue. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates the
      preliminary potential of 177Lu-gemcitabine for targeted radiotherapy. However,
      further studies are warranted to assess its potential for radiotherapeutic
      applications.

PMID- 28876089
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Tracking of Human CD34 Progenitor Cells Separated by Means of
      Immunomagnetic Selection and Transplanted into Injured Rat Brain.
AB  - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a noninvasive method for studying the
      fate of transplanted cells in vivo. We studied whether superparamagnetic
      nanoparticles (CD34 microbeads), used clinically for specific magnetic sorting,
      can be used as a magnetic cell label for in vivo cell visualization. Human cells
      from peripheral blood were selected by CliniMACS(r) CD34 Selection Technology
      (Miltenyi). Purified CD34+ cells were implanted into rats with a cortical
      photochemical lesion, contralaterally to the lesion. Twenty-four hours after
      grafting, the implanted cells were detected in the contralateral hemisphere as a
      hypointense spot on T2 weighted images; the hypointensity of the implant
      decreased during the first week. At the lesion site we observed a hypointensive
      signal 10 days after grafting that persisted for the next 3 weeks, until the end
      of the experiment. Prussian blue and anti-human nuclei staining confirmed the
      presence of magnetically labeled human cells in the corpus callosum and in the
      lesion 4 weeks after grafting. CD34+ cells were also found in the subventricular
      zone (SVZ). Human DNA (a human-specific 850 base pair fragment of alpha-satellite
      DNA from human chromosome 17) was detected in brain tissue sections from the
      lesion using PCR, confirming the presence of human cells. Our results show that
      CD34 microbeads superparamagnetic nanoparticles can be used as a magnetic cell
      label for in vivo cell visualization. The fact that microbeads coated with
      different commercially available antibodies can bind to specific cell types opens
      extensive possibilities for cell tracking in vivo.

PMID- 28876090
TI  - Article Commentary: G-CSF-Mobilized Human Peripheral Blood for Transplantation
      Therapy in Stroke.

PMID- 28876092
TI  - Abstracts for the 16th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy
      and Repair.

PMID- 28876093
TI  - Effective Cryopreservation of Neural Stem or Progenitor Cells without Serum or
      Proteins by Vitrification.
AB  - Development of effective cryopreservation protocols will be essential to
      realizing the potential for clinical application of neural stem and progenitor
      cells. Current cryopreservation protocols have been largely employed in research,
      which does not require as stringent consideration of viability and sterility.
      Therefore, these protocols involve the use of serum and protein additives, which
      can potentially introduce contaminants, and slow cooling with DMSO/glycerol-based
      cryopreservation solutions, which impairs cell survival. We investigated whether
      serum- and protein-free vitrification is effective for functional
      cryopreservation of neurosphere cultures of neural stem or progenitor cells. To
      protect the samples from introduction of other contaminants during handling and
      cryostorage, an original "straw-in-straw" method (250 MUl sterile straw placed in
      500 MUl straw) for direct immersion into liquid nitrogen and storing the samples
      was also introduced. The protocol employed brief step-wise exposure to
      vitrification solution composed of ethylene glycol (EG) and sucrose (40% v/v EG,
      0.6 M sucrose) and removal of vitrification solution at room temperature.
      Evaluation of the effects of vitrification revealed that there were no
      differences between control and vitrified neural stem or progenitor cells in
      expression of the neural stem or progenitor cell markers, proliferation, or
      multipotent differentiation. This sterile method for the xeno-free
      cryopreservation of murine neurospheres without animal or human proteins may have
      the potential to serve as a starting point for the development of
      cryopreservation protocols for human neural stem and progenitor cells for
      clinical use.

PMID- 28876102
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28876106
TI  - Culture of Keratinocytes for Transplantation without the Need of Feeder Layer
      Cells.
AB  - Patients with large burn wounds have a limited amount of healthy donor skin. An
      alternative for the autologous skin graft is transplantation with autologous
      keratinocytes. Conventionally, the keratinocytes are cultured with mouse feeder
      layer cells in medium containing fetal calf serum (FCS) to obtain sufficient
      numbers of cells. These xenobiotic materials can be a potential risk for the
      patient. The aim of the present study was to investigate if keratinocytes could
      be expanded in culture without the need of a feeder layer and FCS. Keratinocytes
      were cultured on tissue culture plastic with or without collagen type IV coating
      in medium containing Ultroser G (serum substitute) and keratinocyte growth factor
      (KGF). An in vitro skin equivalent model was used to examine the capacity of
      these cells to form an epidermis. Keratinocytes in different passages (P2, P4,
      and P6) and freshly isolated cells were studied. Keratinocytes grown on collagen
      type IV were able to form an epidermis at higher passage numbers than cells grown
      in the absence of collagen type IV (P4 and P2, respectively). In both cases the
      reconstructed epidermis showed an increased expression of Ki-67, SKALP,
      involucrin, and keratin 17 compared to normal skin. Only 50,000 keratinocytes
      grown on collagen type IV in P4 were needed to form 1 cm2 epidermis, whereas
      150,000 of freshly isolated keratinocytes were necessary. Using this culture
      technique sufficient numbers of keratinocytes, isolated from 1 cm2 skin, were
      obtained to cover 400 cm2 of wound surface in 2 weeks. The results show that
      keratinocytes can be cultured without the need of a fibroblast feeder layer and
      FCS and that these cells are still able to create a fully differentiated
      epidermis. This culture technique can be a valuable tool for the treatment of
      burn wounds and further development of tissue engineered skin.

PMID- 28876107
TI  - Inhibition of Apoptosis by Expression of Antiapoptotic Proteins in Recombinant
      Human Keratinocytes.
AB  - The Fas ligand/Fas interaction plays an important role in the regulation of
      immune responses. Allografted cells undergo Fas-mediated apoptosis induced by
      CD8+ T cells. Our objective was to prevent human keratinocytes from
      immunologically induced apoptosis. We focused on three proteins with inhibitory
      function on Fas-mediated apoptosis. Human keratinocytes were transfected with
      either Flip, Faim, or Lifeguard (LFG). The treatment proved to be practicable and
      efficient. The recombinant keratinocytes with expression of our target proteins
      were cocultured with CD8+ T cells and the apoptotic activity was then evaluated.
      Activation of caspase-8 was detectable in control but not in the recombinant
      cells. Quantitative analysis revealed significant induction of T-cell-induced
      apoptosis in nontransfected keratinocytes (p = 0.04, n = 12) but not in Flip (p =
      0.66), Faim (p = 0.42), or LFG (p = 0.44) expressing cells. Our results suggest
      that heterotopic expression of antiapoptotic proteins can induce the resistance
      of keratinocytes to a major mechanism of rejection.

PMID- 28876115
TI  - [26th Congress of the Experimental Surgical Section of the Hungarian Surgical
      Society - Abstracts].

PMID- 28876116
TI  - [5th Congress of the Hungarian Association of Young Surgeons, April 7-9, 2017,
      Balatonalmadi - Abstracts].

PMID- 28876117
TI  - [Duodenal leiomyoma - a rare case report].
AB  - Neoplasms of the small bowel are rare and comprise only 1-5% of all
      gastrointestinal neoplasms. The most frequent malignant tumors located in the
      small bowel are adenocarcinomas, lymphomas and neuroendocrine tumors. Rarely
      observed are gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), leiomyosarcomas and
      leiomyomas. Leiomyomas are most frequently seen in the jejunum followed by the
      ileum and lastly the duodenum. In most cases, a definite diagnosis of these
      tumors is not possible prior to surgical treatment. The treatment of choice for
      these tumors is surgery. Surgical treatment of duodenal leiomyomas has been local
      tumor excision, segmental duodenal resection and pancreaticoduodenectomy. The
      prognosis for these well-differentiated smooth muscle tumors is favorable. The
      authors of this article presented a case of a 61-year-old white man who was
      admitted to the hospital because of diagnosed duodenal tumor. The patient was
      suffering for periodically appearing blunt pain in the upper abdomen and periodic
      vomiting for three months. He underwent surgical excision of a benign duodenum
      neoplasm and left the ward on the seventh day after surgery. After operation, the
      symptoms of disease were alleviated. The author performed a review of the
      literature concerning duodenal leiomyoma.

PMID- 28876118
TI  - [Effects of complement C5a inhibitor therapy in animal models of non-occlusive
      mesenteric ischemia].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI) develops without
      anatomical causes. Early diagnosis is challenging and treatments are of
      questionable effectiveness. We investigated the role of complement activation in
      the pathophysiology of NOMI in animal models through the inhibition of complement
      C5a. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 60-min partial aortic occlusion (PAO; abdominal
      aorta, proximal to celiac trunk; mean arterial pressure: 30-40 mmHg) was
      established in Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 28) and 60-min cardiac tamponade in
      minipigs (n = 19; mean arterial pressure: 40-50 mmHg) to observe short- and long
      term circulatory and inflammatory consequences of NOMI. Macro- and
      microhemodynamics, leukocyte infiltration, plasma levels of inflammatory
      mediators (endothelin, HMGB-1) were measured. C5a inhibitor (Acetyl-Peptid-A; 4
      mg/kg iv) was administered at the 45th min of PAO or tamponade, respectively.
      RESULTS: Twenty-four hours after PAO systemic inflammatory response increased
      cardiac output and superior mesenteric artery flow (SMAF). C5a inhibition reduced
      the elevated cardiac output (203.1 +/- 5 vs 269.6 +/- 8.1 ml/min/kg) and SMAF and
      increased ileal microcirculation (833.5 +/- 33.8 vs 441.9 +/- 22.4 MUm/s). In
      pigs, after the tamponade, C5a inhibition reduced the immediate hemodynamic
      disturbances, temporarily increased SMAF and permanently the ileal
      microcirculation. The Acetyl-Peptid-A treatment reduced leukocyte infiltration
      and plasma levels of inflammatory mediators in both NOMI models. CONCLUSIONS:
      Complement activation plays central role in the macro- and microcirculatory
      disturbance during NOMI. C5a inhibition reduces the inflammatory activation and
      influences the hemodynamic consequences of experimental NOMI.

PMID- 28876119
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876120
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876121
TI  - [The role of cone-beam CT during transarterial chemoembolization for liver
      cancer].
AB  - PURPOSE: The role of interventional radiology in the treatment of hepatic
      malignancies is steeply raising. Our purpose is to present the importance of cone
      beam CT (CBCT) during TACE (transarterial chemoembolization) procedures for liver
      tumours. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1st of June 2013 and 31st of July 2016, we
      performed 130 TACE procedures in 64 patients in the Borsod University Teaching
      Hospital at Miskolc. During some of the treatments of 44 patients CBCT was also
      performed. RESULTS: All procedures were successful and carried out safely. CBCT
      gave new information in 22,7%, that influenced further treatment. It helped to
      precisely localize tumours, corrected the number or the size of hepatic
      malignancies. With CBCT it was easier to identify the feeding arteries of the
      tumour, plan the actual treatment and also to assess the efficacy of the previous
      treatment. DISCUSSION: The gold standard therapy of intermediate-stage HCC
      (according to Barcelona's criteria) is TACE. Beside, it can be safely and
      efficiently performed also in early stage or advanced stage in cases of
      contraindications for alternative therapies. Cone-beam CT is a dynamic
      examination which gives you an intraoperative, 3D CT-like imaging in the angio
      suit, without moving the table or the catheterised patient. Literature has
      already cited preliminary datas about prolonged survival for those patients
      treated with the help of CBCT intraoperatively. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative CBCT
      in patients with TACE treatment for hepatic malignancies can provide information
      that can improve the therapeutic results. Therefore we suggest the routine use of
      this imaging option during all TACE procedures if patients are eligible.

PMID- 28876122
TI  - Activity of 3'-hydroxychalcone against Cryptococcus gattii and toxicity, and
      efficacy in alternative animal models.
AB  - AIM: This work aimed to evaluate the activity of 3'-hydroxychalcone against
      Cryptococcus gattii in planktonic and biofilm forms and their toxicity using
      alternative animal models. MATERIALS & METHODS: Minimum inhibitory concentration
      and minimum fungicide concentration were determined. Biofilm formation and the
      susceptibility tests were performed by the 2,3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5
      sulfophenyl)-5-[carbonyl(phenylamino)]-2H-tetrazolium hydroxide assay. Toxicity
      and efficacy were checked in Danio rerio and Galleria mellonella models. RESULTS:
      The compound 3'-hydroxychalcone showed fungicidal activity against C. gattii in
      both planktonic and biofilm forms. The toxicity in zebrafish embryos revealed a
      low lethal concentration. In G. mellonella, the compound did not show antifungal
      activity and larvae toxicity. CONCLUSION: Because of the activity of 3'
      hydroxychalcone against C. gattii in vitro, molecular modifications should be
      made to improve efficacy and to reduce toxicity in vivo. [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28876128
TI  - Influence of Inhaled Amiloride on Lung Fluid Clearance in Response to Normobaric
      Hypoxia in Healthy Individuals.
AB  - : Wheatley, Courtney M., Sarah E. Baker, Bryan J. Taylor, Manda L. Keller-Ross,
      Steven C. Chase, Alex R. Carlson, Robert J. Wentz, Eric M. Snyder, and Bruce D.
      Johnson. Influence of inhaled amiloride on lung fluid clearance in response to
      normobaric hypoxia in healthy individuals. High Alt Med Biol 18:343-354, 2017.
      AIM: To investigate the role of epithelial sodium channels (ENaC) on lung fluid
      clearance in response to normobaric hypoxia, 20 healthy subjects were exposed to
      15 hours of hypoxia (fraction of inspired oxygen [FiO2] = 12.5%) on two
      randomized occasions: (1) inhaled amiloride (A) (1.5 mg/5 mL saline); and (2)
      inhaled saline placebo (P). Changes in lung fluid were assessed through chest
      computed tomography (CT) for lung tissue volume (TV), and the diffusion capacity
      of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO) and nitric oxide (DLNO) for pulmonary
      capillary blood volume (VC). Extravascular lung water (EVLW) was derived as TV-VC
      and changes in the CT attenuation distribution histograms were reviewed. RESULTS:
      Normobaric hypoxia caused (1) a reduction in EVLW (change from baseline for A vs.
      P, -8.5% +/- 3.8% vs. -7.9% +/- 5.2%, p < 0.05), (2) an increase in VC (53.6% +/-
      28.9% vs. 53.9% +/- 52.3%, p < 0.05), (3) a small increase in DLCO (9.6% +/-
      29.3% vs. 9.9% +/- 23.9%, p > 0.05), and (4) CT attenuation distribution became
      more negative, leftward skewed, and kurtotic (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Acute
      normobaric hypoxia caused a reduction in lung fluid that was unaffected by ENaC
      inhibition through inhaled amiloride. Although possible amiloride-sensitive ENaC
      may not be necessary to maintain lung fluid balance in response to hypoxia, it is
      more probable that normobaric hypoxia promotes lung fluid clearance rather than
      accumulation for the majority of healthy individuals. The observed reduction in
      interstitial lung fluid means alveolar fluid clearance may not have been
      challenged.

PMID- 28876129
TI  - Relationship Between Occupational Physical Activity and Subclinical Vascular
      Damage in Moderate-Altitude Dwellers.
AB  - : Ujka, Kristian, Rosa Maria Bruno, Luca Bastiani, Eva Bernardi, Paolo Sdringola,
      Nenad Dikic, Bikash Basyal, Sanjeeb Sundarshan Bhandari, Buddha Basnyat, Annalisa
      Cogo, and Lorenza Pratali. Relationship between occupational physical activity
      and subclinical vascular damage in moderate-altitude dwellers. High Alt Med Biol.
      18:249-257, 2017. BACKGROUND: Occupational physical activity (OPA) has been
      associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) events. The aim of this study was
      to investigate the association between OPA and markers of subclinical vascular
      damage among a moderate-altitude population living in the rural village of
      Chaurikharka (Nepal; 2600 m sea level). METHODS: Seventy-two individuals (age 42
      +/- 15 years, ranges 15-85 years, 23 men) were enrolled. Physical activity (PA)
      was evaluated using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ).
      Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), carotid ultrasound assessment, and
      flow-mediated dilation (FMD) were performed. RESULTS: OPA was 9860 +/- 5385
      Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET)-minutes/week, representing 77% of total energy
      expenditure, with 97% of the population performing high-intensity PA. In the
      univariate analysis, OPA was significantly associated with PWV (beta = 0.474, p =
      0.001) and carotid stiffness (CS) (beta = 0.29, p = 0.019). In the multivariate
      analysis, including age, sex, oxygen saturation, mean blood pressure, low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL), and OPA, OPA remained an independent predictor of PWV (beta =
      0.403, p = 0.001) but not of CS (beta = 0.028, p = 0.8). OPA remained an
      independent predictor of PWV independently from the Framingham risk score (FRS).
      CONCLUSION: High-intensity OPA shows a positive, independent association with
      aortic stiffness in Himalayan moderate-altitude dwellers. This study suggests how
      vigorous OPA performed in moderate altitude may be a CV risk factor.

PMID- 28876130
TI  - To treat or not to treat: a quantitative review of the effect of biofouling and
      control methods in shellfish aquaculture to evaluate the necessity of removal.
AB  - The global growth of farmed shellfish production has resulted in considerable
      research investigating how biofouling compromises farm productivity. Shellfish
      fitness can be compared between fouled stock and stock which has undergone
      treatment. As treatment options are often harsh, they may deleteriously affect
      stock. The projected impact of biofouling may therefore be confounded by the
      impact of treatments. Given the substantial cost of fouling removal, some have
      questioned the necessity of biofouling mitigation strategies. Meta-analysis
      revealed that biofouling typically reduces shellfish fitness. However, the
      fitness of treated stock was often lower or equal to fouled control stock,
      indicating that many common antifouling (AF) strategies are ineffective at
      enhancing farm productivity. Overall, caution and diligence are required to
      successfully implement biofouling mitigation strategies. The need remains for
      increased passive prevention approaches and novel AF strategies suitable for
      shellfish culture, such as strategic siting of bivalve farms in areas of low
      biofouling larval supply.

PMID- 28876131
TI  - Effects of Ultrasound Treatment on Physiochemical Properties and Antimicrobial
      Activities of Whey Protein-Totarol Nanoparticles.
AB  - Totarol is a natural antimicrobial compound extracted from the heartwood of
      Podocarpus totara, a conifer native to New Zealand. The effects of whey protein
      totarol nanoparticles treated with ultrasound on the physiochemical properties
      and the growth of Staphylococcus aureus were investigated. The particle size of
      whey protein-totarol nanoparticles was reduced by ultrasound treatment from 31.24
      +/- 5.31 to 24.20 +/- 4.02 nm, and the size distribution was also narrowed by the
      treatment. Viscosity and modulus data indicated that the flow behaviors of whey
      protein-totarol nanoparticles seemed to be Newtonian and exerted a typical
      viscoelastic fluid at protein content of 15% (w/v). Rheological properties were
      more insensitive to ultrasonic time. Time-killing assays, agar diffusion tests,
      the cell membrane damage analysis, and microstructure were exploited to study the
      antibacterial properties of whey protein-totarol nanoparticles. The MIC of whey
      protein-totarol nanoparticles after ultrasound treatment decreased from 4 to 2
      MUg/mL compared with that without ultrasound treatment. Whey protein-totarol
      nanoparticles treated with ultrasound resulted in a significant (P < 0.05)
      decrease in time killing after 24 h. The agar diffusion results showed that the
      inhibition zones of whey protein-totarol nanoparticles were 12 and 36 mm for
      untreated and treated with ultrasound, respectively. The cell membrane damages
      and the microstructure changes also proved that whey protein-totarol
      nanoparticles treated with ultrasound had strong antibacterial activities against
      S. aureus and that the antibacterial effectiveness enhanced with the increasing
      of ultrasonic time. These findings suggested that whey protein-totarol
      nanoparticles treated with ultrasound were more effective against S. aureus than
      untreated nanoparticles.

PMID- 28876132
TI  - Removal of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis after Hand Washing with
      Antimicrobial and Nonantimicrobial Soap and Persistence of These Bacteria in
      Rinsates.
AB  - Food handlers are important sources of contamination in the agricultural
      environment. This study was conducted (i) to evaluate the activity of
      antimicrobial soaps against Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis using a
      hand washing model with soiled hands and (ii) to determine the survival and
      persistence of these bacteria in rinsates. Sterilized agricultural soil from
      tomato and pepper farms was inoculated with E. coli or E. faecalis at 103 or 106
      CFU/g. Decontaminated hands were placed in contact with contaminated soil for 2
      min and were then washed with soaps with or without antimicrobial compounds
      (citric extracts, chloroxylenol, triclosan, or chlorhexidine gluconate). As the
      control, hands were washed with sterile distilled water. The levels of bacteria
      remaining on the hands and recovered from the rinsates were determined using a
      membrane filtration method and selective media. Antimicrobial soaps removed
      levels of E. coli similar to those removed by distilled water and
      nonantimicrobial soap on hands contaminated with E. coli at 103 CFU/g. However,
      when hands were contaminated with E. coli at 106 CFU/g, more E. coli was removed
      with the chlorhexidine gluconate soap. When hands were contaminated with E.
      faecalis at 103 CFU/g, bacteria were removed more effectively with soaps
      containing chloroxylenol or chlorhexidine gluconate. When hands were contaminated
      with E. faecalis at 106 CFU/g, all of the antimicrobial soaps were more effective
      for removing the bacteria than were distilled water and nonantimicrobial soap. E.
      coli grew in all of the hand washing rinsates except that containing triclosan,
      whereas E. faecalis from the 106 CFU/g treatments grew in rinsates containing
      chlorhexidine gluconate and in the distilled water rinsates. Washing with
      antimicrobial soap was more effective for reducing bacteria on soiled hands than
      was washing with water or nonantimicrobial soap. However, persistence or growth
      of bacteria in these rinsates poses health risks.

PMID- 28876133
TI  - 2015 Outbreak of Cyclosporiasis Linked to the Consumption of Imported Sugar Snap
      Peas in Ontario, Canada.
AB  - An outbreak of cyclosporiasis in Ontario, Canada, was investigated in the fall of
      2015. Thirty-five confirmed and 10 probable cases were linked to the
      investigation. Epidemiological and food safety evidence implicated fresh sugar
      snap peas imported from Guatemala as the source of the outbreak. We describe here
      the first documented cyclosporiasis outbreak in Canada involving the consumption
      of sugar snap peas.

PMID- 28876134
TI  - Investigating predictive power of agency and communion for interprofessional
      learner outcomes: A before-after study.
AB  - As interprofessional education (IPE) continues to be instituted, much attention
      has been paid to training-intervention effectiveness. Less attention has been
      paid to the selection side of the IPE model; however, efficient delivery is
      necessary to sustain the development of IPE. This short report investigates the
      "two big social cognitions" (agency and communion) as individual-difference
      predictors of attitude change and knowledge acquisition. A 3-week before-after
      observational design with survey methodology was conducted in a pre-licensure IPE
      setting (n = 82). Results indicated significant interactions of agency and
      communion in predicting learner outcomes. Our findings should stimulate future
      IPE researchers to identify additional, selection-relevant design factors (e.g.,
      individual differences) that may enhance comparative-effectiveness of IPE.

PMID- 28876135
TI  - Gene Therapy Briefs.

PMID- 28876136
TI  - Electron Microscopy Observation of Human Pulmonary Ultrastructure in Two Patients
      with High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema.
AB  - We examined the pulmonary ultrastructure in tissue from two patients with high
      altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) by electron microscopy. In one case, we found
      that neutrophils were trapped in pulmonary capillary lumen of alveolar-capillary
      wall and part of the cytoplasm of a neutrophil protruded and adhered to the
      capillary endothelium. There were several degranulated vacuoles in the cytoplasm
      of the neutrophil. The pulmonary capillary wall was deformed, thickened, and
      swollen and there was evidence of degeneration. In another case, infiltration of
      neutrophils and macrophages, proliferation of type II pneumocytes, and numerous
      red blood cells were also observed in alveolar air space. These electron
      microscopic ultrastructural observations illustrate for the first time damage to
      the pulmonary alveolar-capillary barrier in lung tissue of humans with advanced
      HAPE.

PMID- 28876137
TI  - Penetrance and the Healthy Elderly.
AB  - The variable penetrance of pathogenic variants (PVs) represents a major challenge
      to the field of human genetics, often complicating clinical decision-making and
      risk management. Nonpenetrance, the detection of PVs in the absence of disease
      manifestation, is a common phenomenon, yet, we know very little about the
      underlying factors, which may protect some individuals and not others. Placing a
      new focus on the genomic study of the healthy elderly may be pivotal for
      advancing our understanding of penetrance. Studying those who remain unaffected
      late into life, despite harboring known genetic risk variants, could provide
      important insights into disease mechanisms and ultimately inform clinical care,
      yet, it has received relatively little attention as a research strategy. The ever
      increasing use of sequencing technology is further driving the requirement to
      understand the penetrance of ascertained variants. The ASPREE Biobank of Healthy
      Ageing provides a unique opportunity to address this area of need. DNA has been
      collected from a cohort of over 14,000 healthy elderly individuals aged 70 years
      or older enrolled in an aspirin clinical trial. The ASPREE cohort represents a
      healthy reference population ascertained without the typical biases of a genetic
      study. The cohort is depleted of expressed monogenetic disease, yet will contain
      hundreds of elderly individuals with known PVs in clinically actionable genes.
      Investigating this population along with other cohorts of the healthy elderly
      will provide critical new knowledge into the penetrance of actionable variants as
      a foundation for informing clinical care.

PMID- 28876138
TI  - Aetiology of acquired blepharoptosis in young adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: To identify the causes of blepharoptosis in young adults, and explore
      cases that do not fit into current diagnostic categories. METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort study of all patients aged 18-40 years ("young adults") with
      acquired blepharoptosis that presented to two specialist ocular plastics
      practices and a paediatric ophthalmologist over a period of up to 25 years. Each
      patient was classified according to diagnosis. Where the diagnosis was uncertain,
      the files were examined in detail to try and further establish a cause. RESULTS:
      A total of 266 young adult patients were included. The most common causes of
      acquired blepharoptosis were trauma-related (28.2%) and anophthalmic
      blepharoptosis (19.9%). In 12.4% of the cases, a definite diagnosis could not be
      made. Of these, one-third had a history of soft contact lens use, a possible
      etiologic factor. CONCLUSIONS: The cause of acquired blepharoptosis can usually
      be established by an appropriate history and examination, with additional
      diagnostic tests sometimes required. Nearly half of all young adult ptosis is
      related to trauma or acquired anophthalmos. Around one in eight young adults have
      blepharoptosis of unknown cause, a group warranting further study.

PMID- 28876139
TI  - Taxes, bankruptcy costs, and capital structure in for-profit and not-for-profit
      hospitals.
AB  - About 60% of the US hospitals are not-for-profit and it is not clear how
      traditional theories of capital structure should be adapted to understand the
      borrowing behavior of not-for-profit hospitals. This paper identifies important
      determinants of capital structure taken from theories describing for-profit firms
      as well as prior literature on not-for-profit hospitals. We examine the
      differential effects these factors have on the capital structure of for-profit
      and not-for-profit hospitals. Specifically, we use a difference-in-differences
      regression framework to study how differences in leverage between for-profit and
      not-for-profit hospitals change in response to key explanatory variables (i.e.
      tax rates and bankruptcy costs). The sample in this study includes most US short
      term general acute hospitals from 2000 to 2012. We find that personal and
      corporate income taxes and bankruptcy costs have significant and distinct effects
      on the capital structure of for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals.
      Specifically, relative to not-for-profit hospitals: (1) higher corporate income
      tax encourages for-profit hospitals to increase their debt usage; (2) higher
      personal income tax discourages for-profit hospitals to use debt; and (3) higher
      expected bankruptcy costs lead for-profit hospitals to use less debt. Over the
      past decade, the capital structure of for-profit hospitals has been more flexible
      as compared to that of not-for-profit hospitals. This may suggest that not-for
      profit hospitals are more constrained by external financing resources.
      Particularly, our analysis suggests that not-for-profit hospitals operating in
      states with high corporate taxes but low personal income taxes may face
      particular challenges of borrowing funds relative to their for-profit
      competitors.

PMID- 28876140
TI  - School nurses' perceptions and experiences with an interprofessional concussion
      management team in the secondary school setting.
AB  - Following a concussion, both cognitive and physical rest are imperative aspects
      of injury management. The inclusion of academic adjustments and the formation of
      an interprofessional concussion management team (ICMT) provide a mechanism to
      manage academic issues following a concussion. As one of the sole healthcare
      providers presents during school hours, the school nurse may offer unique insight
      regarding the infrastructure of an ICMT in the secondary school setting. The
      purpose of this study was to explore school nurses' perceptions of and
      experiences with an ICMT for adolescents following a concussion in the secondary
      school setting. The consensual qualitative research approach was used to guide
      this study. Semi-structured individual telephone interviews were conducted with
      15 school nurses employed in the secondary school setting across the United
      States. During data analysis, themes and categories were established based on a
      consensus process by the research team. Study findings indicated that school
      nurses identified several stakeholders regarding the concussion management team
      that are essential to include in the concussion management process. In addition
      to the school nurse, participants perceived an ICMT should include a physician,
      athletic trainer, school counsellor, teachers, and other stakeholders such as the
      patient and their parents. Additionally, participants discussed their perceptions
      of their own role as a member of an ICMT in the secondary school setting. The
      inclusion of an ICMT to aid the recovery following a concussion is vital to
      ensure proper care for the adolescent patient. Furthermore, the school nurse and
      athletic trainer must effectively collaborate, when possible, to ensure that
      concussed adolescents are allowed sufficient cognitive rest via the incorporation
      of academic adjustments during the recovery process.

PMID- 28876142
TI  - Contributions of team climate in the study of interprofessional collaboration: A
      conceptual analysis.
AB  - The concept of team climate is widely used to understand and evaluate working
      environments. It shares some important features with Interprofessional
      Collaboration (IPC). The four-factor theory of climate for work group innovation,
      which underpins team climate, could provide a better basis for understanding both
      teamwork and IPC. This article examines in detail the common ground between team
      climate and IPC, and assesses the relevance of team climate as a theoretical
      approach to understanding IPC. There are important potential areas of overlap
      between team climate and IPC that we have grouped under four headings: (1)
      interaction and communication between team members; (2) common objectives around
      which collective work is organised; (3) responsibility for performing work to a
      high standard; and (4) promoting innovation in working practices. These
      overlapping areas suggest common characteristics that could provide elements of a
      framework for considering the contribution of team climate to collaborative
      working, both from a conceptual perspective and, potentially, in operational
      terms as, for example, a diagnostic tool.

PMID- 28876141
TI  - Utility of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) as
      biomarker to predict therapeutic response to methotrexate in rheumatoid
      arthritis.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate the usefulness of soluble
      triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) in predicting short
      term therapeutic response to methotrexate (MTX) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
      Patients with active RA, with Disease Activity Score-28 joints (DAS-28) >3.2,
      starting oral MTX, were included. We measured at baseline, 3 and 6 mo: DAS-28,
      Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ-DI), patient's perception
      of disease severity, morning stiffness and pain, as well as modifications in
      sTREM-1 levels. A reduction in DAS-28 > 1.2 at 3 or 6 mo was considered adequate
      response. A significant decrease in DAS-28 was observed at 3 and 6 mo. HAQ-DI
      also decreased at 3 and 6 mo. No significant changes were observed in sTREM-1
      levels at 3 or 6 mo. Using as cut-off a baseline value of sTREM-1 levels > 390
      pg/ml, we obtained low values of sensitivity (61.5%), specificity (59.3%),
      positive predictive value (59.3%) and negative predictive value (61.5%) for
      adequate response to MTX at 3 mo. We found no clinical value of sTREM-1 levels in
      predicting therapeutic response to MTX in RA. Further studies should evaluate if
      sTREM-1 levels are predictive for other outcomes, including higher structural
      damage or good response to biologics.

PMID- 28876143
TI  - Anti-Mullerian hormone levels before and after uterine artery embolization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of uterine artery embolization (UAE) on
      ovarian reserve as measured by Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) levels. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Non-randomized, observational study of 89 women 23-40 years of age who
      received UAE. Control hormone levels were measured prior to UAE and the first
      post-embolization measurement was taken at various times post-procedure (mean =
      190 +/- 229 days). RESULTS: Historical work verified by our earlier work has
      shown that AMH levels decline with age. Regression analysis allows us to
      determine whether UAE contributes to a greater decline in AMH values over that
      naturally occurring with aging. The effect of the procedure was found to
      contribute no deleterious effect to the natural decline in AMH levels. In
      addition, multiple blood draws were obtained from 32 patients up to 47 months
      post-UAE. Regression studies with these patients as their own controls showed no
      long-term diminishment of ovarian reserve due to the UAE procedure. CONCLUSIONS:
      Earlier reported data are consistent with larger sample size. UAE does not affect
      ovarian reserve in women <40 as evidenced by no significant change in AMH levels
      after embolization. Women who are of reproductive age and have uterine fibroids
      can consider UAE without concern for adverse effects on their fertility.

PMID- 28876144
TI  - Collaborating with medicine? Perceptions of Australian naturopaths on integrating
      within the conventional medical system.
AB  - Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is an increasingly prevalent part of
      contemporary health care. Whilst there have been some attempts to understand the
      dynamics of CAM integration in the health care system from the perspective of
      conventional care providers and patients, little research has examined the view
      of CAM practitioners. This study aims to identify the experiences of integration
      within a conventional healthcare system as perceived by naturopaths. Qualitative
      semi-structured interviews were conducted using a purposeful sample of 20
      practising naturopaths in South East Queensland, Australia to discuss their
      experiences and perceptions of integrating with conventional medical providers.
      Analysis of the interviews revealed five broad challenges for the integration of
      CAM according to naturopaths: competing paradigms between CAM and conventional
      medicine; co-option of CAM by conventional medical practitioners; the
      preservation of separate CAM and conventional medical worlds by patients and
      providers due to lack of formalised relations; negative feedback and biases
      created through selective or limited experience or information with CAM; and
      indifferent, reactive and one-sided interaction between CAM and conventional
      medical providers. Naturopaths support the integration of health services and
      attempt to provide safe and appropriate care to their patients through
      collaborative approaches to practice. The challenges identified by naturopaths
      associated with integration of CAM with conventional providers may impact the
      quality of care of patients who choose to integrate CAM and conventional
      approaches to health. Given the significant role of naturopaths in contemporary
      health-care systems, these challenges require further research and policy
      attention.

PMID- 28876145
TI  - Physician associates working in secondary care teams in England:
      Interprofessional implications from a national survey.
AB  - Physician associates (PAs) are a new type of healthcare professional to the
      United Kingdom; however, they are well established in the United States (where
      they are known as physician assistants). PAs are viewed as one potential solution
      to the current medical workforce doctor shortage. This study investigated the
      deployment of PAs within secondary care teams in England, through the use of a
      cross-sectional electronic, self-report survey. The findings from 14 questions
      are presented. Sixty-three PAs working in a range of specialties responded. A
      variety of work settings were reported, most frequently inpatient wards, with
      work generally taking place during weekdays. Both direct and non-direct patient
      care activities were reported, with the type of work undertaken varying at times,
      depending on the presence or absence of other healthcare professionals. PAs
      reported working within a variety of secondary care team staffing permutations,
      with the majority of these being interprofessional. Line management was largely
      provided by consultants; however day-to-day supervision varied, often relating to
      different work settings. A wide variation in ongoing supervision was also
      reported. Further research is required to understand the nature of PAs'
      contribution to collaborative care within secondary care teams in England.

PMID- 28876146
TI  - Effects of concomitant mild traumatic brain injury on resuming work after
      suffering from an isolated limb fracture: A cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective is to explore the effects of concomitant mild traumatic
      brain injury (mTBI) on return to work (RTW), among patients suffering from an
      isolated limb fracture. This follow-up study included a total of 170 working age
      subjects with an isolated limb fracture, and was conducted in a phone interview
      approximately 1-year post trauma. 41 had experienced an mTBI and 129 did not.
      METHODS: Data were obtained through a phone interview conducted on average 20.7
      months (SD = 9.6 months) post-accident. The main outcome measure was the number
      of days taken to RTW after the injury. Demographic information was also gathered
      during the phone interview. Workers' compensation status was obtained through the
      hospitals' orthopaedic clinic data. RESULTS: The mTBI group took on average 329.7
      days (SD = 298.0) to RTW after the injury, as opposed to 150.3 days (SD = 171.3)
      for the control group (p < 0.001). After excluding patients who received workers'
      compensation, the mTBI group still missed significantly more days of work (M =
      299.4 days; SD = 333.0) than the control group (M = 105.2 days; SD = 121.6) (p <
      0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study shows that mTBI increases work disability by
      preventing working-age individuals from rapidly returning to work.

PMID- 28876147
TI  - Primary and secondary nonresponse to infliximab: mechanisms and countermeasures.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Primary and secondary non-response to infliximab are common in
      patients with inflammatory bowel disease and remain a management challenge in
      clinical practice. Areas covered: This article describes the epidemiology,
      mechanisms and risk factors for primary and secondary nonresponse to infliximab
      in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Data on proactive and reactive
      therapeutic drug monitoring are examined in this review. An algorithm for
      evaluation and management of non-response to infliximab is provided. Preventative
      measures are also discussed. Relevant articles were identified after a literature
      search using PubMed. Search terms included 'infliximab', 'loss of response',
      'immunogenicity', and 'drug monitoring'. References of identified articles were
      also reviewed to identify additional references. Expert opinion: A common cause
      for primary and secondary non-response include inadequate dosing of infliximab;
      inadequate dosing can be identified through assessment of drug and anti-drug
      antibody levels. Therapeutic drug monitoring should be done in patients losing
      response to infliximab. Use of drug monitoring proactively is still under debate.

PMID- 28876148
TI  - How Is a Label of Borderline Personality Disorder Constructed on Twitter: A
      Critical Discourse Analysis.
AB  - This research took a social constructionist stance and explored how Borderline
      Personality Disorder (BPD) is constructed by Twitter users who identify with this
      diagnostic label. Consistent with this position, a critical discourse analysis
      (CDA) methodology was employed. The data comprised two-hundred and twenty-five
      tweets. Tweets from professionals, or links to blogs, were excluded, in an
      attempt to ensure only personal tweets were used. Two interpretative repertoires
      were produced from the analysis: BPD as an existence of tension and BPD as a
      different existence. The findings indicated that authors were involved in a
      negotiation between themselves and BPD, which had an impact upon their felt sense
      of agency/control over BPD. Likewise, authors constructed themselves in
      opposition to individuals who did not identify with the diagnosis of BPD. Whilst
      this provided more favourable positions, it potentially limited access to
      healthcare professionals and services. The research highlights the importance of
      the terminology and language clinicians employ when working with clients and
      other professionals, as they may inadvertently disempower or stigmatise. As CDA
      does not assume equivalence between individuals' accounts and their internal
      experiences, future research may need to explore the experience of stigmatisation
      through social networking sites.

PMID- 28876149
TI  - Acute post-concussive symptoms in young children.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Despite peaks of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) incidence in
      young children, few studies have examined the nature of post-concussive symptoms
      (PCSs) in children under the age of eight, whilst controlling for pre-injury
      symptoms and effects of trauma. The current study aimed to identify which PCSs
      differentiate children with mTBI from trauma controls early post-injury, and
      whether these differed among preschool and school-aged children. METHODS: The
      sample comprised 101 children aged 2-12 presenting to an emergency department,
      with concussion or other minor bodily injury (control). Groups were divided by
      age (preschool and school-aged). PCSs were assessed within 72 hours post-injury
      using a comprehensive PCS checklist, administered to their parents via structured
      interview. RESULTS: Parents of children with mTBI reported significantly more
      symptoms in their children than parents of children with other minor bodily
      trauma, p < 0.001, r = 0.84. Parents of preschool and school-aged children
      reported an equal number of symptoms. However, subtle differences were observed
      between symptom profiles of preschool and school-aged children. CONCLUSIONS:
      Primary care clinicians should be aware of post-concussive symptom presentations
      in children of varying ages, in order to provide optimal care, especially in
      younger children. Methods of eliciting symptoms may influence the identification
      of symptoms. This issue warrants further examination in the paediatric
      population. ABBREVIATIONS ED emergency department; GCS Glasgow coma scale; mTBI
      mild traumatic brain injury; PCS post-concussive symptoms; PTA post-traumatic
      amnesia; TC trauma control.

PMID- 28876150
TI  - Collaborating across the threshold: The development of interprofessional
      expertise in child safeguarding.
AB  - This article reports on an empirical study of the expertise that different
      professionals develop in working together to safeguard children. The research
      involved three key professional groups who work with children: nursing, teaching,
      and social work. The methodology used a clinical scenario and critical incident
      to explore professional perspectives and experiences of collaboration. Data
      collection was via semi-structured interviews with a sample of 18 practitioners,
      composed of pre- and post-qualifying practitioners from each professional group.
      Data analysis was undertaken through an inductive process, with open coding of
      transcripts followed by the synthesis of themes into a qualitative framework. The
      findings identified different elements of interprofessional expertise including
      assessment and decision-making, responsibility, risk and uncertainty, managing
      relationships, and dealing with conflict and difficulty. Collaborative activity
      was found to be shaped by the threshold between statutory and non-statutory
      services and mediated by the relationship between practitioners and parents. The
      article concludes by exploring constraints and opportunities for addressing
      potential gaps in interprofessional expertise in this area.

PMID- 28876151
TI  - Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation proteomics analysis of gene
      regulation by SprC in Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - AIM: To explore the complete gene networks regulated by small RNA SprC and its
      targets in Staphylococcus aureus. MATERIALS & METHODS: The isobaric tags for
      relative and absolute quantitation and bioinformatic methods were utilized to
      identify and analyze the target proteins affected by SprC in S. aureus N315.
      RESULTS: Proteomic analysis showed that the expression of 44 proteins was
      modulated by SprC. Further, bioinformatic analysis displayed that these affected
      proteins mainly associated with metabolic and cellular process, biological
      regulation and catalytic activity. CONCLUSION: Our data provide a rich resource
      of SprC targets in S. aureus, although the mechanism of regulation by SprC is yet
      to be elucidated.

PMID- 28876153
TI  - Neuropsychological outcome following childhood stroke - a review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Childhood stroke is a rare but devastating occurrence. Its
      infrequency has meant that a clear body of knowledge has not been fully
      established regarding its impact on neuropsychological outcome. Our aims were (i)
      to critically review the recent literature on neuropsychological outcome
      following childhood stroke; (ii) to investigate the factors related to
      neuropsychological outcome following childhood stroke. METHODS: Literature
      searches were conducted and revealed 39 relevant papers from the period 1999
      2015. RESULTS: The review found that a significant number of children experience
      difficulties in a wide range of neuropsychological domains, with particular
      vulnerabilities noted in attention, speed of information processing and executive
      functioning. There were inconsistent findings regarding the correlates of
      neuropsychological outcome, which is likely due to methodological limitations of
      the studies. CONCLUSIONS: This review strongly indicates that childhood stroke
      can affect a myriad of neuropsychological domains, with attention, speed of
      processing and executive function particularly vulnerable. Methodological issues,
      particularly around heterogeneous samples and measurement difficulties, limit the
      conclusions that can be drawn regarding the predictors of outcome.

PMID- 28876152
TI  - Lipophilic fractions from the marine sponge Halichondria sitiens decrease
      secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by dendritic cells and decrease their
      ability to induce a Th1 type response by allogeneic CD4+ T cells.
AB  - CONTEXT: Halichondria (Halichondriidae) marine sponges contain components
      possessing various biological activities, but immunomodulation is not among the
      ones reported. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the immunomodulatory effects of
      fractions/compounds from Halichondria sitiens Schmidt. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Crude dichloromethane/methanol extracts of H. sitiens were subjected to various
      chromatographic techniques to obtain fractions/compounds with immunomodulatory
      activity, using bioassay-guided isolation. The effects of the fractions/compounds
      were determined by measuring secretion of cytokines and expression of surface
      molecules by dendritic cells (DCs) and their ability to stimulate and modify
      cytokine secretion by allogeneic CD4+ T cells. The bioactive fractions were
      chemically analyzed to identify the immunomodulatory constituents by 1D, 2D NMR,
      and HRMS data. RESULTS: Several lipophilic fractions from H. sitiens at 10 MUg/mL
      decreased secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-12p40 and IL-6 by the
      DCs, with maximum inhibition being 64% and 25%, respectively. In addition,
      fractions B3b3F and B3b3J decreased the ability of DCs to induce T cell secretion
      of IFN-gamma. Fraction B3b3 induced morphological changes in DCs, characterized
      by extreme elongation of dendrites and cell clustering. Chemical screening
      revealed the presence of glycerides and some minor unknown constituents in the
      biologically active fractions. One new glyceride, 2,3-dihydroxypropyl 2
      methylhexadecanoate (1), was isolated from one fraction and two known compounds,
      3-[(1-methoxyhexadecyl)oxy]propane-1,2-diol (2) and monoheptadecanoin (3), were
      identified in another, but none of them had immunomodulatory activity. DISCUSSION
      AND CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that several lipophilic fractions from
      H. sitiens have anti-inflammatory effects on DCs and decrease their ability to
      induce a Th1 type immune response.

PMID- 28876154
TI  - AAFP Position Statement: Declawing.

PMID- 28876155
TI  - A study protocol for enriching the interprofessional collaborative competency
      attainment survey insights.
AB  - The following short report outlines a proposed study designed to evaluate the
      Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey and its recommended
      method of administration. This exploratory study seeks to determine if there is a
      significant difference between two methods of administration, the recommended and
      validated retrospective pre-test and post-test, and a traditional pre-test and
      post-test. If a significant difference does exist, this data will provide a means
      to determine the effect size of that difference. The comparison will be done
      using repeated measure ANOVA and the subsequent effect size will be evaluated
      using Cohen's d. As the retrospective design is utilised to evaluate a change in
      perceived competency, comparison of data from a traditional pre-test with a
      retrospective pre-test may provide a means for evaluation of the participants'
      change in understanding of the construct, and thus a more thorough picture of the
      forces driving changes to scores.

PMID- 28876156
TI  - Home-based circuit training program for an adolescent female with severe
      traumatic brain injury: A case report.
AB  - Adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are often discharged from physical
      therapy (PT) services without transitioning into exertional conditioning
      programs. Active participation in physical activities with peers at school is
      essential to achieve a sense of accomplishment and acceptance. Factors such as
      reduced aerobic fitness and residual gait impairments can lead to limited
      participation and peer interaction. The purpose of this case report was to
      describe the impact of home-based circuit training (HBCT) focusing on strength
      and balance on gait speed (GS), energy expenditure, and functional performance in
      a 17-year-old female with severe TBI. The participant sustained a TBI from a
      motor vehicle crash. Although she was ambulatory and independent with the basic
      activities of daily living following two years of rehabilitation, she presented
      with activity limitations and participation restrictions at school. The
      participant performed a 4-week HBCT program developed by a school physical
      therapist that focused on strength and balance. At the end of 4 weeks,
      improvements were observed in 6 MWT (change = 79.7 m), GS (change = 0.22 m/s),
      and the COPM scores (performance score change = 2.8, satisfaction score change =
      2.2, MCID = 2). Improvements in functional performance, gait speed, and self
      perception of occupational performance were observed following 4-week HBCT.
      Future clinical trials on short duration, HBCT program for children and young
      adults with TBI are recommended in order to establish effectiveness of HBCT.

PMID- 28876157
TI  - Physician Aid in Dying: Caught Between the Extremes.

PMID- 28876158
TI  - Decision to Die.

PMID- 28876159
TI  - Implementing a Multidisciplinary Approach to Enhance Compliance With Guideline
      Recommended Prechemotherapy Pneumococcal Vaccination in a Military-Based Medical
      Oncology Practice.
AB  - PURPOSE: Patients with cancer are at increased risk for invasive pneumococcal
      disease, including community-acquired pneumonia. Current Advisory Committee on
      Immunization Practices and National Cancer Comprehensive Network guidelines
      recommend pneumococcal vaccination for immunocompromised patients, including
      patients with cancer. METHODS: We conducted a quality improvement (QI) project to
      enhance compliance with pneumococcal vaccination in patients before their
      chemotherapy. Baseline pneumococcal vaccination rates were gathered from July
      2013 to June 2014. We reviewed the current guidelines for pneumococcal
      vaccinations in patients with cancer with physicians and encouraged them to
      prescribe the pneumococcal vaccination to patients before therapy. We also
      recruited our clinic nurse practitioner, who meets all patients for chemotherapy
      teaching, to prescribe the vaccine to patients younger than 65 years of age.
      RESULTS: During the baseline period, of the 110 patients younger than 65 years
      who received chemotherapy, seven (6.4%) received the pneumococcal vaccine. Of the
      90 patients (median age, 60 years; range, 20 to 86 years) who received
      chemotherapy during the study period, 58 were younger than 65 years, of whom
      three patients were already vaccinated before their diagnosis. Twenty-five
      (45.5%) patients were vaccinated through our QI project. We have improved our
      compliance with pneumococcal vaccination by 39% ( P < .001). CONCLUSION: We have
      improved compliance with pneumococcal vaccination in patients with cancer
      receiving chemotherapy in our clinic through a QI project. We found that
      screening is best accomplished by a single person who is able to screen all
      patients. This practice is now a standard of care in our clinic.

PMID- 28876160
TI  - Abdominal draw-in maneuver combined with simulated weight bearing increases
      transversus abdominis and internal oblique thickness.
AB  - The abdominal draw-in maneuver (ADIM) is a method commonly used to reestablish
      neuromuscular control of the deep spine muscles among individuals with
      musculoskeletal problems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of
      ADIM combined with simulated weight-bearing (SWB) activities in the facilitation
      of the deep spine muscles. The subjects were 30 young healthy individuals.
      Ultrasound images were used to measure the relative changes in transverse
      abdominal (TrA), internal oblique (IO) and external oblique (EO) muscle thickness
      during a simulated weight-bearing ADIM (SWB-ADIM). A paired t-test was used to
      determine the differences between the ADIM and SWB-ADIM conditions. The results
      showed that the thickness of the TrA and IO muscles in the SWB-ADIM condition was
      significantly higher than in the ADIM-alone condition. Our findings suggest that
      SWB-ADIM is more effective than ADIM alone for improving the deep spine muscles
      in real-life situations.

PMID- 28876161
TI  - Ergonomic interventions for prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders
      in a small manufacturing assembly line.
AB  - This study involves performing improvements in workstation specification using a
      three-dimensional human modeling tool and proposing well-balanced work scheduling
      (WBWS) to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in a small
      manufacturing plant. To analyze risk factors of WMSDs, various tasks at 10
      different types of workstation were evaluated with detailed motion analysis using
      a customized checklist. Questionnaires were administered to 27 workers to
      evaluate symptoms related to WMSDs. Revised workstation specifications were
      suggested based on anthropometric characteristics of workers using before-after
      analyses as an engineering control. Additionally, WBWS was proposed as an
      administrative control to avoid continuous physical stress on specific body parts
      in repetitive tasks. A software tool for WBWS was developed for convenient and
      easy application. The results of the study may aid managers in applying ergonomic
      interventions with time and cost savings, and enhance worker satisfaction and
      motivation due to improvements in working conditions to prevent WMSDs.

PMID- 28876163
TI  - Concurrent validity of inclinometer measures of scapular and clavicular positions
      in arm elevation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess concurrent validity, between and within-day reliability of
      scapular and clavicular digital inclinometer measures. DESIGN: Test-retest and
      concurrent validity. SETTING: Laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-three participants
      with and without shoulder symptoms. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Static positions of
      scapular upward rotation, anterior/posterior tilting and clavicular elevation
      were measured between days with an inclinometer and compared to a 3-dimensional
      electromagnetic tracking system in different positions of sagittal plane humeral
      elevation (neutral, 30 degrees , 60 degrees , 90 degrees , 120 degrees ). The two
      methods were compared using a two-way Analysis of Variance. Linear regressions at
      each arm position were also performed to further assess concurrent validity.
      RESULTS: Between-day reliability demonstrated Intraclass Correlation Coefficients
      >= 0.50 for all comparisons. There were statistically significant differences
      between methods or interactions of method and arm position for clavicle elevation
      (p = 0.004, maximum offset between methods 7.7o in the neutral position), and
      scapular upward rotation (p = 0.001). For scapular upward rotation, the maximum
      difference between methods was less than 2 degrees  across all humeral positions.
      Clavicle elevation (r = 0.67-0.82) and scapular upward rotation (r = 0.57-0.81)
      demonstrated higher correlations between measurement methods than scapular
      anterior/posterior tilt (r = 0.10-0.67). CONCLUSIONS: Concurrent validity in
      assessing scapular upward rotation and clavicle elevation with an inclinometer
      was shown when compared with electromagnetic tracking. However, the inclinometer
      method may not have adequate concurrent validity to clinically measure scapular
      anterior/posterior tilting.

PMID- 28876164
TI  - Evaluating the blue-light hazard from solid state lighting.
AB  - PURPOSE: New light sources including light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have elicited
      questions about retinal damage, including the blue-light hazard. Some
      organizations have recommended avoiding using LEDs with correlated color
      temperatures exceeding 3000 K, since they tend to produce greater short
      wavelength energy. This article provides quantitative comparisons among light
      sources and use cases as they affect the blue-light hazard. METHODS: The spectral
      radiant power characteristics of incandescent, fluorescent, LED and daylight
      sources were evaluated in terms of blue-light hazard using standard procedures
      for phakic, aphakic and pseudophakic eyes. RESULTS: Under most use cases, LEDs do
      not exhibit greater risk for the blue-light hazard than other sources (e.g.,
      incandescent). Because they generally produce little to no ultraviolet energy,
      LEDs often present less risk to aphakic eyes. CONCLUSIONS: LEDs present no
      special concerns for the blue-light hazard over some other common sources in
      typical use cases because photophobic responses limit exposure to bright sources.
      Where photophobic responses might not occur (e.g., eye surgery patients or
      premature infants) or where individuals suppress these responses (e.g., stage
      actors), caution is necessary. Evidence remains inconsistent regarding the risk
      of human retinal damage from long-term exposures to light insufficient to reach
      acute blue-light hazard thresholds.

PMID- 28876162
TI  - Capacity limits of asialoglycoprotein receptor-mediated liver targeting.
AB  - The abundant cell surface asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR) is a highly
      selective receptor found on hepatocytes that potentially can be exploited as a
      selective shuttle for delivery. Various nucleic acid therapeutics that bind ASGPR
      are already in clinical development, but this receptor-mediated delivery
      mechanism can be saturated, which will likely result in reduced selectivity for
      the liver and therefore increase the likelihood for systemic adverse effects.
      Therefore, when aiming to utilize this mechanism, it is important to optimize
      both the administration protocol and the molecular properties. We here present a
      study using a novel ASGPR-targeted antibody to estimate ASGPR expression,
      turnover and internalization rates in vivo in mice. Using pharmacokinetic data
      (intravenous and subcutaneous dosing) and an in-silico target-mediated drug
      disposition (TMDD) model, we estimate an ASGPR expression level of 1.8 million
      molecules per hepatocyte. The half-life of the degradation of the receptor was
      found to be equal to 15 hours and the formed ligand-receptor complex is
      internalized with a half-life of 5 days. A biodistribution study was performed
      and confirmed the accuracy of the TMDD model predictions. The kinetics of the
      ASGPR shows that saturation of the shuttle at therapeutic concentrations is
      possible; however, simulation allows the dosing schedule to be optimized. The
      developed TMDD model can be used to support the development of therapies that use
      the ASGPR as a shuttle into hepatocytes.

PMID- 28876166
TI  - Photo-assisted electrochemical degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls with
      boron-doped diamond electrodes.
AB  - The capacity of the photo electro-Fenton (PEF) process to degrade a mixture of
      seven polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners was studied. Boron-doped diamond
      (BDD) sheets were used as anode and cathode in the experimental electrolytic cell
      that contained Na2SO4 0.05 M at pH 3 as supporting electrolyte for the electro
      generation of H2O2 at the cathode. The effects of UV light intensity (254 and 365
      nm), current density (8, 16 and 24 mA cm-2) and ferrous ion dosage (0.1, 0.2 and
      0.3 mM) on PCB (C0 = 50 MUg L-1) degradation were evaluated. The highest level of
      PCB degradation (97%) was achieved with 16 mA cm-2 of current density, 0.1 mM of
      ferrous ion and UV light at 365 nm as irradiation source after 6 h of reaction.
      PCB28, PCB52 and PCB101 were not detected after 0.5, 1.5 and 3 h of reaction,
      respectively. The degradation of PCB138, PCB153, PCB180 and PCB209 was also high
      (>95%). The PEF system outperformed other oxidation processes (electro-Fenton,
      anodic oxidation, Fenton, photo-Fenton and UV photolysis) in terms of reaction
      rate and degradation efficiency. These results demonstrate for the first time the
      degradation of PCB209, the most highly chlorinated PCB congener, by an advanced
      electrochemical oxidation process.

PMID- 28876165
TI  - Development of "material-specific" hemispheric specialization from beginning to
      end.
AB  - Disparity of verbal and performance intelligence (VIQ, PIQ) on the Wechsler
      scales of intelligence is a conceptually cluttered and empirically weak measure
      of hemispheric specialization (HS). However, in the context of life span
      research, it is the only measure that can be exploited meta-analytically with the
      lesion method from prenatal life to late senescence. We assembled 1917 cases with
      a unilateral cortical focal brain lesion occurring at all ages and a post-lesion
      VIQ and PIQ. Lesion locus, volume and side were documented for each case, as well
      as age at lesion onset, age at first symptoms and age at the IQ test,
      presence/absence of epilepsy, lesion aetiology, gender, date of publication or of
      transfer of medical file. With and without covariate adjustment, HS was
      significant across the life span though its pattern changed. HS increased
      linearly and highly significantly until late senescence. Only in early adulthood
      did VIQ appear to vacate the right temporal lobe and occupy the left and PIQ
      vacate the left parietal lobe and occupy the right until late senescence.
      Biomaturational factors are more important in the ontogeny of material-specific
      HS over the whole life span than previously established.

PMID- 28876167
TI  - Sexual Orientation-Based Discrimination, Excessive Alcohol Use, and Substance Use
      Disorders Among Sexual Minority Adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between sexual
      orientation-based discrimination and excessive alcohol use and substance use
      disorders and to identify how these relationships differ by sexual identity, sex,
      race, Hispanic origin, and education among sexual minorities. METHODS: We used
      logistic regression to analyze associations between discrimination and substance
      use measures among 1351 gay/lesbian, bisexual, or unsure adults from a nationally
      representative survey. Differential effects by sexual identity, sex, race,
      Hispanic origin, and education were assessed using interaction models followed by
      stratified models. RESULTS: Discrimination was associated with increased odds of
      the following: exceeding weekly drinking limits [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) =
      1.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12-2.08] among bisexuals, any substance use
      disorder (aOR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.41-2.95) and nicotine use disorder (aOR = 1.52,
      95% CI: 1.08-2.14) among Hispanic sexual minorities, and exceeding weekly
      drinking limits (aOR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.08-2.26) among those with a high school
      degree or less. CONCLUSION: Sexual orientation-based discrimination was
      associated with select substance use outcomes, especially among bisexuals,
      Hispanics, and less educated sexual minority adults, highlighting potential
      disparities associated with experiencing discrimination.

PMID- 28876168
TI  - Complete Sequence of pCY-CTX, a Plasmid Carrying a Phage-Like Region and an
      ISEcp1-Mediated Tn2 Element from Enterobacter cloacae.
AB  - A plasmid pCY-CTX carrying a phage-like backbone from an extensively drug
      resistant Enterobacter cloacae strain Guangzhou-ECL001 (previously known as CY01)
      was identified in this study. By Illumina MiSeq 2 * 250-bp paired-end sequencing,
      de novo assembly, and PCR, full sequence of pCY-CTX was obtained. Plasmid pCY-CTX
      was a circular plasmid with a length of 116,700 bp, harboring 136 putative open
      reading frames with the average G + C content of 50.8%. The backbone of pCY-CTX
      showed high identity to previously reported phage-like plasmid pHCM2 and phage
      SSU5. In addition, pCY-CTX contained a distinctive ISEcp1-mediated Tn2 region
      with two resistance genes blaTEM-1 and blaCTX-M-3. Transposition unit "ISEcp1-
      blaCTX-M-3- orf477" was inserted into the Tn2 structure, dividing Tn2 into two
      parts. This represents the first identification of a plasmid carrying a phage
      like backbone and a distinctive ISEcp1-mediated Tn2 region within blaTEM-1 and
      blaCTX-M-3 in clinical E. cloacae. The finding of phage-like regions located in
      plasmids provides a new perspective in gene transfer associated with
      antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28876169
TI  - NDM-1 Hazard in the Balkan States: Evidence of the First Outbreak of NDM-1
      Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in Bulgaria.
AB  - New Delhi MBL (NDM) carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae has become one
      of the most concerning multidrug-resistant pathogens. The Balkan counties are
      considered a reservoir for the spread of such strains based on several reports
      documenting NDM infections after hospitalization in this region. Nevertheless,
      NDM-producing K. pneumoniae have been only occasionally documented from Balkans.
      The current study documents the first polyclonal outbreak caused by NDM-1
      producing K. pneumoniae in Bulgaria. From July 2015 to April 2016, all 25 single
      patient carbapenem-nonsusceptible K. pneumoniae isolates were collected.
      Phenotypic and molecular screening revealed that 17 produced NDM-1 carbapenemase.
      All NDM-1 producers harbored blaCTX-M-15, blaCMY-4, blaTEM-1, and blaOXA-2; five
      also harbored blaOXA-1. In all cases, blaNDM-1 was flanked upstream by ISAba125
      element and downstream by bleMBL. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)
      clustered NDM-1-positive isolates into four distinct clonal types, A to D. MLST
      assigned isolates of the dominant clonal type A (n = 14) to sequence type (ST)
      11, while isolates of clonal types B, C, and D to ST16, ST15, and ST391,
      respectively. Of interest, ST11 isolates belonged to the same PFGE type as those
      of the recently described NDM-1 ST11 clonal outbreak in Greece. Traveling abroad
      or overseas hospitalization was not reported in any case, suggesting most likely
      intra- and interhospital dissemination. The study presents the first polyclonal
      outbreak of NDM-producing K. pneumoniae in the Balkans and underlines the need
      for larger epidemiological studies in the region to illustrate commonalities in
      the transmission of NDM clones and possible sources in the community.

PMID- 28876171
TI  - Zinc leaching behavior in semi-aerobic landfill.
AB  - Municipal solid waste landfills require continuous monitoring because that the
      environmental change may trigger sudden release of heavy metals and need special
      care. In this research, three simulated landfills with different operation modes
      were used to investigate the behavior of Zn during the decomposition process. It
      is difficult to evaluate the effects of landfill operating modes on the release
      of heavy metals because the Zn concentration variation in leachate is similar in
      all three landfill types. However, the cumulative amount of Zn leached differed
      significantly with the landfill degradation degree. Zn can continuously leach
      from the traditional anaerobic landfill but relatively well retain in the semi
      aerobic landfill. Leachate recirculation and air exposure not only promote the
      landfill stabilization process, but also obviously lower the risk of Zn pollution
      in the leachate by transforming it from unstable fractions to the more stable
      one, the residual fraction. Although heavy metal experiences vertical migration
      within the landfill, the transformation process retains it in the refuse and
      avoids its sudden release. The release of the most active fraction of Zn can be
      neglected during the rapid degradation stage and the most stable fraction of Zn
      can always be maintained at a positive level in all landfill modes tested.

PMID- 28876170
TI  - Transgender Women Living with HIV Frequently Take Antiretroviral Therapy and/or
      Feminizing Hormone Therapy Differently Than Prescribed Due to Drug-Drug
      Interaction Concerns.
AB  - PURPOSE: Both hormone therapy (HT) and antiretroviral therapy (ART) can be
      lifesaving for transgender women (TW) living with HIV, but each has side effects
      and potential drug-drug interactions (DDI). We assessed how concerns about HT-ART
      interactions affect treatment adherence. METHODS: This study used a cross
      sectional survey of TW (n = 87) in Los Angeles, CA. RESULTS: Fifty-four percent
      were living with HIV; 64% used HT. Only 49% of TW living with HIV discussed ART
      HT DDI with their provider; 40% reported not taking ART (12%), HT (12%), or both
      (16%) as directed due to DDI concerns. CONCLUSION: Imperfect HT/ART use and
      limited provider communication suggests a need for improved HT-ART integration.

PMID- 28876173
TI  - Silencing of Putative Cytokinin Receptor Histidine Kinase1 Inhibits Both
      Inception and Differentiation of Root Nodules in Arachis hypogaea.
AB  - Rhizobia-legume interaction activates the SYM pathway that recruits cytokinin
      signaling for induction of nodule primordia in the cortex. In Arachis hypogaea,
      bradyrhizobia invade through natural cracks developed in the lateral root base
      and are directly endocytosed in the cortical cells to generate the nodule
      primordia. To unravel the role of cytokinin signaling in A. hypogaea, RNA
      interference (RNAi) of cytokinin receptor histidine-kinase1 (AhHK1) was done.
      AhHK1-RNAi downregulated the expression of type-A response regulators such as
      AhRR5 and AhRR3 along with several symbiotic genes, indicating that both
      cytokinin signaling and the SYM pathway were affected. Accordingly, there was a
      drastic downregulation of nodulation in AhHK1-RNAi roots and the nodules that
      developed were ineffective. These nodules were densely packed, with infected
      cells having a higher nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio and distinctively high mitotic
      index, where the rod-shaped rhizobia failed to differentiate into bacteroids
      within spherical symbiosomes. In accordance with the proliferating state,
      expression of a mitotic-cyclin AhCycB2.1 was higher in AhHK1-RNAi nodules,
      whereas expression of a retinoblastoma-related (AhRBR) nodule that restrains
      proliferation was lower. Also, higher expression of the meristem maintenance
      factor WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX5 correlated with the undifferentiated state of
      AhHK1-RNAi nodules. Our results suggest that AhHK1-mediated cytokinin signaling
      is important for both inception and differentiation during nodule development in
      A. hypogaea.

PMID- 28876172
TI  - Variant snRNPs: New players within the spliceosome system.
AB  - Much evidence is now accumulating that, in addition to their general role in
      splicing, the components of the core splicing machinery have extensive regulatory
      potential. In particular, recent evidence has demonstrated that de-regulation of
      these factors cause the highest extent of alternative splicing changes compared
      to de-regulation of the classical splicing regulators. This lack of a general
      inhibition of splicing resonates the differential splicing effects observed in
      different disease pathologies associated with specific mutations targeting core
      spliceosomal components. In this review we will summarize what is currently known
      regarding the involvement of core spliceosomal U-snRNP complexes in perturbed
      tissue development and human diseases and argue for the existence of a
      compensatory mechanism enabling cells to cope with drastic perturbations in core
      splicing components. This system maintains the correct balance of spliceosomal
      snRNPs through differential expression of variant (v)U-snRNPs.

PMID- 28876174
TI  - The Bacterial Effector AvrPto Targets the Regulatory Coreceptor SOBIR1 and
      Suppresses Defense Signaling Mediated by the Receptor-Like Protein Cf-4.
AB  - Receptor-like proteins (RLPs) and receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are cell-surface
      receptors that are essential for detecting invading pathogens and subsequent
      activation of plant defense responses. RLPs lack a cytoplasmic kinase domain to
      trigger downstream signaling leading to host resistance. The RLK SOBIR1
      constitutively interacts with the tomato RLP Cf-4, thereby providing Cf-4 with a
      kinase domain. SOBIR1 is required for Cf-4-mediated resistance to strains of the
      fungal tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum that secrete the effector Avr4. Upon
      perception of this effector by the Cf-4/SOBIR1 complex, the central regulatory
      RLK SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR KINASE 3a (SERK3a) is recruited to the complex
      and defense signaling is triggered. SOBIR1 is also required for RLP-mediated
      resistance to bacterial, fungal ,and oomycete pathogens, and we hypothesized that
      SOBIR1 is targeted by effectors of such pathogens to suppress host defense
      responses. In this study, we show that Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000
      effector AvrPto interacts with Arabidopsis SOBIR1 and its orthologs of tomato and
      Nicotiana benthamiana, independent of SOBIR1 kinase activity. Interestingly,
      AvrPto suppresses Arabidopsis SOBIR1-induced cell death in N. benthamiana.
      Furthermore, AvrPto compromises Avr4-triggered cell death in Cf-4-transgenic N.
      benthamiana, without affecting Cf-4/SOBIR1/SERK3a complex formation. Our study
      shows that the RLP coreceptor SOBIR1 is targeted by a bacterial effector, which
      results in compromised defense responses.

PMID- 28876175
TI  - An application of the Pareto method in surveys to diagnose managers' and workers'
      perception of occupational safety and health on selected Polish construction
      sites.
AB  - The construction industry is an important sector of the economy in Poland.
      According to the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) data of 2014, the number of
      victims of fatal accidents in the construction sector amounted to 80 as compared
      with 187 injured in all other sectors of economy in Poland. This article presents
      the results of surveys on the impact of construction worker behaviour on the
      occupational safety and health outcomes. The surveys took into account the point
      of view of both construction site management (tactical level) and construction
      workers (operational level). For the analysis of results, the method of numerical
      taxonomy and Pareto charts was employed, which allowed the authors to identify
      the areas of occupational safety and health at both an operational and a tactical
      level, in which improvement actions needed to be proposed for workers employed in
      micro, small, medium and large construction enterprises.

PMID- 28876176
TI  - Gynecomastia: histological appearance in different age groups.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Gynecomastia is a common finding in the male population which is
      mostly idiopathic. The aim of our study was to analyze the histological
      differences in young and old patient groups and its association with recurrence
      rates. METHODS: Three hundred and five gynecomastia patients (555 breasts)
      undergoing surgical treatment from 1997 to 2015 were divided into four groups:
      Group 1: 13-17 years, Group 2: 18-30 years, Group 3: 31-49 years and Group 4: 50
      83 years. They were evaluated concerning clinical classification, histological
      differences and association with antiandrogen or steroids/immunosuppressive
      therapy. RESULTS: We found that the rate of florid gynecomastia was higher in
      older patient groups, while fibrous gynecomastia was more common in adolescents
      and young adults (p = .0180). Glandular gynecomastia was more frequent in younger
      patients, while in the older patient groups, lipomatous gynecomastia was more
      common (p = .0006). Patients presenting with florid gynecomastia showed a higher
      rate of recurrence than patients with the fibrous type of gynecomastia (12.5 and
      4.7%, respectively). Of note, 18.75% of florid gynecomastia was associated with
      antiandrogen agents or steroid/immunosuppressive therapy, while only 4.69% of
      fibrous gynecomastia was associated with antiandrogenic or immunosuppressive
      therapy. However, there was no increase of recurrence rates in patients using
      antiandrogen agents or undergoing steroid/immunosuppressive therapy. CONCLUSIONS:
      Fibrous gynecomastia was found to be more common in adolescents and young adults,
      while the florid type was more frequent in older patients. Patients presenting
      with florid gynecomastia showed a higher rate of recurrence than patients with
      the fibrous type of gynecomastia.

PMID- 28876177
TI  - Ancient Indian concepts about phenomenology, biology, and therapeutics of
      epilepsy.
AB  - This article discusses etiology, pathogenesis, symptoms, and treatment of
      epilepsy, as described in Charaka Samhita (translation: Charaka's Compendium) and
      Sushruta Samhita, the two core texts of Ayurveda, an ancient system of medicine.
      Ayurveda emphasized amnesia and loss of consciousness as core features of
      epileptic seizures (Sanskrit: apasmar; translation: apa negation, smaran memory)
      and recognized that seizures occur due to a disturbance in brain function or flow
      of "humors" to the brain. Semiology of various seizure types was well described.
      Epilepsy was attributed to both internal and multiple exogenous factors.
      Treatment of epilepsy with formulations of naturally occurring substances, their
      compounding and use, is described in remarkable detail. Lifestyle modifications
      to protect people with epilepsy are also documented. Cognitive comorbidities of
      epilepsy were recognized. Although none of the Ayurveda formulations have any
      empirical evidence supporting their safety or efficacy in the treatment of
      epilepsy, studies are needed to generate relevant evidence, to recognize their
      hazards, and to integrate traditional and complementary systems of medicine with
      modern health care in an informed and safe manner.

PMID- 28876178
TI  - Handedness and Reach-to-Place Kinematics in Adults: Left-Handers Are Not Reversed
      Right-Handers.
AB  - The primary goal of this study was to examine the relations between limb control
      and handedness in adults. Participants were categorized as left or right handed
      for analyses using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Three-dimensional
      recordings were made of each arm on two reach-to-place tasks: adults reached to a
      ball and placed it into the opening of a toy (fitting task), or reached to a
      Cheerio inside a cup, which they placed on a designated mark after each trial
      (cup task). We hypothesized that limb control and handedness were related, and we
      predicted that we would observe side differences favoring the dominant limb based
      on the dynamic dominance hypothesis of motor lateralization. Specifically, we
      predicted that the dominant limb would be straighter and smoother on both tasks
      compared with the nondominant limb (i.e., right arm in right-handers and left arm
      in left-handers). Our results only partially supported these predictions for
      right-handers, but not for left-handers. When differences between hands were
      observed, the right hand was favored regardless of handedness group. Our findings
      suggest that left-handers are not reversed right-handers when compared on
      interlimb kinematics for reach-to-place tasks, and reaffirm that task selection
      is critical when evaluating manual asymmetries.

PMID- 28876179
TI  - The inhibitory effects of Dracocephalum moldavica L. (DML) on rat cerebral
      ischemia reperfusion injury.
AB  - Ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) is closely associated with oxidative stress and
      inflammatory responses. Dracocephalum moldavica L. (DML), a Chinese herbal
      medicine is known to exert protective effects on myocardial ischemia reperfusion
      injury in rats by inhibiting oxidation damage and inflammatory reactions.
      However, the effectiveness of DML in cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury (CIRI)
      as a protective substance and the underlying mechanisms remain to be determined.
      The aim of this study was thus to examine the influence of DML on CIRI using a
      rat model induced by 2-h transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)
      produced by intraluminal suture blockade followed by 22 h reperfusion. The
      parameters determined include neurological behavior, histochemical assessment of
      cerebral infarct volume, and determination of various metabolic biomarkers. Data
      showed that DML markedly improved neurobehavioral scores and reduced cerebral
      edema and infarction. In addition, DML significantly reduced malondialdehyde
      (MDA) content and elevated activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and
      glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), in addition, marked decrease in levels of
      interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF
      alpha). Data suggest that the protective effects of DML on CIRI may be related to
      processes involving antioxidation and anti-inflammation.

PMID- 28876181
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28876182
TI  - Commentary on Krupa and Leebens.

PMID- 28876180
TI  - Description of Bifiguratus adelaidae: The hunt ends for one of the "Top 50 Most
      Wanted Fungi".

PMID- 28876183
TI  - Psychotherapy and Experience.

PMID- 28876184
TI  - Steven and Me.

PMID- 28876185
TI  - Communion.

PMID- 28876186
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28876188
TI  - The Impact of Insurance Gain and Discussions with Healthcare Providers on
      Quitting Smoking.
AB  - Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
      Analyzing the ability for different mechanisms to reduce smoking rates can
      provide healthcare systems with information to establish the most effective
      smoking cessation efforts. Health insurance provides individuals with direct
      mechanisms to curb smoking behavior, such as access to smoking cessation
      resources. Gaining insurance may additionally indirectly influence smoking
      cessation by altering risk perceptions. Behavioral economic theory suggests that
      gaining health insurance may reduce current smokers' rate of discounting on the
      future, which could increase smoking cessation. This article aimed to evaluate
      the impact of insurance status (i.e., gaining any private (n = 681), gaining only
      public (n = 647), or remaining uninsured (n = 5,056)) as well as the impact of
      having a discussion with a healthcare provider about quitting smoking on smoking
      cessation among current adult smokers who were uninsured at the beginning of
      their data collection. Data for this study came from the Medical Expenditure
      Panel Survey 2003 to 2014 database. The study found that while individuals
      gaining public insurance was not statistically associated with smoking cessation,
      individuals who gained private insurance were more likely to stop smoking than
      individuals who remained uninsured (OR: 1.330; 95% CI: 1.019,1.737; p = 0.036).
      Having a discussion with a healthcare provider about quitting smoking was not
      associated with smoking cessation. These findings indicate that gaining private
      insurance may impact smoking behavior through mechanisms other than direct access
      to physician services.

PMID- 28876189
TI  - Association between positive and negative affect and musculoskeletal pain among
      US home health aides.
AB  - As the US population ages, there is an expected increase in demand for home
      health aides (HHAs); therefore, it is important to ensure their occupational well
      being. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between negative emotions
      and musculoskeletal pain. Using survey data collected from 285 HHAs, we
      characterize the association between affect and musculoskeletal pain. Affect was
      measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, while musculoskeletal
      pain was measured using the Brief Pain Inventory. We found that as positive
      affect composite score increased, musculoskeletal pain decreased [beta = -0.57,
      t(124) = -7.01, p < .001]. There was no significant association between the
      negative affect composite score and musculoskeletal pain. However, several
      individual moods were associated with decreased or increased pain. These data
      suggest that some moods may buffer against musculoskeletal pain, while others may
      predispose HHAs to musculoskeletal pain.

PMID- 28876190
TI  - Surveillance of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis: Not all plaques are created
      equal.

PMID- 28876191
TI  - Self-Care Practices and the Professional Self.
AB  - Consistently and actively engaging in self-care has been shown to improve the
      performance of mental health practitioners by reducing burnout, vicarious trauma,
      compassion fatigue, and other stress-related psychological problems. Not only is
      this important to the individual practitioner's well-being, but ethical standards
      also mandate the recognition and remediation of any physical, mental, or
      emotional self-impairment to maintain high standards of care for clients.
      Professionals in small communities, like the Deaf community, however, confront
      unique challenges in attending to their self-care. This article investigates
      these challenges-as well as the rewards-experienced by Deaf and hearing
      counselors working in mental health care with deaf clients.

PMID- 28876192
TI  - Do We Think Children Need a Mom and Dad?: Understanding How Gender Ideology
      Impact Attitudes Toward Same-Gender Parent Family Rights.
AB  - Research and opinion polls demonstrate that attitudes toward same-gender parent
      families have been improving in recent years among Western countries; however,
      the history of oppression toward, and misconceptions about, same-gender parent
      families continue to be demonstrated in Australian family rights policies. Common
      misconceptions include the belief that children need both male and female role
      models, and this could be influencing peoples' support for same-gender family
      rights and having a wider impact on legislation change. Yet a dearth of research
      exists exploring a connection between gender role beliefs and support for same
      gender family rights using a broad international sample, including Australia. To
      investigate this connection, a sample (N = 615) from 18 English-speaking
      countries responded to a series of questions to determine the importance of
      gender norm beliefs on same-gender family prejudice. Regression analysis
      demonstrated that people with traditional beliefs about gender norms were more
      likely to endorse a negative attitude toward same-gender marriage and same-gender
      parenting. Findings suggest a link between socially prescribed gender norms and
      prejudice toward same-gender parent families that may be fueling arguments
      against same-gender family rights policies. The implications of these findings on
      same-gender parent families and their rights require future investigation.

PMID- 28876193
TI  - Maternal and newborn health implementation research: programme outcomes, pathways
      of change and partnerships for equitable health systems in Uganda.

PMID- 28876194
TI  - Potential orofacial hazards of resistance training: A controlled comparative
      study.
AB  - Objective To evaluate the effect of resistance training (RT) regarding potential
      hazard for dental wear, tooth abfractions, temporomandibular joint disc
      displacement, limitation in mouth opening, and existence of cervical spine
      disorders. The initial study hypothesis was that extensive resistance trainees
      (ExRT) would suffer from the above-mentioned symptoms more often than
      recreational trainees (RcT). Methods A controlled comparative study among male
      gym members via questionnaires and a clinical examination. Results ExRT had a
      higher prevalence of teeth indentations on the tongue (26% vs. 2% p < 0.001) and
      a higher prevalence of tooth abfractions than RcT (28% vs. 4% p < 0.005). ExRT
      exhibited a higher prevalence of cervical movement limitations (p < 0.05) and
      inadequate posture (p < 0.001). Conclusion RT by itself may not be a risk factor
      for disc displacement. Nevertheless, it may act as a potential risk factor for
      irreversible hard tooth tissue damage and contribute to neck postural and
      mobility impairments.

PMID- 28876195
TI  - Bifiguratus adelaidae, gen. et sp. nov., a new member of Mucoromycotina in
      endophytic and soil-dwelling habitats.
AB  - Illumina amplicon sequencing of soil in a temperate pine forest in the
      southeastern United States detected an abundant, nitrogen (N)-responsive fungal
      genotype of unknown phylogenetic affiliation. Two isolates with ribosomal
      sequences consistent with that genotype were subsequently obtained. Examination
      of records in GenBank revealed that a genetically similar fungus had been
      isolated previously as an endophyte of moss in a pine forest in the southwestern
      United States. The three isolates were characterized using morphological,
      genomic, and multilocus molecular data (18S, internal transcribed spacer [ITS],
      and 28S rRNA sequences). Phylogenetic and maximum likelihood phylogenomic
      reconstructions revealed that the taxon represents a novel lineage in
      Mucoromycotina, only preceded by Calcarisporiella, the earliest diverging lineage
      in the subphylum. Sequences for the novel taxon are frequently detected in
      environmental sequencing studies, and it is currently part of UNITE's dynamic
      list of most wanted fungi. The fungus is dimorphic, grows best at room
      temperature, and is associated with a wide variety of bacteria. Here, a new
      monotypic genus, Bifiguratus, is proposed, typified by Bifiguratus adelaidae.

PMID- 28876198
TI  - Religion Education as Calling.

PMID- 28876197
TI  - The impact of FLT3 mutations on treatment response and survival in Chinese de
      novo AML patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Two distinct forms of FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) mutations,
      internal tandem duplication (ITD) in the juxtamembrane domain and point mutation
      within the activation loop of the tyrosine kinase domain (TKD), have been
      identified in considerable number of patients with AML. This study was aimed to
      analyze the impacts of these mutations on clinical outcomes, and assess the
      efficacy of different therapeutic regimens (allo-HSCT, sorafenib, or conventional
      chemotherapy) for AML patients with FLT3 mutations after the standard induction
      therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed DNA samples from 158 consecutive de
      novo AML patients (18-60 years, excluding APL) with FLT3 mutations between July
      2010 and October 2015. RESULTS: We found that AML patients with FLT3-TKD
      mutations have more favorable clinical outcomes than those with FLT3-ITD
      mutations. We also found that allo-HSCT therapy subgroup achieved longer OS and
      RFS than non-allo-HSCT therapy subgroup for FLT3-ITD positive patients (p <
      0.001, p = 0.071). However, compared with the clinical outcomes in non-primary
      refractory patients, sorafenib did not show an obvious beneficial effect for the
      primary refractory patients. Further study on a large scale is still recommended.
      CONCLUSIONS: FLT3-TKD-mutated AML patients have more favorable clinical outcomes
      than those with FLT3-ITD mutations. Allo-HSCT therapy subgroup achieved longer OS
      and RFS than non-allo-HSCT therapy subgroup for FLT3-ITD positive patients.
      Compared with the clinical outcomes in non-primary refractory patients, sorafenib
      did not show an obvious beneficial effect for the primary refractory patients.

PMID- 28876199
TI  - Self-care among healthcare social workers: An exploratory study.
AB  - Despite growing interest in self-care, few studies have explicitly examined the
      self-care practices of healthcare social workers. This exploratory study
      investigated self-care among practitioners (N = 138) in one southeastern state.
      Overall, data suggest that healthcare social workers only moderately engaged in
      self-care. Additionally, analyses revealed significant differences in self-care
      practices by financial stability, overall health, and licensure status,
      respectively. Interestingly, perceived health status and current financial
      situation were significant predictors for overall self-care practices. After a
      brief review of the literature, this narrative will explicate findings, elucidate
      discussion points, identify salient implications, and conclude with areas for
      future research.

PMID- 28876201
TI  - Response Selection Contributes to the Preparation Cost for Bimanual Asymmetric
      Movements.
AB  - Movement preparation of bimanual asymmetric movements takes more time than
      bimanual symmetric movements in choice reaction-time conditions. This bimanual
      asymmetric cost may be caused by increased processing demands on any stage of
      movement preparation. The authors tested the contributions of each stage of
      movement preparation to the asymmetric cost by using the additive factors method.
      This involved altering the stimulus contrast, response compatibility, and
      response complexity. These manipulations changed the processing demands on
      stimulus identification, response selection, and response programming,
      respectively. Any manipulation with a larger reaction time cost than control
      suggests that stage contributes to the bimanual asymmetric cost. The bimanual
      asymmetric cost was larger for incompatible stimuli, which supports that response
      selection contributes to the bimanual asymmetric cost.

PMID- 28876200
TI  - The moderating role of emotional reactivity in the link between parental
      hostility and eating disorder symptoms in early adolescence.
AB  - Parent-adolescent relationship quality and affective functioning have been
      implicated in eating disorder development. This study examined whether maternal
      and paternal hostility interact to explain adolescents' eating disorder symptoms
      and whether parental hostility effects are more pronounced among adolescents with
      high emotional reactivity. A sample of 699 adolescents, ages 11-12 years,
      reported their parents' hostility and their own eating disorder symptoms, and
      parents reported adolescents' emotional reactivity. Results from structural
      equation modeling indicated that for emotionally reactive adolescents, paternal
      hostility was positively associated with eating disorder symptoms at both high
      and low levels of maternal hostility. In addition, eating disorder symptoms were
      amplified when both parents were high in hostility. Findings from this study lend
      support for the role of emotional reactivity in the link between parent hostility
      and eating disorder symptoms during adolescence.

PMID- 28876202
TI  - Implementation of an interprofessional communication and collaboration
      intervention to improve care capacity for heart failure management in long-term
      care.
AB  - Heart failure affects up to 20% of nursing home residents and is associated with
      high morbidity, mortality, and transfers to acute care. A major barrier to heart
      failure management in nursing home settings is limited interprofessional
      communication. Guideline-based heart failure management programs in nursing homes
      can reduce hospitalisation rates, though sustainability is limited when
      interprofessional communication is not addressed. A pilot intervention,
      'Enhancing Knowledge and Interprofessional Care for Heart Failure', was
      implemented on two units in two conveniently selected nursing homes to optimise
      interprofessional care processes amongst the care team. A core heart team was
      established, and participants received tailored education focused on heart
      failure management principles and communication processes, as well as weekly
      mentoring. Our previous work provided evidence for this intervention's
      acceptability and implementation fidelity. This paper focuses on the preliminary
      impact of the intervention on staff heart failure knowledge, communication, and
      interprofessional collaboration. To determine the initial impact of the
      intervention on selected staff outcomes, we employed a qualitative design, using
      a social constructivist interpretive framework. Findings indicated a perceived
      increase in team engagement, interprofessional collaboration, communication,
      knowledge about heart failure, and improved clinical outcomes. Individual
      interviews with staff revealed innovative ways to enhance communication,
      supporting one another with knowledge and engagement in collaborative practices
      with residents and families. Engaging teams, through the establishment of core
      heart teams, was successful to develop interprofessional communication processes
      for heart failure management. Further steps to be undertaken include assessing
      the sustainability and effectiveness of this approach with a larger sample.

PMID- 28876203
TI  - Classifying the Severity of COPD: Are We There Yet? Editorial for "Coton, S. et
      al. Severity of Airflow Obstruction in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
      (COPD): Proposal for a New Classification".

PMID- 28876204
TI  - External Validation of the COmorbidity Test.
AB  - The COmorbidity TEst (COTE) is a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
      specific co-morbidity score created to predict mortality. Before its wide
      application at the University of New Mexico we intended to validate it. The study
      was conducted at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) in Albuquerque, NM,
      USA, a tertiary academic hospital. Consecutive patients with the clinical
      diagnosis of COPD were identified using the hospital's medical records system and
      included if they were older than 40 years, had smoked at least 20 pack-years and
      their post bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in the first second/forced
      vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) was <0.7 without an alternative diagnosis. The data
      collected included demographics, co-morbidities as described in the COTE, COPD
      specific therapies, spirometry results and mortality. Of 317 patients 51.4% were
      male, average age was 65.6 +/- 9.6 years and the mean post-bronchodilator FEV1
      percent predicted (FEV1%) was 52.9 +/- 16.9%. 31 (9.8%) patients were on triple
      long-acting bronchodilator inhaler therapy, 88 (27.8%) on two long-acting
      bronchodilators and 163 (51.4%) on at least one long-acting bronchodilator. The
      median follow-up was 3.5 years (IQR = 1.9-6.9). Fifty four patients died by the
      end of the follow-up period and their median COTE of 4 (IQR = 1-8) was
      significantly higher than for the survivors with COTE = 1 (IQR = 0-6; p = 0.002).
      In univariable analyses COTE was positively associated while FEV1%, body mass
      index (BMI) and gender were negatively associated with all-cause mortality. In
      multivariable analysis BMI, FEV1% and COTE remained independent predictors for
      mortality. The COTE is an independent predictor of mortality for COPD patients at
      UNMH.

PMID- 28876206
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28876207
TI  - Inheritance of Virulence, Construction of a Linkage Map, and Mapping Dominant
      Virulence Genes in Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici Through Characterization
      of a Sexual Population with Genotyping-by-Sequencing.
AB  - Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, the wheat stripe rust pathogen, is a
      dikaryotic, biotrophic, and macrocyclic fungus. Genetic study of P. striiformis
      f. sp. tritici virulence was not possible until the recent discovery of Berberis
      spp. and Mahonia spp. as alternate hosts. To determine inheritance of virulence
      and map virulence genes, a segregating population of 119 isolates was developed
      by self-fertilizing P. striiformis f. sp. tritici isolate 08-220 (race PSTv-11)
      on barberry leaves under controlled greenhouse conditions. The progeny isolates
      were phenotyped on a set of 29 wheat lines with single genes for race-specific
      resistance and genotyped with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, single
      nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers derived from secreted protein genes, and
      SNP markers from genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). Using the GBS technique, 10,163
      polymorphic GBS-SNP markers were identified. Clustering and principal component
      analysis grouped these markers into six genetic groups, and a genetic map,
      consisting of six linkage groups, was constructed with 805 markers. The six
      clusters or linkage groups resulting from these analyses indicated a haploid
      chromosome number of six in P. striiformis f. sp. tritici. Through virulence
      testing of the progeny isolates, the parental isolate was found to be homozygous
      for the avirulence loci corresponding to resistance genes Yr5, Yr10, Yr15, Yr24,
      Yr32, YrSP, YrTr1, Yr45, and Yr53 and homozygous for the virulence locus
      corresponding to resistance gene Yr41. Segregation was observed for virulence
      phenotypes in response to the remaining 19 single-gene lines. A single dominant
      gene or two dominant genes with different nonallelic gene interactions were
      identified for each of the segregating virulence phenotypes. Of 27 dominant
      virulence genes identified, 17 were mapped to two chromosomes. Markers tightly
      linked to some of the virulence loci may facilitate further studies to clone
      these genes. The virulence genes and their inheritance information are useful for
      understanding the host-pathogen interactions and for selecting effective
      resistance genes or gene combinations for developing stripe rust resistant wheat
      cultivars.

PMID- 28876208
TI  - Deep Sequencing Uncovers Rice Long siRNAs and Its Involvement in Immunity Against
      Rhizoctonia solani.
AB  - Small RNA (sRNA) is a class of noncoding RNA that can silence the expression of
      target genes. In rice, the majority of characterized sRNAs are within the range
      of 21 to 24 nucleotides (nt) long, whose biogenesis and function are associated
      with a specific sets of components, such as Dicer-like (OsDCLs) and Argonaute
      proteins (OsAGOs). Rice sRNAs longer than 24 nt are occasionally reported, with
      biogenesis and functional mechanism uninvestigated, especially in a context of
      defense responses against pathogen infection. By using deep sequencing, we
      identified a group of rice long small interfering RNAs (lsiRNAs) that are within
      the range of 25 to 40 nt in length. Our results show that some rice lsiRNAs are
      differentially expressed upon infection of Rhizoctonia solani, the causal agent
      of the rice sheath blight disease. Bioinformatic analysis and experimental
      validation indicate that some rice lsiRNAs can target defense-related genes. We
      further demonstrate that rice lsiRNAs are neither derived from RNA degradation
      nor originated as secondary small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Moreover, lsiRNAs
      require OsDCL4 for biogenesis and OsAGO18 for function. Therefore, our study
      indicates that rice lsiRNAs are a unique class of endogenous sRNAs produced in
      rice, which may participate in response against pathogens.

PMID- 28876209
TI  - Soil Microbiomes Associated with Verticillium Wilt-Suppressive Broccoli and
      Chitin Amendments are Enriched with Potential Biocontrol Agents.
AB  - Two naturally infested Verticillium wilt-conducive soils from the Salinas Valley
      of coastal California were amended with disease-suppressive broccoli residue or
      crab meal amendments, and changes to the soil prokaryote community were monitored
      using Illumina sequencing of a 16S ribosomal RNA gene library generated from 160
      bulk soil samples. The experiment was run in a greenhouse, twice, with eggplant
      as the Verticillium wilt-susceptible host. Disease suppression, plant height,
      soil microsclerotia density, and soil chitinase activity were assessed at the
      conclusion of each experiment. In soil with high microsclerotia density, all
      amendments significantly reduced Verticillium wilt severity and microsclerotia
      density, and increased soil chitinase activity. Plant height was increased only
      in the broccoli-containing treatments. In total, 8,790 error-corrected sequence
      variants representing 1,917,893 different sequences were included in the
      analyses. The treatments had a significant impact on the soil microbiome
      community structure but measures of alpha diversity did not vary between
      treatments. Community structure correlated with disease score, plant height,
      microsclerotia density, and soil chitinase activity, suggesting that the
      prokaryote community may affect the disease-related response variables or vice
      versa. Similarly, the abundance of 107 sequence variants correlated with disease
      related response variables, which included variants from genera with known
      antagonists of filamentous fungal plant pathogens, such as Pseudomonas and
      Streptomyces. Overall, genera with antifungal antagonists were more abundant in
      amended soils than unamended soils, and constituted up to 8.9% of all sequences
      in broccoli+crabmeal-amended soil. This study demonstrates that substrate
      mediated shifts in soil prokaryote communities are associated with the transition
      of Verticillium wilt-conducive soils to Verticillium wilt-suppressive soils, and
      suggests that soils likely harbor numerous additional antagonists of fungal plant
      pathogens that contribute to the biological suppression of plant disease.

PMID- 28876210
TI  - Statistical Power in Plant Pathology Research.
AB  - In null hypothesis testing, failure to reject a null hypothesis may have two
      potential interpretations. One interpretation is that the treatments being
      evaluated do not have a significant effect, and a correct conclusion was reached
      in the analysis. Alternatively, a treatment effect may have existed but the
      conclusion of the study was that there was none. This is termed a Type II error,
      which is most likely to occur when studies lack sufficient statistical power to
      detect a treatment effect. In basic terms, the power of a study is the ability to
      identify a true effect through a statistical test. The power of a statistical
      test is 1 - (the probability of Type II errors), and depends on the size of
      treatment effect (termed the effect size), variance, sample size, and
      significance criterion (the probability of a Type I error, alpha). Low
      statistical power is prevalent in scientific literature in general, including
      plant pathology. However, power is rarely reported, creating uncertainty in the
      interpretation of nonsignificant results and potentially underestimating small,
      yet biologically significant relationships. The appropriate level of power for a
      study depends on the impact of Type I versus Type II errors and no single level
      of power is acceptable for all purposes. Nonetheless, by convention 0.8 is often
      considered an acceptable threshold and studies with power less than 0.5 generally
      should not be conducted if the results are to be conclusive. The emphasis on
      power analysis should be in the planning stages of an experiment. Commonly
      employed strategies to increase power include increasing sample sizes, selecting
      a less stringent threshold probability for Type I errors, increasing the
      hypothesized or detectable effect size, including as few treatment groups as
      possible, reducing measurement variability, and including relevant covariates in
      analyses. Power analysis will lead to more efficient use of resources and more
      precisely structured hypotheses, and may even indicate some studies should not be
      undertaken. However, the conclusions of adequately powered studies are less prone
      to erroneous conclusions and inflated estimates of treatment effectiveness,
      especially when effect sizes are small.

PMID- 28876212
TI  - International Meeting of Environmental Health and Toxicology (IMEHTox): Advances
      in Toxicology and Environmental Health in Brazil.

PMID- 28876211
TI  - Human Papillomavirus-Related Cancer Surveillance, Prevention, and Screening Among
      Transgender Men and Women: Neglected Populations at High Risk.
AB  - Researchers and healthcare surveillance systems must clearly disaggregate data
      for transgender men and women from data for cisgender men and women to identify
      population-level health disparities and give every person an opportunity for
      cancer prevention. The limited human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine recommendations
      for transgender men and women may be due to the scant literature on cancer
      prevalence coupled with poor understanding of HPV risks for these populations.
      Comprehensive cancer screening and prevention initiatives centered on relevant
      anatomy and sexual risk behaviors that are inclusive of transgender men and women
      are needed. Moreover, we need specific research to understand the impact of HPV
      and associated cancers on both transgender men's and women's lives.

PMID- 28876213
TI  - Effective Anti-miRNA Oligonucleotides Show High Releasing Rate of MicroRNA from
      RNA-Induced Silencing Complex.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by forming RNA-induced silencing
      complexes (RISCs) and have been considered as promising therapeutic targets.
      MiRNA is an essential component of RISC for the modulation of gene expression.
      Therefore, the release of miRNA from RISC is considered as an effective method
      for the inhibition of miRNA functions. In our previous study, we reported that
      anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AMOs), which are composed of the 2'-O-methyl (2'
      OMe) RNA, could induce the release of miRNA from RISC. However, the mechanisms
      underlying the miRNA-releasing effects of chemically modified AMOs, which are
      conventionally used as anti-cancer drugs, are still unclear. In this study, we
      investigated the relationship between the miRNA releasing rate from RISC and the
      inhibitory effect on RISC activity (IC50) using conventional chemically modified
      AMOs. We demonstrated that the miRNA-releasing effects of AMOs are directly
      proportional to the IC50 values, and AMOs, which have an ability to promote the
      release of miRNA from RISC, can effectively inhibit RISC activity in living
      cells.

PMID- 28876214
TI  - Exposing Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) to fish feed containing the
      antiparasitic drug diflubenzuron caused high mortality during molting.
AB  - Use of the chitin synthesis inhibitor diflubenzuron (DFB) as an antiparasitic
      drug in salmon aquaculture raises concern over its impact on marine ecosystems.
      Further, global drivers, such as ocean warming and acidification (OAW), may
      increase the toxicity of hazardous substances including DFB. The aim of the
      present study was to examine the combined effects of DFB-medicated salmon feed on
      ovigerous Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) under Control (pHNBS 8.0, 7.0oC)
      and OAW conditions (pHNBS 7.6, 9.5oC). DFB-exposed shrimp consumed on average 0.1
      0.3 g medicated feed during the 2-week exposure period, and high mortality (61
      73%) was documented at both environmental conditions. There was no significant
      interaction between OAW and DFB. Only 2-7% of DFB-exposed shrimp molted
      successfully compared to 65% in Control and 63% in OAW. The shrimp molted earlier
      (shorter intermolt period) and exhibited higher feeding rate at OAW compared to
      Control conditions. An additional experiment, where female shrimp were exposed to
      DFB closer to molting, noted increased mortality after only 4 d exposure, and
      successful molting for some shrimp after 2 to 3 weeks of depuration. High
      mortality of shrimp exposed to DFB-medicated feed indicates that the use of this
      feed in aquaculture could affect local shrimp populations.

PMID- 28876215
TI  - Deaf Families' Unique Experiences and Obstacles.
AB  - This article focuses on deaf children of deaf parents who grew up using American
      Sign Language (ASL) in deaf culture. Deaf children of deaf parents described
      their unique experiences of struggling with obstacles, including quality of
      education, low expectations from professionals, unwanted sympathy, mental health
      therapists' lack of cultural competency, and not being asked for valuable
      perspectives or advice. The advice from deaf children of deaf parents is included
      in the article. By bringing greater attention to this population, mental health,
      school, and other professionals can increase their awareness of deaf families'
      unique needs in their work environment.

PMID- 28876216
TI  - You're Deaf? Breaking through Myths for Effective Therapeutic Practice.
AB  - Most mental health practitioners provide services to hearing clients and might be
      unprepared when a deaf individual requests services. The purpose of this article
      is to explore commonly held stereotypes and myths about deaf people and to
      provide guidance to clinicians who encounter deaf clients in their practices.
      Myths and stereotypes can affect the way clinicians perceive their clients'
      needs. This can lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misinformation,
      which can harm the therapeutic relationship, thus making effective therapy
      unattainable. Clinicians should reframe these beliefs and overcome barriers to
      make way for the therapeutic process to begin.

PMID- 28876217
TI  - "We Are Disaster Response Experts": A Qualitative Study on the Mental Health
      Impact of Volunteering in Disaster Settings Among Combat Veterans.
AB  - Volunteers serving in a disaster context may experience harmful mental health
      effects that could impede rescue operations. Exploratory research suggests that
      combat veterans who volunteer in Team Rubicon (TR)-a disaster relief social
      service organization with the mission of uniting the skills and experiences of
      military Veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response
      teams-have positive mental health responses when providing disaster relief. The
      objective of this qualitative study was to identify those nuances associated with
      combat veterans' mental health response in TR. The study consisted of (N = 9)
      male combat Veterans who volunteered with TR. Data was thematically analyzed.
      Results suggested that members did not experience negative mental health effects
      because of prior military training and preparedness relevant to disaster
      situations. Positive outcomes in mental health were associated with the
      uniqueness of peer support in TR and applying skills from military training.
      Veterans in TR reported that providing disaster relief afforded them the
      opportunity to continue serving others after having served in the military.
      Implications for public health social work are discussed as well as the need for
      further research.

PMID- 28876218
TI  - Deaf Workers in Restaurant, Retail, and Hospitality Sector Employment: Harnessing
      Research to Promote Advocacy.
AB  - A quarter-century after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA,
      1990 ), workplace accommodation is still a struggle for deaf employees and their
      managers. Many challenges are the result of communication barriers that can be
      overcome through much needed-although often absent-advocacy and training. This
      article highlights the literature on the employment of deaf individuals in the
      United States service industries of food service, retail, and hospitality
      conducted from 2000 to 2016. Exploring dimensions of both hiring and active
      workplace accommodation, suggestions are made for how social work advocates can
      harness information and strengthen their approaches for educating managers and
      supporting workers.

PMID- 28876219
TI  - Enhancing Person-Centered Care in Long-Term Care.

PMID- 28876220
TI  - The application of the modified surgical wound dressing in wound care after
      tracheotomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study was performed to observe the efficacy of a modified
      surgical wound dressing applied as part of decannulation wound care after
      tracheotomy. METHODS: Eighty-four patients were randomly allocated into a
      traditional care group, a surgical wound dressing group, and a modified surgical
      wound dressing group. Each group comprised 28 patients. The following outcomes
      were observed and analyzed: infection rate, wound closure time, dressing change
      frequency, cost of wound care, and patients' comfort. RESULTS: The infection
      rate, wound closure time, dressing change frequency, and cost of wound care were
      much higher in the traditional care group than in the surgical wound dressing
      group and modified surgical wound dressing group. The study data indicated that
      patients in the modified surgical dressing group felt more comfortable than those
      patients in the other two groups. The differences among the three groups were
      statistically significant (P < 0.05). DISCUSSION: The design of the herein
      described modified surgical wound dressing is based on a butterfly shaped
      adhesive and mirrors the advantages of a modern surgical wound dressing. Its
      shape is suitable for the physiological structure of the neck, making it more
      comfortable to use. Aseptic packaging and a high degree of adhesiveness guarantee
      continuous fixation and pulling. At the same time, the design of the dressing
      decreases the chance of infection.

PMID- 28876221
TI  - Rethinking the role of clinical imaging.
AB  - Radiomics has the potential to improve the management of cancer patients, but
      further research is required before it can be adopted into routine clinical
      practice.

PMID- 28876223
TI  - Rapamycin in mice.

PMID- 28876222
TI  - Co-expression of xenopsin and rhabdomeric opsin in photoreceptors bearing
      microvilli and cilia.
AB  - Ciliary and rhabdomeric opsins are employed by different kinds of photoreceptor
      cells, such as ciliary vertebrate rods and cones or protostome microvillar eye
      photoreceptors, that have specialized structures and molecular physiologies. We
      report unprecedented cellular co-expression of rhabdomeric opsin and a visual
      pigment of the recently described xenopsins in larval eyes of a mollusk. The
      photoreceptors bear both microvilli and cilia and express proteins that are
      orthologous to transporters in microvillar and ciliary opsin trafficking. Highly
      conserved but distinct gene structures suggest that xenopsins and ciliary opsins
      are of independent origin, irrespective of their mutually exclusive distribution
      in animals. Furthermore, we propose that frequent opsin gene loss had a large
      influence on the evolution, organization and function of brain and eye
      photoreceptor cells in bilaterian animals. The presence of xenopsin in eyes of
      even different design might be due to a common origin and initial employment of
      this protein in a highly plastic photoreceptor cell type of mixed
      microvillar/ciliary organization.

PMID- 28876224
TI  - Observation of pseudogap in MgB<sub>2</sub>.
AB  - We investigate the electronic structure of a specially prepared highly dense
      conventional high temperature superconductor, MgB2 employing high resolution
      photoemission spectroscopy. The spectral evolution close to the Fermi energy is
      commensurate to BCS descriptions as expected. However, the spectra in the wider
      energy range reveal emergence of a pseudogap much above the superconducting
      transition temperature indicating apparent departure from the BCS scenario. The
      energy scale of the pseudogap is comparable to the energy of E2g phonon mode
      responsible for superconductivity in MgB2 and the pseudogap can be attributed to
      the effect of electron-phonon coupling on the electronic structure. These results
      reveal a scenario of the emergence of the superconducting gap within an electron
      phonon coupling induced pseudogap and have significant implication in the study
      of high temperature superconductors.

PMID- 28876225
TI  - Self-assembled monolayers of sulfonate-terminated alkanethiols investigated by
      frequency modulation atomic force microscopy in liquid.
AB  - A molecular-scale understanding of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of sulfonate
      terminated alkanethiols is crucial for interfacial studies of functionalized SAMs
      and their various applications. However, such an understanding has been difficult
      to achieve because of the lack of direct information on these molecular-scale
      structures in real space. In this study, we investigated the structures of
      sulfonate SAMs of sodium 11-mercapto-1-undecanesulfonate (MUS) by frequency
      modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) in liquid. The subnanometer
      resolution FM-AFM images showed that the single-component MUS SAM prepared in
      pure water had random surface structures. In contrast, the MUS SAM prepared in a
      water-ethanol mixed solvent showed periodic striped structures with a flat-lying
      conformation. The results suggest a significant solvent effect on molecular-scale
      structures of long-chain sulfonate SAMs. In addition, we investigated the
      molecular-scale structures of mixed SAMs of MUS and 11-mercapto-1-undecanol (MUO)
      with alkane chains of the same length. The FM-AFM images of the mixed SAMs showed
      clear phase separation between MUS SAM and MUO SAM domains. In the MUO SAM
      domains, the incorporated MUS molecules appeared as protrusions. The results
      obtained in this study provide direct structural information on long-chain
      sulfonate and mixed SAMs.

PMID- 28876226
TI  - Nonadiabatic exchange-correlation kernel for strongly correlated materials.
AB  - We formulate a rigorous method for calculating a nonadiabatic (frequency
      dependent) exchange-correlation (XC) kernel appropriate for accurate description
      of both equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of strongly correlated systems
      within the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) via the charge
      susceptibility, which is in turn obtained from dynamical mean field theory (DMFT)
      based on the effective multi-orbital Hubbard model. Application to the simple
      case of the one-orbital Hubbard model already shows the importance of the
      nonadiabatic kernel as it leads to significant modification of the excitation
      spectrum-shifting the (adiabatic) peak and disclosing another that is reminiscent
      of the solution from DMFT. The impact of dynamical effects, naturally included
      through the nonadiabaticity of the XC kernel, becomes even more transparent in
      our consideration of the nonequilibrium charge-density response of a multi
      orbital perovskite, YTiO3, to a perturbation by a femtosecond (fs) laser pulse.
      These initial results indicate that electron-electron correlations and
      nonadiabatic features may significantly affect the spectrum and nonequilibrium
      properties of strongly correlated systems. We also propose an algorithm for
      extension of the approach to non-linear response. The transparency and
      computational efficiency of this non-adiabatic TDDFT+DMFT approach opens the door
      to examination of the spectra and response of multi-orbital systems with many
      nonequivalent atoms-bulk material, films and nanostructures.

PMID- 28876227
TI  - Crystal structure of the DNA sequence d(CGTGAATTCACG)2 with DAPI.
AB  - The structure of 4',6-diamidine-2-phenylindole (DAPI) bound to the synthetic B
      DNA oligonucleotide d(CGTGAATTCACG) has been solved in space group P212121 by
      single-crystal X-ray diffraction at a resolution of 2.2 A. The structure is
      nearly isomorphous to that of the previously reported crystal structure of the
      oligonucleotide d(CGTGAATTCACG) alone. The adjustments in crystal packing between
      the native DNA molecule and the DNA-DAPI complex are described. DAPI lies in the
      narrow minor groove near the centre of the B-DNA fragment, positioned over the A
      T base pairs. It is bound to the DNA by hydrogen-bonding and van der Waals
      interactions. Comparison of the two structures (with and without ligand) shows
      that DAPI inserts into the minor groove, displacing the ordered spine waters.
      Indeed, as DAPI is hydrophobic it confers this behaviour on the DNA and thus
      restricts the presence of water molecules.

PMID- 28876228
TI  - HicAB toxin-antitoxin complex from Escherichia coli: expression and
      crystallization.
AB  - Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are widespread in both bacteria and archaea, where
      they enable cells to adapt to environmental cues. TA systems play crucial roles
      in various cellular processes, such as programmed cell death, cell growth,
      persistence and virulence. Here, two distinct forms of the type II toxin
      antitoxin complex HicAB were identified and characterized in Escherichia coli K
      12, and both were successfully overexpressed and purified. The two proposed
      forms, HicABL and HicABS, differed in the presence or absence of a seven-amino
      acid segment at the N-terminus in the antitoxin HicB. The short form HicABS
      readily crystallized under the conditions 0.1 M Tris-HCl pH 8.0, 20%(w/v) PEG
      6000, 0.2 M ammonium sulfate. The HicABS crystal diffracted and data were
      collected to 2.5 A resolution. The crystal belonged to space group I222 or
      I212121, with unit-cell parameters a = 67.04, b = 66.31, c = 120.78 A. Matthews
      coefficient calculation suggested the presence of two molecules each of HicA and
      HicBS in the asymmetric unit, with a solvent content of 55.28% and a Matthews
      coefficient (VM) of 2.75 A3 Da-1.

PMID- 28876229
TI  - 3,6-Anhydro-L-galactonate cycloisomerase from Vibrio sp. strain EJY3:
      crystallization and X-ray crystallographic analysis.
AB  - 3,6-Anhydro-L-galactonate cycloisomerase (ACI), which is found in the marine
      bacterium Vibrio sp. strain EJY3, converts 3,6-anhydro-L-galactonate into 2-keto
      3-deoxygalactonate. ACI is a key enzyme in the metabolic pathway of 3,6-anhydro-L
      galactose (AHG). Study of AHG metabolism is important for the efficient
      fermentation of agar and biofuel production, because AHG is a sugar that is non
      fermentable by commercial microorganisms. The aci gene from Vibrio sp. strain
      EJY3 was cloned, and the recombinant protein was overexpressed and crystallized
      in order to determine the structure and understand the function of the protein.
      The crystals diffracted to 2.2 A resolution and belonged to space group P41212 or
      P43212, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 87.9, c = 143.5 A. The Matthews
      coefficient was 2.3 A3 Da-1, with a solvent content of 47%.

PMID- 28876230
TI  - Characterization and crystal structure of a novel zearalenone hydrolase from
      Cladophialophora bantiana.
AB  - Zearalenone (ZEN) is a mycotoxin which causes huge economic losses in the food
      and animal feed industries. The lactonase ZHD101 from Clonostachys rosea, which
      catalyzes the hydrolytic degradation of ZEN, is the only known ZEN-detoxifying
      enzyme. Here, a protein homologous to ZHD101, denoted CbZHD, from
      Cladophialophora batiana was expressed and characterized. Sequence alignment
      indicates that CbZHD possesses the same catalytic triad and ZEN-interacting
      residues as found in ZHD101. CbZHD exhibits optimal enzyme activity at 35 degrees
      C and pH 8, and is sensitive to heat treatment. The crystal structure of apo
      CbZHD was determined to 1.75 A resolution. The active-site compositions of CbZHD
      and ZHD101 were analyzed.

PMID- 28876231
TI  - The LRR-Roc-COR module of the Chlorobium tepidum Roco protein: crystallization
      and X-ray crystallographic analysis.
AB  - Roco proteins are characterized by the presence of a Roc-COR supradomain
      harbouring GTPase activity, which is often preceded by an LRR domain. The most
      notorious member of the Roco protein family is the Parkinson's disease-associated
      LRRK2. The Roco protein from the bacterium Chlorobium tepidum has been used as a
      model system to investigate the structure and mechanism of this class of enzymes.
      Here, the crystallization and crystallographic analysis of the LRR-Roc-COR
      construct of the C. tepidum Roco protein is reported. The LRR-Roc-COR crystals
      belonged to space group P212121, with unit-cell parameters a = 95.6, b = 129.8, c
      = 179.5 A, alpha = beta = gamma = 90 degrees , and diffracted to a resolution of
      3.3 A. Based on the calculated Matthews coefficient, Patterson map analysis and
      an initial molecular-replacement analysis, one protein dimer is present in the
      asymmetric unit. The crystal structure of this protein will provide valuable
      insights into the interaction between the Roc-COR and LRR domains within Roco
      proteins.

PMID- 28876232
TI  - Protein crystallization and initial neutron diffraction studies of the
      photosystem II subunit PsbO.
AB  - The PsbO protein of photosystem II stabilizes the active-site manganese cluster
      and is thought to act as a proton antenna. To enable neutron diffraction studies,
      crystals of the beta-barrel core of PsbO were grown in capillaries. The crystals
      were optimized by screening additives in a counter-diffusion setup in which the
      protein and reservoir solutions were separated by a 1% agarose plug. Crystals
      were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. Initial neutron diffraction data were
      collected from a 0.25 mm3 crystal at room temperature using the MaNDi single
      crystal diffractometer at the Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National
      Laboratory.

PMID- 28876233
TI  - Ectodomain of plasmodesmata-localized protein 5 in Arabidopsis: expression,
      purification, crystallization and crystallographic analysis.
AB  - Plasmodesmata-localized protein 5 (PDLP5) is a cysteine-rich receptor-like
      protein which is localized on the plasmodesmata of Arabidopsis thaliana.
      Overexpression of PDLP5 can reduce the permeability of the plasmodesmata and
      further affect the cell-to-cell movement of viruses and macromolecules in plants.
      The ectodomain of PDLP5 contains two DUF26 domains; however, the function of
      these domains is still unknown. Here, the ectodomain of PDLP5 from Arabidopsis
      was cloned and overexpressed using an insect expression system and was then
      purified and crystallized. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.90 A
      resolution and were indexed in space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a =
      41.9, b = 48.1, c = 62.2 A, alpha = 97.3, beta = 103.1, gamma = 99.7 degrees .
      Analysis of the crystal content indicated that there are two molecules in the
      asymmetric unit, with a Matthews coefficient of 2.51 A3 Da-1 and a solvent
      content of 50.97%.

PMID- 28876234
TI  - Production, crystallization and structure determination of a mycobacterial
      glucosylglycerate hydrolase.
AB  - Glucosylglycerate hydrolase is highly conserved among rapidly growing
      mycobacteria and has been found to be involved in recovery from nitrogen
      starvation by promoting the rapid mobilization of the glucosylglycerate that
      accumulates under these conditions. Here, the production, crystallization and
      structure determination of glucosylglycerate hydrolase from Mycobacterium
      hassiacum using two-wavelength anomalous diffraction of selenomethionine
      substituted crystals are described. The monoclinic (space group P21) crystals
      diffracted to ~2.0 A resolution at a synchrotron-radiation source and contained
      four molecules in the asymmetric unit, corresponding to a Matthews coefficient of
      3.07 A3 Da-1 and a solvent content of 59.9%. The quality of the experimental
      phases allowed the automated building of 1677 of the 1792 residues in the
      asymmetric unit.

PMID- 28876236
TI  - AUSPEX: a graphical tool for X-ray diffraction data analysis.
AB  - In this paper, AUSPEX, a new software tool for experimental X-ray data analysis,
      is presented. Exploring the behaviour of diffraction intensities and the
      associated estimated uncertainties facilitates the discovery of underlying
      problems and can help users to improve their data acquisition and processing in
      order to obtain better structural models. The program enables users to inspect
      the distribution of observed intensities (or amplitudes) against resolution as
      well as the associated estimated uncertainties (sigmas). It is demonstrated how
      AUSPEX can be used to visually and automatically detect ice-ring artefacts in
      integrated X-ray diffraction data. Such artefacts can hamper structure
      determination, but may be difficult to identify from the raw diffraction images
      produced by modern pixel detectors. The analysis suggests that a significant
      portion of the data sets deposited in the PDB contain ice-ring artefacts.
      Furthermore, it is demonstrated how other problems in experimental X-ray data
      caused, for example, by scaling and data-conversion procedures can be detected by
      AUSPEX.

PMID- 28876235
TI  - 2017 publication guidelines for structural modelling of small-angle scattering
      data from biomolecules in solution: an update.
AB  - In 2012, preliminary guidelines were published addressing sample quality, data
      acquisition and reduction, presentation of scattering data and validation, and
      modelling for biomolecular small-angle scattering (SAS) experiments. Biomolecular
      SAS has since continued to grow and authors have increasingly adopted the
      preliminary guidelines. In parallel, integrative/hybrid determination of
      biomolecular structures is a rapidly growing field that is expanding the scope of
      structural biology. For SAS to contribute maximally to this field, it is
      essential to ensure open access to the information required for evaluation of the
      quality of SAS samples and data, as well as the validity of SAS-based structural
      models. To this end, the preliminary guidelines for data presentation in a
      publication are reviewed and updated, and the deposition of data and associated
      models in a public archive is recommended. These guidelines and recommendations
      have been prepared in consultation with the members of the International Union of
      Crystallography (IUCr) Small-Angle Scattering and Journals Commissions, the
      Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB) Small-Angle Scattering Validation Task Force
      and additional experts in the field.

PMID- 28876238
TI  - The structure of the Pfp1 protease from the hyperthermophilic archaeon
      Thermococcus thioreducens in two crystal forms.
AB  - The Pfp1 protease, a cysteine protease of unknown specificity from the
      hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus thioreducens, was crystallized in two
      distinctive crystal forms: from concentrated citrate in one case and PEG in the
      other. X-ray data were collected from both crystal forms at room temperature to
      about 1.9 A resolution using a laboratory source and detector, and the structures
      were solved by molecular replacement using the Pfp1 protease from Pyrococcus
      horikoshii as the search model. In the T. thioreducens protease structures, Cys18
      residues on adjacent molecules in the asymmetric units form intermolecular
      disulfide bonds, thereby yielding hexamers composed of three cross-linked, quasi
      dyad-related dimers with crystallographically exact threefold axes and exhibiting
      almost exact 32 symmetry. The corresponding residue in P. horikoshii Pfp1 is
      Tyr18. An individual active site containing Cys100 and His101 also includes a
      Glu74 residue contributed by a quasi-twofold-related, non-cross-linked subunit.
      Two catalytic triads are therefore closely juxtaposed about the quasi-twofold
      axis at the interface of these subunits, and are relatively sequestered within
      the hexamer cavity. The cysteine in the active site is observed to be oxidized in
      both of the crystal forms that were studied.

PMID- 28876237
TI  - Protein structure determination by electron diffraction using a single three
      dimensional nanocrystal.
AB  - Three-dimensional nanometre-sized crystals of macromolecules currently resist
      structure elucidation by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. Here, a single
      nanocrystal with a diffracting volume of only 0.14 um3, i.e. no more than 6 * 105
      unit cells, provided sufficient information to determine the structure of a rare
      dimeric polymorph of hen egg-white lysozyme by electron crystallography. This is
      at least an order of magnitude smaller than was previously possible. The
      molecular-replacement solution, based on a monomeric polyalanine model, provided
      sufficient phasing power to show side-chain density, and automated model building
      was used to reconstruct the side chains. Diffraction data were acquired using the
      rotation method with parallel beam diffraction on a Titan Krios transmission
      electron microscope equipped with a novel in-house-designed 1024 * 1024 pixel
      Timepix hybrid pixel detector for low-dose diffraction data collection.
      Favourable detector characteristics include the ability to accurately
      discriminate single high-energy electrons from X-rays and count them, fast
      readout to finely sample reciprocal space and a high dynamic range. This work,
      together with other recent milestones, suggests that electron crystallography can
      provide an attractive alternative in determining biological structures.

PMID- 28876239
TI  - Designing better diffracting crystals of biotin carboxyl carrier protein from
      Pyrococcus horikoshii by a mutation based on the crystal-packing propensity of
      amino acids.
AB  - An alternative rational approach to improve protein crystals by using single-site
      mutation of surface residues is proposed based on the results of a statistical
      analysis using a compiled data set of 918 independent crystal structures, thereby
      reflecting not only the entropic effect but also other effects upon protein
      crystallization. This analysis reveals a clear difference in the crystal-packing
      propensity of amino acids depending on the secondary-structural class. To verify
      this result, a systematic crystallization experiment was performed with the
      biotin carboxyl carrier protein from Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 (PhBCCP). Six
      single-site mutations were examined: Ala138 on the surface of a beta-sheet was
      mutated to Ile, Tyr, Arg, Gln, Val and Lys. In agreement with prediction, it was
      observed that the two mutants (A138I and A138Y) harbouring the residues with the
      highest crystal-packing propensities for beta-sheet at position 138 provided
      better crystallization scores relative to those of other constructs, including
      the wild type, and that the crystal-packing propensity for beta-sheet provided
      the best correlation with the ratio of obtaining crystals. Two new crystal forms
      of these mutants were obtained that diffracted to high resolution, generating
      novel packing interfaces with the mutated residues (Ile/Tyr). The mutations
      introduced did not affect the overall structures, indicating that a beta-sheet
      can accommodate a successful mutation if it is carefully selected so as to avoid
      intramolecular steric hindrance. A significant negative correlation between the
      ratio of obtaining amorphous precipitate and the crystal-packing propensity was
      also found.

PMID- 28876240
TI  - Crystal structures of the methyltransferase and helicase from the ZIKA 1947 MR766
      Uganda strain.
AB  - Two nonstructural proteins encoded by Zika virus strain MR766 RNA, a
      methyltransferase and a helicase, were crystallized and their structures were
      solved and refined at 2.10 and 2.01 A resolution, respectively. The NS5
      methyltransferase contains a bound S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) co-substrate.
      The NS3 helicase is in the apo form. Comparison with published crystal structures
      of the helicase in the apo, nucleotide-bound and single-stranded RNA (ssRNA)
      bound states suggests that binding of ssRNA to the helicase may occur through
      conformational selection rather than induced fit.

PMID- 28876242
TI  - Comparison of coagulation, ozone and ferrate treatment processes for color, COD
      and toxicity removal from complex textile wastewater.
AB  - In this study, the comparative performance of coagulation, ozone, coagulation +
      ozone + coagulation and potassium ferrate processes to remove chemical oxygen
      demand (COD), color, and toxicity from a highly polluted textile wastewater were
      evaluated. Experimental results showed that ferrate alone had no effect on COD,
      color and toxicity removal. Whereas, in combination with FeSO4, it has shown the
      highest removal efficiency of 96.5%, 83% and 75% for respective parameters at the
      optimal dose of 40 mgL-1 + 3 ml FeSO4 (1 M) in comparison with other processes. A
      seed germination test using seeds of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) also indicated
      that ferrate was more effective in removing toxicity from contaminated textile
      wastewater. Potassium ferrate also produces less sludge with maximum contaminant
      removal, thereby making the process more economically feasible. Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis also shows the cleavage of the chromophore
      group and degradation of textile wastewater during chemical and oxidation
      treatment processes.

PMID- 28876241
TI  - Structural insights into the interaction of the conserved mammalian proteins GAPR
      1 and Beclin 1, a key autophagy protein.
AB  - Mammalian Golgi-associated plant pathogenesis-related protein 1 (GAPR-1) is a
      negative autophagy regulator that binds Beclin 1, a key component of the
      autophagosome nucleation complex. Beclin 1 residues 267-284 are required for
      binding GAPR-1. Here, sequence analyses, structural modeling, mutagenesis
      combined with pull-down assays, X-ray crystal structure determination and small
      angle X-ray scattering were used to investigate the Beclin 1-GAPR-1 interaction.
      Five conserved residues line an equatorial GAPR-1 surface groove that is large
      enough to bind a peptide. A model of a peptide comprising Beclin 1 residues 267
      284 docked onto GAPR-1, built using the CABS-dock server, indicates that this
      peptide binds to this GAPR-1 groove. Mutation of the five conserved residues
      lining this groove, H54A/E86A/G102K/H103A/N138G, abrogates Beclin 1 binding. The
      1.27 A resolution X-ray crystal structure of this pentad mutant GAPR-1 was
      determined. Comparison with the wild-type (WT) GAPR-1 structure shows that the
      equatorial groove of the pentad mutant is shallower and more positively charged,
      and therefore may not efficiently bind Beclin 1 residues 267-284, which include
      many hydrophobic residues. Both WT and pentad mutant GAPR-1 crystallize as
      dimers, and in each case the equatorial groove of one subunit is partially
      occluded by the other subunit, indicating that dimeric GAPR-1 is unlikely to bind
      Beclin 1. SAXS analysis of WT and pentad mutant GAPR-1 indicates that in solution
      the WT forms monomers, while the pentad mutant is primarily dimeric. Thus,
      changes in the structure of the equatorial groove combined with the improved
      dimerization of pentad mutant GAPR-1 are likely to abrogate binding to Beclin 1.

PMID- 28876243
TI  - Removal of lead (II) from aqueous solutions using rice straw.
AB  - Lead (Pb2+) is a heavy metal which is utilized in several industries and can have
      severe impact on the environment and human health. Research work has been carried
      out lately on the feasibility of using various low cost materials in the removal
      of heavy metals from wastewater. In this study, the feasibility of utilizing raw
      rice straw for removal of Pb2+ from water through biosorption was investigated
      using batch equilibrium experiments. The effect of several operating parameters
      on the removal of Pb2+ using rice straw was studied, revealing the optimum
      parameters at an initial Pb2+ concentration of 40 mg/l were: 30 min contact time
      at a pH of 5.5, particle size 75-150 MUm and a dose of 4 g/l. A maximum removal
      of 94% was achieved under optimum conditions. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm
      models were used for the evaluation of the equilibrium experimental data. The
      maximum adsorption capacity of rice straw calculated using the Langmuir isotherm
      was 42.55 mg/g.

PMID- 28876245
TI  - Batch versus column modes for the adsorption of radioactive metal onto rice husk
      waste: conditions optimization through response surface methodology.
AB  - Batch and column adsorption modes were compared for the adsorption of U(VI) ions
      using rice husk waste biomass (RHWB). Response surface methodology was employed
      for the optimization of process variables, i.e., (pH (A), adsorbent dose (B),
      initial ion concentration (C)) in batch mode. The B, C and C2 affected the U(VI)
      adsorption significantly in batch mode. The developed quadratic model was found
      to be validated on the basis of regression coefficient as well as analysis of
      variance. The predicted and actual values were found to be correlated well, with
      negligible residual value, and B, C and C2 were significant terms. The column
      study was performed considering bed height, flow rate and initial metal ion
      concentration, and adsorption efficiency was evaluated through breakthrough
      curves and bed depth service time and Thomas models. Adsorption was found to be
      dependent on bed height and initial U(VI) ion concentration, and flow rate
      decreased the adsorption capacity. Thomas models fitted well to the U(VI)
      adsorption onto RHWB. Results revealed that RHWB has potential to remove U(VI)
      ions and batch adsorption was found to be efficient versus column mode.

PMID- 28876244
TI  - The economic pre-treatment of coal mine drainage water with caustic and ozone.
AB  - Coal mine drainage waters are low in pH with varying amounts of iron and
      manganese and are generally brackish. The Austar Coal Mine in NSW, Australia,
      sought alternatives to their current lime dosing as the pre-treatment before the
      downstream reverse osmosis plant. Undesirable operating aspects of the current
      system include manganese and gypsum scaling/fouling, the need for anti-scalants
      and reduced water recovery. Thirteen processes for acid mine drainage were
      initially considered. The preferred process of caustic and ozone for Mn(II)
      oxidation was pilot tested at up to 0.74 kL/hr at the mine site. Under proper
      conditions and no aeration, about 81 per cent of the Fe could be removed
      (initially at 156 mg/L) as green rust. Supplemental aeration followed first-order
      kinetics and allowed 99.9 per cent Fe(II) oxidation and removal but only with a
      hydraulic residence time of about 47 minutes. The addition of supplemental Cu
      catalyst improved Fe removal. Ozone applied after caustic was effective in
      stoichiometrically oxidising recalcitrant Mn(II) and any remaining Fe(II).
      Control of the ozonation was achieved using the oxidation reduction potential
      during oxidation of the Mn(II) species. The use of caustic, followed by ozone,
      proved economically comparable to the current lime pre-treatment.

PMID- 28876246
TI  - A comparative study of an up-flow aerobic/anoxic sludge fixed film bioreactor and
      sequencing batch reactor with intermittent aeration in simultaneous nutrients (N,
      P) removal from synthetic wastewater.
AB  - The performance of two bench scale activated sludge reactors with two feeding
      regimes, continuous fed (an up-flow aerobic/anoxic sludge fixed film (UAASFF)
      bioreactor) and batch fed (sequencing batch reactor (SBR)) with intermittent
      aeration, were evaluated for simultaneous nutrients (N, P) removal. Three
      significant variables (retention/reaction time, chemical oxygen demand (COD): N
      (nitrogen): P (phosphorus) ratio and aeration time) were selected for modeling,
      analyzing, and optimizing the process. At high retention time (>=6 h), two
      bioreactors showed comparable removal efficiencies, but at lower hydraulic
      retention time, the UAASFF bioreactor showed a better performance with higher
      nutrient removal efficiency than the SBR. The experimental results indicated that
      the total Kjeldahl nitrogen removal efficiency in the UAASFF increased from
      70.84% to 79.2% when compared to SBR. It was also found that the COD removal
      efficiencies of both processes were over 87%, and total nitrogen and total
      phosphorus removal efficiencies were 79.2% and 72.98% in UAASFF, and 71.2% and
      68.9% in SBR, respectively.

PMID- 28876247
TI  - Matrix interference reduction for the analysis of carbohydrate in wastewater
      using H-point standard addition method.
AB  - Soluble microbial products, consisting of protein, carbohydrate and humics, are
      generally considered as the main membrane foulants during the performance of
      membrane bioreactors. Nitrate and nitrite have been proved to affect the
      determination of carbohydrate when anthrone-sulfuric acid photometric method is
      used. In this study, three chemical analytical methods based on photometric
      assay, including the standard curve method, conventional standard addition method
      and H-point standard addition method, were assessed for the quantification of
      carbohydrate in order to reduce the interference. Three methods were carried out
      for both artificial and real wastewater sample analysis. The results indicated a
      significant amount of matrix interference, which could be eliminated through the
      use of H-point standard addition. This study proposed the H-point standard
      addition method as a more accurate and convenient option for carbohydrate
      determination.

PMID- 28876248
TI  - Sorption equilibrium, thermodynamics and pH-indicator properties of cresyl violet
      dye/bentonite composite system.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to develop cresyl violet (CV)/bentonite
      composite system, to investigate the equilibrium sorption of the fluorescent dye
      on bentonite, to determine the characteristic equilibrium and thermodynamic
      parameters of the system by appropriate empirical isotherm models and to assess
      its pH-indicator properties. The absorption characteristics of CV solutions were
      investigated by UV/VIS spectrophotometer. Equilibrium experiments were conducted
      and the experimental data were modelled by six mathematical isotherm models. The
      analyses of the experimental data showed that bentonite exhibited significantly
      high capacity - 169.92 mg/g, towards CV. The encapsulation efficiency was 85%.
      The Langmuir, Flory-Huggins and El-Awady models best represented the experimental
      results. The free Gibbs energy of adsorption (DeltaGo) was calculated on the
      basis of the values of the equilibrium coefficients determined by the proposed
      models. The values of DeltaG determined by the Langmuir, Temkin and Flory-Huggins
      models are within the range -20 to -40 kJ/mol, which indicates that the
      adsorption process is spontaneous and chemisorption takes place due to charge
      sharing or transfer from the dye molecules to the sorbent surface as a coordinate
      type of bond. The investigations of the obtained CV/bentonite hybrid systems for
      application as pH-markers showed satisfactory results.

PMID- 28876249
TI  - Growing substrates for aromatic plant species in green roofs and water runoff
      quality: pilot experiments in a Mediterranean climate.
AB  - Green roof technology has evolved in recent years as a potential solution to
      promote vegetation in urban areas. Green roof studies for Mediterranean climates,
      where extended drought periods in summer contrast with cold and rainy periods in
      winter, are still scarce. The present research study assesses the use of
      substrates with different compositions for the growth of six aromatic plant
      species - Lavandula dentata, Pelargonium odoratissimum, Helichrysum italicum,
      Satureja montana, Thymus caespititius and T. pseudolanuginosus, during a 2-year
      period, and the monitoring of water runoff quality. Growing substrates
      encompassed expanded clay and granulated cork, in combination with organic matter
      and crushed eggshell. These combinations were adequate for the establishment of
      all aromatic plants, allowing their propagation in the extensive system located
      on the 5th storey. The substrate composed of 70% expanded clay and 30% organic
      matter was the most suitable, and crushed eggshell incorporation improved the
      initial plant establishment. Water runoff quality parameters - turbidity, pH,
      conductivity, NH4+, NO3-, PO43- and chemical oxygen demand - showed that it could
      be reused for non-potable uses in buildings. The present study shows that
      selected aromatic plant species could be successfully used in green roofs in a
      Mediterranean climate.

PMID- 28876250
TI  - Implementation of the anaerobic digestion model (ADM1) in the PHREEQC chemistry
      engine.
AB  - Anaerobic digestion is state-of-the-art technology to treat sludge and effluents
      from various industries. Modelling and optimisation of digestion operations can
      be advantageously performed using the anaerobic digestion model (ADM1) from the
      International Water Association. The ADM1, however, lacks a proper physico
      chemical framework, which makes it difficult to consider wastewater of complex
      ionic composition and supersaturation phenomena. In this work, we present a
      direct implementation of the ADM1 within the PHREEQC chemistry engine. This makes
      it possible to handle ionic strength effects and ion-pairing. Thus, multiple
      mineral precipitation phenomena can be handled while resolving the ADM1. All
      these features can be accessed with very little programming effort, while
      retaining the full power and flexibility of PHREEQC. The distributed PHREEQC code
      can be easily interfaced with process simulation software for future plant-wide
      simulation of both wastewater and sludge treatment.

PMID- 28876251
TI  - Removal of phosphorus using suspended reactive filters (SRFs) - efficiency and
      potential applications.
AB  - The removal of phosphorus (P) from agricultural runoff is essential to reduce the
      threat of eutrophication in bodies of water. In this study, an alternative method
      of applying P reactive materials (RMs) in the form of suspended reactive filters
      (SRFs) is presented. The SRF method enables P which has already entered a body of
      water to be caught. In this study, an autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) was used
      as the SRFs. The experiment was carried out in a laboratory in a hydraulic block
      of 1 m in width and 2 m in length. Three curtains, consisting of eight suspended
      bags filled with the AAC, were used. The ratio of RM mass to water volume in the
      hydraulic block was 3:1 (g:dm3). The initial concentration of P amounted to 1.335
      mg P-PO4.dm-3. The results demonstrated the successive reduction of P in the
      water over the experiment duration and the number of cycles in which water passed
      through the system of curtains. SRFs filled with AAC decreased the level of P-PO4
      in the solution to 0.190 mg.dm-3. The highest removal efficiency (50% overall P
      reduction) was observed at the beginning of experiment, when the average unit
      sorption amounted to 0.192 mgP-PO4.g-1.

PMID- 28876252
TI  - Utilization of anaerobic granular sludge for chromium (VI) removal from
      wastewater: optimization by response surface methodology.
AB  - In this study, anaerobic granular sludge (AGS) was used as a novel adsorbent for
      hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) removal from aqueous solutions. Factor experiments
      were conducted to find out the effects of different variables on the biosorption
      process. Among these terms, the impact of three main independent variables
      (contact time, initial pH and AGS dosage) on the removal efficiency of Cr (VI)
      was modeled using a well-fitting polynomial equation (R2 = 0.9044), by conducting
      20 batch experiments designed by a central composite. The experimental isotherm
      data were successfully described by the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second
      order kinetic model was more suitable for explaining the kinetics process of
      adsorption. The AGS can be disposed using 0.1 M NaOH with 96.4% desorption
      efficiency. The results of the analyses (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and
      Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy) suggested that Cr (VI) adsorption most
      likely involved electrostatic adsorption, redox reaction and complexation.

PMID- 28876253
TI  - Pulse electro-coagulation application in treating dibutyl phthalate wastewater.
AB  - Pulse electro-coagulation (PEC) was applied to treat plastic factory wastewater
      in this study. One representative plasticizer molecule was chosen for the
      synthetic wastewater: dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Experiments demonstrated that PEC
      exhibits superior economic efficiency and removal efficiency compared to
      traditional electro-coagulation in wastewater treatment. Experimental data also
      indicated that at a given current density, compared with the aluminum electrode,
      the iron electrode could more efficiently remove DBP from wastewater. With an
      initial pH of 8-9, the required energy was 2.5 kWh m-3 for 75% DBP removal in the
      case of iron as the anode type. In general, the pollutants have been successfully
      reduced to environmentally acceptable levels under the following operating
      conditions: iron as the anode type, interelectrode distance of 10 mm, duty cycle
      of 0.6, pH of 8-9 and current density of 15 mA cm-2 for PEC time >15 min.

PMID- 28876254
TI  - Separating grey- and blackwater in urban water cycles - sensible in the view of
      misconnections?
AB  - The infrastructure approach SEMIZENTRAL has been developed for fast growing
      cities, to meet their challenges regarding water supply as well as biowaste and
      wastewater treatment. The world's first full-scale SEMIZENTRAL Resource Recovery
      Center (RRC) has been implemented in Qingdao (PR China). Greywater (GW) and
      blackwater (BW) are collected and treated separately. Measurement of influent
      concentrations differ significantly from the design values. Thus, the operation
      strategy for the RRC had to be adapted. Amongst other reasons, the changed
      influent characteristic was caused by misconnections of GW and BW sewers. Already
      a misconnection rate of 6-8% requires an extension of the GW treatment process
      for nitrification/denitrification to fulfill effluent standards. Hence, measures
      should be taken to avoid or reduce misconnections. Nonetheless, in a semi
      centralized scale (>10,000 inhabitants) a 100% avoidance might not be possible.
      Thus, consequences from misconnections should be considered during the design of
      source-oriented infrastructure systems.

PMID- 28876255
TI  - NaA zeolite derived from blast furnace slag: its application for ammonium
      removal.
AB  - In this paper, high value added NaA zeolite material was prepared from blast
      furnace (BF) slag by hydrothermal method and its adsorption behavior on the
      removal of ammonium ion was investigated. It was found out that the synthetic NaA
      cubic zeolite with smaller crystal size obtained at nSiO2/nAl2O3 = 2 and
      nH2O/nNaOH = 20 showed better adsorption performance. The kinetics of the
      adsorption of ammonium ion by synthesized NaA zeolite was fitted by the pseudo
      second-order kinetic model. The intra-particle diffusion modeling reveals that
      two mixed rate-controlling mechanisms were involved in the adsorption process.
      The relatively high value of activation energy of 92.3 kJ.mol-1 indicates a high
      impact of temperature on the adsorption rate, and the nature of ammonium
      adsorption is chemical reaction rather than physisorption. Based on the
      thermodynamics calculations, the adsorption of ammonium was found to be an
      endothermic, spontaneous process. The adsorption isothermal analysis showed that
      the Langmuir model could be well fitted and a maximum adsorption capacity of 83.3
      mg.g-1 of NH4+ was obtained. Thus, it was demonstrated that by forming low cost
      NaA zeolite and using it for environmental remediation, the synchronous
      minimization of BF slag and ammonia nitrogen contamination could be achieved.

PMID- 28876256
TI  - Towards water sensitive cities in Asia: an interdisciplinary journey.
AB  - Rapid urbanisation, population growth and the effects of climate change drive the
      need for sustainable urban water management (SUWM) in Asian cities. The
      complexity of this challenge calls for the integration of knowledge from
      different disciplines and collaborative approaches. This paper identifies key
      issues and sets the stage for interdisciplinary research on SUWM in Asia. It
      reports on the initial stages of a SUWM research programme being undertaken at
      Monash University, Australia, and proposes a framework to guide the process of
      interdisciplinary research in urban water management. Three key themes are
      identified: (1) Technology and Innovation, (2) Urban Planning and Design, and (3)
      Governance and Society. Within these themes 12 research projects are being
      undertaken across Indonesia, China, India and Bangladesh. This outward-looking,
      interdisciplinary approach guides our research in an effort to transgress single
      discipline solutions and contribute on-ground impact to SUWM practices in Asia.

PMID- 28876257
TI  - Norwegian study on microbial source tracking for water quality control and
      pollution removal in constructed wetland treating catchment run-off.
AB  - This study describes the first Norwegian microbial source tracking (MST) approach
      for water quality control and pollution removal from catchment run-off in a
      nature-based treatment system (NBTS) with a constructed wetland. The applied MST
      tools combined microbial analyses and molecular tests to detect and define the
      source(s) and dominant origin(s) of faecal water contamination. Faecal indicator
      bacteria Escherichia coli and host-specific Bacteroidales 16 s rRNA gene markers
      have been employed. The study revealed that the newly developed contribution
      profiling of faecal origin derived from the Bacteroidales DNA could
      quantitatively distinguish between human and non-human pollution origins.
      Further, the outcomes of the MST test have been compared with the results of both
      physicochemical analyses and tests of pharmaceutical and personal care products
      (PPCPs). A strong positive correlation was discovered between the human marker
      and PPCPs. Gabapentin was the most frequently detected compound and it showed the
      uppermost positive correlation with the human marker. The study demonstrated that
      the NBTS performs satisfactorily with the removal of E. coli but not PPCPs.
      Interestingly, the presence of PPCPs in the water samples was not correlated with
      high concentrations of E. coli. Neither has the latter an apparent correlation
      with the human marker.

PMID- 28876258
TI  - Biosurfactant rhamnolipid enhanced modification of corn stalk and its application
      for sorption of phenanthrene.
AB  - The application of modified agricultural wastes for removing polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water is gaining a growing interest. However, most
      modified methods using synthetic chemicals may cause secondary pollution. To
      overcome this limitation, in this study, a rhamnolipid modified corn stalk (RL
      CS) for the removal of phenanthrene (PHE) from aqueous solution was prepared
      using a rhamnolipid-enhanced acid modification method. RL-CS with higher surface
      area and lower polarity exhibited higher PHE removal efficiency than that of raw
      corn stalk (RCS). The adsorption kinetics of RL-CS fitted well with pseudo-second
      order kinetics (R2 > 0.999). Sorption coefficients and carbon-normalized sorption
      coefficient of RL-CS were 4.68 and 2.86 times higher than that of RCS. Sorption
      process of RL-CS was nonlinear. Meanwhile, the sorption was an exothermic process
      and could occur spontaneously. The present study demonstrated that biosurfactant
      modified biosorbent RL-CS may be of great potential for the removal of low
      concentrations of PAHs from the contaminated waters.

PMID- 28876259
TI  - Powdered grape seeds (PGS) as an alternative biosorbent to remove pharmaceutical
      dyes from aqueous solutions.
AB  - An alternative, low-cost and efficient biosorbent, powdered grape seeds (PGS),
      was prepared from wastes of a wine industry, and used to remove brilliant blue
      (BB) and amaranth red (AR) dyes from aqueous solutions. The biosorbent was
      properly characterized before and after the biosorption operation. The potential
      of PGS to remove BB and AR dyes was investigated thought kinetic, isotherm and
      thermodynamic studies. The biosorption of BB and AR was favored at pH 1.0 using
      biosorbent dosage of 0.500 g L-1, being attained more than 85% of removal
      percentage. For BB and AR dyes, pseudo-second-order and Elovich models were able
      to explain the biosorption kinetic. The biosorption equilibrium of BB on PGS was
      well represented by the Langmuir model, while for AR, the Sips model was the most
      adequate. The maximum biosorption capacities were 599.5 and 94.2 mg g-1 for BB
      and AR, respectively. The biosorption of BB and AR on PGS was a spontaneous,
      favorable and endothermic process. These findings indicated that PGS is a low
      cost and efficient biosorbent, which can be used to treat dye containing waters.

PMID- 28876260
TI  - Effect of SBR feeding strategy and feed composition on the stability of aerobic
      granular sludge in the treatment of a simulated textile wastewater.
AB  - Treatment of the highly polluting and variable textile industry wastewater using
      aerobic granular sludge (AGS) sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) has been recently
      suggested. Aiming to develop this technology application, two feeding strategies
      were compared regarding the capacity of anaerobic-aerobic SBRs to deal with
      disturbances in the composition of the simulated textile wastewater feed. Both a
      statically fed, anaerobic-aerobic SBR and an anaerobic plug-flow fed, anaerobic
      aerobic SBR could cope with shocks of high azo dye concentration and organic
      load, the overall chemical oxygen demand and color removal yields being rapidly
      restored to 80%. Yet, subsequent azo dye metabolite bioconversion was not
      observed, along the 315-day run. Moreover, switching from a starch-based
      substrate to acetate in the feed composition deteriorated AGS stability. Overall,
      the plug-flow fed SBR recovered more rapidly from the imposed disturbances.
      Further research is needed towards guaranteeing long-term AGS stability during
      the treatment of textile wastewater.

PMID- 28876261
TI  - Adapted optimization model for planning regional wastewater systems: case study.
AB  - Wastewater systems are of crucial importance to the promotion of sustainable
      development. Through an integrated planning approach, the costs can be minimized
      and the resulting benefits maximized. A planning approach at regional level
      exploits the economies of scale, while achieving a better environmental
      performance. In this paper we set out a decision support approach for the
      planning of regional wastewater systems. Optimization models are used, aimed at
      finding optimal configurations for the location, type and size of the system's
      infrastructure: sewers, pump stations, and wastewater treatment plants. Solutions
      are evaluated in terms of the cost of installing, operating and maintaining the
      infrastructure, and the water quality in the river that receives the treated
      wastewater. The river water quality varies in accordance with the effluent
      discharges, and is assessed using environmental parameters. The models are solved
      with a simulated annealing algorithm complemented by a local improvement
      procedure. Its application is illustrated through a case study in the Una river
      basin region, in Brazil.

PMID- 28876262
TI  - Enhancing biodegradation and energy generation via roughened surface graphite
      electrode in microbial desalination cell.
AB  - The microbial desalination cell (MDC) is known as a newly developed technology
      for water and wastewater treatment. In this study, desalination rate, organic
      matter removal and energy production in the reactors with and without
      desalination function were compared. Herein, a new design of plain graphite
      called roughened surface graphite (RSG) was used as the anode electrode in both
      microbial fuel cell (MFC) and MDC reactors for the first time. Among the three
      type of anode electrodes investigated in this study, RSG electrode produced the
      highest power density and salt removal rate of 10.81 W/m3 and 77.6%,
      respectively. Such a power density was 2.33 times higher than the MFC reactor due
      to the junction potential effect. In addition, adding the desalination function
      to the MFC reactor enhanced columbic efficiency from 21.8 to 31.4%. These results
      provided a proof-of-concept that the use of MDC instead of MFC would improve
      wastewater treatment efficiency and power generation, with an added benefit of
      water desalination. Furthermore, RSG can successfully be employed in an MDC or
      MFC, enhancing the bio-electricity generation and salt removal.

PMID- 28876263
TI  - Electric treatment for hydrophilic ink deinking.
AB  - Hydrophilic inks have been widely used due to higher printing speed, competitive
      cost and being healthy non-organic solvents. However, they cause problems in both
      product quality and process runnability due to their hydrophilic surface
      wettability, strong negative surface charge and sub-micron size. Electric
      treatment was shown to be able to increase the ink sizes from 60 nm to 700 nm
      through electrocoagulation and electrophoresis. In addition, electric treatment
      assisted flotation could reduce effective residual ink concentration (ERIC) by 90
      ppm, compared with only 20 ppm by traditional flotation. Furthermore, the effect
      of electric treatment alone on ink separation was investigated by two anode
      materials, graphite and stainless steel. Both of them could remove hydrophilic
      inks with less than 1% yield loss via electroflotation and electrophoresis. But
      graphite is a better material as the anode because graphite reduced ERIC by an
      additional 100 ppm. The yield loss of flotation following electric treatment was
      also lower by 17% if graphite was the anode material. The difference between the
      two electrode materials resulted from electrocoagulation and ink redeposition
      during electric treatment. An electric pretreatment-flotation-hyperwashing
      process was conducted to understand the deinking performance in conditions
      similar to a paper mill, and the ERIC was reduced from 950 ppm to less than 400
      ppm.

PMID- 28876264
TI  - Energetic flexibility on wastewater treatment plants.
AB  - In the future, an additional potential of control reserve as well as storage
      capacities will be required to compensate fluctuating renewable energy
      availability. The operation of energy systems will change and flexibility in
      energy generation and consumption will rise to a valuable asset. Wastewater
      treatment plants (WWTPs) are capable of providing the flexibility needed, not
      only with their energy generators but also in terms of their energy consuming
      aggregates on the plant. To meet challenges of the future in regard to energy
      purchase and to participate in and contribute to such a volatile energy market,
      WWTPs have to reveal their energetic potential as a flexible service provider.
      Based on the evaluated literature and a detailed analysis of aggregates on a
      pilot WWTP an aggregate management has been developed to shift loads and provide
      a procedure to identify usable aggregates, characteristic values and control
      parameters to ensure effluent quality. The results show that WWTPs have a
      significant potential to provide energetic flexibility. Even for vulnerable
      components such as aeration systems, load-shifting is possible with appropriate
      control parameters and reasonable time slots without endangering system
      functionality.

PMID- 28876265
TI  - Biomass granulation in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor treating 500
      m3/day low-strength sewage and post treatment in high-rate algal pond.
AB  - A pilot-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket-moving bed biofilm (UASB-MBB)
      reactor followed by a high-rate algal pond (HRAP) was designed and operated to
      remove organic matter, nutrients and pathogens from sewage and to facilitate
      reuse. For an influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 233 +/- 20
      mg/L, final effluent COD was 50 +/- 6 mg/L. Successful biomass granulation was
      observed in the sludge bed of the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor
      after 5 months of operation. Ammonia removal in HRAP was 85.1 +/- 2.4% with
      average influent and effluent ammonia nitrogen concentrations of 20 +/- 3 mg/L
      and 3 +/- 1 mg/L, respectively. Phosphate removal after treatment in the HRAP was
      91 +/- 1%. There was a 2-3 log scale pathogen removal after treatment in HRAP
      with most probable number (MPN) of the final effluent being 600-800 per 100 mL,
      which is within acceptable standards for surface irrigation. The blackwater after
      treatment in UASB-MBBR-HRAP is being reused for gardening and landscaping. This
      proper hydro-dynamically designed UASB reactor demonstrated successful
      granulation and moving bed media improved sludge retention in UASB reactor. This
      combination of UASB-MBB reactor followed by HRAP demonstrated successful sewage
      treatment for a year covering all seasons.

PMID- 28876266
TI  - Mechanism and kinetics of dye desorption from dye-loaded carbon (XC-72) with
      alcohol-water system as desorbent.
AB  - In this paper, alcohol (methanol, ethanol, n-propanol)-water system was used as
      solution for the desorption of Acid Orange 7 (AO7), Ponceau 2R and Rhodamine B
      (RhB) from dye-loaded carbon (XC-72). Excellent degradation efficiency was
      obtained (desorption efficiency reaches 77.35%, 85.60%, 96.86% for Ponceau 2R,
      AO7 and Rhodamine B, respectively) and it was significantly influenced by alcohol
      content and the length of carbon chain in alcohol (hydrophobicity). In addition,
      desorption kinetics was fitted by a second-order desorption model, and the
      desorbed quantity at equilibrium (qe) and rate constant (kd) were calculated,
      respectively.

PMID- 28876267
TI  - A prototype of novel agro-waste based column bed device for removal of textile
      dye Optilan Red.
AB  - The aim of the study was to assess the potentiality of an agro-waste (sugarcane
      bagasse) for removal of the textile dye (Optilan Red) using novel column based
      filtration unit with a packed column of chemically treated sugarcane bagasse. The
      treated and untreated sugarcane bagasse (biosorbent) were characterized by
      Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Effect of initial dye
      concentration on percentage removal of dye, equilibrium adsorption of sugarcane
      bagasse, kinetic studies, breakthrough point equilibrium and desorption of dye
      from the column material were studied. An inverse dependence of initial dye
      concentration on percent removal of dye was observed, whereas the equilibrium
      adsorption (qe) showed a direct relationship with dye concentration. The time
      required for reaching breakthrough point was 120 min. Desorption of dye through
      alkali wash resulted in complete desorption after 1 h washing of the column for
      its reuse for next cycle. FT-IR analysis shows vibration in valence bands of the
      hydrogen bond of OH group, and the bands of intra-molecular and intermolecular
      hydrogen bonds, which results in interaction of treated bagasse with Optilan Red
      textile dye. The present study showed that more than 93% removal of the dye can
      be achieved in the concentration range 10-50 ppm (aqueous solution). The removal
      efficiency of the column remained almost unchanged for the treatment of dye-house
      wastewater spiked with the dye. The agro-waste based treatment process shows a
      considerable potential for a low-cost treatment of dye contaminated water.

PMID- 28876268
TI  - Single and combined removal of Cr(VI) and Cd(II) by nanoscale zero-valent iron in
      the absence and presence of EDDS.
AB  - This study examined the feasibility of nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) for the
      single and combined removal of Cr(VI) and Cd(II) with or without ethylene diamine
      disuccinic acid (EDDS). The effects of pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) on the
      removal process were investigated. Results show that the single removal of either
      Cr(VI) or Cd(II) by nZVI was pH dependent, where the higher Cr(VI) removal was
      achieved under acidic conditions, whereas the higher Cd(II) removal was achieved
      under alkaline conditions. The presence of DO enhanced Cd(II) removal but
      inhibited Cr(VI) removal under alkaline conditions. In the co-existence of Cr(VI)
      and Cd(II), it was found that Cd(II) exerted insignificant effect on Cr(VI)
      removal, while the presence of Cr(VI) remarkably enhanced the Cd(II) removal. The
      addition of EDDS exhibited different influences on Cr(VI) and Cd(II) removal,
      which were associated with pH and DO. The EDDS enhanced Cr(VI) removal at pH 5.6
      9.0 in the absence of DO, but decreased Cr(VI) removal at pH 9.0 in the presence
      of DO. For the removal of Cd(II) at pH 5.6-7.0, either facilitation or inhibition
      effect of EDDS was observed, depending on EDDS concentration and the co-existence
      of Cr(VI). However, Cd(II) removal was always significantly inhibited by EDDS at
      pH 9.0.

PMID- 28876269
TI  - Info-Gap robustness pathway method for transitioning of urban drainage systems
      under deep uncertainties.
AB  - In the urban water cycle, there are different ways of handling stormwater runoff.
      Traditional systems mainly rely on underground piped, sometimes named 'gray'
      infrastructure. New and so-called 'green/blue' ambitions aim for treating and
      conveying the runoff at the surface. Such concepts are mainly based on ground
      infiltration and temporal storage. In this work a methodology to create and
      compare different planning alternatives for stormwater handling on their pathways
      to a desired system state is presented. Investigations are made to assess the
      system performance and robustness when facing the deeply uncertain spatial and
      temporal developments in the future urban fabric, including impacts caused by
      climate change, urbanization and other disruptive events, like shifts in the
      network layout and interactions of 'gray' and 'green/blue' structures. With the
      Info-Gap robustness pathway method, three planning alternatives are evaluated to
      identify critical performance levels at different stages over time. This novel
      methodology is applied to a real case study problem where a city relocation
      process takes place during the upcoming decades. In this case study it is shown
      that hybrid systems including green infrastructures are more robust with respect
      to future uncertainties, compared to traditional network design.

PMID- 28876270
TI  - Corrigendum: Water Science and Technology 75 (11), 2527-2537: Modelling and
      optimization of land use/land cover change in a developing catchment, Ping Xu et
      al., doi: 10.2166/wst.2017.121.

PMID- 28876271
TI  - Treatment of Unstable Distal Clavicle Fractures With Multiple Steinmann Pins-A
      Modification of Neer's Method: A Series of 56 Consecutive Cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To introduce an alternative fixation technique for Neer type II
      fractures using Steinmann pins (S-pins). DESIGN: Retrospective case series study.
      SETTING: Operating room followed by clinic in tertiary hospital.
      PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Between 2001 and 2013, among 66 consecutive patients
      diagnosed with Neer type II distal clavicle fractures, 11 patients were excluded
      and 56 clavicles of 55 patients who underwent surgical treatment with multiple
      transacromial S-pins were selected for analysis. INTERVENTION: Multiple
      transacromial S-pin (2.0-mm diameter) fixation was performed. Interfragmentary
      fixation was performed with 2.7-mm screws in case of oblique fractures. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Radiographic results, complications, and clinical outcomes
      including the Constant-Murley score, the University of California at Los Angeles
      Shoulder score, and the disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand score were
      evaluated. RESULTS: Radiologic union was achieved in all patients.
      Coracoclavicular distance was increased by 6.4% compared with that of the
      uninjured side (P < 0.001). Fourteen patients had lateral migrations of 1 pin
      (mean migration distance, 11.6 mm). The mean Constant-Murley score was 94.3
      (range, 85-100), mean University of California at Los Angeles score was 33.1
      (range, 29-35), and mean disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand score was
      2.7 (range, 0-8.3). The average follow-up period was 30.5 months (range, 24-81
      months). CONCLUSIONS: Good functional and radiologic results were achieved by the
      insertion of multiple transacromial S-pins with interfragmentary screw fixation.
      With its wide indication and relatively simple procedure, this technique may be a
      possible surgical option for the treatment of Neer type II distal clavicle
      fractures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors
      for a complete description of levels of evidence.

PMID- 28876272
TI  - Intramedullary Nail Fixation of Atypical Femur Fractures With Bone Marrow
      Aspirate Concentrate Leads to Faster Union: A Case-Control Study: Erratum.

PMID- 28876273
TI  - Assessment of Severe Extremity Wound Bioburden at the Time of Definitive Wound
      Closure or Coverage (BIOBURDEN Study): Erratum.

PMID- 28876275
TI  - Outcomes After Severe Distal Tibia, Ankle, and/or Foot Trauma: Comparisons of
      Limb Salvage versus Transtibial Amputation (OUTLET): Erratum.

PMID- 28876274
TI  - A Prospective Randomized Trial to Assess Fixation Strategies for Severe Open
      Tibia Fractures: Modern Ring External Fixators versus Internal Fixation (FIXIT
      Study): Erratum.
AB  - In the article that appeared on page S10, several investigators were not included
      in the METRC group authorship acknowledgement. The correct acknowledgement should
      include: University of Wisconsin: Christopher Doro, MD; Paul Whiting, MD; David
      Goodspeed, MD; Gerald Lang, MD. Jose Santayo is incorrectly listed under
      University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The correct affiliation is
      University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

PMID- 28876276
TI  - Supplemental Perioperative Oxygen To Reduce Surgical Site Infection After High
      Energy Fracture Surgery (OXYGEN Study): Erratum.

PMID- 28876277
TI  - Improving Pain Management and Long-Term Outcomes Following High-Energy
      Orthopaedic Trauma (PAIN Study): Erratum.

PMID- 28876279
TI  - Local Antibiotic Therapy to Reduce Infection After Operative Treatment of
      Fractures at High Risk of Infection: A Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial
      (VANCO study): Erratum.

PMID- 28876278
TI  - A Prospective Randomized Trial to Assess Oral Versus Intravenous Antibiotics for
      the Treatment of Postoperative Wound Infection After Extremity Fractures (POvIV
      Study): Erratum.

PMID- 28876280
TI  - The Trauma Collaborative Care Study (TCCS): Erratum.

PMID- 28876281
TI  - Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Chlamydia, and Gonorrhea Testing in New York
      Medicaid-Enrolled Adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although growing public health efforts have been expended on
      increasing adolescents' access to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually
      transmitted infection (STI) testing, little is known about the current
      utilization of those services in clinical settings. METHODS: Using 2010 to 2012
      New York State Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicaid Analytic
      eXtract data, we estimated the annual percentage of 13- to 19-year-olds who were
      tested for HIV, chlamydia (CT), and gonorrhea (GC). A regression analysis was
      performed to identify factors independently associated with testing utilization.
      We further examined testing utilization in all adolescent females with 1 or more
      health care encounter, pregnant females, and adolescents at increased risk for
      HIV/STI. RESULTS: From 2010 to 2012, HIV, CT, and GC testing rates increased in
      the overall study population and in most demographic subgroups. Female
      adolescents, black and Hispanic adolescents, at-risk adolescents, and adolescents
      with 6 months or longer of enrollment were significantly more likely to be
      tested. Among adolescent females with 1 or more health care encounter, 19.2% were
      tested for CT and 16.9% tested for GC in 2012. Among pregnant females, 35.2%,
      53.9%, and 46.1% were tested for HIV, CT, and GC, respectively. Among at-risk
      adolescents, 39.9%, 63.7%, and 54.4% were tested for HIV, CT, and GC,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although progress had been made by New York State
      providers to adhere to recommended testing for adolescents, there was a clear gap
      between the recommended level of testing and the actual level of utilization
      among sexually active females, pregnant females, and at-risk adolescents.
      Opportunities exist for community provider and public health collaboration to
      increase adolescent HIV and STI testing.

PMID- 28876282
TI  - Outcomes of Preexposure Prophylaxis Referrals From Public STI Clinics and
      Implications for the Preexposure Prophylaxis Continuum.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake
      remains low in high-risk populations. Sexually transmitted infection (STI)
      clinics reach PrEP-eligible persons and may be ideal settings to model PrEP
      implementation. METHODS: Consenting PrEP-eligible patients identified at Chicago
      Department of Public Health STI Clinics were actively referred to PrEP partner
      sites between June 1, 2015, and May 31, 2016. Outcomes included successful
      contact by a partner site, linkage to a partner site, and receipt of a PrEP
      prescription. Bivariable and time to event analyses were conducted to determine
      significant associations of outcomes. RESULTS: One hundred thirty-seven patients
      were referred; 126 (92%) were men who have sex with men, and mean age was 29
      years. Ninety-eight (72%) were contacted by a PrEP partner, 43 (31%) were linked,
      and 40 (29%) received a prescription. Individuals aged 25 years and older were
      more likely to link (odds ratio, 3.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.30-7.41) and
      receive a PrEP prescription (odds ratio, 2.70; 95% confidence interval, 1.12
      6.45) compared with individuals 24 years and younger. The average time between
      each step was greater for those 24 years and younger compared with those aged 25
      years and older for all steps. Time to event analyses revealed that those aged 25
      years and older were significantly more likely to receive a prescription compared
      to those aged 24 years and younger (hazard ratio, 3.62; 95% risk limits, 1.47
      8.92). CONCLUSIONS: Preexposure prophylaxis active referrals from STI clinics to
      partner sites are feasible, though drop out was prominent in the initial steps of
      the continuum. Youth were less likely to link or receive prescriptions,
      indicating the need for tailored interventions for this vulnerable population.

PMID- 28876283
TI  - Correlates of Self-Reported Viral Suppression Among HIV-Positive, Young, Black
      Men Who Have Sex With Men Participating in a Randomized Controlled Trial of An
      Internet-Based HIV Prevention Intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Young, black men who have sex with men are disproportionately
      impacted by the US HIV epidemic, and HIV-positive, young, black men who have sex
      with men face stark disparities in HIV clinical outcomes. METHODS: We performed
      an observational analysis of the 199 HIV-positive black men aged 18 to 30 years
      followed up for 12 months in healthMpowerment, a randomized controlled trial of
      an Internet-based HIV prevention intervention, to identify time-varying
      correlates of self-reported viral suppression using relative risk (RR)
      regression. RESULTS: Retention at the 12-month visit was 84%. One hundred five
      (65%) of 162 participants reported being undetectable at baseline. At 3, 6, and
      12 months, 83 (72%) of 115, 84 (82%) of 103, and 101 (86%) of 117 reported an
      undetectable viral load, respectively. In a multivariable model, participants who
      reported homelessness (RR, 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72-0.99), who
      had clinically significant depressive symptoms (RR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.79-0.98), and
      who used methamphetamine or crack (RR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.38-0.96) were less likely
      to report an undetectable viral load. Young men who engaged in condomless
      insertive anal intercourse were more likely to report viral suppression (RR,
      1.14; 95% CI, 1.04-1.24). CONCLUSION: HIV care for young, black men who have sex
      with men must be multidimensional to address medical needs in the context of
      mental health, substance use, and housing insecurity.

PMID- 28876284
TI  - In Vitro Synergy Testing of Gentamicin, an Old Drug Suggested as Future Treatment
      Option for Gonorrhoea, in Combination With Six Other Antimicrobials Against
      Multidrug-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae Strains.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant
      (XDR) Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a serious concern and combination therapy has been
      recommended to delay the onset of treatment failures. Gentamicin, an old and
      inexpensive antibiotic, is recommended in combination with azithromycin for
      treatment failures cases with the first-line regimen as per the latest Centers
      for Disease Control and Prevention sexually transmitted disease treatment
      guidelines. However, not much literature is available on in vitro and in vivo
      efficacy of this combination. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate
      the in vitro synergy of gentamicin in combination with azithromycin and 5 other
      antimicrobials. METHODS: In vitro synergy of gentamicin in combination with
      cefixime, ceftriaxone, spectinomycin, azithromycin, moxifloxacin, and ertapenem
      was determined by Etest for 75 N. gonorrhoeae strains, of which 65 were MDR and
      one was XDR. Fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) of <=0.5 and >4.0
      denoted synergy and antagonism respectively. RESULTS: Maximum efficacy of
      gentamicin was observed in combination with ertapenem (geometric mean FICI, 0.56)
      followed by cefixime (FICI, 0.87). There was no antagonism for both these
      combinations. However, antagonism was demonstrated in 5.3%, 8%, 8%, and 10.7%
      strains when gentamicin was paired with spectinomycin (FICI, 1.34), ceftriaxone
      (FICI, 1.13), azithromycin (FICI, 1.49), and moxifloxacin (FICI, 1.30),
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that gentamicin significantly
      enhances the in vitro therapeutic potency of ertapenem and cefixime which will be
      potentially effective to control the spread of MDR and XDR N. gonorrhoeae. The
      study warrants more in vitro studies and clinical trials for gentamicin +
      azithromycin and other 3 combinations because of considerable antagonism.

PMID- 28876285
TI  - A Web Application to Facilitate Syphilis Reactor Grid Evaluations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many health departments use a "reactor grid" to determine which
      laboratory-reported syphilis serologic test results require investigation. We
      developed a Web-based tool, the Syphilis Reactor Grid Evaluator (SRGE), to
      facilitate health department reactor grid evaluations and test the tool using
      data from Seattle & King County, Washington. METHODS: We developed SRGE using the
      R Shiny Web application framework. When populated with a data set including titer
      results and final disposition codes, SRGE displays the percent of verified early
      syphilis cases by serologic titer result and patient age in each cell of the
      grid. The results can be optionally stratified by sex, test type, and previous
      rapid plasma reagin titer. The impact of closing laboratory results without
      investigation in cells selected by the user is dynamically computed. The SRGE
      calculates the percent of all laboratory reports closed ("efficiency gained"),
      the proportion of all early syphilis cases closed without investigation ("case
      finding loss"), and the ratio of percent of cases identified for investigation to
      percent of all laboratory reports investigated ("efficiency ratio"). After
      defining algorithms, users can compare them side-by-side, combine subgroup
      specific algorithms, and export results. We used SRGE to compare the current
      Public Health-Seattle & King County (PHSKC) reactor grid to 5 alternate
      algorithms. RESULTS: Of 13,504 rapid plasma reagin results reported to PHSKC from
      January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2015, 1565 were linked to verified early
      syphilis cases. Updating PHSKC's current reactor grid could result in an
      efficiency gain of 4.8% to 25.2% (653-3403 laboratory reports) and case finding
      loss of 1% to 8.4% (10-99 fewer cases investigated). CONCLUSIONS: The Syphilis
      Reactor Grid Evaluator can be used to rapidly evaluate alternative approaches to
      optimizing the reactor grid. Changing the reactor grid in King County to close
      more laboratory results without investigation could improve efficiency with
      minimal impact on syphilis case finding.

PMID- 28876286
TI  - Investigation of Early Syphilis Trends Among Men Who Have Sex With Men to
      Identify Gaps in Screening and Case-Finding in Baltimore City, Maryland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Syphilis incidence is increasing across the United States among men
      who have sex with men (MSM). Early latent (EL) versus primary and secondary (P&S)
      syphilis may be an indicator of delayed diagnosis and increased opportunity for
      transmission. To inform syphilis control strategies and identify potential gaps
      in case finding, we described recent syphilis trends among MSM and compared
      characteristics of syphilis cases by diagnosis stage. METHODS: We used public
      health surveillance data on P&S and EL syphilis diagnoses reported to the
      Baltimore City Health Department between 2009 and 2015. Differences across
      diagnosis stage were assessed using Cochran-Armitage and chi tests. RESULTS:
      Between 2009 and 2015, Baltimore City Health Department received 2436 reports of
      P&S and EL diagnoses. The majority (61%) of reports were among MSM, among whom
      86% were black and 67% were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected. During
      this period, P&S and EL syphilis increased by 85% and 245%, respectively (P <
      0.0001). MSM with EL versus P&S syphilis were similarly likely to be Black, more
      likely to be older (P < 0.05), HIV coinfected (P < 0.001), and diagnosed in
      private health care settings (P < 0.0001), but less likely to report multiple (P
      < 0.001) and anonymous sex partners (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In Baltimore City,
      syphilis diagnoses, particularly EL diagnoses, are increasing rapidly and are
      concentrated among Black HIV-infected MSM. Significant gaps in identifying MSM
      with P&S syphilis may exist, specifically among HIV-infected MSM, and those
      diagnosed in private health care settings. Strategies to address these gaps may
      include local guidelines and provider education to screen MSM more frequently
      than CDC currently recommends and regardless of HIV status or risk.

PMID- 28876287
TI  - Does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey
      Underreport Risky Sexual Behavior?

PMID- 28876288
TI  - Heterogeneity of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Seroprevalence From a National
      Probability Survey In Mexico, 2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) seroprevalence and associated
      infection risk factors show differences by regions and countries. The aims of the
      study were to determine the HSV-2 seroprevalence and to evaluate the risk factors
      for HSV-2 in a national representative survey among adolescents and adults in
      Mexico. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Mexico on the basis
      of the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012, a national representative
      survey. Demographic, sexual behavior, reproductive health, and lifestyles
      indicators were considered in the current study. Participants provided biological
      samples-dried blood spots-to test for HSV-2 antibodies using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay and Western blot. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were
      performed to identify variables associated with HSV-2 infections analyzed by sex.
      RESULTS: National HSV-2 seroprevalence was 9.9%, 2.4% among adolescents and 11.7%
      among adults with HSV-2 seroprevalence heterogeneous across the country. Women
      had 12.2% of antibodies against HSV-2 and men had 7.5%. The factors associated
      with HSV-2 infection among women were age (45-49 years; odds ratio [OR], 19.8),
      region (southwest; OR, 3.0), urbanization (urban; OR, 1.9), age at sexual debut
      (<=14 years; OR, 3.4), education level (any; OR, 3.0), and previous abortion (>=2
      abortion; OR, 2.1). Among men, age (45-49 years; OR, 11.7), region (southwest;
      OR, 3.0), urbanization (urban, odds ratio [OR], 1.7), and HIV care (OR, 7.1) were
      associated with the infection. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 10% of Mexicans aged 15
      to 49 years had HSV-2 antibodies, with differences by sex, region, education
      level, urbanization, HIV care, and childbirth, highlighting the relevance of
      health inequalities in the country: social inequalities seem to matter in terms
      of the probability of HSV-2 infections.

PMID- 28876289
TI  - Neisseria gonorrhoeae Transmission Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: An Anatomical
      Site-Specific Mathematical Model Evaluating the Potential Preventive Impact of
      Mouthwash.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gonorrhoea notifications are rapidly rising in men who have sex with
      men (MSM). We developed a model to assess mouthwash as a novel intervention for
      gonorrhoea control. METHODS: We developed a model of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG)
      transmission to explain anatomic site-specific prevalence of gonorrhoea among
      MSM. The model was calibrated to available epidemiological and behavioral data.
      We estimated the contribution of various sexual acts to gonorrhoea incidence and
      evaluate the potential impacts of screening scale-up and utilization of mouthwash
      on the gonorrhoea epidemic. RESULTS: We calibrated the model to prevalence of
      oropharyngeal, anal, and urethral gonorrhoea of 8.6% (7.7-9.5%), 8.3% (7.4-9.1%),
      and 0.20% (0.04-0.35%), respectively, among MSM. Oropharynx to oropharynx
      transmission through kissing is estimated to account for nearly three quarters of
      all incident cases (71.6% [64.4-80.5%]) of gonorrhoea in MSM. Substantially
      increasing annual oropharynx screening for gonorrhoea from the current 40% to
      100% may only halve the prevalence of gonorrhoea in MSM. In contrast, the use of
      mouthwash with moderate efficacy (additional 1% clearance per daily use) would
      further reduce the corresponding prevalence rates to 3.1% (2.2-4.4%), 3.8% (2.3
      4.9%), and 0.10% (0.06-0.11%), and a high-efficacy mouthwash (additional 1.5%
      clearance per daily use) may further halve the gonorrhoea prevalence. Without
      oropharynx to oropharynx transmission, we could not replicate current prevalence
      data. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a dearth of empirical data, our model suggests that
      kissing could potentially play an important role in NG transmission among MSM.
      Control through sexually transmitted infection screening alone is unlikely to
      have a substantial impact on the gonorrhoea epidemic in MSM.

PMID- 28876290
TI  - Performance of Commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunoassays for Diagnosis of Herpes
      Simplex Virus-1 and Herpes Simplex Virus-2 Infection in a Clinical Setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: US Food and Drug Administration-approved enzyme-linked immunoassays
      (EIA) for determining type-specific herpes simplex virus (HSV) serostatus are
      widely used in clinical practice. We compared the performance of such assays with
      the University of Washington Western blot (UW WB) in patients who sought
      confirmation of their HSV serology result. METHODS: We reviewed charts of all
      persons evaluated at the Westover Heights Clinic in Portland, Oregon, from July
      2010 through September 2015, who had a HSV EIA, followed by UW WB. RESULTS: Of
      864 persons, 47% were women. The median age was 36 years (range, 18-73 years).
      Using UW WB to define infection status, 286 (33%) persons were HSV-1 seropositive
      only, 104 (12%) were HSV-2 seropositive only, 134 (16%) were both HSV-1 and HSV-2
      seropositive, 235 (27%) were HSV seronegative, and 105 (12%) had indeterminate
      results. Compared with the UW WB as the criterion standard, EIA was 70.2%
      sensitive and 91.6% specific for HSV-1, and 91.9% sensitive and 57.4% specific
      for HSV-2.Among 278 persons who were HSV-1 seropositive by EIA, 255 were
      confirmed by the UW WB (positive predictive value [PPV], 91.7%). Of the 360
      persons that were HSV-1 seronegative by the EIA, 252 were seronegative by UW WB
      (negative predictive value [NPV], 70.0%). Among 381 persons with HSV-2 EIA
      seropositivity, 193 tested HSV-2 seropositive by the UW WB (PPV, 50.7%). Of the
      270 persons HSV-2 seronegative by EIA, 17 were seropositive with the UW WB (NPV,
      93.7%). Among 261 persons with an EIA HSV-2 index value = 1.1-2.9, 39.8% of
      results were confirmed by UW WB, compared with 78.6% of the 70 persons with an
      EIA index value of 3 or greater (P < 0.001). The risk of false-positive HSV-2 EIA
      results was higher in those with HSV-1 antibody (47.1% vs 37.1%, P = 0.036).
      CONCLUSIONS: US Food and Drug Administration-approved EIAs have poor PPV for HSV
      2 and poor NPV for HSV-1 in clinical practice. More accurate rapid type-specific
      HSV antibody tests are needed.

PMID- 28876291
TI  - Prevalence of Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Testing by Anatomical Site Among Men Who
      Have Sex With Men in HIV Medical Care, United States, 2013-2014.
AB  - Fewer than one-third of men who have sex with men were tested for Neisseria
      gonorrhoeae or Chlamydia trachomatis as part of HIV medical care in the United
      States in 2013 to 2014, and only 11.6% were tested for either sexually
      transmitted disease at an extragenital site.

PMID- 28876292
TI  - Cerebral Syphilitic Gumma Can Arise Within Months of Reinfection: A Case of
      Histologically Proven Treponema pallidum Strain Type 14b/f Infection With Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus Positivity.
AB  - A 44-year-old man with human immunodeficiency virus positivity developed cerebral
      gumma 6 months after appropriate therapy for secondary syphilis. It was
      surgically resected and histologically, Treponema pallidum (14b/f, a relatively
      rare strain type) was proven. A complete set of modern techniques was performed
      to depict rare complication of this classic disease.

PMID- 28876293
TI  - The Spatial Association Between Federally Qualified Health Centers and County
      Level Reported Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Spatial Regression Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The number of categorical sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics
      is declining in the United States. Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)
      have the potential to supplement the needed sexually transmitted infection (STI)
      services. In this study, we describe the spatial distribution of FQHC sites and
      determine if reported county-level nonviral STI morbidity were associated with
      having FQHC(s) using spatial regression techniques. METHODS: We extracted map
      data from the Health Resources and Services Administration data warehouse on
      FQHCs (ie, geocoded health care service delivery [HCSD] sites) and extracted
      county-level data on the reported rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and, primary and
      secondary (P&S) syphilis (2008-2012) from surveillance data. A 3-equation
      seemingly unrelated regression estimation procedure (with a spatial regression
      specification that controlled for county-level multiyear (2008-2012) demographic
      and socioeconomic factors) was used to determine the association between reported
      county-level STI morbidity and HCSD sites. RESULTS: Counties with HCSD sites had
      higher STI, poverty, unemployment, and violent crime rates than counties with no
      HCSD sites (P < 0.05). The number of HCSD sites was associated (P < 0.01) with
      increases in the temporally smoothed rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and P&S
      syphilis, but there was no significant association between the number of HCSD per
      100,000 population and reported STI rates. CONCLUSIONS: There is a positive
      association between STI morbidity and the number of HCSD sites; however, this
      association does not exist when adjusting by population size. Further work may
      determine the extent to which HCSD sites can meet unmet needs for safety net STI
      services.

PMID- 28876294
TI  - Reported Cases of Neurosyphilis Among Early Syphilis Cases-United States, 2009 to
      2015.
AB  - The surveillance of neurosyphilis, an uncommon but severe consequence of
      syphilis, is complex; surveillance classification of neurosyphilis requires a
      lumbar puncture and cerebrospinal fluid analysis. We examined the prevalence of
      reported neurosyphilis among primary, secondary, and early latent syphilis cases
      reported in the United States from 2009 to 2015. Overall, the prevalence of
      reported neurosyphilis from 2009 to 2015 was low (0.84%); however, this is likely
      an underestimate of the true burden in the United States.

PMID- 28876295
TI  - Y Chromosome DNA in Women's Vaginal Samples as a Biomarker of Recent Vaginal Sex
      and Condom Use With Male Partners in the HPV Infection and Transmission Among
      Couples Through Heterosexual Activity Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Y chromosome DNA from male epithelial and sperm cells was detected in
      vaginal samples after unprotected sex in experimental studies. We assessed the
      strength of this association in an observational setting to examine the utility
      of Y chromosome DNA as a biomarker of recent sexual behaviors in epidemiological
      studies. METHODS: The HPV (human papillomavirus) Infection and Transmission Among
      Couples Through Heterosexual Activity cohort study enrolled 502 women attending a
      university or college in Montreal, Canada, and their male partners from 2005 to
      2010. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires. We used real-time
      polymerase chain reaction to test women's baseline vaginal samples for Y
      chromosome DNA and assessed which sexual behaviors were independent predictors of
      Y chromosome DNA positivity and quantity with logistic and negative binomial
      regression. RESULTS: Y chromosome DNA positivity decreased from 77% in women in
      partnerships reporting vaginal sex 0 to 1 day ago to 13% in women in partnerships
      reporting last vaginal sex of 15 or more days ago (adjusted odds ratio, 0.09; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.02-0.36). The mean proportion of exfoliated vaginal sample
      cells with Y chromosome DNA was much lower for women who reported always using
      condoms (0.01%) than for women who reported never using condoms (2.07%) (adjusted
      ratio, 26.8; 95% confidence interval, 8.9-80.5). No association was found with
      reported oral/digital sex frequency or concurrency of partnerships. CONCLUSIONS:
      Y chromosome DNA quantity is strongly associated with days since last vaginal sex
      and lack of condom use in observational settings. Y chromosome DNA quantity may
      prove useful as a correlate of recent vaginal sex in observational studies
      lacking data on sexual behavior, such as surveillance studies of human
      papillomavirus infection prevalence.

PMID- 28876296
TI  - Neighborhood Health Care Access and Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Women
      in the Southern United States: A Cross-Sectional Multilevel Analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The United States has experienced an increase in reportable
      sexually transmitted infections (STIs) while simultaneously experiencing a
      decline in safety net services for STI testing and treatment. This multilevel
      study assessed relationships between neighborhood-level access to health care and
      STIs among a predominantly Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-seropositive cohort
      of women living in the south. METHODS: This cross-sectional multilevel analysis
      included baseline data from HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative women enrolled
      in the Women's Interagency HIV Study sites in Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
      Mississippi, and North Carolina between 2013 and 2015 (N = 666). Administrative
      data (eg, United States Census) described health care access (eg, percentage of
      residents with a primary care provider, percentage of residents with health
      insurance) in the census tracts where women lived. Sexually transmitted
      infections (chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, or early syphilis) were
      diagnosed using laboratory testing. Generalized estimating equations were used to
      determine relationships between tract-level characteristics and STIs. Analyses
      were conducted using SAS 9.4. RESULTS: Seventy percent of participants were HIV
      seropositive. Eleven percent of participants had an STI. A 4-unit increase in the
      percentage of residents with a primary care provider was associated with 39%
      lower STI risk (risk ratio, 0.61, 95% confidence interval, 0.38-0.99). The
      percentage of tract residents with health insurance was not associated with STIs
      (risk ratio, 0.98, 95% confidence interval, 0.91-1.05). Relationships did not
      vary by HIV status. CONCLUSIONS: Greater neighborhood health care access was
      associated with fewer STIs. Research should establish the causality of this
      relationship and pathways through which neighborhood health care access
      influences STIs. Structural interventions and programs increasing linkage to care
      may reduce STIs.

PMID- 28876297
TI  - What's in a Name? Perceptions of the Terms Sexually Transmitted Disease and
      Sexually Transmitted Infection Among Late Adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There has been a shift from using the term sexually transmitted
      disease (STD) to sexually transmitted infection (STI), primarily based on
      conjecture that STI is less stigmatizing. However, there is a dearth of evidence
      regarding how the public actually perceives these terms. METHODS: Students at a
      Midwestern university participated in an online survey and were randomized to the
      open-ended question "What comes to mind when you think of the term sexually
      transmitted disease (STD)?" (n = 205) or "What comes to mind when you think of
      the term sexually transmitted infection (STI)?" (n = 208). Conventional content
      analysis was conducted to identify response themes. Cross tabulations with the
      chi statistic determined the number of participants that endorsed each theme and
      any differences between the STD and STI responses. RESULTS: Almost all themes
      occurred in similar numbers across the STD and STI responses. Overarching themes
      for both terms were contracted through sex; specific STDs/STIs; severe; negative
      emotional affect; types of people who get STDs/STIs; physical symptoms;
      preventable; common; and treatable/curable. However, participants were more
      likely to mention that STDs were common (P = 0.030) and reported less negative
      emotional affect for STIs (P = 0.024). Two themes emerged only in the STI group:
      STDs (P = 0.001) and site of infection (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: With some
      exceptions, late adolescents have overlapping conceptualizations of the terms STD
      and STI. The most commonly reported themes revealed likely areas of
      misinformation. Although language is an important aspect of health communication,
      more than a terminology change is needed to reduce the stigma associated with
      STDs/STIs.

PMID- 28876299
TI  - Utilization of Sexually Transmitted Infection Services at 2 Health Facilities
      Targeting Men Who Have Sex With Men in South Africa: A Retrospective Analysis of
      Operational Data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Men who have sex with men (MSM) are a key population, particularly
      vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, but there are
      limited data on health programs targeting MSM in Africa. This study aims to
      describe the utilization of nongovernmental organization-supported sexual health
      services for MSM at 2 public sector health facilities in Johannesburg, South
      Africa. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed routine data over the period of
      January 2014 to June 2016. We report on service utilization for STI syndromes,
      HIV testing, and the antiretroviral therapy (ART) program. RESULTS: Some 5796 men
      visited the facilities. Seven thousand one hundred eighty-eight STI episodes were
      managed, 68.2% (4903 episodes) of which were classified as male urethritis and
      9.8% (704 episodes) as genital ulcers. Positivity yield for first-time HIV tests
      was 38.0% (205 positive test results) in MSM, compared with 14.1% (471 positive
      test results) in other men. At the end of the study, there were 1090 clients on
      ART, and 2-year retention was 82% (95% confidence interval, 78%-85%). There was
      no difference in retention between MSM and other men (P = 0.49). CONCLUSIONS:
      This study is the first to show that sexual health services targeting MSM in
      Africa have managed to attract MSM and other men in need of STI and HIV care. The
      observed high HIV testing yield among MSM illustrates the relevance of MSM
      focused services in the South African public health sector, and the good
      retention on ART demonstrates that high-quality care can be provided to MSM in
      our setting.

PMID- 28876300
TI  - What Is the Role of Paired Rapid Plasma Reagin Testing (Simultaneous Testing of
      Acute and Convalescent Samples) in the Diagnosis of Repeat Syphilis and the
      Follow-up of Syphilis?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Repeat syphilis is playing an increasing role in syphilis
      transmission in several populations. The assessment of repeat syphilis and
      response to treatment depends on accurately measuring intraindividual changes in
      non-treponemal tests. For a 0- to 6-month delta rapid plasma reagin (RPR) to be
      determined by routine individual RPR testing, samples are tested 6 months apart
      with differences in reagent batches, environmental conditions, and observers all
      leading to measurement errors. We hypothesized that conducting paired RPR testing
      (simultaneous testing of acute and convalescent samples) would enable a more
      accurate determination of delta RPR compared with individual testing. METHODS: A
      total of 120 study participants with a new diagnosis of syphilis were followed up
      at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months, with RPR testing performed via individual
      testing at each study visit and at any suspected repeat syphilis. Rapid plasma
      reagin paired testing was performed on samples from 0 and 6 months and at any
      suspected repeat syphilis. RESULTS: The quantitative agreement +/-1 dilution
      among paired and individual testing was 97.2%. There was no difference in the
      proportion with serofast status at 6 months: 21 (19.4%) and 19 (17.6%) according
      to paired and individual testing, respectively (P = 0.726). There was no
      statistically significant difference between 0- and 6-month delta RPR as
      determined by paired and individual testing in predicting seroresponse at 12
      months (86.1% and 91.6% agreement with 12-month serofast/nonserofast
      classification, respectively; P = 0.262). CONCLUSIONS: In our setting, individual
      testing performed equally well compared with paired testing. Follow-up of
      syphilis will remain onerous for the patient and the health care provider until
      new tests that can more accurately assess the response to therapy and repeat
      syphilis/treatment failure are developed.

PMID- 28876298
TI  - Mailed Human Papillomavirus Self-Collection With Papanicolaou Test Referral for
      Infrequently Screened Women in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Testing for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection using
      mailed, self-collected samples is a promising approach to increase screening in
      women who do not attend clinic screening at recommended intervals. METHODS: To
      assess this intervention among high-risk women in the United States, 429 women
      without a Papanicolaou (Pap) test in 4 or more years (overdue by US guidelines)
      were recruited from the general population. Participants aged 30 to 65 years were
      mailed a kit to self-collect a cervicovaginal sample at home, return the sample
      by mail, and receive HPV results by telephone, with referral to follow-up
      cytological Pap testing at a local clinic. Cervicovaginal self-samples were
      collected with a Viba brush, stored in Scope mouthwash, and tested by Hybrid
      Capture 2. Data were collected in 2010 to 2011 and analyzed in 2017. RESULTS: Two
      thirds (64%) of participants returned a self-collected sample, of whom 15% tested
      HPV DNA positive. Human papillomavirus self-test-positive women reported higher
      rates of follow-up Pap tests (82%) than did those with self-test negative results
      (51%). No demographic differences were found in self-test return rate or HPV
      positivity. High acceptability was reported in participant surveys: most women
      (81%) had "mostly positive" overall thoughts about the self-test, and most
      reported being comfortable receiving the kit in the mail (99%), returning their
      self-collected sample by mail (82%), and receiving their test results by
      telephone (97%). CONCLUSIONS: Conducting HPV self-testing through population
      based recruitment, mailed kit delivery and return by mail, and results delivery
      by telephone has the potential to reach a broad segment of US underscreened
      women.

PMID- 28876301
TI  - Longitudinal Findings on Changes in and the Link Between HIV-Related
      Communication, Risky Sexual Behavior, and Relationship Status in Men Who Have Sex
      With Men Living With HIV.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reducing the risk of HIV transmission among men who have sex with men
      (MSM) is a national health priority. This study longitudinally examined changes
      in and the link between HIV-related communication, unprotected anal intercourse
      (UAI), and relationship status among MSM. METHODS: Data were obtained from 337
      MSM living with HIV who participated in a randomized controlled study.
      Approximately equal percentages of men were randomized to either the disclosure
      intervention group or the attention control case management group. Repeated
      measures were collected at 5 time points for 12 months and included health
      protective sexual communication (HPSC), HIV disclosure, insertive and receptive
      UAI, and relationship status. Data were analyzed using mixed-effects models.
      RESULTS: Independent of the treatment condition, HPSC and HIV disclosure
      increased over time; insertive UAI showed a curvilinear pattern but no
      significant decrease over time. Relationship status was related to HIV-related
      communication and UAI. Greater HPSC was related to less insertive and receptive
      UAI; disclosure was positively related to insertive UAI. CONCLUSIONS: Based on
      the findings, prevention programs should continue to focus on improving HIV
      related communication among MSM and consider relationship status in prevention
      messages. Intervention studies are needed to continue to identify and test
      factors that help reduce risky sexual behaviors.

PMID- 28876302
TI  - Seroprevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis in Inner-City Children and Adolescents
      Implications for Vaccine Development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prevention of Chlamydia trachomatis infection is an ideal application
      for a vaccine program, which should optimally be administered before sexual
      debut. However, there are limited epidemiologic studies of C. trachomatis
      infection in an unselected pediatric population since routine screening and
      treatment of pregnant women was implemented in the United States in 1993.
      METHODS: Anonymized serum samples were obtained from children younger than 21
      years in 2 medical centers in Brooklyn, New York, from 2013 to 2015. Anti-C.
      trachomatis IgG antibody was determined by a validated enzyme immunoassay.
      Infants younger than 1 year were excluded from the final analysis due to
      interference of maternal antibody. RESULTS: One thousand two sera were included
      in the final analysis. Fifty-seven percent were females. No antibody was detected
      at younger than 11 years. Anti-C. trachomatis IgG antibody was detected in 11.4%
      and 5.6% of female and male subjects, respectively, older than 11 years (P =
      0.0027), and seropositivity increased with age. There was no significant
      difference in the distribution of age at infection between the centers (P =
      0.432), but a difference was detected between genders (P = 0.012) with a higher
      percentage of female subjects testing positive. CONCLUSIONS: Antibody was first
      detected at 11 years of age, likely coinciding with sexual debut. The prevalence
      of antibody was higher and appeared earlier in females, mirroring national
      surveillance trends based on nucleic acid amplification testing. The delay in
      male antibody detection may be due to biological or behavioral differences
      between genders. These data are critical in informing potential C. trachomatis
      vaccine strategies.

PMID- 28876303
TI  - Determinants of Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Intention Among Female Sex
      Workers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Female sex workers (FSWs) are at risk for human papillomavirus
      (HPV)-induced diseases but are currently not targeted by the HPV vaccination
      program in the Netherlands. We explored determinants of their intention to get
      vaccinated against HPV in case vaccination would be offered to them. METHODS: In
      2016, FSWs 18 years and older having a sexually transmitted infection
      consultation with the Prostitution & Health Center (P&G292) in Amsterdam, either
      at the clinic or at their working location, were invited to complete a
      questionnaire assessing sociopsychological determinants of HPV vaccination
      intention (scale ranging from -3 to +3). Determinants of HPV vaccination
      intention were assessed with univariable and multivariable linear regression. In
      addition, we explored the effect of out-of-pocket payment on intention. RESULTS:
      Between May and September 2016, 294 FSWs participated. The median age was 29
      years (interquartile range, 25-37 years). Human papillomavirus vaccination
      intention was high (mean, 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-2.2). In
      multivariable analysis, attitude (beta = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5-0.7), descriptive norm
      (beta = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.3), self-efficacy (beta = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.3),
      beliefs (beta = 0.1; 95% CI, 0.0-0.2), and subjective norm (beta = 0.1; 95% CI,
      0.0-0.2) seemed to be the strongest predictors of HPV vaccination intention (R =
      0.54). Human papillomavirus vaccination intention decreased significantly to a
      mean of 0.2 when vaccination would require out-of-pocket payment of &OV0556;350.
      CONCLUSIONS: The HPV vaccination intention among FSWs seems relatively high and
      is most strongly constituted in attitudinal, normative, and self-efficacy
      beliefs. Out-of-pocket payment will probably have a negative impact on their HPV
      vaccination acceptability.

PMID- 28876304
TI  - Human Papillomavirus Prevalence Is Associated With Socioeconomic Gradients Within
      a Medically Underserved Appalachian Region.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess type-specific prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV)
      infection in a medically underserved Appalachian area and to determine whether
      gradients in poverty are associated with prevalence. METHODS: Among 398 women, a
      validated assay tested self-collected cervicovaginal samples for 37 HPV types.
      Three economic strata were created based on household income: below the federal
      poverty level for 1 person, between the FPLs for families of 1 to 4 persons, and
      above the FPL for a family of 4. RESULTS: Prevalence was 55.6%, with 33% having
      at least 1 high-risk infection. Prevalence was 27.8% for 9-valent HPV vaccine
      preventable types and 39.2% for multiple types. Compared with FPL for a family of
      4, women with federal poverty level for 1 person had 3 times greater prevalence,
      2.3 times greater prevalence of high-risk types, and 2.5 times greater prevalence
      of multiple types. CONCLUSION: Human papillomavirus prevalence was high, with one
      third of the sample having at least 1 high-risk type and those in the lowest
      income category being disproportionately infected.

PMID- 28876305
TI  - Sexually Transmitted Disease Testing of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Men
      Who Have Sex With Men: Room for Improvement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the United States, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing is
      recommended at least annually for sexually active men who have sex with men
      (MSM). We evaluated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) providers' STI testing
      practices and frequency of positive test results. METHODS: We analyzed data from
      HIV Outpatient Study (HOPS) participants who, from 2007 to 2014, completed a
      confidential survey about risk behaviors. Using medical records data, we assessed
      the frequency of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis testing and positive results
      during the year after the survey for MSM who reported sex without a condom in the
      prior 6 months. We compared testing frequency and positivity for men having 1, 2
      to 3, and 4 or more sexual partners. Correlates of STI testing were assessed
      using general linear model to derive relative risks (RR) with associated 95%
      confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Among 719 MSM, testing frequency was 74.5%,
      74.3%, and 82.9% for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis, respectively, and was
      higher in those men who reported more sexual partners (P < 0.001 for all). In
      multivariable analysis, testing for gonorrhea was significantly more likely among
      non-Hispanic black versus white men (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.03-1.33), among men seen
      in private versus public clinics (RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.05-1.28), and among men
      with 2 to 3 and 4 or more sexual partners versus 1 partner (RR, 1.12; 95% CI,
      1.02-1.23, and RR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.08-1.30, respectively). Correlates of
      chlamydia and syphilis testing were similar. Test positivity was higher among men
      with more sexual partners: for gonorrhea 0.0%, 3.0%, and 6.7% for men with 1, 2
      to 3, and 4 or more partners, respectively (P < 0.001, syphilis 3.7%, 3.8% and
      12.5%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Among HIV-infected MSM patients in HIV care who
      reported sex without a condom, subsequent testing was not documented in clinic
      records during the following year for up to a quarter of patients. Exploring why
      STI testing did not occur may improve patient care.

PMID- 28876306
TI  - Incident Trichomonas vaginalis Is Associated With Partnership Concurrency: A
      Longitudinal Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sexual partner concurrency (PC) has been shown to be a risk factor
      for a number of sexually transmitted infections but it is unknown if it is a risk
      factor for Trichomonas vaginalis (TV). OBJECTIVE: We assess if there is an
      association between PC and incident TV infection. STUDY DESIGN: We used mixed
      effects logistic regression to assess the association between PC and incident TV
      in the Longitudinal Study of Vaginal Flora, a cohort study of 3620 women followed
      quarterly for 5 visits. RESULTS: Trichomonas vaginalis was more common in those
      reporting definite/possible/unknown PC (15.6%/15.0%/18.3%) than those reporting
      no PC (5.2%; P < 0.001 for all 3 comparisons). After controlling for a range of
      confounders, incident TV remained associated with reporting that one's partner
      definitely (adjusted odds ratio, 5.4; 95% confidence interval, 3.7-8.0) and
      possibly (adjusted odds ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 2.2-5.1) engaged in
      PC in the preceding period. CONCLUSIONS: Partner concurrency was associated with
      incident TV infection.

PMID- 28876307
TI  - A Single Question to Examine the Prevalence and Protective Effect of Seroadaptive
      Strategies Among Men Who Have Sex With Men.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Seroadaptive behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM) are
      common, but ascertaining behavioral information is challenging in clinical
      settings. To address this, we developed a single seroadaptive behavior question.
      METHODS: Men who have sex with men 18 years or older attending a sexually
      transmitted disease clinic in Seattle, WA, from 2013 to 2015, were eligible for
      this cross-sectional study. Respondents completed a comprehensive seroadaptive
      behavior questionnaire which included a single question that asked HIV-negative
      MSM to indicate which of 12 strategies they used in the past year to reduce their
      HIV risk. HIV testing was performed per routine clinical care. We used the kappa
      statistic to examine agreement between the comprehensive questionnaire and the
      single question. RESULTS: We enrolled HIV-negative MSM at 3341 (55%) of 6105
      eligible visits. The agreement between the full questionnaire and single question
      for 5 behaviors was fair to moderate (kappa values of 0.34-0.59). From the single
      question, the most commonly reported behaviors were as follows: avoiding sex with
      HIV-positive (66%) or unknown-status (52%) men and using condoms with unknown
      status partners (53%); 8% of men reported no seroadaptive behavior. Men tested
      newly HIV positive at 38 (1.4%) of 2741 visits. HIV test positivity for the most
      commonly reported behaviors ranged from 0.8% to 1.3%. Men reporting no
      seroadaptive strategy had a significantly higher HIV test positivity (3.5%)
      compared with men who reported at least 1 strategy (1.3%; P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS:
      The single question performed relatively well against a comprehensive
      seroadaptive behaviors assessment and may be useful in clinical settings to
      identify men at greatest risk for HIV.

PMID- 28876308
TI  - The Need to Promote Sexual Health in America: A New Vision for Public Health
      Action.
AB  - Sexual health is considered to be a state of wellness with physical, emotional,
      mental, and social dimensions. Sexual health can contribute to our overall well
      being in each of these dimensions. However, despite the intrinsic importance and
      positive aspects of sexuality in our lives, the United States presently faces
      significant challenges related to the sexual health of its citizens, including
      human immunodeficiency virus, other sexually transmitted infections, viral
      hepatitis, unintended pregnancies, sexual violence, sexual dysfunction, and
      cancers in reproductive tracts with serious disparities among the populations
      affected. In particular, high rates of poverty, income inequality, low
      educational attainment, stigma, racism, sexism, and homophobia can make it more
      difficult for some individuals and communities to protect their sexual health.
      Given that many pressing public health issues in the United States are related to
      sexual health and that sexual health has been increasingly recognized as an
      important national health priority, now is the time to energize and focus our
      efforts toward optimal sexual health of the population. In this paper, we outline
      the rationale for addressing sexual health as a means to better promote overall
      health and address sexuality related morbidities. In addition, we present a logic
      model outlining an approach for advancing sexual health in the United States, as
      well as a range of action steps for consideration by public health practitioners,
      researchers, and policymakers.

PMID- 28876309
TI  - Use of Patient-Delivered Partner Therapy in US College Settings: Associations
      With Legality, Perceived Legality and Other Sexual and Reproductive Health
      Services.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Young adults, including college students, have higher rates of
      chlamydia than the general population. Patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT)
      is a partner treatment option for sex partners of individuals diagnosed with
      chlamydia or gonorrhea. We examined college health center use of PDPT in a
      national sample of colleges. METHODS: During 2014 to 2015, we collected data from
      482 colleges and universities (55% of 885 surveyed), weighting responses by
      institutional characteristics abstracted from a national database (eg, 2-year vs
      4-year status). We asked whether the school had a student health center and which
      sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services were offered. We also assessed the
      legal and perceived legal status of PDPT in states where schools were located. We
      then estimated PDPT availability at student health centers and measured
      associations with legal status and SRH services. RESULTS: Most colleges (n = 367)
      reported having a student health center; PDPT was available at 36.6% of health
      centers and associated with perceived legality of PDPT in the state in which the
      college was located (odds ratio [OR], 4.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17
      18.28). Patient-delivered partner therapy was significantly associated with
      availability of SRH services, including sexually transmitted disease diagnosis
      and treatment of STI (56.2% vs 1.1%), gynecological services (60.3% vs 12.2%),
      and contraceptive services (57.8% vs 7.7%) (all P < .001). Compared with schools
      taking no action, PDPT was more likely to be available at schools that notified
      partners directly (OR, 8.29; 95% CI, 1.28-53.85), but not schools that asked
      patients to notify partners (OR, 3.47; 95% CI, 0.97-12.43). CONCLUSIONS: PDPT was
      more likely to be available in colleges that offered SRH services and where staff
      believed PDPT was legal. Further research could explore more precise conditions
      under which PDPT is used.

PMID- 28876310
TI  - Prevalence of Anal Dysplasia in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Transgender
      Women.
AB  - Although human immunodeficiency virus-infected men who have sex with men are at
      high risk for anal cancer, little is known about the prevalence of anal dysplasia
      in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected transgender women. Our study found
      that prevalence rates of abnormal anal cytology and histology in HIV-infected
      transgender women were similar to those in HIV-infected men who have sex with
      men.

PMID- 28876311
TI  - Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status Differentially Associated With Genital and
      Anal Human Papillomavirus Infection Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: A
      Cross-Sectional Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and
      genotypes when considering both anatomic site and human immunodeficiency virus
      (HIV) status among men who have sex with men (MSM) in low- and middle-income
      countries. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among MSM in Beijing,
      China. HIV serostatus was determined, and genital and anal HPV genotyping were
      performed from respective swabs. RESULTS: Of 1155 MSM, 817 (70.7%) had testing
      for genital (611; 52.9%) and/or anal (671; 58.1%) HPV. Preference for insertive
      anal sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42
      4.75) and syphilis (aOR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.01-2.23) were associated with genital
      HPV. Inconsistent condom use during receptive anal sex (aOR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.17
      2.84), and HIV seropositivity (aOR, 2.90; 95% CI, 1.91-4.42) were associated with
      anal HPV. Among 465 (40.3%) MSM with specimens from both anatomic sites, anal HPV
      (68%) was more common than genital HPV (37.8%). Prevalence of anal HPV was higher
      among HIV-infected than uninfected MSM (P < 0.01). Some oncogenic HPV types were
      more commonly found at the anal site of HIV-infected MSM (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Human papillomavirus is highly prevalent among Chinese MSM. Anal HPV was more
      common than genital HPV, and HIV seropositivity was associated with oncogenic HPV
      types at the anal site.

PMID- 28876312
TI  - Screening for Sexually Transmitted Infections in Adolescent Girls and Young Women
      in Mombasa, Kenya: Feasibility, Prevalence, and Correlates.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As adolescents and young women become sexually active, they are at
      risk of adverse reproductive health outcomes including sexually transmitted
      infections (STIs). We assessed feasibility and acceptability of STI screening
      among 15- to 24-year-old women in Mombasa, Kenya. METHODS: After sensitization
      activities, participants were recruited from 3 high schools and 1 university.
      Study staff conducted informational sessions. Students interested in
      participating were given consent forms to take home, and invited to visit our
      clinic for STI screening. During clinic visits, participants completed a self
      administered questionnaire and provided a urine specimen for STI testing using a
      nucleic acid amplification test. RESULTS: Between August 2014 and March 2015, 463
      high school and 165 university students collected consent forms. Of these, 293
      (63%) from high schools versus 158 (95%) from university attended clinic for STI
      screening (P < 0.001). Of the 150 (33%) who reported any history of insertive
      vaginal sex, 78 (52.0%) reported condom use at the last sex act, 31 (20.7%)
      reported using modern nonbarrier contraceptive methods, and 37 (24.7%) reported
      not using any contraception at the last sex act. Twenty-six (5.8%) participants
      were diagnosed with STIs (7 [1.6%] Neisseria gonorrhoeae, 16 [3.6%] Chlamydia
      trachomatis, 3 [0.7%] Trichomonas vaginalis). In multivariable analyses,
      reporting receptive vaginal sex without a condom was associated with having a
      laboratory confirmed STI (odds ratio, 6.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.72-22.28).
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the need for reproductive health
      interventions to reduce the risk of STIs in a population of adolescent girls and
      young women in East Africa.

PMID- 28876314
TI  - Laboratory Processes for Confirmation of Lymphogranuloma Venereum Infection
      During a 2015 Investigation of a Cluster of Cases in the United States.
AB  - In September 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were notified
      of a suspected outbreak investigation of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) cases by
      the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The Centers for Disease
      Control and Prevention offered support with a laboratory-developed polymerase
      chain reaction test for LGV. This note describes the laboratory workflow and
      procedures used for the laboratory confirmation of LGV infection.

PMID- 28876313
TI  - Using Multiple Outcomes of Sexual Behavior to Provide Insights Into Chlamydia
      Transmission and the Effectiveness of Prevention Interventions in Adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mathematical models are important tools for assessing prevention and
      management strategies for sexually transmitted infections. These models are
      usually developed for a single infection and require calibration to observed
      epidemiological trends in the infection of interest. Incorporating other outcomes
      of sexual behavior into the model, such as pregnancy, may better inform the
      calibration process. METHODS: We developed a mathematical model of chlamydia
      transmission and pregnancy in Minnesota adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. We
      calibrated the model to statewide rates of reported chlamydia cases alone
      (chlamydia calibration) and in combination with pregnancy rates (dual
      calibration). We evaluated the impact of calibrating to different outcomes of
      sexual behavior on estimated input parameter values, predicted epidemiological
      outcomes, and predicted impact of chlamydia prevention interventions. RESULTS:
      The two calibration scenarios produced different estimates of the probability of
      condom use, the probability of chlamydia transmission per sex act, the proportion
      of asymptomatic infections, and the screening rate among men. These differences
      resulted in the dual calibration scenario predicting lower prevalence and
      incidence of chlamydia compared with calibrating to chlamydia cases alone. When
      evaluating the impact of a 10% increase in condom use, the dual calibration
      scenario predicted fewer infections averted over 5 years compared with chlamydia
      calibration alone [111 (6.8%) vs 158 (8.5%)]. CONCLUSIONS: While pregnancy and
      chlamydia in adolescents are often considered separately, both are outcomes of
      unprotected sexual activity. Incorporating both as calibration targets in a model
      of chlamydia transmission resulted in different parameter estimates, potentially
      impacting the intervention effectiveness predicted by the model.

PMID- 28876315
TI  - Recurrence of Human Papillomavirus External Genital Wart Infection Among High
      Risk Adults in Montreal, Canada.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The incidence of recurrent genital warts is not well characterized;
      this is especially true in a post-human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination era. The
      objectives of this study were to assess the incidence of subsequent HPV-related
      external genital warts (EGW) episodes in high-risk male and female adults, as
      well as ascertain patient profile and disease characteristics, in a real-world
      Canadian sexual health clinical setting. METHODS: Retrospective chart review
      study conducted at Clinique medicale l'Actuel, a sexual health clinic in
      Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Eligible patients were 18 to 45 years of age with a
      first diagnosis of EGW associated with a HPV infection between July 1, 2006, and
      June 30, 2012. RESULTS: A total of 400 first-episode EGW cases were identified.
      Up to 6 subsequent episodes were documented, with 194 (48.5%) patients reporting
      at least 1 subsequent EGW episode. Median time to first subsequent EGW episode
      was 3.97 years, and the incidence density rate for all subsequent episodes was
      0.18/100 patient-years. Over 90% of patients reported clearance of the first
      subsequent episode, with median time to clearance of 0.30 years. Regardless of
      subsequent episode number, greater than 95% of patients received treatment,
      primarily cryotherapy, with high-risk sexual behavior reducing as number of
      episodes increased. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, a high rate of subsequent EGW episodes
      was observed in this high-risk population, despite high treatment rates and
      improvement in high-risk sexual behavior. These data, assessed in a
      prevaccination Quebec health care system, may be compared with future EGW rates
      to assess the impact of a governmentally-funded HPV vaccination program.

PMID- 28876316
TI  - Using the Revised Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Staging System to
      Classify Persons Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in New York City, 2011
      2015.
AB  - The proportion of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in New
      York City in stage 1 (CD4 >= 500 cells/mm) increased from 50.6% in 2011 to 59.6%
      in 2015. The revised Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staging system of
      HIV infection is a useful tool with which to classify persons living with HIV.

PMID- 28876317
TI  - Cervical Cancer Screening and Prevention in 78 Sexually Transmitted Disease
      Clinics-United States, 2014-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections cause approximately 30,700
      cancers annually among US men and women, cervical cancer being the most common.
      Human papillomavirus vaccination is recommended routinely for US girls and boys
      at age 11 to 12 years, and for those not previously vaccinated, through age 26
      and 21 years for women and men, respectively. Our objective was to assess current
      cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination practices among sexually
      transmitted disease (STD) clinics in the United States. METHODS: We surveyed a
      geographically diverse convenience sample of US STD clinics identified by members
      of the National Coalition of STD Directors within 65 state, territorial, and
      local jurisdictions. An online multiple-choice survey about clinical services was
      administered to clinic directors or designees during October 2014 to February
      2015. RESULTS: Survey respondents included 78 clinics from 46 states and
      territories. Of these clinics, 31 (39.7%) offered both cervical cancer screening
      and HPV vaccination, 6 (7.7%) offered cervical cancer screening only, 21 (26.9%)
      offered HPV vaccination only, and 20 (25.6%) offered neither cervical cancer
      prevention service. Among those not offering the service, the most commonly
      reported barrier to cervical cancer screening was time constraints (25/41,
      61.0%); for HPV vaccination it was reimbursement (11/26, 42.3%). CONCLUSIONS: By
      early 2015, in a geographically diverse group of 78 STD clinics, 39.7% provided
      nationally recommended HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening, whereas
      25.6% provided neither. Further research could identify strategies for STD
      clinics to reduce HPV-associated cancers by increasing provision of HPV
      vaccination and cervical cancer screening services, particularly among medically
      underserved populations.

PMID- 28876318
TI  - The Annual Economic Burden of Syphilis: An Estimation of Direct, Productivity,
      and Intangible Costs for Syphilis in Guangdong Initiative for Comprehensive
      Control of Syphilis Sites.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Syphilis has continuously posed a great challenge to China. However,
      very little data existed regarding the cost of syphilis. Taking Guangdong
      Initiative for Comprehensive Control of Syphilis area as the research site, we
      aimed to comprehensively measure the annual economic burden of syphilis from a
      societal perspective. METHODS: Newly diagnosed and follow-up outpatient cases
      were investigated by questionnaire. Reported tertiary syphilis cases and medical
      institutions cost were both collected. The direct economic burden was measured by
      the bottom-up approach, the productivity cost by the human capital method, and
      the intangible burden by the contingency valuation method. RESULTS: Three hundred
      five valid early syphilis cases and 13 valid tertiary syphilis cases were
      collected in the investigation to estimate the personal average cost. The total
      economic burden of syphilis was US $729,096.85 in Guangdong Initiative for
      Comprehensive Control of Syphilis sites in the year of 2014, with medical
      institutions cost accounting for 73.23% of the total. Household average direct
      cost of early syphilis was US $23.74. Average hospitalization cost of tertiary
      syphilis was US $2,749.93. Of the cost to medical institutions, screening and
      testing comprised the largest proportion (26%), followed by intervention and case
      management (22%) and operational cost (21%). Household average productivity cost
      of early syphilis was US $61.19. Household intangible cost of syphilis was US
      $15,810.54. CONCLUSIONS: Syphilis caused a substantial economic burden on
      patients, their families, and society in Guangdong. Household productivity and
      intangible costs both shared positive relationships with local economic levels.
      Strengthening the prevention and effective treatment of early syphilis could
      greatly help to lower the economic burden of syphilis.

PMID- 28876319
TI  - Trichomonas vaginalis Prevalence and Correlates in Women and Men Attending STI
      Clinics in Western Canada.
AB  - Trichomonas vaginalis prevalence (2.8%) in female sexually transmitted infection
      clinic attendees was within the prevalence of chlamydia (5.8%) and gonorrhea
      (1.8%), while being very low for male attendees (0.2%). Correlates among women
      were indigenous ethnicity, other ethnicity, and being symptomatic.

PMID- 28876320
TI  - Understanding the Effects of Forced Sex on Sexually Transmitted Disease
      Acquisition and Sexually Transmitted Disease Care: Findings From the National
      Survey of Family Growth (2011-2013).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although there is evidence for heightened sexually transmitted
      disease (STD) acquisition among women who experienced sexual violence, little is
      known about their patterns of STD testing, STD diagnosis, and STD treatment.
      METHODS: Data was drawn from cycle eight of the National Survey of Family Growth
      (2011-2013). Logistic regression analyses used SUDAAN to examine the link between
      forced sex and risky sexual behavior as well as forced sex and STD testing,
      diagnoses, treatment, and connection to care. RESULTS: Women who experienced
      forced sex were more likely to have risky sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.56;
      95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-2.24), risky partners (AOR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.11
      3.23), and report substance abuse (AOR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.28-2.53) than women who
      never experienced forced sex. Women who reported forced sex were more likely to
      be tested for an STD (AOR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.34-2.09), and be diagnosed with herpes
      (AOR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.13-3.32), genital warts (AOR, 2.55; 95% CI, 1.90-3.41), and
      chlamydia (AOR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.03-3.25) than those who have never had forced
      sex. Results indicated a direct relationship between particular STD diagnoses and
      treatment in the past 12 months (AOR, 6.81; 95% CI, 4.50-10.31). Further analyses
      indicate that forced sex moderated the link between STD diagnoses and STD
      treatment (AOR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.19-0.98). CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that
      women who reported experiencing forced sex were more likely to be diagnosed with
      chlamydia, herpes, and genital warts than women who never had forced sex. There
      may be a need to pay particular attention to women who experienced forced sex and
      a history of STDs to ensure that they are retained in care.

PMID- 28876321
TI  - Provider Adherence to Syphilis Testing Recommendations for Women Delivering a
      Stillbirth.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess overall adherence to Centers for Disease Control and
      Prevention and American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommended
      guidelines for syphilis testing among women who delivered a stillbirth and
      compare it with other tests recommended for stillbirth evaluation. METHODS: We
      used MarketScan claims data with 40 million commercially insured and 8 million
      Medicaid enrollees annually to estimate prenatal care and follow-up testing among
      women who had stillbirths between January 1, 2013, and December 24, 2013.
      Stillbirth was identified if women had any International Classification of
      Disease, Ninth Revision codes related to a stillbirth outcome. Among women with
      stillbirths, we estimated the proportions of women who received prenatal care and
      prenatal syphilis testing within 280 days before stillbirth, and testing at the
      time of stillbirth (syphilis testing, complete blood count, placental examination
      and autopsy) using Physician's Current Procedural Terminology codes. RESULTS: We
      identified 3672 Medicaid-insured women and 6023 commercially insured women with
      stillbirths in 2013. Approximately, 61.7% of Medicaid-insured women and 66.0% of
      commercially insured women had claims data indicating prenatal syphilis testing.
      At the time of stillbirth, Medicaid-insured and commercially insured women had
      similar rates of syphilis testing (6.5% vs 9.3%), placental examination (61.6% vs
      57.8%), and complete blood count (31.9% vs 37.6%). Autopsies were too infrequent
      to be reported. Approximately, 34.6% of Medicaid-insured women and 29.7% of
      commercially insured women had no syphilis testing either prenatally or at the
      time of stillbirth. CONCLUSIONS: Syphilis testing among women after stillbirth
      was less than 10%, illustrating limited adherence to Centers for Disease Control
      and Prevention and American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommendations.
      Such low prenatal and delivery syphilis testing rates may impact the number of
      stillbirth cases identified as congenital syphilis cases and reported to the
      national surveillance system. Our results emphasize the need to improve syphilis
      testing to improve diagnosis of syphilitic stillbirths, identify women with
      syphilis infection, and provide treatment to these women to avoid syphilis
      related adverse outcomes.

PMID- 28876322
TI  - Wisdom of the Crowds: Crowd-Based Development of a Logo for a Conference Using a
      Crowdsourcing Contest.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Crowdsourcing methods have been widely used in business, but rarely
      in sexual health research. We evaluated a crowdsourced logo contest as part of an
      international human immunodeficiency virus conference. METHODS: A logo
      crowdsourcing contest was conducted for the 20th International Acquired
      Immunodeficiency Syndrome Conference. Crowdsourcing has a group of individuals
      solve a task, often as part of an open contest. Semistructured interviews were
      conducted with key informants including contest organizers, contest contributors,
      and conference attendees. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using
      a content analysis approach. RESULTS: In total, 22 interviews were conducted with
      3 contest organizers, 7 contest contributors, and 12 conference attendees. All
      individuals reported that the crowdsourced logo provided benefits beyond branding
      the conference, including creating a shared sense of purpose among diverse
      conference participants and explicitly demonstrating the strong community
      orientation of the conference. Conference organizers and attendees all reported
      deeper engagement because of the story of the Tanzanian artist who won the
      contest. Most conference attendees (11/12) preferred the crowdsourced logo
      compared with the previous company-organized logo, and all (22/22) supported the
      logo contest continuing. Implementing a logo contest was simple and relatively
      inexpensive. Stakeholders identified several ways to enhance crowdsourcing logo
      contest methods including wider promotion of the contest to encourage broader
      participation, greater transparency in the selection process, and a different
      prize structure which acknowledges the contribution of more contestants.
      CONCLUSIONS: We found that a crowdsourcing contest helped engage local and global
      communities in the lead-up before and during an international conference. Similar
      participatory events may be useful for sexual health conferences and research
      projects.

PMID- 28876323
TI  - Self-Reported Use of Mouthwash and Pharyngeal Gonorrhoea Detection by Nucleic
      Acid Amplification Test.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of alcohol-containing mouthwash has been found to have an
      inhibitory effect against pharyngeal gonorrhoea. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the association between self-reported mouthwash use and pharyngeal
      gonorrhoea detection among men who have sex with men (MSM). METHODS: A cross
      sectional survey was conducted between March 23, 2015, and June 30, 2015 among
      MSM attending the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in Australia. Men who have sex
      with men were invited to complete a short questionnaire on mouthwash use and they
      were also tested for pharyngeal gonorrhoea by nucleic acid amplification test.
      Multivariate logistic regression was performed to examine the association between
      mouthwash use and pharyngeal gonorrhoea detection. RESULTS: Of the 823 MSM,
      pharyngeal gonorrhoea detection decreased significantly with increasing age group
      (<=24 years, 14.5%; 25-34 years, 10.7%; >=35 years, 6.0%; ptrend = 0.003). The
      proportion reporting daily use of mouthwash increased significantly with
      increasing age group (from 10.1% to 14.5% to 19.8%; ptrend = 0.005). However,
      there was no significant association between pharyngeal gonorrhoea detection and
      daily use of mouthwash after adjusting for age, number of male sexual partners,
      human immunodeficiency virus status, and type of mouthwash use. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although the proportion of daily use of mouthwash increased with age, and
      pharyngeal gonorrhoea detection decreased with age, the association between self
      reported mouthwash use and pharyngeal gonorrhoea detection by nucleic acid
      amplification test was not statistically significant.

PMID- 28876324
TI  - Men Who Have Sex With Men Seek Timely Human Immunodeficiency Virus Confirmation
      and Care After Rapid Human Immunodeficiency Virus Self-Test: Data From Partner
      Services Program, New York City.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rapid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) self-test in the United
      States has expanded opportunities for HIV testing in nonclinical settings which
      may increase early diagnosis of HIV infection. However, broad application may be
      limited by the cost of the test and concerns that self-testers who test positive
      will not seek timely HIV care. METHODS: We used data from HIV partner services
      program to compare the sociodemographic characteristics, transmission risk, and
      clinical stage of persons diagnosed with HIV by report of rapid self-test. Among
      self-tested persons, we assessed timeliness of seeking definitive testing after
      self-test and linkage to care. RESULTS: From January 2013 to August 2016, 8032
      HIV-positive persons were interviewed. Compared with the 7905 persons who did not
      self-test, self-tested persons were significantly (all P = <0.0001) male (96% vs
      78%), white/non-Hispanic (46% vs 16%), men who have sex with men (92% vs 58%),
      college educated (67% vs 35%), and residing in medium-high income NYC
      neighborhoods (51% vs 44%). Higher proportions of self-tested (91%) than non-self
      tested persons (81%) linked to care within three months of diagnosis.
      Significantly (P = <0.0001) more persons that self-tested positive (39/44, 89%)
      than persons that self-tested negative (14/36, 39%) sought laboratory-based HIV
      test within 1 month of last self-testing; and negative than positive self-tested
      persons were diagnosed with acute HIV infection (44% vs. 9%, P = <0.0001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that men who have sex with men sought timely
      HIV confirmatory testing and linkage to care after self-test. However, the cost
      of self-test kit may be an important barrier to its wide adoption across
      sociodemographic groups.

PMID- 28876325
TI  - Modernizing Field Services for Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Sexually
      Transmitted Infections in the United States.
AB  - Public health field services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have not
      adequately evolved to address the expanding scale of the STI problem, its
      concentration among men who have sex with men, the emergence of new communication
      technologies and the availability of antiretroviral therapy as a cornerstone of
      human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention. Field services need to modernize.
      Modernization should seek to expand field services objectives beyond sex partner
      STI testing and treatment to include: HIV testing of persons with bacterial STI
      and their partners, including efforts to promote frequent HIV/STI testing;
      increased condom access; linkage and relinkage to HIV care and promotion of viral
      suppression; preexposure prophylaxis promotion; linkage to long-acting
      contraception; and referral for health insurance. Field services programs cannot
      advance these new objectives while simultaneously doing all of the work they have
      traditionally done. Modernization will require a willingness to reconsider some
      longstanding aspects of field services work, including the centrality of face-to
      face interviews and field investigations. Health departments seeking to modernize
      will need to carefully assess their ongoing activities and reorganize to align
      the use of field services resources with program priorities. In some instances,
      this may require reorganization to allow the staff greater specialization and
      closer integration with surveillance activities. Adapting programs will require
      new staff training, improvements in data management systems, and a greater
      investment in monitoring and evaluation. Although modernization is likely to
      evolve over many years, the time to start is now.

PMID- 28876328
TI  - The impact of hemoglobin on the efficacy of phototherapy in hyperbilirubinemic
      infants.
AB  - BackgroundPhototherapy is the routine treatment for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
      Absorption of light in the skin transforms the native Z,Z-bilirubin to
      photobilirubins. This study investigates whether the hemoglobin concentration has
      an impact on efficacy of phototherapy, expressed by the decline of total serum
      bilirubin concentration (TsB).MethodsA trial was conducted on 93 infants,
      gestational age >=33 weeks, with uncomplicated hyperbilirubinemia. The infants
      were treated with conventional phototherapy using LED light for 24 h. The median
      light irradiance was 66.8 MUW/cm2/nm.ResultsThe median decrease in TsB after 24 h
      was 121 (57-199) MUmol/l; the median hemoglobin was 12.0 (7.0-14.7) mmol/l. There
      was a significant effect of hemoglobin concentration on the decrease in TsB of 
      3.61 MUmol/mmol hemoglobin (P=0.022), after adjusting for initial TsB and
      postnatal age. That is, assuming the same initial TsB and postnatal age, for each
      mmol/l increase in hemoglobin, the decrease in TsB was 3.61 MUmol/l smaller. In
      our hemoglobin range, the decrease in TsB is reduced by 28 MUmol/l
      (23%).ConclusionIncreasing hemoglobin levels led to a decrease in the efficacy of
      phototherapy. Our data provide additional support for the conclusion that the
      transformation of bilirubin to photobilirubins takes place mainly in the
      superficial capillaries of the skin.

PMID- 28876329
TI  - At the intersection of systematic and seismic: examining the way forward for
      pediatric research.

PMID- 28876330
TI  - Epithelial-mesenchymal transformation and apoptosis in rat urethra development.
AB  - BackgroundTo examine the mechanism of urethral seam formation during embryonal
      development of rat urethra.MethodsTime-mated Sprague-Dawley rats were killed and
      the genital tubercles of male pups harvested on embryonic day (ED) 15, 16, 18,
      and 19. External morphology was observed under scanning electron microscope.
      Serial transverse sections were prepared to examine dynamic changes in the
      urethral seam morphology with hematoxylin-eosin staining, immunohistochemistry,
      transmission electron microscopy, and double immunofluorescence.ResultsBilateral
      outgrowth of urethral swelling followed by urethral plate fusion in the midline
      to form urethral seam was observed from ED 16 onwards. Coexpression of epithelial
      and mesenchymal markers was observed in several cells at the urethral seam; a few
      cells with coexpression of epithelial and apoptotic markers were also observed.
      Mesenchymal transformation of epithelial cells and apoptotic epithelial cells was
      observed under transmission electron microscope.ConclusionUrethral formation
      occurs by tubulogenesis, which initiates proximally and progresses distally. This
      is the first study to demonstrate epithelial-mesenchymal transformation and
      epithelial cell apoptosis in the urethral seam cells of fetal rats. These
      findings provide new insights into the mechanisms involved in embryonal
      development of the urethra.

PMID- 28876331
TI  - Clinically applicable optical imaging technology for body size and shape
      analysis: comparison of systems differing in design.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Recent advances have extended anthropometry beyond
      flexible tape measurements to automated three-dimensional optical devices that
      rapidly acquire hundreds of body surface dimensions. Three new devices were
      recently introduced that share in common inexpensive optical cameras. The design,
      and thus potential clinical applicability, of these systems differ substantially
      leading us to critically evaluate their accuracy and precision. SUBJECTS/METHODS:
      113 adult subjects completed evaluations by the three optical devices (KX-16 (16
      stationary cameras), Proscanner (1 vertically oscillating camera), and Styku
      scanner (1 stationary camera)), air displacement plethysmography (ADP), dual
      energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and a flexible tape measure. Optical
      measurements were compared to reference method estimates that included results
      acquired by flexible tape, DXA and ADP. RESULTS: Optical devices provided
      respective circumference and regional volume estimates that overall were well
      correlated with those obtained from flexible tape measurements (for example, hip
      circumference: R2, 0.91, 0.90, 0.96 for the KX-16, Proscanner, and Styku scanner,
      respectively) and DXA (for example, trunk volume: R2, 0.97, 0.97, and 0.98).
      Total body volumes measured by the optical devices were highly correlated with
      those from the ADP system (all R2s, 0.99). Coefficient of variations obtained
      from duplicate measurements (n, 55) were larger in optical than in reference
      measurements and significant (P<0.05) bias was present for some optical
      measurements relative to reference method estimates. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the
      evaluated optical imaging systems differing in design provided body surface
      measurements that compared favorably with corresponding reference methods.
      However, our evaluations uncovered system measurement limitations, such as
      discrepancies in landmarking, that with correction have the potential to improve
      future developed devices.

PMID- 28876332
TI  - Zinc and multivitamin supplementation have contrasting effects on infant iron
      status: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Zinc (Zn) supplementation adversely affects iron status in
      animal and adult human studies, but few trials have included young infants. The
      objective of this study was to determine the effects of Zn and multivitamin (MV)
      supplementation on infant hematologic and iron status. SUBJECTS/METHODS: In a
      double-blind RCT, Tanzanian infants were randomized to daily, oral Zn, MV, Zn and
      MV or placebo treatment arms at the age of 6 weeks of life. Hemoglobin
      concentration (Hb) and red blood cell indices were measured at baseline and at 6,
      12 and 18 months of age. Plasma samples from 589 infants were examined for iron
      deficiency (ID) at 6 months. RESULTS: In logistic regression models, Zn treatment
      was associated with greater odds of ID (odds ratio (OR) 1.8 (95% confidence
      interval (CI) 1.0-3.3)) and MV treatment was associated with lower odds (OR 0.49
      (95% CI 0.3-0.9)). In Cox models, MV was associated with a 28% reduction in risk
      of severe anemia (hazard ratio (HR)=0.72 (95% CI 0.56-0.94)) and a 26% reduction
      in the risk of severe microcytic anemia (HR=0.74 (0.56-0.96)) through 18 months.
      No effects of Zn on risk of anemia were seen. Infants treated with MV alone had
      higher mean Hb (9.9 g/dl (95% CI 9.7-10.1)) than those given placebo (9.6 g/dl
      (9.4-9.8)) or Zn alone (9.6 g/dl (9.4-9.7)). CONCLUSIONS: MV treatment improved
      iron status in infancy, whereas Zn worsened iron status but without an associated
      increase in risk for anemia. Infants in long-term Zn supplementation programs at
      risk for ID may benefit from screening and/or the addition of a MV supplement.

PMID- 28876333
TI  - Folate, vitamin B12, homocysteine and polymorphisms in folate metabolizing genes
      in children with congenital heart disease and their mothers.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to assess the role of
      variations in serum folate, vitamin B12, homocysteine and the presence of genetic
      polymorphisms as risk factors for congenital heart disease (CHD) in children.
      SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 32 children with CHD, and their mothers and 32
      normal children and their mothers formed the study and control groups,
      respectively. Serum folate, vitamin B12 and homocysteine as well as genetic
      polymorphisms MTHFR C677->?T, MTHFR A1298->?C, MTR A2756->?G and MTRR A66->?G
      were assessed. RESULTS: Low serum folate and genetic polymorphisms MTHFR C677->?T
      and MTRR A66->?G among children and their mothers and high homocysteine among
      mothers were noted as risk factors for CHD (P<0.05). Vitamin B12 levels were
      normal and showed no association. Presence of MTHFR C677->?T and MTRR A66->?G,
      both concurrently among children as well as mothers and simultaneously among
      mother-child pairs, showed several fold increase in the risk for CHD. On
      multivariate analysis, the risk factors noted for CHD were presence of MTHFR C677
      >?T among children and their mothers and MTRR A66->?G among mothers. Analyses for
      nutrient-gene interaction revealed significant associations between low serum
      folate and high serum homocysteine levels, and the presence of selected genetic
      polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: Low serum folate, high homocysteine and presence of
      selected genetic polymorphisms among children and their mothers were noted as
      risk factors for CHD. Nutrient-gene interaction being a modifiable risk factor,
      the study recommends the use of peri-conceptional folate supplementation with
      vitamin B12 sufficiency for primary prevention of CHD.

PMID- 28876334
TI  - Whole new concepts of nutrition.

PMID- 28876335
TI  - Factors associated with the practice of nursing staff sharing information about
      patients' nutritional status with their colleagues in hospitals.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Nursing staff have an important role in patients'
      nutritional care. The aim of this study was to demonstrate how the practice of
      sharing a patient's nutritional status with colleagues was affected by the
      nursing staff's attitude, knowledge and their priority to provide nutritional
      care. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The participants were 492 nursing staff. We obtained
      participants' demographic data, the practice of sharing patients' nutritional
      information and information about participants' knowledge, attitude and priority
      of providing nutritional care by the questionnaire. We performed partial
      correlation analyses and linear regression analyses to describe the relationship
      between the total scores of the practice of sharing patients' nutritional
      information based on their knowledge, attitude and priority to provide
      nutritional care. RESULTS: Among the 492 participants, 396 nursing staff (80.5%)
      completed the questionnaire and were included in analyses. Mean+/-s.d. of total
      score of the 396 participants was 8.4+/-3.1. Nursing staff shared information
      when they had a high nutritional knowledge (r=0.36, P<0.01) and attitude (r=0.13,
      P<0.05); however, their correlation coefficients were low. In the linear
      regression analyses, job categories (beta=-0.28, P<0.01), knowledge (beta=0.33,
      P<0.01) and attitude (beta=0.10, P<0.05) were independently associated with the
      practice of sharing information. Nursing staff's priority to provide nutritional
      care practice was not significantly associated with the practice of sharing
      information. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge and attitude were independently associated
      with the practice of sharing patients' nutrition information with colleagues,
      regardless of their priority to provide nutritional care. An effective approach
      should be taken to improve the practice of providing nutritional care practice.

PMID- 28876338
TI  - Proof of ion-pair structures in ammonium-based protic ionic liquids using
      combined NMR and DFT/PCM-based chemical shift calculations.
AB  - The self-assembly of triethylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, i.e.
      [(C2H5)3NH][TFSI], in chloroform and aqueous solutions has been investigated
      using 1H NMR spectroscopy and computational (DFT/PCM prediction) methods. We have
      examined a number of ion pairs formed between the [(C2H5)3NH]+ cation with
      different conformations of alkyl substituents as well as various dispositions of
      the multi-site [TFSI]- anion. Based on the agreement between the calculated (DFT)
      and observed 1H NMR chemical shifts, [(C2H5)3NH][TFSI] in chloroform formed
      lipophilic complexes with effective N+-HN or N+-HO hydrogen bonding, whereas
      hydrophilic complexes with Calpha-HO and Calpha-HF hydrogen bonding are found in
      aqueous solutions. This study provides a new insight into the self-aggregation of
      ammonium PILs incorporating the widely used [TFSI]- anion and demonstrates the
      importance of solvent effects on chemical shifts. The simulations with explicit
      and implicit dielectric continuum solvents are found to be the most realistic
      method, yielding a representative ensemble of structures.

PMID- 28876339
TI  - High temperature activation of hematite nanorods for sunlight driven water
      oxidation reaction.
AB  - Here we show that chlorine species originating from commonly used iron precursors
      annihilate the hematite nanorod photocurrent by providing recombination pathways.
      Although hematite nanorod films could be obtained by thermal decomposition of the
      iron oxyhydroxide phase (beta-FeOOH), indistinguishable photocurrent responses
      under dark and sunlight irradiation conditions were observed until the nanorods
      were annealed (activated) at 750  degrees C. The annealing led to the elimination
      of observable chlorine species and allowed photocurrent responses of 1.3 mA cm-2
      at 1.23 V vs. RHE, which is comparable to the best results found in the
      literature, suggesting that residual chlorine species from the synthesis can act
      as electron traps and recombination sites for photogenerated holes.

PMID- 28876340
TI  - Cisplatin and transplatin interaction with methionine: bonding motifs assayed by
      vibrational spectroscopy in the isolated ionic complexes.
AB  - Cisplatin and transplatin (cis- and trans-[PtCl2(NH3)2]) have been allowed to
      react with methionine (Met) in water solution in a study aimed to characterize
      the monofunctional complex primarily formed. The thioether function of methionine
      is known to have a very high affinity for square planar platinum(ii) and sulfur
      containing biomolecules have been proposed as a cisplatin drug reservoir on the
      way to platination at DNA. Both cisplatin and transplatin yield [PtCl(NH3)2Met]+
      complexes, delivered by electrospray ionization in the gas phase and sampled as
      isolated species using tools based on mass spectrometry. The collision induced
      dissociation spectra of both cis-[PtCl(NH3)2Met]+ and trans-[PtCl(NH3)2Met]+ are
      quite similar and also the transport properties assayed by ion mobility mass
      spectrometry do not allow any appreciable discrimination. However, the
      vibrational spectra obtained by IR multiple photon absorption (IRMPD)
      spectroscopy show distinct features. Their analysis, supported by quantum
      chemical calculations, has revealed that while cisplatin attack is mainly
      directed to the sulfur atom of Met, transplatin shows a more balanced partition
      between sulfur and nitrogen binding. Among the vibrational signatures
      characterizing cis-[PtCl(NH3)2Met]+ and trans-[PtCl(NH3)2Met]+ complexes, the
      asymmetric NH2 stretching of the alpha-amino group of the amino acid at ca. 3440
      cm-1 is peculiar and diagnostic of S-platination. IRMPD kinetics evaluated at
      this frequency support the prevailing S-attack by cisplatin while approximately a
      1 : 2 ratio of S- versus N-coordination is observed by transplatin, to be
      possibly related to the trans effect at the platinum center.

PMID- 28876341
TI  - Interfacial engineering of hole transport layers with metal and dielectric
      nanoparticles for efficient perovskite solar cells.
AB  - In this work, we have demonstrated the incorporation of metal (Ag NPs) and
      dielectric nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) into the hole transporting layers of inverted
      PSCs using facile deposition methods. Interfacial engineering in PSCs is
      accomplished by incorporating 50 nm Ag NPs or SiO2 NPs within the PEDOT:PSS
      interlayer. Dielectric SiO2 NPs were used for comparison purposes as a control
      sample to isolate morphological impacts without plasmonic effects. The
      photovoltaic performance of the devices significantly improved due to increased
      charge selectivity and enhanced charge collection properties across the interface
      (HTL). The recombination resistance of the SiO2 NP incorporated HTL based PSCs
      was 193% higher than that of the conventional devices. In-depth analysis using
      impedance measurements revealed that devices containing Ag or SiO2 NPs have low
      electrode polarization and consequently lower charge accumulation at the
      interface. Lower electrode polarization in the modified devices was also found to
      improve the charge carrier selectivity, which eventually led to enhanced fill
      factor and lower parasitic resistances. Interfacial engineering via NPs yielded
      improvements in the electrical characteristics of non-optical origin, which not
      only enhanced device performance, but also reduced the hysteresis effects to much
      lower than in the conventional inverted PSCs based on a pristine PEDOT:PSS
      interlayer.

PMID- 28876347
TI  - Temporally controlled growth factor delivery from a self-assembling peptide
      hydrogel and electrospun nanofibre composite scaffold.
AB  - Tissue-specific self-assembling peptide (SAP) hydrogels designed based on
      biologically relevant peptide sequences have great potential in regenerative
      medicine. These materials spontaneously form 3D networks of physically assembled
      nanofibres utilising non-covalent interactions. The nanofibrous structure of SAPs
      is often compared to that of electrospun scaffolds. These electrospun nanofibers
      are produced as sheets that can be engineered from a variety of polymers that can
      be chemically modified to incorporate many molecules including drugs and growth
      factors. However, their macroscale morphology limits them to wrapping and
      bandaging applications. Here, for the first time, we combine the benefits of
      these systems to describe a two-component composite scaffold from these
      biomaterials, with the design goal of providing a hydrogel scaffold that presents
      3D structures, and also has temporal control over drug delivery. Short fibres,
      cut from electrospun scaffolds, were mixed with our tissue-specific SAP hydrogel
      to provide a range of nanofibre sizes found in the extracellular matrix (10-300
      nm in diameter). The composite material maintained the shear-thinning and void
      filling properties of SAP hydrogels that have previously been shown to be
      effective for minimally invasive material injection, cell delivery and subsequent
      in vivo integration. Both scaffold components were separately loaded with growth
      factors, important signaling molecules in tissue regeneration whose rapid
      degradation limits their clinical efficacy. The two biomaterials provided
      sequential growth factor delivery profiles: the SAP hydrogel provided a burst
      release, with the release rate decreasing over 12 hours, while the electrospun
      nanofibres provided a more constant, sustained delivery. Importantly, this second
      release commenced 6 days later. The design rules established here to provide
      temporally distinct release profiles can enable researchers to target specific
      stages in regeneration, such as the acute immune response versus sustained
      protection and survival of cells following injury. In summary, this novel
      composite material combines the physical advantages of SAP hydrogels and
      electrospun nanofibres, while additionally providing a superior vehicle for the
      stabilisation and controlled delivery of growth factors necessary for optimal
      tissue repair.

PMID- 28876348
TI  - Responsive, switchable wormlike micelles for CO2/N2 and redox dual stimuli based
      on selenium-containing surfactants.
AB  - A dual-stimuli responsive, wormlike micelle system was developed using a
      switchable selenium-containing surfactant, dihendecylcarboxylic acid sodium
      selenide (C11-Se-C11), and a commercially available surfactant, cetyltrimethyl
      ammonium bromide (CTAB). The solution showed a viscoelastic characteristic at low
      shear frequencies, and the synergism was significant when the concentrations of
      CTAB and C11-Se-C11 were 145 mM and 25 mM, respectively. Additionally, the system
      was fast and reversibly responded to CO2 and redox dual stimuli, and it showed a
      circulatory gel/sol transition, which reflected changes in the self-assembly from
      entangled worms to rodlike micelles. Moreover, these transitions were switchable
      at least three times. The dual responsiveness of the solution allowed for precise
      control of the wormlike micelles, and these micelles will have a wide range of
      applications in the development of functional materials for pharmaceutical or
      biomedical materials.

PMID- 28876349
TI  - Spontaneous emulsification and self-propulsion of oil droplets induced by the
      synthesis of amino acid-based surfactants.
AB  - It is well known that oil droplets in or on water exhibit spontaneous movement
      induced by surfactants, and this self-propulsion is regarded as an important
      factor in droplet-based models for a living cell. We report here an oil-droplet
      system spontaneously producing amino acid-based surfactants, which are then
      utilized for the droplets' self-propulsion. Thus this system is an active system
      capable of producing the fuel for the propulsion by itself, which can be used as
      a conceptual model for cell metabolism.

PMID- 28876350
TI  - Interfacial crowding of nanoplatelets in co-continuous polymer blends: assembly,
      elasticity and structure of the interfacial nanoparticle network.
AB  - The sequence of events which leads to the interfacial crowding of plate-like
      nanoparticles in co-continuous polymer blends is investigated through a
      combination of morphological and rheological analyses. Very low amounts (~0.2
      vol%) of organo-modified clay are sufficient to suppress phase coarsening in a co
      continuous polystyrene/poly(methyl methacrylate) blend, while lower particle
      loading allows for a tuning of the characteristic size of the polymer phases at
      the MUm-scale. In any case, an interfacial network of nanoparticles eventually
      forms, which is driven by the preferred polymer-polymer interface. The elastic
      features and stress-bearing ability of this peculiar nanoparticle assembly are
      studied in detail by means of a descriptive two-phase viscoelastic model, which
      allows isolation of the contribution of the filler network. The role of the co
      continuous matrix in driving the space arrangement of the nanoparticles is
      emphasized by means of comparative analysis with systems based on the same
      polymers and nanoparticles, but in which the matrix is either a pure polymer or a
      blend with drop-in-matrix morphology. The relaxation dynamics of the interfacial
      network was found not to depend on the matrix microstructure, which instead
      substantially affects the assembly of the nanoplatelets. When the host medium is
      co-continuous, the particles align along the preferred polymer-polymer interface,
      percolating at a very low amount (~0.17 vol%) and prevalently interacting edge-to
      edge. The stress bearing ability of such a network is much higher than that in
      the case of matrix based on a homogeneous polymer or a drop-in-matrix blend, but
      its elasticity shows low sensitivity to the filler content.

PMID- 28876351
TI  - Optimization of a synthetic receptor for dimethyllysine using a biphenyl-2,6
      dicarboxylic acid scaffold: insights into selective recognition of hydrophilic
      guests in water.
AB  - In the design of small molecule receptors for polar guests, much inspiration has
      been taken from proteins that have adapted effective ways to selectively bind
      polar molecules in aqueous environments. Nonetheless, molecular recognition of
      hydrophilic guests in water by synthetic receptors remains a challenging task.
      Here we report a new synthetic receptor, A2I, with improved affinity and
      selectivity for a biologically important polar guest, dimethyllysine (Kme2). A2I
      was prepared via redesign of a small molecule receptor (A2B) that preferentially
      binds trimethyllysine (Kme3) using dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC). We
      designed a new biphenyl-2,6-dicarboxylate monomer, I, with the goal of creating a
      buried salt bridge with Kme2 inside a synthetic receptor. Indeed, incorporation
      of I into the receptor A2I resulted in a receptor with 32-fold enhancement in
      binding affinity, which represents the highest affinity receptor for Kme2 in the
      context of a peptide to date and is tighter than most Kme2 reader proteins. It
      also exhibits a ~2.5-fold increase in preference for Kme2 vs. Kme3 relative to
      the parent receptor, A2B. This work provides insight into effective strategies
      for binding hydrophilic, cationic guests in water and is an encouraging result
      toward a synthetic receptor that selectively binds Kme2 over other methylation
      states of lysine.

PMID- 28876352
TI  - Nanostructured interfacial self-assembled peptide-polymer membranes for enhanced
      mineralization and cell adhesion.
AB  - Soft interfacial materials, such as self-assembled polymer membranes, are gaining
      increasing interest as biomaterials since they can provide selective barriers
      and/or controlled affinity interactions important to regulate cellular processes.
      Herein, we report the design and fabrication of multiscale structured membranes
      integrating selective molecular functionalities for potential applications in
      bone regeneration. The membranes were obtained by interfacial self-assembly of
      miscible aqueous solutions of hyaluronan and multi-domain peptides (MDPs)
      incorporating distinct biochemical motifs, including mineralizing (EE), integrin
      binding (RGDS) and osteogenic (YGFGG) peptide sequences. Circular dichroism and
      Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses of the MDPs revealed a
      predominant beta-sheet conformation, while transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
      showed the formation of fibre-like nanostructures with different lengths.
      Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the membranes showed an anisotropic
      structure and surfaces with different nanotopographies, reflecting the
      morphological differences observed under TEM. All the membranes were able to
      promote the deposition of a calcium-phosphate mineral on their surface when
      incubated in a mineralizing solution. The ability of the MDPs, coated on
      coverslips or presented within the membranes, to support cell adhesion was
      investigated using primary adult periosteum-derived cells (PDCs) under serum-free
      conditions. Cells on the membranes lacking RGDS remained round, while in the
      presence of RGDS they appear to be more elongated and anchored to the membrane.
      These observations were confirmed by SEM analysis that showed cells attached to
      the membrane and exhibiting an extended morphology with close interactions with
      the membrane surface. We anticipate that these molecularly designed interfacial
      membranes can both provide relevant biochemical signals and structural biomimetic
      components for stem cell growth and differentiation and ultimately promote bone
      regeneration.

PMID- 28876353
TI  - Use of RAFT macro-surfmers for the synthesis of transparent aqueous colloids with
      tunable interactions.
AB  - We propose a new method to produce fluorinated nanoparticles (NPs) based on ab
      initio reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) emulsion
      polymerization without the use of toxic surfactants. NP size, surface charge, and
      chemistry can be controlled via the adoption of different macromolecular transfer
      agents produced via RAFT polymerization of amphiphilic monomers. Thanks to this
      versatility, interparticle interactions can be easily tuned by changing solvent
      composition and temperature. In addition, the refractive index and density of the
      solvent can simultaneously match those of the NPs by adding sodium polytungstate,
      an organic salt widely used for density gradient centrifugation. These colloids
      may be used as model systems for the study of self-assembly and aggregation in
      aqueous media when optical methods are required.

PMID- 28876354
TI  - Effects of precursor topology and synthesis under crowding conditions on the
      structure of single-chain polymer nanoparticles.
AB  - By means of molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the formation of
      single-chain nanoparticles through intramolecular cross-linking of polymer
      chains, in the presence of their precursors acting as purely steric crowders in
      concentrated solution. In the case of linear precursors, the structure of the
      resulting SCNPs is weakly affected by the density at which the synthesis is
      performed. Crowding has significant effects if ring precursors are used: higher
      concentrations lead to the formation of SCNPs with more compact and spherical
      morphologies. Such SCNPs retain in the swollen state (high dilution) the crumpled
      globular conformations adopted by the ring precursors in the crowded solutions.
      Increasing the concentration of both the linear and ring precursors up to 30%
      leads to faster formation of the respective SCNPs, prior to deceleration expected
      at higher densities. The results presented here propose promising new routes for
      the synthesis of globular SCNPs, which are usually elusive by conventional
      methods.

PMID- 28876355
TI  - Stabilization of anthocyanins in blackberry juice by glutathione fortification.
AB  - Blackberry anthocyanins provide attractive color and antioxidant activity.
      However, anthocyanins degrade during juice processing and storage, so maintaining
      high anthocyanin concentrations in berry juices may lead to greater antioxidant
      and health benefits for the consumer. This study evaluated potential additives to
      stabilize anthocyanins during blackberry juice storage. The anthocyanin
      stabilizing agents used were: glutathione, galacturonic acid,
      diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid and tannic acid, which were added at a level
      of 500 mg L-1. Juice anthocyanin, flavonol, and ellagitannin content and percent
      polymeric color were measured over five weeks of accelerated storage at 30 
      degrees C. Glutathione had the greatest protective effect on total anthocyanins
      and polymeric color. Therefore a second study was performed with glutathione in
      combination with lipoic and ascorbic acids in an effort to use antioxidant
      recycling to achieve a synergistic effect. However, the antioxidant recycling
      system had no protective effect relative to glutathione alone. Glutathione
      appears to be a promising blackberry juice additive to protect against
      anthocyanin degradation during storage.

PMID- 28876356
TI  - A versatile upconversion surface evaluation platform for bio-nano surface
      selection for the nervous system.
AB  - There is considerable interest in developing diagnostic nanotools for early
      detection and delivery of various therapeutic agents for treatment of
      neurodegenerative diseases. However, a key challenge remains in the selection of
      suitable surfaces to overcome the nano-bio interface issue, namely that many
      nanoparticle surfaces demonstrate instability when administered into biological
      environments and show substantial cytotoxicity to the central nervous system. In
      this study, we fabricated an evaluation platform for bio-nano surface selection
      based on the combination of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), cultured neural
      cells and zebra fish, and systemically demonstrated how it can evaluate the
      suitability of nanoparticle surfaces for applications in the central nervous
      system. Firstly, we fabricated highly lanthanide-doped UCNPs, which generate the
      strongest tissue penetrable emission at 800 nm. We then functionalized these
      UCNPs with four popular surfaces for evaluation. Next, we systematically
      evaluated the spectral emission properties, biophysical stability, cytotoxicity
      and cell uptake capability of these surface-functionalized UCNPs in biological
      solutions or with cultured NSC-34 cells. Through these studies, PEG-COOH proved
      to be the superior surface modification. Accordingly, we further confirmed the
      bioavailability of unmodified and surface modified UCNPs in the spinal cord of
      living zebrafish. As predicted, PEG-UCNPs displayed excellent dispersal and
      uptake into spinal motor neurons in living zebrafish. Collectively, this study
      developed a versatile upconversion platform for systematic evaluation of
      nanoparticle surfaces, which can provide valuable information via systemic
      surface evaluation in vitro and in vivo for future construction of
      multifunctional nanosystems for theranostic applications in neurodegenerative
      diseases.

PMID- 28876357
TI  - Phosphate solubilization by endophytic bacteria isolated from banana trees.
AB  - Forty isolates of endophytic bacteria isolated from banana tree roots were
      assessed as to their capacity to solubilize phosphate in a solid culture medium
      supplemented with different inorganic and one organic source of phosphorus. The
      amount of phosphorus (P) in each liquid medium was quantified, and an indirect
      assessment of acid phosphatase activity was performed. All assays had a fully
      randomized design, with three repetitions. Approximately 67.5% of the 40 isolates
      assessed in solid medium solubilized phosphorus from tricalcium phosphate and
      7.5% of the isolates solubilized phosphorus from soy lecithin; no isolates
      exhibited P solubilization capacity in medium supplemented with iron phosphate.
      Acid phosphatase activity was detected in 65% of the isolates; Aneurinibacillus
      sp. and Lysinibacillus sp. isolates presented with the best solubilization
      indexes. All of the assessed isolates exhibited a capacity to reduce the
      potential of hydrogen in liquid medium supplemented with tricalcium phosphate.
      Isolate EB. 78 (Bacillus sp.) exhibited P solubilization capacity in solid media
      when Ca3(PO4)2 and soy lecithin were used as P sources; this isolate
      significantly reduced the pH of the liquid medium and exhibited acid phosphatase
      activity. The results of the present study highlight isolates that exhibit
      variations in their capacity to solubilize P. These isolates should be used in
      future tests to assess their field performance.

PMID- 28876358
TI  - Animal models in biological and biomedical research - experimental and ethical
      concerns.
AB  - Animal models have been used in experimental research to increase human knowledge
      and contribute to finding solutions to biological and biomedical questions.
      However, increased concern for the welfare of the animals used, and a growing
      awareness of the concept of animal rights, has brought a greater focus on the
      related ethical issues. In this review, we intend to give examples on how animals
      are used in the health research related to some major health problems in Brazil,
      as well as to stimulate discussion about the application of ethics in the use of
      animals in research and education, highlighting the role of National Council for
      the Control of Animal Experimentation (Conselho Nacional de Controle de
      Experimentacao Animal - CONCEA) in these areas. In 2008, Brazil emerged into a
      new era of animal research regulation, with the promulgation of Law 11794,
      previously known as the Arouca Law, resulting in an increased focus, and rapid
      learning experience, on questions related to all aspects of animal
      experimentation. The law reinforces the idea that animal experiments must be
      based on ethical considerations and integrity-based assumptions, and provides a
      regulatory framework to achieve this. This review describes the health research
      involving animals and the current Brazilian framework for regulating laboratory
      animal science, and hopes to help to improve the awareness of the scientific
      community of these ethical and legal rules.

PMID- 28876359
TI  - Tracing the origin of the NS1 A188V substitution responsible for recent
      enhancement of Zika virus Asian genotype infectivity.
AB  - A recent study showed that infectivity of Zika virus (ZIKV) Asian genotype was
      enhanced by an alanine-to-valine amino acid substitution at residue 188 of the
      NS1 protein, but the precise time and location of origin of this mutation were
      not formally estimated. Here, we applied a Bayesian coalescent-based framework to
      estimate the age and location of the ancestral viral strain carrying the A188V
      substitution. Our results support that the ancestral ZIKV strain carrying the
      A188V substitution arose in Southeastern Asia at the early 2000s and circulated
      in that region for some time (5-10 years) before being disseminated to Southern
      Pacific islands and the Americas.

PMID- 28876360
TI  - All about neosporosis in Brazil.
AB  - Neospora caninum is protozoan parasite with domestic and wild dogs, coyotes and
      grey wolves as the definitive hosts and many warm-blooded animals as intermediate
      hosts. It was cultivated and named in 1988. Neosporosis is a major disease of
      cattle and has no public health significance. Since 1990's N. caninum has emerged
      as a major cause of abortion in cattle worldwide, including in Brazil. N. caninum
      also causes clinical infections in several other animal species. Considerable
      progress has been made in understanding the biology of N. caninum and there are
      more than 200 papers on this subject from Brazil. However, most of the reports on
      neosporosis from Brazil are serological surveys. Overall, little is known of
      clinical neosporosis in Brazil, particularly cattle. The few reports pertain to
      sporadic cases of abortion with no information on epidemics or storms of
      abortion. The objective of the present review is to summarize all reports from
      Brazil and suggest topic for further research, including prevalence of N. caninum
      oocysts in soil or in canine feces, and determining if there are additional
      definitive hosts, other than the domestic dog. There is need for a national
      survey in cattle using defined parameters. Future researches should focus on
      molecular characterization of N. caninum strains, possibility of vaccine
      production and relationship between wildlife and livestock epidemiology.

PMID- 28876361
TI  - The Five Digits Test in the assessment of older adults with low formal education:
      construct validity and reliability in a Brazilian clinical sample.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In the assessment of older adults with very low formal education,
      typical tests of selective attention and inhibitory control are biased by reading
      abilities. In this sense, we aim to assess the psychometric characteristics of
      the Five Digits Test (FDT), a numerical Stroop paradigm, in older adults without
      cognitive disorders, with mild cognitive impairment, and with dementia. METHODS:
      We assessed 211 Brazilian older adults with low formal education using the FDT
      and other cognitive measures. Construct validity and reliability were assessed by
      correlations and internal consistency. RESULTS: The FDT test had weak
      correlations with crystalized intelligence tests and moderate-high correlations
      with fluid intelligence measures and tests of global cognitive status and
      executive functions. The split-half coefficient of reliability showed high
      internal consistency (>0.900). CONCLUSION: Together, the results suggest that the
      FDT is a valid and reliable measure for the assessment of processing speed and
      executive functions in older adults with low formal education.

PMID- 28876362
TI  - Psychotropic prescriptions for the treatment of schizophrenia in an outpatient
      clinic.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is an unpredictable pattern in the prescription of
      antipsychotics and other psychotropic medications for the treatment of
      schizophrenia, particularly in resource-limited settings in developing countries.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the psychotropic prescriptions given to patients with
      schizophrenia in an outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital and to describe the
      choices and trends of these prescriptions. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional
      descriptive study of prescriptions for adults with schizophrenia. After clinical
      consultation, patients' case notes were randomly selected over a period of 2
      years. Using a structured form, data were extracted from the case notes including
      biodemographic data, psychotropic medications prescribed and changes made to
      these prescriptions. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics.
      RESULTS: A total of 103 patients were selected, with a mean age of 35.96+/-9.78
      years; 48.5% were males and 51.5% were females; 33% were unemployed and 38% had
      been hospitalized in the past. There were 231 initial prescriptions and 228
      current prescriptions, with about 2.2 prescriptions per patient. Haloperidol
      (mean dose 14.77+/-6.28mg and 11.44+/-5.55mg for initial and current) and other
      old-generation antipsychotics were the most commonly prescribed for new cases
      (98%). Mean duration of psychotropic use was 7.78+/-5.6 years. All the patients
      were prescribed trihexyphenidyl, and 56.3% of the patients had their medications
      changed as a result of side effects. CONCLUSION: There was a very high preference
      for the use of first-generation antipsychotics for all treatment settings (in-
      and outpatients), a pattern that is likely to persist.

PMID- 28876363
TI  - Dipyrone in association with atropine inhibits the effect on gastric emptying
      induced by hypoglycemia in rats.
AB  - Atropine (AT) and dipyrone (Dp) induce a delay of gastric emptying (GE) of
      liquids in rats by inhibiting muscarinic receptors and activating beta2
      adrenergic receptors, respectively. The objective of the present study was to
      determine the effects of pretreatment with AT and Dp, given alone or in
      combination, on the effect of hypoglycemia in the liquid GE in rats. Male Wistar
      adult rats (280-310 g) were pretreated intravenously with AT, Dp, AT plus Dp or
      their vehicle and then treated 30 min later with iv insulin or its vehicle (n=8
      10 animals/group). Thirty min after treatment, GE was evaluated by determining,
      in awake rats, the percent gastric retention (%GR) of a saline meal labeled with
      phenol red administered by gavage. The results indicated that insulin induced
      hypoglycemia in a dose-dependent manner resulting in a significant reduction in
      %GR of liquid only at the highest dose tested (1 U/kg). Pretreatment with AT
      significantly increased %GR in the rats treated with 1 U/kg insulin.
      Surprisingly, after pretreatment with AT, the group treated with the lowest dose
      of insulin (0.25 U/kg) displayed significantly lower %GR compared to its control
      (vehicle-treated group), which was not seen in the non-pretreated animals.
      Pretreatment with Dp alone at the dose of 40 mg/kg induced an increase in %GR in
      both vehicle and 0.25 U/kg-treated rats. A higher dose of Dp alone (80 mg/kg)
      significantly reduced the effect of a marked hypoglycemia induced by 1 U/kg of
      insulin on GE while in combination with AT the effect was completely abolished.
      The results with AT suggest that moderate hypoglycemia may render the inhibitory
      mechanisms of GE ineffective while Dp alone and in combination with AT
      significantly overcame the effect of hypoglycemia on GE.

PMID- 28876364
TI  - Silencing of augmenter of liver regeneration inhibited cell proliferation and
      triggered apoptosis in U266 human multiple myeloma cells.
AB  - Augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR) is a thermostable cytokine that was
      originally identified to promote the growth of hepatocytes. This study was
      conducted to explore the expression and function of ALR in multiple myeloma (MM),
      a common hematologic malignancy. Real-time PCR and western blot analysis were
      performed to detect the expression of ALR in U266 human MM cells and healthy
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). U266 MM cells were exposed to 20 or
      40 MUg/mL of recombinant ALR and tested for cell proliferation. Small interfering
      RNA-mediated silencing of ALR was done to investigate the role of ALR in cell
      proliferation, apoptosis, and cytokine production. Compared to PBMCs, U266 MM
      cells exhibited significantly higher levels of ALR at both the mRNA and protein
      levels. The addition of recombinant ALR protein significantly promoted the
      proliferation of U266 cells. In contrast, knockdown of ALR led to a significant
      decline in the viability and proliferation of U266 cells. Annexin-V/PI staining
      analysis demonstrated that ALR downregulation increased apoptosis in U266 MM
      cells, compared to control cells (20.1+/-1.1 vs 9.1+/-0.3%, P<0.05). Moreover,
      ALR depletion reduced the Bcl-2 mRNA level by 40% and raised the Bax mRNA level
      by 2-fold. Additionally, conditioned medium from ALR-depleted U266 cells had
      significantly lower concentrations of interleukin-6 than control cells (P<0.05).
      Taken together, ALR contributed to the proliferation and survival of U266 MM
      cells, and targeting ALR may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of MM.

PMID- 28876365
TI  - Association between ADAM metallopeptidase domain 33 gene polymorphism and risk of
      childhood asthma: a meta-analysis.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the association between ADAM metallopeptidase
      domain 33 (ADAM33) gene polymorphisms and the risk of childhood asthma. The
      relevant studies about the relationship between ADAM33 gene polymorphisms and
      childhood asthma were searched from electronic databases and the deadline of
      retrieval was May 2016. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of ADAM33
      (rs511898, rs2280092, rs3918396, rs528557, rs2853209, rs44707, rs2280091 and
      rs2280089) were analyzed based on several models including the allele,
      codominant, recessive and dominant models. The results showed that the ADAM33
      rs2280091 polymorphism in all four genetic models was associated with an
      increased risk of childhood asthma. Positive associations were also found between
      the polymorphisms rs2280090, rs2787094, rs44707 and rs528557 and childhood asthma
      in some genetic models. This meta-analysis suggested that ADAM33 polymorphisms
      rs2280091, rs2280090, rs2787094, rs44707 and rs528557 were significantly
      associated with a high risk of childhood asthma.

PMID- 28876366
TI  - Evaluation of the toxicity and hypoglycemic effect of the aqueous extracts of
      Cnidoscolus quercifolius Pohl.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic degenerative diseases, and it
      is estimated to increase worldwide to around 415 million and to impact 642
      million in 2040. Research shows that some plants are sources of bioactive
      compounds against diabetes. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the
      oral toxicity and the hypoglycemic effect of the aqueous extract of the leaves of
      Cnidoscolus quercifolius Pohl. Diabetes was induced in Swiss mice with
      streptozotocin and the mice were treated with an aqueous extract of C.
      quercifolius leaves for a period of 30 days. Phytochemical analysis showed that
      the extract was rich in flavonoids, catechins and triterpenoid, which did not
      show any mortality and behavioral alterations in mice treated with 200, 1000, and
      2000 mg/kg body weight of the extract for 14 days. Histopathological analysis of
      organs (kidney, pancreas, liver) from mice treated with the 2000 mg/kg extract
      revealed no architectural change. In the present study, we found a 29% reduction
      in glucose levels in animals receiving 200 mg/kg body weight. These results are
      very promising because they showed that C. quercifolius had a hypoglycemic effect
      and did not present oral toxicity, thus being a new source of compounds for the
      control of diabetes.

PMID- 28876368
TI  - COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: A WORLD TO BE EXPLORED.

PMID- 28876367
TI  - Xuezhikang reduced arterial stiffness in patients with essential hypertension: a
      preliminary study.
AB  - This study aimed to test the effects of xuezhikang, a cholestin extract that
      contains statin-like components, on arterial stiffness in patients with essential
      hypertension. One hundred hypertensive patients from the Chinese PLA General
      Hospital were randomly allocated to receive xuezhikang (1200 mg/day, orally) or
      placebo (same capsules containing only pharmaceutical excipients). Physical
      examination outcomes, lipid profile, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)
      levels, matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) levels, and arterial outcomes,
      including stiffness parameter (beta), pressure-strain elasticity modulus (Ep),
      arterial compliance (AC), augmentation index (AI), and one-point pulse wave
      velocity (PWVbeta) were obtained at baseline and after 6 months of the
      intervention. Xuezhikang significantly reduced beta (8.4+/-3.1 vs 6.8+/-2.1,
      P=0.007), Ep (122.8+/-43.9 vs 100.7+/-33.2, P=0.009), PWVbeta (6.7+/-1.2 vs 6.1+/
      1.0, P=0.013), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (3.4+/-0.6 vs 2.9+/-0.5,
      P=0.001), hs-CRP [2.1 (0.4-10.0) vs 1.4 (0.3-4.1), P=0.020], and MMP-9 (17.2+/
      2.4 vs 12.7+/-3.8, P <0.001) compared to baseline. The placebo had no effect on
      these parameters. The changes of PWVbeta in the xuezhikang group was
      significantly associated with the changes of hs-CRP and MMP-9 (r=0.144, P=0.043;
      r=0.278, P=0.030, respectively) but not with lipid profile changes. Our research
      showed xuezhikang can improve the parameters of arterial stiffness in
      hypertensive patients, and its effect was independent of lipid lowering.

PMID- 28876369
TI  - Quantitative analysis of tongue movement in 14 phonemes of Brazilian Portuguese.
AB  - Purpose: The aim of this study was to characterize the ultrasonographic pattern
      of tongue movement in 14 consonant phonemes of Brazilian Portuguese (BP), seeking
      to identify and describe ultrasonographic parameters that could grasp the
      difference of manner and place of articulation among these phonemes. Methods: We
      selected 20 individuals with typical speech production, aged between 20-30 years
      of both genders. The selected stimuli included the 14 lingual consonant BP
      phonemes in the intervocalic context of [a]. Data were collected and analyzed
      with the use of ultrasound, and the AAA (Articulate Assistant Advanced) and the
      Ultra-CATS (The Ultrasonographic Contour Analyzer for Tongue Surfaces) softwares.
      Three ultrasound parameters were used for data analysis: anteriority index (AI),
      global average of tongue height (GA) and relative anteriority index (RAI). Data
      were statistically analyzed. Results: ANOVA showed a significant effect on the
      parameters and the RAI differentiated phonemes as the place (alveolar, pre
      palatal, palatal and velar) and manner of articulation (fricative, nasal and
      occlusive); GA differentiate phonemes only as the place of articulation
      (alveolar, pre-palatal and velar). Conclusion: There was no single US parameter
      that could differentiate place and manner of articulation simultaneously. The
      clinical application for analysis of speech production disorders require the use
      of at least two ultrasound parameters: one to distinguish the place and another
      to distinguish the articulation manner.

PMID- 28876370
TI  - Cortical maturation of long latency auditory evoked potentials in hearing
      children: the complex P1-N1-P2-N2.
AB  - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to monitor the emergence and changes to
      the components of the Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials (LLAEP) in normal
      hearing children. Methods: This longitudinal study included children of both
      genders: seven aged between 10 and 35 months, and eight children between 37 and
      63 months. The electrophysiological hearing evaluation consisted of analysis of
      LLAEP obtained in a sound field generated with loudspeakers positioned at an
      azimuth of 90 degrees , through which the syllable /ba/ was played at an
      intensity of 70 dB HL. Each child underwent an initial evaluation followed by two
      re-evaluations three and nine months later. Results: The emergence of LLAEP
      components across the nine-month follow-up period was observed. P1 and N2 were
      the most common components in children of this age range. There was no
      statistically significant difference regarding the occurrence of P1, N1, P2, and
      N2 components amongst younger and older children. Regarding latency values, the
      greatest changes overtime were observed in the P1 component for younger children
      and in the N2 component for older children. Only the P1 component significantly
      differed between the groups, with the highest latency values observed in younger
      children. Conclusion: LLAEP maturation occurs gradually and the emergence of
      complex components appears to be related more to the maturation of the central
      auditory nervous system than to chronological age.

PMID- 28876371
TI  - Group climate in the voice therapy of patients with Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - Purpose: To verify the impact that group dynamics and coaching strategies have on
      the PD patients voice, speech and communication, as well as the group climate.
      Methods: 16 individuals with mild to moderate dysarthria due to the PD were
      divided into two groups: the CG (8 patients), submitted to traditional therapy
      with 12 regular therapy sessions plus 4 additional support sessions; and the EG
      (8 patients), submitted to traditional therapy with 12 regular therapy sessions
      plus 4 sessions with group dynamics and coaching strategies. The Living with
      Dysarthria questionnaire (LwD), the self-evaluation of voice, speech and
      communication, and the perceptual-auditory analysis of the vocal quality were
      assess in 3 moments: pre-traditional therapy (pre); post-traditional therapy
      (post 1); and post support sessions/coaching strategies (post 2); in post 1 and
      post 2 moments, the Group Climate Questionnaire (GCQ) was also applied. Results:
      CG and EG showed an improvement in the LwD from pre to post 1 and post 2 moments.
      Voice self-evaluation was better for the EG - when pre was compared with post 2
      and when post 1 was compared with post 2 - ranging from regular to very good;
      both groups presented improvement in the communication self-evaluation. The
      perceptual-auditory evaluation of the vocal quality was better for the EG in the
      post 1 moment. No difference was found for the GCQ; however, the EG presented
      lower avoidance scores in post 2. Conclusion: All patients showed improvement in
      the voice, speech and communication self-evaluation; EG showed lower avoidance
      scores, creating a more collaborative and propitious environment for speech
      therapy.

PMID- 28876372
TI  - Functional Capacity in Congenital Heart Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta
      Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents with congenital heart disease often have
      alterations in their exercise capacity that can be evaluated by various
      functional testing. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the functional capacity of children
      and adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD) with systematic review and
      meta-analyses. METHODS: The review included observational studies, data from the
      first evaluation of randomized clinical trials or observational follow-up periods
      after clinical trials which evaluated functional capacity by cardiopulmonary
      exercise test, stress testing, six-minute walk test or step test, in children and
      adolescents with CHD, aged between six and 18 years, and comparisons with healthy
      controls in the same age group. The quantitative assessment was performed by meta
      analysis, by comparing the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of children and
      adolescents with CHD and respective control groups. RESULTS: Twenty-five of 2.683
      studies identified in the search met the inclusion criteria. The VO2max
      measurement showed that patients with CHD have a decrease of 9.31 ml/Kg/min (95%
      CI. -12.48 to -6.13; I2, 94.3%, P for heterogeneity < 0.001) compared with the
      control group. The meta-analysis of the data of maximum heart rate (HR) reached
      during cardiopulmonary test and stress testing, retrieved from 18 studies, showed
      a HR value of -15.14 bpm (95% CI. -20.97 to -9.31; I2, 94.3%, P for heterogeneity
      < 0.001) compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: Children and adolescents
      with CHD have lower VO2max and HR compared to controls.

PMID- 28876374
TI  - Do We Need to Personalize Renal Function Assessment in the Stratification of
      Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renal dysfunction is an independent predictor of morbidity and
      mortality in cardiac surgery. For a better assessment of renal function,
      calculation of creatinine clearance (CC) may be necessary. OBJECTIVE: To
      objectively evaluate whether CC is a better risk predictor than serum creatinine
      (SC) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. METHODS: Analysis of 3,285 patients
      registered in a prospective, consecutive and mandatory manner in the Sao Paulo
      Registry of Cardiovascular Surgery (REPLICCAR) between November 2013 and January
      2015. Values of SC, CC (Cockcroft-Gault) and EuroSCORE II were obtained.
      Association analysis of SC and CC with morbidity and mortality was performed by
      calibration and discrimination tests. Independent multivariate models with SC and
      CC were generated by multiple logistic regression to predict morbidity and
      mortality following cardiac surgery. RESULTS: Despite the association between SC
      and mortality, it did not calibrate properly the risk groups. There was an
      association between CC and mortality with good calibration of risk groups. In
      mortality risk prediction, SC was uncalibrated with values > 1.35 mg /dL (p <
      0.001). The ROC curve showed that CC is better than SC in predicting both
      morbidity and mortality risk. In the multivariate model without CC, SC was the
      only predictor of morbidity, whereas in the model without SC, CC was not only a
      mortality predictor, but also the only morbidity predictor. CONCLUSION: Compared
      with SC, CC is a better parameter of renal function in risk stratification of
      patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

PMID- 28876373
TI  - Minimally Invasive Epicardial Pacemaker Implantation in Neonates with Congenital
      Heart Block.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have characterized the surgical outcomes following
      epicardial pacemaker implantation in neonates with congenital complete
      atrioventricular block (CCAVB). OBJECTIVE: This study sought to assess the long
      term outcomes of a minimally invasive epicardial approach using a subxiphoid
      access for pacemaker implantation in neonates. METHODS: Between July 2002 and
      February 2015, 16 consecutive neonates underwent epicardial pacemaker
      implantation due to CCAVB. Among these, 12 (75.0%) had congenital heart defects
      associated with CCAVB. The patients had a mean age of 4.7 +/- 5.3 days and nine
      (56.3%) were female. Bipolar steroid-eluting epicardial leads were implanted in
      all patients through a minimally invasive subxiphoid approach and fixed on the
      diaphragmatic ventricular surface. The pulse generator was placed in an
      epigastric submuscular position. RESULTS: All procedures were successful, with no
      perioperative complications or early deaths. Mean operating time was 90.2 +/-
      16.8 minutes. None of the patients displayed pacing or sensing dysfunction, and
      all parameters remained stable throughout the follow-up period of 4.1 +/- 3.9
      years. Three children underwent pulse generator replacement due to normal battery
      depletion at 4.0, 7.2, and 9.0 years of age without the need of ventricular lead
      replacement. There were two deaths at 12 and 325 days after pacemaker
      implantation due to bleeding from thrombolytic use and progressive refractory
      heart failure, respectively. CONCLUSION: Epicardial pacemaker implantation
      through a subxiphoid approach in neonates with CCAVB is technically feasible and
      associated with excellent surgical outcomes and pacing lead longevity.

PMID- 28876375
TI  - Twenty-four hour Blood Pressure in Obese Patients with Moderate-to-Severe
      Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity, systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) and obstructive sleep
      apnea (OSA) are closely related. Up to 70% of patients with OSA may be
      asymptomatic, and there is evidence that these patients have cardiovascular
      disease, especially nocturnal SAH. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to
      evaluate 24-hour blood pressure circadian variation in asymptomatic, obese
      individuals with moderate-to-severe OSA and compare it with that in individuals
      with mild OSA or without OSA. METHODS: Eighty-six obese subjects aged between 30
      and 55 years (BMI 30-39 kg/m2), with casual blood pressure < 140/90 mmHg and
      without comorbidities were recruited. Eighty-one patients underwent clinical and
      anthropometric assessment, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), and Watch
      PAT. Participants were divided into two groups, based on the apnea-hypopnea index
      (AHI): group 1, with AHI < 15 events/hour, and group 2 with AHI >= 15
      events/hour. RESULTS: Compared with group 1, group 2 had higher neck
      circumference and waist-hip circumference (40.5 +/- 3.2 cm vs. 38.0 +/- 3.7 cm, p
      = 0.002, and 0.94 +/- 0.05 vs. 0.89 +/- 0.05, p = 0.001, respectively), higher
      systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured by the 24-h ABPM (122 +/- 6 vs 118
      +/- 8 mmHg, p = 0.014, and 78 +/- 6 vs 73 +/- 7 mmHg, p = 0.008, respectively),
      and higher nocturnal diastolic pressure load (44,6 +/- 25,9% vs 31,3 +/- 27,3%, p
      = 0,041). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between nocturnal diastolic
      blood pressure and AHI (r = 0.43, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Asymptomatic obese
      subjects with moderate-to-severe OSA have higher systolic and diastolic blood
      pressure at 24 hours compared with those with absent / mild OSA, despite normal
      casual blood pressure between the groups. These results indicate that ABPM may be
      useful in the evaluation of asymptomatic obese patients with moderate-to-severe
      OSA.

PMID- 28876376
TI  - Pre-Frailty Increases the Risk of Adverse Events in Older Patients Undergoing
      Cardiovascular Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty is identified as a major predictor of adverse outcomes in
      older surgical patients. However, the outcomes in pre-frail patients after
      cardiovascular surgery remain unknown. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the main
      outcomes (length of stay, mechanical ventilation time, stroke and in-hospital
      death) in pre-frail patients in comparison with no-frail patients after
      cardiovascular surgery. METHODS: 221 patients over 65 years old, with established
      diagnosis of myocardial infarction or valve disease were enrolled. Patients were
      evaluated by Clinical Frailty Score (CFS) before surgery and allocated into 2
      groups: no-frailty (CFS 1~3) vs. pre-frailty (CFS 4) and followed up for main
      outcomes. For all analysis, the statistical significance was set at 5% (p <
      0.05). RESULTS: No differences were found in anthropometric and demographic data
      between groups (p > 0.05). Pre-frail patients showed a longer mechanical
      ventilation time (193 +/- 37 vs. 29 +/- 7 hours; p<0.05) than no-frail patients;
      similar results were observed for length of stay at the intensive care unit (5 +/
      1 vs. 3 +/- 1 days; p < 0.05) and total time of hospitalization (12 +/- 5 vs. 9
      +/- 3 days; p < 0.05). In addition, the pre-frail group had a higher number of
      adverse events (stroke 8.3% vs. 3.9%; in-hospital death 21.5% vs. 7.8%; p < 0.05)
      with an increased risk for development stroke (OR: 2.139, 95% CI: 0.622-7.351, p
      = 0.001; HR: 2.763, 95%CI: 1.206-6.331, p = 0.0001) and in-hospital death (OR:
      1.809, 95% CI: 1.286-2.546, p = 0.001; HR: 1.830, 95% CI: 1.476-2.269, p =
      0.0001). Moreover, higher number of pre-frail patients required homecare services
      than no-frail patients (46.5% vs. 0%; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Patients with pre
      frailty showed longer mechanical ventilation time and hospital stay with an
      increased risk for cardiovascular events compared with no-frail patients.

PMID- 28876377
TI  - Crack-cocaine users have less family cohesion than alcohol users.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Many studies correlate characteristics of family functioning and the
      development of drug addiction. This study sought to evaluate and compare the
      family environment styles of two groups of psychoactive substance users: 1)
      alcohol-only users and 2) crack-cocaine users. METHODS: Three hundred and sixty
      four users of alcohol, crack-cocaine, and other drugs, recruited from research
      centers in four Brazilian capitals participated in this study. Subjects were
      evaluated through the Family Environment Scale and the Addiction Severity Index,
      6th version (ASI-6). ASI-6 t-scores were compared by analysis of variance (ANOVA)
      and post-hoc tests. A final model was obtained using a logistic regression
      analysis. All analyses were adjusted for partner, age, and psychiatric t-score.
      RESULTS: We found a significant difference between groups in the cohesion
      subscale (p = 0.044). The post-hoc test revealed a difference of 1.06 points
      (95%CI 0.11-2.01) between groups 1 (6.45+/-0.28) and 2 (5.38+/-0.20). No
      significant between-group differences were observed in the other subscales.
      However, categorical analyses of variables regarding family dynamic showed that
      crack users more often reported that sometimes people in their family hit each
      other (30.4% vs. 13.2%, p = 0.007) and that people in their family frequently
      compared each other regarding work and/or school achievement (57.2% vs. 42.6%, p
      = 0.041). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that families of crack-cocaine users
      are less cohesive than families of alcohol users. This type of family environment
      may affect treatment outcome, and should thus be adequately approached.

PMID- 28876378
TI  - Screening for common mental disorders using the SRQ-20 in Brazil: what are the
      alternative strategies for analysis?
AB  - Objective: To analyze the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMD) assessed
      with the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), using the established cutoff
      point, and comparing it with the results of a joint correspondence factor
      analysis (CFA) and cluster analysis and of a latent class analysis (LCA).
      Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in an urban sample of 1,095
      women aged 19 to 55 years. Joint CFA-cluster analysis and LCA were used. Results:
      We found a high prevalence of CMD, regardless of classification method (37.6%
      when using the cutoff point; 44.4% and 52% for LCA and joint CFA-cluster,
      respectively). The alternative analysis strategies describe the cases more
      efficiently when compared to the traditional cutoff method, especially regarding
      more severe symptoms. Both alternative strategies also provide a description of
      the SRQ-20 dimensions in their particularities, which may be useful for the
      planning and implementation of specific actions in a given population.
      Conclusion: The SRQ-20 cutoff point seems to underestimate the magnitude of CMD
      among women. The alternative methods of analysis presented herein highlight the
      different possibilities of using this important instrument of screening for
      mental health.

PMID- 28876380
TI  - Portuguese and Brazilian guidelines for the treatment of depression: exercise as
      medicine.
AB  - Depression is a psychiatric disorder and major contributor to the burden of
      disease worldwide. The strength of evidence of the benefits of exercise as a
      therapeutic intervention for patients with depression has expanded in the last 30
      years. In fact, the available evidence indicates exercise can not only help
      manage depressive symptoms, but also effect significant improvements in other
      health outcomes. Clinical guidelines including such recommendations have been
      issued by different agencies, namely the UK National Institute for Health and
      Clinical Excellence (NICE), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the
      Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). With
      increasing recognition of the benefits of exercise and shortcomings of healthcare
      systems, other countries, such as Sweden and Canada, have included exercise in
      their national guidelines for treating depression. Unfortunately, progress in
      incorporating exercise guidelines into clinical practice has been slow, and
      Portugal and Brazil reflect this reality. In this update, we reemphasize the
      importance of bridging this gap and integrating exercise into clinical practice
      guidelines as an essential component of depression treatment.

PMID- 28876379
TI  - Clinical outcomes of psychotherapy dropouts: does dropping out of psychotherapy
      necessarily mean failure?
AB  - Objective: A large proportion of psychotherapy patients remain untreated, mostly
      because they drop out. This study compares the short- and long-term outcomes of
      patients who dropped out of psychotherapy to those of therapy completers.
      Methods: The sample included 63 patients (23 dropouts and 40 completers) from a
      controlled clinical trial, which compared narrative therapy vs. cognitive
      behavioral therapy for major depressive disorder. Patients were assessed at the
      eighth session, post-treatment, and at 31-month follow-up. Results: Dropouts
      improved less than completers by the last session attended, but continued to
      improve significantly more than completers during the follow-up period. Some
      dropout patients improved with a small dose of therapy (17% achieved a clinically
      significant change before abandoning treatment), while others only achieved
      clinically significant change after a longer period (62% at 31-month follow-up).
      Conclusion: These results emphasize the importance of dealing effectively with
      patients at risk of dropping out of therapy.Patients who dropped out also
      reported improvement of depressive symptoms without therapy, but took much longer
      to improve than did patients who completed therapy. This might be attributable to
      natural remission of depression. Further research should use a larger patient
      database, ideally gathered by meta-analysis.

PMID- 28876381
TI  - Assessment of the antiproliferative and antigenotoxic activity and phytochemical
      screening of aqueous extracts of Sambucus australis Cham. & Schltdl. (ADOXACEAE).
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antiproliferative and antigenotoxic
      activity of Sambucus australis Cham. & Schltdl. aqueous extracts on the cell
      cycle of Allium cepa L. as well as determine the phenolic compounds in such
      extracts. S. australis inflorescences and leaves of two accessions were used for
      aqueous extract preparation at concentrations: 0.003 g/ml and 0.012 g/ml. A. cepa
      bulbs were rooted in distilled water and, subsequently, placed in treatments for
      24 hours. Rootlets were collected and fixed in modified Carnoy's solution for 24
      hours and kept. The squash technique was performed for slide preparation. Root
      tips were smashed and stained with 2% acetic orcein, and a total of 4000 cells
      per treatment were analyzed. The phenolic compounds were determined using high
      performance liquid chromatography and data was analyzed using the Scott-Knott
      test. The results show that S. australis aqueous extracts have antiproliferative
      potential. Besides, the extracts prepared from S. australis leaves of both
      accessions at a concentration of 0.012 g/ml have shown antigenotoxic activity.
      The phytochemical analysis allowed us to determine the presence of flavonoids and
      phenolic acids, of which kaempferol and chrologenic acid were the most
      predominant compounds in the extracts from the inflorescences and leaves,
      respectively.

PMID- 28876382
TI  - Detection, purification and characterization of a lectin from freshwater green
      algae Spirogyra spp.
AB  - Freshwater algae are rich sources of structurally biologically active
      metabolites, such as fatty acids, steroids, carotenoids and polysaccharides.
      Among these metabolites, lectins stand out. Lectins are proteins or glycoproteins
      of non-immune origin which bind to carbohydrates or glycoconjugates, without
      changing ligand structure. Many studies have reported on the use of Spirogyra
      spp. as effective bioindicators of heavy metals; however, reports on Spirogyra
      molecular bioprospecting are quite limited. Therefore, this study aimed to
      detect, isolate, purify and characterize a lectin present in the freshwater green
      algae Spirogyra. Presence of the lectin protein in the extract was detected by
      hemagglutination assays. Subsequently, the protein extract was subjected to a
      sugar inhibition assay to identify the lectin-specific carbohydrate. Following
      this, the extract was applied to a guar gum column to afford the pure lectin. The
      lectin was inhibited by N-acetyl-glucosamine and N-acetyl-beta-D-mannose, but
      more strongly by D-galactose. The apparent molecular mass of the purified lectin
      was evaluated by Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium
      dodecyl sulfate (SDS-PAGE). Electrophoretic analysis revealed a single protein
      band with an apparent molecular mass of 56 kDa. Thus, it could be concluded that
      a lectin was purified from Spirogyra spp.

PMID- 28876383
TI  - Correlations of condition factor and gonadosomatic, hepatosomatic and lipo
      somatic relations of Leptodactylus macrosternum (ANURA: Leptodactylidae) in the
      Brazilian Semi-arid.
AB  - The objective of this study was to assess variations of the condition factor (K1)
      in relation to the gonadosomatic- RGS and energy reserves (hepatosomatic - RWL
      and liposomatic - RFB relations) of Leptodactylus macrosternum and their
      relationship to climate variation in the Northeast of Brazil, Caatinga area,
      state of Paraiba. The animals were captured fortnightly through active
      collecting, between January and December 2013. Significant differences were
      observed in the monthly variations of K1, RGS and RFB indices in male and female
      L. macrosternum over the months of collection. In males, K1 showed no significant
      relationship with the other variables. In females, RGS values only show notable
      correlations with RWF and K1 values. K1 values showed significant correlations
      with all other weight and length ratios. Climate change in the HFOB region showed
      significant relationships with the variation of the indexes evaluated, with the
      exception of RWF. The variation of K1, RGS, RWL and RFB values over the months of
      collection as well as their relation with the local climatic variation, showed a
      brief reproductive activity for the species.

PMID- 28876385
TI  - Carbon and nutrient stocks of three Fabaceae trees used for forest restoration
      and subjected to fertilization in Amazonia.
AB  - Amazonia is crucial to global carbon cycle. Deforestation continues to be one of
      the main causes of the release of C into the atmosphere, but forest restoration
      plantations can reverse this scenario. However, there is still diffuse
      information about the C and nutrient stocks in the vegetation biomass. We
      investigated the carbon and nutrient stocks of Fabaceae trees (Inga edulis,
      Schizolobium amazonicum and Dipteryx odorata) subjected to fertilization
      treatments (T1 - no fertilization; T2 - chemical; T3 - organic; and T4 - organic
      and chemical fertilization) in a degraded area of the Balbina Hydroelectric Dam,
      AM - Brazil. As an early successional species, I. edulis stocked more C and
      nutrients than the other two species independent of the fertilization treatment,
      and S. amazonicum stocked more C than D. odorata under T1 and T4. The mixed
      species plantation had the potential to stock 4.1 Mg C ha-1 year-1, while I.
      edulis alone could stock 9.4 Mg C ha-1 year-1. Mixing species that rapidly
      assimilate C and are of significant ecological and commercial value (e.g.,
      Fabaceae trees) represents a good way to restore degraded areas. Our results
      suggest that the tested species be used for forest restoration in Amazonia.

PMID- 28876384
TI  - Influence of substrate on the richness and composition of Neotropical cave fauna.
AB  - The food base in the subterranean environment consists mainly of allochthonous
      materials. In this environment the resources are distributed generally in a
      heterogeneous dispersed way and the distribution of resources and their
      availability determine where the terrestrial invertebrates will reside, which is
      important for understanding ecological relationships and to establish
      conservation strategies. Thus, we tested how the complexity of substrates
      influences the richness and composition of the subterranean terrestrial
      invertebrates in the Presidente Olegario karst area, southeastern Brazil. We
      carried out collections in six caves during both dry and wet seasons, using
      combined collection methods. We observed different distributions in relation to
      the substrate, because the environmental heterogeneity increases the amount of
      available niches for the fauna. Some taxa showed a preference for specific
      substrates, probably related to the availability of food resources and humidity
      and to body size restriction, emphasizing the niche differentiation between
      species. Anthropogenic impacts can cause irreversible alterations in the
      subterranean fauna because the subterranean environment is dependent on the
      surface for input of trophic resources. On-going impacts in the Presidente
      Olegario karst area, like agriculture, pastures, gas extraction, and
      hydroelectric projects, are therefore a serious threat to subterranean
      biodiversity and this region should be prioritized for conservation.

PMID- 28876386
TI  - A possible relationship between gluconeogenesis and glycogen metabolism in
      rabbits during myocardial ischemia.
AB  - Ischemia is responsible for many metabolic abnormalities in the heart, causing
      changes in organ function. One of modifications occurring in the ischemic cell is
      changing from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. This change causes the
      predominance of the use of carbohydrates as an energy substrate instead of
      lipids. In this case, the glycogen is essential to the maintenance of heart
      energy intake, being an important reserve to resist the stress caused by hypoxia,
      using glycolysis and lactic acid fermentation. In order to study the glucose
      anaerobic pathways utilization and understand the metabolic adaptations, New
      Zealand white rabbits were subjected to ischemia caused by Inflow occlusion
      technique. The animals were monitored during surgery by pH and lactate levels.
      Transcription analysis of the pyruvate kinase, lactate dehydrogenase and
      phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase enzymes were performed by qRT-PCR, and glycogen
      quantification was determined enzymatically. Pyruvate kinase transcription
      increased during ischemia, followed by glycogen consumption content. The
      gluconeogenesis increased in control and ischemia moments, suggesting a
      relationship between gluconeogenesis and glycogen metabolism. This result shows
      the significant contribution of these substrates in the organ energy supply and
      demonstrates the capacity of the heart to adapt the metabolism after this injury,
      sustaining the homeostasis during short-term myocardial ischemia.

PMID- 28876387
TI  - Assessment of cow and farm level risk factors associated with Ureaplasma diversum
      in pasture-based dairy systems - A field study.
AB  - Potential risk factors for Ureaplasma diversum in the vaginal mucus of 1,238
      dairy cows were included in a multivariate logistic regression model, based on
      the cow level (i.e., granular vulvovaginitis [+GVV], yearly milk production [4500
      kg or more], pregnancy, predominance of Bos taurus [+Bos Taurus], score of
      corporal condition [at least 2.5], concomitant positivity for Escherichia coli
      [+E.coli]), and farm level i.e., milking room hygiene (-Milking room), dunghill
      location, and replacement female). Ureaplasma diversum was present in 41.1% of
      the samples. Independent risk factors for U. diversum were +GVV (odds ratio [OR],
      1.31); +Mycoplasma spp (OR, 5.67); yearly milk production (4500 kg or more) (OR,
      1.99); +Bos taurus (OR, 1.68); +E. coli (OR, 4.96); -milking room (OR, 2.31); and
      replacement females (OR, 1.89). Ureaplasma diversum vaginal colonization was
      strongly associated with Mycoplasma spp., E. coli, and number of pregnant cows.

PMID- 28876388
TI  - Brazilian science communication research: national and international
      contributions.
AB  - Science communication has emerged as a new field over the last 50 years, and its
      progress has been marked by a rise in jobs, training courses, research,
      associations, conferences and publications. This paper describes science
      communication internationally and the trends and challenges it faces, before
      looking at the national level. We have documented science communication
      activities in Brazil, the training courses, research, financial support and
      associations/societies. By analyzing the publication of papers, dissertations and
      theses we have tracked the growth of this field, and compared the level of
      activity in Brazil with other countries. Brazil has boosted its national research
      publications since 2002, with a bigger contribution from postgraduate programs in
      education and communication, but compared to its national research activity
      Brazil has only a small international presence in science communication. The
      language barrier, the tradition of publishing in national journals and the solid
      roots in education are some of the reasons for that. Brazil could improve its
      international participation, first by considering collaborations within Latin
      America. International publication is dominated by the USA and the UK. There is a
      need to take science communication to the next level by developing more
      sophisticated tools for conceptualizing and analyzing science communication, and
      Brazil can be part of that.

PMID- 28876389
TI  - The use of Proteinase K to access genitalia morphology, vouchering and DNA
      extraction in minute wasps.
AB  - Genitalia are rich source of characters in insect taxonomy. Usually, they are
      examined after dissection and cleaning with potassium hydroxide (KOH), procedure
      that may damage both genital morphological structures and intracellular molecular
      contents. Enzymatic procedure with Proteinase K has been used to clean muscle off
      the genitalia while extract DNA, but its damage to the genital structures has not
      been evaluated. Herein, we qualitatively compare the use of KOH and Proteinase K
      to prepare genital structures in minute insects (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae). We
      show that Proteinase K is better to preserve the genital structure and provides
      quality DNA.

PMID- 28876390
TI  - The influence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and paracetamol used for
      pain control of orthodontic tooth movement: a systematic review.
AB  - : The present study aimed to perform a systematic literature review to determine
      if there is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that interferes less
      within tooth movement. This research was performed according to the PRISMA
      statement. Articles were searched in eight electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus,
      Embase, Web of Science, LILACS, SciELO, Google Scholar, and Open Grey). Only
      experimental studies on male Wistar rats were selected, which included
      experiments related to the influence of NSAIDs on orthodontic movement. Studies
      in animals with pathological conditions, literature review articles, letters to
      the editor and/or editorials, case reports, abstracts, books, and book chapters
      were excluded. Each of the steps of this systematic literature review was
      performed by two examiners independently. RESULTS: the total sample consisted of
      505 articles, from which 6 studies were eligible after a qualitative analysis.
      From the drugs assessed, paracetamol was unanimous for not interfering within
      orthodontic movement when compared to the control group. However, drugs such as
      aspirin, ibuprofen, sodium diclofenac, and selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors
      caused a reduction in tooth movement when compared to the control group.
      CONCLUSION: paracetamol could be considered the drug of choice for pain relief
      because it interferes less within tooth movement.

PMID- 28876391
TI  - Agronomic viability of New Zealand spinach and kale intercropping.
AB  - The intercropping is a production system that aims to provide increased yield
      with less environmental impact, due to greater efficiency in the use of natural
      resources and inputs involved in the production process. An experiment was
      carried out to evaluate the agronomic viability of kale and New Zealand spinach
      intercropping as a function of the spinach transplanting time. (0, 14, 28, 42,
      56, 70, 84 and 98 days after transplanting of the kale). The total yield (TY) and
      yield per harvest (YH) of the kale in intercropping did not differ from those
      obtained in monoculture. The spinach TY was influenced by the transplanting time,
      the earlier the transplanting, the higher the TY. The spinach YH was not
      influenced by the transplanting time, but rather by the cultivation system. In
      intercropping, the spinach YH was 13.5% lower than in monoculture. The
      intercropping was agronomically feasible, since the land use efficiency index,
      which was not influenced by the transplanting time, had an average value of 1.71,
      indicating that the intercropping produced 71% more kale and spinach than the
      same area in monoculture. Competitiveness coefficient, aggressiveness and yield
      loss values showed that kale is the dominating species and spinach is the
      dominated.

PMID- 28876393
TI  - A new saurolophine hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Upper
      Cretaceous of Shandong, China.
AB  - A new saurolophine hadrosaurid, Laiyangosaurus youngi gen. et sp. nov. is
      described and phylogenetically analyzed based on several cranial elements from
      the Jingangkou Formation, Wangshi Group, Upper Cretaceous of Laiyang, Shandong,
      China. Laiyangosaurus youngi differs from other members of the saurolophine clade
      on the basis of a number of autapomorphies, including a prominent and narrow
      ridge on the lateral side of the nasal which forms the posterodorsal and
      posterior margin of the circumnasal depression, a primary ridge that runs along
      most of the maxillary tooth row that is slightly deflected posteriorly, a
      retroarticular process of the surangular that is dorsolateroposteriorlly
      recurved, and orbital margins that are wider than the infratemporal margins of
      the jugal. This new taxon can be further distinguished by a number of unique
      combination of characters, including dorsal margin of nasal is flat, absence
      supracranial crest, a relatively shallow and rostrodorsally directed caudal
      margin of the lacrimal process of the jugal, and one or more foramina present on
      the rostral surface of the premaxilla. A phylogenetic analysis indicates that L.
      youngi comprises a monophyletic clade, which is known as Edmontosaurini.

PMID- 28876392
TI  - Antifungal and antioxidant activity of fatty acid methyl esters from vegetable
      oils.
AB  - Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were obtained from vegetable oils of soybean,
      corn and sunflower. The current study was focused on evaluating the antifungal
      activity of FAMEs mainly against Paracoccidioides spp., as well as testing the
      interaction of these compounds with commercial antifungal drugs and also their
      antioxidant potential. FAMEs presented small IC50 values (1.86-9.42 MUg/mL). All
      three FAMEs tested showed antifungal activity against isolates of
      Paracoccidioides spp. with MIC values ranging from 15.6-500 ug/mL. Sunflower
      FAMEs exhibited antifungal activity that extended also to other genera, with an
      MIC of 15.6 MUg/mL against Candida glabrata and C. krusei and 31.2 MUg/mL against
      C. parapsilosis. FAMEs exhibited a synergetic effect with itraconazole. The
      antifungal activity of the FAMEs against isolates of Paracoccidioides spp. is
      likely due to the presence of methyl linoleate, the major compound present in all
      three FAMEs. The results obtained indicate the potential of FAMEs as sources for
      antifungal and antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28876394
TI  - Efficiency of essential oils of Ocimum basilicum and Cymbopogum flexuosus in the
      sedation and anaesthesia of Nile tilapia juveniles.
AB  - This study aimed to verify the sedative and anaesthetic effect of the essential
      oils of basil (Ocimum basilicum) (EOOB) and lemongrass (Cymbopogum flexuosus)
      (EOCF) in Nile tilapia juveniles. The fish were transferred to aquaria containing
      different concentrations of each essential oil: 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 and 600
      MUL L-1. The time of sedation ranged from 7 to 31 seconds and the recommended
      concentration was 10 or 25 MUL L-1 for both essential oils. The best times for
      anaesthesia and recovery were found for the concentrations of 400 MUL L-1 for
      EOOB (135.2 and 199.1 seconds, respectively) and 600 MUL L-1 for EOCF (327.1 and
      374.8 seconds, respectively). In conclusion, we recommend the use of EOOB and
      EOCF for the sedation and anaesthesia of Nile tilapia at concentrations of 10-25
      (for both), 400 and 600 MUL L-1, respectively.

PMID- 28876395
TI  - Oral insulin improves metabolic parameters in high fat diet fed rats.
AB  - INTRODUCTION/AIM: The gut has shown to have a pivotal role on the pathophysiology
      of metabolic disease. Food stimulation of distal intestinal segments promotes
      enterohormones secretion influencing insulin metabolism. In diabetic rats, oral
      insulin has potential to change intestinal epithelium behavior. This
      macromolecule promotes positive effects on laboratorial metabolic parameters and
      decreases diabetic intestinal hypertrophy. This study aims to test if oral
      insulin can influence metabolic parameters and intestinal weight in obese non
      diabetic rats. METHODS: Twelve weeks old Wistar rats were divided in 3 groups:
      control (CTRL) standard chow group; high fat diet low carbohydrates group (HFD)
      and HFD plus daily oral 20U insulin gavage (HFD+INS). Weight and food consumption
      were weekly obtained. After eight weeks, fasting blood samples were collected for
      laboratorial analysis. After euthanasia gut samples were isolated. RESULTS: Rat
      oral insulin treatment decreased body weight gain (p<0,001), fasting glucose and
      triglycerides serum levels (p<0,05) an increased intestinal weight of distal
      ileum (P<0,05). Animal submitted to high fat diet presented higher levels of HOMA
      IR although significant difference to CT was not achieved. HOMA-beta were
      significantly higher (p<0.05) in HFD+INS. Visceral fat was 10% lower in HFD+INS
      but the difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: In non-diabetic obese rats,
      oral insulin improves metabolic malfunction associated to rescue of beta-cell
      activity.

PMID- 28876396
TI  - Preparation and characterization of alginate and gelatin microcapsules containing
      Lactobacillus rhamnosus.
AB  - This paper describes the preparation and characterization of alginate beads
      coated with gelatin and containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Capsules were
      obtained by extrusion method using CaCl2 as cross linker. An experimental design
      was performed using alginate and gelatin concentrations as the variables
      investigated, while the response variable was the concentration of viable cells.
      Beads were characterized in terms of size, morphology, scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM), moisture content, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry
      (FTIR), thermal behavior and cell viability during storage. The results showed
      that the highest concentration of viable cells (4.2 x 109 CFU/g) was obtained for
      1 % w/v of alginate and 0.1 % w/v of gelatin. Capsules were predominantly
      spherical with a rough surface, a narrow size distribution ranging from 1.53 to
      1.90 mm and a moisture content of 97.70 +/- 0.03 %. Furthermore, FTIR and
      thermogravimetric analysis indicated an interaction between alginate-gelatin.
      Cell concentration of alginate/gelatin microcapsules was 105 CFU/g after 4 months
      of storage at 8 oC.

PMID- 28876397
TI  - Leaf area estimation from linear measurements in different ages of Crotalaria
      juncea plants.
AB  - The goal of this study was to estimate the leaf area of Crotalaria juncea
      according to the linear dimensions of leaves from different ages. Two experiments
      were conducted with C. juncea cultivar IAC-KR1, in the 2014/2015 sowing seasons.
      At 59, 82, 102, 129 days after sowing (DAS) of the first and 61, 80, 92, 104 DAS
      of the second experiment, 500 leaves were collected, totaling 4,000 leaves. In
      each leaf, the linear dimensions were measured (length, width, length/width ratio
      and length * width product) and the specific leaf area was determined through
      Digimizer and Sigma Scan Pro software, after scanning images. Then, 3,200 leaves
      were randomly separated to generate mathematical models of leaf area (Y) in
      function of linear dimension (x), and 800 leaves for the models validation. In C.
      juncea, the leaf areas determined by Digimizer and Sigma Scan Pro software are
      identical. The estimation models of leaf area as a function of length * width
      product showed superior adjustments to those obtained based on the evaluation of
      only one linear dimension. The linear model Y=0.7390x (R2=0.9849) of the real
      leaf area (Y) as a function of length * width product (x) is adequate to estimate
      the C. juncea leaf area.

PMID- 28876398
TI  - Remote sensing of the chlorophyll-a based on OLI/Landsat-8 and MSI/Sentinel-2A
      (Barra Bonita reservoir, Brazil).
AB  - In this present research, we assessed the performance of band algorithms in
      estimating chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration based on bands of two new sensors:
      Operational Land Imager onboard Landsat-8 satellite (OLI/Landsat-8), and
      MultiSpectral Instrument onboard Sentinel-2A (MSI/Sentinel-2A). Band combinations
      designed for Thematic Mapper onboard Landsat-5 satellite (TM/Landsat-5) and
      MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer onboard Envisat platform (MERIS/Envisat)
      were adapted for OLI/Landsat-8 and MSI/Sentinel-2A bands. Algorithms were
      calibrated using in situ measurements collected in three field campaigns carried
      out in different seasons. The study area was the Barra Bonita hydroelectric
      reservoir (BBHR), a highly productive aquatic system. With exception of the three
      band algorithm, the algorithms were spectrally few affected by sensors changes.
      On the other hands, algorithm performance has been hampered by the bio-optical
      difference in the reservoir sections, drought in 2014 and pigment packaging.

PMID- 28876399
TI  - New seminal variety of Stevia rebaudiana: Obtaining fractions with high
      antioxidant potential of leaves.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the composition and antioxidant potential
      of leaves of a new variety of Stevia rebaudiana (Stevia UEM-13). Stevia leaves of
      UEM-13 contain rebaudioside A as the main glycoside, while most wild Stevia
      plants contain stevioside. Furthermore can be multiplied by seed, which reduces
      the cost of plant culture techniques as other clonal varieties are multiplied by
      buds, requiring sophisticated and expensive seedling production systems. Ethanol
      and methanol were used in the extraction to determine the bioactive compounds.
      The methanolic extract was fractionated sequentially with hexane, chloroform,
      ethyl acetate and isobutanol, and the highest concentration of phenolic compounds
      and flavonoids was obtained in the ethyl acetate fraction (524.20 mg galic acid
      equivalent/g; 380.62 ug quercetin equivalent/g). The glycoside content varied
      greatly among the fractions (0.5% - 65.3%). Higher antioxidant potential was
      found in the methanol extract and the ethyl acetate fraction with 93.5% and
      97.32%, respectively. In addition to being an excellent source for obtaining of
      extracts rich in glycoside, this new variety can also be used as raw material for
      the production of extracts or fractions with a significant amount of antioxidant
      activity and potential to be used as additives in food.

PMID- 28876400
TI  - Biological Activity of Piper aduncum extracts on Anticarsia gemmatalis (Hubner)
      (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) and Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera:
      Noctuidae).
AB  - Piper aduncum found naturally in the Amazon and southeastern Brazil, is known for
      its secondary metabolites that have activity on insects. Anticarsia gemmatalis
      and Spodoptera frugiperda are among the major insect pests associated with
      agricultural production. This research evaluated the biological activity of
      hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol extracts of P. aduncum leaves on mortality and
      duration of larval and pupal periods, as well as weight, width, and length of A.
      gemmatalis and S. frugiperda pupae. The mortality of A. gemmatalis larvae in
      trials with P. aduncum extracts were 93.3% (hexane) and 90% (ethyl acetate),
      estimating LC50 of 6.35 and 5.79 mg/mL, respectively. Mortality in S. frugiperda
      submitted to the hexane extract ranged from 3.33% to 96.66% (LC50 of 8.22 mg/mL).
      The ethanol extract induced low mortality (3.33% to 23.33%). The P. aduncum
      extracts did not affect the development of S. frugiperda pupae. In A. gemmatalis
      differences in weight and length occurred. The chemical characterization was by
      GC-MS, which revealed that the major constituent in the hexane extract of P.
      aduncum was apiol (90.7%). P. aduncum extracts are important and promising
      components to manage A. gemmatalis and S. frugiperda, which cause extensive
      production losses.

PMID- 28876401
TI  - Landslides Zonation Hazard: relation between geological structures and landslides
      occurrence in hilly tropical regions of Brazil.
AB  - This paper presents a new approach of landslides zonation hazard studies, based
      on an integrated study of structural data along with geomorphological and
      external factors, in a hilly regions of Brazil, covered by a tropical humid rain
      forest, called Serra do Mar. The Serra do Mar consists of a hilly region along
      the east coast of Brazil, with high slopes and many geological structures in a
      gneiss - migmatitic terrain. In contrast to traditional approaches, this method
      proposes that structural data (foliation, fractures and bedding planes) and its
      relation with the slope geometry, is important to be consider in the landslide
      zonation hazard, along with declivity, relative relief, soil and rock properties,
      land use and vegetation cover and hydrogeological and climate factors. Results
      show that slopes with high hazard have the same dip direction of geological
      structures. Landslide zonation hazard using structural data contributes to a
      better understanding of how these structures, preserved in tropical residual
      soils, influence on slope stability and generates landslides.

PMID- 28876402
TI  - Analysis of biofilm production by clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      from patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To phenotypically evaluate biofilm production by Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa clinically isolated from patients with ventilator-associated
      pneumonia. METHODS: Twenty clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa were analyzed, 19
      of which were from clinical samples of tracheal aspirate, and one was from a
      bronchoalveolar lavage sample. The evaluation of the capacity of P. aeruginosa to
      produce biofilm was verified using two techniques, one qualitative and the other
      quantitative. RESULTS: The qualitative technique showed that only 15% of the
      isolates were considered biofilm producers, while the quantitative technique
      showed that 75% of the isolates were biofilm producers. The biofilm isolates
      presented the following susceptibility profile: 53.3% were multidrug-resistant,
      and 46.7% were multidrug-sensitive. CONCLUSION: The quantitative technique was
      more effective than the qualitative technique for the detection of biofilm
      production. For the bacterial population analyzed, biofilm production was
      independent of the susceptibility profile of the bacteria, demonstrating that the
      therapeutic failure could be related to biofilm production, as it prevented the
      destruction of the bacteria present in this structure, causing complications of
      pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation, including extrapulmonary
      infections, and making it difficult to treat the infection.

PMID- 28876403
TI  - Antimicrobial drug-related problems in a neonatal intensive care unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The goal was to determine the main drug-related problems in neonates
      who were using antimicrobials. METHOD: This was an observational, prospective and
      longitudinal study. Drug-related problems were classified according to version
      6.2 of the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe Foundation classification. A
      descriptive analysis was performed, in which the clinical and therapeutic
      variables were presented as absolute and relative frequencies or as the mean and
      standard deviation, as appropriate. RESULTS: In total, 152 neonates with a
      predominance of males (58.5%), gestational age of 32.7 +/- 4.2 weeks and weight
      of 1,903.1 +/- 846.9g were included. The main diagnostic hypothesis of infection
      was early sepsis (66.5%), and 71.7% of the neonates had some risk factor for
      infection. Among the neonates, 33.6% had at least one drug-related problem. Of
      these, 84.8% were related to treatment effectiveness and 15.2% to adverse
      reactions. The main cause of drug-related problems was the selected dose,
      particularly for aminoglycosides and cephalosporins. CONCLUSION: The use of
      antimicrobials in the neonatal intensive care is mainly associated with problems
      related to medication effectiveness, predominantly the prescription of subdoses
      of antimicrobials, especially aminoglycosides.

PMID- 28876404
TI  - Contrast-induced acute kidney injury: the importance of diagnostic criteria for
      establishing prevalence and prognosis in the intensive care unit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To establish whether there is superiority between contrast-induced
      acute kidney injury and contrast-induced nephropathy criteria as predictors of
      unfavorable clinical outcomes. METHODS: Retrospective study carried out in a
      tertiary hospital with 157 patients undergoing radiocontrast infusion for
      propaedeutic purposes. RESULTS: One hundred forty patients fulfilled the
      inclusion criteria: patients who met the criteria for contrast-induced acute
      kidney injury (59) also met the criteria for contrast-induced nephropathy (76),
      44.3% met the criteria for KDIGO staging, 6.4% of the patients required renal
      replacement therapy, and 10.7% died. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of contrast
      induced nephropathy was the most sensitive criterion for renal replacement
      therapy and death, whereas KDIGO showed the highest specificity; there was no
      correlation between contrast volume and progression to contrast-induced acute
      kidney injury, contrast-induced nephropathy, support dialysis or death in the
      assessed population.

PMID- 28876405
TI  - Oxygen saturation and lactate concentration gradient from the right atrium to the
      pulmonary artery in the immediate postoperative following cardiac surgery with
      extracorporeal circulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This prospective study aimed to characterize the changes in blood
      lactate concentration and blood oxygen saturation in patients during the
      immediate postoperative period of cardiac surgery with extracorporeal
      circulation. METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 35 patients in a rapid
      and random order from the arterial line and from the proximal and distal port of
      a pulmonary artery catheter. RESULTS: The results showed no statistically
      significant differences between the blood oxygen saturation in the right atrium
      (72% +/- 0.11%) and the blood oxygen saturation in the pulmonary artery (71% +/-
      0.08%). The blood lactate concentration in the right atrium was 1.7mmol/L +/-
      0.5mmol/L, and the blood lactate concentration in the pulmonary artery was
      1.6mmol/L +/- 0.5mmol/L (p < 0.0005). CONCLUSION: The difference between the
      blood lactate concentration in the right atrium and the blood lactate
      concentration in the pulmonary artery might be a consequence of the low blood
      lactate concentration in the blood from the coronary sinus, as it constitutes an
      important substrate for the myocardium during this period. The lack of
      differences between the blood oxygen saturation in the right atrium and the
      percentage of blood oxygen saturation in the pulmonary artery suggests a lower
      oxygen extraction by the myocardium given a lower oxygen consumption.

PMID- 28876407
TI  - Alcohol-related blackouts among college students: impact of low level of response
      to alcohol, ethnicity, sex, and environmental characteristics.
AB  - Objective: To explore how a genetically-influenced characteristic (the level of
      response to alcohol [LR]), ethnicity, and sex relate to environmental and
      attitudinal characteristics (peer drinking [PEER], drinking to cope [COPE], and
      alcohol expectancies [EXPECT]) regarding future alcohol-related blackouts (ARBs).
      Methods: Structural equation models (SEMs) were used to evaluate how baseline
      variables related to ARB patterns in 462 college students over 55 weeks. Data
      were extracted from a longitudinal study of heavy drinking and its consequences
      at a U.S. university. Results: In the SEM analysis, female sex and Asian
      ethnicity directly predicted future ARBs (beta weights 0.10 and -0.11,
      respectively), while all other variables had indirect impacts on ARBs through
      alcohol quantities (beta weights ~ 0.23 for European American ethnicity and low
      LR, 0.21 for cannabis use and COPE, and 0.44 for PEER). Alcohol quantities then
      related to ARBs with beta = 0.44. The SEM explained 23% of the variance.
      Conclusion: These data may be useful in identifying college students who are more
      likely to experience future ARBs over a 1-year period. They enhance our
      understanding of whether the relationships of predictors to ARBs are direct or
      mediated through baseline drinking patterns, information that may be useful in
      prevention strategies for ARBs.

PMID- 28876406
TI  - Why should we not use APACHE II for performance measurement and benchmarking?

PMID- 28876408
TI  - Mental health problems among medical students in Brazil: a systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To provide a comprehensive picture of mental health problems (MHPs) in
      Brazilian medical students by documenting their prevalence and association with
      co-factors. METHODS: We systematically searched the MEDLINE/PubMed, SciELO,
      LILACS, and PsycINFO databases for cross-sectional studies on the prevalence of
      MHPs among medical students in Brazil published before September 29, 2016. We
      pooled prevalences using a random-effects meta-analysis, and summarized factors
      associated with MHP. RESULTS: We included 59 studies in the analysis. For meta
      analyses, we identified the summary prevalence of different MHPs, including
      depression (25 studies, prevalence 30.6%), common mental disorders (13 studies,
      prevalence 31.5%), burnout (three studies, prevalence 13.1%), problematic alcohol
      use (three studies, prevalence 32.9%), stress (six studies, prevalence 49.9%),
      low sleep quality (four studies, prevalence 51.5%), excessive daytime sleepiness
      (four studies, prevalence 46.1%), and anxiety (six studies, prevalence 32.9%).
      Signs of lack of motivation, emotional support, and academic overload correlated
      with MHPs. CONCLUSION: Several MHPs are highly prevalent among future physicians
      in Brazil. Evidence-based interventions and psychosocial support are needed to
      promote mental health among Brazilian medical students.

PMID- 28876409
TI  - Poor-quality prenatal dietary patterns are related to the mental health of
      mothers and children - could dietary improvement break the cycle?

PMID- 28876410
TI  - Cross-cultural adaptation of the EMIC Stigma Scale for people with leprosy in
      Brazil.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Describe the process of cross-cultural adaptation of the "Explanatory
      Model Interview Catalog - Stigma Scale" for people affected by leprosy in Brazil.
      METHODS: After being authorized by the author of the scale to use it in the
      national context, we initiated the five steps process of cross-cultural
      adaptation: (1) translation, (2) synthesis meeting, (3) back-translation, (4)
      committee of experts and (5) pre-test. The internal consistency of the scale was
      evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. RESULTS: The 15 items of the
      scale's original version were translated into Brazilian Portuguese. The adapted
      scale showed evidence of a good understanding of its content, attested both by
      experts and members of the target population. Its internal consistency was 0.64.
      CONCLUSIONS: The adapted instrument shows satisfactory internal consistency. It
      may be useful in future studies that intend to provide broad situational analysis
      that supports solid public health programs with a focus on effective stigma
      reduction. In a later study, the construct's validity, criterion, and
      reproducibility will be evaluated. OBJETIVO: Descrever o processo de adaptacao
      transcultural da "Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue - Stigma Scale" para
      pessoas afetadas por hanseniase no Brasil. METODOS: Apos a autorizacao do autor
      da escala para seu uso no contexto nacional, deu-se inicio aos cinco passos do
      processo de adaptacao transcultural: (1) traducao, (2) reuniao de sintese, (3)
      retrotraducao, (4) comite de peritos e (5) pre-teste. A consistencia interna da
      escala foi avaliada utilizando o coeficiente alfa de Cronbach. RESULTADOS: Os 15
      itens da versao original da escala foram traduzidos para a lingua portuguesa do
      Brasil. A escala adaptada apresentou evidencia de boa compreensao de seu
      conteudo, atestada tanto por peritos como por membros da populacao alvo. Sua
      consistencia interna foi de 0,64. CONCLUSOES: O instrumento adaptado apresenta
      consistencia interna satisfatoria. Pode ser util em estudos futuros que
      intencionem viabilizar ampla analise situacional que sustente programas solidos
      de saude publica com enfoque na efetiva reducao de estigma. Em estudo ulterior
      sera avaliada a validade de constructo, criterio e reprodutibilidade.

PMID- 28876411
TI  - Binge drinking and illicit drug use among adolescent students.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of illicit drug use and its association
      with binge drinking and sociodemographic factors among adolescent students.
      METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study with probabilistic conglomerate
      sampling, involving 1,154 students, aged 13 to 19 years old, from the public
      school system, in the city of Olinda, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, carried out in
      2014. We used the Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire, validated for use
      with Brazilian adolescents. The Chi-square test (<= 0.05) and Poisson regression
      analysis were used to estimate the prevalence ratios, with 95% confidence
      intervals. RESULTS: Use in life of illicit drugs was four times more prevalent
      among students who reported binge drinking (95%CI 3.19-5.45). Being in the age
      group of 16 to 19 years, being male, and having no religion were also
      significantly associated with illicit drug use. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      use in life of illicit drugs was higher in this study than in other studies
      carried out in Brazil and it was strongly associated with binge drinking. This
      factor was associated with gender, age, and religion. OBJETIVO: Estimar a
      prevalencia do uso de drogas ilicitas e sua associacao com binge drinking e
      fatores sociodemograficos entre estudantes adolescentes. METODOS: Estudo
      transversal com amostra probabilistica por conglomerado, envolvendo 1.154
      estudantes, de 13 a 19 anos de idade, da rede publica de ensino, no municipio de
      Olinda, PE, 2014. Foi utilizado o questionario Youth Risk Behavior Survey,
      validado para uso com adolescentes brasileiros. Para analise dos dados foi
      utilizado o teste do Qui-quadrado (<= 0,05) e analise de regressao de Poisson,
      para estimar razoes de prevalencia, com intervalos com 95% de confianca.
      RESULTADOS: O uso na vida de drogas ilicitas foi quatro vezes mais prevalente
      entre os estudantes que relataram o binge drinking (IC95% 3,19-5,45). Estar na
      faixa etaria de 16 a 19 anos, ser do sexo masculino e nao ter religiao tambem
      foram significativamente associados ao uso de drogas ilicitas. CONCLUSOES: A
      prevalencia do uso de drogas ilicitas na vida foi superior a outros estudos
      realizados no Brasil e esteve fortemente associado ao binge drinking. Esse fator
      mostrou associacao com genero, idade e religiao.

PMID- 28876413
TI  - Experimentation with psychoactive substances by public school students.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the prevalence of exposure to psychoactive substances in
      public students of basic education and its association with sociodemographic
      characteristics. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted from March
      to September 2015, involving 1,009 students of the basic and high school
      education in 20 public schools in the municipality of Aracaju, State of Sergipe,
      Brazil. The data have been compiled using questionnaires previously applied in
      national studies of the Brazilian Center for Psychotropic Drugs. The variables
      have been dichotomized for later logistic regression using the Chi-square test to
      analyze associations between experimentation with psychoactive substances and
      other sociodemographic variables; odds ratio and confidence intervals have also
      been calculated. The level of significance adopted was 5%. RESULTS: We have
      identified that 69.6% of the students have experimented alcohol and 12.4%
      cigarettes. Age (>= 15 years) has shown a significant association with
      experimentation with alcohol (p < 0.001) and cigarettes (p = 0.02), acting as
      risk factor in both cases (OR = 2.34 and 1, 78, respectively), but it acted as a
      protective factor for the use of inhalants (p = 0.03 and OR = 0.58) and weight
      loss medication (p = 0.006 and OR = 0.44). Religious practice had a significant
      association with experimentation with alcohol (p = 0.01), functioning as a
      protective factor (OR = 0.56). CONCLUSIONS: We have concluded that the
      psychoactive substance most experienced by students was alcohol, followed by
      cigarettes, and chance for experimentation increases after the age of 15.
      Religious practice, in turn, acts as a protective factor for experimentation with
      alcohol. OBJETIVO: Analisar a prevalencia de exposicao a substancias psicoativas
      em estudantes do ensino basico de escolas publicas e sua associacao com
      caracteristicas sociodemograficas. METODOS: Trata-se de um inquerito transversal
      realizado de marco a setembro de 2015, envolvendo 1.009 alunos do ensino
      fundamental e medio em 20 escolas publicas de Aracaju, Sao Cristovao e Nossa
      Senhora do Socorro. Os dados foram compilados por meio de questionarios aplicados
      anteriormente em estudos nacionais do Centro Brasileiro de Drogas Psicotropicas.
      As variaveis foram dicotomizadas para posterior regressao logistica com aplicacao
      do teste Qui-quadrado para analisar associacoes entre a experimentacao de
      substancias psicoativas e outras variaveis sociodemograficas, e calculada a razao
      de chances e seus intervalos de confianca. O nivel de significancia adotado foi
      de 5%. RESULTADOS: Identificamos que 69,6% dos estudantes tem experimentado
      alcool e 12,4% cigarro. A idade dos alunos (>= 15 anos) mostrou associacao
      significativa com a experimentacao de alcool (p < 0,001) e cigarros (p = 0,02),
      atuando como fator de risco em ambos os casos (OR = 2,34 e 1,78,
      respectivamente), mas atuando como fator de protecao para o uso de inalantes (p =
      0,03 e OR = 0,58) e remedios para emagrecer (p = 0,006 e OR = 0,44). A pratica
      religiosa apresentou associacao significativa com a experimentacao de alcool (p =
      0,01), funcionando como um fator de protecao (OR = 0,56). CONCLUSOES: Conclui-se
      que a substancia psicoativa mais experimentada pelos estudantes foi o alcool,
      seguida do cigarro, e que a chance de experimentacao aumenta a partir dos 15
      anos. A pratica religiosa, por sua vez, atua como fator de protecao a
      experimentacao do alcool.

PMID- 28876412
TI  - Psychological model of ART adherence behaviors in persons living with HIV/AIDS in
      Mexico: a structural equation analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study has been to test the ability of variables
      of a psychological model to predict antiretroviral therapy medication adherence
      behavior. METHODS: We have conducted a cross-sectional study among 172 persons
      living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), who completed four self-administered assessments:
      1) the Psychological Variables and Adherence Behaviors Questionnaire, 2) the
      Stress-Related Situation Scale to assess the variable of Personality, 3) The Zung
      Depression Scale, and 4) the Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire.
      Structural equation modeling was used to construct a model to predict medication
      adherence behaviors. RESULTS: Out of all the participants, 141 (82%) have been
      considered 100% adherent to antiretroviral therapy. Structural equation modeling
      has confirmed the direct effect that personality (decision-making and tolerance
      of frustration) has on motives to behave, or act accordingly, which was in turn
      directly related to medication adherence behaviors. In addition, these behaviors
      have had a direct and significant effect on viral load, as well as an indirect
      effect on CD4 cell count. The final model demonstrates the congruence between
      theory and data (x2/df. = 1.480, goodness of fit index = 0.97, adjusted goodness
      of fit index = 0.94, comparative fit index = 0.98, root mean square error of
      approximation = 0.05), accounting for 55.7% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS: The
      results of this study support our theoretical model as a conceptual framework for
      the prediction of medication adherence behaviors in persons living with HIV/AIDS.
      Implications for designing, implementing, and evaluating intervention programs
      based on the model are to be discussed.

PMID- 28876414
TI  - Validity of questions about activities of daily living to screen for dependency
      in older adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the criterion validity of the activities of daily living
      present in functionality questionnaires in older adults for population surveys
      and to identify which activities are valid to quantify the real daily need for
      help of this population. METHODS: This is a population sample of older adults
      stratified by levels of functionality, according to self-perception of dependency
      in the activities of daily living. Self-perception was compared with the gold
      standard - direct observation of these activities in the household of older
      adults by a trained professional, blinded to the answers in the questionnaire. At
      the visit, it was decided if the older adult needed help to perform any of the
      activities of daily living for the research. The sensitivity of each activity of
      daily living was greater when the self-assessment that there was no need for help
      coincided with the assessment of the professional. Specificity indicates
      coincidence regarding the need for help in the activities of daily living -
      coefficients of sensitivity and specificity above 70% were considered as
      indicative of good validity. RESULTS: Self-assessments showed better sensitivity
      than specificity - older adults and observers agreed more on daily independency
      than on dependency. All activities showed sensitivity above 70%. Some activities
      had low (go shopping: 55%) or very low specificity (brush the hair: 33%). The
      best specificities were to take a shower and dress up (95.8% for both), among the
      personal ones, and to use transportation and perform banking transactions (78%
      for both), among the instrumental ones. CONCLUSIONS: Activities of daily living
      can be valid indicators of functional dependence. The best coefficients of
      validity were generally obtained for personal activities. Some activities with
      good sensitivities and specificities - walk 100 meters, take a shower, and lie
      down in and get out of the bed - can be used to classify older adults into low,
      average, and high need for help depending on the affected activities and,
      therefore, can help in the planning of health services aimed at them. OBJETIVO:
      Determinar a validade de criterio das atividades de vida diaria constantes em
      questionarios de funcionalidade em idosos para inqueritos populacionais e
      identificar quais atividades sao validas para quantificar a necessidade real de
      ajuda diaria dessa populacao. METODOS: Amostra populacional de idosos
      estratificada por niveis de funcionalidade, segundo a autopercepcao de
      dependencia nas atividades de vida diaria. Autopercepcao foi comparada com o
      padrao ouro - observacao direta no domicilio dos idosos nessas atividades por
      profissional treinado e cego para respostas no questionario. Na visita decidiu
      se, para efeito da pesquisa, se o idoso precisava de ajuda para realizar alguma
      das atividades de vida diaria. A sensibilidade de cada atividade de vida diaria
      foi maior quando a autoavaliacao de que nao havia necessidade de ajuda coincidiu
      com a avaliacao do profissional. A especificidade indica coincidencia quanto a
      necessidade de ajuda na atividades de vida diaria - coeficientes de sensibilidade
      e especificidade acima de 70% foram considerados indicativos de boa validade.
      RESULTADOS: As autoavaliacoes mostraram sensibilidade melhor que especificidade -
      idosos e observadores concordaram mais quanto a independencia do que quanto a
      dependencia cotidiana. Todas as atividades mostraram sensibilidade acima de 70%.
      Algumas atividades tiveram uma especificidade baixa (fazer compras: 55%) ou muito
      baixa (pentear os cabelos: 33%). As melhores especificidades foram tomar banho e
      vestir-se (95,8% ambas), entre as pessoais, e utilizar transporte e realizar
      movimento bancario (ambas com 78%), entre as instrumentais. CONCLUSOES:
      Atividades de vida diaria podem ser indicadores validos de dependencia funcional.
      Os melhores coeficientes de validade em geral foram obtidos pelas atividades
      pessoais. Destacam-se algumas atividades com boas sensibilidades e
      especificidades - andar 100 metros, tomar banho e levantar/deitar na cama - que
      podem servir para classificar os idosos em baixa, media e alta necessidade de
      ajuda dependendo das atividades afetadas e, dessa forma, auxiliar no planejamento
      dos servicos de saude voltados aos idosos.

PMID- 28876415
TI  - Chronic lymphadenopathy caused by a Brazilian strain of Bartonella henselae.
AB  - Bartonella henselae is a relevant causative agent of bartonelloses in humans. We
      described an immunocompetent patient with clinical manifestation of chronic
      cervical lymphadenopathy after a cat-scratch in her forearm. This case shows B.
      henselae infection persistence even after prolonged antibiotic treatment.

PMID- 28876416
TI  - Considerations of potential vectors and animal reservoirs in an emerging
      cutaneous leishmaniasis area in Sao Domingos ranch, Parana State in Southearn
      Brazil.
AB  - The aim of this study was to better understand the dynamics of Leishmania sand
      flies and reservoirs in Sao Domingos ranch, Arapongas municipality, Parana State,
      an anthropic environment in an endemic area of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Sand
      flies were collected in wild animal burrows, residences and in the forest, with
      Falcao light trap (FA), Shannon trap (SH) and quadrangular pyramidal trap (QP).
      The search for Leishmania was made on sand flies, biological samples of wild
      rodents and dogs using PCR and culture; while parasite direct search (DS) was
      carried out on animal skin lesions; infection of gold hamsters; and indirect
      immunofluorescence (IIF) test in dog blood samples. Eighty eight (88) sand flies
      were collected with FA traps and 526 sand flies using the SH trap, with a
      predominance of Pintomyia fischeri. Six hundred and one (601) specimens of
      Brumptomyia brumpti were collected in armadillo burrows, with the QP trap.
      Seventeen (17) wild rodents were captured, six of them had skin lesions with
      characteristics of Leishmania infection. Even though no positive test was found
      for Leishmania, epidemiological surveillance should be maintained, remembering
      that the human buildings are situated only 50 m from the forest. Considering the
      species of wild animals and sandflies found in Sao Domingos, the negative test
      found do not exclude the existence of the Leishmania transmission cycle in this
      preservation area.

PMID- 28876417
TI  - Prospective study of patients with persistent symptoms of dengue in Brazil.
AB  - Dengue is an arboviral infection clinically recognized as an acute and self
      limited disease. Persistence of dengue symptoms is known, but it has been little
      studied. The aim of this study was to characterize persistent symptoms in 113
      patients with dengue followed up clinically and by laboratory testing at a
      tertiary hospital. Symptoms that persisted for more than 14 days were observed in
      61 (54.0%) patients, and six (6.2%) of them had symptoms for 6 months or more.
      The persistent symptoms identified were myalgia, weakness, hair loss, memory
      loss, reduced resistance to physical effort, headache, reasoning problems,
      arthralgia, sleepiness- and emotional lability. The progression to persistent
      symptoms was significantly associated with hospitalization, older age, more
      severe disease, the presence of bleeding and comorbidities upon univariate
      analysis. Upon multivariate analysis, the presence of persistent symptoms
      continued to be significantly associated only with increased age and dengue with
      warning signs. The platelet count during the acute phase of the disease was
      significantly lower in the group with persistent symptoms. In conclusion, the
      frequency of progression to persistent symptoms in dengue is relevant in patients
      seen at a tertiary hospital and the persistence of symptoms is more common in
      patients with dengue with warning signs.

PMID- 28876418
TI  - A conventional PCR for differentiating common taeniid species of dogs based on in
      silico microsatellite analysis.
AB  - Canine taeniids are among the major tapeworms with remarkable medical and
      economic significance. Reliable diagnosis and differentiation of dog taeniids
      using simple and sensitive tools are of paramount importance for establishing an
      efficient surveillance system. Microsatellites as abundant unique tandem repeats
      of short DNA motifs are useful genetic markers for molecular epidemiological
      studies. The purpose of the present study was to find a primer pair for rapid
      differentiation of major tapeworms of dogs, Taenia hydatigena, T. multiceps, T.
      ovis and Echinococcus granulosus, by screening existing nucleotide data. All the
      mitochondrial genome records as well as non-coding ITS1 sequences of Taeniidae
      species were downloaded from Nucleotide database from NCBI. For prediction and
      analysis of potential loci of STR/SSR in ITS1 as well as mitochondrial regions,
      we used ChloroMitoSSRDB 2.0 and GMATo v1.2. software. Different tapeworm species
      were categorized according to different motif sequences and type and size of each
      microsatellite locus. Three primer sets were designed and tested for
      differentiating taeniid species and evaluated in a conventional PCR system. Four
      taeniid species were successfully differentiated using a primer pair in a simple
      conventional PCR system. We predicted 2-19 and 1-4 microsatellite loci in ITS1
      and mitochondrial genome, respectively. In ITS1, 41 Di and 21 Tri motifs were
      found in the taeniids while the majority of the motifs in the mitochondrial
      genome were Tetra (89) and Tri (70). It is documented that the number and
      diversity of microsatellite loci is higher in nuclear ITS1 region than mostly
      coding mitochondrial genome.

PMID- 28876419
TI  - Penile prosthesis implantation: A solution or a dilemma for the couple.

PMID- 28876420
TI  - Treatment of bone and soft tissue tumors of the limbs with conformal radiotherapy
      and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).

PMID- 28876421
TI  - Secondary syphilis: The great imitator can't be forgotten.
AB  - Syphilis is an infection caused by Treponema pallidum, mainly transmitted by
      sexual contact. Since 2001, primary and secondary syphilis rates started to rise,
      with an epidemic resurgence. The authors describe an exuberant case of secondary
      syphilis, presenting with annular and lichen planus-like lesions, as well as one
      mucocutaneous lesion. Physicians must be aware of syphilis in daily practice,
      since the vast spectrum of its cutaneous manifestations is rising worldwide.

PMID- 28876422
TI  - Gastric cancer with lesion extending to spleen and perforation into free
      peritoneum.
AB  - Perforated gastric carcinoma is a rare condition that is hard to diagnose
      preoperatively. It is associated with advanced cancer stages and has a high
      mortality, particularly in cases presenting preoperative shock. Few studies have
      investigated the presentation and adequate management of these carcinomas. In
      addition, there are no reports in the literature on perforations extending to the
      spleen, as described in this case, making the management of these lesions
      challenging. Our article reports a case of gastric tumor perforation extending to
      the spleen, which presented as a perforated acute abdomen. The patient was
      treated with total gastrectomy and D2 lymph node resection with splenectomy and
      progressed well with current survival of one year at disease stage IV.

PMID- 28876423
TI  - Thrombosed aneurysm of saphenous vein coronary artery bypass grafting.
AB  - We describe the case of a male patient, aged 76 years, referred for cardiac
      investigation due to retrosternal chest pain and dyspnea. He had a history of
      acute myocardial infarction and angioplasties in the last 30 years, including a
      saphenous vein coronary artery bypass grafting (SVCABG). Echocardiogram showed
      hypoechoic oval formation near the right ventricle, suggesting a pericardial
      cyst. Computed angiotomography revealed a predominantly fusiform and thrombosed
      aneurysmal dilation of the SVCABG to the right coronary artery. SVCABG aneurysms
      are very rare and potentially fatal. They usually appear in the late
      postoperative period, and patients are often asymptomatic. On radiography, it is
      frequently presented as enlargement of the mediastinum, with echocardiography,
      computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging being very useful for
      diagnosis. Coronary angiography is the gold standard to detect these cases. Our
      report illustrates a rare situation arising late from a relatively common
      surgery. Due to its severity, proper recognition in the routine assessment of
      patients with a similar history is essential.

PMID- 28876424
TI  - Evaluation of medical interns' attitudes towards relevant aspects of medical
      practice.
AB  - Introduction:: In traditional medical school curriculum, sixth-year is the moment
      in which students experience medical practice more intensively. Attitudes can be
      considered predictors of behaviors and actions. Evaluating them contributes to
      improve medical training. Objective:: To evaluate attitudes during medical
      internship considering medical practice and associated factors in a Brazilian
      public university. Method:: Cross-sectional study that included 69 students,
      based on a structured questionnaire and an attitude scale (Colares, 2002). We
      used descriptive statistics, with classification of the attitude tendency,
      clusters analysis and F-statistics. Results:: The average age of the participants
      was 25.1+/-1.9, and 56.5% of them were male. Students presented positive
      attitudes to emotional aspects in organic diseases, primary health care, the
      medical contribution to the scientific advancement of medicine, and other aspects
      of medical activity and health politics; there were conflicting attitudes
      concerning mental illness and negative attitudes concerning death. Conclusion::
      Results show the need for interventions in order to reduce the identified
      conflicting and negative attitudes.

PMID- 28876425
TI  - Concomitant testicular infection by Zika virus and Schistosoma mansoni in a
      Brazilian young boy.
AB  - Sumary The identification of a escrotal mass without pain or report of trauma
      should be investigated to rule out scrotal cancer. We report the case of a young
      Brazilian boy who underwent orchiectomy after magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      and duplex scan (DS) indicating a high possibility of cancer. Blood exams ruled
      out the possibility of cancer. Testicular biopsy was not indicated. After surgery
      the diagnostic was extensive orchiepididymitis by Schistosoma. In endemic areas
      orchiepididymis by Schistosoma should be investigate to avoid unnecessary
      surgeries. This patient was also infected with Zika virus.

PMID- 28876426
TI  - Factors associated with burnout syndrome in medical residents of a university
      hospital.
AB  - Objective:: To determine the prevalence of burnout syndrome among resident
      physicians of various specialties and to evaluate associated factors. Method::
      The Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire and a sociodemographic questionnaire
      were used to evaluate factors associated with the syndrome. Burnout was defined
      as the association of high emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low
      professional achievement. Multivariate analysis was performed after adjustment of
      the Poisson model with the identification of risk factors and calculation of
      prevalence ratios (PR). Of the 250 resident physicians registered with Hospital
      das Clinicas of Pernambuco, 129 participated in the study. Results:: In the three
      domains that characterize burnout syndrome, we found a low level of professional
      achievement in 94.6% of resident physicians interviewed, a high level of
      depersonalization in 31.8%, and 59.7% with a high level of emotional exhaustion.
      The prevalence of burnout was 27.9%. Having suffered a stressful event in the
      last six months (PR: 8.10; 95CI 1.2-57.2) and being a student of surgical
      specialty (PR: 1.99; 95CI 1.2-3.3) were independently associated with burnout.
      Conclusion:: The prevalence of burnout found in resident physicians is in
      accordance with previous Brazilian studies. Residents of surgical specialties and
      those who suffered some stressful event were identified as susceptible in this
      study. The early identification of risk factors is fundamental for the
      implementation of preventive measures against burnout syndrome.

PMID- 28876427
TI  - Geographical distribution of medical graduates from a public university.
AB  - Objective:: To evaluate the geographic distribution and career trajectory of
      medical graduates and the factors associated with their choice of practice
      location. Method:: A cross-sectional study involving graduates from December 2001
      to December 2010 was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire collected
      demographics and geographic information (place of birth, place of residence at
      the time of medical school admission, place of residency training and practice
      location), and reason for choosing the current location. Statistical analyses
      assessed trends in geographic distribution of graduates, and identified factors
      associated with location choice (through the population density of the location
      chosen for professional practice). Results:: A total of 563 graduates completed
      the questionnaire. Of those, 4.3% (n=24) reported family medicine as their
      medical specialty, 19.9% (n=112) reported other primary care specialties
      (internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery and obstetrics-gynecology) and the others
      chose subspecialties. Larger cities were more likely to be chosen for practice,
      particularly for newly-graduated doctors. Job invitations received during medical
      residency training increased the likelihood of choosing high-populated cities. In
      contrast, job invitations received during medical school increased the likelihood
      of choosing cities less populated. Amongst those in cities with lower population
      density, proximity to family members was an additional influencing factor; those
      who chose more densely populated cities did so because of better infrastructure
      and recreational options. Conclusion:: Most of the physicians included in this
      study pursue subspecialties training and were practicing medicine in large
      cities. Knowing the multiple factors that influenced the choice of practice
      location can assist in planning future strategies to reduce physician workforce
      misdistribution.

PMID- 28876428
TI  - Diagnostic and prognostic performances of serum procalcitonin in patients with
      bloodstream infections: A parallel, case-control study comprising adults and
      elderly.
AB  - Objective:: To examine the diagnostic and prognostic performances of serum
      procalcitonin (PCT) in adult and elderly patients with bloodstream infections
      (BSIs). Method:: A total of 176 patients with culture-proven BSIs and 200 healthy
      counterparts were studied prospectively. Participants were studied in two adult
      (age<=65 years, n=92) and elderly (age>65 years, n=84) groups. Admission serum
      PCT level was measured using a standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
      technique. Results:: The mean serum PCT level (in ng/mL) was significantly higher
      in cases than in controls (0.18 vs. 0.07, p=0.01 in adults; 0.20 vs. 0.07,
      p=0.002 in elderly). At cut-off values of 0.09 ng/mL in adults and 0.08 ng/mL in
      the elderly, the corresponding sensitivity and specificity were 82.6 and 82.0% in
      adults, and 69.1 and 70.0% in elderly, respectively. At a cut-off value of 0.2
      ng/mL, the sensitivity and specificity of serum PCT in predicting 28-day
      mortality were 81 and 81.7% in adults, and 75 and 80.4% in elderly, respectively.
      Conclusion:: Although admission serum PCT is a sensitive and specific biomarker
      for the diagnosis of BSIs in patients younger than 65 years old, its short-term
      prognostic value is comparable between adults and the elderly.

PMID- 28876429
TI  - Mueller-Hillis maneuver and angle of progression: Are they correlated?
AB  - Objective:: Mueller-Hillis maneuver (MHM) and angle of progression (AOP) measured
      by transperineal ultrasound have been used to assess fetal head descent during
      the second stage of labor. We aimed to assess whether AOP correlates with MHM in
      the second stage of labor. Method:: A prospective observational study including
      women with singleton pregnancy in the second stage of labor was performed. The
      AOP was measured immediately after the Mueller-Hillis maneuver. A receiver
      operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was performed to determine the
      best discriminatory AOP cut-off for the identification of a positive MHM. A p
      value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results:: One
      hundred and sixty-six (166) women were enrolled in the study and 81.3% (n=135)
      had a positive MHM. The median AOP was 143o (106o to 210o). The area under the
      curve for the prediction of a positive maneuver was 0.619 (p=0.040). Derived from
      the ROC curve, an AOP of 138.5o had the best diagnostic performance for the
      identification of a positive MHM (specificity of 65% and a sensitivity of 67%).
      Conclusion:: An AOP of 138o seems to be associated with a positive MHM in the
      second stage of labor.

PMID- 28876430
TI  - Thrombocytopenia as a marker of liver steatosis in a low-endemic area for
      schistosomiasis mansoni.
AB  - Introduction:: Thrombocytopenia is commonly found in patients living in highly
      endemic areas for Schistosoma mansoni. Recently, different degrees of liver
      steatosis have also been associated with low platelet counts worldwide. We
      investigated the association of platelet counts with hepatosplenic
      schistosomiasis and with liver steatosis in an area of low prevalence of
      schistosomiasis in Brazil. Method:: Pains, a city in the state of Minas Gerais,
      Brazil, had a population of 8,307 inhabitants and a schistosomiasis prevalence of
      8%. Four micro-areas comprising 1,045 inhabitants were selected for this study.
      Blood sample was collected and a complete blood count (CBC) was performed. Eighty
      seven (87) patients had low platelet counts (group 1 - 8.3%) and 94 volunteers
      presenting normal CBC were randomized (group 2 - 8.9%). They underwent clinical
      and ultrasound examinations. Liver steatosis was determined as either present or
      absent using abdominal ultrasound. A spleen > 12 cm in length, measured by
      ultrasound (US), was considered to be increased. Data collected were analyzed
      using SPSS software version 19.0. Results:: Twenty-two patients (22/25.3%) in
      group 1 had liver steatosis compared with 11 volunteers (11.7%) in group 2
      (p=0.02). Hepatosplenic schistosomiasis was diagnosed in two patients (p>0.05).
      Conclusion:: Thrombocytopenia was not a good marker of hepatosplenic
      schistosomiasis mansoni in a low prevalence area in Brazil. Liver steatosis was
      associated with thrombocytopenia in our study.

PMID- 28876431
TI  - Analysis of the availability of the resources necessary for urgent and emergency
      healthcare in Sao Paulo between 2009-2013.
AB  - Introduction:: The Regulatory Complex is the structure that operationalizes
      actions for making resources available to meet the needs of urgent and emergency
      care in the municipality of Sao Paulo. In the case of urgent care, needs are
      immediate and associated with high morbidity and mortality. Objective:: To
      identify the most frequently requested resources, the resolution capacity and the
      mortality rate associated with the unavailability of a certain resource. Method::
      Our study was based on data from medical bulletins issued by the Urgent and
      Emergency Regulation Center (CRUE) in the city of Sao Paulo from 2009 to 2013.
      Results:: 91,823 requests were made over the five years of the study (2009 to
      2013). Neurosurgery requests were the most frequent in all years (4,828, 5,159,
      4,251, 5,008 and 4,394, respectively), followed by computed tomography (CT)
      scans, adult intensive care unit (ICU) beds, cardiac catheterization, and
      pediatric ICU beds. On average, requests for neurosurgery, adult ICU, pediatric
      ICU, CT scans, catheterization and vascular surgery were answered in 70%, 27%,
      39%, 97%, 87% and 77% of cases. The total number of deaths relating to requests
      for neurosurgery, CT scans, adult ICU, pediatric ICU, catheterization and
      vascular surgeon assessment were 182, 9, 1,536, 1,536, 135, 49 and 24 cases,
      respectively. Conclusion:: There is a lack of resources to meet urgent and
      emergency needs in the city of Sao Paulo.

PMID- 28876432
TI  - Hospitalization due to exacerbation of COPD: "Real-life" outcomes.
AB  - Introduction:: Hospitalization due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      exacerbation (eCOPD) may indicate worse prognosis. It is important to know the
      profile of hospitalized patients and their outcome of hospitalization to
      customize and optimize treatment. Method:: Evaluation of patients hospitalized
      for eCOPD, with >= 10 pack/years and >= 1 previous spirometry with airway
      obstruction over the course of one year at the pulmonology service of a general
      hospital, applying: COPD assessment test (CAT); mMRc and Visual Analogue Scale
      (VAS) for dyspnea; hospitalized anxiety and depression questionnaire (HAD);
      Divo's comorbidities and Cote index; spirometry; and laboratory tests including
      number of eosinophils, C-reactive protein (CRP), brain natriuretic protein (BNP).
      Patient progression, number of days of hospitalization and hospitalization
      outcomes were observed. Results:: There were 75 (12%) hospitalizations for eCOPD,
      with 27 readmissions, nine of which during a period <= 30 days after hospital
      discharge. The main outcomes were: number of days of hospitalization (17+/-16.5
      [2-75]); hospital discharge (30 [62.5%] patients); discharge/rehospitalization
      (18 [37.5%] patients), eight of them more than once; death (7 [14.5%] patients),
      five during rehospitalization. We analyzed 48 patients in their first
      hospitalization. The sample comprised a heterogeneous group separated in three
      clusters according to age, FEV1, body mass index (BMI) and CAT. The clusters did
      not correlate with the main outcomes. Conclusion:: Hospitalization for eCOPD is
      frequent. The number of readmissions was high and associated with death as an
      outcome. Patients hospitalized for eCOPD were a heterogeneous group separated in
      three clusters with different degrees of disease severity and no correlation with
      hospitalization outcomes.

PMID- 28876433
TI  - Association between physical activity and vitamin D: A narrative literature
      review.
AB  - This narrative review of the medical literature assessed whether outdoor and
      indoor physical activity would increase the plasma levels of vitamin D. Synthesis
      of this liposoluble vitamin is mainly mediated by sunlight on the skin, where it
      is activated to perform its main action, which is to control the serum levels of
      calcium as soon as the element is absorbed in the intestines, assisting in the
      regulation of bone metabolism. Physical activity is any body movement that
      results in energy expenditure, while outdoor physical activity refers to physical
      activity carried out at public parks or other open spaces, as is the case of the
      popular practice of taking walks. Exercising outdoors would have both the
      benefits of physical activity and of sun exposure, namely the synthesis of
      vitamin D. However, according to the studies analyzed, increased plasma
      concentration of vitamin D occurs with physical activity both indoors and
      outdoors.

PMID- 28876434
TI  - A Century of Progressing and Advancing Reproductive Health Care: The 2017 Lasker
      Bloomberg Public Service Award.

PMID- 28876436
TI  - Do Schools of Nursing Truly Value Excellence in Teaching? Actions Speak Louder
      Than Words.

PMID- 28876435
TI  - Preventing Cancer and Other Diseases Caused by Human Papillomavirus Infection:
      2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Research Award.

PMID- 28876437
TI  - Predictors of Persistence and Success in an Accelerated Online RN-to-BSN Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To meet the increasing demand for RNs to further their education,
      many colleges of nursing have developed RN-to-baccalaureate nursing (BSN)
      programs, many of which are delivered online. A better understanding of the
      demographic and academic characteristics and outcomes of individuals enrolled in
      online RN-to-BSN programs is needed. METHOD: This article reports a retrospective
      predictive analysis of 9,567 students enrolled in an online RN-to-BSN program.
      Outcome variables examined were graduation, timely graduation, and
      discontinuation. RESULTS: Younger students who received financial aid and had a
      previous baccalaureate degree reflected the demographic profile associated with
      the highest likelihood of graduating and graduating sooner. Fewer failed and
      withdrawn courses also predicted graduation and retention. CONCLUSION:
      Implications of these findings are that when online programs are designed with
      persistence in mind, progression to graduation in such programs can be consistent
      with national benchmarks. The creation of an early identification process for at
      risk students would have the potential to enhance educational outcomes even
      further. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):522-526.].

PMID- 28876438
TI  - Influence of Short-Term Study Abroad Experiences on Community Health
      Baccalaureate Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Very short study abroad programs may be most feasible in
      undergraduate nursing programs, but little research describes their value for
      prospective nurses. The narratives of senior baccalaureate nursing students (N =
      62) who traveled for 2 weeks to Cape Coast, Ghana, between semesters for a
      faculty-led community health clinical experience were analyzed. METHOD: Students
      responded to pre- and posttravel semi-structured, open-ended prompts regarding
      expectations and perceptions of culture, health, and happiness. Data were
      analyzed using a qualitative descriptive approach. RESULTS: Four themes emerged
      related to perceptions of culture, relationships with community, definitions of
      health and happiness, and adaptability and innovation. African American students'
      (n = 3) responses highlighted unique themes regarding personal identity.
      CONCLUSION: Student perceptions of culture demonstrated progression through
      previously described stages of cultural competence. Relatively novel themes
      regarding community relationships, perceptions of health and happiness, and
      adaptability suggest additional value of this short-term study abroad experience
      for nursing students. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):528-533.].

PMID- 28876440
TI  - Factors Associated With First-Time NCLEX-RN Success: A Descriptive Research
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with
      scores achieved on the Health Education Systems, Inc. (HESI) exit examination and
      successful first-time NCLEX-RN(r) pass rates. METHOD: A retrospective descriptive
      study examined the administrative data of 211 baccalaureate nursing students.
      RESULTS: Students who completed the program in sequence and scored higher in
      certain HESI course examinations were more likely to have a better performance on
      the HESI exit examination. The higher the scores students achieved on the HESI
      exit examination, the more likely they were to pass the NCLEX-RN on their first
      attempt. CONCLUSION: These findings add to the growing body of literature seeking
      to identify variables associated with success in first-time NCLEX-RN success.
      Further research is needed to identify strategies that can be implemented to
      ensure timely progression, program completion, and licensure examination success.
      [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):542-545.].

PMID- 28876439
TI  - Evidence-Based Practice in Clinical Nursing Education: A Scoping Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nursing students require education that integrates evidence-based
      practice (EBP) knowledge across classroom and clinical settings. This study was
      conducted to identify and examine the literature related to nursing students' use
      of evidence in clinical education and to identify associated research gaps.
      METHOD: A scoping review describing the extent, range, and nature of the research
      activity focused on students' use of evidence in clinical education. RESULTS:
      Included studies (N = 37) describe the barriers and facilitators to nursing
      students' EBP and describe the evaluation of strategies that support nursing
      students' engagement in EBP. Most commonly identified barriers include a lack of
      knowledge and skills for EBP; negative attitudes toward EBP in students, faculty,
      and nurses; and lack of support in the clinical setting. Evaluated strategies
      included educational sessions and EBP projects, either alone or in combination,
      as well as other stand-alone interventions. All but two of the intervention
      studies reported positive subjective or objective outcomes. CONCLUSION: On the
      basis of these results, educators can engage in combined educational strategies
      that focus on addressing described barriers. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):534-541.].

PMID- 28876441
TI  - Comparing Professional Values of Sophomore and Senior Baccalaureate Nursing
      Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 2015 American Nurses' Association Code of Ethics reinforces
      professional values in nursing, and nurse educators may need evidence of their
      students' professional development. METHOD: Using the Nurses Professional Values
      Scale-Revised (NPVS-R), researchers examined two questions: What is the relative
      importance of professional values (i.e., caring, trust, justice, activism, and
      professionalism) for beginning and graduating baccalaureate nursing students, and
      are there differences in professional values between these students? RESULTS: New
      and graduating nursing students in the current study had well-developed
      professional values. Sophomore-level nursing students viewed trust, caring, and
      justice as significantly more important than activism. Senior-level students
      perceived trust as significantly more important than activism and
      professionalism. Although total NPVS-R scores did not differ significantly
      between cohorts, senior-level students did score significantly higher on activism
      than sophomore-level students. CONCLUSION: With the revised Code, nurse educators
      may reevaluate the ethics curriculum. This study suggests opportunity for
      strengthening values beyond the nurse-client relationship, such as activism and
      professionalism. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):546-550.].

PMID- 28876442
TI  - Progressive Dosing of Observed Real-Life Clinical Exposure for Nurse Practitioner
      Training.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In most advanced practice programs, preceptors are relied on for
      providing student clinical experiences. Preceptor feedback often indicates that
      many students show competency deficits in well child care, case presentation, and
      clinical skills. METHOD: An innovative preclinical experience was developed using
      nonscripted pediatric patient and family volunteers from the local community.
      During the three 4-hour experiences, students obtained a health history,
      performed a full physical examination, and presented their findings using a
      standardized case presentation format. Student anxiety and levels of confidence
      were assessed before and after each experience. RESULTS: Student anxiety
      decreased, and self-confidence and clinical skill competencies improved. Students
      who participated in the experiences with faculty demonstrated improved entry
      level competencies, compared with previous cohorts who had not received the
      intervention. CONCLUSION: Preclinical experiences using pediatric patients
      improved advanced practice nursing student confidence and competencies and
      reduced anxiety, improving overall entry-level clinical performance. [J Nurs
      Educ. 2017;56(9):552-555.].

PMID- 28876443
TI  - Innovation in Learning: PhD and DNP Student Collaborations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Working together, PhD and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students
      can advance knowledge creation and the translation of knowledge into practice.
      Although different in purpose and education, PhD and DNP programs should prepare
      students to collaborate throughout their careers. This article describes an
      innovative pilot project that partnered PhD and DNP students during their
      graduate programs. METHOD: Group meetings were used to facilitate collaboration
      among 12 PhD and DNP students interested in pain management. Using a five-stage
      collaboration process model, students worked together on dissertation and
      capstone projects. RESULTS: PhD and DNP students collaborated on the completion
      of dissertation and capstone projects, as well as on publications and
      presentations. A case example of an effective partnership is included.
      CONCLUSION: Partnering of PhD and DNP students can further the development of new
      nursing knowledge and evidence-based practice. Successful collaboration can be
      facilitated by PhD and DNP faculty. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):556-559.].

PMID- 28876444
TI  - Innovative Use of Service-Learning to Enhance Baccalaureate Nursing Education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Service-learning is an established pedagogical approach to nursing
      education found primarily in community nursing. With changing health care
      landscapes, the expansion of service-learning projects throughout the nursing
      program provides opportunities to enrich assessment and critical thinking and
      amplify exposure to determinants of health. METHOD: Implementing service-learning
      in foundational nursing courses allows students to be challenged with the
      application of complex care management within a context of caring, cultural
      competence, social responsibility, and self-care initiatives. RESULTS:
      Integrating service-learning throughout the nursing curriculum has the potential
      to make positive, sustainable changes within a community, while simultaneously
      preparing students to view clients holistically, think critically, and develop
      cultural competence. CONCLUSION: Enhancing nursing curriculum by integrating
      service-learning opportunities can strengthen the learning experience and foster
      concepts of caring, social responsibility, cultural competence, and self-care.
      Working with community leaders from diverse groups can lead to sustainable
      projects that simultaneously benefit the community and nursing education. [J Nurs
      Educ. 2017;56(9):560-563.].

PMID- 28876445
TI  - The Companion Dissertation: Enriching the Doctoral Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The completion of a doctoral dissertation has traditionally been an
      individual journey. Innovative approaches, such as the companion dissertation,
      are helping to shape doctoral education. The companion dissertation is a
      collaborative inquiry among two or more doctoral students who share mutual
      research interests. METHOD: Lack of innovative approaches to doctoral
      dissertation completion led to the development of a companion dissertation.
      Generative leadership, specifically focused on processes that influence
      interaction, served as a useful framework to support this form of innovation.
      RESULTS: The companion dissertation process yielded consideration of differing
      perspectives, richer data, stronger data analysis, and robust research outcomes.
      Most important, this approach to research fostered student-to-student
      connectedness, which was essential to dissertation completion. CONCLUSION:
      Currently, the attrition rate for PhD students is approximately 30%. Therefore,
      it becomes imperative to consider innovative approaches to completion of the
      dissertation process. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):564-566.].

PMID- 28876446
TI  - Use of Simulation to Integrate Cultural Humility Into Advanced Health Assessment
      for Nurse Practitioner Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing cultural humility among nursing students requires the
      application of knowledge and skills. The integration of an Objective Structured
      Clinical Examination (OSCE) offered nurse practitioner students practice in
      simulation. METHOD: This learning activity included pre- and postassessments of
      knowledge regarding cultural issues and level of student satisfaction. Course
      content included an exemplar video and a simulation interview with an African
      American standardized patient. RESULTS: Of the 65 students enrolled, 97%
      completed OSCE interviews and 81% completed pre- and postsurveys. A 2-domain 3 *
      2-time within-subjects ANOVA indicated a statistically significant interaction
      effect, reinforced by descriptive statistics. Follow-up paired t tests detected a
      significantly large knowledge increase. Standardized patient scenarios scored
      highest for satisfaction, followed by critical thinking, and with self-confidence
      scoring lowest. CONCLUSION: The favorable knowledge outcomes from this teaching
      intervention support future applications of OSCE methodology for teaching
      sensitive cross-cultural content. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):567-571.].

PMID- 28876448
TI  - Engaging Postgraduate Students Undertaking Clinical Pharmacology Using GoSoapBox
      for Problem-Based Learning.

PMID- 28876447
TI  - Mask-Ed: Breaking the Barrier of Fear of Intimate Care for Nursing Students.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nursing students learn to toilet, shower, and dress patients in the
      clinical laboratory with simulation modalities that lack the realism necessary to
      address the fears, values, and beliefs of nudity and intimate contact with
      patients. METHOD: A high-fidelity Mask-EdTM (KRS [Knowledgeable, Realistic,
      Spontaneous] simulation) intervention was developed and piloted with first-year
      nursing students around patient showering to increase confidence and skills
      around intimate care. RESULTS: Students initially felt intimidated, awkward,
      nervous, and anxious about showering patients; however, after the Mask-Ed
      simulation, 93% reported feeling more confident and having insight into the
      patient experience. The realism of the scenario was a contributing factor.
      CONCLUSION: Mask-Ed provides a platform for the educator to create realistic
      scenarios around intimate care that help students prepare, on many levels, for
      their initial clinical experiences. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(9):572-574.].

PMID- 28876449
TI  - Two Minutes to Win It: Game for Knowledge and Skills Evaluation.

PMID- 28876450
TI  - What has become of critique? Reassembling sociology after Latour.
AB  - This paper offers a defence of sociology through an engagement with Actor Network
      Theory (ANT) and particularly the critique of 'critical' and politically engaged
      social science developed by Bruno Latour. It argues that ANT identifies some
      weaknesses in more conventional sociology and social theory, and suggests that
      'critical' and 'public' orientated sociologists can learn from the analytical
      precision and ethnographic sensibilities that characterize ANT as a framework of
      analysis and a research programme. It argues, however, that Latour et al. have
      too hastily dispensed with 'critique' in favour of a value neutral descriptive
      sociology, and that the symmetrical and horizontalist approach adopted in ANT is
      particularly ill-suited to the development of scientific knowledge about social
      structures. It argues that a more straightforwardly realist sociology would share
      many of the strengths of ANT whilst being better able to interrogate, empirically
      and normatively, the centres of contemporary social power.

PMID- 28876452
TI  - Management of primary malignant bone and soft tissue tumors of foot and ankle: Is
      it worth salvaging?
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Performing limb salvage with safe margins and
      preserving meaningful function is very difficult in the setting of primary
      malignant bone and soft tissue tumors due to the complex and constrained anatomy
      of the foot and ankle. The study aims to evaluate the efficacy of limb salvage
      procedures in terms of functional and oncological outcomes. METHODS: Clinical
      data of 48 patients, who underwent surgical treatment between 1992 and 2015 in
      our institution, were retrospectively analyzed. Twenty-one (43.7%) patients had
      unplanned resections elsewhere previously. Limb salvage surgery (LSS) was the
      index surgery in 43 (89.6%) patients. In the LSS group, 28 (65.1%) received
      preoperative radiotherapy and 13 (30.2%) underwent complex reconstruction. The
      functional outcomes were assessed with Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS)
      scores. Limb survival and oncological outcomes were evaluated according to Kaplan
      Meier curves. RESULTS: The mean follow-up time was 32.7 (3-115) months. Mild
      deformities and wound healing problems were the most common problems. While the
      functional scores were significantly higher in the LSS group, no significant
      difference was detected between amputation and LSS patients in terms of survival
      rates. CONCLUSION: LSS performed in specialized centers is an effective treatment
      method for malignant tumors of the foot and ankle.

PMID- 28876451
TI  - Selective HDAC6 inhibition decreases early stage of lupus nephritis by down
      regulating both innate and adaptive immune responses.
AB  - We have demonstrated previously that histone deacetylase (HDAC6) expression is
      increased in animal models of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and that
      inhibition of HDAC6 decreased disease. In our current studies, we tested if an
      orally active selective HDAC6 inhibitor would decrease disease pathogenesis in a
      lupus mouse model with established early disease. Additionally, we sought to
      delineate the cellular and molecular mechanism(s) of action of a selective HDAC6
      inhibitor in SLE. We treated 20-week-old (early-disease) New Zealand Black
      (NZB)/White F1 female mice with two different doses of the selective HDAC6
      inhibitor (ACY-738) for 5 weeks. As the mice aged, we determined autoantibody
      production and cytokine levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and
      renal function by measuring proteinuria. At the termination of the study, we
      performed a comprehensive analysis on B cells, T cells and innate immune cells
      using flow cytometry and examined renal tissue for immune-mediated pathogenesis
      using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. Our results showed a reduced
      germinal centre B cell response, decreased T follicular helper cells and
      diminished interferon (IFN)-gamma production from T helper cells in splenic
      tissue. Additionally, we found the IFN-alpha-producing ability of plasmacytoid
      dendritic cells was decreased along with immunoglobulin isotype switching and the
      generation of pathogenic autoantibodies. Renal tissue showed decreased
      immunoglobulin deposition and reduced inflammation as judged by glomerular and
      interstitial inflammation. Taken together, these studies show selective HDAC6
      inhibition decreased several parameters of disease pathogenesis in lupus-prone
      mice. The decrease was due in part to inhibition of B cell development and
      response.

PMID- 28876453
TI  - Reconstructing the microstructure of polyimide-silicalite mixed-matrix membranes
      and their particle connectivity using FIB-SEM tomography.
AB  - Properties of a composite material made of a continuous matrix and particles
      often depend on microscopic details, such as contacts between particles. Focusing
      on processing raw focused-ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM)
      tomography data, we reconstructed three mixed-matrix membrane samples made of
      6FDA-ODA polyimide and silicalite-1 particles. In the first step of image
      processing, backscattered electron (BSE) and secondary electron (SE) signals were
      mixed in a ratio that was expected to obtain a segmented 3D image with a
      realistic volume fraction of silicalite-1. Second, after spatial alignment of the
      stacked FIB-SEM data, the 3D image was smoothed using adaptive median and
      anisotropic nonlinear diffusion filters. Third, the image was segmented using the
      power watershed method coupled with a seeding algorithm based on geodesic
      reconstruction from the markers. If the resulting volume fraction did not match
      the target value quantified by chemical analysis of the sample, the BSE and SE
      signals were mixed in another ratio and the procedure was repeated until the
      target volume fraction was achieved. Otherwise, the segmented 3D image (replica)
      was accepted and its microstructure was thoroughly characterized with special
      attention paid to connectivity of the silicalite phase. In terms of the phase
      connectivity, Monte Carlo simulations based on the pure-phase permeability values
      enabled us to calculate the effective permeability tensor, the main diagonal
      elements of which were compared with the experimental permeability. In line with
      the hypothesis proposed in our recent paper (Capek, P. et al. (2014) Comput.
      Mater. Sci. 89, 142-156), the results confirmed that the existence of particle
      clusters was a key microstructural feature determining effective permeability.

PMID- 28876454
TI  - Oxaliplatin-induced increase in splenic volume; irreversible change after
      adjuvant FOLFOX.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Oxaliplatin can cause hepatic sinusoidal obstruction
      syndrome (SOS). SOS can cause chemotherapy-related adverse effects or morbidity
      after liver resection. Conventionally, SOS is diagnosed using liver biopsy.
      Recently, it was reported that increased splenic volume (SV) can be used to
      detect SOS. In this study, we evaluated the changes in SV during adjuvant
      chemotherapy. METHODS: We enrolled 103 consecutive patients with stage III and
      high-risk stage II colorectal cancer treated with mFOLFOX6 (n = 37) or oral
      fluorouracil and leucovorin (n = 66) after curative surgery. SV was measured
      three times; pre-operatively, after chemotherapy, and 1 year after chemotherapy.
      RESULTS: SV was higher after mFOLFOX6 (median 135.89 mL) than pre-operatively
      (105.75 mL) (P < 0.001); SV at 1-year after finishing mFOLFOX6 (114.16 mL)
      returned to the same level as before surgery (P = 0.0015). SV increased in 28
      patients (75.7%) treated with mFOLFOX6 (95%CI, 61.8-89.5), but had not recovered
      in 12 of these cases (42.9%) 1 year after finishing treatment (95%CI, 17.3-47.5).
      In contrast, oral fluorouracil and leucovorin did not change SV. CONCLUSIONS: SV
      increased after adjuvant mFOLFOX6, and had not recovered in almost half of cases
      1-year after finishing chemotherapy. This increase may indicate continuous SOS,
      which can adversely affect treatment after recurrence.

PMID- 28876455
TI  - The Age-Friendly Health System Imperative.
AB  - The unprecedented changes happening in the American healthcare system have many
      on high alert as they try to anticipate legislative actions. Significant efforts
      to move from volume to value, along with changing incentives and alternative
      payment models, will affect practice and the health system budget. In tandem,
      growth in the population aged 65 and older is celebratory and daunting. The John
      A. Hartford Foundation is partnering with the Institute for Healthcare
      Improvement to envision an age-friendly health system of the future. Our current
      prototyping for new ways of addressing the complex and interrelated needs of
      older adults provides great promise for a more-effective, patient-directed, safer
      healthcare system. Proactive models that address potential health needs, prevent
      avoidable harms, and improve care of people with complex needs are essential. The
      robust engagement of family caregivers, along with an appreciation for the value
      of excellent communication across care settings, is at the heart of our work.
      Five early-adopter health systems are testing the prototypes with continuous
      improvement efforts that will streamline and enhance our approach to geriatric
      care.

PMID- 28876456
TI  - Management of disappearing lesions after chemotherapy for colorectal liver
      metastases: Relation between detectability and residual tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To clarify the detectability of gadolinium
      ethoxybenzyl diethylene-triamine pantaacetic acid enhanced magnetic resonance
      imaging (EOB-MRI) and contrast-enhanced intraoperative-ultrasonography (CE-IOUS)
      for residual disease in disappearing colorectal liver metastases (DLMs) and to
      seek a better management for DLMs. METHODS: Eighty-two patients who underwent
      hepatectomy after chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases were
      retrospectively reviewed. Lesions which disappear on post-chemotherapy contrast
      enhance CT were defined as DLMs. All the patients underwent EOB-MRI and CE-IOUS.
      With pathologic evaluation for resected specimens and clinical observation of
      anatomically corresponding site for non-resected lesions, detectability of
      residual disease in DLMs were estimated between these two imaging modalities.
      RESULTS: Twenty (18%) patients presented with 111 DLMs, and EOB-MRI and CE-IOUS
      identified 64 (57.6%) and 62 (55.9%), respectively. Residual disease was
      pathologically confirmed for 69.2% in resected specimens and clinically estimated
      in 33.3% for non-resected DLMs. EOB-MRI showed a higher accuracy of prediction of
      residual disease compared with CE-IOUS (0.90 vs 0.70). Of the 11 non-resected
      lesions which were undetected with CE-IOUS and regrew after surgery, 9 (81.8%)
      were detected on EOB-MRI. CONCLUSIONS: EOB-MRI may be superior to CE-IOUS in
      detecting residual tumors for DLMs. Maximum attempt of resection would be needed
      for visualized lesions in EOB-MRI.

PMID- 28876457
TI  - Decision of surgical approach for advanced gallbladder adenocarcinoma based on a
      Bayesian network.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To determine whether radical resection can benefit
      patients with advanced gallbladder adenocarcinoma using a Bayesian network (BN)
      with clinical data. METHODS: In total, 362 patients who had undergone surgical
      treatment of gallbladder adenocarcinoma at a tertiary institute were evaluated to
      establish two BN models using a tree-augmented naive Bayes algorithm. We then
      chose 250 patients with T3-4N0-2M0 stage gallbladder adenocarcinoma to test the
      posterior probability after the surgical type was taken into account. RESULTS: In
      total, 170 patients (<=7 months) and 137 patients (>7 months) were correctly
      classified in the median survival time model (accuracy, 84.81%), and 204 patients
      (<=12 months), 15 patients (12-36 months), 17 patients (36-60 months), and 34
      patients (>60 months) were correctly classified in the 1-, 3-, and 5-year
      survival model (accuracy, 74.59%), respectively. Every posterior probability in
      the two models upregulated the ratio of the longer survival time and suggested a
      better prognosis for gallbladder adenocarcinoma that can be improved by R0
      resection. CONCLUSIONS: These BN models indicate that stages T4 and N2
      gallbladder adenocarcinoma are not contraindications for surgery and that R0
      resection can improve survival in patients with advanced gallbladder
      adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28876459
TI  - Antibiotic elution from acrylic bone cement loaded with high doses of tobramycin
      and vancomycin.
AB  - Two-stage revision treatment of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) frequently
      employs the use of a temporary bone cement spacer loaded with multiple antibiotic
      types. Tobramycin and vancomycin are commonly used antibiotics in cement spacers,
      however, there is no consensus on the relative concentrations and combinations
      that should be used. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the
      influence of dual antibiotic loading on the total antibiotic elution and
      compressive mechanical properties of acrylic bone cement. Varying concentrations
      of tobramycin (0-3 g) and vancomycin (0-3 g) were added either alone or in
      combination to acrylic cement (Palacos R), resulting in 12 experimental groups.
      Samples were submerged in 37 degrees C saline for 28 d and sampled at specific
      time points. The collected eluent was analyzed to determine the cumulative
      antibiotic release. In addition, the cement's compressive mechanical properties
      and porosity were characterized. Interestingly, the cement with the highest
      concentration of antibiotics did not possess the best elution properties. Cement
      samples containing both 3 g of tobramycin and 2 g vancomycin demonstrated the
      highest cumulative antibiotic release after 28 d, which was coupled with a
      significant decrease in the mechanical properties and an increased porosity. The
      collected data also suggests that tobramycin elutes more effectively than
      vancomycin from cement. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that high
      antibiotic loading in cement does not necessarily lead to enhanced antibiotic
      elution. Clinically this information may be used to optimize cement spacer
      antibiotic loading so that both duration and amount of antibiotics eluted are
      optimized. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1078-1085, 2018.

PMID- 28876458
TI  - Seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 and its impact on the hemoglobin level in
      patients of end stage of renal diseases.
AB  - The incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is increasing among renal transplant
      recipients. Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are immunocompromised
      and are candidates for renal transplantation, but HHV8 seroprevalence in ESRD
      patients has not been well documented. A cross-sectional study of 286 ESRD
      patients and 281 matched subjects without kidney disease was conducted at the
      First People's Hospital of Huzhou, Zhejiang province to explore the epidemiologic
      features of HHV8 among ESRD patients in China. Blood samples were collected and
      HHV8 antibodies and serologic indices were measured. The seroprevalence of HHV8
      was 15.3% for ESRD patients and 8.9% for the comparison group. A significant
      difference in the geometric mean titer (GMT) of the HHV8 antibodies was detected
      between ESRD patients and the comparison group (617.1 vs 291.7; P = 0.042). The
      average level of hemoglobin was 11.56 +/- 1.78 g/dL for the ESRD group and 13.73
      +/- 1.42 g/dL for the comparison group, (P > 0.05). Multiple linear regression
      revealed a negative association between HHV8 infection and plasma hemoglobin
      concentration (beta = -0.682, P = 0.036). We found a higher HHV8 prevalence and a
      higher level of HHV8 antibody GMT in ESRD patients than the comparison group,
      which indicate a high risk of posttransplantation KS.

PMID- 28876460
TI  - Viral etiology of sporadic cases of parotitis among children in Korea during 2013
      2014.
AB  - Recent years have seen a high incidence of mumps, which is generally diagnosed
      based on clinical features, especially parotitis, without laboratory confirmation
      in Korea. To better understand the epidemiology of mumps in Korean children, we
      investigated sporadic suspected mumps cases with parotitis. In total, 237 buccal
      swabs or throat swabs collected from children with parotitis who had been
      clinically diagnosed with mumps were tested using real-time PCR for the detection
      of six viruses (Epstein-Barr virus, Human herpesvirus 6, Mumps virus, Human
      parainfluenza virus-1, -2, -3, Human adenovirus, Human bocavirus). Among 237
      parotitis cases, 87 (36.7%) were positive for at least one virus; a single
      infection was observed in 73 (83.9%) cases, and co-infections were detected in 14
      (16.1%) cases. Epstein-Barr virus was most frequent (20.7%), followed by human
      herpesvirus 6 (8.0%), mumps virus (5.5%), human parainfluenza virus-3 (4.6%),
      human adenovirus (4.2%), and human bocavirus (0.4%). These data suggested that
      the sporadic suspected mumps in the children might be related to other
      respiratory viruses rather than to the mumps virus. Our findings also indicate
      the limitation of clinical diagnosis without laboratory confirmation for mumps
      and thus highlight the importance of laboratory testing in suspected mumps cases.

PMID- 28876461
TI  - Jerusalem Special Issue.

PMID- 28876462
TI  - The Causal Role of Alcohol Use in Adolescent Externalizing and Internalizing
      Problems: A Mendelian Randomization Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The co-occurrence of alcohol use and externalizing/internalizing
      problems threatens adolescents' mental health. Research on whether alcohol use
      and these problems are causal and the direction of the potential causal
      relationships is needed to understand the mechanisms of the co-occurrence.
      METHODS: A Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted in which the aldehyde
      dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) rs671 polymorphism was used as an instrumental variable
      for alcohol use phenotypes. In total, 1,608 Chinese adolescents (mean age 14.11
      +/- 1.83 years) were genotyped for the ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism. Three
      externalizing problems (aggression, delinquency, and attention problems) were
      measured with the Youth Self-Report inventory, and 2 internalizing problems
      (depression and anxiety) were measured with the self-reported Children's
      Depression Inventory and the Trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.
      RESULTS: Alcohol use was positively associated with all 3 externalizing and 2
      internalizing problems, and the ALDH2 polymorphism had a significant effect on
      alcohol use. Aggression and attention problems were also significantly affected
      by the ALDH2 polymorphism, whereas no significant association was observed
      between the ALDH2 polymorphism and delinquency, anxiety, or depression.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that alcohol use is a cause of adolescent
      aggression and attention problems but not adolescent delinquency, anxiety, or
      depression.

PMID- 28876463
TI  - Antigenicity reduction contributes mostly to poor detectability of HBsAg by
      hepatitis B virus (HBV) S-gene mutants isolated from individuals with occult HBV
      infection.
AB  - Mutations in hepatitis B virus (HBV) S gene are one of factors contributing to
      occult HBV infection (OBI). The study aimed to uncover the impact of OBI-related
      S-gene mutations on the detectability of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).
      Nine representative mutations within the major hydrophilic region of the S region
      were investigated. These included six (M1-M6) from an OBI patient with HBV
      related hepatocellular carcinoma, and three (M7-M9) from three OBI blood donors.
      Recombinant plasmids on the basis of pTriEx-mod-1.1 HBV and pcDNA3.1(-)/myc-His A
      vectors were constructed for each and transfected into HepG2 or Huh7 cells,
      respectively. Electrochemical luminescence, ELISA, Western blotting, and confocal
      immunofluorescence were used to examine HBsAg expression and antigenicity. In
      comparison to wild-type strain, supernatant and intracellular HBsAg levels of the
      nine mutants were reduced by 56.39-99.09% and 42.76-99.77% upon Roche
      quantitative Elecsys assay, respectively. Confocal immunofluorescence showed that
      relative intensity ratios of HBsAg-myc-His fusion protein detected by anti-HBs
      and anti-His-tag were lower by 11.87-76.27% for the nine mutants compared to the
      wild-type strain. Specifically, M1-M5 mutants that we firstly found recently were
      33.14%, 76.27%, 57.93%, 53.37%, and 40.88% lower, respectively. Consistent
      results were obtained using double-antibody sandwich ELISA assays (anti-myc +
      anti-HBs vs anti-myc + anti-His). Antigenicity reduction played a major role for
      the poor detectability of HBsAg caused by the OBI-related mutations, although
      decreased HBsAg expression of some mutants and anti-HBs in samples might play
      coordinated roles. Taken together, antigenicity reduction contributes mostly to
      poor detectability of HBsAg caused by these OBI-related mutations.

PMID- 28876464
TI  - Novel mutations in transthyretin gene associated with hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the major health problems with
      increasing incidence worldwide. We report the elevation in transthyretin (TTR)
      expression following HCC induction using diethylnitrosamine (DEN) and 2
      aminoacetylfluorine (2-AAF) in male Wistar rats. The increase in its expression
      took place at very early stage and remained elevated throughout HCC progression.
      The analysis of TTR gene in HCC bearing rats revealed four novel mutations that
      alter three amino acids at positions 61, 100, and 115. While these mutations do
      not directly affect the binding of TTR to thyroxine (T4 ), the mutation in amino
      acid 115 interferes with TTR tetramer formation that leads to its accumulation.
      Further, the mutated TTR is unable to cleave C-terminal of apolipoprotein A1
      (APOA1) that results in abnormal lipid metabolism. This has correlation with
      development of liver cirrhosis and HCC. Furthermore, the mutated TTR seems to
      have potential as biomarker for early detection of HCC.

PMID- 28876466
TI  - Patient-specific in silico models can quantify primary implant stability in
      elderly human bone.
AB  - Secure implant fixation is challenging in osteoporotic bone. Due to the high
      variability in inter- and intra-patient bone quality, ex vivo mechanical testing
      of implants in bone is very material- and time-consuming. Alternatively, in
      silico models could substantially reduce costs and speed up the design of novel
      implants if they had the capability to capture the intricate bone microstructure.
      Therefore, the aim of this study was to validate a micro-finite element model of
      a multi-screw fracture fixation system. Eight human cadaveric humerii were
      scanned using micro-CT and mechanically tested to quantify bone stiffness.
      Osteotomy and fracture fixation were performed, followed by mechanical testing to
      quantify displacements at 12 different locations on the instrumented bone. For
      each experimental case, a micro-finite element model was created. From the micro
      finite element analyses of the intact model, the patient-specific bone tissue
      modulus was determined such that the simulated apparent stiffness matched the
      measured stiffness of the intact bone. Similarly, the tissue modulus of a small
      damage region around each screw was determined for the instrumented bone. For
      validation, all in silico models were rerun using averaged material properties,
      resulting in an average coefficient of determination of 0.89 +/- 0.04 with a
      slope of 0.93 +/- 0.19 and a mean absolute error of 43 +/- 10 MUm when
      correlating in silico marker displacements with the ex vivo test. In conclusion,
      we validated a patient-specific computer model of an entire organ bone-implant
      system at the tissue-level at high resolution with excellent overall accuracy.
      (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Orthop Res 36:954-962, 2018.

PMID- 28876465
TI  - Procyanidin B2 3,3"-di-O-gallate induces oxidative stress-mediated cell death in
      prostate cancer cells via inhibiting MAP kinase phosphatase activity and
      activating ERK1/2 and AMPK.
AB  - Neoplastic cells exhibit higher oxidative stress compared to normal cells;
      however, antioxidants based clinical trials have mostly failed. Another
      attractive therapeutic approach is to further increase the oxidative stress in
      cancer cells leading to cell death. Herein, we show that Procyanidin B2 3,3"-di-O
      gallate (B2G2), the most active constituent of grape seed extract, treatment
      causes cell death in human prostate cancer (PCa) cells (LNCaP and 22Rv1) via
      increasing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Mechanistically, B2G2
      treatment decreased the mitochondrial electron transport chain complex III
      activity leading to enhanced mitochondrial superoxide generation and decreased
      ATP production in LNCaP cells. Additional molecular studies revealed that B2G2
      induced cell death was mediated mainly through ROS-induced sustained activation
      of ERK1/2, which was due to inhibition of MAP kinase phosphatase (MKP) activity
      as over-expression of MKP3 in LNCaP cells conferred significant protection
      against B2G2-induced cell death. Along with ERK1/2, AMP-activated protein kinase
      alpha (AMPKalpha) was also activated by B2G2 treatment, and pre-treatment with
      AMPKalpha inhibitor compound C significantly reversed the cytotoxic effects of
      B2G2 in LNCaP cells. Furthermore, pre-treatment of MKP3 over-expressing LNCaP
      cells with compound C further reduced the B2G2-induced cell death, suggesting the
      involvement of AMPKalpha along with MKP3 and ERK1/2 in the biological effects of
      B2G2. Together, these results for the first time identified that oxidative stress
      and MKP3 inhibition play a critical role in B2G2-induced cell death in PCa cells
      through sustained activation of both ERK1/2 and AMPKalpha. These results offer a
      unique opportunity to control this deadly malignancy through B2G2 use.

PMID- 28876467
TI  - Nationwide, population-based study of post radical prostatectomy urinary
      incontinence correction surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the use of post radical prostatectomy (RP) urinary
      incontinence (PPI) surgery and to investigate factors related to its use.
      METHODS: Cohort study in Prostate Cancer database Sweden (PCBaSe) of men who
      underwent primary RP between 1998 and 2012. PPI correction procedures were
      identified in the Patient Registry. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) of PPI surgeries were estimated. RESULTS: Seven hundred eighty
      two out of 26 280 (3%) men underwent PPI surgery at a median time of 3 years
      after RP. There was an eightfold increase in the absolute number of PPI surgeries
      during 2000-2014 and a threefold increase in the number per 1000 RPs performed.
      Factors associated with high use PPI surgery were age >70, HR 1.96 (1.54-2.50),
      and high hospital RP volume (>100 RPs/year), HR 0.81 (0.66-0.99). There was a 10
      fold difference in use of PPI surgery per 1000 RPs between the county with the
      highest versus lowest use. In a subgroup of men with Patient-Reported Outcome
      Measures (PROM); severe PPI was reported by 7% of men and 24% of them underwent
      PPI surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Three percent of all men received PPI surgery, with a
      10-fold variation among health care providers. Only a quarter of men with severe
      PPI underwent PPI surgery, suggesting that PPI surgery remains underutilized.

PMID- 28876468
TI  - S100A16 is a prognostic marker for colorectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: S100 is a superfamily of calcium-binding proteins that regulate
      multiple biological processes and are involved in many diseases. S100A16 has
      recently been identified to be involved in several cancers such as bladder
      cancer, lung cancer, and oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, the role of
      S100A16 expression in the colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been investigated.
      METHODS: S100A16 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in 296
      cases of CRC. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were
      performed to evaluate the prognostic significance of S100A16. RESULT: The results
      showed that the overall survival (OS) of patients with low membrane S100A16
      expression was significantly shorter than patients with high expression (P <
      0.05). Chi-square analysis showed that S100A16 expression had a positive
      correlation with tumor grade (P = 0.02). Multivariate analysis identified
      membrane S100A16 expression as an independent prognostic marker for OS in CRC
      patients. (P < 0.05). Univariate analysis showed no significant association
      between cytoplasmic/nuclear S100A16 expression and OS. CONCLUSION: Membrane
      S100A16 is associated with the prognosis of CRC patients, indicating that S100A16
      may be a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for CRC.

PMID- 28876469
TI  - Effects of Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems on Technological Properties
      and Phenolic Compounds of Freshly Harvested and Stored Rice.
AB  - : This study compared the physicochemical and technological properties of the
      IRGA 410 rice cultivar, obtained from organic and conventional cropping systems,
      and showed its susceptibility to changes during storage at 0, 6, and 12 mo. The
      rice conventional cropping system exhibited greater protein, lipids, and ash
      levels, and a head rice yield. However, organic rice presented greater total
      carbohydrates, soluble protein, amylose content, 33% greater free phenolics, and
      phenolic acids, but exhibited a greater percentage of stained grains during the
      storage period. The free phenolic content of cooked rice was lower than the free
      phenolic content of the raw rice. By Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometer
      (LC-MS) were identified p-coumaric and ferulic acids in both fractions (free and
      bound). The content of p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid in bound fraction was
      higher in organic brown rice than in conventional brown rice. At 6 and 12 mo of
      storage, the main fungi found were Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp. Prior to
      storage, the Bipolaris sp. fungi was identified only in organic rice. For
      conventional rice, the infestation level by Aspergillus sp. increased from 3% to
      70% at the 6th mo of storage. In addition to the advantage of organic rice being
      free of agrochemicals, this study revealed that natural plant defense compounds
      could be produced when the rice was subjected to more biotic and abiotic
      stresses. However, some disadvantages were observed, such as lower protein
      content and a greater percentage of soluble protein, which favored the breaking
      of rice in processing, and a greater percentage of grain stained before and
      during storage. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The organic and conventional cropping
      systems affect the physicochemical and technological properties of rice grains,
      which is one of the main cereals grown and consumed in the world. This study
      shows the advantages and disadvantages of the cropping system in grain properties
      that are in the interest of both consumers and processing industries.

PMID- 28876470
TI  - Structure elucidation of new fusarielins from Fusarium sp. and their
      antimicrobial activity.
AB  - Three new fusarielins, 3-epi-fusarielin H (1), 3-O-methyl-fusarielin H (2), and 3
      O-methyl-epi-fusarielin H (3), were isolated from the fungus Fusarium sp.
      together with the known analogues, fusarielins F (4) and G (5). The structures of
      these compounds were elucidated by analysis of their ESI-HRTOFMS, 1D and 2D NMR
      spectroscopic data. The new compounds exhibited weak antibacterial effect against
      Staphylococcus aureus.

PMID- 28876471
TI  - Taxadiene-5alpha-ol is a minor product of CYP725A4 when expressed in Escherichia
      coli.
AB  - CYP725A4 is a P450 enzyme from Taxus cuspidata that catalyzes the formation of
      taxadiene-5alpha-ol (T5alpha-ol) from taxadiene in paclitaxel biosynthesis. Past
      attempts expressing CYP725A4 in heterologous hosts reported the formation of
      5(12)-oxa-3(11)-cyclotaxane (OCT) and/or 5(11)-oxa-3(11)-cyclotaxane (iso-OCT)
      instead of, or in addition to, T5alpha-ol. Here, we report that T5alpha-ol is
      produced as a minor product by Escherichia coli expressing both taxadiene
      synthase and CYP725A4. The major products were OCT and iso-OCT, while trace
      amounts of unidentified monooxygenated taxanes were also detected by gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry. Since OCT and iso-OCT had not been found in
      nature, we tested the hypothesis that protein-protein interaction of CYP725A4
      with redox partners, such as cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) and cytochrome b5,
      may affect the products formed by CYP725A4, possibly favoring the formation of
      T5alpha-ol over OCT and iso-OCT. Our results show that coexpression of CYP725A4
      with CPR from different organisms did not change the relative ratios of OCT, iso
      OCT, and T5alpha-ol, while cytochrome b5 decreased overall levels of the products
      formed. Although unsuccessful in finding conditions that promote T5alpha-ol
      formation over other products, we used our results to clarify conflicting claims
      in the literature and discuss other possible approaches to produce paclitaxel via
      metabolic and enzyme engineering.

PMID- 28876472
TI  - Economic evaluation of dental sealants: A systematic literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the literature on economic evaluations of
      dental sealants and examine the costs and effectiveness of caries prevention
      using sealants. METHODS: Of 21 full-text articles examined, a total of 13 were
      included in this study. These studies are grouped by the type of intervention as
      follows: (i) sealants compared with no sealants; (ii) sealants compared with
      other forms of caries prevention; (iii) resin-based sealants compared with glass
      ionomer sealants; (iv) different sealing strategies in primary teeth; (v)
      different sealing strategies in permanent teeth; and (vi) sealants based on
      school- or clinic-based setting of delivery. All currency is reported in constant
      2010 US$. RESULTS: Cost-effectiveness analyses differed due to varying study
      designs, assumptions, sealant delivery settings, outcomes, caries risk assessment
      and study durations. Findings varied on the cost-effectiveness of sealants
      compared with other caries-preventive strategies. Under the assumption of equal
      caries risk, always sealing primary molars appeared to be the most effective
      strategy, whereas risk-based sealing was the optimal strategy with differing
      caries risk. Studies that assessed sealing strategies in permanent teeth reported
      that risk-based sealing was more cost-effective than not sealing, but they
      differed on the cost-effectiveness of risk-based seal compared with non-risk
      based seal. Sealants delivered in school settings had mixed results on costs but
      were as equally effective as sealants delivered in private practices.
      CONCLUSIONS: The cost-effectiveness of sealants is dependent on the conditions of
      delivery. The list of cost-effectiveness ratios for each intervention can support
      policy makers to estimate expected returns on their investments in dental
      sealants.

PMID- 28876473
TI  - Sydney Playground Project: A Cluster-Randomized Trial to Increase Physical
      Activity, Play, and Social Skills.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We assessed the effectiveness of a simple intervention for increasing
      children's physical activity, play, perceived competence/social acceptance, and
      social skills. METHODS: A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted, in
      which schools were the clusters. Twelve Sydney (Australia) primary schools were
      randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions, with 226 children (5-7
      years old) selected randomly to participate. Data were collected at baseline and
      after 13 weeks. The intervention consisted of introducing recycled materials
      without an obvious play purpose into school playgrounds and a risk-reframing
      workshop for parents and teachers. RESULTS: Children from the intervention
      schools increased physical activity and reduced sedentary time while control
      schools decreased physical activity and increased sedentary time. The
      intervention yielded increases in total accelerometer counts (beta = 9350 counts,
      95% CI 3490-1522, p = .002), minutes of moderate/vigorous physical activity
      (MVPA) (beta = 1.8 min, 95% CI 0.52-3.12, p = .006), and reductions in sedentary
      time (beta = -2.1 min, 95% CI -3.77-(-0.51), p = .01). Although the changes in
      time spent in play and nonplay were not statistically different (p = .08) the
      effect size (d = .27) indicates clinical significance. CONCLUSIONS: This
      intervention was effective for increasing MVPA during recess and demonstrated
      capacity to improve play opportunities in school playgrounds.

PMID- 28876474
TI  - Bullying and HIV Risk Among High School Teenagers: The Mediating Role of Teen
      Dating Violence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Teen dating violence (TDV), bullying, and HIV risk behaviors are
      public health concerns that impact adolescents in the United States. National
      estimates reveal high rates of these risk behaviors among high school students.
      Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, we hypothesized that experiencing
      teen dating violence (sexual and physical) would mediate the impact of bullying
      on HIV risk. METHODS: Data were from the 2013 National Youth Behavior Risk
      Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) among students who answered questions on bullying,
      TDV, and HIV risk (N = 13,571). The YRBSS is conducted biennially among 9th- to
      12th-grade students nationally. We used multiple regression analysis and Hayes'
      SPSS process macro to examine the 2 study hypotheses. RESULTS: Findings from
      bivariate analysis suggest an association between bullying and HIV risk. The
      study also found associations between physical, sexual teen dating violence and
      HIV risk. Results also indicate that both physical and sexual teen dating
      violence mediate the association between bullying and HIV risk. CONCLUSION: Our
      findings suggest that multidimensional interventions should be developed to
      reduce the rate of teen dating violence and combat bullying as a preventative
      method for HIV risk among high school students.

PMID- 28876475
TI  - A School-Based Dental Program Evaluation: Comparison to the Massachusetts
      Statewide Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: School-based dental programs target high-risk communities and reduce
      barriers to obtaining dental services by delivering care to students in their
      schools. We describe the evaluation of a school-based dental program operating in
      Chelsea, a city north of Boston, with a low-income and largely minority
      population, by comparing participants' oral health to a Massachusetts oral health
      assessment. METHODS: Standardized dental screenings were conducted for students
      in kindergarten, third, and sixth grades. Outcomes were compared in bivariate
      analysis, stratified by grade and income levels. RESULTS: A greater percentage of
      Chelsea students had untreated decay and severe treatment need than students
      statewide. Yet, fewer Chelsea third graders had severe treatment need, and more
      had dental sealants. There was no significant difference in the percentage of
      Chelsea students having severe treatment need or dental sealants by income level.
      CONCLUSIONS: Students participating in our program do not have lower decay levels
      than students statewide. However, they do have lower levels of severe treatment
      need, likely due to treatment referrals. Our results confirm that school-based
      prevention programs can lead to increased prevalence of dental sealants among
      high-risk populations. Results provide support for the establishment of full
      service school-based programs in similar communities.

PMID- 28876476
TI  - School Breakfast Program Participation and Rural Adolescents' Purchasing
      Behaviors in Food Stores and Restaurants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about adolescents' food purchasing behaviors in rural
      areas. This study examined whether purchasing food at stores/restaurants around
      schools was related to adolescents' participation in school breakfast programs
      and overall diet in rural Minnesota. METHODS: Breakfast-skippers enrolled in a
      group-randomized intervention in 2014 to 2015 (N = 404 from 8 schools) completed
      24-hour dietary recalls and pre/post surveys assessing food establishment
      purchase frequency. Healthy Eating Index Scores (HEI-2010) were calculated for
      each student. Student-level school breakfast participation (SBP) was obtained
      from school food service records. Mixed-effects regression models estimated: (1)
      whether SBP was associated with store/restaurant use at baseline, (2) whether an
      increase in SBP was associated with a decrease in store/restaurant use, and (3)
      whether stores/restaurant use was associated with HEI-2010 scores at baseline.
      RESULTS: Students with increased SBP were more likely to decrease fast-food
      restaurant purchases on the way home from school (OR 1.017, 95% CI 1.005, 1.029),
      but were less likely to decrease purchases at food stores for breakfast (OR
      0.979, 95% CI 0.959, 0.999). Food establishment use was associated with lower HEI
      2010 dairy component scores (p = .017). CONCLUSIONS: Increasing participation in
      school breakfast may result in modest changes in purchases at food
      establishments.

PMID- 28876478
TI  - Achieving Consensus on Principles of Good Practice for School Health in
      Independent Schools: A Delphi Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the 8 components of the coordinated school health (CSH)
      framework have been implemented to various degrees in the nation's public
      schools, principles of good practice (PGPs) to guide health promotion efforts in
      independent schools do not exist. The purpose of this study was to generate PGPs
      and rate their feasibility of implementation. METHODS: A modified Delphi process
      was used to generate PGPs for school health in independent schools and develop
      consensus regarding their feasibility of implementation. A working group of 6
      independent school health professionals (ISHPs) was convened to propose draft
      PGPs based on the CSH framework. The proposed PGPs were then reviewed by a
      national and geographically diverse expert panel of 10 school health researchers
      and 23 ISHPs that completed 3 Delphi rounds to achieve consensus on the PGPs. Of
      33 participants originally invited to participate, 27 completed the Delphi
      process. RESULTS: A total of 27 panelists rated 67 PGPs, provided 399 comments,
      and achieved consensus using interquartile range on 56 (84%) of the proposed
      PGPs, 41 of which were rated feasible and 15 somewhat feasible. CONCLUSION: This
      study has generated empirical support for the feasibility of PGPs for school
      health in independent schools.

PMID- 28876477
TI  - A Scoping Review to Address the Culture of Concussion in Youth and High School
      Sports.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences emphasized the need to
      develop, implement, and evaluate effective large-scale educational strategies to
      improve the culture of concussion in youth and high school sports. In support of
      this recommendation, in this article we summarize research on factors that
      contribute to the culture of concussion. METHODS: We conducted the literature
      search using 7 electronic databases. We used a scoping review method to identify
      studies that addressed knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, use of educational
      resources, and interventions related to concussion among young athletes, coaches,
      and parents. RESULTS: Of the 33 articles identified, most focused on concussion
      education (N = 15), followed by knowledge (N = 13), behaviors (N = 13), and
      attitudes (N = 5). Three studies addressed multiple study populations.
      CONCLUSIONS: The rapid spread of concussion education and awareness efforts has
      outpaced research on effective strategies to improve knowledge, attitudes, and
      behaviors that contribute to the culture of concussion. Further research is
      critical to inform the development and implementation of large-scale educational
      efforts. This research should incorporate rigorous study designs; be inclusive of
      diverse ages, socioeconomic status, and racial/ethnic groups; and examine
      opportunities to improve behavioral outcomes around concussion prevention,
      reporting, and management.

PMID- 28876480
TI  - Types and Nature of Parental Support for Overweight Students to Cope With Weight
      Related Teasing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parental support can protect adolescents from various forms of
      bullying. There is a lack of in-depth information about what social support
      parents provide to overweight adolescents when they are teased at school. In this
      study, we took an initial step to address this gap in the literature by
      describing the types and nature of support that parents provided to their
      overweight child when they were teased. METHODS: A conversational style
      semistructured interview/prompts and probes were conducted with 28 volunteering
      parents. Inductive content analysis was used to analyze the data. Data
      trustworthiness was established through a variety of strategies. RESULTS: Six
      themes emerged from the data: (1) having conversations, being encouraging, and
      "being supportive"; (2) using religion to teach self-acceptance and comfort their
      child; (3) offering advice on how to cope with the teasing; (4) fostering their
      child's self-esteem; (5) teaching reality and acceptance of criticism in early
      life; and (6) seeking support from other parents or professionals. CONCLUSIONS:
      Parents offered multiple supports for their child when they were teased. This
      information can facilitate the development of effective family-based
      interventions on coping with teasing among overweight students. Future research
      is also needed to examine the effectiveness of the recommended interventions.

PMID- 28876479
TI  - Relationship Between Adherence to Individual Goals Within the 5-2-1-0 Guidelines
      for Obesity Prevention and Number of PACER Laps in Adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between
      adolescents' adherence to the 5-2-1-0 goals and the number of completed
      Progressive Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) laps. METHODS: Participants
      included 1792 students aged 10 to 16 years who were randomly selected across 9
      data collection periods between 2012 and 2014. The Survey of Physical Activity
      and Nutrition was used to measure time spent in physical activity and sedentary
      behavior, and dietary intake and the dependent variable was the number of PACER
      laps achieved. The Kruskal-Wallis test and pairwise post hoc comparisons were
      conducted. RESULTS: Only 0.95% (N = 17) participants met all 4 goals outlined
      within the 5-2-1-0 guidelines. Whereas 10.04% met 3 (N = 180), 41.63% met 2 (N =
      746), 34.99% met 1 (N = 627), and 12.39% did not meet any goals (N = 222).
      Pairwise comparisons indicated there were significant differences: between groups
      not meeting any of the 5-2-1-0 goals and other groups (meeting one goal [p =
      .000], 2 goals [p = .000], 3 goals [p = .000], and all 4 [p = .008]).
      CONCLUSIONS: The positive relationship between PACER laps and adherence to the 5
      2-1-0 goals suggests targeted and sequential behavioral changes may have positive
      implications on adolescents' cardiovascular fitness and body mass index.

PMID- 28876481
TI  - Measuring the Implementation of a School Wellness Policy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the rise in childhood obesity, school policies related to
      nutrition and physical activity have been written and implemented. In this paper,
      we present a model to evaluate the degree to which state legislation for school
      health policies are implemented at the school level. METHODS: Using Washington,
      DC's Healthy Schools Act (HSA) and a self-report measure of the implementation of
      the HSA, we illustrate the process of developing a composite score that can be
      used to measure compliance with the provisions of the law. RESULTS: We calculated
      elementary and middle school composite scores based on the provisions within the
      HSA. Schools have been successful in implementing nutrition provisions; however,
      more resources are needed for schools to achieve the minutes of health and
      physical education. We found statistically significant differences between public
      charter and traditional public schools on the implementation of the provisions of
      the HSA. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how schools are complying with school
      wellness policies is a next step to determining where additional resources or
      support are needed in order to support school-wide adoption of healthy policies.

PMID- 28876483
TI  - HTLV-1 intrafamilial transmission among Japanese immigrants in Brazil.
AB  - Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiological agent of adult T
      cell leukemia/lymphoma and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic
      paraparesis (HAM/TSP). The aim of this study was to investigate the intrafamilial
      transmission of HTLV-1 among Japanese immigrants and their descendants living in
      a non-endemic area of central Brazil. Six families were investigated. Thirty
      seven relatives of the six index cases were tested by ELISA for the presence of
      anti-HTLV antibodies, and the positive cases were confirmed by Western blot. HTLV
      1 isolates were genotyped by partial nucleotide sequencing (5' LTR) of the
      proviral DNA. All individuals, including index cases and relatives, were
      asymptomatic. In five families, at least one relative was infected with HTLV-1.
      In all, eight (22%) relatives (one mother, four wives, one brother, and two
      brothers-in-law) were infected. However, none of the 22 individuals under 55
      years of age was infected. In each family, the HTLV-1 sequences from the
      relatives were identical or almost identical to that of the index case, except in
      one case. Pedigrees of the families, together with socio-demographic data of the
      HTLV-1 infected individuals, strongly suggested the occurrence of both vertical
      and sexual transmission, with breastfeeding as an important risk factor. Whether
      and why the virus transmission is less effective among younger generations
      deserves to be further investigated.

PMID- 28876484
TI  - Is 100% oxygen a sticking plaster for sore neonatal ventilation skills?

PMID- 28876485
TI  - The care of a child with a newly diagnosed immune thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28876488
TI  - Global gains after Helping Babies Breathe.

PMID- 28876487
TI  - Helping babies breathe can reduce deaths with the right combination of training
      and expertise.

PMID- 28876490
TI  - Fetal intra-abdominal umbilical vein varix: retrospective cohort study and
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the ultrasound characteristics and outcome of
      pregnancies with fetal intra-abdominal umbilical vein varix (FIUVV). METHODS:
      Cases of FIUVV managed at our tertiary university hospital over an 8-year period
      were reviewed. Information retrieved included gestational age and diameter of the
      umbilical varix at diagnosis, increase in varix diameter, associated ultrasound
      or chromosomal anomalies and pregnancy outcome. Furthermore, a systematic review
      and meta-analysis of series of FIUVV in the literature was performed to assess
      the incidence of chromosomal anomalies, small-for-gestational age infants and
      intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD), and to pool odds ratio (OR) estimates on the
      relationship between the incidence of these outcomes and the presence of
      additional associated ultrasound anomalies. RESULTS: Thirteen cases of FIUVV were
      included in the cohort study. Additional ultrasound anomalies were found in two
      (15.4%) of 13 cases. One case of IUFD was observed and no case of chromosomal
      anomaly or thrombosis of varix was recorded. A total of five studies comprising
      254 cases met the inclusion criteria of the systematic review. FIUVV was
      associated with additional ultrasound anomalies (non-isolated FIUVV) in 19% (95%
      CI, 10.9-29.1%) of cases. No case of chromosomal abnormality or IUFD was reported
      in fetuses with isolated FIUVV. In contrast, in the group of non-isolated FIUVV,
      the incidence of chromosomal anomalies was 19.6% and that of IUFD was 7.3%, with
      ORs of 14.8 (95% CI, 2.9-73.0) and 8.2 (95% CI, 1.05-63.1), respectively, when
      compared with the group of isolated FIUVV. CONCLUSION: When isolated, the outcome
      of cases affected by FIUVV is usually favorable. In about 20% of cases,
      additional ultrasound anomalies are found, which are associated with an increased
      risk for chromosomal abnormalities and IUFD. Copyright (c) 2017 ISUOG. Published
      by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28876489
TI  - Structural/mechanistic insights into the efficacy of nonclassical beta-lactamase
      inhibitors against extensively drug resistant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia
      clinical isolates.
AB  - Clavulanic acid and avibactam are clinically deployed serine beta-lactamase
      inhibitors, important as a defence against antibacterial resistance. Bicyclic
      boronates are recently discovered inhibitors of serine and some metallo beta
      lactamases. Here, we show that avibactam and a bicyclic boronate inhibit L2
      (serine beta-lactamase) but not L1 (metallo beta-lactamase) from the extensively
      drug resistant human pathogen Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. X-ray crystallography
      revealed that both inhibitors bind L2 by covalent attachment to the nucleophilic
      serine. Both inhibitors reverse ceftazidime resistance in S. maltophilia because,
      unlike clavulanic acid, they do not induce L1 production. Ceftazidime/inhibitor
      resistant mutants hyperproduce L1, but retain aztreonam/inhibitor susceptibility
      because aztreonam is not an L1 substrate. Importantly, avibactam, but not the
      bicyclic boronate is deactivated by L1 at a low rate; the utility of avibactam
      might be compromised by mutations that increase this deactivation rate. These
      data rationalize the observed clinical efficacy of ceftazidime/avibactam plus
      aztreonam as combination therapy for S. maltophilia infections and confirm that
      aztreonam-like beta-lactams plus nonclassical beta-lactamase inhibitors,
      particularly avibactam-like and bicyclic boronate compounds, have potential for
      treating infections caused by this most intractable of drug resistant pathogens.

PMID- 28876491
TI  - Longitudinal change of sFlt-1/PlGF ratio in singleton pregnancy with early-onset
      fetal growth restriction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the evolution of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 to
      placental growth factor (sFlt-1/PlGF) ratio in the last 5 weeks prior to delivery
      in singleton pregnancy complicated by early-onset fetal growth restriction (FGR),
      with or without pre-eclampsia (PE). METHODS: This was a prospective observational
      cohort study of early-onset FGR cases that underwent serial assessment of
      maternal serum sFlt-1/PlGF ratio from diagnosis to delivery. Measurements were
      made at weekly intervals and within the last 48 h before birth. Absolute values
      and percentage increase between time intervals were computed, and previously
      described cut-off values of 38 (suspicion of PE), 85 (aids diagnosis of PE) and
      655 (high risk for imminent delivery) were used for analysis of the sFlt-1/PlGF
      ratio. We compared findings between cases with early-onset FGR only (n = 37) and
      those that additionally developed PE (n = 36). RESULTS: Overall perinatal
      survival was 63/73 (86.3%). A sFlt-1/PlGF ratio above 38 was observed 4 weeks
      before delivery in most FGR-only and FGR with PE cases (73% and 100%,
      respectively), but absolute values of sFlt-1/PlGF were significantly higher in
      FGR cases with PE. Extremely elevated values of the ratio (>= 655) within the
      last 48 h before delivery were found in 65% of cases of FGR with PE, but in only
      8% of isolated FGR cases (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Elevated sFlt-1/PlGF was
      observed in most early-onset FGR pregnancies from 4 weeks before delivery, and
      values were even higher if there was concurrent PE. However, serial measurements
      of the ratio were of limited value, being useful only to anticipate the need for
      imminent delivery in cases of FGR with PE when sFlt-1/PlGF values >= 655 were
      reached. Copyright (c) 2017 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28876492
TI  - Total Synthesis and Biological Assessment of Novel Albicidins Discovered by Mass
      Spectrometric Networking.
AB  - Natural products represent an important source of potential novel antimicrobial
      drug leads. Low production by microorganisms in cell culture often delays the
      structural elucidation or even prevents a timely discovery. Starting from the
      anti-Gram-negative antibacterial compound albicidin produced by Xanthomonas
      albilineans, we describe a bioactivity-guided approach combined with non-targeted
      tandem mass spectrometry and spectral (molecular) networking for the discovery of
      novel antimicrobial compounds. We report eight new natural albicidin derivatives,
      four of which bear a beta-methoxy cyanoalanine or beta-methoxy asparagine as the
      central alpha-amino acid. We present the total synthesis of these albicidins,
      which facilitated the unambiguous determination of the (2 S,3 R)
      stereoconfiguration which is complemented by the assessment of the
      stereochemistry on antibacterial activity.

PMID- 28876493
TI  - Hearing and neurodevelopmental outcomes for children with asymptomatic congenital
      cytomegalovirus infection: A systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Congenital CMV is one of the commonest congenital infections and a
      recognised cause of sensorineural hearing loss and neurodevelopmental impairment.
      Ninety percent are clinically inapparent at birth but are reported to be at risk
      of developing such abnormalities throughout childhood, the extent of which
      requires further elucidation. METHODS: A systematic literature review was
      conducted using Medline and Embase databases, manual citation review, and
      personal libraries for articles reporting primary data on hearing and
      neurodevelopmental outcomes for children with asymptomatic congenital CMV.
      PROSPERO registration number CRD42015025407. RESULTS: Thirty-seven of 480
      articles identified between 1969 and 2016 met the eligibility criteria. Twenty
      nine of these contributed primary data on hearing outcomes and 20 on
      neurodevelopmental outcomes (12 of the 37 studies contributed data on both).
      Cumulative incidence of sensorineural hearing loss with follow-up to at least 5
      years was 7% to 11%, which is more than healthy controls but less than children
      with symptomatic congenital CMV (34%-41%). The onset, course, and severity of
      hearing loss was variable with no reliable virological prognostic marker. In
      comparison to controls, children with asymptomatic congenital CMV did not perform
      worse than controls in neurodevelopmental assessments and performed better than
      children with symptomatic congenital CMV. CONCLUSIONS: Studies show children with
      asymptomatic congenital CMV are at increased risk of developing hearing loss but
      perform equally well on neurodevelopmental assessments when compared with healthy
      controls. There is no reliable virological marker to determine which infants will
      develop sequelae. Regular follow-up until school entry is supported by the
      literature.

PMID- 28876494
TI  - What proportion of paediatric specialist referrals originates from general
      practitioners?
AB  - AIM: To determine (i) the proportion of different referral sources for new
      referrals to paediatric specialist outpatient clinics and (ii) any association of
      referral source with utilisation of additional health services. METHODS: Survey
      of parents presenting with their child at five paediatric specialist outpatient
      clinics at two Melbourne public hospitals. RESULTS: Just over half (52%) of the
      respondents were referred by a general practitioner (GP). The remainder were
      referred by a paediatrician (27%) at hospital discharge (16%) or from the ED
      (6%). Most respondents (71%) reported that their child also has a referral to see
      another specialist for the same health concern but had not yet had the
      consultation; 44% had consulted another doctor for the same health concern
      between receiving the referral and the appointment. Paediatrician referrals were
      more likely to see another specialist for the same health concern compared to
      other referral sources (P = 0.032). CONCLUSION: Only half of the referrals of new
      patients to paediatric specialist outpatient clinics come from GPs. Future
      research should investigate whether multiple referral sources have a negative
      impact on the co-ordination and cost of paediatric health care.

PMID- 28876495
TI  - Accessing Stable Magnesium Acyl Compounds: Reductive Cleavage of Esters by
      Magnesium(I) Dimers.
AB  - The first examples of magnesium acyls, [(Nacnac)Mg{MU-C(Ph)O}(MU-OR)Mg(Nacnac)]
      (R=Me, tBu or Ph; Nacnac=[HC(MeCNAr)2 ]- ; Ar=C6 H2 Me3 -2,4,6 (Mes Nacnac), C6
      H3 Et2 -2,6 (Dep Nacnac), C6 H3 iPr2 -2,6 (Dip Nacnac)), have been prepared by
      reductive cleavage of a series of esters using dimeric magnesium(I) reducing
      agents, [{(Nacnac)Mg}2 ]. Crystallographic studies reveal the complexes to be
      dimeric, being bridged by both phenyl-acyl and alkoxide/aryloxide fragments. The
      crystal structures, combined with results of spectroscopic and computational
      studies suggest that the nature of the acyl ligands within these complexes should
      be viewed as lying somewhere between anionic umpolung acyl and oxo-carbene.
      However, reactions of the acyl complexes with a variety of organic electrophiles
      did not provide evidence of umpolung acyl reactivity. A number of attempts to
      prepare alkoxide free magnesium acyls were carried out, and while these were
      unsuccessful, they did lead to unusual products, the crystallographic and
      spectroscopic details of which are discussed.

PMID- 28876496
TI  - Seroprevalence and incidence of hepatitis E virus among blood donors: A review.
AB  - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an RNA virus with 4 main genotypes. HEV-1 and HEV-2
      infect solely humans, while HEV-3 and HEV-4 infect humans and various animals
      such as pigs, deer, and rabbits. HEV-5 and HEV-6 infect mainly wild boar.
      Recently, new genotypes, known as HEV-7 and HEV-8, were found to infect camels
      and humans. HEV is globally distributed into different epidemiological patterns
      based on socioeconomic factors and ecology. Although HEV is mainly transmitted
      through the fecal-oral route, it was also recognized as a transfusion-transmitted
      virus. Transmission through blood donation was documented worldwide with rising
      annual observations, accounting for more than 2.5% of all transmissions. HEV
      infection is usually asymptomatic or subclinical in immunocompetent individuals,
      so it remains questionable whether there is an urgent need to screen for HEV
      prior to blood transfusion. Moreover, recent studies conducted in the Middle East
      and North Africa (MENA) region indicate that HEV is highly endemic. Here, we
      provide a review on HEV epidemiology, transmission, and laboratory diagnosis,
      giving special emphasis to the newly discovered genotypes, HEV-7 and HEV-8.
      Furthermore, we underscore the findings of recent HEV seroprevalence and viremia
      studies among blood donors worldwide. We also shed light on similar studies
      performed among blood donors in the MENA region.

PMID- 28876497
TI  - Automated follicle count using three-dimensional ultrasound in polycystic ovarian
      morphology.

PMID- 28876498
TI  - Chinese medical students' knowledge, attitude and practice towards human
      papillomavirus vaccination and their intention to recommend the vaccine.
AB  - AIM: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is effective in preventing cervical
      cancer, but its global uptake rate in vulnerable populations is unsatisfactory.
      Physician's recommendation is an important determinant for vaccine uptake, but we
      have limited understanding on the contributing factors of physician's
      recommendation. This study investigated whether the knowledge, attitudes and
      vaccination status of medical students would affect their intention to recommend
      HPV vaccination. METHODS: This is a population-representative survey of medical
      schools in Hong Kong. RESULTS: Participants included 1022 Chinese medical
      students (46.9% of all in Hong Kong; 46.3% female). Better HPV-related knowledge
      and a more positive attitude towards HPV vaccination were important factors
      predicting vaccine uptake and intention to recommend. HPV vaccination status and
      intention to receive the vaccine were positively associated with intention to
      recommend among females. CONCLUSION: Better HPV-related medical education may be
      a feasible way to promote the HPV vaccine in regions without universal coverage.
      Medical students who have not received the HPV vaccine should also be encouraged
      to receive the vaccine.

PMID- 28876499
TI  - The short-term impact of the alcohol act on alcohol-related deaths and hospital
      admissions in Scotland: a natural experiment.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The introduction of the Alcohol Act in Scotland on 1 October
      2011, which included a ban on multi-buy promotions, was probably associated with
      a fall in off-trade alcohol sales in the year after its implementation. The aim
      of this study was to test if the same legislation was associated with reduced
      levels of alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions in the 3-year period
      after its introduction. DESIGN: A natural experiment design using time-series
      data to assess the impact of the Alcohol Act legislation in Scotland. Comparisons
      were made with unexposed populations in the rest of Great Britain. SETTING:
      Scotland with comparable data obtained for geographical control groups in other
      parts of Great Britain. PARTICIPANTS: For alcohol-related deaths, a total of 17
      732 in Scotland and 88 001 in England and Wales throughout 169 4-week periods
      between January 2001 and December 2013 and for alcohol-related hospital
      admissions, a total of 121 314 in Scotland and 696 892 in England throughout 182
      4-week periods between January 2001 and December 2014. MEASUREMENTS: Deaths and
      hospital admissions in Scotland and control groups that were wholly attributable
      to alcohol for consecutive 4-week periods between January 2001 and December 2014.
      Data were obtained by age, sex and area-based socio-economic position. FINDINGS:
      There was no evidence to suggest that the Alcohol Act was associated with changes
      in the overall rate of alcohol-related deaths [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.99,
      95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.91-1.07)] or hospital admissions (IRR = 0.98,
      95% CI = 0.95-1.02) in Scotland. In control group analyses, the pseudo
      intervention variable was not associated with a change in alcohol-related death
      rates in England/Wales (IRR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.95-1.02), but was associated with
      an increase in alcohol-related hospital admission rates in England (IRR = 1.05,
      95% CI = 1.03-1.07). In combined models, the interaction analysis did not provide
      support for a 'net effect' of the legislation on alcohol-related deaths in
      Scotland compared with England/Wales (IRR 0.99, 95% CI = 0.95-1.04), but
      suggested a net reduction in hospital admissions for Scotland compared with
      England (IRR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87-0.98). CONCLUSION: The implementation of the
      Alcohol Act in Scotland has not been associated clearly with a reduction in
      alcohol-related deaths or hospital admissions in the 3-year period after it was
      implemented in October 2011.

PMID- 28876501
TI  - Aqueous Voltammetry in the Near Absence of Electrolyte.
AB  - In order to minimize the incidence of the CO2 hydrolysis and conduct aqueous
      electrochemistry in the virtual absence of electrolyte, a novel methodology is
      developed to achieve the near minimum conductivity (~60 nS cm-1 ) for an aqueous
      solution through in situ deionization with ion exchange resin beads. Aqueous
      electrochemistry studying the oxidations of platinum, ferrocenemethanol, and
      hydrogen (H2 ) were conducted in the near complete absence of trace ionic species
      at a platinum microelectrode (d=10 MUm). Both surface and solution phase
      electrochemical reactions were clearly observed, indicating that under these
      conditions there is a sufficiently compressed double layer for an interfacial
      electron transfer to be driven and the iR effects are significantly smaller than
      theoretically expected.

PMID- 28876502
TI  - Self-Assembly of Giant Spherical Liquid-Crystalline Complexes and Formation of
      Nanostructured Dynamic Gels that Exhibit Self-Healing Properties.
AB  - Supramolecular self-assembly of 24 forklike mesogenic ligands and 12 transition
      metal ions led to the formation of giant spherical coordination complexes that
      exhibit liquid-crystalline (LC) phases. Self-healing LC supramolecular gels were
      also obtained through the introduction of these LC nanostructured supramolecular
      giant spherical complexes into dynamic covalent networks formed by cross-linkers
      and bifunctional polymers. The giant spherical structures of the PdII complexes
      with 72 rodlike moieties on the periphery were characterized by NMR, diffusion
      ordered NMR spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. These complexes are stable and
      exhibit lyotropic LC behavior, while the mesogenic ligands show thermotropic LC
      properties. The self-assembled LC structures of the spherical complexes can be
      tuned by the length of the rodlike moieties.

PMID- 28876500
TI  - On the integrity of functional brain networks in schizophrenia, Parkinson's
      disease, and advanced age: Evidence from connectivity-based single-subject
      classification.
AB  - Previous whole-brain functional connectivity studies achieved successful
      classifications of patients and healthy controls but only offered limited
      specificity as to affected brain systems. Here, we examined whether the
      connectivity patterns of functional systems affected in schizophrenia (SCZ),
      Parkinson's disease (PD), or normal aging equally translate into high
      classification accuracies for these conditions. We compared classification
      performance between pre-defined networks for each group and, for any given
      network, between groups. Separate support vector machine classifications of 86
      SCZ patients, 80 PD patients, and 95 older adults relative to their matched
      healthy/young controls, respectively, were performed on functional connectivity
      in 12 task-based, meta-analytically defined networks using 25 replications of a
      nested 10-fold cross-validation scheme. Classification performance of the various
      networks clearly differed between conditions, as those networks that best
      classified one disease were usually non-informative for the other. For SCZ, but
      not PD, emotion-processing, empathy, and cognitive action control networks
      distinguished patients most accurately from controls. For PD, but not SCZ,
      networks subserving autobiographical or semantic memory, motor execution, and
      theory-of-mind cognition yielded the best classifications. In contrast, young-old
      classification was excellent based on all networks and outperformed both clinical
      classifications. Our pattern-classification approach captured associations
      between clinical and developmental conditions and functional network integrity
      with a higher level of specificity than did previous whole-brain analyses. Taken
      together, our results support resting-state connectivity as a marker of
      functional dysregulation in specific networks known to be affected by SCZ and PD,
      while suggesting that aging affects network integrity in a more global way. Hum
      Brain Mapp 38:5845-5858, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28876503
TI  - Functional links between Disabled-2 Ser723 phosphorylation and thrombin signaling
      in human platelets.
AB  - : Essentials Disabled-2 (Dab2) phosphorylation status in thrombin signaling of
      human platelet was investigated. Ser723 was the major Dab2 phosphorylation site
      in human platelets stimulated by thrombin. Dab2 S723 phosphorylation (pS723)
      caused the dissociation of Dab2-CIN85 protein complex. Dab2-pS723 regulated ADP
      release and integrin alphaIIbbeta3 activation in thrombin-treated platelets.
      SUMMARY: Background Disabled-2 (Dab2) is a platelet protein that is functionally
      involved in thrombin signaling in mice. It is unknown whether or not Dab2
      undergoes phosphorylation during human platelet activation. Objectives To
      investigate the phosphorylation status of Dab2 and its functional consequences in
      thrombin-stimulated human platelets. Methods Dab2 was immunoprecipitated from
      resting and thrombin-stimulated platelet lysates for differential isotopic
      labeling. After enrichment of the phosphopeptides, the phosphorylation sites were
      analyzed by mass spectrometry. The corresponding phospho-specific antibody was
      generated. The protein kinases responsible for and the functional significance of
      Dab2 phosphorylation were defined by the use of signaling pathway
      inhibitors/activators, protein kinase assays, and various molecular approaches.
      Results Dab2 was phosphorylated at Ser227, Ser394, Ser401 and Ser723 in thrombin
      stimulated platelets, with Ser723 phosphorylation being the most significantly
      increased by thrombin. Dab2 was phosphorylated by protein kinase C at Ser723 in a
      Galphaq -dependent manner. ADP released from the stimulated platelets further
      activated the Gbetagamma -dependent pathway to sustain Ser723 phosphorylation.
      The Cbl-interacting protein of 85 kDa (CIN85) bound to Dab2 at a motif adjacent
      to Ser723 in resting platelets. The consequence of Ser723 phosphorylation was the
      dissociation of CIN85 from the Dab2-CIN85 complex. These molecular events led to
      increases in fibrinogen binding and platelet aggregation in thrombin-stimulated
      platelets by regulating alphaIIb beta3 activation and ADP release. Conclusions
      Dab2 Ser723 phosphorylation is a key molecular event in thrombin-stimulated
      inside-out signaling and platelet activation, contributing to a new function of
      Dab2 in thrombin signaling.

PMID- 28876504
TI  - The First Zero-Length Mass Spectrometry-Cleavable Cross-Linker for Protein
      Structure Analysis.
AB  - Combining the properties of a zero-length cross-linker with cleavability by
      tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) poses great advantages for protein structure
      analysis using the cross-linking/MS approach. These include a reliable, automated
      data analysis and the possibility to obtain short-distance information of protein
      3D-structures. We introduce 1,1'-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) as an easy-to-use and
      commercially available, low-cost reagent that ideally fulfils these features. CDI
      bridges primary amines and hydroxy groups in proteins with the lowest possible
      spacer length of one carbonyl unit (ca. 2.6 A). The cross-linking reaction can be
      conducted under physiological conditions in the pH range between 7.2 and 8. Urea
      and carbamate cross-linked products are cleaved upon collisional activation
      during MS/MS experiments generating characteristic product ions, greatly
      improving the unambiguous identification of cross-links. Our innovative
      analytical concept is exemplified and applied for bovine serum albumin (BSA),
      wild-type tumor suppressor p53, an intrinsically disordered protein, and retinal
      guanylyl cyclase activating protein-2 (GCAP-2).

PMID- 28876507
TI  - Revolutionary leaps in the development of agriculture.

PMID- 28876506
TI  - Bisphosphonate therapy and osteogenesis imperfecta: The lived experience of
      children and their mothers.
AB  - PURPOSE: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a chronic, genetic condition frequently
      described as "brittle bones." This condition is expressed by low bone density and
      characterized by frequent fractures with and without trauma. Additional symptoms
      include pain, altered growth, and challenges with mobility. This experience has a
      great impact on the daily life of the child diagnosed with OI and their family.
      With the introduction of bisphosphonate therapy children diagnosed with OI
      experienced an increase in bone density that included a change in symptoms and
      improvement in daily functioning. The purpose of this study was to describe the
      lived experience of children receiving bisphosphonate therapy for osteogenesis
      imperfecta (OI) and their mothers. DESIGN AND METHODS: A phenomenological study
      was conducted using interviews with a purposive sample of six children diagnosed
      with OI and their six mothers (N = 12). Children ranged in age from 6 to 18
      years. The Giorgi (2009) methodology was used to discover the meaning of living
      day to day since initiating the bisphosphonate infusion therapy. RESULTS: Four
      themes emerged from the synthesis of the meaning units that reflected the
      experience that bisphosphonate therapy had on daily life with OI. These four
      themes explicitly described the phenomena being studied and included living daily
      life in stride; normalcy is living with uncertainty; renewal with infusions; and
      making choices and living with the consequences. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Nurses
      must take an active role in developing and promoting family-centered
      interventions for transition and support.

PMID- 28876505
TI  - N-(3-Oxo-acyl)-homoserine lactone induces apoptosis primarily through a
      mitochondrial pathway in fibroblasts.
AB  - N-(3-Oxododecanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (C12) is produced by Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa to function as a quorum-sensing molecule for bacteria-bacteria
      communication. C12 is also known to influence many aspects of human host cell
      physiology, including induction of cell death. However, the signalling pathway(s)
      leading to C12-triggered cell death is (are) still not completely known. To
      clarify cell death signalling induced by C12, we examined mouse embryonic
      fibroblasts deficient in "initiator" caspases or "effector" caspases. Our data
      indicate that C12 selectively induces the mitochondria-dependent intrinsic
      apoptotic pathway by quickly triggering mitochondrial outer membrane
      permeabilisation. Importantly, the activities of C12 to permeabilise mitochondria
      are independent of activation of both "initiator" and "effector" caspases.
      Furthermore, C12 directly induces mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilisation
      in vitro. Overall, our study suggests a mitochondrial apoptotic signalling
      pathway triggered by C12, in which C12 or its metabolite(s) acts on mitochondria
      to permeabilise mitochondria, leading to activation of apoptosis.

PMID- 28876508
TI  - The effects of pirfenidone in patients with an acute exacerbation of interstitial
      pneumonia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The prognosis of patients with an acute exacerbation of
      interstitial pneumonia (AE-IP) is poor. Pirfenidone (PFD) reduces the disease
      progression in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this
      study was evaluating whether the administration of PFD improved the outcomes of
      AE-IP. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 31 patients with AE-IP who
      did not recover between 7 and 14 days after an initial treatment. Fourteen
      patients received PFD within 2 weeks (PFD group) of the AE, while 17 patients
      were treated without PFD (non-PFD group). The patients' clinical data and
      computed tomography (CT) scores were analyzed. RESULTS: The survival rate in the
      PFD group was not significantly different from non-PFD group at 30 (78.6% vs
      64.7%, P = .46) and 90 days (64.3% vs 52.9%, P = .72). The white blood cell
      counts in the PFD group were significantly lower on PFD day 14 than on PFD days 1
      and 7. The C-reactive protein levels in the PFD group were also significantly
      lower on PFD day 7 than on PFD day 1. There were no significant differences
      regarding the changes of the CT scores. CONCLUSIONS: PFD may reduce the
      inflammation in AE-IP patients undergoing corticosteroid treatment.

PMID- 28876509
TI  - Clot waveform analysis: Where do we stand in 2017?
AB  - Analysis of the optical waveform generated during global coagulation assays, such
      as activated partial thromboplastin time and prothrombin time, can provide much
      precious information on the global coagulation state of the plasma sample tested,
      in addition to a single clotting time. Many studies have been published
      concerning patient diagnosis and management in haemophilia A, and in the early
      diagnosis and prognosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation and sepsis.
      However, many other works have also been published on further potential clinical
      applications such as lupus anticoagulant diagnosis and anticoagulant monitoring.
      Altogether, these publications have demonstrated the ability for clot waveform
      analysis (CWA) to improve patient management, especially as this tool is
      inexpensive, rapid and readily available on coagulation analysers with optical
      detection systems. By an extensive review of the literature related to studies
      performed on CWA, this publication aims at providing a review of current
      knowledge in this specific field, ranging from research data to potential
      clinical applications and future trends.

PMID- 28876510
TI  - Optimization of Photoanodes for Photocatalytic Water Oxidation by Combining a
      Heterogenized Iridium Water-Oxidation Catalyst with a High-Potential Porphyrin
      Photosensitizer.
AB  - The development of water-splitting dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells has
      gained interest owing to their ability to generate renewable fuels from solar
      energy. In this study, photoanodes were assembled from a SnO2 film sensitized
      with a combination of a high-potential CF3 -substituted porphyrin dye with a
      tetrahydropyranyl-protected hydroxamic acid surface-anchoring group and a Cp*Ir
      (Cp*=pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) water-oxidation catalyst containing a silatrane
      anchoring group. The dye/catalyst ratios were varied from 2:1 to 32:1 to optimize
      the photocatalytic water oxidation. Photoelectrochemical measurements showed not
      only more stable and reproducible photocurrents for lower dye/catalyst ratios but
      also improved photostability. O2 production was confirmed in real time over a 20
      h period with a Clark electrode. Photoanodes prepared from 2:1 and 8:1
      dye/catalyst sensitization solutions provided the most active electrodes for
      photocatalytic water oxidation and performed approximately 30-35 turnovers in 20
      h.

PMID- 28876511
TI  - Recent progress of task-specific ionic liquids in chiral resolution and
      extraction of biological samples and metal ions.
AB  - Ionic liquids have been functionalized for modern applications. The functional
      ionic liquids are also called task-specific ionic liquids. Various task-specific
      ionic liquids with certain groups have been constructed and exploited widely in
      the field of separation. To take advantage of their properties in separation
      science, task-specific ionic liquids are generally used in techniques such as
      liquid-liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction, gas chromatography, high
      performance liquid chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis. This review
      mainly covers original research papers published in the last five years, and we
      will focus on task-specific ionic liquids as the chiral selectors in chiral
      resolution and as extractant or sensor for biological samples and metal ion
      purification.

PMID- 28876512
TI  - Effect of Stapling Architecture on Physiochemical Properties and Cell
      Permeability of Stapled alpha-Helical Peptides: A Comparative Study.
AB  - Stapled peptides have emerged as a new class of targeting molecules with high
      binding affinity and specificity for intracellular undruggable targets. Their
      ability to penetrate cell membranes is exceptionally intriguing but remains
      elusively and controversially discussed. To understand the effect of stapling
      architectures on their physiochemical properties and to aid in promoting their
      cell permeability, we report herein a comparative study on the physiochemical
      properties and cell permeability of stapled alpha-helical peptides with different
      types of crosslinks. We highlight the decisive impact of the intrinsic properties
      of the crosslinks on cell permeability rather than the helical contents of the
      peptides in model amphipathic sequences targeting estrogen receptor-coactivator
      interaction. We envision this finding to shed further light on the chemical
      optimization of stapled alpha-helical peptides or macrocyclic cell-penetrating
      peptides for enhanced cell penetration.

PMID- 28876513
TI  - Association of clinical trial enrollment and survival using contemporary therapy
      for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - While early studies reported superior survival for cancer patients enrolled on
      clinical trials, recent findings are inconclusive. We investigated the
      association between enrollment on contemporary trials and event-free survival
      (EFS) in pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). In a
      retrospective cohort of 274 children (1-21 years) treated for B-ALL from 2008 to
      2015, 55.5% enrolled with no disparity in enrollment by age, sex, or ethnicity.
      Three-year EFS was similar for enrolled and not enrolled patients (90.1% [95% CI,
      82.5-94.5] versus 86.5% [95% CI, 77.7-92.0]). Clinical trial enrollment did not
      affect pediatric B-ALL survival, albeit in a limited-size cohort treated at a
      single academic institution.

PMID- 28876514
TI  - Maternal concerns and perceptions of elementary school-age children's weight
      status.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics associated
      with maternal concerns for her child becoming overweight, and how these concerns
      are related to her perceptions of her child's weight. DESIGN: A school-based
      sample of 55 children and their mothers from Houston, Texas, participated in a
      cross-sectional survey. Mothers reported on their concerns and perceptions
      regarding their child's weight. Child and mother height and weight were directly
      assessed to calculate body mass index (BMI). Covariate-adjusted logistic
      regression models were conducted. RESULTS: Over one-third of mothers misperceived
      their child's weight status [9% (n = 5) overestimated; 27% (n = 15)
      underestimated]. Mothers of sons were less accurate compared with mothers of
      daughters. For every one unit increase in maternal BMI, mothers had 13% higher
      odds of being concerned of their child becoming overweight. Concerned mothers had
      82% lower odds of underestimating their child's weight. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: In
      order for school-based childhood obesity prevention and intervention programs to
      be successful, parents must accurately perceive their elementary school-age
      child's weight status. School nurses can be vital to these efforts through proper
      training and resources. Nurses can use the "School Nurse Childhood Obesity
      Toolkit" and motivational interviewing techniques to address parental concerns
      and perceptions prior to teaching behavior modification strategies to
      children/families.

PMID- 28876515
TI  - Parental Child-Rearing Conflicts Through Adolescence: Trajectories and
      Associations With Child Characteristics and Externalizing Patterns.
AB  - Research on longitudinal interparental conflict patterns and offspring
      development is scarce. The population-based TOPP study (N = 459) was used to
      investigate (1) child-rearing conflict trajectories through four time points
      during childhood and adolescence (ages 8-16), and (2) associations between
      conflict trajectories and child characteristics (i.e., birth order, gender,
      externalizing patterns from early childhood). Latent profile analysis identified
      six distinct trajectories. Conflict levels decreased for most respondents over
      the adolescent offspring period, but offspring's birth order and externalizing
      problems were related to less typical trajectories and higher levels of conflict.
      Onset of externalizing problems was of additional importance for the course of
      parental child-rearing conflicts. The results highlight the perception of the
      whole family as an interwoven system.

PMID- 28876516
TI  - Cultivating Conformists or Raising Rebels? Connecting Parental Control and
      Autonomy Support to Adolescent Delinquency.
AB  - This study investigates short-term and long-term associations between parenting
      in early adolescence and delinquency throughout adolescence using data from the
      National Longitudinal Surveys. Multilevel longitudinal Poisson regressions show
      that behavioral control, psychological control, and decision-making autonomy in
      early adolescence (ages 10-11) are associated with delinquency trajectories
      throughout adolescence (ages 10-17). Path analyses reveal support for three
      mediation hypotheses. Parental monitoring (behavioral control) is negatively
      associated with delinquency in the short term and operates partly through changes
      in self-control. Parental pressure (psychological control) shows immediate and
      long-lasting associations with delinquency through changes in self-control and
      delinquent peer pressures. Decision-making autonomy is negatively associated with
      delinquency in the long term, yet may exacerbate delinquency in early adolescence
      by increasing exposure to delinquent peers.

PMID- 28876517
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28876518
TI  - Externalizing Problem Behavior in Adolescence: Parenting Interacting With DAT1
      and DRD4 Genes.
AB  - This study extends previous gene-by-environment (G * E) research through design
      and methodological advances and examines alternative hypotheses of diathesis
      stress, vantage sensitivity, and differential susceptibility. In a sample of 984
      adolescents and their parents, we examined whether effects of parental support,
      proactive, punitive, harsh punitive, and psychological control on externalizing
      problem behavior are moderated by adolescents' genotype for the dopamine
      transporter (DAT1) or receptor D4 (DRD4) gene. Results provided evidence for main
      effects of parenting behavior and DRD4, and multiple interaction effects of which
      one survived Bonferroni correction. Adolescents carrying a long DRD4 variant were
      more susceptible to the effects of parental proactive control on aggression, for
      better and for worse. Critical considerations were made regarding the complexity
      of G * E research.

PMID- 28876519
TI  - Associations Between Victimization and Adolescents' Self-Reported Responses to
      Peer Provocation Are Moderated by Peer-Reported Aggressiveness.
AB  - Many early adolescents experience peer victimization, but little research has
      examined how they respond to aggression by peers. Thus, in a large sample of
      early adolescents (N = 648; M age = 12.96; SD = 0.30; 52.0% female), we examined
      (1) the associations between peer-reported victimization and self-reported
      responses to peer provocation, and (2) whether these associations were moderated
      by peer-reported aggression. In particular, we predicted that the reported use of
      assertion, a strategy generally viewed as socially skillful, would be associated
      with less victimization, but only for youth low on peer-reported aggression.
      Results were consistent with this hypothesis. Moreover, seeking adult
      intervention was associated with greater victimization for youth high on peer
      reported aggression. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

PMID- 28876520
TI  - Associations Between School Connection and Depressive Symptoms From Adolescence
      Through Early Adulthood: Moderation by Early Adversity.
AB  - Depressive symptomatology is one of the most common and costly threats to
      American mental health, making the elucidation of environmental influences on
      depressive symptoms particularly important. Using the National Longitudinal Study
      of Adolescent Health, this study explores the interaction between environmental
      risk and protective factors in the etiology of depressive symptoms by asking
      whether school connection is associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms
      through early adulthood, and whether connection serves as a protective or
      promotive factor for youth who experienced early adversity. Findings highlight
      the importance of school connection in promoting long-term mental health for all
      youth and suggest that policies and practice supporting school connection may be
      effective intervention strategies for youth at risk for depressive
      symptomatology.

PMID- 28876521
TI  - Passionate Experiences in Adolescence: Situational Variability and Long-Term
      Stability.
AB  - This study investigates adolescents' situational passionate experiences, defined
      as states of strong commitment and intense affect. We examine the extent to which
      experiencing passion was specific to situations versus individual differences,
      and explore which activities are likely to elicit adolescents' passion. Using
      longitudinal experience sampling method (ESM) data from a representative sample
      of 996 adolescents (54.6% females) in three cohorts (6th, 8th, and 10th grade at
      baseline), we examine whether adolescents' frequency of passionate experiences
      remained stable across 2 years. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that
      situational determinants accounted for 80% of variance in passion, while 20% were
      due to characteristics of the person that remained stable across 1 week of ESM
      assessment. An adolescent's percentage of passionate experiences among all
      observed experiences remained stable across 2 years in rank order and mean level.

PMID- 28876523
TI  - Support From Parents and Teachers in Relation to Psychosomatic Health Complaints
      Among Adolescents.
AB  - This study explores the relative contribution of parental and teacher support to
      adolescents' psychosomatic health complaints, with a particular focus on gender
      and age differences. Based on a survey of 49,172 ninth- and eleventh-grade
      students in Stockholm (2006-2014), structural equation modeling results
      demonstrated negative associations between parental and teacher support on
      psychosomatic health complaints. Parental support had a stronger association with
      the outcome among girls than boys. It was also more important than teacher
      support for psychosomatic health complaints. Parental support was more important
      for younger girls' health compared to older girls, with opposite patterns for
      teacher support. These findings highlight the need to consider gender and age to
      understand the links between social support and health during adolescence.

PMID- 28876524
TI  - Technology-Based Communication and the Development of Interpersonal Competencies
      Within Adolescent Romantic Relationships: A Preliminary Investigation.
AB  - This study investigated longitudinal associations between adolescents' technology
      based communication and the development of interpersonal competencies within
      romantic relationships. A school-based sample of 487 adolescents (58% girls; Mage
      = 14.1) participated at two time points, one year apart. Participants reported
      (1) proportions of daily communication with romantic partners via traditional
      modes (in person, on the phone) versus technological modes (text messaging,
      social networking sites) and (2) competence in the romantic relationship skill
      domains of negative assertion and conflict management. Results of cross-lagged
      panel models indicated that adolescents who engaged in greater proportions of
      technology-based communication with romantic partners reported lower levels of
      interpersonal competencies one year later, but not vice versa; associations were
      particularly strong for boys.

PMID- 28876522
TI  - Roles of Response Inhibition and Gene-Environment Interplay in Pathways to
      Adolescents' Externalizing Problems.
AB  - This study used two waves of data to investigate pathways through which
      adolescents' response inhibition related to later externalizing problems. A
      polygenic risk score indexed genetic risk for poor response inhibition.
      Adolescents' performance on a response inhibition task mediated the relation
      between adolescents' polygenic risk scores and mother's inconsistent parenting
      (i.e., evocative rGE), even after controlling for mothers' genetic risk (i.e.,
      passive rGE). Mothers' inconsistent parenting subsequently prospectively
      predicted adolescents' externalizing problems. Adolescents' response inhibition
      also prospectively predicted later externalizing behaviors. These findings were
      subgroup-specific, with greater risk for non-Hispanic Caucasian boys with
      substance-disordered parents. Results suggest that poor response inhibition may
      increase risk for adolescents' externalizing problems both directly and by
      evoking certain environmental conditions.

PMID- 28876525
TI  - Extracurricular Activities in Multiethnic Middle Schools: Ideal Context for
      Positive Intergroup Attitudes?
AB  - This study examined processes by which extracurricular participation is linked
      with positive ethnic intergroup attitudes in multiethnic middle schools in
      California. Specifically, the mediating roles of activity-related cross-ethnic
      friendships and social identities including alliances with multiple groups were
      examined in a sample including African American or Black, East or South-East
      Asian, White, and Latino youth (N = 1,446; Mage  = 11.60 in sixth grade). Results
      of multilevel modeling suggested that in addition to activity-related cross
      ethnic friendships, complex social identities mediated the association between
      availability of cross-ethnic peers in activities and ethnic intergroup attitudes.
      Results are discussed in terms of how activities can be structured to promote
      cross-ethnic relationships and complex social identities, as well as positive
      ethnic intergroup attitudes.

PMID- 28876527
TI  - Developmental Trajectories of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Adolescence and
      Intrapersonal/Interpersonal Risk Factors.
AB  - This 3-wave study investigated the developmental trajectories of nonsuicidal self
      injury (NSSI) and intrapersonal/interpersonal risk factors among 3,381 Chinese
      adolescents (56.2% females) aged from 13 to 17 years during a 1-year period.
      Using an accelerated longitudinal design and latent class growth analysis, we
      identified four subgroups of NSSI trajectories: negligible (74.6%), experimental
      (12.8%), moderate decreasing (10.8%), and high fluctuating (1.9%). Adolescents
      reporting both intrapersonal (i.e., impulsive behaviors and depression) and
      interpersonal (i.e., unstable relationships and parental criticism) risk factors
      were significantly more likely to follow the latter three trajectories. The
      findings of this study suggest there is heterogeneity in NSSI development among
      adolescents and highlight the contributions of both intrapersonal and
      interpersonal risk factors in the engagement in NSSI.

PMID- 28876528
TI  - The Links Between Youth Employment and Educational Attainment Across Racial
      Groups.
AB  - Research suggests that the relations between adolescent employment and youth
      development vary by socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity. However, it is
      unclear whether the links between paid work and college outcomes vary by either
      SES or race/ethnicity, or both. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal
      Study, we find that low-intensity work during high school is associated with
      positive college outcomes for almost all students, whereas the associations
      between high-intensity work and negative postsecondary outcomes are mostly
      limited to White students. Our results suggest that both differential selections
      into youth employment and differential consequences of youth employment
      contribute to these varying links between paid work and educational outcomes
      across different racial groups.

PMID- 28876526
TI  - In Search of Modifiable Risk and Protective Factors for Teen Dating Violence.
AB  - The present research explores the additive and interactive effects of anger or
      hostility (A/H), acceptance of violence (AoV), and constructive conflict
      resolution strategies (CRS) on the perpetration of physical and sexual teen
      dating violence (TDV). Adolescents completed surveys assessing physical and
      sexual TDV perpetration, A/H, AoV, and positive CRS. While the findings require
      replication with longitudinal data, the results suggest that developing
      interventions to modify AoV and A/H may have the potential to prevent instances
      of TDV perpetration among both boys and girls. The results for CRS were mixed and
      necessitate further exploration. These cross-sectional data provide insight into
      potentially fruitful areas of exploration for the development and tailoring of
      prevention strategies for teens at risk for physical and sexual TDV perpetration.

PMID- 28876529
TI  - Residential Mobility and Adolescent Achievement and Behavior: Understanding
      Timing and Extent of Mobility.
AB  - Residential mobility is generally viewed as an adverse event for adolescents'
      development. Less is known about whether moving during adolescence, childhood, or
      both periods explains this connection and whether the extent of mobility matters.
      Analytic shortcomings with much of the research call into question extant
      findings. We examined associations between childhood, adolescent, and child
      adolescent mobility and adolescents' achievement (math and reading) and behavior
      problems (internalizing and externalizing). With a multisite, longitudinal sample
      (N = 1,056), we employed propensity score methods, which mitigate concerns about
      selection bias on observed variables, to investigate relationships. Results
      suggest that multiple, child-adolescent movers had more internalizing problems in
      adolescence than their stable peers, but did not differ on externalizing problems
      or achievement.

PMID- 28876530
TI  - Social Capital and Adolescent Substance Use: The Role of Family, School, and
      Neighborhood Contexts.
AB  - This study assesses the link between social capital factors of norm-setting
      social arenas including family, school, and neighborhood and adolescent substance
      use measured by cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and illicit drug use
      among a sample of adolescents in California. The key messages of this study are
      that socialization processes at different life domains, in varying degrees, are
      associated with adolescent substance use behavior. Compared with school and
      neighborhood contexts, family is the most influential setting that should be
      primarily targeted for youth substance use prevention. Among different aspects of
      within-family social resources, parental monitoring seems to be the most
      protective of adolescent substance use. Study implications on family-based
      interventions are discussed.

PMID- 28876531
TI  - Treatment of plasminogen deficiency patients with fresh frozen plasma.
AB  - Congenital plasminogen (Plg) deficiency leads to the development of ligneous
      membranes on mucosal surfaces. Here, we report our experience with local and
      intravenous fresh frozen plasma (FFP). We retrospectively reviewed medical files
      of 17 patients and their eight first-degree relatives. Conjunctivitis was the
      main complaint. Thirteen patients were treated both with intravenous and
      conjunctival FFP. Venous thrombosis did not develop in any. Genetic evaluation
      revealed heterogeneous mutations as well as polymorphisms. Diagnosis and
      treatment of Plg deficiency is challenging; topical and intravenous FFP may be an
      alternative treatment.

PMID- 28876533
TI  - Multi-objective Optimization of Benzamide Derivatives as Rho Kinase Inhibitors.
AB  - Despite recent advances in Computer Aided Drug Discovery and High Throughput
      Screening, the attrition rates of drug candidates continue to be high,
      underscoring the inherent complexity of the drug discovery paradigm. Indeed, a
      compromise between several objectives is often required to obtain successful
      clinical drugs. The present manuscript details a multi-objective workflow that
      integrates the 4D-QSAR and molecular docking methods in the simultaneous modeling
      of the Rho Kinase inhibitory activity and acute toxicity of Benzamide
      derivatives. To this end, the pIC50 /pLD50 ratio is considered as the response
      variable, permitting the concurrent modeling of both properties and representing
      a shift from classical step-by-step evaluations. The 4D-QSAR strategy is used to
      generate the Grid Cell Occupancy Descriptors (GCODs), and Stochastic Gradient
      Boosting (SGB) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) methods as the model fitting
      techniques. While the statistical parameters for the PLS model do not meet
      established criteria for acceptability, the SGB model yields satisfactory
      performance, with correlation coefficients r2 =0.95 and r2 pred=0.65 for the
      training and test set, respectively. Posteriorly, the structural interpretation
      of the most relevant GCODs according to the SGB model is performed, allowing for
      the proposal of 139 novel benzamide derivatives, which are then screened using
      the same model. Of these 9 compounds were predicted to possess pIC50 /pLD50 ratio
      values higher than those for the employed dataset. Finally, in order to
      corroborate the results obtained with the SGB model, a docking simulation was
      formed to evaluate the binding affinity of the proposed molecules to the ROCK2
      active site and 3 chemical structures (i. e. p6, p14 and p131) showed higher
      binding affinity than the most active compound in the training set, while the
      rest generally demonstrated comparable behavior. It may therefore be concluded
      that the consensus models that intertwine the 4D-QSAR and molecular docking
      methods contribute to more reliable virtual screening and compound optimization
      experiments. Additionally, the use of multi-objective modeling schemes permits
      the simultaneous evaluation of different chemical and biological profiles, which
      should contribute to the control a priori of causative factors for the high
      attrition rates in later drug discovery phases.

PMID- 28876532
TI  - Successful treatment with doxorubicin and ifosfamide for mediastinal malignant
      peripheral nerve sheath tumor with loss of H3K27me3 expression.
AB  - Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) in the thorax is an extremely
      rare disease, and half of all cases of MPNST are associated with
      neurofibromatosis type I. Sporadic intrathoracic MPNST is difficult to diagnose
      and treat. Because of the rarity of intrathoracic MPNST, the optimal method of
      diagnosis and the efficacy of chemotherapy are unknown. Herein, we present a case
      of inoperable mediastinal MPNST, in which the diagnosis was immunohistochemically
      made by the loss of H3K27me3 expression in a transbronchial needle biopsy
      specimen. The patient showed a good response to doxorubicin plus ifosfamide
      chemotherapy. The present case highlights that MPNST should be included in the
      differential diagnosis of non-posterior mediastinum thoracic lesions, and that
      appropriate diagnosis and treatment for intrathoracic MPNST should be considered
      in patients with a thoracic mass.

PMID- 28876534
TI  - Sequential sampling plans and economic injury levels for Empoasca kraemeri on
      common bean crops at different technological levels.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Empoasca kraemeri is an important pest on common bean crops at
      different technological levels. However, for this pest on this crop, economic
      injury levels have not yet been determined and plan for sequential sampling plans
      has not yet been developed. Thus, the objectives of this research were to develop
      E. kraemeri sequential sampling plans and to determine economic injury levels in
      the common bean at different crop technological levels. RESULTS: Common bean
      plants tolerate low attack intensities of this pest (up to 1 adult plant-1 ).
      However, with an increase in attacks, there is a reduction in grain production by
      the plants. The economic injury levels were 0.48, 0.39 and 0.35 adults sample-1
      (leaf beating on a tray) for crops with low (1200 kg ha-1 ), medium (1800 kg ha-1
      ) and high (2400 kg ha-1 ) technological levels, respectively. Sequential
      sampling plans and the standardized plan produced similar decisions. However, in
      these decisions there was a time saving of more than 60% compared with the
      standardized plan. CONCLUSION: All three economic injury levels determined and
      the sequential sampling plans developed in this study are suitable for
      incorporation into integrated management programs for common bean pests because
      they can be used by farmers operating at various technological levels to make
      adequate and rapid decisions. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28876535
TI  - Pre- and Postnatal Lung Development: An Updated Species Comparison.
AB  - The purpose of this review is to give an outline of respiratory tract
      morphological and functional development with an emphasis on perinatal and
      postnatal maturational processes. In view of the rising need for qualitative and
      quantitative data for the development of pediatric pharmaceuticals, a comparison
      of the human situation to experimental animal models is made, and functional data
      as well as suitable models for human airway diseases and functional testing are
      presented. Birth Defects Research 109:1519-1539, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28876536
TI  - Design, Synthesis, SAR and Molecular Modeling Studies of Novel Imidazo[2,1
      b][1,3,4]Thiadiazole Derivatives as Highly Potent Antimicrobial Agents.
AB  - In this study, a novel series of phenyl substituted imidazo[2,1
      b][1,3,4]thiadiazole derivatives were synthesized, characterized and explored for
      antibacterial activity against Gram-negative Escherichia coli, Gram-positive
      Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis and antifungal activity against
      Candida albicans. Most of the synthesized compounds exhibited remarkable
      antimicrobial activities, some of which being ten times more potent than positive
      controls. The most promising compound showed excellent activity with MIC value of
      0.03 MUg/ml against both S. aureus and B. subtilis (MIC values of positive
      compound Chloramphenicol are 0.4 MUg/ml and 0.85 MUg/ml, respectively).
      Furthermore, structure-activity relationship was also investigated with the help
      of computational tools. Some physicochemical and ADME properties of the compounds
      were calculated too. The combination of electronic structure calculations
      performed at PM6 level and molecular docking simulations using Glide extra
      precision mode showed that the hydrophobic nature of keto aryl ring with no
      electron withdrawing substituents at para position enhances activity while
      electron-donating substituents at the second aryl ring is detrimental to
      activity.

PMID- 28876537
TI  - Steroid phobia, Chinese medicine and asthma control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the mainstay of treatment for
      asthma. Corticosteroid (CS) phobia and fears are prevalent, and these may
      influence therapeutic efficacy and asthma control. AIM: The aim of this study was
      to evaluate if CS fear is associated with asthma control in children. METHODS:
      Patients aged >4 years with asthma at a pediatric outpatient clinic were
      surveyed, and the Asthma Control Test (ACT) was used for the assessment of asthma
      control. RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients and their parents were interviewed.
      Thirty-four (35%) parents reported moderate or significant CS fear. They were
      more likely than those with no or little fear to have poorer asthma control (mean
      ACT scores 21.3 +/- 4.0 vs 23.1 +/- 3.3, P = 0.02), discuss their fears with
      their doctors (P < 0.001), request CS sparing medications (P = 0.044) and resort
      to Chinese medicine (CM) usage (P < 0.001). Backward binomial logistic regression
      showed parents with moderate/significant fears were more likely to discuss their
      fears with their doctors (OR: 5.21; 95% CI: 1.86-14.59; P = 0.002) and have used
      CM (OR: 4.28; 95% CI: 1.61-11.41; P = 0.004). CS fear was not translated to
      reduced self-reported compliance in the prescribed ICS. About 40% of the
      respondents had ever used Chinese Medicine (CM) with 82% of the users reported
      having used Chinese herbal medicine and 49% had used cold moxibustion.
      CONCLUSIONS: CS fear and CM usage are prevalent. Parents with CS fear were more
      likely to have children with poorer asthma control and have used Chinese
      medicine. Physicians caring for children with asthma should be aware of parents
      with CS fear, prepared to address the fear or concerns and offer evidence-based
      alternative treatment.

PMID- 28876539
TI  - Medicine in small doses.

PMID- 28876540
TI  - Laboratory methods cause ultrasensitive prostate-specific antigen fluctuations.

PMID- 28876538
TI  - Miklos Bodanszky Award Lecture: Advances in the selective targeting of protein
      phosphatase-1 and phosphatase-2A with peptides.
AB  - Protein phosphatase-1 and phosphatase-2A are two ubiquitously expressed enzymes
      known to catalyze the majority of dephosphorylation reactions on serine and
      threonine inside cells. They play roles in most cellular processes and are
      tightly regulated by regulatory subunits in holoenzymes. Their misregulation and
      malfunction contribute to disease development and progression, such as in cancer,
      diabetes, viral infections, and neurological as well as heart diseases.
      Therefore, targeting these phosphatases for therapeutic use would be highly
      desirable; however, their complex regulation and high conservation of the active
      site have been major hurdles for selectively targeting them in the past. In the
      last decade, new approaches have been developed to overcome these hurdles and
      have strongly revived the field. I will focus here on peptide-based approaches,
      which contributed to showing that these phosphatases can be targeted selectively
      and aided in rethinking the design of selective phosphatase modulators. Finally,
      I will give a perspective on www.depod.org, the human dephosphorylation database,
      and how it can aid phosphatase modulator design. (c) 2017 The Authors. Journal of
      Peptide Science published by European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID- 28876541
TI  - Cholangiocarcinoma after choledochoduodenostomy.

PMID- 28876542
TI  - Re: Outcome of bridge to surgery stenting for obstructive left colon cancer.

PMID- 28876543
TI  - Routine magnetic resonance imaging is not the panacea to common duct stones.

PMID- 28876544
TI  - Response to Re: Outcome of bridge to surgery stenting for obstructive left colon
      cancer.

PMID- 28876545
TI  - Administrative data: what surgeons should know about big data.

PMID- 28876546
TI  - Collaborate or treat intra-abdominal metastatic colon cancer of the liver and
      peritoneum: which is practical for the colorectal surgeon?

PMID- 28876548
TI  - Surgeons and big data.

PMID- 28876549
TI  - Useful laboratory markers for the diagnosis of bone marrow involvement by
      malignant lymphoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to investigate the effect of bone marrow
      involvement by malignant lymphoma (BMI) on laboratory data and to determine the
      useful laboratory markers for diagnosing BMI. METHODS: We compared laboratory
      data between patients with and without BMI. We performed multivariate logistic
      regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses to evaluate the
      diagnostic values of independent predictors. RESULTS: In the BMI group, platelets
      in peripheral blood (PLT) and megakaryocyte count in bone marrow (MgK) were
      significantly lower than those in the non-BMI group (PLT, P < .0001; MgK, P =
      .0384). The rate of peripheral blood involvement by malignant lymphoma (PBI), red
      blood cell distribution width (RDW), D-dimer (DD), soluble interleukin-2 receptor
      (sIL2R), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was
      significantly higher in the BMI group than in the non-BMI group (PBI, P < .0001;
      RDW, P = .0190; DD, P = .0006; sIL2R, P < .0001; AST, P = .0256; LDH, P = .0002).
      In multivariate analysis, PBI, PLT, sIL2R, and MgK levels were independent
      predictors of BMI. CONCLUSION: PBI, PLT, sIL2R, and MgK may be the useful
      laboratory markers for BMI diagnosis.

PMID- 28876551
TI  - Breast ductal carcinoma in situ in an unscreened population: presentation,
      diagnosis and management at a single tertiary centre.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To determine the clinical presentation of patients presenting with
      isolated ductal carcinoma in situ at a single tertiary center in the Cape Town,
      South Africa. To review the diagnostic techniques most commonly used and the
      primary surgery performed for these patients. METHOD: We performed a
      retrospective folder review of patients diagnosed with DCIS over a period from
      Jan 2005 to Dec 2012, at the Combined Breast Cancer Clinic at Groote Schuur
      Hospital. Patients with a histological diagnosis of DCIS were identified from a
      prospectively collected patient database and the South African National Health
      Laboratory System (NHLS) histological reports and operative records. RESULTS: 42
      patients with isolated DCIS were identified. This represents 1.1% (42/3636 ) of
      all breast malignancies managed in this period. The average age of presentation
      was 58 years. Most patients presented with a breast lump (23/42). The diagnosis
      was made on core biopsy in 14 patients while 8 patients required excision of the
      palpable lump to make the diagnosis. 23 patients underwent a primary mastectomy,
      6 patients had a wide local excision 8( WLE) and 6 patients had radio-guided
      occult lesion localization (ROLL) with therapeutic intent. CONCLUSION: Though
      rare, the management of DCIS in this setting highlights the challenges of
      diagnosing and managing early breast malignancies in LMICs.

PMID- 28876550
TI  - Maternal Medicaid Recipient Status and Congenital Malformations among New York
      State Live Births in 2010.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital malformations are a leading cause of infant mortality in
      the United States, and risk for some congenital malformations varies by
      socioeconomic status (SES). Medicaid provides health insurance for people with
      low income, and covers approximately half of all live births in the United
      States. Income level is one aspect of SES. Studies have shown relationships
      between SES and some congenital malformations. METHODS: This retrospective cohort
      study examined associations between maternal Medicaid recipient status and 46
      congenital malformations in New York State for birth year 2010. The impact of
      Medicaid continuous enrollment (CE) status was evaluated in a sub-analysis of
      Medicaid recipients. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds
      ratios and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: The study cohort included 240,721
      live births, 3778 infants with one or more congenital malformation of interest,
      and 118,631 maternal Medicaid recipients at the time of the infant's birth. Odds
      ratios for cleft lip with or without cleft palate and rectal atresia or stenosis
      were increased for Medicaid recipients compared with non-Medicaid recipients.
      However, odds ratios for cleft lip with or without cleft palate and rectal
      atresia or stenosis were decreased for CE compared with non-CE Medicaid
      recipients. CONCLUSION: Maternal Medicaid recipient status was associated with
      few of the 46 congenital malformations evaluated. However, some associations
      found were modified by CE in Medicaid. Birth Defects Research 109:1460-1470,
      2017.(c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28876552
TI  - Breast Cancer and HIV: a South African perspective and a critical review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of breast cancer and concurrent HIV in South Africa is
      common. The limited current evidence on this subject suggests that the patients
      thus afflicted appear to be younger, have a more advanced stage of breast cancer,
      have a higher treatment related complications and poorer outcomes. This paper
      reviews the literature related to HIV and breast cancer, with a view to improving
      the standard and quality of care of HIV positive breast cancer patients. METHOD:
      Pubmed, EBSCOhost, Google scholar and Science Direct electronic databases were
      searched from 2001 and 2015. using the terms ('HIV' OR 'human immunodeficiency
      virus' OR 'AIDS' OR 'Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome') and 'breast cancer' or
      'breast carcinoma' to identify all publications related to HIV and breast cancer.
      Titles and abstracts were evaluated for eligibility and appropriate full text
      articles obtained. The data extraction variables included the type of study, year
      of publication, study setting, participants, sample size, outcome measures and
      main findings. RESULTS: Only five studies fulfilled the criteria, in respect of
      the aforementioned maladies, with twenty or more participants in each study.
      Evidence suggested that breast cancers develop at a much younger age in the HIV
      positive patient compared to the HIV negative patients, with more aggressive
      appearing tumour biology. Overall, it appears that HIV positive patients
      experienced a higher cancer-specific mortality than HIV negative patients, and
      this is independent of the stage of the cancer or the cancer therapy received,
      further the relationship between the HIV syndrome and breast cancer is currently
      marginal and inconclusive, and hence requires further investigation. CONCLUSION:
      The prescription and administration of chemotherapy is a challenge, with
      potential complications impacting on the morbidity and mortality in HIV positive
      patients. Currently there are no reliable predictors of those at risk to
      complications from chemotherapy; however, being on ART appears to provide an
      acceptable safety profile. HIV positive patients are best managed in the context
      of a multi-disciplinary team in order to achieve favourable outcomes in the
      treatment of cancer. Well-designed prospective trials to assess the response to
      multimodal therapy, and the long-term outcomes of HIV positive patients with
      breast cancer are needed.

PMID- 28876553
TI  - The circumareolar approach to gynecomastia and transgender surgery: modifications
      to provide correct nipple areolar complex position and shape.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In surgery for gynaecomastia, excision with minimal scarring and
      correct position of the nipple areolar complex (NAC) are key to a successful
      outcome. We report on a pilot study on the use of a circumareolar excision and
      the use of mathematical vector calculation to position the NAC and execute
      surgery and report on the outcomes. METHOD: From 2014 to 2015, the authors
      operated on 9 gynecomastia or transgender patients. Based on research performed
      by Gertrude Beer, Beckenstein and Shulman we designed a mathematical modification
      of the technique described by Persichetti to provide correct NAC positioning as
      well as aesthetically pleasing NAC shape. We utilised the technique in 6
      patients, 4 males with gynecomastia and 2 transgender patients. Liposuction was
      performed as an adjunct as needed. RESULTS: In 5 of the patients, the NAC did
      move in the direction of the desired vector. The NAC was on average within 0.4 cm
      of the desired nipple to mid-sternal position. The lateral movement averaged 0.6
      cm. We found the modified circumareolar approach to deliver good aesthetic
      results with predictable NAC movement. Seroma formation was the most common
      complication. CONCLUSION: The mathematically modified circumareolar approach to
      transgender and gynecomastia surgery may provide better aesthetic outcomes.
      Several factors need to be considered in deciding how the oval shaped vector
      should be designed intraoperatively. The study was limited by small sample size
      and short follow-up.

PMID- 28876554
TI  - Surgical anatomy of reduction mammaplasty: a historical perspective and current
      concepts.
AB  - Reduction mammaplasty is the volumetric reduction in the bulk of the breast.
      Techniques have evolved from primarily reducing the breast bulk to reducing with
      emphasis on functional and aesthetic outcome. The deeper understanding of the
      surgical anatomy of the breast has guided this development. While Paulus Aegina
      (sixth century AD), Dieffenbach (1848) and Gaillard-Thomas (1882) set the pace in
      glandular reduction; Pousson (1897) and Dehner (1908) focused on breast ptosis.
      It took quite some time before the enigma of the vascularization to the nipple
      areolar complex could be solved. Progress over a decade saw Thorek's (1922) free
      nipple grafting replaced by the periareolar de-epithelialization introduced by
      Schwarzmann (1930); which subsequently gave way to the Gillies and McIndoe (1939)
      skin-gland undermining technique. The era of breast remodeling while preserving
      the nipple areolar complex was soon ushered forward. This was driven by Arie
      (1957), Strombeck (1960) and Pitanguy (1961). The preservation of the subdermal
      plexus became crucial whilst retaining sensory supply to the breast as the
      pectoral fascia was spared. Skoog's (1963) nipple transposition without skin
      gland undermining formed the basis for modern day reduction mammaplasty.
      Aesthetics was in mind throughout this period as different skin incisions were
      developed and advanced following Dieffenbach's small submammary incision in 1848.
      Surgical landmarks that ensured reproducible aesthetic outcomes were described by
      Penn (1955) and Wise (1956). Liposuction-assisted reduction was introduced by
      Teimourian in 1985 and is best utilised in patients with predominantly fatty
      breast tissue.

PMID- 28876555
TI  - An overview of risk factors for recurrent breast cancer.
AB  - The multidisciplinary management of Breast Cancer (BC) has evolved over the past
      50 years: the patient is offered a choice of surgical procedures with or without
      radiation therapy, cytotoxics and treatments targeting the nuclei of the cancer
      cells. This has resulted in a reduction of disease recurrence and a significant
      increase in 5-year survival. But these good results deteriorate over time and
      almost 20% women with early stage, oestrogen-receptor (ER) positive BC will
      suffer recurrent cancer at 10 years. The aim of this review is the identification
      of risk factors for the recurrence of BC, to examine pathogenic pathways leading
      to BC and to report on modifications to lifestyle, surgical procedures and
      treatment regimes which can reduce the recurrence of BC. Patient factors
      associated with increased risk included the extremes of age, ethnicity, genetic
      inheritance obesity and alcohol ingestion. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was
      not identified as a cause of BC. Treatment-related factors included
      microscopically positive excision margins, delay in initiation of adjuvant
      chemoradiation and lack of compliance with endocrine therapy. Reclassifying BC
      according to molecular subgroups more accurately identifies patients at risk for
      recurrence and aids in the appropriate selection of therapy targeted to the
      primary and lymphatic metastases.

PMID- 28876556
TI  - Crossbow injury to the neck.
AB  - Crossbow injuries are uncommon among penetrating trauma. The tendency for a
      crossbow bolt to remain in situ appears to limit catastrophic haemorrhage despite
      the involvement of major vessels.1 Here we report our experience with an injury
      to the left internal jugular vein by a crossbow bolt. The injury was successfully
      treated by emergency neck exploration.

PMID- 28876557
TI  - Primary fusobacterium osteomyelitis and pyomyositis of the thigh in an
      immunocompetent young adult.
AB  - An unusual case of an immunocompetent young adult with osteomyelitis and
      pyomyositis of his right thigh is presented. Despite the absence of typical
      clinical signs, a high index of suspicion and 16S RNA PCR led to an early
      diagnosis of Fusobacterium infection and subsequent successful multidisciplinary
      treatment.

PMID- 28876558
TI  - Parathyroid adenoma with concurrent toxic thyroid adenoma: a rare combination.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypercalcemia in association with hyperthyroidism is a well
      recognized phenomenon. Primary hyperparathyroidism due to parathyroid adenoma in
      association with thyroid adenoma is extremely rare. These cases can present a
      diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to the treating physician as the patient may
      present with symptoms of either disease. CASE SUMMARY: A 47-year-old female
      patient presented with non-specific complaints including fatigue and muscle
      cramps. Diagnostic workup revealed significantly elevated plasma calcium levels
      in association with hyperthyroidism. There was a considerable delay in measuring
      the parathyroid hormone levels which were significantly elevated. Nuclear
      medicine studies revealed features consistent with a parathyroid adenoma and a
      concurrent thyroid adenoma. The patient was rendered euthyroid and subsequently
      taken to theatre for a thyroid lobectomy and removal of the associated
      parathyroid adenoma. One year later the patient remains normocalcemic, euthyroid
      and clinically well. CONCLUSION: Toxic thyroid adenoma with concurrent
      parathyroid adenoma and primary hyperparathyroidism is rare. The possibility of
      primary hyperparathyroidism should be considered where hypercalcemia persists on
      correcting the hyperthyroidism. Removal of both adenomas will result in cure of
      the patient.

PMID- 28876559
TI  - Does gender impact on female doctors'experiences in the training and practice of
      surgery? A single centre study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery has been identified as a male-dominated specialty in South
      Africa and abroad. This study explored how female registrars perceived the impact
      of gender on their training and practice of surgery. METHOD: A self-administered
      questionnaire was used to explore whether females perceived any benefits to
      training in a male-dominated specialty, their choice of mentors and the
      challenges that they encountered during surgical training. RESULTS: Thirty-two
      female registrars participated in the study. The respondents were mainly South
      African (91%) and enrolled in seven surgical specialties. Twenty-seven (84%)
      respondents were satisfied with their training and skills development. Twenty
      four (75%) respondents had a mentor from the department. Seventeen (53%)
      respondents perceived having received differential treatment due to their gender
      and 25 (78.2%) thought that the gender of their mentor did not impact on the
      quality of the guidance received in surgery. Challenges included physical threats
      to female respondents from patients and disrespect, emotional threats and
      defaming statements from male registrars. Additional challenges included time
      constraints for family and academic work, poor work-life balance and being
      treated differently due to their gender. Seventeen (53%) respondents would
      consider teaching in the Department of Surgery. CONCLUSION: Generally, females
      had positive perceptions of their training in Surgery. They expressed concern
      about finding and maintaining a work-life balance. The gender of their mentor did
      not impact on the quality of the training but 'bullying' from male peers and
      selected supervisors occurred. Respondents will continue to recommend the
      specialty as a satisfying career to young female students.

PMID- 28876560
TI  - What is the diagnostic yield of colonoscopy in patients with a referral diagnosis
      of constipation in South Africa?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Constipation is a common problem for referral to surgical and
      colorectal units. Its association with colorectal cancer is controversial. Some
      authors have found an increased incidence while others have not. The aim of this
      study is to investigate the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) and other
      significant colonoscopic pathologies in patients undergoing colonoscopy for
      constipation. METHOD: All colonoscopy reports for constipation were retrieved
      from our database from January 2011 to 30 June 2014. Data extracted included
      demographics, colonoscopic findings and adequacy of bowel preparation. Exclusion
      criteria included patients with other symptoms known to be associated with
      colonic neoplasia such as lower GIT bleeding, loss of weight, patients with
      associated anaemia, those with abnormalities on imaging, patients with personal
      or family history of colorectal cancers or colorectal polyps and patients with
      inflammatory bowel disease. The primary outcome was the presence of neoplasia at
      colonoscopy and the secondary outcomes were other colonoscopy findings. RESULTS:
      A total of 985 colonoscopies were performed from January 2011 to June 2014 of
      which 144 were done for a referral diagnosis of constipation. Eighty eight
      (61.1%) were female. Their mean age was 58.6 + 13.8 years (range 19-95 years).
      There were 61 (42.4%) African patients, 38 (26.4%) White, 33 (22.9%) Asians and
      12 (8.3%) Coloured patients. Eighty seven (60.4%) patients had a normal
      colonoscopy, 20 (13.9%) diverticular disease, 14 (9.7%) polyps of which 6 (4.2%)
      were neoplastic, and 9 (6.3%) had colorectal cancer. CONCLUSION: Constipation is
      associated with CRC. The presence of constipation should be a criterion for
      colonoscopy regardless of age or any other associated clinical features.

PMID- 28876561
TI  - Predictors of emergency colectomy in patients admitted with acute severe
      ulcerative colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute Severe Ulcerative Colitis (ASUC) is a life-threatening
      condition which requires urgent and aggressive medical therapy to reduce
      mortality, morbidity and avoid surgery. To facilitate this process, it is
      essential to identify patients at high risk of poor outcomes and emergency
      colectomy. Numerous such risk factors have been described in Western literature,
      however there is no local data addressing this issue. As such it is unclear if
      these predictors are applicable in our setting. The aim of this study is thus to
      identify risk factors for emergency colectomy in patients admitted to Groote
      Schuur Hospital with ASUC. METHOD: A retrospective cohort study of 98 patients
      admitted with ASUC between January 2003 and January 2013 was performed. Clinical,
      demographic, laboratory and endoscopic factors on admission and 3 days thereafter
      were analysed as predictors of colectomy by univariate and multivariate analysis.
      RESULTS: Twenty-five percent of the cohort underwent emergency colectomy. On
      univariate analysis, factors predicting colectomy on admission were exposure to
      oral corticosteroids (p=0.01), megacolon (p=0.049) or mucosal islands (p=0.04) on
      abdominal X-ray, and a short duration from UC diagnosis until presentation with
      ASUC (p=0.04). The only variable that was significantly associated with colectomy
      on day 3 was serum albumin (p=0.01). This was also the only variable to remain
      significant on multivariate analysis (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.65-0.97, p=0.01).
      CONCLUSION: ASUC is a medical emergency and predicting colectomy risk aids in
      therapeutic management. The only variable significantly associated with the need
      for surgery in our study was hypoalbuminaemia on day 3. Given the small study
      numbers a larger prospective study would be of value.

PMID- 28876562
TI  - Resection of benign liver tumours: an analysis of 62 consecutive cases treated in
      an academic referral centre.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benign tumours of the liver are increasingly diagnosed and constitute
      a substantial proportion of all hepatic tumours evaluated and resected at
      tertiary referral centres. This study assessed the safety and outcome after
      resection of benign liver tumours at a major referral centre. METHOD: All
      patients with symptomatic benign liver tumours who underwent resection were
      identified from a prospective departmental database of a total of 474 liver
      resections (LRs). Demographic data, operative management and morbidity and
      mortality using the Accordion classification were analysed. RESULTS: Sixty-two
      patients (56 women, 6 men, median age 45 years, range 17-82) underwent resection
      of symptomatic haemangiomata n=23 (37.1%), focal nodular hyperplasia n=19
      (30.6%), biliary cystadenoma n=16 (25.8%) and hepatic adenomas n=4 (6.5%). A
      major resection was required in 25 patients, 14 patients had 4 segments resected,
      11 had 3 segments and 37 patients had 2 or fewer segments resected. Median
      operating time was 169 minutes (range 80-410). Median blood loss was 300 ml
      (range 50-4500 ml) and an intra-operative blood transfusion was required in 6
      patients. Median length of post-operative hospital stay was 7 days (range 4-32).
      Complications occurred in 11 patients (Accordion grades 1 n=1, 2 n=4, 3 n=1, 4
      n=4, 6 n=1). Four patients required re-operation (bleeding n=2, bile leak n=1,
      small bowel obstruction n=1). An elderly patient died in hospital on day 16
      following a postoperative cerebrovascular accident. CONCLUSION: Clinically
      relevant symptomatic benign liver tumours comprise a substantial proportion of
      LRs. Our data suggest that resections can be performed safely with minimal blood
      loss and transfusion requirements. We advocate selective resection according to
      established indications. Despite the low postoperative mortality rate, the risk
      of postoperative complications emphasizes the need for careful selection of
      patients for resection.

PMID- 28876563
TI  - Defining predictors of mortality in pediatric trauma patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to describe our cohort of pediatric trauma
      patients and to analyze their physiological data. The intention was to highlight
      the difficulty in using systolic blood pressure (SBP) readings in this population
      and to investigate the role of base excess (BE) in predicting clinical outcomes
      in pediatric trauma patien. METHOD: The Pietermaritzburg Metropolitan Trauma
      Service (PMTS) maintains a prospective digital trauma registry, and all pediatric
      trauma patients admitted to the service for the period January 2012 - July 2016
      were included. RESULTS: Out of an original dataset of 1239 pediatric trauma
      patients admitted to the emergency departments of the PMTS, 26 elective patients
      and 216 patients with missing SBP were excluded to leave a sample size of 997
      patients. The majority of the sample was male accounting for 669 patients (67.2
      %) with 327 females (32.8%) and 1 (0.1%) missing data. The mean age (SD) was 7.7
      years (3.9) and the median age (IQR) was 8 years (5 - 11). There were 58 children
      < 2 years of age, 177 between the age of 2 to < 5 years of age, 402 between 5 to
      < 10 years of age and 360 between 10 and < 15 years of age. The predominant
      mechanism of injury was blunt trauma (78.4% or 782/997). Penetrating trauma
      accounted for 11.0% of cases (110/997). The mean systolic BP (SD) across the
      whole cohort was 110.1 mm Hg (16.9) and the median systolic BP (IQR) was 110 mm
      Hg (100-119). Mortality rate remains low and then precipitously increases below a
      SBP of 93 mm Hg in children older than 2 and below 89 mm Hg in children younger
      than 2. This suggests that a SBP of 93 mm Hg or less in children older than 2 and
      89 mm Hg or less in children under 2 years is clinically significant. Similarly,
      as BE decreased, the mortality risk also increased prominently. CONCLUSION: This
      study has used a previously described methodology based on large developed world
      trauma databases and confirms the current thinking that SBP is a late marker and
      thus not useful in the pediatric population and a better system/ approach is
      needed. The use of BE in conjunction with SBP may be a more useful means of
      identifying shock.

PMID- 28876564
TI  - Oesophageal squamous cell cancer in a South African tertiary hospital: a risk
      factor and presentation analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Squamous carcinoma of the oesophagus (SCO) is the most common form of
      oesophageal cancer in South Africa (SA). Risk factors include male gender,
      smoking, alcohol consumption and low socio-economic status (SES). This study
      assessed the risk factors for SCO in KwaZulu-Natal. METHOD: Information on
      patients managed at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH), Durban, South
      Africa, between 1 October 2013 and 31 December 2014 was retrieved from a
      prospective database of Oesophageal Cancer (OC). Data collected included
      demographics, risk factors, symptoms and clinical findings. RESULTS: One hundred
      and fifty-nine patients (159) with SCO were identified. The site of tumour
      location was in the middle 96 (60.4%), distal 42(26.4%) and proximal 17(10.6%)
      oesophagus. The male to female ratio was 1:1 with an age range of 22-93 years
      (mean 60.6; SD+/-12.1). Females were significantly older than males (p = 0.018).
      Eighty-eight per cent were Black African. Dysphagia was reported in 158 (99.4%)
      of patients and loss of weight in 149(95.5%). Thirty-six patients were HIV
      positive (age 52.8; SD+/-9.7) and significantly younger than those without HIV
      infection (age 61.2; SD+/-11.5). Most patients had low SES and poor dental
      health. Male patients were significantly more likely to use tobacco (p < 0.001;
      Odds Ratio (OR) 7.8) and consume alcohol (p < 0.001; OR 7.7) than females who
      were 2.5 times more likely to report a family history of cancer (p = 0.017; OR
      2.6). CONCLUSION: An equal gender distribution was observed. Male patients with
      SCO reported the expected risk factors; however these were not observed amongst
      women. SES may contribute to the development of SCO. Poor dental health may be a
      surrogate marker for low SES and a possible risk factor for SCO. HIV positive
      individuals present a decade younger when compared with HIV negative patients.

PMID- 28876565
TI  - Pattern and distribution of peripheral arterial disease in diabetic patients with
      critical limb ischemia (rutherford clinical category 4-6).
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated the pattern and distribution of peripheral
      arterial disease in diabetic patients with critical limb ischaemia (CLI) and to
      stratify the findings according to the patients' risk factor profile, gender and
      age group. METHOD: We conducted a one-year prospective descriptive study (January
      2014 to December 2014) at Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town. The
      research protocol and the informed consent were approved by the Institutional
      Review Board, and all subjects included in this study gave an informed consent.
      We included all diabetic patients over the age of 18 years with critical limb
      ischemia who had pre and post-intervention vascular imaging. The calculated
      minimum sample size was 63 limbs. We hypothesize that the proportions of arterial
      segment patency categories and the arterial foot arch status varies according to
      gender, age group and risk factor combinations in diabetic patients. The Null
      hypothesis (N0) assumes that the proportions of arterial segment patency
      categories and arch status are the same in diabetic patients irrespective of
      gender, age group and risk factor combination. The equality of distribution was
      analysed using the One Sample Chi-square test. Three risk factor combination
      groups were analysed: Group 1 (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia),
      Group 2 (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, ex-smoker) and Group 3
      (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoker). RESULTS: Seventy-one
      patients were analysed (38 females and 33 males). We recorded the patency grades
      (ranging from normal to occlusion) of arteries in all 3 lower extremity arterial
      segments (aortoiliac; femoropopliteal and tibioperoneal segments). Altogether the
      patency grades of 820 lower extremity arteries were recorded. Diabetics,
      collectively, were found to have more severe occlusive disease in the
      tibioperoneal segment (P < .001). Group 3 patients however, had more severe
      occlusive disease in the femoropopliteal segment compared to the other subgroups
      (P < .001). Group 1 and Group 2 patients had more severe occlusive disease in the
      tibioperoneal segment (P < .001). Females were more likely to have complete foot
      arches (22/37; P = .004) while males tended to have more incomplete foot arches
      (17/32; P = .048). CONCLUSION: Diabetic patients collectively have severe
      tibioperoneal occlusive disease. However, Group 3 patients tend to have
      disproportionately more occlusive disease in the femoropopliteal segment (P <
      .001). Diabetic female patients with CLI are more likely to have a complete
      arterial foot arch than males (P = .004).

PMID- 28876566
TI  - A survey of selected key areas of management of South African neurosurgical
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous surveys of neurosurgical patient management, including a
      South African (SA) survey conducted in 2001, confirmed the existence of
      significant dissimilarities in management on national and international levels.
      This survey aimed to determine current SA neurosurgical patient management and to
      compare this with international trends. METHOD: Questionnaires in multiple choice
      question (MCQ) and free text entry format covering key areas of neurosurgical
      practice were emailed to SA neurosurgeons following ethics approval. All
      responses were captured anonymously. RESULTS: The response rate was 53%.
      Demographically only 5.7% respondents were younger than 40 years, 59.3% obtained
      a local college fellowship, 14.8% an international fellowship, 40.7% a MMed and
      16.6% obtained more than one postgraduate qualification. Public sector
      specialists predominantly practised intracranial surgery (69%) while private
      specialists practised mainly spinal surgery (58%). Years in specialist practice
      were negatively associated with endoscopic surgery (p = 0.014) and decompressive
      craniectomies (p = 0.008) but not with other more recently introduced techniques
      including pedicle screws, neuro-navigation and cell-saver techniques. Age per se
      had no influence on practice. In subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) disease, 88%
      routinely administered nimodipine, 8% restricting its use to managing vasospasm.
      Endovascular coiling, more recently introduced for intracranial aneurysm
      management, was preferred to surgical clipping (54%); 69% preferred total
      intravenous to inhalational anaesthesia with propofol primarily replacing
      thiopentone for brain protection. 27% still utilised the sitting position. Only
      one incident of a postoperative visual defect was recorded with prone
      positioning. CONCLUSION: With the exception of endoscopic and decompressive
      craniectomy surgery, overall management in key areas surveyed was in line with
      international trends.

PMID- 28876567
TI  - A REVIEW OF PRESENTATIONS TO THE SURGICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN AFRICA AND
      THE ASSOCIATION OF SURGEONS OF SOUTH AFRICA FROM 2010 TO 2016.
AB  - This paper looks at research done in South Africa from 2010 to 2016. We reviewed
      a total of 679 abstracts, posters and oral presentations submitted to the SAJS
      and the ASSA congresses during this time. During this time 21945 patients were
      investigated with an average of 577,5 patients per study. Each paper had on
      average 3,5 authors. The most popular topics are trauma (23%), gastrointestinal
      surgery (18%) and breast (11%). Upcoming topics include: reducing sepsis, global
      surgery, procedural discussion, infectious diseases (HIV/ TB), post-operative
      healing, ENT, neuro, plastic surgery, cardiothoracic and paediatric surgery. The
      most active centres are the University of KwaZulu-Natal (27%), WITS (22%) and UCT
      (21%). There has been a marked decrease in animal studies. There has been an
      increase in work done by surgical registrars, medical officers and students and
      the number of collaborations between centres and internationally are increasing.

PMID- 28876568
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF THE INEQUALITIES BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR IN SOUTH
      AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The full extent of the global burden of surgical disease is largely
      unknown, however, the scope of the problem is thought to be large. Despite the
      substantial burden of surgical disease, surgical services are inaccessible to
      many of those who need them most. There are disparities between public and
      private sectors in South Africa, which compounds inequitable access to surgical
      care. METHOD: This study involved a descriptive analysis of surgical resources
      and included the total number of hospitals, of hospital beds, the number of
      surgical beds, the number of general surgeons (specialist and non-specialist),
      and the number of functional operating theatres in South Africa. A comparison was
      performed between the public and private sectors. Hospitals were contacted during
      the period from the 1st October 2014 until the 31st of December 2014. RESULTS:
      Surgical resources were concentrated in metropolitan areas of urban provinces.
      There were striking differences between the public and private sectors, where
      private resources were comparable to those available in high income countries
      (HICs). CONCLUSION: Improving access to surgical services in lower middle income
      countries (LMICs) requires addressing gaps between the public and private sector
      regarding infrastructure, personnel, as well as equipment. South Africa is unique
      in that although it is classified as an upper middle income country (UMIC), is
      comprises of two sectors; a public sector which has resources similar to other
      LMICs, and a private sector which has resources similar to HICs. These data
      identified disparities between geographic regions which may be contributing to
      ongoing inequity in South Africa, and by doing so allows for evidence-based
      planning towards improving surgical infrastructure and workforce.

PMID- 28876569
TI  - CHOLECYSTECTOMY TRENDS IN SOUTH AFRICA. SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gallbladder disease is a common and costly pathology worldwide. The
      development of gallstone disease varies among population groups around the world.
      Epidemiological studies from African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria,
      Kenya and Uganda suggest that the rate of gallbladder disease is low in the
      African population. Very little has been published in the last 20 years about the
      status of gallbladder disease in South Africa. METHOD: 34294 cholecystectomy
      specimens were obtained from the NHLS (2003-2015) database. Two periods were
      analysed, period 1 (2003-2009) and period 2 (2009-2015). RESULTS: In South
      Africa, the number of cholecystectomies have increased by 37% in period 2. Seven
      of the eight analysed provinces recorded an increase in the number of
      cholecystectomies performed. Of these seven, four were a statistically
      significant increase. The other three provinces also demonstrated an increasing
      trend but this did not reach statistical significance. The Northern Cape was the
      only province to record a decline in the number of cholecystectomies. CONCLUSION:
      The increasing trend in cholecystectomies is certainly worrying from a cost and
      burden of gallbladder disease standpoint. This is particularly worrisome as our
      population has generally been regarded as being at low risk for the development
      of gallbladder disease. The results suggest a possible change in the disease
      pattern in South Africa.

PMID- 28876570
TI  - COHORT STUDY ON EMERGENCY GENERAL SURGERY PATIENTS AND AN OBSERVATION UNIT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medium-sized, non-trauma hospitals experience many of the same
      difficulties as tertiary centres do when it comes to managing emergency general
      surgery patients. However, acute surgical units are not a financially viable
      option in these hospitals. To improve the care of emergency general surgery
      patients at one such hospital, a Rapid Assessment Medical Surgical (RAMS) unit
      was developed to decrease the time to review and increase the efficiency in
      caring for these patients. METHOD: To assess the Unit's effect, a prospective
      analysis was completed of the patients who came through the RAMS unit over a six
      month period and compared with a retrospective analysis of patients presenting in
      the same six-month period the year prior to the Unit's instigation. RESULTS: The
      RAMS unit was effective in providing an avenue for faster review by the surgical
      team. This resulted in patients leaving the emergency department faster,
      decreased the number of patients that breached Emergency Department time-targets
      and increased the number of patients discharged after a period of observation or
      basic treatments. CONCLUSION: General surgery patients were managed more
      efficiently with the RAMS unit in place. However, a full cost analysis is
      required to determine if such units are cost-effective.

PMID- 28876571
TI  - DUODENECTOMY: MANAGING THE FISTULA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Duodenectomy is rarely indicated, however, in certain circumstances
      may have be performed. Enterocutaneous fistula (ECF) is the main cause of serious
      adverse outcomes. Its management remains challenging. METHOD: Two cases of
      emergency duodenectomy are presented. The management of ECF is described and
      discussed. RESULTS: Case 1: A 22-year-old male presented in septic shock with
      perforated duodenal ulcer, suffered two cardiac arrests before index surgery.
      During re-laparotomy for leak, mobilisation resulted in an extensive injury of
      the duodenum extending to the ampula. A drainage procedure with complete
      duodenectomy and gastrojejenostomy was performed. The bile and pancreatic ducts
      were cannulated with infant feeding catheters and were separately pumped in the
      gastrostomy with a feeding pump. In one week, the patient had oral intake in
      addition to infused feeds. He remained in hospital for six months, suffered six
      episodes of gram-negative sepsis requiring antibiotics. Three episodes resulted
      from blocked catheters and cholangitis. Other were central line sepsis. A
      reconstruction with separate limbs of jejunum to the bile and pancreatic ducts
      was performed. He was well at 18 months post final surgery. Case 2: A 63-year-old
      male presented with a perforated hepatic flexure colonic carcinoma.
      Intraoperatively, the tumour invaded and partly obstructed the duodenum which was
      injured during mobilisation. A duodenectomy with the right hemicolectomy was
      performed. The jejunum was anastomosed to the ampulla. Leaking effluent from a
      drain was pumped into the gastrostomy. He was discharged in three weeks and
      continued to transfer the effluent himself with a 60 ml syringe until the leak
      ceased. Three months post-surgery, he developed metastasis to the drain tract and
      died in two months. CONCLUSION: Duodenectomy is feasible but complications are
      difficult to manage. ECF is common and should be managed by pumping the effluent
      in the gastrostomy until definitive surgery or spontaneous closure of the
      fistula.

PMID- 28876572
TI  - HAEMOPERITONEUM SECONDARY TO SNAKE BITE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Literature supports that very rarely the venom of "Hemotoxic Snake"
      (Russell's Vipers) affect haemostasis by secreting thrombin-like enzyme which
      promotes formation of unstable clots. Such clots could lead to fibrin deposition
      in micro circulation that in turn consume platelets and coagulation factors
      (consumption coagulopathy). Clinical presentation is mainly spontaneous bleeding
      and coagulopathy. In this case the significant effects of altered coagulation
      were observed in retropetitoneum and the patient presented in casuality as acute
      abdomen. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 17-years-old boy presented to a tertiary care
      hospital, complaining of abdominal pain for 5 days and fatigue. He gave a history
      of snake bite 10 days prior. In order to seek immediate medical care, he went to
      the community hospital where antivenom was given. Upon examination he was vitally
      stable. Abdomen was found distended and severely tender. On workup after
      admission he was found to be anaemic (Hb: 6 g/dl), and damaged clothing profile
      (PT: 19.5 and INR: 1.7). CT scan showed collection of 7x6.6 cm in right paracolic
      and right lumbar region, just anterior to the psoas muscle. Active intra
      abdominal bleeding and few organised hematomas were also appreciated. Prior to
      the specific management, patient was optimised with PCVS and FFPS. After 28 hours
      he was explored under G/A. Perioperatively about 1100 ml of blood was evacuated
      from the peritoneal cavity. Multiple hematomas were drained from retroperitoneum
      (Zone II), on right side. No active bleeding was noticed from IVC and aorta.
      Packing done and drains placed. Re-exploration was done after 72 hours. Packs
      removed and further hemostasis was augmented with fibrillar and gelatin sponge.
      CONCLUSION: He had steady recovery, with 14 days of hospital stay. One of the
      concerns in postoperative phase was bradycardia that compelled us to manage it
      with atropine.

PMID- 28876573
TI  - HEMOSUCCUS PANCREATICUS FROM RUPTURED SPLENIC VEIN PSEUDOANEURYSM SECONDARY TO
      NECROTIZING PANCREATITIS: A CASE REPORT.
AB  - Hemosuccus pancreaticus is a rare cause of gastrointestinal bleeding in which
      haemorrhage occurs from the ampulla of vater via the pancreatic duct, mostly from
      ruptured pseudoaneurysms. Our patient is a 25-year-old Filipino male who
      presented with intermittent epigastric pain associated with melena and decreasing
      haemoglobin despite multiple blood transfusions. EGD showed erythematous gastric
      and duodenal mucosa with no evidence of active bleeding. Whole abdominal CT scan
      with IV contrast showed diffusely prominent pancreas with areas of non
      enhancement suggestive necrosis. CT scan of the aorta revealed attenuated splenic
      vein with irregular margin and probable small pseudoaneurysm. Embolisation, which
      is the primary mode of treatment in a hemodynamically stable patient, was
      contemplated. However, the patient's relatives opted to pursue surgery which
      eventually lead to mortality due to complications of the procedure.

PMID- 28876574
TI  - HOLDING THE TORCH UP HIGH - A MEDICAL HISTORICAL EVALUATION OF SURGICAL ADVANCES
      DURING THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918, IN MEMORY OF THOSE THAT SERVED AND FELL.
AB  - "How wide and varied is the experience of the battlefield and how fertile the
      blood of warriors in raising good surgeons" Sir Clifford Allbutt (1898). With
      these sentiments of the medical lessons learned in war and conflict, with the
      background of the poem of "In Flanders Field", written by a doctor who had South
      African War connections, reasons (the Somme and third Ypres battles) will be
      given that this was indeed a "GREAT WAR" as the world history, weapons, strategy,
      tactics and wounding patterns had changed dramatically. These changes are still
      affecting all at present, as eventually the Second World War came from it, as
      well as the Cold "Third World" War. In this war most casualties were caused by
      bomb fragments and the figures were enormous. It was the war of massive troop
      movements (railroads), the Schlieffen plan, trench warfare, artillery, the
      machine guns, end of cavalry and the initiation of tanks, air
      warfare/reconnaissance and gas/chemical warfare. The surgical experiences of
      previous wars were obsolete. Urgent rethinking of surgical principles and
      protocols had to be devised, with the death rates of dying due to wounds, sepsis
      and tetanus exceeding 60 percent of all casualties. Abdominal wounds were treated
      conservatively, but soon there came advances in resuscitation, anaesthetics,
      aggressive wound and exploratory surgery, orthopaedics, plastic and
      reconstructive surgery, physiology, wound pathology and microbiology. All sides
      concentrated on ambulance stations, field hospitals and then rapid transfer to
      bigger referral and base hospitals. It seems that lessons learned where indeed
      exchanged (? by the Red Cross to all combatant medical personal). Even to the
      present day, frameworks of this are still used effectively (Vietnam War,
      Falklands War and our recent border wars). The lessons are well learned and the
      Torch is ours to hold up high!

PMID- 28876575
TI  - NEONATAL SURGERY, A STUDY OF TWO YEARS AT NELSON MANDELA ACADEMIC HOSPITAL,
      MTHATHA, EASTERN CAPE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advances in diagnostic techniques and perioperative care have greatly
      improved the outcome of neonatal surgery. Despite this, disparity still exists in
      the outcome of neonatal surgery between developed and developing countries.
      METHOD: We performed a prospective study of neonates admitted and treated due to
      surgical congenital diseases and other conditions in our hospital from April 2015
      to April 2017. RESULTS: There were 19 (28,7%) females and 47 (70,3%) males in
      this group. It was found that 41 neonates had 7 days after birth or less by a 62%
      and 25 with more than 7 days by 38%. The Anorectal malformations (ARM) were the
      most frequent congenital anomaly in 21 patients (47%), followed by Gastroquises
      with 7 neonates (10,6%), Omphalocele with 8 (12%), and Oesophagus Atresia in 5
      neonates (7,5%). Intestinal Malrotation with midgut volvulus, Pyloric Stenoses
      and Duodenal Atresia in 4 neonates (6,2 % each). Others alterations such as,
      Ileal Atresia, Strangulated Inguinal Hernia, Limb Gangrene, Necrotizing
      Enterocolitis, Sacro Coxigeal Theratoma, Megacolon Aganglionic, Colon
      perforation, Gastric perforation and Hydromethrocolpus accounted in 13 neonates
      by 19,7% from the total of patients. Ten babies died (15%). CONCLUSION: We
      conclude that Anorectal Malformations, Gastroquises and Omphalocele were the most
      frequent malformations. Considering the mortality is above the average of
      developed countries this could be improved by increasing the knowledge about the
      neonatal surgery characteristics among medical doctors and improving the
      necessary facilities and back up.

PMID- 28876576
TI  - RAPUNZEL SYNDROME - AFRICAN VARIATIONS ON A EUROPEAN FAIRYTALE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trichobezoars are intraluminal accretions of ingested hair. Rapunzel
      syndrome is a rare and extreme presentation with extension down through into the
      small intestine. Most frequently reported in children and psychiatric patients,
      we report on an African series of five patients. METHOD: Five patients presenting
      with trichobezoars were retrospectively reviewed and analysed with regard to
      patient background, demographics, clinical presentation, diagnosis, surgical
      management and complications. RESULTS: Five female patients with a median age of
      19 years (range 12-27 years) presented with a clinical spectrum including early
      satiety, intermittent vomiting with gastric outlet obstruction, abdominal pain
      and weight loss. Three patients were of Indian ethnicity and two of African
      ethnicity. Four highly functional individuals (three high school graduates/
      students, one university student) and a 12 year old cerebral palsy child known
      with trichotillomania were diagnosed with trichobezoars following either
      endoscopy, abdominal CT scan, barium meal or plain abdominal radiography. Two
      patients presented with sealed/contained gastric perforations, and one with a
      small bowel perforation. All five bezoars extended into the jejunum, the longest
      of which measured 1.4 m, and two of which consisted entirely of artificial hair
      extensions. Various options for removal are described including chemical
      dissolution, endoscopy, laparoscopy and laparotomy. All five bezoars were removed
      by laparotomy. All recovered well and four were referred for psychiatric
      evaluation. CONCLUSION: While trichobezoars are a rare entity, they may present
      with significant complications in the form of obstructions and perforations. In
      view of the risk for infection, and the considerable size of many of these
      bezoars, an open removal is probably safer than any minimally invasive attempt.

PMID- 28876577
TI  - SURGICAL BURDEN OF DISEASE AT A REGIONAL HOSPITAL IN SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is limited published data describing the nature of surgical
      admissions at a regional level in the South African context. Worcester Hospital
      General Surgery has introduced an electronic online database to manage its
      surgical services. This study uses that database to evaluate the surgical burden
      of disease for the Cape Winelands East and Overberg districts of the Western
      Cape. METHOD: Admissions data were prospectively captured from February 2012 to
      January 2016, then retrospectively reviewed and classified into 5 types: (1)
      elective surgery/investigations (ESI); (2) trauma; (3) burns; (4) non-traumatic
      surgical emergencies (NTSE); (5) unplanned readmission within 30 days. All data
      were entered by attending doctors. (Stellenbosch University HREC # N16/04/054).
      RESULTS: 9 799 discharge summaries were included for analysis. Mean age of was
      43,4 years (95% CI 43,0-43,8 years) and mean length of stay was 4,9 days (95% CI
      4,7-5,1 days). 57,6% (5 647) patients were male. NTSE (47,6%), ESI (38,6%) and
      trauma (11,9%) form the majority of admissions. Common NTSE diagnoses were
      appendicitis (23,8% of NTSE admissions), peripheral vascular disease (16,8%) and
      peptic ulcer disease (13,3%). Common ESI diagnoses were gallstone disease (23,1%
      of ESI diagnoses), inguinal hernia (21,8%), anal disease (10,2%), midline primary
      hernia (9,1%) and incisional hernia (8,6%). Most prevalent cancer diagnoses were
      colorectal (17,6% of cancer diagnoses), oesophagus (16,4%), breast (14,0%) and
      stomach (13,2%). Overall in hospital mortality rate was 2.2% - highest by subtype
      was burns patients (6,3%). Trend analysis show a statistically significant
      increase in admission for NTSE (p=0.019) and 30 day readmission rates (p < 0.001)
      with a decrease in admissions for ESI (p=0.001) over the four year period.
      CONCLUSION: A precise understanding of burden of disease profile is essential for
      national, provincial and district resource allocation. Ongoing surveillance such
      as is performed in this study provides this critical information.

PMID- 28876578
TI  - THYROID CANCER CONSEQUENCES OF IODINE DEFICIENCY - A PERSISTING WORLDWIDE
      PROBLEM: CHARACTERISTICS IN DIFFERENT POPULATIONS, PORTUGAL AND SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Iodine deficiency (ID) still affects over two billion people
      worldwide (266 million school aged children). Pathology patterns in ID include:
      increase in thyroid cancer, higher percentages of follicular and anaplastic
      cancers and inversion of the papillary/follicular thyroid cancer frequency ratio.
      China succeeded in eliminating ID through legislation introduced in 1987 aimed at
      availability of iodized salt countrywide and South Africa through legislation
      introduced in 1995. Portugal has no national general population data on iodine
      nutrition (IN). METHOD: Comparative evaluation of thyroid histology reports over
      a 6 year period in BI and a 5 year period in JHB area. Median urinary iodine
      concentration (UIC) was possible to obtain from BI. RESULTS: Region of BI: 279
      histology reports evaluated - 60 malignancies (21.2%): 31 papillary carcinomas,
      22 follicular cancers (18 follicular carcinomas and 4 Hurthle cell tumours), 3
      medullary carcinomas and 4 anaplastic carcinomas. Region of JHB: 136 histology
      reports - 3 malignancies (24.3%): 13 papillary carcinomas, 15 follicular cancers
      (10 follicular carcinomas and 5 Hurthle cell tumours), 1 medullary carcinoma, 3
      anaplastic carcinomas and 1 metastatic carcinoma into the thyroid. There was an
      overlap in the frequencies of all histology types including relatively high
      anaplastic carcinoma incidences and papillary to follicular carcinoma ratios
      close to 1 in both areas. BI area ratio: 1.4 and JHB area ratio 0.87,
      (overlapping 95% CI's and results of the chi-square calculations). The median UIC
      of the population sample tested was 62.6 MUg/L, 92% of samples having a UIC < 100
      MUg/L. CONCLUSION: During the study periods both regions displayed patterns
      characteristic of ID with papillary/follicular carcinoma ratios close to 1 and
      relatively high number of anaplastic carcinomas. ID could be eliminated by
      availability of affordable iodised salt, promoting sea-based nutrition and a
      proactive behaviour from an informed population. These measures could be
      applicable to other populations in different parts of the world.

PMID- 28876579
TI  - WHERE ARE GENERAL SURGEONS LOCATED IN SOUTH AFRICA?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human resources are the backbone of healthcare delivery systems and
      the lack of surgical workforce in developing countries is often the greatest
      challenge to providing surgical care. The workforce availability and composition
      is an important indicator of the strength of the health system. METHOD: A
      descriptive analysis of the general surgical workforce in South Africa was
      performed. The total number of specialist and non-specialist general surgeons
      working in the public sector in South Africa was documented between the periods
      from the st October 2014 until the 31st of December 2014. RESULTS: There were
      significant disparities in the number and distribution of general surgeons in
      South Africa. There were 1.78 specialist general surgeons per 100 000, of which
      0.69 per 100 000 specialist general surgeons were working in the public sector.
      There were 2.90 non-specialist general surgeons per 100 000. There were 6
      specialist general surgeons per 100 000 insured population working in the private
      sector, which is comparable with the United States (US). Urban provinces such as
      Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu- Natal had the largest number of specialist
      general surgeons per 100 000. These areas had the largest number of medical aid
      beneficiaries and nearly 60% of specialist general surgeons were estimated to
      work exclusively in the private sector. CONCLUSION: There was a major shortage of
      surgical providers in South Africa, and in particular the public sector.

PMID- 28876580
TI  - A FOUR YEAR ACROSS SURGICAL DISCIPLINE PERIOPERATIVE AND INTRAOPERATIVE
      EXPERIENCE OF PATIENT MANAGEMENT IN A TERTIARY ACADEMIC HOSPITAL - A REVIEW AT DR
      GEORGE MUKHARI ACADEMIC HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The occurrence of iatrogenic injuries related to obstetric and
      gynaecological procedures can have a significant impact on morbidity as well as
      mortality to these patients. In this study we reviewed patients presenting with
      iatrogenic injuries post caesarean section and hysterectomies in order to
      classify types of injuries frequently encountered as well as the management of
      these injuries. METHOD: Over a four year period, the records of all patients
      presenting with iatrogenic injuries post obstetric and gynaecological procedures
      were reviewed. These injuries were classified according to the type of injury,
      frequency as well as time taken to identify the iatrogenic injury before any
      intervention was performed. RESULTS: One hundred and eighty two patients were
      identified over the four year period and the injuries can be classified as
      follows: Bladder Injury (28.6%%), Left Ureter Injury(12.1%), Right Ureter
      Injury(21.4%), Bladder and Ureter Injury (8.2%), Vascular Injury (2.2%), Small
      Bowel Injury (17.6%), Large Bowel Injury(6.6%), Rectal Injury (2.8%),
      Appendicectomy (0.6%), Small Bowel and Bladder Injury (5.5%). CONCLUSION: There
      is a high rate of iatrogenic injuries in this subset of patients.

PMID- 28876581
TI  - AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH NETWORK TO DESCRIBE VARIATION IN GLOBAL
      CANCER BURDEN.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Efforts to collect data on cancer in low and middle income countries
      (LMICs) to date have been registry based and not detailed enough to allow risk
      adjustment for outcome. This study aimed to describe a novel platform's ability
      to address knowledge gap in surgical care of cancer in LMICs. METHOD: This study
      is a cancer-specific analysis of the GlobalSurg-2 study, which aimed to map
      international variation in operated cancer burden using a protocol-driven,
      collaborative methodology. Patients were grouped into high, middle and low income
      groups according to United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI). RESULTS: 259
      hospitals across 59 countries uploaded patient-level data on patients undergoing
      surgery for intra-abdominal cancer, with 77.1% (1770) from high, 16.4% (378) from
      middle, and 6.5% (149) from low HDI countries. The proportion of patients
      undergoing surgery for a primary malignant indication cancer was smaller in low
      HDI (7.7%) and middle- HDI countries (8.2%), than high-HDI countries (20.9%). The
      most common types of operations performed were colonic resection/stoma formation
      (44.8%), rectal resections (16.9%), and gastrectomies (13.0%). There was
      significant regional variation in operated cancer burden. Data on variation in
      morbidity and mortality were captured. Validation of case ascertainment and data
      accuracy showed a high-level of concordance. CONCLUSION: The GlobalSurg platform
      has captured data on the burden of cancer surgery in LMICs. Detailed, frontline
      data has allowed risk-adjustment to be performed at global scale for the first
      time and has identified areas to target future research.

PMID- 28876582
TI  - APPLICATION OF GENE PROFILING IN SELECTION OF ADJUVANT THERAPY IN BREAST CANCER
      IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Outcome series for genetic profile tests (MammaPrint/70GP) with
      medium-term follow-up are rare. We present an outcome series with 5-year follow
      up from a developing country. METHOD: From 2006 to 2016, patients with
      histopathologically confirmed breast cancer (cT0-3 and cN0-1) were selected and
      decisions on adjuvant therapy post-surgery were based on 70GP. Data on outcomes
      were collected prospectively. RESULTS: There were 154 patients, 140 luminal type,
      13 HER2 type and one triple negative; 57.8% were 70GP low-risk; only one of these
      did receive chemotherapy; 42.2% were high-risk; 3 patients did not receive
      chemotherapy. After an average follow-up of 54.1 months, only 3 systemic
      recurrences occurred (all skeletal metastases); all in the high-risk group that
      had received chemotherapy. Across both groups overall survival was 99.9% and
      compliance with the treatment recommendations based on 70GP was >95% in both
      arms. Two patients each had two tumours in the same breast with divergent 70GP
      results and were treated in accordance with the High-risk result. Six patients
      showed discordant 70GP and FISH results for HER2 where three patients did not
      receive Trastuzumab on basis of 70GP, none of these tumours recurred. A further
      11 patients had equivocal immunohistochemistry and a FISH was not done, therapy
      was decided upon considering the 70GP result and none of these patients had any
      recurrences. CONCLUSION: Chemotherapy use was much reduced versus the rate of use
      with conventional methods using 70GP and it may possibly be reasonable to replace
      immunohistochemistry for ER, PR and HER2 with 70GP especially considering
      borderline expression.

PMID- 28876583
TI  - EFFECT OF TIMING OF SOURCE CONTROL IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE APPENDICITIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been well researched that early source control is essential to
      patient outcome in septic condition. For appendicitis, the point at which waiting
      for source control affects patient outcome is not well described; the limited
      data that are available, advocate a decision for operative management to be taken
      by 72 hrs, but there is no known amount of time which is proportional to adverse
      patient outcomes. The aim of this study is to determine the optimum time (if any)
      to achieve source control in patients undergoing emergency surgery for acute
      appendicitis, using complications, 30-day morbidity and mortality as an analogue
      for effective source control. METHOD: A prospective clinical database of patients
      with appendicitis were identified. The data were then entered into an anonymised
      database and analysed for this series. Patients will be included based on
      clinical diagnosis made by the consulting doctor responsible for the initial
      encounter. Upon imaging or surgery should alternate pathology be found patients
      will be excluded from this study. This study is observational and will have no
      impact on patient management, therefore participant consent is not required.
      RESULTS: This study is being conducted from January to December 2017. Data are
      being collected at present. Provisional results will be presented after
      provisional statistical analysis.

PMID- 28876584
TI  - HYDATID DISEASE IN SOUTH-AFRICA - IS IT A DIFFERENT DISEASE IN PATIENTS WITH HIV
      CO-INFECTION?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Echinococcus granulosus remains a clinical problem in rural sheep
      farming communities, with HIV co-infection often seen in patients from endemic
      regions. METHOD: Data from a prospective database was used to identify patients
      with and without HIV co-infection that underwent surgery for hepatic hydatid
      disease between 2012 and 2017. Clinical presentation, preoperative intervention,
      surgical treatment, postoperative mortality and morbidity are reported according
      to the Accordion severity score. RESULTS: Twenty-two patients (18 women, 4 men,
      median age 38 years, range 19-71 years) underwent surgery, of whom 11 (50%) were
      HIV positive (HIV+). Two patients in each group that presented with jaundice
      underwent pre-operative biliary drainage (ERCP=3; PTC=1). Four patients (2 in
      each group) had intraperitoneal rupture on imaging. Three patients (27%), all
      HIV+, needed emergency surgery. Two HIV+ patients were found to have secondary
      infected cysts. Pericystectomy was performed in 20 patients and formal resection
      in 2. In 8 patients, 4 from each group, biliary communication could be identified
      intraoperatively. Postoperative complications occurred in 10 patients, 5 in each
      group of which 9 were severe. Two postoperative deaths occurred, one in each
      group. CONCLUSION: Fifty percent of patients with hydatid disease in our service
      are co-infected with HIV. HIV+ patients more often had infected cysts and more
      frequently required emergency surgery.

PMID- 28876585
TI  - INTERNATIONAL VARIATION IN OUTCOMES FOLLOWING CANCER SURGERY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery is an integral part of treatment for cancer, although little
      data exist about outcomes of cancer surgery across lowmiddle income countries
      (LMICs). METHOD: This study is a cancer-specific analysis from a multicentre,
      prospective, observational cohort study including consecutive patients undergoing
      elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection for cancer between January and
      July 2016. Patients were grouped into high, middle and low-income countries
      according to United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI). Factors associated
      with the 30-day postoperative mortality rate (POMR) were explored using a
      multilevel, mixed-effects regression model. RESULTS: 2297 patients undergoing
      cancer surgery from 259 hospitals in 59 countries were included, with 6.5% from
      low-HDI, 16.4% from middle-HDI and 77.1% from high-HDI countries. In low-HDI
      countries there were more patients presenting as an emergency than in middle or
      high-HDI countries (24.2% vs.15.6% vs.14.5%). The 30-day POMR was higher in low-
      (16.8%) than middle- (6.1%) or high-HDI countries (3.2%). The factors associated
      with 30-day POMR included low-HDI (OR=1.75, 95% CI=2.66-12.47), an emergency
      operation (OR=4.31, 95% CI=2.64-7.04), perforation (OR=3.97, 95% CI=1.79-8.82),
      and ASA III or above (OR=4.05, 95% CI=2.21-7.40). CONCLUSION: There is wide
      variation in outcomes of surgery for gastrointestinal cancer around the world.
      More cases needed emergency surgery in LMICs, which may highlight differences in
      access to care.

PMID- 28876586
TI  - IS KI67 PREDICTIVE OF TUMOUR RESPONSE TO NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY AND TO LONG
      TERM DISEASE OUTCOME IN BREAST CANCER PATIENTS AT DR GEORGE MUKHARI ACADEMIC
      HOSPITAL: A PRELIMINARY REPORT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The difference in tumour response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy has
      been attributed to difference in tumour biology. Ki67, a proliferative protein,
      is one of the molecular markers that are used to predict tumour response to
      chemotherapy. A high Ki67 index and or a decrease in Ki67 index after a short
      term of NAC is said to predict clinical and pathological response and thus
      disease free survival but not over-all survival. METHOD: A prospective study.
      Core needle biopsy is repeated after 2 cycles of NAC (8 weeks) in Stage IIb and
      Stage III breast cancer patients and is compared to base-line biopsy. The trend
      of Ki67 is then compared to clinical response (after 8 weeks) and or pathological
      response after surgery. RESULTS: Fifty one patients gave consent for repeat
      biopsy. Biopsy was repeated in 43 patients and repeat Ki67 was only reported in
      31 patient aged 32 to 81 years. Thirteen patients with luminal A cancer, 8
      luminal B, 3 Her 2+ve and 7 triple negative cancer. Ki67 levels dropped in
      comparison to baseline values in 14 patients (45,16%), increased in 12 patients
      (38,71%) and remained stable in 5 patient (16,13%). Fifteen patients (48,39%) had
      good clinical response. In 9 patients (60%), this correlated with a drop in Ki67,
      5 (33,33%) had increase in Ki67 and 1 (6,67%) stable Ki index. Sixteen patients
      (51,61%) had poor clinical response. In 9 patients (56,25%) this corresponded
      with increase in Ki67 index, 5 (31,25%) had a decrease in Ki67 value and 2
      (12,5%) stable values. CONCLUSION: Due to the small number of patients analysed,
      it cannot be concluded that clinical response to 2 cycles of NAC (8 weeks)
      correlated with Ki67 values. A minimum of 100 patients is needed.

PMID- 28876587
TI  - IS ROUTINE STAGING LAPAROSCOPY IN POTENTIALLY RESECTABLE DISEASE JUSTIFIED IN
      GASTRIC CANCER? A SINGLE UNIT EXPERIENCE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastric adenocarcinoma is a heterogenous disease with often a late
      presentation. Staging laparoscopy (SL) improves the detection of metastases not
      visible on standard cross-sectional imaging. Routine SL may avoid unnecessary
      surgical exploration in a significant proportion of patients. METHOD: A
      retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database was performed
      identifying the use of routine SL in patients presenting with potentially
      resectable gastric (GCA) and oesophagogastric junction (OGJ) adenocarcinoma; with
      patients presenting between April 2013 and April 2017 to a single surgical unit
      reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 323 patients were identified with 14% African, 21%
      Caucasian and 75% of Coloured ethnicity. Sixty six per cent of GCA and 62% of OGJ
      cancers were male. The median age of GCA presentation was 63 years (range 31-88
      years) and 61 years (range 37-83 years) for OGJ cancers. Ninety six GCA and 24
      OGJ patients were deemed potentially resectable following staging CT, with
      exclusion of 203 patients irresectable on CT or due to patient comorbidities. 121
      pyloric and 44 OG junction palliative stents were subsequently placed. Of the 120
      resectable patients, 107 were fit and agreeable to surgery with 84 GCA and 23 OGJ
      patients proceeding to staging laparoscopy. Twenty eight (33%) of resectable GCA
      and 7 (30%) of resectable OGJ were deemed irresectable after staging laparoscopy
      due to occult metastatic disease. The remaining 85 patients resectable after
      staging laparoscopy were referred for neoadjuvant therapy with 50 eventually
      presenting for curative surgery (35 were not operated due to disease progression
      or clinical deterioration). A further 15 patients were found at laparotomy to be
      locally advanced and irresectable. CONCLUSION: Gastric adenocarcinoma is an
      aggressive disease presenting late in our environment. Staging laparoscopy should
      be routinely included in the pre-treatment evaluation, as a third of patients
      judged resectable on imaging will have occult metastases.

PMID- 28876588
TI  - POSTOPERATIVE TRANSIENT HYPOPARATHYROIDISM: INCIDENCE AND RISK FACTORS - A SOUTH
      AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is limited published data on the incidence and risk factors for
      developing postoperative hypoparathyroidism (POHP) in the South African setting.
      METHOD: All patients who underwent a total thyroidectomy or completion thyroid
      lobectomy at an academic referral centre from January 2010 to December 2015 were
      included in this study. Data reviewed included post-operative parathyroid hormone
      (iPTH) level within 24 hours of surgery, age, gender, type of operation and
      lymphadenectomy if performed, size and weight of thyroid glands resected, final
      histological diagnosis, presence of extracapsular extension of carcinomas, number
      of lymph nodes resected, and the number of parathyroids present in the histology
      specimen. RESULTS: Twenty nine per cent of patients in this unit were found to
      have postoperative hypoparathyroidism as defined by their immediate postoperative
      iPTH levels. No data on 6-8 week or 6 month PTH levels was available. Overall,
      there was no association between POHP and age or gender. In patients with benign
      histology, size, measured by weight and volume, was significantly associated with
      higher rates of POPH. In patients with thyroid carcinoma on final histology,
      lymphadenectomy and specifically the number of lymph nodes resected were
      associated with higher rates of POHP. CONCLUSION: The incidence of immediate
      postoperative hypoparathyroidism is within international standards. Standardised
      postoperative follow up to determine the proportion of patients with permanent
      hypoparathyroidism is necessary. With the identification of high risk groups,
      strategies to improve POPH such as autotransplantation in these subgroups should
      be considered.

PMID- 28876589
TI  - RECONSTRUCTION IN LOCALLY ADVANCE BREAST CANCER: WHO, WHAT AND WHEN?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) is defined as the most advanced
      stage of non-metastatic breast cancer. While breast reconstruction is not
      contraindicated in this subset of patients, the decision-making process is
      influenced by several considerations, including recurrence risk and the need for
      and timing of adjuvant therapy such as radiotherapy. This retrospective analysis
      investigates the reconstructive procedures performed on women presenting with
      locally advanced breast cancer at the Netcare Breast Care Centre (NCBC) in
      Johannesburg. METHOD: Patients with LABC who underwent breast reconstruction were
      identified from a database of breast cancer patients presenting to the NCBC
      during a 1 year period (June 2015 - June 2016). Data collected included
      demographic details, histology and details regarding surgery and reconstructive
      procedures. RESULTS: Of the 28 patients initially identified, 6 were excluded due
      to incomplete information. The remaining 22 patients were all female, with a
      median age of 60 years (range 24-72 years). The majority (18/22) of the patients
      presented with infiltrating ductal carcinoma and the luminal B subtype
      predominated (12/22). Nineteen patients were initiated on neoadjuvant therapy
      prior to surgery. Breast conservation therapy was possible in 13 patients, the
      rest underwent mastectomy. Immediate reconstruction was performed in 13/22
      patients and immediate-delayed reconstruction in 9/22. All 22 patients in the
      study group had autologous tissue reconstruction, and the majority (17/22) had a
      procedure on the contralateral breast at the same time. CONCLUSION: At the NCBC,
      autologous reconstruction as an immediate or immediate-delayed procedure is the
      preferred reconstructive strategy in LABC.

PMID- 28876590
TI  - SURGERY POST NEOADJUVANT THERAPY FOR BREAST CANCER: AN ANALYSIS OF 82 PATIENTS
      TREATED AT A SPECIALIST UNIT IN JOHANNESBURG.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neoadjuvant therapy in the breast cancer setting not only provides
      an indication of response to systemic therapy, but also results in tumour
      downsizing/downstaging, which facilitates breast conservation therapy (BCT). The
      aim of this retrospective analysis is to examine the surgical management of
      patients who have received neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer at the Netcare
      Breast Care Centre (NCBC) in Johannesburg. METHOD: All breast cancer patients
      managed surgically at the NCBC after neoadjuvant chemotherapy/primary endocrine
      therapy were identified from a database of 431 breast cancer patients presenting
      to this facility from June 2015 to June 2016. Patients with incomplete
      information were excluded. Demographic information, tumour characteristics and
      details regarding surgical management were collected and analysed. RESULTS:
      Seventy-two female patients with a median age of 48 years (range 24-75 years)
      were included in the analysis. The majority (68/72, 94.4%) had invasive ductal
      carcinoma. Stage at presentation was stage I in 16 patients (16/72, 22.2%) stage
      II in 31 patients (31/72 43.1%) and stage III in 25 patients (25/72, 34.7%).
      Pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant therapy was observed in 31 patients
      (31/72, 43.1%), partial response in 32 patients (32/72, 44.4%) and poor response
      in 7 patients (7/72, 9.7%). More than half (49/72, 68.1%) of the patients had
      BCT. Seventeen of the BCT patients (17/49, 34.7%) had initially presented with
      locally advanced (stage III) disease. CONCLUSION: BCT is feasible in a
      significant proportion of patients treated with neoadjuvant therapy for breast
      cancer.

PMID- 28876591
TI  - THE AFRICAN SURGICAL OUTCOMES STUDY: A 7-DAY PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL COHORT
      STUDY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative mortality represents a major global health burden.
      There is little internationally comparable data from Africa of outcomes following
      surgery. METHOD: Seven day, national, multicentre, prospective, observational
      cohort study of patients >=18 years of age undergoing in-patient surgery in
      Africa. The primary outcome was in-hospital postoperative surgical complications.
      Secondary outcomes included; i) in-hospital mortality, ii) and the relationship
      between postoperative complications and postoperative mortality, and the risk
      factors independently associated with in-hospital mortality and postoperative
      complications. RESULTS: 11422 patients participated from 25 countries in Africa.
      In hospital complications following surgery were observed in 1977/10885 (18.1%,
      95% CI 17.4-18.9) patients, and mortality was 239/11193 (2.1%, 95% CI 1.8-2.4).
      The median duration of hospital stay was 3 (IQR 2-5) days which was significantly
      increased to 6 (IQR 4-13) days (p<0.001) following a complication. The
      postoperative admission in intensive care unit was 511/10991 (4.6%, 95% CI 4.3
      5.0). When compared to the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), patients
      in Africa were twice as likely to die following surgery and following a surgical
      complication (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Although, surgical patients in Africa have a
      lower risk profile than high-income countries, there is a significantly increased
      mortality following a surgical complication in Africa.

PMID- 28876592
TI  - UPTAKE AND PERFORMANCE OF CLINICAL BREAST EXAM SCREENING BY TRAINED LAYWOMEN IN
      MALAWI.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer awareness and early detection are limited in sub
      saharan Africa. Resource limitations make screening mammography or clinical
      breast examination (CBE) by physicians or nurses impractical in many settings. We
      aimed to assess feasibility and performance of CBE by laywomen in urban health
      clinics. METHOD: Four laywomen were trained to deliver breast cancer educational
      talks and conduct CBE. Eligible women were 30 years, with no prior breast cancer
      or breast surgery, and clinic attendance for reasons other than a breast concern.
      Women with abnormal CBE were referred to a study surgeon. All palpable masses
      confirmed by surgeon examination were pathologically sampled. Patients with
      abnormal screening CBE but normal surgeon examination underwent breast ultrasound
      confirmation. RESULTS: Among 1220 eligible women, 1000 (82%) agreed to CBE. Lack
      of time (69%) was the commonest reason for refusal. Educational talk attendance
      was associated with higher CBE participation (83% versus 77%, P1/4 0.012). Among
      1000 women screened, 7% had abnormal CBE. Of 45 women with normal CBE randomized
      to physician examination, 43 had normal examinations and two had axillary
      lymphadenopathy not detected by CBE. Sixty of 67 women (90%) with abnormal CBE
      attended the referral visit. Of these, 29 (48%) had concordant abnormal physician
      examination. Thirty-one women (52%) had discordant normal physician examination,
      all of whom also had normal breast ultrasounds. Compared with physician
      examination, sensitivity for CBE by laywomen was 94% (confidence interval (CI,
      79%-99%), specificity 58% (CI, 46%-70%), positive predictive value 48% (CI, 35%
      62%), and negative predictive value 96% (CI, 85%-100%). Of 13 women who underwent
      recommended pathologic sampling of a breast lesion, two had cytologic dysplasia
      and all others benign results. CONCLUSION: CBE uptake in Lilongwe clinics was
      high. CBE by laywomen compared favourably with physician examination and followup
      was good. Our intervention can serve as a model for wider implementation.

PMID- 28876593
TI  - A COMPARISON OF RADIATION EXPOSURE DURING ENDOVASCULAR AORTIC ANEURYSM REPAIR
      WITH OR WITHOUT ENDOSTAPLING.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Complications of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) include
      endoleaks, proximal neck dilatation and stent migration, which have a greater
      likelihood with larger neck angulations. To mitigate against these complications
      endostapling of the stent-graft to the aortic wall is being implemented. With
      this extra stage in EVARs, this study aims to establish whether use of
      endostapling increases patient radiation exposure. METHOD: A retrospective
      analysis of a prospectively collected database of patients undergoing infrarenal
      EVAR and EVAR with endostapling was obtained. Radiation dose, fluoroscopy time,
      aneurysm size and patient characteristics were collected. Endostapling was
      performed using the Aptus Endostapling system (Aptus Endosystems Inc, Sunnyvale,
      Calif). Results are expressed as mean with 95% confidence interval. Statistical
      significance was set at P < 0.05 and calculated with an unpaired t-test. RESULTS:
      This study included 30 patients undergoing elective aorto biiliac EVAR with
      endostapling and 147 patients undergoing elective aorto bi-iliac EVAR without
      endostapling. Patient characteristics between the two groups were comparable.
      Within the endostapled group the mean dose area product (DAP) was 5.54 (4.18
      6.91) mGy.m2, cumulative air kerma (CAK) 289 (230-348) mGy and fluoroscopy time
      35.9 (29.6-42.2) minutes. Within the non-endostapled group the mean DAP was 5.91
      (5.07-6.75) mGy.m2, CAK 248 (211-284) mGy and fluoroscopy time 32.5 (28.5-36.5)
      minutes. There was no statistically significant difference in DAP, CAK or
      fluoroscopy time between patients undergoing EVAR with or without endostapling.
      CONCLUSION: Radiation exposure during endovascular aneurysm repairs is a
      significant hazard to both the patient and the theatre staff. Our study shows
      that the additional step of endostapling the aortic stent-graft to prevent future
      reinterventions for endoleaks, stent migration or rupture does not increase
      radiation exposure to the patient.

PMID- 28876594
TI  - SALMONELLA TYPHIMURIUM INFECTED ABDOMINAL AORTIC ANEURYSM ENDOVASCULAR REPAIR
      WITH SECONDARY AORTOENTERIC FISTULA FORMATION.
AB  - Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is a widely accepted and used technique for
      the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). However, it comes with a
      unique set of complications, two of the rarer being infection and aorto-enteric
      fistula formation. Due to the infrequency of the situation, there are currently
      no guidelines for their management. A 75-year-old male presented with vague
      abdominal pain and fevers. He was diagnosed with an infected abdominal aortic
      EVAR stent graft on computer tomography imaging. The stent graft was explanted
      and an extraanatomical bypass graft inserted. Intra-operative findings were an
      aorto-enteric fistula and left psoas abscess, both containing copious purulent
      fluid. He recovered slowly and his intra-operative samples grew Salmonella
      typhimurium. On review, he was found to have cultured this organism several times
      over a period of 14 months. It is hypothesised that his EVAR stent graft
      infection originated from a disseminated salmonella infection. From this case
      report, the following recommendations have been made. Firstly, if a patient with
      an EVAR develops a bacteraemia, they should receive pathogenspecific antibiotics
      for an appropriate length of time with regular surveillance of blood cultures
      until a negative culture is produced. Secondly, patients may require closer
      monitoring of their stent graft after a bacteraemia to allow for earlier
      detection of infection of the graft. Finally, explantation of infected stent
      grafts and the creation of an extra-anatomical bypass or an in-situ replacement
      may be the only method for detection of small AEFs; whose presence may change the
      management options for the patient. Hence, surgical management of infected EVARs
      and AEFs is still the current recommendation.

PMID- 28876595
TI  - ACUTE UPPER LIMB ISCHAEMIA IN DIABETIC PATIENTS - A RECENT EXPERIENCE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The outcome of acute upper limb ischaemia in diabetic patients is not
      well known. We report our recent experience with 5 patients. METHOD:
      Retrospective case reviews. RESULTS: All patients presented with Rutherford 2b
      ischaemia at a median 1.6 days after symptom onset. Age range: 43-76 years. M:F
      1:4. Mean HbA1c: 10.1% (range 6.1 - 14.0) Mean LDL cholesterol: 3.1g/dL (range
      1.61 - 4.80) Other comorbidities included: Ischaemic heart disease, atrial
      fibrillation, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, morbid obesity. One patient was an ex
      smoker. Four patients had preoperative CT angiograms. All patients underwent
      Fogarty catheter embolectomy of the forearm and arm arteries as initial procedure
      as well as forearm fasciotomy in 3 patients. CONCLUSION: Acute upper limb
      ischaemia in patients with diabetes appears to carry a grave prognosis for limb
      salvage (20% in this group). Re-intervention was associated with subsequent
      amputation. Proximal arterial disease can occur but the common finding of
      occlusive disease in the run-off vessels of the arm, as in this group, may
      account for the high limb-loss rate.

PMID- 28876596
TI  - ENDOVASCULAR AORTIC ANEURYSM REPAIR AT JOHANNESBURG ACADEMIC HOSPITALS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a common disease seen in vascular
      units. AAA is defined as transverse diameter greater than 3 cm and affects men
      more than women. Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) is increasingly being
      used to treat AAA. Renal dysfunction, graft-related endoleaks, graft limb
      occlusion, device migration and delayed aneurysm rupture are possible
      complications that have been encountered after EVAR. METHOD: Changes in renal
      functions after one month, six months and twelve months. The incidence of
      endoleaks, limb occlusion and re-interventions required. RESULTS: Total of thirty
      six patients had EVAR done from February 2014 to April 2017. There were two
      patients who had type 2 endoleaks on completion angiograms, these resolved on one
      month CT scan. Fourteen patients had post-EVAR imaging at 1, 6 and 12 months
      which showed no endoleaks. Three patients developed iliac limb occlusion and was
      appropriately managed with fem-fem crossover. Eight patients had preexiting renal
      impairment with worsening of renal function in one patient (not requiring
      dialysis). Three patients developed renal impairment after EVAR. Twenty-two
      patients are waiting for the follow up imaging and few patients missing follow-up
      blood tests - this data will be added before the congress. CONCLUSION: The follow
      up data demonstrates that EVAR can be performed safely in anatomically suitable
      patients. The limb occlusion rates are within accepted rates to standard vascular
      registry. The patients who developed renal dysfunction (Glomerular filtration
      rate between 50-60ml/min/1.73m2) after EVAR remained static for 12 months.

PMID- 28876597
TI  - RADIATION EXPOSURE DURING INFRARENAL ENDOVASCULAR AORTIC ANEURYSM REPAIR.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms
      exposes patients and healthcare professions to the deterministic and stochastic
      effects of ionization radiation. The study aim was to determine our standard of
      radiation exposure in infrarenal EVARs and compare it against other published
      data and national guidelines. METHOD: A retrospective analysis of a prospectively
      collected database of patients undergoing EVARs was obtained. Radiation dose,
      fluoroscopy time, aneurysm size and patient characteristics were collected.
      Results are expressed as mean with 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: This study
      included 147 elective patients undergoing aorto bi-iliac EVAR with a mean age of
      76 years from June 2013 until December 2016. The mean dose area product (DAP) was
      5.91 (5.07-6.75) mGy.m2, cumulative air kerma (CAK) 248 (211-284) mGy and
      fluoroscopy time 32.5 (28.5-36.5) minutes. A greater BMI and a longer fluoroscopy
      time caused a significantly greater DAP to be administered to the patient. The
      device type, sex, AAA size, smoking status did not significantly effect the DAP
      administered to the patient. CONCLUSION: Radiation exposure during endovascular
      aneurysm repairs is a significant hazard to both the patient and the theatre
      staff. Our study shows that a greater BMI and total fluoroscopy time can cause
      greater radiation exposure to patient. Anatomical and technical difficulties are
      also related to increased radiation exposure. Radiation exposure at our centre is
      below threshold levels suggested by Stecker et al before radiation induced skin
      injuries can manifest. Additionally, radiation exposure is comparable to other
      centres but can be reduced further by reducing our fluoroscopy time and adhering
      to the principles of ALARA (As low as reasonably achievable).

PMID- 28876598
TI  - SPECTRUM OF DISEASE AND OUTCOME OF PRIMARY AMPUTATION FOR DIABETIC FOOT SEPSIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guillotine amputation for diabetic foot sepsis followed by an
      elective refashioning of the stump is regarded as standard practice. Primary
      amputation is associated with higher reamputation rates. METHOD: A prospective
      cohort study of 85 patients who underwent surgery for diabetic foot sepsis from
      2014 to 2016 at Madadeni Provincial Hospital, KwaZulu-Natal was done. Ethical
      approval was granted. The Wagner classification (Wag) was used to classify
      disease severity. Outcome measures included length of hospital stay, mortality
      and re-amputation rates. RESULTS: Of the 85 patients, females (n=45) accounted
      for 53% of admissions. The mean age was 61 years (range: 29 to 80 years). The
      majority of patients were African, n=75 (88%). Only 1 patient presented with
      diabetic ketoacidosis and 18 (21%) presented with renal failure. Most patients
      presented with advanced disease: [Wag 5, n=66 (78%); Wag 4, n=12 (14%); Wag 3,
      n=5 (6%); Wag 2, n=2 (2%)]. The levels of vascular occlusion included aortoiliac
      disease n=2 (2%), femoro-popliteal disease n=18 (21%), tibio-peroneal disease
      n=65 (76%). Radiographic features included normal findings n=60 (71%); gas
      gangrene n=11 (13%), osteitis n=8 (9%). The following amputations were done: AKA,
      n=29 (34%); BKA, n=39 (46%); TMA, n=8 (9%); Toe-ectomy, n=5 (6%) and Debridement,
      n=4 (5%). The re-amputation rate to above knee amputation was n= 3/39 (8%). All
      AKA stumps healed well. The overall in-hospital mortality was n=5 (6%) and mean
      length of hospital stay was 7.8 days +/-3.83. CONCLUSION: The majority of
      patients presented with advanced disease requiring a major amputation. A
      definitive one stage primary amputation is a safe and effective procedure for
      diabetic foot sepsis and is associated with a low re-amputation rate, length of
      hospital stay and mortality. A guillotine amputation should be reserved for
      physiologically unstable patients.

PMID- 28876599
TI  - A CASE REPORT OF DELAYED PRESENTATION OF A PATIENT WITH A RUPTURED DIAPHRAGM
      COMPLICATED BY OBSTRUCTED DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA WITH GUT GANGRENE.
AB  - Diaphragmatic rupture is a common occurrence following a major chest trauma and
      is most commonly associated with road-traffic accidents. Here we report a case of
      delayed presentation of a 40-year-old man with a ruptured diaphragm with
      obstruction and bowel infarction, three and a half year following a blunt trauma
      to chest. This case illustrates how the diagnosis and aggressive management of
      ruptured diaphragm can be central to life saving and demonstrates the importance
      of early intervention in cases with features suggestive of compromise of bowel
      vascularity. Subsequently exploratory laparotomy with resection of gangrenous
      segment with double barrel ileo-jejunostomy with diaphragmatic repair was done
      successfully.

PMID- 28876600
TI  - COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF IN-HOSPITAL TRAUMA MORTALITY AT A SOUTH AFRICAN TRAUMA
      CENTRE AND MATCHED PATIENTS TREATED IN THE UNITED STATES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The unacceptably high rate of death and disability due to injury in
      sub-Saharan Africa is alarming. The objective of this work is to compare
      mortality rates between severely injured trauma patients at a high volume trauma
      centre in South Africa with matched patients in the United States. METHOD:
      Clinical databases from the Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) for patients treated in
      Cape Town, South Africa and the American College of Surgeon's National Trauma
      Databank (NTDB) for patients treated at large academic trauma centres in the US
      were used. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) identified the most comparable patient
      populations based on sex, age, intent, injury type, injury mechanism, Injury
      Severity Score, Glasgow Coma Score (GCS), and systolic blood pressure.
      Conditional logistic regression generated odds ratios for mortality among the
      entire sample and clinically relevant subgroups. RESULTS: CEM matched 97.9% of
      the GSH patient sample, resulting in 3,206 matched-pairs between the GSH and NTDB
      cohorts. Conditional logistic regression revealed an odds ratio of mortality of
      1.67 (95% CI: 1.10-2.52) for patients at GSH compared to matched patients from
      the NTDB. Subset analyses revealed significantly increased odds of mortality
      among patients with blunt injuries (OR 3.40, 95% CI: 1.68-6.88) and patients with
      a GCS of 8 or lower (OR 4.33, 95% CI:2.10-8.95). No statistically significant
      difference was identified among patients with penetrating injuries or with a GCS
      greater than 8 (p-value 0.90 and 0.39, respectively). CONCLUSION: International
      comparisons of inter-hospital variation in risk adjusted outcomes following
      trauma can identify opportunities for quality improvement and have the potential
      to measure the impact of any corrective strategy implemented.

PMID- 28876601
TI  - LAPAROSCOPIC MANAGEMENT OF RETROPERITONEAL INJURIES IN PENETRATING ABDOMINAL
      INJURIES.
AB  - PURPOSE: Laparoscopy in penetrating abdominal injuries is now accepted and
      practiced in many modern trauma centres. However its role in evaluating and
      managing retroperitoneal injuries is not yet well established. The aim of this
      study was to document our experience in using laparoscopy in a setting of
      penetrating abdominal injuries with suspected retroperitoneal injury in
      haemodynamically stable patients. METHOD: A retrospective descriptive study of
      prospectively collected data from a trauma unit at Dr George Mukhari Academic
      Hospital (DGMAH) was done. All haemodynamically stable patients with penetrating
      abdominal injury who were offered laparoscopy from January 2012 to December 2015
      were reviewed and those who met the inclusion criteria were analysed. RESULTS: A
      total of 284 patients with penetrating abdominal injuries were reviewed and 56
      met the inclusion criteria and were analysed. The median age was 30.8 years (15
      60 years) and males constituted 87.5% of the study population. The most common
      mechanism of injury was penetrating stab wounds (62.5%). Forty-five patients
      (80.3%) were managed laparoscopically, of these n=16 (28.5%) had retroperitoneal
      injuries that required surgical intervention. The most commonly injured organ was
      the colon (19.6%). The conversion rate was 19.6% with most common indication for
      conversion been active bleeding (14%). The complication rate was 7.14% (N=4) and
      were all Clavien-Dindo grade 3. There were no recorded missed injuries and no
      mortality. CONCLUSION: The positive outcomes documented in this study with no
      missed injuries and absence of mortality suggests that laparoscopy is a feasible
      option in managing stable patients with suspected retroperitoneal injuries.

PMID- 28876602
TI  - THE CORRELATION OF CT SCAN IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PENETRATING ABDOMINAL INJURIES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Penetrating abdominal trauma contributes significantly to the burden
      of disease in South Africa. The role of imaging, particularly CT scan in this
      subset of patients has yet to be established. In this study we reviewed patients
      with penetrating abdominal injuries and correlated the imaging and intra
      operative findings. METHOD: Over an 18-month period (June 2015 to January 2017),
      the database as well as patient records of all patients presenting with
      penetrating abdominal trauma were reviewed. Patients presenting with haemodynamic
      instability and peritonitis were excluded from the study and immediately
      underwent a laparatomy. Patients presenting with penetrating abdominal trauma and
      who were haemodynamically stable and not peritonitic had imaging done in the form
      of a CT Scan. The CT scan findings were then correlated with the intraoperative
      findings. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty one patients with penetrating abdominal
      trauma were eligible for imaging. Fifty two patients had positive CT scan
      findings as well as positive intraoperative findings. Seventy nine (60%) had
      negative findings on CT scan. Off the 79 patients, 59 (74%) had negative imaging
      findings as well as negative intraoperative findings. Twenty (25%) had negative
      CT findings but positive intraoperative findings. CONCLUSION: CT scan correlates
      poorly with intraoperative findings and thus is a poor modality for screening
      patients.

PMID- 28876603
TI  - THE ROLE OF LAPAROSCOPY IN BLUNT ABDOMINAL TRAUMA: DIAGNOSTIC, THERAPEUTIC OR
      BOTH?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of laparoscopy in blunt abdominal trauma is gaining
      popularity as a useful diagnostic tool to avoid unnecessary laparotomies where
      there is diagnostic dilemma. But the feasibility of using laparoscopy for
      therapeutic intervention in these patients has been debated. Even though recent
      case reports seem to suggest that these patients can be managed using
      laparoscopy, the practice is not yet wildly adopted. METHOD: A retrospective
      analysis of a prospectively collected data was done. All adult patients who
      presented with abdominal trauma and were offered laparoscopic surgery at DGMAH
      from 2012 to 2015 were reviewed. Data was retrieved from our departmental
      database and analysed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: A total of 318
      patients were reviewed and 35 patients had blunt abdominal trauma and were
      included in the study. All the patients were offered laparoscopy. The median age
      was 30, with 91% of our patients being males. The highest injury severity score
      calculated was 38. At least 77% of the patients were managed using laparoscopy.
      This includes 43% who had both diagnostic and therapeutic intervention and 34%
      had only diagnostic laparoscopy. Eight patients were converted to open surgery
      mainly due to active bleeding and complex injuries. We did not have any non
      therapeutic laparotomies, with no documented procedure related morbidity and
      mortality. CONCLUSION: The positive outcomes seen from the study suggest that
      laparoscopy can be safe and feasible in both diagnostic and therapeutic
      interventions in carefully selected blunt abdominal trauma patients. A conversion
      to open surgery should not be regarded as a failure but rather as a sign of
      mature and sound clinical judgement acknowledging the limitations of laparoscopy
      and/or the surgeon.

PMID- 28876604
TI  - THE USE OF LAPAROSCOPY IN MANAGING PENETRATING THORACOABDOMINAL INJURIES IN
      AFRICA: 83 CASES REVIEWED.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of laparoscopy in managing haemodynamically stable patients
      with penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries in developed countries is wildly
      practiced, but in Africa the use of laparoscopy is still in its infancy stage. We
      reviewed a single centre experience in using laparoscopy in Africa for management
      of patients with penetrating diaphragmatic injuries with or without associated
      intra-abdominal injuries. METHOD: A retrospective analysis of prospectively
      collected data of patients presenting with penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries
      was done. All patients offered laparoscopic exploration and repair from January
      2012 to December 2015 at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital were analysed. Means
      (+/-SD) were presented for continuous variables and frequencies (%) were
      presented for categorical variables. RESULTS: A total of 83 stable patients with
      penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries managed with laparoscopy met the inclusion
      criteria and were included in the study. The Injury Severity Score ranged from 8
      to 24, with a median of 18. The incidence of diaphragmatic injuries was 54%. The
      majority (46.8%) of patients had Grade 3 (2-10 cm defect) diaphragmatic injury.
      Associated intra-abdominal injuries requiring intervention were encountered in 28
      (62%) patients. At least 93.3% of the patients were treated exclusively with
      laparoscopy. The morbidity was encountered in 7 (16%) patients; the most common
      cause was a clotted haemothorax Clavien-Dindo III-b but only one patient required
      a decortication. There was one non-procedure related mortality. CONCLUSION: A
      success rate of 93% in using laparoscopy exclusively was documented, with an
      overall 82% uneventful outcome. The positive outcomes found in this study when
      laparoscopy was used in stable patients with thoracoabdominal injuries seem to
      suggest that the presence of peritonitis in stable patient is not a contra
      indication to laparoscopy and thoracoscopy may be useful especially in right side
      diaphragmatic injury where the liver can precludes adequate visualisation of the
      entire diaphragm.

PMID- 28876605
TI  - TRAUMA LAPAROSCOPY: TEACHING AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnostic laparoscopy is well-accepted in management of penetrating
      abdominal trauma (PAT) with the rate of missed injuries below 1%. However, there
      is a reluctance to accept therapeutic laparoscopy in trauma society. The main
      reason is the lack of laparoscopic skills by trauma surgeons. Moreover, no formal
      laparoscopy training program for trauma exists. The aim of this study was to
      discuss the trauma laparoscopy training at our institution. METHOD: All patients
      managed laparoscopically for PAT from January 2012 to December 2015 were included
      in the study. The seniority of operating surgeon was recorded and correlated with
      adverse outcomes, and with conversion to open laparotomy. The following groups
      were identified: surgeon-consultant (SC), assistant-consultant (AC),
      surgeonsenior- registrar (SSR) and surgeon-junior-registrar (SJC) groups.
      Laparoscopic manoeuvers used in this cohort were investigated and the set of
      essential laparoscopic skills was identified. Laparoscopic training program at
      our institution was described and discussed. RESULTS: Out of 283 patients with
      PAT approached with laparoscopy 33 (11.7%) were converted to laparotomy. The
      majority (49.6%) of laparoscopy were performed by a senior registrar. A
      consultant was an operating surgeon in 21.2% and an assistant in 8% of cases. A
      consultant was involved in cases with higher severity of injury and the
      complication rate was higher in the SC and AC groups. Essential laparoscopic
      skills were mobilisation of abdominal organs, bowel run and intracorporeal
      suturing. During training, an average senior registrar performed 20% of
      operations for trauma (a half was done laparoscopically) and trauma constituted
      16% of all laparoscopy. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopy for trauma is feasible and safe
      approach. It can be safely performed by registrars provided that the senior help
      is on standby. The surgeon performing trauma laparoscopy should have an
      appropriate mindset and a dexterity with advanced laparoscopic skills. Performing
      a wide range of nontrauma laparoscopy contributes significantly to performance in
      trauma laparoscopy.

PMID- 28876606
TI  - TRAUMA LAPAROSCOPY: WHEN TO START AND WHEN TO CONVERT?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of laparoscopy for stable patients with abdominal trauma is
      increasing and its accuracy is nearly 100%. However, indications for laparoscopy
      and for conversion differ among centres. The aim of this study was to investigate
      indications for trauma laparoscopy and for conversion to laparotomy. METHOD: All
      trauma patients managed with laparoscopy over a four year period were
      retrospectively analysed. Indications for laparoscopy, morbidity, and reasons for
      conversion were investigated and predictors of morbidity and conversion were
      sought. The management algorithm of trauma patients was reviewed and updated.
      RESULTS: Laparoscopy was used in 318 stable trauma patients. The conversion rate
      was 11.7% for penetrating and 22.9% for blunt abdominal trauma patients. The most
      common reason for conversion was continuous intraabdominal bleeding that could
      not be controlled quickly. It was followed by multiple complex injuries,
      haemodynamic instability, and intraoperative visualisation problems. Diagnostic
      laparoscopy was performed in 45%, and therapeutic laparoscopy in 55% of cases.
      There were no missed injuries. The complication rate was lower and length of
      hospital stay (LOS) shorter in the laparoscopic group. Lower pH was associated
      with conversion. CONCLUSION: The management of all stable trauma patients with
      laparoscopy appears to be a safe approach. The use of sound laparoscopic
      equipment by a well-coordinated trauma team with adequate expertise in
      laparoscopy, adherence to the algorithm, and strict compliance with predetermined
      procedural steps are fundamental to success. Laparotomy can be avoided in more
      than 80% of cases. Continuous intraoperative bleeding, complexity of injuries,
      deterioration of the patient, poor visibility, and equipment failure are
      indications for conversion. The rate of missed injuries is negligible and
      comparative with laparotomy. Lower complication rates and a shorter LOS are
      associated with laparoscopy. However, further studies are needed to identify
      specific predictors for complications and conversion.

PMID- 28876607
TI  - LAPAROSCOPIC APPROACH TO COMBINED BILATERAL INGUINAL AND VENTRAL HERNIAS.
AB  - Herniosis is a well-documented phenomenon amongst patients who develop any hernia
      over their lifetime. Multiple hernias at different anatomical locations are quite
      common though they more often occur metachronously. When they present
      synchronously, there is an additional advantage to tackling these hernias
      laparoscopically as it affords the advantage of thorough inspection of the entire
      peritoneal cavity and the ability to address all hernias simultaneously. This
      video demonstrates one of the modified approached to the groin and midline that
      facilities a combined procedure without the need for additional port placements.
      A bilateral TAPP and Midline IPOM repair is performed simultaneously.

PMID- 28876608
TI  - LAPAROSCOPIC LEFT LATERAL SECTIONECTOMY AT DR GEORGE MUKHARI ACADEMIC HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy has rapidly become a standard
      of care for patients requiring excision of segments 2 and 3. We present our
      technique of the resection. METHOD: Videos of patients having had left lateral
      sectionectomies were reviewed. Patients were placed in supine with reverse
      Trendelenburg position. Three ports were used: one 12 mm at the umbilicus for the
      camera, one 12 mm placed 5 cm above and to the right of the umbilicus and one 5
      mm port to the left. A Ligasure(r) 5 mm (Covidien(r)) was used to take down the
      falciform ligament initially staying close to the abdominal wall and then
      stopping at the bifurcation of the two layers of peritoneum. The triangular
      ligament was incised to create a window between diaphragm and liver. Unlike open
      surgery the entire ligament was not mobilised at this stage. A line was scored on
      the left of the falciform ligament. Transection of the parenchyma was achieved
      with Ligasure(r). Once the liver parenchyma was thinned, an endostapler -
      EndoGIA(r) Gold (Covidien(r)) - was be used to complete the transection. It was
      also possible to dissect out individual vessels and ligate with Hem-o-lok(r)
      (Teleflex(r)) clips in one case. The cut surface was examined for bleeding or
      bile leaks. A small pencil drain was placed. RESULTS: Three patients had
      laparoscopic resections. All were female. Two cases were haemangioma with one
      diagnosed preoperatively and the other not having typical features on imaging.
      The third case was a large adenoma in a patient with hepatic adenomatosis. No
      bile leaks were noted. No patient required blood transfusion. Average length of
      stay was 1 day. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy is a stepping
      stone to more complex laparoscopic liver resections. It is feasible and safe in a
      tertiary institute in South Africa.

PMID- 28876610
TI  - THE OPEN RETRORECTUS AND TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINUS RELEASE.
AB  - The open retrorectus approach to the repair of incisional hernias remains the
      gold standard approach despite the availability of multiple options. The addition
      of a transverses abdominus release to the procedure increases the number of
      patients and the complexity of the cases for which this approach is suitable. It
      facilitates midline closure in almost all cases, avoids significant neuromuscular
      bundle injury and dissection of poorly vascularized subcutaneous tissue, and
      allows the placement of a very large but simple mesh in a space outside the
      peritoneal cavity. This video demonstrates the steps involved and the important
      anatomical details.

PMID- 28876609
TI  - LAPAROSCOPIC PANCREATICODUODENECTOMY AT DR GEORGE MUKHARI ACADEMIC HOSPITAL: A
      CASE REPORT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The first total laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed in
      1994 by Gagner and Pomp. Their comments coupled with the inherent technical
      difficulties stifled development of the technique. In the last decade there has
      been a renewed interest in the technique with high volume centres publishing
      large series. We present our experience with the first operation completed at Dr
      George Mukhari Academic Hospital. METHOD: Pre-operative CT confirmed a resectable
      head of pancreas mass. The gastroduodenal artery (GDA) was noted to arise from
      the right hepatic artery which ran parallel and anterior to the bile duct. Five
      ports were used. After excluding metastases we proceeded to dissect the
      hepatoduodenal ligament. A combination of hook diathermy and Harmonic ACE+7(r)
      (Ethicon(r)) was used. We then entered the lesser sac and ligated the right
      gastroepiploic vessels and right gastric vessels. The stomach was transected with
      an Endo GIA(r) Black 60 mm (Covidien(r)). The duodenum was kocherized. The GDA
      was ligated with a Haemolok(r) (Teleflex(r)) clip. A retropancreatic tunnel was
      created the pancreas was transected with the energy device. The jejenum was
      transected 10 cm distal to the ligament of Treitz with an Endo GIA(r) Purple 45
      mm and passed posterior to the SMA. The pancreaticojejenostomy was done as per
      Blumgart with a duct to mucosa anastomosis. The hepaticojejenostomy was completed
      with 4/0 PDS (Ethicon(r)) continuous. The gastrojejenostomy was completed with
      3/0 Maxon (Covidien(r)). The specimen was retrieved via a 5 cm midline incision.
      Two pencil drains were placed. RESULTS: The patient was transferred to ICU
      postoperatively. She developed a short period of delirium which resolved
      spontaneously. No bile or pancreatic leaks were noted. She was discharged on day
      28. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy is technically feasible
      despite the steep learning curve. The results from large series worldwide suggest
      a need to encourage and further develop the technique in South Africa.

PMID- 28876611
TI  - CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF LOW COST LAPAROSCOPIC SIMULATOR USING ANDROID
      SMARTPHONE AND POP CAST AND A LAPTOP.
AB  - Minimal invasive surgery training requires a lot of practice and for this purpose
      innovative tools are needed to develop methods for practice and training skills
      outside the operating room. Commercially available devices are readily available
      but cost effectiveness and availability are major limiting factors in resource
      limited setting. We present an innovative and cost effective laparoscopic
      simulator which can be easily manufactured and used for practice of laparoscopic
      surgery. Using a free android application, such as IP webcam we can relay video
      to laptop without the use of any cables and uniquely we use the flash of a camera
      as the light source and a selfie stick for movement of the camera. Use of this
      type of setup can help to reduce cost of simulated learning in low income
      countries and makes laparoscopic training facilities readily available.

PMID- 28876612
TI  - LAPAROSCOPIC VENTRAL HERNIA REPAIR: A SINGLE SURGEON STUDY USING A
      CIRCUMFERENTIAL TRANSFASCIAL SUTURE TECHNIQUE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ideal technique for ventral primary and incisional hernia repair
      is unclear. There is a paucity of literature from South African authors. In this
      report, a standardised technique of intraperitoneal mesh placement and fixation
      is described. METHOD: A retrospective study of 152 patient records. Each patient
      underwent laparoscopic ventral hernia repair between 2007 and 2016 by a single
      surgeon. A standardised technique was used in every operation. In each case a
      circumferential mesh overlap of 5 centimetres from the defect was achieved. The
      same composite mesh was used in every operation. The mesh was secured with
      transfascial Tycron sutures placed around the circumference at 2 centimetre
      intervals. The correct position of the mesh was confirmed with skin markings from
      a template, prior to pulling the sutures through the abdominal wall with an
      Endoclose. RESULTS: 152 patients underwent a total of 154 operations. They were
      followed up at 2 and 6 weeks postoperatively and longer in many patients. The
      average follow up time was 327 days.Seromas occurred in 16 patients, one
      persisting beyond 6 weeks, which resolved after aspiration. Three patients
      developed abscesses, requiring mesh removal in 2. Hernia recurrences occurred in
      3 patients (1.97%). More than one mesh was used in 6 patients. Few patients had
      any residual pain at 2 weeks and none at 6 weeks. The average hospital stay was 2
      days. CONCLUSION: The described standardised technique of laparoscopic ventral
      hernia repair results in a very secure mesh fixation with evenly distributed load
      on the mesh. The potential complications associated with tacks, inadequate
      fixation and cost of tacks are avoided.

PMID- 28876613
TI  - MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOMES FROM APPENDECTOMY: AN INTERNATIONAL, PROSPECTIVE,
      MULTICENTRE STUDY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To identify variation in surgical management and outcomes of
      appendicitis across low, middle and high Human Development Index (HDI) country
      groups. METHOD: Multi-centre, international prospective cohort study of
      consecutive patients undergoing emergency appendectomy over a 6-month period.
      Follow-up lasted 30 days. Primary outcome measure was overall complication rate.
      RESULTS: 4546 patients from 52 countries underwent appendectomy (2499 high, 1540
      middle and 507 low HDI groups). Complications were more frequent in low-HDI (OR
      3.81, 95% CI 2.78 to 5.19, p < 0.001) and middle-HDI countries (OR 2.99, 95% CI
      2.34-3.84, p < 0.001) compared with high- HDI countries, but differences were
      adjusted out by case-mix and hospital structural factors. Surgical site infection
      (SSI) rates were higher in low-HDI (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.33 to 4.99, p=0.005) but
      not middle-HDI (OR 1.38, 95% CI 0.76 to 2.52, p=0.291) compared with high-HDI
      countries after adjustment. A laparoscopic approach was common in high-HDI
      countries (1693/2499, 67.7%), but infrequent in low- (41/507, 8.1%) and middle
      HDI (132/1540, 8.6%) groups. After accounting for case-mix, laparoscopy was still
      associated with fewer complications (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.71, p< 0.001) and
      SSIs (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.33, p<0.001). The number needed-to-treat with
      laparoscopic surgery to save an SSI was lower in low-HDI countries (NNT=6, 95% CI
      4 to 9) than in high-HDI countries (NNT=9, 95% CI 6 to 16). In propensity-score
      matched groups within low- and middle- HDI countries, laparoscopy was still
      associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.23 95% CI 0.11 to 0.44) and SSI
      (OR 0.21 95% CI 0.09 to 0.45). CONCLUSION: Outcomes from appendectomy vary
      worldwide. A laparoscopic approach is associated with better outcomes and
      availability appears to differ by country HDI. There are profound clinical,
      operational and financial barriers to the introduction of laparoscopy that if
      overcome, could result in significantly improved outcomes for patients in low
      resource environments, with potential for wider health-system benefits.

PMID- 28876614
TI  - SIGNIFICANT CLINICAL AND PATIENT REPORTED OUTCOMES AT 6 MONTHS FOLLOWING HERNIA
      REPAIR WITH AN ABSORBABLE FIXATION DEVICE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgeons utilise various mesh fixation methods during hernia repair
      which may include tacks/straps and/or sutures. One of these tack/strap choices,
      is an absorbable fixation device, Securestrap(r) (ETHICON, Somerville, NJ),
      consisting of polydioxanone and L (-)-lactide/glycolide copolymer. The 6 month
      clinical results and patient outcomes with Securestrap(r) fixation are reported.
      METHOD: The International Hernia Mesh Registry, prospective multi-centre
      registry, designed to collect patient reported, longitudinal data on hernia mesh
      products and fixation methods. Patients completed the Carolinas Comfort ScaleTM
      (CCS). Symptomatic patient defined as responding >1 to any CCSTM question. P
      values obtained by McNemar test and Kaplan Meier methods used to estimate the
      recurrence rate up to 183 days. RESULTS: Patients enrolled at 17 centres with
      data on 101 of the 216 patients who had reached the 6 month time point.
      Demographics were: mean age 53.0 (13.2 SD); mean BMI 33.0 (7.7 SD) kg/m2; females
      (51.4%); nonsmokers (46.4%). Majority of hernias were incisional/ventral (57.9%)
      and most were laparoscopic (98.1%). Mesh fixation was with tacks/straps (50.5%)
      or tacks/straps and sutures (49.5%). Symptomatic CCSTM pains scores improved from
      baseline to 1 month and improved significantly from 1 month to 6-months (69.1% to
      60.6%, p=0.0858; 60.6% to 22.8%, p=0.0002), respectively. Similar results were
      observed with symptomatic CCSTM movement limitations. The recurrence rate was
      1.8% (0.6%-5.4%); 2 medically confirmed; 1 had not yet been assessed. CONCLUSION:
      Mesh fixation using absorbable tacks/straps with or without additional sutures
      results showed statistical significant improvement in patient reported outcomes
      at 6 months as compared to baseline. Follow-up continues.

PMID- 28876615
TI  - The International Association of Student Surgical Societies: A brief history from
      2014-2017.
AB  - The International Association of Student Surgical Societies (IASSS) was founded
      in 2011 to link up student surgical societies from around the world. These
      Societies have been formed by students with an aim to promote interest in
      surgical education and research amongst undergraduate medical students. Their
      formation has been fostered by the recent realization that adequate surgical care
      is a neglected component of global public health.1 The insufficient number of
      trained surgeons is one of the many barriers to meeting global surgical needs,
      especially in middle- and low-income countries. This barrier is one the IASSS
      aims to address.2,3 Since its inauguration, the IASSS has been active in creating
      opportunities for undergraduate medical students across the world to explore the
      full spectrum of surgery.

PMID- 28876616
TI  - 10-year review of Africa's first student surgical society - UCT Surgical Society.
AB  - The UCT Student Surgical Society is an undergraduate surgical society based at
      the University of Cape Town (UCT) which aims to promote surgical education
      amongst medical students early in their medical careers. Founded in 2006, this
      was Africa's first student surgical society and has been joined by other medical
      schools in Africa also establishing their own undergraduate student surgical
      societies. In this review of the first 10 years of the society, we describe its
      objectives, its evolution and its international role.

PMID- 28876617
TI  - Efficacy of porcine dermal collagen (PermacolTM) injection for passive faecal
      incontinence in a dedicated Colorectal Unit at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical
      Centre.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Passive faecal incontinence (FI) due to a defect of the internal anal
      sphincter is a distressing condition and can be difficult to manage medically and
      surgically. The use of a trans-anally injected bulking agent to improve
      continence has been published internationally with contradictory results. METHOD:
      Patients with passive FI due to confirmed internal anal sphincter deficits that
      had been treated with PermacolTM injections were followed up. They were asked to
      complete the Wexner faecal incontinence scores and Rockwood QoL scores for both
      their pre- and post-treatment continence state. RESULTS: Of the 14 patients who
      completed the questionnaires, most were women with a mean (SD) age of 56.4 (13.4)
      years. The majority of the patients had a history of a predisposing event. They
      reported a significant improvement in both the Wexner scores (p < 0.0005) and the
      Rockwood QoL (p=0.004), including all subsections. The Wexner scores and the
      Rockwood scores were significantly correlated post-procedure (r= -0.6186;
      p=0.0183). There were no significant correlations between change in scores and
      time after procedure. CONCLUSION: Trans-anal submucosal PermacolTM injections
      produced a significant improvement in both faecal continence and quality of life
      scores in patients with passive faecal incontinence for up to two years.

PMID- 28876618
TI  - C-reactive protein as a predictor of severity of appendicitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Complex (perforated or gangrenous) appendicitis has a high rate of
      morbidity in South Africa. METHOD: The study retrospectively reviewed results
      from January 2013 to December 2015 at Paarl Hospital in the Western Cape
      province. All patients who had their appendices surgically removed due to
      suspected appendicitis and who had preoperative results for CRP and WCC were
      included. Using the area under the Receiver Operated Characteristics curve we
      compared the inflammatory markers of 2 groups with histologically proven
      appendicitis: those with complex (perforated or gangrenous appendix) and those
      with uncomplicated appendicitis (inflamed appendix). Youden's J statistic was
      used to determine the optimal cut-off value above which complex appendicitis
      would be the most likely diagnosis. RESULTS: A total of 591 patients were
      identified, 385 had results for both WCC and CRP. CRP (AUC 72%) proved to be a
      fair and WCC (AUC 58%) a poor predictor of complex appendicitis. Cut-off values
      for CRP and WCC were found to be 215 mg/l and 16.80 109 cells/l respectively. At
      these threshold values CRP (sensitivity 51.4%, specificity 85.7%, p-value <
      0.001, positive predictive value 80.2%, negative predictive value 61%, positive
      likelihood ratio 3.6 and diagnostic odds ratio 6.35) proved to be much better
      than WCC (sensitivity 43%, specificity 73.8%, p-value = 0.022, positive
      predictive value 64.9%, negative predictive value 53.4%, positive likelihood
      ratio 1.64 and diagnostic odds ratio 2.11) in predicting complex appendicitis.
      CONCLUSION: CRP is superior to WCC in the differentiation between uncomplicated
      and complex appendicitis. Using a cut-off value of CRP 215 mg/l is statistically
      significant in diagnosing complex appendicitis. This value should be used
      cautiously as many more studies are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28876619
TI  - Do iatrogenic serosal injuries result in small bowel perforation in a rabbit
      model?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical dogma dictates that serosal injuries should be repaired
      during laparotomy as these injuries may result in localised areas of bowel
      ischaemia and may perforate. No study has investigated whether there is a
      correlation between the extent of serosal injuries and the risk for perforation
      under normal physiological conditions. We hypothesized that small bowel serosal
      injuries do not result in early or late perforation at physiological intraluminal
      pressures regardless of their size. METHOD: An in-vivo rabbit small bowel serosal
      injury model was developed and two experiments were conducted. The first - to
      determine whether and at which pressures various lengths and circumferences of
      serosal injuries in small bowel result in immediate bowel perforation - was
      performed infusing saline into isolated bowel segments with or without a variety
      of serosal injuries. In the second study - to determine whether or not serosal
      injuries result in delayed perforation - a range of injuries was created in
      rabbits and the effect assessed at re-laparotomy 5 days after the creation of the
      injury. RESULTS: No perforations were observed at the site of serosal injuries at
      physiological intraluminal pressures. Perforations occurred at 43.7+ 18.6 cmH2O,
      23.3+ 14.4 cmH2O, and 24.4+ 23.9 cmH2O for controls, 4 cm long and 100%
      circumference serosal injuries respectively (p-value = 0.18 for various lengths
      and 0.71 for various circumferences). No serosal injuries perforated within 72 or
      120 hours after creation. CONCLUSION: Small bowel serosal injuries do not
      perforate or leak at physiological intraluminal pressures, either at the time of
      creation or up to 120 hours thereafter.

PMID- 28876620
TI  - Factors influencing medical students in pursuing a career in surgery: a cross
      sectional survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many factors play a role in the decision of a medical student to
      pursue a career in surgery. With a decline in numbers of applications into
      surgical programmes seen globally, the aim of this study was to determine the
      factors that influence medical students in pursuing a career in surgery. METHOD:
      A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was distributed online to all medical
      students studying at a tertiary, academic institution. Survey items obtained data
      on demographics, surgical interest and training, as well as factors affecting a
      surgical career. RESULTS: A total of 245 medical students responded, of which 56%
      were female. The majority (69%) stated they were interested in pursuing a career
      in surgery. Despite 75% of respondents stating South Africa was a good place for
      surgical training, females reported significantly higher levels of agreement that
      surgical training would be better overseas when compared to males (p = 0.027).
      Overall, 20% were undecided on what surgical specialty they would pursue. The
      largest proportion of respondents (33%) stated that 'Length of training' was the
      main barrier to pursuing a career in surgery. Thirtythree (13.5%) respondents
      reported 'Female-unfriendly' as a barrier, of whom all were female. The greatest
      motivator to pursuing a career in surgery was 'Hands-on work', stated by 36% of
      respondents. CONCLUSION: Though length of surgical training was deemed the
      principal barrier, the majority of students indicated they would pursue a career
      in surgery. Despite continued perceptions that surgery poses a female-unfriendly
      environment as a career, respondents held South African surgical training in high
      esteem, and were motivated by a clinically hands-on approach. These factors may
      play an important role in determining methods of improving numbers of surgical
      applications worldwide.

PMID- 28876621
TI  - The absolute number of repeat operations for complex intra-abdominal sepsis is
      not a useful predictor of non-survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When multiple repeat laparotomies are required to manage intra
      abdominal sepsis, questions about futility of treatment frequently arise. This
      study focuses specifically on patients who required two or more repeat
      laparotomies and describes the spectrum of disease necessitating multiple repeat
      laparotomies and the associated outcomes in the hope of clarifying the issue.
      METHOD: This study was conducted over a 20-month period (December 2012 - July
      2014) at Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. All surgical patients
      at Greys Hospital have admission, discharge and operative data prospectively
      entered into a computerised electronic registry, the Hybrid Medical Electronic
      Registry (HEMR). The ethics approval required to maintain this registry has been
      obtained from the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BCA221/13 BREC) of the
      University of KwaZulu-Natal and from the Research Unit of the Department of
      Health. Full ethical approval for this study was granted by the University of
      KwaZulu-Natal Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BE047/14). All patients aged
      13 years and older who needed at least two repeat laparotomies were included in
      the study. This included general surgical and trauma patients. RESULTS: During
      the study period, 72 patients required more than one repeat laparotomy and a
      total of 182 repeat laparotomy operations were performed on this patient cohort.
      Demographics showed a male predominance, with 54 (75%) being male and 18 (25%)
      being female patients. The average age was 39 years. General surgical patients
      accounted for 60% and trauma patients for 40% of the total. The majority of
      patients required only two repeat laparotomy (65 %), while two patients required
      a total of 6 repeat laparotomy each, both with an initial diagnosis of
      appendicitis and both these patients survived. Temporary abdominal closure (TAC)
      was performed in 26 (36%) of initial laparotomies, while 33 (46%) of patients had
      an open abdomen at the time of discharge or death. Sixty percent required
      intensive care or high care unit (ICU/HCU) admission and 53 patients (74%) had a
      total of 71 documented morbidities. Total mortality for this study was 21%,
      however there was no correlation between number of procedures and mortality.
      CONCLUSION: The total number of procedures is associated with increased morbidity
      rates but not necessarily with increased mortality rates. This is important to
      consider when the issue of futility of treatment arises, as the absolute number
      of repeat laparotomies is a poor marker of futility and other factors must be
      considered.

PMID- 28876622
TI  - Actinomycosis of the foot - A South African case.
AB  - Mycetoma is a chronic infection, characterised by severe disability and
      discomfort to patients. This condition is common throughout tropical regions of
      the world. The Indian subcontinent and north-east Africa, especially Sudan, bear
      the majority of the disease burden. Due to the limited resources and isolation of
      these areas, the condition is usually misdiagnosed or incorrectly managed. The
      World Health Organisation listed the condition as a "neglected disease" in 2013.
      The creation of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC) by the University of Khartoum
      in 1991 has greatly contributed to the current understanding of this disabling
      condition. We report a case of a 17-year-old boy from Port Elizabeth, South
      Africa. Uncommon in South Africa, this condition is easily misdiagnosed and
      mismanaged.

PMID- 28876623
TI  - HIV post-tuberculous broncho-oesophageal fistulas: A surgical solution.
AB  - We present a patient with HIV/AIDS with multiple tracheo-oesophageal fistulas
      probably due to previous tuberculosis. An Ivor-Lewis procedure was successfully
      undertaken following stringent pre-operative preparation. Surgical repair of
      persistent post-tuberculous tracheo-oesophageal fistulas may be safely undertaken
      in selected patients with HIV/ AIDS.

PMID- 28876624
TI  - Lingual Fibrolipoma - A rare clinicopathological entity.
AB  - Lipoma is a relatively common benign tumour occurring at sites of the body which
      are rich in adipose tissue. Due to sparsity of adipose tissue within the oral
      cavity, lipoma rarely presents in this region. Fibrolipoma of the tongue is a
      rare lesion. There are only 14 cases reported in the literature. An 85-year-old
      patient presented with a painless mass on the tongue interfering with eating.
      There were no risk factors for malignancy and no family history of malignant
      diseases. Although intraoperatively the lesion was locally infiltrative,
      histopathology revealed a rare benign fibrolipoma. Mainstay of treatment is
      surgical excision, but the lesion may pose a dilemma for Surgeons as difficulties
      associated with removal, due to the fibrous and adherent nature of the growth to
      surrounding tissue, may be mistaken for a cancerous growth.

PMID- 28876625
TI  - TO ACTIVATE OR NOT TO ACTIVATE? THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING TAMOXIFEN TREATMENT
      AND THROMBOSIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer is associated with hypercoagulability, with therapies
      including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery and hormone-therapy linked to
      an increased risk of thrombotic complications. Notwithstanding the contribution
      of other haematological processes and components, platelets are implicated in
      contributing to a hypercoagulable state, with breast cancer patients receiving
      Tamoxifen treatment at a greater risk for thrombotic complications. METHOD: MCF-7
      and T47D breast cancer cells were cultured under standard conditions, followed by
      treatment with 2uM Tamoxifen for 24 hours and co-cultured with whole blood (WB)
      for 2.5 minutes. WB samples were then treated with red blood cell lysis buffer
      and processed for flow cytometry. Samples were analysed on the LSR Fortessa by
      FACSDiva, using an interval gating strategy to determine levels of CD62p
      expression, and further quantitatively analysed using IBM SPSS v23. RESULTS:
      Preliminary in vitro Results reveal that Tamoxifen treatment enhances the ability
      of breast cancer cells to induce platelet activation. The severity of platelet
      activation is dependent on the sub-phenotype of breast cancer cells used, with
      T47D cells inducing the highest levels of activation. CONCLUSION: While our data
      concurs with that of the clinical setting, other laboratory studies show that
      Tamoxifen prevents platelet activation. Therein lies the controversy - we
      postulate that experimental design and methodological approaches to this question
      have resulted in disparate conclusions. Additionally, an understanding of release
      of mediators of attachment using other techniques could further reveal the
      underlying assumptions behind these contradictions that ultimately may affect the
      approach to clinical management.

PMID- 28876626
TI  - APPLICATION OF GENE PROFILING IN SELECTION OF ADJUVANT THERAPY IN BREAST CANCER
      IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Outcome series for genetic profile tests (MammaPrint/70GP) with
      medium-term follow-up are rare and the popularity of these tests have now
      necessitated inclusion into international guidelines. We present here a series
      with 5-year follow-up from a developing country. METHOD: From 2006 to 2016,
      patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer (cT0-3 and cN0-1) had
      specimens submitted for 70GP and decisions on adjuvant therapy postsurgery were
      based on these Results. Data on outcomes were collected prospectively. RESULTS:
      There were 154 patients: 140 luminal type, 13 HER2 type and one triple negative;
      57.8% were 70GP low-risk; only one of these did receive chemotherapy; 42.2% were
      high-risk; 3 patients did not receive chemotherapy. After an average follow-up of
      54.1 months, 3 systemic recurrences occurred (all skeletal metastases), all in
      the high-risk group that had received chemotherapy. Across both groups overall
      survival was 99.9% and compliance with the treatment recommendations based on
      70GP was > 95% in both arms. Two patients each had two tumours in the same breast
      with divergent 70GP Results and were treated in accordance with the high-risk
      result. Six patients showed discordant 70GP and FISH Results for HER2 where three
      patients did not receive Trastuzumab on basis of 70GP; none of these tumours
      recurred. A further 11 patients had equivocal Immunohistochemistry and a FISH was
      not done; therapy was decided upon considering the 70GP result and none of these
      patients had any recurrences. CONCLUSION: Chemotherapy use was much reduced
      versus the rate of use with conventional Methods using 70GP and, furthermore, it
      may be reasonable to replace immunohistochemistry for ER, PR and HER2 with 70GP
      especially considering borderline expression.

PMID- 28876627
TI  - BREAST GROSSING PRACTICES AND TURNAROUND- TIMES BEFORE AND AFTER THE INTRODUCTION
      OF A STANDARD BREAST PATHOLOGY SUBMISSION FORM: AN AUDIT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the use of a standardized, synoptic pathology report for
      breast cancer has been demonstrated to improve the quality of reports, the role
      of a standardized form for the submission of breast cancer excision specimens to
      the histopathology laboratory has not yet, to our knowledge, been investigated.
      METHOD: The proforma for oncological breast excisions was devised collaboratively
      between the pathologists and the surgeons. During the month prior to the
      introduction of the proforma, and in the three-and-a-half months following the
      form's rollout, the senior pathology registrar at the CMJAH grossing bench
      completed an audit form for each breast cancer excision from HJH. The total turn
      around-time (TAT) for each specimen was calculated retrospectively for each
      specimen audited. RESULTS: Seventy-eight cases were audited, 17 before the
      introduction of the proforma and 61 after. The 3 cases received without attached
      proformas in the second cohort were excluded from the data analysis. The mean
      grossing time per specimen was unchanged in the two cohorts. The call rate to
      clinicians decreased from 0.47 to 0.16, as did the rate of required clinician
      visits to the laboratory (11.8% vs. 6.9%), the percentage of cases in which there
      was grossing confusion (29.4% vs. 15.5%) and the overall case TAT (18.4 days vs.
      16.3 days). None of these Results reached statistical significance. There was,
      however, a statistically significant reduction in grossing delays (1.76 days vs.
      0.0293 days, p = 0.0293) and in percentages of cases with mislabelled or
      misorientated tissue (29.41% vs. 8.62%, p = 0.0413). CONCLUSION: Our experience
      is that the use of a proforma in the grossing of breast excision specimens has
      resulted in an overall improvement in specimen grossing (specifically by reducing
      grossing delays and tissue mislabelling/misorientation) and has improved
      communication between surgeons and pathologists in this regard.

PMID- 28876628
TI  - AXILLARY LYMPH NODE DISSECTION IN INVASIVE BREAST CANCER PATIENTS AT CHARLOTTE
      MAXEKE JOHANNESBURG ACADEMIC HOSPITAL AND CHRIS HANI BARAGWANATH ACADEMIC
      HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) carries a high morbidity and
      sentinel node biopsy has become the standard of care in node-negative disease.
      Patients in our setting are assessed as node-positive on the basis of physical
      examination and axillary ultrasound and will undergo ALND without prior biopsy.
      The administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) may downstage the axilla
      and offer opportunities for axilla-sparing surgery. METHOD: This retrospective
      cohort study included all female patients older than 18 years of age who
      underwent axillary surgery in the breast units at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg
      Academic Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital from March 2013 to
      March 2015. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated for a node-negative ALND after NACT
      and in the absence of axillary biopsy prior to surgery. RESULTS: We included 509
      eligible patients and 391 underwent ALND (76.8%). A total of 99 patients (25.3%)
      had a node-negative ALND. Amongst these, 47 (47.5%) had received NACT. The risk
      of a node-negative ALND was not significantly increased when compared to patients
      who had primary surgery (OR 1.02). Only 41 of the 509 patients (10.5%) had
      preoperative pathological confirmation of nodal involvement. Patients with
      preoperative biopsy of the axilla were at reduced risk (OR 0.58) for node
      negative ALND. CONCLUSION: Of our ALNDs, 25.3% were node-negative. Contributing
      factors include the lack of preoperative pathological confirmation of nodal
      involvement. Routine biopsy of suspicious nodes should be introduced in our
      clinical practice. NACT did not increase the risk. There is a need to
      specifically evaluate the impact of HIV status on axillary management.

PMID- 28876629
TI  - CLINICAL BREAST EXAMINATION SCREENING BY TRAINED LAYWOMEN IN MALAWI INTEGRATED
      WITH OTHER HEALTH SERVICES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer awareness and early detection are limited in Sub
      Saharan Africa. Resource limitations make screening mammography or clinical
      breast examination (CBE) by physicians or nurses impractical in many settings.
      METHOD: Four laywomen were trained to deliver breast cancer educational talks and
      conduct CBE. After training, screening was implemented in diverse urban health
      clinics. Eligible women were 30 years old, with no prior breast cancer or breast
      surgery, and clinic attendance for reasons other than a breast concern. Women
      with abnormal CBE were referred to a study surgeon. All palpable masses confirmed
      by surgeon examination were pathologically sampled. Patients with abnormal
      screening CBE but normal surgeon examination underwent breast ultrasound
      confirmation. In addition, 50 randomly selected women with normal screening CBE
      underwent breast ultrasound, and 45 different women with normal CBE were randomly
      assigned to surgeon examination. RESULTS: Among 1220 eligible women, 1000 (82%)
      agreed to CBE. Lack of time (69%) was the commonest reason for refusal.
      Educational talk attendance was associated with higher CBE participation (83%
      versus 77%, P 1/4 0.012). Among 1000 women screened, 7% had abnormal CBE. Of 45
      women with normal CBE randomised to physician examination, 43 had normal
      examinations and two had axillary lymphadenopathy not detected by CBE. Sixty of
      67 women (90%) with abnormal CBE attended the referral visit. Of these, 29 (48%)
      had concordant abnormal physician examination. Thirty-one women (52%) had
      discordant normal physician examination, all of whom also had normal breast
      ultrasounds. Compared with physician examination, sensitivity for CBE by laywomen
      was 94% (confidence interval [CI] 79%-99%), specificity 58% (CI, 46%-70%),
      positive predictive value 48% (CI, 35%-62%), and negative predictive value 96%
      (CI, 85%-100%). Of 13 women who underwent recommended pathologic sampling of a
      breast lesion, two had cytologic dysplasia and all others benign Results.
      CONCLUSION: CBE uptake in Lilongwe clinics was high. CBE by laywomen compared
      favourably with physician examination and followup was good. Our intervention can
      serve as a model for wider implementation. Performance in rural areas, effects on
      cancer stage and mortality, and cost effectiveness require evaluation.

PMID- 28876630
TI  - IS WAITING THE HARDEST PART? A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCE OF WOMEN AWAITING
      BREAST BIOPSY RESULTS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most previous research efforts have focused on the psychological
      effects of receiving a cancer diagnosis rather than the period of waiting for
      definitive Results. Early detection of cancer is directly linked to successful
      treatment regimes, yet these procedures evoke significant anxiety in patients.
      The long wait for medical test Results in state health institutions, with one of
      the possible outcomes being a cancer diagnosis, means that the days of waiting
      can induce emotional distress before the diagnosis has even been given. METHOD:
      Eight research collaborators were invited to, in their own voice, shed light on
      their individual experiences while waiting for their biopsy Results to gain an
      understanding of the experiences of each collaborator by letting her tell her
      story and to explore the possibility of shared experience between collaborators.
      Research collaborators at a local, government hospital kept a journal for the two
      week waiting period for their biopsy Results. Shortly before receiving their
      Results, they took part in a short semi-structured interview to inquire about
      their waiting. The theoretical framework used for data interpretation is critical
      theory focusing on the structures within society and healthcare systems that
      impact on the experience of waiting. The undercurrent of critical commentary
      about the roles of the gender, economic, political and cultural factors that
      contribute to the screening experience for women in South Africa helps to shed
      light on the complex forces at play within the procedures. RESULTS: The Results
      indicate that for some women waiting provokes significant psychological stress
      which manifests in multiple psychological processes including the psychological
      bracing phenomenon, denial, suppression and negation of their emotional
      experience all perpetuated by the structures of power within the health care
      system. CONCLUSION: More understanding of the psychological experience of
      awaiting a cancer diagnosis is required and there is an important place for
      qualitative approach to breast cancer research in South Africa.

PMID- 28876631
TI  - BREAST ARTERIAL CALCIFICATION ON MAMMOGRAPHY - A PROPOSED TOOL TO IDENTIFY WOMEN
      AT RISK FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Calcification of breast arteries, observed on mammography, has been
      shown to have a positive association with cardiovascular disease and its risk
      factors, with literature suggesting that its presence should alert the clinician
      to underlying subclinical disease. METHOD: Of the women referred for mammograms
      between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011, 167 women over the age of 50 years,
      were included in the study. A retrospective review of the mammograms was done to
      determine the prevalence of breast arterial calcifications. A questionnaire
      pertaining to cardiovascular risk factors, including age, smoking status, history
      of diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, gout, family history of cardiovascular
      events and obesity was completed. RESULTS: The prevalence of breast arterial
      calcification in our study was 21% (95% confidence interval CI 15.1%-27.9%).
      Controlling for age, only hypertension was significantly associated with the
      presence of breast arterial calcification (p = 0.011). Smoking (p = 0.18),
      diabetes (p > 0.09), cholesterol (p = 0.78) and family history (p = 0.31) failed
      to show a significant association. CONCLUSION: The presence of breast arterial
      calcification detected on mammogram is associated with hypertension in our study
      group, but failed to show any significant association with the other
      cardiovascular risk factors. If found at time of mammogram, the patient should be
      referred for assessment and, if necessary, treatment of hypertension.

PMID- 28876632
TI  - AN AUDIT OF PROVIDER DELAY IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED BREAST CANCER IN A CENTRAL REFERRAL
      HOSPITAL IN JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide
      and accounts for an increasing burden of disease in South Africa. One of the
      factors identified in improving outcome in patients with newly diagnosed breast
      cancer is decreased time from recognition of a breast symptom to initiation of
      primary therapy. METHOD: A total of 257 patients from 1 January 2014 to 31
      December 2014 were included in the study. Patient records were examined and date
      intervals for each patient were recorded from initial presentation to primary
      therapy. The Results were compared to a standard of 90% of patients reaching
      primary therapy within 60 days. RESULTS: Median delay (interquartile range) to
      primary therapy was 49 days (33-80d). The primary chemotherapy group had a median
      delay of 48 days (30-71d), the primary endocrine therapy group had a 28 days (22
      41d) delay, and the primary surgery group had a delay of 73.5 days (39.8-113.5d).
      The addition of diagnostic surgery to the treatment plan added 37 days to the
      primary chemotherapy group and 38 days to the primary surgery group. Notably, 101
      patients (39.29%) had a delay greater than 60 days. CONCLUSION: The centre did
      not achieve the standard of 90% of patients reaching primary therapy within 60
      days. Specifically, 36.8% of patients in the primary chemotherapy group, 58.3% of
      patients in the primary surgery group and 11.5% of patients in the primary
      endocrine therapy group did not reach the target. The delay was most pronounced
      in the group of patients undergoing primary surgery, with a median time to
      surgery greater than the target time of 60 days. Factors affecting delay to
      primary surgery warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28876633
TI  - THE RATES AND RISK FACTORS FOR LOCAL RECURRENCE OF PHYLLODES TUMOURS IN A SOUTH
      AFRICAN POPULATION.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phyllodes tumours are rare fibroepithelial neoplasms of the breast.
      The dilemma with phyllodes tumours is their tendency to local recurrence. METHOD:
      We retrospectively assessed all histological reports of patients diagnosed with a
      phyllodes tumour after surgery at the University of the Witwatersrand NHLS
      (National Health Laboratory Service) Anatomical Pathology Laboratories,
      Johannesburg, South Africa from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2016. Clinical and
      histological parameters were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 185 patients were
      identified. The median age of the patients was 42 years. There were 89 (48.1%)
      patients with a benign tumour, 34 (18.4%) with a borderline tumour and 62 (33.5%)
      with a malignant tumour. The size of the tumours ranged from 11 to 460 mm, with a
      mean of 106.1mm and SD of 79.6. Breast conserving surgery (BCS) was performed on
      64.3% of patients and 35.7% of patients had a mastectomy. There was an overall
      local recurrence rate of 3.78% (2.2% for the benign tumours and 8.1% for the
      malignant tumours). No clinical or histological factors were found to
      significantly predict local recurrence. CONCLUSION: Since our study did not find
      any predictors of local recurrence, we suggest that a wide local excision with 1
      cm margins might be unnecessary, and perhaps a negative margin combined with a
      close follow up for two years after excision is necessary.

PMID- 28876634
TI  - CLINICAL VS PATHOLOGICAL STAGING OF BREAST CANCER: CAN OUR HANDS COMPETE WITH THE
      MICROSCOPE?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumour size and axillary nodal status are important predictors of
      prognosis in breast cancer. The clinical examination of the breast is an
      essential component of preoperative TNM staging, but the accuracy of this method
      of assessment has been called into question, especially in the determination of
      axillary nodal status. METHOD: Data were obtained from a database of breast
      cancer patients presenting to the Netcare Breast Care Centre in Johannesburg
      between June 2015 and June 2016. The following cases were excluded: neo-adjuvant
      chemotherapy / primary endocrine therapy, patients who did not proceed to
      surgery, surgical margin clearance only, surgical biopsy prior to presentation,
      incomplete staging information and atypical breast tumours. Clinical evaluation
      was performed by a senior specialist breast surgeon. The clinical and
      pathological tumour size (AJCC/ UICC TNM T-stage) and nodal status (AJCC / UICC
      TNM N-stage) of the remaining patients were analysed for correlation. RESULTS:
      Two hundred and twenty-nine (n = 229) patients were included in the analysis. All
      were female, with a mean age of 52 years (range 27-85). The clinical estimation
      of T-stage correlated with histopathology in 157/229 cases (68.6%). Of the 72
      cases where the T- stage did not match, clinical examination underestimated
      tumour size in 42 patients (58.3%) and overestimated tumour size in 30/72
      (41.7%). Clinical examination for axillary lymphadenopathy had a sensitivity of
      2.2% (95% CI 0.1 - 13.0%) and a specificity of 99.5% (95% CI 97.0 - 99.9%),
      positive predictive value (PPV) of 50.0% and negative predictive value (NPV) of
      83.6%. CONCLUSION: Even when performed by a specialist, clinical estimation of
      tumour size is subject to a significant degree of over- and underestimation.
      Clinical evaluation of axillary nodal status is highly specific, but has a low
      sensitivity. Findings at clinical examination should therefore be correlated with
      radiology to facilitate accurate preoperative assessment.

PMID- 28876635
TI  - THE SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF CENTRAL BREAST TUMOURS AT A SPECIALIST BREAST UNIT IN
      JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Central breast tumours are defined as tumours in the retroareolar
      area, or within 1.5-2.0 cm from the areolar edge. In the past, breast
      conservation therapy (BCT) for central breast tumours was considered
      controversial due to concerns regarding oncologic safety and cosmesis. Recent
      evidence does however suggest that oncoplastic techniques offer a cosmetically
      acceptable and safe alternative to mastectomy in these tumours. METHOD: Patients
      with central breast tumours (invasive and in situ) were identified from a breast
      cancer database of 431 patients who presented to the Netcare Breast Care Centre
      in Johannesburg over a one-year period (June 2015-June 2016). Patients who were
      not managed surgically were excluded from analysis. Demographic data and the
      details of the surgical procedures performed were collected and analysed.
      RESULTS: Forty patients met the inclusion criteria, all of whom were female. The
      median patient age was 59 years (range 30-88 years). The majority of the tumours
      were small, with 29/40 tumours <= 5 cm (<= T2) at presentation. Of the 40
      patients, 18 were referred for neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. Surgical management was
      BCT in 19/40 patients and mastectomy in 21/40. In the BCT group, one patient
      underwent prosthetic reconstruction, while the rest were reconstructed by
      reduction mammaplasty (8/18), latissimus dorsi flap (6/18), local parenchymal
      flap (2/18) and thoracoepigastric flap (2/18). In the mastectomy group, 5/21
      patients declined reconstruction. Of the remaining 16 patients, half elected to
      undergo immediate prosthetic reconstruction and half opted for autologous
      reconstruction. The autologous reconstructions performed in the mastectomy group
      were latissimus dorsi flap (4/8), thoracoepigastric flap (3/8) and a combination
      of thoracoepigastric/LICAP flap (1/8). All the tumours in both the BCT and
      mastectomy groups had clear resection margins. CONCLUSION: BCT was feasible in
      approximately half of the patients in this case series. Breast conservation
      surgery presents a viable surgical alternative to mastectomy in patients with
      central breast tumours.

PMID- 28876636
TI  - IDENTIFYING WOMEN AT RISK OF UNCERTAINTY AND POOR QUALITY OF LIFE WHEN UNDERGOING
      BREAST CANCER SURGERY: A SURVEY-BASED DESCRIPTIVE STUDY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in South
      African women. In resource-limited settings emphasis for disease management is
      often concentrated on biological control and survival. However, understanding the
      full biopsychosocial experience of breast cancer is essential in improving access
      and patient uptake of care. METHOD: A quantitative cross-sectional study was
      carried out in patients prior to breast surgery. Each participant completed the
      survey including validated questionnaires of uncertainty, QoL index, social
      support scale and demographics. RESULTS: Of the 59 women approached, 53 (89.9%)
      participated. Uncertainty was found in 86.8% (28.3% severe uncertainty) with all
      newly-diagnosed patients experiencing uncertainty. Patients above 45 years made
      up 80% of all those who were severely uncertain. Good social support did not
      affect levels of uncertainty. Conversely QoL was improved in women with at least
      primary education, and in women above 45 years. Pre-surgical chemotherapy was not
      associated with either uncertainty or QoL. Greatest uncertainty was reported
      about the roles of the treating staff and the presence of unanswered questions.
      CONCLUSION: Older women and those with education more commonly experienced
      uncertainty, but reported better QoL. The areas of uncertainty can help direct
      clinicians in limited resources settings to better direct services to help
      support patients, instituting simple measures of education and orientation.

PMID- 28876637
TI  - THE LEVEL OF BREAST AND CERVICAL CANCER AWARENESS AMONG WOMEN IN A RURAL AREA OF
      SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In South Africa breast and cervical cancer are the most predominant
      cancers amongst women, with mortality rates reaching surprising proportions. As a
      result of the continued rise of these conditions it is vital to determine these
      women's awareness of both, so as to determine the exact factors contributing to
      this rise. Whilst both urban and rural areas are afflicted, this study focused
      primarily on women in a rural area. METHOD: This was a descriptive cross
      sectional study conducted in a shopping mall located in the rural area of
      Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, South Africa. A total of 300 women of reproductive age
      were randomly identified and requested to fill out a study questionnaire
      assessing their level of breast and cervical cancer awareness. RESULTS: A total
      of 300 women participated in the study. The mean age of participants was 35.66
      with a range of 13.53. Overall levels of knowledge about breast and cervical
      cancer in rural Bushbuckridge were found to be reduced with 66.89% and 74.49% of
      women who rated themselves with a poor understanding of breast and cervical
      cancer knowledge respectively. Among the participating women, those over the age
      of 40, with higher level of education were found to be more cognizant in terms of
      breast and cervical cancer awareness with a 30% (p = 0.0923) and 52% (p < 0.001)
      respectively. Their younger and less educated counterparts had a 21% (p = 0.078)
      and 32% (p = 0.034) awareness of breast and cervical cancer, respectively. The
      leading source of information for both breast and cervical cancer was healthcare
      facilities with a 67.11% and 63.5% respectively. CONCLUSION: This study
      highlights the lack of awareness and knowledge of breast and cervical cancer in
      women living in the rural area of Bushbuckridge, South Africa. There is also
      evidence showing that the older and more educated women have better knowledge
      than their younger and less educated counterparts, therefore there is a need for
      increased breast and cervical cancer education and awareness campaigns amongst
      women in rural South Africa. The Results further point to education and
      availability of health care services as pivotal determinants of health.

PMID- 28876638
TI  - HEPATOBILIARY FACTORS INFLUENCING MORBIDITY RATES AFTER PANCREATIC STAB WOUNDS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Penetrating injuries of the pancreas may result in serious
      complications. METHOD: A retrospective univariate cohort analysis was done of all
      pancreatic stab wounds documented in a prospective dedicated departmental
      pancreatic injury database of 475 patients treated between 1982 and 2016.
      RESULTS: Eighty-seven (80 men) patients, median age 26 years (range 16-62) had
      stab wounds of the pancreas. Median RTS was 7.8 (range 2.0-7.8). Injuries
      involved head/uncinate process (n = 16), neck (n = 2), body (n = 40) and tail (n
      = 29) of the pancreas. All 87 patients underwent a laparotomy. Sixty-eight
      patients had AAST grade I or II injuries and 19 had grade III, IV or V pancreatic
      injuries. Eight (10.3%) of 78 patients had an initial damage control operation.
      Seventy-four (85.1%) patients had drainage of the pancreas only, eleven had a
      distal pancreatectomy and two had a Whipple resection. Fourteen patients
      developed pancreatic complications, of which 8 were fistulae. Four (4.6%)
      patients died. Grade of pancreatic injury (AAST grade I-II vs grade III-V
      injuries; p < 0.01), presence of shock on admission (p < 0.01), need for a blood
      transfusion (p < 0.01) and an associated visceral vascular injury (p < 0.001) had
      a significant influence on the development of general complications. CONCLUSION:
      Although mortality was low after a pancreatic stab wound, morbidity was high.
      Increasing AAST grade of injury, shock on admission to hospital, need for blood
      transfusion and an associated vascular injury were significant factors related to
      morbidity.

PMID- 28876640
TI  - GENE AND PROTEIN EXPRESSION PROFILING OF PANCREATIC TUMOURS REVEAL DYSREGULATED
      PATHWAYS AND NOVEL POTENTIAL BIOMARKER.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer (PDAC) is a deadly type of cancer with almost an
      equal amount of new cases and deaths observed yearly. It accounts for about 7% of
      cancer-related deaths worldwide. In many multi-racial societies including South
      Africa, the black population has the highest incidence rate. Less than 5% of PDAC
      patients live up to 5 years. The lack of specific and sensitive diagnostic PDAC
      biomarkers is strongly responsible for this poor statistic. The discovery of
      differentially expressed genes and proteins associated with PDAC is crucial to
      elucidating this condition and may lead to biomarker finding and further
      understanding of the disease. METHOD: Tissue samples were obtained from Black
      South African PDAC patients during the Whipple procedure. Using focused arrays
      and RNA Sequencing, we have shown differentially expressed genes and proteins
      between tumour and normal tissue samples of PDAC patients in the quest for
      potential biomarker discovery. Furthermore, we utilised multiple bioinformatics
      tools to identify pathways and biological processes enriched by differentially
      expressed genes/proteins, and to discover novel variants and novel potential PDAC
      biomarkers. Real-time PCR and ELISA were also employed to validate our novel
      potential PDAC biomarker. RESULTS: We have identified novel 1) potential
      transcriptomic and 2) proteomic biomarkers of pancreatic cancer. Our identified
      transcriptomic biomarker has a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 80%
      respectively. Furthermore, we observed novel genetic variants and dysregulated
      pathways occurring during pancreatic carcinogenesis. CONCLUSION: This study has
      identified novel potential biomarkers which can help in the diagnosis of PDAC.
      Information obtained from enriched signalling pathways help in further
      understanding the biology of PDAC. Going forward, the identified novel potential
      biomarkers need to be further validated in a larger sample number using easily
      accessible samples like blood.

PMID- 28876639
TI  - ALTERED METABOLIC PATHWAYS IN CHRONIC PANCREATITIS AND PANCREATIC CANCER.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating diagnosis
      for any patient as it is associated with a high mortality rate, and has few
      therapeutic interventions that prolong survival as compared to other cancers.
      Frequent epidemiological reports on PDAC are available in the developed
      countries, but in South Africa there is paucity of epidemiological data of this
      aggressive cancer. Understanding risk factors will help to assess and develop
      relevant interventions. Knowing the potential factors associated with it will
      provide information for improved screening and management of potentially curable
      patients. Furthermore, early diagnosis may increase the survival of PDAC patients
      in all races and this study may increase awareness of this disease in the
      population. METHOD: This was a secondary unmatched case-control study to assess
      risk factors of PDAC at CHBAH and CMJAH Academic Hospitals. All participants were
      >18 years of age, 139 with PDAC and 139 without PDAC. Data exported from REDCap
      was analysed, using Stata 13. The exported data included patient demographics,
      social and medical history. Descriptive statistics used the chi square test and
      inferential statistics used unconditional multiple logistic regression.
      Unconditional logistic regression estimated the odds ratios (ORs) in the case
      control analyses. The likelihood ratio test with a p-value of < 0.10 was accepted
      to assimilate data fitting into the model. RESULTS: This study showed that the
      following categories, their odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were
      statistically significant at p-value < 0.10. The 20-29 age group had odds ratio
      (OR) of 0.11(0.11-1.00) p = 0.05. The 50-59 age group had OR 2.63(1.03-6.70) p =
      0.042. The general worker had OR 1.79(0.93-3.45) p = 0.083. High white meat
      consumption had OR 0.18(0.04-0.86) p = 0.032. Low fish consumption had OR
      2.17(1.06-4.45) p = 0.034. Low consumption of fried food had OR 0.48(0.23-1.00) p
      = 0.050 and high consumption of vegetables had OR 0.17(0.05-0.61) p = 0.007.
      CONCLUSION: The main risk factors associated with PDAC are 50-69 age group and
      longest employment as a general worker. Low consumption of fish is a risk factor
      based on our findings while on the other hand high consumption of fish has no
      statistical significance in cases and controls. High consumption of vegetables
      and white meat are protective against PDAC.

PMID- 28876641
TI  - GENE AND PROTEIN EXPRESSION PROFILING OF PDAC TUMOURS OBTAINED FROM BLACK SOUTH
      AFRICAN PATIENTS REVEAL NOVEL POTENTIAL BIOMARKERS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer (PDAC) is a devastating cancer. It accounts for
      about 7% of cancer related deaths worldwide. During PDAC, several genes are
      altered. These alterations consequently lead to the progression of PDAC. Analysis
      of these alterations in the context of signalling pathways help in understanding
      the disease. METHOD: 18 Tissue (9 tumour, 9 normal) samples were obtained from
      Black South African stage I PDAC patients during the Whipple procedure. Utilizing
      pathway-focused arrays, antibody arrays, and RNA Sequencing differentially
      expressed genes/proteins in tumour tissues were identified. Additionally, using
      several bioinformatic tools we have identified dysregulated pathways and
      biological processes in PDAC. RESULTS: We observed several upregulated pathways
      occurring in pancreatic carcinogenesis such as IGF/MAPK, Integrin, and Ras
      signalling pathways. Additionally, downregulated pathways were also observed
      including the MHC II antigen presentation pathway. CONCLUSION: Information
      obtained from enriched signalling pathways help in further understanding the
      biology of PDAC. The dysregulation of these pathways aid in the induction and
      enhancement of PDAC. Thus, they might serve as potential targets for PDAC
      management and treatment.

PMID- 28876643
TI  - THE ROLE OF IL17-A IN THE SECOND HIT OF ACUTE PANCREATITIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute pancreatitis is characterised by distinct clinical phases. An
      initial systemic inflammation response syndrome (SIRS) and occasional subsequent
      'second hit' usually initiated by systemic sepsis. The pro-inflammatory T-helper
      17 pathway has been shown to be an initiator of early SIRS in AP; however, to
      date, interleukin-17A has not been evaluated as a marker of the septic second hit
      in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). METHOD: Twenty-five (aged 22-78) with mild (n
      = 12), moderate (n = 5) and severe (n = 8) acute pancreatitis were enrolled.
      Peripheral blood samples were drawn on days 7, 9, 11 and 13 of illness for
      routine clinical markers as well as cytokine analysis. Flow cytometry was
      performed using a Th1/Th2/Th17 Cytokine Bead Array (BD Biosciences). Statistical
      analysis was performed using a Fisher's exact test and ANOVA, with a p = value of
      < 0.05 considered significant. RESULTS: The mean concentration of IL-17A (pg/ml)
      on days 7, 9, 11 and 13 of illness in the mild/moderate group were 18.1, 12.9,
      11.9, 18.9 and in the severe group 14.4, 12.9, 18.9, 12.8. There was no
      statistical significance between the groups. IL-10 was significantly higher in
      severe acute pancreatitis on days 7, 9, 11 and 13, but IL-6 and IL-2 were only
      significantly elevated in severe acute pancreatitis on days 9, 11 and 13. No
      differences were noted between the groups for IL-4, TNF and IFN-gamma. WCC, CRP
      and PCT were all significantly higher in severe acute pancreatitis over the study
      days. CONCLUSION: The IL-17A concentration in the study population could not
      statistically be attributed as the cause of the second hit in acute pancreatitis.
      Further studies to confirm this are underway.

PMID- 28876642
TI  - OUTCOME OF LIVER RESECTION FOR CARCINOID NEUROENDOCRINE METASTASES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal carcinoid tumours, despite their low malignant
      potential, frequently metastasize to the liver. While liver resection improves
      survival and provides symptomatic relief, multifocal bilobar disease complicates
      surgical management. METHOD: All patients with carcinoid liver secondaries
      managed by resection from 1990-2015 were identified from a prospective
      departmental database. Demographic data, operative management, morbidity using
      the Accordion classification and mortality were analysed. Survival was assessed
      using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Seventeen patients (9 women, 8 men,
      median age 55 years, range 31-76) underwent resection. Median number of liver
      secondaries treated was 3 (range 1-20). Ten patients had major anatomical liver
      resections. Three patients had 5 segments resected, seven had 4 resected, and
      seven had <= 2 resected. Each patient had all identifiable liver secondaries
      resected or ablated. Two also had intraoperative tumour ablation. Nine patients
      (53%) had a concurrent bowel resection and lymphadenectomy. Median operating time
      was 255 minutes (range 150-720). Median blood-loss was 800 ml (range 200-10,000).
      Five patients required intraoperative blood transfusion. Intermittent portal
      inflow occlusion (56.5 minutes median, range 20-150 minutes) was used in 8
      patients. Median postoperative hospital stay was 9 days (range 2-28). Thirteen
      complications occurred in seven patients. Accordion grade 1 complications were n
      = 3 (ileus, wound sepsis, confusion), grade 2 n = 4 (delayed gastric emptying,
      pleural effusion, wound sepsis), grade 3 n = 3 (bile leak, intra-abdominal
      collection, atelectasis), grade 4 n = 2 (intra-operative bleeding) and grade 6 n
      = 1 (cardiac failure). One patient required reoperation for bleeding and a bile
      leak. One patient died of a myocardial infarction 36 hours postoperatively.
      Sixteen (94%) patients had symptomatic improvement. Five-year actuarial survival
      rate was 91% (median follow-up 36 months, range 14-86 months). CONCLUSION: Our
      data show that liver resection can be safely performed for carcinoid secondaries
      with a good 5-year survival. However, a substantial number of patients require a
      major liver resection and are best treated at a multidisciplinary referral
      centre.

PMID- 28876644
TI  - LIVER FUNCTION TESTS IN PREDICTING CBD STONES IN ACUTE BILIARY PANCREATITIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute biliary pancreatitis is a significant cause of pancreatitis.
      The role and timing of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the
      setting of acute biliary pancreatitis is still controversial. Persistent
      choledocholithiasis in acute biliary pancreatitis occurs and establishing which
      patients require an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography based on liver
      function tests only can be challenging. METHOD: Retrospective analysis of the
      Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital's ERCP database was performed. All ERCPs
      performed in patients with acute biliary pancreatitis were identified and
      analysed. RESULTS: A total of 2830 ERCPs were performed during the study period.
      In total 99 (3%) were performed for suspected choledocholithiasis in acute
      biliary pancreatitis with abnormal liver function tests. Thirty (30%) of the
      ERCPs confirmed choledocholithiasis while the remaining 69 (70%) yielded no
      choledocholithiasis. A significantly higher proportion of patients with
      choledocholithiasis required a needle knife sphincterotomy for deep biliary
      cannulation. The incidence of immediate complications, such as bleeding, false
      tract formation and perforation were comparable between the two groups. Two
      models were developed to determine specific cut-off values for conjugated
      bilirubin, ALP, GGT, AST and ALT. The calculated cut-off values yielded poor
      correlation between sensitivity and specificity. CONCLUSION: Determining
      persistent choledocholithiasis in acute biliary pancreatitis based on liver
      function test alone is not ideal. Using conjugated bilirubin, ALP, GGT, AST and
      ALT to guide one to perform an ERCP in acute biliary pancreatitis can be
      misleading.

PMID- 28876645
TI  - IS HIV STATUS RELEVANT IN ACUTE PANCREATITIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HIV positivity and antiretroviral (ARV) treatment have been described
      as significant causes of acute pancreatitis prevalence and predictors of poor
      outcomes. Most data are from the late 1990s and early 2000s, prior to widespread
      roll out of ARVs and newer agents. This study assessed if there is still a
      significant difference between HIV positive (HIV+) and negative(HIV-) patients in
      acute pancreatitis in the presentation and outcomes of acute pancreatitis.
      METHOD: A retrospective review of a prospectively collected database of patient
      admission data. The data was collected by an interviewer-administered
      questionnaire. All patients presenting to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic
      Hospital with acute pancreatitis were eligible for inclusion. RESULTS: Of 148
      patients, 56 (37.8%) were HIV+ and 92 (62.2%) HIV-. Median age at presentation
      was 40.5 (18-77); HIV+ 37 (18-61), HIV- 41.5 (19-77)(p = 0.14). Men comprised the
      majority (58.1%); HIV+ and HIV- (53.6% vs. 60.9%), (p = 0.40). Median BMI on
      presentation was 23.6 (16.4-41.4), no significant difference between HIV+ ( 23.3
      [16.4-38.4]) and HIV-(24.3 [16.7-41.4]) (p = 0.65). Smoking was equal, HIV+
      (51.1%) and HIV- (57.1%) (p = 0.59). Alcohol use was not significantly different,
      HIV+ (88.2%), HIV- (77.3%) (p = 0.20). The predominant aetiology was alcohol,
      HIV+ (63.6%) and HIV- (58.2%); followed by gallstones, HIV+ (23.6%) and HIV-
      (27.5%), (p = 0.26). Contrary to prior studies ARVs were not significant (3.6%).
      The revised Atlanta severity score was severe in 45.3%, HIV+ (46.4%) and HIV-
      (44.6%) (p = 0.8). The median admission CRP was 49 (< 1-447) in HIV+ and 27 (< 1
      406) in HIV- (p = 0.44). Length of stay did not differ significantly, all
      patients stayed a median of 9 days (0-731), HIV+ 6 days (1-601) and HIV- 12.5
      days (0-731), (p = 0.39). CD4 counts were available on 36 of the HIV+ patients
      and viral load on 19. The range of CD4 levels was 3 to 911 (median 259), and
      viral loads 0-3 160 000 (median 48). 37 patients were on ARVs and their CD4
      ranged 14-681, those not on treatment ranged 3-911. CONCLUSION: In the present
      era of ARV regimens and universal roll-out, there is no significant difference
      between HIV+ and HIVpatients in the presentation, aetiology and outcomes of acute
      pancreatitis.

PMID- 28876646
TI  - INCIDENTAL GALLBLADDER CANCER - THE FIRST REPORT FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Incidental gallbladder cancer (iGBC) is found in 0.3-1.5% of
      cholecystectomy specimens. GBC is uncommon with significant variation amongst
      geographical regions and ethnic groups. Less than 100 GBC's have been reported in
      sub Saharan Africa, hence the need for this national audit in South Africa.
      METHOD: National data was obtained from the South African NHLS for 2003-2015. 34
      294 cholecystectomy specimens were included of which 239 were GBCs; 135 were
      iGBC. RESULTS: iGBC incidence was 0.42% with a male:female ratio of 1:4.6. Mean
      age was 62.2 (range 20-88; male 64.83 and female 61.67). Indications for surgery
      were acute cholecystitis in 49% and biliary colic in 44%. GBC T stages were Tis
      12.6%, T1a 4.4%, T1b 8.8%, T2 37.8%, T3 13.3% and Tx 22%. Lymph nodes were found
      in 10 patients, of which 5 were N1. R1 resection occurred in 32.6% of the cohort.
      Univariate analysis found female sex, chronic inflammation and the presence of
      dysplasia to be associated with iGBC. No association was found with surgical
      indication, presence of gallstones or other histological findings (polyps,
      xanthogranulomatous inflammation, calcification and RAS). Only female gender was
      associated with iGBCa after multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: This large series
      demonstrates a similar incidence of iGBC in an African cohort to those reported
      from more developed nations, with female gender being the most significant risk
      factor. Delay in presentation may explain the more advanced stage (T2 and T3) and
      a resultant high rate of R1 resection.

PMID- 28876647
TI  - NEEDLE KNIFE SPHINCTEROTOMY - THE CHRIS HANI BARAGWANATH ACADEMIC HOSPITAL
      EXPERIENCE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Deep biliary cannulation is essential in performing a therapeutic
      ERCP. Cannulation can be enhanced through the utilization of a pre-cut by means
      of a needle knife sphincterotomy. METHOD: Retrospective analysis of the Chris
      Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital's ERCP database was performed. All ERCPs
      performed with the aid of a needle knife were identified and analysed for
      successful and unsuccessful deep biliary cannulation. RESULTS: 2830 ERCPs were
      performed during the study period. 369 (13%) required needle knife
      sphincterotomies and successful deep biliary cannulation was achieved in 229
      (62%) of these patients. Repeat ERCPs were performed on 125 (34%) patients. 61
      (49%) of the repeat ERCPs were performed because of previously failed
      cannulation. 34 (56%) of these repeat ERCPs resulted in successful deep biliary
      cannulation at re-attempt. 99% of successful cannulations at repeat ERCP had had
      a needle knife sphincterotomy at the first ERCP. CONCLUSION: Needle knife
      sphincterotomy improves deep biliary cannulation at initial ERCP and subsequent
      ERCPs with low incidences of complications.

PMID- 28876648
TI  - PREVALENCE OF ADENOCARCINOMA OF THE OESOPHAGUS IN TWO TEACHING HOSPITALS IN
      GAUTENG PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oesophageal carcinoma is the eighth most common cancer worldwide and
      sixth most common cause of cancer related mortality. The incidence of oesophageal
      adenocarcinoma has rapidly risen over the past decades; however squamous cell
      carcinoma of the oesophagus remains the most common worldwide. The prevalence of
      oesophageal carcinoma is high in South Africa and contributes significantly to
      the burden of disease. The prevalence of squamous cell carcinoma is greater than
      that of adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus but no recent local data is available.
      This study is Aimed at evaluating the cases of oesophageal carcinoma currently
      presenting to our institutions. METHOD: This was a retrospective study of all the
      cases of oesophageal malignancy recorded on the NHLS database at CMJAH and CHBAH
      from 01 January 2001-31 December 2013. Demographic variables including age,
      gender and population group where noted were recorded. RESULTS: The prevalence of
      oesophageal carcinoma in our two teaching hospitals was on a downward trend.
      There was a significant decrease noted in the SCC subtype. The AC subtype
      prevalence was on an upward trend. The change of prevalence of AC was determined
      using chi square analysis and showed a strong level of significance with p <
      0.01. CONCLUSION: This study shows trends in the prevalence of oesophageal
      carcinoma in keeping with that of western populations. Further reduction in the
      incidence of oesophageal carcinoma in South Africa will necessitate education and
      screening programs similar to those in western populations.

PMID- 28876649
TI  - AN EVALUATION OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN COLORECTAL CANCER PATIENTS OVER
      AND UNDER THE AGE OF 50 PRESENTING TO ACADEMIC CENTERS IN JOHANNESBURG.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As in other developing countries, the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa
      have seen an increase in the incidence of colorectal cancer. Repeatedly, the
      indigenous populations have shown a skewing of incidence in favour of patients
      below the age of 50. As part of a larger study, and through funding from the
      Medical research Council of South Africa, the Wits MRC Oncology group has set out
      to identify the epidemiological characteristics and disease progression of
      patients under the age of 50 presenting with colorectal cancer. METHOD: Data was
      collected from the clinical experience of patients with colorectal cancer seen in
      four Wits academic hospitals (CMJAH, CHBH, WDGMC and Edenvale Hospital), through
      collection of clinical notes, interviews with patients and clinicians. This was
      achieved through a research nurse and the information was put into a REDCap
      database for further analysis. RESULTS: On assessment of the data, there was a
      weak association between those below the age of 50 and black ethnicity and a weak
      association between those under 50 and male gender. In assessment of the other
      variables, similarly, association was demonstrated between those over the age of
      50 and an abnormal waist circumference. A trend toward a greater BMI amongst the
      over 50 and lower BMI amongst the under 50 years of age at presentation also
      appears to be emerging. CONCLUSION: The difference in risk profiling and
      epidemiology of young verses old patients may indicate a binary predisposition to
      colorectal cancer. These Results, however, need to be interpreted with caution,
      numbers accrued in this study are small and the assessments as a result are
      underpowered.

PMID- 28876650
TI  - PPH: WHERE DID IT GO WRONG?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The stapled haemorrhoidopexy has been used for 20 years. A rare but
      serious complication is stenosis, occurring in 1-2% of cases. The mechanism for
      this stenosis has never been described. METHOD: The cadavers of five pigs
      previously euthanised underwent the procedure for prolapse and haemorrhoids
      (PPH). Four deliberate mistakes were tested: 1) doubling the circular suture back
      on itself for part of the circumference at the same depth; 2) placing the
      circular suture at varying depths; 3) placing one bite of the suture deeper and
      on the opposite wall of the rectum; and 4) firing the stapler with the anvil
      positioned proximal to the circular suture but with the suture secured tightly to
      the shaft of the device. RESULTS: Placing the circular suture and doubling the
      stitch back on itself did not cause stenosis. Placing the circular suture at
      varying depths resulted in a fold in the rectal mucosa. Placing one bite of the
      suture deeper and opposite resulted in a large flap of rectal mucosa folded into
      the staple line. Firing of the stapler outside of the suture produced a complete
      occlusion of the rectal lumen. CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated reproducible
      mistakes that consistently result in one of the most serious complications, viz.
      complete occlusion, and propose that healing of the loose flap may contribute to
      subsequent partial stenosis.

PMID- 28876651
TI  - SURVEILLANCE COLONOSCOPY FOR LYNCH SYNDROME IN THE NORTHERN CAPE: DOES DIRECT
      CONTACT IMPROVE COMPLIANCE?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Annual Northern Cape Colonoscopy Outreach program provides
      surveillance colonoscopy to known Lynch Syndrome individuals in the Northern Cape
      Province of South Africa. Annual endoscopy is preceded by a preparation visit
      Aimed at improving attendance by directly imparting information to individuals
      requiring surveillance. During the preparation trip an attempt is made to reach
      all individuals scheduled, however due to the vastness of the Northern Cape
      inevitably every year some areas are not visited. Over the past few years fewer
      than 25% of participants obtained 100% adherence. METHOD: A randomised controlled
      crossover trial was developed to take place over two years of endoscopic
      surveillance. Included participants were randomised to a control group (A) that
      was not seen prior to colonoscopy, and a test group (B) that was visited by a
      team from Cape Town preceding surveillance. In the second year of study, the
      intervention on these groups was reversed. Compliance and understanding of
      information given was measured in terms of attendance at surveillance in
      September of each year of study. RESULTS: 78 participants (Group A = 38; Group B
      = 40) were enrolled. In September 2014, thirty-six (46.2%) participants
      presented, 19 (50%) from the control group (Group A) and 17 (42.5%) from Group B.
      In 2015, there was 53% (n = 41) attendance; 21 (55%) from directly contacted
      Group A, and 20 (50%) from Group B. Direct interaction was found not to
      significantly impact attendance (p-value = 0.853). Improved attendance was noted
      in individuals with prior compliance to surveillance (p-value = 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Direct interaction with Lynch Syndrome individuals prior to annual
      surveillance colonoscopy has not shown to positively impact attendance.
      Interaction and counselling should focus on individuals identified to be
      defaulting surveillance.

PMID- 28876652
TI  - UNUSUAL HISTOPATHOLOGIES OF THE APPENDIX.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis is a very common surgical emergency. Most
      commonly, the histopathological findings of the appendix reflect the normal
      pathophysiology of appendicitis that starts with the luminal obstruction and
      culminates in florid suppurative, gangrenous or perforated appendix. The
      treatment is usually straightforward and consists of surgery and antibiotics.
      Uncommonly, unusual pathologies are identified and require specific management.
      The literature is scanty about the unusual findings. In a worldwide review of 128
      articles, Sami Akbulut has established 1.7% incidence of unusual histopathology
      led by Enterobius vermicularis (28.4%) followed by carcinoid (21.9%) and
      schistosomiasis (12.7%). METHOD: A retrospective review of histopathological
      reports of appendix specimens obtained during appendectomies done between January
      2012 and December 2014 in the three academic hospitals of Johannesburg (CHBAH,
      CMJAH, HJH). All specimens were examined by the National Health Laboratory
      Services (NHLS). RESULTS: A total of 2408 histopathologies were obtained from the
      national health laboratory system. 164 specimens were excluded because they were
      part of colonic resection for conditions unrelated to the appendicitis. From the
      2244 specimens analysed, 8.1%, 52.7% and 30.1% were due to normal appendix, acute
      appendicitis and complicated appendicitis respectively, and the incidence of
      unusual histopathological findings was 5.3% (119/2244). Of the 2244 specimens
      analysed the mean age was 25.6 years (2-88yrs) and the gender distribution was
      61.9 % males and 38.1% females. The most common unusual causes were parasites
      (37%) led by schistosomiasis (24.3%), followed by neoplasm (20%) and fibrous
      obliteration (14.2%). CONCLUSION: Although uncommon (5.3%), the unusual causes of
      appendicitis may result in an adverse patient outcome and/ or require specific
      treatment that may be overlooked if histopathology reports are not checked
      routinely.

PMID- 28876653
TI  - OUTCOME OF APPENDICITIS IN THE ELDERLY IN UNIVERSITAS AND PELONOMI HOSPITALS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the elderly population, appendicitis still poses a high mortality
      and morbidity. Morbidity rates of 28-60% and mortality rates of 5-10% have been
      reported. The mortality rate is even higher in the presence of perforated
      appendicitis. Various factors have been pointed out to contribute to this trend.
      METHOD: A retrospective analytical study on all patients over the age of 60 years
      who had appendectomies at Universitas or Pelonomi Hospital between 01 January
      2004 and 31 December 2014 was done. Data of all appendectomy specimens received
      at Anatomical Pathology was collected and the hospital numbers were retrieved.
      The patients' clinical records were then scrutinised and the data transferred to
      an Excel spread sheet. The data was analysed using the Fisher two-tailed test and
      a p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Ethic clearance was obtained from
      the Health Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences (ECUFS
      57/2015). RESULTS: Sixty-eight elderly patients aged 60 years and older were
      identified over a period of 10 years. Only 47 patients met the inclusion
      criteria. Mean age was 67.2 years with male:female ratio of 1:1.2. The average
      delay to presentation was 3 days. The correct diagnosis was made in 26 (53%)
      patients. Preoperative imaging was done in four patients (8.5%). Fortytwo
      patients (89.4%) had a simple appendectomy, while 5 (10.6%) had a right
      hemicolectomy. Average length of stay (LOS) was six days, while the LOS for
      perforated appendicitis was 17 days. Ten patients died in hospital, resulting in
      an inhospital mortality rate of 21%. Eight of these had perforated appendicitis.
      Twenty-three patients (51.1%) had perforation, 22 (48.9%) did not, while in two
      this finding was not recorded. Twenty-five patients (53.2%) had complications. Re
      look laparotomies happened in 12 (25.5%) patients. CONCLUSION: Morbidity and
      mortality are indeed still high in the elderly population. The incidence of re
      look laparotomy is high in our institution and this is associated with a higher
      mortality. If the LOS is corrected, our figures are on par with other
      institutions. Late presentation and wrong initial diagnosis remain a stumbling
      block in the management of the elderly patient with appendicitis.

PMID- 28876654
TI  - ILEOSIGMOID KNOTTING: A ZIMBABWEAN CASE SERIES.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ileosigmoid knotting is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction with a
      rapidly progressive course, for which expedient surgical intervention is required
      to avoid mortality. METHOD: A combined retrospective and prospective analysis was
      performed on 16 patients operated on at PGH with an operative diagnosis of
      ileosigmoid knotting between February 2011 and April 2016. Data inclusive of
      demographics, time to presentation and surgery, preoperative diagnostic accuracy,
      incidence of septic shock and mortality was collected. RESULTS: The average age
      was 37.1 years (range 20-59 years) with a 4.3:1 male to female ratio. Two of the
      three females were pregnant. Thirteen patients (81.3%) experienced acute onset
      abdominal pain while asleep. The mean duration of symptoms prior to arrival at
      PGH was 10.8 hours (range 1-23hours). At admission, four patients (25%) were
      hypotensive (three more developing hypotension by the time of anaesthetic
      induction). Nine patients (56%) had leukocytosis and nine patients (56%) had
      deranged biochemical parameters. The most common preoperative diagnosis was
      sigmoid volvulus (50%), with no patients having a pre-operative diagnosis of
      ileosigmoid knotting. All patients had small bowel and sigmoid colon resection
      and Hartmann's procedure performed due to the presence of gangrene. Six patients
      (40%) required inotropic support for septic shock, while 57% of patients required
      transfusion. There was one perioperative death. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of
      ileosigmoid knotting needs to be considered in the young male or pregnant female
      patient with acute nocturnal onset abdominal pain and a rapidly deteriorating
      clinical course, and with radiological features suggestive of sigmoid volvulus.

PMID- 28876655
TI  - A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF ACUTE APPENDICITIS, RUPTURED APPENDICITIS AND THE
      LEVEL OF LEUKOCYTOSIS IN PAEDIATRIC SURGICAL PATIENTS OF NELSON MANDELA CENTRAL
      HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Appendicectomy is the most commonly performed operation worldwide.
      The diagnosis is predominantly based on clinical findings. Some patients will
      clinically be unclear if ruptured or acute inflamed appendicitis; the level of
      white cell count has been used as the predictor for ruptured appendicitis.
      METHOD: This was a retrospective chart review of paediatric surgical patients
      admitted at Nelson Mandela Central Hospital, Mthatha South Africa. RESULTS: A
      total of 214 patients with a diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Overall, the
      ruptured appendicitis was 62% and 38% were inflamed appendicitis. Nature of the
      acute appendicitis: White cell count, Inflamed, Ruptured, Total p-value < 9.9 21
      30 51 0.075, 10-14.9 28 54 82 0.0, 15-19.9 17 29 46 0.012, 20-29.9 5 26 31 0.0 >
      30 0 4 4. CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that in patients who are
      diagnosed with acute appendicitis clinically, the normal white cell count does
      not necessarily rule out ruptured acute appendicitis. But the risks of ruptured
      acute appendicitis increase with the increase level of white cell count.

PMID- 28876656
TI  - COLORECTAL CANCER: IS THERE AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HIV INFECTION AND THE
      CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL PICTURE?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The link between colorectal cancer (CRC) and HIV has not been
      extensively studied. METHOD: Study setting: Colorectal unit at a tertiary
      institution. Study population: HIV negative and positive patients with colorectal
      cancer over 12 years (2005-2016). Study design: This is an analysis of
      prospectively collected data from a colorectal cancer database archived in the
      Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Centre, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Demographic
      details, HIV status, anatomical site, stage, treatment and follow-up were
      documented. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel(r) and analysed. The study
      endpoints were clinicopathological pattern, disease distribution, staging and
      treatment outcomes. RESULTS: Voluntary counselling and testing were performed on
      381 out of 1543 CRC. Three hundred and eight patients [M:F 1.6:1] tested negative
      and 73 [M:F 1:2] tested positive. Mean age was 44.6 + 13.7 and 55 + 14.9 years
      among HIV positive and negative patients respectively (p < 0.001). Proximal:
      distal colon ratio was 1.3:1 among HIV positive patients and 1:1.2 for HIV
      negative patients. Rectal disease occurred with equal frequency in both groups.
      Stage IV disease occurred 51% and 40% in HIV positive and negative patients
      respectively. Resection rate was 38% and 56% for HIV positive and HIV negative
      patients respectively. Follow-up was 5.9 + 4.5 months for HIV positive and 17 +
      15.6 months for HIV negative patients. Thirty-one patients (42.5%) have been
      confirmed dead in HIV positive, and 92 (39%) among HIV negative. Recurrence rate
      was 1% and 6% for HIV positive and HIV negative patients respectively.
      CONCLUSION: HIV positive patients tend to present at a younger age with more
      proximal disease, at an advanced stage. Resection rate was lower among HIV
      positive individuals. Follow-up was shorter for HIV positive patients and
      recurrence rate was higher for HIV negative patients. There were more deaths in
      the HIV positive group during follow-up.

PMID- 28876657
TI  - COLORECTAL CANCER IN A SOUTH AFRICA URBAN SETTING - A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cancer in the
      world, with an estimated incidence in South Africa of 4-5% of all cancers .
      Studies show that whites account for the majority of South African patients but
      blacks for the majority of patients under the age of 50. METHOD: This was a
      preliminary analysis of the first 113 patients enrolled in a prospective
      longitudinal study. All CRC patients presenting to the teaching hospitals of the
      Department of Surgery, University of the Witwatersrand were eligible for
      inclusion. Data was collected by an interviewer-administered questionnaire and
      entered into the CRC database. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS
      version 9.4 for Windows. RESULTS: Patients presented to the three major centres
      in equal proportions with 68.2% in the public sector and 31.9% in the private
      sector. The mean age at presentation was 56 years (range 19-84, SD = 13.8), while
      53.1% of the patients were male and 56.5% were black African. The mean age at
      presentation for black patients (53.7years, range 19-78, SD = 14.3) was
      significantly younger than for white patients (63.4years, range 43-84, SD = 12.6)
      (p = 0.0017). 83.2% of patients had at least some high school education and the
      majority (56.6%) lived in their own homes with access to indoor running water
      (92%) and sanitation (96.5%). All patients had access to electricity. 49.0%
      reported a family history of cancer, with mother (35%), sibling (33%), and father
      (25%) most frequently affected. The most common cancer in relatives was CRC
      (25%). There was a history of smoking in 36.7% of patients. BMI was normal in
      45.7% of patients, while 44.8% were overweight. The three most common presenting
      complaints were weight loss (68.1%), per rectal bleeding (61.1%) and constipation
      (61.1%). There was no prior GIT diagnosis in 70.9% (n = 110). The most common
      finding on clinical examination was anaemia (20.0%). The majority of tumours were
      located in the rectum (49.1%), then the left (29.2 %) and right colon (16.8%).
      CONCLUSION: The major findings were a tendency to younger age at presentation in
      black South Africans, and a predominance of tumours in the left colon and rectum.
      This is in line with previously published data showing a difference in age at
      presentation and site of tumour according to ethnicity. Risk factors such as
      smoking and obesity remain noteworthy even in a low-middle income country.

PMID- 28876658
TI  - LAPAROSCOPIC LAVAGE VERSUS SUCTION ONLY IN COMPLICATED ACUTE APPENDICITIS: A
      PROSPECTIVE RANDOMISED CONTROL STUDY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of laparoscopy in complicated appendicitis is increasing. It
      is unclear in the adult population whether lavage of the pus versus suction only
      impacts in decreasing postoperative collections. In children there appears to be
      no difference whether the pus is lavaged or suctioned only. This study will be
      the first of its kind in the adult population. METHOD: A prospective single
      blinded randomised control trial was conducted. Ethics clearance was obtained
      from the review board. Registered on research registry UIN 1718. Patients with
      suspected acute appendicitis were consented to be enrolled in the study. Those
      found to have complicated appendicitis (perforation, localised pus or four
      quadrant pus) at laparoscopy were randomised according to computer generated
      allotment to either lavage or suction only. Patients who did not have the
      appendix removed or who were converted to laparotomy were excluded. Lavage
      consisted of a strict protocol of three litres of lavage with normal saline.
      Operative time was documented. All patients had an 8 mm pencil drain placed.
      Postoperatively a minimum of five days of intravenous Coamoxiclav. Complications
      (relook, percutaneous drain), hospital stay and return of bowel function were
      recorded. RESULTS: A total of 43 patients were assessed of which 10 were excluded
      - seven were converted to laparotomies. Also, three had abscesses but appendix
      was not removed. The remaining 33 patients were analysed. The mean age was 26
      years (14-74). Fifteen (45%) patients were lavaged and 18 (55%) were suctioned.
      Four quadrant pus was present inc4 (26%) of the lavage group versus in 6 (33%) of
      suctioncgroup. Complications developed in seven patients (46.7%)cwho were lavaged
      compared to five patients (27.8%) whocreceived suction only. The absolute risk
      increase is 20% withclavage giving a number needed to harm of 5. The
      differencecdid not reach significance due to sample size (p = 0.301).cOperative
      time was longer in the lavage group by 30 minutesc(p = 0.086). If a complication
      developed then the hospitalcstay was significantly prolonged 13.5 days versus 5
      daysc(p < 0,001). The study was stopped by the ethics review boardcdue to the
      higher rate of complications in the lavage group. CONCLUSION: This pilot study of
      lavage versus suction only in complicated appendicitis revealed a higher rate of
      complications in those randomised to lavage. There was also a trend toward longer
      operating time in those who were lavaged. If a patient develops a complication,
      then the hospital stay was significantly prolonged.

PMID- 28876659
TI  - ABDOMINOPERINEAL RESECTION IN THE PRONE POSITION: EARLY OUTCOMES AT A TERTIARY
      INSTITUTION IN THE WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abdominoperineal resection (APR) in the prone position is a new
      technique in the developing world, where colorectal cancer incidence is rising
      fast and the patient population is different from those in the developed world.
      Literature is lacking on the outcomes of this technique under these conditions.
      METHOD: All patients who underwent APR in the prone position for rectal
      adenocarcinoma from February 2011 to February 2017 were reviewed. Main endpoints
      were stage at presentation, neoadjuvant treatment, circumferential resection
      margin involvement, perineal wound complications, length of intensive care unit
      (ICU) stay and days discharged after surgery. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients were
      included in the study. The average age of patients was 57 years (range 29-79yrs).
      Neoadjuvant (NA) chemoradiation was given in 54% while 14% of patients only
      received NA chemotherapy and 10% short course neoadjuvant radiotherapy. The
      average stage at presentation for rectal cancer was stage 3B. The circumferential
      resection margin (CRM) was involved in 14.8% (8/54) of patients. Perineal wound
      infection was identified in 25% (14/54) of patients and perineal wound dehiscence
      in 14%. Average length of ICU stay was 4.9 days and patients were discharged on
      average 10.7 days post operatively. CONCLUSION: Patients in the developing world
      present with more advanced stage rectal cancer. Complete resection rates for
      rectal cancer after APR in the prone position compare to those achieved in
      developed countries. A high perineal wound complication rate was seen in this
      series. The high percentage of patients with locally advanced disease
      necessitating neoadjuvant radiotherapy possibly contributed towards this finding.

PMID- 28876660
TI  - THE HISTOPATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS OF MACROSCOPICALLY NORMAL APPENDIXES REMOVED AT
      LAPAROSCOPY AT DR. GEORGE MUKHARI ACADEMIC HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The question of whether or not to remove a macroscopically normal
      appendix at surgery has long been debated among surgeons. During the open surgery
      era, when a 'McBurney' incision was made, the appendix was routinely removed even
      if it looked macroscopically normal to remove future diagnostic uncertainties. In
      the modern era, the laparoscopic approach is now favoured, and the question of
      whether or not a macroscopically normal appendix should be removed is again
      debated. METHOD: A retrospective, descriptive study of the histopathological
      findings of macroscopically normal looking appendix removed during laparoscopy
      between July 2015 and December 2016. RESULTS: During the study period a total of
      twenty seven macroscopically normal appendixes were removed laparoscopically. All
      showed histological pathology. The most common histological feature was acute
      appendicitis in 17 cases (63%). In 8 cases (29%) there was lymphoid hyperplasia
      only. Other pathologies noted included parasitic infestation in one patient and
      obstructed lumen in 2 patients. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic appendectomy is
      justifiable in the setting of a macroscopically normal looking appendix and no
      other demonstrable pathology to account for patients' symptoms.

PMID- 28876661
TI  - THE USE OF LAPAROSCOPY IN MANAGING PENETRATING THORACOABDOMINAL INJURIES IN
      AFRICA: 83 CASES REVIEWED.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of laparoscopy in managing haemodynamically stable patients
      with penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries in developed countries is wildly
      practised, but in Africa the use of laparoscopy is still in its infancy stage.
      METHOD: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data of patients
      presenting with penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries was done. All patients
      offered laparoscopic exploration and repair from January 2012 to December 2015 at
      Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital were analysed. Means (+/-SD) were presented
      for continuous variables and frequencies (%) were presented for categorical
      variables. All analyses were performed using SAS version 9.3 (SAS Institute,
      Cary, NC). RESULTS: A total of 83 stable patients with penetrating
      thoracoabdominal injuries managed with laparoscopy met the inclusion criteria and
      were included in the study. The Injury Severity Score ranged from 8 to 24, with a
      median of 18. The incidence of diaphragmatic injuries was 54%. The majority
      (46.8%) of patients had Grade 3 (2-10 cm defect) diaphragmatic injury. Associated
      intra-abdominal injuries requiring intervention were encountered in 28 (62%)
      patients. At least 93.3% of the patients were treated exclusively with
      laparoscopy. The morbidity was encountered in 7(16%) patients; the most common
      cause was a clotted haemothorax Clavien-Dindo III-a but only one patient required
      a decortication. There was one non-procedure related mortality. CONCLUSION: A
      success rate of 93% in using laparoscopy exclusively was documented, with an
      overall 82% uneventful outcome. The positive outcomes found in this study when
      laparoscopy was used in stable patients with thoracoabdominal injuries support
      similar work done in other trauma centres. However, in addition this study seems
      to suggest that the presence of peritonitis in stable patients is not a contra
      indication to laparoscopy and that thoracoscopy may be useful especially in right
      side diaphragmatic injury where the liver precludes adequate visualization of the
      entire diaphragm and to thoroughly clean the chest cavity and prevent future
      complication such as residual clotted haemothorax.

PMID- 28876662
TI  - THE ROLE OF LAPAROSCOPY IN BLUNT ABDOMINAL TRAUMA: DIAGNOSTIC, THERAPEUTIC OR
      BOTH?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of laparoscopy in blunt abdominal trauma is gaining
      popularity as a useful diagnostic tool to avoid unnecessary laparotomies where
      there is diagnostic dilemma. But the feasibility of using laparoscopy for
      therapeutic intervention in these patients has been debated. Even though recent
      case reports seem to suggest that these patients can be managed using
      laparoscopy, the practice is not yet wildly adopted. METHOD: A retrospective
      analysis of a prospectively collected data was done. All adult patients who
      presented with abdominal trauma and were offered laparoscopic surgery at Dr
      George Mukhari Academic Hospital (DGMAH) from 2012 to 2015 were reviewed. Data
      was retrieved from our departmental database and analysed using descriptive
      statistics. RESULTS: A total of 318 patients were reviewed and 35 patients had
      blunt abdominal trauma and were included in the study. All the patients were
      offered laparoscopy. The median age was 30, with 91% of our patients males. The
      highest injury severity score calculated was 38. At least 77% of the patients
      were managed using laparoscopy. This includes 43% who had both diagnostic and
      therapeutic intervention and 34% who had only diagnostic laparoscopy. Eight
      patients were converted to open surgery mainly due to active bleeding and complex
      injuries. We did not have any non-therapeutic laparotomies. There was no
      documented procedure-related morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSION: The positive
      outcomes seen from the study suggest that laparoscopy can be safe and feasible in
      both diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in carefully selected blunt
      abdominal trauma patients. A conversion to open surgery should not be regarded as
      a failure but rather as a sign of mature and sound clinical judgement
      acknowledging the limitations of laparoscopy and/or the surgeon.

PMID- 28876663
TI  - THE USE OF COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHIC ANGIOGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF UPPER DIGESTIVE
      TRACT INJURIES IN PENETRATING NECK TRAUMA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients who present with penetrating neck injuries undergo both a
      computed tomographic angiogram (CTA) of the neck to diagnose vascular injuries
      and a contrasted swallow to diagnose aerodigestive tract injuries. In a resource
      constrained setting this algorithm is questionable. METHOD: A chart review was
      performed of all patients who presented to Tygerberg Hospital's trauma unit with
      penetrating neck injury between 1 January 2013 and 1 January 2016. All unstable
      patients taken directly to theatre were excluded. The haemodynamically stable
      patients underwent both a CTA and contrasted swallow. All the CTAs were performed
      prior to contrast swallow. RESULTS: Of 906 patients, 825 (91%) had stab and 81
      (9%) gunshot wounds. Thirty-three (3.6%) patients were diagnosed with upper
      digestive tract injuries on contrasted swallow. 24 patients had pharyngeal
      injuries and 9 patients had oesophageal injuries. CTA was suspicious of injury in
      16 patients and diagnostic of injury in 4 patients. In 12 CTA scans performed
      there was no mention of upper digestive tract evaluation. One CTA was falsely
      negative for injury when compared to contrast swallow. CONCLUSION: CTA reporting
      does not consistently evaluate the upper digestive tract for injuries. This might
      be due to reliance on contrasted swallows for diagnosis. There needs to be
      implementation of standardised reporting on the upper digestive tract when
      evaluating CTAs for penetrating neck injuries. Further evaluation of the
      diagnostic accuracy of CTA is needed before contrasted swallows can be omitted in
      the absence of upper digestive tract injury suggested by CTA.

PMID- 28876664
TI  - ACCESS TO TERTIARY TRAUMA CARE: CHALLENGES WITHIN A DEVELOPING HEALTH CARE
      SYSTEM.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trauma is a leading cause of mortality the world over, with an
      increasing impact in low and middle income countries. Oneof the key challenges in
      tackling the morbidity and mortality associated with the growing trauma epidemic
      includes the ability to provide timely access to appropriate trauma care. METHOD:
      A prospective cross-sectional study of 385 consecutive trauma patients admitted
      at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) following injury. Data inclusive of
      demographics, Methods of transfer, time to care and referral patterns was
      analysed. RESULTS: Over half of all casualties, (54%) were referrals from
      satellite hospitals. One hundred and twenty-one casualties (31.68%) received pre
      hospital care by medical personnel. The most common means of transfer of
      casualties from injury scene was by private vehicle (53%), followed by ambulance
      (32%) and public transport (8%), but geographical variances were observed. The
      average transit time from injury was 10.64 hours (SD 23.61) for those injured
      within Harare. For direct transfers to PGH from within Harare, mean transit times
      were comparable between use of private vehicles (3.34 hours) and ambulances (3.31
      hours). There was correlation between time of injury and method of transfer.
      There was no correlation between degree of injury according to ISS and transit
      time (p = 0.24). CONCLUSION: Significant challenges remain in ensuring timely and
      appropriate transfer of trauma casualties to tertiary care facilities.

PMID- 28876665
TI  - SPECTRUM OF INTENTIONAL INJURIES IN THE JUVENILE POPULATION TREATED AT A LEVEL
      ONE TRAUMA CENTRE: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South Africa has one of the most violent societies worldwide. The
      national homicide rate is 34 per 100 000; young males form the majority of this
      cohort. Comprehensive injury surveillance in low and middle-income countries is
      limited and there is paucity of data describing the epidemiology and outcomes of
      intentional injuries within the juvenile population. METHOD: Ethical approval was
      obtained for this study. The Electronic Trauma Health Registry (eTHR) Application
      of the Trauma Centre at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town was interrogated over
      an 18-month period (April 2014 - December 2016) for all patients (aged 12-19
      years) treated for non-accidental trauma. The data was then analysed using
      descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Over the study period, 2903 juvenile patients
      were admitted to the trauma centre. Intentional injuries (= 1387; 47.8%)
      accounted for nearly half of the study cohort. Complete datasets were available
      for 1295 patients. Within this cohort 210 (16.2%) patients were victims of gang
      related violence. Penetrating injuries were seen in 878 (67.8%) patients, of whom
      401 (45.7%) sustained knife injuries and 329 patients (37.5%) sustained gunshot
      wounds. The most affected body region was the head (n= 388; 30%), followed by the
      thorax (n= 311; 24%). Permanent disability resulting directly from injury was
      seen in 5.2% (n = 66) of the patients who survived (n= 1266) and the overall
      mortality was 2.2% (n = 29). CONCLUSION: Intentional injuries are common within
      the juvenile population group in Cape Town. Penetrating injuries and gang-related
      activities account for a large subset of these patients. Whilst the overall
      mortality is only 2.2%, the permanent disability rate is 5.2% and is likely to
      have significant public health and economic ramifications for the South African
      health care system in the future.

PMID- 28876666
TI  - CIVILIAN GUNSHOT WOUNDS TO THE CHEST: A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ANNUAL
      CASELOAD AT A LEVEL 1 TRAUMA CENTRE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gunshot wounds (GSW) to the chest are common presentations to trauma
      centres both in South Africa and internationally. The clinical management and
      outcome of GSW to the chest are significantly altered by missile trajectory and
      the associated anatomical structures injured making them challenging injuries to
      treat. Currently, the management of GSW chest is based on scant evidence and
      treatment is typically according to algorithms based largely on the anecdotal
      experience of high volume institutions and experienced clinicians. METHOD:
      Ethical approval was obtained for this study. The Electronic Trauma Health
      Registry (eTHR) Application of the Trauma Centre at Groote Schuur Hospital in
      Cape Town was interrogated for the year 2015 for all patients with GSW chest. The
      data was then analysed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: A total of 141
      patients with GSW to the chest were admitted to the Trauma Centre with a median
      age of 26 years . More than half of the patients, 53.2% (n = 75), sustained an
      isolated GSW to the chest. Overall, 29.1% (n = 41) patients sustained thoraco
      abdominal injury, which accounts for a significant higher number of emergency
      surgeries compared to patients with non thoraco-abdominal injury (54% vs 15%, p =
      < 0.01). 9.2% (n = 13) of all patients required an emergency thoracotomy or
      emergency chest surgery (resp. 3.5% and 5.7%) of which 5 patients survived.
      Overall mortality was 7.1% (n = 10) of which 5 patients died from a thoracic
      cause. CONCLUSION: Civilian GSW to the chest are common injuries seen in Cape
      Town, often with concomitant injuries leading to increased morbidity.
      Significantly more emergency surgeries were done in patients with thoraco
      abdominal injury. Overall few patients needed chest-related emergency operative
      intervention (9.2%) with a survival rate of 38.5%. Overall mortality of patients
      with GSW chest who reached the hospital was 7.1% of whom 50% died from a thoracic
      cause.

PMID- 28876667
TI  - EVALUATION OF THORACOSCOPY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF DIAPHRAGMATIC INJURIES IN
      PENETRATING THORACOABDOMINAL TRAUMA WITHOUT LUNG DEFLATION AT DR GEORGE MUKHARI
      ACADEMIC HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With a mortality estimated at 25% when missed, diaphragmatic injuries
      due to penetrating thoracoabdominal trauma present a diagnostic challenge for
      both the radiologist and the surgeon. In the current literature, chest x-ray has
      a sensitivity of 27-60% for left-sided injuries and only 17% for right-sided
      injuries while, CT scan has a sensitivity of 14-61% and a specificity of 76-99%.
      Thoracoscopy using a single lung ventilation is one of the modalities of choice
      for the diagnosis of these injuries with a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity
      of 87.5%. METHOD: This was a prospective study; all stable trauma patients with
      penetrating thoracoabdominal injury aged 18 years and above admitted to the
      trauma unit at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital during the period of the study
      were included. All patients with penetrating thoracoabdominal trauma who were
      unstable, or necessitating prompt management and all paediatric patients were
      excluded from the study. In theatre, under general anaesthesia, we first
      performed thoracoscopy without single lung ventilation followed by laparoscopy as
      control on each patient. Data was collected using a standard proforma by the
      attending surgeon and was analysed by a statistician using IBM SPSS 22 software.
      RESULTS: A total of 32 patients met the inclusion criteria of which 4 were female
      (12.5%) and 28 male (87.5%) with the median age of 29 years. Of the 32 patients,
      27 had thoracoabdominal stab wounds (84.3%) and 5 had gunshot wounds (15.6%).
      Fourteen patients (43.75%) had left sided injury and 18 patients (56.25%) had
      injury to the right side. The incidence of diaphragmatic injury was 37.5% (n =
      12). No injuries were missed on thoracoscopy; there was no mortality or
      morbidity. CONCLUSION: Thoracoscopy without single lung ventilation is safe and
      comparable to thoracoscopy with single lung ventilation as a diagnostic tool for
      diaphragmatic injuries in stable patients with penetrating thoracoabdominal
      trauma.

PMID- 28876668
TI  - ACCIDENTAL AND NON-ACCIDENTAL INJURY RELATED ADMISSIONS TO THE PAEDIATRIC
      INTENSIVE CARE UNIT AT CHRIS HANI BARAGWANATH ACADEMIC HOSPITAL, JOHANNESBURG.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Paediatric trauma is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low
      and middle income countries. Data from these regions describing the extent and
      severity of this problem is scant. Local data is vital to understanding and
      responding to the problem of childhood injury. METHOD: A retrospective record
      review of all trauma cases admitted to the PICU at CHBAH from 1 January 2011 to
      31 December 2013 was performed. Descriptive statistics were generated using MS
      Excel. Students' t test was used for analytic statistics. Ethics clearance was
      obtained prior to data collection. All children aged 0-16 years were included.
      RESULTS: A total of 185/919 (20.1%) of all admissions to the PICU were due to
      childhood trauma. Complete records were found on 66.5% of patients. 57.7% of all
      admissions were male. Timing of admissions was split almost equally between
      weekends (49.5%) and weekdays (50.5%). Road traffic injuries (RTI) (65.8%) and
      toxin ingestion (TI) (17.1%) accounted for the majority of admissions. Children
      aged 0-4 years accounted for 44.7%, 5-9 years 39.0%, and 10-15 years 16.3% of
      admissions. The mortality rate was 8.9%. RTI accounted for 63.6% of all
      mortalities. 64% of mortalities occurred in the 0-4 year cohort, and 36% in the 5
      9 year cohort. Mean age of survivors (5.8 years) was significantly higher than
      nonsurvivors (3.3 years) (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in mean
      length of stay of survivors (6.5 days) and non-survivors (10.9 days) (p = 0.05).
      89.4% of all children required invasive ventilation on PICU admission. Mean
      length of ventilation in non-survivors (10.2 days) was significantly longer than
      survivors (4.5 days). 83.9% (516/615 days) of total days of ventilation were due
      to RTI and toxin ingestion. CONCLUSION: Preventable injury imposes a significant
      burden on the health care system, society, families and affected individuals.
      Local data is vital to recognition of the burden of disease caused by preventable
      injury and formulating appropriate intervention strategies. Road traffic injuries
      accounted for the majority of trauma admissions to our PICU. Multi-sectoral
      sustained action is required to decrease morbidity and mortality associated with
      preventable childhood injury.

PMID- 28876669
TI  - THE ROLE OF CT SCAN IN PENETRATING ABDOMINAL TRAUMA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Penetrating abdominal trauma contributes significantly to the burden
      of disease in South Africa. The role of imaging, particularly CT scan in this
      subset of patients has yet to be established. A correlation between imaging and
      intraoperative findings could assist with providing a framework for nonoperative
      management of patients with penetrating abdominal trauma. The role of imaging in
      blunt abdominal trauma has been established particularly in the patient who is
      haemodynamically stable. Historically, penetrating trauma to the abdomen has been
      managed with surgical intervention that achieved the dual purpose of providing a
      diagnostic as well as therapeutic value. METHOD: A retrospective review of all
      haemodynamically stable patients who sustained penetrating abdominal trauma and
      were admitted to a tertiary institution, Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital
      situated in Pretoria, South Africa. The time period under review was between June
      2015 and December 2016. The source of data was a combination of the database,
      original patient records and records from radiology. The parameters that were
      reviewed included CT scan findings and intraoperative findings. RESULTS: A total
      of 131 patients were enrolled for this study. 74% of patients were found to have
      a negative CT scan as well as negative intraoperative findings. A total of 25%
      had positive intraoperative findings despite having a negative CT Scan.
      CONCLUSION: CT Scan correlates poorly with intraoperative findings.

PMID- 28876670
TI  - FOLEY-CATHETER BALLOON TAMPONADE (FCBT) FOR PENETRATING NECK INJURIES (PNI) AT
      GROOTE SCHUUR HOSPITAL: AN UPDATE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A previous study from Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) highlighted the
      success of FCBT (PNI). METHOD: The records of all patients with PNI requiring
      FCBT for a neck injury presenting to GSH within an 11-month study period were
      reviewed. Prospectively captured data on the Electronic Trauma Health Record
      Application (eTHRApp), was retrospectively analysed. Analysed data included
      demographics, clinical signs on admission, imaging, management and major
      outcomes. RESULTS: Over the 11-month study period, 311 patients with PNI were
      seen, of which 47 patients (15.1%) required FCBT. All were male; mean age of 28.6
      years (range 18-48). Most injuries were caused by stab wounds (91.5%) while 4
      patients (8.5%) suffered gunshot wounds. The majority of catheters (85.1%) were
      inserted by the referral institution. A total of 14 arterial injuries were
      identified, of which only one had ongoing active bleeding with haemodynamic
      compromise requiring immediate surgical intervention without prior imaging. The
      remaining 46 patients were imaged with computerised tomography angiography (CTA).
      A total of 8 major arterial injuries were found, of which six were surgically
      repaired; and one carotid injury was stented. A further 6 minor arterial injuries
      were identified and managed expectantly. A further 4 patients required surgery
      for their neck injuries: 2 had major venous injuries ligated and 2 required
      surgery for aerodigestive injuries. The remaining patients had their catheter
      successfully removed at 48-72 hours. There was no significant bleeding observed
      in any of these patients. There was one mortality caused by a large cerebral
      infarct from a common carotid artery injury. CONCLUSION: This series shows an
      increasing use of FCBT for PNI. Major differences from the previous series
      include the increased use of CT angiography and less reliance on formal
      angiography for diagnostic purposes. FCBT remains a simple, easy-to-use, yet
      effective technique.

PMID- 28876671
TI  - SCREENING FOR AN OCCULT PENETRATING CARDIAC INJURY USING TRANSOESOPHAGEAL
      ECHCARDIOGRAPHY (TOE): A PROSPECTIVE STUDY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 30% of patients with a cardiac injury will present with a penetrating
      chest wound and be haemodynamically stable, the so-called "occult cardiac
      injury". Current international practice is to screen for occult cardiac injuries
      using ultrasound (US) of the pericardial sac. If the US confirms the presence of
      fluid, then the patient undergoes a subxiphoid pericardial window (SPW) under
      general anaesthetic. In our experience, US Results in a large number of false
      positives and unnecessary operations. METHOD: Prospective study on all
      haemodynamically stable patients over 28-months with stab wound to the chest in
      the cardiac zone. Routine work-up comprised a CXR, ECG and an ultrasound. All
      patients with a positive US underwent a TOE prior to the performance of a SPW.
      The SPW was considered to be positive if there was blood in the pericardial sac.
      RESULTS: 142 patients underwent a SPW over a period of 28 months with a median
      age of 29 (range 18-59) years. The sensitivity of US for detecting a
      haemopericardium was 95% but there were 96 false positives. A total of 51
      patients had a TOE prior to the SPW; TOE had a sensitivity of 93%, specificity of
      43%, and a positive predictive value of 38% for detecting a haemopericardium.
      There were 21 false positives and one false negative with TOE. CONCLUSION: TOE
      has a very high sensitivity for identifying a haemopericardium, but as with US,
      there is a problem with false positives and in this series a single false
      negative. SPW remains the screening tool of choice in detecting an occult cardiac
      injury.

PMID- 28876672
TI  - CIVILIAN GUNSHOT WOUNDS TO THE CHEST: A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ANNUAL
      CASELOAD AT A LEVEL 1 TRAUMA CENTRE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gunshot wounds (GSW) to the chest are common presentations to trauma
      centres in South Africa. The clinical management and outcome of GSW to the chest
      are significantly altered by missile trajectory and the associated anatomical
      structures injured making them challenging injuries to treat. Currently, the
      management of GSW chest is based on scant evidence and treatment is typically
      according to algorithms based largely on the anecdotal experience of high volume
      institutions and experienced clinicians. METHOD: Ethical approval was obtained
      for this study. The Electronic Trauma Health Registry (eTHR) Application of the
      Trauma Centre at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town was interrogated for the
      year 2015 for all patients with GSW chest. The data was then analysed using
      descriptive statistics. RESULTS: A total of 141 patients with GSW to the chest
      were admitted to the Trauma Centre with a median age of 26 years. More than half
      of the patients, 53. 2% (n = 75) sustained an isolated GSW to the chest. Overall,
      29.1% (n = 41) patients sustained a thoracoabdominal injury, which accounts for a
      significant higher amount of emergency surgeries compared to patients with non
      thoracoabdominal injuries (54% vs 15%, p = < 0.01). 9.2% (n = 13) of all patients
      required an emergency thoracotomy or emergency chest surgery of which 5 patients
      survived. Overall mortality was 7.1% (n = 10) of which 5 patients died from a
      thoracic cause. CONCLUSION: Civilian GSW to the chest are common injuries seen in
      Cape Town, often with concomitant injuries leading to increased morbidity.
      Significantly more emergency surgeries were done in patients with
      thoracoabdominal injury. Overall few patients needed chest-related emergency
      operative intervention (9.2%) with a survival rate of 38.5%. Overall mortality of
      patients with GSW chest who reached the hospital was 7.1% of whom 50% died from a
      thoracic cause.

PMID- 28876673
TI  - OUTCOMES OF FAILURE OF SELECTIVE NONOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT OF PENETRATING ABDOMINAL
      TRAUMA [HREC/REF: 679/2013].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Selective nonoperative management (NOM) of penetrating abdominal
      trauma is routinely managed in our trauma center. METHOD: All patients for the
      period 01 May 2015-15 June 2016 who presented with a penetrating abdominal injury
      were prospectively entered into an ethics approved database, Ethrapp, and
      retrospectively reviewed. The patients were categorised into 3 groups: immediate
      laparotomy, successful NOM and failed NOM. Outcomes included: postoperative
      complications, mortality and length of hospital stay. RESULTS: A total of 485
      patients with penetrating abdominal trauma were managed over the 13-month period.
      Of these, 219 (45%) were initially selected for NOM and the remaining 266 (55%)
      patients underwent immediate laparotomy. Twenty-six (26; 12%) failed abdominal
      observation. Increasing abdominal tenderness and radiological study Results were
      the primary factors used to determine the need for laparotomy in the NOM group.
      The median delay to laparotomy was 44.5 hours (27-68). Seven hollow viscus, 13
      solid organ and 6 diaphragm injuries were found at laparotomy. There were 22
      therapeutic, 2 negative and one non-therapeutic laparotomy. 90% of the immediate
      group underwent a therapeutic laparotomy. There was no mortality in the NOM
      group. Complications showed no significant difference. CONCLUSION: The delayed
      diagnosis and treatment of failed NOM for penetrating abdominal trauma result in
      morbidity, mortality and hospital stay comparable with those who undergo
      immediate laparotomy.

PMID- 28876674
TI  - AN ANALYSIS OF THE INEQUALITIES BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR IN SOUTH
      AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The full extent of the global burden of surgical disease is largely
      unknown; however, the scope of the problem is thought to be large. Despite the
      substantial burden of surgical disease, surgical services are inaccessible to
      many of those who need them most. There are disparities between public and
      private sectors in South Africa, which compounds inequitable access to surgical
      care. METHOD: This study involved a descriptive analysis of surgical resources
      and included the total number of hospitals, hospital beds, surgical beds, general
      surgeons (specialist and nonspecialist), and the number of functional operating
      theatres in South Africa. A comparison was performed between the public sector
      resources per uninsured population and private sector resources per insured
      population. Hospitals were contacted during the period 01 October 2014 to 31
      December 2014. RESULTS: Surgical resources were concentrated in metropolitan
      areas of urban provinces. There were striking differences between sectors when a
      comparison was made between patients with and without health insurance. Private
      resources were comparable to those available in high income countries (HICs) and
      were accessible to only 16% of South Africans. CONCLUSION: Improving access to
      surgical services in lower middle income countries (LMICs) requires addressing
      gaps between the public and private sector regarding infrastructure, personnel,
      as well as equipment. South Africa is unique in that although it is classified as
      an upper middle income country (UMIC), it comprises of two sectors; a public
      sector which has resources similar to other LMICs, and a private sector which has
      resources similar to HICs. These data identified disparities between geographic
      regions which may be contributing to ongoing inequity in South Africa, and by
      doing so allows for evidence-based planning towards improving surgical
      infrastructure and workforce.

PMID- 28876675
TI  - GLOBAL SURGERY - A REVIEW OF THE PAEDIATRIC SURGICAL WORKFORCE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Background Surgical conditions lead to premature death and disability
      resulting in a massive economic burden. Contributing to this global crisis is the
      lack of data on the limited surgical workforce in many low and middle income
      countries (LMICs). METHOD: All paediatric surgeons were contacted during the
      period 1-28 February 2017 via email as well as during a congress which was held
      at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, and a database was compiled. An
      international comparison of South Africa's paediatric surgical workforce was then
      performed with several countries. RESULTS: The Results showed 5.55 paediatric
      surgeons per one million population under 14 years. More than half (55%) were
      male and the average age was 39.5 years. The majority of the paediatric surgical
      workforce was found in Gauteng (40.0%), followed by the Western Cape (27.7%) and
      Kwa-Zulu Natal (21.1%). The majority of qualified specialists reportedly worked
      in the public sector (n = 24), followed by dual practice (n = 21) and lastly in
      the private sector (n = 8). These numbers fell far below developed countries such
      as the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA), but compared
      favourably with Canada, China and Ireland. CONCLUSION: Strengthening surgical
      systems, which includes mapping surgical workforce, will reduce the surgical
      burden of disease and improve health outcomes globally. This description of the
      paediatric surgical workforce provided insight into the surgical capacity of
      South Africa. Furthermore, it provided a comparison between South Africa and the
      rest of the world.

PMID- 28876676
TI  - FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO ELECTIVE THEATRE CANCELLATIONS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
      SURGERY AT CHBAH.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elective theatre cancellations is a common experience the world over
      that impacts on theatre efficiency with undesirable consequences on the health
      care system, the patients and their families. It increases costs of running
      theatres, is a financial burden and emotional strain on patients and their
      families. METHOD: A retrospective study where 300 cancellations in the Department
      of Surgery were randomly selected and analysed from the Morbidity and Mortality
      meetings held at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital from November 2015.
      RESULTS: Of the 1554 elective cases booked during the period under review, there
      were 294 cancellations resulting in a cancellation rate of 18.9%. Laparoscopic
      Cholecystectomy was the most common procedure (31.8%) cancelled. The most common
      reason for cancellation (50%) was time constraints. Administrative related
      reasons for cancellation were the most common (85%) encountered. The majority of
      cancellations were judged to be the event of an Unavoidable reason. The majority
      of the patients cancelled were ASA II and ASA III (77%). The ASA score had no
      significance on medical related cancellations. CONCLUSION: We reported a
      comparatively high cancellation rate. Further prospective studies need to be
      conducted to critically evaluate the reasons behind lack of operative time as the
      majority of the reasons for cancellation could be potentially avoidable.

PMID- 28876677
TI  - SURGICAL INFECTIONS AT A REGIONAL HOSPITAL IN GAUTENG: REASONS FOR DELAY TO CARE
      AND PROFILE OF PATHOLOGY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infection is a common cause for the admission of surgical patients
      who were initially seen and managed at the primary health care level. Delay to
      care significantly increases the health care burden of surgical sepsis on
      affected individuals, the health system and society. METHOD: A prospective
      descriptive study was performed by means of a confidential questionnaire
      presented to qualifying patients between February 2014 and October 2016. No
      minors were included in the study. Descriptive statistics were generated
      utilising MS Excel. Analytic statistics were facilitated using the t-test, Chi
      Squared test, Fischer's Exact Test and logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of
      89 patients agreed to participate. Abscesses (23/89, 25.8%), diabetic foot
      (20/89, 22.4%), cellulitis (14/89, 15.7%) and septic burns (10/89, 11.2%) were
      the most common categories of infection requiring admission. The majority of
      patients admitted were Black African males (39/89, 43.8%), with no medical aid
      (88/89, 98.8%), no formal employment (52/89, 58.4%), inhabiting some form of
      formal housing (80/89, 89.8%), from poor households (defined as annual income <
      R60 000/year) (66/89, 74.1%), were in charge of decisions regarding personal
      health (71/89, 79.7%), and first sought help at the primary health care level
      (local clinic or private physician) (63/89, 70.7%). In total 68.5% (61/89) of
      patients admitted had a significant delay of > 48 hours from onset of symptoms to
      presentation to a health care worker. Furthermore, 46.1% (41/89) of patients
      experienced a significant delay of > 24 hours from presentation to health care
      worker to admission. The most common reason for delay to care in both groups
      (50/61, 81.9% and 25/41, 60.1%, respectively) was patients' belief that the
      problem would resolve itself. CONCLUSION: Urban populations are different to
      rural populations in terms of barriers to access to health care. Utilisation of
      primary health care services (private and public) as a first point of contact
      with the health care system is high. Patients' perception of their own health is
      an important determinant of their health seeking behaviour.

PMID- 28876678
TI  - A THIRD OF PATIENTS TREATED AT A TERTIARY LEVEL SURGICAL SERVICE COULD BE TREATED
      AT A SECONDARY LEVEL FACILITY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: South Africa has an overburdened public healthcare system. Some
      admissions to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) may not
      require tertiary care. The numbers and details thereof are uncertain. Clinical
      research is limited by skills and access to data. METHOD: A retrospective
      analysis of Electronic Discharge (ED) summaries from the Department of Surgery at
      CMJAH between 01 April 2015 and 01 April 2016. An SQL-query of the database
      generated a .csv file of all discharges with the fields database reference
      number, length of stay and level of care. The details and level of care of each
      record were verified by MBBCh 5 medical students using a defined level of care
      template with review of the full discharge summary. The data was reviewed by a
      senior clinician. RESULTS: There were 3007 discharge summaries, 97 were not
      classifiable, two were test records and one was a duplicate. These 100 records
      were excluded. There were no primary level records. Secondary level patients
      represented 29% (854) of patients discharged and 19% of total bed days. Tertiary
      and quaternary together represented 71% of the total patients and 81% of bed
      days. The average length of stay was 4.31 days for secondary, 6.98 days for
      tertiary and 9.77 days for quaternary level of care allocation. CONCLUSION:
      Almost a third (29%) of patients discharged from CMJAH Department of Surgery were
      deemed suitable for secondary level care. These admissions have a shorter length
      of stay and comprise 19% of total bed days. Students and electronic databases are
      useful research resources.

PMID- 28876679
TI  - FACTORS LEADING TO DELAYED PRESENTATION OF PATIENTS WITH DIABETIC FOOT SEPSIS AT
      REGIONAL HOSPITALS IN THE EKURHULENI METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY OF GAUTENG
      PROVINCE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nearly 50% of all diabetes-related admissions are due to diabetic
      foot problems and diabetes mellitus is the commonest cause for non-traumatic
      amputation of the lower limb. METHOD: A prospective longitudinal observational
      study of all patients 18 years and older was conducted. Data collected included
      demographics, diabetic history and treatment type, comorbidities, prior
      treatment, clinical findings, treatment method and overall outcome. Data was
      entered into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis, and categorical data was
      expressed in percentages whereas continuous data in mean and 95% confidence
      interval. Incident risk ratio was calculated. Chi square and Student t-test were
      used when appropriate. Permission to conduct the study was received from HREC at
      Wits (M160759). RESULTS: 68 patients were studied of which 61.8% (42/68) were
      males. The average age for males and females was 58.9 and 63.9 years
      respectively. 90.5% of males and 96.2% of females were known diabetic and 51.5%
      were on oral hypoglycaemics. 47.1% had prior diabetic education, 36.8% had home
      haemoglucotest and compliance was good in 39.7%. 71.4% of males and 80.8% of
      females presented more than two weeks after onset of foot sepsis. Prior use of
      herbal medication was reported by 16.7% of males compared to 26.9% in females.
      69.1% were seen at a clinic and 71.4% were treated with antibiotics before
      referral. 53.8% of females and 59.5% of males were amputated and mortality was
      15.4% and 4.8% for females and male, respectively. CONCLUSION: Majority of
      patients presenting with diabetic foot sepsis are known with diabetes and are on
      oral hypoglycaemics. Trial of antibiotic and herbal therapy is attempted for most
      patients before they are referred. More than 50% end with amputation and
      mortality is three times higher in females.

PMID- 28876680
TI  - REGISTRAR PERCEPTIONS ON GENERAL SURGICAL TRAINING IN SOUTH AFRICA: A REPORT BY
      THE SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIETY OF SURGEONS IN TRAINING (SASSIT).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical training varies significantly even amongst universities
      within the same country. This trend is reflected in South Africa and provides an
      opportunity for innovation to improve the quality of general surgical training.
      METHOD: A prospective descriptive study was performed by means of a confidential
      questionnaire distributed to general surgical registrars at all 8 training
      centres in South Africa. Participants were asked to give comments regarding
      adequacy of formal academic teaching, level of supervision during surgical
      procedures, exposure to and training in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), and
      preparation for examinations. Descriptive statistics were generated with
      Microsoft Excel. Ethics clearance was obtained from the University of
      Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee. RESULTS: Of 200 questionnaires
      distributed, 105 (52.5%) were returned. In total 44% (105/241) of all registrars
      from 6 training institutions participated. The majority (89.5%; 94/105) of
      respondents reported that they attended less than 6 hours of formal academic
      teaching per week and 71.4% (75/105) indicated that their institution offered
      less than 6 hours of formal academic teaching per week. Furthermore, 76.2%
      (80/105) of respondents regarded lack of protected academic time as the greatest
      hindrance to their surgical training and 95.2% (99/105) reported that clinical
      responsibilities prevented them from attending formal academic teaching
      regularly. Overall, only 31.4% (33/105), 41.9% (44/105) and 37.1% (39/105) were
      satisfied with the amount of formal academic teaching, level of supervision
      during theatre procedures and exposure to MIS, respectively. Lack of resources
      and lack of appropriate skills were identified as a hindrance to MIS training by
      47.6% (50/105) and 28.6% (30/105) of respondents, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Surgical registrars are dissatisfied with the amount of formal academic teaching
      and protected academic time, level of supervision in theatre and their exposure
      to MIS. These challenges compromise trainees' ability to practise independently
      on qualification. Numerous interventions are necessary and possible to address
      these challenges.

PMID- 28876681
TI  - SOUTH AFRICAN SURGICAL REGISTRAR PERCEPTIONS OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT COMPONENT OF
      TRAINING: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Health Professions Council of South Africa requires that a
      research project be submitted and passed before registration as a specialist.
      METHOD: Ethics clearance was received before commencing the study. A
      questionnaire was developed to collect feedback from surgical registrars
      throughout South Africa (SA). Completed questionnaires underwent descriptive
      analysis using MS Excel. Fisher's exact test and the chi2 test were used to
      compare perceptions of the research-experienced and research-naive groups.
      RESULTS: All medical schools in SA were sampled, and 51.5% (124/241) of surgical
      registrars completed the questionnaire. Challenges facing registrars included
      insufficient time (109/124), inadequate training in the research process
      (40/124), inadequate supervision (31/124), inadequate financial resources
      (25/124) and lack of research continuity (11/124). Of the registrars sampled,
      67.7% (84/124) believed research to be a valuable component of training. An
      overwhelming percentage (93.5%, 116/124) proposed a dedicated research block of
      time as a potential solution to overcoming the challenges encountered. Further
      proposals included attending a course in research methodology (79/124),
      supervision by a faculty member with an MMed or higher postgraduate degree
      (73/124), and greater research exposure as an undergraduate (56/124). No
      statistically significant differences were found between the perceptions of the
      research experienced and research-naive groups. CONCLUSION: Challenges facing
      surgical registrars in their efforts to complete their research projects were
      identified and solutions to these problems proposed. It is heartening that
      respondents have suggested solutions to the problems they encounter, and view
      research as an important component of their careers.

PMID- 28876682
TI  - DOES GENDER IMPACT ON FEMALE DOCTORS' EXPERIENCES IN THE TRAINING AND PRACTICE OF
      SURGERY?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery has been a male-dominated speciality both in South Africa and
      abroad. METHOD: This mixed methodology case study collected data from a purposive
      sample of female surgical registrars enrolled at one institution in South Africa.
      A self-administered questionnaire was used to explore whether or not female
      doctors perceived any benefits of being in a male-dominated specialty. It
      explored problems encountered due to gender, the participants' perceptions of the
      influence of gender on their surgical training, practice and challenges. RESULTS:
      Thirty-two female registrars participated in the study. The respondents were
      mainly South African (91%) and enrolled in seven surgical specialities. Twenty
      seven (84%) respondents were satisfied with their practical training and skills
      development as surgeons. Twenty-four (75%) respondents had identified a mentor
      from the department and all respondents indicated that the gender of their mentor
      did not impact on the quality of their training. Seventeen (53%) respondents
      perceived having received differential treatment due to their gender and 25
      (78.2%) thought that the gender of their mentor did not impact on the quality of
      the guidance in surgery. Challenges included physical threats to them as females
      from patients and disrespect, emotional threats and defaming statements from male
      registrars. Other challenges included time-constraints for family and academic
      work, poor work life balance and being treated differently due to their gender.
      Seventeen (53%) respondents would consider teaching in the Department of Surgery.
      Twenty-five respondents (78%) would recommended the specialty to young female
      students, as they were convinced that surgery had been the right choice for them.
      Seventeen respondents (53%) were also open to pursuing teaching posts in the
      Department of Surgery. CONCLUSION: Generally, females had positive perceptions of
      their training in Surgery. They expressed concern about finding a worklife
      balance. The gender of their mentor did not impact on the quality of the training
      but 'bullying' from male peers and selected supervisors occurred. Respondents
      will continue to recommend the specialty as a satisfying career to young female
      students.

PMID- 28876683
TI  - HISTOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF SMOOTH MUSCLE CELL IN THE PATENT PROCESSUS VAGINALIS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inguinal hernia is a common pathology that necessitates surgical
      treatment during childhood. Most uncomplicated inguinal scrotal pathologies are
      considered to occur due to incomplete obliteration of the processes vaginalis
      (PV). The incomplete obliteration is proposed to be due to the persistence of
      smooth muscle cell (SMC) in the PV after birth. Immuno-histochemical studies have
      been published to evaluate the diversity and differentiation of SMC phenotypes in
      the PV resected in patients' inguinal hernia and hydrocele. METHOD: Sixty-six
      specimens were collected from consecutive patients undergoing elective surgery
      for inguinal hernia, undescended testes and hydroceles over an 8-month period.
      Specimens were collected in standardised manor and sent for histological
      evaluation. The specimens were evaluated for the presence of SMC microscopically
      and via special staining. RESULTS: PV specimens in 15/19 female hernias, 11/22
      male hernias, 2/6 hydrocele and 5/19 undescended testes contained SMC. The rest
      of the specimens did not contain SMC. CONCLUSION: There appears to be a strong
      presence of SMC in female patients, but a weak association of SMC in the PV of
      male hernia, hydroceles and undescended testes. We therefore conclude that the
      incomplete obliteration and SMC presence hypothesis does not hold true for male
      inguinal hernias. Further studies are underway to examine this more closely.

PMID- 28876684
TI  - DIFFERENCES IN MICROBIOME IN RAT MODELS OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies have underscored the important role the gut metagenome
      in various human diseases, including diabetes and obesity. Hypertension is a
      major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and heart and kidney
      failure, and affects approximately 25% of the world's adult population. The cause
      of essential hypertension remains unknown. Patients given antibiotics show blood
      pressure changes and transfer of gut bacteria from hypertensive to normal WKY
      rats resulted in the latter developing hypertension. Such studies implicate gut
      bacteria as having a possible causal role in the development of hypertension.
      METHOD: Stomach, intestinal and fecal samples were collected from SHR and salt
      sensitive rats, cultured and identified by matrixassisted laser desorption
      ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) based biotyping and
      16SrRNA sequencing. RESULTS: Preliminary Results show an abundance of Escherichia
      coli , Bacillus cereus , Enterococcus faecilis , Lactobacillus murinus and
      Staphylococcus scouri in SHR, SSR and control mice. SHR had the least diverse
      microbiota and had species including Klebsiella pneumonia , Pediococcus
      acidilactici and Enterococcus gallinarum . While SSR had slightly more diverse
      isolates as compared to SHR and included Acinetobacter sp, Pseudomonas auriginosa
      , Corynebacterium ammoniagenes , Micrococcus luteus , and Staphylococcus cohnii .
      CONCLUSION: Bacteria from the phyla Bacteriodetes and Firmicutes were prevalent
      in animal models of hypertension. Previous studies have shown that bacteria from
      these phyla play a role in development of hypertension. Understanding the role
      played by gut microbiota may provide a novel insight into the aetiology of
      hypertension.

PMID- 28876685
TI  - A HISTOPATHOLOGICAL AUDIT OF HYPERPARATHYROIDISM IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN SETTING.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hyperparathyroidism is a common endocrine disorder. Parathyroidectomy
      is indicated for primary and tertiary hyperparathyroidism. Parathyroid adenoma is
      the cause in close to 85% of cases of primary hyperparathyroidism. METHOD: An
      audit based on histopathology records of patients who had parathyroidectomy from
      January 2011 to December 2015 in academic hospitals linked to Wits was conducted.
      Data collected included patients' demographics and histopathological findings.
      Categorical data was expressed in number and percentage whereas the mean or
      median if appropriate was used for continuous data. Chi-square test was used for
      comparison and a p-value was set at less than 0.05 for significance. The study
      was partly done by GEMP 3 students and permission to conduct the study was
      received from HREC at Wits (M160477). RESULTS: A total of 69 records were found
      of which 67.6% (46/68) were females. Average age for females was 55.0 years
      (range 25-83) whereas for males was 60.0 years (25-80). Parathyroid adenoma was
      reported in 75.4% and 69.6% of specimen from females and males, respectively. In
      1.5% (1/86) the resected parathyroid was reported to be normal. Concomitant
      thyroidectomy was done in 17.4% (8/46) of specimens from females and 8.7% (2/23)
      from males. CONCLUSION: Male patients with hyperparathyroidism present at younger
      age compared to females. Fewer than expected parathyroidectomies for primary
      hyperparathyroidism are being performed in the Wits circuit. The commonest
      findings following parathyroidectomy is parathyroid adenoma. No case of
      parathyroid cancer was reported. Concomitant thyroidectomy is likely in females.

PMID- 28876686
TI  - MANAGEMENT OF FAILED MITRAL VALVE REPLACEMENT. THE DURBAN EXPERIENCE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mitral valve replacement is the procedure of choice in patients with
      severe mitral valve disease. However, these patients are surviving longer and are
      thus at an increased risk of prosthesis failure or valve-related complications.
      METHOD: Study setting: Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, a tertiary
      referral Hospital in Durban. Study population: All patients undergoing redo
      mechanical mitral valve replacement surgery between January 2005 and December
      2014. Study design: Retrospective analysis of patients undergoing redo mitral
      valve replacement. Patients were identified from theatre record books, their
      files were electronically accessed and pertinent information extracted onto a
      data capture sheet. Information documented included demographics, duration to
      failure, INR, Albumin, HIV status, clinical findings and outcome. The data was
      stored on an Excel datasheet. RESULTS: Fifty-eight patients were documented (mean
      age 32 +/- 15.81 years; M:F 1:3). Ten patients (17%) were HIV positive (median
      CD4 count 478). Mean duration between first surgery and redo was 8.8 years.
      Thirty-five patients (60%) had no co-morbidities. Presenting features at redo
      surgery were congestive cardiac failure (27), chest pain (11) and palpitations
      (17). Mean preoperative Ejection Fraction was 51.65 %. Twenty-nine patients (55%)
      had emergency redo surgery. Twenty-two patients (75%) had acute prosthetic valve
      thrombosis. Thirty-two patients had tricuspid regurgitation. Original pathology
      was documented in 23 patients (40%) as Rheumatic valve disease. Prosthetic valve
      thrombosis was documented in 31 patients (54%). The most commonly used valve was
      the On-X. Mean presenting INR was 1.96 + 1.2 and mean presenting serum albumin
      was 36.7 + 7.8 g/l. Forty-one patients (71%) were found to be compliant to
      Warfarin therapy prior to redo surgery. Mean ICU stay was 6 +9 days. Two patients
      died postoperatively. Mean followup was 32 + 26.6 months. Twelve patients (20.7%)
      developed postoperative complications. CONCLUSION: Patients were younger than
      world literature suggests. Rheumatic heart disease was the common underlying
      pathology. Prosthetic valve thrombosis was common. More than half had emergency
      surgery. Mortality rate was negligible.

PMID- 28876687
TI  - OUTCOMES OF HILAR PEDICLE CONTROL USING SUTURE LIGATION DURING LAPAROSCOPIC
      SPLENECTOMY.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic splenectomy is a well described gold standard procedure
      for various indications. One of the key steps during laparoscopic splenectomy is
      the hilar pedicle vessels control, which can be challenging in most cases. Most
      centres around the world recommend the use Ligaclib or endovascular staplers as
      Methods of choice for hilar pedicle control but the issue is the cost and
      efficiency of the laparoscopic haemostatic devices. METHOD: A descriptive
      retrospective study of patients who had laparoscopic splenectomy from 2013 to
      present. Hilar splenic vessel control was done with suture ligation. We looked at
      outcomes of patients offered this technique, complications of this technique, and
      describing the technique of hilar control in laparoscopic splenectomy. RESULTS:
      Total of 27 patients had laparoscopic splenectomy with splenic hilar pedicle
      control with suture ligation. Mean operative time, mean blood volume loss, length
      of hospital stay, postoperative complications conversion to laparotomy.
      CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic hilar pedicle control with suture ligation is safe and
      effective for the patient in our hospital setting.

PMID- 28876688
TI  - MANAGEMENT OF MYELOMENINGOCELE IN THE PROVINCE OF KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spina bifida is the most common of congenital anomalies of the
      central nervous system that are compatible with life. The most frequent form is
      myelomeningocele. METHOD: Setting: Neurosurgery Unit, Inkosi Albert Luthuli
      Central Hospital. Patients: Consecutive children with diagnosis myelomeningocele
      who were managed at from January 2006 to December 2014. Design: Retrospective
      analysis of children with myelomeningocele. Multiple logistic regression analysis
      identified clinical, demographic and surgical variables that were associated with
      outcome. RESULTS: There were 307 patients of whom 173 were male (57%). One
      hundred and thirty-five (44%) were delivered via C-section. MMC location was at
      lumbar [175, 57 %], sacral [21, 7%], thorax [17, 5.5%] and cervical 2 (0.7%). One
      hundred and fifty-six (51%) presented with CSF leak. One hundred and forty-one
      (48%) presented with complete paralysis of the lower limbs. The mean age at
      surgical repair was 4.7 +/- 15.6 months. The dura was repaired primarily in all
      patients and 20 (7.9%) were operated in conjunction with plastic surgeons. Fifty
      eight (21%) patients developed wound sepsis of those 35(60%) required surgical
      debridement, while chemical debridement was sufficient in the rest. The time to
      wound sepsis was 9.5 +/- 3.6 days. Two hundred and eight (68%) children developed
      hydrocephalus requiring CSF diversion. In 143 (46%) children a VPS was used to
      treat HCP, while in 27 (9%) ETV was performed, 33 (23%) developed shunt
      malfunction due to infection [15, 45%]. The time to shunt infection was 176 +/-
      83.3 days. The in-hospital mortality was 27 (9.1%). Wound sepsis and meningitis
      were associated with death (p < 0.002). The average hospital stay was 20.4 +/-
      16.93 days, children with wound sepsis and/or meningitis had longer hospital
      stay, 38.1 +/- 22.3 days and 40.5 +/- 29.7 days respectively. CONCLUSION: Method
      of delivery, age at repair, CSF leak and hydrocephalus were not independently
      associated with infection. Infection was associated with adverse outcomes and
      yielded longer hospital stay.

PMID- 28876689
TI  - RAT BITE INJURIES IN CHILDREN ADMITTED AT TEMBISA HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rat bite injuries were observed as early as AD 1300. Up to date no
      literature exists that looks at the different clinical manifestations of rat bite
      injuries, and furthers a proposed management plan that is evidence based. METHOD:
      We studied 59 patients who sustained rat bite injuries from July 2010 to 2014.
      Injuries were classified based on the pattern and natural history.
      Epidemiological and clinical data were correlated with the grading system and
      management employed. RESULTS: The pattern of injury was described and classified
      into mild, moderate and severe. Children aged 1 year and younger sustained mild
      forms of injury while those older than 1 year had more moderate to severe
      injuries (p = 0.0006); that was the very same group that manifested a higher
      inflammatory response as evidenced by a temperature of > 38o C (p = 0.0238).
      There was no association between age and anatomical site of injury (p = 0.8313).
      The highest incidences were seen in Ivory Park (30.5%), which is the largest and
      most impoverished section in Tembisa. CONCLUSION: In this study, the data showed
      three distinctive patterns of injury: graded mild, moderate and severe. The mild
      injuries heal without consequences and may be managed as outpatients. Penicillin
      monotherapy is sufficient to prevent or treat secondary infection. The few
      patients who received antirabies treatment did not show clinical benefit, thus we
      do not recommend its routine use. However, in areas where there is rabies
      outbreak it may be prudent to prescribe it. Mortality due to rat bite injuries is
      rare, but disfigurement may be devastating.

PMID- 28876690
TI  - EVALUATING KIDNEY FUNCTION IN LIVING DONORS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Measurement of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is the best overall
      index of kidney function. Equations that estimate GFR (eGFR) have been developed
      for clinical use such as Cockroft and Gault (C+G), four variable Modification of
      Diet in Renal Disease (4-v MDRD) and Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology
      Collaboration (CKD-EPI). Although widely used, they have not been validated in
      Sub-Saharan Africa. METHOD: Data on 350 adults evaluated for live kidney donation
      from 1996 to 2013 at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) and
      Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC) was reviewed. Their eGFR was calculated
      using CG, 4-v MDRD and CKD-EPI equations. Plasma clearance of 51Cr-EDTA was used
      as a reference method for mGFR. The equations were also assessed by their
      sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for
      identification of subjects with mGFR < 80 mL/min/1.73m2. RESULTS: The majority of
      potential donors were young Black females. Approximately half were unsuitable for
      donation mostly due to obesity and hypertension. On Bland Altman Comparisons of
      eGFR equations to mGFR, the 4-vMDRD equation (with/ without adjustment for
      ethnicity) showed a negative bias that resulted in average eGFR values between 8 
      16ml/ min/1.73m2 lower than mGFR respectively (p < 0.0001). CKD-EPI resulted in
      eGFR values being on average 6.4ml/ min/1.73m2 lower than mGFR (p < 0.0001).
      There was no significant bias with CG (p = 0.55). For all four equations, the
      bias decreased as mGFR and age increased and there was no gender effect. The 4-v
      MDRD and CKD-EPI equations demonstrated higher eGFR for black donors. All four
      prediction equations had a low sensitivity and poor PPV, with 4v-MDRD (without
      adjustment for ethnicity) being the most sensitive but least specific.
      CONCLUSION: For all four eGFR equations, the error statistics worsen as mGFR
      increases. Adjustment for ethnicity in 4-v MDRD reduced the bias slightly.
      Overall, the performance of CG was superior to CKD-EPI and 4-v MDRD equations.
      All four prediction equations had a low sensitivity. This study suggests mGFR
      should be the gold standard for evaluating living donors in SA.

PMID- 28876691
TI  - A FOUR YEAR ACROSS SURGICAL DISCIPLINE PERIOPERATIVE AND INTRAOPERATIVE
      EXPERIENCE OF PATIENT MANAGEMENT IN A TERTIARY ACADEMIC HOSPITAL - A REVIEW.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There has been a growing trend in the surgical literature to report
      mortality and morbidity after surgery with preoperative risk adjustment to
      facilitate meaningful comparisons of surgical outcomes between different surgeons
      and hospitals. This is a review of the rate of injuries caused by surgeons
      unintentionally whilst performing procedures in the field of obstetrics and
      gynaecology, for example, caesarean sections and hysterectomies. METHOD: Data was
      collected retrospectively over the past four years at Dr George Mukhari Academic
      Hospital utilising the database and theatre records correlated with patient
      files. RESULTS: A total of 182 cases were collected spanning the four years
      reviewed. The injuries were grouped according to the type of injury sustained.
      Iatrogenic injury to the bladder was the highest at 28.6%. Injury to the right
      ureter (21.4%) was higher than injuries sustained to the left ureter (12.1%). A
      combination of bladder and uretric injury was 8.2%. Injuries to the small bowel
      (17.6%), large bowel (6.6%) and rectum (2.8%). Vascular injuries (2.2%).
      CONCLUSION: The incidence of gynaecological iatrogenic injury during caesarean
      section and hysterectomy is higher at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital than
      what is reportedly worldwide.

PMID- 28876692
TI  - PAEDIATRIC SPLENECTOMY: THE JOHANNESBURG EXPERIENCE.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Splenectomy is uncommon in children and data on splenectomies in the
      South African paediatric population is sparse. A deeper understanding of the
      demographics, indications, techniques, and postoperative management of patients
      requiring splenectomy may improve care. METHOD: Patient records for all
      splenectomies performed in children aged 0 to 16 years at Charlotte Maxeke
      Johannesburg Academic (CMJAH) and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospitals
      (CHBAH) between 2000 and 2015 were reviewed. Students' t- and Chi-squared tests
      were utilised for analytic statistics. RESULTS: Mean age at surgery was 9.9 years
      with a range of 3 to 16 years. Overall, 91% of splenectomies were performed for
      haematological disorders with the remaining 9% performed for malignancy or
      trauma. Two-thirds (67%) of splenectomies were performed open and 33%
      laparoscopically. Mean postoperative length of stay (LOS) was significantly
      shorter in the laparoscopic cohort compared to the open cohort (4.5 vs 7.1 days,
      respectively; p < 0.05). Surgical complications were more common in the
      laparoscopic group (27%) compared to the open group (9%), as well as in those
      children older than the mean age at time of surgery. No partial splenectomies
      were performed. No cases of overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI) were
      recorded. In total, 20 patients (61%) were still alive, 3 had died, and 10 had
      been lost to follow up at study completion. CONCLUSION: Local indications for
      splenectomy mirror those within international literature. Higher rates of
      postoperative complication in the open and laparoscopic groups in our series may
      be due to a learning curve in laparoscopic splenectomy, the low sample size, or
      the underlying state in which our patients present. Mean postoperative LOS was
      shorter in the laparoscopic than open group, but relatively longer for both
      groups than reported in the international literature. Laparoscopy is, as yet, not
      the preferred technique for splenectomy in our setting. All mortalities were due
      to progression of underlying disease and no cases of OPSI were recorded. The high
      rate of loss to follow up in this study is a significant barrier to accurate data
      collection and reporting.

PMID- 28876693
TI  - CONTINUATION OF FEEDS IN THE UNSTABLE BURNS PATIENT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early enteral nutrition (EEN) and the continuation of enteral
      nutrition (EN) are critical factors in burn patients, who typically have higher
      nutritional needs due to their post-injury hypercatabolic state and their
      additional need for nutrients to aid in the healing of wounds and skin grafts. In
      the critically ill patient, EN is the preferred mode of administration; however,
      controversy exists regarding the concomitant use of EN and intravenous
      vasopressor agents in the haemodynamically unstable patient. This is because
      vasoactive substances (e.g. adrenalin) contribute to gut hypoperfusion, thereby
      increasing the chances of tissue hypoxia and intestinal ischaemia [Wells, 2012].
      Consensus is to withhold EN whilst the patient is receiving high dose intravenous
      vasopressor support. At the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) all
      patients admitted to the Adult Burns Unit (ABU) receive enteral feeds on
      admission, irrespective of whether they are receiving vasopressor support or not.
      METHOD: A retrospective medical record review was conducted at the ABU of CHBAH
      and included all adult burn ICU patients receiving concomitant EN and vasopressor
      support for at least two hours or more. The patient register was used to identify
      the patients admitted to the ICU during the 5-year period from 01 September 2010
      to 31 December 2015. The number of patients during this period totalled 1109, of
      which 475 were admitted to ICU. From this group, only 44 patients met the
      inclusion criteria (TBSA > 20%; and/or inhalation injury; mechanical ventilation)
      in addition to receiving concomitant EN and intravenous vasopressor support (i.e.
      adrenalin). RESULTS: Twenty-five percent of patients (11/44) experienced GIT
      upset and concomitant high aspirates (> 200 ml/6 hrs) on high doses of adrenalin.
      Only 9% (4/44) experienced vomiting (V), while 21% (9/44) experienced diarrhoea
      (D). In only 3 of the 44 patients (7%) were the enteral feeds stopped (V and D in
      1 patient; 1 had aspirates > 500 ml; 1 had high aspirates and D). None
      experienced thrombosis, ischaemia or bowel necrosis. CONCLUSION: In the majority
      of the haemodynamically unstable burns patients in ICU who received vasopressor
      support, EN was well tolerated. Even in the patients who experienced intolerance,
      there were no complications such as ischaemia or bowel necrosis. As such, it
      would appear that the administration of vasopressors in haemodynamically
      compromised burn patients is not a contraindication in carefully monitored EEN
      and ongoing EN. In this study, the concomitant use of EN and vasoactive
      substances did not place the patients at increased risk for ischaemia or NOBN.
      However, larger samples would need to be investigated to enable generalisation of
      the findings to the larger/general population of critically ill burns patients.

PMID- 28876694
TI  - COMPARING OUTCOMES AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC TOTALLY EXTRAPERITONEAL REPAIR VERSUS OPEN
      (LICHTENSTEIN) REPAIR OF INGUINOSCROTAL HERNIA AT DR GEORGE MUKHARI ACADEMIC
      HOSPITAL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inguinal hernia is a common surgical condition. Inguinal hernia can
      present with a wide variety of symptoms. It can even extend into the scrotum
      resulting in what is known as an inguinoscrotal hernia. At Dr George Mukhari
      Hospital, approximately 5-10% of patients with inguinal hernia present with
      inguinoscrotal hernia. There is paucity of data on the role of laparoscopy in the
      management of inguinoscrotal hernia. At our institution some of the patients with
      inguinoscrotal hernia are offered open (Lichtenstein) repair whilst others are
      offered totally extraperitoneal (TEP) laparoscopic repair. METHOD: We
      retrospectively reviewed patients' charts to collect information on demographics,
      comorbidities, smoking history, type of repair, operative time and length of
      hospital stay from 2014 to 2017. Patients were followed up telephonically for up
      to 3 years. With the telephonic follow-up we collected data on the time taken to
      resume normal activities after hernia repair, chronic groin pain, recurrence and
      seroma formation. RESULTS: Seventeen patients were offered open repair and 13
      were offered laparoscopic repair. Average age for patients offered laparoscopic
      repair was 48 years compared to 40 years in the open group. Operative time was
      longer with laparoscopic repair. In both groups, patients stayed one day in the
      hospital post repair. Time taken to return to normal activities was longer with
      open repair. Sixty-two percent of patients in the laparoscopic arm compared to
      88% of patients in the open arm were treated without postoperative complications.
      Two patients had recurrence, two had chronic groin pain and one developed seroma
      in the laparoscopic group versus one who had recurrence, one had chronic groin
      pain and none had seroma in the open group. No mortality was observed in both
      groups. CONCLUSION: Through our study we were able to show that laparoscopic
      repair of inguinoscrotal hernia is safe and has comparable postoperative
      complications to open repair. More studies are still needed on the role of
      laparoscopy in repairing inguinoscrotal hernia.

PMID- 28876695
TI  - THE ROLE OF PROCALCITONIN AS A DIAGNOSTIC MARKER OF BACTERIAL SEPSIS IN BURNS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with burn wounds are at high risk of infection. Since sepsis
      contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality, early diagnosis is
      essential. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a biomarker released in response to
      inflammation and specifically bacterial infection. It may therefore be a useful
      biomarker for sepsis in burns. METHOD: All adult patients admitted to two Burns
      Intensive Care Units in Johannesburg were included in a retrospective data
      review. Data from the preceding three years related to demographics and sepsis
      were collated. RESULTS: Records of 178 patients were reviewed. Young black males
      are most commonly admitted with no significant difference between the public and
      private sector. The most significant risk factor for sepsis is percentage total
      body surface area burned (p = 0.012). Significantly more infections occurred in
      public-sector patients with the public sector treating a greater percentage of
      patients with more severe burns (92.9 vs. 57.9, p = 0.001). A rise in PCT is a
      significant biomarker for bacterial infection early after a burn (p = 0.03) but
      not after day eight. PCT shows correlation with CRP as a biomarker for sepsis (p
      < 0.001), but not with other biomarkers. Patients who were on inotropes also had
      a significantly increased PCT level (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: While there is some
      evidence to suggest that PCT may be useful as an adjunct biomarker of infection
      in burn patients, this evidence is limited and insufficient to change current
      clinical guidelines.

PMID- 28876697
TI  - Exposure to key surgical procedures during specialist general surgical training
      in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The logged experience of specialist general surgical trainees has
      made it possible to analyse their surgical procedural exposure. METHOD: Logbooks
      submitted and meeting the minimum requirements for the six final examinations for
      the fellowship of the College of Surgeons of the CMSA between August 2010 and
      March 2013 were selected. Consolidated surgical procedural experience was
      analysed according to procedural category, extent of supervision, procedure
      complexity and university at which the trainee performed the procedures. RESULTS:
      The 95 logbooks entered into the study recorded 144 499 procedures, 60.6% of
      which were unsupervised, 18.5% supervised and 20.9% assisting another surgeon.
      Major and minor procedures made up 40.4% and 54.6%, respectively, with the
      remaining 5% categorised as 'other'. A breakdown of procedural exposure per
      category, including the main contributing or key procedure for each category, is
      presented. CONCLUSION: Large numbers of procedures are logged by trainees during
      their surgical training. Inter-university and trainee key procedural exposure in
      SA differ to a small degree but are striking in some categories. Exposure to key
      procedures is insufficient in some categories. We are currently unable to assess
      the quality of training and quality of surgical skills from such logbooks. A
      standardised electronic logbook will facilitate future analyses of trainee
      procedural exposure, but other tools will be required to assess the quality of
      surgical skills training.

PMID- 28876696
TI  - Developing a clinical model to predict the need for relaparotomy in severe intra
      abdominal sepsis secondary to complicated appendicitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Complex intra-abdominal sepsis secondary to acute appendicitis is
      common in South Africa, and management frequently involves relaparotomy. The
      decision to perform relaparotomy is often difficult, and this study aimed to
      develop a clinical model to aid the decision-making process. METHOD: The study
      was conducted from January 2008 to December 2012 at Edendale Hospital,
      Pietermaritzburg. All patients with intraoperatively confirmed acute appendicitis
      and all patients in this group who subsequently underwent relaparotomy were
      included. The clinical course, intraoperative findings and outcome of all
      patients were recorded until discharge (or death). Using a combination of
      preoperative and intraoperative parameters, a clinical model was developed to
      predict the need for relaparotomy. RESULTS: Of the total of 1 000 patients
      identified, 54.1% were males. The median age for all patients was 21 years. Of
      406 relaparotomies, 227 (55.9%) were planned and 179 (44.1%) on demand (expectant
      treatment). In the relaparotomy group, 367 patients (90.4%) had positive
      findings. Logistic regression analysis showed that the following four factors
      accurately predicted the need for subsequent relaparotomy: patients referred from
      any rural centre, duration of illness >5 days, heart rate >120 bpm, and
      perforation associated with generalised intraabdominal sepsis. Th is model had a
      predictive value of >90%. CONCLUSION: We have constructed a model that uses
      clinical data available at initial laparotomy to predict the need for subsequent
      relaparotomy in patients with complicated acute appendicitis. It is hoped that
      this model can be integrated into routine clinical practice, but further study is
      first needed to validate this model.

PMID- 28876698
TI  - An audit of trauma-related mortality in a provincial capital in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been shown repeatedly that hospital-based mortality data do
      not capture the actual mortality rate in South Africa, as many corpses are taken
      directly to the state mortuary. METHOD: A retrospective audit was conducted by
      reviewing all mortuary reports for the period 1 January 2010 - 31 December 2011.
      The data recorded included demographics, mechanism of trauma, and cause and site
      of death. RESULTS: A total of 1 105 trauma victims died. There were 930 males
      (84.2%) and 175 females (15.8%), of whom 615 were victims of blunt trauma (55.7%)
      and 490 victims of penetrating trauma (44.3%). The scenes of death were: on scene
      584 (52.9%), Edendale Hospital 259 (23.4%), Grey's Hospital 144 (13.0%),
      Northdale Hospital 68 (6.2%), and 'other' 50 (4.5%). The 'other' group comprised
      nine deaths at primary healthcare clinics and 41 at private hospitals in
      Pietermaritzburg. Of deaths related to blunt trauma, 153 (24.9%) were secondary
      to assault and 462 (75.1%) to a road traffic collision. Of the victims of
      penetrating trauma, 81 (36.9%) had sustained gunshot wounds and 309 (63.1%) stab
      wounds. The three leading causes of trauma-related deaths were head injuries
      (32.6%), polytrauma (29.7%) and chest injuries (27.4%). CONCLUSION:
      Pietermaritzburg has both a high rate of trauma-related mortality and an immature
      trauma system, resulting in a significant number of preventable deaths.

PMID- 28876699
TI  - Propeller flaps for lower-limb trauma.
AB  - Thee propeller flap has become a versatile and important component in our
      reconstructive algorithm following complex lower limb trauma. First described by
      Hyakusoku in 1991, it has since been adapted and modified by Hallock and Teo.
      This article outlines our experience specifically with perforator pedicled
      propeller flaps (as per the Tokyo consensus) for traumatic defects of the leg. In
      this procedure, the reconstructive surgeon skeletonises a single perforator and
      rotates the skin island on its axis between 90 degrees  and 180 degrees  to close
      the defect.The minor blade of the propeller may be designed to close the donor
      defect completely for the 180 degrees  version. The propeller flap has the
      advantages of local flaps (reliability, contour, texture, 'like-with-like') with
      additional versatility of design and donor site management, and requires minimal
      expertise and operative time.

PMID- 28876700
TI  - Regional anaesthesia for cleft lip surgery in a developing world setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of regional anaesthesia in cleft lip surgery in the
      developing world is not well documented. METHOD: A retrospective chart review of
      100 patients aged >14 years who had cleft lip surgery during an Operation Smile
      South Africa (OSSA) volunteer surgical programme in Madagascar during 2007 and
      2008. The nerve blocks used included a bilateral infraorbital nerve block, a
      dorsalnasal nerve block and a septal block supplemented with peri-incisional
      local in_ltration. Appropriateness of the regional anaesthesia alone for cleft
      lip surgery was determined by absence of any intraoperative complications,
      postoperative complications or conversions to general anaesthesia. RESULTS:
      Seventy-four patients commenced their operation under regional anaesthesia. There
      were no intraoperative or postoperative complications documented, and no patient
      required conversion to general anaesthesia. Two patients required additional
      analgesia in the immediate postoperative period. CONCLUSION: Regional anaesthesia
      for cleft lip surgery in patients >14 years of age was well tolerated and
      associated with few complications. It is a safe and effective option when used as
      the sole anaesthetic modality for cheiloplasty in the developing world.

PMID- 28876701
TI  - Haemangiopericytoma/solitary fibrous tumour of the greater omentum.
AB  - We report a rare case of haemangiopericytoma/solitary _brous tumour of the
      greater omentum in a 41-year-old woman. It presented as a large mobile abdominal
      mass measuring 30 * 24 * 8 cm. A computed tomography scan con_rmed the presence
      of a large vascular tumour, and biochemical tumour markers were non-contributory.
      The tumour was removed through a conventional laparotomy incision with the aid of
      a Ligasure dissector. There were no macroscopic metastases, and histologically it
      was benign. The size of >5 cm, however, suggests that it may have been malignant.
      In the absence of visible metastases and in view of the favourable histological
      features, it was decided to follow up the patient very closely and give further
      treatment if necessary.

PMID- 28876702
TI  - Largest recorded non-invasive true intrathoracic desmoid tumour.
AB  - Intrathoracic desmoid tumours are rare soft-tissue neoplasms arising from fascial
      or musculo-aponeurotic structures, accounting for less than 0.03% of all
      neoplasms. Most cases in fact represent intrathoracic extension of chest wall
      tumours. This case report describes the largest recorded true intrathoracic
      desmoid tumour without mediastinal or chest wall invasion. The tumour was
      completely excised through a left thoracotomy with negative tumour margins.
      Management of the patient will involve radiological surveillance. Desmoids are
      benign tumours that do not metastasise but have a high rate of recurrence,
      especially if tumour margins are positive after surgical resection. Complete
      surgical resection is the treatment of choice. Other treatment options include
      radiotherapy; non-steroidal inflammatory drugs or antioestrogen therapy
      (tamoxifen) or a combination thereof; and chemotherapy or targeted drug therapy.

PMID- 28876703
TI  - The mystical foot with pink mushrooms: Imaging of maduromycosis - a rarity in
      southern Africa.
AB  - Maduromycoses (Madura foot) are chronic granulomatous subcutaneous infections
      endemic to certain regions, but not southern Africa. The infection is caused by
      both pure fungi and bacteria. Imaging plays an important role in assessing the
      severity of disease and the direction of its spread, assisting in treatment
      planning and in the monitoring of treatment response. The typical 'dot-in-circle'
      sign on magnetic resonance imaging is diagnostic of Madura foot. We present the
      case of an adolescent South African boy who presented with fungoid growths on his
      foot, typical of this disease.

PMID- 28876704
TI  - Isolated gallbladder perforation following blunt abdominal trauma.
AB  - A 32-year-old man sustained an isolated perforation of the gallbladder following
      blunt abdominal trauma. A preoperative diagnosis was made on an ultrasound scan,
      which showed a pericholecystic fluid collection only. At laparotomy, a
      gallbladder perforation at the infundibulum was identified with a localised bile
      collection, warranting a cholecystectomy. Isolated gallbladder injury from blunt
      abdominal trauma is rare, and a high index of suspicion is required to establish
      the diagnosis. Cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice.

PMID- 28876705
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876706
TI  - [Acute kidney injury in 2017 - Management in a secondary care hospital: an
      example of interdisciplinary collaboration].
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) is frequent and can lead to serious complications. It
      is classified according to the degree of renal function impairment and
      classically divided into three categories: pre-renal, intrinsic and post-renal.
      Identification of risk factors and wise use of additional tests are crucial to
      the diagnosis, as there are numerous causes of AKI. Identification and specific
      treatment of the underlying mechanism are essential, all while protecting the
      kidney. Resorting to a nephrologist is systematic when there are red flags.
      Follow-up after resolution of AKI is important as the risk of developing a
      chronic kidney disease is increased.

PMID- 28876707
TI  - [Initial management of new onset ascites in patient with cirrhosis].
AB  - Ascites is the most frequent complication of cirrhosis and represents a
      significant change for the patient because the impact on mortality and quality of
      life is important. The management of a patient with initial onset of ascites
      includes a full history, a clinical exam and complementary analysis. This
      systematic approach allows an etiologic diagnosis. The aim of this article is to
      review the etiologies encountered in the initial onset of ascites in patient
      suffering from cirrhosis, to help the diagnosis and start initial management.

PMID- 28876708
TI  - [Creating a stroke unit in a community hospital improves the management of stroke
      patients].
AB  - Dramatic advances in recent years have changed the care of stroke patients.
      Creation of stroke hubs with centers and units achieved a significant reduction
      in mortality and morbidity. The indications for acute therapies such as
      intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular treatment target an increasing
      proportion of stroke patients. Early rehabilitation and multidisciplinary
      approaches have become part of the gold standard in stroke care. The creation of
      additional stroke units and strengthening local synergies should continue in
      order to propose the best medical treatments for all stroke patients.

PMID- 28876710
TI  - [Hospital pathway of complex patients in a medical service of a local Hospital].
AB  - In the current Swiss medical system, hospital care is provided by both university
      hospitals and so-called " peripheral " hospitals. While university hospitals
      offer advanced technology and a wide range of medical specialists, how is care
      organized within the smaller, less complex structure of a peripheral hospital ?
      In emergencies, although patients usually go to their local hospital, they should
      not be exposed to lower quality care. Quality treatment is guaranteed by a well
      organized structure, supported by a competent team of general doctors and
      specialists who have access to advanced technology. This article illustrates the
      journey of a typical patient presenting several common problems that make his
      case complex to manage, and also illustrates how the internal medicine department
      of a peripheral hospital operates.

PMID- 28876709
TI  - [Management and orientation of severely infected patients : relevance of a "
      Sepsis Fast-Track "].
AB  - Sepsis is a syndrome defined by a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a
      dysregulated host response to an infection. The early recognition of this
      syndrome in the emergency department (ED) can lead to a better prognosis, when
      associated with a standardized management focusing on identification of the
      infectious source, its treatment, and appropriate organ support. Therefore, the
      implementation of a " Sepsis Fast Track ", by analogy with similar protocols
      regarding stroke or ST-elevated myocardial infarct, deserves interest. The aim of
      this article is to review the available evidences that support an implementation
      of such an initiative, and to identify the key elements that permit its
      integration in the ED setting of a secondary-care hospital.

PMID- 28876711
TI  - [Post-graduate education in internal medicine : what do residents want ?]
AB  - The post-graduate education course in general internal medicine - which leads to
      the accreditation as a specialist - is established by l'Institut Suisse de
      Formation medicale (ISFM), one of the organs of the FMH (Federatio Medicorum
      Helveticorum) in collaboration with the Swiss Society of General Internal
      Medicine (SSGIM). This program sets inter alia the necessary learning steps and
      defines which tools are efficient in monitoring the teaching program. The
      specific goals defined in the course are not, however, easily reached,
      specifically in the internal medicine services of hospitals that are subject to
      organisational constraints. This is strongly highlighted in the assessments made
      by residents during these training years. It, therefore, seems necessary to
      implicate the residents more actively in the definition of the goals of their
      training to maintain and continuously improve the quality of their post-graduate
      education.

PMID- 28876713
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876712
TI  - [Ethics and the decision of cardiopulmonary resuscitation].
AB  - Following the guidelines of the Swiss Academy of Medical Science, most Swiss
      hospitals have implemented advanced directives that define what should be
      undertaken in case of cardiorespiratory arrest for every patient. This remains
      difficult to apply for physicians and difficult to understand for patients. From
      a medical perspective, some confusion occurs around medical directives.
      Difficulties include subjective misinterpretation of patient's quality of life,
      as well as decision making bias. In addition, patients overestimate the
      cardiopulmonary reanimation success rate, modify their choices with time and
      health status, and might lack their individual ability of discernment. Patient's
      autonomy must always be encouraged as long as it stays within the limits of
      medical indications.

PMID- 28876715
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876714
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876717
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876716
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876718
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876720
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876719
TI  - ?

PMID- 28876885
TI  - Inkjet-Printable Hydrochromic Paper for Encrypting Information and
      Anticounterfeiting.
AB  - Developing rewritable papers has gathered immense interest in recent times in
      view of developing sustainability in print media without exhausting environmental
      resources. We herein present a rapid and facile procedure for the fabrication of
      a communication medium by treating the surface of a paper with synthetic organic
      molecules, after which plain water could be used as an ink to print and reprint
      numerous times on the treated paper before disposal. Interestingly, as the paper
      comes in contact with water, the molecules are driven to reorganize in a slip
      stacked arrangement. This alters their ground and excited state properties by
      hydrogen-bond-assisted nonradiative decay, in which the associated changes are
      visible to the naked eye. The changes evolved are sensitive to the solubility
      parameter of the solvent and thermally reversible, thus linking the hydrochromic
      property to the paper. Against a background of concerns over a rise in
      counterfeiting and leaks of confidential information, prospects for encrypted
      communications and anticounterfeiting is herein demonstrated.

PMID- 28876886
TI  - Confined Catalysis in the g-C3N4/Pt(111) Interface: Feasible Molecule
      Intercalation, Tunable Molecule-Metal Interaction, and Enhanced Reaction Activity
      of CO Oxidation.
AB  - The deposition of a two-dimensional (2D) atomic nanosheet on a metal surface has
      been considered as a new route for tuning the molecule-metal interaction and
      surface reactivity in terms of the confinement effect. In this work, we use first
      principles calculations to systematically explore a novel nanospace constructed
      by placing a 2D graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheet over a Pt(111)
      surface. The confined catalytic activity in this nanospace is investigated using
      CO oxidation as a model reaction. With the inherent triangular pores in the g
      C3N4 overlayer being taken advantage of, molecules such as CO and O2 can diffuse
      to adsorb on the Pt(111) surface underneath the g-C3N4 overlayer. Moreover, the
      mechanism of intercalation is also elucidated, and the results reveal that the
      energy barrier depends mainly on the properties of the molecule and the channel.
      Importantly, the molecule-catalyst interaction can be tuned by the g-C3N4
      overlayer, considerably reducing the adsorption energy of CO on Pt(111) and
      leading to enhanced reactivity in CO oxidation. This work will provide important
      insight for constructing a promising nanoreactor in which the following is
      observed: The molecule intercalation is facile; the molecule-metal interaction is
      efficiently tuned; the metal-catalyzed reaction is promoted.

PMID- 28876888
TI  - Design of Surface-Coatable NIR-Responsive Fluorescent Nanoparticles with PEI
      Passivation for Bacterial Detection and Killing.
AB  - The ability to quickly detect and kill bacteria is crucial in the realm of
      antibiotic resistance. In this study, we synthesized a detection probe consisting
      of polyethylenimine (PEI)-passivated polydopamine-based fluorescent carbon
      (FDA:PEI) nanoparticles, generating a cationic adhesive material for bacterial
      detection that is surface-coatable, photothermal, and antibacterial. The cationic
      FDA:PEI nanoparticles effectively bound to the anionic bacterial cell wall,
      resulting in a dramatic quenching effect visible in fluorescence spectra and
      confocal images. In this fluorescence on/off system, FDA:PEI nanoparticles showed
      similar bacterial detection abilities between aqueous- and solid-phase assays.
      Scanning electron microscopy clearly showed the attachment of FDA:PEI
      nanoparticles to the surface of bacteria, both in solution and as a coating on
      the surface of a polypropylene film. In addition to detection, this versatile
      material was found to have an antibacterial potential, via near-infrared
      irradiation to induce a heat release, killing bacteria by thermolysis. Thus, by
      exploiting the cationic and catechol moieties on the surface of polydopamine
      carbon dots, we developed a novel bacterial-detection platform that can be used
      in a broad range of conditions.

PMID- 28876887
TI  - A Ratiometric Fluorescence Universal Platform Based on N, Cu Codoped Carbon Dots
      to Detect Metabolites Participating in H2O2-Generation Reactions.
AB  - In this work, a new kind of N, Cu codoped carbon dots (N/Cu-CDs) was prepared via
      a facile one-pot hydrothermal method by using citric acid monohydrate, copper
      acetate monohydrate and diethylenetriamine. The prepared N/Cu-CDs with a high
      quantum yield (50.1%) showed excitation-independent emission at 460 nm. The
      structure and fluorescence properties of N/Cu-CDs were characterized by high
      resolution transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectrofluorometer, FT
      IR spectrometer, UV-visible spectrophotometer and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy. N/Cu-CDs were applied to establishing a ratiometric fluorescence
      probe toward H2O2 based on the inner filter effect (IFE) between N/Cu-CDs and DAP
      (2,3-diaminophenazine, the oxidative product of o-phenylenediamine (OPD)), and
      provided a ratiometric fluorescence universal platform for detection of the
      metabolites participating in H2O2-generation reactions (cholesterol and
      xanthine). The proposed method was demonstrated to be ultrasensitive and highly
      selective for cholesterol and xanthine assay with detection limits of 0.03 and
      0.10 MUM, respectively. The fluorescence probe built was applied to the
      determination of cholesterol and xanthine in human serum with satisfactory
      results.

PMID- 28876889
TI  - Meta-Alkoxy-Substituted Difluoroboron Dibenzoylmethane Complexes as Environment
      Sensitive Materials.
AB  - The optical properties of meta-alkoxy-substituted difluoroboron dibenzoylmethane
      dyes were investigated in solution and in the solid state. Meta-alkoxy
      substitution induced strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) from the oxygen
      donating substituent to the halide and boron acceptors in the excited state, as
      compared to the pi-pi* transition that is observed with para-alkoxy substitution.
      The optical properties of para- and meta-substituted alkoxy boron dyes were
      evaluated by calculations, in dilute solution, and in solid-state films. When
      embedded in amorphous matrixes (e.g., PLA, PMMA, PS, cholesterol), all dyes
      showed fluorescence (F) and phosphorescence (P) emission. In this report, we show
      that meta-substitution resulted in enhanced solvatochromism and an increased
      phosphorescence-to-fluorescence ratio in solid-state films compared to analogous
      para-substituted samples. With enhanced phosphorescence intensity via the heavy
      atom effect, iodo-substituted dyes were further studied in PLA-PEG nanoparticles.
      Oxygen calibrations revealed stronger phosphorescence and a greater oxygen
      sensing range for the meta- versus para-alkoxy-substituted dyes, features that
      are important for oxygen-sensing materials design.

PMID- 28876891
TI  - Tumor pH-Responsive Release of Drug-Conjugated Micelles from Fiber Fragments for
      Intratumoral Chemotherapy.
AB  - The tumor accumulation of micelles is essential to enhance the cellular uptake
      and extend the release of chemotherapeutic agents. In the previous study
      camptothecin (CPT)-conjugated micelles (MCPT) were constructed with disulfide
      linkages and folate moieties for reduction-sensitive release and cell-selective
      uptake. This study proposes a strategy to integrate the promicelle polymers
      (PMCPT) into fiber fragments for intratumoral injection, realizing acid-liable
      release of PMCPT in response to acidic tumor microenvironment and spontaneous
      self-assembly into MCPT. Acid-liable 2-propionic-3-methylmaleic anhydride (CDM)
      linked poly(ethylene glycol) initiates the ring-opening polymerization of dl
      lactide as the fiber matrix. There is no apparent burst release of MCPT from
      fiber fragments and around 80% of accumulated releases after incubation in pH 6.5
      buffers for 40 days. Compared to MCPT freshly prepared via solvent evaporation,
      the micelles released from fiber fragments reveal similar profiles, such as
      folate-mediated cellular uptake and glutathione-sensitive drug release. Taking
      advantage of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect of tetraphenylethylene
      (TPE) derivatives, TPE-conjugated micelles (MTPE) have been successfully been
      used to track the self-assembly into micelles after release from fibers and
      subsequent cell internalization into cytosol. The self-assembly induced
      fluorescence light-up was also detected after intratumoral injection of fiber
      fragments. Compared with CPT-loaded fiber fragments and intratumoral or
      intravenous injection of free MCPT, the sustained release from fiber fragments
      and high accumulation of micelles in tumors result in significantly higher
      inhibition of tumor growths, prolongation of animal survival, and induction of
      tumor cell apoptosis. Thus, the integration of double targeting and double
      stimuli responsiveness into fragmented fibers provides a feasible strategy to
      realize the sustained micelle release from fibers and promote the therapeutic
      efficacy.

PMID- 28876890
TI  - Bioorthogonal Cycloadditions: Computational Analysis with the
      Distortion/Interaction Model and Predictions of Reactivities.
AB  - Bioorthogonal chemistry has had a major impact on the study of biological
      processes in vivo. Biomolecules of interest can be tracked by using probes and
      reporters that do not react with cellular components and do not interfere with
      metabolic processes in living cells. Much time and effort has been devoted to the
      screening of potential bioorthogonal reagents experimentally. This Account
      describes how our groups have performed computational screening of reactivity and
      mutual orthogonality. Our collaborations with experimentalists have led to the
      development of new and useful reactions. Dozens of bioorthogonal cycloadditions
      have been reported in the literature in the past few years, but as interest in
      tracking multiple targets arises, our computational screening has gained
      importance for the discovery of new mutually orthogonal bioorthogonal
      cycloaddition pairs. The reactivities of strained alkenes and alkynes with common
      1,3-dipoles such as azides, along with mesoionic sydnones and other novel 1,3
      dipoles, have been explored. Studies of "inverse-electron-demand" dienes such as
      triazines and tetrazines that have been used in bioorthogonal Diels-Alder
      cycloadditions are described. The color graphics we have developed give a
      snapshot of whether reactions are fast enough for cellular applications (green),
      adequately reactive for labeling (yellow), or only useful for synthesis or do not
      occur at all (red). The colors of each box give an instant view of rates, while
      bar graphs provide an analysis of the factors that control reactivity. This
      analysis uses the distortion/interaction or activation strain model of
      cycloaddition reactivity developed independently by our group and that of F.
      Matthias Bickelhaupt in The Netherlands. The model analyzes activation barriers
      in terms of the energy required to distort the reactants to the transition state
      geometry. This energy, called the distortion energy or activation strain,
      constitutes the major component of the activation energy. The strong bonding
      interaction between the termini of the two reactants, which we call the
      interaction energy, overcomes the distortion energy and leads to the new bonds in
      the products. This Account describes how we have analyzed and predicted
      bioorthogonal cycloaddition reactivity using the distortion/interaction model and
      how our experimental collaborators have employed these insights to create new
      bioorthogonal cycloadditions. The graphics we use document and predict which
      combinations of cycloadditions will be useful in bioorthogonal chemistry and
      which pairs of reactions are mutually orthogonal. For example, the fast reaction
      of 5-phenyl-1,2,4-triazine and a thiacycloheptyne will not interfere with the
      other fast reaction of 3,6-diphenyl-1,2,4,5-tetrazine and a cyclopropene. No
      cross reactions will occur, as these are very slow reactions.

PMID- 28876892
TI  - WO3 and W Thermal Atomic Layer Etching Using "Conversion-Fluorination" and
      "Oxidation-Conversion-Fluorination" Mechanisms.
AB  - The thermal atomic layer etching (ALE) of WO3 and W was demonstrated with new
      "conversion-fluorination" and "oxidation-conversion-fluorination" etching
      mechanisms. Both of these mechanisms are based on sequential, self-limiting
      reactions. WO3 ALE was achieved by a "conversion-fluorination" mechanism using an
      AB exposure sequence with boron trichloride (BCl3) and hydrogen fluoride (HF).
      BCl3 converts the WO3 surface to a B2O3 layer while forming volatile WOxCly
      products. Subsequently, HF spontaneously etches the B2O3 layer producing volatile
      BF3 and H2O products. In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) studies determined
      that the BCl3 and HF reactions were self-limiting versus exposure. The WO3 ALE
      etch rates increased with temperature from 0.55 A/cycle at 128  degrees C to 4.19
      A/cycle at 207  degrees C. W served as an etch stop because BCl3 and HF could not
      etch the underlying W film. W ALE was performed using a three-step "oxidation
      conversion-fluorination" mechanism. In this ABC exposure sequence, the W surface
      is first oxidized to a WO3 layer using O2/O3. Subsequently, the WO3 layer is
      etched with BCl3 and HF. SE could simultaneously monitor the W and WO3
      thicknesses and conversion of W to WO3. SE measurements showed that the W film
      thickness decreased linearly with number of ABC reaction cycles. W ALE was shown
      to be self-limiting with respect to each reaction in the ABC process. The etch
      rate for W ALE was ~2.5 A/cycle at 207  degrees C. An oxide thickness of ~20 A
      remained after W ALE, but could be removed by sequential BCl3 and HF exposures
      without affecting the W layer. These new etching mechanisms will enable the
      thermal ALE of a variety of additional metal materials including those that have
      volatile metal fluorides.

PMID- 28876893
TI  - Composite Gel Polymer Electrolyte for Improved Cyclability in Lithium-Oxygen
      Batteries.
AB  - Gel polymer electrolytes (GPE) and composite GPE (cGPE) using one-dimensional
      glass microfillers have been developed for their use in lithium-oxygen batteries.
      Using glass microfillers, tetraglyme solvent, UV-curable polymer, and lithium
      salt at various concentrations, the preparation of cGPE yielded free-standing
      films. These cGPEs, with 1 wt % of microfillers, demonstrated increased ionic
      conductivity and lithium transference number over GPEs at various concentrations
      of lithium salt. Improvements as high as 50% and 28% in lithium transference
      number were observed for 0.1 and 1.0 mol kg-1 salt concentrations, respectively.
      Lithium-oxygen batteries containing cGPE similarly showed superior
      charge/discharge cycling for 500 mAh g-1 cycle capacity with as high as 86% and
      400% increase in cycles for cGPE with 1.0 and 0.1 mol kg-1 over GPE. Results
      using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning
      electron microscopy revealed that the source of the improvement was the reduction
      of the rate of lithium carbonates formation on the surface of the cathode. This
      reduction in formation rate afforded by cGPE-containing batteries was possible
      due to the reduction of the rate of electrolyte decomposition. The increase in
      solvated to paired Li+ ratio at the cathode, afforded by increased lithium
      transference number, helped reduce the probability of superoxide radicals
      reacting with the tetraglyme solvent. This stabilization during cycling helped
      prolong the cycling life of the batteries.

PMID- 28876894
TI  - High-Efficiency Aqueous-Processed Polymer/CdTe Nanocrystals Planar Heterojunction
      Solar Cells with Optimized Band Alignment and Reduced Interfacial Charge
      Recombination.
AB  - Aqueous-processed nanocrystal solar cells have attracted increasing attention due
      to the advantage of its environmentally friendly nature, which provides a
      promising approach for large-scale production. The urgent affair is boosting the
      power conversion efficiency (PCE) for further commercial applications. The low
      PCE is mainly attributed to the imperfect device structure, which leads to
      abundant nonradiative recombination at the interfaces. In this work, an
      environmentally friendly and efficient method is developed to improve the
      performance of aqueous-processed CdTe nanocrystal solar cells. Polymer/CdTe
      planar heterojunction solar cells (PHSCs) with optimized band alignment are
      constructed, which results in reduced interfacial charge recombination, enhanced
      carrier collection efficiency and built-in field. Finally, a champion PCE of
      5.9%, which is a record for aqueous-processed solar cells based on CdTe
      nanocrystals, is achieved after optimizing the photovoltaic device.

PMID- 28876895
TI  - 3D Printing of Photocurable Cellulose Nanocrystal Composite for Fabrication of
      Complex Architectures via Stereolithography.
AB  - The advantages of 3D printing on cost, speed, accuracy, and flexibility have
      attracted several new applications in various industries especially in the field
      of medicine where customized solutions are highly demanded. Although this modern
      fabrication technique offers several benefits, it also poses critical challenges
      in materials development suitable for industry use. Proliferation of polymers in
      biomedical application has been severely limited by their inherently weak
      mechanical properties despite their other excellent attributes. Earlier works on
      3D printing of polymers focus mainly on biocompatibility and cellular viability
      and lack a close attention to produce robust specimens. Prized for superior
      mechanical strength and inherent stiffness, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) from
      abaca plant is incorporated to provide the necessary toughness for 3D printable
      biopolymer. Hence, this work demonstrates 3D printing of CNC-filled biomaterial
      with significant improvement in mechanical and surface properties. These findings
      may potentially pave the way for an alternative option in providing innovative
      and cost-effective patient-specific solutions to various fields in medical
      industry. To the best of our knowledge, this work presents the first successful
      demonstration of 3D printing of CNC nanocomposite hydrogel via stereolithography
      (SL) forming a complex architecture with enhanced material properties potentially
      suited for tissue engineering.

PMID- 28876896
TI  - Differential Kinobeads Profiling for Target Identification of Irreversible Kinase
      Inhibitors.
AB  - Chemoproteomics profiling of kinase inhibitors with kinobeads enables the
      assessment of inhibitor potency and selectivity for endogenously expressed
      protein kinases in cell lines and tissues. Using a small panel of targeted
      covalent inhibitors, we demonstrate the importance of measuring covalent target
      binding in live cells. We present a differential kinobeads profiling strategy for
      covalent kinase inhibitors where a compound is added either to live cells or to a
      cell extract that enables the comprehensive assessment of inhibitor selectivity
      for covalent and noncovalent targets. We found that Acalabrutinib, CC-292, and
      Ibrutinib potently and covalently bind TEC family kinases, but only Ibrutinib
      also potently binds to BLK. ZAK was identified as a submicromolar affinity
      Ibrutinib off-target due to covalent modification of Cys22. In contrast to
      Ibrutinib, 5Z-7-Oxozeaenol reacted with Cys150 next to the DFG loop,
      demonstrating an alternative route to covalent inactivation of this kinase, e.g.,
      to inhibit canonical TGF-beta dependent processes.

PMID- 28876897
TI  - Dynamic Equilibrium of Cardiac Troponin C's Hydrophobic Cleft and Its Modulation
      by Ca2+ Sensitizers and a Ca2+ Sensitivity Blunting Phosphomimic, cTnT(T204E).
AB  - Several studies have suggested that conformational dynamics are important in the
      regulation of thin filament activation in cardiac troponin C (cTnC); however,
      little direct evidence has been offered to support these claims. In this study, a
      dye homodimerization approach is developed and implemented that allows the
      determination of the dynamic equilibrium between open and closed conformations in
      cTnC's hydrophobic cleft. Modulation of this equilibrium by Ca2+, cardiac
      troponin I (cTnI), cardiac troponin T (cTnT), Ca2+-sensitizers, and a Ca2+
      desensitizing phosphomimic of cTnT (cTnT(T204E) is characterized. Isolated cTnC
      contained a small open conformation population in the absence of Ca2+ that
      increased significantly upon the addition of saturating levels of Ca2+. This
      suggests that the Ca2+-induced activation of thin filament arises from an
      increase in the probability of hydrophobic cleft opening. The inclusion of cTnI
      increased the population of open cTnC, and the inclusion of cTnT had the opposite
      effect. Samples containing Ca2+-desensitizing cTnT(T204E) showed a slight but
      insignificant decrease in open conformation probability compared to samples with
      cardiac troponin T, wild type [cTnT(wt)], while Ca2+ sensitizer treated samples
      generally increased open conformation probability. These findings show that an
      equilibrium between the open and closed conformations of cTnC's hydrophobic cleft
      play a significant role in tuning the Ca2+ sensitivity of the heart.

PMID- 28876899
TI  - Using Accurate Mass Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry with the MINE Database
      for Epimetabolite Annotation.
AB  - Mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics often detects statistically
      significant metabolites that cannot be readily identified. Without defined
      chemical structure, interpretation of the biochemical relevance is not feasible.
      Epimetabolites are produced from canonical metabolites by defined enzymatic
      reactions and may represent a large fraction of the structurally unidentified
      metabolome. We here present a systematic workflow for annotating unknown
      epimetabolites using high resolution gas chromatography-accurate mass
      spectrometry with multiple ionization techniques and stable isotope labeled
      derivatization methods. We first determine elemental formulas, which are then
      used to query the "metabolic in-silico expansion" database (MINE DB) to obtain
      possible molecular structures that are predicted by enzyme promiscuity from
      canonical pathways. Accurate mass fragmentation rules are combined with in silico
      spectra prediction programs CFM-ID and MS-FINDER to derive the best candidates.
      We validated the workflow by correctly identifying 10 methylated nucleosides and
      6 methylated amino acids. We then employed this strategy to annotate eight
      unknown compounds from cancer studies and other biological systems.

PMID- 28876898
TI  - Structural Basis of the Selectivity of GenN, an Aminoglycoside N
      Methyltransferase Involved in Gentamicin Biosynthesis.
AB  - Gentamicins are heavily methylated, clinically valuable pseudotrisaccharide
      antibiotics produced by Micromonospora echinospora. GenN has been characterized
      as an S-adenosyl-l-methionine-dependent methyltransferase with low sequence
      similarity to other enzymes. It is responsible for the 3"-N-methylation of 3"
      dehydro-3"-amino-gentamicin A2, an essential modification of ring III in the
      biosynthetic pathway to the gentamicin C complex. Purified recombinant GenN also
      efficiently catalyzes 3"-N-methylation of related aminoglycosides kanamycin B and
      tobramycin, which both contain an additional hydroxymethyl group at the C5"
      position in ring III. We have obtained eight cocrystal structures of GenN, at a
      resolution of 2.2 A or better, including the binary complex of GenN and S
      adenosyl-l-homocysteine (SAH) and the ternary complexes of GenN, SAH, and several
      aminoglycosides. The GenN structure reveals several features not observed in any
      other N-methyltransferase that fit it for its role in gentamicin biosynthesis.
      These include a novel N-terminal domain that might be involved in protein:protein
      interaction with upstream enzymes of the gentamicin X2 biosynthesis and two long
      loops that are involved in aminoglycoside substrate recognition. In addition, the
      analysis of structures of GenN in complex with different ligands, supported by
      the results of active site mutagenesis, has allowed us to propose a catalytic
      mechanism and has revealed the structural basis for the surprising ability of
      native GenN to act on these alternative substrates.

PMID- 28876900
TI  - Selective and Cleavable Extraction of Sialo-glycoproteins by Disulfide-Linked
      Amino-oxy-Functionalized Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticles.
AB  - The low abundance of sialo-glycoprotein hampered the separation, enrichment, and
      analysis of sialo-glycoproteins, which are critical for studying their functions.
      Here, we designed cleavable amino-oxy functionalized magnetic materials and
      employed to fast and selective isolate sialo-glycoproteins. This includes the
      ligation of disulfide-linked amino-oxy-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles with
      periodate-treated glycoproteins or cells, followed by magnetic separation. A
      reductive reagent could release the sialo-glycoproteins with small molecular
      fragments on the terminal of glycan chains, and the sialo-glycoproteins were
      analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. On-bead
      digestion of the peptides were analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry. The results
      indicated that this method could selectively separate the majority of cell
      surface sialo-glycoproteins.

PMID- 28876901
TI  - Flexible Graphene-Based Wearable Gas and Chemical Sensors.
AB  - Wearable electronics is expected to be one of the most active research areas in
      the next decade; therefore, nanomaterials possessing high carrier mobility,
      optical transparency, mechanical robustness and flexibility, lightweight, and
      environmental stability will be in immense demand. Graphene is one of the
      nanomaterials that fulfill all these requirements, along with other inherently
      unique properties and convenience to fabricate into different morphological
      nanostructures, from atomically thin single layers to nanoribbons. Graphene-based
      materials have also been investigated in sensor technologies, from chemical
      sensing to detection of cancer biomarkers. The progress of graphene-based
      flexible gas and chemical sensors in terms of material preparation, sensor
      fabrication, and their performance are reviewed here. The article provides a
      brief introduction to graphene-based materials and their potential applications
      in flexible and stretchable wearable electronic devices. The role of graphene in
      fabricating flexible gas sensors for the detection of various hazardous gases,
      including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen (H2), hydrogen sulfide
      (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and humidity in wearable
      technology, is discussed. In addition, applications of graphene-based materials
      are also summarized in detecting toxic heavy metal ions (Cd, Hg, Pb, Cr, Fe, Ni,
      Co, Cu, Ag), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including nitrobenzene,
      toluene, acetone, formaldehyde, amines, phenols, bisphenol A (BPA), explosives,
      chemical warfare agents, and environmental pollutants. The sensitivity,
      selectivity and strategies for excluding interferents are also discussed for
      graphene-based gas and chemical sensors. The challenges for developing future
      generation of flexible and stretchable sensors for wearable technology that would
      be usable for the Internet of Things (IoT) are also highlighted.

PMID- 28876902
TI  - Amino Acid Functionalized Inorganic Nanoparticles as Cutting-Edge Therapeutic and
      Diagnostic Agents.
AB  - The field of medical diagnostics and therapeutics is being revolutionized by
      nanotechnology, from targeted drug delivery to cancer immunotherapy. Inorganic
      nanoparticles are widely used, albeit problems with agglutination, cytotoxicity,
      free radical generation, and instability in some biological environments limits
      their utility. Conjugation of biomolecules such as peptides to the surface of
      nanoparticles can mitigate such problems, as well as confer specialized
      theranostic (therapeutic and/or diagnostic) properties, useful across biomedical
      applications such as vaccines, drug delivery, and in vivo imaging. Coating with
      amino acids, rather than peptides, offers further a highly cost-effective
      approach (due to their ease of purification and availability), but is currently
      an underutilized way to decrease toxicity and enhance stability. Amino acid
      molecules are small (<200 Da) and have both positive and negative charge groups
      (zwitterionic) facilitating charge-specific molecule binding. Additionally, amino
      acids exert by themselves some useful biological functions, with antibacterial
      and viability enhancing properties (for eukaryotic cells). Overall particle size,
      nanoparticle core, and the specific amino acid used to functionalize their
      surface influence their biodistribution, and their effects on host immunity. In
      this review, we provide for the first time an overview of this emerging field,
      and identify gaps in knowledge for future research.

PMID- 28876903
TI  - Label-Free Detection of Bacillus anthracis Spore Uptake in Macrophage Cells Using
      Analytical Optical Force Measurements.
AB  - Understanding the interaction between macrophage cells and Bacillus anthracis
      spores is of significant importance with respect to both anthrax disease
      progression, spore detection for biodefense, as well as understanding cell
      clearance in general. While most detection systems rely on specific molecules,
      such as nucleic acids or proteins and fluorescent labels to identify the
      target(s) of interest, label-free methods probe changes in intrinsic properties,
      such as size, refractive index, and morphology, for correlation with a particular
      biological event. Optical chromatography is a label free technique that uses the
      balance between optical and fluidic drag forces within a microfluidic channel to
      determine the optical force on cells or particles. Here we show an increase in
      the optical force experienced by RAW264.7 macrophage cells upon the uptake of
      both microparticles and B. anthracis Sterne 34F2 spores. In the case of spores,
      the exposure was detected in as little as 1 h without the use of antibodies or
      fluorescent labels of any kind. An increase in the optical force was also seen in
      macrophage cells treated with cytochalasin D, both with and without a subsequent
      exposure to spores, indicating that a portion of the increase in the optical
      force arises independent of phagocytosis. These results demonstrate the
      capability of optical chromatography to detect subtle biological differences in a
      rapid and sensitive manner and suggest future potential in a range of
      applications, including the detection of biological threat agents for biodefense
      and pathogens for the prevention of sepsis and other diseases.

PMID- 28876904
TI  - Role of Biocatalysis in Sustainable Chemistry.
AB  - Based on the principles and metrics of green chemistry and sustainable
      development, biocatalysis is both a green and sustainable technology. This is
      largely a result of the spectacular advances in molecular biology and
      biotechnology achieved in the past two decades. Protein engineering has enabled
      the optimization of existing enzymes and the invention of entirely new
      biocatalytic reactions that were previously unknown in Nature. It is now
      eminently feasible to develop enzymatic transformations to fit predefined
      parameters, resulting in processes that are truly sustainable by design. This
      approach has successfully been applied, for example, in the industrial synthesis
      of active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition to the use of protein
      engineering, other aspects of biocatalysis engineering, such as substrate,
      medium, and reactor engineering, can be utilized to improve the efficiency and
      cost-effectiveness and, hence, the sustainability of biocatalytic reactions.
      Furthermore, immobilization of an enzyme can improve its stability and enable its
      reuse multiple times, resulting in better performance and commercial viability.
      Consequently, biocatalysis is being widely applied in the production of
      pharmaceuticals and some commodity chemicals. Moreover, its broader application
      will be further stimulated in the future by the emerging biobased economy.

PMID- 28876905
TI  - Specificity and Speed: Tethered Photopharmacology.
AB  - Genetics and pharmacology are often seen as two distinct approaches to
      interrogating, elucidating, and manipulating biological systems. The former is
      renowned for its precision whereas the latter for its fast kinetics,
      reversibility, and practicality. Here, we show that both can be joined as
      "tethered pharmacology", wherein a genetically programmed bioconjugation site
      provides selectivity and a tethered pharmacophore provides function. The speed of
      onset, and especially cessation, of pharmacological activity can be greatly
      enhanced by incorporating photoswitches and using light as the trigger ("tethered
      photopharmacology"). Genetically encoded, tethered photopharmacology is a variant
      of optogenetics and could even play a role in medicine wherever gene therapy is
      viable. However, gene therapy may not be necessary if sufficiently selective
      tethering strategies that operate on wild-type receptors can be developed.

PMID- 28876906
TI  - Water Issues Related to Transitioning from Conventional to Unconventional Oil
      Production in the Permian Basin.
AB  - The Permian Basin is being transformed by the "shale revolution" from a major
      conventional play to the world's largest unconventional play, but water
      management is critical in this semiarid region. Here we explore evolving issues
      associated with produced water (PW) management and hydraulic fracturing water
      demands based on detailed well-by-well analyses. Our results show that although
      conventional wells produce ~13 times more water than oil (PW to oil ratio, PWOR =
      13), this produced water has been mostly injected back into pressure-depleted oil
      producing reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery. Unconventional horizontal wells
      use large volumes of water for hydraulic fracturing that increased by a factor of
      ~10-16 per well and ~7-10 if normalized by lateral well length (2008-2015).
      Although unconventional wells have a much lower PWOR of 3 versus 13 from
      conventional wells, this PW cannot be reinjected into the shale reservoirs but is
      disposed into nonproducing geologic intervals that could result in overpressuring
      and induced seismicity. The potential for PW reuse from unconventional wells is
      high because PW volumes can support hydraulic fracturing water demand based on
      2014 data. Reuse of PW with minimal treatment (clean brine) can partially
      mitigate PW injection concerns while reducing water demand for hydraulic
      fracturing.

PMID- 28876907
TI  - One-Step Production of Amphiphilic Nanofibrillated Cellulose Using a Cellulose
      Producing Bacterium.
AB  - Nanofibrillated bacterial cellulose (NFBC) is produced by culturing a cellulose
      producing bacterium (Gluconacetobacter intermedius NEDO-01) with rotation or
      agitation in medium supplemented with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). Despite a
      high yield and dispersibility in water, the product immediately aggregates in
      organic solvents. To broaden its applicability, we prepared amphiphilic NFBC by
      culturing strain NEDO-01 in medium supplemented with hydroxyethylcellulose or
      hydroxypropylcellulose instead of CMC. Transmission electron microscopy analysis
      revealed that the resultant materials (HE-NFBC and HP-NFBC, respectively)
      comprised relatively uniform fibers with diameters of 33 +/- 7 and 42 +/- 8 nm,
      respectively. HP-NFBC was dispersible in polar organic solvents such as methanol,
      acetone, isopropyl alcohol, acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and
      dimethylformamide, and was also dispersible in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)
      by solvent mixing using THF. HP-NFBC/PMMA composite films were highly transparent
      and had a higher tensile strength than neat PMMA film. Thus, HP-NFBC has a broad
      range of applications, including as a filler material.

PMID- 28876908
TI  - Three-Dimensional Electroconductive Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels Incorporated with
      Carbon Nanotubes and Polypyrrole by Catechol-Mediated Dispersion Enhance
      Neurogenesis of Human Neural Stem Cells.
AB  - Electrically conductive hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels incorporated with single
      walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and/or polypyrrole (PPy) were developed to promote
      differentiation of human neural stem/progenitor cells (hNSPCs). The CNT and PPy
      nanocomposites, which do not easily disperse in aqueous phases, dispersed well
      and were efficiently incorporated into catechol-functionalized HA (HA-CA)
      hydrogels by the oxidative catechol chemistry used for hydrogel cross-linking.
      The prepared electroconductive HA hydrogels provided dynamic, electrically
      conductive three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix environments that were
      biocompatible with hNSPCs. The HA-CA hydrogels containing CNT and/or PPy
      significantly promoted neuronal differentiation of human fetal neural stem cells
      (hfNSCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural progenitor cells
      (hiPSC-NPCs) with improved electrophysiological functionality when compared to
      differentiation of these cells in a bare HA-CA hydrogel without electroconductive
      motifs. Calcium channel expression was upregulated, depolarization was activated,
      and intracellular calcium influx was increased in hNSPCs that were differentiated
      in 3D electroconductive HA-CA hydrogels; these data suggest a potential mechanism
      for stem cell neurogenesis. Overall, our bioinspired, electroconductive HA
      hydrogels provide a promising cell-culture platform and tissue-engineering
      scaffold to improve neuronal regeneration.

PMID- 28876909
TI  - Challenges in Coupling Acidity and Salinity Transport in Porous Media.
AB  - Salinity is an increasingly prescient issue in reactive transport, from low
      salinity water flooding to fracking brine leakage. Of primary concern is the
      effect of salinity on surface chemistry. Transport and batch experiments show a
      strong coupling of salinity and acidity through chemical interactions at the
      mineral-liquid interface. This coupling is ascribed to the combined effects of
      ionic strength on electrostatic behavior of the interface and competitive
      sorption between protons and other cations for binding sites on the surface. The
      effect of these mechanisms is well studied in batch settings and readily
      describes observed behavior. In contrast, the transport literature is sparse,
      primarily applied to synthetic materials, and offers only qualitative agreement
      with observations. To address, this gap in knowledge, we conduct a suite of
      column flood experiments through silica sand, systematically varying salinity and
      acidity conditions. Experiments are compared to a reactive transport model
      incorporating the proposed coupling mechanisms. The results highlight the
      difficulty in applying such models to realistic media under both basic and acidic
      conditions with a single set of parameters. The analysis and experimental results
      show the observed error is the result of electrostatic assumptions within the
      surface chemistry model and provide a strong constraint on further model
      development.

PMID- 28876910
TI  - Dynamic Transgenerational Fate of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Dioxins/Furans in
      Lactating Cows and Their Offspring.
AB  - We report on two farms in Switzerland heavily contaminated by polychlorinated
      biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins (PCDD/Fs), occurring in the first case from diffuse
      sources and in the second case from PCB-containing wall paint. Extensive
      measurements of PCBs and PCDD/Fs on site (soil, forage, and paint) and in cattle
      (blood, fat, and milk) allowed validation of our novel dynamic toxicokinetic
      model, which includes the transfer of contaminants from the mother cows to their
      suckling calf and the uptake of soil by grazing cattle. We show that for calves,
      the mother milk is the main uptake route of contaminants. For both cows and
      calves, ingestion of contaminated soil, although often overlooked, is an
      appreciable uptake path. The remediation of the contaminated stable lead to a 2-3
      fold reduction of the PCB levels in animals within one year. The transfer of
      animals to an uncontaminated mountain site during summer proved to be an
      effective decontamination procedure with up to 50% reduction of the levels within
      three months. Our study calls for a rapid removal of PCB-containing materials in
      animal husbandry farms and shows that the diffuse contamination of soils will
      remain a source for PCBs and PCDD/Fs in our food chain for decades to come.

PMID- 28876911
TI  - Interaction of Engineered Nanoparticles with the Agri-environment.
AB  - Nanoparticles with their unique surface properties can modulate the
      physiological, biochemical, and physicochemical pathways, such as photosynthesis,
      respiration, nitrogen metabolism, and solute transport. In this context,
      researchers have developed a wide range of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) for
      the improvement of growth and productivity by modulating the metabolic pathways
      in plants. This class of tailor-made materials can potentially lead to the
      development of a new group of agrochemical nanofertilizers. However, there are
      reports that engineered nanomaterials could impart phytotoxicity to edible and
      medicinal plants. On the contrary, there is a series of ENMs that might be
      detrimental when applied directly and/or indirectly to the plants. These
      particles can sometimes readily aggregate and dissolute in the immediate
      vicinity; the free ions released from the nanomatrix can cause serious tissue
      injury and membrane dysfunction to the plant cell through oxidative stress. On
      that note, thorough studies on uptake, translocation, internalization, and
      nutritional quality assessment must be carried out to understand ENM-plant
      interactions. This review critically discusses the possible beneficial or adverse
      aftereffect of nanofertilizers in the immediate environment to interrelate the
      impacts of ENMs on the crop health and food security management.

PMID- 28876912
TI  - Stochastic GW Calculations for Molecules.
AB  - Quasiparticle (QP) excitations are extremely important for understanding and
      predicting charge transfer and transport in molecules, nanostructures, and
      extended systems. Since density functional theory (DFT) within the Kohn-Sham (KS)
      formulation does not provide reliable QP energies, many-body perturbation
      techniques such as the GW approximation are essential. The main practical
      drawback of GW implementations is the high computational scaling with system
      size, prohibiting its use in extended, open boundary systems with many dozens of
      electrons or more. Recently, a stochastic formulation of GW (sGW) was presented
      (Phys. Rev. Lett. 2014, 113, 076402) with a near-linear-scaling complexity,
      illustrated for a series of silicon nanocrystals reaching systems of more than
      3000 electrons. This advance provides a route for many-body calculations on very
      large systems that were impossible with previous approaches. While earlier we
      have shown the gentle scaling of sGW, its accuracy was not extensively
      demonstrated. Therefore, we show that this new sGW approach is very accurate by
      calculating the ionization energies of a group of sufficiently small molecules
      where a comparison to other GW codes is still possible. Using a set of 10 such
      molecules, we demonstrate that sGW provides reliable vertical ionization energies
      in close agreement with benchmark deterministic GW results (J. Chem. Theory
      Comput, 2015, 11, 5665), with mean (absolute) deviation of 0.05 and 0.09 eV. For
      completeness, we also provide a detailed review of the sGW theory and numerical
      implementation.

PMID- 28876913
TI  - Stereoselective Bioaccumulation of Water and Soil-Associated Dufulin Enantiomers
      in Tubifex.
AB  - In this study, the stereoselective bioaccumulation of rac-dufulin, pure S-(+)
      dufulin, and pure R-(-)-dufulin in Tubifex (Oligochaeta, Tubificida) were
      analyzed in spiked-water and spiked-soil systems at low and high dose levels. In
      the bioaccumulation experiments treated with rac-dufulin, the enantioselective
      behaviors of the enantiomers show that the concentrations of R-(-)-dufulin are
      higher than those of S-(+)-dufulin at two dose levels. However, when treated with
      solely pure S-(+)-dufulin and R-(-)-dufulin, no significant difference of
      concentrations was detected in Tubifex. Furthermore, the calculated accumulation
      factors in Tubifex indicated that dufulin (racemic or the pure enantiomers) in
      the spiked-soil treatments had higher bioaccumulation potential than in the
      spiked-water treatments. The spiked-soil experiments revealed that the
      dissipation of dufulin in soil was not enantioselective at the enantiomer levels
      and Tubifex could reduce the concentrations of dufulin in the underlying solid
      matrix and accelerate its repair and detoxification process.

PMID- 28876914
TI  - REMPI Spectroscopy of Laser Desorbed Guanosines.

PMID- 28876915
TI  - Effects of Polar Bear and Killer Whale Derived Contaminant Cocktails on Marine
      Mammal Immunity.
AB  - Most controlled toxicity studies use single chemical exposures that do not
      represent the real world situation of complex mixtures of known and unknown
      natural and anthropogenic substances. In the present study, complex contaminant
      cocktails derived from the blubber of polar bears (PB; Ursus maritimus) and
      killer whales (KW; Orcinus orca) were used for in vitro concentration-response
      experiments with PB, cetacean and seal spp. immune cells to evaluate the effect
      of realistic contaminant mixtures on various immune functions. Cytotoxic effects
      of the PB cocktail occurred at lower concentrations than the KW cocktail (1 vs 16
      MUg/mL), likely due to differences in contaminant profiles in the mixtures
      derived from the adipose of each species. Similarly, significant reduction of
      lymphocyte proliferation occurred at much lower exposures in the PB cocktail
      (EC50: 0.94 vs 6.06 MUg/mL; P < 0.01), whereas the KW cocktail caused a much
      faster decline in proliferation (slope: 2.9 vs 1.7; P = 0.04). Only the KW
      cocktail modulated natural killer (NK) cell activity and neutrophil and monocyte
      phagocytosis in a concentration- and species-dependent manner. No clear
      sensitivity differences emerged when comparing cetaceans, seals and PB. Our
      results showing lower effect levels for complex mixtures relative to single
      compounds suggest that previous risk assessments underestimate the effects of
      real world contaminant exposure on immunity. Our results using blubber-derived
      contaminant cocktails add realism to in vitro exposure experiments and confirm
      the immunotoxic risk marine mammals face from exposure to complex mixtures of
      environmental contaminants.

PMID- 28876917
TI  - Transformation of Phosphorus during (Hydro)thermal Treatments of Solid Biowastes:
      Reaction Mechanisms and Implications for P Reclamation and Recycling.
AB  - Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for all organisms, thus playing unique
      and critical roles at the food-energy-water nexus. Most P utilized by human
      activities eventually converges into various solid biowastes, such as crop
      biomass, animal manures, and sewage sludges. Therefore, integration of efficient
      P recovery practices into solid biowaste management will not only significantly
      reduce the dependence on limited geological P resources but also reduce P runoff
      and related water contamination issues associated with traditional waste
      management strategies. This study reviews the applications of (hydro)thermal
      techniques for the treatment of solid biowastes, which can greatly facilitate P
      recovery in addition to waste volume reduction, decontamination, and energy
      recovery. Research showed that P speciation (including molecular moiety,
      complexation state, and mineralogy) can experience significant changes during
      (hydro)thermal treatments, and are impacted by treatment techniques and
      conditions. Changes in P speciation and overall properties of the products can
      alter the mobility and bioavailability of P, and subsequent P reclamation and
      recycling efficiency of the treatment products. This review summarizes recent
      progresses in this direction, identifies the challenges and knowledge gaps, and
      provides a foundation for future research efforts targeting at sustainable
      management of nutrient-rich biowastes.

PMID- 28876916
TI  - Molecular Routes to Group IV Magnesium and Calcium Nanocrystalline Ceramics.
AB  - The effect of alkaline-earth-metal alkoxides on the protonolysis of Cp2M'Cl2 (M'
      = Ti, Zr, Hf; Cp = cyclopentadiene) was investigated. This approach enabled the
      design of compounds with well-defined molecular structures to generate high
      purity binary metal oxides. Single-source molecular precursors with structures of
      [M2M'2(MU3-OEt)2(MU-OEt)4(OEt)6(EtOH)4] with M = Mg and M' = Ti (1), Zr (2), and
      Hf (3), [Ca6Ti4(MU6-O)2(MU4-O)2(MU3-OEt)12(OEt)12(EtOH)6Cl4] (4), and [M2M'2(MU4
      O)(MU-OEt)5(OEt)4(EtOH)4Cl]n with M = Ca and M' = Zr (5) and Hf (6) were prepared
      via elimination of the cyclopentadienyl ring from Cp2M'Cl2 as CpH in the presence
      of M(OEt)2 and ethanol (EtOH) as a source of protons. Meanwhile, similar
      reactions involving the initial substitution of Cl ligands by OEt groups in
      Cp2M'Cl2 (M' = Ti, Zr, Hf) resulted in the formation of [M2M'2(MU3-OEt)2(MU
      OEt)4(OEt)6(EtOH)4] with M = Ca and M' = Ti (7), Zr (8), and Hf (9). The
      precursors were characterized by elemental analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and single
      crystal X-ray structural analysis. Magnesium compounds 1-3 decomposed at 750-850 
      degrees C to give MgTiO3 along with small amounts of Mg2TiO4, Mg2Zr5O12, or
      Mg2Hf5O12 binary metal oxides. The thermolysis of calcium compounds 4 and 7-9 led
      to highly pure CaTiO3, CaZrO3, or CaHfO3 perovskite-like oxide particles with
      diameters of 20-30 nm.

PMID- 28876918
TI  - Simulating Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Transport in Surface Water Systems Using
      the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP).
AB  - Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Environmental Protection
      Agency (EPA) is required to perform new chemical reviews of nanomaterials
      identified in premanufacture notices. However, environmental fate models
      developed for traditional contaminants are limited in their ability to simulate
      nanomaterials' environmental behavior by incomplete understanding and
      representation of the processes governing nanomaterial distribution in the
      environment and by scarce empirical data quantifying the interaction of
      nanomaterials with environmental surfaces. In this study, the well-known Water
      Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP) was updated to incorporate particle
      collision rate and particle attachment efficiency to simulate multiwalled carbon
      nanotube (MWCNT) fate and transport in surface waters. Heteroaggregation
      attachment efficiencies (alphahet) values derived from sediment attachment
      studies are used to parametrize WASP for simulation of MWCNTs transport in Brier
      Creek, a coastal plain river located in central eastern Georgia, and a tributary
      to the Savannah River. Simulations using a constant MWCNT load of 0.1 kg d-1 in
      the uppermost Brier Creek water segment showed that MWCNTs were present
      predominantly in the Brier Creek water column, while downstream MWCNT surface and
      deep sediment concentrations exhibited a general increase with time and distance
      from the source, suggesting that MWCNT releases could have increasing ecological
      impacts in the benthic region over long time frames.

PMID- 28876919
TI  - Cirsium maritimum Makino Inhibits the Antigen/Immunoglobulin-E-Mediated Allergic
      Response In Vitro and In Vivo.
AB  - We investigated whether Cirsium maritimum Makino can inhibit immunoglobulin-E
      mediated allergic response in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells and passive
      cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) in BALB/c mice. In vitro, the ethyl acetate extract
      of C. maritimum Makino (ECMM) significantly inhibited beta-hexosaminidase release
      and decreased intracellular Ca2+ levels in RBL-2H3 cells. Moreover, ECMM leaves
      more strongly suppressed the release of beta-hexosaminidase than ECMM flowers.
      ECMM leaves also significantly suppressed the PCA reaction in the murine model.
      High-performance liquid chromatography and 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance
      indicated that cirsimaritin, a flavonoid, was concentrated in active fractions of
      the extract. Our findings suggest that ECMM leaves have a potential regulatory
      effect on allergic reactions that may be mediated by mast cells. Furthermore,
      cirsimaritin may be the active anti-allergic component in C. maritimum Makino.

PMID- 28876920
TI  - Oxidative Uranium Release from Anoxic Sediments under Diffusion-Limited
      Conditions.
AB  - Uranium (U) contamination occurs as a result of mining and ore processing; often
      in alluvial aquifers that contain organic-rich, reduced sediments that accumulate
      tetravalent U, U(IV). Uranium(IV) is sparingly soluble, but may be mobilized upon
      exposure to nitrate (NO3-) and oxygen (O2), which become elevated in groundwater
      due to seasonal fluctuations in the water table. The extent to which oxidative U
      mobilization can occur depends upon the transport properties of the sediments,
      the rate of U(IV) oxidation, and the availability of inorganic reductants and
      organic electron donors that consume oxidants. We investigated the processes
      governing U release upon exposure of reduced sediments to artificial groundwater
      containing O2 or NO3- under diffusion-limited conditions. Little U was mobilized
      during the 85-day reaction, despite rapid diffusion of groundwater within the
      sediments and the presence of nonuraninite U(IV) species. The production of
      ferrous iron and sulfide in conjunction with rapid oxidant consumption suggested
      that the sediments harbored large concentrations of bioavailable organic carbon
      that fueled anaerobic microbial respiration and stabilized U(IV). Our results
      suggest that seasonal influxes of O2 and NO3- may cause only localized
      mobilization of U without leading to export of U from the reducing sediments when
      ample organic carbon is present.

PMID- 28876921
TI  - Binding of Gallic Acid and Epigallocatechin Gallate to Heat-Unfolded Whey
      Proteins at Neutral pH Alters Radical Scavenging Activity of in Vitro Protein
      Digests.
AB  - Preheated (80  degrees C for 9 min) whey protein isolate (HWPI) was reacted with
      20, 120, and 240 MUmol/g (protein basis) gallic acid (GA) or epigallocatechin
      gallate (EGCG) at neutral pH and 25  degrees C. Isothermal titration calorimetry
      and fluorometry showed a similar trend that GA binding to HWPI was moderate but
      weaker than EGCG binding. However, the shift of maximal fluorescence emission
      wavelength in opposite directions in response to GA (blue) and EGCG (red)
      suggests discrepant binding patterns. Electrophoresis results showed that EGCG
      induced formation of HWPI complexes while GA only had a marginal effect. Both
      free and phenolic-bound HWPI exhibited mild antiradical activity. However, when
      subjected to in vitro digestion, synergistic radical-scavenging activity was
      produced between the phenolics and peptides with the highest synergism being
      observed on 120 MUmol/g phenolics.

PMID- 28876922
TI  - Rheological Enhancement of Pork Myofibrillar Protein-Lipid Emulsion Composite
      Gels via Glucose Oxidase Oxidation/Transglutaminase Cross-Linking Pathway.
AB  - Porcine myofibrillar protein (MP) was modified with glucose oxidase (GluOx)-iron
      that produces hydroxyl radicals then subjected to microbial transglutaminase
      (TGase) cross-linking in 0.6 M NaCl at 4  degrees C. The resulting aggregation
      and gel formation of MP were examined. The GluOx-mediated oxidation promoted the
      formation of both soluble and insoluble protein aggregates via disulfide bonds
      and occlusions of hydrophobic groups. The subsequent TGase treatment converted
      protein aggregates into highly cross-linked polymers. MP-lipid emulsion composite
      gels formed with such polymers exhibited markedly enhanced gelling capacity: up
      to 4.4-fold increases in gel firmness and 3.5-fold increases in gel elasticity
      over nontreated protein. Microstructural examination showed small oil droplets
      dispersed in a densely packed gel matrix when MP was oxidatively modified, and
      the TGase treatment further contributed to such packing. The enzymatic GluOx
      oxidation/TGase treatment shows promise to improve the textural properties of
      emulsified meat products.

PMID- 28876924
TI  - Reversible Exchange of L-Type and Bound-Ion-Pair X-Type Ligation on Cadmium
      Selenide Quantum Belts.
AB  - CdSe quantum belts of composition {CdSe[n-octylamine]0.53} and protic acids HX (X
      = Cl, Br, NO3, acetate (OAc), and benzoate (OBz)) react to exchange the L-type
      amine ligation to bound-ion-pair X-type ligation. The latter ligation has X-
      anions bound to the nanocrystal surfaces and closely associated LH+ counter
      cations (protonated n-octylamine or tri-n-octylphosphine (TOP) to balance the
      surface charges. The compositions of the exchanged QBs are {CdSe[Br]0.44[n
      octylammonium]0.41}, {CdSe[NO3]0.10[TOPH]0.12}, {CdSe[OBz]0.08[n
      octylammonium]0.02[TOPH]0.06}, and {CdSe[OAc]0.16[n
      octylammonium]0.02[TOPH]0.14}. (The HCl-exchanged QBs are insufficiently stable
      for elemental analysis.) The bound-ion-pair X-type ligation is fully reversed to
      L-type n-octylamine ligation in the cases of X = NO3, acetate, and benzoate. The
      ligand exchanges are monitored by absorption spectroscopy, and the exchanged,
      bound-ion-pair X-type ligated nanocrystals are characterized by a range of
      methods.

PMID- 28876925
TI  - On the Calculation of Acyl Chain Order Parameters from Lipid Simulations.
AB  - For molecular dynamics simulations of biological membrane systems to live up to
      the potential of providing accurate atomic level detail into membrane properties
      and functions, it is essential that the force fields used to model such systems
      are as accurate as possible. One membrane property that is often used to assess
      force field accuracy is the carbon-hydrogen (or carbon-deuterium) order
      parameters of the lipid tails, which can be accurately measured using
      experimental NMR techniques. There are a variety of analysis tools available to
      calculate these order parameters from simulations and it is essential that these
      computational tools work correctly to ensure the accurate assessment of the
      simulation force fields. In this work we compare many of these computational
      tools for calculating the order parameters of POPC membranes. While tools that
      work on all-atom systems and tools that work on saturated lipid tails in general
      work extremely well, we demonstrate that the majority of the tested tools that
      calculate the order parameters for unsaturated united-atom lipid tails do so
      incorrectly. We identify tools that do perform accurate calculations and include
      one such program with this work, enabling rapid and accurate calculation of
      united-atom lipid order parameters. Furthermore, we discuss cases in which it is
      nontrivial to appropriately predict the unsaturated carbon order parameters in
      united-atom systems. Finally, we examine order parameter splitting for carbon 2
      in sn-2 lipid chains, demonstrating substantial deviations from experimental
      values in several all-atom and united-atom lipid force fields.

PMID- 28876926
TI  - Cryo IR Spectroscopy of [Hemin]+ Complexes in Isolation.
AB  - We present cryo IR spectra of isolated [Hemin]+ adducts with CO, N2, and O2
      ([Hemin(CO)1]+, [Hemin(CO)2]+, [Hemin(14N2)]+, [Hemin(15N2)]+, and [Hemin(O2)]+).
      Well resolved bands allow for the elucidation of structure and spin multiplicity
      in conjunction with density functional (DFT) calculations. There is a quartet
      spin state for the N2 and CO adducts and a sextet spin state for the O2 adduct,
      where the O2 retains its triplet state. The double CO adsorption induces
      significant changes in the vibrational patterns of the IR spectra, which we take
      as strong evidence for a spin quenching into a doublet. Our study characterizes
      [Hemin]+, which is the Fe3+ oxidation product of heme that is of ubiquitous
      presence in hemeproteins.

PMID- 28876923
TI  - Spirohexene-Tetrazine Ligation Enables Bioorthogonal Labeling of Class B G
      Protein-Coupled Receptors in Live Cells.
AB  - A new bioorthogonal reactant pair, spiro[2.3]hex-1-ene (Sph) and 3,6-di(2
      pyridyl)-s-tetrazine (DpTz), for the strain-promoted inverse electron-demand
      Diels-Alder cycloaddition, that is, tetrazine ligation, is reported. As compared
      to the previously reported strained alkenes such as trans-cyclooctene (TCO) and
      1,3-disubstituted cyclopropene, Sph exhibits balanced reactivity and stability in
      tetrazine ligation with the protein substrates. A lysine derivative of Sph, SphK,
      was site-selectively incorporated into the extracellular loop regions (ECLs) of
      GCGR and GLP-1R, two members of class B G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in
      mammalian cells with the incorporation efficiency dependent on the location.
      Subsequent bioorthogonal reactions with the fluorophore-conjugated DpTz reagents
      afforded the fluorescently labeled GCGR and GLP-1R ECL mutants with labeling
      yield as high as 68%. A multitude of functional assays were performed with these
      GPCR mutants, including ligand binding, ligand-induced receptor internalization,
      and ligand-stimulated intracellular cAMP accumulation. Several positions in the
      ECL3s of GCGR and GLP-1R were identified that tolerate SphK mutagenesis and
      subsequent bioorthogonal labeling. The generation of functional, fluorescently
      labeled ECL3 mutants of GCGR and GLP-1R should allow biophysical studies of
      conformation dynamics of this important class of GPCRs in their native
      environment in live cells.

PMID- 28876927
TI  - Attenuation of Antioxidant Capacity in Human Breast Cancer Cells by Carbon
      Monoxide through Inhibition of Cystathionine beta-Synthase Activity: Implications
      in Chemotherapeutic Drug Sensitivity.
AB  - Drug resistance is a major impediment to effective treatment of breast cancer.
      Compared to normal cells, cancer cells have an increased antioxidant potential
      due to an increased ratio of reduced to oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG). This is
      known to confer therapeutic resistance. Here, we have identified a mechanism,
      unique to breast cancer cells, whereby cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) promotes
      elevated GSH/GSSG. Lentiviral silencing of CBS in human breast cancer cells
      attenuated GSH/GSSG, total GSH, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2
      (Nrf2), and processes downstream of Nrf2 that promote GSH synthesis and
      regeneration of GSH from GSSG. Carbon monoxide (CO) reduced GSH/GSSG in three
      breast cancer cell lines by inhibiting CBS. Furthermore, CO sensitized breast
      cancer cells to doxorubicin. These results provide insight into mechanism(s) by
      which CBS increases the antioxidant potential and the ability for CO to inhibit
      CBS activity to alter redox homeostasis in breast cancer, increasing sensitivity
      to a chemotherapeutic.

PMID- 28876928
TI  - MD Simulations of Viruslike Particles with Supra CG Solvation Affordable to
      Desktop Computers.
AB  - Viruses are tremendously efficient molecular devices that optimize the packing of
      genetic material using a minimalistic number of proteins to form a capsid or
      envelope that protects them from external threats, being also part of cell
      recognition, fusion, and budding machineries. Progress in experimental techniques
      has provided a large number of high-resolution structures of viruses and
      viruslike particles (VLP), while molecular dynamics simulations may furnish
      lively and complementary insights on the fundamental forces ruling viral
      assembly, stability, and dynamics. However, the large size and complexity of
      these macromolecular assemblies pose significant computational challenges.
      Alternatively, Coarse-Grained (CG) methods, which resign atomistic resolution
      privileging computational efficiency, can be used to characterize the dynamics of
      VLPs. Still, the massive amount of solvent present in empty capsids or envelopes
      suggests that hybrid schemes keeping a higher resolution on regions of interest
      (i.e., the viral proteins and their surroundings) and a progressively coarser
      description on the bulk may further improve efficiency. Here we introduce a
      mesoscale explicit water model to be used in double- or triple-scale simulations
      in combination with popular atomistic parameters and the CG water used by the
      SIRAH force field. Simulations performed on VLPs of different sizes, along with a
      comprehensive analysis of the PDB, indicate that most of the VLPs so far reported
      are amenable to be handled on a GPU-accelerated desktop computer using this
      simulation scheme.

PMID- 28876929
TI  - Solvent Dependence of Double Proton Transfer in the Formic Acid-Formamidine
      Complex: Path Integral Molecular Dynamics Investigation.
AB  - Solvent dependence of double proton transfer in the formic acid-formamidine (FA
      FN) complex at room temperature was investigated by means of ab initio path
      integral molecular dynamics (AIPIMD) simulation with taking nuclear quantum and
      thermal effects into account. The conductor-like screening model (COSMO) was
      applied for solvent effect. In comparison with gas phase, double proton
      delocalization between two heavy atoms (O and N) in FA-FN were observed with
      reduced proton transfer barrier height in low dielectric constant medium (<4.8).
      For dielectric constant medium at 4.8, the chance of finding these two protons
      are more pronounced due to the solvent effect which completely washes out the
      proton transfer barrier. In the case of higher dielectric constant medium (>4.8),
      the ionic species becomes more stable than the neutral ones and the formate anion
      and formamidium cation are thermodynamically stable. For ab initio molecular
      dynamics simulation, in low dielectric constant medium (<4.8) a reduction of
      proton transfer barrier with solvent effect is found to be less pronounced than
      the AIPIMD due to the absence of nuclear quantum effect. Moreover, the motions of
      FA-FN complex are significantly different with increasing dielectric constant
      medium. Such a difference is revealed in detail by the principal component
      analysis.

PMID- 28876930
TI  - Effects of Optical Purity and Finite System Size on Self-Assembly of 12
      Hydroxystearic Acid in Hexane: Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
AB  - 12-Hydroxystearic acid (12HSA) and its derivatives are well-known organogelators,
      and they play critical roles in a variety of applications. The overall aggregate
      structure of 12HSA is sensitive to the chirality at the 12th carbon, but a
      fundamental understanding of this dependence is lacking. In this study, molecular
      dynamics simulations were conducted on microsecond long time scales for (1) (R)
      12HSA, (2) (S)-12HSA, and (3) a 50/50 racemic mixture, each solvated at 12.5 wt %
      in explicit hexane. Self-assembly was accelerated by turning off alkyl chain
      dihedral gauche states and forcing the molecules to adopt an all-trans
      conformation. The stability of the resulting aggregates was tested by quenching
      them with access to gauche states restored. Ordered aggregates produced from
      optically pure (R)- and (S)-12HSA remained stable for at least 1 MUs. The
      characteristic ordered structure observed is termed a "ring-of-rings" motif, and
      it contains two twisted six-membered ringlike bundles connected through acetic
      acid dimerization and surrounded by six satellite bundles. The chirality at the
      12th carbon dictates the overall twist of the rings and thereby the handedness of
      the aggregates. Racemic mixtures did not produce stable ordered aggregates likely
      due to insufficient enantiomerically pure ring formation. The most prevalent
      finite-size effect observed was the stochastic formation of percolating
      aggregates, which were later avoided by using solvent-permeable, solute
      impermeable, confining walls. The resulting ordered aggregates were in all
      important ways identical to those produced in unconfined systems. The combination
      of cycling off and on gauche states and the semipermeable walls may be an
      important new way to study the self-assembly underlying aggregation at
      industrially relevant concentrations of surfactants in organic solvents.

PMID- 28876931
TI  - Medium-Range Structural Organization of Phosphorus-Bearing Borosilicate Glasses
      Revealed by Advanced Solid-State NMR Experiments and MD Simulations: Consequences
      of B/Si Substitutions.
AB  - The short and intermediate range structures of a large series of bioactive
      borophosphosilicate (BPS) glasses were probed by solid-state nuclear magnetic
      resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.
      Two BPS glass series were designed by gradually substituting SiO2 by B2O3 in the
      respective phosphosilicate base compositions 24.1Na2O-23.3CaO-48.6SiO2-4.0P2O5
      ("S49") and 24.6Na2O-26.7CaO-46.1SiO2-2.6P2O5 ("S46"), the latter constituting
      the "45S5 Bioglass" utilized for bone grafting applications. The BPS glass
      networks are built by interconnected SiO4, BO4, and BO3 moieties, whereas P
      exists mainly as orthophosphate anions, except for a minor network-associated
      portion involving P-O-Si and P-O-B[4] motifs, whose populations were estimated by
      heteronuclear 31P{11B} NMR experimentation. The high Na+/Ca2+ contents give
      fragmented glass networks with large amounts of nonbridging oxygen (NBO) anions.
      The MD-generated glass models reveal an increasing propensity for NBO
      accommodation among the network units according to BO4 < SiO4 < BO3 ? PO4. The
      BO4/BO3 intermixing was examined by double-quantum-single-quantum correlation 11B
      NMR experiments, which evidenced the presence of all three BO3-BO3, BO3-BO4, and
      BO4-BO4 connectivities, with B[3]-O-B[4] bridges dominating. Notwithstanding that
      B[4]-O-B[4] linkages are disfavored, both NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations
      established their presence in these modifier-rich BPS glasses, along with non
      negligible B[4]-NBO contacts, at odds with the conventional structural view of
      borosilicate glasses. We discuss the relative propensities for intermixing of the
      Si/B/P network formers. Despite the absence of pronounced preferences for Si-O-Si
      bond formation, the glass models manifest subtle subnanometer-sized structural
      inhomogeneities, where SiO4 tetrahedra tend to self-associate into small
      chain/ring motifs embedded in BO3/BO4-dominated domains.

PMID- 28876932
TI  - alpha-Alkylidene-gamma-butyrolactone Formation via Bi(OTf)3-Catalyzed,
      Dehydrative, Ring-Opening Cyclizations of Cyclopropyl Carbinols: Understanding
      Substituent Effects and Predicting E/Z Selectivity.
AB  - A Bi(OTf)3-catalyzed ring-opening cyclization of (hetero)aryl cyclopropyl
      carbinols to form alpha-alkylidene-gamma-butyrolactones (ABLs) is reported. This
      transformation represents different chemoselectivity from previous reports that
      demonstrated formation of (hetero)aryl-fused cyclohexa-1,3-dienes upon acid
      promoted cyclopropyl carbinol ring opening. ABLs are obtained in up to 89% yield
      with a general preference for the E-isomers. Mechanistically, Bi(OTf)3 serves as
      a stable and easy to handle precursor to TfOH. TfOH then catalyzes the formation
      of cyclopropyl carbinyl cations, which undergo ring opening, intramolecular
      trapping by the neighboring ester group, subsequent hydrolysis, and loss of
      methanol resulting in the formation of the ABLs. The nature and relative
      positioning of the substituents on both the carbinol and the cyclopropane
      determine both chemo- and stereoselective outcomes. Carbinol substituents
      determine the extent of cyclopropyl carbinyl cation formation. The cyclopropane
      donor substituents determine the overall reaction chemoselectivity. Weakly
      stabilizing or electron-poor donor groups provide better yields of the ABL
      products. In contrast, copious amounts of competing products are observed with
      highly stabilizing cyclopropane donor substituents. Finally, a predictive model
      for E/Z selectivity was developed using DFT calculations.

PMID- 28876933
TI  - Namalides B and C and Spumigins K-N from the Cultured Freshwater Cyanobacterium
      Sphaerospermopsis torques-reginae.
AB  - Chemical investigations of the terrestrial cyanobacterium Sphaerospermopsis
      torques-reginae ITEP-024 from northern Brazil afforded namalides B (1) and C (2),
      the first analogues of this anabaenopeptide-like metabolite to be described. Four
      other related peptides (3-6), termed spumigins K-N, were also identified. Planar
      structures and absolute configurations for 1, 2, and 3a-6a were deduced by a
      combination of 2D NMR, HRMS analysis, and Marfey's methodology. Spumigins K-N (3
      6) are the first examples of spumigins containing a 2-hydroxy-4-(4
      hydroxyphenyl)butanoic acid (Hhpba) in the N-terminal position. Compounds 1 and 2
      inhibited carboxypeptidase A with IC50 values of 0.75 and 2.0 MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28876934
TI  - "Rigid" Luminescent Soft Materials: Europium-Containing Lyotropic Liquid Crystals
      Based on Polyoxyethylene Phytosterols and Ionic Liquids.
AB  - Soft materials of europium beta-diketonate complexes constructed in lyotropic
      liquid crystals (LLCs) mediated by ionic liquids (ILs) are impressive for their
      excellent luminescence performance and stability. For the aim to further improve
      their mechanical processability and luminescent tunablility, the polyoxyethylene
      phytosterols (BPS-n) were introduced here as structure directing agents to
      prepare relatively "rigid" lamellar luminescent LLCs in 1-butyl-3-methyl
      imidazolium hexafluorophosphate by doping europium beta-diketonate complexes with
      different imidazolium counterions. As a result of the solvophobic sterol ring
      structure of BPS-n, the more effective isolation and confinement effects of
      europium complexes could be achieved. The longest fluorescence lifetime and the
      highest quantum efficiency reported so far for europium containing lyotropic
      organized soft materials were thus obtained. Changing the molecular structures of
      BPS-n with different oxyethylene chains or doped complexes with imidazolium
      counterions of different alkyl chain lengths, the spacings of lamellar LLC
      matrixes and position of dispersed complexes became tunable. The measured
      luminescent and rheological properties for such composite LLCs showed a
      dependence on the rigidity and isolation capability afforded by sterol molecules.
      It was also found that the increase of counterion alkyl chain length would weaken
      the LLC matrix's confinement and isolation effects and therefore exhibit the
      deteriorated luminescence performance. The enhanced luminescence efficiency and
      stability of doped BPS-n LLCs reflected the excellent segregation of europium
      complexes from each other and therefore the reduced self-quenching process. The
      obtained results here present the designability of LLC matrixes and their great
      potential to promote achieving the luminescence tunability of soft materials.

PMID- 28876935
TI  - Zerovalent Selenium Adsorption Mechanisms on CaO Surface: DFT Calculation and
      Experimental Study.
AB  - Zerovalent Se (Se atom and small Se2 molecule) adsorption mechanisms on a CaO
      surface were studied by both density functional theory (DFT) calculations and
      adsorption experiments. Nonvalent Se adsorption on the CaO(001) surface was
      simulated using a slab model. The adsorption energy, adsorption structure,
      electron density clouds, and electron properties were calculated. Different Se
      surface coverages were investigated to elucidate the adsorption process. In the
      experiments, the Se adsorption products were prepared in a U-shaped quartz
      reactor at 300  degrees C. The properties were investigated by X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission
      spectroscopy (ICP-AES), field emission scanning electron microscopy/energy
      dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FE-SEM/EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD),
      respectively. The experimental results match up with the DFT results, which
      reveal fundamental monochemisorption mechanisms of zerovalent Se on the CaO
      surface.

PMID- 28876936
TI  - Influence of Endo- and Exocyclic Heteroatoms on Stabilities and 1,3-Dipolar
      Cycloaddition Reactivities of Mesoionic Azomethine Ylides and Imines.
AB  - The geometries, stabilities, and 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactivities of 24
      mesoionic azomethine ylides and imines were investigated using density functional
      theory calculations at the M06-2X/6-311+G-(d,p)/M06-2X/6-31G-(d) level. The
      computed structures highlight how the commonly used "aromatic" resonance form
      should be replaced by two more accurate resonance structures. Stabilities of the
      dipoles were assessed by various homodesmotic schemes and are consistent with
      these compounds being nonaromatic. The activation free energies with ethylene or
      acetylene range from 11.8 to 36.6 kcal/mol. Within each dipole type, the
      predicted cycloaddition reactivities correlate with the reaction energies and the
      resonance stabilization energies provided by the various substituents. Endocyclic
      (X) heteroatoms increase the reactivity of the 1,3-dipoles in the order of O > NH
      ? S, whereas exocyclic (Y) substituents increase it in the order of CH2 > NH > O
      > S. Distortion/interaction analysis indicated that the difference in reactivity
      between differently substituted 1,3-dipoles is driven by distortion, whereas the
      difference between azomethine ylides and imines is related to lower interaction
      energies of imines with the dipolarophiles.

PMID- 28876937
TI  - Construction of Functionalized Annulated Sulfone via SO2/I Exchange of Cyclic
      Diaryliodonium Salts.
AB  - A straightforward protocol for diarylannulated sulfone construction is
      efficiently established via SO2/I exchange of iodonium(III) salts. Readily
      available inorganic Na2S2O5 was served as a safe and convenient SO2 surrogate.
      Diverse functionalized diarylannulated sulfones were smoothly achieved in good to
      excellent yields with great functional group compatibility. Organic light
      emitting diodes (OLEDs) material molecules were subsequently established via this
      method in gram scale. The unsymmetrical conjugated systems with donor-acceptor
      groups and pi-conjugation bridges motifs, which substantially communicate
      electron mobility in semiconductor material molecules, were successfully afforded
      under the facile conditions of the exchange strategy.

PMID- 28876939
TI  - Seamless Staircase Electrical Contact to Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons.
AB  - Electrical contact to low-dimensional (low-D) materials is a key to their
      electronic applications. Traditional metal contacts to low-D semiconductors
      typically create gap states that can pin the Fermi level (EF). However, low-D
      metals possessing a limited density of states at EF can enable gate-tunable work
      functions and contact barriers. Moreover, a seamless contact with native bonds at
      the interface, without localized interfacial states, can serve as an optimal
      electrode. To realize such a seamless contact, one needs to develop atomically
      precise heterojunctions from the atom up. Here, we demonstrate an all-carbon
      staircase contact to ultranarrow armchair graphene nanoribbons (aGNRs). The
      coherent heterostructures of width-variable aGNRs, consisting of 7, 14, 21, and
      up to 56 carbon atoms across the width, are synthesized by a surface-assisted
      self-assembly process with a single molecular precursor. The aGNRs exhibit
      characteristic vibrational modes in Raman spectroscopy. A combined scanning
      tunneling microscopy and density functional theory study reveals the native
      covalent-bond nature and quasi-metallic contact characteristics of the
      interfaces. Our electronic measurements of such seamless GNR staircase constitute
      a promising first step toward making low resistance contacts.

PMID- 28876940
TI  - Structure and Mechanism Revision of a Catalyzed Cyclization of Benzaldehyde
      Bearing Alkyne-Nitrile.
AB  - Pt(II)-catalyzed carbocyclization of benzaldehyde containing a keto-nitrile
      functionality resulted in the formation, respectively, of isochromenes and spiro
      lactones instead of fused lactams and spiro-lactams as was previously reported.
      The reaction mechanism was proposed, and the products were identified by
      multidimensional NMR, IR, and X-ray analysis. The structure of these new products
      was also confirmed by their synthesis in an unambiguous manner using practical
      and short approaches.

PMID- 28876938
TI  - Lessons from the Hamster: Cricetulus griseus Tissue and CHO Cell Line Proteome
      Comparison.
AB  - Chinese hamster ovary cells represent the dominant host for therapeutic
      recombinant protein production. However, few large-scale data sets have been
      generated to characterize this host organism and derived CHO cell lines at the
      proteomics level. Consequently, an extensive label-free quantitative proteomics
      analysis of two cell lines (CHO-S and CHO DG44) and two Chinese hamster tissues
      (liver and ovary) was used to identify a total of 11 801 unique proteins
      containing at least two unique peptides. 9359 unique proteins were identified
      specifically in the cell lines, representing a 56% increase over previous work.
      Additionally, 6663 unique proteins were identified across liver and ovary
      tissues, providing the first Chinese hamster tissue proteome. Protein expression
      was more conserved within cell lines during both growth phases than across cell
      lines, suggesting large genetic differences across cell lines. Overall, both gene
      ontology and KEGG pathway analysis revealed enrichment of cell-cycle activity in
      cells. In contrast, upregulated molecular functions in tissue include
      glycosylation and lipid transporter activity. Furthermore, cellular components
      including Golgi apparatus are upregulated in both tissues. In conclusion, this
      large-scale proteomics analysis enables us to delineate specific changes between
      tissues and cells derived from these tissues, which can help explain specific
      tissue function and the adaptations cells incur for applications in
      biopharmaceutical productions.

PMID- 28876941
TI  - An Ultrathin Single Crystalline Relaxor Ferroelectric Integrated on a High
      Mobility Semiconductor.
AB  - The epitaxial growth of multifunctional oxides on semiconductors has opened a
      pathway to introduce new functionalities to semiconductor device technologies. In
      particular, the integration of gate materials that enable nonvolatile or
      hysteretic functionality in field-effect transistors could lead to device
      technologies that consume less power or allow for novel modalities in computing.
      Here we present electrical characterization of ultrathin single crystalline
      SrZrxTi1-xO3 (x = 0.7) films epitaxially grown on a high mobility semiconductor,
      Ge. Epitaxial films of SrZrxTi1-xO3 exhibit relaxor behavior, characterized by a
      hysteretic polarization that can modulate the surface potential of Ge. We find
      that gate layers as thin as 5 nm corresponding to an equivalent-oxide thickness
      of just 1.0 nm exhibit a ~2 V hysteretic window in the capacitance-voltage
      characteristics. The development of hysteretic metal-oxide-semiconductor
      capacitors with nanoscale gate thicknesses opens new vistas for nanoelectronic
      devices.

PMID- 28876942
TI  - Pd-Catalyzed Regio- and Stereoselective C-Nucleoside Synthesis from Unactivated
      Uracils and Pyranoid Glycals.
AB  - Pd-catalyzed regio- and stereoselective C-nucleoside synthesis from pyranoid
      glycals and unactivated N,N-dialkyluracils is described. Depending upon the
      reaction conditions, either beta-hydride or beta-heteroatom eliminated C
      nucleosides were obtained exclusively. Different glycals with various protecting
      groups reacted smoothly. Mechanistically, uracil first undergoes electrophilic
      palladation regioselectively at the C-5 position to generate the active
      organopalladium species, which then attacks the glycal in a regio- and
      stereoselective mode to generate C-nucleosides. The method obviates the use of
      heavy metals such as mercury or preactivation of protected uracils, making it an
      attractive strategy for C-nucleoside synthesis.

PMID- 28876943
TI  - Improving the Performance of Graphene Phototransistors Using a Heterostructure as
      the Light-Absorbing Layer.
AB  - Interfacing light-sensitive semiconductors with graphene can afford high-gain
      phototransistors by the multiplication effect of carriers in the semiconductor
      layer. So far, most devices consist of one semiconductor light-absorbing layer,
      where the lack of internal built-in field can strongly reduce the quantum
      efficiency and bandwidth. Here, we demonstrate a much improved graphene
      phototransistor performances using an epitaxial organic heterostructure composed
      of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) and pentacene as the
      light-absorbing layer. Compared with single light-absorbing material, the
      responsivity and response time can be simultaneously improved by 1 and 2 orders
      of magnitude over a broad band of 400-700 nm, under otherwise the same
      experimental conditions. As a result, the external quantum efficiency increases
      by over 800 times. Furthermore, the response time of the heterostructured
      phototransistor is highly gate-tunable down to sub-30 MUs, which is among the
      fastest in the sensitized graphene phototransistors interfacing with electrically
      passive light-absorbing semiconductors. We show that the improvement is dominated
      by the efficient electron-hole pair dissociation due to interfacial built-in
      field rather than bulk absorption. The structure demonstrated here can be
      extended to many other organic and inorganic semiconductors, which opens new
      possibilities for high-performance graphene-based optoelectronics.

PMID- 28876944
TI  - Polycyclic Azetidines and Pyrrolidines via Palladium-Catalyzed Intramolecular
      Amination of Unactivated C(sp3)-H Bonds.
AB  - A novel strategy to construct complex polycyclic nitrogen-containing heterocycles
      from aliphatic amines via picolinamide-assisted palladium-catalyzed C-H bond
      activation reaction was reported. The reaction exhibits broad substrate scope for
      the synthesis of various azabicyclic scaffolds, including azetidines and tropane
      class alkaloids. Application of this method to naturally occurring (-)-cis
      myrtanylamine, an unprecedented type of carbon-carbon bond activation, in which
      the electron-pair involved initiates an intramolecular "SN2-like" displacement of
      a cyclopalladium-fragment from a tertiary center, is described.

PMID- 28876945
TI  - Enantioselective Decarboxylative alpha-Alkynylation of beta-Ketocarbonyls via a
      Catalytic alpha-Imino Radical Intermediate.
AB  - A distinctive aminocatalysis via alpha-imino radical is reported on the basis of
      SET oxidation of a secondary enamine. The combination of chiral primary amine
      catalysis and visible-light photoredox catalysis enables the enantioselective
      decarboxylative coupling of propiolic acid and beta-ketocarbonyls to afford
      alkynylation adducts with high enantioselectivity. Mechanism studies indicate the
      reaction proceeds via an alpha-imino radical addition.

PMID- 28876946
TI  - Defects Slow Down Nonradiative Electron-Hole Recombination in TiS3 Nanoribbons: A
      Time-Domain Ab Initio Study.
AB  - Layered TiS3 materials hold appealing potential in photovoltaics and
      optoelectronics due to their excellent electronic and optical properties. Using
      time domain density functional theory combined with nonadiabatic (NA) molecular
      dynamics, we show that the electron-hole recombination in pristine TiS3
      nanoribbons (NRs) occurs in tens of picoseconds and is over 10-fold faster than
      the experimental value. By performing an atomistic ab initio simulation with a
      sulfur vacancy, we demonstrate that a sulfur vacancy greatly reduces electron
      hole recombination, achieving good agreement with experiment. Introduction of a
      sulfur vacancy increases the band gap slightly because the NR's highest occupied
      molecular orbital is lowered in energy. More importantly, the sulfur vacancy
      partially diminishes the electron and hole wave functions' overlap and reduces NA
      electron-phonon coupling, which competes successfully with the longer decoherence
      time, slowing down recombination. Our study suggests that a rational choice of
      defects can control nonradiative electron-hole recombination in TiS3 NRs and
      provides mechanistic principles for photovoltaic and optoelectronic device
      design.

PMID- 28876947
TI  - Integrin-Assisted T-Cell Activation on Nanostructured Hydrogels.
AB  - Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) has shown very promising results as treatment for
      cancer in a few clinical trials, such as the complete remissions of otherwise
      terminal leukemia patients. Nevertheless, the introduction of ACT into clinics
      requires overcoming not only medical but also technical challenges, such as the
      ex vivo expansion of large amounts of specific T-cells. Nanostructured surfaces
      represent a novel T-cell stimulation technique that enables us to fine-tune the
      density and orientation of activating molecules presented to the cells. In this
      work, we studied the influence of integrin-mediated cell-adhesion on T-cell
      activation, proliferation, and differentiation using nanostructured surfaces,
      which provide a well-defined system at the nanoscale compared with standard
      cultures. Specifically, we synthesized a polymeric polyethylene glycol (PEG)
      hydrogel cross-linked with two fibronectin-derived peptides, cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp
      (cRGD) and cyclic Leu-Asp-Val (cLDV), that are known to activate different
      integrins. Moreover, the hydrogels were decorated with a quasi-hexagonal array of
      gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized with the activating antibody CD3 to
      initiate T-cell activation. Both cLDV and cRGD hydrogels showed higher T-cell
      activation (CD69 expression and IL-2 secretion) than nonfunctionalized PEG
      hydrogels. However, only the cRGD hydrogels clearly supported proliferation
      giving a higher proportion of cells with memory (CD4+CD45RO+) than naive
      (CD4+CD45RA+) phenotypes when interparticle distances smaller than 150 nm were
      used. Thus, T-cell proliferation can be enhanced by the activation of integrins
      through the RGD sequence.

PMID- 28876948
TI  - Thioamide, a Hydrogen Bond Acceptor in Proteins and Nucleic Acids.
AB  - Thioamides are used as potential surrogates of amides to study the structure and
      dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids. However, incorporation of thioamides in
      biomolecules leads to changes in their structures and conformations mostly
      attributed to the strength of the amide-N-H...S?C hydrogen bond. In most cases,
      it is considered weak owing to the small electronegativity of sulfur, and in some
      cases, it is as strong as conventional H-bonds. Herein, adopting PDB structure
      analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and quantum chemistry calculations, we have shown
      that thioamides in a geometrical and structural constraint-free environment are
      capable of forming strong H-bonds like their amide counterparts. These studies
      also enabled us to determine the amide-N-H...S?C H-bond enthalpy (DeltaH) very
      precisely. The estimated DeltaH for the amide-N-H...S?C H-bond is ~-30 kJ/mol,
      which suggests that the amide-N-H...S?C H-bond is a strong H-bond and merits its
      inclusion in computational force fields for biomolecular structure simulations to
      explore the role of amide-N-H...S?C H-bonds in nucleobase pairing and protein
      folding.

PMID- 28876949
TI  - Combination of Lewis Basic Selenium Catalysis and Redox Selenium Chemistry:
      Synthesis of Trifluoromethylthiolated Tertiary Alcohols with Alkenes.
AB  - A new and efficient method for diaryl selenide catalyzed vicinal CF3S
      hydroxylation of 1,1-multisubstitued alkenes has been developed. Various
      trifluoromethylthiolated tertiary alcohols could be readily synthesized under
      mild conditions. This method is also effective for the intramolecular cyclization
      of alkenes tethered by carboxylic acid, hydroxy, sulfamide, or ester groups and
      is associated with the introduction of a CF3S group. Mechanistic studies have
      revealed that the pathway involves a redox cycle between Se(II) and Se(IV) and
      Lewis basic selenium catalysis.

PMID- 28876950
TI  - Oxidative Transformation of a Tetrathia S-Confused Isophlorin into Porphyrin
      Cation.
AB  - The synthesis and redox properties of first generation S-confused isophlorins are
      described. Despite structural resemblance to a confused porphyrin, spectroscopic
      and computational studies reveal weak paratropic ring current effects in these
      20pi macrocycles. They display redox properties atypical of parent tetrathia
      isophlorins. Experimental evidence supports the oxidation of an unstable 19pi
      neutral radical, as a transient intermediate, for the formation of a unique 18pi
      aromatic monocationic species. Spectroscopic and structural characterization
      revealed the substituent dependent macrocycle oxidation unfamiliar to the
      chemistry of antiaromatic isophlorinoids.

PMID- 28876951
TI  - Enantioselective Synthesis of 1,2-Diamines Containing Tertiary and Quaternary
      Centers through Rhodium-Catalyzed DYKAT of Racemic Allylic Trichloroacetimidates.
AB  - The amination of racemic secondary and tertiary allylic trichloroacetimidates
      possessing beta-nitrogen substituents and proximal nitrogen-containing
      heterocycles, via chiral diene-ligated rhodium-catalyzed dynamic kinetic
      asymmetric transformations (DYKAT), provides branched allylic 1,2-diamines with
      high enantioselectivity. The catalytic system can be applied to the synthesis of
      1,2-diamines possessing two contiguous stereocenters with excellent
      diastereoselectivity. Furthermore, the nitrogen-containing heterocycles suppress
      competing vinyl azirdine formation, allowing for the high enantioselective
      syntheses of 1,2-diamines possessing tertiary and quaternary centers.

PMID- 28876952
TI  - Azidofluoroalkylation of Alkenes with Simple Fluoroalkyl Iodides Enabled by
      Photoredox Catalysis.
AB  - A mild and efficient protocol for photoredox-catalyzed azidofluoroalkylation of
      simple alkenes is described with readily available fluoroalkyl iodides. This
      method allows for a direct and regioselective formation of C-RF and C-N3 bonds
      from the C?C moiety. A variety of fluoroalkyl groups including the CF3 group can
      be selectively introduced to olefins to afford a series of beta-fluoroalkylated
      azides.

PMID- 28876953
TI  - Visible-Light Photoredox Catalyzed Oxidative/Reductive Cyclization Reaction of N
      Cyanamide Alkenes for the Synthesis of Sulfonated Quinazolinones.
AB  - An efficient photocatalytic oxidative/reductive cyclization reaction of N
      cyanamide alkenes with arylsulfinic acids or arylsulfonyl chlorides, which
      proceeds through C-S, C-C, and C-N bond formations, is reported. This
      photocatalytic reaction was carried out under mild conditions, which provides a
      new strategy for the synthesis of sulfonated quinazolinones. Furthermore, a one
      pot procedure to achieve terminal alkenes has been explored via elimination of
      the obtained sulfonated quinazolinones under basic conditions.

PMID- 28876954
TI  - Base-Controlled Reactions through an Aldol Intermediate Formed between 2
      Oxoaldehydes and Malonate Half Esters.
AB  - A practical, atom-economical, base-directed, and highly efficient method for the
      generation of different selective products through a common aldol intermediate of
      2-oxoaldehydes and malonate half esters is successfully developed. The addition
      of a strong basic environment (potassium tert-butoxide) catalyzed the synthesis
      of stable decarboxylative aldol products (alpha-hydroxy ketones), while the
      Doebner modification procedure resulted in decarboxylative elimination to (E)
      alpha,beta-unsaturated esters in good yields. The application of this method in
      one pot and one pot/two steps with azoles helped to develop regioselective alpha-
      and beta-azolated products in appreciable yields.

PMID- 28876955
TI  - Synthesis of Geminal Azido-Halo Compounds and alpha-Azidoalkyl Esters from
      Aldehydes via alpha-Azido Alcohols.
AB  - alpha-Azido alcohols are generated by treating aldehydes with hydrazoic acid in
      chloroform. These adducts are transformed into geminal azido-halo compounds
      through the reaction with phosphorus trichloride or phosphorus tribromide,
      whereas alpha-azidoalkyl esters are isolated after interaction with acyl
      chlorides.

PMID- 28876956
TI  - Pd-Catalyzed Thiophene-Aryl Coupling Reaction via C-H Bond Activation in Deep
      Eutectic Solvents.
AB  - Direct arylation of 5-octylthieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione with a series of
      functionalized aryl iodides via C-H bond activation is demonstrated in a deep
      eutectic solvent made of choline chloride and urea in non-anhydrous conditions
      and without exclusion of air. This is the first demonstration of a thiophene-aryl
      coupling via direct arylation in deep eutectic solvents.

PMID- 28876957
TI  - 2D THz-THz-Raman Photon-Echo Spectroscopy of Molecular Vibrations in Liquid
      Bromoform.
AB  - Fundamental properties of molecular liquids are governed by long-range
      interactions that most prominently manifest at terahertz (THz) frequencies. Here
      we report the detection of nonlinear THz photon-echo (rephasing) signals in
      liquid bromoform using THz-THz-Raman spectroscopy. Together, the many observed
      signatures span frequencies from 0.5 to 8.5 THz and result from couplings between
      thermally populated ladders of vibrational states. The strongest peaks in the
      spectrum are found to be multiquantum dipole and 1-quantum polarizability
      transitions and may arise from nonlinearities in the intramolecular dipole moment
      surface driven by intermolecular interactions.

PMID- 28876958
TI  - Directional Growth of DNA-Functionalized Nanorods to Enable Continuous, Site
      Specific Metallization of DNA Origami Templates.
AB  - This work examines the anisotropic electroless plating of DNA-functionalized gold
      nanorods attached to a DNA origami template to fabricate continuous metal
      structures of rectanglar, square, and T shapes. DNA origami, a versatile method
      for assembling a variety of 2- and 3-D nanostructures, is utilized to construct
      the DNA breadboard template used for this study. Staple strands on selective
      sites of the breadboard template are extended with an additional nucleotide
      sequence for the attachment of DNA-functionalized gold nanorods to the template
      via base pairing. The nanorod-seeded DNA templates are then introduced into an
      electroless gold plating solution to determine the extent to which the
      anisotropic growth of the nanorods is able to fill the gaps between seeds to
      create continuous structures. Our results show that the DNA-functionalized
      nanorods grow anisotropically during plating at a rate that is approximately 4
      times faster in the length direction than in the width direction to effectively
      fill gaps of up to 11-13 nm in length. The feasibility of using this directional
      growth at specific sites to enable the fabrication of continuous metal
      nanostructures with diameters as thin as 10 nm is demonstrated and represents
      important progress toward the creation of devices and systems based on self
      assembled biological templates.

PMID- 28876959
TI  - Chirality and neuropsychiatric drugs: an update on stereoselective disposition
      and clinical pharmacokinetics of bupropion.
AB  - 1. Bupropion, an antidepressant drug has been approved as a racemate containing
      equal amounts of R- and S-enantiomers. Recently, the chirality of bupropion has
      received significant attention in the delineation of stereoselective
      pharmacokinetic (PK) and disposition data. Although the non-stereoselective
      metabolism of bupropion was well established, the emerging data suggest that
      bupropion exhibits complex stereoselective metabolism, leading to the formation
      of various stereoisomeric metabolites. Along with the chiral PKs of bupropion,
      hydroxybupropion, threohydrobupropion and erythrohydrobupropion, the metabolism
      data also provided insights into the roles of both CYP2B6 and CYP2C19 enzymes in
      the stereoselective disposition. Furthermore, the metabolism studies also
      suggested specific involvement of CYP2B6 pathway in the stereoselective
      hydroxylation of bupropion to R,R-hydroxybupropion, which was considered as a
      better marker for CYP2B6 activity. 2. Other significant learnings were: (1)
      understanding the in vivo CYP2D6 inhibitory potential of bupropion with respect
      to the chirality of parent drug and the metabolites; (2) the potential
      involvement of bupropion and metabolites towards significant down regulation of
      CYP2D6 mRNA; (3) significant in vivo CYP2D6 inhibitory activity (86%) exhibited
      by R,R-hydroxybupropion and threohydrobupropion. 3. The newly published data on
      chiral PKs and disposition of bupropion and its metabolites can be used to gauge
      the drug-drug interaction potential when bupropion is combined in clinical
      therapy. Moreover, such data would be useful to understand the consequences (if
      any), due to the combination of bupropion with other drugs both from a safety and
      efficacy perspective because of the prevalence of polypharmacy situations in many
      therapeutic areas including CNS indications.

PMID- 28876960
TI  - TRPM2: Shredding the mitochondrial network.

PMID- 28876962
TI  - Gastrointestinal manifestations of primary immune deficiencies in children.
AB  - Primary immune deficiencies (PID) in children are a rare but serious group of
      genetic disorders of the immune system which apart from the host's defenses, can
      also affect every system of the human body, including the gastrointestinal tract.
      In their severe form they can lead to increased susceptibility to serious
      infections during infancy and even death. In the less severe form, they can
      present later in childhood or adolescence with subtle signs and symptoms. As PID
      can often mimic gastrointestinal diseases, children presenting with atypical
      gastrointestinal disease and/or failure to respond to conventional therapy should
      be evaluated for an underlying primary immune disorder and initiated appropriate
      treatment. The current review of the literature will summarize the
      gastrointestinal manifestations of primary immune deficiencies in children.

PMID- 28876961
TI  - Vitamin D Replacement Improves Tear Osmolarity in Patients with Vitamin D
      Deficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency is a common health problem worldwide. Many parts
      of the human eye, including the epithelium of the cornea, lens, ciliary body, and
      retinal pigment epithelium, as well as the corneal endothelium, ganglion cell
      layer, and retinal photoreceptors, contain vitamin D receptor (VDR). Dry eye is
      also a common health problem. An adequate tear film is required for maintaining
      health and function of the eye. Tear hyperosmolarity is considered to be the
      cause of ocular surface inflammation, symptoms, and tissue damage. It is well
      documented that vitamin D has an anti-inflammatory action. We aimed to
      investigate the effect of vitamin D replacement on tear osmolarity in patients
      with vitamin D deficiency. METHODS: A total of 44 patients (38 females, six
      males, mean age:43.5 +/- 12.8 years) with vitamin D deficiency currently managed
      by the Endocrinology and Metabolism Department of Diskapi Training and Research
      Hospital in Turkey were enrolled in the study. Patients were given 50,000 units
      of 25(OH)D3 intramuscularly, once weekly, over a period of eight weeks. All of
      the patients underwent tear function osmolarity (TFO) measurement initially and
      eight weeks after vitamin D replacement. Demographic, anthropometric, and
      biochemistry data of patients were recorded. RESULTS: The mean TFO was
      significantly decreased (313.7 +/- 17.3 mOsm/L; 302.7 +/- 14.2 mOsm/L, p<0.001)
      at the end of the second month; 25(OH)D3 concentrations increased from 8.3 +/-
      3.5 ng/mL to 68.8 +/- 22.3 ng/mL (p<0.001). The mean levels of hsCRP, FPG, P were
      2.5 +/- 2.5 mg/L, 5.09 +/- 0.48 mmol/L, 1.06 +/- 0.16 mmol/L initially, and 3.8
      +/- 5.9 mg/L, 5.11 +/- 0.68 mg/dL, 1.09 +/- 0.16 mmol/L after vitamin D
      replacement, respectively (p>0.05). The mean Ca level was 2.37 +/- 0.07 mmol/L
      initially and 2.35 +/- 0.07 mmol/L after vitamin D replacement (p<0.05). The
      change of TFO was negatively correlated with the variation of 25(OH)D3 before and
      after replacement in patients with dry eye disease (r=-0.390, p=0.049).
      CONCLUSIONS: As a consequence of the presence of VDR and 1alpha-hydroxylase in
      different parts of the eye, vitamin D replacement improves tear hyperosmolarity
      that is considered to be induced by ocular surface inflammation.

PMID- 28876963
TI  - Candidiasis and the impact of flow cytometry on antifungal drug discovery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Invasive candidiasis continues to be associated with significant
      morbidity and mortality as well as substantial health care costs nationally and
      globally. One of the contributing factors is the development of resistance to
      antifungal agents that are already in clinical use. Moreover, there are known
      treatment limitations with all of the available antifungal agents. Since
      traditional techniques in novel drug discovery are time consuming, high
      throughput screening using flow cytometry presents as a potential tool to
      identify new antifungal agents that would be useful in the management of these
      patients. Areas covered: In this review, the authors discuss the use of automated
      high-throughput screening assays based upon flow cytometry to identify potential
      antifungals from a library comprised of a large number of bioactive compounds.
      They also review studies that employed the use of this research methodology that
      has identified compounds with antifungal activity. Expert opinion: High
      throughput screening using flow cytometry has substantially decreased the
      processing time necessary for screening thousands of compounds, and has helped
      enhance our understanding of fungal pathogenesis. Indeed, the authors see this
      technology as a powerful tool to help scientists identify new antifungal agents
      that can be added to the clinician's arsenal in their fight against invasive
      candidiasis.

PMID- 28876964
TI  - Flourishing: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mental health is an important measure of public health (WHO, 2004);
      however, nursing practice and research continues to prioritize mental illness,
      rather than well-being (Wand, 2011). Flourishing is a recent concept in the field
      of well-being. The term has been used sparingly in nursing practice and research,
      and conceptual clarification is needed to promote comprehensive understanding of
      the phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to critically analyze flourishing,
      assess the maturity of the concept, and provide recommendations for future
      research, education, and practice. METHOD: The concept of flourishing was
      analyzed using the evolutionary approach to concept analysis (Rodgers, 2000). A
      search for articles on flourishing within the context of well-being was conducted
      through CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO. A sample of 32 articles and 1 book was
      reviewed. Data were reviewed for concept attributes, antecedents, consequences,
      surrogate terms and related concepts. FINDINGS: Four models of flourishing were
      identified with six overlapping attributes: meaning, positive relationships,
      engagement, competence, positive emotion, and self-esteem. Limited longitudinal
      and predictive studies have been conducted, but there is evidence for several
      antecedents and outcomes of flourishing. Research is ongoing primarily in
      psychology and sociology and is lacking in other disciplines. DISCUSSION: The
      concept of flourishing is immature; however, evidence is building for related
      concepts. A lack of consistent terminology regarding flourishing prevents
      knowledge development of flourishing as a distinct concept. Further
      multidisciplinary research is needed to establish standard operational and
      conceptual definitions and develop effective interventions.

PMID- 28876965
TI  - Analyzing Decision Logs to Understand Decision Making in Serious Crime
      Investigations.
AB  - Objective To study decision making by detectives when investigating serious crime
      through the examination of decision logs to explore hypothesis generation and
      evidence selection. Background Decision logs are used to record and justify
      decisions made during serious crime investigations. The complexity of
      investigative decision making is well documented, as are the errors associated
      with miscarriages of justice and inquests. The use of decision logs has not been
      the subject of an empirical investigation, yet they offer an important window
      into the nature of investigative decision making in dynamic, time-critical
      environments. Method A sample of decision logs from British police forces was
      analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to explore hypothesis generation and
      evidence selection by police detectives. Results Analyses revealed diversity in
      documentation of decisions that did not correlate with case type and identified
      significant limitations of the decision log approach to supporting investigative
      decision making. Differences emerged between experienced and less experienced
      officers' decision log records in exploration of alternative hypotheses,
      generation of hypotheses, and sources of evidential inquiry opened over phase of
      investigation. Conclusion The practical use of decision logs is highly
      constrained by their format and context of use. Despite this, decision log
      records suggest that experienced detectives display strategic decision making to
      avoid confirmation and satisficing, which affect less experienced detectives.
      Application Potential applications of this research include both training in case
      documentation and the development of new decision log media that encourage
      detectives, irrespective of experience, to generate multiple hypotheses and
      optimize the timely selection of evidence to test them.

PMID- 28876966
TI  - The Effect of Resin Bonding on Long-Term Success of High-Strength Ceramics.
AB  - Digital manufacturing, all-ceramics, and adhesive dentistry are currently the
      trendiest topics in clinical restorative dentistry. Tooth- and implant-supported
      fixed restorations from computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided manufacturing
      (CAM)-fabricated high-strength ceramics-namely, alumina and zirconia-are widely
      accepted as reliable alternatives to traditional metal-ceramic restorations. Most
      recent developments have focused on high-translucent monolithic full-contour
      zirconia restorations, which have become extremely popular in a short period of
      time, due to physical strength, CAD/CAM fabrication, and low cost. However,
      questions about proper resin bonding protocols have emerged, as they are critical
      for clinical success of brittle ceramics and treatment options that rely on
      adhesive bonds, specifically resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses or partial
      coverage restorations such as inlays/onlays and veneers. Resin bonding has long
      been the gold standard for retention and reinforcement of low- to medium-strength
      silica-based ceramics but requires multiple pretreatment steps of the bonding
      surfaces, increasing complexity, and technique sensitivity compared to
      conventional cementation. Here, we critically review and discuss the evidence on
      resin bonding related to long-term clinical outcomes of tooth- and implant
      supported high-strength ceramic restorations. Based on a targeted literature
      search, clinical long-term studies indicate that porcelain-veneered alumina or
      zirconia full-coverage crowns and fixed dental prostheses have high long-term
      survival rates when inserted with conventional cements. However, most of the
      selected studies recommend resin bonding and suggest even greater success with
      composite resins or self-adhesive resin cements, especially for implant-supported
      restorations. High-strength ceramic resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses have
      high long-term clinical success rates, especially when designed as a cantilever
      with only 1 retainer. Proper pretreatment of the bonding surfaces and application
      of primers or composite resins that contain special adhesive monomers are
      necessary. To date, there are no clinical long-term data on resin bonding of
      partial-coverage high-strength ceramic or monolithic zirconia restorations.

PMID- 28876967
TI  - Understanding Factors Associated with Singaporean Adolescents' Intention to Adopt
      Privacy Protection Behavior Using an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior.
AB  - Using an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study explores how the
      original TPB variables (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral
      control), personality traits, privacy concern, past privacy protection behaviors
      (PPBs), as well as parental mediation strategies relate to adolescents' intention
      to engage in privacy protection measures. We administered a cross-sectional
      survey to a nationally representative sample of adolescents (N = 4,920) in
      Singapore. The sample comprised 50.5 percent females and 49.5 percent males with
      age ranging from 13 to 21 years (M = 14.73). Results from the hierarchical
      regression analysis showed that the proposed extended TPB model received partial
      support. Subjective norms, among the TPB and other factors, have the strongest
      relationship with adolescents' intention to engage in PPBs on social network
      sites. Adolescents' privacy concern and their past PPBs are more important in
      influencing their future PPB compared with personality traits such as neuroticism
      and extraversion. Adolescents whose parents have engaged in regulated parental
      mediation are more likely to protect their privacy on SNSs compared with
      adolescents whose parents have adopted active mediation style.

PMID- 28876968
TI  - Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking Complications.
AB  - Corneal cross-linking was approved by United States Food and Drug Administration
      for the treatment of progressive keratoconus in April 2016. As this approach
      becomes more widely used for the treatment of keratoconus and post-laser in situ
      keratomileusis (LASIK) ectasia, the medical community is becoming more familiar
      with potential complications associated with this procedure. This article aims to
      review the reported complications of collagen cross-linking for the treatment of
      keratoconus and post-LASIK ectasia.

PMID- 28876969
TI  - Noncognitive Behavioral Changes Associated With Alzheimer's Disease: Implications
      of Neuroimaging Findings.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is commonly associated with noncognitive behavioral
      changes (NCBCs). The authors systematically reviewed whether neuroimaging has
      helped with understanding the pathophysiology, diagnosis, or management of NCBCs
      associated with AD, including depression, aggression or agitation, anxiety,
      apathy, psychosis, and sleep disorder. The authors identified dissociable neural
      substrates with multimodal imaging: depression implicates the lateral and
      superior prefrontal cortex; apathy and agitation implicate the dorsal anterior
      cingulate; psychosis implicates right lateralized frontal and medial temporal
      areas; and anxiety implicates mesial temporal regions. Frontal white matter
      changes appear to underlie many NCBCs, emphasizing the preventative management of
      vascular risk factors. Further delineation of underlying neurocircuitry and
      pathophysiology in larger data sets might lead to biomarker identification for
      diagnosis and optimizing treatment targets.

PMID- 28876970
TI  - Responding to Ten Common Delirium Misconceptions With Best Evidence: An
      Educational Review for Clinicians.
AB  - Delirium (acute confusion) is a serious, common health condition, and it predicts
      poor outcomes, including greater rates of mortality, institutionalization,
      prolonged hospitalization, and cognitive impairment. Expedient diagnosis and
      management are critical to address modifiable delirium causes and improve both
      quality of care and outcomes. Moreover, more than a third of delirium is
      preventable. Despite the clear significance of delirium and our increasingly
      sophisticated understanding of the condition, the gap between evidence and
      practice persists. The authors provide an educational review of 10 prevalent
      misconceptions of delirium pertaining to recognition, etiology, natural history,
      and best management. The authors respond to each with best evidence. Several
      themes emerge, chief among which is that casual observation is seldom sufficient
      to detect delirium. Use of open-ended questions, regular neurocognitive testing,
      and validated delirium screening instruments will aid in accurately identifying
      cases of delirium. Delirium is typically multifactorial, with several
      physiological and/or pharmacological contributors. Because of its multidetermined
      nature and its relationship with cognitive vulnerability, delirium can persist
      for days to months after acute causes have resolved. Furthermore, patients often
      have long-term cognitive impairment after delirium rather than returning to their
      predelirium cognitive baseline. Finally, nonpharmacological management of
      delirium is first-line, both for prevention and treatment. Psychotropic drugs
      such as neuroleptics are not recommended for routine use in delirium. They are
      best reserved for treating dangerous or distressing symptoms, including severe
      agitation, psychosis, or emotional lability. Challenging these 10 misconceptions
      stands to improve patient care, quality of life, and clinical outcomes
      substantially.

PMID- 28876971
TI  - SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM OF 35TH WORLD CONGRESS OF ENDOUROLOGY PROGRAM BOOK AND
      ABSTRACTS.

PMID- 28876972
TI  - 35TH WORLD CONGRESS OF ENDOUROLOGY COMMITTEES AND AWARDS.

PMID- 28876974
TI  - Predicting the Trends of Social Events on Chinese Social Media.
AB  - Growing interest in social events on social media came along with the rapid
      development of the Internet. Social events that occur in the "real" world can
      spread on social media (e.g., Sina Weibo) rapidly, which may trigger severe
      consequences and thus require the government's timely attention and responses.
      This article proposes to predict the trends of social events on Sina Weibo, which
      is currently the most popular social media in China. Based on the theories of
      social psychology and communication sciences, we extract an unprecedented amount
      of comprehensive and effective features that relate to the trends of social
      events on Chinese social media, and we construct the trends of prediction models
      by using three classical regression algorithms. We found that lasso regression
      performed better with the precision 0.78 and the recall 0.88. The results of our
      experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

PMID- 28876977
TI  - Patients as Researchers.

PMID- 28876976
TI  - TRPM4 activation by chemically- and oxygen deprivation-induced ischemia and
      reperfusion triggers neuronal death.
AB  - Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury triggers a deleterious process ending in
      neuronal death. This process has two components, a glutamate-dependent and a
      glutamate-independent mechanism. In the glutamate-independent mechanism, neurons
      undergo a slow depolarization eventually leading to neuronal death. However,
      little is known about the molecules that take part in this process. Here we show
      by using mice cortical neurons in culture and ischemia-reperfusion protocols that
      TRPM4 is fundamental for the glutamate-independent neuronal damage. Thus, by
      blocking excitotoxicity, we reveal a slow activating, glibenclamide- and 9
      phenanthrol-sensitive current, which is activated within 5 min upon ischemia
      reperfusion onset. TRPM4 shRNA-based silenced neurons show a reduced ischemia
      reperfusion induced current and depolarization. Neurons were protected from
      neuronal death up to 3 hours after the ischemia-reperfusion challenge. The
      activation of TRPM4 during ischemia-reperfusion injury involves the increase in
      both, intracellular calcium and H2O2, which may act together to produce a
      sustained activation of the channel.

PMID- 28876975
TI  - miR-129-2 mediates down-regulation of progesterone receptor in response to
      progesterone in breast cancer cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hormonal therapy is an important component of first line of treatment
      for breast cancer. Response to hormonal therapy is influenced by the progesterone
      receptor (PR)-status of breast cancer patients. However as an early effect,
      exposure to progesterone decreases expression of PR in breast cancer cells. An
      understanding of the mechanism underlying down-regulation of PR could help
      improve response to hormonal therapy. METHODS: We performed small RNA sequencing
      of breast cancer cells for identification of microRNAs targeting PR in response
      to progesterone treatment. Biochemical approaches were used to validate the
      findings in breast cancer cells. RESULTS: Analysis of small RNA sequencing of
      four breast cancer cell lines treated with progesterone revealed an up-regulation
      of miR-129-2 independent of the PR status of the cells. We show that miR-129-2
      targets 3'UTR of PR to down-regulate its expression. Furthermore, inhibition of
      miR-129-2 expression rescues the down-regulation of PR in breast cancer cells.
      Also, the expression levels of miR-129-2 was observed to be elevated in patients
      with low expression of PR in the TCGA cohort (n = 359). CONCLUSION: miR-129-2
      mediates down-regulation of PR in breast cancer cells in response to
      progesterone, while anti-miR-129-2 could potentiate PR expression levels among
      patients with inadequate PR levels. Thus, modulation of activity of miR-129-2
      could stabilize PR expression and potentially improve response to hormonal
      therapy under adjuvant or neo-adjuvant settings.

PMID- 28876978
TI  - Are there superagonists for calcium-activated potassium channels?

PMID- 28876979
TI  - General anaesthesia for patients with a history of a contrast medium-induced
      anaphylaxis: a useful prophylaxis?
AB  - Contrast-enhanced radiological examinations are important diagnostic tools in
      modern medicine. Currently, all approved and available iodinated and gadolinium
      based contrast agents are safe and well-tolerated by most patients. However,
      approximately 2% of patients receiving iodinated contrast media exhibit
      hypersensitivity reactions. Patients with a history of such a reaction are at
      increased risk upon reexposure. Therefore, they are subjected to a prophylaxis
      such as injection of antiallergy drugs or general anaesthesia. The latter
      procedure is expensive, can burden the patients organism, and besides lacks
      objective verification. Therefore, the purpose of our review paper is to present
      and discuss the background and the previous practice, as well as to provide a
      proposal for a safe individual patient management.

PMID- 28876980
TI  - The Genetics of Plant Metabolism.
AB  - Plant metabolic studies have traditionally focused on the role and regulation of
      the enzymes catalyzing key reactions within specific pathways. Within the past 20
      years, reverse genetic approaches have allowed direct determination of the
      effects of the deficiency, or surplus, of a given protein on the biochemistry of
      a plant. In parallel, top-down approaches have also been taken, which rely on
      screening broad, natural genetic diversity for metabolic diversity. Here, we
      compare and contrast the various strategies that have been adopted to enhance our
      understanding of the natural diversity of metabolism. We also detail how these
      approaches have enhanced our understanding of both specific and global aspects of
      the genetic regulation of metabolism. Finally, we discuss how such approaches are
      providing important insights into the evolution of plant secondary metabolism.

PMID- 28876981
TI  - Genetic and Structural Analyses of RRNPP Intercellular Peptide Signaling of Gram
      Positive Bacteria.
AB  - Bacteria use diffusible chemical messengers, termed pheromones, to coordinate
      gene expression and behavior among cells in a community by a process known as
      quorum sensing. Pheromones of many gram-positive bacteria, such as Bacillus and
      Streptococcus, are small, linear peptides secreted from cells and subsequently
      detected by sensory receptors such as those belonging to the large family of
      RRNPP proteins. These proteins are cytoplasmic pheromone receptors sharing a
      structurally similar pheromone-binding domain that functions allosterically to
      regulate receptor activity. X-ray crystal structures of prototypical RRNPP
      members have provided atomic-level insights into their mechanism and regulation
      by pheromones. This review provides an overview of RRNPP prototype signaling;
      describes the structure-function of this protein family, which is spread widely
      among gram-positive bacteria; and suggests approaches to target RRNPP systems in
      order to manipulate beneficial and harmful bacterial behaviors.

PMID- 28876983
TI  - Approaches and Study Skills of Veterinary Medical Students: Effects of a
      Curricular Revision.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determine if a revised, recently implemented
      curriculum, embracing an integrated block design with a focus on student
      centered, inquiry-based learning, had a different effect on veterinary medical
      students' approaches to studying than the previous curriculum. A total of 577
      students completed a questionnaire consisting of the short version of the
      Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST). It included
      questions relating to conceptions about learning, approaches to studying, and
      preferences for different types of courses and teaching. In addition, students
      were asked to respond to general questions regarding the design of the revised
      curriculum. The scores for the deep and strategic learning approaches were higher
      for students studying under the previous curriculum compared to the revised
      curriculum, despite the fact that the revised curriculum was specifically
      designed to foster deep learning. The scores for the surface learning approach
      were lower in the students studying the revised curriculum compared to students
      studying under the previous curriculum. We identified the following factors
      affecting student learning: alteration of learning activities, such as problem
      based learning, from the recommended models; a lack of instructor support for the
      revised curriculum; assessments that were not aligned to encourage critical
      thinking; and directed self-learning activities that were too comprehensive to
      complete in the allotted time. The results of this study can be used to improve
      the implementation of student-centered and inquiry-based curricula by identifying
      potential problems that could prevent a deep learning approach in veterinary
      medical students.

PMID- 28876984
TI  - Veterinary Curricula Today: Curricular Management and Renewal at AAVMC Member
      Institutions.
AB  - Renewing a veterinary curriculum is challenging work and its impact is difficult
      to measure. Academic leaders are charged with regular review and updating of
      their curricula, but have few resources available to guide their efforts. Due to
      the paucity of published veterinary reports, most turn to colleagues at other
      veterinary schools for insider advice, while a few undertake the task of adapting
      information from the educational literature to suit the needs of the veterinary
      profession. In response to this paucity, we proposed a theme issue on curricular
      renewal and surveyed academic leaders regarding curricular challenges and major
      renewal efforts underway. We compiled the results of this survey (with
      respondents from 38 veterinary colleges) as well as publicly available
      information to create a digest of curricular activities at AAVMC member
      institutions. This introductory article summarizes the key survey findings,
      describes the methods used to create the curricular digest, and presents
      information about key aspects of selected programs. Our overarching research
      questions were as follows: (1) What was the extent and nature of curricular
      change at AAVMC-accredited veterinary colleges over the past 5 years? and (2) How
      are curricula and curricular changes managed at AAVMC accredited veterinary
      colleges? The appended curricular digests provide selected details of current DVM
      curricula at participating institutions. Additional articles in this issue report
      on institutional change efforts in more detail. It is our hope that this issue
      will help to pave the way for future curricular development, research, and peer
      to-peer collaboration.

PMID- 28876982
TI  - Preoperative predicting malignancy in breast mass-like lesions: value of adding
      histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps to dynamic contrast
      enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for improving confidence level.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to find out the benefits of adding histogram analysis
      of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps onto dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI
      (DCE-MRI) in predicting breast malignancy. METHODS: This study included 95
      patients who were found with breast mass-like lesions from January 2014 to March
      2016 (47 benign and 48 malignant). These patients were estimated by both DCE-MRI
      and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and classified into two groups, namely, the
      benign and the malignant. Between these groups, the DCE-MRI parameters, including
      morphology, enhancement homogeneity, maximum slope of increase (MSI) and time
      signal intensity curve (TIC) type, as well as histogram parameters generated from
      ADC maps were compared. Then, univariate and multivariate logistic regression
      analyses were conducted to determine the most valuable variables in predicting
      malignancy. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were taken to assess
      their clinical values. RESULTS: The lesion morphology, MSI and TIC Type (p <
      0.05) were significantly different between the two groups. Multivariate logistic
      regression analyses revealed that irregular morphology, TIC Type II/III and ADC10
      were important predictors for breast malignancy. Increased area under curve (AUC)
      and specificity can be achieved with Model 2 (irregular morphology + TIC Type
      II/III + ADC10 < 1.047 *10-3 mm2 s-1) as the criterion than Model 1 (irregular
      morphology + TIC Type II/III) only (Model 2 vs Model 1; AUC, 0.822 vs 0.705;
      sensitivity, 68.8 vs 75.0%; specificity, 95.7 vs 66.0%). CONCLUSION: Irregular
      morphology, TIC Type II/III and ADC10 are indicators for predicting breast
      malignancy. Histogram analysis of ADC maps can provide additional value in
      predicting breast malignancy. Advances in knowledge: The morphology, MSI and TIC
      types in DCE-MRI examination have significant difference between the benign and
      malignant groups. A higher AUC can be achieved by using ADC10 as the diagnostic
      index than other ADC parameters, and the difference in AUC based on ADC10 and
      ADCmean was statistically significant. The irregular morphology, TIC Type II/III
      and ADC10 were significant predictors for malignant lesions.

PMID- 28876985
TI  - Curriculum Review and Revision at the University of Minnesota College of
      Veterinary Medicine.
AB  - Curriculum review is an essential part of ongoing curriculum development, and is
      a mandate of the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education
      (AVMA COE), the accrediting body of all North American schools and colleges of
      veterinary medicine. This article describes the steps in curriculum review
      undertaken by the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (UMN
      CVM) in response to this mandate from the COE and to a recommendation from a
      recent collegiate review that was part of a larger university-level strategic
      planning effort. The challenges of reviewing and revising the curriculum within a
      short time frame were met by appointing a dedicated curriculum review board and
      by engaging students and faculty groups, both as focus groups and as specific
      faculty work sections within disciplines. Faculty voting on the process was very
      valuable as it permitted the curriculum review board and faculty groups to move
      ahead knowing there was a process in place for reassessment if most faculty did
      not agree with recommendations. Consistent support from the dean of the college
      and other administrators was vital in helping maintain momentum for curriculum
      review.

PMID- 28876986
TI  - Comparing Tolerance of Ambiguity in Veterinary and Medical Students.
AB  - Current guidelines suggest that educators in both medical and veterinary
      professions should do more to ensure that students can tolerate ambiguity.
      Designing curricula to achieve this requires the ability to measure and
      understand differences in ambiguity tolerance among and within professional
      groups. Although scales have been developed to measure tolerance of ambiguity in
      both medical and veterinary professions, no comparative studies have been
      reported. We compared the tolerance of ambiguity of medical and veterinary
      students, hypothesizing that veterinary students would have higher tolerance of
      ambiguity, given the greater patient diversity and less well-established evidence
      base underpinning practice. We conducted a secondary analysis of questionnaire
      data from first- to fourth-year medical and veterinary students. Tolerance of
      ambiguity scores were calculated and compared using the TAMSAD scale (29 items
      validated for the medical student population), the TAVS scale (27 items validated
      for the veterinary student population), and a scale comprising the 22 items
      common to both scales. Using the TAMSAD and TAVS scales, medical students had a
      significantly higher mean tolerance of ambiguity score than veterinary students
      (56.1 vs. 54.1, p<.001 and 60.4 vs. 58.5, p=.002, respectively) but no difference
      was seen when only the 22 shared items were compared (56.1 vs. 57.2, p=.513). The
      results do not support our hypothesis and highlight that different findings can
      result when different tools are used. Medical students may have slightly higher
      tolerance of ambiguity than veterinary students, although this depends on the
      scale used.

PMID- 28876987
TI  - A Novel Approach to Simulation-Based Education for Veterinary Medical
      Communication Training Over Eight Consecutive Pre-Clinical Quarters.
AB  - Experiential learning through the use of standardized patients (SPs) is the
      primary way by which human medical schools teach clinical communication. The
      profession of veterinary medicine has followed suit in response to new graduates'
      and their employers' concerns that veterinary interpersonal skills are weak and
      unsatisfactory. As a result, standardized clients (SCs) are increasingly relied
      upon as invaluable teaching tools within veterinary curricula to advance
      relationship-centered care in the context of a clinical scenario. However, there
      is little to no uniformity in the approach that various colleges of veterinary
      medicine take when designing simulation-based education (SBE). A further
      complication is that programs with pre-conceived curricula must now make room for
      training in clinical communication. Curricular time constraints challenge
      veterinary colleges to individually decide how best to utilize SCs in what time
      is available. Because it is a new program, Midwestern University College of
      Veterinary Medicine (MWU CVM) has had the flexibility and the freedom to
      prioritize an innovative approach to SBE. The author discusses the SBE that is
      currently underway at MWU CVM, which incorporates 27 standardized client
      encounters over eight consecutive pre-clinical quarters. Prior to entering
      clinical rotations, MWU CVM students are exposed to a variety of simulation
      formats, species, clients, settings, presenting complaints, and communication
      tasks. These represent key learning opportunities for students to practice
      clinical communication, develop self-awareness, and strategize their approach to
      future clinical experiences.

PMID- 28876988
TI  - Curricular Review and Renewal at Massey University: A Process to Implement
      Improved Learning Practices.
AB  - Curriculum managers of the Bachelor of Veterinary Science program at Massey
      University have undertaken major curricular review every 5-10 years and also made
      adjustments to the program as a result of student and other stakeholder feedback.
      New curricula introduced in 2003 and 2013 aimed to address specific stakeholder
      requirements in the veterinary, agricultural, and allied industries. The new
      curricula initially sought to strengthen clinical skills but more recently
      focused on the core professional skill of client communication, the integration
      of knowledge and clinical skills, and a better understanding of the effects of
      herd health interventions on farm economics. The need for greater emphasis on the
      veterinarian's role in One Health at the intersection of humans, animals, and the
      environment was also recognized. The most recent curricular review was preceded
      by faculty enlightenment and discussion about innovative models of medical
      education with a focus on student-centered and integrated learning. A new
      curriculum was introduced from 2013 that presented more material in its clinical
      context, attempted to manage curriculum overload through a focus on Day One
      Competences, implemented vertical and horizontal integration of subjects, and
      introduced more problem-based and student-centered learning. Regular reviews of
      student workload were needed to ensure that the objectives were achieved, but
      student feedback has generally been positive.

PMID- 28876989
TI  - The Hidden Curriculum of Veterinary Education: Mediators and Moderators of Its
      Effects.
AB  - The "hidden curriculum" has long been supposed to have an effect on students'
      learning during their clinical education, and in particular in shaping their
      ideas of what it means to be a professional. Despite this, there has been little
      evidence linking specific changes in professional attitudes to the individual
      components of the hidden curriculum. This study aimed to recognize those
      components that led to a change in students' professional attitudes at a UK
      veterinary school, as well as to identify the attitudes most affected.
      Observations were made of 11 student groups across five clinical rotations,
      followed by semi-structured interviews with 23 students at the end of their
      rotation experience. Data were combined and analyzed thematically, taking both an
      inductive and deductive approach. Views about the importance of technical
      competence and communication skills were promoted as a result of students'
      interaction with the hidden curriculum, and tensions were revealed in relation to
      their attitudes toward compassion and empathy, autonomy and responsibility, and
      lifestyle ethic. The assessment processes of rotations and the clinical service
      organization served to communicate the messages of the hidden curriculum,
      bringing about changes in student professional attitudes, while student-selected
      role models and the student rotation groups moderated the effects of these
      influences.

PMID- 28876990
TI  - Curriculum Redesign in Veterinary Medicine: Part I.
AB  - Curricular review is considered a necessary component for growth and enhancement
      of academic programs and requires time, energy, creativity, and persistence from
      both faculty and administration. At Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine &
      Biomedical Sciences (TAMU), the faculty and administration partnered with the
      university's Center for Teaching Excellence to create a faculty-driven, data
      enhanced curricular redesign process. The 8-step process begins with the
      formation of a dedicated faculty curriculum design team to drive the redesign
      process and to support the college curriculum committee. The next steps include
      defining graduate outcomes and mapping the current curriculum to identify gaps
      and redundancies across the curriculum. Data are collected from internal and
      external stakeholders including veterinary students, faculty, alumni, and
      employers of graduates. Data collected through curriculum mapping and stakeholder
      engagement substantiate the curriculum redesign. The guidelines, supporting
      documents, and 8-step process developed at TAMU are provided to assist other
      veterinary schools in successful curricular redesign. This is the first of a two
      part report that provides the background, context, and description of the process
      for charting the course for curricular change. The process involves defining
      expected learning outcomes for new graduates, conducting a curriculum mapping
      exercise, and collecting stakeholder data for curricular evaluation (steps 1-4).
      The second part of the report describes the development of rubrics that were
      applied to the graduate learning outcomes (steps 5-8) and engagement of faculty
      during the implementation phases of data-driven curriculum change.

PMID- 28876992
TI  - Curricular Renewal at the Southern Tip of Africa: The 2016 Veterinary Curriculum
      at the University of Pretoria.
AB  - Four years after the institution of a new curriculum at the University of
      Pretoria's Faculty of Veterinary Science, a second major curricular renewal was
      initiated as a result of several pressing drivers, many of which were unique to
      the national and institutional context. During the project, South African higher
      education was disrupted by student protests prompted by financial pressures on
      students, the overt colonial structure of higher education, and the need to
      accelerate transformation of the sector. A structured curricular renewal process
      was followed, including the laying down of the principles, the structuring the
      macro-curriculum as a story, the design of a meso- and micro-curriculum, and the
      mapping of the curriculum to Day One outcomes. The resulting program is a 6-year
      bachelor's degree with a blend of discipline and species modules, with the first
      cohort graduating in 2016. There is a strong focus on skills embodied in a 62
      week experiential component, managed using a unique custom-designed online
      platform for booking placements, documenting exposure, assessing competency, and
      providing feedback to students. The experiential training includes a large
      elective component. Several causes of loss of impetus during the process are
      discussed and proposals are made for avoiding these. The value of accreditation
      as a driver and a source of inputs is evident. The process has succeeded in
      producing a significantly reshaped curriculum that has been well received by
      external stakeholders.

PMID- 28876991
TI  - Curriculum Redesign in Veterinary Medicine: Part II.
AB  - Curricular review is considered a necessary component for growth and enhancement
      of academic programs and requires time, energy, creativity, and persistence from
      both faculty and administration. On a larger scale, a comprehensive redesign
      effort involves forming a dedicated faculty redesign team, developing program
      learning outcomes, mapping the existing curriculum, and reviewing the curriculum
      in light of collected stakeholder data. The faculty of the Texas A&M University
      College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (TAMU) recently embarked on
      a comprehensive curriculum redesign effort through partnership with the
      university's Center for Teaching Excellence. Using a previously developed
      evidence-based model of program redesign, TAMU created a process for use in
      veterinary medical education, which is described in detail in the first part of
      this article series. An additional component of the redesign process that is
      understated, yet vital for success, is faculty buy-in and support. Without
      faculty engagement, implementation of data-driven curricular changes stemming
      from program evaluation may be challenging. This second part of the article
      series describes the methodology for encouraging faculty engagement through the
      final steps of the redesign initiative and the lessons learned by TAMU through
      the redesign process.

PMID- 28876993
TI  - Curricular Revision and Reform: The Process, What Was Important, and Lessons
      Learned.
AB  - Beginning in 2005, the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at the University of
      California underwent major curricular review and reform. To provide information
      for others that follow, we have documented our process and commented on factors
      that were critical to success, as well as factors we found surprising, difficult,
      or problematic. The review and reform were initiated by the Executive Committee,
      who led the process and commissioned the committees. The planning stage took 6
      years and involved four faculty committees, while the implementation stage took 5
      years and was led by the Curriculum Committee. We are now in year 2 of the
      institutionalizing stage and no longer refer to our reform as the "new
      curriculum." The change was driven by a desire to improve the curriculum and the
      learning environment of the students by aligning the delivery of information with
      current teaching methodologies and implementing adult learning strategies. We
      moved from a department- and discipline-based curriculum to a school-wide
      integrated block curriculum that emphasized student-centered, inquiry-based
      learning. A limit was placed on in-class time to allow students to apply
      classroom knowledge by solving problems and cases. We found the journey long and
      arduous, requiring tremendous commitment and effort. In the change process, we
      learned the importance of adequate planning, leadership, communication, and a
      reward structure for those doing the "heavy lifting." Specific to our curricular
      design, we learned the importance of the block leader role, of setting clear
      expectations for students, and of partnering with students on the journey.

PMID- 28876994
TI  - Encouraging Critical Clinical Thinking (CCT) Skills in First-Year Veterinary
      Students.
AB  - First-year didactic course instructors at the University of Illinois College of
      Veterinary Medicine leverage earlier clinical rotation experiences with weekly
      "Clinical Correlations" exercises to provide early exposure to critical clinical
      thinking (CCT). This study evaluated the efficacy of individual and paired group
      exercises on CCT development. Before and after instruction, the Cornell Critical
      Thinking Test (Level Z) (CCTTZ) was administered. Based on the hypothesis that
      students with higher scores would coach lower-scoring colleagues during group
      exercises, heterogeneous groups with similar mean scores were established for the
      year. Students completed 14 individual and paired group exercises over 6 months.
      Exercises were designed to increase in complexity and decline in scaffolding.
      Seven of the exercises were cases using the Applied Learning Platform (ALP) at
      http://www.whenknowingmatters.com . Student analyses were scored according to a
      six-category critical-thinking rubric using a 5-point scale. Consistent with our
      hypothesis, individual and group rubric scores increased significantly,
      plateauing near the end of the year. Contrary to our hypothesis, mean overall
      CCTTZ scores did not change, but there was a small statistically significant
      increase in the ability to assess the validity of an argument. Student attitudes
      were mixed. Positive comments focused on reinforcement of prior didactic
      instruction, while negative comments focused on preparation time needed to
      conduct research on clinical concepts, and on a lack of explicit evaluation by
      summative examinations. Nonetheless, end-of-year GPAs correlated linearly with
      cumulative individual rubric scores. In summary, the value of early curriculum
      CCT training was confirmed when discipline-specific criteria were applied.

PMID- 28876995
TI  - Benefits and Challenges of Developing a Customized Rubric for Curricular Review
      of a Residency Program in Laboratory Animal Medicine.
AB  - Rigorous curricular review of post-graduate veterinary medical residency programs
      is in the best interest of program directors in light of the requirements and
      needs of specialty colleges, graduate school administrations, and other
      stakeholders including prospective students and employers. Although minimum
      standards for training are typically provided by specialty colleges, mechanisms
      for evaluation are left to the discretion of program directors. The paucity of
      information available describing best practices for curricular assessment of
      veterinary medical specialty training programs makes resources from other medical
      fields essential to informing the assessment process. Here we describe the
      development of a rubric used to evaluate courses in a 3-year American College of
      Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM)-recognized residency training program
      culminating in a Master of Science degree. This rubric, based on examples from
      medical education and other fields of graduate study, provided transparent
      criteria for evaluation that were consistent with stakeholder needs and
      institutional initiatives. However, its use caused delays in the curricular
      review process as two significant obstacles to refinement were brought to light:
      variation in formal education in curriculum design and significant differences in
      teaching philosophies among faculty. The evaluation process was able to move
      forward after institutional resources were used to provide faculty development in
      curriculum design. The use of a customized rubric is recommended as a best
      practice for curricular refinement for residency programs because it results in
      transparency of the review process and can reveal obstacles to change that would
      otherwise remain unaddressed.

PMID- 28876996
TI  - Veterinary Curriculum Transformation at the University of Illinois, 2006-2016.
AB  - The organization and delivery of a curriculum is the responsibility of the
      faculty in educational institutions. Curricular revision is often a hotly debated
      topic in any college faculty. At the University of Illinois, a 2006 mandate for
      curriculum modernization from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council
      on Education provided impetus for a long-discussed curricular revision. After two
      iterations and a lengthy development process, a new curriculum was gradually
      implemented at Illinois with the August 2009 matriculation of the Class of 2013.
      The goals of the revision included earlier clinical exposure for veterinary
      students through introductions to clinical rotations in years 1 to 3 and an
      integrated body systems approach in lecture/laboratory courses. A new Clinical
      Skills Learning Center facilitates development of clinical skills earlier in the
      curriculum and promotes the development of those skills throughout all 4 years of
      the curriculum. New outcomes assessments include comprehensive written
      examinations and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) in years 2
      and 3. Curriculum management, including grading of clinical rotations in all 4
      years, is achieved through a commercially available software package. For the
      past 5 years, when candidates were asked why they chose to apply to Illinois, the
      new curriculum (27.4%) was the most common answer given during interviews. The
      Illinois revision has resulted in measurably increased veterinary student self
      confidence (p<.001) at graduation.

PMID- 28876997
TI  - Innovative Use of Denver Shunt in a Child with Generalized Lymphatic Anomaly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Denver(r) shunts have traditionally been used for palliation of
      refractory malignant and chylous peritoneal and pleural collections. We describe
      an innovative use of the Denver shunt in a child with generalized lymphatic
      anomaly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective chart review of a 6-year-old girl
      with generalized lymphatic anomaly, who presented with refractory lymphorrhea
      from the labium majus, was performed. This was managed with innovative placement
      of the Denver shunt between a large abdominal wall cyst and the peritoneal
      cavity. RESULTS: There was progressive reduction in lymphorrhea with complete
      cessation at 11 months post shunt placement. At 33-month follow-up, the shunt
      remains patent with no further lymphorrhea. CONCLUSION: Denver shunts can be
      utilized for the creation of internal drainage pathways besides its traditional
      uses for draining peritoneal and pleural fluids.

PMID- 28876998
TI  - Meiosis-specific localization of the exocytic Rab Ypt2 in fission yeast.
AB  - Fission yeast Ypt2, an orthologue of the mammalian small GTPase Rab8, is
      responsible for post-Golgi membrane trafficking. During meiosis, Ypt2 localizes
      at the spindle pole body (SPB), where it regulates de novo biogenesis of the
      spore plasma membrane. Recruitment of Ypt2 to the SPB is dependent on its meiosis
      specific GDP/GTP exchange factor (GEF), the SPB-resident protein Spo13. Here we
      have examined the SPB recruitment of Ypt2 by Spo13. The GEF activity of Spo13 was
      required, but not essential for recruitment. Furthermore, Ypt2 recruitment was
      regulated in a meiosis-specific manner and partially regulated by the nuclear
      Dbf2-related (NDR) kinase Sid2, indicating the existence of a novel regulatory
      mechanism for localization of Rab GTPases during meiosis.

PMID- 28876999
TI  - How Children Solve the Two Challenges of Cooperation.
AB  - In this review, I propose a new framework for the psychological origins of human
      cooperation that harnesses evolutionary theories about the two major problems
      posed by cooperation: generating and distributing benefits. Children develop
      skills foundational for identifying and creating opportunities for cooperation
      with others early: Infants and toddlers already possess basic skills to help
      others and share resources. Yet mechanisms that solve the free-rider problem
      critical for sustaining cooperation as a viable strategy-emerge later in
      development and are more sensitive to the influence of social norms. I review
      empirical studies with children showing a dissociation in the origins of and
      developmental change seen in these two sets of processes. In addition,
      comparative studies of nonhuman apes also highlight important differences between
      these skills: The ability to generate benefits has evolutionary roots that are
      shared between humans and nonhuman apes, whereas there is little evidence that
      other apes exhibit comparable capacities for distributing benefits. I conclude by
      proposing ways in which this framework can motivate new developmental,
      comparative, and cross-cultural research about human cooperation.

PMID- 28877000
TI  - Linking Language and Cognition in Infancy.
AB  - Human language, a signature of our species, derives its power from its links to
      human cognition. For centuries, scholars have been captivated by this link
      between language and cognition. In this article, we shift this focus. Adopting a
      developmental lens, we review recent evidence that sheds light on the origin and
      developmental unfolding of the link between language and cognition in the first
      year of life. This evidence, which reveals the joint contributions of infants'
      innate capacities and their sensitivity to experience, highlights how a
      precocious link between language and cognition advances infants beyond their
      initial perceptual and conceptual capacities. The evidence also identifies the
      conceptual advantages this link brings to human infants. By tracing the emergence
      of a language-cognition link in infancy, this article reveals a dynamic
      developmental cascade in infants' first year, with each developmental advance
      providing a foundation for subsequent advances.

PMID- 28877001
TI  - Total Laparoscopic Approach for Transhiatal Esophagectomy and Gavriliu's
      Esophagoplasty in Children with Caustic Esophageal Injuries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Esophageal repair after caustic injury is a surgical challenge in
      children. The aim of this study was to report the first results of a total
      laparoscopic approach in transhiatal esophagectomy and esophageal replacement by
      an anisoperistaltic gastric tube. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of
      data from children operated on with a laparoscopic approach for transhiatal
      esophagectomy and Gavriliu's esophagoplasty between 2011 and 2015 was performed.
      Surgical techniques were related with variations for 2 cases, 1 case with robotic
      assistance and 1 with thoracoscopic assistance. RESULTS: Seven patients were
      operated on. The median weight was 16 kg. Median duration of mechanical
      ventilation was 2 days. Total esophagectomy was achieved in all cases. Two
      patients could eat after a barium swallow 7 days after surgery. The most frequent
      immediate complication (57%) was anastomotic or gastric tube leakage treated
      successfully in 100% of the cases with self-expanding metallic stent placement.
      Seventy-one percent of children presented with stenosis, which responded to
      pneumatic dilatation in 67% of the cases. Redo surgery was required in 43%,
      either for anastomosis revision or nonfunctioning gastric tube. With an average
      follow-up of 51 months, 85.7% of children achieved oral feeding. CONCLUSIONS:
      Total laparoscopic approach for esophagectomy and esophageal replacement by
      Gavriliu's anisoperistaltic gastric tube is a feasible technique allowing to
      shorten the postoperative mechanical ventilation duration and save parietal
      damage often present in these patients requiring multiple surgery. It appears to
      have a good long-term tolerance, although the immediate postoperative
      complication rate remains as high as the open technique.

PMID- 28877002
TI  - Lymphedema: Pathogenesis and Novel Therapies.
AB  - Lymphedema affects up to 1 in 6 patients who undergo treatment for a solid tumor
      in the United States. Its prevalence has increased as more effective oncologic
      therapies have improved patient survival, but there remains no definitive cure.
      Recent research has elucidated new details in the pathogenesis of the disease and
      has demonstrated that it is fundamentally an immunologic process that ultimately
      results in inflammation, fibroadipose deposition, impaired lymphangiogenesis, and
      dysfunctional lymphatic pumping. These findings have allowed for the development
      of novel medical and surgical therapies that may potentially alter the standard
      of care for a disease that has largely been treated by compression. This review
      seeks to provide an overview of the emerging therapies and how they can be
      utilized for effective management of lymphedema.

PMID- 28877003
TI  - New designs for basket clinical trials in oncology.
AB  - The established molecular heterogeneity of human cancers has had profound effects
      on the design of cancer therapeutics. Most cancer drugs are today targeted to
      molecular alterations present in cancer cells. Tumors of the same primary site,
      however, often differ with regard to the alterations that they harbor.
      Consequently, this heterogeneity has required the development of new paradigms
      for clinical development. In this paper, we review some clinical trial designs
      finding active use in co-development of therapeutics and predictive biomarkers to
      inform their use in oncology.

PMID- 28877004
TI  - Reciprocity Outperforms Conformity to Promote Cooperation.
AB  - Evolutionary psychologists have proposed two processes that could give rise to
      the pervasiveness of human cooperation observed among individuals who are not
      genetically related: reciprocity and conformity. We tested whether reciprocity
      outperformed conformity in promoting cooperation, especially when these
      psychological processes would promote a different cooperative or noncooperative
      response. To do so, across three studies, we observed participants' cooperation
      with a partner after learning (a) that their partner had behaved cooperatively
      (or not) on several previous trials and (b) that their group members had behaved
      cooperatively (or not) on several previous trials with that same partner.
      Although we found that people both reciprocate and conform, reciprocity has a
      stronger influence on cooperation. Moreover, we found that conformity can be
      partly explained by a concern about one's reputation-a finding that supports a
      reciprocity framework.

PMID- 28877006
TI  - Presentation of the Ashton Cuckler New Investigator Award to Dr. Heather Stigge.

PMID- 28877005
TI  - Is There a Trade-Off between Radiation-Stimulated Growth and Metabolic
      Efficiency?
AB  - Beneficial protective effects may result from an adaptive respose to low dose
      radiation exposure. However, such benefits must be accompanied by some form of
      cost because the responsible biological mechanisms are not normally maintained in
      an upregulated state. It has been suggested that stimulation of adaptive response
      mechanisms could be metabolically costly, or that the adaptive response could
      come at a sacrifice to other physiological processes. We exposed developing lake
      whitefish embryos to a fractionated regime of gamma radiation (662 keV; 0.3 Gy
      min-1) to determine whether radiation-stimulated growth was accompanied by a
      trade-off in metabolic efficiency. Developing embryos were exposed at the eyed
      stage to different radiation doses delivered in four fractions, ranging from 15
      mGy to 8 Gy per fraction, with a 14 day separation between dose fractions. Dry
      weight and standard length measurements were taken 2-5 weeks after delivery of
      the final radiation exposure and yolk conversion efficiency was estimated by
      comparing the unpreserved dry weight of the yolk to the unpreserved yolk-free dry
      weight of the embryos and normalizing for size-related differences in somatic
      maintenance. Our results show that the irradiated embryos were 8-10% heavier than
      the controls but yolk conversion efficiency was slightly improved. This finding
      demonstrates that stimulated growth in developing lake whitefish embryos is not
      "paid for" by a trade-off in the efficiency of yolk conversion.

PMID- 28877007
TI  - Creation of an Esophageal Atresia Animal Model Using a Bifurcated Esophagus to
      Maintain Digestive Tract Continuity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We previously developed a porcine model of long gap pure esophageal
      atresia (EA) to aid in the creation of novel devices and techniques for treatment
      of EA. Shortcomings of the model included difficulty decompressing the proximal
      esophageal pouch (leading to recurrent aspiration) and a requirement for
      gastrostomy tube (G-tube) feeds. Therefore, we sought to create a porcine model
      with a bifurcated esophagus wherein one portion of the esophageal lumen retained
      patency and the other part mimicked EA. METHODS: After G-tube placement,
      thoracotomy was performed with subsequent partial stapled transection of the
      esophagus in a transverse manner, followed by longitudinal, partial stapled
      transection of the esophagus proximally and distally. Magnets were placed in the
      esophageal pouches. RESULTS: Proximal and distal esophageal pouches were created
      while preserving a parallel, narrower segment of continuous esophagus. G-tube
      feeds were used initially, but the animal ultimately tolerated full nutrition by
      mouth. The magnets successfully restored esophageal continuity. The animal
      regained much of the initial weight lost and survived to planned euthanasia.
      Necropsy revealed anastomosis formation without evidence of leak. CONCLUSIONS: A
      bifurcated porcine esophagus model was successfully devised, simulating EA while
      allowing the animal to receive oral feeds and clear oral secretions. This model
      is anticipated to promote animal well-being and ease of care during future
      investigations, as well as a platform for the safe development of new therapies
      for EA.

PMID- 28877008
TI  - Definitions and statistical properties of master protocols for personalized
      medicine in oncology.
AB  - Within the field of cancer research, discovery of biomarkers and genetic
      mutations that are potentially predictive of treatment benefit is motivating a
      paradigm shift in how cancer clinical trials are conducted. In this review, we
      provide an overview of the class of trials known as "master protocols," including
      basket trials, umbrella trials, and platform trials. For each, we describe
      standardized terminology, provide a motivating example with modeling details and
      decision rules, and discuss statistical advantages and limitations. We conclude
      with a discussion of general statistical considerations and challenges
      encountered across these types of trials.

PMID- 28877009
TI  - A Synoptic View of the Ventilation and Circulation of Antarctic Bottom Water from
      Chlorofluorocarbons and Natural Tracers.
AB  - Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is the coldest, densest, most prolific water mass
      in the global ocean. AABW forms at several distinct regions along the Antarctic
      coast and feeds into the bottom limb of the meridional overturning circulation,
      filling most of the global deep ocean. AABW has warmed, freshened, and declined
      in volume around the globe in recent decades, which has implications for the
      global heat and sea level rise budgets. Over the past three decades, the use of
      tracers, especially time-varying tracers such as chlorofluorocarbons, has been
      essential to our understanding of the formation, circulation, and variability of
      AABW. Here, we review three decades of temperature, salinity, and tracer data and
      analysis that have led to our current knowledge of AABW and how the southern
      component of deep-ocean ventilation is changing with time.

PMID- 28877010
TI  - Airway Mucins in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

PMID- 28877012
TI  - The HITECH Era in Retrospect.

PMID- 28877011
TI  - Tezepelumab in Adults with Uncontrolled Asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In some patients with moderate-to-severe asthma, particularly those
      with noneosinophilic inflammation, the disease remains uncontrolled. This trial
      evaluated the efficacy and safety of tezepelumab (AMG 157/MEDI9929), a human
      monoclonal antibody specific for the epithelial-cell-derived cytokine thymic
      stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), in patients whose asthma remained uncontrolled
      despite treatment with long-acting beta-agonists and medium-to-high doses of
      inhaled glucocorticoids. METHODS: In this phase 2, randomized, double-blind,
      placebo-controlled trial, we compared subcutaneous tezepelumab at three dose
      levels with placebo over a 52-week treatment period. The primary end point was
      the annualized rate of asthma exacerbations (events per patient-year) at week 52.
      RESULTS: The use of tezepelumab at a dose of 70 mg every 4 weeks (low dose; 145
      patients), 210 mg every 4 weeks (medium dose; 145 patients), or 280 mg every 2
      weeks (high dose; 146 patients) resulted in annualized asthma exacerbation rates
      at week 52 of 0.26, 0.19, and 0.22, respectively, as compared with 0.67 in the
      placebo group (148 patients). Thus, exacerbation rates in the respective
      tezepelumab groups were lower by 61%, 71%, and 66% than the rate in the placebo
      group (P<0.001 for all comparisons). Similar results were observed in patients
      regardless of blood eosinophil counts at enrollment. The prebronchodilator forced
      expiratory volume in 1 second at week 52 was higher in all tezepelumab groups
      than in the placebo group (difference, 0.12 liters with the low dose [P=0.01],
      0.11 liters with the medium dose [P=0.02], and 0.15 liters with the high dose
      [P=0.002]). A total of 2 patients in the medium-dose group, 3 in the high-dose
      group, and 1 in the placebo group discontinued the trial regimen because of
      adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients treated with long-acting beta
      agonists and medium-to-high doses of inhaled glucocorticoids, those who received
      tezepelumab had lower rates of clinically significant asthma exacerbations than
      those who received placebo, independent of baseline blood eosinophil counts.
      (Funded by MedImmune [a member of the AstraZeneca Group] and Amgen; PATHWAY
      ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02054130 .).

PMID- 28877013
TI  - The HITECH Era and the Path Forward.

PMID- 28877014
TI  - Randomized, Controlled Trials in Health Insurance Systems.

PMID- 28877015
TI  - Buprenorphine for the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

PMID- 28877016
TI  - Buprenorphine for the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

PMID- 28877017
TI  - Neobladder Stone.

PMID- 28877018
TI  - Drug Treatment for Early-Stage COPD.

PMID- 28877019
TI  - Severe and Difficult-to-Treat Asthma in Adults.

PMID- 28877020
TI  - Early, Goal-Directed Therapy for Septic Shock - A Patient-Level Meta-Analysis.

PMID- 28877021
TI  - Early, Goal-Directed Therapy for Septic Shock - A Patient-Level Meta-Analysis.

PMID- 28877022
TI  - Zoonotic Chlamydia caviae Presenting as Community-Acquired Pneumonia.

PMID- 28877024
TI  - Moving Upstream - Anti-TSLP in Persistent Uncontrolled Asthma.

PMID- 28877023
TI  - Airway Mucin Concentration as a Marker of Chronic Bronchitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by
      chronic bronchitic and emphysematous components. In one biophysical model, the
      concentration of mucin on the airway surfaces is hypothesized to be a key
      variable that controls mucus transport in healthy persons versus cessation of
      transport in persons with muco-obstructive lung diseases. Under this model, it is
      postulated that a high mucin concentration produces the sputum and disease
      progression that are characteristic of chronic bronchitis. METHODS: We
      characterized the COPD status of 917 participants from the Subpopulations and
      Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study (SPIROMICS) using questionnaires
      administered to participants, chest tomography, spirometry, and examination of
      induced sputum. Total mucin concentrations in sputum were measured with the use
      of size-exclusion chromatography and refractometry. In 148 of these participants,
      the respiratory secreted mucins MUC5AC and MUC5B were quantitated by means of
      mass spectrometry. Data from chronic-bronchitis questionnaires and data on total
      mucin concentrations in sputum were also analyzed in an independent 94
      participant cohort. RESULTS: Mean (+/-SE) total mucin concentrations were higher
      in current or former smokers with severe COPD than in controls who had never
      smoked (3166+/-402 vs. 1515+/-152 MUg per milliliter) and were higher in
      participants with two or more respiratory exacerbations per year than in those
      with zero exacerbations (4194+/-878 vs. 2458+/-113 MUg per milliliter). The
      absolute concentrations of MUC5B and MUC5AC in current or former smokers with
      severe COPD were approximately 3 times as high and 10 times as high,
      respectively, as in controls who had never smoked. Receiver-operating
      characteristic curve analysis of the association between total mucin
      concentration and a diagnosis of chronic bronchitis yielded areas under the curve
      of 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65 to 0.79) for the SPIROMICS cohort and
      0.82 (95% CI, 0.73 to 0.92) for the independent cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Airway mucin
      concentrations may quantitate a key component of the chronic bronchitis
      pathophysiologic cascade that produces sputum and mediates disease severity.
      Studies designed to explore total mucin concentrations in sputum as a diagnostic
      biomarker and therapeutic target for chronic bronchitis appear to be warranted.
      (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others.).

PMID- 28877025
TI  - Connecting the Dots.

PMID- 28877026
TI  - Effectiveness of a Third Dose of MMR Vaccine for Mumps Outbreak Control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of a third dose of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine
      in stemming a mumps outbreak is unknown. During an outbreak among vaccinated
      students at the University of Iowa, health officials implemented a widespread MMR
      vaccine campaign. We evaluated the effectiveness of a third dose for outbreak
      control and assessed for waning immunity. METHODS: Of 20,496 university students
      who were enrolled during the 2015-2016 academic year, mumps was diagnosed in 259
      students. We used Fisher's exact test to compare unadjusted attack rates
      according to dose status and years since receipt of the second MMR vaccine dose.
      We used multivariable time-dependent Cox regression models to evaluate vaccine
      effectiveness, according to dose status (three vs. two doses and two vs. no
      doses) after adjustment for the number of years since the second dose. RESULTS:
      Before the outbreak, 98.1% of the students had received at least two doses of MMR
      vaccine. During the outbreak, 4783 received a third dose. The attack rate was
      lower among the students who had received three doses than among those who had
      received two doses (6.7 vs. 14.5 cases per 1000 population, P<0.001). Students
      had more than nine times the risk of mumps if they had received the second MMR
      dose 13 years or more before the outbreak. At 28 days after vaccination, receipt
      of the third vaccine dose was associated with a 78.1% lower risk of mumps than
      receipt of a second dose (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.22; 95% confidence interval,
      0.12 to 0.39). The vaccine effectiveness of two doses versus no doses was lower
      among students with more distant receipt of the second vaccine dose. CONCLUSIONS:
      Students who had received a third dose of MMR vaccine had a lower risk of mumps
      than did those who had received two doses, after adjustment for the number of
      years since the second dose. Students who had received a second dose of MMR
      vaccine 13 years or more before the outbreak had an increased risk of mumps.
      These findings suggest that the campaign to administer a third dose of MMR
      vaccine improved mumps outbreak control and that waning immunity probably
      contributed to propagation of the outbreak. (Funded by the Centers for Disease
      Control and Prevention.).

PMID- 28877028
TI  - Left Ventricular Free-Wall Rupture.

PMID- 28877029
TI  - Impairments in age-dependent ubiquitin proteostasis and structural integrity of
      selective neurons by uncoupling Ran GTPase from the Ran-binding domain 3 of
      Ranbp2 and identification of novel mitochondrial isoforms of ubiquitin
      conjugating enzyme E2I (ubc9) and Ranbp2.
AB  - The Ran-binding protein 2 (Ranbp2/Nup358) is a cytoplasmic and peripheral
      nucleoporin comprised of 4 Ran-GTP-binding domains (RBDs) that are interspersed
      among diverse structural domains with multifunctional activities. Our prior
      studies found that the RBD2 and RBD3 of Ranbp2 control mitochondrial motility
      independently of Ran-GTP-binding in cultured cells, whereas loss of Ran-GTP
      binding to RBD2 and RBD3 are essential to support cone photoreceptor development
      and the survival of mature retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in mice. Here, we
      uncover that loss of Ran-GTP-binding to RBD3 alone promotes the robust age
      dependent increase of ubiquitylated substrates and S1 subunit (Pmsd1) of the 19S
      cap of the proteasome in the retina and RPE and that such loss in RBD3 also
      compromises the structural integrity of the outer segment compartment of cone
      photoreceptors only and without affecting the viability of these neurons. We also
      found that the E2-ligase and partner of Ranbp2, ubc9, is localized prominently in
      the mitochondrial-rich ellipsoid compartment of photoreceptors, where Ranbp2 is
      also known to localize with and modulate the activity of mitochondrial proteins.
      However, the natures of Ranbp2 and ubc9 isoforms to the mitochondria are
      heretofore elusive. Subcellular fractionation, co-immunolocalization and
      immunoaffinity purification of Ranbp2 complexes show that novel isoforms of
      Ranbp2 and ubc9 with molecular masses distinct from the large Ranbp2 and
      unmodified ubc9 isoforms localize specifically to the mitochondrial fraction or
      associate with mitochondrial components, whereas unmodified and SUMOylated Ran
      GTPase are excluded from the mitochondrial fraction. Further, liposome-mediated
      intracellular delivery of an antibody against a domain shared by the
      mitochondrial and nuclear pore isoforms of Ranbp2 causes the profound
      fragmentation of mitochondria and their delocalization from Ranbp2 and without
      affecting Ranbp2 localization at the nuclear pores. Collectively, the data
      support that Ran GTPase-dependent and independent and moonlighting roles of
      Ranbp2 or domains thereof and ubc9 control selectively age-dependent, neural-type
      and mitochondrial functions.

PMID- 28877027
TI  - Tiotropium in Early-Stage Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with mild or moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD) rarely receive medications, because they have few symptoms. We
      hypothesized that long-term use of tiotropium would improve lung function and
      ameliorate the decline in lung function in patients with mild or moderate COPD.
      METHODS: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
      that was conducted in China, we randomly assigned 841 patients with COPD of
      Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage 1 (mild) or 2
      (moderate) severity to receive a once-daily inhaled dose (18 MUg) of tiotropium
      (419 patients) or matching placebo (422) for 2 years. The primary end point was
      the between-group difference in the change from baseline to 24 months in the
      forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) before bronchodilator use. Secondary
      end points included the between-group difference in the change from baseline to
      24 months in the FEV1 after bronchodilator use and the between-group difference
      in the annual decline in the FEV1 before and after bronchodilator use from day 30
      to month 24. RESULTS: Of 841 patients who underwent randomization, 388 patients
      in the tiotropium group and 383 in the placebo group were included in the full
      analysis set. The FEV1 in patients who received tiotropium was higher than in
      those who received placebo throughout the trial (ranges of mean differences, 127
      to 169 ml before bronchodilator use and 71 to 133 ml after bronchodilator use;
      P<0.001 for all comparisons). There was no significant amelioration of the mean
      (+/-SE) annual decline in the FEV1 before bronchodilator use: the decline was
      38+/-6 ml per year in the tiotropium group and 53+/-6 ml per year in the placebo
      group (difference, 15 ml per year; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1 to 31;
      P=0.06). In contrast, the annual decline in the FEV1 after bronchodilator use was
      significantly less in the tiotropium group than in the placebo group (29+/-5 ml
      per year vs. 51+/-6 ml per year; difference, 22 ml per year [95% CI, 6 to 37];
      P=0.006). The incidence of adverse events was generally similar in the two
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: Tiotropium resulted in a higher FEV1 than placebo at 24
      months and ameliorated the annual decline in the FEV1 after bronchodilator use in
      patients with COPD of GOLD stage 1 or 2. (Funded by Boehringer Ingelheim and
      others; Tie-COPD ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01455129 .).

PMID- 28877030
TI  - Radiation Mitigating Properties of Intranasally Administered KL4 Surfactant in a
      Murine Model of Radiation-Induced Lung Damage.
AB  - The threat of exposure to ionizing radiation from a nuclear reactor accident or
      deliberate terrorist actions is a significant public health concern. The lung is
      particularly susceptible to radiation-induced injury from external sources or
      inhalation of radioactive particles from radioactive fallout. Radiation-induced
      lung disease can manifest with an acute radiation pneumonitis and/or delayed
      effects leading to pulmonary fibrosis. As prior warning of radiation exposure is
      unlikely, medical countermeasures (MCMs) to mitigate radiation-induced lung
      disease that can be given in mass-casualty situations many hours or days
      postirradiation are needed to prevent both early and late lung damage. In this
      study, KL4 surfactant (lucinactant) was evaluated as a radiation mitigator in a
      well-characterized mouse model of targeted thoracic radiation exposure, for its
      effect on both early (several weeks) and late (18 weeks) lung damage. Here, 120
      mg/kg total phospholipid of KL4 surfactant was administered twice daily
      intranasally, (enabling intrapulmonary inhalation of drug) to C57BL/6 mice 24 h
      after a single 13.5 Gy dose of thoracic irradiation (LD50 dose). Both early and
      chronic phase (2 and 4 weeks and 18 weeks postirradiation, respectively)
      assessments were performed. Mice were evaluated for evidence of reduced arterial
      blood oxygenation and early and chronic lung and systemic inflammation, lung
      fibrosis and oxidative stress. Analysis was done by performing lung
      function/respiration dynamics and measuring cellular protein content of
      bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and levels of cytokines, 8-iso-prostaglandin
      F2alpha, hydroxyproline in lung and plasma, along with evaluating lung histology.
      The results of this study showed that intranasal delivery of KL4 surfactant was
      able to preserve lung function as evidenced by adequate arterial oxygen
      saturation and reduced lung inflammation and oxidative stress; total white count
      and absolute neutrophil count was decreased in BALF, as were plasma pro
      inflammatory cytokine levels and biomarker of oxidative stress. KL4 surfactant is
      a promising MCM for mitigation of lung tissue damage after targeted, thoracic
      irradiation and has the potential to be developed as a broad-spectrum, multi-use
      MCM against chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threat agents with
      potential to cause lung injury.

PMID- 28877032
TI  - Bowel endometriosis: a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge.
AB  - Bowel endometriosis is the most common extragenital manifestation of
      endometriosis. Clinical suspicion is of utmost importance for achieving its
      diagnosis. Management of this condition is, however, always challenging to the
      gynaecologist. We report a case of bowel endometriosis in which the patient
      presented with dyschezia and haematochezia prior to her menses for the past 2
      years. A 44-year-old para two woman presented with worsening dysmenorrhea and
      dyspareunia. She also experienced dyschezia and haematochezia prior to her menses
      for the past 2 years. An examination revealed a fixed retroverted uterus. A
      computed tomography scan showed focal bowel thickening. She underwent a
      colonoscopy examination and biopsy that revealed stromal endometriosis. She was
      subsequently treated with dienogest and became asymptomatic. Diagnosis and
      management of this debilitating illness was revisited and discussed.

PMID- 28877033
TI  - Nonlinear coherent structures in granular crystals.
AB  - The study of granular crystals, which are nonlinear metamaterials that consist of
      closely packed arrays of particles that interact elastically, is a vibrant area
      of research that combines ideas from disciplines such as materials science,
      nonlinear dynamics, and condensed-matter physics. Granular crystals exploit
      geometrical nonlinearities in their constitutive microstructure to produce
      properties (such as tunability and energy localization) that are not conventional
      to engineering materials and linear devices. In this topical review, we focus on
      recent experimental, computational, and theoretical results on nonlinear coherent
      structures in granular crystals. Such structures-which include traveling solitary
      waves, dispersive shock waves, and discrete breathers-have fascinating dynamics,
      including a diversity of both transient features and robust, long-lived patterns
      that emerge from broad classes of initial data. In our review, we primarily
      discuss phenomena in one-dimensional crystals, as most research to date has
      focused on such scenarios, but we also present some extensions to two-dimensional
      settings. Throughout the review, we highlight open problems and discuss a variety
      of potential engineering applications that arise from the rich dynamic response
      of granular crystals.

PMID- 28877034
TI  - Recent progress on the structure separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes.
AB  - The mass production of single-structure, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)
      with identical properties is critical for their basic research and technical
      applications in the fields of electronics, optics and optoelectronics. Great
      efforts have been made to control the structures of SWCNTs since their discovery.
      Recently, the structure separation of SWCNTs has been making great progress.
      Various solution-sorting methods have been developed to achieve not only the
      separation of metallic and semiconducting species, but also the sorting of
      distinct (n, m) single-chirality species and even their enantiomers. This
      progress would dramatically accelerate the application of SWCNTs in the next
      generation electronic devices. Here, we review the recent progress in the
      structure sorting of SWCNTs and outline the challenges and prospects of the
      structure separation of SWCNTs.

PMID- 28877035
TI  - Academic Medicine and Medical Professionalism: A Legacy and a Portal Into an
      Evolving Field of Educational Scholarship.
AB  - In this Invited Commentary, the author examines two curated Academic Medicine
      volumes showcasing foundational research and key writings on professionalism in
      medicine and medical education, collectively spanning from 1994 to 2016. The
      author reviews the beginnings of the medical professionalism movement and
      examines how the trends and themes reflected in the first volume-specifically the
      work to define, assess, and institutionalize professionalism-capture key elements
      in this movement. He then examines how the trends and themes in the second volume
      align with and build on those from the first, noting two themes that extend
      across a number of second volume articles: a unit-of-analysis issue and the
      challenge of context. The author identifies several topics that have yet to be
      adequately mined and calls attention to two bridge-spanning articles in the
      second volume that, respectively, take us into the future (around the topic of
      identify formation) and back to the past (on the hidden curriculum). Finally, the
      author reflects on "directions home" in medicine's noble search for its moral
      core and collective identity.

PMID- 28877031
TI  - Genetic Associations with Gestational Duration and Spontaneous Preterm Birth.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite evidence that genetic factors contribute to the duration of
      gestation and the risk of preterm birth, robust associations with genetic
      variants have not been identified. We used large data sets that included the
      gestational duration to determine possible genetic associations. METHODS: We
      performed a genomewide association study in a discovery set of samples obtained
      from 43,568 women of European ancestry using gestational duration as a continuous
      trait and term or preterm (<37 weeks) birth as a dichotomous outcome. We used
      samples from three Nordic data sets (involving a total of 8643 women) to test for
      replication of genomic loci that had significant genomewide association (P<5.0*10
      8) or an association with suggestive significance (P<1.0*10-6) in the discovery
      set. RESULTS: In the discovery and replication data sets, four loci (EBF1,
      EEFSEC, AGTR2, and WNT4) were significantly associated with gestational duration.
      Functional analysis showed that an implicated variant in WNT4 alters the binding
      of the estrogen receptor. The association between variants in ADCY5 and RAP2C and
      gestational duration had suggestive significance in the discovery set and
      significant evidence of association in the replication sets; these variants also
      showed genomewide significance in a joint analysis. Common variants in EBF1,
      EEFSEC, and AGTR2 showed association with preterm birth with genomewide
      significance. An analysis of mother-infant dyads suggested that these variants
      act at the level of the maternal genome. CONCLUSIONS: In this genomewide
      association study, we found that variants at the EBF1, EEFSEC, AGTR2, WNT4,
      ADCY5, and RAP2C loci were associated with gestational duration and variants at
      the EBF1, EEFSEC, and AGTR2 loci with preterm birth. Previously established roles
      of these genes in uterine development, maternal nutrition, and vascular control
      support their mechanistic involvement. (Funded by the March of Dimes and
      others.).

PMID- 28877036
TI  - Recovery From Ropivacaine-Induced or Levobupivacaine-Induced Cardiac Arrest in
      Rats: Comparison of Lipid Emulsion Effects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lipid emulsion treatment appears to have application in the treatment
      of local anesthetic-induced cardiac arrest. To examine whether the efficacy of
      lipid resuscitation in the treatment of local anesthetic-induced cardiac arrest
      is affected by lipophilicity, the effects of lipid infusions were compared
      between levobupivacaine-induced (high lipophilicity) and ropivacaine-induced
      (lower lipophilicity) rat cardiac arrest model. METHODS: A total of 28 female
      Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized using sevoflurane, which subsequently
      underwent tracheostomy, followed by femoral artery and vein cannulation. Two
      hours after the discontinuation of sevoflurane, either levobupivacaine 0.2% (n =
      14) or ropivacaine 0.2% (n = 14) was administered at a rate of 2 mg/kg/min to the
      awake rats. When the pulse pressure decreased to 0, the infusion of local
      anesthetic was discontinued, and treatment with chest compressions and
      ventilation with 100% oxygen were immediately initiated. The total doses of local
      anesthetics needed to trigger the first seizure and pulse pressure of 0 mm Hg
      were calculated. The 2 groups were each subdivided into a lipid emulsion group (n
      = 7) and a control group (n = 7). In the lipid emulsion group, 20% lipid emulsion
      was administered intravenously (5 mL/kg bolus plus continuous infusion of 0.5
      mL/kg/min), while in the control group, the same volume of normal saline was
      administered. Chest compressions were discontinued when the rate-pressure product
      had increased by more than 20% of baseline. RESULTS: The cumulative doses of
      levobupivacaine and ropivacaine that produced seizures and 0 pulse pressure
      showed no significant difference. Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) values were
      higher in the levobupivacaine group than in the ropivacaine group after
      resuscitation was initiated (P < .05). In levobupivacaine-induced cardiac arrest,
      heart rate and MAP values were higher in the lipid group than in the control
      group after starting resuscitation (P < .05); all rats in the lipid group
      achieved spontaneous circulation (rate-pressure product >20% baseline), while
      only 2 of 7 rats in the control group achieved spontaneous circulation at 10
      minutes. In ropivacaine-induced cardiac arrest, there were no significant
      differences in heart rate and MAP between the lipid and control groups from the
      start of resuscitation to 10 minutes; spontaneous circulation returned in 6 of 7
      lipid group rats, but in only 2 of 7 control group rats at 10 minutes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Lipid emulsion treatment was more effective for levobupivacaine
      induced cardiac arrest than for ropivacaine-induced cardiac arrest. Although
      lipid therapy is also effective for ropivacaine-induced cardiac arrest, it takes
      more time than in levobupivacaine-induced cardiac arrest. This suggests that the
      lipophilicity of local anesthetics influences the efficacy of lipid infusion when
      treating cardiac arrest caused by these drugs.

PMID- 28877038
TI  - Message from the President of the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society.

PMID- 28877039
TI  - Left ventricular dysfunction in a patient with Angelman syndrome.

PMID- 28877040
TI  - Ischemic conditioning in solid organ transplantation: is it worth giving your
      right arm for?
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) is an inevitable
      complication in solid organ transplantation. Limiting this injury can increase
      patient and graft survival and can decrease complications associated with
      transplantation. We provide an extensive literature review analyzing the
      available evidence for ischemic conditioning in solid organ transplantation,
      including kidney, liver, heart, and lung. RECENT FINDINGS: Ischemic conditioning
      strategies are a group of interventions, characterized by episodes of ischemia
      and reperfusion to an organ which confirm tissue protection. Arguably,
      transplantation is the ideal setting to use this novel strategy due to the
      predictable timing and duration of the ischemic insult. Liver transplantation has
      provided us with the most number of clinical trials, followed by kidney
      transplantation. Most of these trials have been negative but the methodology has
      been variable, making comparison difficult. SUMMARY: Despite the promising
      results seen in animal models, translating these results in clinical trials has
      proved to be difficult. The promising effects of ischemic conditioning are
      present in some trials with weaker positive signals existing in other trials. We
      believe that tailoring trials to allow better comparison will provide positive
      results in the future.

PMID- 28877041
TI  - Sodium MRI: a new frontier in imaging in nephrology.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review focuses on the recent technological advances in
      quantitative sodium (Na) MRI to provide a noninvasive measure of tissue viability
      for use in clinical studies of patients with kidney disease. Na MRI is the only
      noninvasive imaging technique that allows for the absolute spatial quantification
      of tissue sodium concentration (TSC), providing assessment of the
      corticomedullary sodium gradient (CMSG) in the kidney, and allowing measures of
      TSC in the skin and muscle. RECENT FINDINGS: Na MRI of the kidney has
      demonstrated the sensitivity to measure the CMSG, providing the normal range in
      healthy individuals and demonstrating a reduction in CMSG in kidney disease and
      transplanted kidneys. Studies using Na and H MRI have shown that in humans,
      skeletal muscle and skin can store sodium without water retention, and that
      sodium concentrations in muscle and skin increase with advancing age. Recent
      studies have shown that TSC can be mobilised during haemodialysis, and that skin
      sodium content links closely to left ventricular mass in patients with chronic
      kidney disease. SUMMARY: Na MRI is currently a research technique, but with
      future advances, Na MRI has potential to become a noninvasive renal biomarker and
      a measure of tissue sodium storage for clinical studies.

PMID- 28877042
TI  - Hematopoietic cell transplantation for aplastic anemia.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Improvements in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation
      (HCT) with better donor selection, conditioning regimens and graft vs. host
      disease prophylaxis make it reasonable to move HCT earlier in the algorithm for
      management of severe aplastic anemia (SAA). Recent progress in transplantation is
      reviewed whereas issues related to developing countries are also addressed.
      RECENT FINDINGS: Multiple research centers are reporting on clonality, mutations
      and telomere disorders in SAA, which may help to choose the most appropriate
      therapy upfront. Eltrombopag, in combination with immunosuppressive therapy
      (IST), has shown remarkable improvement over historical IST, and long-term follow
      up is awaited. In younger patients and in experienced centers, matched unrelated
      donor (MUD) and related haploidentical transplants (haplo-HCT) are being reported
      with survival approaching that seen with sibling transplants. Literature from
      resource-limited countries highlight the need to modify guidelines to make them
      affordable and cost-effective. Bone marrow remains the graft source of choice;
      peripheral blood stem cells may be acceptable in special circumstances in
      resource-constrained countries. SUMMARY: The potential of novel research findings
      and new therapeutic trials should be maximized by validation in different
      centers, countries and patient populations to provide personalized care to
      patients with aplastic anemia.

PMID- 28877043
TI  - One-day low-intensity combined arm-leg (Cruiser) ergometer exercise intervention:
      cardiorespiratory strain and gross mechanical efficiency in one-legged and two
      legged exercise.
AB  - This study aims to research whether there is a difference in cardiorespiratory
      variables and gross mechanical efficiency (GE) in healthy individuals during low
      intensity one-legged and two-legged exercise on the combined arm-leg (Cruiser)
      ergometer and whether motor learning occurs. The outcome of this study will
      support the use of the Cruiser ergometer in future as a testing and training
      instrument in the rehabilitation of patients with a lower limb amputation. Twenty
      eight healthy men participated in this randomized-controlled trial. One group
      (n=14) used one leg and both arms during the exercise and the other group (n=14)
      used both legs and both arms. All participants performed a 1-day low-intensity
      exercise protocol. This included a standardized pretest and post-test of three
      bouts of 4 min exercise at 40 W and an exercise intervention of seven bouts of
      2*4 min exercise at 40 W. The one-legged and two-legged group differed
      significantly in the heart rate and GE between the pretest and post-test. At the
      post-test, the one-legged group showed motor learning. GE improved significantly
      in both groups over the duration of the three exercise bouts of the pretest, but
      it did not improve during the post-test. There are differences in
      cardiorespiratory variables and GE between one-legged and two-legged exercise on
      the Cruiser ergometer. When using this ergometer in the rehabilitation of
      patients with a lower limb amputation, it is important to consider these
      differences and the occurrence of motor learning.

PMID- 28877044
TI  - Novel insights into microbiome in colitis and colorectal cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Microbiota is a major player in the pathogenesis of
      inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Here, we summarize
      the key advances achieved in the past 18 months (ending June 2017) toward a
      better understanding of the role of microbiota in colitis and CRC development.
      RECENT FINDINGS: Accumulating evidence shows the essential role of intestinal
      barrier function (e.g. mucus, IgA, LCN2, LYPD8) in protecting against bacteria
      induced inflammation and tumor development. Numerous signaling pathways (e.g.
      TLRs and NLRs), metabolites (e.g. indole, bile acids, retinoic acid) and small
      noncoding RNAs (e.g. miRNA) have been identified as key mediators regulating host
      microbe interactions in the intestine. Novel microbial drivers of colitis and
      tumorigenesis (e.g. Alistipes finegoldii, Atopobium parvalum, Peptostreptococcus
      anaerobius) have been identified and their disease-promoting activities have been
      described. SUMMARY: IBD-associated colorectal cancer results from a complex
      breakdown of communication between the host and its microbiota, involving barrier
      function, immune signaling and metabolites.

PMID- 28877045
TI  - Advances in the treatment of gastric cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review recent studies in esophagogastric cancer. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Positive emission tomography (PET) scan in follow-up after curative
      treatment of esophagogastric cancer did not lead to improved survival. In the
      preoperative treatment of esophagogastric cancer, the addition of the
      antivascular endothelial growth factor agent bevacizumab to perioperative
      chemotherapy with combination epirubicin, cisplatinum, and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU;
      ECF) failed to improve survival compared with chemotherapy alone. In a head-to
      head comparison of preoperative chemotherapy for locally advanced gastric and
      esophagogastric adenocarcinoma, FLOT (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and
      docetaxel) significantly improved overall survival compared with ECF. Assessing
      response to induction chemotherapy prior to combined preoperative
      chemoradiotherapy in PET nonresponding patients allowed a change in chemotherapy
      during subsequent radiotherapy with improved rates of pathologic complete
      response. In human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-positive advanced
      esophagogastric adenocarcinoma, second-line treatment with the
      chemotherapy/trastuzumab drug conjugate emtansine/trastuzumab failed to improve
      response or overall survival compared with treatment using paclitaxel
      chemotherapy. The immune checkpoint inhibitor, nivolumab, improved survival in
      refractory gastric cancer. SUMMARY: Recent studies in gastric cancer clarify the
      optimal preoperative chemotherapy regimen and the use of PET scan as a response
      measure of preoperative therapy in esophagogastric cancer, and the role of
      targeted agents and immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic disease.

PMID- 28877046
TI  - Quantitative Proton Spectroscopy of the Testes at 3 T: Toward a Noninvasive
      Biomarker of Spermatogenesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare testicular metabolite
      concentrations between fertile control subjects and infertile men. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) was
      performed in the testes with and without water suppression at 3 T in 9 fertile
      control subjects and 9 infertile patients (8 with azoospermia and 1 with
      oligospermia). In controls only, the T1 and T2 values of water and metabolites
      were also measured. Absolute metabolite concentrations were calculated using the
      unsuppressed water signal as a reference and correcting for the relative T1 and
      T2 weighting of the water and metabolite signals. RESULTS: Testicular T1 values
      of water, total choline, and total creatine were 2028 +/- 125 milliseconds, 1164
      +/- 105 milliseconds, and 1421 +/- 314 milliseconds, respectively (mean +/-
      standard deviation). T2 values were 154 +/- 11 milliseconds, 342 +/- 53
      milliseconds, and 285 +/- 167 milliseconds, respectively. Total choline
      concentration was lower in patients (mean, 1.5 mmol/L; range, 0.9-2.1 mmol/L)
      than controls (mean, 4.4 mmol/L; range, 3.2-5.7 mmol/L; P = 4 * 10). Total
      creatine concentration was likewise reduced in patients (mean, 1.1 mmol/L; range,
      undetectable -2.7 mmol/L) compared with controls (mean, 3.6 mmol/L; range, 2.5
      4.7 mmol/L; P = 1.6 * 10). The myo-inositol signal normalized to the water
      reference was also lower in patients than controls (P = 4 * 10). CONCLUSIONS:
      Testicular metabolite concentrations, measured by proton spectroscopy at 3 T, may
      be valuable as noninvasive biomarkers of spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28877047
TI  - Autism-spectrum disorders in adolescence and adulthood: focus on sexuality.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The combination of the core symptoms, characterizing
      individuals with autism-spectrum disorder (ASD), can lead to problems in romantic
      relationships and sexual functioning. The purpose of this article is to review
      studies on sexuality in individuals with ASD published since January 2016. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Individuals with ASD and especially women show a higher diversity in
      sexual orientation in comparison with the non-ASD population. Furthermore, ASD
      women are more frequently in a relationship and usually report more previous
      sexual experiences. Up to now, sexual education programs specifically addressing
      the needs of the ASD population were scarce, which was criticized by patients,
      their parents, and caregivers. With the development of the Tackling Teenage
      Training program, a psychoeducational intervention designed specifically for ASD
      individuals was introduced, leading to significant improvements in psychosexual
      functioning and knowledge. Such programs are needed because a considerable rate
      of problematic sexual behaviors, including public masturbation and paraphilic
      sexual interests were found in the ASD population. SUMMARY: Just like their
      typically developing counterparts, individuals with ASD show the whole range of
      normal-to-problematic sexual behaviors. Improving sexual knowledge could lead to
      less inappropriate sexual behaviors and could improve sexual health as part of a
      healthy and satisfying life.

PMID- 28877048
TI  - Current opinion in otolaryngology: update on vascular injuries in
      craniomaxillofacial fractures.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The primary purpose of this chapter is to define current
      recommendations for vascular work-up of patients with craniomaxillofacial (CMF)
      trauma with emphasis on imaging to include intraoperative fluorescence,
      angiography, and surgical exploration. The second goal is to review current
      management recommendations for observation versus surgical exploration based on
      the neck zones of injury. RECENT FINDINGS: Over the past two decades,
      endovascular techniques are increasingly utilized, particularly in zones I and
      III of the neck. Additionally, modern advances in radiographic technology have
      allowed for selective exploration of penetrating zone II injuries. A high
      suspicion for blunt cerebrovascular injury should be maintained for patients with
      high-speed deceleration mechanisms of injury, with a majority of patients managed
      with medical therapy or conservative monitoring over surgical intervention.
      SUMMARY: CMF fractures are associated with vascular injuries to the intracranial
      carotid system, extracranial carotid system, or vertebral artery system. A
      thorough understanding of at risk patients, optimal work-up, and timely treatment
      algorithms is imperative given the devastating sequellae of stroke and death.

PMID- 28877049
TI  - Medication Errors at Hospital Admission and Discharge: Risk Factors and Impact of
      Medication Reconciliation Process to Improve Healthcare.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: First, the aim of the study was to assess the prevalence,
      characteristics, and severity of unintended medication discrepancies (UMDs) and
      medication errors (MEs) at admission and discharge of hospitalization. Second,
      the aim of the study was to identify clinical and hospitalization factors
      associated with risk of UMDs as well as characteristics of the medication
      reconciliation process associated with UMDs detection. METHODS: This prospective
      observational study included all adult patients admitted from 2013 to 2015 in the
      Endocrinology-Diabetology-Nutrition Department of Montpellier Hospital, France.
      Clinical pharmacists conducted medication reconciliation by collecting the best
      possible medication history from different sources and comparing it with
      admission and discharge prescriptions to identify discrepancies. Unintended
      medication discrepancies corrected by the physician were considered as MEs. Risk
      factors of UMDs were identified with logistic regression. RESULTS: Of 904
      patients included, 266 (29.4%) had at least one UMD, at admission or at
      discharge. In total, 378 (98.2%) of 385 UMDs were considered to be MEs. Most MEs
      were omissions (59.3%). Medication errors were serious or very serious in 36% of
      patients and had potentially moderate severity in almost 40% of patients. The
      risk of UMDs increased constantly with the number of treatments (P < 0.001).
      Thyroid (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.12-2.86) and infectious
      diseases (adjusted OR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.17-2.78) were associated with UMDs risk
      at admission. The best type of source for the detection of UMDs was the general
      practitioner or nurse (OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.51-4.63). CONCLUSIONS: Unintended
      medication discrepancies are frequent at hospital and depend on intrinsic
      clinical parameters but also on practice of medication reconciliation process,
      such as number and type of sources used.

PMID- 28877050
TI  - Metformin: oxidative and proliferative parameters in-vitro and in-vivo models of
      murine melanoma.
AB  - Cutaneous melanoma is one of the most lethal cancers because of its increased
      rate of metastasis and resistance to available therapeutic options. Early studies
      indicate that metformin has beneficial effects on some types of cancer, including
      melanoma. To clarify knowledge of the mechanism of action of metformin on this
      disease, two treatment-based approaches are presented using metformin on melanoma
      progression: an in-vitro and an in-vivo model. The in-vitro assay was performed
      for two experimental treatment periods (24 and 48 h) at different metformin
      concentrations. The results showed that metformin decreased cell viability,
      reduced proliferation, and apoptosis was a major event 48 h after treating B16F10
      cells. Oxidative stress was characterized by the decrease in total thiol
      antioxidants immediately following 24 h of metformin treatment and showed an
      increase in lipid peroxidation. The in-vivo model was performed by injecting
      B16F10 cells into the subcutaneous of C57/BL6 mice. Treatment with metformin
      began on day 3 and on day 14, the mice were killed. Treatment of mice with
      metformin reduced tumor growth by 54% of its original volume compared with
      nontreatment. The decrease in systemic vascular endothelial growth factor,
      restoration of antioxidants glutathione and catalase, and normal levels of lipid
      peroxidation indicate an improved outcome for melanoma following metformin
      treatment, meeting a need for new strategies in the treatment of melanoma.

PMID- 28877051
TI  - Presenting features of extremity necrotizing fasciitis in the pediatric patient:
      a case-control analysis.
AB  - This analysis sought to develop a tool for early differentiation between
      pediatric necrotizing fasciitis (NF) of the extremity and more benign infection.
      All diagnoses of extremity NF, cellulitis, and abscess from a single institution
      from 2009 to 2015 were included. Vitals and laboratory values were compared
      between cohorts using analysis of variance and decision tree analysis. NF was
      associated with thrombocytopenia, hyperthermia, tachycardia, and tachypnea.
      Decision tree analysis identified C-reactive protein more than 7.0 to be 100%
      sensitive and 95.7% specific for differentiating NF from cellulitis or abscess.
      The results offer quantitative support for clinical suspicion of NF in the
      evaluation of pediatric extremity infection.

PMID- 28877052
TI  - Diagnostic Efficiency in Digital Pathology: A Comparison of Optical Versus
      Digital Assessment in 510 Surgical Pathology Cases.
AB  - Prior work has shown that digital images and microscopic slides can be
      interpreted with comparable diagnostic accuracy. Although accuracy has been well
      validated, the interpretative time for digital images has scarcely been studied
      and concerns about efficiency remain a major barrier to adoption. We investigated
      the efficiency of digital pathology when compared with glass slide interpretation
      in the diagnosis of surgical pathology biopsy and resection specimens. Slides
      were pulled from 510 surgical pathology cases from 5 organ systems
      (gastrointestinal, gynecologic, liver, bladder, and brain). Original diagnoses
      were independently confirmed by 2 validating pathologists. Diagnostic slides were
      scanned using the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution. Each case was assessed
      independently on digital and optical by 3 reading pathologists, with a >=6 week
      washout period between modalities. Reading pathologists recorded assessment times
      for each modality; digital times included time to load the case. Diagnostic
      accuracy was determined based on whether a rendered diagnosis differed
      significantly from the original diagnosis. Statistical analysis was performed to
      assess for differences in interpretative times across modalities. All 3 reading
      pathologists showed comparable diagnostic accuracy across optical and digital
      modalities (mean major discordance rates with original diagnosis: 4.8% vs. 4.4%,
      respectively). Mean assessment times ranged from 1.2 to 9.1 seconds slower on
      digital versus optical. The slowest reader showed a significant learning effect
      during the course of the study so that digital assessment times decreased over
      time and were comparable with optical times by the end of the series. Organ site
      and specimen type did not significantly influence differences in interpretative
      times. In summary, digital image reading times compare favorably relative to
      glass slides across a variety of organ systems and specimen types. Mean increase
      in assessment time is 4 seconds/case. This time can be minimized with experience
      and may be further balanced by the improved ease of electronic chart access
      allowed by digital slide viewing, as well as quantitative assessments which can
      be expedited on digital images.

PMID- 28877053
TI  - "Atypical" Pleomorphic Lipomatous Tumor: A Clinicopathologic, Immunohistochemical
      and Molecular Study of 21 Cases, Emphasizing its Relationship to Atypical Spindle
      Cell Lipomatous Tumor and Suggesting a Morphologic Spectrum (Atypical Spindle
      Cell/Pleomorphic Lipomatous Tumor).
AB  - The classification of the until recently poorly explored group of atypical
      adipocytic neoplasms with spindle cell features, for which recently the term
      atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor (ASLT) has been proposed, remains
      challenging. Recent studies have proposed ASLT as a unique entity with (in at
      least a significant subset of cases) a specific genetic background, namely
      deletions/losses of 13q14, including RB1 and its flanking genes RCBTB2, DLEU1,
      and ITM2B. Similar genetic aberrations have been reported in pleomorphic
      liposarcomas (PLSs). This prompted us to investigate a series of 21 low-grade
      adipocytic neoplasms with a pleomorphic lipoma-like appearance, but with atypical
      morphologic features (including atypical spindle cells, pleomorphic
      [multinucleated] cells, pleomorphic lipoblasts and poor circumscription), for
      which we propose the term "atypical" pleomorphic lipomatous tumor (APLT). Five
      cases of PLS were also included in this study. We used multiplex ligation
      dependent probe amplification to evaluate genetic changes of 13q14. In addition,
      array-based comparative genomic hybridization was performed on 4 APLTs and all
      PLSs. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification showed consistent loss of
      RB1 and its flanking gene RCBTB2 in all cases of APLT. This genetic alteration
      was also present in all PLSs, suggesting genetic overlap, in addition to
      morphologic overlap, with APLTs. However, array-based comparative genomic
      hybridization demonstrated more complex genetic alterations with more losses and
      gains in PLSs compared with APLTs. APLTs arose in the subcutis (67%) more
      frequently than in the deep (subfascial) soft tissues (33%). With a median follow
      up of 42 months, recurrences were documented in 2 of 12 APLTs for which a long
      follow-up was available. Herein, we also demonstrate that APLTs share obvious
      overlapping morphologic, immunohistochemical, genetic and clinical
      characteristics with the recently defined ASLT, suggesting that they are related
      lesions that form a spectrum (atypical spindle cell/pleomorphic lipomatous
      tumor).

PMID- 28877054
TI  - Melanotic Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma With a Novel ARID1B-TFE3 Gene
      Fusion.
AB  - A 36-year-old male was found to have a 7.0 cm left upper pole renal mass on renal
      ultrasound. Following nephrectomy, the mass was grossly ill-demarcated, friable
      and red-brown, invading renal parenchyma, hilar fat and the renal vein.
      Microscopically, the tumor had a nested and papillary architecture. The cells
      demonstrated abundant clear and eosinophilic cytoplasm and focal intracytoplasmic
      melanin pigment. Nucleoli were prominent. By immunohistochemistry, the tumor was
      positive for TFE3; HMB-45 stained approximately 5% of tumor cells corresponding
      to the histologic melanin pigment, which was confirmed with Fontana-Masson stain
      with bleach. Immunostains for PAX8, CD10, MiTF, and CAIX were negative; keratins
      Cam 5.2 and AE1/AE3 were focally positive. Targeted next-generation sequencing
      revealed an ARID1B-TFE3 gene fusion. Melanotic Xp11 renal cell carcinoma is a
      rare, pigment containing translocation variant demonstrating overlapping features
      with melanoma and is usually associated with an SFPQ-TFE3 gene fusion. The
      patient is alive and without evidence of disease 7 years after his diagnosis. The
      combination of high grade histopathology, the presence of melanin, absent PAX8,
      keratin positivity, and relatively indolent clinical behavior with a unique
      translocation may warrant recognition as a distinct renal cell carcinoma
      translocation subtype.

PMID- 28877055
TI  - Solitary Fibrous Tumors of the Head and Neck: A Multi-Institutional
      Clinicopathologic Study.
AB  - Solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) of the head and neck are uncommon. Lesions
      previously diagnosed in the head and neck as hemangiopericytomas (HPCs), giant
      cell angiofibromas (GCAs), and orbital fibrous histiocytomas (OFHs) are now
      recognized as within the expanded spectrum of SFTs. To better understand the
      clinicopathologic profile of head and neck SFTs, we performed a multi
      institutional study of 88 examples. There was no sex predilection (F:M ratio
      1.2), and the median patient age was 52 years (range: 15 to above 89 y). The
      sinonasal tract and orbit were the most common sites involved (30% and 25%),
      followed by the oral cavity and salivary glands (15% and 14%). Original diagnoses
      included HPC (25%), SFT (67%), and OFH (6%), with 1 SFT and 1 OFH noted as
      showing GCA-like morphology. On review, the predominant histologic pattern was
      classic SFT-like in 53% and cellular (former HPC-like) in 47%; lipomatous
      differentiation (8%) and GCA-like pattern (7%) were less prevalent. Subsets
      demonstrated nuclear atypia (23%), epithelioid morphology (15%), or coagulative
      necrosis (6%). Infiltrative growth (49%) and osseous invasion (82%) were
      prevalent among evaluable cases. Of the 48 SFTs with follow-up (median: 43 mo),
      19 showed recurrence (40%). Of these, 4 patients were alive with disease and 4
      dead of disease. Size and mitotic rate were negative prognosticators using a
      joint prognostic proportional hazards regression model. Three patients
      experienced metastasis, to lungs, parotid, bone, and skull base, including one
      case showing overtly sarcomatous "dedifferentiation." As a group, SFTs present in
      a wide anatomic and morphologic spectrum in the head and neck. Only rare examples
      metastasize or cause death from disease. However, the fairly high local
      recurrence rate underscores their aggressive potential and highlights the
      importance of prospective recognition.

PMID- 28877056
TI  - PAX8 Expression in a Subset of Malignant Peritoneal Mesotheliomas and Benign
      Mesothelium has Diagnostic Implications in the Differential Diagnosis of Ovarian
      Serous Carcinoma.
AB  - Distinguishing malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) from serous carcinoma
      involving the peritoneum remains a diagnostic challenge, particularly in small
      biopsy and cytology specimens. In this distinction, PAX8 expression has been
      regarded as a specific marker of serous carcinoma. In addition, BAP1 loss is
      reportedly specific to MPM, in the distinction from both benign mesothelial
      lesions and ovarian serous tumors (OSTs). Using immunohistochemistry, we examined
      PAX8 and BAP1 expression in 27 MPMs, 25 cases of benign mesothelium, and 45 OSTs.
      Five MPMs were PAX8 (5/27, 18%), while 8 cases of benign mesothelium expressed
      PAX8 (8/25, 32%). PAX8 expression in mesothelium was significantly more common in
      women than in men (P=0.01). Sixteen MPMs exhibited BAP1 loss (16/25, 64%), while
      BAP1 was retained in all benign mesothelium and all OSTs. All cases of PAX8
      mesothelium were negative for expression of estrogen receptor. These data show
      that PAX8 is expressed in both benign and malignant mesothelium, and that BAP1
      loss is highly specific for MPM, in the differential with both benign mesothelial
      proliferations and OTSs. These results also have implications for primary
      diagnosis and for pathologic staging of OST. Caution should be applied when PAX8
      expression is used to distinguish mesothelial and serous proliferations, and BAP1
      loss may be confirmatory in cases where mesothelioma is favored.

PMID- 28877057
TI  - Pleuroparenchymal Fibroelastosis: A Review of Histopathologic Features and the
      Relationship Between Histologic Parameters and Survival.
AB  - Pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (PPFE) is now a defined clinicopathologic entity
      in the updated 2013 ATS/ERS classification of idiopathic interstitial pneumonias
      (IIPs), which has led to a significant increase in cases being diagnosed at our
      institution. We have therefore reviewed 43 PPFE cases (58 biopsies in total) to
      assess whether any clinical or histopathologic features provide prognostic
      information. A semiquantatitive grading system was used to assess extent of
      fibroblastic foci, intra-alveolar fibroelastosis, visceral pleural fibrosis,
      chronic inflammation in areas of fibrosis, vascular fibrointimal thickening, and
      presence of granulomas. Other patterns of interstitial lung disease were also
      noted, if present. All biopsies showed intra-alveolar fibroelastosis,
      fibroblastic foci at the leading edge of fibrosis and chronic inflammation within
      areas of fibrosis, 91% showed vascular fibrointimal thickening of vessels, 73%
      showed pleural fibrosis, and 35% showed granulomas. Ten cases showed a coexistent
      IIP (5 showed usual interstitial pneumonia, 5 showed features of hypersensitivity
      pneumonitis). There was no significant correlation with mortality and severity of
      histologic parameters, other than a significant decrease in mortality in PPFE
      with coexistent granulomas, after adjusting for age and gender (hazard ratio,
      0.27; P=0.049). Male gender was also associated with an increased risk of
      mortality, after adjusting for age (hazard ratio, 4.8; P=0.045). PPFE is more
      common than previously thought, not infrequently showing coexistent pathology,
      specifically usual interstitial pneumonia and granulomatous lung disease, our
      data suggesting the latter may have prognostic significance.

PMID- 28877058
TI  - Nonuniform Distribution of High-risk Human Papillomavirus in Squamous Cell
      Carcinomas of the Oropharynx: Rethinking the Anatomic Boundaries of Oral and
      Oropharyngeal Carcinoma From an Oncologic HPV Perspective.
AB  - The oral cavity and oropharynx have historically been viewed as a single anatomic
      compartment of the head and neck. The practice of combining the oral cavity and
      oropharynx has recently been revised, largely owing to the observation that human
      papillomavirus (HPV)-related carcinogenesis has a strong predilection for the
      oropharynx but not the oral cavity. The purpose of this study was to determine
      whether HPV is evenly distributed across squamous cell carcinomas of the
      oropharynx including those sites that do not harbor tonsillar tissues such as the
      soft palate. A search of the medical records of the Johns Hopkins Hospital
      identified 32 primary squamous cell carcinomas of the soft palate (n=31) and
      posterior pharyngeal wall (n=1). All were evaluated with p16 immunohistochemistry
      and high-risk HPV in situ hybridization (ISH) (29 by RNA ISH and 3 by DNA ISH).
      For comparison, we also reviewed the medical records to obtain the HPV status of
      patients who had undergone HPV testing of primary tonsillar carcinomas over the
      same time interval as part of their clinical care. High-risk HPV as detected by
      ISH was present in just 1 (3.1%) of the 32 oropharyngeal squamous cell
      carcinomas, including 1 of 2 p16-positive carcinomas. The difference in HPV
      detection rates between tonsillar and nontonsillar sites was significant (1/32,
      3.1% vs. 917/997, 92%; P<0.0001). HPV is not frequently detected in squamous cell
      carcinomas arising from nontonsillar regions of the oropharynx. Indeed, squamous
      cell carcinomas of the soft palate more closely resemble those arising in the
      oral cavity than those arising in areas of the oropharynx harboring tonsillar
      tissue. This finding not only further sharpens our understanding of site-specific
      targeting by HPV, but may have practical implications regarding HPV testing and
      even the way the oral vault is oncologically compartmentalized to partition HPV
      positive from HPV-negative cancers.

PMID- 28877059
TI  - Choriocarcinoma in Women: Analysis of a Case Series With Genotyping.
AB  - Choriocarcinoma is an uncommon malignant neoplasm, which can be either
      gestational or nongestational in origin. Distinction of these subtypes has
      prognostic and therapeutic implications. Twenty-two tumors were genotyped using
      polymerase chain reaction amplification of 15 short tandem repeat loci and the
      amelogenin locus (XY determination). DNA patterns from tumor and maternal tissue,
      as well as villous tissue from any available prior or concurrent gestation, were
      compared, to determine gestational versus nongestational nature (containing vs.
      lacking a paternal chromosome complement, respectively) and the relationship
      between the tumor and any prior or concurrent gestation. Nineteen tumors were
      gestational. Of these, 14 were purely androgenetic/homozygous XX: 6 uterine
      tumors with a concurrent or prior genetically related complete hydatidiform mole
      (CHM), 4 uterine tumors without an accompanying villous component, 1 uterine
      cornual tumor separate from a genetically distinct second trimester intrauterine
      placenta, 1 ectopic ovarian tumor separate from a genetically distinct third
      trimester intrauterine placenta, and 2 ectopic fallopian tube tumors. Five
      gestational tumors were biparental: 3 (2 XX, 1 XY) intraplacental
      choriocarcinomas genetically related to the placenta and 2 uterine tumors without
      accompanying placental tissue after term deliveries (1 XX 4 weeks postpartum and
      1 XYY with allelic imbalances 1 year postpartum; prior placentas not available
      for analysis). Three tumors were nongestational: all XX with allelic imbalances;
      2 ovarian, 1 pelvic. Gestational choriocarcinoma can be androgenetic or
      biparental. Most are androgenetic/homozygous XX, often associated with a
      genetically related concurrent or prior CHM, and thus of molar-associated type.
      These findings support that homozygous XX CHMs are associated with some risk of
      significant gestational trophoblastic disease. Intraplacental choriocarcinomas
      are biparental and genetically related to the placenta. Biparental
      choriocarcinoma detected in a postpartum uterine sample is consistent with
      undetected intraplacental choriocarcinoma. Eutopic or ectopic androgenetic
      choriocarcinoma separate from a concurrent intrauterine placenta is not derived
      from intraplacental tumor and is consistent with either a form of dispermic twin
      gestation (molar-type choriocarcinoma and coexistent nonmolar fetus) or origin
      from an antecedent molar pregnancy. While fallopian tube tumors are usually
      gestational, tumors in other sites (ovary, pelvis) can be nongestational and
      should not be assumed to be metastatic from a regressed or occult intrauterine or
      intraplacental gestational tumor.

PMID- 28877060
TI  - Clinicopathologic Diversity of Undifferentiated Sarcoma With BCOR-CCNB3 Fusion:
      Analysis of 11 Cases With a Reappraisal of the Utility of Immunohistochemistry
      for BCOR and CCNB3.
AB  - Undifferentiated sarcoma harboring the BCOR-CCNB3 fusion is characterized by its
      predilection to affect skeletons of adolescent males, cellular small
      round/spindle cell morphology, and CCNB3 immunoreactivity. We analyzed 11 cases
      of BCOR-CCNB3 sarcoma, 10 of which were identified in a reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction-based screen of 85 patient samples recorded in our
      database as unclassified small round or spindle cell sarcomas. BCOR
      rearrangements were confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization in 8 tumors.
      All patients were males aged between 6 and 31 years. In addition to 5 tumors in
      soft tissue and 4 in the axial or appendicular skeletons, which are typical
      locations, a tumor was located in the paranasal sinus and another in the lung.
      Microscopically, the tumors comprised proliferating atypical spindle and/or small
      round cells with diverse morphologic features such as small concentric whorls,
      myxoid stroma, a hemangiopericytomatous appearance, and/or hyalinized collagen
      resembling a solitary fibrous tumor, and angiomatous or slit-like spaces
      containing extravasated erythrocytes. Tumor cells were immunoreactive to CCNB3
      (9/11), BCOR (10/10), TLE1 (6/10), bcl-2 (9/11), CD99 (8/10), CD56 (8/10), c-kit
      (4/10), and cyclin D1 (10/10). In an immunohistochemical analysis of an
      additional 412 small round or spindle cell tumors, CCNB3 was detected in 6 (1.5%)
      and BCOR in 18 (4.4%). Our analysis highlights the varying clinicopathologic
      features of this tumor, which partially overlap with other small round or spindle
      cell tumors, including solitary fibrous tumor and vascular tumors. Because CCNB3
      and BCOR immunohistochemistry lacks adequate sensitivity and specificity, a
      molecular genetic approach remains essential for diagnosis.

PMID- 28877061
TI  - MAML2 Rearrangements in Variant Forms of Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma: Ancillary
      Diagnostic Testing for the Ciliated and Warthin-like Variants.
AB  - Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common salivary gland malignancy.
      Recent studies have shown that most MECs harbor gene fusions involving MAML2-an
      alteration that appears to be specific for MEC, a finding that could be
      diagnostically useful. While most cases of MEC are histologically
      straightforward, uncommon variants can cause considerable diagnostic difficulty.
      We present 2 variants of MEC for which MAML2 studies were crucial in establishing
      a diagnosis: a previously undescribed ciliated variant, and the recently
      described Warthin-like variant. All cases of ciliated and Warthin-like MEC were
      retrieved from the archives of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Break-apart
      fluorescence in situ hybridization for MAML2 was performed on all cases. One
      ciliated MEC and 6 Warthin-like MECs were identified. The ciliated MEC presented
      as a 4.6 cm cystic lymph node metastasis originating from the tongue base in a 47
      year-old woman. The Warthin-like MECs presented as parotid masses ranging in size
      from 1.2 to 3.3 (mean, 2.7 cm) in 4 women and 2 men. The ciliated MEC consisted
      of macrocystic spaces punctuated by tubulopapillary proliferations of squamoid
      cells and ciliated columnar cells. The Warthin-like MECs were comprised of cystic
      spaces lined by multilayered oncocytic to squamoid cells surrounded by a
      circumscribed cuff of lymphoid tissue with germinal centers. In these cases, the
      Warthin-like areas dominated the histologic picture. Conventional MEC, when
      present, represented a minor tumor component. MAML2 rearrangements were
      identified in all cases. Warthin-like MEC, and now a ciliated form of MEC, are
      newly described variants of a common salivary gland carcinoma. Unfamiliarity with
      these novel forms, unanticipated cellular features (eg, cilia), and morphologic
      overlap with mundane benign processes (eg, developmental ciliated cysts, Warthin
      tumor) or other carcinomas (eg, ciliated human papillomavirus-related carcinoma)
      may render these variants susceptible to misdiagnosis. These unusual variants
      appear to consistently harbor MAML2 fusions-a finding that establishes a clear
      link to conventional MEC and provides a valuable adjunct in establishing the
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28877063
TI  - Sentinel Lymph Nodes in Classic Invasive Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast:
      Cytokeratin Immunostain Ensures Detection, and Precise Determination of Extent,
      of Involvement.
AB  - The assessment of sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)
      stained sections in cases of classic type of invasive lobular carcinoma (cILC) is
      considered unreliable, particularly in cases with minimal involvement, that is by
      either isolated tumor cells (pN0i+) or micrometastases (pN1mi). Although the
      impact of minimal SLN involvement has been shown to be insignificant in most
      clinical trials (even though cILC was either under-represented or not separated
      in the respective cohorts), the results of MIRROR trial did emphasize the need
      for additional therapy in cases with minimally involved SLN to ensure improved
      disease-free survival. We sought to study the role of cytokeratin
      immunohistochemistry (CK-IHC) in evaluating SLN in cILC. A total of 582 cILC
      cases with SLN diagnosed over a 12-year period (2005 to 2016) were reviewed. In
      all, 394/582 (68%) cases had H&E(-)/CK(-) SLN. In total, 188/582 (32%) cases
      showed some degree of SLN involvement of which 143/582 (25%) cases had readily
      identifiable SLN involvement on H&E slides. Overall, 45/582 (7.7%) cases had H&E(
      )/CK(+) SLN. The following data relate to the latter subset of 45 cases. Mean age
      of patients: 61 y (range: 32 to 86 y); right: 24 (53%), left: 21 (47%);
      multifocal and/or multicentric: 22 (49%); mean size: 2.0 cm (range: 0.25 to 4.4
      cm); mean number of SLN: 2.5; mean number of involved SLN: 1.2; and cases with
      prior needle core or excisional biopsy: 45 (100%). CK(+) cells were identified in
      isolation or in loose clusters, either in subcapsular sinuses or nodal cortex or
      both. Overall, 30/45 (67%) showed <=200 CK(+) cells (ie, pN0i+), and 15/45 (33%)
      showed >200 CK(+) cells (ie, pN1mi). In total, 15/45 (33%) cases underwent
      axillary lymph node dissection, of which 4/45 (9%) cases were positive. cILC
      recurred in 3/45 (7%) cases. On statistical analyses, the number of CK(+) cells
      (<=/>200) did not correlate with either axillary lymph node-positivity or with
      recurrence. Number of CK(+) cells (<=/>200) readily distinguished pN0i+ from
      pN1mi based on AJCC's numerical criteria. CK(+) cells could be quantified in
      linear terms (ie, AJCC's size criteria of pN0i+ and pN1mi was applicable) in only
      2 cases. On the basis of these findings, the use of CK-IHC staining should be
      considered for SLN in cases of cILC to ensure detection, and precise
      determination of extent, of involvement; however, the prognostic significance of
      this procedure would have to await results of additional studies with long-term
      follow-up.

PMID- 28877062
TI  - Recurrent BRAF Gene Fusions in a Subset of Pediatric Spindle Cell Sarcomas:
      Expanding the Genetic Spectrum of Tumors With Overlapping Features With Infantile
      Fibrosarcoma.
AB  - Infantile fibrosarcomas (IFS) represent a distinct group of soft tissue tumors
      occurring in patients under 2 years of age and most commonly involving the
      extremities. Most IFS show recurrent ETV6-NTRK3 gene fusions, sensitivity to
      chemotherapy, and an overall favorable clinical outcome. However, outside these
      well-defined pathologic features, no studies have investigated IFS lacking ETV6
      NTRK3 fusions, or tumors with the morphology resembling IFS in older children.
      This study was triggered by the identification of a novel SEPT7-BRAF fusion in an
      unclassified retroperitoneal spindle cell sarcoma in a 16-year-old female by
      targeted RNA sequencing. Fluorescence in situ hybridization screening of 9
      additional tumors with similar phenotype and lacking ETV6-NTRK3 identified 4
      additional cases with BRAF gene rearrangements in the pelvic cavity (n=2),
      paraspinal region (n=1), and thigh (n=1) of young children (0 to 3 y old).
      Histologically, 4 cases including the index case shared a fascicular growth of
      packed monomorphic spindle cells, with uniform nuclei and fine chromatin, and a
      dilated branching vasculature; while the remaining case was composed of compact
      cellular sheets of short spindle to ovoid cells. In addition, a minor small blue
      round cell component was present in 1 case. Mitotic activity ranged from 1 to
      9/10 high power fields. Immunohistochemical stains were nonspecific, with only
      focal smooth muscle actin staining demonstrated in 3 cases tested. Of the
      remaining 5 BRAF negative cases, further RNA sequencing identified 1 case with
      EML4-NTRK3 in an 1-year-old boy with a foot IFS, and a second case with TPM3
      NTRK1 fusion in a 7-week-old infant with a retroperitoneal lesion. Our findings
      of recurrent BRAF gene rearrangements in tumors showing morphologic overlap with
      IFS expand the genetic spectrum of fusion-positive spindle cell sarcomas, to
      include unusual presentations, such as older children and adolescents and
      predilection for axial location, thereby opening new opportunities for kinase
      targeted therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28877064
TI  - Desmoplastic Pattern at the Tumor Front Defines Poor-prognosis Subtypes of
      Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Although recent findings of cancer biology research indicate that prognostic
      power arises from genes expressed by stromal cells rather than epithelial cells,
      desmoplastic reaction (DR) has not been completely examined as a prognostic
      marker for colorectal cancer. A pathologic review of 821 stage II and III
      patients who underwent R0 resection for colorectal cancer at 4 independent
      institutions was conducted. DR was classified as mature, intermediate, or
      immature based on the existence of hyalinized keloid-like collagen and myxoid
      stroma at the extramural desmoplastic front. Totally, 325, 282, and 214 patients
      were classified as having mature, intermediate, and immature DR, respectively. DR
      significantly influenced the recurrence rate in the liver, lung, and peritoneum
      (P<=0.0001 to 0.01). Five-year relapse-free survival (RFS) rate was the highest
      in the mature group (85.7%), followed by the intermediate (77.3%) and immature
      (50.4%) groups. A significant adverse impact of immature stroma on RFS was
      observed in subset analyses of the 4 institutions. Multivariate analysis revealed
      that DR, along with T and N stages, is an independent prognostic factor. On the
      basis of Harrell's concordance index, the prognostic power of DR categorization
      (0.67) in stratifying RFS was greater than any other conventional prognostic
      factors, including TNM (0.64), N (0.62) and T stages (0.59), venous invasion
      (0.59), and tumor grade (0.54). Characterizing DR based on the histologic
      products of activated fibroblasts is valuable for evaluating prognostic outcomes.
      To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting a greater prognostic power of
      histology of the fibrotic stroma than that of tumor factors.

PMID- 28877066
TI  - Clinicopathologic and Molecular Characteristics of Synchronous Colorectal
      Carcinoma With Mismatch Repair Deficiency.
AB  - Synchronous colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a unique disease associated with a high
      prevalence (~35%) of microsatellite instability and occasionally with Lynch
      syndrome. The clinicopathologic and molecular features of synchronous CRC are
      poorly understood, particularly in Japanese patients. We examined 118 Japanese
      patients (236 tumors) with synchronous CRC and 117 Japanese patients (117 tumors)
      with solitary CRC with immunohistochemical staining for TP53 and mismatch repair
      (MMR) protein (MLH1, MSH2, PMS2, and MSH6) and mutation analyses of KRAS and BRAF
      genes. The results revealed no significant differences in clinicopathologic,
      histologic, and molecular findings between the synchronous and solitary CRC
      groups. Among the 118 synchronous CRC patients, 15 (12.7%) showed loss of MMR
      protein(s) expression in at least 1 tumor, whereas 103 (87.3%) showed intact
      expression of all 4 MMR proteins in both tumors. Of note, all patients with MMR
      deficiency had excellent prognoses. The 15 patients were further subdivided into
      2 groups: the Concordant group, with concordant MMR loss (n=9, 7.6%) and the
      Discordant group, with discordant MMR loss (n=6, 5.1%). The Concordant patients
      showed concurrent MLH1/PMS2 loss (n=3), concurrent MSH2/MSH6 loss (n=4) and
      isolated MSH6 loss (n=2) in both tumors, whereas the Discordant patients showed
      concurrent MLH1/PMS2 loss (n=2), isolated PMS2 loss (n=2) and isolated MSH6 loss
      (n=2) in a single tumor. On the basis of the MMR expression pattern and BRAF
      mutation, the Concordant and Discordant groups were suspected to include Lynch
      syndrome, Lynch-like syndrome and sporadic MLH1 promoter hypermethylated CRC. In
      addition, KRAS mutation was present in only 1 tumor in a single patient in each
      group. In conclusion, the frequency of MMR protein deficiency in synchronous CRC
      in the Japanese population may be lower compared with the reported data from
      Western populations. MMR protein loss and KRAS and BRAF mutations in synchronous
      CRCs were heterogenous even in an individual patient.

PMID- 28877065
TI  - HPV-related Multiphenotypic Sinonasal Carcinoma: An Expanded Series of 49 Cases
      of the Tumor Formerly Known as HPV-related Carcinoma With Adenoid Cystic
      Carcinoma-like Features.
AB  - Human papillomavirus (HPV)-related multiphenotypic sinonasal carcinoma (HMSC),
      originally known as HPV-related carcinoma with adenoid cystic carcinoma-like
      features, is a peculiar neoplasm that is restricted to the sinonasal tract,
      exhibits features of both a surface-derived and salivary gland carcinoma
      (particularly adenoid cystic carcinoma), and is associated with high-risk HPV.
      Given the limited number of published cases, the full clinicopathologic spectrum
      of this neoplasm is unclear. Here, we present an updated experience of 49 cases.
      All cases of HMSC were obtained from the authors' files. Immunohistochemistry for
      p16, c-kit, and myoepithelial cell markers (S100, actin, calponin, p63, and/or
      p40) was performed along with RNA in situ hybridization for HPV (type 33-specific
      as well as a high-risk cocktail). Fluorescence in situ hybridization studies for
      fusions of MYB, NFIB, and MYBL1 was performed on a subset of cases. Clinical
      follow-up was obtained from medical records. A total of 49 cases of HMSC were
      collected. Twenty-eight (57%) were from women and 18 (43%) from men, ranging in
      age from 28 to 90 years (mean, 54 y). Of 40 cases with detailed staging
      information, 43% of HMSCs presented with a high T-stage (T3 or T4).
      Histologically, most grew predominantly as solid nests of basaloid cells
      exhibiting high mitotic rates and frequent necrosis, with histologic and
      immunohistochemical evidence of myoepithelial differentiation. Most cases also
      demonstrated foci of cribriform and/or tubular growth, along with an
      inconspicuous population of ducts. Thirty-four (69%) cases demonstrated an
      unusual pattern of surface involvement where markedly atypical squamous cells
      colonized tracts of the sinonasal mucosa. Less consistent histologic features
      included squamous differentiation within the invasive tumor (n=6), sarcomatoid
      transformation (n=5) including overt chondroid differentiation (n=3), and
      prominent epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma-like growth (n=3). All cases were
      positive for p16 by immunostaining and HPV by RNA in situ hybridization. Thirty
      three (67%) were positive for HPV 33. No cases tested for MYB, MYBL1, or NFIB
      gene fusions were positive. In the 38 cases with follow-up data, (mean follow-up,
      42 mo) 14 recurred locally and 2 metastasized (lung, finger). There were no
      regional lymph node metastases, and no tumor-related deaths. HMSC is a distinct
      sinonasal neoplasm characterized by myoepithelial differentiation, frequent
      surface epithelial involvement, and the presence of high-risk HPV (especially
      type 33). Although it classically exhibits a cribriforming pattern that closely
      resembles adenoid cystic carcinoma, our expanded series highlights a histologic
      spectrum that is much broader than previously recognized, warranting a change in
      terminology. HMSC usually presents as a large and destructive sinonasal mass with
      high-grade histologic features, but it paradoxically behaves in a relatively
      indolent manner, underscoring the importance of distinguishing HMSC from true
      adenoid cystic carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and other histologic
      mimickers.

PMID- 28877067
TI  - Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers of Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma.
AB  - The diagnosis of low-grade adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC) confined to the
      adrenal gland can be challenging. Although there are diagnostic and prognostic
      molecular tests for ACC, they remain largely unutilized. We examined the
      diagnostic and prognostic value of altered reticulin framework and the
      immunoprofile of biomarkers including IGF-2, proteins involved in cell
      proliferation and mitotic spindle regulation (Ki67, p53, BUB1B, HURP, NEK2), DNA
      damage repair (PBK, gamma-H2AX), telomere regulation (DAX, ATRX), wnt-signaling
      pathway (beta-catenin) and PI3K signaling pathway (PTEN, phospho-mTOR) in a
      tissue microarray of 50 adenomas and 43 carcinomas that were characterized for
      angioinvasion as defined by strict criteria, Weiss score, and mitotic rate-based
      tumor grade. IGF-2 and proteins involved in cell proliferation and mitotic
      spindle regulation (Ki67, p53, BUB1B, HURP, NEK2), DNA damage proteins (PBK,
      gamma-H2AX), regulators of telomeres (DAXX, ATRX), and beta-catenin revealed
      characteristic expression profiles enabling the distinction of carcinomas from
      adenomas. Not all biomarkers were informative in all carcinomas. IGF-2 was the
      most useful biomarker of malignancy irrespective of tumor grade and
      cytomorphologic features, as juxtanuclear Golgi-pattern IGF-2 reactivity
      optimized for high specificity was identified in up to 80% of carcinomas and in
      no adenomas. Loss rather than qualitative alterations of the reticulin framework
      yielded statistical difference between carcinoma and adenoma. Angioinvasion
      defined as tumor cells invading through a vessel wall and intravascular tumor
      cells admixed with thrombus proved to be the best prognostic parameter,
      predicting adverse outcome in the entire cohort as well as within low-grade ACCs.
      Low mitotic tumor grade, Weiss score, global loss of DAXX expression, and high
      phospho-mTOR expression correlated with disease-free survival, but Weiss score
      and biomarkers failed to predict adverse outcome in low-grade disease. Our
      results underscore the importance of careful morphologic assessment coupled with
      ancillary diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of ACC.

PMID- 28877068
TI  - MC225, a Novel Probe for P-glycoprotein PET Imaging at the Blood-brain Barrier:
      In Vitro Cardiovascular Safety Evaluation.
AB  - The P-glycoprotein (P-gp) substrate MC225, at concentrations <=10 nM, is a
      valuable radiotracer for positron emission tomography imaging of P-gp function in
      rats and mice. The aim of this study was to evaluate its potential toxic hazard
      toward the cardiovascular system through an in-depth analysis of its effects on
      rat aorta rings, on CaV1.2 channel current (ICa1.2) of A7r5 cells and on
      Langendorff-perfused rat heart. In aortic rings, MC225 relaxed phenylephrine
      induced contraction in a concentration-dependent and endothelium-independent
      manner, with an IC50 value of about 1 MUM. At concentrations >=3 MUM, it
      antagonized the response to cumulative concentrations of K. MC225, 1 and 10 MUM,
      inhibited ICa1.2 by 15% and 31%, respectively, without affecting either current
      activation or inactivation kinetics. In Langendorff-perfused rat hearts, only 10
      MUM MC225 significantly decreased left ventricular pressure and increased
      coronary perfusion pressure while reducing heart rate and prolonging the cardiac
      cycle length as well as the atrioventricular conduction time (PQ interval) on the
      electrocardiogram. Lower concentrations of the drug were ineffective. These
      findings demonstrate that MC225-induced cardiovascular effects took place at
      concentrations that are at least 2 orders of magnitude higher than those allowing
      in vivo measurement of P-gp function. Therefore, MC225 represents a promising
      positron emission tomography tool for in vivo straightforward P-gp
      quantification.

PMID- 28877069
TI  - Androgen Receptor is Mostly Not Expressed in Gastric Cancers.

PMID- 28877070
TI  - Effects of Hydrochloric Acid and Formic Acid Decalcification on Breast Tumor
      Biomarkers and HER2 Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization.
AB  - Biomarker analysis of metastatic breast carcinoma (MBC) is routinely recommended
      by ASCO/CAP guidelines, and establishing a diagnosis of MBC often requires
      immunohistochemistry (IHC). The reliability of breast tumor biomarkers and breast
      specific markers on decalcified tissues has not been extensively studied. We
      performed IHC studies on breast tumors exposed to hydrochloric acid (HCl) and
      formic acid (FA) decalcification solutions, and HER2 fluorescence in situ
      hybridization on a subset of these tumors to establish a protocol for handling
      bone specimens with suspicion for MBC. Fifteen fresh cases of primary breast
      carcinoma and 8 HER2+ paraffin-embedded core biopsy cases were studied. Fresh
      tissue was divided into 5 fragments to approximate a bone core biopsy. One
      fragment (control) was fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin. The remaining
      fragments were also exposed to FA or HCl decalcification for 1 or 5 hours. All
      fragments were embedded in 1 block and tested with an IHC panel. The known HER2+
      cases were exposed to either 1 or 5 hours of FA, and HER2 fluorescence in situ
      hybridization was also performed. Results were interpreted as follows: H-scores
      for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and GATA-3 were assigned from 0 to
      300; HER2, cytokeratin 7, gross cystic disease fluid protein-15, Pax-8, TTF-1,
      cytokeratin 20, and mammaglobin were scored from 0 to 3+; and Ki67 from 0% to
      100%. Mean scores were compared using the t test or Wilcoxon test for paired
      samples. No significant differences in mean score were seen between NF and 1 hour
      FA for any IHC immunoreactivity. After 5 hours of FA, only Ki67 average score was
      significantly less than NF. Mean scores for estrogen receptor, progesterone
      receptor, HER2, Ki67, and GATA-3 were significantly lower than NF in the tissue
      after either 1 or 5 hours of HCl. Mean scores for gross cystic disease fluid
      protein-15, mammaglobin, and cytokeratin 7 staining were not significantly lower
      than NF after 1 or 5 hours of HCl.

PMID- 28877071
TI  - Uncommon Localization of Extrarenal Xp11.2 Translocation-associated Renal Cell
      Carcinoma (RCC): Case Report.
AB  - The World Health Organization has recognized Xp11.2 translocation-associated
      renal cell carcinoma (RCC) as a distinct neoplasm that arises within the kidney.
      Although many reports of extrarenal carcinoma may be found in the literature, to
      the best of our knowledge, Xp11 translocation-associated RCC with intact kidneys
      has not been documented. This report describes a multilobulated right
      retroperitoneal soft tissue mass (7.9*5.3*12.6 cm) of a 37-year-old man
      complaining of abdominal pain in the right side. The patient underwent a computed
      tomography-guided biopsy. Microscopic evaluation reveals a tumor with papillary
      and sheaths architectures with cells revealing clear to eosinophilic cytoplasm.
      Immunohistochemical evaluation on the biopsy reveals that the tumor is positive
      for PAX-8, CD10, and TFE3. It is negative for CK7, EMA, Vimentin, RCC, CK8/18,
      D20, CD3, PLAP, OCT4, CD30, MART-1, Inhibin, S-100, HMB-45, Desmin, SMA, and DOG
      1. The diagnosis was malignant epithelioid neoplasm and the diagnosis of
      translocation RCC was suggested. Excision was recommended. The patient underwent
      right radical nephrectomy with removal of this large mass. Pathologic examination
      showed a large cystic and solid, nonhomogenous mass with some necrotic areas,
      originating from the perirenal fat between the adrenal gland and the kidney.
      Microscopic features showed a tumor with papillary, rhabdoid, and clear cell
      features. Immunohistochemical stains showed that the tumor cells positively
      expressed AMACR, PAX-8, CD10, RCC, and TFE3, but were negative for cytokeratins,
      vimentin, HMB-45, desmin, SMA, EMA, and MSA. Cytogenetic studies confirmed the
      diagnosis of Xp11.2 translocation-associated RCC with positive TFE3 gene
      rearrangement. To the best of our knowledge, this type of extrarenal tumor has
      never been reported.

PMID- 28877072
TI  - Does Differentiated Squamous Intraepithelial Neoplasia Occur in the Cervix?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Invasive cervical cell squamous carcinoma (ICC) classically develops
      from high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of usual type (uCIN).
      Differentiated cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (dCIN) analogue to
      differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia has not been described in the
      cervix. METHODS: A pilot case of ICC developing from dCIN with atypia limited to
      the basal/parabasal layers, focally associated with neoplastic spread above the
      parabasal layer (usual-like CIN pattern or u-like CIN) was identified. The
      previous cervical biopsy was under-diagnosed as low grade CIN. A total of 33
      consecutive cases of ICC were reviewed to identify dCIN, u-like CIN and uCIN.
      RESULTS: The ICC developed from dCIN/u-like CIN in 2 patients, 46 and 47-year-old
      (group 1), mixed dCIN/u-like CIN and uCIN in 7 patients, 36+/-3-year-old (group
      2) and from uCIN in 24 patients, 47+/-9-year-old (group 3). In group 1, focal
      uCIN but not connected to ICC was also seen and Pap smears showed only hyper
      keratinized cells with mildly atypical nuclei. Endocervical gland involvement by
      CIN was absent in group 1, focal in group 2 and extensive in group 3. All cases
      showed diffuse p16 staining. P53 reactivity was noted in basal/parabasal in dCIN,
      predominantly lower and upper parts of the epithelium in groups 2 and 3,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Totally, 27% of ICC cases had associated dCIN/u-like
      CIN and in younger patients than in the uCIN group. Larger studies are needed to
      confirm dCIN/u-like CIN as significant precursor lesions of ICC.

PMID- 28877073
TI  - ERG1 Immunohistochemistry: Relevance for Lymph Node Histiocytosis.

PMID- 28877074
TI  - GATA3 Immunohistochemical Staining in Hodgkin Lymphoma: Diagnostic Utility in
      Differentiating Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma From Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant
      Hodgkin Lymphoma and Other Mimicking Entities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Classic Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL) and nodular lymphocyte predominant
      Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) are clinically distinct entities, with different
      prognostic and treatment implications. In addition, several large B-cell
      lymphomas and some T-cell lymphomas can mimic CHL. Differentiating these entities
      from CHL is crucial for ensuring appropriate therapy. GATA3 is a T-cell
      transcription factor involved in T-cell maturation and has been previously shown
      to be overexpressed in CHL cells via gene expression profiling. We investigated
      the utility of GATA3 immunostain in differentiating CHL from NLPHL and other
      mimicking entities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We accrued 17 NLPHLs, 49 CHLs [23
      nodular sclerosis (NS), 3 syncytial variants, 3 lymphocyte rich and 13 mixed
      cellularity types], 4 primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphomas (PMBLs), 2
      Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) positive diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs)
      (EBV+LBCLs), 2 T-cell/histiocyte-rich large B-cell lymphomas (TCHRBCLs), 1 gray
      zone lymphoma, and 2 tissue microarrays consisting of 72 DLBCLs. One slide from
      each was stained with GATA3 and percent positive tumor cells and intensity of
      nuclear expression was semiquantitatively graded independently by 2 board
      certified hematopathologists. RESULTS: GATA3 was positive in 80% of CHLs. Both
      percent positivity and intensity of staining varied greatly. Syncytial variant of
      NS subtype showed the highest positivity rate (3/3; 100%), followed by NS (20/23;
      87%), mixed cellularity (9/13; 70%), and lymphocyte rich (2/3; 67%). GATA3 was
      negative in all NLPHLs, EBV+LBCLs, TCRBCLs, and DLBCLs stained. The single gray
      zone lymphoma and 3/4 PMBLs were positive. CONCLUSIONS: Nuclear expression of
      GATA3 can be used to delineate CHL from NLPHL. GATA3 positivity effectively
      excludes NLPHL with 100% negative predictive value. However, as 20% of CHL can be
      negative for GATA3, CHL cannot be ruled out with negative GATA3. Additional
      findings include GATA3 positivity among PMBLs, whereas all 72 DLBCLs were
      negative for GATA3. This finding further highlights similarities between CHL and
      PMBL.

PMID- 28877075
TI  - Microsatellite Instability: A Predictive Biomarker for Cancer Immunotherapy.
AB  - Immunotherapy has shown promising results in various types of cancers. Checkpoint
      inhibitor drugs developed for cancer immunotherapy have been approved by the US
      Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with advanced melanoma, non-small
      cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancers, and refractory Hodgkin
      lymphoma. In the latest announcement, the FDA has granted accelerated approval to
      pembrolizumab for pediatric and adult patients with microsatellite instability
      high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair-deficient solid tumors. This is the first time
      the agency has approved a cancer treatment based on a common biomarker rather
      than organ-based approach. MSI-H, either due to inherited germline mutations of
      mismatch repair genes or epigenetic inactivation of these genes, is found in a
      subset of colorectal and noncolorectal carcinomas. It is known that MSI-H causes
      a build up of somatic mutations in tumor cells and leads to a spectrum of
      molecular and biological changes including high tumor mutational burden,
      increased expression of neoantigens and abundant tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.
      These changes have been linked to increased sensitivity to checkpoint inhibitor
      drugs. In this mini review, we provide an update on MSI-related solid tumors with
      special focus on the predictive role of MSI for checkpoint immunotherapy.

PMID- 28877076
TI  - Disruption of the with no lysine kinase-STE20-proline alanine-rich kinase pathway
      reduces the hypertension induced by angiotensin II.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The hypertensive effect of angiotensin II (AngII), a peptide hormone,
      is dependent on its intrarenal actions and the activation of the renal Na-Cl
      cotransporter (NCC), by AngII requires integrity of the with no lysine
      kinase/STE20-proline alanine-rich kinase (WNK/SPAK) signaling pathway. Here, we
      analyzed if the integrity of the WNK/SPAK pathway is required for AngII infusion
      to induce arterial hypertension. METHODS: We tested the effect of AngII or
      aldosterone administration on the blood pressure and on pNCC/NCC ratio in SPAK
      knock-in mice in which the kinase and thus NCC cannot be activated by WNK
      kinases. AngII or aldosterone was infused at 1440 or 700 MUg/kg per day,
      respectively, for 14 days using osmotic minipumps. The aldosterone-treated mice
      were exposed to NaCl drinking water (1%) during the hormone administration. The
      arterial blood pressure was assessed using radiotelemetry. RESULTS: We observed
      that in the SPAK knock-in mice, the AngII-induced hypertensive effect was
      significantly reduced and associated with an absence of AngII-induced NCC
      phosphorylation. In contrast, the hypertensive effect of aldosterone was enhanced
      and was related with an increased response to amiloride, but not to thiazide-type
      diuretics, without a significant increase in NCC phosphorylation. CONCLUSION: Our
      data suggest that AngII-induced hypertension requires, at least partly, NCC
      activation via the WNK/SPAK signaling pathway, whereas aldosterone-induced
      hypertension depends on epithelial sodium channel activation in a WNK/SPAK
      independent manner. SPAK knock-in mice emerge as a useful model to distinguish
      between the effects of AngII and aldosterone on distal nephrons.

PMID- 28877077
TI  - Cardiovascular risk and blood pressure lowering treatment among elderly
      individuals: Evidence for Cardiovascular Prevention from Observational Cohorts in
      Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is little evidence to support an increased risk of blood
      pressure (BP) elevation among elderly individuals receiving antihypertensive drug
      treatment. METHODS: To clarify the impact on BP level and residual cardiovascular
      risk in treated elderly individuals, we analysed individual participant data of
      26 133 residents aged 60-89 years from seven Japanese general populations and
      cross-classified participants by age category, 60-74 (young-old) versus 75-89
      years (old-old), and by usage of antihypertensive medication at baseline survey
      (1980-1995). RESULTS: During a median follow-up period of 12.7 years, 2451
      cardiovascular deaths were observed. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios of
      cardiovascular mortality in treated participants compared with untreated
      participants were 1.30 [95% confidence intervals, 1.16-1.46) and 1.35 (95%
      confidence interval, 1.16-1.56) in young-old and old-old participants,
      respectively. Irrespective of antihypertensive medication, the risk increase of
      total cardiovascular and stroke mortality with elevation of BP was significant
      among young-old (P <= 0.0013), but not significant among old-old participants (P
      >= 0.061). CONCLUSION: Although impact on BP was more evident among young-old
      than old-old individuals, clinicians who prescribe antihypertensive medication to
      elderly patients should consider that such patients require further monitoring.

PMID- 28877078
TI  - Advances in immunotherapy in multiple myeloma.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Here, we explore the significant progress made in the
      treatment of multiple myeloma, focusing on immunotherapy and the promise it has
      offered to patients suffering from advanced disease. RECENT FINDINGS: Multiple
      myeloma, a B-cell malignancy, is characterized by unregulated plasma cell growth
      in the bone marrow as well as strong immunosuppression in the tumor
      microenvironment. mAbs targeting tumor antigens overcome this, increasing T-cell
      activation, multiple myeloma cell death, and depth of response. Similarly,
      adoptive T-cell therapy aims to engineer or isolate tumor-specific T cells for a
      targeted approach. Finally, peptide and dendritic cell/tumor fusion vaccines
      reeducate the immune system, expanding the immune response and generating long
      term memory to prevent relapse of disease. Many of these approaches have been
      combined with existing therapies to enhance antitumor immunity. SUMMARY:
      Immunotherapeutic approaches have remarkably changed the treatment paradigm for
      multiple myeloma, and encouraging patient responses have warranted further
      investigation into mAbs, adoptive T-cell therapy, vaccines, and combination
      therapy.

PMID- 28877080
TI  - World Gastroenterology Organisation Global Guidelines: Celiac Disease February
      2017.

PMID- 28877081
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Wireless pH Monitoring in Patients Suspected of
      Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease: A Systematic Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The primary aim of this systematic review was to determine the
      safety, technical efficacy, and effectiveness of 48-hour wireless pH monitoring
      (WM) for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), compared with no pH monitoring
      in patients who failed to tolerate a catheter. In the absence of eligible
      studies, the secondary aim was to determine these performance characteristics for
      WM relative to catheter-based pH monitoring (CBM) in patients suspected of GERD,
      who are able to tolerate a catheter. METHODS: A protocol was registered on the
      PROSPERO database (CRD42013005852) before conducting the systematic review, which
      included the study selection criteria, and critical appraisal methods. Several
      key databases were searched to identify eligible comparative studies. RESULTS:
      Chest pain occurred more often with WM compared with CBM; however, other adverse
      events were reported less frequently with WM. Technical failures, mostly due to
      attachment failures and early capsule detachments, were 3 times higher with WM,
      compared with CBM, [pooled relative risk (from meta-analysis)=3.3; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.63-6.81; I=0%; P=0.012; k=8). The sensitivity and specificity of WM
      varied widely, depending on type of analysis, monitoring time, capsule placement,
      reference standard, and diagnostic threshold. DISCUSSION: WM is usually better
      tolerated than CBM but has more technical problems. Test accuracy was highly
      variable between studies; therefore, conclusions could not be drawn regarding the
      performance of the 2 tests. To make meaningful comparisons between WM and CBM a
      consensus is needed on the diagnostic threshold for GERD, monitoring time,
      appropriate capsule positioning, and the reference standard.

PMID- 28877083
TI  - Don't fall for predatory publishers.

PMID- 28877082
TI  - Multidisciplinary Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Improves Access to
      Therapy and Patient Survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given the complexity of managing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), it
      is widely accepted that a multidisciplinary team approach (tumor boards) offers
      the best approach to individualize therapy. The aim of this study was to
      determine utilization of therapies and outcomes for patients with HCC, comparing
      those managed through our multidisciplinary tumor board (MDTB) to those who were
      not. METHODS: A database analysis of all patients with HCC managed through our
      MDTB, from 2007 until 2011, was performed. A database of all patients with HCC
      from 2002 to 2011, not managed through MDTB, was similarly created. RESULTS: A
      total of 306 patients with HCC, from 2007 to 2011 were managed through our MDTB,
      in comparison with 349 patients, from 2002 to 2011 who were not. There were no
      significant differences in baseline demographic data or model for end-stage liver
      disease at presentation. Patients managed through MDTB were more likely to
      present at an earlier tumor stage and with lower serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP)
      (P=0.007). The odds of receiving any treatment for HCC was higher in patients
      managed through MDTB (odds ratio, 2.80; 95% confidence interval, 1.71-4.59;
      P<0.0001) independent of model for end-stage liver disease score, serum AFP, and
      tumor stage. There was significantly greater survival of patients managed through
      MDTB (19.1+/-2.5 vs. 7.6+/-0.9 mo, P<0.0001). Independent predictors for improved
      survival included management through MDTB, receipt of any HCC treatment, lower
      serum AFP, receipt of liver transplant, and T2 tumor stage. CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      with HCC managed through a MDTB had significantly higher rates of receipt of
      therapy and improved survival compared with those who were not.

PMID- 28877084
TI  - Coronary fluorine-18-sodium fluoride uptake is increased in healthy adults with
      an unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile: results from the CAMONA study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Coronary artery fluorine-18-sodium fluoride (F-NaF) uptake reflects
      coronary artery calcification metabolism and is considered to be an early
      prognostic marker of coronary heart disease. This study evaluated the
      relationship between coronary artery F-NaF uptake and cardiovascular risk in
      healthy adults at low cardiovascular risk. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Study
      participants underwent blood pressure measurements, blood analyses, and coronary
      artery F-NaF PET/CT imaging. In addition, the 10-year risk for the development of
      cardiovascular disease, on the basis of the Framingham Risk Score, was estimated.
      Multivariable linear regression evaluated the dependence of coronary artery F-NaF
      uptake on cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS: We recruited 89 (47 men, 42
      women) healthy adults aged 21-75 years. Female sex (0.34 kBq/ml; P=0.009), age
      (0.16 kBq/ml per SD; P=0.002), and BMI (0.42 kBq/ml per SD; P<0.001) were
      independent determinants of increased coronary artery F-NaF uptake (adjusted
      R=0.21; P<0.001). Coronary artery F-NaF uptake increased linearly according to
      the number of cardiovascular risk factors present (P<0.001 for a linear trend).
      The estimated 10-year risk for the development of cardiovascular disease was on
      average 2.4 times higher in adults with coronary artery F-NaF uptake in the
      highest quartile compared with those in the lowest quartile of the distribution
      (8.0 vs. 3.3%, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that coronary artery F
      NaF PET/CT imaging is feasible in healthy adults at low cardiovascular risk and
      that an unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile is associated with a marked
      increase in coronary artery F-NaF uptake.

PMID- 28877086
TI  - Short article: Retreatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection after
      unsuccessful therapy with all-oral direct-acting antiviral regimens: a real-life
      experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Few real-life data are available on the retreatment of patients who
      failed direct-acting antiviral (DAA)-regimens. We reported the outcome of
      retreatment with approved DAA regimens in a real-life cohort of patients who
      previously failed an all-oral DAAs combination and we analyzed the association
      with resistance substitutions (RASs) performed at the time of virological
      failure. AIM AND METHODS: Next-generation sequencing of the NS3, NS5A, and NS5B
      regions was performed by Illumina deep sequencing. The sequence reads were
      analyzed by an in-house pipeline. RESULTS: Of the 16/759 (2%) patients who failed
      to achieve a sustained virological response at 12 weeks to all-oral DAAs from
      December 2014 to January 2016, 10 were retreated with licensed DAAs regimens. In
      all the patients, retreatment was followed by sustained virological response at
      12 weeks. Baseline NS3-RASs before retreatment were observed in two patients who
      failed a sofosbuvir/simeprevir regimen: D168V RAS was detected in a genotype-4
      patient, whereas the complex RAS-pattern Q80K, I170V, R155K, D168E was observed
      in a genotype-1a patient. Only one of the two patients who previously failed
      ombitasvir, paritaprevir/ritonavir, and dasabuvir underwent RAS analysis at
      relapse and showed baseline NS5A RAS (M28V) before retreatment. CONCLUSION: These
      real-life findings indicated a high efficacy of sofosbuvir+NS5A-inihbitors in
      retreating NS3-experienced patients and also NS5A-experienced patients by using a
      24-week course ribavirin-containing regimen. The relevance of hepatitis C virus
      resistance testing before retreatment remains to be better defined to guide the
      choice of the new regimen before retreatment in DAA-experienced patients.

PMID- 28877085
TI  - Current health status and medical therapy of patients with pediatric-onset
      inflammatory bowel disease: a survey-based analysis on 1280 patients aged 10-25
      years focusing on differences by age of onset.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There are inconsistent reports on age-related differences in
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). On the basis of patient information, we
      describe the clinical presentation and therapy in relation to age at diagnosis in
      longstanding pediatric IBD. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two surveys were conducted in
      children and young adults (age: 10-25 years) by pretested postal questionnaires.
      The main analyses are descriptive, showing proportions and distributions per
      grouped age of diagnosis. Exploratory logistic regression was used to identify
      sociodemographic and disease-related factors associated with prognosis. Recent
      disease course, use of biological therapy, and resecting surgery were chosen as
      indicators of disease severity. Patients with a diagnosis in infancy (<2 years of
      age) are presented as a case series. RESULTS: Information of 1280 cases was
      available [804 Crohn's disease (CD), 382 ulcerative colitis (UC), 94 IBD not
      specified] (response: 44.6 and 49.6%). Stable remission during the preceding year
      was reported by 675 (56.7%) patients; 825 (60.9%) patients reported feeling
      currenty well. Anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy was reported by 33% of CD
      patients and 9.3% of UC patients, immunomodulation in 82.1 and 63.2%, and
      corticosteroids by 78.4 and 76.1%, respectively (ever use). Age at diagnosis was
      not associated with indicators of severe disease. Diagnosis in infancy was
      reported by 37 patients. CONCLUSION: Our data do not support age at diagnosis
      related differences in prognosis in pediatric-onset IBD.

PMID- 28877087
TI  - Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy under conscious sedation in patients with
      amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is safe: an observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neuromuscular
      disease that causes muscle weakness with respiratory and swallowing dysfunction,
      eventually leading to death. Permanent enteral feeding is indicated in almost all
      patients. A percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube is considered the
      first choice, usually performed under conscious sedation (intravenous midazolam).
      Guidelines are very cautious with respect to sedation in ALS because of the risk
      for respiratory complications. In our tertiary referral hospital, conscious
      sedation has been used for many years.Our aim was to review 30-day complications
      in PEG performed under conscious sedation in ALS patients (without noninvasive
      positive pressure ventilation during the procedure). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective review, including all ALS patients undergoing PEG under conscious
      sedation from October 2009 to April 2016, was performed. RESULTS: Analysis
      included 45 (44% men) patients receiving intravenous midazolam sedation (mean
      dose 5 mg) during PEG placement, age 36-91 years (mean: 68.7 years). Forced vital
      capacity (FVC) was 24-116% (mean 68%), of which mild to moderate dysfunction (FVC
      50-69%) was present in 42.2% of patients and (very) severe dysfunction (FVC <50%)
      in 8.8%. No respiratory complications (e.g. aspiration pneumonia) were observed.
      Other complications, for example, infection, bleeding and peritonitis occurred
      in, respectively, 8.9, 2.2 and 0%. Mean survival after PEG placement was 13.4
      months (range: 1-45 months). CONCLUSION: Conscious sedation during PEG insertion
      in ALS patients did not lead to respiratory complications or to an increase in
      other complications. Our data indicate that conscious sedation can be used safely
      in ALS patients with mild to moderate pulmonary dysfunction.

PMID- 28877088
TI  - Efficacy and tolerability of culture-guided treatment for Helicobacter pylori
      infection.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy/tolerability of a
      culture-guided approach in the eradication of Helicobacter pylori and identify
      factors associated with antibiotic resistance/treatment failure. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This retrospective single-center study included patients who underwent
      culture-guided treatment for H. pylori infection, after two ineffective
      eradication attempts, between October 2012 and December 2016. We assessed the
      following demographic and clinical data of the patients: sex, age, BMI, alcohol
      and tobacco consumption, history of dyspepsia, peptic ulceration and first-degree
      relatives with gastric cancer, antibiotic susceptibility results, treatment
      composition, tolerability, and success. The treatment success was confirmed by a
      monoclonal stool antigen test. RESULTS: Culture-guided treatment was performed in
      42 patients (57% women, mean age+/-SD: 48.9+/-11.4 years). The rates of
      antibiotic resistance were as follows: clarithromycin 86%, metronidazole 67%;
      levofloxacin 52%, tetracycline 2%, and amoxicillin and rifampicin 0%. Double
      resistance to clarithromycin and metronidazole was found in 59.5% of the
      patients. Most patients showed resistance to less than three antibiotics, but 31%
      were resistant to three or more. Intention-to-treat and per-protocol eradication
      rates were 59.5 and 61.5%. Adverse events occurred in 15 (35.7%) patients, but
      only two (4.8%) patients did not complete treatment because of adverse events.
      Only age more than 50 years was associated with resistance to three or more
      antibiotics. Having a first-degree relative with gastric cancer was associated
      with treatment failure and having a BMI of at least 25 kg/m protected from
      failure. CONCLUSION: Third-line culture-guided treatment often fails to eradicate
      H. pylori infection. We need to find factors other than in-vitro antibiotic
      resistance to explain these suboptimal results.

PMID- 28877089
TI  - The maturation of a 'neural-hematopoietic' inflammatory axis in cardiovascular
      disease.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Atherogenesis is the result of a complex interplay between
      lipids and innate immune cells, which are descendants of upstream progenitors
      residing in hematopoietic organs. In this review, we will discuss recent advances
      in the connection between hematopoiesis and atherogenesis. RECENT FINDINGS: The
      relevance of a neural-hematopoietic axis was recently supported by the
      demonstration of a correlation between metabolic activity in the amygdala and the
      bone marrow. During follow-up, both amygdalar and bone marrow activities also
      predicted cardiovascular risk in patients, lending further support to a
      connection between neural stress and cardiovascular events mediated via increased
      hematopoietic activity.In parallel, functional changes in hematopoietic stem
      cells may also convey cardiovascular risk. In experimental models, knock-out of
      the ten-eleven translocation 2 (TET2) gene leading to monocyte-macrophage
      hyperresponsiveness, was associated with accelerated atherogenesis in murine
      experiments. In humans, whole-exome sequencing reporting on the 'clonal
      hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential' gene substantiated a two-fold elevated
      risk for developing coronary heart disease compared with noncarriers. SUMMARY:
      Recent studies support the relevance of a 'neural-hematopoietic' inflammatory
      axis and clonal hematopoiesis as drivers of atherogenesis in humans. These data
      warrant further studies addressing the role of novel 'hematopoietic' targets for
      the treatment of patients with increased cardiovascular risk.

PMID- 28877090
TI  - Academic Achievement Deficits and Their Neuropsychological Correlates in Children
      Born Extremely Preterm.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the risks associated with
      learning disabilities (LDs) in a large sample of children born extremely preterm.
      We predicted higher than expected rates of LD, particularly in math, and children
      with LD in math, reading, or both would have lower intelligence quotients (IQs)
      and specific patterns of neuropsychological deficits. METHODS: We evaluated
      academic achievement, rates of LD, and their neuropsychological correlates in the
      Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns (ELGANs) Study cohort of 10-year-old
      children born at 23 to 27 weeks gestational age. Primary analyses focused on
      children without intellectual disability (verbal IQ > 70 and nonverbal IQ > 70; N
      = 668). Low achievement was defined as a standard score <=85 on the reading or
      math measures. RESULTS: The risk of low math achievement scores (27%) was 1.5
      times higher than the risk of low reading achievement scores (17%). Children were
      classified as having LD based on low achievement criteria in reading only (RD,
      6.4% of sample), math only (MD, 16.2%), both reading and math (RD/MD, 8.3%), or
      no reading or math disabilities (No LD, 69.1%). Although all 3 LD groups had
      multiple neuropsychological weaknesses compared with the No LD group, the RD and
      MD groups had different patterns of neuropsychological impairment. CONCLUSION:
      These children from the ELGAN cohort had higher than expected rates of LD,
      particularly in mathematics, even after taking socioeconomic status into
      consideration. These results indicate specific cognitive weaknesses that differ
      between extremely preterm children with RD and MD.

PMID- 28877091
TI  - Avoiding biopsy for initial diagnosis for celiac disease: are we there yet?

PMID- 28877092
TI  - Coeliac disease: further evidence that biopsy is not always necessary for
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28877093
TI  - Assessment of liver fibrosis with acoustic radiation force impulse in patients
      with chronic hepatitis C.

PMID- 28877096
TI  - Clinical Parameter for Deciding the BRAFV600E Mutation Test in Atypia of
      Undetermined Significance/Follicular Lesion of Undetermined Significance Thyroid
      Nodules: US Features According to TIRADS.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of a thyroid imaging reporting and
      data system (TIRADS) to select thyroid nodules with atypia of undetermined
      significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS) cytology
      for additional BRAF mutation testing. Three hundred three thyroid nodules were
      included. Statistical analysis was performed at both patient and nodule levels
      according to BRAF mutation positivity and clinical factors. Univariate and
      multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess independent
      associations between BRAF mutation positivity and clinical factors. Of 303
      AUS/FLUS nodules, 16 (5.3%) of 303 nodules had the BRAF mutation. The frequency
      of the BRAF mutation according to the TIRADS was 35.7% for category 5, 10.8% for
      category 4c, 2.5% for category 4b, 1.1% for category 4a, and 0% for category 3
      nodules (P < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, BRAF mutation positivity was
      significantly associated with high suspicion on the TIRADS (odds ratio, 15.247; P
      < 0.001). In conclusion, the ultrasonography patterns of the TIRADS can be used
      as a clinical parameter for deciding the BRAF mutation test in thyroid nodules
      with AUS/FLUS cytology.

PMID- 28877095
TI  - Hip Surveillance for Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Survey of the POSNA
      Membership.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, hip surveillance programs for children with cerebral palsy
      exist in Europe, Australasia, and parts of Canada, but a neuromuscular hip
      surveillance program has yet to be adopted in the United States. The purpose of
      this study was to report the current orthopaedic practice of hip surveillance in
      children with cerebral palsy, identify areas of practice variation, and suggest
      steps moving forward to generate guidelines for national neuromuscular hip
      surveillance. METHODS: The entire membership of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society
      of North America (POSNA) was surveyed in 2016 for information regarding their
      practice for hip surveillance in children with cerebral palsy. Detailed
      information regarding timing, frequency, and practice of hip surveillance was
      obtained in answers to 26 different questions. RESULTS: A survey response rate of
      27% was obtained (350/1300 members) during the study period. The majority of
      respondents treated pediatric patients exclusively (97%), worked in an academic
      practice (70%), and was affiliated with a university (76%). In total, 18%
      (69/350) of respondents followed a regular cerebral palsy hip surveillance
      program, about half of whom (44%, 30/69) had adopted the Australian guidelines.
      Respondents agreed that a dislocated hip in a child with cerebral palsy was
      painful (90% agreement) and should be prevented by hip surveillance (93%
      agreement). Furthermore, 93% of respondents indicated they would follow a
      national surveillance program if one was in place. Age (79%), Gross Motor
      Function Classification System (81%), and migration percentage (MP) (78%) were
      all identified as critical elements to a hip surveillance program. The majority
      of respondents felt that a hip "at risk" for hip displacement had a MP between
      20% and 30% (57% of respondents), whereas surgery should be utilized once the MP
      exceeded 40% (50% of respondents). CONCLUSIONS: Results from this survey
      demonstrate 90% of respondents agree that a dislocated hip could be painful and
      93% would follow a national surveillance program if available. At a societal
      level, we have the ability to standardize cerebral palsy hip surveillance,
      thereby decreasing practice variation and improving quality of care delivery.
      LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level V.

PMID- 28877097
TI  - Application of Transcranial Color Doppler Ultrasonography for Assessing Middle
      Cerebral Arteries in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - To assess the role of ultrasonography for assessing middle cerebral arteries
      (MCAs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Middle cerebral arteries of 32 RA patients
      and 32 healthy volunteers were examined by ultrasonography. Peak systolic blood
      flow velocity (PSV), end-diastolic velocity, and resistance index (RI) of MCA
      were measured using Doppler ultrasound. Results were expressed as mean +/- SD. No
      significant difference in peak systolic velocity was obtained between RA patients
      (52.44 +/- 19.56 cm/s) and healthy volunteers (51.59 +/- 16.83 cm/s, P > 0.05).
      End-diastolic velocity in RA patients was significantly lower (15.41 +/- 5.44
      cm/s vs 24.54 +/- 8.45 cm/s, P < 0.01) and RI markedly higher (0.66 +/- 0.10 vs
      0.60 +/- 0.06, P < 0.05) compared with control values. Resistance index in 32 RA
      patients increased with disease duration (2 months to 31 years), from a median
      value of 0.350 to 0.830; there was a strong correlation between RI and disease
      duration (r = 0.965, P < 0.05). A point of 0.64 in receiver operating
      characteristic curve was chosen as the cutoff point, and the area under the curve
      was 0.918. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value,
      negative predictive value, and accuracy were 90.6%, 87.5%,87.9%, 90.3%, and
      89.1%, respectively. Color Doppler ultrasound in RA patients with hemodynamic
      changes of MCAs could be a relatively sensitive tool for the detection of
      cerebral atherosclerotic lesions. This could enable timely intervention for early
      clinical reference.

PMID- 28877098
TI  - A 3-Dimensional Printed Ultrasound Probe Visuospatial Trainer.
AB  - Training adult learners to use ultrasound in clinical practice relies on the
      ability of the learner to apply visuospatial concepts to the anatomy of the human
      body. We describe a visuospatial trainer that replicates the housing of an
      ultrasound transducer, through which a linear laser projects light in the same
      plane and orientation as the ultrasonic sound waves. We use this trainer in
      combination with a porcine heart dissection laboratory to teach bedside cardiac
      ultrasound and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). Off-the-shelf components,
      including an on/off switch, a laser, and 2 ampere batteries are connected in
      series and placed inside the 3-dimensional (3D)-printed housing. The trainer's
      laser emission projects a red line that visually represents the ultrasound's
      field. Learners project the laser against a porcine or human heart in the
      orientation of the TTE window they wish to obtain and then dissect the heart in
      that plane, allowing for visualization of how grayscale images are obtained from
      3D structures. Previous research has demonstrated that visuospatial aptitude is
      correlated with ultrasound procedural performance. We present this trainer and
      educational method as a specific training intervention that could enhance the
      visuospatial ability of the ultrasound learner. This visuospatial trainer and
      educational method present a novel process for enhancing learner understanding of
      2-dimensional ultrasound images as they relate to 3D structures. Having a clear
      understanding of how images are generated in cross section may translate into
      more proficient adaptation of cardiac ultrasound and TTE.

PMID- 28877099
TI  - Risk of Pulmonary Embolism in Patients With Isolated Great Saphenous Vein
      Thrombus.
AB  - Risks associated with isolated great saphenous vein (GSV) thrombosis remain
      controversial. The purpose of this study is to identify the risk of pulmonary
      embolism (PE) in patients with isolated GSV thrombosis, particularly those with
      thrombus within 3 cm of the sapheno-femoral junction. A retrospective chart
      review of color flow Doppler lower extremity venous ultrasound examinations from
      an academic hospital from 2011 to 2016 was conducted. Seventy-eight patients were
      identified as having acute thrombus in their GSV and were then further stratified
      based on the presence or absence of concomitant deep venous thrombosis (DVT). A
      control group of 49 patients who presented with leg swelling and were found to
      have a normal color flow Doppler examination was also identified. Patients
      without thrombus (n = 49), patients with isolated GSV thrombus (n = 29), and
      patients with GSV thrombus with concomitant DVT (n = 49) underwent full chart
      review to determine whether any patients developed PE. This was diagnosed
      specifically by computed tomography angiogram or ventilation/perfusion scan,
      within 60 days of initial diagnosis of lower extremity thrombus. In our analysis,
      there was no significant difference in the risk of PE in patients with isolated
      GSV thrombus compared with a control group of normal patients (3.5% vs 2.0%, P =
      0.38). However, patients with GSV thrombus and concomitant DVT had a
      significantly increased risk of PE compared with patients with isolated GSV
      thrombus (26.5% vs 3.5%, P = 0.01). We found that the risk of PE in patients with
      isolated GSV thrombus is not significantly increased compared with a normal
      cohort.

PMID- 28877100
TI  - Abdominal Pain and Vomiting.
AB  - Abdominal ultrasound of a 28-year-old man with chronic abdominal pain and
      vomiting demonstrates a dilated aperistaltic distal esophagus, which was
      confirmed on follow-up esophagram as achalasia. The 2 main types of achalasia are
      primary and secondary. Primary achalasia occurs with the loss of postganglionic
      neurons resulting in failed distal esophageal relaxation. Secondary achalasia is
      esophageal narrowing due to nondenervation causes. The diagnosis of achalasia is
      typically made with manometry and barium esophagram.

PMID- 28877101
TI  - Proanthocyanidins prevent ethanol-induced cognitive impairment by suppressing
      oxidative and inflammatory stress in adult rat brain.
AB  - Excessive chronic alcohol consumption enhances brain oxidative and inflammatory
      stress, resulting in cognitive deficit. This study investigated the potential
      alleviating effects of proanthocyanidins (PACs) on ethanol-induced cognitive
      impairment and stress in brain regions including the prefrontal cortex,
      hippocampus, and amygdala. Adult male rats were administered saline, PACs,
      ethanol, or combinations of ethanol with different doses of PACs for 8 weeks.
      Then, the Morris water-maze test was performed. Thiobarbituric acid-reactive
      substances, superoxide dismutase activity, total antioxidant capacity, and nitric
      oxide were chosen as parameters of oxidative stress, whereas tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha and interleukin-1beta chosen as parameters of inflammatory stress.
      The results indicated that ethanol led to cognitive impairment along with
      enhanced oxidative and inflammatory stress in brain regions, whereas PACs per se
      had no significant effects. Moreover, coadministration with PACs in ethanol
      treated rats dose dependently rescued cognitive impairment accompanied by
      suppressed oxidative and inflammatory stress in brain regions. Thus, the
      protective effects of PACs on ethanol-induced cognitive impairments may be
      because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

PMID- 28877102
TI  - Treadmill exercise modifies dopamine receptor expression in the prefrontal cortex
      of the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-lesioned mouse model of
      Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder for
      which there is no cure. PD is a dopamine (DA)-deficit disorder marked by
      progressive motor and nonmotor disturbances, including cognitive impairment.
      Executive function (EF) is the most common subtype of cognitive impairment in PD
      and consists of deficits in number of processes including behavioral flexibility.
      The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an important brain region subserving EF.
      Furthermore, DA plays a key neuromodulatory role in the PFC and altered DA
      neurotransmission is believed to contribute toward EF deficits in PD. The
      mechanisms underlying PFC dysfunction are not fully understood and there are no
      effective treatments for EF deficits in PD. Exercise is a promising therapeutic
      strategy that may exert beneficial effects on PFC function in PD. Our previous
      work suggests that exercise improves motor function and restores striatal DA-D2
      receptor (DA-D2R) expression after DA depletion. This study builds upon our
      previous work by exploring whether exercise modulates PFC function, specifically
      DA levels and DA receptor expression in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6
      tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-mouse model of DA depletion. We found that exercise
      restores PFC DA levels, reverses the MPTP-induced increase in DA-D1R and decrease
      in DA-D4R, and exerts differential effects on D2Rs. The modest effect of exercise
      in PFC function may suggest that other types of exercise, such as those that are
      more skill based, would be required to target these cognitive behavioral
      circuits.

PMID- 28877103
TI  - Abnormal modification of histone acetylation involved in depression-like
      behaviors of rats induced by chronically unpredicted stress.
AB  - Depression is a complex multifactorial mental disorder. Its etiology involves
      many factors such as social environments, genetics, and psychology. Recent
      studies have shown that epigenetic modification may be associated with
      depression. Histone acetylation is one of the main mechanisms of epigenetic
      modification and plays an important role in genetic expression. In this study, we
      investigated the role of histone acetylation in the depression-like behaviors of
      rats undergoing chronically unpredicted stress (CUS) by detecting the mRNA and
      protein expression of histone deacetylase 5, cAMP-response element-binding
      protein, and the level of histone acetylated modification of H3K14, H3K23, and
      H4K16 in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of the rats. The results showed
      that significantly increasing depression-like behaviors were observed with a
      decreasing histone acetylated modification level, especially on acytelated-H3K14,
      acytelated-H3K23, and acytelated-H4K16, upregulating histone deacetylase 5
      expression and downregulating cAMP-response element-binding protein expression in
      CUS rats, compared with control rats. The results indicate that the decrease in
      the histone acetylation modification level may be partly involved in the
      mechanism of depression-like behaviors of rats induced by CUS.

PMID- 28877104
TI  - Activation of beta-adrenoceptor facilitates active avoidance learning through
      enhancement of glutamate levels in the hippocampal dentate gyrus.
AB  - Long-term potentiation (LTP) is widely accepted as the best studied model for
      neurophysiological mechanisms that could underlie learning and memory formation.
      Despite a number of studies indicating that beta-adrenoceptors in the hippocampal
      dentate gyrus (DG) is involved in the modulation of learning and memory as well
      as LTP, few studies have used glutamate release as a visual indicator in awake
      animals to explore the role of beta-adrenoceptors in learning-dependent LTP.
      Therefore, in the present study, the effects of propranolol (an antagonist of
      beta-adrenoceptor) and isoproterenol (an agonist of beta-adrenoceptor) on
      extracellular concentrations of glutamate and amplitudes of field excitatory
      postsynaptic potential were measured in the DG region during active avoidance
      learning in freely moving conscious rats. In the control group, the glutamate
      level in the DG was significantly increased during the acquisition of active
      avoidance behavior and returned to basal level following extinction training. In
      propranolol group, antagonism of beta-adrenoceptors in the DG significantly
      reduced the change in glutamate level, and the acquisition of the active
      avoidance behavior was significantly inhibited. In contrast, the change in
      glutamate level was significantly enhanced by isoproterenol, and the acquisition
      of the active avoidance behavior was significantly accelerated. Furthermore, in
      all groups, the changes in glutamate level were accompanied by corresponding
      changes in field excitatory postsynaptic potential amplitude and active avoidance
      behavior. Our results suggest that activation of beta-adrenoceptors in the
      hippocampal DG facilitates active avoidance learning by modulations of glutamate
      level and synaptic efficiency in rats.

PMID- 28877105
TI  - Context for Practice: Prevention of Pressure Injury and Incontinence-Associated
      Dermatitis.

PMID- 28877106
TI  - Letter to the Editor.

PMID- 28877108
TI  - Prevention of Heel Pressure Injuries and Plantar Flexion Contractures With Use of
      a Heel Protector in High-Risk Neurotrauma, Medical, and Surgical Intensive Care
      Units: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the use of a heel protector to
      standard of care (pillows) in the prevention of hospital-acquired pressure
      injuries (HAPI) of the heels and prevention of plantar flexion contractures.
      DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: The study took place
      on a surgical intensive care unit, medical intensive care unit, and neurotrauma
      intensive care unit. Inclusion criteria were a minimum of 5 days of sedation
      related to care for a critical illness, immobility for 6 to 8 hours before study
      initiation, a Braden Scale for Pressure Sore Risk score 18 or less, and a
      mobility subscale score 2 or less. Patients were included if they had preexisting
      heel pressure injury or plantar flexion contracture. The sample comprised 54
      subjects; 37 were randomly allocated to the intervention group and 17 to the
      control group. Their average age-mean (standard deviation)-was 40.7 (14.96) years
      in the control group and 44.6 (17.15) years in the intervention group. METHODS:
      Data were collected from patients' electronic medical records. We recorded
      subject demographics, presence of diabetes mellitus or peripheral vascular
      disease, Glasgow Coma Scale scores (every shift), Braden Scale for Pressure Sore
      Risk scores (every shift), heel skin assessments (every shift), goniometric
      measurements (every other day), and adverse events (every shift). Assessments and
      measurements were continued until the patient was discharged from the study.
      RESULTS: None of the patients in the intervention group developed HAPI of the
      heels, as compared to 7 in the control group (0% vs 41%, P < .001). Patients in
      the intervention group had a significantly greater decrease in goniometric scores
      (mean decrease = 1.4 +/- 2.25) compared to the control group by day 3 (mean
      decrease = 0.1 +/- 0.52 P = .004) and the last study day (mean decrease = 2.0 +/-
      3.02 for the intervention group vs 0.07 +/- 0.96 for the control group; P <
      .001). CONCLUSIONS: Study findings indicate that a heel protector that ensures
      off-loading and maintains the foot in a neutral position is more effective for
      prevention of HAPI of the heel and contractures as compared to standard care
      using pillows to position the heel and redistribute pressure.

PMID- 28877110
TI  - Predictors of Intraoperative Pressure Injury in Patients Undergoing Major
      Hepatobiliary Surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors associated with
      pressure injury (PI) development in patients undergoing major hepatobiliary
      surgery requiring general anesthesia. DESIGN: Retrospective medical review and
      analysis. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Medical records from 803 patients undergoing
      hepatobiliary surgery from October 2015 to October 2016 were reviewed. The study
      setting was a 3400-bed military academic medical center in the northeast region
      of China. METHODS: Demographic variables, comorbid conditions, preoperative
      Braden Scale for Pressure Sore Risk scores, preoperative serum hemoglobin and
      albumin levels, type of surgery, positioning, surgical time, hypotensive
      episodes, blood loss, body temperature, and other potential risk factors for PI
      development were collected. Pressure injury occurrences during a 48-hour period
      after surgery were recorded along with stage. Data were analyzed using univariate
      analyses and multivariate logistic regression analysis to build a predictive
      model for factors associated with PI occurrences. RESULTS: The prevalence of PIs
      in major hepatobiliary surgery patients was 19.8%, 4.9%, and 4.1% in the
      immediate postoperative period, on the first day and the second day after
      surgery, respectively. Pancreaticoduodenectomy surgery (odds ratio [OR]: 3.957,
      95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.145-7.302, P < .001), open surgery (OR: 2.917,
      95% CI: 1.558-5.463, P = .001), surgical time (cutoff point at 197 minutes for
      increased risk of PI, OR: 1.004, 95% CI: 1.002-1.006, P = .001), and
      intraoperative hypotensive episodes (OR: 1.022, 95% CI: 1.005-1.039, P = .010)
      were associated with an increased likelihood of PI development. CONCLUSION: Among
      patients undergoing major hepatobiliary surgery such as pancreaticoduodenectomy,
      prolonged surgical time, open surgery, and intraoperative hypotension were found
      to be associated with an increased likelihood of developing a PI. Maintaining
      hemodynamic stability and taking more effective measures for skin care during
      these procedures may reduce the risk of PI in this vulnerable population.

PMID- 28877109
TI  - The Efficacy of a Viscoelastic Foam Overlay on Prevention of Pressure Injury in
      Acutely Ill Patients: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare a viscoelastic foam overlay
      (VEFO) to a standard hospital mattress for pressure injury (PI) prevention. We
      also compared interface pressures (IPs) of the VEFO to our facility's standard
      hospital mattress. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS AND
      SETTING: Data analysis was based on 110 participants (55 in each group) who were
      19 years or older, had a Braden Scale for Pressure Sore Risk score of 16 or less,
      and were cared for on a neurology, oncology, or pulmonology inpatient care unit.
      The research setting was the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea.
      METHODS: Participants were divided into 2 groups: the experimental group were
      based on a VEFO on top of the standard hospital mattress used in our facility.
      Participants in the control group were placed on a standard hospital mattress
      with/without air overlay. All patients were given standard nursing care for
      prevention of PI. Skin assessments were completed daily over a period of 2 weeks.
      In addition, we compared IPs of the standard hospital mattress and the VEFO in
      participants randomly allocated to the intervention group. Interface pressure was
      measured over the sacral/coccygeal area with subjects in the supine position.
      Pressures were measured immediately before and immediately following placement of
      the VEFO and just before data collection began. Data were collected between
      October 2013 and November 2014. Pressure injury incidence was compared between
      groups using the chi test, and IPs were compared using the paired t test.
      INSTRUMENTS: Pressure injury development was determined using the staging system
      described in guidelines from the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, European
      Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance in 2014.
      Interface pressure was measured using a device manufactured for this purpose.
      RESULTS: The incidence of PI development was significantly lower in subjects
      assigned to the experimental group as compared to those in the control group
      (3.6%-27.3% over the 2-week data collection period; P = .001). The maximum IP was
      significantly lower on the VEFO with standard hospital mattress than on the
      standard hospital mattress (paired t = 8.87, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      managed with a VEFO had a significantly lower incidence of PI than those managed
      with a standard hospital mattress. Additional research is needed to further
      characterize the efficacy of the VEFO, its effect on PI healing, and its effect
      of PI prevention in high-risk populations such as critically ill patients.

PMID- 28877111
TI  - Effects of Curvilinear Supine Position on Tissue Interface Pressure: A
      Prospective Before-and-After Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether a curvilinear supine position increases the contact
      area between the subject and the surgical table, reduces interface pressures
      within contact areas, and improves comfort. DESIGN: This observational study was
      completed to establish proof-of-concept to determine differences between 2
      positions (supine and curvilinear) on interface pressure of 5 at-risk anatomical
      locations, overall contact area, and subjects' comfort level. SUBJECTS AND
      SETTING: The study was conducted at the operating theater of a tertiary teaching
      hospital in Wuhan, China. The sample comprised 145 healthy Asian volunteers
      between 18 and 60 years of age. METHODS: Subjects were placed in the supine and
      curvilinear supine positions on a surgical table. Contact area and peak interface
      pressures of 5 at-risk anatomical locations (occiput, scapula, sacrum, calf, and
      heel) were measured using a pressure mapping system, and the mean and maximum
      pressures of the overall contact area were calculated. Comfort was assessed by
      self-report using a Likert scale of 1 to 5. The Wilcoxon paired signed rank test
      was used to compare differences between the 2 positions, and the Spearman
      correlation analysis was used to identify associations among outcome variables.
      RESULTS: Results indicated that whole-body (overall) maximum, average interface
      pressures, and maximum interface pressures of the sacrum and the heel were
      decreased significantly, with contact area and comfort-level score increasing
      from 2438.71 to 2709.68 cm and 3.00 to 4.00, respectively (P < .001).
      Statistically significant associations were found between the contact area and
      measures of body morphology; correlation coefficients varied from 0.409 to 0.740
      (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Curvilinear supine position increased overall contact
      area with the support surface, reduced interface pressures over contact areas
      (bony prominences), improved comfort, and enhanced pressure redistribution.
      Additional research is needed to determine if these effects will reduce
      intraoperative pressure injury occurrence.

PMID- 28877112
TI  - WOCN Society Position Paper: Avoidable Versus Unavoidable Pressure
      Ulcers/Injuries.
AB  - The issue of whether pressure injuries are avoidable or preventable has been and
      continues to be an issue of great debate and discussion for many years, and it
      has significant legal and regulatory implications related to prevention of wounds
      due to pressure. The following position paper outlines the position of the Wound,
      Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) on avoidable versus unavoidable
      pressure injuries. It includes the following information: statement of position,
      purpose/rationale for the position, definitions of avoidable versus unavoidable
      pressure injuries, alternative definitions, historical overview, supportive
      statements from expert opinion and research in the literature, and
      recommendations for research.

PMID- 28877113
TI  - Sexual Experiences of Chinese Patients Living With an Ostomy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the sexual experience of
      Chinese patients with ostomy and associated factors. DESIGN: A prospective
      descriptive study using self-report questionnaires. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Seventy
      five Chinese participants who underwent ostomy surgery in a large cancer
      specialist hospital in the Hunan province between 2008 and 2013. METHODS: Data
      were collected face-to-face by the investigators in an outpatient setting from 75
      participants who completed the Arizona Sexual Experience Inventory Scale (ASEX).
      The t test was used to compare variances between sexual function and dysfunction
      subgroups. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze factors
      influencing sexual life after ostomy surgery. RESULTS: The mean ASEX score was
      20.56 (5.378) years, which is higher than the standard for sexual dysfunction.
      The main subsection of sexual dysfunction included sexual arousal, orgasm
      ability, vaginal lubrication/penile erection, and sexual satisfaction.
      Significant differences in the ASEX score were observed in subgroups of age,
      gender, educational level, family relations, operation modes, stoma type,
      operation time, complications, supporters, self-care ability, and sexual life
      guidance. Multiple stepwise regression analysis indicated that family relations,
      operation modes, ostomy type, complications, and sexual life guidance affected
      sexual experience. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study demonstrate that
      patients with ostomy experience sexual dysfunction and many factors influence
      their quality of sexual life. WOC nurses and other healthcare providers should
      consider providing sexual health education for both the patient and spouse to
      improve the self-care capacity and quality of sexual life following ostomy
      surgery.

PMID- 28877114
TI  - Incontinence Briefs Containing Spiral-Shaped Fiber Acidify Skin pH of Older
      Nursing Home Residents at Risk for Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The study's purpose was to assess the pH of the skin of older (aged >=75
      years) incontinent nursing home residents after exposure to an incontinence brief
      containing spiral-shaped fiber wet with an alkaline solution mimicking urine or
      fecal pH and compared to skin pH after exposure to an industry standard brief wet
      with the same solution and various controls. DESIGN: The design was experimental,
      as conditions were applied to skin and skin pH was measured in random order, and
      subjects served as their own controls. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: The setting was a
      Midwestern nonprofit nursing home. The sample was 26 nursing home residents;
      their mean age was 87 years (SD = 6 years); 77% were female. Most (69%) had
      urinary incontinence alone, and 31% had dual urinary and fecal incontinence.
      METHODS: Skin pH was measured in duplicate on 6 areas of the inner thighs and 6
      areas of the volar surface of the forearms. Each area was exposed to 1 of 6
      conditions applied in random order: an incontinence brief containing spiral
      shaped fiber wet with an alkaline solution and one that was dry; a standard
      incontinence brief (without spiral-shaped fiber) wet with the same alkaline
      solution and one that was dry; the alkaline solution alone; and normal skin.
      RESULTS: On both the thighs and the forearms, skin pH was significantly lower
      (more acidic) after exposure to the incontinence brief containing spiral-shaped
      fiber wet with an alkaline solution compared to the wet standard brief and all
      other control conditions (P < .001). On thighs, the mean skin pH was 5.7 (SD =
      0.5) after exposure to the wet brief with spiral-shaped fiber versus 6.4 (SD =
      0.5) after exposure to the wet standard brief. On forearms, the mean skin pH was
      5.3 (SD = 0.4) after exposure to the wet brief with spiral-shaped fiber versus
      6.0 (SD = 0.4) after exposure to the wet standard brief. CONCLUSIONS:
      Incontinence briefs containing a spiral-shaped fiber significantly acidify the pH
      of the skin exposed to an alkaline solution, while industry standard briefs do
      not. Since alkaline skin pH is a risk factor for incontinence-associated
      dermatitis (IAD), results suggest that briefs with spiral-shaped fiber may help
      prevent IAD. Findings encourage further research.

PMID- 28877118
TI  - MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR.

PMID- 28877115
TI  - Quantitation of 24-Hour Moisturization by Electrical Measurements of Skin
      Hydration.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of several
      moisturizers on hydration of the stratum corneum by measuring their effect on
      electrical conductance over a 24-hour period. DESIGN: Double-blind, randomized
      controlled trial. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Twenty-five healthy female volunteers
      aged 18 to 65 years with dry skin on the lower legs and no other known
      dermatologic pathology participated in the study. Additional exclusion criteria
      were pregnant or taking anti-inflammatory steroids. The study was carried out in
      a clinical research facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. METHODS: Subjects
      underwent a 3-day conditioning period using a natural soap bar on the lower legs
      and no application of moisturizer to the skin. Participants then came to the test
      site and equilibrated for at least 30 minutes under controlled conditions of
      temperature and humidity. After baseline hydration measurements on test sites on
      the lower legs of each subject, a single application of each of 5 test products
      at a dose of 2 mg/cm was made. Skin hydration was assessed by electrical
      conductance measurements with a specialized probe. The probe was briefly placed
      on the skin surface with light pressure, and the measurement recorded in units of
      microsiemens (MUS). Conductance was measured at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 24 hours after
      product applications. RESULTS: Although all but 1 of the test products increased
      conductance at 2 hours, only 2 moisturizers containing high levels of glycerin
      (products C and E) maintained increased conductance relative to baseline at 24
      hours, +37.8 (P < .001) and +103.5 (P < .001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Moisturizers containing high levels of glycerin can provide a measurable
      moisturization benefit as determined by skin conductance for at least 24 hours
      after a single application.

PMID- 28877119
TI  - The Lifestyle Change Experiences of Cancer Survivors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leading a healthy lifestyle not only alleviates the physical problems
      but also improves the quality of life of cancer survivors. Healthcare
      professionals should understand the benefits of altering lifestyle behaviors to
      provide effective intervention programs to assist cancer survivors to improve
      their health. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to understand the experiences of
      cancer survivors in changing their lifestyle after a cancer diagnosis. METHODS: A
      qualitative descriptive study was conducted on 13 cancer survivors who were
      sampled purposively from a regional teaching hospital in central Taiwan. Data
      were collected using in-depth interviews that were guided by semistructured, open
      ended questions and analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: The analysis of
      interview data revealed four main themes: motivation of lifestyle change,
      exploring ways toward a healthy lifestyle, making adjustments in lifestyle, and
      feeling the benefits of lifestyle changes. In striving for survival, an
      unwillingness to bear the suffering from treatment and their acceptance of
      responsibility and gratitude to family members prompted most of the participants
      to change their lifestyle proactively. They had received inadequate lifestyle
      guidance and sought health lifestyle information on their own. After a period of
      research and self-contemplation, most of the participants adopted a consistently
      healthy lifestyle, changed their dietary consumption habits, abstained from
      tobacco and alcohol, and managed emotional problems that were caused by the
      disease. Participants who changed to a healthy lifestyle realized benefits in the
      physical, emotional, and life domains. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: It
      is hoped that these findings help healthcare professionals to better appreciate
      that a cancer diagnosis is a critical opportunity to link the disease to
      lifestyle choices in the minds of cancer survivors. Healthcare professionals
      should ask cancer survivors about their lifestyle and then provide appropriate
      advice and education on healthy lifestyles and related benefits.

PMID- 28877120
TI  - Life Experiences of Patients With Glaucoma: A Phenomenological Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies that describe the experiences of patients with glaucoma from
      different cultures may help health professionals gain a broader perspective on
      this issue. Currently, few qualitative studies describe how patients with
      glaucoma in Turkey cope with daily life. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to
      explore the experiences of patients with glaucoma. METHOD: This descriptive
      phenomenological study used purposive sampling to enroll 20 patients with
      glaucoma. A qualitative, in-depth, face-to-face interview technique was used to
      collect data during January and February 2014. The data were analyzed using to
      the Van Kaam method. RESULTS: Seven themes were identified, including confirming
      the diagnosis by acute symptoms or unrelated symptoms, grateful to God for having
      a non-life-threatening disease, feeling happy after receiving more accurate
      information, coping with the disease by using eye drops and attending follow-up
      examinations regularly, managing daily life to avoid further damage to eyesight,
      emotional reactions related to going blind, and urging family members or friends
      to attend regular glaucoma checkups. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with glaucoma
      experience physiological and psychological problems throughout the course of
      their disease. Being informed and cultural practices such as "praising God" and
      "resignation" helped patients cope with the disease. Furthermore, because of the
      cultural characteristic of social collectivism, participants acted to protect the
      health of others by informing them about glaucoma. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:
      Understanding the experiences of patients with glaucoma is important for nursing
      practice. Nurses should be encouraged to take a greater role in the care of
      patients with glaucoma by becoming the primary source of glaucoma disease,
      treatment, and care-related information.

PMID- 28877121
TI  - Begin Again and Continue With Life: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of
      Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases are a main cause of mortality worldwide.
      However, new diagnostic techniques and treatments have increased the rate of
      survival for patients with cardiovascular disease. Cardiac rehabilitation
      programs aim to maintain and enhance the quality of life of patients and improve
      the secondary prevention of coronary artery disease. Suboptimal participation in
      rehabilitation programs, early exit from these programs, and not achieving
      lasting changes are cardiac rehabilitation challenges that are associated with
      health issues, including the increased need for medication, repeated
      hospitalization, failure in the secondary prevention programs, and long waiting
      lists. Exploring the meaning of behavioral changes in the context of cardiac
      rehabilitation may facilitate the design of effective interventions that are
      critical to achieving the goals of cardiac rehabilitation programs. PURPOSE: This
      study explored the mechanisms that underlie behavioral changes within cardiac
      rehabilitation centers. METHODS: We used a descriptive qualitative approach,
      which is widely acknowledged as the best approach for eliciting in-depth
      descriptions of behavioral changes in the context of cardiac rehabilitation
      centers. Using purposive sampling, 15 men and 8 women with coronary heart disease
      were referred to the two cardiac rehabilitation centers participating in this
      study. The inclusion criteria were participation in four cardiac rehabilitation
      sessions and ability and willingness to participate. The data were collected
      using semistructured in-depth interviews, and the inductive thematic analysis
      method was used for analysis. RESULTS: "Trying to stay alive" and "begin again"
      arose as the two main themes related to behavioral change. These themes include
      the changes in cognition and values that lead to improvements in the process of
      behavioral change as a major outcome of cardiac rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Using psychosocial interventions such as creating and strengthening hope and
      meaningful intrinsic motivation in the context of rehabilitation centers often
      helps deal with these challenges. "Trying to stay alive" may take place before
      referral to a cardiac rehabilitation center. Therefore, psychosocial nursing
      interventions such as motivational interviewing are designed to improve a process
      that may be already underway. Thus, stress and anxiety may be treated based on
      beliefs and emotions. The primary emphasis in cardiac rehabilitation should
      include changing the beliefs of the patient and motivating her or him to achieve
      sustainable behavioral change.

PMID- 28877122
TI  - Career Obstacles Faced by Female Nurse Academicians in Turkey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most academicians in the nursing field are women, and they face many
      difficulties throughout the course of their careers for various reasons. PURPOSE:
      This study aims to determine the career difficulties faced by female academicians
      in the nursing field. METHODS: This study is descriptive, sectional, and
      comparative. The study was conducted in cooperation with female academicians in
      the nursing field (n = 132) from 11 different nursing schools in Turkey's Eastern
      Anatolia Region providing undergraduate education in nursing. Data were collected
      using the Female Academicians' Career Obstacles Scale. Ethics committee and
      required official permissions were obtained from the relevant institutions. Data
      analysis was conducted in an electronic environment using SPSS for Windows 22.0
      package software for statistics. RESULTS: In terms of research outcomes, it was
      determined that the most significant obstacles reported by female academicians
      were "organizational culture and politics" (M = 43.92 +/- 12.64) and "playing
      multiple roles" (M = 31.35 +/- 10.15); the most insignificant obstacles were
      reported to be "organizational conditions" (M = 21.43 +/- 7.06) and
      "stereotypical prejudices" (M = 20.44 +/- 6.31). Other obstacles mentioned by the
      academicians were working as a research assistant with a bachelor's degree, being
      married with children, studying with young and inexperienced academicians, and
      serving as department head. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Organizational
      culture and politics in particular should be reviewed at educational institutions
      from the perspective of career obstacles, and these principles should be
      rearranged so that they constitute a supportive work environment.

PMID- 28877123
TI  - Care, Autonomy, and Gender in Nursing Practice: A Historical Study of Nurses'
      Experiences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Care is the essence of the nursing role and is closely related to the
      concept of professional autonomy. Autonomy is implicated in power relations
      between doctors and nurses and between men and women. These relationships are
      closely linked to care practices and the inequality of nursing and medicine.
      PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze nursing discourse regarding the
      concept of care and its relationship to the concept of autonomy and gender.
      METHODS: This is a historical study based on oral interviews that took place
      between November 2008 and February 2011. We interviewed 19 nursing professionals
      who currently worked at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit (near Barcelona) or had
      worked there between 1961 and 2010. Semistructured interviews were recorded,
      transcribed, and analyzed. RESULTS: We highlight four main themes: "a real
      nurse"; "more technology, less care"; "the fragility of autonomy"; and "the
      invisibility of nursing work." These themes show the contradictions in the
      nursing profession that are based on the concept of care. However, in daily
      practice, the concept of care varies. Time pressure distances the nursing
      practice from its theoretical context. Changes in the concept of care are related
      to transformations in the health system and nursing work.
      CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Changes related to the autonomy of nursing
      are related to changes in the concept of care. In practice, care has a biomedical
      orientation. Care has become technologized and bureaucratized, which reduces the
      time that is spent with the patient. In a context in which medical authority
      predominates, nursing's struggle for autonomy is based on the recognition of the
      value of care. When care becomes invisible, the autonomy of nursing as a
      profession is threatened. This conclusion allows reflections about shifts in the
      concept of care and how they affect clinical practice and the autonomy of the
      nursing profession.

PMID- 28877125
TI  - Comparison of the Quality of Informal Care of Community-Dwelling Taiwanese Older
      People.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With social structures changing and the average life-span of
      individuals increasing, Taiwan is experiencing a steady rise in its elderly
      population. Thus, caring for older parentsis an urgent problem. Many foreign
      caregivers have been hired tocare for older parents.However, measuring the
      quality ofinformal care has not yet been fully explored in Taiwan, particularly
      among older people who are cared for by foreign caregivers in home settings.
      PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to understand the differences in quality
      of care for older Taiwanese and to explore the predictors of quality of care in
      two types of caregiving. METHODS: A comparative descriptive study design was
      conducted. The study was held in several community healthcare centers in the
      middle and southern regions of Taiwan. Study data were collected over an 18-month
      period between 2012 and 2014. t Tests were used to compare continuous variables
      according to the types of caregiving. Multiple linear regressions with group
      analyses were performed to evaluate the underlying statistical assumptions.
      RESULTS: One hundred fifty-nine participants were included. The study results
      showed that age, activities of daily living level, and quality of care were
      significantly different between the two types of caregiving. Relationships with
      caregivers, social support, and depressive symptoms contributed to the quality of
      care in family caregiving, explaining 50.2% of the variance. Social support and
      depressive symptoms contributed to the quality of care in foreign caregiving,
      explaining 36.6% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The
      study results support that the types of primary caregiving affect the quality of
      care that is received by elderly Taiwanese. This study may be used as a reference
      for families whose family members need long-term care when considering hiring
      foreign caregivers as an alternative option to Taiwanese caregivers.

PMID- 28877124
TI  - Health Sector Reform, Emotional Exhaustion, and Nursing Burnout: A Retrospective
      Panel Study in Iran.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nursing burnout is affected by various factors, including work
      overload. Since the inauguration of the Health Sector Evolution Plan (HSEP) in
      Iran in 2014, government hospitals have been required to provide health services
      to the public at all levels. This decision, however, has increased the volume of
      patients admitted to government hospitals. Because nurses are on the front line
      of health services, they are faced with a greater load of care provision.
      PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate nursing burnout before and after HSEP in
      Iran, with an emphasis on the differences between government and private
      hospitals. METHOD: This retrospective panel study used Maslach's burnout
      inventory to evaluate nursing burnout in 371 nurses working in government and
      private hospitals in Shiraz, Iran, before and 7 months after the health sector
      reform. Chi-square test and paired t test were used to compare burnout scores.
      RESULTS: The results showed that nursing burnout had changed significantly after
      HSEP was launched (p = .030). A more detailed assessment found that burnout and
      emotional exhaustion had both increased significantly in the government-hospital
      group (ps = .014 and .001, respectively). However, no significant change in
      burnout was found in the private-hospital group over the same period.
      CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The findings of this study indicate an
      increase in nursing burnout in government hospitals. An important issue in every
      health sector reform is nursing resource management, with a focus on burnout.
      Accordingly, policymakers should consider the work overload situation of nurses
      and work to prevent increased burnout, especially emotional exhaustion.

PMID- 28877126
TI  - Correlates of Perceived Social Support in Chinese Adult Child Caregivers of
      Parent Stroke Survivors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prevalence of stroke and traditional filial responsibility involve
      adult children in caregiving to their parent stroke survivors in China. Support
      resources are insufficient because of the shrinking size of family and the
      underdeveloped support system. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify the
      correlates of perceived social support among adult child caregivers of parent
      stroke survivors in China. METHODS: A cross-sectional correlational design was
      used in this study. A nonproportional quota sample of 126 adult child caregivers
      was recruited from Zhejiang Province, China. Data were collected at either the
      hospital stroke units or the respondents' homes using structured questionnaires
      of caregiving dyadic demographics and caregiving characteristics, 14-item
      Activities of Daily Living, 15-item Mutuality Scale, and 12-item Multidimensional
      Scale of Perceived Social Support. SPSS 17.0 was used for analysis. RESULTS:
      Caregivers' mutuality, education, full employment or being retired, monthly
      income, having a co-carer, and having a father as the care receiver were
      significantly positively associated with caregivers' perceived social support.
      However, mutuality was not significantly associated with caregivers' perceived
      social support after the other factors were adjusted. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS
      FOR PRACTICE: Adult child caregivers with higher levels of mutuality, education,
      or monthly income; who are fully employed or are retired; who have a co-carer; or
      who are caring for a father perceived more social support. Nursing strategies and
      social policies need to be directed to enhance caregiver mutuality and support
      caregiving efforts.

PMID- 28877127
TI  - Renal Transplant Recipients: The Factors Related to Immunosuppressive Medication
      Adherence Based on the Health Belief Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kidney transplant failures are caused primarily by lack of adherence
      to immunosuppressive medication regimens by patients after transplantation. A
      number of studies have indicated that health-related beliefs are an effective
      predictor of health-related behavior. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to
      understand the influence of the personal characteristics and health-related
      beliefs of patients on adherence to treatment with immunosuppressive medication
      based on the Health Belief Model. METHODS: This cross-sectional study distributed
      questionnaires to patients who had been recruited via purposive sampling at one
      medical center in Taipei. All of the potential participants had undergone kidney
      transplantation at least 6 months previously. The self-developed questionnaire
      collected data in three areas: personal characteristics, health-related beliefs
      regarding transplant rejection, and adherence to the immunosuppressive medication
      regimen. One hundred twenty-two valid questionnaires were received. The collected
      data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t test, one-way
      analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression. RESULTS:
      Participants who had received dialysis treatment or had experienced rejection
      perceived susceptibility to rejection more strongly than those who had not.
      Participants who had undergone transplantation in Taiwan, had experienced more
      drug-related symptoms, or had contracted severe to extremely severe infections in
      the past showed lower rates of adherence to treatment with immunosuppressive
      medication. Adherence to medication regimens correlated negatively with length of
      time since transplantation. Length of time since transplantation, drug-related
      symptoms, perceived susceptibility to rejection, and perceived benefits of
      treatment were identified as major predictors of adherence to immunosuppressive
      medication regimens. CONCLUSIONS: The results partially conformed to the concepts
      of the Health Belief Model. Perceived susceptibility to rejection and perceived
      benefits of adherence to treatment were found to predict adherence rates. Patient
      education should be enhanced to reduce the risks of rejection and increase
      adherence rates to improve outcomes.

PMID- 28877128
TI  - Antioxidant and Trace Element Supplementation Reduce the Inflammatory Response in
      Critically Ill Burn Patients.
AB  - Oxidative stress after burn injury induces inflammatory and hypermetabolic
      responses associated with adverse outcomes. We propose that antioxidant and trace
      element supplementation may reduce oxidative stress and subsequently alleviate
      inflammation and hypermetabolism, thus improving clinical outcomes. We conducted
      a cohort study of adult patients with an acute burn injury admitted to our
      provincial burn center. Patients in the antioxidant group received an intravenous
      infusion of multivitamins and trace elements for the first 14 days after
      admission. The inflammatory profile was assessed at early time points, < 14 days
      postburn, and later time points, >= 15 days postburn, and included interleukin
      (IL)-1beta, interferon-gamma, IL-1 receptor antagonist, IL-6, granulocyte
      macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand.
      Hypermetabolism was assessed by resting energy expenditure. Clinical outcomes
      included mortality, morbidities, hospital length of stay, and infections
      including days to the last positive culture after injury. We studied 172
      patients, mean age 49 +/- 17 years and 33 +/- 13% TBSA burned, with 91 controls
      and 81 patients in the antioxidant group. Patients in the antioxidant group had
      significantly lower levels of inflammatory markers at both early and late time
      points, P < .05. Antioxidant treatment was associated with decreased measure of
      hypermetabolism, P < .05. Morbidity and mortality were not significantly
      different between groups. Length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in
      the antioxidant group when adjusted for patient demographics and injury
      characteristics (risk ratio (RR), 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.66-0.92).
      In the antioxidant group, while infections were not different, the last positive
      culture post-injury was documented at median 19 days (Interquartile range (IQR),
      11-43 days) compared with controls at 35 days (IQR, 15-59 days), P = .012.
      Patients receiving antioxidant and trace element supplementation had reduced
      markers of burn stress-induced inflammation; they were also associated with a
      decreased hypermetabolic response, shorter length of stay, and improved bacterial
      clearance.

PMID- 28877129
TI  - Iatrogenic Full-Thickness Frostbite Injury Caused by the Use of a Conductive
      Cooling Device.
AB  - Reports of iatrogenic cold thermal injuries are rare in the literature.
      Conductive cooling devices, typically employed for their neuroprotective effects,
      use conductive hydrogel pads to achieve rapid and precise temperature control
      approaching the level of water immersion. Despite a number of built-in
      safeguards, prolonged or improper use of these devices can lead to significant
      thermal injury. To the best of their knowledge, the authors describe the first
      report of a significant iatrogenic full-thickness injury caused by the use of a
      surface cooling system in a patient who had recently suffered a cerebrovascular
      accident. The patient required transfer to the authors' tertiary burn care
      facility for excisional debridement and coverage with extensive split-thickness
      skin grafting to the chest, flank, and thighs. The grafts achieved nearly
      complete take and the patient was ultimately discharged to a rehabilitation
      facility with improving neurological condition.

PMID- 28877130
TI  - Fatigue Following Burn Injury: A Burn Model System National Database Study.
AB  - Fatigue is a commonly reported but not well-documented symptom following burn
      injury. This study's objective was to determine the frequency and severity of
      fatigue over time and to identify predictors of fatigue in the adult burn
      population. Data from the Burn Model System National Database (April 1997 to
      January 2006) were analyzed. Individuals over 18 years of age who were alive at
      discharge were included. The vitality subscale of the Short-Form 36 Item Health
      Survey was examined at preinjury and discharge and at 6, 12, and 24 months
      postinjury. Mean and number of low vitality scores were calculated at each time
      interval. Descriptive statistics were generated for demographic and medical data.
      Cross-sectional regression models analyzed predictors of vitality at 6, 12, and
      24 months postinjury. The study included 945 subjects. The population was 72.5%
      male and had a mean age of 40.6 years and mean burn size of 17.4%. Fatigue
      symptoms were present in a majority of the population (74.6%) and were most
      commonly reported at discharge. Although fewer burn survivors reported fatigue
      symptoms at each subsequent follow-up (P < .001), approximately one-half (49%) of
      the population continued to report fatigue symptoms at 24 months postinjury.
      Larger burn size was the only variable that was significant or approaching
      significance at all follow-up time points (P < .0167). Fatigue symptoms are
      common after burns and many burn survivors continue to report symptoms at 2 years
      postinjury. Burn survivors did not return to preinjury fatigue levels,
      highlighting the importance of understanding and monitoring fatigue.

PMID- 28877132
TI  - Parameters for Ordering Blood Cultures in Major Burn Injury Patients: Improving
      Clinical Assessment.
AB  - Hypermetabolic and catabolic states in large TBSA burns lead to higher basal body
      temperature and tachycardia. These metabolic changes complicate the diagnosis of
      bacteremia and sepsis. Current indications for obtaining blood cultures (BCs) in
      this population are poorly described and nonstandardized. Fever, leukocytosis,
      and lactic acidosis are common during sepsis. This study aims to identify limits
      of these parameters with the highest rates of bacteremia. A retrospective review
      was performed for burn patients with > 20% TBSA between January 2009 and June
      2011. BCs were collected with corresponding body temperature, white blood cell
      (WBC) count, and serum lactate levels. Positive culture rates were analyzed with
      univariate and multivariate analysis. Seventy-one patients met inclusion criteria
      and 360 BCs were included in data analysis. Cultures taken with temperature >
      38.9 degrees C were significantly more positive (P = .01) than temperatures
      between 38 and 38.9 degrees C. There were significantly more positive cultures
      when the WBC count was < 4.5 compared with those >= 4.5 * 103/ul (P = .04).
      Lactate was an independent predictor of bacteremia (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.21
      12.71). Cultures were significantly more positive when the lactate level was >=
      2.5 compared with < 2.5 mg/dL (P = .02). A temperature >= 38.5 degrees C and a
      lactate >= 2.5 mg/dL corresponded to a 28.6% positive culture rate compared with
      4.8% for all other scenarios (P = .001). This study demonstrates that body
      temperature > 38.9 degrees C, WBC < 4.5 * 103/ul, and serum lactate >= 2.5 mg/dL
      have the highest rate for positive BCs in severe burn patients. A combination of
      leukopenia and pyrexia as well as lactic acidosis and pyrexia represent even
      higher specificity for positive BC in these patients.

PMID- 28877131
TI  - Resolvin D2 Limits Secondary Tissue Necrosis After Burn Wounds in Rats.
AB  - Secondary burn necrosis is the expansion and deepening of the original burn
      injury several days after injury. Limiting the extent of secondary burn necrosis
      may improve outcomes. In this study, we examined the ability of the lipid
      mediator of inflammation-resolution resolvin D2 (RvD2) and chromatin-lysing
      enzyme (DNase) to reduce secondary burn necrosis. Male Wistar rats were injured
      using a brass comb with 4 prongs heated in boiling water. This method created 2
      parallel rows of 4 rectangular burned areas separated by 3 unburned interspaces.
      Starting at 2 hours after the burn injury, rats received either 25 ng/kg RvD2
      intravenously daily for 7 days or 200 U/kg DNase every 12 hours for 3 days. We
      documented the necrosis around the initial wounds by digital photography. We used
      laser Doppler to assess the total blood flux in the burn area. We evaluated the
      functionality of the capillary network in the interspaces by optical coherence
      tomography angiography. We performed histological examination of wound skin
      tissue samples collected at 14 days postburn. We found that the interspace areas
      were preserved and had higher blood flow in the RvD2-treated group, while the
      burn areas expanded into the interspace areas, which were confluent by 7 days
      postburn, in the control-untreated group. We found a larger monocyte-to
      neutrophil ratio in the RvD2-treated group compared with the DNase-treated and
      control groups (P < .05). Overall, RvD2 suppresses secondary necrosis and starts
      regeneration, highlighting the role of inflammation resolution as a potential
      therapeutic target in burn care.

PMID- 28877133
TI  - Tear Dysfunction Syndrome After Burn.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate tear dysfunction of burn patients
      objectively. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients who had been
      examined within 1 week after burn injury. Visual acuity, intraocular pressure,
      cilia burned state, tear film break-up time (TBUT), and fluorescein corneal
      staining were evaluated. Sixty-four eyes of 32 patients (man 27, female 5) were
      included. Mean age was 44.41 +/- 12.76 years old. Mean best corrected visual
      acuity was logMAR 0.04 +/- 0.08, mean intraocular pressure was 13.41 +/- 3.13 mm
      Hg, and mean TBUT was 5.48 +/- 3.18 seconds. Thirty-four eyes (53.13%) showed
      burned cilia, 36 eyes (56.25%) showed corneal erosion on fluorescein stating.
      Intraocular pressure and TBUT were lower in TBSA with burn involved >= 10% group
      than TBSA with burn involved < 10% group (P = .000; P = .058). The percentage of
      TBSA of burn involved and tear break up time showed statistically significant
      negative correlations (r = -0.262; P = .037). Many burn patients have discomfort
      due to tear dysfunction syndrome. Tear dysfunction may be caused by direct injury
      of eye burn itself and body fluid deficiency. We recommend that when we treat
      burn patients, we have to pay attention to their symptoms and manage patient's
      eye symptoms properly such as routine artificial tear lubricant treatment.

PMID- 28877134
TI  - The Use of Intravenous and Inhaled Colistin Therapy During a Burn Center Outbreak
      of Multidrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.
AB  - The authors report on the use of combination intravenous and inhaled colistin
      therapy in 2 patients with major burns admitted to an American Burn Association
      verified burn center during a multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii
      outbreak. Both patients had documented, culture-proven MDR Acinetobacter
      ventilator-associated pneumonia and bacteremia leading to sepsis. Both patients
      were successfully extubated and subsequently discharged from hospital. In this
      article, the authors provide the timeline of events and treatments that were used
      in these 2 cases. Combination intravenous and inhaled colistin therapy may be a
      valuable tool against MDR Acinetobacter infections.

PMID- 28877135
TI  - Want Correct Percentage of TBSA Burned? Let a Layman Do the Assessment.
AB  - Accurate determination of burn size significantly impacts both immediate
      management and long-term outcome. In the era of evidence-based medicine, the
      variability in TBSA% assessment shown by traditional methods may prove
      unacceptable and technology-aided systems become the "accepted standard." The
      objective of this study was to push this scenario to the limit by investigating
      the accuracy and consistency of TBSA% estimations using a computer-aided tool.
      Five Laymen (health care-burn management naive people) were trained on the
      handling of the technology-aided assessment tool Burn Case 3D(c) and asked to
      calculate TBSA% for 18 clinical pictures of burns with different patterns and
      sizes. Forty-four burn Professionals (senior burn surgeons, plastic surgery
      residents, anesthesiologists, emergency physicians, senior registered nurses)
      were provided the same pictures and assessed TBSA% using traditional paper-based
      tools ("Rule of Palm"; "[Wallace] Rule of Nines"; "Lund and Browder chart). The
      Laymen's computer-aided calculations did not differ significantly (P > .05) from
      the senior burn surgeons' estimations in 17 of the 18 cases. However, when
      comparing the Laymen's TBSA% calculations with the whole group Professionals
      there were significant differences (P < .05) in (again) 17 of the 18 cases.
      Laymen's calculations were also more consistent (mean SD, 0.95%). The
      Professionals showed a generalized significant overestimation of TBSA% as
      compared with the Laymen's calculations (up to 198.5%). Innovative software
      provide a high potential to improve objectivity and quality of burn assessment in
      the future.

PMID- 28877137
TI  - A Systematic Review of NMDA Receptor Antagonists for Treatment of Neuropathic
      Pain in Clinical Practice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)
      antagonists for neuropathic pain (NeuP) and review literature to determine if
      specific pharmacologic agents provide adequate NeuP relief. METHODS: Literature
      was reviewed on PubMed using a variety of key words for 8 NMDAR antagonists.
      These key words include: "Ketamine and Neuropathy," "Ketamine and Neuropathic
      Pain," "Methadone and Neuropathy," "Methadone and Neuropathic Pain," "Memantine
      and Neuropathic pain," "Memantine and Neuropathy," "Amantadine and Neuropathic
      Pain," "Amantadine and Neuropathy," "Dextromethorphan and Neuropathic Pain,"
      "Dextromethorphan and Neuropathy," "Carbamazepine and Neuropathic Pain,"
      "Carbamazepine and Neuropathy," "Valproic Acid and Neuropathy," "Valproic Acid
      and Neuropathic Pain," "Phenytoin and Neuropathy," and "Phenytoin and Neuropathic
      Pain." With the results, the papers were reviewed using the PRISMA (Preferred
      Reporting in Systematic and Meta-Analyses) guideline. RESULTS: A total of 58
      randomized controlled trials were reviewed among 8 pharmacologic agents, which
      are organized by date and alphabetical order. Of the trials for ketamine, 15
      showed some benefit for analgesia. Methadone had 3 positive trials, while
      amantadine and memantine each only had 2 trials showing NeuP analgesic
      properties. Dextromethorphan and valproic acid both had 4 randomized controlled
      trials that showed some NeuP treatment benefit while carbamazepine had over 8
      trials showing efficacy. Finally, phenytoin only had 1 trial that showed clinical
      response in treatment. CONCLUSIONS: There are a variety of NMDAR antagonist
      agents that should be considered for treatment of NeuP. Nevertheless, continued
      and further investigation of the 8 pharmacologic agents is needed to continue to
      evaluate their efficacy for treatment of NeuP.

PMID- 28877136
TI  - Medicate or Meditate? Greater Pain Acceptance is Related to Lower Pain Medication
      Use in Persons With Chronic Pain and Spinal Cord Injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There is little information about whether use of pain self-management
      skills that are common targets of psychosocial interventions for pain are
      associated with reduced reliance on pain medications. The aim of this study was
      to test whether higher chronic pain acceptance, which is a readily modified pain
      self-management approach, is related to lower use of pain medications (eg, opioid
      medications, and gabapentinoids) in a sample with chronic pain and spinal cord
      injury (SCI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional survey study of
      pain medication use, pain severity and distribution (Brief Pain Inventory [BPI]),
      depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9]), and chronic pain
      acceptance (Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire [CPAQ]) administered to a
      sample of 120 adults with chronic pain and SCI. RESULTS: Regression results
      indicated that, above and beyond the effects of pain intensity, pain
      distribution, and depressive symptoms, higher pain acceptance was related to
      lower use of all types of pain medications, and lower odds of using opioid
      medications or gabapentinoids. Pain intensity was not related to pain medication
      use, but greater pain distribution was related to using more pain medications in
      general and to greater odds of using gabapentinoids. DISCUSSION: Findings from
      this study indicate that those with chronic pain and SCI who have a more
      accepting orientation to pain are less reliant on pain medications, and thereby
      experience lower risks associated with medication consumption. Longitudinal,
      daily process, and clinical trial studies are needed to better understand the
      association between pain acceptance and pain medication consumption.

PMID- 28877138
TI  - Pain in Children With Developmental Disabilities: Development and Preliminary
      Effectiveness of a Pain Training Workshop for Respite Workers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pain in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) is common and
      complex, yet there is no standard pain training for their secondary caregivers
      (ie, respite staff). OBJECTIVES: Determine perceived pain training
      needs/preferences of children's respite staff (phase 1) and, use this information
      combined with extant research and guidelines to develop and pilot a training
      (phase 2). METHODS: In phase 1, 22 participants responded to questionnaires and
      engaged in individual interviews/focus groups about their experiences with pain
      in children with ID, and perceived training needs/preferences. In phase 2, 50
      participants completed knowledge measures and rated the feasibility of, and their
      own confidence and skill in, pain assessment and management for children with ID
      immediately before and after completing a pain training. They also completed a
      training evaluation. RESULTS: Participants viewed pain training as beneficial.
      Their ideal training involved a half-day, multifaceted in-person program with a
      relatively small group of trainees incorporating a variety of learning
      activities, and an emphasis on active learning. Phase 2 results suggested that
      completion of the 3 to 3.5-hour pain training significantly increased respite
      workers' pain-related knowledge (effect sizes: r=0.81 to 0.88), as well as their
      ratings of the feasibility of, and their own confidence and skill in, pain
      assessment and management in children with ID (effect sizes: r=0.41 to 0.70). The
      training was rated favorably. DISCUSSION: Training can positively impact respite
      workers' knowledge and perceptions about pain assessment and management. As such,
      they may be better equipped to care for children with ID in this area.

PMID- 28877140
TI  - Prescription Opioid Use and the Risk of Disability.

PMID- 28877141
TI  - The Incidence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Their Association With
      Pain-related and Psychosocial Impairment in Youth With Chronic Pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in youth have been found to be
      frequently associated with several chronic illnesses, including chronic pain.
      However, this relationship remains poorly understood. Previous research has
      examined the association between ACEs and chronic pain, but these have primarily
      been examined in the context of adults with limited assessment of ACEs and
      individual pain conditions. The primary objectives of this study were to examine
      the incidence and psychological/pain-related correlates of ACEs in a sample of
      youth with chronic pain. Exploratory analyses were also examined using primary
      pain diagnosis and number of pain locations. METHODS: Data were gathered using
      retrospective data from a clinical databank. Participants were 141 youth aged 9
      to 19 with chronic pain who presented for evaluation at a multidisciplinary pain
      clinic. Information on ACEs exposure, pain diagnostic information, pain-related
      impairment, and psychosocial functioning were gathered via self-report and
      retrospective review of the medical record. RESULTS: Results revealed that over
      80% of youth with chronic pain reported at least 1 ACE in their lifetime.
      Further, multiple and univariate analyses of variance revealed that ACEs exposure
      is significantly associated with greater symptoms of anxiety, depression, and
      fear of pain, with >=3 ACEs associated with greatest impairment in functioning.
      No relationships were found between ACEs and increased pain-related disability or
      pain intensity. DISCUSSION: ACEs exposure in youth with chronic pain occurs
      frequently and can be associated with increased psychosocial but not functional
      impairment. Future research is needed to further examine the relationship between
      ACEs and chronic pain in youth in a prospective manner.

PMID- 28877139
TI  - Randomized Controlled Trial of Telephone-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
      Versus Supportive Care for Chronic Back Pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a
      telephone-delivered, home-based cognitive-behavioral intervention for chronic low
      back pain in comparison to a matched supportive care (SC) treatment. METHODS:
      Participants (N=66) were patients with chronic back pain that were randomized to
      either an 8-week Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or a SC condition matched for
      contact frequency, format, and time. Participants completed validated measures of
      improvement in back pain disability, pain severity, and overall improvement.
      RESULTS: Intent-to-treat analyses at posttreatment showed that the treatment
      groups not show significantly different improvements in back pain disability
      (mean changes, -2.4 and -2.6 for CBT and SC, respectively; Cohen d, 0.49 and
      0.55, respectively) or reductions in pain severity (mean changes, -0.9 and -1.4
      for CBT and SC respectively; Cohen d, 0.50, and 0.90, respectively). Participants
      rated their overall improvement levels at 31% (CBT) versus 18.5% (SC).
      DISCUSSION: Results from this clinical trial suggest that home-based, telephone
      delivered CBT and SC treatments did not significantly differ in their benefits
      for back pain severity and disability, and may warrant further research for
      applications to hospital settings. Major limitations included recruitment
      difficulties that underpowered primary analyses, the lack of objective
      improvement measures, and the absence of a usual care/untreated control group for
      comparisons.

PMID- 28877142
TI  - Adding Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Before Occipital Nerve
      Stimulation in Fibromyalgia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a type of chronic musculoskeletal pain without a
      clear peripheral origin of nociception, often associated with depression. The
      underlying pathophysiology involves changes in a functional network that is
      related to pain and emotional processing in the central nervous system.
      Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the dorsolateral
      prefrontal cortex or the occipital nerve (ON) is a noninvasive neuromodulation
      technique capable of improving fibromyalgia symptoms. This study aims to test the
      effect of combining 2 targets of stimulation using tDCS. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We applied ON-tDCS in isolation or coupled with pre-ONS right-anode bifrontal
      tDCS and assessed its effect on fibromyalgia using the Fibromyalgia Impact
      Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, and Numeric Rating Scale for pain
      scores. These measures were compared with a sham control group using repeated
      measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: The interaction effect of stimulation
      trials and the protocols of sham versus ON-tDCS were significant for the impact,
      distress, and pain caused by fibromyalgia (P<0.05). The interaction effect of
      trials and protocols of sham versus ON-tDCS with bifrontal tDCS was significant
      for distress (P<0.01), and it showed a trend of improvement for impact and pain
      (P<0.1). On the basis of the nonsignificant interaction effect of ON-tDCS versus
      ON-tDCS with bifrontal tDCS (P>0.1), adding bifrontal tDCS was found not to
      improve the treatment effect of ON-tDCS in any of the tested clinical outcome
      measures. DISCUSSION: This study suggests that adding right-anode bifrontal tDCS
      to ONS has no added benefit in improving fibromyalgia-related symptoms.

PMID- 28877143
TI  - Stigma and Pain in Adolescents Hospitalized for Sickle Cell Vasoocclusive Pain
      Episodes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Sickle cell disease (SCD) pain and hospitalizations increase during
      adolescence and adolescents with SCD may be at-risk for experiencing health
      related stigma, which may result in poor health outcomes. This study examined
      relations among health-related stigma, pain interference, social support, quality
      of life (QOL), and hospital outcomes (ie, loneliness, pain reduction, and length
      of stay [LOS]) in adolescents hospitalized with SCD pain. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Twelve- to 18-year-old adolescents (N=92) hospitalized with SCD pain completed
      measures of stigma, pain interference, social support, QOL, and state loneliness.
      Reduction of pain intensity during hospitalization and LOS were collected from
      medical chart review. RESULTS: Higher stigma was associated with higher pain
      interference, lower QOL, more loneliness, and less pain reduction in the
      hospital. Pain interference was positively associated with LOS. DISCUSSION: These
      preliminary findings highlight the importance of assessing and addressing SCD
      related stigma and pain interference in adolescents hospitalized for SCD pain as
      these factors may influence treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28877144
TI  - Reductions in Perceived Injustice are Associated With Reductions in Disability
      and Depressive Symptoms After Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Perceptions of injustice have been associated with problematic
      recovery outcomes in individuals with a wide range of debilitating pain
      conditions. It has been suggested that, in patients with chronic pain,
      perceptions of injustice might arise in response to experiences characterized by
      illness-related pain severity, depressive symptoms, and disability. If symptoms
      severity and disability are important contributors to perceived injustice (PI),
      it follows that interventions that yield reductions in symptom severity and
      disability should also contribute to reductions in perceptions of injustice. The
      present study examined the relative contributions of postsurgical reductions in
      pain severity, depressive symptoms, and disability to the prediction of
      reductions in perceptions of injustice. METHODS: The study sample consisted of
      110 individuals (69 women and 41 men) with osteoarthritis of the knee scheduled
      for total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Patients completed measures of perceived
      injustice, depressive symptoms, pain, and disability at their presurgical
      evaluation, and at 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: The results revealed that
      reductions in depressive symptoms and disability, but not pain severity, were
      correlated with reductions in perceived injustice. Regression analyses revealed
      that reductions in disability and reductions in depressive symptoms contributed
      modest but significant unique variance to the prediction of postsurgical
      reductions in perceived injustice. DISCUSSION: The present findings are
      consistent with current conceptualizations of injustice appraisals that propose a
      central role for symptom severity and disability as determinants of perceptions
      of injustice in patients with persistent pain. The results suggest that the
      inclusion of psychosocial interventions that target depressive symptoms and
      perceived injustice might augment the impact of rehabilitation programs made
      available for individuals recovering from TKA.

PMID- 28877145
TI  - European Society of Anaesthesiology and European Board of Anaesthesiology
      guidelines for procedural sedation and analgesia in adults.
AB  - : Procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) has become a widespread practice given
      the increasing demand to relieve anxiety, discomfort and pain during invasive
      diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The role of, and credentialing required
      by, anaesthesiologists and practitioners performing PSA has been debated for
      years in different guidelines. For this reason, the European Society of
      Anaesthesiology (ESA) and the European Board of Anaesthesiology have created a
      taskforce of experts that has been assigned to create an evidence-based guideline
      and, whenever the evidence was weak, a consensus amongst experts on: the
      evaluation of adult patients undergoing PSA, the role and competences required
      for the clinicians to safely perform PSA, the commonly used drugs for PSA, the
      adverse events that PSA can lead to, the minimum monitoring requirements and post
      procedure discharge criteria. A search of the literature from 2003 to 2016 was
      performed by a professional librarian and the retrieved articles were analysed to
      allow a critical appraisal according to the Grading of Recommendations
      Assessment, Development and Evaluation method. The Taskforce selected 2248
      articles. Where there was insufficiently clear and concordant evidence on a
      topic, the Rand Appropriateness Method with three rounds of Delphi voting was
      used to obtain the highest level of consensus among the taskforce experts.These
      guidelines contain recommendations on PSA in the adult population. It does not
      address sedation performed in the ICU or in children and it does not aim to
      provide a legal statement on how PSA should be performed and by whom. The
      National Societies of Anaesthesiology and Ministries of Health should use this
      evidence-based document to help decision-making on how PSA should be performed in
      their countries. The final draft of the document was available to ESA members via
      the website for 4 weeks with the facility for them to upload their comments.
      Comments and suggestions of individual members and national Societies were
      considered and the guidelines were amended accordingly. The ESA guidelines
      Committee and ESA board finally approved and ratified it before publication.

PMID- 28877146
TI  - Eye Protection: Survey of Dermatologists and Office Staff.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Splash injuries to mucosal membranes during procedures have been well
      documented in dermatology and carry a potential risk of blood-borne virus
      transmission. The risk to the ocular mucosa can be minimized with proper eye
      protection. OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of wearing eye protection during
      dermatologic procedures by physicians, trainees, and office staff in dermatology.
      METHODS: A Cross-sectional observational study of US dermatologists, residents,
      nurses, and medical assistants was performed regarding eye protection during
      dermatologic procedures. RESULTS: The rates of wearing eye protection in every
      dermatologic procedure are as follows: dermatologists 42.3%, residents/fellows
      39.6%, and nurses/medical assistants 25%. Ninety-eight percent of respondents
      thought blood-borne illnesses could be transmitted by splash injury. The rates of
      having splash injury during your career are as follows: dermatologists 73.1%,
      residents/fellows 16.7%, and nurses/medical assistants 50%. The rates of having a
      splash injury within the last year are as follows: dermatologists 11.5%,
      residents/fellows 8.3%, and nurses/medical assistants 35.7%. CONCLUSION: The use
      of eye protection is an important component of the personal protective equipment
      to help prevent transmission of blood-borne illnesses. Dermatologists and staff
      should strive to increase awareness and the use of face masks with eye shields or
      face mask with separate eye protection in every dermatologic procedure.

PMID- 28877147
TI  - Restoration of Visual Loss With Retrobulbar Hyaluronidase Injection After
      Hyaluronic Acid Filler.

PMID- 28877148
TI  - Treatment of a Chronic Cutaneous Surgical Wound With Platelet-Rich Fibrin.

PMID- 28877150
TI  - A Combination Flap for Repair of Eclabium.

PMID- 28877151
TI  - YouTube Videos on Botulinum Toxin A for Wrinkles: A Useful Resource for Patient
      Education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients interested in botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) for wrinkles
      search for videos on YouTube, but little is known about the quality and
      reliability of the content. OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the quality,
      reliability, content, and target audience of YouTube videos on BTX for wrinkles.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the term "Botox" was
      searched on YouTube. Sixty relevant videos in English were independently
      categorized by 2 reviewers as useful informational, misleading informational,
      useful patient view, or misleading patient view. Disagreements were settled by a
      third reviewer. Videos were rated on the Global Quality Scale (GQS) (1 = poor, 5
      = excellent). RESULTS: Sixty-three percent of the BTX YouTube videos were useful
      informational (GQS = 4.4 +/- 0.7), 33% as useful patient view (GQS = 3.21 +/-
      1.2), 2% as misleading informational (GQS = 1), and 2% as misleading patient view
      (GQS = 2.5). CONCLUSION: The large number of useful videos, high reliability, and
      the wide range of content covered suggests that those who search for antiwrinkle
      BTX videos on YouTube are likely to view high-quality content. This suggests that
      YouTube may be a good source of videos to recommend for patients interested in
      BTX.

PMID- 28877149
TI  - Postoperative Pallor as a Sign of Impending Necrosis.

PMID- 28877152
TI  - Adverse Events Resulting in After-Hours Calls After Mohs Micrographic Surgery.

PMID- 28877153
TI  - Drug Delivery After Microneedling: Report of an Adverse Reaction.

PMID- 28877155
TI  - Lemierre's Syndrome Presenting as Multifocal Pyomyositis in a Young Child.
AB  - Lemierre's syndrome is more common in young adults and the majority of patients
      present with pharyngitis. Multifocal pyomyositis is very rare in this setting and
      in young children. We present here a case of multifocal pyomyositis caused by
      Fusobacterium spp. in a young child. Fusobacterium should be considered in the
      differential diagnosis of multifocal pyomyositis of unclear etiology.

PMID- 28877154
TI  - A Novel, Disease-Specific Self-Report Instrument to Measure Body Image Concerns
      in Patients With Head and Neck Skin Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skin cancer commonly occurs on areas that are salient to body image
      perception (i.e., head and neck). Patients with head and neck skin cancer (HNSC)
      may experience negative body image perceptions related to their disease, which is
      concerning, given the numerous negative sequelae of poor body image. However,
      there are no existing disease-specific measures of body image concerns in HNSC.
      OBJECTIVE: To develop and examine the psychometric properties of a brief self
      report, disease-specific measure of body image concerns in patients with HNSC-the
      Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with HNSC
      completed the BIQ before (n = 239) and 6 months after (n = 80) treatment with
      Mohs micrographic surgery. Analyses examined the internal consistency, convergent
      validity, and factor structure of the BIQ. RESULTS: Internal consistency
      reliability was acceptable, and the measure demonstrated convergent validity with
      well-being. Four dimensions underlie the BIQ: appearance satisfaction, appearance
      avoidance, head/neck/skin-specific dissatisfaction, and perceived change.
      CONCLUSION: The BIQ is a valid and internally reliable disease-specific
      instrument that measures body image concerns in patients with HNSC.

PMID- 28877156
TI  - Performance of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Assay Among HIV-infected Children With
      Active Tuberculosis in France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data regarding the use of QuantiFERON to assist the diagnosis of
      active tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-infected children are limited, especially in
      countries with low incidence of TB/HIV coinfection. METHODS: QuantiFERON results
      were analyzed in 63 HIV-infected children who presented to our hospital in Paris,
      France. Seventeen HIV-uninfected children with active TB (4 culture-confirmed)
      were included for comparison. RESULTS: The 63 HIV-infected children (median age:
      11 yr) had 113 QuantiFERON tests. Thirty-four (54%) were born in sub-Saharan
      Africa. Vertical HIV transmission was documented for 50 of 52 (96%) and stage III
      HIV-infection for 30 of 50 children (60%). Over the study period, active TB was
      diagnosed in 7 of 63 HIV-infected children (3 culture-confirmed). Additional
      ongoing or previous opportunistic infections were present in 4 of 7. QuantiFERON
      results were positive in 2 of 7 HIV-infected children with active TB
      (sensitivity: 29%) and 16 of 17 HIV-uninfected children with active TB
      (sensitivity: 94%). At initial QuantiFERON testing of the 63 HIV-infected
      children, 8 (13%) had positive results (1, active TB; 5, latent TB; 2, previous
      TB) and 51 (81%) had negative results. Of 33 children with repeat testing after
      an initially positive or negative result, the only change was one conversion from
      a negative to a positive result at the onset of active TB. The 4 children (6%)
      with indeterminate quantiFERON results had a concomitant opportunistic infection.
      Results of repeat testing after clinical stabilization were negative in all 4.
      CONCLUSIONS: QuantiFERON testing performed poorly for active TB diagnosis in this
      series of children with advanced HIV infection.

PMID- 28877157
TI  - External Validation of Six Pediatric Fever and Neutropenia Clinical Decision
      Rules.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fever and neutropenia (FN) clinical decision rules (CDRs) are
      recommended to help distinguish children with cancer at high and low risk of
      severe infection. The aim of this study was to validate existing pediatric FN
      CDRs designed to stratify children with cancer at high or low risk of serious
      infection or medical complication. METHODS: Pediatric CDRs suitable for
      validation were identified from a literature search. Relevant data were extracted
      from an existing data set of 650 retrospective FN episodes in children with
      cancer. The sensitivity and specificity of each of the CDR were compared with the
      derivation studies to assess reproducibility. RESULTS: Six CDRs were identified
      for validation: 2 were designed to predict bacteremia and 4 to predict adverse
      events. Five CDRs exhibited reproducibility in our cohort. A rule predicting
      bacteremia had the highest sensitivity (100%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 93%
      100%) although poor specificity (17%), with only 15% identified as low risk. For
      adverse events, the highest sensitivity achieved was 84% (95% CI: 75%-90%), with
      specificity of 29% and 27% identified as low risk. A rule intended for
      application after a 24-hour period of inpatient observation yielded a sensitivity
      of 80% (95% CI: 73-86) and specificity of 46%, with 44% identified as low risk.
      CONCLUSIONS: Five CDRs were reproducible, although not all can be recommended for
      implementation because of either inadequate sensitivity or failure to identify a
      clinically meaningful number of low-risk patients. The 24-hour rule arguably
      exhibits the best balance between sensitivity and specificity in our population.

PMID- 28877158
TI  - Antibiotic Use in Hospitalized Children With Respiratory Viruses Detected by
      Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiplex polymerase chain reaction-based methods are increasingly
      used to detect respiratory pathogens in children. While rapid identification of
      viruses has been shown to reduce antibiotic use, the impact of detecting specific
      viruses on antibiotic utilization has not been ascertained. This study compared
      antibiotic utilization among hospitalized children who tested positive for
      different respiratory viruses at admission. METHODS: A single-center study of
      hospitalized children under 21 years of age who tested positive at admission for
      at least 1 respiratory virus by multiplex polymerase chain reaction from October
      1, 2012 to October 1, 2015 was performed. Multivariable logistic regression was
      used to determine the association of testing positive for specific viruses with
      the use of antibiotics for >= 2 days, adjusted for demographic and clinical
      characteristics. RESULTS: The study included 1416 patients with a median age of
      2.1 years (interquartile range: 0.6-6.2 years). Patients positive for influenza
      (odds ratio: 2.0, 95% confidence interval: 1.1-3.4) and human metapneumovirus
      (odds ratio: 2.0, 95% confidence interval: 1.1-3.7) were more likely to receive
      >= 2 days of treatment compared with patients positive for respiratory syncytial
      virus (RSV). Other variables affecting prolonged use of antibiotics included
      respiratory support, primary nonrespiratory diagnosis, complex comorbid
      conditions and admission to the intensive care unit. CONCLUSIONS: Providers are
      more likely to use antibiotics in non-RSV-infected patients compared with RSV.
      These trends likely represent concern about bacterial superinfection and may
      reflect lack of familiarity with these pathogens.

PMID- 28877160
TI  - Smarter, not harder.

PMID- 28877159
TI  - Association Between 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Epicardial Adipose Tissue in Chinese
      Non-Obese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is recognized as a useful indicator
      for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity. However, studies on the
      association between vitamin D status and EAT thickness in type 2 diabetes (T2D)
      are limited. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of vitamin D
      (Calcifediol) status and EAT thickness (EATT) in Chinese non-obese patients with
      T2D. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed among 167 non
      obese T2D Chinese patients and 82 non-diabetic patients, who are age- and gender
      matched during the winter months. EATT was evaluated by two-dimensional
      transthoracic echocardiography. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D, Calcifediol]
      was examined in the diabetic patients and in the control group. RESULTS The
      concentration of 25(OH)D was 32.00 nmol/l (19.30-53.70 nmol/l) among diabetic
      patients. Most (93.4%) of the diabetic patients had hypovitaminosis D. We
      confirmed a clear negative association between 25(OH)D level and EATT in non
      obese T2D patients (p=0.01). EATT was significantly correlated with 25(OH)D level
      (p=0.001) and HOMA-IR (p=0.001). Results of multivariate logistic regression
      analysis demonstrated increased EATT, which was remarkably associated with
      25(OH)D levels (p=0.039), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p=0.013), HOMA-IR
      (p=0.030), and waist circumference (p<0.001) in T2D patients after adjusting for
      the confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS Increased EATT was found in Chinese T2D
      patients with normal BMI. 25(OH)D and HOMA-IR were independently associated with
      increased EATT after adjusting for multiple confounders.

PMID- 28877162
TI  - Correction: Dramatic and concerted conformational changes enable rhodocetin to
      block alpha2beta1 integrin selectively.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2001492.].

PMID- 28877161
TI  - Interactive locomotion: Investigation and modeling of physically-paired humans
      while walking.
AB  - In spite of extensive studies on human walking, less research has been conducted
      on human walking gait adaptation during interaction with another human. In this
      paper, we study a particular case of interactive locomotion where two humans
      carry a rigid object together. Experimental data from two persons walking
      together, one in front of the other, while carrying a stretcher-like object is
      presented, and the adaptation of their walking gaits and coordination of the foot
      fall patterns are analyzed. It is observed that in more than 70% of the
      experiments the subjects synchronize their walking gaits; it is shown that these
      walking gaits can be associated to quadrupedal gaits. Moreover, in order to
      understand the extent by which the passive dynamics can explain this
      synchronization behaviour, a simple 2D model, made of two-coupled spring-loaded
      inverted pendulums, is developed, and a comparison between the experiments and
      simulations with this model is presented, showing that with this simple model we
      are able to reproduce some aspects of human walking behaviour when paired with
      another human.

PMID- 28877163
TI  - Long-term impact of changing childhood malnutrition on rotavirus diarrhoea: Two
      decades of adjusted association with climate and socio-demographic factors from
      urban Bangladesh.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is strong association between childhood rotavirus, diarrhoea,
      climate factors and malnutrition. Conversely, a significant nutritional
      transition (reduced under-nutrition) with a concurrent increasing trend of
      rotavirus infection in last decade was also observed among under 5 children,
      especially in developing countries including Bangladesh. Considering the
      pathophysiology of rotavirus, there might be an interaction of this nutrition
      transition which plays a pivotal role in increasing rotavirus infection in
      addition to climate and other man-made factors in urban areas such as Dhaka,
      Bangladesh. METHODS: Relevant monthly data from 1993-2012 were extracted from the
      archive of the Diarrhoeal Disease Surveillance System of icddr, b and linked with
      data collected from the Dhaka station of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department
      (mean temperature, rainfall, sea level pressure and humidity). Seasonal
      autoregressive integrated moving average time series models were deployed to
      determine the association between the monthly proportion of rotavirus infection
      and underweight, stunting and wasting adjusting for climate, socio-demographic
      and sanitation factors. FINDING: The proportion of rotavirus cases among all
      causes diarrhoea increased from 20% in 1993 to 43% in 2012 (Chi squared for trend
      p = 0.010). In contrast, underweight, stunting and wasting decreased from 59%-29%
      (p<0.001); 53%-21% (p<0.001) and 32%-22% (p<0.001) respectively over the same
      period. Mean ambient temperature increased from 25.76 degrees C-26.62 degrees C
      (p = 0.07); mean rainfall, sea level pressure and mean humidity decreased from
      234.92-111.75 mm (p = 0.5), 1008.30-1006.61 mm of hg (p = 0.02) and 76.63%-70.26%
      (p<0.001), respectively. In the adjusted model, a decrease in monthly proportion
      of underweight [coef.: -0.189 (95% CI:-0.376, -0.003)] and wasting [-0.265 (
      0.455, -0.075)] were significantly and inversely associated with rotavirus
      infection. However, an inverse but insignificant association was observed for
      stunting [-0.070 (-0.249, 0.109)]. INTERPRETATION: The reduction of acute
      childhood malnutrition is significantly associated with increasing rotavirus
      diarrhoea among under-5 children. Thus mass vaccination in addition to
      interventions directed at man-made modifiable predictors for prevention and
      control is warranted.

PMID- 28877164
TI  - In vivo therapeutic effect of combination treatment with metformin and
      Scutellaria baicalensis on maintaining bile acid homeostasis.
AB  - The radix of Scutellaria baicalensis (SB) is a herb widely used in traditional
      Chinese medicine to treat metabolic diseases. Several main components, including
      baicalin and wogonoside, possess anti-dyslipidemia, anti-obesity and anti
      diabetic effects. We hypothesized that co-administration of SB extract and
      metformin exerts a better effect on obesity-induced insulin resistance and lipid
      metabolism than treatment with metformin alone. We compared the effect of
      metformin (100 mg/10 mL/kg/day) alone with co-administration of metformin (100
      mg/5 mL/kg/day) and SB extract (200 mg/5 mL/kg/day) on Otsuka Long Evans
      Tokushima Fatty rats, a useful model of type II diabetes with obesity, and used
      Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka rats as a control. Weight, fasting glucose, oral
      glucose tolerance test, intraperitoneal insulin tolerance test, and serum total
      cholesterol were measured after 12 weeks of drug administration. We observed a
      synergetic effect of metformin and SB on lowering cholesterol level by excretion
      of bile acid through feces. We found that this accompanied activation of FXR,
      CYP7A1 and LDLR genes and repression of HMGCR in the liver. Although there were
      no significant changes in BSH-active gut microbiota due to high variability,
      functional prediction with 16S sequences showed increased primary and secondary
      bile acid biosynthesis in the combination treatment group. Further study is
      needed to find the specific strains of bacteria which contribute to FXR-related
      cholesterol and bile acid regulations.

PMID- 28877166
TI  - Potential of pest regulation by insectivorous birds in Mediterranean woody crops.
AB  - Regulation of agricultural pests managing their natural enemies represents an
      alternative to chemical pesticides. We assessed the potential of insectivorous
      birds as pest regulators in woody crops located in central Spain. A total of 417
      nest boxes installed in five field study sites (one vineyard, two fruit orchards,
      and two olive groves) were monitored for use and breeding of insectivorous birds
      and other species for four consecutive years (2013-2016). At all field sites
      except the two olive groves, where birds never occupied the nest boxes, predation
      experiments were conducted with Greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) sentinel
      caterpillars, and food consumption by birds was estimated. Nesting of
      insectivorous birds, chiefly Great tit (Parus major), and sparrows (Passer
      domesticus and P. montanus) increased over time, averaging 60% per field site in
      the vineyard and fruit orchards by the fourth year. Use of nest boxes by sparrows
      and by Garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) was high at the fruit orchards (70%)
      and the vineyard (30%), respectively. Micro-habitat characteristics (nest box
      level) and meso-habitat characteristics (patch level) strongly affected use of
      nest boxes and bird breeding (i.e. number of laid eggs and produced chicks) in
      different years. Distance to natural or semi-natural vegetation did not
      consistently affect bird breeding, nor did we see consistent evidence of
      competition between adjacent breeding birds. Predation rates of sentinel
      caterpillars were approximately one-third higher near boxes with nesting birds
      (31.51 +/- 43.13%) than at paired distant areas without nest boxes (22.45% +/-
      38.58%). Food consumption by insectivorous birds per ha and breeding season were
      conservatively estimated to range from 0.02 kg in one fruit orchard to 0.15 kg in
      the vineyard. We conclude that installation of nest boxes in Mediterranean woody
      crops enhances populations of insectivorous birds that regulate pests, but that
      the effects are moderate and highly context-dependent.

PMID- 28877165
TI  - The effects of an unsupervised water exercise program on low back pain and sick
      leave among healthy pregnant women - A randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low back pain is highly prevalent among pregnant women, but evidence
      of an effective treatment are still lacking. Supervised exercise-either land or
      water based-has shown benefits for low back pain, but no trial has investigated
      the evidence of an unsupervised water exercise program on low back pain. We aimed
      to assess the effect of an unsupervised water exercise program on low back pain
      intensity and days spent on sick leave among healthy pregnant women. METHODS: In
      this randomised, controlled, parallel-group trial, 516 healthy pregnant women
      were randomly assigned to either unsupervised water exercise twice a week for a
      period of 12 weeks or standard prenatal care. Healthy pregnant women aged 18
      years or older, with a single fetus and between 16-17 gestational weeks were
      eligible. The primary outcome was low back pain intensity measured by the Low
      Back Pain Rating scale at 32 weeks. The secondary outcomes were self-reported
      days spent on sick leave, disability due to low back pain (Roland Morris
      Disability Questionnaire) and self-rated general health (EQ-5D and EQ-VAS).
      RESULTS: Low back pain intensity was significantly lower in the water exercise
      group, with a score of 2.01 (95% CI 1.75-2.26) vs. 2.38 in the control group (95%
      CI 2.12-2.64) (mean difference = 0.38, 95% CI 0.02-0.74 p = 0.04). No difference
      was found in the number of days spent on sick leave (median 4 vs. 4, p = 0.83),
      disability due to low back pain nor self-rated general health. There was a trend
      towards more women in the water exercise group reporting no low back pain at 32
      weeks (21% vs. 14%, p = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Unsupervised water exercise results
      in a statistically significant lower intensity of low back pain in healthy
      pregnant women, but the result was most likely not clinically significant. It did
      not affect the number of days on sick leave, disability due to low back pain nor
      self-rated health. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02354430.

PMID- 28877167
TI  - Measuring Dispositional Flow: Validity and reliability of the Dispositional Flow
      State Scale 2, Italian version.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of
      the Italian version of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2), for use with
      Italian adults, young adults and adolescents. METHOD: In accordance with the
      guidelines for test adaptation, the scale has been translated with the method of
      back translation. The understanding of the item has been checked according to the
      latest standards on the culturally sensitive translation. The scale thus produced
      was administered to 843 individuals (of which 60.69% female), between the ages of
      15 and 74. The sample is balanced between workers and students. The main
      activities defined by the subjects allow the sample to be divided into three
      categories: students, workers, athletes (professionals and semi-professionals).
      RESULTS: The confirmatory factor analysis, conducted using the Maximum Likelihood
      Estimator (MLM), showed acceptable fit indexes. Reliability and validity have
      been verified, and structural invariance has been verified on 6 categories of
      Flow experience and for 3 subsamples with different with different fields of
      action. Correlational analysis shows significant high values between the nine
      dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirmed the validity and reliability of the
      Italian DFS-2 in measuring Flow experiences. The scale is reliable for use with
      Italian adults, young adults and adolescents. The Italian version of the scale is
      suitable for the evaluation of the subjective tendency to experience Flow trait
      characteristic in different contest, as sport, study and work.

PMID- 28877168
TI  - Simple rules can guide whether land- or ocean-based conservation will best
      benefit marine ecosystems.
AB  - Coastal marine ecosystems can be managed by actions undertaken both on the land
      and in the ocean. Quantifying and comparing the costs and benefits of actions in
      both realms is therefore necessary for efficient management. Here, we quantify
      the link between terrestrial sediment runoff and a downstream coastal marine
      ecosystem and contrast the cost-effectiveness of marine- and land-based
      conservation actions. We use a dynamic land- and sea-scape model to determine
      whether limited funds should be directed to 1 of 4 alternative conservation
      actions-protection on land, protection in the ocean, restoration on land, or
      restoration in the ocean-to maximise the extent of light-dependent marine benthic
      habitats across decadal timescales. We apply the model to a case study for a
      seagrass meadow in Australia. We find that marine restoration is the most cost
      effective action over decadal timescales in this system, based on a conservative
      estimate of the rate at which seagrass can expand into a new habitat. The optimal
      decision will vary in different social-ecological contexts, but some basic
      information can guide optimal investments to counteract land- and ocean-based
      stressors: (1) marine restoration should be prioritised if the rates of marine
      ecosystem decline and expansion are similar and low; (2) marine protection should
      take precedence if the rate of marine ecosystem decline is high or if the
      adjacent catchment is relatively intact and has a low rate of vegetation decline;
      (3) land-based actions are optimal when the ratio of marine ecosystem expansion
      to decline is greater than 1:1.4, with terrestrial restoration typically the most
      cost-effective action; and (4) land protection should be prioritised if the
      catchment is relatively intact but the rate of vegetation decline is high. These
      rules of thumb illustrate how cost-effective conservation outcomes for connected
      land-ocean systems can proceed without complex modelling.

PMID- 28877169
TI  - Sleep and eyewitness memory: Fewer false identifications after sleep when the
      target is absent from the lineup.
AB  - Inaccurate eyewitness identifications are the leading cause of known false
      convictions in the United States. Moreover, improving eyewitness memory is
      difficult and often unsuccessful. Sleep consistently strengthens and protects
      memory from interference, particularly when a recall test is used. However, the
      effect of sleep on recognition memory is more equivocal. Eyewitness
      identification tests are often recognition based, thus leaving open the question
      of how sleep affects recognition performance in an eyewitness context. In the
      current study, we investigated the effect of sleep on eyewitness memory.
      Participants watched a video of a mock-crime and attempted to identify the
      perpetrator from a simultaneous lineup after a 12-hour retention interval that
      either spanned a waking day or night of sleep. In Experiment 1, we used a target
      present lineup and, in Experiment 2, we used a target-absent lineup in order to
      investigate correct and false identifications, respectively. Sleep reduced false
      identifications in the target-absent lineup (Experiment 2) but had no effect on
      correct identifications in the target-present lineup (Experiment 1). These
      results are discussed with respect to memory strength and decision making
      strategies.

PMID- 28877170
TI  - Overtreatment in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Overtreatment is a cause of preventable harm and waste in health
      care. Little is known about clinician perspectives on the problem. In this study,
      physicians were surveyed on the prevalence, causes, and implications of
      overtreatment. METHODS: 2,106 physicians from an online community composed of
      doctors from the American Medical Association (AMA) masterfile participated in a
      survey. The survey inquired about the extent of overutilization, as well as
      causes, solutions, and implications for health care. Main outcome measures
      included: percentage of unnecessary medical care, most commonly cited reasons of
      overtreatment, potential solutions, and responses regarding association of profit
      and overtreatment. FINDINGS: The response rate was 70.1%. Physicians reported
      that an interpolated median of 20.6% of overall medical care was unnecessary,
      including 22.0% of prescription medications, 24.9% of tests, and 11.1% of
      procedures. The most common cited reasons for overtreatment were fear of
      malpractice (84.7%), patient pressure/request (59.0%), and difficulty accessing
      medical records (38.2%). Potential solutions identified were training residents
      on appropriateness criteria (55.2%), easy access to outside health records
      (52.0%), and more practice guidelines (51.5%). Most respondents (70.8%) believed
      that physicians are more likely to perform unnecessary procedures when they
      profit from them. Most respondents believed that de-emphasizing fee-for-service
      physician compensation would reduce health care utilization and costs.
      CONCLUSION: From the physician perspective, overtreatment is common. Efforts to
      address the problem should consider the causes and solutions offered by
      physicians.

PMID- 28877171
TI  - Preventable proportion of intubation-associated pneumonia: Role of adherence to a
      care bundle.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to estimate the preventable
      proportion of Intubation-Associated Pneumonia (IAP) in the Intensive Care Units
      (ICUs) participating in the Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in ICUs
      (SPIN-UTI) network, taking into account differences in intrinsic patients' risk
      factors, and additionally considering the compliance with the European bundle for
      IAP prevention. METHODS: A prospective patient-based survey was conducted and all
      patients staying in ICU for more than 2 days were enrolled in the surveillance.
      Compliance with the bundle was assessed using a questionnaire for each intubated
      patient. A twofold analysis by the parametric g-formula was used to compute the
      number of infections to be expected if the infection incidence in all ICUs could
      be reduced to that one of the top-tenth-percentile-ranked ICUs and to that one of
      the ICU with the highest compliance to all five bundle components. RESULTS: A
      total of 1,840 patients and of 17 ICUs were included in the first analysis
      showing a preventable proportion of 44% of IAP. In a second analysis on a subset
      of data, considering compliance with the European bundle, a preventable
      proportion of 40% of IAP was shown. A significant negative trend of IAP
      incidences was observed with increasing number of bundle components performed
      (p<0.001) and a strong negative correlation between these two factors was shown
      (r = -0.882; p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: The g-formula controlled for time-varying
      factors is a valuable approach for estimating the preventable proportion of IAP
      and the impact of interventions, based entirely on an observed population in a
      real-world setting. However, both the study design that cannot definitively prove
      a causative relationship between bundle compliance and IAP risk, and the small
      number of patients included in the care bundle compliance analysis, may represent
      limits of the study and further and larger studies should be conducted.

PMID- 28877172
TI  - Automated recording of home cage activity and temperature of individual rats
      housed in social groups: The Rodent Big Brother project.
AB  - Measuring the activity and temperature of rats is commonly required in biomedical
      research. Conventional approaches necessitate single housing, which affects their
      behavior and wellbeing. We have used a subcutaneous radiofrequency identification
      (RFID) transponder to measure ambulatory activity and temperature of individual
      rats when group-housed in conventional, rack-mounted home cages. The transponder
      location and temperature is detected by a matrix of antennae in a baseplate under
      the cage. An infrared high-definition camera acquires side-view video of the cage
      and also enables automated detection of vertical activity. Validation studies
      showed that baseplate-derived ambulatory activity correlated well with manual
      tracking and with side-view whole-cage video pixel movement. This technology
      enables individual behavioral and temperature data to be acquired continuously
      from group-housed rats in their familiar, home cage environment. We demonstrate
      its ability to reliably detect naturally occurring behavioral effects, extending
      beyond the capabilities of routine observational tests and conventional
      monitoring equipment. It has numerous potential applications including safety
      pharmacology, toxicology, circadian biology, disease models and drug discovery.

PMID- 28877174
TI  - Access to finance from different finance provider types: Farmer knowledge of the
      requirements.
AB  - Analysing farmer knowledge of the requirements of finance providers can provide
      valuable insights to policy makers about ways to improve farmers' access to
      finance. This study compares farmer knowledge of the requirements to obtain
      finance with the actual requirements set by different finance provider types, and
      investigates the relation between demographic and socioeconomic factors and
      farmer knowledge of finance requirements. We use a structured questionnaire to
      collect data from a sample of finance providers and farmers in Java Island,
      Indonesia. We find that the most important requirements to acquire finance vary
      among different finance provider types. We also find that farmers generally have
      little knowledge of the requirements, which are important to each type of finance
      provider. Awareness campaigns are needed to increase farmer knowledge of the
      diversity of requirements among the finance provider types.

PMID- 28877173
TI  - Assessment of WHO criteria for identifying ART treatment failure in Vietnam from
      2007 to 2011.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the WHO immunological
      criteria for detecting antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment failure in a cohort
      of Vietnamese patients. We conducted a stratified analysis to determine the
      effects of BMI, peer support, adherence to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, age, and
      gender on the sensitivity and specificity of the WHO criteria. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective cohort study of 605 HIV-infected patients using data
      previously collected from a cluster randomized control trial study. We compared
      the sensitivity and specificity of CD4+ counts to the gold standard of virologic
      testing as a diagnostic test for ART failure at different time points of 12, 18,
      and 24 months. RESULTS: The sensitivity [95% confidence interval (CI)] of the WHO
      immunological criteria based on a viral load >= 1000 copies/mL was 12% (5%-23%),
      14% (2%-43%), and 12.5% (2%-38%) at 12, 18, and 24 months, respectively. In the
      same order, the specificity was 93% (90%-96%), 98% (96%-99%), and 98% (96%-100%).
      The positive predictive values (PPV) at 12, 18, and 24 months were 22% (9%-40%),
      20% (3%-56%), and 29% (4%-71%); the negative predictive values (NPV) at the same
      time points were 87% (84%-90%), 97% (95%-98%), and 96% (93%-98%). The stratified
      analysis revealed similar sensitivities and specificities. CONCLUSION: The
      sensitivity of the WHO immunological criteria is poor, but the specificity is
      high. Although testing costs may increase, we recommend that Vietnam and other
      similar settings adopt viral load testing as the principal method for determining
      ART failure.

PMID- 28877175
TI  - Composing only by thought: Novel application of the P300 brain-computer
      interface.
AB  - The P300 event-related potential is a well-known pattern in the
      electroencephalogram (EEG). This kind of brain signal is used for many different
      brain-computer interface (BCI) applications, e.g., spellers, environmental
      controllers, web browsers, or for painting. In recent times, BCI systems are
      mature enough to leave the laboratories to be used by the end-users, namely
      severely disabled people. Therefore, new challenges arise and the systems should
      be implemented and evaluated according to user-centered design (USD) guidelines.
      We developed and implemented a new system that utilizes the P300 pattern to
      compose music. Our Brain Composing system consists of three parts: the EEG
      acquisition device, the P300-based BCI, and the music composing software.
      Seventeen musical participants and one professional composer performed a copy
      spelling, a copy-composing, and a free-composing task with the system. According
      to the USD guidelines, we investigated the efficiency, the effectiveness and
      subjective criteria in terms of satisfaction, enjoyment, frustration, and
      attractiveness. The musical participants group achieved high average accuracies:
      88.24% (copy-spelling), 88.58% (copy-composing), and 76.51% (free-composing). The
      professional composer achieved also high accuracies: 100% (copy-spelling), 93.62%
      (copy-composing), and 98.20% (free-composing). General results regarding the
      subjective criteria evaluation were that the participants enjoyed the usage of
      the Brain Composing system and were highly satisfied with the system. Showing
      very positive results with healthy people in this study, this was the first step
      towards a music composing system for severely disabled people.

PMID- 28877176
TI  - Happy creativity: Listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking.
AB  - Creativity can be considered one of the key competencies for the twenty-first
      century. It provides us with the capacity to deal with the opportunities and
      challenges that are part of our complex and fast-changing world. The question as
      to what facilitates creative cognition-the ability to come up with creative
      ideas, problem solutions and products-is as old as the human sciences, and
      various means to enhance creative cognition have been studied. Despite earlier
      scientific studies demonstrating a beneficial effect of music on cognition, the
      effect of music listening on creative cognition has remained largely unexplored.
      The current study experimentally tests whether listening to specific types of
      music (four classical music excerpts systematically varying on valance and
      arousal), as compared to a silence control condition, facilitates divergent and
      convergent creativity. Creativity was higher for participants who listened to
      'happy music' (i.e., classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while
      performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the
      task in silence. No effect of music was found for convergent creativity. In
      addition to the scientific contribution, the current findings may have important
      practical implications. Music listening can be easily integrated into daily life
      and may provide an innovative means to facilitate creative cognition in an
      efficient way in various scientific, educational and organizational settings when
      creative thinking is needed.

PMID- 28877177
TI  - An in vitro diagnostic certified point of care single nucleotide test for IL28B
      polymorphisms.
AB  - Numerous genetic polymorphisms have been identified as associated with disease or
      treatment outcome, but the routine implementation of genotyping into actionable
      medical care remains limited. Point-of-care (PoC) technologies enable rapid and
      real-time treatment decisions, with great potential for extending molecular
      diagnostic approaches to settings with limited medical infrastructure (e.g., CLIA
      certified diagnostic laboratories). With respect to resource-limited settings,
      there is a need for simple devices to implement biomarker guided treatment
      strategies. One relevant example is chronic hepatitis C infection, for which
      several treatment options are now approved. Single nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) in the IL-28B / IFNL3 locus have been well described to predict both
      spontaneous clearance and response to interferon based therapies. We utilized the
      Genedrive(r) platform to develop an assay for the SNP rs12979860 variants (CC, CT
      and TT). The assay utilizes a hybrid thermal engine, permitting rapid heating and
      cooling, enabling an amplification based assay with genetic variants reported
      using endpoint differential melting cure analysis in less than 60 minutes. We
      validated this assay using non-invasive buccal swab sampling in a prospective
      study of 246 chronic HCV patients, achieving 100% sensitivity and 100%
      specificity (95% exact CI: 98.8-100%)) in 50 minutes as compared to conventional
      lab based PCR testing. Our results provide proof of concept that precision
      medicine is feasible in resource-limited settings, offering the first CE-IVD (in
      vitro diagnostics) validated PoC SNP test. We propose that IL-28B genotyping may
      be useful for directing patients towards lower cost therapies, and rationing use
      of costly direct antivirals for use in those individuals showing genetic risk.

PMID- 28877178
TI  - To be on the safe site - Ungroomed spots on the bee's body and their importance
      for pollination.
AB  - Flower-visiting bees collect large quantities of pollen to feed their offspring.
      Pollen deposited in the bees' transport organs is lost for the flowers'
      pollination. It has been hypothesised that specific body areas, bees cannot
      groom, serve as 'safe sites' for pollen transfer between flowers. For the first
      time, we experimentally demonstrated the position, area and pollen amount of safe
      sites at the examples of Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris by combining
      artificial contamination of the bees' body with pine or sunflower pollen and the
      subsequent bees' incomplete grooming. We found safe sites on the forehead, the
      dorsal thorax and waist, and on the dorsal and ventral abdomen of the bees. These
      areas were less groomed by the bees' legs. The largest amount of pollen was found
      on the waist, followed by the dorsal areas of thorax and abdomen. At the example
      of Salvia pratensis, S. officinalis and Borago officinalis, we experimentally
      demonstrated with fluorescent dye that the flowers' pollen-sacs and stigma
      contact identical safe sites. These results confirm that pollen deposition on the
      bees' safe sites improves pollen transfer to stigmas of conspecific flowers sti.
      Future research will demonstrate the importance of safe sites for plant
      pollination under field conditions.

PMID- 28877179
TI  - Adherence to 6-Mercaptopurine in children and adolescents with Acute
      Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Studies on children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) reported
      non-adherence in 2-54% of cases. The primary objective of this study was to
      assess rates of adherence to 6-MP using two different methods in children and
      adolescents with ALL. Secondary aim was to identify factors that influence
      adherence to 6-MP in children with ALL. METHODS: All eligible children with ALL
      who are (<= 19) years old and receive 6-MP therapy for at least 1 month were
      approached to participate in the study. A total of 52 children with ALL and their
      primary caregivers were recruited. Adherence measures included an objective
      method (measuring 6-MP metabolites in packed Red Blood Cells (RBCs)) and a
      subjective method (using parent and child self-report via the Medication
      Adherence Report Scale; MARS; Adherence was defined as 90% or greater). RESULTS:
      Rates of adherence varied across the measurement methods. Packed RBCs sample
      analysis indicated forty-four patients (84.6%) to be adherent. Using the MARS
      questionnaires, a total of 49 children (94.2%) were classified as being adherent
      according to the parental MARS questionnaire scores, while all the 15 children
      (100%) who answered the MARS (child) questionnaire were classified as adherent.
      Overall adherence rate was 80.8% within the studied population. CONCLUSION: MARS
      scale was shown to overestimate adherence compared to measurement of 6-MP
      metabolites in the blood. A combination of both methods led to increased
      detection of non-adherence to thiopurine in children with ALL.

PMID- 28877180
TI  - Decreased complexity of glucose dynamics preceding the onset of diabetes in mice
      and rats.
AB  - Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is a platform to measure blood glucose (BG)
      levels continuously in real time with high enough resolution to document their
      underlying fluctuations. Multiscale entropy (MSE) analysis has been proposed as a
      measure of time-series complexity, and when applied to clinical CGM data, MSE
      analysis revealed that diabetic patients have lower MSE complexity in their BG
      time series than healthy subjects. To determine if the clinical observations on
      complexity of glucose dynamics can be back-translated to relevant preclinical
      species used routinely in diabetes drug discovery, we performed CGM in both mouse
      (ob/ob) and rat (Zucker Diabetic Fatty, ZDF) models of diabetes. We demonstrate
      that similar to human data, the complexity of glucose dynamics is also decreased
      in diabetic mice and rats. We show that low complexity of glucose dynamics is not
      simply a reflection of high glucose values, but rather reflective of the
      underlying disease state (i.e. diabetes). Finally, we demonstrate for the first
      time that the complexity of glucose fluctuations in ZDF rats, as probed by MSE
      analysis, is decreased prior to the onset of overt diabetes, although complexity
      undergoes further decline during the transition to frank diabetes. Our study
      suggests that MSE could serve as a novel biomarker for the progression to
      diabetes and that complexity studies in preclinical models could offer a new
      paradigm for early differentiation, and thereby, selection of appropriate
      clinical candidate molecules to be tested in human clinical trials.

PMID- 28877181
TI  - Motion-based video monitoring for early detection of livestock diseases: The case
      of African swine fever.
AB  - Early detection of infectious diseases can substantially reduce the health and
      economic impacts on livestock production. Here we describe a system for
      monitoring animal activity based on video and data processing techniques, in
      order to detect slowdown and weakening due to infection with African swine fever
      (ASF), one of the most significant threats to the pig industry. The system
      classifies and quantifies motion-based animal behaviour and daily activity in
      video sequences, allowing automated and non-intrusive surveillance in real-time.
      The aim of this system is to evaluate significant changes in animals' motion
      after being experimentally infected with ASF virus. Indeed, pig mobility declined
      progressively and fell significantly below pre-infection levels starting at four
      days after infection at a confidence level of 95%. Furthermore, daily motion
      decreased in infected animals by approximately 10% before the detection of the
      disease by clinical signs. These results show the promise of video processing
      techniques for real-time early detection of livestock infectious diseases.

PMID- 28877182
TI  - Cryptococcal antigen screening by lay cadres using a rapid test at the point of
      care: A feasibility study in rural Lesotho.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cryptococcal meningitis is one of the leading causes of death among
      people with HIV in Africa, primarily due to delayed presentation, poor
      availability and high cost of treatment. Routine cryptococcal antigen (CrAg)
      screening of patients with a CD4 count less than 100 cells/mm3, followed by pre
      emptive therapy if positive, might reduce mortality in high prevalence settings.
      Using the cryptococcal antigen (CrAg) lateral flow assay (LFA), screening is
      possible at the point of care (POC). However, critical shortages of health staff
      may limit adoption. This study investigates the feasibility of lay counsellors
      conducting CrAg LFA screening in rural primary care clinics in Lesotho. METHODS:
      From May 2014 to June 2015, individuals who tested positive for HIV were tested
      for CD4 count and those with CD4 <100 cells/mm3 were screened with CrAg LFA. All
      tests were performed by lay counsellors. CrAg-positive asymptomatic patients
      received fluconazole, while symptomatic patients were referred to hospital. Lay
      counsellors were trained and supervised by a laboratory technician and counsellor
      activity supervisor. Additionally, nurses and doctors were trained on CrAg
      screening and appropriate treatment. RESULTS: During the study period, 1,388
      people were newly diagnosed with HIV, of whom 129 (9%) presented with a CD4 count
      <100 cells/mm3. Of these, 128 (99%) were screened with CrAg LFA and 14/128 (11%)
      tested positive. Twelve of the 14 (86%) were asymptomatic, and received
      outpatient fluconazole. All commenced ART with a median time to initiation of
      15.5 days [IQR: 14-22]. Of the asymptomatic patients, nine (75%) remained
      asymptomatic after a median time of 5 months [IQR; 3-6] of follow up. One (8%)
      became co-infected with tuberculosis and died and two were transferred out. The
      two patients with symptomatic cryptococcal meningitis (CM) were referred to
      hospital, where they later died. CONCLUSIONS: CrAg LFA screening by lay
      counsellors followed by pre-emptive fluconazole treatment for asymptomatic cases,
      or referral to hospital for symptomatic cases, proved feasible. However, regular
      follow-up to ensure proper management of cryptococcal disease was needed. These
      early results support the wider use of CrAg LFA screening in remote primary care
      settings where upper cadres of healthcare staff may be in short supply.

PMID- 28877183
TI  - Quantitative proteomics analysis reveals the tolerance of wheat to salt stress in
      response to Enterobacter cloacae SBP-8.
AB  - Salinity stress adversely affects the plant growth and is a major constraint to
      agriculture. In the present study, we studied the role of plant growth promoting
      rhizobacterium (PGPR) Enterobacter cloacae SBP-8 possessing ACC deaminase
      activity on proteome profile of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under high salinity
      (200 mM NaCl) stress. The aim of study was to investigate the differential
      expressed protein in selected three (T-1, T-2, T-3) treatments and absolute
      quantification (MS/MS analysis) was used to detect statistically significant
      expressed proteins. In this study, we investigated the adaptation mechanisms of
      wheat seedlings exposed to high concentration of NaCl treatment (200 mM) for 15
      days in response to bacterial inoculation based on proteomic data. The identified
      proteins were distributed in different cellular, biological and molecular
      functions. Under salt stress, proteins related to ion-transport, metabolic
      pathway, protein synthesis and defense responsive were increased to a certain
      extent. A broader comparison of the proteome of wheat plant under different
      treatments revealed that changes in some of the metabolic pathway may be involved
      in stress adaption in response to PGPR inoculation. Hierarchical cluster analysis
      identified the various up-regulated/down-regulated proteins into tested three
      treatments. Our results suggest that bacterial inoculation enhanced the ability
      of wheat plant to combat salt stress via regulation of transcription factors,
      promoting antioxidative activity, induction of defense enzymes, lignin
      biosynthesis, and acceleration of protein synthesis.

PMID- 28877184
TI  - Microgravity validation of a novel system for RNA isolation and multiplex
      quantitative real time PCR analysis of gene expression on the International Space
      Station.
AB  - The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory is dedicated to
      studying the effects of space on life and physical systems, and to developing new
      science and technologies for space exploration. A key aspect of achieving these
      goals is to operate the ISS National Lab more like an Earth-based laboratory,
      conducting complex end-to-end experimentation, not limited to simple microgravity
      exposure. Towards that end NASA developed a novel suite of molecular biology
      laboratory tools, reagents, and methods, named WetLab-2, uniquely designed to
      operate in microgravity, and to process biological samples for real-time gene
      expression analysis on-orbit. This includes a novel fluidic RNA Sample
      Preparation Module and fluid transfer devices, all-in-one lyophilized PCR assays,
      centrifuge, and a real-time PCR thermal cycler. Here we describe the results from
      the WetLab-2 validation experiments conducted in microgravity during ISS
      increment 47/SPX-8. Specifically, quantitative PCR was performed on a
      concentration series of DNA calibration standards, and Reverse Transcriptase
      quantitative PCR was conducted on RNA extracted and purified on-orbit from frozen
      Escherichia coli and mouse liver tissue. Cycle threshold (Ct) values and PCR
      efficiencies obtained on-orbit from DNA standards were similar to Earth (1 g)
      controls. Also, on-orbit multiplex analysis of gene expression from bacterial
      cells and mammalian tissue RNA samples was successfully conducted in about 3 h,
      with data transmitted within 2 h of experiment completion. Thermal cycling in
      microgravity resulted in the trapping of gas bubbles inside septa cap assay
      tubes, causing small but measurable increases in Ct curve noise and variability.
      Bubble formation was successfully suppressed in a rapid follow-up on-orbit
      experiment using standard caps to pressurize PCR tubes and reduce gas release
      during heating cycles. The WetLab-2 facility now provides a novel operational on
      orbit research capability for molecular biology and demonstrates the feasibility
      of more complex wet bench experiments in the ISS National Lab environment.

PMID- 28877185
TI  - Feet deformities are correlated with impaired balance and postural stability in
      seniors over 75.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Understanding the factors and mechanisms that determine balance in
      seniors appears vital in terms of their self-reliance and overall safety. The
      study aimed to determine the relationship between the features of feet structure
      and the indicators of postural stability in the elderly. METHODS: The study group
      comprised 80 seniors (41F, 39M; aged 75-85 years). CQ-ST podoscope and the CQ
      Stab 2P two-platform posturograph were used as primary research tools. The data
      were analyzed based on Spearman's rank correlation and forward stepwise
      regression. RESULTS: Analysis of forward stepwise regression identified the left
      foot length in females and Clarke's angle of the left foot in men as significant
      and independent predictors of postural up to 30% of the variance of dependent
      variables. CONCLUSIONS: Longer feet provide older women with better stability,
      whereas in men, the lowering of the longitudinal arch results in postural
      deterioration. In the elderly, the left lower limb shows greater activity in the
      stabilizing processes in the standing position than the right one. In
      gerontological rehabilitation special attention should be paid to the
      individually tailored, gender-specific treatment, with a view to enhancing
      overall safety and quality of seniors' lives.

PMID- 28877186
TI  - Proof of concept of a 45-second cardiorespiratory fitness self-test for coronary
      artery disease patients based on accelerometry.
AB  - Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) provides important diagnostic and prognostic
      information. It is measured directly via laboratory maximal testing or indirectly
      via submaximal protocols making use of predictor parameters such as submaximal
      [Formula: see text], heart rate, workload, and perceived exertion. We have
      established an innovative methodology, which can provide CRF prediction based
      only on body motion during a periodic movement. Thirty healthy subjects (40%
      females, 31.3 +/- 7.8 yrs, 25.1 +/- 3.2 BMI) and eighteen male coronary artery
      disease (CAD) (56.6 +/- 7.4 yrs, 28.7 +/- 4.0 BMI) patients performed a [Formula:
      see text] test on a cycle ergometer as well as a 45 second squatting protocol at
      a fixed tempo (80 bpm). A tri-axial accelerometer was used to monitor movements
      during the squat exercise test. Three regression models were developed to predict
      CRF based on subject characteristics and a new accelerometer-derived feature
      describing motion decay. For each model, the Pearson correlation coefficient and
      the root mean squared error percentage were calculated using the leave-one
      subject-out cross-validation method (rcv, RMSEcv). The model built with all
      healthy individuals' data showed an rcv = 0.68 and an RMSEcv = 16.7%. The CRF
      prediction improved when only healthy individuals with normal to lower fitness
      (CRF<40 ml/min/kg) were included, showing an rcv = 0.91 and RMSEcv = 8.7%.
      Finally, our accelerometry-based CRF prediction CAD patients, the majority of
      whom taking beta-blockers, still showed high accuracy (rcv = 0.91; RMSEcv =
      9.6%). In conclusion, motion decay and subject characteristics could be used to
      predict CRF in healthy people as well as in CAD patients taking beta-blockers,
      accurately. This method could represent a valid alternative for patients taking
      beta-blockers, but needs to be further validated in a larger population.

PMID- 28877187
TI  - Study on launch scheme of space-net capturing system.
AB  - With the continuous progress in active debris-removal technology, scientists are
      increasingly concerned about the concept of space-net capturing system. The space
      net capturing system is a long-range-launch flexible capture system, which has
      great potential to capture non-cooperative targets such as inactive satellites
      and upper stages. In this work, the launch scheme is studied by experiment and
      simulation, including two-step ejection and multi-point-traction analyses. The
      numerical model of the tether/net is based on finite element method and is
      verified by full-scale ground experiment. The results of the ground experiment
      and numerical simulation show that the two-step ejection and six-point traction
      scheme of the space-net system is superior to the traditional one-step ejection
      and four-point traction launch scheme.

PMID- 28877188
TI  - Mitochondrial superclusters influence age of onset of Parkinson's disease in a
      gender specific manner in the Cypriot population: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite evidence supporting an involvement of mitochondrial
      dysfunction in the pathogenesis of some neurodegenerative disorders, there are
      inconsistent findings concerning mitochondrial haplogroups and their association
      to neurodegenerative disorders, including idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD).
      METHODS: To test this hypothesis for the Greek-Cypriot population, a cohort of
      230 PD patients and 457 healthy matched controls were recruited. Mitochondrial
      haplogroup distributions for cases and controls were determined. Association
      tests were carried out between mitochondrial haplogroups and PD. RESULTS:
      Mitochondrial haplogroup U was associated with a reduced PD risk in the Cypriot
      population. After pooling mitochondrial haplogroups together into haplogroup
      clusters and superclusters, association tests demonstrated a significantly
      protective effect of mitochondrial haplogroup cluster N (xR) and supercluster LMN
      for PD risk only in females. In addition, for female PD cases belonging to UKJT
      and R (xH, xUKJT) haplogroup, the odds of having a later age of onset of PD were
      13 and 15 times respectively higher than the odds for female cases with an H
      haplogroup. CONCLUSION: Statistically significant associations regarding PD risk
      and PD age of onset were mostly detected for females thus suggesting that gender
      is a risk modifier between mitochondrial haplogroups and PD status / PD age of
      onset. The biological mechanisms behind this gender specificity remain to be
      determined.

PMID- 28877189
TI  - Programmed cell death-1, PD-1, is dysregulated in T cells from children with new
      onset type 1 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Programmed death cell 1 (PD-1) is an inhibitor of T cell activation
      and is also functionally linked to glycolysis. We hypothesized that PD-1
      expression is defective in activated T cells from children with type 1 diabetes
      (T1D), resulting in abnormal T cell glucose metabolism. METHODS: In this pilot
      study, we enrolled children with new onset T1D within 2 weeks of diagnosis (T1D),
      unaffected siblings of T1D (SIBS), unaffected, unrelated children (CTRL),
      children with new onset, and untreated Crohn disease (CD). We repeated the assays
      4-6 months post-diagnosis in T1D (T1D follow up). We analyzed anti-CD3/-CD28
      stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) subsets for PD-1 expression
      by flow cytometry at baseline and after 24 h in culture. We measured cytokines in
      the culture medium by multiplex ELISA and glycolytic capacity with a flux
      analyzer. RESULTS: We enrolled 37 children. T cells derived from subjects with
      T1D had decreased PD-1 expression compared to the other study groups. However, in
      T1D follow-up T cells expressed PD-1 similarly to controls, but had no
      differences in PBMC cytokine production. Nonetheless, T1D follow up PBMCs had
      enhanced glycolytic capacity compared to T1D. CONCLUSIONS: Activated T cells from
      T1D fail to upregulate PD-1 upon T-cell receptor stimulation, which may
      contribute to the pathogenesis of T1D. T1D follow up PBMC expression of PD-1
      normalizes, together with a significant increase in glycolysis compared to T1D.
      Thus, insulin therapy in T1D children is associated with normal PD1 expression
      and heightened glycolytic capacity in PBMC.

PMID- 28877190
TI  - Regional differences in treatment rates for patients with chronic hepatitis C
      infection: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Treatment rates with interferon-based therapies for chronic
      hepatitis C have been low. Our aim was to perform a systematic review of
      available data to estimate the rates and barriers for antiviral therapy for
      chronic hepatitis C. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis
      searching MEDLINE, SCOPUS through March 2016 and abstracts from recent major
      liver meetings for primary literature with available hepatitis C treatment rates.
      Random-effects models were used to estimate effect sizes and meta-regression to
      test for potential sources of heterogeneity. RESULTS: We included 39 studies with
      476,443 chronic hepatitis C patients. The overall treatment rate was 25.5% (CI:
      21.1-30.5%) and by region 34% for Europe, 28.3% for Asia/Pacific, and 18.7% for
      North America (p = 0.008). On multivariable meta-regression, practice setting
      (tertiary vs. population-based, p = 0.04), region (Europe vs. North America p =
      0.004), and data source (clinical chart review vs. administrative database, p =
      0.025) remained significant predictors of heterogeneity. The overall treatment
      eligibility rate was 52.5%, and 60% of these received therapy. Of the patients
      who refused treatment, 16.2% cited side effects, 13.8% cited cost as reasons for
      treatment refusal, and 30% lacked access to specialist care. CONCLUSIONS: Only
      one-quarter of chronic hepatitis C patients received antiviral therapy in the pre
      direct acting antiviral era. Treatment rates should improve in the new interferon
      free era but, cost, co-morbidities, and lack of specialist care will likely
      remain and need to be addressed. Linkage to care should even be of higher
      priority now that well-tolerated cure is available.

PMID- 28877191
TI  - Indirect adaptive soft computing based wavelet-embedded control paradigms for
      WT/PV/SOFC in a grid/charging station connected hybrid power system.
AB  - This paper focuses on the indirect adaptive tracking control of renewable energy
      sources in a grid-connected hybrid power system. The renewable energy systems
      have low efficiency and intermittent nature due to unpredictable meteorological
      conditions. The domestic load and the conventional charging stations behave in an
      uncertain manner. To operate the renewable energy sources efficiently for
      harvesting maximum power, instantaneous nonlinear dynamics should be captured
      online. A Chebyshev-wavelet embedded NeuroFuzzy indirect adaptive MPPT (maximum
      power point tracking) control paradigm is proposed for variable speed wind
      turbine-permanent synchronous generator (VSWT-PMSG). A Hermite-wavelet
      incorporated NeuroFuzzy indirect adaptive MPPT control strategy for photovoltaic
      (PV) system to extract maximum power and indirect adaptive tracking control
      scheme for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is developed. A comprehensive simulation
      test-bed for a grid-connected hybrid power system is developed in
      Matlab/Simulink. The robustness of the suggested indirect adaptive control
      paradigms are evaluated through simulation results in a grid-connected hybrid
      power system test-bed by comparison with conventional and intelligent control
      techniques. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed
      control paradigms.

PMID- 28877193
TI  - Body size and substrate type modulate movement by the western Pacific crown-of
      thorns starfish, Acanthaster solaris.
AB  - The movement capacity of the crown-of-thorns starfishes (Acanthaster spp.) is a
      primary determinant of both their distribution and impact on coral assemblages.
      We quantified individual movement rates for the Pacific crown-of-thorns starfish
      (Acanthaster solaris) ranging in size from 75-480 mm total diameter, across three
      different substrates (sand, flat consolidated pavement, and coral rubble) on the
      northern Great Barrier Reef. The mean (+/-SE) rate of movement for smaller (<150
      mm total diameter) A. solaris was 23.99 +/- 1.02 cm/ min and 33.41 +/- 1.49 cm/
      min for individuals >350 mm total diameter. Mean (+/-SE) rates of movement varied
      with substrate type, being much higher on sand (36.53 +/- 1.31 cm/ min) compared
      to consolidated pavement (28.04 +/- 1.15 cm/ min) and slowest across coral rubble
      (17.25 +/- 0.63 cm/ min). If average rates of movement measured here can be
      sustained, in combination with strong directionality, displacement distances of
      adult A. solaris could range from 250-520 m/ day, depending on the prevailing
      substrate. Sustained movement of A. solaris is, however, likely to be highly
      constrained by habitat heterogeneity, energetic constraints, resource
      availability, and diurnal patterns of activity, thereby limiting their capacity
      to move between reefs or habitats.

PMID- 28877192
TI  - The relations between sleep, time of physical activity, and time outdoors among
      adult women.
AB  - Physical activity and time spent outdoors may be important non-pharmacological
      approaches to improve sleep quality and duration (or sleep patterns) but there is
      little empirical research evaluating the two simultaneously. The current study
      assesses the role of physical activity and time outdoors in predicting sleep
      health by using objective measurement of the three variables. A convenience
      sample of 360 adult women (mean age = 55.38 +/-9.89 years; mean body mass index =
      27.74 +/-6.12) was recruited from different regions of the U.S. Participants wore
      a Global Positioning System device and ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers on the hip
      for 7 days and on the wrist for 7 days and 7 nights to assess total time and time
      of day spent outdoors, total minutes in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity
      per day, and 4 measures of sleep health, respectively. A generalized mixed
      effects model was used to assess temporal associations between moderate-to
      vigorous physical activity, outdoor time, and sleep at the daily level (days =
      1931) within individuals. There was a significant interaction (p = 0.04) between
      moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and time spent outdoors in predicting
      total sleep time but not for predicting sleep efficiency. Increasing time
      outdoors in the afternoon (versus morning) predicted lower sleep efficiency, but
      had no effect on total sleep time. Time spent outdoors and the time of day spent
      outdoors may be important moderators in assessing the relation between physical
      activity and sleep. More research is needed in larger populations using
      experimental designs.

PMID- 28877194
TI  - Cluster-based analysis improves predictive validity of spike-triggered receptive
      field estimates.
AB  - Spectrotemporal receptive field (STRF) characterization is a central goal of
      auditory physiology. STRFs are often approximated by the spike-triggered average
      (STA), which reflects the average stimulus preceding a spike. In many cases, the
      raw STA is subjected to a threshold defined by gain values expected by chance.
      However, such correction methods have not been universally adopted, and the
      consequences of specific gain-thresholding approaches have not been investigated
      systematically. Here, we evaluate two classes of statistical correction
      techniques, using the resulting STRF estimates to predict responses to a novel
      validation stimulus. The first, more traditional technique eliminated STRF pixels
      (time-frequency bins) with gain values expected by chance. This correction method
      yielded significant increases in prediction accuracy, including when the
      threshold setting was optimized for each unit. The second technique was a two
      step thresholding procedure wherein clusters of contiguous pixels surviving an
      initial gain threshold were then subjected to a cluster mass threshold based on
      summed pixel values. This approach significantly improved upon even the best gain
      thresholding techniques. Additional analyses suggested that allowing threshold
      settings to vary independently for excitatory and inhibitory subfields of the
      STRF resulted in only marginal additional gains, at best. In summary, augmenting
      reverse correlation techniques with principled statistical correction choices
      increased prediction accuracy by over 80% for multi-unit STRFs and by over 40%
      for single-unit STRFs, furthering the interpretational relevance of the recovered
      spectrotemporal filters for auditory systems analysis.

PMID- 28877195
TI  - Spatial and age-related changes in the microstructure of dystrophic and healthy
      diaphragms.
AB  - Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive degenerative disease that
      results in fibrosis and atrophy of muscles. The main cause of death associated
      with DMD is failure of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle with
      a fiber microstructure that differs across regions of the muscle. However, no
      studies to our knowledge have examined spatial variations of muscle fibers in
      dystrophic diaphragm or how aging affects those variations in DMD. In this study,
      diaphragms were obtained from mdx and healthy mice at ages three, seven, and ten
      months in the dorsal, midcostal, and ventral regions. Through immunostaining and
      confocal imaging, we quantified sarcomere length, interstitial space between
      fibers, fiber branching, fiber cross sectional area (CSA), and fiber regeneration
      measured by centrally located nuclei. Because DMD is associated with chronic
      inflammation, we also investigated the number of macrophages in diaphragm muscle
      cross-sections. We saw regional differences in the number of regenerating fibers
      and macrophages during the progression of DMD in the mdx diaphragm. Additionally,
      the number of regenerating fibers increased with age, while CSA and the number of
      branching fibers decreased. Dystrophic diaphragms had shorter sarcomere lengths
      than age-matched controls. Our results suggest that the dystrophic diaphragm in
      the mdx mouse is structurally heterogeneous and remodels non-uniformly over time.
      Understanding regional changes in dystrophic diaphragms over time will facilitate
      the development of targeted therapies to prevent or minimize respiratory failure
      in DMD patients.

PMID- 28877196
TI  - Predicting active-layer soil thickness using topographic variables at a small
      watershed scale.
AB  - Knowledge about the spatial distribution of active-layer (AL) soil thickness is
      indispensable for ecological modeling, precision agriculture, and land resource
      management. However, it is difficult to obtain the details on AL soil thickness
      by using conventional soil survey method. In this research, the objective is to
      investigate the possibility and accuracy of mapping the spatial distribution of
      AL soil thickness through random forest (RF) model by using terrain variables at
      a small watershed scale. A total of 1113 soil samples collected from the slope
      fields were randomly divided into calibration (770 soil samples) and validation
      (343 soil samples) sets. Seven terrain variables including elevation, aspect,
      relative slope position, valley depth, flow path length, slope height, and
      topographic wetness index were derived from a digital elevation map (30 m). The
      RF model was compared with multiple linear regression (MLR), geographically
      weighted regression (GWR) and support vector machines (SVM) approaches based on
      the validation set. Model performance was evaluated by precision criteria of mean
      error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and
      coefficient of determination (R2). Comparative results showed that RF
      outperformed MLR, GWR and SVM models. The RF gave better values of ME (0.39 cm),
      MAE (7.09 cm), and RMSE (10.85 cm) and higher R2 (62%). The sensitivity analysis
      demonstrated that the DEM had less uncertainty than the AL soil thickness. The
      outcome of the RF model indicated that elevation, flow path length and valley
      depth were the most important factors affecting the AL soil thickness variability
      across the watershed. These results demonstrated the RF model is a promising
      method for predicting spatial distribution of AL soil thickness using terrain
      parameters.

PMID- 28877197
TI  - Mimicry and automatic imitation are not correlated.
AB  - It is widely known that individuals have a tendency to imitate each other.
      However, different psychological disciplines assess imitation in different
      manners. While social psychologists assess mimicry by means of action
      observation, cognitive psychologists assess automatic imitation with reaction
      time based measures on a trial-by-trial basis. Although these methods differ in
      crucial methodological aspects, both phenomena are assumed to rely on similar
      underlying mechanisms. This raises the fundamental question whether mimicry and
      automatic imitation are actually correlated. In the present research we assessed
      both phenomena and did not find a meaningful correlation. Moreover, personality
      traits such as empathy, autism traits, and traits related to self- versus other
      focus did not correlate with mimicry or automatic imitation either. Theoretical
      implications are discussed.

PMID- 28877198
TI  - Correlation between classification and secondary screw penetration in proximal
      humeral fractures.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In this study, we investigated the correlation between fracture
      classification and secondary screw penetration. METHODS: We retrospectively
      identified 189 patients with displaced proximal humeral fractures treated by ORIF
      at our hospital between June 2006 and June 2013. All fractures were classified
      radiographically before surgery and follow-up for least 2 years after surgery was
      recommended. At each follow-up, radiographs were taken in three orthogonal views
      to evaluate secondary screw penetration. RESULTS: The study population consisted
      of 189 patients. Of these, 70 were male and 119 female, with a mean age of 59.1
      years; the mean follow-up time was 28.5 months. Secondary screw penetration
      occurred in 26 patients. The risk of developing secondary screw penetration was
      11.3-fold higher in four-part fractures than two-part fractures (P < 0.05), 8.6
      fold higher for type C fractures than type A fractures (P < 0.05) and 11.0-fold
      higher for medial hinge disruption group than intact medial hinge group fractures
      (P < 0.05). However there was no difference between three-part fractures and two
      part fractures (P = 0.374), and between type B and type A fractures (P = 0.195).
      Age, gender, time to surgery and the number of screw in humeral head had no
      influence on the secondary screw penetration rate (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with four-part fractures, type C fractures and medial hinges disruption
      are vulnerable to secondary screw penetration. This allows additional precautions
      to be instituted and measures to be taken as needed.

PMID- 28877199
TI  - DipTest: A litmus test for E. coli detection in water.
AB  - We have developed a new litmus paper test (DipTest) for detecting Escherichia
      coli (E. coli) in water samples by performing enzymatic reactions directly on the
      porous paper substrate. The paper strip consists of a long narrow piece of
      cellulose blotting paper coated with chemoattractant (at bottom edge), wax
      hydrophobic barrier (at the top edge), and custom formulated chemical reagents
      (at reaction zone immediately below the wax hydrophobic barrier). When the paper
      strip is dipped in water, E. coli in the water sample is attracted toward the
      paper strip due to a chemotaxic mechanism followed by the ascent along the paper
      strip toward the reaction zone due to a capillary wicking mechanism, and finally
      the capillary motion is arrested at the top edge of the paper strip by the
      hydrophobic barrier. The E. coli concentrated at the reaction zone of the paper
      strip will react with custom formulated chemical reagents to produce a pinkish
      red color. Such a color change on the paper strip when dipped into water samples
      indicates the presence of E. coli contamination in potable water. The performance
      of the DipTest device has been checked with different known concentrations of E.
      coli contaminated water samples using different dip and wait times. The DipTest
      device has also been tested with different interfering bacteria and chemical
      contaminants. It has been observed that the different interfering contaminants do
      not have any impact on the DipTest, and it can become a potential solution for
      screening water samples for E. coli contamination at the point of source.

PMID- 28877200
TI  - Risk factors of mobile phone use while driving in Queensland: Prevalence,
      attitudes, crash risk perception, and task-management strategies.
AB  - Distracted driving is one of the most significant human factor issues in
      transport safety. Mobile phone interactions while driving may involve a multitude
      of cognitive and physical resources that result in inferior driving performance
      and reduced safety margins. The current study investigates characteristics of
      usage, risk factors, compensatory strategies in use and characteristics of high
      frequency offenders of mobile phone use while driving. A series of questions were
      administered to drivers in Queensland (Australia) using an on-line questionnaire.
      A total of 484 drivers (34.9% males and 49.8% aged 17-25) participated
      anonymously. At least one of every two motorists surveyed reported engaging in
      distracted driving. Drivers were unable to acknowledge the increased crash risk
      associated with answering and locating a ringing phone in contrast to other tasks
      such as texting/browsing. Attitudes towards mobile phone usage were more
      favourable for talking than texting or browsing. Lowering the driving speed and
      increasing the distance from the vehicle in front were the most popular task
      management strategies for talking and texting/browsing while driving. On the
      other hand, keeping the mobile phone low (e.g. in the driver's lap or on the
      passenger seat) was the favourite strategy used by drivers to avoid police fines
      for both talking and texting/browsing. Logistic regression models were fitted to
      understand differences in risk factors for engaging in mobile phone conversations
      and browsing/texting while driving. For both tasks, exposure to driving, driving
      experience, driving history (offences and crashes), and attitudes were
      significant predictors. Future mobile phone prevention efforts would benefit from
      development of safe attitudes and increasing risk literacy. Enforcement of mobile
      phone distraction should be re-engineered, as the use of task-management
      strategies to evade police enforcement seems to dilute its effect on the
      prevention of this behaviour. Some countermeasures and suggestions were proposed
      in the design of public education campaigns and driver-mobile phone interaction.

PMID- 28877201
TI  - Acoustic differentiation and behavioral response reveals cryptic species within
      Buergeria treefrogs (Anura, Rhacophoridae) from Taiwan.
AB  - Buergeria japonica is a widely distributed treefrog occurring from Ryukyu
      Archipelago to Taiwan. Across this wide distributional range, we combined
      molecular, acoustic, morphological, and behavioral characters to clarify the
      taxonomic status among these insular populations. Genetic differentiation in
      mitochondrial sequences indicated an over 16% divergence among two deeply
      divergent clades: Japanese clade distributes in Ryukyu Archipelago and
      northwestern drainages of Taiwan, while Taiwanese clade distributes in the
      remaining drainages on Taiwan. The Taiwanese clade can be distinguished from the
      nominative species not only by molecular and morphological differences, but also
      distinguishable by considerable acoustic differentiation, which is
      extraordinarily noticeable for an additional type of long call that never
      recorded from Japanese clade. The two clades form a parapatric distribution
      pattern with narrow contact zones both in western and eastern Taiwan. Playback
      experiments indicated that male frogs show significantly stronger defensiveness
      against conspecific calls rather than heterospecific calls, indicating that these
      signals play a crucial role in species recognition. Here we describe the
      Taiwanese clade as a new species; the behavioral response and the magnitude of
      gene flow across their contact zones are especially worth for detailed studies.

PMID- 28877202
TI  - Shorter dialysis session length was not associated with lower mental health and
      physical functioning in elderly hemodialysis patients: Results from the Japan
      Dialysis Outcome and Practice Patterns Study (J-DOPPS).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is often prioritized over long
      term survival in elderly patients. Although a longer dialysis session length
      (DSL) has been shown to reduce mortality, its effects on improving the HRQOL are
      unknown. METHODS: Using data from the Japan Dialysis Outcomes and Practice
      Patterns Study (J-DOPPS), patients aged >= 65 years on maintenance hemodialysis
      were enrolled. DSL was categorized as short (<210 minutes), medium (210-240
      minutes), or long (>240 minutes). The primary outcomes were changes in mental
      health (DeltaMH) and physical functioning (DeltaPF) scores assessed using the
      Japanese version of SF-12, in one year. The differences in the DeltaMH and
      DeltaPF among the three groups were assessed via regression (beta) coefficients
      derived using a linear regression model. RESULTS: Of 1,187 patients at baseline,
      319 (26.9%) had a short length, 686 (57.8%) a medium length, and 182 (15.3%) a
      long length. We assessed the DeltaMH data from 793 patients and the DeltaPF data
      from 738. No significant differences in the DeltaMH were noted for the short or
      long groups compared with the medium group (score difference: 0.26, 95%
      confidence interval [CI]: -4.17 to 4.69 for short; score difference: -1.15, 95%
      CI: -6.17 to 3.86 for long). Similarly, no significant differences were noted for
      these groups versus the medium group in DeltaPF either (score difference: -1.43,
      95% CI: -6.73 to 3.87 for short; score difference: -1.71, 95% CI: -7.63 to 4.22
      for long). CONCLUSIONS: A shorter DSL might have no adverse effects on MH or PF
      for elderly patients.

PMID- 28877203
TI  - Education of children with disabilities in New Delhi: When does exclusion occur?
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the new Sustainable Development Goal 4, quality of education
      defined as equity and inclusion alongside traditional learning outcomes, has
      replaced the narrow goal of access to primary education stipulated in the
      Millennium Development Goal 2. Since 2000, considerable progress has been made
      towards improving access to school for children in India, yet questions remain
      regarding not just children with disabilities' access and acquisition of basic
      learning skills, but also completion of learning cycles. METHODS AND FINDINGS:
      Between November, 2, 2011 and June 20th 2012, we interviewed 1294 households
      about activity limitations and functioning difficulties associated with a health
      problem among all family members using a validated screening instruments, as well
      as questions about access, retention and barriers to education. We found that
      vulnerable children, particularly children with disabilities are less likely to
      start school and more likely to drop out of school earlier and before completing
      their high school education than non-disabled children, showing that the learning
      process is not inclusive in practice. The gap is wider for girls, economically
      deprived children, or children from households where the head is uneducated.
      CONCLUSIONS: Firstly, in order to fill the existing knowledge gap on education of
      children with disabilities in line with SDG4, not only is there a necessity for
      relevant data with regards to learning outcomes, but also an urgent requirement
      for more innovative information pertaining to relational aspects of learning that
      reflect inclusion. Secondly, a stronger understanding of the implications of
      early assessment would further promote equity in education. Finally, research
      should tackle learning as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. Education needs to
      fulfil its instrumental value, but must also re-claim its intrinsic value that
      often gets watered down in the journey from policies to implementation.

PMID- 28877204
TI  - Examining lag effects between industrial land development and regional economic
      changes: The Netherlands experience.
AB  - In most empirical applications, forecasting models for the analysis of industrial
      land focus on the relationship between current values of economic parameters and
      industrial land use. This paper aims to test this assumption by focusing on the
      dynamic relationship between current and lagged values of the 'economic
      fundamentals' and industrial land development. Not much effort has yet been
      attributed to develop land forecasting models to predict the demand for
      industrial land except those applying static regressions or other statistical
      measures. In this research, we estimated a dynamic panel data model across 40
      regions from 2000 to 2008 for the Netherlands to uncover the relationship between
      current and lagged values of economic parameters and industrial land development.
      Land-use regulations such as land zoning policies, and other land-use
      restrictions like natural protection areas, geographical limitations in the form
      of water bodies or sludge areas are expected to affect supply of land, which will
      in turn be reflected in industrial land market outcomes. Our results suggest that
      gross domestic product (GDP), industrial employment, gross value added (GVA),
      property price, and other parameters representing demand and supply conditions in
      the industrial market explain industrial land developments with high significance
      levels. It is also shown that contrary to the current values, lagged values of
      the economic parameters have more sound relationships with the industrial
      developments in the Netherlands. The findings suggest use of lags between
      selected economic parameters and industrial land use in land forecasting
      applications.

PMID- 28877205
TI  - Identification of Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli outbreak isolates by a novel
      data analysis tool after matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of
      flight mass spectrometry.
AB  - The fast and reliable characterization of bacterial and fungal pathogens plays an
      important role in infectious disease control and tracking of outbreak agents. DNA
      based methods are the gold standard for epidemiological investigations, but they
      are still comparatively expensive and time-consuming. Matrix-assisted laser
      desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a fast,
      reliable and cost-effective technique now routinely used to identify clinically
      relevant human pathogens. It has been used for subspecies differentiation and
      typing, but its use for epidemiological tasks, e. g. for outbreak investigations,
      is often hampered by the complexity of data analysis. We have analysed publicly
      available MALDI-TOF mass spectra from a large outbreak of Shiga-Toxigenic
      Escherichia coli in northern Germany using a general purpose software tool for
      the analysis of complex biological data. The software was challenged with
      depauperate spectra and reduced learning group sizes to mimic poor spectrum
      quality and scarcity of reference spectra at the onset of an outbreak. With high
      quality formic acid extraction spectra, the software's built in classifier
      accurately identified outbreak related strains using as few as 10 reference
      spectra (99.8% sensitivity, 98.0% specificity). Selective variation of processing
      parameters showed impaired marker peak detection and reduced classification
      accuracy in samples with high background noise or artificially reduced peak
      counts. However, the software consistently identified mass signals suitable for a
      highly reliable marker peak based classification approach (100% sensitivity,
      99.5% specificity) even from low quality direct deposition spectra. The study
      demonstrates that general purpose data analysis tools can effectively be used for
      the analysis of bacterial mass spectra.

PMID- 28877206
TI  - Simulation framework for generating intratumor heterogeneity patterns in a cancer
      cell population.
AB  - As cancer cell populations evolve, they accumulate a number of somatic mutations,
      resulting in heterogeneous subclones in the final tumor. Understanding the
      mechanisms that produce intratumor heterogeneity is important for selecting the
      best treatment. Although some studies have involved intratumor heterogeneity
      simulations, their model settings differed substantially. Thus, only limited
      conditions were explored in each. Herein, we developed a general framework for
      simulating intratumor heterogeneity patterns and a simulator (tumopp). Tumopp
      offers many setting options so that simulations can be carried out under various
      settings. Setting options include how the cell division rate is determined, how
      daughter cells are placed, and how driver mutations are treated. Furthermore, to
      account for the cell cycle, we introduced a gamma function for the waiting time
      involved in cell division. Tumopp also allows simulations in a hexagonal lattice,
      in addition to a regular lattice that has been used in previous simulation
      studies. A hexagonal lattice produces a more biologically reasonable space than a
      regular lattice. Using tumopp, we investigated how model settings affect the
      growth curve and intratumor heterogeneity pattern. It was found that, even under
      neutrality (with no driver mutations), tumopp produced dramatically variable
      patterns of intratumor heterogeneity and tumor morphology, from tumors in which
      cells with different genetic background are well intermixed to irregular shapes
      of tumors with a cluster of closely related cells. This result suggests a caveat
      in analyzing intratumor heterogeneity with simulations with limited settings, and
      tumopp will be useful to explore intratumor heterogeneity patterns in various
      conditions.

PMID- 28877207
TI  - Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis mitigates the negative effects of salinity on
      durum wheat.
AB  - Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is generally considered to be effective in
      ameliorating the plant tolerance to salt stress. Unfortunately, the comprehension
      of the mechanisms implicated in salinity stress alleviation by AM symbiosis is
      far from being complete. Thus, an experiment was performed by growing durum wheat
      (Triticum durum Desf.) plants under salt-stress conditions to evaluate the
      influence of AM symbiosis on both the plant growth and the regulation of a number
      of genes related to salt stress and nutrient uptake. Durum wheat plants were
      grown outdoors in pots in absence or in presence of salt stress and with or
      without AM fungi inoculation. The inoculum consisted of a mixture of spores of
      Rhizophagus irregularis (formerly Glomus intraradices) and Funneliformis mosseae
      (formerly G. mosseae). Results indicate that AM symbiosis can alleviate the
      detrimental effects of salt stress on the growth of durum wheat plants. In fact,
      under salt stress conditions mycorrhizal plants produced more aboveground and
      root biomass, had higher N uptake and aboveground N concentration, and showed
      greater stability of plasma membranes compared to non-mycorrhizal plants.
      Inoculation with AM fungi had no effect on the expression of the N transporter
      genes AMT1.1, AMT1.2, and NAR2.2, either under no-stress or salt stress
      conditions, probably due to the fact that plants were grown under optimal N
      conditions; on the contrary, NRT1.1 was always upregulated by AM symbiosis.
      Moreover, the level of expression of the drought stress-related genes AQP1, AQP4,
      PIP1, DREB5, and DHN15.3 observed in the mycorrhizal stressed plants was markedly
      lower than that observed in the non-mycorrhizal stressed plants and very close to
      that observed in the non-stressed plants. Our hypothesis is that, in the present
      study, AM symbiosis did not increase the plant tolerance to salt stress but
      instead generated a condition in which plants were subjected to a level of salt
      stress lower than that of non-mycorrhizal plants.

PMID- 28877208
TI  - Surveillance for falsified and substandard medicines in Africa and Asia by local
      organizations using the low-cost GPHF Minilab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Substandard and falsified medical products present a serious threat
      to public health, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Their
      identification using pharmacopeial analysis is expensive and requires
      sophisticated equipment and highly trained personnel. Simple, low-cost
      technologies are required in addition to full pharmacopeial analysis in order to
      accomplish widespread routine surveillance for poor-quality medicines in low- and
      middle-income countries. METHODS: Ten faith-based drug supply organizations in
      seven countries of Africa and Asia were each equipped with a Minilab of the
      Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF, Frankfurt, Germany), suitable for the analysis
      of about 85 different essential medicines by thin-layer chromatography. Each
      organization was asked to collect approximately 100 medicine samples from private
      local medicine outlets, especially from the informal sector. The medicine samples
      were tested locally according to the Minilab protocols. Medicines which failed
      Minilab testing were subjected to confirmatory analysis in a WHO-prequalified
      medicine quality control laboratory in Kenya. RESULTS: Out of 869 medicine
      samples, 21 were confirmed to be substandard or falsified medical products.
      Twelve did not contain the stated active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), six
      contained insufficient amounts of the API, and three showed insufficient
      dissolution of the API. The highest proportion of substandard and falsified
      medicines was found in Cameroon (7.1%), followed by the Democratic Republic of
      Congo (2.7%) and Nigeria (1.1%). Antimalarial medicines were most frequently
      found to be substandard or falsified (9.5% of all antimalarials). Thin-layer
      chromatography according to the Minilab protocols was found to be specific and
      reproducible in the identification of medicines which did not contain the stated
      API. Since only samples which failed Minilab testing were subjected to
      confirmatory testing using pharmacopeial methods, this study did not assess the
      sensitivity of the Minilab methodology in the detection of substandard medicines,
      and may underestimate the prevalence of poor-quality medicines. CONCLUSIONS:
      Surveillance for poor-quality medicines can be carried out by local organizations
      in low- and middle-income countries using a simple, low-cost technology. Such
      surveillance can identify an important subgroup of the circulating substandard
      and falsified medical products and can help to prevent them from causing harm in
      patients. A collaboration of the national drug regulatory authorities with faith
      based organizations and other NGOs may therefore represent a promising strategy
      towards the Sustainable Development Goal of "ensuring access to quality
      medicines".

PMID- 28877209
TI  - Unmet healthcare needs in homeless women with children in the Greater Paris area
      in France.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite their poor health status, homeless women encounter many
      barriers to care. The objectives of our study were to estimate the prevalence of
      unmet healthcare needs in homeless women and to analyse associated relationships
      with the following factors: financial and spatial access to care, housing
      history, migration status, healthcare utilisation, victimization history, caring
      for children, social network and self-perceived health status. METHODS: We used
      data from 656 homeless women interviewed during the ENFAMS representative survey
      of sheltered homeless families, conducted in the Paris region in 2013. Structural
      equation models (SEM) were used to estimate the impact of various factors on
      homeless women's unmet healthcare needs. RESULTS: Among those interviewed, 25.1%
      (95%CI[21.3-29.0]) had at least one unmet healthcare need over the previous year.
      Most had given up on visiting general practitioners and medical specialists. No
      association with factors related to financial access or to health insurance
      status was found. However, food insecurity, poor spatial health access and poor
      self-perceived health were associated with unmet healthcare needs. Self-perceived
      health appeared to be affected by victimization and depression. DISCUSSION: The
      lower prevalence of unmet healthcare needs in homeless women compared with women
      in stable housing situations suggests that homeless women have lower needs
      perceptions and/or lower expectations of the healthcare system. This hypothesis
      is supported by the results from SEM. Strategies to provide better access to care
      for this population should not only focus on financial interventions but also
      more broadly on spatial healthcare access, cultural norms, and perceptions of
      health. Reducing their unmet needs and improving their access to healthcare and
      prevention must include an improvement in their living, financial and housing
      conditions.

PMID- 28877210
TI  - Tankyrase inhibitors suppress hepatocellular carcinoma cell growth via modulating
      the Hippo cascade.
AB  - Previous data indicate that Tankyrase inhibitors exert anti-growth functions in
      many cancer cell lines due to their ability to inactivate the YAP protooncogene.
      In the present manuscript, we investigated the effect of Tankyrase inhibitors on
      the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines and the molecular
      mechanisms involved. For this purpose, we performed cell proliferation assay by
      colony-forming ability in seven human HCC cells subjected to XAV-939 and G007-LK
      Tankyrase inhibitors. Noticeably, the two Tankyrase inhibitors suppressed the HCC
      cell growth in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, we found that Tankyrase
      inhibitors synergized with MEK and AKT inhibitors to suppress HCC cell
      proliferation. At the molecular level, Tankyrase inhibitors significantly
      decreased YAP protein levels, reduced the expression of YAP target genes, and
      inhibited YAP/TEAD luciferase reporter activity. In addition, Tankyrase
      inhibitors administration was accompanied by upregulation of Angiomotin-like 1
      (AMOTL1) and Angiomotin-like 2 (AMOTL2) proteins, two major negative regulators
      of YAP. Altogether, the present data indicate that XAV-939 and G007-LK Tankyrase
      inhibitors could suppress proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells and
      downregulate YAP/TAZ by stabilizing AMOTL1 and AMOTL2 proteins, thus representing
      new potential anticancer drugs against hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28877211
TI  - Transcriptomic profiling in muscle and adipose tissue identifies genes related to
      growth and lipid deposition.
AB  - Growth performance and meat quality are important traits for the pig industry and
      consumers. Adipose tissue is the main site at which fat storage and fatty acid
      synthesis occur. Therefore, we combined high-throughput transcriptomic sequencing
      in adipose and muscle tissues with the quantification of corresponding phenotypic
      features using seven Chinese indigenous pig breeds and one Western commercial
      breed (Yorkshire). We obtained data on 101 phenotypic traits, from which
      principal component analysis distinguished two groups: one associated with the
      Chinese breeds and one with Yorkshire. The numbers of differentially expressed
      genes between all Chinese breeds and Yorkshire were shown to be 673 and 1056 in
      adipose and muscle tissues, respectively. Functional enrichment analysis revealed
      that these genes are associated with biological functions and canonical pathways
      related to oxidoreductase activity, immune response, and metabolic process.
      Weighted gene coexpression network analysis found more coexpression modules
      significantly correlated with the measured phenotypic traits in adipose than in
      muscle, indicating that adipose regulates meat and carcass quality. Using the
      combination of differential expression, QTL information, gene significance, and
      module hub genes, we identified a large number of candidate genes potentially
      related to economically important traits in pig, which should help us improve
      meat production and quality.

PMID- 28877212
TI  - Selenium deficiency-induced alterations in ion profiles in chicken muscle.
AB  - Ion homeostasis plays important roles in development of metabolic diseases. In
      the present study, we examined the contents and distributions of 25 ions in
      chicken muscles following treatment with selenium (Se) deficiency for 25 days.
      The results revealed that in chicken muscles, the top ranked microelements were
      silicon (Si), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu) and boron (B),
      showing low contents that varied from 292.89 ppb to 100.27 ppm. After Se
      deficiency treatment, essential microelements [Cu, chromium (Cr), vanadium (V)
      and manganese (Mn)], and toxic microelements [cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg)]
      became more concentrated (P < 0.05). Elements distribution images showed
      generalized accumulation of barium (Ba), cobalt (Co), Cu, Fe and V, while Cr, Mn,
      and Zn showed pin point accumulations in muscle sections. Thus, the ion profiles
      were generally influenced by Se deficiency, which suggested a possible role of Se
      deficiency in muscle dysfunctions caused by these altered ion profiles.

PMID- 28877213
TI  - Ostracism via virtual chat room-Effects on basic needs, anger and pain.
AB  - Ostracism is characterized by a social pain provoked by being excluded and
      ignored. In order to address the effects of social ostracism in virtual non
      physical interactions, we developed a more realistic paradigm as an alternative
      to Cyberball and assessed its effects on participant's expression of basic social
      needs, emotional experience and painful feeling. The chat room consisted of
      controlled social dialogue interactions between participants and two other
      (confederate) chat room partners. Exclusion was manipulated by varying the number
      of messages a participant received (15% and 33% in exclusion and inclusion,
      respectively). Analysis of participant (N = 54) responses revealed that exclusion
      induced a lower experience of basic-need states and greater anger, compared with
      included participants. In addition, excluded participants reported higher levels
      of two specific self-pain feelings, namely tortured and hurt. Our findings
      suggest that this procedure is effective in inducing social ostracism in a
      realistic and yet highly controlled experimental procedure.

PMID- 28877214
TI  - Direct versus indirect actions of ghrelin on hypothalamic NPY neurons.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Assess direct versus indirect action(s) of ghrelin on hypothalamic
      NPY neurons. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Electrophysiology was used to measure ion
      channel activity in NPY-GFP neurons in slice preparations. Ca2+ imaging was used
      to monitor ghrelin activation of isolated NPY GFP-labeled neurons.
      Immunohistochemistry was used to localize Trpm4, SUR1 and Kir6.2 in the
      hypothalamus. RESULTS: Acylated ghrelin depolarized the membrane potential (MP)
      of NPY-GFP neurons in brain slices. Depolarization resulted from a decreased
      input resistance (IR) in ~70% of neurons (15/22) or an increased IR in the
      remainder (7/22), consistent with the opening or closing of ion channels,
      respectively. Although tetrodotoxin (TTX) blockade of presynaptic action
      potentials reduced ghrelin-induced changes in MP and IR, ghrelin still
      significantly depolarized the MP and decreased IR in TTX-treated neurons,
      suggesting that ghrelin directly opens cation channel(s) in NPY neurons. In
      isolated NPY-GFP neurons, ghrelin produced a sustained rise of [Ca2+]c, with an
      EC50 ~110 pM. Pharmacologic studies confirmed that the direct action of ghrelin
      was through occupation of the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, GHS-R, and
      demonstrated the importance of the adenylate cyclase/cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA)
      and phospholipase C/inositol triphosphate (PLC/IP3) pathways as activators of 5'
      AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Activation of isolated neurons was not
      affected by CNQX or TTX, but reducing [Na+]o suppressed activation, suggesting a
      role for Na+-permeable cation channels. SUR1 and two channel partners, Kir6.2 and
      Trpm4, were identified immunologically in NPY-GFP neurons in situ. The actions of
      SUR1 and Trpm4 modulators were informative: like ghrelin, diazoxide, a SUR1
      agonist, elevated [Ca2+]c and glibenclamide, a SUR1 antagonist, partially
      suppressed ghrelin action, while 9-phenanthrol and flufenamic acid, selective
      Trpm4 antagonists, blocked ghrelin actions on isolated neurons. Ghrelin
      activation was unaffected by nifedipine and omega-conotoxin, inhibitors of L- and
      N-type Ca2+ channels, respectively, while Ni2+, mibefradil, and TTA-P2 completely
      or partially inhibited ghrelin action, implicating T-type Ca2+ channels.
      Activation was also sensitive to a spider toxin, SNX-482, at concentrations
      selective for R-type Ca2+ channels. Nanomolar concentrations of GABA markedly
      inhibited ghrelin-activation of isolated NPY-GFP neurons, consistent with chronic
      suppression of ghrelin action in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: NPY neurons express all the
      molecular machinery needed to respond directly to ghrelin. Consistent with recent
      studies, ghrelin stimulates presynaptic inputs that activate NPY-GFP neurons in
      situ. Ghrelin can also directly activate a depolarizing conductance. Results with
      isolated NPY-GFP neurons suggest the ghrelin-activated, depolarizing current is a
      Na+ conductance with the pharmacologic properties of SUR1/Trpm4 non-selective
      cation channels. In the isolated neuron model, the opening of SUR1/Trpm4 channels
      activates T- and SNX482-sensitive R-type voltage dependent Ca2+ channels, which
      could contribute to NPY neuronal activity in situ.

PMID- 28877215
TI  - Is biotechnology (more) acceptable when it enables a reduction in phytosanitary
      treatments? A European comparison of the acceptability of transgenesis and
      cisgenesis.
AB  - Reduced pesticide use is one of the reasons given by Europeans for accepting new
      genetic engineering techniques. According to the advocates of these techniques,
      consumers are likely to embrace the application of cisgenesis to apple trees. In
      order to verify the acceptability of these techniques, we estimate a Bayesian
      multilevel structural equation model, which takes into account the
      multidimensional nature of acceptability and individual, national, and European
      effects, using data from the Eurobarometer 2010 73.1 on science. The results
      underline the persistence of clear differences between European countries and
      whilst showing considerable defiance, a relatively wider acceptability of
      vertical gene transfer as a means of reducing phytosanitary treatments, compared
      to horizontal transfer.

PMID- 28877216
TI  - An in vitro lung model to assess true shunt fraction by multiple inert gas
      elimination.
AB  - The Multiple Inert Gas Elimination Technique, based on Micropore Membrane Inlet
      Mass Spectrometry, (MMIMS-MIGET) has been designed as a rapid and direct method
      to assess the full range of ventilation-to-perfusion (V/Q) ratios. MMIMS-MIGET
      distributions have not been assessed in an experimental setup with predefined V/Q
      distributions. We aimed (I) to construct a novel in vitro lung model (IVLM) for
      the simulation of predefined V/Q distributions with five gas exchange
      compartments and (II) to correlate shunt fractions derived from MMIMS-MIGET with
      preset reference shunt values of the IVLM. Five hollow-fiber membrane oxygenators
      switched in parallel within a closed extracorporeal oxygenation circuit were
      ventilated with sweep gas (V) and perfused with human red cell suspension or
      saline (Q). Inert gas solution was infused into the perfusion circuit of the gas
      exchange assembly. Sweep gas flow (V) was kept constant and reference shunt
      fractions (IVLM-S) were established by bypassing one or more oxygenators with
      perfusate flow (Q). The derived shunt fractions (MM-S) were determined using
      MIGET by MMIMS from the retention data. Shunt derived by MMIMS-MIGET correlated
      well with preset reference shunt fractions. The in vitro lung model is a
      convenient system for the setup of predefined true shunt fractions in validation
      of MMIMS-MIGET.

PMID- 28877218
TI  - Role of interoceptive accuracy in topographical changes in emotion-induced bodily
      sensations.
AB  - The emotion-associated bodily sensation map is composed of a specific
      topographical distribution of bodily sensations to categorical emotions. The
      present study investigated whether or not interoceptive accuracy was associated
      with topographical changes in this map following emotion-induced bodily
      sensations. This study included 31 participants who observed short video clips
      containing emotional stimuli and then reported their sensations on the body map.
      Interoceptive accuracy was evaluated with a heartbeat detection task and the
      spatial patterns of bodily sensations to specific emotions, including anger,
      fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and neutral, were visualized using Statistical
      Parametric Mapping (SPM) analyses. Distinct patterns of bodily sensations were
      identified for different emotional states. In addition, positive correlations
      were found between the magnitude of sensation in emotion-specific regions and
      interoceptive accuracy across individuals. A greater degree of interoceptive
      accuracy was associated with more specific topographical changes after emotional
      stimuli. These results suggest that the awareness of one's internal bodily states
      might play a crucial role as a required messenger of sensory information during
      the affective process.

PMID- 28877217
TI  - Involvement of arginine 878 together with Ca2+ in mouse aminopeptidase A
      substrate specificity for N-terminal acidic amino-acid residues.
AB  - Aminopeptidase A (APA) is a membrane-bound zinc metalloprotease cleaving, in the
      brain, the N-terminal aspartyl residue of angiotensin II to generate angiotensin
      III, which exerts a tonic stimulatory effect on the control of blood pressure in
      hypertensive animals. Using a refined APA structure derived from the human APA
      crystal structure, we docked the specific and selective APA inhibitor, EC33 in
      the presence of Ca2+. We report the presence in the S1 subsite of Arg-887 (Arg
      878 in mouse APA), the guanidinium moiety of which established an interaction
      with the electronegative sulfonate group of EC33. Mutagenic replacement of Arg
      878 with an alanine or a lysine residue decreased the affinity of the recombinant
      enzymes for the acidic substrate, alpha-L-glutamyl-beta-naphthylamide, with a
      slight decrease in substrate hydrolysis velocity either with or without Ca2+. In
      the absence of Ca2+, the mutations modified the substrate specificity of APA for
      the acidic substrate, the mutated enzymes hydrolyzing more efficiently basic and
      neutral substrates, although the addition of Ca2+ partially restored the acidic
      substrate specificity. The analysis of the 3D models of the Arg-878 mutated APAs
      revealed a change in the volume of the S1 subsite, which may impair the binding
      and/or the optimal positioning of the substrate in the active site as well as its
      hydrolysis. These findings demonstrate the key role of Arg-878 together with Ca2
      + in APA substrate specificity for N-terminal acidic amino acid residues by
      ensuring the optimal positioning of acidic substrates during catalysis.

PMID- 28877219
TI  - A new approach to chromosome-wide analysis of X-linked markers identifies new
      associations in Asian and European case-parent triads of orofacial clefts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: GWAS discoveries on the X-chromosome are underrepresented in the
      literature primarily because the analytical tools that have been applied were
      originally designed for autosomal markers. Our objective here is to employ a new
      robust and flexible tool for chromosome-wide analysis of X-linked markers in
      complex traits. Orofacial clefts are good candidates for such analysis because of
      the consistently observed excess of females with cleft palate only (CPO) and
      excess of males with cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P). METHODS:
      Genotypes for 14,486 X-chromosome SNPs in 1,291 Asian and 1,118 European isolated
      cleft triads were available from a previously published GWAS. The R-package
      HAPLIN enables genome-wide-level analyses as well as statistical power
      simulations for a range of biologic scenarios. We analyzed isolated CL/P and
      isolated CPO for each ethnicity in HAPLIN, using a sliding-window approach to
      haplotype analysis and two different statistical models, with and without X
      inactivation in females. RESULTS: There was a larger number of associations in
      the Asian versus the European sample, and similar to previous reports that have
      analyzed the same GWAS dataset using different methods, we identified
      associations with EFNB1/PJA1 and DMD. In addition, new associations were detected
      with several other genes, among which KLHL4, TBX22, CPXCR1 and BCOR were
      noteworthy because of their roles in clefting syndromes. A few of the
      associations were only detected by one particular X-inactivation model, whereas a
      few others were only detected in one sex. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: We found new
      support for the involvement of X-linked variants in isolated clefts. The
      associations were specific for ethnicity, sex and model parameterization,
      highlighting the need for flexible tools that are capable of detecting and
      estimating such effects. Further efforts are needed to verify and elucidate the
      potential roles of EFNB1/PJA1, KLHL4, TBX22, CPXCR1 and BCOR in isolated clefts.

PMID- 28877220
TI  - Attenuated lipotoxicity and apoptosis is linked to exogenous and endogenous
      augmenter of liver regeneration by different pathways.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) covers a spectrum from simple steatosis
      to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and cirrhosis. Free fatty acids (FFA)
      induce steatosis and lipo-toxicity and correlate with severity of NAFLD. In this
      study we aimed to investigate the role of exogenous and endogenous ALR (augmenter
      of liver regeneration) for FFA induced ER (endoplasmatic reticulum) -stress and
      lipoapoptosis. Primary human hepatocytes or hepatoma cells either treated with
      recombinant human ALR (rhALR, 15kDa) or expressing short form ALR (sfALR, 15kDa)
      were incubated with palmitic acid (PA) and analyzed for lipo-toxicity, 
      apoptosis, activation of ER-stress response pathways, triacylglycerides (TAG),
      mRNA and protein expression of lipid metabolizing genes. Both, exogenous rhALR
      and cytosolic sfALR reduced PA induced caspase 3 activity and Bax protein
      expression and therefore lipotoxicity. Endogenous sfALR but not rhALR treatment
      lowered TAG levels, diminished activation of ER-stress mediators C-Jun N-terminal
      kinase (JNK), X-box binding protein-1 (XBP1) and proapoptotic transcription
      factor C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP), and reduced death receptor 5 protein
      expression. Cellular ALR exerts its lipid lowering and anti-apoptotic actions by
      enhancing FABP1, which binds toxic FFA, increasing mitochondrial beta-oxidation
      by elevating the mitochondrial FFA transporter CPT1alpha, and decreasing ELOVL6,
      which delivers toxic FFA metabolites. We found reduced hepatic mRNA levels of ALR
      in a high fat diet mouse model, and of ALR and FOXA2, a transcription factor
      inducing ALR expression, in human steatotic as well as NASH liver samples, which
      may explain increased lipid deposition and reduced beta-oxidation in NASH
      patients. Present study shows that exogenous and endogenous ALR reduce PA induced
      lipoapoptosis. Furthermore, cytosolic sfALR changes mRNA and protein expression
      of genes regulating lipid metabolism, reduces ER-stress finally impeding
      progression of NASH.

PMID- 28877222
TI  - Taxonomic and functional surrogates of sessile benthic diversity in Mediterranean
      marine caves.
AB  - Hard substrates host globally a rich biodiversity, orders of magnitude higher in
      species number than that in surrounding soft substrates. Among them, marine caves
      support unique biodiversity and fragile communities but suffer lack of
      quantitative data on their structure and function, hindering their conservation
      status assessment. A first approach to the non-destructive ecological monitoring
      of marine caves by testing surrogates of structural and functional composition of
      sessile benthos was attempted in two species-rich Mediterranean marine caves.
      Photographic sampling was performed in different positions on the cave walls,
      across the horizontal axis, from the entrance inwards. Eighty-four taxa were
      identified and assigned to 6 biological traits and 32 modalities related to
      morphology, behavior and ecological affinities, with sponges being the dominant
      taxon in species richness and coverage. In quest of possible biological
      surrogates, we examined the spatial variability of the total community structure
      and function and separately the sponge community structure and function. The
      observed patterns of the above metrics were significantly correlated with the
      distance from the entrance, the small-scale variability and their interaction. A
      positive correlation was found between all examined pairs of those metrics,
      supporting that: (i) the developed functional approach could be used for the
      study of marine cave sessile communities, and (ii) sponges could be used as a
      surrogate taxon for the structural and functional study of these communities. The
      suggested method could be tested in other types of hard substrate habitats and in
      multiple locations of the Mediterranean waters, facilitating monitoring schemes
      and conservation actions.

PMID- 28877221
TI  - Short-term spheroid culture of primary colorectal cancer cells as an in vitro
      model for personalizing cancer medicine.
AB  - Chemotherapy treatment of cancer remains a challenge due to the molecular and
      functional heterogeneity displayed by tumours originating from the same cell
      type. The pronounced heterogeneity makes it difficult for oncologists to devise
      an effective therapeutic strategy for the patient. One approach for increasing
      treatment efficacy is to test the chemosensitivity of cancer cells obtained from
      the patient's tumour. 3D culture represents a promising method for modelling
      patient tumours in vitro. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate how
      closely short-term spheroid cultures of primary colorectal cancer cells resemble
      the original tumour. Colorectal cancer cells were isolated from human tumour
      tissue and cultured as spheroids. Spheroid cultures were established with a high
      success rate and remained viable for at least 10 days. The spheroids exhibited
      significant growth over a period of 7 days and no difference in growth rate was
      observed for spheroids of different sizes. Comparison of spheroids with the
      original tumour revealed that spheroid culture generally preserved adenocarcinoma
      histology and expression patterns of cytokeratin 20 and carcinoembryonic antigen.
      Interestingly, spheroids had a tendency to resemble tumour protein expression
      more closely after 10 days of culture compared to 3 days. Chemosensitivity
      screening using spheroids from five patients demonstrated individual response
      profiles. This indicates that the spheroids maintained patient-to-patient
      differences in sensitivity towards the drugs and combinations most commonly used
      for treatment of colorectal cancer. In summary, short-term spheroid culture of
      primary colorectal adenocarcinoma cells represents a promising in vitro model for
      use in personalized medicine.

PMID- 28877223
TI  - Adhering to a national surgical care bundle reduces the risk of surgical site
      infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2008, a bundle of care to prevent Surgical Site Infections (SSIs)
      was introduced in the Netherlands. The bundle consisted of four elements:
      antibiotic prophylaxis according to local guidelines, no hair removal,
      normothermia and 'hygiene discipline' in the operating room (i.e. number of door
      movements). Dutch hospitals were advised to implement the bundle and to measure
      the outcome. This study's goal was to assess how effective the bundle was in
      reducing SSI risk. METHODS: Hospitals assessed whether their staff complied with
      each of the bundle elements and voluntary reported compliance data to the
      national SSI surveillance network (PREZIES). From PREZIES data, we selected data
      from 2009 to 2014 relating to 13 types of surgical procedures. We excluded
      surgeries with missing (non)compliance data, and calculated for each remaining
      surgery with reported (non)compliance data the level of compliance with the
      bundle (that is, being compliant with 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the elements).
      Subsequently, we used this level of compliance to assess the effect of bundle
      compliance on the SSI risk, using multilevel logistic regression techniques.
      RESULTS: 217 489 surgeries were included, of which 62 486 surgeries (29%) had
      complete bundle reporting. Within this group, the SSI risk was significantly
      lower for surgeries with complete bundle compliance compared to surgeries with
      lower compliance levels. Odds ratios ranged from 0.63 to 0.86 (risk reduction of
      14% to 37%), while a 13% risk reduction was demonstrated for each point increase
      in compliance-level. Sensitivity analysis indicated that due to analysing
      reported bundles only, we probably underestimated the total effect of
      implementing the bundle. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that adhering to a
      surgical care bundle significantly reduced the risk of SSIs. Reporting of and
      compliance with the bundle compliance can, however, still be improved. Therefore
      an even greater effect might be achieved.

PMID- 28877224
TI  - Transformation products elucidation of forchlorfenuron in postharvest kiwifruit
      by time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
AB  - Forchlorfenuron (1-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-3-phenylurea, FCF) is a plant growth
      regulator, being extensively used for increasing kiwifruit size. The
      toxicological properties of its may persist in their transformation products
      (TPs) or even higher toxicity than FCF. TPs elucidation of FCF in postharvest
      kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis, Chinese gooseberry) by the liquid chromatography
      ionization hybrid ion trap and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-IT
      TOF/MS) in positive mode was the objective of the present study. Fifteen days
      after full bloom, kiwifruits were dipped for 5s with high dosage FCF solution (60
      mg/L), so that sufficient peaks could be detected. The chemical structure of
      unknown TPs was analyzed in combination of functions of LCMS-IT-TOF, such as high
      accurate MSn, formula predictor, metabolite structural analysis software MetID
      Solution, profiling solution metabolomics software, and neutral loss,
      characteristic isotopic patterns of chlorine, the fragmentation pattern and
      retention time of standard substances, nitrogen rule, chemical components of
      kiwifruit. Total 17 TPs were detected via comparisons of their accurate MSn data
      of commercial analytical standards and synthesized standards with high purity,
      such as 4-amino-2-chloropyridine, phenylurea, 2-hydroxy-FCF, 1-(2-chloro-6-((3,
      4, 5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl) tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl) oxy) pyridin-4-yl)-3
      phenylurea, 1, 3-bis (2-chloropyridin-4-yl) urea, 1,3-diphenylurea, 1-(2
      chloropyridin-4-yl)urea, FCF-2-O-beta-D-glucoside, and so on. The major
      transformation pathways of FCF in kiwifruit were biochemical and photochemical
      cleavage pathway. The experimental results indicate that LCMS-IT-TOF is powerful
      and effective tool for identification of FCF TPs.

PMID- 28877225
TI  - Effect of water-based recovery on blood lactate removal after high-intensity
      exercise.
AB  - This study assessed the effectiveness of water immersion to the shoulders in
      enhancing blood lactate removal during active and passive recovery after short
      duration high-intensity exercise. Seventeen cyclists underwent active water- and
      land-based recoveries and passive water and land-based recoveries. The recovery
      conditions lasted 31 minutes each and started after the identification of each
      cyclist's blood lactate accumulation peak, induced by a 30-second all-out sprint
      on a cycle ergometer. Active recoveries were performed on a cycle ergometer at
      70% of the oxygen consumption corresponding to the lactate threshold (the control
      for the intensity was oxygen consumption), while passive recoveries were
      performed with subjects at rest and seated on the cycle ergometer. Blood lactate
      concentration was measured 8 times during each recovery condition and lactate
      clearance was modeled over a negative exponential function using non-linear
      regression. Actual active recovery intensity was compared to the target intensity
      (one sample t-test) and passive recovery intensities were compared between
      environments (paired sample t-tests). Non-linear regression parameters
      (coefficients of the exponential decay of lactate; predicted resting lactates;
      predicted delta decreases in lactate) were compared between environments (linear
      mixed model analyses for repeated measures) separately for the active and passive
      recovery modes. Active recovery intensities did not differ significantly from the
      target oxygen consumption, whereas passive recovery resulted in a slightly lower
      oxygen consumption when performed while immersed in water rather than on land.
      The exponential decay of blood lactate was not significantly different in water-
      or land-based recoveries in either active or passive recovery conditions. In
      conclusion, water immersion at 29 degrees C would not appear to be an effective
      practice for improving post-exercise lactate removal in either the active or
      passive recovery modes.

PMID- 28877226
TI  - Distinct patterns of innate immune activation by clinical isolates of respiratory
      syncytial virus.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major respiratory pathogen of infants and
      young children. Multiple strains of both subgroup A and B viruses circulate
      during each seasonal epidemic. Genetic heterogeneity among RSV genomes, in large
      part due to the error prone RNA-dependent, RNA polymerase, could mediate
      variations in pathogenicity. We evaluated clinical strains of RSV for their
      ability to induce the innate immune response. Subgroup B viruses were used to
      infect human pulmonary epithelial cells (A549) and primary monocyte-derived human
      macrophages (MDM) from a variety of donors. Secretions of IL-6 and CCL5 (RANTES)
      from infected cells were measured following infection. Host and viral
      transcriptome expression were assessed using RNA-SEQ technology and the genomic
      sequences of several clinical isolates were determined. There were dramatic
      differences in the induction of IL-6 and CCL5 in both A549 cells and MDM infected
      with a variety of clinical isolates of RSV. Transcriptome analyses revealed that
      the pattern of innate immune activation in MDM was virus-specific and host
      specific. Specifically, viruses that induced high levels of secreted IL-6 and
      CCL5 tended to induce cellular innate immune pathways whereas viruses that
      induced relatively low level of IL-6 or CCL5 did not induce or suppressed innate
      immune gene expression. Activation of the host innate immune response mapped to
      variations in the RSV G gene and the M2-1 gene. Viral transcriptome data
      indicated that there was a gradient of transcription across the RSV genome though
      in some strains, RSV G was the expressed in the highest amounts at late times
      post-infection. Clinical strains of RSV differ in cytokine/chemokine induction
      and in induction and suppression of host genes expression suggesting that these
      viruses may have inherent differences in virulence potential. Identification of
      the genetic elements responsible for these differences may lead to novel
      approaches to antiviral agents and vaccines.

PMID- 28877227
TI  - Hemocyte-mediated phagocytosis differs between honey bee (Apis mellifera) worker
      castes.
AB  - Honey bees as other insects rely on the innate immune system for protection
      against diseases. The innate immune system includes the circulating hemocytes
      (immune cells) that clear pathogens from hemolymph (blood) by phagocytosis,
      nodulation or encapsulation. Honey bee hemocyte numbers have been linked to
      hemolymph levels of vitellogenin. Vitellogenin is a multifunctional protein with
      immune-supportive functions identified in a range of species, including the honey
      bee. Hemocyte numbers can increase via mitosis, and this recruitment process can
      be important for immune system function and maintenance. Here, we tested if
      hemocyte mediated phagocytosis differs among the physiologically different honey
      bee worker castes (nurses, foragers and winter bees), and study possible
      interactions with vitellogenin and hemocyte recruitment. To this end, we adapted
      phagocytosis assays, which-together with confocal microscopy and flow cytometry
      allow qualitative and quantitative assessment of hemocyte performance. We found
      that nurses are more efficient in phagocytic uptake than both foragers and winter
      bees. We detected vitellogenin within the hemocytes, and found that winter bees
      have the highest numbers of vitellogenin-positive hemocytes. Connections between
      phagocytosis, hemocyte-vitellogenin and mitosis were worker caste dependent. Our
      results demonstrate that the phagocytic performance of immune cells differs
      significantly between honey bee worker castes, and support increased immune
      competence in nurses as compared to forager bees. Our data, moreover, provides
      support for roles of vitellogenin in hemocyte activity.

PMID- 28877228
TI  - Exploring the possible relationship between ambient heat and sudden infant death
      with data from Vienna, Austria.
AB  - A non-linear relationship between maximum ambient temperature and number of
      sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases had been reported for Montreal, Canada,
      for the warm season. In particular, high maximum ambient temperatures were found
      to be extra-hazardous for infants. The study was replicated with data from
      Vienna, Austria, applying the same statistical approach. Vienna is roughly
      comparable to Montreal with regard to temperatures in the warm season, size of
      population, and number of SIDS cases. Although the Viennese study was powerful
      enough to detect even smaller effects, the Montrealean results could not be
      confirmed. The Viennese results do not support the hypothesis of a strong effect
      of maximum ambient temperature on the risk of SIDS during the warm season.

PMID- 28877229
TI  - Who needs 'lazy' workers? Inactive workers act as a 'reserve' labor force
      replacing active workers, but inactive workers are not replaced when they are
      removed.
AB  - Social insect colonies are highly successful, self-organized complex systems.
      Surprisingly however, most social insect colonies contain large numbers of highly
      inactive workers. Although this may seem inefficient, it may be that inactive
      workers actually contribute to colony function. Indeed, the most commonly
      proposed explanation for inactive workers is that they form a 'reserve' labor
      force that becomes active when needed, thus helping mitigate the effects of
      colony workload fluctuations or worker loss. Thus, it may be that inactive
      workers facilitate colony flexibility and resilience. However, this idea has not
      been empirically confirmed. Here we test whether colonies of Temnothorax
      rugatulus ants replace highly active (spending large proportions of time on
      specific tasks) or highly inactive (spending large proportions of time completely
      immobile) workers when they are experimentally removed. We show that colonies
      maintained pre-removal activity levels even after active workers were removed,
      and that previously inactive workers became active subsequent to the removal of
      active workers. Conversely, when inactive workers were removed, inactivity levels
      decreased and remained lower post-removal. Thus, colonies seem to have mechanisms
      for maintaining a certain number of active workers, but not a set number of
      inactive workers. The rapid replacement (within 1 week) of active workers
      suggests that the tasks they perform, mainly foraging and brood care, are
      necessary for colony function on short timescales. Conversely, the lack of
      replacement of inactive workers even 2 weeks after their removal suggests that
      any potential functions they have, including being a 'reserve', are less
      important, or auxiliary, and do not need immediate recovery. Thus, inactive
      workers act as a reserve labor force and may still play a role as food stores for
      the colony, but a role in facilitating colony-wide communication is unlikely. Our
      results are consistent with the often cited, but never yet empirically supported
      hypothesis that inactive workers act as a pool of 'reserve' labor that may allow
      colonies to quickly take advantage of novel resources and to mitigate worker
      loss.

PMID- 28877230
TI  - Decision impact and feasibility of different ASCO-recommended biomarkers in early
      breast cancer: Prospective comparison of molecular marker EndoPredict and protein
      marker uPA/PAI-1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adjuvant therapy decisions in early breast cancer are based on
      accurate risk assessment. Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and plaminogen
      activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) have been the first biomarkers in hormone receptor
      (HR) positive breast cancer to reach highest level of evidence. The EndoPredict
      test (EPclin) combines gene expression information with nodal status and tumor
      size. The aim of this prospective study was to compare uPA/PAI-1 and EPclin as
      prognostic biomarkers with regard to feasibility, risk stratification and impact
      on adjuvant therapy recommendation. MATERIALS AND METHOD: 395 patients with HR
      positive, HER2 negative, intermediate risk breast cancer were enrolled. Relations
      and concordance of histologic grading as well as EPclin and uPA/PAI-1 values were
      assessed by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and Cohen's Kappa. To compare
      decision impact of EPclin and uPA/PAI-1 three independent case discussions were
      held: One with known uPA/PAI-1 and EPclin results, one blinded to EPclin alone
      and another one blinded to both EPclin and uPA/PAI-1. RESULTS: EPclin could be
      determined in all 395 (100%), uPA/PAI-1 in 190 (48%) of the tumor samples. EPclin
      allocated 250 patients (63%) to the low-risk group and 145 patients (37%) to the
      high-risk group, whereas uPA/PAI-1 allocated 88 patients (46%) to the low-risk
      group and 102 patients (54%) to the high-risk group. In 59% of cases, both tests
      showed concordant results. EPclin resulted more frequently in a change of therapy
      recommendation than the uPA/PAI-1 test (46% vs 24%). Recommendation of adjuvant
      chemotherapy (CTX) was abandoned twice as often by EPclin (45%) compared to
      uPA/PAI-1 (22%). CONCLUSION: In this first prospective comparison of EPclin and
      uPA/PAI-1 we found, that EPclin is superior to uPA/PAI-1 with respect to
      feasibility and decision impact. This leads to substantial avoidance of adjuvant
      CTX in endocrine-sensitive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Data collection for
      patients' clinical outcome is ongoing.

PMID- 28877231
TI  - Functional characterization of T-cells from palatine tonsils in patients with
      chronic tonsillitis.
AB  - The palatine tonsils, localized in the oropharynx, are easily accessible
      secondary lymphoid tissue in humans. Inflammation of the palatine tonsils, local
      and chronic in case of chronic tonsillitis (CT) or acute in the presence of a
      peritonsillar abscess (PTA), ranks among the most common diseases in
      otolaryngology. However, the functionality of tonsillar immune cells, notably T
      cells, in the context of these immune pathologies is poorly understood. We have
      examined the functional status of human tonsillar T-cells in CT and compared it
      to the acute inflammatory setting of a PTA. Patients presenting with CT (n = 10)
      or unilateral PTA (n = 7) underwent bilateral tonsillectomy and a subgroup of 8
      patients underwent additional blood sampling. T-cells were purified via automated
      magnetic selection and subjected to flow cytometry-based immunophenotyping. In
      addition, the response to T-cell receptor (TCR) stimulation was assessed at the
      level of proximal signaling, activation marker expression and proliferation. We
      observed no difference between the percentage of T helper (CD4(+)) cells from
      tonsil tissue in CT and PTA, but observed a trend towards a higher percentage of
      T helper cells in the blood of patients with PTA versus CT, probably reflecting
      an acute, systemic bacterial infection in the former cohort. Tonsils from CT
      harbored more PD-1(+) CD4(+) T-cells, pointing to T-cell exhaustion due to
      chronic infection. This notion was supported by functional studies that showed a
      tendency to weaker TCR responses of tonsillar T-cells from CT. Intriguingly,
      tonsillar T-cells recurrently featured a dampened response to T-cell receptor
      stimulation at the level of receptor proximal signaling steps compared to
      peripheral T-cells. In sum, our study documents distinct differences in tonsillar
      T-cell class distribution and function between the various pathological
      conditions. Our observations are consistent with the concept that tonsillar T
      cells react to infections by eliciting specific immunological responses in
      chronic versus acute settings of inflammation.

PMID- 28877232
TI  - An acute bout of localized resistance exercise can rapidly improve inhibitory
      control.
AB  - The positive effect of acute resistance exercise on executive function, such as
      inhibitory control (IC), is poorly understood. Several previous studies have
      demonstrated this effect using whole-body resistance exercise. However, it
      remains unclear whether localized resistance exercise performed using only
      limited muscle groups could also acutely improve IC. Thus, the present study
      examined the effect of an acute bout of localized resistance exercise on IC.
      Twelve healthy men performed a color-word Stroop task (CWST) before and
      immediately after the experimental conditions, which consisted of 2 resistance
      exercises and a resting control (CON). Bilateral knee extension was used to
      create 2 resistance exercise conditions: light-intensity resistance exercise
      (LRE) and high-intensity resistance exercise (HRE) conditions, which were 40% and
      80% of one-repetition maximum, respectively. The resistance exercise session was
      programmed for 6 sets with 10 repetitions per set. The CWST-measured IC was
      significantly improved immediately after both LRE and HRE, but it did not improve
      immediately after CON. However, the improved IC was significantly greater in HRE
      than in LRE. The present findings showed that IC could be rapidly improved by an
      acute bout of localized resistance exercise, especially with high-intensity.
      Therefore, we suggest that in addition to whole-body resistance exercise,
      localized resistance exercise performed using limited muscle groups may be
      sufficient for improving IC.

PMID- 28877233
TI  - High-level dietary cadmium exposure is associated with global DNA
      hypermethylation in the gastropod hepatopancreas.
AB  - 5-methylcytosine (5mC) is a key epigenetic mark which influences gene expression
      and phenotype. In vertebrates, this epigenetic mark is sensitive to Cd exposure,
      but there is no information linking such an event with changes in global 5mC
      levels in terrestrial gastropods despite their importance as
      excellentecotoxicological bioindicators of metal contamination. Therefore, we
      first evaluated total 5mC content in DNA of the hepatopancreas of adult Cantareus
      aspersus with the aim to determine whether this epigenetic mark is responsive to
      Cd exposure. The experiment was conducted under laboratory conditions and
      involved a continuous exposure, multiple dose- and time-point (14, 28, and 56
      days) study design. Hepatopancreas cadmium levels were measured using Flame
      Atomic Absorption Spectrometry and the percentage of 5-mC in samples using an
      ELISA-based colorimetric assay. Snail death rates were also assessed. Our
      results, for the first time, reveal the presence of 5mC in C. aspersus and
      provide evidence for Cd-induced changes in global 5mC levels in DNA of gastropods
      and mollusks. Although less sensitive than tissue accumulation, DNA methylation
      levels responded in a dose- and time-dependent manner to dietary cadmium, with
      exposure dose having a much stronger effect than exposure duration. An obvious
      trend of increasing 5mC levels was observed starting at 28 days of exposure to
      the second highest dose and this trend persisted at the two highest treatments
      for close to one month, when the experiment was terminated after 56 days.
      Moreover, a strong association was identified between Cd concentrations in the
      hepatopancreas and DNA methylation levels in this organ. These data indicate an
      overall trend towards DNA hypermethylation with elevated Cd exposure. No
      consistent lethal effect was observed, irrespective of time point and Cd-dosage.
      Overall, our findings suggest that the total 5mC content in DNA of the
      hepatopancreas of land snails is responsive to sublethal Cd exposure and give new
      insights into invertebrate environmental epigenetics.

PMID- 28877234
TI  - A decision support model for investment on P2P lending platform.
AB  - Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, as a novel economic lending model, has triggered new
      challenges on making effective investment decisions. In a P2P lending platform,
      one lender can invest N loans and a loan may be accepted by M investors, thus
      forming a bipartite graph. Basing on the bipartite graph model, we built an
      iteration computation model to evaluate the unknown loans. To validate the
      proposed model, we perform extensive experiments on real-world data from the
      largest American P2P lending marketplace-Prosper. By comparing our experimental
      results with those obtained by Bayes and Logistic Regression, we show that our
      computation model can help borrowers select good loans and help lenders make good
      investment decisions. Experimental results also show that the Logistic
      classification model is a good complement to our iterative computation model,
      which motivates us to integrate the two classification models. The experimental
      results of the hybrid classification model demonstrate that the logistic
      classification model and our iteration computation model are complementary to
      each other. We conclude that the hybrid model (i.e., the integration of iterative
      computation model and Logistic classification model) is more efficient and stable
      than the individual model alone.

PMID- 28877235
TI  - Genetic and antigenic characterization of influenza A(H3N2) in Cameroon during
      the 2014-2016 influenza seasons.
AB  - The first outbreak of influenza A(H3N2) occurred in 1968 and caused the third flu
      pandemic of the 20th century. It has affected multiple countries over time. The
      best strategy to reduce the burden of influenza is through vaccination whose
      efficacy varies with respect to the circulating strains. This study was performed
      to better understand the molecular evolution of influenza A(H3N2) and assess
      vaccine efficacy in Cameroon. Complete sequences of three gene segments were
      obtained from 2014 to 2016 influenza seasons in Cameroon. Hemagglutinin (HA),
      Neuraminidase (NA) and matrix (M) genes of 35 A(H3N2) virus strains were
      amplified and sequenced. Predicted vaccine efficacy was measured using the
      Pepitope model. Phylogenetic analysis of the HA gene showed that all Cameroonian
      strains had evolved away from the 3C.1-A/Texas/50/2012-like clade. Globally, 2014
      virus strains clustered with the 2015-2016 vaccine strain, 3C.3a
      A/Switzerland/9715293/2013, whereas 2015 and 2016 virus strains clustered with
      the 2016-2017 vaccine strain, 3C.2a-A/HongKong/4801/2014. In order to determine
      the genotypic drug susceptibility to neuraminidase inhibitors and amantadine, the
      NA and M2 protein coding sequences were analyzed. There was no strain with
      characteristic mutation for resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors, per contra;
      all strains possessed the substitution S31N, peculiar of resistance to
      adamantanes. There was drift in influenza A(H3N2) dominant epitopes B (2014 and
      2015) to epitopes A (2016) with a theoretical efficiency in vaccine ranging from
      low to moderate. The presence of several antigenic site mutations among H3N2
      virus strains between 2014-2016 influenza seasons in Cameroon confirms the
      progressing evolution of circulating H3N2 strains.

PMID- 28877237
TI  - Correction: Synergy of circulating miR-212 with markers for cardiovascular risks
      to enhance estimation of atherosclerosis presence.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177809.].

PMID- 28877236
TI  - DNA aneuploidy relationship with patient age and tobacco smoke in OPMDs/OSCCs.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between tobacco smoke
      habit, patient age, DNA aneuploidy and genomic DNA copy number aberrations (CNAs)
      in oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD) and oral squamous cell carcinoma
      (OSCC) patients. DNA aneuploidy was detected by high-resolution DNA flow
      cytometry (hr DNA-FCM) on DAPI stained nuclei obtained from multiple tissue
      samples from OPMDs/OSCCs in 220 consecutive patients. Nuclear genomic aberrations
      were determined in a subset of 65 patients by genome-wide array comparative
      genomic hybridization (aCGH) using DNA extracted from either diploid or aneuploid
      nuclei suspension sorted by FCM. DNA aneuploidy and mean nuclear genomic
      aberrations were associated with patients' age. In particular, DNA aneuploidy
      strongly associated with age in non-smoker OPMDs/OSCCs patients. OSCCs from
      smokers showed a lower prevalence of DNA aneuploidy compared to OSCCs from non
      smokers. A higher occurrence of DNA aneuploidy (particularly in smokers' OPMDs)
      was observed in patients characterized by involvement of a single oral subsite.
      Our study suggests that: 1) DNA aneuploidy in non-smokers is mainly related to
      aging; 2) OPMDs/OSCCs involving multiple oral subsites in smokers are less likely
      to develop DNA aneuploidy compared to non-smokers; 3) OSCC development is
      characterized by both CIN and CIN-independent mechanisms and that the latter are
      more relevant in smokers. This study provides evidence that DNA diploid OPMDs may
      be considered at lower risk of cancerization than DNA aneuploid ones in non
      smokers but not in smokers.

PMID- 28877238
TI  - Effects of recruitment manoeuvre on perioperative pulmonary complications in
      patients undergoing robotic assisted radical prostatectomy: A randomised single
      blinded trial.
AB  - Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RARP) needs a steep
      Trendelenburg position and a relatively high CO2 insufflation pressure, and
      patients undergoing RARP are usually elderly. These factors make intraoperative
      ventilatory care difficult and increase the risk of perioperative pulmonary
      complications. The aim was to determine the efficacy of recruitment manoeuvre
      (RM) on perioperative pulmonary complications in elderly patients undergoing
      RARP. A total of 60 elderly patients scheduled for elective RARP were randomly
      allocated to two groups after induction of anaesthesia; positive end expiratory
      pressure (PEEP) was applied during the operation without RM in the control group
      (group C) and after RM in the recruitment group (group R). The total number of
      patients who developed intraoperative desaturation or postoperative atelectasis
      was significantly higher in group C compared to group R (43.3% vs. 17.8%, P =
      0.034). Intraoperative respiratory mechanics, perioperative blood gas analysis,
      and pulmonary function testing did not show differences between the groups.
      Adding RM to PEEP compared to PEEP alone significantly reduced perioperative
      pulmonary complications in elderly patients undergoing RARP.

PMID- 28877239
TI  - Incidence of and risk factors for newly diagnosed hyperkalemia after hospital
      discharge in non-dialysis-dependent CKD patients treated with RAS inhibitors.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors have been increasingly
      prescribed due to their beneficial effects on end-organ protection. Iatrogenic
      hyperkalemia is a well-known life-threatening complication of RAS inhibitor use
      in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. We hypothesized that CKD patients
      treated with RAS inhibitors frequently develop hyperkalemia after hospital
      discharge even if they were normokalemic during their hospitalization because
      their lifestyles change substantially after discharge. The present study aimed to
      examine the incidence of newly diagnosed hyperkalemia, the timing of
      hyperkalemia, and its risk factors in CKD patients treated with RAS inhibitors at
      the time of hospital discharge. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled patients
      aged 20 years or older with CKD G3-5 (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60
      mL/min/1.73 m2) and who were treated with RAS inhibitors and discharged from St.
      Luke's International Hospital between July 2011 and December 2015. Patients who
      were under maintenance dialysis or had hyperkalemic events before discharge were
      excluded. Data regarding the patients' age, sex, CKD stage, diabetes mellitus
      status, malignancy status, combined use of RAS inhibitors, concurrent medication,
      and hyperkalemic events after discharge were extracted from the hospital
      database. Our primary outcome was hyperkalemia, defined as serum potassium >= 5.5
      mEq/L. Multiple logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses were performed to
      identify the risk factors for and the timing of hyperkalemia, respectively.
      RESULTS: Among the 986 patients, 121 (12.3%) developed hyperkalemia after
      discharge. In the regression analysis, relative to CKD G3a, G3b [odds ratio (OR):
      1.88, 95% confidence interval 1.20-2.97] and G4-5 (OR: 3.40, 1.99-5.81) were
      significantly associated with hyperkalemia. The use of RAS inhibitor combinations
      (OR: 1.92, 1.19-3.10), malignancy status (OR: 2.10, 1.14-3.86), and baseline
      serum potassium (OR: 1.91, 1.23-2.97) were also significantly associated with
      hyperkalemia. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that hyperkalemia was most
      frequent during the early period after discharge, particularly within one month.
      CONCLUSION: Hyperkalemia was frequent during the early period after discharge
      among previously normokalemic CKD patients who were treated with RAS inhibitors.
      Appropriate follow-up after discharge should be required for these patients,
      particularly those with advanced CKD or malignancy status, such as hematological
      malignancy or late-stage malignancy, and those who are treated with multiple RAS
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28877241
TI  - Real-time surveillance of heat-related morbidity: Relation to excess mortality
      associated with extreme heat.
AB  - The impact of heat on mortality is well documented but deaths tend to occur after
      (or lag) extreme heat events, and mortality data is generally not available for
      timely surveillance during extreme heat events. Recently, systems for near-real
      time surveillance of heat illness have been reported but have not been validated
      as predictors of non-external cause of deaths associated with extreme heat
      events. We analyzed associations between daily weather conditions, emergency
      medical system (EMS) calls flagged as heat-related by EMS dispatchers, emergency
      department (ED) visits classified as heat-related based on chief complaint text,
      and excess non-external cause mortality in New York City. EMS and ED data were
      obtained from data reported daily to the city health department for syndromic
      surveillance. We fit generalized linear models to assess the relationships of
      daily counts of heat related EMS and ED visits to non-external cause deaths after
      adjustment for weather conditions during the months of May-September between 1999
      and 2013. Controlling for temporal trends, a 7% (95% confidence interval (CI): 2
      12) and 6% (95% CI: 3-10) increase in non-external cause mortality was associated
      with an increase from the 50th percentile to 99th percentile of same-day and one
      day lagged heat-related EMS calls and ED visits, respectively. After controlling
      for both temporal trends and weather, we observed a 7% (95% CI: 3-12) increase in
      non-external cause mortality associated with one-day lagged heat-related EMS
      calls and a 5% mortality increase with one-day lagged ED visits (95% CI: 2-8).
      Heat-related illness can be tracked during extreme heat events using EMS and ED
      data which are indicators of heat associated excess non-external cause mortality
      during the warm weather season.

PMID- 28877240
TI  - Runx1 mediates the development of the granular convoluted tubules in the
      submandibular glands.
AB  - The mouse granular convoluted tubules (GCTs), which are only located in the
      submandibular gland (SMG) are known to develop and maintain their structure in an
      androgen-dependent manner. We previously demonstrated that the GCTs are involuted
      by the epithelial deletion of core binding factor beta (CBFbeta), a transcription
      factor that physically interacts with any of the Runt-related transcription
      factor (RUNX) proteins (RUNX1, 2 and 3). This result clearly demonstrates that
      the Runx /Cbfb signaling pathway is indispensable in the development of the GCTs.
      However, it is not clear which of the RUNX proteins plays useful role in the
      development of the GCTs by activating the Runx /Cbfb signaling pathway. Past
      studies have revealed that the Runx /Cbfb signaling pathway plays important roles
      in various aspects of development and homeostatic events. Moreover, the Runx
      genes have different temporospatial requirements depending on the biological
      situation. In the present study, the GCTs of the SMG showed a remarkable
      phenotype of, which phenocopied the epithelial deletion of Cbfb, in epithelial
      specific Runx1 conditional knock-out (cKO) mice. The results indicate that Runx1
      works as a partner of Cbfb during the development of the GCTs. We also discovered
      that the depletion of Runx1 resulted in the reduced secretion of saliva in male
      mice. Consistent with this finding, one of the water channels, Aquaporin-5 (AQP5)
      was mislocalized in the cytoplasm of the Runx1 mutants, suggesting a novel role
      of Runx1 in the membrane trafficking of AQP5. In summary, the present findings
      demonstrated that RUNX1 is essential for the development of the GCTs.
      Furthermore, RUNX1 could also be involved in the membrane trafficking of the AQP5
      protein of the acinar cells in the SMG in order to allow for the proper secretion
      of saliva.

PMID- 28877242
TI  - Comparative quantitative proteomic analysis of disease stratified laser captured
      microdissected human islets identifies proteins and pathways potentially related
      to type 1 diabetes.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic inflammatory disease that is characterized by
      autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. The goal of
      this study was to identify novel protein signatures that distinguish Islets from
      patients with T1D, patients who are autoantibody positive without symptoms of
      diabetes, and from individuals with no evidence of disease. High resolution high
      mass accuracy label free quantitative mass spectrometry analysis was applied to
      islets isolated by laser capture microdissection from disease stratified human
      pancreata from the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD),
      these included donors without diabetes, donors with T1D-associated autoantibodies
      in the absence of diabetes, and donors with T1D. Thirty-nine proteins were found
      to be differentially regulated in autoantibody positive cases compared to the no
      disease group, with 25 upregulated and 14 downregulated proteins. For the T1D
      cases, 63 proteins were differentially expressed, with 24 upregulated and 39
      downregulated, compared to the no disease controls. We have identified functional
      annotated enriched gene families and multiple protein-protein interaction
      clusters of proteins are involved in biological and molecular processes that may
      have a role in T1D. The proteins that are upregulated in T1D cases include
      S100A9, S100A8, REG1B, REG3A and C9 amongst others. These proteins have important
      biological functions, such as inflammation, metabolic regulation, and
      autoimmunity, all of which are pathways linked to the pathogenesis of T1D. The
      identified proteins may be involved in T1D development and pathogenesis. Our
      findings of novel proteins uniquely upregulated in T1D pancreas provides impetus
      for further investigations focusing on their expression profiles in beta cells/
      islets to evaluate their role in the disease pathogenesis. Some of these
      molecules may be novel therapeutic targets T1D.

PMID- 28877243
TI  - Isolation and characterization of H4N6 avian influenza viruses from mallard ducks
      in Beijing, China.
AB  - The novel H7N9 influenza virus, which has caused severe disease in humans in
      China, is a reassortant with surface genes derived from influenza viruses in wild
      birds. This highlights the importance of monitoring influenza viruses in these
      hosts. However, surveillance of influenza virus in wild birds remains very
      limited in China. In this study, we isolated four H4N6 avian influenza viruses
      (AIVs) from mallard ducks in Beijing Wetland Park, which is located on the East
      Asia-Australasia migratory flyway. The gene segments of these Chinese H4N6
      viruses were closest to AIVs in wild birds from Mongolia or the Republic of
      Georgia, indicating the interregional AIV gene flow among these countries. All of
      our isolates belonged to a novel genotype that was different from other H4N6
      viruses isolated in China. We further evaluated the virulence and transmission of
      two representative H4N6 strains in mammalian models. We found that both of these
      H4N6 viruses replicated efficiently in mice without adaptation. Additionally,
      these two strains had a 100% transmission rate in guinea pigs via direct contact,
      but they had not acquired respiratory droplet transmissibility. These results
      reveal the potential threat to human health of H4N6 viruses in migratory birds
      and the need for enhanced surveillance of AIVs in wild birds.

PMID- 28877244
TI  - The role of dietary sodium intake on the modulation of T helper 17 cells and
      regulatory T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus
      erythematosus.
AB  - We aimed at investigating whether the frequency and function of T helper 17
      (Th17) and regulatory T cells (Treg) are affected by a restriction of dietary
      sodium intake in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE). We enrolled RA and SLE patients not receiving drugs known to
      increase urinary sodium excretion. Patients underwent a dietary regimen starting
      with a restricted daily sodium intake followed by a normal-sodium daily intake.
      The timepoints were identified at baseline (T0), after 3 weeks of low-sodium
      dietary regimen (T3), after 2 weeks of normal-sodium dietary regimen (T5). On
      these visits, we measured the 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, the frequency and
      function of Th17 and Treg cells in the peripheral blood, the serum levels of
      cytokines. Analysis of urinary sodium excretion confirmed adherence to the
      dietary regimen. In RA patients, a trend toward a reduction in the frequencies of
      Th17 cells over the low-sodium dietary regimen followed by an increase at T5 was
      observed, while Treg cells exhibited the opposite trend. SLE patients showed a
      progressive reduction in the percentage of Th17 cells that reached a significance
      at T5 compared to T0 (p = 0.01) and an increase in the percentage of Treg cells
      following the low-sodium dietary regimen at both T1 and T3 compared to T0 (p =
      0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). No significant apoptosis or proliferation
      modulation was found. In RA patients, we found a reduction at T5 compared to T0
      in serum levels of both TGFbeta (p = 0.0016) and IL-9 (p = 0.0007); serum IL-9
      levels were also reduced in SLE patients at T5 with respect to T0 (p = 0.03).
      This is the first study investigating the effects of dietary sodium intake on
      adaptive immunity. Based on the results, we hypothesize that a restricted sodium
      dietary intake may dampen the inflammatory response in RA and SLE patients.

PMID- 28877245
TI  - The effect of engaging unpaid informal providers on case detection and treatment
      initiation rates for TB and HIV in rural Malawi (Triage Plus): A cluster
      randomised health system intervention trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The poor face barriers in accessing services for tuberculosis (TB)
      and Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) disease. A cluster randomised trial was
      conducted to investigate the effectiveness of engaging unpaid informal providers
      (IPs) to promote access in a rural district. The intervention consisted of
      training unpaid IPs in TB and HIV disease recognition, sputum specimen
      collection, appropriate referrals, and raising community awareness. METHODS: In
      total, six clusters were defined in the study areas. Through a pair-matched
      cluster randomization process, three clusters (average cluster population =
      200,714) were allocated to receive the intervention in the Early arm. Eleven
      months later the intervention was rolled out to the remaining three clusters
      (average cluster population = 209,564)-the Delayed arm. Treatment initiation
      rates for TB and Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) were the primary outcome measures.
      Secondary outcome measures included testing rates for TB and HIV. We report the
      results of the comparisons between the Early and Delayed arms over the 23 month
      trial period. Data were obtained from patient registers. Poisson regression
      models with robust standard errors were used to express the effectiveness of the
      intervention as incidence rate ratios (IRR). RESULTS: The Early and Delayed
      clusters were well matched in terms of baseline monthly mean counts and incidence
      rate ratios for TB and ART treatment initiation. However there were fewer testing
      and treatment initiation facilities in the Early clusters (TB treatment n = 2, TB
      testing n = 7, ART initiation n = 3, HIV testing n = 20) than in the Delayed
      clusters (TB treatment n = 4, TB testing n = 9, ART initiation n = 6, HIV testing
      n = 18). Overall there were more HIV testing and treatment centres than TB
      testing and treatment centres. The IRR was 1.18 (95% CI: 0.903-1.533; p = 0.112)
      for TB treatment initiation and 1.347 (CI:1.00-1.694; p = 0.049) for ART
      initiation in the first 12 months and the IRR were 0.552 (95% CI:0.397-0.767;
      p<0.001) and 0.924 (95% CI: 0.369-2.309, p = 0.863) for TB and ART treatment
      initiations respectively for the last 11 months. The IRR were 1.152 (95% CI:1.009
      1.359, p = 0.003) and 1.61 (95% CI:1.385-1.869, p<0.001) for TB and HIV testing
      uptake respectively in the first 12 months. The IRR was 0.659 (95% CI:0.441
      0.983; p = 0.023) for TB testing uptake for the last 11 months. CONCLUSIONS: We
      conclude that engagement of unpaid IPs increased TB and HIV testing rates and
      also increased ART initiation. However, for these providers to be effective in
      promoting TB treatment initiation, numbers of sites offering TB testing and
      treatment initiation in rural areas should be increased. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02127983.

PMID- 28877246
TI  - Prosthetic rehabilitation of oral submucous fibrosis patients: A systematic
      review of published case reports and case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is an insidious chronic condition
      characterized by restricted mouth opening. Prosthetic rehabilitation is
      challenging for OSF patients as obtaining a good impression requires adequate
      mouth opening. The aim of the present review is to systematically present the
      data from case reports published in the English-language literature. METHOD: A
      comprehensive search of the literature databases (PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of
      Science and Google Scholar) along with the references of published articles on
      prosthetic rehabilitation in OSF patients published to date was conducted.
      Keywords included a combination of 'Oral submucous fibrosis', 'prosthesis',
      'dentures' and/or 'restricted mouth opening'. Citations from selected references
      and bibliographic linkages taken from similar cases were included in this review.
      The inclusion criteria selected for case reports on prosthetic rehabilitation in
      OSF patients, and cases of restricted mouth opening due to causes other than OSF
      were excluded from the study. RESULTS: A total of 21 cases were identified and
      analysed from 17 papers published in the English-language literature. Of these, 9
      cases employed the sectional denture technique, 4 cases emphasized the need-based
      treatment approach in which conventional methods were modified, and 4 cases used
      mouth exercising devices. Finally, 1 case each involved, flexible denture, oral
      screen prosthesis, oral stents, surgery in conjunction with dentures. CONCLUSION:
      Prosthetic rehabilitation in OSF patients is a multifaceted approach and should
      be patient specific, although sectional dentures have achieved the best results.

PMID- 28877247
TI  - Correction: Evaluation of different mathematical models and different b-value
      ranges of diffusion-weighted imaging in peripheral zone prostate cancer detection
      using b-value up to 4500 s/mm2.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172127.].

PMID- 28877248
TI  - Flying foxes create extensive seed shadows and enhance germination success of
      pioneer plant species in deforested Madagascan landscapes.
AB  - Seed dispersal plays a significant role in forest regeneration and maintenance.
      Flying foxes are often posited as effective long-distance seed dispersers due to
      their large home ranges and ability to disperse seeds when flying. We evaluate
      the importance of the Madagascan flying fox Pteropus rufus in the maintenance and
      regeneration of forests in one of the world's priority conservation areas. We
      tested germination success of over 20,000 seeds from the figs Ficus polita, F.
      grevei and F. lutea extracted from bat faeces and ripe fruits under progressively
      more natural conditions, ranging from petri-dishes to outdoor environments. Seeds
      from all fig species showed increased germination success after passing through
      the bats' digestive tracts. Outside, germination success in F. polita was highest
      in faecal seeds grown under semi-shaded conditions, and seeds that passed through
      bats showed increased seedling establishment success. We used data from feeding
      trials and GPS tracking to construct seed shadow maps to visualize seed dispersal
      patterns. The models use Gaussian probability density functions to predict the
      likelihood of defecation events occurring after feeding. In captivity, bats had
      short gut retention times (often < 30 mins), but were sometimes able to retain
      seeds for over 24h. In the wild, bats travelled 3-5 km within 24-280 min after
      feeding, when defecation of ingested seeds is very likely. They produced
      extensive seed shadows (11 bats potentially dispersing seeds over 58,000 ha over
      45 total days of tracking) when feeding on figs within their large foraging areas
      and dispersed the seeds in habitats that were often partially shaded and hence
      would facilitate germination up to 20 km from the feeding tree. Because figs are
      important pioneer species, P. rufus is an important dispersal vector that makes a
      vital contribution to the regeneration and maintenance of highly fragmented
      forest patches in Madagascar.

PMID- 28877249
TI  - Silencing of interferon regulatory factor gene 6 in melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methylation of a CpG island (CGI; a dense cluster of CpGs) located in
      the 5' region of a gene suppresses transcription of that gene. Interferon
      regulatory factor 6 (IRF6) is associated with the expression of interferon, which
      is used as an effective adjuvant therapy for melanoma, and is regarded as a tumor
      suppressor. However, little is known about the methylation status of the IRF6
      gene in melanoma. OBJECTIVE: The purpose was to determine the methylation status
      of the CGI located in the 5' region of IRF6 (5' IRF6 CGI) in melanoma. METHODS:
      Quantitative real-time methylation-specific PCR (RT-MSP) and bisulfite sequencing
      were performed to examine IRF6 gene methylation status. Quantitative real-time
      reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) was performed to examine IRF6 expression.
      RESULTS: The methylation level of the 5' IRF6 CGI was completely inversely
      correlated with cell sensitivity to interferon-beta in eight examined melanoma
      cell lines. These methylation levels were high in the melanoma cell lines with
      suppression of IRF6 expression and were low in the cell lines with IRF6
      expression. The methylation levels of the 5' IRF6 CGI ranged widely from 0.0% to
      65.4% in 21 clinical melanoma samples but showed a narrow range of low levels
      between 0.0% to 7.2% in 24 clinical melanocytic nevus samples. These methylation
      levels were not associated with clinical parameters except for melanoma subtypes.
      CONCLUSION: IRF6 is aberrantly silenced by DNA methylation of the 5' IRF6 CGI in
      melanoma. The methylation status of IRF6 is potentially associated with the
      sensitivity of melanoma to interferon.

PMID- 28877250
TI  - The hypermorph FtsA* protein has an in vivo role in relieving the Escherichia
      coli proto-ring block caused by excess ZapC.
AB  - Assembly of the proto-ring, formed by the essential FtsZ, FtsA and ZipA proteins,
      and its progression into a divisome, are essential events for Escherichia coli
      division. ZapC is a cytoplasmic protein that belongs to a group of non-essential
      components that assist FtsZ during proto-ring assembly. Any overproduction of
      these proteins leads to faulty FtsZ-rings, resulting in a cell division block. We
      show that ZapC overproduction can be counteracted by an excess of the ZipA
      independent hypermorph FtsA* mutant, but not by similar amounts of wild type
      FtsA+. An excess of FtsA+ allowed regular spacing of the ZapC-blocked FtsZ-rings,
      but failed to promote recruitment of the late-assembling proteins FtsQ, FtsK and
      FtsN and therefore, to activate constriction. In contrast, overproduction of
      FtsA*, besides allowing correct FtsZ-ring localization at midcell, restored the
      ability of FtsQ, FtsK and FtsN to be incorporated into active divisomes.

PMID- 28877252
TI  - The role of ADAM17 in the T-cell response against bacterial pathogens.
AB  - ADAM17 is a member of the A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase family of
      proteases. It is ubiquitously expressed and causes the shedding of a broad
      spectrum of surface proteins such as adhesion molecules, cytokines and cytokine
      receptors. By controlled shedding of these proteins from leukocytes, ADAM17 is
      able to regulate immune responses. Several ADAM17 targets on T cells have been
      implicated in T-cell migration, differentiation and effector functions. However,
      the role of ADAM17 in T-cell responses is still unclear. To characterize the
      function of ADAM17 in T cells, we used Adam17fl/fl*CD4cre+ mice with a T-cell
      restricted inactivation of the Adam17 gene. Upon stimulation, ADAM17-deficient
      CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were impaired in shedding of CD62L, IL-6Ralpha, TNF-alpha,
      TNFRI and TNFRII. Surprisingly, we could not detect profound changes in the
      composition of major T-cell subsets in Adam17fl/fl*CD4cre+ mice. Following
      infection with Listeria monocytogenes, Adam17fl/fl*CD4cre+ mice mounted regular
      listeria-specific CD4+ TH1 and CD8+ T-cell responses and were able to control
      primary and secondary infections. In conclusion, our study indicates that ADAM17
      is either not required in T cells under homoeostatic conditions and for control
      of listeria infection or can be effectively compensated by other mechanisms.

PMID- 28877251
TI  - Identification of a novel GJA3 mutation in a large Chinese family with congenital
      cataract using targeted exome sequencing.
AB  - Autosomal dominant congenital cataract (ADCC) is a clinically and genetically
      heterogeneous ocular disease in children that results in serious visual
      impairments or even blindness. Targeted exome sequencing (TES) is an efficient
      method used for genetic diagnoses of inherited diseases. In the present study, we
      used a custom-made TES panel to identify the genetic defect of a four-generation
      Chinese family with bilateral pulverulent nuclear cataracts. A novel heterozygous
      missense mutation c.443C>T (p. T148I) in GJA3 was identified. The results of the
      bioinformatic analysis showed that the mutation was deleterious to the structure
      and hemichannel function of Cx46 encoded by GJA3. Plasmids expressing wild-type
      and mutant human Cx46 were constructed and ectopically expressed in human lens
      epithelial cells (HLECs) or human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cells. Fluorescent
      images indicated aggregated signals of mutant protein in the cytoplasm, and a
      higher protein level was also detected in T148I stable cell lines. In summary, we
      identified a novel mutation in GJA3 for ADCC, which provided molecular insights
      into the pathogenic mechanism of ADCC.

PMID- 28877253
TI  - Revising the lower statistical limit of x-ray grating-based phase-contrast
      computed tomography.
AB  - Phase-contrast x-ray computed tomography (PCCT) is currently investigated as an
      interesting extension of conventional CT, providing high soft-tissue contrast
      even if examining weakly absorbing specimen. Until now, the potential for dose
      reduction was thought to be limited compared to attenuation CT, since meaningful
      phase retrieval fails for scans with very low photon counts when using the
      conventional phase retrieval method via phase stepping. In this work, we examine
      the statistical behaviour of the reverse projection method, an alternative phase
      retrieval approach and compare the results to the conventional phase retrieval
      technique. We investigate the noise levels in the projections as well as the
      image quality and quantitative accuracy of the reconstructed tomographic volumes.
      The results of our study show that this method performs better in a low-dose
      scenario than the conventional phase retrieval approach, resulting in lower noise
      levels, enhanced image quality and more accurate quantitative values. Overall, we
      demonstrate that the lower statistical limit of the phase stepping procedure as
      proposed by recent literature does not apply to this alternative phase retrieval
      technique. However, further development is necessary to overcome experimental
      challenges posed by this method which would enable mainstream or even clinical
      application of PCCT.

PMID- 28877254
TI  - Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of diabetes and impaired fasting
      glucose in the Southern Cone of Latin America.
AB  - AIMS: To determine the prevalence, treatment and control of diabetes mellitus
      (DM) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) as well as associated factors in the
      adult population of four cities of the Southern Cone of Latin America (SCLA).
      METHODS: This is a cross-sectional population-based study that included 7407
      adults between 35 and 74 years old in four cities of the SCLA: Temuco (Chile),
      Marcos Paz and Bariloche (Argentina), and Pando-Barros Blancos (Uruguay). DM was
      defined as fasting plasma glucose >=126 mg/dL or self-reported history of
      diabetes. Awareness, treatment, and control of DM were defined as subjects self
      reporting a DM previous diagnosis, the use of a prescription medication or
      nonpharmacological intervention for DM, and fasting plasma glucose <126 mg/dl,
      respectively. RESULTS: Prevalence of DM varied among cities, between 8.4% in
      Bariloche and 14.3% in Temuco. Prevalence of IFG varied at different sites, from
      3.5% in Barros Blancos to 6.8% in Marcos Paz. Of the total number of people with
      diabetes, 20% were newly diagnosed at the time of the study. Overall, 79.8% of
      patients with diabetes were aware of their condition. The treatment and control
      rate were 58.8% and 46.2%, respectively. Older age, family history of diabetes,
      lower educational attainment, overweight, obesity, central obesity, low physical
      activity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia were all
      significantly associated with an increased risk of diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: The
      prevalence of DM and IFG in the adult population of the SCLA is high and varies
      among cities. These conditions represent a public health challenge since the
      rates of awareness, treatment, and control are still low.

PMID- 28877255
TI  - Characterization of the microDNA through the response to chemotherapeutics in
      lymphoblastoid cell lines.
AB  - Recently, a new class of extrachromosomal circular DNA, called microDNA, was
      identified. They are on average 100 to 400 bp long and are derived from unique
      non-repetitive genomic regions with high gene density. MicroDNAs are thought to
      arise from DNA breaks associated with RNA metabolism or replication slippage.
      Given the paucity of information on this entirely novel phenomenon, we aimed to
      get an additional insight into microDNA features by performing the microDNA
      analysis in 20 independent human lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) prior and after
      treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs. The results showed non-random genesis of
      microDNA clusters from the active regions of the genome. The size periodicity of
      190 bp was observed, which matches DNA fragmentation typical for apoptotic cells.
      The chemotherapeutic drug-induced apoptosis of LCLs increased both number and
      size of clusters further suggesting that part of microDNAs could result from the
      programmed cell death. Interestingly, proportion of identified microDNA sequences
      has common loci of origin when compared between cell line experiments. While
      compatible with the original observation that microDNAs originate from a normal
      physiological process, obtained results imply complementary source of its
      production. Furthermore, non-random genesis of microDNAs depicted by redundancy
      between samples makes these entities possible candidates for new biomarker
      generation.

PMID- 28877256
TI  - Medication and supplement use in older people with and without intellectual
      disability: An observational, cross-sectional study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Understanding the medication and supplement use of aging people is
      critical to ensuring that health service providers in primary care can optimise
      use of these agents. An increasing number of people with different levels of
      intellectual disability (ID) are living in the community and becoming for the
      first time substantial users of primary health care services. This, however,
      brings new challenges that need to be addressed at the primary health care level.
      We quantified the use of medicines and food supplements and described the
      associated patterns of morbidity in the two comparable cohorts of aging
      population with and without intellectual disability. METHOD: This research
      aligned participants of 50 years and over who lived in the community from two
      nationally representative cohorts of older people; those with ID from the
      Intellectual Disability Supplement (n = 238) and those without ID (n = 8,081)
      from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. RESULTS: Data showed that both
      medication and supplement use in the two groups was prevalent but that those with
      ID received more of both medications and supplements (e.g. polypharmacy was 39.0%
      in ID vs. 18.1% in non-ID cohort). Moreover, based on an analysis of the
      therapeutic groups and medications used that treatment was more intense in the ID
      cohort (95.8 vs. 7.0 International Non-proprietary Names per 100 participants).
      Supplement use was almost twice as prevalent in the ID group but substantially
      less diverse with only 10 types of supplements reported. Morbidity was higher in
      the ID group and showed a higher prevalence of neurological and mental health
      disorders. CONCLUSION: The results highlight that the burden of therapy
      management and the potential risks in those ageing with ID differs substantially
      from those ageing without ID. Understanding the medication and supplement use of
      people aging with intellectual disability (ID) is critical to ensuring that
      health service providers in primary/ambulatory care can optimise use of these
      agents.

PMID- 28877258
TI  - An empirical, hierarchical typology of tree species assemblages for assessing
      forest dynamics under global change scenarios.
AB  - The composition of tree species occurring in a forest is important and can be
      affected by global change drivers such as climate change. To inform assessment
      and projection of global change impacts at broad extents, we used hierarchical
      cluster analysis and over 120,000 recent forest inventory plots to empirically
      define forest tree assemblages across the U.S., and identified the indicator and
      dominant species associated with each. Cluster typologies in two levels of a
      hierarchy of forest assemblages, with 29 and 147 groups respectively, were
      supported by diagnostic criteria. Groups in these two levels of the hierarchy
      were labeled based on the top indicator species in each, and ranged widely in
      size. For example, in the 29-cluster typology, the sugar maple-red maple
      assemblage contained the largest number of plots (30,068), while the butternut
      sweet birch and sourwood-scarlet oak assemblages were both smallest (6 plots
      each). We provide a case-study demonstration of the utility of the typology for
      informing forest climate change impact assessment. For five assemblages in the 29
      cluster typology, we used existing projections of changes in importance value
      (IV) for the dominant species under one low and one high climate change scenario
      to assess impacts to the assemblages. Results ranged widely for each scenario by
      the end of the century, with each showing an average decrease in IV for dominant
      species in some assemblages, including the balsam fir-quaking aspen assemblage,
      and an average increase for others, like the green ash-American elm assemblage.
      Future work should assess adaptive capacity of these forest assemblages and
      investigate local population- and community-level dynamics in places where
      dominant species may be impacted. This typology will be ideal for monitoring,
      assessing, and projecting changes to forest communities within the emerging
      framework of macrosystems ecology, which emphasizes hierarchies and broad
      extents.

PMID- 28877260
TI  - Correction: Measuring three aspects of motivation among health workers at primary
      level health facilities in rural Tanzania.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176973.].

PMID- 28877257
TI  - Rosmarinic acid potentiates carnosic acid induced apoptosis in lung fibroblasts.
AB  - Pulmonary fibrosis is characterized by over-population and excessive activation
      of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts disrupting normal lung structure and
      functioning. Rosemary extract rich in carnosic acid (CA) and rosmarinic acid (RA)
      was reported to cure bleomycin-(BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis. We demonstrate
      that CA decreased human lung fibroblast (HLF) viability with IC50 value of
      17.13+/-1.06 MUM, while RA had no cytotoxic effect. In the presence of 50 MUM of
      RA, dose-response for CA shifted to IC50 value of 11.70+/-1.46 MUM, indicating
      synergic action. TGFbeta-transformed HLF, rat lung fibroblasts and L929 cells
      presented similar sensitivity to CA and CA+RA (20MUM+100MUM, respectively)
      treatment. Rat alveolar epithelial cells died only under CA+RA treatment, while
      A549 cells were not affected. Annexin V staining and DNA quantification suggested
      that HLF are arrested in G0/G1 cell cycle phase and undergo apoptosis. CA caused
      sustained activation of phospho-Akt and phospho-p38 expression and inhibition of
      p21 protein.Addition of RA potentiated these effects, while RA added alone had no
      action.Only triple combination of inhibitors (MAPK-p38, pan-caspase,
      PI3K/Akt/autophagy) partially attenuated apoptosis; this suggests that
      cytotoxicity of CA+RA treatment has a complex mechanism involving several
      parallel signaling pathways. The in vivo antifibrotic effect of CA and RA was
      compared with that of Vitamine-E in BLM-induced fibrosis model in rats. We found
      comparable reduction in fibrosis score by CA, RA and CA+RA, attenuation of
      collagen deposition and normalization of oxidative stress markers. In conclusion,
      antifibrotic effect of CA+RA is due to synergistic pro-apoptotic action on lung
      fibroblasts and myofibroblasts.

PMID- 28877259
TI  - Dominance behaviour in a non-aggressive flatfish, Senegalese sole (Solea
      senegalensis) and brain mRNA abundance of selected transcripts.
AB  - Dominance is defined as the preferential access to limited resources. The present
      study aimed to characterise dominance in a non-aggressive flatfish species, the
      Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) by 1) identifying dominance categories and
      associated behaviours and 2) linking dominance categories (dominant and
      subordinate) with the abundance of selected mRNA transcripts in the brain. Early
      juveniles (n = 74, 37 pairs) were subjected to a dyadic dominance test, related
      to feeding, and once behavioural phenotypes had been described the abundance of
      ten selected mRNAs related to dominance and aggressiveness was measured in the
      brain. Late juveniles were subjected to two dyadic dominance tests (n = 34, 17
      pairs), related to feeding and territoriality and one group test (n = 24, 4
      groups of 6 fish). Sole feeding first were categorized as dominant and sole
      feeding second or not feeding as subordinate. Three social behaviours (i.
      "Resting the head" on another fish, ii. "Approaching" another fish, iii.
      "Swimming above another" fish) were associated with dominance of feeding. Two
      other variables (i. Total time occupying the preferred area during the last 2
      hours of the 24 h test, ii. Organisms occupying the preferred area when the test
      ended) were representative of dominance in the place preference test. In all
      tests, dominant fish compared to subordinate fish displayed a significantly
      higher number of the behaviours "Rest the head" and "Approaches". Moreover,
      dominant sole dominated the sand at the end of the test, and in the group test
      dominated the area close to the feed delivery point before feed was delivered.
      The mRNA abundance of the selected mRNAs related to neurogenesis (nrd2) and
      neuroplasticity (c-fos) in dominant sole compared to subordinate were
      significantly different. This is the first study to characterise dominance
      categories with associated behaviours and mRNA abundance in Senegalese sole and
      provides tools to study dominance related problems in feeding and reproduction in
      aquaculture.

PMID- 28877261
TI  - Myelodysplastic syndrome patients present more severe respiratory muscle
      impairment and reduced forced vital capacity: Is disordered inflammatory
      signaling the culprit?
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The ageing process is associated with gradual decline in
      respiratory system performance. Anemia is highly prevalent among older adults and
      usually associated with adverse outcomes. Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a
      heterogeneous group of hematologic malignancies with increasing incidence with
      age and characterized by anemia and other cytopenias. The main objectives of this
      study were to evaluate respiratory muscle strength and lung function in elderly
      patients with anemia, compare data between myelodysplastic syndromes and non
      clonal anemias and evaluate the influence of serum IL-8 level and NF-kB activity
      on deteriorate pulmonary function in this specific population. PARTICIPANTS:
      Individuals aged 60 and older with anemia secondary to MDS, non-clonal anemia and
      healthy elderly individuals. MEASUREMENTS: Forced expiratory volume in 1 second
      (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1/ FVC ratio were measured by
      spirometry. Respiratory muscle strength was evaluated by maximal static
      respiratory pressures measurement. IL-8 analysis was performed by ELISA and
      activity of NF-kB by chemiluminescent assay. RESULTS: Mean Hb concentration was
      comparable between patients with anemia. Significant differences were detected
      between all patients with anemia and controls for maximum-effort inspiratory
      mouth pressure (PImax) and also for maximum-effort expiratory mouth pressure
      (PEmax). The MDS group recorded a significantly lower PImax and PEmax percent
      predicted when compared to non-clonal anemia group. For FVC and FEV1, a
      significant difference was found in anemic patients, with even significantly
      lower values for FVC and FEV1 in MDS group. No significant differences were
      detected for PImax and PEmax and spirometry parameters when anemic patients were
      stratified according to the degree of anemia. A significant negative impact in
      FVC (% pred), PImax (% pred) and PEmax (% pred) was observed in patients with MDS
      and higher levels of IL-8 or increased activity of NF-kB. CONCLUSION: A negative
      impact of anemia, independent of its degree, was demonstrated in respiratory
      muscle strength and lung function particularly in MDS. The well known elevated
      proinflammatory cytokines in MDS patients were proposed to play a role as was
      demonstrated by detrimental effect of higher IL-8 and NF-kB in pulmonary function
      tests in this population.

PMID- 28877262
TI  - The ER retention protein RER1 promotes alpha-synuclein degradation via the
      proteasome.
AB  - Abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein (alphaSyn) has been linked to
      endoplasmic-reticulum (ER) stress, defective intracellular protein/vesicle
      trafficking, and cytotoxicity. Targeting factors involved in ER-related protein
      processing and trafficking may, therefore, be a key to modulating alphaSyn levels
      and associated toxicity. Recently retention in endoplasmic reticulum 1 (RER1) has
      been identified as an important ER retrieval/retention factor for Alzheimer's
      disease proteins and negatively regulates amyloid-beta peptide levels. Here, we
      hypothesized that RER1 might also play an important role in retention/retrieval
      of alphaSyn and mediate levels. We expressed RER1 and a C-terminal mutant
      RER1Delta25, which lacks the ER retention/retrieval function, in HEK293 and H4
      neuroglioma cells. RER1 overexpression significantly decreased levels of both
      wild type and A30P, A53T, and E46K disease causal mutants of alphaSyn, whereas
      the RER1Delta25 mutant had a significantly attenuated effect on alphaSyn. RER1
      effects were specific to alphaSyn and had little to no effect on either betaSyn
      or the Delta71-82 alphaSyn mutant, which both lack the NAC domain sequence
      critical for synuclein fibrillization. Tests with proteasomal and macroautophagy
      inhibitors further demonstrate that RER1 effects on alphaSyn are primarily
      mediated through the ubiquitin-proteasome system. RER1 also appears to interact
      with the ubiquitin ligase NEDD4. RER1 in human diseased brain tissues co
      localizes with alphaSyn-positive Lewy bodies. Together, these findings provide
      evidence that RER1 is a novel and potential important mediator of elevated
      alphaSyn levels. Further investigation of the mechanism of RER1 and downstream
      effectors on alphaSyn may yield novel therapeutic targets for modulation in
      Parkinson disease and related synucleinopathies.

PMID- 28877263
TI  - The transcriptional landscape of Rhizoctonia solani AG1-IA during infection of
      soybean as defined by RNA-seq.
AB  - Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn infects most plant families and can cause significant
      agricultural yield losses worldwide; however, plant resistance to this disease is
      rare and short-lived, and therefore poorly understood, resulting in the use of
      chemical pesticides for its control. Understanding the functional responses of
      this pathogen during host infection can help elucidate the molecular mechanisms
      that are necessary for successful host invasion. Using the pathosystem model
      soybean-R. solani anastomosis group AG1-IA, we examined the global
      transcriptional responses of R. solani during early and late infection stages of
      soybean by applying an RNA-seq approach. Approximately, 148 million clean paired
      end reads, representing 93% of R. solani AG1-IA genes, were obtained from the
      sequenced libraries. Analysis of R. solani AG1-IA transcripts during soybean
      invasion revealed that most genes were similarly expressed during early and late
      infection stages, and only 11% and 15% of the expressed genes were differentially
      expressed during early and late infection stages, respectively. Analyses of the
      differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed shifts in molecular pathways
      involved in antibiotics biosynthesis, amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism, as
      well as pathways involved in antioxidant production. Furthermore, several KEGG
      pathways were unique to each time point, particularly the up-regulation of genes
      related to toxin degradation (e.g., nicotinate and nicotinamid metabolism) at
      onset of necrosis, and those linked to synthesis of anti-microbial compounds and
      pyridoxine (vitamin B6) biosynthesis 24 h.p.o. of necrosis. These results suggest
      that particular genes or pathways are required for either invasion or disease
      development. Overall, this study provides the first insights into R. solani AG1
      IA transcriptome responses to soybean invasion providing beneficial information
      for future targeted control methods of this successful pathogen.

PMID- 28877264
TI  - Typhoon survivors' subjective wellbeing-A different view of responses to natural
      disaster.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Subjective well-being was evaluated three weeks after Super Typhoon
      Haiyan struck the Philippines. Based on the Conservation of Resources theory,
      which focuses on the role of resources in understanding adjustment following
      trauma, data was collected on lost resources. In line with the Conservation of
      Resources theory, four categories of resources were defined: objects-residential
      property; condition-gender health state and witness to injury; personal-coping
      strategies; energy-relationships. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: Eight hundred thirty-four
      people from the Philippines filled out self-report measures using an online
      interview system regarding: socio demographics data, subjective well-being, using
      the Delighted Terrible Faces Scale (DTS), disaster related experiences, coping
      strategies, personal relationships, obtained through support sources (close
      family, relatives and friends, community) and assessing problems with those
      relationships after Haiyan. RESULTS: Subjective well-being was predicted by the
      following classes of resources: objects (home damage) condition (self-rated
      health and witness to injury), personal (positive reframing and self-blame coping
      strategies) and energy resources (relations and problems in relations).
      CONCLUSIONS: The results imply the important role individual's resources (i.e.
      objects, personal characteristics, conditions, and energies) might play in
      promoting subjective well-being, following natural disaster.

PMID- 28877265
TI  - Niclosamide induces protein ubiquitination and inhibits multiple pro-survival
      signaling pathways in the human glioblastoma U-87 MG cell line.
AB  - Glioblastoma is the most common and lethal malignant primary brain tumor for
      which the development of efficacious chemotherapeutic agents remains an urgent
      need. The anti-helminthic drug niclosamide, which has long been in use to treat
      tapeworm infections, has recently attracted renewed interest due to its apparent
      anticancer effects in a variety of in vitro and in vivo cancer models. However,
      the mechanism(s) of action remains to be elucidated. In the present study, we
      found that niclosamide induced cell toxicity in human glioblastoma cells
      corresponding with increased protein ubiquitination, ER stress and autophagy. In
      addition, niclosamide treatment led to down-regulation of Wnt/beta-catenin,
      PI3K/AKT, MAPK/ERK, and STAT3 pro-survival signal transduction pathways to
      further reduce U-87 MG cell viability. Taken together, these results provide new
      insights into the glioblastoma suppressive capabilities of niclosamide, showing
      that niclosamide can target multiple major cell signaling pathways simultaneously
      to effectively promote cell death in U-87 MG cells. Niclosamide constitutes a new
      prospect for a therapeutic treatment against human glioblastoma.

PMID- 28877266
TI  - Feasibility of using a hand-held device to characterize tendon tissue
      biomechanics.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the feasibility of using the MyotonPRO digital palpation
      device in measuring the transverse stiffness of tendon tissue. DESIGN:
      Experimental study. METHODS: The MyotonPRO was used to measure the stiffness and
      related properties of ballistics gel in comparison with an external materials
      testing system (PCB electronics). The device was then used to measure the same
      properties of avian Achilles tendons before and after the removal of the
      overlying skin and subcutaneous tissue. Next, the test-retest reliability of the
      Achilles and patellar tendons was determined in humans. Finally, the stiffness of
      the Achilles tendon was measured before and after competitive running races of
      varying distances (10, 21 and 42 km, total number of athletes analyzed = 66).
      RESULTS: The MyotonPRO demonstrated a high degree of consistency when testing
      ballistics gel with known viscoelastic properties. The presence of skin overlying
      the avian Achilles tendon had a statistically significant impact on stiffness
      (p<0.01) although this impact was of very small absolute magnitude (with skin;
      728 Nm +/-17 Nm, without skin; Nm 704 Nm +/-7 Nm). In healthy adults of normal
      body mass index (BMI), the reliability of stiffness values was excellent both for
      the patellar tendon (ICC, 0.96) and the Achilles tendon (ICC,0.96). In the the
      field study, men had stiffer tendons than women (p<0.05), and the stiffness of
      the Achilles tendon tended to increase following running (p = 0.052).
      CONCLUSIONS: The MyotonPRO can reliably determine the transverse mechanical
      properties of tendon tissue. The measured values are influenced by the presence
      of overlying skin, however this does not appear to compromise the ability of the
      device to record physiologically and clinically relevant measurements.

PMID- 28877267
TI  - A system dynamics approach to understanding the One Health concept.
AB  - There have been many terms used to describe the One Health concept, including
      movement, strategy, framework, agenda, approach, among others. However, the inter
      relationships of the disciplines engaged in the One Health concept have not been
      well described. To identify and better elucidate the internal feedback mechanisms
      of One Health, we employed a system dynamics approach. First, a systematic
      literature review was conducted via searches in PubMed, Web of Knowledge, and
      ProQuest with the search terms: 'One Health' and (concept* or approach*). In
      addition, we used the HistCite(r) tool to add significant articles on One Health
      to the library. Then, of the 2368 articles identified, 19 were selected for
      evaluating the inter-relationships of disciplines engaged in One Health. Herein,
      we report a visually rich, theoretical model regarding interactions of various
      disciplines and complex problem descriptors engaged in One Health problem
      solving. This report provides a conceptual framework for future descriptions of
      the interdisciplinary engagements involved in One Health.

PMID- 28877268
TI  - Combining PET/CT with serum tumor markers to improve the evaluation of
      histological type of suspicious lung cancers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Histological type is important for determining the management of
      patients with suspicious lung cancers. In this study, PET/CT combined with serum
      tumor markers were used to evaluate the histological type of lung lesions.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with suspicious lung cancers underwent 18F-FDG
      PET/CT and serum tumor markers detection. SUVmax of the tumor and serum levels of
      tumor markers were acquired. Differences in SUVmax and serum levels of tumor
      markers among different histological types of lung cancers and between EGFR
      mutation statues of adenocarcinoma were compared. The diagnostic efficiencies of
      SUVmax alone, each serum tumor marker alone, combined tumor markers and the
      combination of both methods were further assessed and compared. RESULTS: SCC had
      the highest level of SUVmax, followed by SCLC and adenocarcinoma, and benign
      lesions had a lowest level. CYFRA21-1 and SCC-Ag were significantly higher in
      SCC, NSE was significantly higher in SCLC (P<0.001), and CEA was higher in
      adenocarcinoma (P = 0.343). The diagnostic efficiencies in evaluating
      histological types of suspicious lung cancers were insufficient when using each
      serum tumor marker or SUVmax alone. When combined, the AUC, sensitivity and
      specificity increased significantly (P<0.05 for all). Additionally, to
      adenocarcinoma, no significant difference was found between EGFR mutation
      statuses in SUVmax or serum tumor markers (P>0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: SUVmax
      and serum tumor markers show values in evaluating the histological types of
      suspicious lung cancers. When properly combined, the diagnostic efficiency can
      increase significantly.

PMID- 28877269
TI  - Pf16 and phiPMW: Expanding the realm of Pseudomonas putida bacteriophages.
AB  - We present the analysis of two novel Pseudomonas putida phages, pf16 and phiPMW.
      Pf16 represents a peripherally related T4-like phage, and is the first of its
      kind infecting a Pseudomonad, with evidence suggesting cyanophage origins.
      Extensive divergence has resulted in pf16 occupying a newly defined clade
      designated as the pf16-related phages, lying at the interface of the Schizo T
      Evens and Exo T-Evens. Recombination with an ancestor of the P. putida phage AF
      is likely responsible for the tropism of this phage. phiPMW represents a
      completely novel Pseudomonas phage with a genome containing substantial genetic
      novelty through its many hypothetical proteins. Evidence suggests that this phage
      has been extensively shaped through gene transfer events and vertical evolution.
      Phylogenetics shows that this phage has an evolutionary history involving FelixO1
      related viruses but is in itself highly distinct from this group.

PMID- 28877270
TI  - Management of pancreatic pseudocysts-A retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic pseudocysts arise mostly in patients with alcohol induced
      chronic pancreatitis causing various symptoms and complications. However, data on
      the optimal management are rare. To address this problem, we analysed patients
      with pancreatic pseudocysts treated at our clinic retrospectively. METHODS: We
      searched our clinical database for the diagnosis pancreatitis from 2004 till
      2014, selected patients with pseudocysts larger than 10 mm and entered all
      relevant information in a database for statistical analysis. RESULTS: In total,
      129 patients with pancreatic pseudocysts were treated at our institution during
      the study period. Most patients suffered from alcohol induced chronic
      pancreatitis (43.4%; 56/129). Pseudocysts were more frequent in female than in
      male (2:1) and were mainly located in the pancreatic head (47.3%; 61/129). Local
      complications like obstructive jaundice were associated with the diameter of the
      cysts (AUC 0.697 in ROC-curve analysis). However, even cysts up to a diameter of
      160 mm can regress spontaneously. Besides a lower re-intervention rate in
      surgically treated patients, endoscopic, percutaneous and surgical drainage are
      equally effective. Most treatment related complications occur in large
      pseudocysts located in the pancreatic head. CONCLUSION: Conservative management
      of large pseudocysts is successful in many patients. Therefore, indication for
      treatment should be made carefully considering the presence and risk of local
      complications. Endoscopic and surgical drainage are equally effective.

PMID- 28877272
TI  - New impact of the Journal of Applied Oral Science.

PMID- 28877271
TI  - Spinal cord homogenates from SOD1 familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis induce
      SOD1 aggregation in living cells.
AB  - Mutant Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) can confer its misfolding on wild-type
      SOD1 in living cells; the propagation of misfolding can also be transmitted
      between cells in vitro. Recent studies identified fluorescently-tagged SOD1G85R
      as a promiscuous substrate that is highly prone to aggregate by a variety of
      templates, in vitro and in vivo. Here, we utilized several SOD1-GFP reporter
      proteins with G37R, G85R, or G93A mutations in SOD1. We observed that human
      spinal cord homogenates prepared from SOD1 familial ALS (FALS) can induce
      significantly more intracellular reporter protein aggregation than spinal cord
      homogenates from sporadic ALS, Alzheimer's disease, multiple system atrophy or
      healthy control individuals. We also determined that the induction of reporter
      protein aggregation by SOD1-FALS tissue homogenates can be attenuated by
      incubating the cells with the SOD1 misfolding-specific antibody 3H1, or the small
      molecule 5-fluorouridine. Our study further implicates SOD1 as the seeding
      particle responsible for the spread of SOD1-FALS neurodegeneration from its
      initial onset site(s), and demonstrates two potential therapeutic strategies for
      SOD1-mediated disease. This work also comprises a medium-throughput cell-based
      platform of screening potential therapeutics to attenuate propagated aggregation
      of SOD1.

PMID- 28877274
TI  - The effect of silver nanoparticles on composite shear bond strength to dentin
      with different adhesion protocols.
AB  - Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of silver
      nanoparticles on composite shear bond strength using one etch and rinse and one
      self-etch adhesive systems. Material and Methods: Silver nanoparticles were
      prepared. Transmission electron microscope and X-ray diffraction were used to
      characterize the structure of the particles. Nanoparticles were applied on
      exposed dentin and then different adhesives and composites were applied. All
      samples were tested by universal testing machine and shear bond strength was
      assesed. Results: Particles with average diameter of about 20 nm and spherical
      shape were found. Moreover, it was shown that pretreatment by silver
      nanoparticles enhanced shear bond strength in both etch and rinse, and in self
      etch adhesive systems (p<=0.05). Conclusions: Considering the positive
      antibacterial effects of silver nanoparticles, using them is recommended in
      restorative dentistry. It seems that silver nanoparticles could have positive
      effects on bond strength of both etch-and-rinse and self-etch adhesive systems.
      The best results of silver nanoparticles have been achieved with Adper Single
      Bond and before acid etching.

PMID- 28877273
TI  - Virtual Reality simulator for dental anesthesia training in the inferior alveolar
      nerve block.
AB  - Objectives: This study shows the development and validation of a dental
      anesthesia-training simulator, specifically for the inferior alveolar nerve block
      (IANB). The system developed provides the tactile sensation of inserting a real
      needle in a human patient, using Virtual Reality (VR) techniques and a haptic
      device that can provide a perceived force feedback in the needle insertion task
      during the anesthesia procedure. Material and Methods: To simulate a realistic
      anesthesia procedure, a Carpule syringe was coupled to a haptic device. The
      Volere method was used to elicit requirements from users in the Dentistry area;
      Repeated Measures Two-Way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), Tukey post-hoc test and
      averages for the results' analysis. A questionnaire-based subjective evaluation
      method was applied to collect information about the simulator, and 26 people
      participated in the experiments (12 beginners, 12 at intermediate level, and 2
      experts). The questionnaire included profile, preferences (number of viewpoints,
      texture of the objects, and haptic device handler), as well as visual
      (appearance, scale, and position of objects) and haptic aspects (motion space,
      tactile sensation, and motion reproduction). Results: The visual aspect was
      considered appropriate and the haptic feedback must be improved, which the users
      can do by calibrating the virtual tissues' resistance. The evaluation of visual
      aspects was influenced by the participants' experience, according to ANOVA test
      (F=15.6, p=0.0002, with p<0.01). The user preferences were the simulator with two
      viewpoints, objects with texture based on images and the device with a syringe
      coupled to it. Conclusion: The simulation was considered thoroughly satisfactory
      for the anesthesia training, considering the needle insertion task, which
      includes the correct insertion point and depth, as well as the perception of
      tissues resistances during the insertion.

PMID- 28877276
TI  - Does laser diode irradiation improve the degree of conversion of simplified
      dentin bonding systems?
AB  - Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of laser diode irradiation
      on the degree of conversion (DC), water sorption (WS), and water solubility (WSB)
      of these bonding systems in an attempt to improve their physico-mechanical
      resistance. Material and Methods: Two bonding agents were tested: a two-step
      total-etch system [AdperTM Single Bond 2, 3M ESPE (SB)] and a universal system
      [AdperTM Single Bond Universal, 3M ESPE (SU)]. Square-shaped specimens were
      prepared and assigned into 4 groups (n=5): SB and SU (control groups - no laser
      irradiation) and SB-L and SU-L [SB and SU laser (L) - irradiated groups]. DC was
      assessed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total
      reflectance. Additional uncured resin samples (~3.0 uL, n=5) of each adhesive
      were also scanned for final DC calculation. For WS/WSB tests, similar specimens
      (n=10) were prepared and measured by monitoring the mass changes after
      dehydration/water storage cycles. For both tests, adhesive fluids were dropped
      into standardized Teflon molds (6.0*6.0*1.0 mm), irradiated with a 970-nm laser
      diode, and then polymerized with an LED-curing unit (1 W/cm2). Results: Laser
      irradiation immediately before photopolymerization increased the DC (%) of the
      tested adhesives: SB-L>SB>SU-L>SU. For WS/WSB (MUg/mm3), only the dentin bonding
      system (DBS) was a significant factor (p<0.05): SB>SU. Conclusion: Irradiation
      with a laser diode improved the degree of conversion of all tested simplified
      dentin bonding systems, with no impact on water sorption and solubility.

PMID- 28877275
TI  - Evaluation of physicochemical properties of root-end filling materials using
      conventional and Micro-CT tests.
AB  - Objective: To evaluate solubility, dimensional stability, filling ability and
      volumetric change of root-end filling materials using conventional tests and new
      Micro-CT-based methods. Material and Methods: 7. Results: The results suggested
      correlated or complementary data between the proposed tests. At 7 days, BIO
      showed higher solubility and at 30 days, showed higher volumetric change in
      comparison with MTA (p<0.05). With regard to volumetric change, the tested
      materials were similar (p>0.05) at 7 days. At 30 days, they presented similar
      solubility. BIO and MTA showed higher dimensional stability than ZOE (p<0.05).
      ZOE and BIO showed higher filling ability (p<0.05). Conclusions: ZOE presented a
      higher dimensional change, and BIO had greater solubility after 7 days. BIO
      presented filling ability and dimensional stability, but greater volumetric
      change than MTA after 30 days. Micro-CT can provide important data on the
      physicochemical properties of materials complementing conventional tests.

PMID- 28877277
TI  - Treatment of experimental periodontal disease by laser therapy in simvastatin
      modified rats.
AB  - Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate low-level laser therapy (LLLT)
      as an adjuvant treatment for scaling and root planing (SRP) for the treatment of
      induced periodontitis in simvastatin-modified rats. Material and Methods: A total
      of 180 rats were evenly divided into two groups: Veh - receiving oral
      administration of polyethylene glycol (vehicle); S - receiving oral
      administration of Simvastatin. Periodontal disease was induced in both groups at
      the first mandibular molar. After seven days, the ligature was removed and the
      animals were divided into subgroups according to the following local treatments:
      NT - no treatment; SRP - scaling and root planing and irrigation with saline
      solution; and LLLT !- SRP and laser irradiation (660 nm; 0.03 W; 4 J). Ten
      animals in each subgroup/local treatment were euthanized at 7, 15 and 30 days.
      Samples of gingival tissue were processed to analyze the tissue oxidative damage
      and radiographic analysis. Levels of oxidative stress were analyzed by the
      expressions of Tripeptideglutathione (TG), Malondialdehyde (MDA) and Carbonylated
      Proteins (CP). Results: The animals in S group had higher levels of TG and lower
      levels of MDA and CP compared with Veh group (p<0.05). Radiographically, in the
      intragroup analysis Veh and S, LLLT showed lower bone loss (BL) compared with NT
      and SRP, in all experimental periods (p<0.01). In addition, a lower BL was
      observed for the animals of Veh group treated with LLLT compared with treatment
      SRP in the S group, in all experimental periods. Conclusion: Within the limits of
      this study, we can conclude that LLLT was effective as adjuvant treatment for SRP
      protecting against the occurrence of oxidative tissue damages as well as for
      reducing alveolar bone loss in experimentally induced periodontitis simvastatin
      modified rats.

PMID- 28877278
TI  - Effect of photodynamic therapy and non-thermal plasma on root canal filling:
      analysis of adhesion and sealer penetration.
AB  - Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of photodynamic
      therapy (PDT) and non-thermal plasma (NTP) on adhesion and sealer penetration in
      root canals. Material and Methods: Sixty single-rooted premolars were used. The
      teeth were prepared using a crown-down technique. NaOCl and EDTA were used for
      irrigation and smear layer removal, respectively. The root canals were divided
      into three groups: control, PDT, and NTP. After treatments, the roots were filled
      using gutta-percha and either AH Plus (AHP) or MTA Fillapex (MTAF) sealers.
      Samples were sectioned at 4, 8, and 12 mm from the apex (1-mm slices)and analyzed
      by the push-out bond strength test (adhesion) and confocal laser scanning
      microscopy (sealer penetration). Data were statistically evaluated using Kruskal
      Wallis, Dunn's, and Spearman's tests. Results: Regarding AHP, bond strength was
      similar in the NTP group and in the control group, but significantly lower in the
      PDT group. As to MTAF, both therapies showed lower values than the control group.
      In the confocal analysis of AHP, maximum and mean penetration, and penetrated
      area were statistically higher in the control group than in the PDT and NTP
      groups. Penetrated perimeter was similar among groups. Regarding MTAF, all
      parameters yielded better results in the NTP than in the control group. The PDT
      and control groups showed similar results except for penetrated area. Conclusion:
      PDT and plasma therapy affected the adhesion and sealer penetration of root
      canals filled with AH Plus and MTA Fillapex and there is no positive correlation
      between adhesion and sealer penetration.

PMID- 28877280
TI  - Mechanical properties, water sorption characteristics, and compound release of
      grape seed extract-incorporated resins.
AB  - Objective: This study evaluated the effect of grape seed extract (GSE)
      incorporation on the mechanical properties, water sorption, solubility, and GSE
      release from the experimental adhesive resins. Material and Methods: An
      experimental comonomer mixture, consisting of 40% Bis-GMA, 30% Bis MP, 28% HEMA,
      0.26% camphorquinone and 1% EDMAB, was used to prepare four GSE-incorporated
      adhesive resins at concentrations of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 wt%. The neat resin
      without GSE was used as the control. Six resin beams (25 mm x 2 mm x 2 mm) per
      group were prepared for flexural strength and modulus of elasticity evaluations
      using a universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min. Five disks (6
      mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness) per group were used for microhardness
      measurements using a Leitz micro-hardness tester with Leica Qgo software. Five
      disks (7 mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness) per group were prepared and stored
      in deionized water for 28 days. Water sorption, solubility, and GSE release in
      deionized water were calculated for each GSE-incorporated adhesive at the end of
      28th day. Data was evaluated using one-way ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparisons.
      Results: Flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and microhardness of GSE
      incorporated adhesive decreased significantly with incorporation of 1.5% of GSE
      (p<0.05). Addition of GSE had no effect on the water sorption of the adhesive
      resins (p=0.33). The solubility of the resin also increased significantly with
      incorporation of 1.5% of GSE (p<0.05). Quantities of GSE release increased with
      increased concentration of GSE in the adhesive resin. Conclusion: Up to 1% of GSE
      can be incorporated into a dental adhesive resin without interfering with the
      mechanical properties or solubility of the resins.

PMID- 28877279
TI  - Development of a self-report questionnaire designed for population-based
      surveillance of gingivitis in adolescents: assessment of content validity and
      reliability.
AB  - Objective: This study aimed to develop and assess the content validity and
      reliability of a cognitively adapted self-report questionnaire designed for
      surveillance of gingivitis in adolescents. Material and Methods: Ten
      predetermined self-report questions evaluating early signs and symptoms of
      gingivitis were preliminary assessed by a panel of clinical experts. Eight
      questions were selected and cognitively tested in 20 adolescents aged 12 to 18
      years from Santiago de Chile. The questionnaire was then conducted and answered
      by 178 Chilean adolescents. Internal consistency was measured using the
      Cronbach's alpha and temporal stability was calculated using the Kappa-index.
      Results: A reliable final self-report questionnaire consisting of 5 questions was
      obtained, with a total Cronbach's alpha of 0.73 and a Kappa-index ranging from
      0.41 to 0.77 between the different questions. Conclusions: The proposed
      questionnaire is reliable, with an acceptable internal consistency and a temporal
      stability from moderate to substantial, and it is promising for estimating the
      prevalence of gingivitis in adolescents.

PMID- 28877281
TI  - Effect of vegetable oils applied over acquired enamel pellicle on initial
      erosion.
AB  - Objective: The prevalence of dental erosion has been recently increasing,
      requiring new preventive and therapeutic approaches. Vegetable oils have been
      studied in preventive dentistry because they come from a natural, edible, low
      cost, and worldwide accessible source. This study aimed to evaluate the
      protective effect of different vegetable oils, applied in two concentrations, on
      initial enamel erosion. Material and Methods: Initially, the acquired pellicle
      was formed in situ for 2 hours. Subsequently, the enamel blocks were treated in
      vitro according to the study group (n=12/per group): GP5 and GP100 - 5% and pure
      palm oil, respectively; GC5 and GC100 - 5% and pure coconut oil; GSa5 and GSa100 
      5% and pure safflower oil; GSu5 and GSu100 - 5% and pure sunflower oil; GO5 and
      GO100 - 5% and pure olive oil; CON- - Deionized Water (negative control) and CON+
      - Commercial Mouthwash (Elmex(r) Erosion Protection Dental Rinse, GABA/positive
      control). Then, the enamel blocks were immersed in artificial saliva for 2
      minutes and subjected to short-term acid exposure in 0.5% citric acid, pH 2.4,
      for 30 seconds, to promote enamel surface softening. The response variable was
      the percentage of surface hardness loss [((SHi - SHf) / SHf )*100]. Data were
      analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (p<0.05). Results: Enamel blocks of
      GP100 presented similar hardness loss to GSu100 (p>0.05) and less than the other
      groups (p<0.05). There was no difference between GP5, GC5, GC100, GSa5, GSu100,
      GSa100, GSu5, GO5, GO100, CON- and CON+. Conclusion: Palm oil seems to be a
      promising alternative for preventing enamel erosion. However, further studies are
      necessary to evaluate a long-term erosive cycling.

PMID- 28877282
TI  - Two-point discrimination values vary depending on test site, sex and test
      modality in the orofacial region: a preliminary study.
AB  - Objective: The aims of the present study were to determine the normal values of
      TPD in the six trigeminal sites (the forehead, cheek, mentum, upper lip, lower
      lip, and the tongue tip) and to investigate the effect of the site, sex, and test
      modality on the TPD perception. Material and Methods: Forty healthy volunteers
      consisting of age-matched men (20) and women (20) with a mean age of 27.1 years
      were recruited. One examiner performed the TPD test using a simple hand-operated
      device, i.e., by drawing compass with a blunt or sharp-pointed tip. The static
      TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (STPDB), moving TPD with a blunt-pointed tip
      (MTPDB), and static TPD with a sharp-pointed tip (STPDS) were measured. The
      predictors were the site, sex, and test modality, and the outcome variable was
      the TPD value. Three-way ANOVA was used for statistics. Results: The analysis
      showed a significant effect of the site, sex and test modality on the TPD values.
      Significant differences between the test sites were observed with the descending
      order from the forehead and cheek>mentum>upper lip and lower lip>tongue tip and
      index finger. Women showed lower TPD values than those of men. The STPDS
      measurements were consistently lower than those of the STPDB and MTPDB.
      Conclusions: The normal values of TPD in this study suggest that the cheek and
      forehead were less sensitive than other regions evaluated and women were more
      sensitive than men. The STPDS was the most sensitive test modality.

PMID- 28877283
TI  - Bacterial endotoxin adhesion to different types of orthodontic adhesives.
AB  - Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether LPS adheres to orthodontic
      adhesive systems, comparing two commercial brands. Material and Methods: Forty
      specimens were fabricated from Transbond XT and Light Bond composite and bonding
      agent components (n=10/component), then contaminated by immersion in a bacterial
      endotoxin solution. Contaminated and non-contaminated acrylic resin samples were
      used as positive and negative control groups, respectively. LPS quantification
      was performed by the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate QCL-1000TM test. Data obtained were
      scored and subjected to the Chi-square test using a significance level of 5%.
      Results: There was endotoxin adhesion to all materials (p<0.05). No statistically
      significant difference was found between composites/bonding agents and acrylic
      resin (p>0.05). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) among commercial
      brands. Affinity of endotoxin was significantly greater for the bonding agents
      (p=0.0025). Conclusions: LPS adhered to both orthodontic adhesive systems.
      Regardless of the brand, the endotoxin had higher affinity for the bonding agents
      than for the composites. There is no previous study assessing the affinity of LPS
      for orthodontic adhesive systems. This study revealed that LPS adheres to
      orthodontic adhesive systems. Therefore, additional care is recommended to
      orthodontic applications of these materials.

PMID- 28877287
TI  - Erratum.
AB  - [This corrects the article doi: 10.1590/1807-3107BOR-2016.vol30.0134].

PMID- 28877286
TI  - ERRATUM.
AB  - [This corrects the article doi: 10.1590/1678-7757-2016-0322].

PMID- 28877285
TI  - Chondroblastic osteosarcoma mimicking periapical abscess.
AB  - Case report: The present report describes a case of chondroblastic osteosarcoma
      in the periapical region of teeth #29, #30, and #31 of an 18-year-old male.
      Clinical history showed self-reported discomfort in the right posterior gingiva
      for over a month. Physical examination showed a small expansion and redness of
      the right mandibular buccal and lingual cortical plates, but no signs of pain or
      inflammation were observed. All the teeth responded positively to pulp
      sensibility. Periapical and panoramic radiographs showed slight periapical
      radiolucency in the roots of teeth #29 and #30, clear periodontal ligament space
      widening, and evident loss of lamina dura. Incisional biopsy was performed, and
      based on microscopic findings the diagnosis of chondroblastic osteosarcoma was
      confirmed. Conclusions: Non-endodontic diseases associated with tooth root apex,
      such as chondroblastic osteosarcoma, should be included in differential diagnosis
      of jaw lesions that resemble periapical abscess.

PMID- 28877284
TI  - Caries progression in non-cavitated fissures after infiltrant application: a 3
      year follow-up of a randomized controlled clinical trial.
AB  - Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a conservative treatment to prevent the
      progression of caries using an infiltrant on non-cavitated pit and fissures.
      Material and Methods: This controlled clinical trial selected 23 volunteers with
      clinically and radiographically non-cavitated occlusal caries among patients
      presenting a "rather low" to "very high" caries risk. Eighty-six teeth were
      randomly divided into two experimental groups: teeth receiving a commercial pit
      and-fissure sealant (Alpha Seal-DFL) and contralateral teeth receiving Icon
      infiltrant (DMG). Caries progression was monitored by clinical (laser
      fluorescence caries detection) and radiographic examination at 12-month intervals
      over a period of 3 years of monitored caries progression. Probing the sealing
      materials to detect areas of retention was also used to evaluate marginal
      integrity. Results: Statistical analysis showed no difference in caries
      progression using laser fluorescence caries detection when both materials were
      compared, regardless of the evaluation times (p>0.05). No significance was
      observed when the marginal sealant integrity of both materials was compared,
      regardless of the evaluation time (p<0.05). Marginal integrity significantly
      reduced after 1 year for both materials (p<0.05), but remained stable after 2 and
      3 years of evaluation, compared with 1-year results (p>0.05). SEM analysis
      exhibited a more homogeneous sealing for the infiltrant than obtained by the
      sealant. Conclusions: The infiltrant was effective to prevent the caries
      progression in non-cavitated pit-and-fissures after 3 years of clinical
      evaluation, comparable with the conventional sealant. The infiltrant also
      presented better results in terms of caries progression at the 3-year evaluation
      time using the radiographic analysis.

PMID- 28877289
TI  - Attempting to Define "Hypoallergenic".

PMID- 28877290
TI  - Error in Affiliation.

PMID- 28877288
TI  - Effect of rewetting solutions on micropush-out dentin bond strength of new
      bioceramic endodontic material.
AB  - To evaluate the influence of rewetting solutions on bond strength to root dentin
      of conventional gutta-percha (GP) or niobium phosphate glass-based gutta-percha
      (GNb) associated with a bioceramic sealer. The root canals of 80 human mandibular
      premolars were prepared using nickel-titanium instruments and irrigation with
      sodium hypochlorite and EDTA. The teeth were randomly divided into four groups
      according to the gutta-percha used: GNb or GP associated with EndoSequence BC
      Sealer (BC) and the solution for rewetting dentin before filling (distilled
      water; phosphate buffer saline solution - PBS; simulated body fluid - SBF; or no
      solution). The root canals were filled with a single cone using warm vertical
      condensation. Micropush-out bond strengths associated with the filling materials
      in slices from middle root thirds was determined 30 days after root filling. The
      failure mode was analyzed with stereoscopic lens. The data were statistically
      analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Holm-Sidak test (p < 0.05). There was significant
      difference in the types of gutta-percha (p < 0.001) and in the different
      rewetting solutions (p = 0.003). The interaction between gutta-percha and
      rewetting solutions was not significant (p = 0.53). The SBF solution provided an
      increase in bond strength for both gutta-percha solutions. The GNb+BC (3.42 MPa)
      association increased bond strength when compared with GP+BC (2.0 MPa). The use
      of SBF as a dentin rewetting solution increased bond strength in the groups
      studied. Association of GNb with bioceramic sealer was beneficial, increasing the
      bond strength to dentin when compared with the association with GP.

PMID- 28877292
TI  - Safety and Outcomes of the Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy Vestibular
      Approach.
AB  - Importance: Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery thyroidectomy is a
      novel approach to avoid surgical scars. Objective: To compare the safety and
      outcomes of the transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA)
      with those of open thyroidectomy (OT). Design, Setting, and Participants: This
      study retrospectively reviewed all TOETVA and OT operations performed from April
      1, 2014, through August 31, 2016, at Police General Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.
      All patients who underwent TOETVA and patients who underwent OT were included.
      Exclusion criteria were (1) previous neck surgery, (2) substernal goiter, (3)
      lymph node or distance metastasis, and (4) suspicious invasion to the adjacent
      organs. Propensity score matching was conducted to reduce selective bias. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: Operative time, blood loss, and complications related to
      thyroid surgery. Results: Of the 425 patients who underwent transoral endoscopic
      thyroidectomy (mean age, 35.3 [12.1] years; age range, 16-81 years; 389 [92.2%]
      female), 422 successfully were treated with the TOETVA; 3 patients were converted
      to a conventional operation because of bleeding. Twenty-five patients (5.9%) had
      transient recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, and 46 (10.9%) had transient
      hypoparathyroidism. None had permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy or
      permanent hypoparathyroidism. Three patients (0.7%) had transient mental nerve
      injury; all cases resolved by 4 months. One patient developed postoperative
      hematoma treated by OT. Twenty patients (4.7%) had seroma treated by simple
      aspiration. Operative time was longer for the TOETVA compared with the OT group
      (100.8 [39.7] vs 79.4 [32.1] minutes, P = 1.61 * 10-10). The mean (SD) visual
      analog scale score for pain was lower in the TOETVA group (1.1 [1.2] vs 2.8
      [1.2], P = 2.52 * 10-38). Estimated mean (SD) blood loss (36.9 [32.4] vs 37.6
      [23.1] mL, P = .43) and rate of complications (45 of 216 [20.8%] vs 38 of 216
      [17.6%], P = .41) were not significantly different in the TOETVA vs OT group.
      Conclusions and Relevance: The TOETVA was performed as safely as OT, requires
      only conventional laparoscopic instruments, and avoids incisional scars; thus,
      the approach may be an option for select patients.

PMID- 28877291
TI  - Survival and Cardiovascular Outcomes of Patients With Secondary Mitral
      Regurgitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Importance: The outcomes of patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and
      secondary mitral regurgitation (SMR) are still controversial. Objective: To
      clarify the role of SMR in the outcomes of patients with ischemic or idiopathic
      cardiomyopathies. Data Sources: MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus databases
      were searched for studies published up to March 2017. Study Selection: Studies
      reporting data on outcomes in patients with SMR were included. Duplicate
      publication data, studies lacking data on SMR grade and its correlation with
      outcomes, mixed data on SMR and primary mitral regurgitation, studies not clearly
      reporting the outcome of interest, and studies with fewer than 100 patients were
      excluded. Of the initial 3820 articles identified, 1.4% were finally included.
      Data Extraction and Synthesis: The study met PRISMA requirements. Two of us
      independently screened articles for fulfillment of inclusion criteria. Main
      Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome, set after data collection, was the
      incidence of all-cause mortality in patients with and without SMR. Secondary
      outcomes included hospitalization for heart failure (HF), cardiac mortality, and
      a composite end point of death, HF hospitalization, and cardiac transplant.
      Results: Fifty-three studies and 45 900 patients were included in the meta
      analysis. The mean (SD) length of follow-up was 40.8 (22.2) months. In 26 of 36
      studies reporting LV function by SMR grade, increasing SMR severity was
      associated with worse LV function. When SMR was categorized as present or absent,
      all-cause mortality was significantly higher in the patients with SMR (17
      studies, 26 359 patients; risk ratio [RR],1.79; 95% CI, 1.47-2.18; P < .001, I2 =
      85%); when SMR was qualitatively graded, the incidence of all-cause mortality was
      significantly increased in patients having any degree of SMR compared with
      patients not having SMR (21 studies, 21 081 patients; RR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.67
      2.31; P < .001, I2 = 74%). Finally, when SMR was quantitatively graded, it
      remained associated with an increased all-cause mortality rate (9 studies, 3649
      patients; RR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.71-2.27; P < .001, I2 = 0%). Moreover, SMR was
      associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for HF (16 studies, 10 171
      patients; RR, 2.26; 95% CI, 1.92-2.67; P < .001, I2 = 41%), cardiac mortality (12
      studies, 11 896 patients; RR, 2.62; 95% CI, 1.87-3.69; P < .001, I2 = 74%), and
      death, HF, and transplant (11 studies, 8256 patients; RR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.33
      1.99; P < .001, I2 = 78%). Conclusions and Relevance: To our knowledge, this
      study is the first meta-analysis to date to demonstrate that SMR, even when mild,
      correlates with adverse outcomes in patients with ischemic or idiopathic
      cardiomyopathies. Because SMR is an intrinsic consequence of LV dysfunction,
      causality between SMR and mortality should not be implied.

PMID- 28877293
TI  - Thermodilution vs Estimated Fick Cardiac Output Measurement in Clinical Practice:
      An Analysis of Mortality From the Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment,
      Reporting, and Tracking (VA CART) Program and Vanderbilt University.
AB  - Importance: Thermodilution (Td) and estimated oxygen uptake Fick (eFick) methods
      are widely used to measure cardiac output (CO). They are often used
      interchangeably to make critical clinical decisions, yet few studies have
      compared these approaches as applied in medical practice. Objectives: To assess
      agreement between Td and eFick CO and to compare how well these methods predict
      mortality. Design, Setting, and Participants: This investigation was a
      retrospective cohort study with up to 1 year of follow-up. The study used data
      from the Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking (VA CART)
      program. The findings were corroborated in a cohort of patients cared for at
      Vanderbilt University, an academic referral center. Participants were more than
      15 000 adults who underwent right heart catheterization, including 12 232 in the
      Veterans Affairs cohort between October 1, 2007, and September 30, 2013, and 3391
      in the Vanderbilt cohort between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2014.
      Exposures: A single cardiac catheterization was performed on each patient with CO
      estimated by both Td and eFick methods. Cardiac output was indexed to body
      surface area (cardiac index [CI]) for all analyses. Main Outcomes and Measures:
      All-cause mortality over 90 days and 1 year after catheterization. Results: Among
      12 232 VA patients (mean [SD] age, 66.4 [9.9] years; 3.3% female) who underwent
      right heart catheterization in this cohort study, Td and eFick CI estimates
      correlated modestly (r = 0.65). There was minimal mean difference (eFick minus Td
      = -0.02 L/min/m2, or -0.4%) but wide 95% limits of agreement between methods (
      1.3 to 1.3 L/min/m2, or -50.1% to 49.4%). Estimates differed by greater than 20%
      for 38.1% of patients. Low Td CI (<2.2 L/min/m2 compared with normal CI of 2.2
      4.0 L/min/m2) more strongly predicted mortality than low eFick CI at 90 days (Td
      hazard ratio [HR], 1.71; 95% CI, 1.47-1.99; chi2 = 49.5 vs eFick HR, 1.42; 95%
      CI, 1.22-1.64; chi2 = 20.7) and 1 year (Td HR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.39-1.69; chi2 =
      71.5 vs eFick HR, 1.35; 1.22-1.49; chi2 = 35.2). Patients with a normal CI by
      both methods had 12.3% 1-year mortality. There was no significant additional risk
      for patients with a normal Td CI but a low eFick CI (12.9%, P = .51), whereas a
      low Td CI but normal eFick CI was associated with higher mortality (15.4%, P =
      .001). The results from the Vanderbilt cohort were similar in the context of a
      more balanced sex distribution (46.6% female). Conclusions and Relevance: There
      is only modest agreement between Td and eFick CI estimates. Thermodilution CI
      better predicts mortality and should be favored over eFick in clinical practice.

PMID- 28877294
TI  - Administrative Codes for Capturing In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

PMID- 28877295
TI  - Secondary Mitral Regurgitation and Survival in Patients With Left Ventricular
      Dysfunction.

PMID- 28877296
TI  - Heterogeneity Within and Between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention
      Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Challenge or Opportunity?

PMID- 28877297
TI  - Arm Swelling Following Attempted Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter.

PMID- 28877298
TI  - Association of Intraoperative Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Early-Stage Breast
      Cancer With Minor Surgical Site Complications in Oncoplastic Breast-Conserving
      Surgery.

PMID- 28877299
TI  - Nonoperative Management of Pancreatic Fistula: Why Not an Endoscopic Approach?

PMID- 28877300
TI  - A Transgender Woman With Anogenital Lichen Sclerosus.

PMID- 28877301
TI  - Recent Changes in Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care by Mental Health
      Status, 2012-2015.

PMID- 28877302
TI  - Prevention of Anxiety Disorders Across the Lifespan.

PMID- 28877303
TI  - Association of Guideline Adherence for Serial Evaluations With Survival and
      Adverse Clinical Events in Patients With Asymptomatic Severe Aortic Stenosis.
AB  - Importance: For patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis and normal left
      ventricular function, current practice guidelines empirically recommend serial
      evaluations every 6 to 12 months. The benefit of this clinical monitoring is
      unknown. Objective: To determine the association of guideline adherence with
      clinical outcomes in patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis. Design,
      Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study involved 300 patients
      with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis who were seen in the ambulatory
      Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Rates of survival
      and adverse clinical events, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart
      failure hospitalization, were compared between patients who adhered to serial
      evaluation guidance and those who did not. Medical records were reviewed from
      July 25, 2007, to December 6, 2012. Data analysis took place from February 4,
      2017, to July 10, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: All-cause mortality, heart
      failure hospitalization, and major adverse clinical events during follow-up.
      Results: The study population of 300 comprised 143 men (47.7%) and had a mean
      (SD) age of 78.6 (11.5) years. There were no differences in age, race/ethnicity,
      sex, comorbidities, insurance status, left ventricular function, and aortic
      stenosis severity between patients with (n = 202) and patients without (n = 98)
      guideline adherence. Aortic valve replacement (surgical or catheter based) was
      performed more frequently (54.0% vs 19.4%; P < .001) and the median
      (interquartile range) time for this performance was earlier (2.2 [1.2-3.6] years
      vs 3.5 [2.0-5.8] years; P < .001) in patients with guideline adherence. All-cause
      mortality was higher for nonadherent patients (hazard ratio [HR], 1.57; 95% CI,
      1.07-2.30; P < .001), and these patients also had a higher rate of hospital
      admission for heart failure decompensation in follow-up (HR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.27
      2.18; P < .001). Four-year survival that is free from death and heart failure
      hospitalization was higher for adherent patients than for nonadherent patients
      (38.7% vs 23.3%; P < .001), and this difference remained significant in models
      adjusted for baseline variables (adjusted HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.04-2.29; P = .03).
      Conclusions and Relevance: The findings of this study support the need for close
      monitoring of patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis and help to
      validate current guidelines for serial evaluations. These findings also support
      initiatives to improve guideline adherence in clinical practice.

PMID- 28877304
TI  - Thyroid Surgery Through the Mouth Might Not Be as Crazy as It Sounds.

PMID- 28877305
TI  - Incorrect Spelling of Author's Name.

PMID- 28877306
TI  - A Violaceous, Photodistributed Cutaneous Eruption and Leg Ulcer in a Woman With
      Essential Thrombocytosis.

PMID- 28877307
TI  - A Reconfigurable Multiplanar In Vitro Simulator for Real-Time Absolute Motion
      With External and Musculotendon Forces.
AB  - Advancements in computational musculoskeletal biomechanics are constrained by a
      lack of experimental measurement under real-time physiological loading
      conditions. This paper presents the design, configuration, capabilities,
      accuracy, and repeatability of The University of Texas at El Paso Joint Load
      Simulator (UTJLS) by testing four cadaver knee specimens with 47 real-time tests
      including heel and toe squat maneuvers with and without musculotendon forces. The
      UTJLS is a musculoskeletal simulator consisting of two robotic manipulators and
      eight musculotendon actuators. Sensors include eight tension load cells, two
      force/torque systems, nine absolute encoders, and eight incremental encoders. A
      custom control system determines command output for position, force, and hybrid
      control and collects data at 2000 Hz. Controller configuration performed forward
      dynamic control for all knee degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) except knee flexion.
      Actuator placement and specimen potting techniques uniquely replicate muscle
      paths. Accuracy and repeatability standard deviations across specimen during
      squat simulations were equal or less than 8 N and 5 N for musculotendon
      actuators, 30 N and 13 N for ground reaction forces (GRFs), and 4.4 N.m and 1.9
      N.m for ground reaction moments. The UTJLS is the first of its design type.
      Controller flexibility and physical design support axis constraints to match
      traditional testing rigs, absolute motion, and synchronous real-time simulation
      of multiplanar kinematics, GRFs, and musculotendon forces. System DOFs, range of
      motion, and speed support future testing of faster maneuvers, various joints, and
      kinetic chains of two connected joints.

PMID- 28877308
TI  - Incidence of Myocardial Infarction After High-Risk Vascular Operations in Adults.
AB  - Importance: Advances in perioperative cardiac management and an increase in the
      number of endovascular procedures have made significant contributions to patients
      and postoperative myocardial infarction (POMI) risk following high-risk vascular
      procedures. Whether these changes have translated into real-world improvements in
      POMI incidence remain unknown. Objective: To examine the temporal trends of
      myocardial infarction (MI) following high-risk vascular procedures. Design,
      Setting, and Participants: A retrospective cohort study was performed using data
      collected from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2013, in the American College of
      Surgeons National Surgery Quality Improvement Program database, to which
      participating hospitals across the United States report their preoperative,
      operative, and 30-day outcome data. A total of 90 303 adults who underwent a high
      risk vascular procedure-open aortic surgery or infrainguinal bypass-during the
      study period were identified. Patients were divided into cohorts based on their
      year of operation, and their baseline cardiac risk factors and incidence of POMI
      were compared. Cases from 2005 to 2014 in the database were eligible for
      inclusion if one of their Current Procedural Terminology codes matched any of the
      operations identified as a high-risk vascular procedure. Data analysis took place
      from August 1, 2016, to November 15, 2016. Exposures: The main exposure was the
      year of the operation. Other variables of interest included demographics,
      comorbidities, and other risk factors for MI. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary
      outcome of interest was the incidence of POMI. Results: Of the 90 303 patients
      included in the study, 22 836 (25.3%) had undergone open aortic surgery and 67
      467 (74.7%) had had infrainguinal bypass. The open aortic cohort comprised 16 391
      men (71.9%), had a mean (SD) age of 69.1 (11.5) years, and was predominantly
      white (18 440 patients [80.8%] self-identified as white race/ethnicity). The
      infrainguinal bypass cohort included 41 845 men (62.1%), had a mean (SD) age of
      66.7 (11.7) years, and had 51 043 patients (75.7%) who self-identified as white
      race/ethnicity. During the study period, patients who underwent open aortic
      procedures were more likely to be classified as American Society of
      Anesthesiologists class IV (7426 patients [32.6%] vs 15 683 [23.3%] for the
      infrainguinal bypass cohort) or class V (1131 [5.0%] vs 206 [0.3%]; P < .001) and
      to undergo emergency procedures (4852 [21.3%] vs 4954 [7.3%]; P < .001). The open
      aortic procedure cohort also experienced significantly higher actual incidence of
      POMI (464 [3.0%] vs 1270 [1.9%]; P < .001). From 2009 to 2014, the incidence of
      POMI demonstrated no substantial temporal change (2.7% in 2009 to 3.1% in 2014; P
      = .64 for trend). Postoperative MI was consistently associated with poor
      prognosis, with a 3.62-fold (95% CI, 2.25-5.82) to 11.77-fold (95% CI, 6.10
      22.72) increased odds of cardiac arrest and a 3.01-fold (95% CI, 2.08-4.36) to
      6.66-fold (95% CI, 4.66-9.52) increased odds of mortality. Conclusions and
      Relevance: The incidence of MI did not significantly decrease in the past decade
      and has been consistently associated with worse clinical outcomes. Further
      inquiry into why advanced perioperative care did not reduce cardiac complications
      is important to quality improvement efforts.

PMID- 28877309
TI  - A Finite Element Model of a Midsize Male for Simulating Pedestrian Accidents.
AB  - Pedestrians represent one of the most vulnerable road users and comprise nearly
      22% the road crash-related fatalities in the world. Therefore, protection of
      pedestrians in car-to-pedestrian collisions (CPC) has recently generated
      increased attention with regulations involving three subsystem tests. The
      development of a finite element (FE) pedestrian model could provide a
      complementary component that characterizes the whole-body response of vehicle
      pedestrian interactions and assesses the pedestrian injuries. The main goal of
      this study was to develop and to validate a simplified full body FE model
      corresponding to a 50th male pedestrian in standing posture (M50-PS). The FE
      model mesh and defined material properties are based on a 50th percentile male
      occupant model. The lower limb-pelvis and lumbar spine regions of the human model
      were validated against the postmortem human surrogate (PMHS) test data recorded
      in four-point lateral knee bending tests, pelvic?abdomen?shoulder?thoracic impact
      tests, and lumbar spine bending tests. Then, a pedestrian-to-vehicle impact
      simulation was performed using the whole pedestrian model, and the results were
      compared to corresponding PMHS tests. Overall, the simulation results showed that
      lower leg response is mostly within the boundaries of PMHS corridors. In
      addition, the model shows the capability to predict the most common lower
      extremity injuries observed in pedestrian accidents. Generally, the validated
      pedestrian model may be used by safety researchers in the design of front ends of
      new vehicles in order to increase pedestrian protection.

PMID- 28877311
TI  - Restricted Mean Survival Time as a Measure to Interpret Clinical Trial Results.

PMID- 28877310
TI  - Consumer Preferences, Product Characteristics, and Potentially Allergenic
      Ingredients in Best-selling Moisturizers.
AB  - Importance: Because moisturizer use is critical for the prevention and treatment
      of numerous dermatological conditions, patients frequently request product
      recommendations from dermatologists. Objective: To determine the product
      performance characteristics and ingredients of best-selling moisturizers. Design
      and Setting: This cohort study involved publicly available data of the top 100
      best-selling whole-body moisturizing products at 3 major online retailers
      (Amazon, Target, and Walmart). Products marketed for use on a specific body part
      (eg, face, hands, eyelids) were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures: Pairwise
      comparisons of median price per ounce on the basis of marketing claims (eg,
      dermatologist recommended, fragrance free, hypoallergenic) and presence of
      ingredients represented in the North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG)
      series were conducted using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. The effect of vehicle type
      (eg, ointment, lotion, cream, butter) was assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test.
      Cross-reactors and botanicals for fragrances were derived from the American
      Contact Dermatitis Society's Contact Allergen Management Program database.
      Results: A total of 174 unique best-selling moisturizer products were identified,
      constituting 109 713 reviews as of August 2016. The median price per ounce was
      $0.59 (range, $0.10-$9.51 per ounce) with a wide range (9400%). The most popular
      vehicles were lotions (102 [59%]), followed by creams (22 [13%]), oils (21
      [12%]), butters (14 [8%]), and ointments (3 [2%]). Only 12% (n = 21) of best
      selling moisturizer products were free of NACDG allergens. The 3 most common
      allergens were fragrance mix (n = 87), paraben mix (n = 75), and tocopherol (n =
      74). Products with the claim "dermatologist recommended" had higher median price
      per ounce ($0.79; interquartile range [IQR], $0.56-$1.27) than products without
      the claim ($0.59; IQR, $0.34-$0.92). Products with the claim "phthalate free" had
      higher median price per ounce ($1.38; IQR, $0.86-$1.63) than products without the
      claim ($0.59; IQR, $0.35-$0.91). Lotions (median, $0.49; IQR, $0.31-0.68) were
      statistically less expensive per ounce than butters (median, $1.20; IQR, $0.76
      $1.63), creams (median, $0.80; IQR, $0.69-$1.25) and oils (median, $1.30; IQR,
      $0.64-$2.43). For products with a claim of "fragrance free," 18 (45%) had at
      least 1 fragrance cross-reactor or botanical ingredient. Products without any
      ingredients in the NACDG (median, $0.83; IQR, $0.47-$1.69) were not statistically
      more expensive per ounce than products with 1 or more allergens (median, $0.60;
      IQR, $0.35-$1.06). Conclusions and Relevance: Best-selling moisturizers vary
      widely by price and product characteristics. Given the lack of readily available
      comparison data on moisturizer efficacy, dermatologists should balance consumer
      preference, price, and allergenicity in their recommendations.

PMID- 28877313
TI  - Nonoperative Management of Pancreatic Fistula-Reply.

PMID- 28877314
TI  - Correction of Misspelled Author Name.

PMID- 28877315
TI  - Incorrect P Value in Table 3.

PMID- 28877312
TI  - Effect of Topical Fluorouracil Cream on Photodamage: Secondary Analysis of a
      Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: Photoaging, which is premature skin aging caused by long-term UV
      exposure, is of aesthetic concern to many patients. Objective: To investigate the
      effect of topical fluorouracil, 5%, cream on photoaging using validated
      photonumeric scales. Design, Setting, and Participants: The Veterans Affairs
      Keratinocyte Carcinoma Chemoprevention Trial was a randomized clinical trial of
      932 US veterans with a recent history of 2 or more keratinocyte carcinomas
      performed from September 30, 2011, through June 30, 2014, to assess the
      chemopreventive effects of a standard course of topical fluorouracil. Photographs
      were taken at baseline and at numerous time points for up to 4 years. In our
      secondary analysis, 2 independent dermatologists graded these photographs using 4
      validated photonumeric scales. A total of 3042 photographs from 281 participants
      randomized to apply topical fluorouracil or placebo were evaluated at baseline, 6
      months, 12 months, and 18 months using 4 photonumeric scales (Griffiths scale,
      Allergan forehead lines scale, melomental folds scale, and crow's feet scale).
      Data analysis was performed from November 1, 2016, to January 1, 2017.
      Interventions: Participants were randomized to apply topical fluorouracil, 5%,
      cream or a vehicle control cream to the face and ears twice daily for 2 to 4
      weeks for a total of 28 to 56 doses. Main Outcomes and Measures: Effect of a
      standard course of fluorouracil on the extent of photodamage as measured using 4
      photonumeric scales. Results: The study population was predominantly male (274
      [97.5%]) and white (281 [100%]), with a mean (SD) age of 71.5 (0.57) years. No
      statistically significant changes were found in photodamage between baseline and
      6 months (Griffiths scale: chi2 = 0.01, P = .93; Allergan forehead lines scale:
      chi2 = 0.18, P = .67; melomental fold scale: chi2 = 0.03, P = .87; crow's feet
      scale: chi2 = 2.41, P = .12), 12 months (Griffiths scale: chi2 = 1.39, P = .24;
      Allergan forehead lines scale: chi2 = 0.64, P = .43; melomental fold scale: chi2
      = 0.12, P = .73; crow's feet scale: chi2 = 1.07, P = .30), and 18 months
      (Griffiths scale: chi2 = 3.11, P = .08; Allergan forehead lines scale: chi2 =
      0.89, P = .34; melomental fold scale: chi2 = 1.64, P = .20; crow's feet scale:
      chi2 = 0.46, P = .50). Conclusions and Relevance: This study did not demonstrate
      improvement in photoaging with a standard course of topical fluorouracil, 5%,
      cream, a finding that may be attributable to a true lack of effect in photodamage
      or limitations of the photonumeric scales in capturing the effect. The
      development of photonumeric scales that include manifestations of photoaging
      other than rhytids, such as lentigines, hyperpigmentation, and telangiectasias,
      should be considered. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT00847912.

PMID- 28877316
TI  - Effectiveness of Psychological and/or Educational Interventions in the Prevention
      of Anxiety: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Meta-regression.
AB  - Importance: To our knowledge, no systematic reviews or meta-analyses have been
      conducted to assess the effectiveness of preventive psychological and/or
      educational interventions for anxiety in varied populations. Objective: To
      evaluate the effectiveness of preventive psychological and/or educational
      interventions for anxiety in varied population types. Data Sources: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis was conducted based on literature searches of MEDLINE,
      PsycINFO, Web of Science, EMBASE, OpenGrey, Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials, and other sources from inception to March 7, 2017. Study
      Selection: A search was performed of randomized clinical trials assessing the
      effectiveness of preventive psychological and/or educational interventions for
      anxiety in varying populations free of anxiety at baseline as measured using
      validated instruments. There was no setting or language restriction. Eligibility
      criteria assessment was conducted by 2 of us. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Data
      extraction and assessment of risk of bias (Cochrane Collaboration's tool) were
      performed by 2 of us. Pooled standardized mean differences (SMDs) were calculated
      using random-effect models. Heterogeneity was explored by random-effects meta
      regression. Main Outcomes and Measures: Incidence of new cases of anxiety
      disorders or reduction of anxiety symptoms as measured by validated instruments.
      Results: Of the 3273 abstracts reviewed, 131 were selected for full-text review,
      and 29 met the inclusion criteria, representing 10 430 patients from 11 countries
      on 4 continents. Meta-analysis calculations were based on 36 comparisons. The
      pooled SMD was -0.31 (95% CI, -0.40 to -0.21; P < .001) and heterogeneity was
      substantial (I2 = 61.1%; 95% CI, 44% to 73%). There was evidence of publication
      bias, but the effect size barely varied after adjustment (SMD, -0.27; 95% CI, 
      0.37 to -0.17; P < .001). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of effect
      size results. A meta-regression including 5 variables explained 99.6% of between
      study variability, revealing an association between higher SMD, waiting list
      (comparator) (beta = -0.33 [95% CI, -0.55 to -0.11]; P = .005) and a lower sample
      size (lg) (beta = 0.15 [95% CI, 0.06 to 0.23]; P = .001). No association was
      observed with risk of bias, family physician providing intervention, and use of
      standardized interviews as outcomes. Conclusions and Relevance: Psychological
      and/or educational interventions had a small but statistically significant
      benefit for anxiety prevention in all populations evaluated. Although more
      studies with larger samples and active comparators are needed, these findings
      suggest that anxiety prevention programs should be further developed and
      implemented.

PMID- 28877317
TI  - Association of White Matter Structure With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention
      Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
AB  - Importance: Clinical overlap between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention
      deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasingly appreciated, but the
      underlying brain mechanisms remain unknown to date. Objective: To examine
      associations between white matter organization and 2 commonly co-occurring
      neurodevelopmental conditions, ASD and ADHD, through both categorical and
      dimensional approaches. Design, Setting, and Participants: This investigation was
      a cross-sectional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study at an outpatient academic
      clinical and research center, the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
      at New York University Langone Medical Center. Participants were children with
      ASD, children with ADHD, or typically developing children. Data collection was
      ongoing from December 2008 to October 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures: The
      primary measure was voxelwise fractional anisotropy (FA) analyzed via tract-based
      spatial statistics. Additional voxelwise DTI metrics included radial diffusivity
      (RD), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and mode of anisotropy (MA).
      Results: This cross-sectional DTI study analyzed data from 174 children (age
      range, 6.0-12.9 years), selected from a larger sample after quality assurance to
      be group matched on age and sex. After quality control, the study analyzed data
      from 69 children with ASD (mean [SD] age, 8.9 [1.7] years; 62 male), 55 children
      with ADHD (mean [SD] age, 9.5 [1.5] years; 41 male), and 50 typically developing
      children (mean [SD] age, 9.4 [1.5] years; 38 male). Categorical analyses revealed
      a significant influence of ASD diagnosis on several DTI metrics (FA, MD, RD, and
      AD), primarily in the corpus callosum. For example, FA analyses identified a
      cluster of 4179 voxels (TFCE FEW corrected P < .05) in posterior portions of the
      corpus callosum. Dimensional analyses revealed associations between ASD severity
      and FA, RD, and MD in more extended portions of the corpus callosum and beyond
      (eg, corona radiata and inferior longitudinal fasciculus) across all individuals,
      regardless of diagnosis. For example, FA analyses revealed clusters overall
      encompassing 12121 voxels (TFCE FWE corrected P < .05) with a significant
      association with parent ratings in the social responsiveness scale. Similar
      results were evident using an independent measure of ASD traits (ie, children
      communication checklist, second edition). Total severity of ADHD-traits was not
      significantly related to DTI metrics but inattention scores were related to AD in
      corpus callosum in a cluster sized 716 voxels. All these findings were robust to
      algorithmic correction of motion artifacts with the DTIPrep software. Conclusions
      and Relevance: Dimensional analyses provided a more complete picture of
      associations between ASD traits and inattention and indexes of white matter
      organization, particularly in the corpus callosum. This transdiagnostic approach
      can reveal dimensional relationships linking white matter structure to
      neurodevelopmental symptoms.

PMID- 28877318
TI  - Peripheral Vascular Endothelial Dysfunction in Central Serous Chorioretinopathy.
AB  - Purpose: To explore the pathophysiology of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC)
      by comparing peripheral vascular endothelium function in patients with CSC and
      control subjects. Methods: This study included 34 patients with CSC who attended
      the Department of Ophthalmology and 34 healthy age- and sex-matched healthy
      control subjects from a routine physical check-up population. Endothelium
      dependent flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and endothelium-independent
      nitroglycerine-mediated vasodilation (NMD) were measured using high-resolution,
      two-dimensional ultrasonographic imaging of the brachial artery. Blood samples
      were taken to test serum glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, alanine
      aminotransferase, uric acid, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)
      levels. Results: The mean age of patients with CSC was 44.0 years (SD +/-8.1) and
      that of controls 46.1 years (+/-9.9) (P = 0.352). There were no significant
      differences between groups in serum biochemical data, including serum glucose,
      alanine aminotransferase, uric acid, cholesterol, triglyceride, and hs-CRP. FMD
      was significantly impaired in patients with CSC compared with control subjects
      (CSC: 4.62 +/- 1.96, control: 7.52 +/- 2.63, P < 0.001), whereas NMD did not
      differ significantly between the two groups (CSC: 16.31 +/- 5.60, control: 16.22
      +/- 5.56, P = 0.950). Conclusions: This study demonstrated impaired FMD in
      patients with CSC and the results have provided evidence of peripheral
      endothelium dysfunction associated with CSC in patients.

PMID- 28877321
TI  - Errors in Abstract and Discussion.

PMID- 28877320
TI  - The Properties of Outer Retinal Band Three Investigated With Adaptive-Optics
      Optical Coherence Tomography.
AB  - Purpose: Optical coherence tomography's (OCT) third outer retinal band has been
      attributed to the zone of interdigitation between RPE cells and cone outer
      segments. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structure of this band
      with adaptive optics (AO)-OCT. Methods: Using AO-OCT, images were obtained from
      two subjects. Axial structure was characterized by measuring band 3 thickness and
      separation between bands 2 and 3 in segmented cones. Lateral structure was
      characterized by correlation of band 3 with band 2 and comparison of their power
      spectra. Band thickness and separation were also measured in a clinical OCT image
      of one subject. Results: Band 3 thickness ranged from 4.3 to 6.4 MUm. Band 2
      correlations ranged between 0.35 and 0.41 and power spectra of both bands
      confirmed peak frequencies that agree with histologic density measurements. In
      clinical images, band 3 thickness was between 14 and 19 MUm. Measurements of AO
      OCT of interband distance were lower than our corresponding clinical OCT
      measurements. Conclusions: Band 3 originates from a structure with axial extent
      similar to a single surface. Correlation with band 2 suggests an origin within
      the cone photoreceptor. These two observations indicate that band 3 corresponds
      predominantly to cone outer segment tips (COST). Conventional OCT may
      overestimate both the thickness of band 3 and outer segment length.

PMID- 28877324
TI  - T786C Mutation in the Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene in Patients With
      Primary Osteonecrosis.
AB  - Mutations in the T786C endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene (eNOS) are
      associated with osteonecrosis and Prinzmetal's angina. Nitric oxide is necessary
      for bone health and ameliorates Prinzmetal's angina. This study compared
      mutations of T786C eNOS in 146 patients with primary osteonecrosis, 114 patients
      with Prinzmetal's angina, and 83 normal control subjects. Patients with
      osteonecrosis had more mutant eNOS alleles than control subjects (42% vs 22%,
      respectively; P<.0001) but had the same number of mutant alleles as patients with
      Prinzmetal's angina (42% vs 41%, respectively; P=.7), who in turn had more mutant
      eNOS alleles than control subjects (41% vs 22%, respectively; P=.0001). Of 146
      patients with primary osteonecrosis, 65 (45%) had none of the 5 thrombophilias
      (Factor V Leiden heterozygosity, high levels of Factors VIII and XI,
      anticardiolipin antibody immunoglobulin M, and homocysteine) that otherwise
      distinguished patients with osteonecrosis from control subjects (P<.05). No
      associations were found between eNOS hetero-homozygosity and the 5 major
      thrombophilias in primary osteonecrosis. Of the 65 patients who had osteonecrosis
      but no major thrombophilias, for 41 (28% of the total sample of 146), eNOS hetero
      homozygosity was the only abnormality. Normalization of nitric oxide levels with
      l-arginine 9 g/d or l-citrulline 800 mg/d, both of which relieve vasospastic
      angina in Prinzmetal's angina, which has the same eNOS genotype as primary
      osteonecrosis, may slow or stop the progression of osteonecrosis. Placebo
      controlled trials of patients with primary osteonecrosis who are hetero
      homozygous for the T786C eNOS mutation and have no major thrombophilias are
      needed to assess the safety and efficacy of this treatment. [Orthopedics. 2017;
      40(5):e898-e903.].

PMID- 28877319
TI  - Absence of Sigma 1 Receptor Accelerates Photoreceptor Cell Death in a Murine
      Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa.
AB  - Purpose: Sigma 1 Receptor (Sig1R) is a novel therapeutic target in
      neurodegenerative diseases, including retinal disease. Sig1R-/- mice have late
      onset retinal degeneration with ganglion cell loss that worsens under stress.
      Whether Sig1R plays a role in maintaining other retinal neurons is unknown, but
      was investigated here using rd10 mice, a model of severe photoreceptor
      degeneration. Methods: Wild-type, rd10, and rd10/Sig1R-/- mice were subjected to
      ERG and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to assess visual
      function/structure in situ. Retinas imaged microscopically were subjected to
      morphometric analysis, immunodetection of cones, and analysis of gliosis.
      Oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress was evaluated at mRNA/protein
      levels. Results: Photopic ERG responses were reduced significantly in rd10/Sig1R
      /- versus rd10 mice at P28 (31 +/- 6 vs. 56 +/- 7 MUV), indicating accelerated
      cone loss when Sig1R was absent. At P28, SD-OCT revealed reduced retinal
      thickness in rd10/Sig1R-/- mice (60% of WT) versus rd10 (80% of WT). Morphometric
      analysis disclosed profound photoreceptor nuclei loss in rd10/Sig1R-/- versus
      rd10 mice. rd10/Sig1R-/- mice had 35% and 60% fewer photoreceptors, respectively,
      at P28 and P35, than rd10. Peanut agglutinin cone labeling decreased
      significantly; gliosis increased significantly in rd10/Sig1R-/- versus rd10 mice.
      At P21, NRF2 levels increased in rd10/Sig1R-/- mice versus rd10 and downstream
      antioxidants increased indicating oxidative stress. At P28, ER stress
      genes/proteins, especially XBP1, a potent transcriptional activator of the
      unfolded protein response and CHOP, a proapoptotic transcription factor,
      increased significantly in rd10/Sig1R-/- mice versus rd10. Conclusions:
      Photoreceptor cell degeneration accelerates and cone function diminishes much
      earlier in rd10/Sig1R-/- than rd10 mice emphasizing the importance of Sig1R as a
      modulator of retinal cell survival.

PMID- 28877325
TI  - Perioperative Blood Loss During Total Hip Arthroplasty Among Patients With
      Ankylosing Spondylitis.
AB  - Intraoperative blood loss is frequently an overarching concern during total hip
      arthroplasty (THA) for patients who have ankylosing spondylitis with hip
      involvement. However, the factors that affect blood loss have not been
      identified. The goal of this study was to investigate these factors among
      patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Patients in the authors' department who had
      ankylosing spondylitis and underwent unilateral THA from 2011 to 2016 were
      studied retrospectively. Demographic characteristics, perioperative laboratory
      values, intraoperative data, transfusion rate, transfusion volume, and data on
      hemostatic use were collected and analyzed statistically. Multiple and univariate
      linear regression analyses were performed. As a result, 44 patients were eligible
      for inclusion in the study. Mean age was 31.7+/-10.6 years, and mean disease
      duration was 9.7+/-5.8 years. Mean body mass index was 21.30+/-3.01 kg/m2. Mean
      volume of blood loss during THA was 1735.19+/-756.04 mL. Multiple linear
      regression analysis showed that perioperative blood loss was positively
      associated with Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS), fibrinogen
      concentration, and surgical time. Further evaluation with univariate linear
      regression analysis suggested that ASDAS, red blood cell transfusion, and change
      of hematocrit concentration from preoperatively to postoperatively were
      correlated with blood loss. Disease activity, allogeneic blood transfusion
      volume, and change of hematocrit concentration from preoperatively to
      postoperatively appeared to be positively associated with perioperative blood
      loss during THA for patients with ankylosing spondylitis. For these patients,
      disease activity and the potential for allogeneic transfusion should be
      considered carefully before surgery. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(5):e904-e910.].

PMID- 28877326
TI  - Upper Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis Prophylaxis After Elective Upper Extremity
      Surgery.
AB  - Historically, upper extremity deep venous thromboses (DVTs) have been rare;
      however, their incidence has increased as awareness has increased. Patients who
      develop upper extremity DVTs often have multiple comorbidities. However, in the
      past decade, studies have found a small risk of upper extremity DVTs associated
      with orthopedic procedures involving the upper extremity. The risk of
      complications following a DVT, including postthrombotic syndrome and pulmonary
      embolism, is substantially higher with a DVT of the upper extremity compared with
      a DVT of the lower extremity. Furthermore, there is no consensus regarding the
      role and efficacy of prophylactic measures in preventing upper extremity DVT
      after upper extremity surgery. This article discusses the use of prophylactic
      agents after elective upper extremity surgery, with an emphasis on the efficacy
      of commonly used interventions. [Orthopedics. 2018; 41(1):21-27.].

PMID- 28877327
TI  - Advances in Computer-Aided Technology for Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - Technology such as computer-assisted navigation systems, robotic-assisted
      systems, and patient-specific instrumentation has been increasingly explored
      during the past decade in an effort to optimize component alignment and improve
      clinical outcomes. Computer-assisted navigation accurately restores mechanical
      axis alignment, but clinical outcome data are inconsistent. Computer-assisted
      navigation gap balancing has shown early promise in establishing mechanical-axis
      alignment with improved functional outcomes. Robotic-assisted systems more
      accurately restore component alignment when compared with computer-assisted
      navigation, but clinical outcomes have yet to be determined. Patient-specific
      instrumentation does not consistently improve alignment, accuracy, or patient
      outcomes. Studies demonstrating implant survivorship, cost-efficiency, and
      improved clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction are needed. [Orthopedics.
      2017; 40(6):338-352.].

PMID- 28877328
TI  - Procedural Sedation With Ketamine Versus Propofol for Closed Reduction of
      Pediatric Both Bone Forearm Fractures.
AB  - Effective treatment of pediatric both bone forearm fractures consists of timely
      restoration of anatomic alignment with manipulation and immobilization, often
      accomplished with the aid of procedural sedation in the emergency department
      setting. The current lack of consensus regarding a safe and optimal regimen may
      result in inadequate sedation, compromised quality of reduction, or patient harm.
      The current study was conducted to answer the following questions for pediatric
      both bone forearm fractures treated with closed reduction with either ketamine or
      propofol procedural sedation: (1) Is there a difference in the rate of
      unacceptable alignment 4 weeks after reduction? (2) Is there a difference in the
      rates of major sedation-related complications? Medical records, data on
      procedural sedation, and radiographs of 74 skeletally immature patients with
      diaphyseal or distal metaphyseal both bone forearm fractures treated with
      manipulation were reviewed (ketamine sedation, 26; propofol sedation, 48). Rates
      of unacceptable alignment for the 2 cohorts were similar both immediately after
      reduction and at 4 weeks. Rates of complications of procedural sedation did not
      differ between cohorts. The duration of procedural sedation was longer and the
      padding index was greater with ketamine. Malalignment after reduction was more
      likely in older patients and those with a higher padding index. Although no
      difference was found in the rates of malalignment or sedation-related
      complications between fractures reduced with ketamine or propofol sedation, the
      sedation regimens differ in both procedural duration and padding index. Careful
      consideration of the risks and benefits of procedural sedation for closed
      reduction of pediatric forearm fractures is warranted. [Orthopedics. 2017;
      40(5):288-294.].

PMID- 28877329
TI  - Comparison of Knee Stability and Synovial Fluid Alterations in Anterior Cruciate
      Ligament Reconstruction With a Hamstring Autograft or an Allograft.
AB  - This study compared knee stability and alterations in the composition of synovial
      fluid among patients who underwent arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
      reconstruction with either a hamstring autograft or a hamstring allograft. This
      prospective cohort study enrolled 175 patients. Of these patients, 90 underwent
      hamstring tendon autograft ACL reconstruction. The remaining patients (n=85)
      underwent hamstring tendon allograft ACL reconstruction. All of the patients had
      a minimum of 1 year of follow-up (mean, 2.5 years). Side-to-side differences and
      the proportion of mononuclear cells in knee joint synovial fluid were measured at
      5 time points (preoperatively and at postoperative weeks 1, 3, 6, and 12). During
      the early postoperative phase, side-to-side knee laxity was greater among the
      allograft group compared with the autograft group (P<.001). Additionally, among
      the allograft group, the proportion of mononuclear cells remained high at weeks 6
      and 12 (mean, 90.0% and 88.9%, respectively) compared with a normal level in the
      autograft group (mean, 45.1% and 65.7%, separately). However, no significant
      difference was found between the 2 groups at final follow-up for range of motion,
      results of the Lachman test, results of the anterior drawer test, results of the
      pivot shift test, Lysholm score, bone tunnel enlargement, and graft failure rate
      (P>.05). These findings showed that, in the early postoperative phase, ACL
      reconstruction with a hamstring allograft resulted in greater knee laxity and
      immunologic response compared with the hamstring autograft group. However, at
      relatively long-term follow-up, both grafts achieved similar objective and
      subjective outcomes. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(5):e892-e897.].

PMID- 28877330
TI  - Terrestrial biosphere models underestimate photosynthetic capacity and CO2
      assimilation in the Arctic.
AB  - Terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) are highly sensitive to model representation
      of photosynthesis, in particular the parameters maximum carboxylation rate and
      maximum electron transport rate at 25 degrees C (Vc,max.25 and Jmax.25 ,
      respectively). Many TBMs do not include representation of Arctic plants, and
      those that do rely on understanding and parameterization from temperate species.
      We measured photosynthetic CO2 response curves and leaf nitrogen (N) content in
      species representing the dominant vascular plant functional types found on the
      coastal tundra near Barrow, Alaska. The activation energies associated with the
      temperature response functions of Vc,max and Jmax were 17% lower than commonly
      used values. When scaled to 25 degrees C, Vc,max.25 and Jmax.25 were two- to five
      fold higher than the values used to parameterize current TBMs. This high
      photosynthetic capacity was attributable to a high leaf N content and the high
      fraction of N invested in Rubisco. Leaf-level modeling demonstrated that current
      parameterization of TBMs resulted in a two-fold underestimation of the capacity
      for leaf-level CO2 assimilation in Arctic vegetation. This study highlights the
      poor representation of Arctic photosynthesis in TBMs, and provides the critical
      data necessary to improve our ability to project the response of the Arctic to
      global environmental change.

PMID- 28877331
TI  - Lactic Acid Bacteria Combinations for Wheat Sourdough Preparation and Their
      Influence on Wheat Bread Quality and Acrylamide Formation.
AB  - : Different lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from spontaneous wheat sourdough were
      isolated, identified, and characterized by their growth, acidification rate, and
      carbohydrate metabolism. The combinations of isolated LAB (Pediococcus
      pentosaceus LUHS183 and Leuconostoc mesenteroides LUHS242, P. pentosaceus LUHS183
      and Lactobacillus brevis LUHS173, P. pentosaceus LUHS183 and Enterococcus
      pseudoavium LUHS 234, P. pentosaceus LUHS183 and Lactobacillus curvatus LUHS51,
      Lactobacillus plantarum LUHS135 and L. curvatus LUHS51, L. plantarum LUHS135 and
      P. pentosaceus LUHS183) were used for wheat sourdough production, and the effects
      of LAB fermentation in sourdoughs on wheat bread quality parameters and
      acrylamide formation were evaluated. All of the tested strains (except E.
      pseudoavium LUHS 234) were able to ferment l-arabinose, d-ribose, d-galactose, d
      fructose, and d-maltose and showed high tolerance to acidic conditions. The
      highest overall acceptability (135.8 +/- 5.5 mm) was found in the bread produced
      with L. plantarum and P. pentosaceus sourdough. This group of bread also showed
      the highest shape coefficient (2.59 +/- 0.02), the highest specific volume (3.40
      +/- 0.03 cm3 /g), the highest porosity (76.6 +/- 0.3%), and the highest moisture
      content (33.7%). Selected sourdoughs reduced acrylamide content in bread samples
      by 29.5% (sourdough prepared with P. pentosaceus and L. mesenteroides) to 67.2%
      (sourdough prepared with P. pentosaceus and L. curvatus). These cultures
      potentially can be used to reduce acrylamide in breads. PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
      The data of this study have practical applications. L. plantarum and P.
      pentosaceus sourdoughs increases overall acceptability, specific volume, and
      porosity of wheat bread. Besides the fact that sourdoughs produced by using
      combinations of selected LAB strains improved the quality parameters of bread,
      fermentation with prepared sourdoughs also reduced the acrylamide content in
      wheat bread samples by 29.5% (sourdough prepared with P. pentosaceus and L.
      mesenteroides) to 67.2% (sourdough prepared with P. pentosaceus and L. curvatus).

PMID- 28877332
TI  - Socioeconomic position, population density and site-specific cancer mortality: A
      multilevel analysis of Belgian adults, 2001-2011.
AB  - Our study explores the association between individual and neighborhood
      socioeconomic position (SEP) and all-cancer and site-specific cancer mortality.
      Data on all Belgian residents are retrieved from a population-based dataset
      constructed from the 2001 census linked to register data on emigration and
      mortality for 2001-2011. The study population contains all men and women aged 40
      years or older during follow-up. Individual SEP is measured using education,
      employment status and housing conditions. Neighborhood SEP is measured by a
      deprivation index (in quintiles). Directly age-standardized mortality rates and
      multilevel Poisson models are used to estimate the association between individual
      SEP and neighborhood deprivation and mortality from all-cancer and cancer of the
      lung, colon and rectum, pancreas, prostate and female breast. The potential
      confounding role of population density is assessed using multilevel models as
      well. Our findings show an increase in mortality from all-cancer and site
      specific cancer by decreasing level of individual SEP for both men and women. In
      addition, individuals living in highly deprived neighborhoods experience
      significantly higher mortality from all-cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer
      and female colorectal cancer after controlling for individual SEP. Male
      colorectal and prostate cancer and female breast cancer are not associated with
      neighborhood deprivation. Population density acts as a confounder for female lung
      cancer only. Our study indicates that deprivation at both the individual and
      neighborhood level is associated with all-cancer mortality and mortality from
      several cancer sites. More research into the role of life-style related and
      clinical factors is necessary to gain more insight into causal pathway.

PMID- 28877333
TI  - OCTOPUS-LIKE 2, a novel player in Arabidopsis root and vascular development,
      reveals a key role for OCTOPUS family genes in root metaphloem sieve tube
      differentiation.
AB  - Protophloem and metaphloem sieve tubes are essential for transporting
      carbohydrates and signalling molecules towards sink tissues. OCTOPUS (OPS) was
      previously identified as an important regulator of protophloem differentiation in
      Arabidopsis roots. Here, we investigated the role of OCTOPUS-LIKE 2 (OPL2), a
      gene homologous to OPS. OPL2 expression patterns were analysed, and functional
      equivalence of OPS and OPL2 was tested. Mutant and double mutant phenotypes were
      investigated. OPS and OPL2 displayed overlapping expression patterns and a high
      degree of functional overlap. A mutation in OPL2 revealed redundant functions of
      OPS and OPL2 in developmental processes in which OPS was known to play a role,
      notably cotyledon vascular patterning and protophloem development. Moreover, we
      also uncovered redundant roles for OPS and OPL2 in leaf vascular patterning and,
      most interestingly, metaphloem sieve tube differentiation. Our results reveal a
      novel OPS-like protein that, together with OPS, is an important regulator of
      vascular patterning, root growth and phloem development. OPS and OPL2 are the
      first genes identified that play a role in metaphloem sieve tube differentiation.

PMID- 28877334
TI  - Personality correlates of individual differences in the recruitment of cognitive
      mechanisms when rewards are at stake.
AB  - Individuals differ greatly in their sensitivity to rewards and punishments. In
      the extreme, these differences are implicated in a range of psychiatric disorders
      from addiction to depression. However, it is unclear how these differences
      influence the recruitment of attention, working memory, and long-term memory when
      responding to potential rewards. Here, we used a rewarded memory-guided visual
      search task and ERPs to examine the influence of individual differences in self
      reported reward/punishment sensitivity, as measured by the Behavioral Inhibition
      System (BIS)/Behavioral Activation System (BAS) scales, on the recruitment of
      cognitive mechanisms in conditions of potential reward. Select subscales of the
      BAS, including the fun seeking and reward responsiveness scales, showed unique
      relationships with context updating to reward cues and working memory maintenance
      of potentially rewarded stimuli. In contrast, BIS scores showed unique
      relationships with deployment of attention at different points in the task. These
      results suggest that sensitivity to rewards (i.e., BAS) and to punishment (i.e.,
      BIS) may play an important role in the recruitment of specific and distinct
      cognitive mechanisms in conditions of potential rewards.

PMID- 28877336
TI  - Identification of omega- or (omega-1)-Hydroxylated Medium-Chain Acylcarnitines as
      Novel Urinary Biomarkers for CYP3A Activity.
AB  - Quantitative models of endogenous metabolites are useful in predicting CYP3A
      mediated drug-drug interactions. This study aimed to identify novel predictive
      markers for the magnitude of CYP3A induction and inhibition in male and female
      subjects using an untargeted metabolomics approach. Here we report five omega- or
      (omega-1)-hydroxylated medium-chain acylcarnitines as novel CYP3A4 markers. As
      CYP4 catalyzes the omega- or (omega-1)-hydroxylation of various medium-chain
      fatty acids (MCFAs), recombinant enzyme assays were used to determine the omega-
      and (omega-1)-hydroxylation activities of CYP3A4, CYP4A11, and CYP4F2. CYP3A4
      catalyzed omega- and (omega-1)-hydroxylated MCFAs with the lowest Km and highest
      Vmax /Km values. Finally, we derived a model to predict midazolam clearance using
      these markers and demonstrated that the predictive model including three omega-
      or (omega-1)-hydroxylated medium-chain acylcarnitines, 6beta-OH cortisol, and
      gender as covariates shows reliable predictability (r2 = 0.894).

PMID- 28877335
TI  - Cranial sexual dimorphism in the Kinda baboon (Papio hamadryas kindae).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The smallest extant member of genus Papio, the Kinda baboon exhibits
      low sexual dimorphism and a distinctive cranial shape. Ontogenetic scaling
      accounts for most cranial-shape differences within Papio, but studies have shown
      that the Kinda follows a separate ontogenetic trajectory. If so, its cranial
      dimorphism pattern should differ from other subspecies. To evaluate this
      hypothesis, morphometric analysis was used to investigate cranial dimorphism in
      Papio. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three-dimensional landmarks were digitized on 434
      adult crania representing six Papio subspecies. Size- and shape-dimorphism
      magnitudes were quantified using centroid size and Procrustes distances. Patterns
      of sex- and size-related variation were explored using MAN(C)OVA, multivariate
      regression, and form-space PCA. Canine dimorphism was investigated using dental
      metrics. RESULTS: Kinda size and shape dimorphism are significantly lower than in
      other Papio subspecies. The relative magnitude of Kinda shape dimorphism is
      similar to other southern baboons; Kinda canine dimorphism is unremarkable.
      MAN(C)OVA results support subspecies differences in cranial dimorphism and
      scaling. Allometric and dimorphism vectors differ significantly in some
      subspecies, and their vector-angle matrices are strongly correlated. The Kinda's
      allometric vector angles are divergent. Form-space PC3, summarizing size
      independent dimorphism, separates the Kinda from other subspecies. DISCUSSION:
      The Kinda baboon exhibits significantly lower size and shape dimorphism than
      other baboons, but its relative dimorphism levels are unexceptional. The Kinda
      differs from other subspecies in patterns of allometry, size-related shape
      dimorphism, and residual shape dimorphism. Kinda facial shape is "masculinized"
      relative to size, especially in females, suggesting female sexual selection
      contributed to the evolution of Kinda dimorphism.

PMID- 28877337
TI  - Parent-reported indicators for detecting feeding and swallowing difficulties and
      undernutrition in preschool-aged children with cerebral palsy.
AB  - AIM: To determine the most accurate parent-reported indicators for detecting (1)
      feeding/swallowing difficulties and (2) undernutrition in preschool-aged children
      with cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD: This was a longitudinal, population-based
      study, involving 179 children with CP, aged 18 to 60 months (mean 34.1mo [SD
      11.9] at entry, 111 males, 68 females [Gross Motor Function Classification System
      level I, 84; II, 23; III, 28; IV, 18; V, 26], 423 data points).
      Feeding/swallowing difficulties were determined by the Dysphagia Disorders Survey
      and 16 signs suggestive of pharyngeal phase impairment. Undernutrition was
      indicated by height-weight and skinfold composite z-scores less than -2. Primary
      parent-reported indicators included mealtime duration, mealtime stress, concern
      about growth, and respiratory problems. Other indicators were derived from a
      parent feeding questionnaire, including 'significant difficulty eating and
      drinking'. Data were analysed using multilevel mixed-effects regression and
      diagnostic statistics. RESULTS: Primary parent-reported indicators associated
      with feeding/swallowing were 'moderate-severe parent stress' (odds ratio [OR]=3.2
      [95% confidence interval {CI} 1.3-7.8]; p<0.01), 'moderate-severe concern
      regarding growth' (OR=4.5 [95% CI 1.7-11.9]; p<0.01), and 'any respiratory
      condition' (OR=1.8 [95% CI 1.4-5.8]; p<0.01). The indicator associated with
      undernutrition was 'moderate-severe concern regarding growth' (height-weight
      OR=13.5 [95% CI 3.0-61.3]; p<0.01; skinfold OR=19.1 [95% CI 3.7-98.9]; p<0.01).
      'Significant difficulty eating and drinking' was most sensitive/specific for
      feeding outcome (sensitivity=58.6%, specificity=100.0%), and 'parent concern
      regarding growth' for undernutrition (sensitivity=77.8%, specificity=77.0%).
      INTERPRETATION: Parent-reported indicators are feasible for detecting feeding and
      swallowing difficulties and undernutrition in children with CP, but need formal
      validation. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Parent-reported indicators can detect
      feeding/swallowing difficulties and undernutrition in children with cerebral
      palsy. Most accurate screening questions were 0-10 scales for 'difficulty eating'
      and 'difficulty drinking'. Supplementation of these scales with additional
      indicators would improve detection.

PMID- 28877338
TI  - A Switchable Linker-Based Immunoassay for Ultrasensitive Visible Detection of
      Salmonella in Tomatoes.
AB  - : On-site detection for sensitive identification of foodborne pathogens on fresh
      produce with minimal use of specialized instrumentation is crucial to the food
      industry. A switchable linker (SL)-based immunoassay was designed for
      ultrasensitive on-site detection of Salmonella in tomato samples. The assay is
      based on large-scale aggregation of gold nanoparticles (GNPs), induced by a
      quantitative relationship among the biotinylated Salmonella polyclonal antibody
      (b-Ab) used as the SL, the functionalized GNPs, and Salmonella. Important factors
      such as the concentration of SLs, time required for large-scale aggregation, and
      selectivity of b-Ab were optimized to minimize the detection time (within 45 min
      with gentle agitation) and achieve the lowest limit of detection (LOD; 10 CFU/g
      in tomato samples) possible. This SL-based immunoassay with its relatively low
      LOD and short detection time may meet the need for rapid, simple, on-site
      analysis of pathogens in fresh produce. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The novel
      switchable linker-based immunoassay is a rapid, specific, and sensitive method
      that has potential applications for routine diagnostics of Salmonella in tomato
      products. These advantages make it a practical approach for general use in the
      processing industry to detect Salmonella rapidly and to implement appropriate
      regulatory procedures. Furthermore, it could be applied to other fresh products
      including cantaloupe, strawberry, and cucumbers.

PMID- 28877339
TI  - Cognitive functioning over 2 years after intracerebral hemorrhage in school-aged
      children.
AB  - AIM: Previous research investigating outcomes after pediatric intracerebral
      hemorrhage (ICH) has generally been limited to global and sensorimotor outcomes.
      This study examined cognitive outcomes after spontaneous ICH in school-aged
      children with serial assessments over 2 years after stroke. METHOD: Seven
      children (age range 6-16y, median 13; six males, one female; 57% white, 43%
      black) presenting with spontaneous ICH (six arteriovenous malformations) were
      assessed at 3 months, 12 months, and 24 months after stroke. The Pediatric Stroke
      Outcome Measure (PSOM) quantified neurological outcome and Wechsler Intelligence
      Scales measured cognitive outcomes: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning,
      working memory, and processing speed. RESULTS: PSOM scales showed improved
      neurological function over the first 12 months, with mild to no sensorimotor
      deficits and moderate overall deficits at 1- and 2-year follow-ups (median 2-year
      sensorimotor PSOM=0.5, total PSOM=1.5). Changes in cognitive function indicated a
      different trajectory; verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning improved over
      24 months; low performance was sustained in processing speed and working memory.
      Age-normed centile scores decreased between 1- and 2-year follow-ups for working
      memory, suggesting emerging deficits compared with peers. INTERPRETATION: Early
      and serial cognitive testing in children with ICH is needed to assess cognitive
      functioning and support children in school as they age and cognitive deficits
      become more apparent and important for function. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: In
      children with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), motor function improved between 3
      months and 24 months. Improvements in cognitive function were variable between 3
      months and 24 months. Working memory centiles declined, suggesting emerging
      deficits compared with peers. Processing speed improved but remained
      significantly below the 50th centile. Cognitive impact of ICH may increase with
      age in children.

PMID- 28877341
TI  - Fine-tuning the 'plant domestication-reduced defense' hypothesis: specialist vs
      generalist herbivores.
AB  - Domesticated plants are assumed to have weakened chemical defenses. We argue,
      however, that artificial selection will have maintained defense traits against
      specialized herbivores that have coexisted with the crops throughout their
      domestication. We assessed the performance of eight species of insect herbivores
      from three feeding guilds on six European maize lines and six populations of
      their wild ancestor, teosinte. A metabolomics approach was used in an attempt to
      identify compounds responsible for observed differences in insect performance.
      Insects consistently performed better on maize than on teosinte. As hypothesized,
      this difference was greater for generalist herbivores that are normally not found
      on teosinte. We also found clear differences in defense metabolites among the
      different genotypes, but none that consistently correlated with differences in
      performance. Concentrations of benzoxazinoids, the main chemical defense in
      maize, tended to be higher in leaves of teosinte, but the reverse was true for
      the roots. It appears that chemical defenses that target specialized insects are
      still present at higher concentrations in cultivated maize than compounds that
      are more effective against generalists. These weakened broad-spectrum defenses in
      crops may explain the successes of novel pests.

PMID- 28877340
TI  - The miR156-SPL4 module predominantly regulates aerial axillary bud formation and
      controls shoot architecture.
AB  - Grasses possess basal and aerial axillary buds. Previous studies have largely
      focused on basal bud (tiller) formation but scarcely touched on aerial buds,
      which may lead to aerial branch development. Genotypes with and without aerial
      buds were identified in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), a dedicated bioenergy
      crop. Bud development was characterized using scanning electron microscopy.
      Microarray, RNA-seq and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-qPCR) were used to identify regulators of bud formation. Gene
      function was characterized by down-regulation and overexpression. Overexpression
      of miR156 induced aerial bud formation in switchgrass. Various analyses revealed
      that SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN LIKE4 (SPL4), one of the miR156 targets,
      directly regulated aerial axillary bud initiation. Down-regulation of SPL4
      promoted aerial bud formation and increased basal buds, while overexpression of
      SPL4 seriously suppressed bud formation and tillering. RNA-seq and RT-qPCR
      identified potential downstream genes of SPL4. Unlike all previously reported
      genes acting as activators of basal bud initiation, SPL4 acts as a suppressor for
      the formation of both aerial and basal buds. The miR156-SPL4 module predominantly
      regulates aerial bud initiation and partially controls basal bud formation.
      Genetic manipulation of SPL4 led to altered plant architecture with increased
      branching, enhanced regrowth after cutting and improved biomass yield.

PMID- 28877342
TI  - Synergistic effects of long-wavelength ultraviolet A1 and visible light on
      pigmentation and erythema.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Visible light (VL) induces multiple cutaneous effects. Sunscreen
      testing protocols recommended by regulatory bodies throughout the world require
      the use of solar simulators with spectral output in the ultraviolet (UV) domain
      only. However, sunlight contains VL and infrared radiation also. OBJECTIVES: This
      study aimed to evaluate the contributions of VL and UVA on pigmentation and
      erythema, and optimize parameters for in vivo testing. METHODS: Ten subjects with
      Fitzpatrick skin phototype IV-VI were enrolled. Subjects were irradiated on their
      back with VL using two light sources: one containing pure VL and one containing
      VL with less than 0.5% UVA1 (VL+UVA1). Four different irradiances were
      administered to investigate reciprocity behaviour. Assessments, including
      photography, Investigator's Global Assessment, colorimetry and spectroscopy, were
      performed immediately, 24 h, 7 days and 14 days post-irradiation. RESULTS:
      Pigmentation was observed with both light sources; however, pigment intensity was
      greater with VL+UVA1 than with pure VL. Reciprocity was observed in pure VL
      sites, but not VL+UVA1. Variation in spectral output had greater impact on
      pigment intensity than irradiance. Clinical erythema was observed on the VL+UVA1
      side, but not on the pure VL side. A protocol for testing photoprotection product
      efficacy against VL-induced effects has been proposed. CONCLUSIONS: The findings
      suggest a synergistic relationship between VL and UVA1 and emphasize the need for
      developing means of photoprotection against VL.

PMID- 28877343
TI  - Transition to agriculture in South-Eastern Arabia: Insights from oral conditions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In Southeast (SE) Arabia, agriculture is supposed to expand around
      3000 BC, but its tempo and its actual role in populations' subsistence is still
      debated by archaeologists. Here, we compare dental health conditions of 11
      skeletal samples from coastal and inland sites, dated from the Late Neolithic
      (ca. 4500-3100 BC) to the Early Bronze Age (EBA), conventionally divided into
      Hafit (ca. 3100-2700 BC) and Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2700-2000 BC). The goal is to
      assess long-term trends in subsistence patterns and regional variability during
      the local transition to agriculture. METHODS: Seven indicators of oral health and
      childhood stress were analyzed, including dental wear, calculus, caries, alveolar
      resorption, periapical lesions, ante-mortem tooth loss (AMTL), and linear enamel
      hypoplasia (LEH). RESULTS: Neolithic coastal populations are globally
      characterized by high dental wear, high calculus frequency, high LEH frequency,
      and frequent periodontal disease, whereas they exhibit low abscesses and AMTL
      frequencies and a total absence of carious lesions. Samples from the Hafit period
      present high dental wear, low rates of calculus and LEH, frequent periodontal
      disease, combined with low abscess and AMTL frequencies and absence of caries. By
      contrast, samples from the Umm an-Nar period exhibit much lower dental wear,
      calculus and LEH rates, whereas caries, periapical lesions and AMTL frequencies
      increase significantly. Marked differences were observed between coastal and
      inland Umm an-Nar groups, the latter presenting significantly higher frequencies
      of caries, periapical lesions, alveolar resorption and AMTL.
      DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Oral conditions from the Neolithic coastal populations
      denote a diet mainly composed of unprocessed and abrasive food, with high protein
      and low carbohydrate intakes, and frequent stress episodes. Although Hafit
      populations display some changes in oral pathologies, which indicate
      modifications in their lifestyle and a diversification of the diet, no markers of
      high carbohydrate intakes were observed in our samples. The impact of agriculture
      on oral health appears clearly only from the Umm an-Nar period, and is more
      intense inland than on the coast, where marine resources are still a main
      component of the diet.

PMID- 28877344
TI  - Development of a 3D remote dosimetry protocol compatible with MRgIMRT.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a novel remote 3D dosimetry protocol to verify Magnetic
      Resonance-guided Radiation Therapy (MRgRT) treatments. The protocol was applied
      to investigate the accuracy of TG-119 IMRT irradiations delivered by the
      MRIdian(r) system (ViewRay(r) , Oakwood Village, OH, USA) allowing for a 48-hour
      delay between irradiation at a field institution and subsequent readout at a base
      institution. METHODS: The 3D dosimetry protocol utilizes a novel formulation of
      PRESAGE(r) radiochromic dosimeters developed for high postirradiation stability
      and compatibility with optical-CT readout. Optical-CT readout was performed with
      an in-house system utilizing telecentric lenses affording high-resolution
      scanning. The protocol was developed from preparatory experiments to characterize
      PRESAGE(r) response in relevant conditions. First, linearity and sensitivity of
      PRESAGE(r) dose-response in the presence of a magnetic field was evaluated in a
      small volume study (4 ml cuvettes) conducted under MRgRT conditions and
      irradiated with doses 0-15 Gy. Temporal and spatial stability of the dose
      response were investigated in large volume studies utilizing large field-of-view
      (FOV) 2 kg cylindrical PRESAGE(r) dosimeters. Dosimeters were imaged at t = 1 hr
      and t = 48 hrs enabling the development of correction terms to model any observed
      spatial and temporal changes postirradiation. Polynomial correction factors for
      temporal and spatial changes in PRESAGE(r) dosimeters (CT and CR respectively)
      were obtained by numerical fitting to time-point data acquired in six irradiated
      dosimeters. A remote dosimetry protocol was developed where PRESAGE(r) change in
      optical-density (DeltaOD) readings at time t = X (the irradiation to return
      shipment time interval) were corrected back to a convenient standard time t = 1
      hr using the CT and CR corrections. This refined protocol was then applied to TG
      119 (American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Task Group 119) plan
      deliveries on the MRIdian(r) system to evaluate the accuracy of MRgRT in these
      conditions. RESULTS: In the small volume study, in the presence of a 0.35 T
      magnetic field, PRESAGE(r) was observed to respond linearly (R2  = 0.9996) to Co
      60 irradiation at t = 48 hrs postirradiation, within the dose ranges of 0 to 15
      Gy, with a sensitivity of 0.0305(+/-0.003) DeltaOD cm-1  Gy-1 . In the large
      volume studies, at t = 1 hr postirradiation, consistent linear response was
      observed, with average sensitivity of 0.0930 +/- 0.002 DeltaOD cm-1  Gy-1 .
      However, dosimeters gradually darkened with time (OD< 5% per day). A small radial
      dependence to the dosimeter sensitivity was measured (< 3% of maximum dose),
      which is attributed to a spherically symmetric dosimeter artifact arising from
      exothermic heating legacy in the PRESAGE(r) polyurethane substrate during curing.
      When applied to the TG-119 IMRT irradiations, the remote dosimetry protocol
      (including correction terms) yielded excellent line-profile and 3D gamma
      agreement for 3%/3 mm, 10% threshold (mean passing rate = 96.6% +/- 4.0%).
      CONCLUSION: A novel 3D remote dosimetry protocol is introduced for validating off
      site dosimetrically complex radiotherapy systems, including MRgRT. The protocol
      involves correcting for temporal and spatially dependent changes in PRESAGE(r)
      radiochromic dosimeters readout by optical-CT. Application of the protocol to TG
      119 irradiations enabled verification of MRgRT dose distributions with high
      resolution.

PMID- 28877345
TI  - Solute Transfer in Osmotic Dehydration of Vegetable Foods: A Review.
AB  - While various mechanisms have been proposed for the water transfer during osmotic
      dehydration (OD), little progress has been made to understand the mechanisms of
      solute transfer during osmotic dehydration. The transfer of solutes has been
      often described only by the diffusion mechanism; however, numerous evidences
      suggest the participation of a variety of mechanisms. This review deals with the
      main issues of solute transfer in the OD of vegetables. In this context, several
      studies suggest that during OD of fruits and vegetables, the migration of solutes
      is not influenced by diffusion. Thus, new theories that may explain the solute
      transport are analyzed, considering the influence of the plant microstructure and
      its interaction with the physicochemical properties of osmotic liquid media. In
      particular, the surface adhesion phenomenon is analyzed and discussed, as a
      possible mechanism present during the transfer of solutes in OD.

PMID- 28877346
TI  - Comparable Outcome of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and In-Hospital Cardiac
      Arrest Treated With Extracorporeal Life Support.
AB  - Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) has shown benefits in the management of
      refractory in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) by improving survival. Nonetheless,
      the results concerning out-of-hospital refractory cardiac arrests (OHCA) remain
      uncertain. The aim of our investigation was to compare survival between the two
      groups. We realized a single-center retrospective, observational study of all
      patients who presented IHCA or OHCA treated with ECLS between 2011 and 2015.
      Multivariate analysis was realized to determine independent factors associated
      with mortality. Over the 4-year period, 65 patients were included, 43 in the IHCA
      group (66.2%), and 22 (33.8%) in the OHCA group. The duration of low flow was
      significantly longer in the OHCA group (60 vs. 90 min, P = 0.004). Survival to
      discharge from the hospital was identical in the two groups (27% in the OHCA
      group vs. 23% in the IHCA group, P = 0.77). All surviving patients in the OHCA
      group had a cerebral performance categories score of 1-2. In multivariate
      analysis, we found that the initial lactate level and baseline blood creatinine
      were independently associated with mortality. We found comparable survival and
      neurological score in patients who presented IHCA and OHCA treated with ECLS. We
      believe that appropriate selection of patients and optimization of organ
      perfusion during resuscitation can lead to good results in patients with OHCA
      treated with ECLS.

PMID- 28877347
TI  - Sex differences in the role of phospholipase A2 -dependent arachidonic acid
      pathway in the perivascular adipose tissue function in pigs.
AB  - KEY POINTS: The fat surrounding blood vessels (perivascular adipose tissue or
      PVAT) releases vasoactive compounds that regulate vascular smooth muscle tone.
      There are sex differences in the regulation of vascular tone, but, to date, no
      study has investigated whether there are sex differences in the regulation of
      blood vessel tone by PVAT. This study has identified that the cyclooxygenase
      products thromboxane and PGF2alpha are released from coronary artery PVAT from
      pigs. Thromboxane appears to mediate the PVAT-induced contraction in arteries
      from females, whereas PGF2alpha appears to mediate the contraction in arteries
      from males. These sex differences in the role of these prostanoids in the PVAT
      induced contraction can be explained by a greater release of thromboxane from
      PVAT from female animals and greater sensitivity to PGF2alpha in the porcine
      coronary artery from males. ABSTRACT: Previous studies have demonstrated that
      perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) causes vasoconstriction. In this present
      study, we determined the role of cyclooxygenase-derived prostanoids in this
      contractile response and determined whether there were any sex differences in the
      regulation of vascular tone by PVAT. Contractions in isolated segments of
      coronary arteries were determined using isolated tissue baths and isometric
      tension recording. Segments were initially cleaned of PVAT, which was then re
      added to the tissue bath and changes in tone measured over 1 h. Levels of
      PGF2alpha and thromboxane B2 (TXB2 ) were quantified by ELISA, and PGF2alpha (FP)
      and thromboxane A2 (TP) receptor expression determined by Western blotting. In
      arteries from both male and female pigs, re-addition of PVAT caused a
      contraction, which was partially inhibited by the cyclooxygenase inhibitors
      indomethacin and flurbiprofen. The FP receptor antagonist AL8810 attenuated the
      PVAT-induced contraction in arteries from males, whereas the TP receptor
      antagonist GR32191B inhibited the PVAT-induced contraction in arteries from
      females. Although there was no difference in PGF2alpha levels in PVAT between
      females and males, PGF2alpha produced a larger contraction in arteries from
      males, correlating with a higher FP receptor expression. In contrast, release of
      TXB2 from PVAT from females was greater than from males, but there was no
      difference in the contraction by the TXA2 agonist U46619, or TP receptor
      expression in arteries from different sexes. These findings demonstrate clear sex
      differences in PVAT function in which PGF2alpha and TXA2 antagonists can inhibit
      the PVAT-induced vasoconstriction in male and female PCAs, respectively.

PMID- 28877348
TI  - Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as the sole method for sentinel node
      biopsy detection in patients with breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) using superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)
      nanoparticles is a novel method in breast cancer. Several studies have verified
      the non-inferiority of SPIO compared with the standard use of radioisotope 99m Tc
      with or without blue dye. The aim of the MONOS study presented here was to
      evaluate the use of SPIO as a sole tracer and the efficacy of tracer injection in
      the preoperative setting. METHODS: This prospective cohort study was carried out
      in two hospitals, one using 99m Tc and the other SPIO. 99m Tc was injected in the
      morning of the day of surgery or the day before. SPIO was either injected before
      surgery in the outpatient clinic or 1 h before the operation. RESULTS: A total of
      338 consecutive patients with breast cancer underwent 343 procedures; SPIO
      nanoparticles were used in 184 procedures and 99m Tc-labelled tracer in 159.
      Detection rates for SPIO and 99m Tc were 95.6 and 96.9 per cent respectively (P =
      0.537). All nodes with SPIO uptake were coloured brown. Fewer nodes were
      retrieved with SPIO (mean 1.35 versus 1.89), regardless of whether blue dye was
      used (P < 0.001). Preoperative SPIO injection (58.7 per cent of procedures), a
      median of 16 (range 2-27) days before the procedure, was associated with a better
      tracer-specific detection rate (95.3 versus 86 per cent; P = 0.031) and retrieval
      of more nodes (mean 1.43 versus 1.03; P < 0.001) than perioperative
      administration. Skin staining was present in 39.9 per cent of patients, and was
      related to breast-conserving surgery and periareolar injection. CONCLUSION: The
      use of SPIO alone is a safe alternative, with results comparable to those of the
      standard dual technique using 99m Tc and blue dye. The efficacy of injection in
      the preoperative setting simplifies logistics and improves performance. Skin
      staining can be prevented by a deeper peritumoral injection.

PMID- 28877350
TI  - Oxidative Stress Increases Erythrocyte Sensitivity to Shear-Mediated Damage.
AB  - Patients receiving mechanical circulatory support often present with heightened
      inflammation and free radical production associated with pre-existing conditions
      in addition to that which is due to blood interactions with nonbiological
      surfaces. The aim of this experimental laboratory study was to assess the
      deformability of red blood cells (RBC) previously exposed to oxygen free radicals
      and determine the susceptibility of these cells to mechanical forces. In the
      present study, RBC from 15 healthy donors were washed and incubated for 60 min at
      37 degrees C with 50 uM phenazine methosulfate (PMS; an agent that generates
      superoxide within RBC). Incubated RBC and negative controls were assessed for
      their deformability and susceptibility to mechanical damage (using ektacytometry)
      prior to the application of shear stress, and also following exposure to 25
      different shear conditions of varied magnitudes (shear stress 1, 4, 16, 32, 64
      Pa) and durations (1, 4, 16, 32, 64 s). The salient findings demonstrate that
      incubation with PMS impaired important indices of RBC deformability indicating
      altered cell mechanics by ~19% in all conditions (pre- and postexposure to shear
      stress). The typical trends in shear-mediated changes in RBC susceptibility to
      mechanical damage, following conditioning shear stresses, were maintained for PMS
      incubated and control conditions. We demonstrated that free radicals hinder the
      ability of RBC to deform; however, RBC retained their typical mechanical response
      to shear stress, albeit at a decreased level compared with control following
      exposure to PMS. Our findings also indicate that low shear exposure may decrease
      cell sensitivity to mechanical damage upon subsequent shear stress exposures. As
      patients receiving mechanical circulatory support have elevated exposure to free
      radicals (which limits RBC deformability), concomitant exposure to high shear
      environments needs to be minimized.

PMID- 28877349
TI  - Development of the quality of reaching in infants with cerebral palsy: a
      kinematic study.
AB  - AIM: To assess development of reaching and head stability in infants at very high
      risk (VHR-infants) of cerebral palsy (CP) who did and did not develop CP. METHOD:
      This explorative longitudinal study assessed the kinematics of reaching and head
      sway in sitting in 37 VHR-infants (18 CP) one to four times between 4.7 months
      and 22.6 months corrected age. Developmental trajectories were calculated using
      linear mixed effect models. Motor function was evaluated with the Infant Motor
      Profile (IMP) around 13 months corrected age. RESULTS: Throughout infancy, VHR
      infants with CP had a worse reaching quality than infants without CP, reflected
      for example by more movement units (factor 1.52, 95% CI 1.16-1.99) and smaller
      transport movement units (factor 1.86, 95% CI 1.20-2.90). Total head sway of
      infants with and without CP was similar, but infants with CP used more head
      movement units to achieve stability. The rate of developmental change in infants
      with and without CP was similar. Around 13 months, head control and reaching
      quality were interrelated; both were associated with IMP-scores. INTERPRETATION:
      Infants with CP showed a worse kinematic reaching quality and head stability
      throughout infancy from early age onwards than VHR-infants without CP, implying
      that kinematically they do not grow into a deficit, but exhibit deficits from
      early infancy on. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Reaching quality improves throughout
      infancy in all infants at high risk (VHR-infants). Infants with cerebral palsy
      (CP) show a worse reaching quality than VHR-infants without CP. Infants with CP
      achieve head stability differently from infants without CP. Infants with CP
      exhibit kinematic reaching problems from early age onwards.

PMID- 28877351
TI  - Evaluation of a novel collimator for molecular breast tomosynthesis.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study investigated a novel gamma camera for molecular breast
      tomosynthesis (MBT), which is a nuclear breast imaging method that uses limited
      angle tomography. The camera is equipped with a variable angle, slant-hole (VASH)
      collimator that allows the camera to remain close to the breast throughout the
      acquisition. The goal of this study was to evaluate the spatial resolution and
      count sensitivity of this camera and to compare contrast and contrast-to-noise
      ratio (CNR) with conventional planar imaging using an experimental breast
      phantom. METHODS: The VASH collimator mounts to a commercial gamma camera for
      breast imaging that uses a pixelated (3.2 mm), 15 * 20 cm NaI crystal. Spatial
      resolution was measured in planar images over a range of distances from the
      collimator (30-100 mm) and a range of slant angles (-25 degrees  to 25 degrees )
      using 99m Tc line sources. Spatial resolution was also measured in reconstructed
      MBT images including in the depth dimension. The images were reconstructed from
      data acquired over the -25 degrees  to 25 degrees  angular range using an
      iterative algorithm adapted to the slant-hole geometry. Sensitivity was measured
      over the range of slant angles using a disk source. Measured spatial resolution
      and sensitivity were compared to theoretical values. Contrast and CNR were
      measured using a breast phantom containing spherical lesions (6.2 mm and 7.8 mm
      diameter) and positioned over a range of depths in the phantom. The MBT and
      planar methods had equal scan time, and the count density in the breast phantom
      data was similar to that in clinical nuclear breast imaging. The MBT method used
      an iterative reconstruction algorithm combined with a postreconstruction Metz
      filter. RESULTS: The measured spatial resolution in planar images agreed well
      with theoretical calculations over the range of distances and slant angles. The
      measured FWHM was 9.7 mm at 50 mm distance. In reconstructed MBT images, the
      spatial resolution in the depth dimension was approximately 2.2 mm greater than
      the other two dimensions due to the limited angle data. The measured count
      sensitivity agreed closely with theory over all slant angles when using a wide
      energy window. At 0 degrees  slant angle, measured sensitivity was 19.7 counts
      sec-1 MUCi-1 with the open energy window and 11.2 counts sec-1 MUCi-1 with a 20%
      wide photopeak window (126 to 154 keV). The measured CNR in the MBT images was
      significantly greater than in the planar images for all but the lowest CNR cases
      where the lesion detectability was extremely low for both MBT and planar. The 7.8
      mm lesion at 37 mm depth was marginally detectable in the planar image but easily
      visible in the MBT image. The improved CNR with MBT was due to a large
      improvement in contrast, which out-weighed the increase in image noise.
      CONCLUSION: The spatial resolution and count sensitivity measurements with the
      prototype MBT system matched theoretical calculations, and the measured CNR in
      breast phantom images was generally greater with the MBT system compared to
      conventional planar imaging. These results demonstrate the potential of the
      proposed MBT system to improve lesion detection in nuclear breast imaging.

PMID- 28877353
TI  - Adolescence transitional care in neurogenic detrusor overactivity and the use of
      OnabotulinumtoxinA: A clinical algorithm from an Italian consensus statement.
AB  - AIMS: OnabotulinumtoxinA (onaBNTa) for treating neurogenic detrusor overactivity
      (NDO) is widely used after its regulatory approval in adults. Although the
      administration of onaBNTa is still considered off-label in children, data have
      already been reported on its efficacy and safety. Nowadays, there is a lack of
      standardized protocols for treatment of NDO with onaBNTa in adolescent patients
      in their transition from the childhood to the adult age. With the aim to address
      this issue a consensus panel was obtained. METHODS: A panel of leading urologists
      and urogynaecologists skilled in functional urology, neuro-urology,
      urogynaecology, and pediatric urology participated in a consensus-forming project
      using a Delphi method to reach national consensus on NDO-onaBNTa treatment in
      adolescence transitional care. RESULTS: In total, 11 experts participated. All
      panelists participated in the four phases of the consensus process. Consensus was
      reached if >=70% of the experts agreed on recommendations. To facilitate a common
      understanding among all experts, a face-to-face consensus meeting was held in
      Rome in march 2015 and then with a follow-up teleconference in march 2017. By the
      end of the Delphi process, formal consensus was achieved for 100% of the items
      and an algorithm was then developed. CONCLUSIONS: This manuscript represents the
      first report on the onaBNTa in adolescents. Young adults should be treated as a
      distinct sub-population in policy, planning, programming, and research, as
      strongly sustained by national public health care. This consensus and the
      algorithm could support multidisciplinary communication, reduce the extent of
      variations in clinical practice and optimize clinical decision making.

PMID- 28877352
TI  - Incidence, Risk Factors, and Outcomes of Hyperbilirubinemia in Adult Cardiac
      Patients Supported by Veno-Arterial ECMO.
AB  - The aims of this study were to evaluate the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes
      of hyperbilirubinemia in cardiac patients with veno-arterial (VA) ECMO. Data on
      89 adult patients with cardiac diseases who received VA ECMO implantation in our
      hospital were retrospectively reviewed. All patients were divided into the
      following three groups: 24 in normal group (N, total bilirubin [TBIL] <=3 mg/dL),
      30 in high bilirubin group (HB, 6 mg/dL >= TBIL > 3 mg/dL), and 35 in severe high
      bilirubin group (SHB, TBIL > 6 mg/dL). lg(variables + 1) was performed for
      nonnormally distributed variables. The incidence of hyperbilirubinemia (>3 mg/dL)
      was 73%. In a multiple linear regression analysis, lg(peak TBIL + 1) was
      significantly associated with lg(peak AST + 1) (b-coefficient 0.188, P = 0.001),
      lg(peak pFHb + 1) (b-coefficient 0.201, P = 0.003), and basic TBIL (b-coefficient
      0.006, P = 0.009). Repeated measurement analysis of variance revealed that the
      main effect for three groups in pFHb and lg(AST + 1) was significant at first 3
      days during ECMO. The patients in SHB had low platelets during ECMO and low in
      hospital survival rate. Hyperbilirubinemia remains common in patients with VA
      ECMO and is associated with low platelets and high in-hospital mortality.
      Hemolysis and liver dysfunction during ECMO and basic high bilirubin levels are
      risk factors of hyperbilirubinemia.

PMID- 28877354
TI  - Lung Ultrasonography in Patients With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Evaluation
      of a Simplified Protocol With High-Resolution Computed Tomographic Correlation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare a simplified ultrasonographic (US) protocol in 2 patient
      positions with the same-positioned comprehensive US assessments and high
      resolution computed tomographic (CT) findings in patients with idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis. METHODS: Twenty-five consecutive patients with idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis were prospectively enrolled and examined in 2 sessions. During
      session 1, patients were examined with a US protocol including 56 lung
      intercostal spaces in supine/sitting (supine/sitting comprehensive protocol) and
      lateral decubitus (decubitus comprehensive protocol) positions. During session 2,
      patients were evaluated with a 16-intercostal space US protocol in sitting
      (sitting simplified protocol) and left/right decubitus (decubitus simplified
      protocol) positions. The 16 intercostal spaces were chosen according to the
      prevalence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis-related changes on high-resolution
      CT. The sum of B-lines counted in each intercostal space formed the US scores for
      all 4 US protocols: supine/sitting and decubitus comprehensive US scores and
      sitting and decubitus simplified US scores. High-resolution CT-related Warrick
      scores (J Rheumatol 1991; 18:1520-1528) were compared to US scores. The duration
      of each protocol was recorded. RESULTS: A significant correlation was found
      between all US scores and Warrick scores and between simplified and corresponding
      comprehensive scores (P < .0001). Decubitus simplified US scores showed a
      slightly higher correlation with Warrick scores compared to sitting simplified US
      scores. Mean durations of decubitus and sitting simplified protocols were 4.76
      and 6.20 minutes, respectively (P < .005). CONCLUSIONS: Simplified 16-intercostal
      space protocols correlated with comprehensive protocols and high-resolution CT
      findings in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The 16-intercostal space
      simplified protocol in the lateral decubitus position correlated better with high
      resolution CT findings and was less time-consuming compared to the sitting
      position.

PMID- 28877355
TI  - Sonographic Evaluation of Complications of Extracranial Carotid Artery
      Interventions.
AB  - Carotid endarterectomy and carotid artery stenting are among the most common
      peripheral vascular procedures performed worldwide. Sonography is the initial and
      often only imaging modality used in the evaluation of iatrogenic carotid arterial
      injuries. This pictorial essay provides an overview of the clinical and
      sonographic findings of complications after interventions in the extracranial
      carotid arteries, including dissection, fluid collections, pseudoaneurysm,
      thrombosis, thromboembolism, restenosis, and stent deformation. Grayscale, color,
      and pulsed Doppler imaging findings are reviewed, and correlations with computed
      tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography are provided.

PMID- 28877356
TI  - Analysis of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Perfusion Patterns and Time-Intensity
      Curves for Metastatic Lymph Nodes From Lung Cancer: Preliminary Results.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To retrospectively summarize the similarities and differences in
      contrast-enhanced ultrasound (US) findings for lymph node metastasis from
      adenocarcinoma, squamous carcinoma, and small cell lung cancer. METHODS: Patients
      who had received contrast-enhanced US examinations and had a histologic diagnosis
      of supraclavicular lymph node metastasis from lung cancer were included. The
      perfusion patterns on contrast-enhanced US images and time-intensity curve
      parameters were analyzed for the different pathologic types. The microvascular
      density and microvascular diameter were evaluated. RESULTS: Totally, 61 patients
      were enrolled in this study, including 26 cases with lung squamous carcinoma, 26
      with lung adenocarcinoma, and 9 with small cell lung cancer. Contrast-enhanced US
      perfusion showed no significant differences in enhancement uniformity during the
      arterial phase and in the presence of unenhanced areas of metastatic lymph nodes
      with the 3 different pathologic origins (P > .05), but fewer unenhanced areas
      could be seen in metastatic lymph nodes from adenocarcinoma. The analysis of the
      time-intensity curve parameters showed that there were significant differences in
      the peak intensity between metastatic lymph nodes from lung squamous carcinoma
      and lung adenocarcinoma (P < .05). The microvascular density of metastatic lymph
      nodes from adenocarcinoma was significantly higher than that of metastatic lymph
      nodes from squamous carcinoma and small cell lung cancer (P < .001; P = .0444),
      whereas the microvascular diameter of metastatic lymph nodes from adenocarcinoma
      was significantly smaller than that from squamous carcinoma and small cell lung
      cancer (P = .0277; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Effects of the pathologic diagnosis
      should be considered when analyzing quantitative parameters of metastatic lymph
      nodes during contrast-enhanced US examinations, even in the same organ.

PMID- 28877357
TI  - Assessment of the Fetal Cerebral Artery: Importance of Doppler Preset Settings.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Doppler assessment of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) has a
      central role in the monitoring of high-risk pregnancies. The objective of this
      study was to investigate the importance of Doppler preset settings for
      measurement of the peak systolic velocity (PSV) and pulsatility index (PI) of the
      MCA. METHODS: The PI and PSV of the MCA were determined prospectively in 350
      healthy fetuses between 19 and 42 weeks of pregnancy. The first measurement of
      the MCA (MCA.S) was performed with the conventional settings and the second
      (MCA.O) with an optimized setting of the maximum achievable frame rate. For the
      MCA.O measurement, the width of the B-mode image and the color Doppler window
      were adjusted as narrowly as possible. In addition, the MCA was shown in
      optimized high-definition zoom. Resulting values were compared with commonly used
      reference values. RESULTS: The PSV and PI values and frame rates of the MCA.O
      setting were noticeably greater than those of the MCA.S setting (P < .001 for
      all). For both settings, the PSV and PI values were increased compared to common
      reference values. CONCLUSIONS: The assessment of the MCA with the optimized
      Doppler default setting yielded increased PSV and PI values compared to the
      commonly used measurement technique. Moreover, the resulting median curves
      differed from the established median reference curves. Therefore, an updated
      standardization for measuring the MCA should be set out, and current reference
      values should be adjusted.

PMID- 28877358
TI  - Utility of Transfacial Dental Ultrasonography in Evaluation of Cystic Jaw
      Lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Plain radiography has been widely used in dentistry. Because of the
      variability of the quality of equipment, radiographic technique, accuracy of
      interpretation, and radiation risk to the patients, the field is ripe for the
      introduction of other newer diagnostic modalities. In this report, we demonstrate
      the utility of ultrasonography in the diagnostic workup of cystic or cystlike
      lesions of the jaw. METHODS: We used a transfacial ultrasonographic scanning
      approach to examine 32 patients with clinical or radiographic presentation of a
      jaw cyst. Computed tomography and histopathologic analysis were used as the
      reference standards to confirm the findings. RESULTS: Ultrasonography could
      establish the presence or absence of a lesion, erosion of the buccal cortical
      plate, and identification of associated soft tissue involvement in all cases
      (sensitivity and specificity, 100% and 100%, respectively; area under the
      receiver operating characteristic curve, 1.0; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      observations revealed the usefulness of ultrasonography and demonstrated its
      potential value when introduced as a routine office-based imaging method for
      dentistry.

PMID- 28877359
TI  - Food elimination diets are effective for long-term treatment of adults with
      eosinophilic oesophagitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited data describe the long-term efficacy of dietary elimination
      in eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE). AIM: To assess the long-term outcomes of food
      elimination diets for treatment of adults with EoE. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective cohort study at our centre analysing all EoE patients receiving a
      food elimination diet without concomitant steroids. Baseline data were abstracted
      using standardised collection forms. Follow-up data from a mean 24.9-month period
      were collected for patients with a histological response to a food elimination
      diet during and after food reintroduction. The main outcomes were symptomatic,
      endoscopic and histological responses. RESULTS: Of 52 patients, 18 received a 6
      food food elimination diet, 32 received targeted diet, and two received a 6-food
      food elimination diet with targeted elimination. There were 21 (40%) patients
      with an initial histological response. Responders reported less dysphagia after
      treatment (95% baseline vs 11%; P = .001) and at the end of follow-up (95%
      baseline vs 33%; P = .008). Significant and durable endoscopic improvements were
      recorded at the same time points: Endoscopic reference score: 3.2 vs 0.7; P =
      .001; and 3.2 vs 1.7; P = .06. Histological findings improved after the most
      restrictive diet in responders (49.8 vs 4.1 eosinophils per high-power field; P =
      .001) and remained suppressed in the 10 initial responders maintaining compliance
      at the end of follow-up (5.2 eosinophils per high-power field). CONCLUSIONS:
      Among EoE patients responding to a food elimination diet and remaining adherent,
      maintenance dietary therapy produced durable long-term symptomatic, endoscopic
      and histological disease control. These long-term data confirm that a food
      elimination diet is an effective maintenance treatment option in select adults
      with EoE.

PMID- 28877360
TI  - Improvement of the efficacy of vascularized lymph node transfer for lower
      extremity lymphedema via a prefabricated lympho-venous shunt through
      lymphaticovenular anastomosis between the efferent lymphatic vessel and small
      vein in the elevated vascularized lymph node.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Following vascularized lymph node (VLN) transfer (VLNT), the VLN may
      be at a risk for sclerosis because of efferent lymphatic vessel obstruction. We
      developed a new technique to prevent VLN sclerosis via a prefabricated lympho
      venous (LV) shunt. This study compared the treatment outcomes of single VLNT with
      prefabricated LV shunt, conventional multiple VLNTs, and conventional single
      VLNT. METHODS: Overall, 47 limbs of 45 patients that underwent VLNT for lower
      extremity lymphedema (LEL) in late clinical stage II/III were divided into 3
      groups: conventional single VLNT group (control; 21 limbs where 4 had primary
      LEL), multiple VLNTs group (13 limbs where 3 had primary LEL), and prefabricated
      LV shunt group (13 limbs where 4 had primary LEL). In the prefabricated LV shunt
      group, lymphaticovenular anastomosis between the efferent lymphatic vessel and
      small vein in the elevated VLN were performed simultaneously with VLNT. RESULTS:
      Although venous thrombosis at the anastomosis site was observed in 1 case, it was
      salvaged by re-anastomosis, and all VLNs survived. No other complications were
      observed. The LEL index significantly improved in the prefabricated LV shunt
      group compared with that in the control group (28.0 +/- 1.7 vs 20.9 +/- 1.5, P =
      0.02). In the prefabricated LV shunt group, all VLNs survived functionally, and
      the average size of the transferred lymph nodes was significantly larger than
      that of the control group (5.7 +/- 0.1 vs 4.3 +/- 0.2 mm, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Prefabricated LV shunt may improve the efficacy of VLNT.

PMID- 28877361
TI  - "Enticing case study" or "celebrated anomaly"? Policy learning from the Cuban
      health system.
AB  - Cuba is regarded as having achieved very good health outcomes for its level of
      economic development. It has adopted policies and programs that focus on
      prevention, universal access to healthcare, a strong primary care system, the
      integration of health in all policies, and public participation in health. It has
      also established a strong and accessible system of medical education and provides
      substantial medical aid and support to other countries. Why then, it may be
      asked, has the Cuban experience not had greater influence on health policies and
      reforms elsewhere? This article, based on a literature review and new primary
      sources, analyzes various factors highlighted in the policy transfer literature
      to explain this. It also notes other factors that have created greater awareness
      of Cuban health achievements in some countries and which provide a basis for
      learning lessons from its policies.

PMID- 28877362
TI  - Trends in urodynamic testing prior to midurethral sling placement-What was the
      value of the VALUE trial?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many urologists use urodynamic testing (UDS) to assist clinical
      decision-making. The VALUE study, a multi-institutional, randomized controlled
      trial published in 2012, demonstrated that UDS prior to midurethral sling
      placement for uncomplicated stress urinary incontinence (SUI) did not change
      management. We sought to determine whether use of UDS for evaluation of SUI
      diminished thereafter. METHODS: Records of patients who underwent isolated mid
      urethral sling surgery at our tertiary-care referral center from 2008 to 2009
      (pre-VALUE) and 2014 to 2016 (post-VALUE) were reviewed. Comorbidities,
      presenting symptoms, surgeon specialty, use of UDS, UDS results and sling type
      were recorded. Patients with neurologic comorbidities or prior anti-incontinence
      procedures were excluded. Descriptive statistics were calculated and
      multivariable logistic regression analyses performed. RESULTS: Three hundred and
      eighty-seven patients met inclusion criteria. Median age was 54 years. Patients
      most frequently presented with stress urinary incontinence (56% pre, 50% post),
      followed by stress predominant mixed urinary incontinence (40% pre, 48% post, P =
      0.09). Before VALUE, UDS was performed in 70% of patients prior to primary sling;
      in the later cohort, this decreased to 41% (P < 0.0001). On multivariable
      analysis, provider specialty (P < 0.0001) and belonging to the pre-VALUE cohort
      (P = < 0.0001) predicted use of UDS prior to sling. CONCLUSION: It is paramount
      that new data be incorporated into diagnostic and treatment algorithms. We found
      that the rate of preoperative urodynamic testing decreased after publication of a
      randomized-controlled trial demonstrating that these studies did not change
      procedural decision-making. Future studies that identify instances of over
      testing may have the ability to positively impact patient care and contain costs.

PMID- 28877363
TI  - Establishing an Ultrasound Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education: How
      Much Time Does It Take?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Over the years, the use of ultrasound in the medical profession has
      become a common occurrence. As a result, many medical schools are considering an
      ultrasound curriculum for first- and second-year medical students. The question
      posed by many of these programs is how much time and effort are required to
      establish such a curriculum. We at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
      sought to quantify the resources and time required. METHODS: We conducted a
      cohort study that analyzed the time spent teaching, as well as the types of
      instructors (eg, faculty, resident, and peer student) that contributed to our
      ultrasound curriculum. The study population consisted of instructors who
      participated in the curriculum during the 2014-2015 academic year. We analyzed
      the amount of time that facilitators spent teaching and tabulated these data
      using their specialty. RESULTS: Our data revealed that within an academic year, a
      combined total of 484 hours were spent teaching ultrasound to first- and second
      year medical students combined. A total of 6 days were required to teach
      ultrasound to first-year medical students, and a total of 5 days were required
      for second-year medical students. It required 1 instructor for every 8 students,
      and most the faculty who volunteered time were from the field of emergency
      medicine, followed by family medicine and radiology. CONCLUSIONS: We describe the
      number of hours and instructors required to implement an ultrasound curriculum
      for undergraduate medical education.

PMID- 28877364
TI  - Are great apes able to reason from multi-item samples to populations of food
      items?
AB  - Inductive learning from limited observations is a cognitive capacity of
      fundamental importance. In humans, it is underwritten by our intuitive
      statistics, the ability to draw systematic inferences from populations to
      randomly drawn samples and vice versa. According to recent research in cognitive
      development, human intuitive statistics develops early in infancy. Recent work in
      comparative psychology has produced first evidence for analogous cognitive
      capacities in great apes who flexibly drew inferences from populations to
      samples. In the present study, we investigated whether great apes (Pongo abelii,
      Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla gorilla) also draw inductive inferences in
      the opposite direction, from samples to populations. In two experiments, apes saw
      an experimenter randomly drawing one multi-item sample from each of two
      populations of food items. The populations differed in their proportion of
      preferred to neutral items (24:6 vs. 6:24) but apes saw only the distribution of
      food items in the samples that reflected the distribution of the respective
      populations (e.g., 4:1 vs. 1:4). Based on this observation they were then allowed
      to choose between the two populations. Results show that apes seemed to make
      inferences from samples to populations and thus chose the population from which
      the more favorable (4:1) sample was drawn in Experiment 1. In this experiment,
      the more attractive sample not only contained proportionally but also absolutely
      more preferred food items than the less attractive sample. Experiment 2, however,
      revealed that when absolute and relative frequencies were disentangled, apes
      performed at chance level. Whether these limitations in apes' performance reflect
      true limits of cognitive competence or merely performance limitations due to
      accessory task demands is still an open question.

PMID- 28877366
TI  - Melanocortin receptor subtypes are expressed on cells in the oligodendroglial
      lineage and signal ACTH protection.
AB  - ACTH, a melanocortin peptide used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses, acts
      by stimulating adrenal corticosteroid (CS) production via melanocortin receptor 2
      (MC2R), but it may also exert a therapeutic effect independent of CS by
      stimulating other melanocortin receptors (MCR) distributed in many tissues,
      including the brain. We reported that oligodendroglia (OL) and oligodendroglial
      precursor cells (OPC) express MC4R, and that ACTH 1-39 protects OL and OPC in
      vitro from cell death induced by mechanisms likely involved in white matter
      damage in MS. This study investigates expression of MC1R, MC2R, MC3R and MC5R in
      OL and MC4R in OPC using immunocytochemistry with MCR subtype specific
      antibodies. OL express surface MC1R, MC3R and MC5R, in addition to MC4R. To
      investigate whether these receptors are functional, we asked if signaling through
      MCR is involved in ACTH protection of cultured rat OL from apoptosis
      (staurosporine), or cell death induced by excitotoxicity (glutamate), reactive
      oxygen species (ROS), or an inflammatory mediator (quinolinic acid). Like ACTH 1
      39, MCR subtype specific agonists for MC1R, MC3R, MC4R and MC5R all protected OL
      from these insults. Conversely, antagonists for MC3R and MC4R blocked ACTH
      protection of OL. We then investigated the role of MC4R, as a prototype MCR, in
      protection and proliferation of OPC; MC4R agonists protected OPC and increased
      their proliferation, while antagonists blocked these effects. Our results
      demonstrate that MCR on OL and OPC are functional and activate signaling pathways
      that protect against mechanisms involved in OL damage in MS, suggesting potential
      beneficial effects in neurologic diseases.

PMID- 28877365
TI  - Molecular cloning, characterization and expression of immunoglobulin D on
      pathogen challenge and pathogen associated molecular patterns stimulation in
      freshwater carp, Catla catla.
AB  - The primordial immunoglobulin class, IgD, was the first non-IgM isotype
      discovered in teleosts. The crucial roles of IgM and IgZ in imparting systemic
      and mucosal immunity, respectively, in various fish species have been widely
      established. However, the putative function of a unique IgD isotype during
      pathogenic invasions has not been well explored. The present study reports the
      existence of an IgD ortholog in freshwater carp, Catla catla, and further
      evaluates its differential expression profile in response to bacterial, parasitic
      and viral antigenic exposure and pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs)
      stimulation. The IgD of C. catla (CcIgD) cDNA sequence was found to encode 226
      amino acids and confirmed homology with heavy chain delta region of Cyprinidae
      family members. Phylogenetic analysis of CcIgD exhibited greatest similarity with
      Ctenopharyngodon idella. qRT-PCR analysis revealed significant upregulation (P <
      0.001) of IgD gene expression in kidney with respect to other tissues at 24 hr
      post-Aeromonas hydrophila challenge. CcIgD gene expression in skin was enhanced
      following Streptococcus uberis infection and in blood following Argulus infection
      and inactivated rhabdoviral antigen stimulation. Further, the treatment of
      bacterial and viral products (PAMPs) also triggered significant (P < 0.05)
      increases in CcIgD mRNA expression in kidney. These findings indicate the
      functional importance of teleost IgD in orchestrating tissue specific
      neutralization of antigens on stimulation with different pathogens and PAMPs.

PMID- 28877367
TI  - sigma-holes and pi-holes: Similarities and differences.
AB  - sigma-Holes and pi-holes are regions of molecules with electronic densities lower
      than their surroundings. There are often positive electrostatic potentials
      associated with them. Through these potentials, the molecule can interact
      attractively with negative sites, such as lone pairs, pi electrons, and anions.
      Such noncovalent interactions, "sigma-hole bonding" and "pi-hole bonding," are
      increasingly recognized as being important in a number of different areas. In
      this article, we discuss and compare the natures and characteristics of sigma
      holes and pi-holes, and factors that influence the strengths and locations of the
      resulting electrostatic potentials. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28877368
TI  - Trends in pelvic organ prolapse management in Latin America.
AB  - AIMS: To describe practice patterns and perspectives regarding pelvic organ
      prolapse (POP) management among urologists, gynecologists, and urogynecologists
      in Latin America (LATAM). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from
      April to September 2016 using a 37-item internet-based survey applied to members
      of urologic and gynecologic associations from 18 countries. Participants were
      asked about their background and practice patterns. Descriptive statistics were
      employed. RESULTS: A total of 673 responses were obtained. Most came from
      Colombia (33.6%) and Brazil (24.7%). The number of practitioners who perform at
      least one POP procedure per month and were eligible to finish the survey was 529
      (78.6%), out of which 323 (61.0%) were urologists, 156 (29.5%) gynecologists, and
      50 (9.5%) urogynecologists. Mesh-based POP repairs were used by 57.1% of
      participants. Out of non-mesh users, the most frequent vaginal procedures were
      sacrospinous fixation (30%), colporrhaphy (25%), and uterosacral fixation (12%).
      Regarding the impact of FDA warnings, 75.2% participants indicated that the use
      of mesh has declined, and 41.9% considered this has had a negative effect in the
      use of incontinence tapes as well. Only two physicians reported legal disputes
      related to mesh procedures, and 75.8% said they would still indicate mesh repairs
      in certain cases. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report on POP practice patterns
      in LATAM. Preferences regarding surgical management of POP are not very different
      from international trends. Despite intense scrutiny and media exposure, mesh
      based procedures are still largely used in LATAM.

PMID- 28877369
TI  - Diet and feeding behavior of a group of 42 Phayre's langurs in a seasonal habitat
      in Mt. Gaoligong, Yunnan, China.
AB  - In habitats such as temperate evergreen forests, fruit, and seed productivity is
      reported to exhibit marked changes in seasonal availability, such that fruit is
      most available in summer and seeds are most available in autumn. Primates living
      in these habitats, therefore, are expected to adjust their diets in response to
      the spatial and temporal variation in these food resources. We studied the diet
      and feeding behavior of a group of 42 Phayre's langurs (Trachypithecus phayrei)
      living in a northern (24 degrees 48'N) montane habitat (1,700-2,350 m) in Mt.
      Gaoligong, Yunnan, China from August 2012 to July 2013. The langurs were found to
      forage on 50 plant species, of which 28 species each accounted for more than 1%
      of their annual feeding time. Castanopsis echidnocarpa, the most abundant species
      in their habitat, accounted for 17.5% of the total forest trees, and contributed
      to the largest proportion of the annual langur diet. The primary component of the
      langur diet was composed of fruits (22.2%), seeds (18.7%), and buds and young
      leaves (41.5%). Mature leaves accounted for only 4.1% of their diet. Based on DBH
      and the percent of the crown containing edible food items, we found that the
      langurs changed their monthly diet according to the availability of fruits and
      seeds (Spearman rank correlation: r = 0.609, p = 0.035), and buds and young
      leaves (Spearman rank correlation: r = 0.837, p = 0.001). The seeds of C.
      echidnocarpa accounted for 12.5% of langur feeding time. A single tree produced a
      large seed and fruit crop, which likely reduced opportunities for within-group
      feeding competition. We argue that the resource productivity of this northern
      montane enables Phayre's langurs to live in stable groups that are 3.6 times
      larger than reported for Phayre's langurs living in other habitats.

PMID- 28877370
TI  - On the Existence of He?He Bond in the Endohedral Fullerene He2 @C60.
AB  - Twenty years have already been passed since the endohedral fullerene's void
      ceaselessly attracts attention of both, experimentalists and theoreticians,
      computational chemists and physicists in particular, who direct their efforts on
      computer simulations of encapsulating atoms and molecules into fullerene void and
      on unraveling the arising bonding patterns. We review recent developments on the
      endohedral He2 @C60 fullerene, on its experimental observation and on related
      computational works. The two latter are the main concerns in the present work: on
      the one hand, there experimentally exists the He dimer embedded into C60 void. On
      the other, computational side, each He atom exhibits a negligible charge transfer
      to C60 resulting in that altogether, the He dimer exists as a fractionally
      charged (He+delta )2 . Whether there exists a bond between these two helium atoms
      is the key question of the present work. Since a bond is a two-body creature, we
      assert that it suffices to define the bond on the basis of Lowdin's postulate of
      a molecule which we invoke to investigate such formation of the He dimer in a
      given C60 void in terms of the He?He potential energy well. It is analytically
      demonstrated that this well enables to maintain at least one bound (ground)
      state, and therefore, according to Lowdin's postulate which is naturally
      anticipated within quantum theory, we infer that (He+delta )2 is a molecule, a
      diatomic, where two heliums are bonded to each other. Using these arguments, we
      also propose to extend the concept of stability of endohedral fullerenes. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28877371
TI  - Association Between Increased Concavity of Maxillary Labial Alveolar Bone and
      Decreased Labial Cortical Bone Thickness: A Cone Beam Computed Tomography Aided
      Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess whether an increased concavity of maxillary labial alveolar
      bone is related to labial thickness of cortical bone in that area and to the
      presence of extraoral manifestations in the philtrum. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cone
      beam computed tomography images along with intra- and extraoral photographic
      images of 50 Caucasian female patients, age range 18 to 65 years (mean: 37
      years), previously evaluated for implant treatment were assessed by three
      experienced prosthodontists. Patients were divided into two groups (A and B),
      according to the presence or absence of a horizontal groove at the philtrum area.
      Mann-Whitney U test (alpha = 0.05) was performed to reveal any statistical
      differences regarding the angle of the maxillary labial concavity and the labial
      thickness of the alveolar cortical bone between the two groups. RESULTS: The mean
      angle of the maxillary concavity in group A was 127.76 degrees  while in group B
      it was 137.12 degrees . The mean thickness of the labial cortical wall of the
      dental, interdental, and edentulous areas of the 8 anterior teeth for group A
      were: 0.41 mm, 0.61 mm, and 0.46 mm, respectively; and for group B were: 0.52 mm,
      0.72 mm, and 0.56 mm, respectively. The Mann-Whitney U test (alpha = 0.05)
      revealed a statistically significant difference for both the angle (p = 0.008)
      but not for the thickness of the bone (p = 0.062). CONCLUSIONS: According to the
      results of this study an increased maxillary labial concavity was associated with
      reduced thickness of the labial cortical wall and the presence of a horizontal
      groove at the philtrum area.

PMID- 28877372
TI  - Desquamation takes center stage at the origin of proliferative inflammatory
      atrophy, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and stromal growth in benign prostate
      hyperplasia.
AB  - In this commentary, we propose a relationship between desquamation, initially
      described as the collective detachment and deletion of epithelial cell in the
      prostate gland after castration, and proliferative inflammatory atrophy (PIA) and
      stromal growth in benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). First, in response to
      diverse stimuli, including inflammatory mediators, epithelial cells desquamate
      and leave a large surface of the luminal side of the basement membrane (BM)
      exposed. Basal cells are activated into intermediate-type cells, which change
      morphology to cover and remodel the exposed BM (simple atrophy) to a new
      physiological demand (such as in the hypoandrogen environment, simulated by
      surgical and/or chemical castration) and/or to support re-epithelialization
      (under normal androgen levels). In the presence of inflammation (that might be
      the cause of desquamation), the intermediate-type cells proliferate and
      characterize PIA. Second, in other circumstances, desquamation is an early step
      of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which contributes to stromal
      growth, as suggested by some experimental models of BPH. The proposed
      associations correlate unexplored cell behaviors and reveal the remarkable
      plasticity of the prostate epithelium that might be at the origin of prostate
      diseases.

PMID- 28877374
TI  - Role of oral nystatin prophylaxis in cardiac surgery with prolongedextracorporeal
      circulation.
AB  - Duration >120 minutes of extracorporeal circulation (ECC) during cardiopulmonary
      bypass procedure was associated to an increased risk of candidemia in the
      intensive care unit (ICU). To evaluate oral nystatin prophylaxis in cardiac
      surgery considering its exclusive effect on Candida, in the absence of systemic
      effects and selection of resistant strains to polyene. We conducted an
      observational study in the postcardiac surgery ICU of Policlinico "Umberto I" of
      Rome. From January 2014, all patients with a prolonged ECC >120 minutes were
      systematically treated with oral nystatin (Prophylaxis group). This group was
      compared with all patients hospitalised in the same ICU, who have not received
      oral nystatin after ECC >120 minutes (No prophylaxis group). Overall, 672
      consecutive patients were analyzed: 318 (47.3%) patients belonged to the no
      prophylaxis group, and 354 (52.7%) patients to the prophylaxis group. Diagnosis
      of candidemia was confirmed in 7 (2.2%) patients, all belonged to the no
      prophylaxis group. At multivariate analysis, oral nystatin prophylaxis showed a
      protective effect for development of candidemia after cardiac surgery. Oral
      nystatin prophylaxis, in patients who underwent a ECC >120 minutes, seems to
      reduce development of candidemia; however, the real efficacy of such prophylaxis
      approach requires further investigation.

PMID- 28877375
TI  - Polyacrylamide gel augmentation mammoplasty: Breast Images.

PMID- 28877373
TI  - Prevalence of onychomycosis among patients with nail psoriasis who are not
      receiving immunosuppressive agents: Results of a pilot study.
AB  - Nail psoriasis and onychomycosis can often be hard to differentiate clinically
      and may coexist, complicating each other's course. The aim of this study was to
      determine the prevalence of onychomycosis among patients with nail psoriasis not
      being treated with immunosuppressive agents, which constitute an independent risk
      factor for fungal infections. A cross-sectional study was performed. All adult
      patients with nail psoriasis who were not receiving antifungal and/or
      immunosuppressive treatment were recruited at the 2nd University Dermatology
      Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 10/2016 till 02/2017. If
      onychomycosis was clinically suspected, nail samples were collected and direct
      microscopy with 15% KOH solution and culture were performed. Target-NAPSI and
      DLQI score were also calculated. Of the 23 patients recruited, 20 were men and 3
      were women, with a mean age of 53.43 years (48.25, 58.62), a mean target-NAPSI
      score of 10.72 (9.62, 11.77) and a mean DLQI score of 10.17 (7.46, 12.89). A
      total of 34.78% of patients tested positive for onychomycosis. Yeast were
      isolated in 37.50% of cases, non-dermatophyte filamentous fungi in 37.50% and T.
      rubrum in 12.50%. The prevalence of onychomycosis among nail psoriasis patients
      is higher than that among the general population of Greece (15%-20%). Yeast and
      moulds predominate in infection cases of nail psoriasis patients.

PMID- 28877376
TI  - Solitary fibrous tumor of the breast: A rare neoplasm.

PMID- 28877377
TI  - Membrane cholesterol effect on the 5-HT2A receptor: Insights into the lipid
      induced modulation of an antipsychotic drug target.
AB  - The serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A (5-HT2A ) receptor is a G-protein-coupled
      receptor (GPCR) relevant for the treatment of CNS disorders. In this regard,
      neuronal membrane composition in the brain plays a crucial role in the modulation
      of the receptor functioning. Since cholesterol is an essential component of
      neuronal membranes, we have studied its effect on the 5-HT2A receptor dynamics
      through all-atom MD simulations. We find that the presence of cholesterol in the
      membrane increases receptor conformational variability in most receptor segments.
      Importantly, detailed structural analysis indicates that conformational
      variability goes along with the destabilization of hydrogen bonding networks not
      only within the receptor but also between receptor and lipids. In addition to
      increased conformational variability, we also find receptor segments with reduced
      variability. Our analysis suggests that this increased stabilization is the
      result of stabilizing effects of tightly bound cholesterol molecules to the
      receptor surface. Our finding contributes to a better understanding of membrane
      induced alterations of receptor dynamics and points to cholesterol-induced
      stabilizing and destabilizing effects on the conformational variability of GPCRs.

PMID- 28877378
TI  - The Spatial Distribution of Alkaloids in Psychotria prunifolia (Kunth) Steyerm
      and Palicourea coriacea (Cham.) K. Schum Leaves Analysed by Desorption
      Electrospray Ionisation Mass Spectrometry Imaging.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Species of the genera Psychotria and Palicourea are sources of
      indole alkaloids, however, the distribution of alkaloids within the plants is not
      known. Analysing the spatial distribution using desorption electrospray
      ionisation mass spectrometry imaging (DESI-MSI) has become attractive due to its
      simplicity and high selectivity compared to traditional histochemical techniques.
      OBJECTIVES: To apply DESI-MSI to visualise the alkaloid distribution on the leaf
      surface of Psychotria prunifolia and Palicourea coriacea and to compare the
      distributions with HPLC-MS and histochemical analyses. METHODOLOGY: Based upon
      previous structure elucidation studies, four alkaloids targeted in this study
      were identified using high resolution mass spectrometry by direct infusion of
      plant extracts, and their distributions were imaged by DESI-MSI via tissue
      imprints on a porous Teflon surface. Relative quantitation of the four alkaloids
      was obtained by HPLC-MS/MS analysis performed using multiple-reaction monitoring
      (MRM) mode on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. RESULTS: Alkaloids showed
      distinct distributions on the leaf surfaces. Prunifoleine was mainly present in
      the midrib, while 10-hydroxyisodeppeaninol was concentrated close to the petiole;
      a uniform distribution of 10-hydroxyantirhine was observed in the whole leaf of
      Psychotria prunifolia. The imprinted image from the Palicourea coriacea leaf also
      showed a homogeneous distribution of calycanthine throughout the leaf surface.
      CONCLUSION: Different distributions were found for three alkaloids in Psychotria
      prunifolia, and the distributions found by MSI were in complete accordance with
      HPLC-MS analysis and histochemical results. The DESI-MSI technique was therefore
      demonstrated to provide reliable information about the spatial distribution of
      metabolites in plants. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28877379
TI  - Short-term safety and efficacy of left atrial appendage closure with the WATCHMAN
      device in patients with small left atrial appendage ostia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Left atrial appendage (LAA) closure with the WATCHMAN device,
      according to FDA labelling, is recommended in patients with a maximal LAA ostial
      width between 17 and 31 mm. The safety and efficacy of LAA closure in patients
      with a maximal LAA ostial width < 17 mm has not been evaluated. The goal of this
      study was to determine the acute and short-term safety and efficacy of LAA
      closure with the WATCHMAN device in patients with a maximal LAA ostial width < 17
      mm. METHODS AND RESULTS: Thirty-two consecutive patients with a maximal LAA
      ostial width < 17 mm as determined by a screening transesophageal echocardiogram
      (TEE) underwent LAA closure with the WATCHMAN device between March 2015 and
      November 2016 at five medical centers, and were included in this study. Mean age,
      body mass index (BMI), and CHA2 DS2 -VASC score were 70.8 +/- 8.6 years, 29.3 +/-
      6.5 kg/m2 , and 3.9 +/-1.2, respectively. At the screening TEE, mean maximal LAA
      ostial width and depth were 15.6 +/- 0.6 mm (range 14-16) and 23.2 +/- 4.5 mm
      (range 13-31), respectively. Successful LAA closure with the WATCHMAN device was
      achieved in 31 of 32 patients (97%), with no major complications. TEE performed
      45 days after LAA closure demonstrated no peridevice leak > 5 mm and no device
      related thrombi. Warfarin was discontinued in all 31 patients 45 days after LAA
      closure. CONCLUSIONS: LAA closure with the WATCHMAN device can be successfully
      and safely achieved in patients with a maximal LAA ostial width < 17 mm.

PMID- 28877380
TI  - Axillary lymphangioma in an asymptomatic adult female.

PMID- 28877381
TI  - Caffeine and glucosamine mobility shifts by adduction with 2-butanol depended on
      interaction energy, charge delocalization, and steric hindrance in ion mobility
      spectrometry.
AB  - Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is an analytical technique that separates gas
      phase ions drifting under an electric field according to their size to charge
      ratio. We used electrospray ionization-drift tube IMS coupled to quadrupole mass
      spectrometry to measure the mobilities of glucosamine (GH+ ) and caffeine (CH+ )
      ions in pure nitrogen or when the shift reagent (SR) 2-butanol was introduced in
      the drift gas at 6.9 mmol m-3 . Binding energies of 2-butanol-ion adducts were
      calculated using Gaussian 09 at the CAMB3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. The
      mobility shifts with the introduction of 2-butanol in the drift gas were -2.4%
      (GH+ ) and -1.7% (CH+ ) and were due to clustering of GH+ and CH+ with 2-butanol.
      The formation of GBH+ was favored over that of CBH+ because GBH+ formed more
      stable hydrogen bonds (83.3 kJ/mol) than CBH+ (81.7 kJ/mol) for the reason that
      the positive charge on CH+ is less sterically available than on GH+ and the
      charge is stabilized by resonance in CH+ . These results are a confirmation of
      the arguments used to explain the drift behavior of these ions when ethyl lactate
      SR was used (Bull Kor Chem Soc 2014, 1023-1028). This study is a step forward to
      predict IMS separations of overlapping peaks in IMS spectra, simplifying a
      procedure that is trial and error by now.

PMID- 28877382
TI  - Incorporating fragmentation and non-native species into distribution models to
      inform fluvial fish conservation.
AB  - Fluvial fishes face increased imperilment from anthropogenic activities, but the
      specific factors contributing most to range declines are often poorly understood.
      For example, the range of the fluvial-specialist shoal bass (Micropterus
      cataractae) continues to decrease, yet how perceived threats have contributed to
      range loss is largely unknown. We used species distribution models to determine
      which factors contributed most to shoal bass range loss. We estimated a potential
      distribution based on natural abiotic factors and a series of currently occupied
      distributions that incorporated variables characterizing land cover, non-native
      species, and river fragmentation intensity (no fragmentation, dams only, and dams
      and large impoundments). We allowed interspecific relationships between non
      native congeners and shoal bass to vary across fragmentation intensities. Results
      from the potential distribution model estimated shoal bass presence throughout
      much of their native basin, whereas models of currently occupied distribution
      showed that range loss increased as fragmentation intensified. Response curves
      from models of currently occupied distribution indicated a potential interaction
      between fragmentation intensity and the relationship between shoal bass and non
      native congeners, wherein non-natives may be favored at the highest fragmentation
      intensity. Response curves also suggested that >100 km of interconnected, free
      flowing stream fragments were necessary to support shoal bass presence. Model
      evaluation, including an independent validation, suggested that models had
      favorable predictive and discriminative abilities. Similar approaches that use
      readily available, diverse, geospatial data sets may deliver insights into the
      biology and conservation needs of other fluvial species facing similar threats.

PMID- 28877383
TI  - Levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 are elevated in serum and bronchoalveolar
      lavage fluid of haematological patients with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis.
AB  - Aspergillus spp. have been shown to induce T-helper cell (Th) 1 and Th17 subsets
      resulting in elevated levels of several cytokines. The objective of this study
      was to analyse a bundle of cytokines in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
      (BALF) in patients with and without invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA). This
      nested case-control analysis included 10 patients with probable/proven IPA and 20
      matched controls without evidence of IPA, out of a pool of prospectively enrolled
      (2014-2017) adult cases with underlying haematological malignancies and suspected
      pulmonary infection. Serum samples were collected within 24 hours of BALF
      sampling. All samples were stored at -70 degrees C for retrospective
      determination of cytokines. IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly associated with IPA
      in both serum (P = .011 and P = .028) and BALF (P = .006 and P = .012,
      respectively), and a trend was observed for serum IL-10 (P = .059). In
      multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis, IL-10 remained a
      significant predictor of IPA in serum and IL-8 among BALF cytokines. In
      conclusion, levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly associated with
      probable/proven IPA, and a similar trend was observed for serum IL-10. Future
      cohort studies should determine the diagnostic potential of these cytokines for
      IPA, and evaluate combinations with other IPA biomarkers/diagnostic tests.

PMID- 28877385
TI  - Is the R3 Si Moiety in Metal-Silyl Complexes a Z ligand? An Answer from the
      Interaction Energy.
AB  - The computation of metal-silyl interaction energies indicates the existence of
      situations in which the silyl group behaves as a Z-type ligand according to the
      Green method of covalent-bond classification. There is a scale of relative
      intrinsic silylicity Pi, defined as the ratio of the intrinsic silyl-to-triflate
      interaction energy of a silyltriflate as a reference compound relative to the
      silyl-to-metal interaction of given complex, that can reveal in a straightforward
      manner the propensity of SiR3 groups to behave chemically as metal-bound
      "silylium" ions, namely, [SiR3 ]+ . Emblematic cases, either taken from the
      Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) or constructed for the purpose of this study,
      were also investigated from the viewpoints of extended transition-state natural
      orbitals for chemical valence (ETS-NOCV) and quantum theory of atoms in molecules
      (QTAIM) analyses. It is shown in the case of POBMUP-which is the iridium 1,3
      bis[(di-tert-butylphosphino)oxy]benzene (POCOP) complex isolated by Brookhart et
      al.-how slight variations of molecular charge and structure can drastically
      affect the relative intrinsic silylicity of the SiEt3 group that is weakly bonded
      to the hydrido-iridium motif.

PMID- 28877384
TI  - Exosomes secreted from mutant-HIF-1alpha-modified bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal
      stem cells attenuate early steroid-induced avascular necrosis of femoral head in
      rabbit.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived exosomes exhibit protective effects on
      damaged or diseased tissues. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha (HIF-1alpha) plays a
      critical role in bone development. However, HIF-1alpha is easily biodegradable
      under normoxic conditions. The bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)
      were transfected with adenovirus carrying triple point-mutations (amino acids
      402, 564, and 803) in the HIF-1alpha coding sequence (CDS). The mutant HIF-1alpha
      can efficiently express functional proteins under normoxic conditions. To date,
      no study has reported the role of exosomes secreted by mutant HIF-1alpha modified
      BMSCs in the recovery of the early steroid-induced avascular necrosis of femoral
      head (SANFH). In this study, we firstly analyzed exosomes derived from BMSCs
      modified by mutant (BMSC-ExosMU ) or wild-type HIF-1alpha (BMSC-ExosWT ). In
      vitro, we investigated the osteogenic differentiation capacity of BMSCs modified
      by BMSC-ExosMU or BMSC-ExosWT , and the angiogenesis effects of BMSC-ExosMU and
      BMSC-ExosWT on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Besides, the
      healing of the femoral head was also assessed in vivo. We found that the
      potential of osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs treated with BMSC-ExosMU was
      higher than the wild-type group in vitro. In addition, BMSC-ExosMU stimulated the
      proliferation, migration, and tube formation of HUVECs in a dose-dependent
      manner. Compared with the BMSC-ExosWT or PBS control group, the injection of BMSC
      ExosMU into the necrosis region markedly accelerated the bone regeneration and
      angiogenesis, which were indicated by the increased trabecular reconstruction and
      microvascular density. Taken together, our data suggest that BMSC-ExosMU
      facilitates the repair of SANFH by enhancing osteogenesis and angiogenesis.

PMID- 28877386
TI  - Oral mucormycosis in patients with haematologic malignancies in a bone marrow
      transplant unit.
AB  - Mucormycosis is an aggressive and life-threatening opportunistic fungal
      infection, which predominantly affects immunocompromised patients. It typically
      manifests in rhinocerebral, pulmonary or disseminated forms in patients with
      immunosuppressive conditions. Mucormycosis limited to the oral cavity is rare,
      and to the best of our knowledge only seven cases have previously been reported
      in English literature. We present five consecutive cases of oral mucormycosis in
      patients with leukaemia, and provide a literature review.

PMID- 28877387
TI  - Recommendations for Low-Grade Carotid Stenosis Follow-up Based on a Single
      Institution Database.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidences and rates
      of progression of varying degrees of carotid stenosis that do not require
      intervention according to the Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study, the
      European Carotid Surgery Trial, and the North American Symptomatic Carotid
      Endarterectomy Trial, and from this information, to provide evidence-based
      recommendations for follow-up imaging. METHODS: A retrospective review was
      performed of all carotid ultrasound examinations performed at a single
      institution from January 1995 through April 2015. Examinations following
      endarterectomy or stenting were excluded. Stenoses were classified by a
      modification of the criteria of Bluth et al (Radiographics 1988; 8:487-506). A
      Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed for stenosis progression and to
      provide information for follow-up recommendations. RESULTS: Most of the carotid
      arteries (91.6%) reviewed for this study showed 1% to 39% stenosis. However, only
      6.8% of carotid arteries with 1% to 39% stenosis progressed compared to 38.9% of
      carotid arteries with 40% to 59% stenosis. A table of evidence-based follow-up
      recommendations is provided for patients with varying levels of stenosis.
      CONCLUSIONS: We provide evidence-based follow-up recommendations for patients who
      have low degrees of carotid stenosis. Different degrees of carotid stenosis
      progress at different rates and therefore should be followed at different
      intervals. Additionally, the most patients in our database showed 1% to 39%
      stenosis and did not have any follow-up imaging, suggesting that carotid
      ultrasound may not be overused for low degrees of stenosis.

PMID- 28877388
TI  - Motivation of the nurses in pre-hospital emergency and educational hospitals
      emergency in the southeast of Iran.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nurses, as the largest human resource element of health care
      systems, have a major role in providing ongoing, high-quality care to patients.
      Therefore, due to the importance of this issue, this study aimed to determine job
      motivation of the nurses in pre-hospital and educational hospitals emergency in
      the southeast of Iran. METHODS: In this study, a cross-sectional method was used,
      and it was conducted in educational hospitals and pre-hospital emergencies under
      supervision of the Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2017. Using a valid
      and reliable questionnaire, we assessed job motivation of the nurses using a
      census method (N = 275). Data were analyzed by implementing descriptive
      statistics including mean and standard deviation (SD), and analytical statistics
      such as Kolmogorov-Smirnov, ANOVA, t-test, X2, Pearson, and multivariate
      regression tests using SPSS 16 and P <= 0.05. RESULTS: Among the pre-hospital
      emergency nurses, the average of the educational factors was 25.33, financial
      factors was 6.34, psychological factors was 20.07, welfare factors was 0.63, and
      administrative factors was 8.16. Among the nurses of the educational hospitals
      emergency, these factors were 25.33, 6.51, 20.34, 16.55, and 8.39, respectively.
      Two group's nurses were at the intermediate level of the job motivation.
      CONCLUSION: Dynamic and predetermined goals of emergency include providing
      services as soon as possible and stabilizing patient's condition during the
      golden and vital time of rescue. Findings suggest that national and local
      policies in Iran may need to examine factors that contribute to the promotion of
      the motivation as well as focusing on how to improve them.

PMID- 28877389
TI  - Abstracts from the IVECCS & EVECC Annual Congresses and the ACVECC VetCOT
      Veterinary Trauma & Critical Care Conference 2017.

PMID- 28877390
TI  - Terminal Molybdenum Phosphides with d Electrons: Radical Character Promotes
      Coupling Chemistry.
AB  - A terminal Mo phosphide was prepared through the group transfer of both P and Cl
      atoms from chloro-substituted dibenzo-7lambda3 -phosphanorbornadiene. This
      compound represents the first structurally characterized terminal transition
      metal phosphide with valence d electrons. In the tetragonal ligand field, these
      electrons populate an orbital of dxy parentage, an electronic configuration that
      accommodates both metal d electrons and a formal M=P triple bond. Single-electron
      oxidation affords a transient open-shell terminal phosphide cation with
      significant spin density on P, as corroborated by continuous wave (CW) and pulse
      electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) characterization. Facile P-P bond formation
      occurs from this species through intermolecular phosphide coupling.

PMID- 28877391
TI  - An NMR Method To Pinpoint Supramolecular Ligand Binding to Basic Residues on
      Proteins.
AB  - Targeting protein surfaces involved in protein-protein interactions by using
      supramolecular chemistry is a rapidly growing field. NMR spectroscopy is the
      method of choice to map ligand-binding sites with single-residue resolution by
      amide chemical shift perturbation and line broadening. However, large aromatic
      ligands affect NMR signals over a greater distance, and the binding site cannot
      be determined unambiguously by relying on backbone signals only. We herein
      employed Lys- and Arg-specific H2(C)N NMR experiments to directly observe the
      side-chain atoms in close contact with the ligand, for which the largest changes
      in the NMR signals are expected. The binding of Lys- and Arg-specific
      supramolecular tweezers and a calixarene to two model proteins was studied. The
      H2(C)N spectra track the terminal CH2 groups of all Lys and Arg residues,
      revealing significant differences in their binding kinetics and chemical shift
      perturbation, and can be used to clearly pinpoint the order of ligand binding.

PMID- 28877392
TI  - Prevalence of pruritus in patients with chronic liver disease: A multicenter
      study.
AB  - AIM: Pruritus is a common comorbidity in chronic liver disease. The aim of this
      study was to clarify the prevalence of pruritus and its characteristics in
      patients with chronic liver disease. METHODS: A total of 1631 patients with
      chronic liver disease who attended one of nine joint-research facilities from
      January to June 2016 were enrolled. We investigated the prevalence of pruritus,
      itch location, itch duration, daily itch fluctuation, seasonal itch exacerbation,
      treatment drugs, and therapeutic effects using a medical interview questionnaire.
      RESULTS: The median age was 66 years and 890 (54.6%) patients were women. The
      prevalence of pruritus was 40.3% (658/1631), and it differed according to the
      underlying liver disease. The most frequent body location for pruritus was on the
      back (63.1%). Pruritus duration was more than 6 months in 252 (38.3%) patients.
      The severity of pruritus, assessed using a visual analog scale, was higher during
      the day than at night (median, 4 vs. 3, P < 0.001). Seasonal exacerbation was
      observed in 296 (45.0%) patients. Although 301 (45.7%) patients were treated with
      antipruritic agents, 57.8% (174/301) patients reported an insufficient effect.
      Active hepatitis B virus infection (odds ratio [OR], 2.51; P = 0.043), primary
      biliary cholangitis (OR, 3.69; P = 0.018), diabetes (OR, 1.57; P = 0.010), and
      aspartate aminotransferase >=60 U/L (OR, 2.06; P = 0.011) were independent
      factors associated with pruritus. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of pruritus varies
      according to the chronic liver disease etiology. Underlying liver disease,
      aspartate aminotransferase >=60 U/L, and comorbid diabetes are factors associated
      with pruritus in patients with chronic liver disease.

PMID- 28877394
TI  - HER2+ breast cancer cells undergo apoptosis upon exposure to tannic acid released
      from remodeled cross-linked collagen type I.
AB  - Tannic acid (TA) is a naturally occurring polyphenol that cross-links collagen
      type I and possesses anticancer potential. In previous studies, we demonstrated
      the increased sensitivity of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+ ) breast cancer
      cells to TA as opposed to triple negative breast cancer cells and normal human
      breast epithelial cells. In the current study, human pre-adipocytes and HER2+
      breast cancer cells were grown on TA cross-linked collagen type I beads. Cell
      attachment, growth, and proliferation of the cells result in remodeling of the
      collagen matrix and release of the cross-linking TA. TA concentrations in the
      conditioned media were determined. Induced apoptosis of cells grown on the TA
      cross-linked collagen type I beads was imaged and quantified. Viability of HER2+
      breast cancer cells and normal breast epithelial cells after exposure TA released
      from bead remodeling was quantified. Caspase gene expression and protein
      expression were evaluated. HER2+ breast cancer cells underwent caspase-mediated
      apoptosis in response to TA exposure. TA-induced apoptosis in a concentration-
      and time-dependent manner, with HER2+ breast cancer cells demonstrating an
      increased sensitivity to the TA effects. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 26-32, 2018.

PMID- 28877395
TI  - Optimal Lead Positioning in Sacral Neuromodulation: Which Factors Are Related to
      Treatment Outcome?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Sacral neuromodulation (SNM) is a well-established treatment for
      overactive bladder (OAB) and non-obstructive urinary retention (NOR). During test
      stimulation, the lead is positioned along the third sacral nerve, which ideally
      results in a response in all four contact points (active electrodes). However, it
      is unclear whether the position of the lead (depth, angle, deflection) and the
      number of active electrodes is related to the outcome of SNM. METHODS: All
      patients who underwent test stimulation using the tined lead between January 2011
      and September 2016 were included in this retrospective study. Success was defined
      as >50% improvement in voiding diary parameters compared to baseline. The
      correlation between lead position and outcome of test stimulation was evaluated.
      The lead position was determined by evaluating the depth, angle and deflection
      with respect to the sacral foramen. Binary logistic regression was used in order
      to determine the predictive value of these factors. RESULTS: We included 189
      patients of whom 105 were diagnosed with OAB and 84 with NOR. After a SNM test
      period of 4 weeks, 111 patients (59%) were successful and received a permanent
      implant. The position of the lead and the number of active electrodes did not
      predict success of test stimulation in neither the OAB group nor the NOR.
      However, lateral deflection of the lead was associated with finding more active
      electrodes (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: In our study, the position of the lead or the
      number of active electrodes did not predict the outcome of SNM test stimulation.
      However, the impact of lead positioning and number of active electrodes on long
      term outcome remains to be proven.

PMID- 28877393
TI  - Polyester vascular patches acquire arterial or venous identity depending on their
      environment.
AB  - Polyester is commonly used in vascular surgery for patch angioplasty and grafts.
      We hypothesized that polyester patches heal by infiltration of arterial or venous
      progenitor cells depending on the site of implantation. Polyester patches were
      implanted into the Wistar rat aorta or inferior vena cava and explanted on day 7
      or 30. Neointima that formed on polyester patches was thicker in the venous
      environment compared to the amount that formed on patches in the arterial
      environment. Venous patches had more cell proliferation and greater numbers of
      VCAM-positive and CD68-positive cells, whereas arterial patches had greater
      numbers of vimentin-positive and alpha-actin-positive cells. Although there were
      similar numbers of endothelial progenitor cells in the neointimal endothelium,
      cells in the arterial patch were Ephrin-B2- and notch-4-positive while those in
      the venous patch were Eph-B4- and COUP-TFII-positive. Venous patches treated with
      an arteriovenous fistula had decreased neointimal thickness; neointimal
      endothelial cells expressed Ephrin-B2 and notch-4 in addition to Eph-B4 and COUP
      TFII. Polyester patches in the venous environment acquire venous identity,
      whereas patches in the arterial environment acquire arterial identity; patches in
      the fistula environment acquire dual arterial-venous identity. These data suggest
      that synthetic patches heal by acquisition of identity of their environment. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3422-3431, 2017.

PMID- 28877396
TI  - Neurotensin in the posterior thalamic paraventricular nucleus: inhibitor of
      pharmacologically relevant ethanol drinking.
AB  - Individuals prone to ethanol overconsumption may have preexisting neurochemical
      disturbances that contribute to their vulnerability. This study examined the
      paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT), a limbic structure recently shown
      to participate in ethanol intake. To identify individuals prone to ethanol
      overconsumption, we tested Long-Evans rats in behavioral paradigms and found high
      levels of vertical time (rearing behavior) in a novel activity chamber to be a
      consistent predictor of subsequent excessive 20 percent ethanol drinking under
      the intermittent access model. Examining neurochemicals in the PVT, we found
      before ethanol exposure that prone rats with high rearing, compared with non
      prone rats, had significantly lower levels of neurotensin (NTS) mRNA and peptide
      in the posterior (pPVT) but not anterior (aPVT) subregion of the PVT. Our
      additional finding that ethanol intake has no significant impact on either
      rearing or NTS levels indicates that these measures, which are different in prone
      rats before ethanol consumption, remain stable after ethanol consumption. The
      possibility that NTS directly controls ethanol drinking is supported by our
      finding that NTS administration specifically suppresses ethanol drinking when
      injected into the pPVT but not aPVT, with this effect occurring exclusively in
      higher drinkers that presumably have lower endogenous levels of NTS. Further, an
      NTS antagonist in the pPVT augments intake in lower drinkers with presumably more
      endogenous NTS, while NTS in the pPVT inhibits novelty-induced rearing that
      predicts excessive drinking. Together, these results provide strong evidence that
      low endogenous levels of NTS in the pPVT contribute to an increased propensity
      toward excessive ethanol drinking.

PMID- 28877397
TI  - meta-Selective C-H Borylation of Benzylamine-, Phenethylamine-, and
      Phenylpropylamine-Derived Amides Enabled by a Single Anionic Ligand.
AB  - Selective functionalization at the meta position of arenes remains a significant
      challenge. In this work, we demonstrate that a single anionic bipyridine ligand
      bearing a remote sulfonate group enables selective iridium-catalyzed borylation
      of a range of common amine-containing aromatic molecules at the arene meta
      position. We propose that this selectivity is the result of a key hydrogen
      bonding interaction between the substrate and catalyst. The scope of this meta
      selective borylation is demonstrated on amides derived from benzylamines,
      phenethylamines and phenylpropylamines; amine-containing building blocks of great
      utility in many applications.

PMID- 28877398
TI  - Spectral Identification in the Attogram Regime through Laser-Induced Emission of
      Single Optically Trapped Nanoparticles in Air.
AB  - Current trends in nanoengineering are bringing along new structures of diverse
      chemical compositions that need to be meticulously defined in order to ensure
      their correct operation. Few methods can provide the sensitivity required to
      carry out measurements on individual nano-objects without tedious sample pre
      treatment or data analysis. In the present study, we introduce a pathway for the
      elemental identification of single nanoparticles (NPs) that avoids suspension in
      liquid media by means of optical trapping and laser-induced plasma spectroscopy.
      We demonstrate spectroscopic detection and identification of individual 25(+/
      3.7) to 70(+/-10.5) nm in diameter Cu NPs stably trapped in air featuring masses
      down to 73+/-35 attograms. We found an increase in the absolute number of photons
      produced as size of the particles decreased; pointing towards a more efficient
      excitation of ensembles of only ca. 7*105 Cu atoms in the onset plasma.

PMID- 28877399
TI  - Cops and docs: The challenges for ED physicians balancing the police, state laws,
      and EMTALA.
AB  - State laws are awash with discord concerning whether a police officer's request
      or court order necessarily obligates physicians to perform a body fluid analysis
      of an arrested, conscious, nonconsenting suspect. Police typically bring
      arrestees directly to the emergency department (ED), and federal courts have
      begun to wrestle with the implications of the Emergency Medical Treatment and
      Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires that anyone presenting to the ED be screened
      for treatment. Some state laws require health care providers to comply with any
      police request for lab analysis, while other states offer more leeway to
      physicians. Recent trends in federal case law interpreting EMTALA suggest that a
      medical screening exam is not required for patients brought by police
      specifically for a blood or urine sample unless either the arrestee requests
      medical care or a prudent observer would believe medical care was indicated. This
      article answers two questions: What happens when a police officer presents to the
      ED requesting service on behalf of an arrestee? What does EMTLA require of
      physicians in response? We survey current state statutes, review recent state and
      federal case law, describe example policies from various hospitals, and conclude
      with recommendations for hospital risk managers.

PMID- 28877401
TI  - Overcoming the Incompatibility Challenge in Chemoenzymatic and Multi-Catalytic
      Cascade Reactions.
AB  - Multi-catalytic cascade reactions bear a great potential to minimize downstream
      and purification steps, leading to a drastic reduction of the produced waste. In
      many examples, the compatibility of chemo- and biocatalytic steps could be easily
      achieved. Problems associated with the incompatibility of the catalysts and their
      reactions, however, are very frequent. Cascade-like reactions can hardly occur in
      this way. One possible solution to combine, in principle, incompatible chemo- and
      biocatalytic reactions is the defined control of the microenvironment by
      compartmentalization or scaffolding. Current methods for the control of the
      microenvironment of biocatalysts go far beyond classical enzyme immobilization
      and are thus believed to be very promising tools to overcome incompatibility
      issues and to facilitate the synthetic application of cascade reactions. In this
      Minireview, we will summarize recent synthetic examples of (chemo)enzymatic
      cascade reactions and outline promising methods for their spatial control either
      by using bio-derived or synthetic systems.

PMID- 28877400
TI  - Glucocorticoid receptor is involved in the differential expression of hepatic
      3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase between barrows and boars at finishing stage.
AB  - The enzyme 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta-HSD) plays an important role
      in androstenone metabolism in pig liver, and its defective expression is related
      to the development of boar taint. Early age castration is a common practice in
      many countries to avoid boar taint, yet whether and how castration affects
      porcine hepatic 3beta-HSD expression are still poorly understood. In this study,
      we aimed to compare the expression of 3beta-HSD between intact (boars) and
      castrated (barrows) male pigs, and to explore the potential factors regulating
      3beta-HSD transcription. Compared to barrows, boars showed worse carcass quality.
      Boars had significantly higher levels of serum androstenone (P < 0.01),
      testosterone (P < 0.01) and hepatic cortisol (P < 0.05), which were contrary to
      significantly lower expression of 3beta-HSD messenger RNA (P < 0.01) and protein
      (P < 0.01) in the liver. Significant differences were detected for the hepatic
      expression of androgen receptor (AR) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein beta
      (C/EBPbeta). Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay demonstrated reduced
      histone H3 acetylation (P < 0.05) but increased glucocorticoid receptor (GR)
      binding to 3beta-HSD gene promoter in boars (P < 0.05). These results indicate
      that GR binding to 3beta-HSD promoter is involved in the differential hepatic
      3beta-HSD expression between boars and barrows.

PMID- 28877403
TI  - Comparison of HER2 status of breast cancer between Chinese women in China and
      Chinese-American women in the US.

PMID- 28877402
TI  - Effects of S 38093, an antagonist/inverse agonist of histamine H3 receptors, in
      models of neuropathic pain in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Histamine H3 receptors are mainly expressed on CNS neurons,
      particularly along the nociceptive pathways. The potential involvement of these
      receptors in pain processing has been suggested using H3 receptor inverse
      agonists. METHODS: The antinociceptive effect of S 38093, a novel inverse agonist
      of H3 receptors, has been evaluated in several neuropathic pain models in rat and
      compared with those of gabapentin and pregabalin. RESULTS: While S 38093 did not
      change vocalization thresholds to paw pressure in healthy rats, it exhibited a
      significant antihyperalgesic effect in the Streptozocin-induced diabetic (STZ)
      neuropathy model after acute and chronic administration and, in the chronic
      constriction injury (CCI) model only after chronic administration, submitted to
      the paw-pressure test. Acute S 38093 administration at all doses tested displayed
      a significant cold antiallodynic effect in a model of acute or repeated
      administration of oxaliplatin-induced neuropathy submitted to cold tail
      immersion, cold allodynia being the main side effect of oxaliplatin in patients.
      The effect of S 38093 increased following chronic administration (i.e. twice a
      day during 5 days) in the CCI and STZ models except in the oxaliplatin models
      where its effect was already maximal from the first administration The kinetics
      and size of effect of S 38093 were similar to gabapentin and/or pregabalin.
      Finally, the antinociceptive effect of S 38093 could be partially mediated by
      alpha2 adrenoreceptors desensitization in the locus coeruleus. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results highlight the interest of S 38093 to relieve neuropathic pain and warrant
      clinical trials especially in chemotherapeutic agent-induced neuropathic pain.
      SIGNIFICANCE: S 38093, a new H3 antagonist/inverse agonist, displays
      antiallodynic and antihyperalgesic effect in neuropathic pain, especially in
      oxaliplatin-induced neuropathy after chronic administration. This effect of S
      38093 in neuropathic pain could be partly mediated by alpha2 receptors
      desensitization in the locus coeruleus.

PMID- 28877404
TI  - Benefits of Well-Being Training in Healthy Older Adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Several studies have shown that psychological well-being (PWB) can
      be promoted through positive psychological interventions (PPIs). Although these
      interventions have shown promising results in clinical settings, only a few
      studies have investigated their effectiveness in older adults, and they have
      rarely considered an active control group. In addition, generalisation effects of
      the PWB training to quality of life (QoL) and to untrained cognitive abilities
      have never been considered. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we evaluated the
      effectiveness of a six-session PWB intervention aiming specifically to improve
      PWB, and sought any transfer effects on an aspect related to PWB, QoL. Transfer
      effects on a high-level cognitive process, working memory (WM), were also
      investigated. METHODS: Thirty-two older adults (61-82 years old) volunteered to
      take part in the study and were randomly assigned to either a training group or
      an active control group. RESULTS: Only the trained group, once controlled for
      variability, reported larger gains in PWB and in WM performance after the
      training. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study suggests that PWB training can be
      effective in older adults, with a positive generalisation effect on cognition
      (WM). The discussion focuses on the need to develop PPIs tailored to older
      adults' needs and resources.

PMID- 28877405
TI  - EGFR Targeting and Shielding of pDNA Lipopolyplexes via Bivalent Attachment of a
      Sequence-Defined PEG Agent.
AB  - For successful nonviral gene delivery, cationic polymers are promising DNA
      carrier, which need to comprise several functionalities. The current work focuses
      on the postincorporation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) targeted
      PEGylation agents onto lipopolyplexes for pDNA delivery. T-shaped lipo-oligomers
      are previously found to be effective sequence-defined carriers for pDNA and
      siRNA. Here, the bis-oleoyl-oligoaminoethanamide 454 containing tyrosine trimer
      cysteine ends is applied for complex formation with pDNA coding for luciferase or
      sodium iodide symporter (NIS). In a second step, the lipopolyplexes are modified
      via disulfide formation with sequence-defined monovalent or bivalent PEGylation
      agents containing one or two 3-nitro-2-pyridinesulfenyl (NPys)-activated
      cysteines, respectively. For targeting, the polyethylene glycol (PEG) agents
      comprise the EGFR targeting peptide GE11. In comparison of all transfection
      complexes, 454 lipopolyplexes modified with the bidentate PEG-GE11 agent show the
      best, EGFR-dependent uptake as well as luciferase and NIS gene expression into
      receptor-positive tumor cells.

PMID- 28877406
TI  - Integration of Bromine and Cyanogen Bromide Generators for the Continuous-Flow
      Synthesis of Cyclic Guanidines.
AB  - A continuous-flow process for the in situ on-demand generation of cyanogen
      bromide (BrCN) from bromine and potassium cyanide that makes use of membrane
      separation technology is described. In order to circumvent the handling, storage,
      and transportation of elemental bromine, a continuous bromine generator using
      bromate-bromide synproportionation can optionally be attached upstream.
      Monitoring and quantification of BrCN generation was enabled through the
      implementation of in-line FTIR technology. With the Br2 and BrCN generators
      connected in series, 0.2 mmol BrCN per minute was produced, which corresponds to
      a 0.8 m solution of BrCN in dichloromethane. The modular Br2 /BrCN generator was
      employed for the synthesis of a diverse set of biologically relevant five- and
      six-membered cyclic amidines and guanidines. The set-up can either be operated in
      a fully integrated continuous format or, where reactive crystallization is
      beneficial, in semi-batch mode.

PMID- 28877408
TI  - Application of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for the preconcentration
      of eight parabens in real samples and their determination by high-performance
      liquid chromatography.
AB  - A simple and sensitive method for the simultaneous determination of eight
      parabens in human plasma and urine samples was developed. The samples were
      preconcentrated using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on the
      solidification of floating organic drops and determined by high-performance
      liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The influence of variables
      affecting the extraction efficiency was investigated and optimized using Placket
      Burman design and Box-Behnken design. The optimized values were: 58 MUL of 1
      decanol (as extraction solvent), 0.65 mL methanol (as disperser solvent), 1.5%
      w/v NaCl in 5.0 mL of sample solution, pH 10.6, and 4.0 min centrifugation at
      4000 rpm. The extract was injected into the high-performance liquid
      chromatography system for analysis. Under the optimum conditions, the linear
      ranges for eight parabens in plasma and urine were 1.0-1000 ng/mL, with
      correlation coefficients above 0.994. The limit of detection was 0.2-0.4 and 0.1
      0.4 ng/mL for plasma and urine samples, respectively. Relative recoveries were
      between 80.3 and 110.7%, while relative standard deviations were less than 5.4%.
      Finally, the method was applied to analyze the parabens in 98 patients of primary
      breast cancer. Results showed that parabens existed widely, at least one paraben
      detected in 96.9% (95/98) of plasma samples and 98.0% (96/98) of urine samples.

PMID- 28877407
TI  - Size makes a difference: Chiral recognition in complexes of fenchone with
      cyclodextrins studied by means of NMR titration.
AB  - Gibbs energies of complex formation between enantiomers of bicyclic terpenoid,
      fenchone, and naturally occurring cyclodextrins, betaCD and gammaCD, were
      determined by means of 13 C and 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) titration
      data. These results were compared with the corresponding data obtained previously
      for the diastereomeric fenchone/alphaCD complexes. The size of the inner cavity
      of host molecules significantly influences stoichiometry, association constants,
      and enantiomeric differentiation of the studied complexes. These complementary
      data allow us to discuss qualitatively the influence of the host size on the
      guest-host interactions. A method of the simultaneous use of titration data
      collected for several resonances of different isotopes in the determination of
      association constants was worked out and thoroughly analyzed. Comparison of the
      results of global data analyses with weighted means of individual ones revealed
      that both these approaches are equally trustworthy.

PMID- 28877409
TI  - Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis
      of malonyl-coenzyme A in breast cancer cell cultures applying online solid-phase
      extraction.
AB  - Cofactors such as coenzyme A and its derivatives acetyl-coenzyme A and malonyl
      coenzyme A are involved in many metabolic pathways. Due to trace level
      concentrations in biological samples and the high reactivity of cofactors, a
      fast, sensitive, and selective method for quantification is mandatory. In this
      study, online solid-phase extraction was coupled successfully to hydrophilic
      interaction liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry for isolation of
      analytes in complex matrix and quantification by external calibration. Online
      solid-phase extraction was carried out by application of a weak anion-exchange
      column, whereas hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography separation was
      performed on an amide modified stationary phase. Sample preparation of the
      extracts before the analysis was reduced to a centrifugation and dilution step.
      Moreover, the applied online solid-phase extraction significantly reduced matrix
      effects and increased the signal-to-noise ratio. The limit of detection and the
      limit of quantification were in the lower nanomolar range. Finally, the
      applicability of this method was demonstrated on MCF-7 breast cancer cell
      cultures, a commonly used model system, where acetyl-coenzyme A and malonyl
      coenzyme A were determined using standard addition procedure in concentrations of
      1.98 MUM and 41 nM, respectively.

PMID- 28877411
TI  - New Cytotoxic Triterpenoid Saponins from the Roots of Albizia gummifera
      (J.F.Gmel.) C.A.Sm.
AB  - As part of our search for new bioactive saponins from Cameroonian medicinal
      plants, two new oleanane-type saponins, named gummiferaosides D and E (1 and 2),
      along with one known saponin, julibroside J8 (3), were isolated from the roots of
      Albizia gummifera. Their structures were established on the basis of extensive 1D
      and 2D-NMR (1 H- and 13 C-NMR, DEPT, COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HSQC, HSQC-TOCSY, and
      HMBC) and HR-ESI-MS studies, and by chemical evidence. The apoptotic effect of
      saponins 1 - 3 was evaluated on the A431 human epidermoid cancer cell. Flow
      cytometric analyses showed that saponins 1 - 3 induced apoptosis of human
      epidermoid cancer cell (A431) in a dose-dependent manner.

PMID- 28877410
TI  - Neural correlates of tobacco cue reactivity predict duration to lapse and
      continuous abstinence in smoking cessation treatment.
AB  - It has been hypothesized that neural reactivity to drug cues in certain
      limbic/paralimbic regions of the brain is an indicator of addiction severity and
      a marker for likelihood of success in treatment. To address this question, in the
      current study, 32 participants (44 percent female) completed a functional
      magnetic resonance imaging cigarette cue exposure paradigm 2 hours after smoking,
      and then enrolled in a 9-week smoking cessation treatment program. Neural
      activation to smoking cues was measured in five a priori defined
      limbic/paralimbic regions previously implicated with cue reactivity across
      substances. These included regions of the ventral striatum, anterior cingulate
      cortex and amygdala. Cox proportional hazard modeling was conducted to predict
      the number of days to first smoking lapse by using neural activation in these
      regions. Greater neural activation during pre-treatment exposure to smoking cues
      in the right ventral striatum, the left amygdala, and the anterior cingulate was
      associated with longer periods of abstinence following cessation. A similar
      pattern was present for continuous abstinence for the full duration of treatment.
      While baseline levels of nicotine dependence were strongly associated with
      treatment outcome, activation in the right ventral striatum predicted duration of
      abstinence beyond level of nicotine dependence. These results suggest that pre
      treatment reactivity to smoking cues in areas associated with cue reactivity may
      be associated with successfully maintaining abstinence during treatment. This is
      consistent with models that propose that as addiction becomes more severe,
      motivational processing shifts from regions that subserve reward salience and
      learning to regions responsible motor behavior and habit learning.

PMID- 28877412
TI  - Neuronal differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells in response to the
      domain size of graphene substrates.
AB  - Graphene is a noncytotoxic monolayer platform with unique physical, chemical, and
      biological properties. It has been demonstrated that graphene substrate may
      provide a promising biocompatible scaffold for stem cell therapy. Because
      chemical vapor deposited graphene has a two dimensional polycrystalline
      structure, it is important to control the individual domain size to obtain
      desirable properties for nano-material. However, the biological effects mediated
      by differences in domain size of graphene have not yet been reported. On the
      basis of the control of graphene domain achieved by one-step growth (1step-G,
      small domain) and two-step growth (2step-G, large domain) process, we found that
      the neuronal differentiation of bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells
      (hMSCs) highly depended on the graphene domain size. The defects at the domain
      boundaries in 1step-G graphene was higher (*8.5) and had a relatively low (13%
      lower) contact angle of water droplet than 2step-G graphene, leading to enhanced
      cell-substrate adhesion and upregulated neuronal differentiation of hMSCs. We
      confirmed that the strong interactions between cells and defects at the domain
      boundaries in 1step-G graphene can be obtained due to their relatively high
      surface energy, which is stronger than interactions between cells and graphene
      surfaces. Our results may provide valuable information on the development of
      graphene-based scaffold by understanding which properties of graphene domain
      influence cell adhesion efficacy and stem cell differentiation. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 43-51, 2018.

PMID- 28877414
TI  - Evaluation of the analgesic and pharmacokinetic properties of transdermally
      administered fentanyl in goats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the analgesic properties and pharmacokinetics of transdermal
      fentanyl patches (TFPs) in goats. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized study. SETTING:
      Preclinical Testing Facility at a University Teaching Hospital. ANIMALS: Thirty
      four adult female Boer-cross goats. INTERVENTIONS: Goats underwent surgery as
      part of a concurrent orthopedic research study. Twelve hours prior to surgery,
      each goat received a TFP (target dosage of 2.5 MUg/kg/h), or a placebo patch with
      analgesia provided by buprenorphine (0.01 mg/kg, IM, q 6 h). Patches were removed
      after 72 hours. Blood was sampled at specified intervals, up to 84 hours
      following TFP placement. Plasma concentrations of fentanyl (FEN) were determined
      using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Postoperative pain assessments
      were performed by two independent blinded observers. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: TFPs were applied at a mean (+/- standard deviation, SD) dose of 2.54 +/
      0.36 MUg/kg/h. No adverse events occurred. Pain scores between TFP and BUP
      groups were not significantly different at any time point. Mean plasma FEN
      concentration (+/- SD) 2 hours following patch application was 1.06 +/- 0.85
      ng/mL, and remained above 0.5 ng/mL for 40 hours. Maximum mean plasma FEN
      concentration (Cmax ) was 1.84 (ranging from 0.81 to 3.35) ng/mL with average
      time to maximum concentration (Tmax ) of 12 hours after patch application.
      CONCLUSIONS: TFP resulted in consistent FEN absorption and plasma concentrations
      within the human and ovine therapeutic ranges. Pain scores for goats administered
      TFP were not different than those administered buprenorphine. Ease of
      administration, duration of analgesia, and decreased dosing frequency make TFPs
      an attractive option for pain management in goats.

PMID- 28877418
TI  - ECVECC News.

PMID- 28877422
TI  - Ultrathin Composite Polymeric Membranes for CO2 /N2 Separation with Minimum
      Thickness and High CO2 Permeance.
AB  - The use of ultrathin films as selective layers in composite membranes offers
      significant advantages in gas separation for increasing productivity while
      reducing the membrane size and energy costs. In this contribution, composite
      membranes have been obtained by the successive deposition of approximately 1 nm
      thick monolayers of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) on top of dense
      membranes of the ultra-permeable poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] (PTMSP). The
      ultrathin PIM films (30 nm in thickness) demonstrate CO2 permeance up to seven
      times higher than dense PIM membranes using only 0.04 % of the mass of PIM
      without a significant decrease in CO2 /N2 selectivity.

PMID- 28877423
TI  - Spotlights on our sister journals: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 38/2017.

PMID- 28877425
TI  - Peer review week 2017.

PMID- 28877426
TI  - AANP News.

PMID- 28877428
TI  - What has GWAS done for HLA and disease associations?
AB  - The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is located in chromosome 6p21 and
      contains crucial regulators of immune response, including human leucocyte antigen
      (HLA) genes, alongside other genes with nonimmunological roles. More recently, a
      repertoire of noncoding RNA genes, including expressed pseudogenes, has also been
      identified. The MHC is the most gene dense and most polymorphic part of the human
      genome. The region exhibits haplotype-specific linkage disequilibrium patterns,
      contains the strongest cis- and trans-eQTLs/meQTLs in the genome and is known as
      a hot spot for disease associations. Another layer of complexity is provided to
      the region by the extreme structural variation and copy number variations. While
      the HLA-B gene has the highest number of alleles, the HLA-DR/DQ subregion is
      structurally most variable and shows the highest number of disease associations.
      Reliance on a single reference sequence has complicated the design, execution and
      analysis of GWAS for the MHC region and not infrequently, the MHC region has even
      been excluded from the analysis of GWAS data. Here, we contrast features of the
      MHC region with the rest of the genome and highlight its complexities, including
      its functional polymorphisms beyond those determined by single nucleotide
      polymorphisms or single amino acid residues. One of the several issues with
      customary GWAS analysis is that it does not address this additional layer of
      polymorphisms unique to the MHC region. We highlight alternative approaches that
      may assist with the analysis of GWAS data from the MHC region and unravel
      associations with all functional polymorphisms beyond single SNPs. We suggest
      that despite already showing the highest number of disease associations, the true
      extent of the involvement of the MHC region in disease genetics may not have been
      uncovered.

PMID- 28877430
TI  - Nontarget Screening with High Resolution Mass Spectrometry in the Environment:
      Ready to Go?
AB  - The vast, diverse universe of organic pollutants is a formidable challenge for
      environmental sciences, engineering, and regulation. Nontarget screening (NTS)
      based on high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) has enormous potential to help
      characterize this universe, but is it ready to go for real world applications? In
      this Feature article we argue that development of mass spectrometers with
      increasingly high resolution and novel couplings to both liquid and gas
      chromatography, combined with the integration of high performance computing, have
      significantly widened our analytical window and have enabled increasingly
      sophisticated data processing strategies, indicating a bright future for NTS. NTS
      has great potential for treatment assessment and pollutant prioritization within
      regulatory applications, as highlighted here by the case of real-time pollutant
      monitoring on the River Rhine. We discuss challenges for the future, including
      the transition from research toward solution-centered and robust, harmonized
      applications.

PMID- 28877429
TI  - Computational Simulations of DNA Polymerases: Detailed Insights on
      Structure/Function/Mechanism from Native Proteins to Cancer Variants.
AB  - Genetic information is vital in the cell cycle of DNA-based organisms. DNA
      polymerases (DNA Pols) are crucial players in transactions dealing with these
      processes. Therefore, the detailed understanding of the structure, function, and
      mechanism of these proteins has been the focus of significant effort.
      Computational simulations have been applied to investigate various facets of DNA
      polymerase structure and function. These simulations have provided significant
      insights over the years. This perspective presents the results of various
      computational studies that have been employed to research different aspects of
      DNA polymerases including detailed reaction mechanism investigation, mutagenicity
      of different metal cations, possible factors for fidelity synthesis, and
      discovery/functional characterization of cancer-related mutations on DNA
      polymerases.

PMID- 28877432
TI  - Distinguishing Biologically Relevant Hexoses by Water Adduction to the Lithium
      Cationized Molecule.
AB  - A method to distinguish the four most common biologically relevant underivatized
      hexoses, d-glucose, d-galactose, d-mannose, and d-fructose, using only mass
      spectrometry with no prior separation/derivatization step has been developed.
      Electrospray of a solution containing hexose and a lithium salt generates
      [Hexose+Li]+. The lithium-cationized hexoses adduct water in a quadrupole ion
      trap. The rate of this water adduction reaction can be used to distinguish the
      four hexoses. Additionally, for each hexose, multiple lithiation sites are
      possible, allowing for multiple structures of [Hexose+Li]+. Electrospray produces
      at least one structure that reacts with water and at least one that does not. The
      ratio of unreactive lithium-cationized hexose to total lithium-cationized hexose
      is unique for the four hexoses studied, providing a second method for
      distinguishing the isomers. Use of the water adduction reaction rate or the
      unreactive ratio provides two separate methods for confidently (p <= 0.02)
      distinguishing the most common biologically relevant hexoses using only
      femtomoles of hexose. Additionally, binary mixtures of glucose and fructose were
      studied. A calibration curve was created by measuring the reaction rate of
      various samples with different ratios of fructose and glucose. The calibration
      curve was used to accurately measure the percentage of fructose in three samples
      of high fructose corn syrup (<4% error).

PMID- 28877431
TI  - In Situ Imaging of Tissue Remodeling with Collagen Hybridizing Peptides.
AB  - Collagen, the major structural component of nearly all mammalian tissues,
      undergoes extensive proteolytic remodeling during developmental states and a
      variety of life-threatening diseases such as cancer, myocardial infarction, and
      fibrosis. While degraded collagen could be an important marker of tissue damage,
      it is difficult to detect and target using conventional tools. Here, we show that
      a designed peptide (collagen hybridizing peptide: CHP), which specifically
      hybridizes to the degraded, unfolded collagen chains, can be used to image
      degraded collagen and inform tissue remodeling activity in various tissues:
      labeled with 5-carboxyfluorescein and biotin, CHPs enabled direct localization
      and quantification of collagen degradation in isolated tissues within pathologic
      states ranging from osteoarthritis and myocardial infarction to
      glomerulonephritis and pulmonary fibrosis, as well as in normal tissues during
      developmental programs associated with embryonic bone formation and skin aging.
      The results indicate the general correlation between the level of collagen
      remodeling and the amount of denatured collagen in tissue and show that the CHP
      probes can be used across species and collagen types, providing a versatile tool
      for not only pathology and developmental biology research but also histology
      based disease diagnosis, staging, and therapeutic screening. This study lays the
      foundation for further testing CHP as a targeting moiety for theranostic delivery
      in various animal models.

PMID- 28877433
TI  - Detection of Chemical Warfare Agent-Related Phenylarsenic Compounds in Marine
      Biota Samples by LC-HESI/MS/MS.
AB  - A new method has been developed to determine oxidation products of three chemical
      warfare agent (CWA) related phenylarsenic compounds from marine biota samples by
      a liquid chromatography-heated electrospray ionization/tandem mass spectrometry
      (LC-HESI/MS/MS). The target chemicals were oxidation products of Adamsite
      (DM[ox]), Clark I (DPA[ox]), and triphenylarsine (TPA[ox]). Method was validated
      within the concentration range of 1-5, 0.2-5, and 0.2-5 ng/g for DM[ox], DPA[ox],
      and TPA[ox], respectively. The method was linear, precise and accurate. Limits of
      quantification (LOQ) were 2.0, 1.3, and 2.1 ng/g for DM[ox], DPA[ox], and
      TPA[ox], respectively. A total of ten fish samples and one lobster sample
      collected from near Swedish coast, Maseskar dumpsite were analyzed. Trace
      concentrations below LOQ values were detected in three samples and the elemental
      composition of oxidized form of Clark I and/or II was confirmed by LC-HESI/HRMS.
      To our knowledge, this is the first study that provides the presence of CWA
      related chemicals in marine biota samples.

PMID- 28877434
TI  - Reduction-Responsive Polypeptide Micelles for Intracellular Delivery of
      Antineoplastic Agent.
AB  - Reduction-responsive methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(S-tert
      butylmercapto-L-cysteine) copolymers (i.e., mPEG113-b-PBMLC4 and mPEG113-b
      PBMLC9) were facilely synthesized through primary amino-initiated ring-opening
      polymerization (ROP) of disulfide-containing N-carboxyanhydride monomer. The
      reduction-responsive block copolymers were then investigated for intracellular
      delivery of antitumor drug after forming smart micelles in vitro and in vivo. The
      micelles were denoted as P4M and P9M, respectively. Doxorubicin (DOX) was
      selected as a model chemotherapeutic agent, which was loaded into micelles via
      hydrophobic interaction. The drug loading efficiency (DLE) were detected to be
      55.4 and 61.7 wt % for P4M and P9M, respectively. The loaded micelles, referred
      as P4M/DOX and P9M/DOX, exhibited spherical morphologies with hydrodynamic radii
      of 92.3 +/- 2.3 and 80.2 +/- 2.8 nm, respectively. Compared to P4M/DOX, P9M/DOX
      with a smaller size exhibited upregulated cell endocytosis and higher
      cytotoxicity to human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, the loading
      micelles, especially P9M/DOX, demonstrated improved antitumor efficacy toward an
      MCF-7 breast tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mouse model compared with free doxorubicin
      hydrochloride (DOX.HCl). This was also confirmed by the histopathological and
      immunohistochemical results. The above results demonstrated that the facially
      prepared smart polypeptide micelles exhibited a potent prospect in intracellular
      drug delivery in vitro and in vivo.

PMID- 28877435
TI  - Diasteroselective and Enantioselective Ir-Catalyzed Allylic Substitutions of 1
      Substituted 1-Fluoro-1-(arenesulfonyl)methylene Derivatives.
AB  - diasteroselective and enantioselective Ir-catalyzed allylic substitutions of 1
      substituted 1-fluoro-1-(arenesulfonyl)methylene derivatives are presented, which
      afford the fluorinated allyl products with two chirality centers. The steric
      demand of 1-substituted 1-fluoro-1-(arenesulfonyl)methylene derivatives and
      allylic substrates has a great influence on the dr values of these reactions. The
      transformation of the branched allyl product into the fluorinated 3,4-dihydro-2H
      pyrrole 1-oxide was discussed, as well.

PMID- 28877436
TI  - Comparative Study of Nonhybrid Density Functional Approximations for the
      Prediction of 3d Transition Metal Thermochemistry.
AB  - The utility of several nonhybrid density functional approximations (DFAs) is
      considered for the prediction of gas phase enthalpies of formation for a large
      set of 3d transition metal-containing molecules. Nonhybrid DFAs can model
      thermochemical values for 3d transition metal-containing molecules with accuracy
      comparable to that of hybrid functionals. The GAM-generalized gradient
      approximation (GGA); the TPSS, M06-L, and MN15-L meta-GGAs; and the Rung 3.5
      PBE+PiLDA(s) DFAs all give root-mean-square deviations below that of the widely
      used B3LYP hybrid. Modern nonhybrid DFAs continue to show utility for transition
      metal thermochemistry.

PMID- 28877437
TI  - Solvent Effect on the Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of alpha- and beta
      Tertbutyl Phenoxy-Substituted Tin(IV) Chloride Phthalocyanines.
AB  - This paper investigates the third-order nonlinear optical properties of 4alpha-(4
      tert-butylphenoxy) phthalocyaninato dichlorotin(IV) (alpha-SnOtBpPc) and 4beta-(4
      tert-butylphenoxy) phthalocyaninato dichlorotin(IV) (beta-SnOtBpPc) in different
      organic solvents. The third-order susceptibilities of alpha-SnOtBpPc and beta
      SnOtBpPc are reported in different solvents, using Z-scan techniques with 10 ns
      laser pulses at 532 nm. Their nonlinear absorption coefficient and absorption
      cross sections were also determined. The molecular imaginary components of the
      second-order hyperpolarizability Im[gamma] of alpha-SnOtBpPc and beta-SnOtBpPc
      were found to be 2.60 * 10-31 and 2.94 * 10-31 esu (tetrahydrofuran), 2.12 * 10
      31 and 2.54 * 10-31 esu (chloroform), 3.06 * 10-31 and 2.54 * 10-31 esu
      (dichloromethane), and 1.27 * 10-31 and 1.50 * 10-31 esu (toluene), respectively.
      This study found that substitution at the alpha position has an effect of
      lowering the two-photon (2PA) cross section value for alpha-SnOtBpPc compared to
      that for beta-SnOtBpPc, with values of 64.30 and 456.65 GM, respectively. The
      large 2PA cross section observed in beta-SnOtBpPc is attributed to the decreased
      energy difference between the virtual state and the LUMO.

PMID- 28877438
TI  - Integrated Three-Dimensional Microanalysis Combining X-Ray Microtomography and X
      Ray Fluorescence Methodologies.
AB  - A novel 3D elemental and morphological analysis approach is presented combining X
      ray computed tomography (MUCT), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) tomography, and confocal
      XRF analysis in a single laboratory instrument (Herakles). Each end station of
      Herakles (MUCT, XRF-CT, and confocal XRF) represents the state-of-the-art of
      currently available laboratory techniques. The integration of these techniques
      enables linking the (quantitative) spatial distribution of chemical elements
      within the investigated materials to their three-dimensional (3D) internal
      morphology/structure down to 1-10 MUm resolution level, which has not been
      achieved so-far using laboratory X-ray techniques. The concept of Herakles relies
      strongly on its high precision (around 100 nm) air-bearing motor system that
      connects the different end-stations, allowing combined measurements based on the
      above X-ray techniques while retaining the coordinate system. In-house developed
      control and analysis software further ensures a smooth integration of the
      techniques. Case studies on a Cu test pattern, a Daphnia magna model organism and
      a perlite biocatalyst support material demonstrate the attainable resolution,
      elemental sensitivity of the instrument, and the strength of combining these
      three complementary methodologies.

PMID- 28877439
TI  - 2D Stokesian Approach to Modeling Flow Induced Deformation of Particle Laden
      Interfaces.
AB  - A Stokesian dynamics simulation of the effect of surface Couette flow on the
      microstructure of particles irreversibly adsorbed to an interface is presented.
      Rather than modeling both bulk phases, the interface, and particles in a full 3D
      simulation, known interfacial interactions between adsorbed particles are used to
      create a 2D model from a top down perspective. This novel methodology is easy to
      implement and computationally inexpensive, which makes it favorable to simulate
      behavior of particles under applied flow at fluid-fluid interfaces. The
      methodology is used to examine microstructure deformation of monodisperse, rigid
      spherical colloids with repulsive interactions when a surface Couette flow is
      imposed. Simulation results compare favorably to experimental results taken from
      literature, showing that interparticle forces must be 1 order of magnitude
      greater than viscous drag for microstructure to transition from aligned particle
      strings to rotation of local hexagonal domains. Additionally, it is demonstrated
      that hydrodynamic interactions between particles play a significant role in the
      magnitude of these microstructure deformations.

PMID- 28877440
TI  - Bimodal Grain-Size Scaling of Thermal Transport in Polycrystalline Graphene from
      Large-Scale Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
AB  - Grain boundaries in graphene are inherent in wafer-scale samples prepared by
      chemical vapor deposition. They can strongly influence the mechanical properties
      and electronic and heat transport in graphene. In this work, we employ extensive
      molecular dynamics simulations to study thermal transport in large suspended
      polycrystalline graphene samples. Samples of different controlled grain sizes are
      prepared by a recently developed efficient multiscale approach based on the phase
      field crystal model. In contrast to previous works, our results show that the
      scaling of the thermal conductivity with the grain size implies bimodal behavior
      with two effective Kapitza lengths. The scaling is dominated by the out-of-plane
      (flexural) phonons with a Kapitza length that is an order of magnitude larger
      than that of the in-plane phonons. We also show that, to get quantitative
      agreement with the most recent experiments, quantum corrections need to be
      applied to both the Kapitza conductance of grain boundaries and the thermal
      conductivity of pristine graphene, and the corresponding Kapitza lengths must be
      renormalized accordingly.

PMID- 28877442
TI  - Interactions on External MOF Surfaces: Desorption of Water and Ethanol from CuBDC
      Nanosheets.
AB  - The external surfaces of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials are difficult to
      experimentally isolate due to the high porosities of these materials. MOF surface
      surrogates in the form of copper benzenedicarboxylate (CuBDC) nanosheets were
      synthesized using a bottom-up approach, and the surface interactions of water and
      ethanol were investigated by temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). A method of
      analysis of diffusion-influenced TPD was developed to measure the desorption
      properties of these porous materials. This approach also allows the extraction of
      diffusion coefficients from TPD data. The transmission Fourier transform infrared
      spectra, powder X-ray diffraction patterns, and TPD data indicate that water
      desorbs from CuBDC nanosheets with activation energies of 44 +/- 2 kJ/mol at edge
      sites and 58 +/- 1 kJ/mol at external surface and internal and pore sites.
      Ethanol desorbs with activation energies of 58 +/- 1 kJ/mol at internal pore
      sites and 66 +/- 0.4 kJ/mol at external surface sites. Co-adsorption of water and
      ethanol was also investigated. The presence of ethanol was found to inhibit the
      desorption of water, resulting in a water desorption process with an activation
      energy of 68 +/- 0.7 kJ/mol.

PMID- 28877441
TI  - Development of the Large-Scale Synthesis of Tetrahydropyran Glycine, a Precursor
      to the HCV NS5A Inhibitor BMS-986097.
AB  - An efficient large-scale synthesis of acid 1, a penultimate precursor to the HCV
      NS5A inhibitor BMS-986097, along with the final API step are described. Three
      routes were devised for the synthesis of 1 at the various stages of the program.
      The third generation route, the one that proved scalable and is the main subject
      of this paper, features a one-step Michael addition of t-butyl 2
      ((diphenylmethylene)amino)acetate (24) to (E)-benzyl 4-(1-hydroxycyclopropyl)but
      2-enoate (28) followed by cyclization and chiral separation to form 27c, the core
      skeleton of cap piece 1. The epimerization and chiral resolution of 27c followed
      by further synthetic manipulations involving the carbamate formation, lactone
      reduction and cyclization, afforded cyclopropyl pyran 1. A detailed study of
      diphenylmethane deprotection via acid hydrolysis as well as a key lactone to
      tetrahydropyran conversion, in order to avoid a side reaction that afforded an
      alternative cyclization product, are discussed. This synthesis was applied to the
      preparation of more than 100 g of the final API BMS-986097 for toxicology
      studies.

PMID- 28877443
TI  - Characterization of Bifunctional Spin Labels for Investigating the Structural and
      Dynamic Properties of Membrane Proteins Using EPR Spectroscopy.
AB  - Site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) coupled with electron paramagnetic resonance
      (EPR) spectroscopy is a very powerful technique to study structural and dynamic
      properties of membrane proteins. The most widely used spin label is
      methanthiosulfonate (MTSL). However, the flexibility of this spin label
      introduces greater uncertainties in EPR measurements obtained for determining
      structures, side-chain dynamics, and backbone motion of membrane protein systems.
      Recently, a newer bifunctional spin label (BSL), 3,4
      bis(methanethiosulfonylmethyl)-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-1-yloxy,
      has been introduced to overcome the dynamic limitations associated with the MTSL
      spin label and has been invaluable in determining protein backbone dynamics and
      inter-residue distances due to its restricted internal motion and fewer size
      restrictions. While BSL has been successful in providing more accurate
      information about the structure and dynamics of several proteins, a detailed
      characterization of the spin label is still lacking. In this study, we
      characterized BSLs by performing CW-EPR spectral line shape analysis as a
      function of temperature on spin-labeled sites inside and outside of the membrane
      for the integral membrane protein KCNE1 in POPC/POPG lipid bilayers and POPC/POPG
      lipodisq nanoparticles. The experimental data revealed a powder pattern spectral
      line shape for all of the KCNE1-BSL samples at 296 K, suggesting the motion of
      BSLs approaches the rigid limit regime for these series of samples. BSLs were
      further utilized to report for the first time the distance measurement between
      two BSLs attached on an integral membrane protein KCNE1 in POPC/POPG lipid
      bilayers at room temperature using dipolar line broadening CW-EPR spectroscopy.
      The CW dipolar line broadening EPR data revealed a 15 +/- 2 A distance between
      doubly attached BSLs on KCNE1 (53/57-63/67) which is consistent with molecular
      dynamics modeling and the solution NMR structure of KCNE1 which yielded a
      distance of 17 A. This study demonstrates the utility of investigating the
      structural and dynamic properties of membrane proteins in physiologically
      relevant membrane mimetics using BSLs.

PMID- 28877444
TI  - New Tethered Phospholipid Bilayers Integrating Functional G-Protein-Coupled
      Receptor Membrane Proteins.
AB  - Membrane proteins exhibiting extra- and intracellular domains require an adequate
      near-native lipid platform for their functional reconstitution. With this aim, we
      developed a new technology enabling the formation of a peptide-tethered bilayer
      lipid membrane (pep-tBLM), a lipid bilayer grafted onto peptide spacers, by way
      of a metal-chelate interaction. To this end, we designed an original peptide
      spacer derived from the natural alpha-laminin thiopeptide (P19) possessing a
      cysteine residue in the N-terminal extremity for grafting onto gold and a C
      terminal extremity modified by four histidine residues (P19-4H). In the presence
      of nickel, the use of this anchor allowed us to bind liposomes of variable
      compositions containing a 2% molar ratio of a chelating lipid, 1,2-dioleoyl-sn
      glycero-3-[(N-(5-amino-1-carboxypentyl)iminodiacetic acid)succinyl] so-called
      DOGS-NTA, and to form the planar bilayer by triggering liposome fusion by an
      alpha-helical (AH) peptide derived from the N-terminus of the hepatitis C virus
      NS5A protein. The formation of pep-tBLMs was characterized by surface plasmon
      resonance imaging (SPRi), and their continuity, fluidity, and homogeneity were
      demonstrated by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), with a
      diffusion coefficient of 2.5 * 10-7 cm2/s, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). By
      using variable lipid compositions including phosphatidylcholine (PC),
      phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylinositol 4,5
      bisphosphate (PIP2), sphingomyelin (SM), phosphatidic acid (PA), and cholesterol
      (Chol) in various ratios, we show that the membrane can be formed independently
      from the lipid composition. We made the most of this advantage to reincorporate a
      transmembrane protein in an adapted complex lipid composition to ensure its
      functional reinsertion. For this purpose, a cell-free expression system was used
      to produce proteoliposomes expressing the functional C-X-C motif chemokine
      receptor 4 (CXCR4), a seven-transmembrane protein belonging to the large
      superfamily of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). We succeeded in reinserting
      CXCR4 in pep-tBLMs formed on P19-4H by the fusion of tethered proteoliposomes.
      AFM and FRAP characterization allowed us to show that pep-tBLMs inserting CXCR4
      remained fluid, homogeneous, and continuous. The value of the diffusion
      coefficient determined in the presence of reinserted CXCR4 was 2 * 10-7 cm2/s.
      Ligand binding assays using a synthetic CXCR4 antagonist, T22 ([Tyr5,12, Lys7]
      polyphemusin II), revealed that CXCR4 can be reinserted in pep-tBLMs with
      functional folding and orientation. This new approach represents a method of
      choice for investigating membrane protein reincorporation and a promising way of
      creating a new generation of membrane biochips adapted for screening agonists or
      antagonists of transmembrane proteins.

PMID- 28877445
TI  - Anti-fibrosis effect of nanoparticle-mediated delivery of plasminogen kringle 5.
AB  - Retinal fibrosis, including epiretinal membrane (ERM) and proliferative
      vitreoretinopathy (PVR), is an ocular disease that can lead to blindness. An
      efficacious therapy remains an unmet medical challenge. In this study, we
      intended to explore the inhibitory effects of the nanoparticle-mediated delivery
      of plasminogen kringle 5 (K5-NPs) on laser-induced ERM and to identify the
      potential anti-fibrosis targets of K5-NPs. A rat model of laser-induced ERM was
      used. Control-NPs or K5-NPs were intravitreally injected. ERM formation was
      observed in vivo. The expression of fibrosis-associated factors including TGF
      beta, CTGF, and alpha-SMA was detected by qRT-PCR, Western blot, or
      immunohistochemistry. Our results showed that K5-NPs effectively inhibit laser
      induced ERM formation. The expression of alpha-SMA, the marker of myofibroblast,
      apparently decreased in immunostained ERMs in the K5-NPs group. The expression of
      CTGF, a pro-fibrotic factor, in our ERM rat model was significantly downregulated
      by K5-NPs. Meanwhile, the expression of TGF-beta, the upstream regulator of CTGF,
      was found to be suppressed by K5-NPs as well. The anti-fibrosis effect of K5-NPs
      might be achieved by interfering with TGF-beta expression, thus abrogating the
      TGF-beta-induced upregulation of CTGF and alpha-SMA. Our study has an important
      clinical relevance, demonstrating that K5-NPs might offer an additional
      efficacious clinical option for treating fibrosis-related diseases.

PMID- 28877446
TI  - Role of ion channels in natural killer cell function towards cancer.
AB  - Progression of cancer to advanced states is associated with treatment resistance
      and metastatic spread -- features that are linked to poor prognosis and patient
      mortality. Investigations into potential new treatments to reduce cancer spread
      are ongoing, with immunotherapy generating much interest. Natural killer (NK)
      cells are part of the body's innate immune system and are known for their ability
      to target and lyse cancer cells. Ion channels have previously been linked to the
      growth and development of tumors, but recent research suggests that these
      channels may also serve to alter immune cell functioning. This review examines
      the current understanding as to the role of ion channels in NK cells and how
      manipulation of these channels may increase NK effectiveness in targeting and
      removing cancer cells. With a large number of existing FDA-approved drugs
      targeting ion channels, potential exists for drug repurposing in order to improve
      immunotherapy and thus patient outcomes.

PMID- 28877447
TI  - Limiting oxidative stress following neurotrauma with a combination of ion channel
      inhibitors.
AB  - Following injury to the central nervous system, secondary degeneration is
      mediated by Ca2+ imbalances and overproduction of reactive oxygen species from
      mitochondria, and is associated with myelin deficits and loss of function.
      Preventing intracellular Ca2+ influx at the acute phase of injury is a potential
      strategy for limiting these deficits and preserving function. The use of single
      ion channel inhibitors has had little success in attenuating morphological and
      functional deficits, potentially due to the many pathways by which calcium can
      traverse the cell membrane. Focus has shifted to the simultaneous administration
      of a combination of ion channel inhibitors: lomerizine, oxATP, and YM872. The
      combination has resulted in reductions in oxidative damage, as well as
      preservation of function and myelin ultrastructure, potentially due to the
      protection of oligodendrocytes and their progenitors. The use of multiple ion
      channel inhibitors is promising and suggests a reduction in total intracellular
      Ca2+ influx is necessary and sufficient for the protection of neurons and glia
      following neurotrauma. Optimization of treatment timing, inhibitor choice, and
      method of delivery will be required for translation of this strategy to the
      clinic.

PMID- 28877448
TI  - Gene therapy for heart failure: status quo and quo vadis.
AB  - Gene therapy is recently attracting increased attention and cardiac gene therapy
      is not an exception. Advances in gene transfer vectors, development of new vector
      delivery methods, and discovery of new gene targets continue to fuel our
      motivation to use this approach in routine bedside care. In the past two years,
      we have witnessed important advances in the field, as the results of three
      recently completed cardiac gene therapy programs have been published.
      Unfortunately, none of the trials have met their primary efficacy endpoints, but
      sub-analysis demonstrated potential efficacy. Careful review and interpretation
      of these trial results will provide important insights and direct us to improve
      the future trial design. In this review, we update our previous overview with a
      specific focus on recent clinical trial results. We then contemplate future
      strategies towards successful application of gene therapy for treating clinical
      heart failure.

PMID- 28877449
TI  - Surgical management of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - Despite advances in systemic therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma, durable
      responses remain rare and surgical management remains a mainstay of treatment for
      many patients with metastatic disease. Management of the primary tumor in
      metastatic patients can occur as 1) palliative nephrectomy for symptomatic
      patients in whom cure is not achievable, 2) cytoreductive nephrectomy before
      systemic therapy, or 3) consolidative nephrectomy after systemic therapy.
      Palliative nephrectomy is rarely performed in centers where angioembolization is
      available. The evidence for cytoreductive nephrectomy is based on randomized
      trials in the cytokine era and retrospective studies in the more recent targeted
      therapy era. Consolidative nephrectomy is utilized after systemic therapy for
      intermediate- and poor-risk patients or in patients with potentially unresectable
      disease based on retrospective evidence. Resection of metastatic lesions, or
      metastasectomy, is utilized in select patients, with efficacy predicated on the
      organs involved and the extent of resection that is achievable, based on
      retrospective data. Herein, the evidence for surgical management of both the
      primary tumor and metastatic lesions in patients with metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma is reviewed.

PMID- 28877450
TI  - Women in Metabolism: The Next Generation.
AB  - The "Rosies" of Cell Metabolism persist as a new generation enters the stage.
      With inspiration from this issue's cover art, we celebrate young and diverse
      scientists and the mentorship that has guided them throughout. Their stories come
      from different corners of the world but are tied together by a common thread of
      tenacity and perseverance.

PMID- 28877451
TI  - The Liver as a Hub in Thermogenesis.
AB  - Manipulating thermogenesis could increase energy expenditure and improve
      metabolism. Brown fat is a major site of nonshivering thermogenesis, but other
      tissues, notably muscle and liver, can contribute to cold adaptation. In this
      issue, Simcox et al. (2017) demonstrate in cold-exposed mice that liver-generated
      acylcarnitines are required to fuel thermogenesis.

PMID- 28877452
TI  - Meds Modify Microbiome, Mediating Their Effects.
AB  - The mechanisms of action of some common medications remain unknown but, in some
      cases, may involve the microorganisms within us. A new study by Wu et al. (2017)
      provides evidence that the type 2 diabetes drug metformin alters the gut
      microbiota, which in turn may mediate some of the drug's effects.

PMID- 28877453
TI  - Disentangling High Fat, Low Carb, and Healthy Aging.
AB  - Dietary interventions are simple, non-invasive tools that can be utilized to
      improve health and lifespan. In this issue, Roberts et al. (2017) and Newman et
      al. (2017) reveal the physiological benefits of feeding mice ketogenic diets and
      suggest different underlying mechanisms that may promote healthy aging.

PMID- 28877454
TI  - A Stat6/Pten Axis Links Regulatory T Cells with Adipose Tissue Function.
AB  - Obesity and type 2 diabetes are associated with metabolic defects and adipose
      tissue inflammation. Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) control tissue homeostasis
      by counteracting local inflammation. However, if and how T cells interlink
      environmental influences with adipocyte function remains unknown. Here, we report
      that enhancing sympathetic tone by cold exposure, beta3-adrenergic receptor
      (ADRB3) stimulation or a short-term high-calorie diet enhances Treg induction in
      vitro and in vivo. CD4+ T cell proteomes revealed higher expression of Foxp3
      regulatory networks in response to cold or ADRB3 stimulation in vivo reflecting
      Treg induction. Specifically, Ragulator-interacting protein C17orf59, which
      limits mTORC1 activity, was upregulated in CD4+ T cells by either ADRB3
      stimulation or cold exposure, suggesting contribution to Treg induction. By loss-
      and gain-of-function studies, including Treg depletion and transfers in vivo, we
      demonstrated that a T cell-specific Stat6/Pten axis links cold exposure or ADRB3
      stimulation with Foxp3+ Treg induction and adipose tissue function. Our findings
      offer a new mechanistic model in which tissue-specific Tregs maintain adipose
      tissue function.

PMID- 28877456
TI  - Distinct Circadian Signatures in Liver and Gut Clocks Revealed by Ketogenic Diet.
AB  - The circadian clock orchestrates rhythms in physiology and behavior, allowing
      organismal adaptation to daily environmental changes. While food intake
      profoundly influences diurnal rhythms in the liver, how nutritional challenges
      are differentially interpreted by distinct tissue-specific clocks remains poorly
      explored. Ketogenic diet (KD) is considered to have metabolic and therapeutic
      value, though its impact on circadian homeostasis is virtually unknown. We show
      that KD has profound and differential effects on liver and intestine clocks.
      Specifically, the amplitude of clock-controlled genes and BMAL1 chromatin
      recruitment are drastically altered by KD in the liver, but not in the intestine.
      KD induces nuclear accumulation of PPARalpha in both tissues but with different
      circadian phase. Also, gut and liver clocks respond differently to carbohydrate
      supplementation to KD. Importantly, KD induces serum and intestinal beta-hydroxyl
      butyrate levels to robustly oscillate in a circadian manner, an event coupled to
      tissue-specific cyclic histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity and histone
      acetylation.

PMID- 28877455
TI  - Global Analysis of Plasma Lipids Identifies Liver-Derived Acylcarnitines as a
      Fuel Source for Brown Fat Thermogenesis.
AB  - Cold-induced thermogenesis is an energy-demanding process that protects
      endotherms against a reduction in ambient temperature. Using non-targeted liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry-based lipidomics, we identified elevated levels
      of plasma acylcarnitines in response to the cold. We found that the liver
      undergoes a metabolic switch to provide fuel for brown fat thermogenesis by
      producing acylcarnitines. Cold stimulates white adipocytes to release free fatty
      acids that activate the nuclear receptor HNF4alpha, which is required for
      acylcarnitine production in the liver and adaptive thermogenesis. Once in
      circulation, acylcarnitines are transported to brown adipose tissue, while uptake
      into white adipose tissue and liver is blocked. Finally, a bolus of L-carnitine
      or palmitoylcarnitine rescues the cold sensitivity seen with aging. Our data
      highlight an elegant mechanism whereby white adipose tissue provides long-chain
      fatty acids for hepatic carnitilation to generate plasma acylcarnitines as a fuel
      source for peripheral tissues in mice.

PMID- 28877458
TI  - Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice.
AB  - Ketogenic diets recapitulate certain metabolic aspects of dietary restriction
      such as reliance on fatty acid metabolism and production of ketone bodies. We
      investigated whether an isoprotein ketogenic diet (KD) might, like dietary
      restriction, affect longevity and healthspan in C57BL/6 male mice. We find that
      Cyclic KD, KD alternated weekly with the Control diet to prevent obesity, reduces
      midlife mortality but does not affect maximum lifespan. A non-ketogenic high-fat
      diet (HF) fed similarly may have an intermediate effect on mortality. Cyclic KD
      improves memory performance in old age, while modestly improving composite
      healthspan measures. Gene expression analysis identifies downregulation of
      insulin, protein synthesis, and fatty acid synthesis pathways as mechanisms
      common to KD and HF. However, upregulation of PPARalpha target genes is unique to
      KD, consistent across tissues, and preserved in old age. In all, we show that a
      non-obesogenic ketogenic diet improves survival, memory, and healthspan in aging
      mice.

PMID- 28877457
TI  - A Ketogenic Diet Extends Longevity and Healthspan in Adult Mice.
AB  - Calorie restriction, without malnutrition, has been shown to increase lifespan
      and is associated with a shift away from glycolysis toward beta-oxidation. The
      objective of this study was to mimic this metabolic shift using low-carbohydrate
      diets and to determine the influence of these diets on longevity and healthspan
      in mice. C57BL/6 mice were assigned to a ketogenic, low-carbohydrate, or control
      diet at 12 months of age and were either allowed to live their natural lifespan
      or tested for physiological function after 1 or 14 months of dietary
      intervention. The ketogenic diet (KD) significantly increased median lifespan and
      survival compared to controls. In aged mice, only those consuming a KD displayed
      preservation of physiological function. The KD increased protein acetylation
      levels and regulated mTORC1 signaling in a tissue-dependent manner. This study
      demonstrates that a KD extends longevity and healthspan in mice.

PMID- 28877459
TI  - Cell-Intrinsic Glycogen Metabolism Supports Early Glycolytic Reprogramming
      Required for Dendritic Cell Immune Responses.
AB  - Dendritic cell (DC) activation by Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists causes rapid
      glycolytic reprogramming that is required to meet the metabolic demands of their
      immune activation. Recent efforts in the field have identified an important role
      for extracellular glucose sourcing to support DC activation. However, the
      contributions of intracellular glucose stores to these processes have not been
      well characterized. We demonstrate that DCs possess intracellular glycogen stores
      and that cell-intrinsic glycogen metabolism supports the early effector functions
      of TLR-activated DCs. Inhibition of glycogenolysis significantly attenuates TLR
      mediated DC maturation and impairs their ability to initiate lymphocyte
      activation. We further report that DCs exhibit functional compartmentalization of
      glucose- and glycogen-derived carbons, where these substrates preferentially
      contribute to distinct metabolic pathways. This work provides novel insights into
      nutrient homeostasis in DCs, demonstrating that differential utilization of
      glycogen and glucose metabolism regulates their optimal immune function.

PMID- 28877461
TI  - Acetyl CoA Carboxylase Inhibition Reduces Hepatic Steatosis but Elevates Plasma
      Triglycerides in Mice and Humans: A Bedside to Bench Investigation.

PMID- 28877460
TI  - Persistence of Pancreatic Insulin mRNA Expression and Proinsulin Protein in Type
      1 Diabetes Pancreata.
AB  - The canonical notion that type 1 diabetes (T1D) results following a complete
      destruction of beta cells has recently been questioned as small amounts of C
      peptide are detectable in patients with long-standing disease. We analyzed
      protein and gene expression levels for proinsulin, insulin, C-peptide, and islet
      amyloid polypeptide within pancreatic tissues from T1D, autoantibody positive
      (Ab+), and control organs. Insulin and C-peptide levels were low to undetectable
      in extracts from the T1D cohort; however, proinsulin and INS mRNA were detected
      in the majority of T1D pancreata. Interestingly, heterogeneous nuclear RNA
      (hnRNA) for insulin and INS-IGF2, both originating from the INS promoter, were
      essentially undetectable in T1D pancreata, arguing for a silent INS promoter.
      Expression of PCSK1, a convertase responsible for proinsulin processing, was
      reduced in T1D pancreata, supportive of persistent proinsulin. These data
      implicate the existence of beta cells enriched for inefficient insulin/C-peptide
      production in T1D patients, potentially less susceptible to autoimmune
      destruction.

PMID- 28877462
TI  - A Hypothalamic Phosphatase Switch Coordinates Energy Expenditure with Feeding.

PMID- 28877463
TI  - Mpp6 Incorporation in the Nuclear Exosome Contributes to RNA Channeling through
      the Mtr4 Helicase.
AB  - The RNA-degrading exosome mediates the processing and decay of many cellular
      transcripts. In the yeast nucleus, the ubiquitous 10-subunit exosome core complex
      (Exo-9-Rrp44) functions with four conserved cofactors (Rrp6, Rrp47, Mtr4, and
      Mpp6). Biochemical and structural studies to date have shed insights into the
      mechanisms of the exosome core and its nuclear cofactors, with the exception of
      Mpp6. We report the 3.2-A resolution crystal structure of a S. cerevisiae Exo-9
      Mpp6 complex, revealing how linear motifs in the Mpp6 middle domain bind Rrp40
      via evolutionary conserved residues. In particular, Mpp6 binds near a tryptophan
      residue of Rrp40 that is mutated in human patients suffering from pontocerebellar
      hypoplasia. Using biochemical assays, we show that Mpp6 is required for the
      ability of Mtr4 to extend the trajectory of an RNA entering the exosome core,
      suggesting that it promotes the channeling of substrates from the nuclear
      helicase to the processive RNase.

PMID- 28877464
TI  - Tail-Anchored Protein Insertion by a Single Get1/2 Heterodimer.
AB  - The Get1/2 transmembrane complex drives the insertion of tail-anchored (TA)
      proteins from the cytosolic chaperone Get3 into the endoplasmic reticulum
      membrane. Mechanistic insight into how Get1/2 coordinates this process is
      confounded by a lack of understanding of the basic architecture of the complex.
      Here, we define the oligomeric state of full-length Get1/2 in reconstituted lipid
      bilayers by combining single-molecule and bulk fluorescence measurements with
      quantitative in vitro insertion analysis. We show that a single Get1/2
      heterodimer is sufficient for insertion and demonstrate that the conserved
      cytosolic regions of Get1 and Get2 bind asymmetrically to opposing subunits of
      the Get3 homodimer. Altogether, our results define a simplified model for how
      Get1/2 and Get3 coordinate TA protein insertion.

PMID- 28877465
TI  - Dynamics of Presynaptic Diacylglycerol in a Sensory Neuron Encode Differences
      between Past and Current Stimulus Intensity.
AB  - Memorizing the intensity of sensory stimuli enables animals to successfully deal
      with changing environmental conditions and contributes to cognitive functions
      such as auditory and visual working memory. However, how nervous systems process
      past and current stimulus intensity is largely unknown at the molecular level.
      Here, we employ in vivo diacylglycerol (DAG) imaging in the ASER taste neuron of
      Caenorhabditis elegans and demonstrate that associative learning between ambient
      salt concentrations and food can be explained by changes in presynaptic DAG. The
      abundance of DAG is regulated in response to external salt concentration changes
      via sensory transduction in ASER and can encode differences between past and
      current salt concentrations. The DAG dynamics are modulated downstream of the
      synaptic insulin/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway, which
      regulates the behavioral plasticity induced by starvation. These results provide
      insights into how a single neuron stores past input intensity and generates
      appropriate behavioral responses.

PMID- 28877466
TI  - Local Nucleation of Microtubule Bundles through Tubulin Concentration into a
      Condensed Tau Phase.
AB  - Non-centrosomal microtubule bundles play important roles in cellular organization
      and function. Although many diverse proteins are known that can bundle
      microtubules, biochemical mechanisms by which cells could locally control the
      nucleation and formation of microtubule bundles are understudied. Here, we
      demonstrate that the concentration of tubulin into a condensed, liquid-like
      compartment composed of the unstructured neuronal protein tau is sufficient to
      nucleate microtubule bundles. We show that, under conditions of macro-molecular
      crowding, tau forms liquid-like drops. Tubulin partitions into these drops,
      efficiently increasing tubulin concentration and driving the nucleation of
      microtubules. These growing microtubules form bundles, which deform the drops
      while remaining enclosed by diffusible tau molecules exhibiting a liquid-like
      behavior. Our data suggest that condensed compartments of microtubule bundling
      proteins could promote the local formation of microtubule bundles in neurons by
      acting as non-centrosomal microtubule nucleation centers and that liquid-like tau
      encapsulation could provide both stability and plasticity to long axonal
      microtubule bundles.

PMID- 28877468
TI  - Cbln1 and Cbln4 Are Structurally Similar but Differ in GluD2 Binding
      Interactions.
AB  - Unlike cerebellin 1 (Cbln1), which bridges neurexin (Nrxn) receptors and delta
      type glutamate receptors in a trans-synaptic triad, Cbln4 was reported to have no
      or weak binding for the receptors despite sharing ~70% sequence identity with
      Cbln1. Here, we report crystal structures of the homotrimers of the C1q domain of
      Cbln1 and Cbln4 at 2.2 and 2.3 A resolution, respectively. Comparison of the
      structures suggests that the difference between Cbln1 and Cbln4 in GluD2 binding
      might be because of their sequence and structural divergence in loop CD.
      Surprisingly, we show that Cbln4 binds to Nrxn1beta and forms a stable complex
      with the laminin, nectin, sex-hormone binding globulin (LNS) domain of Nrxn1beta.
      Furthermore, the negative-stain electron microscopy reconstruction of hexameric
      full-length Cbln1 at 13 A resolution and that of the Cbln4/Nrxn1beta complex at
      19 A resolution suggest that Nrxn1beta binds to the N-terminal region of Cbln4,
      probably through strand beta10 of the S4 insert.

PMID- 28877467
TI  - The SET1 Complex Selects Actively Transcribed Target Genes via Multivalent
      Interaction with CpG Island Chromatin.
AB  - Chromatin modifications and the promoter-associated epigenome are important for
      the regulation of gene expression. However, the mechanisms by which chromatin
      modifying complexes are targeted to the appropriate gene promoters in vertebrates
      and how they influence gene expression have remained poorly defined. Here, using
      a combination of live-cell imaging and functional genomics, we discover that the
      vertebrate SET1 complex is targeted to actively transcribed gene promoters
      through CFP1, which engages in a form of multivalent chromatin reading that
      involves recognition of non-methylated DNA and histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation
      (H3K4me3). CFP1 defines SET1 complex occupancy on chromatin, and its multivalent
      interactions are required for the SET1 complex to place H3K4me3. In the absence
      of CFP1, gene expression is perturbed, suggesting that normal targeting and
      function of the SET1 complex are central to creating an appropriately functioning
      vertebrate promoter-associated epigenome.

PMID- 28877469
TI  - Autophagy-Independent Lysosomal Targeting Regulated by ULK1/2-FIP200 and ATG9.
AB  - Iron is vital for many homeostatic processes, and its liberation from ferritin
      nanocages occurs in the lysosome. Studies indicate that ferritin and its binding
      partner nuclear receptor coactivator-4 (NCOA4) are targeted to lysosomes by a
      form of selective autophagy. By using genome-scale functional screening, we
      identify an alternative lysosomal transport pathway for ferritin that requires
      FIP200, ATG9A, VPS34, and TAX1BP1 but lacks involvement of the ATG8 lipidation
      machinery that constitutes classical macroautophagy. TAX1BP1 binds directly to
      NCOA4 and is required for lysosomal trafficking of ferritin under basal and iron
      depleted conditions. Under basal conditions ULK1/2-FIP200 controls ferritin
      turnover, but its deletion leads to TAX1BP1-dependent activation of TBK1 that
      regulates redistribution of ATG9A to the Golgi enabling continued trafficking of
      ferritin. Cells expressing an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-associated TBK1
      allele are incapable of degrading ferritin suggesting a molecular mechanism that
      explains the presence of iron deposits in patient brain biopsies.

PMID- 28877470
TI  - Strong Clonal Relatedness between Serum and Gut IgA despite Different Plasma Cell
      Origins.
AB  - Mucosal antigens induce generation of lamina propria plasma cells (PCs) that
      secrete dimeric immunoglobulin A (IgA) destined for transport across the
      epithelium. In addition, blood contains monomeric IgA. To study the relationship
      between mucosal and systemic antibody responses, we took advantage of celiac
      disease patient samples for isolation of gut PCs as well as serum IgA and IgG
      reactive with a gluten-derived peptide or the autoantigen transglutaminase 2.
      Proteomic analysis of serum IgA revealed antigen-specific V-gene preferences,
      which matched those found in gut PCs. Further, gut PC CDR-H3 sequences were
      abundant in serum IgA but also detectable in serum IgG. Our data indicate that
      the same B cell clones that give rise to gut PCs also contribute to the serum
      antibody pool. However, serum IgA antibodies had a molecular composition distinct
      from that of IgA antibodies secreted in the gut, suggesting that individual B
      cell clones give rise to different PC populations.

PMID- 28877471
TI  - KIF5B-RET Oncoprotein Signals through a Multi-kinase Signaling Hub.
AB  - Gene fusions are increasingly recognized as important cancer drivers. The KIF5B
      RET gene has been identified as a primary driver in a subset of lung
      adenocarcinomas. Targeting human KIF5B-RET to epithelia in Drosophila directed
      multiple aspects of transformation, including hyperproliferation, epithelial-to
      mesenchymal transition, invasion, and extension of striking invadopodia-like
      processes. The KIF5B-RET-transformed human bronchial cell line showed similar
      aspects of transformation, including invadopodia-like processes. Through a
      combination of genetic and biochemical studies, we demonstrate that the kinesin
      and kinase domains of KIF5B-RET act together to establish an emergent microtubule
      and RAB-vesicle-dependent RET-SRC-EGFR-FGFR signaling hub. We demonstrate that
      drugs designed to inhibit RET alone work poorly in KIF5B-RET-transformed cells.
      However, combining the RET inhibitor sorafenib with drugs that target EGFR,
      microtubules, or FGFR led to strong efficacy in both Drosophila and human cell
      line KIF5B-RET models. This work demonstrates the utility of exploring the full
      biology of fusions to identify rational therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28877472
TI  - ALPK1- and TIFA-Dependent Innate Immune Response Triggered by the Helicobacter
      pylori Type IV Secretion System.
AB  - Activation of transcription factor NF-kappaB is a hallmark of infection with the
      gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, associated with inflammation and
      carcinogenesis. Genome-wide RNAi screening revealed numerous host factors
      involved in H. pylori-, but not IL-1beta- and TNF-alpha-dependent NF-kappaB
      regulation. Pathway analysis including CRISPR/Cas9-knockout and recombinant
      protein technology, immunofluorescence microscopy, immunoblotting, mass
      spectrometry, and mutant H. pylori strains identified the H. pylori metabolite D
      glycero-beta-D-manno-heptose 1,7-bisphosphate (betaHBP) as a cagPAI type IV
      secretion system (T4SS)-dependent effector of NF-kappaB activation in infected
      cells. Upon pathogen-host cell contact, TIFA forms large complexes (TIFAsomes)
      including interacting host factors, such as TRAF2. NF-kappaB activation, TIFA
      phosphorylation, and TIFAsome formation depend on a functional ALPK1 kinase,
      highlighting the ALPK1-TIFA axis as a core innate immune pathway. ALPK1-TIFA
      mediated NF-kappaB activation was independent of CagA protein translocation,
      indicating that CagA translocation and HBP delivery to host cells are distinct
      features of the pathogen's T4SS.

PMID- 28877473
TI  - Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Suppresses Innate Immune Responses via a
      Ubiquitin and ISG15 Specific Protease.
AB  - Antiviral responses are regulated by conjugation of ubiquitin (Ub) and interferon
      stimulated gene 15 (ISG15) to proteins. Certain classes of viruses encode Ub- or
      ISG15-specific proteases belonging to the ovarian tumor (OTU) superfamily. Their
      activity is thought to suppress cellular immune responses, but studies
      demonstrating the function of viral OTU proteases during infection are lacking.
      Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV, family Nairoviridae) is a highly
      pathogenic human virus that encodes an OTU with both deubiquitinase and
      deISGylase activity as part of the viral RNA polymerase. We investigated CCHFV
      OTU function by inactivating protease catalytic activity or by selectively
      disrupting its deubiquitinase and deISGylase activity using reverse genetics.
      CCHFV OTU inactivation blocked viral replication independently of its RNA
      polymerase activity, while deubiquitinase activity proved critical for
      suppressing the interferon responses. Our findings provide insights into viral
      OTU functions and support the development of therapeutics and vaccines.

PMID- 28877475
TI  - A Single TCF Transcription Factor, Regardless of Its Activation Capacity, Is
      Sufficient for Effective Trilineage Differentiation of ESCs.
AB  - Co-expression and cross-regulation of the four TCF/LEFs render their redundant
      and unique functions ambiguous. Here, we describe quadruple-knockout (QKO) mouse
      ESCs lacking all full-length TCF/LEFs and cell lines rescued with TCF7 or TCF7L1.
      QKO cells self-renew, despite gene expression patterns that differ significantly
      from WT, and display delayed, neurectoderm-biased, embryoid body (EB)
      differentiation. QKO EBs have no contracting cardiomyocytes and differentiate
      poorly into mesendoderm but readily generate neuronal cells. QKO cells and TCF7L1
      rescued cells cannot efficiently activate TCF reporters, whereas TCF7-rescued
      cells exhibit significant reporter responsiveness. Surprisingly, despite
      dramatically different transactivation capacities, re-expression of TCF7L1 or
      TCF7 in QKO cells restores their tri-lineage differentiation ability, with
      similar lineage marker expression patterns and beating cardiomyocyte frequencies
      observed in EBs. Both factors also similarly affect the transcriptome of QKO
      cells. Our data reveal that a single TCF, regardless of its activation capacity,
      is sufficient for effective trilineage differentiation of ESCs.

PMID- 28877474
TI  - Long Noncoding RNA PURPL Suppresses Basal p53 Levels and Promotes Tumorigenicity
      in Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Basal p53 levels are tightly suppressed under normal conditions. Disrupting this
      regulation results in elevated p53 levels to induce cell cycle arrest, apoptosis,
      and tumor suppression. Here, we report the suppression of basal p53 levels by a
      nuclear, p53-regulated long noncoding RNA that we termed PURPL (p53 upregulated
      regulator of p53 levels). Targeted depletion of PURPL in colorectal cancer cells
      results in elevated basal p53 levels and induces growth defects in cell culture
      and in mouse xenografts. PURPL associates with MYBBP1A, a protein that binds to
      and stabilizes p53, and inhibits the formation of the p53-MYBBP1A complex. In the
      absence of PURPL, MYBBP1A interacts with and stabilizes p53. Silencing MYBBP1A
      significantly rescues basal p53 levels and proliferation in PURPL-deficient
      cells, suggesting that MYBBP1A mediates the effect of PURPL in regulating p53.
      These results reveal a p53-PURPL auto-regulatory feedback loop and demonstrate a
      role for PURPL in maintaining basal p53 levels.

PMID- 28877476
TI  - mTORC2 Signaling Selectively Regulates the Generation and Function of Tissue
      Resident Peritoneal Macrophages.
AB  - Tissue-resident macrophages play critical roles in sentinel and homeostatic
      functions as well as in promoting inflammation and immunity. It has become clear
      that the generation of these cells is highly dependent upon tissue-specific cues
      derived from the microenvironment that, in turn, regulate unique differentiation
      programs. Recently, a role for GATA6 has emerged in the differentiation
      programming of resident peritoneal macrophages. We identify a critical role for
      mTOR in integrating cues from the tissue microenvironment in regulating
      differentiation and metabolic reprogramming. Specifically, inhibition of mTORC2
      leads to enhanced GATA6 expression in a FOXO1 dependent fashion. Functionally,
      inhibition of mTORC2 promotes peritoneal resident macrophage generation in the
      resolution phase during zymosan-induced peritonitis. Also, mTORC2-deficient
      peritoneal resident macrophages displayed increased functionality and metabolic
      reprogramming. Notably, mTORC2 activation distinguishes tissue-resident
      macrophage proliferation and differentiation from that of M2 macrophages.
      Overall, our data implicate a selective role for mTORC2 in the differentiation of
      tissue-resident macrophages.

PMID- 28877477
TI  - Heparin Increases Food Intake through AgRP Neurons.
AB  - Although the widely used anticoagulant drug heparin has been shown to have many
      other biological functions independent of its anticoagulant role, its effects on
      energy homeostasis are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that heparin level is
      negatively associated with nutritional states and that heparin treatment
      increases food intake and body weight gain. By using electrophysiological,
      pharmacological, molecular biological, and chemogenetic approaches, we provide
      evidence that heparin increases food intake by stimulating AgRP neurons and
      increasing AgRP release. Our results support a model whereby heparin competes
      with insulin for insulin receptor binding on AgRP neurons, and by doing so it
      inhibits FoxO1 activity to promote AgRP release and feeding. Heparin may be a
      potential drug target for food intake regulation and body weight control.

PMID- 28877478
TI  - The ULK3 Kinase Is Critical for Convergent Control of Cancer-Associated
      Fibroblast Activation by CSL and GLI.
AB  - The connection between signaling pathways activating cancer-associated
      fibroblasts (CAFs) remains to be determined. Metabolic alterations linked to
      autophagy have also been implicated in CAF activation. CSL/RBPJ, a
      transcriptional repressor that mediates Notch signaling, suppresses the gene
      expression program(s), leading to stromal senescence and CAF activation.
      Deregulated GLI signaling can also contribute to CAF conversion. Here, we report
      that compromised CSL function depends on GLI activation for conversion of human
      dermal fibroblasts into CAFs, separately from cellular senescence. Decreased CSL
      upregulates the expression of the ULK3 kinase, which binds and activates GLI2.
      Increased ULK3 also induces autophagy, which is unlinked from GLI and CAF
      activation. ULK3 upregulation occurs in the CAFs of several tumor types, and ULK3
      silencing suppresses the tumor-enhancing properties of these cells. Thus, ULK3
      links two key signaling pathways involved in CAF conversion and is an attractive
      target for stroma-focused anti-cancer intervention.

PMID- 28877479
TI  - The Prohormone VGF Regulates beta Cell Function via Insulin Secretory Granule
      Biogenesis.
AB  - The prohormone VGF is expressed in neuroendocrine and endocrine tissues and
      regulates nutrient and energy status both centrally and peripherally. We and
      others have shown that VGF-derived peptides have direct action on the islet beta
      cell as secretagogues and cytoprotective agents; however, the endogenous function
      of VGF in the beta cell has not been described. Here, we demonstrate that VGF
      regulates secretory granule formation. VGF loss-of-function studies in both
      isolated islets and conditional knockout mice reveal a profound decrease in
      stimulus-coupled insulin secretion. Moreover, VGF is necessary to facilitate
      efficient exit of granule cargo from the trans-Golgi network and proinsulin
      processing. It also functions to replenish insulin granule stores following
      nutrient stimulation. Our data support a model in which VGF operates at a
      critical node of granule biogenesis in the islet beta cell to coordinate insulin
      biosynthesis with beta cell secretory capacity.

PMID- 28877480
TI  - A Defective mRNA Cleavage and Polyadenylation Complex Facilitates Expansions of
      Transcribed (GAA)n Repeats Associated with Friedreich's Ataxia.
AB  - Expansions of microsatellite repeats are responsible for numerous hereditary
      diseases in humans, including myotonic dystrophy and Friedreich's ataxia. Whereas
      the length of an expandable repeat is the main factor determining disease
      inheritance, recent data point to genomic trans modifiers that can impact the
      likelihood of expansions and disease progression. Detection of these modifiers
      may lead to understanding and treating repeat expansion diseases. Here, we
      describe a method for the rapid, genome-wide identification of trans modifiers
      for repeat expansion in a yeast experimental system. Using this method, we found
      that missense mutations in the endoribonuclease subunit (Ysh1) of the mRNA
      cleavage and polyadenylation complex dramatically increase the rate of (GAA)n
      repeat expansions but only when they are actively transcribed. These expansions
      correlate with slower transcription elongation caused by the ysh1 mutation. These
      results reveal an interplay between RNA processing and repeat-mediated genome
      instability, confirming the validity of our approach.

PMID- 28877481
TI  - An Intestine-Derived Neuropeptide Controls Avoidance Behavior in Caenorhabditis
      elegans.
AB  - Adjusting to a continuously changing environment is a key feature of life. For
      metazoans, environmental changes include alterations in the gut microbiota, which
      can affect both memory and behavior. The bacteriovorous nematode Caenorhabditis
      elegans discriminates between pathogenic and non-pathogenic food sources,
      avoiding the consumption of pathogens. Here, we demonstrate the role of the
      intestine in regulating C. elegans avoidance to Pseudomonas aeruginosa by an
      insulin-like neuropeptide encoded by ins-11. The transcriptional expression of
      ins-11 is controlled through transcription factor hlh-30 and the p38 mitogen
      activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. ins-11 negatively controls signal
      pathways in neurons that regulate aversive learning behavior. Attenuation of ins
      11 increased avoidance behavior and survival on pathogenic bacteria but decreased
      opportunities to find a food source as well as lowered energy storage and the
      number of viable progeny. Our findings support a role for the intestine in
      avoidance and identify an advantageous role for negative feedback that allows C.
      elegans to actively balance noxious and favorable environments.

PMID- 28877483
TI  - Dysregulation of miRNA-9 in a Subset of Schizophrenia Patient-Derived Neural
      Progenitor Cells.

PMID- 28877482
TI  - High-Yield Methods for Accurate Two-Alternative Visual Psychophysics in Head
      Fixed Mice.
AB  - Research in neuroscience increasingly relies on the mouse, a mammalian species
      that affords unparalleled genetic tractability and brain atlases. Here, we
      introduce high-yield methods for probing mouse visual decisions. Mice are head
      fixed, facilitating repeatable visual stimulation, eye tracking, and brain
      access. They turn a steering wheel to make two alternative choices, forced or
      unforced. Learning is rapid thanks to intuitive coupling of stimuli to wheel
      position. The mouse decisions deliver high-quality psychometric curves for
      detection and discrimination and conform to the predictions of a simple
      probabilistic observer model. The task is readily paired with two-photon imaging
      of cortical activity. Optogenetic inactivation reveals that the task requires
      mice to use their visual cortex. Mice are motivated to perform the task by fluid
      reward or optogenetic stimulation of dopamine neurons. This stimulation elicits a
      larger number of trials and faster learning. These methods provide a platform to
      accurately probe mouse vision and its neural basis.

PMID- 28877484
TI  - Effect of a Paramagnetic Spin Label on the Intrinsically Disordered Peptide
      Ensemble of Amyloid-beta.
AB  - Paramagnetic relaxation enhancement is an NMR technique that has yielded
      important insight into the structure of folded proteins, although the
      perturbation introduced by the large spin probe might be thought to diminish its
      usefulness when applied to characterizing the structural ensembles of
      intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). We compare the computationally
      generated structural ensembles of the IDP amyloid-beta42 (Abeta42) to an
      alternative sequence in which a nitroxide spin label attached to cysteine has
      been introduced at its N-terminus. Based on this internally consistent
      computational comparison, we find that the spin label does not perturb the
      signature population of the beta-hairpin formed by residues 16-21 and 29-36 that
      is dominant in the Abeta42 reference ensemble. However, the presence of the tag
      induces a strong population shift in a subset of the original Abeta42 structural
      sub-populations, including a sevenfold enhancement of the beta-hairpin formed by
      residues 27-31 and 33-38. Through back-calculation of NMR observables from the
      computational structural ensembles, we show that the structural differences
      between the labeled and unlabeled peptide would be evident in local residual
      dipolar couplings, and possibly differences in homonuclear 1H-1H nuclear
      Overhauser effects (NOEs) and heteronuclear 1H-15N NOEs if the paramagnetic
      contribution to the longitudinal relaxation does not suppress the NOE intensities
      in the real experiment. This work shows that molecular simulation provides a
      complementary approach to resolving the potential structural perturbations
      introduced by reporter tags that can aid in the interpretation of paramagnetic
      relaxation enhancement, double electron-electron resonance, and fluorescence
      resonance energy transfer experiments applied to IDPs.

PMID- 28877485
TI  - Conformational Heterogeneity and FRET Data Interpretation for Dimensions of
      Unfolded Proteins.
AB  - A mathematico-physically valid formulation is required to infer properties of
      disordered protein conformations from single-molecule Forster resonance energy
      transfer (smFRET). Conformational dimensions inferred by conventional approaches
      that presume a homogeneous conformational ensemble can be unphysical. When all
      possible-heterogeneous as well as homogeneous-conformational distributions are
      taken into account without prejudgment, a single value of average transfer
      efficiency <E> between dyes at two chain ends is generally consistent with highly
      diverse, multiple values of the average radius of gyration <Rg>. Here we utilize
      unbiased conformational statistics from a coarse-grained explicit-chain model to
      establish a general logical framework to quantify this fundamental ambiguity in
      smFRET inference. As an application, we address the long-standing controversy
      regarding the denaturant dependence of <Rg> of unfolded proteins, focusing on
      Protein L as an example. Conventional smFRET inference concluded that <Rg> of
      unfolded Protein L is highly sensitive to [GuHCl], but data from SAXS suggested a
      near-constant <Rg> irrespective of [GuHCl]. Strikingly, our analysis indicates
      that although the reported <E> values for Protein L at [GuHCl] = 1 and 7 M are
      very different at 0.75 and 0.45, respectively, the Bayesian Rg2 distributions
      consistent with these two <E> values overlap by as much as 75%. Our findings
      suggest, in general, that the smFRET-SAXS discrepancy regarding unfolded protein
      dimensions likely arise from highly heterogeneous conformational ensembles at low
      or zero denaturant, and that additional experimental probes are needed to
      ascertain the nature of this heterogeneity.

PMID- 28877486
TI  - Two Cl Ions and a Glu Compete for a Helix Cage in the CLC Proton/Cl- Antiporter.
AB  - The ubiquitously expressed CLC chloride transporters are involved in a great
      variety of physiological functions. The CLC protein fold is shared by Cl-
      channels and 2Cl-:1H+ antiporters. The antiporters pump three charges per cycle
      across the membrane with two Cl ions moving in the opposite direction of one
      proton. Multiconformational continuum electrostatics was used to calculate the
      coupled thermodynamics of the protonation of the extracellular-facing gating Glu
      (Ex) and Cl- binding to the external (Sx) and central (Sc) sites in CLC-ec1, the
      Escherichia coli exchanger. Sx, Sc, and Ex are buried within the protein where
      the intersection of two helix N-termini creates a region with a strong, localized
      positive potential for anion binding. Our chemical potential titrations describe
      the thermodynamic linkage for binding the Cl- to each site and protons to Ex. We
      find that the 2Cl-:1H+ binding stoichiometry is a result of Cl- binding to Sx
      requiring H+ binding to Ex, whereas Cl- binding to Sc does not lead to proton
      uptake. When Sx binds a Cl-, the protonated Ex moves upward, out of the positive
      helix cage. The increasing Ex proton affinity on binding the first Cl- reduces
      the cost of binding the second Cl- at either Sx or Sc. Despite the repulsion
      among the anions, the lowest energy states have two anions bound in the helix
      cage. The state with no Cl- is not favored electrostatically, but relies on Ex
      blocking Sx and on the central residues Y445 and S107 blocking Sc.

PMID- 28877487
TI  - Microparticle Assembly Pathways on Lipid Membranes.
AB  - Understanding interactions between microparticles and lipid membranes is of
      increasing importance, especially for unraveling the influence of microplastics
      on our health and environment. Here, we study how a short-ranged adhesive force
      between microparticles and model lipid membranes causes membrane-mediated
      particle assembly. Using confocal microscopy, we observe the initial particle
      attachment to the membrane, then particle wrapping, and in rare cases spontaneous
      membrane tubulation. In the attached state, we measure that the particle mobility
      decreases by 26%. If multiple particles adhere to the same vesicle, their initial
      single-particle state determines their interactions and subsequent assembly
      pathways: 1) attached particles only aggregate when small adhesive vesicles are
      present in solution, 2) wrapped particles reversibly attract one another by
      membrane deformation, and 3) a combination of wrapped and attached particles form
      membrane-mediated dimers, which further assemble into a variety of complex
      structures. The experimental observation of distinct assembly pathways, induced
      only by a short-ranged membrane-particle adhesion, shows that a cytoskeleton or
      other active components are not required for microparticle aggregation. We
      suggest that this membrane-mediated microparticle aggregation is a reason behind
      reported long retention times of polymer microparticles in organisms.

PMID- 28877488
TI  - Caveolae in Rabbit Ventricular Myocytes: Distribution and Dynamic Diminution
      after Cell Isolation.
AB  - Caveolae are signal transduction centers, yet their subcellular distribution and
      preservation in cardiac myocytes after cell isolation are not well documented.
      Here, we quantify caveolae located within 100 nm of the outer cell surface
      membrane in rabbit single-ventricular cardiomyocytes over 8 h post-isolation and
      relate this to the presence of caveolae in intact tissue. Hearts from New Zealand
      white rabbits were either chemically fixed by coronary perfusion or enzymatically
      digested to isolate ventricular myocytes, which were subsequently fixed at 0, 3,
      and 8 h post-isolation. In live cells, the patch-clamp technique was used to
      measure whole-cell plasma membrane capacitance, and in fixed cells, caveolae were
      quantified by transmission electron microscopy. Changes in cell-surface topology
      were assessed using scanning electron microscopy. In fixed ventricular
      myocardium, dual-axis electron tomography was used for three-dimensional
      reconstruction and analysis of caveolae in situ. The presence and distribution of
      surface-sarcolemmal caveolae in freshly isolated cells matches that of intact
      myocardium. With time, the number of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae decreases in
      isolated cardiomyocytes. This is associated with a gradual increase in whole-cell
      membrane capacitance. Concurrently, there is a significant increase in area,
      diameter, and circularity of sub-sarcolemmal mitochondria, indicative of
      swelling. In addition, electron tomography data from intact heart illustrate the
      regular presence of caveolae not only at the surface sarcolemma, but also on
      transverse-tubular membranes in ventricular myocardium. Thus, caveolae are
      dynamic structures, present both at surface-sarcolemmal and transverse-tubular
      membranes. After cell isolation, the number of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae
      decreases significantly within a time frame relevant for single-cell research.
      The concurrent increase in cell capacitance suggests that membrane incorporation
      of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae underlies this, but internalization and/or micro
      vesicle loss to the extracellular space may also contribute. Given that much of
      the research into cardiac caveolae-dependent signaling utilizes isolated cells,
      and since caveolae-dependent pathways matter for a wide range of other study
      targets, analysis of isolated cell data should take the time post-isolation into
      account.

PMID- 28877489
TI  - Rupture Dynamics and Chromatin Herniation in Deformed Nuclei.
AB  - During migration of cells in vivo, in both pathological processes such as cancer
      metastasis or physiological events such as immune cell migration through tissue,
      the cells must move through narrow interstitial spaces that can be smaller than
      the nucleus. This can induce deformation of the nucleus which, according to
      recent experiments, may result in rupture of the nuclear envelope that can lead
      to cell death, if not prevented or healed within an appropriate time. The nuclear
      envelope, which can be modeled as a double lipid bilayer attached to a
      viscoelastic gel (lamina) whose elasticity and viscosity primarily depend on the
      lamin composition, may utilize mechanically induced, self-healing mechanisms that
      allow the hole to be closed after the deformation-induced strains are reduced by
      leakage of the internal fluid. Here, we present a viscoelastic model of the
      evolution of a hole nucleated by deformations of the nuclear lamina and estimate
      the herniation of chromatin through the hole and its relation to the lamin
      expression levels in the nuclear envelope.

PMID- 28877490
TI  - Adaptive Response of Actin Bundles under Mechanical Stress.
AB  - Actin is one of the main components of the architecture of cells. Actin filaments
      form different polymer networks with versatile mechanical properties that depend
      on their spatial organization and the presence of cross-linkers. Here, we
      investigate the mechanical properties of actin bundles in the absence of cross
      linkers. Bundles are polymerized from the surface of mDia1-coated latex beads,
      and deformed by manipulating both ends through attached beads held by optical
      tweezers, allowing us to record the applied force. Bundle properties are
      strikingly different from the ones of a homogeneous isotropic beam. Successive
      compression and extension leads to a decrease in the buckling force that we
      attribute to the bundle remaining slightly curved after the first deformation.
      Furthermore, we find that the bundle is solid, and stiff to bending, along the
      long axis, whereas it has a liquid and viscous behavior in the transverse
      direction. Interpretation of the force curves using a Maxwell visco-elastic model
      allows us to extract the bundle mechanical parameters and confirms that the
      bundle is composed of weakly coupled filaments. At short times, the bundle
      behaves as an elastic material, whereas at long times, filaments flow in the
      longitudinal direction, leading to bundle restructuring. Deviations from the
      model reveal a complex adaptive rheological behavior of bundles. Indeed, when
      allowed to anneal between phases of compression and extension, the bundle
      reinforces. Moreover, we find that the characteristic visco-elastic time is
      inversely proportional to the compression speed. Actin bundles are therefore not
      simple force transmitters, but instead, complex mechano-transducers that adjust
      their mechanics to external stimulation. In cells, where actin bundles are
      mechanical sensors, this property could contribute to their adaptability.

PMID- 28877491
TI  - beta1-Integrin-Mediated Adhesion Is Lipid-Bilayer Dependent.
AB  - Integrin-mediated adhesion is a central feature of cellular adhesion, locomotion,
      and endothelial cell mechanobiology. Although integrins are known to be
      transmembrane proteins, little is known about the role of membrane biophysics and
      dynamics in integrin adhesion. We treated human aortic endothelial cells with
      exogenous amphiphiles, shown previously in model membranes, and computationally,
      to affect bilayer thickness and lipid phase separation, and subsequently measured
      single-integrin-molecule adhesion kinetics using an optical trap, and diffusion
      using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Benzyl alcohol (BA) partitions to
      liquid-disordered (Ld) domains, thins them, and causes the greatest increase in
      hydrophobic mismatch between liquid-ordered (Lo) and Ld domains among the three
      amphiphiles, leading to domain separation. In human aortic endothelial cells, BA
      increased beta1-integrin-Arg-Gly-Asp-peptide affinity by 18% with a transition
      from single to double valency, consistent with a doubling of the molecular
      brightness of mCherry-tagged beta1-integrins measured using fluorescence
      correlation spectroscopy. Accordingly, BA caused an increase in the size of focal
      adhesion-kinase/paxillin-positive peripheral adhesions and reduced migration
      speeds as measured using wound-healing assays. Vitamin E, which thickens Lo
      domains and disperses them by lowering edge energy on domain boundaries, left
      integrin affinity unchanged but reduced binding probability, leading to smaller
      focal adhesions and equivalent migration speed relative to untreated cells.
      Vitamin E reversed the BA-induced decrease in migration speed. Triton X-100 also
      thickens Lo domains, but partitions to both lipid phases and left unchanged
      binding kinetics, focal adhesion sizes, and migration speed. These results
      demonstrate that only the amphiphile that thinned Ld lipid domains increased
      beta1-integrin-Arg-Gly-Asp-peptide affinity and valency, thus implicating Ld
      domains in modulation of integrin adhesion, nascent adhesion formation, and cell
      migration.

PMID- 28877492
TI  - Spatially Organized beta-Cell Subpopulations Control Electrical Dynamics across
      Islets of Langerhans.
AB  - Understanding how heterogeneous cells within a multicellular system interact and
      affect overall function is difficult without a means of perturbing individual
      cells or subpopulations. Here we apply optogenetics to understand how
      subpopulations of beta-cells control the overall [Ca2+]i response and insulin
      secretion dynamics of the islets of Langerhans. We spatiotemporally perturbed
      electrical activity in beta-cells of channelrhodopsin2-expressing islets, mapped
      the [Ca2+]i response, and correlated this with the cellular metabolic activity
      and an in silico electrophysiology model. We discovered organized regions of
      metabolic activity across the islet, and these affect the way in which beta-cells
      electrically interact. Specific regions acted as pacemakers by initiating calcium
      wave propagation. Our findings reveal the functional architecture of the islet,
      and show how distinct subpopulations of cells can disproportionality affect
      function. These results also suggest ways in which other neuroendocrine systems
      can be regulated, and demonstrate how optogenetic tools can discern their
      functional architecture.

PMID- 28877493
TI  - Spatially Different Tissue-Scale Diffusivity Shapes ANGUSTIFOLIA3 Gradient in
      Growing Leaves.
AB  - The spatial gradient of signaling molecules is pivotal for establishing
      developmental patterns of multicellular organisms. It has long been proposed that
      these gradients could arise from the pure diffusion process of signaling
      molecules between cells, but whether this simplest mechanism establishes the
      formation of the tissue-scale gradient remains unclear. Plasmodesmata are unique
      channel structures in plants that connect neighboring cells for molecular
      transport. In this study, we measured cellular- and tissue-scale kinetics of
      molecular transport through plasmodesmata in Arabidopsis thaliana developing leaf
      primordia by fluorescence recovery assays. These trans-scale measurements
      revealed biophysical properties of diffusive molecular transport through
      plasmodesmata and revealed that the tissue-scale diffusivity, but not the
      cellular-scale diffusivity, is spatially different along the leaf proximal-to
      distal axis. We found that the gradient in cell size along the developmental axis
      underlies this spatially different tissue-scale diffusivity. We then asked how
      this diffusion-based framework functions in establishing a signaling gradient of
      endogenous molecules. ANGUSTIFOLIA3 (AN3) is a transcriptional co-activator, and
      as we have shown here, it forms a long-range signaling gradient along the leaf
      proximal-to-distal axis to determine a cell-proliferation domain. By genetically
      engineering AN3 mobility, we assessed each contribution of cell-to-cell movement
      and tissue growth to the distribution of the AN3 gradient. We constructed a
      diffusion-based theoretical model using these quantitative data to analyze the
      AN3 gradient formation and demonstrated that it could be achieved solely by the
      diffusive molecular transport in a growing tissue. Our results indicate that the
      spatially different tissue-scale diffusivity is a core mechanism for AN3 gradient
      formation. This provides evidence that the pure diffusion process establishes the
      formation of the long-range signaling gradient in leaf development.

PMID- 28877494
TI  - Enhanced Dynamics of Confined Cytoskeletal Filaments Driven by Asymmetric Motors.
AB  - Cytoskeletal filaments and molecular motors facilitate the micron-scale force
      generation necessary for the distribution of organelles and the restructuring of
      the cytoskeleton within eukaryotic cells. Although the mesoscopic structure and
      the dynamics of such filaments have been studied in vitro and in vivo, their
      connection with filament polarity-dependent motor-mediated force generation is
      not well understood. Using 2D Brownian dynamics simulations, we study a dense,
      confined mixture of rigid microtubules (MTs) and active springs that have arms
      that cross-link neighboring MT pairs and move unidirectionally on the attached
      MT. We simulate depletion interactions between MTs using an attractive potential.
      We show that dimeric motors, with a motile arm on only one of the two MTs,
      produce large polarity-sorted MT clusters, whereas tetrameric motors, with motile
      arms on both microtubules, produce bundles. Furthermore, dimeric motors induce,
      on average, higher velocities between antialigned MTs than tetrameric motors. Our
      results, where MTs move faster near the confining wall, are consistent with
      experimental observations in Drosophila oocytes where enhanced microtubule
      activity is found close to the confining plasma membrane.

PMID- 28877495
TI  - Wave Mechanics of the Vestibular Semicircular Canals.
AB  - The semicircular canals are biomechanical sensors responsible for detecting and
      encoding angular motion of the head in 3D space. Canal afferent neurons provide
      essential inputs to neural circuits responsible for representation of self
      position/orientation in space, and to compensatory circuits including the
      vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-collic reflex arcs. In this work we derive, to our
      knowledge, a new 1D mathematical model quantifying canal biomechanics based on
      the morphology, dynamics of the inner ear fluids, and membranous labyrinth
      deformability. The model takes the form of a dispersive wave equation and
      predicts canal responses to angular motion, sound, and mechanical stimulation.
      Numerical simulations were carried out for the morphology of the human lateral
      canal using known physical properties of the endolymph and perilymph in three
      diverse conditions: surgical plugging, rotation, and mechanical indentation. The
      model reproduces frequency-dependent attenuation and phase shift in cases of
      canal plugging. During rotation, duct deformability extends the frequency
      bandwidth and enhances the high frequency gain. Mechanical indentation of the
      membranous duct at high frequencies evokes traveling waves that move away from
      the location of indentation and at low frequencies compels endolymph displacement
      along the canal. These results demonstrate the importance of the conformal
      perilymph-filled bony labyrinth to pressure changes and to high frequency sound
      and vibration.

PMID- 28877496
TI  - Acceleration Strategies to Enhance Metabolic Ensemble Modeling Performance.
AB  - Developing reliable, predictive kinetic models of metabolism is a difficult, yet
      necessary, priority toward understanding and deliberately altering cellular
      behavior. Constraint-based modeling has enabled the fields of metabolic
      engineering and systems biology to make great strides in interrogating cellular
      metabolism but does not provide sufficient insight into regulation or kinetic
      limitations of metabolic pathways. Moreover, the growth-optimized assumptions
      that constraint-based models often rely on do not hold when studying stationary
      or persistor cell populations. However, developing kinetic models provides many
      unique challenges, as many of the kinetic parameters and rate laws governing
      individual enzymes are unknown. Ensemble modeling (EM) was developed to
      circumnavigate this challenge and effectively sample the large kinetic parameter
      solution space using consistent experimental datasets. Unfortunately, EM, in its
      base form, requires long solve times to complete and often leads to unstable
      kinetic model predictions. Furthermore, these limitations scale prohibitively
      with increasing model size. As larger metabolic models are developed with
      increasing genetic information and experimental validation, the demand to
      incorporate kinetic information increases. Therefore, in this work, we have begun
      to tackle the challenges of EM by introducing additional steps to the existing
      method framework specifically through reducing computation time and optimizing
      parameter sampling. We first reduce the structural complexity of the network by
      removing dependent species, and second, we sample locally stable parameter sets
      to reflect realistic biological states of cells. Lastly, we presort the screening
      data to eliminate the most incorrect predictions in the earliest screening
      stages, saving further calculations in later stages. Our complementary
      improvements to this EM framework are easily incorporated into concurrent EM
      efforts and broaden the application opportunities and accessibility of kinetic
      modeling across the field.

PMID- 28877498
TI  - Disentangling Random Motion and Flow in a Complex Medium.

PMID- 28877497
TI  - Factors Diminishing Cytoadhesion of Red Blood Cells Infected by Plasmodium
      falciparum in Arterioles.
AB  - Cytoadhesion of red blood cells infected by Plasmodium falciparum (Pf-IRBCs) is
      predominantly found in postcapillary venules, rather than in arterioles. However,
      factors influencing this phenomenon remain unclear. Here, we conduct a systematic
      study using a numerical model coupling the fluid and solid mechanics of the cells
      and cellular environment with the biochemical ligand-receptor interaction. Our
      results show that, once a Pf-IRBC adheres to the vascular wall, the Pf-IRBC can
      withstand even arteriole shear stresses, and exhibits either rolling or firm
      adhesion. We also perform a simulation of the multistep process of cytoadhesion,
      consisting of flow, margination, capture, and rolling or firm adhesion. This
      multistep simulation suggests that a lower probability of contact with the
      vascular wall at high shear rates may diminish adherent Pf-IRBCs in the
      arterioles.

PMID- 28877499
TI  - H4 Tails Potentially Produce the Diversity in the Orientation of Two Nucleosomes.
AB  - Histone tails play an important role in internucleosomal interaction and
      chromatin compaction. To understand how the H4 tails are involved in the
      internucleosomal interaction, an adaptively biased molecular dynamics simulation
      of 63 models of two stacked nucleosomes, each with the H4 tails in different
      locations, was carried out. This simulation generated a variety of orientations
      of the separated nucleosomes depending on the formation of the H4 tail bridge
      between the H4 tails and the DNA of the neighboring nucleosomes. For the models
      that showed distinctive orientations of the two nucleosomes, the free energies of
      the separation of the nucleosomes were further investigated using umbrella
      sampling simulations. The attractive force between the nucleosomes was estimated
      from the free energies; the force when two H4 tail bridges formed varied from 36
      to 63 pN, depending on the formation of the H4 tail-bridge and the interfacial
      interaction, whereas the force reduced to 15-18 pN after either one of the H4
      tail bridges had broken, regardless of the conformation of the H4 tail.
      Additional simulations of the nucleosomes show that when the H4 tail was
      truncated, the force between the nucleosomes became repulsive (from-3 to -7 pN).
      We concluded that the H4 tails potentially produce the diversity in the
      orientation of the two nucleosomes, which would contribute to the polymorphism of
      the chromatin structure.

PMID- 28877501
TI  - PDB-Dev: a Prototype System for Depositing Integrative/Hybrid Structural Models.
AB  - Burley et al. (leadership of the Worldwide PDB [wwPDB] Partnership [wwpdb.org]
      and the wwPDB Integrative/Hybrid Methods Task Force) announce public release of a
      prototype system for depositing integrative/hybrid structural models, PDB
      Development (PDB-Dev; https://pdb-dev.wwpdb.org).

PMID- 28877500
TI  - sw ApoMb Amyloid Aggregation under Nondenaturing Conditions: The Role of Native
      Structure Stability.
AB  - Investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying amyloid-related human
      diseases attracts close attention. These diseases, the number of which currently
      is above 40, are characterized by formation of peptide or protein aggregates
      containing a cross-beta structure. Most of the amyloidogenesis mechanisms
      described so far are based on experimental studies of aggregation of short
      peptides, intrinsically disordered proteins, or proteins under denaturing
      conditions, and studies of amyloid aggregate formations by structured globular
      proteins under conditions close to physiological ones are still in the initial
      stage. We investigated the effect of amino acid substitutions on propensity of
      the completely helical protein sperm whale apomyoglobin (sw ApoMb) for amyloid
      formation from its structured state in the absence of denaturing agents.
      Stability and aggregation of mutated sw ApoMb were studied using circular
      dichroism, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, native
      electrophoresis, and electron microscopy techniques. Here, we demonstrate that
      stability of the protein native state determines both protein aggregation
      propensity and structural peculiarities of formed aggregates. Specifically,
      structurally stable mutants show low aggregation propensity and moderately
      destabilized sw ApoMb variants form amyloids, whereas their strongly destabilized
      mutants form both amyloids and nonamyloid aggregates.

PMID- 28877502
TI  - How a Glycoside Hydrolase Recognizes a Helical Polyglucan.
AB  - Similarly to other biopolymers, linear polysaccharides can form double- or triple
      helical structures. How enzymes recognize and manage this quaternary structure is
      an unresolved question. In this issue of Structure, Pluvinage et al. (2017) shed
      light on the structural complementarity between family GH81 glycoside hydrolase
      and the quaternary structure of their polysaccharide substrates.

PMID- 28877503
TI  - One Ring, Two Membranes: IM30 Ring Complex and the Thylakoid Membrane Fusion.
AB  - Direct membrane fusion in chloroplasts and cyanobacteria is triggered by IM30
      protein oligomers, but so far the exact mechanism of membrane binding has
      remained obscure. In this issue of Structure, Saur et al. (2017) describe the
      detailed structure of Janus-faced IM30 rings crucial for thylakoid membrane
      fusion and membrane layer architecture.

PMID- 28877504
TI  - Remodeling KRAS.
AB  - Mutations in members of the RAS family of small GTPases have been associated with
      numerous human cancers. However, RAS family members are notoriously difficult to
      target. In this issue of Structure, Lu et al. (2017) examine the effects of two
      compounds with distinct chemical scaffolds on the structure and dynamics of an
      oncogenic KRAS mutant, thus highlighting the usefulness of HDX-MS for drug
      development.

PMID- 28877505
TI  - Mapping the ER Interactome: The P Domains of Calnexin and Calreticulin as
      Plurivalent Adapters for Foldases and Chaperones.
AB  - The lectin chaperones calreticulin (CRT) and calnexin (CNX) contribute to the
      folding of glycoproteins in the ER by recruiting foldases such as the protein
      disulfide isomerase ERp57 and the peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerase CypB.
      Recently, CRT was shown to interact with the chaperone ERp29. Here, we show that
      ERp29 directly binds to the P domain of CNX. Crystal structures of the D domain
      of ERp29 in complex with the P domains from CRT and calmegin, a tissue-specific
      CNX homolog, reveal a commonality in the mechanism of binding whereby the tip of
      the P domain functions as a plurivalent adapter to bind a variety of folding
      factors. We show that mutation of a single residue, D348 in CNX, abrogates
      binding to ERp29 as well as ERp57 and CypB. The structural diversity of the
      accessory factors suggests that these chaperones became specialized for
      glycoprotein folding through convergent evolution of their P-domain binding
      sites.

PMID- 28877506
TI  - Cryoelectron Microscopy Reconstructions of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa and
      Neisseria gonorrhoeae Type IV Pili at Sub-nanometer Resolution.
AB  - We report here cryoelectron microscopy reconstructions of type IV pili (T4P) from
      two important human pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Neisseria gonorrhoeae,
      at ~ 8 and 5 A resolution, respectively. The two structures reveal distinct
      arrangements of the pilin globular domains on the pilus surfaces, which impart
      different helical parameters, but similar packing of the conserved N-terminal
      alpha helices, alpha1, in the filament core. In contrast to the continuous alpha
      helix seen in the X-ray crystal structures of the P. aeruginosa and N.
      gonorrhoeae pilin subunits, alpha1 in the pilus filaments has a melted segment
      located between conserved helix-breaking residues Gly14 and Pro22, as seen for
      the Neisseria meningitidis T4P. Using mutagenesis we show that Pro22 is critical
      for pilus assembly, as are Thr2 and Glu5, which are positioned to interact in the
      hydrophobic filament core. These structures provide a framework for understanding
      T4P assembly, function, and biophysical properties.

PMID- 28877507
TI  - Crystal Structure of a Plant Multidrug and Toxic Compound Extrusion Family
      Protein.
AB  - The multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family of proteins consists of
      transporters responsible for multidrug resistance in prokaryotes. In plants, a
      number of MATE proteins were identified by recent genomic and functional studies,
      which imply that the proteins have substrate-specific transport functions instead
      of multidrug extrusion. The three-dimensional structure of eukaryotic MATE
      proteins, including those of plants, has not been reported, preventing a better
      understanding of the molecular mechanism of these proteins. Here, we describe the
      crystal structure of a MATE protein from the plant Camelina sativa at 2.9 A
      resolution. Two sets of six transmembrane alpha helices, assembled pseudo
      symmetrically, possess a negatively charged internal pocket with an outward
      facing shape. The crystal structure provides insight into the diversity of plant
      MATE proteins and their substrate recognition and transport through the membrane.

PMID- 28877508
TI  - The NO-heme signaling hypothesis.
AB  - While the biological role of nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) is appreciated,
      several fundamental aspects of the NOS/NO-related signaling pathway(s) remain
      incompletely understood. Canonically, the NOS-derived NO diffuses through the
      (inter)cellular milieu to bind the prosthetic ferro(Fe2+)-heme group of the
      soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC). The formation of ternary NO-ferroheme-sGC complex
      results in the enzyme activation and accelerated production of the second
      messenger, cyclic GMP. This paper argues that cells dynamically generate
      mobile/exchangeable NO-ferroheme species, which activate sGC and regulate the
      function of some other biomolecules. In contrast to free NO, the mobile NO
      ferroheme may ensure safe, efficient and coordinated delivery of the signal
      within and between cells. The NO-heme signaling may contribute to a number of
      NOS/NO-related phenomena (e.g. nitrite bioactivity, selective protein S-(N
      )nitrosation, endothelium and erythrocyte-dependent vasodilation, some neural and
      immune NOS functions) and predicts new NO-related discoveries, diagnostics and
      therapeutics.

PMID- 28877509
TI  - Botulinum toxin for chronic migraine: Clinical trials and technical aspects.
AB  - OnabotulinumtoxinA has been approved for the prophylaxis of chronic migraine
      following the demonstration of efficacy in two large controlled trials. Data
      collected from pragmatic studies in the real-life setting have contributed
      important additional information useful for the management of this group of
      extremely disabled and challenging patients. The main findings from these studies
      are presented and discussed.

PMID- 28877510
TI  - Heart Rate Variability modifications induced by high doses of incobotulinumtoxinA
      and onabotulinumtoxinA in hemiplegic chronic stroke patients: A single blind
      randomized controlled, crossover pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Botulinum toxin type A is a valid and safe treatment for focal
      spasticity, with documented effects on both sympathetic and parasympathetic
      systems. Heart rate variability can provide detailed information about the
      control of the autonomic nervous system on cardiovascular activities. Previous
      studies in literature showed no significant changes in Heart Rate Variability
      with doses >600 U of incobotulinumtoxinA in chronic post stroke spastic patients;
      however, at present time, these results have not been confirmed with doses >600 U
      of onabotulinumtoxinA. AIM: To evaluate changes in Heart Rate Variability induced
      by high doses (>600 U) of incobotulinumtoxinA or onabotulinumtoxinA in spastic
      stroke patients over a 1-year period. DESIGN: single blind randomized controlled
      crossover study design. SETTING: Rehabilitation Unit of the University Hospital
      in Novara. POPULATION: 10 stroke survivors with spastic hemiplegia (Modified
      Ashworth Scale >= 2) were recruited and randomly divided in two groups (A and B).
      METHODS: In the first part of the study, patients in Group A were injected with
      incobotulinumtoxinA while patients in Group B with onabotulinumtoxinA; after 6
      months, a crossover intervention was performed. All patients were blinded to
      Botulinum toxin type A type, and performed an ECG registration in the 24 h before
      injection (t0) and 10 days after treatment (t1), both in the first and in the
      second part of the study. Functional status was evaluated with Barthel Index,
      Motricity Index and Functional Ambulation Category scores. RESULTS: Heart Rate
      Variability analysis showed no significant changes after each Botulinum toxin
      type A injection in both groups at any evaluation time. Moreover, no
      statistically significant differences were found regarding each variable between
      the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that high doses (>600 U) of
      incobotulinumtoxinA and onabotulinumtoxinA do not influence the cardiovascular
      activity of the autonomic nervous system in chronic hemiplegic spastic stroke
      survivors.

PMID- 28877511
TI  - Severe neurotoxicity requiring mechanical ventilation in a dog envenomed by a red
      bellied black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) and successful treatment with an
      experimental bivalent whole equine IgG antivenom.
AB  - Snakebite in dogs from Pseudechis porphyriacus (red-bellied black snake; RBBS) is
      a common envenomation treated by veterinarians in Australia where this snake
      occurs. This case report describes the successful treatment of a clinically
      severe RBBS envenomation in a dog with an experimental bivalent equine whole IgG
      antivenom and mechanical ventilation, following its presentation in a cyanotic
      state. The cause of the cyanosis and respiratory distress was considered due to
      paralysis from neurotoxins in RBBS venom. The dog was treated with two vials of
      bivalent antivenom, each containing sufficient antivenom to neutralise the lethal
      effects of 40 mg of tiger snake (Notechis sp) and 40 mg of brown snake
      (Pseudonaja sp) venom. Hypoxaemia (Sp02 of 75%) and hypercapnia (PaCO2 of 61
      mmHg) indicated the need for mechanical ventilation (MV) to prevent imminent
      death. The dog was anaesthetised using total intravenous anaesthesia and MV used
      for 18 h. Following discontinuation of MV, it resumed spontaneous breathing
      thereafter and made a complete recovery. Serum biochemistry revealed a
      significant myopathy with elevated CK and AST levels, peaking approximately 48 h
      post-treatment. Elevated liver enzymes, suggestive of hypoxic liver injury, were
      detected during the period of hospitalisation. The dog represented approximately
      one week after hospital discharge because of inappetence and mild hepatopathy,
      which resolved spontaneously by 30 d post-treatment. A mild coagulopathy was
      initially present which resolved within 24 h following antivenom treatment. At
      initial presentation, RBBS venom antigen was detected by sandwich ELISA in urine
      and serum. Free RBBS venom antigen was not detected post-antivenom treatment.
      Human cases of RBBS requiring ventilatory support are rare. This unusual case of
      RBBS envenomation in a dog highlights its potential clinical severity in dogs,
      and the need for early, aggressive, MV to achieve a successful outcome in
      cyanosed and clinically severe cases.

PMID- 28877512
TI  - Sex-dependent neural effect of oxytocin during subliminal processing of negative
      emotion faces.
AB  - In line with animal models indicating sexually dimorphic effects of oxytocin
      (OXT) on social-emotional processing, a growing number of OXT-administration
      studies in humans have also reported sex-dependent effects during social
      information processing. To explore whether sex-dependent effects already occur
      during early, subliminal, processing stages the present pharmacological fMRI
      study combined the intranasal-application of either OXT or placebo (n = 86-43
      males) with a backward-masking emotional face paradigm. Results showed that while
      OXT suppressed inferior frontal gyrus, dorsal anterior cingulate and anterior
      insula responses to threatening face stimuli in men it increased them in women.
      In women increased anterior cingulate reactivity during subliminal threat
      processing was also positively associated with trait anxiety. On the network
      level, sex-dependent effects were observed on amygdala, anterior cingulate and
      inferior frontal gyrus functional connectivity that were mainly driven by reduced
      coupling in women following OXT. Our findings demonstrate that OXT produces sex
      dependent effects even at the early stages of social-emotional processing, and
      suggest that while it attenuates neural responses to threatening social stimuli
      in men it increases them in women. Thus in a therapeutic context OXT may
      potentially produce different effects on anxiety disorders in men and women.

PMID- 28877513
TI  - Predicting functional neuroanatomical maps from fusing brain networks with
      genetic information.
AB  - Functional neuroanatomical maps provide a mesoscale reference framework for
      studies from molecular to systems neuroscience and psychiatry. The underlying
      structure-function relationships are typically derived from functional
      manipulations or imaging approaches. Although highly informative, these are
      experimentally costly. The increasing amount of publicly available brain and
      genetic data offers a rich source that could be mined to address this problem
      computationally. Here, we developed an algorithm that fuses gene expression and
      connectivity data with functional genetic meta data and exploits cumulative
      effects to derive neuroanatomical maps related to multi-genic functions. We
      validated the approach by using public available mouse and human data. The
      generated neuroanatomical maps recapture known functional anatomical annotations
      from literature and functional MRI data. When applied to multi-genic meta data
      from mouse quantitative trait loci (QTL) studies and human neuropsychiatric
      databases, this method predicted known functional maps underlying behavioral or
      psychiatric traits. Taken together, genetically weighted connectivity analysis
      (GWCA) allows for high throughput functional exploration of brain anatomy in
      silico. It maps functional genetic associations onto brain circuitry for refining
      functional neuroanatomy, or identifying trait-associated brain circuitry, from
      genetic data.

PMID- 28877514
TI  - Fast Gaussian Naive Bayes for searchlight classification analysis.
AB  - The searchlight technique is a variant of multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA)
      that examines neural activity across large sets of small regions, exhaustively
      covering the whole brain. This usually involves application of classifier
      algorithms across all searchlights, which entails large computational costs
      especially when testing the statistical significance of the accuracies with
      permutation methods. In this article, a new implementation of the Gaussian Naive
      Bayes classifier is presented (henceforth massive-GNB). This approach allows
      classification in all searchlights simultaneously, and is faster than previously
      published searchlight GNB implementations, as well as other more complex
      classifiers including support vector machines (SVM). To ensure that the gain in
      speed for GNB would be useful in searchlight analysis, we compared the accuracies
      of massive-GNB and SVM in detecting the lateral occipital complex (LOC) in an
      fMRI localizer experiment (26 subjects). Moreover, this region as defined in a
      meta-analysis of many activation studies was used as a gold standard to compare
      error rates for both classifiers. In individual searchlights, SVM was somewhat
      more accurate than massive-GNB and more selective in detecting the meta-analytic
      LOC. However, with multiple comparison correction at the cluster-level the two
      classifiers performed equivalently. Thus for cluster-level analysis, massive-GNB
      produces an accuracy similar to more sophisticated classifiers but with a
      substantial gain in speed. Massive-GNB (available as a public Matlab toolbox)
      could facilitate the more widespread use of searchlight analysis.

PMID- 28877516
TI  - BAX and BCL2 Gene Polymorphisms in Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential association
      between rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) and BAX and BCL2 polymorphisms.
      METHODS: This is a case control study of 99 patients with RRD and 120 healthy
      control subjects of Greek origin, surveyed for BAX and BCL2 polymorphisms
      (rs2279115 and rs4645878) and a potential correlation to RRD. RESULTS: The
      rs4645878 AA genotype was found to be significantly associated with RRD (p =
      0.003; OR: 6.89, 95% CI: 1.76-26.93), while the rs2279115 CC genotype as well as
      the C allele was not found in patients with RRD. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first
      study evaluating the potential relationship between BCL2 and BAX gene
      polymorphisms and RRD in a Greek population, showing a significant association
      between BAX rs4645878 polymorphism and RRD susceptibility. This finding suggests
      that an apoptotic mechanism is implicated in the pathogenesis of RRD.

PMID- 28877515
TI  - Neural congruence between intertemporal and interpersonal self-control: Evidence
      from delay and social discounting.
AB  - Behavioral studies using delay and social discounting as indices of self-control
      and altruism, respectively, have revealed functional similarities between
      farsighted and social decisions. However, neural evidence for this functional
      link is lacking. Twenty-five young adults completed a delay and social
      discounting task during fMRI scanning. A spatiotemporal partial least squares
      analysis revealed that both forms of discounting were well characterized by a
      pattern of brain activity in areas comprising frontoparietal control, default,
      and mesolimbic reward networks. Both forms of discounting appear to draw on
      common neurocognitive mechanisms, regardless of whether choices involve
      intertemporal or interpersonal outcomes. We also observed neural profiles
      differentiating between high and low discounters. High discounters were well
      characterized by increased medial temporal lobe and limbic activity. In contrast,
      low discount rates were associated with activity in the medial prefrontal cortex
      and right temporoparietal junction. This pattern may reflect biological
      mechanisms underlying behavioral heterogeneity in discount rates.

PMID- 28877517
TI  - The Histopathological Characteristics Caused by Trionyx sinensis Hemorrhagic
      Syndrome Virus (TSHSV) and Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Liver Tissue in
      TSHSV-Infected Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis).
AB  - Trionyx sinensis hemorrhagic syndrome virus (TSHSV) is a pathogen that causes
      severe hemorrhagic syndrome and irreversible damage to different infected tissues
      of Pelodis cus sinensis, ending in the death of affected organisms. In the
      present study, the histopathological characteristics of TSHSV-infected P.
      sinensis were analyzed and compared by HE staining. Relative and absolute
      quantification (iTRAQ)-based proteomic analysis was employed to explore the
      molecular pathology of liver injury. Anatomical features indicated that TSHSV
      caused obvious congestion in the liver, kidney, intestine, and other tissues of
      P. sinensis. The typical clinical symptoms included hepatomegaly, fragility,
      spotty and severe congestion in liver tissue, and also obvious intestinal
      bleeding. The histopathological studies corroborated such lesions in the liver
      and kidney, etc. iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis revealed that there were 252
      differentially expressed proteins in the liver tissue between healthy and
      infected P. sinensis, of which 118 proteins were upregulated and 134 proteins
      were downregulated. GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway analysis initially
      revealed the molecular mechanism of pathological changes in P. sinensis by TSHSV
      infection. The expression of some differentially expressed proteins was further
      confirmed by qRT-PCR. These results provided important information for the
      pathological diagnosis of TSHSV-caused disease, as well as the mechanism
      underlying TSHSV-caused disease.

PMID- 28877518
TI  - Naltrexone in the Treatment of Broadly Defined Behavioral Addictions: A Review
      and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Broadly defined behavioral addiction is a conceptual framework
      including behaviors characterized by loss of control and continuation despite
      significant negative consequences. Broadly defined behavioral addictions share
      many similarities with substance use disorders. As naltrexone is one of the most
      studied treatment for substance use disorders, we conducted a meta-analysis of
      randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCT) assessing the effectiveness of
      naltrexone in the treatment of broadly defined behavioral addictions. METHOD: We
      conducted a literature search and selection, up to January 1, 2017, according to
      previously set inclusion criteria. The selected trials underwent a quality
      assessment before data extraction and statistical analysis, which used fixed and
      random effects models. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated using
      Hedge's adjusted g. RESULTS: A total of 6 RCTs (n = 356) were included. Of these,
      3 assessed naltrexone effectiveness in the treatment of pathological gambling,
      and 3 tested its benefits in broadly defined behavioral addictions other than
      pathological gambling (kleptomania, trichotillomania, and impulsive compulsive
      disorders). The meta-analysis of the whole sample resulted in a statistically
      significant score improvement under naltrexone versus placebo (fixed effect
      model: SMD = -0.27, 95% CI [-0.51 to -0.03], z = 2.23; p = 0.025). CONCLUSION:
      The results of our meta-analysis suggest a beneficial effect of naltrexone in the
      treatment of broadly defined behavioral addictions.

PMID- 28877519
TI  - Applying a Successful New Protocol for Storing a Tissue Plasminogen Activator for
      Locking Dysfunctional Permcath: A Single-Center Study.

PMID- 28877520
TI  - Protective Effect of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) Extract against
      Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Apoptosis Induced by Interleukin-1beta in
      Cultured Chondrocytes.
AB  - AIMS: The protective effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) extract on IL
      1beta-mediated oxidative stress and mitochondrial apoptosis were investigated in
      C28I2 human chondrocytes. METHODS: The effects of various concentrations of
      ginger extract on C28I2 human chondrocyte viability were evaluated in order to
      obtain noncytotoxic concentrations of the drug by methylthiotetrazole assay. The
      cells were pretreated with 5 and 25 MUg/mL ginger extract for 24 h, followed by
      incubation with IL-1beta (10 ng/mL) for 24 h. The effects of ginger extract on IL
      1beta-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and lipid
      peroxidation were examined. The mRNA expressions of antioxidant enzymes including
      catalase, superoxide dismutase-1, glutathione peroxidase-1, glutathione
      peroxidase-3, and glutathione peroxidase-4 were evaluated by reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction. The protein expressions of Bax, Bcl-2,
      and caspase-3 were analyzed by Western blotting. RESULTS: No cytotoxicity was
      observed at any concentration of ginger extract in C28I2 cells. Ginger extract
      pretreatment remarkably increased the gene expression of antioxidant enzymes and
      reduced the IL-1beta-induced elevation of ROS, lipid peroxidation, the Bax/Bcl-2
      ratio, and caspase-3 activity. CONCLUSIONS: Ginger extract could considerably
      reduce IL-1beta-induced oxidative stress and consequent mitochondrial apoptosis
      as the major mechanisms of chondrocyte cell death. These beneficial effects of
      ginger extract may be due to its antioxidant properties. It may be considered as
      a natural herbal product to prevent OA-induced cartilage destruction in the
      clinical setting.

PMID- 28877521
TI  - Case Report: Pulmonary Tumor Thrombotic Microangiopathy in a Cervical Cancer
      Patient.
AB  - Pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM) is a rapidly progressive and
      often fatal pulmonary disease induced by tumor emboli within the small pulmonary
      arteries. PTTM presents clinically as progressive hypoxia and pulmonary
      hypertension. Most cases of PTTM are caused by an adenocarcinoma of the stomach.
      We present the first case report of PTTM caused by cervical squamous cell
      carcinoma. An 82-year-old woman presented with vaginal bleeding and exertional
      dyspnea. A cervical mass biopsy showed squamous cell carcinoma. Computed
      tomography revealed ground glass opacity of the bilateral peripheral lung fields.
      Hypoxia and pulmonary hypertension gradually worsened after admission. Treatment
      for acute heart failure was started, but was ineffective. She died of respiratory
      failure 31 days after admission. She was diagnosed at autopsy as having PTTM
      induced by cervical squamous cell carcinoma. PTTM needs to be considered in any
      patient with advanced cancer and lung-related issues to rule out metastatic
      disease, even in the absence of imaging findings.

PMID- 28877523
TI  - 11th Congress of the International Society of Nutrigenetics/Nutrigenomics (ISNN)
      : Abstracts.

PMID- 28877522
TI  - Ganglion Cell-Inner Plexiform Layer Thickness in Different Glaucoma Stages
      Measured by Optical Coherence Tomography.
AB  - AIM: To compare ganglion cell (GCL) and inner plexiform layer (IPL) thickness in
      patients at different stages of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), determine
      their sensitivity and specificity values, and correlate thickness values with
      mean deviations (MD). METHODS: This prospective, cross- sectional study was
      conducted in a group of patients with confirmed POAG who were compared to an age-
      and gender-matched control group. Glaucomatous damage was classified according to
      the Hodapp-Parrish-Anderson scale: glaucoma stage 1 (early), glaucoma stage 2
      (moderate), and glaucoma stage 3 (severe). The average, minimum, and all 6
      sectoral (superotemporal, superior, superonasal, inferonasal, inferior, and
      inferotemporal) GCL + IPL thicknesses were measured and compared between groups.
      RESULTS: The average GCL + IPL thickness of 154 eyes of 93 patients in glaucoma
      stages 1, 2, 3, and 94 eyes of 47 persons in the control group were 76.79 +/-
      8.05, 65.90 +/- 7.92, 57.38 +/- 10.00, and 86.01 +/- 3.68 MUm, respectively.
      There were statistically significant differences in the average, minimum, and all
      6 sectoral GCL + IPL values among the groups. The areas under the receiver
      operating characteristic curve for average and minimum GCL + IPL thickness values
      were 0.93 and 0.94, respectively, sensitivity 91.5 and 88.3%, and specificity
      98.9 and 100%, respectively. Both thickness values showed significant
      correlations with MD. Each micrometer decrease in the average GCL + IPL thickness
      was associated with a 0.54-dB loss in MD. CONCLUSION: GCL + IPL layer thickness
      is a highly specific and sensitive parameter in differentiating glaucomatous from
      healthy eyes showing progressive damage as glaucoma worsens. Loss of this layer
      is highly correlated with overall loss of visual field sensitivity.

PMID- 28877524
TI  - Selection Paradigms for Large Vessel Occlusion Acute Ischemic Stroke Endovascular
      Therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Optimal patient selection methods for thrombectomy in large vessel
      occlusion stroke (LVOS) are yet to be established. We sought to evaluate the
      ability of different selection paradigms to predict favorable outcomes. METHODS:
      Review of a prospectively collected database of endovascular patients with
      anterior circulation LVOS, adequate CT perfusion (CTP), National Institutes of
      Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) >=10 from September 2010 to March 2016. Patients were
      retrospectively assessed for thrombectomy eligibility by 4 mismatch criteria:
      Perfusion-Imaging Mismatch (PIM): between CTP-derived perfusion defect and
      ischemic core volumes; Clinical-Core Mismatch (CCM): between age-adjusted NIHSS
      and CTP core; Clinical-ASPECTS Mismatch (CAM-1): between age-adjusted NIHSS and
      ASPECTS; Clinical-ASPECTS Mismatch (CAM-2): between NIHSS and ASPECTS. Outcome
      measures were inclusion rates for each paradigm and their ability to predict good
      outcomes (90-day modified Rankin Scale 0-2). RESULTS: Three hundred eighty-four
      patients qualified. CAM-2 and CCM had higher inclusion (89.3 and 82.3%) vs. CAM-1
      (67.7%) and PIM (63.3%). Proportions of selected patients were statistically
      different except for PIM and CAM-1 (p = 0.19), with PIM having the highest
      disagreement. There were no differences in good outcome rates between PIM(+)/PIM(
      ) (52.2 vs. 48.5%; p = 0.51) and CAM-2(+)/CAM-2(-) (52.4 vs. 38.5%; p = 0.12).
      CCM(+) and CAM-1(+) had higher rates compared to nonselected counterparts (53.4
      vs. 38.7%, p = 0.03; 56.6 vs. 38.6%; p = 0.002). The abilities of PIM, CCM, CAM
      1, and CAM-2 to predict outcomes were similar according to the c-statistic,
      Akaike and Bayesian information criterion. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with NIHSS
      >=10, PIM appears to disqualify more patients without improving outcomes. CCM may
      improve selection, combining a high inclusion rate with optimal outcome
      discrimination across (+) and (-) patients. Future studies are warranted.

PMID- 28877525
TI  - Development of a Thai Parkinson's Disease Screening Tool and the Prevalence of
      Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease, Based on a Community Survey in Bangkok.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Few epidemiological data of parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease
      (PD) exist in Southeast Asia. We aimed to develop and validate a screening tool,
      and investigate the prevalence of parkinsonism and PD via a community survey.
      METHODS: A PD-screening tool comprising 11 "yes/no" items was developed in a
      clinical setting and validated in the community. The prevalence of PD and
      parkinsonism was investigated in a survey that included PD screening tools, face
      to-face interviews, and physical examinations. Receiver operating characteristic
      curves were constructed for a range of cutoff points to explore the screening
      tool's sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: Of 1,846 participants surveyed, the
      mean age was 64.4 +/- 8.0 years. The age-standardized prevalence of parkinsonism
      was 1,954 per 100,000 people, and that of PD was 706. Of 36 parkinsonism cases,
      13 were PD, 13 were vascular parkinsonism, 8 were drug-induced parkinsonism, and
      2 were head-injury related. Three cases were previously diagnosed with PD. A
      cutoff score of 5 on the screening tool showed a sensitivity of 98%, a
      specificity of 94%, and positive and negative likelihood ratios of 16.33 and
      0.02, respectively. The area under the curve was 0.985. CONCLUSIONS: The
      prevalence of parkinsonism and PD in Thailand is similar to that in Western
      countries but slightly higher than that for other Asian countries. Differing
      methodologies, diagnostic criteria, and case identification strategies may
      contribute to variations in the reported prevalence of PD. Widespread use of the
      Thai PD-screening tool should be implemented to facilitate early detection of new
      cases and, in turn, better healthcare.

PMID- 28877526
TI  - [Einstellung von Arzten gegenuber Komplementarmedizin in einer landlichen Region
      der Schweiz: Ergebnisse einer Umfrage].
AB  - Fragestellung: Im Zusammenhang mit der Einfuhrung ambulanter KM-Sprechstunden am
      Regionalspital Burgdorf wurde die arztliche Einstellung zu Komplementarmedizin
      (KM) untersucht. Weiterhin wurden der Anteil der Arzte mit KM-Angeboten im
      Versorgungsgebiet des Regionalspitals, deren KM-Erfahrungen sowie der Einfluss
      dieser Erfahrungen auf die Einstellung gegenuber KM untersucht. Material und
      Methoden: Alle Arzte jeglicher Fachrichtung (n = 170) im Versorgungsgebiet wurden
      2011 und 2012 schriftlich zu ihrer Einstellung gegenuber KM
      (Befurwortung/Ablehnung und Ambivalenz), ihrem KM-Angebot und ihren KM
      Erfahrungen befragt (Rucklaufquote 45% bzw. 36%). Ergebnisse: Die Einstellung
      gegenuber KM war im Durchschnitt neutral (M = 2,47, Standardabweichung (SD) =
      0,61; Befurwortung von KM von 1 = "stimme vollig zu" bis 4 = "stimme uberhaupt
      nicht zu") und klar (M = 1,59, SD = 0,46; Einstellungsambivalenz von 1 = "habe
      klare Meinung" bis 4 = "bin mir sehr unsicher in meiner Meinung"). Die hochste
      Zustimmung erhielten die Forderungen nach wissenschaftlicher Untersuchung der KM
      (M = 2,10, SD = 0,95) und nach zertifizierter arztlicher KM in der
      Grundversicherung (M = 2,53, SD = 1,15). Knapp ein Drittel der Arzte bot KM an,
      und 77% bzw. 69% uberwiesen Patienten zu KM-Behandlungen. Die wichtigsten
      Pradiktoren der KM-Befurwortung waren eine zertifizierte KM-Ausbildung und
      unerwartete positive bzw. negative Verlaufe unter einer KM-Behandlung (R22011 =
      0,44, p < 0,001). 25% der Arzte hatten Erfahrungen mit der neuen KM-Sprechstunde,
      die uberwiegend positiv waren. Schlussfolgerung: Die teilnehmenden Arzte aus
      einer landlichen Region der Schweiz zeigten im Durchschnitt eine neutrale und
      klare Einstellung zur KM, die sich im eigenen KM-Angebot bzw. in der
      Uberweisungspraxis spiegelte.

PMID- 28877527
TI  - Epstein-Barr Virus miR-BART6-3p Inhibits the RIG-I Pathway.
AB  - Recognition of viral pathogen-associated molecular patterns by pattern
      recognition receptors (PRRs) is the first step in the initiation of a host innate
      immune response. As a PRR, RIG-I detects either viral RNA or replication
      transcripts. Avoiding RIG-I recognition is a strategy employed by viruses for
      immune evasion. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects the majority of the human
      population worldwide. During the latent infection period there are only a few EBV
      proteins expressed, whereas EBV-encoded microRNAs, such as BART microRNAs, are
      highly expressed. BART microRNAs regulate both EBV and the host's gene
      expression, modulating virus proliferation and the immune response. Here, through
      gene expression profiling, we found that EBV miR-BART6-3ps inhibited genes of RIG
      I-like receptor signaling and the type I interferon (IFN) response. We
      demonstrated that miR-BART6-3p rather than other BARTs specifically suppressed
      RIG-I-like receptor signaling-mediated IFN-beta production. RNA-seq was used to
      analyze the global transcriptome change upon EBV infection and miR-BART6-3p
      mimics transfection, which revealed that EBV infection-triggered immune response
      signaling can be repressed by miR-BART6-3p overexpression. Furthermore, miR-BART6
      3p inhibited the EBV-triggered IFN-beta response and facilitated EBV infection
      through targeting the 3'UTR of RIG-I mRNA. These findings provide new insights
      into the mechanism underlying the strategies employed by EBV to evade immune
      surveillance.

PMID- 28877528
TI  - X-Linked Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia: New Features and a Novel EDA Gene
      Mutation.
AB  - We described a 5-year-old male with hypodontia, hypohidrosis, and facial
      dysmorphisms characterized by a depressed nasal bridge, maxillary hypoplasia, and
      protuberant lips. Chromosomal analysis revealed a normal 46,XY male karyotype.
      Due to the presence of clinical features of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia
      (HED), the EDA gene, located at Xq12q13.1, of the patient and his family was
      sequenced. Analysis of the proband's sequence revealed a missense mutation (T to
      A transversion) in hemizygosity state at nucleotide position 158 in exon 1 of the
      EDA gene, which changes codon 53 from leucine to histidine, while heterozygosity
      at this position was detected in the slightly affected mother; moreover, this
      mutation was not found in the publically available Human Gene Mutation Database.
      To date, our findings indicate that a novel mutation in EDA is associated with X
      linked HED, adding it to the repertoire of EDA mutations.

PMID- 28877529
TI  - Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness Changes in the Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome: A
      Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare changes in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL)
      thickness in patients with the pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXS) and healthy
      controls. METHODS: Case-control studies were selected through an electronic
      search of the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, PubMed, and Embase. Results
      were reviewed to ensure that the included studies met prespecified
      inclusion/exclusion criteria, and the quality of each study was assessed using
      the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. All included studies measured average and 4-quadrant
      (temporal, superior, nasal, and inferior) RNFL thickness using optical coherence
      tomography (OCT). For the continuous outcomes, we calculated the weighted mean
      difference (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Eight case-control
      studies were included in this meta-analysis involving 225 eyes of PXS patients
      and 208 eyes of healthy controls in total. Statistical analysis revealed that the
      average RNFL thickness in PXS patients was significantly reduced compared to
      healthy controls (WMD = -6.91, 95% CI: -9.99 to -3.82, p < 0.0001). Additionally,
      differences in RNFL thickness in the superior quadrant (WMD = -10.68, 95% CI: 
      16.40 to -4.95, p = 0.0003), inferior quadrant (WMD = -8.20, 95% CI: -10.85 to 
      5.55, p < 0.00001), nasal quadrant (WMD = -3.05, 95% CI: -5.21 to -0.90, p =
      0.005), and temporal quadrant (WMD = -6.39, 95% CI: -9.98 to -2.80, p = 0.0005)
      were all significant between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest
      that it is important to evaluate RNFL thickness and the optic nerve head through
      OCT in patients with PXS in order to determine early glaucomatous damage and
      start timely intervention prior to visual field loss.

PMID- 28877530
TI  - Black and Blue.

PMID- 28877531
TI  - Towards Individualized Tracheobronchial Stents: Technical, Practical and Legal
      Considerations.
AB  - Stent placement has been established as a standard procedure for treating airway
      obstructions. Other indications are localized malacias and fistulas. Though many
      different stents with various diameters and lengths are available, the shapes are
      hardly ever ideal because of the distorted anatomy in patients with diseased
      airways. There are technical and legal limitations for customizing purchased
      airway stents. Individually tailored stents would be preferable. New techniques
      of additive manufacturing such as 3D printing make it possible to produce
      optimized stents for a particular patient. Using CT data and bronchoscopic
      images, stents can be constructed that match a particular anatomical situation
      and apply the optimized expansion force. We give an overview of the currently
      available manufacturing techniques for polymeric stents and report about our own
      experience. Direct on-site printing of polyurethane stents in a hospital and
      printing individual extrusion molds for silicone stents in a certified cleanroom
      are both feasible. Furthermore, there are promising attempts of combining
      mechanically customized stents with surface modifications, drug-eluting features,
      biodegradability, and time-dependent adaptation (4D printing). Truly optimized
      airway stents with the potential of solving the well-known stent problems such as
      granulation tissue formation, remodeling, mucostasis, and infections are in
      reach. The technical hurdles are probably easier to overcome than the legal
      constraints. The legal situations are discussed from a physician's and a
      manufacturer's perspective.

PMID- 28877532
TI  - Stereotype Knowledge and Endorsement in Schizophrenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Social cognition is severely impaired in schizophrenia. Emotion
      processing, attributional biases, and theory of mind are often impaired, as well
      as the understanding of shared social knowledge. So far, little is known about
      stereotype knowledge and endorsement in schizophrenia. SAMPLING AND METHODS:
      White patients with schizophrenia and matched healthy respondents reported both
      their personal beliefs and the predicted beliefs of other people toward Black
      (study 1) and Gypsy individuals (study 2). RESULTS: Results showed that
      respondents in the clinical sample displayed less stereotype endorsement as
      compared to the matched healthy respondents. Most importantly, the contents of
      the responses provided by the 2 samples were strongly overlapped. CONCLUSIONS:
      Findings indicate that individuals with schizophrenia tend to hold less negative
      attitudes toward stigmatized outgroups and, most notably, that knowledge about
      culturally transmitted stereotypes is relatively preserved in schizophrenia.
      Future research should address the generalizability of the findings in relation
      to the perception of other stigmatized social groups.

PMID- 28877534
TI  - Open Abdomen Improves Survival in Patients With Peritonitis Secondary to Acute
      Superior Mesenteric Artery Occlusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Damage control surgery and open abdomen (OA) have been extensively
      used in the severe traumatic patients. However, there was little information when
      extended to a nontrauma setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate
      whether the liberal use of OA as a damage control surgery adjunct improved the
      clinical outcome in acute superior mesenteric artery occlusion patients. STUDY
      DESIGN: A single-center, retrospective cohort review was performed in a national
      tertiary surgical referral center. RESULTS: Forty-four patients received OA (OA
      group) and 65 patients had a primary fascial closure (non-OA group) after
      diagnosed as peritonitis secondary to acute superior mesenteric artery occlusion
      from January, 2005 to June, 2016. Revascularization was achieved through
      endovascular aspiration embolectomy, open embolectomy, or percutaneous stent. No
      difference of bowel resection length was found between groups in the first
      emergency surgery. However, more non-OA patients (35.4%) required a second-look
      enterectomy to remove the residual bowel ischemia than OA patients (13.6%,
      P<0.05). OA was closed within a median of 7 days (4 to 15 d). There was a mean of
      134 cm residual alive bowel in OA, whereas 96 cm in non-OA. More non-OA patients
      suffered from intra-abdominal sepsis (23.1% vs. 6.8%, P<0.01), intra-abdominal
      hypertension (31% vs. 0, P<0.01), and acute renal failure (53.8% vs. 31.8%,
      P<0.05) than OA group after surgery. Short-bowel syndrome occurred infrequently
      in OA than non-OA patients (9.1% vs. 36.9%, P<0.01). OA significantly decreased
      the 30-day (27.3% vs. 52.3%, P<0.01) and 1-year mortality rate (31.8 % vs. 61.5%,
      P<0.01) compared with non-OA group. CONCLUSIONS: Liberal use of OA, as a damage
      control adjunct avoided the development of intra-abdominal hypertension, reduced
      sepsis-related complication, and improved the clinical outcomes in peritonitis
      secondary to acute SMA occlusion.

PMID- 28877533
TI  - Comprehensive assessment of cytochromes P450 and transporter genetics with
      endoxifen concentration during tamoxifen treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Tamoxifen bioactivation to endoxifen is mediated primarily by CYP2D6;
      however, considerable variability remains unexplained. Our aim was to perform a
      comprehensive assessment of the effect of genetic variation in tamoxifen-relevant
      enzymes and transporters on steady-state endoxifen concentrations. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Comprehensive genotyping of CYP enzymes and transporters was performed
      using the iPLEX ADME PGx Pro Panel in 302 tamoxifen-treated breast cancer
      patients. Predicted activity phenotype for 19 enzymes and transporters were
      analyzed for univariate association with endoxifen concentration, and then
      adjusted for CYP2D6 and clinical covariates. RESULTS: In univariate analysis,
      higher activity of CYP2C8 (regression beta=0.22, P=0.020) and CYP2C9 (beta=0.20,
      P=0.04), lower body weight (beta=-0.014, P<0.0001), and endoxifen measurement
      during winter (each beta<-0.39, P=0.002) were associated with higher endoxifen
      concentrations. After adjustment for the CYP2D6 diplotype, weight, and season,
      CYP2C9 remained significantly associated with higher concentrations (P=0.02), but
      only increased the overall model R by 1.3%. CONCLUSION: Our results further
      support a minor contribution of CYP2C9 genetic variability toward steady-state
      endoxifen concentrations. Integration of clinician and genetic variables into
      individualized tamoxifen dosing algorithms would marginally improve their
      accuracy and potentially enhance tamoxifen treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28877536
TI  - Trial-dependent psychometric functions accounting for perceptual learning in 2
      AFC discrimination tasks.
AB  - The majority of theoretical models of learning consider learning to be a
      continuous function of experience. However, most perceptual learning studies use
      thresholds estimated by fitting psychometric functions to independent blocks,
      sometimes then fitting a parametric function to these block-wise estimated
      thresholds. Critically, such approaches tend to violate the basic principle that
      learning is continuous through time (e.g., by aggregating trials into large
      "blocks" for analysis that each assume stationarity, then fitting learning
      functions to these aggregated blocks). To address this discrepancy between base
      theory and analysis practice, here we instead propose fitting a parametric
      function to thresholds from each individual trial. In particular, we implemented
      a dynamic psychometric function whose parameters were allowed to change
      continuously with each trial, thus parameterizing nonstationarity. We fit the
      resulting continuous time parametric model to data from two different perceptual
      learning tasks. In nearly every case, the quality of the fits derived from the
      continuous time parametric model outperformed the fits derived from a
      nonparametric approach wherein separate psychometric functions were fit to blocks
      of trials. Because such a continuous trial-dependent model of perceptual learning
      also offers a number of additional advantages (e.g., the ability to extrapolate
      beyond the observed data; the ability to estimate performance on individual
      critical trials), we suggest that this technique would be a useful addition to
      each psychophysicist's analysis toolkit.

PMID- 28877535
TI  - Monkeys and humans take local uncertainty into account when localizing a change.
AB  - Since sensory measurements are noisy, an observer is rarely certain about the
      identity of a stimulus. In visual perception tasks, observers generally take
      their uncertainty about a stimulus into account when doing so helps task
      performance. Whether the same holds in visual working memory tasks is largely
      unknown. Ten human and two monkey subjects localized a single change in
      orientation between a sample display containing three ellipses and a test display
      containing two ellipses. To manipulate uncertainty, we varied the reliability of
      orientation information by making each ellipse more or less elongated (two
      levels); reliability was independent across the stimuli. In both species, a
      variable-precision encoding model equipped with an "uncertainty-indifferent"
      decision rule, which uses only the noisy memories, fitted the data poorly. In
      both species, a much better fit was provided by a model in which the observer
      also takes the levels of reliability-driven uncertainty associated with the
      memories into account. In particular, a measured change in a low-reliability
      stimulus was given lower weight than the same change in a high-reliability
      stimulus. We did not find strong evidence that observers took reliability
      independent variations in uncertainty into account. Our results illustrate the
      importance of studying the decision stage in comparison tasks and provide further
      evidence for evolutionary continuity of working memory systems between monkeys
      and humans.

PMID- 28877537
TI  - Sutureless Microvascular Anastomosis using Intravascular Stenting and
      Cyanoacrylate Adhesive.
AB  - BACKGROUND:  Microvascular anastomosis using cyanoacrylate adhesive has a
      reputation among researchers as an alternative to conventional sutures. However,
      a degree of ingenuity is required to avoid the collapse of the vascular lumen for
      the duration of the anastomosis. The aim of this study was to determine the
      feasibility of intravascular stenting (IVaS) as a temporary stent during
      sutureless microvascular anastomosis with cyanoacrylate adhesive. METHODS:  Sixty
      male Fisher 344 rats were evenly divided into two groups. The right superficial
      femoral arteries (RSFAs) were transected in each group. Microvascular anastomoses
      were then performed with the sutureless (SL) method in one group and conventional
      sutures (CS) in the other group. The diameter of the RSFA, duration of
      microvascular anastomosis, and the patency of the RSFA were evaluated immediately
      after anastomosis and 7 days after the surgery. Tissue samples were obtained for
      pathological consideration. RESULTS:  There was no significant difference in the
      diameter of the RSFAs between the SL and the CS groups. There was no significant
      difference in the patency rates of the groups. The anastomosis time of the SL
      group was significantly shorter than that of the CS group, regardless of the
      experience of the surgeons. A histological analysis showed a comparable level of
      foreign body reactions in each group. CONCLUSION:  IVaS plays a supportive role
      in sutureless microvascular anastomosis with cyanoacrylate adhesive. The short
      term safety of this technique has now been confirmed at the experimental stage.

PMID- 28877538
TI  - Nikolaus Rudinger (1832-1896), His Description of Joint Innervation in 1857, and
      the History of Surgical Joint Denervation.
AB  - BACKGROUND:  Selective joint denervation has become a reliable palliative
      treatment, especially for painful joints in the upper and lower extremity.
      METHODS:  This article highlights the life and work of Nikolaus Rudinger (1832
      1896) who first described joint innervation which became the basis of later
      techniques of surgical joint denervation. The historical evolution of this method
      is outlined. RESULTS:  Rudinger made a unique career from apprentice barber to
      military surgeon and anatomy professor in Munich, Germany. His first description
      of articular innervation of temporomandibular, shoulder, elbow, wrist, finger,
      sacroiliac, hip, knee, ankle, foot, and toe joints in 1857 stimulated the
      subsequent history of surgical joint denervation. Comparing his investigations
      with modern joint denervation methods, developed by pioneers like Albrecht
      Wilhelm or A. Lee Dellon, shows his great exactitude and anatomical
      correspondence despite different current terminology. Clinical series of modern
      surgical joint denervations reveal success rates of up to 80% with reliable long
      term results. CONCLUSION:  The history of joint denervation with Rudinger as its
      important protagonist offers inspiring insights into the evolution of surgical
      techniques and exemplifies the value of descriptive functional anatomy, even if
      surgical application may not have been realized until a century later.

PMID- 28877539
TI  - Liquid and Vapor-Phase Activity of Artemisia annua Essential Oil against
      Pathogenic Malassezia spp.
AB  - Artemisia annua essential oil has given us many encouraging results for its
      numerous antimicrobial properties. In this study, the essential oil, both in
      liquid and in vapor phases, was tested against various Malassezia species closely
      related to many skin disorders in humans and animals. Malassezia treatment and
      eradication are mainly based on old azole drugs, which are characterized by poor
      compliance, unpredictable clinical efficacy, emerging resistance, and several
      side effects. Monoterpenes (ca. 88%) represent the most abundant group of
      compounds in the essential oil, mainly the oxygenated derivatives (ca. 74%) with
      camphor (25.2%), 1,8-cineole (20%), and artemisia ketone (12.5%). In vapor phase,
      monoterpenes represent more than 98% of the constituents, alpha-pinene being the
      main constituent (22.8%), followed by 1,8-cineole (22.1%) and camphene (12.9%).
      Essential oil of A. annua, both in vapor phase and liquid, showed strong
      antimicrobial activity towards almost the tested twenty strains of Malassezia
      analyzed. The minimum fungicidal concentrations from most of the strains tested
      were from 0.78 uL/mL to 1.56 uL/mL, and only three strains of Malassezia
      sympodialis required a higher concentration of 3.125 uL/mL. Overall, the minimal
      inhibitor concentrations obtained by vapor diffusion assay were lower than those
      obtained by the liquid method. The average values of minimal inhibitor
      concentrations obtained by the two methods at 72 h are 1.3 - 8.0 times higher in
      liquid compared to those in the vapor phase.

PMID- 28877540
TI  - Evidence for the Use of Tranexamic Acid in Subarachnoid and Subdural Hemorrhage:
      A Systematic Review.

PMID- 28877541
TI  - Ischemic Conditioning as a Hemostatic Intervention in Surgery and Cardiac
      Procedures: A Systematic Review.

PMID- 28877544
TI  - An Editorial on Editorials.

PMID- 28877542
TI  - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Comparing Anticoagulation versus No
      Anticoagulation and Shorter versus Longer duration of Anticoagulation for
      Treatment of Isolated Distal Deep Vein Thrombosis.

PMID- 28877545
TI  - In vivo assessment of muscle membrane properties in the sodium channel myotonias.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The gain-of-function mutations that underlie sodium channel
      myotonia (SCM) and paramyotonia congenital (PMC) produce differing clinical
      phenotypes. We used muscle velocity recovery cycles (MVRCs) to investigate
      membrane properties. METHODS: MVRCs and responses to trains of stimuli were
      compared in patients with SCM (n = 9), PMC (n = 8), and normal controls (n = 26).
      RESULTS: The muscle relative refractory period was reduced in SCM, consistent
      with faster recovery of the mutant sodium channels from inactivation. Both SCM
      and PMC showed an increased early supernormality and increased mean
      supernormality following multiple conditioning stimuli, consistent with slowed
      sodium channel inactivation. Trains of fast impulses caused a loss of amplitude
      in PMC, after which only half of the muscle fibers recovered, suggesting that the
      remainder stayed depolarized by persistent sodium currents. DISCUSSION: The
      differing effects of mutations on sodium channel function can be demonstrated in
      human subjects in vivo using this technique. Muscle Nerve 57: 586-594, 2018.

PMID- 28877547
TI  - Comparing excitability at 37 degrees C versus at 20 degrees C: Differences
      between motor and sensory axons.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In some peripheral nervous system disorders, cold induces symptoms
      of muscle weakness without loss of sensation. To understand this selective effect
      on motor function, it is first essential to delineate the effects of cooling in
      motor and sensory axons of healthy subjects. METHODS: In 17 healthy volunteers,
      we performed excitability and clinical tests of median nerve motor and sensory
      axons at 37 degrees C and at 20 degrees C. Clinical tests consisted of assessing
      thenar muscle strength, 2-point discrimination, and joint position sense of the
      third finger. RESULTS: Excitability tests showed that cooling induced opposite
      changes to hyperpolarizing current in threshold electrotonus (motor, decreased
      threshold change; sensory, increased threshold change) and current-voltage
      relation slopes (motor, steepening; sensory, less steep). Clinical tests showed
      worsening in motor function but no consistent changes in sensory function.
      DISCUSSION: Cooling induces changes in motor axons consistent with depolarization
      and more complicated changes in sensory axons, possibly related to differences in
      hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel expression. Muscle
      Nerve 57: 574-580, 2018.

PMID- 28877546
TI  - Clinical features and evolution of juvenile myasthenia gravis in a French cohort.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this study we determined the clinical, paraclinical, and
      treatment-related features of juvenile myasthenia gravis (JMG) as well as the
      clinical course in a cohort of French children. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective study of 40 patients with JMG at 2 French pediatric neurology
      departments from April 2004 to April 2014. RESULTS: Among the patients, 70% had
      generalized JMG, 52% had positive acetylcholine receptor antibodies, 8% had
      muscle-specific kinase antibodies, and 40% were seronegative. Treatment with
      acetylcholinesterase inhibitors was effective and sufficient in 47% of patients.
      The 6 patients with generalized JMG treated with rituximab and/or
      immunoadsorption showed improvement. Thirty percent of the patients required
      hospitalization in an intensive care unit during follow-up (mean 4.7 years).
      Remission without treatment occurred in 18% of patients. DISCUSSION: As with
      adults, JMG has high morbidity, particularly among children with generalized
      symptoms, and rituximab should be considered early in the course of the disease
      as a second-line treatment. Muscle Nerve 57: 603-609, 2018.

PMID- 28877548
TI  - Sonoanatomy of sensory branches of the ulnar nerve below the elbow in healthy
      subjects.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We identify sensory branches of the ulnar nerve-palmar ulnar
      cutaneous nerve (PUCN), dorsal ulnar cutaneous nerve (DUCN), and superficial
      sensory branch-using ultrasonography. METHODS: In 60 forearms of 30 healthy adult
      volunteers, the origin and size of the PUCN, DUCN, and superficial sensory branch
      were measured by ultrasonography. The relative pathway of the DUCN to the ulnar
      styloid process was also investigated. RESULTS: The PUCN was observed in 47
      forearms (78%), and the DUCN was observed in all forearms. Average distances from
      the pisiform to the origin of the PUCN and DUCN were 11.9 +/- 1.4 and 7.0 +/- 1.0
      cm, respectively. Superficial and deep divisions split 0.9 +/- 0.3 cm distal to
      the pisiform. Cross-sectional areas of the PUCN, DUCN, and superficial sensory
      branch were 0.3 +/- 0.1, 1.5 +/- 0.5, and 3.9 +/- 1.0 mm2 , respectively.
      DISCUSSION: Sensory branches of the ulnar nerve can be visualized by
      ultrasonography, helping to differentiate ulnar nerve injury originating at
      either wrist or elbow. Muscle Nerve 57: 569-573, 2018.

PMID- 28877550
TI  - Organization of the motor-unit pool for different directions of isometric
      contraction of the first dorsal interosseous muscle.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Muscle force generation involves recruitment and firing rate
      modulation of motor units (MUs). The control of MUs in producing multidirectional
      forces remains unclear. METHODS: We studied MU recruitment and firing properties,
      recorded from the first dorsal interosseous muscle, for 3 different directions of
      contraction: abduction; abduction/flexion combination; and flexion. RESULTS: MUs
      were recruited systematically at higher threshold force during flexion. Larger
      MUs were recruited and firing rates of MUs were lower during abduction. There was
      an orderly recruitment of MUs according to MU size regardless of contraction
      direction, obeying the "size principle." Firing rates of earlier-recruited MUs
      were consistently higher than later-recruited MUs, affirming the "onion-skin"
      property. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that the size principle and onion-skin
      organization together provide a general description of MU recruitment patterns
      and firing properties. The directional alternations of MU control properties
      likely reflect changes in neural drive to the muscle. Muscle Nerve 57: E85-E93,
      2018.

PMID- 28877551
TI  - President's Message: Establishing partnerships to foster nursing research.

PMID- 28877549
TI  - A research agenda for curing chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

PMID- 28877553
TI  - A novel phenotype Of Zika virus-related neurological disease: Sensory
      neuronopathy.

PMID- 28877552
TI  - Diabetes affects everything: Type 2 diabetes self-management among Spanish
      speaking hispanic immigrants.
AB  - This article is a report of qualitative findings of a mixed-methods study of the
      relationships among knowledge, self-efficacy, health promoting behaviors, and
      type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) self-management among limited-english-proficient
      recent Hispanic immigrants, a population with increased incidence of T2DM and
      barriers to successful T2DM management. Semi-structured interviews were conducted
      with 30 participants, and physiological and demographic data also were collected.
      The participants generally attributed developing the disease to strong emotions
      and viewed T2DM as a serious disease. Although a majority understood the
      importance of exercise and diet in T2DM self-management, other aspects such as
      medication adherence were not well-understood. Obstacles to effective T2DM self
      management were negative interactions and communications with health care
      providers and other personnel, cultural stigma related to the disease, financial
      constraints, immigration status, and the complexity of the disease. Suggested
      interventions to improve the care and self-management of this at-risk population
      are discussed.

PMID- 28877555
TI  - Cutaneous silent period in myofascial pain syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: An increased response to painful stimuli without spontaneous pain
      suggests a role of central hyperexcitability of pain pathways in the pathogenesis
      of myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). In this study we aimed to test the hypothesis
      that spinal pain pathways are affected in MPS. We used cutaneous silent period
      (CSP) parameters to demonstrate the hyperexcitability of spinal pain pathways in
      MPS. METHODS: Twenty-nine patients diagnosed with MPS and 30 healthy volunteers
      were included in the study. The CSP recordings were performed in the right upper
      and left lower extremities. RESULTS: In both upper and lower extremities,
      patients had prolonged CSP latencies (P = 0.034 and P = 0.049 respectively) and
      shortened CSP durations (P = 0.009 and P = 0.008, respectively). DISCUSSION:
      Delayed and shortened CSP in MPS patients implies dysfunction in the inhibitory
      mechanism of the spinal/supraspinal pain pathways, suggesting central
      sensitization in the pathogenesis of MPS and supporting our research hypothesis.
      Muscle Nerve 57: E24-E28, 2018.

PMID- 28877556
TI  - Patient-identified impact of symptoms in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The effects of spinal bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) on quality of
      life (QoL) are not well understood. This study describes symptoms from the
      patient's perspective and the impact these symptoms have on QoL. METHODS: We
      conducted open-ended interviews with 21 adult men with genetically confirmed
      SBMA. Using a qualitative framework technique, we coded and analyzed interviews
      to identify symptoms and resulting themes. RESULTS: From these interviews, 729
      quotations were extracted. We identified 200 SBMA-specific symptoms and 20
      symptomatic themes. Weakness was mentioned by all interviewees. Symptoms within
      the domain of mental health and the specific themes of emotional issues and
      psychological impact were also frequently mentioned. DISCUSSION: Numerous
      symptoms affect QoL for patients with SBMA. We identified previously unrecognized
      symptoms that are important to address in enhancing clinical care for patients
      with SBMA and in developing tools to evaluate efficacy in future clinical trials.
      Muscle Nerve 57: 40-44, 2018.

PMID- 28877554
TI  - The role of sociodemographic factors in maternal psychological distress and
      mother-preterm infant interactions.
AB  - Preterm birth has been associated with greater psychological distress and less
      positive mother infant interactions than were experienced by mothers of full-term
      infants. Maternal and infant sociodemographic factors have also shown a strong
      association with psychological distress and the mother-infant relationship.
      However, findings on their effects over time are limited. In this longitudinal
      analysis, we explored the relationship of maternal and infant sociodemographic
      variables (maternal age, maternal education, marital status, being on social
      assistance, maternal race, infant birth weight, and infant gender) to maternal
      psychological distress (depressive, posttraumatic stress, anxiety, parenting
      stress symptoms, and maternal worry about child's health) through 12 months
      corrected age for prematurity, and on the home environment, and mother-infant
      interactions through 6 months corrected age for prematurity. We also explored
      differences related to maternal obstetrical characteristics (gestational age at
      birth, parity, mode of delivery, and multiple birth) and severity of infant
      conditions (Apgar scores, need for mechanical ventilation, and infant medical
      complications). Although the relationship of maternal and infant characteristics
      with these outcomes did not change over time, psychological distress differed
      based on marital status, maternal education, infant gender, and infant medical
      complications. Older mothers provided more a positive home environment. Mother
      infant interactions differed by maternal age, being on public assistance,
      maternal race, infant gender, and infant medical complications. More longitudinal
      research is needed to better understand these effects over time in order to
      identify and support at-risk mothers.

PMID- 28877557
TI  - Can we reconcile 'the obesity paradox' with recent cardiovascular outcome trials
      in diabetes?

PMID- 28877558
TI  - Social status and energy intake: a randomized controlled experiment.
AB  - While the inverse association between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity in
      high gross domestic product countries is well established using observational
      data, the extent to which the association is due to a true causal effect of SES
      and, if so, the mechanisms of this effect remain incompletely known. To assess
      the influence of social status on obesity via energy intake, we randomized
      individuals to a higher or lower social status and observed subsequent energy
      intake. College students between the ages of 18 and 25 were randomized to social
      status and were operationalized as being a leader or follower in a partner
      activity as purportedly determined by a (bogus) test of leadership ability.
      Investigators were blinded to treatment assignment. Immediately after being told
      their leadership assignment, paired participants were provided with platters of
      food. Energy intake was objectively measured in kilocalories (kcal) consumed, and
      paired t-tests were used to test for significant differences in intake between
      leaders and followers. A total of 60 participants were included in the final
      analysis (males = 28, females = 32). Overall, no difference in energy intake was
      observed between leaders and followers, consuming an average of 575.3 and 579.8
      kcal, respectively (diff = 4.5 kcal, P = 0.94). The null hypothesis of no effect
      of social status, operationalized as assignment to a leadership position in a
      small-group activity, on energy intake was not rejected.

PMID- 28877559
TI  - An instrumented timed up and go in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Instrumenting timed functional motor tasks may reveal a continuum
      of motor disability that predicts future motor dysfunction. METHODS: We performed
      a prospective study of the instrumented timed up and go (iTUG) test in
      genetically confirmed facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) participants
      using a commercially available system of wireless motion sensors. Patients
      returned within 2 weeks to determine test-retest reliability. Gait parameters in
      FSHD participants were compared with a normative database, FSHD clinical severity
      score, manual muscle testing, and patient-reported functional disability.
      RESULTS: Gait parameters in FSHD participants were significantly (P < 0.05)
      altered compared with normative values, and reliability was excellent (intraclass
      correlation coefficient 0.84-0.99). Stride velocity and trunk sagittal range of
      motion had moderate to strong correlations to other FSHD disease measures.
      DISCUSSION: The iTUG was reliable, abnormal in FSHD, and could distinguish
      between participants with differing disease severities. Instrumenting timed
      functional tasks may prove to be useful in FSHD clinical trials. Muscle Nerve 57:
      503-506, 2018.

PMID- 28877561
TI  - A severe phenotype of Kennedy disease associated with a very large CAG repeat
      expansion.

PMID- 28877562
TI  - Rate of Stroke Mimics over Telestroke.

PMID- 28877560
TI  - Genetic modifiers of Duchenne and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophies.
AB  - Muscular dystrophy is defined as the progressive wasting of skeletal muscles that
      is caused by inherited or spontaneous genetic mutations. Next-generation
      sequencing has greatly improved the accuracy and speed of diagnosis for different
      types of muscular dystrophy. Advancements in depth of coverage, convenience, and
      overall reduced cost have led to the identification of genetic modifiers that are
      responsible for phenotypic variability in affected patients. These genetic
      modifiers have been postulated to explain key differences in disease phenotypes,
      including age of loss of ambulation, steroid responsiveness, and the presence or
      absence of cardiac defects in patients with the same form of muscular dystrophy.
      This review highlights recent findings on genetic modifiers of Duchenne and
      facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophies based on animal and clinical studies.
      These genetic modifiers hold great promise to be developed into novel therapeutic
      targets for the treatment of muscular dystrophies. Muscle Nerve 57: 6-15, 2018.

PMID- 28877563
TI  - Intravenous Thrombolysis in Patients with Stroke Taking Rivaroxaban Using Drug
      Specific Plasma Levels: Experience with a Standard Operation Procedure in
      Clinical Practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Standard operating procedures (SOP) incorporating plasma
      levels of rivaroxaban might be helpful in selecting patients with acute ischemic
      stroke taking rivaroxaban suitable for IVthrombolysis (IVT) or endovascular
      treatment (EVT). METHODS: This was a single-center explorative analysis using
      data from the Novel-Oral-Anticoagulants-in-Stroke-Patients-registry
      (clinicaltrials.gov:NCT02353585) including acute stroke patients taking
      rivaroxaban (September 2012 to November 2016). The SOP included recommendation,
      consideration, and avoidance of IVT if rivaroxaban plasma levels were <20 ng/mL,
      20-100 ng/mL, and >100 ng/mL, respectively, measured with a calibrated anti
      factor Xa assay. Patients with intracranial artery occlusion were recommended
      IVT+EVT or EVT alone if plasma levels were <=100 ng/mL or >100 ng/mL,
      respectively. We evaluated the frequency of IVT/EVT, door-to-needle-time (DNT),
      and symptomatic intracranial or major extracranial hemorrhage. RESULTS: Among 114
      acute stroke patients taking rivaroxaban, 68 were otherwise eligible for IVT/EVT
      of whom 63 had plasma levels measured (median age 81 years, median baseline
      National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale 6). Median rivaroxaban plasma level
      was 96 ng/mL (inter quartile range [IQR] 18-259 ng/mL) and time since last intake
      11 hours (IQR 4.5-18.5 hours). Twenty-two patients (35%) received IVT/EVT (IVT
      n=15, IVT+EVT n=3, EVT n=4) based on SOP. Median DNT was 37 (IQR 30-60) minutes.
      None of the 31 patients with plasma levels >100 ng/mL received IVT. Among 14
      patients with plasma levels <=100 ng/mL, the main reason to withhold IVT was
      minor stroke (n=10). No symptomatic intracranial or major extracranial bleeding
      occurred after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Determination of rivaroxaban plasma levels
      enabled IVT or EVT in one-third of patients taking rivaroxaban who would
      otherwise be ineligible for acute treatment. The absence of major bleeding in our
      pilot series justifies future studies of this approach.

PMID- 28877564
TI  - Intracranial Atherosclerosis: From Microscopy to High-Resolution Magnetic
      Resonance Imaging.
AB  - Intracranial atherosclerosis is one of the leading causes of ischemic stroke and
      occurs more commonly in patients of Asian, African or Hispanic origin than in
      Caucasians. Although the histopathology of intracranial atherosclerotic disease
      resembles extracranial atherosclerosis, there are some notable differences in the
      onset and severity of atherosclerosis. Current understanding of intracranial
      atherosclerotic disease has been advanced by the high-resolution magnetic
      resonance imaging (HRMRI), a novel emerging imaging technique that can directly
      visualize the vessel wall pathology. However, the pathological validation of
      HRMRI signal characteristics remains a key step to depict the plaque components
      and vulnerability in intracranial atherosclerotic lesions. The purpose of this
      review is to describe the histological features of intracranial atherosclerosis
      and to state current evidences regarding the validation of MR vessel wall imaging
      with histopathology.

PMID- 28877565
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Troponin Elevation for Long-Term Mortality after
      Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Troponin, a marker of myocardial injury, frequently
      increases and is related with poor outcome in ischemic stroke patients. However,
      the long-term outcome of this elevation remains uncertain. We, therefore,
      investigated the prognostic significance of troponin elevation for long-term
      mortality, and explored factors affecting troponin elevation after ischemic
      stroke. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical data of stroke patients
      who were admitted within 24 hours of symptom onset and underwent a serum cardiac
      troponin I test at admission during a five-year period. Information on mortality
      as the outcome was obtained from the National Death Certificate system. RESULTS:
      A total of 1,692 patients were eligible for inclusion with 33 months of median
      follow-up. Troponin elevation that exceeded the 99th percentile (>0.04 ng/mL) of
      values was detected in 166 patients (9.8%). After adjusting for baseline
      characteristics, troponin elevation was associated with previous ischemic heart
      disease and congestive heart failure, comorbid atrial fibrillation and active
      cancer, and increased National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score. Patients
      with troponin elevation had a high risk of overall death (hazard ratio [HR] 1.83,
      95% confidence interval [CI] 1.40-2.40), including stroke-related (HR 1.71, 95%
      CI 1.14-2.55), cardiac-related (HR 3.17, 95% CI 1.49-6.74), and cancer-related
      (HR 1.98, 95% CI 1.14-3.45) death than those without troponin elevation.
      CONCLUSIONS: Troponin elevation in the acute stage of ischemic stroke was
      associated with long-term mortality, mainly due to increased stroke- and cancer
      related death in the first year and cardiacrelated death in the later period.

PMID- 28877566
TI  - Is Ginger Effective in Reducing Post-tonsillectomy Morbidity? A Prospective
      Randomised Clinical Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: An assessment of the effects of ginger on pain, nausea, vomiting,
      bleeding, and wound site healing that occur after tonsillectomy. METHODS: This
      prospective clinical study was participated by 49 patients aged 18-45 years out
      of 56 patients that underwent tonsillectomy and regularly attended follow-up
      visits. The patients were randomly divided into two groups. Group 1 consisted of
      23 patients that used ginger capsules and group 2 consisted of 26 patients that
      did not use ginger capsules in addition to the routine antibiotic and paracetamol
      treatment following tonsillectomy. The pain, nausea, vomiting, and bleeding
      scores of patients were assessed on days 1, 4, 7, and 10 by using the visual
      analogue scale. Similarly, the epithelialization degrees of tonsillar bed were
      assessed on postoperative days 1, 4, 7, and 10 and regular oral intake times of
      patients were recorded. RESULTS: There were no differences between groups in
      terms of age and sex. On the postoperative days 1, 4, 7, and 10, the pain scores
      were lower in the group 1 (all P<0.001) and there were no differences between the
      two groups in terms of postoperative nausea, vomiting, and bleeding scores
      (P=0.35 and P=0.53). On the postoperative days 7 and 10, epithelialization in the
      tonsil bed was quicker in the group 1 (P=0.041 and P=0.026) and the regular oral
      intake time was earlier in group 1 (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: In this study, ginger
      relieved pain, accelerated wound site epithelialization, and decreased duration
      of oral intake following tonsillectomy. It did not result in postoperative
      bleeding or any other complications. Ginger can be recommended as an adjunct to
      routine medical treatment for decreasing morbidity following tonsillectomy.

PMID- 28877567
TI  - Genetic Diversity and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Iranian Leishmania Parasites
      Based on HSP70 Gene PCR-RFLP and Sequence Analysis.
AB  - Despite the broad distribution of leishmaniasis among Iranians and animals across
      the country, little is known about the genetic characteristics of the causative
      agents. Applying both HSP70 PCR-RFLP and sequence analyses, this study aimed to
      evaluate the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among Leishmania
      spp. isolated from Iranian endemic foci and available reference strains. A total
      of 36 Leishmania isolates from almost all districts across the country were
      genetically analyzed for the HSP70 gene using both PCR-RFLP and sequence
      analysis. The original HSP70 gene sequences were aligned along with homologous
      Leishmania sequences retrieved from NCBI, and subjected to the phylogenetic
      analysis. Basic parameters of genetic diversity were also estimated. The HSP70
      PCR-RFLP presented 3 different electrophoretic patterns, with no further
      intraspecific variation, corresponding to 3 Leishmania species available in the
      country, L. tropica, L. major, and L. infantum. Phylogenetic analyses presented 5
      major clades, corresponding to 5 species complexes. Iranian lineages, including
      L. major, L. tropica, and L. infantum, were distributed among 3 complexes L.
      major, L. tropica, and L. donovani. However, within the L. major and L. donovani
      species complexes, the HSP70 phylogeny was not able to distinguish clearly
      between the L. major and L. turanica isolates, and between the L. infantum, L.
      donovani, and L. chagasi isolates, respectively. Our results indicated that both
      HSP70 PCR-RFLP and sequence analyses are medically applicable tools for
      identification of Leishmania species in Iranian patients. However, the reduced
      genetic diversity of the target gene makes it inevitable that its phylogeny only
      resolves the major groups, namely, the species complexes.

PMID- 28877568
TI  - Trichomonas vaginalis alpha-Actinin 2 Modulates Host Immune Responses by Inducing
      Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells via IL-10 Production from Regulatory T Cells.
AB  - Trichomonas vaginalis is a pathogen that triggers severe immune responses in
      hosts. T. vaginalis alpha-actinin 2, Tvalpha-actinin 2, has been used to diagnose
      trichomoniasis. This study was undertaken to examine the role of Tvalpha-actinin
      2 as an antigenic molecule to induce immune responses from humans. Western blot
      analysis using anti-Tvalpha-actinin 2 antibodies indicated its presence in the
      secreted proteins of T. vaginalis. ELISA was employed to measure cytokine
      production by vaginal epithelial cells, prostate cells, mouse dendritic cells
      (DCs), or T cells stimulated with T. vaginalis or Tvalpha-actinin 2 protein. Both
      T. vaginalis and rTvalpha-actinin 2 induced cytokine production from epithelial
      cell lines, including IL-10. Moreover, CD4+CD25- regulatory T cells (Treg cells)
      incubated with rTvalpha-actinin 2-treated DCs produced high levels of IL-10.
      These data indicate that Tvalpha-actinin 2 modulates immune responses via IL-10
      production by Treg cells.

PMID- 28877569
TI  - Seroprevalence of Toxoplasmosis Detected by RDT in Residents near the DMZ
      (demilitarized zone) of Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea.
AB  - Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection among the residents of Cheorwon
      gun, Gangwon-do, Korea, which partly includes the demilitarized zone (DMZ), were
      surveyed for 4 years and evaluated by RDT using recombinant fragment of major
      surface antigen (SAG1A). Sera from 1336, 583, 526, and 583 adult residents were
      collected on a yearly basis from 2010 to 2013, respectively. The total positive
      seroprevalence was 19.3, 21.9, 23.4, and 26.8% from 2010 to 2013, respectively.
      The positive seroprevalence in men (23.6, 27.5, 29.5, 34.6%) was far higher than
      women (14.1, 18.3, 19.4, 21.4%), from 2010 to 2013, respectively. This high
      seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in Cheorwon-gun may have been influenced in part
      by its geographical locality of the area as it includes the DMZ, where civilian
      access is strictly limited, thus creating a relatively isolated area that is a
      well-preserved habitat. Further research is necessary to study the epidemiology
      of toxoplasmosis in this area.

PMID- 28877570
TI  - Hookworm Infection: A Neglected Cause of Overt Obscure Gastrointestinal Bleeding.
AB  - Hookworm infections are widely prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas,
      especially in low income regions. In the body, hookworms parasitize the proximal
      small intestine, leading to chronic intestinal hemorrhage and iron deficiency
      anemia. Occasionally, hookworms can cause overt gastrointestinal bleeding, but
      this is often ignored in heavily burdened individuals from endemic infectious
      areas. A total of 424 patients with overt obscure gastrointestinal bleeding were
      diagnosed by numerous blood tests or stool examinations as well as
      esophagogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, capsule endoscopy or double-balloon
      enteroscopy. All of the patients lived in hookworm endemic areas and were not
      screened for hookworm infection using sensitive tests before the final diagnosis.
      The patients recovered after albendazole treatment, blood transfusion, and iron
      replacement, and none of the patients experienced recurrent bleeding in the
      follow-up. All the 31 patients were diagnosed with hookworm infections without
      other concomitant bleeding lesions, a rate of 7.3% (31/424). Seventeen out of 227
      patients were diagnosed with hookworm infections in the capsule endoscopy (CE),
      and 14 out of 197 patients were diagnosed with hookworm infections in the double
      balloon enteroscopy (DBE). Hookworm infections can cause overt gastrointestinal
      bleeding and should be screened in patients with overt obscure gastrointestinal
      bleeding (OGIB) in endemic infectious areas with sensitive methods. Specifically,
      the examination of stool specimens is clinically warranted for most patients, and
      the proper examination for stool eggs relies on staff's communication.

PMID- 28877571
TI  - Prevalence and Density of Digenetic Trematode Metacercariae in Clams and Oysters
      from Western Coastal Regions of the Republic of Korea.
AB  - A survey was performed to know the recent infection status of digenetic trematode
      metacercariae in clams and oysters from 4 sites in western coastal regions of the
      Republic of Korea (=Korea). Four species of clams (Mactra veneriformis, Ruditapes
      philippinarum, Cyclina sinensis, and Saxidomus purpuratus) were collected from
      Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do (Province), Buan-gun (County) and Gochang-gun,
      Jeollabuk-do, and oysters, Crassostrea gigas, from Shinan-gun, Jeollanam-do were
      transferred to our laboratory on ice and examined by the artificial digestion
      method. The metacercariae of Himasthla alincia were detected in 3 species of
      clams, M. veneriformis, R. philippinarum, and C. sinensis from the 3 surveyed
      areas. The positive rate and the mean density per clam infected were 98.9% (30.8
      metacercariae) in M. veneriformis, 60.0% (5.0) in R. philippinarum, and 96.0%
      (28.4) in C. sinensis. The positive rate (mean density) of Acanthoparyphium
      tyosenense metacercariae in M. veneriformis was 50.0% (2.1) from Taean-gun and
      70.0% (2.8) from Gochang-gun. The metacercariae of Parvatrema spp. were detected
      in M. veneriformis and R. philippinarum from Taean-gun and Gochang-gun; the
      positive rate (mean density) was 63.3% (4,123) and 50.0% (19) in M. veneriformis,
      and 6.7% (126) and 100% (238) in R. philippinarum from the 2 regions,
      respectively. The metacercariae of Gymnophalloides seoi were detected in all 30
      oysters from Shinan-gun, and their average density per oyster was 646. From the
      above results, it has been confirmed that more than 3 species of metacercariae
      are prevalent in clams from the western coastal regions, and G. seoi
      metacercariae are still prevalent in oysters from Shinan-gun, Jeollanam-do,
      Korea.

PMID- 28877572
TI  - Safety, Efficacy, and Physicochemical Characterization of Tinospora crispa
      Ointment: A Community-Based Formulation against Pediculus humanus capitis.
AB  - The high prevalence of pediculosis capitis, commonly known as head lice
      (Pediculus humanus capitis) infestation, has led to the preparation of a
      community-based pediculicidal ointment, which is made of common household items
      and the extract of Tinospora crispa stem. The present study aimed to evaluate the
      safety, efficacy, and physicochemical characteristics of the T. crispa
      pediculicidal ointment. The physicochemical properties of the ointment were
      characterized, and safety was determined using acute dermal irritation test (OECD
      404), while the efficacy was assessed using an in vitro pediculicidal assay.
      Furthermore, the chemical compounds present in T. crispa were identified using
      liquid-liquid extraction followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography
      quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometric (UPLC-qTOF/MS) analysis. The
      community-based ointment formulation was light yellow in color, homogeneous,
      smooth, with distinct aromatic odor and pH of 6.92+/-0.09. It has spreadability
      value of 15.04+/-0.98 g.cm/sec and has thixotropic behavior. It was also found to
      be non-irritant, with a primary irritation index value of 0.15. Moreover, it was
      comparable to the pediculicidal activity of the positive control Kwell(r), a
      commercially available 1% permethrin shampoo (P>0.05), and was significantly
      different to the activity of the negative control ointment, a mixture of palm oil
      and candle wax (P<0.05). These findings suggested that the community-based T.
      crispa pediculicidal ointment is safe and effective, having acceptable
      physicochemical characteristics. Its activity can be attributed to the presence
      of compounds moupinamide and physalin I.

PMID- 28877573
TI  - Hookworm Infection Caused Acute Intestinal Bleeding Diagnosed by Capsule: A Case
      Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Hookworm infections are rare causes of acute gastrointestinal bleeding. We report
      a middle aged man with primary nephrotic syndrome and pulmonary embolism. During
      the treatment with steroids and anticoagulants, the patient presented acute
      massive hemorrhage of the gastrointestinal tract. The results of gastroscopy
      showed red worms in the duodenum. Colonoscopy and CT angiogram of abdomen were
      unremarkable. Capsule endoscopy revealed fresh blood and multiple hookworms in
      the jejunum and ileum. Hookworms caused the acute intestinal bleeding. The
      patient responded well to albendazole. Hematochezia was markedly ameliorated
      after eliminating the parasites. Hence, hookworm infection should be considered
      in the differential diagnosis of a patient with obscure gastrointestinal
      bleeding. Capsule endoscopy may offer a better means of diagnosis for intestinal
      hookworm infections.

PMID- 28877574
TI  - Sparganosis of the Unilateral Breast: A Case Report.
AB  - Sparganosis is a parasitic infection caused by the sparganum, the plercercoid of
      the genus Spirometra. The preoperative diagnosis of breast sparganosis is
      difficult in most cases because it is a rare parasitic infection less than 2% of
      all cases. We report a 62-year-old woman case of breast sparganosis that were
      confirmed by surgical removal of worms from the right breast. The radiologic
      images of the patient also revealed characteristic features of breast
      sparganosis. The patient described the migrating palpable breast mass, which
      strongly suggested the possibility of breast sparganosis. The treatment of choice
      and confirmative diagnosis for sparganosis are complete surgical extraction of
      the sparganum irrespective of infected site. Inspection of the mass site with
      detailed medical history and radiological examinations are important for
      preoperative diagnosis of sparganosis patients.

PMID- 28877575
TI  - Molecular Identification of Diphyllobothrium latum from a Pediatric Case in
      Taiwan.
AB  - Human diphyllobothriasis is a parasitic disease caused by ingestion of larvae
      (plerocercoids) in raw or undercooked fish and commonly found in temperate areas.
      Rare cases were reported in tropical or subtropical areas especially in children.
      The first documented case of pediatric diphyllobothriasis in Taiwan had been
      reported 11 years ago. Here, we report another 8-year-old girl case who presented
      with a live noodle-like worm hanging down from her anus, with no other detectable
      symptoms. We pulled the worm out and found the strobila being 260 cm in length.
      Examination of gravid proglottids showed that they were wider than their lengths,
      containing an ovoid cirrus sac in the anterior side and the rosette-shaped
      uterus. Eggs extracted from the uterus were ovoid and operculated.
      Diphyllobothrium latum was confirmed by molecular analysis of the mitochondrial
      DNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene. The girl was treated with a
      single oral dose of praziquantel, and no eggs or proglottids were observed from
      her stool in the subsequent 3 months. The reemergence of human diphyllobothriasis
      in non-endemic countries is probably due to prevalent habit of eating imported
      raw fish from endemic areas. This pediatric case raised our concern that human
      diphyllobothriasis is likely underestimated because of unremarkable symptoms.

PMID- 28877576
TI  - Unusual Location of Hydatid Cysts: Report of Two Cases in the Heart and Hip Joint
      of Romanian Patients.
AB  - Hydatid cyst is usually located in the liver and lungs, rare cases showing
      localization in other organs or tissues. In the unusual location, echinococcosis
      is an excluding diagnosis that is established only after microscopic evaluation.
      Our first case occurred in a 67-year-old female previously diagnosed with
      pulmonary tuberculosis and hospitalized with persistent pain in the hip joint.
      The clinical diagnosis was tuberculosis of the joint, but the presence of the
      specific acellular membrane indicated a hydatid cyst of the synovial membrane,
      without bone involvement. Fewer than 25 cases of joint hydatidosis have been
      reported in literature to date. In the second case, the intramural hydatid cyst
      was incidentally discovered at autopsy, in the left heart ventricle of a 52-year
      old male hospitalized for a fatal brain hemorrhage, as a result of rupture of an
      anterior communicating artery aneurysm. The conclusion of our paper is that
      echinococcosis should be taken into account for the differential diagnosis of
      cystic lesions, independently from their location.

PMID- 28877577
TI  - A Case of Pentastomiasis at the Left Maxilla Bone in a Patient with Thyroid
      Cancer.
AB  - Pentastomiasis, a zoonotic parasite infection, is typically found in the
      respiratory tract and viscera of the host, including humans. Here, we report for
      the first time an extremely rare case of intraosseous pentastomiasis in the human
      maxilla suffering from medication related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ). A 55
      year-old male had continuously visited the hospital for MRONJ which had primarily
      developed after bisphosphonate and anti-neoplastic administration for previous
      bone metastasis of medullary thyroid cancer. Pain, bone exposure, and pus
      discharge in the right mandible and left maxilla were seen. Osteolysis with
      maxillary cortical bone perforation at the left buccal vestibule, palate, nasal
      cavity, and maxillary sinus was observed by radiologic images. A biopsy was done
      at the left maxilla and through pathological evaluation, a parasite with features
      of pentastome was revealed within the necrotic bone tissue. Further history
      taking and laboratory evaluation was done. The parasite was suspected to be
      infected through maxillary open wounds caused by MRONJ. Awareness of intraosseous
      pentastomiasis should be emphasized not to be missed behind the MRONJ. Proper
      evaluation and interpretation for past medical history may lead to correct
      differential diagnosis and therapeutic intervention for parasite infections.

PMID- 28877578
TI  - Syphacia obvelata: A New Hope to Induction of Intestinal Immunological Tolerance
      in C57BL/6 Mice.
AB  - The ability of nematodes to manipulate the immune system of their host towards a
      Th2 and T regulatory responses has been proposed to suppress the inflammatory
      response. Clinical trials have proposed a useful effect of helminth infections on
      improvement of inflammatory disorders. In this study, we investigated the
      immunomodulatory effect of Syphacia obvelata infection to induce intestinal
      tolerance in C57BL/6 mice. Mice were infected through the cagemates with self
      infected BALB/c mice. Four weeks post-infection, expression levels of IFN-gamma,
      TNF-alpha, IL-17, and IL-10 were assessed in the supernatant of mesenteric lymph
      node (MLN) culture. Foxp3+Treg were measured in MLN cells by flow cytometry. In
      the S. obvelata-infected group, the percentage of Tregs (5.2+/-0.4) was
      significantly higher than the control (3.6+/-0.5) (P<0.05). The levels of IL-10
      (55.3+/-2.2 vs 35.2+/-3.2), IL-17 (52.9+/-3.8 vs 41+/-1.8), IFN-gamma (44.8+/-4.8
      vs 22.3+/-2.3) and TNF-alpha (71.1+/-5.8 vs 60.1+/-3.3) were significantly
      increased in infected mice compared to the control group (P<0.05). The above
      results showed the potential effects of S. obvelata to induce intestinal
      tolerance. Therefore, it seems that S. obvelata may increase the immunological
      suppressive function in the intestinal tract.

PMID- 28877580
TI  - Characterization of Echinostoma cinetorchis endoribonuclease, RNase H.
AB  - Echinostoma cinetorchis is an oriental intestinal fluke causing significant
      pathological damage to the small intestine. The aim of this study was to
      determine a full-length cDNA sequence of E. cinetorchis endoribonuclease (RNase
      H; EcRNH) and to elucidate its molecular biological characters. EcRNH consisted
      of 308 amino acids and showed low similarity to endoribonucleases of other
      parasites (<40%). EcRNH had an active site centered on a putative DDEED motif
      instead of DEDD conserved in other species. A recombinant EcRNH produced as a
      soluble form in Escherichia coli showed enzymatic activity to cleave the 3'-O-P
      bond of RNA in a DNA-RNA duplex, producing 3'-hydroxyl and 5'-phosphate. These
      findings may contribute to develop antisense oligonucleotides which could damage
      echinostomes and other flukes.

PMID- 28877579
TI  - Prevalence of Centrocestus formosanus Metacercariae in Ornamental Fish from
      Chiang Mai, Thailand, with Molecular Approach Using ITS2.
AB  - The prevalence of Centrocestus formosanus metacercariae was investigated in
      ornamental fish purchased from a pet shop in Chiang Mai, Thailand, including
      Carassius auratus (goldfish), Cyprinus carpio (Koi), Poecilia latipinna (Sailfin
      Molly), Danio rerio (Zebrafish), and Puntigrus tetrazona (Tiger barb). The
      parasite species was identified by the morphology of worms as well as by a
      molecular approach using ITS2. The results showed that 50 (33.3%) of 150 fish
      examined were infected with the metacercariae. The highest prevalence was found
      in C. auratus (83.3%), and the highest intensity was noted in C. carpio (70.8
      metacercariae/fish). The most important morphological character was the presence
      of 32-34 circumoral spines on the oral sucker. The phylogenetic studies using the
      rRNA ITS2 region revealed that all the specimens of C. formosanus in this study
      were grouped together with C. formosanus in GenBank database. This is the first
      report on ornamental fish, C. carpio, P. latipinna, D. rerio, and P. tetrazona,
      taking the role of second intermediate hosts of C. formosanus in Thailand.
      Prevention and control of metacercarial infection in ornamental fish is urgently
      needed.

PMID- 28877582
TI  - Active Thermochemical Tables: The Adiabatic Ionization Energy of Hydrogen
      Peroxide.
AB  - The adiabatic ionization energy of hydrogen peroxide (HOOH) is investigated, both
      by means of theoretical calculations and theoretically assisted reanalysis of
      previous experimental data. Values obtained by three different approaches: 10.638
      +/- 0.012 eV (purely theoretical determination), 10.649 +/- 0.005 eV (reanalysis
      of photoelectron spectrum), and 10.645 +/- 0.010 eV (reanalysis of
      photoionization spectrum) are in excellent mutual agreement. Further refinement
      of the latter two values to account for asymmetry of the rotational profile of
      the photoionization origin band leads to a reduction of 0.007 +/- 0.006 eV, which
      tends to bring them into even closer alignment with the purely theoretical value.
      Detailed analysis of this fundamental quantity by the Active Thermochemical
      Tables approach, using the present results and extant literature, gives a final
      estimate of 10.641 +/- 0.006 eV.

PMID- 28877581
TI  - Historical Details about the Meat Consumption and Taeniases in Joseon Period of
      Korea.
AB  - Previous paleoparasitological studies of Joseon specimens established that the
      prevalence of Taenia infection was not much different from that of the early 20th
      century Korean population. As many of taeniases originally diagnosed as Taenia
      saginata in South Korea were revealed to be actually Taenia asiatica, which share
      a common intermediate host with T. solium (the pig), Joseon people must have
      ingested raw pork frequently. However, the current examination of extant Joseon
      documents revealed that the population ate significant amounts of beef even if
      the beef ban was enforced; and pork was not consumed as much as we thought.
      Considering the meat consumption pattern at that time, Joseon people should have
      been infected by T. saginata more frequently than T. asiatica. This may suggest a
      low prevalence of T. saginata metacestodes in cattle compared to that of T.
      asiatica metacestodes in pigs, possibly due to the traditional way of rearing
      pigs (using human feces). This letter gives us a chance to reconsider the
      existing preconception about parasitic infections in Korean history though we are
      still hard to accurately estimate the historical patterns of taeniases at this
      stage.

PMID- 28877583
TI  - Leaf LIMS: A Flexible Laboratory Information Management System with a Synthetic
      Biology Focus.
AB  - This paper presents Leaf LIMS, a flexible laboratory information management
      system (LIMS) designed to address the complexity of synthetic biology workflows.
      At the project's inception there was a lack of a LIMS designed specifically to
      address synthetic biology processes, with most systems focused on either next
      generation sequencing or biobanks and clinical sample handling. Leaf LIMS
      implements integrated project, item, and laboratory stock tracking, offering
      complete sample and construct genealogy, materials and lot tracking, and modular
      assay data capture. Hence, it enables highly configurable task-based workflows
      and supports data capture from project inception to completion. As such, in
      addition to it supporting synthetic biology it is ideal for many laboratory
      environments with multiple projects and users. The system is deployed as a web
      application through Docker and is provided under a permissive MIT license. It is
      freely available for download at https://leaflims.github.io .

PMID- 28877585
TI  - Spotlights: Volume 8, Issue 17.

PMID- 28877584
TI  - Influence of a Modified Atmosphere on the Induction and Activity of Respiratory
      Enzymes in Broccoli Florets during the Early Stage of Postharvest Storage.
AB  - Modified atmosphere packaging and controlled atmosphere storage (hypoxia
      conditions) extend shelf lives of horticultural products by depressing the O2
      uptake rate. We investigated the relationship between atmospheres and alternative
      oxidase (AOX) to cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activities (on the basis of oxygen
      isotope discrimination) and the relative amounts of two respiratory enzymes, AOX
      and COX, during the early stage of storage. Broccoli florets, with high O2 uptake
      rates, were stored under hypoxia and normoxia at 25  degrees C. O2 uptake rates,
      weight loss, and yellowing of broccoli florets were significantly lower when
      stored under hypoxia than when stored under normoxia. Significantly more AOX
      proteins were produced during storage under normoxia, but COX proteins were more
      consistent than those of AOX proteins. Hypoxia may depress the expression of AOX
      and prolong the shelf life. Oxygen isotope discrimination was elevated under
      hypoxia after 50.5 h. AOX production in broccoli was controlled more by changing
      atmospheres than by COX.

PMID- 28877587
TI  - Gene therapy renews hope to lower the global rural sickle cell disease burden.

PMID- 28877588
TI  - What do evaluations tell us about implementing new models in rural and remote
      primary health care? Findings from a narrative analysis of seven service
      evaluations conducted by an Australian Centre of Research Excellence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Rural and Remote Primary
      Healthcare was established in 2012 with the goal of providing evidence to inform
      policy development to increase equity of access to quality health care and the
      identification of services that should be available to the diverse communities
      characterising Australia. This article reports on the key findings from seven CRE
      service evaluations to better understand what made these primary health care
      (PHC) models work where they worked, and why. METHODS: We conducted a narrative
      synthesis of 15 articles reporting on seven CRE service evaluations of different
      PHC models published between 2012 and 2015. RESULTS: Three different contexts for
      PHC reform were evaluated: community, regional and clinic based. Themes
      identified were factors that enabled changes to PHC delivery, processes that
      supported services to improve access to PHC and requirements for service
      adaptation to promote sustainability. In both Indigenous and mainstream community
      settings, the active engagement with local communities, and their participation
      in, or leadership of, shared decision-making was reported across the three
      themes. In addition, local governance processes, informed by service activity and
      impact data, enabled these service changes to be sustained over time. The
      considerations were different for the outreach, regional and clinic services that
      relied on internal processes to drive change because they did not require the
      cooperation of multiple organisations to succeed. CONCLUSIONS: The review
      highlighted that shared decision-making, negotiation and consultation with
      communities is important and should be used to promote feasible strategies that
      improve access to community-based PHC services. There is a growing need for
      service evaluations to report on the feasibility, acceptability and fit of
      successful service models within context, in addition to reach and effectiveness
      in order to provide evidence for local dissemination, adaption and implementation
      strategies.

PMID- 28877590
TI  - Improved latrine cleanliness through behaviour change and changes in quality of
      latrine construction: a longitudinal intervention study in rural Burundi.
AB  - Latrine cleanliness increased in the intervention group compared to the control
      group (increase from 21 to 31 % of latrines classified as clean in intervention
      [N = 198] and decrease from 37 to 27 % in control [N = 91]). Improved habitual
      latrine cleaning lead to latrines being 3.5 times more likely to improve in
      observed latrine cleanliness (chi2 = 16.36, p < .001) and so did improvements in
      quality of latrine construction, eg households that had installed a lid were 7.39
      times more likely to have a cleaner latrine (chi2 = 4.46, p < .05). Changes in
      psychosocial factors, namely forgetting, personal norm, satisfaction with
      cleanliness, explained much of the change in habitual latrine cleaning (adj. r2 =
      .46). Behaviour change interventions targeting psychosocial factors and quality
      of latrine construction seem promising to ensure clean and hygienic latrines.

PMID- 28877589
TI  - Questionnaire-Based Anti-Inflammatory Diet Index as a Predictor of Low-Grade
      Systemic Inflammation.
AB  - There is accumulating evidence that diet may be associated with markers of
      inflammation. We have evaluated if an empirically developed questionnaire-based
      Anti-Inflammatory Diet Index (AIDI) may predict low-grade systemic chronic
      inflammation in a Nordic population. The AIDI was developed using a 123-item food
      frequency questionnaire among 3503 women (56-74 years old) with high-sensitivity
      C-reactive protein (hsCRP) plasma concentration <20 mg/L. Using Spearman
      correlations, we identified 20 foods (AIDI-20) statistically significantly
      related to hsCRP. The median (range) of AIDI-20 was 8 (0-17) scores, and the
      median concentration of hsCRP in the lowest versus the highest quintile of AIDI
      20 (<=6 vs. >=11 scores) varied by 80% (1.8 vs. 1.0 mg/L, respectively). In a
      multivariable-adjusted linear regression model, women in the highest quintile of
      AIDI-20 compared with those in the lowest had a 26% (95% confidence interval [CI]
      18-33%; p-trend <0.001) lower hsCRP concentration; each 1-score increment in the
      AIDI-20 was associated with a 0.06 (95% CI 0.04-0.08) mg/L lower hsCRP. The
      observed association between the AIDI-20 and hsCRP was robust by all hsCRP levels
      and in subgroups defined by inflammatory-related factors. Our results lead to the
      hypothesis that the empirically developed questionnaire-based dietary anti
      inflammatory index may predict low-grade systemic inflammation. Antioxid. Redox
      Signal. 28, 78-84.

PMID- 28877591
TI  - Positive correlation between pesticide sales and central nervous system and
      cardiovascular congenital abnormalities in Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated the association between pesticide exposure in
      Brazil (2005-2013) with rates of central nervous system (CNS) and cardiovascular
      system (CVS) congenital abnormalities in 2014. METHOD: An exposure variable was
      established from data on production and sales of pesticides (kg) per crop area
      (ha) for 2012 and 2013 years. The Brazilian states were divided into three
      categories: high, medium, and low pesticide use and rate ratios were estimated
      for each group of states (CI: 95 %). RESULTS: In 2013 and 2014, the high use
      group presented a 100 and a 75 % increase, and the medium group a 65 and 23 %
      increase, respectively, in the risk of CNS and CVS congenital abnormalities at
      birth, compared to the low use group. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that
      pesticide exposure could be associated with increased risk of congenital
      malformations at birth in Brazil.

PMID- 28877592
TI  - The Optimal Location to Measure Scapholunate Diastasis on Screening Radiographs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lack of a universally accepted location and normal value limits the
      utility of measuring scapholunate diastasis. The primary purpose of this study
      was to define the optimal location to measure the scapholunate gap throughout
      sequential ligament transections. Secondary purposes were to compare plain
      radiographs with fluoroscopy and to evaluate interrater reliability in measuring
      scapholunate diastasis. METHODS: Five cadaver forearms were imaged with intact
      carpal ligaments and after sequentially transecting the scapholunate,
      radioscaphocapitate, and scaphotrapezium-trapezoid ligaments. Plain radiographs
      and static fluoroscopic images were obtained with wrists in neutral and 30
      degrees  ulnar deviation for each stage. Multiple reviewers performed
      measurements of the scapholunate interval at 3 separate locations. Mean distances
      were calculated and pairwise comparisons between groups were made. Intraclass
      correlation was calculated to determine interrater reliability. RESULTS: Overall,
      measurements made in the middle of the scapholunate joint had the smallest
      margins of error for all imaging modalities, ligament disruptions, and wrist
      positions. For normal wrists, the mean scapholunate measurements were all less
      than 2.0 mm at the middle of the joint, regardless of imaging modality or wrist
      position. Fluoroscopy detected significance between more stages of instability
      than plain radiographs at the middle of the joint. CONCLUSIONS: Measurements in
      the middle of the scapholunate joint in neutral and 30 degrees  of ulnar
      deviation under fluoroscopic imaging best capture all stages of ligamentous
      disruptions. Measurements less than 2.0 mm at the middle of the scapholunate
      interval may be considered within normal range.

PMID- 28877593
TI  - Is There a Role for MRI in Plantar Heel Pain.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is an increasing trend to investigate plantar heel pain with
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan though plantar fasciitis is the most common
      cause. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the role of MRI in patients
      presenting with plantar heel pain. METHODS: Case notes and MRI scans of 141
      patients with a clinical diagnosis of plantar fasciitis were reviewed
      retrospectively. There were 98 females and 43 males patients. Fourteen patients
      had bilateral symptoms. Average age for male patients was 51 years (range = 26-78
      years), and for female patients the average age was 52 years (range = 29-76
      years). RESULTS: A total of 121 feet had MRI features suggestive of plantar
      fasciitis. MRI was normal in 32 feet. There was one case of stress fracture of
      calcaneus and another of a heel fibroma diagnosed on MRI scan. CONCLUSIONS: In
      our study, MRI scan was normal in 20.7% of the cases; 1.3% had a diagnosis other
      than plantar fasciitis but no sinister pathology. We therefore conclude that MRI
      scan is not routinely indicated and key is careful clinical assessment. LEVELS OF
      EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, Level IV: Retrospective, Case series.

PMID- 28877594
TI  - A Medial Malleolar "Fleck Sign" May Predict Ankle Instability in Ligamentous
      Supination External Rotation Ankle Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ankle joint stability dictates treatment in ligamentous supination
      external rotation ankle injuries (LSERAI). Investigation of the medial structures
      that support the ankle mortise is critical, and a small avulsion fracture, or
      "fleck", of the medial malleolus is occasionally encountered. This study aimed to
      assess the utility of this medial malleolus fleck sign (MMFS) in diagnosing
      instability requiring surgery in LSERAI. METHODS: This retrospective
      observational study examined 166 LSERAI at a single level I trauma center. A
      standardized diagnostic and treatment protocol for ankle fractures was followed.
      LSERAI at presentation were reported as having a normal, dynamically wide, or
      statically wide medial clear space. Patient demographics, MMFS characteristics,
      and the use of operative management were recorded. RESULTS: MMFS incidence in the
      cohort was 16 (10%) of 166 and was present in 25% of patients with unstable
      LSERAI. Fifteen (94%) of 16 patients with a MMFS were deemed to have an unstable
      LSERAI (P < .005). MMFS had a 25% sensitivity and 99% specificity in diagnosing
      an unstable LSERAI. For the subgroup of patients without a statically wide medial
      clear space, MMFS had a 50% sensitivity and 99% specificity in determining
      instability. CONCLUSION: A MMFS may be indicative of an unstable LSERAI. With
      previous MRI studies demonstrating complete deltoid disruption in unstable
      LSERAI, we deduce the MMFS may be associated with extensive deltoid incompetence.
      The MMFS may help to diagnose a complete deltoid injury in LSERAI with a normal
      medial clear space, which could influence treatment and reduce patient morbidity,
      radiation exposure, and healthcare costs. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level III:
      Retrospective Cohort Study.

PMID- 28877595
TI  - Predicting Coronary Atherosclerotic Plaque Burden From Clinical Parameters:
      Bringing Old Knowledge in the Game.

PMID- 28877596
TI  - What the human sperm methylome tells us.
AB  - AIM: To characterize the sperm methylome in semen samples from 19 donors with
      proven fertility. MATERIALS & METHODS: Bisulfite-converted sperm DNA was
      hybridized on the HumanMethylation450 Infinium BeadChip platform. CpG
      fluorescence intensities were extracted and converted to beta-values. RESULTS:
      The sperm methylome is highly homogeneous and hypomethylated. Genes with
      hypomethylated promoters are ontologically associated to biological functions
      related to spermatogenesis and embryogenesis. Sex chromosomes are the most
      hypomethylated chromosomes, supporting data that indicated their essential role
      in spermatogenesis. A total of 94 genes are resistant to demethylation, being
      strong candidates for transgenerational inheritance. CONCLUSION: Spermatozoa
      carry a homogeneous methylation profile that is a footprint of past events
      (spermatogenesis), is designed to facilitate future events (embryogenesis) and
      has a possible influence in the adult life (transgenerational effects).

PMID- 28877597
TI  - Acute Onset of Bilateral Lower Extremity Weakness and Unsteady Gait in a Toddler.

PMID- 28877598
TI  - Resident Documentation of Social Determinants of Health: Effects of a Teaching
      Tool in the Outpatient Setting.
AB  - Social determinants of health (SDH) significantly affect the health of children
      and thus, screening is important in pediatric primary care. We assessed the use
      of a formal social history taking tool after a 2-phase intervention. The first
      phase (P1) was a teaching module describing SDH and community resources and the
      second phase (P2) consisted of visual reminders to use the tool. Patient charts
      (n = 322) were reviewed pre- and postintervention. Residents had higher
      documentation rates of Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program use and housing
      subsidies at post-P1 and at post-P(1 + 2) (WIC, P = .01 and P = .03,
      respectively; housing, P = .02 and P = .04, respectively), and higher
      documentation rates of food stamp utilization at post-P(1 + 2) ( P = .04), as
      compared with baseline. Implementation of a simple teaching tool in the
      outpatient setting enabled residents to document income benefits and housing.
      Further studies should be done to evaluate effective teaching methods to elicit
      other important SDH.

PMID- 28877599
TI  - Acceptability of a Salon-Based Intervention to Promote Colonoscopy Screening
      Among African American Women.
AB  - African American women have the highest colorectal cancer incidence and mortality
      rates among women of any race/ethnicity in the United States. Colonoscopy
      screening is an efficacious procedure for the prevention and early detection of
      colorectal cancer, making it a promising tool in the effort to eliminate
      colorectal cancer disparities. Toward that end, the present qualitative study
      sought to assess acceptability of and preferences for a beauty salon-based
      intervention to promote colonoscopy screening among African American women. A
      total of 11 focus groups were conducted: 6 with staff from African American
      serving salons ( n = 3 with salon owners, n = 3 with salon stylists) and 5 with
      African American salon clients. Theory-guided focus group questions were used to
      explore participants' beliefs, interests, and preferences associated with the
      proposed intervention. Results indicated that, across all subgroups, participants
      were highly supportive of the idea of a salon-based intervention to promote
      colonoscopy screening among African American women, citing reasons such as the
      commonplace nature of health discussions in salons and the belief that, with
      proper training, stylists could effectively deliver colorectal cancer-related
      health information to their clients. The greatest differences between salon staff
      and clients were found with respect to the specifics of the intervention. Staff
      focused more heavily on content-related issues, such as the specific information
      that should be stressed in the intervention, whereas clients focused largely on
      process-related issues, such as the preferred intervention formats and how
      stylists should present themselves to clients. The findings from this study offer
      both encouragement and important groundwork for the development of a salon-based,
      stylist-delivered intervention to promote colonoscopy screening among African
      American women.

PMID- 28877600
TI  - Technique for Intramedullary Stabilization of Ulnar Neck Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distal ulna fractures at the ulnar neck can be seen in association
      with distal radius fractures, and multiple techniques have been described to
      address the ulnar neck component of these injuries. We have found that treatment
      of ulnar neck fractures can be challenging in terms of anatomy and fracture
      fixation. We present a new percutaneous fixation technique for ulnar neck
      fractures commonly seen with distal radius fractures. TECHNIQUE: Fixation of the
      ulnar neck fracture is performed after fixation of the distal radius fracture.
      Our technique uses anterograde intramedullary fixation to stabilize the fracture
      with a 1.6-mm (0.062 inch) Kirschner wire or a commercially available metacarpal
      fixation intramedullary nail. The fixation is introduced into the intramedullary
      space of the ulnar shaft 4 to 6 cm proximal to the fracture at a separate
      surgical site along the subcutaneous border of the ulna. The fixation is also
      supported with a sugar-tong splint for the first few weeks after surgery and
      requires removal of the ulnar implant approximately 10 weeks after implantation.
      CONCLUSION: Our technique utilizes a percutaneous approach with minimal fracture
      exposure. It provides a relatively simple and reproducible method to address
      ulnar neck fractures commonly seen in association with distal radial fractures.

PMID- 28877601
TI  - Partner unmitigated communion moderates communal coping benefits in type 2
      diabetes.
AB  - The study goal was to determine whether partner's level of unmitigated communion
      moderated the relation of partner communal coping to patient health. Couples in
      which one person was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes ( n = 123) were
      interviewed separately and asked to discuss a diabetes-related problem. Communal
      coping behavior (from videotaped discussions) interacted with partner communal
      coping, such that partner communal coping was related to lower patient distress,
      higher patient self-efficacy, and higher patient medication adherence only when
      partners scored lower on unmitigated communion. The extent to which perceived
      emotional responsiveness and overprotective behavior mediated these relations was
      explored.

PMID- 28877602
TI  - "Hi Mommy": Parental Preferences of Greetings by Medical Staff.
AB  - The therapeutic alliance between pediatricians and parents begins at the initial
      encounter. The manner in which pediatricians greet family members influences this
      relationship. This study evaluated whether parents are addressed using generic
      titles and investigated perceptions of parents regarding how they are addressed
      by medical staff. Written surveys of 137 parents of pediatric inpatients
      collected opinions about greetings during medical encounters. Parents were asked
      if they have been addressed as Mom/Dad/Mommy/Daddy during past medical encounters
      and which generic titles they would prefer. Using a Likert-type scale, the
      parents' perceptions of various salutations were assessed and compared. In this
      sample, 86% of parents were previously called Mom/Dad/Mommy/Daddy. Parents
      preferred to be addressed as Mom or Dad over other generic titles. Many disliked
      being addressed as Mommy/Daddy, Ma'am/Sir, or without a name, suggesting that
      providers should avoid the use of these salutations.

PMID- 28877603
TI  - The Use of Psychosocial Services Post Hand and Upper Limb Injury and Trauma: A
      Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research demonstrates that hand injuries may cause psychological
      difficulties. To enhance recovery, therapists must provide appropriate referrals.
      The purpose of this study was to explore the use of psychosocial services by
      occupational therapists (OTs) and certified hand therapists (CHTs) post hand and
      upper limb injury or trauma. METHODS: A quantitative survey design was
      implemented using a self-made questionnaire, which consisted of questions
      regarding demographic information, types and frequency of hand and upper limb
      injuries, psychiatric diagnoses, frequency of psychosocial service referrals,
      frames of references used, types of psychosocial assessments and interventions
      employed, and barriers to psychosocial services. The questionnaire was randomly
      distributed to 29 therapists. RESULTS: The most frequently recorded frame of
      reference was the Biomechanical. Only 17.2% participants implemented psychosocial
      assessments. Sixteen of the 29 participants referred to 9 possible psychosocial
      services; however, majority of referrals were "occasionally." OTs specialized in
      mental health, behavioral specialists, and social workers were recorded with the
      least amount of referrals. A Spearman rank correlation found a weak, but
      significant inverse relationship between referrals by therapists and years of
      experience as an OT or CHT (-0.322 and -0.351, P < .05, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Therapists appear to be biomechanically oriented which may impact
      outcomes. An inverse correlation was found where the less experience participants
      had, the more likely they were to refer to psychosocial services. The results
      emphasized the lack of psychosocial assessments, interventions, and referral
      services being used by therapists. Further education to therapists, third
      parties, and other health professionals is warranted.

PMID- 28877604
TI  - The Relative Contribution to Small Finger Abduction of the Ulnar Versus Radial
      Slip of the EDM: Implications for Tendon Transfers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The extensor digiti minimi (EDM) tendon is commonly divided into a
      radial slip (EDM-R) and an ulnar slip (EDM-U). To our knowledge, the degree to
      which each EDM slip concomitantly abducts the small finger with active extension
      has not been formally tested. This study sought to characterize the comparative
      contributions of finger abduction inherent to each slip of the EDM to observe the
      sequelae of active small finger extension following transfer of the contralateral
      slip. METHODS: Eighteen fresh-frozen cadaveric hands were used in this study.
      Starting with the hand in resting position, a controlled traction of 10 N was
      applied to each slip of the EDM tendon. The range of small finger abduction with
      respect to the fixed ring finger was recorded utilizing infrared reflective
      markers tracked through the range of motion using a digital video camera.
      RESULTS: The mean abduction of the small finger when the radial slip of the EDM
      tendon was tested was 13.33 degrees  (95% confidence interval [CI]: 10.10 degrees
      -16.55 degrees ), which was significantly different ( P <= .001) than small
      finger abduction produced by the ulnar slip of the EDM, with a mean of 23.72
      degrees  (95% CI: 19.40 degrees -28.04 degrees ). CONCLUSIONS: Given the fact
      that the ulnar slip of the EDM tendon is shown to be the major contributor of
      aberrant abduction with active small finger extension, as traction on this slip
      produces almost twice as much abduction as the radial slip, the EDM-U is the
      ideal donor graft with respect to tendon transfers of the EDM.

PMID- 28877605
TI  - Obesity Paradox in Patients With Deep Venous Thrombosis.
AB  - We aimed to investigate the association between obesity and deep venous
      thrombosis (DVT) in a country with a high prevalence of obesity. This is a
      retrospective cohort study of patients who presented with DVT between 2008 and
      2012. Data were analyzed and compared based on body mass index (BMI), and
      patients were classified into normal (<25), overweight (>=25 to <30), obese I (30
      to <35), obese II (35 to <40), and obese III (>=40). Among 662 patients with DVT,
      28% were overweight and 49% were obese. The mean age was 50.3 (16.5) years, and
      51% were females. Diabetes mellitus and prior venous thromboembolism were
      significantly higher among obese patients. History of malignancy was more common
      in nonobese patients. Protein S and antithrombin III deficiency and
      hyperhomocysteinemia were more prevalent among morbid obese patients. Also, obese
      patients had higher incidence of thrombosis in the distal veins ( P = .03).
      Warfarin use and long-term therapy were more frequent in obese than nonobese.
      Postthrombotic syndrome was comparable in obese and nonobese groups. Recurrent
      DVT was higher in obese I ( P < .01), whereas mortality rates were greater in
      nonobese groups ( P = .001). Malignancy, diabetes mellitus, and common femoral
      vein involvement were predictors of mortality, whereas BMI >=30 was the predictor
      of survival. Cox regression models showed that after adjusting for age, sex,
      pulmonary embolism, and duration of warfarin treatment, BMI >=40 had better
      survival (hazard ratio: 0.177, 95% confidence interval: 0.045-0.691, P = .013).
      There is a significant association between obesity and DVT. Obese patients have
      characteristic risk factors and better survival. This obesity paradox needs
      further studies to assess its clinical and pharmacotherapeutic implications.

PMID- 28877606
TI  - Discordance Between VASP Phosphorylation and Platelet Aggregation in Defining
      High On-Clopidogrel Platelet Reactivity After ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction.
AB  - To investigate potential clinical characteristics associated with discordance
      between platelet vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein phosphorylation (VASP-P)
      flow cytometry (FCM) assay and light transmission aggregometry (LTA) in defining
      high on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity (HPR) after ST-segment elevation
      myocardial infarction (STEMI). In this study, platelet responsiveness was
      measured by the above 2 methods simultaneously on day 1 and on day 6 of STEMI
      onset in 90 consecutive patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary
      intervention. The FCM-derived platelet reactivity index and LTA-derived platelet
      aggregation rate were both significantly reduced after dual antiplatelet therapy
      on day 6. Multiple variable-adjusted logistic regression analysis revealed that
      smoking (odds ratio [OR]: 4.507, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.123-18.09, P =
      .034) and onset-to-admission time (per 1 hour increase, OR: 1.196, 95% CI: 1.023
      1.398, P = .025) both were independent predictors for the discordance between the
      2 methods. Additionally, improved correlation and concordance was observed in
      nonsmokers compared with smokers. Our data show that smoking and prolonged onset
      to-admission time are associated with discordance between platelet VASP-P and LTA
      in defining HPR after STEMI, which should be considered when planning
      personalized antiplatelet therapy.

PMID- 28877607
TI  - Levels of Matrix-Degrading Enzymes and Lubricin in Patients With Degenerative
      Joint Disease Requiring Arthroplasty.
AB  - Total joint arthroplasty (TJA) of the hip or knee (THA and TKA) is the primary
      surgical intervention for individuals with degenerative joint disease (DJD).
      Although it is commonly thought that shear force on the joint causes the
      degradation of articular cartilage, it is possible that there are other factors
      that contribute to the progression of DJD. It is plausible that specific enzymes
      that degrade the joint are upregulated, or conversely, there is downregulation of
      enzymes critical for joint lubrication. The aim of this study is to profile
      collagenase-1, elastase, heparanase, and lubricin levels in patients undergoing
      TJA in order to determine potential preexisting dysregulation that contributes to
      the pathogenesis of DJD. Deidentified blood samples were obtained from patients
      undergoing TJA 1 day pre- and 1 day postoperatively. Plasma samples were analyzed
      using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits for elastase, collagenase-1,
      heparanase, and lubricin. In comparison to healthy controls, there were
      significant increases in circulating collagenase-1, elastase, and lubricin levels
      in both the preoperative and postoperative samples. There were no significant
      differences in heparanase levels in the preoperative or postoperative samples.
      Comparing the preoperative versus postoperative patient samples, only lubricin
      demonstrated a significant change. The results of this study confirm that
      patients undergoing TJA have preexisting alterations in the levels of matrix
      degrading enzymes and lubricin. The alterations observed in this study may
      provide insight into the pathogenesis of DJD.

PMID- 28877608
TI  - Genome-wide integrative analysis identified SNP-miRNA-mRNA interaction networks
      in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
AB  - AIM: To detect SNP-miRNA-mRNA interaction networks and to elucidate miRNA
      mediated regulation effects on mRNA expression. MATERIALS & METHODS: In human
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 43 females, SNP-miRNA-mRNA interaction
      networks were established through an integrative analysis. Then causal inference
      test was followed to detect miRNA-mediated effects on mRNA expressions. RESULTS:
      About 167 trios corresponding to 56 SNPs, 20 miRNAs and 47 target-mRNAs have the
      SNP-miRNA-mRNA interactions, but only 22 trios have miRNA-mediated effects
      between SNP and mRNA. For the three miRNAs (hsa-miR-222-3p, hsa-miR-181b-5p and
      hsa-miR-106b-5p), each mediates at least four correlations between SNP and mRNA.
      The mRNAs in interaction play an important role in energy metabolism, cellular
      and tissue homeostasis. CONCLUSION: This study represents the first effort of
      constructing an integrative interaction network of SNP-miRNA-mRNA and miRNA
      mediated regulatory effects that provide helpful clues for future investigations
      of peripheral blood mononuclear cell-related physiological process and
      immunological diseases.

PMID- 28877609
TI  - Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for the
      treatment of advanced epithelial and recurrent ovarian carcinoma: a single center
      experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With standard treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), prognosis
      is very poor. The aim of this study is to show early and late results in patients
      who underwent cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: This was a retrospective single centre study. All patients with
      advanced and recurrent ovarian cancer treated with cytoreductive surgery and
      hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) or modified early postoperative
      intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC) were included in the study. RESULTS: In the
      period 1995-2014, 116 patients were treated, 55 with primary EOC and 61 with
      recurrent EOC. The mean age was 59 years (26-74). Statistically, median survival
      time was significantly longer in the group with primary advanced cancer of the
      ovary (41.3 months) compared to relapsed ovarian cancer (27.3 months). Survival
      for the primary EOC was 65 and 24% at 3 and 5 years, respectively. Survival for
      recurrent EOC was 33 and 16% at 3 and 5 years, respectively. Mortality was 1/116
      (0.8%). Morbidity was 11/116 (9.5%). Peritoneal cancer index (PCI) was <=20 in 59
      (51%) patients and statistically, their average survival was significantly longer
      than in the group of 57 (49%) patients with PCI >20 (p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: In
      advanced or recurrent EOC, a curative therapeutic approach was pursued that
      combined optimal cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy. PCI and
      timing of the intervention (primary or recurrent) were the strongest independent
      prognostic factors.

PMID- 28877610
TI  - The tumor suppressive role of inhibin betaA in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
AB  - INHBA (inhibin betaA), a subunit of a ligand of the transforming growth factor
      beta superfamily, is known to play diverse roles in various solid tumors.
      However, its role in hematologic malignancies remains unexplored. Here, we
      investigated the function of INHBA in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Both
      mRNA and protein levels of INHBA were significantly downregulated in primary
      DLBCL tissues, irrespective of germinal center B-cell-like (GCB) or non-GCB
      subtype, compared to those in benign tonsils. The low level of INHBA in patients
      with de novo DLBCL was correlated with reduced overall and progression-free
      survival. Ectopic expression of INHBA in DLBCL cell lines (OCI-Ly01 and SUDHL-10)
      resulted in reduced cell proliferation, increased spontaneous apoptosis and
      arrested cell cycle in vitro and suppressed xenograft tumor growth in vivo.
      Moreover, INHBA enhanced the chemosensitivity of DLBCL cells. Thus, our results
      provide novel evidence that INHBA functions as a tumor suppressor in DLBCL.

PMID- 28877611
TI  - An update on behavioral treatments in migraine - current knowledge and future
      options.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Besides pharmacological and interventional treatments a variety of
      non-medical therapeutic options exist for migraine, which has largely been
      derived from behavioral therapy. Areas covered: For our update we collected
      available studies via PubMed searches. This review highlights that already
      consulting of the patient is able to reduce the frequency of migraine attacks.
      Relaxation techniques, especially progressive muscle relaxation, and various
      types of biofeedback are effective, as is the implementation of cognitive
      behavioral therapy. However, recent reviews also point to some existing
      inconsistencies and methodological limitations. The advent of modern information
      technology based approaches (e.g. online therapy, smartphone applications)
      further advanced the arsenal of behavioral treatment regimes. The combination of
      behavioral treatment options and the combination with pharmacotherapy lead to
      additive effects. In modern multidisciplinary treatment approaches, behavioral
      therapy is an indispensable component. Expert commentary: Behavioral treatment in
      prophylaxis of migraine is as effective as pharmacological treatment with
      additional effects when pharmacological and behavioral treatment is applied in
      combination. Novel treatment approaches using online technology and electronic
      devices offer interesting options that will spread more in the future.

PMID- 28877612
TI  - The role of MRI in the early evaluation of lung microwave ablation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To retrospectively investigate the role of a contrast enhanced MRI
      (ceMRI) performed 24 h after a microwave ablation (MWA) of the lung, in
      predicting local tumour progression (LTP) and detecting complications compared to
      an unenhanced CT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-nine patients who underwent MWA of
      77 lung metastases between 2008 and 2015 were included. All patients received an
      unenhanced chest CT and a ceMRI (including T2 and ceT1) 24 h after MWA. The
      conspicuities of the peripheral rim and the ablated tumour were scored using 1-3
      scales and compared between examinations. The safety margin was measured directly
      (both scores >=2) and indirectly using a subtraction method. The ability of each
      imaging modality to predict LTP based on safety margin width was analysed using
      receiver operating characteristic curves. The MRI ability to detect a
      pneumothorax was compared to CT. RESULTS: The peripheral rim was best visualised
      on T2 followed by T1 and CT. The tumour was best visualised on CT, followed by T1
      and T2. Direct safety margin measurement was possible on CT, ceT1 and T2 in
      68.8%, 64.9% and 27.3% of cases, respectively. Direct CT (AUC = 0.77) and ceT1
      (AUC = 0.76) measurements had better diagnostic performance than indirect CT (AUC
      = 0.72), ceT1 (AUC = 0.70) and T2 (AUC = 0.69) measurements. The MRI sensitivity
      and specificity for pneumothorax were 60.8% and 87.0%, respectively. Only one
      pneumothorax >1 cm was missed. CONCLUSIONS: A ceMRI performed 24 h after MWA of
      lung tumours has a similar ability to predict LTP and detect important
      complications as a CT has.

PMID- 28877614
TI  - Recovery from depression: a systematic review of perceptions and associated
      factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite extensive literature examining perceptions of recovery from
      severe mental illness, literature focusing on recovery from depression in adults
      is limited. AIM: Systematically review the existing literature investigating
      patients' and clinicians' perceptions of, and factors associated with, recovery
      from depression. METHOD: Studies investigating perceptions of, and factors
      associated with, recovery from depression in adults were identified through
      database searches. Studies were assessed against inclusion criteria and quality
      rating checklists. RESULTS: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Recovery
      from depression is perceived as a complex, personal journey. The concept of
      normalised, biomedical definitions of recovery is not supported, with the
      construction of self and societal gender expectations identified by women as
      central to recovery. Recovery from depression was associated with higher levels
      of perceived social support and group memberships. A range of factors are
      identified as influencing recovery. However, physicians and patients prioritise
      different factors assessing what is important in being "cured" from depression.
      CONCLUSIONS: Recovery from depression is perceived by patients as a complex,
      personal process, influenced by a range of factors. However, greater
      understanding of clinicians' perceptions of client recovery from depression is
      essential to inform clinical practice and influence future research.

PMID- 28877613
TI  - Odontogenic sinusitis: a comprehensive review.
AB  - Odontogenic sinusitis (OS) is a highly prevalent, underappreciated and
      underdiagnosed disease that has been known for over 100 years. Apical
      periodontitis, periodontal disease and iatrogenic extrusion of foreign bodies
      into the sinus are the main causes of OS. Although the prevalence of sinus
      pathosis of dental origin is still controversial, otolaryngologists recognize
      that in the presence of recalcitrant sinusitis, a dental origin should be
      considered and properly treated. Currently, cone-beam computed tomography is the
      gold-standard imaging technique to assess the relationship between dental
      conditions, especially apical periodontitis and sinus diseases, and whenever this
      association is detected, patients should be seen by both a dentist and an
      otolaryngologist in order to achieve complete recovery. This article reviews the
      current concepts regarding the definitions, diagnosis and management of OS from a
      clinical point of view.

PMID- 28877615
TI  - Clinicopathologic investigation of methotrexate-induced lymphoproliferative
      disorders, with a focus on regression.
AB  - Although recent accumulative data reveal the clinicopathogenesis of regression in
      methotrexate-induced lymphoproliferative disorders (MTX-LPDs), the precise
      understanding including this category remains controversial. In this study, we
      analyzed 62 patients with MTX-LPD. Forty-three patients showed regression (Reg
      group), with high rates of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and LPD (90 and 88%,
      respectively). Among the 43 patients of the Reg group, 14 patients (33%)
      relapsed. The median duration before relapse in the Reg group was 10.6 months.
      Although the difference of OS between the Reg and Non-Reg groups was not
      significantly different, relapse-free patients in the Reg group had a superior
      overall survival (OS). MTX duration had a significant impact on Epstein-Barr
      virus (EBV) infection (p = .00131). Furthermore, EBV infection was significantly
      related to clinical manifestations, including spleen invasion, in the regression
      phenomenon. Some human leukocyte antigens (HLA) alleles might affect MTX-LPD
      development via EBV infection, although A*2402 and DRB1*0405 might be affected as
      fundamental factors.

PMID- 28877616
TI  - Metabolic effects of breastfeeding in women with previous gestational diabetes
      diagnosed according to the IADPSG criteria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Some studies have already investigated about the short-term favorable
      metabolic effects of breastfeeding in women with previous gestational diabetes
      mellitus (GDM). AIM: The aim of our study is to confirm whether the positive
      effects reported are maintained in the larger cohorts of patients with mild form
      of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) because recently diagnosed according to
      IADPSG criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study includes 97
      evaluable consecutive women with prior GDM who have the follow-up oral glucose
      tolerance test at least 3 months after delivery. Fasting and 2-h plasma glucose
      values, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR), total cholesterol, and
      triglycerides were obtained in pregnancy and during the post-partum control.
      RESULTS: These patients were divided in 81 (83.5%) who lactate until 3 months and
      16 (16.5%) who did not lactate. During pregnancy, there are no significant
      differences between the two groups for age, BMI, fasting and 2-h plasma glucose
      values, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol and triglycerides. At the postpartum control,
      we have at univariate analysis significant differences for all these parameters
      except total cholesterol. After adjustment for confounders we still have, in the
      breastfeeding group, HOMA-IR reduction (OR 0.370; 95% CI 0.170-0.805; p < .01) as
      significant independent variable, whose improvement is the most acknowledged
      important factor for the prevention of abnormal glucose tolerance later in life.
      CONCLUSION: These encouraging results confirm our determination to warmly advice
      the women affected by GDM to breastfeeding at least for 3 months.

PMID- 28877617
TI  - Workforce flexibility - in defence of professional healthcare work.
AB  - Purpose The desirability of having a more flexible workforce is emphasised across
      many health systems yet this goal is as ambiguous as it is ubiquitous. In the
      absence of empirical studies in healthcare that have defined flexibility as an
      outcome, the purpose of this paper is to draw on classic management and
      sociological theory to reduce this ambiguity. Design/methodology/approach The
      paper uses the Weberian tool of "ideal types". Key workforce reforms are held
      against Atkinson's model of functional flexibility which aims to increase
      responsiveness and adaptability through multiskilling, autonomy and teams; and
      Taylorism which seeks stability and reduced costs through specialisation,
      fragmentation and management control. Findings Appeals to an amorphous goal of
      increasing workforce flexibility make an assumption that any reform will increase
      flexibility. However, this paper finds that the work of healthcare professionals
      already displays most of the essential features of functional flexibility but
      many widespread reforms are shifting healthcare work in a Taylorist direction.
      This contradiction is symptomatic of a failure to confront inevitable trade-offs
      in reform: between the benefits of specialisation and the costs of fragmentation;
      and between management control and professional autonomy. Originality/value The
      paper questions the conventional conception of "the problem" of workforce reform
      as primarily one of professional control over tasks. Holding reforms against the
      ideal types of Taylorism and functional flexibility is a simple, effective way
      the costs and benefits of workforce reform can be revealed.

PMID- 28877618
TI  - A value-based taxonomy of improvement approaches in healthcare.
AB  - Purpose The concept of value is becoming increasingly fashionable in healthcare
      and various improvement approaches (IAs) have been introduced with the aim of
      increasing value. The purpose of this paper is to construct a taxonomy that
      supports the management of parallel IAs in healthcare.
      Design/methodology/approach Based on previous research, this paper proposes a
      taxonomy that includes the dimensions of view on value and organizational focus;
      three contemporary IAs - lean, value-based healthcare, and patient-centered care 
      are related to the taxonomy. An illustrative qualitative case study in the
      context of psychiatric (psychosis) care is then presented that contains data from
      23 interviews and focuses on the value concept, IAs, and the proposed taxonomy.
      Findings Respondents recognized the dimensions of the proposed taxonomy and
      indicated its usefulness as support for choosing and combining different IAs into
      a coherent management model, and for facilitating dialog about IAs. The findings
      also suggested that the view of value as "health outcomes" is widespread, but
      healthcare professionals are less likely than managers to also view value as a
      process. Originality/value The conceptual contribution of this paper is to
      delineate some important characteristics of IAs in relation to the emerging
      "value era". It also highlights the coexistence of different IAs in healthcare
      management practice. A taxonomy is proposed that can help managers choose, adapt,
      and combine IAs in local management models.

PMID- 28877619
TI  - "That was a good shift".
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate a boundary spanning,
      interprofessional collaboration between advanced practice nurses (APNs) and
      junior doctors to support junior doctors' learning and improve patient management
      during the overtime shift. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods evaluation
      of an intervention in an adult tertiary referral hospital, to enhance
      interprofessional collaboration on overtime shifts. Phase 1 compared tasks and
      ward rounds on 86 intervention shifts with 106 "regular" shifts, and examined the
      effect on junior doctor patient management testing a model using regression
      techniques. Phase 2 explored the experience of the intervention for stakeholders.
      91 junior doctors participated (89 percent response rate) on 192 overtime shifts.
      Junior doctors, APNs and senior medical professionals/administrators participated
      in interviews. Findings The intervention was associated with an increase in self
      initiated ward rounds by junior doctors, partially explained by junior doctors
      completing fewer tasks skilled nurses could also complete. The intervention
      significantly reduced doctors' engagement in tasks carried over from day shifts
      as well as first year (but not more experienced) junior doctors' total tasks.
      Interviews suggested the initiative reduced junior doctors' work pressure and
      promoted a safe team climate, situation awareness, skills, confidence, and well
      being. Originality/value Junior doctors overtime shifts (5 p.m. to 11 p.m.) are
      important, both for hospitals to maintain patient care after hours and for junior
      doctors to learn and develop independent clinical decision making skills.
      However, junior doctors frequently report finding overtime shifts challenging and
      stressful. Redesigning overtime shifts to facilitate interprofessional
      collaboration can improve patient management and junior doctors' learning and
      well-being.

PMID- 28877620
TI  - They did not start the fire: reviewing and resolving the issue of physician
      stress and burnout.
AB  - Purpose Physician stress and burnout is a serious and common concern in
      healthcare, with over half of physicians in the USA meeting at least one
      criterion for burnout. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
      Design/methodology/approach A review on current state of physician stress and
      burnout research, from 2008 to 2016, was undertaken. A subsequent perspective
      paper was shaped around these reviews. Findings Findings reveal research strength
      in prevalence and incidence with opportunities for stronger intervention studies.
      While descriptive studies on causes and consequences of physician burnout are
      available, studies on interventions and prevention of physician burnout are
      lacking. Future research on physician stress and burnout should incorporate
      intervention studies and take care to avoid limitations found in current
      research. Accountability and prevention of physician burnout is the
      responsibility of the healthcare industry as a whole, and organizational
      strategies must be emphasized in future research. Originality/value The value of
      this research comes in the original comprehensive review, international inclusion
      and succinct summary of physician burnout research and strategies.

PMID- 28877621
TI  - Emerging hybridity: comparing UK healthcare regulatory arrangements.
AB  - Purpose Healthcare regulation is one means to address quality challenges in
      healthcare systems and is carried out using compliance, deterrence and/or
      improvement approaches. The four countries of the UK provide an opportunity to
      explore and compare different regulatory architecture and models. The purpose of
      this paper is to understand emerging regulatory models and associated tensions.
      Design/methodology/approach This paper uses qualitative methods to compare the
      regulatory architecture and models. Data were collected from documents, including
      board papers, inspection guidelines and from 48 interviewees representing a cross
      section of roles from six organisational regulatory agencies. The data were
      analysed thematically using an a priori coding framework developed from the
      literature. Findings The findings show that regulatory agencies in the four
      countries of the UK have different approaches and methods of delivering their
      missions. This study finds that new hybrid regulatory models are developing which
      use improvement support interventions in parallel with deterrence and compliance
      approaches. The analysis highlights that effective regulatory oversight of
      quality is contingent on the ability of regulatory agencies to balance their
      requirements to assure and improve care. Nevertheless, they face common tensions
      in sustaining the balance in their requirements connected to their roles,
      relationships and resources. Originality/value The paper shows through its
      comparison of UK regulatory agencies that the development and implementation of
      hybrid models is complex. The paper contributes to research by identifying three
      tensions related to hybrid regulatory models; roles, resources and relationships
      which need to be managed to sustain hybrid regulatory models.

PMID- 28877622
TI  - Are we nearly there yet? A study of the English National Health Service as
      professional bureaucracies.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of medical engagement in
      the management and leadership of health services in the English National Health
      Service (NHS). The literature suggests that this is an important component of
      high performing health systems, although the NHS has traditionally struggled to
      engage doctors and has been characterised as a professional bureaucracy. This
      study explored the ways in which health care organisations structure and operate
      medical leadership processes to assess the degree to which professional
      bureaucracies still exist in the English NHS. Design/methodology/approach Drawing
      on the qualitative component of a research into medical leadership in nine case
      study sites, this paper reports on findings from over 150 interviews with
      doctors, general managers and nurses. In doing so, the authors focus specifically
      on the operation of medical leadership in nine different NHS hospitals. Findings
      Concerted attention has been focussed on medical leadership and this has led to
      significant changes to organisational structures and the recruitment and training
      processes of doctors for leadership roles. There is a cadre of doctors that are
      substantially more engaged in the leadership of their organisations than previous
      research has found. Yet, this engagement has tended to only involve a small
      section of the overall medical workforce in practice, raising questions about the
      nature of medical engagement more broadly. Originality/value There are only a
      limited number of studies that have sought to explore issues of medical
      leadership on this scale in the English context. This represents the first
      significant study of this kind in over a decade.

PMID- 28877623
TI  - Management challenges in British Columbia's healthcare system.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the operational and management
      challenges in a globally budgeted, regionalized healthcare system and their
      implications for public service. Design/methodology/approach Concentrating on
      British Columbia's regional health authorities (RHAs) and hospitals, this study
      utilized data from interviews of key informants, documents (histories,
      legislation, agreements between RHAs and provincial government, and RHA
      organizational charts), news reports, and participant observation at board
      meetings. Findings Challenges encountered by the managers include accommodating
      powerful stakeholders (elected officials, providers, and organized publics),
      adhering to fixed budgets, obtaining capital from public sources, and adjusting
      to government turnover. In response, the managers engage in balancing priorities
      of stakeholders, shifting of resources within and across sites and operating
      units, and working strategically with the capital allocation process. Responses
      of managers to these challenges have promoted stability but raise concerns about
      attaining the system's goals. Practical implications Management challenges and
      potential patterns of response should be considered in assessing the options for
      health system reforms. Many countries periodically reorganize their healthcare
      systems, and recognition of potential management challenges can contribute to the
      achievement of objectives sought in these reforms. Originality/value Although
      studies have demonstrated that management affects the implementation of public
      programs in several areas, little research has focused on the relationships
      between features of health systems, management responses, and potential outcomes.

PMID- 28877624
TI  - Work motivation among healthcare professionals.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore work motivation among
      professionals at well-functioning primary healthcare centers subject to a
      national healthcare reform which include financial incentives.
      Design/methodology/approach Five primary healthcare centers in Sweden were
      purposively selected for being well-operated and representing public/private and
      small/large units. In total, 43 interviews were completed with different medical
      professions and qualitative deductive content analysis was conducted. Findings
      Work motivation exists for professionals when their individual goals are aligned
      with the organizational goals and the design of the reform. The centers' positive
      management was due to a unique combination of factors, such as clear direction of
      goals, a culture of non-hierarchical collaboration, and systematic quality
      improvement work. The financial incentives need to be translated in terms of
      quality patient care to provide clear direction for the professionals. Social
      processes where professionals work together as cohesive groups, and provided
      space for quality improvement work is pivotal in addressing how alignment is
      created. Practical implications Leaders need to consistently translate and
      integrate reforms with the professionals' drives and values. This is done by
      encouraging participation through teamwork, time for structured reflection, and
      quality improvement work. Social implications The design of the reforms and
      leadership are essential preconditions for work motivation. Originality/value The
      study offers a more complete picture of how reforms are managed at primary
      healthcare centers, as different medical professionals are included. The value
      also consists of showing how a range of aspects combine for primary healthcare
      professionals to successfully manage external reforms.

PMID- 28877625
TI  - Bricks-and-mortar and patient safety culture.
AB  - Purpose Building a new hospital requires a major investment in capital
      infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of bricks
      and-mortar on patient safety culture before and two years after the move of a
      large tertiary hospital to a greenfield site. The difference in patient safety
      perceptions between clinical and non-clinical staff is also explored.
      Design/methodology/approach This research uses data collected from the same
      workforce across two time periods (2013 and 2015) in a large Australian
      healthcare service. Validated surveys of patient safety culture ( n=306 and 246)
      were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings Using two
      way analysis of variance, the authors found that perceived patient safety culture
      remains unchanged for staff despite a major relocation and upgrade of services
      and different perceptions of patient safety culture between staff groups remains
      the same throughout change. Practical implications A dramatic change in physical
      context, such as moving an entire hospital, made no measurable impact on
      perceived patient safety culture by major groups of staff. Improving patient
      safety culture requires more than investment in buildings and infrastructure.
      Understanding differences in professional perspectives of patient safety culture
      may inform organisational management approaches, and enhance the targeting of
      specific strategies. Originality/value The authors believe this to be the first
      empirically based paper that investigates the impact of a large investment into
      hospital capital and a subsequent relocation of services on clinical and non
      clinical staff perceptions of patient safety culture.

PMID- 28877626
TI  - Tumor-associated macrophages, nanomedicine and imaging: the axis of success in
      the future of cancer immunotherapy.
AB  - The success of any given cancer immunotherapy relies on several key factors. In
      particular, success hinges on the ability to stimulate the immune system in a
      controlled and precise fashion, select the best treatment options and appropriate
      therapeutic agents, and use highly effective tools to accurately and efficiently
      assess the outcome of the immunotherapeutic intervention. Furthermore, a deep
      understanding and effective utilization of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs),
      nanomedicine and biomedical imaging must be harmonized to improve treatment
      efficacy. Additionally, a keen appreciation of the dynamic interplay that occurs
      between immune cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) is also essential. New
      advances toward the modulation of the immune TME have led to many novel
      translational research approaches focusing on the targeting of TAMs, enhanced
      drug and nucleic acid delivery, and the development of theranostic probes and
      nanoparticles for clinical trials. In this review, we discuss the key cogitations
      that influence TME, TAM modulations and immunotherapy in solid tumors as well as
      the methods and resources of tracking the tumor response. The vast array of
      current nanomedicine technologies can be readily modified to modulate immune
      function, target specific cell types, deliver therapeutic payloads and be
      monitored using several different imaging modalities. This allows for the
      development of more effective treatments, which can be specifically designed for
      particular types of cancer or on an individual basis. Our current capacities have
      allowed for greater use of theranostic probes and multimodal imaging strategies
      that have led to better image contrast, real-time imaging capabilities leveraging
      targeting moieties, tracer kinetics and enabling more detailed response profiles
      at the cellular and molecular levels. These novel capabilities along with new
      discoveries in cancer biology should drive innovation for improved biomarkers for
      efficient and individualized cancer therapy.

PMID- 28877628
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28877627
TI  - Five new therapies or just one new treatment? A critical look at immune
      checkpoint inhibition in urothelial cancer.

PMID- 28877629
TI  - Application of chimeric antigen receptor-engineered T cells in ovarian cancer
      therapy.
AB  - Due to the critical role of T cells in the immune surveillance of ovarian cancer,
      adoptive T-cell therapies are receiving increased attention as an
      immunotherapeutic approach for ovarian cancer. Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs),
      constructed by incorporating the single-chain Fv fragment to a T-cell signaling
      domain such as CD3 zeta or Fc receptor gamma chain, endow T cell with nonmajor
      histocompatibility complex-restricted specificity. Dual specificity, trans
      signaling CARs and affinity-tuned single-chain Fv fragment have broadened the
      applicability of CAR-engineered T-cell therapy and may be considered preferential
      to T cell receptor T-cell therapy in clinical care. As new insights into the CAR
      engineered T cells have emerged over the last decade, we review the development
      of CAR T-cell therapy and discuss the progress and safety concerns regarding its
      translation from basic research into clinical care of ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28877630
TI  - FOCIS goes south: advances in translational and clinical immunology.
AB  - FOCIS goes South: Advances in Translational and Clinical Immunology was the first
      Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) ( www.focisnet.org ) meeting
      held in Latin America (May 15-17, 2017, Santiago de Chile, Chile). The meeting
      was organized as a 3-day workshop and was fostered by the Millennium Institute on
      Immunology and Immunotherapy, a recently nominated FOCIS Center of Excellence.
      The workshop brought together FOCIS associates, such as members of the FOCIS
      Board of Directors, Directors of different Centers of Excellence, regional
      speakers and 350 attendees. The Meeting covered aspects of immune regulation and
      modulation, as well as immunotherapy in areas of autoimmunity, transplantation,
      cancer and infectious diseases, among others. The activity also had a full-day
      immunology course and a day-long flow cytometry course.

PMID- 28877631
TI  - PM01183 inhibits myeloid-derived suppressor cells in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the ability of PM01183 to eliminate myeloid-derived suppressor
      cells (MDSCs). MATERIALS & METHODS: The effect of PM01183 on MDSCs, NK cells and
      CD8+ T cells was examined in vitro and in vivo. The mechanism by which PM01183
      depletes MDSCs was also investigated. RESULTS: PM01183 reduced the number of
      MDSCs by inducing apoptosis and attenuated the MDSC-mediated suppression of CD8+
      T cells by inhibiting arginase-1 production, whereas no significant effect on
      CD8+ T or NK cells was noted. The inhibitory effect of PM01183 on MDSC was
      mediated by the attenuation of STAT3 phosphorylation. The inhibitory effect of
      PM01183 on MDSCs was greater than those of existing anticancer agents.
      CONCLUSION: PM01183 exhibits strong inhibitory effects on MDSCs.

PMID- 28877632
TI  - Case report: pembrolizumab-induced Type 1 diabetes in a patient with metastatic
      cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors are novel cancer therapies associated
      with numerous autoimmune toxicities, some of which are only now being
      appreciated. CASE PRESENTATION: A 67-year old female with metastatic
      cholangiocarcinoma and no prior history of diabetes was treated with leucovorin,
      fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and pembrolizumab. After eight cycles, she developed
      new onset type 1 diabetes mellitus with positive glutamic acid decarboxylase
      antibody titers. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first reported case
      of PD-1 inhibitor associated Type 1 diabetes mellitus in a patient with
      cholangiocarcinoma and supports others' experiences that PD-1 inhibition can
      cause a spectrum of autoimmune adverse events that require clinical monitoring
      and periodic screenings.

PMID- 28877633
TI  - Targeting the PSGL-1 pathway for immune modulation.

PMID- 28877634
TI  - Certolizumab, an anti-TNF safe during pregancy? The CRIB Study results: an
      interview with Professor Xavier Mariette.
AB  - Professor Xavier Mariette, MD, PhD, has served as the Head of the Rheumatology
      Department of Bicetre Hospital, Paris-Sud University since 1999, a role he took
      following 10 years of practice of clinical immunology. Professor Mariette has
      initiated a number of clinical research studies on biotherapies in autoimmune
      diseases. He is the head of the French RATIO (Research Axed on Tolerance of
      Biotherapy) observatory, collecting specific rare serious adverse events in
      patients treated with anti-TNF. He initiated the French AIR (Autoimmunity and
      Rituximab) and ORA (Orencia and Rheumatoid arthritis) registries of patients with
      autoimmune diseases treated with rituximab and abatacept. He initiated clinical
      trials in Sjogren's syndrome with infliximab, hydroxychloroquine and belimumab.
      Professor Mariette is involved in basic research, leading a group working on
      pathogeny of Sjogren's syndrome, relationships between innate immunity and B-cell
      activation in autoimmunity and the relationships between autoimmunity and
      lymphoma. Professor Mariette is also very interested in new ways of teaching. In
      2007, he participated with other European Experts in the creation of the EULAR
      Web Course of Rheumatology in 2007. Professor Mariette has been the President of
      the Scientific Committee of the EULAR meeting, which took place in Berlin in 2012
      and is in 2016 the elect Chair of the EULAR standing committee on investigative
      rheumatology. Professor Mariette is co-author of more than 430 publications
      referenced in PubMed with an H-index of 61.

PMID- 28877635
TI  - Two is better than one: advances in pathogen-boosted immunotherapy and adoptive T
      cell therapy.
AB  - The recent tremendous successes in clinical trials take cancer immunotherapy into
      a new era and have attracted major attention from both academia and industry.
      Among the variety of immunotherapy strategies developed to boost patients' own
      immune systems to fight against malignant cells, the pathogen-based and adoptive
      cell transfer therapies have shown the most promise for treating multiple types
      of cancer. Pathogen-based therapies could either break the immune tolerance to
      enhance the effectiveness of cancer vaccines or directly infect and kill cancer
      cells. Adoptive cell transfer can induce a strong durable antitumor response,
      with recent advances including engineering dual specificity into T cells to
      recognize multiple antigens and improving the metabolic fitness of transferred
      cells. In this review, we focus on the recent prospects in these two areas and
      summarize some ongoing studies that represent potential advancements for
      anticancer immunotherapy, including testing combinations of these two strategies.

PMID- 28877637
TI  - Ghost probiotics with a combined regimen: a novel therapeutic approach against
      the Zika virus, an emerging world threat.
AB  - The Zika virus (ZIKV) used to be an obscure flavivirus closely related to dengue
      virus (DENV). Transmission of this epidemic pathogen occurs mainly via
      mosquitoes, but it is also capable of placental and sexual transmission. Although
      the characteristics of these viruses are well defined, infections are
      unpredictable in terms of disease severity, unusual clinical manifestations,
      unexpected methods of transmission, long-term persistence, and the development of
      new strains. Recently, ZIKV has gained huge medical attention following the large
      scale epidemics around the world, and reported cases of congenital abnormalities
      associated with Zika virus infections which have created a public health
      emergency of international concern. Despite continuous research on ZIKV, no
      specific treatment or vaccine has been developed, excepting a preventive strategy
      for congenital ZIKV infection. Probiotics, known as GRAS, are bacteria that
      confer various health beneficial effects, and have been shown to be effective at
      curing a number of viral diseases by modulating the immune system. Furthermore,
      probiotic preparations consisting of dead cells and cellular metabolites, so
      called "Ghost probiotics", can also act as biological response modifiers. Here,
      we review available information on the epidemiology, transmission, and clinical
      features of ZIKV, and on treatment and prevention strategies. In addition, we
      emphasize the use of probiotics and plant-based natural remedies and describe
      their action mechanisms, and the green technologies for microbial conversion,
      which could contribute to the development of novel therapies that may reduce the
      pathogenicity of ZIKV. Accordingly, we draw attention to new findings, unanswered
      questions, unresolved issues, and controversies regarding ZIKV.

PMID- 28877638
TI  - Spinocerebellar ataxia: a critical review of cognitive and socio-cognitive
      deficits.
AB  - PURPOSE: The primary aim of this contribution is to provide a critical discussion
      on cognitive and sociocognitive implications of spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs)
      subtypes. The term SCA refers to a group of neurodegenerative disorders that have
      been increasingly investigated in the last years, sharing the characteristic of
      progressive ataxia resulting from degeneration of cerebellum and its connections.
      In past decades only involvement of cerebellum in behaviour and timing has been
      investigated, bringing to the belief about its central role in timing of movement
      and sensation, particularly for short intervals of time. Only very recently the
      cerebellum has been considered as a potentially important centre for cognitive
      processing and related spheres of social cognition, so that several studies with
      SCA patients have been carried out on these topics: as a consequence a section of
      this review will be dedicated to this important aspect. RESULTS: After a brief
      discussion on most commonly used methods to assess cognitive and socio-cognitive
      abilities in SCAs, cognitive and socio-cognitive profiles of principal SCA
      subtypes have been thoroughly reviewed and critically discussed. Due to the very
      poor literature in this field the most common SCA variants have been fully
      included (i.e. SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, SCA6 and SCA7). CONCLUSIONS: A comparative
      summary of the main characteristics of cognitive and social cognition deficit in
      SCA subtypes has been proposed together with a research agenda for future
      investigation in this field principally aimed at using measures of cognition
      and/or social cognition as potential predictors of the extent and progression of
      disease.

PMID- 28877636
TI  - Is the Newest Vital Sign a Useful Measure of Health Literacy in HIV Disease?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited health literacy is common among persons infected with HIV and
      has been linked to poor mental and physical health outcomes, but there are no
      well-validated screening measures of health literacy in this vulnerable clinical
      population. The present study evaluates the usefulness of the Newest Vital Sign
      (NVS) as a brief measure of health literacy in HIV disease. METHODS: Seventy
      eight HIV+ adults were administered the NVS, Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in
      Medicine (REALM), and Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS). Main criterion
      variables included plasma HIV viral load, medication management capacity, self
      efficacy for medication management, and perceived relationships with healthcare
      providers. RESULTS: The NVS showed good internal consistency and moderate
      correlations with the REALM and SILS. Rates of limited health literacy were
      highest on the NVS (30.3%) as compared to SILS (6.6%) and REALM (9.2%). A series
      of regressions controlling for education showed that the NVS was incrementally
      predictive of viral load, medication management capacity and self-efficacy, and
      relationships with healthcare providers, above and beyond the REALM and SILS.
      CONCLUSION: The NVS shows evidence of reliability, convergent validity, and
      incremental criterion-related validity and thus may serve as useful screening
      tool for assessing health literacy in HIV disease.

PMID- 28877639
TI  - Novel solidified reverse micellar solution-based mucoadhesive nano lipid gels
      encapsulating miconazole nitrate-loaded nanoparticles for improved treatment of
      oropharyngeal candidiasis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop and evaluate solidified-reverse-micellar-solution (SRMS)
      based oromucosal nano lipid gels for improved localised delivery of miconazole
      nitrate (MN). METHODS: Phospholipon(r) 90G and Softisan(r) 154 (3:7) were used to
      prepare SRMS by fusion. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs, 0.25-1.0% w/w MN)
      formulated with the SRMS by high shear homogenisation were employed to prepare
      mucoadhesive nano lipid gels. Physicochemical characterisation, drug release in
      simulated salivary fluid (SSF) (pH 6.8) and anti-candidal activity were carried
      out. RESULTS: The SLNs were spherical nanoparticles, had mean size of 133.8 +/-
      6.4 to 393.2 +/- 14.5 nm, low polydispersity indices, good encapsulation
      efficiency (EE) (51.96 +/- 2.33-67.12 +/- 1.65%) and drug loading (DL) (19.05 +/-
      2.44-24.93 +/- 1.98%). The nano lipid gels were stable, spreadable, pseudoplastic
      viscoelastic mucoadhesive systems that exhibited better prolonged release and
      anti-candidal properties than marketed formulation (Daktarin(r) oral gel) (p <
      0.05). CONCLUSION: This study has shown that SRMS-based nano lipid gels could be
      employed to prolong localised oromucosal delivery of MN.

PMID- 28877640
TI  - Development and conceptual validation of a questionnaire to help contraceptive
      choice: CHLOE (Contraception: HeLping for wOmen's choicE).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to develop a questionnaire to facilitate
      choice of the most appropriate contraceptive method for individual women.
      METHODS: A literature review was conducted to identify key aspects influencing
      contraceptive choice and inform development of a questionnaire for online
      completion. Questionnaire development was overseen by a steering committee
      consisting of eight gynaecologists from across Europe. The initial draft
      underwent conceptual validation through cognitive debriefing interviews with six
      native English-speaking women. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to
      accurately identify potential issues and areas for questionnaire improvement. A
      revised version of the questionnaire then underwent face-to-face and online
      evaluation by 115 international gynaecologists/obstetricians with expertise in
      contraception, prior to development of a final version. RESULTS: The final
      conceptually validated Contraception: HeLping for wOmen's choicE (CHLOE)
      questionnaire takes <=10 min to complete and includes three sections to elicit
      general information about the individual, the health conditions that might
      influence contraceptive choice, and the woman's needs and preferences that might
      influence contraceptive choice. The questionnaire captures the core aspects of
      personalisation, efficacy and safety, identified as key attributes influencing
      contraceptive choice, and consists of 24 closed-ended questions for online
      completion prior to a health care provider (HCP) consultation. The HCP receives a
      summary of the responses. CONCLUSION: The CHLOE questionnaire has been developed
      to help women choose the contraception that best suits their needs and situation
      while optimising the HCP's time.

PMID- 28877642
TI  - To Assess the Success of Computerized Order Sets and Pharmacy Education Modules
      in Improving Antiretroviral Prescribing.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the success of order set and pharmacist training improvement
      (OSPTI) in improving prescription of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in a tertiary
      care, public, teaching hospital. METHODS: In this pre-OSPTI (January 2012 through
      June 2013) and post-OSPTI study (July 2013 through September 2014), an infectious
      disease pharmacist reviewed all patients on ART. A review of intervention data in
      July 2013 led to order-set changes in the hospital's computerized order entry
      system for frequently intervened on antiretrovirals: ritonavir, tenofovir,
      emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC/TDF), and lamivudine.
      Concurrently, case-based education modules were conducted to help pharmacists
      identify ART errors. The number of patients on ART, number of interventions, and
      types of ritonavir interventions were compared between pre- and post-OSPTI
      periods. RESULTS: In the pre-OSPTI period, an average of 239 patients were
      reviewed per quarter compared to an average of 216 per quarter in the post-OSPTI
      period. After implementing enhanced order sets, the number of interventions
      decreased by approximately 34% ( P < .0001). The number of ritonavir
      interventions decreased on average by 45% ( P < .0001), although the types of
      ritonavir interventions were similar. CONCLUSION: Enhanced antiretroviral order
      sets and pharmacy education modules improved ART prescription by reducing the
      overall number of antiretroviral interventions required per quarter. This
      modality was effective in improving prescribing of ART and reducing the need for
      pharmacist interventions.

PMID- 28877643
TI  - A Case Series of 18 Patients Receiving Ticagrelor After Carotid Stenting.
AB  - PURPOSE: Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin and a P2Y12 receptor
      antagonist is often used to prevent thrombotic complications after endovascular
      stent placement. Most of the published experience surrounding DAPT after carotid
      stenting is with clopidogrel. Ticagrelor may be a promising alternative,
      especially in patients who may be considered nonresponders to clopidogrel.
      However, clinical outcomes utilizing DAPT with ticagrelor in a cohort with
      carotid stenting is lacking. In this case series, we describe our experience with
      systematic prescribing of ticagrelor after carotid stent placement in 18
      patients. METHODS: A retrospective review of 18 patients prescribed ticagrelor
      who underwent carotid stenting between November 2015 and January 2017 was
      performed. All eligible patients were included in the review. The primary end
      point of interest was any ischemic stroke or death within 30 days following the
      procedure. Intracranial hemorrhage was a secondary end point. RESULTS AND
      CONCLUSIONS: No patients experienced the primary end point of ischemic stroke or
      death within 30 days. No intracranial hemorrhages were observed. The use of
      ticagrelor after carotid stenting may be a reasonable alternative to clopidogrel
      after carotid stent placement. Randomized trials to support our findings are
      needed.

PMID- 28877641
TI  - Collagen and Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds Activate Distinct Osteogenesis Signaling
      Pathways in Adult Adipose-Derived Multipotent Stromal Cells.
AB  - Osteogenic cell signaling pathway disruption varies among bone diseases. This
      investigation was designed to identify adipose-derived multipotent stromal cell
      (ASC) and bone graft scaffold combinations for local, targeted restoration of
      gene expression and extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition. Human ASC osteogenesis
      on bone graft materials was quantified following culture in stromal (S),
      osteogenic (O), or osteogenic for 48 h followed by stromal medium (OS) to test
      the two-part hypothesis: (1) identical ASC isolates on distinct bone graft
      scaffolds demonstrate unique viability, differentiation, ECM production, and gene
      expression in the same culture conditions; (2) identical ASC-bone graft scaffold
      combinations have different cell viability, differentiation, ECM production, and
      gene expression when cultured in S, O, or OS medium. Three commercially available
      bone graft scaffold materials, type I bovine collagen (C), hydroxyapatite + beta
      tricalcium phosphate + type I bovine collagen (HT), and beta-tricalcium phosphate
      + type I bovine collagen (CT) were evaluated. Passage 3 ASCs were loaded onto
      scaffold blocks with a spinner flask bioreactor, and constructs were cultured up
      to 28 days. Cell viability, gene expression (alkaline phosphatase [ALPL],
      osteoprotegerin [TNFRSF11B], osteocalcin [BGLAP], cannabinoid receptors type I
      [CNR1] and II [CNR2], receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa beta ligand
      [TNFSF11]), as well as ECM DNA, collagen, sulfated glycosaminoglycan, and protein
      content were quantified. Matrix organization was evaluated with scanning electron
      microscopy. Effects of scaffold, medium, or culture duration on cell viability
      were minimal. Significantly higher initial ALPL expression decreased with time,
      while BGLAP expression increased in HT constructs in O medium, and the constructs
      had the most abundant ECM components and ultrastructural organization. There was
      a similar, although delayed, pattern of gene expression and greater ECM collagen
      with less organization in C constructs in O medium. Higher CNR1 expression in C
      versus higher TNFRSF11B/TNFSF11 expression in HT constructs throughout the study
      support stimulation of unique osteogenic signaling pathways by identical cell
      isolates. These results suggest that bone scaffold composition may be used to
      selectively target specific osteogenic cell signaling pathways in ASC constructs
      to stimulate ECM deposition based on therapeutic needs.

PMID- 28877644
TI  - A Time Course of Bevacizumab (Anti-VEGF) Effect on Rat Peritoneum: Relations
      Between Antiadhesive Action and Fibrin Regulation Enzymes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To investigate the early and late antiadhesive effect and any changes
      of fibrin matrix regulation enzymes on rat peritoneum, after local administration
      of bevacizumab. METHODS: Rats were subjected to cecal abrasion. Bevacizumab (5
      mg/kg) against placebo was given intraperitoneally. On the 2nd, 14th, and 28th
      postoperative days adhesions were scored, and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA),
      plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9),
      degree of fibrosis, and angiogenesis were measured in abrased cecum and in intact
      parietal peritoneum. RESULTS: Bevacizumab significantly reduced adhesions up to
      15% on the 2nd, 52.5% on the 14th, and 55% on the 28th postoperative day, and
      significantly increased tPA concentrations in peritoneum. PAI-1 was decreased,
      and a significantly higher tPA/PAI-1 ratio along with an increase of MMP-9 was
      measured at all time points. Fibrosis and angiogenesis were significantly lower
      on the 14th and 28th postoperative days. CONCLUSIONS: Local bevacizumab
      administration has a strong early and late antiadhesive action on rat peritoneum,
      mediated by changes in the tPA/PAI-1 and MMP balance in favor of fibrinolysis up
      to 28 days after operations.

PMID- 28877645
TI  - Bone marrow cavity segmentation using graph-cuts with wavelet-based texture
      feature.
AB  - Emerging bioimaging technologies enable us to capture various dynamic cellular
      activities [Formula: see text]. As large amounts of data are obtained these days
      and it is becoming unrealistic to manually process massive number of images,
      automatic analysis methods are required. One of the issues for automatic image
      segmentation is that image-taking conditions are variable. Thus, commonly, many
      manual inputs are required according to each image. In this paper, we propose a
      bone marrow cavity (BMC) segmentation method for bone images as BMC is considered
      to be related to the mechanism of bone remodeling, osteoporosis, and so on. To
      reduce manual inputs to segment BMC, we classified the texture pattern using
      wavelet transformation and support vector machine. We also integrated the result
      of texture pattern classification into the graph-cuts-based image segmentation
      method because texture analysis does not consider spatial continuity. Our method
      is applicable to a particular frame in an image sequence in which the condition
      of fluorescent material is variable. In the experiment, we evaluated our method
      with nine types of mother wavelets and several sets of scale parameters. The
      proposed method with graph-cuts and texture pattern classification performs well
      without manual inputs by a user.

PMID- 28877646
TI  - Comparison of Canadian firefighters and healthy controls based on submaximal
      fitness testing and strength considering age and gender.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Few studies have addressed whether firefighters are fitter than the
      general population and possess sufficient levels of aerobic capacity and muscle
      strength to perform on-duty tasks in a safe and efficient manner, considering age
      and gender. We aimed to evaluate the fitness levels of Hamilton firefighters, and
      to determine the effects of age and gender. METHODS: In total, 89 participants
      were recruited. The modified Canadian aerobic fitness test was used to determine
      participants' estimated maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) levels. For upper and
      lower body strength levels, a calibrated J-Tech hand-held dynamometer and a
      National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting device was
      used respectively. RESULTS: Firefighters' mean (SD) VO2max level was 40.30 +/-
      6.25 ml.kg-1.min-1. Age proved to have a statistically significant impact on
      VO2max (p < 0.001). Gender displayed statistically significant effects on
      strength levels. Firefighters' age was the only statistically significant
      independent variable, and accounted for 61.00% of the variance in firefighters'
      aerobic capacity levels. CONCLUSIONS: Firefighters possessed somewhat similar
      aerobic capacities but much higher levels of body strength when compared with the
      general population. With age, firefighters' aerobic capacities decreased;
      however, their upper and lower body strength levels remained the same.

PMID- 28877647
TI  - Improvement of In Vivo Expression of Genes Delivered by Self-Amplifying RNA Using
      Vaccinia Virus Immune Evasion Proteins.
AB  - Among nucleic acid-based delivery platforms, self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vectors
      are of increasing interest for applications such as transient expression of
      recombinant proteins and vaccination. saRNA is safe and, due to its capability to
      amplify intracellularly, high protein levels can be produced from even minute
      amounts of transfected templates. However, it is an obstacle to full exploitation
      of this platform that saRNA induces a strong innate host immune response. In
      transfected cells, pattern recognition receptors sense double-stranded RNA
      intermediates and via activation of protein kinase R (PKR) and interferon
      signaling initiate host defense measures including a translational shutdown. To
      reduce pattern recognition receptor stimulation and unleash suppressed saRNA
      translation, this study co-delivered non-replicating mRNA encoding vaccinia virus
      immune evasion proteins E3, K3, and B18. It was shown that E3 is far superior to
      K3 or B18 as a highly potent blocker of PKR activation and of interferon (IFN)
      beta upregulation. B18, in contrast, is superior in controlling OAS1, a key IFN
      inducible gene involved in viral RNA degradation. By combining all three vaccinia
      proteins, the study achieved significant suppression of PKR and IFN pathway
      activation in vitro and enhanced expression of saRNA-encoded genes of interest
      both in vitro and in vivo. This approach promises to overcome key hurdles of
      saRNA gene delivery. Its application may improve the bioavailability of the
      encoded protein, and reduce the effective dose and correspondingly the cost of
      goods of manufacture in the various fields where saRNA utilization is envisioned.

PMID- 28877648
TI  - * The Chorioallantoic Membrane Assay for Biomaterial Testing in Tissue
      Engineering: A Short-Term In Vivo Preclinical Model.
AB  - The fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering offer significant
      promise to address the urgent unmet need for therapeutic strategies in a number
      of debilitating conditions, diseases, and tissue needs of an aging population.
      Critically, the safety and efficacy of these pioneering strategies need to be
      assessed before clinical application, often necessitating animal research as a
      prerequisite. The growing number of newly developed potential treatments,
      together with the ethical concerns involved in the application of in vivo
      studies, requires the implementation of alternative models to facilitate such
      screening of new treatments. The present review examines the current in vitro and
      in vivo models of preclinical research with particular emphasis on the
      chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay as a minimally invasive, short-term in vivo
      alternative. Traditionally used as an angiogenic assay, the CAM of the developing
      chick embryo provides a noninnervated rapidly growing vascular bed, which can
      serve as a surrogate blood supply for organ culture, and hence a platform for
      biomaterial testing. This review offers an overview of the CAM assay and its
      applications in biomedicine as an in vivo model for organ culture and
      angiogenesis. Moreover, the application of imaging techniques (magnetic resonance
      imaging, microcomputed tomography, fluorescence labeling for tracking) will be
      discussed for the evaluation of biomaterials cultured on the CAM. Finally, an
      overview of the CAM assay methodology will be provided to facilitate the adoption
      of this technique across laboratories and the regenerative medicine community,
      and thus aid the reduction, replacement, and refinement of animal experiments in
      research.

PMID- 28877650
TI  - Understanding allied health practitioners' use of evidence-based assessments for
      children with cerebral palsy: a mixed methods study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Evidence-based assessments for children with cerebral palsy are not
      widely used by healthcare professionals in day-to-day practice. This study aimed
      to examine allied health practitioner experiences, perceptions, and use of
      assessments for children with cerebral palsy. METHOD: A mixed methods study was
      conducted in two rehabilitation organisations. Three focus group interviews
      explored therapists' assessment experiences with data analysed using interpretive
      description. Assessment practices of therapists (n = 55) were assessed through
      self-report questionnaire and case-file audit of children with cerebral palsy (n
      = 44). RESULTS: Emergent themes described therapists' motivation to use evidence
      based assessments on a behavioural continuum - I don't; I can't; I try; I do; We
      do; influenced by assessment satisfaction, child and family collaboration,
      organisational expectation, research fit, and time dedication. Only two of
      fifteen audited assessments were documented in more than 50% of files. Use was
      higher where assessments positively connected therapists, children and parents,
      and use was organisationally endorsed. The Cultural Cone for evidence-based
      assessment behaviour was conceptualised. CONCLUSIONS: "Engagement in" assessment
      appears to require a conceptual shift by therapists and organisations to
      understanding assessment as part of, not an adjunct to, therapy. The Cultural
      Cone framework may assist therapists and services in designing strategies to
      promote evidence-based assessment behaviours. Implications for rehabilitation
      Therapists' can reflect on where they are positioned on the "use continuum" in
      the Cultural Cone framework, and consider the contextual influences contained in
      this framework to understand their motivation to use evidence-based assessments.
      Routine use of evidenced-based assessments for children with cerebral palsy by
      allied health practitioners remains generally low and therapists and service
      organisations need to consider ways to increase use. Where possible, therapists'
      should choose assessment tools that fully engage children and families and
      themselves in the assessment process. The Cultural Cone framework may be used to
      assist therapists and organisations identify and design site specific strategies
      to increase evidence-based assessment use in day-to-day practice.

PMID- 28877649
TI  - The Effect of Hypothermic and Cryogenic Preservation on Engineered Neural Tissue.
AB  - This study explored different approaches to preserve engineered neural tissue
      (EngNT), a stabilized, cellular collagen hydrogel containing columns of aligned
      Schwann cells for nervous system repair. The ability to preserve EngNT without
      disrupting cellular and extracellular components and structures is important for
      clinical translation and commercialization. Stabilized cellular gels and EngNT
      constructs were preserved under various conditions and cell survival assessed
      using live/dead microscopy and metabolic assay. Optimal survival was recorded in
      hypothermic (4 degrees C) conditions for 2-3 days using Hibernate(r)-A media and,
      for longer-term cryogenic storage (liquid nitrogen), using a mixture of 60%
      Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium, 30% fetal bovine serum, and 10% dimethyl
      sulfoxide. Functionality and structure of preserved EngNT were assessed in
      coculture with dorsal root ganglion neurons, which indicated that alignment of
      Schwann cells and the ability of EngNT to support and guide neuronal regeneration
      were not disrupted. The identification of conditions that preserve EngNT will
      inform development of storage and transport methodologies to support clinical and
      commercial translation of this technology and other therapies based on cellular
      hydrogels.

PMID- 28877651
TI  - Production of a bioflocculant from Klebsiella sp. OS-1 using brewery wastewater
      as a source.
AB  - This study evaluated the potential of bioflocculant production from a Klebsiella
      strain using brewery wastewater as nutrients. The bioflocculant named OS-1B
      produced by Klebsiella sp. OS-1 exhibited a good flocculating activity to kaolin
      clay suspension (around 95%), when the diluted brewery wastewater with 7.2 mg/L
      total nitrogen and 1013 mg/L CODCr was used as a nitrogen source. Glucose (15
      g/L) is the most favorable carbon source for Klebsiella sp. OS-1 in bioflocculant
      production from brewery wastewater. The yielded bioflocculant is pH tolerant and
      thermally stable, suggesting its good industrial potential. OS-1B mainly
      comprises polysaccharide (69.4%) and protein (24.5%). Fourier-transform infrared
      spectra indicate the presence of hydroxyl, carboxyl, esters and amino groups in
      the bioflocculant molecules. Combined with the results of zeta potential
      measurements, bridging is suggested as the main flocculation mechanism for OS-1B
      flocculation with kaolin. Overall, brewery wastewater can be used as a substrate
      to produce bioflocculants.

PMID- 28877653
TI  - Why do older adults have difficulty with semantic fluency?
AB  - Aging involves many cognitive declines, particularly in fluid intelligence, with
      relative maintenance of crystallized intelligence. This paradox is evident in the
      language domain: lexical retrieval becomes slower and less accurate, despite well
      preserved vocabularies. Verbal fluency assesses both crystallized and fluid
      aspects of language. Semantic fluency hypothetically reflects semantic knowledge,
      while letter fluency putatively reflects executive functioning, which would
      predict a greater impact of aging on the latter. However, the opposite is
      typically observed. To investigate factors contributing to such asymmetries, we
      examined verbal fluency in 86 adults (30-89 years). Multiple regression analyses
      indicated that semantic fluency depends largely on lexical retrieval speed, as
      well as visualization strategies to support controlled retrieval, skills which
      may disproportionately decline with age. By contrast, letter fluency relies
      heavily on vocabulary knowledge, providing some protection against age-related
      declines. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms of
      typical age-related declines in word retrieval.

PMID- 28877652
TI  - Angiotensin-(1-7) attenuates atrial tachycardia-induced sympathetic nerve
      remodeling.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The effect of Angiotensin-(1-7) (Ang-(1-7)) on atrial autonomic
      remodeling is still unknown. We hypothesized that Ang-(1-7) could inhibit
      sympathetic nerve remodeling in a canine model of chronic atrial tachycardia.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen dogs were randomly assigned to sham group, pacing
      group and Ang-(1-7) group. Rapid atrial pacing was maintained for 14 days in the
      pacing and Ang-(1-7) groups. Ang-(1-7) was administered intravenously in the Ang
      (1-7) group. The atrial effective refractory period and atrial fibrillation
      inducibility level were measured at baseline and under sympathetic nerve
      stimulation after 14 days of measurement. The atrial sympathetic nerves labeled
      with tyrosine hydroxylase were detected using immunohistochemistry and Western
      blotting, and tyrosine hydroxylase and nerve growth factor mRNA levels were
      measured by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Pacing
      shortened the atrial effective refractory period and increased the atrial
      fibrillation inducibility level at baseline and under sympathetic nerve
      stimulation. Ang-(1-7) treatment attenuated the shortening of the atrial
      effective refractory period and the increase in the atrial fibrillation
      inducibility level. Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting showed sympathetic
      nerve hyperinnervation in the pacing group, while Ang-(1-7) attenuated
      sympathetic nerve proliferation. Ang-(1-7) alleviated the pacing-induced
      increases in tyrosine hydroxylase and nerve growth factor mRNA expression levels.
      CONCLUSION: Ang-(1-7) can attenuate pacing-induced atrial sympathetic
      hyperinnervation.

PMID- 28877654
TI  - NUCKS nuclear elevated expression indicates progression and prognosis of ovarian
      cancer.
AB  - NUCKS (nuclear, casein kinase, and cyclin-dependent kinase substrate) is
      implicated in the tumorigenesis of several human malignancies, but its role in
      ovarian cancer remains unknown. We aim to investigate NUCKS expression and its
      clinical significance in ovarian cancer. The messenger RNA expression of NUCKS
      was determined in normal and malignant ovarian tissues using quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction assay. Immunohistochemistry was applied to detect the
      status of NUCKS protein expression in 121 ovarian cancer tissues. NUCKS protein
      high expression was detected in 52 (43.0%) of 121 patients. NUCKS messenger RNA
      expression was gradually upregulated in non-metastatic ovarian cancers ( n = 20),
      metastatic ovarian cancers ( n = 20), and its matched metastatic lesions ( n =
      20) in comparison with that in normal ovarian tissues ( n = 10; p < 0.05).
      Elevated expression of NUCKS in ovarian cancer was associated significantly with
      the Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage ( p = 0.037), histological
      grade ( p = 0.003), residual disease ( p = 0.013), lymph node metastasis ( p =
      0.002), response to chemotherapy ( p < 0.001), and recurrence ( p = 0.013). In
      the multivariate Cox analysis, NUCKS expression was an independent prognostic
      marker for overall survival and disease-free survival in ovarian cancer with p
      values of <0.001 for both. Especially, NUCKS overexpression had prognostic
      potential for overall survival and disease-free survival ( p < 0.001 for both) in
      advanced ovarian cancers and only for disease-free survival in early ovarian
      cancers ( p = 0.017). Our data suggest that NUCKS overexpression may contribute
      to progression and poor prognosis in ovarian cancer especially in advanced
      ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28877655
TI  - Developing a Strategy for Interventional Molecular Imaging of Oxidized Low
      Density Lipoprotein in Atherosclerosis.
AB  - The identification of vulnerable coronary artery atherosclerotic plaques offers
      the prospect of either localized or systematic therapeutic targeting in order to
      prevent myocardial infarction. Molecular imaging of atherosclerosis adds to
      morphological imaging by focusing on the immunobiology hidden in and behind the
      endothelium and therefore may be able to improve the identification of
      prospective culprit lesions. Our focus has been on identifying arterial
      accumulation of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) by exploiting advances
      in knowledge of vascular pathobiology. Here, we reflect on our work developing
      near-infrared fluorescence imaging of oxLDL using LO1, a monoclonal autoantibody
      generated in our laboratory. We detail progress to date and discuss our vision on
      taking the work through the early translational pipeline toward a multitargeted
      approach in imaging rupture-prone atherosclerotic plaques. Ultimately, molecular
      imaging of coronary arteries should be able to assess the regional risk that is
      specific to a lesion, which can then be used in concert with global risk factors
      to personalize the therapeutic strategy for patients in a way that goes beyond
      generalized population-based therapies.

PMID- 28877657
TI  - Retained binding mode of various DNA-binding molecules under molecular crowding
      condition.
AB  - Meso-tetrakis(N-methyl pyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin (TMPyP) intercalates between the
      base-pairs of DNA at a low [TMPyP]/[DNA base] ratio in aqueous solutions and
      molecular crowding conditions, which is induced by the addition of Poly(ethylene
      glycol) (PEG). Studied DNA-binding drugs, including TMPyP, 9-aminoacridine,
      ethidium bromide, and DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) showed similar binding
      properties in the presence or absence of PEG molecules which is examined by
      circular and linear dichroism. According to the LDr (reduced linear dichroism)
      results of the binding drugs examined in this work, PEG molecules induced no
      significant change compared to their binding properties in aqueous buffering
      systems. These results suggest that the transition moments are not expected to be
      perturbed significantly by PEG molecules. In this study, the experimental
      conditions of PEG 8000 were maintained at 35% (v/v) of total reaction volume,
      which is equal to the optimal molar concentration (0.0536 M as final
      concentration for PEG 8000) to maintain suitable cell-like conditions. Therefore,
      there was no need to focus on the conformational changes of the DNA helical
      structure, such as forming irregular aggregate structures, induced by large
      quantities of molecular crowding media itself at this stage.

PMID- 28877658
TI  - Long-term Tai Chi exercise increases body stability of the elderly during stair
      ascent under high and low illumination.
AB  - The effects of long-term Tai Chi exercise on body stability of the elderly during
      stair ascent under high and low illumination were investigated. Forty-five
      healthy elderly women were divided into three groups, namely, Tai Chi exercise
      group, brisk walking group and no-exercise control group. All the participants
      ascended a staircase, during which force platforms and a motion capture system
      collected the data. Under the high illumination, Tai Chi exercise participants
      exhibited higher loading rate and anteroposterior centre of pressure (COPap)
      displacement as well as a lower braking impulse than no-exercise group. Under the
      low illumination, Tai Chi exercise participants demonstrated higher COPap and
      mediolateral centre of pressure (COPml) displacements as well as lower braking
      and lateral impulses compared with no-exercise participants. The centre of mass
      (COM)ml sway in Tai Chi and no exercise participants were higher, the loading
      rates in Tai Chi and walking participants were higher, and the lateral impulse in
      no exercise participants was higher under low illumination than under high
      illumination. Thus, low illumination increases the risk of falling. Tai Chi
      participants increased their foot clearance, head inclination angle and COPap
      displacement under low illumination to increase their stability during stair
      ascent.

PMID- 28877656
TI  - Longitudinal Evaluation of Myocardial Fatty Acid and Glucose Metabolism in Fasted
      and Nonfasted Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Using MicroPET/CT.
AB  - Using longitudinal micro positron emission tomography (microPET)/computed
      tomography (CT) studies, we quantified changes in myocardial metabolism and
      perfusion in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), a model of left ventricular
      hypertrophy (LVH). Fatty acid and glucose metabolism were quantified in the
      hearts of SHRs and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) normotensive rats using long-chain fatty
      acid analog 18F-fluoro-6-thia heptadecanoic acid (18F-FTHA) and glucose analog
      18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) under normal or fasting conditions. We also used
      18F-fluorodihydrorotenol (18F-FDHROL) to investigate perfusion in their hearts
      without fasting. Rats were imaged at 4 or 5 times over their life cycle.
      Compartment modeling was used to estimate the rate constants for the
      radiotracers. Blood samples were obtained and analyzed for glucose and free fatty
      acid concentrations. SHRs demonstrated no significant difference in 18F-FDHROL
      wash-in rate constant ( P = .1) and distribution volume ( P = .1), significantly
      higher 18F-FDG myocardial influx rate constant ( P = 4*10-8), and significantly
      lower 18F-FTHA myocardial influx rate constant ( P = .007) than WKYs during the
      2009-2010 study without fasting. SHRs demonstrated a significantly higher 18F
      FDHROL wash-in rate constant ( P = 5*10-6) and distribution volume ( P = 3*10-8),
      significantly higher 18F-FDG myocardial influx rate constant ( P = 3*10-8), and a
      higher trend of 18F-FTHA myocardial influx rate constant (not significant, P =
      .1) than WKYs during the 2011-2012 study with fasting. Changes in glucose plasma
      concentrations were generally negatively correlated with corresponding
      radiotracer influx rate constant changes. The study indicates a switch from
      preferred fatty acid metabolism to increased glucose metabolism with hypertrophy.
      Increased perfusion during the 2011-2012 study may be indicative of increased
      aerobic metabolism in the SHR model of LVH.

PMID- 28877659
TI  - Editorial: Theoretical Studies of the Metabolism in Drug Discovery.

PMID- 28877660
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28877661
TI  - Editorial: Natural Products as the Integral Part of the Therapy?

PMID- 28877662
TI  - Genome-wide characterization of non-reference transposable element insertion
      polymorphisms reveals genetic diversity in tropical and temperate maize.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maize was originally domesticated in a tropical environment but is
      now widely cultivated at temperate latitudes. Temperate and tropical maize
      populations have diverged both genotypically and phenotypically. Tropical maize
      lines grown in temperate environments usually exhibit delayed flowering,
      pollination, and seed set, which reduces their grain yield relative to temperate
      adapted maize lines. One potential mechanism by which temperate maize may have
      adapted to a new environment is novel transposable element insertions, which can
      influence gene regulation. Recent advances in sequencing technology have made it
      possible to study variation in transposon content and insertion location in large
      sets of maize lines. RESULTS: In total, 274,408 non-redundant TEs (NRTEs) were
      identified using resequencing data generated from 83 maize inbred lines. The
      locations of DNA TEs and copia-superfamily retrotransposons showed significant
      positive correlations with gene density and genetic recombination rates, whereas
      gypsy-superfamily retrotransposons showed a negative correlation with these two
      parameters. Compared to tropical maize, temperate maize had fewer unique NRTEs
      but higher insertion frequency, lower background recombination rates, and higher
      linkage disequilibrium, with more NRTEs close to flowering and stress-related
      genes in the genome. Association mapping demonstrated that the presence/absence
      of 48 NRTEs was associated with flowering time and that expression of neighboring
      genes differed between haplotypes where a NRTE was present or absent.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that NRTEs may have played an important role in
      creating the variation in gene regulation that enabled the rapid adaptation of
      maize to diverse environments.

PMID- 28877663
TI  - High-throughput PCR assay design for targeted resequencing using primerXL.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the sequencing landscape is rapidly evolving and sequencing
      costs are continuously decreasing, whole genome sequencing is still too expensive
      for use on a routine basis. Targeted resequencing of only the regions of interest
      decreases both costs and the complexity of the downstream data-analysis. Various
      target enrichment strategies are available, but none of them obtain the degree of
      coverage uniformity, flexibility and specificity of PCR-based enrichment. On the
      other hand, the biggest limitation of target enrichment by PCR is the need to
      design large numbers of partially overlapping assays to cover the target.
      RESULTS: To overcome the aforementioned hurdles, we have developed primerXL, a
      state-of-the-art PCR primer design pipeline for targeted resequencing. It uses an
      optimized design criteria relaxation cascade and a thorough downstream in silico
      evaluation process to generate high quality singleplex PCR assays, reducing the
      need for amplicon normalization, and outperforming other target enrichment
      strategies and similar primer design tools when considering assay quality,
      coverage uniformity and target coverage. Results of four different sequencing
      projects with 2348 amplicons in total covering 470 kb are presented. PrimerXL can
      be accessed at www.primerxl.org . CONCLUSION: PrimerXL is an state-of-the-art,
      easy to use primer design webtool capable of generating high-quality targeted
      resequencing assays. The workflow is fully customizable to suit every
      researchers' needs, while an innovative relaxation cascade ensures maximal target
      coverage.

PMID- 28877664
TI  - Adherence, satisfaction and functional health status among patients with multiple
      sclerosis using the BETACONNECT(r) autoinjector: a prospective observational
      cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maintaining patient adherence to disease modifying drugs in multiple
      sclerosis is a challenge, which can be improved by autoinjectors. The
      BETACONNECT(r) is a fully electronic autoinjector for the injection of interferon
      beta-1b (IFN beta-1b) automatically recording injections. METHODS: The BETAEVAL
      study was a prospective, observational, cohort study over 24 weeks among patients
      with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis or clinically isolated syndrome
      treated with IFN beta-1b in Germany using the BETACONNECT(r). The primary aim was
      to investigate treatment adherence, secondary aims included assessing
      satisfaction and functional health status. Adherence was evaluated from injection
      data recorded by the device. Patient-related data were obtained from clinical
      examinations and patient questionnaires. RESULTS: Of the 151 patients enrolled,
      143 were available for analysis. Thirty-four patients discontinued the study
      prematurely. 107/143 (74.8%) patients still used the BETACONNECT(r) at the end of
      the study. Injection data from the device at any visit was available for 107
      patients. Among those, the percentage of adherent patients injecting >=80% of
      doses and still participating in the study was 57.9% at week 24. 29% of patients
      prematurely stopped the study, 13.1% injected <80%. Among patients with
      BETACONNECT(r) data at the respective visit, the proportion of adherent patients
      was high over the entire study period (week 4: 81.1% [N = 95], week 12: 86.7% [N
      = 83], week 24: 80.5% [N = 77]). Participants (N = 143) indicated high
      satisfaction with the BETACONNECT(r). At week 24, 98.0% of patients who completed
      the corresponding questionnaire (strongly) agreed that it was user-friendly,
      81.2% felt confident in using it compared to their previous way and 85.5%
      preferred it to their previous way of injection. Injection-related pain was rated
      as mild to moderate at all follow-up visits. Whereas 17.2% of patients with
      corresponding questionnaire indicated using analgesics prior to injection at week
      4, only 9.1% did at week 24. Outcomes from questionnaires assessing functional
      health status, depression, fatigue and cognitive function were very similar
      throughout the study course. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients continued
      using the BETACONNECT(r) for IFN beta-1b treatment during the 24-week study
      period. Adherence was high among participants still using the BETACONNECT(r) and
      patients were highly satisfied with the device. Ongoing studies will evaluate
      long-term adherence and treatment outcomes in patients using the BETACONNECT(r).
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrails.gov NCT02121444 (registered April 22, 2014).

PMID- 28877665
TI  - Lack of 14-3-3 proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae results in cell-to-cell
      heterogeneity in the expression of Pho4-regulated genes SPL2 and PHO84.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ion homeostasis is an essential property of living organisms. The
      yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an ideal model organism to investigate ion
      homeostasis at all levels. In this yeast genes involved in high-affinity
      phosphate uptake (PHO genes) are strongly induced during both phosphate and
      potassium starvation, indicating a link between phosphate and potassium
      homeostasis. However, the signal transduction processes involved are not
      completely understood. As 14-3-3 proteins are key regulators of signal
      transduction processes, we investigated the effect of deletion of the 14-3-3
      genes BMH1 or BMH2 on gene expression during potassium starvation and focused
      especially on the expression of genes involved in phosphate uptake. RESULTS:
      Genome-wide analysis of the effect of disruption of either BMH1 or BMH2 revealed
      that the mRNA levels of the PHO genes PHO84 and SPL2 are greatly reduced in the
      mutant strains compared to the levels in wild type strains. This was especially
      apparent at standard potassium and phosphate concentrations. Furthermore the
      promoter of these genes is less active after deletion of BMH1. Microscopic and
      flow cytometric analysis of cells with GFP-tagged SPL2 showed that disruption of
      BMH1 resulted in two populations of genetically identical cells, cells expressing
      the protein and the majority of cells with no detectible expression.
      Heterogeneity was also observed for the expression of GFP under control of the
      PHO84 promoter. Upon deletion of PHO80 encoding a regulator of the transcription
      factor Pho4, the effect of the BMH1 deletion on SPL2 and PHO84 promoter was lost,
      suggesting that the BMH1 deletion mainly influences processes upstream of the
      Pho4 transcription factor. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that that yeast cells
      can be in either of two states, expressing or not expressing genes required for
      high-affinity phosphate uptake and that 14-3-3 proteins are involved in the
      process(es) that establish the activation state of the PHO regulon.

PMID- 28877666
TI  - Multiple imputation for handling missing outcome data when estimating the
      relative risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple imputation is a popular approach to handling missing data in
      medical research, yet little is known about its applicability for estimating the
      relative risk. Standard methods for imputing incomplete binary outcomes involve
      logistic regression or an assumption of multivariate normality, whereas relative
      risks are typically estimated using log binomial models. It is unclear whether
      misspecification of the imputation model in this setting could lead to biased
      parameter estimates. METHODS: Using simulated data, we evaluated the performance
      of multiple imputation for handling missing data prior to estimating adjusted
      relative risks from a correctly specified multivariable log binomial model. We
      considered an arbitrary pattern of missing data in both outcome and exposure
      variables, with missing data induced under missing at random mechanisms. Focusing
      on standard model-based methods of multiple imputation, missing data were imputed
      using multivariate normal imputation or fully conditional specification with a
      logistic imputation model for the outcome. RESULTS: Multivariate normal
      imputation performed poorly in the simulation study, consistently producing
      estimates of the relative risk that were biased towards the null. Despite
      outperforming multivariate normal imputation, fully conditional specification
      also produced somewhat biased estimates, with greater bias observed for higher
      outcome prevalences and larger relative risks. Deleting imputed outcomes from
      analysis datasets did not improve the performance of fully conditional
      specification. CONCLUSIONS: Both multivariate normal imputation and fully
      conditional specification produced biased estimates of the relative risk,
      presumably since both use a misspecified imputation model. Based on simulation
      results, we recommend researchers use fully conditional specification rather than
      multivariate normal imputation and retain imputed outcomes in the analysis when
      estimating relative risks. However fully conditional specification is not without
      its shortcomings, and so further research is needed to identify optimal
      approaches for relative risk estimation within the multiple imputation framework.

PMID- 28877667
TI  - Vaginal delivery: how does early hospital discharge affect mother and child
      outcomes? A systematic literature review.

PMID- 28877668
TI  - De novo assembly of Phlomis purpurea after challenging with Phytophthora
      cinnamomi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phlomis plants are a source of biological active substances with
      potential applications in the control of phytopathogens. Phlomis purpurea
      (Lamiaceae) is autochthonous of southern Iberian Peninsula and Morocco and was
      found to be resistant to Phytophthora cinnamomi. Phlomis purpurea has revealed
      antagonistic effect in the rhizosphere of Quercus suber and Q. ilex against P.
      cinnamomi. Phlomis purpurea roots produce bioactive compounds exhibiting
      antitumor and anti-Phytophthora activities with potential to protect susceptible
      plants. Although these important capacities of P. purpurea have been
      demonstrated, there is no transcriptomic or genomic information available in
      public databases that could bring insights on the genes underlying this anti
      oomycete activity. RESULTS: Using Illumina technology we obtained a de novo
      assembly of P. purpurea transcriptome and differential transcript abundance to
      identify putative defence related genes in challenged versus non-challenged
      plants. A total of 1,272,600,000 reads from 18 cDNA libraries were merged and
      assembled into 215,739 transcript contigs. BLASTX alignment to Nr NCBI database
      identified 124,386 unique annotated transcripts (57.7%) with significant hits.
      Functional annotation identified 83,550 out of 124,386 unique transcripts, which
      were mapped to 141 pathways. 39% of unigenes were assigned GO terms. Their
      functions cover biological processes, cellular component and molecular functions.
      Genes associated with response to stimuli, cellular and primary metabolic
      processes, catalytic and transporter functions were among those identified.
      Differential transcript abundance analysis using DESeq revealed significant
      differences among libraries depending on post-challenge times. Comparative cyto
      histological studies of P. purpurea roots challenged with P. cinnamomi zoospores
      and controls revealed specific morphological features (exodermal strips and epi
      cuticular layer), that may provide a constitutive efficient barrier against
      pathogen penetration. Genes involved in cutin biosynthesis and in exodermal
      Casparian strips formation were up-regulated. CONCLUSIONS: The de novo assembly
      of transcriptome using short reads for a non-model plant, P. purpurea, revealed
      many unique transcripts useful for further gene expression, biological function,
      genomics and functional genomics studies. The data presented suggest a
      combination of a constitutive resistance and an increased transcriptional
      response from P. purpurea when challenged with the pathogen. This knowledge opens
      new perspectives for the understanding of defence responses underlying pathogenic
      oomycete/plant interaction upon challenge with P. cinnamomi.

PMID- 28877669
TI  - Evaluating the role of Pleistocene refugia, rivers and environmental variation in
      the diversification of central African duikers (genera Cephalophus and
      Philantomba).
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess the role that Pleistocene refugia, rivers
      and local habitat conditions may have played in the evolutionary diversification
      of three central African duiker species (Cephalophus dorsalis, C. callipygus and
      Philantomba monticola). Genetic data from geo-referenced feces were collected
      from a wide range of sites across Central Africa. Historical patterns of
      population genetic structure were assessed using a ~ 650 bp fragment of the
      mitochondrial control region and contemporary patterns of genetic differentiation
      were evaluated using 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci. RESULTS: Mitochondrial
      analyses revealed that populations of C. callipygus and P. monticola in the Gulf
      of Guinea refugium are distinct from other populations in west central Africa.
      All three species exhibit signatures of past population expansion across much of
      the study area consistent with a history of postglacial expansion. There was no
      strong evidence for a riverine barrier effect in any of the three species,
      suggesting that duikers can readily cross major rivers. Generalized dissimilarity
      models (GDM) showed that environmental variation explains most of the nuclear
      genetic differentiation in both C. callipygus and P. monticola. The forest
      savanna transition across central Cameroon and the Plateaux Bateke region in
      southeastern Gabon show the highest environmentally-associated turnover in
      genetic variability. A pattern of genetic differentiation was also evident
      between the coast and forest interior that may reflect differences in
      precipitation and/or vegetation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study highlight
      the historical impact of Pleistocene fragmentation and current influence of
      environmental variation on genetic structure in duikers. Conservation efforts
      should therefore target areas that harbor as much environmentally-associated
      genetic variation as possible in order to maximize species' capacity to adapt to
      environmental change.

PMID- 28877670
TI  - Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) increases during renal fibrogenesis and its
      inhibition potentiates TGF-beta 1-induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an immunomodulatory molecule
      that has been implicated in several biological processes. Although IDO has been
      linked with some renal diseases, its role in renal fibrosis is still unclear.
      Because IDO may be modulated by TGF-beta1, a potent fibrogenic molecule, we
      hypothesized that IDO could be involved in renal fibrosis, especially acting in
      the TGF-beta1-induced tubular epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). We
      analyzed the IDO expression and activity in a model of renal fibrogenesis, and
      the effect of the IDO inhibitor 1-methyl-tryptophan (MT) on TGF-beta1-induced EMT
      using tubular cell culture. METHODS: Male Wistar rats where submited to 7 days of
      UUO. Non-obstructed kidneys (CL) and kidneys from SHAM rats were used as
      controls. Masson's Tricrome and macrophages counting were used to chatacterize
      the tissue fibrosis. The EMT was analysed though immunohistochemistry and qRT
      PCR. Immunohistochemestry in tissue has used to show IDO expression. MDCK cells
      were incubated with TGF- beta1 to analyse IDO expression. Additionally, effects
      of TGF- beta1 and the inhibition of IDO over the EMT process was acessed by
      immunoessays and scrath wound essay. RESULTS: IDO was markedly expressed in
      cortical and medular tubules of the UUO kidneys. Similarly to the
      immunolocalizaton of TGF- beta1, accompanied by loss of e-cadherin expression and
      an increase of mesenchymal markers. Results in vitro with MDCK cells, showed that
      IDO was increased after stimulus with TGF-beta1, and treatment with MT
      potentiated its expression. MDCK stimulated with TGF-beta1 had higher migratory
      activity (scratch-wound assay), which was exacerbated by MT treatment.
      CONCLUSIONS: IDO is constitutively expressed in tubular cells and increases
      during renal fibrogenesis. Although IDO is induced by TGF-beta1 in tubular cells,
      its chemical inhibitor acts as a profibrotic agent.

PMID- 28877671
TI  - Surveillance of device associated infections and mortality in a major intensive
      care unit in the Republic of Cyprus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Device-associated health care-associated infections (DA-HAI) pose a
      threat to patient safety, particularly in the intensive care unit. The aim of
      this study was to assess the incidence of DA-HAIs, mortality and crude excess
      mortality at a General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Republic of
      Cyprus for 1 year period. METHODS: A prospective cohort, active DA-HAIs
      surveillance study with the use of Health Acquired Infections (HAIs) ICU Protocol
      (v1.01 standard edition) as provided by ECDC/NHSN for the active DA-HAIs
      surveillance study was conducted. The study sample included 198 ICU patients
      admitted during the research period and hospitalized for over 48 h. The
      Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP), Central Line-Associated Bloodstream
      Infection (CLABSI), and Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI)
      rates, length of stay (LOS), mortality, and crude excess mortality were
      calculated. RESULTS: CLABSI was the most frequent DA-HAI with 15.9 incidence rate
      per 1000 Central Venus Catheter (CVC) days. The VAP rate, was 10.1 per 1000
      ventilator days and the CAUTI rate was 2.7 per 1000 urinary catheter days. Device
      associated infections were found to be significantly associated with the length
      of ICU stay (p < 0.001), the CVC days (p < 0.001), ventilator days (p < 0.001),
      and urinary catheter days (p < 0.001). The excess mortality was 22.1% for those
      who acquired a DA-HAI (95% CI, 2-42.2%) compared to the patients who remained DA
      HAI free. Mortality of patients with VAP infection was 2.3 times higher (RR =
      2.33 95% CI, 1.07-5.05) than those patients admitted without a HAI and
      subsequently did not acquire a DA-HAI. The most frequently isolated pathogen was
      Staphylococcus epidermidis (13.9%) and Candida albicans (13.9%). CONCLUSIONS:
      Higher DA-HAIs rates and device utilization than the international benchmarks
      were found in this study, calling into question the safety of preventative
      practices employed in this unit.

PMID- 28877672
TI  - Chronic lower extremity wound infection due to Kerstersia gyiorum in a patient
      with Buerger's disease: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Kerstersia gyiorum is an extremely rare pathogen of human infection.
      It can cause chronic infection in patients with underlying conditions. It can
      easily be misdiagnosed if proper diagnostic methods are not used. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 47-year-old male patient with a history of Buerger's Disease for
      28 years presented to our hospital with an infected chronic wound on foot. The
      wound was debrided, and the specimen was sent to Microbiology laboratory. Gram
      staining of the specimen showed abundant polymorphonuclear leukocytes and gram
      negative bacilli. Four types of colonies were isolated on blood agar. These were
      identified as Kerstersia gyiorum, Proteus vulgaris, Enterobacter cloacae,
      Morganella morganii by Maldi Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics, Germany). The
      identification of K. gyiorum was confirmed by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing.
      The patient was successfully recovered with antimicrobial therapy, surgical
      debridement, and skin grafting. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first case of wound
      infection due to K. gyiorum in a patient with Buerger's Disease. We made a brief
      review of K. gyiorum cases up to date. Also, this case is presented to draw
      attention to the use of new and advanced methods like MALDI-TOF MS and 16S rRNA
      gene sequencing for identification of rarely isolated species from clinical
      specimens of patients with chronic infections and with chronic underlying
      conditions.

PMID- 28877673
TI  - LAIT: a local ancestry inference toolkit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inferring local ancestry in individuals of mixed ancestry has many
      applications, most notably in identifying disease-susceptible loci that vary
      among different ethnic groups. Many software packages are available for inferring
      local ancestry in admixed individuals. However, most of these existing software
      packages require specific formatted input files and generate output files in
      various types, yielding practical inconvenience. RESULTS: We developed a tool
      set, Local Ancestry Inference Toolkit (LAIT), which can convert standardized
      files into software-specific input file formats as well as standardize and
      summarize inference results for four popular local ancestry inference software:
      HAPMIX, LAMP, LAMP-LD, and ELAI. We tested LAIT using both simulated and real
      data sets and demonstrated that LAIT provides convenience to run multiple local
      ancestry inference software. In addition, we evaluated the performance of local
      ancestry software among different supported software packages, mainly focusing on
      inference accuracy and computational resources used. CONCLUSION: We provided a
      toolkit to facilitate the use of local ancestry inference software, especially
      for users with limited bioinformatics background.

PMID- 28877674
TI  - Health professional's knowledge and use of the partograph in public health
      institutions in eastern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The partograph is a vital tool for health professionals who need to
      be able to identify pathological labor. It is used to recognize complications in
      childbirth on time and to take appropriate actions. We aimed to assess the
      knowledge and utilization of the partograph and associated factors among health
      professionals at public health institutions in eastern Ethiopia. METHODS: An
      institution based cross-sectional quantitative study was carried out among health
      professionals who were working in public health institutions. Multistage sampling
      with proportional to size allocation was used to recruit a total of 441 study
      participants. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data in this
      study. Eight midwives were recruited and trained to facilitate the data
      collection activities. Data were entered into Epi data software and exported into
      SPSS (22.0) for analysis. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multiple logistic
      regression were computed to determine proportions and significant association
      with knowledge and use of the partograph among health professionals. RESULTS:
      More than half of health professionals, 232(53.7%) had a good level of knowledge
      about the partograph. However, only 196(45.4%) of health professionals had fair
      knowledge of partograph. Nevertheless, the proportion of the partograph
      utilization to follow labor progress by health professionals was 92.6%. Working
      in the health center [AOR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.48], being a midwife [AOR =
      2.80, 95% CI: 1.60, 5.60] and in-service training [AOR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.22, 3.42]
      were significantly associated with good level of knowledge. Health professionals
      who had in-service training about the partograph [AOR = 3.10, 95% CI: 1.35, 4.98]
      and who had positive attitude about the partograph [AOR = 2.90, 95% CI: 1.30,
      6.30] were significantly associated with utilization of the partograph.
      CONCLUSION: Only less than half of health professionals had fair knowledge about
      the partograph. Having in-service obstetric care training, type of health
      institutions and profession were significantly associated with knowledge of the
      partograph. Health professionals who had positive attitude towards use of the
      partograph were significantly associated with the partograph utilization. We
      suggest regular in-service training of health professionals can enhance their
      knowledge and utilization of the partograph.

PMID- 28877675
TI  - Signal functions for emergency obstetric care as an intervention for reducing
      maternal mortality: a survey of public and private health facilities in Lusaka
      District, Zambia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Zambia's maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 398/100,000 live
      births in 2014. Successful aversion of deaths is dependent on availability and
      usability of signal functions for emergency obstetric and neonatal care. Evidence
      of availability, usability and quality of signal functions in urban settings in
      Zambia is minimal as previous research has evaluated their distribution in rural
      settings. This survey evaluated the availability and usability of signal
      functions in private and public health facilities in Lusaka District of Zambia.
      METHODS: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted between November 2014
      and February 2015 at 35 public and private health facilities. The Service
      Availability and Readiness Assessment tool was adapted and administered to
      overall in-charges, hospital administrators or maternity ward supervisors at
      health facilities providing maternal and newborn health services. The survey
      quantified infrastructure, human resources, equipment, essential drugs and
      supplies and used the UN process indicators to determine availability,
      accessibility and quality of signal functions. Data on deliveries and
      complications were collected from registers for periods between June 2013 and May
      2014. RESULTS: Of the 35 (25.7% private and 74.2% public) health facilities
      assessed, only 22 (62.8%) were staffed 24 h a day, 7 days a week and had provided
      obstetric care 3 months prior to the survey. Pre-eclampsia/ eclampsia and
      obstructed labor accounted for most direct complications while postpartum
      hemorrhage was the leading cause of maternal deaths. Overall, 3 (8.6%) and 5
      (14.3%) of the health facilities had provided Basic and Comprehensive EmONC
      services, respectively. All facilities obtained blood products from the only
      blood bank at a government referral hospital. CONCLUSION: The UN process
      indicators can be adequately used to monitor progress towards maternal mortality
      reduction. Lusaka district had an unmet need for BEmONC as health facilities fell
      below the minimum UN standard. Public health facilities with capacity to perform
      signal functions should be upgraded to Basic EmONC status. Efforts must focus on
      enhancing human resource capacity in EmONC and improving infrastructure and
      supply chain. Obstetric health needs and international trends must drive policy
      change.

PMID- 28877676
TI  - Long-term outcomes of coronary artery bypass grafting versus stent-PCI for
      unprotected left main disease: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery has traditionally
      represented the standard of care for left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease.
      However, percutaneous coronary intervention with stent implantation (PCI) has
      more recently emerged as a valuable alternative. The long-time awaited results of
      the largest randomized trials on the long-term impact of PCI versus CABG in LMCA
      disease, the newly published NOBLE and EXCEL studies, revealed contrasting
      results. Thus, aim of the present meta-analysis was to review the most robust
      evidence from randomized comparisons of CABG versus PCI for revascularization of
      LMCA. METHODS: Randomized studies comparing long-term clinical outcomes of CABG
      or Stent-PCI for the treatment of LMCA disease were searched for in PubMed, the
      Chochrane Library and Scopus electronic databases. A total of 5 randomized
      studies were selected, including 4499 patients. RESULTS: No significant
      difference between CABG and PCI was found in the primary analysis on the
      composite endpoint of death, stroke and myocardial infarction (OR = 1.06 95% CI
      0.80-1.40; p = 0.70). Similarly, no differences were observed between CABG and
      PCI for all-cause death (OR = 1.03 95% CI 0.81-1.32; p = 0.81). Although not
      statistically significant, a lower rate of stroke was registered in the PCI arm
      (OR = 0.86; p = 0.67), while a lower rate of myocardial infarction was found in
      the CABG arm (OR = 1.43; p = 0.17). On the contrary, a significantly higher rate
      of repeat revascularization was registered in the PCI arm (OR = 1.76 95% CI 1.45
      2.13; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis, the most comprehensive
      and updated to date, including 5 randomized studies and 4499 patients,
      demonstrates no difference between Stent-PCI and CABG for the treatment of LMCA
      disease in the composite endpoint of death, stroke and myocardial infarction.
      Hence, a large part of patients with unprotected left main coronary artery
      disease can be managed equally well by means of both these revascularization
      strategies.

PMID- 28877677
TI  - Maternal body mass index and access to antenatal care: a retrospective analysis
      of 619,502 births in England.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Late access to antenatal care increases risks of adverse outcomes
      including maternal and perinatal mortality. There is evidence that BMI influences
      patient engagement with health services, such as cancer screening services and
      delayed access to treatment; this association has not been fully explored in the
      context of antenatal care. This study investigated the association between the
      stage of pregnancy women access antenatal care, BMI, and other socio-demographic
      factors. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of routine hospital data from 34 NHS
      maternity units in England, UK, including 619,502 singleton births between 1989
      and 2007. Analyses used logistic regression to investigate the association
      between maternal BMI categories and stage of pregnancy women accessed antenatal
      care. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to
      estimate associations, adjusting for maternal age, ethnic group, parity, Index of
      Multiple Deprivation score and employment status. The primary outcome was late
      access to antenatal care (>13+6 weeks). Secondary outcomes were trimester of
      access, and the association between late access and other socio-demographic
      variables. RESULTS: Women with an overweight or obese BMI accessed antenatal care
      later than women with a recommended BMI (aOR 1.11, 95%CI 1.09-1.12; aOR 1.04,
      95%CI 1.02-1.06 respectively), and underweight women accessed care earlier (aOR
      0.77, 95%CI 0.74-0.81). Women with obesity were 42% more likely to access care in
      the third trimester compared with women with a recommended BMI. Additional
      significant socio-demographic associations with late access included women from
      minority ethnic groups, teenagers, unemployment and deprivation. The greatest
      association was observed among Black/Black British women accessing care in the
      third trimester (aOR 5.07, 95% CI 4.76, 5.40). CONCLUSIONS: There are significant
      and complex socio-demographic inequalities associated with the stage of pregnancy
      women access maternity care, particularly for women with obesity accessing care
      very late in their pregnancy, and among BME groups, teenagers, deprived and
      unemployed women. These populations are at increased risk of adverse maternal and
      fetal outcomes and require support to address inequalities in access to antenatal
      care. Interventions to facilitate earlier access to care should address the
      complex and inter-related nature of these inequalities to improve pregnancy
      outcomes among high-risk groups.

PMID- 28877678
TI  - Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma in Malawi: a report of three cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTCL) reports from sub-Saharan
      Africa (SSA) are remarkably rare, despite early childhood acquisition and high
      prevalence of the causative infectious agent, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and
      frequent occurrence of other lymphoproliferative disorders causally associated
      with EBV. CASE PRESENTATIONS: At a national teaching hospital in Malawi, three
      patients of African descent were seen with ENKTCL between 2013 and 2014. Patients
      were aged between 29 and 60 years, two with craniofacial involvement and one with
      a primary abdominal tumor, and all were HIV-negative. All had systemic B
      symptoms, and two severely impaired performance status. On histologic review,
      morphology and immunophenotyping demonstrated classical ENKTCL features in all
      cases, including diffuse proliferations of intermediate-to-large atypical
      lymphocytes with high mitotic activity and extensive background necrosis,
      positivity for CD3 and CD56, and negativity for CD20. By in situ hybridization,
      all three tumors were positive for EBV-encoded RNA (EBER). Baseline plasma EBV
      DNA was also markedly elevated for all three patients. Due to radiotherapy and
      chemotherapy limitations, patients were treated with CHOP (cyclophosphamide,
      doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) with rapid disease progression. All three
      patients died from progressive lymphoma within 3 months of initial diagnosis.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our experience with these three patients in Malawi can highlight
      that ENKTCL does indeed occur in SSA, increase familiarity with ENKTCL among
      clinicians and pathologists throughout the region, and emphasize the need for
      better diagnosis and treatment for this neglected population.

PMID- 28877679
TI  - microRNAs participate in gene expression regulation and phytohormone cross-talk
      in barley embryo during seed development and germination.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Small RNA and degradome sequencing have identified a large number of
      miRNA-target pairs in plant seeds. However, detailed spatial and temporal studies
      of miRNA-mediated regulation, which can reflect links between seed development
      and germination are still lacking. RESULTS: In this study, we extended our
      investigation on miRNAs-involved gene regulation by a combined analysis of seed
      maturation and germination in barley. Through bioinformatics analysis of small
      RNA sequencing data, a total of 1324 known miRNA families and 448 novel miRNA
      candidates were identified. Of those, 16 known miRNAs with 40 target genes, and
      three novel miRNAs with four target genes were confirmed based on degradome
      sequencing data. Conserved miRNA families such as miR156, miR168, miR166, miR167,
      and miR894 were highly expressed in embryos of developing and germinating seeds.
      A barley-specific miRNA, miR5071, which was predicted to target an OsMLA10-like
      gene, accumulated at a high level, suggesting its involvement in defence response
      during these two developmental stages. Based on target prediction and Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis of putative targets, nine highly
      expressed miRNAs were found to be related to phytohormone signalling and hormone
      cross-talk. Northern blot and qRT-PCR analysis showed that these miRNAs displayed
      differential expression patterns during seed development and germination,
      indicating their different roles in hormone signalling pathways. In addition, we
      showed that miR393 affected seed development through targeting two genes encoding
      the auxin receptors TIR1/AFBs in barley, as over-expression of miR393 led to an
      increased length-width ratio of seeds, whereas target mimic (MIM393)-mediated
      inhibition of its activity decreased the 1000-grain weight of seeds. Furthermore,
      the expression of auxin-responsive genes, abscisic acid- and gibberellic acid
      related genes was altered in miR393 misexpression lines during germination and
      early seedling growth. CONCLUSIONS: Our work indicates that miRNA-target pairs
      participate in gene expression regulation and hormone interaction in barley
      embryo and provides evidence that miR393-mediated auxin response regulation
      affects grain development and influences gibberellic acid and abscisic acid
      homeostasis during germination.

PMID- 28877680
TI  - Longitudinal studies that use data collected as part of usual care risk reporting
      biased results: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Longitudinal studies using data collected as part of usual care risk
      providing biased results if visit times are related to the outcome of interest.
      Statistical methods for mitigating this bias are available but rarely used. This
      lack of use could be attributed to a lack of need or to a lack of awareness of
      the issue. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of longitudinal studies that
      used data collected as part of patients' usual care and were published in MEDLINE
      or EMBASE databases between January 2005 through May 13th 2015. We asked whether
      the extent of and reasons for variability in visit times were reported on, and in
      cases where there was a need to account for informativeness of visit times,
      whether an appropriate method was used. RESULTS: Of 44 eligible articles, 57% (n
      = 25) reported on the total follow-up time, 7% (n = 3) on the gaps between
      visits, and 57% (n = 25) on the number of visits per patient; 78% (n = 34)
      reported on at least one of these. Two studies assessed predictors of visit
      times, and 86% of studies did not report enough information to assess whether
      there was a need to account for informative follow-up. Only one study used a
      method designed to account for informative visit times. CONCLUSIONS: The low
      proportion of studies reporting on whether there were important predictors of
      visit times suggests that researchers are unaware of the potential for bias when
      data is collected as part of usual care and visit times are irregular. Guidance
      on the potential for bias and on the reporting of longitudinal studies subject to
      irregular follow-up is needed.

PMID- 28877681
TI  - Fibronectin glomerulopathy complicated with persistent cloaca and congenital
      esophageal atresia: a case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fibronectin glomerulopathy is a rare, inherited, autosomal dominant,
      glomerular disease characterized by proteinuria, microscopic hematuria,
      hypertension, massive glomerular deposits of fibronectin, and slow progression to
      end-stage renal failure. Because the incident of fibronectin glomerulopathy is
      extremely low, the pathophysiology, genetic abnormalities, epidemiology, and
      mechanisms remain to be elucidated. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a 21-year-old
      woman with fibronectin glomerulopathy, who had been diagnosed with persistent
      cloaca and congenital esophageal atresia at birth. She developed proteinuria and
      hematuria 7 months before admission. Urinary protein and serum creatinine levels
      were 3.38 g/gCr and 0.73 mg/dL. Renal biopsy showed severe mesangial widening due
      to massive deposits, which was positive periodic acid-Schiff and negative
      methenamine silver. Immunostaining was negative for immunoglobulin but positive
      for fibronectin. Electron microscopy showed diffuse mesangial granular deposits.
      Thus she was diagnosed with fibronectin glomerulopathy, despite a negative family
      history of kidney disease and lack of any known missense mutations of fibronectin
      1 gene. CONCLUSION: We report a patient who developed fibronectin glomerulopathy
      during the clinical course of extremely rare congenital malformations, including
      persistent cloaca and congenital esophageal atresia. We describe a case of this
      condition in detail and summarize the 75 case reports of fibronectin
      glomerulopathy.

PMID- 28877682
TI  - Epidemiologic and clinical parameters of West Nile virus infections in humans: a
      scoping review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical syndromes associated with West Nile virus (WNV) infection
      range from fever to neuroinvasive disease. Understanding WNV epidemiology and
      disease history is important for guiding patient care and healthcare decision
      making. The objective of this review was to characterize the existing body of
      peer-reviewed and surveillance literature on WNV syndromes and summarize
      epidemiologic and clinical parameters. METHODS: We followed scoping review
      methodology described by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Terms related to WNV
      epidemiology, hospitalization, and surveillance were searched in four
      bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, and CINAHL) for literature
      published from January 1999 to December 2015. RESULTS: In total, 2334 non
      duplicated titles and abstracts were screened; 92 primary studies were included
      in the review. Publications included one randomized controlled trial and 91
      observational studies. Sample sizes ranged from under 25 patients (n = 19) to
      over 400 patients (n = 28). Eight studies were from Canada, seven from Israel,
      and the remaining (n = 77) from the United States. N = 17 studies were classified
      as outbreak case investigations following epidemics; n = 37 with results of
      regional/national surveillance and monitoring programs. Mean patient ages were >
      40 years old; three studies (3%) focused on the pediatric population. Patients
      with encephalitis fared worse than patients with meningitis and fever,
      considering hospitalization, length of stay, discharge, recovery, and case
      fatality. Several studies examined risk factors; however, age was the only risk
      factor for neuroinvasive disease/death consistently identified. Overall, patients
      with acute flaccid paralysis or encephalitis fared worse than patients with
      meningitis and West Nile fever in terms of hospitalization and mortality. Among
      the included studies, proportion hospitalized, length of stay, proportion
      discharged home and case-fatality ranged considerably. CONCLUSION: Our review
      highlights the heterogeneity among reporting clinical WNV syndromes and
      epidemiologic parameters of WNV-related illness. Presently, there is potential
      for further synthesis of the risk factors of WNV-illness and mortality;
      undertaking further analysis through a systematic review and meta-analysis may
      benefit our understanding of risk factors for emerging mosquito-borne diseases.
      Future research on the burden of WNV can build on existing evidence summarized in
      this review, not only to support our understanding of endemic WNV, but also to
      strengthen research on emerging arboviruses with similar clinical manifestations.

PMID- 28877683
TI  - Genome-wide association study reveals putative role of gga-miR-15a in controlling
      feed conversion ratio in layer chickens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Efficient use of feed resources for farm animals is a critical
      concern in animal husbandry. Numerous genetic and nutritional studies have been
      conducted to investigate feed efficiency during the regular laying cycle of
      chickens. However, by prolonging the laying period of layers, the performance of
      feed utilization in the late-laying period becomes increasingly important. In the
      present study, we measured daily feed intake (FI), residual feed intake (RFI) and
      feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 808 hens during 81-82 weeks of age to evaluate
      genetic properties and then used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to reveal
      the genetic determinants. RESULTS: The heritability estimates for the
      investigated traits were medium and between 0.15 and 0.28 in both pedigree- and
      genomic-based estimates, whereas the genetic correlations among these traits were
      high and ranged from 0.49 to 0.90. Three genome-wide significant SNPs located on
      chromosome 1 (GGA1) were detected for FCR. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) and
      conditional GWA analysis indicated that these 3 SNPs were highly correlated with
      one another, located at 13.55-45.16 Kb upstream of gga-miR-15a. Results of
      quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis in liver
      tissue showed that the expression of gga-miR-15a was significantly higher in the
      high FCR birds than that in the medium or low FCR birds. Bioinformatics analysis
      further revealed that gga-mir-15a could act on many target genes, such as
      forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) that is involved in the insulin-signaling pathway, which
      influences nutrient metabolism in many organisms. Additionally, some suggestively
      significant variants, located on GGA3 and GGA9, were identified to associate with
      FI and RFI. CONCLUSIONS: This GWA analysis was conducted on feed intake and
      efficiency traits for chickens and was innovative for application in the late
      laying period. Our findings can be used as a reference in the genomic breeding
      programs for increasing the efficiency performance of old hens and to improve our
      understanding of the molecular determinants for feed efficiency.

PMID- 28877684
TI  - Medical and sociodemographic factors predict persistent smoking after coronary
      events.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the determinants of persistent smoking after a coronary
      event constitutes the basis of modelling interventions of smoking cessation in
      secondary prevention programs. We aim to identify the potentially modifiable
      medical, sociodemographic and psychosocial factors, comprising the study factors,
      associated with unfavourable risk factor control after CHD events. METHODS: A
      cross-sectional explorative study used logistic regression analysis to
      investigate the association between study factors and smoking status in 1083
      patients hospitalized with myocardial infarction and/or coronary
      revascularization. Hospital record data, a self-report questionnaire, clinical
      examination and blood samples were applied. RESULTS: At the index
      hospitalization, 390 patients were smoking and at follow-up after 2-36 months 167
      (43%) of these had quit, while 230 reported persistent smoking. In adjusted
      analyses, unemployed or disability benefits (Odds ratio (OR) 4.1), low education
      (OR 3.5), longer smoking duration (OR 2.3) and not having ST-elevation myocardial
      infarction (STEMI) as index event (OR 2.3) were significantly associated with
      persistent smoking. Psychosocial factors at follow-up were not associated with
      persistent smoking. Smokers reported high motivation for cessation, with 68%
      wanting help to quit. Only 42% had been offered nicotine replacement therapy or
      other cessation aids. Smokers rated use of tobacco as the most important cause of
      their coronary disease (6.8 on a 1-10 Likert scale). CONCLUSIONS: Low
      socioeconomic status, prior duration of smoking, and not having STEMI as index
      event were associated with persisting smoking. Persistent smokers in this study
      seem to have an acceptable risk perception and were motivated to cease smoking,
      but needed assistance through cessation programs including prescription of
      pharmacological aids. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov:
      NCT02309255 , registered retrospectively.

PMID- 28877685
TI  - Positive regulation of prostate cancer cell growth by lipid droplet forming and
      processing enzymes DGAT1 and ABHD5.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neoplastic cells proliferate rapidly and obtain requisite building
      blocks by reprogramming metabolic pathways that favor growth. Previously, we
      observed that prostate cancer cells uptake and store lipids in the form of lipid
      droplets, providing building blocks for membrane synthesis, to facilitate
      proliferation and growth. Mechanisms of lipid uptake, lipid droplet dynamics and
      their contribution to cancer growth have yet to be defined. This work is focused
      on elucidating the prostate cancer-specific modifications in lipid storage
      pathways so that these modified gene products can be identified and
      therapeutically targeted. METHODS: To identify genes that promote lipid droplet
      formation and storage, the expression profiles of candidate genes were assessed
      and compared between peripheral blood mononuclear cells and prostate cancer
      cells. Subsequently, differentially expressed genes were inhibited and growth
      assays performed to elucidate their role in the growth of the cancer cells. Cell
      cycle, apoptosis and autophagy assays were performed to ascertain the mechanism
      of growth inhibition. RESULTS: Our results indicate that DGAT1, ABHD5, ACAT1 and
      ATGL are overexpressed in prostate cancer cells compared to PBMCs and of these
      overexpressed genes, DGAT1 and ABHD5 aid in the growth of the prostate cancer
      cells. Blocking the expression of both DGAT1 and ABHD5 results in inhibition of
      growth, cell cycle block and cell death. DGAT1 siRNA treatment inhibits lipid
      droplet formation and leads to autophagy where as ABHD5 siRNA treatment promotes
      accumulation of lipid droplets and leads to apoptosis. Both the siRNA treatments
      reduce AMPK phosphorylation, a key regulator of lipid metabolism. While DGAT1
      siRNA reduces phosphorylation of ACC, the rate limiting enzyme in de novo fat
      synthesis and triggers phosphorylation of raptor and ULK-1 inducing autophagy and
      cell death, ABHD5 siRNA decreases P70S6 phosphorylation, leading to PARP
      cleavage, apoptosis and cell death. Interestingly, DGAT-1 is involved in the
      synthesis of triacylglycerol where as ABHD5 is a hydrolase and participates in
      the fatty acid oxidation process, yet inhibition of both enzymes similarly
      promotes prostate cancer cell death. CONCLUSION: Inhibition of either DGAT1 or
      ABHD5 leads to prostate cancer cell death. Both DGAT1 and ABHD5 can be
      selectively targeted to block prostate cancer cell growth.

PMID- 28877686
TI  - Disease-stabilizing treatment based on all-trans retinoic acid and valproic acid
      in acute myeloid leukemia - identification of responders by gene expression
      profiling of pretreatment leukemic cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive malignancy only cured
      by intensive therapy. However, many elderly and unfit patients cannot receive
      such treatment due to an unacceptable risk of treatment-related morbidity and
      mortality. Disease-stabilizing therapy is then the only possible strategy, one
      alternative being treatment based on all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) combined with
      the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid and possibly low-toxicity
      conventional chemotherapy. METHODS: Primary AML cells were derived from 43
      patients included in two clinical studies of treatment based on ATRA, valproic
      acid and theophyllamine; low toxicity chemotherapy (low-dose cytarabine,
      hydroxyurea, 6-mercaptopurin) was also allowed. Pretreatment leukemic cells were
      analyzed by mutation profiling of 54 genes frequently mutated in myeloid
      malignancies and by global gene expression profiling before and during in vivo
      treatment. RESULTS: Patients were classified as responders and non-responders to
      the treatment, however response to treatment showed no significant associations
      with karyotype or mutational profiles. Significance analysis of microarray (SAM)
      showed that responders and non-responders significantly differed with regard to
      the expression of 179 different genes. The differentially expressed genes
      encoding proteins with a known function were further classified based on the
      PANTHER (protein annotation through evolutionary relationship) classification
      system. The identified genes encoded proteins that are involved in several
      important biological functions, but a main subset of the genes were important for
      transcriptional regulation. These pretherapy differences in gene expression were
      largely maintained during treatment. Our analyses of primary AML cells during in
      vivo treatment suggest that ATRA modulates HOX activity (i.e. decreased
      expression of HOXA3, HOXA4 and HOXA5 and their regulator PBX3), but altered
      function of DNA methyl transferase 3A (DNMT3A) and G-protein coupled receptor
      signaling may also contribute to the effect of the overall treatment.
      CONCLUSIONS: Responders and non-responders to AML stabilizing treatment based on
      ATRA and valproic acid differ in the pretreatment transcriptional regulation of
      their leukemic cells, and these differences may be important for the clinical
      effect of this treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATIONS: ClinicalTrials.gov no. NCT00175812
      ; EudraCT no. 2004-001663-22, registered September 9, 2005 and ClinicalTrials.gov
      no. NCT00995332 ; EudraCT no. 2007-2007-001995-36, registered October 14, 2009.

PMID- 28877687
TI  - Factors associated with utilization of long-acting and permanent contraceptive
      methods among women who have decided not to have more children in Gondar city.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that long acting family planning methods reduce
      population growth and improve maternal health, their utilization remains poor.
      Therefore, this study assessed the prevalence of long acting and permanent family
      planning method utilization and associated factors among women in reproductive
      age groups who have decided not to have more children in Gondar city, northwest
      Ethiopia. METHOD: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from
      August to October, 2015. Three hundred seventeen women who have decided not to
      have more children were selected consecutively into the study. A structured and
      pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. Both bivariate and multi
      variable logistic regressions analyses were used to identify factors associated
      with utilization of long acting and permanent family planning methods. The multi
      variable logistic regression analysis was used to investigate factors associated
      with the utilization of long acting and permanent family planning methods. The
      Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with the corresponding 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was
      used to show the strength of associations, and variables with a P-value of <0.05
      were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In this study, the overall
      prevalence of long acting and permanent contraceptive (LAPCM) method utilization
      was 34.7% (95% CI: 29.5-39.9). According to the multi-variable logistic
      regression analysis, utilization of long acting and permanent contraceptive
      methods was significantly associated with women who had secondary school, (AOR:
      2279, 95% CI: 1.17, 4.44), college, and above education (AOR: 2.91, 95% CI: 1.36,
      6.24), history of previous utilization (AOR: 3.02, 95% CI: 1.69, 5.38), and
      information about LAPCM (AOR: 8.85, 95% CI: 2.04, 38.41). CONCLUSION: In this
      study the prevalence of long acting and permanent family planning method
      utilization among women who have decided not to have more children was high
      compared with previous studies conducted elsewhere. Advanced educational status,
      previous utilization of LAPCM, and information on LAPCM were significantly
      associated with the utilization of LAPCM. As a result, strengthening behavioral
      change communication channels to make information accessible is highly
      recommended.

PMID- 28877689
TI  - A national survey of Chinese medicine doctors and clinical practice guidelines in
      China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for Chinese medicine (CM) are
      being developed to assist doctors with appropriate decisions concerning CM care.
      To date, there has been little investigation on the perspectives of those to whom
      the guidelines are directed. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was sent
      to 4503 doctors in 28 provinces of China in the latter half of 2012. Questions
      were organized around the topics of knowledge, application, practice changes,
      beliefs and outcomes of implementation. Basic classificatory data on specialties
      and years of qualification were also collected. RESULTS: Replies were received
      from 4495 CM doctors (99.82%). Of these, 85.56% of CM doctors reported being
      familiar with CPG recommendations, but the overall adherence rate was only
      50.39%. The length of time practicing CM may influence the rate of adherence,
      since 709 doctors (51.90%) with less than 5 years of experience reported never
      having followed CPGs. Doctors in nine specialties showed a modest degree of
      homogeneity in their attitudes towards CM diagnosis and treatment, which were
      generally positive. Most doctors regarded CPG-recommended therapies as safe
      (92%), economic (84%), and effective (76%). Approximately four-fifths of those
      questioned selected 'acceptable' (60.84%) and 'acceptable after revision'
      (19.23%) regarding their comprehensive assessment of the CPGs. CONCLUSIONS: An
      encouraging result from this survey is that the majority of CM doctors support
      the concept of CPGs for the practice of CM. However, the results of this survey
      also suggest that improving the adherence of CM doctors to the guidelines remains
      a major challenge to improving the practice standards for CM.

PMID- 28877688
TI  - Effects of hyaluronic acid combined with anti-inflammatory drugs compared with
      hyaluronic acid alone, in clinical trials and experiments in osteoarthritis: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objectives are to compare the efficacy of intra-articular
      hyaluronic acid (IA-HA) alone and in combination with anti-inflammatory drugs (IA
      HA + AI), corticosteroids (CS) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
      in clinical trials and in vivo and in vitro studies of osteoarthritis (OA).
      METHODS: Data in the BIOSIS, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE and Medline
      databases were collected and analyzed. Random effects models were used to compute
      the effect size (ES) of the mean difference in pain reduction scores from
      baseline and the relative risk (RR) of adverse events. The ES of histological
      scores in vivo and cartilage metabolism in vitro were also calculated. We
      conducted sensitivity analysis of blinding and intention-to-treat (ITT), compared
      IA-HA combined with CS vs. IA-HA alone in trials, and compared the effects of HA
      + AI vs. AI alone in vitro, including anabolic and catabolic gene expression.
      RESULTS: Thirteen out of 382 papers were included for data analysis. In clinical
      trials, the ES of pain reduction scores within the 1st month was -4.24 (-6.19, 
      2.29); 2nd-12th month, -1.39 (-1.95, -0.82); and within one year, -1.63 (-2.19, 
      1.08), favoring IA-HA + AI (P < 0.001). The ES of RR was 1.08 (0.59, 1.98), and
      histological scores was 1.38 (-0.55, 3.31). The ES of anabolic gene expression
      was 1.22 (0.18, 2.25), favoring HA alone (P < 0.05); catabolic gene expression
      was 0.74 (-0.44, 1.53), favoring HA alone; and glycosaminoglycans remaining was 
      2.45 (-5.94, 1.03). CONCLUSIONS: IA-HA + AI had greater efficacy for pain relief
      than IA-HA alone within a one-year period. However, HA + AI down-regulated the
      ACAN gene when compared with HA alone in vitro.

PMID- 28877690
TI  - Gypenosides ameliorate memory deficits in MPTP-lesioned mouse model of
      Parkinson's disease treated with L-DOPA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have revealed that gypenosides (GPS) improve the
      symptoms of anxiety disorders in a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine
      (MPTP)-lesioned rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study aimed to
      investigate the effects of GPS on memory deficits in an MPTP-lesioned mouse model
      of PD treated with L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). METHODS: MPTP (30
      mg/kg/day, 5 days)-lesioned mice were treated with GPS (50 mg/kg) and/or L-DOPA
      (10 and 25 mg/kg) for 21 days. After the final treatments, behavioral changes
      were assessed in all mice using passive avoidance and elevated plus-maze tests.
      We then evaluated the biochemical influences of GPS treatment on levels of
      tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors,
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2), and cyclic AMP-response element
      binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation. RESULTS: MPTP-lesioned mice exhibited
      deficits associated with habit learning and spatial memory, which were further
      aggravated by treatment with L-DOPA (25 mg/kg). However, treatment with GPS (50
      mg/kg) ameliorated memory deficits. Treatment with GPS (50 mg/kg) also improved L
      DOPA (25 mg/kg)-treated MPTP lesion-induced decreases in retention latency on the
      passive avoidance test, as well as levels of TH-immunopositive cells and dopamine
      in the substantia nigra and striatum. GPS treatment also attenuated increases in
      retention transfer latency on the elevated plus-maze test and in NMDA receptor
      expression, as well as decreases in the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and CREB in the
      hippocampus. Treatment with L-DOPA (10 mg/kg) also ameliorated deficits in habit
      learning and spatial memory in MPTP-lesioned mice, and this effect was further
      enhanced by treatment with GPS (50 mg/kg). CONCLUSION: GPS ameliorate deficits in
      habit learning and spatial memory by modulating the dopaminergic neuronal and N
      methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated signaling systems in MPTP-lesioned mice
      treated with L-DOPA. GPS may serve as an adjuvant therapeutic agent for memory
      deficits in patients with PD receiving L-DOPA.

PMID- 28877691
TI  - Alternative moth-eye nanostructures: antireflective properties and composition of
      dimpled corneal nanocoatings in silk-moth ancestors.
AB  - Moth-eye nanostructures are a well-known example of biological antireflective
      surfaces formed by pseudoregular arrays of nipples and are often used as a
      template for biomimetic materials. Here, we provide morphological
      characterization of corneal nanostructures of moths from the Bombycidae family,
      including strains of domesticated Bombyx mori silk-moth, its wild ancestor Bombyx
      mandarina, and a more distantly related Apatelodes torrefacta. We find high
      diversification of the nanostructures and strong antireflective properties they
      provide. Curiously, the nano-dimple pattern of B. mandarina is found to reduce
      reflectance as efficiently as the nanopillars of A. torrefacta. Access to genome
      sequence of Bombyx further permitted us to pinpoint corneal proteins, likely
      contributing to formation of the antireflective nanocoatings. These findings open
      the door to bioengineering of nanostructures with novel properties, as well as
      invite industry to expand traditional moth-eye nanocoatings with the alternative
      ones described here.

PMID- 28877693
TI  - Comparison of radiofrequency ablation and partial nephrectomy for tumor in a
      solitary kidney.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To estimate oncologic and functional outcomes for radiofrequency
      ablation (RFA) versus partial nephrectomy (PN) for tumors in a solitary kidney.
      METHODS: Nineteen patients with sporadic renal cell carcinoma in a solitary
      kidney were treated with RFA, and 21 patients were treated with PN between
      November 2008 and September 2015. Basic demographic information including age,
      gender, operative and pathological data, complications, renal function,
      oncological outcomes, was obtained for each patient. Statistical analysis was
      done to test for the correlation of clinical and pathological features, renal
      function outcomes, as well as oncological outcomes of RFA and PN. All statistical
      tests were 2-sided, and p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Statistical
      analyses were performed using SPSS 19.0. RESULTS: No significant differences were
      indicated between the RFA and PN with respect to mean patient age, tumor size, as
      well as intraoperative or postoperative complications. The mean length of
      hospitalization (P = 0.019) and mean operative time (P = 0.036) was significantly
      shorter in RFA, with the median estimated blood loss being greater in PN (P =
      0.001). The mean serum creatinine level 24 h following operation were
      significantly higher than preoperative creatinine in PN (P = 0.009), but did not
      reach statistical significance in RFA. Local recurrence were detected in only 1
      patient (5%) in PN and 3 patients (18.75%) in RFA (P = 0.4). One patient
      developed pulmonary metastasis and one exhibited tumor persistence in RFA, none
      were present in PN. CONCLUSIONS: Radiofrequency Ablation and Partial Nephrectomy
      for Tumors in a Solitary Kidney were all safe and effective, with each method
      having distinct advantages. It is the decision of the patient and urologist to
      pick the best approach.

PMID- 28877694
TI  - Assembling and validating data from multiple sources to study care for Veterans
      with bladder cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the high prevalence of bladder cancer, research on optimal
      bladder cancer care is limited. One way to advance observational research on care
      is to use linked data from multiple sources. Such big data research can provide
      real-world details of care and outcomes across a large number of patients. We
      assembled and validated such data including (1) administrative data from the
      Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), (2) Medicare claims, (3) data abstracted by
      tumor registrars, (4) data abstracted via chart review from the national
      electronic health record, and (5) full text pathology reports. METHODS: Based on
      these combined data, we used administrative data to identify patients with newly
      diagnosed bladder cancer who received care in the VA. To validate these data, we
      first compared the diagnosis date from the administrative data to that from the
      tumor registry. Second, we measured accuracy of identifying bladder cancer care
      in VA administrative data, using a random chart review (n = 100) as gold
      standard. Lastly, we compared the proportion of patients who received bladder
      cancer care among those who did versus did not have full text bladder pathology
      reports available, expecting that those with reports are significantly more
      likely to receive care in VA. RESULTS: Out of 26,675 patients, 11,323 (42%) had
      tumor registry data available. 90% of these patients had a difference of 90 days
      or less between the diagnosis dates from administrative and registry data. Among
      100 patients selected for chart review, 59 received bladder cancer care in VA, 58
      of which were correctly identified using administrative data (sensitivity 98%,
      specificity 90%). Receipt of bladder cancer care was substantially more common
      among those who did versus did not have bladder pathology available (96% vs. 43%,
      p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Merging administrative with electronic health record and
      pathology data offers new possibilities to validate the use of administrative
      data in bladder cancer research.

PMID- 28877692
TI  - The use of a P. falciparum specific coiled-coil domain to construct a self
      assembling protein nanoparticle vaccine to prevent malaria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The parasitic disease malaria remains a major global public health
      concern and no truly effective vaccine exists. One approach to the development of
      a malaria vaccine is to target the asexual blood stage that results in clinical
      symptoms. Most attempts have failed. New antigens such as P27A and P27 have
      emerged as potential new vaccine candidates. Multiple studies have demonstrated
      that antigens are more immunogenic and are better correlated with protection when
      presented on particulate delivery systems. One such particulate delivery system
      is the self-assembling protein nanoparticle (SAPN) that relies on coiled-coil
      domains of proteins to form stable nanoparticles. In the past we have used de
      novo designed amino acid domains to drive the formation of the coiled-coil
      scaffolds which present the antigenic epitopes on the particle surface. RESULTS:
      Here we use naturally occurring domains found in the tex1 protein to form the
      coiled-coil scaffolding of the nanoparticle. Thus, by engineering P27A and a new
      extended form of the coiled-coil domain P27 onto the N and C terminus of the SAPN
      protein monomer we have developed a particulate delivery system that effectively
      displays both antigens on a single particle that uses malaria tex1 sequences to
      form the nanoparticle scaffold. These particles are immunogenic in a murine model
      and induce immune responses similar to the ones observed in seropositive
      individuals in malaria endemic regions. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that our
      P27/P27A-SAPNs induce an immune response akin to the one in seropositive
      individuals in Burkina Faso. Since P27 is highly conserved among different
      Plasmodium species, these novel SAPNs may even provide cross-protection between
      Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax the two major human malaria pathogens.
      As the SAPNs are also easy to manufacture and store they can be delivered to the
      population in need without complication thus providing a low cost malaria
      vaccine.

PMID- 28877695
TI  - Methodological barriers to studying the association between the economic crisis
      and suicide in Spain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The hypothetical relationship between economic recession and the
      increase in suicides in Spain is subject to various arguments. In addition to the
      inherent complexity of capturing and explaining the underlining mechanisms that
      could describe this causal link, different points of contention have been be
      identified. The period of this association and its possible starting points, the
      socioeconomic determinants that may explain the variation in suicide rate, and
      the data sources available are the main focus of controversy. The present study
      aims to identify the phases of association between different periods of economic
      recession and suicide rates, and compare the effect of different social
      determinants of health that have been mentioned in previous studies. METHODS: We
      have used interrupted time series analyses to assess the impact of economic
      recession on national rates of suicide mortality provided by the Spanish
      Statistical Office (1980-2014). In an attempt to consider the factors that have
      affected the study of suicide in Spain, different data sources/periods,
      predictors, and regions in Spain were analysed. RESULTS: The analysis revealed a
      positive and significant relationship between the Great Recession and suicide
      rates during the second period of economic recession (2011-2014), while appeared
      to decrease during the first recession period. However, the first decreasing
      trend was not statistically significant in the global analysis of the evolution
      of monthly suicide rates for the entire country. Both unemployment and per capita
      GDP were positively related to suicide trends. Finally, the regional analysis
      demonstrates a similar pattern in different Spanish areas. CONCLUSION: Although
      previous studies have mentioned the double-dip in the suicide rate associated
      with the corresponding period of double recession, our study only identify a
      positive relationship during the second recession period. These results points
      out that the major impact of economic problems might have had a delayed effect
      due to initial protection policies.

PMID- 28877697
TI  - Enhancing the get healthy information and coaching service for Aboriginal adults:
      evaluation of the process and impact of the program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-communicable chronic diseases in Australia contribute to
      approximately 85% of the total burden of disease; this proportion is greater for
      Aboriginal communities. The Get Healthy Service (GHS) is effective at reducing
      lifestyle-based chronic disease risk factors among adults and was enhanced to
      facilitate accessibility and ensure Aboriginal cultural appropriateness. The
      purpose of this study is to detail how formative research with Aboriginal
      communities was applied to guide the development and refinement of the GHS and
      referral pathways; and to assess the reach and impact of the GHS (and the
      Aboriginal specific program) on the lifestyle risk factors of Aboriginal
      participants. METHODS: Formative research included interviews with Aboriginal
      participants, leaders and community members, healthcare professionals and service
      providers to examine acceptability of the GHS; and contributed to the redesign of
      the GHS Aboriginal program. A quantitative analysis employing a pre-post
      evaluation design examined anthropometric measures, physical activity and fruit
      and vegetable consumption of Aboriginal participants using descriptive and chi
      square analyses, t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. RESULTS: Whilst feedback
      from the formative research was positive, Aboriginal people identified areas for
      service enhancement, including improving program content, delivery and service
      promotion as well as ensuring culturally appropriate referral pathways. Once
      these changes were implemented, the proportion of Aboriginal participants
      increased significantly (3.2 to 6.4%). There were significant improvements across
      a number of risk factors assessed after six months (average weight loss: 3.3 kg
      and waist circumference reduction: 6.2 cm) for Aboriginal participants completing
      the program. CONCLUSIONS: Working in partnership with Aboriginal people, Elders,
      communities and peak bodies to enhance the GHS for Aboriginal people resulted in
      an enhanced culturally acceptable and tailored program which significantly
      reduced chronic disease risk factors for Aboriginal participants. Mainstream
      telephone based services can be modified and enhanced to meet the needs of
      Aboriginal communities through a process of consultation, community engagement,
      partnership and governance.

PMID- 28877696
TI  - Oral administration of taheebo (Tabebuia avellanedae Lorentz ex Griseb.) water
      extract prevents DSS-induced colitis in mice by up-regulating type II T helper
      immune responses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic inflammatory disorders
      that are mediated by pathogenic Th1 and Th17 cells. Previous studies have
      demonstrated that taheebo water extract (TWE) derived from Tabebuia avellanedae
      Lorentz ex Griseb., as folk remedy, has been used to treat various inflammatory
      diseases. Although TWE has been previously shown to display anti-inflammatory
      activities, the in vivo effects of TWE on mucosal immune responses remain
      unclear. METHODS: We examined the anti-inflammatory effects of TWE on innate
      immune cells such as dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages and also on the
      differentiation of T helper cells. Lastly, adopting a method for dextran sulfate
      sodium (DSS)-induced colitis, we investigated whether the oral administration of
      TWE can modulate mucosal inflammatory responses. RESULTS: We found that TWE could
      activate DCs to produce immunosuppressive IL10 and polarize macrophages toward an
      anti-inflammatory phenotype in the mesenteric lymph node (MLN). Such alterations
      in DCs and macrophages resulted in a significant increase in anti-inflammatory
      Th2 and Foxp3+ Treg cells and a dramatic decrease in pro-inflammatory Th1 and
      Th17 cells in the MLN. Upon induction of colitis with DSS treatment, TWE
      significantly reduced the clinical symptoms, including body weight loss and
      colonic tissue inflammation, by up-regulating type II T helper immune responses.
      CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these data suggest that TWE is an excellent natural
      product with therapeutic effects to help improve inflammatory disorders such as
      colitis.

PMID- 28877698
TI  - Subchronic toxicity of herbal compound "Jiedu Huayu" granules in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: "Jiedu Huayu" (JDHY) granules are traditional Chinese herbal
      compounds that have been used to treat severe liver injury for many years. The
      purpose of the current study is to evaluate the safety of JDHY granules. METHODS:
      Subchronic toxicity was tested in male and female rats that were orally
      administered three different doses (80, 100, and 130 g/kg/d) of JDHY for 13
      weeks. Clinical signs, bodyweight, food consumption, hematological and
      biochemical parameters, organ coefficients, and histological changes were
      observed during the study. RESULTS: There were no significant changes in toxicity
      observed in either sex at any dose of JDHY granules treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that repeated oral administration of JDHY granules at dosage
      levels of <=130 g/kg/d can be considered safe.

PMID- 28877699
TI  - Honoring the voices of bereaved caregivers: a Metasummary of qualitative
      research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Family caregiving in the context of advanced disease in particular,
      can be physically and emotionally taxing. Caregivers can subsequently face
      bereavement exhausted with few supports, limited resources and a significant
      proportion will develop negative psychological and social outcomes. Although some
      research has attended to the bereavement experiences of family caregivers who had
      cared for a person requiring palliative care, a comprehensive qualitative
      understanding of the impact of caregiving on bereavement has not been
      articulated. The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative metasummary
      to explore the experiences of bereaved family caregivers of people who received
      palliative care services, regardless of their underlying disease. METHODS:
      Sandelowski and Barroso's qualitative metasummary method was utilized: 1287
      articles were identified through extensive database searches (i.e. - MEDLINE,
      PsychINFO, and CINAHL) and reviewed to determine if they fit the criteria. Those
      included in the review were assessed for study quality. Findings from each study
      were then thematically coded and a frequency of themes was calculated. RESULTS:
      The sample consisted of 47 qualitative studies. A total of 15 themes emerged. In
      descending order of frequency, the 15 themes were: the individual emotions of
      serenity, sadness, guilt, uncertainty, trauma, escape, and anger; post-loss
      experiences that helped the caregiver in bereavement; post-loss experiences that
      hindered; practical life changes; caregiver role identity; pre-loss experiences
      that helped; pre-loss experiences that hindered; caregiver context; and a need
      for different kinds of supports. Three key findings emerged from the themes: (1)
      many different aspects of the caregiving experience impact the bereavement
      experience, (2) every bereavement experience is unique, and (3) a variety of
      supports must be developed and made available to caregivers to meet these unique
      needs. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the metasummary findings, changes are needed in
      practice and policy to ensure the health and well-being of the family caregiver
      is maintained by offering support both during caregiving and bereavement.

PMID- 28877700
TI  - Testosterone inhibits the growth of prostate cancer xenografts in nude mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traditional beliefs of androgen's stimulating effects on the growth
      of prostate cancer (PCa) have been challenged in recent years. Our previous in
      vitro study indicated that physiological normal levels of androgens inhibited the
      proliferation of PCa cells. In this in vivo study, the ability of testosterone
      (T) to inhibit PCa growth was assessed by testing the tumor incidence rate and
      tumor growth rate of PCa xenografts on nude mice. METHODS: Different serum
      testosterone levels were manipulated in male nude/nude athymic mice by
      orchiectomy or inserting different dosages of T pellets subcutaneously. PCa cells
      were injected subcutaneously to nude mice and tumor incidence rate and tumor
      growth rate of PCa xenografts were tested. RESULTS: The data demonstrated that
      low levels of serum T resulted in the highest PCa incidence rate (50%). This PCa
      incidence rate in mice with low T levels was significantly higher than that in
      mice treated with higher doses of T (24%, P < 0.01) and mice that underwent
      orchiectomy (8%, P < 0.001). Mice that had low serum T levels had the shortest
      tumor volume doubling time (112 h). This doubling time was significantly shorter
      than that in the high dose 5 mg T arm (158 h, P < 0.001) and in the orchiectomy
      arm (468 h, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These results indicated that low T levels are
      optimal for PCa cell growth. Castrate T levels, as seen after orchiectomy, are
      not sufficient to support PCa cell growth. Higher levels of serum T inhibited PCa
      cell growth.

PMID- 28877701
TI  - The prevalence of disrespect and abuse during facility-based maternity care in
      Malawi: evidence from direct observations of labor and delivery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence throughout the world that the negative
      treatment of pregnant women during labor and delivery can be a barrier to seeking
      skilled maternity care. At this time, there has been little quantitative evidence
      published on disrespect and abuse (D&A) in Malawi. The objective of this research
      is to describe the prevalence of disrespect and abuse during labor and delivery
      through the secondary analysis of direct clinical observations and to describe
      the association between the observation of D&A items with the place of delivery
      and client background characteristics. METHODS: As part of the evaluation of the
      Helping Babies Breathe intervention, direct observations of labor and delivery
      were conducted in August 2013 from 27 out of the 28 districts in Malawi.
      Frequencies of disrespect and abuse items organized around the Bowser and Hill
      categories of disrespect and abuse and presented in the White Ribbon Alliance's
      Universal Rights of Childbearing Women Framework were calculated. Bivariate
      analysis was done to assess the association between selected client background
      characteristics and the place of delivery with the disrespect and use during
      childbirth. RESULTS: A total of 2109 observations were made across 40 facilities
      (12 health centers and 28 hospitals) in Malawi. The results showed that while
      women were frequently greeted respectfully (13.9% were not), they were often not
      encouraged to ask the health provider questions (73.1%), were not given privacy
      (58.2%) and were not encouraged to have a support person present with them
      (83.2%). Results from the bivariate analysis did not show a consistent
      relationship between place of delivery and D&A items, where the odds of being
      shouted at was lower in a health center when compared to a hospital (OR: 0.19;
      CI: 0.59-0.62) while there was a higher odds of clients not being asked if they
      have any concerns if they were in a health center when compared to a hospital
      (OR: 2.40; CI: 1.06-5.44). Women who were HIV+ had significantly lower odds of
      not having audio and visual privacy (OR: 0.34, CI: 0.12-0.97), of not being asked
      about her preferred delivery position (OR: 0.17, CI: 0.05-0.65) and of not being
      asked if she has any other problems she is concerned about (OR 0.38, CI:0.15
      0.96). CONCLUSION: This study is among the first to quantify the prevalence of
      disrespect and abuse during labor and delivery in Malawi through direct clinical
      observations. Measurement of the poor treatment of women during childbirth is
      essential for understanding the scope of the problem and how to address this
      issue.

PMID- 28877702
TI  - Psychosocial risk and protective factors for the health and well-being of
      professionals working in emergency and non-emergency medical transport services,
      identified via questionnaires.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical transport (MT) professionals are subject to considerable
      emotional demands due to their involvement in life-or-death situations and their
      exposure to the serious health problems of their clients. An increase in the
      demand for MT services has, in turn, increased interest in the study of the
      psychosocial risk factors affecting the health of workers in this sector.
      However, research thus far has not distinguished between emergency (EMT) and non
      emergency (non-EMT) services, nor between the sexes. Furthermore, little emphasis
      has been placed on the protective factors involved. The main objective of the
      present study is to identify any existing differential exposure - for reasons of
      work setting (EMT and non-EMT) or of gender - to the various psychosocial risk
      and protective factors affecting the health of MT workers. METHODS: Descriptive
      and transversal research with responses from 201 professionals. RESULTS: The
      scores obtained on the various psychosocial scales in our study - as indicators
      of future health problems - were more unfavourable for non-EMT workers than they
      were for EMT workers. Work setting, but not gender, was able to account for these
      differences. DISCUSSION: The scores obtained for the different psychosocial
      factors are generally more favourable for the professionals we surveyed than
      those obtained in previous samples. CONCLUSION: The significant differences
      observed between EMT and non-EMT personnel raise important questions regarding
      the organization of work in companies that carry out both services at the same
      time in the same territory. The relationships among the set of risk/protective
      factors suggests a need for further investigation into working conditions as well
      as a consideration of the workers' sense of coherence and subjective well-being
      as protective factors against occupational burnout syndrome.

PMID- 28877703
TI  - Influence of growth hormone treatment on radiographic indices of the spine:
      propensity-matched analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We performed this study to investigate the influence of recombinant
      human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy on radiographic indices of the spine using
      propensity-matched analysis. METHODS: Patients with idiopathic short stature who
      had undergone both growth hormone therapy and whole-spine radiographs more than
      twice prior to 15 years of age were included in the patient group. Other patients
      who had undergone whole-spine radiographs more than twice prior to the same age
      during regular checkups for idiopathic scoliosis formed the control group.
      Propensity-matched analysis was performed to reduce the selection bias. The
      scoliosis Cobb angle, coronal balance, apical vertebral translation, apical
      rotation, and pelvic obliquity were measured from the radiographs taken at the
      periodic follow-ups. The rate of progression of the measurements was adjusted by
      multiple factors using a linear mixed model with sex as the fixed effect and age
      and each subject as the random effects. RESULTS: Using a propensity-matched
      analysis, 48 patients were finally included in both groups. The scoliosis Cobb
      angle increased by 1.0 degrees  (p < 0.001) per year in the patient group,
      whereas there was no significant annual change in the control group (p = 0.496).
      Female patients showed a greater scoliosis Cobb angle (1.8 degrees , p = 0.039)
      compared with male patients. There was no significant difference between the
      patient and control groups in coronal balance (p = 0.264). Apical vertebral
      translation per year was increased by 1.2 mm (p < 0.001) in the patient group and
      0.5 mm in the control group (p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Radiographic examination
      revealed that growth hormone therapy for idiopathic short stature affected the
      progression of the scoliosis Cobb angle and apical vertebral translation on the
      coronal plane. Physicians should be aware that annual follow-up is required to
      evaluate the change in the curvature of the spine in patients undergoing rhGH
      treatment.

PMID- 28877704
TI  - Coproscopy and molecular screening for detection of intestinal protozoa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasitosis is one of several health concerns about
      immigrants who travel from endemic to non-endemic regions. Reliable rapid
      sensitive diagnostic tools, for use in non-endemic regions, are urgently required
      to enable frequent assessment of immigrant workers in jobs where risk of local
      transmission is a particular concern (e.g. food-handlers). We assessed the burden
      of intestinal protozoa in newly arrived immigrants and those applying for renewal
      of work permits in Qatar (n = 735), by both microscopic examination of stool
      samples and by Real Time PCR methodology. RESULTS: Prevalence was considerably
      higher using RT-PCR compared with coproscopy (Blastocystis hominis: 65.2 vs 7.6%;
      Giardia duodenalis: 14.3 vs 2.9%; Entamoeba histolytica: 1.6 vs 1.2%).
      Dientamoeba fragilis was sought only by RT-PCR (prevalence of 25.4%). Prevalence
      of G. duodenalis was significantly higher in male subjects, associated with blue
      collar workers and declined over time. Prevalence of B. hominis varied
      significantly with region of origin of subjects with highest values recorded
      among African immigrants. Prevalence of D. fragilis also varied with region of
      origin of subjects, and was lower in young female subjects and in renewal
      applicants compared with first-time applicants for work permits. CONCLUSIONS: We
      strongly recommend that, henceforth, intestinal protozoa should be screened by RT
      PCR, with a particular focus on frequent assessment of immigrant food-handlers.

PMID- 28877705
TI  - Loxapine to control agitation during weaning from mechanical ventilation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Weaning from mechanical ventilation (MV) may be impeded by the
      occurrence of agitation. Loxapine has the ability to control agitation without
      affecting spontaneous ventilation. The aim of this study was to establish whether
      loxapine would reduce MV weaning duration in agitated patients. METHODS: We
      performed a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group,
      randomised trial. Patients who were potential candidates for weaning but
      exhibited agitation (Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale score >= 2) after sedation
      withdrawal were randomly assigned to receive either loxapine or placebo. In case
      of severe agitation, conventional sedation was immediately resumed. The primary
      endpoint was the time between first administration of loxapine or placebo and
      successful extubation. RESULTS: The trial was discontinued after 102 patients
      were enrolled because of an insufficient inclusion rate. Median times to
      successful extubation were 3.2 days in the loxapine group and 5 days in the
      placebo group (relative risk 1.2, 95% CI 0.75-1.88, p = 0.45). During the first
      24 h, sedation was more frequently resumed in the placebo group (44% vs 17%, p =
      0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In this prematurely stopped trial, loxapine did not
      significantly shorten weaning from MV. However, loxapine reduced the need for
      resuming sedation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01193816  .
      Registered on 26 August 2010.

PMID- 28877706
TI  - Does exposure to the food environment differ by socioeconomic position? Comparing
      area-based and person-centred metrics in the Fenland Study, UK.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Retail food environments (foodscapes) are a recognised determinant of
      eating behaviours and may contribute to inequalities in diet. However, findings
      from studies measuring socioeconomic inequality in the foodscape have been mixed,
      which may be due to methodological differences. The aim of this cross-sectional
      study was to compare exposure to the foodscape by socioeconomic position using
      different measures, to test whether the presence, direction or amplitude of
      differences was sensitive to the choice of foodscape metric or socioeconomic
      indicator. METHODS: A sample of 10,429 adults aged 30-64 years with valid home
      address data were obtained from the Fenland Study, UK. Of this sample, 7270
      participants also had valid work location data. The sample was linked to data on
      food outlets obtained from local government records. Foodscape metrics included
      count, density and proximity of takeaway outlets and supermarkets, and the
      percentage of takeaway outlets relative to all food outlets. Exposure metrics
      were area-based (lower super output areas), and person-centred (proximity to
      nearest; Euclidean and Network buffers at 800 m, 1 km, and 1 mile). Person
      centred buffers were constructed using home and work locations. Socioeconomic
      status was measured at the area-level (2010 Index of Multiple Deprivation) and
      the individual-level (highest educational attainment; equivalised household
      income). Participants were classified into socioeconomic groups and average
      exposures estimated. Results were analysed using the statistical and percent
      differences between the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups. RESULTS: In area
      based measures, the most deprived areas contained higher takeaway outlet
      densities (p < 0.001). However, in person-centred metrics lower socioeconomic
      status was associated with lower exposure to takeaway outlets and supermarkets
      (all home-based exposures p < 0.001) and socioeconomic differences were greatest
      at the smallest buffer sizes. Socioeconomic differences in exposure was similar
      for home and combined home and work measures. Measuring takeaway exposure as a
      percentage of all outlets reversed the socioeconomic differences; the lowest
      socioeconomic groups had a higher percentage of takeaway outlets compared to the
      middle and highest groups (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We compared approaches to
      measuring socioeconomic variation in the foodscape and found that the association
      was sensitive to the metric used. In particular, the direction of association
      varied between area- and person-centred measures and between absolute and
      relative outlet measures. Studies need to consider the most appropriate measure
      for the research question, and may need to consider multiple measures as a single
      measure may be context dependent.

PMID- 28877707
TI  - Semi-high-throughput detection of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax
      oocysts in mosquitoes using bead-beating followed by circumsporozoite ELISA and
      quantitative PCR.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The malaria infection status of mosquitoes is commonly determined by
      microscopic detection of oocysts on the dissected mosquito midgut. This method is
      labour-intensive, does not allow processing of large numbers of mosquitoes and
      can be challenging in terms of objective classification of oocysts. Here, a semi
      high-throughput bead-beating ELISA method is proposed for detection of the
      circumsporozoite protein (CSP) followed by confirmation by quantitative PCR
      (qPCR). METHODS: Cultured Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes were offered to
      Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes and examined by microscopy. After bead-beating,
      mosquito homogenate was examined by CSP-ELISA and 18S qPCR. As negative controls,
      mosquitoes that were offered a heat-inactivated gametocyte blood meal were used.
      The CSP-ELISA/qPCR methodology was applied to high and low-intensity infections
      of cultured P. falciparum gametocytes. A similar methodology optimized for P.
      vivax was used on mosquitoes that were offered blood from Ethiopian donors who
      were naturally infected with P. vivax. RESULTS: There was considerable variation
      in CSP-ELISA signal and qPCR values in mosquitoes with low oocyst intensities.
      There was a strong agreement mosquito positivity by CSP-ELISA and by qPCR in
      mosquitoes that fed on cultured P. falciparum material (agreement 96.9%; kappa =
      0.97) and naturally infected P. vivax parasite carriers [agreement 92.4% (kappa =
      0.83)]. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed bead-beating CSP-ELISA/qPCR methodology
      considerably increases throughput for the detection of mosquito infection. qPCR
      remains necessary to confirm infections in mosquitoes with low CSP-ELISA signal.
      This methodology may prove particularly useful for studies where very low
      mosquito infection prevalence is expected and study sites where experience with
      oocyst detection is limited.

PMID- 28877708
TI  - Fabry disease and incidence of cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by
      deficient activity of alpha-galactosidase A and the resulting accumulation of the
      glycosphingolipid globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and its derivatives, including
      globotriaosylsphingosine (Lyso-Gb3). Increased cellular and plasma levels of Gb3
      and Lyso-Gb3 affect multiple organs, with specific clinical consequences for the
      kidneys, heart and brain. There is growing evidence that alterations in
      glycosphingolipids may have an oncogenic role and this prompted a review of cases
      of cancer and benign lesions in a large single centre cohort of Fabry patients.
      We also explored whether there is a difference in the risk of cancer in Fabry
      patients compared to the general population. RESULTS: Our results suggest that
      Fabry patients may have a marginally reduced rate of all cancer (incidence rate
      ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.37 to 0.99) but possibly increased rates of
      melanoma, urological malignancies and meningiomas. CONCLUSION: Greater knowledge
      and awareness of cancer in patients with Fabry disease may help identify at-risk
      individuals and elucidate cancer mechanisms in this rare inherited disease, which
      may potentially be relevant to the wider cancer population.

PMID- 28877709
TI  - Prevalence of Amyloidosis in Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess in amyloidosis prevalence in
      Korea between 2006 and 2015. METHODS: Primary diagnoses related to amyloidosis,
      regardless of subtype, were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance
      Service from 2006 through 2015. RESULTS: Overall, the age-standardized prevalence
      of amyloidosis was 0.93 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81, 1.04) persons per
      100,000 persons in 2006 and 1.91 (95% CI 1.78, 2.05) persons per 100,000 persons
      in 2015. This included an increase from 0.43 (95% CI 0.35, 0.51) to 1.04 (95% CI
      0.94, 1.14) persons per 100,000 persons in men and from 0.49 (95% CI 0.40, 0.57)
      to 0.87 (95% CI 0.77, 0.96) persons per 100,000 persons in women. In particular,
      the age-standardized prevalence of amyloidosis showed a greater increase in
      patients aged 65 years or older and in patients aged 45-64 years than in patients
      aged 20-44 years, for both men and women. CONCLUSIONS: The overall age
      standardized prevalence of amyloidosis was approximately 2 persons per 100,000
      persons in 2015. The overall age-standardized prevalence of amyloidosis increased
      between 2006 and 2015, especially in individuals aged 45-64 and older than 65
      years.

PMID- 28877710
TI  - Zinc-finger domains in metazoans: evolution gone wild.

PMID- 28877711
TI  - Pulmonary challenge with carbon nanoparticles induces a dose-dependent increase
      in circulating leukocytes in healthy males.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inhalation of particulate matter, as part of air pollution, is
      associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Nanoparticles (< 100 nm) are
      likely candidates for triggering inflammatory responses and activation of
      coagulation pathways because of their ability to enter lung cells and pass
      bronchial mucosa. We tested the hypothesis that bronchial segmental instillation
      of carbon nanoparticles causes inflammation and activation of coagulation
      pathways in healthy humans in vivo. METHODS: This was an investigator-initiated,
      randomized controlled, dose-escalation study in 26 healthy males. Participants
      received saline (control) in one lung segment and saline (placebo) or carbon
      nanoparticles 10 MUg, 50 MUg, or 100 MUg in the contra-lateral lung. Six hours
      later, blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was collected for
      inflammation and coagulation parameters. RESULTS: There was a significant dose
      dependent increase in blood neutrophils (p = 0.046) after challenge with carbon
      nanoparticles. The individual top-dose of 100 MUg showed a significant (p = 0.05)
      increase in terms of percentage neutrophils in blood as compared to placebo.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study shows a dose-dependent effect of bronchial segmental
      challenge with carbon nanoparticles on circulating neutrophils of healthy
      volunteers. This suggests that nanoparticles in the respiratory tract induce
      systemic inflammation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Dutch Trial Register no. 2976. 11 July
      2011. http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=2976.

PMID- 28877712
TI  - Ten years analysis of stillbirth in a tertiary hospital in sub-Sahara Africa: a
      case control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Stillbirth measures provide means to assess adequacy of maternal and
      perinatal care in a given population. The aim of this study was to describe the
      determinants of stillbirth in Douala general hospital, Cameroon. RESULTS:
      Determinants of stillbirth in this hospital are: maternal age >=35 years (OR
      1.79, 95% CI 1.26-2.54, p = 0.001), pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (OR 2.97, 95% CI 0.87
      8.89, p value of 0.03), diabetes in pregnancy (OR 9.97, 95% CI 1.15-86.86, p =
      0.03), stillbirth in previous pregnancies (OR 3.94, CI 2.02-7.7, p < 0.0001),
      inter-pregnancy interval >2 years (OR 2, 06 CI 1.22-3.49; p = 0,006), referral
      from another hospital (OR 14.16, 95% CI 7.08-28.3, p < 0.0001), gestational age
      <37 (OR 19.9, 95% CI 12.3-32.2, p < 0.0001) and >42 (OR 6.27, 95% CI = 0.86-45.2,
      p = 0.096), congenital malformation (OR 11.09, 95% CI 3.2-38,5, p < 0.0001) and
      birth weight <2500 g (p < 0.0001).

PMID- 28877713
TI  - Breast Tissue Organisation and its Association with Breast Cancer Risk.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mammographic percentage density is an established and important risk
      factor for breast cancer. In this paper, we investigate the role of the spatial
      organisation of (dense vs. fatty) regions of the breast defined from mammographic
      images in terms of breast cancer risk. METHODS: We present a novel approach that
      provides a thorough description of the spatial organisation of different types of
      tissue in the breast. Each mammogram is first segmented into four regions (fatty,
      semi-fatty, semi-dense and dense tissue). The spatial relations between each pair
      of regions is described using so-called forces histograms (FHs) and summarised
      using functional principal component analysis. In our main analysis, association
      with case-control status is assessed using a Swedish population-based case
      control study (1,170 cases and 1283 controls), for which digitised mammograms
      were available. We also carried out a small validation study based on digital
      images. RESULTS: For our main analysis, we obtained a global p value of 2*10-7
      indicating a significant association between the spatial relations of the four
      segmented regions and breast cancer status after adjustment for percentage
      density and other important breast cancer risk factors. Our (spatial relations)
      score had a per standard deviation odds ratio 1.29, after accounting for
      overfitting (percentage density had a per standard deviation odds ratio of 1.34).
      The spatial relations between the fatty and semi-fatty tissue and the spatial
      relations between the fatty and dense tissue were the most significant. The
      spatial relations between the fatty and semi-fatty tissue were associated with
      parity and age at first birth (p=6*10-4). Using digital images, we were able to
      verify that the same characteristics of tissue organisation can be identified and
      we validated the association for the spatial relations between the fatty and semi
      fatty tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with the notion that
      fibroglandular and adipose tissue plays a role in breast cancer risk and, more
      specifically, they suggest that fatty tissue in the lower quadrants and the
      absence of density in the retromammary space, as shown in mediolateral oblique
      images, are protective against breast cancer.

PMID- 28877714
TI  - Successful medical management of a case of Austrian syndrome-an uncommon entity
      in the modern antibiotic era: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Austrian syndrome-the combination of meningitis, pneumonia and
      infective endocarditis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae infection, is a rare
      entity. In literature only a few hundreds of cases are reported but surprisingly
      we did not find any report on Austrian syndrome in or from Bangladesh. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We report the case history of a middle aged Bangladeshi diabetic
      man, who had fever, cough, shortness of breath and altered mentation. He had
      tachycardia, bi-basal lung crepitations, new cardiac murmurs and meningism.
      Diagnostic work-up revealed Austrian syndrome. Because of the rarity of the
      condition, this case is reported. CONCLUSION: A case of pneumococcal pneumonia or
      meningitis should raise suspicion of concomitant endocarditis and Austrian
      syndrome, specially if there is heart failure, as early recognition and treatment
      may appear life-saving.

PMID- 28877715
TI  - Exploring efficacy and safety of oral Pirfenidone for progressive, non-IPF lung
      fibrosis (RELIEF) - a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel
      group, multi-center, phase II trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pirfenidone is currently approved in the EU for the treatment of mild
      to moderate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and offers a beneficial risk
      benefit profile. However, there are several other, progressive fibrotic lung
      diseases, in which conventional anti-inflammatory therapy is not sufficiently
      effective and antifibrotic therapies may offer a novel treatment option.
      METHODS/DESIGN: We designed a study protocol for inclusion of patients with
      progressive fibrotic lung disease despite conventional anti-inflammatory therapy
      (EudraCT 2014-000861-32). The study population comprises patients with collagen
      vascular disease-associated lung fibrosis (CVD-LF), fibrotic non-specific
      interstitial pneumonia (fNSIP), chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (cHP), and
      asbestos-related lung fibrosis (ALF). Disease progression needs to be proven by
      slope calculation of at least three Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) values obtained
      within 6-24 months prior to inclusion, documenting an annualized decline in
      percent predicted FVC of 5% (absolute) or more despite appropriate conventional
      therapy. Absolute change in percent predicted FVC from baseline - analyzed using
      a rank analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model - will serve as efficacy-related
      primary study endpoint. DISCUSSION: There is an urgent unmet clinical need for
      effective therapies for patients with a progressive fibrotic lung disease other
      than IPF. The current study protocol is unique with respect to selecting patients
      with different disease entities of lung fibrosis which have, however, essential
      pathophysiological characteristics in common. Moreover, by selecting patients
      with evidence of disease progression despite conventional therapy, the protocol
      ensures that a cohort of interstitial lung disease (ILD) patients with a high
      unmet medical need is targeted and it may allow a sufficiently high event rate
      for evaluation of treatment responses. TRIAL REGISTRATION: DRKS00009822
      (registration date: January 13th 2016).

PMID- 28877716
TI  - Assessing the quality of reports about randomized controlled trials of scalp
      acupuncture combined with another treatment for stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the quality of reporting on
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of scalp acupuncture for the treatment of
      stroke. METHODS: The following 8 databases were systematically investigated from
      their inception to December 2015: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, China
      National Knowledge Infrastructure, National Institute of Informatics Scholarly
      and Academic Information Navigator, National Digital Science Library, Korean
      Traditional Knowledge Portal, and Korean Studies Information Service System. RCTs
      utilizing scalp acupuncture as an intervention for stroke were selected, and the
      quality of reports was assessed based on the Consolidated Standards of Reporting
      Trials 2010 statement (CONSORT) and Standards for Reporting Interventions in
      Controlled Trials of Acupuncture 2010 (STRICTA). For each study, the overall
      quality score (OQS) of 13 CONSORT items, a combined key methodological index
      score (MIS) of 5 CONSORT items, and the OQS of 17 STRICTA items were measured.
      RESULTS: The original reports of 63 RCTs were ultimately obtained, and the median
      CONSORT OQS was 7 (minimum 2, maximum 11). Particularly, the items 'trial
      design', 'sample size', 'ancillary analyses', and 'harms' had a positive rate of
      less than 10%. The median MIS was 1 (minimum 0, maximum 5), with 'allocation
      concealment and implementation' and 'intent-to-treat analysis (ITT) analysis'
      having a positive rate of less than 10%. The median STRICTA OQS was 11 (minimum
      6, maximum 14), and only the items 'sample size' and 'intent-to-treat analysis'
      were reported, with a positive rate of less than 10%. The mean CONSORT OQS
      increased by approximately 0.81 for each 5-year period in which manuscripts were
      published (95% confidence interval: 0.43 to 1.19; p < 0.001). No variable was
      significantly associated with MIS in the ordinal regression model. CONCLUSION:
      The quality of reports on RCTs investigating scalp acupuncture treatment for
      stroke was moderate to low. Furthermore, reporting of some items was either
      insufficient or inadequate in the majority of studies. In order to improve and
      standardize the quality of RCTs investigating scalp acupuncture for stroke,
      CONSORT and STRICTA guidelines should be utilized more frequently.

PMID- 28877717
TI  - Cardiovascular health effects following exposure of human volunteers during fire
      extinction exercises.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Firefighters have increased risk of cardiovascular disease and of
      sudden death from coronary heart disease on duty while suppressing fires. This
      study investigated the effect of firefighting activities, using appropriate
      personal protective equipment (PPE), on biomarkers of cardiovascular effects in
      young conscripts training to become firefighters. METHODS: Healthy conscripts (n
      = 43) who participated in a rescue educational course for firefighting were
      enrolled in the study. The exposure period consisted of a three-day training
      course where the conscripts participated in various firefighting exercises in a
      constructed firehouse and flashover container. The subjects were instructed to
      extinguish fires of either wood or wood with electrical cords and mattresses. The
      exposure to particulate matter (PM) was assessed at various locations and
      personal exposure was assessed by portable PM samplers and urinary excretion of 1
      hydroxypyrene. Cardiovascular measurements included microvascular function and
      heart rate variability (HRV). RESULTS: The subjects were primarily exposed to PM
      in bystander positions, whereas self-contained breathing apparatus effectively
      abolished pulmonary exposure. Firefighting training was associated with elevated
      urinary excretion of 1-hydroxypyrene (105%, 95% CI: 52; 157%), increased body
      temperature, decreased microvascular function (-18%, 95% CI: -26; -9%) and
      altered HRV. There was no difference in cardiovascular measurements for the two
      types of fires. CONCLUSION: Observations from this fire extinction training show
      that PM exposure mainly occurs in situations where firefighters removed the self
      contained breathing apparatus. Altered cardiovascular disease endpoints after the
      firefighting exercise period were most likely due to complex effects from PM
      exposure, physical exhaustion and increased core body temperature.

PMID- 28877718
TI  - Aortic atheroma as a source of stroke - assessment of embolization risk using 3D
      CMR in stroke patients and controls.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It was our purpose to identify vulnerable plaques in the thoracic
      aorta using 3D multi-contrast CMR and estimate the risk of cerebral embolization
      using 4D flow CMR in cryptogenic stroke patients and controls. METHODS: One
      hundred patients (40 with cryptogenic stroke, 60 ophthalmologic controls matched
      for age, sex and presence of hypertension) underwent a novel 3D multi-contrast
      (T1w, T2w, PDw) CMR protocol at 3 Tesla for plaque detection and characterization
      within the thoracic aorta, which was combined with 4D flow CMR for mapping
      potential embolization pathways. Plaque morphology was assessed in consensus
      reading by two investigators and classified according to the modified American
      Heart-Association (AHA) classification of atherosclerotic plaques. RESULTS: In
      the thoracic aorta, plaques <4 mm thickness were found in a similar number of
      stroke patients and controls [23 (57.5%) versus 33 (55.0%); p = 0.81]. However,
      plaques >=4 mm were more frequent in stroke patients [22 (55.0%) versus 10
      (16.7%); p < 0.001]. Of those patients with plaques >=4 mm, seven (17.5%) stroke
      patients and two (3.3%) controls (p < 0.001) had potentially vulnerable AHA type
      VI plaques. Six stroke patients with vulnerable AHA t ype VI plaques >=4 mm had
      potential embolization pathways connecting the plaque, located in the aortic arch
      (n = 3) and proximal descending aorta (n = 3), with the individual territory of
      stroke, which made them the most likely source of stroke in those patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underline the significance of >=4 mm thick and
      vulnerable plaques in the aortic arch and descending aorta as a relevant etiology
      of stroke. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Unique identifier: DRKS00006234 ; date of
      registration: 11/06/2014.

PMID- 28877719
TI  - Absolute quantification of microparticles by flow cytometry in ascites of
      patients with decompensated cirrhosis: a cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microparticles (MPs) are small (<1 MUm) cell membrane-derived
      vesicles that are formed in response to cellular activation or early stages of
      apoptosis. Increased plasma MP levels have been associated with liver disease
      severity. Here we investigated the clinical impact of ascites MPs in patients
      with decompensated liver cirrhosis. METHODS: Ascites and blood samples of 163
      patients with cirrhosis (ascites n = 163, blood n = 31) were collected between
      February 2011 and December 2012. MPs were obtained from ascites and from blood by
      two-step ultracentrifugation and quantified by flow cytometry. Quantitative
      absolute MP levels were correlated with clinical and laboratory baseline
      parameters as well as patient outcomes. Ascites microparticles were stained with
      antibodies against CD66b (neutrophils) and CD3 (lymphocytes) in a subgroup of 60
      matched patients. RESULTS: MPs were detected in all ascites and blood samples.
      Absolute ascites MP levels correlated with blood levels (r = 0.444, p = 0.011).
      Low ascites MP levels (<488.4 MP/MUL) were associated with a poor 30-day survival
      probability (<488.4 MP/MUL 71.1% vs. >488.4 MP/MUL 94.7%, log rank p = 0.001) and
      such patients had a higher relative amount of ascites microparticles derived from
      neutrophils and lymphocytes. Low levels of ascites MPs, high MELD score and
      antibiotic treatment were independent risk factors for death within 30 days.
      CONCLUSIONS: Ascites MP levels predict short-term survival along with the liver
      function in patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Further studies which evaluate
      ascites MPs as disease specific biomarker with a validation cohort and which
      investigate its underlying mechanisms are needed. Neutrophils and lymphocytes
      contributed more frequently to the release of microparticles in patients with low
      ascites levels, possibly indicating an immune activation in this cohort.

PMID- 28877720
TI  - Reduced ovarian reserve in young early breast cancer patients: preliminary data
      from a prospective cohort trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The numerous side effects of chemotherapy in patients with breast
      cancer are well known. However, the precise effects of chemotherapy on ovarian
      function in premenopausal women are poorly investigated. The patients are at risk
      of developing sexual hormone deficiency and impaired fertility. This prospective
      cohort study addresses predictive parameters of ovarian reserve after
      chemotherapy. METHODS: Fifty-one premenopausal women (28-46 years) with primary
      breast cancer were included in the trial. All of them received anthracycline
      based chemotherapy (n = 18), or combinations with taxanes (n = 30), or
      anthracycline-free chemotherapy (n = 3). Changes in hormone levels (LH, FSH, E2
      and Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH)), antral follicle count (AFC), and amenorrhea
      were determined before (V1), and 6, 12 and 24 months after the initiation of
      chemotherapy (V2-V4). Quality of life parameters were evaluated. The additional
      impact of parity, BMI, and smoking on ovarian reserve was also assessed. RESULTS:
      AFC and AMH fell very markedly after chemotherapy and did not return to pre
      treatment levels until V4. A significant positive correlation was noted in AFC
      before and 1 year after chemotherapy. AMH levels at V2-V4 were significantly
      correlated with those registered at V1. AFC and AMH were negatively correlated
      with age. Continued smoking had a significant detrimental effect on AFC after 24
      months. LH and FSH levels increased between V1 and V2 and fell at V3 and V4, but
      stayed above pre-chemotherapy values. Two years after the start of chemotherapy
      31/51 patients were amenorrhoic while 17 resumed their menstrual cycle; this was
      not influenced by the type of chemotherapy or age. Non-smokers were 13 times more
      likely to resume their menstruation than smokers. Quality of life (QL) was
      significantly lower 6 months after the initiation of chemotherapy. QL at one and
      2 years after chemotherapy did not differ significantly from pre-chemotherapy
      scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our study contributes to a better understanding and
      prediction of ovarian reserve in young early breast cancer patients undergoing
      chemotherapy. The data suggest that personal counseling in regard of the
      preservation of fertility should be offered especially to patients of a higher
      age, with low AMH levels or low follicle counts. Patients should be advised to
      stop smoking in order to enhance the likelihood of preserving their fertility.

PMID- 28877721
TI  - A case of Adrenocoricotrophic hormone -independent bilateral adrenocortical
      macronodular hyperplasia concomitant with primary aldosteronism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adrenocoricotrophic hormone (ACTH) - independent bilateral
      adrenocortical macronodular hyperplasia (AIMAH) is a rare cause of Cushing's
      syndrome, and is characterized by bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. However, Primary
      aldosteronism (PA) is a relatively common adrenal disease. CASE PRESENTATION: A
      56-year-old man who has been treated hypertension and diabetes mellitus was
      detected low plasma potassium level with an elevated level of plasma aldosterone
      concentration and bilateral adrenal swelling. Endocrinological examinations
      showed autonomous secretion of cortisol and aldosterone, with suppression of
      plasma ACTH level and renin activity. A selective adrenal venous sampling
      demonstrated that left adrenal gland was responsible for aldosterone
      hypersecretion. He was diagnosed preclinical Cushing's syndrome due to ACTH -
      independent bilateral adrenocortical macronodular hyperplasia (AIMAH) associated
      with aldosterone producing adenoma of the left adrenal gland. A laparoscopic left
      adrenalectomy was performed. CONCLUSION: The resected adrenal specimen
      histologically consisted with a diagnosis of AIMAH. Moreover, tiny cell clusters
      positive immunostaining for aldosterone synthase was revealed. This is a rare
      case of AIMAH accompanied by preclinical Cushing's syndrome and primary
      aldosteronism.

PMID- 28877722
TI  - Tissue microarray analysis indicates hedgehog signaling as a potential prognostic
      factor in intermediate-risk prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) is a heterogeneous disease with a variable
      natural history, genetics, and treatment outcome. The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling
      pathway is increasingly recognized as being potentially important for the
      development and progression of PCa. In this retrospective study, we compared the
      activation status of the Hh signaling pathway between benign and tumor tissue,
      and evaluated the clinical significance of Hh signaling in PCa. METHODS: In this
      tissue microarray (TMA) study, the protein expression of several Hh signaling
      components and Hh target proteins, along with microvessel density, were compared
      between benign (n = 64) and malignant (n = 170) prostate tissue, and correlated
      with PCa clinicopathological characteristics and biochemical recurrence (BCR).
      RESULTS: The Hh signaling pathway appeared to be more active in PCa than in
      benign prostate tissue, as demonstrated by lower expression of the negative
      regulators PTCH1 and GLI3 in the tumor tissue compared to benign. In addition,
      high epithelial GLI2 expression correlated with higher pathological Gleason
      score. Overall, higher epithelial GLI3 expression in the tumor was shown to be an
      independent marker of a favorable prognosis. CONCLUSION: Hh signaling activation
      might reflect aggressive tumoral behavior, since high epithelial GLI2 expression
      positively correlates with a higher pathological Gleason score. Moreover, higher
      epithelial GLI3 expression is an independent marker of a more favorable
      prognosis.

PMID- 28877723
TI  - Conditioned place preference training prevents hippocampal depotentiation in an
      orexin-dependent manner.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long-term potentiation (LTP) is well recognized as a cellular
      correlated synaptic plasticity of learning and memory. However, its reversal
      forms of synaptic plasticity, depotentiation, is less studied and its association
      with behaviors is also far from clear. Previously, we have shown that nanomolar
      orexin A can prevent the depotentiation induced by low frequency stimulation
      (LFS) following theta burst stimulation-induced LTP, namely inducing re
      potentiation, at hippocampal CA1 synapses in vitro. Here, we explored the
      functional correlate of this orexin-mediated hippocampal re-potentiation. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: We found that intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection process-paired
      contextual exposures during the conditioned place preference (CPP) task in mice
      resulted in re-potentiation at CA1 synapses of hippocampal slices, regardless of
      whether the CPP behavior is expressed or not. Simply exposing the mouse in the
      CPP apparatus, or giving the mouse consecutive i.p. injections of saline in its
      home cage or a novel cage did not lead to hippocampal re-potentiation. Besides,
      this CPP training process-induced hippocampal re-potentiation was prevented when
      mice were pretreated with TCS1102, a dual orexin receptor antagonist. These
      results suggest that the expression of hippocampal re-potentiation is orexin
      dependent and requires the association of differential spatial contexts and i.p.
      injections in the CPP apparatus. CONCLUSIONS: Together, we reveal an
      unprecedentedly orexin-mediated modulation on hippocampal depotentiation by the
      training process in the CPP paradigm.

PMID- 28877724
TI  - Characteristics of lipid metabolism including serum apolipoprotein M levels in
      patients with primary nephrotic syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Apolipoprotein M (apoM) is a 26-kD apolipoprotein that is mainly
      expressed in specific cell types, such as human liver parenchymal cells and
      kidney proximal renal tubular epithelial cells. ApoM can regulate the formation
      of pre-beta-HDL and the reverse cholesterol transport and thus plays an important
      role in the metabolism of lipids and lipoproteins, meaning that it can affect the
      development of lipid metabolism disorders. Significantly elevated serum apoM
      levels are detected in patients with hyperlipidemia. However, few studies have
      shown how apoM is expressed in primary nephrotic syndrome (PNS), which is often
      accompanied with hyperlipidemia, and the underlying mechanism is poorly
      understood. This study was aimed at examining the apoM levels in patients with
      PNS and at determining the effects of PNS on serum apoM levels in these patients.
      METHODS: This study included patients with hyperlipidemia (n = 37), the PNS with
      hyperlipidemia group (n = 62), PNS without hyperlipidemia group (n = 33), and
      healthy controls (n = 73). The age and body-mass index (BMI) matched among the
      groups of participants. Their serum apoM concentrations were measured by an
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serum levels of conventional lipids and renal
      function indices were assessed using an automatic biochemical analyzer. The data
      were analyzed by means of Pearson's correlation coefficient (continuous
      variables) or Student's t test (mean differences). RESULTS: The average serum
      apoM concentrations were higher in the hyperlipidemia group (61.1 +/- 23.2 mg/L,
      P = 0.004) than in the healthy controls (31.6 +/- 18.92 mg/L). The serum apoM
      concentrations were lower in the PNS with hyperlipidemia group (25.1 +/- 16.31
      mg/L, P = 0.007) and in the PNS without hyperlipidemia group (21.00 +/- 17.62
      mg/L, P = 0.003) than in the healthy controls. The serum apoM concentrations in
      the PNS with hyperlipidemia group did not differ significantly from those in the
      PNS without hyperlipidemia group (P = 0.083). Moreover, serum apoM levels
      positively correlated with serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and
      apoA1 levels and negatively correlated with proteinuria in PNS patients (r =
      0.458, P = 0.003; r = 0.254, P = 0.022; r = -0.414, P = 0.028). CONCLUSION: Serum
      apoM concentrations are higher in patients with hyperlipidemia than in healthy
      controls. Low serum apoM levels in patients with PNS are likely caused by PNS.

PMID- 28877725
TI  - Over-expression of BAG-1 in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) is
      associated with cisplatin-resistance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In order to improve therapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
      (HNSCC), biomarkers associated with local and/or distant tumor relapses and
      cancer drug resistance are urgently needed. This study identified a potential
      biomarker, Bcl-2 associated athanogene-1 (BAG-1), that is implicated in HNSCC
      insensitive to cisplatin and tumor progression. METHODS: Primary and advanced
      (relapsed from parental) University of Michigan squamous cell carcinoma cell
      lines were tested for sensitivity to cisplatin and gene expression profiles were
      compared between primary (cisplatin sensitive) and the relapsed (cisplatin
      resistant) cell lines by using Agilent microarrays. Additionally, differentially
      expressed genes phosphorylated AKT, and BAG-1, and BCL-xL were evaluated for
      expression using HNSCC tissue arrays. RESULTS: Advanced HNSCC cells revealed
      resistant to cisplatin accompanied by increased expression of BAG-1 protein.
      siRNA knockdown of BAG-1 expression resulted in significant improvement of HNSCC
      sensitivity to cisplatin. BAG-1 expression enhanced stability of BCL-xL and
      conferred cisplatin resistant to the HNSCC cells. In addition, high levels of
      expression of phosphorylated AKT, BAG-1, and BCL-xL were observed in advanced
      HNSCC compared to in that of primary HNSCC. CONCLUSION: Increased expression of
      BAG-1 was associated with cisplatin resistance and tumor progression in HNSCC
      patients and warrants further validation in larger independent studies. Over
      expression of BAG-1 may be a biomarker for cisplatin resistance in patients with
      primary or recurrent HNSCCs and targeting BAG-1 could be helpful in overcoming
      cisplatin resistance.

PMID- 28877727
TI  - Zonnic(r): a new player in an old field.
AB  - The tobacco industry is continually evolving to adapt to increasing tobacco
      control pressure and regulation, and to cater to consumer preferences. Recently,
      RJ Reynolds rolled-out a nicotine-containing gum, Zonnic(r), which is marketed as
      a smoking cessation and reduction product and is sold at convenience stores at a
      lower price and in a smaller quantity than existing brands sold at pharmacies.
      The introduction of Zonnic(r) products is a critical first step in tobacco
      industry's involvement in the NRT market and a serious indication of the evolving
      tobacco and nicotine-delivery industry and environment. It is likely that this
      trend will continue and spread, and as such, have a significant impact at
      multiple dimensions, including consumer perceptions and behavior, tobacco and NRT
      industry business strategy, and regulation and policy. In this special
      communication, we present an overview of the current marketing strategy for
      Zonnic(r), discuss its potential impacts at the market level and at the level of
      the individual consumer, and suggest research and policy priorities based on the
      magnitude and urgency of the impacts.

PMID- 28877726
TI  - The effect of bovine BST2A1 on the release and cell-to-cell transmission of
      retroviruses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human BST2 (hBST2, also called Tetherin) is a host restriction factor
      that blocks the release of various enveloped viruses. BST2s from different
      mammals also possess antiviral activity. Bovine BST2s (bBST2s), bBST2A1 and
      bBST2A2, reduce production of cell-free bovine leukemia virus (BLV) and vesicular
      stomatitis virus (VSV). However, the effect of bBST2 on other retroviruses
      remains unstudied. RESULTS: Here, we studied the antiviral activity of wildtype
      and mutant bBST2A1 proteins on retroviruses including human immunodeficiency
      virus type 1 (HIV-1), prototypic foamy virus (PFV), bovine foamy virus (BFV) and
      bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV). The results showed that wildtype bBST2A1
      suppressed the release of HIV-1, PFV and BFV. We also generated bBST2A1 mutants,
      and found that GPI anchor and dimerization, but not glycosylation, are essential
      for antiviral activity of bBST2A1. Moreover, unlike hBST2, bBST2A1 displayed no
      inhibitory effect on cell-to-cell transmission of PFV, BFV and BIV. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our data suggested that bBST2A1 inhibited retrovirus release, however, had no
      effect on cell-to-cell transmission of retroviruses.

PMID- 28877728
TI  - We need support! A Delphi study about desirable support during the first year in
      the emergency medical service.
AB  - BACKGROUND: New and inexperienced emergency medical service (EMS) professionals
      lack important experience. To prevent medical errors and improve retention there
      is an urgent need to identify ways to support new professionals during their
      first year in the EMS. METHODS: A purposeful sample and snowball technique was
      used and generated a panel of 32 registered nurses with 12-48 months of EMS
      experience. A Delphi technique in four rounds was used. Telephone interviews were
      undertaken in round one to identify what desirable support professionals new to
      the EMS desire during their first year. Content analysis of the transcribed
      interviews yielded items which were developed into a questionnaire. The experts
      graded each item in terms of perceived importance on a 5-graded likert scale.
      Consensus level was set at 75%. Items which reached consensus were removed from
      questionnaires used in subsequent rounds. RESULTS: Desirable support was
      categorized into eight areas: Support from practical skills exercises, support
      from theoretical knowledge, support from experiences based knowledge, theoretical
      support, support from an introduction period, support from colleagues and work
      environment, support from management and organization and other support. The
      experts agree on the level of importance on 64 of a total of 70 items regarding
      desirable support. One item was considered not important, graded 1 or 2, 63 items
      were considered important, graded 4 or 5. CONCLUSION: Even with extensive formal
      competence the EMS context poses challenges where a wide variety of desirable
      forms of support is needed. Support structures should address both personal and
      professional levels and be EMS context oriented.

PMID- 28877729
TI  - Effect of enhanced feedback to hospitals that are part of an emerging clinical
      information network on uptake of revised childhood pneumonia treatment policy:
      study protocol for a cluster randomized trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The national pneumonia treatment guidelines in Kenya changed in
      February 2016 but such guideline changes are often characterized by prolonged
      delays in affecting practice. We designed an enhanced feedback intervention,
      delivered within an ongoing clinical network that provides a general form of
      feedback, aimed at improving and sustaining uptake of the revised pneumonia
      treatment policy. The objective was to determine whether an enhanced feedback
      intervention will improve correctness of classification and treatment of
      childhood pneumonia, compared to an existing approach to feedback, after
      nationwide treatment policy change and within an existing hospital network.
      METHODS/DESIGN: A pragmatic, cluster randomized trial conducted within a clinical
      network of 12 Kenyan county referral hospitals providing inpatient pediatric care
      to children (aged 2-59 months) with acute medical conditions between March and
      November 2016. The intervention comprised enhanced feedback (monthly written
      feedback incorporating goal setting, and action planning delivered by a senior
      clinical coordinator for selected pneumonia indicators) and this was compared to
      standard feedback (2-monthly written feedback on multiple quality of pediatric
      care indicators) both delivered within a clinical network promoting clinical
      leadership linked to mentorship and peer-to-peer support, and improved use of
      health information on service delivery. The 12 hospitals were randomized to
      receive either enhanced feedback (n = 6) or standard feedback (n = 6) delivered
      over a 9-month period following nationwide pneumonia treatment policy change. The
      primary outcome is the proportion of all admitted patients with pneumonia
      (fulfilling criteria for treatment with orally administered amoxicillin) who are
      correctly classified and treated in the first 24 h. The secondary outcome will be
      measured over the course of the admission as any change in treatment for
      pneumonia after the first 24 h. DISCUSSION: This trial protocol employs a
      pragmatic trial design during a period of nationwide change in treatment
      guidelines to address two high-priority areas within implementation research:
      promoting adoption of health policies and optimizing effectiveness of feedback.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02817971 . Registered
      retrospectively on 27 June 2016.

PMID- 28877730
TI  - Pancreas herniation into the mediastinum: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic tissue found in the mediastinum (both true ectopic and
      herniated pancreas) is rare. It becomes even more challenging when there are
      complications associated with this entity. CASE PRESENTATION: We report an
      unusual case of pancreatic herniation into the mediastinum in a 90-year-old
      Caucasian female. This patient initially presented with nausea and vomiting
      associated with abdominal pain. Serum lipase and amylase both were elevated.
      Computed tomography scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis revealed a large hiatal
      hernia with pancreas herniation into the mediastinum, with superimposed acute
      pancreatitis likely due to gallstone. Because of its unusual location, the
      patient also developed acute mediastinitis. The patient was management
      conservatively and did well. On the day of discharge; she was tolerating a diet,
      had no pain or nausea and was back to her baseline health. CONCLUSION: Acute
      pancreatitis can be managed conservatively even if it is in the mediastinum.
      Also, ectopic or herniated pancreatic tissue is extremely rare and leads to
      unique clinical presentations, along with diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.
      Clinicians should not only be vigilant to the presence of ectopic or herniated
      pancreatic tissue, but also be mindful of the resulting complications.

PMID- 28877731
TI  - Hypoluteoidism in a dog associated with recurrent mammary fibroadenoma stimulated
      by progestin therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypoluteoidism in the bitch is characterized by insufficient
      production and secretion of progesterone by the corpora lutea. It is a rare
      pathologic condition and during pregnancy, it leads to embryonic resorption or
      fetal abortion. Supplementary therapy with progestins is indicated during
      pregnancy to obtain delivery of vital puppies but unwarranted side effects of
      such treatment are poorly documented. CASE PRESENTATION: A 4-year-old,
      nulliparous, female Istrian Shorthaired Hound dog had been mated repeatedly in
      six heats with different dogs of proven fertility but signs of pregnancy did not
      develop. Estrous cycles, mating and pregnancies were monitored as hypoluteoidism
      or genital disease was suspected. During the first monitored estrus, the bitch
      was mated and on day 18 [day 0, day of estimated peak of luteinizing hormone
      (LH)], ultrasound examination showed three amniotic vesicles that were however
      found to be resorbed between day 20 and 23. Progesterone concentrations, measured
      by ELISA, were >8 ng/mL until day 12 and 1-2.5 ng/mL on days 20, 23 and 26.
      Primary hypoluteoidism was therefore suspected. In the second monitored estrus,
      the bitch was mated and during pregnancy, progesterone concentrations were >8
      ng/mL until day 17 and 1-2.5 ng/mL on day 19. On days 20 and 22, two out of three
      embryonic vesicles had been resorbed. The bitch was treated with progesterone in
      oil from day 19 to day 58. Increase in the size of 2nd left thoracic mammary
      gland (T2-L) was observed and on day 46, ultrasound evaluation and biopsy were
      performed revealing a low-cellularity fibroadenoma. Parturition started
      spontaneously at day 65 but due to dystocia caused by fetal macrosomia, a
      Caesarean section was performed. During the next (third) monitored estrus, the
      bitch was bred again and during pregnancy, early decrease in progesterone
      concentration confirmed the diagnosis of primary hypoluteoidism. The bitch was
      treated with synthetic progestin (altrenogest) from day 8 to day 57. Five
      amniotic vesicles were detected by ultrasonography. Recurrence of swelling of T2
      L was observed. On day 60, the bitch whelped five pups, two males and three
      females. As reported later by the owner, the latter did not show any sign of heat
      over the past 3 years. In one of them, clitoral hypertrophy and a blind ending
      vagina were diagnosed. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first description of early
      hypoluteoidism in a pregnant bitch developing a mammary fibroadenoma under
      progestin treatment.

PMID- 28877732
TI  - Ontology-based specification, identification and analysis of perioperative risks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medical personnel in hospitals often works under great physical and
      mental strain. In medical decision-making, errors can never be completely ruled
      out. Several studies have shown that between 50 and 60% of adverse events could
      have been avoided through better organization, more attention or more effective
      security procedures. Critical situations especially arise during
      interdisciplinary collaboration and the use of complex medical technology, for
      example during surgical interventions and in perioperative settings (the period
      of time before, during and after surgical intervention). METHODS: In this paper,
      we present an ontology and an ontology-based software system, which can identify
      risks across medical processes and supports the avoidance of errors in particular
      in the perioperative setting. We developed a practicable definition of the risk
      notion, which is easily understandable by the medical staff and is usable for the
      software tools. Based on this definition, we developed a Risk Identification
      Ontology (RIO) and used it for the specification and the identification of
      perioperative risks. RESULTS: An agent system was developed, which gathers risk
      relevant data during the whole perioperative treatment process from various
      sources and provides it for risk identification and analysis in a centralized
      fashion. The results of such an analysis are provided to the medical personnel in
      form of context-sensitive hints and alerts. For the identification of the
      ontologically specified risks, we developed an ontology-based software module,
      called Ontology-based Risk Detector (OntoRiDe). CONCLUSIONS: About 20 risks
      relating to cochlear implantation (CI) have already been implemented.
      Comprehensive testing has indicated the correctness of the data acquisition, risk
      identification and analysis components, as well as the web-based visualization of
      results.

PMID- 28877733
TI  - Insecticide use pattern and phenotypic susceptibility of Anopheles gambiae sensu
      lato to commonly used insecticides in Lower Moshi, northern Tanzania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence of insecticide resistance has been documented in different
      malaria endemic areas. Surveillance studies to allow prompt investigation of
      associated factors to enable effective insecticide resistance management are
      needed. The objective of this study was to assess insecticide use pattern and
      phenotypic susceptibility level of Anopheles gambiae sensu lato to insecticides
      commonly used in malaria control in Moshi, northern Tanzania. METHODS: A cross
      sectional survey was conducted to assess insecticide usage pattern. Data was
      collected was through closed and open ended questionnaires The WHO diagnostic
      standard kit with doses of 0.1% bendiocarb, 0.05% deltamethrin, 0.75% permethrin
      and 4% DDT were used to detect knockdown time, mortality and resistance ratio of
      wild A. gambiae sensu lato. The questionnaire survey data was analyzed using
      descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance while susceptibility data
      was analysed by logistic regression with probit analysis using SPSS program. The
      WHO criteria was used to evaluate the resistance status of the tested mosquito
      populations. RESULTS: A large proportion of respondents (80.8%) reported to have
      used insecticide mainly for farming purposes (77.3%). Moreover, 93.3% of
      household reported usage of long lasting insecticidal nets. The frequently used
      class of insecticide was organophosphate with chloropyrifos as the main active
      ingredients and dursban was the brand constantly reported. Very few respondents
      (24.1%) applied integrated vector control approaches of and this significantly
      associated with level of knowledge of insecticide use (P < 0.001). Overall
      knockdown time for A. gambiae s.l was highest in DDT, followed by Pyrethroids
      (Permethrin and deltamethrin) and lowest in bendiocarb. Anopheles gambiae s.l
      showed susceptibility to bendiocarb, increased tolerance to permethrin and
      resistant to deltamethrin. The most effective insecticide against the population
      from tested was bendiocarb, with a resistance ratio ranging between 0.93-2.81.
      CONCLUSION: Education on integrated vector management should be instituted and a
      policy change on insecticide of choice for malaria vector control from
      pyrethroids to carbamates (bendiocarb) is recommended. Furthermore, studies to
      detect cross resistance between pyrethroids and organophosphates should be
      carried out.

PMID- 28877734
TI  - Local relapse of nasopharyngeal cancer and Voxel-based analysis of FMISO uptake
      using PET with semiconductor detectors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypoxic cancer cells are thought to be radioresistant and could
      impact local recurrence after radiotherapy (RT). One of the major hypoxic imaging
      modalities is [18F]fluoromisonidazole positron emission tomography (FMISO-PET).
      High FMISO uptake before RT could indicate radioresistant sites and might be
      associated with future local recurrence. The predictive value of FMISO-PET for
      intra-tumoral recurrence regions was evaluated using high-resolution
      semiconductor detectors in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after intensity
      modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). METHODS: Nine patients with local recurrence and
      12 patients without local recurrence for more than 3 years were included in this
      study. These patients received homogeneous and standard doses of radiation to the
      primary tumor irrespective of FMISO uptake. The FMISO-PET image before RT was
      examined via a voxel-based analysis, which focused on the relationship between
      the degree of FMISO uptake and recurrence region. RESULTS: In the pretreatment
      FMISO-PET images, the tumor-to-muscle ratio (TMR) of FMISO in the voxels of the
      tumor recurrence region was significantly higher than that of the non-recurrence
      region (p < 0.0001). In the recurrent patient group, a TMR value of 1.37 (95% CI:
      1.36-1.39) corresponded to a recurrence rate of 30%, the odds ratio was 5.18
      (4.87-5.51), and the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating
      characteristic curve was 0.613. In all 21 patients, a TMR value of 2.42 (2.36
      2.49) corresponded to an estimated recurrence rate of 30%, and the AUC was only
      0.591. CONCLUSIONS: The uptake of FMISO in the recurrent region was significantly
      higher than that in the non-recurrent region. However, the predictive value of
      FMISO-PET before IMRT is not sufficient for up-front dose escalation for the
      intra-tumoral high-uptake region of FMISO. Because of the higher mean TMR of the
      recurrence region, a new hypoxic imaging method is needed to improve the
      sensitivity and specificity for hypoxia.

PMID- 28877736
TI  - Prevalence and determinants of risky sexual practice in Ethiopia: Systematic
      review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Risky sexual practice is a major public health problem in Ethiopia.
      There are various studies on the prevalence and determinants of risky sexual
      practice in different regions of the country but there is no study which shows
      the national estimate of risky sexual practices in Ethiopia. Therefore, this
      review was conducted to estimate the national pooled prevalence of risky sexual
      practice and its risk factors in Ethiopia. METHODS: The Preferred Reporting Items
      for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline was followed to review
      published and unpublished studies in Ethiopia. The databases used were; PubMed,
      Google Scholar, CINAHL and African Journals Online. Search terms were; risky
      sexual behavior, risky sexual practice, unprotected sex, multiple sexual partner,
      early sexual initiation, and/or Ethiopia. Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis
      of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument was used for critical appraisal.
      The meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager software. Descriptive
      information of studies was presented in narrative form and quantitative results
      were presented in forest plots. The Cochran Q test and I 2 test statistics were
      used to test heterogeneity across studies. The pooled estimate prevalence and the
      odd ratios with 95% confidence intervals were computed by a random effect model.
      RESULTS: A total of 31 studies with 43,695 participants were included in the meta
      analysis. The pooled prevalence of risky sexual practice was 42.80% (95% CI:
      35.64%, 49.96%). Being male (OR: 1.69; 95% CI: 1.21, 2.37), substance use (OR:
      3.42; 95% CI: 1.41, 8.31), peer pressure (OR: 3.41; 95% CI: 1.69, 6.87) and
      watching pornography (OR: 3.6; 95% CI: 2.21, 5.86) were factors associated with
      an increase in risky sexual practices. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of risky
      sexual practices is high in Ethiopia. Being male, substance use, peer pressure
      and viewing pornographic materials were found to be associated with risky sexual
      practices. Therefore, life skills training is recommended to reduce peer pressure
      among individuals. Interventions should be designed to reduce substance use and
      viewing pornography.

PMID- 28877735
TI  - Priming astrocytes with TNF enhances their susceptibility to Trypanosoma cruzi
      infection and creates a self-sustaining inflammatory milieu.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In conditions of immunosuppression, the central nervous sty 5ystem
      (CNS) is the main target tissue for the reactivation of infection by Trypanosoma
      cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. In experimental T. cruzi infection,
      interferon gamma (IFNgamma)+ microglial cells surround astrocytes harboring
      amastigote parasites. In vitro, IFNgamma fuels astrocyte infection by T. cruzi,
      and IFNgamma-stimulated infected astrocytes are implicated as potential sources
      of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Pro-inflammatory cytokines trigger behavioral
      alterations. In T. cruzi-infected mice, administration of anti-TNF antibody
      hampers depressive-like behavior. Herein, we investigated the effects of TNF on
      astrocyte susceptibility to T. cruzi infection and the regulation of cytokine
      production. METHODS: Primary astrocyte cultures of neonatal C57BL/6 and C3H/He
      mice and the human U-87 MG astrocyte lineage were infected with the Colombian T.
      cruzi strain. Cytokine production, particularly TNF, and TNF receptor 1
      (TNFR1/p55) expression were analyzed. Recombinant cytokines (rIFNgamma and rTNF),
      the anti-TNF antibody infliximab, and the TNFR1 modulator pentoxifylline were
      used to assess the in vitro effects of TNF on astrocyte susceptibility to T.
      cruzi infection. To investigate the role of TNF on CNS colonization by T. cruzi,
      infected mice were submitted to anti-TNF therapy. RESULTS: rTNF priming of mouse
      and human astrocytes enhanced parasite/astrocyte interaction (i.e., the
      percentage of astrocytes invaded by trypomastigote parasites and the number of
      intracellular parasite forms/astrocyte). Furthermore, T. cruzi infection drove
      astrocytes to a pro-inflammatory profile with TNF and interleukin-6 production,
      which was amplified by rTNF treatment. Adding rTNF prior to infection fueled
      parasite growth and trypomastigote egression, in parallel with increased TNFR1
      expression. Importantly, pentoxifylline inhibited the TNF-induced increase in
      astrocyte susceptibility to T. cruzi invasion. In T. cruzi-infected mice, anti
      TNF therapy reduced the number of amastigote nests in the brain. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      data implicate TNF as a promoter of T. cruzi invasion of mouse and human
      astrocytes. Moreover, the TNF-enriched inflammatory milieu and enhanced TNFR1
      expression may favor TNF signaling, astrocyte colonization by T. cruzi and
      egression of trypomastigotes. Therefore, in T. cruzi infection, a self-sustaining
      TNF-induced inflammatory circuit may perpetuate the parasite cycle in the CNS and
      ultimately promote cytokine-driven behavioral alterations.

PMID- 28877737
TI  - Erratum to: A manual-based vocational rehabilitation program for patients with an
      acquired brain injury: study protocol of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial
      (RCT).

PMID- 28877738
TI  - Sclerosing thymoma-like thymic amyloidoma with nephrotic syndrome: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary localized amyloidosis presenting as an isolated mediastinal
      mass is extremely rare, especially in the thymus. Sclerosing thymoma is also an
      extremely rare anterior mediastinal tumor, pathologically characterized by
      extensive sclerotic lesions with hyalinization and calcification. Only 14 cases
      of sclerosing thymoma and five cases of thymic amyloidosis have been reported to
      date. CASE PRESENTATION: A 78-year-old Japanese woman was diagnosed as having
      sclerosing thymoma (Masaoka stage IVa pericardial dissemination)-like thymic
      amyloidoma. She was diagnosed as having either lung cancer or mediastinal tumor
      with pericardial dissemination, and received palliative treatment. Three years
      later, she was readmitted with a complaint of general malaise. Since minimal
      change nephrotic syndrome was suspected based on the disease onset and
      selectivity index of urinary protein, steroid pulse therapy was started.
      Subsequently, because a marked reduction in tumor size was observed during
      maintenance treatment with prednisolone, a thoracoscopic needle biopsy was
      performed for a definitive diagnosis. According to the pathological findings and
      clinical investigations, a final diagnosis of sclerosing thymoma (Masaoka stage
      IVa pericardial dissemination)-like thymic amyloidoma was made. CONCLUSIONS: This
      is a case report of sclerosing thymoma-like thymic amyloidoma. Both sclerosing
      thymoma and thymic amyloidoma are extremely rare diseases: only 14 cases of
      sclerosing thymoma and five cases of thymic amyloidosis have been reported to
      date. In either diagnosis, our case is the first case in which marked reduction
      in tumor size was observed with steroid therapy. All reported cases of sclerosing
      thymomas underwent surgical resection, but steroid therapy to sclerosing thymoma
      has not been reported. It is still unknown whether steroid therapy is effective
      or not. The hyalinized components of sclerosing thymoma possibly contain amyloid
      deposits. The marked reduction in tumor size with steroid therapy may result in
      amyloid deposits. The association between sclerosing thymoma and thymic
      amyloidoma remains uncertain. Sclerosing thymoma should be stained with Congo
      red.

PMID- 28877739
TI  - Estrogen and soy isoflavonoids decrease sensitivity of medulloblastoma and
      central nervous system primitive neuroectodermal tumor cells to chemotherapeutic
      cytotoxicity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our previous studies demonstrated that growth and migration of
      medulloblastoma (MB), the most common malignant brain tumor in children, are
      stimulated by 17beta-estradiol. The growth stimulating effects of estrogens are
      mediated through ERbeta and insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling to inhibit
      caspase 3 activity and reduce tumor cell apoptosis. The objective of this study
      was to determine whether estrogens decreased sensitivity of MB cells to cytotoxic
      actions of chemotherapeutic drugs. METHODS: Using in vitro cell viability and
      clonogenic survival assays, concentration response analysis was used to determine
      whether the cytoprotective effects of estradiol protected human D283 Med MB cells
      from the cytotoxic actions of the MB chemotherapeutic drugs cisplatin,
      vincristine, or lomustine. Additional experiments were done to determine whether
      the ER antagonist fulvestrant or the selective ER modulator tamoxifen blocked the
      cytoprotective actions of estradiol. ER-selective agonists and antagonists were
      used to define receptor specificity, and the impacts of the soy-derived
      phytoestrogens genistein, daidzein, and s-equol on chemosensitivity were
      evaluated. RESULTS: In D283 Med cells the presence of 10 nM estradiol increased
      the IC50 for cisplatin-induced inhibition of viability 2-fold from ~5 MUM to >10
      MUM. In clonogenic survival assays estradiol decreased the chemosensitivity of
      D283 Med cells exposed to cisplatin, lomustine and vincristine. The ERbeta
      selective agonist DPN and low physiological concentrations of the soy-derived
      phytoestrogens genistein, daidzein, and s-equol also decreased sensitivity of
      D283 Med cells to cisplatin. The protective effects of estradiol were blocked by
      the antiestrogens 4-hydroxytamoxifen, fulvestrant (ICI 182,780) and the ERbeta
      selective antagonist PPHTP. Whereas estradiol also decreased chemosensitivity of
      PFSK-1 cells, estradiol increased sensitivity of Daoy cell to cisplatin,
      suggesting that ERbeta mediated effects may vary in different MB celltypes.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that E2 and environmental estrogens
      decrease sensitivity of MB to cytotoxic chemotherapeutics, and that ERbeta
      selective and non-selective inhibition of estrogen receptor activity blocks these
      cytoprotective actions. These findings support the therapeutic potential of
      antiestrogen adjuvant therapies for MB, and findings that soy phytoestrogens also
      decrease sensitivity of MB cells to cytotoxic chemotherapeutics suggest that
      decreased exposure to environmental estrogens may benefit MB patient responses to
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28877740
TI  - Non-base-contacting residues enable kaleidoscopic evolution of metazoan C2H2 zinc
      finger DNA binding.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The C2H2 zinc finger (C2H2-ZF) is the most numerous protein domain in
      many metazoans, but is not as frequent or diverse in other eukaryotes. The
      biochemical and evolutionary mechanisms that underlie the diversity of this DNA
      binding domain exclusively in metazoans are, however, mostly unknown. RESULTS:
      Here, we show that the C2H2-ZF expansion in metazoans is facilitated by
      contribution of non-base-contacting residues to DNA binding energy, allowing base
      contacting specificity residues to mutate without catastrophic loss of DNA
      binding. In contrast, C2H2-ZF DNA binding in fungi, plants, and other lineages is
      constrained by reliance on base-contacting residues for DNA-binding
      functionality. Reconstructions indicate that virtually every DNA triplet was
      recognized by at least one C2H2-ZF domain in the common progenitor of placental
      mammals, but that extant C2H2-ZF domains typically bind different sequences from
      these ancestral domains, with changes facilitated by non-base-contacting
      residues. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the evolution of C2H2-ZFs in
      metazoans was expedited by the interaction of non-base-contacting residues with
      the DNA backbone. We term this phenomenon "kaleidoscopic evolution," to reflect
      the diversity of both binding motifs and binding motif transitions and the
      facilitation of their diversification.

PMID- 28877741
TI  - Morphometric variability among the species of the Sordida subcomplex (Hemiptera:
      Reduviidae: Triatominae): evidence for differentiation across the distribution
      range of Triatoma sordida.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Sordida subcomplex (Triatominae) comprises four species, Triatoma
      garciabesi, T. guasayana, T. patagonica and T. sordida, which differ in
      epidemiological importance and adaptations to human environments. Some
      morphological similarities among species make taxonomic identification,
      population differentiation and species delimitation controversial. Triatoma
      garciabesi and T. sordida are the most similar species, having been considered
      alternatively two and a single species until T. garciabesi was re-validated,
      mostly based on the morphology of male genitalia. More recently, T. sordida from
      Argentina has been proposed as a new cryptic species distinguishable from T.
      sordida from Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay by cytogenetics. We studied linear and
      geometric morphometry of the head, wings and pronotum in populations of these
      species aiming to find phenotypic markers for their discrimination, especially
      between T. sordida and T. garciabesi, and if any set of variables that validates
      T. sordida from Argentina as a new species. RESULTS: Head width and pronotum
      length were the linear variables that best differentiated species. Geometric
      morphometry revealed significant Mahalanobis distances in wing shape between all
      pairwise comparisons. Triatoma patagonica exhibited the best discrimination and
      T. garciabesi overlapped the distribution of the other species in the
      morphometric space of the first two DFA axes. Head shape showed differentiation
      between all pairs of species except for T. garciabesi and T. sordida. Pronotum
      shape did not differentiate T. garciabesi from T. guasayana. The comparison
      between T. garciabesi and T. sordida from Argentina and T. sordida from Brazil
      and Bolivia revealed low differentiation based on head and pronotum linear
      measurements. Pronotum and wing shape were different between T. garciabesi and T.
      sordida from Brazil and Bolivia and T. sordida from Argentina. Head shape did not
      differentiate T. garciabesi from T. sordida from Argentina. CONCLUSIONS: Wing
      shape best delimited the four species phenotypically. The proposed cryptic
      species, T. sordida from Argentina, differed from T. sordida from Brazil and
      Bolivia in all measured shape traits, suggesting that the putative new species
      may not be cryptic. Additional studies integrating cytogenetic, phenotypic and
      molecular markers, as well as cross-breeding experiments are needed to confirm if
      these three entities represent true biological species.

PMID- 28877742
TI  - A comparative study of the impacts of unbalanced sample sizes on the four
      synthesized methods of meta-analytic structural equation modeling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the first stage of meta-analytic structural equation modeling
      (MASEM), researchers synthesized studies using univariate meta-analysis (UM) and
      multivariate meta-analysis (MM) approaches. The MM approaches are known to be of
      better performance than the UM approaches in the meta-analysis with equal sized
      studies. However in real situations, where the studies might be of different
      sizes, the empirical performance of these approaches is yet to be studied in the
      first and second stages of MASEM. The present study aimed to evaluate the
      performance of the UM and MM methods, having unequal sample sizes in different
      primary studies. Testing the homogeneity of correlation matrices and the
      empirical power, estimating the pooled correlation matrix and also, estimating
      parameters of a path model were investigated using these approaches by
      simulation. RESULTS: The results of the first stage showed that Type I error rate
      was well under control at 0.05 level when the average sample sizes were 200 or
      more, irrespective of the types of the methods or the sample sizes used.
      Moreover, the relative percentage biases of the pooled correlation matrices were
      also lower than 2.5% for all methods. There was a dramatic decrease in the
      empirical power for all synthesis methods when the inequality of the sample sizes
      was increased. In fitting the path model at the second stage, MM methods provided
      better estimation of the parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the different
      performance of the four methods in the statistical power, especially when the
      sample sizes of primary studies were highly unequal. Moreover, in fitting the
      path model, the MM approaches provided better estimation of the parameters.

PMID- 28877743
TI  - Evaluation of the efficacy of sarolaner (Simparica(r)) in the prevention of
      babesiosis in dogs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Canine babesiosis is a clinically significant emerging vector-borne
      disease caused among others by the protozoan Babesia canis. The efficacy of
      sarolaner (Simparica(r); Zoetis; at the minimum recommended label dose of 2.0 mg
      per kg bodyweight) in the prevention of babesiosis was evaluated in twenty-four
      dogs randomly allocated to either a placebo-treated group or one of two sarolaner
      treated groups. At 21 or 28 days after treatment administration, dogs were
      infested with 50 +/- 4 Dermacentor reticulatus ticks of which 25% were confirmed
      to be infected with Babesia canis. Blood samples were collected from each dog
      prior to tick infestation and weekly thereafter until 49 days after infestation.
      The blood was assayed for B. canis antibodies using an indirect
      immunofluorescence test (IFAT) and for B. canis DNA by PCR assay. A dog was a
      priori defined as B. canis-positive if it tested positive by both IFAT and PCR at
      any time during the study. RESULTS: No treatment-related adverse reactions were
      recorded during the study. All placebo-treated animals displayed clinical signs
      due to babesiosis and tested positive on both IFAT and PCR. None of the sarolaner
      treated animals displayed any clinical symptoms or tested positive on both IFAT
      and PCR, resulting in a 100% efficacy in the prevention of canine babesiosis (P =
      0.0002). CONCLUSION: When given 21 or 28 days before tick infestation, a single
      treatment with sarolaner at the minimum recommended label dose of 2.0 mg per kg
      body weight prevented the transmission of B. canis by D. reticulatus to dogs.

PMID- 28877745
TI  - Erythrocytosis caused by giant chromophobe renal cell carcinoma: a case report
      indicating a 9-year misdiagnosis of polycythemia vera.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Erythrocytosis, a rare paraneoplastic syndrome, generally occurs in
      patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma and has never been reported in
      patients with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a
      case of a young man suffering from a giant (22-cm) mass on his left kidney.
      Because of a history of polycythemia vera, the patient had been treated for the
      condition for 9 years. Radical nephrectomy was successfully performed, and the
      postoperative pathologic examination confirmed a diagnosis of chromophobe renal
      cell carcinoma. Unexpectedly, the symptom of erythrocytosis disappeared after the
      surgery. Further examination and analysis were performed, and we finally
      attributed his erythrocytosis to chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS:
      Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma could cause erythrocytosis, but the clear-cut
      mechanism needs further research. Secondary erythrocytosis such as those related
      with renal tumors should be taken into consideration during the diagnosis of
      polycythemia vera.

PMID- 28877744
TI  - Exome sequences versus sequential gene testing in the UK highly specialised
      Service for Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limb girdle muscular dystrophies are a group of rare and genetically
      heterogeneous diseases that share proximal weakness as a common feature; however
      they are often lacking very specific phenotypic features to allow an accurate
      differential diagnosis based on the clinical signs only, limiting the diagnostic
      rate using phenotype driven genetic testing. Next generation sequencing provides
      an opportunity to obtain molecular diagnoses for undiagnosed patients, as well as
      identifying novel genetic causes of muscle diseases. We performed whole exome
      sequencing (WES) on 104 affected individuals from 75 families in who standard
      gene by gene testing had not yielded a diagnosis. For comparison we also
      evaluated the diagnostic rate using sequential gene by gene testing for 91
      affected individuals from 84 families over a 2 year period. RESULTS: Patients
      selected for WES had undergone more extensive prior testing than those undergoing
      standard genetic testing and on average had had 8 genes screened already. In this
      extensively investigated cohort WES identified the genetic diagnosis in 28
      families (28/75, 37%), including the identification of the novel gene ZAK and two
      unpublished genes. WES of a single affected individual with sporadic disease
      yielded a diagnosis in 13/38 (34%) of cases. In comparison, conventional gene by
      gene testing provided a genetic diagnosis in 28/84 (33%) families. Titinopathies
      and collagen VI related dystrophy were the most frequent diagnoses made by WES.
      Reasons why mutations in known genes were not identified previously included
      atypical phenotypes, reassignment of pathogenicity of variants, and in one
      individual mosaicism for a COL6A1 mutation which was undetected by prior direct
      sequencing. CONCLUSION: WES was able to overcome many limitations of standard
      testing and achieved a higher rate of diagnosis than standard testing even in
      this cohort of extensively investigated patients. Earlier application of WES is
      therefore likely to yield an even higher diagnostic rate. We obtained a high
      diagnosis rate in simplex cases and therefore such individuals should be included
      in exome or genome sequencing projects. Disease due to somatic mosaicism may be
      increasingly recognised due to the increased sensitivity of next generation
      sequencing techniques to detect low level mosaicism.

PMID- 28877747
TI  - The value of one versus three sputum smear examinations for diagnosis of
      pulmonary tuberculosis in Asella hospital, South-East Ethiopia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to compare the value of a single with three
      sputum smear examinations in the detection of smear-positive pulmonary
      tuberculosis. RESULTS: There were a total of 7012 patients studied out of which
      3599 (51.3%) were males and the rest females. In 637 (9.1%) of the patients, two
      or more smears were positive for AFB. 616 (96.7%) of the sputum smear positive
      patients had positive smears on the first spot sputum exams as compared to 635
      (99.7%) who were positive on the morning sputum, (P = 0.000064). 598/637 (93.9%)
      of sputum smear positive patients had positive smears in all three smears
      regardless of the smear grading. A single morning smear examination is as
      sensitive as doing three sputum smear examinations in the diagnosis of sputum
      smear positive TB. The incidence of sputum smear positivity differed
      significantly across age groups, but did not differ between genders.

PMID- 28877746
TI  - "Scaling-out" evidence-based interventions to new populations or new health care
      delivery systems.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implementing treatments and interventions with demonstrated
      effectiveness is critical for improving patient health outcomes at a reduced
      cost. When an evidence-based intervention (EBI) is implemented with fidelity in a
      setting that is very similar to the setting wherein it was previously found to be
      effective, it is reasonable to anticipate similar benefits of that EBI. However,
      one goal of implementation science is to expand the use of EBIs as broadly as is
      feasible and appropriate in order to foster the greatest public health impact.
      When implementing an EBI in a novel setting, or targeting novel populations, one
      must consider whether there is sufficient justification that the EBI would have
      similar benefits to those found in earlier trials. DISCUSSION: In this paper, we
      introduce a new concept for implementation called "scaling-out" when EBIs are
      adapted either to new populations or new delivery systems, or both. Using
      existing external validity theories and multilevel mediation modeling, we provide
      a logical framework for determining what new empirical evidence is required for
      an intervention to retain its evidence-based standard in this new context. The
      motivating questions are whether scale-out can reasonably be expected to produce
      population-level effectiveness as found in previous studies, and what additional
      empirical evaluations would be necessary to test for this short of an entirely
      new effectiveness trial. We present evaluation options for assessing whether
      scaling-out results in the ultimate health outcome of interest. CONCLUSION: In
      scaling to health or service delivery systems or population/community contexts
      that are different from the setting where the EBI was originally tested, there
      are situations where a shorter timeframe of translation is possible. We argue
      that implementation of an EBI in a moderately different setting or with a
      different population can sometimes "borrow strength" from evidence of impact in a
      prior effectiveness trial. The collection of additional empirical data is deemed
      necessary by the nature and degree of adaptations to the EBI and the context. Our
      argument in this paper is conceptual, and we propose formal empirical tests of
      mediational equivalence in a follow-up paper.

PMID- 28877749
TI  - Women's determinant factors for preferred place of delivery in Dodoma region
      Tanzania: a cross sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Skilled birth attendance is one of the key factors in improving
      maternal health but less than 50% of women in sub-Saharan African countries do
      not have the opportunity to be attended to by skilled personnel during
      childbirth. The aim of the study was to assess the factors determining women's
      preference for a place to give birth in Dodoma Region, Tanzania. METHODS: This
      study employed a cross-sectional survey design using quantitative data collection
      and analysis methods. Data were collected using structured questionnaire
      administered to 800 women obtained through multistage random sampling.
      Multivariable logistic regression model was applied to determine the predictors
      of place of delivery. RESULTS: More than three quarters 629(78.6%) respondents
      had their last delivery in the health facilities while 171(21.4%) had their last
      delivery at home/on the way to hospital. Reasons for delivering at home include:
      abrupt occurrence of labour pain, long distance to the health facilities, lack of
      money to pay for transport and unfriendly experience with the health care
      providers. Simple logistic regression model indicate that mothers' education
      level, number of children, cost of transport the estimated distance to the nearby
      health facility and occupation were strong predictors of the preferred place of
      delivery. However, after controlling the potential confounder, the multivariable
      logistic regression model demonstrated a significant association between delivery
      at the health facility and the number of children and transport cost. CONCLUSION:
      Our findings suggest a need for health care providers to enhance health education
      to women and their spouses about birth preparedness and the importance of
      delivering at the health facility. There is also a need for the government to
      increase the number of health facilities including maternity waiting homes and
      well trained health workers in both rural and urban areas.

PMID- 28877748
TI  - A pilot clinical trial of recombinant human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in
      acute respiratory distress syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) signaling and angiotensin-converting
      enzyme 2 (ACE2) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of acute respiratory
      distress syndrome (ARDS). We postulated that repleting ACE2 using GSK2586881, a
      recombinant form of human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (rhACE2), could
      attenuate acute lung injury. METHODS: We conducted a two-part phase II trial
      comprising an open-label intrapatient dose escalation and a randomized, double
      blind, placebo-controlled phase in ten intensive care units in North America.
      Patients were between the ages of 18 and 80 years, had an American-European
      Consensus Criteria consensus diagnosis of ARDS, and had been mechanically
      ventilated for less than 72 h. In part A, open-label GSK2586881 was administered
      at doses from 0.1 mg/kg to 0.8 mg/kg to assess safety, pharmacokinetics, and
      pharmacodynamics. Following review of data from part A, a randomized, double
      blind, placebo-controlled investigation of twice-daily doses of GSK2586881 (0.4
      mg/kg) for 3 days was conducted (part B). Biomarkers, physiological assessments,
      and clinical endpoints were collected over the dosing period and during follow
      up. RESULTS: Dose escalation in part A was well-tolerated without clinically
      significant hemodynamic changes. Part B was terminated after 39 of the planned 60
      patients following a planned futility analysis. Angiotensin II levels decreased
      rapidly following infusion of GSK2586881, whereas angiotensin-(1-7) and
      angiotensin-(1-5) levels increased and remained elevated for 48 h. Surfactant
      protein D concentrations were increased, whereas there was a trend for a decrease
      in interleukin-6 concentrations in rhACE2-treated subjects compared with placebo.
      No significant differences were noted in ratio of partial pressure of arterial
      oxygen to fraction of inspired oxygen, oxygenation index, or Sequential Organ
      Failure Assessment score. CONCLUSIONS: GSK2586881 was well-tolerated in patients
      with ARDS, and the rapid modulation of RAS peptides suggests target engagement,
      although the study was not powered to detect changes in acute physiology or
      clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01597635 .
      Registered on 26 January 2012.

PMID- 28877750
TI  - MIT-Skywalker: considerations on the Design of a Body Weight Support System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To provide body weight support during walking and balance training,
      one can employ two distinct embodiments: support through a harness hanging from
      an overhead system or support through a saddle/seat type. This paper presents a
      comparison of these two approaches. Ultimately, this comparison determined our
      selection of the body weight support system employed in the MIT-Skywalker, a
      robotic device developed for the rehabilitation/habilitation of gait and balance
      after a neurological injury. METHOD: Here we will summarize our results with
      eight healthy subjects walking on the treadmill without any support, with 30%
      unloading supported by a harness hanging from an overhead system, and with a
      saddle/seat-like support system. We compared the center of mass as well as
      vertical and mediolateral trunk displacements across different walking speeds and
      support. RESULTS: The bicycle/saddle system had the highest values for the
      mediolateral inclination, while the overhead harness body weight support showed
      the lowest values at all speeds. The differences were statistically significant.
      CONCLUSION: We selected the bicycle/saddle system for the MIT-Skywalker. It
      allows faster don-and-doff, better centers the patient to the split treadmill,
      and allows all forms of training. The overhead harness body weight support might
      be adequate for rhythmic walking training but limits any potential for balance
      training.

PMID- 28877751
TI  - Inguinal canal angioleiomyoma: case report of a rare disease entity within
      inguinal canal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Angioleiomyoma is an uncommon benign soft tissue tumor and originates
      from the vascular smooth muscle. It often causes pain and is rarely found in
      inguinal region. We present a rare case of inguinal canal angioleiomyoma of a
      female patient who suffered from right groin pain for 4 years and mimicking
      inguinal hernia clinically. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 53-year-old Chinese female
      patient presented with 4-year history of right groin pain which was exacerbated
      by movement. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in view of atypical
      presentation and absence of cough impulse. Inguinal canal was subsequently
      explored by open approach and the mass was found arising from the posterior wall
      of the inguinal canal and measured 5.2 cm * 3.8 cm. The posterior wall was
      repaired by Bassini approach after the mass was resected en-bloc. Inguinal pain
      was resolved and no hernia was found during follow-up. Pathology of the resected
      specimen confirmed angioleiomyoma with clear resection margins. CONCLUSION: This
      is the first report of a case of angioleiomyoma of the inguinal canal, which
      presents as a painful mass. Magnetic resonance imaging should be considered when
      presenting history and physical examination does not confirm with the diagnosis
      of inguinal hernia. After inguinal canal exploration, suture or mesh repair
      should be performed to prevent weakening of posterior wall leading to inguinal
      hernia.

PMID- 28877752
TI  - SPEN, a new player in primary cilia formation and cell migration in breast
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The primary cilium is a microtubule-based and nonmotile organelle
      functioning as a cellular antenna that is involved in the regulation of cell
      proliferation, differentiation, and migration. In breast cancer cells, the
      primary cilium is a structure that decreases in incidence with increasing degrees
      of transformation and may be biologically more important in estrogen receptor
      (ERalpha)-negative breast cancer cells. Split ends (SPEN) is an ERalpha
      corepressor that we have identified as a tumor suppressor protein in ERalpha
      positive breast cancer cells whose hormone-independent roles in breast cancer
      have never been explored. METHODS: We determined the hormone-independent
      transcriptional program regulated by the ERalpha cofactor SPEN in breast cancer
      using DNA microarrays. The biological functions regulated by SPEN independently
      of hormones were studied in vitro in ERalpha-positive and ERalpha-negative breast
      cancer cells. Finally, we examined the clinical relevance of SPEN expression in
      cohorts of breast cancer samples with outcome data. RESULTS: We found that SPEN
      is coexpressed with a number of genes involved in ciliary biology, including the
      ciliogenic transcription factor RFX3, in a hormone-independent manner. SPEN
      reexpression in T47D cells containing a nonsense mutation in SPEN restored the
      primary cilium, whereas its knockdown in MCF10A and Hs578T cells considerably
      decreased primary cilia levels. We also report that SPEN regulates migration in
      breast cells, but only in those harboring primary cilia, and that KIF3A
      silencing, a critical factor in primary cilia, partially reverses SPEN's effects,
      suggesting that SPEN may coordinate cellular movement through primary cilia
      dependent mechanisms. Finally, we found that high SPEN RNA levels were predictive
      of early metastasis in two independent cohorts of 77 (HR 2.25, P = 0.03) and 170
      (HR = 2.23, P = 0.004) patients with ERalpha-negative breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS:
      Together, our data demonstrate a role for SPEN in the regulation of primary cilia
      formation and cell migration in breast cancer cells, which may collectively
      explain why its expression is associated with time to metastasis in cohorts of
      patients with ERalpha-negative breast cancers.

PMID- 28877754
TI  - Association between suspected Zika virus disease during pregnancy and giving
      birth to a newborn with congenital microcephaly: a matched case-control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In early 2015, an outbreak of an acute exanthematous illness with
      dengue-like symptoms occurred in northeastern Brazil. By the end of the same
      year, an unexpected increase in the number of cases of microcephaly was observed
      in the region. The microcephaly outbreak cause was unknown and rumors pointing to
      various potential causes arose. Since we were unaware at the time if this
      scenario would attract the interest of the broader scientific community, due to
      the neglected regions associated and as often happens with many others health
      conditions related to infectious diseases in Latin America. This coupled with the
      fact that diagnostic testing for Zika virus was not available, prompted us to
      design a study that could demonstrate the correlation between the development of
      an exanthematous illness with Zika-like symptoms during pregnancy and the
      delivery of a newborn with congenital microcephaly. RESULTS: Mothers who
      experienced symptoms associated with the Zika virus during pregnancy had 10 times
      higher odds of delivering newborns with congenital microcephaly when compared
      with mothers who did not exhibit Zika-like symptoms. Thus, the acute
      exanthematous illness outbreak could be associated with the congenital
      microcephaly outbreak. We could not distinguish which virus caused the acute
      exanthematous illness in the study subjects (Zika, dengue or chikungunya), but
      these results could help to reduce the misquided speculation in regards to the
      cause of the microcephaly and could have expedited public health policies
      intended for controlling the mosquito vector. In addition to the lower head
      circumference, microcephalic neonates also had lower thoracic circumference,
      lower height and lower weight compared to non-microcephalic babies suggesting
      intrauterine growth restriction. Additionally, we found borderline association
      between mothers classified as homemakers and, who had past dengue infections with
      microcephaly. Prior contraction of dengue virus seems to play a role in the risk
      for the condition reflecting the domestication of the Aedes Aegypti and the
      enhancement of the Zika virus infection by dengue antibodies, respectively. The
      limitations of this study are: (a) participants recall bias, (b) absence of
      laboratory test results for Zika virus and other arboviruses and (c) incomplete
      test results for other pathogens that could lead to microcephaly. The study
      protocol was registered at ClinicalTrial.gov under the identifier NCT02741882.
      Registered on April 13th, 2016.

PMID- 28877753
TI  - Weekends affect mortality risk and chance of discharge in critically ill
      patients: a retrospective study in the Austrian registry for intensive care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study, we primarily investigated whether ICU admission or ICU
      stay at weekends (Saturday and Sunday) is associated with a different risk of ICU
      mortality or chance of ICU discharge than ICU admission or ICU stay on weekdays
      (Monday to Friday). Secondarily, we analysed whether weekend ICU admission or ICU
      stay influences risk of hospital mortality or chance of hospital discharge.
      METHODS: A retrospective study was performed for all adult patients admitted to
      119 ICUs participating in the benchmarking project of the Austrian Centre for
      Documentation and Quality Assurance in Intensive Care (ASDI) between 2012 and
      2015. Readmissions to the ICU during the same hospital stay were excluded.
      RESULTS: In a multivariable competing risk analysis, a strong weekend effect was
      observed. Patients admitted to ICUs on Saturday or Sunday had a higher mortality
      risk after adjustment for severity of illness by Simplified Acute Physiology
      Score (SAPS) 3, year, month of the year, type of admission, ICU, and weekday of
      death or discharge. Hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for death in the ICU
      following admission on a Saturday or Sunday compared with Wednesday were 1.15
      (1.08-1.23) and 1.11 (1.03-1.18), respectively. Lower hazard ratios were observed
      for dying on a Saturday (0.93 (0.87-1.00)) or Sunday (0.85 (0.80-0.91)) compared
      with Wednesday. This is probably related to the reduced chance of being
      discharged from the ICU at the weekend (0.63 (0.62-064) for Saturday and 0.56
      (0.55-0.57) for Sunday). Similar results were found for hospital mortality and
      hospital discharge following ICU admission. CONCLUSIONS: Patients admitted to
      ICUs at weekends are at increased risk of death in both the ICU and the hospital
      even after rigorous adjustment for severity of illness. Conversely, death in the
      ICU and discharge from the ICU are significantly less likely at weekends.

PMID- 28877755
TI  - Uric acid, an important screening tool to detect inborn errors of metabolism: a
      case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uric acid is the metabolic end product of purine metabolism in
      humans. Altered serum and urine uric acid level (both above and below the
      reference ranges) is an indispensable marker in detecting rare inborn errors of
      metabolism. We describe different case scenarios of 4 Sri Lankan patients related
      to abnormal uric acid levels in blood and urine. CASE 1: A one-and-half-year-old
      boy was investigated for haematuria and a calculus in the bladder. Xanthine
      crystals were seen in microscopic examination of urine sediment. Low uric acid
      concentrations in serum and low urinary fractional excretion of uric acid
      associated with high urinary excretion of xanthine and hypoxanthine were
      compatible with xanthine oxidase deficiency. CASE 2: An 8-month-old boy presented
      with intractable seizures, feeding difficulties, screaming episodes,
      microcephaly, facial dysmorphism and severe neuro developmental delay. Low uric
      acid level in serum, low fractional excretion of uric acid and radiological
      findings were consistent with possible molybdenum cofactor deficiency. Diagnosis
      was confirmed by elevated levels of xanthine, hypoxanthine and sulfocysteine
      levels in urine. CASE 3: A 3-year-10-month-old boy presented with global
      developmental delay, failure to thrive, dystonia and self-destructive behaviour.
      High uric acid levels in serum, increased fractional excretion of uric acid and
      absent hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase enzyme level confirmed the
      diagnosis of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. CASE 4: A 9-year-old boy was investigated for
      lower abdominal pain, gross haematuria and right renal calculus. Low uric acid
      level in serum and increased fractional excretion of uric acid pointed towards
      hereditary renal hypouricaemia which was confirmed by genetic studies.
      CONCLUSION: Abnormal uric acid level in blood and urine is a valuable tool in
      screening for clinical conditions related to derangement of the nucleic acid
      metabolic pathway.

PMID- 28877756
TI  - Jigsaw Puzzles As Cognitive Enrichment (PACE) - the effect of solving jigsaw
      puzzles on global visuospatial cognition in adults 50 years of age and older:
      study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neurocognitive disorders are an important societal challenge and the
      need for early prevention is increasingly recognized. Meta-analyses show
      beneficial effects of cognitive activities on cognition. However, high financial
      costs, low intrinsic motivation, logistic challenges of group-based activities,
      or the need to operate digital devices prevent their widespread application in
      clinical practice. Solving jigsaw puzzles is a cognitive activity without these
      hindering characteristics, but cognitive effects have not been investigated yet.
      With this study, we aim to evaluate the effect of solving jigsaw puzzles on
      visuospatial cognition, daily functioning, and psychological outcomes. METHODS:
      The pre-posttest, assessor-blinded study will include 100 cognitively healthy
      adults 50 years of age or older, who will be randomly assigned to a jigsaw puzzle
      group or a cognitive health counseling group. Within the 5-week intervention
      period, participants in the jigsaw puzzle group will engage in 30 days of solving
      jigsaw puzzles for at least 1 h per day and additionally receive cognitive health
      counseling. The cognitive health counseling group will receive the same
      counseling intervention but no jigsaw puzzles. The primary outcome, global
      visuospatial cognition, will depict the average of the z-standardized performance
      scores in visuospatial tests of perception, constructional praxis, mental
      rotation, processing speed, flexibility, working memory, reasoning, and episodic
      memory. As secondary outcomes, we will assess the eight cognitive abilities,
      objective and subjective visuospatial daily functioning, psychological well
      being, general self-efficacy, and perceived stress. The primary data analysis
      will be based on mixed-effects models in an intention-to-treat approach.
      DISCUSSION: Solving jigsaw puzzles is a low-cost, intrinsically motivating,
      cognitive leisure activity, which can be executed alone or with others and
      without the need to operate a digital device. In the case of positive results,
      these characteristics allow an easy implementation of solving jigsaw puzzles in
      clinical practice as a way to improve visuospatial functioning. Whether cognitive
      impairment and loss of independence in everyday functioning might be prevented or
      delayed in the long run has to be examined in future studies. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02667314 . Registered on 27 January 2016.

PMID- 28877757
TI  - Whole genome sequencing of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli isolated from
      patients, farm waste and canals in Thailand.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tackling multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli requires evidence from
      One Health studies that capture numerous potential reservoirs in circumscribed
      geographic areas. METHODS: We conducted a survey of extended beta-lactamase
      (ESBL)-producing E. coli isolated from patients, canals and livestock wastewater
      in eastern Thailand between 2014 and 2015, and analyzed isolates using whole
      genome sequencing. RESULTS: The bacterial collection of 149 isolates consisted of
      84 isolates from a single hospital and 65 from the hospital sewer, canals and
      farm wastewater within a 20 km radius. E. coli ST131 predominated the clinical
      collection (28.6%), but was uncommon in the environment. Genome-based comparison
      of E. coli from infected patients and their immediate environment indicated low
      genetic similarity overall between the two, although three clinical-environmental
      isolate pairs differed by <= 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Thai E. coli
      isolates were dispersed throughout a phylogenetic tree containing a global E.
      coli collection. All Thai ESBL-positive E. coli isolates were multidrug
      resistant, including high rates of resistance to tobramycin (77.2%), gentamicin
      (77.2%), ciprofloxacin (67.8%) and trimethoprim (68.5%). ESBL was encoded by six
      different CTX-M elements and SHV-12. Three isolates from clinical samples (n = 2)
      or a hospital sewer (n = 1) were resistant to the carbapenem drugs (encoded by
      NDM-1, NDM-5 or GES-5), and three isolates (clinical (n = 1) and canal water (n =
      2)) were resistant to colistin (encoded by mcr-1); no isolates were resistant to
      both carbapenems and colistin. CONCLUSIONS: Tackling ESBL-producing E. coli in
      this setting will be challenging based on widespread distribution, but the low
      prevalence of resistance to carbapenems and colistin suggests that efforts are
      now required to prevent these from becoming ubiquitous.

PMID- 28877758
TI  - Neuron loss and degeneration in the progression of TDP-43 in frontotemporal lobar
      degeneration.
AB  - Frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 inclusions (FTLD-TDP) is associated
      with the accumulation of pathological neuronal and glial intracytoplasmic
      inclusions as well as accompanying neuron loss. We explored if cortical neurons
      detected by NeuN decreased with increasing TDP-43 inclusion pathology in the
      postmortem brains of 63 patients with sporadic and familial FTLD-TDP. Semi
      automated quantitative algorithms to quantify histology in tissue sections
      stained with antibodies specific for pathological or phosphorylated TDP-43 (pTDP
      43) and NeuN were developed and validated in affected (cerebral cortex) and
      minimally affected (cerebellar cortex) brain regions of FTLD-TDP cases.
      Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for NeuN and other neuronal markers found numerous
      neurons lacking reactivity, suggesting NeuN may reflect neuron health rather than
      neuron loss in FTLD. We found three patterns of NeuN and pTDP-43 reactivity in
      our sample of cortical tissue representing three intracortical region-specific
      stages of FTLD-TDP progression: Group 1 showed low levels of pathological pTDP-43
      and high levels NeuN, while Group 2 showed increased levels of pTDP-43, and Group
      3 tissues were characterized by reduced staining for both pTDP-43 and NeuN.
      Comparison of non-C9orf72/GRN FTLD-TDP with cases linked to both GRN mutations
      and C9orf72 expansions showed a significantly increased frequency of Group 3
      histopathology in the latter cases, suggesting more advanced cortical disease.
      Hence, we propose that IHC profiles of pTDP-43 and NeuN reflect the burden of
      pTDP-43 and its deleterious effects on neuron health.

PMID- 28877760
TI  - SBMLPkgSpec: a LaTeX style file for SBML package specification documents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is a popular open format
      for storing and exchanging computational models in biology. The definition of
      SBML is captured in formal specification documents. SBMLPkgSpec is a LaTeX
      document style intended to fill the need for a standard format for writing such
      specification documents. RESULTS: Specification documents for SBML Level 3
      extensions (known as packages in SBML) are made more uniform with the use of a
      standard template. SBMLPkgSpec is a LaTeX class that provides a document
      framework for SBML Level 3 package specifications, to simplify the work of
      document authors while improving the overall quality of the family of SBML
      specifications.

PMID- 28877761
TI  - Phenotypic prevalence of extended spectrum beta-lactamases among
      enterobacteriaceae isolated at Mulago National Referral Hospital: Uganda.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Enterobacteriaceae, common causes of health care associated and
      community acquired infections are mainly treated with beta-lactam agents. Our
      study objective was to determine the prevalence and common enterobacteriaceae
      pathogen producing extended spectrum beta lactamases (ESBLs). The isolates were
      recovered from various clinical specimens. This was cross sectional study
      conducted between July 2016 and September 2016 at Mulago National Referral
      Hospital, Uganda. We used ChromIDTM ESBL agar (Biomerieux SA, Lyon, France) and
      Vitek2 compact system GN83 card (BioMerieux Inc, Hazelwood, Missouri, USA) to
      detect and confirm presence of phenotypic extended spectrum beta lactamases
      producing pathogens respectively. RESULTS: Of the 261 tested clinical isolates,
      35 (13.4%) were identified as ESBLs producing bacteria. Escherichia coli
      predominated in the samples [18 (51.4%)], presenting the highest frequency of
      ESBLs producing, followed by Klebsiella pneumonia [10 (28.5%)], Proteus mirabilis
      [4 (11.4%)], Enterobacter sp. [2 (5.7%)] and least among Acinetobacter baumanii
      [1 (2.8%)].

PMID- 28877759
TI  - The effects of 17 alpha-estradiol to inhibit inflammation in vitro.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 17 Alpha-estradiol (17 alpha-E2) is a natural, non-feminizing
      stereoisomer of 17 beta-estradiol (17 beta-E2). Whereas much is known about the
      physiological effects of 17 beta-E2, much less is known about 17 alpha-E2. For
      example, 17 beta-E2 exerts anti-inflammatory effects in neurons and adipocytes
      through binding and activation of estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha); however, if
      17 alpha-E2 has similar effects on inflammation is currently unknown. METHODS: To
      begin to address this, we analyzed the ability of 17 alpha-E2 and 17 beta-E2 to
      suppress lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in vitro using embryonic
      fibroblast cells (MEF) from wild type and total body ERalpha (ERKO) male and
      female mice. Additionally, we further probed if there were sex differences with
      respect to the effects of E2s using primary pre-adipocyte cells from C57BL/6J
      male and female mice. Also, we probed mechanistically the effects of E2s in fully
      differentiated 3T3-L1 cells. RESULTS: Both E2s decreased LPS-induced markers of
      inflammation Tnf-alpha and Il-6, and increased the anti-inflammatory markers Il-4
      and IL-6 receptor (Il-6ra) in MEF cells. To begin to understand the mechanisms by
      which both E2's mediate their anti-inflammatory effects, we probed the role of
      ERalpha using two methods. First, we used MEF cells from ERKO mice and found
      reductions in ERalpha diminished the ability of 17 alpha-E2 to suppress Tnf-alpha
      in female but not in male cells, demonstrating a sexual dimorphism in regard to
      the role of ERalpha to mediate 17 alpha-E2's effects. Second, we selectively
      reduced the expression of ERalpha in 3T3-L1 cells using siRNA and found
      reductions in ERalpha diminished the ability of both E2s to suppress Tnf-alpha
      and Il-6 expression. Lastly, to determine the mechanisms by which E2s reduce
      inflammation, we explored the role of NFkappaB-p65 and found both E2s decreased
      NFkappaB-p65 expression. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we demonstrate for the first
      time that 17 alpha-E2, as well as 17 beta-E2, suppresses inflammation through
      their effects on ERalpha and NFkappaB-p65.

PMID- 28877762
TI  - Larvicidal effect of Endod (Phytolacca dodecandra) seed products against
      Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidae) in Ethiopia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to determine the larvicidal
      effect of 'Endod' (Phytolacca dodecandra) seed products on Anopheles arabiensis,
      in Ethiopia. RESULTS: Experimental study was conducted using a total of 2400
      third instars larvae of A. arabiensis. The seed products P. dodecandra showed
      larvicidal activity against 3rd-stage larvae of both the laboratory and field
      population of A. arabiensis. The LC99 values for P. dodecandra's seed powder and
      its extract form against the laboratory reared larvae were 121.07, and 616.46
      mg/l, respectively. The LC50 and LC95 values were also determined.

PMID- 28877763
TI  - Alzheimer's disease pathological lesions activate the spleen tyrosine kinase.
AB  - The pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by dystrophic neurites
      (DNs) surrounding extracellular Abeta-plaques, microgliosis, astrogliosis,
      intraneuronal tau hyperphosphorylation and aggregation. We have previously shown
      that inhibition of the spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) lowers Abeta production and
      tau hyperphosphorylation in vitro and in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that Abeta
      overexpressing Tg PS1/APPsw, Tg APPsw mice, and tau overexpressing Tg Tau P301S
      mice exhibit a pathological activation of Syk compared to wild-type littermates.
      Syk activation is occurring in a subset of microglia and is age-dependently
      increased in Abeta-plaque-associated dystrophic neurites of Tg PS1/APPsw and Tg
      APPsw mice. In Tg Tau P301S mice, a pure model of tauopathy, activated Syk occurs
      in neurons that show an accumulation of misfolded and hyperphosphorylated tau in
      the cortex and hippocampus. Interestingly, the tau pathology is exacerbated in
      neurons that display high levels of Syk activation supporting a role of Syk in
      the formation of tau pathological species in vivo. Importantly, human AD brain
      sections show both pathological Syk activation in DNs around Abeta deposits and
      in neurons immunopositive for pathological tau species recapitulating the data
      obtained in transgenic mouse models of AD. Additionally, we show that Syk
      overexpression leads to increased tau accumulation and promotes tau
      hyperphosphorylation at multiple epitopes in human neuron-like SH-SY5Y cells,
      further supporting a role of Syk in the formation of tau pathogenic species.
      Collectively, our data show that Syk activation occurs following Abeta deposition
      and the formation of tau pathological species. Given that we have previously
      shown that Syk activation also promotes Abeta formation and tau
      hyperphosphorylation, our data suggest that AD pathological lesions may be self
      propagating via a Syk dependent mechanism highlighting Syk as an attractive
      therapeutic target for the treatment of AD.

PMID- 28877765
TI  - A comparative assessment of the glucose monitor (SD Codefree) and auto analyzer
      (BT-3000) in measuring blood glucose concentration among diabetic patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine how well the measurements from
      a glucometer (SD Codefree) correlated with those from a standard auto analyser
      (BT-3000) using blood samples from diabetic and non-diabetic patients at the
      Bolgatanga Regional Hospital in Ghana. A cross-sectional study was conducted with
      a total of 150 randomly selected patients; 100 diabetic patients (4 type 1 and 96
      type II) and 50 non diabetic patients. Ante-cubital venous and finger pricked
      blood samples were obtained from the patients following standard procedures, and
      blood glucose concentrations were determined using the two methods respectively.
      RESULTS: Data generated was entered and analysed using SPSS version 20. The mean
      glucose concentration for the diabetic patients (n = 100) using the glucometer
      were not significantly different from that of the auto analyser (10.16 +/- 3.708
      mmol/L vs. 9.458 +/- 3.204 mmol/L, p = 0.154), though the glucometer generally
      overestimated the glucose concentration. Similarly, readings for non-diabetics
      were comparable between the two methods (5.286 +/- 0.477 mmol/L vs. 5.092 +/-
      0.525 mmol/L, p = 0.057). The correlation between the two methods was good and
      highly significant (r = 0.862, p < 0.001) with both methods depicting high
      sensitivity and specificity in measuring blood glucose levels among diabetics as
      indicated by the ROC curve.

PMID- 28877766
TI  - Tardive dyskinesia: motor system impairments, cognition and everyday functioning.
AB  - The recent approval of treatments for tardive dyskinesia (TD) has rekindled
      interest in this chronic and previously recalcitrant condition. A large
      proportion of patients with chronic mental illness suffer from various degrees of
      TD. Even the newer antipsychotics constitute a liability for TD, and their
      liberal prescription might lead to emergence of new TD in patient populations
      previously less exposed to antipsychotics, such as those with depression, bipolar
      disorder, autism, or even attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The
      association of TD with activity limitations remains poorly understood. We review
      potential new avenues of assessing the functional sequelae of TD, such as the
      performance of instrumental activities of daily living, residential status, and
      employment outcomes. We identify several mediating aspects, including physical
      performance measures and cognition, that may represent links between TD and
      everyday performance, as well as potential treatment targets.

PMID- 28877764
TI  - Perilipin-2 modulates dietary fat-induced microbial global gene expression
      profiles in the mouse intestine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intestinal microbiota are critical determinants of obesity and
      metabolic disease risk. In previous work, we showed that deletion of the
      cytoplasmic lipid droplet (CLD) protein perilipin-2 (Plin2) modulates gut
      microbial community structure and abrogates long-term deleterious effects of a
      high-fat (HF) diet in mice. However, the impact of Plin2 on microbiome function
      is unknown. RESULTS: Here, we used metatranscriptomics to identify differences in
      microbiome transcript expression in WT and Plin2-null mice following acute
      exposure to high-fat/low-carbohydrate (HF) or low-fat/high-carbohydrate (LF)
      diets. Consistent with previous studies, dietary changes resulted in significant
      taxonomic shifts. Unexpectedly, when fed a HF diet, the microbiota of Plin2-null
      and WT mice exhibited dramatic shifts in transcript expression despite no
      discernible shift in community structure. For Plin2-null mice, these changes
      included the coordinated upregulation of metabolic enzymes directing flux towards
      the production of growth metabolites such as fatty acids, nucleotides, and amino
      acids. In contrast, the LF diet did not appear to induce the same dramatic
      changes in transcript or pathway expression between the two genotypes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data shows that a host genotype can modulate microbiome function
      without impacting community structure and identify Plin2 as a specific host
      determinant of diet effects on microbial function. Along with uncovering
      potential mechanisms for integrating how diet modulates host and microbial
      metabolism, our findings demonstrate the limits of 16S rRNA surveys to inform on
      community functional activities and the need to prioritize metatranscriptomic
      studies to gain more meaningful insights into microbiome function.

PMID- 28877767
TI  - Feeding broilers with dry whey powder and whey protein concentrate affected
      productive performance, ileal digestibility of nutrients and cecal microbiota
      community.
AB  - Dietary interventions are a common practice in the poultry industry to promote
      optimal performance and health of animals. Here, we aim at assessing the
      influence of supplementing broiler diets with dry whey powder (DWP) and whey
      protein concentrate (WPC) on nutrient coefficient of apparent ileal digestibility
      (CAID) and productive performance. Cecal microbiota composition was also
      determined using Illumina amplicon sequencing. Dietary treatments were control
      diet (no supplementation of DWP or WPC), 60-DWP (60 g/kg of DWP), and 80-WPC (80
      g/kg of WPC). One-day-old male broilers were randomly assigned to one of three
      treatments, and housed in floor pens. In Trial 1, 90 1-day-old chicks were
      allocated to three pens/treatment, with 10 birds/pen, during 21 days for CAID
      evaluation. Diet 60-DWP increased Ca CAID (P=0.041), while diet 80-WPC improved
      Ca and P CAID (P<0.001 and 0.002, respectively) when compared with control diet.
      In Trial 2, 810 one-day-old chicks were allocated to nine pens/treatment, with 30
      birds/pen, during 42 days. Feeding chickens with 60-DWP and 80-WPC increased
      their BW, average daily gain (ADG) and feed intake (FI) during the starter
      (P<0.001 for all variables) and grower-finisher periods (P<0.001 for BW and FI,
      and P=0.048 for ADG), and during the entire feeding period (P<0.05), when
      compared with control diet. Diets 60-DWP and 80-WPC reduced the feed conversion
      ratio of chickens during the starter period (P<0.001 and 0.003, respectively),
      while 60-DWP reduced this parameter during the entire feeding period (P=0.048),
      when compared to control diet. At day 42, cecal microbial communities of chickens
      that were fed with 60-DWP and 80-WPC differed from those fed with control diet
      (R=0.776, P=0.008; and R=0.740, P=0.008, respectively). The abundance of
      Bacteroides fragilis, Bacteroides spp., Escherichia coli/Shigella flexneri and
      Megamonas furniformis increased when 60-DWP and 80-WPC diets were offered, while
      the presence of Helicobacter pullorum decreased. Lactobacillus salivarius
      consistently increased in chickens with better feed conversion ratio, which were
      those fed with 60-DWP. The results obtained in the present study indicate that
      growth of chickens is improved by DWP and WPC supplementation because of a higher
      mineral digestibility, increased feed intake and modulation of cecal microbiota
      communities.

PMID- 28877768
TI  - Are questionnaires reliable in diagnosing sleep-disordered breathing in
      university students?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to screen young adults for sleep-disordered
      breathing, and compare those with high and low risk for sleep-disordered
      breathing. METHODS: A survey based on the Berlin questionnaire was completed by
      330 university students, and the results were used to divide them into sleep
      disordered breathing positive and sleep-disordered breathing negative groups. A
      representative group was selected from each cohort (positive group, n = 16;
      negative group, n = 21), and assessed with sleep study, ENT examination, the Nose
      Obstruction Symptom Evaluation scale, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. RESULTS:
      Sleep-disordered breathing prevalence was 11.2 per cent in the questionnaire and
      24 per cent according to the sleep study. The sleep-disordered breathing positive
      and negative groups significantly differed in terms of coexisting sleep
      disordered breathing symptoms. There were no significant differences between the
      positive and negative groups with regard to sleep study parameters
      (apnoea/hypopnoea index, respiratory disturbance index, oxygen desaturation
      index, snoring intensity) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. CONCLUSION:
      Subjective and objective diagnostic tools revealed that sleep-disordered
      breathing is a common problem among young adults.

PMID- 28877769
TI  - Anti-Ma2-Associated Encephalitis Secondary to Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

PMID- 28877770
TI  - First trimester antenatal depression and anxiety: prevalence and associated
      factors in an urban population in Soweto, South Africa.
AB  - Depression and anxiety in the antenatal period are of public health concern given
      potential adverse effects for both mother and infant. Both are under-researched
      in the first trimester of pregnancy, especially in Africa. We examine the
      prevalence of first trimester antenatal depression and anxiety in a cohort of
      South African women and investigate associated risk factors. Data were collected
      from 946 women (2014-2016) in the Soweto First 1000 Days Cohort, a prospective
      pregnancy cohort in Soweto, South Africa. Antenatal depression was assessed using
      the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale with a score of ?13 indicating probable
      depression. Anxiety was assessed using the short form of the State-Trait Anxiety
      Index with a score ?12 indicating probable anxiety. Prevalence of antenatal
      depression was 27% [95% confidence interval (CI) 24.2-29.8] and anxiety 15.2%
      (95% CI 12.9-17.5). Factors associated with antenatal depression and anxiety were
      predominantly relationship- and family-centred. Women who perceived that their
      partner made life harder for them had three-fold increased odds for depression
      [(odds ratio (OR) 3.33 [2.28-4.85] P<0.001], whereas those with family stressors
      had almost double the odds for depression (OR 1.78 [1.22-2.59] P=0.003) and
      anxiety (OR 1.75 [1.44-2.69] P=0.0011). Antenatal depression and anxiety are
      common in the first trimester of pregnancy, and partner and family relationship
      stressors are central. Longitudinal analysis is needed to determine if this is a
      phase of adjustment to pregnancy or onset of persistent symptomology. Early
      intervention may have secondary preventative effects and should involve the
      partner and family.

PMID- 28877771
TI  - Stability, fatty acid composition and sensory properties of the M. Longissimus
      muscle from beef steers grazing either chicory/ryegrass or ryegrass.
AB  - Research has shown both production and health benefits for the use of chicory
      (Cichorium intybus) within ruminant diets. Despite this, little was known about
      the effects of this forage, containing differing fatty acid profiles and
      secondary plant compounds compared with ryegrass, on beef stability, fatty acid
      composition or sensory properties. An experiment was conducted to investigate
      whether the inclusion of chicory in the diet of grazing beef steers would alter
      these three properties in the M. Longissimus muscle when compared with beef
      steers grazing perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). Triplicate 2 ha plots were
      established with a chicory (cv. Puna II)/perennial ryegrass mix or a perennial
      ryegrass control. A core group of 36 Belgian Blue - cross steers were used within
      a 2-year beef finishing experiment (n=6/replicate plot). In the 2nd grazing year,
      steers were slaughtered as they reached a target fat class of 3. Muscle pH was
      checked 2 and 48 h post-slaughter. A section of the hindloin joint containing the
      M. Longissimus lumborum muscle was removed and a 20 mm-thick steak was cut and
      muscle samples were taken for analysis of vitamin E and fatty acid analysis. The
      remaining section of the loin was vacuum packed in modified atmosphere packs and
      subjected to simulated retail display. A section of the conditioned loin was used
      for sensory analysis. Data on pH, vitamin E concentration and colour stability in
      a simulated retail display showed there were no effects of including chicory in
      the diet of grazing beef steers on meat stability. There were also no differences
      found in the fatty acid composition or the overall eating quality of the steaks
      from the two treatments. In conclusion, there were no substantive effects of
      including chicory in the swards of grazing beef cattle on meat stability, fatty
      acid composition or sensory properties of the M. Longissimus muscle when compared
      with beef steers grazing ryegrass-only swards.

PMID- 28877772
TI  - Toward Theoretical and Experimental Synergies in Neuroscience: A Personal View.

PMID- 28877773
TI  - Mothers' self-reported grocery shopping behaviours with their 2- to 7-year-old
      children: relationship between feeding practices and mothers' willingness to
      purchase child-requested nutrient-poor, marketed foods, and fruits and
      vegetables.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess relationships between mothers' feeding practices (food as a
      reward, food for emotion regulation, modelling of healthy eating) and mothers'
      willingness to purchase child-marketed foods and fruits/vegetables (F&V)
      requested by their children during grocery co-shopping. DESIGN: Cross-sectional.
      Mothers completed an online survey that included questions about feeding
      practices and willingness (i.e. intentions) to purchase child-requested foods
      during grocery co-shopping. Feeding practices scores were dichotomized at the
      median. Foods were grouped as nutrient-poor or nutrient-dense (F&V) based on
      national nutrition guidelines. Regression models compared mothers with above-the
      median v. at-or-below-the-median feeding practices scores on their willingness to
      purchase child-requested food groupings, adjusting for demographic covariates.
      SETTING: Participants completed an online survey generated at a public university
      in the USA. SUBJECTS: Mothers (n 318) of 2- to 7-year-old children. RESULTS:
      Mothers who scored above-the-median on using food as a reward were more willing
      to purchase nutrient-poor foods (beta=0.60, P<0.0001), mothers who scored above
      the-median on use of food for emotion regulation were more willing to purchase
      nutrient-poor foods (beta=0.29, P<0.0031) and mothers who scored above-the-median
      on modelling of healthy eating were more willing to purchase nutrient-dense foods
      (beta=0.22, P<0.001) than were mothers with at-or-below-the-median scores,
      adjusting for demographic covariates. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers who reported using
      food to control children's behaviour were more willing to purchase child
      requested, nutrient-poor foods. Parental feeding practices may facilitate or
      limit children's foods requested in grocery stores. Parent-child food consumer
      behaviours should be investigated as a route that may contribute to children's
      eating patterns.

PMID- 28877774
TI  - Complete mitochondrial genome of bamboo grasshopper, Ceracris fasciata, and the
      phylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimation of Caelifera (Orthoptera).
AB  - The bamboo grasshopper Ceracris fasciata is regarded as a major pest species
      because of the damage it causes to bamboo, and its classification within the
      families and subfamilies of the suborder Caelifera remains unclear. Thus, we
      attempted to resolve these questions using molecular biology methods and
      analyses. Our results are as follows: (1) the complete mitochondrial genome of C.
      fasciata is 15,569 bp in length. The mitochondrial genome contains a standard set
      of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and an A
      + T-rich region in the same order as those of the other analysed Caeliferan
      species. The putative start codon for the COX1 gene in C. fasciata is ACC,
      although it is not defined in other genes. The presence of tandem repeats of
      different sizes in the A + T-rich region may lead to size differences in other
      mitochondrial genomes. The mitochondrial genome of C. fasciata harbours the
      typical 37 genes and an A + T-rich region, and it shows similar characteristics
      to those of other grasshopper species. Characterization of the mitochondrial
      genome has enriched our knowledge of the mitochondrial genomes of Orthoptera
      around the world. Therefore, the phylogenetic relationships in Orthoptera can be
      re-examined. (2) In phylogenetic analyses, the monophyly of Orthoptera and its
      two suborders (Caelifera and Ensifera) has been consistently recovered based on
      most of the datasets selected, regardless of the optimal criteria. Our results do
      not support the monophyly of the subfamily Oedipodinae of Caelifera. We found
      that Phlaeoba albonema of the Acridinae is sorted into a clade with Ceracris in
      all our phylogenetic trees, and field experiments show that Phlaeoba always lives
      with Ceracris in the same ecotopes. Therefore, we suggest that Phlaeoba should be
      classified as a member of the Oedipodinae. We found that C. fasciata always
      clustered with Ceracris kiangsu, and both were sisters to Ceracris versicolor.
      Therefore, the genetic relationship between C. fasciata and C. kiangsu is closer
      than that between C. fasciata and C. versicolor. (3) The oldest estimated time of
      divergence of Ensifera in this context was determined to be 146.16 million years
      ago (Mya), or around the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous. We estimated that
      katydids (Grylloidea) likely diverged from other groups in the early Cretaceous.
      According to our divergence time analyses, we concluded that the ancestral
      Acrididae probably originated in the early Paleogene, and it is likely that the
      major diversification events happened at the middle Paleogene, well into the next
      geologic time. We estimated that crickets (Tettigoniidae) likely diverged from
      other groups in the early Cretaceous. Acrididae and Romaleinae group,
      Pyrgacrididae and Ommexechidae group, the youngest two clades we observed, were
      estimated to have diverged 58.79 Mya, between the middle and early Paleogene. C.
      versicolor is a sister to the group containing C. kiangsu and C. fasciata. First,
      C. versicolor diverged from the sister group (C. kiangsu + C. fasciata) around
      44.81 Mya, and then the C. kiangsu and C. fasciata group separated at 43.04 Mya.

PMID- 28877775
TI  - Legal advocacy as a tool to advance Roma Health.
AB  - Roma in central Europe face many violations of their rights, including those that
      impede their access to high-quality health care. Legal frameworks have the
      potential to address these violations, whereas legal advocacy services offer a
      means for enforcement of rights. We undertook key informant interviews with Roma
      civil society organisations and selected knowledgeable individuals in Macedonia,
      Romania and Serbia to identify lessons from the development of these services.
      Achievements were reported in four areas. Legal empowerment, with employment of
      Roma paralegals was especially effective, increasing awareness of the ability to
      challenge violations. Documentation of human rights violations is an important
      basis for advocacy, but does not guarantee redress, and may work best in
      combination with legal empowerment or international pressure. Strategic
      litigation can play a key role in removing bureaucratic obstacles that prevent
      Roma from exercising their right to access to health care. Progress in changing
      the narrative on Roma in the mainstream media has been limited but examples of
      good practice exist. Although much remains to be done, Roma groups report that
      legal advocacy has strengthened their ability to challenge rights violations,
      thereby enhancing their ability to access effective and responsive care.

PMID- 28877776
TI  - Maternal body weight trajectories across the life course and risk of preterm
      delivery.
AB  - We examined the association between life course body weight percentile
      trajectories and risk for preterm delivery (PTD). Data about women's weight at
      birth, age 18, and before pregnancy were obtained by retrospective self-report in
      a cohort of 1410 black women in metropolitan Detroit. Growth mixture models were
      used to categorize women with similar weight percentile trajectories across these
      time points. Log-Poisson models were used to examine the association between the
      trajectory groups and PTD. Four trajectory groups with different beginning and
      endpoints of their weight percentiles (high-high, high-low, low-high and low-low)
      best fit the data. The groups with the highest prevalence of PTD were those that
      started low (low-high, 21%; low-low, 18%). The low-high group had a higher
      prevalence of PTD than the high-high trajectory group in unadjusted models
      (prevalence ratio=1.49 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11, 2.00]). The
      association became not significant after adjusting for maternal age at delivery,
      income, diabetes and hypertension. When compared with the high-high trajectory
      group, the low-low trajectory seemed to also have a higher prevalence of PTD
      after adjusting for maternal age at delivery, income, diabetes and hypertension
      (prevalence ratio=1.35 [95% CI 1.00, 1.83]). Results suggest that a woman's risk
      for PTD is influenced by her body weight trajectory across the life course.

PMID- 28877778
TI  - Sow level risk factors for early piglet mortality and crushing in organic outdoor
      production.
AB  - Piglet mortality is a major problem in organic pig production affecting both farm
      economy and animal welfare. Knowledge is scarce on the risk factors of piglet
      mortality in Danish commercial organic pig production. The objectives of this
      study were to evaluate season, litter size, parity, sow body condition and
      stillborn littermates as risk factors for early piglet mortality and crushing of
      liveborn piglets from parturition until castration at day 3 to 5 postpartum (pp).
      The study was conducted over a 1-year period in nine commercial Danish organic
      pig herds practicing outdoor farrowing all year round. Data included recordings
      on 3393 farrowings with 50 284 liveborn piglets of which 14.8% died before
      castration. A subset of the dead piglets were collected and necropsied to
      identify crushed piglets. The average number of liveborn piglets per litter was
      14.8 (SD=3.7) and the average time from parturition until castration was 4.1
      (SD=1.7) days. A negative binomial regression analysis was used to model the
      effect of the predictive variables on the early piglet mortality accounting for
      different time periods from parturition to castration. An increase in maternal
      body condition score (BCS) and parity significantly increased the risk of dying
      between parturition and castration. Early mortality was found to be lowest during
      spring (March to May) and highest during summer (June to August). Being born into
      a litter with one or more stillborn littermates increased the risk of early
      mortality. The risk factors for crushing of piglets were evaluated using a
      logistic analysis. A significant effect of parity and litter size was found where
      the odds of at least one piglet in a litter with mortality was diagnosed as
      crushed increased with increasing parity and litter size. In conclusion, being
      born during summer (June to August), high parity and maternal BCS and stillborn
      littermates were found to be risk factors for piglet mortality between
      parturition and castration. In addition, parity and increasing litter size were
      found to be risk factors for crushing of piglets in litters with mortality.

PMID- 28877777
TI  - Metabolomics reveals the mechanism of (-)-hydroxycitric acid promotion of protein
      synthesis and inhibition of fatty acid synthesis in broiler chickens.
AB  - (-)-Hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a major component of Garcinia cambogia extracts,
      has been shown to suppress BW gain and fat accumulation in animals and humans.
      However, the mechanism remains unknown. In this study, gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry was used to analyse serum metabolites, and principal component
      analysis and partial least-squares-discriminant analysis models were generated to
      analyse serum metabolite changes in broiler chickens after the administration of
      (-)-HCA at 0, 1000, 2000 and 3000 mg/kg diets for 28 days. Metabolites showing
      significant changes were screened by 'variable importance in the projection'
      plots. The results showed that 20 metabolites in the 1000 mg/kg (-)-HCA treatment
      group and 16 metabolites in 3000 mg/kg (-)-HCA treatment group were significantly
      altered. Metabolites pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these metabolites
      were mainly associated with metabolism of amino acids, protein synthesis, citric
      acid cycle, and uric acid and fatty acid synthesis. The data indicated that (-)
      HCA promoted protein synthesis by regulating the metabolic directions of amino
      acids. At the same time, (-)-HCA treatment inhibited fatty acid synthesis by
      promoting the citric acid cycle, resulting in reduced cytosolic acetyl-CoA
      content in broiler chickens. The present study identified global changes in
      metabolites and analysed the main canonical metabolic pathways in broiler
      chickens supplemented with (-)-HCA. These results will deepen our understanding
      of the mechanism of (-)-HCA's effects in animals.

PMID- 28877780
TI  - MicroRNA-384 Inhibits the Growth and Invasion of Renal Cell Carcinoma Cells by
      Targeting Astrocyte Elevated Gene 1.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as pivotal regulators in the development and
      progression of various cancers, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC). MicroRNA
      384 (miR-384) has been found to be an important cancer-related miRNA in several
      types of cancers. However, the role of miR-384 in RCC remains unclear. In this
      study, we aimed to investigate the potential function of miR-384 in regulating
      tumorigenesis in RCC. Here we found that miR-384 was significantly downregulated
      in RCC tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-384 significantly inhibited
      the growth and invasion of RCC cells, whereas inhibition of miR-384 had the
      opposite effects. Bioinformatic analysis and luciferase reporter assay showed
      that miR-384 directly targeted the 3'-untranslated region of astrocyte elevated
      gene 1 (AEG-1). Further data showed that miR-384 could negatively regulate the
      expression of AEG-1 in RCC cells. Importantly, miR-384 expression was inversely
      correlated with AEG-1 expression in clinical RCC specimens. Moreover, miR-384
      regulates the activation of Wnt signaling. Overexpression of AEG-1 significantly
      reversed the antitumor effects of miR-384. Overall, these findings suggest that
      miR-384 suppresses the growth and invasion of RCC cells via downregulation of AEG
      1, providing a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of RCC.

PMID- 28877779
TI  - Adverse Health Complaints of Adults Exposed to Benzene After a Flaring Disaster
      at the BP Refinery Facility in Texas City, Texas.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the adverse health symptoms
      experienced by adult subjects who were exposed to benzene after a flaring
      disaster at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas. METHODS: A total of 2162 adults
      aged 18 years or older and exposed to benzene were included. Using the patients'
      medical charts, we collected and analyzed data on health complaints as well as
      the patients' serum levels of beta-2-microglobulin and urinary excretion of
      phenol. RESULTS: A total of 11,368 health symptom complaints were reported in
      2162 adults exposed to benzene. Neurological symptoms occurred most frequently
      (174%), followed upper respiratory symptoms (115%), cough (31%), painful joints
      (30%), cardiac symptoms (28%), dermatological symptoms (28%), gastrointestinal
      symptoms (27%), diarrhea (25%), vision symptoms (21%), and nausea/vomiting (19%).
      Logistic regression analysis indicated that urinary symptoms (R2=0.65) and
      painful joints (R2=0.44) were positively associated with increasing age in
      benzene-exposed subjects. CONCLUSION: Adult subjects exposed to benzene
      experience a range of adverse health symptoms and an altered profile of urinary
      phenol, thus indicating they are at high risk of developing serious future health
      complications. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:232-240).

PMID- 28877781
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28877783
TI  - G-Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor Antagonist G15 Decreases Estrogen-Induced
      Development of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) was found to promote Non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) by estrogen, indicating the potential necessity of inhibiting
      GPER by selective antagonist. This study was performed to elucidate the function
      of GPER selective inhibitor G15 in NSCLC development. Cytoplasmic GPER (cGPER)
      and nuclear GPER (nGPER) were detected by immunohistochemical analysis in NSCLC
      samples. The relation of GPER and estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) expression and
      correlation between GPER, ERbeta and clinical factors were analyzed. The effects
      of activating GPER and function of G15 were analyzed in proliferation of A549,
      H1793 cell lines and development of urethane-induced adenocarcinoma.
      Overexpression of cGPER and nGPER was detected in 80.49% (120/150) and 52.00%
      (78/150) of the NSCLC samples. High expression of GPER related with higher
      stages, poorer differentiation and high expression of ERbeta. Protein level of
      GPER in A549 and H1793 cell lines increased by treatment of E2, G1 (GPER agonist)
      or Ful (fulvestrant, ERbeta antagonist), and decreased by G15. Administration
      with G15 reversed the E2- or G1-induced cell growth by inhibiting GPER. In
      urethane-induced adenocarcinoma mice, number of tumor nodules and tumor index
      increased in E2 or G1 group and decreased by treatment of G15. These findings
      deomonstrate that using of G15 to block GPER signaling may be considered as a new
      therapeutic target in NSCLC.

PMID- 28877782
TI  - Chemometric-Assisted Spectrophotometric Method for the Simultaneous Quantitative
      Determination of Ezetimibe and Simvastatin in Their Combined Dosage Forms.
AB  - The multivariate method, partial least-squares (PLS), was used as a calibration
      procedure for the simultaneous UV spectrophotometric determination of ezetimibe
      and simvastatin in their pharmaceutical forms. The method was developed and
      satisfactorily validated according to International Conference on Harmonization
      guidelines with respect to specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, and
      robustness. In this study, the PLS algorithms are based on the absorption spectra
      of 25 different mixtures of drugs obtained by a multilevel factorial design. The
      method was linear in the concentration range of 2-8 MUg/mL for ezetimibe and 4-16
      MUg/mL for simvastatin (r2 > 0.99; n = 7) at wavelengths of 238 and 247 nm,
      respectively. The LOD and LOQ were 0.28 and 0.93 MUg/mL for ezetimibe and 0.16
      and 0.53 MUg/mL for simvastatin, respectively. Precision and accuracy data,
      evaluated by RSD, were lower than 2%. The method, which proved to be robust, was
      performed with a 2n full-factorial design. The validated method is simple and low
      cost, has a low use of polluting reagents, and is environmental friendly.
      Therefore, the proposed method was successfully applied for the simultaneous
      quantitative analysis of ezetimibe and simvastatin in commercial formulations.

PMID- 28877784
TI  - Lung Metastasis Presenting as Rectal Mass.

PMID- 28877785
TI  - Pediatric Four-Wheel Type Vehicle Injuries: Outcomes and Injury Patterns.

PMID- 28877786
TI  - A Newly Developed Mask Facilitates Management During Percutaneous Endoscopic
      Gastrostomy Introduction in Patients with Respiratory Compromise.

PMID- 28877787
TI  - Acute Sigmoid Diverticulitis Presenting as Necrotizing Fasciitis of the Thigh and
      Retroperitoneum.

PMID- 28877788
TI  - Cecal Herniation and Volvulus through the Foramen of Winslow.

PMID- 28877789
TI  - Y-type Anovulvar Fistula Complicating Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28877790
TI  - Abdominal Cocoon-An Unusual Case of Bowel Obstruction.

PMID- 28877791
TI  - Splenic Abscess Requiring Early Splenectomy Following Angioembolization for Blunt
      Splenic Injury in an Immunocompromised Host: Implications for Management.

PMID- 28877792
TI  - Empowering Surgical Residents as Mentors: A Pilot Program for Female Medical
      Students.

PMID- 28877793
TI  - Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair for Blunt Traumatic Rupture of a Penetrating
      Atherosclerotic Ulcer.

PMID- 28877794
TI  - Morgagni Hernia: Is It Just a Congenital Hernia or a Cause of Emergency Surgery?

PMID- 28877795
TI  - Perforated Transverse Colon Cancer Presenting as an Incarcerated Inguinal Hernia.

PMID- 28877796
TI  - Perils in the Pelvis: Laparoscopic Management of Bilateral Pouch of Douglas
      Hernial Defects.

PMID- 28877797
TI  - Liver Metastases 10 Years after Resection of a "Benign" Insulinoma.

PMID- 28877798
TI  - Omental Pedicle Flap Does Not Decrease the Incidence of Bowel Obstruction after
      Abdominoperineal Resection.

PMID- 28877799
TI  - Remembering Dr. Henry W. Gray (1827-1861) and His Timeless Contribution to Modern
      Medical Education.

PMID- 28877800
TI  - Disparities in Mangement of Patients with Benign Colorectal Disease: Impact of
      Urbanization and Specialized Care.
AB  - : Disparities in the management of patients with various medical conditions are
      well established. Colorectal diseases continue to remain one of the most common
      causes for surgical intervention. The aim of this study was to assess disparities
      (rural versus urban) in the surgical management of patients with noncancerous
      benign colorectal diseases. We hypothesized that there is no difference among
      rural versus urban centers (UC) in the surgical management for noncancerous
      benign colorectal diseases. The national estimates of surgical procedures for
      benign colorectal diseases from the National Inpatient Sample database 2011
      representing 20 per cent of all in-patient admissions were abstracted. Patients
      undergoing procedures (abscess drainage, hemmoroidectomy, fistulectomy, and bowel
      resections) were included. Patients with colon cancer and those who underwent
      emergency surgery were excluded. The population was divided into two groups:
      urban and rural, based on the location of treatment. Outcome measures were in
      hospital complications, mortality, and hospital costs. Subanalysis of UC was
      preformed: centers with colorectal surgeons and centers without colorectal
      surgeons. Regression analysis was performed. A total of 20,617 patients who
      underwent surgical intervention for benign colorectal diseases across 496 (urban:
      342, rural: 154) centers, were included. Of the UC, 38.3 per cent centers had
      colorectal surgeons. Patients managed in UC had lower complication rate (7.6% vs
      10.2%, P < 0.001), shorter hospital length of stay (4.7 +/- 3.1 vs 5.9 +/- 3.6
      days, P < 0.001), and higher hospital costs ($56,820 +/- $27,691 vs $49,341 +/-
      $2,598, P < 0.001) compared with rural centers. On subanalysis, patients managed
      in UC with colorectal surgeons had 11 per cent lower incidence of in-hospital
      complications [odds ratio: 0.89 (95% confidence interval: 0.76-0.94)] and a
      shorter hospital length of stay [Beta: -0.72 (95% confidence interval: -0.81 to 
      0.65)] when compared with patients managed in UC without colorectal
      specialization. Disparities exit in outcomes of the patients with noncancerous
      benign colorectal diseases managed surgically in urban versus rural centers.
      Specialized care with colorectal surgeons at UC helps reduce adverse patient
      outcomes. Steps to provide effective and safe surgical care in a cost-effective
      manner across rural as well as UC are warranted. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III,
      retrospective cohort analysis.

PMID- 28877801
TI  - Using Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy and Dye Injection to Aid in Video
      Assisted Lung Resection.
AB  - Small (2 cm) peripheral lung lesions and ground glass opacities remain a
      difficult subset of lung lesions for the diagnosis and management of lung cancer.
      Surgical biopsy is more difficult for these lesions because intraoperative
      localization has to be made without the aid of direct visualization or manual
      palpation. Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy can be used in the operating
      room to identify a small peripheral lesion and marked using an injection of
      methylene blue, which can be seen on the visceral pleura of the lung. We present
      our initial experience using this technique. The sample was eight patients who
      had peripheral lesions with an average size of 19 mm. Surgical wedge biopsy was
      diagnostic in all cases, with an average procedure time of 28 minutes. There were
      no complications from this procedure. In conclusion, these data suggest that
      electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy can be performed safely with high
      diagnostic accuracy by the operating thoracic surgeon, but further data are
      needed to establish its utility and safety.

PMID- 28877802
TI  - A Comprehensive Investigation of Comorbidities, Mechanisms, Injury Patterns, and
      Outcomes in Geriatric Blunt Trauma Patients.
AB  - The geriatric population is growing and trauma providers are often tasked with
      caring for injuries in the elderly. There is limited information regarding injury
      patterns in geriatric trauma patients stratified by mechanism of injury. This
      study intends to investigate the comorbidities, mechanisms, injury patterns, and
      outcomes in geriatric blunt trauma patients. A retrospective study of the 2012
      National Trauma Databank was performed. Adult blunt trauma patients were
      identified; geriatric (>/=65) patients were compared with younger (<65) patients
      regarding admission demographics and vital signs, mechanism and severity of
      injury, and comorbidities. The primary outcome was injuries sustained and
      secondary outcomes included mortality, length of stay in the intensive care unit
      and hospital, and ventilator days. There were 589,830 blunt trauma patients who
      met the inclusion criteria, including 183,209 (31%) geriatric and 406,621 (69%)
      nongeriatric patients. Falls were more common in geriatric patients (79 vs 29%, P
      < 0.0001). Geriatric patients less often had an Injury Severity Score >/=16 (18
      vs 20%, P < 0.0001) but more often a head Abbreviated Injury Scale >/=3 (24 vs
      18%, P < 0.0001) and lower extremity Abbreviated Injury Scale >/=3 (24% vs 8%, P
      < 0.0001). After logistic regression older age was an independent risk factor for
      mortality for the overall population and across all mechanisms. Falls are the
      most common mechanism for geriatric trauma patients. Geriatric patients overall
      present with a lower Injury Severity Score, but more often sustain severe
      injuries to the head and lower extremities. Injury patterns vary significantly
      between older and younger patients when stratified by mechanism. Mortality is
      significantly higher for geriatric trauma patients and older age is independently
      associated with mortality across all mechanisms.

PMID- 28877803
TI  - Surgical Aspects of Recurrent Inguinal Hernia in Adults.
AB  - Surgeons occasionally encounter a case of recurrent hernia in adult patients
      after the primary repair, and these cases are challenging to manage
      appropriately. This study was conducted to describe the clinical nature of
      recurrent inguinal hernia, compare the results of management, and identify the
      relationship between the specific risk factors and the occurrence of recurrent
      hernia. Retrospectively reviewed 58 patients who underwent the inguinal
      herniorrhaphy for recurrent hernia in a single institution. Analyzed clinical
      characteristics of recurrent hernia and tried to verify the relationship between
      smoking, obesity, and occurrence of recurrent hernia. Recurrent inguinal hernia
      was 13.5 per cent of all hernia repairs in the study period. Most of the
      recurrence was the first event (74.1%) and showed an interval to recurrence with
      a mean duration of 40.7 months. There was no significant difference in procedure
      time, development of postoperative complications, and duration of hospital stay
      according to the procedure. Compromise of smoker and overweight was significantly
      higher in the recurrent group (P < 0.05). Surgeons should be aware of the
      increased risk for recurrence in adult inguinal hernia patients when they smoke
      or are overweight (body mass index >= 25 kg/m2), also it needs to follow-up
      during the adequate period.

PMID- 28877805
TI  - Increased Age Predicts Failure to Rescue.
AB  - Failure to rescue (FTR), defined as any death after the development of in
      hospital complications, is an important quality measure, but the relationship
      with age after a traumatic injury, has not been well defined. We sought to
      examine whether older trauma patients are at higher risk for FTR. The National
      Trauma Databank (NTDB) research datasets 2007 to 2011 were queried for patients
      >=16 years who had any reported complication. Those who survived (non-FTR) were
      compared with those who did not (FTR) using a forward logistic regression model.
      Overall, 218,986 subjects met inclusion criteria of those, 201,358 (91.2%)
      survived their complication (non-FTR) and 17,628 (8.8%) died (FTR). A forward
      logistic regression identified age 65 to 89 years as the strongest predictor of
      FTR [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.58 (6.11, 7.08), P
      < 0.001]. Using age group 16 to 45 years as the reference group, the adjusted
      risk for FTR increased with increasing age in a stepwise fashion [AOR (95 % CI):
      1.94 (1.80, 2.09) for age 46 to 65 years, 6.78 (6.19, 7.42) for age 66 to 89
      years and 27.58 [21.81, 34.87] for age >=90 years]. The adjusted risk of FTR also
      increased in a stepwise fashion with increasing number of complications, reaching
      AOR (95 per cent CI) of 2.25 (2.07, 2.45), P < 0.001 for >=4 complications. The
      risk of failure to rescue increases with age and number of complications.
      Strategies which track this quality measure to encourage early recognition and
      treatment of complications in the elderly are necessary.

PMID- 28877804
TI  - Use of Antibiotic-Impregnated Absorbable Beads and Tissue Coverage of Complex
      Wounds.
AB  - The treatment of complex wounds is commonplace for plastic surgeons. Standard
      management is debridement of infected and devitalized tissue and systemic
      antibiotic therapy. In cases where vital structures are exposed within the wound,
      coverage is obtained with the use of vascularized tissue using both muscle and
      fasciocutaneous flaps. The use of nondissolving polymethylmethacrylate and
      absorbable antibiotic-impregnated beads has been shown to deliver high
      concentrations of antibiotics with low systemic levels of the same antibiotic. We
      present a multicenter retrospective review of all cases that used absorbable
      antibiotic-impregnated beads for complex wound management from 2003 to 2013. A
      total of 104 cases were investigated, flap coverage was used in 97 cases (93.3%).
      Overall, 15 patients (14.4%) required reoperation with the highest groups
      involving orthopedic wounds and sternal wounds. The advantages of using
      absorbable antibiotic-impregnated beads in complex infected wounds have been
      demonstrated with minimal disadvantages. The utilization of these beads is
      expanding to a variety of complex infectious wounds requiring high concentrations
      of local antibiotics.

PMID- 28877806
TI  - National Disparities in Surgical Approach to T1 Rectal Cancer and Impact on
      Outcomes.
AB  - This study investigated disparities between patients who had local excision
      versus radical resection for T1 rectal cancer. A retrospective analysis was
      performed using the National Cancer Data Base, 2004 to 2011. Inclusion criteria
      consisted of patients with T1, N0 rectal adenocarcinoma that were <3 cm, well or
      moderately differentiated without perineural invasion. Patients were stratified
      based on local excision and radical surgery. The primary outcome was overall
      survival (OS). Secondary outcomes included 30-day mortality, unplanned
      readmission rates, and postoperative length of stay. A total of 2235 patients
      were identified; 1335 (59.7%) underwent local excision and 900 (40.3%) had
      radical surgery. Overall, radical surgery was associated with an improved 5-year
      OS rate compared to local excision (0.86 vs 0.78, P = 0.009), increased unplanned
      readmission (6.5% vs 2.7%, P < 0.001), and longer postoperative length of stay
      (6.9 days vs 3.1 days, P < 0.001). For patients who had local excision, insurance
      status was an independent predictor of OS. Compared to patients with private
      insurance, those with government plans or no insurance had poorer OS (hazard
      ratio = 1.77 and 17.45, respectively, P = 0.006). Further study is warranted to
      understand the reasons accounting for this disparity in surgical approach to T1
      rectal cancer.

PMID- 28877807
TI  - Independent Preoperative Predictors of Prolonged Length of Stay after
      Laparoscopic Appendectomy in Patients Over 30 Years of Age: Experience from a
      Single Institution.
AB  - Prompt discharge after laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) is a marker of quality of
      care, fiscally desirable and feasible in select patients. Patients over 30
      comprise a more heterogeneous cohort known to experience worse outcomes after LA.
      We aimed to identify easily available preoperative risk factors portending a
      postoperative length of stay >=2 days among patients above age 30. In this
      investigation, 296 included patients from a single institution who underwent LA
      for acute appendicitis from 2010 to 2014 were retrospectively reviewed for
      preoperative demographics, laboratory studies, comorbidities, presentation
      characteristics, radiographic finding, and other rationally selected factors for
      association with postoperative length of stay >=2 days. Bivariate and
      multivariate analysis was conducted to determine independent risk factors, which
      were subsequently modeled via receiver-operating characteristic curve generation
      and Kaplan-Meier analysis. "Classic" presentation [odds ratio (OR) = 0.5, P =
      .02], elevated red cell distribution width (RDW; OR = 1.5/% increase, P = 0.004)
      as well as evidence of rupture on CT (OR = 6.9, P < 0.001) were independently
      associated with postoperative length of stay >= 2 days. Modeling length of stay
      using these factors generated an area under the curve of 0.713 +/- 0.037. Kaplan
      Meier analysis of "classic" presentation, elevated RDW, and evidence of rupture
      on CT through the fifth postoperative day generated log-rank P values of 0.02,
      0.05, and <= 0.001, respectively. In summary, lack of "classic" presentation,
      elevated RDW, and CT evidence of rupture are novel risk factors for prolonged
      postoperative length of stay in LA patients over 30. These findings may help
      target patients most appropriate for prompt discharge.

PMID- 28877808
TI  - Percutaneous Treatment of Superficial Femoral Artery Stenosis Secondary to
      Radiation Arteritis.
AB  - Radiation arteritis is a rare cause of lower extremity peripheral arterial
      occlusive disease, and has been traditionally treated with open interventions.
      There have been only a few reported cases of endovascular interventions for this
      disease. Previous reports described endovascular treatment in the iliac and
      common femoral regions, but intervention in the superficial femoral artery have
      not been described. Described here is a case of acute lower extremity ischemia
      caused by remote radiation arteritis of the superficial femoral artery, which was
      successfully treated by percutaneous endovascular technique.

PMID- 28877809
TI  - A Review of Sleeve Gastrectomy Specimen Histopathology.
AB  - With the increasing popularity of sleeve gastrectomy, many stomach specimens are
      being evaluated. Understanding the significance and treatment for unexpected
      pathology is important. This study examines the incidence of relevant
      histopathology of sleeve gastrectomy specimens. It evaluates previous data for
      each histopathology and provides recommendations for treatment. In this study, a
      retrospective review was performed for 241 patients who underwent sleeve
      gastrectomy from 2009 to 2014 at a single institution. Of the specimens, 122 had
      no significant histopathology, 91 had gastritis, 13 had lymphoid aggregates, 5
      had hyperplasia, 3 had intestinal metaplasia, 3 had gastrointestinal stromal
      tumors (GISTs), and 3 had gastric polyps. Of the GISTs all had a low mitotic rate
      and the size of the tumor ranged from 1.5 to 4.5 cm. The findings of metaplasia
      may be a marker for increased risk of malignancy and may require additional
      surveillance. The findings of GIST may warrant interval imaging to survey for
      recurrence, though the likelihood of recurrence for the tumors in this study is
      less than 2 per cent based on previous studies.

PMID- 28877810
TI  - The Ferguson Operating Anoscope for Resection of T1 Rectal Cancer.
AB  - The Ferguson Operating Anoscope (FOA) is a surgical instrument, which can
      facilitate transanal excision of appropriate rectal tumors within 15 cm of the
      anal verge. Previous work showed low recurrence (4.3%) for favorable T1 tumors
      (no lymphovascular invasion, well/moderate differentiation, negative margins).
      This follow-up study evaluates outcomes in rectal cancer excised with FOA at a
      tertiary care center. T1 rectal cancer patients were identified in a
      prospectively maintained database. Tumor pathology and patient characteristics
      were reviewed. Primary outcomes include tumor recurrence and patient and disease
      free survival. Secondary outcomes are quality of excision (intact specimen).
      Twenty-eight patients had pathologic stage T1 rectal cancer (average 8 +/- 2.6 cm
      from the anal verge). Final path demonstrated 14 per cent to be well
      differentiated, 82 per cent moderately differentiated, and 93 per cent without
      angiolymphatic invasion. All specimens removed were intact. One patient had a
      true local recurrence and underwent a salvage operation 24 months after her index
      operation. Patient survival was 96.4 per cent (n = one death from primary lung
      cancer) at median follow-up 64 +/- 35 months. With appropriate tumor selection
      and quality of initial resection, FOA has demonstrated utility in achieving
      optimal oncologic resection of T1 rectal tumors.

PMID- 28877811
TI  - Resection of Gastrointestinal Metastases in Stage IV Melanoma: Correlation with
      Outcomes.
AB  - The prognosis of patients with gastrointestinal (GI) melanoma metastases is poor.
      Surgery renders select patients disease free and/or palliates symptoms. We
      reviewed our single-institution experience of resection with GI melanoma
      metastases. A retrospective review was performed on patients who underwent
      surgery for GI melanoma metastases from 2007 to 2013. Fifty-four patients were
      identified and separated based on completeness of resection into curative 13
      (24%) and palliative 41 (75.9%) groups. Thiry-six (63.2%) were symptomatic
      preoperatively with bleeding and/or obstruction/pain with 91.7 per cent achieving
      objective symptom relief. Thirty-day operative mortality was 0 per cent. The most
      common complication was wound infection (n = 5); major complications like
      anastomotic leak (n = 1) were uncommon. With a median follow-up of 9.5 months
      (range 0.2-75.8), median overall survival was not reached (curative) versus 9.53
      months (palliative group). Median recurrence-free and progression-free survival
      after resection were 18.89 and 1.97 months in the curative versus palliative
      groups, respectively. On multivariate analysis, resection to no clinical evidence
      of disease (P = 0.012) and presence of single metastases (P = 0.031) were
      associated with improved overall survival. Surgery for GI metastases from
      melanoma provides symptomatic relief without major morbidity. Fewer metastases
      and curative resection were associated with improved survival.

PMID- 28877812
TI  - Spontaneous Hepatic Hemorrhage: A Single Institution's 16-Year Experience.
AB  - Spontaneous hemorrhage from hepatic tumors is an uncommon but serious
      complication. Recently, interventional radiologic (IR) techniques are being used
      increasingly in the management of these patients. We report our 16-year
      experience in managing spontaneous hemorrhage from liver tumors. Twenty-six
      consecutive patients were diagnosed with spontaneous liver hemorrhage between
      1995 and 2011. Initial management was operative in eight, IR in six, and
      supportive in 12 patients. Of those managed operatively, five were
      segmentectomies; one hemihepatectomy; one wedge resection; and one packing who
      later died from coagulopathy. In the IR patients, seven had an angiographic
      embolization; two required reembolization; one underwent resection of a hepatic
      adenoma 21 days after angiographic embolization. The malignant lesions included
      hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 6), angiosarcoma (n = 1), metastatic squamous cell
      carcinoma (n = 1), metastatic leiomyosarcoma (n = 1), nonsquamous cell carcinoma
      (n = 1), or metastatic angiosarcoma (n = 1). Benign diseases included hepatic
      adenoma (n = 5), end-stage liver disease (n = 1), and polycystic liver (n = 1).
      Spontaneous hemorrhage from the liver occurs evenly from benign or malignant
      causes, one-third of which are primary liver disease. If the patients presents
      emergently, angiographic embolization may control the bleeding and allow for
      elective resection once the sequelae of bleeding have resolved.

PMID- 28877813
TI  - Mixed Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Liver.
AB  - We present the case of a 76-year-old male found to have a large tumor involving
      the left lateral lobe of the liver, presumed to be hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC). After resection, pathologic features demonstrated both high-grade HCC and
      high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC). Areas of NEC stained strongly for
      synaptophysin, which was not present in HCC component. The HCC component stained
      strongly for Hep-Par 1, which was not present in the NEC component. The patient
      underwent genetic analysis for biomarkers common to both tumor cell types. Both
      tumor components contained gene mutations in CTNNB1 gene (S33F located in exon
      3). They also shared mutations in PD-1, PGP, and SMO. Mixed HCC/NEC tumors have
      been rarely reported in the literature with generally poor outcomes. This patient
      has been referred for adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy; genetic biomarker
      analysis may provide some insight to guide targeted chemotherapy.

PMID- 28877814
TI  - Limited Resection of the Duodenum for Nonampullary Duodenal Tumors, with Review
      of the Literature.
AB  - The surgical management of duodenal pathology is challenging because of its
      retroperitoneal position and shared blood supply with the pancreas. We present
      three types of limited resection of the duodenum for the removal of superficial
      or small nonampullary duodenal (NADL) lesions, and also a review of the English
      literature regarding management, such as endoscopic resection and limited
      duodenal resection. Ten cases underwent limited resections of the duodenum for
      superficial or small NADL lesions from 2011 to 2015. Pancreas-preserving
      segmental duodenectomy was performed in three cases, local full-thickness
      resection was performed in three and transduodenal submucosal dissection was
      performed in four. One patient experienced pancreatic fistula as a postoperative
      complication. Postoperative pathological diagnosis were adenoma (n = 2), mucosal
      adenocarcinomas (n = 5), and neuroendocrine tumor (n = 3). Surgical margin was
      negative in all cases, and no patient has experienced postoperative recurrence or
      metastasis. Limited resections of the duodenum were feasible and safe procedures
      for patients with superficial or small NADL lesions. Laparoscopic surgery may be
      considered in treatment for these tumors. However, the optimal surgical
      management for superficial or small nonampullary duodenal lesions remains
      controversial.

PMID- 28877815
TI  - Improved Postoperative Survival for Intraductal-Growth Subtype of Intrahepatic
      Cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is classified according to the following
      subtypes: massforming (MF), periductal infiltrating (PI), and intraductal growth
      (IG). The aim of this study is to measure the association between ICC subtypes
      and patient survival after surgical resection. Data were abstracted on all
      patients treated with definitive resections of ICC at a single institution
      between 2000 and 2011 with at least three years follow-up. Survival estimates
      were quantified using Kaplan-Meier curves and compared using the log-rank test.
      There were 37 patients with ICC treated with definitive partial hepatectomies
      with a median survival of 33.5 months. Tumor stage (P < 0.0001), satellitosis (P
      < 0.001), lymphovascular space invasion (P = 0.003), and macroscopic subtype (P =
      0.003) were predictive of postoperative survival. Disease-free survivals for MF,
      PI, and IG subtypes, respectively, were 30 per cent, 0 per cent, and 57 per cent
      (P = 0.017). Overall survivals among ICC macroscopic subtypes were as follows: MF
      37 per cent, PI 0 per cent, and IG 71 per cent (P = 0.003). Although limited by
      the small sample size of this rare cancer, this study demonstrates significant
      differences among macroscopic subtypes of ICC in both disease-free survivals and
      overall survivals after definitive partial hepatectomy.

PMID- 28877816
TI  - Synchronous Acute Appendicitis and Acute Cholecystitis: A Discussion of a
      Century's Worth of Epidemiologic, Basic Science, and Clinical Research,
      Explicating the Pathophysiology of a Likely Underrecognized Historical Condition.

PMID- 28877817
TI  - Defining Outpatient Surgery: Perspectives of Surgical Staff in the Veterans
      Health Administration.

PMID- 28877818
TI  - Neuroendocrine Tumor of the Minor Duodenal Papilla: An Unusual Cause of
      Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

PMID- 28877819
TI  - Primary Pelvic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma with Metastases to Peritoneal
      Surfaces.

PMID- 28877820
TI  - American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Paper for the Use of a Home Sleep
      Apnea Test for the Diagnosis of OSA in Children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this position paper is to establish the American
      Academy of Sleep Medicine's (AASM) position on the use of a home sleep apnea test
      (HSAT) for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children (birth to
      18 years of age). METHODS: The AASM commissioned a task force of 8 experts in
      sleep medicine to review the available literature on the use of an HSAT to
      diagnose OSA in children. The task force developed the position statement based
      on a thorough review of these studies and their clinical expertise. The AASM
      Board of Directors approved the final position statement. POSITION STATEMENT: Use
      of a home sleep apnea test is not recommended for the diagnosis of obstructive
      sleep apnea in children. The ultimate judgment regarding propriety of any
      specific care must be made by the clinician, in light of the individual
      circumstances presented by the patient, available diagnostic tools, accessible
      treatment options, and resources.

PMID- 28877821
TI  - Association of Body Composition and Other Clinical Factors with Incomplete Immune
      Response after Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy.
AB  - Objective To explore whether baseline body composition and other clinical factors
      are associated with incomplete immune response after highly active antiretroviral
      therapy(HAART)in Chinese men with human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)or acquired
      immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS).Methods A retrospective study was conducted among
      HIV/AIDS male patients who achieved viral suppression(maintained HIV-1 RNA
      levels<400 copies/ml)after a year of HAART between 2007 and
      2015.Clinical,immunological,and virological data were collected from patients'
      files,including weight,height,and whole body composition measured within one
      month prior to staring HAART.Body mass index(BMI),lean mass index(LMI),fat mass
      index(FMI),and body bone mineral content/height were adjusted by height.According
      to whether the patients experienced incomplete immune responses(CD4 cell
      count<350 cells/MUl)after a year of HAART,the patients were divided into two
      groups:the complete immune response(CD4 cell count>=350 cells/MUl)and the
      incomplete immune response(CD4 cell count<350 cells/MUl),respectively.Student's t
      test,chi-square test,and Wilcoxon rank test were used to assess differences
      between these two groups.Multiple Logistic regression analysis was used to assess
      factors associated with an incomplete immune response in patients with sustained
      viral suppression.Results Totally 84 HIV/AIDS male patients with viral
      suppression were included in this study.There were statistical differences
      between these two groups in terms of age(Z=-2.479,P=0.013),baseline
      BMI(t=2.030,P=0.045),LMI(t=2.200,P=0.029),and CD4 cell
      count(Z=6.416,P=0.000).However,there was no statistical differences in viral
      load,FMI,body bone mineral content/height,HAART duration,and HAART regimen(all
      P>0.05).BMI[OR=0.742,95% confidence interval(CI)=0.554
      0.993,P=0.044],LMI(OR=0.459,95% CI=0.249-0.844,P=0.012),HAART
      duration(OR=10.161,95% CI=1.110-93.052,P=0.040),baseline CD4 cell
      count(OR=80.051,95% CI=8.396-762.563,P=0.000)were significantly associated with
      incomplete immune response.Age(OR=1.497,95% CI=0.213-10.505,P=0.685),viral
      load(OR=0.333,95% CI=0.071-1.572,P=0.164),FMI(OR=0.797,95% CI=0.546
      1.164,P=0.240),body bone mineral content/height(OR=1.145,95% CI=0.037
      35.676,P=0.938)and HAART regimen(OR=0.430,95% CI=0.159-1.159,P=0.095)were not
      associated with incomplete immune response.Conclusions Baseline CD4 cell count
      and HAART duration may affect immune response.Patients with higher baseline BMI
      or higher LMI may be less likely to develop incomplete immune response.Baseline
      FMI and body bone mineral content/height ratio are not associated with incomplete
      immune response.

PMID- 28877822
TI  - Effect of Intravenous Dexmedetomidine Injection(1 MUg/kg)on the Intubating
      Conditions without Muscle Relaxants in Children after Inhalation Induction with
      Sevoflurane.
AB  - Objective To investigate the effect of intravenous dexmedetomidine injection(1
      MUg/kg)on the intubating conditions after inhalation induction with sevoflurane
      8% and nitrous oxide(N2O)50% in children. Methods Totally 122 patients aged 4-10
      years with an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical statusI undergoing
      elective plastic surgery under general anesthesia were randomly divided to
      dexmedetomidine group(intraveneously injected with dexmedetomidine 1MUg/kg)and
      control group(injected with normal saline)by using the random sampling table.On
      arrival of the operating room,anesthesia was induced with sevoflurane 8% and N2O
      50% in oxygen 50%.When the patient became unconscious,the intravenous cannula 24#
      was inserted on the dorsum of hand.One minute later,laryngoscopy and tracheal
      intubation were performed.The intubating conditions were assessed by the scoring
      system in the previous study. Results The rates of acceptable conditions were 97%
      and 90% in dexmedetomidine group and in control group(P=0.143),and the rates of
      excellent conditions were 82% and 67%(P=0.04),respectively.In dexmedetomidine
      group,there were no signifi-cant differences of mean arterial presser and heart
      rate between the time-point of before intubation and the time-point of
      immediately after intubation.Conclusion Intravenous bolus of dexmedetomidine(1
      MUg/kg)can effectively improve the intubating conditions after inhalation
      induction of sevoflurane 8% and N2O 50% in children and make the hemodynamics
      more stable during tracheal intubation.

PMID- 28877823
TI  - Clinical and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Features of Solid Pseudopapillary Tumor
      of the Pancreas in Male Patients.
AB  - Objective To analyze the clinical and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)findings of
      solid pseudopapillary tumor(SPT)of the pancreas in male patients. Methods
      Clinical and MRI features of 51 patients with pathologically-proved SPT were
      retrospectively analyzed.The following MRI features of the lesions were
      analyzed:location,maximal diameter,shape,margin,capsule,solid and cystic
      components,signal intensity characteristics,and enhancement patterns.Results The
      average maximal diameter of the SPT in male patients was significantly smaller
      [(3.9+/-1.6)cm vs.(6.3+/-3.9)cm,P=0.035]than that of SPT in female patients.Pure
      solid tumors were signiciantly more common in male patients(8/14)than in female
      patients(9/37)(P=0.037).T1-weighted images of SPT showed mainly homogenous hypo
      intensity in male patients(11/14)and heterogeneous hypo-intensity in female
      patients(23/37)(P=0.001).Hemorrhage was more prevalent in female
      patients(22/37)than in male patients(2/14)(P=0.005).There were no significant
      differences between male and female patients regarding clinical features and
      other magnetic resonance features(P>0.05).Conclusions On MRI,SPT in male patients
      is small and shows mainly pure solid component with rare hemorrhage.The clinical
      and other MRI features of SPT are not different between males and females.

PMID- 28877824
TI  - Quantifying the Cerebral Hemodynamic Changes in Hypertensive Patients Using 3D
      Pseudo-continuous Arterial Spin Labeling.
AB  - Objective To investigate the cerebral hemodynamic changes in hypertensive
      patients using 3D pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling(3D pCASL).Methods
      Fifty-eight hypertensive subjects and thirty-four age-matched healthy volunteers
      were recruited and scanned using the 3D whole-brain pCASL sequence.The regional
      cerebral blood flow(CBF)values were achieved based on 3D pCASL with SPM8
      technique and were manually drawn. Results Compared with healthy
      volunteers,hypertensive patients had significantly lower CBF values in various
      regions,with statistical difference at the bilateral centrum
      semiovale(P=0.000,P=0.000),periventricular white matter(P=0.001,P=0.002),splenium
      of corpus callosum(P=0.003),frontal lobe(P=0.003),parietal
      lobe(P=0.014),occipital lobe(P=0.002),temporal
      lobe(P=0.006),medulla(P=0.012),pons(P=0.016),midbrain(P=0.034),cerebellum(P=0.000
      ,and gray matter(P=0.001).Nevertheless,the CBF values in the thalami,globus
      pallidus,putamen,and genu of corpus callosum demonstrated no significant inter
      group difference(all P>0.05).Conclusions 3D pCASL can be used to detect the
      subtle hemodynamic abnormalities even at the early stage of hypertension.The
      observed decrease in CBF in these regions may suggest an increased risk of
      cerebral small vessel diseases.

PMID- 28877826
TI  - Clinical Analysis of Unicentric Castleman's Disease with Paraneoplastic Pemphigus
      and Bronchiolitis Obliterans.
AB  - Objective To investigate the clinical features of unicentric Castleman's
      disease(UCD)with paraneoplastic pemphigus(PNP)and bronchiolitis
      obliterans(BO).Method Data of UCD patients with PNP and BO from Peking Union
      Medical College Hospital were retrospectively analyzed,along with literatures
      review. Results Totally 23 cases(11 males and 12 females)were enrolled.The median
      age was 31 years(13-56 years).The most common pathological type was hyaline
      vascular variant(91.4%),and most tumors located in abdominopelvic
      cavity(69.6%).Considerable cases presented bulky masses(26.3%).Most cases were
      first diagnosed on presentation with the symtoms of PNP(90.0%).BO was
      characterized by progressive dyspnea after excision of CD lesions.The average
      follow-up duration was 27.5 months(1-135 months).The median overall survival time
      was 36.0 months(95% CI=13.9-58.1).Respiratory failure was the dominant cause of
      death(91.7%).Conclusions PNP should be considered among those patients with
      specific oral or cutaneous lesions.Earlier diagnosis and treatment of latent UCD
      are important for reducing complications and deaths.

PMID- 28877825
TI  - Effectiveness of Peritoneal Dialysis in Treating Adult End Stage Renal Disease
      Patients with Polycystic Kidney Disease.
AB  - Objective To observe the clinical characteristics,dialysis modalities,and
      outcomes of end stage renal disease(ESRD)patients with polycystic kidney
      disease(PKD)and to evaluate the feasibility of peritoneal dialysis in these
      population. Methods The clinical data of ESRD patient whose primary diagnosis was
      PKD in Peking Union Medical College Hospital were retrospectively collected from
      January 1993 to December 2015.PKD patients were divided into two groups according
      to dialysis modality,namely peritoneal dialysis group(PKD-PD)group and
      hemodialysis(PKD-HD)group.In addition,we randomly chose non-PKD patients from 622
      peritoneal dialysis patients who were matched with PKD-PD patients in age,gender
      and dialysis time.The primary end point was death.The survival rate was
      calculated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and the risk factors for suivival were
      analyzed by Cox regression model. Results Totally 47 PKD patients were
      enrolled,including 33 patients in PKD-PD group and 14 patients in PKD-HD
      group,and 42 non-PKD patients as the control group.The average age of PKD
      patients was(53+/-11)years,of which 38.3% were women.When compared with PKD-HD
      group,no significant difference in age,gender,comorbidities,kidney size,and
      residual glomerular filtration rate were observed in PKD-PD patients at
      baseline(all P>0.05).The average time on dialysis of PKD-PD patients was(36.2+/
      33.1)months.The weekly urea clearance index(Kt/V)and weekly creatinine clearance
      were similar to non-PKD-PD group at 3 months,1 year,3 years,and 5 years(all
      P>0.05).The peritonitis rate was 1 episode/84.5 months.The survival rates at 1
      year,3 years,and 5 years of PKD-PD group were 85.7%,78.6%,and 78.6%,which were
      similar to non-PKD-PD group and PKD-HD group respectively(all
      P>0.05).Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that neither PKD nor PD
      independently predicted the mortality. Conclusion PD can be an option for ESRD
      patients with PKD.

PMID- 28877827
TI  - Influences of Gender and Age on the Prevalence and Complications of Nonalcoholic
      Fatty Liver Disease.
AB  - Objective To investigate the effects of gender and age on the prevalence and
      complications of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). Methods A total of 8429
      NAFLD patients were selected from the Health Check-up Center and Outpatient
      Departments of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University(Qingdao).The questionnaire
      based survey,physical examinations,biochemical tests,and liver ultrasonography
      were performed for all cases.Patients were divided into young group(<45
      years),middle aged group(45 years<=age<60 years),and old group(>=60
      years)according to age,and the clinical features and laboratory findings were
      analyzed. Results The proportion of male patients gradually decreased with
      age,while the proportion of female patients increased(P<0.01);The incidences of
      metabolic diseases showed significant difference among young group,middle aged
      group,and old group(P<0.01).Except for hyperlipidemia,the proportion of male
      patients with NAFLD-accompanied metabolic symdrome was significantly higher than
      that of female patients in all three age groups(all P<0.01). Conclusions The
      prevalence of NAFLD-accompanied metabolic syndrome disease is associated with age
      and gender.This finding is useful for the prevention and treatment of NAFLD.

PMID- 28877828
TI  - Infection Modes and Subtypes of Human Papilloma Virus in Patients.
AB  - Objective To investigate the prevalence of human papilloma virus(HPV)subtypes in
      patients and to provide an evidence for the prevention and treatment of HPV
      infection and the development of HPV vaccine. Methods Multiplex PCR was used to
      detect HPV DNA in 6917 patients in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from
      January 1,2013 to June 30,2015.Totally 5586 patients entered the final analysis
      after the repeat samples were deleted.The total positive rate of HPV
      subtypes(including high-risk subtypes including HPV
      16,18,31,33,35,39,45,51,52,56,58,59,and 68 and low-risk subtypes including HPV-6
      and 11)and the infection status of different age were analyzed. Results The total
      positive rate of HPV was 36.29%(2027/5586).The positive rate of high-risk subtype
      was 24.92%(1392/5586)and low-risk subtype was 1.66%(93/5586).The positive rate of
      multiple was 9.70%(542/5586)and multiple high-risk subtype was
      7.75%(433/5586).The positive rate of high-risk subtype and multiple were
      25.52%(1366/5353)and 11.16%(26/233)in female and 9.99%(535/5353)and
      3.00%(7/233)in male,there were significantly difference(chi2=24.61,chi2=12.45,all
      P<0.001).The positive rate of low-risk subtypes(3.86%,9/233)in males was
      significantly higher than that in females(1.57%,84/5353)(chi2=5.84,P=0.007).The
      high-risk HPV subtype infection mainly was seen in patients aged 31-50 years and
      the low-risk HPV subtype infection mainly in patients aged 21-40 years.The age of
      multiple HPV infections from 31-40 years.The lowest turn negative rates of
      subtype were HPV52 and HPV58.The top three HPV subtypes with the highest positive
      rates were HPV52,HPV16,and HPV58.Conclusions The positive rates of HPV type are
      different between male and female patients.The males are mainly infected with low
      risk subtypes,whereas the females with high-risk subtypes and the multiple HPV
      subtypes.The top three high-risk subtypes are HPV-52,16,and 58.HPV subtypes with
      the lowest secondary negative rates are HPV-52 and 58.HPV infection is mainly
      seen in young individuals.

PMID- 28877829
TI  - Major Metabolite Levels of Preoperative Proton Magnetic Resonance Sectroscopy and
      Intraoperative Fluorescence Intensity in Glioblastoma.
AB  - Objective To compare the intraoperative major metabolite level of preoperative
      proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy(1H-MRS)and fluorescence intensity marked
      with fluorescein sodium(FLs)in glioblastoma(GBM)and thus provide an objective
      basis for fluorescence surgical treatment of GBM. Methods All newly diagnosed
      patients by plain and enhanced magnetic resonance imaging from the April 1,2014
      to December 31,2015 were enrolled in this study.All of them received 1H-MRS and
      marked with FLs.The expression of Ki67 in tumor boundary were confirmed by
      postoperative pathology and determined by immunostaining assay.The relationship
      between 1H-MRS metabolite levels and tumor fluorescence intensity was analyzed.
      Results Totally 33 patients were included in the study.Preoperative 1H-MRS
      revealed high-grade gliomas in 25 cases.The N-acetylaspartate(NAA)decreased
      significantly and choline(Cho)increased significantly in high-grade gliomas.The
      ratios of Cho/NAA,NAA/creatine(Cr),and Cho/Cr significantly differed in different
      tumor regions(P=0.02,P=0.01,and P=0.00,respectively).Surgical results were marked
      with FLs intraoperatively.Tissue fluorescence were clearly seen.There were 29
      patients undergoing total resection and 4 cases undergoing subtotal resection.No
      acute encephalocele occured after operation,while 2 patients suffered from
      epilepsy.Postoperative pathology results included:28 cases were diagnosed as
      GBM(22 cases consistent with 1H-MRS diagnosis).The results of GBM fluorescence
      imaging included:the level of fluorescence intensity in tumor parenchyma was
      significantly higher than that in tumor boundary and peritumoral
      edema(P=0.01).The result of 1H-MRS metabolite analysis included:The kurtosis of
      NAA and of Cho and the ratio of Cho/NAA were significantly different according
      the fluorescence intensity in tumor parenchyma(P=0.01,P=0.02,and P=0.01).While
      there was no difference in the kurtosis of NAA,the kurtosis of Cho and the ratio
      of Cho/NAA were significantly different according the fluorescence intensity in
      tumor boundary(P=0.02, P=0.00).In peritumoral edema,there was no significant
      different in kurtosis of NAA and of Cho and in the ratio of
      Cho/NAA(P=0.23,P=0.09,P=0.14).Immunohistochemistry in GBM tumor boundary showed
      different Ki67 expressions according to different fluorescence imaging(P=0.03).
      Conclusions The fluorescence intensity in GBM parenchyma is higher than that in
      other tumor regions,and there are different metabolic levels in different
      fluorescence intensity.The metabolic information marked by FLs and provided by 1H
      MRS before operationis are important,and the correlation between them should be
      further investigated.

PMID- 28877830
TI  - Construction of A New Random Short Hairpin RNA Library Based on microRNA Context.
AB  - Objective To build an efficient random short hairpin RNA(shRNA)library. Methods
      shRNA expression vector was constructed with enhanced green fluorescent
      protein(EGFP)in the upstream of shRNA,driven by pol II promoter(CMV).After the
      constructs were transfected into cells,the proteins were collected.The inhibition
      efficiency of shRNA was determined by Western blot and dual luciferase reporter
      system.After the shRNA expression vector was constructed with EGFP in the
      upstream of shRNA,driven by pol II promoter(CMV),shRNA was further embedded into
      microRNA(miRNA)context.The constructs were transfected into cells,and then the
      inhibition efficiency of shRNA against target genes was evaluated by
      quantificational real-time polymerase chain reaction.According to the result of
      quantificational real-time polymerase chain reaction,a new random shRNA library
      was constructed based on miRNA context. Results shRNA downstream of a large
      transcript was transcripted efficiently by pol II promoter(CMV).The efficiency of
      shRNA interference on target gene was improved when shRNA was embedded into miRNA
      context.Thus,we constructed a new random shRNA library sized 1.8*107 based on
      miRNA context.Conclusion We successfully constructed a new large random shRNA
      library.

PMID- 28877831
TI  - Comparing Different Weights to Construct Composite Indicators of Maternal and
      Child's Basic Health Services from the Prospective of Continuum of Care:Based on
      Data from the National Health Services Survey 2008 and 2013 in Jilin Province.
AB  - Objective To construct composite indicators of maternal and child's basic health
      services using different weights from the prospective of continuum of care and to
      compare them based on data from the National Health Services Survey 2008 and 2013
      in Jilin Province. Methods The study selected indicators based on the countdown
      and the Lives Saved Tool(LiST),considering the data availability from the 2008
      and 2013 National Health Surveys in Jilin.Equal weights,equal weights for
      different areas,epidemiology weights,and principal component weights were used to
      construct different composite indicators.Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient
      was used to test the internal consistency.Analysis of variance of randomized
      block design was used to test the differences.The Spearman's correlation
      coefficient was calculated to compare the rank correlation.The maternal
      mortality,children under 5 years old mortality rate,and children under 5 years
      old stunting incidence were used as the outcome indicators to test the validity
      using correlation analysis. Results Finally 13 indicators were selected,with the
      Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient value exceeding 0.7,which means
      acceptable internal consistency of these indicators.Analysis of variance showed
      that the scores were not significantly the same(F=8.14,P<0.01).The rank
      correlations among equal weights,principal component weights,and equal weights
      for different areas composite indicators were quite strong,and the Spearman's
      correlation coefficient between either two were all above 0.9,while the
      epidemiology weights composite indicator got smaller Spearman's correlation
      coefficient with equal weights,principal component weights,and equal weights for
      different areas composite indicators(0.697,0.671,and 0.818,respectively).The
      composite indicator using epidemiology weights showed significant negative
      correlation with children under 5 years old mortality rate and children under 5
      years old stunting incidence(R2=0.168,P<0.05;R2=0.398,P<0.01,respectively).The
      composite indicators using equal weights,equal weights for different areas and
      principal component weights only showed significant negative correlation with
      children under 5 years old stunting incidence(R2=0.238,R2=0.304,R2=0.232,P<0.01
      for all,respectively).Conclusion The composite indicator using epidemiology
      objective weights has some predictive value for maternal and child health
      outcomes.

PMID- 28877832
TI  - Mechanism of Non-receptor Tyrosine Kinase Src Regulating Neuroinflammation
      Through Phosphatase and Tensin Homology Protein in Microglia.
AB  - Objective To investigate the mechanism of non-receptor tyrosine kinase Src
      regulating neuroinflammation through phosphatase and tensin homology
      protein(PTEN)in microglia. Methods BV2 cells were incubated with PTEN inhibitor
      bpv(HOpic)for 2 hours,and then added with lipopolysaccharide(LPS)to induce
      neuroinflammation,Western blot was performed to determine the expression of
      phosphorylated protein kinase B(Akt)to investigate the activity of PTEN. Enzyme
      linked immunosorben assay(ELISA)was used to determine the release of tumor
      necrosis factor alpha(TNF-alpha)to assess neuroinflammation.After PTEN inhibitor
      or Src specific small interfering RNA was added,the change of neuroinflammation
      was evaluated to study the mechanism of Src regulating neuroinflammation. Results
      LPS induced significant neuroinflammation in BV2 cells,as indicated by
      significantly increased expression of p-Akt and release of TNF-alpha(P<0.001).The
      PTEN inhibitor signficantly increased Akt phosphorylation(P<0.05)and TNF-alpha
      release(P<0.001)in LPS-induced BV2 cells compared to simply LPS-induced cells.The
      Src small interfering RNA significantly decreased the release of TNF
      alpha(P<0.001)and inhibited PTEN(P<0.001)and Akt(P<0.001)phosphorylation.
      Conclusion Src kinase may regulate neuroinflammtion response in BV2 cells by
      regulating the phosphorylation of PTEN.

PMID- 28877833
TI  - Effect of Lymph Node Metastasis on Change of Positive Thyroglobulin Antibody in
      Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma after Initial Treatment.
AB  - Objective To investigate the influence of lymph node metastasis on the change of
      positive thyroglobulin antibody(TgAb)in differentiated thyroid carcinoma after
      initial treatment.Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 98
      differentiated thyroid carcinoma patients with positive TgAb(>=115 IU/ml)before
      radioiodine(RAI)therapy.All of whom underwent total or near total
      thyroidectomy,neck lymph node dissection,and subsequent RAI therapy.Patients were
      divided into negative group(n=83)and non-negative group(n=15)according to the
      disappearance of positive TgAb or not after a mean follow-up of 21.0
      months.Analysis of variance,chi2 test,and Mann-Whitney rank-sum test were applied
      to compare the basic clinical features including number of metastatic lymph
      nodes,lymph node metastasis rate and node stage,and dose of RAI ablation.The
      receiver operating characteristic curves were employed to evaluate the predictive
      values of TgAb levels(negative or positive)and optimal cut-off
      points.Multivariate analyses were further performed to explore the independent
      indicators for persistent positive TgAb. Results Compared with the negative
      group,the proportions of N1a and N1b in the non-negative group were significantly
      higher,with no N0 in the non-negative group(Fisher's Exact Test,P=0.032).The
      median metastatic lymph node rate was also significantly higher in the non
      negative group(Mann-Whitney U=-3.498,P=0.000).The cut-off value for metastatic
      lymph node rate to predicting disappearance of positive TgAb was 24%,and its
      sensitivity was 71.4%.The multivariate analysis showed that only lymph node
      stage(OR=3.183,P=0.038)was the independent indicator for persistent positive
      TgAb. Conclusions Lymph node stage was an independent indicator for the
      disappearance of positive TgAb.A metastatic lymph node rate of higher than 24%
      may be predictive for the disappearance of positive TgAb.

PMID- 28877834
TI  - Clinicopathological Features of Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy in 33
      Adolescents.
AB  - Objective To investigate the clinicopathological features and prognosis of
      idiopathic membranous nephropathy(IMN)in adolescents. Methods This was a
      retrospective study on IMN patients hospitalized between June 2012 and December
      2014,and a total of 33 IMN patients aged between 13 and 24 years old were
      enrolled in the study.Meanwhile,33 IMN patients aged more than 24 years old were
      selected randomly as control group during the same period.Diagnosis was confirmed
      by renal biopsy,and the secondary causes of membranous nephropathy were ruled
      out.Data collected from medical record and biopsy were analyzed. Results In the
      adolescent IMN group,the mean age at renal biopsy was(20+/-3)years old,and the
      male/female ratio was 22/11.Twenty-three cases presented as nephrotic
      syndrome.Systolic and diastolic pressures were(127+/-13)mmHg and(77+/
      9)mmHg,respectively.The median 24-hour urine protein was 5.14(3.39,9.31)g/d,and
      the median serum creatinine was 62(52,73)MUmol/L.The positive rate of serum anti
      phospholipase A2 receptor in adolescent group was 54%.Compared with control
      group,the adolescent patients had lower incidence of hypertension and higher
      baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate level [15.2%
      vs.39.3%,chi2=4.889,P=0.03;125 ml/(min.1.73m2)vs.100
      ml/(min.1.73m2),U=137.5,P<0.001].According to IMN staging criteria in electron
      microscopy,adolescent patients were classified as one case in stage I,21 in stage
      II,and 11 in stage III or higher.The positive rates of IgG1,IgG2,IgG3 and IgG4
      subclass staining in glomeruli were 46.9%,3.1%,56.3%,and
      87.5%,respectively.Compared with control group,the adolescent patients had lower
      incidence of renal interstitial fibrosis and arteriolar lesions(6.1%
      vs.66.7%,chi2=26.19,P<0.001;15.2% vs.66.7%,chi2=18.11,P<0.001).Three patients
      lost to follow-up while others started steroid combined with cyclosporine
      A(n=20),cyclophosphamide(n=7),or mycophenolate(n=1)or solely(n=2).After a median
      follow-up of 18(12,24)months,the median proteinuria decreased to
      0.20(0.10,0.42)g/d,whereas serum creatinine level remained stable
      [69(56.8,81.3)MUmol/L].Seventeen patients(56.7%)achieved complete
      remission(CR),and the remaining 13 patients(43.4%)achieved partial
      remission(PR).The median time of CR and PR were three and six
      months,respectively.Only one patient relapsed during the follow-up.Also,21 cases
      received maintenance therapy including cyclosporine A(n=18),azathioprine(n=2)and
      mycophenolate(n=1).Conclusions The immunofluorescence IgG subclass in glomeruli
      and distribution of serum anti-phospholipase A2 receptor in adolescent IMN
      patients are similar to those in older IMN patients.IMN patients in adolescents
      responded well to immunosuppressive therapy.Cyclosporine A in low dose as
      maintenance therapy is effective after achieving remission,and will not increase
      risk of nephrotoxicity.

PMID- 28877835
TI  - Pathological Changes in APP/PS-1 Transgenic Mouse Models of Alzheimer's Disease
      Treated with Ganoderma Lucidum Preparation.
AB  - Objective To explore the efficacy of ganoderma lucidum preparation(Ling Zhi) in
      treating APP/PS-1 transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease(AD).Methods
      APP/PS-1 transgenic mice of 4 months were randomly divided into model
      group,ganoderma lucidum treatment groups,including high [2250 mg/(kg.d)] and
      middle [750 mg/(kg.d)] dose groups,i.e.LZ-H and LZ-M groups,and the positive
      control group(treated with donepezil hydrochloride [2 mg/(kg.d)]).In
      addition,C57BL/6J wild mice were selected as normal group.The animals were
      administered for 4 months.Histopathological examinations including hematoxylin
      eosin(HE) staining,immunohistochemistry,special staining,and electron microscopy
      were applied,and then the pathological morphology and structures in different
      groups were compared. Results The senile plaques and neurofibrillar tangles in
      the cerebrum and cerebellum were dissolved or disappeared in LZ-H and LZ-M
      groups.Decrease of amyloid angiopathy was found in LZ-H and LZ-M groups.The
      immature neurons appeared more in hippocampus and dentate nucleus of LZ-H and LZ
      M groups than those in AD model and donepezil hydrochloride
      groups(hippcampus:F=1.738,P=0.016;dentate nucleus:F=1.924,P=0.026),and these
      immature neurons differentiated to be neurons.More Purkinje cells loss occurred
      in AD model mice than that in LZ-H and LZ-M
      groups(F=9.46,P=0.007;F=9.46,P=0.010).The LZ-H and LZ-M groups had more new
      neuron stem cells grown up in cerebellum.Electromicroscopic examination showed
      the hippocampal neurons in LZ-H and LZ-M group were integrated,the nuclear
      membrane was intact,and the mitochondria in the cytoplasm,endoplasmic
      reticulum,Golgi bodies,microtubules,and synapses were also complete.The
      microglial cell showed no abnormality.No toxicity appeared in the pathological
      specimens of mice treated with ganoderma lucidum preparation.Conclusion The
      ganoderma lucidum preparation can dissolve and decline or dismiss the senile
      plaques and neurofibrillar tangles in the brain of AD mice and also reduce the
      amyloid angiopathy.

PMID- 28877836
TI  - Efficacy of Gemcitabine and S-1 for Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer.
AB  - Objective To explore the efficacy and toxicities of gemcitabine combined with S-1
      in treating locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and
      prognostic factors. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of
      patients with locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer receiving
      gemcitabine and S-1 as first-line therapy in the Department of Medical
      Oncology,Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2014 to January
      2017.Gemcitabine was administered at a dose of 1000 mg/m2 over 30 min-utes on
      days 1 and 8,and oral S-1 at a dose of 40-60 mg twice daily from days 1 to
      14,repeated every 3 weeks.All patients received at least two cycles of
      chemotherapy. Results A total of 60 patients were included,13(22%) achieved
      partial remission,37(61%) had stable disease,and 10(17%) experienced progressive
      disease.The median progression-free survival was 7 months(95% CI=6-10 months) and
      the median overall survival was 12 months(95% CI=9-20 months).Both univariate and
      multivariate analyses of prognostic factors showed primary resection was
      significant in predicting shorter progression-free survival and lung metastasis
      was significant for shorter overall survival.The most common grade 3-4 toxicities
      were neutropenia(27%) and leukopenia(18%). Conclusion Gemcitabine combined with S
      1 is an effective regimen with manageable toxicities in the treatment of advanced
      pancreatic cancer and can be used as first-line therapy.

PMID- 28877838
TI  - Advances in Mechanisms for Prevention and Treatment of Pathological Scars with
      Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
AB  - Pathological scars,including keloids and hypertrophic scars,result from
      aberrations in the process of physiologic wound healing.An exaggerated
      inflammatory process is one of the main pathophysiological
      contributors.Pathological scars may cause pain and pruritis,limit joint
      mobility,and cause a range of cosmetic deformities that affect the patient's
      quality of life.However,the effectiveness of currently available prevention and
      treatment measures remains unsatisfactory.Mesenchymal stem cells,among their
      multifunctional roles,have the functions of immunomodulation and promotion of
      angiogenesis.Thus,they have been proposed to be a major candidate for cell
      therapy to treat or prevent pathologicalscars.This article reviews the mechanism
      and potentials of stem cell therapy in the prevention and treatment of
      pathological scars.

PMID- 28877837
TI  - Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment of Male Breast Cancer:Analysis of 24 Cases.
AB  - Objective To summarize our experiences in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of
      male breast cancer(MBC).Methods The clinical date of 24 MBC patients treated in
      our hospital from January 2006 to December 2012 were retrospective
      analyzed.Results The average age of these 24 patients was(55.7+/-2.1) years.All
      the patients received surgical treatment,and the surgical procedures were simple
      excision of breast lesion in 6 patients,breast resection alone in 5 patients,and
      modified radical mastectomy in 13 patients(bilateral in 1 case).The pathological
      diagnoses included invasive ductal carcinoma in 18 cases,papillary carcinoma in 4
      cases,mucinous adenocarcinoma in 1 case,and malignant solitary fibrous tumor in 1
      case.Twenty patients received chemotherapy,7 received radiotherapy,and 15
      received endocrine therapy after operation.The 5-year survival rate was
      54.2%.Conclusions The incidence of MBC is low.This malignancy is mainly seen in
      elderly individuals,with relatively long disease course,poor prognosis,and high
      risk of metastasis.MBC is mainly treated by surgery,and adjuvant
      chemotherapy,radiotherapy,and endocrine therapy may be applied,if
      appropriate,after the operation.

PMID- 28877839
TI  - Significances of MYD88L265P and CXCR4WHIM Mutations in Waldenstrom
      Macroglobulinemia.
AB  - Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia(WM) is a lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma characterized
      by serum monoclonal IgM immunoglobulin.Recently,the high mutation rates of
      MYD88L265P and CXCR4WHIM have been documented in WM.Furthermore,MYD88L265P and
      CXCR4WHIM are related to the response to target drugs.This article reviews the
      significances of MYD88L265P and CXCR4WHIM in the diagnosis and treatment of WM.

PMID- 28877840
TI  - Application of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Model-based Diffusion Weighted
      Imaging in the Diagnosis and Therapy of Breast Cancer.
AB  - Intravoxel incoherent motion model-based diffusion weighted imaging can
      distinguish the microcirculation reperfusion and true diffusion of water
      molecules,which can quantitatively or semi-quantitatively reflect the functional
      state and microstructure features of tissues.Thus,this technique has increasingly
      been used in breast tumor,especially in the differential diagnosis,pathological
      classification,and curative effect monitoring of breast cancer.

PMID- 28877841
TI  - Cognitive-behaviour therapy for health anxiety in medical patients (CHAMP): a
      randomised controlled trial with outcomes to 5 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health anxiety is an under-recognised but frequent cause of distress
      that is potentially treatable, but there are few studies in secondary care.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a
      modified form of cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) for health anxiety (CBT-HA)
      compared with standard care in medical outpatients. DESIGN: Randomised controlled
      trial. SETTING: Five general hospitals in London, Middlesex and Nottinghamshire.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 444 patients aged 16-75 years seen in cardiology,
      endocrinology, gastroenterology, neurology and respiratory medicine clinics who
      scored >= 20 points on the Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI) and satisfied
      diagnostic requirements for hypochondriasis. Those with current psychiatric
      disorders were excluded, but those with concurrent medical illnesses were not.
      INTERVENTIONS: Cognitive-behaviour therapy for health anxiety - between 4 and 10
      1-hour sessions of CBT-HA from a health professional or psychologist trained in
      the treatment. Standard care was normal practice in primary and secondary care.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary - researchers masked to allocation assessed
      patients at baseline, 3, 6, 12, 24 months and 5 years. The primary outcome was
      change in the HAI score between baseline and 12 months. Main secondary outcomes -
      costs of care in the two groups after 24 and 60 months, change in health anxiety
      (HAI), generalised anxiety and depression [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
      (HADS)] scores, social functioning using the Social Functioning Questionnaire and
      quality of life using the EuroQol-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D), at 6, 12, 24 and 60
      months, and deaths over 5 years. RESULTS: Of the 28,991 patients screened over 21
      months, 5769 had HAI scores of >= 20 points. Improvement in HAI scores at 3
      months was significantly greater in the CBT-HA group (mean number of sessions =
      6) than in the standard care, and this was maintained over the 5-year period
      (overall p < 0.0001), with no loss of efficacy between 2 and 5 years. Differences
      in the generalised anxiety (p = 0.0018) and depression scores (p = 0.0065) on the
      HADS were similar in both groups over the 5-year period. Gastroenterology and
      cardiology patients showed the greatest CBT gains. The outcomes for nurses were
      superior to those of other therapists. Deaths (n = 24) were similar in both
      groups; those in standard care died earlier than those in CBT-HA. Patients with
      mild personality disturbance and higher dependence levels had the best outcome
      with CBT-HA. Total costs were similar in both groups over the 5-year period
      (L12,590.58 for CBT-HA; L13,334.94 for standard care). CBT-HA was not cost
      effective in terms of quality-adjusted life-years, as measured using the EQ-5D,
      but was cost-effective in terms of HAI outcomes, and offset the cost of
      treatment. LIMITATIONS: Many eligible patients were not randomised and the
      population treated may not be representative. CONCLUSIONS: CBT-HA is a highly
      effective treatment for pathological health anxiety with lasting benefit over 5
      years. It also improves generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms more than
      standard care. The presence of personality abnormality is not a bar to successful
      outcome. CBT-HA may also be cost-effective, but the high costs of concurrent
      medical illnesses obscure potential savings. This treatment deserves further
      research in medical settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials
      ISRCTN14565822. FUNDING: This project was funded by the National Institute for
      Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be
      published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 21, No. 50. See the NIHR
      Journals Library website for further project information.

PMID- 28877842
TI  - Improving health literacy about dementia among older Chinese and Vietnamese
      Australians.
AB  - The number of older people in the population is increasing faster than for any
      other age group. This population growth, while positive, is associated with
      increasing incidence of chronic and progressive diseases such as dementia. This
      requires older people to navigate services that may not be designed to meet their
      needs. This issue can be further amplified in culturally and linguistically
      diverse populations who often have limited English language proficiency and
      limited knowledge of diseases such as dementia. Health literacy, a person's
      ability to access, understand, appraise and apply information about their health
      and health care, including navigating health services, is low among older people
      and even lower among older people born overseas. This paper describes findings
      from a recent research study which developed and used the Cultural Exchange
      Model. The model is based on a process of collaboration, whereby researchers,
      service providers and community members work together to build evidence about a
      particular topic, in this case dementia. The study demonstrated that the Cultural
      Exchange Model facilitates opportunities for researchers, health professionals,
      community workers and carers to improve their knowledge of conditions such as
      dementia and rapidly translate evidence into practice. It also showed that it is
      possible to recruit, engage and generate new knowledge within populations that
      are traditionally excluded from research but have high prevalence of dementia.
      This study shows health literacy is an evolving process. Access to ongoing
      education for professionals, not only of the clinical condition and the service
      system, but also the cultural elements of the communities they are working with,
      requires consideration.

PMID- 28877843
TI  - Ongoing mumps outbreak in Israel, January to August 2017.
AB  - In Israel, 262 mumps cases were registered between 1 January and 28 August 2017
      despite a vaccine coverage of >= 96%. The majority (56.5%) of cases were
      adolescents and young adults between 10 and 24 years of age. Nearly twice as many
      cases were reported in males than in females. Sequence information identified
      genotype G and suggested specific transmission chains in different religious
      communities, with the Muslim population in Jerusalem being most severely
      affected.

PMID- 28877844
TI  - The spatiotemporal characteristics of influenza A and B in the WHO European
      Region: can one define influenza transmission zones in Europe?
AB  - We aimed to assess the epidemiology and spatiotemporal patterns of influenza in
      the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region and evaluate the validity of
      partitioning the Region into five influenza transmission zones (ITZs) as proposed
      by the WHO. We used the FluNet database and included over 650,000 influenza cases
      from 2000 to 2015. We analysed the data by country and season (from July to the
      following June). We calculated the median proportion of cases caused by each
      virus type in a season, compared the timing of the primary peak between countries
      and used a range of cluster analysis methods to assess the degree of overlap
      between the WHO-defined and data-driven ITZs. Influenza A and B caused,
      respectively, a median of 83% and 17% cases in a season. There was a significant
      west-to-east and non-significant (p = 0.10) south-to-north gradient in the timing
      of influenza activity. Typically, influenza peaked in February and March;
      influenza A earlier than influenza B. Most countries in the WHO European Region
      would fit into two ITZs: 'Western Europe' and 'Eastern Europe'; countries
      bordering Asia may be better placed into extra-European ITZs. Our findings have
      implications for the presentation of surveillance data and prevention and control
      measures in this large WHO Region.

PMID- 28877845
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Surveillance of mcr-1 and mcr-2 genes in Carbapenem
      resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains from an Italian Hospital.

PMID- 28877846
TI  - Environmental surveillance during an outbreak of tularaemia in hares, the
      Netherlands, 2015.
AB  - Tularaemia, a disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis, is a re
      emerging zoonosis in the Netherlands. After sporadic human and hare cases
      occurred in the period 2011 to 2014, a cluster of F. tularensis-infected hares
      was recognised in a region in the north of the Netherlands from February to May
      2015. No human cases were identified, including after active case finding.
      Presence of F. tularensis was investigated in potential reservoirs and
      transmission routes, including common voles, arthropod vectors and surface
      waters. F. tularensis was not detected in common voles, mosquito larvae or
      adults, tabanids or ticks. However, the bacterium was detected in water and
      sediment samples collected in a limited geographical area where infected hares
      had also been found. These results demonstrate that water monitoring could
      provide valuable information regarding F. tularensis spread and persistence, and
      should be used in addition to disease surveillance in wildlife.

PMID- 28877847
TI  - Are infections of gastrostomies not leaks?

PMID- 28877848
TI  - Temporal artery biopsy in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis: Bigger is not
      always better.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Accurate early giant cell arteritis (GCA) diagnosis can be established
      through temporal artery biopsy (TAB). We herein investigate the relationship
      between specimen length and positive TAB result in a tertiary-care hospital in
      Germany during a 8-year period. Secondarily, we studied the relationships of
      specific epidemiological and laboratory parameters with positive TABs. METHOD: We
      retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients with suspected GCA,
      who underwent TAB in our institution. RESULTS: The total sample consisted of 116
      patients with a mean age of 76.1 (SD 7.7) years. Mean specimen length post
      fixation was 0.94 cm (SD 0.49). The TAB(+) group consisted of 64 patients
      (55.2%). The specimen length was comparable in the two groups (0.96 cm vs 0.91
      cm, p = 0.581). Twenty six TAB(+) patients (41%) had a post-fixation specimen
      longer than 1 cm, comparable with the respective percentage in the TAB(-) group
      (42%, p = 1). All laboratory tests performed were statistically significantly
      different in the two groups. CONCLUSION: We conclude that TAB length is not
      associated with the TAB diagnostic yield in patients with clinical suspicion of
      GCA.

PMID- 28877849
TI  - Not All Is CFTR - Neutrophils and Cholesterol in Cystic Fibrosis.

PMID- 28877850
TI  - Gabapentin regulates expression of FGF2 and FGFR1 in dorsal root ganglia via
      microRNA-15a in the arthritis rat model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arthritis is an inflammatory disease with a prevalence rate of
      approximately 10% in China, which commonly manifests as pain. The aim of the
      current study was to investigate the function of gabapentin in the dorsal root
      ganglion in an arthritis rat model, and assess the effect of gabapentin on the
      expression of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and FGF receptor 1 (FGFR1).
      METHODS: A total of 30 healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided
      into the following three groups: Untreated group, control group and gabapentin
      group. Rats in the control and the gabapentin groups were injected with Freund's
      complete adjuvant to induce arthritis. A total of 7 days subsequent to model
      establishment, the gabapentin group was administered intraperitoneally gabapentin
      for 8 days. The alterations in thickness of paw pad and paw withdrawal mechanical
      threshold (PWMT) were detected, which indicated that the rats in the control and
      gabapentin groups presented with the symptoms of arthritis. RESULTS: In the
      control group, the PWMT value was significantly reduced (P < 0.05), whereas the
      PWMT value was significantly increased in the gabapentin group.
      Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that the expression levels of FGF2 and FGFR1
      were increased in the control group compared with the untreated group, while the
      expression levels of FGF2 and FGFR1 were reduced in the gabapentin group.
      Moreover, the FGF2 antagonist PD173074 partially improved the plantar thickness
      and PWMT of the arthritic rats. Bioinformatics analysis predicted microRNA-15a
      binding sites in the 3'untranslated regions (UTR) of FGF2 and FGFR1. Furthermore,
      the expression of microRNA-15a was reduced in the control group compared with
      untreated rats, whereas microRNA-15a in the gabapentin group was upregulated
      compared with the control. Additionally, the luciferase reporter assay confirmed
      that microRNA-15a could inhibit the protein expression through pairing with the
      3'UTR of FGF2 and FGFR1 mRNAs. CONCLUSION: Gabapentin may relieve arthritis pain
      and reduce the expression of FGF2 and FGFR1 in dorsal root ganglia. Furthermore,
      microRNA-15a may be involved in the regulatory process.

PMID- 28877852
TI  - Detangling and detailing sexual health in the SDG era.

PMID- 28877851
TI  - Platform construction of molecular breeding for utilization of brown macroalgae.
AB  - Brown macroalgae are characterized by a large size and high productivity without
      requiring arable land, fresh water, and fertilizer. Furthermore, since brown
      macroalgae contain little or no lignin, simple biorefinery processing can
      efficiently produce sugars from this material. Therefore, brown macroalgae have
      attracted attention as an alternative feedstock for bioethanol production.
      However, the utilization of biotechnologies previously developed for terrestrial
      biomass processing results in difficulties in the bioconversion of brown
      macroalgae. Recently, several studies have developed biotechnologies for using
      major carbohydrates of brown macroalgae, such as laminarin, mannitol, and
      alginate. This review focuses on these fermentation biotechnologies using natural
      or engineered microorganisms.

PMID- 28877853
TI  - Vitamins supplementation affects the onset of preeclampsia.
AB  - Preeclampsia may affect between 2-8% of all pregnancies. It seriously affects
      maternal health after pregnancy. This meta-analysis was performed to define the
      efficacy of vitamins supplementation on the risk of preeclampsia. Potential
      articles were systematically searched on the databases of Pubmed, Embase and Web
      of Science up to May 2016. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals
      (95%CIs) were used to analyze the relationship of vitamins supplementation with
      risk of preeclampsia. Cochran Q test was used to test inter-study heterogeneity.
      Begg's funnel plot was adopted to assess the potential publication bias. 28
      eligible studies were selected. Pooled results indicated that vitamins
      supplementation could reduce the risk of preeclampsia (RR = 0.74, 95%CI = 0.64
      0.86). The studies with non-randomized controlled trial (RCT) analysis also
      suggested the significant relationship of vitamins supplementation with risk of
      preeclampsia (RR = 0.60, 95%CI = 0.42-0.85). However, negative results were
      observed in studies with RCT analysis. Subgroup analysis by vitamin type was
      performed among the studies with RCT analysis. The results indicated that vitamin
      D supplementation could significantly reduce the risk of preeclampsia (RR = 0.41,
      95%CI = 0.22-0.78). Similar results were observed in the studies with
      multivitamins supplementation (RR = 0.69, 95%CI = 0.51-0.93). Vitamins
      supplementation could reduce the onset of preeclampsia.

PMID- 28877854
TI  - Letter to the editor regarding the paper by Loquai C et al. 'Use of complementary
      and alternative medicine: a multicenter cross-sectional study in 1089 melanoma
      patients'.

PMID- 28877855
TI  - Introduction to "Pathology of Infections of the Lung".

PMID- 28877856
TI  - Geriatric cancer trends in the Middle-East: Findings from Lebanese cancer
      projections until 2025.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: By 2020, 70% of all cancers will occur in patients aged 65years and
      older, causing an increase in related morbidity, mortality, and cost. This study
      projects cancer trends in the elderly population in Lebanon, a country
      experiencing accelerating aging trends. Findings will guide future policy
      decisions regarding geriatric oncology in Lebanon and the surrounding Arab world.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cancer incidence rates were derived for men and women
      65years and above, divided into three age groups: 65-69years, 70-74years, and
      75years and above. Raw data were obtained from the National Cancer Registry
      reports 2003-2010. The eight consecutive year data were used to project the
      incidence until 2025 using a logarithmic model. The Average Annual Percent Change
      in incidence rates was calculated to determine whether it would significantly
      increase, decrease, or remain stable over time. RESULTS: Incidence rates are
      projected to increase significantly in all age groups of both genders until 2025.
      In men, the fastest rise is expected in prostate cancer, followed by bladder,
      lung, colorectal, and NHL. In women, the rise will be fastest in breast, followed
      by colorectal, lung, NHL, and ovary. Projected rates increase faster in the
      "younger" age group 65-69 compared to the "oldest" >=75, both in men and women.
      Only kidney and liver cancers continue to rise significantly after 75.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cancer incidence is projected to increase in individuals between 65
      and 74years of age. Lebanese and Middle Eastern physicians must implement adapted
      therapeutic strategies in the management of the increasing caseload among frail,
      elderly patients.

PMID- 28877857
TI  - Reduced mind wandering in patients with Parkinson's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mind Wandering (MW) refers to the process of disengaging from the
      immediate external environment and participating in internally driven mentation.
      This process has been suggested to be supported by a distributed set of brain
      regions, collectively referred to as the Default Mode Network (DMN). Recently,
      reduced recruitment and connectivity of the DMN has been described in Parkinson's
      disease (PD) patients compared to healthy controls. We thus aimed to explore
      whether PD patients with normal cognitive test scores show differential MW
      capabilities compared to healthy controls. METHODS: Thirty PD patients and thirty
      age-matched controls, all with a Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) score of 26
      or above, performed a novel yet validated thought-sampling paradigm used to
      assess the frequency and extent of MW irrespective of cognitive load in which
      participants were asked to observe a series of geometric shapes and describe
      their thoughts after watching them. Shapes were presented one at a time for
      varying durations across nine trials. RESULTS: PD patients showed significantly
      less MW compared to the control. ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction
      indicating that the difference in MW scores was driven by trials with short
      stimulus presentation times. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence for
      decreased MW in PD patients. We propose that this is due to difficulties in
      performing MW within short time frames.

PMID- 28877858
TI  - Effects of surgical treatment of hypertrophic turbinates on the nasal obstruction
      and the quality of life.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chronic hyperplasia of the inferior nasal concha is accompanied by a
      nasal obstruction; however, there is no standardised surgical treatment for this
      condition. Here, we compared the outcome of three surgical techniques frequently
      used to treat the hyperplasia of inferior turbinates: turbinectomy with
      lateralization, submucosal electrocautery and laser cautery additional to
      septoplasty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and nine patients participated in
      this prospective randomized study upon signing written consent. The subjects were
      randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: 1) submucosal turbinectomy
      with lateralization, 2) submucosal electrocautery or 3) laser cautery. All groups
      were followed-up for up to 6months after surgical intervention. During the four
      follow-up appointments, the outcomes were measured with the modified German
      version of Sino-Nasal Outcome Test 20 questionnaire. In addition, the nasal
      breathing and the absolute nasal flow rates and respective mucosal component were
      determined by the anterior rhinomanometry. RESULTS: Following surgery, the
      subjective and objective nasal obstruction decreased significantly in all three
      groups. Moreover, the subjective symptoms measured by modified Sino-Nasal Outcome
      Test 20 improved significantly, although there were some temporal differences
      between groups regarding subjective nasal obstruction, ear pressure, nasal
      discomfort, daytime fatigue, cough and dry mouth. The mucosal component of nasal
      congestion decreased significantly after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: All surgical
      techniques used to reduce the conchae mucosa led to a significant improvement in
      the objective and subjective nasal breathing and the quality of life.
      Septoplastic reduction proved to be of additional benefit.

PMID- 28877859
TI  - Adjuvant radiation and survival following surgical resection of sinonasal
      melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment for sinonasal melanoma, but
      it is often difficult to obtain clear, negative margins. Therefore, patients
      often receive adjuvant radiation therapy (RT), however its impact on overall
      survival (OS) is not well understood. METHODS: Patients with surgically resected
      sinonasal melanoma were identified from the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB,
      n=696). Kaplan-Meier curves and parametric survival regression were used to
      analyze the impact of adjuvant RT on OS from surgery. Adjusted time ratios (aTRs)
      were computed, with values >1 corresponding to improved survival. RESULTS: 399
      (57.3%) patients received adjuvant RT. Those receiving RT tended to be younger
      but with more advanced disease and greater likelihood of positive margins,
      compared to those receiving no adjuvant therapy. Median survival was 25.0months
      for those treated with surgery alone, compared to 28.3months for those receiving
      adjuvant RT (log-rank P=0.408). When adjusting for potential confounders, there
      was a trend towards greater survival with adjuvant RT (aTR 1.16, 95%CI 0.98
      1.37). RT appeared beneficial in those with stage IVB disease (aTR 2.58, 95%CI
      1.40-4.75) but not stage IVA (aTR 1.19, 95%CI 0.88-1.61) or III (aTR 0.85, 95%CI
      0.65-1.13) disease. In contrast, there were no differences in impact of RT
      according to margin status (aTR 1.16 for both positive and negative margins).
      CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant therapy does not appear to provide a significant survival
      benefit in resected sinonasal melanomas regardless of margin status, except those
      with stage IVB disease. Practitioners should carefully consider the added benefit
      of adjuvant therapy in these patients.

PMID- 28877860
TI  - Accelerometer-assessed light-intensity physical activity and mortality among
      those with mobility limitations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emerging research demonstrates that light-intensity physical activity
      is favorably associated with numerous health outcomes among the general
      population, even independent of high-intensity physical activity. OBJECTIVE: To
      examine the association between accelerometer-assessed light-intensity physical
      activity and mortality in a national sample of American adults with mobility
      limitations. METHODS: Data from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey were utilized. Participants were followed through 2011. Based
      on self-report, analyzed participants included those with mobility limitations (N
      = 1369). Light-intensity physical activity was assessed via waist-mounted
      accelerometry. RESULTS: For the sample, 108,010 person-months occurred with an
      all-cause mortality rate of 2.07 per 1000 person-months. After adjustments, for
      every 60 min/day increase in light-intensity physical activity, participants with
      mobility limitations had a 14% reduced risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 0.86;
      95% CI: 0.75-0.98; P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: These findings underscore the
      importance of promoting light-intensity physical activity to those with mobility
      limitations.

PMID- 28877861
TI  - Assessing the Equivalence of Paper, Mobile Phone, and Tablet Survey Responses at
      a Community Mental Health Center Using Equivalent Halves of a 'Gold-Standard'
      Depression Item Bank.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The computerized administration of self-report psychiatric diagnostic
      and outcomes assessments has risen in popularity. If results are similar enough
      across different administration modalities, then new administration technologies
      can be used interchangeably and the choice of technology can be based on other
      factors, such as convenience in the study design. An assessment based on item
      response theory (IRT), such as the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement
      Information System (PROMIS) depression item bank, offers new possibilities for
      assessing the effect of technology choice upon results. OBJECTIVE: To create
      equivalent halves of the PROMIS depression item bank and to use these halves to
      compare survey responses and user satisfaction among administration modalities
      paper, mobile phone, or tablet-with a community mental health care population.
      METHODS: The 28 PROMIS depression items were divided into 2 halves based on
      content and simulations with an established PROMIS response data set. A total of
      129 participants were recruited from an outpatient public sector mental health
      clinic based in Memphis. All participants took both nonoverlapping halves of the
      PROMIS IRT-based depression items (Part A and Part B): once using paper and
      pencil, and once using either a mobile phone or tablet. An 8-cell randomization
      was done on technology used, order of technologies used, and order of PROMIS
      Parts A and B. Both Parts A and B were administered as fixed-length assessments
      and both were scored using published PROMIS IRT parameters and algorithms.
      RESULTS: All 129 participants received either Part A or B via paper assessment.
      Participants were also administered the opposite assessment, 63 using a mobile
      phone and 66 using a tablet. There was no significant difference in item response
      scores for Part A versus B. All 3 of the technologies yielded essentially
      identical assessment results and equivalent satisfaction levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings show that the PROMIS depression assessment can be divided into 2
      equivalent halves, with the potential to simplify future experimental
      methodologies. Among community mental health care recipients, the PROMIS items
      function similarly whether administered via paper, tablet, or mobile phone. User
      satisfaction across modalities was also similar. Because paper, tablet, and
      mobile phone administrations yielded similar results, the choice of technology
      should be based on factors such as convenience and can even be changed during a
      study without adversely affecting the comparability of results.

PMID- 28877862
TI  - Effectiveness of a Web-Based Tailored Intervention With Virtual Assistants
      Promoting the Acceptability of HPV Vaccination Among Mothers of Invited Girls:
      Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2010, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination was introduced in
      the Dutch National Immunization Program for 12-year-old girls, aiming to reduce
      the incidence of cervical cancer in women. HPV vaccination uptake turned out to
      be lower than expected: 61% versus 70%, respectively. Mothers were shown to play
      the most important role in the immunization decision about this vaccination. They
      had also expressed their need for interactive personal information about the HPV
      vaccination over and above the existing universal general information. To improve
      the effectiveness of the existing education about the HPV vaccination, we
      systematically developed a Web-based tailored intervention with virtual
      assistants providing mothers of girls to be invited with tailored feedback on
      their decision making about the HPV vaccination. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Web-based tailored intervention for
      promoting HPV vaccination acceptance by means of a randomized controlled trial
      (RCT). METHODS: Mothers were recruited via the Dutch vaccination register
      (Praeventis) (n=36,000) and three Web-based panels (n=2483). Those who gave
      informed consent (N=8062) were randomly assigned to the control (n=4067) or
      intervention condition (n=3995). HPV vaccination uptake, as registered by
      Praeventis once the HPV vaccination round was completed, was used as the primary
      outcome. Secondary outcomes were differential scores across conditions between
      baseline (before the provided access to the new tailored intervention) and follow
      up (just before the first vaccination) regarding the mothers' degree of informed
      decision making (IDM), decisional conflict, and critical determinants of HPV
      vaccination uptake among which are intention, attitude, risk perception, and
      outcome beliefs. RESULTS: Intention-to-treat analysis (N=8062) showed a
      significant positive effect of the intervention on IDM, decisional conflict, and
      nearly all determinants of HPV vaccination uptake (P<.001). No effect was found
      on uptake (P=.60). This may be attributed to the overall high uptake rates in
      both conditions. Mothers evaluated the intervention as highly positive, including
      the website as well as the virtual assistants that were used to deliver the
      tailored feedback. CONCLUSIONS: This computer-tailored intervention has the
      potential to improve HPV vaccination acceptability and IDM and to decrease
      decisional conflict among mothers of invited girls. Implications for future
      research are discussed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trialregister.nl NTR4935;
      http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=4935 (Archived by
      WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6srT7l9EM).

PMID- 28877863
TI  - The Paget Trial: A Multicenter, Observational Cohort Intervention Study for the
      Clinical Efficacy, Safety, and Immunological Response of Topical 5% Imiquimod
      Cream for Vulvar Paget Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vulvar Paget disease is a rare skin disorder, which is most common in
      postmenopausal Caucasian women. They usually present with an erythematous plaque
      that may show fine or typical "cake icing" scaling or ulceration that may cause
      itching, pain, irritation, or a burning sensation. Although most cases are
      noninvasive, vulvar Paget disease may be invasive or associated with an
      underlying vulvar or distant adenocarcinoma. The histological evidence of so
      called "Paget cells" with abundant pale cytoplasm in the epithelium confirms the
      diagnosis. The origin of these Paget cells is still unclear. Treatment of choice
      is wide local excision with negative margins. Obtaining clear surgical margins is
      challenging and may lead to extensive and mutilating surgery. Even then,
      recurrence rates are high, ranging from 15% to 70%, which emphasizes the need for
      new treatment options. A number of case reports, retrospective case series, and
      one observational study have shown promising results using the topical immune
      response modifier imiquimod. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the
      efficacy, safety, and immunological response in patients with noninvasive vulvar
      Paget disease using a standardized treatment schedule with 5% imiquimod cream.
      METHODS: Topical 5% imiquimod cream might be an effective and safe treatment
      alternative for vulvar Paget disease. The Paget Trial is a multicenter
      observational cohort study including eight tertiary referral hospitals in the
      Netherlands. It is ethically approved by the Medical-Ethical Committee of Arnhem
      Nijmegen and registered in the Central Committee on Research Involving Human
      Subjects (CCMO) Register by as NL51648.091.14. Twenty patients with (recurrent)
      noninvasive vulvar Paget disease will be treated with topical 5% imiquimod cream
      three times a week for 16 weeks. The primary efficacy outcome is the reduction in
      lesion size at 12 weeks after end of treatment. Secondary outcomes are safety,
      immunological response, and quality of life. Safety will be assessed by
      evaluation of adverse events and tolerability of treatment. To evaluate the
      immunological response, various immunological markers will be tested on biopsy
      specimens taken before, during, and after treatment. Quality of life will be
      assessed with three questionnaires taken before, during, and after treatment.
      RESULTS: First results are expected in the summer of 2018. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02385188; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02385188
      (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6sXygHuhP).

PMID- 28877864
TI  - Internet Searches and Their Relationship to Cognitive Function in Older Adults:
      Cross-Sectional Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a very challenging experience for all those
      affected. Unfortunately, detection of Alzheimer disease in its early stages when
      clinical treatments may be most effective is challenging, as the clinical
      evaluations are time-consuming and costly. Recent studies have demonstrated a
      close relationship between cognitive function and everyday behavior, an avenue of
      research that holds great promise for the early detection of cognitive decline.
      One area of behavior that changes with cognitive decline is language use.
      Multiple groups have demonstrated a close relationship between cognitive function
      and vocabulary size, verbal fluency, and semantic ability, using conventional in
      person cognitive testing. An alternative to this approach which is inherently
      ecologically valid may be to take advantage of automated computer monitoring
      software to continually capture and analyze language use while on the computer.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between
      Internet searches as a measure of language and cognitive function in older
      adults. We hypothesize that individuals with poorer cognitive function will
      search using fewer unique terms, employ shorter words, and use less obscure words
      in their searches. METHODS: Computer monitoring software (WorkTime, Nestersoft
      Inc) was used to continuously track the terms people entered while conducting
      searches in Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com. For all searches, punctuation,
      accents, and non-ASCII characters were removed, and the resulting search terms
      were spell-checked before any analysis. Cognitive function was evaluated as a z
      normalized summary score capturing five unique cognitive domains. Linear
      regression was used to determine the relationship between cognitive function and
      Internet searches by controlling for variables such as age, sex, and education.
      RESULTS: Over a 6-month monitoring period, 42 participants (mean age 81 years [SD
      10.5], 83% [35/42] female) conducted 2915 searches using these top search
      engines. Participants averaged 3.08 words per search (SD 1.6) and 5.77 letters
      per word (SD 2.2). Individuals with higher cognitive function used more unique
      terms per search (beta=.39, P=.002) and employed less common terms in their
      searches (beta=1.39, P=.02). Cognitive function was not significantly associated
      with the length of the words used in the searches. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      suggest that early decline in cognitive function may be detected from the terms
      people search for when they use the Internet. By continuously tracking basic
      aspects of Internet search terms, it may be possible to detect cognitive decline
      earlier than currently possible, thereby enabling proactive treatment and
      intervention.

PMID- 28877865
TI  - Developing a Web-Based Geolocated Directory of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
      Providing Clinics: The PrEP Locator Protocol and Operating Procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is
      highly effective in preventing HIV transmission, yet patients interested in
      learning more about PrEP or in getting a PrEP prescription may not be able to
      find local medical providers willing to prescribe PrEP. OBJECTIVE: We sought to
      create a national database of PrEP-providing clinics to allow for patients to
      have access to a unified, vetted source of PrEP providers in an easily accessible
      database. METHODS: To develop the protocol and operating procedures for the PrEP
      Locator, we conducted a series of 7 key informant interviews with experts who had
      organized PrEP or other HIV service directories. We convened an external advisory
      committee and a collaborators board to gain expert and community-situated
      perspectives. RESULTS: At its public release in September 2016, the database
      included 1,272 PrEP-providing clinics, including clinics in all 50 states and in
      Puerto Rico. Web searches, referrals, and outreach to state health departments
      identified 58 unique lists of PrEP-providing clinics, with 33 from state health
      departments, 6 from government localities, 2 from professional medical
      organizations, and 19 from nongovernmental organizations. Out of the 2,420
      clinics identified from the lists and Web searches, we removed 798 as duplicate
      entries, and we determined that 350 were ineligible for listing. The most common
      reasons for ineligibility were not having the appropriate medical licensure to
      prescribe PrEP (67/350) or not prescribing PrEP, based on self-report (192/350).
      Key informant interviews shaped important protocol decisions, such as listing
      clinics instead of individual clinicians as the primary data element and
      streamlining data collection to facilitate scalability. We developed a Web
      interface to provide public access to the data, with geolocated data display,
      search filter functionality, a webform for public suggestions of new clinics, and
      a publicly available directory Web tool that can be embedded in websites. In the
      6 months following release, preplocator.org and hosting websites had received
      over 35,000 unique views and 300 clinic additions, and 5 websites had initiated
      hosting of the widget. CONCLUSIONS: Directories exist for many preventive and
      treatment services. As new medical applications become available, there will be a
      corresponding need to develop new directories for service provision. Geolocated
      directories can assist patients in accessing care and have the potential to
      increase demand for and access to newer, more efficacious medical interventions.
      Early choices in the development of service directories have long-lasting impact,
      because once data collection begins, it can be challenging to reverse course. The
      PrEP Locator protocol may inform early decisions in the development of future
      service directories. Additionally, the case study on developing the PrEP Locator
      demonstrates the importance of formative work in identifying service-specific
      factors that can guide decisions on directory development.

PMID- 28877867
TI  - Different glucosamine sulfate products generate different outcomes on
      osteoarthritis symptoms.

PMID- 28877866
TI  - European evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of
      childhood-onset lupus nephritis: the SHARE initiative.
AB  - Lupus nephritis (LN) occurs in 50%-60% of patients with childhood-onset systemic
      lupus erythematosus (cSLE), leading to significant morbidity. Timely recognition
      of renal involvement and appropriate treatment are essential to prevent renal
      damage. The Single Hub and Access point for paediatric Rheumatology in Europe
      (SHARE) initiative aimed to generate diagnostic and management regimens for
      children and adolescents with rheumatic diseases including cSLE. Here, we provide
      evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of childhood LN.
      Recommendations were developed using the European League Against Rheumatism
      standard operating procedures. A European-wide expert committee including
      paediatric nephrology representation formulated recommendations using a nominal
      group technique. Six recommendations regarding diagnosis and 20 recommendations
      covering treatment choices and goals were accepted, including each class of LN,
      described in the International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society 2003
      classification system. Treatment goal should be complete renal response.
      Treatment of class I LN should mainly be guided by other symptoms. Class II LN
      should be treated initially with low-dose prednisone, only adding a disease
      modifying antirheumatic drug after 3 months of persistent proteinuria or
      prednisone dependency. Induction treatment of class III/IV LN should be
      mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) or intravenous cyclophosphamide combined with
      corticosteroids; maintenance treatment should be MMF or azathioprine for at least
      3 years. In pure class V LN, MMF with low-dose prednisone can be used as
      induction and MMF as maintenance treatment. The SHARE recommendations for
      diagnosis and treatment of LN have been generated to support uniform and high
      quality care for all children with SLE.

PMID- 28877869
TI  - Hemoglobin polymerization via disulfide bond formation in the hypoxia-tolerant
      turtle Trachemys scripta: implications for antioxidant defense and O2 transport.
AB  - The ability of many reptilian hemoglobins (Hbs) to form high-molecular weight
      polymers, albeit known for decades, has not been investigated in detail. Given
      that turtle Hbs often contain a high number of cysteine (Cys), potentially
      contributing to the red blood cell defense against reactive oxygen species, we
      have examined whether polymerization of Hb could occur via intermolecular
      disulfide bonds in red blood cells of freshwater turtle Trachemys scripta, a
      species that is highly tolerant of hypoxia and oxidative stress. We find that one
      of the two Hb isoforms of the hemolysate HbA is prone to polymerization in vitro
      into linear flexible chains of different size that are visible by electron
      microscopy but not the HbD isoform. Polymerization of purified HbA is favored by
      hydrogen peroxide, a main cellular reactive oxygen species and a thiol oxidant,
      and inhibited by thiol reduction and alkylation, indicating that HbA
      polymerization is due to disulfide bonds. By using mass spectrometry, we identify
      Cys5 of the alphaA-subunit of HbA as specifically responsible for forming
      disulfide bonds between adjacent HbA tetramers. Polymerization of HbA does not
      affect oxygen affinity, cooperativity, and sensitivity to the allosteric cofactor
      ATP, indicating that HbA is still fully functional. Polymers also form in T.
      scripta blood after exposure to anoxia but not normoxia, indicating that they are
      of physiological relevance. Taken together, these results show that HbA polymers
      may form during oxidative stress and that Cys5alphaA of HbA is a key element of
      the antioxidant capacity of turtle red blood cells.

PMID- 28877868
TI  - Impact of risk factors associated with cardiovascular outcomes in patients with
      rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an excess risk of
      cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to assess the impact of CVD risk factors,
      including potential sex differences, and RA-specific variables on CVD outcome in
      a large, international cohort of patients with RA. METHODS: In 13 rheumatology
      centres, data on CVD risk factors and RA characteristics were collected at
      baseline. CVD outcomes (myocardial infarction, angina, revascularisation, stroke,
      peripheral vascular disease and CVD death) were collected using standardised
      definitions. RESULTS: 5638 patients with RA and no prior CVD were included (mean
      age: 55.3 (SD: 14.0) years, 76% women). During mean follow-up of 5.8 (SD: 4.4)
      years, 148 men and 241 women developed a CVD event (10-year cumulative incidence
      20.9% and 11.1%, respectively). Men had a higher burden of CVD risk factors,
      including increased blood pressure, higher total cholesterol and smoking
      prevalence than women (all p<0.001). Among the traditional CVD risk factors,
      smoking and hypertension had the highest population attributable risk (PAR)
      overall and among both sexes, followed by total cholesterol. The PAR for Disease
      Activity Score and for seropositivity were comparable in magnitude to the PAR for
      lipids. A total of 70% of CVD events were attributable to all CVD risk factors
      and RA characteristics combined (separately 49% CVD risk factors and 30% RA
      characteristics). CONCLUSIONS: In a large, international cohort of patients with
      RA, 30% of CVD events were attributable to RA characteristics. This finding
      indicates that RA characteristics play an important role in efforts to reduce CVD
      risk among patients with RA.

PMID- 28877870
TI  - Circadian variability of body temperature responses to methamphetamine.
AB  - Vital parameters of living organisms exhibit circadian rhythmicity. Although rats
      are nocturnal animals, most of the studies involving rats are performed during
      the day. The objective of this study was to examine the circadian variability of
      the body temperature responses to methamphetamine. Body temperature was recorded
      in male Sprague-Dawley rats that received intraperitoneal injections of
      methamphetamine (Meth, 1 or 5 mg/kg) or saline at 10 AM or at 10 PM. The baseline
      body temperature at night was 0.8 degrees C higher than during the day. Both
      during the day and at night, 1 mg/kg of Meth induced monophasic hyperthermia.
      However, the maximal temperature increase at night was 50% smaller than during
      the daytime. Injection of 5 mg/kg of Meth during the daytime caused a delayed
      hyperthermic response. In contrast, the same dose at night produced responses
      with a tendency toward a decrease of body temperature. Using mathematical
      modeling, we previously showed that the complex dose dependence of the daytime
      temperature responses to Meth results from an interplay between inhibitory and
      excitatory drives. In this study, using our model, we explain the suppression of
      the hyperthermia in response to Meth at night. First, we found that the baseline
      activity of the excitatory drive is greater at night. It appears partially
      saturated and thus is additionally activated by Meth to a lesser extent.
      Therefore, the excitatory component causes less hyperthermia or becomes
      overpowered by the inhibitory drive in response to the higher dose. Second, at
      night the injection of Meth results in reduction of the equilibrium body
      temperature, leading to gradual cooling counteracting hyperthermia.

PMID- 28877872
TI  - Insulin sensitivity, leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and testosterone in adult
      male and female rats after maternal-neonatal separation and environmental stress.
AB  - Care of premature infants often requires parental and caregiver separation,
      particularly during hypoxic and hypothermic episodes. We have established a
      neonatal rat model of human prematurity involving maternal-neonatal separation
      and hypoxia with spontaneous hypothermia prevented by external heat. Adults
      previously exposed to these neonatal stressors show a sex difference in the
      insulin and glucose response to arginine stimulation suggesting a state of
      insulin resistance. The current study used this cohort of adult rats to evaluate
      insulin resistance [homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA
      IR)], plasma adipokines (reflecting insulin resistance states), and testosterone.
      The major findings were that daily maternal-neonatal separation led to an
      increase in body weight and HOMA-IR in adult male and female rats and increased
      plasma leptin in adult male rats only; neither prior neonatal hypoxia (without or
      with body temperature control) nor neonatal hypothermia altered subsequent adult
      HOMA-IR or plasma adiponectin. Adult male-female differences in plasma leptin
      were lost with prior exposure to neonatal hypoxia or hypothermia; male-female
      differences in resistin were lost in the adults that were exposed to hypoxia and
      spontaneous hypothermia as neonates. Exposure of neonates to daily hypoxia
      without spontaneous hypothermia led to a decrease in plasma testosterone in adult
      male rats. We conclude that neonatal stressors result in subsequent adult sex
      dependent increases in insulin resistance and adipokines and that our rat model
      of prematurity with hypoxia without hypothermia alters adult testosterone
      dynamics.

PMID- 28877871
TI  - Comparative NMR and NIRS analysis of oxygen-dependent metabolism in exercising
      finger flexor muscles.
AB  - Muscle contraction requires the physiology to adapt rapidly to meet the surge in
      energy demand. To investigate the shift in metabolic control, especially between
      oxygen and metabolism, researchers often depend on near-infrared spectroscopy
      (NIRS) to measure noninvasively the tissue O2 Because NIRS detects the
      overlapping myoglobin (Mb) and hemoglobin (Hb) signals in muscle, interpreting
      the data as an index of cellular or vascular O2 requires deconvoluting the
      relative contribution. Currently, many in the NIRS field ascribe the signal to
      Hb. In contrast, 1H NMR has only detected the Mb signal in contracting muscle,
      and comparative NIRS and NMR experiments indicate a predominant Mb contribution.
      The present study has examined the question of the NIRS signal origin by
      measuring simultaneously the 1H NMR, 31P NMR, and NIRS signals in finger flexor
      muscles during the transition from rest to contraction, recovery, ischemia, and
      reperfusion. The experiment results confirm a predominant Mb contribution to the
      NIRS signal from muscle. Given the NMR and NIRS corroborated changes in the
      intracellular O2, the analysis shows that at the onset of muscle contraction, O2
      declines immediately and reaches new steady states as contraction intensity
      rises. Moreover, lactate formation increases even under quite aerobic condition.

PMID- 28877874
TI  - Fostering research into antimicrobial resistance in India.

PMID- 28877873
TI  - The in vitro zebrafish heart as a model to investigate the chronotropic effects
      of vapor anesthetics.
AB  - In addition to their intended clinical actions, all general anesthetic agents in
      common use have detrimental intrasurgical and postsurgical side effects on organs
      and systems, including the heart. The major cardiac side effect of anesthesia is
      bradycardia, which increases the probability of insufficient systemic perfusion
      during surgery. These side effects also occur in all vertebrate species so far
      examined, but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. The zebrafish heart is a
      powerful model for studying cardiac electrophysiology, employing the same
      pacemaker system and neural control as do mammalian hearts. In this study,
      isolated zebrafish hearts were significantly bradycardic during exposure to the
      vapor anesthetics sevoflurane (SEVO), desflurane (DES), and isoflurane (ISO).
      Bradycardia induced by DES and ISO continued during pharmacological blockade of
      the intracardiac portion of the autonomic nervous system, but the chronotropic
      effect of SEVO was eliminated during blockade. Bradycardia evoked by
      vagosympathetic nerve stimulation was augmented during DES and ISO exposure;
      nerve stimulation during SEVO exposure had no effect. Together, these results
      support the hypothesis that the cardiac chronotropic effect of SEVO occurs via a
      neurally mediated mechanism, while DES and ISO act directly upon cardiac
      pacemaker cells via an as yet unknown mechanism.

PMID- 28877876
TI  - Sex Differences in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention-Insights From the Coronary
      Angiography and PCI Registry of the German Society of Cardiology.

PMID- 28877875
TI  - Metabolic Syndrome Risks Following the Great Recession in Rural Black Young
      Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Some of the country's highest rates of morbidity and mortality from
      cardiovascular disease are found in lower-income black communities in the rural
      Southeast. Research suggests these disparities originate in the early decades of
      life, and partly reflect the influence of broader socioeconomic forces acting on
      behavioral and biological processes that accelerate cardiovascular disease
      progression. However, this hypothesis has not been tested explicitly. Here, we
      examine metabolic syndrome (MetS) in rural black young adults as a function of
      their family's economic conditions before and after the Great Recession. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: In an ongoing prospective study, we followed 328 black youth from
      rural Georgia, who were 16 to 17 years old when the Great Recession began. When
      youth were 25, we assessed MetS prevalence using the International Diabetes
      Federation's guidelines. The sample's overall MetS prevalence was 18.6%, but
      rates varied depending on family economic trajectory from before to after the
      Great Recession. MetS prevalence was lowest (10.4%) among youth whose families
      maintained stable low-income conditions across the Recession. It was intermediate
      (21.8%) among downwardly mobile youth (ie, those whose families were lower income
      before the Recession, but slipped into poverty). The highest MetS rates (27.5%)
      were among youth whose families began the Recession in poverty, and sank into
      more meager conditions afterwards. The same patterns were observed with 3
      alternative MetS definitions. CONCLUSIONS: These patterns suggest that broader
      economic forces shape cardiometabolic risk in young blacks, and may exacerbate
      disparities already present in this community.

PMID- 28877877
TI  - Acute blood loss stimulates fibroblast growth factor 23 production.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) production is upregulated by iron deficiency
      and hypoxia. However, the influence of acute blood loss, and the resulting
      increases in circulating erythropoietin, on FGF23 production is unknown. Using
      wild-type C57BL/6 mice, we show that acute loss of 10% total blood volume leads
      to an increase in plasma C-terminal FGF23 (cFGF23) levels within 6 h, while
      plasma levels of intact FGF23, phosphate, calcium, parathyroid hormone, iron, and
      ferritin remain similar to control mice without acute blood loss. Volume
      resuscitation with PBS did not significantly alter these findings. The increase
      in plasma cFGF23 levels in bled animals was accompanied by increased plasma
      erythropoietin levels at 6 h. Administration of erythropoietin led to an acute
      increase in plasma cFGF23 levels similar to that observed in acute blood loss.
      Fgf23 mRNA expression was increased 20-fold in bone marrow, but not in bone, of
      bled vs. control mice, suggesting bone marrow as a key source of elevated plasma
      FGF23 levels following acute blood loss. To extend these findings to humans, we
      measured plasma cFGF23 levels in 131 critically ill patients admitted to the
      intensive care unit. In univariate and multivariate models, we found a positive
      association between number of red blood cell transfusions, an indirect indicator
      of acute blood loss, and plasma cFGF23 levels. We conclude that FGF23 production
      is rapidly increased after acute blood loss and that erythropoietin may be the
      mediator of this increase. Thus erythropoietin may represent a novel
      physiological regulator of FGF23 production.

PMID- 28877878
TI  - Angiotensin II type 1a receptor-deficient mice develop angiotensin II-induced
      oxidative stress and DNA damage without blood pressure increase.
AB  - Hypertensive patients have an increased risk of developing kidney cancer. We have
      shown in vivo that besides elevating blood pressure, angiotensin II causes DNA
      damage dose dependently. Here, the role of blood pressure in the formation of DNA
      damage is studied. Mice lacking one of the two murine angiotensin II type 1
      receptor (AT1R) subtypes, AT1aR, were equipped with osmotic minipumps, delivering
      angiotensin II during 28 days. Parameters of oxidative stress and DNA damage of
      kidneys and hearts of AT1aR-knockout mice were compared with wild-type (C57BL/6)
      mice receiving angiotensin II, and additionally, with wild-type mice treated with
      candesartan, an antagonist of both AT1R subtypes. In wild-type mice, angiotensin
      II induced hypertension, reduced kidney function, and led to a significant
      formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, genomic damage was
      markedly increased in this group. All these responses to angiotensin II could be
      attenuated by concurrent administration of candesartan. In AT1aR-deficient mice
      treated with angiotensin II, systolic pressure was not increased, and renal
      function was not affected. However, angiotensin II still led to an increase of
      ROS in kidneys and hearts of these animals. Additionally, genomic damage in the
      form of double-strand breaks was significantly induced in kidneys of AT1aR
      deficient mice. Our results show that angiotensin II induced ROS production and
      DNA damage even without the presence of AT1aR and independently of blood pressure
      changes.

PMID- 28877879
TI  - Uninephrectomy and apical fluid shear stress decrease ENaC abundance in
      collecting duct principal cells.
AB  - Acute nephron reduction such as after living kidney donation may increase the
      risk of hypertension. Uninephrectomy induces major hemodynamic changes in the
      remaining kidney, resulting in rapid increase of single-nephron glomerular
      filtration rate (GFR) and fluid delivery in the distal nephron. Decreased sodium
      (Na) fractional reabsorption after the distal tubule has been reported after
      uninephrectomy in animals preserving volume homeostasis. In the present study, we
      thought to specifically explore the effect of unilateral nephrectomy on
      epithelial Na channel (ENaC) subunit expression in mice. We show that gamma-ENaC
      subunit surface expression was specifically downregulated after uninephrectomy,
      whereas the expression of the aldosterone-sensitive alpha-ENaC and alpha1-Na-K
      ATPase subunits as well as of kidney-specific Na-K-Cl cotransporter isoform and
      Na-Cl cotransporter were not significantly altered. Because acute nephron
      reduction induces a rapid increase of single-nephron GFR, resulting in a higher
      tubular fluid flow, we speculated that local mechanical factors such as fluid
      shear stress (FSS) were involved in Na reabsorption regulation after
      uninephrectomy. We further explore such hypothesis in an in vitro model of FSS
      applied on highly differentiated collecting duct principal cells. We found that
      FSS specifically downregulates beta-ENaC and gamma-ENaC subunits at the
      transcriptional level through an unidentified heat-insensitive paracrine
      basolateral factor. The primary cilium as a potential mechanosensor was not
      required. In contrast, protein kinase A and calcium-sensitive cytosolic
      phospholipase A2 were involved, but we could not demonstrate a role for
      cyclooxygenase or epoxygenase metabolites.

PMID- 28877880
TI  - Altered vasopressin and natriuretic peptide levels in a rat model of spinal cord
      injury: implications for the development of polyuria.
AB  - Urinary dysfunction is a common complaint following spinal cord injury (SCI) and
      is a leading issue for individuals with SCI that impacts their quality of life.
      One urinary complication that has received little attention is SCI-induced
      polyuria, even though individuals with SCI will significantly restrict their
      fluid intake to decrease urine production, leading to sequelae of medical
      complications. Understanding the mechanisms instigating the development of
      polyuria will allow us to target interventions that may alleviate polyuria
      symptoms, leading to significant improvements in the quality of life and urinary
      health of individuals with SCI. In a rat SCI contusion model, an increase in the
      amount of urine excreted over a 24-h period ( P <= 0.001) was found at 2 wk
      postinjury. The urine excreted was more dilute with decreased urinary creatinine
      and specific gravity ( P <= 0.001). Several factors important in fluid balance
      regulation, vasopressin (AVP), natriuretic peptides, and corticosterone (CORT),
      also changed significantly postinjury. AVP levels decreased ( P = 0.042), whereas
      atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and CORT increased ( P = 0.005 and P = 0.031,
      respectively) at 2 wk postinjury. There was also a positive correlation between
      the increase in ANP and urine volume postinjury ( P = 0.033). The changes in AVP,
      ANP, and CORT are conducive to producing polyuria, and the timing of these
      changes coincides with the development of SCI-induced polyuria. This study
      identifies several therapeutic targets that could be used to ameliorate polyuria
      symptoms and improve quality of life in individuals with SCI.

PMID- 28877883
TI  - Versatility of NaCl transport mechanisms in the cortical collecting duct.
AB  - The cortical collecting duct (CCD) forms part of the aldosterone-sensitive distal
      nephron and plays an essential role in maintaining the NaCl balance and acid-base
      status. The CCD epithelium comprises principal cells as well as different types
      of intercalated cells. Until recently, transcellular Na+ transport was thought to
      be restricted to principal cells, whereas (acid-secreting) type A and
      (bicarbonate-secreting) type B intercalated cells were associated with the
      regulation of acid-base homeostasis. This review describes how this traditional
      view has been upended by several discoveries in the past decade. A series of
      studies has shown that type B intercalated cells can mediate electroneutral NaCl
      reabsorption by a mechanism involving Na+-dependent and Na+-independent Cl
      /[Formula: see text] exchange, and that is energetically driven by basolateral
      vacuolar H+-ATPase pumps. Other research indicates that type A intercalated cells
      can mediate NaCl secretion, through a bumetanide-sensitive pathway that is
      energized by apical H+,K+-ATPase type 2 pumps operating as Na+/K+ exchangers. We
      also review recent findings on the contribution of the paracellular route to NaCl
      transport in the CCD. Last, we describe cross-talk processes, by which one CCD
      cell type impacts Na+/Cl- transport in another cell type. The mechanisms that
      have been identified to date demonstrate clearly the interdependence of NaCl and
      acid-base transport systems in the CCD. They also highlight the remarkable
      versatility of this nephron segment.

PMID- 28877882
TI  - Mechanotransduction signaling in podocytes from fluid flow shear stress.
AB  - Recently, we and others have found that hyperfiltration-associated increase in
      biomechanical forces, namely, tensile stress and fluid flow shear stress (FFSS),
      can directly and distinctly alter podocyte structure and function. The
      ultrafiltrate flow over the major processes and cell body generates FFSS to
      podocytes. Our previous work suggests that the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-PGE2-PGE2
      receptor 2 (EP2) axis plays an important role in mechanoperception of FFSS in
      podocytes. To address mechanotransduction of the perceived stimulus through EP2,
      cultured podocytes were exposed to FFSS (2 dyn/cm2) for 2 h. Total RNA from cells
      at the end of FFSS treatment, 2-h post-FFSS, and 24-h post-FFSS was used for
      whole exon array analysis. Differentially regulated genes ( P < 0.01) were
      analyzed using bioinformatics tools Enrichr and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis to
      predict pathways/molecules. Candidate pathways were validated using Western blot
      analysis and then further confirmed to be resulting from a direct effect of PGE2
      on podocytes. Results show that FFSS-induced mechanotransduction as well as
      exogenous PGE2 activate the Akt-GSK3beta-beta-catenin (Ser552) and MAPK/ERK but
      not the cAMP-PKA signal transduction cascades. These pathways are reportedly
      associated with FFSS-induced and EP2-mediated signaling in other epithelial cells
      as well. The current regimen for treating hyperfiltration-mediated injury largely
      depends on targeting the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. The present study
      identifies specific transduction mechanisms and provides novel information on the
      direct effect of FFSS on podocytes. These results suggest that targeting EP2
      mediated signaling pathways holds therapeutic significance for delaying
      progression of chronic kidney disease secondary to hyperfiltration.

PMID- 28877885
TI  - Bicuspid Aortic Valve: What to Image in Patients Considered for Transcatheter
      Aortic Valve Replacement?

PMID- 28877884
TI  - Aberrant Smad3 phosphoisoforms in cyst-lining epithelial cells in the cpk mouse,
      a model of autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - Cystic epithelia acquire mesenchymal-like features in polycystic kidney disease
      (PKD). In this phenotypic alteration, it is well known that transforming growth
      factor (TGF)-beta/Smad3 signaling is involved; however, there is emerging new
      data on Smad3 phosphoisoforms: Smad3 phosphorylated at linker regions (pSmad3L),
      COOH-terminal regions (pSmad3C), and both (pSmad3L/C). pSmad3L/C has a
      pathological role in colorectal cancer. Mesenchymal phenotype-specific cell
      responses in the TGF-beta/Smad3 pathway are implicated in carcinomas. In this
      study, we confirmed mesenchymal features and examined Smad3 phosphoisoforms in
      the cpk mouse, a model of autosomal recessive PKD. Kidney sections were stained
      with antibodies against mesenchymal markers and domain-specific phospho-Smad3.
      TGF-beta, pSmad3L, pSmad3C, JNK, cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4, and c-Myc were
      evaluated by Western blotting. Cophosphorylation of pSmad3L/C was assessed by
      immunoprecipitation. alpha-Smooth muscle actin, which indicates mesenchymal
      features, was expressed higher in cpk mice. pSmad3L expression was increased in
      cpk mice and was predominantly localized in the nuclei of tubular epithelial
      cells in cysts; however, pSmad3C was equally expressed in both cpk and control
      mice. Levels of pSmad3L, JNK, CDK4, and c-Myc protein in nuclei were
      significantly higher in cpk mice than in controls. Immunoprecipitation showed
      that Smad3 was cophosphorylated (pSmad3L/C) in cpk mice. Smad3 knockout/cpk
      double-mutant mice revealed amelioration of cpk abnormalities. These findings
      suggest that upregulating c-Myc through the JNK/CDK4-dependent pSmad3L pathway
      may be key to the pathophysiology in cpk mice. In conclusion, a qualitative
      rather than a quantitative abnormality of the TGF-beta/Smad3 pathway is involved
      in PKD and may be a target for disease-specific intervention.

PMID- 28877881
TI  - Regulatory T cells in acute and chronic kidney diseases.
AB  - Foxp3-expressing CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) make up one subset of the helper
      T cells (Th) and are one of the major mechanisms of peripheral tolerance. Tregs
      prevent abnormal activation of the immune system throughout the lifespan, thus
      protecting from autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Recent studies have
      elucidated the role of Tregs beyond autoimmunity. Tregs play important functions
      in controlling not only innate and adaptive immune cell activation, but also
      regulate nonimmune cell function during insults and injury. Inflammation
      contributes to a multitude of acute and chronic diseases affecting the kidneys.
      This review examines the role of Tregs in pathogenesis of renal inflammatory
      diseases and explores the approaches for enhancing Tregs for prevention and
      therapy of renal inflammation.

PMID- 28877886
TI  - Pulmonary Right Ventricular Resynchronization in Congenital Heart Disease: Acute
      Improvement in Right Ventricular Mechanics and Contraction Efficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electromechanical discoordination may contribute to long-term
      pulmonary right ventricular (RV) dysfunction in patients after surgery for
      congenital heart disease. We sought to evaluate changes in RV function after
      temporary RV cardiac resynchronization therapy. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-five
      patients aged median 12.0 years after repair of tetralogy of Fallot and similar
      lesions were studied echocardiographically (n=23) and by cardiac catheterization
      (n=5) after primary repair (n=4) or after surgical RV revalvulation for
      significant pulmonary regurgitation (n=21). Temporary RV cardiac
      resynchronization therapy was applied in the presence of complete right bundle
      branch block by atrial-synchronized RV free wall pacing in complete fusion with
      spontaneous ventricular depolarization using temporary electrodes. The q-RV
      interval at the RV free wall pacing site (mean 77.2% of baseline QRS duration)
      confirmed pacing from a late activated RV area. RV cardiac resynchronization
      therapy carried significant decrease in QRS duration (P<0.001) along with
      elimination of the right bundle branch block QRS morphology, increase in RV
      filling time (P=0.002), pulmonary artery velocity time integral (P=0.006), and RV
      maximum +dP/dt (P<0.001), and decrease in RV index of myocardial performance
      (P=0.006). RV mechanical synchrony improved: septal-to-lateral RV mechanical
      delay decreased (P<0.001) and signs of RV dyssynchrony pattern were significantly
      abolished. RV systolic stretch fraction reflecting the ratio of myocardial
      stretching and contraction during systole diminished (P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In
      patients with congenital heart disease and right bundle branch block, RV cardiac
      resynchronization therapy carried multiple positive effects on RV mechanics,
      synchrony, and contraction efficiency.

PMID- 28877887
TI  - Another Step in the Right Direction: Resynchronizing the Dyssynchronous Right
      Ventricle Improves Its Efficiency and Function.

PMID- 28877888
TI  - A Novel 18-Marker Panel Predicting Clinical Outcome in Breast Cancer.
AB  - Background: Gene expression profiling has made considerable contributions to our
      understanding of cancer biology and clinical care. This study describes a novel
      gene expression signature for breast cancer-specific survival that was validated
      using external datasets.Methods: Gene expression signatures for invasive breast
      carcinomas (mainly luminal B subtype) corresponding to 136 patients were analyzed
      using Cox regression, and the effect of each gene on disease-specific survival
      (DSS) was estimated. Iterative Bayesian model averaging was applied on
      multivariable Cox regression models resulting in an 18-marker panel, which was
      validated using three external validation datasets. The 18 genes were analyzed
      for common pathways and functions using the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software.
      This study complied with the REMARK criteria.Results: The 18-gene multivariable
      model showed a high predictive power for DSS in the training and validation
      cohort and a clear stratification between high- and low-risk patients. The
      differentially expressed genes were predominantly involved in biological
      processes such as cell cycle, DNA replication, recombination, and repair.
      Furthermore, the majority of the 18 genes were found to play a pivotal role in
      cancer.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that the 18 molecular markers were
      strong predictors of breast cancer-specific mortality. The stable time-dependent
      area under the ROC curve function (AUC(t)) and high C-indices in the training and
      validation cohorts were further improved by fitting a combined model consisting
      of the 18-marker panel and established clinical markers.Impact: Our work supports
      the applicability of this 18-marker panel to improve clinical outcome prediction
      for breast cancer patients. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(11); 1619-28.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28877889
TI  - Alcohol, Physical Activity, Smoking, and Breast Cancer Subtypes in a Large,
      Nested Case-Control Study from the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program.
AB  - Background: To what extent alcohol, smoking, and physical activity are associated
      with the various subtypes of breast cancer is not clear. We took advantage of a
      large population-based screening cohort to determine whether these risk factors
      also increase the risk of the poor prognosis subtypes.Methods: We conducted a
      matched case-control study nested within the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening
      Program during 2006-2014. A total of 4,402 breast cancer cases with risk factor
      and receptor data were identified. Five controls were matched to each case on
      year of birth and year of screening. Conditional logistic regression was used to
      estimate ORs of breast cancer subtypes adjusted for potential
      confounders.Results: There were 2,761 luminal A-like, 709 luminal B-like HER2
      negative, 367 luminal B-like HER2-positive, 204 HER2-positive, and 361 triple
      negative cancers. Current alcohol consumption was associated with breast cancer
      risk overall [OR 1.26; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09-1.45] comparing 6+
      glasses a week to never drinkers. However, this risk increase was found only for
      luminal A-like breast cancer. Smoking 20+ cigarettes a day was associated with an
      OR of 1.41 (95% CI, 1.06-1.89) overall, with significant trends for luminal A
      like and luminal B-like HER2-negative cancer. Current physical activity (4+
      hours/week compared with none) was associated with 15% decreased risk of luminal
      A-like cancer, but not clearly with other subtypes.Conclusions: In this large
      study, alcohol, smoking, and physical activity were predominantly associated with
      luminal A-like breast cancer.Impact: Alcohol, smoking, and physical activity were
      associated with luminal A-like breast cancer subtype. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers
      Prev; 26(12); 1736-44. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28877890
TI  - Tackling iron deficiency in infants: galacto-oligosaccharides may be up to the
      task.

PMID- 28877892
TI  - Supplementing a normal diet with protein yields a moderate improvement in the
      robust gains in muscle mass and strength induced by resistance training in older
      individuals.

PMID- 28877891
TI  - Investigating predictors of eating: is resting metabolic rate really the
      strongest proxy of energy intake?
AB  - Background: Evidence suggests that fat-free mass and resting metabolic rate
      (RMR), but not fat mass, are strong predictors of energy intake (EI). However,
      body composition and RMR do not explain the entire variance in EI, suggesting
      that other factors may contribute to this variance.Objective: We aimed to
      investigate the associations between body mass index (in kg/m2), fat mass, fat
      free mass, and RMR with acute (1 meal) and daily (24-h) EI and between fasting
      appetite ratings and certain eating behavior traits with daily EI. We also
      evaluated whether RMR is a predictor of the error variance in acute and daily
      EI.Design: Data collected during the control condition of 7 studies conducted in
      Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, were included in these analyses (n = 191 and 55 for
      acute and daily EI, respectively). These data include RMR (indirect calorimetry),
      body composition (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), fasting appetite ratings
      (visual analog scales), eating behavior traits (Three-Factor Eating
      Questionnaire), and EI (food buffet or menu).Results: Fat-free mass was the best
      predictor of acute EI (R2 = 0.46; P < 0.0001). The combination of fasting
      prospective food consumption ratings and RMR was the best predictor of daily EI
      (R2 = 0.44; P < 0.0001). RMR was a statistically significant positive predictor
      of the error variance for acute (R2 = 0.20; P < 0.0001) and daily (R2 = 0.23; P <
      0.0001) EI. RMR did, however, remain a statistically significant predictor of
      acute (R2 = 0.32; P < 0.0001) and daily (R2 = 0.30; P < 0.0001) EI after
      controlling for this error variance.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that
      combined measurements of appetite ratings and RMR could be used to estimate EI in
      weight-stable individuals. However, greater error variance in acute and daily EI
      with increasing RMR values was observed. Future studies are needed to identify
      whether greater fluctuations in daily EI over time occur with increasing RMR
      values. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02653378.

PMID- 28877893
TI  - Randomized controlled trial on the impact of early-life intervention with
      bifidobacteria on the healthy infant fecal microbiota and metabolome.
AB  - Background: Early-life colonization of the intestinal tract is a dynamic process
      influenced by numerous factors. The impact of probiotic-supplemented infant
      formula on the composition and function of the infant gut microbiota is not well
      defined.Objective: We sought to determine the effects of a bifidobacteria
      containing formula on the healthy human intestinal microbiome during the first
      year of life.Design: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of
      newborn infants assigned to a standard whey-based formula containing a total of
      107 colony-forming units (CFU)/g of Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium
      breve, Bifidobacterium longum, B. longum subspecies infantis (intervention), or
      to a control formula without bifidobacteria (placebo). Breastfed controls were
      included. Diversity and composition of fecal microbiota were determined by 16S
      ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing, and metabolite profiles were analyzed by
      ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry over a period of 2
      y.Results: Infants (n = 106) were randomly assigned to either the interventional
      (n = 48) or placebo (n = 49) group; 9 infants were exclusively breastfed
      throughout the entire intervention period of 12 mo. Infants exposed to
      bifidobacteria-supplemented formula showed decreased occurrence of Bacteroides
      and Blautia spp. associated with changes in lipids and unknown metabolites at
      month 1. Microbiota and metabolite profiles of intervention and placebo groups
      converged during the study period, and long-term colonization (24 mo) of the
      supplemented Bifidobacterium strains was not detected. Significant differences in
      microbiota and metabolites were detected between infants fed breast milk and
      those fed formula (P < 0.005) and between infants birthed vaginally and those
      birthed by cesarean delivery (P < 0.005). No significant differences were
      observed between infant feeding groups regarding growth, antibiotic uptake, or
      other health variables (P > 0.05).Conclusion: The supplementation of
      bifidobacteria to infant diet can modulate the occurrence of specific bacteria
      and metabolites during early life with no detectable long-term effects. This
      trial was registered at germanctr.de as DRKS00003660.

PMID- 28877894
TI  - Later circadian timing of food intake is associated with increased body fat.
AB  - Background: Weight gain and obesity have reached alarming levels. Eating at a
      later clock hour is a newly described risk factor for adverse metabolic health;
      yet, how eating at a later circadian time influences body composition is unknown.
      Using clock hour to document eating times may be misleading owing to individual
      differences in circadian timing relative to clock hour.Objective: This study
      examined the relations between the timing of food consumption relative to clock
      hour and endogenous circadian time, content of food intake, and body
      composition.Design: We enrolled 110 participants, aged 18-22 y, in a 30-d cross
      sectional study to document sleep and circadian behaviors within their regular
      daily routines. We used a time-stamped-picture mobile phone application to record
      all food intake across 7 consecutive days during a participant's regular daily
      routines and assessed their body composition and timing of melatonin release
      during an in-laboratory assessment.Results: Nonlean individuals (high body fat)
      consumed most of their calories 1.1 h closer to melatonin onset, which heralds
      the beginning of the biological night, than did lean individuals (low body fat)
      (log-rank P = 0.009). In contrast, there were no differences between lean and
      nonlean individuals in the clock hour of food consumption (P = 0.72). Multiple
      regression analysis showed that the timing of food intake relative to melatonin
      onset was significantly associated with the percentage of body fat and body mass
      index (both P < 0.05) while controlling for sex, whereas no relations were found
      between the clock hour of food intake, caloric amount, meal macronutrient
      composition, activity or exercise level, or sleep duration and either of these
      body composition measures (all P > 0.72).Conclusions: These results provide
      evidence that the consumption of food during the circadian evening and/or night,
      independent of more traditional risk factors such as amount or content of food
      intake and activity level, plays an important role in body composition. This
      trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02846077.

PMID- 28877895
TI  - Trajectories of maternal weight from before pregnancy through postpartum and
      associations with childhood obesity.
AB  - Background: Prepregnancy body mass index [BMI (in kg/m2)], gestational weight
      gain, and postpartum weight retention may have distinct effects on the
      development of child obesity, but their combined effect is currently
      unknown.Objective: We described longitudinal trajectories of maternal weight from
      before pregnancy through the postpartum period and assessed the relations between
      maternal weight trajectories and offspring obesity in childhood.Design: We
      analyzed data from 4436 pairs of mothers and their children in the National
      Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (1981-2014). We used latent-class growth
      modeling in addition to national recommendations for prepregnancy BMI,
      gestational weight gain, and postpartum weight retention to create maternal
      weight trajectory groups. We used modified Poisson regression models to assess
      the associations between maternal weight trajectory group and offspring obesity
      at 3 age periods (2-5, 6-11, and 12-19 y).Results: Our analysis using maternal
      weight trajectories based on either latent-class results or recommendations
      showed that the risk of child obesity was lowest in the lowest maternal weight
      trajectory group. The differences in obesity risk were largest after 5 y of age
      and persisted into adolescence. In the latent-class analysis, the highest-order
      maternal weight trajectory group consisted almost entirely of women who were
      obese before pregnancy and was associated with a >2-fold increase in the risk of
      offspring obesity at ages 6-11 y (adjusted RR: 2.39; 95% CI: 1.97, 2.89) and 12
      19 y (adjusted RR: 2.74; 95% CI: 2.13, 3.52). In the analysis with maternal
      weight trajectory groups based on recommendations, the risk of child obesity was
      consistently highest for women who were overweight or obese at the beginning of
      pregnancy.Conclusion: These findings suggest that high maternal weight across the
      childbearing period increases the risk of obesity in offspring during childhood,
      but high prepregnancy BMI has a stronger influence than either gestational weight
      gain or postpartum weight retention.

PMID- 28877897
TI  - Sensitivity and specificity are not appropriate for diagnostic reasoning.

PMID- 28877896
TI  - Intake of potassium- and magnesium-enriched salt improves functional outcome
      after stroke: a randomized, multicenter, double-blind controlled trial.
AB  - Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and neurologic
      deficits. Management measures to improve neurologic outcomes are in great need.
      Our previous intervention trial in elderly subjects successfully used salt as a
      carrier for potassium, demonstrating a 41% reduction in cardiovascular mortality
      by switching to potassium-enriched salt. Dietary magnesium has been associated
      with lowered diabetes and/or stroke risk in humans and with neuroprotection in
      animals.Objective: Because a large proportion of Taiwanese individuals are in
      marginal deficiency states for potassium and for magnesium and salt is a good
      carrier for minerals, it is justifiable to study whether further enriching salt
      with magnesium at an amount near the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) amount may
      provide additional benefit for stroke recovery.Design: This was a double-blind,
      randomized controlled trial comprising 291 discharged stroke patients with
      modified Rankin scale (mRS) <=4. There were 3 arms: 1) regular salt (Na salt) (n
      = 99), 2) potassium-enriched salt (K salt) (n = 97), and 3) potassium- and
      magnesium-enriched salt (K/Mg salt) (n = 95). The NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS),
      Barthel Index (BI), and mRS were evaluated at discharge, at 3 mo, and at 6 mo. A
      good neurologic performance was defined by NIHSS = 0, BI = 100, and mRS
      <=1.Results: After the 6-mo intervention, the proportion of patients with good
      neurologic performance increased in a greater magnitude in the K/Mg salt group
      than in the K salt group and the Na salt group, in that order. The K/Mg salt
      group had a significantly increased OR (2.25; 95% CI: 1.09, 4.67) of achieving
      good neurologic performance compared with the Na salt group. But the effect of K
      salt alone (OR: 1.58; 95% CI: 0.77, 3.22) was not significant.Conclusions: This
      study suggests that providing the DRI amount of magnesium and potassium together
      long term is beneficial for stroke patient recovery from neurologic deficits.
      This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02910427.

PMID- 28877899
TI  - Equipping NK Cells with CARs.
AB  - Adding a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to natural killer (NK) cells is
      garnering interest as a therapeutic strategy because this immune cell type
      doesn't cause graft-versus-host disease, making its widespread, off-the-shelf use
      feasible. Based on promising preclinical data, a phase I/II trial of one such CAR
      NK-cell therapy is under way, targeting CD19 in hematologic malignancies.

PMID- 28877898
TI  - Diagnosis and management of endometriosis: summary of NICE guidance.

PMID- 28877900
TI  - Gilead Buying Kite for $11.9 Billion.
AB  - Gilead Sciences will buy Kite Pharma-and its autologous CAR T-cell technology-for
      $11.9 billion. The acquisition will help Gilead build its oncology portfolio and
      boost its revenues.

PMID- 28877901
TI  - Margaret McCartney: Nuclear weapons do harm, even if never used.

PMID- 28877902
TI  - Sixty seconds on . . . the private finance initiative.

PMID- 28877903
TI  - David Sanders: Privileged to serve patients.

PMID- 28877904
TI  - The impact of the junior doctor contract-one year on.

PMID- 28877906
TI  - Conference organisers swimming against the tide of Twitter.

PMID- 28877905
TI  - Perioperative tobacco use treatments: putting them into practice.
AB  - Treatment for tobacco use is efficacious and beneficial to health. Although
      guidelines recommend that all patients who use tobacco are offered treatment as a
      part of their clinical care, implementing treatment has proven challenging. In
      the case of surgical patients, this lack of treatment is particularly
      unfortunate, as the benefits of abstinence from tobacco are immediate in terms of
      reducing the risk of surgical complications, including cardiovascular,
      respiratory, and wound related complications. Surgery also presents an
      opportunity for patients to quit for good and reduce the long term health risk.
      This review examines the principles of tobacco use treatment, the rationale for
      tobacco use treatment in the perioperative period, and how treatment can be
      incorporated into the routine care of surgical patients. The discipline of
      implementation science helps to frame these efforts by seeking to better
      understand how changes in clinical practice occur, and it has the potential to
      guide an evidence based approach to embedding tobacco treatment into the routine
      clinical care of surgical patients. This review uses the consolidated framework
      for implementation research, which includes five major domains, as a
      representative conceptual framework. A basic understanding of factors potentially
      important to successful implementation can help to guide clinicians who accept
      the challenge of implementing tobacco use treatment in surgical care.

PMID- 28877908
TI  - Capitation based funding of general practice is not fit for purpose.

PMID- 28877907
TI  - Antidepressant use during pregnancy and psychiatric disorders in offspring:
      Danish nationwide register based cohort study.
AB  - Objective To investigate the association between in utero exposure to
      antidepressants and risk of psychiatric disorders.Design Population based cohort
      study.Setting Danish national registers.Participants 905 383 liveborn singletons
      born during 1998-2012 in Denmark and followed from birth until July 2014, death,
      emigration, or date of first psychiatric diagnosis, whichever came first. The
      children were followed for a maximum of 16.5 years and contributed 8.1*106 person
      years at risk.Exposures for observational studies Children were categorised into
      four groups according to maternal antidepressant use within two years before and
      during pregnancy: unexposed, antidepressant discontinuation (use before but not
      during pregnancy), antidepressant continuation (use both before and during
      pregnancy), and new user (use only during pregnancy).Main outcome measure First
      psychiatric diagnosis in children, defined as first day of inpatient or
      outpatient treatment for psychiatric disorders. Hazard ratios of psychiatric
      disorders were estimated using Cox regression models.Results Overall, psychiatric
      disorders were diagnosed in 32 400 children. The adjusted 15 year cumulative
      incidence of psychiatric disorders was 8.0% (95% confidence interval 7.9% to
      8.2%) in the unexposed group, 11.5% (10.3% to 12.9%) in the antidepressant
      discontinuation group, 13.6% (11.3% to 16.3%) in the continuation group, and
      14.5% (10.5% to 19.8%) in the new user group. The antidepressant continuation
      group had an increased risk of psychiatric disorders (hazard ratio 1.27, 1.17 to
      1.38), compared with the discontinuation group.Conclusions In utero exposure to
      antidepressants was associated with increased risk of psychiatric disorders. The
      association may be attributable to the severity of underlying maternal disorders
      in combination with antidepressant exposure in utero. The findings suggest that
      focusing solely on a single psychiatric disorder among offspring in studies of in
      utero antidepressant exposure may be too restrictive.

PMID- 28877909
TI  - Scottish government must act to fill consultant vacancies, says BMA.

PMID- 28877910
TI  - Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and increased risk of psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28877911
TI  - Hepatic GALE Regulates Whole-Body Glucose Homeostasis by Modulating Tff3
      Expression.
AB  - Transcripts of key enzymes in the Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism in mouse
      livers are significantly increased after chronic high-fat/high-sucrose feeding.
      UDP-galactose-4-epimerase (GALE) is the last enzyme in this pathway that converts
      UDP-galactose to UDP-glucose and was previously identified as a downstream target
      of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress effector spliced X-box binding protein
      1, suggesting an interesting cross talk between galactose and glucose metabolism
      in the context of hepatic ER stress and whole-body metabolic fitness. However,
      its specific role in glucose metabolism is not established. Using an inducible
      and tissue-specific mouse model, we report that hepatic overexpression of Gale
      increases gluconeogenesis from pyruvate and impairs glucose tolerance.
      Conversely, genetic reduction of Gale in liver improves glucose tolerance.
      Transcriptional profiling identifies trefoil factor 3 (Tff3) as one of the
      downstream targets of GALE. Restoration of Tff3 expression corrects glucose
      intolerance in Gale-overexpressing mice. These studies reveal a new link between
      hepatic GALE activity and whole-body glucose homeostasis via regulation of
      hepatic Tff3 expression.

PMID- 28877913
TI  - Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Lowering for the Primary Prevention of
      Cardiovascular Disease Among Men With Primary Elevations of Low-Density
      Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels of 190 mg/dL or Above: Analyses From the WOSCOPS
      (West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study) 5-Year Randomized Trial and 20-Year
      Observational Follow-Up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with primary elevations of low-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C) >=190 mg/dL are at a higher risk of atherosclerotic
      cardiovascular disease as a result of long-term exposure to markedly elevated LDL
      C levels. Therefore, initiation of statin therapy is recommended for these
      individuals. However, there is a lack of randomized trial evidence supporting
      these recommendations in primary prevention. In the present analysis, we provide
      hitherto unpublished data on the cardiovascular effects of LDL-C lowering among a
      primary prevention population with LDL-C >=190 mg/dL. METHODS: We aimed to assess
      the benefits of LDL-C lowering on cardiovascular outcomes among individuals with
      primary elevations of LDL-C >=190 mg/dL without preexisting vascular disease at
      baseline. We performed post hoc analyses from the WOSCOPS (West of Scotland
      Coronary Prevention Study) randomized, placebo-controlled trial, and
      observational posttrial long-term follow-up, after excluding individuals with
      evidence of vascular disease at baseline. WOSCOPS enrolled 6595 men aged 45 to 64
      years, who were randomly assigned to pravastatin 40 mg/d or placebo. In the
      present analyses, 5529 participants without evidence of vascular disease were
      included, stratified by LDL-C levels into those with LDL-C <190 mg/dL (n=2969;
      mean LDL-C 178+/-6 mg/dL) and those with LDL-C >=190 mg/dL (n=2560; mean LDL-C
      206+/-12 mg/dL). The effect of pravastatin versus placebo on coronary heart
      disease and major adverse cardiovascular events were assessed over the 4.9-year
      randomized controlled trial phase and on mortality outcomes over a total of 20
      years of follow-up. RESULTS: Among 5529 individuals without vascular disease,
      pravastatin reduced the risk of coronary heart disease by 27% (P=0.002) and major
      adverse cardiovascular events by 25% (P=0.004) consistently among those with and
      without LDL-C >=190 mg/dL (P-interaction >0.9). Among individuals with LDL-C
      >=190 mg/dL, pravastatin reduced the risk of coronary heart disease by 27%
      (P=0.033) and major adverse cardiovascular events by 25% (P=0.037) during the
      initial trial phase and the risk of coronary heart disease death, cardiovascular
      death, and all-cause mortality by 28% (P=0.020), 25% (P=0.009), and 18%
      (P=0.004), respectively, over a total of 20 years of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The
      present analyses provide robust novel evidence for the short- and long-term
      benefits of lowering LDL-C for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease
      among individuals with primary elevations of LDL-C >=190 mg/dL.

PMID- 28877912
TI  - Type 1 Interferons Potentiate Human CD8+ T-Cell Cytotoxicity Through a STAT4- and
      Granzyme B-Dependent Pathway.
AB  - Events defining the progression to human type 1 diabetes (T1D) have remained
      elusive owing to the complex interaction between genetics, the immune system, and
      the environment. Type 1 interferons (T1-IFN) are known to be a constituent of the
      autoinflammatory milieu within the pancreas of patients with T1D. However, the
      capacity of IFNalpha/beta to modulate human activated autoreactive CD8+ T-cell
      (cytotoxic T lymphocyte) responses within the islets of patients with T1D has not
      been investigated. Here, we engineer human beta-cell-specific cytotoxic T
      lymphocytes and demonstrate that T1-IFN augments cytotoxicity by inducing rapid
      phosphorylation of STAT4, resulting in direct binding at the granzyme B promoter
      within 2 h of exposure. The current findings provide novel insights concerning
      the regulation of effector function by T1-IFN in human antigen-experienced CD8+ T
      cells and provide a mechanism by which the presence of T1-IFN potentiates
      diabetogenicity within the autoimmune islet.

PMID- 28877917
TI  - Vitamin D and adolescents: a forgotten 'at risk' group?

PMID- 28877914
TI  - Age and Outcomes of Primary Prevention Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators in
      Patients With Nonischemic Systolic Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The DANISH study (Danish Study to Assess the Efficacy of ICDs
      [Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators] in Patients With Non-Ischemic Systolic
      Heart Failure on Mortality) did not demonstrate an overall effect on all-cause
      mortality with ICD implantation. However, the prespecified subgroup analysis
      suggested a possible age-dependent association between ICD implantation and
      mortality with survival benefit seen only in the youngest patients. The nature of
      this relationship between age and outcome of a primary prevention ICD in patients
      with nonischemic systolic heart failure warrants further investigation. METHODS:
      All 1116 patients from the DANISH study were included in this prespecified
      subgroup analysis. We assessed the relationship between ICD implantation and
      mortality by age, and an optimal age cutoff was estimated nonparametrically with
      selection impact curves. Modes of death were divided into sudden cardiac death
      and nonsudden death and compared between patients younger and older than this age
      cutoff with the use of chi2 analysis. RESULTS: Median age of the study population
      was 63 years (range, 21-84 years). There was a linearly decreasing relationship
      between ICD and mortality with age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.03; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 1.003-1.06; P=0.03). An optimal age cutoff for ICD implantation
      was present at <=70 years. There was an association between reduced all-cause
      mortality and ICD in patients <=70 years of age (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51-0.96;
      P=0.03) but not in patients >70 years of age (HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.68-1.62;
      P=0.84). For patients <=70 years old, the sudden cardiac death rate was 1.8 (95%
      CI, 1.3-2.5) and nonsudden death rate was 2.7 (95% CI, 2.1-3.5) events per 100
      patient-years, whereas for patients >70 years old, the sudden cardiac death rate
      was 1.6 (95% CI, 0.8-3.2) and nonsudden death rate was 5.4 (95% CI, 3.7-7.8)
      events per 100 patient-years. This difference in modes of death between the 2 age
      groups was statistically significant (P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with
      systolic heart failure not caused by ischemic heart disease, the association
      between the ICD and survival decreased linearly with increasing age. In this
      study population, an age cutoff for ICD implantation at <=70 years yielded the
      highest survival for the population as a whole. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL:
      https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00542945.

PMID- 28877916
TI  - Temporal trends in the association between socioeconomic status and cancer
      survival in Ontario: a population-based retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer survival is known to be associated with socioeconomic status.
      The income gap between the richer and poorer segments of the population has
      widened over the last 20 years in Canada. The purpose of this study was to
      investigate temporal trends in disparities in cancer-specific survival related to
      socioeconomic status in Ontario. METHODS: There were 920 334 cancer cases between
      1993 and 2009 in the Ontario Cancer Registry. We linked median household income
      from the Canadian census to the registry. We calculated 5-year cancer-specific
      survival rates for all cancers combined and for specific cancer sites by
      socioeconomic status quintile and year of diagnosis, and modelled time to death
      using Cox regression. RESULTS: Between 1993 and 2009, for all cancers combined,
      the hazard of death decreased by 3.1% (hazard ratio [HR] 0.969 [95% confidence
      interval (CI) 0.967-0.971]) per year in the richest quintile and by 1.2% (HR
      0.988 [95% CI 0.987-0.990]) per year in the poorest quintile. The corresponding
      values for breast cancer were 4.3% (HR 0.957 [95% CI 0.951-0.964]) and 2.0% (HR
      0.980 [95% CI 0.975-0.986]); for lung cancer, 1.4% (HR 0.986 [95% CI 0.982
      0.990]) and 0.3% (HR 0.997 [95% CI 0.995-1.000]); for colorectal cancer, 3.7% (HR
      0.963 [95% CI 0.958-0.968]) and 1.8% (HR 0.982 [95% CI 0.978-0.985]); and for
      head and neck cancer, 3.1% (HR 0.969 [95% CI 0.958-0.979]) and 1.0% (HR 0.990
      [95% CI 0.983-0.996]). INTERPRETATION: Between 1993 and 2009, cancer-specific
      survival in Ontario improved more among patients from affluent communities than
      among those from poorer communities. This phenomenon cannot be explained by
      increased disparity in income.

PMID- 28877915
TI  - Plasma Concentrations of Afamin Are Associated With Prevalent and Incident Type 2
      Diabetes: A Pooled Analysis in More Than 20,000 Individuals.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The human vitamin E-binding glycoprotein afamin is primarily expressed
      in the liver and has been associated with prevalent and incident metabolic
      syndrome. These data were in line with observations in transgenic mice. We thus
      investigated whether afamin concentrations are associated with prediabetes, type
      2 diabetes, and insulin resistance (IR). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Individual
      level baseline (n = 20,136) and follow-up data (n = 14,017) of eight prospective
      cohort studies were investigated. Study-level data were combined using random
      effects meta-analyses. Main outcomes were prevalent and incident type 2 diabetes,
      prediabetes, and IR. Discrimination and reclassification of participants was
      analyzed for incident type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: Mean afamin concentrations
      between studies ranged from 61 to 73 mg/L. The eight studies included 1,398
      prevalent and 585 incident cases of type 2 diabetes. Each increase of afamin by
      10 mg/L was associated with prevalent type 2 diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 1.19 [95%
      CI 1.12-1.26], P = 5.96 * 10-8). Afamin was positively associated with IR
      assessed by HOMA-IR (beta 0.110 [95% CI 0.089-0.132], P = 1.37 * 10-23). Most
      importantly, afamin measured at baseline was an independent predictor for 585
      incident cases of type 2 diabetes (OR 1.30 [95% CI 1.23-1.38], P = 3.53 * 10-19)
      and showed a significant and valuable gain in risk classification accuracy when
      added to this extended adjustment model. CONCLUSIONS: This pooled analysis in
      >20,000 individuals showed that afamin is strongly associated with IR,
      prevalence, and incidence of type 2 diabetes independent of major metabolic risk
      factors or parameters. Afamin might be a promising novel marker for the
      identification of individuals at high risk for the development of type 2
      diabetes.

PMID- 28877918
TI  - Very Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Morphologic Classification of
      Erythrocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Morphologic profiling of the erythrocyte population is a widely used
      and clinically valuable diagnostic modality, but one that relies on a slow manual
      process associated with significant labor cost and limited reproducibility.
      Automated profiling of erythrocytes from digital images by capable machine
      learning approaches would augment the throughput and value of morphologic
      analysis. To this end, we sought to evaluate the performance of leading
      implementation strategies for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) when applied
      to classification of erythrocytes based on morphology. METHODS: Erythrocytes were
      manually classified into 1 of 10 classes using a custom-developed Web
      application. Using recent literature to guide architectural considerations for
      neural network design, we implemented a "very deep" CNN, consisting of >150
      layers, with dense shortcut connections. RESULTS: The final database comprised
      3737 labeled cells. Ensemble model predictions on unseen data demonstrated a
      harmonic mean of recall and precision metrics of 92.70% and 89.39%, respectively.
      Of the 748 cells in the test set, 23 misclassification errors were made, with a
      correct classification frequency of 90.60%, represented as a harmonic mean across
      the 10 morphologic classes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that erythrocyte
      morphology profiles could be measured with a high degree of accuracy with "very
      deep" CNNs. Further, these data support future efforts to expand classes and
      optimize practical performance in a clinical environment as a prelude to full
      implementation as a clinical tool.

PMID- 28877919
TI  - High Lipoprotein(a) and Low Risk of Major Bleeding in Brain and Airways in the
      General Population: a Mendelian Randomization Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The physiological role of lipoprotein(a) is unclear; however,
      lipoprotein(a) may play a role in hemostasis and wound healing. We tested the
      hypothesis that high lipoprotein(a) concentrations are associated with low risk
      of major bleeding in the brain and airways both observationally and causally
      (from human genetics). METHODS: We examined 109169 individuals from the
      Copenhagen City Heart Study and the Copenhagen General Population study, 2
      similar prospective studies conducted in the Danish general population.
      Individuals had information on plasma lipoprotein(a) concentrations (n = 59980),
      LPA kringle-IV type 2 (KIV-2) number of repeats (n = 98965), and/or LPA single
      nucleotide polymorphism rs10455872 associated with high lipoprotein(a)
      concentrations (n = 109 169), and information on hospital contacts or death due
      to major bleeding in brain and airways from registers. RESULTS: Using extreme
      phenotypes or genotypes, the multifactorially adjusted hazard ratio for major
      bleeding in the brain and airways was 0.84 (95%CI: 0.71-0.99) for lipoprotein(a),
      >800 mg/L vs <110 mg/L; 0.83 (0.73-0.96) for KIV-2, <24 vs >35 number of repeats;
      and 0.89 (0.81-0.97) for rs10455872 carriers (heterozygotes + homozygotes) vs
      noncarriers. The corresponding hazard ratios were 0.89 (0.82-0.98) for
      heterozygotes and 0.59 (0.36-0.98) for homozygotes separately vs rs10455872
      noncarriers. Also, for a 1 standard deviation higher lipoprotein(a) (= 310 mg/L),
      the hazard ratio for major bleeding in the brain and airways was 0.95 (95%CI:
      0.91-1.00) observationally, 0.89 (0.80-0.98) causally based on LPA KIV-2 number
      of repeats, and 0.94 (0.87-1.02) causally based on LPA rs10455872. CONCLUSIONS:
      High lipoprotein(a) concentrations were associated with lower risk of major
      bleeding in the brain and airways observationally and causally. This indicates
      that lipoprotein(a) may play a role in hemostasis and wound healing.

PMID- 28877920
TI  - N-Acetylaspartate and 2-Hydroxyglutarate Assessed in Human Brain Tissue by Mass
      Spectrometry as Neuronal Markers of Oncogenesis.

PMID- 28877921
TI  - Author's reply to Shepherd and Beerstecher.

PMID- 28877922
TI  - Plausible link between circa'bi'dian activity rhythms and circadian clock systems
      in the large black chafer Holotrichia parallela.
AB  - Two-day rhythms, referred to as circa'bi'dian rhythms, have been reported in
      humans and mosquitos. However, these rhythms only appear under constant
      conditions, and the functional mechanisms of 2-day rhythms were unknown. Here, we
      report clear circabidian rhythms of large black chafers (Holotrichia parallela,
      Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in both the laboratory and field. Under 12 h:12 h
      light:dark (L:D) conditions at 25 degrees C, H. parallela appeared on the ground
      at the beginning of the dark phase every 2 days. Under constant darkness, H.
      parallela exhibited free-running with a period of 47.9+/-0.3 h, suggesting the
      existence of a clear circabidian rhythm entrained to two 12 h:12 h L:D cycles.
      Phase responses of the circabidian rhythm to light pulses occurred under constant
      darkness in a phase-dependent manner. Phase responses suggest that there are two
      circadian cycles, each consisting of a less-responsive and more-responsive
      period, in a circabidian oscillation, and the circabidian rhythm is driven by the
      circadian clock. A mark-recapture study showed that beetles repeatedly appeared
      on the same tree approximately every 2 days. However, the periodicity was not as
      rigid as that observed under laboratory conditions in that individuals often
      switched appearance days. For instance, a large precipitation made the 2-day
      rhythm shift phase by half a cycle of the rhythm at a time. We propose a novel
      function of the circadian clock characterized by the release of an output signal
      every two cycles to produce the 2-day rhythm.

PMID- 28877923
TI  - Natural epigenetic variation within and among six subspecies of the house
      sparrow, Passer domesticus.
AB  - Epigenetic modifications can respond rapidly to environmental changes and can
      shape phenotypic variation in accordance with environmental stimuli. One of the
      most studied epigenetic marks is DNA methylation. In the present study, we used
      the methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) technique to investigate
      the natural variation in DNA methylation within and among subspecies of the house
      sparrow, Passer domesticus We focused on five subspecies from the Middle East
      because they show great variation in many ecological traits and because this
      region is the probable origin for the house sparrow's commensal relationship with
      humans. We analysed house sparrows from Spain as an outgroup. The level of
      variation in DNA methylation was similar among the five house sparrow subspecies
      from the Middle East despite high phenotypic and environmental variation, but the
      non-commensal subspecies was differentiated from the other four (commensal)
      Middle Eastern subspecies. Further, the European subspecies was differentiated
      from all other subspecies in DNA methylation. Our results indicate that variation
      in DNA methylation does not strictly follow subspecies designations. We detected
      a correlation between methylation level and some morphological traits, such as
      standardized bill length, and we suggest that part of the high morphological
      variation in the native populations of the house sparrow is influenced by
      differentially methylated regions in specific loci throughout the genome. We also
      detected 10 differentially methylated loci among subspecies and three loci that
      differentiated between commensal or non-commensal status. Therefore, the MSAP
      technique detected larger scale differences among the European and non-commensal
      subspecies, but did not detect finer scale differences among the other Middle
      Eastern subspecies.

PMID- 28877924
TI  - GP shortage is a mismatch problem.

PMID- 28877925
TI  - The impact of vitamin D status on hungry bone syndrome after surgery for primary
      hyperparathyroidism.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prolonged hypocalcemia but normal intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH)
      levels after surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) are referred to as
      'hungry bone syndrome' (HBS). The aim was to evaluate preoperative risk factors
      for HBS with a focus on the impact of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency.
      DESIGN: Patients having undergone initial successful surgery for sporadic PHPT
      within 6 years were considered for retrospective analysis. METHODS: A total of
      385 patients were evaluated, of whom 33 (8.6%) developed HBS influencing
      negatively the postoperative bone metabolism. All patients underwent biochemical
      evaluations two days before parathyroid surgery and were followed biochemically
      on a daily basis in the first postoperative week and thereafter at 8 weeks and 6
      months. CONCLUSIONS: No relationship was established between preoperative 25(OH)D
      deficiency and HBS. The only significant risk factor for HBS in multivariable
      analysis was high levels of preoperative iPTH. As HBS therefore cannot be
      predicted preoperatively, we recommend a consistent postoperative calcium and
      vitamin D supplementation to improve the bone metabolism.

PMID- 28877926
TI  - Effectiveness of Quality Improvement Strategies for the Management of CKD: A Meta
      Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Quality improvement interventions have enhanced care
      for other chronic illnesses, but their effectiveness for patients with CKD is
      unknown. We sought to determine the effects of quality improvement strategies on
      clinical outcomes in adult patients with nondialysis-requiring CKD. DESIGN,
      SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We conducted a systematic review of
      randomized trials, searching Medline and the Cochrane Effective Practice and
      Organization of Care database from January of 2003 to April of 2015. Eligible
      studies evaluated one or more of 11 prespecified quality improvement strategies,
      and prespecified study outcomes included at least one process of care measure,
      surrogate outcome, or hard clinical outcome. We used a random effects model to
      estimate the pooled risk ratio (RR; dichotomous data) or the mean difference
      (continuous data). RESULTS: We reviewed 15 patient-level randomized trials
      (n=3298 patients), and six cluster-randomized trials (n=30,042 patients). Quality
      improvement strategies reduced dialysis incidence (seven trials; RR, 0.85; 95%
      confidence interval [95% CI], 0.74 to 0.97) and LDL cholesterol concentrations
      (four trials; mean difference, -17.6 mg/dl; 95% CI, -28.7 to -6.5), and increased
      the likelihood that patients received renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system
      inhibitors (nine trials; RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.27). We did not observe
      statistically significant effects on mortality, cardiovascular events, eGFR,
      glycated hemoglobin, and systolic or diastolic BP. CONCLUSIONS: Quality
      improvement interventions yielded significant beneficial effects on three
      elements of CKD care. Estimates of the effectiveness of quality improvement
      strategies were limited by study number and adherence to quality improvement
      principles. PODCAST: This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn
      online.org/media/podcast/CJASN/2017_09_06_CJASNPodcast_17_10.mp3.

PMID- 28877927
TI  - Protective Vaccine Efficacy of the Complete Form of PPE39 Protein from
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing/K Strain in Mice.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the protective efficacy of MTBK_24820, a
      complete form of PPE39 protein derived from a predominant Beijing/K strain of
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis in South Korea. Mice were immunized with MTKB_24820,
      M. bovis Bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG), or adjuvant prior to a high-dosed
      Beijing/K strain aerosol infection. After 4 and 9 weeks, bacterial loads were
      determined and histopathologic and immunologic features in the lungs and spleens
      of the M. tuberculosis-infected mice were analyzed. Putative immunogenic T-cell
      epitopes were examined using synthetic overlapping peptides. Successful
      immunization of MTBK_24820 in mice was confirmed by increased IgG responses (P <
      0.05) and recalled gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-6, and
      IL-17 responses (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) to MTBK_24820. After challenge with the
      Beijing/K strain, an approximately 0.5 to 1.0 log10 reduction in CFU in lungs and
      fewer lung inflammation lesions were observed in MTBK_24820-immunized mice
      compared to those for control mice. Moreover, MTBK_24820 immunization elicited
      significantly higher numbers of CD4+ T cells producing protective cytokines, such
      as IFN-gamma and IL-17, in lungs and spleens (P < 0.01) and CD4+ multifunctional
      T cells producing IFN-gamma, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), and/or IL
      17 (P < 0.01) than in control mice, suggesting protection comparable to that of
      BCG against the hypervirulent Beijing/K strain. The dominant immunogenic T-cell
      epitopes that induced IFN-gamma production were at the N terminus (amino acids 85
      to 102 and 217 to 234). Its vaccine potential, along with protective immune
      responses in vivo, may be informative for vaccine development, particularly in
      regions where the M. tuberculosis Beijing/K-strain is frequently isolated from TB
      patients.

PMID- 28877928
TI  - Anthrax Vaccine Precipitated Induces Edema Toxin-Neutralizing, Edema Factor
      Specific Antibodies in Human Recipients.
AB  - Edema toxin (ET), composed of edema factor (EF) and protective antigen (PA), is a
      virulence factor of Bacillus anthracis that alters host immune cell function and
      contributes to anthrax disease. Anthrax vaccine precipitated (AVP) contains low
      but detectable levels of EF and can elicit EF-specific antibodies in human
      recipients of AVP. Active and passive vaccination of mice with EF can contribute
      to protection from challenge with Bacillus anthracis spores or ET. This study
      compared humoral responses to ET in recipients of AVP (n = 33) versus anthrax
      vaccine adsorbed (AVA; n = 66), matched for number of vaccinations and time
      postvaccination, and further determined whether EF antibodies elicited by AVP
      contribute to ET neutralization. AVP induced higher incidence (77.8%) and titer
      (229.8 +/- 58.6) of EF antibodies than AVA (4.2% and 7.8 +/- 8.3, respectively),
      reflecting the reported low but detectable presence of EF in AVP. In contrast, PA
      IgG levels and ET neutralization measured using a luciferase-based cyclic AMP
      reporter assay were robust and did not differ between the two vaccine groups.
      Multiple regression analysis failed to detect an independent contribution of EF
      antibodies to ET neutralization in AVP recipients; however, EF antibodies
      purified from AVP sera neutralized ET. Serum samples from at least half of EF IgG
      positive AVP recipients bound to nine decapeptides located in EF domains II and
      III. Although PA antibodies are primarily responsible for ET neutralization in
      recipients of AVP, increased amounts of an EF component should be investigated
      for the capacity to enhance next-generation, PA-based vaccines.

PMID- 28877930
TI  - Viral taxonomy: The effect of metagenomics on understanding the diversity and
      evolution of viruses.

PMID- 28877929
TI  - Merozoite Surface Protein 1 from Plasmodium falciparum Is a Major Target of
      Opsonizing Antibodies in Individuals with Acquired Immunity against Malaria.
AB  - Naturally acquired immunity against malaria is largely mediated by serum
      antibodies controlling levels of blood-stage parasites. A limited understanding
      of the antigenic targets and functional mechanisms of protective antibodies has
      hampered the development of efficient malaria vaccines. Besides directly
      inhibiting the growth of Plasmodium parasites, antibodies can opsonize merozoites
      and recruit immune effector cells such as monocytes and neutrophils. Antibodies
      against the vaccine candidate merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP-1) are acquired
      during natural infections and have been associated with protection against
      malaria in several epidemiological studies. Here we analyzed serum antibodies
      from semi-immune individuals from Burkina Faso for their potential (i) to
      directly inhibit the growth of P. falciparum blood stages in vitro and (ii) to
      opsonize merozoites and to induce the antibody-dependent respiratory burst (ADRB)
      activity of neutrophils. While a few sera that directly inhibited the growth of
      P. falciparum blood stages were identified, immunoglobulin G (IgG) from all
      individuals clearly mediated the activation of neutrophils. The level of
      neutrophil activation correlated with levels of antibodies to MSP-1, and affinity
      purified MSP-1-specific antibodies elicited ADRB activity. Furthermore,
      immunization of nonhuman primates with recombinant full-size MSP-1 induced
      antibodies that efficiently opsonized P. falciparum merozoites. Reversing the
      function by preincubation with recombinant antigens allowed us to quantify the
      contribution of MSP-1 to the antiparasitic effect of serum antibodies. Our data
      suggest that MSP-1, especially the partially conserved subunit MSP-183, is a
      major target of opsonizing antibodies acquired during natural exposure to
      malaria. Induction of opsonizing antibodies might be a crucial effector mechanism
      for MSP-1-based malaria vaccines.

PMID- 28877931
TI  - Prostaglandin E2 Inhibits Histamine-Evoked Ca2+ Release in Human Aortic Smooth
      Muscle Cells through Hyperactive cAMP Signaling Junctions and Protein Kinase A.
AB  - In human aortic smooth muscle cells, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) stimulates adenylyl
      cyclase (AC) and attenuates the increase in intracellular free Ca2+ concentration
      evoked by activation of histamine H1 receptors. The mechanisms are not resolved.
      We show that cAMP mediates inhibition of histamine-evoked Ca2+ signals by PGE2
      Exchange proteins activated by cAMP were not required, but the effects were
      attenuated by inhibition of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). PGE2 had no
      effect on the Ca2+ signals evoked by protease-activated receptors, heterologously
      expressed muscarinic M3 receptors, or by direct activation of inositol 1,4,5
      trisphosphate (IP3) receptors by photolysis of caged IP3 The rate of Ca2+ removal
      from the cytosol was unaffected by PGE2, but PGE2 attenuated histamine-evoked IP3
      accumulation. Substantial inhibition of AC had no effect on the concentration
      dependent inhibition of Ca2+ signals by PGE2 or butaprost (to activate EP2
      receptors selectively), but it modestly attenuated responses to EP4 receptors,
      activation of which generated less cAMP than EP2 receptors. We conclude that
      inhibition of histamine-evoked Ca2+ signals by PGE2 occurs through "hyperactive
      signaling junctions," wherein cAMP is locally delivered to PKA at supersaturating
      concentrations to cause uncoupling of H1 receptors from phospholipase C. This
      sequence allows digital signaling from PGE2 receptors, through cAMP and PKA, to
      histamine-evoked Ca2+ signals.

PMID- 28877932
TI  - Detection and genomic characterization of a mammary-like adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing were performed to identify potential
      therapeutic strategies in the absence of viable treatment options for a patient
      initially diagnosed with vulvar adenocarcinoma. Genomic events were prioritized
      by comparison against variant distributions in the TCGA pan-cancer data set and
      complemented with detailed transcriptome sequencing and copy-number analysis.
      These findings were considered against published scientific literature in order
      to evaluate the functional effects of potentially relevant genomic events.
      Analysis of the transcriptome against a background of 27 TCGA cancer types led to
      reclassification of the tumor as a primary HER2+ mammary-like adenocarcinoma of
      the vulva. This revised diagnosis was subsequently confirmed by follow-up
      immunohistochemistry for a mammary-like adenocarcinoma. The patient was treated
      with chemotherapy and targeted therapies for HER2+ breast cancer. The detailed
      pathology and genomic findings of this case are presented herein.

PMID- 28877933
TI  - Upgrading Supply Chain Management Systems to Improve Availability of Medicines in
      Tanzania: Evaluation of Performance and Cost Effects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To address challenges in public health supply chain performance,
      Tanzania invested in a national logistics management unit (LMU) and a national
      electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS). This evaluation
      examined the impact of those 2 key management upgrades approximately 1 year after
      they were introduced. METHODS: We used a nonexperimental pre-post study design to
      compare the previous system with the upgraded management system. We collected
      baseline data from August to November 2013. We conducted round 1 of post
      implementation data collection during April and May 2015, about 1 year after
      implementation of the upgrades. We evaluated key indicators of data use and
      reporting; supply chain management practices such as storage and supervision;
      supply chain performance including stock-out and expiry rates; and supply chain
      cost and savings. We analyzed the data using a range of techniques including
      statistical testing of baseline and round-1 results, and cost, cost
      effectiveness, and return on investment analysis. RESULTS: The upgrades were
      associated with improvements in data use, accessibility, visibility, and
      transparency; planning, control, and monitoring; support for quantification;
      stock-out rates; stock-out duration; commodity expiry; and forecast error. The
      upgraded system was more costly, but it was also more efficient, particularly
      when adjusting for the performance improvements. The upgrades also generated
      substantial savings that defrayed some, but not all, of the investment costs.
      CONCLUSION: Upgrades to Tanzania's supply chain management systems created
      multiple and complex pathways to impact. One year after implementation, the LMU
      and eLMIS brought about performance improvements through better data use and
      through improvements in some, but not all, management practices. Furthermore, the
      upgrades-while not inexpensive-contributed to greater system efficiency and
      modest savings.

PMID- 28877934
TI  - Identification of senescent cell surface targetable protein DPP4.
AB  - Senescent cell accumulation in aging tissues is linked to age-associated diseases
      and declining function, prompting efforts to eliminate them. Mass spectrometry
      analysis revealed that DPP4 (dipeptidyl peptidase 4) was selectively expressed on
      the surface of senescent, but not proliferating, human diploid fibroblasts.
      Importantly, the differential presence of DPP4 allowed flow cytometry-mediated
      isolation of senescent cells using anti-DPP4 antibodies. Moreover, antibody
      dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) assays revealed that the cell surface
      DPP4 preferentially sensitized senescent, but not dividing, fibroblasts to
      cytotoxicity by natural killer cells. In sum, the selective expression of DPP4 on
      the surface of senescent cells enables their preferential elimination.

PMID- 28877935
TI  - Targeting Aberrant p70S6K Activation for Estrogen Receptor-Negative Breast Cancer
      Prevention.
AB  - The prevention of estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) breast cancer remains a major
      challenge in the cancer prevention field, although antiestrogen and aromatase
      inhibitors have shown adequate efficacy in preventing estrogen receptor-positive
      (ER+) breast cancer. Lack of commonly expressed, druggable targets is a major
      obstacle for meeting this challenge. Previously, we detected the activation of
      Akt signaling pathway in atypical hyperplasic early-stage lesions of patients. In
      the current study, we found that Akt and the downstream 70 kDa ribosomal protein
      S6 kinase (p70S6K) signaling pathway was highly activated in ER- premalignant
      breast lesions and ER- breast cancer. In addition, p70S6K activation induced
      transformation of ER- human mammary epithelial cells (hMEC). Therefore, we
      explored the potential of targeting Akt/p70S6K in the p70S6K activated, ER- hMEC
      models and mouse mammary tumor models for the prevention of ER- breast cancer. We
      found that a clinically applicable Akt/p70S6K dual inhibitor, LY2780301,
      drastically decreased proliferation of hMECs with ErbB2-induced p70S6K activation
      via Cyclin B1 inhibition and cell-cycle blockade at G0-G1 phase, while it did not
      significantly reverse the abnormal acinar morphology of these hMECs. In addition,
      a brief treatment of LY2780301 in MMTV-neu mice that developed atypical
      hyperplasia (ADH) and mammary intraepithelial neoplasia (MIN) lesions with
      activated p70S6K was sufficient to suppress S6 phosphorylation and decrease cell
      proliferation in hyperplasic MECs. In summary, targeting the aberrant Akt/p70S6K
      activation in ER- hMEC models in vitro and in the MMTV-neu transgenic mouse model
      in vivo effectively inhibited Akt/S6K signaling and reduced proliferation of
      hMECs in vitro and ADH/MIN lesions in vivo, indicating its potential in
      prevention of p70S6K activated ER- breast cancer. Cancer Prev Res; 10(11); 641
      50. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28877937
TI  - An Essential Role of Maspin in Embryogenesis and Tumor Suppression-Letter.

PMID- 28877936
TI  - Alterations in Bronchial Airway miRNA Expression for Lung Cancer Detection.
AB  - We have previously shown that gene expression alterations in normal-appearing
      bronchial epithelial cells can serve as a lung cancer detection biomarker in
      smokers. Given that miRNAs regulate airway gene expression responses to smoking,
      we evaluated whether miRNA expression is also altered in the bronchial epithelium
      of smokers with lung cancer. Using epithelial brushings from the mainstem
      bronchus of patients undergoing bronchoscopy for suspected lung cancer (as part
      of the AEGIS-1/2 clinical trials), we profiled miRNA expression via small-RNA
      sequencing from 347 current and former smokers for which gene expression data
      were also available. Patients were followed for one year postbronchoscopy until a
      final diagnosis of lung cancer (n = 194) or benign disease (n = 153) was made.
      Following removal of 6 low-quality samples, we used 138 patients (AEGIS-1) as a
      discovery set to identify four miRNAs (miR-146a-5p, miR-324-5p, miR-223-3p, and
      miR-223-5p) that were downregulated in the bronchial airway of lung cancer
      patients (ANOVA P < 0.002, FDR < 0.2). The expression of these miRNAs is
      significantly more negatively correlated with the expression of their mRNA
      targets than with the expression of other nontarget genes (K-S P < 0.05).
      Furthermore, these mRNA targets are enriched among genes whose expression is
      elevated in cancer patients (GSEA FDR < 0.001). Finally, we found that the
      addition of miR-146a-5p to an existing mRNA biomarker for lung cancer
      significantly improves its performance (AUC) in the 203 samples (AEGIS-1/2)
      serving an independent test set (DeLong P < 0.05). Our findings suggest that
      there are miRNAs whose expression is altered in the cytologically normal
      bronchial epithelium of smokers with lung cancer, and that they may regulate
      cancer-associated gene expression differences. Cancer Prev Res; 10(11); 651-9.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28877938
TI  - An Essential Role of Maspin in Embryogenesis and Tumor Suppression-Response.

PMID- 28877939
TI  - Daycare attendance and respiratory tract infections: a prospective birth cohort
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We explored the burden of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in young
      children with regard to day-care initiation. DESIGN: Longitudinal prospective
      birth cohort study. SETTING AND METHODS: We recruited 1827 children for follow-up
      until the age of 24 months collecting diary data on RTIs and daycare. Children
      with continuous daycare type and complete data were divided into groups of centre
      based daycare (n=299), family day care (FDC) (n=245) and home care (n=350). Using
      repeated measures variance analyses, we analysed days per month with symptoms of
      respiratory tract infection, antibiotic treatments and parental absence from work
      for a period of 6 months prior to and 9 months after the start of daycare.
      RESULTS: We documented a significant effect of time and type of daycare, as well
      as a significant interaction between them for all outcome measures. There was a
      rise in mean days with symptoms from 3.79 (95% CI 3.04 to 4.53) during the month
      preceding centre-based daycare to 10.57 (95% CI 9.35 to 11.79) at 2 months after
      the start of centre-based daycare, with a subsequent decrease within the
      following 9 months. Similar patterns with a rise and decline were observed in the
      use of antibiotics and parental absences. The start of FDC had weaker effects.
      Our findings were not changed when taking into account confounding factors.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows the rapid increase in respiratory infections after
      start of daycare and a relatively fast decline in the course of time with
      continued daycare. It is important to support families around the beginning of
      daycare.

PMID- 28877940
TI  - Qualitative meta-synthesis of barriers and facilitators that influence the
      implementation of community pharmacy services: perspectives of patients, nurses
      and general medical practitioners.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The integration of community pharmacy services (CPSs) into primary
      care practice can be enhanced by assessing (and further addressing) the elements
      that enable (ie, facilitators) or hinder (ie, barriers) the implementation of
      such CPSs. These elements have been widely researched from the perspective of
      pharmacists but not from the perspectives of other stakeholders who can interact
      with and influence the implementation of CPSs. The aim of this study was to
      synthesise the literature on patients', general practitioners' (GPs) and nurses'
      perspectives of CPSs to identify barriers and facilitators to their
      implementation in Australia. METHODS: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies was
      performed. A systematic search in PubMed, Scopus and Informit was conducted to
      identify studies that explored patients', GPs' or nurses' views about CPSs in
      Australia. Thematic synthesis was performed to identify elements influencing CPS
      implementation, which were further classified using an ecological approach.
      RESULTS: Twenty-nine articles were included in the review, addressing 63 elements
      influencing CPS implementation. Elements were identified as a barrier,
      facilitator or both and were related to four ecological levels: individual
      patient (n=14), interpersonal (n=24), organisational (n=16) and community and
      healthcare system (n=9). It was found that patients, nurses and GPs identified
      elements reported in previous pharmacist-informed studies, such as pharmacist's
      training/education or financial remuneration, but also new elements, such as
      patients' capability to follow service's procedures, the relationships between GP
      and pharmacy professional bodies or the availability of multidisciplinary
      training/education. CONCLUSIONS: Patients, GPs and nurses can describe a large
      number of elements influencing CPS implementation. These elements can be combined
      with previous findings in pharmacists-informed studies to produce a comprehensive
      framework to assess barriers and facilitators to CPS implementation. This
      framework can be used by pharmacy service planners and policy makers to improve
      the analysis of the contexts in which CPSs are implemented.

PMID- 28877941
TI  - What treatments work for anxiety in children with chronic fatigue
      syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)? Systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Anxiety is more prevalent in children with chronic fatigue
      syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) than in the general population. A
      systematic review was carried out to identify which treatment methods are most
      effective for children with CFS and anxiety. DESIGN: Systematic review using
      search terms entered into the Cochrane library and Ovid to search the databases
      Medline, Embase and psychINFO. PARTICIPANTS: Studies were selected if
      participants were <18 years old, diagnosed with CFS/ME (using US Centers for
      Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute for Health and Care
      Excellence or Oxford criteria) and had a valid assessment of anxiety.
      INTERVENTIONS: We included observational studies and randomised controlled
      trials. COMPARISON: Any or none. OUTCOMES: Change in anxiety diagnostic status
      and/or change in anxiety severity on a validated measure of anxiety from
      pretreatment to post-treatment. RESULTS: The review identified nine papers from
      eight studies that met the inclusion criteria. None of the studies specifically
      targeted anxiety but six studies tested an intervention and measured anxiety as a
      secondary outcome. Of these studies, four used a cognitive behavioural therapy
      (CBT)-type approach to treat CFS/ME, one used a behavioural approach and one
      compared a drug treatment, gammaglobulin with a placebo. Three of the CBT-type
      studies described an improvement in anxiety as did the trial of gammaglobulin. As
      none of the studies stratified outcomes according to anxiety diagnostic status or
      severity, we were unable to determine whether anxiety changed prognosis or
      whether treatments were equally effective in those with comorbid anxiety compared
      with those without. CONCLUSION: We do not know what treatment should be offered
      for children with both anxiety and CFS/ME. Further research is therefore required
      to answer this question. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: This review was registered on
      Prospective Register of Systematic Review Protocols (PROSPERO) and the protocol
      is available from
      http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID=CRD42016043488.

PMID- 28877942
TI  - Changes in mortality inequalities across occupations in Japan: a national
      register based study of absolute and relative measures, 1980-2010.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Changes in mortality inequalities across socioeconomic groups have
      been a substantial public health concern worldwide. We investigated changes in
      absolute/relative mortality inequalities across occupations, and the contribution
      of different diseases to inequalities in tandem with the restructuring of the
      Japanese economy. METHODS: Using complete Japanese national death registries from
      5 year intervals (1980-2010), all cause and cause specific age standardised
      mortality rates (ASMR per 100 000 people standardised using the Japanese standard
      population in 1985, aged 30-59 years) across 12 occupations were computed.
      Absolute and relative inequalities were measured in ASMR differences (RDs) and
      ASMR ratios (RRs) among occupations in comparison with manufacturing workers
      (reference). We also estimated the changing contribution of different diseases by
      calculating the differences in ASMR change between 1995 and 2010 for occupations
      and reference. RESULTS: All cause ASMRs tended to decrease in both sexes over the
      three decades except for male managers (increased by 71% points, 1995-2010). RDs
      across occupations were reduced for both sexes (civil servants 233.5 to -1.9 for
      men; sales workers 63.3 to 4.5 for women) but RRs increased for some occupations
      (professional workers 1.38 to 1.70; service workers 2.35 to 3.73) for men and
      decreased for women from 1980 to 2010. Male relative inequalities widened among
      farmer, fishery and service workers, because the percentage declines were smaller
      in these occupations. Cerebrovascular disease and cancer were the main causes of
      the decrease in mortality inequalities among sexes but the incidence of suicide
      increased among men, thereby increasing sex related inequalities. CONCLUSIONS:
      Absolute inequality trends in mortality across occupations decreased in both
      sexes, while relative inequality trends were heterogeneous in Japan. The main
      drivers of narrowing and widening mortality inequalities were cerebrovascular
      disease and suicide, respectively. Future public health efforts will benefit from
      eliminating residual inequalities in mortality by considering the contribution of
      the causes of death and socioeconomic status stratification.

PMID- 28877944
TI  - Effects of external inspection on sepsis detection and treatment: a study
      protocol for a quasiexperimental study with a stepped-wedge design.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Inspections are widely used in health care as a means to improve
      the health services delivered to patients. Despite their widespread use, there is
      little evidence of their effect. The mechanisms for how inspections can promote
      change are poorly understood. In this study, we use a national inspection
      campaign of sepsis detection and initial treatment in hospitals as case to: (1)
      Explore how inspections affect the involved organizations. (2) Evaluate what
      effect external inspections have on the process of delivering care to patients,
      measured by change in indicators reflecting how sepsis detection and treatment is
      carried out. (3) Evaluate whether external inspections affect patient outcomes,
      measured as change in the 30-day mortality rate and length of hospital stay.
      METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The intervention that we study is inspections of sepsis
      detection and treatment in hospitals. The intervention will be rolled out
      sequentially during 12 months to 24 hospitals. Our effect measures are change on
      indicators related to the detection and treatment of sepsis, the 30-day mortality
      rate and length of hospital stay. We collect data from patient records at
      baseline, before the inspections, and at 8 and 14 months after the inspections.
      We use logistic regression models and linear regression models to compare the
      various effect measurements between the intervention and control periods. All the
      models will include time as a covariate to adjust for potential secular changes
      in the effect measurements during the study period. We collect qualitative data
      before and after the inspections, and we will conduct a thematic content analysis
      to explore how inspections affect the involved organisations. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: The study has obtained ethical approval by the Regional Ethics
      Committee of Norway Nord and the Norwegian Data Protection Authority. It is
      registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier: NCT02747121). Results will be
      reported in international peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      NCT02747121; Pre-results.

PMID- 28877943
TI  - Systematic review of the evidence on orthotic devices for the management of knee
      instability related to neuromuscular and central nervous system disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of orthotic devices for the management of
      instability of the knee in adults with a neuromuscular disorder or central
      nervous system disorder. DESIGN: A systematic review of primary studies. SETTING:
      Community. PARTICIPANTS: Adults with a neuromuscular disorder or central nervous
      system disorder and impaired walking ability due to instability of the knee.
      INTERVENTIONS: Orthoses with the clinical aim of controlling knee instability,
      for example, knee-ankle-foot orthoses, ankle-foot orthoses and knee orthoses or
      mixed design with no restrictions in design or material. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Condition-specific or generic patient-reported outcome measures
      assessing function, disability, independence, activities of daily living, quality
      of life or psychosocial outcomes; pain; walking ability; functional assessments;
      biomechanical analysis; adverse effects; usage; patient satisfaction and the
      acceptability of a device; and resource utilisation data. RESULTS: Twenty-one
      studies including 478 patients were included. Orthotic devices were evaluated in
      patients with postpolio syndrome, poststroke syndrome, inclusion body myositis
      and spinal cord injury. The review included 2 randomised controlled trials
      (RCTs), 3 non-randomised controlled studies and 16 case series. Most were small,
      single-centre studies with only 6 of 21 following patients for 1 year or longer.
      They met between one and five of nine quality criteria and reported methods and
      results poorly. They mainly assessed outcomes related to gait analysis and energy
      consumption with limited use of standardised, validated, patient-reported outcome
      measures. There was an absence of evidence on outcomes of direct importance to
      patients such as reduction in pain and falls. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for
      high-quality research, particularly RCTs, of orthotic devices for knee
      instability related to neuromuscular and central nervous system conditions. This
      research should address outcomes important to patients. There may also be value
      in developing a national registry. REGISTRATION NUMBER SYSTEMATIC REVIEW:
      PROSPERO (CRD42014010180).

PMID- 28877945
TI  - Qualitative study to develop processes and tools for the assessment and tracking
      of African institutions' capacity for operational health research.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Research is key to achieving global development goals. Our objectives
      were to develop and test an evidence-informed process for assessing health
      research management and support systems (RMSS) in four African universities and
      for tracking interventions to address capacity gaps. SETTING: Four African
      universities. PARTICIPANTS: 83 university staff and students from 11 cadres.
      INTERVENTION/METHODS: A literature-informed 'benchmark' was developed and used to
      itemise all components of a university's health RMSS. Data on all components were
      collected during site visits to four African universities using interview guides,
      document reviews and facilities observation guides. Gaps in RMSS capacity were
      identified against the benchmark and institutional action plans developed to
      remedy gaps. Progress against indicators was tracked over 15 months and common
      challenges and successes identified. RESULTS: Common gaps in operational health
      research capacity included no accessible research strategy, a lack of research e
      tracking capability and inadequate quality checks for proposal submissions and
      contracts. Feedback indicated that the capacity assessment was comprehensive and
      generated practical actions, several of which were no-cost. Regular follow-up
      helped to maintain focus on activities to strengthen health research capacity in
      the face of challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Identification of each institutions'
      strengths and weaknesses against an evidence-informed benchmark enabled them to
      identify gaps in in their operational health research systems, to develop
      prioritised action plans, to justify resource requests to fulfil the plans and to
      track progress in strengthening RMSS. Use of a standard benchmark, approach and
      tools enabled comparisons across institutions which has accelerated production of
      evidence about the science of research capacity strengthening. The tools could be
      used by institutions seeking to understand their strengths and to address gaps in
      research capacity. Research capacity gaps that were common to several
      institutions could be a 'smart' investment for governments and health research
      funders.

PMID- 28877946
TI  - Cohort profile: maternal lifestyle and diet in relation to pregnancy, postpartum
      and infant health outcomes in Vietnam: A multicentre prospective cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine modifiable maternal risk factors for adverse pregnancy,
      postpartum maternal and child health outcomes in Vietnam. PARTICIPANTS: This
      prospective cohort study included pregnant women seeking prenatal care at six
      hospitals in three large cities in Vietnam. After enrolment, eligible
      participants who gave their consent to participate in the study were interviewed
      at 24-28 weeks' gestation. Glucose testing was conducted and blood pressure was
      measured during this period. Each participant will be assessed prospectively
      during their postnatal visits at delivery, 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, and
      will be followed up for 5 years. FINDINGS TO DATE: Of 2248 eligible pregnant
      women, 2030 were recruited (participation rate 90.3%) between August 2015 and
      July 2016. All participants completed the baseline assessment. Their mean (SD)
      age was 27.6 (5.3) years. The mean pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) was 20.2
      (SD 2.6) kg/m2, with nearly two-thirds of participants having a normal pre
      pregnancy BMI (18.5 to <23.0 kg/m2) and one-quarter being underweight (pre
      pregnancy BMI <18.5 kg/m2). Overweight or obese mothers (pre-pregnancy BMI >=23.0
      kg/m2) accounted for 12.8%. No pregnant women reported smoking during their
      pregnancy while 13.4% of them had continued drinking. 22.8% of participants had
      hyperglycaemia. Their mean systolic blood pressure was 105.6 (SD 8.2) mm Hg, and
      diastolic blood pressure was 67.4 (SD 7.5) mm Hg. FUTURE PLANS: The relationships
      of maternal lifestyle and nutritional status with the health outcomes of
      pregnancy, postpartum maternity and infants will be analysed. Meanwhile,
      participants will be closely tracked to minimise loss to follow-up.

PMID- 28877947
TI  - Influence of hospital volume on nephrectomy mortality and complications: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis stratified by surgical type.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The provision of complex surgery is increasingly centralised to high
      volume (HV) specialist hospitals. Evidence to support nephrectomy centralisation
      however has been inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis
      to determine the association between hospital case volumes and perioperative
      outcomes in radical nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy and nephrectomy with venous
      thrombectomy. METHODS: Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched for
      relevant studies published between 1990 and 2016. Pooled effect estimates for
      nephrectomy mortality and complications were calculated for each nephrectomy type
      using the DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model. Sensitivity analyses were
      performed to examine the effects of heterogeneity on the pooled effect estimates
      by excluding studies with the heaviest weighting, lowest methodological score and
      most likely to introduce bias from misclassification of standardised hospital
      volume. RESULTS: Some 226 372 patients from 16 publications were included in our
      review and meta-analysis. Considerable between-study heterogeneity was noted and
      only a few reported volume-outcome relationships specifically in partial
      nephrectomy or nephrectomy with venous thrombectomy.HV hospitals were correlated
      with a 26% and 52% reduction in mortality for radical nephrectomy (OR 0.74, 95%
      CI 0.61 to 0.90, p<0.01) and nephrectomy with venous thrombectomy (OR 0.48, 95%
      CI 0.29 to 0.81, p<0.01), respectively. In addition, radical nephrectomy in HV
      hospitals was associated with an 18% reduction in complications (OR 0.82, 95% CI
      0.73 to 0.92, p<0.01). No significant volume-outcome relationship in mortality
      (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.31 to 2.26, p=0.73) or complications (OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.55 to
      1.30, p=0.44) was observed for partial nephrectomy. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      suggest that patients undergoing radical nephrectomy have improved outcomes when
      treated by HV hospitals. Evidence of this in partial nephrectomy and nephrectomy
      with venous thrombectomy is however not yet clear and could be secondary to the
      low number of studies included and the small patient number in our analyses.
      Further investigation is warranted to establish the full potential of nephrectomy
      centralisation particularly as existing evidence is of low quality with
      significant heterogeneity.

PMID- 28877948
TI  - APpropriAteness of percutaneous Coronary interventions in patients with ischaemic
      HEart disease in Italy: the APACHE pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To first explore in Italy appropriateness of indication, adherence to
      guideline recommendations and mode of selection for coronary revascularisation.
      DESIGN: Retrospective, pilot study. SETTING: 22 percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI)-performing hospitals (20 patients per site), 13 (59%) with on
      site cardiac surgery. PARTICIPANTS: 440 patients who received PCI for stable
      coronary artery disease (CAD) or non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome were
      independently selected in a 4:1 ratio with half diabetics. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of patients who received appropriate PCI using
      validated appropriate use scores (ie, AUS>=7). Also, in patients with stable CAD,
      we examined adherence to the following European Society of Cardiology
      recommendations: (A) per cent of patients with complex coronary anatomy treated
      after heart team discussion; (B) per cent of fractional flow reserve-guided PCI
      for borderline stenoses in patients without documented ischaemia; (C) per cent of
      patients receiving guideline-directed medical therapy at the time of PCI as well
      as use of provocative test of ischaemia according to pretest probability (PTP) of
      CAD. RESULTS: Of the 401 mappable PCIs (91%), 38.7% (95% CI 33.9 to 43.6) were
      classified as appropriate, 47.6% (95% CI 42.7 to 52.6) as uncertain and 13.7%
      (95% CI 10.5% to 17.5%) as inappropriate. Median PTP in patients with stable CAD
      without known coronary anatomy was 69% (78% intermediate PTP, 22% high PTP).
      Ischaemia testing use was similar (p=0.71) in patients with intermediate (n=140,
      63%) and with high PTP (n=40, 66%). In patients with stable CAD (n=352) guideline
      adherence to the three recommendations explored was: (A) 11%; (B) 25%; (C) 23%.
      AUS was higher in patients evaluated by the heart team as compared with patients
      who were not (7 (6.8) vs 5 (4.7); p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Use of heart team
      approaches and adherence to guideline recommendations on coronary
      revascularisation in a real-world setting is limited. This pilot study documents
      the feasibility of measuring appropriateness and guideline adherence in clinical
      practice and identifies substantial opportunities for quality improvement. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02748603.

PMID- 28877949
TI  - Feasibility randomised multicentre, double-blind, double-dummy controlled trial
      of anakinra, an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist versus intramuscular
      methylprednisolone for acute gout attacks in patients with chronic kidney disease
      (ASGARD): protocol study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute gout occurs in people with chronic kidney disease, who are
      commonly older people with comorbidities such as hypertension, heart disease and
      diabetes. Potentially harmful treatments are administered to these vulnerable
      patients due to a lack of clear evidence. Newly available treatment that targets
      a key inflammatory pathway in acute gout attacks provides an opportunity to
      undertake the first-ever trial specifically looking treating people with kidney
      disease. This paper describes the protocol for a feasibility randomised
      controlled trial (RCT) comparing anakinra, a novel interleukin-1 antagonist
      versus steroids in people with chronic kidney disease (ASGARD). METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: ASGARD is a two-parallel group double-blind, double-dummy multicentre
      RCT comparing anakinra 100 mg, an interleukin-1 antagonist, subcutaneous for 5
      days against intramuscular methylprednisolone 120 mg. The primary objective is to
      assess the feasibility of the trial design and procedures for a definitive RCT.
      The specific aims are: (1) test recruitment and retention rates and willingness
      to be randomised; (2) test eligibility criteria; (3) collect and analyse outcome
      data to inform sample and power calculations for a trial of efficacy; (4) collect
      economic data to inform a future economic evaluation estimating costs of
      treatment and (5) assess capacity of the project to scale up to a national
      multicentre trial. We will also gather qualitative insights from participants. It
      aims to recruit 32 patients with a 1:1 randomisation. Information from this
      feasibility study will help design a definitive trial and provide general
      information in designing acute gout studies. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The London
      Central Ethics Committee approved the protocol. The results will be disseminated
      in peer-reviewed journals and at scientific conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: EudraCT No. 2015-001787-19, NCT/Clinicalstrials.gov No. NCT02578394, pre
      results, WHO Universal Trials Reference No. U1111-1175-1977. NIHR Grant PB-PG
      0614-34090.

PMID- 28877950
TI  - Effects of complex interventions in 'skin cancer prevention and treatment':
      protocol for a mixed-method systematic review with qualitative comparative
      analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Occurring from ultraviolet radiation combined with impairing ozone
      levels, uncritical sun exposure and use of tanning beds an increasing number of
      people are affected by different types of skin cancer. But preventive
      interventions like skin cancer screening are still missing the evidence for
      effectiveness and therefore are criticised. Fundamental for an appropriate course
      of action is to approach the defined parameters as measures for effectiveness
      critically. A prerequisite should be the critical application of used parameter
      that are defined as measures for effectiveness. This research seeks to establish,
      through the available literature, the effects and conditions that prove the
      effectiveness of prevention strategies in skin cancer. METHOD AND ANALYSIS: A
      mixed-method approach is employed to combine quantitative to qualitative methods
      and answer what effects can display effectiveness considering time horizon,
      perspective and organisational level and what are essential and sufficient
      conditions to prove effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in skin cancer
      prevention strategies. A systematic review will be performed to spot studies from
      any design and assess the data quantitatively and qualitatively. Included studies
      from each key question will be summarised by characteristics like population,
      intervention, comparison, outcomes, study design, endpoints, effect estimator and
      so on. Beside statistical relevancies for a systematic review the qualitative
      method of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) will be performed. The estimated
      outcomes from this review and QCA are the accomplishment and absence of effects
      that are appropriate for application in effectiveness assessments and further
      cost-effectiveness assessment. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Formal ethical approval
      is not required as primary data will not be collected. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews number CRD42017053859.

PMID- 28877951
TI  - Psychological distress following a motor vehicle crash: evidence from a statewide
      retrospective study examining settlement times and costs of compensation claims.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether psychological distress associated with
      musculoskeletal injuries sustained in a motor vehicle crash (MVC), regardless of
      time of onset, impacts compensation outcomes such as claim settlement times and
      costs. Second, to identify factors routinely collected by insurance companies
      that contribute to psychological distress during the compensation process.
      DESIGN: Statewide retrospective study. DATA SOURCE: Analysis of the New South
      Wales statewide (Australia) injury register for MVC survivors who lodged a
      compensation claim from 2011 to 2013. PARTICIPANTS: 6341 adults who sustained a
      musculoskeletal injury and who settled a claim for injury after an MVC.
      Participants included those diagnosed with psychological distress (n=607) versus
      those not (n=5734). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time to settlement and total costs of
      claims, as well as socio-demographic and injury characteristics that may
      contribute to elevated psychological distress, such as socio-economic
      disadvantage, and injury severity. RESULTS: Psychological distress in those with
      a musculoskeletal injury was associated with significantly longer settlement
      times (an additional 17 weeks) and considerably higher costs (an additional $A41
      575.00 or 4.3 times more expensive). Multivariate logistic regression analysis
      identified risk factors for psychological distress including being female, social
      disadvantage, unemployment prior to the claim, not being at fault in the MVC,
      requiring ambulance transportation and rehabilitation as part of recovery.
      CONCLUSIONS: Results provide compelling evidence that psychological distress has
      an adverse impact on people with musculoskeletal injury as they progress through
      compensation. Findings suggest that additional resources should be directed
      toward claimants who are at risk (eg, the socially disadvantaged or those
      unemployed prior to the claim), the major aim being to reduce risk of
      psychological distress, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and associated
      risk of increased settlement times and claim costs. Prospective studies are now
      required that investigate treatment strategies for those at risk of psychological
      distress associated with an MVC.

PMID- 28877952
TI  - Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a cardiovascular risk prediction
      algorithm for people with severe mental illness (PRIMROSE).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the cost-effectiveness of two bespoke severe mental
      illness (SMI)-specific risk algorithms compared with standard risk algorithms for
      primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in those with SMI. SETTING:
      Primary care setting in the UK. The analysis was from the National Health Service
      perspective. PARTICIPANTS: 1000 individuals with SMI from The Health Improvement
      Network Database, aged 30-74 years and without existing CVD, populated the model.
      INTERVENTIONS: Four cardiovascular risk algorithms were assessed: (1) general
      population lipid, (2) general population body mass index (BMI), (3) SMI-specific
      lipid and (4) SMI-specific BMI, compared against no algorithm. At baseline, each
      cardiovascular risk algorithm was applied and those considered high risk (> 10%)
      were assumed to be prescribed statin therapy while others received usual care.
      PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and
      costs were accrued for each algorithm including no algorithm, and cost
      effectiveness was calculated using the net monetary benefit (NMB) approach.
      Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to test
      assumptions made and uncertainty around parameter estimates. RESULTS: The SMI
      specific BMI algorithm had the highest NMB resulting in 15 additional QALYs and a
      cost saving of approximately L53 000 per 1000 patients with SMI over 10 years,
      followed by the general population lipid algorithm (13 additional QALYs and a
      cost saving of L46 000). CONCLUSIONS: The general population lipid and SMI
      specific BMI algorithms performed equally well. The ease and acceptability of use
      of an SMI-specific BMI algorithm (blood tests not required) makes it an
      attractive algorithm to implement in clinical settings.

PMID- 28877953
TI  - Anti-inflammatory roles of p38alpha MAPK in macrophages are context dependent and
      require IL-10.
AB  - The p38 MAPK pathway was originally identified as a master regulator of
      proinflammatory cytokine production by myeloid cells. Numerous drugs targeting
      this kinase showed promise in preclinical models of inflammatory disease, but so
      far, none have shown efficacy in clinical trials. The reasons behind this are
      unclear, but may, in part, be explained by emerging anti-inflammatory functions
      of this kinase or overly refined selectivity of second-generation pharmacologic
      inhibitors. Here, we show that p38alpha signaling in macrophages plays pro- and
      anti-inflammatory functions in vivo and in vitro, with the outcome depending on
      the stimulus, output, kinetics, or mode of kinase inhibition (genetic vs.
      pharmacologic). Different pharmacologic inhibitors of p38 exhibit opposing
      effects, with second-generation inhibitors acting more specifically but
      inhibiting anti-inflammatory functions. Functionally, we show that the anti
      inflammatory functions of p38alpha in macrophages are critically dependent on
      production of IL-10. Accordingly, in the absence of IL-10, inhibition of p38alpha
      signaling in macrophages is protective in a spontaneous model of colitis. Taken
      together, our results shed light on the limited clinical efficacy of drugs
      targeting p38 and suggest that their therapeutic efficacy can be significantly
      enhanced by simultaneous modulation of p38-dependent anti-inflammatory mediators,
      such as IL-10.

PMID- 28877955
TI  - New perspectives in ocean acidification research: editor's introduction to the
      special feature on ocean acidification.
AB  - Ocean acidification, caused by the uptake of additional carbon dioxide (CO2) from
      the atmosphere, will have far-reaching impacts on marine ecosystems (Gattuso &
      Hansson 2011 Ocean acidification Oxford University Press). The predicted changes
      in ocean chemistry will affect whole biological communities and will occur within
      the context of global warming and other anthropogenic stressors; yet much of the
      biological research conducted to date has tested the short-term responses of
      single species to ocean acidification conditions alone. While an important
      starting point, these studies may have limited predictive power because they do
      not account for possible interactive effects of multiple climate change drivers
      or for ecological interactions with other species. Furthermore, few studies have
      considered variation in responses among populations or the evolutionary potential
      within populations. Therefore, our knowledge about the potential for marine
      organisms to adapt to ocean acidification is extremely limited. In 2015, two of
      the pioneers in the field, Ulf Riebesell and Jean-Pierre Gattuso, noted that to
      move forward as a field of study, future research needed to address critical
      knowledge gaps in three major areas: (i) multiple environmental drivers, (ii)
      ecological interactions and (iii) acclimation and adaptation (Riebesell and
      Gattuso 2015 Nat. Clim. Change5, 12-14 (doi:10.1038/nclimate2456)). In May 2016,
      more than 350 researchers, students and stakeholders met at the 4th International
      Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World in Hobart, Tasmania, to discuss the
      latest advances in understanding ocean acidification and its biological
      consequences. Many of the papers presented at the symposium reflected this shift
      in focus from short-term, single species and single stressor experiments towards
      multi-stressor and multispecies experiments that address knowledge gaps about the
      ecological impacts of ocean acidification on marine communities. The nine papers
      in this Special Feature are from authors who attended the symposium and address
      cutting-edge questions and emerging topics in ocean acidification research,
      across the taxonomic spectrum from plankton to top predators. They cover the
      three streams of research identified as crucial to understanding the biological
      impacts of ocean acidification: (i) the relationship with other environmental
      drivers, (ii) the effects on ecological process and species interactions, and
      (iii) the role that individual variation, phenotypic plasticity and adaptation
      will have in shaping the impacts of ocean acidification and warming on marine
      ecosystems.

PMID- 28877954
TI  - Suppression of Toll-like receptor 2-mediated proinflammatory responses by
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein Rv3529c.
AB  - Microorganisms are known to devise various strategies to thwart protective
      responses by the host. One such strategy is to incorporate sequences and domains
      in their genes/proteins that have similarity to various domains of the host
      proteins. In this study, we report that Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein
      Rv3529c exhibits significant similarity to the death domain of the TLR pathway
      adaptor protein MyD88. Incubation of macrophages with Rv3529c specifically
      inhibited TLR2-mediated proinflammatory responses. This included attenuated
      oxidative burst, reduced phosphorylation of MAPK-ERK, reduced activation of
      transcription factor NF-kappaB and reduced secretion of proinflammatory cytokines
      IFN-gamma, IL-6, and IL-17A with a concomitant increased secretion of suppressor
      cytokines IL-10 and TGF-beta. Importantly, Rv3529c significantly inhibited TLR2
      induced association of MyD88 with IRAK1 by competitively binding with IRAK1.
      Further, Rv3529c mediated inhibition of apoptosis and phagosome-lysosome fusion.
      Lastly, incubation of macrophages with Rv3529c increased bacterial burden inside
      macrophages. The data presented show another strategy evolved by M. tuberculosis
      toward immune evasion that centers on incorporating sequences in proteins that
      are similar to crucial proteins in the innate immune system of the host.

PMID- 28877956
TI  - Organ- and cell-specific immune responses are associated with the outcomes of
      intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - Severe brain injury significantly influences immune responses; however, the
      levels at which this influence occurs and which neurogenic pathways are involved
      are not well defined. Here, we used MRI to measure spleen volume and tissue
      diffusion changes in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We observed
      increased capillary exchange and spleen shrinkage by d 3 post-ICH, with recovery
      by d 14. The extent of spleen shrinkage was associated with brain hematoma size,
      and a reduced progression of perihematomal edema was observed in the presence of
      severe spleen shrinkage. At the cellular level, lymphopenia was present in
      patients with ICH at admission and persisted up to 14 d. Lymphopenia did not
      parallel the observed spleen alteration. In addition, patients with ICH with
      infection had significant deficiencies of T and NK cells and poor functional
      outcomes. Finally, in mouse models of ICH, spleen shrinkage could be related to
      innervations from adrenergic input and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)
      axis. In sum, the profound impact of ICH on the immune system involves the
      coordinated actions of sympathetic innervation and the HPA axis, which modulate
      spleen shrinkage and cellular immunity.-Zhang, J., Shi, K., Li, Z., Li, M., Han,
      Y., Wang, L., Zhang, Z., Yu, C., Zhang, F., Song, L., Dong, J.-F., La Cava, A.,
      Sheth, K. N., Shi, F.-D. Organ- and cell-specific immune responses are associated
      with the outcomes of intracerebral hemorrhage.

PMID- 28877957
TI  - Identification of a new adtrp1-tfpi regulatory axis for the specification of
      primitive myelopoiesis and definitive hematopoiesis.
AB  - A genomic variant in the human ADTRP [androgen-dependent tissue factor (TF)
      pathway inhibitor (TFPI) regulating protein] gene increases the risk of coronary
      artery disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. TFPI is the TF pathway
      inhibitor that is involved in coagulation. Here, we report that adtrp and tfpi
      form a regulatory axis that specifies primitive myelopoiesis and definitive
      hematopoiesis, but not primitive erythropoiesis or vasculogenesis. In zebrafish,
      there are 2 paralogues for adtrp (i.e., adtrp1 and adtrp2). Knockdown of adtrp1
      expression inhibits the specification of hemangioblasts, as shown by decreased
      expression of the hemangioblast markers, etsrp, fli1a, and scl; blocks primitive
      hematopoiesis, as shown by decreased expression of pu.1, mpo, and l-plastin; and
      disrupts the specification of hematopoietic stem cells (definitive
      hematopoiesis), as shown by decreased expression of runx1 and c-myb However,
      adtrp1 knockdown does not affect erythropoiesis during primitive hematopoiesis
      (no effect on gata1 or h-bae1) or vasculogenesis (no effect on kdrl, ephb2a,
      notch3, dab2, or flt4). Knockdown of adtrp2 expression does not have apparent
      effects on all markers tested. Knockdown of adtrp1 reduced the expression of
      tfpi, and hematopoietic defects in adtrp1 morphants were rescued by tfpi
      overexpression. These data suggest that the regulation of tfpi expression is one
      potential mechanism by which adtrp1 regulates primitive myelopoiesis and
      definitive hematopoiesis.-Wang, L., Wang, X., Wang, L., Yousaf, M., Li, J., Zuo,
      M., Yang, Z., Gou, D., Bao, B., Li, L., Xiang, N., Jia, H., Xu, C., Chen, Q.,
      Wang, Q. K. Identification of a new adtrp1-tfpi regulatory axis for the
      specification of primitive myelopoiesis and definitive hematopoiesis.

PMID- 28877958
TI  - Proline-dependent and basophilic kinases phosphorylate human TRPC6 at serine 14
      to control channel activity through increased membrane expression.
AB  - Signaling via the transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channel C6 plays a
      pivotal role in hereditary and sporadic glomerular kidney disease. Several
      studies have identified gain-of-function mutations of TRPC6 and report induced
      expression and enhanced channel activity of TRPC6 in association with glomerular
      diseases. Interfering with TRPC6 activity may open novel therapeutic pathways.
      TRPC6 channel activity is controlled by protein expression and stability as well
      as intracellular trafficking. Identification of regulatory phosphorylation sites
      in TRPC6 and corresponding protein kinases is essential to understand the
      regulation of TRPC6 activity and may result in future therapeutic strategies. In
      this study, an unbiased phosphoproteomic screen of human TRPC6 identified several
      novel serine phosphorylation sites. The phosphorylation site at serine 14 of
      TRPC6 is embedded in a basophilic kinase motif that is highly conserved across
      species. We confirmed serine 14 as a target of MAPKs and proline-directed kinases
      like cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) in cell-based as well as in vitro kinase
      assays and quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis of TRPC6. Phosphorylation of
      TRPC6 at serine 14 enhances channel conductance by boosting membrane expression
      of TRPC6, whereas protein stability and multimerization of TRPC6 are not altered,
      making serine 14 phosphorylation a potential drug target to interfere with TRPC6
      channel activity.-Hagmann, H., Mangold, N., Rinschen, M. M., Koenig, T.,
      Kunzelmann, K., Schermer, B., Benzing, T., Brinkkoetter, P. T. Proline-dependent
      and basophilic kinases phosphorylate human TRPC6 at serine 14 to control channel
      activity through increased membrane expression.

PMID- 28877959
TI  - Prognostic role of tumour-associated macrophages and regulatory T cells in EBV
      positive and EBV-negative nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - AIMS: Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) and regulatory T cells (Tregs) form a
      special niche supporting tumour progression, and both correlate with worse
      survival in head and neck cancers. However, the prognostic role of TAM and Tregs
      in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is still unknown. Therefore, we determined
      differences in TAMs and Tregs in different NPC subtypes, and their prognostic
      significance. METHODS: Tissue of 91 NPCs was assessed for TAMs and Tregs by
      determination of CD68, CD163, CD206 and FOXP3 expression in the tumour
      microenvironment. Clinicopathological correlations were assessed using Pearson X2
      test, Fisher's exact test, analysis of variance and Mann-Whitney U test. Survival
      was analysed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression. RESULTS: CD68 and
      FOXP3 counts were higher in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive NPC, while CD68
      /FOXP3-, CD163+/FOXP3- and CD206+/FOXP3- infiltrates were more common in EBV
      negative NPC. In the whole NPC group, CD68-/FOXP3- correlated with worse overall
      survival (OS), and after multivariate analysis high FOXP3 count showed better OS
      (HR 0.352, 95% CI 0.128 to 0.968). No difference in M2 counts existed between EBV
      positive and negative NPC. CONCLUSIONS: FOXP3, a Treg marker, seems to be an
      independent prognostic factor for better OS in the whole NPC group. Therefore,
      immune-based therapies targeting Tregs should be carefully evaluated. M2 spectrum
      macrophages are probably more prominent in EBV-negative NPC with also functional
      differences compared with EBV-positive NPC.

PMID- 28877960
TI  - RT-PCR for the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection: the final answer has
      yet to come.

PMID- 28877961
TI  - Adrenal insufficiency is seen in more than one-third of patients during ongoing
      low-dose prednisolone treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients receiving long-term glucocorticoid treatment are at risk of
      developing adrenal insufficiency during treatment. We investigated the prevalence
      of prednisolone-induced adrenal insufficiency in the particular clinical
      situation where patients receive ongoing low-dose (5 mg/day) prednisolone
      treatment, a dose by itself too low to cover glucocorticoid needs during stress.
      DESIGN AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study in 42 patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis (29 women, aged 36-86 years) treated with 5 mg prednisolone/day, who
      had received prednisolone for >=6 months (median: 66, range: 6-444 months).
      Adrenal function was evaluated by a 250 MUg Synacthen test performed after mean
      48.7 h prednisolone pause. Local assay-specific cut-off for normal adrenal
      function was P-cortisol >=420 nmol/L 30 min after Synacthen injection. RESULTS:
      Overall, 20 of the 42 patients (48%, 95% CI: 33-62%) had an insufficient adrenal
      response to the Synacthen test. Including only patients who had not received
      concomitant treatment with any other glucocorticoid formulas within the last 3
      months, 13 of 33 patients (39%, 95% CI: 25-56%) had an insufficient response.
      Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) concentrations were generally low and anti
      adrenal antibodies were negative indicating secondary adrenal insufficiency as
      the most likely diagnosis. There was no correlation between duration of treatment
      and 30 min P-cortisol (P = 0.62). Adrenal function did not depend on sex or
      seropositivity of rheumatoid arthritis. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate a high
      prevalence of adrenal insufficiency during ongoing low-dose prednisolone
      treatment. The results urge to increase focus on the condition to ensure
      identification and correct management of insufficient patients during stress and
      withdrawal. Strategies for adrenal function evaluation during ongoing low-dose
      glucocorticoid treatment need to be established.

PMID- 28877963
TI  - The effect of prior knowledge and intelligibility on the cortical entrainment
      response to speech.
AB  - It has been suggested that cortical entrainment plays an important role in speech
      perception by helping to parse the acoustic stimulus into discrete linguistic
      units. However, the question of whether the entrainment response to speech
      depends on the intelligibility of the stimulus remains open. Studies addressing
      this question of intelligibility have, for the most part, significantly distorted
      the acoustic properties of the stimulus to degrade the intelligibility of the
      speech stimulus, making it difficult to compare across "intelligible" and
      "unintelligible" conditions. To avoid these acoustic confounds, we used priming
      to manipulate the intelligibility of vocoded speech. We used EEG to measure the
      entrainment response to vocoded target sentences that are preceded by natural
      speech (nonvocoded) prime sentences that are either valid (match the target) or
      invalid (do not match the target). For unintelligible speech, valid primes have
      the effect of restoring intelligibility. We compared the effect of priming on the
      entrainment response for both 3-channel (unintelligible) and 16-channel
      (intelligible) speech. We observed a main effect of priming, suggesting that the
      entrainment response depends on prior knowledge, but not a main effect of
      vocoding (16 channels vs. 3 channels). Furthermore, we found no difference in the
      effect of priming on the entrainment response to 3-channel and 16-channel vocoded
      speech, suggesting that for vocoded speech, entrainment response does not depend
      on intelligibility.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Neural oscillations have been implicated in
      the parsing of speech into discrete, hierarchically organized units. Our data
      suggest that these oscillations track the acoustic envelope rather than more
      abstract linguistic properties of the speech stimulus. Our data also suggest that
      prior experience with the stimulus allows these oscillations to better track the
      stimulus envelope.

PMID- 28877964
TI  - Constitutive activity of 5-HT2C receptors is present after incomplete spinal cord
      injury but is not modified after chronic SSRI or baclofen treatment.
AB  - After spinal cord injury (SCI), reflexes become hyperexcitable, leading to
      debilitating muscle spasms and compromised motor function. Previous work has
      described adaptations in spinal systems that might underlie this
      hyperexcitability, including an increase in constitutively active 5-HT2C
      receptors in spinal motoneurons. That work, however, examined adaptations
      following complete transection SCI, whereas SCI in humans is usually anatomically
      and functionally incomplete. We therefore evaluated whether constitutive activity
      of 5-HT2C receptors contributes to reflex hyperexcitability in an incomplete
      compression model of SCI and to spasms in vitro and in vivo. Our results confirm
      that 5-HT2C receptor constitutive activity contributes to reflex excitability
      after incomplete SCI. We also evaluated whether constitutive activity could be
      altered by manipulation of neural activity levels after SCI, testing the
      hypothesis that it reflects homeostatic processes acting to maintain spinal
      excitability. We decreased neural activity after SCI by administering baclofen
      and increased activity by administering the selective serotonin reuptake
      inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine. We found that drug administration produced minimal
      alterations in in vivo locomotor function or reflex excitability. Similarly, we
      found that neither baclofen nor fluoxetine altered the contribution of
      constitutively active 5-HT2C receptors to reflexes after SCI, although the
      contribution of 5-HT2C receptors to reflex activity was altered after SSRIs.
      These results confirm the importance of constitutive activity in 5-HT2C receptors
      to spinal hyperexcitability following SCI in the clinically relevant case of
      incomplete SCI but suggest that this activity is not driven by homeostatic
      processes that act to maintain overall levels of spinal excitability.NEW &
      NOTEWORTHY After spinal cord injury (SCI), most people will develop muscle spasms
      below their level of injury that can severely impact function. In this work, we
      examine the adaptations that occur within the spinal cord after SCI that
      contribute to these motor dysfunctions. We also evaluate one hypothesis about how
      these adaptations develop, which will potentially lead to intervention strategies
      to improve functional outcomes in persons with SCI.

PMID- 28877962
TI  - Toward the human cellular microRNAome.
AB  - MicroRNAs are short RNAs that serve as regulators of gene expression and are
      essential components of normal development as well as modulators of disease.
      MicroRNAs generally act cell-autonomously, and thus their localization to
      specific cell types is needed to guide our understanding of microRNA activity.
      Current tissue-level data have caused considerable confusion, and comprehensive
      cell-level data do not yet exist. Here, we establish the landscape of human cell
      specific microRNA expression. This project evaluated 8 billion small RNA-seq
      reads from 46 primary cell types, 42 cancer or immortalized cell lines, and 26
      tissues. It identified both specific and ubiquitous patterns of expression that
      strongly correlate with adjacent superenhancer activity. Analysis of unaligned
      RNA reads uncovered 207 unknown minor strand (passenger) microRNAs of known
      microRNA loci and 495 novel putative microRNA loci. Although cancer cell lines
      generally recapitulated the expression patterns of matched primary cells, their
      isomiR sequence families exhibited increased disorder, suggesting DROSHA- and
      DICER1-dependent microRNA processing variability. Cell-specific patterns of
      microRNA expression were used to de-convolute variable cellular composition of
      colon and adipose tissue samples, highlighting one use of these cell-specific
      microRNA expression data. Characterization of cellular microRNA expression across
      a wide variety of cell types provides a new understanding of this critical
      regulatory RNA species.

PMID- 28877965
TI  - Tests of the sorption and olfactory "fovea" hypotheses in the mouse.
AB  - The spatial distribution of receptors within sensory epithelia (e.g., retina and
      skin) is often markedly nonuniform to gain efficiency in information capture and
      neural processing. By contrast, odors, unlike visual and tactile stimuli, have no
      obvious spatial dimension. What need then could there be for either nearest
      neighbor relationships or nonuniform distributions of receptor cells in the
      olfactory epithelium (OE)? Adrian (Adrian ED. J Physiol 100: 459-473, 1942;
      Adrian ED. Br Med Bull 6: 330-332, 1950) provided the only widely debated answer
      to this question when he posited that the physical properties of odors, such as
      volatility and water solubility, determine a spatial pattern of stimulation
      across the OE that could aid odor discrimination. Unfortunately, despite its
      longevity, few critical tests of the "sorption hypothesis" exist. Here we test
      the predictions of this hypothesis by mapping mouse OE responses using the
      electroolfactogram (EOG) and comparing these response "maps" to computational
      fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of airflow and odorant sorption patterns in the
      nasal cavity. CFD simulations were performed for airflow rates corresponding to
      quiet breathing and sniffing. Consistent with predictions of the sorption
      hypothesis, water-soluble odorants tended to evoke larger EOG responses in the
      central portion of the OE than the peripheral portion. However, sorption
      simulation patterns along individual nasal turbinates for particular odorants did
      not correlate with their EOG response gradients. Indeed, the most consistent
      finding was a rostral-greater to caudal-lesser response gradient for all the
      odorants tested that is unexplained by sorption patterns. The viability of the
      sorption and related olfactory "fovea" hypotheses are discussed in light of these
      findings.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Two classical ideas concerning olfaction's receptor
      surface two-dimensional organization-the sorption and olfactory fovea hypotheses
      were found wanting in this study that afforded unprecedented comparisons between
      electrophysiological recordings in the mouse olfactory epithelium and
      computational fluid dynamic simulations of nasal airflow. Alternatively, it is
      proposed that the olfactory receptor layouts in macrosmatic mammals may be an
      evolutionary contingent state devoid of the functional significance found in
      other sensory epithelia like the cochlea and retina.

PMID- 28877966
TI  - T-Cell Mediation of Pregnancy Analgesia Affecting Chronic Pain in Mice.
AB  - It has been reported consistently that many female chronic pain sufferers have an
      attenuation of symptoms during pregnancy. Rats display increased pain tolerance
      during pregnancy due to an increase in opioid receptors in the spinal cord. Past
      studies did not consider the role of non-neuronal cells, which are now known to
      play an important role in chronic pain processing. Using an inflammatory
      (complete Freund's adjuvant) or neuropathic (spared nerve injury) model of
      persistent pain, we observed that young adult female mice in early pregnancy
      switch from a microglia-independent to a microglia-dependent pain
      hypersensitivity mechanism. During late pregnancy, female mice show no evidence
      of chronic pain whatsoever. This pregnancy-related analgesia is reversible by
      intrathecal administration of naloxone, suggesting an opioid-mediated mechanism;
      pharmacological and genetic data suggest the importance of delta-opioid
      receptors. We also observe that T-cell-deficient (nude and Rag1-null mutant)
      pregnant mice do not exhibit pregnancy analgesia, which can be rescued with the
      adoptive transfer of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells from late-pregnant wild-type mice.
      These results suggest that T cells are a mediator of the opioid analgesia
      exhibited during pregnancy.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Chronic pain symptoms often
      subside during pregnancy. This pregnancy-related analgesia has been demonstrated
      for acute pain in rats. Here, we show that pregnancy analgesia can produce a
      complete cessation of chronic pain behaviors in mice. We show that the phenomenon
      is dependent on pregnancy hormones (estrogen and progesterone), delta-opioid
      receptors, and T cells of the adaptive immune system. These findings add to the
      recent but growing evidence of sex-specific T-cell involvement in chronic pain
      processing.

PMID- 28877967
TI  - Memantine and Ketamine Differentially Alter NMDA Receptor Desensitization.
AB  - Memantine and ketamine are clinically useful NMDA receptor (NMDAR) open channel
      blockers that inhibit NMDARs with similar potency and kinetics, but display
      vastly different clinical profiles. This discrepancy has been hypothesized to
      result from inhibition by memantine and ketamine of overlapping but distinct
      NMDAR subpopulations. For example, memantine but not ketamine may inhibit
      extrasynaptic NMDARs more effectively than synaptic NMDARs. However, the basis
      for preferential NMDAR inhibition depending on subcellular location has not been
      investigated systematically. We integrated recordings from heterologously
      expressed single NMDAR subtypes, kinetic modeling, and recordings of synaptically
      evoked NMDAR responses in acute brain slices to investigate mechanisms by which
      channel blockers may distinguish NMDAR subpopulations. We found that memantine
      and ketamine differentially alter NMDAR desensitization and that memantine
      stabilizes a Ca2+-dependent desensitized state. As a result, inhibition by
      memantine of GluN1/2A receptors in tsA201 cells and of native synaptic NMDARs in
      cortical pyramidal neurons from mice of either sex increased in conditions that
      enhanced intracellular Ca2+ accumulation. Therefore, differential inhibition by
      memantine and ketamine based on NMDAR location is likely to result from location
      dependence of the intensity and duration of NMDAR activation. Modulation of Ca2+
      dependent NMDAR desensitization is an unexplored mechanism of inhibitory action
      with the potential to endow drugs with NMDAR selectivity that leads to superior
      clinical profiles. Our results suggest that designing compounds to target
      specific receptor states, rather than specific receptor types, may be a viable
      strategy for future drug development.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Memantine and
      ketamine are NMDA receptor (NMDAR) channel-blocking drugs with divergent clinical
      effects. Understanding mechanistically their differential actions may advance our
      understanding of nervous system disorders and suggest strategies for the design
      of more effective drugs. Here, we show that memantine and ketamine have
      contrasting effects on NMDAR desensitization. Ketamine binding decreases
      occupancy of desensitized states of the GluN1/2B NMDAR subtype. In contrast,
      memantine binding increases occupancy of GluN1/2A and native NMDAR desensitized
      states entered after accumulation of intracellular Ca2+, a novel inhibitory
      mechanism. These properties may contribute to inhibition of distinct NMDAR
      subpopulations by memantine and ketamine and help to explain their differential
      clinical effects. Our results suggest stabilization of Ca2+-dependent
      desensitized states as a new strategy for pharmaceutical neuroprotection.

PMID- 28877968
TI  - Action Potential Broadening in Capsaicin-Sensitive DRG Neurons from Frequency
      Dependent Reduction of Kv3 Current.
AB  - Action potential (AP) shape is a key determinant of cellular electrophysiological
      behavior. We found that in small-diameter, capsaicin-sensitive dorsal root
      ganglia neurons corresponding to nociceptors (from rats of either sex),
      stimulation at frequencies as low as 1 Hz produced progressive broadening of the
      APs. Stimulation at 10 Hz for 3 s resulted in an increase in AP width by an
      average of 76 +/- 7% at 22 degrees C and by 38 +/- 3% at 35 degrees C. AP clamp
      experiments showed that spike broadening results from frequency-dependent
      reduction of potassium current during spike repolarization. The major current
      responsible for frequency-dependent reduction of overall spike-repolarizing
      potassium current was identified as Kv3 current by its sensitivity to low
      concentrations of 4-aminopyridine (IC50 <100 MUm) and block by the peptide
      inhibitor blood depressing substance I (BDS-I). There was a small component of
      Kv1-mediated current during AP repolarization, but this current did not show
      frequency-dependent reduction. In a small fraction of cells, there was a
      component of calcium-dependent potassium current that showed frequency-dependent
      reduction, but the contribution to overall potassium current reduction was almost
      always much smaller than that of Kv3-mediated current. These results show that
      Kv3 channels make a major contribution to spike repolarization in small-diameter
      DRG neurons and undergo frequency-dependent reduction, leading to spike
      broadening at moderate firing frequencies. Spike broadening from frequency
      dependent reduction in Kv3 current could mitigate the frequency-dependent
      decreases in conduction velocity typical of C-fiber axons.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
      Small-diameter dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons mediating nociception and other
      sensory modalities express many types of potassium channels, but how they combine
      to control firing patterns and conduction is not well understood. We found that
      action potentials of small-diameter rat DRG neurons showed spike broadening at
      frequencies as low as 1 Hz and that spike broadening resulted predominantly from
      frequency-dependent inactivation of Kv3 channels. Spike width helps to control
      transmitter release, conduction velocity, and firing patterns and understanding
      the role of particular potassium channels can help to guide new pharmacological
      strategies for targeting pain-sensing neurons selectively.

PMID- 28877970
TI  - The Transcriptional Response of Candida albicans to Weak Organic Acids, Carbon
      Source, and MIG1 Inactivation Unveils a Role for HGT16 in Mediating the
      Fungistatic Effect of Acetic Acid.
AB  - Candida albicans is a resident fungus of the human intestinal microflora.
      Commonly isolated at low abundance in healthy people, C. albicans outcompetes
      local microbiota during candidiasis episodes. Under normal conditions, members of
      the human gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota were shown to keep C. albicans
      colonization under control. By releasing weak organic acids (WOAs), bacteria are
      able to moderate yeast growth. This mechanism displays a synergistic effect in
      vitro with the absence of glucose in medium of culture, which underlines the
      complex interactions that C. albicans faces in its natural environment.
      Inactivation of the transcriptional regulator MIG1 in C. albicans results in a
      lack of sensitivity to this synergistic outcome. To decipher C. albicans
      transcriptional responses to glucose, WOAs, and the role of MIG1, we performed
      RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) on four biological replicates exposed to combinations of
      these three parameters. We were able to characterize the (i) glucose response,
      (ii) response to acetic and butyric acid, (iii) MIG1 regulation of C. albicans,
      and (iv) genes responsible for WOA resistance. We identified a group of six genes
      linked to WOA sensitivity in a glucose-MIG1-dependent manner and inactivated one
      of these genes, the putative glucose transporter HGT16, in a SC5314 wild-type
      background. As expected, the mutant displayed a partial complementation to WOA
      resistance in the absence of glucose. This result points toward a mechanism of
      WOA sensitivity in C. albicans involving membrane transporters, which could be
      exploited to control yeast colonization in human body niches.

PMID- 28877972
TI  - Clinical care for primary ciliary dyskinesia: current challenges and future
      directions.
AB  - Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disease that affects the
      motility of cilia, leading to impaired mucociliary clearance. It is estimated
      that the vast majority of patients with PCD have not been diagnosed as such,
      providing a major obstacle to delivering appropriate care. Challenges in
      diagnosing PCD include lack of disease-specific symptoms and absence of a single,
      "gold standard", diagnostic test. Management of patients is currently not based
      on high-level evidence because research findings are mostly derived from small
      observational studies with limited follow-up period. In this review, we provide a
      critical overview of the available literature on clinical care for PCD patients,
      including recent advances. We identify barriers to PCD research and make
      suggestions for overcoming challenges.

PMID- 28877969
TI  - Overdominant Effect of a CHRNA4 Polymorphism on Cingulo-Opercular Network
      Activity and Cognitive Control.
AB  - The nicotinic system plays an important role in cognitive control and is
      implicated in several neuropsychiatric conditions. However, the contributions of
      genetic variability in this system to individuals' cognitive control abilities
      are poorly understood and the brain processes that mediate such genetic
      contributions remain largely unidentified. In this first large-scale neuroimaging
      genetics study of the human nicotinic receptor system (two cohorts, males and
      females, fMRI total N = 1586, behavioral total N = 3650), we investigated a
      common polymorphism of the high-affinity nicotinic receptor alpha4beta2
      (rs1044396 on the CHRNA4 gene) previously implicated in behavioral and nicotine
      related studies (albeit with inconsistent major/minor allele impacts). Based on
      our prior neuroimaging findings, we expected this polymorphism to affect neural
      activity in the cingulo-opercular (CO) network involved in core cognitive control
      processes including maintenance of alertness. Consistent across the cohorts, all
      cortical areas of the CO network showed higher activity in heterozygotes compared
      with both types of homozygotes during cognitive engagement. This inverted U
      shaped relation reflects an overdominant effect; that is, allelic interaction
      (cumulative evidence p = 1.33 * 10-5). Furthermore, heterozygotes performed more
      accurately in behavioral tasks that primarily depend on sustained alertness. No
      effects were observed for haplotypes of the surrounding CHRNA4 region, supporting
      a true overdominant effect at rs1044396. As a possible mechanism, we observed
      that this polymorphism is an expression quantitative trait locus modulating
      CHRNA4 expression levels. This is the first report of overdominance in the
      nicotinic system. These findings connect CHRNA4 genotype, CO network activation,
      and sustained alertness, providing insights into how genetics shapes individuals'
      cognitive control abilities.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The nicotinic acetylcholine
      system plays a central role in neuromodulatory regulation of cognitive control
      processes and is dysregulated in several neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite this
      functional importance, no large-scale neuroimaging genetics studies have targeted
      the contributions of genetic variability in this system to human brain activity.
      Here, we show the impact of a common polymorphism of the high-affinity nicotinic
      receptor alpha4beta2 that is consistent across brain activity and behavior in two
      large human cohorts. We report a hitherto unknown overdominant effect (allelic
      interaction) at this locus, where the heterozygotes show higher activity in the
      cingulo-opercular network underlying alertness maintenance and higher behavioral
      alertness performance than both homozygous groups. This gene-brain-behavior
      relationship informs about the biological basis of interindividual differences in
      cognitive control.

PMID- 28877971
TI  - Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation During Ovule Development of Female
      Sterile Rice fsv1.
AB  - The regulation of female fertility is an important field of rice sexual
      reproduction research. DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic modification
      that dynamically regulates gene expression during development processes. However,
      few reports have described the methylation profiles of female-sterile rice during
      ovule development. In this study, ovules were continuously acquired from the
      beginning of megaspore mother cell meiosis until the mature female gametophyte
      formation period, and global DNA methylation patterns were compared in the ovules
      of a high-frequency female-sterile line (fsv1) and a wild-type rice line (Gui99)
      using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS). Profiling of the global DNA
      methylation revealed hypo-methylation, and 3471 significantly differentially
      methylated regions (DMRs) were observed in fsv1 ovules compared with Gui99. Based
      on functional annotation and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG)
      pathway analysis of differentially methylated genes (DMGs), we observed more DMGs
      enriched in cellular component, reproduction regulation, metabolic pathway, and
      other pathways. In particular, many ovule development genes and plant hormone
      related genes showed significantly different methylation patterns in the two rice
      lines, and these differences may provide important clues for revealing the
      mechanism of female gametophyte abortion.

PMID- 28877973
TI  - Heritable pulmonary hypertension: from bench to bedside.
AB  - Mutations in the BMPR2 gene, and more rarely in ACVRL1, endoglin, caveolin-1,
      KCNK3 and TBX4 genes predispose to heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension, an
      autosomal dominant disease with incomplete penetrance. Bi-allelic mutations in
      the EIF2AK4 gene predispose to heritable pulmonary veno-occlusive
      disease/pulmonary capillary haemangiomatosis, an autosomal recessive disease with
      an unknown penetrance.In France, the national pulmonary hypertension referral
      centre offers genetic counselling and testing to adults and children. Predictive
      testing is also proposed to adult relatives at risk of carrying a predisposing
      mutation. In that context, we offer all asymptomatic BMPR2 mutation carriers a
      programme to detect pulmonary arterial hypertension at an early phase, as
      recommended by the 2015 European Society Society of Cardiology/European
      Respiratory Society pulmonary hypertension guidelines. Finally, pre-implantation
      genetic diagnosis has been conducted on five embryos from two couples in which
      the fathers were carriers of a pathogenic BMPR2 mutation.

PMID- 28877974
TI  - Exertional dyspnoea in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
AB  - Dyspnoea is a principal presenting symptom in pulmonary arterial hypertension
      (PAH), and often the most distressing. The pathophysiology of PAH is relatively
      well understood, with the primary abnormality of pulmonary vascular disease
      resulting in a combination of impaired cardiac output on exercise and abnormal
      gas exchange, both contributing to increased ventilatory drive. However,
      increased ventilatory drive is not the sole explanation for the complex
      neurophysiological and neuropsychological symptom of dyspnoea, with other
      significant contributions from skeletal muscle reflexes, respiratory muscle
      function, and psychological and emotional status. In this review, we explore the
      physiological aspects of dyspnoea in PAH, both in terms of the central
      cardiopulmonary abnormalities of PAH and the wider, systemic impact of PAH, and
      how these interact with common comorbidities. Finally, we discuss its
      relationship with disease severity.

PMID- 28877975
TI  - The lung in amyloidosis.
AB  - Amyloidosis is a disorder caused by misfolding of autologous protein and its
      extracellular deposition as fibrils, resulting in vital organ dysfunction and
      eventually death. Pulmonary amyloidosis may be localised or part of systemic
      amyloidosis.Pulmonary interstitial amyloidosis is symptomatic only if the amyloid
      deposits severely affect gas exchange alveolar structure, thus resulting in
      serious respiratory impairment. Localised parenchymal involvement may be present
      as nodular amyloidosis or as amyloid deposits associated with localised
      lymphomas. Finally, tracheobronchial amyloidosis, which is usually not associated
      with evident clonal proliferation, may result in airway stenosis.Because the
      treatment options for amyloidosis are dependent on the fibril protein type, the
      workup of all new cases should include accurate determination of the amyloid
      protein. Most cases are asymptomatic and need only a careful follow-up. Diffuse
      alveolar-septal amyloidosis is treated according to the underlying systemic
      amyloidosis. Nodular pulmonary amyloidosis is usually localised, conservative
      excision is usually curative and the long-term prognosis is excellent.
      Tracheobronchial amyloidosis is usually treated with bronchoscopic interventions
      or external beam radiation therapy.

PMID- 28877976
TI  - Evaluating disease severity in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - Accurate assessment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) disease severity is
      integral to the care provided to patients with IPF. However, to date, there are
      no generally accepted or validated staging systems. There is an abundance of data
      on using information acquired from physiological, radiological and pathological
      parameters, in isolation or in combination, to assess disease severity in IPF.
      Recently, there has been interest in using serum biomarkers and computed
      tomography-derived quantitative lung fibrosis measures to stage disease severity
      in IPF. This review will focus on the suggested methods for staging IPF, at
      baseline and on serial assessment, their strengths and limitations, as well as
      future developments.

PMID- 28877977
TI  - Rare pulmonary diseases: a common fight.

PMID- 28877978
TI  - How I manage pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis.
AB  - Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare sporadic cystic lung
      disease of unknown aetiology that is characterised by the infiltration and
      destruction of the wall of distal bronchioles by CD1a+ Langerhans-like cells. In
      adults, PLCH is frequently isolated and affects young smokers of both sexes.
      Recent multicentre studies have led to the more standardised management of
      patients in clinical practice. Smoking cessation is essential and is occasionally
      the only suitable intervention. Serial lung function testing is important because
      a significant proportion of patients may experience an early decline in forced
      expiratory volume in 1 s and develop airflow obstruction. Cladribine was reported
      to dramatically improve progressive PLCH in some patients. Its efficacy and
      tolerance are currently being evaluated. Patients who complain of unexplained
      dyspnoea with decreased diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide should
      be screened for pulmonary hypertension by Doppler echocardiography, which must be
      confirmed by right heart catheterisation. Lung transplantation is a therapeutic
      option for patients with advanced PLCH.The identification of the BRAFV600E
      mutation in approximately half of Langerhans cell histiocytosis lesions,
      including PLCH, and other mutations of the mitogen-activated protein kinase
      (MAPK) pathway in a subset of lesions has led to targeted treatments (BRAF and
      MEK (MAPK kinase) inhibitors). These treatments need to be rigorously evaluated
      because of their potentially severe side-effects.

PMID- 28877979
TI  - Fatty acids promote fatty liver disease via the dysregulation of 3
      mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase/hydrogen sulfide pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Accumulation of free fatty acids (FFAs) in hepatocytes induces
      lipotoxicity, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study
      aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms by which FFA contributes to the
      pathogenesis of NAFLD via the regulation of 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase
      (MPST), a key enzyme that regulates endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
      biosynthesis. DESIGN: Hepatic MPST expression was evaluated in mice and patients
      with NAFLD. A variety of molecular approaches were used to study the effects of
      MPST regulation on hepatic steatosis in vivo and in vitro. RESULTS: In vitro
      treatment of hepatocytes with FFAs upregulated MPST expression, which was
      partially dependent on NF-kappaB/p65. Hepatic MPST expression was markedly
      increased in high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice and patients with NAFLD. Partial
      knockdown of MPST via adenovirus delivery of MPST short hairpin RNA or
      heterozygous deletion of the Mpst gene significantly ameliorated hepatic
      steatosis in HFD-fed mice. Consistently, inhibition of MPST also reduced FFA
      induced fat accumulation in L02 cells. Intriguingly, inhibition of MPST
      significantly enhanced rather than decreased H2S production, whereas MPST
      overexpression markedly inhibited H2S production. Co-immunoprecipitation
      experiments showed that MPST directly interacted with and negatively regulated
      cystathionine gamma-lyase (CSE), a major source of H2S production in the liver.
      Mechanistically, MPST promoted steatosis via inhibition of CSE/H2S and subsequent
      upregulation of the sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c pathway, C-Jun N
      terminal kinase phosphorylation and hepatic oxidative stress. CONCLUSIONS: FFAs
      upregulate hepatic expression of MPST and subsequently inhibit the CSE/H2S
      pathway, leading to NAFLD. MPST may be a potential therapeutic target for NAFLD.

PMID- 28877981
TI  - Prospective study on the incidence, prevalence and 5-year pancreatic-related
      mortality of pancreatic cysts in a population-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse the prevalence, incidence and clinical relevance of
      pancreatic cysts detected as incidental finding in a population-based
      longitudinal study. DESIGN: A total of 1077 participants (521 men, mean age
      55.8+/-12.8 years) of 2333 participants from the population-based Study of Health
      in Pomerania (SHIP) underwent magnetic resonance cholangiopancreaticography
      (MRCP) at baseline (2008-2012). MRCP was analysed for pancreatic cysts with a
      diameter >=2 mm. 676/1077 subjects received a 5-year follow-up (2014-2016). The
      prevalence and incidence of pancreatic cysts (weighted for study participation)
      were assessed in association to age, gender and suspected epidemiological risk
      factors. Mortality follow-up was performed in 2015 for all SHIP participants
      (mean follow-up period 5.9 years, range 3.2-7.5 years). RESULTS: At baseline
      pancreatic cysts had a weighted prevalence of 49.1%, with an average number of
      3.9 (95% CI 3.2 to 4.5) cysts per subject in the subgroup harbouring cysts. Cyst
      size ranged from 2 to 29 mm. Prevalence (p<0.001), number (p=0.001) and maximum
      size (p<0.001) increased significantly with age. The 5-year follow-up revealed a
      weighted incidence of 12.9% newly detected pancreatic cysts. 57.1% of the
      subjects initially harbouring pancreatic cysts showed an increase in number
      and/or maximum cyst size. Of all subjects undergoing MRCP, no participant died of
      pancreatic diseases within mortality follow-up. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of
      pancreatic cysts in the general population is unexpectedly high, and their number
      and size increase with age. Overall, no pancreatic cancer was observed in this
      collective during a 5-year follow-up. Nevertheless, prospective follow-up imaging
      showed minimal progress in more than 50%. Only about 6% of cysts and 2.5% of the
      study group initially presented with cysts of more than 1 cm and thus might be
      clinically meaningful.

PMID- 28877980
TI  - NAD metabolism fuels human and mouse intestinal inflammation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT, also referred to as pre
      B cell colony-enhancing factor or visfatin) is critically required for the
      maintenance of cellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) supply catalysing
      the rate-limiting step of the NAD salvage pathway. NAMPT is strongly upregulated
      in inflammation including IBD and counteracts an increased cellular NAD turnover
      mediated by NAD-depleting enzymes. These constitute an important mechanistic link
      between inflammatory, metabolic and transcriptional pathways and NAD metabolism.
      DESIGN: We investigated the impact of NAMPT inhibition by the small-molecule
      inhibitor FK866 in the dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) model of colitis and the
      azoxymethane/DSS model of colitis-associated cancer. The impact of NAD depletion
      on differentiation of mouse and human primary monocytes/macrophages was studied
      in vitro. Finally, we tested the efficacy of FK866 compared with dexamethasone
      and infliximab in lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMNC) isolated from patients
      with IBD. RESULTS: FK866 ameliorated DSS-induced colitis and suppressed
      inflammation-associated tumorigenesis in mice. FK866 potently inhibited NAMPT
      activity as demonstrated by reduced mucosal NAD, resulting in reduced abundances
      and activities of NAD-dependent enzymes including PARP1, Sirt6 and CD38, reduced
      nuclear factor kappa B activation, and decreased cellular infiltration by
      inflammatory monocytes, macrophages and activated T cells. Remarkably, FK866
      effectively supressed cytokine release from LPMNCs of patients with IBD. As FK866
      was also effective in Rag1-/- mice, we mechanistically linked FK866 treatment
      with altered monocyte/macrophage biology and skewed macrophage polarisation by
      reducing CD86, CD38, MHC-II and interleukin (IL)-6 and promoting CD206, Egr2 and
      IL-10. CONCLUSION: Our data emphasise the importance of NAD immunometabolism for
      mucosal immunity and highlight FK866-mediated NAMPT blockade as a promising
      therapeutic approach in acute intestinal inflammation.

PMID- 28877982
TI  - Noncanonical regulation of insulin-mediated ERK activation by phosphoinositide 3
      kinase gamma.
AB  - Classically Class IB phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3Kgamma) plays a role in
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation following G-protein
      coupled receptor (GPCR) activation. Knock-down of PI3Kgamma unexpectedly resulted
      in loss of ERK activation to receptor tyrosine kinase agonists such as epidermal
      growth factor or insulin. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) or primary adult
      cardiac fibroblasts isolated from PI3Kgamma knock-out mice (PI3KgammaKO) showed
      decreased insulin-stimulated ERK activation. However, expression of kinase-dead
      PI3Kgamma resulted in rescue of insulin-stimulated ERK activation.
      Mechanistically, PI3Kgamma sequesters protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), disrupting
      ERK-PP2A interaction, as evidenced by increased ERK-PP2A interaction and
      associated PP2A activity in PI3KgammaKO MEFs, resulting in decreased ERK
      activation. Furthermore, beta-blocker carvedilol-mediated beta-arrestin-dependent
      ERK activation is significantly reduced in PI3KgammaKO MEF, suggesting
      accelerated dephosphorylation. Thus, instead of classically mediating the kinase
      arm, PI3Kgamma inhibits PP2A by scaffolding and sequestering, playing a key
      parallel synergistic step in sustaining the function of ERK, a nodal enzyme in
      multiple cellular processes.

PMID- 28877983
TI  - General and specific promotion of flagellar assembly by a flagellar nucleoside
      diphosphate kinase.
AB  - Nucleoside diphosphate kinases (NDKs) play a central role in diverse cellular
      processes using the canonical NDK activity or alternative mechanisms that remain
      poorly defined. Our study of dimeric NDK5 in a flagellar motility control
      complex, the radial spoke (RS), has revealed new modalities. The flagella in
      Chlamydomonas ndk5 mutant were paralyzed, albeit only deficient in three RS
      subunits. RS morphology appeared severely changed in averaged cryo-electron
      tomograms, suggesting that NDK5 is crucial for the intact spokehead formation as
      well as RS structural stability. Intriguingly, ndk5's flagella were also short,
      resembling those of an allelic spoke-less mutant. All ndk5's phenotypes were
      rescued by expressions of NDK5 or a mutated NDK5 lacking the canonical kinase
      activity. Importantly, the mutated NDK5 that appeared fully functional in ndk5
      cells elicited a dominant-negative effect in wild-type cells, causing paralyzed
      short flagella with hypophosphorylated, less abundant, but intact RSs, and
      accumulated hypophosphorylated NDK5 in the cell body. We propose that NDK5 dimer
      is an RS structural subunit with an additional mechanism that uses cross-talk
      between the two NDK monomers to accelerate phosphorylation-related assembly of
      RSs and entire flagella.

PMID- 28877985
TI  - MTBP, the partner of Treslin, contains a novel DNA-binding domain that is
      essential for proper initiation of DNA replication.
AB  - Treslin, which is essential for incorporation of Cdc45 into the replicative
      helicase, possesses a partner called MTBP (Mdm2-binding protein). We have
      analyzed Xenopus and human MTBP to assess its role in DNA replication. Depletion
      of MTBP from Xenopus egg extracts, which also removes Treslin, abolishes DNA
      replication. These extracts be can rescued with recombinant Treslin-MTBP but not
      Treslin or MTBP alone. Thus, Treslin-MTBP is collectively necessary for
      replication. We have identified a C-terminal region of MTBP (the CTM domain) that
      binds efficiently to both double-stranded DNA and G-quadruplex (G4) DNA. This
      domain also exhibits homology with budding yeast Sld7. Mutants of MTBP without a
      functional CTM domain are defective for DNA replication in Xenopus egg extracts.
      These mutants display an impaired localization to chromatin and the inability to
      support loading of Cdc45. Human cells harboring such a mutant also display severe
      S-phase defects. Thus, the CTM domain of MTBP plays a critical role in localizing
      Treslin-MTBP to the replication apparatus for initiation.

PMID- 28877984
TI  - alpha5beta1-Integrin promotes tension-dependent mammary epithelial cell invasion
      by engaging the fibronectin synergy site.
AB  - Tumors are fibrotic and characterized by abundant, remodeled, and cross-linked
      collagen that stiffens the extracellular matrix stroma. The stiffened collagenous
      stroma fosters malignant transformation of the tissue by increasing tumor cell
      tension to promote focal adhesion formation and potentiate growth factor receptor
      signaling through kinase. Importantly, collagen cross-linking requires
      fibronectin (FN). Fibrotic tumors contain abundant FN, and tumor cells frequently
      up-regulate the FN receptor alpha5beta1 integrin. Using transgenic and xenograft
      models and tunable two- and three-dimensional substrates, we show that FN-bound
      alpha5beta1 integrin promotes tension-dependent malignant transformation through
      engagement of the synergy site that enhances integrin adhesion force. We
      determined that ligation of the synergy site of FN permits tumor cells to engage
      a zyxin-stabilized, vinculin-linked scaffold that facilitates nucleation of
      phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-triphosphate at the plasma membrane to enhance
      phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-dependent tumor cell invasion. The data explain
      why rigid collagen fibrils potentiate PI3K activation to promote malignancy and
      offer a perspective regarding the consistent up-regulation of alpha5beta1
      integrin and FN in many tumors and their correlation with cancer aggression.

PMID- 28877986
TI  - Phosphorylation and nuclear transit modulate the balance between normal function
      and terminal aggregation of the yeast RNA-binding protein Ssd1.
AB  - Yeast Ssd1 is an RNA-binding protein that shuttles between the nucleus and
      cytoplasm. Ssd1 interacts with its target mRNAs initially during transcription by
      binding through its N-terminal prion-like domain (PLD) to the C-terminal domain
      of RNA polymerase II. Ssd1 subsequently targets mRNAs acquired in the nucleus
      either to daughter cells for translation or to stress granules (SGs) and P-bodies
      (PBs) for mRNA storage or decay. Here we show that PB components assist in the
      nuclear export of Ssd1and subsequent targeting of Ssd1 to PB sites in the
      cytoplasm. In the absence of import into the nucleus, Ssd1 fails to associate
      with PBs in the cytoplasm but rather is targeted to cytosolic insoluble protein
      deposits (IPODs). The association of Ssd1 either with IPOD sites or with PB/SG
      requires the PLD, whose activity is differentially regulated by the Ndr/LATS
      family kinase, Cbk1: phosphorylation suppresses PB/SG association but enhances
      IPOD formation. This regulation likely accrues from a phosphorylation-sensitive
      nuclear localization sequence located in the PLD. The results presented here may
      inform our understanding of aggregate formation by RBP in certain neurological
      diseases.

PMID- 28877989
TI  - Regulatory T Cell-Mediated Suppression of Inflammation Induced by DR3 Signaling
      Is Dependent on Galectin-9.
AB  - Stimulation of several TNF receptor family proteins has been shown to dampen
      inflammatory disease in murine models through augmenting the number and/or
      activity of regulatory T cells (Tregs). We recently found that one molecule, 4
      1BB, used binding to Galectin-9 to exert its immunosuppressive effects and drive
      expansion of CD8+Foxp3- Tregs. We now show that ligation of another TNFR family
      molecule, DR3, which has previously been found to strongly expand CD4+Foxp3+
      Tregs and suppress inflammation, also requires Galectin-9. We found that the
      extracellular region of DR3 directly binds to Galectin-9, and that Galectin-9
      associates with DR3 in Tregs. From studies in vitro with Galectin-9-/- CD4+ T
      cells and Tregs, we found that stimulatory activity induced by ligating DR3 was
      in part dependent on Galectin-9. In vivo, in a model of experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis, we show that an agonist of DR3 suppressed disease, correlating
      with expansion of CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs, and this protective effect was lost in
      Galectin-9-/- mice. Similar results were seen in an allergic lung inflammation
      model. Thus, we demonstrate a novel function of Galectin-9 in facilitating
      activity of DR3 related to Treg-mediated suppression.

PMID- 28877987
TI  - Adhesion to the host cell surface is sufficient to mediate Listeria monocytogenes
      entry into epithelial cells.
AB  - The intestinal epithelium is the first physiological barrier breached by the Gram
      positive facultative pathogen Listeria monocytogenes during an in vivo infection.
      Listeria monocytogenes binds to the epithelial host cell receptor E-cadherin,
      which mediates a physical link between the bacterium and filamentous actin (F
      actin). However, the importance of anchoring the bacterium to F-actin through E
      cadherin for bacterial invasion has not been tested directly in epithelial cells.
      Here we demonstrate that depleting alphaE-catenin, which indirectly links E
      cadherin to F-actin, did not decrease L. monocytogenes invasion of epithelial
      cells in tissue culture. Instead, invasion increased due to increased bacterial
      adhesion to epithelial monolayers with compromised cell-cell junctions.
      Furthermore, expression of a mutant E-cadherin lacking the intracellular domain
      was sufficient for efficient L. monocytogenes invasion of epithelial cells.
      Importantly, direct biotin-mediated binding of bacteria to surface lipids in the
      plasma membrane of host epithelial cells was sufficient for uptake. Our results
      indicate that the only requirement for L. monocytogenes invasion of epithelial
      cells is adhesion to the host cell surface, and that E-cadherin-mediated coupling
      of the bacterium to F-actin is not required.

PMID- 28877990
TI  - Grb2-Mediated Recruitment of USP9X to LAT Enhances Themis Stability following
      Thymic Selection.
AB  - Themis is a new component of the TCR signaling machinery that plays a critical
      role during T cell development. The positive selection of immature CD4+CD8+
      double-positive thymocytes and their commitment to the CD4+CD8- single-positive
      stage are impaired in Themis-/- mice, suggesting that Themis might be important
      to sustain TCR signals during these key developmental processes. However, the
      analysis of Themis mRNA levels revealed that Themis gene expression is rapidly
      extinguished during positive selection. We show in this article that Themis
      protein expression is increased in double-positive thymocytes undergoing positive
      selection and is sustained in immature single-positive thymocytes, despite the
      strong decrease in Themis mRNA levels in these subsets. We found that Themis
      stability is controlled by the ubiquitin-specific protease USP9X, which removes
      ubiquitin K48-linked chains on Themis following TCR engagement. Biochemical
      analyses indicate that USP9X binds directly to the N-terminal CABIT domain of
      Themis and indirectly to the adaptor protein Grb2, with the latter interaction
      enabling recruitment of Themis/USP9X complexes to LAT, thereby sustaining Themis
      expression following positive selection. Together, these data suggest that TCR
      mediated signals enhance Themis stability upon T cell development and identify
      USP9X as a key regulator of Themis protein turnover.

PMID- 28877988
TI  - IL-17A Produced by Innate Lymphoid Cells Is Essential for Intestinal Ischemia
      Reperfusion Injury.
AB  - Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury to the small intestine following clamping of the
      superior mesenteric artery results in an intense local inflammatory response that
      is characterized by villous damage and neutrophil infiltration. IL-17A, a
      cytokine produced by a variety of cells in response to inflammatory cytokines
      released following tissue injury, has been implicated in IR injury. Using Il17a-/
      , Il23r-/- , and Rorc-/- mice and administration of anti-IL-17A and anti-IL-23
      neutralizing Abs to wild-type mice, we demonstrate that intestinal IR injury
      depends on IL-17A and that IL-17A is downstream of the binding of autoantibody to
      ischemia-conditioned tissues and subsequent complement activation. Using bone
      marrow chimeras, we demonstrate that the IL-17A required for intestinal IR injury
      is derived from hematopoietic cells. Finally, by transferring autoantibody-rich
      sera into Rag2gammac-/- and Rag2-/- mice, we demonstrate that innate lymphoid
      cells are the main producers of IL-17A in intestinal IR injury. We propose that
      local production of IL-17A by innate lymphoid cells is crucial for the
      development of intestinal IR injury and may provide a therapeutic target for
      clinical exploitation.

PMID- 28877991
TI  - Activated Protein C Attenuates Severe Inflammation by Targeting VLA-3high
      Neutrophil Subpopulation in Mice.
AB  - The host injury involved in multiorgan system failure during severe inflammation
      is mediated, in part, by massive infiltration and sequestration of hyperactive
      neutrophils in the visceral organ. A recombinant form of human activated protein
      C (rhAPC) has shown cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory functions in some
      clinical and animal studies, but the direct mechanism is not fully understood.
      Recently, we reported that, during endotoxemia and severe polymicrobial
      peritonitis, integrin VLA-3 (CD49c/CD29) is specifically upregulated on
      hyperinflammatory neutrophils and that targeting the VLA-3high neutrophil
      subpopulation improved survival in mice. In this article, we report that rhAPC
      binds to human neutrophils via integrin VLA-3 (CD49c/CD29) with a higher affinity
      compared with other Arg-Gly-Asp binding integrins. Similarly, there is
      preferential binding of activated protein C (PC) to Gr1highCD11bhighVLA-3high
      cells isolated from the bone marrow of septic mice. Furthermore, specific binding
      of rhAPC to human neutrophils via VLA-3 was inhibited by an antagonistic peptide
      (LXY2). In addition, genetically modified mutant activated PC, with a high
      affinity for VLA-3, shows significantly improved binding to neutrophils compared
      with wild-type activated PC and significantly reduced neutrophil infiltration
      into the lungs of septic mice. These data indicate that variants of activated PC
      have a stronger affinity for integrin VLA-3, which reveals novel therapeutic
      possibilities.

PMID- 28877992
TI  - Activation of Human Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells Induces CD40L-Dependent
      Maturation of Monocyte-Derived and Primary Dendritic Cells.
AB  - Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate T cells that recognize
      intermediates of the vitamin B2 biosynthetic pathway presented by the monomorphic
      MR1 molecule. It remains unclear whether, in addition to their cytolytic activity
      that is important in antimicrobial defense, MAIT cells have immune-modulatory
      functions that could enhance dendritic cell (DC) maturation. In this study, we
      investigated the molecular mechanisms dictating the interactions between human
      MAIT cells and DCs and demonstrate that human MAIT cells mature monocyte-derived
      and primary DCs in an MR1- and CD40L-dependent manner. Furthermore, we show that
      MAIT cell-derived signals synergize with microbial stimuli to induce secretion of
      bioactive IL-12 by DCs. Activation of human MAIT cells in whole blood leads to
      MR1- and cytokine-dependent NK cell transactivation. Our results underscore an
      important property of MAIT cells, which can be of translational relevance to
      rapidly orchestrate adaptive immunity through DC maturation.

PMID- 28877993
TI  - Stabilization of dynamic microtubules by mDia1 drives Tau-dependent Abeta1-42
      synaptotoxicity.
AB  - Oligomeric Amyloid beta1-42 (Abeta) plays a crucial synaptotoxic role in
      Alzheimer's disease, and hyperphosphorylated tau facilitates Abeta toxicity. The
      link between Abeta and tau, however, remains controversial. In this study, we
      find that in hippocampal neurons, Abeta acutely induces tubulin posttranslational
      modifications (PTMs) and stabilizes dynamic microtubules (MTs) by reducing their
      catastrophe frequency. Silencing or acute inhibition of the formin mDia1
      suppresses these activities and corrects the synaptotoxicity and deficits of
      axonal transport induced by Abeta. We explored the mechanism of rescue and found
      that stabilization of dynamic MTs promotes tau-dependent loss of dendritic spines
      and tau hyperphosphorylation. Collectively, these results uncover a novel role
      for mDia1 in Abeta-mediated synaptotoxicity and demonstrate that inhibition of MT
      dynamics and accumulation of PTMs are driving factors for the induction of tau
      mediated neuronal damage.

PMID- 28877994
TI  - Cadherin complexes recruit mRNAs and RISC to regulate epithelial cell signaling.
AB  - Cumulative evidence demonstrates that most RNAs exhibit specific subcellular
      distribution. However, the mechanisms regulating this phenomenon and its
      functional consequences are still under investigation. Here, we reveal that
      cadherin complexes at the apical zonula adherens (ZA) of epithelial adherens
      junctions recruit the core components of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC)
      Ago2, GW182, and PABPC1, as well as a set of 522 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and 28
      mature microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs), via PLEKHA7. Top canonical pathways
      represented by these mRNAs include Wnt/beta-catenin, TGF-beta, and stem cell
      signaling. We specifically demonstrate the presence and silencing of MYC, JUN,
      and SOX2 mRNAs by miR-24 and miR-200c at the ZA. PLEKHA7 knockdown dissociates
      RISC from the ZA, decreases loading of the ZA-associated mRNAs and miRNAs to
      Ago2, and results in a corresponding increase of MYC, JUN, and SOX2 protein
      expression. The present work reveals a mechanism that directly links junction
      integrity to the silencing of a set of mRNAs that critically affect epithelial
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28877995
TI  - A neuroprotective agent that inactivates prodegenerative TrkA and preserves
      mitochondria.
AB  - Axon degeneration is an early event and pathological in neurodegenerative
      conditions and nerve injuries. To discover agents that suppress neuronal death
      and axonal degeneration, we performed drug screens on primary rodent neurons and
      identified the pan-kinase inhibitor foretinib, which potently rescued
      sympathetic, sensory, and motor wt and SOD1 mutant neurons from trophic factor
      withdrawal-induced degeneration. By using primary sympathetic neurons grown in
      mass cultures and Campenot chambers, we show that foretinib protected neurons by
      suppressing both known degenerative pathways and a new pathway involving
      unliganded TrkA and transcriptional regulation of the proapoptotic BH3 family
      members BimEL, Harakiri,and Puma, culminating in preservation of mitochondria in
      the degenerative setting. Foretinib delayed chemotherapy-induced and Wallerian
      axonal degeneration in culture by preventing axotomy-induced local energy deficit
      and preserving mitochondria, and peripheral Wallerian degeneration in vivo. These
      findings identify a new axon degeneration pathway and a potentially clinically
      useful therapeutic drug.

PMID- 28877996
TI  - BLM and SLX4 play opposing roles in recombination-dependent replication at human
      telomeres.
AB  - Alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) is a telomere lengthening pathway that
      predominates in aggressive tumors of mesenchymal origin; however, the underlying
      mechanism of telomere synthesis is not fully understood. Here, we show that the
      BLM-TOP3A-RMI (BTR) dissolvase complex is required for ALT-mediated telomere
      synthesis. We propose that recombination intermediates formed during strand
      invasion are processed by the BTR complex, initiating rapid and extensive POLD3
      dependent telomere synthesis followed by dissolution, with no overall exchange of
      telomeric DNA. This process is counteracted by the SLX4-SLX1-ERCC4 complex, which
      promotes resolution of the recombination intermediate, resulting in telomere
      exchange in the absence of telomere extension. Our data are consistent with ALT
      being a conservative DNA replication process, analogous to break-induced
      replication, which is dependent on BTR and counteracted by SLX4 complex-mediated
      resolution events.

PMID- 28877998
TI  - Respiratory Infections and the Risk of Celiac Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The increasing incidence of celiac disease (CD)
      suggests that common infections before the onset of autoimmune diseases could be
      an important factor in switching the immune response. We aimed to explore the
      relationship between early clinical events and the development of CD in
      genetically predisposed infants. METHODS: In this study, 373 newborns from
      families with at least 1 relative with CD were recruited, and human leukocyte
      antigen DQ2- or DQ8-positive infants were followed up with clinical and
      serological evaluations. Cross tabulation and odds ratios were used to explore
      the risk associated with single variables, and logistic regression analysis was
      performed to determine the variables that contributed to the risk of developing
      CD. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to determine which variables could
      distinguish case patients from controls before diagnosis. RESULTS: The cumulative
      incidence of CD in this cohort was 6% at 3 years and 13.5% at 5 years of age, and
      l34 children (14%) developed CD before the sixth year of life. An analysis of
      adverse events showed a higher frequency of respiratory tract infections among CD
      patients during the first 24 months of life. In a stepwise discriminant analysis,
      which included sex and human leukocyte antigen risk class, only respiratory
      infections in the second and first years of life significantly contributed to
      discrimination of case patients versus controls. CONCLUSIONS: A multivariate
      model of discriminant analysis showed that the frequency of respiratory
      infections in the first 2 years of life could distinguish children who developed
      CD from those who did not.

PMID- 28877997
TI  - The Pumilio-domain protein PUF6 contributes to SIDER2 retroposon-mediated mRNA
      decay in Leishmania.
AB  - Leishmania and other trypanosomatid protozoa lack control at the level of
      transcription initiation and regulate gene expression exclusively post
      transcriptionally. We have reported previously that Leishmania harbors a unique
      class of short interspersed degenerate retroposons (SIDERs) that are
      predominantly located within 3'UTRs and play a major role in post-transcriptional
      control. We have shown that members of the SIDER2 subfamily initiate mRNA decay
      through endonucleolytic cleavage within the second conserved 79-nt signature
      sequence of SIDER2 retroposons. Here, we have developed an optimized MS2 coat
      protein tethering system to capture trans-acting factor(s) regulating SIDER2
      mediated mRNA decay. Tethering of the MS2 coat protein to a reporter RNA
      harboring two MS2 stem-loop aptamers and the cognate SIDER2-containing 3'UTR in
      combination with immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry analysis led to the
      identification of RNA-binding proteins with known functions in mRNA decay. Among
      the candidate SIDER2-interacting proteins that were individually tethered to a
      SIDER2 reporter RNA, the Pumilio-domain protein PUF6 was shown to enhance
      degradation and reduce transcript half-life. Furthermore, we showed that PUF6
      binds to SIDER2 sequences that include the regulatory 79-nt signature motif,
      hence contributing to the mRNA decay process. Consistent with a role of PUF6 in
      SIDER2-mediated decay, genetic inactivation of PUF6 resulted in increased
      accumulation and higher stability of endogenous SIDER2-bearing transcripts.
      Overall, these studies provide new insights into regulated mRNA decay pathways in
      Leishmania controlled by SIDER2 retroposons and propose a broader role for PUF
      proteins in mRNA decay within the eukaryotic kingdom.

PMID- 28877999
TI  - Sudden Cardiac Arrest While Eating a Hot Dog: A Rare Presentation of Brugada
      Syndrome in a Child.
AB  - Patients who are diagnosed with Brugada syndrome (BS) usually experience sudden
      cardiac arrest (SCA) and arrhythmia when they have a high fever, consume alcohol,
      and, more frequently, during their night sleep. In some rare cases, an SCA can be
      seen depending on a possible vagal stimulus, such as eating a large bite of food.
      We describe a 9-year-old patient who had a sudden cardiac attack while he was
      eating a large hot dog. After successful resuscitation, a suspicious ST elevation
      in V2 was seen in his electrocardiographic evaluation. He was diagnosed with BS
      after the ajmaline test and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator was
      implanted. Vagal stimulus-dependent SCA after eating a large bite of food may be
      the first symptom of BS. For this reason, the electrocardiographic results of the
      children who had a cardiac arrest after eating a large meal with big bites should
      be evaluated in detail.

PMID- 28878000
TI  - Dissecting hematopoietic and renal cell heterogeneity in adult zebrafish at
      single-cell resolution using RNA sequencing.
AB  - Recent advances in single-cell, transcriptomic profiling have provided
      unprecedented access to investigate cell heterogeneity during tissue and organ
      development. In this study, we used massively parallel, single-cell RNA
      sequencing to define cell heterogeneity within the zebrafish kidney marrow,
      constructing a comprehensive molecular atlas of definitive hematopoiesis and
      functionally distinct renal cells found in adult zebrafish. Because our method
      analyzed blood and kidney cells in an unbiased manner, our approach was useful in
      characterizing immune-cell deficiencies within DNA-protein kinase catalytic
      subunit (prkdc), interleukin-2 receptor gamma a (il2rga), and double-homozygous
      mutant fish, identifying blood cell losses in T, B, and natural killer cells
      within specific genetic mutants. Our analysis also uncovered novel cell types,
      including two classes of natural killer immune cells, classically defined and
      erythroid-primed hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, mucin-secreting kidney
      cells, and kidney stem/progenitor cells. In total, our work provides the first,
      comprehensive, single-cell, transcriptomic analysis of kidney and marrow cells in
      the adult zebrafish.

PMID- 28878001
TI  - NLR Nod1 signaling promotes survival of BCR-engaged mature B cells through up
      regulated Nod1 as a positive outcome.
AB  - Although B cell development requires expression of the B cell antigen receptor
      (BCR), it remains unclear whether engagement of self-antigen provides a positive
      impact for most B cells. Here, we show that BCR engagement by self-ligand during
      development in vivo results in up-regulation of the Nod-like receptor member
      Nod1, which recognizes the products of intestinal commensal bacteria. In anti
      thymocyte/Thy-1 autoreactive BCR knock-in mice lacking self-Thy-1 ligand,
      immunoglobulin light chain editing occurred, generating B cells with up-regulated
      Nod1, including follicular and marginal zone B cells with natural autoreactivity.
      This BCR editing with increased Nod1 resulted in preferential survival. In normal
      adult mice, most mature B cells are enriched for Nod1 up-regulated cells, and
      signaling through Nod1 promotes competitive survival of mature B cells. These
      findings demonstrate a role for microbial products in promoting survival of
      mature B cells through up-regulated Nod1, providing a positive effect of BCR
      engagement on development of most B cells.

PMID- 28878002
TI  - COMBAT: A Combined Association Test for Genes Using Summary Statistics.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been widely used for identifying
      common variants associated with complex diseases. Traditional analysis of GWAS
      typically examines one marker at a time, usually single nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs), to identify individual variants associated with a disease. However, due
      to the small effect sizes of common variants, the power to detect individual risk
      variants is generally low. As a complementary approach to SNP-level analysis, a
      variety of gene-based association tests have been proposed. However, the power of
      existing gene-based tests is often dependent on the underlying genetic models,
      and it is not known a priori which test is optimal. Here we propose a combined
      association test (COMBAT) for genes, which incorporates strengths from existing
      gene-based tests and shows higher overall performance than any individual test.
      Our method does not require raw genotype or phenotype data, but needs only SNP
      level P-values and correlations between SNPs from ancestry-matched samples.
      Extensive simulations showed that COMBAT has an appropriate type I error rate,
      maintains higher power across a wide range of genetic models, and is more robust
      than any individual gene-based test. We further demonstrated the superior
      performance of COMBAT over several other gene-based tests through reanalysis of
      the meta-analytic results of GWAS for bipolar disorder. Our method allows for the
      more powerful application of gene-based analysis to complex diseases, which will
      have broad use given that GWAS summary results are increasingly publicly
      available.

PMID- 28878004
TI  - Mycoplasma genitalium Macrolide and Fluoroquinolone Resistance Detection and
      Clinical Implications in a Selected Cohort in New Zealand.
AB  - Mycoplasma genitalium has been associated with infections of the genitourinary
      tract, and prevalence is secondary to Chlamydia trachomatis The clinical
      observation of increasing treatment failure indicating antibiotic resistance,
      especially in cases of recurrent urethritis, has been confirmed by molecular
      testing. Mutations in the 23S rRNA gene can cause macrolide resistance, and
      topoisomerase/gyrase mutations can cause fluoroquinolone resistance. In this
      study, 115 M. genitalium DNA-positive samples were analyzed. Eighty-nine (77.4%)
      samples had a 23S rRNA mutation present, and 26 (22.6%) were wild type (no
      resistance mutation). Fluoroquinolone mutation screening was performed on 86
      (74.8%) of the 115 samples, of which 20 (23.3%) samples had a mutation or
      mutations associated with increased resistance. This study shows the increasing
      antibiotic resistance in New Zealand and the need for appropriate guidelines to
      treat at-risk patients.

PMID- 28878003
TI  - Evaluation of the Lumipulse G TP-N Chemiluminescent Immunoassay as a Syphilis
      Screening Test.
AB  - A syphilis diagnosis is often aided by the detection of treponemal and
      nontreponemal antibodies. Automated treponemal antibody detection systems enable
      high-volume clinical laboratories to perform syphilis screening at a faster pace
      with lower labor costs. The Lumipulse G TP-N chemiluminescent immunoassay is an
      automated system that qualitatively detects IgG and IgM antibodies against
      Treponema pallidum antigens in human serum and plasma. To assess performance
      characteristics and workflow efficiency, the Lumipulse G TP-N assay was compared
      to the Bioplex 2200 Syphilis IgG multiplex flow immunoassay. Among the 4,134
      routine and HIV samples tested by the two automated assays, the percentage of
      agreement was excellent at 99.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 98.6% to 99.2%;
      kappa, 0.89), with the Lumipulse G TP-N having a shorter time to first and
      subsequent results. All specimens with reactive syphilis screening results were
      further tested by rapid plasma reagin (RPR) and Treponema pallidum particle
      agglutination (TP.PA) testing (n = 231). The results from the RPR-reactive
      samples (n = 82) showed complete concordance with the two automated assays, while
      the TP.PA assay displayed some discrepancies. The positive percent agreement
      (PPA) and negative percent agreement (NPA) between the TP.PA test and the
      Lumipulse G TP-N test were 98.9% and 77.3%, respectively. The Bioplex 2200
      Syphilis IgG immunoassay displayed a similar PPA (100%) but a substantially lower
      NPA (15.9%). Patient chart reviews of discrepant results suggested that the
      Lumipulse G TP-N assay produced 27 fewer falsely reactive results and can reduce
      the amount of additional confirmatory RPR and TP.PA testing needed. The analogous
      performance characteristics of the two automated systems indicate that the
      Lumipulse G TP-N assay is suitable for high-throughput syphilis screening.

PMID- 28878005
TI  - Citrate Anticoagulant Improves the Sensitivity of Borreliella (Borrelia)
      burgdorferi Plasma Culture.

PMID- 28878006
TI  - Evaluation of GenoType MTBDRplus by Use of Extracted DNA from Formalin-Fixed
      Paraffin-Embedded Specimens.

PMID- 28878007
TI  - Development of Serotype-Specific PCR Assays for Typing of Haemophilus parasuis
      Isolates Circulating in Southern China.
AB  - The bacterium Haemophilus parasuis is the specific pathogenic cause of Glasser's
      disease in swine. Fifteen serotypes of H. parasuis have been reported. A method
      to serotype H. parasuis isolates accurately would help to prevent and control
      Glasser's disease outbreaks through appropriate vaccination and to understand the
      epidemiology in specific geographic areas. However, according to traditional
      serotyping, the rate of nontypeable (NT) strains is 10 to 40%, which gives low
      accuracy. In the present study, we developed a set of PCR assays that are able to
      identify all the currently known H. parasuis serotypes, with a detection limit of
      5 CFU. This PCR method is particularly useful to distinguish serotype 5 from
      serotype 12. We then surveyed the serotype prevalence of H. parasuis isolates
      from southern China using both the traditional indirect hemagglutination (IHA)
      and current PCR methods. Of the 298 isolates tested, 228 (76.51%) and 281
      (94.30%) were serotyped by the IHA and PCR tests, respectively, with a
      concordance rate of 80.87% (241/298). The most prevalent serotypes obtained by
      PCR were 4, 5, 12, 13, NT, and 2, and the most prevalent obtained by IHA were NT,
      5, 4, 12, 13, and 2. In conclusion, the PCR assays developed in this study
      provide a rapid and specific method for the molecular serotyping of H. parasuis.

PMID- 28878008
TI  - Biographical Feature: William Michael Dunne, Jr., Ph.D.

PMID- 28878009
TI  - Multisite Evaluation of the BD Max Extended Enteric Bacterial Panel for Detection
      of Yersinia enterocolitica, Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Vibrio, and
      Plesiomonas shigelloides from Stool Specimens.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to perform a multisite evaluation to establish the
      performance characteristics of the BD Max extended enteric bacterial panel (xEBP)
      assay directly from unpreserved or Cary-Blair-preserved stool specimens for the
      detection of Yersinia enterocolitica, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC),
      Vibrio, and Plesiomonas shigelloides The study included prospective,
      retrospective, and prepared contrived specimens from 6 clinical sites. BD Max
      xEBP results were compared to the reference method, which included standard
      culture techniques coupled with alternate PCR and sequencing, except for ETEC,
      for which the reference method was two alternate PCRs and sequencing. Alternate
      PCR was also used to confirm the historical results for the retrospective
      specimens and for discrepant result analysis. A total of 2,410 unformed,
      deidentified stool specimens were collected. The prevalence in the prospective
      samples as defined by the reference method was 1.2% ETEC, 0.1% Vibrio, 0% Y.
      enterocolitica, and 0% P. shigelloides Compared to the reference method, the
      positive percent agreement (PPA) (95% confidence interval [CI]), negative percent
      agreement (NPA) (95% CI), and kappa coefficient (95% CI) for the BD Max xEBP
      assay for all specimens combined were as follows: ETEC, 97.6% (87.4 to 99.6),
      99.8% (99.5 to 99.9), and 0.93 (0.87 to 0.99); Vibrio, 100% (96.4 to 100), 99.7%
      (99.4 to 99.8), and 0.96 (0.93 to 0.99); Y. enterocolitica, 99.0% (94.8 to 99.8),
      99.9% (99.8 to 99.9), and 0.99 (0.98 to 1); P. shigelloides, 100% (96.4 to 100),
      99.8% (99.5 to 99.9), and 0.98 (0.95 to 1), respectively. In this multicenter
      study, the BD Max xEBP showed a high correlation (kappa, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95 to
      0.98) with the conventional methods for the detection of ETEC, Vibrio, Y.
      enterocolitica, and P. shigelloides in stool specimens from patients suspected of
      acute gastroenteritis, enteritis, or colitis.

PMID- 28878010
TI  - Broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting the HIV-1 envelope V2 apex confer
      protection against a clade C SHIV challenge.
AB  - Neutralizing antibodies to the V2 apex antigenic region of the HIV-1 envelope
      (Env) trimer are among the most prevalent cross-reactive antibodies elicited by
      natural infection. Two recently described V2-specific antibodies, PGDM1400 and
      CAP256-VRC26.25, have demonstrated exquisite potency and neutralization breadth
      against HIV-1. However, little data exist on the protective efficacy of V2
      specific neutralizing antibodies. We created a novel SHIV-325c viral stock that
      included a clade C HIV-1 envelope and was susceptible to neutralization by both
      of these antibodies. Rhesus macaques received a single infusion of either
      antibody at three different concentrations (2, 0.4, and 0.08 mg/kg) before
      challenge with SHIV-325c. PGDM1400 was fully protective at the 0.4 mg/kg dose,
      whereas CAP256-VRC26.25-LS was fully protective even at the 0.08 mg/kg dose,
      which correlated with its greater in vitro neutralization potency against the
      challenge virus. Serum antibody concentrations required for protection were <0.75
      MUg/ml for CAP256-VRC26.25-LS. These data demonstrate unprecedented potency and
      protective efficacy of V2-specific neutralizing antibodies in nonhuman primates
      and validate V2 as a potential target for the prevention of HIV-1 infection in
      passive immunization strategies in humans.

PMID- 28878011
TI  - Nondestructive tissue analysis for ex vivo and in vivo cancer diagnosis using a
      handheld mass spectrometry system.
AB  - Conventional methods for histopathologic tissue diagnosis are labor- and time
      intensive and can delay decision-making during diagnostic and therapeutic
      procedures. We report the development of an automated and biocompatible handheld
      mass spectrometry device for rapid and nondestructive diagnosis of human cancer
      tissues. The device, named MasSpec Pen, enables controlled and automated delivery
      of a discrete water droplet to a tissue surface for efficient extraction of
      biomolecules. We used the MasSpec Pen for ex vivo molecular analysis of 20 human
      cancer thin tissue sections and 253 human patient tissue samples including normal
      and cancerous tissues from breast, lung, thyroid, and ovary. The mass spectra
      obtained presented rich molecular profiles characterized by a variety of
      potential cancer biomarkers identified as metabolites, lipids, and proteins.
      Statistical classifiers built from the histologically validated molecular
      database allowed cancer prediction with high sensitivity (96.4%), specificity
      (96.2%), and overall accuracy (96.3%), as well as prediction of benign and
      malignant thyroid tumors and different histologic subtypes of lung cancer.
      Notably, our classifier allowed accurate diagnosis of cancer in marginal tumor
      regions presenting mixed histologic composition. Last, we demonstrate that the
      MasSpec Pen is suited for in vivo cancer diagnosis during surgery performed in
      tumor-bearing mouse models, without causing any observable tissue harm or stress
      to the animal. Our results provide evidence that the MasSpec Pen could
      potentially be used as a clinical and intraoperative technology for ex vivo and
      in vivo cancer diagnosis.

PMID- 28878012
TI  - Synthetic oligosaccharides can replace animal-sourced low-molecular weight
      heparins.
AB  - Low-molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is used clinically to treat clotting
      disorders. As an animal-sourced product, LMWH is a highly heterogeneous mixture,
      and its anticoagulant activity is not fully reversible by protamine. Furthermore,
      the reliability of the LMWH supply chain is a concern for regulatory agencies. We
      demonstrate the synthesis of heparin dodecasaccharides (12-mers) at the gram
      scale. In vitro experiments demonstrate that the anticoagulant activity of the 12
      mers could be reversed using protamine. One of these, labeled as 12-mer-1,
      reduced the size of blood clots in the mouse model of deep vein thrombosis and
      attenuated circulating procoagulant markers in the mouse model of sickle cell
      disease. An ex vivo experiment demonstrates that the anticoagulant activity of 12
      mer-1 could be reversed by protamine. 12-mer-1 was also examined in a nonhuman
      primate model to determine its pharmacodynamic parameters. A 7-day toxicity study
      in a rat model showed no toxic effects. The data suggest that a synthetic
      homogeneous oligosaccharide can replace animal-sourced LMWHs.

PMID- 28878013
TI  - New class of precision antimicrobials redefines role of Clostridium difficile S
      layer in virulence and viability.
AB  - There is a medical need for antibacterial agents that do not damage the resident
      gut microbiota or promote the spread of antibiotic resistance. We recently
      described a prototypic precision bactericidal agent, Av-CD291.2, which
      selectively kills specific Clostridium difficile strains and prevents them from
      colonizing mice. We have since selected two Av-CD291.2-resistant mutants that
      have a surface (S)-layer-null phenotype due to distinct point mutations in the
      slpA gene. Using newly identified bacteriophage receptor binding proteins for
      targeting, we constructed a panel of Avidocin-CDs that kills diverse C. difficile
      isolates in an S-layer sequence-dependent manner. In addition to bacteriophage
      receptor recognition, characterization of the mutants also uncovered important
      roles for S-layer protein A (SlpA) in sporulation, resistance to innate immunity
      effectors, and toxin production. Surprisingly, S-layer-null mutants were found to
      persist in the hamster gut despite a complete attenuation of virulence. These
      findings suggest antimicrobials targeting virulence factors dispensable for
      fitness in the host force pathogens to trade virulence for viability and would
      have clear clinical advantages should resistance emerge. Given their exquisite
      specificity for the pathogen, Avidocin-CDs have substantial therapeutic potential
      for the treatment and prevention of C. difficile infections.

PMID- 28878014
TI  - Identification of a 35S U4/U6.U5 tri-small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (tri-snRNP)
      complex intermediate in spliceosome assembly.
AB  - The de novo assembly and post-splicing reassembly of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP
      remain to be investigated. We report here that ZIP, a protein containing a CCCH
      type zinc finger and a G-patch domain, as characterized by us previously,
      regulates pre-mRNA splicing independent of RNA binding. We found that ZIP
      physically associates with the U4/U6.U5 tri-small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (tri
      snRNP). Remarkably, the ZIP-containing tri-snRNP, which has a sedimentation
      coefficient of ~35S, is a tri-snRNP that has not been described previously. We
      also found that the 35S tri-snRNP contains hPrp24, indicative of a state in which
      the U4/U6 di-snRNP is integrating with the U5 snRNP. We found that the 35S tri
      snRNP is enriched in the Cajal body, indicating that it is an assembly
      intermediate during 25S tri-snRNP maturation. We showed that the 35S tri-snRNP
      also contains hPrp43, in which ATPase/RNA helicase activities are stimulated by
      ZIP. Our study identified, for the first time, a tri-snRNP intermediate, shedding
      new light on the de novo assembly and recycling of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP.

PMID- 28878015
TI  - Thioredoxin-1 actively maintains the pseudokinase MLKL in a reduced state to
      suppress disulfide bond-dependent MLKL polymer formation and necroptosis.
AB  - Necroptosis is an immunogenic cell death program that is associated with a host
      of human diseases, including inflammation, infections, and cancer. Receptor
      interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) and its substrate mixed lineage kinase
      domain-like protein (MLKL) are required for necroptosis activation. Specifically,
      RIPK3-dependent MLKL phosphorylation promotes the assembly of disulfide bond
      dependent MLKL polymers that drive the execution of necroptosis. However, how
      MLKL disulfide bond formation is regulated is not clear. In this study we
      discovered that the MLKL-modifying compound necrosulfonamide cross-links cysteine
      86 of human MLKL to cysteine 32 of the thiol oxidoreductase thioredoxin-1 (Trx1).
      Recombinant Trx1 preferentially binds to monomeric MLKL and blocks MLKL disulfide
      bond formation and polymerization in vitro Inhibition of MLKL polymer formation
      requires the reducing activity of Trx1. Importantly, shRNA-mediated knockdown of
      Trx1 promotes MLKL polymerization and sensitizes cells to necroptosis.
      Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition of Trx1 with compound PX-12 induces
      necroptosis in multiple cancer cell lines. Altogether, these findings demonstrate
      that Trx1 is a critical regulator of necroptosis that suppresses cell death by
      maintaining MLKL in a reduced inactive state. Our results further suggest new
      directions for targeted cancer therapy in which thioredoxin inhibitors like PX-12
      could potentially be used to specifically target cancers expressing high levels
      of MLKL or MLKL short isoforms.

PMID- 28878016
TI  - Enantiomeric barbiturates bind distinct inter- and intrasubunit binding sites in
      a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR).
AB  - Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and gamma-aminobutyric acid type A
      receptors (GABAARs) are members of the pentameric ligand-gated ion channel
      superfamily. Drugs acting as positive allosteric modulators of muscle-type
      alpha2betagammadelta nAChRs, of use in treatment of neuromuscular disorders, have
      been hard to identify. However, identification of nAChR allosteric modulator
      binding sites has been facilitated by using drugs developed as photoreactive
      GABAAR modulators. Recently, R-1-methyl-5-allyl-5-(m-trifluoromethyl
      diazirinylphenyl) barbituric acid (R-mTFD-MPAB), an anesthetic and GABAAR
      potentiator, has been shown to inhibit Torpedo alpha2betagammadelta nAChRs,
      binding in the ion channel and to a gamma+-alpha- subunit interface site similar
      to its GABAAR intersubunit binding site. In contrast, S-1-methyl-5-propyl-5-(m
      trifluoromethyl-diazirinylphenyl) barbituric acid (S-mTFD-MPPB) acts as a
      convulsant and GABAAR inhibitor. Photolabeling studies established that S-mTFD
      MPPB binds to the same GABAAR intersubunit binding site as R-mTFD-MPAB, but with
      negative rather than positive energetic coupling to GABA binding. We now show
      that S-mTFD-MPPB binds with the same state (agonist) dependence as R-mTFD-MPAB
      within the nAChR ion channel, but it does not bind to the intersubunit binding
      site. Rather, S-mTFD-MPPB binds to intrasubunit sites within the alpha and delta
      subunits, photolabeling alphaVal-218 (alphaM1), deltaPhe-232 (deltaM1), deltaThr
      274 (deltaM2), and deltaIle-288 (deltaM3). Propofol, a general anesthetic that
      binds to GABAAR intersubunit sites, inhibited [3H]S-mTFD-MPPB photolabeling of
      these nAChR intrasubunit binding sites. These results demonstrate that in an
      nAChR, the subtle difference in structure between S-mTFD-MPPB and R-mTFD-MPAB
      (chirality; 5-propyl versus 5-allyl) determines selectivity for intra- versus
      intersubunit sites, in contrast to GABAARs, where this difference affects state
      dependence of binding to a common site.

PMID- 28878017
TI  - Structural basis for pH-insensitive inhibition of immunoglobulin G recycling by
      an anti-neonatal Fc receptor antibody.
AB  - The neonatal Fc receptor FcRn plays a critical role in the trafficking of IgGs
      across tissue barriers and in retaining high circulating concentrations of both
      IgG and albumin. Although generally beneficial from an immunological perspective
      in maintaining IgG populations, FcRn can contribute to the pathogenesis of
      autoimmune disorders when an abnormal immune response targets normal biological
      components. We previously described a monoclonal antibody (DX-2507) that binds to
      FcRn with high affinity at both neutral and acidic pH, prevents the simultaneous
      binding of IgG, and reduces circulating IgG levels in preclinical animal models.
      Here, we report a 2.5 A resolution X-ray crystal structure of an FcRn-DX-2507 Fab
      complex, revealing a nearly complete overlap of the IgG-Fc binding site in FcRn
      by complementarity-determining regions in DX-2507. This overlap explains how DX
      2507 blocks IgG binding to FcRn and thereby shortens IgG half-life by preventing
      IgGs from recycling back into circulation. Moreover, the complex structure
      explains how the DX-2507 interaction is pH-insensitive unlike normal Fc
      interactions and how serum albumin levels are unaffected by DX-2507 binding.
      These structural studies could inform antibody-based therapeutic approaches for
      limiting the effects of IgG-mediated autoimmune disease.

PMID- 28878018
TI  - A rational approach to enhancing antibody Fc homodimer formation for robust
      production of antibody mixture in a single cell line.
AB  - Combinations of different antibodies have been shown to be more effective for
      managing certain diseases than monotherapy. Co-expression of the antibody mixture
      in a single cell line is key to reducing complexity during antibody development
      and manufacturing. However, co-transfection of multiple light and heavy chains
      into cells often leads to production of mismatched, heterodimeric by-products
      that are inactive, making the development of co-expression systems that robustly
      and efficiently produce highly active antibody mixtures a high priority. In this
      study, we modified the CH3 domain interface of the antibody fragment
      crystallizable (Fc) region by changing several charge pairs to create
      electrostatic interactions favoring Fc homodimer formation and disfavoring Fc
      heterodimer formation. When co-expressed, these modified antibodies with altered
      charge polarity across the Fc dimer interface preferentially formed homodimers
      that fully preserved the functions of each component, rather than inactive
      heterodimers whose formation was reduced because of rationally designed repulsive
      interactions. We designed eight different combinations and experimentally
      screened the best one, which enabled us to produce a binary antibody mixture
      against the EGF receptor with a minimal heterodimer contaminant. We further
      determined the crystal structure of a triple-mutated Fc variant in the best
      combination, and we elucidated the molecular interactions favoring Fc homodimer
      over heterodimer formation, which provided a structural basis for further
      optimization. The approach presented here demonstrates the feasibility of
      rational antibody modification for efficient and consistent production of
      monoclonal antibody mixtures in a single cell line and thus broadens our options
      for manufacturing more effective antibody-based therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28878019
TI  - The lipopolysaccharide transport (Lpt) machinery: A nonconventional transporter
      for lipopolysaccharide assembly at the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria.
AB  - The outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative is a unique lipid bilayer containing LPS
      in its outer leaflet. Because of the presence of amphipathic LPS molecules, the
      OM behaves as an effective permeability barrier that makes Gram-negative bacteria
      inherently resistant to many antibiotics. This review focuses on LPS biogenesis
      and discusses recent advances that have contributed to our understanding of how
      this complex molecule is transported across the cellular envelope and is
      assembled at the OM outer leaflet. Clearly, this knowledge represents an
      important platform for the development of novel therapeutic options to manage
      Gram-negative infections.

PMID- 28878020
TI  - Lipid stress inhibits endocytosis of melanocortin-4 receptor from modified
      clathrin-enriched sites and impairs receptor desensitization.
AB  - Melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) is a G-protein-coupled receptor expressed in the
      brain's hypothalamus where it regulates energy homeostasis. MC4R agonists
      function to lower food intake and weight. In this respect, although obesity
      promotes hyperlipidemia and hypothalamic injury, MC4R agonists are nevertheless
      more effective to reduce food intake within hours of administration in
      overweight, rather than lean, mice. MC4R undergoes constitutive internalization
      and recycling to the plasma membrane with agonist binding inducing receptor
      retention along the intracellular route and, under prolonged exposure,
      desensitization. Here, we found that, in neuronal cells, lipid stress by exposure
      to elevated palmitate leaves unchanged the rate by which MC4R and transferrin
      receptor are constitutively excluded from the cell surface. However, lipid stress
      disrupted later steps of MC4R and transferrin receptor internalization to
      endosomes as well as traffic of agonist-occupied MC4R to lysosomes and MC4R
      desensitization. In the lipid-stressed cells, MC4R and clathrin were
      redistributed to the plasma membrane where they colocalized to sites that
      appeared by super-resolution microscopy to be modified and to have higher
      clathrin content than those of cells not exposed to elevated palmitate. The data
      suggest that lipid stress disrupts steps of endocytosis following MC4R
      localization to clathrin-coated sites and exclusion of the receptor from the
      extracellular medium. We conclude that increased effectiveness of MC4R agonists
      in obesity may be an unexpected outcome of neuronal injury with disrupted
      clathrin-dependent endocytosis and impaired receptor desensitization.

PMID- 28878021
TI  - CK1alpha ablation in keratinocytes induces p53-dependent, sunburn-protective skin
      hyperpigmentation.
AB  - Casein kinase 1alpha (CK1alpha), a component of the beta-catenin destruction
      complex, is a critical regulator of Wnt signaling; its ablation induces both Wnt
      and p53 activation. To characterize the role of CK1alpha (encoded by Csnk1a1) in
      skin physiology, we crossed mice harboring floxed Csnk1a1 with mice expressing
      K14-Cre-ERT2 to generate mice in which tamoxifen induces the deletion of Csnk1a1
      exclusively in keratinocytes [single-knockout (SKO) mice]. As expected, CK1alpha
      loss was accompanied by beta-catenin and p53 stabilization, with the preferential
      induction of p53 target genes, but phenotypically most striking was
      hyperpigmentation of the skin, importantly without tumorigenesis, for at least 9
      mo after Csnk1a1 ablation. The number of epidermal melanocytes and eumelanin
      levels were dramatically increased in SKO mice. To clarify the putative role of
      p53 in epidermal hyperpigmentation, we established K14-Cre-ERT2 CK1alpha/p53
      double-knockout (DKO) mice and found that coablation failed to induce epidermal
      hyperpigmentation, demonstrating that it was p53-dependent. Transcriptome
      analysis of the epidermis revealed p53-dependent up-regulation of Kit ligand
      (KitL). SKO mice treated with ACK2 (a Kit-neutralizing antibody) or imatinib (a
      Kit inhibitor) abrogated the CK1alpha ablation-induced hyperpigmentation,
      demonstrating that it requires the KitL/Kit pathway. Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC),
      a precursor of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), was not
      activated in the CK1alpha ablation-induced hyperpigmentation, which is in
      contrast to the mechanism of p53-dependent UV tanning. Nevertheless, acute
      sunburn effects were successfully prevented in the hyperpigmented skin of SKO
      mice. CK1alpha inhibition induces skin-protective eumelanin but no carcinogenic
      pheomelanin and may therefore constitute an effective strategy for safely
      increasing eumelanin via UV-independent pathways, protecting against acute
      sunburn.

PMID- 28878023
TI  - Maximal aggregation of polynomial dynamical systems.
AB  - Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with polynomial derivatives are a
      fundamental tool for understanding the dynamics of systems across many branches
      of science, but our ability to gain mechanistic insight and effectively conduct
      numerical evaluations is critically hindered when dealing with large models. Here
      we propose an aggregation technique that rests on two notions of equivalence
      relating ODE variables whenever they have the same solution (backward criterion)
      or if a self-consistent system can be written for describing the evolution of
      sums of variables in the same equivalence class (forward criterion). A key
      feature of our proposal is to encode a polynomial ODE system into a finitary
      structure akin to a formal chemical reaction network. This enables the
      development of a discrete algorithm to efficiently compute the largest
      equivalence, building on approaches rooted in computer science to minimize basic
      models of computation through iterative partition refinements. The physical
      interpretability of the aggregation is shown on polynomial ODE systems for
      biochemical reaction networks, gene regulatory networks, and evolutionary game
      theory.

PMID- 28878024
TI  - Molecular mechanism of substrate recognition and transport by the AtSWEET13 sugar
      transporter.
AB  - Sugar Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEETs) are recently identified
      sugar transporters that can discriminate and transport di- or monosaccharides
      across a membrane following the concentration gradient. SWEETs play key roles in
      plant biological processes, such as pollen nutrition, nectar secretion, seed
      filling, and phloem loading. SWEET13 from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtSWEET13) is an
      important sucrose transporter in pollen development. Here, we report the 2.8-A
      resolution crystal structure of AtSWEET13 in the inward-facing conformation with
      a substrate analog, 2'-deoxycytidine 5'-monophosphate, bound in the central
      cavity. In addition, based on the results of an in-cell transport activity assay
      and single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer analysis, we suggest a
      mechanism for substrate selectivity based on the size of the substrate-binding
      pocket. Furthermore, AtSWEET13 appears to form a higher order structure
      presumably related to its function.

PMID- 28878022
TI  - Drusen in patient-derived hiPSC-RPE models of macular dystrophies.
AB  - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and related macular dystrophies (MDs) are
      a major cause of vision loss. However, the mechanisms underlying their
      progression remain ill-defined. This is partly due to the lack of disease models
      recapitulating the human pathology. Furthermore, in vivo studies have yielded
      limited understanding of the role of specific cell types in the eye vs. systemic
      influences (e.g., serum) on the disease pathology. Here, we use human induced
      pluripotent stem cell-retinal pigment epithelium (hiPSC-RPE) derived from
      patients with three dominant MDs, Sorsby's fundus dystrophy (SFD), Doyne
      honeycomb retinal dystrophy/malattia Leventinese (DHRD), and autosomal dominant
      radial drusen (ADRD), and demonstrate that dysfunction of RPE cells alone is
      sufficient for the initiation of sub-RPE lipoproteinaceous deposit (drusen)
      formation and extracellular matrix (ECM) alteration in these diseases. Consistent
      with clinical studies, sub-RPE basal deposits were present beneath both control
      (unaffected) and patient hiPSC-RPE cells. Importantly basal deposits in patient
      hiPSC-RPE cultures were more abundant and displayed a lipid- and protein-rich
      "drusen-like" composition. Furthermore, increased accumulation of COL4 was
      observed in ECM isolated from control vs. patient hiPSC-RPE cultures.
      Interestingly, RPE-specific up-regulation in the expression of several complement
      genes was also seen in patient hiPSC-RPE cultures of all three MDs (SFD, DHRD,
      and ADRD). Finally, although serum exposure was not necessary for drusen
      formation, COL4 accumulation in ECM, and complement pathway gene alteration, it
      impacted the composition of drusen-like deposits in patient hiPSC-RPE cultures.
      Together, the drusen model(s) of MDs described here provide fundamental insights
      into the unique biology of maculopathies affecting the RPE-ECM interface.

PMID- 28878025
TI  - Gallbladder-derived surfactant protein D regulates gut commensal bacteria for
      maintaining intestinal homeostasis.
AB  - The commensal microbiota within the gastrointestinal tract is essential in
      maintaining homeostasis. Indeed, dysregulation in the repertoire of microbiota
      can result in the development of intestinal immune-inflammatory diseases.
      Further, this immune regulation by gut microbiota is important systemically,
      impacting health and disease of organ systems beyond the local environment of the
      gut. What has not been explored is how distant organs might in turn shape the
      microbiota via microbe-targeted molecules. Here, we provide evidence that
      surfactant protein D (SP-D) synthesized in the gallbladder and delivered into
      intestinal lumen binds selectively to species of gut commensal bacteria. SP-D
      deficient mice manifest intestinal dysbiosis and show a susceptibility to dextran
      sulfate sodium-induced colitis. Further, fecal transfer from SP-D-deficient mice
      to wild-type, germ-free mice conveyed colitis susceptibility. Interestingly,
      colitis caused a notable increase in Sftpd gene expression in the gallbladder,
      but not in the lung, via the activity of glucocorticoids produced in the liver.
      These findings describe a unique mechanism of interorgan regulation of intestinal
      immune homeostasis by SP-D with potential clinical implications such as
      cholecystectomy.

PMID- 28878027
TI  - Death by HDAC Inhibition in Synovial Sarcoma Cells.
AB  - Conventional cytotoxic therapies for synovial sarcoma provide limited benefit,
      and no drugs specifically targeting the causative SS18-SSX fusion oncoprotein are
      currently available. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition has been shown in
      previous studies to disrupt the synovial sarcoma oncoprotein complex, resulting
      in apoptosis. To understand the molecular effects of HDAC inhibition, RNA-seq
      transcriptome analysis was undertaken in six human synovial sarcoma cell lines.
      HDAC inhibition induced pathways of cell-cycle arrest, neuronal differentiation,
      and response to oxygen-containing species, effects also observed in other cancers
      treated with this class of drugs. More specific to synovial sarcoma, polycomb
      group targets were reactivated, including tumor suppressor CDKN2A, and
      proapoptotic transcriptional patterns were induced. Functional analyses revealed
      that ROS-mediated FOXO activation and proapoptotic factors BIK, BIM, and BMF were
      important to apoptosis induction following HDAC inhibition in synovial sarcoma.
      HDAC inhibitor pathway activation results in apoptosis and decreased tumor burden
      following a 7-day quisinostat treatment in the Ptenfl/fl;hSS2 mouse model of
      synovial sarcoma. This study provides mechanistic support for a particular
      susceptibility of synovial sarcoma to HDAC inhibition as a means of clinical
      treatment. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(12); 2656-67. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28878028
TI  - Basal-A Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells Selectively Rely on RNA Splicing for
      Survival.
AB  - Prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains poor. To identify
      shared and selective vulnerabilities of basal-like TNBC, the most common TNBC
      subtype, a directed siRNA lethality screen was performed in 7 human breast cancer
      cell lines, focusing on 154 previously identified dependency genes of 1 TNBC
      line. Thirty common dependency genes were identified, including multiple
      proteasome and RNA splicing genes, especially those associated with the U4/U6.U5
      tri-snRNP complex (e.g., PRPF8, PRPF38A). PRPF8 or PRPF38A knockdown or the
      splicing modulator E7107 led to widespread intronic retention and altered
      splicing of transcripts involved in multiple basal-like TNBC dependencies,
      including protein homeostasis, mitosis, and apoptosis. E7107 treatment suppressed
      the growth of basal-A TNBC cell line and patient-derived basal-like TNBC
      xenografts at a well-tolerated dose. The antitumor response was enhanced by
      adding the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib. Thus, inhibiting both splicing and
      the proteasome might be an effective approach for treating basal-like TNBC. Mol
      Cancer Ther; 16(12); 2849-61. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28878026
TI  - The p97 Inhibitor CB-5083 Is a Unique Disrupter of Protein Homeostasis in Models
      of Multiple Myeloma.
AB  - Inhibition of the AAA ATPase, p97, was recently shown to be a novel method for
      targeting the ubiquitin proteasome system, and CB-5083, a first-in-class
      inhibitor of p97, has demonstrated broad antitumor activity in a range of both
      hematologic and solid tumor models. Here, we show that CB-5083 has robust
      activity against multiple myeloma cell lines and a number of in vivo multiple
      myeloma models. Treatment with CB-5083 is associated with accumulation of
      ubiquitinated proteins, induction of the unfolded protein response, and
      apoptosis. CB-5083 decreases viability in multiple myeloma cell lines and patient
      derived multiple myeloma cells, including those with background proteasome
      inhibitor (PI) resistance. CB-5083 has a unique mechanism of action that combines
      well with PIs, which is likely owing to the p97-dependent retro-translocation of
      the transcription factor, Nrf1, which transcribes proteasome subunit genes
      following exposure to a PI. In vivo studies using clinically relevant multiple
      myeloma models demonstrate that single-agent CB-5083 inhibits tumor growth and
      combines well with multiple myeloma standard-of-care agents. Our preclinical data
      demonstrate the efficacy of CB-5083 in several multiple myeloma disease models
      and provide the rationale for clinical evaluation as monotherapy and in
      combination in multiple myeloma. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(11); 2375-86. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28878029
TI  - IL4 Receptor-Targeted Proapoptotic Peptide Blocks Tumor Growth and Metastasis by
      Enhancing Antitumor Immunity.
AB  - Cellular cross-talk between tumors and M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages
      (TAM) favors tumor progression. Upregulation of IL4 receptor (IL4R) is observed
      in diverse tumors and TAMs. We tested whether an IL4R-targeted proapoptotic
      peptide could inhibit tumor progression. The IL4R-binding peptide (IL4RPep-1)
      preferentially bound to IL4R-expressing tumor cells and M2-polarized macrophages
      both in vitro and in 4T1 breast tumors in vivo To selectively kill IL4R
      expressing cells, we designed an IL4R-targeted proapoptotic peptide, IL4RPep-1-K,
      by adding the proapoptotic peptide (KLAKLAK)2 to the end of IL4RPep-1. IL4RPep-1
      K exerted selective cytotoxicity against diverse IL4R-expressing tumor cells and
      M2-polarized macrophages. Systemic administration of IL4RPep-1-K inhibited tumor
      growth and metastasis in 4T1 breast tumor-bearing mice. Interestingly, IL4RPep-1
      K treatment increased the number of activated cytotoxic CD8+ T cells while
      reducing the numbers of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells and M2-polarized
      TAMs. No significant systemic side effects were observed. These results suggest
      that IL4R-targeted proapoptotic peptide has potential for treating diverse IL4R
      expressing cancers. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(12); 2803-16. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28878030
TI  - The Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels: from Biophysics
      to Pharmacology of a Unique Family of Ion Channels.
AB  - Hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels are important
      members of the voltage-gated pore loop channels family. They show unique
      features: they open at hyperpolarizing potential, carry a mixed Na/K current, and
      are regulated by cyclic nucleotides. Four different isoforms have been cloned
      (HCN1-4) that can assemble to form homo- or heterotetramers, characterized by
      different biophysical properties. These proteins are widely distributed
      throughout the body and involved in different physiologic processes, the most
      important being the generation of spontaneous electrical activity in the heart
      and the regulation of synaptic transmission in the brain. Their role in heart
      rate, neuronal pacemaking, dendritic integration, learning and memory, and visual
      and pain perceptions has been extensively studied; these channels have been found
      also in some peripheral tissues, where their functions still need to be fully
      elucidated. Genetic defects and altered expression of HCN channels are linked to
      several pathologies, which makes these proteins attractive targets for
      translational research; at the moment only one drug (ivabradine), which
      specifically blocks the hyperpolarization-activated current, is clinically
      available. This review discusses current knowledge about HCN channels, starting
      from their biophysical properties, origin, and developmental features, to
      (patho)physiologic role in different tissues and pharmacological modulation,
      ending with their present and future relevance as drug targets.

PMID- 28878031
TI  - Collective memory in primate conflict implied by temporal scaling collapse.
AB  - In biological systems, prolonged conflict is costly, whereas contained conflict
      permits strategic innovation and refinement. Causes of variation in conflict size
      and duration are not well understood. We use a well-studied primate society model
      system to study how conflicts grow. We find conflict duration is a 'first to
      fight' growth process that scales superlinearly, with the number of possible
      pairwise interactions. This is in contrast with a 'first to fail' process that
      characterizes peaceful durations. Rescaling conflict distributions reveals a
      universal curve, showing that the typical time scale of correlated interactions
      exceeds nearly all individual fights. This temporal correlation implies
      collective memory across pairwise interactions beyond those assumed in standard
      models of contagion growth or iterated evolutionary games. By accounting for
      memory, we make quantitative predictions for interventions that mitigate or
      enhance the spread of conflict. Managing conflict involves balancing the
      efficient use of limited resources with an intervention strategy that allows for
      conflict while keeping it contained and controlled.

PMID- 28878032
TI  - Effect of aspirin on tumour cell colony formation and evolution.
AB  - Aspirin is known to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence, but the
      underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In a previous study, we
      quantified the in vitro growth kinetics of different CRC tumour cell lines
      treated with varying doses of aspirin, measuring the rate of cell division and
      cell death. Here, we use these measured parameters to calculate the chances of
      successful clonal expansion and to determine the evolutionary potential of the
      tumour cell lines in the presence and absence of aspirin. The calculations
      indicate that aspirin increases the probability that a single tumour cell fails
      to clonally expand. Further, calculations suggest that aspirin increases the
      evolutionary potential of an expanding tumour cell colony. An aspirin-treated
      tumour cell population is predicted to result in the accumulation of more
      mutations (and is thus more virulent and more difficult to treat) than a cell
      population of the same size that grew without aspirin. This indicates a potential
      trade-off between delaying the onset of cancer and increasing its evolutionary
      potential through chemoprevention. Further work needs to investigate to what
      extent these findings apply to in vivo settings, and to what degree they
      contribute to the epidemiologically documented aspirin-mediated protection.

PMID- 28878033
TI  - A light-dependent magnetoreception mechanism insensitive to light intensity and
      polarization.
AB  - Billions of migratory birds navigate thousands of kilometres every year aided by
      a magnetic compass sense, the biophysical mechanism of which is unclear. One
      leading hypothesis is that absorption of light by specialized photoreceptors in
      the retina produces short-lived chemical intermediates known as radical pairs
      whose chemistry is sensitive to tiny magnetic interactions. A potentially serious
      but largely ignored obstacle to this theory is how directional information
      derived from the Earth's magnetic field can be separated from the much stronger
      variations in the intensity and polarization of the incident light. Here we
      propose a simple solution in which these extraneous effects are cancelled by
      taking the ratio of the signals from two neighbouring populations of
      magnetoreceptors. Geometric and biological arguments are used to derive a set of
      conditions that make this possible. We argue that one likely location of the
      magnetoreceptor molecules would be in association with ordered opsin dimers in
      the membrane discs of the outer segments of double-cone photoreceptor cells.

PMID- 28878034
TI  - Validation Testing Demonstrates Efficacy of a 7-Day Fluid Record to Estimate
      Daily Water Intake in Adult Men and Women When Compared with Total Body Water
      Turnover Measurement.
AB  - Background: Mean daily water intake from fluids (WATER-FL) has proven to be
      difficult to measure because of a range of nonvalidated data collection
      techniques. Few questionnaires have been validated to estimate WATER-FL against
      self-reported diaries or urinary hydration markers, which may limit their
      objectivity.Objectives: The goals of this investigation were 1) to assess the
      validity of a 7-d fluid record (7dFLR) to measure WATER-FL (WATER-FL-7dFLR)
      through comparison with WATER-FL as calculated by measuring deuterium oxide (D2O)
      disappearance (WATER-FL-D2O), and 2) to evaluate the reliability of the 7dFLR in
      measuring WATER-FL.Methods: Participants [n = 96; 51% female; mean +/- SD age: 41
      +/- 14 y; mean +/- SD body mass index (in kg/m2): 26.2 +/- 5.1] completed body
      water turnover analysis over 3 consecutive weeks. They completed the 7dFLR and
      food diaries during weeks 2 and 4 of the observation. The records were entered
      into nutritional software to determine the water content of all foods and fluids
      consumed. WATER-FL-D2O was calculated from water turnover (via the D2O dilution
      method), minus water from food and metabolic water. The agreement between the 2
      methods of determining WATER-FL were compared according to a Bland-Altman plot at
      week 2. The test-retest reliability of 7dFLR between weeks 2 and 4 was assessed
      via intraclass correlation (ICC).Results: The mean +/- SD difference between
      WATER-FL-7dFLR and WATER-FL-D2O was -131 +/- 845 mL/d. In addition, no bias was
      observed (F[1,94] = 0.484; R2 = 0.006; P = 0.488). When comparing WATER-FL-7dFLR
      from weeks 2 and 4, no significant difference (mean +/- SD difference: 71 +/- 75
      mL/d; t[79] = 0.954; P = 0.343) and an ICC of 0.85 (95% CI: 0.77, 0.90) was
      observed.Conclusions: The main findings of this study were that the use of the
      7dFLR is an effective and reliable method to estimate WATER-FL in adults. This
      style of questionnaire may be extremely helpful for collecting water intake data
      for large-scale epidemiologic studies.

PMID- 28878035
TI  - A Simplified Regimen Compared with WHO Guidelines Decreases Antenatal Calcium
      Supplement Intake for Prevention of Preeclampsia in a Cluster-Randomized
      Noninferiority Trial in Rural Kenya.
AB  - Background: To prevent preeclampsia, the WHO recommends antenatal calcium
      supplementation in populations with inadequate habitual intake. The WHO
      recommends 1500-2000 mg Ca/d with iron-folic acid (IFA) taken separately, a
      complex pill-taking regimen. Objective: The objective of this study was to test
      the hypothesis that simpler regimens with lower daily dosages would lead to
      higher adherence and similar supplement intake.Methods: In the Micronutrient
      Initiative Calcium Supplementation study, we compared the mean daily supplement
      intake associated with 2 dosing regimens with the use of a parallel, cluster
      randomized noninferiority trial implemented in 16 primary health care facilities
      in rural Kenya. The standard regimen was 3 * 500 mg Ca/d in 3 pill-taking events,
      and the low-dose regimen was 2 * 500 mg Ca/d in 2 pill-taking events; both
      regimens included a 200 IU cholecalciferol and calcium pill and a separate IFA
      pill. We enrolled 990 pregnant women between 16 and 30 wk of gestation. The
      primary outcome was supplemental calcium intake measured by pill counts 4 and 8
      wk after recruitment. We carried out intention-to-treat analyses with the use of
      mixed-effect models, with regimen as the fixed effect and health care facilities
      as a random effect, by using a noninferiority margin of 125 mg Ca/d.Results:
      Women in facilities assigned to the standard regimen consumed a mean of 1198 mg
      Ca/d, whereas those assigned to the low-dose regimen consumed 810 mg Ca/d. The
      difference in intake was 388 mg Ca/d (95% CI = 341, 434 mg Ca/d), exceeding the
      prespecified margin of 125 mg Ca/d. The overall adherence rate was 80% and did
      not differ between study arms.Conclusions: Contrary to our expectation, a
      simpler, lower-dose regimen led to significantly lower supplement intake than the
      regimen recommended by the WHO. Further studies are needed to precisely
      characterize the dose-response relation of calcium supplementation and
      preeclampsia risk and to examine cost effectiveness of lower and simpler regimens
      in program settings. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as
      NCT02238704.

PMID- 28878037
TI  - Silencing CAFFEOYL SHIKIMATE ESTERASE Affects Lignification and Improves
      Saccharification in Poplar.
AB  - Caffeoyl shikimate esterase (CSE) was recently shown to play an essential role in
      lignin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and later in Medicago
      truncatula However, the general function of this enzyme was recently questioned
      by the apparent lack of CSE activity in lignifying tissues of different plant
      species. Here, we show that down-regulation of CSE in hybrid poplar (Populus
      tremula * Populus alba) resulted in up to 25% reduced lignin deposition,
      increased levels of p-hydroxyphenyl units in the lignin polymer, and a relatively
      higher cellulose content. The transgenic trees were morphologically
      indistinguishable from the wild type. Ultra-high-performance liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry-based phenolic profiling revealed a reduced
      abundance of several oligolignols containing guaiacyl and syringyl units and
      their corresponding hydroxycinnamaldehyde units, in agreement with the reduced
      flux toward coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol. These trees accumulated the CSE
      substrate caffeoyl shikimate along with other compounds belonging to the
      metabolic classes of benzenoids and hydroxycinnamates. Furthermore, the reduced
      lignin amount combined with the relative increase in cellulose content in the CSE
      down-regulated lines resulted in up to 62% more glucose released per plant upon
      limited saccharification when no pretreatment was applied and by up to 86% and
      91% when acid and alkaline pretreatments were used. Our results show that CSE is
      not only important for the lignification process in poplar but is also a
      promising target for the development of improved lignocellulosic biomass crops
      for sugar platform biorefineries.

PMID- 28878038
TI  - The requirement of Mettl3-promoted MyoD mRNA maintenance in proliferative
      myoblasts for skeletal muscle differentiation.
AB  - Myogenic progenitor/stem cells retain their skeletal muscle differentiation
      potential by maintaining myogenic transcription factors such as MyoD. However,
      the mechanism of how MyoD expression is maintained in proliferative progenitor
      cells has not been elucidated. Here, we found that MyoD expression was reduced at
      the mRNA level by cell cycle arrest in S and G2 phases, which in turn led to the
      absence of skeletal muscle differentiation. The reduction of MyoD mRNA was
      correlated with the reduced expression of factors regulating RNA metabolism,
      including methyltransferase like 3 (Mettl3), which induces N6-methyladenosine
      (m6A) modifications of RNA. Knockdown of Mettl3 revealed that MyoD RNA was
      specifically downregulated and that this was caused by a decrease in processed,
      but not unprocessed, mRNA. Potential m6A modification sites were profiled by m6A
      sequencing and identified within the 5' untranslated region (UTR) of MyoD mRNA.
      Deletion of the 5' UTR revealed that it has a role in MyoD mRNA processing. These
      data showed that Mettl3 is required for MyoD mRNA expression in proliferative
      myoblasts.

PMID- 28878036
TI  - Different Routes for Conifer- and Sinapaldehyde and Higher Saccharification upon
      Deficiency in the Dehydrogenase CAD1.
AB  - In the search for renewable energy sources, genetic engineering is a promising
      strategy to improve plant cell wall composition for biofuel and bioproducts
      generation. Lignin is a major factor determining saccharification efficiency and,
      therefore, is a prime target to engineer. Here, lignin content and composition
      were modified in poplar (Populus tremula * Populus alba) by specifically down
      regulating CINNAMYL ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE1 (CAD1) by a hairpin-RNA-mediated
      silencing approach, which resulted in only 5% residual CAD1 transcript abundance.
      These transgenic lines showed no biomass penalty despite a 10% reduction in
      Klason lignin content and severe shifts in lignin composition. Nuclear magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy and thioacidolysis revealed a strong increase (up to 20
      fold) in sinapaldehyde incorporation into lignin, whereas coniferaldehyde was not
      increased markedly. Accordingly, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography
      mass spectrometry-based phenolic profiling revealed a more than 24,000-fold
      accumulation of a newly identified compound made from 8-8 coupling of two
      sinapaldehyde radicals. However, no additional cinnamaldehyde coupling products
      could be detected in the CAD1-deficient poplars. Instead, the transgenic lines
      accumulated a range of hydroxycinnamate-derived metabolites, of which the most
      prominent accumulation (over 8,500-fold) was observed for a compound that was
      identified by purification and nuclear magnetic resonance as syringyl lactic acid
      hexoside. Our data suggest that, upon down-regulation of CAD1, coniferaldehyde is
      converted into ferulic acid and derivatives, whereas sinapaldehyde is either
      oxidatively coupled into S'(8-8)S' and lignin or converted to sinapic acid and
      derivatives. The most prominent sink of the increased flux to hydroxycinnamates
      is syringyl lactic acid hexoside. Furthermore, low-extent saccharification
      assays, under different pretreatment conditions, showed strongly increased
      glucose (up to +81%) and xylose (up to +153%) release, suggesting that down
      regulating CAD1 is a promising strategy for improving lignocellulosic biomass for
      the sugar platform industry.

PMID- 28878040
TI  - Glareosin: a novel sexually dimorphic urinary lipocalin in the bank vole, Myodes
      glareolus.
AB  - The urine of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) contains substantial quantities of a
      small protein that is expressed at much higher levels in males than females, and
      at higher levels in males in the breeding season. This protein was purified and
      completely sequenced at the protein level by mass spectrometry.
      Leucine/isoleucine ambiguity was completely resolved by metabolic labelling,
      monitoring the incorporation of dietary deuterated leucine into specific sites in
      the protein. The predicted mass of the sequenced protein was exactly consonant
      with the mass of the protein measured in bank vole urine samples, correcting for
      the formation of two disulfide bonds. The sequence of the protein revealed that
      it was a lipocalin related to aphrodisin and other odorant-binding proteins
      (OBPs), but differed from all OBPs previously described. The pattern of secretion
      in urine used for scent marking by male bank voles, and the similarity to other
      lipocalins used as chemical signals in rodents, suggest that this protein plays a
      role in male sexual and/or competitive communication. We propose the name
      glareosin for this novel protein to reflect the origin of the protein and to
      emphasize the distinction from known OBPs.

PMID- 28878039
TI  - Discovery of novel representatives of bilaterian neuropeptide families and
      reconstruction of neuropeptide precursor evolution in ophiuroid echinoderms.
AB  - Neuropeptides are a diverse class of intercellular signalling molecules that
      mediate neuronal regulation of many physiological and behavioural processes.
      Recent advances in genome/transcriptome sequencing are enabling identification of
      neuropeptide precursor proteins in species from a growing variety of animal taxa,
      providing new insights into the evolution of neuropeptide signalling. Here,
      detailed analysis of transcriptome sequence data from three brittle star species,
      Ophionotus victoriae, Amphiura filiformis and Ophiopsila aranea, has enabled the
      first comprehensive identification of neuropeptide precursors in the class
      Ophiuroidea of the phylum Echinodermata. Representatives of over 30 bilaterian
      neuropeptide precursor families were identified, some of which occur as
      paralogues. Furthermore, homologues of endothelin/CCHamide, eclosion hormone,
      neuropeptide-F/Y and nucleobinin/nesfatin were discovered here in a
      deuterostome/echinoderm for the first time. The majority of ophiuroid
      neuropeptide precursors contain a single copy of a neuropeptide, but several
      precursors comprise multiple copies of identical or non-identical, but
      structurally related, neuropeptides. Here, we performed an unprecedented
      investigation of the evolution of neuropeptide copy number over a period of
      approximately 270 Myr by analysing sequence data from over 50 ophiuroid species,
      with reference to a robust phylogeny. Our analysis indicates that the composition
      of neuropeptide 'cocktails' is functionally important, but with plasticity over
      long evolutionary time scales.

PMID- 28878041
TI  - Characteristics of 29 novel atypical solute carriers of major facilitator
      superfamily type: evolutionary conservation, predicted structure and neuronal co
      expression.
AB  - Solute carriers (SLCs) are vital as they are responsible for a major part of the
      molecular transport over lipid bilayers. At present, there are 430 identified
      SLCs, of which 28 are called atypical SLCs of major facilitator superfamily (MFS)
      type. These are MFSD1, 2A, 2B, 3, 4A, 4B, 5, 6, 6 L, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13A,
      14A and 14B; SV2A, SV2B and SV2C; SVOP and SVOPL; SPNS1, SPNS2 and SPNS3; and
      UNC93A and UNC93B1. We studied their fundamental properties, and we also included
      CLN3, an atypical SLC not yet belonging to any protein family (Pfam) clan,
      because its involvement in the same neuronal degenerative disorders as MFSD8.
      With phylogenetic analyses and bioinformatic sequence comparisons, the proteins
      were divided into 15 families, denoted atypical MFS transporter families (AMTF1
      15). Hidden Markov models were used to identify orthologues from human to
      Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans Topology predictions revealed
      12 transmembrane segments (for all except CLN3), corresponding to the common MFS
      structure. With single-cell RNA sequencing and in situ proximity ligation assay
      on brain cells, co-expressions of several atypical SLCs were identified. Finally,
      the transcription levels of all genes were analysed in the hypothalamic N25/2
      cell line after complete amino acid starvation, showing altered expression levels
      for several atypical SLCs.

PMID- 28878042
TI  - Interactions of the Bacillus subtilis DnaE polymerase with replisomal proteins
      modulate its activity and fidelity.
AB  - During Bacillus subtilis replication two replicative polymerases function at the
      replisome to collectively carry out genome replication. In a reconstituted in
      vitro replication assay, PolC is the main polymerase while the lagging strand
      DnaE polymerase briefly extends RNA primers synthesized by the primase DnaG prior
      to handing-off DNA synthesis to PolC. Here, we show in vivo that (i) the
      polymerase activity of DnaE is essential for both the initiation and elongation
      stages of DNA replication, (ii) its error rate varies inversely with PolC
      concentration, and (iii) its misincorporations are corrected by the mismatch
      repair system post-replication. We also found that the error rates in cells
      encoding mutator forms of both PolC and DnaE are significantly higher (up to 15
      fold) than in PolC mutants. In vitro, we showed that (i) the polymerase activity
      of DnaE is considerably stimulated by DnaN, SSB and PolC, (ii) its error-prone
      activity is strongly inhibited by DnaN, and (iii) its errors are proofread by the
      3' > 5' exonuclease activity of PolC in a stable template-DnaE-PolC complex.
      Collectively our data show that protein-protein interactions within the replisome
      modulate the activity and fidelity of DnaE, and confirm the prominent role of
      DnaE during B. subtilis replication.

PMID- 28878043
TI  - The rapid in vivo evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in ventilator-associated
      pneumonia patients leads to attenuated virulence.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes severe airway
      infections in humans. These infections are usually difficult to treat and
      associated with high mortality rates. While colonizing the human airways, P.
      aeruginosa could accumulate genetic mutations that often lead to its better
      adaptability to the host environment. Understanding these evolutionary traits may
      provide important clues for the development of effective therapies to treat P.
      aeruginosa infections. In this study, 25 P. aeruginosa isolates were
      longitudinally sampled from the airways of four ventilator-associated pneumonia
      (VAP) patients. Pacbio and Illumina sequencing were used to analyse the in vivo
      evolutionary trajectories of these isolates. Our analysis showed that positive
      selection dominantly shaped P. aeruginosa genomes during VAP infections and led
      to three convergent evolution events, including loss-of-function mutations of
      lasR and mpl, and a pyoverdine-deficient phenotype. Specifically, lasR encodes
      one of the major transcriptional regulators in quorum sensing, whereas mpl
      encodes an enzyme responsible for recycling cell wall peptidoglycan. We also
      found that P. aeruginosa isolated at late stages of VAP infections produce less
      elastase and are less virulent in vivo than their earlier isolated counterparts,
      suggesting the short-term in vivo evolution of P. aeruginosa leads to attenuated
      virulence.

PMID- 28878045
TI  - A case of heart failure and diarrhoea.

PMID- 28878044
TI  - Progress and prospects of early detection in lung cancer.
AB  - Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. It is
      broadly divided into small cell (SCLC, approx. 15% cases) and non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC, approx. 85% cases). The main histological subtypes of NSCLC are
      adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, with the presence of specific DNA
      mutations allowing further molecular stratification. If identified at an early
      stage, surgical resection of NSCLC offers a favourable prognosis, with published
      case series reporting 5-year survival rates of up to 70% for small, localized
      tumours (stage I). However, most patients (approx. 75%) have advanced disease at
      the time of diagnosis (stage III/IV) and despite significant developments in the
      oncological management of late stage lung cancer over recent years, survival
      remains poor. In 2014, the UK Office for National Statistics reported that
      patients diagnosed with distant metastatic disease (stage IV) had a 1-year
      survival rate of just 15-19% compared with 81-85% for stage I.

PMID- 28878046
TI  - Nonlinear temporal dynamics of cerebral small vessel disease: The RUN DMC study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the temporal dynamics of cerebral small vessel disease
      (SVD) by 3 consecutive assessments over a period of 9 years, distinguishing
      progression from regression. METHODS: Changes in SVD markers of 276 participants
      of the Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion Tensor and Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging Cohort (RUN DMC) cohort were assessed at 3 time points over 9 years. We
      assessed white matter hyperintensities (WMH) volume by semiautomatic segmentation
      and rated lacunes and microbleeds manually. We categorized baseline WMH severity
      as mild, moderate, or severe according to the modified Fazekas scale. We
      performed mixed-effects regression analysis including a quadratic term for
      increasing age. RESULTS: Mean WMH progression over 9 years was 4.7 mL (0.54 mL/y;
      interquartile range 0.95-5.5 mL), 20.3% of patients had incident lacunes
      (2.3%/y), and 18.9% had incident microbleeds (2.2%/y). WMH volume declined in
      9.4% of the participants during the first follow-up interval, but only for 1
      participant (0.4%) throughout the whole follow-up. Lacunes disappeared in 3.6%
      and microbleeds in 5.7% of the participants. WMH progression accelerated over
      time: including a quadratic term for increasing age during follow-up
      significantly improved the model (p < 0.001). SVD progression was predominantly
      seen in participants with moderate to severe WMH at baseline compared to those
      with mild WMH (odds ratio [OR] 35.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 15.8-80.0, p <
      0.001 for WMH progression; OR 5.7, 95% CI 2.8-11.2, p < 0.001 for incident
      lacunes; and OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.4-5.9, p = 0.003 for incident microbleeds).
      CONCLUSIONS: SVD progression is nonlinear, accelerating over time, and a highly
      dynamic process, with progression interrupted by reduction in some, in a
      population that on average shows progression.

PMID- 28878047
TI  - Long-term risk of seizures in adult survivors of sepsis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between sepsis and the long-term risk of
      seizures. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study
      using administrative claims data from all emergency department visits and
      hospitalizations at nonfederal acute care hospitals in California, Florida, and
      New York from 2005 to 2013. Using previously validated diagnosis codes, we
      identified all adult patients hospitalized with sepsis. Our outcome was any
      emergency department visit or hospitalization for seizure. Poisson regression and
      demographic data were used to calculate age-, sex-, and race-standardized
      incidence rate ratios (IRR). To confirm our findings, we used a matched cohort of
      hospitalized patients without sepsis for comparison and additionally assessed
      claims data from a nationally representative 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries.
      RESULTS: We identified 842,735 patients with sepsis. The annual incidence of
      seizure was 1.29% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27%-1.30%) in patients with
      sepsis vs 0.16% (95% CI 0.16%-0.16%) in the general population (IRR 4.98; 95% CI
      4.92-5.04). A secondary analysis using matched hospitalized patients confirmed
      these findings (IRR 4.33; 95% CI 4.13-4.55), as did a separate analysis of
      Medicare beneficiaries, in whom we found a similar strength of association (IRR
      2.72; 95% CI 2.60-2.83), as we did in patients >=65 years of age in our primary
      statewide data (IRR 2.83; 95% CI 2.78-2.88). CONCLUSIONS: We found that survivors
      of sepsis faced a significantly higher long-term risk of seizures than both the
      general population and other hospitalized patients. Our findings suggest that
      sepsis is associated with pathways that lead to permanent neurologic sequelae.

PMID- 28878049
TI  - Reducing placebo exposure in trials: Considerations from the Research Roundtable
      in Epilepsy.
AB  - The randomized controlled trial is the unequivocal gold standard for
      demonstrating clinical efficacy and safety of investigational therapies. Recently
      there have been concerns raised about prolonged exposure to placebo and
      ineffective therapy during the course of an add-on regulatory trial for new
      antiepileptic drug approval (typically ~6 months in duration), due to the
      potential risks of continued uncontrolled epilepsy for that period. The first
      meeting of the Research Roundtable in Epilepsy on May 19-20, 2016, focused on
      "Reducing placebo exposure in epilepsy clinical trials," with a goal of
      considering new designs for epilepsy regulatory trials that may be added to the
      overall development plan to make it, as a whole, safer for participants while
      still providing rigorous evidence of effect. This topic was motivated in part by
      data from a meta-analysis showing a 3- to 5-fold increased rate of sudden
      unexpected death in epilepsy in participants randomized to placebo or ineffective
      doses of new antiepileptic drugs. The meeting agenda included rationale and
      discussion of different trial designs, including active-control add-on trials,
      placebo add-on to background therapy with adjustment, time to event designs,
      adaptive designs, platform trials with pooled placebo control, a
      pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic approach to reducing placebo exposure, and
      shorter trials when drug tolerance has been ruled out. The merits and limitations
      of each design were discussed and are reviewed here.

PMID- 28878050
TI  - Antibody-associated CNS syndromes without signs of inflammation in the elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report the CNS syndromes of patients >=60 years of age with
      antibodies against neuronal surface antigens but no evidence of brain MRI and CSF
      inflammatory changes. METHODS: This was a retrospective clinical analysis of
      patients with antibodies against neuronal surface antigens who fulfilled 3
      criteria: age >=60 years, no inflammatory abnormalities in brain MRI, and no CSF
      pleocytosis. Antibodies were determined with reported techniques. RESULTS: Among
      155 patients >=60 years of age with neurologic syndromes related to antibodies
      against neuronal surface antigens, 35 (22.6%) fulfilled the indicated criteria.
      The median age of these 35 patients was 68 years (range 60-88 years). Clinical
      manifestations included faciobrachial dystonic seizures (FBDS) in 11 of 35
      (31.4%) patients, all with LGI1 antibodies; a combination of gait instability,
      brainstem dysfunction, and sleep disorder associated with IgLON5 antibodies in 10
      (28.6%); acute confusion, memory loss, and behavioral changes suggesting
      autoimmune encephalitis (AE) in 9 (25.7%; 2 patients with AMPAR, 2 with NMDAR, 2
      with GABAbR, 2 with LGI1, and 1 with CASPR2 antibodies); and rapidly progressive
      cognitive deterioration in 5 (14.3%; 3 patients with IgLON5 antibodies, 1 with
      chorea; 1 with DPPX antibody-associated cerebellar ataxia and arm rigidity; and 1
      with CASPR2 antibodies). CONCLUSIONS: In patients >=60 years of age, the correct
      identification of characteristic CNS syndromes (FBDS, anti-IgLON5 syndrome, AE)
      should prompt antibody testing even without evidence of inflammation in MRI and
      CSF studies. Up to 15% of the patients developed rapidly progressive cognitive
      deterioration, which further complicated the differential diagnosis with a
      neurodegenerative disorder.

PMID- 28878051
TI  - Olfaction and incident Parkinson disease in US white and black older adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate olfaction in relation to incident Parkinson disease
      (PD) in US white and black older adults. METHODS: The study included 1,510 white
      (mean age 75.6 years) and 952 black (75.4 years) participants of the Health,
      Aging, and Body Composition study. We evaluated the olfaction of study
      participants with the Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT) in 1999-2000. We
      retrospectively adjudicated PD cases identified through August 31, 2012, using
      multiple data sources. We used multivariable Cox models to estimate hazard ratios
      (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: During an average of 9.8 years
      of follow-up, we identified a total of 42 incident PD cases, including 30 white
      and 12 black participants. Overall, poor sense of smell, as indicated by a lower
      BSIT score, was associated with higher risk of PD. Compared with the highest
      tertile of BSIT (t3), the HR was 1.3 (95% CI 0.5-3.6) for the second tertile (t2)
      and 4.8 (95% CI 2.0-11.2) for the lowest tertile (t1) (ptrend < 0.00001). Further
      analyses revealed significant associations for incident PD in both the first 5
      years of follow-up (HRt1/[t2+t3] 4.2, 95% CI 1.7-10.8) and thereafter
      (HRt1/[t2+t3] 4.1, 95% CI 1.7-9.8). This association appeared to be stronger in
      white (HRt1/[t2+t3] 4.9, 95% CI 2.3-10.5) than in black participants
      (HRt1/[t2+t3] 2.5, 95% CI 0.8-8.1), and in men (HRt1/[t2+t3] 5.4, 95% CI 2.3
      12.9) than in women (HRt1/[t2+t3] 2.9, 95% CI 1.1-7.8). CONCLUSIONS: Poor
      olfaction predicts PD in short and intermediate terms; the possibility of
      stronger associations among men and white participants warrants further
      investigation.

PMID- 28878052
TI  - Biomarkers for early detection of Parkinson disease: A scent of consistency with
      olfactory dysfunction.

PMID- 28878048
TI  - Functional impairments for outcomes in a randomized trial of unruptured brain
      AVMs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of medical vs interventional management on
      functional outcome in A Randomized Trial of Unruptured Brain Arteriovenous
      Malformations (ARUBA). METHODS: We used the initial results of a nonblinded,
      randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial involving adults >=18 years of age
      with an unruptured brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) to compare the effects
      of medical management (MM) with or without interventional therapy (IT) on
      functional impairment, defined by a primary outcome of death or symptomatic
      stroke causing modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score >=2. ARUBA closed recruitment on
      April 15, 2013. RESULTS: After a median of 33.3 months of follow-up
      (interquartile range 16.3-49.8 months), of the 223 enrolled in the trial, those
      in the MM arm were less likely to experience primary outcomes with an mRS score
      >=2 than those who underwent IT. The results applied for both those as randomized
      (MM n = 109 vs IT n = 114) (hazard ratio [HR] 0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      0.11-0.57, p = 0.001) and as treated (MM n = 125 vs IT n = 98) (HR 0.10, 95% CI
      0.04-0.28, p < 0.001). Functional impairment for the outcomes showed no
      significant difference by Spetzler-Martin grade for MM but was more frequent with
      increasing grades for IT (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Death or stroke with functional
      impairment in ARUBA after a median follow-up of 33 months was significantly lower
      for those in the MM arm both as randomized and as treated compared with those
      with IT. Functional severity of outcomes was lower in the MM arm, regardless of
      Spetzler-Martin grades. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: NCT00389181. CLASSIFICATION
      OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class II evidence that for adults with
      unruptured brain AVMs, interventional management compared to MM increases the
      risk of disability and death over ~3 years.

PMID- 28878053
TI  - Subjective memory complaints in preclinical autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To cross-sectionally study subjective memory complaints (SMC) in
      autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease (ADAD). METHODS: We examined self-reported
      and study partner-based SMC in 52 young, cognitively unimpaired individuals from
      a Colombian kindred with early-onset ADAD. Twenty-six carried the PSEN-1 E280A
      mutation, averaging 7 years of age younger than the kindred's expected clinical
      onset. Twenty-six were age-matched noncarriers. Participants also underwent
      structural MRI and cognitive testing. RESULTS: Self-reported SMC were greater in
      carriers than noncarriers (p = 0.02). Study partner-based SMC did not differ
      between groups (p = 0.21), but in carriers increased with age (r = 0.66, p <
      0.001) and decreased with hippocampal volume (r = -0.35, p = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS:
      Cognitively unimpaired PSEN-1 carriers have elevated SMC. Self-reported SMC may
      be a relatively early indicator of preclinical AD, while partner- reported SMC
      increases later in preclinical AD, closer to clinical onset.

PMID- 28878054
TI  - Sneeze to leave: African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) use variable quorum thresholds
      facilitated by sneezes in collective decisions.
AB  - In despotically driven animal societies, one or a few individuals tend to have a
      disproportionate influence on group decision-making and actions. However, global
      communication allows each group member to assess the relative strength of
      preferences for different options among their group-mates. Here, we investigate
      collective decisions by free-ranging African wild dog packs in Botswana. African
      wild dogs exhibit dominant-directed group living and take part in stereotyped
      social rallies: high energy greeting ceremonies that occur before collective
      movements. Not all rallies result in collective movements, for reasons that are
      not well understood. We show that the probability of rally success (i.e. group
      departure) is predicted by a minimum number of audible rapid nasal exhalations
      (sneezes), within the rally. Moreover, the number of sneezes needed for the group
      to depart (i.e. the quorum) was reduced whenever dominant individuals initiated
      rallies, suggesting that dominant participation increases the likelihood of a
      rally's success, but is not a prerequisite. As such, the 'will of the group' may
      override dominant preferences when the consensus of subordinates is sufficiently
      great. Our findings illustrate how specific behavioural mechanisms (here,
      sneezing) allow for negotiation (in effect, voting) that shapes decision-making
      in a wild, socially complex animal society.

PMID- 28878055
TI  - Interacting effects of wildlife loss and climate on ticks and tick-borne disease.
AB  - Both large-wildlife loss and climatic changes can independently influence the
      prevalence and distribution of zoonotic disease. Given growing evidence that
      wildlife loss often has stronger community-level effects in low-productivity
      areas, we hypothesized that these perturbations would have interactive effects on
      disease risk. We experimentally tested this hypothesis by measuring tick
      abundance and the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens (Coxiella burnetii and
      Rickettsia spp.) within long-term, size-selective, large-herbivore exclosures
      replicated across a precipitation gradient in East Africa. Total wildlife
      exclusion increased total tick abundance by 130% (mesic sites) to 225% (dry, low
      productivity sites), demonstrating a significant interaction of defaunation and
      aridity on tick abundance. When differing degrees of exclusion were tested for a
      subset of months, total tick abundance increased from 170% (only mega-herbivores
      excluded) to 360% (all large wildlife excluded). Wildlife exclusion
      differentially affected the abundance of the three dominant tick species, and
      this effect varied strongly over time, likely due to differences among species in
      their host associations, seasonality, and other ecological characteristics.
      Pathogen prevalence did not differ across wildlife exclusion treatments, rainfall
      levels, or tick species, suggesting that exposure risk will respond to
      defaunation and climate change in proportion to total tick abundance. These
      findings demonstrate interacting effects of defaunation and aridity that increase
      disease risk, and they highlight the need to incorporate ecological context when
      predicting effects of wildlife loss on zoonotic disease dynamics.

PMID- 28878056
TI  - Community responses to seawater warming are conserved across diverse biological
      groupings and taxonomic resolutions.
AB  - Temperature variability is a major driver of ecological pattern, with recent
      changes in average and extreme temperatures having significant impacts on
      populations, communities and ecosystems. In the marine realm, very few
      experiments have manipulated temperature in situ, and current understanding of
      temperature effects on community dynamics is limited. We developed new technology
      for precise seawater temperature control to examine warming effects on
      communities of bacteria, microbial eukaryotes (protists) and metazoans. Despite
      highly contrasting phylogenies, size spectra and diversity levels, the three
      community types responded similarly to seawater warming treatments of +3 degrees
      C and +5 degrees C, highlighting the critical and overarching importance of
      temperature in structuring communities. Temperature effects were detectable at
      coarse taxonomic resolutions and many taxa responded positively to warming,
      leading to increased abundances at the community-level. Novel field-based
      experimental approaches are essential to improve mechanistic understanding of how
      ocean warming will alter the structure and functioning of diverse marine
      communities.

PMID- 28878057
TI  - Exceptional preservation and the fossil record of tetrapod integument.
AB  - The fossil record of exceptionally preserved soft tissues in Konservat
      Lagerstatten provides rare yet significant insight into past behaviours and
      ecologies. Such deposits are known to occur in bursts rather than evenly through
      time, but reasons for this pattern and implications for the origins of novel
      structures remain unclear. Previous assessments of these records focused on
      marine environments preserving chemically heterogeneous tissues from across
      animals. Here, we investigate the preservation of skin and keratinous
      integumentary structures in land-dwelling vertebrates (tetrapods) through time,
      and in distinct terrestrial and marine depositional environments. We also
      evaluate previously proposed biotic and abiotic controls on the distribution of
      143 tetrapod Konservat-Lagerstatten from the Permian to the Pleistocene in a
      multivariate framework. Gap analyses taking into account sampling intensity and
      distribution indicate that feathers probably evolved close to their first
      appearance in the fossil record. By contrast, hair and archosaur filaments are
      weakly sampled (five times less common than feathers), and their origins may
      significantly pre-date earliest known occurrences in the fossil record. This work
      suggests that among-integument variation in preservation can bias the
      reconstructed first origins of integumentary novelties and has implications for
      predicting where, and in what depositional environments, to expect further
      discoveries of exquisitely preserved tetrapod integument.

PMID- 28878058
TI  - A vertebrate retina with segregated colour and polarization sensitivity.
AB  - Besides colour and intensity, some invertebrates are able to independently detect
      the polarization of light. Among vertebrates, such separation of visual
      modalities has only been hypothesized for some species of anchovies whose cone
      photoreceptors have unusual ultrastructure that varies with retinal location.
      Here, I tested this hypothesis by performing physiological experiments of colour
      and polarization discrimination using the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax
      Optic nerve recordings showed that the ventro-temporal (VT), but not the ventro
      nasal (VN), retina was polarization sensitive, and this coincided with the
      exclusive presence of polarization-sensitive photoreceptors in the VT retina.
      Spectral (colour) sensitivity recordings from the VN retina indicated the
      contribution of two spectral cone mechanisms to the optic nerve response, whereas
      only one contributed to the VT retina. This was supported by the presence of only
      one visual pigment in the VT retina and two in the VN retina, suggesting that
      only the VN retina was associated with colour sensitivity. Behavioural tests
      further demonstrated that anchovies could discriminate colour and the
      polarization of light using the ventral retina. Thus, in analogy with the visual
      system of some invertebrates, the northern anchovy has a retina with segregated
      retinal pathways for colour and polarization vision.

PMID- 28878059
TI  - Can hook-bending be let off the hook? Bending/unbending of pliant tools by
      cockatoos.
AB  - The spontaneous crafting of hook-tools from bendable material to lift a basket
      out of a vertical tube in corvids has widely been used as one of the prime
      examples of animal tool innovation. However, it was recently suggested that the
      animals' solution was hardly innovative but strongly influenced by
      predispositions from habitual tool use and nest building. We tested Goffin's
      cockatoo, which is neither a specialized tool user nor a nest builder, on a
      similar task set-up. Three birds individually learned to bend hook tools from
      straight wire to retrieve food from vertical tubes and four subjects unbent wire
      to retrieve food from horizontal tubes. Pre-experience with ready-made hooks had
      some effect but was not necessary for success. Our results indicate that the
      ability to represent and manufacture tools according to a current need does not
      require genetically hardwired behavioural routines, but can indeed arise
      innovatively from domain general cognitive processing.

PMID- 28878061
TI  - Predictable invasion dynamics in North American populations of the Eurasian
      collared dove Streptopelia decaocto.
AB  - Species invasions represent a significant dimension of global change yet the
      dynamics of invasions remain poorly understood and are considered rather
      unpredictable. We explored interannual dynamics of the invasion process in the
      Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) and tested whether the advance of
      the invasion front of the species in North America relates to centrality (versus
      peripherality) within its estimated fundamental ecological niche. We used
      ecological niche modelling approaches to estimate the dimensions of the
      fundamental ecological niche on the Old World distribution of the species, and
      then transferred that model to the New World as measures of centrality versus
      peripherality within the niche for the species. Although our hypothesis was that
      the invasion front would advance faster over more favourable (i.e. more central)
      conditions, the reverse was the case: the invasion expanded faster in areas
      presenting less favourable (i.e. more peripheral) conditions for the species as
      it advanced across North America. This result offers a first view of a predictive
      approach to the dynamics of species' invasions, and thereby has relevant
      implications for the management of invasive species, as such a predictive
      understanding would allow better anticipation of coming steps and advances in the
      progress of invasions, important to designing and guiding effective remediation
      and mitigation efforts.

PMID- 28878062
TI  - Plant defences limit herbivore population growth by changing predator-prey
      interactions.
AB  - Plant quality and predators are important factors affecting herbivore population
      growth, but how they interact to regulate herbivore populations is not well
      understood. We manipulated jasmonate-induced plant resistance, exposure to the
      natural predator community and herbivore density to test how these factors
      jointly and independently affect herbivore population growth. On low-resistance
      plants, the predator community was diverse and abundant, promoting high predator
      consumption rates. On high-resistance plants, the predator community was less
      diverse and abundant, resulting in low predator consumption rate. Plant
      resistance only directly regulated aphid population growth on predator-excluded
      plants. When predators were present, plant resistance indirectly regulated
      herbivore population growth by changing the impact of predators on the
      herbivorous prey. A possible mechanism for the interaction between plant
      resistance and predation is that methyl salicylate, a herbivore-induced plant
      volatile attractive to predators, was more strongly induced in low-resistance
      plants. Increased plant resistance reduced predator attractant lures, preventing
      predators from locating their prey. Low-resistance plants may regulate herbivore
      populations via predators by providing reliable information on prey availability
      and increasing the effectiveness of predators.

PMID- 28878060
TI  - Fearful but not happy expressions boost face detection in human infants.
AB  - Human adults show an attentional bias towards fearful faces, an adaptive
      behaviour that relies on amygdala function. This attentional bias emerges in
      infancy between 5 and 7 months, but the underlying developmental mechanism is
      unknown. To examine possible precursors, we investigated whether 3.5-, 6- and 12
      month-old infants show facilitated detection of fearful faces in noise, compared
      to happy faces. Happy or fearful faces, mixed with noise, were presented to
      infants (N = 192), paired with pure noise. We applied multivariate pattern
      analyses to several measures of infant looking behaviour to derive a criterion
      free, continuous measure of face detection evidence in each trial. Analyses of
      the resulting psychometric curves supported the hypothesis of a detection
      advantage for fearful faces compared to happy faces, from 3.5 months of age and
      across all age groups. Overall, our data show a readiness to detect fearful faces
      (compared to happy faces) in younger infants that developmentally precedes the
      previously documented attentional bias to fearful faces in older infants and
      adults.

PMID- 28878063
TI  - Mitochondrial phylogenomics of Hemiptera reveals adaptive innovations driving the
      diversification of true bugs.
AB  - Hemiptera, the largest non-holometabolous order of insects, represents
      approximately 7% of metazoan diversity. With extraordinary life histories and
      highly specialized morphological adaptations, hemipterans have exploited diverse
      habitats and food sources through approximately 300 Myr of evolution. To
      elucidate the phylogeny and evolutionary history of Hemiptera, we carried out the
      most comprehensive mitogenomics analysis on the richest taxon sampling to date
      covering all the suborders and infraorders, including 34 newly sequenced and 94
      published mitogenomes. With optimized branch length and sequence heterogeneity,
      Bayesian analyses using a site-heterogeneous mixture model resolved the higher
      level hemipteran phylogeny as (Sternorrhyncha, (Auchenorrhyncha, (Coleorrhyncha,
      Heteroptera))). Ancestral character state reconstruction and divergence time
      estimation suggest that the success of true bugs (Heteroptera) is probably due to
      angiosperm coevolution, but key adaptive innovations (e.g. prognathous mouthpart,
      predatory behaviour, and haemelytron) facilitated multiple independent shifts
      among diverse feeding habits and multiple independent colonizations of aquatic
      habitats.

PMID- 28878064
TI  - Adaptation to a novel family environment involves both apparent and cryptic
      phenotypic changes.
AB  - Cryptic evolution occurs when evolutionary change is masked by concurrent
      environmental change. In most cases, evolutionary changes in the phenotype are
      masked by changing abiotic factors. However, evolutionary change in one trait
      might also be masked by evolutionary change in another trait, a phenomenon
      referred to as evolutionary environmental deterioration. Nevertheless, detecting
      this second type of cryptic evolution is challenging and there are few compelling
      examples. Here, we describe a likely case of evolutionary environmental
      deterioration occurring in experimental burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides)
      populations that are adapting to a novel social environment that lacks post
      hatching parental care. We found that populations rapidly adapted to the removal
      of post-hatching parental care. This adaptation involved clear increases in
      breeding success and larval density (number of dispersing larvae produced per
      gram of breeding carcass), which in turn masked a concurrent increase in the mean
      larval mass across generations. This cryptic increase in larval mass was
      accomplished through a change in the reaction norm that relates mean larval mass
      to larval density. Our results suggest that cryptic evolution might be
      commonplace in animal families, because evolving trophic and social interactions
      can potentially mask evolutionary change in other traits, like body size.

PMID- 28878065
TI  - Selective disappearance of great tits with short telomeres in urban areas.
AB  - Urban environments pose novel challenges, as well as opportunities, for urban
      dwelling wildlife. Although differences have been reported in several phenotypic
      traits (e.g. morphology, physiology and behaviour) between urban and rural
      populations, it is poorly understood whether this affects individual fitness.
      Telomere dynamics are posited as one possible mechanism underlying senescence and
      mortality. It was recently shown that telomere shortening is accelerated when
      growing up in an urban, compared with a rural, environment. However, the
      implications of accelerated telomere attrition for fitness are still unclear.
      Here, we examine the relationship between telomere length (TL) and survival in a
      bird common to urban and rural environments, and during both early and later
      life. The results reveal that TL is a strong predictor of post-fledging survival
      and recruitment in both habitats but, crucially, selective disappearance of
      individuals with short telomeres early in life is more pronounced in the urban
      environment, resulting in a longer average TL among the adult population.
      However, following recruitment, we found no difference in the relationship
      between TL and survival between the urban and rural environments. This indicates
      that the urban environment has negative effects in early life, while during later
      life the benefits could potentially outweigh the costs.

PMID- 28878066
TI  - Cytological analysis of cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by Cardinium suggests
      convergent evolution with its distant cousin Wolbachia.
AB  - Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is a conditional sterility in numerous
      arthropods that is caused by inherited, intracellular bacteria such as Wolbachia
      Matings between males carrying CI-inducing Wolbachia and uninfected females, or
      between males and females infected with different Wolbachia strains, result in
      progeny that die during very early embryogenesis. Multiple studies in diploid
      (Drosophila) and haplodiploid (Nasonia) insects have shown that CI-Wolbachia
      cause a failure of the paternally derived chromatin from resolving into distinct
      chromosomes. This leads to the formation of chromatin bridges and other mitotic
      defects as early as the first mitotic division, and to early mitotic arrest. It
      is currently unknown if CI-inducing symbionts other than Wolbachia affect similar
      cellular processes. Here, we investigated CI caused by an unrelated bacterium,
      Cardinium, which naturally infects a parasitic wasp, Encarsia suzannae CI crosses
      in this host-symbiont system resulted in early mitotic defects including
      asynchrony of paternal and maternal chromosome sets as they enter mitosis,
      chromatin bridges and improper chromosome segregation that spanned across
      multiple mitotic divisions, triggering embryonic death through accumulated
      aneuploidy. We highlight small differences with CI-Wolbachia, which could be due
      to the underlying CI mechanism or host-specific effects. Our results suggest a
      convergence of CI-related cellular phenotypes between these two unrelated
      symbionts.

PMID- 28878067
TI  - Tree species richness attenuates the positive relationship between mutualistic
      ant-hemipteran interactions and leaf chewer herbivory.
AB  - Interactions across trophic levels influence plant diversity effects on ecosystem
      functions, but the complexity of these interactions remains poorly explored. For
      example, the interplay between different interactions (e.g. mutualism, predation)
      might be an important moderator of biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships.
      We tested for relationships between trophobioses (facultative ant-hemipteran
      mutualism) and leaf chewer herbivory in a subtropical forest biodiversity
      experiment. We analysed trophobiosis and herbivory data of more than 10 000 trees
      along a tree species richness gradient. Against expectations, chewing damage was
      higher on trees with trophobioses. However, the net positive relationship between
      trophobioses and overall herbivory depended on tree species richness, being most
      pronounced at low richness. Our results point to indirect, positive effects of
      ant-tended sap suckers on leaf chewers, potentially by altering plant defences.
      Direct antagonistic relationships of trophobiotic ants and leaf-chewing
      herbivores-frequently reported to drive community-wide effects of trophobioses in
      other ecosystems-seemed less relevant. However, antagonistic interactions likely
      contributed to the attenuating effect of tree species richness, because
      trophobiotic ant and herbivore communities changed from monocultures to species
      rich mixtures. Our findings, therefore, suggest that biodiversity loss might lead
      to complex changes in higher trophic level effects on ecosystem functions,
      mediated by both trophic and non-trophic interactions.

PMID- 28878068
TI  - A metacognitive illusion in monkeys.
AB  - Like humans, monkeys can make accurate judgements about their own memory by
      reporting their confidence during cognitive tasks. Some have suggested that
      animals use associative learning to make accurate confidence judgements, while
      others have suggested animals directly access and estimate the strength of their
      memories. Here we test a third, non-exclusive possibility: perhaps monkeys, like
      humans, base metacognitive inferences on heuristic cues. Humans are known to use
      cues like perceptual fluency (e.g. how easy something is to see) when making
      metacognitive judgements. We tested monkeys using a match-to-sample task in which
      the perceptual fluency of the stimuli was manipulated. The monkeys made
      confidence wagers on their accuracy before or after each trial. We found that
      monkeys' wagers were affected by perceptual fluency even when their accuracy was
      not. This is novel evidence that animals are susceptible to metacognitive
      illusions similar to those experienced by humans.

PMID- 28878069
TI  - Filling Knowledge Gaps for Mimivirus Entry, Uncoating, and Morphogenesis.
AB  - Since the discovery of mimivirus, its unusual structural and genomic features
      have raised great interest in the study of its biology; however, many aspects
      concerning its replication cycle remain uncertain. In this study, extensive
      analyses of electron microscope images, as well as biological assay results, shed
      light on unclear points concerning the mimivirus replication cycle. We found that
      treatment with cytochalasin, a phagocytosis inhibitor, negatively impacted the
      incorporation of mimivirus particles by Acanthamoeba castellanii, causing a
      negative effect on viral growth in amoeba monolayers. Treatment of amoebas with
      bafilomicin significantly impacted mimivirus uncoating and replication. In
      conjunction with microscopic analyses, these data suggest that mimiviruses indeed
      depend on phagocytosis for entry into amoebas, and particle uncoating (and
      stargate opening) appears to be dependent on phagosome acidification. In-depth
      analyses of particle morphogenesis suggest that the mimivirus capsids are
      assembled from growing lamellar structures. Despite proposals from previous
      studies that genome acquisition occurs before the acquisition of fibrils, our
      results clearly demonstrate that the genome and fibrils can be acquired
      simultaneously. Our data suggest the existence of a specific area surrounding the
      core of the viral factory where particles acquire the surface fibrils.
      Furthermore, we reinforce the concept that defective particles can be formed even
      in the absence of virophages. Our work provides new information about unexplored
      steps in the life cycle of mimivirus.IMPORTANCE Investigating the viral life
      cycle is essential to a better understanding of virus biology. The combination of
      biological assays and microscopic images allows a clear view of the biological
      features of viruses. Since the discovery of mimivirus, many studies have been
      conducted to characterize its replication cycle, but many knowledge gaps remain
      to be filled. In this study, we conducted a new examination of the replication
      cycle of mimivirus and provide new evidence concerning some stages of the cycle
      which were previously unclear, mainly entry, uncoating, and morphogenesis.
      Furthermore, we demonstrate that atypical virion morphologies can occur even in
      the absence of virophages. Our results, along with previous data, allow us to
      present an ultimate model for the mimivirus replication cycle.

PMID- 28878070
TI  - Effect of Phosphorylation of CM2 Protein on Influenza C Virus Replication.
AB  - CM2 is the second membrane protein of the influenza C virus and has been
      demonstrated to play a role in the uncoating and genome packaging processes in
      influenza C virus replication. Although the effects of N-linked glycosylation,
      disulfide-linked oligomerization, and palmitoylation of CM2 on virus replication
      have been analyzed, the effect of the phosphorylation of CM2 on virus replication
      remains to be determined. In this study, a phosphorylation site(s) at residue 78
      and/or 103 of CM2 was replaced with an alanine residue(s), and the effects of the
      loss of phosphorylation on influenza C virus replication were analyzed. No
      significant differences were observed in the packaging of the reporter gene
      between influenza C virus-like particles (VLPs) produced from 293T cells
      expressing wild-type CM2 and those from the cells expressing the CM2 mutants
      lacking the phosphorylation site(s). Reporter gene expression in HMV-II cells
      infected with VLPs containing the CM2 mutants was inhibited in comparison with
      that in cells infected with wild-type VLPs. The virus production of the
      recombinant influenza C virus possessing CM2 mutants containing a serine-to
      alanine change at residue 78 was significantly lower than that of wild-type
      recombinant influenza C virus. Furthermore, the virus growth of the recombinant
      viruses possessing CM2 with a serine-to-aspartic acid change at position 78, to
      mimic constitutive phosphorylation, was virtually identical to that of the wild
      type virus. These results suggest that phosphorylation of CM2 plays a role in
      efficient virus replication, probably through the addition of a negative charge
      to the Ser78 phosphorylation site.IMPORTANCE It is well-known that many host and
      viral proteins are posttranslationally modified by phosphorylation, which plays a
      role in the functions of these proteins. In influenza A and B viruses,
      phosphorylation of viral proteins NP, M1, NS1, and the nuclear export protein
      (NEP), which are not integrated into the membranes, affects the functions of
      these proteins, thereby affecting virus replication. However, it was reported
      that phosphorylation of the influenza A virus M2 ion channel protein, which is
      integrated into the membrane, has no effect on virus replication in vitro or in
      vivo We previously demonstrated that the influenza C virus CM2 ion channel
      protein is modified by N-glycosylation, oligomerization, palmitoylation, and
      phosphorylation and have analyzed the effects of these modifications, except
      phosphorylation, on virus replication. This is the first report demonstrating
      that phosphorylation of the influenza C virus CM2 ion channel protein, unlike
      that of the influenza A virus M2 protein, plays a role in virus replication.

PMID- 28878071
TI  - Zika Virus Escapes NK Cell Detection by Upregulating Major Histocompatibility
      Complex Class I Molecules.
AB  - NK cells are innate lymphocytes that participate in many immune processes
      encompassing cancer, bacterial and fungal infection, autoimmunity, and even
      pregnancy and that specialize in antiviral defense. NK cells express inhibitory
      and activating receptors and kill their targets when activating signals overpower
      inhibitory signals. The NK cell inhibitory receptors include a uniquely diverse
      array of proteins named killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs), the
      CD94 family, and the leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor (LIR) family. The NK
      cell inhibitory receptors recognize mostly major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
      class I (MHC-I) proteins. Zika virus has recently emerged as a major threat due
      to its association with birth defects and its pandemic potential. How Zika virus
      interacts with the immune system, and especially with NK cells, is unclear. Here
      we show that Zika virus infection is barely sensed by NK cells, since little or
      no increase in the expression of activating NK cell ligands was observed
      following Zika infection. In contrast, we demonstrate that Zika virus infection
      leads to the upregulation of MHC class I proteins and consequently to the
      inhibition of NK cell killing. Mechanistically, we show that MHC class I proteins
      are upregulated via the RIGI-IRF3 pathway and that this upregulation is mediated
      via beta interferon (IFN-beta). Potentially, countering MHC class I upregulation
      during Zika virus infection could be used as a prophylactic treatment against
      Zika virus.IMPORTANCE NK cells are innate lymphocytes that recognize and
      eliminate various pathogens and are known mostly for their role in controlling
      viral infections. NK cells express inhibitory and activating receptors, and they
      kill or spare their targets based on the integration of inhibitory and activating
      signals. Zika virus has recently emerged as a major threat to humans due to its
      pandemic potential and its association with birth defects. The role of NK cells
      in Zika virus infection is largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that Zika virus
      infection is almost undetected by NK cells, as evidenced by the fact that the
      expression of activating ligands for NK cells is not induced following Zika
      infection. We identified a mechanism whereby Zika virus sensing via the RIGI-IRF3
      pathway resulted in IFN-beta-mediated upregulation of MHC-I molecules and
      inhibition of NK cell activity. Countering MHC class I upregulation and boosting
      NK cell activity may be employed as prophylactic measures to combat Zika virus
      infection.

PMID- 28878072
TI  - High-Throughput Protein Engineering Improves the Antigenicity and Stability of
      Soluble HIV-1 Envelope Glycoprotein SOSIP Trimers.
AB  - Soluble envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimers (SOSIP.664 gp140) are attractive HIV
      1 vaccine candidates, with structures that mimic the native membrane-bound Env
      spike (gp160). Since engineering trimers can be limited by the difficulty of
      rationally predicting beneficial mutations, here we used a more comprehensive
      mutagenesis approach with the goal of identifying trimer variants with improved
      antigenic and stability properties. We created 341 cysteine pairs at predicted
      points of stabilization throughout gp140, 149 proline residue substitutions at
      every residue of the gp41 ectodomain, and 362 space-filling residue substitutions
      at every hydrophobic and aromatic residue in gp140. The parental protein target,
      the clade B strain B41 SOSIP.664 gp140, does not bind the broadly neutralizing
      antibody PGT151 and so was used here to identify improved variants that also
      provide insight into the structural basis for Env antigenicity. Each of the 852
      mutants was expressed in human cells and screened for antigenicity using four
      different monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), including PGT151. We identified 29 trimer
      variants with antigenic improvements derived from each of the three mutagenesis
      strategies. We selected four variants (Q203F, T538F, I548F, and M629P) for more
      comprehensive biochemical, structural, and antigenicity analyses. The T538F
      substitution had the most beneficial effect overall, including restoration of the
      PGT151 epitope. The improved B41 SOSIP.664 trimer variants identified here may be
      useful for vaccine and structural studies.IMPORTANCE Soluble Env trimers have
      become attractive HIV-1 vaccine candidates, but the prototype designs are capable
      of further improvement through protein engineering. Using a high-throughput
      screening technology (shotgun mutagenesis) to create and evaluate 852 variants,
      we were able to identify sequence changes that were beneficial to the
      antigenicity and stability of soluble trimers based on the clade B B41 env gene.
      The strategies described here may be useful for identifying a wider range of
      antigenically and structurally improved soluble trimers based on multiple
      genotypes for use in programs intended to create a broadly protective HIV-1
      vaccine.

PMID- 28878073
TI  - Characterization of a Replicating Mammalian Orthoreovirus with Tetracysteine
      Tagged MUNS for Live-Cell Visualization of Viral Factories.
AB  - Within infected host cells, mammalian orthoreovirus (MRV) forms viral factories
      (VFs), which are sites of viral transcription, translation, assembly, and
      replication. The MRV nonstructural protein MUNS comprises the structural matrix
      of VFs and is involved in recruiting other viral proteins to VF structures.
      Previous attempts have been made to visualize VF dynamics in live cells, but due
      to current limitations in recovery of replicating reoviruses carrying large
      fluorescent protein tags, researchers have been unable to directly assess VF
      dynamics from virus-produced MUNS. We set out to develop a method to overcome
      this obstacle by utilizing the 6-amino-acid (CCPGCC) tetracysteine (TC) tag and
      FlAsH-EDT2 reagent. The TC tag was introduced into eight sites throughout MUNS,
      and the capacity of the TC-MUNS fusion proteins to form virus factory-like (VFL)
      structures and colocalize with virus proteins was characterized. Insertion of the
      TC tag interfered with recombinant virus rescue in six of the eight mutants,
      likely as a result of loss of VF formation or important virus protein
      interactions. However, two recombinant (r)TC-MUNS viruses were rescued and VF
      formation, colocalization with associating virus proteins, and characterization
      of virus replication were subsequently examined. Furthermore, the rTC-MUNS
      viruses were utilized to infect cells and examine VF dynamics using live-cell
      microscopy. These experiments demonstrate active VF movement with fusion events
      as well as transient interactions between individual VFs and demonstrate the
      importance of microtubule stability for VF fusion during MRV infection. This work
      provides important groundwork for future in-depth studies of VF dynamics and host
      cell interactions.IMPORTANCE MRV has historically been used as a model to study
      the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Reoviridae family, the members of which infect
      and cause disease in humans, animals, and plants. During infection, MRV forms VFs
      that play a critical role in virus infection but remain to be fully
      characterized. To study VFs, researchers have focused on visualizing the
      nonstructural protein MUNS, which forms the VF matrix. This work provides the
      first evidence of recovery of replicating reoviruses in which VFs can be labeled
      in live cells via introduction of a TC tag into the MUNS open reading frame.
      Characterization of each recombinant reovirus sheds light on MUNS interactions
      with viral proteins. Moreover, utilizing the TC-labeling FlAsH-EDT2 biarsenical
      reagent to visualize VFs, evidence is provided of dynamic VF movement and
      interactions at least partially dependent on intact microtubules.

PMID- 28878074
TI  - Cooperation of the Ebola Virus Proteins VP40 and GP1,2 with BST2 To Activate NF
      kappaB Independently of Virus-Like Particle Trapping.
AB  - BST2 is a host protein with dual functions in response to viral infections: it
      traps newly assembled enveloped virions at the plasma membrane in infected cells,
      and it induces NF-kappaB activity, especially in the context of retroviral
      assembly. In this study, we examined whether Ebola virus proteins affect BST2
      mediated induction of NF-kappaB. We found that the Ebola virus matrix protein,
      VP40, and envelope glycoprotein, GP, each cooperate with BST2 to induce NF-kappaB
      activity, with maximal activity when all three proteins are expressed. Unlike
      human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Vpu protein, which antagonizes both virion
      entrapment and the activation of NF-kappaB by BST2, Ebola virus GP does not
      inhibit NF-kappaB signaling even while it antagonizes the entrapment of virus
      like particles. GP from Reston ebolavirus, a nonpathogenic species in humans,
      showed a phenotype similar to that of GP from Zaire ebolavirus, a highly
      pathogenic species, in terms of both the activation of NF-kappaB and the
      antagonism of virion entrapment. Although Ebola virus VP40 and GP both activate
      NF-kappaB independently of BST2, VP40 is the more potent activator. Activation of
      NF-kappaB by the Ebola virus proteins either alone or together with BST2 requires
      the canonical NF-kappaB signaling pathway. Mechanistically, the maximal NF-kappaB
      activation by GP, VP40, and BST2 together requires the ectodomain cysteines
      needed for BST2 dimerization, the putative BST2 tetramerization residue L70, and
      Y6 of a potential hemi-ITAM motif in BST2's cytoplasmic domain. BST2 with a
      glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor signal deletion, which is not expressed
      at the plasma membrane and is unable to entrap virions, activated NF-kappaB in
      concert with the Ebola virus proteins at least as effectively as wild-type BST2.
      Signaling by the GPI anchor mutant also depended on Y6 of BST2. Overall, our data
      show that activation of NF-kappaB by BST2 is independent of virion entrapment in
      the case of Ebola virus. Nonetheless, BST2 may induce or amplify proinflammatory
      signaling during Ebola virus infection, potentially contributing to the
      dysregulated cytokine response that is a hallmark of Ebola virus
      disease.IMPORTANCE Understanding how the host responds to viral infections
      informs the development of therapeutics and vaccines. We asked how
      proinflammatory signaling by the host protein BST2/tetherin, which is mediated by
      the transcription factor NF-kappaB, responds to Ebola virus proteins. Although
      the Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein (GP1,2) antagonizes the trapping of newly
      formed virions at the plasma membrane by BST2, we found that it does not inhibit
      BST2's ability to induce NF-kappaB activity. This distinguishes GP1,2 from the
      HIV-1 protein Vpu, the prototype BST2 antagonist, which inhibits both virion
      entrapment and the induction of NF-kappaB activity. Ebola virus GP1,2, the Ebola
      virus matrix protein VP40, and BST2 are at least additive with respect to the
      induction of NF-kappaB activity. The effects of these proteins converge on an
      intracellular signaling pathway that depends on a protein modification termed
      neddylation. Better mechanistic understanding of these phenomena could provide
      targets for therapies that modulate the inflammatory response during Ebola virus
      disease.

PMID- 28878075
TI  - Characterization of the Quasi-Enveloped Hepatitis E Virus Particles Released by
      the Cellular Exosomal Pathway.
AB  - Our previous studies demonstrated that membrane-associated hepatitis E virus
      (HEV) particles-now considered "quasi-enveloped particles"-are present in the
      multivesicular body with intraluminal vesicles (exosomes) in infected cells and
      that the release of HEV virions is related to the exosomal pathway. In this
      study, we characterized exosomes purified from the culture supernatants of HEV
      infected PLC/PRF/5 cells. Purified CD63-, CD9-, or CD81-positive exosomes derived
      from the culture supernatants of HEV-infected cells that had been cultivated in
      serum-free medium were found to contain HEV RNA and the viral capsid (ORF2) and
      ORF3 proteins, as determined by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and Western
      blotting, respectively. Furthermore, immunoelectron microscopy, with or without
      prior detergent and protease treatment, revealed the presence of virus-like
      particles in the exosome fraction. These particles were 39.6 +/- 1.0 nm in
      diameter and were covered with a lipid membrane. After treatment with detergent
      and protease, the diameter of these virus-like particles was 26.9 +/- 0.9 nm, and
      the treated particles became accessible with an anti-HEV ORF2 monoclonal antibody
      (MAb). The HEV particles in the exosome fraction were capable of infecting naive
      PLC/PRF/5 cells but were not neutralized by an anti-HEV ORF2 MAb which
      efficiently neutralizes nonenveloped HEV particles in cell culture. These results
      indicate that the membrane-wrapped HEV particles released by the exosomal pathway
      are copurified with the exosomes in the exosome fraction and suggest that the
      capsids of HEV particles are individually covered by lipid membranes resembling
      those of exosomes, similar to enveloped viruses.IMPORTANCE Hepatitis E, caused by
      HEV, is an important infectious disease that is spreading worldwide. HEV
      infection can cause acute or fulminant hepatitis and can become chronic in
      immunocompromised hosts, including patients after organ transplantation. The HEV
      particles present in feces and bile are nonenveloped, while those in circulating
      blood and culture supernatants are covered with a cellular membrane, similar to
      enveloped viruses. Furthermore, these membrane-associated and -unassociated HEV
      particles can be propagated in cultured cells. The significance of our research
      is that the capsids of HEV particles are individually covered by a lipid membrane
      that resembles the membrane of exosomes, similar to enveloped viruses, and are
      released from infected cells via the exosomal pathway. These data will help to
      elucidate the entry mechanisms and receptors for HEV infection in the future.
      This is the first report to characterize the detailed morphological features of
      membrane-associated HEV particles.

PMID- 28878076
TI  - Zika Virus Infects Human Sertoli Cells and Modulates the Integrity of the In
      Vitro Blood-Testis Barrier Model.
AB  - Confirmed reports of Zika virus (ZIKV) in human seminal fluid for months after
      the clearance of viremia suggest the ability of ZIKV to establish persistent
      infection in the seminiferous tubules, an immune-privileged site in the testis
      protected by the blood-testis barrier, also called the Sertoli cell (SC) barrier
      (SCB). However, cellular targets of ZIKV in human testis and mechanisms by which
      the virus enters seminiferous tubules remain unclear. We demonstrate that primary
      human SCs were highly susceptible to ZIKV compared to the closely related dengue
      virus and induced the expression of alpha interferon (IFN-alpha), key cytokines,
      and cell adhesion molecules (vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 [VCAM-1] and
      intracellular adhesion molecule 1 [ICAM-1]). Furthermore, using an in vitro SCB
      model, we show that ZIKV was released on the adluminal side of the SCB model with
      a higher efficiency than in the blood-brain barrier model. ZIKV-infected SCs
      exhibited enhanced adhesion of leukocytes that correlated with decreases in SCB
      integrity. ZIKV infection did not affect the expression of tight and adherens
      junction proteins such as ZO-1, claudin, and JAM-A; however, exposure of SCs to
      inflammatory mediators derived from ZIKV-infected macrophages led to the
      degradation of the ZO-1 protein, which correlated with increased SCB
      permeability. Taken together, our data suggest that infection of SCs may be one
      of the crucial steps by which ZIKV gains access to the site of spermatozoon
      development and identify SCs as a therapeutic target to clear testicular
      infections. The SCB model opens up opportunities to assess interactions of SCs
      with other testicular cells and to test the ability of anti-ZIKV drugs to cross
      the barrier.IMPORTANCE Recent outbreaks of ZIKV, a neglected mosquito-borne
      flavivirus, have identified sexual transmission as a new route of disease spread,
      which has not been reported for other flaviviruses. To be able to sexually
      transmit for months after the clearance of viremia, ZIKV must establish infection
      in the seminiferous tubules, the site of spermatozoon development. However,
      little is known about the cell types that support ZIKV infection in the human
      testis. Currently, there are no models to study mechanisms of virus persistence
      in the seminiferous tubules. We provide evidence that ZIKV infection of human
      Sertoli cells, which are an important component of the seminiferous tubules, is
      robust and induces a strong antiviral response. The use of an in vitro Sertoli
      cell barrier to describe how ZIKV or inflammatory mediators derived from ZIKV
      infected macrophages compromise barrier integrity will enable studies to explore
      the interactions of other testicular cells with Sertoli cells and to test novel
      antivirals for clearing testicular ZIKV infection.

PMID- 28878077
TI  - IRF9 Prevents CD8+ T Cell Exhaustion in an Extrinsic Manner during Acute
      Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus Infection.
AB  - Effective CD8+ T cell responses play an important role in determining the course
      of a viral infection. Overwhelming antigen exposure can result in suboptimal CD8+
      T cell responses, leading to chronic infection. This altered CD8+ T cell
      differentiation state, termed exhaustion, is characterized by reduced effector
      function, upregulation of inhibitory receptors, and altered expression of
      transcription factors. Prevention of overwhelming antigen exposure to limit CD8+
      T cell exhaustion is of significant interest for the control of chronic
      infection. The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 9 (IRF9) is a
      component of type I interferon (IFN-I) signaling downstream of the IFN-I receptor
      (IFNAR). Using acute infection of mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus
      (LCMV) strain Armstrong, we show here that IRF9 limited early LCMV replication by
      regulating expression of interferon-stimulated genes and IFN-I and by controlling
      levels of IRF7, a transcription factor essential for IFN-I production. Infection
      of IRF9- or IFNAR-deficient mice led to a loss of early restriction of viral
      replication and impaired antiviral responses in dendritic cells, resulting in
      CD8+ T cell exhaustion and chronic infection. Differences in the antiviral
      activities of IRF9- and IFNAR-deficient mice and dendritic cells provided further
      evidence of IRF9-independent IFN-I signaling. Thus, our findings illustrate a
      CD8+ T cell-extrinsic function for IRF9, as a signaling factor downstream of
      IFNAR, in preventing overwhelming antigen exposure resulting in CD8+ T cell
      exhaustion and, ultimately, chronic infection.IMPORTANCE During early viral
      infection, overwhelming antigen exposure can cause functional exhaustion of CD8+
      T cells and lead to chronic infection. Here we show that the transcription factor
      interferon regulatory factor 9 (IRF9) plays a decisive role in preventing CD8+ T
      cell exhaustion. Using acute infection of mice with LCMV strain Armstrong, we
      found that IRF9 limited early LCMV replication by regulating expression of
      interferon-stimulated genes and Irf7, encoding a transcription factor crucial for
      type I interferon (IFN-I) production, as well as by controlling the levels of IFN
      I. Infection of IRF9-deficient mice led to a chronic infection that was
      accompanied by CD8+ T cell exhaustion due to defects extrinsic to T cells. Our
      findings illustrate an essential role for IRF9, as a mediator downstream of
      IFNAR, in preventing overwhelming antigen exposure causing CD8+ T cell exhaustion
      and leading to chronic viral infection.

PMID- 28878078
TI  - Potent Plasmablast-Derived Antibodies Elicited by the National Institutes of
      Health Dengue Vaccine.
AB  - Exposure to dengue virus (DENV) is thought to elicit lifelong immunity, mediated
      by DENV-neutralizing antibodies (nAbs). However, Abs generated by primary
      infections confer serotype-specific protection, and immunity against other
      serotypes develops only after subsequent infections. Accordingly, the induction
      of these nAb responses acquired after serial DENV infections has been a long
      sought-after goal for vaccination. Nonetheless, it is still unclear if
      tetravalent vaccines can elicit or recall nAbs. In this study, we have
      characterized the responses from a volunteer who had been previously exposed to
      DENV and was immunized with the live attenuated tetravalent vaccine Butantan-DV,
      developed by the NIH and Butantan Institute. Eleven days after vaccination, we
      observed an ~70-fold expansion of the plasmablast population. We generated 21
      monoclonal Abs (MAbs) from singly sorted plasmablasts. These MAbs were the result
      of clonal expansions and had significant levels of somatic hypermutation (SHM).
      Nineteen MAbs (90.5%) neutralized at least one DENV serotype at concentrations of
      1 MUg/ml or less; 6 of the 21 MAbs neutralized three or more serotypes. Despite
      the tetravalent composition of the vaccine, we observed a neutralization bias in
      the induced repertoire: DENV3 was targeted by 18 of the 19 neutralizing MAbs
      (nMAbs). Furthermore, the P3D05 nMAb neutralized DENV3 with extraordinary potency
      (concentration to achieve half-maximal neutralization [Neut50] = 0.03 MUg/ml).
      Thus, the Butantan-DV vaccine engendered a mature, antigen-selected B cell
      repertoire. Our results suggest that preexisting responses elicited by a previous
      DENV3 infection were recalled by immunization.IMPORTANCE The dengue epidemic
      presents a global public health challenge that causes widespread economic burden
      and remains largely unchecked by existing control strategies. Successful control
      of the dengue epidemic will require effective prophylactic and therapeutic
      interventions. Several vaccine clinical efficacy trials are approaching
      completion, and the chances that one or more live attenuated tetravalent vaccines
      (LATVs) will be introduced worldwide is higher than ever. While it is widely
      accepted that dengue virus (DENV)-neutralizing antibody (nAb) titers are
      associated with protection, the Ab repertoire induced by LATVs remain
      uncharacterized. Here, we describe the isolation of potent (Neut50 < 0.1 MUg/ml)
      nAbs from a DENV-seropositive volunteer immunized with the tetravalent vaccine
      Butantan-DV, which is currently in phase III trials.

PMID- 28878079
TI  - Minocycline Has Anti-inflammatory Effects and Reduces Cytotoxicity in an Ex Vivo
      Spinal Cord Slice Culture Model of West Nile Virus Infection.
AB  - West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurotropic flavivirus that can cause significant
      neurological disease. Mouse models of WNV infection demonstrate that a
      proinflammatory environment is induced within the central nervous system (CNS)
      after WNV infection, leading to entry of activated peripheral immune cells. We
      utilized ex vivo spinal cord slice cultures (SCSC) to demonstrate that anti
      inflammatory mechanisms may also play a role in WNV-induced pathology and/or
      recovery. Microglia are a type of macrophage that function as resident CNS immune
      cells. Similar to mouse models, infection of SCSC with WNV induces the
      upregulation of proinflammatory genes and proteins that are associated with
      microglial activation, including the microglial activation marker Iba1 and CC
      motif chemokines CCL2, CCL3, and CCL5. This suggests that microglia assume a
      proinflammatory phenotype in response to WNV infection similar to the
      proinflammatory (M1) activation that can be displayed by other macrophages. We
      now show that the WNV-induced expression of these and other proinflammatory genes
      was significantly decreased in the presence of minocycline, which has
      antineuroinflammatory properties, including the ability to inhibit
      proinflammatory microglial responses. Minocycline also caused a significant
      increase in the expression of anti-inflammatory genes associated with alternative
      anti-inflammatory (M2) macrophage activation, including interleukin 4 (IL-4), IL
      13, and FIZZ1. Minocycline-dependent alterations to M1/M2 gene expression were
      associated with a significant increase in survival of neurons, microglia, and
      astrocytes in WNV-infected slices and markedly decreased levels of inducible
      nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). These results demonstrate that an anti-inflammatory
      environment induced by minocycline reduces viral cytotoxicity during WNV
      infection in ex vivo CNS tissue.IMPORTANCE West Nile virus (WNV) causes
      substantial morbidity and mortality, with no specific therapeutic treatments
      available. Antiviral inflammatory responses are a crucial component of WNV
      pathology, and understanding how they are regulated is important for tailoring
      effective treatments. Proinflammatory responses during WNV infection have been
      extensively studied, but anti-inflammatory responses (and their potential
      protective and reparative capabilities) following WNV infection have not been
      investigated. Minocycline induced the expression of genes associated with the
      anti-inflammatory (M2) activation of CNS macrophages (microglia) in WNV-infected
      SCSC while inhibiting the expression of genes associated with proinflammatory
      (M1) macrophage activation and was protective for multiple CNS cell types,
      indicating its potential use as a therapeutic reagent. This ex vivo culture
      system can uniquely address the ability of CNS parenchymal cells (neurons,
      astrocytes, and microglia) to respond to minocycline and to modulate the
      inflammatory environment and cytotoxicity in response to WNV infection without
      peripheral immune cell involvement.

PMID- 28878080
TI  - Mechanical Barriers Restrict Invasion of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 into Human Oral
      Mucosa.
AB  - Oral mucosa is one of the main target tissues of the human pathogen herpes
      simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). How the virus overcomes the protective epithelial
      barriers and penetrates the tissue to reach its receptors and initiate infection
      is still unclear. Here, we established an ex vivo infection assay with human oral
      mucosa that allows viral entry studies in a natural target tissue. The focus was
      on the susceptibility of keratinocytes in the epithelium and the characterization
      of cellular receptors that mediate viral entry. Upon ex vivo infection of gingiva
      or vestibular mucosa, we observed that intact human mucosa samples were protected
      from viral invasion. In contrast, the basal layer of the oral epithelium was
      efficiently invaded once the connective tissue and the basement membrane were
      removed. Later during infection, HSV-1 spread from basal keratinocytes to upper
      layers, demonstrating the susceptibility of the stratified squamous epithelium to
      HSV-1. The analysis of potential receptors revealed nectin-1 on most mucosal
      keratinocytes, whereas herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM) was found only on a
      subpopulation of cells, suggesting that nectin-1 acts as primary receptor for HSV
      1 in human oral mucosa. To mimic the supposed entry route of HSV-1 via
      microlesions in vivo, we mechanically wounded the mucosa prior to infection.
      While we observed a limited number of infected keratinocytes in some wounded
      mucosa samples, other samples showed no infected cells. Thus, we conclude that
      mechanical wounding of mucosa is insufficient for the virus to efficiently
      overcome epithelial barriers and to make entry-mediating receptors
      accessible.IMPORTANCE To invade the target tissue of its human host during
      primary infection, herpes simplex virus (HSV) must overcome the epithelial
      barriers of mucosa, skin, or cornea. For most viruses, the mechanisms underlying
      the invasion into the target tissues of their host organism are still open. Here,
      we established an ex vivo infection model of human oral mucosa to explore how HSV
      can enter its target tissue. Our results demonstrate that intact mucosa samples
      and even compromised tissue allow only very limited access of HSV to
      keratinocytes. Detailed understanding of barrier functions is an essential
      precondition to unravel how HSV bypasses the barriers and approaches its
      receptors in tissue and why it is beneficial for the virus to use a cell-cell
      adhesion molecule, such as nectin-1, as a receptor.

PMID- 28878081
TI  - Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) Virus 3C Protease Mutant L127P: Implications for FMD
      Vaccine Development.
AB  - The foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) afflicts livestock in more than 80
      countries, limiting food production and global trade. Production of foot-and
      mouth disease (FMD) vaccines requires cytosolic expression of the FMDV 3C
      protease to cleave the P1 polyprotein into mature capsid proteins, but the FMDV
      3C protease is toxic to host cells. To identify less-toxic isoforms of the FMDV
      3C protease, we screened 3C mutants for increased transgene output in comparison
      to wild-type 3C using a Gaussia luciferase reporter system. The novel point
      mutation 3C(L127P) increased yields of recombinant FMDV subunit proteins in
      mammalian and bacterial cells expressing P1-3C transgenes and retained the
      ability to process P1 polyproteins from multiple FMDV serotypes. The 3C(L127P)
      mutant produced crystalline arrays of FMDV-like particles in mammalian and
      bacterial cells, potentially providing a practical method of rapid, inexpensive
      FMD vaccine production in bacteria.IMPORTANCE The mutant FMDV 3C protease L127P
      significantly increased yields of recombinant FMDV subunit antigens and produced
      virus-like particles in mammalian and bacterial cells. The L127P mutation
      represents a novel advancement for economical FMD vaccine production.

PMID- 28878082
TI  - Lysine 242 within helix 10 of the pseudorabies virus nuclear egress complex pUL31
      component is critical for primary envelopment of nucleocapsids.
AB  - Newly assembled herpesvirus nucleocapsids are translocated from the nucleus to
      the cytosol by a vesicle-mediated process engaging the nuclear membranes. This
      transport is governed by the conserved nuclear egress complex (NEC), consisting
      of the alphaherpesviral pUL34 and pUL31 homologs. The NEC is not only required
      for efficient nuclear egress but also sufficient for vesicle formation from the
      inner nuclear membrane (INM) as well as from synthetic lipid bilayers. The
      recently solved crystal structures for the NECs from different herpesviruses
      revealed molecular details of this membrane deformation and scission machinery
      uncovering the interfaces involved in complex and coat formation. However, the
      interaction domain with the nucleocapsid remained undefined. Since the NEC
      assembles a curved hexagonal coat on the nucleoplasmic side of the INM consisting
      of tightly interwoven pUL31/pUL34 heterodimers arranged in hexamers, only the
      membrane-distal end of the NEC formed by pUL31 residues appears accessible for
      interaction with the nucleocapsid cargo. To identify the amino acids involved in
      capsid incorporation we mutated the corresponding regions in the alphaherpesvirus
      pseudorabies virus (PrV). Site-specifically mutated pUL31 were tested for
      localization, interaction with pUL34 and complementation of PrV-DeltaUL31. Here,
      we identify a conserved lysine residue at amino acid position 242 in PrV pUL31
      located in the alpha-helical domain H10 exposed on the membrane-distal end of the
      NEC as a key residue for nucleocapsid incorporation into the nascent primary
      particle.IMPORTANCE Vesicular transport through the nuclear envelope is a focus
      of research but still not well understood. Herpesviruses pioneered this mechanism
      for translocation of the newly assembled nucleocapsid from the nucleus into the
      cytosol via vesicles derived from the inner nuclear membrane which fuse in a well
      tuned process with the outer nuclear membrane to release their content. The
      structure of the viral nuclear membrane budding and scission machinery has been
      solved recently providing in-depth molecular details. However, how cargo is
      incorporated remained unclear. Here, we identified a conserved lysine residue in
      the membrane-distal portion of the nuclear egress complex required for capsid
      uptake into inner nuclear membrane-derived vesicles.

PMID- 28878084
TI  - Human Herpesvirus 8 Interleukin-6 Interacts with Calnexin Cycle Components and
      Promotes Protein Folding.
AB  - Viral interleukin-6 (vIL-6) encoded by human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is believed to
      contribute via mitogenic, survival, and angiogenic activities to HHV-8-associated
      Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), and multicentric Castleman's
      disease through autocrine or paracrine mechanisms during latency or productive
      replication. There is direct evidence that vIL-6 promotes latently infected PEL
      cell viability and proliferation and also viral productive replication in PEL and
      endothelial cells. These activities are mediated largely through endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER)-localized vIL-6, which can induce signal transduction via the
      gp130 signaling receptor, activating mitogen-activated protein kinase and signal
      transducer and activator of transcription signaling, and interactions of vIL-6
      with the ER membrane protein vitamin K epoxide reductase complex subunit 1
      variant 2 (VKORC1v2). The latter functional axis involves suppression of
      proapoptotic lysosomal protein cathepsin D by promotion of the ER-associated
      degradation of ER-transiting, preproteolytically processed procathepsin D. Other
      interactions of VKORC1v2 and activities of vIL-6 via the receptor have not been
      reported. We show here that both vIL-6 and VKORC1v2 interact with calnexin cycle
      proteins UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase 1 (UGGT1), which catalyzes
      monoglucosylation of N-glycans, and oppositely acting glucosidase II (GlucII),
      and that vIL-6 can promote protein folding. This activity was found to require
      VKORC1v2 and UGGT1, to involve vIL-6 associations with VKORC1v2, UGGT1, and
      GlucII, and to operate in the context of productively infected cells. These
      findings document new VKORC1v2-associated interactions and activities of vIL-6,
      revealing novel mechanisms of vIL-6 function within the ER compartment.IMPORTANCE
      HHV-8 vIL-6 prosurvival (latent) and proreplication functions are mediated from
      the ER compartment through both gp130 receptor-mediated signal transduction and
      interaction of vIL-6 with the ER membrane protein VKORC1v2. This report
      identifies interactions of vIL-6 and VKORC1v2 with calnexin cycle enzymes GlucII
      and UGGT1, which are involved in glycan processing and nascent protein folding.
      The presented data show that vIL-6 and VKORC1v2 can cocomplex with GlucII and
      UGGT1, that vIL-6 promotes protein folding, and that VKORC1v2, UGGT1, and vIL-6
      interactions with GlucII and UGGT1 are important for the profolding activity of
      vIL-6, which can be detected in the context of infected cells. This newly
      identified ER activity of vIL-6 involving VKORC1v2 may promote viral latency (in
      PEL cells) and productive replication by limiting the damaging effects of
      unfolded protein response signaling in addition to enhancing viral protein
      folding. This is the first report of such a function for a cytokine.

PMID- 28878083
TI  - How germinal centers evolve broadly neutralizing antibodies: the breadth of the
      follicular helper T cell response.
AB  - Many HIV-1 infected patients evolve broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs). This
      evolutionary process typically takes several years, and is poorly understood as
      selection taking place in germinal centers occurs on the basis of antibody
      affinity. B cells with the highest affinity receptors tend to acquire the most
      antigen from the FDC network, and present the highest density of cognate peptides
      to follicular helper T cells (Tfh), which provide survival signals to the B cell.
      BnAbs are therefore only expected to evolve when the B cell lineage evolving
      breadth is consistently capturing and presenting more peptides to Tfh cells than
      other lineages of more specific B cells. Here we develop mathematical models of
      Tfh in germinal centers to explicitly define the mechanisms of selection in this
      complex evolutionary process.Our results suggest that broadly reactive B cells
      presenting a high density of pMHC are readily outcompeted by B cells responding
      to lineages of HIV-1 that transiently dominate the within host viral population.
      Conversely, if broadly reactive B cells acquire a large variety of several HIV-1
      proteins from the FDC network and present a high diversity of several pMHC, they
      be rescued by a large fraction of the Tfh repertoire in the germinal center.
      Under such circumstances the evolution of bnAbs is much more consistent.
      Increasing the magnitude of the Tfh response, or the breadth of the Tfh
      repertoire, both markedly facilitate the evolution of bnAbs. Because both can be
      increased by vaccination with several HIV-1 proteins, this calls for experiments
      testing.Importance Many HIV-infected patients slowly evolve antibodies that can
      neutralize a large variety of viruses. Such "broadly neutralizing antibodies"
      (bnAbs) could in the future become therapeutic agents. BnAbs appear very late and
      patients are typically not protected by them. At the moment we fail to understand
      why this takes so long, and how the immune system selects for broadly
      neutralizing capacity. Typically antibodies are selected based on affinity and
      not on breadth. We develop mathematical models to study two different mechanisms
      by which the immune system can select for broadly neutralizing capacity. One of
      these is based upon the repertoire of different follicular helper T cells (Tfh)
      in germinal centers. We suggest that broadly reactive B cells may interact with a
      larger fraction of this repertoire, and demonstrate that this would select for
      bnAbs. Intriguingly, this suggest that broadening the Tfh repertoire by
      vaccination may speed up the evolution of bnAbs.

PMID- 28878085
TI  - Human Cytomegalovirus Particles Treated with Specific Antibodies Induce Intrinsic
      and Adaptive but Not Innate Immune Responses.
AB  - Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) persistently infects 40% to 100% of the human
      population worldwide. Experimental and clinical evidence indicates that humoral
      immunity to HCMV plays an important role in restricting virus dissemination and
      protecting the infected host from disease. Specific immunoglobulin preparations
      from pooled plasma of adults selected for high titers of HCMV antibodies have
      been used for the prevention of CMV disease in transplant recipients and pregnant
      women. Even though incubation of HCMV particles with these preparations leads to
      the neutralization of viral infectivity, it is still unclear whether the antibody
      treated HCMV particles (referred to here as HCMV-Ab) enter the cells and modulate
      antiviral immune responses. Here we demonstrate that HCMV-Ab did enter
      macrophages. HCMV-Ab did not initiate the expression of immediate early antigens
      (IEAs) in macrophages, but they induced an antiviral state and rendered the cells
      less susceptible to HCMV infection upon challenge. Resistance to HCMV infection
      seemed to be due to the activation of intrinsic restriction factors and was
      independent of interferons. In contrast to actively infected cells, autologous NK
      cells did not degranulate against HCMV-Ab-treated macrophages, suggesting that
      these cells may not be eliminated by innate effector cells. Interestingly, HCMV
      Ab-treated macrophages stimulated the proliferation of autologous adaptive CD4+
      and CD8+ T cells. Our findings not only expand the current knowledge on virus
      antibody immunity but may also be relevant for future vaccination
      strategies.IMPORTANCE Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a common herpesvirus,
      establishes benign but persistent infections in immunocompetent hosts. However,
      in subjects with an immature or dysfunctional immune system, HCMV is a major
      cause of morbidity and mortality. Passive immunization has been used in different
      clinical settings with variable clinical results. Intravenous hyperimmune
      globulin preparations (IVIg) are obtained from pooled adult human plasma selected
      for high anti-CMV antibody titers. While HCMV neutralization can be shown in
      vitro using different systems, data are lacking regarding the cross-influence of
      IVIg administration on the cellular immune responses. The aim of this study was
      to evaluate the effects of IVIg on distinct components of the immune response
      against HCMV, including antigen presentation by macrophages, degranulation of
      innate natural killer cells, and proliferation of adaptive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells.

PMID- 28878087
TI  - Novel Stable Ebola Virus Minigenome Replicon Reveals Remarkable Stability of the
      Viral Genome.
AB  - Ebola virus (EBOV) causes severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates
      with a high case fatality rate. No approved drug or vaccine of EBOV is available,
      which necessitates better understanding of the virus life cycle. Studies on EBOV
      have been hampered because experimentations involving live virus are restricted
      to biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories. EBOV minigenome system has provided
      researchers with the opportunity to study EBOV under BSL-2 conditions. Here, we
      developed a novel EBOV minigenome replicon which, to our knowledge, is the first
      EBOV cell culture system that can stably replicate and transcribe EBOV
      minigenome. The minigenomic RNA harboring a Gaussia Luciferase and hygromycin
      resistant marker can replicate for months in a helper cell stably expressing
      viral NP, VP35, VP30 and L proteins. Quantification of vRNA, cRNA and mRNA levels
      of EBOV minigenome demonstrated that the stable EBOV replicon had much more
      active minigenome replication than previously developed transient transfection
      based EBOV minigenome systems which recapitulate viral primary transcription more
      than genome replication. Interestingly, minigenome replication in the stable EBOV
      replicon cells was insensitive to interferon treatment or RNA interference.
      Moreover, RNase digestion of the replicon cell lysates revealed the remarkably
      stable nature of EBOV minigenomic vRNA ribonucleoprotein complex, which may help
      understand EBOV persistence in convalescent patients.IMPORTANCE The scope and
      severity of the recent Ebola outbreak in the Western Africa justified more
      comprehensive investigation of the causative Risk Group 4 agent Ebola virus
      (EBOV). Study of EBOV replication and antiviral development can be facilitated by
      developing a cell culture system that allows for experimentations in the
      biosafety level 2 conditions. Here, we developed a novel stable EBOV minigenome
      replicon which, to our knowledge, is the first EBOV cell culture system that can
      stably replicate and transcribe EBOV minigenome. Compared to previously developed
      transient transfection-based EBOV minigenome systems, the replicon system had
      more active genome replication, providing a convenient surrogate system to study
      EBOV replication. Furthermore, self-replicating minigenomic vRNA in the replicon
      cells displayed strong stability in response to interferon treatment, RNA
      silencing and RNase digestion, which may provide an explanation for the
      persistence of EBOV in survivors.

PMID- 28878086
TI  - Methanosarcina Spherical Virus, a Novel Archaeal Lytic Virus Targeting
      Methanosarcina Strains.
AB  - A novel archaeal lytic virus targeting species of the genus Methanosarcina was
      isolated using Methanosarcina mazei strain Go1 as the host. Due to its spherical
      morphology, the virus was designated Methanosarcina spherical virus (MetSV).
      Molecular analysis demonstrated that MetSV contains double-stranded linear DNA
      with a genome size of 10,567 bp containing 22 open reading frames (ORFs), all
      oriented in the same direction. Functions were predicted for some of these ORFs,
      i.e., such as DNA polymerase, ATPase, and DNA-binding protein as well as envelope
      (structural) protein. MetSV-derived spacers in CRISPR loci were detected in
      several published Methanosarcina draft genomes using bioinformatic tools,
      revealing a potential protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) motif (TTA/T).
      Transcription and expression of several predicted viral ORFs were validated by
      reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), PAGE analysis, and liquid chromatography-mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS)-based proteomics. Analysis of core lipids by atmospheric
      pressure chemical ionization (APCI) mass spectrometry showed that MetSV and
      Methanosarcina mazei both contain archaeol and glycerol dialkyl glycerol
      tetraether without a cyclopentane moiety (GDGT-0). The MetSV host range is
      limited to Methanosarcina strains growing as single cells (M. mazei,
      Methanosarcina barkeri and Methanosarcina soligelidi). In contrast, strains
      growing as sarcina-like aggregates were apparently protected from infection.
      Heterogeneity related to morphology phases in M. mazei cultures allowed
      acquisition of resistance to MetSV after challenge by growing cultures as sarcina
      like aggregates. CRISPR/Cas-mediated resistance was excluded since neither of the
      two CRISPR arrays showed MetSV-derived spacer acquisition. Based on these
      findings, we propose that changing the morphology from single cells to sarcina
      like aggregates upon rearrangement of the envelope structure prevents infection
      and subsequent lysis by MetSV.IMPORTANCE Methanoarchaea are among the most
      abundant organisms on the planet since they are present in high numbers in major
      anaerobic environments. They convert various carbon sources, e.g., acetate,
      methylamines, or methanol, to methane and carbon dioxide; thus, they have a
      significant impact on the emission of major greenhouse gases. Today, very little
      is known about viruses specifically infecting methanoarchaea that most probably
      impact the abundance of methanoarchaea in microbial consortia. Here, we
      characterize the first identified Methanosarcina-infecting virus (MetSV) and show
      a mechanism for acquiring resistance against MetSV. Based on our results, we
      propose that growth as sarcina-like aggregates prevents infection and subsequent
      lysis. These findings allow new insights into the virus-host relationship in
      methanogenic community structures, their dynamics, and their phase heterogeneity.
      Moreover, the availability of a specific virus provides new possibilities to
      deepen our knowledge of the defense mechanisms of potential hosts and offers
      tools for genetic manipulation.

PMID- 28878088
TI  - Effect of Polymorphisms at Codon 146 of the Goat PRNP Gene on Susceptibility to
      Challenge with Classical Scrapie by Different Routes.
AB  - This report presents the results of experimental challenges of goats with scrapie
      by both the intracerebral (i.c.) and oral routes, exploring the effects of
      polymorphisms at codon 146 of the goat PRNP gene on resistance to disease. The
      results of these studies illustrate that while goats of all genotypes can be
      infected by i.c. challenge, the survival distribution of the animals homozygous
      for asparagine at codon 146 was significantly shorter than those of animals of
      all other genotypes (chi-square value, 10.8; P = 0.001). In contrast, only those
      animals homozygous for asparagine at codon 146 (NN animals) succumbed to oral
      challenge. The results also indicate that any cases of infection in non-NN
      animals can be detected by the current confirmatory test (immunohistochemistry),
      although successful detection with the rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA) was more variable and dependent on the polymorphism. Together with data
      from previous studies of goats exposed to infection in the field, these data
      support the previously reported observations that polymorphisms at this codon
      have a profound effect on susceptibility to disease. It is concluded that only
      animals homozygous for asparagine at codon 146 succumb to scrapie under natural
      conditions.IMPORTANCE In goats, like in sheep, there are PRNP polymorphisms that
      are associated with susceptibility or resistance to scrapie. However, in contrast
      to the polymorphisms in sheep, they are more numerous in goats and may be
      restricted to certain breeds or geographical regions. Therefore, eradication
      programs must be specifically designed depending on the identification of
      suitable polymorphisms. An initial analysis of surveillance data suggested that
      such a polymorphism in Cypriot goats may lie in codon 146. In this study, we
      demonstrate experimentally that NN animals are highly susceptible after i.c.
      inoculation. The presence of a D or S residue prolonged incubation periods
      significantly, and prions were detected in peripheral tissues only in NN animals.
      In oral challenges, prions were detected only in NN animals, and the presence of
      a D or S residue at this position conferred resistance to the disease. This study
      provides an experimental transmission model for assessing the genetic
      susceptibility of goats to scrapie.

PMID- 28878090
TI  - Histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation is a biomarker of the effects of culture on
      zygotes.
AB  - Acetylation of histone proteins is a major determinant of chromatin structure and
      function. Fertilisation triggers a round of chromatin remodelling that prepares
      the genome for the first round of transcription from the new embryonic genome. In
      this study we confirm that fertilisation leads to a marked progressive increase
      in the level of histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation in both the paternally and
      maternally derived genomes. The culture of zygotes in simple defined media caused
      a marked increase in the global level of acetylation and this affected the male
      pronucleus more than the female. The culture created a marked asymmetry in
      staining between the two pronuclei that was not readily detected in zygotes
      collected directly from the reproductive tract and was ameliorated to some extent
      by optimized culture media. The increased acetylation caused by culture resulted
      in increased transcription of Hspa1b, a marker of embryonic genome activation.
      Pharmacological analyses showed the hyperacetylation of H3K9 and the increased
      expression of Hspa1b caused by culture were due to the altered net activity of a
      range of histone acetylases and deacetylases. The marked hyperacetylation of
      histone 3 lysine 9 caused by culture of zygotes may serve as an early biomarker
      for the effects of culture on the normal function of the embryo. The results also
      provide further evidence for an effect of the stresses associated with assisted
      reproductive technologies on the normal patterns of epigenetic reprogramming in
      the early embryo.

PMID- 28878091
TI  - Kisspeptin regulates steroidogenesis and spermiation in anuran amphibian.
AB  - Kisspeptin (Kp) system has a recognized role in the control of gonadotropic axis,
      at multiple levels. Recently, a major focus of research has been to assess any
      direct activity of this system on testis physiology. Using the amphibian anuran,
      Pelophylax esculentus, as animal model, we demonstrate - for the first time in
      non-mammalian vertebrate - that testis expresses both Kiss-1 and Gpr54 proteins
      during the annual sexual cycle and that ex vivo 17B-estradiol (E2, 10-6 M)
      increases both proteins over control group. Since the interstitium is the main
      site of localization of both ligand and receptor, its possible involvement in the
      regulation of steroidogenesis has been evaluated by ex vivo treatment of testis
      pieces with increasing doses of Kp-10 (10-9-10-6 M). Treatments have been carried
      out in February - when a new wave of spermatogenesis occurs - and affect the
      expression of key enzymes of steroidogenesis inducing opposite effects on
      testosterone and estradiol intratesticular levels. Morphological analysis of Kp
      treated testes reveals higher number of tubules with spermatozoa detached from
      Sertoli cells than control group and the expression of connexin 43, the main
      junctional protein in testis, is deeply affected by the treatment. In spite of
      the effects on spermatozoa observed ex vivo, in vivo administration of Kp-10 has
      been unable to induce sperm release in cloacal fluid. In conclusion, we
      demonstrate Kp-10 effects on steroidogenesis with possible involvement in the
      balance between testosterone and estradiol levels, and report new Kp-10
      activities on spermatozoa-Sertoli cell interaction.

PMID- 28878092
TI  - Equine fetal adrenal, gonadal and placental steroidogenesis.
AB  - Equine fetuses have substantial circulating pregnenolone concentrations and thus
      have been postulated to provide significant substrate for placental 5alpha
      reduced pregnane production, but the fetal site of pregnenolone synthesis remains
      unclear. The current studies investigated steroid concentrations in blood,
      adrenal glands, gonads and placenta from fetuses (4, 6, 9 and 10 months of
      gestational age (GA)), as well as tissue steroidogenic enzyme transcript levels.
      Pregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) were the most abundant steroids in
      fetal blood, pregnenolone was consistently higher but decreased progressively
      with GA. Tissue steroid concentrations generally paralleled those in serum with
      time. Adrenal and gonadal tissue pregnenolone concentrations were similar and 100
      fold higher than those in allantochorion. DHEA was far higher in gonads than
      adrenals and progesterone was higher in adrenals than gonads. Androstenedione
      decreased with GA in adrenals but not in gonads. Transcript analysis generally
      supported these data. CYP17A1 was higher in fetal gonads than adrenals or
      allantochorion, and HSD3B1 was higher in fetal adrenals and allantochorion than
      gonads. CYP11A1 transcript was also significantly higher in adrenals and gonads
      than allantochorion and CYP19 and SRD5A1 transcripts were higher in
      allantochorion than either fetal adrenals or gonads. Given these data, and their
      much greater size, the fetal gonads are the source of DHEA and likely contribute
      more than fetal adrenal glands to circulating fetal pregnenolone concentrations.
      Low CYP11A1 but high HSD3B1 and SRD5A1 transcript abundance in allantochorion,
      and low tissue pregnenolone, suggests that endogenous placental pregnenolone
      synthesis is low and likely contributes little to equine placental 5alpha-reduced
      pregnane secretion.

PMID- 28878089
TI  - HLA-B*14:02-Restricted Env-Specific CD8+ T-Cell Activity Has Highly Potent
      Antiviral Efficacy Associated with Immune Control of HIV Infection.
AB  - Immune control of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection is
      typically associated with effective Gag-specific CD8+ T-cell responses. We here
      focus on HLA-B*14, which protects against HIV disease progression, but the
      immunodominant HLA-B*14-restricted anti-HIV response is Env specific (ERYLKDQQL,
      HLA-B*14-EL9). A subdominant HLA-B*14-restricted response targets Gag (DRYFKTLRA,
      HLA-B*14-DA9). Using HLA-B*14/peptide-saporin-conjugated tetramers, we show that
      HLA-B*14-EL9 is substantially more potent at inhibiting viral replication than
      HLA-B*14-DA9. HLA-B*14-EL9 also has significantly higher functional avidity (P <
      0.0001) and drives stronger selection pressure on the virus than HLA-B*14-DA9.
      However, these differences were HLA-B*14 subtype specific, applying only to HLA
      B*14:02 and not to HLA-B*14:01. Furthermore, the HLA-B*14-associated protection
      against HIV disease progression is significantly greater for HLA-B*14:02 than for
      HLA-B*14:01, consistent with the superior antiviral efficacy of the HLA-B*14-EL9
      response. Thus, although Gag-specific CD8+ T-cell responses may usually have
      greater anti-HIV efficacy, factors independent of protein specificity, including
      functional avidity of individual responses, are also critically important to
      immune control of HIV.IMPORTANCE In HIV infection, although cytotoxic T
      lymphocytes (CTL) play a potentially critical role in eradication of viral
      reservoirs, the features that constitute an effective response remain poorly
      defined. We focus on HLA-B*14, unique among HLAs associated with control of HIV
      in that the dominant CTL response is Env specific, not Gag specific. We
      demonstrate that Env-specific HLA-B*14-restricted activity is substantially more
      efficacious than the subdominant HLA-B*14-restricted Gag response. Env
      immunodominance over Gag and strong Env-mediated selection pressure on HIV are
      observed only in subjects expressing HLA-B*14:02, and not HLA-B*14:01. This
      reflects the increased functional avidity of the Env response over Gag,
      substantially more marked for HLA-B*14:02. Finally, we show that HLA-B*14:02 is
      significantly more strongly associated with viremic control than HLA-B*14:01.
      These findings indicate that, although Gag-specific CTL may usually have greater
      anti-HIV efficacy than Env responses, factors independent of protein specificity,
      including functional avidity, may carry greater weight in mediating effective
      control of HIV.

PMID- 28878093
TI  - Implications of microRNA dysregulation in the development of prostate cancer.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNAs that target mRNA to reduce protein
      expression. They play fundamental roles in several diseases, including prostate
      cancer (PCa). A single miRNA can target hundreds of mRNAs and coordinately
      regulate them, which implicates them in nearly every biological pathway. Hence,
      miRNAs modulate proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, adhesion, migration,
      invasion and metastasis, most of them constituting crucial hallmarks of cancer.
      Due to these properties, miRNAs emerged as promising tools for diagnostic,
      prognosis and management of cancer patients. Moreover, they come out as potential
      targets for cancer treatment, and several efforts are being made to progress in
      the field of miRNA-based cancer therapy. In this review, we will summarize the
      recent information about miRNAs in PCa. We will recapitulate all the miRNAs
      involved in the androgen pathway and the biology of PCa, focusing in PCa
      initiation and progression. In particular, we will describe the miRNAs associated
      with cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis in PCa, as well as invasion,
      adhesion and metastatic miRNAs. We will revise the recent progress made
      understanding the role of circulating miRNAs identified in PCa that might be
      useful for PCa patient stratification. Another key aspect to be discussed in this
      review is miRNAs' role in PCa therapy, including the miRNAs delivery.

PMID- 28878095
TI  - Celebrating Peer Review Week 2017: Transparency in the Review Process.

PMID- 28878096
TI  - Effects of Astroglia on Motor Neurons in Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

PMID- 28878094
TI  - Male genital tract immune response against Chlamydia trachomatis infection.
AB  - Chlamydia trachomatis is the most commonly reported agent of sexually transmitted
      bacterial infections worldwide. This pathogen frequently leads to persistent,
      long-term, subclinical infections, which in turn may cause severe pathology in
      susceptible hosts. This is in part due to the strategies that Chlamydia
      trachomatis uses to survive within epithelial cells and to evade the host immune
      response, such as subverting intracellular trafficking, interfering signaling
      pathways and preventing apoptosis. Innate immune receptors such as toll-like
      receptors expressed on epithelial and immune cells in the genital tract mediate
      the recognition of chlamydial molecular patterns. After bacterial recognition, a
      subset of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines are continuously released by
      epithelial cells. The innate immune response is followed by the initiation of the
      adaptive response against Chlamydia trachomatis, which in turn may result in T
      helper 1-mediated protection or in T helper 2-mediated immunopathology.
      Understanding the molecular mechanisms developed by Chlamydia trachomatis to
      avoid killing and host immune response would be crucial for designing new
      therapeutic approaches and developing protective vaccines. In this review, we
      focus on chlamydial survival strategies and the elicited immune responses in male
      genital tract infections.

PMID- 28878097
TI  - Laughter as a Neurochemical Mechanism Aimed at Reinforcing Social Bonds:
      Integrating Evidence from Opioidergic Activity and Brain Stimulation.

PMID- 28878099
TI  - Distal Cuff Occlusion: A Novel, Simple Approach for Distal Embolic Protection in
      Peripheral Vascular Intervention.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, and safety of the cuff-occlusion
      method for distal embolic protection in peripheral artery disease. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We evaluated 61 patients who underwent peripheral vascular intervention
      (PVI) for infrainguinal lesion at a single center where a blood pressure cuff
      occlusion method for distal embolic protection was utilized during the procedure.
      Primary endpoint included incidence of distal embolization, acute limb ischemia,
      or emergency limb amputation. Safety endpoints were freedom from bleeding, vessel
      perforation, or dissection. Lesion location was in the superficial femoral artery
      in 39% of cases and popliteal and infrapopliteal in 61% of patients. Procedural
      success was achieved in 98.4% of patients and 1 patient had distal embolization.
      There was no bleeding or perforation or major flow-limiting vessel dissection.
      CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that the cuff-occlusion strategy was feasible
      and safe for protection form distal embolization in PVI. Further study is
      required to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this novel method compared with
      existing devices for distal protection.

PMID- 28878098
TI  - Loss of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 8 Alters Synapse Composition and
      Function, Resulting in Behavioral Defects.
AB  - Diverse molecular mechanisms regulate synaptic composition and function in the
      mammalian nervous system. The multifunctional protein arginine methyltransferase
      8 (PRMT8) possesses both methyltransferase and phospholipase activities. Here we
      examine the role of this neuron-specific protein in hippocampal plasticity and
      cognitive function. PRMT8 protein localizes to synaptic sites, and conditional
      whole-brain Prmt8 deletion results in altered levels of multiple synaptic
      proteins in the hippocampus, using both male and female mice. Interestingly,
      these altered protein levels are due to post-transcriptional mechanisms as the
      corresponding mRNA levels are unaffected. Strikingly, electrophysiological
      recordings from hippocampal slices of mice lacking PRMT8 reveal multiple defects
      in excitatory synaptic function and plasticity. Furthermore, behavioral analyses
      show that PRMT8 conditional knock-out mice exhibit impaired hippocampal-dependent
      fear learning. Together, these findings establish PRMT8 as an important component
      of the molecular machinery required for hippocampal neuronal
      function.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Numerous molecular processes are critically
      required for normal brain function. Here we use mice lacking protein arginine
      methyltransferase 8 (PRMT8) in the brain to examine how loss of this protein
      affects the structure and function of neurons in the hippocampus. We find that
      PRMT8 localizes to the sites of communication between neurons. Hippocampal
      neurons from mice lacking PRMT8 have no detectable structural differences
      compared with controls; however, multiple aspects of their function are altered.
      Consistently, we find that mice lacking PRMT8 also exhibit reduced hippocampus
      dependent memory. Together, our findings establish important roles for PRMT8 in
      regulating neuron function and cognition in the mammalian brain.

PMID- 28878100
TI  - A Time to Act and a Time to Watch: Severe Guide-Catheter Induced Proximal
      Coronary Dissection With Extensive Ascending Aorta and Arch Dissection, Managed
      by Immediate Coronary Stenting and Watchful Waiting.
AB  - In this case, prompt stenting of the dissection entry flap allowed for
      stabilization and eventual healing of a severe catheter-induced aortic
      dissection, without resort to surgical intervention.

PMID- 28878101
TI  - Percutaneous Closure of Two Acquired Aorto-Right Ventricular Fistulae Following
      Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Surgery.
AB  - The present case illustrates the successful transcatheter closure of an unusual
      double aortic root-to-right ventricular outflow tract fistula utilizing two
      Amplatzer duct occluders II.

PMID- 28878102
TI  - Coronary Intervention Complicated by Pressure Wires Caught Within Stent Struts.
AB  - Coronary guidewire fracture or entrapment is a recognized complication of
      percutaneous coronary intervention that can result in abrupt vessel closure,
      thrombosis, or stent deformation. Developments in pressure-wire (PW) design have
      enabled their use for coronary intervention. We describe two cases where the
      pressure sensor became trapped against stent struts during PW removal.

PMID- 28878103
TI  - Multimodality Imaging of Anomalous Origin of Right Coronary Artery From Pulmonary
      Artery (ARCAPA).
AB  - Computed tomography angiogram confirmed the anomalous right coronary artery from
      pulmonary artery (ARCAPA) in a patient who presented with altered mental status
      and hypoxia due to opiate drug abuse. ARCAPA is exceedingly rare, with reported
      incidence of 0.002% in the literature. We present clinical images and describe
      the case management.

PMID- 28878104
TI  - Treatment of Severe Native Left Pulmonary Artery Stenosis With Coronary Stent
      Implantation in a 2.4 kg Neonate.
AB  - A 1-month-old, 2.4 kg infant, previously born at 32 weeks gestation, was found to
      have a murmur while in the neonatal intensive care unit. The patient had ongoing
      feeding intolerance and required supplemental oxygen via nasal cannula. Cardiac
      computed tomography showed discrete stenosis of the proximal left pulmonary
      artery (LPA) with a normal-sized distal LPA. We describe the treatment course
      with transcatheter coronary stent implantation.

PMID- 28878105
TI  - Percutaneous Balloon Dilation of Discrete Subaortic Stenosis: A Futile Exercise.
AB  - Discrete subaortic stenosis (DSS) is a progressive obstruction of left
      ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) resulting in the development of aortic
      regurgitation in its natural course. Hence, early intervention is recommended.
      Percutaneous balloon dilation of DSS has been reported and can substantially
      reduce LVOT pressure gradient. The response to balloon dilation of DSS is
      transient and may complicate with chordal or papillary muscle rupture. Hence,
      balloon dilation of DSS should be discouraged.

PMID- 28878106
TI  - A Statistical Study of Serum Cholesterol Level by Gender and Race.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cholesterol level (CL) is growing concerned as health issue in human
      health since it is considered one of the causes in heart diseases. A study of
      cholesterol level can provide insight about its nature and characteristics. STUDY
      DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey (NHANS) II was conducted on a probability sample of
      approximately 28,000 persons in the USA and cholesterol level is obtained from
      laboratory results. Samples were selected so that certain population groups
      thought to be at high risk of malnutrition. Study included 11,864 persons for CL
      cases with 9,602 males and 2,262 females with races: whites, blacks, and others.
      Non-parametric statistical tests and goodness of fit test have been used to
      identify probability distributions. RESULTS: The study concludes that the
      cholesterol level exhibits significant racial and gender differences in terms of
      probability distributions. The study has concluded that white people are
      relatively higher at risk than black people to have risk line and high risk
      cholesterol. The study clearly indicates that black males normally have higher
      cholesterol. Females have lower variation in cholesterol than males. CONCLUSIONS:
      There exists gender and racial discrepancies in cholesterol which has been
      identified as lognormal and gamma probability distributions. White individuals
      seem to be at a higher risk of having high risk cholesterol level than blacks.
      Females tend to have higher variation in cholesterol level than males.

PMID- 28878107
TI  - Predicting Factors for Retailers' Sale of Cigarettes to Adolescents in the Lower
      Part of Northern Region of Thailand.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thailand is one of the members of WHO FCTC and has paid so much
      attention to preventing adolescents' access to tobacco. However, Thai adolescents
      still have access to tobacco with ease. The aim of this research was to
      investigate the predicting factors for the cigarettes sale to adolescents by the
      retailers in Thailand. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: This cross
      sectional survey was conducted after a careful desk review of the relevant
      literature. Multistage random sampling technique was used to sample the survey
      participants (n = 675) who were retailers of tobacco in the lower northern region
      of Thailand. Data were collected by validated questionnaires and analyzed by
      descriptive analytic, chi-square test and binary logistic regression. RESULTS:
      More than half (58.7%) of the participants sell cigarettes to adolescents.
      Factors such as open display of cigarette at the point of sale, selling
      cigarettes in sticks, selling cigarettes by self-service, and reluctant disregard
      of buyers' age by the seller significantly correlated with and predicted, at 95%
      level of confidence, the behavior of retailers selling cigarettes to adolescents.
      CONCLUSIONS: Thai adolescent's access to tobacco continues to be a serious public
      health problem. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Health and other relevant
      stakeholders saddled with the responsibility of interventions to scale up
      measures that would reinforce the law of Tobacco Control Act.

PMID- 28878108
TI  - Influence Factors on Birth Spacing and Childbearing Rates using Survival
      Recurrent Events Model and Parity Progression Ratios.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reproduction rates are declining in Hamadan, western Iran. This study
      identified the influence factors associated with reproduction rate and birth
      spacing in Hamadan as an area of low population growth in Iran. STUDY DESIGN: A
      cross sectional study. METHODS: The study considered reproductive status of 812
      women referred to health care centers of Hamadan, western Iran in 2015. Data were
      obtained through frequency and percentage. PWP-GT model was used to determine the
      influence factors on women's reproductive by R software (version 3.3.2). The
      parity progression ratios were determined based on Yadava and Kumar. RESULTS: The
      median time for the second, the third and the fourth birth was 4.53, 4.65 and
      5.27 yr, respectively. PWP-GT model showed that women age at marriage (P=0.001),
      women's (P=0.005) and their husband's (P=0.039) employment had significant effect
      on time birth of first child. The women's education (P=0.001) was the only
      variable that had a significant effect on the birth time from the first to the
      second child as well as from the third to the fourth child. Education of women
      (P=0.001) and their husbands (P=0.034) had significant effect on the time
      interval from the second to the third child. The birth probability from marriage
      to the first birth (0 to 1st child) was high (0.91), while the probability had
      been fallen from the third birth and more (0.31). CONCLUSIONS: Birth spacing in
      Hamadan is more than WHO recommended. In addition, reducing of the population
      growth and childbearing has started in the past few decades in Hamadan the same
      as Iran. The chance of fertility has dramatically declined from the third child
      and then.

PMID- 28878109
TI  - Socioeconomic Inequality in Childhood Obesity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the socioeconomic inequalities in
      obesity and overweight in children aged 10 to 12 yr old. STUDY DESIGN: A cross
      sectional study. METHODS: This study was conducted on 2506 children aged 10 to 12
      yr old in the city of Sanandaj, western Iran in 2015. Body mass index (BMI) was
      calculated. Considering household situation and assets, socioeconomic status
      (SES) of the subjects was determined using Principal Component Analysis (PCA).
      Concentration Index was used to measure inequality and Oaxaca decomposition was
      used to determine the share of different determinants of inequality. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of overweight was 24.1% (95% CI: 22.4, 25.7). 11.5% (95% CI: 10.0,
      12.0) were obese. The concentration index for overweight and obesity,
      respectively, was 0.10 (95% CI: 0.05, 0.15), and 0.07 (95% CI:0.00, 0.14) which
      indicated inequality and a higher prevalence of obesity and overweight in higher
      SES. The results of Oaxaca decomposition suggested that socioeconomic factors
      accounted for 75.8% of existing inequalities. Residential area and mother
      education were the most important causes of inequality. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce
      inequalities in childhood obesity, mother education must be promoted and special
      attention must be paid to residential areas and children gender.

PMID- 28878110
TI  - Estimation of Intravenous Drug Users' Population in Kermanshah City, West of Iran
      in 2016 using Capture-recapture Method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drug abuse, particularly intravenous drug use, is one of the most
      common challenges in human communities so that its negative impact on economic
      and cultural conditions of society and physical as well as mental health of
      individuals is evident. We aimed to estimate the IDUs' population in Kermanshah
      City, West of Iran using Capture-recapture method. STUDY DESIGN: A Cross
      sectional study. METHODS: The data in this study were collected from three
      different sources: Drop in Centers (DICs), Out Reach Teams (ORTs) and Methadone
      Maintenance Treatment centers (MMTs) in Kermanshah City from Mar 2015 until Mar
      2016, and then indirect Capture-recapture was used to estimate the IDUs'
      population. RESULTS: The number of IDUs registered in DICs, ORTs, and MMTs were
      694, 731, and 156 cases, respectively. Having determined the commonalities and
      removing duplicates, the number of drug users registered were 1,375 cases, after
      analysis of data, the number of drug users not registered in any center was
      estimated as 2,042 (95% CI: 1708, 2444). By counting 1,375 cases recorded in
      these sources, the total number of injection drug users in the Kermanshah City
      was about 3,417 people, (95% CI: (3083, 3819). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      IDUs in Kermanshah City is high, which could cause severe economic and social
      problems in the society. To reduce the negative effects of drug use, awareness
      and measuring of the drug users population, seem to be necessary overtime.

PMID- 28878111
TI  - Reasons for Inconsistent Condom Use Found as Answers to a Multiple Response
      Question: A National Survey of Iranian Adults, 2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of condoms is important for preventing Sexually Transmitted
      Infections (STIs). However, the prevalence of condom use is not satisfactory. The
      aim of this study was to assess the reasons for inconsistent condom use in
      Iranian adults. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Data were gathered
      through multi-stage sampling. Participants were enrolled from 13 provinces in
      Iran aged between 19 and 29 years. They had ever-extramarital sex and did not use
      condoms regularly in their sexual contacts, asked the reasons for inconsistent
      condom use. RESULTS: We had 3,246 adults, from which 635 (19.5%) had ever
      extramarital sex. Among them, 495 (77.96%) did not use condoms with regularity.
      The reason frequently chosen for inconsistent condom use was 'that it is not
      accessible' (49.3%). The differences between the categories of some variables,
      according to the choice of reasons for inconsistent condom use, were significant
      (P<0.05): age, gender, knowledge of HIV, attitude towards HIV, knowing infected
      HIV person and alcohol or stimulant(s) used before sexual contact. According to
      multivariate multilevel logistic, the effect of gender was significant on most of
      reasons for inconsistent condom use (P <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Most of the reasons
      that were selected for inconsistent condom use were inaccessibility and not
      knowing that its use is essential. Hence, it is important to improve the
      knowledge of adults regarding STI/HIV and extend the locations of condom
      distribution. We should try to promote the culture of condom use as a routine.

PMID- 28878112
TI  - Artificial Neural Network to Modeling Zero-inflated Count Data: Application to
      Predicting Number of Return to Blood Donation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traditional statistical models often are based on certain
      presuppositions and limitations that may not presence in actual data and lead to
      turbulence in estimation or prediction. In these situations, artificial neural
      networks (ANNs) could be suitable alternative rather than classical statistical
      methods. STUDY DESIGN:  A prospective cohort study. METHODS: The study was
      conducted in Shahrekord Blood Transfusion Center, Shahrekord, central Iran, on
      blood donors from 2008-2009. The accuracy of the proposed model to prediction of
      number of return to blood donations was compared with classical statistical
      models. A number of 864 donors who had a first-time successful donation were
      followed for five years. Number of return for blood donation was considered as
      response variable. Poisson regression (PR), negative binomial regression (NBR),
      zero-inflated Poisson regression (ZIPR) and zero-inflated negative binomial
      regression (ZINBR) as well as ANN model were fitted to data. MSE criterion was
      used to compare models. To fitting the models, STATISTICA 10 and, R 3.2.2 was
      used RESULTS: The MSE of PR, NBR, ZIPR, ZINBR and ANN models was obtained 2.71,
      1.01, 1.54, 0.094 and 0.056 for the training and 4.05, 9.89, 3.99, 2.53 and 0.27
      for the test data, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The ANN model had the least MSE in
      both training, and test data set and has a better performance than classic
      models. ANN could be a suitable alternative for modeling such data because of
      fewer restrictions.

PMID- 28878113
TI  - Documentation of Measles Elimination in Iran: Evidences from 2012 to 2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Documentation of achieving the goal of measles elimination to justify
      to international organizations including the WHO is a priority for public health
      authorities. This study aimed to address the status of Iran in the achievement of
      the measles elimination goal from 2012-2014. STUDY DESIGN: A descriptive study
      METHODS: Data on the measles outbreaks were extracted from the national
      notifiable measles surveillance system in Iran from 2012 to 2014. The required
      documents regarding the achievement of measles elimination, including Effective
      Reproduction Number (R) and the distribution of outbreak size, was addressed. The
      R was calculated using the proportion of imported cases as 1 - P, where P is
      equal to the proportion of cases that were imported. The distribution of the
      measles outbreaks size was described using descriptive statistics to show their
      magnitudes. The proportion of large outbreaks with more than 10 cases was
      considered as a proxy of the R value. RESULTS: The total number of measles cases
      was 232 cases (including 186 outbreak related cases) in 2012 and 142 cases in
      2014, including108 outbreak related cases. The distribution of the measles
      outbreak size of occurred outbreaks from that period indicated that there were 37
      outbreaks with three or more than three cases. The R value in 2012 was 0.87 and
      the corresponding value for 2014 was 0.76. CONCLUSIONS: According to the
      magnitude of effective reproduction number and distribution of outbreaks' size,
      measles has been eliminated in Iran. However, it is necessary to consider the
      potential endemic activity of measles because of no authorized immigration.

PMID- 28878114
TI  - Strategies to Reduce HIV Transmission amongst Prisoners; Lessons Learned From
      Iran.
AB  - .

PMID- 28878115
TI  - IL-23R-activated STAT3/STAT4 is essential for Th1/Th17-mediated CNS autoimmunity.
AB  - The factors that promote the differentiation of pathogenic T cells in autoimmune
      diseases are poorly defined. Use of genetically modified mice has provided
      insight into molecules necessary for the development of autoimmunity, but the sum
      of the data has led to contradictory observations based on what is currently
      known about specific molecules in specific signaling pathways. To define the
      minimum signals required for development of encephalitogenic T cells that cause
      CNS autoimmunity, myelin-specific T cells were differentiated with various
      cytokine cocktails, and pathogenicity was determined by transfer into mice. IL
      6+IL-23 or IL-12+IL-23 generated encephalitogenic T cells and recapitulated the
      essential cytokine signals provided by antigen-presenting cells, and both IL-6
      and IL-12 induced IL-23 receptor expression on both mouse and human naive T
      cells. IL-23 signaled through both STAT3 and STAT4, and disruption in STAT4
      signaling impaired CNS autoimmunity independent of IL-12. These data explain why
      IL-12-deficient mice develop CNS autoimmunity, while STAT4-deficient mice are
      resistant. CD4+ memory T cells from multiple sclerosis patients had significantly
      higher levels of p-STAT3/p-STAT4, and p-STAT3/p-STAT4 heterodimers were observed
      upon IL-23 signaling, suggesting that p-STAT3/p-STAT4 induced by IL-23 signaling
      orchestrate the generation of pathogenic T cells in CNS autoimmunity, regardless
      of Th1 or Th17 phenotype.

PMID- 28878116
TI  - Inhibition of NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2) prevents sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy by
      improving calcium handling and mitochondrial function.
AB  - Cardiomyopathy frequently complicates sepsis and is associated with increased
      mortality. Increased cardiac oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction have
      been observed during sepsis, but the mechanisms responsible for these
      abnormalities have not been determined. We hypothesized that NADPH oxidase 2
      (NOX2) activation could be responsible for sepsis-induced oxidative stress and
      cardiomyopathy. Treatment of isolated adult mouse cardiomyocytes with low
      concentrations of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increased total cellular
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial superoxide. Elevated
      mitochondrial superoxide was accompanied by depolarization of the mitochondrial
      inner membrane potential, an indication of mitochondrial dysfunction, and
      mitochondrial calcium overload. NOX2 inhibition decreased LPS-induced superoxide
      and prevented mitochondrial dysfunction. Further, cardiomyocytes from mice with
      genetic ablation of NOX2 did not have LPS-induced superoxide or mitochondrial
      dysfunction. LPS decreased contractility and calcium transient amplitude in
      isolated cardiomyocytes, and these abnormalities were prevented by inhibition of
      NOX2. LPS decreased systolic function in mice, measured by echocardiography. NOX2
      inhibition was cardioprotective in 2 mouse models of sepsis, preserving systolic
      function after LPS injection or cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). These data
      show that inhibition of NOX2 decreases oxidative stress, preserves intracellular
      calcium handling and mitochondrial function, and alleviates sepsis-induced
      systolic dysfunction in vivo. Thus, NOX2 is a potential target for
      pharmacotherapy of sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28878117
TI  - Tead1 is required for maintaining adult cardiomyocyte function, and its loss
      results in lethal dilated cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, highlighting a
      pressing need to identify novel regulators of cardiomyocyte (CM) function that
      could be therapeutically targeted. The mammalian Hippo/Tead pathway is critical
      in embryonic cardiac development and perinatal CM proliferation. However, the
      requirement of Tead1, the transcriptional effector of this pathway, in the adult
      heart is unknown. Here, we show that tamoxifen-inducible adult CM-specific Tead1
      ablation led to lethal acute-onset dilated cardiomyopathy, associated with
      impairment in excitation-contraction coupling. Mechanistically, we demonstrate
      Tead1 is a cell-autonomous, direct transcriptional activator of SERCA2a and SR
      associated protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit, Inhibitor-1 (I-1). Thus,
      Tead1 deletion led to a decrease in SERCA2a and I-1 transcripts and protein, with
      a consequent increase in PP1-activity, resulting in accumulation of
      dephosphorylated phospholamban (Pln) and decreased SERCA2a activity. Global
      transcriptomal analysis in Tead1-deleted hearts revealed significant changes in
      mitochondrial and sarcomere-related pathways. Additional studies demonstrated
      there was a trend for correlation between protein levels of TEAD1 and I-1, and
      phosphorylation of PLN, in human nonfailing and failing hearts. Furthermore,
      TEAD1 activity was required to maintain PLN phosphorylation and expression of
      SERCA2a and I-1 in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived (iPS-derived) CMs.
      To our knowledge, taken together, this demonstrates a nonredundant, novel role of
      Tead1 in maintaining normal adult heart function.

PMID- 28878118
TI  - Podoplanin is a negative regulator of Th17 inflammation.
AB  - Recent data indicate that there are different subpopulations of Th17 cells that
      can express a regulatory as opposed to an inflammatory gene signature. The
      transmembrane glycoprotein PDPN is critical in the development of multiple organs
      including the lymphatic system and has been described on T cells in mouse models
      of autoimmune Th17 inflammation. Here, we demonstrate that unlike in mice, PDPN+
      T cells induced under classic Th17-polarizing conditions express transcription
      factors associated with Th17 cells but do not produce IL-17. Moreover, these
      cells express a transcriptional profile enriched for immunosuppressive and
      regulatory pathways and express a distinct cytokine profile compared with
      potentially pathogenic PDPN- Th17 cells. Ligation of PDPN by its ligand CLEC-2
      ameliorates the Th17 inflammatory response. IL-17 secretion is restored with
      shRNA gene silencing of PDPN. Furthermore, PDPN expression is reduced via an Sgk1
      mediated pathway under proinflammatory, high sodium chloride conditions. Finally,
      CD3+PDPN+ T cells are devoid of IL-17 in skin biopsies from patients with
      candidiasis, a prototypical Th17-driven skin disease. Thus, our data support the
      hypothesis that PDPN may serve as a marker of a nonpathogenic Th17 cell subset
      and may also functionally regulate pathogenic Th17 inflammation.

PMID- 28878119
TI  - Pharmacologic HIV-1 Nef blockade promotes CD8 T cell-mediated elimination of
      latently HIV-1-infected cells in vitro.
AB  - Eradication of the HIV-1 latent reservoir represents the current paradigm to
      developing a cure for AIDS. HIV-1 has evolved multiple mechanisms to evade CD8 T
      cell responses, including HIV-1 Nef-mediated downregulation of MHC-I from the
      surface of infected cells. Nef transcripts and protein are detectable in samples
      from aviremic donors, suggesting that Nef expression in latently HIV-1-infected
      CD4 T cells protects them from immune-mediated clearance. Here, we tested 4 small
      molecule inhibitors of HIV-1 Nef in an in vitro primary CD4 T cell latency model
      and measured the ability of autologous ex vivo or HIV-1 peptide-expanded CD8 T
      cells to recognize and kill latently infected cells as a function of inhibitor
      treatment. Nef inhibition enhanced cytokine secretion by autologous CD8 T cells
      against latently HIV-1-infected targets in an IFN-gamma release assay.
      Additionally, CD8 T cell-mediated elimination of latently HIV-1-infected cells
      was significantly enhanced following Nef blockade, measured as a reduction in the
      frequency of infected cells and Gag protein in cultures following viral outgrowth
      assays. We demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge that Nef blockade, in
      combination with HIV-specific CD8 T cell expansion, might be a feasible strategy
      to target the HIV-1 latent reservoir that should be tested further in vivo.

PMID- 28878121
TI  - A TCRalpha framework-centered codon shapes a biased T cell repertoire through
      direct MHC and CDR3beta interactions.
AB  - Selection of biased T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires across individuals is seen
      in both infectious diseases and autoimmunity, but the underlying molecular basis
      leading to these shared repertoires remains unclear. Celiac disease (CD) occurs
      primarily in HLA-DQ2.5+ individuals and is characterized by a CD4+ T cell
      response against gluten epitopes dominated by DQ2.5-glia-alpha1a and DQ2.5-glia
      alpha2. The DQ2.5-glia-alpha2 response recruits a highly biased TCR repertoire
      composed of TRAV26-1 paired with TRBV7-2 harboring a semipublic CDR3beta loop. We
      aimed to unravel the molecular basis for this signature. By variable gene segment
      exchange, directed mutagenesis, and cellular T cell activation studies, we found
      that TRBV7-3 can substitute for TRBV7-2, as both can contain the canonical
      CDR3beta loop. Furthermore, we identified a pivotal germline-encoded MHC
      recognition motif centered on framework residue Y40 in TRAV26-1 engaging both
      DQB1*02 and the canonical CDR3beta. This allowed prediction of expanded DQ2.5
      glia-alpha2-reactive TCR repertoires, which were confirmed by single-cell sorting
      and TCR sequencing from CD patient samples. Our data refine our understanding of
      how HLA-dependent biased TCR repertoires are selected in the periphery due to
      germline-encoded residues.

PMID- 28878120
TI  - Mdm2 regulates cardiac contractility by inhibiting GRK2-mediated desensitization
      of beta-adrenergic receptor signaling.
AB  - The oncoprotein Mdm2 is a RING domain-containing E3 ubiquitin ligase that
      ubiquitinates G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) and beta-arrestin2,
      thereby regulating beta-adrenergic receptor (betaAR) signaling and endocytosis.
      Previous studies showed that cardiac Mdm2 expression is critical for controlling
      p53-dependent apoptosis during early embryonic development, but the role of Mdm2
      in the developed adult heart is unknown. We aimed to identify if Mdm2 affects
      betaAR signaling and cardiac function in adult mice. Using Mdm2/p53-KO mice,
      which survive for 9-12 months, we identified a critical and potentially novel
      role for Mdm2 in the adult mouse heart through its regulation of cardiac beta1AR
      signaling. While baseline cardiac function was mostly similar in both Mdm2/p53-KO
      and wild-type (WT) mice, isoproterenol-induced cardiac contractility in Mdm2/p53
      KO was significantly blunted compared with WT mice. Isoproterenol increased cAMP
      in left ventricles of WT but not of Mdm2/p53-KO mice. Additionally, while basal
      and forskolin-induced calcium handling in isolated Mdm2/p53-KO and WT
      cardiomyocytes were equivalent, isoproterenol-induced calcium handling in
      Mdm2/p53-KO was impaired. Mdm2/p53-KO hearts expressed 2-fold more GRK2 than WT.
      GRK2 polyubiquitination via lysine-48 linkages was significantly reduced in
      Mdm2/p53-KO hearts. Tamoxifen-inducible cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of Mdm2
      in adult mice also led to a significant increase in GRK2, and resulted in
      severely impaired cardiac function, high mortality, and no detectable betaAR
      responsiveness. Gene delivery of either Mdm2 or GRK2-CT in vivo using adeno
      associated virus 9 (AAV9) effectively rescued beta1AR-induced cardiac
      contractility in Mdm2/p53-KO. These findings reveal a critical p53-independent
      physiological role of Mdm2 in adult hearts, namely, regulation of GRK2-mediated
      desensitization of betaAR signaling.

PMID- 28878122
TI  - Wnt11 regulates cardiac chamber development and disease during perinatal
      maturation.
AB  - Ventricular chamber growth and development during perinatal circulatory
      transition is critical for functional adaptation of the heart. However, the
      chamber-specific programs of neonatal heart growth are poorly understood. We used
      integrated systems genomic and functional biology analyses of the perinatal
      chamber specific transcriptome and we identified Wnt11 as a prominent regulator
      of chamber-specific proliferation. Importantly, downregulation of Wnt11
      expression was associated with cyanotic congenital heart defect (CHD) phenotypes
      and correlated with O2 saturation levels in hypoxemic infants with Tetralogy of
      Fallot (TOF). Perinatal hypoxia treatment in mice suppressed Wnt11 expression and
      induced myocyte proliferation more robustly in the right ventricle, modulating
      Rb1 protein activity. Wnt11 inactivation was sufficient to induce myocyte
      proliferation in perinatal mouse hearts and reduced Rb1 protein and
      phosphorylation in neonatal cardiomyocytes. Finally, downregulated Wnt11 in
      hypoxemic TOF infantile hearts was associated with Rb1 suppression and induction
      of proliferation markers. This study revealed a previously uncharacterized
      function of Wnt11-mediated signaling as an important player in programming the
      chamber-specific growth of the neonatal heart. This function influences the
      chamber-specific development and pathogenesis in response to hypoxia and cyanotic
      CHDs. Defining the underlying regulatory mechanism may yield chamber-specific
      therapies for infants born with CHDs.

PMID- 28878123
TI  - The R213G polymorphism in SOD3 protects against allergic airway inflammation.
AB  - Oxidative stress is important in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma.
      Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD; SOD3) is the major antioxidant in
      lungs, but its role in allergic asthma is unknown. Here we report that asthmatics
      have increased SOD3 transcript levels in sputum and that a single nucleotide
      polymorphism (SNP) in SOD3 (R213G; rs1799895) changes lung distribution of EC
      SOD, and decreases likelihood of asthma-related symptoms. Knockin mice analogous
      to the human R213G SNP had lower airway hyperresponsiveness, inflammation, and
      mucus hypersecretion with decreased interleukin-33 (IL-33) in bronchoalveolar
      lavage fluid and reduced type II innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in lungs. SOD
      mimetic (Mn (III) tetrakis (N-ethylpyridinium-2-yl) porphyrin) attenuated
      Alternaria-induced expression of IL-33 and IL-8 release in BEAS-2B cells. These
      results suggest that R213G SNP potentially benefits its carriers by resulting in
      high EC-SOD in airway-lining fluid, which ameliorates allergic airway
      inflammation by dampening the innate immune response, including IL-33/ST2
      mediated changes in ILC2s.

PMID- 28878124
TI  - Reversal of pathological cardiac hypertrophy via the MEF2-coregulator interface.
AB  - Cardiac hypertrophy, as a response to hemodynamic stress, is associated with
      cardiac dysfunction and death, but whether hypertrophy itself represents a
      pathological process remains unclear. Hypertrophy is driven by changes in
      myocardial gene expression that require the MEF2 family of DNA-binding
      transcription factors, as well as the nuclear lysine acetyltransferase p300. Here
      we used genetic and small-molecule probes to determine the effects of preventing
      MEF2 acetylation on cardiac adaptation to stress. Both nonacetylatable MEF2
      mutants and 8MI, a molecule designed to interfere with MEF2-coregulator binding,
      prevented hypertrophy in cultured cardiac myocytes. 8MI prevented cardiac
      hypertrophy in 3 distinct stress models, and reversed established hypertrophy in
      vivo, associated with normalization of myocardial structure and function. The
      effects of 8MI were reversible, and did not prevent training effects of swimming.
      Mechanistically, 8MI blocked stress-induced MEF2 acetylation, nuclear export of
      class II histone deacetylases HDAC4 and -5, and p300 induction, without impeding
      HDAC4 phosphorylation. Correspondingly, 8MI transformed the transcriptional
      response to pressure overload, normalizing almost all 232 genes dysregulated by
      hemodynamic stress. We conclude that MEF2 acetylation is required for development
      and maintenance of pathological cardiac hypertrophy, and that blocking MEF2
      acetylation can permit recovery from hypertrophy without impairing physiologic
      adaptation.

PMID- 28878125
TI  - Human hepatic organoids for the analysis of human genetic diseases.
AB  - We developed an in vitro model system where induced pluripotent stem cells
      (iPSCs) differentiate into 3-dimensional human hepatic organoids (HOs) through
      stages that resemble human liver during its embryonic development. The HOs
      consist of hepatocytes, and cholangiocytes, which are organized into epithelia
      that surround the lumina of bile duct-like structures. The organoids provide a
      potentially new model for liver regenerative processes, and were used to
      characterize the effect of different JAG1 mutations that cause: (a) Alagille
      syndrome (ALGS), a genetic disorder where NOTCH signaling pathway mutations
      impair bile duct formation, which has substantial variability in its associated
      clinical features; and (b) Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), which is the most common
      form of a complex congenital heart disease, and is associated with several
      different heritable disorders. Our results demonstrate how an iPSC-based organoid
      system can be used with genome editing technologies to characterize the
      pathogenetic effect of human genetic disease-causing mutations.

PMID- 28878126
TI  - Endothelium-derived extracellular vesicles promote splenic monocyte mobilization
      in myocardial infarction.
AB  - Transcriptionally activated monocytes are recruited to the heart after acute
      myocardial infarction (AMI). After AMI in mice and humans, the number of
      extracellular vesicles (EVs) increased acutely. In humans, EV number correlated
      closely with the extent of myocardial injury. We hypothesized that EVs mediate
      splenic monocyte mobilization and program transcription following AMI. Some
      plasma EVs bear endothelial cell (EC) integrins, and both proinflammatory
      stimulation of ECs and AMI significantly increased VCAM-1-positive EV release.
      Injected EC-EVs localized to the spleen and interacted with, and mobilized,
      splenic monocytes in otherwise naive, healthy animals. Analysis of human plasma
      EV-associated miRNA showed 12 markedly enriched miRNAs after AMI; functional
      enrichment analyses identified 1,869 putative mRNA targets, which regulate
      relevant cellular functions (e.g., proliferation and cell movement). Furthermore,
      gene ontology termed positive chemotaxis as the most enriched pathway for the
      miRNA-mRNA targets. Among the identified EV miRNAs, EC-associated miRNA-126-3p
      and -5p were highly regulated after AMI. miRNA-126-3p and -5p regulate cell
      adhesion- and chemotaxis-associated genes, including the negative regulator of
      cell motility, plexin-B2. EC-EV exposure significantly downregulated plexin-B2
      mRNA in monocytes and upregulated motility integrin ITGB2. These findings
      identify EVs as a possible novel signaling pathway by linking ischemic myocardium
      with monocyte mobilization and transcriptional activation following AMI.

PMID- 28878127
TI  - Autoantibody-producing plasmablasts after B cell depletion identified in muscle
      specific kinase myasthenia gravis.
AB  - Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a B cell-mediated autoimmune disorder of neuromuscular
      transmission. Pathogenic autoantibodies to muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK)
      can be found in patients with MG who do not have detectable antibodies to the
      acetylcholine receptor (AChR). MuSK MG includes immunological and clinical
      features that are generally distinct from AChR MG, particularly regarding
      responsiveness to therapy. B cell depletion has been shown to affect a decline in
      serum autoantibodies and to induce sustained clinical improvement in the majority
      of MuSK MG patients. However, the duration of this benefit may be limited, as we
      observed disease relapse in MuSK MG patients who had achieved rituximab-induced
      remission. We investigated the mechanisms of such relapses by exploring
      autoantibody production in the reemerging B cell compartment. Autoantibody
      expressing CD27+ B cells were observed within the reconstituted repertoire during
      relapse but not during remission or in controls. Using two complementary
      approaches, which included production of 108 unique human monoclonal recombinant
      immunoglobulins, we demonstrated that antibody-secreting CD27hiCD38hi B cells
      (plasmablasts) contribute to the production of MuSK autoantibodies during
      relapse. The autoantibodies displayed hallmarks of antigen-driven affinity
      maturation. These collective findings introduce potential mechanisms for
      understanding both MuSK autoantibody production and disease relapse following B
      cell depletion.

PMID- 28878128
TI  - Respiratory syncytial virus infection of newborn CX3CR1-deficent mice induces a
      pathogenic pulmonary innate immune response.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infects almost all infants by 2 years of age,
      and severe bronchiolitis resulting from RSV infection is the primary cause of
      hospitalization in the first year of life. Among infants hospitalized due to RSV
      induced bronchiolitis, those with a specific mutation in the chemokine receptor
      CX3CR1, which severely compromises binding of its ligand CX3CL1, were at a higher
      risk for more severe viral bronchiolitis than those without the mutation. Here,
      we show that RSV infection of newborn mice deficient in CX3CR1 leads to
      significantly greater neutrophilic inflammation in the lungs, accompanied by an
      increase in mucus production compared with that induced in WT mice. Analysis of
      innate and adaptive immune responses revealed an early increase in the number of
      IL-17+ gammadelta T cells in CX3CR1-deficient mice that outnumbered IFN-gamma+
      gammadelta T cells as well as IFN-gamma+ NK cells, IFN-gamma being host
      protective in the context of RSV infection. This bias toward IL-17+ gammadelta T
      cells persisted at a later time. The lungs of CX3CR1-deficient mice expressed
      higher levels of IL-1beta mRNA and protein, and blockade of IL-1beta signaling
      using IL-1 receptor antagonist significantly reduced the number of IL-17+
      gammadelta T cells in the lungs of infected mice. Blockade of IL-17RC abolished
      RSV-induced lung pathology in infected CX3CR1-deficient mice. We propose that, in
      infants harboring mutant CX3CR1, targeting the IL-17R may minimize disease
      severity and hospitalization in early life.

PMID- 28878129
TI  - Correction of intermittent hypoxia reduces inflammation in obese subjects with
      obstructive sleep apnea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In obese subjects with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), chronic
      intermittent hypoxia (CIH) may be linked to systemic and adipose tissue
      inflammation. METHODS: We obtained abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies
      from OSA and non-OSA obese (BMI > 35) subjects at baseline and after 24 weeks
      (T1) of weight-loss intervention plus continuous positive airway pressure (c-PAP)
      or weight-loss intervention alone, respectively. OSA subjects were grouped
      according to good (therapeutic) or poor (subtherapeutic) adherence to c-PAP.
      RESULTS: At baseline, anthropometric and metabolic parameters, serum cytokines,
      and adipose tissue mRNA levels of obesity-associated chemokines and inflammatory
      markers were not different in OSA and non-OSA subjects. At T1, body weight was
      significantly reduced in all groups. Serum concentrations of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6,
      MCP-1, PDGFbeta, and VEGFalpha were reduced by therapeutic c-PAP in OSA subjects
      and remained unaltered in non-OSA and subtherapeutic c-PAP groups. Similarly,
      adipose tissue mRNA levels of macrophage-specific (CD68, CD36) and ER stress
      (ATF4, CHOP, ERO-1) gene markers, as well as of IL-6, PDGFbeta, and VEGFalpha,
      were decreased only in the therapeutic c-PAP group. CONCLUSION: CIH does not
      represent an additional factor increasing systemic and adipose tissue
      inflammation in morbid obesity. However, in subjects with OSA, an effective c-PAP
      therapy improves systemic and obesity-associated inflammatory markers. FUNDING:
      Ministero dell'Universita e della Ricerca and Progetti di Rilevante Interesse
      Nazionale.

PMID- 28878130
TI  - An ancestral retroviral protein identified as a therapeutic target in type-1
      diabetes.
AB  - Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), remnants of ancestral viral genomic
      insertions, are known to represent 8% of the human genome and are associated with
      several pathologies. In particular, the envelope protein of HERV-W family (HERV-W
      Env) has been involved in multiple sclerosis pathogenesis. Investigations to
      detect HERV-W-Env in a few other autoimmune diseases were negative, except in
      type-1 diabetes (T1D). In patients suffering from T1D, HERV-W-Env protein was
      detected in 70% of sera, and its corresponding RNA was detected in 57% of
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells. While studies on human Langerhans islets
      evidenced the inhibition of insulin secretion by HERV-W-Env, this endogenous
      protein was found to be expressed by acinar cells in 75% of human T1D pancreata.
      An extensive immunohistological analysis further revealed a significant
      correlation between HERV-W-Env expression and macrophage infiltrates in the
      exocrine part of human pancreata. Such findings were corroborated by in vivo
      studies on transgenic mice expressing HERV-W-env gene, which displayed
      hyperglycemia and decreased levels of insulin, along with immune cell infiltrates
      in their pancreas. Altogether, these results strongly suggest an involvement of
      HERV-W-Env in T1D pathogenesis. They also provide potentially novel therapeutic
      perspectives, since unveiling a pathogenic target in T1D.

PMID- 28878131
TI  - Physiological adaptations to resistance exercise as a function of age.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of resistance exercise training (RE-T) across the life
      span is poorly defined. METHODS: To resolve this, we recruited three distinct age
      cohorts of young (18-28 years; n = 11), middle-aged (45-55 years; n = 20), and
      older (nonsarcopenic; 65-75 years; n = 17) individuals to a cross-sectional
      intervention study. All subjects participated in 20 weeks of fully supervised
      whole-body progressive RE-T, undergoing assessment of body composition, muscle
      and vascular function, and metabolic health biomarkers before and after RE-T.
      Individuals also received stable isotope tracer infusions to ascertain muscle
      protein synthesis (MPS). RESULTS: There was an age-related increase in adiposity,
      but only young and middle-age groups demonstrated reductions following RE-T.
      Increases in blood pressure with age were attenuated by RE-T in middle-aged, but
      not older, individuals, while age-related increases in leg vascular conductance
      were unaffected by RE-T. The index of insulin sensitivity was reduced by RE-T in
      older age. Despite being matched at baseline, only younger individuals increased
      muscle mass in response to RE-T, and there existed a negative correlation between
      age and muscle growth; in contrast, increases in mechanical quality were
      preserved across ages. Acute increases in MPS (upon feeding plus acute RE-T) were
      enhanced only in younger individuals, perhaps explaining greater hypertrophy.
      CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that RE-T offsets some, but not all, negative
      characteristics of ageing - some of which are apparent in midlife. FUNDING:
      Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/C516779/1).

PMID- 28878133
TI  - Exome-capture RNA sequencing of decade-old breast cancers and matched decalcified
      bone metastases.
AB  - Bone metastases (BoM) are a significant cause of morbidity in patients with
      estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer; yet, characterizations of
      human specimens are limited. In this study, exome-capture RNA sequencing (ecRNA
      seq) on aged (8-12 years), formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE), and
      decalcified cancer specimens was evaluated. Gene expression values and ecRNA-seq
      quality metrics from FFPE or decalcified tumor RNA showed minimal differences
      when compared with matched flash-frozen or nondecalcified tumors. ecRNA-seq was
      then applied on a longitudinal collection of 11 primary breast cancers and
      patient-matched synchronous or recurrent BoMs. Overtime, BoMs exhibited gene
      expression shifts to more Her2 and LumB PAM50 subtype profiles, temporally
      influenced expression evolution, recurrently dysregulated prognostic gene sets,
      and longitudinal expression alterations of clinically actionable genes,
      particularly in the CDK/Rb/E2F and FGFR signaling pathways. Taken together, this
      study demonstrates the use of ecRNA-seq on decade-old and decalcified specimens
      and defines recurrent longitudinal transcriptional remodeling events in estrogen
      deprived breast cancers.

PMID- 28878132
TI  - Therapeutic opportunities for alcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic
      steatohepatitis: exploiting similarities and differences in pathogenesis.
AB  - Alcoholic steatohepatitis (ASH) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are among
      the most frequent causes of chronic liver disease in the United States. Although
      the two entities are triggered by different etiologies - chronic alcohol
      consumption (ASH) and obesity-associated lipotoxicity (NASH) - they share
      overlapping histological and clinical features owing to common pathogenic
      mechanisms. These pathogenic processes include altered hepatocyte lipid
      metabolism, organelle dysfunction (i.e., ER stress), hepatocyte apoptosis, innate
      immune system activation, and hepatic stellate cell activation. Nonetheless,
      there are several disease-specific molecular signaling pathways, such as
      differential pathway activation downstream of TLR4 (MyD88-dependence in NASH
      versus MyD88-independence in ASH), inflammasome activation and IL-1beta signaling
      in ASH, insulin resistance and lipotoxicity in NASH, and dysregulation of
      different microRNAs, which clearly highlight that ASH and NASH are two distinct
      biological entities. Both pathogenic similarities and differences have
      therapeutic implications. In this Review, we discuss these pathogenic mechanisms
      and their therapeutic implications for each disease, focusing on both shared and
      distinct targets.

PMID- 28878135
TI  - REV-ERBalpha ameliorates heart failure through transcription repression.
AB  - A cure for heart failure remains a major unmet clinical need, and current
      therapies targeting neurohomonal and hemodynamic regulation have limited
      efficacy. The pathological remodeling of the myocardium has been associated with
      a stereotypical gene expression program, which had long been viewed as the
      consequence and not the driver of the disease until very recently. Despite the
      advance, there is no therapy available to reverse the already committed gene
      program. Here, we demonstrate that transcriptional repressor REV-ERB binds near
      driver transcription factors across the genome. Pharmacological activation of REV
      ERB selectively suppresses aberrant pathologic gene expression and prevents
      cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. In vivo, REV-ERBalpha activation prevents development
      of cardiac hypertrophy, reduces fibrosis, and halts progression of advanced heart
      failure in mouse models. Thus, to our knowledge, modulation of gene networks by
      targeting REV-ERBalpha represents a novel approach to heart failure therapy.

PMID- 28878134
TI  - Prevention of breast cancer skeletal metastases with parathyroid hormone.
AB  - Advanced breast cancer is frequently associated with skeletal metastases and
      accelerated bone loss. Recombinant parathyroid hormone [teriparatide, PTH(1-34)]
      is the first anabolic agent approved in the US for treatment of osteoporosis.
      While signaling through the PTH receptor in the osteoblast lineage regulates bone
      marrow hematopoietic niches, the effects of anabolic PTH on the skeletal
      metastatic niche are unknown. Here, we demonstrate, using orthotopic and
      intratibial models of 4T1 murine and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer tumors, that
      anabolic PTH decreases both tumor engraftment and the incidence of spontaneous
      skeletal metastasis in mice. Microcomputed tomography and histomorphometric
      analyses revealed that PTH increases bone volume and reduces tumor engraftment
      and volume. Transwell migration assays with murine and human breast cancer cells
      revealed that PTH alters the gene expression profile of the metastatic niche, in
      particular VCAM-1, to inhibit recruitment of cancer cells. While PTH did not
      affect growth or migration of the primary tumor, it elicited several changes in
      the tumor gene expression profile resulting in a less metastatic phenotype. In
      conclusion, PTH treatment in mice alters the bone microenvironment, resulting in
      decreased cancer cell engraftment, reduced incidence of metastases, preservation
      of bone microarchitecture and prolonged survival.

PMID- 28878136
TI  - Old age causes de novo intracortical bone remodeling and porosity in mice.
AB  - Decreased cortical thickness and increased cortical porosity are the key anatomic
      changes responsible for osteoporotic fractures in elderly women and men. The
      cellular basis of these changes is unbalanced endosteal and intracortical
      osteonal remodeling by the osteoclasts and osteoblasts that comprise the basic
      multicellular units (BMUs). Like humans, mice lose cortical bone with age, but
      unlike humans, this loss occurs in the face of sex steroid sufficiency. Mice are
      therefore an ideal model to dissect age-specific osteoporotic mechanisms.
      Nevertheless, lack of evidence for endosteal or intracortical remodeling in mice
      has raised questions about their translational relevance. We show herein that
      administration of the antiosteoclastogenic cytokine osteoprotegerin to Swiss
      Webster mice ablated not only osteoclasts, but also endosteal bone formation,
      demonstrating the occurrence of BMU-based endosteal remodeling. Femoral cortical
      thickness decreased in aged male and female C57BL/6J mice, as well as F1 hybrids
      of C57BL/6J and BALB/cBy mice. This decrease was greater in C57BL/6J mice,
      indicating a genetic influence. Moreover, endosteal remodeling became unbalanced
      because of increased osteoclast and decreased osteoblast numbers. The porosity of
      the femoral cortex increased with age but was much higher in females of both
      strains. Notably, the increased cortical porosity resulted from de novo
      intracortical remodeling by osteon-like structures. Age-dependent cortical bone
      loss was associated with increased osteocyte DNA damage, cellular senescence, the
      senescence-associated secretory phenotype, and increased levels of RANKL. The
      demonstration of unbalanced endosteal and intracortical remodeling in old mice
      validates the relevance of this animal model to involutional osteoporosis in
      humans.

PMID- 28878137
TI  - CF airway smooth muscle transcriptome reveals a role for PYK2.
AB  - Abnormal airway smooth muscle function can contribute to cystic fibrosis (CF)
      airway disease. We previously found that airway smooth muscle from newborn CF
      pigs had increased basal tone, an increased bronchodilator response, and abnormal
      calcium handling. Since CF pigs lack airway infection and inflammation at birth,
      these findings suggest intrinsic airway smooth muscle dysfunction in CF. In this
      study, we tested the hypothesis that CFTR loss in airway smooth muscle would
      produce a distinct set of changes in the airway smooth muscle transcriptome that
      we could use to develop novel therapeutic targets. Total RNA sequencing of
      newborn wild-type and CF airway smooth muscle revealed changes in muscle
      contraction-related genes, ontologies, and pathways. Using connectivity mapping,
      we identified several small molecules that elicit transcriptional signatures
      opposite of CF airway smooth muscle, including NVP-TAE684, an inhibitor of
      proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (PYK2). In CF airway smooth muscle tissue, PYK2
      phosphorylation was increased and PYK2 inhibition decreased smooth muscle
      contraction. In vivo NVP-TAE684 treatment of wild-type mice reduced methacholine
      induced airway smooth muscle contraction. These findings suggest that studies in
      the newborn CF pig may provide an important approach to enhance our understanding
      of airway smooth muscle biology and for discovery of novel airway smooth muscle
      therapeutics for CF and other diseases of airway hyperreactivity.

PMID- 28878138
TI  - Stereotyped antibody responses target posttranslationally modified gluten in
      celiac disease.
AB  - The role of B cells and posttranslational modifications in pathogenesis of organ
      specific immune diseases is increasingly envisioned but remains poorly
      understood, particularly in human disorders. In celiac disease, transglutaminase
      2-modified (TG2-modified; deamidated) gluten peptides drive disease-specific T
      cell and B cell responses, and antibodies to deamidated gluten peptides are
      excellent diagnostic markers. Here, we substantiate by high-throughput sequencing
      of IGHV genes that antibodies to a disease-specific, deamidated, and
      immunodominant B cell epitope of gluten (PLQPEQPFP) have biased and stereotyped
      usage of IGHV3-23 and IGHV3-15 gene segments with modest somatic mutations. X-ray
      crystal structures of 2 prototype IGHV3-15/IGKV4-1 and IGHV3-23/IGLV4-69
      antibodies reveal peptide interaction mainly via germline-encoded residues. In
      depth mutational analysis showed restricted selection and substitution patterns
      at positions involved in antigen binding. While the IGHV3-15/IGKV4-1 antibody
      interacts with Glu5 and Gln6, the IGHV3-23/IGLV4-69 antibody interacts with Gln3,
      Pro4, Pro7, and Phe8 - residues involved in substrate recognition by TG2. Hence,
      both antibodies, despite different interaction with the epitope, recognize
      signatures of TG2 processing that facilitates B cell presentation of deamidated
      gluten peptides to T cells, thereby providing a molecular framework for the
      generation of these clinically important antibodies. The study provides essential
      insight into the pathogenic mechanism of celiac disease.

PMID- 28878141
TI  - Intestinal and Circulating MicroRNAs in Coeliac Disease.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the
      post-transcriptional level and play a key role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune
      and gastrointestinal diseases. Previous studies have revealed that miRNAs are
      dysregulated in intestinal biopsies of patients affected by coeliac disease (CD).
      Combined bioinformatics analyses of miRNA expression profiles and mRNA target
      genes as classified by Gene Ontology, are powerful tools to investigate the
      functional role of miRNAs in coeliac disease. However, little is still known
      about the function of circulating miRNAs, their expression level compared to
      tissue miRNAs, and whether the mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation are
      the same of tissue miRNAs. In any case, if we assume that a cell-cell
      communication process has to occur, and that circulating miRNAs are delivered to
      recipient cells, we can derive useful information by performing target
      predictions. Interestingly, all of the mRNA targets of dysregulated miRNAs
      reported in the literature (i.e., miR-31-5p, miR-192, miR-194, miR-449a and miR
      638) belong to several important biological processes, such as Wnt signaling,
      cell proliferation and differentiation, and adherens junction pathways. Although
      we think that these predictions have to be necessarily confirmed by "wet-lab"
      data, the miRNAs dysregulated during the development of CD could be potentially
      involved in the pathogenesis of coeliac disease and their correlation with
      circulating miRNAs offers new possibilities to use them as disease biomarkers.

PMID- 28878140
TI  - The Supramolecular Buildup of Eumelanin: Structures, Mechanisms, Controllability.
AB  - Research on the supramolecular buildup of eumelanin has gained high momentum in
      the last years. Several new aspects regarding the involved structures and
      mechanisms have been established, which has led to a better understanding of the
      entire process. This review intends to provide a clearly laid-out summary of
      previous and new findings regarding structures, mechanisms, and controllability.
      With respect to materials applications, the aspect of controllability is of
      supreme importance. A focus of this review is therefore set on a novel method
      with high potential for specific synthesis of various, isolated particle
      morphologies. Finally, open questions and possibilities for their elucidation are
      discussed.

PMID- 28878139
TI  - Overview of &#946;-Glucans from Laminaria spp.: Immunomodulation Properties and
      Applications on Biologic Models.
AB  - Glucans are a group of glucose polymers that are found in bacteria, algae, fungi,
      and plants. While their properties are well known, their biochemical and
      solubility characteristics vary considerably, and glucans obtained from different
      sources can have different applications. Research has described the bioactivity
      of &#946;-glucans extracted from the algae of the Laminaria genus, including in
      vivo and in vitro studies assessing pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, vaccine
      production, inhibition of cell proliferation, and anti- and pro-oxidant activity.
      Thus, the objective of this article was to review the potential application of
      &#946;-glucans from Laminaria spp. in terms of their immunomodulatory properties,
      microorganism host interaction, anti-cancer activity and vaccine development.

PMID- 28878142
TI  - Dietary Phenethyl Isothiocyanate Protects Mice from Colitis Associated Colon
      Cancer.
AB  - We have previously reported alleviation of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced
      ulcerative colitis signs in phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC)-treated mice. Here
      we investigated chemoprotective activities of PEITC in mice with Azoxymethane-DSS
      induced colitis associated colon carcinogenesis. We also examined the molecular
      mediators associated with the PEITC effects using relevant cell lines. A 0.12%
      PEITC-enriched mouse-diet reduced mucosal and submucosal inflammation as well as
      glandular atypia by 12% and the frequency of adenocarcinoma by 17% with a
      concomitant improvement in overall disease activity indices compared to the
      diseased control group. Lipopolysaccharide-induced in vitro up-regulation of key
      mediators of inflammation, immune response, apoptosis, and cell proliferation
      were attenuated by 10 &#956;M PEITC. Three of these mediators showed
      concentration-dependent reduction in respective mRNAs. Furthermore, PEITC
      inhibited Nuclear factor kappa B1 (NF&#954;B1) proteins in a concentration
      dependent manner. The NF&#954;B1 mRNA expression inversely correlated ( r =
      &#8722;0.940, p = 0.013) with tri-methylation of lysine 27 on histone 3 near its
      promoter region in a time-dependent manner. These results indicate that PEITC may
      slow down the development of colon carcinogenesis in an inflammatory intestinal
      setting which is potentially associated with epigenetic modulation of NF&#954;B1
      signaling.

PMID- 28878143
TI  - Cobra Venom Factor and Ketoprofen Abolish the Antitumor Effect of Nerve Growth
      Factor from Cobra Venom.
AB  - We showed recently that nerve growth factor (NGF) from cobra venom inhibited the
      growth of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) inoculated subcutaneously in mice.
      Here, we studied the influence of anti-complementary cobra venom factor (CVF) and
      the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen on the antitumor NGF effect,
      as well as on NGF-induced changes in EAC histological patterns, the activity of
      lactate and succinate dehydrogenases in tumor cells and the serum level of some
      cytokines. NGF, CVF and ketoprofen reduced the tumor volume by approximately 72%,
      68% and 30%, respectively. The antitumor effect of NGF was accompanied by an
      increase in the lymphocytic infiltration of the tumor tissue, the level of
      interleukin 1&#946; and tumor necrosis factor &#945; in the serum, as well as the
      activity of lactate and succinate dehydrogenases in tumor cells. Simultaneous
      administration of NGF with either CVF or ketoprofen abolished the antitumor
      effect and reduced all other effects of NGF, whereas NGF itself significantly
      decreased the antitumor action of both CVF and ketoprofen. Thus, the antitumor
      effect of NGF critically depended on the status of the immune system and was
      abolished by the disturbance of the complement system; the disturbance of the
      inflammatory response canceled the antitumor effect as well.

PMID- 28878144
TI  - Event-Based Sensing and Control for Remote Robot Guidance: An Experimental Case.
AB  - This paper describes the theoretical and practical foundations for remote control
      of a mobile robot for nonlinear trajectory tracking using an external
      localisation sensor. It constitutes a classical networked control system, whereby
      event-based techniques for both control and state estimation contribute to
      efficient use of communications and reduce sensor activity. Measurement requests
      are dictated by an event-based state estimator by setting an upper bound to the
      estimation error covariance matrix. The rest of the time, state prediction is
      carried out with the Unscented transformation. This prediction method makes it
      possible to select the appropriate instants at which to perform actuations on the
      robot so that guidance performance does not degrade below a certain threshold.
      Ultimately, we obtained a combined event-based control and estimation solution
      that drastically reduces communication accesses. The magnitude of this reduction
      is set according to the tracking error margin of a P3-DX robot following a
      nonlinear trajectory, remotely controlled with a mini PC and whose pose is
      detected by a camera sensor.

PMID- 28878145
TI  - Transdermal Permeation of Drugs in Various Animal Species.
AB  - Excised human skin is utilized for in vitro permeation experiments to evaluate
      the safety and effect of topically-applied drugs by measuring its skin permeation
      and concentration. However, ethical considerations are the major problem for
      using human skin to evaluate percutaneous absorption. Moreover, large variations
      have been found among human skin specimens as a result of differences in age,
      race, and anatomical donor site. Animal skins are used to predict the in vivo
      human penetration/permeation of topically-applied chemicals. In the present
      review, skin characteristics, such as thickness of skin, lipid content, hair
      follicle density, and enzyme activity in each model are compared to human skin.
      In addition, intra- and inter-individual variation in animal models, permeation
      parameter correlation between animal models and human skin, and utilization of
      cultured human skin models are also descried. Pig, guinea pig, and hairless rat
      are generally selected for this purpose. Each animal model has advantages and
      weaknesses for utilization in in vitro skin permeation experiments. Understanding
      of skin permeation characteristics such as permeability coefficient ( P ),
      diffusivity ( D ), and partition coefficient ( K ) for each skin model would be
      necessary to obtain better correlations for animal models to human skin
      permeation.

PMID- 28878146
TI  - Computer versus Compensatory Calendar Training in Individuals with Mild Cognitive
      Impairment: Functional Impact in a Pilot Study.
AB  - This pilot study examined the functional impact of computerized versus
      compensatory calendar training in cognitive rehabilitation participants with mild
      cognitive impairment (MCI). Fifty-seven participants with amnestic MCI completed
      randomly assigned calendar or computer training. A standard care control group
      was used for comparison. Measures of adherence, memory-based activities of daily
      living (mADLs), and self-efficacy were completed. The calendar training group
      demonstrated significant improvement in mADLs compared to controls, while the
      computer training group did not. Calendar training may be more effective in
      improving mADLs than computerized intervention. However, this study highlights
      how behavioral trials with fewer than 30-50 participants per arm are likely
      underpowered, resulting in seemingly null findings.

PMID- 28878147
TI  - Extraction of Rice Heavy Metal Stress Signal Features Based on Long Time Series
      Leaf Area Index Data Using Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition.
AB  - The use of remote sensing technology to diagnose heavy metal stress in crops is
      of great significance for environmental protection and food security. However, in
      the natural farmland ecosystem, various stressors could have a similar influence
      on crop growth, therefore making heavy metal stress difficult to identify
      accurately, so this is still not a well resolved scientific problem and a hot
      topic in the field of agricultural remote sensing. This study proposes a method
      that uses Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) to obtain the heavy metal
      stress signal features on a long time scale. The method operates based on the
      Leaf Area Index (LAI) simulated by the Enhanced World Food Studies (WOFOST)
      model, assimilated with remotely sensed data. The following results were
      obtained: (i) the use of EEMD was effective in the extraction of heavy metal
      stress signals by eliminating the intra-annual and annual components; (ii) LAI df
      (The first derivative of the sum of the interannual component and residual) can
      preferably reflect the stable feature responses to rice heavy metal stress. LAI
      df showed stability with an R&#178; of greater than 0.9 in three growing stages,
      and the stability is optimal in June. This study combines the spectral
      characteristics of the stress effect with the time characteristics, and confirms
      the potential of long-term remotely sensed data for improving the accuracy of
      crop heavy metal stress identification.

PMID- 28878148
TI  - A Geometric Analysis of the Regulation of Inorganic Nutrient Intake by the
      Subterranean Termite Reticulitermes flavipes Kollar.
AB  - Most studies on termite food selection have focused on a single nutrient per
      choice, however, termites, like all animals, must balance multiple nutrients in
      their diet. While most studies that use multi-nutrient approaches focus on
      macromolecules, the ability to balance the intake of inorganic nutrients is also
      vital to organisms. In this study, we used the geometric framework to test the
      effects of multiple inorganic nutrients on termite feeding. We presented the
      subsets of Reticulitermes flavipes colonies with food enriched with varying in
      levels of KCl, MgSO&#8324;, and FePO&#8324;. Each trial varied two of the three
      nutrients while the third nutrient was kept constant. The amount of food consumed
      was measured over two weeks. The termites' feeding patterns during the study
      suggested that they fed until they reached a limit for MgSO&#8324;. This result
      suggests that the termites were using the rule of compromise such that the
      termites would over consume KCl or FePO&#8324; in order to avoid overeating
      MgSO&#8324;. Thus, the termite colonies are able to regulate the intake of
      inorganic nutrients, and by doing so, adjust their intake from multiple resources
      in order to maintain an intake target.

PMID- 28878149
TI  - Biomass Waste Inspired Highly Porous Carbon for High Performance Lithium/Sulfur
      Batteries.
AB  - The synthesis of highly porous carbon (HPC) materials from poplar catkin by KOH
      chemical activation and hydrothermal carbonization as a conductive additive to a
      lithium-sulfur cathode is reported. Elemental sulfur was composited with as
      prepared HPC through a melt diffusion method to form a S/HPC nanocomposite.
      Structure and morphology characterization revealed a hierarchically sponge-like
      structure of HPC with high pore volume (0.62 cm&#179;?g &#8722;1 ) and large
      specific surface area (1261.7 m&#178;?g &#8722;1 ). When tested in Li/S
      batteries, the resulting compound demonstrated excellent cycling stability,
      delivering a second-specific capacity of 1154 mAh?g &#8722;1 as well as
      presenting 74% retention of value after 100 cycles at 0.1 C. Therefore, the
      porous structure of HPC plays an important role in enhancing electrochemical
      properties, which provides conditions for effective charge transfer and effective
      trapping of soluble polysulfide intermediates, and remarkably improves the
      electrochemical performance of S/HPC composite cathodes.

PMID- 28878150
TI  - Multimorbidity in Chronic Conditions: Public Primary Care Patients in Four
      Greater Mekong Countries.
AB  - The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence, pattern, and social
      determinants of chronic conditions multimorbidity among chronic disease primary
      care patients in four Greater Mekong countries (Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and
      Vietnam). In a cross-sectional survey, chronic disease patients accessing primary
      care were recruited if they had been diagnosed with any of 21 chronic conditions
      in the past 12 months, and were interviewed with a structured questionnaire on
      anxiety, depression, alcohol use, tobacco use, dietary behaviour, physical
      activity, and quality of life. The sample included 6236 public primary care
      patients (32.8% men and 67.2% women), with a mean age of 53.0 years (SD = 16.8).
      From 21 chronic conditions, the three most common were hypertension (37.4%),
      depression (34.4%), and digestive diseases (32.0%). In all, 27.4% had one chronic
      condition, 28.6% had two, 22.4% had three, and 21.6% had four or more chronic
      conditions. The percentage with the highest comorbidity was depression (47.3%),
      hypertension (43.4%), and digestive diseases (34.1%). The highest mean
      multimorbidity reported was for mental illness (4.44), kidney disease (4.11), and
      Parkinson's disease (4.10), and the lowest multimorbidity for epilepsy (2.43) and
      cancer (2.80). Compared to those who had only one chronic condition, being male,
      older age, lower education, and lower quality of life were associated with having
      two and three or more chronic conditions. Multimorbidity is a prevalent problem
      among chronic condition primary care patients-a finding with implications for
      health care delivery, management, and research.

PMID- 28878151
TI  - Simultaneous Voltammetric Detection of Carbaryl and Paraquat Pesticides on
      Graphene-Modified Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode.
AB  - Monitoring of pesticide residues in food, beverages, and the environment requires
      fast, versatile, and sensitive analyzing methods. Direct electrochemical
      detection of pesticides could represent an efficient solution. Adequate electrode
      material, electrochemical technique, and optimal operation parameters define the
      detection method for practical application. In this study, cyclic voltammetric
      and differential pulse voltammetric techniques were used in order to individually
      and simultaneously detect two pesticides, i.e., carbaryl (CR) and paraquat (PQ),
      from an acetate buffer solution and also from natural apple juice. A graphene
      modified boron-doped diamond electrode, denoted BDDGR, was obtained and
      successfully applied in the simultaneous detection of CR and PQ pesticides, using
      the differential pulse voltammetric technique with remarkable electroanalytical
      parameters in terms of sensitivity: 33.27 &#956;A &#956;M &#8722;1 cm &#8722;2
      for CR and 31.83 &#956;A &#956;M &#8722;1 cm &#8722;2 for PQ. These outstanding
      results obtained in the acetate buffer supporting electrolyte allowed us to
      simultaneously detect the targeted pesticides in natural apple juice.

PMID- 28878152
TI  - Comments to Article by Willetts A. et al., Microorganisms 2016, 4, 38.
AB  - We would like to comment on recent work published in your journal in October 2016
      by Willetts A. et al. [1].[...].

PMID- 28878153
TI  - High-Throughput Study of the Effects of Celastrol on Activated Fibroblast-Like
      Synoviocytes from Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - Celastrol, a natural triterpene, exhibits potential anti-inflammatory activity in
      a variety of inflammatory diseases. The present study aimed to investigate its
      biological effect on activated fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) from patients
      with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The primary FLSs of the synovial tissues were
      obtained from synovial biopsies of patients with RA. The normal human FLS line
      (HFLS) was used as a control. After the RA-FLSs and HFLSs were treated with or
      without celastrol, various approaches, including the WST-1 assay, transwell
      assay, real-time PCR and ELISA analysis, were performed to estimate
      proliferation, invasion and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines of the RA
      FLSs. Microarray analysis was performed to screen for differentially expressed
      genes in RA-FLSs before and after celastrol treatment. The results showed that
      treatment of celastrol attenuated both the proliferation and invasion of the RA
      FLSs. The expression of several chemokine genes, including CCL2 , CXCL10 , CXCL12
      , CCR2 and CXCR4 , was significantly changed after celastrol treatment. The genes
      involved in the NF-&#954;B signaling pathway appeared to be regulated by
      celastrol.

PMID- 28878154
TI  - Effects of Various Surfactants on the Dispersion of MWCNTs-OH in Aqueous
      Solution.
AB  - Dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a challenge for their application in the
      resulting matrixes. The present study conducted a comparison investigation of the
      effect of four surfactants: Alkylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO), Silane
      modified polycarboxylate (Silane-PCE), I-Cationic polycarboxylate (I-C-PCE), and
      II-Cationic polycarboxylate (II-C-PCE) on the dispersion of hydroxyl
      functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-OH). Among the four
      surfactants, APEO and II-C-PCE provide the best and the worst dispersion effect
      of CNTs in water, respectively. Dispersion effect of MWCNTs-OH has been
      characterized by optical microscope (OM), field emission-scanning electron
      microscope (FE-SEM), and Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis).The OM images
      are well consistent with the UV-Vis results. Based on the chemical molecular
      structures of the four surfactants, the mechanism of MWCNTs-OH dispersion in
      water was investigated. For each kind of surfactant, an optimum surfactant/MWCNTs
      OH ratio has been determined. This ratio showed a significant influence on the
      dispersion of MWCNTs-OH. Surfactant concentration higher or lower than this value
      can weaken the dispersion quality of MWCNTs-OH.

PMID- 28878156
TI  - Honey Mitigates Radiation-Induced Oral Mucositis in Head and Neck Cancer Patients
      without Affecting the Tumor Response.
AB  - Radiation-induced mucositis is a dose-limiting factor in the effective treatment
      of head and neck (H & N) cancers. The objective of this study was to understand
      the efficacy of honey in mitigating radiation-induced mucositis and whether it
      would interfere with tumor control. This was a single-blinded, randomized,
      controlled study and was carried out in patients with H & N cancer requiring
      curative radiotherapy (>62 Gy (Gray)). The patients meeting the inclusion
      criteria were randomly assigned to receive either honey ( n = 25) or povidone
      iodine (active comparator) ( n = 25) during radiotherapy. Oral mucositis was
      assessed using the RTOG (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group) grading system before
      the start, during, and at the end of the treatment by an investigator unaware of
      the treatment. The results indicate that when compared with the active
      comparator, honey reduced the radiation-induced oral mucositis, decreased the
      incidence of intolerable mucositis, treatment breaks, loss of treatment days ( p
      < 0.0001 and < 0.0003) and did not affect the radiation-induced tumor response.
      The clinical observations indicate that honey mitigates the radiation-induced
      mucositis and does not interfere with tumor cell killing.

PMID- 28878157
TI  - Modeling the Effect of Optical Signal Multipath.
AB  - Here, we propose a model to determine the effect of multipath in indoor
      environments when the shape and characteristics of the environment are known. The
      main paper goal is to model the multipath signal formation to solve, as much as
      possible, the negative effects in light communications, as well as the indoor
      positioning errors due to this phenomenon when using optical signals. The
      methodology followed was: analyze the multipath phenomenon, establish a
      theoretical approach and propose different models to characterize the behavior of
      the channel, emitter and receiver. The channel impulse response and received
      signal strength are obtained from different proposed algorithms. We also propose
      steps for implementing a numerical procedure to calculate the effects of these
      multipaths using information that characterizes the environment, transmitter and
      receiver and their corresponding positions. In addition, the results of an
      empirical test in a controlled environment are compared with those obtained using
      the model, in order to validate the latter. The results may largely vary with
      respect to the cell size used to discretize the environment. We have concluded
      that a cell size whose side is 20-times smaller than the minimum distance between
      emitter and receiver (i.e., 10 cm &#215; 10 cm for a 2-m distance) provides
      almost identical results between the empirical tests and the proposed model, with
      an affordable computational load.

PMID- 28878155
TI  - Determination of Highly Sensitive Biological Cell Model Systems to Screen BPA
      Related Health Hazards Using Pathway Studio.
AB  - Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a ubiquitous endocrine-disrupting chemical. Recently, many
      issues have arisen surrounding the disease pathogenesis of BPA. Therefore,
      several studies have been conducted to investigate the proteomic biomarkers of
      BPA that are associated with disease processes. However, studies on identifying
      highly sensitive biological cell model systems in determining BPA health risk are
      lacking. Here, we determined suitable cell model systems and potential biomarkers
      for predicting BPA-mediated disease using the bioinformatics tool Pathway Studio.
      We compiled known BPA-mediated diseases in humans, which were categorized into
      five major types. Subsequently, we investigated the differentially expressed
      proteins following BPA exposure in several cell types, and analyzed the efficacy
      of altered proteins to investigate their associations with BPA-mediated diseases.
      Our results demonstrated that colon cancer cells (SW480), mammary gland, and
      Sertoli cells were highly sensitive biological model systems, because of the
      efficacy of predicting the majority of BPA-mediated diseases. We selected glucose
      6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), cytochrome b-c1 complex subunit 1 (UQCRC1), and
      voltage-dependent anion-selective channel protein 2 (VDAC2) as highly sensitive
      biomarkers to predict BPA-mediated diseases. Furthermore, we summarized proteomic
      studies in spermatozoa following BPA exposure, which have recently been
      considered as another suitable cell type for predicting BPA-mediated diseases.

PMID- 28878158
TI  - Optimizing Melamine Resin Microspheres with Excess Formaldehyde for the SERS
      Substrate.
AB  - Influence of the excess monomer within the synthetic reaction solution of
      melamine resin microspheres (MFMSs) on the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
      (SERS) enhancement from Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was investigated, where the R6G was
      adsorbed on the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) that were loaded on the MFMSs.
      Surface characteristics of the MFMSs were modified by the excess monomer (i.e.,
      the excessive melamine or formaldehyde) through its terminal overreaction, which
      can be simply controlled by some of the synthetic reaction conditions, thus
      further allowing us to optimize the assembly of the loaded AgNPs for the SERS
      detection. These SERS substrates incorporating the optimized MFMSs with the
      excess formaldehyde can also be used for tracing analyses of more environmental
      and food contaminants.

PMID- 28878159
TI  - Connecting the Dots between Schizotypal Symptoms and Social Anxiety in Youth with
      an Extra X Chromosome: A Mediating Role for Catastrophizing.
AB  - Youth with an extra X chromosome (47, XXY & 47, XXX) display higher levels of
      schizotypal symptoms and social anxiety as compared to typically developing
      youth. It is likely that the extra X chromosome group is at-risk for clinical
      levels of schizotypy and social anxiety. Hence, this study investigated how
      schizotypal and social anxiety symptoms are related and mechanisms that may
      explain their association in a group of 38 children and adolescents with an extra
      X chromosome and a comparison group of 109 typically developing peers (8-19
      years). Three cognitive coping strategies were investigated as potential
      mediators, rumination, catastrophizing, and other-blame. Moderated mediation
      analyses revealed that the relationship between schizotypal symptoms and social
      anxiety was mediated by catastrophizing coping in the extra X chromosome group
      but not in the comparison group. The results suggest that youth with an extra X
      chromosome with schizotypal symptoms could benefit from an intervention to weaken
      the tendency to catastrophize life events as a way of reducing the likelihood of
      social anxiety symptoms.

PMID- 28878161
TI  - Tapered Optical Fiber Functionalized with Palladium Nanoparticles by Drop Casting
      and Laser Radiation for H&#8322; and Volatile Organic Compounds Sensing Purposes.
AB  - A comparative study on the sensing properties of a tapered optical fiber pristine
      and functionalized with the palladium nanoparticles to hydrogen and volatile
      organic compounds (VOCs), is presented. The sensor response and,
      response/recovery times were extracted from the measurements of the transient
      response of the device. The tapered optical fiber sensor was fabricated using a
      single-mode optical fiber by the flame-brushing technique. Functionalization of
      the optical fiber was performed using an aqueous solution of palladium chloride
      by drop-casting technique assisted for laser radiation. The detection principle
      of the sensor is based on the changes in the optical properties of palladium
      nanoparticles when exposed to reducing gases, which causes a variation in the
      absorption of evanescent waves. A continuous wave laser diode operating at 1550
      nm is used for the sensor characterization. The sensor functionalized with
      palladium nanoparticles by this technique is viable for the sensing of hydrogen
      and VOCs, since it shows an enhancement in sensor response and response time
      compared to the sensor based on the pristine optical microfiber. The results show
      that the fabricated sensor is competitive with other fiber optic sensors
      functionalized with palladium nanoparticles to the hydrogen.

PMID- 28878162
TI  - Tribological Properties of AlSi12-Al&#8322;O&#8323; Interpenetrating Composite
      Layers in Comparison with Unreinforced Matrix Alloy.
AB  - Alumina-Aluminum composites with interpenetrating network structures are a new
      class of advanced materials with potentially better properties than composites
      reinforced by particles or fibers. Local casting reinforcement was proposed to
      take into account problems with the machinability of this type of materials and
      the shaping of the finished products. The centrifugal infiltration process
      fabricated composite castings in the form of locally reinforced shafts. The main
      objective of the research presented in this work was to compare the tribological
      properties (friction coefficient, wear resistance) of AlSi12/Al&#8322;O&#8323;
      interpenetrating composite layers with unreinforced AlSi12 matrix areas.
      Profilometric tests enabled both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the
      wear trace that formed on investigated surfaces. It has been shown that
      interpenetrating composite layers are characterized by lower and more stable
      coefficients of friction (&#956;), as well as higher wear resistance than
      unreinforced matrix areas. At the present stage, the study confirmed that the
      tribological properties of the composite layers depend on the spatial structure
      of the ceramic reinforcement, and primarily the volume and size of alumina foam
      cells.

PMID- 28878160
TI  - Diuretic Activity of Compatible Triterpene Components of Alismatis rhizoma.
AB  - Alismatis rhizoma (AR), the dried rhizoma of Alisma orientale Juzepzuk
      (Alismataceae), is a traditional Chinese medicine. AR is an important part of
      many prescriptions and is commonly used as a diuretic agent in Asia. This study
      aimed to evaluate the diuretic effects of total triterpene extract (TTE) and
      triterpene component compatibility (TCC, the mixture of alisol B 23-acetate,
      alisol B, alisol A 24-acetate, alisol A, and alisol C 23-acetate) of AR in saline
      loaded rats. The optimal diuretic TCC of AR was optimized using a uniform design.
      Different doses (5, 20, and 40 mg/kg) of TTE and TCC groups (N1-N8) were orally
      administered to rats. Urinary excretion rate, pH, and electrolyte excretion were
      measured in the urine of saline-loaded rats. Results showed that TTE doses
      increased urine volume and electrolyte excretion compared with the control group.
      All uniformly designed groups of TCC also increased urine excretion. In addition,
      optimal diuretic TCC was calculated (alisol B 23-acetate: alisol B: alisol A 24
      acetate: alisol A: alisol C 23-acetate 7.2:0.6:2.8:3.0:6.4) and further validated
      by saline-loaded rats. This study demonstrated that TTE presented a notable
      diuretic effect by increasing Na&#8314;, K&#8314;, and Cl &#8722; displacements.
      The most suitable TTC compatible proportion of alisol B 23-acetate: alisol B:
      alisol A 24-acetate: alisol A: alisol C 23-acetate for diuretic activity was
      validated, and triterpenes were the material basis for the diuretic activity of
      AR.

PMID- 28878164
TI  - Erratum: Xu, Y., et al. Computational Studies on Acetylcholinesterases. Molecules
      2017, 22, 1324.

PMID- 28878163
TI  - RECQ1 Helicase Silencing Decreases the Tumour Growth Rate of U87 Glioblastoma
      Cell Xenografts in Zebrafish Embryos.
AB  - RECQ1 helicase has multiple roles in DNA replication, including restoration of
      the replication fork and DNA repair, and plays an important role in tumour
      progression. Its expression is highly elevated in glioblastoma as compared to
      healthy brain tissue. We studied the effects of small hairpin RNA (shRNA)-induced
      silencing of RECQ1 helicase on the increase in cell number and the invasion of
      U87 glioblastoma cells. RECQ1 silencing reduced the rate of increase in the
      number of U87 cells by 30%. This corresponded with a 40% reduction of the
      percentage of cells in the G2 phase of the cell cycle, and an accumulation of
      cells in the G1 phase. These effects were confirmed in vivo, in the brain of
      zebrafish ( Daniorerio ) embryos, by implanting DsRed-labelled RECQ1 helicase
      silenced and control U87 cells. The growth of resulting tumours was quantified by
      monitoring the increase in xenograft fluorescence intensity during a three-day
      period with fluorescence microscopy. The reduced rate of tumour growth, by
      approximately 30% in RECQ1 helicase-silenced cells, was in line with in vitro
      measurements of the increase in cell number upon RECQ1 helicase silencing.
      However, RECQ1 helicase silencing did not affect invasive behaviour of U87 cells
      in the zebrafish brain. This is the first in vivo confirmation that RECQ1
      helicase is a promising molecular target in the treatment of glioblastoma.

PMID- 28878165
TI  - Mitochondrial Liver Toxicity of Valproic Acid and Its Acid Derivatives Is Related
      to Inhibition of &#945;-Lipoamide Dehydrogenase.
AB  - The liver toxicity of valproic acid (VPA) is an established side effect of this
      widely used antiepileptic drug, which is extremely problematic for patients with
      metabolic epilepsy and particularly epilepsy due to mitochondrial dysfunction. In
      the present report, we investigated the reason for liver mitochondrial toxicity
      of VPA and several acid and amide VPA analogues. While the pyruvate and 2
      oxoglutarate oxidation rates of rat brain mitochondria were nearly unaffected by
      VPA, rat liver mitochondrial pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate oxidation was severely
      impaired by VPA concentrations above 100 uM. Among the reactions involved in
      pyruvate oxidation, pyruvate transport and dehydrogenation steps were not
      affected by VPA, while &#945;-lipoamide dehydrogenase was strongly inhibited.
      Strong inhibition of &#945;-lipoamide dehydrogenase was also noted for the VPA
      one-carbon homolog sec -butylpropylacetic acid (SPA) and to a lesser extent for
      the VPA constitutional isomer valnoctic acid (VCA), while the corresponding
      amides of the above three acids valpromide (VPD), sec -butylpropylacetamide (SPD)
      and valnoctamide (VCD) showed only small effects. We conclude that the active
      inhibitors of pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate oxidation are the CoA conjugates of VPA
      and its acid analogues affecting selectively &#945;-lipoamide dehydrogenase in
      liver. Amide analogues of VPA, like VCD, show low inhibitory effects on
      mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation in the liver, which might be relevant for
      treatment of patients with mitochondrial epilepsy.

PMID- 28878166
TI  - Simultaneous Detection of Displacement, Rotation Angle, and Contact Pressure
      Using Sandpaper Molded Elastomer Based Triple Electrode Sensor.
AB  - In this article, we report on a flexible sensor based on a sandpaper molded
      elastomer that simultaneously detects planar displacement, rotation angle, and
      vertical contact pressure. When displacement, rotation, and contact pressure are
      applied, the contact area between the translating top elastomer electrode and the
      stationary three bottom electrodes change characteristically depending on the
      movement, making it possible to distinguish between them. The sandpaper molded
      undulating surface of the elastomer reduces friction at the contact allowing the
      sensor not to affect the movement during measurement. The sensor showed a 0.25 mm
      &#8722;1 displacement sensitivity with a &#177;33 &#956;m accuracy, a 0.027
      degree &#8722;1 of rotation sensitivity with ~0.95 degree accuracy, and a 4.96 kP
      &#8722;1 of pressure sensitivity. For possible application to joint movement
      detection, we demonstrated that our sensor effectively detected the up-and-down
      motion of a human forefinger and the bending and straightening motion of a human
      arm.

PMID- 28878167
TI  - Functionalizing a Tapered Microcavity as a Gas Cell for On-Chip Mid-Infrared
      Absorption Spectroscopy.
AB  - Increasing demand for field instruments designed to measure gas composition has
      strongly promoted the development of robust, miniaturized and low-cost handheld
      absorption spectrometers in the mid-infrared. Efforts thus far have focused on
      miniaturizing individual components. However, the optical absorption path that
      the light beam travels through the sample defines the length of the gas cell and
      has so far limited miniaturization. Here, we present a functionally integrated
      linear variable optical filter and gas cell, where the sample to be measured is
      fed through the resonator cavity of the filter. By using multiple reflections
      from the mirrors on each side of the cavity, the optical absorption path is
      elongated from the physical m m -level to the effective m m -level. The device is
      batch-fabricated at the wafer level in a CMOS-compatible approach. The optical
      performance is analyzed using the Fizeau interferometer model and demonstrated
      with actual gas measurements.

PMID- 28878168
TI  - Metabolomics Analysis of Urine Samples from Children after Acetaminophen
      Overdose.
AB  - Acetaminophen (APAP), a commonly used over-the-counter analgesic, accounts for
      approximately fifty percent of the cases of acute liver failure (ALF) in the
      United States due to overdose, with over half of those unintentional. Current
      clinical approaches for assessing APAP overdose rely on identifying the precise
      time of overdose and quantitating acetaminophen alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
      levels in peripheral blood. Novel specific and sensitive biomarkers may provide
      additional information regarding patient status post overdose. Previous non
      clinical metabolomics studies identified potential urinary biomarkers of APAP
      induced hepatotoxicity and metabolites involved pathways of tricarboxylic acid
      cycle, ketone metabolism, and tryptophan metabolism. In this study, biomarkers
      identified in the previous non-clinical study were evaluated in urine samples
      collected from healthy subjects ( N = 6, median age 14.08 years) and overdose
      patients ( N = 13, median age 13.91 years) as part of an IRB-approved multicenter
      study of APAP toxicity in children. The clinical results identified metabolites
      from pathways previously noted, and pathway analysis indicated analogous pathways
      were significantly altered in both the rats and humans after APAP overdose. The
      results suggest a metabolomics approach may enable the discovery of specific,
      translational biomarkers of drug-induced hepatotoxicity that may aid in the
      assessment of patients.

PMID- 28878169
TI  - Enhancement of Antioxidant Systems and Storability of Two Plum Cultivars by
      Preharvest Treatments with Salicylates.
AB  - In this research the effect of salicylic acid (SA), acetylsalicylic acid (ASA),
      and methylsalicylate (MeSA) treatments, applied as a foliar spray during on-tree
      plum development, on fruit quality attributes, bioactive compounds, antioxidant
      activity, and the activity of the antioxidant enzymes at harvest and after long
      term cold storage was evaluated in two plum cultivars ("Black Splendor", BS, and
      "Royal Rosa", RR). At harvest, plum quality parameters, such as weight, total
      phenolics (including anthocyanins, in BS), total carotenoids, and antioxidant
      activity, in both hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds were found at higher
      levels in plums from SA-, ASA-, and MeSA-treated trees than in those from control
      trees. During storage, fruit firmness, total acidity, and antioxidant compounds
      were at higher levels in treated, than in control, plums, which show an effect of
      salicylate treatments on delaying the plum postharvest ripening process. In
      addition, the activity of the antioxidant enzymes catalase (CAT), peroxidase
      (POX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) were also
      enhanced at the time of harvest in salicylate-treated plums as compared with
      plums from control trees. The activity of these antioxidant enzymes was also
      found at higher levels in salicylate-treated plums during storage. Thus,
      preharvest treatment with salicylates could be a safe, eco-friendly, and new tool
      to improve and maintain plum quality attributes, and especially their content of
      antioxidant compounds, with an additional effect on delaying the postharvest
      ripening process through increasing the levels of antioxidant compounds and the
      activity of the antioxidant enzymes.

PMID- 28878170
TI  - Nanosilver-Silica Composite: Prolonged Antibacterial Effects and Bacterial
      Interaction Mechanisms for Wound Dressings.
AB  - Infected superficial wounds were traditionally controlled by topical antibiotics
      until the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Silver (Ag) is a kernel for
      alternative antibacterial agents to fight this resistance quandary. The present
      study demonstrates a method for immobilizing small-sized (~5 nm) silver
      nanoparticles on silica matrix to form a nanosilver-silica (Ag-SiO&#8322;)
      composite and shows the prolonged antibacterial effects of the composite in
      vitro. The composite exhibited a rapid initial Ag release after 24 h and a slower
      leaching after 48 and 72 h and was effective against both methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli ( E . coli ). Ultraviolet (UV)
      irradiation was superior to filter-sterilization in retaining the antibacterial
      effects of the composite, through the higher remaining Ag concentration. A gauze,
      impregnated with the Ag-SiO&#8322; composite, showed higher antibacterial effects
      against MRSA and E . coli than a commercial Ag-containing dressing, indicating a
      potential for the management and infection control of superficial wounds.
      Transmission and scanning transmission electron microscope analyses of the
      composite-treated MRSA revealed an interaction of the released silver ions with
      the bacterial cytoplasmic constituents, causing ultimately the loss of bacterial
      membranes. The present results indicate that the Ag-SiO&#8322; composite, with
      prolonged antibacterial effects, is a promising candidate for wound dressing
      applications.

PMID- 28878171
TI  - Lactobacillus sakei: A Starter for Sausage Fermentation, a Protective Culture for
      Meat Products.
AB  - Among lactic acid bacteria of meat products, Lactobacillus sakei is certainly the
      most studied species due to its role in the fermentation of sausage and its
      prevalence during cold storage of raw meat products. Consequently, the physiology
      of this bacterium regarding functions involved in growth, survival, and
      metabolism during meat storage and processing are well known. This species
      exhibits a wide genomic diversity that can be observed when studying different
      strains and on which probably rely its multiple facets in meat products: starter,
      spoiler, or protective culture. The emerging exploration of the microbial ecology
      of meat products also revealed the multiplicity of bacterial interactions L.
      sakei has to face and their various consequences on microbial quality and safety
      at the end of storage.

PMID- 28878173
TI  - Reply to the Comment by Littlechild and Isupov.
AB  - I thank Drs. Littlechild and Isupov for their recent comments, which are
      considered below. Before addressing these specifically, their correspondence
      raises two more general issues which require initial clarification.[...].

PMID- 28878174
TI  - Anti-Sweep Jamming Design and Implementation Using Multi-Channel Harmonic Timing
      Sequence Detection for Short-Range FMCW Proximity Sensors.
AB  - Currently, frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) proximity sensors are
      widely used. However, they suffer from a serious sweep jamming problem, which
      significantly reduces the ranging performance. To improve its anti-jamming
      capability, this paper analyzed the response mechanism of a proximity sensor with
      the existence of real target echo signals and sweep jamming, respectively. Then,
      a multi-channel harmonic timing sequence detection method, using the spectrum
      components' distribution difference between the real echo signals and sweep
      jamming, is proposed. Moreover, a novel fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based
      implementation was employed to extract multi-channel harmonic information.
      Compared with the traditional band-pass filter (BPF) implementation, this novel
      realization scheme only computes FFT once, in each transmission cycle, which
      significantly reduced hardware resource consumption and improved the real-time
      performance of the proximity sensors. The proposed method was implemented and
      proved to be feasible through the numerical simulations and prototype
      experiments. The results showed that the proximity sensor utilizing the proposed
      method had better anti-sweep jamming capability and ranging performance.

PMID- 28878172
TI  - Dietary Protein Consumption and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review
      and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies.
AB  - Recently, some studies have focused on the relationship between dietary protein
      intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the conclusions have
      been inconsistent. Therefore, in this paper, a systematic review and meta
      analysis of cohort studies regarding protein consumption and T2DM risk are
      conducted in order to present the association between them. We searched the
      PubMed and Embase databases for cohort studies on dietary protein, high-protein
      food consumption and risk of T2DM, up to July 2017. A summary of relative risks
      was compiled by the fixed-effect model or random-effect model. Eleven cohort
      studies regarded protein intake and T2DM (52,637 cases among 483,174
      participants). The summary RR and 95% CI (Confidence Interval) of T2DM was 1.12
      (1.08-1.17) in all subjects, 1.13 (1.04-1.24) in men, and 1.09 (1.04-1.15) in
      women for total protein;1.14 (1.09-1.19) in all subjects, 1.23 (1.09-1.38) in
      men, and 1.11 (1.03-1.19) in women for animal protein; 0.96 (0.88-1.06) in all
      subjects, 0.98 (0.72-1.34) in men, and 0.92 (0.86-0.98) in women for plant
      protein. We also compared the association between different food sources of
      protein and the risk of T2DM. The summary RR (Relative Risk) and 95% CI of T2DM
      was 1.22 (1.09-1.36) for red meat, 1.39 (1.29-1.49) for processed meat, 1.03
      (0.89-1.17) for fish, 1.03 (0.64-1.67) for egg, 0.89 (0.84-0.94) for total dairy
      products, 0.87 (0.78-0.96) for whole milk, 0.83 (0.70-0.98) for yogurt, 0.74
      (0.59-0.93) in women for soy. This meta-analysis shows that total protein and
      animal protein could increase the risk of T2DM in both males and females, and
      plant protein decreases the risk of T2DM in females. The association between high
      protein food types and T2DM are also different. Red meat and processed meat are
      risk factors of T2DM, and soy, dairy and dairy products are the protective
      factors of T2DM. Egg and fish intake are not associated with a decreased risk of
      T2DM. This research indicates the type of dietary protein and food sources of
      protein that should be considered for the prevention of diabetes.

PMID- 28878175
TI  - Modelled Cost-Effectiveness of a Package Size Cap and a Kilojoule Reduction
      Intervention to Reduce Energy Intake from Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Australia.
AB  - Interventions targeting portion size and energy density of food and beverage
      products have been identified as a promising approach for obesity prevention.
      This study modelled the potential cost-effectiveness of: a package size cap on
      single-serve sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) >375 mL ( package size cap ), and
      product reformulation to reduce energy content of packaged SSBs ( energy
      reduction ). The cost-effectiveness of each intervention was modelled for the
      2010 Australia population using a multi-state life table Markov model with a
      lifetime time horizon. Long-term health outcomes were modelled from calculated
      changes in body mass index to their impact on Health-Adjusted Life Years (HALYs).
      Intervention costs were estimated from a limited societal perspective. Cost and
      health outcomes were discounted at 3%. Total intervention costs estimated in AUD
      2010 were AUD 210 million. Both interventions resulted in reduced mean body
      weight ( package size cap : 0.12 kg; energy reduction : 0.23 kg); and HALYs
      gained ( package size cap : 73,883; energy reduction : 144,621). Cost offsets
      were estimated at AUD 750.8 million ( package size cap ) and AUD 1.4 billion (
      energy reduction ). Cost-effectiveness analyses showed that both interventions
      were "dominant", and likely to result in long term cost savings and health
      benefits. A package size cap and kJ reduction of SSBs are likely to offer
      excellent "value for money" as obesity prevention measures in Australia.

PMID- 28878176
TI  - Non-Polar Natural Products from Bromelia laciniosa, Neoglaziovia variegata and
      Encholirium spectabile (Bromeliaceae).
AB  - Extensive regional droughts are already a major problem on all inhabited
      continents and severe regional droughts are expected to become an increasing and
      extended problem in the future. Consequently, extended use of available drought
      resistant food plants should be encouraged. Bromelia laciniosa , Neoglaziovia
      variegata and Encholirium spectabile are excellent candidates in that respect
      because they are established drought resistant edible plants from the semi-arid
      Caatinga region. From a food safety perspective, increased utilization of these
      plants would necessitate detailed knowledge about their chemical constituents.
      However, their chemical compositions have previously not been determined. For the
      first time, the non-polar constituents of B. laciniosa , N. variegata and E.
      spectabile have been identified. This is the first thorough report on natural
      products from N. variegata , E. spectabile , and B. laciniosa . Altogether, 20
      non-polar natural products were characterized. The identifications were based on
      hyphenated gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) and
      supported by 1D and 2D Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) plant metabolomics.

PMID- 28878177
TI  - Authentication of Smartphone Users Based on Activity Recognition and Mobile
      Sensing.
AB  - Smartphones are context-aware devices that provide a compelling platform for
      ubiquitous computing and assist users in accomplishing many of their routine
      tasks anytime and anywhere, such as sending and receiving emails. The nature of
      tasks conducted with these devices has evolved with the exponential increase in
      the sensing and computing capabilities of a smartphone. Due to the ease of use
      and convenience, many users tend to store their private data, such as personal
      identifiers and bank account details, on their smartphone. However, this
      sensitive data can be vulnerable if the device gets stolen or lost. A traditional
      approach for protecting this type of data on mobile devices is to authenticate
      users with mechanisms such as PINs, passwords, and fingerprint recognition.
      However, these techniques are vulnerable to user compliance and a plethora of
      attacks, such as smudge attacks. The work in this paper addresses these
      challenges by proposing a novel authentication framework, which is based on
      recognizing the behavioral traits of smartphone users using the embedded sensors
      of smartphone, such as Accelerometer, Gyroscope and Magnetometer. The proposed
      framework also provides a platform for carrying out multi-class smart user
      authentication, which provides different levels of access to a wide range of
      smartphone users. This work has been validated with a series of experiments,
      which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

PMID- 28878178
TI  - Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Natural Antioxidants from the Exotic Gordonia
      axillaris Fruit: Optimization and Identification of Phenolic Compounds.
AB  - Our previous study reported that the fruit of Gordonia axillaris , an edible wild
      fruit, possessed strong antioxidant activity. In this study, a microwave-assisted
      extraction (MAE) method was established to extract antioxidants from the fruit of
      Gordonia axillaris . The influence of five parameters, including ethanol
      concentration, solvent/material ratio, extraction time, extraction temperature
      and microwave power, was investigated by single-factor experiments. Three
      factors, namely ethanol concentration, solvent/material ratio, extraction time,
      were found to exert a major influence on extraction efficacy, and were further
      studied by response surface methodology to investigate their interactions.
      Ethanol concentration of 36.89%, solvent/material ratio of 29.56 mL/g, extraction
      time of 71.04 min, temperature of 40 &#176;C, and microwave power of 400 W were
      found to be the optimal condition. The TEAC value was 198.16 &#177; 5.47 umol
      Trolox/g DW under the optimal conditions, which was in conformity to the
      predicted value (200.28 umol Trolox/g DW). In addition, the MAE method was
      compared with two conventional methods (Soxhlet extraction and maceration
      extraction). Results showed that the antioxidant capacity of the extract obtained
      by MAE method was stronger than that obtained by maceration (168.67 &#177; 3.88
      umol Trolox/g DW) or Soxhlet extraction (114.09 &#177; 2.01 umol Trolox/g DW).
      Finally, several phenolic compounds in the extract were identified and quantified
      by UPLC-MS/MS, which were rutin, gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, epicatechin,
      epicatechin gallate, 2-hydrocinnamic acid, p -coumaric acid, quercetin,
      chlorogenic acid and ferulic acid.

PMID- 28878179
TI  - Masticadienonic and 3&#945;-OH Masticadienoic Acids Induce Apoptosis and Inhibit
      Cell Proliferation and Tumor Growth in Prostate Cancer Xenografts in Vivo.
AB  - The triterpenes have been constituted as a group of interesting molecules as
      possible antitumor agents. Despite several of them not presenting a potent
      cytotoxic activity in vitro against cancer cells, in vivo in xenotransplant
      tumors studies, they show promising results. Based on the above considerations,
      we investigated the antitumor activity of both masticadienonic (MDA) and 3&#945;
      OH masticadienoic (3&#945;-OH MDA) acids in a mouse prostate cancer xenograft
      model. Immunohistochemical assays were used to evaluate the decrease in the
      expression of the Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) and the Ki-67 induced
      by MDA and 3&#945;-OH MDA. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end
      labeling (TUNEL) assay was performed to demonstrate the fragmentation of DNA. Our
      results showed that the two triterpenes inhibited tumor growth, had anti
      proliferative effect in vivo and induced cell death by apoptosis. Collectively,
      our data suggested that the antitumor mechanism of MDA and 3&#945;-OH MDA
      involves several molecular targets related to cell proliferation and apoptosis.

PMID- 28878181
TI  - Developmental Outcomes at 24 Months of Age in Toddlers Supplemented with
      Arachidonic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid: Results of a Double Blind Randomized,
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - Little is known about arachidonic acid (ARA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
      requirements in toddlers. A longitudinal, double blind, controlled trial in
      toddlers ( n = 133) age 13.4 &#177; 0.9 months (mean &#177; standard deviation),
      randomized to receive a DHA (200 mg/day) and ARA (200 mg/day) supplement
      (supplement) or a corn oil supplement (control) until age 24 months determined
      effects on neurodevelopment. We found no effect of the supplement on the Bayley
      Scales of Infant and Toddler Development 3rd Edition (Bayley-III) cognitive and
      language composites and Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor
      Integration (Beery VMI) at age 24 months. Supplemented toddlers had higher RBC
      phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and plasma DHA and ARA
      compared to placebo toddlers at age 24 months. A positive relationship between
      RBC PE ARA and Bayley III Cognitive composite (4.55 (0.21-9.00), B (95% CI), p =
      0.045) in supplemented boys, but not in control boys, was observed in models
      adjusted for baseline fatty acid, maternal non-verbal intelligence, and BMI z
      score at age 24 months. A similar positive relationship between RBC PE ARA and
      Bayley III Language composite was observed for supplemented boys (11.52 (5.10
      17.94), p < 0.001) and girls (11.19 (4.69-17.68), p = 0.001). These findings
      suggest that increasing the ARA status in toddlers is associated with better
      neurodevelopment at age 24 months.

PMID- 28878182
TI  - RuO&#8322; pH Sensor with Super-Glue-Inspired Reference Electrode.
AB  - A pH-sensitive RuO&#8322; electrode coated in a commercial cyanoacrylate adhesive
      typically exhibits very low pH sensitivity, and could be paired with a RuO&#8322;
      working electrode as a differential type pH sensor. However, such sensors display
      poor performance in real sample matrices. A pH sensor employing a RuO&#8322; pH
      sensitive working electrode and a SiO&#8322;-PVB junction-modified RuO&#8322;
      reference electrode is developed as an alternative high-performance solution.
      This sensor exhibits a performance similar to that of a commercial glass pH
      sensor in some common sample matrices, particularly, an excellent pH sensitivity
      of 55.7 mV/pH, a hysteresis as low as 2.7 mV, and a drift below 2.2 mV/h. The
      developed sensor structure opens the way towards the development of a simple,
      cost effective, and robust pH sensor for pH analysis in various sample matrices.

PMID- 28878180
TI  - Bariatric Surgery and Precision Nutrition.
AB  - This review provides a literature overview of new findings relating nutritional
      genomics and bariatric surgery. It also describes the importance of nutritional
      genomics concepts in personalized bariatric management. It includes a discussion
      of the potential role bariatric surgery plays in altering the three pillars of
      nutritional genomics: nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, and epigenetics. We present
      studies that show the effect of each patient's genetic and epigenetic variables
      on the response to surgical weight loss treatment. We include investigations that
      demonstrate the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms with obesity
      phenotypes and their influence on weight loss after bariatric surgery. We also
      present reports on how significant weight loss induced by bariatric surgery
      impacts telomere length, and we discuss studies on the existence of an epigenetic
      signature associated with surgery outcomes and specific gene methylation profile,
      which may help to predict weight loss after a surgical procedure. Finally, we
      show articles which evidence that bariatric surgery may affect expression of
      numerous genes involved in different metabolic pathways and consequently induce
      functional and taxonomic changes in gut microbial communities. The role
      nutritional genomics plays in responses to weight loss after bariatric surgery is
      evident. Better understanding of the molecular pathways involved in this process
      is necessary for successful weight management and maintenance.

PMID- 28878184
TI  - Simplified Models for the Material Characterization of Cold-Formed RHS.
AB  - It is well known that the cold-forming process used to manufacture tubes causes
      an increase in both the yielding stress and the ultimate strength of the corner
      material in rectangular steel hollow sections. This may have a significant effect
      on the resistance of any structure built with those profiles. However, the
      mentioned material hardening can be difficult to take into account in the
      calculations for member design or to evaluate the connection resistance through
      the design formulation or when using numerical simulation models. As an attempt
      to face the above-mentioned problem, the present paper presents a comparison
      among simplified approaches that consider homogeneous material properties for the
      whole section. It has been carried out by comparing the results obtained from the
      finite element modelling of stub column tests in which the material properties
      based on the flat faces were considered for the whole profile.

PMID- 28878183
TI  - A Novel Combination of Wheat Peptides and Fucoidan Attenuates Ethanol-Induced
      Gastric Mucosal Damage through Anti-Oxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, and Pro-Survival
      Mechanisms.
AB  - Gastritis or peptic ulcer is believed to affect about half of people worldwide.
      Traditional medications can lead to adverse effects, therefore, alternative
      nutritional strategies are needed to prevent the development of gastric mucosal
      damage. A novel combination of two food-grade ingredients, wheat peptides and
      fucoidan (WPF), was prepared to treat male Sprague Dawley rats for 30 days before
      gastric mucosal damage was induced by oral administration of ethanol. The serum
      levels of biomarkers were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
      Biomarkers in stomach tissue were analyzed using immunohistochemistry. In
      addition, human gastric epithelial cell line (GES-1) was used to investigate
      protein expression by Western blot. WPF could attenuate ethanol-induced gastric
      mucosal damage in an inverse dose-dependent manner, with both ulcer index and
      pathological index improved. WPF increased superoxide dismutase level and
      decreased malondialdehyde level. WPF also decreased the levels of interleukin-8,
      platelet-activating factor, and Caspase 3, while increasing the levels of
      prostaglandin E-2, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and EGF receptor (EGFR).
      Furthermore, phosphorylation of EGFR and extracellular signal-regulated kinases
      was induced by WPF in GES-1 cells. In conclusion, the novel combination of wheat
      peptides and fucoidan attenuated ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damage in rats
      through anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and pro-survival mechanisms.

PMID- 28878185
TI  - Effects of Hyporheic Water Fluxes and Sediment Grain Size on the Concentration
      and Diffusive Flux of Heavy Metals in the Streambed.
AB  - The hyporheic zone regulates physicochemical processes in surface-groundwater
      systems and can be an important source of heavy metals in fluvial systems. This
      study assesses the pore water concentrations and diffusive fluxes of heavy metals
      with respect to the vertical water exchange flux (VWEF) and sediment grain size.
      Water and sediment samples were collected on August 2016 from upstream Site 1 and
      downstream Site 2 along the Juehe River in Shaanxi Province, China. Streambed
      vertical hydraulic conductivity (Kv) and the VWEF were estimated via the
      standpipe permeameter test method and Darcy's law. The heavy metal concentrations
      in the pore water were measured and the diffusive fluxes were calculated using
      Fick's first law. The VWEF patterns were dominated by upward flow, and Site 1
      featured higher values of Kv and VWEF. Higher Cu and Zn concentrations occurred
      near the channel centre with coarse sand and gravel and greater upward VWEFs
      because coarser sediment and greater upward VWEFs cause stronger metal desorption
      capacity. Additionally, Cu and Zn at the two sites generally diffused from pore
      water to surface water, potentially due to the upward VWEF. The VWEF and sediment
      grain size are likely crucial factors influencing the heavy metal concentrations
      and diffusive fluxes.

PMID- 28878186
TI  - Monitoring Ion Track Formation Using In Situ RBS/c, ToF-ERDA, and HR-PIXE.
AB  - The aim of this work is to investigate the feasibility of ion beam analysis
      techniques for monitoring swift heavy ion track formation. First, the use of the
      in situ Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling mode to observe
      damage build-up in quartz SiO&#8322; after MeV heavy ion irradiation is
      demonstrated. Second, new results of the in situ grazing incidence time-of-flight
      elastic recoil detection analysis used for monitoring the surface elemental
      composition during ion tracks formation in various materials are presented. Ion
      tracks were found on SrTiO&#8323;, quartz SiO&#8322;, a-SiO&#8322;, and muscovite
      mica surfaces by atomic force microscopy, but in contrast to our previous studies
      on GaN and TiO&#8322;, surface stoichiometry remained unchanged. Third, the
      usability of high resolution particle induced X-ray spectroscopy for observation
      of electronic dynamics during early stages of ion track formation is shown.

PMID- 28878187
TI  - Composite Fibers from Recycled Plastics Using Melt Centrifugal Spinning.
AB  - New methods are being developed to enable the production of value-added materials
      from high-volume, low-cost feedstocks arising from domestic recycling streams. In
      this work, recycled bottle-grade polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene, and
      polypropylene were spun into fibers from the melt using a centrifugal spinning
      technique. Mono-component fibers and 50/50 blends of each polymer and a 33/33/33
      blend of all three polymers were evaluated. Fiber morphology, chemistry, thermal,
      and mechanical properties were probed. Fiber diameters ranged from ca. 1 to over
      12 um, with polypropylene fibers having the smallest fiber diameters. Mono
      component fibers were generally defect-free, while composite fibers containing
      polypropylene were beady. Fibers made from polyethylene terephthalate had the
      highest tensile strength, and the addition of polyethylene terephthalate to the
      other polymers improved the mechanical properties of the blends. Nano- and micro
      fibers from both pure and mixed waste streams are expected to have applications
      in myriad areas such as ultra/micro-filtration, composites, and insulation.

PMID- 28878188
TI  - MTLD, a Database of Multiple Target Ligands, the Updated Version.
AB  - Polypharmacology plays an important role in drug discovery and polypharmacology
      drug strategies provide a novel path in drug design. However, to develop a
      polypharmacology drug with the desired profile remains a challenge. Previously,
      we developed a free web-accessible database called Multiple Target Ligand
      Database (MTLD, www.mtdcadd.com). Herein, the MTLD database has been updated,
      containing 2444 Multiple Target Ligands (MTLs) that bind with 21,424 binding
      sites from 18,231 crystal structures. Of the MTLs, 304 entries are approved
      drugs, and 1911 entries are drug-like compounds. Also, we added new functions
      such as multiple conditional search and linkage visualization. Through querying
      the updated database, extremely useful information for the development of
      polypharmacology drugs may be provided.

PMID- 28878189
TI  - Synthesis and Biological Activity of Novel O-Alkyl Derivatives of Naringenin and
      Their Oximes.
AB  - O -Alkyl derivatives of naringenin ( 1a - 10a ) were prepared from naringenin
      using the corresponding alkyl iodides and anhydrous potassium carbonate. The
      resulting products were used to obtain oximes ( 1b - 10b ). All compounds were
      tested for antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli ATCC10536,
      Staphylococcus aureus DSM799, Candida albicans DSM1386, Alternaria alternata
      CBS1526, Fusarium linii KB-F1, and Aspergillus niger DSM1957. The resulting
      biological activity was expressed as the increase in optical density (&#916;OD).
      The highest inhibitory effect against E. coli ATCC10536 was observed for 7,4'-di-
      O -pentylnaringenin ( 8a ), 7- O -dodecylnaringenin ( 9a ), naringenin oxime ( NG
      OX ), 7,4'-di- O -pentylnaringenin oxime ( 8b ), and 7- O -dodecylnaringenin
      oxime ( 9b ) (&#916;OD = 0). 7- O -dodecylnaringenin oxime ( 9b ) also inhibited
      the growth of S. aureus DSM799 (&#916;OD = 0.35) and C. albicans DSM1386
      (&#916;OD = 0.22). The growth of A. alternata CBS1526 was inhibited as a result
      of the action of 7,4'-di- O -methylnaringenin ( 2a ), 7- O -ethylnaringenin ( 4a
      ), 7,4'-di- O -ethylnaringenin ( 5a ), 5,7,4'-tri- O -ethylnaringenin ( 6a ),
      7,4'-di- O -pentylnaringenin ( 8a ), and 7- O -dodecylnaringenin ( 9a ) (&#916;OD
      in the range of 0.49-0.42) in comparison to that of the control culture (&#916;OD
      = 1.87). In the case of F. linii KB-F1, naringenin ( NG ), 7,4'-di- O 
      dodecylnaringenin ( 10a ), 7- O -dodecylnaringenin oxime ( 9b ), and 7,4'-di- O 
      dodecylnaringenin oxime ( 10b ) showed the strongest effect (&#916;OD = 0). 7,4'
      Di- O -pentylnaringenin ( 8a ) and naringenin oxime ( NG-OX ) hindered the growth
      of A. niger DSM1957 (&#916;OD = 0).

PMID- 28878190
TI  - Effect of Mo on Microstructures and Wear Properties of In Situ Synthesized
      Ti(C,N)/Ni-Based Composite Coatings by Laser Cladding.
AB  - Using Ni60 alloy, C, TiN and Mo mixed powders as the precursor materials, in situ
      synthesized Ti(C,N) particles reinforcing Ni-based composite coatings are
      produced on Ti6Al4V alloys by laser cladding. Phase constituents, microstructures
      and wear properties of the composite coatings with 0 wt % Mo, 4 wt % Mo and 8 wt
      % Mo additions are studied comparatively. Results indicate that Ti(C,N) is formed
      by the in situ metallurgical reaction, the (Ti,Mo)(C,N) rim phase surrounding the
      Ti(C,N) ceramic particle is synthesized with the addition of Mo, and the increase
      of Mo content is beneficial to improve the wear properties of the cladding
      coatings. Because of the effect of Mo, the grains are remarkably refined and a
      unique core-rim structure that is uniformly dispersed in the matrix appears;
      meanwhile, the composite coatings with Mo addition exhibit high hardness and
      excellent wear resistance due to the comprehensive action of dispersion
      strengthening, fine grain strengthening and solid solution strengthening.

PMID- 28878192
TI  - Improving the Mechanical Properties of Cu-15Ni-8Sn Alloys by Addition of
      Titanium.
AB  - The effect of Ti addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Cu
      15Ni-8Sn alloys was investigated. Optical microscopy (OM), scanning electronic
      microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to
      determine grain size and distribution of the second phases in the alloys. The
      results indicate that the tensile properties of Cu-15Ni-8Sn alloys are improved
      significantly with Ti addition. Tensile elongation increased from 2.7% for the
      alloy without Ti to 17.9% for the alloy with 0.3% Ti, while tensile strength was
      maintained and even increased from 935 MPa to 1024 MPa. The improvement of the
      mechanical properties of Cu-15Ni-8Sn alloys by the addition of Ti is attributed
      to the grain refinement and suppression of discontinuous precipitation during
      heat treatment.

PMID- 28878193
TI  - Time-Frequency Analysis of Mu Rhythm Activity during Picture and Video Action
      Naming Tasks.
AB  - This study used whole-head 64 channel electroencephalography to measure changes
      in sensorimotor activity-as indexed by the mu rhythm-in neurologically-healthy
      adults, during subvocal confrontation naming tasks. Independent component
      analyses revealed sensorimotor mu component clusters in the right and left
      hemispheres. Event related spectral perturbation analyses indicated significantly
      stronger patterns of mu rhythm activity ( p FDR < 0.05) during the video
      condition as compared to the picture condition, specifically in the left
      hemisphere. Mu activity is hypothesized to reflect typical patterns of
      sensorimotor activation during action verb naming tasks. These results support
      further investigation into sensorimotor cortical activity during action verb
      naming in clinical populations.

PMID- 28878194
TI  - A Rationally Designed Reversible 'Turn-Off' Sensor for Glutathione.
AB  - &#947;-Glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine (GSH) plays a critical role in maintaining
      redox homeostasis in biological systems and a decrease in its cellular levels is
      associated with diseases. Existing fluorescence-based chemosensors for GSH acts
      as irreversible reaction-based probes that exhibit a maximum fluorescence ('turn
      on') once the reaction is complete, regardless of the actual concentration of
      GSH. A reversible, reaction-based 'turn-off' probe ( 1 ) is reported here to
      sense the decreasing levels of GSH, a situation known to occur at the onset of
      various diseases. The more fluorescent merocyanine (MC) isomer of 1 exists in
      aqueous solution and this reacts with GSH to induce formation of the ring-closed
      spiropyran (SP) isomer, with a measurable decrease in absorbance and fluorescence
      ('turn-off'). Sensor 1 has good aqueous solubility and shows an excellent
      selectivity for GSH over other biologically relevant metal ions and aminothiol
      analytes. The sensor permeates HEK 293 cells and an increase in fluorescence is
      observed on adding buthionine sulfoximine, an inhibitor of GSH synthesis.

PMID- 28878195
TI  - 1&#945;,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 Attenuates TGF-&#946;-Induced Pro-Fibrotic Effects
      in Human Lung Epithelial Cells through Inhibition of Epithelial-Mesenchymal
      Transition.
AB  - Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive fibrotic lung disease of persisting lung
      injury and ineffective wound repair, with poor prognosis. Epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) of alveolar epithelia cells is an early event in the development
      of pulmonary fibrosis, and transforming growth factor &#946; (TGF-&#946;) is an
      acknowledged inducer of EMT. Epidemiological studies demonstrated that serum
      levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D were associated with the presence of fibrosis
      diseases. We investigated whether vitamin D attenuated TGF-&#946;-induced pro
      fibrotic effects through inhibiting EMT in human alveolar epithelia A549 cells.
      A549 cells were cultured with TGF-&#946; alone or in combination with 1&#945;,25
      dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1&#945;,25(OH)&#8322;D&#8323;). TGF-&#946; increased the
      expression of the mesenchymal markers (N-cadherin and Vimentin), and decreased
      the expression of epithelial markers (E-cadherin). 1&#945;,25(OH)&#8322;D&#8323;
      attenuated these TGF-&#946;-induced alterations. Furthermore, the EMT-related
      transcription factors (Snail and &#946;-catenin) and the extracellular matrix
      genes (Collagen I and fibronectin) were inhibited by
      1&#945;,25(OH)&#8322;D&#8323;, while the expression of vitamin D receptor (VDR)
      was elevated. In addition, 1&#945;,25(OH)&#8322;D&#8323; alleviated the cell
      migration and the invasion abilities in TGF-&#946;-stimulated A549 cells,
      determined by the scratch wound healing and transwell assays. Our findings
      suggested that 1&#945;,25(OH)&#8322;D&#8323; inhibited the pro-fibrotic phenotype
      of lung epithelial cells under TGF-&#946; stimulation and provided new clues in
      the clinical management of pulmonary fibrosis.

PMID- 28878191
TI  - Melatonin and Hippo Pathway: Is There Existing Cross-Talk?
AB  - Melatonin is an indolic hormone that regulates a plethora of functions ranging
      from the regulation of circadian rhythms and antioxidant properties to the
      induction and maintenance of tumor suppressor pathways. It binds to specific
      receptors as well as to some cytosolic proteins, leading to several cellular
      signaling cascades. Recently, the involvement of melatonin in cancer insurgence
      and progression has clearly been demonstrated. In this review, we will first
      describe the structure and functions of melatonin and its receptors, and then
      discuss both molecular and epidemiological evidence on melatonin anticancer
      effects. Finally, we will shed light on potential cross-talk between melatonin
      signaling and the Hippo signaling pathway, along with the possible implications
      for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28878196
TI  - Metasurfaces Based on Phase-Change Material as a Reconfigurable Platform for
      Multifunctional Devices.
AB  - Integration of phase-change materials (PCMs) into electrical/optical circuits has
      initiated extensive innovation for applications of metamaterials (MMs) including
      rewritable optical data storage, metasurfaces, and optoelectronic devices. PCMs
      have been studied deeply due to their reversible phase transition, high
      endurance, switching speed, and data retention. Germanium-antimony-tellurium
      (GST) is a PCM that has amorphous and crystalline phases with distinct
      properties, is bistable and nonvolatile, and undergoes a reliable and
      reproducible phase transition in response to an optical or electrical stimulus;
      GST may therefore have applications in tunable photonic devices and
      optoelectronic circuits. In this progress article, we outline recent studies of
      GST and discuss its advantages and possible applications in reconfigurable
      metadevices. We also discuss outlooks for integration of GST in active
      nanophotonic metadevices.

PMID- 28878198
TI  - Endocrine Disruptors and Pregnancy: Knowledge, Attitudes and Prevention Behaviors
      of French Women.
AB  - Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) are environmental exposure factors that are
      rarely reported in clinical practice, particularly during pregnancy. This study
      aimed to describe women's knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards EDC
      exposure. A study was conducted in the French Department of Vienne between 2014
      and 2016 and comprised semi-structured interviews with pregnant women, a focus
      group of professionals in perinatology and environmental health, and the
      administration of a psychosocial questionnaire comprising scores in 300 pregnant
      or in postpartum period women. The mean score of knowledge was 42.9 +/- 9.8 out
      of 100 (from 13.5 to 75.7). Exposure attitude was determined by risk perception.
      Mean level of cues to action to reduce their EDC exposure was estimated at 56.9
      +/- 22.5 out of 100 (from 0 to 100). Anxiety was significantly increased after
      the questionnaire. Anxiety about EDC was associated with a high score of
      knowledge (OR = 2.30, 95% CI (1.12-4.71)) and with no pregnancy anxiety (OR =
      0.57, 95% CI (0.34-0.95)). Our findings suggest that healthcare providers should
      consider pregnant women's knowledge and perceptions, possibilities of action, and
      be careful not to increase their anxiety when advising them about EDC and
      environmental exposure.

PMID- 28878197
TI  - Fructose Consumption, Lipogenesis, and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
AB  - Increased fructose consumption has been suggested to contribute to non-alcoholic
      fatty liver disease (NAFLD), dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance, but a causal
      role of fructose in these metabolic diseases remains debated. Mechanistically,
      hepatic fructose metabolism yields precursors that can be used for
      gluconeogenesis and de novo lipogenesis (DNL). Fructose-derived precursors also
      act as nutritional regulators of the transcription factors, including ChREBP and
      SREBP1c, that regulate the expression of hepatic gluconeogenesis and DNL genes.
      In support of these mechanisms, fructose intake increases hepatic gluconeogenesis
      and DNL and raises plasma glucose and triglyceride levels in humans. However,
      epidemiological and fructose-intervention studies have had inconclusive results
      with respect to liver fat, and there is currently no good human evidence that
      fructose, when consumed in isocaloric amounts, causes more liver fat accumulation
      than other energy-dense nutrients. In this review, we aim to provide an overview
      of the seemingly contradicting literature on fructose and NAFLD. We outline
      fructose physiology, the mechanisms that link fructose to NAFLD, and the
      available evidence from human studies. From this framework, we conclude that the
      cellular mechanisms underlying hepatic fructose metabolism will likely reveal
      novel targets for the treatment of NAFLD, dyslipidemia, and hepatic insulin
      resistance. Finally, fructose-containing sugars are a major source of excess
      calories, suggesting that a reduction of their intake has potential for the
      prevention of NAFLD and other obesity-related diseases.

PMID- 28878199
TI  - Microfluidic-Based Measurement Method of Red Blood Cell Aggregation under
      Hematocrit Variations.
AB  - Red blood cell (RBC) aggregation and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) are
      considered to be promising biomarkers for effectively monitoring blood rheology
      at extremely low shear rates. In this study, a microfluidic-based measurement
      technique is suggested to evaluate RBC aggregation under hematocrit variations
      due to the continuous ESR. After the pipette tip is tightly fitted into an inlet
      port, a disposable suction pump is connected to the outlet port through a
      polyethylene tube. After dropping blood (approximately 0.2 mL) into the pipette
      tip, the blood flow can be started and stopped by periodically operating a pinch
      valve. To evaluate variations in RBC aggregation due to the continuous ESR, an
      EAI (Erythrocyte-sedimentation-rate Aggregation Index) is newly suggested, which
      uses temporal variations of image intensity. To demonstrate the proposed method,
      the dynamic characterization of the disposable suction pump is first
      quantitatively measured by varying the hematocrit levels and cavity volume of the
      suction pump. Next, variations in RBC aggregation and ESR are quantified by
      varying the hematocrit levels. The conventional aggregation index (AI) is
      maintained constant, unrelated to the hematocrit values. However, the EAI
      significantly decreased with respect to the hematocrit values. Thus, the EAI is
      more effective than the AI for monitoring variations in RBC aggregation due to
      the ESR. Lastly, the proposed method is employed to detect aggregated blood and
      thermally-induced blood. The EAI gradually increased as the concentration of a
      dextran solution increased. In addition, the EAI significantly decreased for
      thermally-induced blood. From this experimental demonstration, the proposed
      method is able to effectively measure variations in RBC aggregation due to
      continuous hematocrit variations, especially by quantifying the EAI.

PMID- 28878200
TI  - A Protocol for Generating and Exchanging (Genome-Scale) Metabolic Resource
      Allocation Models.
AB  - In this article, we present a protocol for generating a complete (genome-scale)
      metabolic resource allocation model, as well as a proposal for how to represent
      such models in the systems biology markup language (SBML). Such models are used
      to investigate enzyme levels and achievable growth rates in large-scale metabolic
      networks. Although the idea of metabolic resource allocation studies has been
      present in the field of systems biology for some years, no guidelines for
      generating such a model have been published up to now. This paper presents step
      by-step instructions for building a (dynamic) resource allocation model, starting
      with prerequisites such as a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction, through
      building protein and noncatalytic biomass synthesis reactions and assigning
      turnover rates for each reaction. In addition, we explain how one can use SBML
      level 3 in combination with the flux balance constraints and our resource
      allocation modeling annotation to represent such models.

PMID- 28878201
TI  - Protein Complexes Prediction Method Based on Core-Attachment Structure and
      Functional Annotations.
AB  - Recent advances in high-throughput laboratory techniques captured large-scale
      protein-protein interaction (PPI) data, making it possible to create a detailed
      map of protein interaction networks, and thus enable us to detect protein
      complexes from these PPI networks. However, most of the current state-of-the-art
      studies still have some problems, for instance, incapability of identifying
      overlapping clusters, without considering the inherent organization within
      protein complexes, and overlooking the biological meaning of complexes.
      Therefore, we present a novel overlapping protein complexes prediction method
      based on core-attachment structure and function annotations (CFOCM), which
      performs in two stages: first, it detects protein complex cores with the maximum
      value of our defined cluster closeness function, in which the proteins are also
      closely related to at least one common function. Then it appends attach proteins
      into these detected cores to form the returned complexes. For performance
      evaluation, CFOCM and six classical methods have been used to identify protein
      complexes on three different yeast PPI networks, and three sets of real complexes
      including the Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS), the
      Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) and the Catalogues of Yeast protein Complexes
      (CYC2008) are selected as benchmark sets, and the results show that CFOCM is
      indeed effective and robust for achieving the highest F-measure values in all
      tests.

PMID- 28878202
TI  - Predicting Organ-Specific Risk Interactions between Radiation and Chemotherapy in
      Secondary Cancer Survivors.
AB  - Several studies have shown that pediatric patients have an increased risk of
      developing a secondary malignancy several decades after treatment with
      radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In this work, we use a biologically motivated
      mathematical formalism to estimate the relative risks of breast, lung and thyroid
      cancers in childhood cancer survivors due to concurrent therapy regimen. This
      model specifically includes possible organ-specific interaction between
      radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The model predicts relative risks for developing
      secondary cancers after chemotherapy in breast, lung and thyroid tissues, and
      compared with the epidemiological data. For a concurrent therapy protocol, our
      model predicted relative risks of 3.2, 9.3, 4.5 as compared to the clinical data,
      i.e., 1.4, 8.0, 2.3 for secondary breast, lung and thyroid cancer risks,
      respectively. The extracted chemotherapy mutation induction rates for breast,
      lung and thyroid are 10 &#8722;9 , 0.5 &#215; 10 &#8722;6 , 0.9 &#215; 10
      &#8722;7 respectively. We found that there exists no synergistic interaction
      between radiation and chemotherapy for neither mutation induction nor cell kill
      in lung tissue, but there is an interaction in cell kill for the breast and
      thyroid organs. These findings help understand the risks of current clinical
      protocols and might provide rational guidance to develop future multi-modality
      treatment protocols to minimize secondary cancer risks.

PMID- 28878203
TI  - Biventricular Cardiac Hypertrophy in a Patient with Primary Aldosteronism and
      Atrial Septal Defect.
AB  - BACKGROUND Primary aldosteronism can be caused by adrenocortical adenoma and is
      usually associated with left ventricular hypertrophy. Biventricular cardiac
      hypertrophy and heart failure in the presence of a pre-existing atrial septal
      defect (ASD) are a rare association of primary aldosteronism. CASE REPORT A 33
      year-old woman with resistant hypertension and refractory hypokalemia presented
      with signs and symptoms of heart failure. She had previously been diagnosed
      having a right adrenal tumor and ostium secundum type ASD. Transthoracic
      echocardiography confirmed the location of the ASD, with a left-to-right cardiac
      shunt, moderate to severe tricuspid insufficiency, moderate pulmonary
      hypertension (60 mm Hg), four chamber dilatation and biventricular hypertrophy.
      The left ventricular ejection fraction was 17%. Endocrine function tests showed a
      raised plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) to plasma renin activity (PRA)
      ratio, which supported a diagnosis of primary aldosteronism. A captopril
      suppression test failed to suppress the patient's PAC, which confirmed the
      diagnosis. The patient underwent a right adrenalectomy with subsequent
      normalization of hypokalemia, PAC, and PAC to PRA ratio and her hypertension was
      managed successfully with monotherapy. Surgical pathology examination of the
      tumor revealed an adrenocortical adenoma. At follow-up at 18 months, the patient
      had a normal potassium level, and her cardiac function and ventricular geometries
      were improved. CONCLUSIONS Reversible cardiac hypertrophy is rarely associated
      with primary aldosteronism, however, it should be recognized. Present findings
      suggest that aldosteronism contributes to cardiac remodelling and biventricular
      hypertrophic changes. Administering appropriate treatment in a timely manner, can
      reverse cardiac changes along with the other symptoms of primary aldosteronism.

PMID- 28878205
TI  - Tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance driven by magnetic phase transition.
AB  - The independent control of two magnetic electrodes and spin-coherent transport in
      magnetic tunnel junctions are strictly required for tunneling magnetoresistance,
      while junctions with only one ferromagnetic electrode exhibit tunneling
      anisotropic magnetoresistance dependent on the anisotropic density of states with
      no room temperature performance so far. Here, we report an alternative approach
      to obtaining tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in alpha'-FeRh-based
      junctions driven by the magnetic phase transition of alpha'-FeRh and resultantly
      large variation of the density of states in the vicinity of MgO tunneling
      barrier, referred to as phase transition tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance.
      The junctions with only one alpha'-FeRh magnetic electrode show a
      magnetoresistance ratio up to 20% at room temperature. Both the polarity and
      magnitude of the phase transition tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance can be
      modulated by interfacial engineering at the alpha'-FeRh/MgO interface. Besides
      the fundamental significance, our finding might add a different dimension to
      magnetic random access memory and antiferromagnet spintronics.Tunneling
      anisotropic magnetoresistance is promising for next generation memory devices but
      limited by the low efficiency and functioning temperature. Here the authors
      achieved 20% tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance at room temperature in
      magnetic tunnel junctions with one alpha'-FeRh magnetic electrode.

PMID- 28878204
TI  - Analysis of Antineutrophil Cytoplasm Antibody from 118 730 Patients in Tertiary
      Hospitals in Jiangxi Province, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND The discovery of antineutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA) makes the
      early diagnosis of primary vasculitis possible, and also has important guiding
      significance for the diagnosis and treatment of secondary vasculitis. This study
      aimed to investigate the clinical significance of ANCA. MATERIAL AND METHODS ANCA
      was detected by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IIF), and anti-myeloperoxidase
      (MPO) antibody, and anti-proteinase 3 (PR3) antibody were detected by ELISA. The
      results were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS Among 118 730 patients, a total of
      5853 (4.93%) were positive for ANCA. In the positive cases, 3.98% were male and
      6.33% were female, with significant differences (chi2=123.38, P<0.01). For ANCA,
      the department with the highest positive rate (15.06%) was the Department of
      Rheumatology, followed by 7.78% in the Department of Dermatology, 6.79% in the
      Department of Nephrology, and 5.72% in the Department of Traditional Chinese
      Medicine (TCM). Anti-PR3 and cANCA were highly specific in primary vasculitis
      (P<0.01). Anti-MPO and pANCA had high specificity for other autoimmune diseases
      (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS ANCA has important guiding significance for vasculitis
      related diseases. Therefore, it is important in the diagnosis and treatment of
      this disease and has value in clinical practice.

PMID- 28878207
TI  - Silicon quantum processor with robust long-distance qubit couplings.
AB  - Practical quantum computers require a large network of highly coherent qubits,
      interconnected in a design robust against errors. Donor spins in silicon provide
      state-of-the-art coherence and quantum gate fidelities, in a platform adapted
      from industrial semiconductor processing. Here we present a scalable design for a
      silicon quantum processor that does not require precise donor placement and
      leaves ample space for the routing of interconnects and readout devices. We
      introduce the flip-flop qubit, a combination of the electron-nuclear spin states
      of a phosphorus donor that can be controlled by microwave electric fields. Two
      qubit gates exploit a second-order electric dipole-dipole interaction, allowing
      selective coupling beyond the nearest-neighbor, at separations of hundreds of
      nanometers, while microwave resonators can extend the entanglement to macroscopic
      distances. We predict gate fidelities within fault-tolerance thresholds using
      realistic noise models. This design provides a realizable blueprint for scalable
      spin-based quantum computers in silicon.Quantum computers will require a large
      network of coherent qubits, connected in a noise-resilient way. Tosi et al.
      present a design for a quantum processor based on electron-nuclear spins in
      silicon, with electrical control and coupling schemes that simplify qubit
      fabrication and operation.

PMID- 28878206
TI  - Towards designer organelles by subverting the peroxisomal import pathway.
AB  - The development of 'designer' organelles could be a key strategy to enable
      foreign pathways to be efficiently controlled within eukaryotic biotechnology. A
      fundamental component of any such system will be the implementation of a bespoke
      protein import pathway that can selectively deliver constituent proteins to the
      new compartment in the presence of existing endogenous trafficking systems. Here
      we show that the protein-protein interactions that control the peroxisomal
      protein import pathway can be manipulated to create a pair of interacting
      partners that still support protein import in moss cells, but are orthogonal to
      the naturally occurring pathways. In addition to providing a valuable
      experimental tool to give new insights into peroxisomal protein import, the
      variant receptor-signal sequence pair forms the basis of a system in which normal
      peroxisomal function is downregulated and replaced with an alternative pathway,
      an essential first step in the creation of a designer organelle.Designer
      organelles could allow the isolation of synthetic biological pathways from
      endogenous components of the host cell. Here the authors engineer a peroxisomal
      protein import pathway orthogonal to the naturally occurring system.

PMID- 28878208
TI  - HSP90 inhibition enhances cancer immunotherapy by upregulating interferon
      response genes.
AB  - T-cell-based immunotherapies are promising treatments for cancer patients.
      Although durable responses can be achieved in some patients, many patients fail
      to respond to these therapies, underscoring the need for improvement with
      combination therapies. From a screen of 850 bioactive compounds, we identify
      HSP90 inhibitors as candidates for combination with immunotherapy. We show that
      inhibition of HSP90 with ganetespib enhances T-cell-mediated killing of patient
      derived human melanoma cells by their autologous T cells in vitro and potentiates
      responses to anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD1 therapy in vivo. Mechanistic studies reveal
      that HSP90 inhibition results in upregulation of interferon response genes, which
      are essential for the enhanced killing of ganetespib treated melanoma cells by T
      cells. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that HSP90 inhibition can
      potentiate T-cell-mediated anti-tumor immune responses, and rationale to explore
      the combination of immunotherapy and HSP90 inhibitors.Many patients fail to
      respond to T cell based immunotherapies. Here, the authors, through a high
      throughput screening, identify HSP90 inhibitors as a class of preferred drugs for
      treatment combination with immunotherapy.

PMID- 28878209
TI  - Community-like genome in single cells of the sulfur bacterium Achromatium
      oxaliferum.
AB  - Polyploid bacteria are common, but the genetic and functional diversity resulting
      from polyploidy is unknown. Here we use single-cell genomics, metagenomics,
      single-cell amplicon sequencing, and fluorescence in situ hybridization, to show
      that individual cells of Achromatium oxaliferum, the world's biggest known
      freshwater bacterium, harbor genetic diversity typical of whole bacterial
      communities. The cells contain tens of transposable elements, which likely cause
      the unprecedented diversity that we observe in the sequence and synteny of genes.
      Given the high within-cell diversity of the usually conserved 16S ribosomal RNA
      gene, we suggest that gene conversion occurs in multiple, separated genomic
      hotspots. The ribosomal RNA distribution inside the cells hints to spatially
      differential gene expression. We also suggest that intracellular gene transfer
      may lead to extensive gene reshuffling and increased diversity.The cells of
      Achromatium bacteria are remarkably large and contain multiple chromosome copies.
      Here, Ionescu et al. show that chromosome copies within individual cells display
      high diversity, similar to that of bacterial communities, and contain tens of
      transposable elements.

PMID- 28878210
TI  - Alkaline earth metal vanadates as sodium-ion battery anodes.
AB  - The abundance of sodium resources indicates the potential of sodium-ion batteries
      as emerging energy storage devices. However, the practical application of sodium
      ion batteries is hindered by the limited electrochemical performance of electrode
      materials, especially at the anode side. Here, we identify alkaline earth metal
      vanadates as promising anodes for sodium-ion batteries. The prepared calcium
      vanadate nanowires possess intrinsically high electronic conductivity (> 100 S cm
      1), small volume change (< 10%), and a self-preserving effect, which results in a
      superior cycling and rate performance and an applicable reversible capacity (>
      300 mAh g-1), with an average voltage of ~1.0 V. The specific sodium-storage
      mechanism, beyond the conventional intercalation or conversion reaction, is
      demonstrated through in situ and ex situ characterizations and theoretical
      calculations. This work explores alkaline earth metal vanadates for sodium-ion
      battery anodes and may open a direction for energy storage.The development of
      suitable anode materials is essential to advance sodium-ion battery technologies.
      Here the authors report that alkaline earth metal vanadates are promising
      candidates due to the favorable electrochemical properties and interesting sodium
      storage mechanism.

PMID- 28878211
TI  - Assay to visualize specific protein oxidation reveals spatio-temporal regulation
      of SHP2.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species are produced transiently in response to cell stimuli, and
      function as second messengers that oxidize target proteins. Protein-tyrosine
      phosphatases are important reactive oxygen species targets, whose oxidation
      results in rapid, reversible, catalytic inactivation. Despite increasing evidence
      for the importance of protein-tyrosine phosphatase oxidation in signal
      transduction, the cell biological details of reactive oxygen species-catalyzed
      protein-tyrosine phosphatase inactivation have remained largely unclear, due to
      our inability to visualize protein-tyrosine phosphatase oxidation in cells. By
      combining proximity ligation assay with chemical labeling of cysteine residues in
      the sulfenic acid state, we visualize oxidized Src homology 2 domain-containing
      protein-tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2). We find that platelet-derived growth
      factor evokes transient oxidation on or close to RAB5+/ early endosome antigen 1-
      endosomes. SHP2 oxidation requires NADPH oxidases (NOXs), and oxidized SHP2 co
      localizes with platelet-derived growth factor receptor and NOX1/4. Our data
      demonstrate spatially and temporally limited protein oxidation within cells, and
      suggest that platelet-derived growth factor-dependent "redoxosomes," contribute
      to proper signal transduction.Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are thought to
      be major targets of receptor-activated reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here the
      authors describe a method that allows the localized visualization of oxidized
      intermediates of PTPs inside cells during signaling, and provide support for the
      "redoxosome" model.

PMID- 28878212
TI  - Reconstructing cell cycle and disease progression using deep learning.
AB  - We show that deep convolutional neural networks combined with nonlinear dimension
      reduction enable reconstructing biological processes based on raw image data. We
      demonstrate this by reconstructing the cell cycle of Jurkat cells and disease
      progression in diabetic retinopathy. In further analysis of Jurkat cells, we
      detect and separate a subpopulation of dead cells in an unsupervised manner and,
      in classifying discrete cell cycle stages, we reach a sixfold reduction in error
      rate compared to a recent approach based on boosting on image features. In
      contrast to previous methods, deep learning based predictions are fast enough for
      on-the-fly analysis in an imaging flow cytometer.The interpretation of
      information-rich, high-throughput single-cell data is a challenge requiring
      sophisticated computational tools. Here the authors demonstrate a deep
      convolutional neural network that can classify cell cycle status on-the-fly.

PMID- 28878213
TI  - Contactless graphene conductivity mapping on a wide range of substrates with
      terahertz time-domain reflection spectroscopy.
AB  - We demonstrate how terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) operating in
      reflection geometry can be used for quantitative conductivity mapping of large
      area chemical vapour deposited graphene films on sapphire, silicon
      dioxide/silicon and germanium. We validate the technique against measurements
      performed with previously established conventional transmission based THz-TDS and
      are able to resolve conductivity changes in response to induced back-gate
      voltages. Compared to the transmission geometry, measurement in reflection mode
      requires careful alignment and complex analysis, but circumvents the need of a
      terahertz transparent substrate, potentially enabling fast, contactless, in-line
      characterisation of graphene films on non-insulating substrates such as
      germanium.

PMID- 28878214
TI  - Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha promotes cancer stem cells-like properties in
      human ovarian cancer cells by upregulating SIRT1 expression.
AB  - Ovarian cancer have a poor overall survival rate in patients, and late disease
      presentation and chemoresistance are the main factors that lead to the mortality
      of ovarian cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), a small subpopulation of cancer
      cells, have been associated with resistance to chemo- and radio-therapy in cancer
      treatment. Hypoxia is a common characteristic of many malignant tumors, and
      increased HIF-1alpha expression predicts the poor prognosis of ovarian cancer. In
      this study, we reported the relationship between hypoxia and cancer stem cells
      like properties in human ovarian cancer cell lines SKOV3 and HO8910, we found
      that hypoxia induced cancer stem cells-like properties in ovarian cancer cells.
      Moreover, SIRT1 was found to be the downstream target gene of HIF-1alpha, which
      was involved in the promotion of cancer stem cells-like features in ovarian
      cancer cells by hypoxia, and NF-kappaB signaling pathway was involved in hypoxia
      induced SIRT1 up-regulation. Our results hinted that HIF1alpha and SIRT1 might
      serve as potential therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28878215
TI  - Respiratory oscillations in alveolar oxygen tension measured in arterial blood.
AB  - Arterial oxygen partial pressure can increase during inspiration and decrease
      during expiration in the presence of a variable shunt fraction, such as with
      cyclical atelectasis, but it is generally presumed to remain constant within a
      respiratory cycle in the healthy lung. We measured arterial oxygen partial
      pressure continuously with a fast intra-vascular sensor in the carotid artery of
      anaesthetized, mechanically ventilated pigs, without lung injury. Here we
      demonstrate that arterial oxygen partial pressure shows respiratory oscillations
      in the uninjured pig lung, in the absence of cyclical atelectasis (as determined
      with dynamic computed tomography), with oscillation amplitudes that exceeded 50
      mmHg, depending on the conditions of mechanical ventilation. These arterial
      oxygen partial pressure respiratory oscillations can be modelled from a single
      alveolar compartment and a constant oxygen uptake, without the requirement for an
      increased shunt fraction during expiration. Our results are likely to contribute
      to the interpretation of arterial oxygen respiratory oscillations observed during
      mechanical ventilation in the acute respiratory distress syndrome.

PMID- 28878216
TI  - Environmental stress is the major cause of transcriptomic and proteomic changes
      in GM and non-GM plants.
AB  - The approval of genetically modified (GM) crops is preceded by years of intensive
      research to demonstrate safety to humans and environment. We recently showed that
      in vitro culture stress is the major factor influencing proteomic differences of
      GM vs. non-GM plants. This made us question the number of generations needed to
      erase such "memory". We also wondered about the relevance of alterations promoted
      by transgenesis as compared to environment-induced ones. Here we followed three
      rice lines (1-control, 1-transgenic and 1-negative segregant) throughout eight
      generations after transgenesis combining proteomics and transcriptomics, and
      further analyzed their response to salinity stress on the F6 generation. Our
      results show that: (a) differences promoted during genetic modification are
      mainly short-term physiological changes, attenuating throughout generations, and
      (b) environmental stress may cause far more proteomic/transcriptomic alterations
      than transgenesis. Based on our data, we question what is really relevant in risk
      assessment design for GM food crops.

PMID- 28878217
TI  - In Vivo Confocal Microscopy Evaluation of Ocular Surface with Graft-Versus-Host
      Disease-Related Dry Eye Disease.
AB  - Dry eye disease (DED) is often elicited by graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), an
      extensive complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). To
      unravel the mechanism of this type of DED, in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) was
      used to investigate alterations in the state of the sub-basal nerves, dendritic
      cells (DCs) and globular immune cells (GICs) in the central cornea and limbal
      epithelia. In this study, we examined 12 HSCT recipients with GVHD-caused DED and
      10 HSCT recipients without GVHD-associated DED and evaluated the clinical
      parameters in the 2 groups. Analysis of the central cornea and limbal epithelia
      using IVCM was conducted to investigate the density of the corneal sub-basal
      nerves, DCs and GICs as well as the tortuosity and branching of the sub-basal
      nerves. As suggested by our data, the clinical variables in the GVHD group were
      significantly different from those in the non-GVHD group. Additionally, GVHD
      triggered DED conceivably increased the density of DCs and GICs in the central
      cornea and the density of DCs in limbal epithelia and altered the morphology of
      the sub-basal nerves. These phenomena are presumably correlated with the degree
      of inflammation. Thus, our findings may be translated into non-invasive
      diagnostic methods that indicate the severity of inflammation on the ocular
      surface in HSCT recipients.

PMID- 28878218
TI  - Lack of Evidence for Vasoactive and Inflammatory Mediators in the Promotion of
      Macular Edema Associated with Epiretinal Membranes.
AB  - The development of symptoms in patients with epiretinal membranes (ERMs) often
      corresponds with the accumulation of interstitial fluid in the retina [i.e., the
      development of macular edema, (ME)]. To explore the potential value of
      pharmacologic therapeutic options to treat ME in patients with ERMs, we examine
      here the expression of vasoactive and inflammatory mediators in the vitreous of
      patients with idiopathic ERMs. We observed that vitreous concentrations of
      classic vasoactive factors (e.g., vascular endothelial growth factor) were
      similar in ERM patients with ME compared to controls. Using an array assessing
      the expression of 102 inflammatory cytokines we similarly did not observe a
      marked difference in cytokine expression in the vitreous of most ERM patients
      with ME compared to control patients. While the array data did implicate a group
      of inflammatory cytokines that were elevated in a subset of ERM patients who had
      severe ME (central subfield thickness >=450 MUm on spectral domain optical
      coherence tomography), expression of 3 of these inflammatory cytokines, all
      previously implicated in the promotion of ME in ischemic retinal disease, were
      not elevated by quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We conclude that
      therapies modulating vasoactive mediators or inflammatory cytokines may not
      affect ME in ERM patients.

PMID- 28878219
TI  - Carnot efficiency is reachable in an irreversible process.
AB  - In thermodynamics, there exists a conventional belief that "the Carnot efficiency
      is reachable only in the reversible (zero entropy production) limit of nearly
      reversible processes." However, there is no theorem proving that the Carnot
      efficiency is unattainable in an irreversible process. Here, we show that the
      Carnot efficiency is reachable in an irreversible process through investigation
      of the Feynman-Smoluchowski ratchet (FSR). We also show that it is possible to
      enhance the efficiency by increasing the irreversibility. Our result opens a new
      possibility of designing an efficient heat engine in a highly irreversible
      process and also answers the long-standing question of whether the FSR can
      operate with the Carnot efficiency.

PMID- 28878221
TI  - Combining Positive Matrix Factorization and Radiocarbon Measurements for Source
      Apportionment of PM2.5 from a National Background Site in North China.
AB  - To explore the utility of combining positive matrix factorization (PMF) with
      radiocarbon (14C) measurements for source apportionment, we applied PM2.5 data
      collected for 14 months at a national background station in North China to PMF
      models. The solutions were compared to 14C results of four seasonally averaged
      samples and three outlier samples. Comparing the most readily interpretable PMF
      solutions and 14C results revealed that PMF modeling was well able to capture the
      source patterns of PM2.5 with two and three irrelevant source classifications for
      the seasonal and outlier samples. The contribution of sources that could not be
      classified as either fossil or non-fossil sources in the PMF solution, and the
      errors between the modeled and measured concentrations weakened the effectiveness
      of the comparison. Based on these two factors, we developed an index for
      selecting the most suitable 14C measurement samples for combining with the PMF
      model. Then we examined the potential for coupling PMF modeling and 14C data with
      a constrained PMF run using the 14C data as a priori information. The restricted
      run could provide a more reliable solution; however, the PMF model must provide a
      flexible dialog to input the priori restrictions for executing the constraint
      simulation.

PMID- 28878220
TI  - Lactoferrin-derived Peptides Active towards Influenza: Identification of Three
      Potent Tetrapeptide Inhibitors.
AB  - Bovine lactoferrin is a biglobular multifunctional iron binding glycoprotein that
      plays an important role in innate immunity against infections. We have previously
      demonstrated that selected peptides from bovine lactoferrin C-lobe are able to
      prevent both Influenza virus hemagglutination and cell infection. To deeper
      investigate the ability of lactoferrin derived peptides to inhibit Influenza
      virus infection, in this study we identified new bovine lactoferrin C-lobe
      derived sequences and corresponding synthetic peptides were synthesized and
      assayed to check their ability to prevent viral hemagglutination and infection.
      We identified three tetrapeptides endowed with broad anti-Influenza activity and
      able to inhibit viral infection in a concentration range femto- to picomolar. Our
      data indicate that these peptides may constitute a non-toxic tool for potential
      applications as anti-Influenza therapeutics.

PMID- 28878222
TI  - Angiotensin II induces cholesterol accumulation and injury in podocytes.
AB  - Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a risk factor for the initiation and progression of
      chronic kidney disease (CKD), as elevated Ang II levels can lead to podocyte
      injury. However, there have been no studies on the role of Ang II in lipid
      metabolism or on podocyte injury caused by lipid dysfunction. Our study showed
      that Ang II induced lipid droplet (LD) accumulation and expression of the LD
      marker adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP) in podocytes, and the
      extent of lipid deposition could be alleviated by losartan. Our study also
      demonstrated that Ang II increased the content of cholesterol in podocytes, which
      is an LD component, and this change was accompanied by decreased expression of
      the cholesterol efflux-related molecule ATP-binding cassette transporter-1
      (ABCA1) and increased expression of the cholesterol uptake-related molecule LDL
      receptor (LDLR) and the cholesterol synthesis-related molecules sterol regulatory
      element-binding protein (SREBP1 and SREBP2) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA
      reductase (HMGCR). Pretreating podocytes with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (CD),
      which induces cholesterol efflux, decreased Ang II-mediated cholesterol
      accumulation and Ang II-induced podocyte apoptosis and maintained the podocyte
      cytoskeleton and spreading. These results suggested that Ang II induced podocyte
      cholesterol accumulation by regulating the expression of cholesterol metabolism
      related molecules and that the subsequent cholesterol metabolism dysfunction
      resulted in podocyte injury.

PMID- 28878223
TI  - Process design of microdomains with quantum mechanics for giant pulse lasers.
AB  - The power scaling of laser devices can contribute to the future of humanity.
      Giant microphotonics have been advocated as a solution to this issue. Among
      various technologies in giant microphotonics, process control of microdomains
      with quantum mechanical calculations is expected to increase the optical power
      extracted per unit volume in gain media. Design of extensive variables
      influencing the Gibbs energy of controlled microdomains in materials can realize
      desired properties. Here we estimate the angular momentum quantum number of rare
      earth ions in microdomains. Using this process control, we generate kilowatt
      level laser output from orientation-controlled microdomains in a laser gain
      medium. We also consider the limitations of current samples, and discuss the
      prospects of power scaling and applications of our technology. This work
      overturns at least three common viewpoints in current advanced technologies,
      including material processing based on magnetohydrodynamics, grain-size control
      of transparent polycrystals in fine ceramics, and the crystallographic symmetry
      of laser ceramics in photonics.

PMID- 28878224
TI  - Mild intracellular acidification by dexamethasone attenuates mitochondrial
      dysfunction in a human inflammatory proximal tubule epithelial cell model.
AB  - Septic acute kidney injury (AKI) associates with poor survival rates and often
      requires renal replacement therapy. Glucocorticoids may pose renal protective
      effects in sepsis via stimulation of mitochondrial function. Therefore, we
      studied the mitochondrial effects of dexamethasone in an experimental
      inflammatory proximal tubule epithelial cell model. Treatment of human proximal
      tubule epithelial cells with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) closely resembles
      pathophysiological processes during endotoxaemia, and led to increased cytokine
      excretion rates and cellular reactive oxygen species levels, combined with a
      reduced mitochondrial membrane potential and respiratory capacity. These effects
      were attenuated by dexamethasone. Dexamethasone specifically increased the
      expression and activity of mitochondrial complex V (CV), which could not be
      explained by an increase in mitochondrial mass. Finally, we demonstrated that
      dexamethasone acidified the intracellular milieu and consequently reversed LPS
      induced alkalisation, leading to restoration of the mitochondrial function. This
      acidification also provides an explanation for the increase in CV expression,
      which is expected to compensate for the inhibitory effect of the acidified
      environment on this complex. Besides the mechanistic insights into the beneficial
      effects of dexamethasone during renal cellular inflammation, our work also
      supports a key role for mitochondria in this process and, hence, provides novel
      therapeutic avenues for the treatment of AKI.

PMID- 28878226
TI  - Ultrafast isomerization in acetylene dication after carbon K-shell ionization.
AB  - Ultrafast proton migration and isomerization are key processes for acetylene and
      its ions. However, the mechanism for ultrafast isomerization of acetylene
      [HCCH]2+ to vinylidene [H2CC]2+ dication remains nebulous. Theoretical studies
      show a large potential barrier ( > 2 eV) for isomerization on low-lying
      dicationic states, implying picosecond or longer isomerization timescales.
      However, a recent experiment at a femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser suggests
      sub-100 fs isomerization. Here we address this contradiction with a complete
      theoretical study of the dynamics of acetylene dication produced by Auger decay
      after X-ray photoionization of the carbon atom K shell. We find no sub-100 fs
      isomerization, while reproducing the salient features of the time-resolved
      Coulomb imaging experiment. This work resolves the seeming contradiction between
      experiment and theory and also calls for careful interpretation of structural
      information from the widely applied Coulomb momentum imaging method.The timescale
      of isomerization in molecules involving ultrafast migration of constituent atoms
      is difficult to measure. Here the authors report that sub-100 fs isomerization
      time on acetylene dication in lower electronic states is not possible and point
      to misinterpretation of recent experimental results.

PMID- 28878227
TI  - Intermittent muscle activity in the feedback loop of postural control system
      during natural quiet standing.
AB  - The origin of continual body oscillation during quiet standing is a neural
      muscular-skeletal closed feedback loop system that includes insufficient joint
      stiffness and a time delay. Thus, muscle activity and joint oscillations are
      nonlinear during quiet standing, making it difficult to demonstrate the muscular
      skeletal relationship experimentally. Here we experimentally revealed this
      relationship using intermittent control theory, in which non-actuation works to
      stabilize the skeletal system towards equilibrium. We found that leg muscles were
      activated/inactivated when the state point was located in the opposite/same
      direction as the direction of anatomical action, which was associated with joint
      torque actuating the body towards equilibrium. The derivative values of stability
      index defined in the phase space approximately 200 ms before muscle inactivation
      were also larger than those before activation for some muscles. These results
      indicate that bipedal standing might be achieved by monitoring the rate of change
      of stability/instability components and generating joint torque to stabilize the
      body. In conclusion, muscles are likely to activate in an event-driven manner
      during quiet standing and a possible metric for on/off switching is SI dot, and
      our methodology of EMG processing could allows us to extract such event-driven
      intermittent muscle activities.

PMID- 28878225
TI  - The PDK1 Inhibitor Dichloroacetate Controls Cholesterol Homeostasis Through the
      ERK5/MEF2 Pathway.
AB  - Controlling cholesterol levels is a major challenge in human health, since
      hypercholesterolemia can lead to serious cardiovascular disease. Drugs that
      target carbohydrate metabolism can also modify lipid metabolism and hence
      cholesterol plasma levels. In this sense, dichloroacetate (DCA), a pyruvate
      dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibitor, augments usage of the glycolysis-produced
      pyruvate in the mitochondria increasing oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). In
      several animal models, DCA decreases plasma cholesterol and triglycerides. Thus,
      DCA was used in the 70 s to treat diabetes mellitus, hyperlipoproteinemia and
      hypercholesterolemia with satisfactory results. However, the mechanism of action
      remained unknown and we describe it here. DCA increases LDLR mRNA and protein
      levels as well as LDL intake in several cell lines, primary human hepatocytes and
      two different mouse models. This effect is mediated by transcriptional activation
      as evidenced by H3 acetylation on lysine 27 on the LDLR promoter. DCA induces
      expression of the MAPK ERK5 that turns on the transcription factor MEF2.
      Inhibition of this ERK5/MEF2 pathway by genetic or pharmacological means
      decreases LDLR expression and LDL intake. In summary, our results indicate that
      DCA, by inducing OXPHOS, promotes ERK5/MEF2 activation leading to LDLR
      expression. The ERK5/MEF2 pathway offers an interesting pharmacological target
      for drug development.

PMID- 28878228
TI  - In-line balanced detection stimulated Raman scattering microscopy.
AB  - We introduce a novel configuration for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS)
      microscopy, called In-line Balanced Detection (IBD), which employs a birefringent
      plate to generate a time-delayed polarization-multiplexed collinear replica of
      the probe, acting as a reference. Probe and reference cross the sample at the
      same position, thus maintaining their balance during image acquisition. IBD can
      be implemented in any conventional SRS setup, by adding a few simple elements,
      bringing its sensitivity close to the shot-noise limit even with a noisy laser.
      We tested IBD with a fiber-format laser system and observed signal-to-noise ratio
      improvement by up to 30 dB.

PMID- 28878230
TI  - Halotolerant aminopeptidase M29 from Mesorhizobium SEMIA 3007 with
      biotechnological potential and its impact on biofilm synthesis.
AB  - The aminopeptidase gene from Mesorhizobium SEMIA3007 was cloned and overexpressed
      in Escherichia coli. The enzyme called MesoAmp exhibited optimum activity at pH
      8.5 and 45  degrees C and was strongly activated by Co2+ and Mn2+. Under these
      reaction conditions, the enzyme displayed Km and kcat values of 0.2364 +/- 0.018
      mM and 712.1 +/- 88.12 s-1, respectively. Additionally, the enzyme showed
      remarkable stability in organic solvents and was active at high concentrations of
      NaCl, suggesting that the enzyme might be suitable for use in biotechnology.
      MesoAmp is responsible for 40% of the organism's aminopeptidase activity.
      However, the enzyme's absence does not affect bacterial growth in synthetic
      broth, although it interfered with biofilm synthesis and osmoregulation. To the
      best of our knowledge, this report describes the first detailed characterization
      of aminopeptidase from Mesorhizobium and suggests its importance in biofilm
      formation and osmotic stress tolerance. In summary, this work lays the foundation
      for potential biotechnological applications and/or the development of
      environmentally friendly technologies and describes the first solvent- and halo
      tolerant aminopeptidases identified from the Mesorhizobium genus and its
      importance in bacterial metabolism.

PMID- 28878229
TI  - Hydrogen bond based smart polymer for highly selective and tunable capture of
      multiply phosphorylated peptides.
AB  - Multisite phosphorylation is an important and common mechanism for finely
      regulating protein functions and subsequent cellular responses. However, this
      study is largely restricted by the difficulty to capture low-abundance multiply
      phosphorylated peptides (MPPs) from complex biosamples owing to the limitation of
      enrichment materials and their interactions with phosphates. Here we show that
      smart polymer can serve as an ideal platform to resolve this challenge. Driven by
      specific but tunable hydrogen bonding interactions, the smart polymer displays
      differential complexation with MPPs, singly phosphorylated and non-modified
      peptides. Importantly, MPP binding can be modulated conveniently and precisely by
      solution conditions, resulting in highly controllable MPP adsorption on material
      surface. This facilitates excellent performance in MPP enrichment and separation
      from model proteins and real biosamples. High enrichment selectivity and
      coverage, extraordinary adsorption capacities and recovery towards MPPs, as well
      as high discovery rates of unique phosphorylation sites, suggest its great
      potential in phosphoproteomics studies.Capture of low-abundance multiply
      phosphorylated peptides (MPPs) is difficult due to limitation of enrichment
      materials and their interactions with phosphates. Here the authors show, a smart
      polymer driven by specific but tunable hydrogen bonding interactions can
      differentially complex with MPPs, singly phosphorylated and non-modified
      peptides.

PMID- 28878232
TI  - Holographic Writing of Ink-Based Phase Conjugate Nanostructures via Laser
      Ablation.
AB  - The optical phase conjugation (OPC) through photonic nanostructures in coherent
      optics involves the utilization of a nonlinear optical mechanism through real
      time processing of electromagnetic fields. Their applications include
      spectroscopy, optical tomography, wavefront sensing, and imaging. The development
      of functional and personalized holographic devices in the visible and near
      infrared spectrum can be improved by introducing cost-effective, rapid, and high
      throughput fabrication techniques and low-cost recording media. Here, we develop
      flat and thin phase-conjugate nanostructures on low-cost ink coated glass
      substrates through a facile and flexible single pulsed nanosecond laser based
      reflection holography and a cornercube retroreflector (CCR). Fabricated one/two
      dimensional (1D/2D) nanostructures exhibited far-field phase-conjugated patterns
      through wavefront reconstruction by means of diffraction. The optical phase
      conjugation property had correlation with the laser light (energy) and structural
      parameters (width, height and exposure angle) variation. The phase conjugated
      diffraction property from the recorded nanostructures was verified through
      spectral measurements, far-field diffraction experiments, and thermal imaging.
      Furthermore, a comparison between the conventional and phase-conjugated
      nanostructures showed two-fold increase in diffracted light intensity under
      monochromatic light illumination. It is anticipated that low-cost ink based
      holographic phase-conjugate nanostructures may have applications in flexible and
      printable displays, polarization-selective flat waveplates, and adaptive
      diffraction optics.

PMID- 28878231
TI  - Dietary iron restriction alleviates renal tubulointerstitial injury induced by
      protein overload in mice.
AB  - Increased proteinuria causes tubulointerstitial injury due to inflammation in
      chronic kidney disease (CKD). Iron restriction exhibits protective effects
      against renal dysfunction; however, its effects against protein overload-induced
      tubulointerstitial damage remain unclear. Here, we investigated dietary iron
      restriction effect on tubulointerstitial damage in mice with protein-overload
      tubulointerstitial injury. Renal tubulointerstitial injury in animal model was
      induced by intraperitoneal injection of an overdose of bovine serum albumin
      (BSA). We divided mice into three groups: normal saline + normal diet (ND), BSA +
      ND, and BSA + iron-restricted diet (IRD). BSA overload induced renal
      tubulointerstitial injury in the ND mice, which was ameliorated in the IRD mice.
      Inflammatory cytokines and extracellular matrix mRNA expression was upregulated
      in BSA + ND mice kidneys and was inhibited by IRD. BSA-induced increase in renal
      superoxide production, NADPH oxidase activity, and p22phox expression was
      diminished in the IRD mice. IRD suppression increased BSA-induced renal
      macrophage infiltration. Moreover, BSA mice exhibited nucleotide-binding
      oligomerisation domain-like receptor pyrin domain-containing protein (NLRP)
      inflammasome activation, which was inhibited by IRD. Ferrous iron increased in
      kidneys with BSA overload and was inhibited by IRD. Thus, iron restriction
      inhibited oxidative stress and inflammatory changes, contributing to the
      protective effect against BSA overload-induced tubulointerstitial injury.

PMID- 28878233
TI  - A chalcone derivative reactivates latent HIV-1 transcription through activating P
      TEFb and promoting Tat-SEC interaction on viral promoter.
AB  - The principal barrier to the eradication of HIV/AIDS is the existence of latent
      viral reservoirs. One strategy to overcome this barrier is to use latency
      reversing agents (LRAs) to reactivate the latent proviruses, which can then be
      eliminated by effective anti-retroviral therapy. Although a number of LRAs have
      been found to reactivate latent HIV, they have not been used clinically due to
      high toxicity and poor efficacy. In this study, we report the identification of a
      chalcone analogue called Amt-87 that can significantly reactivate the
      transcription of latent HIV provirses and act synergistically with known LRAs
      such as prostratin and JQ1 to reverse latency. Amt-87 works by activating the
      human transcriptional elongation factor P-TEFb, a CDK9-cyclin T1 heterodimer that
      is part of the super elongation complex (SEC) used by the viral encoded Tat
      protein to activate HIV transcription. Amt-87 does so by promoting the
      phosphorylation of CDK9 at the T-loop, liberating P-TEFb from the inactive 7SK
      snRNP, and inducing the formation of the Tat-SEC complex at the viral promoter.
      Together, our data reveal chalcones as a promising category of compounds that
      should be further explored to identify effective LRAs for targeted reversal of
      HIV latency.

PMID- 28878234
TI  - Immunoregulation by IL-7R-targeting antibody-drug conjugates: overcoming steroid
      resistance in cancer and autoimmune disease.
AB  - Steroid-resistance is a common complication in the treatment of malignancies and
      autoimmune diseases. IL-7/IL-7R signaling, which regulates lymphocyte growth and
      survival, has been implicated in the development of malignancies and autoimmune
      diseases. However, the biological significance of IL-7/IL-7R signaling in steroid
      treatment is poorly understood. Here, we identified a novel relationship between
      IL-7R signaling and steroid-resistance, and showed that an anti-IL-7R antibody
      conjugated with SN-38 (A7R-ADC-SN-38) has strong anti-tumor effects against both
      parental and steroid-resistant malignant cells. Furthermore, inflammation in the
      mouse autoimmune arthritis model was suppressed to greater extent by A7R-ADC
      conjugated to MMAE than by A7R-ADC-SN-38. Given that an increased proportion of
      IL-7R-positive cells is a common mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of
      autoimmunity, we found that specific depletion of this cell population abrogated
      the progression of disease. This suggests that the cytotoxicity and
      immunosuppressive capacity of A7R-ADC could be modulated to treat specific
      malignancies or autoimmune diseases through the introduction of different
      payloads, and represents a novel alternative to steroid therapy.

PMID- 28878235
TI  - Seasonal and geographical impact on human resting periods.
AB  - We study the influence of seasonally and geographically related daily dynamics of
      daylight and ambient temperature on human resting or sleeping patterns using
      mobile phone data of a large number of individuals. We observe two daily
      inactivity periods in the people's aggregated mobile phone calling patterns and
      infer these to represent the resting times of the population. We find that the
      nocturnal resting period is strongly influenced by the length of daylight, and
      that its seasonal variation depends on the latitude, such that for people living
      in two different cities separated by eight latitudinal degrees, the difference in
      the resting periods of people between the summer and winter in southern cities is
      almost twice that in the northern cities. We also observe that the duration of
      the afternoon resting period is influenced by the temperature, and that there is
      a threshold from which this influence sets in. Finally, we observe that the
      yearly dynamics of the afternoon and nocturnal resting periods appear to be
      counterbalancing each other. This also lends support to the notion that the total
      daily resting time of people is more or less conserved across the year.

PMID- 28878236
TI  - Sponge bioerosion on changing reefs: ocean warming poses physiological
      constraints to the success of a photosymbiotic excavating sponge.
AB  - Excavating sponges are prominent bioeroders on coral reefs that in comparison to
      other benthic organisms may suffer less or may even benefit from warmer, more
      acidic and more eutrophic waters. Here, the photosymbiotic excavating sponge
      Cliona orientalis from the Great Barrier Reef was subjected to a prolonged
      simulation of both global and local environmental change: future seawater
      temperature, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (as for 2100 summer conditions
      under "business-as-usual" emissions), and diet supplementation with particulate
      organics. The individual and combined effects of the three factors on the
      bioerosion rates, metabolic oxygen and carbon flux, biomass change and survival
      of the sponge were monitored over the height of summer. Diet supplementation
      accelerated bioerosion rates. Acidification alone did not have a strong effect on
      total bioerosion or survival rates, yet it co-occurred with reduced heterotrophy.
      Warming above 30  degrees C (+2.7  degrees C above the local maximum monthly
      mean) caused extensive bleaching, lower bioerosion, and prevailing mortality,
      overriding the other factors and suggesting a strong metabolic dependence of the
      sponge on its resident symbionts. The growth, bioerosion capacity and likelihood
      of survival of C. orientalis and similar photosymbiotic excavating sponges could
      be substantially reduced rather than increased on end-of-the-century reefs under
      "business-as-usual" emission profiles.

PMID- 28878237
TI  - Two-dimensional photonic crystal Bragg lasers with triangular lattice for
      monolithic coherent beam combining.
AB  - We demonstrate an electrically pumped, single-mode, large area, edge-emitting
      InGaAsP/InP two-dimensional photonic crystal (PC) Bragg laser with triangular
      lattice. The laser operates in the single transverse and longitudinal modes with
      a single lobe, near-diffraction-limited far field. We compare the performance of
      the triangular-lattice PC Bragg laser with the rectangular-lattice PC Bragg laser
      fabricated from the same wafer and find that their performances are comparable.
      Then, we combine two single triangular-lattice PC Bragg lasers that tilt to
      opposite directions by taking advantage of the symmetry of the single emitter
      cavity mode. The measurement results show that the combined PC Bragg lasers
      provide the near-diffraction-limited output beam, and the single wavelength
      operation is also maintained in the coherently combined broad-area PC Bragg
      lasers.

PMID- 28878239
TI  - Mutation E87Q of the beta1-subunit impairs the maturation of the cardiac voltage
      dependent sodium channel.
AB  - Voltage-dependent sodium channels are responsible of the rising phase of the
      action potential in excitable cells. These membrane integral proteins are
      composed by a pore-forming alpha-subunit, and one or more auxiliary beta
      subunits. Mutation E87Q of the beta1 subunit is correlated with Brugada syndrome,
      a genetic disease characterised by ventricular fibrillation, right precordial ST
      segment elevation on ECG and sudden cardiac death. Heterologous expression of
      E87Q-beta1 subunit in CHO cells determines a reduced sodium channel functional
      expression. The effect the E87Q mutation of the beta1 subunit on sodium currents
      and alpha protein expression is correlated with a reduced availability of the
      mature form of the alpha subunit in the plasma membrane. This finding offers a
      new target for the treatment of the Brugada syndrome, based on protein maturation
      management. This work highlights the role played by the beta1 subunit in the
      maturation and expression of the entire sodium channel complex and underlines how
      the defective interaction between the sodium channel constituents could lead to a
      disabling pathological condition.

PMID- 28878240
TI  - Electron paramagnetic resonance microscopy using spins in diamond under ambient
      conditions.
AB  - Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is one of the most important tools in chemical
      and bio-medical research. However, sensitivity limitations typically restrict
      imaging resolution to ~ 10 um. Here we bring quantum control to the detection of
      chemical systems to demonstrate high-resolution electron spin imaging using the
      quantum properties of an array of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond. Our
      electron paramagnetic resonance microscope selectively images electronic spin
      species by precisely tuning a magnetic field to bring the quantum probes into
      resonance with the external target spins. This provides diffraction limited
      spatial resolution of the target spin species over a field of view of 50 * 50 um2
      with a spin sensitivity of 104 spins per voxel or ~100 zmol. The ability to
      perform spectroscopy and dynamically monitor spin-dependent redox reactions at
      these scales enables the development of electron spin resonance and zepto
      chemistry in the physical and life sciences.Electron paramagnetic resonance
      spectroscopy has important scientific and medical uses but improving the
      resolution of conventional methods requires cryogenic, vacuum environments.
      Simpson et al. show nitrogen vacancy centres can be used for sub-micronmetre
      imaging with improved sensitivity in ambient conditions.

PMID- 28878238
TI  - APOBEC3A is an oral cancer prognostic biomarker in Taiwanese carriers of an
      APOBEC deletion polymorphism.
AB  - Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a prominent cancer worldwide, particularly in
      Taiwan. By integrating omics analyses in 50 matched samples, we uncover in
      Taiwanese patients a predominant mutation signature associated with cytidine
      deaminase APOBEC, which correlates with the upregulation of APOBEC3A expression
      in the APOBEC3 gene cluster at 22q13. APOBEC3A expression is significantly higher
      in tumors carrying APOBEC3B-deletion allele(s). High-level APOBEC3A expression is
      associated with better overall survival, especially among patients carrying
      APOBEC3B-deletion alleles, as examined in a second cohort (n = 188; p = 0.004).
      The frequency of APOBEC3B-deletion alleles is ~50% in 143 genotyped oral squamous
      cell carcinoma -Taiwan samples (27A3B -/-:89A3B +/-:27A3B +/+), compared to the
      5.8% found in 314 OSCC-TCGA samples. We thus report a frequent APOBEC mutational
      profile, which relates to a APOBEC3B-deletion germline polymorphism in Taiwanese
      oral squamous cell carcinoma that impacts expression of APOBEC3A, and is shown to
      be of clinical prognostic relevance. Our finding might be recapitulated by
      genomic studies in other cancer types.Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a prevalent
      malignancy in Taiwan. Here, the authors show that OSCC in Taiwanese show a
      frequent deletion polymorphism in the cytidine deaminases gene cluster APOBEC3
      resulting in increased expression of A3A, which is shown to be of clinical
      prognostic relevance.

PMID- 28878241
TI  - Switching the unidirectional reflectionlessness by polarization in non-ideal PT
      metamaterial based on the phase coupling.
AB  - An effective scheme on switching the exceptional point(EP) where unidirectional
      reflectionlessness occurs is firstly proposed in non-ideal PT metamaterial via
      the polarization of incident light. The unidirectional reflectionlessness could
      be effectively controlled only by adjusting the phase coupling of the two
      resonators which are consisted of two identical but vertically placed crosses and
      are excited by incident light as an effective gain. Besides, the unidirectional
      perfect absorber occurs in the vicinity of EP.

PMID- 28878242
TI  - Increased PD-L1 expression and IL-6 secretion characterize human lung tumor
      derived perivascular-like cells that promote vascular leakage in a perfusable
      microvasculature model.
AB  - Pericytes represent important support cells surrounding microvessels found in
      solid organs. Emerging evidence points to their involvement in tumor progression
      and metastasis. Although reported to be present in the human lung, their specific
      presence and functional orientation within the tumor microenvironment in non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not yet been adequately studied. Using a
      multiparameter approach, we prospectively identified, sorted and expanded
      mesenchymal cells from human primary NSCLC samples based on co-expression of CD73
      and CD90 while lacking hematopoietic and endothelial lineage markers (CD45, CD31,
      CD14 and Gly-A) and the epithelial marker EpCAM. Compared to their normal
      counterpart, tumor-derived Lineage-EpCAM-CD73+CD90+ cells showed enhanced
      expression of the immunosuppressive ligand PD-L1, a higher constitutive secretion
      of IL-6 and increased basal alphaSMA levels. In an in vitro model of 3D
      microvessels, both tumor-derived and matched normal Lineage-EpCAM-CD73+CD90+
      cells supported the assembly of perfusable vessels. However, tumor-derived
      Lineage-EpCAM-CD73+CD90+ cells led to the formation of vessels with significantly
      increased permeability. Together, our data show that perivascular-like cells
      present in NSCLC retain functional abnormalities in vitro. Perivascular-like
      cells as an eventual target in NSCLC warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28878243
TI  - The environmental impacts of one of the largest tailing dam failures worldwide.
AB  - The impacts of the SAMARCO iron tailing spill along more than 650 km, between the
      dam and the plume of the Doce River in the Atlantic, were assessed by the
      determination of toxic metals. The tailing spill caused a substantial increase in
      suspended sediment loads (up to 33,000 mg L-1), in addition to large depositions
      of waste along the Doce basin. The highest estimated transport of dissolved
      metals was observed for Fe (58.8 MUg s-1), Ba (37.9 MUg s-1) and Al (25.0 MUg s
      1). Sediments reached the highest enrichment factors (EFs) for Hg (4,234), Co
      (133), Fe (43), and Ni (16), whereas As (55), Ba (64), Cr (16), Cu (17), Mn (41),
      Pb (38) and Zn (82) highest EFs were observed for suspended particulate matter
      (SPM). Iron, As, Hg, Mn exceeded sediment quality guidelines. Therefore, the risk
      of occurrence of adverse effects is highly possible, not only due to the dam
      failure, but also due to the Fe mining and the artisan Au mining. Heavy rain
      episodes will likely cause enhanced erosion, remobilization, and transport of
      contaminated particles, sustaining high inputs of SPM and metals for the years to
      come and threatening the ecosystem services.

PMID- 28878244
TI  - The Gcn4 transcription factor reduces protein synthesis capacity and extends
      yeast lifespan.
AB  - In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, deletion of large ribosomal subunit protein-encoding
      genes increases the replicative lifespan in a Gcn4-dependent manner. However, how
      Gcn4, a key transcriptional activator of amino acid biosynthesis genes, increases
      lifespan, is unknown. Here we show that Gcn4 acts as a repressor of protein
      synthesis. By analyzing the messenger RNA and protein abundance, ribosome
      occupancy and protein synthesis rate in various yeast strains, we demonstrate
      that Gcn4 is sufficient to reduce protein synthesis and increase yeast lifespan.
      Chromatin immunoprecipitation reveals Gcn4 binding not only at genes that are
      activated, but also at genes, some encoding ribosomal proteins, that are
      repressed upon Gcn4 overexpression. The promoters of repressed genes contain Rap1
      binding motifs. Our data suggest that Gcn4 is a central regulator of protein
      synthesis under multiple perturbations, including ribosomal protein gene
      deletions, calorie restriction, and rapamycin treatment, and provide an
      explanation for its role in longevity and stress response.The transcription
      factor Gcn4 is known to regulate yeast amino acid synthesis. Here, the authors
      show that Gcn4 also acts as a repressor of protein biosynthesis in a range of
      conditions that enhance yeast lifespan, such as ribosomal protein knockout,
      calorie restriction or mTOR inhibition.

PMID- 28878245
TI  - Effects of Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. on cognitive function and mood related
      outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. has been used as an herbal brain tonic for mental
      disorders and enhancing memory, but no review of the overall evidence of C.
      asiatica and cognitive function has been conducted. This study aims to determine
      the effects of C. asiatica on cognitive function and its related properties. The
      current systematic review includes five randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
      conducted to determine the effect of C. asiatica alone and six RCTs conducted to
      determine the effect of C. asiatica-containing products. Meta-analysis indicated
      that there are no significant differences in all cognitive function domains of C.
      asiatica when compared to placebo. However, it could improve mood by increasing
      alert scores [SMD: 0.71 (95% CI; 0.01 to 1.41); I2 = 30.5%] and decreasing anger
      scores at 1 hour after treatment [SMD: -0.81 (95%CI; -1.51 to -0.09); I2 =
      36.6%]. None of the studies reported adverse effects of C. asiatica. In
      conclusion, there is not strong evidence to support the use of C. asiatica for
      cognitive function improvement in each cognitive domain. C. asiatica could
      improve alertness and relieve anger. However, some limitations should be aware
      including dose regimen, plant preparation, standardization, and product
      variation. Future well-designed clinical trials using suitable doses of
      standardized C. asiatica are still needed.

PMID- 28878246
TI  - Loss of NR2E3 represses AHR by LSD1 reprogramming, is associated with poor
      prognosis in liver cancer.
AB  - The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) plays crucial roles in inflammation,
      metabolic disorder, and cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating AHR
      expression remain unknown. Here, we found that an orphan nuclear NR2E3 maintains
      AHR expression, and forms an active transcriptional complex with transcription
      factor Sp1 and coactivator GRIP1 in MCF-7 human breast and HepG2 liver cancer
      cell lines. NR2E3 loss promotes the recruitment of LSD1, a histone demethylase of
      histone 3 lysine 4 di-methylation (H3K4me2), to the AHR gene promoter region,
      resulting in repression of AHR expression. AHR expression and responsiveness
      along with H3K4me2 were significantly reduced in the livers of Nr2e3rd7 (Rd7)
      mice that express low NR2E3 relative to the livers of wild-type mice. SP2509, an
      LSD1 inhibitor, fully restored AHR expression and H3K4me2 levels in Rd7 mice.
      Lastly, we demonstrated that both AHR and NR2E3 are significantly associated with
      good clinical outcomes in liver cancer. Together, our results reveal a novel link
      between NR2E3, AHR, and liver cancer via LSD1-mediated H3K4me2 histone
      modification in liver cancer development.

PMID- 28878247
TI  - A novel role of the soybean clock gene LUX ARRHYTHMO in male reproductive
      development.
AB  - The evening complex of ELF4-ELF3-LUX proteins is an integral component of a plant
      circadian clock. LUX ARRHYTHMO (LUX) is one of the key components of the evening
      complex, and that play a key role in circadian rhythms and flowering. Here, we
      report that diverged soybean LUX has the additional role in male reproductive
      development. We studied diurnal and circadian rhythms of soybean LUX (GmLUXa,
      GmLUXb, and GmLUXc) using qRT-PCR, and show its nuclear localisation by particle
      bombardment. Yeast-two hybrid (Y2H) studies indicate that both GmLUXb and GmLUXc
      form an evening complex with GmELF4b and GmELF3a, respectively. Ectopic
      expression of GmLUXb in Arabidopsis lux mutants can complement functions of
      AtLUX, whereas GmLUXc generates novel phenotypes of serrated leaves, stunted
      plants, shortened anther filament, and low seed set. Overall, our results suggest
      that the LUX gene has diverged in soybean where GmLUXb and GmLUXc share the role
      to control flowering time, but GmLUXc has evolved to regulate anther filament
      growth and seed set by regulating the Gibberellin hormone biosynthesis pathway.

PMID- 28878248
TI  - Mechanisms of charge transfer and electronic properties of Cu2ZnGeS4 from
      investigations of the high-field magnetotransport.
AB  - Recent development of the thin film solar cells, based on quaternary compounds,
      has been focused on the Ge contain compounds and their solid solutions. However,
      for effective utilization of Cu2ZnGeS4, deeper investigations of its transport
      properties are required. In the present manuscript, we investigate resistivity,
      rho (T), magnetoresistance and Hall effect in p-type Cu2ZnGeS4 single crystals in
      pulsed magnetic fields up to 20 T. The dependence of rho (T) in zero magnetic
      field is described by the Mott type of the variable-range hopping (VRH) charge
      transfer mechanism within a broad temperature interval of ~100-200 K.
      Magnetoresistance contains the positive and negative components, which are
      interpreted by the common reasons of doped semiconductors. On the other hand, a
      joint analysis of the resistivity and magnetoresistance data has yielded series
      of important electronic parameters and permitted specification of the Cu2ZnGeS4
      conductivity mechanisms outside the temperature intervals of the Mott VRH
      conduction. The Hall coefficient is negative, exhibiting an exponential
      dependence on temperature, which is quite close to that of rho(T). This is
      typical of the Hall effect in the domain of the VRH charge transfer.

PMID- 28878249
TI  - Erratum: Localization of Laplacian eigenvectors on random networks.
AB  - A correction to this Article has been published and is linked from the HTML
      version of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

PMID- 28878250
TI  - Improving understanding of the functional diversity of fisheries by exploring the
      influence of global catch reconstruction.
AB  - Functional diversity is thought to enhance ecosystem resilience, driving research
      focused on trends in the functional composition of fisheries, most recently with
      new reconstructions of global catch data. However, there is currently little
      understanding of how accounting for unreported catches (e.g. small-scale and
      illegal fisheries, bycatch and discards) influences functional diversity trends
      in global fisheries. We explored how diversity estimates varied among reported
      and unreported components of catch in 2010, and found these components had
      distinct functional fingerprints. Incorporating unreported catches had little
      impact on global-scale functional diversity patterns. However, at smaller,
      management-relevant scales, the effects of incorporating unreported catches were
      large (changes in functional diversity of up to 46%). Our results suggest there
      is greater uncertainty about the risks to ecosystem integrity and resilience from
      current fishing patterns than previously recognized. We provide recommendations
      and suggest a research agenda to improve future assessments of functional
      diversity of global fisheries.

PMID- 28878251
TI  - Effects of biochar, waste water irrigation and fertilization on soil properties
      in West African urban agriculture.
AB  - In large areas of sub-Saharan Africa crop production must cope with low soil
      fertility. To increase soil fertility, the application of biochar (charred
      biomass) has been suggested. In urban areas, untreated waste water is widely used
      for irrigation because it is a nutrient-rich year-round water source. Uncertainty
      exists regarding the interactions between soil properties, biochar, waste water
      and fertilization over time. The aims of this study were to determine these
      interactions in two typical sandy, soil organic carbon (SOC) and nutrient
      depleted soils under urban vegetable production in Tamale (Ghana) and Ouagadougou
      (Burkina Faso) over two years. The addition of biochar at 2 kg m-2 made from rice
      husks and corn cobs initially doubled SOC stocks but SOC losses of 35% occurred
      thereafter. Both biochar types had no effect on soil pH, phosphorous availability
      and effective cation exchange capacity (CEC) but rice husk biochar retained
      nitrogen (N). Irrigation with domestic waste water increased soil pH and
      exchangeable sodium over time. Inorganic fertilization alone acidified soils,
      increased available phosphorous and decreased base saturation. Organic
      fertilization increased SOC, N and CEC. The results from both locations
      demonstrate that the effects of biochar and waste water were less pronounced than
      reported elsewhere.

PMID- 28878252
TI  - Efficient Bioimaging with Diaminodicyanoquinodimethanes: Selective Imaging of
      Epidermal and Stomatal Cells and Insight into the Molecular Level Interactions.
AB  - The enhanced fluorescence emission of diaminodicyanoquinodimethanes (DADQs) in
      rigid and aggregated states holds great promise for bioimaging applications. This
      is demonstrated through their efficient application in epidermal and stomatal
      imaging with selective staining of cell walls and nuclei. Major advantages
      include the small quantities (a few nmols) of the fluorophore required, choice of
      DADQs soluble in water and organic solvents, and quick staining of the specimen
      in buffer-free state and in buffer medium. The molecular level interactions that
      enable staining are unraveled through isothermal calorimetry, infra-red
      spectroscopy and microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis.
      It is proposed that DADQs with ionic or H-bonding functionalities bind to the
      polygalacturonic acid moieties in the epidermal layer; the former can bind also
      to nucleic acid polyanions. Fluorescence experiments explain the emission
      enhancement that enables the efficient imaging. DADQs are easy to synthesize, non
      cytotoxic, and thermally, chemically and photo-stable, requiring no special
      storage conditions; preliminary experiments point to their potential utility in
      imaging different classes of cells.

PMID- 28878253
TI  - Erratum: Solitonic conduction of electrotonic signals in neuronal branchlets with
      polarized microstructure.
AB  - A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML
      version of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

PMID- 28878254
TI  - Germline Mutations in Cancer Predisposition Genes are Frequent in Sporadic
      Sarcomas.
AB  - Associations of sarcoma with inherited cancer syndromes implicate genetic
      predisposition in sarcoma development. However, due to the apparently sporadic
      nature of sarcomas, little attention has been paid to the role genetic
      susceptibility in sporadic sarcoma. To address this, we performed targeted
      genomic sequencing to investigate the prevalence of germline mutations in known
      cancer-associated genes within an Asian cohort of sporadic sarcoma patients
      younger than 50 years old. We observed 13.6% (n = 9) amongst 66 patients harbour
      at least one predicted pathogenic germline mutation in 10 cancer-associated genes
      including ATM, BRCA2, ERCC4, FANCC, FANCE, FANCI, MSH6, POLE, SDHA and TP53. The
      most frequently affected genes are involved in the DNA damage repair pathway,
      with a germline mutation prevalence of 10.6%. Our findings suggests that genetic
      predisposition plays a larger role than expected in our Asian cohort of sporadic
      sarcoma, therefore clinicians should be aware of the possibility that young
      sarcoma patients may be carriers of inherited mutations in cancer genes and
      should be considered for genetic testing, regardless of family history. The
      prevalence of germline mutations in DNA damage repair genes imply that
      therapeutic strategies exploiting the vulnerabilities resulting from impaired DNA
      repair may be promising areas for translational research.

PMID- 28878255
TI  - Adaptive aggregation by spider mites under predation risk.
AB  - Grouping together is a commonly observed anti-predator strategy. Possible anti
      predator benefits of aggregation include the encounter/avoidance effect for
      visually hunting predators and the dilution effect, together dubbed attack
      abatement. Possible costs opposing the dilution effect are easier detection of
      aggregated than scattered individuals. The benefits of attack abatement, and
      opposing costs after group detection, are poorly understood for chemosensory
      predator-prey interactions. We tackled this issue by assessing the aggregation
      behavior of spider mites Tetranychus urticae under predation risk emanating from
      predatory mites Phytoseiulus persimilis. We examined whether adult spider mite
      females aggregate more tightly when perceiving predator cues (traces left and
      eggs), representing graded risk levels, and whether grouping enhances survival in
      physical predator presence. The spider mites aggregated more tightly and were
      more active in presence than absence of predator cues. Grouped spider mites were
      less likely and later detected and attacked than scattered spider mites.
      Moreover, encounter and attack of one group member did not increase the risk of
      other members to be attacked, as compared to scattered spider mites. To the best
      of our knowledge, our study is the first rigorous documentation of the adaptive
      benefit of tightened prey aggregation towards a purely chemosensorily hunting
      predator.

PMID- 28878256
TI  - Non-parametric genetic prediction of complex traits with latent Dirichlet process
      regression models.
AB  - Using genotype data to perform accurate genetic prediction of complex traits can
      facilitate genomic selection in animal and plant breeding programs, and can aid
      in the development of personalized medicine in humans. Because most complex
      traits have a polygenic architecture, accurate genetic prediction often requires
      modeling all genetic variants together via polygenic methods. Here, we develop
      such a polygenic method, which we refer to as the latent Dirichlet process
      regression model. Dirichlet process regression is non-parametric in nature,
      relies on the Dirichlet process to flexibly and adaptively model the effect size
      distribution, and thus enjoys robust prediction performance across a broad
      spectrum of genetic architectures. We compare Dirichlet process regression with
      several commonly used prediction methods with simulations. We further apply
      Dirichlet process regression to predict gene expressions, to conduct PrediXcan
      based gene set test, to perform genomic selection of four traits in two species,
      and to predict eight complex traits in a human cohort.Genetic prediction of
      complex traits with polygenic architecture has wide application from animal
      breeding to disease prevention. Here, Zeng and Zhou develop a non-parametric
      genetic prediction method based on latent Dirichlet Process regression models.

PMID- 28878257
TI  - Molecular mechanisms governing microRNA-125a expression in human hepatocellular
      carcinoma cells.
AB  - MicroRNA-125a-5p (miR-125a) is a vertebrate homolog of lin-4, the first
      discovered microRNA, and plays a fundamental role in embryo development by
      downregulating Lin-28 protein. MiR-125a is also expressed in differentiated cells
      where it generally acts as an antiproliferative factor by targeting membrane
      receptors or intracellular transductors of mitogenic signals. MiR-125a expression
      is downregulated in several tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
      where it targets sirtuin-7, matrix metalloproteinase-11, VEGF-A, Zbtb7a, and c
      Raf. In this study, we have isolated the transcription promoter of human miR-125a
      and characterized its activity in HCC cells. It is a TATA-less Pol II promoter
      provided with an initiator element and a downstream promoter element, located
      3939 bp upstream the genomic sequence of the miRNA. The activity of the promoter
      is increased by the transcription factor NF-kB, a master regulator of
      inflammatory response, and miR-125a itself was found to strengthen this
      activation through inhibition of TNFAIP3, a negative regulator of NF-kB. This
      finding contributes to explain the increased levels of miR-125a observed in the
      liver of patients with chronic hepatitis B.

PMID- 28878258
TI  - Oxidative damage and impairment of protein quality control systems in
      keratinocytes exposed to a volatile organic compounds cocktail.
AB  - Compelling evidence suggests that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have
      potentially harmful effects to the skin. However, knowledge about cellular
      signaling events and toxicity subsequent to VOC exposure to human skin cells is
      still poorly documented. The aim of this study was to focus on the interaction
      between 5 different VOCs (hexane, toluene, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and
      acetone) at doses mimicking chronic low level environmental exposure and the
      effect on human keratinocytes to get better insight into VOC-cell interactions.
      We provide evidence that the proteasome, a major intracellular proteolytic system
      which is involved in a broad array of processes such as cell cycle, apoptosis,
      transcription, DNA repair, protein quality control and antigen presentation, is a
      VOC target. Proteasome inactivation after VOC exposure is accompanied by
      apoptosis, DNA damage and protein oxidation. Lon protease, which degrades
      oxidized, dysfunctional, and misfolded proteins in the mitochondria is also a VOC
      target. Using human skin explants we found that VOCs prevent cell proliferation
      and also inhibit proteasome activity in vivo. Taken together, our findings
      provide insight into potential mechanisms of VOC-induced proteasome inactivation
      and the cellular consequences of these events.

PMID- 28878260
TI  - alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling modulates the inflammatory
      phenotype of fetal brain microglia: first evidence of interference by iron
      homeostasis.
AB  - Neuroinflammation in utero may result in life-long neurological disabilities.
      Microglia play a pivotal role, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. No early
      postnatal treatment strategies exist to enhance neuroprotective potential of
      microglia. We hypothesized that agonism on alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine
      receptor (alpha7nAChR) in fetal microglia will augment their neuroprotective
      transcriptome profile, while the antagonistic stimulation of alpha7nAChR will
      achieve the opposite. Using an in vivo - in vitro model of developmental
      programming of neuroinflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), we
      validated this hypothesis in primary fetal sheep microglia cultures re-exposed to
      LPS in presence of a selective alpha7nAChR agonist or antagonist. Our RNAseq and
      protein level findings show that a pro-inflammatory microglial phenotype acquired
      in vitro by LPS stimulation is reversed with alpha7nAChR agonistic stimulation.
      Conversely, antagonistic alpha7nAChR stimulation potentiates the pro-inflammatory
      microglial phenotype. Surprisingly, under conditions of LPS double-hit an
      interference of a postulated alpha7nAChR - ferroportin signaling pathway may
      impede this mechanism. These results suggest a therapeutic potential of
      alpha7nAChR agonists in early re-programming of microglia in neonates exposed to
      in utero inflammation via an endogenous cerebral cholinergic anti-inflammatory
      pathway. Future studies will assess the role of interactions between inflammation
      triggered microglial iron sequestering and alpha7nAChR signaling in
      neurodevelopment.

PMID- 28878261
TI  - Accelerated oral wound healing using a pre-vascularized mucosal cell sheet.
AB  - Cell sheets with pre-vascularization have recently been developed but remain
      relatively untested in oral wound healing. Therefore, we examined the potential
      utility of our newly developed pre-vascularized mucosal cell sheets in oral wound
      healing. Mucosal keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial progenitor cells
      were primarily cultured for in vitro cell expansion from mucosa and blood of
      Sprague-Dawley rats. Mucosal cell sheets were generated using cultured
      keratinocytes and plasma fibrin (K sheet) or keratinocytes and a mixture of
      fibrin, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells (PV sheet). Autologous sheets were
      transplanted on deep wounds in the buccal region of rats. The gross and
      histological characteristics of wound healing were compared among control wound,
      K sheet, and PV sheet groups. We successfully cultured and expanded
      keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial progenitor cells in vitro for
      generating mucosal cell sheets with or without pre-vascularization. In the in
      vivo oral wound model, compared with the control wound, the PV sheet group
      exhibited rapid wound closure more prominently than the K sheet group. The
      histological healing in the PV sheet group was similar to that in rat normal
      buccal mucosa without fibrosis. The pre-vascularized mucosal cell sheet exhibited
      in vivo efficacy in oral wound healing by promoting accelerated healing.

PMID- 28878262
TI  - Hyper-O-GlcNAcylation induces cisplatin resistance via regulation of p53 and c
      Myc in human lung carcinoma.
AB  - Aberrant metabolism in hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) has been observed in
      several cancers, affecting cellular signaling and tumor progression. However, the
      role of O-GlcNAcylation, a post-translational modification through HBP flux, in
      apoptosis remains unclear. Here, we found that hyper-O-GlcNAcylation in lung
      carcinoma cells by O-GlcNAcase inhibition renders the cells to apoptosis
      resistance to cisplatin (CDDP). Profiling of various key regulatory proteins
      revealed an implication of either p53 or c-Myc in the apoptosis regulation by O
      GlcNAcylation, independent of p53 status. Using co-immunoprecipitation and
      correlation analyses, we found that O-GlcNAcylation of p53 under certain cellular
      contexts, i.e. high p53 activation, promotes its ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal
      degradation, resulting in a gain of oncogenic and anti-apoptotic functions. By
      contrast, O-GlcNAcylation of c-Myc inhibits its ubiquitination and subsequent
      proteasomal degradation. Gene manipulation studies revealed that O-GlcNAcylation
      of p53/c-Myc is in part a regulator of CDDP-induced apoptosis. Accordingly, we
      classified CDDP resistance by hyper-O-GlcNAcylation in lung carcinoma cells as
      either p53 or c-Myc dependence based on their molecular targets. Together, our
      findings provide novel mechanisms for the regulation of lung cancer cell
      apoptosis that could be important in understanding clinical drug resistance and
      suggest O-GlcNAcylation as a potential target for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28878259
TI  - Promoting Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fission in midlife prolongs healthy
      lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - The accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria has been implicated in aging, but
      a deeper understanding of mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy during aging is
      missing. Here, we show that upregulating Drp1-a Dynamin-related protein that
      promotes mitochondrial fission-in midlife, prolongs Drosophila lifespan and
      healthspan. We find that short-term induction of Drp1, in midlife, is sufficient
      to improve organismal health and prolong lifespan, and observe a midlife shift
      toward a more elongated mitochondrial morphology, which is linked to the
      accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria in aged flight muscle. Promoting Drp1
      mediated mitochondrial fission, in midlife, facilitates mitophagy and improves
      both mitochondrial respiratory function and proteostasis in aged flies. Finally,
      we show that autophagy is required for the anti-aging effects of midlife Drp1
      mediated mitochondrial fission. Our findings indicate that interventions that
      promote mitochondrial fission could delay the onset of pathology and mortality in
      mammals when applied in midlife.Mitochondrial fission and fusion are important
      mechanisms to maintain mitochondrial function. Here, the authors report that
      middle-aged flies have more elongated, or 'hyper-fused' mitochondria, and show
      that induction of mitochondrial fission in midlife, but not in early life,
      extends the health and life of flies.

PMID- 28878263
TI  - A progesterone-brown fat axis is involved in regulating fetal growth.
AB  - Pregnancy is associated with profound maternal metabolic changes, necessary for
      the growth and development of the fetus, mediated by reproductive signals acting
      on metabolic organs. However, the role of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in
      regulating gestational metabolism is unknown. We show that BAT phenotype is lost
      in murine pregnancy, while there is a gain of white adipose tissue (WAT)-like
      features. This is characterised by reduced thermogenic capacity and mitochondrial
      content, accompanied by increased levels of markers of WAT and lipid
      accumulation. Surgical ablation of BAT prior to conception caused maternal and
      fetal hyperlipidemia, and consequently larger fetuses. We show that BAT phenotype
      is altered from day 5 of gestation, implicating early pregnancy factors, which
      was confirmed by reduced expression of BAT markers in progesterone challenged
      oophorectomised mice. Moreover, in vitro data using primary BAT cultures show a
      direct impact of progesterone on expression of Ucp1. These data demonstrate that
      progesterone mediates a phenotypic change in BAT, which contributes to the
      gestational metabolic environment, and thus overall fetal size.

PMID- 28878264
TI  - Manipulation of acoustic wavefront by gradient metasurface based on Helmholtz
      Resonators.
AB  - We designed a gradient acoustic metasurface to manipulate acoustic wavefront
      freely. The broad bandwidth and high efficiency transmission are achieved by the
      acoustic metasurface which is constructed with a series of unit cells to provide
      desired discrete acoustic velocity distribution. Each unit cell is composed of a
      decorated metal plate with four periodically arrayed Helmholtz resonators (HRs)
      and a single slit. The design employs a gradient velocity to redirect refracted
      wave and the impedance matching between the metasurface and the background medium
      can be realized by adjusting the slit width of unit cell. The theoretical and
      numerical results show that some excellent wavefront manipulations are
      demonstrated by anomalous refraction, non-diffracting Bessel beam, sub-wavelength
      flat focusing, and effective tunable acoustic negative refraction. Our designed
      structure may offer potential applications for the imaging system, beam steering
      and acoustic lens.

PMID- 28878266
TI  - Transglutaminase 2 regulates osteoclast differentiation via a Blimp1-dependent
      pathway.
AB  - Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) performs multiple reactions, including transamidation,
      and also plays a role in signal transduction as a GTP-binding protein. In this
      study, we reveal that TG2 controls osteoclast differentiation and bone
      homeostasis in mice. Osteoclasts specifically expressed the TG2 isoform among
      eight TG family members. Suppression in TG2 expression with siRNA led to
      increased osteoclast formation from primary mouse precursor cells in response to
      receptor activator of nuclear factor kappaB ligand (RANKL). This osteoclastogenic
      effect of TG2 knockdown was associated with enhanced induction of c-Fos and
      NFATc1 by RANKL. Moreover, TG2 knockdown up-regulated B lymphocyte-induced
      maturation protein 1 (Blimp1), which represses anti-osteoclastogenic genes, in a
      manner dependent on the NF-kappaB signaling pathway. To the contrary, TG2
      overexpression inhibited osteoclast formation and the expression of
      osteoclastogenic genes. Consistent with these in vitro results, TG2 knockout mice
      exhibited lower trabecular bone mass and increased number of osteoclasts compared
      with wild-type mice. Taken together, our results provide strong evidence that TG2
      plays an important role in bone metabolism by suppressing excessive
      osteoclastogenesis via the regulation of the NF-kappaB-Blimp1 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28878265
TI  - O-GlcNAcylation Reduces Ischemia-Reperfusion-Induced Brain Injury.
AB  - O-GlcNAcylation is a common posttranslational modification of nucleocytoplasmic
      proteins with beta-N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and regulates numerous biological
      processes. By using mouse models of cerebral ischemia induced by permanent and
      transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), we observed an initial
      elevation (~1.7-fold, 1-4 hours after ischemia) and then decline of O
      GlcNAcylation during cerebral ischemia. We found that moderate increase (<3-fold)
      of brain O-GlcNAcylation by pharmacological means ameliorated cerebral ischemia
      reperfusion injury and the consequent motor and neurological deficits.
      Interference of the transient elevation of O-GlcNAcylation pharmacologically or
      genetically aggravates the ischemia-induced brain damage, motor deficits and
      mortality. The alteration of O-GlcNAcylation was also seen in the ischemic areas
      of postmortem human brains. This study reveals an important regulation of
      cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury by O-GlcNAcylation and also provides a
      possible therapeutic strategy, i.e., by increasing O-GlcNAcylation, to reduce the
      cerebral damage and improve the clinical outcome of ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28878268
TI  - Different spatial patterns of nitrogen and phosphorus resorption efficiencies in
      China's forests.
AB  - Nutrient resorption is an important internal-strategy for plant to retain
      nutrients. However, the spatial patterns of nitrogen and phosphorus resorption
      efficiencies (NRE, PRE) in national scales are still unexplored. In this study,
      we first estimated the magnitudes of NRE and PRE, and explored their spatial
      patterns across China's forests based on the dataset from a nation-wide field
      campaign from 2011 to 2015. Mean NRE was estimated to be 35.64% and higher than
      mean PRE (43.72%). The main effects of forest type and the interactions between
      climatic zone and land use were significant for both NRE and PRE. In addition,
      NRE and PRE exhibited different patterns along climatic gradients and nutrient
      status. Our results can shed light on the nutrient strategies of China's forests
      under future environmental changes and the results could be used in global
      biogeochemical models.

PMID- 28878267
TI  - Carbonyl reductase 1 catalyzes 20beta-reduction of glucocorticoids, modulating
      receptor activation and metabolic complications of obesity.
AB  - Carbonyl Reductase 1 (CBR1) is a ubiquitously expressed cytosolic enzyme
      important in exogenous drug metabolism but the physiological function of which is
      unknown. Here, we describe a role for CBR1 in metabolism of glucocorticoids. CBR1
      catalyzes the NADPH- dependent production of 20beta-dihydrocortisol (20beta-DHF)
      from cortisol. CBR1 provides the major route of cortisol metabolism in horses and
      is up-regulated in adipose tissue in obesity in horses, humans and mice. We
      demonstrate that 20beta-DHF is a weak endogenous agonist of the human
      glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Pharmacological inhibition of CBR1 in diet-induced
      obesity in mice results in more marked glucose intolerance with evidence for
      enhanced hepatic GR signaling. These findings suggest that CBR1 generating 20beta
      dihydrocortisol is a novel pathway modulating GR activation and providing
      enzymatic protection against excessive GR activation in obesity.

PMID- 28878269
TI  - Caveolin-1 Protects Retinal Ganglion Cells against Acute Ocular Hypertension
      Injury via Modulating Microglial Phenotypes and Distribution and Activating AKT
      pathway.
AB  - Glaucoma, a group of eye diseases, causes gradual loss of retinal ganglion cells
      (RGCs) and ultimately results in irreversible blindness. Studies of the
      underlying mechanisms of glaucoma and clinical trial are far from satisfactory.
      Results from a genome-wide association study have suggested that the CAV1/CAV2
      locus is associated with glaucoma, but this association and its potential
      underlying mechanisms need to be confirmed and further explored. Here, we studied
      the function of caveolin-1 (Cav1) in an acute ocular hypertension glaucoma model.
      Cav1 deficiency caused an aggregated lesion in the retina. In addition, treatment
      with cavtratin, a membrane permeable Cav1 scaffolding domain peptide, enhanced
      RGC survival. After cavtratin treatment, microglial numbers decreased
      significantly, and the majority of them migrated from the inner retinal layer to
      the outer retinal layers. Furthermore, cavtratin promoted a change in the
      microglia phenotype from the neurotoxic pro-inflammatory M1 to the
      neuroprotective anti-inflammatory M2. In a molecular mechanism experiment, we
      found that cavtratin activated the phosphorylation of both AKT and PTEN in
      cultured N9 cells. Our data highlights the neuroprotective effect of Cav1 on
      acute ocular hypertension and suggests that Cav1 may serve as a novel therapeutic
      target for the treatment of glaucoma. We further propose that cavtratin is a
      therapeutic candidate for glaucoma clinical trials.

PMID- 28878271
TI  - Closing the bandgap for III-V nitrides toward mid-infrared and THz applications.
AB  - A theoretical study of InNBi alloy by using density functional theory is
      presented. The results show non-linear dependence of the lattice parameters and
      bulk modulus on Bi composition. The formation energy and thermodynamic stability
      analysis indicate that the InNBi alloy possesses a stable phase over a wide range
      of intermediate compositions at a normal growth temperature. The bandgap of InNBi
      alloy in Wurtzite (WZ) phase closes for Bi composition higher than 1.5625% while
      that in zinc-blende (ZB) phase decreases significantly at around 356 meV/%Bi. The
      Bi centered ZB InNBi alloy presents a change from a direct bandgap to an indirect
      bandgap up to 1.5625% Bi and then an oscillates between indirect bandgap and semi
      metallic for 1.5625% to 25% Bi and finally to metallic for higher Bi
      compositions. For the same Bi composition, its presence in cluster or uniform
      distribution has a salient effect on band structures and can convert between
      direct and indirect bandgap or open the bandgap from the metallic gap. These
      interesting electronic properties enable III-nitride closing the bandgap and make
      this material a good candidate for future photonic device applications in the mid
      infrared to THz energy regime.

PMID- 28878270
TI  - Membrane association of the bacterial riboregulator Hfq and functional
      perspectives.
AB  - Hfq is a bacterial RNA binding protein that carries out several roles in genetic
      expression regulation, mainly at the post-transcriptional level. Previous studies
      have shown its importance in growth and virulence of bacteria. Here, we provide
      the direct observation of its ability to interact with membranes. This was
      established by co-sedimentation assay, cryo-transmission electron (cryo-TEM) and
      atomic force (AFM) microscopies. Furthermore, our results suggest a role for its
      C-terminus amyloidogenic domain in membrane disruption. Precisely, AFM images of
      lipid bilayers in contact with Hfq C-terminus fibrils show the emergence of holes
      with a size dependent on the time of interaction. Cryo-TEM observations also show
      that liposomes are in contact with clusters of fibrils, with occasional
      deformation of the vesicles and afterward the apparition of a multitude of tiny
      vesicles in the proximity of the fibrils, suggesting peptide-induced breakage of
      the liposomes. Finally, circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated a change in
      the secondary structure of Hfq C-terminus upon interaction with liposomes.
      Altogether, these results show an unexpected property of Hfq and suggest a
      possible new role for the protein, exporting sRNA outside of the bacterial cell.

PMID- 28878272
TI  - Enhancement of the productivity of the potent bacteriocin avicin A and
      improvement of its stability using nanotechnology approaches.
AB  - Herein, enhancements of the yield and antimicrobial activity duration of the
      bacteriocin avicin A were accomplished using fractional factorial design (FFD)
      and layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles. Firstly, potential factors
      affecting bacteriocin production were selected for preliminary study. By a 25-1
      FFD, high pH was shown to have a positive effect on avicin A yield, while
      temperature and duration of incubation, as well as peptone nitrogen sources all
      had negative effects. The highest bacteriocin production and activity (2560
      BU/ml) were observed after 30 h of incubation at 30  degrees C, with pH
      adjustment at 7, and in the presence of 2 g mannitol as carbon source and 2.2 g
      peptone as nitrogen source. Secondly, avicin A nanocomposites with different LDH
      precursors were tested. Only avicin A-ZnAl-CO3 LDH demonstrated a potent
      antimicrobial activity against Lactobacillus sakei LMGT 2313 that lasted for at
      least 24 days, as compared to the values of 6 and 15 days observed with the free
      avicin A that has been stored at room temperature and at 4  degrees C,
      respectively. In conclusion, avicin A production and stability can be improved by
      manipulating the growth conditions and media composition, together with
      conjugation to LDHs.

PMID- 28878273
TI  - Reactivation of dead sulfide species in lithium polysulfide flow battery for grid
      scale energy storage.
AB  - Lithium polysulfide batteries possess several favorable attributes including low
      cost and high energy density for grid energy storage. However, the precipitation
      of insoluble and irreversible sulfide species on the surface of carbon and
      lithium (called "dead" sulfide species) leads to continuous capacity degradation
      in high mass loading cells, which represents a great challenge. To address this
      problem, herein we propose a strategy to reactivate dead sulfide species by
      reacting them with sulfur powder with stirring and heating (70  degrees C) to
      recover the cell capacity, and further demonstrate a flow battery system based on
      the reactivation approach. As a result, ultrahigh mass loading (0.125 g cm-3, 2 g
      sulfur in a single cell), high volumetric energy density (135 Wh L-1), good cycle
      life, and high single-cell capacity are achieved. The high volumetric energy
      density indicates its promising application for future grid energy
      storage.Lithium polysulfide batteries suffer from the precipitation of insoluble
      and irreversible sulfide species on the surface of carbon and lithium. Here the
      authors show a reactivation strategy by a reaction with cheap sulfur powder under
      stirring and heating to recover the cell capacity.

PMID- 28878274
TI  - Development of oriC-plasmids for use in Mycoplasma hyorhinis.
AB  - Mycoplasma hyorhinis (M. hyorhinis) is an opportunistic pig pathogen, belonging
      to the class Mollicutes. It causes polyserositis, arthritis and cancers in vitro,
      increasing attention of the researchers. Currently, there is no available genetic
      tool to manipulate its genome. This study describes a development of oriC
      plasmids harboring either large (pGEMT-LoriC) or minimum (pGEMT-MoriC) origin of
      replication (oriC) of M. hyorhinis along with tetracycline resistance
      marker.These plasmids were successfully transformed into M. hyorhinis with
      average transformation frequency of 1.5 * 10-4 and 2.0 * 10-5 transformants/CFU
      for pGEMT-LoriC and pGEMT-MoriC respectively, and were integrated at the
      chromosomal oriC as well as remained freely replicating. We also constructed a
      Mini-oriC-HT1 targeting plasmid by inclusion of hlyC arms and was used to
      inactivate hlyC at average frequency of 50%. The efficiency of hlyC inactivation
      was further improved (by 90%) when Mini-oriC-HT2 that contains E. coli recA was
      used. In both cases, hemolysin mutant bacteria diminished the ability to lyse
      mouse RBCs compared to wild-type (P < 0.001). OriC-plasmids described in this
      study may, therefore open the way for functional genomics in M. hyorhinis.
      Furthermore, this is a first study demonstrated the gene associated with a
      hemolytic phenotype in mycoplasmas.

PMID- 28878276
TI  - Non-autonomous multi-rogue waves for spin-1 coupled nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii
      equation and management by external potentials.
AB  - We investigate non-autonomous multi-rogue wave solutions in a three
      component(spin-1) coupled nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii(GP) equation with varying
      dispersions, higher nonlinearities, gain/loss and external potentials. The
      similarity transformation allows us to relate certain class of multi-rogue wave
      solutions of the spin-1 coupled nonlinear GP equation to the solutions of
      integrable coupled nonlinear Schrodinger(CNLS) equation. We study the effect of
      time-dependent quadratic potential on the profile and dynamic of non-autonomous
      rogue waves. With certain requirement on the backgrounds, some non-autonomous
      multi-rogue wave solutions exhibit the different shapes with two peaks and dip in
      bright-dark rogue waves. Then, the managements with external potential and
      dynamic behaviors of these solutions are investigated analytically. The results
      could be of interest in such diverse fields as Bose-Einstein condensates,
      nonlinear fibers and super-fluids.

PMID- 28878275
TI  - A fluorescence-based reporter for monitoring expression of mycobacterial
      cytochrome bd in response to antibacterials and during infection.
AB  - Cytochrome bd is a component of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway in many
      Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Next to its role as a terminal oxidase
      in the respiratory chain this enzyme plays an important role as a survival factor
      in the bacterial stress response. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis and related
      mycobacterial strains, cytochrome bd is an important component of the defense
      system against antibacterial drugs. In this report we describe and evaluate an
      mCherry-based fluorescent reporter for detection of cytochrome bd expression in
      Mycobacterium marinum. Cytochrome bd was induced by mycolic acid biosynthesis
      inhibitors such as isoniazid and most prominently by drugs targeting oxidative
      phosphorylation. We observed no induction by inhibitors of protein-, DNA- or RNA
      synthesis. The constructed expression reporter was suitable for monitoring
      mycobacterial cytochrome bd expression during mouse macrophage infection and in a
      zebrafish embryo infection model when using Mycobacterium marinum. Interestingly,
      in both these infection models cytochrome bd levels were considerably higher than
      during in vitro culturing of M. marinum. The expression reporter described here
      can be a valuable tool for elucidating the role of cytochrome bd as a survival
      factor.

PMID- 28878278
TI  - Surface reconstruction of InAs (001) depending on the pressure and temperature
      examined by density functional thermodynamics.
AB  - A detailed understanding of the atomic configuration of the compound
      semiconductor surface, especially after reconstruction, is very important for the
      device fabrication and performance. While there have been numerous experimental
      studies using the scanning probe techniques, further theoretical studies on
      surface reconstruction are necessary to promote the clear understanding of the
      origins and development of such subtle surface structures. In this work,
      therefore, a pressure-temperature surface reconstruction diagram was constructed
      for the model case of the InAs (001) surface considering both the vibrational
      entropy and configurational entropy based on the density functional theory.
      Notably, the equilibrium fraction of various reconstructions was determined as a
      function of the pressure and temperature, not as a function of the chemical
      potential, which largely facilitated the direct comparison with the experiments.
      By taking into account the entropy effects, the coexistence of the multiple
      reconstructions and the fractional change of each reconstruction by the
      thermodynamic condition were predicted and were in agreement with the previous
      experimental observations. This work provides the community with a useful
      framework for such type of theoretical studies.

PMID- 28878277
TI  - Increased TCR signal strength in DN thymocytes promotes development of gut
      TCRalphabeta(+)CD8alphaalpha(+) intraepithelial lymphocytes.
AB  - CD4(+)CD8(+) "double positive" (DP) thymocytes differentiate into diverse
      alphabeta T cell sub-types using mechanistically distinct programs. For example,
      conventional alphabeta T cells develop from DP cells after partial-agonist T cell
      receptor (TCR) interactions with self-peptide/MHC, whereas unconventional
      alphabeta T cells, such as TCRalphabeta(+)CD8alphaalpha(+) intraepithelial
      lymphocytes (IELs), require full-agonist TCR interactions. Despite this, DP cells
      appear homogeneous, and it remains unclear how distinct TCR signalling instructs
      distinct developmental outcomes. Moreover, whether TCR signals at earlier stages
      of development, for example in CD4(-)CD8(-) double negative (DN) cells, impact on
      later fate decisions is presently unknown. Here, we assess four strains of mice
      that display altered TCR signal strength in DN cells, which correlates with
      altered generation of unconventional TCRalphabeta(+)CD8alphaalpha(+) IELs. FVB/n
      mice (compared to C57BL/6 animals) and mice with altered preTCRalpha (pTalpha)
      expression, both displayed weaker TCR signalling in DN cells, an inefficient DN
      to-DP transition, and reduced contribution of TCRalphabeta(+)CD8alphaalpha(+)
      IELs to gut epithelium. Conversely, TCRalphabeta(+)CD8alphaalpha(+) IEL
      development was favoured in mice with increased TCR signal strength in DN cells.
      Collectively, these data suggest TCR signal strength in DN cells directly impacts
      on subsequent DP cell differentiation, fundamentally altering the potential of
      thymocyte progenitors to adopt conventional versus unconventional T cell fates.

PMID- 28878279
TI  - Changes in Resting-State Cerebral Activity in Patients with Hyperthyroidism: A
      Short-Term Follow-Up Functional MR Imaging Study.
AB  - To investigate the brain functional abnormality of hyperthyroid patients before
      and after treatment for one month using resting-state functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and
      seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis were performed in 27 new-onset
      untreated hyperthyroid patients relative to 30 healthy controls. In addition,
      follow-up data were available for 19 patients treated with methimazole for one
      month. Compared with healthy controls, patients exhibited lower ALFF in the right
      posterior cingulate cortex (PCC); increased FC in the bilateral anterior insula
      (AI), bilateral posterior insula (PI) and left anterior lobe of the cerebellum
      (ALC); and decreased FC in the bilateral lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), the
      right medial temporal gyrus (MTG) and the bilateral PCC. Compared with the
      hyperthyroid status, patients with improved thyroid function showed increased FC
      in the right LPFC and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Subsequently,
      Pearson's correlation analyses were performed between abnormal ALFF, FC,
      neuropsychological assessment and serum free triiodothyronine (FT3) levels. The
      results indicated that the alterations in regional and network-level brain
      functions, which might underlie different psychiatric complications were dynamic
      and interactional processes in hyperthyroidism. Moreover, the improvement in
      regional brain FC was correlated with the efficacy of anti-thyroid medication.

PMID- 28878280
TI  - Tilt-less 3-D electron imaging and reconstruction of complex curvilinear
      structures.
AB  - The ability to obtain three-dimensional (3-D) information about morphologies of
      nanostructures elucidates many interesting properties of materials in both
      physical and biological sciences. Here we demonstrate a novel method in scanning
      transmission electron microscopy (STEM) that gives a fast and reliable assessment
      of the 3-D configuration of curvilinear nano structures, all without needing to
      tilt the sample through an arc. Using one-dimensional crystalline defects known
      as dislocations as a prototypical example of a complex curvilinear object, we
      demonstrate their 3-D reconstruction two orders of magnitude faster than by
      standard tilt-arc TEM tomographic techniques, from data recorded by selecting
      different ray paths of the convergent STEM probe. Due to its speed and immunity
      to problems associated with a tilt arc, the tilt-less 3-D imaging offers
      important advantages for investigations of radiation-sensitive, polycrystalline,
      or magnetic materials. Further, by using a segmented detector, the total electron
      dose is reduced to a single STEM raster scan acquisition; our tilt-less approach
      will therefore open new avenues for real-time 3-D electron imaging of dynamic
      processes.

PMID- 28878281
TI  - Synthesis, structure, and luminescent properties of a family of lanthanide
      functionalized peroxoniobiophosphates.
AB  - Eight new lanthanide derivatives containing 6-peroxoniobio-4-phosphate building
      block, [LnIII(H2O)6]2[H4(NbO2)6P4O24].nH2O [Ln = Eu (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4),
      Ho (5), Er (6), Tm (7), Yb (8), 1-5, 7, 8 n = 12; 6 n = 9], have been
      successfully obtained using an in-situ strategy and fully characterized in the
      solid state by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR spectra, TG-MS, PXRD.
      Structural analyses indicate that these isostructural polyanions 1-8 consist of
      one [P4(NbO2)6O24]10- (P 4 (NbO 2 ) 6 ) clusters and two pendant Ln3+ cations. In
      these compounds, P 4 (NbO 2 ) 6 clusters are connected by lanthanide cations to
      form extended two-dimensional architectures. The approach takes advantage of the
      ability of in-situ formed P 4 (NbO 2 ) 6 cluster to build frameworks by using it
      as ligands to lanthanide ions. The photoluminescence (PL) and lifetime decay
      behaviors of 1, 3 and 4 in solid state have been performed at room temperature.
      The PL emission of 1, 3 and 4 is mainly derived from the characteristic 5D0->7FJ
      (J = 1, 2, 3, 4), 5D4->7FJ (J = 6, 5, 4, 3) and 4F9/2->6H J (J = 15/2, 13/2,
      11/2) transitions of the EuIII, TbIII and DyIII cations, respectively.

PMID- 28878282
TI  - A Novel Benzocoumarin-Stilbene Hybrid as a DNA ligase I inhibitor with in vitro
      and in vivo anti-tumor activity in breast cancer models.
AB  - Existing cancer therapies are often associated with drug resistance and toxicity,
      which results in poor prognosis and recurrence of cancer. This necessitates the
      identification and development of novel therapeutics against existing as well as
      novel cellular targets. In this study, a novel class of Benzocoumarin-Stilbene
      hybrid molecules were synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative
      activity against various cancer cell lines followed by in vivo antitumor activity
      in a mouse model of cancer. The most promising molecule among the series, i.e.
      compound (E)-4-(3,5-dimethoxystyryl)-2H-benzo[h]chromen-2-one (19) showed maximum
      antiproliferative activity in breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231 and 4T1) and
      decreased the tumor size in the in-vivo 4T1 cell-induced orthotopic syngeneic
      mouse breast cancer model. The mechanistic studies of compound 19 by various
      biochemical, cell biology and biophysical approaches suggest that the compound
      binds to and inhibits the human DNA ligase I enzyme activity that might be the
      cause for significant reduction in tumor growth and may constitute a promising
      next-generation therapy against breast cancers.

PMID- 28878283
TI  - Rate-limiting steps in transcription dictate sensitivity to variability in
      cellular components.
AB  - Cell-to-cell variability in cellular components generates cell-to-cell diversity
      in RNA and protein production dynamics. As these components are inherited, this
      should also cause lineage-to-lineage variability in these dynamics. We
      conjectured that these effects on transcription are promoter initiation kinetics
      dependent. To test this, first we used stochastic models to predict that
      variability in the numbers of molecules involved in upstream processes, such as
      the intake of inducers from the environment, acts only as a transient source of
      variability in RNA production numbers, while variability in the numbers of a
      molecular species controlling transcription of an active promoter acts as a
      constant source. Next, from single-cell, single-RNA level time-lapse microscopy
      of independent lineages of Escherichia coli cells, we demonstrate the existence
      of lineage-to-lineage variability in gene activation times and mean RNA
      production rates, and that these variabilities differ between promoters and
      inducers used. Finally, we provide evidence that this can be explained by
      differences in the kinetics of the rate-limiting steps in transcription between
      promoters and induction schemes. We conclude that cell-to-cell and consequent
      lineage-to-lineage variability in RNA and protein numbers are both promoter
      sequence-dependent and subject to regulation.

PMID- 28878284
TI  - MicroRNA-449a deficiency promotes colon carcinogenesis.
AB  - MicroRNAs have broad roles in tumorigenesis and cell differentiation through
      regulation of target genes. Notch signaling also controls cell differentiation
      and tumorigenesis. However, the mechanisms through which Notch mediates microRNA
      expression are still unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify microRNAs
      regulated by Notch signaling. Our analysis found that microRNA-449a (miR-449a)
      was indirectly regulated by Notch signaling. Although miR-449a-deficient mice did
      not show any Notch-dependent defects in immune cell development, treatment of miR
      449a-deficient mice with azoxymethane (AOM) or dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)
      increased the numbers and sizes of colon tumors. These effects were associated
      with an increase in intestinal epithelial cell proliferation following AOM/DSS
      treatment. In patients with colon cancer, miR-449a expression was inversely
      correlated with disease-free survival and histological scores and was positively
      correlated with the expression of MLH1 for which loss-of function mutations have
      been shown to be involved in colon cancer. Colon tissues of miR-449a-deficient
      mice showed reduced Mlh1 expression compared with those of wild-type mice. Thus,
      these data suggested that miR-449a acted as a key regulator of colon
      tumorigenesis by controlling the proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells.
      Additionally, activation of miR-449a may represent an effective therapeutic
      strategy and prognostic marker in colon cancer.

PMID- 28878285
TI  - Interleukin-33 promotes inflammation-induced lymphangiogenesis via ST2/TRAF6
      mediated Akt/eNOS/NO signalling pathway.
AB  - The interplay between inflammation and lymphangiogenesis is mediated by various
      cytokines. However, most of these molecules and their associated mechanism are
      yet to be defined. Here, we explored the role of IL-33 in modulating inflammation
      induced lymphangiogenesis (ILA) and its underlying mechanisms using an ILA mouse
      model and a lymphatic endothelial cell (LEC) line. Our results show that IL-33
      promoted the proliferation, migration and tube formation of LECs and ILA in vivo.
      The pro-lymphangiogenic activity of IL-33 was abolished by ST2 blockage. In
      mechanisms, IL-33 induced the phosphorylation of Akt/eNOS to produce NO in LECs.
      The IL-33-induced Akt/eNOS activation was suppressed by the PI3K-specific
      inhibitor wortmannin, and NO-production was inhibited by both wortmannin and the
      NO synthase-inhibitor NMA. Knock-down of ST2 or TRAF6 suppressed Akt/eNOS
      phosphorylation and NO production. The reduction of NO treated with wortmannin or
      NMA abolished the promoting effects of IL-33 on the chemotactic motility and tube
      formation of HDLECs. In vivo, IL-33-induced ILA was also impaired in eNOS-/-
      mice. In conclusion, our study is the first to show that IL-33 promotes
      inflammation-induced lymphangiogenesis via a ST2/TRAF6-mediated Akt/eNOS/NO
      signalling pathway. This findings may provide us more opportunities to treat
      inflammation and lymphangiogenesis associated diseases.

PMID- 28878286
TI  - Proteomic analysis on roots of Oenothera glazioviana under copper-stress
      conditions.
AB  - Proteomic studies were performed to identify proteins involved in the response of
      Oenothera glazioviana seedlings under Cu stress. Exposure of 28-d-old seedlings
      to 50 MUM CuSO4 for 3 d led to inhibition of shoot and root growth as well as a
      considerable increase in the level of lipid peroxidation in the roots. Cu
      absorbed by O. glazioviana accumulated more easily in the root than in the shoot.
      Label-free proteomic analysis indicated 58 differentially abundant proteins
      (DAPs) of the total 3,149 proteins in the roots of O. glazioviana seedlings, of
      which 36 were upregulated and 22 were downregulated under Cu stress conditions.
      Gene Ontology analysis showed that most of the identified proteins could be
      annotated to signal transduction, detoxification, stress defence, carbohydrate,
      energy, and protein metabolism, development, and oxidoreduction. We also
      retrieved 13 proteins from the enriched Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes
      and the protein-protein interaction databases related to various pathways,
      including the citric acid (CA) cycle. Application of exogenous CA to O.
      glazioviana seedlings exposed to Cu alleviated the stress symptoms. Overall, this
      study provided new insights into the molecular mechanisms of plant response to Cu
      at the protein level in relation to soil properties.

PMID- 28878288
TI  - Abnormal Electroretinogram after Kir7.1 Channel Suppression Suggests Role in
      Retinal Electrophysiology.
AB  - The KCNJ13 gene encodes the inwardly rectifying potassium channel, Kir7.1.
      Mutations in this gene cause childhood blindness, in which the a- and b-wave
      responses of electroretinogram (ERG) are abolished. The ERG a-wave is the light
      induced hyperpolarization of retinal photoreceptors, and the b-wave is the
      depolarization of ON-bipolar cells. The Kir7.1 channel is localized to the apical
      aspects of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and contributes to a delayed c
      wave response. We sought to understand why a defect in an RPE ion-channel result
      in abnormal electrophysiology at the level of the retinal neurons. We have
      established the expression of Kir7.1 channels in the mouse RPE. ERGs recorded
      after mice Kir7.1 suppression by shRNA, or by blocking with VU590, showed reduced
      a-, b- and c-wave amplitudes. In contrast, the Kir7.1 blocker had no effect on
      the ex-vivo isolated mouse retina ERG where the RPE is not attached to the
      isolated retina preparation. Finally, we confirmed the specificity of VU590
      action by inhibition of native mouse RPE Kir7.1 current in patch-clamp
      experiment. We propose that mutant RPE Kir7.1 channels contribute directly to the
      abnormal ERG associated with blindness via alterations in sub-retinal space K+
      homeostasis in the vicinity of the photoreceptor outer segment.

PMID- 28878287
TI  - Metabolomic Profiling of Serum Retinol in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene
      Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study.
AB  - The role of retinol in the prevention of multifactorial chronic diseases remains
      uncertain, and there is sparse evidence regarding biological actions and pathways
      implicated in its effects on various outcomes. The aim is to investigate whether
      serum retinol in an un-supplemented state is associated with low molecular weight
      circulating metabolites. We performed a metabolomic analysis of 1,282 male smoker
      participants based on pre-supplementation fasting serum in the Alpha-Tocopherol,
      Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study. We examined the association between
      947 metabolites measured by ultra-high performance LC-MS/GC-MS and retinol
      concentration (from HPLC) using linear regression that estimated the difference
      in metabolite concentrations per unit difference in retinol concentration as
      standardized beta-coefficients and standard errors (SE). We identified 63
      metabolites associated with serum retinol below the Bonferroni-corrected P-value
      (p < 5.3 * 10-5). The strongest signals were for N-acetyltryptophan (beta = 0.27;
      SE = 0.032; p = 9.8 * 10-17), myo-inositol (beta = 0.23; SE = 0.032; p = 9.8 * 10
      13), and 1-palmitoylglycerophosphoethanolamine (beta = 0.22; SE = 0.032; p = 3.2
      * 10-12). Several chemical class pathways were strongly associated with retinol,
      including amino acids (p = 1.6 * 10-10), lipids (p = 3.3 * 10-7), and
      cofactor/vitamin metabolites (3.3 * 10-7). The strongest sub-pathway association
      was for inositol metabolism (p = 2.0 * 10-14). Serum retinol concentration is
      associated with circulating metabolites in various metabolic pathways,
      particularly lipids, amino acids, and cofactors/vitamins. These
      interrelationships may have relevance to the biological actions of retinol,
      including its role in carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28878289
TI  - Persistence within dendritic cells marks an antifungal evasion and dissemination
      strategy of Aspergillus terreus.
AB  - Aspergillus terreus is an airborne human fungal pathogen causing life-threatening
      invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. In contrast to Aspergillus
      fumigatus, A. terreus infections are associated with high dissemination rates and
      poor response to antifungal treatment. Here, we compared the interaction of
      conidia from both fungal species with MUTZ-3-derived dendritic cells (DCs). After
      phagocytosis, A. fumigatus conidia rapidly escaped from DCs, whereas A. terreus
      conidia remained persisting with long-term survival. Escape from DCs was
      independent from DHN-melanin, as A. terreus conidia expressing wA showed no
      increased intracellular germination. Within DCs A. terreus conidia were protected
      from antifungals, whereas A. fumigatus conidia were efficiently cleared.
      Furthermore, while A. fumigatus conidia triggered expression of DC activation
      markers such as CD80, CD83, CD54, MHCII and CCR7, persistent A. terreus conidia
      were significantly less immunogenic. Moreover, DCs confronted with A. terreus
      conidia neither produced pro-inflammatory nor T-cell stimulating cytokines.
      However, TNF-alpha addition resulted in activation of DCs and provoked the
      expression of migration markers without inactivating intracellular A. terreus
      conidia. Therefore, persistence within DCs and possibly within other immune cells
      might contribute to the low response of A. terreus infections to antifungal
      treatment and could be responsible for its high dissemination rates.

PMID- 28878290
TI  - Enhanced tensile strength and thermal conductivity in copper diamond composites
      with B4C coating.
AB  - Boron carbide (B4C) coating on diamond particle is synthesized by heating diamond
      particles in a powder mix of H3BO3 and B in Ar atmosphere. The composition, bond
      state and coverage fraction of boron carbide coating on diamond particles are
      investigated. The boron carbide coating favors to grow on diamond (100) surface
      rather than on diamond (111) surface. Cu matrix composites reinforced with B4C
      coated diamond particles were made by powder metallurgy. The addition of B4C
      coating gave rise to a dense composite. The influence of B4C coating on both
      tensile strength and thermal conductivity of the composite were investigated.
      When the B4C fully covered on diamond particles, the composite exhibited a
      greatly increase in tensile strength (115 MPa) which was much higher than that
      for uncoated-diamond/Cu (60 MPa) composites. Meanwhile, a high thermal
      conductivity of 687 W/mK was achieved in the B4C-coated-diamond/Cu composites.

PMID- 28878291
TI  - MAP kinase-interacting serine/threonine kinase 2 promotes proliferation,
      metastasis, and predicts poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - We hypothesized that MAP kinase-interacting serine/threonine kinase 2 (MNK2) may
      contribute to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development, and serve as a new
      therapeutic target. Immunohistochemical staining evaluated the correlation
      between MNK2 expression and clinicopathological features in 367 NSCLC cancer
      tissues. We determined the effects of MNK2 silencing in NSCLC cell lines in vitro
      and in vivo. RT-PCR and western blotting was used to examine the impact of MNK2
      on ERK and AKT pathways. MNK2 was overexpressed in NSCLC cell lines and tumor
      tissues. Patients with MNK2 overexpression had lower OS rates (P < 0.001). High
      expression of MNK2 was correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.008). MNK2
      functioned as an independent prognostic factor for poor survival in patients with
      NSCLC (P = 0.003). MNK2 down-regulation inhibited proliferation, migration and
      invasion in vitro (P < 0.001), and reduced tumor growth and invasion in nude mice
      (P < 0.05). MNK2 enhanced phosphorylation of eIF4E, a downstream target of ERK
      and AKT pathways, which promoted NSCLC proliferation and invasion. We conclude
      that MNK2 overexpression in NSCLC is associated with proliferation, migration,
      invasion, and lower survival rates in patients via the phosphorylated eIF4E
      mediated signaling pathway.

PMID- 28878292
TI  - Supercurrent switch in pi topological junctions based upon a narrow quantum spin
      Hall insulator.
AB  - The narrow quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator is characterized by interedge
      coupling, which could feature exotic transport phenomena, and thus serves as the
      key element for topological superconducting electronic devices. Herein, we
      theoretically explore possible Josephson pi states in a QSH insulator strip
      touching on two s-wave superconductors in the presence of the interedge coupling.
      It is shown that the interedge coupling could give rise to a 0 - pi transition
      modulated by the gate voltage, originating from an additional pi phase difference
      caused by the interedge backscattering. The 0 - pi transition in turn can
      manifest the helical spin texture of the edge states. A considerable residual
      value of the supercurrent at the 0 - pi transition point is always exhibited,
      suggesting a very efficient performance of the device as a supercurrent switch.
      Moreover, the region of coexisting 0 and pi states is found fairly large, which
      can be used to improve accuracy in the design of a pi superconducting quantum
      interference device.

PMID- 28878293
TI  - An improved statistical iterative algorithm for sparse-view and limited-angle CT
      image reconstruction.
AB  - Because radiation is harmful to patients, it is important to reduce X-ray
      exposure in the clinic. For CT, reconstructions from sparse views or limited
      angle tomography are being used more frequently for low dose imaging. However,
      insufficient sampling data causes severe streak artifacts in images reconstructed
      using conventional methods. To solve this issue, various methods have recently
      been developed. In this paper, we improve a statistical iterative algorithm based
      on the minimization of the image total variation (TV) for sparse or limited
      projection views during CT image reconstruction. Considering the statistical
      nature of the projection data, the TV is performed under a penalized weighted
      least-squares (PWLS-TV) criterion. During implementation of the proposed method,
      the image reconstructed using the filtered back-projection (FBP) method is used
      as the initial value of the first iteration. Next, the feature refinement (FR)
      step is performed after each PWLS-TV iteration to extract the fine features lost
      in the TV minimization, which we refer to as 'PWLS-TV-FR'.

PMID- 28878294
TI  - Spectral control of elastic dynamics in metallic nano-cavities.
AB  - We show how the elastic response of metallic nano-cavities can be tailored by
      tuning the interplay with an underlying phononic superlattice. In particular, we
      exploit ultrafast optical excitation in order to address a resonance mode in a
      tungsten thin film, grown on top of a periodic MgO/ZrO2 multilayer. Setting up a
      simple theoretical model, we can explain our findings by the coupling of the
      resonance in the tungsten to an evanescent surface mode of the superlattice. To
      demonstrate a second potential benefit of our findings besides characterization
      of elastic properties of multilayer samples, we show by micromagnetic simulation
      how a similar structure can be utilized for magneto-elastic excitation of
      exchange-dominated spin waves.

PMID- 28878295
TI  - Garcinone E induces apoptosis and inhibits migration and invasion in ovarian
      cancer cells.
AB  - Ovarian cancer remains the most lethal gynecological malignant tumor. In this
      study, 24 xanthones were isolated and identified from the pericarps of mangosteen
      (Garcinia mangostana), and their anti-proliferative activities were tested in
      ovarian cancer cells. Garcinone E (GE) was found to exhibit excellent anti
      proliferative effects among the tested xanthones. It significantly inhibited the
      proliferation in HEY, A2780, and A2780/Taxol cells as evidenced by 3-(4,5
      dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay, Hoechst 33342 staining, annexin V/PI staining,
      and JC-1 staining. It induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activated the
      protective inositol-requiring kinase (IRE)-1alpha pathway. Knocking down IRE
      1alpha further activated the caspase cascade and caused an increase in cell
      death. Moreover, GE eliminated the migratory ability of HEY cells by reducing the
      expression of RhoA and Rac. It also blocked the invasion, which might be related
      to downregulation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), i.e., MMP-9 and MMP-2, and
      upregulation of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP) -1 and TIMP-2. In
      summary, GE exerts anticancer activities by inducing apoptosis and suppressing
      migration and invasion in ovarian cancer cells, which indicates its therapeutic
      potential for ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28878296
TI  - Genetic variants in ERCC1 and XPC predict survival outcome of non-small cell lung
      cancer patients treated with platinum-based therapy.
AB  - Nucleotide excision repair (NER) plays a vital role in platinum-induced DNA
      damage during chemotherapy. We hypothesize that regulatory single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (rSNPs) of the core NER genes modulate clinical outcome of patients
      with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with platinum-based
      chemotherapy (PBS). We investigated associations of 25 rSNPs in eight NER genes
      with progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in 710 NSCLC
      patients. We found that ERCC1 rs3212924 AG/GG and XPC rs2229090 GC/CC genotypes
      were associated with patients' PFS (HRadj = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.03-1.43, P adj =
      0.021 for ERCC1 and HRadj = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.68-0.94, P adj = 0.007 for XPC),
      compared with the AA and GG genotypes, respectively. The association of XPC
      rs2229090 was more apparent in adenocarcinoma than in squamous cell carcinoma
      patients. Additionally, ERCC4 rs1799798 GA/AA genotypes were associated with
      poorer OS (HRadj = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.04-1.69, P adj = 0.026), compared with the GG
      genotype. The expression quantitative trait loci analysis revealed that ERCC1
      rs3212924 and XPC rs2229090 might regulate transcription of their genes, which is
      consistent with their associations with survival. Larger studies are needed to
      validate our findings with further functional studies to elucidate the mechanisms
      underlying these observed associations.

PMID- 28878297
TI  - Role of NF-kappaB/GATA3 in the inhibition of lysyl oxidase by IL-1beta in human
      amnion fibroblasts.
AB  - Preterm premature rupture of membranes (pPROMs) account for one-third of preterm
      births, a leading cause of neonatal death. Understanding the mechanism of
      membrane rupture is thus of clinical significance in the prevention of preterm
      birth. Parturition at both term and preterm is associated with increased
      abundance of proinflammatory cytokines in the fetal membranes regardless of the
      presence of infection, which is believed to induce rupture of membranes through
      activation of the matrix metalloproteinases. It remains unknown whether there are
      any alternative mechanisms underpinning proinflammatory cytokine-induced rupture
      of membranes. Here we showed that there were reciprocal increases in interleukin
      1beta (IL-1beta) and decreases in lysyl oxidase (LOX), a collagen crosslinking
      enzyme, in the human amnion tissue following spontaneous rupture of membrane at
      term and pPROM. Studies using human amnion tissue explants revealed that IL-1beta
      inhibited the expression of LOX, which can be reproduced in cultured human amnion
      fibroblasts. Mechanistic study revealed that IL-1beta inhibited LOX expression
      through activation of p38 and Erk1/2 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways,
      which resulted in the phosphorylation of the nuclear factor kappa light-chain
      enhancer of activated B (NF-kappaB) cell subunit p65 as well as GATA binding
      protein 3 (GATA3). Subsequently, activated NF-kappaB interacted with GATA3 at the
      NF-kappaB binding site of LOX promoter to inhibit its expression. Conclusively,
      this study has revealed an alternative mechanism that IL-1beta may contribute to
      the rupture of membranes by attenuating collagen crosslinking through
      downregulation of LOX expression in amnion fibroblasts.

PMID- 28878298
TI  - Upregulation of cathepsin C expression contributes to endothelial chymase
      activation in preeclampsia.
AB  - Chymase is an ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme)-independent angiotensin II
      forming enzyme whose expression is increased in the maternal vascular endothelium
      in preeclampsia. However, mechanisms underlying chymase activation in
      preeclampsia remain unclear. Cathepsin C is a key enzyme in the activation of
      several serine proteases including chymase. In this study, we determined whether
      increased cathepsin C expression/activity might be responsible for the
      upregulation of chymase expression in preeclampsia. Maternal vascular cathepsin
      C, chymase and ACE expression were examined through immunohistochemical staining
      of subcutaneous fat tissue sections of normal and preeclamptic pregnant women.
      The role of cathepsin C in endothelial chymase and ACE expression was determined
      in cells treated with cathepsin C. Consequences of chymase activation were then
      determined by measurement of angiotensin II production in cells treated with the
      ACE inhibitor captopril and the chymase inhibitor chymostatin, separately and in
      combination. Expression of both cathepsin C and chymase, but not ACE expression,
      was markedly increased in the maternal vascular endothelium in subjects with
      preeclampsia compared with normal pregnant controls. Exogenous cathepsin C
      induced a dose-dependent increase in expression of mature cathepsin C and
      chymase, but not ACE, in endothelial cells. Moreover, angiotensin II production
      was significantly inhibited in cells treated with captopril or chymostatin alone
      and was further inhibited in cells treated with both inhibitors. These results
      suggest that cathepsin C upregulation induces chymase activation and subsequently
      promotes angiotensin II generation in endothelial cells. These data also provide
      evidence of upregulation of the cathepsin C-chymase-angiotensin signaling axis in
      maternal vasculature in preeclampsia.

PMID- 28878299
TI  - A study on clinicoradiological characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of
      reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome in preeclampsia or eclampsia.
AB  - Reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome (RPLS) is a critical maternal
      complication in preeclampsia or eclampsia during pregnancy. However, studies
      regarding the clinicoradiological and outcome differences between RPLS and non
      RPLS pregnancies are scarce. We aimed to explore the incidence of RPLS, and
      summarize the clinicoradiological characteristics and pregnancy outcomes. We
      consecutively collected a total of 100 patients who were diagnosed with
      preeclampsia or eclampsia, and examined via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      among 21 872 women between 2013 and 2016. All patients were grouped into RPLS
      (n=49) and non-RPLS (n=51) groups according to their MRI results. Information
      about clinicoradiological features and pregnancy outcomes was collected
      retrospectively to explore the differences between the groups. The incidence of
      RPLS in pregnant women was 0.22% (49/21 872). The frequency of clinical symptoms,
      such as headache, vision change, seizure and consciousness disorders, and blood
      pressure conditions, such as severely elevated hypertension, systolic and
      diastolic pressure and mean arterial pressure levels, was increased in the RPLS
      group compared with that in the non-RPLS group (P<0.05). The occipital lobe was
      the most frequently affected area (93.88%) in RPLS patients. The cesarean section
      rate in RPLS group was higher than the non-RPLS group (P<0.05), whereas the 1 min
      Apgar score was lower (P<0.05). These results suggest that the incidence of RPLS
      was high. Information about clinical symptoms and blood pressure was useful in
      predicting RPLS. In addition, RPLS was significantly associated with the delivery
      mode and pregnancy outcomes. The most frequently affected area was the occipital
      lobe.

PMID- 28878300
TI  - White-coat and masked hypertension are associated with albuminuria in a general
      population: the Hisayama Study.
AB  - Epidemiological and clinical studies have investigated the influence of
      hypertension on chronic kidney disease (CKD), but limited data are available for
      the associations of white-coat hypertension (WCHT), masked hypertension (MHT) and
      sustained hypertension (SHT) with kidney dysfunction in general populations. We
      examined the associations of these types of hypertension with CKD (albuminuria
      and reduction in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)) in a cross
      sectional survey of 2974 community-dwelling Japanese aged ?40 years. The types of
      hypertension were defined based on combined measurements of clinic and home blood
      pressures. Albuminuria was determined as urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR)
      levels ?30.0 mg g-1. The eGFR was calculated using the Japanese equation. The age
      and sex-adjusted geometric mean of the UACR values was significantly higher in
      the subjects with WCHT (20.2 mg g-1), MHT (19.6 mg g-1) and SHT (31.6 mg g-1)
      than in those with normotension (NT) (12.5 mg g-1) (all P<0.001). Compared with
      NT, all types of hypertension were significantly associated with an increased
      likelihood of albuminuria (the age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of albuminuria;
      NT 14.1%, WCHT 26.3%, MHT 26.4% and SHT 43.3%; all P<0.001). These associations
      remained significant even after adjustment for other risk factors. However, the
      age- and sex-adjusted mean of eGFR and the prevalence of low eGFR (<60 ml min-1
      per 1.73 m2) did not differ between NT and the three hypertension types. The
      associations of the types of hypertension with the likelihood of CKD were similar
      to those for albuminuria. Our findings suggest that WCHT, MHT and SHT are
      associated with albuminuria in the general Japanese population.

PMID- 28878301
TI  - EPA:DHA 6:1 prevents angiotensin II-induced hypertension and endothelial
      dysfunction in rats: role of NADPH oxidase- and COX-derived oxidative stress.
AB  - Eicosapentaenoic acid:docosahexaenoic acid (EPA:DHA) 6:1, an omega-3
      polyunsaturated fatty acid formulation, has been shown to induce a sustained
      formation of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase-derived NO, a major
      vasoprotective factor. This study examined whether chronic intake of EPA:DHA 6:1
      prevents hypertension and endothelial dysfunction induced by angiotensin II (Ang
      II) in rats. Male Wister rats received orally corn oil or EPA:DHA 6:1 (500 mg kg
      1 per day) before chronic infusion of Ang II (0.4 mg kg-1 per day). Systolic
      blood pressure was determined by tail cuff sphingomanometry, vascular reactivity
      using a myograph, oxidative stress using dihydroethidium and protein expression
      by immunofluorescence and western blot analysis. Ang II-induced hypertension was
      associated with reduced acetylcholine-induced relaxations of secondary branch
      mesenteric artery rings affecting the endothelium-dependent hyperpolarization
      (EDH)- and the NO-mediated relaxations, both of which were improved by the NADPH
      oxidase inhibitor VAS-2870. The Ang II treatment induced also endothelium
      dependent contractile responses (EDCFs), which were abolished by the
      cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor indomethacin. An increased level of vascular
      oxidative stress and expression of NADPH oxidase subunits (p47phox and p22phox),
      COX-1 and COX-2, endothelial NO synthase and Ang II type 1 receptors were
      observed in the Ang II group, whereas SKCa and connexin 37 were downregulated.
      Intake of EPA:DHA 6:1 prevented the Ang II-induced hypertension and endothelial
      dysfunction by improving both the NO- and EDH-mediated relaxations, and by
      reducing EDCFs and the expression of target proteins. The present findings
      indicate that chronic intake of EPA:DHA 6:1 prevented the Ang II-induced
      hypertension and endothelial dysfunction in rats, most likely by preventing NADPH
      oxidase- and COX-derived oxidative stress.

PMID- 28878302
TI  - Oxygen Mapping of Melanoma Spheroids using Small Molecule Platinum Probe and
      Phosphorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy.
AB  - Solid tumours display varied oxygen levels and this characteristic can be
      exploited to develop new diagnostic tools to determine and exploit these
      variations. Oxygen is an efficient quencher of emission of many phosphorescent
      compounds, thus oxygen concentration could in many cases be derived directly from
      relative emission intensity and lifetime. In this study, we extend our previous
      work on phosphorescent, low molecular weight platinum(II) complex as an oxygen
      sensing probe to study the variation in oxygen concentration in a viable
      multicellular 3D human tumour model. The data shows one of the first examples of
      non-invasive, real-time oxygen mapping across a melanoma tumour spheroid using
      one-photon phosphorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (PLIM) and a small
      molecule oxygen sensitive probe. These measurements were quantitative and enabled
      real time oxygen mapping with high spatial resolution. This combination presents
      as a valuable tool for optical detection of both physiological and pathological
      oxygen levels in a live tissue mass and we suggest has the potential for broader
      clinical application.

PMID- 28878303
TI  - Typewriter tinnitus revisited: The typical symptoms and the initial response to
      carbamazepine are the most reliable diagnostic clues.
AB  - Although neurovascular compression of the cochlear nerve (NVC-C) presenting as
      typewriter tinnitus is a discrete disease category, verified diagnostic criteria
      are lacking. We sought to refine the diagnostic criteria for NVC-C by reference
      to a relatively large case series. The medical records of 22 NVC-C patients were
      retrospectively reviewed. Psychoacoustic characteristics, the results of
      diagnostic work-up (including audiovestibular neurophysiological tests and
      radiological evaluations), and the initial treatment response to carbamazepine
      were investigated. All subjects described their tinnitus as a typical
      "typewriter" or "staccato" sound. Of the 22 subjects, 11 (50%) had histories of
      vertiginous spells, but none had ipsilesional hearing loss. Vestibular function
      tests in 11 subjects tested revealed only 2 (18.2%) isolated cervical vestibular
      evoked myogenic potential abnormalities. Radiological comparisons of the
      symptomatic and asymptomatic sides, regarding the type of the vascular loop and
      neurovascular contact, revealed no significant differences. However, all 22
      subjects exhibited immediate and marked responses to short-term carbamazepine
      treatment. Meticulous history-taking in terms of the psychoacoustic
      characteristics and the response to initial carbamazepine, are more reliable
      diagnostic clues than are radiological or neurophysiological data in NVC-C
      subjects. Therefore, the typical psychoacoustic characteristics and the response
      to initial carbamazepine should be included in the diagnostic criteria.

PMID- 28878304
TI  - Maximum extent and decay of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in Western Baffin Bay during
      the Last glacial episode.
AB  - Reconstructing the extent, flow and decay of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) on
      the continental shelves of North America during the last glaciation provides
      paleoglaciological analogues that are essential for understanding and predicting
      how modern marine-based ice-sheets will respond to future climate change and sea
      level fluctuations. The geometry of the LIS during Marine isotope stage 2 (MIS-2;
      29-14 ka BP) is one key element for ice-sheet modelling. The maximum extent of
      the LIS during this stage is well constrained for most sectors of the ice sheet,
      but major uncertainties remain, especially along the continental shelves of
      Arctic Canada. Despite a series of recent papers, the extent of the LIS in
      Western Baffin Bay, an area draining large volumes of glacial ice through
      multiple ice streams and likely characterized by ice shelves, remains highly
      speculative. Here we present unequivocal marine geophysical evidence that during
      the MIS-2 the LIS extended to the edge of the continental shelf, seaward of the
      previously proposed limits and subsequently retreated episodically westward
      during deglaciation. These data support interpretations of deep glacial ice
      grounding in Western Baffin Bay.

PMID- 28878305
TI  - Effects of Intensive Blood Pressure Reduction on Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage:
      A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Current opinions about the effect of intensive blood pressure (BP) reduction for
      acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) are inconsistent. We performed a meta
      analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intensive BP reduction for acute
      ICH by analyzing data from several recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
      There were six eligible studies that met the inclusion criteria, for a total of
      4,385 acute ICH patients in this meta-analysis. After analyzing these data, we
      found differences between intensive and standard BP lowering treatment groups in
      total mortality rates, unfavorable outcomes, hematoma expansion, neurologic
      deterioration, and severe hypotension were not significant. Moreover, compared
      with the standard treatment, the rate of renal adverse event in intensive
      treatment group was significantly higher. The intensive treatment approach was
      recommended in the following situations: (1) longer prehospital duration; (2)
      lower National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) score; (3) no
      hypertension history.

PMID- 28878306
TI  - Culture-independent metagenomics supports discovery of uncultivable bacteria
      within the genus Chlamydia.
AB  - Advances in culture-independent methods have meant that we can more readily
      detect and diagnose emerging infectious disease threats in humans and animals.
      Metagenomics is fast becoming a popular tool for detection and characterisation
      of novel bacterial pathogens in their environment, and is particularly useful for
      obligate intracellular bacteria such as Chlamydiae that require labour-intensive
      culturing. We have used this tool to investigate the microbial metagenomes of
      Chlamydia-positive cloaca and choana samples from snakes. The microbial
      complexity within these anatomical sites meant that despite previous detection of
      chlamydial 16S rRNA sequences by single-gene broad-range PCR, only a chlamydial
      plasmid could be detected in all samples, and a chlamydial chromosome in one
      sample. Comparative genomic analysis of the latter revealed it represented a
      novel taxon, Ca. Chlamydia corallus, with genetic differences in regards to
      purine and pyrimidine metabolism. Utilising statistical methods to relate plasmid
      phylogeny to the phylogeny of chromosomal sequences showed that the samples also
      contain additional novel strains of Ca. C. corallus and two putative novel
      species in the genus Chlamydia. This study highlights the value of metagenomics
      methods for rapid novel bacterial discovery and the insights it can provide into
      the biology of uncultivable intracellular bacteria such as Chlamydiae.

PMID- 28878307
TI  - A Method for Combined Retinal Vascular and Tissue Oxygen Tension Imaging.
AB  - The retina requires adequate oxygenation to maintain cellular metabolism and
      visual function. Inner retinal oxygen metabolism is directly related to retinal
      vascular oxygen tension (PO2) and inner retinal oxygen extraction fraction (OEF),
      whereas outer retinal oxygen consumption (QO2) relies on oxygen availability by
      the choroid and is contingent upon retinal tissue oxygen tension (tPO2) gradients
      across the retinal depth. Thus far, these oxygenation and metabolic parameters
      have been measured independently by different techniques in separate animals,
      precluding a comprehensive and correlative assessment of retinal oxygenation and
      metabolism dynamics. The purpose of the current study is to report an innovative
      optical system for dual oxyphor phosphorescence lifetime imaging to near
      simultaneously measure retinal vascular PO2 and tPO2 in rats. The use of a new
      oxyphor with different spectral characteristics allowed differentiation of
      phosphorescence signals from the retinal vasculature and tissue. Concurrent
      measurements of retinal arterial and venous PO 2 , tPO2 through the retinal
      depth, inner retinal OEF, and outer retinal QO 2 were demonstrated, permitting a
      correlative assessment of retinal oxygenation and metabolism. Future application
      of this method can be used to investigate the relations among retinal oxygen
      content, extraction and metabolism under pathologic conditions and thus advance
      knowledge of retinal hypoxia pathophysiology.

PMID- 28878308
TI  - Iron-dependent reconfiguration of the proteome underlies the intracellular
      lifestyle of Brucella abortus.
AB  - Brucella ssp. is a facultative intracellular pathogen that causes brucellosis, a
      worldwide zoonosis that affects a wide range of mammals including humans. A
      critical step for the establishment of a successful Brucella infection is its
      ability to survive within macrophages. To further understand the mechanisms that
      Brucella utilizes to adapt to an intracellular lifestyle, a differential
      proteomic study was performed for the identification of intracellular modulated
      proteins. Our results demonstrated that at 48 hours post-infection Brucella
      adjusts its metabolism in order to survive intracellularly by modulating central
      carbon metabolism. Remarkably, low iron concentration is likely the dominant
      trigger for reprogramming the protein expression profile. Up-regulation of
      proteins dedicated to reduce the concentration of reactive oxygen species,
      protein chaperones that prevent misfolding of proteins, and proteases that
      degrade toxic protein aggregates, suggest that Brucella protects itself from
      damage likely due to oxidative burst. This proteomic analysis of B. abortus
      provides novel insights into the mechanisms utilized by Brucella to establish an
      intracellular persistent infection and will aid in the development of new control
      strategies and novel targets for antimicrobial therapy.

PMID- 28878309
TI  - Identification of oriT and a recombination hot spot in the IncA/C plasmid
      backbone.
AB  - Dissemination of multiresistance has been accelerating among pathogenic bacteria
      in recent decades. The broad host-range conjugative plasmids of the IncA/C family
      are effective vehicles of resistance determinants in Gram-negative bacteria.
      Although more than 150 family members have been sequenced to date, their
      conjugation system and other functions encoded by the conserved plasmid backbone
      have been poorly characterized. The key cis-acting locus, the origin of transfer
      (oriT), has not yet been unambiguously identified. We present evidence that
      IncA/C plasmids have a single oriT locus immediately upstream of the mobI gene
      encoding an indispensable transfer factor. The fully active oriT spans ca. 150-bp
      AT-rich region overlapping the promoters of mobI and contains multiple inverted
      and direct repeats. Within this region, the core domain of oriT with reduced but
      detectable transfer activity was confined to a 70-bp segment containing two
      inverted repeats and one copy of a 14-bp direct repeat. In addition to oriT, a
      second locus consisting of a 14-bp imperfect inverted repeat was also identified,
      which mimicked the function of oriT but which was found to be a recombination
      site. Recombination between two identical copies of these sites is RecA
      independent, requires a plasmid-encoded recombinase and resembles the functioning
      of dimer-resolution systems.

PMID- 28878310
TI  - Large-scale production of recombinant human lactoferrin from high-expression,
      marker-free transgenic cloned cows.
AB  - Human lactoferrin (hLF) is a valuable protein for pharmaceutical products and
      functional foods, and worldwide demand for this protein has steadily increased.
      However, large-scale recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLF) production using
      current animal bioreactor techniques is limited by the low expression of foreign
      proteins, the use of antibiotic resistance genes and the down-regulation of
      endogenous milk proteins. Here, we generated a herd of marker-free, hLF bacterial
      artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic cloned cows, as confirmed by Polymerase
      chain reaction, Southern blot and Western blot analyses. These transgenic cloned
      cows produced rhLF in milk at concentrations of 4.5-13.6 g/L. Moreover, the total
      protein content of the milk was increased. Over two hundred transgenic cloned
      cows were propagated by multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET). A total of
      400-450 g of rhLF protein, which shows similar enzymatic activity to natural hLF
      in iron binding and release, can be purified on a large scale from >100 L of milk
      per day. Our results suggested that transgenic bovine mammary bioreactors have
      the potential for large-scale protein production.

PMID- 28878311
TI  - High diagnostic value of second generation CSF RT-QuIC across the wide spectrum
      of CJD prions.
AB  - An early and accurate in vivo diagnosis of rapidly progressive dementia remains
      challenging, despite its critical importance for the outcome of treatable forms,
      and the formulation of prognosis. Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC)
      is an in vitro assay that, for the first time, specifically discriminates
      patients with prion disease. Here, using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from
      239 patients with definite or probable prion disease and 100 patients with a
      definite alternative diagnosis, we compared the performance of the first (PQ-CSF)
      and second generation (IQ-CSF) RT-QuIC assays, and investigated the diagnostic
      value of IQ-CSF across the broad spectrum of human prions. Our results confirm
      the high sensitivity of IQ-CSF for detecting human prions with a sub-optimal
      sensitivity for the sporadic CJD subtypes MM2C and MM2T, and a low sensitivity
      limited to variant CJD, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome and fatal
      familial insomnia. While we found no difference in specificity between PQ-CSF and
      IQ-CSF, the latter showed a significant improvement in sensitivity, allowing
      prion detection in about 80% of PQ-CSF negative CJD samples. Our results strongly
      support the implementation of IQ-CSF in clinical practice. By rapidly confirming
      or excluding CJD with high accuracy the assay is expected to improve the outcome
      for patients and their enrollment in therapeutic trials.

PMID- 28878312
TI  - SERS-based Immunoassay in a Microfluidic System for the Multiplexed Recognition
      of Interleukins from Blood Plasma: Towards Picogram Detection.
AB  - SERS-active nanostructures incorporated into a microfluidic device have been
      developed for rapid and multiplex monitoring of selected Type 1 cytokine
      (interleukins: IL-6, IL-8, IL-18) levels in blood plasma. Multiple analyses have
      been performed by using nanoparticles, each coated with different Raman reporter
      molecules: 5,5'-dithio-bis(2-nitro-benzoic acid) (DTNB), fuchsin (FC), and p
      mercatpobenzoic acid (p-MBA) and with specific antibodies. The multivariate
      statistical method, principal component analysis (PCA), was applied for
      segregation of three different antigen-antibody complexes encoded by three Raman
      reporters (FC, p-MBA, and DTNB) during simultaneous multiplexed detection
      approach. To the best of our knowledge, we have also presented, for the first
      time, a possibility for multiplexed quantification of three interleukins: IL-6,
      IL-8, and IL-18 in blood plasma samples using SERS technique. Our method improves
      the detection limit in comparison to standard ELISA methods. The low detection
      limits were estimated to be 2.3 pg.ml-1, 6.5 pg.ml-1, and 4.2 pg.ml-1 in a
      parallel approach, and 3.8 pg.ml-1, 7.5 pg.ml-1, and 5.2 pg.ml-1 in a
      simultaneous multiplexed method for IL-6, IL-8, and IL-18, respectively. This
      demonstrated the sensitivity and reproducibility desirable for analytical
      examinations.

PMID- 28878313
TI  - Atomic-scale engineering of ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interfaces of epitaxial
      perovskite films for functional properties.
AB  - Besides epitaxial mismatch that can be accommodated by lattice distortions and/or
      octahedral rotations, ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interfaces are affected by
      symmetry mismatch and subsequent magnetic ordering. Here, we have investigated
      La0.67 Sr0.33 MnO3 (LSMO) samples with varying underlying unit cells (uc) of
      BaTiO3 (BTO) layer on (001) and (110) oriented substrates in order to elucidate
      the role of symmetry mismatch. Lattice mismatch for 3 uc of BTO and symmetry
      mismatch for 10 uc of BTO, both associated with local MnO6 octahedral distortions
      of the (001) LSMO within the first few uc, are revealed by scanning transmission
      electron microscopy. Interestingly, we find exchange bias along the in-plane
      [110]/[100] directions only for the (001) oriented samples. Polarized neutron
      reflectivity measurements confirm the existence of a layer with zero net moment
      only within (001) oriented samples. First principle density functional
      calculations show that even though the bulk ground state of LSMO is
      ferromagnetic, a large lattice constant together with an excess of La can
      stabilize an antiferromagnetic LaMnO3-type phase at the interface region and
      explain the experimentally observed exchange bias. Atomic scale tuning of MnO6
      octahedra can thus be made possible via symmetry mismatch at heteroepitaxial
      interfaces. This aspect can act as a vital parameter for structure-driven control
      of physical properties.

PMID- 28878314
TI  - Limited locomotive ability relaxed selective constraints on molluscs
      mitochondrial genomes.
AB  - Mollusca are the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom with different types
      of locomotion. Some molluscs are poor-migrating, while others are free-moving or
      fast-swimming. Most of the energy required for locomotion is provided by
      mitochondria via oxidative phosphorylation. Here, we conduct a comparative
      genomic analysis of 256 molluscs complete mitochondrial genomes and evaluate the
      role of energetic functional constraints on the protein-coding genes, providing a
      new insight into mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) evolution. The weakly locomotive
      molluscs, compared to strongly locomotive molluscs, show significantly higher
      Ka/Ks ratio, which suggest they accumulated more nonsynonymous mutations in mtDNA
      and have experienced more relaxed evolutionary constraints. Eleven protein-coding
      genes (CoxI, CoxII, ATP6, Cytb, ND1-6, ND4L) show significant difference for
      Ka/Ks ratios between the strongly and weakly locomotive groups. The relaxation of
      selective constraints on Atp8 arise in the common ancestor of bivalves, and the
      further relaxation occurred in marine bivalves lineage. Our study thus
      demonstrates that selective constraints relevant to locomotive ability play an
      essential role in evolution of molluscs mtDNA.

PMID- 28878315
TI  - Cholesterol-modified Hydroxychloroquine-loaded Nanocarriers in Bleomycin-induced
      Pulmonary Fibrosis.
AB  - An increasing number of reports have suggested the use of hydroxychloroquine
      (HCQ) as an adjunct anti-cancer treatment to enhance the chemotherapeutic
      response, as well as for the treatment of several fibrotic skin diseases and
      cystic fibrosis. In this study, we synthesized a cholesterol-modified HCQ (Chol
      HCQ) and hypothesized that a systemic delivery system with Chol-HCQ nanocarriers
      could be effective for the treatment of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis.
      Chol-HCQ significantly inhibits the proliferation of rat lung fibroblasts,
      regulates inflammation and ameliorates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in
      rats. It regulates the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF
      alpha; reduces the infiltration of inflammatory neutrophils; and inhibits the
      phosphorylation of NF-kappaB. Chol-HCQ also reduces the expression of connective
      tissue growth factor (CTGF) and phosphorylation of extracellular regulated
      protein kinase (p-ERK) in rats with bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Chol
      HCQ nanocarriers reduce early pulmonary inflammation and inhibit the CTGF/ERK
      signalling pathway in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. These results
      demonstrate that Chol-HCQ liposomes suppress pulmonary inflammation and reduce
      pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin. The systemic administration safety of
      Chol-HCQ liposomes was confirmed after intravenous administration for 28 days in
      rats. The present study provides evidence that Chol-HCQ liposomes may be a
      potential therapeutic agent for inflammation associated with pulmonary fibrosis.

PMID- 28878316
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of standardised qualitative sensory test in the detection of
      lumbar lateral stenosis involving the L5 nerve root.
AB  - Misdiagnosis of symptomatic lumbar lateral stenosis (LS) may result in an
      unfavourable prognosis after surgical treatment. This study investigated the
      diagnostic accuracy of a standardised qualitative sensory test (SQST) in the
      detection of symptomatic LS in patients who had degenerative spinal disorders
      involving the L5 spinal nerve. We prospectively identified 75 patients, of which
      60 met the inclusion criteria. Lateral recess stenosis at the L5 level or
      foraminal stenosis at the L5/S1 level on MRI was identified and graded by a
      neurosurgeon blinded to any clinical information. The reference criteria for the
      diagnosis of symptomatic LS were grade III LS on MRI and relevant clinical
      symptoms. Cutaneous sensory functions of the L5 dermatome on the symptomatic side
      were evaluated using the SQST. Each item of the SQST showed a satisfactory
      performance in the diagnosis of LS (sensitivity = 0.455-0.727, specificity =
      0.868-1.0). A stepwise selection model identified low-strength von-Frey, high
      strength von-Frey, and vibration as the most accurate predictors of symptomatic
      LS with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.9563 (95%
      confidence interval = 0.9003-1.0). In combination with MRI, the SQST is a
      promising diagnostic tool for detecting symptomatic LS involving L5 nerve roots.

PMID- 28878317
TI  - Harnessing no-photon exciton generation chemistry to engineer semiconductor
      nanostructures.
AB  - Production of semiconductor nanostructures with high yield and tight control of
      shape and size distribution is an immediate quest in diverse areas of science and
      technology. Electroless wet chemical etching or stain etching can produce
      semiconductor nanoparticles with high yield but is limited to a few materials
      because of the lack of understanding the physical-chemical processes behind. Here
      we report a no-photon exciton generation chemistry (NPEGEC) process, playing a
      key role in stain etching of semiconductors. We demonstrate NPEGEC on silicon
      carbide polymorphs as model materials. Specifically, size control of cubic
      silicon carbide nanoparticles of diameter below ten nanometers was achieved by
      engineering hexagonal inclusions in microcrystalline cubic silicon carbide. Our
      finding provides a recipe to engineer patterned semiconductor nanostructures for
      a broad class of materials.

PMID- 28878318
TI  - A complete investigation of monocular and binocular functions in clinically
      treated amblyopia.
AB  - The gold standard of a successful amblyopia treatment is full recovery of visual
      acuity (VA) in the amblyopic eye, but there has been no systematic study on both
      monocular and binocular visual functions. In this research, we aimed to quantify
      visual qualities with a variety of perceptual tasks in subjects with treated
      amblyopia. We found near stereoacuity and pAE dominance in binocular rivalry in
      "treated" amblyopia were largely comparable to those of normal subjects. CSF of
      the pAE remained deficient in high spatial frequencies. The binocular contrast
      summation ratio is significantly lower than normal standard. The interocular
      balance point is 34%, indicating that contrast in pAE is much less effective as
      the same contrast in pFE in binocular phase combination. Although VA,
      stereoacuity and binocular rivalry at low spatial frequency in treated amblyopes
      were normal or nearly normal, the pAE remained "lazy" in high frequency domain,
      binocular contrast summation, and interocular phase combination. Our results
      suggest that structured monocular and binocular training are necessary to fully
      recover deficient functions in amblyopia.

PMID- 28878319
TI  - Revisiting myocardial necrosis biomarkers: assessment of the effect of
      conditioning therapies on infarct size by kinetic modelling.
AB  - Infarct size is a major predictor of subsequent cardiovascular events following
      ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and is frequently used in
      clinical trials focused on cardioprotection. Approximately assessed through
      serial blood sampling, it can be accurately measured by imaging techniques, e.g.
      cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, which is the actual gold standard for infarct
      size determination but with limited availability in daily practice. We developed
      a mathematical biomarker kinetic model based on pharmacokinetic compartment
      models to easily and accurately estimate infarct size using individual data from
      five clinical trials evaluating the impact of conditioning therapies in STEMI
      between 2005 and 2013. Serial blood sampling was available in all studies with
      data regarding creatine kinase (CK), CK specific of cardiomyocytes (CK-MB) and
      cardiac troponin I. Our model allowed an accurate estimation of biomarker release
      as a surrogate marker of infarct size and a powerful assessment of conditioning
      treatments. This biomarker kinetic modelling approach identified CK-MB as the
      most accurate biomarker in determining infarct size and supports the development
      of limited sampling strategies that estimate total biomarker amount released with
      a lower number of samples. It will certainly be a useful add-on to future studies
      in the field of STEMI and cardioprotection.

PMID- 28878320
TI  - A new mass spectrometry-based method for the quantification of histones in plasma
      from septic shock patients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a novel method to detect circulating
      histones H3 and H2B in plasma based on multiple reaction monitoring targeted mass
      spectrometry and a multiple reaction monitoring approach (MRM-MS) for its
      clinical application in critical bacteriaemic septic shock patients. Plasma
      samples from 17 septic shock patients with confirmed bacteraemia and 10 healthy
      controls were analysed by an MRM-MS method, which specifically detects presence
      of histones H3 and H2B. By an internal standard, it was possible to quantify the
      concentration of circulating histones in plasma, which were significantly higher
      in patients, and thus confirmed their potential as biomarkers for diagnosing
      septic shock. After comparing surviving patients and non-survivors, a correlation
      was found between higher levels of circulating histones and unfavourable outcome.
      Indeed, histone H3 proved a more efficient and sensitive biomarker for septic
      shock prognosis. In conclusion, these findings suggest the accuracy of the MRM-MS
      technique and stable isotope labelled peptides to detect and quantify circulating
      plasma histones H2B and H3. This method may be used for early septic shock
      diagnoses and for the prognosis of fatal outcomes.

PMID- 28878321
TI  - A natural chalcone induces apoptosis in lung cancer cells: 3D-QSAR, docking and
      an in vivo/vitro assay.
AB  - This study was to study the antitumor effect of lonchocarpin (34) from
      traditional herbal medicine Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre and to reveal the
      underlying mechanism. The cytotoxic activities of lonchocarpin were evaluated in
      10 lung cancer cell lines and it exhibited 97.5% activity at a dose of 100 MUM in
      the H292 cell line. A field-based quantitative structure-activity relationship
      (3D-QSAR) study of 37 flavonoids from P. pinnata was also performed, and the
      results obtained showed that the hydrophobic interaction could be the crucial
      factor for the antitumor activity of lonchocarpin. Molecular docking studies
      revealed that lonchocarpin bound stably to the BH3-binding groove of the Bcl-2
      protein with hydrophobic interactions with ALA146. Also, lonchocarpin
      significantly reduced cell proliferation via modulating Bax/Caspase-9/Caspase-3
      pathway. An apoptotic test using flow cytometry showed that lonchocarpin produced
      about 41.1% and 47.9% apoptosis after treatment for 24 h and 48 h, respectively.
      Moreover, lonchocarpin inhibited tumor growth in S180-bearing mice with an
      inhibition rate of 57.94, 63.40 and 72.51%, respectively at a dose of 25, 50 and
      100 mg/kg. These results suggest that lonchocarpin is a potentially useful
      natural agent for cancer treatment.

PMID- 28878322
TI  - Altered topology of structural brain networks in patients with Gilles de la
      Tourette syndrome.
AB  - Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by
      tics. Abnormal neuronal circuits in a wide-spread structural and functional
      network involved in planning, execution and control of motor functions are
      thought to represent the underlying pathology. We therefore studied changes of
      structural brain networks in 13 adult GTS patients reconstructed by diffusion
      tensor imaging and probabilistic tractography. Structural connectivity and
      network topology were characterized by graph theoretical measures and compared to
      13 age-matched controls. In GTS patients, significantly reduced connectivity was
      detected in right hemispheric networks. These were furthermore characterized by
      significantly reduced local graph parameters (local clustering, efficiency and
      strength) indicating decreased structural segregation of local subnetworks.
      Contrasting these results, whole brain and right hemispheric networks of GTS
      patients showed significantly increased normalized global efficiency indicating
      an overall increase of structural integration among distributed areas. Higher
      global efficiency was associated with tic severity (R = 0.63, p = 0.022)
      suggesting the clinical relevance of altered network topology. Our findings
      reflect an imbalance between structural integration and segregation in right
      hemispheric structural connectome of patients with GTS. These changes might be
      related to an underlying pathology of impaired neuronal development, but could
      also indicate potential adaptive plasticity.

PMID- 28878323
TI  - Permanent modifications in silica produced by ion-induced high electronic
      excitation: experiments and atomistic simulations.
AB  - The irradiation of silica with ions of specific energy larger than ~0.1 MeV/u
      produces very high electronic excitations that induce permanent changes in the
      physical, chemical and structural properties and give rise to defects (colour
      centres), responsible for the loss of sample transparency at specific bands. This
      type of irradiation leads to the generation of nanometer-sized tracks around the
      ion trajectory. In situ optical reflection measurements during systematic
      irradiation of silica samples allowed us to monitor the irradiation-induced
      compaction, whereas ex situ optical absorption measurements provide information
      on colour centre generation. In order to analyse the results, we have developed
      and validated an atomistic model able to quantitatively explain the experimental
      results. Thus, we are able to provide a consistent explanation for the size of
      the nanotracks, the velocity and thresholding effects for track formation, as
      well as, the colour centre yield per ion and the colour centre saturation
      density. In this work we will discuss the different processes involved in the
      permanent modification of silica: collective atomic motion, bond breaking,
      pressure-driven atom rearrangement and ultra-fast cooling. Despite the sudden
      lattice energy rise is the triggering and dominant step, all these processes are
      important for the final atomic configuration.

PMID- 28878324
TI  - Regional genetic diversity for NNV grouper viruses across the Indo-Asian region -
      implications for selecting virus resistance in farmed groupers.
AB  - Grouper aquaculture around Asia is impacted by the nervous necrosis virus (NNV)
      and, in response, host resistance to this infection is being considered as a
      trait for selection. However efficient selection may be confounded if there are
      different genetic strains of NNV within and between regions and over years. This
      study uses statistical approaches and assessment of "characteristic attributes"
      (i.e. nucleotide positions that discriminate among strains) to assess whether
      published and new NNV RNA2 cds sequences show genetic differentiation over
      geography, host species and years. Rather clear evidence was found for regional
      strains of NNV. Interestingly, most of the geographic defining "characteristic
      attributes" were in codon position three, and not translated into differences for
      the protein capsid (i.e. they were synonymous variations), suggesting that while
      NNV strains were geographically isolated and had diverged in different regions
      for RNA sequences, selection had largely conserved the protein sequences among
      regions. The apparent selection constraint on the capsid protein may mitigate the
      risk that despite geographic subdivision, NNV strain variability will confound
      genetic selection for host resistance. The existence of regional Asian NNV
      strains may suggest that hatcheries are at risk from NNV not only from imported
      material but also from endemic reservoirs.

PMID- 28878325
TI  - The influence of the mating type on virulence of Mucor irregularis.
AB  - Mucor irregularis is an emerging fungal pathogen that cause cutaneous infection
      and could cause death. However, little is known about its mechanism of
      pathogenesis. There is evidence suggesting virulence vary with mating types in
      fungi, including the Mucorales. Here, we characterized the mating type locus of
      M. irregularis and the mating type ratio of 17 clinical isolates in China.
      Genomic data indicated M. irregularis is heterothallic having two mating types -
      bearing either SexP or SexM allele. Also, we employed a mice model to study the
      inflammation and pathological effects of different mating types. The comparison
      of the inflammatory response, cytokine profiles and Th-1, Th-2 and Th-17 cells
      numbers in each mating type treated mice showed that the severity and disease
      progress were enhanced in (+) mating type treated mice. One (+/0) mutant strain,
      with multiple mutations at the mating locus, had defects in sexual mating ability
      but appeared to be more virulent than the (-) mating type. Although (+) mating
      type appeared to be more virulent, most of our clinical isolates presented
      belonged to (-) mating type. Our findings support the involvement of MAT genes in
      sexual fertility, and the influence of mating type on the severity of cutaneous
      infection.

PMID- 28878326
TI  - Swapping of transmembrane domains in the epithelial calcium channel TRPV6.
AB  - Tetrameric ion channels have either swapped or non-swapped arrangements of the S1
      S4 and pore domains. Here we show that mutations in the transmembrane domain of
      TRPV6 can result in conversion from a domain-swapped to non-swapped fold. These
      results reveal structural determinants of domain swapping and raise the
      possibility that a single ion channel subtype can fold into either arrangement in
      vivo, affecting its function in normal or disease states.

PMID- 28878327
TI  - Accelerated Healing of Diabetic Wounds Treated with L-Glutamic acid Loaded
      Hydrogels Through Enhanced Collagen Deposition and Angiogenesis: An In Vivo
      Study.
AB  - We have developed L-glutamic acid (LG) loaded chitosan (CS) hydrogels to treat
      diabetic wounds. Although literature reports wound healing effects of
      poly(glutamic acid)-based materials, there are no studies on the potential of L
      glutamic acid in treating diabetic wounds. As LG is a direct precursor for
      proline synthesis, which is crucial for collagen synthesis, we have prepared CS +
      LG hydrogels to accelerate diabetic wound healing. Physiochemical properties of
      the CS + LG hydrogels showed good swelling, thermal stability, smooth surface
      morphology, and controlled biodegradation. The addition of LG to CS hydrogels did
      not alter their biocompatibility significantly. CS + LG hydrogel treatment showed
      rapid wound contraction compared to control and chitosan hydrogel. Period of
      epithelialization is significantly reduced in CS + LG hydrogel treated wounds (16
      days) compared to CS hydrogel (20 days), and control (26 days). Collagen
      synthesis and crosslinking are also significantly improved in CS + LG hydrogel
      treated diabetic rats. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry results revealed
      that the CS + LG hydrogel dressing accelerated vascularization and macrophage
      recruitment to enhance diabetic wound healing. These results demonstrate that
      incorporation of LG can improve collagen deposition, and vascularization, and aid
      in faster tissue regeneration. Therefore, CS + LG hydrogels could be an effective
      wound dressing used to treat diabetic wounds.

PMID- 28878328
TI  - CLEC14a-HSP70-1A interaction regulates HSP70-1A-induced angiogenesis.
AB  - CLEC14a (C-type lectin domain family 14 member) is a tumor endothelial cell
      marker protein that is known to play an important role in tumor angiogenesis, but
      the basic molecular mechanisms underlying this function have not yet been clearly
      elucidated. In this study, using various proteomic tools, we isolated a 70-kDa
      protein that interacts with the C-type lectin-like domain of CLEC14a (CLEC14a
      CTLD) and identified it as heat shock protein 70-1A (HSP70-1A). Co
      immunoprecipitation showed that HSP70-1A and CLEC14a interact on endothelial
      cells. In vitro binding analyses identified that HSP70-1A specifically associates
      with the region between amino acids 43 and 69 of CLEC14a-CTLD. Competitive
      blocking experiments indicated that this interacting region of CLEC14a-CTLD
      significantly inhibits HSP70-1A-induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase
      (ERK) phosphorylation and endothelial tube formation by directly inhibiting
      CLEC14a-CTLD-mediated endothelial cell-cell contacts. Our data suggest that the
      specific interaction of HSP70-1A with CLEC14a may play a critical role in HSP70
      1A-induced angiogenesis and that the HSP70-1A-interacting region of CLEC14a-CTLD
      may be a useful tool for inhibiting HSP70-1A-induced angiogenesis.

PMID- 28878330
TI  - The impact of wavelengths of LED light-therapy on endothelial cells.
AB  - Low level light therapy receives increasing interest in the fields of tissue
      regeneration and wound healing. Several in vivo studies demonstrated the positive
      effects of LLLT on angiogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the underlying
      properties in vitro by comparing the effects of light therapy by light emitting
      diodes of different wavelengths on endothelial cells in vitro. Human umbilical
      vein endothelial cells were treated with either 475 nm, 516 nm or 635 nm light.
      Control cells were not illuminated. 2D proliferation was quantified by manual
      counting. HUVEC migration was analyzed by performing a 2D wound scratch assay and
      a 3D bead assay. The influence of LLLT on early vasculogenic events was
      determined in a 3D fibrin co-culture model with adipose-derived stem cells.
      Stimulation with both red and green pulsed LED light significantly increased
      HUVEC proliferation and 3D migration. Moreover, HUVEC showed increased 2D
      migration potential with green light stimulation. The treatment with blue light
      was ineffective. Several parameters showed that green light was even more potent
      to stimulate proliferation and migration of endothelial cells than clinically
      well-established red light therapy. Further studies have to focus on
      intracellular mechanisms induced by different wavelengths in order to optimize
      this promising therapy in tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28878329
TI  - RNA Sequencing and Co-expressed Long Non-coding RNA in Modern and Wild Wheats.
AB  - There is an urgent need for the improvement of drought-tolerant bread and durum
      wheat. The huge and complex genome of bread wheat (BBAADD genome) stands as a
      vital obstruction for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying drought
      tolerance. However, tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp., BBAA genome) is an
      ancestor of modern bread wheat and offers an important model for studying the
      drought response due to its less complex genome. Additionally, several wild
      relatives of tetraploid wheat have already shown a significant drought tolerance.
      We sequenced root transcriptome of three tetraploid wheat varieties with varying
      stress tolerance profiles, and built differential expression library of their
      transcripts under control and drought conditions. More than 5,000 differentially
      expressed transcripts were identified from each genotype. Functional
      characterization of transcripts specific to drought-tolerant genotype, revealed
      their association with osmolytes production and secondary metabolite pathways.
      Comparative analysis of differentially expressed genes and their non-coding RNA
      partners, long noncoding RNAs and microRNAs, provided valuable insight to gene
      expression regulation in response to drought stress. LncRNAs as well as coding
      transcripts share similar structural features in different tetraploid species;
      yet, lncRNAs slightly differ from coding transcripts. Several miRNA-lncRNA target
      pairs were detected as differentially expressed in drought stress. Overall, this
      study suggested an important pool of transcripts where their manipulations confer
      a better performance of wheat varieties under drought stress.

PMID- 28878331
TI  - The immunosuppressive effect of the tick protein, Salp15, is long-lasting and
      persists in a murine model of hematopoietic transplant.
AB  - Salp15, a salivary protein of Ixodes ticks, inhibits the activation of naive CD4
      T cells. Treatment with Salp15 results in the inhibition of early signaling
      events and the production of the autocrine growth factor, interleukin-2. The fate
      of the CD4 T cells activated in the presence of Salp15 or its long-term effects
      are, however, unknown. We now show that Salp15 binding to CD4 is persistent and
      induces a long-lasting immunomodulatory effect. The activity of Salp15 results in
      sustained diminished cross-antigenic antibody production even after interruption
      of the treatment with the protein. Transcriptionally, the salivary protein
      provokes an acute effect that includes known activation markers, such as Il2 or
      Cd44, and that fades over time. The long-term effects exerted by Salp15 do not
      involve the induction of either anergy traits nor increased populations of
      regulatory T cells. Similarly, the treatment with Salp15 does not result in B
      cell anergy or the generation of myeloid suppressor cells. However, Salp15
      induces the increased expression of the ectoenzyme, CD73, in regulatory T cells
      and increased production of adenosine. Our study provides a profound
      characterization of the immunomodulatory activity of Salp15 and suggests that its
      long-term effects are due to the specific regulation of CD73.

PMID- 28878332
TI  - Broadband angle- and permittivity-insensitive nondispersive optical activity
      based on planar chiral metamaterials.
AB  - Because of the strong inherent resonances, the giant optical activity obtained
      via chiral metamaterials generally suffers from high dispersion, which has been a
      big stumbling block to broadband applications. In this paper, we propose a type
      of planar chiral metamaterial consisting of interconnected metal helix slat
      structures with four-fold symmetry, which exhibits nonresonant Drude-like
      response and can therefore avoid the highly dispersive optical activity resulting
      from resonances. It shows that the well-designed chiral metamaterial can achieve
      nondispersive and pure optical activity with high transmittance in a broadband
      frequency range. And the optical activity of multi-layer chiral metamaterials is
      proportional to the layer numbers of single-layer chiral metamaterial. Most
      remarkably, the broadband behaviors of nondispersive optical activity and high
      transmission are insensitive to the incident angles of electromagnetic waves and
      permittivity of dielectric substrate, thereby enabling more flexibility in
      polarization manipulation.

PMID- 28878333
TI  - Ligand activation induces different conformational changes in CXCR3 receptor
      isoforms as evidenced by plasmon waveguide resonance (PWR).
AB  - The chemokine receptor CXCR3 plays important roles in angiogenesis, inflammation
      and cancer. Activation studies and biological functions of CXCR3 are complex due
      to the presence of spliced isoforms. CXCR3-A is known as a pro-tumor receptor
      whereas CXCR3-B exhibits anti-tumor properties. Here, we focused on the
      conformational change of CXCR3-A and CXCR3-B after agonist or antagonist binding
      using Plasmon Waveguide Resonance (PWR). Agonist stimulation induced an
      anisotropic response with very distinct conformational changes for the two
      isoforms. The CXCR3 agonist bound CXCR3-A with higher affinity than CXCR3-B.
      Using various concentrations of SCH546738, a CXCR3 specific inhibitor, we
      demonstrated that low SCH546738 concentrations (<=1 nM) efficiently inhibited
      CXCR3-A but not CXCR3-B's conformational change and activation. This was
      confirmed by both, biophysical and biological methods. Taken together, our study
      demonstrates differences in the behavior of CXCR3-A and CXCR3-B upon ligand
      activation and antagonist inhibition which may be of relevance for further
      studies aimed at specifically inhibiting the CXCR3A isoform.

PMID- 28878335
TI  - Systemic lupus erythematosus: OX40L-expressing B cells promote SLE.

PMID- 28878334
TI  - Vasculitis syndromes: Tocilizumab - a new frontier for GCA therapy.

PMID- 28878336
TI  - Effect of GnRHR polymorphisms on in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer in
      patients with polycystic ovary syndrome.
AB  - We investigated the relationship between gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor
      (GnRHR) gene polymorphisms and outcome of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome
      (PCOS) undergoing in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). PCOS
      patients undergoing IVF-ET were selected, and infertile patients due to
      dysfunctional oviducts served as controls. GnRHR gene polymorphisms were detected
      using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism
      assay. Gene-gene interaction and linkage disequilibrium tests were performed
      using the SHEsis software. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate
      factors affecting outcome of patients undergoing IVF-ET. The PCOS group showed
      more patients with CC+CT genotypes rs12644822, rs3756159 and rs13138607 than the
      control group, and CC+CT genotypes and C alleles from three positions enhanced
      risk of PCOS. Patients with CC+CT genotypes from three positions exhibited
      increased serum luteinizing hormone (LH), LH/follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH),
      testosterone (T) and follicles than those with TT genotypes. The haplotype
      analysis indicated that CCC, CCT and TCC haplotypes increased the risk of PCOS,
      while TCT, TTC and TTT haplotypes lowered the risk. After IVF-ET treatment,
      patients with CC+CT genotypes of three positions in the GnRHR gene had a lower
      pregnancy rate than patients with TT genotypes. Logistic regression analysis
      indicated that CC+CT genotypes rs12644822, rs3756159 and rs13138607 were risk
      factor for patients undergoing IVF-ET. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate
      that CC+CT genotypes rs12644822C>T, rs3756159C>T and rs13138607C>T in the GnRHR
      gene may contribute to a decreased pregnancy rate for PCOS patients after IVF-ET.

PMID- 28878337
TI  - Precise mapping of 17 deletion breakpoints within the central hotspot deletion
      region (introns 50 and 51) of the DMD gene.
AB  - Exon deletions in the human DMD gene, which encodes the dystrophin protein, are
      the molecular defect in 50-70% of cases of Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophies.
      Deletions are preferentially clustered in the 5' (exons 2-20) and the central
      (exons 45-53) region of DMD, likely because local DNA structure predisposes to
      specific breakage or recombination events. Notably, innovative therapeutic
      strategies may rescue dystrophin function by homology-based specific targeting of
      sequences within the central DMD hot spot deletion region. To further study
      molecular mechanisms that generate such frequent genome variations and to
      identify residual intronic sequences, we sequenced 17 deletion breakpoints within
      introns 50 and 51 of DMD and analyzed the surrounding genomic architecture. There
      was no breakpoint clustering within the introns nor extensive homology between
      sequences adjacent to each junction. However, at or near the breakpoint, we found
      microhomology, short tandem repeats, interspersed repeat elements and short
      sequence stretches that predispose to DNA deletion or bending. Identification of
      such structural elements contributes to elucidate general mechanisms generating
      deletion within the DMD gene. Moreover, precise mapping of deletion breakpoints
      and localization of repeated elements are of interest, because residual intronic
      sequences may be targeted by therapeutic strategies based on genome editing
      correction.

PMID- 28878338
TI  - The clinical characteristics of Asian patients with classical-type Hutchinson
      Gilford progeria syndrome.
AB  - Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is an extremely rare genetic disorder
      that shows a characteristic progeria phenotype. We conducted a questionnaire
      survey of 1173 tertiary hospitals in Japan and reviewed the academic reports, to
      identify the characteristics of Asian patients with classical HGPS. As a result,
      four Japanese patients were identified; this was estimated to account for
      approximately two-third of the prevalence in Japan. Three Asian patients who had
      definitively been diagnosed with classical HGPS were identified in the
      literature; in total, the clinical characteristics of seven patients were
      evaluated. Most of the clinical phenotypes of Asian patients were essentially
      similar to those of patients of other ethnicities, such as sclerodermatous skin,
      growth failure, loss of scalp hair or severe complications of cardiovascular and
      cerebral ischemic disease. In conclusion, to circumvent or minimalize severe
      vascular complication, an early diagnosis, careful observation and, promisingly,
      new intervention with farnesylation inhibitors may improve the prognosis of
      classical HGPS patients.

PMID- 28878339
TI  - Pathogen lineage-based genome-wide association study identified CD53 as
      susceptible locus in tuberculosis.
AB  - Tuberculosis (TB) is known to be affected by host genetic factors. We reported a
      specific genetic risk factor through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that
      focused on young age onset TB. In this study, we further focused on the
      heterogeneity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) lineages and assessed its
      possible interaction with age at onset on host genetic factors. We identified the
      pathogen lineage in 686 Thai TB cases and GWAS stratified by both infected
      pathogen lineage information and age at onset revealed a genome-wide significant
      association of one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on chromosome 1p13, which
      was specifically associated with non-Beijing lineage-infected old age onset cases
      (P=2.54E-08, OR=1.74 (95% CI=1.43-2.12)), when we compared them to the population
      matched healthy controls. This SNP locates near the CD53 gene, which encodes a
      leukocyte surface glycoprotein. Interestingly, the expression of CD53 was also
      correlated with the patients' active TB status. This is the first report of a
      pathogen lineage-based genome-wide association study. The results suggested that
      host genetic risk in TB is depended upon the pathogen genetic background and
      demonstrate the importance of analyzing the interaction between host and pathogen
      genomes in TB.

PMID- 28878340
TI  - The pharmacogenomics of valproic acid.
AB  - Valproic acid is an anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drug used primarily in
      the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Adverse effects of valproic acid
      are rare, but hepatotoxicity is severe in particular in those younger than 2
      years old and polytherapy. During valproic acid treatment, it is difficult for
      prescribers to predict its individual response. Recent advances in the field of
      pharmacogenomics have indicated variants of candidate genes that affect valproic
      acid efficacy and safety. In this review, a large number of candidate genes that
      influence valproic acid pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are discussed,
      including metabolic enzymes, drug transporters, neurotransmitters and drug
      targets. Furthermore, pharmacogenomics is an important tool not only in further
      understanding of interindividual variability but also to assess the therapeutic
      potential of such variability in drug individualization and therapeutic
      optimization.

PMID- 28878341
TI  - A Botrytis cinerea KLP-7 Kinesin acts as a Virulence Determinant during Plant
      Infection.
AB  - Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic pathogen that infects many important crops. In
      an attempt to unravel some novel factors that govern pathogenicity in B. cinerea,
      Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation (ATMT) was deployed, and a
      number of tagged transformants were generated. Among these, a mutant, BCM-29
      exhibited slower growth rate, reduced conidia size, conidiation and penetration.
      The mutant was also defective in secretion of oxalic acid (OA) and exhibited
      reduced activities of polygalacturonase (PG) and pectin methyl esterases (PME).
      TAIL-PCR followed by BLAST search identified the tagged gene as KLP-7 that
      encodes for kinesin. Targeted deletion of KLP-7 resulted in several folds
      decrease in virulence of mutants as compared to WT, while complementation of the
      gene helped in rescue of virulence traits. This is the first time when a unique
      kinesin KLP-7 that is mainly found in the phylum Pezizomycotina has been linked
      to virulence in B. cinerea.

PMID- 28878343
TI  - Plasmid transfection influences the readout of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay
      reporter assays in human cells.
AB  - Messenger RNA (mRNA) turnover is a crucial and highly regulated step of gene
      expression in mammalian cells. This includes mRNA surveillance pathways such as
      nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), which assesses the fidelity of transcripts
      and eliminates mRNAs containing a premature translation termination codon (PTC).
      When studying mRNA degradation pathways, reporter mRNAs are commonly expressed in
      cultivated cells. Traditionally, the molecular mechanism of NMD has been
      characterized using pairs of reporter constructs that express the same mRNA with
      ("PTC-containing mRNA") or without ("wild-type mRNA") a PTC. Cell lines stably
      expressing an NMD reporter have been reported to yield very robust and highly
      reproducible results, but establishing the cell lines can be very time-consuming.
      Therefore, transient transfection of such reporter constructs is frequently used
      and allows analysis of many samples within a short period of time. However, the
      behavior of transiently and stably transfected NMD constructs has not been
      systematically compared so far. Here, we report that not all commonly used human
      cell lines degrade NMD targets following transient transfection. Furthermore, the
      degradation efficiency of NMD substrates can depend on the manner of transfection
      within the same cell line. This has substantial implications for the
      interpretation of NMD assays based on transient transfections.

PMID- 28878344
TI  - Compensated Row-Column Ultrasound Imaging System Using Multilayered Edge Guided
      Stochastically Fully Connected Random Fields.
AB  - The row-column method received a lot of attention for 3-D ultrasound imaging. By
      reducing the number of connections required to address the 2-D array and
      therefore reducing the amount of data to handle, this addressing method allows
      for real time 3-D imaging. Row-column still has its limitations: the issues of
      sparsity, speckle noise inherent to ultrasound, the spatially varying point
      spread function, and the ghosting artifacts inherent to the row-column method
      must all be taken into account when building a reconstruction framework. In this
      research, we build on a previously published system and propose an edge-guided,
      compensated row-column ultrasound imaging system that incorporates multilayered
      edge-guided stochastically fully connected conditional random fields to address
      the limitations of the row-column method. Tests carried out on simulated and real
      row-column ultrasound images show the effectiveness of our proposed system over
      other published systems. Visual assessment show our proposed system's potential
      at preserving edges and reducing speckle. Quantitative analysis shows that our
      proposed system outperforms previously published systems when evaluated with
      metrics such as Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio, Coefficient of Correlation, and
      Effective Number of Looks. These results show the potential of our proposed
      system as an effective tool for enhancing 3-D row-column imaging.

PMID- 28878342
TI  - Inhibition of SHIP2 in CD2AP-deficient podocytes ameliorates reactive oxygen
      species generation but aggravates apoptosis.
AB  - Lack of CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) in mice increases podocyte apoptosis and
      leads to glomerulosclerosis and renal failure. We showed previously that SHIP2, a
      negative regulator of the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway, interacts with CD2AP.
      Here, we found that the expression level and activity of SHIP2 and production of
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) are increased in cultured CD2AP knockout (CD2AP-/-)
      mouse podocytes. Oxidative stress was also increased in CD2AP-/- mouse glomeruli
      in vivo. We found that puromycin aminonucleoside (PA), known to increase ROS
      production and apoptosis, increases SHIP2 activity and reduces CD2AP expression
      in cultured human podocytes. PDK1 and CDK2, central regulators of AKT, were
      downregulated in CD2AP-/- or PA-treated podocytes. Downregulation of PDK1 and
      CDK2, ROS generation and apoptosis were prevented by CD2AP overexpression in both
      models. Notably, inhibition of SHIP2 activity with a small molecule inhibitor
      AS1949490 ameliorated ROS production in CD2AP-/- podocytes, but, surprisingly,
      further reduced PDK1 expression and aggravated apoptosis. AKT- and ERK-mediated
      signalling was diminished and remained reduced after AS1949490 treatment in the
      absence of CD2AP. The data suggest that inhibition of the catalytic activity of
      SHIP2 is beneficial in reducing oxidative stress, but leads to deleterious
      increase in apoptosis in podocytes with reduced expression of CD2AP.

PMID- 28878345
TI  - Duration of farming is an indicator of natural restoration potential of sedge
      meadows.
AB  - Soil seed banks can be important components of ecological restoration,
      particularly if the species remain viable in the soil for long periods of time. A
      germination experiment was conducted in the greenhouse to determine seed bank
      viability based on length of time farmed. Soils from sedge meadows farmed between
      0 and 50 years were collected in Sanjiang Plain, China. Most dominant sedges
      (e.g., Carex schmidtii, C. lasiocarpa) and grasses (e.g. Calamagrostis
      angustifolia) survived as seeds if farmed for less than 5 years, therefore fields
      farmed for short periods of time are the best candidates for wetland restoration.
      Certain important structural components (tussock-forming Carex spp.) are not
      retained in seed banks when farmed for 6-15 years, but the seed banks still
      contained viable seeds of other important sedge meadow species, which could
      contribute to the restoration of wetland communities. However, most sedge meadow
      species were missing in fields farmed for more than 16 years, which make these
      fields difficult to restore via natural recolonization. We conclude that the
      duration of farming can be used as a general indicator of the potential of
      natural restoration for sedge meadows. This information could be used to
      determine which wetlands might be targeted for restoration.

PMID- 28878346
TI  - Impact of phenolic compounds in the acyl homoserine lactone-mediated quorum
      sensing regulatory pathways.
AB  - Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell density-dependent regulation of virulent bacterial
      gene expression by autoinducers that potentially pertains in the epidemic of
      bacterial virulence. This study was initially designed to evaluate the effect of
      5 phenolic compounds in the modulation of QS and virulence factors of
      Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and to determine the
      mechanisms of their effects. Biosensor strains were used to assess antibacterial
      and anti-QS effect of these compounds. Only methyl gallate (MG) among these
      compounds demonstrated profound anti-QS effect in the preliminary study, and thus
      only MG was utilized further to evaluate the effects on the synthesis and
      activity of acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) in C. violaceum and on the modulation
      of biofilm, motility, proteolytic, elastase, pyocyanin, and rhamnolipid activity
      in P. aeruginosa. Finally, the effect of MG on the expression of QS-regulated
      genes of P. aeruginosa was verified. MG suppressed both the synthesis and
      activity of AHL in C. violaceum. It also restricted the biofilm formation and
      other QS-associated virulence factor of P. aeruginosa. MG concentration
      dependently suppressed the expression of lasI/R, rhlI/R, and pqsA of P.
      aeruginosa and was non-toxic in in vitro study. This is the first report of the
      anti-QS mechanism of MG.

PMID- 28878347
TI  - Targeting Bacterial Cardiolipin Enriched Microdomains: An Antimicrobial Strategy
      Used by Amphiphilic Aminoglycoside Antibiotics.
AB  - Some bacterial proteins involved in cell division and oxidative phosphorylation
      are tightly bound to cardiolipin. Cardiolipin is a non-bilayer anionic
      phospholipid found in bacterial inner membrane. It forms lipid microdomains
      located at the cell poles and division plane. Mechanisms by which microdomains
      are affected by membrane-acting antibiotics and the impact of these alterations
      on membrane properties and protein functions remain unclear. In this study, we
      demonstrated cardiolipin relocation and clustering as a result of exposure to a
      cardiolipin-acting amphiphilic aminoglycoside antibiotic, the 3',6-dinonyl
      neamine. Changes in the biophysical properties of the bacterial membrane of P.
      aeruginosa, including decreased fluidity and increased permeability, were
      observed. Cardiolipin-interacting proteins and functions regulated by cardiolipin
      were impacted by the amphiphilic aminoglycoside as we demonstrated an inhibition
      of respiratory chain and changes in bacterial shape. The latter effect was
      characterized by the loss of bacterial rod shape through a decrease in length and
      increase in curvature. It resulted from the effect on MreB, a cardiolipin
      dependent cytoskeleton protein as well as a direct effect of 3',6-dinonyl neamine
      on cardiolipin. These results shed light on how targeting cardiolipin
      microdomains may be of great interest for developing new antibacterial therapies.

PMID- 28878348
TI  - FOXF1 transcription factor promotes lung regeneration after partial
      pneumonectomy.
AB  - FOXF1, a member of the forkhead box family of transcription factors, has been
      previously shown to be critical for lung development, homeostasis, and injury
      responses. However, the role of FOXF1 in lung regeneration is unknown. Herein, we
      performed partial pneumonectomy, a model of lung regeneration, in mice lacking
      one Foxf1 allele in endothelial cells (PDGFb-iCre/Foxf1 fl/+ mice). Endothelial
      cell proliferation was significantly reduced in regenerating lungs from mice
      deficient for endothelial Foxf1. Decreased endothelial proliferation was
      associated with delayed lung regeneration as shown by reduced respiratory volume
      in Foxf1-deficient lungs. FACS-sorted endothelial cells isolated from
      regenerating PDGFb-iCre/Foxf1 fl/+ and control lungs were used for RNAseq
      analysis to identify FOXF1 target genes. Foxf1 deficiency altered expression of
      numerous genes including those regulating extracellular matrix remodeling (Timp3,
      Adamts9) and cell cycle progression (Cdkn1a, Cdkn2b, Cenpj, Tubb4a), which are
      critical for lung regeneration. Deletion of Foxf1 increased Timp3 mRNA and
      protein, decreasing MMP14 activity in regenerating lungs. ChIPseq analysis for
      FOXF1 and histone methylation marks identified DNA regulatory regions within the
      Cd44, Cdkn1a, and Cdkn2b genes, indicating they are direct FOXF1 targets. Thus
      FOXF1 stimulates lung regeneration following partial pneumonectomy via direct
      transcriptional regulation of genes critical for extracellular matrix remodeling
      and cell cycle progression.

PMID- 28878349
TI  - Peptide-mediated delivery of donor mitochondria improves mitochondrial function
      and cell viability in human cybrid cells with the MELAS A3243G mutation.
AB  - The cell penetrating peptide, Pep-1, has been shown to facilitate cellular uptake
      of foreign mitochondria but further research is required to evaluate the use of
      Pep-1-mediated mitochondrial delivery (PMD) in treating mitochondrial defects.
      Presently, we sought to determine whether mitochondrial transplantation rescue
      mitochondrial function in a cybrid cell model of mitochondrial myopathy,
      encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) disease.
      Following PMD, recipient cells had internalized donor mitochondria after 1 h, and
      expressed higher levels of normal mitochondrial DNA, particularly at the end of
      the treatment and 11 days later. After 4 days, mitochondrial respiratory function
      had recovered and biogenesis was evident in the Pep-1 and PMD groups, compared to
      the untreated MELAS group. However, only PMD was able to reverse the fusion-to
      fission ratio of mitochondrial morphology, and mitochondria shaping proteins
      resembled the normal pattern seen in the control group. Cell survival following
      hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress was also improved in the PMD group.
      Finally, we observed that PMD partially normalized cytokine expression, including
      that of interleukin (IL)-7, granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM
      CSF), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in the MELAS cells.
      Presently, our data further confirm the protective effects of PMD as well in
      MELAS disease.

PMID- 28878350
TI  - Functional association of cellular microtubules with viral capsid assembly
      supports efficient hepatitis B virus replication.
AB  - Viruses exploit host factors and environment for their efficient replication. The
      virus-host interaction mechanisms for achieving an optimal hepatitis B virus
      (HBV) replication have been largely unknown. Here, a single cell cloning revealed
      that HepAD38 cells, a widely-used HBV-inducible cell line, contain cell clones
      with diverse permissiveness to HBV replication. The HBV permissiveness was
      impaired upon treatment with microtubule inhibitor nocodazole, which was
      identified as an HBV replication inhibitor from a pharmacological screening. In
      the microtubule-disrupted cells, the efficiency of HBV capsid assembly was
      remarkably decreased without significant change in pre-assembly process. We
      further found that HBV core interacted with tubulin and co-localized with
      microtubule-like fibriforms, but this association was abrogated upon microtubule
      disassembly agents, resulting in attenuation of capsid formation. Our data thus
      suggest a significant role of microtubules in the efficient capsid formation
      during HBV replication. In line with this, a highly HBV permissive cell clone of
      HepAD38 cells showed a prominent association of core-microtubule and thus a high
      capacity to support the capsid formation. These findings provide a new aspect of
      virus-cell interaction for rendering efficient HBV replication.

PMID- 28878351
TI  - Tillage and nitrogen fertilization enhanced belowground carbon allocation and
      plant nitrogen uptake in a semi-arid canola crop-soil system.
AB  - Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) allocation and assimilation are coupled processes,
      likely influencing C accumulation, N use efficiency and plant productivity in
      agro-ecosystems. However, dynamics and responses of these processes to management
      practices in semi-arid agro-ecosystems are poorly understood. A field-based 13CO2
      and urea-15N pulse labelling experiment was conducted to track how C and N
      allocation and assimilation during canola growth from flowering to maturity were
      affected by short-term (2-year) tillage (T) and no-till (NT) with or without 100
      kg urea-N ha-1 (T-0, T-100, NT-0, NT-100) on a Luvisol in an Australian semi-arid
      region. The T-100 caused greater (P < 0.05) belowground C allocation and higher
      (P < 0.05) translocation of soil N to shoots and seeds, compared to other
      treatments. Microbial N uptake was rapid and greatest in the fertilized (cf. non
      fertilized) treatments, followed by a rapid release of microbial immobilized N,
      thus increasing N availability for plant uptake. In contrast, management
      practices had insignificant impact on soil C and N stocks, aggregate stability,
      microbial biomass, and 13C retention in aggregate-size fractions. In conclusion,
      tillage and N fertilization increased belowground C allocation and crop N uptake
      and yield, possibly via enhancing root-microbial interactions, with minimal
      impact on soil properties.

PMID- 28878353
TI  - Interactive effect of gibberellic acid and NPK fertilizer combinations on ramie
      yield and bast fibre quality.
AB  - Understanding the effects of different combinations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus
      (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers and the effects of GA3 (gibberellic acid)
      foliar spray on the fiber quality and yield of ramie are important for maximizing
      the economic value of these plants. Three pot experiments were conducted using
      low NPK (140:70:140 kg/ha), normal NPK (280:140:280 kg/ha), and low NPK + GA3 (10
      mg/L) treatments. In each experiment, following fertilizers were applied: no
      fertilizer (control), N, P, K, NP, NK, PK, and NPK. Ramie was harvested three
      times from each plant; ramie grown without fertilizers had significantly lower
      biomass and yield than plants grown with fertilizers. At both normal and low
      fertilization rates, application of NPK resulted in greater growth and yield than
      application of N, P, K, NP, NK, or PK. Unfertilized plants produced the thinnest
      fibres (22-24 um), with lowest elongation rate (3.0-3.1%) and breaking strength
      (22.7-23.3 cN). Fibre yield and fibre quality were improved by application of GA3
      + fertilizers. Maximum fibre yield was obtained at low NPK + GA3 treatment,
      resulting in 65-81% more yield than low NPK alone. GA3 with low NPK treatment
      significantly improved fibre diameter, fibre elongation, and breaking strength
      compared to both NPK alone and control treatment.

PMID- 28878352
TI  - S1PR1 drives a feedforward signalling loop to regulate BATF3 and the
      transcriptional programme of Hodgkin lymphoma cells.
AB  - The Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) are
      characterised by the aberrant activation of multiple signalling pathways. Here we
      show that a subset of HL displays altered expression of sphingosine-1-phosphate
      (S1P) receptors (S1PR)s. S1P activates phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K) in
      these cells that is mediated by the increased expression of S1PR1 and the
      decreased expression of S1PR2. We also showed that genes regulated by the PI3-K
      signalling pathway in HL cell lines significantly overlap with the
      transcriptional programme of primary HRS cells. Genes upregulated by the PI3-K
      pathway included the basic leucine zipper transcription factor, ATF-like 3
      (BATF3), which is normally associated with the development of dendritic cells.
      Immunohistochemistry confirmed that BATF3 was expressed in HRS cells of most HL
      cases. In contrast, in normal lymphoid tissues, BATF3 expression was confined to
      a small fraction of CD30-positive immunoblasts. Knockdown of BATF3 in HL cell
      lines revealed that BATF3 contributed to the transcriptional programme of primary
      HRS cells, including the upregulation of S1PR1. Our data suggest that disruption
      of this potentially oncogenic feedforward S1P signalling loop could provide novel
      therapeutic opportunities for patients with HL.

PMID- 28878354
TI  - Japanese Food Data Challenge the Claimed Link between Fukushima's Releases and
      Recently Observed Thyroid Cancer Increase in Japan.
AB  - Internal, high-dose exposure with radioiodine is known to increase the risk for
      thyroid cancer in children and adolescents. Ingestion of contaminated food is
      generally regarded a dominant route of internal exposure. We analyzed the huge
      data set of the post-Fukushima food monitoring campaign and deployed a
      conservative model for the estimation of the doses to the general public in a
      worst-case scenario. Our data suggest that the committed equivalent ingestion
      doses to the thyroids of the affected Japanese public, even in the utmost
      conservative approach, remained below the limit on ingestion of radioiodine in
      foodstuffs and beverages of 50 mSv (as thyroid equivalent dose). This level of 50
      mSv is also the intervention level for the administration of stable iodine,
      mainly after inhalation. Our study hence suggests that, based on the food data,
      the internal exposure of Japanese residents was too low to cause a statistically
      discernible increase in thyroid cancer, even if the contribution from inhalation
      is taken into account. The data also indicate that the governmental efforts in
      the food monitoring campaign were successful and cut the thyroid doses to the
      public by a factor of approximately 3 compared to a scenario without any
      monitoring.

PMID- 28878355
TI  - Comparative study on cellular entry of incinerated ancient gold particles (Swarna
      Bhasma) and chemically synthesized gold particles.
AB  - Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are used for a number of imaging and therapeutic
      applications in east and western part of the world. For thousands of years, the
      traditional Indian Ayurvedic approach to healing involves the use of incinerated
      gold ash, prepared with a variety of plant extracts and minerals depending on the
      region. Here, we describe the characterization of incinerated gold particles
      (IAuPs) in HeLa (human cells derived from cervical cancer) and HFF-1 (human
      foreskin fibroblast cells) in comparison to synthesized citrate-capped gold
      nanoparticles (AuNPs). We found that while individual IAuP crystallites are
      around 60 nm in size, they form large aggregates with a mean diameter of 4711.7
      nm, some of which can enter cells. Fewer cells appeared to have IAuPs compared to
      AuNPs, although neither type of particle was toxic to cells. Imaging studies
      revealed that IAuPs were in vesicles, cytosol, or in the nucleus. We found that
      their nuclear accumulation likely occurred after nuclear envelope breakdown
      during cell division. We also found that larger IAuPs entered cells via
      macropinocytosis, while smaller particles entered via clathrin-dependent receptor
      mediated endocytosis.

PMID- 28878356
TI  - Selection of reference genes suitable for normalization of qPCR data under
      abiotic stresses in bioenergy crop Arundo donax L.
AB  - Suitable reference gene selection in qRT-PCR is a key pre-requisite to produce
      reliable data in gene expression analyses. In this study, novel primers for six
      commonly used reference genes (AC1, TLF, Act2, TUB alpha, EF-1alpha and GAPDH)
      plus two new candidates (pDUF221 and RPN6) were designed and comparatively tested
      for expression stability under abiotic stresses (osmotic, heavy metal and heat
      shock) in shoot, root and their combination of Arundo donax L., a raising non
      food energy crop. Expression stability rankings from the most to the least stable
      gene in each condition and in two tissues (young shoots and roots) were generated
      with geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper programs. All programs provided similar
      rankings and, strikingly, in most cases identified one of the new candidates,
      RPN6, as the most suitable reference gene. This novel set of reliable references
      allows to choose either the best combination of reference genes across multiple
      stress/organ conditions or to select condition-specific genes that can improve
      the quality of qRT-PCR analysis. This work provides a solid basis for the
      functional characterization of A. donax, by enabling accurate quantification of
      the transcriptional responsiveness under a series of common stress conditions of
      any gene of interest in this promising biomass/bioenergy species.

PMID- 28878357
TI  - Semi-transparent Perovskite Solar Cells Developed by Considering Human Luminosity
      Function.
AB  - Semi-transparent solar cells draw a great deal of attention because their
      applications include, for instance, photovoltaic windows. General approach to
      semi-transparent cells is using thin active layers or island-type structures.
      Here we take human luminosity function into account, and develop solar cells that
      harvest photons in the wavelength regions in which human eyes are less sensitive
      to light. We used an organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite, which is sensitive to
      light particularly in the blue and deep-blue regions, and plasmonic silver
      nanocubes that enhance light harvesting in the red and deep-red ranges. In order
      to tune the plasmonic wavelength to that range, we took advantage of electrode
      coupled plasmons (ECPs). We prepared non-plasmonic semi-transparent solar cells,
      and reduced the active layer thickness and introduced ECPs, so that the visual
      transparency index and power conversion efficiency of the cell were improved by
      28% and 6%, respectively, of the initial values.

PMID- 28878359
TI  - Directed Differentiation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into Fallopian
      Tube Epithelium.
AB  - The fallopian tube epithelium (FTE) has been recognized as a site of origin of
      high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC). However, the absence of relevant in
      vitro human models that can recapitulate tissue-specific architecture has
      hindered our understanding of FTE transformation and initiation of HGSC. Here,
      induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were used to establish a novel 3
      dimensional (3D) human FTE organoid in vitro model containing the relevant cell
      types of the human fallopian tube as well as a luminal architecture that closely
      reflects the organization of fallopian tissues in vivo. Modulation of Wnt and BMP
      signaling directed iPSC differentiation into Mullerian cells and subsequent use
      of pro-Mullerian growth factors promoted FTE precursors. The expression and
      localization of Mullerian markers verified correct cellular differentiation. An
      innovative 3D growth platform, which enabled the FTE organoid to self-organize
      into a convoluted luminal structure, permitted matured differentiation to a FTE
      lineage. This powerful human-derived FTE organoid model can be used to study the
      earliest stages of HGSC development and to identify novel and specific biomarkers
      of early fallopian tube epithelial cell transformation.

PMID- 28878360
TI  - Spatial inhomogeneity and temporal dynamics of a 2D electron gas in interaction
      with a 2D adatom gas.
AB  - Fundamental interest for 2D electron gas (2DEG) systems has been recently renewed
      with the advent of 2D materials and their potential high-impact applications in
      optoelectronics. Here, we investigate a 2DEG created by the electron transfer
      from a Ag adatom gas deposited on a Si(111) [Formula: see text]-Ag surface to an
      electronic surface state. Using low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM), we measure
      the Ag adatom gas concentration and the 2DEG-induced charge transfer. We
      demonstrate a linear dependence of the surface work function change on the Ag
      adatom gas concentration. A breakdown of the linear relationship is induced by
      the occurrence of the Ag adatom gas superstructure identified as Si(111)
      [Formula: see text]-Ag only observed below room temperature. We evidence below
      room temperature a confinement of the 2DEG on atomic terraces characterised by
      spatial inhomogeneities of the 2DEG-induced charge transfer along with temporal
      fluctuations. These variations mirror the Ag adatom gas concentration changes
      induced by the growth of 3D Ag islands and the occurrence of an Ehrlich-Schwoebel
      diffusion barrier of 155 +/- 10 meV.

PMID- 28878361
TI  - Scatter-plate microscope for lensless microscopy with diffraction limited
      resolution.
AB  - Scattering media have always been looked upon as an obstacle in imaging. Various
      methods, ranging from holography to phase compensation as well as to correlation
      techniques, have been proposed to cope with this obstacle. We, on the other hand,
      have a different understanding about the role of the diffusing media. In this
      paper we propose and demonstrate a 'scatter-plate microscope' that utilizes the
      diffusing property of the random medium for imaging micro structures with
      diffraction-limited resolution. The ubiquitous property of the speckle patterns
      permits to exploit the scattering medium as an ultra-thin lensless microscope
      objective with a variable focal length and a large working distance. The method
      provides a light, flexible and cost effective imaging device as an alternative to
      conventional microscope objectives. In principle, the technique is also
      applicable to lensless imaging in UV and X-ray microscopy. Experiments were
      performed with visible light to demonstrate the microscopic imaging of USAF
      resolution test target and a biological sample with varying numerical aperture
      (NA) and magnifications.

PMID- 28878362
TI  - Highly Efficient Colored Perovskite Solar Cells Integrated with Ultrathin
      Subwavelength Plasmonic Nanoresonators.
AB  - Highly efficient colored perovskite solar cells that exploit localized surface
      plasmon resonances in ultrathin subwavelength plasmonic nanoresonators are
      demonstrated. Localized resonances in ultrathin metal nano-strip optical
      resonators consisting of an array of metallic subwavelength nanowires on a
      transparent substrate, fabricated by using low-cost nanoimprint lithography over
      a large area, lead to a sharp peak in a reflection spectrum for distinctive color
      generation with angle-insensitive property up to 60 degrees , and simultaneously
      transmit the complementary spectrum of visible light that can be efficiently
      harvested by the perovskite solar cells for electric power generation. The
      plasmonic color filter-integrated perovskite solar cells provide 10.12%, 8.17%
      and 7.72% of power conversion efficiencies with capabilities of creating vivid
      reflective red, green and blue colors. The scheme described in this work could be
      applied to a variety of applications such as power-generating decorations, tandem
      cells, power-saving wearable devices and energy-efficient reflective display
      technologies.

PMID- 28878358
TI  - Enoyl-CoA hydratase-1 regulates mTOR signaling and apoptosis by sensing
      nutrients.
AB  - The oncogenic mechanisms of overnutrition, a confirmed independent cancer risk
      factor, remain poorly understood. Herein, we report that enoyl-CoA hydratase-1
      (ECHS1), the enzyme involved in the oxidation of fatty acids (FAs) and branched
      chain amino acids (BCAAs), senses nutrients and promotes mTOR activation and
      apoptotic resistance. Nutrients-promoted acetylation of lys101 of ECHS1 impedes
      ECHS1 activity by impairing enoyl-CoA binding, promoting ECHS1 degradation and
      blocking its mitochondrial translocation through inducing ubiquitination. As a
      result, nutrients induce the accumulation of BCAAs and FAs that activate mTOR
      signaling and stimulate apoptosis, respectively. The latter was overcome by
      selection of BCL-2 overexpressing cells under overnutrition conditions. The
      oncogenic effects of nutrients were reversed by SIRT3, which deacetylates lys101
      acetylation. Severely decreased ECHS1, accumulation of BCAAs and FAs, activation
      of mTOR and overexpression of BCL-2 were observed in cancer tissues from
      metabolic organs. Our results identified ECHS1, a nutrients-sensing protein that
      transforms nutrient signals into oncogenic signals.Overnutrition has been linked
      to increased risk of cancer. Here, the authors show that exceeding nutrients
      suppress Enoyl-CoA hydratase-1 (ECHS1) activity by inducing its acetylation
      resulting in accumulation of fatty acids and branched-chain amino acids and
      oncogenic mTOR activation.

PMID- 28878363
TI  - A TCR-based Chimeric Antigen Receptor.
AB  - Effector T cells equipped with engineered antigen receptors specific for cancer
      targets have proven to be very efficient. Two methods have emerged: the Chimeric
      Antigen Receptors (CARs) and T-cell Receptor (TCR) redirection. Although very
      potent, CAR recognition is limited to membrane antigens which represent around 1%
      of the total proteins expressed, whereas TCRs have the advantage of targeting any
      peptide resulting from cellular protein degradation. However, TCRs depend on
      heavy signalling machinery only present in T cells which restricts the type of
      eligible therapeutic cells. Hence, an introduced therapeutic TCR will compete
      with the endogenous TCR for the signalling proteins and carries the potential
      risk of mixed dimer formation giving rise to a new TCR with unpredictable
      specificity. We have fused a soluble TCR construct to a CAR-signalling tail and
      named the final product TCR-CAR. We here show that, if expressed, the TCR-CAR
      conserved the specificity and the functionality of the original TCR. In addition,
      we demonstrate that TCR-CAR redirection was not restricted to T cells. Indeed,
      after transduction, the NK cell line NK-92 became TCR positive and reacted
      against pMHC target. This opens therapeutic avenues combing the killing
      efficiency of NK cells with the diversified target recognition of TCRs.

PMID- 28878364
TI  - Analysis and imaging of biocidal agrochemicals using ToF-SIMS.
AB  - ToF-SIMS has been increasingly widely used in recent years to look at biological
      matrices, in particular for biomedical research, although there is still a lot of
      development needed to maximise the value of this technique in the life sciences.
      The main issue for biological matrices is the complexity of the mass spectra and
      therefore the difficulty to specifically and precisely detect analytes in the
      biological sample. Here we evaluated the use of ToF-SIMS in the agrochemical
      field, which remains a largely unexplored area for this technique. We profiled a
      large number of biocidal active ingredients (herbicides, fungicides, and
      insecticides); we then selected fludioxonil, a halogenated fungicide, as a model
      compound for more detailed study, including the effect of co-occurring
      biomolecules on detection limits. There was a wide range of sensitivity of the
      ToF-SIMS for the different active ingredient compounds, but fludioxonil was
      readily detected in real-world samples (wheat seeds coated with a commercial
      formulation). Fludioxonil did not penetrate the seed to any great depth, but was
      largely restricted to a layer coating the seed surface. ToF-SIMS has clear
      potential as a tool for not only detecting biocides in biological samples, but
      also mapping their distribution.

PMID- 28878365
TI  - Impact of biology knowledge on the conservation and management of large pelagic
      sharks.
AB  - Population growth rate, which depends on several biological parameters, is
      valuable information for the conservation and management of pelagic sharks, such
      as blue and shortfin mako sharks. However, reported biological parameters for
      estimating the population growth rates of these sharks differ by sex and display
      large variability. To estimate the appropriate population growth rate and clarify
      relationships between growth rate and relevant biological parameters, we
      developed a two-sex age-structured matrix population model and estimated the
      population growth rate using combinations of biological parameters. We addressed
      elasticity analysis and clarified the population growth rate sensitivity. For the
      blue shark, the estimated median population growth rate was 0.384 with a range of
      minimum and maximum values of 0.195-0.533, whereas those values of the shortfin
      mako shark were 0.102 and 0.007-0.318, respectively. The maturity age of male
      sharks had the largest impact for blue sharks, whereas that of female sharks had
      the largest impact for shortfin mako sharks. Hypotheses for the survival process
      of sharks also had a large impact on the population growth rate estimation. Both
      shark maturity age and survival rate were based on ageing validation data,
      indicating the importance of validating the quality of these data for the
      conservation and management of large pelagic sharks.

PMID- 28878366
TI  - The utility of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and fluid sequestration as an early
      predictor of severe acute pancreatitis.
AB  - It is important to identify the patients with high-risk progression to develop
      severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). The study was to assess whether neutrophil to
      lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and fluid sequestration (FS) could represent useful
      markers for predicting the severity. A total of 1639 patients who underwent
      clinical diagnosis of AP was performed. Various serologic and clinical parameters
      on admission were investigated. Chronologic change in NLR and FS were analyzed,
      and theirs utility for predicting severity of AP was evaluated by receiver
      operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Correlation analysis was assessed
      by Spearman's rank test. NLR and FS levels were both increased significantly in
      SAP and positively correlated with Ranson score and hospital stays. The ROC curve
      analyses showed the optimal cut-off values of NLR for admission with day0, day1,
      day2 were 9.64, 6.66 and 6.50, giving sensitivity of 77-82%. The optimal cut-off
      values of FS for admission with day1, day2, day3 were 1375 ml, 2345 ml and 3424
      ml, giving sensitivity of 62-75%. Moreover, measurement of NLR and FS together
      exhibited a similar area under curve (AUC) and sensitivity for SAP prediction
      compared with the those of Ranson score. Increase of NLR and FS are correlated
      with severity and can be suggested as a predictive factor in an early stage of
      AP.

PMID- 28878367
TI  - FUT2 non-secretor status is associated with altered susceptibility to symptomatic
      enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infection in Bangladeshis.
AB  - Polymorphisms of the FUT2 gene alters glycan ABO(H) blood group and Lewis antigen
      expression (commonly known as non-secretor status) in the small intestinal
      mucosa. Whilst non-secretor status affects 20% of the population worldwide, it
      has been reported to be present in up to 40% of all Bangladeshis. Furthermore,
      Bangladeshi children are reportedly more susceptible to symptomatic
      enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infection if they are non-secretors.
      Therefore, in an attempt to identify a non-secretor status genotypic biomarker of
      altered susceptibility to ETEC infection, we used the 1000 Genomes Project to
      identify three population related non-synonymous FUT2 single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs). We then assessed the genotypic frequency of these SNPs in
      Bangladeshi children who had been clinically monitored for ETEC infection. One
      novel missense FUT2 SNP, rs200157007-TT and the earlier established rs601338-AA
      SNP were shown to be causing non-secretor status, with these SNPs being
      associated with symptomatic but not asymptomatic ETEC infection. Moreover,
      rs200157007-TT and rs601338-AA were associated with symptomatic but not
      asymptomatic ETEC infection irrespective of the child's Lewis secretor status,
      suggesting FUT2, the regulator of Lewis and ABO(H) antigens in the intestinal
      mucosa, could be a host genotypic feature affecting susceptibility to ETEC
      infection.

PMID- 28878368
TI  - Cryo-EM Studies of Drp1 Reveal Cardiolipin Interactions that Activate the Helical
      Oligomer.
AB  - Dynamins are mechano-chemical GTPases involved in the remodeling of cellular
      membranes. In this study, we have investigated the mechanism of dynamin-related
      protein 1 (Drp1), a key mediator of mitochondrial fission. To date, it is unclear
      how Drp1 assembles on the mitochondrial outer membrane in response to different
      lipid signals to induce membrane fission. Here, we present cryo-EM structures of
      Drp1 helices on nanotubes with distinct lipid compositions to mimic membrane
      interactions with the fission machinery. These Drp1 polymers assemble exclusively
      through stalk and G-domain dimerizations, which generates an expanded helical
      symmetry when compared to other dynamins. Interestingly, we found the
      characteristic gap between Drp1 and the lipid bilayer was lost when the
      mitochondrial specific lipid cardiolipin was present, as Drp1 directly interacted
      with the membrane. Moreover, this interaction leads to a change in the helical
      structure, which alters G-domain interactions to enhance GTPase activity. These
      results demonstrate how lipid cues at the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) can
      alter Drp1 structure to activate the fission machinery.

PMID- 28878369
TI  - Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma in Obesity and Colorectal
      Cancer: the Role of Epigenetics.
AB  - Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a nuclear
      receptor that is deregulated in obesity. PPARgamma exerts diverse antineoplastic
      effects. Attempting to determine the clinical relevance of the epigenetic
      mechanisms controlling the expression PPARgamma and susceptibility to colorectal
      cancer (CRC) in obese subjects, this study investigated the role of some
      microRNAs and DNA methylation on the deregulation of PPARgamma. Seventy CRC
      patients (34 obese and 36 lean), 22 obese and 24 lean healthy controls were
      included. MicroRNA levels were measured in serum. PPARgamma promoter methylation
      was evaluated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). PPARgamma level was
      evaluated by measuring mRNA level in PBMC and protein level in serum. The tested
      microRNAs (miR-27b, 130b and 138) were significantly upregulated in obese and CRC
      patients. Obese and CRC patients had significantly low levels of PPARgamma. A
      significant negative correlation was found between PPARgamma levels and the
      studied microRNAs. There was a significant PPARgamma promoter hypermethylation in
      CRC patients that correlated to low PPARgamma levels. Our results suggest that
      upregulation of microRNAs 27b, 130b and 138 is associated with susceptibility to
      CRC in obese subjects through PPARgamma downregulation. Hypermethylation of
      PPARgamma gene promoter is associated with CRC through suppression of PPARgamma
      regardless of BMI.

PMID- 28878370
TI  - Reward: Restraint from risky reward.

PMID- 28878371
TI  - Reward: Eating goes down a treat.

PMID- 28878373
TI  - Decision making: Making hasty decisions.

PMID- 28878372
TI  - The use of brain organoids to investigate neural development and disease.
AB  - Understanding the development and dysfunction of the human brain is a major goal
      of neurobiology. Much of our current understanding of human brain development has
      been derived from the examination of post-mortem and pathological specimens,
      bolstered by observations of developing non-human primates and experimental
      studies focused largely on mouse models. However, these tissue specimens and
      model systems cannot fully capture the unique and dynamic features of human brain
      development. Recent advances in stem cell technologies that enable the generation
      of human brain organoids from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) promise to profoundly
      change our understanding of the development of the human brain and enable a
      detailed study of the pathogenesis of inherited and acquired brain diseases.

PMID- 28878374
TI  - Above-threshold scattering about a Feshbach resonance for ultracold atoms in an
      optical collider.
AB  - Ultracold atomic gases have realized numerous paradigms of condensed matter
      physics, where control over interactions has crucially been afforded by tunable
      Feshbach resonances. So far, the characterization of these Feshbach resonances
      has almost exclusively relied on experiments in the threshold regime near zero
      energy. Here, we use a laser-based collider to probe a narrow magnetic Feshbach
      resonance of rubidium above threshold. By measuring the overall atomic loss from
      colliding clouds as a function of magnetic field, we track the energy-dependent
      resonance position. At higher energy, our collider scheme broadens the loss
      feature, making the identification of the narrow resonance challenging. However,
      we observe that the collisions give rise to shifts in the center-of-mass
      positions of outgoing clouds. The shifts cross zero at the resonance and this
      allows us to accurately determine its location well above threshold. Our inferred
      resonance positions are in excellent agreement with theory.Studies on energy
      dependent scattering of ultracold atoms were previously carried out near zero
      collision energies. Here, the authors observe a magnetic Feshbach resonance in
      ultracold Rb collisions for above-threshold energies and their method can also be
      used to detect higher partial wave resonances.

PMID- 28878375
TI  - Fasting glucose and body mass index as predictors of activity in breast cancer
      patients treated with everolimus-exemestane: The EverExt study.
AB  - Evidence on everolimus in breast cancer has placed hyperglycemia among the most
      common high grade adverse events. Anthropometrics and biomarkers of glucose
      metabolism were investigated in a observational study of 102 postmenopausal, HR +
      HER2- metastatic breast cancer patients treated with everolimus-exemestane in
      first and subsequent lines. Best overall response (BR) and clinical benefit rate
      (CBR) were assessed across subgroups defined upon fasting glucose (FG) and body
      mass index (BMI). Survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank
      test. Survival predictors were tested in Cox models. Median follow up was 12.4
      months (1.0-41.0). The overall cohort showed increasing levels of FG and
      decreasing BMI (p < 0.001). Lower FG fasting glucose at BR was more commonly
      associated with C/PR or SD compared with PD (p < 0.001). We also observed a
      somewhat higher BMI associated with better response (p = 0.052). More patients in
      the lowest FG category achieved clinical benefit compared to the highest (p <
      0.001), while no relevant differences emerged for BMI. Fasting glucose at re
      assessment was also predictive of PFS (p = 0.037), as confirmed in models
      including BMI and line of therapy (p = 0.049). Treatment discontinuation was
      significantly associated with changes in FG (p = 0.014). Further research is
      warranted to corroborate these findings and clarify the underlying mechanisms.

PMID- 28878377
TI  - Calcium ion regulation by BAPTA-AM and ruthenium red improved the fertilisation
      capacity and developmental ability of vitrified bovine oocytes.
AB  - Vitrification reduces the fertilisation capacity and developmental ability of
      mammalian oocytes; this effect is closely associated with an abnormal increase of
      cytoplasmic free calcium ions ([Ca2+]i). However, little information about the
      mechanism by which vitrification increases [Ca2+]i levels or a procedure to
      regulate [Ca2+]i levels in these oocytes is available. Vitrified bovine oocytes
      were used to analyse the effect of vitrification on [Ca2+]i, endoplasmic
      reticulum Ca2+ (ER Ca2+), and mitochondrial Ca2+ (mCa2+) levels. Our results
      showed that vitrification, especially with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), can induce
      ER Ca2+ release into the cytoplasm, consequently increasing the [Ca2+]i and mCa2+
      levels. Supplementing the cells with 10 MUM 1,2-bis (o-aminophenoxy)ethane
      N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (BAPTA-AM or BAPTA) significantly decreased the
      [Ca2+]i level and maintained the normal distribution of cortical granules in the
      vitrified bovine oocytes, increasing their fertilisation ability and cleavage
      rate after in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Treating vitrified bovine oocytes with 1
      MUM ruthenium red (RR) significantly inhibited the Ca2+ flux from the cytoplasm
      into mitochondria; maintained normal mCa2+ levels, mitochondrial membrane
      potential, and ATP content; and inhibited apoptosis. Treating vitrified oocytes
      with a combination of BAPTA and RR significantly improved embryo development and
      quality after IVF.

PMID- 28878376
TI  - Impulsivity influences betting under stress in laboratory gambling.
AB  - Although recent research suggests that acute stress influences subsequent
      decision-making under ambiguity, less is known about the role of personality
      variables in this relationship. This study tested whether impulsivity traits and
      acute stress differentially influence the way in which a prior feedback is
      incorporated into further decisions involving ambiguity. Sixty college students
      (50% male; aged 18-25 years) were randomly assigned to a stress versus a non
      stress condition before completing a laboratory gambling task. The results
      revealed that independently of the stress condition, subjects behaved as if the
      odds of winning increase after a single loss. Additionally, stress effects varied
      as a function of impulsivity traits. Individuals who lacked perseverance (i.e.,
      had difficulty focusing on a difficult or boring task) gambled more after
      experiencing a loss in the stress condition than did those in the control
      condition. The present study supports that impulsivity traits can explain the
      differential effect of stress on the relationship between prior feedback and
      choices made under ambiguity.

PMID- 28878378
TI  - Prokaryotic and Highly-Repetitive WD40 Proteins: A Systematic Study.
AB  - As an ancient protein family, the WD40 repeat proteins often play essential roles
      in fundamental cellular processes in eukaryotes. Although investigations of
      eukaryotic WD40 proteins have been frequently reported, prokaryotic ones remain
      largely uncharacterized. In this paper, we report a systematic analysis of
      prokaryotic WD40 proteins and detailed comparisons with eukaryotic ones. About
      4,000 prokaryotic WD40 proteins have been identified, accounting for 6.5% of all
      WD40s. While their abundances are less than 0.1% in most prokaryotes, they are
      enriched in certain species from Cyanobacteria and Planctomycetes, and
      participate in various functions such as prokaryotic signal transduction and
      nutrient synthesis. Comparisons show that a higher proportion of prokaryotic
      WD40s tend to contain multiple WD40 domains and a large number of hydrogen bond
      networks. The observation that prokaryotic WD40 proteins tend to show high
      internal sequence identity suggests that a substantial proportion of them (~20%)
      should be formed by recent or young repeat duplication events. Further studies
      demonstrate that the very young WD40 proteins, i.e., Highly-Repetitive WD40s,
      should be of higher stability. Our results have presented a catalogue of
      prokaryotic WD40 proteins, and have shed light on their evolutionary origins.

PMID- 28878379
TI  - Novel oscillator model with damping factor for plasmon induced transparency in
      waveguide systems.
AB  - We introduce a novel two-oscillator model with damping factor to describe the
      plasmon induced transparency (PIT) in a bright-dark model plasmonic waveguide
      system. The damping factor gamma in the model can be calculated from metal
      conductor damping factor gamma c and dielectric damping factor gamma d . We
      investigate the influence of geometry parameters and damping factor gamma on
      transmission spectra as well as slow-light effects in the plasmonic waveguide
      system. We can find an obvious PIT phenomenon and realize a considerable slow
      light effect in the double-cavities system. This work may provide guidance for
      optical switching and plasmon-based information processing.

PMID- 28878380
TI  - An in-silico approach to predict and exploit synthetic lethality in cancer
      metabolism.
AB  - Synthetic lethality is a promising concept in cancer research, potentially
      opening new possibilities for the development of more effective and selective
      treatments. Here, we present a computational method to predict and exploit
      synthetic lethality in cancer metabolism. Our approach relies on the concept of
      genetic minimal cut sets and gene expression data, demonstrating a superior
      performance to previous approaches predicting metabolic vulnerabilities in
      cancer. Our genetic minimal cut set computational framework is applied to
      evaluate the lethality of ribonucleotide reductase catalytic subunit M1 (RRM1)
      inhibition in multiple myeloma. We present a computational and experimental study
      of the effect of RRM1 inhibition in four multiple myeloma cell lines. In
      addition, using publicly available genome-scale loss-of-function screens, a
      possible mechanism by which the inhibition of RRM1 is effective in cancer is
      established. Overall, our approach shows promising results and lays the
      foundation to build a novel family of algorithms to target metabolism in
      cancer.Exploiting synthetic lethality is a promising approach for cancer therapy.
      Here, the authors present an approach to identifying such interactions by finding
      genetic minimal cut sets (gMCSs) that block cancer proliferation, and apply it to
      study the lethality of RRM1 inhibition in multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28878381
TI  - Large order fluctuations, switching, and control in complex networks.
AB  - We propose an analytical technique to study large fluctuations and switching from
      internal noise in complex networks. Using order-disorder kinetics as a generic
      example, we construct and analyze the most probable, or optimal path of
      fluctuations from one ordered state to another in real and synthetic networks.
      The method allows us to compute the distribution of large fluctuations and the
      time scale associated with switching between ordered states for networks
      consistent with mean-field assumptions. In general, we quantify how network
      heterogeneity influences the scaling patterns and probabilities of fluctuations.
      For instance, we find that the probability of a large fluctuation near an order
      disorder transition decreases exponentially with the participation ratio of a
      network's principle eigenvector - measuring how many nodes effectively contribute
      to an ordered state. Finally, the proposed theory is used to answer how and where
      a network should be targeted in order to optimize the time needed to observe a
      switch.

PMID- 28878382
TI  - Pleomorphic bacteria-like structures in human blood represent non-living membrane
      vesicles and protein particles.
AB  - Although human blood is believed to be a sterile environment, recent studies
      suggest that pleomorphic bacteria exist in the blood of healthy humans. These
      studies have led to the development of "live-blood analysis," a technique used by
      alternative medicine practitioners to diagnose various human conditions,
      including allergies, cancer, cardiovascular disease and septicemia. We show here
      that bacteria-like vesicles and refringent particles form in healthy human blood
      observed under dark-field microscopy. These structures gradually increase in
      number during incubation and show morphologies reminiscent of cells undergoing
      division. Based on lipid analysis and Western blotting, we show that the bacteria
      like entities consist of membrane vesicles containing serum and exosome proteins,
      including albumin, fetuin-A, apolipoprotein-A1, alkaline phosphatase, TNFR1 and
      CD63. In contrast, the refringent particles represent protein aggregates that
      contain several blood proteins. 16S rDNA PCR analysis reveals the presence of
      bacterial DNA in incubated blood samples but also in negative controls,
      indicating that the amplified sequences represent contaminants. These results
      suggest that the bacteria-like vesicles and refringent particles observed in
      human blood represent non-living membrane vesicles and protein aggregates derived
      from blood. The phenomena observed during live-blood analysis are therefore
      consistent with time-dependent decay of cells and body fluids during incubation
      ex vivo.

PMID- 28878383
TI  - Avascular Necrosis of Femoral Head: A Metabolomic, Biophysical, Biochemical,
      Electron Microscopic and Histopathological Characterization.
AB  - Avascular necrosis of the femur head (AVNFH) is a debilitating disease caused due
      to the use of alcohol, steroids, following trauma or unclear (idiopathic)
      etiology, affecting mostly the middle aged population. Clinically AVNFH is
      associated with impaired blood supply to the femoral head resulting in bone
      necrosis and collapse. Although Homocysteine (HC) has been implicated in AVNFH,
      levels of homocysteine and its associated pathway metabolites have not been
      characterized. We demonstrate elevated levels of homocysteine and concomitantly
      reduced levels of vitamins B6 and B12, in plasma of AVNFH patients. AVNFH
      patients also had elevated blood levels of sodium and creatinine, and reduced
      levels of random glucose and haemoglobin. Biophysical and ultrastructural
      analysis of AVNFH bone revealed increased remodelling and reduced bone mineral
      density portrayed by increased carbonate to phosphate ratio and decreased
      Phosphate to amide ratio together with disrupted trabeculae, loss of osteocytes,
      presence of calcified marrow, and elevated expression of osteocalcin in the
      osteoblasts localized in necrotic regions. Taken together, our studies for the
      first time characterize the metabolomic, pathophysiological and morphometric
      changes associated with AVNFH providing insights for development of new markers
      and therapeutic strategies for this debilitating disorder.

PMID- 28878384
TI  - Combination of optical coherence tomography and near infrared spectroscopy
      enhances determination of articular cartilage composition and structure.
AB  - Conventional arthroscopic evaluation of articular cartilage is subjective and
      poorly reproducible. Therefore, implementation of quantitative diagnostic
      techniques, such as near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and optical coherence
      tomography (OCT), is essential. Locations (n = 44) with various cartilage
      conditions were selected from mature equine fetlock joints (n = 5). These
      locations and their surroundings were measured with NIRS and OCT (n = 530). As a
      reference, cartilage proteoglycan (PG) and collagen contents, and collagen
      network organization were determined using quantitative microscopy. Additionally,
      lesion severity visualized in OCT images was graded with an automatic algorithm
      according to International Cartilage Research Society (ICRS) scoring system.
      Artificial neural network with variable selection was then employed to predict
      cartilage composition in the superficial and deep zones from NIRS data, and the
      performance of two models, generalized (including all samples) and condition
      specific models (based on ICRS-grades), was compared. Spectral data correlated
      significantly (p < 0.002) with PG and collagen contents, and collagen orientation
      in the superficial and deep zones. The combination of NIRS and OCT provided the
      most reliable outcome, with condition-specific models having lower prediction
      errors (9.2%) compared to generalized models (10.4%). Therefore, the results
      highlight the potential of combining both modalities for comprehensive evaluation
      of cartilage during arthroscopy.

PMID- 28878385
TI  - A Universal Isotherm Model to Capture Adsorption Uptake and Energy Distribution
      of Porous Heterogeneous Surface.
AB  - The adsorbate-adsorbent thermodynamics are complex as it is influenced by the
      pore size distributions, surface heterogeneity and site energy distribution, as
      well as the adsorbate properties. Together, these parameters defined the
      adsorbate uptake forming the state diagrams, known as the adsorption isotherms,
      when the sorption site energy on the pore surfaces are favorable. The available
      adsorption models for describing the vapor uptake or isotherms, hitherto, are
      individually defined to correlate to a certain type of isotherm patterns. There
      is yet a universal approach in developing these isotherm models. In this paper,
      we demonstrate that the characteristics of all sorption isotherm types can be
      succinctly unified by a revised Langmuir model when merged with the concepts of
      Homotattic Patch Approximation (HPA) and the availability of multiple sets of
      site energy accompanied by their respective fractional probability factors. The
      total uptake (q/q*) at assorted pressure ratios (P/P s ) are inextricably traced
      to the manner the site energies are spread, either naturally or engineered by
      scientists, over and across the heterogeneous surfaces. An insight to the porous
      heterogeneous surface characteristics, in terms of adsorption site availability
      has been presented, describing the unique behavior of each isotherm type.

PMID- 28878386
TI  - Creation of a multi-segmented optical needle with prescribed length and spacing
      using the radiation pattern from a sectional-uniform line source.
AB  - This paper presents a method to generate a multi-segmented optical needle with a
      strong longitudinally polarized field, uniform intensity along the optical axis,
      and a transverse size (~0.36lambda). The length of each segment in the optical
      needle and the spacing between adjacent segments are controllable by reversing
      and focusing the radiation pattern from a sectional-uniform line source antenna
      to the focal volume of a 4Pi focusing system. By solving the inverse problem, we
      can obtain the required incident field distribution at the pupil plane to create
      the multi-segmented optical needle. Numerical examples demonstrate that a multi
      segmented optical needle with variable focal depth, adjustable interval, narrow
      lateral width, homogeneous intensity, and high longitudinal polarization purity
      can be formed using the proposed approach. The length of each needle segment is
      approximately equal to the length of the corresponding sectional uniform line
      source. The multi-segmented optical needle may be employed in applications such
      as multi-particle acceleration, multi-particle trapping and manipulation, laser
      machining, and laser material processing.

PMID- 28878387
TI  - Erratum: Noncanonical cell death program independent of caspase activation
      cascade and necroptotic modules is elicited by loss of TGFbeta-activated kinase
      1.
AB  - A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML
      version of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

PMID- 28878388
TI  - Promotion effect of extracts from plastrum testudinis on alendronate against
      glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis in rat spine.
AB  - Alendronate (ALN) is a key therapeutic used to treat glucocorticoid-induced
      osteoporosis (GIOP), but may induce severe side effects. We showed earlier that
      plastrum testudinis extracts (PTE) prevented and treated GIOP in vivo. However,
      clinically, PTE is seldom used alone. Herein, we reveal the synergistic effect of
      ALN and PTE can treat GIOP of the rat spine and define the mechanism. Sprague
      Dawley rats were randomly assigned to four groups: a vehicle group, a GIOP group,
      an ALN group, and an ALN+PTE group. Each group was further divided into two
      experimental phases, including dexamethasone (DXM) intervention and withdrawal.
      Bone mass, microarchitecture, biomechanics, bone-turnover markers, and
      histomorphology were evaluated. The mRNA and protein expression levels of CTSK
      and Runx2 were detemined. We found that ALN+PTE improved bone quantity and
      quality, bone strength, bone turnover; and mitigated histological damage during
      glucocorticoid intervention and withdrawal. The therapeutic effect was better
      than that afforded by ALN alone. ALN+PTE reduced CTSK protein expression,
      promoted Runx2 mRNA and protein expression to varying extents, and more strongly
      inhibited bone resorption than did ALN alone. Overall, the synergistic effect
      mediated by ALN+PTE reversed GIOP during DXM intervention and withdrawal via
      affecting CTSK and Runx2 expression at mRNA and protein levels.

PMID- 28878389
TI  - Gas6 derived from cancer-associated fibroblasts promotes migration of Axl
      expressing lung cancer cells during chemotherapy.
AB  - Alterations to the tumor stromal microenvironment induced by chemotherapy could
      influence the behavior of cancer cells. In the tumor stromal microenvironment,
      cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play an important role. Because the receptor
      tyrosine kinase Axl and its ligand Gas6 could be involved in promoting non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we investigated the role of Gas6 secreted by CAFs
      during chemotherapy in NSCLC. In a murine model, we found that Gas6 expression by
      CAFs was upregulated following cisplatin treatment. Gas6 expression might be
      influenced by intratumoral hypoperfusion during chemotherapy, and it increased
      after serum starvation in a human lung CAF line, LCAFhTERT. Gas6 is associated
      with LCAFhTERT cell growth. Recombinant Gas6 promoted H1299 migration, and
      conditioned medium (CM) from LCAFhTERT cells activated Axl in H1299 cells and
      promoted migration. Silencing Gas6 in LCAFhTERT reduced the Axl activation and
      H1299 cell migration induced by CM from LCAFhTERT. In clinical samples, stromal
      Gas6 expression increased after chemotherapy. Five-year disease-free survival
      rates for patients with tumor Axl- and stromal Gas6-positive tumors (n = 37) was
      significantly worse than for the double negative group (n = 12) (21.9% vs 51.3%,
      p = 0.04). Based on these findings, it is presumed that Gas6 derived from CAFs
      promotes migration of Axl-expressing lung cancer cells during chemotherapy and is
      involved in poor clinical outcome.

PMID- 28878390
TI  - Impact of nutritional supplements on cognitive development of children in
      developing countries: A meta-analysis.
AB  - Nutritional supplements may be important on cognition but the evidence is
      heterogeneous. This meta-analysis aimed (1) to determine whether nutritional
      supplements provided to pregnant women or young children could improve cognitive
      development of children in developing countries, and (2) to explore how
      supplementation characteristics could improve children's cognitive outcomes. This
      meta-analysis examined nutritional supplementation studies in 9 electronic
      databases and 13 specialist websites. Experimental studies were included if they
      were published from 1992 to 2016, were conducted in developing countries, had
      nutritional supplementation for pregnant women or children aged <=8, and reported
      effect sizes on cognitive outcomes. Interventions with confounded components,
      such as stimulation and parenting, were excluded. 67 interventions (48 studies)
      for 29814 children from 20 developing countries were evaluated. Childhood
      nutritional supplementation could improve children's cognitive development (d
      0.08, 95% CI 0.03-0.13) and those with >=5 nutrients was particularly beneficial
      (0.15, 0.08-0.22). Antenatal supplementation did not improve cognitive
      development (0.02, -0.01 to 0.06) except for those implemented in the first
      trimester (0.15, 0.03-0.28). In conclusion, childhood nutritional supplementation
      was beneficial to cognitive development but could be optimised by providing
      multiple nutrients; antenatal supplementation should target pregnancy women in
      the first trimester for better cognitive benefits.

PMID- 28878393
TI  - All-optical tunable buffering with coupled ultra-high Q whispering gallery mode
      microcavities.
AB  - All-optical tunable buffering was recently achieved on a chip by using
      dynamically tuned coupled mode induced transparency, which is an optical analogue
      of electromagnetically induced transparency. However, the small Q s of about 105
      used in those systems were limiting the maximum buffering time to a few hundred
      ps. Although employing an ultra-high Q whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavity
      can significantly improve the maximum buffering time, the dynamic tuning of the
      WGM has remained challenging because thermo-optic and pressure tunings, which are
      widely used for WGM microcavities, have a very slow response. Here we demonstrate
      all-optical tunable buffering utilizing coupled ultra-high Q WGM cavities and the
      Kerr effect. The Kerr effect can change the refractive index instantaneously, and
      this allowed us to tune the WGM cavity very quickly. In addition, from among the
      various WGM cavities we employed a silica toroid microcavity for our experiments
      because it has an ultra-high Q factor (>2 * 107) and a small mode volume, and can
      be fabricated on a chip. Use of the Kerr effect and the silica toroid microcavity
      enabled us to observe an on-chip all-optical tunable buffering operation and
      achieve a maximum buffering time of 20 ns.

PMID- 28878391
TI  - Identification of a p53 target, CD137L, that mediates growth suppression and
      immune response of osteosarcoma cells.
AB  - p53 encodes a transcription factor that transactivates downstream target genes
      involved in tumour suppression. Although osteosarcoma frequently has p53
      mutations, the role of p53 in osteosarcomagenesis is not fully understood. To
      explore p53-target genes comprehensively in calvarial bone and find out novel
      druggable p53 target genes for osteosarcoma, we performed RNA sequencing using
      the calvarial bone and 23 other tissues from p53 +/+ and p53 -/- mice after
      radiation exposure. Of 23,813 genes, 69 genes were induced more than two-fold in
      irradiated p53 +/+ calvarial bone, and 127 genes were repressed. Pathway analysis
      of the p53-induced genes showed that genes associated with cytokine-cytokine
      receptor interactions were enriched. Three genes, CD137L, CDC42 binding protein
      kinase gamma and Follistatin, were identified as novel direct p53 target genes
      that exhibited growth-suppressive effects on osteosarcoma cell lines. Of the
      three genes, costimulatory molecule Cd137l was induced only in calvarial bone
      among the 24 tissues tested. CD137L-expressing cells exhibited growth-suppressive
      effects in vivo. In addition, recombinant Fc-fusion Cd137l protein activated the
      immune response in vitro and suppressed osteosarcoma cell growth in vivo. We
      clarified the role of CD137L in osteosarcomagenesis and its potential therapeutic
      application. Our transcriptome analysis also indicated the regulation of the
      immune response through p53.

PMID- 28878392
TI  - Multivariate discovery and replication of five novel loci associated with
      Immunoglobulin G N-glycosylation.
AB  - Joint modeling of a number of phenotypes using multivariate methods has often
      been neglected in genome-wide association studies and if used, replication has
      not been sought. Modern omics technologies allow characterization of functional
      phenomena using a large number of related phenotype measures, which can benefit
      from such joint analysis. Here, we report a multivariate genome-wide association
      studies of 23 immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycosylation phenotypes. In the discovery
      cohort, our multi-phenotype method uncovers ten genome-wide significant loci, of
      which five are novel (IGH, ELL2, HLA-B-C, AZI1, FUT6-FUT3). We convincingly
      replicate all novel loci via multivariate tests. We show that IgG N-glycosylation
      loci are strongly enriched for genes expressed in the immune system, in
      particular antibody-producing cells and B lymphocytes. We empirically demonstrate
      the efficacy of multivariate methods to discover novel, reproducible pleiotropic
      effects.Multivariate analysis methods can uncover the relationship between
      phenotypic measures characterised by modern omic techniques. Here the authors
      conduct a multivariate GWAS on IgG N-glycosylation phenotypes and identify 5
      novel loci enriched in immune system genes.

PMID- 28878394
TI  - An efficient algorithm for finding all possible input nodes for controlling
      complex networks.
AB  - Understanding structural controllability of a complex network requires to
      identify a Minimum Input nodes Set (MIS) of the network. Finding an MIS is known
      to be equivalent to computing a maximum matching of the network, where the
      unmatched nodes constitute an MIS. However, maximum matching is often not unique
      for a network, and finding all possible input nodes, the union of all MISs, may
      provide deep insights to the controllability of the network. Here we present an
      efficient enumerative algorithm for the problem. The main idea is to modify a
      maximum matching algorithm to make it efficient for finding all possible input
      nodes by computing only one MIS. The algorithm can also output a set of
      substituting nodes for each input node in the MIS, so that any node in the set
      can replace the latter. We rigorously proved the correctness of the new algorithm
      and evaluated its performance on synthetic and large real networks. The
      experimental results showed that the new algorithm ran several orders of
      magnitude faster than an existing method on large real networks.

PMID- 28878395
TI  - Recovery of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China: a meta
      analysis.
AB  - There is considerable uncertainty concerning changes in plant diversity of
      Chinese secondary forests, particularly with respect to diversity recovery
      following anthropogenic disturbance. Here we present a meta-analysis of the
      recovery of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China, with
      nearby primary forests as a reference. A total of 125 pairs of secondary-primary
      forest data reported in 55 publications were identified across China. We analyzed
      the data by region and logging history to examine their influences on secondary
      forest recovery. Our results indicated that the woody plant richness of secondary
      forests in China was close to fully recovered when compared to the primary
      forest, with the recovery ratio being 85-103%. Higher recovery ratios were
      observed in central, northeast and southwest China, with lower recovery ratios
      seen in east, south and northwest China, and the recovery in central China
      significantly reached the primary forests (reference) level. Concerning logging
      histories, the recovery ratios showed two peak values, with one at 21-40 years
      after clear cutting and the other at 61-80 years. We reveal the fundamental
      recovery patterns of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China.
      These patterns provide information for the sustainable management of secondary
      forest resources.

PMID- 28878397
TI  - Physical and Pharmacokinetic Characterizations of trans-Resveratrol (t-Rev)
      Encapsulated with Self-Assembling Lecithin-based Mixed Polymeric Micelles
      (saLMPMs).
AB  - This study involved physical and pharmacokinetic characterizations of trans
      resveratrol (t-Rev)-loaded saLMPMs which attempted to improve t-Rev's
      pharmacokinetic profiles and bioavailability resolving hurdles limiting its
      potential health benefits. The optimal formulation consisted of t-Rev, lecithin,
      and Pluronic(r) P123 at 5:2:20 (t-Rev-loaded PP123 saLMPMs) provided mean
      particle size <200 nm, encapsulation efficiency >90%, and drug loading >15%.
      Compared to t-Rev solubilized with HP-beta-CD, t-Rev-loaded PP123 saLMPMs
      enhanced t-Rev's stability in PBS at RT, 4  degrees C, and 37  degrees C and in
      FBS at 37  degrees C, and retarded the in vitro release. Intravenous
      administration of t-Rev-loaded PP123 saLMPMs was able to enhance 40% absolute
      bioavailability and a greater portion of t-Rev was found to preferably distribute
      into peripheral compartment potentially establishing a therapeutic level at the
      targeted site. With oral administration, t-Rev-loaded LMPMs increases 2.17-fold
      absolute bioavailability and furnished a 3-h period of time in which the plasma
      concentration maintained above the desirable concentration for chemoprevention
      and accomplished a higher value of the dose-normalized area under the curve for
      potentially establishing an effective level at the target site. Therefore,
      intravenous and oral pharmacokinetic characteristics of t-Rev encapsulated with
      PP123 saLMPMs indicate that t-Rev can be translated into a clinically useful
      therapeutic agent.

PMID- 28878398
TI  - Erratum: ETS Related Gene mediated Androgen Receptor Aggregation and Endoplasmic
      Reticulum Stress in Prostate Cancer Development.
AB  - A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML
      version of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

PMID- 28878396
TI  - RhoA-ROCK Inhibition Reverses Synaptic Remodeling and Motor and Cognitive
      Deficits Caused by Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes extensive neural damage, often resulting in
      long-term cognitive impairments. Unfortunately, effective treatments for TBI
      remain elusive. The RhoA-ROCK signaling pathway is a potential therapeutic target
      since it is activated by TBI and can promote the retraction of dendritic
      spines/synapses, which are critical for information processing and memory
      storage. To test this hypothesis, RhoA-ROCK signaling was blocked by RhoA
      deletion from postnatal neurons or treatment with the ROCK inhibitor fasudil. We
      found that TBI impairs both motor and cognitive performance and inhibiting RhoA
      ROCK signaling alleviates these deficits. Moreover, RhoA-ROCK inhibition prevents
      TBI-induced spine remodeling and mature spine loss. These data argue that TBI
      elicits pathological spine remodeling that contributes to behavioral deficits by
      altering synaptic connections, and RhoA-ROCK inhibition enhances functional
      recovery by blocking this detrimental effect. As fasudil has been safely used in
      humans, our results suggest that it could be repurposed to treat TBI.

PMID- 28878399
TI  - Structural and molecular comparison of bacterial and eukaryotic trigger factors.
AB  - A considerably small fraction of approximately 60-100 proteins of all chloroplast
      proteins are encoded by the plastid genome. Many of these proteins are major
      subunits of complexes with central functions within plastids. In comparison with
      other subcellular compartments and bacteria, many steps of chloroplast protein
      biogenesis are not well understood. We report here on the first study of
      chloroplast-localised trigger factor. In bacteria, this molecular chaperone is
      known to associate with translating ribosomes to facilitate the folding of newly
      synthesized proteins. Chloroplast trigger factors of the unicellular green algae
      Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the vascular land plant Arabidopsis thaliana were
      characterized by biophysical and structural methods and compared to the
      Escherichia coli isoform. We show that chloroplast trigger factor is mainly
      monomeric and displays only moderate stability against thermal unfolding even
      under mild heat-stress conditions. The global shape and conformation of these
      proteins were determined in solution by small-angle X-ray scattering and
      subsequent ab initio modelling. As observed for bacteria, plastidic trigger
      factors have a dragon-like structure, albeit with slightly altered domain
      arrangement and flexibility. This structural conservation despite low amino acid
      sequence homology illustrates a remarkable evolutionary robustness of chaperone
      conformations across various kingdoms of life.

PMID- 28878400
TI  - Thiamine antagonists trigger p53-dependent apoptosis in differentiated SH-SY5Y
      cells.
AB  - Accumulating evidences suggest that p53 is a key coordinator of cellular events
      triggered by oxidative stress often associated with the impairment in thiamine
      metabolism and its functions. However, there are limited data regarding the
      pursuant feedback between p53 transactivation and thiamine homeostasis.
      Impairment in thiamine metabolism can be induced experimentally via interference
      with the thiamine uptake and/or inhibition of the thiamin pyrophosphate-dependent
      enzymes using thiamine antagonists - amprolium (AM), oxythiamine (OT) or
      pyrithiamine (PT). We found that exposure of neuronally differentiated SH-SY5Y
      cells to AM, OT and PT triggered upregulation of p53 gene expression, post
      translational modification of p53 via phosphorylation and activation of p53 DNA
      binding activity. Phosphorylation of p53 at Ser20 was equally efficient in
      upregulation of thiamine transporter 1 (THTR1) by all antagonists. However,
      induction of the expressions of the pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 component subunit
      beta (PDHB) and oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) required dual phosphorylation
      of p53 at Ser9 and Ser20, seen in cells treated with PT and OT. Moreover,
      pretreatment of the cells with a decoy oligonucleotide carrying wild-type p53
      response element markedly attenuated OT-induced THTR1, PDHB and OGDH gene
      expression suggesting an important role of p53 in transactivation of these genes.
      Finally, analysis of gene and metabolic networks showed that OT triggers cell
      apoptosis through the p53-dependent intrinsic pathway.

PMID- 28878401
TI  - Structural basis for CRMP2-induced axonal microtubule formation.
AB  - Microtubule associated protein Collapsin response mediator protein 2 (CRMP2)
      regulates neuronal polarity in developing neurons through interactions with
      tubulins or microtubules. However, how CRMP2 promotes axonal formation by
      affecting microtubule behavior remains unknown. This study aimed to obtain the
      structural basis for CRMP2-tubulin/microtubule interaction in the course of
      axonogenesis. The X-ray structural studies indicated that the main interface to
      the soluble tubulin-dimer is the last helix H19 of CRMP2 that is distinct from
      the known C-terminal tail-mediated interaction with assembled microtubules. In
      vitro structural and functional studies also suggested that the H19-mediated
      interaction promoted the rapid formation of GTP-state microtubules directly,
      which is an important feature of the axon. Consistently, the H19 mutants
      disturbed axon elongation in chick neurons, and failed to authorize the
      structural features for axonal microtubules in Caenorhabditis elegans. Thus,
      CRMP2 induces effective axonal microtubule formation through H19-mediated
      interactions with a soluble tubulin-dimer allowing axonogenesis to proceed.

PMID- 28878403
TI  - Growth of the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau by squeezing up of the
      crust at the boundaries.
AB  - In classic orogenic models, the mountain range is underlain by a deep crustal
      root. Here we present the crustal and upper mantle structures along two receiver
      function profiles across Qilian, an orogen experiencing recent growth at the
      northern margin of the Tibetan plateau. Opposite to an expected crustal root
      beneath the orogen, the Moho beneath Qilian is arch-like, shallower beneath the
      center and deepens by up to 10 km beneath its southern and northern boundaries.
      Additional velocity interfaces sub-parallel to the Moho are observed in the lower
      crust of the basins south of Qilian, which we interpret as the top of a
      mechanically strong lower crust thrusting several tens of kilometers underneath
      Qilian. In the north, the small lateral offset between the surface and mantle
      traces of the thrust system reveals a steep boundary, indicating that the North
      China cratonic crust acts as a strong resistance to the northward growth of the
      plateau, forcing the development of the left-lateral strike-slip Haiyuan fault
      south of the northern Qilian suture. The young Qilian orogen thus has been rising
      and growing progressively from the boundaries to the center, squeezed up by more
      rigid tectonic blocks in the north and south.

PMID- 28878402
TI  - Genetic Mechanisms Contribute to the Development of Heart Failure in Patients
      with Atrioventricular Block and Right Ventricular Apical Pacing.
AB  - Right ventricular apical (RVA) pacing can lead to progressive left ventricular
      dysfunction and heart failure (HF), even in patients with normal cardiac
      structure and function. Our study conducted candidate gene screening and
      lentivirus transfected neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) to explore the genetic
      and pathogenic mechanisms of RVA pacing induced cardiomyopathy in third degree
      atrioventricular block (III AVB) patients. We followed 887 III AVB patients with
      baseline normal cardiac function and RVA pacing. After a median follow-up of 2.5
      years, 10 patients (four males, mean age 47.6 +/- 10.0 years) were diagnosed with
      RVA pacing induced HF with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) reducing
      dramatically to 37.8 +/- 7.1% (P  < 0.05). Candidate genes sequencing found
      cardiomyopathy associated genetic variations in all ten HF patients and six SCN5A
      variations in 6 of 20 control patients. Transfected NRCMs of Lamin A/C mutations
      (R216C and L379F) disrupted Lamin A/C location on nucleus membrane and finally
      resulted in increased apoptotic rate after serum starvation. In conclusion,
      cardiomyopathy associated genetic variations play an essential role in occurrence
      of newly onset HF in the III AVB patients with RVA pacing. RVA pacing, serving as
      extra stimulator, might accelerate the deterioration of cardiac structure and
      function.

PMID- 28878404
TI  - Tunable and high-sensitivity sensing based on Fano resonance with coupled
      plasmonic cavities.
AB  - Tunable and high-sensitivity sensing based on Fano resonance is analytically and
      numerically investigated in coupled plasmonic cavities structure. To analyze and
      manipulate the Fano line shape, the coupled cavities are taken as a composite
      cavity that supports at least two resonance modes. A theoretical model is newly
      established, and its results agree well with the finite difference time domain
      (FDTD) simulations for the plasmonic stub-pair structure. The detection
      sensitivity factor in coupled cavities approaches 6.541 * 107 m-1, which is an
      order of magnitude larger than single stub case. In addition, the wavelengths of
      resonant modes in the plasmonic stub-pair structure can be adjusted
      independently, which paves a new way for improving detection sensitivity. These
      discoveries hold potential applications for realizing tunable and highly
      integrated photonic devices.

PMID- 28878405
TI  - Some sustained improvements in pneumonia case management four and five years
      following implementation of paediatric hospital guidelines in Lao PDR.
AB  - In 2010, WHO paediatric hospital guidelines were implemented in Lao PDR, along
      with training workshops and feedback audits, achieving significant improvements
      in pneumonia case management when assessed one-year post-intervention. The
      sustainability of these improvements is hereby assessed, four and five years post
      intervention. Medical records of children aged 1-59 months, diagnosed with
      pneumonia in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015 from a central Lao hospital were reviewed.
      Information relating to clinical steps in pneumonia case management was extracted
      and a scoring system applied based on the documentation of each clinical step,
      producing a pneumonia assessment score for each case. Comparisons of clinical
      steps and mean assessment score across study years were performed using Pearson's
      chi-squared and t-tests, respectively. Of 231 pneumonia cases, the mean
      assessment scores in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015 were 57%, 96%, 69% and 69%
      respectively, showing a significant reduction from the immediate post
      intervention period (2011) to 2015 (p < 0.01). Mean assessment score in 2014/2015
      was significantly higher than in 2010 (p < 0.01). The high standards of pneumonia
      case management in 2011 were not observed in 2014/2015 in the absence of ongoing
      intervention but overall quality of care remained higher than pre-intervention
      levels, suggesting some degree of sustainability in the long-term.

PMID- 28878406
TI  - High temperature in-situ synchrotron-based XRD study on the crystal structure
      evolution of C/C composite impregnated by FLiNaK molten salt.
AB  - An in-situ real-time synchrotron-based grazing incidence X-ray diffraction was
      systematically used to investigate the crystal structural evolution of carbon
      fiber reinforced carbon matrix (C/C) composite impregnated with FLiNaK molten
      salt during the heat-treatment process. It was found that the crystallographic
      thermal expansion and contraction rate of interlayer spacing d 002 in C/C
      composite with FLiNaK salt impregnation is smaller than that in the virgin
      sample, indicating the suppression on interlayer spacing from FLiNaK salt
      impregnated. Meanwhile the crystallite size L C002 of C/C composite with FLiNaK
      salt impregnation is larger than the virgin one after whole heat treatment
      process, indicating that FLiNaK salt impregnation could facilitate the
      crystallization of C/C composite after heat treatment process. This improved
      crystallization in C/C composite with FLiNaK salt impregnation suggests the
      synthetic action of the salt squeeze effect on crooked carbon layer and the
      release of internal residual stress after heating-cooling process. Thus, the
      present study not only contribute to reveal the interaction mechanism between C/C
      composite and FLiNaK salt in high temperature environment, but also promote the
      design of safer and more reliable C/C composite materials for the next generation
      molten salt reactor.

PMID- 28878408
TI  - Erratum.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 690 in vol. 58.].

PMID- 28878407
TI  - Simultaneous measurement of transverse load and temperature using hybrid
      structured fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer.
AB  - We experimentally demonstrated a novel fiber-optic hybrid structured Fabry-Perot
      interferometer with special air-cavity for simultaneous measurement of transverse
      load and temperature. By the linear phase finite impulse response filters, the
      transverse load sensitivities of the air-cavity and the silica-cavity are 1272.71
      pm/N and -53.07 pm/N, respectively, and temperature sensitivities of the air
      cavity and silica-cavity are 1.1 pm/ degrees C and 14 pm/ degrees C. Thus, the
      different sensitivities of silica-cavity and air-cavity to transverse load and
      temperature indicate that such a structure can be used to simultaneously measure
      transverse load and temperature.

PMID- 28878410
TI  - Best profession ever!

PMID- 28878409
TI  - Lessons learned from the evolution of terrestrial animal health surveillance in
      Canada and options for creating a new collaborative national structure - Second
      opinion.

PMID- 28878411
TI  - Veterinary Medical Ethics.

PMID- 28878412
TI  - Putative contact ketoconazole shampoo-triggered pemphigus foliaceus in a dog.
AB  - A 10-year-old spayed female cocker spaniel dog was referred for an evaluation of
      acute-onset generalized pustular cutaneous lesions following application of
      ketoconazole shampoo. Cytologic and histopathologic examinations of the lesions
      revealed intra-epidermal pustules with predominantly neutrophils and acantholytic
      cells. This is the first description of putative contact ketoconazole shampoo
      triggered pemphigus foliaceus in a dog.

PMID- 28878413
TI  - Retinal astrocytoma in a dog.
AB  - A miniature schnauzer dog presenting with hyphema and glaucoma of the right eye
      had a retinal neoplasm. Neoplastic cells stained positively for glial fibrillary
      acidic protein, vimentin, and S-100 and largely negatively for oligodendrocyte
      transcription factor 2 by immunohistochemistry. The clinical and
      histopathological features of canine retinal astrocytomas are discussed.

PMID- 28878414
TI  - Atlanto-axial malformation in an adult Quarter horse gelding.
AB  - An adult gelding was evaluated for bilateral intermittent forelimb lameness of
      approximately 2 years duration. The horse was found to have grade 2/5 upper motor
      neuron-general proprioception ataxia with no cranial nerve deficits. During
      radiographic and gross necropsy examinations a novel atlanto-axial malformation
      of possible congenital etiology was found.

PMID- 28878415
TI  - Surgical removal of a gastric trichophytobezoar in a foal.
AB  - This report describes a rare case of gastric impaction caused by a
      trichophytobezoar in a foal. This case highlights the difficulty in diagnosing
      this condition and reports surgical removal via a gastrotomy after failure of
      medical treatment.

PMID- 28878416
TI  - Intramuscular mast cell tumors in 7 dogs.
AB  - Mast cell tumors (MCTs) are commonly encountered in dogs and have been reported
      in cutaneous, conjunctival, oral mucosal, and gastrointestinal locations, but not
      in an intramuscular location. Medical records at 2 referral centers in the UK
      were examined to find cases of MCTs in this location. Seven dogs were identified
      as having an intramuscular MCT by a combination of fine-needle aspirate cytology
      and computed tomography or ultrasound. None of the dogs had evidence of local
      lymph node metastasis. Six dogs had no evidence of distant metastasis and surgery
      was carried out as the primary treatment option. Three of those dogs also had
      adjunctive chemotherapy due to a high Ki67 value or high mitotic index. All 6
      dogs that had had surgery were alive at follow-up with a minimum elapsed time of
      7 months. One dog had a course of chemotherapy due to the location, size, and
      evidence of biological activity of the tumor and died 23 days afterwards. The
      prognosis of intramuscular mast cell tumors appears to be favorable in most
      cases.

PMID- 28878417
TI  - Post-operative Salmonella surgical site infection in a dog.
AB  - Following decompressive surgery for degenerative lumbosacral stenosis, a 6-year
      old German shepherd dog developed a subcutaneous infection at the surgical site
      and discospondylitis at the lumbosacral intervertebral disc. Salmonella enterica
      subsp. enterica, serotype Dublin was recovered from the surgical site. Salmonella
      of a different serovar was isolated from a sample of the raw meat-based diet that
      the owner fed the dog.

PMID- 28878418
TI  - Effect of acupuncture on pain and quality of life in canine neurological and
      musculoskeletal diseases.
AB  - This prospective study investigated the effects of acupuncture alone or combined
      with analgesics in chronic pain and quality of life assessed by owners for up to
      24 weeks in 181 dogs with neurological and musculoskeletal diseases. The scores
      before and after the onset of treatment were evaluated using the Wilcoxon test
      and the evolution of success was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier curves. Differences
      were considered significant at P < 0.05. The success rates for Helsinki chronic
      pain index (HCPI), quality of life assessment, and visual analog scales (VAS) for
      pain and locomotion were 79%, 84%, 78%, and 78% of the animals, respectively,
      when both diseases and groups of treatment were combined. Dogs with
      musculoskeletal disorders had greater improvement in HCPI (P = 0.003) and VAS
      locomotion (P = 0.045) than those with neurological disorders. Use of acupuncture
      alone or in combination with analgesics reduced pain and improved quality of life
      in dogs with neurological and musculoskeletal diseases.

PMID- 28878419
TI  - ?
AB  - Convenience euthanasia in companion animals: Dilemma among veterinarians in
      Quebec. Many veterinarians working in the field of companion animal medicine have
      to deal with requests for convenience euthanasia in their practices. As it is the
      case in other medical fields, veterinarians are trained to treat their patients.
      It is thus easy to understand that veterinarians consider convenience euthanasia
      as one of the most difficult ethical dilemmas they have to deal with in their
      practice. Regulatory boundaries concerning the practice of euthanasia are limited
      to the method use to induce the death of the animal but do not give any
      indication as to what should be the proper circumstances surrounding the request.
      To date, there are few articles on this matter and the perspective of
      veterinarians on the subject was rarely addressed. This article reports results
      obtained following a study conducted upon Quebec's veterinarians on the topic of
      convenience euthanasia. The data was obtained via an online survey created by the
      research team to evaluate the perspective of veterinarians on the topic, how they
      perceived consequences of convenience euthanasia and what were the solutions they
      would take into consideration in order to help the profession on resolving their
      dilemma. The data collected sheds light on the existing duality between double
      allegiance regarding the duties emerging from the relation with the patient
      (animal) and the client (pet owner) veterinarian are facing in their daily
      practice. On one hand veterinarians recognized that 'convenience euthanasia' is
      contrary to animal welfare. On the other hand they also recognized the pet
      owner's right to ask for 'convenience euthanasia' when he can no longer care for
      its pet.(Translated by Dr. Rathwell-Deault).

PMID- 28878420
TI  - Comparison of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius adherence to
      2 canine limb salvage endoprosthesis implants.
AB  - The objective of our study was to compare adhesion of methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) to stainless steel (SS) and to tantalum
      (TA) canine limb salvage endoprosthesis implants in an in vitro experimental
      study. The median of the mean log10 colony forming units/mL for adherent MRSP was
      4.96 (range: 4.63 to 6.33) for the TA endoprosthesis and 4.31 (range: 3.86 to
      5.05) for the SS endoprosthesis (P = 0.009). Although the trabecular and porous
      design of the TA endoprosthesis provides mechanical benefits over the SS
      endoprosthesis, it may increase the risk of developing infection due to higher
      levels of bacterial adherence.

PMID- 28878421
TI  - Prevalence of obesity in the equine population of Saskatoon and surrounding area.
AB  - A retrospective study determined the prevalence of obesity and over-conditioning
      in horses in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Body condition score (BSC) was assessed for
      290 horses from the Field Service practice at the Western College of Veterinary
      Medicine. The median BSC of horses was 6; however, 59 (20.3%) horses were
      classified as over-conditioned, and 24 (8.3%) as obese.

PMID- 28878422
TI  - Intrahepatic cholelithiasis in dogs and cats: A case series.
AB  - A retrospective study of intrahepatic cholelithiasis (IC) in 9 dogs and 2 cats
      was conducted. Only 1 dog showed clinical signs related to hepatobiliary disease
      before referral and during the follow-up period. Intrahepatic cholelithiasis
      might be a subclinical finding in both dogs and cats.

PMID- 28878423
TI  - Single incision laparoscopic-assisted ovariohysterectomy for an ovarian tumor in
      a dog.
AB  - This report describes a single-incision, laparoscopic-assisted ovariohysterectomy
      in a 6-year-old, intact female Keeshond dog for the staging and treatment of a
      left-sided ovarian tumor. Abdominal access was obtained using a modified-Hasson
      technique allowing for placement of a multi-channel, single incision laparoscopic
      surgery port. Following carbon dioxide insufflation, superficial laparoscopic
      exploration of the abdominal cavity was performed and then both ovarian pedicles
      were sealed and divided using a vessel-sealing device. Laparoscopic-assisted
      ovariohysterectomy was performed with the aid of a wound retractor for
      exteriorization of the mass. There were no perioperative complications and the
      patient was discharged 1 day after surgery. Histopathology of the mass revealed
      an ovarian teratoma. Telephone follow-up 608 days after surgery revealed a good
      clinical outcome. Single-incision, laparoscopic-assisted ovariohysterectomy is
      technically feasible for the treatment of selected ovarian tumors in the dog.

PMID- 28878424
TI  - The CVMA MyVetStore: Delivering dietary convenience and compliance.

PMID- 28878425
TI  - Diagnostic Ophthalmology.

PMID- 28878426
TI  - Temporomandibular joint luxation in the cat: Diagnosis and management.

PMID- 28878427
TI  - Mortality and Disability-Adjusted Life-Years (Dalys) for Common Neglected
      Tropical Diseases in Ethiopia, 1990-2015: Evidence from the Global Burden of
      Disease Study 2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are important public health
      problems in Ethiopia. In 2013, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has launched
      a national NTD master plan to eliminate major NTDs of public health importance by
      2020. Benchmarking the current status of NTDs in the country is important to
      monitor and evaluate the progress in the implementation of interventions and
      their impacts. Therefore, this study aims to assess the trends of mortality and
      Disability-adjusted Life-Years (DALY) for the priority NTDs over the last 25
      years. METHODS: We used the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 estimates for
      this study. The GBD 2015 data source for cause of death and DALY estimation
      included verbal autopsy (VA), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and other
      disease specific surveys, Ministry of Health reports submitted to United Nations
      (UN) agencies and published scientific articles. Cause of Death Ensemble modeling
      (CODEm) and/or natural history models were used to estimate NTDs mortality rates.
      DALY were estimated as the sum of Years of Life Lost (YLL) due to premature
      mortality and Years Lived with Disability (YLD). RESULTS: All NTDs caused an
      estimated of 6,293 deaths (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 3699-10,080) in 1990
      and 3,593 deaths (95% UI: 2051 - 6178) in 2015, a 43% reduction over the 25
      years. Age-standardized mortality rates due to schistosomiasis, STH and
      leshmaniasis have declined by 91.3%, 73.5% and 21.6% respectively between 1990 to
      2015. The number of DALYs due to all NTDs has declined from 814.4 thousand (95%
      UI: 548 thousand-1.2million) in 1990 to 579.5 thousand (95%UI: 309.4 thousand-1.3
      million) in 2015. Age-standardized DALY rates due to all NTDs declined by 30.7%,
      from 17.6 per 1000(95%UI: 12.5-26.5) in 1990 to 12.2 per 1000(95%UI: 6.5 - 27.4)
      in 2015. Age-standardized DALY rate for trachoma declined from 92.7 per
      100,000(95% UI: 63.2 - 128.4) in 1990 to 41.2 per 100,000(95%UI: 27.4-59.2) in
      2015, a 55.6% reduction between 1990 and 2015. Age-standardized DALY rates for
      onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and lymphiaticfilariasis decreased by 66.2%,
      29.4% and 12.5% respectively between 1990 and 2015. DALY rate for ascariasis fell
      by 56.8% over the past 25 years. CONCLUSIONS: Ethiopia has made a remarkable
      progress in reducing the DALY rates for most of the NTDs over the last 25 years.
      The rapid scale of interventions and broader system strengthening may have a
      lasting impact on achieving the 2020 goal of elimination of most of NTDs.
      Ethiopia should strengthen the coverage of integrated interventions of NTD
      through proper coordination with other health programs and sectors and community
      participation to eliminate NTDs by 2020.

PMID- 28878428
TI  - Elimination of Guinea Worm Disease in Ethiopia; Current Status of the Disease's,
      Eradication Strategies and Challenges to the End Game.
AB  - Dracunculiasis, also named Guinea Worm Disease (GWD), is one of the Neglected
      Tropical Diseases (NTDs) caused by a parasitic nematode known as Dracunculus
      medinensis and has been known since antiquity as 'fiery serpent' from Israelites.
      It is transmitted to humans via drinking contaminated water containing infective
      copepods. Given, its feasibility for eradication, the Guinea Worm Eradication
      Program (GWEP) was launched in 1980 with the aim of eradicating the disease.
      Since its inception, GWEP has made an extraordinary progress in interrupting
      transmission. Globally, the number of reported cases reduced from 3.5 million in
      20 countries in 1986 to only 22 cases in 2015 from only four countries namely
      South Sudan, Mali, Chad and Ethiopia. Since Mali has interrupted transmission of
      GWD in 2016, currently, the disease remains endemic in only three sub-Saharan
      African countries namely, South Sudan, Chad and Ethiopia. Each endemic country
      has its own national Guinea Worm Eradication Program. In Ethiopia, the Ethiopian
      Dracunculiasis Eradication Program (EDEP) which was established in 1993 has made
      remarkable move towards interruption of disease transmission and now the endgame
      is fast approaching. The EDEP with support mainly from The Carter Center, WHO,
      and UNICEF has reduced GWD by more than 99% from 1994 to 2015. In 2015, only 3
      indigenous cases in humans and 14 in animals (13 in dogs and 1 in baboon) were
      reported. In 2016, 3 human cases, 14 dogs and 2 baboon infections were reported..
      Refugee influx from the Republic of South Sudan (RSS), increased animal
      infections with unknown role in transmission of Dracunculiasis, the presence of
      hard to reach communities and lack of safe water sources in remote non-village
      areas remain among important challenges at this final stage of GWD eradication in
      Ethiopia. This paper reviews progress made towards Guinea Worm Eradication with a
      focus on the experience of the Ethiopian Dracunculiasis Eradication Program
      (EDEP), and intervention strategies that need further intensification to realize
      the endgame. Eradication strategies encompassing community education for
      behavioral change including raising awareness towards cash reward for reporting
      Guniea Worm Disease (GWD) and animal infection, case containment, surveillance
      systems, provision of safe water supply, and ABATE chemical application are
      discussed. It also summarizes challenges the end game faces and recommendations
      to strengthen the eradication effort.

PMID- 28878429
TI  - The National Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis from Ethiopia.
AB  - Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is one of the most debilitating and disfiguring
      diseases common in Ethiopia and is caused by Wuchereria bancrofti. Mapping for LF
      has shown that 70 woredas (districts) are endemic and 5.9 million people are
      estimated to be at risk. The national government's LF elimination programme
      commenced in 2009 in 5 districts integrated with the onchocerciasis programme.
      The programme developed gradually and has shown significant progress over the
      past 6 years, reaching 100% geographical coverage for mass drug administration
      (MDA) by 2016. To comply with the global LF elimination goals an integrated
      morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) guideline and a burden
      assessment programme has also been developed; MMDP protocols and a hydrocoele
      surgical handbook produced for country-wide use. In Ethiopia, almost all LF
      endemic districts are co-endemic with malaria and vector control aspects of the
      activities are conducted in the context of malaria programme as the vectors for
      both diseases are mosquitoes. In order to monitor the elimination, 11 sentinel
      and spot-check sites have been established and baseline information has been
      collected. Although significant achievements have been achieved in the scale up
      of the LF elimination programme, there is still a need to strengthen operational
      research to generate programme-relevant evidence, to increase access to morbidity
      management services, and to improve monitoring and evaluation of the LF
      programme. However, the current status of implementation of the LF national
      programme indicates that Ethiopia is poised to achieve the 2020 goal of
      elimination of LF. Nevertheless, to achieve this goal, high and sustained
      treatment coverage and strong monitoring and evaluation of the programme are
      essential.

PMID- 28878430
TI  - Review of Ethiopian Onchocerciasis Elimination Programme.
AB  - Onchocerciasis is a severe parasitic infection which causes disabling skin and
      subcutaneous tissue changes. The disease is endemic in many African countries
      including Ethiopia. In 2013, Ethiopia launched Onchocerciasis elimination program
      with the goal of attaining interruption of onchocerciasis transmission nationwide
      by 2020. The country has successfully scaled up interventions and achieved 100%
      geographic coverage in all known endemic districts. The main strategy for
      interrupting the disease is mass drug administration (MDA) delivered two times
      per year. The treatment coverage for the last five years has been maintained at
      more than 80%. Despite many years of ivermectin MDA the transmission of
      onchocerciasis in many districts remained unabated. To achieve the 2020 goal,
      sustained high geographic and therapeutic coverage is required which is validated
      by coverage surveys. The programme should aim to improve the knowledge and
      attitude of the community towards the programme in order to improve drug
      compliance. The partnership between the relevant stakeholders should be
      strengthened to facilitate open discussions regarding the programme
      implementation and any challenges that may arise in the control and elimination
      of the disease. It is also important to consider intensified vector control.

PMID- 28878431
TI  - Podoconiosis in Ethiopia: From Neglect to Priority Public Health Problem.
AB  - Podoconiosis is a geochemical disease occurring in individuals exposed to red
      clay soil of volcanic origin. This Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) is highly
      prevalent in Ethiopia. According to the nationwide mapping in 2013, the disease
      is endemic in 345 districts, where an estimated 35 million people live. The
      government of Ethiopia prioritized podoconiosis as one of eight priority NTDs and
      included it in the national integrated master plan for NTDs. An integrated
      lymphoedema management guideline has been developed. Service expansion has
      continued in the last few years and lymphoedema management services have been
      expanded to over one hundred endemic districts. The last few years have been
      critical in generating evidence about the distribution, burden and effective
      interventions for podoconiosis in Ethiopia. Although the extent of the problem
      within Ethiopia is considerable, the country is well positioned to now scale-up
      elimination efforts. Given the extraordinary progress of the past ten years and
      the current commitment of government, private and third sectors, Ethiopia seems
      to be on course for the elimination of podoconiosis in our lifetime. We need
      continued strong partner commitment, evidence-building, and scale-up of
      activities to accomplish this.

PMID- 28878432
TI  - Ethiopia Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminthes Control Programme:
      Progress and Prospects.
AB  - Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes are among seventeen WHO
      prioritized neglected tropical diseases that infect humans. These parasitic
      infections can be treated using single-dose and safe drugs. Ethiopia successfully
      mapped the distribution of these infections nationwide. According to the mapping
      there are an estimated 37.3 million people living in schistosomiasis endemic
      areas, and 79 million in schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes endemic
      areas. The Federal Ministry of Health successfully scaled up Schistosomiasis and
      schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes intervention in endemic areas and
      treated over 19 million individuals in 2015. The Ministry of Health has made a
      huge effort to establish neglected tropical diseases, including schistosomiasis
      and soil-transmitted helminthes program in the health system which helped to map
      majority of the woredas and initiate nationwide intervention. The National
      control programme is designed to achieve elimination for those diseases as a
      major public health problem by 2020 and aim to attain transmission break by 2025.
      The programme focuses on reaching those school-aged children who are not
      attending school, integration between neglected tropical diseases programme, and
      further collaboration with the WASH actors.

PMID- 28878433
TI  - Sasa veitchii extract reduces obesity-induced insulin resistance and hepatic
      steatosis in obese mice fed a high-fat diet.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of Sasa veitchii
      leaf extract (SE) on features of obesity induced by a high-fat diet (HFD), such
      as hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and inflammatory response. Four-week-old
      male ddY mice were freely fed HFD or control normal diet for 12 weeks; half was
      given SE in addition twice per day in weeks 8-12. Glucose and insulin intolerance
      were estimated, and body weight measured, weekly throughout the study. Following
      the experiment, the mice were fasted for 16 h, euthanized, and plasma was
      collected. Liver and epididymal adipose tissue was collected and weighed.
      Treatment with SE significantly decreased body weight, adipose tissue weight,
      plasma glucose, insulin, leptin, and tumor necrosis factor alpha compared with
      HFD groups, and markedly reduced the impairment of glucose and insulin tolerance
      in obese mice. Furthermore, hepatic steatosis and hepatic insulin receptor
      substrate were improved by treatment with SE. Our findings demonstrate that SE
      may reduce obesity-induced glucose and insulin tolerance, not only by suppressing
      inflammatory responses but also by improving insulin signaling.

PMID- 28878434
TI  - Incidence and characteristics of accidental falls in hospitalizations.
AB  - Aging of the patient population has led to increased occurrence of accidental
      falls in acute care settings. The aim of this study is to survey the annual
      occurrence of falls in a university hospital, and to examine procedures to
      prevent fall. A total of 49,059 inpatients were admitted to our hospital from
      April 2015 to March 2016. A fall assessment scale was developed to estimate the
      risk of fall at admission. Data on falls were obtained from the hospital incident
      reporting system. There were fall-related incidents in 826 patients (1.7%). Most
      falls occurred in hospital rooms (67%). Adverse events occurred in 101 patients
      who fell (12%) and were significantly more frequent in patients aged >=80 years
      old and in those wearing slippers. The incidence of falls was also significantly
      higher in patients in the highest risk group. These results support the validity
      of the risk assessment scale for predicting accidental falls in an acute
      treatment setting. The findings also clarify the demographic and environmental
      factors and consequences associated with fall. These results of the study could
      provide important information for designing effective interventions to prevent
      fall in elderly patients.

PMID- 28878435
TI  - Assessment of knowledge about snakebite management amongst healthcare providers
      in the provincial and two district hospitals in Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR.
AB  - Snakebite is a neglected condition and a common public health problem in Lao
      People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), with a high incidence of up to 1,105
      cases per 100,000 persons per year. Snakebite patients with systemic envenoming
      do not receive effective treatment at local health facilities. Healthcare
      providers have only limited knowledge in assessing and providing the correct
      treatment for venomous snakebites. A cross-sectional study was conducted among
      119 healthcare providers in Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR, with respect to their
      socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of snake identification, and
      management of snakebite. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Logistic regression was
      performed to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of
      adequate knowledge for treating snakebites among the healthcare providers. Among
      119 participants, 27.7% and 45.4% had an adequate knowledge of snake
      identification and management of snakebites, respectively. Approximately 59%
      could correctly identify symptoms of envenomation, and 19.3% expressed confidence
      in treating snakebites. Study participants who had received training achieved
      significantly better snake identification results compared to those without
      training, with an OR of 2.54 (95% CI: 1.02-6.28). In particular, physicians
      achieved significantly better results compared to nurses in knowing how to manage
      snakebites, with an OR of 2.31 (95% CI: 1.04-5.12). Given the level of inadequate
      knowledge of snakebite management among healthcare providers in the province,
      more training in snakebite management is needed. University and Health Science
      Colleges should include snakebite management into the curriculum, to ensure that
      medical graduates have the appropriate knowledge and skills to treat snakebites.

PMID- 28878436
TI  - Effect of text messages to improve health literacy on medication adherence in
      patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A randomized controlled pilot trial.
AB  - It has been suggested that low health literacy (HL) is associated with poor
      medication adherence. This study aimed to examine the effect of a text message
      based HL intervention to promote medication adherence, compared with text
      messages that only sent medication reminders, in patients with type 2 diabetes.
      This was a single-center, open-label, randomized (1:1) controlled pilot study.
      The study period was 6 months. Intervention group was sent HL related text
      messages, compared to the reminder messages that were sent to the control group.
      The primary outcome was the difference in the change rate of scores on the
      Morisky Eight-Item Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Forty-one participants
      were randomized into the intervention (n = 21) and control (n = 20) groups and
      completed the 6-month follow-up. Although almost participants read and understood
      the information provided in the messages, no significant difference was observed
      between groups for the primary outcome (p = 0.78). Our results suggested that
      medication adherence at 6 months after discharge in patients with type 2 diabetes
      did not significantly change by text messages, which aimed to improve their HL
      levels.

PMID- 28878437
TI  - Randomized controlled trial for assessment of Internet of Things system to guide
      intensive glucose control in diabetes outpatients: Nagoya Health Navigator Study
      protocol.
AB  - The Internet of Things (IoT) allows collecting vast amounts of health-relevant
      data such as daily activity, body weight (BW), and blood pressure (BP)
      automatically. The use of IoT devices to monitor diabetic patients has been
      studied, but could not evaluate IoT-dependent effects because health data were
      not measured in control groups. This multicenter, open-label, randomized,
      parallel group study will compare the impact of intensive health guidance using
      IoT and conventional medical guidance on glucose control. It will be conducted in
      outpatients with type 2 diabetes for a period of 6 months. IoT devices to measure
      amount of daily activity, BW, and BP will be provided to IoT group patients.
      Healthcare professionals (HCPs) will provide appropriate feedback according to
      the data. Non-IoT control, patients will be given measurement devices that do not
      have a feedback function. The primary outcome is glycated hemoglobin at 6 months.
      The study has already enrolled 101 patients, 50 in the IoT group and 51 in the
      non-IoT group, at the two participating outpatient clinics. The baseline
      characteristics of two groups did not differ, except for triglycerides. This will
      be the first randomized, controlled study to evaluate IoT-dependent effects of
      intensive feedback from HCPs. The results will validate a new method of health
      data collection and provision of feedback suitable for diabetes support with
      increased effectiveness and low cost.

PMID- 28878438
TI  - Optimized treatment strategy of radiotherapy for early glottic squamous cell
      carcinomas: An initial analysis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of radiotherapy
      for patients with T1/T2 glottic carcinoma. Patients with T1/T2 glottic carcinoma
      histopathologically diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma and treated at our
      hospital between 2007 and 2015 were analyzed retrospectively. Our strategy for
      T1/T2 glottic carcinoma was as follows: radiotherapy alone with 2.25 Gy per
      fraction to a total of 25-28 fractions for patients with non-bulky T1 glottic
      carcinoma; concurrent chemoradiotherapy with oral S-1 and radiotherapy with 2 Gy
      per fraction to a total of 30 fractions for patients with T1 bulky/T2 favorable
      glottic carcinoma; or chemoradiotherapy with high-dose cisplatin and radiotherapy
      with 2 Gy per fraction to a total of 35 fractions for T2 unfavorable glottic
      carcinoma. Forty-eight patients were eligible. The median follow-up period among
      surviving patients was 38 months (range, 11-107). The disease was T1a in 23%, T1b
      in 13%, and T2 in 65% of patients. The 3-year local control rate in all patients,
      T1a, T1b, and T2 was 96.7%, 100%, 100%, and 96.0%, respectively. Of the 46
      patients, one with T2 glottic carcinoma developed recurrent disease at the
      primary site, and one with T2 glottic carcinoma had lymph node recurrences in the
      neck. Acute Grade 3 dermatitis occurred in 8 (17%) patients and late Grade 2
      hypothyroidism occurred in 2 (4%) patients. This retrospective study shows that
      our optimized treatment strategy of radiotherapy depending on the stage of early
      glottic carcinoma is not only effective but also well-tolerated.

PMID- 28878439
TI  - Impact of self-efficacy and parenting practice on physical activity among school
      children.
AB  - As insufficient engagement in physical activity (PA) is becoming a major health
      concern in Thailand, we aimed to investigate the impact of parenting practices
      and children's self-efficacy on a child's PA level and further in the subgroups,
      stratified by the child's sex and weight status. A total of 609 primary school
      children recruited by cluster sampling in two schools were asked to complete
      questionnaires, and general familial factors and parenting practice related to
      activities were completed by parents. Multivariate linear regressions were
      conducted to calculate the standardized beta-coefficients (beta). Children's PA
      level was positively related to greater support seeking self-efficacy
      (beta=0.281) for engaging in PA, and parenting practices, including less limit
      setting (beta=-0.124) and more discipline (beta=0.147) in the total sample. In
      the analyses of subgroups by a child's sex and weight status, parenting practice,
      such as less limit setting and discipline played a more important role in
      children's PA in normal weight children and girls as taking account of around 10%
      of variance of the child's PA, while only seeking support self-efficacy showed
      great impact in overweight children and boys. In conclusion, impacts of
      children's self-efficacy and parenting practices on children's PA were different
      by child's sex and weight status. This can suggest that future interventions to
      increase children's PA might need to consider different strategies to increase
      children's self-efficacy as well as parenting strategies when targeting different
      groups of children.

PMID- 28878440
TI  - Yokukansankachimpihange increased body weight but not food-incentive motivation
      in wild-type mice.
AB  - Yokukansankachimpihange (YKSCH), a traditional Japanese medicine, is widely used
      for the amelioration of the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia
      with digestive dysfunction. Regardless of its successful use for digestive
      dysfunction, the effect of YKSCH on body weight was unknown. Furthermore, if
      YKSCH increased body weight, it might increase motivation according to Kampo
      medicine theory. Therefore, we investigated whether YKSCH had the potential to
      increase body weight and enhance motivation in mice. To address this, C57BL/6J
      mice were used to evaluate the long-term effect of YKSCH on body weight and food
      incentive motivation. As part of the evaluation, we optimized an operant test for
      use over the long-term. We found that feeding mice YKSCH-containing chow
      increased body weight, but did not increase their motivation to food reward. We
      propose that YKSCH may be a good treatment option for preventing decrease in body
      weight in patients with dementia.

PMID- 28878441
TI  - Development and validation of an educational program to enhance sense of
      coherence in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2.
AB  - This study aimed to develop a group education program that facilitates a sense of
      coherence among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, which was provided four
      times, and to validate the effect of the program among the patients. Researchers
      allocated 40 patients with type 2 diabetes, who had been admitted to a general
      hospital in Japan for diabetes education for two weeks. Twenty-one patients were
      allocated to the intervention group and 19 to the control group. The control
      group undertook a lecture-based educational program that the facility offered.
      The intervention group received the program, in addition to the facility's
      educational program. The sense of coherence scale and the Problem Areas in
      Diabetes Survey were used as evaluation indices. The average age of the
      intervention group was 59.1 years and that of the control group was 59.5 years.
      The intervention group showed a between-group effect of improvement in the sense
      of coherence score. Additionally, the intervention group showed a within-group
      effect of improvement in the sense of coherence score, as well as the
      comprehensibility and manageability scores, which are subdomains, and the Problem
      Areas in Diabetes Survey score. The within-group comparison showed a significant
      decrease in the early-morning FPG at both groups by an effect of treatment. The
      program suggested the possibility of improving the sense of coherence and the
      Problem Areas in Diabetes Survey. In order to enhance general use of the program,
      it is necessary to reach out to participating facilities and verify the effect of
      the program.

PMID- 28878442
TI  - The poor quality and reliability of information on periacetabular osteotomy on
      the internet in Japan.
AB  - Although many patients use the internet to access health-related information, the
      quality and the reliability of the information is highly inconsistent.
      Periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) is one of the surgical procedures for hip
      dysplasia. However, medical information on PAO is limited on the internet. This
      study aims to evaluate the quality and reliability of information available on
      PAO on the internet in Japan. A web search was conducted on two search engines
      for the following terms: "hip osteotomy," "pelvic osteotomy," and "osteotomy for
      hip preservation" in Japanese. In total, we found 120 websites. To determine the
      quality and reliability of information on each website, we used the Health on the
      Net Foundation (HON) score, the Brief DISCERN score, and an osteotomy-specific
      content (OSC) score. After eliminating duplicate websites, we reviewed 49 unique
      websites. Only three websites (6.1%) had good reliability, as indicated by their
      HON scores. Twelve websites (24.4%) had good-quality information, as measured by
      their Brief DISCERN scores. As evaluated by their OSC scores, physician websites
      were found to be biased toward etiology and surgical indication and did not
      provide information on the complications of procedures. Non-physician websites
      were generally insufficient. The information about PAO on the internet is,
      therefore, unreliable and of poor-quality for Japanese patients.

PMID- 28878443
TI  - Diagnostic performance of 11C-choline PET/CT and bone scintigraphy in the
      detection of bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer.
AB  - The aim of this study was to compare 11C-choline PET/CT and bone scintigraphy
      (BS) for detection of bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer. Twenty
      one patients with histologically proven prostate cancer underwent 11C-choline
      PET/CT and BS before (n = 4) or after (n = 17) treatment. Patient-, region-, and
      lesion-based diagnostic performances of bone metastasis of both 11C-choline
      PET/CT and BS were evaluated using a five-point scale by two experienced readers.
      Bone metastases were present in 11 (52.4%) of 21 patients and 48 (32.7%) of 147
      regions; 111 lesions were found to have bone metastases. Region-based analysis
      showed that the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the receiver
      operating-characteristic curves (AUC) of 11C-choline PET/CT were 97.9%, 99.0%,
      98.6%, and 0.9989, respectively; those of BS were 72.9%, 99.0%, 90.5%, and
      0.8386, respectively. Sensitivity, accuracy, and AUC significantly differed
      between the two methods (McNemar test, p = 0.0015, p = 0.0015, and p < 0.0001,
      respectively). 11C-choline PET/CT detected 110/111 metastatic lesions (99.1%); BS
      detected 85 (76.6%) (p < 0.0001). According to the CT morphological type, the
      visualization rates of 11C-choline-PET/BS were 100%/90.3% for the blastic type,
      91.7%/8.3% for the lytic type, 100%/100% for the mixed type, and 100%/53.3% for
      the invisible type, respectively. Significant differences in blastic, lytic, and
      invisible types were observed between the two methods (p = 0.013, p = 0.0044, and
      p = 0.023, respectively). In conclusion, 11C-choline PET/CT had greater
      sensitivity and accuracy than BS for detection of bone involvement in patients
      with prostate cancer.

PMID- 28878444
TI  - Experimental evaluation and training of stent clot retrieval: the confront clot
      scrambling method.
AB  - The introduction of stent retrievers has changed the methods used for acute
      intracranial thrombectomy, but the training approach has not been discussed
      enough. We, therefore, aimed to establish a simple skill up method which can be
      used to train anytime and anywhere with low costs. Also, we introduce our
      experimental confront clot scrambling method (CCSM) which makes a profitable
      visualization in how the stent retriever works. The CCSM involved a sham clot set
      in the middle of a polyvinyl chloride tube, after which two stent retrievers were
      navigated from each side before being simultaneously withdrawn with the same
      force. The stent that removes the sham clot is determined to have stronger clot
      retrieval ability. Several adjunctive techniques were also compared. The push and
      fluff adjunctive technique was the most effective among all the stents.
      Generally, the former deployed stent was stronger than later one. Therefore, the
      later deployed stent with the push and fluff technique lets us know whether the
      physician's maneuver worked well or not. CCSM could directly evaluate the ability
      of adjunctive techniques with each stent retriever and demonstrate the
      physicians' skills. Because the actual endovascular clot retrieval requires
      extreme fine maneuvers against invisible vessels, repeat training is very
      important especially in beginners.

PMID- 28878445
TI  - Phase II trial of CH5424802 (alectinib hydrochloride) for recurrent or refractory
      ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma: study protocol for a non-randomized
      non-controlled trial.
AB  - Currently, a standard therapy has not been established for recurrent or
      refractory anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
      While there are many treatment options, such as hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation, patients with resistant disease to conventional chemotherapies
      have particularly poor prognosis. There is urgent need to develop new drugs
      because of the lack of a standard therapy and poor prognoses. This phase II trial
      is designed for evaluating the efficacy and safety of alectinib hydrochloride for
      patients with recurrent or refractory anaplastic lymphoma kinase -positive
      anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The primary endpoint is the response rate
      according to the Revised Response Criteria for Malignant Lymphoma. The secondary
      endpoints are pharmacokinetics, safety in children, complete response rate,
      response duration, progression-free survival, event-free survival, overall
      survival, and adverse events. The results of this trial will be the pivotal data
      for the drug approval of alectinib hydrochloride for recurrent or refractory
      anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

PMID- 28878446
TI  - Review of redo-Kasai portoenterostomy for biliary atresia in the transition to
      the liver transplantation era.
AB  - Portoenterostomy (PE) is the standard therapy for biliary atresia (BA). PE offers
      the chance of survival to children with BA. PE was the ultimate therapeutic
      modality for BA before liver transplantation (LT) was available. Failure of
      biliary drainage with PE was almost invariably fatal in children with BA. In such
      cases, redo-PE was performed to salvage patients following PE failure. PE remains
      the standard first treatment for BA despite the availability of LT. Further, redo
      PE is also performed in a limited number of cases despite the development of LT
      as an alternative means of PE. However, there is concern that redo-PE increases
      morbidity at the time of subsequent LT. Laparoscopic redo-PE has recently been
      described. Laparoscopic redo-PE is expected to reduce complications of LT by
      preventing abdominal adhesion associated with repetitive surgery. In the present
      article, the future utility of redo-PE and the history of its changing roles are
      reviewed.

PMID- 28878447
TI  - Anterior interosseous nerve palsy mimicking rupture of the index flexor digitorum
      profundus after volar locking plate fixation of a distal radius fracture.
AB  - We describe the case of a patient with distal radius fracture who became unable
      to flex the distal interphalangeal joint of the index finger after internal
      fixation using a volar locking plate. There was palpable crepitus with active
      thumb motion, and wrist radiographs showed prominence of the volar plate at the
      watershed line. Therefore, our initial diagnosis was plate-induced closed rupture
      of the flexor digitorum profundus tendon of the index finger. However, upon
      surgical removal of the plate, no tendon rupture was found. Magnetic resonance
      imaging after plate removal showed diffuse increased signal intensity in the
      index flexor digitorum profundus on T2-weighted fat-suppressed images, which
      indicated muscle denervation. Based on the above findings, we changed the
      diagnosis to anterior interosseous nerve palsy with isolated paralysis of the
      flexor digitorum profundus of the index finger. Finger flexion disability
      following volar plate fixation of distal radius fracture should always be
      investigated carefully..

PMID- 28878448
TI  - The effect of virtual reality program on the cognitive function and balance of
      the people with mild cognitive impairment.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a virtual
      reality (VR) program on cognitive function and balance in the elderly with mild
      cognitive impairment (MCI) attending G welfare center in Gurye. [Subjects and
      Methods] Twenty-four patients with MCI were studied. The patients were exposed to
      the VR program for 30 min per experiment, which was conducted 20 times for four
      weeks. [Results] The cognitive function and balancing ability of the experimental
      group, when compared to the control group, showed a statistically significant
      increase in Visual Span Test (VST), Word Color Test (WCT), and Limit of Stability
      (LOS), which are the sub-categories of CNT 4.0, after the exposure to the
      program. In all test categories, the experimental group exhibited statistically
      significant differences compared to the control group. [Conclusion] Thus, the VR
      program is an effective intervention for the elderly with MCI.

PMID- 28878449
TI  - Ingenuity for enabling the habituation of pelvic floor muscle training.
AB  - [Purpose] To clarify factors contributing to habituation of pelvic floor muscle
      training (PFMT) for urinary incontinence. [Subjects and Methods] We included 13
      healthy females and examined diurnal and nocturnal urination frequency at initial
      program participation and at 3 months. The survey used the International
      Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF), a 10-level self
      assessment of anxiety associated with urinary incontinence, and a 10-level self
      evaluation of PFMT understanding and skill acquisition. We evaluated PFMT
      practice at home and postures that facilitated PFMT. The practice of PFMT at home
      was surveyed during a 3-month period. [Results] Compared to baseline, the level
      of skill acquisition assessed by the ICIQ-SF and PFMT according to the 10-level
      self-evaluation improved significantly at 3 months. The rate of PFMT sessions
      performed at home per week was high. The number of times PFMT was performed per
      day was positively correlated with level of understanding and acquisition of
      skills pertaining to PFMT, according to the 10-level self-assessment.
      [Conclusion] By incorporating behavior modification techniques appropriate for
      urinary incontinence and by increasing the level of understanding regarding
      incontinence and PFMT, as well as the level of skill acquisition, self-efficacy
      increased. This may have motivated habituation of PFMT.

PMID- 28878450
TI  - The effects of aroma massage and foot bath on psychophysiological response in
      stroke patients.
AB  - [Purpose] This research aimed to examine the effects of back massage and foot
      bath with blended essential oil on psychophysiological response in stroke
      patients. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 14 adult stroke patients
      randomly divided into the experimental group (7 patients) and the control group
      (7 patients). Physical and psychological stress, mood state and sleep
      satisfaction was measured using evaluation instruments and body temperature was
      measured with infrared thermography (T-1000). [Results] Measurements included
      physical and psychological stress, and mood state of the experiment group became
      significantly lower than that of the control group. The body temperature and
      sleeping satisfaction of the experimental group became significantly higher than
      that of the control group. [Conclusion] The present study suggested that aroma
      therapy and foot bath that can be used as alternative physical therapy that
      offers an overall beneficial effect on psychophysiological response such as
      reduced stress, mood state and increased body temperature, sleeping satisfaction
      of stroke patients.

PMID- 28878451
TI  - Effect of complex training on carbon monoxide, cardiorespiratory function, and
      body mass among college students at the initial stage of stopping smoking.
AB  - [Purpose] This study aimed to analyze the effects of complex training on carbon
      monoxide, cardiorespiratory function, and body mass among college students with
      the highest smoking rate among all age group. [Subjects and Methods] A total of
      40 college students voluntarily participated in this study. All subjects smoked
      and were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group (N=20) and the
      control group (N=20). The experimental group underwent complex training (30 min
      of training five times a week for 12 weeks) while the control group did not
      participate in such training. The complex training consisted of two parts:
      aerobic exercise (walking and running) and resistance exercise (weight training).
      [Results] Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures revealed significant interactions
      among CO, VO2max, HRmax, VEmax, body fat, and skeletal muscle mass, indicating
      that the changes were significantly different among groups. [Conclusion] A 12
      week of complex physical exercise program would be an effective way to support a
      stop-smoking campaign as it quickly eliminates CO from the body and improves
      cardiorespiratory function and body condition.

PMID- 28878452
TI  - The effects of spinal support device on pain and extensibility of the hamstrings
      in patients with non-specific low back pain.
AB  - [Purpose] The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of spinal
      support device (SSD) on pain and hamstring extensibility in patients with non
      specific low back pain (NSLBP). [Subjects and Methods] 20 patients with NSLBP
      were recruited and randomly assigned to either the SSD group or the control
      group. In the SSD group, SSD was applied; in the control group, bed rest in
      supine position was performed. Both groups underwent treatment 20 min/day, 3
      times a week, for a duration of 4 weeks. To assess the hamstring extensibility,
      sit and reach test (SRT) was performed. To assess pain pressure threshold (PPT)
      of the sacroiliac joint, a pressure algometer was used. Visual analog scale (VAS)
      was used to quantify pain. [Results] The SSD group showed a significant
      improvement in sacroiliac joint pain with increased VAS, and the control group
      showed a significantly increased VAS after intervention. In the SSD group, VAS
      was significantly increased, but SRT was not changed compared with the control
      group. [Conclusion] These results demonstrated that an application of SSD
      effectively attenuates low back pain. Therefore, SSD may be a suitable
      intervention for pain control in patients with NSLBP.

PMID- 28878453
TI  - Pulsed electromagnetic field with or without exercise therapy in the treatment of
      benign prostatic hyperplasia.
AB  - [Purpose] To investigate the effect of pulsed electromagnetic field with or
      without exercise therapy in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.
      [Subjects and Methods] Sixty male patients aged 55-65 years with benign prostatic
      hyperplasia were invited to participate in this study. Patients were randomly
      assigned to Group A (n=20; patients who received pulsed electromagnetic field in
      addition to pelvic floor and aerobic exercises), Group B (n=20; patients who
      received pulsed electromagnetic field), and Group C (n=20; patients who received
      placebo electromagnetic field). The assessments included post-void residual
      urine, urine flow rate, prostate specific antigen, white blood cells count, and
      International Prostate Symptom Score were weighed, before and after a 4-week
      intervention. [Results] There were significant differences in Group A and B in
      all parameters. Group C showed non-significant differences in all measured
      variables except for International Prostate Symptom Score. Among groups, all
      parameters showed highly significant differences in favor of Group A. There were
      non-significant differences between Group A and B and significant difference
      between Groups A and C and between Groups B and C. [Conclusion] The present study
      demonstrated that electromagnetic field had a significant impact on the treatment
      of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Accordingly, electromagnetic field can be
      utilized alone or in combination with other physiotherapy modalities. Moreover,
      clinicians should have the capacity to perceive the advantages accomplished using
      extra treatment alternatives. Electromagnetic field is a safe, noninvasive method
      and can be used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

PMID- 28878454
TI  - Effects of pelvic compression belts on the kinematics and kinetics of the lower
      extremities during sit-to-stand maneuvers.
AB  - [Purpose] To investigate the effects of a pelvic compression belt (PCB) and chair
      height on the kinematics and kinetics of the lower extremity during sit-to-stand
      (STS) maneuvers in healthy people. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-two people
      participated in this study. They were required to perform STS maneuvers under
      four conditions. Hip joint moment and angular displacement of the hip, knee, and
      ankle were measured. A PCB was also applied below the anterior superior iliac
      spine. [Results] The angular displacement of the ankle joint increased while
      performing STS maneuvers from a normal chair with a PCB in phase 1, and decreased
      during phase 2 when performing STS maneuvers from a high chair. The overall
      angular displacement in phase 3 was decreased while rising from a chair with a
      PCB and rising from a high chair. When performed STS maneuvers from a high chair,
      the angular displacement of the hip, knee, and ankle joint decreased considerably
      in phase 3. This decreased lower extremity motion in phase 3 indicated that
      participants required less momentum to complete the maneuver. [Conclusion] The
      results of this study suggest that a PCB might be appropriate for patients with
      pelvic girdle pain and lower back pain related to pregnancy.

PMID- 28878455
TI  - Relationship of visual dependence to age, balance, attention, and vertigo.
AB  - [Purpose] The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of increased
      visual dependence to age, balance, attention, and vertigo. [Subjects and Methods]
      Twelve younger, 12 visually independent (VI) older and 12 visually dependent (VD)
      older adults were assessed for levels of visual dependence using Subjective
      Visual Vertical (SVV) tilt values, balance ability using the Clinical Test of
      Sensory Integration for Balance (CTSIB), and attentional requirements through the
      dual-task paradigm and experience of vertigo by completing the Situational
      Vertigo Questionnaire (SVQ). [Results] VD older adults had higher SVV tilt
      values, greater postural sway in a scenario where visual and proprioceptive
      inputs were simultaneously altered, similar dual-task cost and lower SVQ scores
      compared with younger and VI older adults. No difference was observed between the
      latter two. [Conclusion] Visual dependence may not necessarily increase with age
      but affect balance in a sensory condition involving visual-proprioceptive
      conflict. There is a non-significant trend for elevated visual dependence with
      increased attentional demands. Greater visual dependence is not accompanied by
      more frequent symptoms of vertigo in visually complex environments.

PMID- 28878457
TI  - Effects of chronic ankle instability and induced mediolateral muscular fatigue of
      the ankle on competitive taekwondo athletes.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic
      ankle instability and induced mediolateral muscular fatigue of the ankle on
      competitive Taekwondo athletes during single-leg drop landing. [Subjects and
      Methods] Fourteen competitive taekwondo athletes with chronic ankle instability
      and 14 healthy adults participated, and they performed three single-leg drop
      landings from a 40-cm height before and after induced fatigue. Ankle angular
      position, peak vertical ground reaction force, loading rate, eccentric work, and
      contribution were calculated and analyzed. [Results] Athletes had lower ankle
      eversion and abduction angle than the controls did at maximum knee flexion both
      pre- and post-fatigue. Furthermore, athletes had lower eccentric work of the hip
      than the controls did post-fatigue, and they had lower eccentric work of the knee
      than controls at both pre- and post-fatigue. The eccentric work of the knee
      increased while, peak vertical ground reaction force decreased in both, athletes
      as well as controls post-fatigue. [Conclusion] Taekwondo athletes with chronic
      ankle instability who participate in a high-intensity training program are
      continuously exposed to potential injuries of their ankle or knee joints.
      Therefore, competitive taekwondo athletes with chronic ankle instability should
      limit their participation in regular training until they complete the
      rehabilitation process.

PMID- 28878456
TI  - Daily physical activity affects exercise capacity in patients with idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - [Purpose] The aim of this study was to determine which factors, including
      pulmonary, physical, and mental functions; dyspnea; and daily physical activity
      (PA) affect the 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) in IPF patients. [Subjects and
      Methods] The pulmonary, physical, and mental functions; dyspnea; PA; and 6MWD
      were assessed in 38 outpatients with IPF. PA was represented by the mean number
      of steps per day. [Results] The mean 6MWD was 443.8 m (SD, 98.5), and the mean
      number of steps per day showing PA was 5148.4 (SD, 3295.7). The 6MWD was
      correlated with age, base dyspnea index, vital capacity (VC), diffusion capacity
      of carbon monoxide, quadriceps force (QF), dyspnea during the 6-minute walk test,
      and PA. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that VC (beta=0.382), QF
      (beta=0.272), and PA (beta=0.574) were contributing factors of the 6MWD.
      [Conclusion] In patients with IPF, PA has a greater effect on the 6MWD than VC
      and QF. The evaluation of daily PA, in addition to physiological and muscle
      functions, is important in patients with IPF.

PMID- 28878458
TI  - Evaluation of bilateral force deficit in shoulder flexion using a handheld
      dynamometer in healthy subjects.
AB  - [Purpose] This study aimed to develop a simple, inexpensive, and accurate method
      for measuring the strength of shoulder flexion (Experiment 1) and evaluate the
      bilateral force deficit in shoulder flexion (Experiment 2) in healthy subjects.
      [Subjects and Methods] In Experiment 1, maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) in
      isometric shoulder flexion were measured on both sides using an isometric
      dynamometer (ID) and a hand-grip dynamometer (HGD), as an alternative
      dynamometer, in six subjects. In Experiment 2, bilateral force deficit was
      evaluated using HGD in 21 subjects who performed unilateral and bilateral MVCs in
      isometric flexions of the shoulder. The peak value of electromyography (PVE) in
      the lateral head of the biceps brachii and anterior deltoid was measured during
      MVCs. [Results] In Experiment 1, ID and HGD showed almost similar coefficients of
      variation. A strong positive correlation was found between the values obtained
      using the two methods. In Experiment 2, the bilateral force deficit in shoulder
      flexion associated with a reduced PVE (-10.9%) was found in 85.7% of subjects.
      [Conclusion] The reproducibility of measurements was similar between ID and HGD.
      HGD could evaluate the bilateral force deficit in shoulder flexion and is a
      practical tool for measuring shoulder strength.

PMID- 28878459
TI  - Carryover effect of hip and knee exercises program on functional performance in
      individuals with patellofemoral pain syndrome.
AB  - [Purpose] This study was carried out to investigate the carryover effect of hip
      and knee exercises program on functional performance (single legged hop test as
      functional performance test and Kujala score for functional activities).
      [Subjects and Methods] Thirty patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome were
      randomly assigned into two equal groups. Group (A) consisted of 15 patients
      undergoing hip strengthening exercises for four weeks then measuring all
      variables followed by additional four weeks of knee exercises program then
      measuring all variables again. Group (B): consisted of 15 patients undergoing
      knee exercises program for four weeks then measuring all variables followed by
      additional four weeks of hip strengthening exercises then measuring all
      variables. Functional abilities and knee muscles performance were assessed using
      Kujala questionnaire and single legged hop test respectively pre and after the
      completion of the first 4 weeks then after 8 weeks for both groups. [Results]
      Significantly increase in Kujala questionnaire in group A compared with group B
      was observed. While, there were significant increase in single legged hop
      performance test in group B compared with group A. [Conclusion] Starting with hip
      exercises improve the performance of subjects more than functional activities
      while starting with knee exercises improve the functional activities of subjects
      more than performance.

PMID- 28878460
TI  - The effects of dance music jump rope exercise on pulmonary function and body mass
      index after music jump rope exercise in overweight adults in 20's.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a dance music
      jump rope exercise on changes Pulmonary Function and body mass index in female
      overweight subjects in their 20's. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were
      randomly assigned to the dance music jump rope exercise group and the stationary
      cycle exercise group. All subjects have conducted the exercises three times a
      week for four weeks. Pulmonary function was evaluated using a spirometer, and
      body mass index was evaluated using an InBody 3.0. [Results] The findings of this
      study showed significant improvements in the voluntary capacity and body mass
      index of the experimental groups. Vital capacity was higher in the music jump
      rope exercise group than the stationary cycle exercise group, and body mass index
      was lower in the music jump rope exercise group than the stationary cycle
      exercise group. [Conclusion] This study showed that the dance music jump rope
      exercise can be used to improve vital capacity and body mass index.

PMID- 28878461
TI  - Comparison of physical activities of female football players in junior high
      school and high school.
AB  - [Purpose] This study aimed to compare physical activities between junior high
      school and high school female football players in order to explain the factors
      that predispose to a higher incidence of sports injuries in high school female
      football players. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-nine female football players
      participated. Finger floor distance, the center of pressure during single limb
      stance with eyes open and closed, the 40-m linear sprint time, hip abduction and
      extension muscle strength and isokinetic knee flexion and extension peak torque
      were measured. The modified Star Excursion Balance Test, the three-steps bounding
      test and three-steps hopping tests, agility test 1 (Step 50), agility test 2
      (Forward run), curl-up test for 30 seconds and the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery
      test were performed. [Results] The high school group was only significantly
      faster than the junior high school group in the 40-m linear sprint time and in
      the agility tests. The distance of the bounding test in the high school group was
      longer than that in the junior high school group. [Conclusion] Agility and speed
      increase with growth; however, muscle strength and balance do not develop
      alongside. This unbalanced development may cause a higher incidence of sports
      injuries in high school football players.

PMID- 28878462
TI  - Effect of task-oriented activities on hand functions, cognitive functions and
      self-expression of elderly patients with dementia.
AB  - [Purpose] This study investigates the effects of task-oriented activities on hand
      function, cognitive function, and self-expression of the elderly with dementia,
      and then identify the influencing factors on self-expression in sub-factors of
      dependent variables. [Subjects and Methods] Forty elderly persons were divided
      into two groups: intervention group (n=20) and control group (n=20). The
      interventions were applied to the subjects 3 times a week, 50 minutes per each
      time, for a total of five weeks. We measured the jamar hand dynamometer test for
      grip strength, the jamar hydraulic pinch gauge test for prehension test, nine
      hole pegboard test for coordination test, and Loewenstein Occupational Therapy
      Cognitive Assessment-Geriatric Population for cognitive function, and self
      expression rating scale for self-expression test. [Results] The task-oriented
      activities promoted hand function, cognitive function (visual perception, spatial
      perception, visuomotor organization, attention & concentration) and self
      expression of the elderly with early dementia, and the factors influencing the
      self-expression were cognitive function (visual perception) and hand function
      (coordination). The study showed that the task-oriented program enabled self
      expression by improving hand function and cognitive function. [Conclusion] This
      study suggested that there should be provided the task-oriented program for
      prevention and treatment of the elderly with early dementia in the clinical
      settings and it was considered that results have a value as basic data that can
      be verified relationship of hand function, cognitive function, and self
      expression.

PMID- 28878463
TI  - Associations between ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and foot and ankle
      strength in young adults.
AB  - [Purpose] This study assessed the relationships between the ankle dorsiflexion
      range of motion and foot and ankle strength. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-nine
      healthy (young adults) volunteers participated in this study. Each participant
      completed tests for ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, hallux flexor strength,
      and ankle plantar and dorsiflexor strength. [Results] The results showed (1) a
      moderate correlation between ankle dorsiflexor strength and dorsiflexion range of
      motion and (2) a moderate correlation between ankle dorsiflexor strength and
      first toe flexor muscle strength. Ankle dorsiflexor strength is the main
      contributor ankle dorsiflexion range of motion to and first toe flexor muscle
      strength. [Conclusion] Ankle dorsiflexion range of motion can play an important
      role in determining ankle dorsiflexor strength in young adults.

PMID- 28878464
TI  - Effects of sling exercise on postural sway in post-stroke patients.
AB  - [Purpose] To examine the effects of sling exercise on the balance of post-stroke
      patients. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 18 post-stroke patients (13 men; mean
      age, 55.3 years) were recruited, and randomly assigned them into sling exercise
      (n=10) and control exercise (n=8) groups. The Good Balance System was used for
      measurement of velocity (anteroposterior and mediolateral, mm/s), velocity moment
      (mm2/s) of the movement of the center of pressure, and distance (anteroposterior
      and mediolateral, mm) between the center of pressure and the center point. The
      changes in mediolateral velocity, anteroposterior velocity, and velocity moment
      were compared between two groups in addition to the comparison of distance
      between the center of pressure and the center point of postural sway. [Results]
      The sling exercise group showed more significant improvements in anteroposterior
      velocity, mediolateral velocity, velocity moment, anteroposterior distance, and
      mediolateral distance than the control exercise group. [Conclusion] Sling
      exercise improved post-stroke balance performance and could be used as a
      therapeutic strategy to improve post-stroke functional recovery.

PMID- 28878465
TI  - Patellar movement perception related to a backward-leaning standing position.
AB  - [Purpose] To investigate the patellar movement perception related to backward
      leaning standing. [Subjects and Methods] Both the patellar range of motion during
      backward-leaning standing and perception related to patellar movement were
      analyzed using television-x irradiation images in 12 randomly selected healthy
      young individuals. [Results] Starting in a relaxed condition, two types of
      patellar movements were confirmed: those where the patella moves (patellar
      movement trials) and those where the patella does not move (patellar non-movement
      trials) during backward-leaning standing. The rate of the perceived patellar
      motion in the patellar movement trials was significantly higher (90.9%) than that
      in the patellar non-movement trials (66.7%). When starting in a quadriceps
      contracted condition, the rate of perceived trials (77.0%) was significantly
      lower than that of the trials started in a relaxed condition. [Conclusion] The
      perception of patellar movement while backward-leaning standing may contribute to
      the perception of a backward standing position especially when the patella really
      moves.

PMID- 28878466
TI  - A comparison of the function, activity and participation and quality of life
      between down syndrome children and typically developing children.
AB  - [Purpose] To compare function, activity, participation, and quality of life of
      Down syndrome children and typically developing children according to age.
      [Subjects and Methods] A total of 16 Down syndrome children and 20 children with
      typical development were included as subjects for this study. International
      Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) Child and Youth
      version (CY) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a questionnaire
      were used to measure children's functioning, activity, and participation. To
      measure quality of life, KIDSCREEN 52-HRQOL questionnaire was used in this study.
      [Results] ICF-CY function, activity, participation, and quality of life showed
      statistically significant differences between Down syndrome children and
      typically developing children. Down syndrome children with higher functions
      showed higher activities and participation. Higher function, activity and
      participation features were correlated with better quality of life. Higher
      function resulted in better quality of life. [Conclusion] Function, activity,
      participation, quality of life, and several common factors of Down syndrome
      children depend on the ability of children. Function of Down syndrome children
      affects their activity, participation, and quality of life. Activities and
      participations also affect quality of life. Therefore, children's functional
      aspect is the foundation for quality of life.

PMID- 28878467
TI  - Key function for obstacle crossing in hemiplegic persons with varied degrees of
      spasticity.
AB  - [Purpose] To evaluate various key functions related to obstacle crossing motions
      in hemiplegic people based on the paralysis degree. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty
      seven patients with maintenance-stage hemiplegia who could independently ambulate
      outdoors were included. Subjects' crossing movements were measured using
      obstacles with heights of 10%, 20%, and 30% of the trochanter length. The
      relationship among maximal crossing height and isometric knee extension muscle
      strength, one leg standing time, Trunk Impairment Scale score, disease duration,
      and subject age was examined, as was the target variable of maximum crossing
      height and the top four measurement items, to determine the explanatory
      variables. The participants were grouped based on Brunnstrom Recovery Stages III
      IV (severe spasticity) and V-VI (mild spasticity). [Results] The explanatory
      variables were the Trunk Impairment Scale in the severe spasticity group and
      unaffected side-knee extension muscle strength in the mild spasticity group
      (contribution rates: 75.6% and 21.0%, respectively). [Conclusion] Trunk function
      in the severe spasticity group majorly contributed to crossing obstacles.
      Furthermore, knee extension muscle strength on the unaffected side in the mild
      spasticity group moderately contributed to crossing obstacles. Selecting and
      implementing a physical therapy routine that is aimed at improving function,
      depending on the severity of paralysis, is necessary.

PMID- 28878468
TI  - The effect of changing condition of walking speed on the knee angle of rats with
      osteoarthritis.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the positive effect of
      exercise on knee osteoarthritis in rats with osteoarthritis induced by applying
      effective walking speed when changing speed conditions during walking. [Subjects
      and Methods] The rats used in this study were male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing
      300 g and 7 weeks old, and 20 rats were used. The Osteoarthritis (OA) rats model
      was induced by MIA (monoiodoacetate). The rats was randomly divided into
      experimental group (MIA injection group) and control group (normal cell line
      injection group). Treadmill exercise was provided two groups for 2 weeks, 4 days
      per week. The knee joint angle of the stance was divided into pre-test and post
      test, and each group was subjected to paired sample test. Independent sample t
      test was conducted to examine the difference between experimental group and
      control group. [Results] There were statistically significant changes in the
      control and experimental groups. The knee angle was changed from 99.70 +/- 2.40
      to 85.60 +/- 2.67 in the control group. The knee angle was changed from 100.96 +/
      1.36 to 87.71 +/- 1.57 in the experimental group. [Conclusion] In conclusion,
      the angle of the knee gradually decreases. It is considered a characteristic of
      progressive osteoarthritis. The change of knee angle was less in the experimental
      group than in the control group. This means that the stiffness of the joints
      during the walking exercise was less progressed in the experimental group than in
      the control group.

PMID- 28878469
TI  - Effects of kinetic chain exercise using EMG-biofeedback on balance and lower
      extremity muscle activation in stroke patients.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of kinetic chain
      exercise using EMG-biofeedback on balance and lower extremity muscle activation.
      [Subjects and Methods] For this study, 30 stroke patients participated in this
      study and they were divided into closed kinetic chain exercise using EMG
      biofeedback group (CKCE+EB) and open kinetic chain exercise using EMG-biofeedback
      group (OKCE+EB), each group consisting of 15 patients. The kinetic chain exercise
      using EMG-biofeedback was performed by the patients for 20 minutes once a day, 5
      days a week, for 6 weeks using an Myo-Ex. BioRescue was used to measure balance
      ability, while surface EMG was used to measure the lower extremity muscle
      activation. [Results] According to the results of the comparison within the
      groups, after the intervention, both groups showed significant increases in the
      balance ability and lower extremity muscle activation. In the comparisons between
      the groups, after the intervention, balance ability and lower extremity muscle
      activation were significantly higher in the CKCE+BE than in the OKCE+EB.
      [Conclusion] This study showed that closed kinetic chain exercise using EMG
      biofeedback is effective for improving balance ability and lower extremity muscle
      activation in stroke patients.

PMID- 28878470
TI  - Reliability of musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging to measure supraspinatus tendon
      thickness in healthy subjects.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to assess intra-rater and inter-rater
      reliability of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSKUS) as a tool to measure
      supraspinatus tendon thickness in healthy subjects. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty
      healthy subjects were assessed in similar sitting position. Two experienced
      musculoskeletal ultrasound specialists measured supraspinatus tendon thickness.
      Tendon was measured twice in one day by each of two raters with an interval of
      one hour for within day reliability and was re-measured following one week for
      between days reliability. Data analysis was performed using the intraclass
      correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurement (SEM). [Results]
      Results reflected excellent within day intra-rater and inter-rater reliability
      with Mean +/- standard deviation (SD)=5.14 +/- 0.83 and 5.17 +/- 0.78, ICC
      (2,1)=0.89-0.93 and ICC (2,2)=0.98 (0.95-0.99) and SEM=0.18-0.18 and 0.17 while
      between days intra-rater rater and inter-rater reliability with Mean +/- SD=5.14
      +/- 0.83 and 5.17 +/- 0.78, ICC(2,1)=0.88-0.90 and ICC(2,2)=0.95 (0.88-0.98),
      SEM=0.17-0.38 and 0.17 [Conclusion] The results of the current study indicate
      that MSKUS is a reliable tool for measuring supraspinatus tendon thickness in
      healthy subjects.

PMID- 28878471
TI  - Test-retest reliability of static postural control in people with multiple
      sclerosis.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to analyse the intraday test-retest
      reliability of stabilometric measurements on the Centre of Pressure (CoP) in
      persons with Multiple Sclerosis. [Subjects and Methods] The measurements were
      taken with the subject standing on the force platform with both feet together, in
      four different conditions: eyes open and closed whilst standing on both a rigid
      surface and then on foam. The measurements were taken on three occasions with
      intervals of 20 minutes between them. 18 persons with confirmed Multiple
      Sclerosis (MS), (aged 44.4 +/- 13.3 years and 3.5 +/- 1.5 EDSS) participated in
      the study. Relative reliability was measured using the intraclass correlation
      coefficient (ICC) and the 95% confidence interval (95% CI); and the absolute
      reliability using the coefficient of variation (CV) and standard error of
      measurement (SEM). [Results] The measurements of the CoP in all of the variables
      in each of the four conditions, showed a reliability of good to excellent
      (ICC=0.69-0.92) in the intraday test-retest. The variables which showed greatest
      consistency with repetition were X Speed, Y Speed and Side Length. [Conclusion]
      Given the results it would seem that the best variables for monitoring postural
      control in persons with MS are Speed on X and Y along with Side Length.

PMID- 28878472
TI  - Effects of the centrifugal contraction exercise of the rectus abdominis
      accompanied with the isometric exercise of the transversus abdominis on pain and
      balance of lower back pain patients.
AB  - [Purpose] The current study attempted to examine the effects of centrifugal
      contraction exercise of the rectus abdominis during the isometric contraction of
      the transversus abdominis on pain and balance of patients with chronic back pain.
      [Subjects and Methods] The subjects included thirty patients who were diagnosed
      with back pain due to causes other than neurological by a specialist after
      conducting a medical precision diagnosis. The experiment was performed after
      evenly dividing the subjects into two groups, namely, control and experimental,
      using a random method. This study measured pain by using the visual analog scale.
      To determine the patients' balancing ability using the Multifunktionale
      trainsgerate balance measurer. [Results] All groups showed a statistically
      significant within-group difference in visual analog scale and balance change.
      However, no significant between-group difference was observed in the comparison
      of therapy effects. [Conclusion] Strengthening the rectus abdominis can be an
      important factor for increasing the stability and reducing the pain of the lumbar
      area among patients with back pain.

PMID- 28878473
TI  - Cross-cultural adaptation of the 12-item Orebro musculoskeletal screening
      questionnaire to Japanese (OMSQ-12-J), reliability and clinicians' impressions
      for practicality.
AB  - [Purpose] To translate and culturally adapt the Orebro Musculoskeletal Screening
      Questionnaire (OMSQ-12) into Japanese (OMSQ-12-J), and to preliminarily
      investigate practicality from the clinicians' perspectives, and determine inter
      session reliability. [Subjects and Methods] This study included four phases:
      cross-cultural adaptation (Phases 1-2); survey among 14 clinicians (two medical
      doctors and 12 physiotherapists) about the practicality of using the
      questionnaire in six perspectives (speed of evaluation/treatment; capacity to
      detect patients with yellow flags; attitude towards management with bio-psycho
      social perspectives; quality of evaluation/treatment; considerations of
      communications with patients at history-taking, physical assessments and
      interventions; and general clinical usefulness) based on their experiences with
      patients (Phase 3); and investigation of inter-session reliability among 50
      patients with musculoskeletal disorders (Phase 4). [Results] The OMSQ-12-J was
      developed in Phases 1-2 using the recommended international guidelines for
      cultural adaptation and translation. In Phase 3, most responses were in the 3
      positive options (35.7-78.6%). In Phase 4, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient
      for each item ranged from 0.71-0.99 and 0.92 for the total score. [Conclusion]
      This study developed the OMSQ-12-J, which has preliminary evidence of good
      practicality and moderate-strong inter-session reliability. Further investigation
      is required to determine the predictive and prognostic capacity within a
      problematic musculoskeletal Japanese population.

PMID- 28878475
TI  - Factors related to coping strategies during Japanese physical therapy students'
      clinical practice.
AB  - [Purpose] This study aimed to identify social skills and support that are related
      to the coping strategies Janpanese physical therapy students use during their
      clinical practice. [Subjects and Methods] Third-year students who were finished
      with their clinical practice participated. Self-administered questionnaires were
      used, including the daily life skill scale, social support scale, and tri-axial
      coping scale. Spearman's partial correlation coefficients were calculated between
      social skills, support of daily living, and coping strategies used during the
      clinical practice, while controlling for gender. [Results] A total of 56
      completed questionnaires (median of age: 21 years; 27 males). Social skills
      during personal situations-knowledge summarization, self-esteem, and positive
      thinking-were significantly, positively correlated with planning and affirmative
      interpreting strategies to approach stressors regarding clinical practice, and
      negatively related to giving up strategies to avoid stressors. Intimacy,
      leadership, and empathy (social skills during interpersonal situations) were
      significantly, positively correlated with the following responses to approach
      stressors: catharsis, information gathering, and affirmative interpreting.
      Moreover, emotional/companionship social support was significantly, positively
      correlated with all avoidant coping strategies. [Conclusion] Japanese physical
      therapy students who had low personal and interpersonal social skills and excess
      emotional/companionship support in daily life tend to select avoidance, not
      approach, coping strategies during clinical practice.

PMID- 28878474
TI  - Acupressure for chronic low back pain: a single system study.
AB  - [Purpose] Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of global disability.
      Acupressure is a manual approach that can be used for self-management of LBP. The
      purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of acupressure in
      treating chronic LBP. [Subjects and Methods] The research design was a single
      system study utilizing an AB design. The subject was recruited using convenience
      sampling. During phase A, the subject received traditional physical therapy
      interventions. During phase B, the subject received acupressure in addition to
      traditional physical therapy interventions. Outcomes included the Visual Analog
      Scale (VAS), the Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS), and the Oswestry
      Disability Index (ODI). [Results] For the VAS, the pain was 38.8 mm at baseline,
      decreased to 11.3 mm after phase A, and decreased to 2.5 mm after phase B. For
      the PSFS, the subject's function was 5/10 at baseline, remained the same after
      phase A, and increased to 9/10 after phase B. For the ODI, the subject's
      disability was moderate (30%) at the baseline, decreased to minimal (14%) after
      phase A, and completely resolved (0%) after phase B. [Conclusion] The data
      indicated that integrating acupressure in physical therapy could reduce pain,
      increase function, and decrease disability.

PMID- 28878476
TI  - Center of mass with the use of smartphone during walking in healthy individuals.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to measure the center of mass using a
      smartphone application during walking in healthy. [Subjects and Methods] Forty
      eight healthy participants volunteered for this study. Measurements of center of
      mass were obtained by gait analysis application using smartphone while subjects
      performed 6 meter walking test. The measured data were automatically calculated
      by the application, subjects performed three trial walks to get a more accurate
      data analysis. [Results] There were no significant differences among subjects or
      between genders during the three trials in the vertical and lateral displacement
      of COM, and the results of the Kolmogorov-Simirnov test showed no differences in
      vertical and lateral displacement of COM in all subjects or between genders.
      However, the vertical displacement of COM significantly varied in male subjects
      than in female subjects, but the lateral displacement of COM did not
      significantly differ between the male and female subjects. [Conclusion] We can
      use the Smartphone application to measure the COM for walking; however more
      studies comparing advanced technological instruments with the smartphone
      application are needed.

PMID- 28878477
TI  - Near-infrared spectroscopy can reveal increases in brain activity related to
      animal-assisted therapy.
AB  - [Purpose] Previous studies have indicated that animal-assisted therapy can
      promote recovery of psychological, social, and physiological function in mental
      disorders. This study was designed as a pilot evaluation of the use of near
      infrared spectroscopy to objectively identify changes in brain activity that
      could mediate the effect of animal-assisted therapy. [Subjects and Methods] The
      participants were 20 healthy students (10 males and 10 females; age 19-21 years)
      of the Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University. Participants were shown a picture
      of a Tokara goat or shack (control) while prefrontal cortical oxygenated
      haemoglobin levels (representing neural activity) were measured by near-infrared
      spectroscopy. [Results] The prefrontal cortical near-infrared spectroscopy signal
      was significantly higher during viewing of the animal picture than during a rest
      condition or during viewing of the control picture. [Conclusion] Our results
      suggest that near-infrared spectroscopy can be used to objectively identify brain
      activity changes during human mentation regarding animals; furthermore, these
      preliminary results suggest the efficacy of animal-assisted therapy could be
      related to increased activation of the prefrontal cortex.

PMID- 28878478
TI  - Clinical features of patients diagnosed with degenerative rotator cuff tendon
      disease: a 6-month prospective-definitive clinical study from turkey.
AB  - [Purpose] In rotator cuff tendon disease (RCTD), anamnesis is as important as
      clinical findings and anatomic/radio diagnostic examination. This study aimed to
      investigate the clinical features of patients diagnosed with RCTD using clinical
      and radiological methods between March 2015 and August 2015 at Malatya Research
      and Training Hospital Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department. [Subjects
      and Methods] The study included 178 patients who were diagnosed with RCTD (128
      females and 50 males). A questionnaire comprising 33 questions was given to each
      patient. [Results] Eighty-eight of the patients (49.9%) had an involvement on
      their right side, eighty-four (47.1%) had an involvement on their left side, and
      6 had bilateral involvement. Mean visual analog scale (VAS) score was found to be
      statistically significant in favor of female patients. A statistically
      significant correlation was found between educational status and VAS. The body
      mass index (BMI) of the female patients was found to be higher than that of the
      male patients. Statistically significant correlation between doing risky work and
      gender showed that males were at a higher risk. [Conclusion] RCDT is more seen in
      people who have high BMI and are at their 50s. Pain complaint and BMI were found
      higher in female patients. DM, thyroid and cardiac diseases were seen more in the
      patients who are diagnosed with RCTD relative to the healthy population.

PMID- 28878479
TI  - Prediction of prognosis of upper-extremity function following stroke-related
      paralysis using brain imaging.
AB  - [Purpose] Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has attracted attention as a method for
      determining prognosis following paralysis after stroke. However, DTI can assess
      the degree of damage to the corticospinal tract but cannot evaluate other brain
      regions. In this study, we examined in detail the prognosis of upper-limb
      function of the paralyzed side following stroke, using DTI and voxel-based
      morphometry (VBM). [Subjects and Methods] We studied 17 consecutive patients
      diagnosed with stroke, including hemorrhagic and ischemic types, who exhibited
      hemiparesis and were treated in our hospital. DTI and VBM were performed 14 days
      after admission. Outcome measurements that assessed upper limb function were Fugl
      Meyer Assessment (FMA) and Motor Activity Log (MAL), which were applied after 3
      months. [Results] The fractional anisotropy ratio of the bilateral cerebral
      peduncles (rFA) was significantly correlated with FMA, amount of use, and quality
      of movement 3 months after stroke. The precentral gyrus significantly degenerated
      as compared with the control group for a case with notable motor paralysis, for
      which rFA was high. [Conclusion] We suggest it may be possible to predict
      recovery of upper limb function following stroke by combining DTI and VBM
      visualization methods.

PMID- 28878480
TI  - Anti-gravity treadmill can promote aerobic exercise for lower limb osteoarthritis
      patients.
AB  - [Purpose] The anti-gravity treadmill (Alter-G(r)) allows the load on the lower
      limbs to be adjusted, which is considered useful for patients with lower limb
      osteoarthritis. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of
      aerobic exercise using an anti-gravity treadmill in patients with lower limb
      osteoarthritis by using a cardiopulmonary exercise load monitoring system.
      [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 20 patients with lower limb
      osteoarthritis. These subjects walked naturally for 8 minutes and then walked on
      the Alter-G for 8 minutes at their fastest speed at a load where lower limb pain
      was alleviated. [Results] Subjective and objective exercise intensity did not
      differ significantly between level ground walking and Alter-G walking neither
      before nor after walking. Pain before walking did not differ significantly
      between level ground walking and Alter-G walking, but pain after walking was
      significantly greater with level ground walking than with Alter-G walking.
      [Conclusion] Exercise therapy using an anti-gravity treadmill was useful for
      patients with lower limb osteoarthritis in terms of cardiopulmonary function,
      which suggested that this could become a new form of exercise therapy.

PMID- 28878481
TI  - Effects of high-intensity pulse irradiation with linear polarized near-infrared
      rays and stretching on muscle tone in patients with cerebrovascular disease: a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of high
      intensity pulse irradiation with linear polarized near-infrared rays (HI-LPNR)
      and stretching on hypertonia in cerebrovascular disease patients. [Subjects and
      Methods] The subjects were 40 cerebrovascular disease patients with hypertonia of
      the ankle joint plantar flexor muscle. The subjects were randomly allocated to
      groups undergoing treatment with HI-LPNR irradiation (HI-LPNR group), stretching
      (stretching group), HI-LPNR irradiation followed by stretching (combination
      group), and control group (10 subjects each). In all groups, the passive range of
      motion of ankle dorsiflexion and passive resistive joint torque of ankle
      dorsiflexion were measured before and after the specified intervention. [Results]
      The changes in passive range of motion, significant increase in the stretching
      and combination groups compared with that in the control group. The changes in
      passive resistive joint torque, significant decrease in HI-LPNR, stretching, and
      combination groups compared with that in the control group. [Conclusion] HI-LPNR
      irradiation and stretching has effect of decrease muscle tone. However,
      combination of HI-LPNR irradiation and stretching has no multiplier effect.

PMID- 28878482
TI  - Effects of high intensity aerobic exercise on treadmill on maximum-expiratory
      lung capacity of elderly women.
AB  - [Purpose] The aim of this study was to examine whether a systematic high
      intensity aerobic exercise on treadmill was effective in improving pulmonary
      function. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects of this study were 22 healthy
      elderly women over 65 years of age who were attending the Senior Welfare Center
      and Social Welfare Center programs in B city. For the pulmonary function test, a
      spirometry (Pony FX, COSMED Inc., Italy) was used. The item for measurement of
      pulmonary function in elderly women was maximum-effort expiratory spirogram
      (MES). The pulmonary function test was performed 3 times, and its mean value was
      used for analysis. After a 15 minute warm-up stretching, high intensity aerobic
      exercise was performed for 20 minutes as a main exercise, followed by 15 minutes
      of cool-down stretching. Exercise was performed three days a week for 12 weeks.
      [Results] Among items of maximum-effort expiratory spirogram, a significant
      difference after exercise was demonstrated in forced vital capacity, forced
      expiratory volume in 1 second. Two factors were improved after exercise.
      [Conclusion] The results demonstrated that high intensity aerobic exercise on the
      treadmill has a positive effect on the pulmonary function of elderly women.

PMID- 28878483
TI  - Factors affecting dyspnea after the 6-minute walk test in idiopathic pulmonary
      fibrosis patients presenting with exercise-induced hypoxemia.
AB  - [Purpose] The current study aimed to investigate factors affecting dyspnea after
      the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients
      presenting with hypoxemia. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were IPF out
      patients with stable symptoms whose percutaneous arterial oxygen saturation fell
      to 88% during the 6MWT test. Quadriceps force, 6-minute walk distance (6MWD),
      dyspnea after the 6MWT, and leg fatigue (LF) were evaluated as exercise-related
      variables. [Results] The subjects were 14 patients (mean age 73.6 +/- 6.3 years)
      classed based on the modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale as 0 for 2
      patients, 1 for 6 patients, and 2 for 6 patients, indicating that the patients
      were comparatively mild cases. Mean 6MWD was 408.9 +/- 102.4 m, and dyspnea after
      the 6MWT and LF were 3.0 +/- 1.4 and 1.5 +/- 1.5, respectively. Dyspnea after the
      6MWT was correlated with vital capacity (VC), forced vital capacity, and LF.
      Stepwise multiple regression analysis identified VC and LF as factors
      significantly affecting dyspnea after the 6MWT. [Conclusion] The results of this
      study demonstrated that it is necessary to evaluate both pulmonary function and
      LF in IPF patients presenting with exercise-induced hypoxemia and exertional
      dyspnea.

PMID- 28878484
TI  - Direct access to physical therapy for the patient with musculoskeletal disorders,
      a literature review.
AB  - [Purpose] To present legislation comparing direct and referred access-or other
      measures-to physical therapy. The focus is on the management of the most
      burdensome musculoskeletal disorders in terms of regulations, costs,
      effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness. [Methods] Main biomedical databases
      and gray literature were searched ranging from a global scenario to the analysis
      of targeted geographical areas and specifically Italy and the Region Piedmont.
      [Results] legislation on Direct Access highlights inconsistencies among the
      countries belonging to World Confederation for Physical Therapy. Direct Access
      could be an effective, safe and efficient organization model for the management
      of patients with musculoskeletal diseases and seems to be more effective safer
      and cost effective. [Conclusion] Direct Access is a virtuous model which can help
      improve the global quality of physical therapy services. Further studies are
      required to confirm this approach and determine whether the findings of the
      present overview can be replicated in different countries and healthcare systems.

PMID- 28878485
TI  - Non-surgical relief of cervical radiculopathy through reduction of forward head
      posture and restoration of cervical lordosis: a case report.
AB  - [Purpose] To present a case demonstrating the relief of cervical radiculopathy
      following the dramatic reduction of forward head posture and restoration of the
      cervical lordosis by use of a multi-modal rehabilitation program incorporating
      cervical extension traction. [Subject and Methods] A 31-year-old male patient
      presented with severe cervical radiculopathy and muscle weakness as well as neck
      pain. The patient had limited neck range of motion, and multiple positive
      orthopedic tests. Radiography revealed excessive forward head posture with a
      cervical kyphosis. [Results] The patient received a multi-modal rehabilitation
      protocol including mirror image extension exercises, cervical extension traction,
      and spinal manipulative therapy. After forty treatments over 17 weeks, the
      patient reported a complete resolution of radiculopathy and significant
      improvement in neck pain level. Post radiography demonstrated correction of the
      spine and posture alignment. The patient remained well and maintained corrected
      posture with limited treatment one year later. [Conclusion] Our case demonstrates
      the relief of cervical radiculopathy resulting from the non-surgical correction
      of forward head posture and cervical kyphosis.

PMID- 28878486
TI  - Treating 'slouchy' (hyperkyphosis) posture with chiropractic biophysics(r): a
      case report utilizing a multimodal mirror image(r) rehabilitation program.
AB  - [Purpose] To present a case of the non-surgical reduction of 'slouchy'
      hyperkyphosis posture utilizing the multimodal Chiropractic BioPhysics(r)
      rehabilitation program emphasizing the mirror image(r) concept. [Subject and
      Methods] A 27-year-old female presented suffering from neck and back pains,
      headaches and gait dysfunction. The patient was treated 30 times over a period of
      6-months. Treatment consisted of anterior thoracic translation, thoracic
      extension, and head retraction exercises as well as spinal traction and spinal
      manipulation. [Results] After 6-months of treatment the patient displayed a total
      correction of the posterior thoracic translation with a significant reduction in
      thoracic hyperkyphosis. The dramatic correction of her overall posture and spine
      alignment corresponded to the significant relief of neck and back pains,
      headaches and improvement of various other health issues as demonstrated by self
      report and SF-36. [Conclusion] Poor postures corresponding to poor health can be
      changed for the better with multimodal rehabilitation programs that are now
      showing consistent postural improvements corresponding with improvements in
      various health conditions. We suggest that the postural correction of those with
      various pain symptoms be considered as a first line non-pharmalogical, non
      surgical rehabilitation approach for those presenting with poor posture.

PMID- 28878487
TI  - Effect of a combined thoracic and backward lifting exercise on the thoracic
      kyphosis angle and intercostal muscle pain.
AB  - [Purpose] This study developed a combined thoracic and backward lifting exercise
      for thoracic kyphosis angle and intercostal muscle pain. [Subject and Methods]
      The subject was a 41-year-old man who complained of upper thoracic and
      intercostal pain. He performed the combined thoracic and backward lifting
      exercise for 15 days. [Results] The initial VAS score for the intercostal area
      was 4/10. The VAS score decreased to 1/10 after the thoracic exercise combined
      with backward lifting. The initial thoracic kyphosis angle was 38 degrees  and it
      decreased to 32 degrees  after the exercise period. [Conclusion] Therefore,
      backward lifting and thoracic extension is a good posture for activating the
      different layers of muscle that are attached to the ribs. The kyphosis angle is
      also reduced by providing sufficient resistance during the thoracic exercise.

PMID- 28878488
TI  - Research progress on the autonomous flowering time pathway in Arabidopsis.
AB  - The transition from vegetative to reproductive growth phase is a pivotal and
      complicated process in the life cycle of flowering plants which requires a
      comprehensive response to multiple environmental aspects and endogenous signals.
      In Arabidopsis, six regulatory flowering time pathways have been defined by their
      response to distinct cues, namely photoperiod, vernalization, gibberellin,
      temperature, autonomous and age pathways, respectively. Among these pathways, the
      autonomous flowering pathway accelerates flowering independently of day length by
      inhibiting the central flowering repressor FLC. FCA, FLD, FLK, FPA, FVE, FY and
      LD have been widely known to play crucial roles in this pathway. Recently, AGL28,
      CK2, DBP1, DRM1, DRM2, ESD4, HDA5, HDA6, PCFS4, PEP, PP2A-B'gamma, PRMT5, PRMT10,
      PRP39-1, REF6, and SYP22 have also been shown to be involved in the autonomous
      flowering time pathway. This review mainly focuses on FLC RNA processing,
      chromatin modification of FLC, post-translational modification of FLC and other
      molecular mechanisms in the autonomous flowering pathway of Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28878490
TI  - Identification and expression analysis under abiotic stress of the R2R3-MYB genes
      in Ginkgo biloba L.
AB  - The R2R3-MYB gene family is the largest MYB subfamily in plants and is involved
      in the regulation of plant secondary metabolism and specific morphogenesis, as
      well as the response to biotic and abiotic stress. However, a systematic
      identification and characterization of this gene family has not been carried out
      in Ginkgo biloba. In this study, we performed a transcriptome-wide survey from
      four tissues of G. biloba to determine the genetic variation and expression
      pattern of the R2R3-MYB genes. We analyzed 45 GbMYBs and identified 42 with a
      complete coding sequence via conserved motif searches. The MYB domain and other
      motifs in GbMYBs are highly conserved with Arabidopsis thaliana AtMYBs.
      Phylogenetic analysis of the GbMYBs and AtMYBs categorized the R2R3-MYBs into 26
      subgroups, of which 11 subgroups included proteins from both G. biloba and
      Arabidopsis, and 1 subgroup was specific to G. biloba. Moreover, the GbMYBs
      expression patterns were analyzed in different tissues and abiotic stress
      conditions. The results revealed that GbMYBs were differentially expressed in
      various tissues and following abiotic stresses and phytohormone treatments,
      indicating their possible roles in biological processes and abiotic stress
      tolerance and adaptation. Our study demonstrated the functional diversity of the
      GbMYBs and will provide a foundation for future research into their biological
      and molecular functions.

PMID- 28878491
TI  - Salt stress reveals differential physiological, biochemical and molecular
      responses in T. monococcum and T. durum wheat genotypes.
AB  - Salt stress responses implicate a complex mechanism and differ from plant species
      to another. In this study, we analyzed the physiological, biochemical and
      molecular responses to salt stress of the diploid wheat (T. monococcum) and
      compared to the tetraploid wheat (T. durum). Our results showed that the diploid
      wheat cultivar (cv. Turkey) is relatively tolerant to different salt stress
      conditions than the tetraploid wheat cultivar (cv. Om Rabia3). This tolerance was
      manifested by significant germination, plant growth and uptake of water
      generating cell turgor and development. Moreover, total chlorophyll content was
      higher in the diploid wheat than that in the tetraploid wheat. The Na+ content in
      leaf blade of the cv. Om Rabia3 was significantly higher than that of the cv.
      Turkey, suggesting that the diploid cultivar accumulates less toxic sodium in the
      photosynthetic tissues. This mechanism could be explained by the recirculation of
      the toxic ions Na+ into the xylem sap by SOS1 protein, which coordinates with HKT
      like proteins to reduce the accumulation of Na+ ions in leaf blade.
      Interestingly, the expression of the three genes SOS1, HKT and NHX was enhanced
      under salinity especially in leaf blade of the cv. Turkey. Moreover, this wheat
      cultivar induced the antioxidative enzymes CAT and SOD activity more efficiently
      than the other cultivar.

PMID- 28878489
TI  - RNAi technology: a new platform for crop pest control.
AB  - The insect pests are big threat in meeting the food demands for future
      generation. The present pest control strategies, including the existing
      transgenic approaches show certain limitations and are not completely successful
      in limiting the insect pests. However, the sequence-specific gene silencing via
      RNA interference (RNAi) holds a great promise for effective management of
      agricultural pests. RNAi is naturally occurring conserved process responsible for
      gene regulation and defense against pathogens. The efficacy of RNAi varies among
      different insect orders and also depends upon various factors, including the
      target gene selection, method of dsRNAs delivery, expression of dsRNAs and
      presence of off-target effects. RNAi-mediated silencing of different insect genes
      involved in various physiological processes was found to be detrimental to
      insects growth, development and survival. In this article, we have reviewed the
      potential of RNAi-based strategies for effective management of insect pests. We
      have also discussed the various parameters, which are to be considered for host
      induced RNAi-mediated control of insect pests without producing any effect on non
      target organisms and environment.

PMID- 28878493
TI  - Improvement of drought tolerance of soybean plants by using methyl jasmonate.
AB  - Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is a naturally occurring plant growth regulator and play
      vital roles in plant defense and many developmental processes such as root growth
      and seed germination. This study was undertaken to study the possible role of
      using methyl jasmonate to alleviate the adverse effect of water stress on soybean
      genotypes (Giza 22 and 35). The results showed that water stress reduced shoot
      length, fresh and dry weights of shoot and root, photosynthetic pigments,
      relative water content and oil content in the shoots of all soybean genotypes. On
      the other hand, there was a considerable increase in cell wall fractionation,
      saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, flavonoids, phenolic acid and sugar
      fraction content in the shoots of the soybean genotypes in response to the water
      stress. Foliar spray with methyl jasmonate increased all the above parameters as
      compared to stressed plants. The results investigate the important role of MeJA
      in alleviation of water stress in soybean plants and suggest that MeJA could be
      used for improving plant growth under water stress as a potential growth
      regulator. The soybean genotypes Giza 22 was found to be more resistant to water
      stress than Giza 35.

PMID- 28878492
TI  - Biochemical, physiological and molecular evaluation of rice cultivars differing
      in salt tolerance at the seedling stage.
AB  - Changes in the antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation, sodium and potassium,
      chlorophyll, H2O2 and proline content were monitored in the leaves of 42 rice
      varieties which were not yet well-documented for the salinity tolerance under
      different salinity levels. The tolerant varieties (FL478, Hassani, Shahpasand,
      Gharib and Nemat) showed signs of tolerance (lower Na+/K+ ratio, high proline
      accumulation, less membrane damage, lower H2O2 production, and higher superoxide
      dismutase and catalase activity) very well. The positive relationship between the
      level of salt tolerance and the amount of proline accumulation in the rice
      varieties support the important role of proline under the salt stress. The
      varieties were genotyped for 12 microsatellite markers that were closely linked
      to SalTol QTL. The results of association analysis indicated that RM1287, RM8094,
      RM3412 and AP3206 markers had the high value of R2 for the regression models of
      the studied traits. It shows the important role of SalTol in controlling physio
      biochemical traits. The results can be used in the future marker assisted
      selection (MAS) directly, if the results are confirmed.

PMID- 28878494
TI  - Responses of wheat plants to interactions of 24-epibrassinolide and Glomus
      mosseae in saline condition.
AB  - This study was designed to investigate the possible effects of 24-Epibrassinolide
      (BR), arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus, Glomus mosseae, singularly and
      collectively under salt stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plants. After
      foliar spraying of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants by 5 uM epibrassinolide
      (24-Epi), they were treated with 0 and 150 mM NaCl for 2 weeks and then
      harvested. The results showed interactions of G. mosseae and 24-Epi could
      alleviate the adverse effects of salinity by improving relative water content
      (RWC) of leaves (62%), relative growth rate (40.74%), shoot fresh weights
      (39.83%) and shoot phosphorous content (63.93%), stimulating leaf enzymatic
      antioxidant activities including catalase (2.24 fold) and ascorbate peroxidase
      (2.18 fold) as well as malondialdehyde (36.17%) and H2O2 concentrations (49.74%)
      as compared to those of NaCl treatments. Moreover, mycorrhizal dependency of root
      dry weight (2%) and phosphorus concentration (0.4%) increased with AM infection
      and 24-Epi application under saline condition. Leaf RWC, also, negatively
      correlated with membrane electrolyte leakage. Furthermore, the greatest
      mitigating effects were observed in mycorrhizal plants subjected to NaCl and 24
      Epi. This study indicated that 24-Epi application and AM fungi may
      synergistically mitigate harmful impacts of salinity in wheat plants.

PMID- 28878495
TI  - The expression of a candidate cucumber fruit sugar starvation marker gene CsSEF1
      is enhanced in malformed fruit induced by salinity.
AB  - The cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) gene Cucumis sativus Somatic Embryogenesis Zinc
      Finger 1 (CsSEF1) was suggested to be a good marker gene for sugar starvation in
      fruit. The expression of this gene in fruits is dramatically upregulated in
      plants that have suffered either complete defoliation or prolonged darkness.
      CsSEF1 was initially discovered as a gene that was upregulated during somatic
      embryogenesis. We examined the difference in fruit parts and the effect of
      pollination on the upregulation of CsSEF1 induced by defoliation treatment. The
      results indicated that the upregulation of CsSEF1 in fruit by defoliation is not
      dependent on the presence of developing embryos. The expression of CsSEF1 was
      upregulated in malformed fruit induced by salinity in which the development of
      placenta was arrested. Partial cutting of the distal part of the fruit showed
      that if placenta tissue remained there was no upregulation of CsSEF1, whereas
      when placenta tissue did not remain there was a marked upregulation of CsSEF1.
      These results could be consistently interpreted as showing that placenta tissue
      induced the transport of photoassimilates to the fruit and that without
      developing placenta tissue, pericarp tissue suffers from severe sugar starvation.
      This interpretation, in turn, enforces the view that CsSEF1 is a good marker gene
      of fruit sugar starvation.

PMID- 28878496
TI  - Plant growth promoting effect of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens H-2-5 on crop plants
      and influence on physiological changes in soybean under soil salinity.
AB  - This study was aimed to identify plant growth-promoting bacterial isolates from
      soil samples and to investigate their ability to improve plant growth and salt
      tolerance by analysing phytohormones production and phosphate solubilisation.
      Among the four tested bacterial isolates (I-2-1, H-1-4, H-2-3, and H-2-5), H-2-5
      was able to enhance the growth of Chinese cabbage, radish, tomato, and mustard
      plants. The isolated bacterium H-2-5 was identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
      H-2-5 based on 16S rDNA sequence and phylogenetic analysis. The secretion of
      gibberellins (GA4, GA8, GA9, GA19, and GA20) from B. amyloliquefaciens H-2-5 and
      their phosphate solubilisation ability may contribute to enhance plant growth. In
      addition, the H-2-5-mediated mitigation of short term salt stress was tested on
      soybean plants that were affected by sodium chloride. Abscisic acid (ABA)
      produced by the H-2-5 bacterium suppressed the NaCl-induced stress effects in
      soybean by enhancing plant growth and GA4 content, and by lowering the
      concentration of ABA, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and proline. These results
      suggest that GAs, ABA production, and the phosphate solubilisation capacity of B.
      amyloliquefaciens H-2-5 are important stimulators that promote plant growth
      through their interaction and also to improve plant growth by physiological
      changes in soybean at saline soil.

PMID- 28878497
TI  - Biochemical basis of improvement of defense in tomato plant against Fusarium wilt
      by CaCl2.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of calcium
      chloride (CaCl2), as potential elicitor, on tomato plants against Fusarium
      oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Foliar application of CaCl2 showed significant
      reduction of wilt incidence after challenge inoculation. Increased production of
      defense and antioxidant enzymes was observed in elicitor treated sets over
      control. Simultaneously, altered amount of phenolic acids were analyzed
      spectrophotometrically and by using high performance liquid chromatography.
      Significant induction of defense-related genes expressions was measured by semi
      quantitative RT-PCR. Greater lignifications by microscopic analysis were also
      recorded in elicitor treated plants. Simultaneously, generation of nitric oxide
      (NO) in elicitor treated plants was confirmed by spectrophotometrically and
      microscopically by using membrane permeable fluorescent dye. Furthermore, plants
      treated with potential NO donor and NO modulators showed significant alteration
      of all those aforesaid defense molecules. Transcript analysis of nitrate
      reductase and calmodulin gene showed positive correlation with elicitor
      treatment. Furthermore, CaCl2 treatment showed greater seedling vigor index, mean
      trichome density etc. The result suggests that CaCl2 have tremendous potential to
      elicit defense responses as well as plant growth in co-relation with NO, which
      ultimately leads to resistance against the wilt pathogen.

PMID- 28878498
TI  - Improved tolerance against Helicoverpa armigera in transgenic tomato over
      expressing multi-domain proteinase inhibitor gene from Capsicum annuum.
AB  - Plant proteinase inhibitors (PIs) are plant defense proteins and considered as
      potential candidates for engineering plant resistances against herbivores.
      Capsicum annuum proteinase inhibitor (CanPI7) is a multi-domain potato type II
      inhibitor (Pin-II) containing four inhibitory repeat domains (IRD), which target
      major classes of digestive enzymes in the gut of Helicoverpa armigera larvae.
      Stable integration and expression of the transgene in T1 transgenic generation,
      were confirmed by established molecular techniques. Protein extract of transgenic
      tomato lines showed increased inhibitory activity against H. armigera gut
      proteinases, supporting those domains of CanPI7 protein to be effective and
      active. When T1 generation plants were analyzed, they exhibited antibiosis effect
      against first instar larvae of H. armigera. Further, larvae fed on transgenic
      tomato leaves showed delayed growth relative to larvae fed on control plants, but
      did not change mortality rates significantly. Thus, better crop protection can be
      achieved in transgenic tomato by overexpression of multi-domain proteinase
      inhibitor CanPI7 gene against H. armigera larvae.

PMID- 28878499
TI  - Comparative proteomic analysis of autotetraploid and diploid Paulownia tomentosa
      reveals proteins associated with superior photosynthetic characteristics and
      stress adaptability in autotetraploid Paulownia.
AB  - To enlarge the germplasm resource of Paulownia plants, we used colchicine to
      induce autotetraploid Paulownia tomentosa, as reported previously. Compared with
      its diploid progenitor, autotetraploid P. tomentosa exhibits better
      photosynthetic characteristics and higher stress resistance. However, the
      underlying mechanism for its predominant characteristics has not been determined
      at the proteome level. In this study, isobaric tag for relative and absolute
      quantitation coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was
      employed to compare proteomic changes between autotetraploid and diploid P.
      tomentosa. A total of 1427 proteins were identified in our study, of which 130
      proteins were differentially expressed between autotetraploid and diploid P.
      tomentosa. Functional analysis of differentially expressed proteins revealed that
      photosynthesis-related proteins and stress-responsive proteins were significantly
      enriched among the differentially expressed proteins, suggesting they may be
      responsible for the photosynthetic characteristics and stress adaptability of
      autotetraploid P. tomentosa. The correlation analysis between transcriptome and
      proteome data revealed that only 15 (11.5%) of the differentially expressed
      proteins had corresponding differentially expressed unigenes between diploid and
      autotetraploid P. tomentosa. These results indicated that there was a limited
      correlation between the differentially expressed proteins and the previously
      reported differentially expressed unigenes. This work provides new clues to
      better understand the superior traits in autotetraploid P. tomentosa and lays a
      theoretical foundation for developing Paulownia breeding strategies in the
      future.

PMID- 28878500
TI  - Genome-wide identification of SAUR genes in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus).
AB  - The early auxin responsive SAUR family is an important gene family in auxin
      signal transduction. We here present the first report of a genome-wide
      identification of SAUR genes in watermelon genome. We successfully identified 65
      ClaSAURs and provide a genomic framework for future study on these genes.
      Phylogenetic result revealed a Cucurbitaceae-specific SAUR subfamily and
      contribute to understanding of the evolutionary pattern of SAUR genes in plants.
      Quantitative RT-PCR analysis demonstrates the existed expression of 11 randomly
      selected SAUR genes in watermelon tissues. ClaSAUR36 was highly expressed in
      fruit, for which further study might bring a new prospective for watermelon fruit
      development. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed the similar expression
      profiles of SAUR genes between watermelon and Arabidopsis during shoot
      organogenesis. This work gives us a new support for the conserved auxin machinery
      in plants.

PMID- 28878501
TI  - Genome-wide identification, phylogeny and expression analyses of SCARECROW
      LIKE(SCL) genes in millet (Setaria italica).
AB  - As a member of the GRAS gene family, SCARECROW-LIKE (SCL) genes encode
      transcriptional regulators that are involved in plant information transmission
      and signal transduction. In this study, 44 SCL genes including two SCARECROW
      genes in millet were identified to be distributed on eight chromosomes, except
      chromosome 6. All the millet genes contain motifs 6-8, indicating that these
      motifs are conserved during the evolution. SCL genes of millet were divided into
      eight groups based on the phylogenetic relationship and classification of
      Arabidopsis SCL genes. Several putative millet orthologous genes in Arabidopsis,
      maize and rice were identified. High throughput RNA sequencing revealed that the
      expressions of millet SCL genes in root, stem, leaf, spica, and along leaf
      gradient varied greatly. Analyses combining the gene expression patterns, gene
      structures, motif compositions, promoter cis-elements identification, alternative
      splicing of transcripts and phylogenetic relationship of SCL genes indicate that
      the these genes may play diverse functions. Functionally characterized SCL genes
      in maize, rice and Arabidopsis would provide us some clues for future
      characterization of their homologues in millet. To the best of our knowledge,
      this is the first study of millet SCL genes at the genome wide level. Our work
      provides a useful platform for functional analysis of SCL genes in millet, a
      model crop for C4 photosynthesis and bioenergy studies.

PMID- 28878502
TI  - Cytogenetic and molecular evidences revealing genomic changes after
      autopolyploidization: a case study of synthetic autotetraploid Phlox drummondii
      Hook.
AB  - Polyploidy is known to be common in plants; indeed most of the world's
      economically important crop plants are polyploids. Recent studies revealed
      extensive genomic changes in synthetic polyploids after genome doubling, although
      most of the information available is with regards to allopolyploids and little
      information have been generated in autopolyploids. In the present study, we used
      Phlox drummondii Hooker (2n = 2x = 14) as a model plant to observe genomic
      changes, if any, in synthetic autopolyploids. Colchitetraploids were produced and
      followed through different generations (C0, C1, C2 and C3). Male meiosis analysis
      showed differences between the frequency of both quadrivalents and bivalents from
      C0 to C2 generations. RAPD analysis revealed 2.8, 1.6, 2.1 and 3.2% polymorphism
      in C0, C1, C2 and C3 colchitetraploids respectively. The polymorphic fragments
      were further characterized after cloning. Dot blot assay was performed to confirm
      high copy/low copy nature of fragments showing variation. The analysis revealed
      changes in both repetitive and non-repetitive regions. Out of the six fragments
      only one fragment T01 was found to be of high copy, while four fragments were of
      the moderate copy and one fragment of the low copy nature.

PMID- 28878503
TI  - Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of an endemic Moroccan
      tree (Argania spinosa L.) based in IRAP and ISSR markers and implications for
      conservation.
AB  - Argan Tree is well known for its precious oil extracted from its seeds
      particularly used for the nutritional and cosmetic benefits. Because of the high
      international demand, the argan tree suffers from overexploitation and its
      cultivation is rare. Thus, the assessment of the genetic variation of this
      endemic tree is critically important for designing conservation strategies. In
      the present study and for the first time, genetic diversity of the global natural
      distribution of argan tree (Argania spinosa L.) in Morocco was assessed. Four
      IRAP (inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism) primer combinations and seven
      ISSR (inter-simple sequence repeat) primers amplified 164 and 248 scorable
      polymorphic bands respectively. Polymorphic information content (PIC = 0.27),
      resolving power (Rp = 15) and marker index (MI = 10.81) generated by IRAP primer
      combinations were almost identical to those generated by ISSR primers (PIC =
      0.27, Rp = 9.16 and MI = 12). AMOVA analysis showed that 49% of the genetic
      variation was partitioned within populations which is supported by Nei's genetic
      differentiation (Gst = 0.5391) and the overall estimate of gene flow (Nm) being
      0.4274. The STRUCTURE analysis, PCoA (principal coordinate analysis) and UPGMA
      (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean) based on the combined data
      matrices of IRAP and ISSR divided the 240 argan genotypes into two groups. The
      strong differentiation observed might be due to the geographical distribution of
      argan tree. Our results provide crucial insight for genetic conservation programs
      of this genetic resource.

PMID- 28878504
TI  - Analysis of spatial distribution of genetic diversity and validation of Indian
      foxtail millet core collection.
AB  - Foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.] is an important small millet,
      grown as a short duration, drought tolerant crop across the world. This crop can
      be grown on wide ranges of soil conditions and has an immense potential for food
      and fodder in rainfed and arid regions of the India. In the present study, 31
      primer pairs (27 SSR and 4 EST-SSR) were used to analyse the genetic diversity in
      223 core collection accessions. Analysis resulted in detection of a total of 136
      alleles with an average of 4.38 alleles per locus. Among these 136 alleles, 22
      were rare, 70 were common and 44 were frequent. The PIC value ranged from 0.01 to
      0.86 with an average of 0.31. The average number of observed alleles ranged from
      2.0 (northern hills of India accessions) to 4.06 (exotic) with an average of
      2.72. The mean Shannon's Information Index ranged from 0.44 (northern hills of
      India) to 0.69 (exotic) with an average of 0.52. Pair-wise Fst values indicated
      little to moderate genetic differentiation among the group of accessions. UPGMA
      clustering grouped the accessions into two major groups while analysis for
      population substructure indicated presence of four subpopulations. However there
      was no statistically well supported grouping of the accessions based on eco
      geographic specificities. The core collection designated here represented
      substantial genetic diversity at molecular level, hence may be a good source of
      diversity for use in foxtail improvement programs in the region.

PMID- 28878505
TI  - Analysis of an intraspecific RIL population uncovers genomic segments harbouring
      multiple QTL for seed relevant traits in lentil (Lens culinaris L.).
AB  - Improving seed related traits remains key objective in lentil breeding. In recent
      years, genomic resources have shown great promise to accelerate crop improvement.
      However, limited genomic resources in lentil greatly restrict the use of genomics
      assisted breeding. The present investigation aims to build an intraspecific
      genetic linkage map and identify the QTL associated with important seed relevant
      traits using 94 recombinant inbreds (WA 8649090 * Precoz). A total of 288
      polymorphic DNA markers including simple sequence repeat (SSR), inter simple
      sequence repeat (ISSR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were assayed
      on mapping population. The resultant genetic linkage map comprised 220 loci
      spanning 604.2 cM of the lentil genome, with average inter-marker distance of
      2.74 cM. QTL mapping in this RIL population uncovered a total of 18 QTL
      encompassing nine major and nine minor QTL. All major QTL were detected for seed
      related traits viz., seed diameter (SD), seed thickness (ST), seed weight (SW)
      and seed plumpness (SP) across two locations. A considerable proportion of the
      phenotypic variation (PV) was accounted to these QTL. For instance, one major QTL
      on LG5 controlling SW (QTL 15) explained 50% PV in one location, while the same
      QTL accounted for 34.18% PV in other location. Importantly, the genomic region
      containing multiple QTL for different seed traits was mapped to a 17-cM region on
      LG5. The genomic region harbouring QTL for multiple traits opens up exciting
      opportunities for genomics assisted improvement of lentil.

PMID- 28878506
TI  - Analysis of tandem repeat units of the promoter of capsanthin/capsorubin synthase
      (Ccs) gene in pepper fruit.
AB  - Capsanthin/capsorubin synthase (Ccs) gene is a key gene that regulates the
      synthesis of capsanthin and the development of red coloration in pepper fruits.
      There are three tandem repeat units in the promoter region of Ccs, but the
      potential effects of the number of repetitive units on the transcriptional
      regulation of Ccs has been unclear. In the present study, expression vectors
      carrying different numbers of repeat units of the Ccs promoter were constructed,
      and the transient expression of the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene was used to
      detect differences in expression levels associated with the promoter fragments.
      These repeat fragments and the plant expression vector PBI121 containing the 35s
      CaMV promoter were ligated to form recombinant vectors that were transfected into
      Agrobacterium tumefaciens GV3101. A fluorescence spectrophotometer was used to
      analyze the expression associated with the various repeat units. It was concluded
      that the constructs containing at least one repeat were associated with GUS
      expression, though they did not differ from one another. This repeating unit
      likely plays a role in transcription and regulation of Ccs expression.

PMID- 28878507
TI  - Improvement of yield and quality of two Spinacia oleracea L. varieties by using
      different fertilizing approaches.
AB  - The effects of different fertilizers [the control with no fertilizer (C),
      inorganic fertilization (I), combined inorganic and organic fertilizer (IOHumax1)
      and (IOHumax2)] on yield and nutrients contents of two spinach varieties ("Balady
      and Virofly") were investigated. Significant effects of variety were observed on
      vegetative growth and nutrients contents. While Virofly had significantly higher
      leaf area (236.96 cm2), stem diameter (7.43 mm) and fresh weight of vegetative
      and radical parts (15.05 and 0.96 g, respectively), Balady had significantly
      higher chlorophyll and carotene contents (0.0023 and 0.0018 g/g fw,
      respectively). No significant impacts of variety on vitamin C, nitrite, nitrate
      and oxalates contents were observed. IOHumax2 treatment (4 g/l of Humax + 100
      mg/l of NH4NO3 per plant fertigation-1) enhanced stem diameter and root growth
      and significantly improved the yield by produced plants with higher stem length,
      leaf number and surface area. This treatment improved the quality of plant by
      increasing vitamin C content and reducing nitrite and oxalates contents. No
      significant effects of different fertilizers were observed on NO3- content. A
      fairly balanced yield/NO3- and oxalates content can be achieved with combined
      inorganic and organic fertilizer (IOHumax1) and (IOHumax2).

PMID- 28878508
TI  - Assessment of sucrose transporters, metabolites and sucrose phosphate synthase in
      different sugarcane tissues.
AB  - The expression of sucrose-phosphate synthase II (SPSII) and sucrose transporters
      ShSUT1A and ShSUT4 were determined by RT-PCR and qRT-PCR in the sink and source
      leaves and in rind and pith of mature internodes of four high-yielding Hawaiian
      sugarcane cultivars. Expression of SPSII, ShSUT1A, and ShSUT4 was lower in pith
      than in rind, except in one cultivar, but else quite similar in the cultivars.
      The strong expression of transporter ShSUT4 in the rind of the internodes may
      hint to a special role of ShSUT4 in the rind. ShSUT4-expression in the sink and
      source leaves was similar in all four cultivars, whereas large differences were
      found for the expression of ShSUT1A and SPSII between the source and sink leaves
      and between the cultivars. The levels of sucrose precursors were doubled in
      source leaves compared to sink leaves, whereas they were higher in immature
      internode compared to mature internode. The role of sucrose transporters and
      SPSII in leaves and internodes is discussed, but the large differences, which
      were observed in the transcript levels of SPSII and sucrose transporters between
      some cultivars, although all the cultivars were similarly high-yielding
      cultivars, show that SPSII and SUT transcript levels cannot be used as indicators
      of high-yield cultivars.

PMID- 28878509
TI  - An improved micropropagation system, ex vitro rooting and validation of genetic
      homogeneity in wild female Momordica dioica: an underutilized nutraceutical
      vegetable crop.
AB  - Momordica dioica Roxb. ex Willd., is a perennial and dioecious (2n = 28) plant of
      family Cucurbitaceae. Conventional methods of propagation through seeds, stem
      cuttings and rhizomatous/tuberous roots are inadequate for its mass cultivation
      as a vegetable crop. This paper reports an improved and efficient
      micropropagation method for wild female M. dioica using nodal explants. Shoot
      amplification was achieved using subculturing of in vitro raised shoots on MS
      medium supplemented with various concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP)
      alone or in combination with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The maximum number of
      shoots (45.30 +/- 3.83) with an average length 6.52 +/- 0.89 cm were
      differentiated on MS medium containing 0.5 mg L-1 BAP, 0.1 mg L-1 IAA and
      additives (50 mg L-1 ascorbic acid, 25 mg L-1 each of adenine sulphate, citric
      acid and l-arginine). The cloned shoots were rooted ex vitro. Each shoot treated
      with 250 mg L-1 IBA for 5 min produced 12.3 +/- 1.33 with a mean length 5.4 +/-
      0.73 cm. More than 85% (46 plants) of ex vitro rooted plantlets were successfully
      hardened in a greenhouse with normal growth characteristics. In order to evaluate
      the genetic stability of micropropagated plants, the two PCR-based techniques,
      Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR)
      were used. The amplification patterns of the micropropagated and mother plant
      were monomorphic thus depicting genetic stability of the micropropagation system.
      This protocol could be effectively employed for the mass multiplication of wild
      female M. dioica, a popular summer vegetable crop.

PMID- 28878510
TI  - Antimicrobial activity of essential oil and aqueous and ethanol extracts of
      Teucrium polium L. subsp. gabesianum (L.H.) from Tunisia.
AB  - The antimicrobial effects of essential oil, ethanol and aqueous extracts of
      Teucrium polium L. were investigated against 13 microorganisms. Extracts and
      essential oil were obtained from maceration, decoction and hydrodistillation
      respectively. Samples were tested for their antimicrobial activity using the disk
      diffusion, the agar dilution and the agar incorporation method. Essential oil was
      analysed using GC/MS, results showed that beta-pinene (35.97%) and alpha-pinene
      (13.32%) were the main components. Furthermore, essential oil exhibited the
      highest antimicrobial activity, it was most effective against Proteus mirabilis,
      Staphylococcus aureus and Citrobacter freundei where inhibition zone ranged
      between 15 and 25 mm, and with the microbial inhibitory concentration (MIC)
      values of 0.078-0.156 mg/ml. The oil and ethanol extract showed the best
      antifungal activity against Microsporum canis, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, and
      Trichophyton rubrum with the inhibition percentage (I%) ranging from 18.94 to
      100%. However, none of the samples exhibited antifungal activity against
      Aspergillus fumigatus. In this study, the obtained results showed significant
      effects of essential oils and ethanol extracts of T. polium which may used as a
      substitute to the synthetic drugs against certain microbial diseases.

PMID- 28878511
TI  - Management of the open book APC II pelvis: Survey results from pelvic and
      acetabular surgeons in the United Kingdom.
AB  - The results of this questionnaire show that the opinion of pelvic and acetabular
      surgeons in the UK and Republic of Ireland vary as to the best method of fixation
      for APC II pelvic injuries. A single anterior plate and single sacroiliac joint
      (SIJ) screw was the most popular fixation method, chosen by 34%. 74% favour a
      single, opposed to two orthogonal anterior plates. Posterior fixation
      supplementing anterior plating is preferred by 63% of surgeons, 58% use a single
      versus 42% two SIJ screws. Case by case assessment and intraoperative screening
      to assess stability is essential when considering whether to stabilise the SIJ.

PMID- 28878512
TI  - Comparison of postoperative complications after total hip arthroplasty among
      patients receiving aspirin, enoxaparin, warfarin, and factor Xa inhibitors.
AB  - Optimal prophylaxis for prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after total
      joint arthroplasty (TJA) remains debated. The purpose of this study was to
      compare postoperative complications in patients receiving different VTE
      chemoprophylactic regimens. Using a nationwide healthcare database, 72,670 THA
      patients without a history of VTE were identified. Study cohorts received VTE
      prophylaxis within 30 days postoperatively. Odds ratios and 95% confidence
      intervals were used to assess 30-day and 90-day postoperative complications
      (hematoma, hemorrhage, transfusion, pulmonary embolism (PE), VTE, prosthetic
      joint infection (PJI), and incision/drainage (I&D)). Of the 72,670 THA patients,
      25,966 received single medication VTE prophylaxis; 551 (2.12%) aspirin, 6791
      (26.15%) enoxaparin, 12,008 (46.25%) warfarin, 5403 (20.81%) rivaroxaban, 876
      (3.37%) fondaparinux and 337 (1.30%) apixaban. 30-day complications included;
      aspirin: I&D; warfarin: I&D, hematoma, hemorrhage, transfusion, PJI, PE and DVT;
      apixaban: hematoma and hemorrhage. 90-day complications included; aspirin: I&D;
      warfarin: I&D, hematoma, hemorrhage, transfusion, PJI, PE and DVT. Warfarin was
      the only anticoagulant associated with a higher risk for DVT, and the highest
      risk for 30-day and 90-day complications. Aspirin had the highest risk for I&D.
      Despite three times increased 30-day risk for bleeding, apixaban was effective in
      preventing VTE during the high-risk 3-month-period. Enoxaparin had the lowest
      risk for PE and DVT while rivaroxaban had the lowest risk for PJI, hematoma, I&D,
      hemorrhage and transfusion.

PMID- 28878513
TI  - Fibromas arising from the posterior cruciate ligament tendon sheath in the
      bilateral knee joints: Case report.
AB  - Fibroma of tendon sheath in the intra-knee joint is a very rare and benign soft
      tissue tumour which has been reported unilaterally in the various aged people. To
      help distinguish it from other similar kinds of lesions and symptoms including
      osteoarthritis, we report the oldest case of fibromas arising from the posterior
      cruciate ligament tendon sheath in the bilateral knee joints within one year of
      each other confirmed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features, operative
      findings and histological examination.

PMID- 28878514
TI  - Traumatic cervical epidural hematoma due to fusion mass fracture following
      elective rod removal.
AB  - Many studies have examined complications associated with spinal instrumentation,
      however, few have analyzed complications associated with removal. In this case
      report, we outline the course of a patient who presented with cervical epidural
      hematoma secondary to fusion mass fracture five years after removal of spinal
      hardware.

PMID- 28878515
TI  - Review: Medial collateral ligament injuries.
AB  - The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is a major stabilizer of the knee joint. It
      is the most common ligament injured in the knee, particularly in athletes, and
      has been reported to be torn in 7.9% of all knee injuries.2 The MCL has a
      complex, layered anatomy with multiple insertions and functions. Minor trauma can
      cause tearing of the superficial portion whereas higher energy mechanisms can
      disrupt both the deep and superficial layers. History and physical are often
      adequate, but the gold standard for diagnosis is MRI. Lesser injuries to the MCL
      can often be treated conservatively with early rehabilitation, but more
      significant tears often necessitate surgery. A thorough understanding of the MCL
      and associated injuries is essential for proper diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28878516
TI  - Enhanced recovery principles applied to revision hip and knee arthroplasty
      reduces length of stay and blood transfusion.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This is the first study reporting the application of Enhanced
      Recovery Principles (ERP) to revision arthroplasty. METHOD: Retrospective series
      of 132 revision hip and knee replacements treated with ERP. RESULTS: Infiltration
      was associated with reduced LOS in knees (6 vs 8.5 days), lower PCA usage and
      incidence of transfusion in knees (2 vs 3 days) and hips (1 vs 6 days). Revisions
      for infection had a longer LOS (5.4 vs 11.5 days p = 0.001), a greater use of PCA
      and a higher incidence of transfusion (5 vs 0) in both knees and hips.
      DISCUSSION: The application of ERPs to revision arthroplasty is safe.
      Infiltration appears to be an important factor in improving outcome measures.

PMID- 28878517
TI  - Comparison of metal ion levels in patients with hip resurfacing versus total hip
      arthroplasty.
AB  - Mechanical wear at the articular surface and corrosive processes at modular
      junctions, such as the trunnion, are responsible for metal ions production. We
      retrospectively reviewed 64 patients who underwent THA with a metal on metal
      bearing surface and 34 patients with hip Resurfacing. Metal ion measurements, six
      week post-op radiographs, and functional scores were included in the analysis.
      Cobalt ion levels were significantly elevated in THA patients, 2.95 MUg/L as
      compared to resurfacing patients, (2.95 versus 1.30 MUg/L, p < 0.0005). Chromium
      levels were not significantly different between THA patients and resurfacing
      patients (1.05 versus 1.00 MUg/L, p = 0.529).

PMID- 28878518
TI  - On-demand antibiotic-eluting microchip for implanted spinal screws.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Surgical instrumentation of the spine is susceptible to infection.
      Intravenous antibiotics is a current mainstay of treating infection; however
      penetrating the bacterial biofilm and directly targeting the source of the
      infection is challenging. METHODS: Using multiple reservoirs of discrete drug
      doses, microchips represent a new technology capable of on-demand drug release
      over long periods of time. RESULTS: A novel solution of integrating vancomycin
      eluting microchips into pedicle screws in order directly target and treat spinal
      infections is proposed. CONCLUSION: This drug-releasing implant has the potential
      to provide the particular benefit to high-infection-risk patients in order to
      avoid reoperation.

PMID- 28878519
TI  - State of Globe: Biofilm Formation in Staphylococcus aureus Isolates.

PMID- 28878520
TI  - Standardization and Classification of In vitro Biofilm Formation by Clinical
      Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is Gram-positive bacterium commonly associated
      with nosocomial infections. The development of biofilm exhibiting drug resistance
      especially in foreign body associated infections has enabled the bacterium to
      draw considerable attention. However, till date, consensus guidelines for in
      vitro biofilm quantitation and categorization criterion for the bacterial
      isolates based on biofilm-forming capacity are lacking. Therefore, it was
      intended to standardize in vitro biofilm formation by clinical isolates of S.
      aureus and then to classify them on the basis of their biofilm-forming capacity.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A study was conducted for biofilm quantitation by tissue
      culture plate (TCP) assay employing 61 strains of S. aureus isolated from
      clinical samples during May 2015- December 2015 wherein several factors
      influencing the biofilm formation were optimized. Therefore, it was intended to
      propose a biofilm classification criteria based on the standard deviation
      multiples of the control differentiating them into non, low, medium, and high
      biofilm formers. RESULTS: Brain-heart infusion broth was found to be more
      effective in biofilm formation compared to trypticase soy broth. Heat fixation
      was more effective than chemical fixation. Although, individually, glucose,
      sucrose, and sodium chloride (NaCl) had no significant effect on biofilm
      formation, a statistically significant increase in absorbance was observed after
      using the supplement mix consisting of 222.2 mM glucose, 116.9 mM sucrose, and
      1000 mM NaCl (P= 0.037). CONCLUSIONS: The present study puts forth a standardized
      in vitro TCP assay for biofilm biomass quantitation and categorization criteria
      for clinical isolates of S. aureus based on their biofilm-forming capacity. The
      proposed in vitro technique may be further evaluated for its usefulness in the
      management of persistent infections caused by the bacterium.

PMID- 28878521
TI  - Time to Positivity and Antibiotic Sensitivity of Neonatal Blood Cultures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a commonly encountered and potentially life-threatening
      problem in neonatal intensive care units, blood culture of neonatal sepsis helps
      in either optimizing treatment or terminating antibiotics. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We determined the causative agent, time to positivity (TTP), and antibiogram of
      neonatal blood cultures collected in a tertiary care center, to investigate
      difference between early- and late-onset neonatal sepsis and to establish the
      time at which a blood culture could safely be considered negative, using the
      BacT/ALERT(r) 3D 60. A total of 826 clinically suspected neonates suffering from
      sepsis and admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care
      hospital, Alexandria, Egypt were included in this study. RESULTS: Eighty-five
      (10.29%) showed positive results. The overall TTP median was 21.1 h. Out of the
      85 positive cultures, 57 (67.06%) were Gram-positive, 15 (17.65%) were Gram
      negative, and 13 (15.29%) were fungi (all Candida). Coagulase-negative
      staphylococci were the predominant organism (41.18%). All the Gram-positive
      pathogenic isolates were sensitive to vancomycin and tigecycline. Among the Gram
      negative isolates, maximum antibiotic sensitivity was observed for levofloxacin.
      CONCLUSION: We conclude that more than 3 days of incubation may not be required
      when using the BacT/ALERT(r) 3D 60 system.

PMID- 28878522
TI  - Validation of Geno-Sen's Scrub Typhus Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Kit by
      its Comparison with a Serological ELISA Test.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the recent past, scrub typhus (ST) has been reported from
      different parts of India, based on Weil-Felix/enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA)/indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Molecular tests are applied only
      by a few researchers. AIMS: Evaluation of a new commercial real time polymerase
      chain reaction (PCR) kit for molecular diagnosis of ST by comparing it with the
      commonly used IgM ELISA is our aim. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: ST has been reported all
      over India including Puducherry and surrounding Tamil Nadu and identified as
      endemic for ST. This study was designed to correlate antibody detection by IgM
      ELISA and Orientia tsutsugamushi DNA in real time PCR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ST
      IgM ELISA (InBios Inc., USA) was carried out for 170 consecutive patients who
      presented with the symptoms of acute ST during 11 months (November, 2015-
      September, 2016). All 77 of these patients with IgM ELISA positivity and 49 of 93
      IgM ELISA negative patients were subjected to real time PCR (Geno-Sen's ST real
      time PCR, Himachal Pradesh, India). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Statistical analysis
      for clinical and laboratory results was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 17
      for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). Chi-square test with Yates correction
      (Fisher's test) was employed for a small number of samples. RESULTS AND
      CONCLUSION: Among 77 suspected cases of acute ST with IgM ELISA positivity and 49
      IgM negative patients, 42 and 7 were positive, respectively, for O. tsutsugamushi
      56-kDa type-specific gene in real time PCR kit. Until ST IFA, the gold standard
      diagnostic test, is properly validated in India, diagnosis of acute ST will
      depend on both ELISA and quantitative PCR.

PMID- 28878524
TI  - A Microbial Old Friend with a New Face: A Rare Case of Pyrexia of Unknown Origin
      and Leukemoid Reaction.
AB  - We present a case of a young male, who presented to us with high-grade fever for
      more than four weeks, refractory seizures, multiple subcutaneous palpable lumps,
      and evidence of leukocytosis with predominant left shift on the peripheral smear.
      The classic "starry-sky" appearance on imaging, generalized muscular uptake on
      positron emission tomography-computerized tomography scan, and positive serology
      led to a diagnosis of disseminated cysticercosis. He responded to oral steroids.
      To the best of our knowledge, disseminated cysticercosis presenting as pyrexia of
      unknown origin and with a leukemoid reaction has never been reported in
      literature.

PMID- 28878523
TI  - Transcultural Adaptation and Validation of the Korean Version of the Brief
      Illness Perception Questionnaire for Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ) has been
      used in many populations for both adults and children, and it provides a rapid
      assessment of illness perception. This study was performed to create a translated
      version of the BIPQ to fit the Korean society and to test its validity through
      pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients. METHODS: Translation and transcultural
      adaptation of BIPQ, applicable to the Korean society, was performed in accordance
      with the international guidelines. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability,
      concurrent validity, and discrimination validity were evaluated. To assess the
      discrimination validity, the BIPQ scores were compared between pulmonary TB and
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). RESULTS: Sixty-eight patients with
      pulmonary TB participated in this study. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.753,
      which indicated satisfactory internal consistency. The concurrent validity showed
      significant correlations (Pearson's correlation of 0.753). The test-retest
      reliability was confirmed with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.892.
      The total score of BIPQ in patients with COPD was significantly higher than that
      in those with pulmonary TB (37.67 vs. 30.85; P = 0.005), which supported the
      discrimination validity. CONCLUSIONS: The Korean version of BIPQ was found to be
      a reliable and valid questionnaire for patients with pulmonary TB.

PMID- 28878526
TI  - Splenic and Kidney Infarct: Sequelae of Subacute Streptococcus mitis Bacterial
      Endocarditis.
AB  - Infective endocarditis (IE) is caused due to the vegetation on the heart valves,
      myocardium wall, or the pacemaker leads. Vegetation is a lesion that appears as a
      consequence of successive deposition of platelets and fibrin on the endothelial
      surface of the heart. Colonies of microbes can be usually found under the
      vegetation. Heart valves are involved more frequently as compared to other
      places. Streptococcus mitis, formerly known as S. mitior, is a commensal of the
      oral flora, however, if there of loss of integrity of the mucous membrane, the
      infection may disseminate to the blood flow. We describe here a rare presentation
      of S. mitis, causing IE and its complications in an immunocompetent patient.

PMID- 28878525
TI  - Association of Three H - Hookworm, Hemosuccus Pancreaticus, and Hypertension
      (Portal) in a Patient with Melena.
AB  - Hookworm infestations, endemic in India, are a common cause of iron deficiency
      anemia. Hemosuccus pancreaticus, a rare clinical condition, is due to passage of
      blood into the pancreatic duct possibly through a route between an aneurysm of an
      artery close to the pancreas and/or pancreatic duct, leading to gastrointestinal
      (GI) bleeding. Portal hypertensive upper GI bleed is also known since long. We
      report a case of a 38-year-old male with a history of alcoholism who was being
      investigated for GI bleeding who had concomitant hookworm infestation, hemosuccus
      pancreaticus as well as portal hypertension. To the best of our knowledge, this
      is the first report of common occurrence of hemosuccus pancreaticus and portal
      hypertension with hookworm infection. This case signifies the importance of
      infectious causes of GI bleeding to be considered even in cases where anatomic
      malformations or pathophysiological alterations are predominant.

PMID- 28878527
TI  - Cutaneous Larva Migrans.

PMID- 28878528
TI  - Acute Osteomyelitis: It is Still Here.

PMID- 28878529
TI  - Geotrichum candidum in Infective Endocarditis.

PMID- 28878530
TI  - Oldest epiphyseal osteochondroma in a subadult from Ancient Egypt.
AB  - Benign bone tumours are pathologies frequently encountered in archaeological
      human remains, with the most common being osteoma and osteochondroma. We present
      the case of a juvenile individual recovered from the Necropolis of Sharuna,
      Middle Egypt and dated to the end of Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period of
      Ancient Egypt (circa 2150 BC), showing an osteochondroma arising from the
      proximal epiphysis of the right tibia which, in all likelihood, affected the
      patellar tendon in life. Osteochondromas are usually discovered during childhood
      and adolescence. These lesions are commonly located at the metaphysis and
      diaphysis of long bones and directed away from the joint, with the epiphysis
      being a rare location. To our knowledge, there have been no similar cases
      published to date from ancient times and we conclude that this is the oldest case
      of epiphyseal osteochondroma reported.

PMID- 28878531
TI  - Neglected acetabular fracture: Fix or replace?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Operative treatment of acute acetabular fractures has shown better
      results than the non-operative approach. There is, however, limited data
      regarding the operative treatment of neglected acetabular fracture. METHODS: We
      present six subjects with neglected fracture of the acetabulum in Cipto
      Mangunkusumo National Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia. One had only open reduction
      and internal fixation, three had open reduction and internal fixation first
      before we performed arthroplasty later, one had both open reduction and internal
      fixation with arthroplasty, and another had immediate arthroplasty. RESULTS: Our
      subjects were 4 males and 2 females with the average age of 41.1 years and the
      average neglect period was 18 months. In four of our subjects, the fractures had
      posterior wall involvement, one had an anterior column-posterior hemitransverse
      fracture, and the last one had transverse fracture. All fractures were classified
      to either Elementary or Associated type according to the Letournel
      classification. We observed all subjects up to eighteen months post-operatively.
      One subject had poor outcome, four subjects had fair outcome, and one subject had
      excellent outcome according to the Harris Hip Score. CONCLUSION: Even in
      neglected acetabular fracture, open reduction and internal fixation where
      possible should be attempted to restore the anatomical relationship to facilitate
      immediate or late total hip arthroplasty. Surgical treatment of such fractures
      should be based on individual case characteristics, which includes age,
      associated comorbidity, neglect period, as well as the type and union state of
      the fracture for a better outcome. Neglected Associated acetabular fracture types
      are more difficult to reduce and have poorer outcome compared to Elementary
      types. Likewise, malunited acetabular fractures are more difficult to operate on
      than non-united neglected acetabular fractures, where reduction is relatively
      easier.

PMID- 28878532
TI  - Bladder incarceration following anterior pelvic infix of a traumatic pubic
      symphysis diastasis treated with immediate open reduction and internal fixation.
AB  - Stabilization after a pelvic fracture can be accomplished using multiple
      techniques. The anterior external fixator has been traditionally used in variety
      of unstable pelvis either singly or in combination of posterior screws. These
      devices are cumbersome and restrict side turning and sitting particularly in
      obese patients. An alternative, anterior subcutaneous pelvic internal fixation
      technique (ASPIF) was developed which is well tolerated by patients for mobility
      and comfort and biomechanically more stable construct Complications of this
      construct included irritation of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, femoral
      nerve palsy &heterotypic ossification with reduced rates of infections and
      aseptic loosening as compared to external fixator. Bladder incarceration
      following treatment has never been reported and we encountered such a problem
      during management which we want to highlight.

PMID- 28878533
TI  - The importance of pelvic ring stabilization as a life-saving measure in pre
      hospital - A case report commented by autopsy.
AB  - Hip fractures with unstable pelvic ring have great morbidity and mortality rates.
      These fractures result from high energy trauma such as falls from heights, road
      accidents and collapsing structures or other similar mechanisms of action. We
      report the case of a 63 years old man, construction worker, who stood inside a
      ditch during a wall construction when he was surprised by this collapse, which
      resulted in direct trauma to the right thigh and pelvis. The autopsy revealed
      diaphysis fracture of the right femur with an open book pelvic fracture with
      severe hemorrhagic infiltration and hematoma of the pelvic muscles without
      arterial injury. Bone bleeding and the vascular damage associated with disruption
      of the sacroiliac ligaments promote a very significant bleeding. Simple maneuvers
      such as sheet circumferential compression to promote pelvic ring closure are
      effective on stabilizing and closure of the sacroiliac joint. Hip manipulation of
      the fracture was performed during the necropsy to demonstrate and prove how a
      simple sheet contention can promote stabilization of the pelvic ring by closing
      the sacroiliac joints in open book fractures.

PMID- 28878534
TI  - Endoscopic management of posterior ankle impingement syndrome-A case report.
AB  - Posterior ankle impingement syndrome (PAIS) is a clinical condition characterized
      by pain in the posterior aspect of ankle on performing activities requiring
      extreme plantar flexion. The impinging lesion could be bony and/or soft tissue.
      The operative treatment aims at removing the impinging lesion either by open or
      endoscopic surgery. The later has been shown to have benefits of early return to
      sports, better cosmesis, less wound complications. We report a case of a 19 year
      old footballer with PAIS secondary to Os Trigonum. The patient complained of pain
      on performing running and on kicking football. Conservative treatment in form of
      NSAIDS, rest, physiotherapy modality use could not ensure pain free return to
      sports.The patient was managed using endoscopic excision of the Os Trigonum
      followed by aggressive rehabilitation. The patient returned to competitive
      football at the end of 14 weeks after surgery. There were no wound complications.
      AAFOS score had changed from 73 to 100 and NPS scale showed pain score reduce
      from 7/10 to 1/10. We concluded that endoscopic management of PAIS to remove the
      impinging lesion is a minimally invasive technique that ensures early return to
      sports, good cosmesis, less risk of wound complications and good patient
      satisfaction.

PMID- 28878535
TI  - Atraumatic sequential bilateral locking of the knee joints secondary to
      dislocation of non-discoid lateral menisci without radiological abnormality.
AB  - Lateral meniscus dislocation, as a cause of atraumatic knee locking, is often
      attributed to a discoid meniscus which can be readily diagnosed on MRI. In the
      absence of radiological abnormality, a dislocated lateral meniscus is a rare
      occurrence. We present a case of a 14 year old male who presented with atraumatic
      sequential locking of bilateral knees 6 months apart. Although on both occasions,
      MRI was normal, arthroscopy demonstrated dislocating lateral menisci that were
      subsequently surgically stabilised. To date, there have been no reports
      describing this phenomenon bilaterally in the same patient. A high index of
      suspicion is needed to evaluate a locked knee in an adolescent in the absence of
      trauma or a radiological abnormality. Furthermore there is a probability of a
      similar occurrence in the opposite knee.

PMID- 28878536
TI  - Osteochondral autograft transplants for femoral head impaction fracture: A case
      report with arthroscopic findings.

PMID- 28878537
TI  - Arthroscopically assisted surgical fixation of a juvenile Tillaux fracture and
      implant removal: A case report.
AB  - Juvenile Tillaux fractures are Salter-Hallis III fractures of the distal tibial
      epiphysis that occur only when the tibial epiphyses are closing. Theoretically,
      arthroscopically assisted reduction and fixation of a juvenile Tillaux fracture
      can facilitate the accurate reconstruction of the articular surface, using
      arthroscopic visualization. We treated a girl aged 14 years who had a juvenile
      Tillaux fracture by using arthroscopically assisted reduction and fixation. In
      order to obtain articular congruency, the screw was inserted under arthroscopic
      visualization. Although the screw was placed through the epiphysis, the patient
      had no symptoms of discomfort and the functional results were excellent. We
      performed a second operation to remove the implant 9 months later. During this
      procedure, arthroscopy indicated the healing of the fracture site and an intact
      articular surface. At the 1.5 year follow-up, the radiograph indicated that the
      epiphysis was closed normally and that the patient had no symptoms. The American
      Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score was 100, or excellent. Although
      screw insertion into the epiphysis should be avoided, reconstructing the
      congruency of the joint surface is of higher priority in repairing the epiphysis.

PMID- 28878538
TI  - Triceps tendon reconstruction using autologous semitendinosis graft in
      professional kabaddi player-A rare case report.
AB  - Triceps tendon rupture is a rare injury occurs due to sudden forceful contraction
      of triceps against flexed elbow. Though there are case reports describing various
      treatment options for this injury, including primary repair as well as
      reconstruction using different technique, no standardised technique has been
      defined. We present, for the first time, a case of five month old neglected
      triceps tendon rupture in a professional kabaddi player. Ruptured tendon was
      reconstructed using free autologous semitendinous graft with good functional
      outcome.

PMID- 28878539
TI  - Unusual association of elbow dislocation with humeral biepicondylar fracture in a
      child: A case report and review of literature.
AB  - Humeral biepicondylar fracture with elbow dislocation is an unusual pattern of
      injury encountered in paediatric population. We reported a case of humeral
      biepicondylar fracture-dislocation of elbow in a 11-year-old boy, who presented
      with tender, swollen, and deformed left elbow following fall on his outstretched
      hand. Roentgenographic and CT evaluation confirmed the diagnosis, and also showed
      incarcerated medial epicondylar fragment. Closed reduction was unsuccessful; open
      reduction and internal fixation was performed with headless screws. Avulsed
      medial collateral ligament was repaired with suture anchor. Following 4 weeks of
      immobilization, physiotherapy was started. The child regained satisfactory range
      of-motion of the elbow with complete bony union within 3 months. Two years
      following operation, the child is asymptomatic, with pain free stable elbow. High
      index of suspicion and astute clinical and radiological assessment is utilitarian
      for timely diagnosis and appropriate management. Open reduction and internal
      fixation is believed to be pivotal to restore elbow stability and functionality.

PMID- 28878540
TI  - Bare medial epicondyle physeal fracture of the humerus: A case report.
AB  - We identified an unusual case of the medial epiondyle physeal fracture, which has
      been caused by a direct blow, accompanied with complete stripping of soft tissue.
      Surgery was performed for open reduction and internal fixation of the medial
      epicondyle and reattachment of the anterior oblique bundle of medial collateral
      ligament and flexor muscle origin. Six months after the surgery, strength of
      wrist flexion and forearm pronation, range of motion and valgus stability of the
      left elbow had recovered. One year after the injury, radiographs showed atrophy
      and sclerosis of the medial epicondylar apophysis. In this type of injury,
      revascularization of medial epicondyle fracture is not essential for recovery of
      elbow function when reattachment of the medial collateral ligament and flexor
      pronator muscle origin to the distal medial humerus successfully restores
      stability of the elbow joint.

PMID- 28878541
TI  - An unusual localization of chondroblastoma: The triradiate cartilage; from a case
      report a reconstructive technique proposal with imaging evolution.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chondroblastoma (also known as Codman tumor) is a rare intermediate
      grade cartilaginous neoplasm, representing less than 1% of all primary bone
      tumors; it characteristically arises in the epiphysis or apophysis of a long bone
      in young patients, predominantly males. The most frequent location of
      chondroblastoma is the humerus (70% incidence rate) and more rarely it is located
      in the pelvis. When it affects the hip, the triradiate cartilage is the most
      common site. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An unusual case of Chondroblastoma located in
      the triradiate cartilage is reported. The surgical technique and the imaging are
      emphasized: a homoplastic fascia latae was used to reconstruct the cartilage
      layer then a layer of engineered homoplastic bone was superiorly positioned to
      reconstruct the subchondral bone; the residual cavity was filled with a
      homoplastic hemi-femoral head concavity molded to best correspond to the
      acetabular roof and morcelized bone. RESULTS: At four years of follow-up the
      patient is pain free and able to walk without crutches; the imaging showed a
      rearrangement of the trabecula distribution following the lines of force.
      CONCLUSIONS: The suggested technique could be a valid option in reconstructing
      acetabular roof in benign lesions. A correct radiological assessment could be
      helpful for diagnosis and an early detection of local recurrence.

PMID- 28878542
TI  - Ewings sarcoma of ilium: Resection and reconstruction with femoral head
      allograft.
AB  - Ewing's sarcoma is a common malignant bone tumor seen in 5-15 years age group. It
      often arises from diaphysis of long bones. Ewing's sarcoma arising from the ilium
      is very rare, and it has an unfavourable prognosis. We present a rare case report
      of Ewings sarcoma of ilium with no metastasis in a two and a half year old boy,
      who was treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgical excision of
      the tumor and reconstruction using allograft from the femoral head fixed with
      multiple k-wires and screw. The patient is disease free at one year follow up and
      the allograft has taken the shape of growing ilium and excellent functionality
      and gait with minimal limp. Through this report, we emphasize on the occurrence
      of Ewings sarcoma in unusual site and resection and reconstruction of the tumor
      utilizing the allograft.

PMID- 28878543
TI  - Reproducible transient asystolic arrest during intramedullary reaming of the
      femoral canal: A case report.
AB  - The utilization of intramedullary devices in the surgical fixation of hip
      fractures is increasing. Although intramedullary devices offer many advantages in
      the treatment of these injuries, they are also associated with a unique set of
      potential complications, particularly during preparation of the femoral canal.
      Cardiac dysrhythmia resulting from reaming the femoral canal is rare and has not
      been previously described in detail in the literature. We present the case of a
      69-year-old male with an infected right cephalomedullary femoral nail who
      underwent removal of hardware and experienced reproducible, transient asystolic
      cardiac arrest during reaming of the femoral canal and offer potential
      explanations for this event.

PMID- 28878544
TI  - Proximal humerus fracture dislocation leading to axillary artery injury in an
      young adult: Case report of an unusual presentation.
AB  - Proximal humerus fractures constitute five percent of all fracture cases. Though
      rare, severely comminuted proximal humerus fractures can cause injury to
      neurovascular structure. Majority of these injuries reported in literature were
      in elderly age group from low velocity injury owing to loss of elasticity of
      vessel wall. We report a case of proximal humerus fracture dislocation associated
      with axillary artery injury in a young male due to fall of heavy iron object.
      Timely exploration and removal of impinging bone fragment restored the blood
      supply. The purpose of this report is to heighten the clinical suspicion of the
      vascular injury in patients with proximal humerus fracture dislocations in all
      age groups.

PMID- 28878545
TI  - Atraumatic segmental atypical femur fracture secondary to bisphosphonate use: A
      case report.
AB  - Atypical femur fractures as a result of long term bisphosphonate use are
      characterized by several unique radiographic features. We describe an atypical
      femur fracture treated by cephalomedullary nail with a previously undescribed
      segmental fracture pattern. Other than 1.5 years of bisphosphonate use the
      patient did not have any other risk factors known to cause atypical femur
      fractures. Judicious bisphosphonate use as well as increased awareness of the
      associated complications may help reduce the rate of bisphosphonate associated
      atypical femur fractures.

PMID- 28878546
TI  - A case of rapidly destructive osteoarthritis of the hip with onset of less than
      six weeks.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rapidly destructive osteoarthritis is characterized by a severe
      destruction of the hip joint developing over short periods of time. However, to
      date, there is no agreement on the biological process that triggers this
      condition. The aim of this report is to present a case of rapidly destructive
      osteoarthritis. CASE REPORT: We report a case of a 76 year-old female who
      presented with hip pain of sudden onset and normal X-rays. Six weeks later she
      presented with increased pain intensity, functional limitation and evidence of a
      collapse of the femoral head in the X-rays. DISCUSSION: Rapidly destructive
      osteoarthritis of the hip is a complex entity that might be more frequent than
      previously described and which clinical course could vary between few weeks and
      several months. In order to make an accurate diagnosis, other causes of massive
      destruction of the joint should be excluded.

PMID- 28878547
TI  - Bilateral simultaneous total hip replacement in Achondroplasia.
AB  - We present a case of bilateral simultaneous total hip replacement in a very short
      statured (height 112 cm) 45 years old male patient with Achondroplasia and
      disabling osteoarthritis of both the hips. We describe the difficulties
      encountered and provide a methodical approach for such cases.

PMID- 28878548
TI  - Arthroscopic diagnosis and treatment of shoulder ochronotic arthropathy - A case
      report.
AB  - Alkaptonuria is a rare inherited metabolic disorder, caused by the deficiency of
      homogentisate 1,2 dioxygenase enzyme. The three major features of alkaptonuria
      are the presence of homogentisic acid in urine, ochronosis (bluish-black
      pigmentation in connective tissue) and arthritis of the spine and large joints.
      We present a 48 years old female presented with pain, restriction of movements of
      right shoulder. Arthroscopy was suggestive of ochronotic arthropathy. The
      definitive diagnosis of ochronosis was subsequently confirmed by laboratory and
      pathologic evaluation.

PMID- 28878550
TI  - Whitham modulation theory for the Kadomtsev- Petviashvili equation.
AB  - The genus-1 Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP)-Whitham system is derived for both
      variants of the KP equation; namely the KPI and KPII equations. The basic
      properties of the KP-Whitham system, including symmetries, exact reductions and
      its possible complete integrability, together with the appropriate generalization
      of the one-dimensional Riemann problem for the Korteweg-de Vries equation are
      discussed. Finally, the KP-Whitham system is used to study the linear stability
      properties of the genus-1 solutions of the KPI and KPII equations; it is shown
      that all genus-1 solutions of KPI are linearly unstable, while all genus-1
      solutions of KPII are linearly stable within the context of Whitham theory.

PMID- 28878549
TI  - Risk perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chikungunya among the public and
      health professionals: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently, attention to chikungunya has increased due to its spread
      into previously non-endemic areas. Since there is no available treatment or
      vaccine, most intervention strategies focus on mosquito bite prevention and
      mosquito control, which require community involvement to be successful. Thus, our
      objective was to systematically review the global primary literature on the risk
      perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chikungunya among the public and health
      professionals to inform future research and improve our understanding on which
      intervention strategies are likely to be successful. METHODS: Potentially
      relevant articles were identified through a standardized systematic review (SR)
      process consisting of the following steps: comprehensive search strategy in seven
      databases (Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL, CAB, LILACS, Agricola, and Cochrane) and a
      grey literature search of public health organizations, relevance screening, risk
      of bias assessment, and data extraction. Two independent reviewers performed each
      step. Reporting of this SR follows PRISMA reporting guidelines. RESULTS: Thirty
      seven relevant articles were identified. The majority of the articles were
      published since 2011 (83.8%) and reported on studies conducted in Asia (48.7%)
      and the Indian Ocean Islands (24.3%). The results were separated into four
      categories: general knowledge and perceptions on chikungunya; perceptions on the
      risk and severity of chikungunya; knowledge of chikungunya-harboring vectors and
      transmission; and knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes on mitigation practices.
      Overall, the systematic review found that risk perceptions, attitudes, and
      knowledge of chikungunya among the public and health professionals vary across
      populations and countries and knowledge is higher in areas that have experienced
      an outbreak. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that most of the affected
      populations in this study do not understand mosquito borne diseases or
      chikungunya and are therefore less likely to protect themselves from mosquito
      bites. While more research is required to improve the generalizability of this
      dataset, it appears that a lack of knowledge is an important barrier for
      motivating community level interventions and personal protection against
      mosquitoes.

PMID- 28878551
TI  - A variation on the Donsker-Varadhan inequality for the principal eigenvalue.
AB  - The purpose of this short paper is to give a variation on the classical Donsker
      Varadhan inequality, which bounds the first eigenvalue of a second-order elliptic
      operator on a bounded domain Omega by the largest mean first exit time of the
      associated drift-diffusion process via [Formula: see text]Instead of looking at
      the mean of the first exit time, we study quantiles: let [Formula: see text] be
      the smallest time t such that the likelihood of exiting within that time is p,
      then [Formula: see text]Moreover, as [Formula: see text], this lower bound
      converges to lambda1.

PMID- 28878552
TI  - Recursive modular modelling methodology for lumped-parameter dynamic systems.
AB  - This paper proposes a novel approach to the modelling of lumped-parameter dynamic
      systems, based on representing them by hierarchies of mathematical models of
      increasing complexity instead of a single (complex) model. Exploring the
      multilevel modularity that these systems typically exhibit, a general recursive
      modelling methodology is proposed, in order to conciliate the use of the already
      existing modelling techniques. The general algorithm is based on a fundamental
      theorem that states the conditions for computing projection operators
      recursively. Three procedures for these computations are discussed:
      orthonormalization, use of orthogonal complements and use of generalized
      inverses. The novel methodology is also applied for the development of a
      recursive algorithm based on the Udwadia-Kalaba equation, which proves to be
      identical to the one of a Kalman filter for estimating the state of a static
      process, given a sequence of noiseless measurements representing the constraints
      that must be satisfied by the system.

PMID- 28878553
TI  - Rebound mechanics of micrometre-scale, spherical particles in high-velocity
      impacts.
AB  - The impact mechanics of micrometre-scale metal particles with flat metal surfaces
      is investigated for high-velocity impacts ranging from 50 m s-1 to more than 1 km
      s-1, where impact causes predominantly plastic deformation. A material model that
      includes high strain rate and temperature effects on the yield stress, heat
      generation due to plasticity, material damage due to excessive plastic strain and
      heat transfer is used in the numerical analysis. The coefficient of restitution e
      is predicted by the classical work using elastic-plastic deformation analysis
      with quasi-static impact mechanics to be proportional to [Formula: see text] and
      [Formula: see text] for the low and moderate impact velocities that span the
      ranges of 0-10 and 10-100 m s-1, respectively. In the elastic-plastic and fully
      plastic deformation regimes the particle rebound is attributed to the elastic
      spring-back that initiates at the particle-substrate interface. At higher impact
      velocities (0.1-1 km s-1) e is shown to be proportional to approximately
      [Formula: see text]. In this deeply plastic deformation regime various
      deformation modes that depend on plastic flow of the material including the time
      lag between the rebound instances of the top and bottom points of particle and
      the lateral spreading of the particle are identified. In this deformation regime,
      the elastic spring-back initiates subsurface, in the substrate.

PMID- 28878554
TI  - Model selection for dynamical systems via sparse regression and information
      criteria.
AB  - We develop an algorithm for model selection which allows for the consideration of
      a combinatorially large number of candidate models governing a dynamical system.
      The innovation circumvents a disadvantage of standard model selection which
      typically limits the number of candidate models considered due to the
      intractability of computing information criteria. Using a recently developed
      sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics algorithm, the sub-selection of
      candidate models near the Pareto frontier allows feasible computation of Akaike
      information criteria (AIC) or Bayes information criteria scores for the remaining
      candidate models. The information criteria hierarchically ranks the most
      informative models, enabling the automatic and principled selection of the model
      with the strongest support in relation to the time-series data. Specifically, we
      show that AIC scores place each candidate model in the strong support, weak
      support or no support category. The method correctly recovers several canonical
      dynamical systems, including a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered disease
      model, Burgers' equation and the Lorenz equations, identifying the correct
      dynamical system as the only candidate model with strong support.

PMID- 28878555
TI  - Organic molecule fluorescence as an experimental test-bed for quantum jumps in
      thermodynamics.
AB  - We demonstrate with an experiment how molecules are a natural test bed for
      probing fundamental quantum thermodynamics. Single-molecule spectroscopy has
      undergone transformative change in the past decade with the advent of techniques
      permitting individual molecules to be distinguished and probed. We demonstrate
      that the quantum Jarzynski equality for heat is satisfied in this set-up by
      considering the time-resolved emission spectrum of organic molecules as arising
      from quantum jumps between states. This relates the heat dissipated into the
      environment to the free energy difference between the initial and final state. We
      demonstrate also how utilizing the quantum Jarzynski equality allows for the
      detection of energy shifts within a molecule, beyond the relative shift.

PMID- 28878556
TI  - Initial boundary-value problem for the spherically symmetric Einstein equations
      with fluids with tangential pressure.
AB  - We prove that, for a given spherically symmetric fluid distribution with
      tangential pressure on an initial space-like hypersurface with a time-like
      boundary, there exists a unique, local in time solution to the Einstein equations
      in a neighbourhood of the boundary. As an application, we consider a particular
      elastic fluid interior matched to a vacuum exterior.

PMID- 28878557
TI  - Designing the optimal bit: balancing energetic cost, speed and reliability.
AB  - We consider the challenge of operating a reliable bit that can be rapidly erased.
      We find that both erasing and reliability times are non-monotonic in the
      underlying friction, leading to a trade-off between erasing speed and bit
      reliability. Fast erasure is possible at the expense of low reliability at
      moderate friction, and high reliability comes at the expense of slow erasure in
      the underdamped and overdamped limits. Within a given class of bit parameters and
      control strategies, we define 'optimal' designs of bits that meet the desired
      reliability and erasing time requirements with the lowest operational work cost.
      We find that optimal designs always saturate the bound on the erasing time
      requirement, but can exceed the required reliability time if critically damped.
      The non-trivial geometry of the reliability and erasing time scales allows us to
      exclude large regions of parameter space as suboptimal. We find that optimal
      designs are either critically damped or close to critical damping under the
      erasing procedure.

PMID- 28878559
TI  - Effective potentials in nonlinear polycrystals and quadrature formulae.
AB  - This study presents a family of estimates for effective potentials in nonlinear
      polycrystals. Noting that these potentials are given as averages, several
      quadrature formulae are investigated to express these integrals of nonlinear
      functions of local fields in terms of the moments of these fields. Two of these
      quadrature formulae reduce to known schemes, including a recent proposition
      (Ponte Castaneda 2015 Proc. R. Soc. A471, 20150665 (doi:10.1098/rspa.2015.0665))
      obtained by completely different means. Other formulae are also reviewed that
      make use of statistical information on the fields beyond their first and second
      moments. These quadrature formulae are applied to the estimation of effective
      potentials in polycrystals governed by two potentials, by means of a reduced
      order model proposed by the authors (non-uniform transformation field analysis).
      It is shown how the quadrature formulae improve on the tangent second-order
      approximation in porous crystals at high stress triaxiality. It is found that, in
      order to retrieve a satisfactory accuracy for highly nonlinear porous crystals
      under high stress triaxiality, a quadrature formula of higher order is required.

PMID- 28878558
TI  - Characterization of columnar inertial modes in rapidly rotating spheres and
      spheroids.
AB  - We consider fluid-filled spheres and spheroidal containers of eccentricity
      epsilon in rapid rotation, as a proxy for the interior dynamics of stars and
      planets. The fluid motion is assumed to be quasi-geostrophic (QG): horizontal
      motions are invariant parallel to the rotation axis z, a characteristic which is
      handled by use of a stream function formulation which additionally enforces mass
      conservation and non-penetration at the boundary. By linearizing about a
      quiescent background state, we investigate a variety of methods to study the QG
      inviscid inertial wave modes which are compared with fully three-dimensional (3D)
      calculations. We consider the recently proposed weak formulation of the inviscid
      system valid in spheroids of arbitrary eccentricity, to which we present novel
      closed-form polynomial solutions. Our modal solutions accurately represent, in
      both spatial structure and frequency, the most z-invariant of the inertial wave
      modes in a spheroid, and constitute a simple basis set for the analysis of
      rotationally dominated fluids. We further show that these new solutions are more
      accurate than those of the classical axial-vorticity equation, which is
      independent of epsilon and thus fails to properly encode the container geometry.
      We also consider the effects of viscosity for the cases of both no-slip and
      stress-free boundary conditions for a spherical container. Calculations performed
      under the columnar approximation are compared with 3D solutions and excellent
      agreement has been found despite fundamental differences in the two formulations.

PMID- 28878560
TI  - Numerical simulations of drumlin formation.
AB  - We summarize the present form of the instability theory for drumlin formation,
      which describes the coupled subglacial flow of ice, water and sediment. This
      model has evolved over the last 20 years, and is now at the point where it can
      predict instabilities corresponding to ribbed moraine, drumlins and mega-scale
      glacial lineations, but efforts to provide numerical solutions of the model have
      been limited. The present summary adds some slight nuances to previously
      published versions of the theory, notably concerning the constitutive description
      of the subglacial water film and its flow. A new numerical method is devised to
      solve the model, and we show that it can be solved for realistic values of most
      of the parameters, with the exception of that corresponding to the water film
      thickness. We show that evolved bedforms can be three-dimensional and of the
      correct sizes, and we explore to some extent the variation of the solutions with
      the model's parameters.

PMID- 28878561
TI  - Temperature profile in a liquid-vapour interface near the critical point.
AB  - Thanks to an expansion with respect to densities of energy, mass and entropy, we
      discuss the concept of thermocapillary fluid for inhomogeneous fluids. The non
      convex state law valid for homogeneous fluids is modified by adding terms taking
      account of the gradients of these densities. This seems more realistic than Cahn
      and Hilliard's model which uses a density expansion in mass-density gradient
      only. Indeed, through liquid-vapour interfaces, realistic potentials in molecular
      theories show that entropy density and temperature do not vary with the mass
      density as it would do in bulk phases. In this paper, we prove using a rescaling
      process near the critical point, that liquid-vapour interfaces behave essentially
      in the same way as in Cahn and Hilliard's model.

PMID- 28878563
TI  - The structure of turbulence in a rapid tidal flow.
AB  - The structure of turbulence in a rapid tidal flow is characterized through new
      observations of fundamental statistical properties at a site in the UK which has
      a simple geometry and sedate surface wave action. The mean flow at the Sound of
      Islay exceeded 2.5 m s-1 and the turbulent boundary layer occupied the majority
      of the water column, with an approximately logarithmic mean velocity profile
      identifiable close to the seabed. The anisotropic ratios, spectral scales and
      higher-order statistics of the turbulence generally agree well with values
      reported for two-dimensional open channels in the laboratory and other tidal
      channels, therefore providing further support for the application of universal
      models. The results of the study can assist in developing numerical models of
      turbulence in rapid tidal flows such as those proposed for tidal energy
      generation.

PMID- 28878562
TI  - Flexural edge waves generated by steady-state propagation of a loaded rectilinear
      crack in an elastically supported thin plate.
AB  - The problem of a rectilinear crack propagating at constant speed in an
      elastically supported thin plate and acted upon by an equally moving load is
      considered. The full-field solution is obtained and the spotlight is set on
      flexural edge wave generation. Below the critical speed for the appearance of
      travelling waves, a threshold speed is met which marks the transformation of
      decaying edge waves into edge waves propagating along the crack and dying away
      from it. Yet, besides these, and for any propagation speed, a pair of localized
      edge waves, which rapidly decay behind the crack tip, is also shown to exist.
      These waves are characterized by a novel dispersion relation and fade off from
      the crack line in an oscillatory manner, whence they play an important role in
      the far field behaviour. Dynamic stress intensity factors are obtained and, for
      speed close to the critical speed, they show a resonant behaviour which expresses
      the most efficient way to channel external work into the crack. Indeed, this
      behaviour is justified through energy considerations regarding the work of the
      applied load and the energy release rate. Results might be useful in a wide array
      of applications, ranging from fracturing and machining to acoustic emission and
      defect detection.

PMID- 28878564
TI  - Nonlinear electroelasticity: material properties, continuum theory and
      applications.
AB  - In the last few years, it has been recognized that the large deformation capacity
      of elastomeric materials that are sensitive to electric fields can be harnessed
      for use in transducer devices such as actuators and sensors. This has led to the
      reassessment of the mathematical theory that is needed for the description of the
      electromechanical (in particular, electroelastic) interactions for purposes of
      material characterization and prediction. After a review of the key experiments
      concerned with determining the nature of the electromechanical interactions and a
      discussion of the range of applications to devices, we provide a short account of
      the history of developments in the nonlinear theory. This is followed by a
      succinct modern treatment of electroelastic theory, including the governing
      equations and constitutive laws needed for both material characterization and the
      analysis of general electroelastic coupling problems. For illustration, the
      theory is then applied to two simple representative boundary-value problems that
      are relevant to the geometries of activation devices; in particular, (a) a
      rectangular plate and (b) a circular cylindrical tube, in each case with
      compliant electrodes on the major surfaces and a potential difference between
      them. In (a), an electric field is generated normal to the major surfaces and in
      (b), a radial electric field is present. This is followed by a short section in
      which other problems addressed on the basis of the general theory are described
      briefly.

PMID- 28878565
TI  - Mittag-Leffler synchronization of delayed fractional-order bidirectional
      associative memory neural networks with discontinuous activations: state feedback
      control and impulsive control schemes.
AB  - This paper is concerned with the drive-response synchronization for a class of
      fractional-order bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time
      delays, as well as in the presence of discontinuous activation functions. The
      global existence of solution under the framework of Filippov for such networks is
      firstly obtained based on the fixed-point theorem for condensing map. Then the
      state feedback and impulsive controllers are, respectively, designed to ensure
      the Mittag-Leffler synchronization of these neural networks and two new
      synchronization criteria are obtained, which are expressed in terms of a
      fractional comparison principle and Razumikhin techniques. Numerical simulations
      are presented to validate the proposed methodologies.

PMID- 28878566
TI  - Elastic deformation of twinned microstructures.
AB  - Many crystalline materials exhibit twinned microstructures, where well-defined
      orientation relationships define the special symmetry between different,
      elastically anisotropic twin variants. When such twins are subjected to external
      loading, additional internal stresses necessarily occur at the twin boundaries in
      order to maintain compatibility. These compatibility stresses are constant inside
      each variant in repeating stacks of twins and considerably affect the local
      stress state. In this paper, we use anisotropic linear elasticity to derive
      general analytical solutions for compatibility stresses in a stack of twin
      variants in arbitrary materials, for arbitrary variant volume fractions and twin
      types, subjected to arbitrary applied stresses. By considering two examples,
      growth twins in electrodeposited Cu and B19' martensite twins in the shape memory
      alloy NiTi, we further demonstrate that compatibility stresses can considerably
      alter the preferred slip systems for dislocation plasticity as well as the
      effective macroscopic behaviour of twinned microstructures.

PMID- 28878567
TI  - Adaptive compliant structures for flow regulation.
AB  - This paper introduces conceptual design principles for a novel class of adaptive
      structures that provide both flow regulation and control. While of general
      applicability, these design principles, which revolve around the idea of using
      the instabilities and elastically nonlinear behaviour of post-buckled panels, are
      exemplified through a case study: the design of a shape-adaptive air inlet. The
      inlet comprises a deformable post-buckled member that changes shape depending on
      the pressure field applied by the surrounding fluid, thereby regulating the inlet
      aperture. By tailoring the stress field in the post-buckled state and the
      geometry of the initial, stress-free configuration, the deformable section can
      snap through to close or open the inlet completely. Owing to its inherent ability
      to change shape in response to external stimuli-i.e. the aerodynamic loads
      imposed by different operating conditions-the inlet does not have to rely on
      linkages and mechanisms for actuation, unlike conventional flow-controlling
      devices.

PMID- 28878568
TI  - Spectral derivation of the classic laws of wall-bounded turbulent flows.
AB  - We show that the classic laws of the mean-velocity profiles (MVPs) of wall
      bounded turbulent flows-the 'law of the wall,' the 'defect law' and the 'log law'
      can be predicated on a sufficient condition with no manifest ties to the MVPs,
      namely that viscosity and finite turbulent domains have a depressive effect on
      the spectrum of turbulent energy. We also show that this sufficient condition is
      consistent with empirical data on the spectrum and may be deemed a general
      property of the energetics of wall turbulence. Our findings shed new light on the
      physical origin of the classic laws and their immediate offshoot, Prandtl's
      theory of turbulent friction.

PMID- 28878569
TI  - Multi-parameter actuation of a neutrally stable shell: a flexible gear-less
      motor.
AB  - We have designed and tested experimentally a morphing structure consisting of a
      neutrally stable thin cylindrical shell driven by a multi-parameter piezoelectric
      actuation. The shell is obtained by plastically deforming an initially flat
      copper disc, so as to induce large isotropic and almost uniform inelastic
      curvatures. Following the plastic deformation, in a perfectly isotropic system,
      the shell is theoretically neutrally stable, having a continuous set of stable
      cylindrical shapes corresponding to the rotation of the axis of maximal
      curvature. Small imperfections render the actual structure bistable, giving
      preferred orientations. A three-parameter piezoelectric actuation, exerted
      through micro-fibre-composite actuators, allows us to add a small perturbation to
      the plastic inelastic curvature and to control the direction of maximal
      curvature. This actuation law is designed through a geometrical analogy based on
      a fully nonlinear inextensible uniform-curvature shell model. We report on the
      fabrication, identification and experimental testing of a prototype and
      demonstrate the effectiveness of the piezoelectric actuators in controlling its
      shape. The resulting motion is an apparent rotation of the shell, controlled by
      the voltages as in a 'gear-less motor', which is, in reality, a precession of the
      axis of principal curvature.

PMID- 28878570
TI  - Some applications of mathematics in golf.
AB  - At its core, like many other sports, golf is a game of integers. The minimization
      of the number of strokes played is generally what determines the winner, whether
      each of these are associated with the shortest of putts or the longest of drives.
      The outcomes of these shots are influenced by very slight changes, but hopefully
      in a deterministic sense. Understanding the mechanics of golf necessitates the
      development of models and this is coupled more often than not to the use of
      statistics. In essence, the individual aspects of the sport can be modelled
      adequately via fairly simplistic models, but the presence of a human at one end
      of the kinematic chain has a significant impact on the variability of the entire
      process. In this paper, we will review some of the ways that mathematics has been
      used to develop the understanding of the physical processes involved in the
      sport, including some of the analysis which is exploited within the Equipment
      Rules. We will also discuss some of the future challenges.

PMID- 28878572
TI  - Dabigatran reversal with idarucizumab in a patient undergoing heart
      transplantation: first European report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dabigatran is a direct thrombin inhibitor with a favorable
      effectiveness and safety profile when compared to vitamin K antagonists, both in
      randomized trials and real world registries of atrial fibrillation patients. Yet,
      physicians' fear of high bleeding risk scenarios in daily clinical practice still
      precludes a more widespread use of oral anticoagulation. We hereby report a
      successful case of dabigatran reversal with the novel monoclonal antibody
      fragment idarucizumab in a patient undergoing heart transplantation. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 45-year old male patient on dabigatran for atrial fibrillation
      thromboprophylaxis was enlisted for heart transplantation due to end-stage
      ischemic heart failure. Upon donor availability and suitability and following the
      last intake of the drug 12 h previously, activated partial thromboplastin time
      was measured and found to be elevated. After general anesthesia and before
      extracorporeal circulation, idarucizumab was administered as two boluses of 2.5
      g. Orthotopic heart transplantation ensued under full heparinization and
      cardiopulmonary bypass. Total chest tube output was 1125 mL after 3 days and 4
      units of fresh frozen plasma and one platelet pool were administered in the
      operating room without further need for blood products. The post-operative period
      was uneventful. CONCLUSIONS: Idarucizumab was associated with an effective
      hemostasis in the setting of heart transplantation. Dabigatran may be considered
      as an alternative to vitamin K antagonists in heart transplant candidates with an
      indication for oral anticoagulation.

PMID- 28878571
TI  - Ribonucleic acid interference knockdown of IL-6 enhances the efficacy of
      cisplatin in laryngeal cancer stem cells by down-regulating the IL-6/STAT3/HIF1
      pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cisplatin has been used in the treatment of many cancers, including
      laryngeal cancer; however, its efficacy can be reduced due to the development of
      drug resistance. This study aimed to investigate whether interleukin-6 (IL-6)
      knockdown may enhance the efficacy of cisplatin in laryngeal cancer stem cells
      (CSC) and the potential involvement of the signal transducer and activator of
      transcription 3 (STAT3) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF1) in this effect.
      METHODS: The ALDH+ and CD44+ CSC in Hep2 human laryngeal squamous cancer cells
      were identified by the fluorescence-activated cell sorting technique. IL-6, STAT3
      and HIF1 mRNA and protein expressions were examined with quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction and Western blot, respectively. Cell proliferation was
      measured by MTT assay. Tumorigenicity was measured by a colony formation assay
      and invasion was determined by a cell invasion assay. Apoptotic cells were
      counted by flow cytometry. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect
      immunoreactive IL-6, STAT3 and HIF1 cells in xenografts. RESULTS: The mRNA and
      protein levels of IL-6, STAT3 and HIF1 were significantly increased in Hep2-CSC
      as compared with those from Hep2 cells. Application of siRNA-IL-6 to knockdown IL
      6 resulted in significantly decreased IL-6, STAT3 and HIF1 mRNA and protein
      levels. IL-6 knockdown reduced cell proliferation, tumorigenicity and invasion
      and increased apoptosis within CSC. Enhanced degrees of suppression in these
      parameters were observed when IL-6 knockdown was combined with cisplatin in these
      CSC. Results from the xenograft study showed that the combination of IL-6
      knockdown and cisplatin further inhibited the growth of xenografts as compared
      with that obtained in the cisplatin-injected group alone. Immunoreactive IL-6,
      STAT3 and HIF1 cell numbers were markedly reduced in IL-6 knockdown tumor
      tissues. IL-6, STAT3 and HIF1 immunoreactive cell counts were further reduced in
      tissue where IL-6 knockdown was combined with cisplatin treatment as compared
      with tissue receiving cisplatin alone. CONCLUSIONS: IL-6 knockdown can increase
      chemo-drug efficacy of cisplatin, inhibit tumor growth and reduce the potential
      for tumor recurrence and metastasis in laryngeal cancer. The IL-6/STAT3/HIF1
      pathway may represent an important target for investigating therapeutic
      strategies for the treatment of laryngeal cancer.

PMID- 28878573
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of human papillomavirus vaccination in Germany.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of human
      papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in addition to the current cervical cancer
      screening programme in Germany using a dynamic transmission model. METHODS: Based
      on a mathematical model simulating the transmission dynamics and the natural
      history of HPV infection and associated diseases (cervical intraepithelial
      neoplasia, cervical cancer, and genital warts), we estimated the epidemiological
      and economic consequences of HPV vaccination with both the quadrivalent and
      bivalent vaccines. In our base case analysis, we assessed the cost-effectiveness
      of vaccinating 12-year-old girls with a 3-dose schedule. In sensitivity analysis,
      we also evaluated the use of a 2-dose schedule and assessed the impact of
      vaccinating boys. RESULTS: From a health care payer perspective, incremental cost
      effectiveness ratios (ICERs) of a 3-dose schedule were ?34,249 per quality
      adjusted life year (QALY) for the bivalent and ?14,711 per QALY for the
      quadrivalent vaccine. Inclusion of indirect costs decreased ICERs by up to 40%.
      When adopting a health care payer perspective, ICERs of a 2-dose approach
      decreased to ?19,450 per QALY for the bivalent and to ?3645 per QALY for the
      quadrivalent vaccine. From a societal perspective, a 2-dose approach using the
      quadrivalent vaccine was a cost-saving strategy while using the bivalent vaccine
      resulted in an ICER of ?13,248 per QALY. Irrespective of the perspective adopted,
      additional vaccination of boys resulted in ICERs exceeding ?50,000 per QALY,
      except for scenarios with low coverage (20%) in girls. CONCLUSIONS: Our model
      results suggest that routine HPV vaccination of 12-year-old girls with three
      doses is likely to be cost-effective in Germany. Due to the additional impact on
      genital warts, the quadrivalent vaccine appeared to be more cost-effective than
      the bivalent vaccine. A 2-dose schedule of the quadrivalent vaccine might even
      lead to cost savings when adopting a societal perspective. The cost-effectiveness
      of additional vaccination of boys was highly dependent on the coverage in girls.

PMID- 28878575
TI  - My Time in Jail.

PMID- 28878574
TI  - Skin Necrosis Induced by Coumarin Congeners.

PMID- 28878576
TI  - Comparison of 3 Predictive Clinical Risk Scores in 603 Patients with Stable
      Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - No clinical risk score is universally accepted for coronary artery disease. In
      603 patients (mean age, 61.2 +/- 12.3 yr) with stable coronary artery disease, we
      investigated the predictive power of clinical risk scores derived from the
      Framingham, the Long-term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischemic Disease
      (LIPID), and the Vienna and Ludwigshafen Coronary Artery Disease (VILCAD)
      studies. Secondary outcomes were the recurrence of an acute thrombotic event
      (coronary events, strokes, or transient ischemic attacks), or heart failure or
      death. The primary outcome was the combination of secondary outcomes. During
      follow-up (duration, 2.08 +/- 0.97 yr), 42 patients had an acute thrombotic
      event; 22, heart failure or death; and 60, the primary outcome. The Framingham
      score predicted acute thrombotic events: hazard ratio (HR)=1.05; 95% confidence
      interval (CI), 1.01-1.08; P=0.03; net reclassification index (NRI, calculated to
      evaluate improvement in prediction gained by adding different risk scores to
      models constructed with variables excluded from the calculation of that
      score)=9.7% (95% CI, 9.6-9.8). The LIPID (HR=1.13; 95% CI, 1.04-1.22; P=0.005)
      and VILCAD scores (HR=1.99; 95% CI, 1.48-2.67; P <0.001) predicted heart failure
      or death with NRIs of 5.8% (95% CI, 5.7-5.9) and 18.6% (95% CI, 18.3-18.9),
      respectively. The primary outcome was predicted by the LIPID (HR=1.1; 95% CI,
      1.03-1.17; P=0.005) and VILCAD scores (HR=1.39; 95% CI, 1.13-1.70; P=0.003). The
      NRIs (95% CIs) were 3.4% (3.3-3.5) and 19.4% (19.3-19.6), respectively. We
      conclude that the accuracy of these risk scores varies in accordance with the
      outcome studied.

PMID- 28878577
TI  - Echocardiographic Classification and Surgical Approaches to Double-Outlet Right
      Ventricle for Great Arteries Arising Almost Exclusively from the Right Ventricle.
AB  - Selecting an appropriate surgical approach for double-outlet right ventricle
      (DORV), a complex congenital cardiac malformation with many anatomic variations,
      is difficult. Therefore, we determined the feasibility of using an
      echocardiographic classification system, which describes the anatomic variations
      in more precise terms than the current system does, to determine whether it could
      help direct surgical plans. Our system includes 8 DORV subtypes, categorized
      according to 3 factors: the relative positions of the great arteries (normal or
      abnormal), the relationship between the great arteries and the ventricular septal
      defect (committed or noncommitted), and the presence or absence of right
      ventricular outflow tract obstruction (RVOTO). Surgical approaches in 407
      patients were based on their DORV subtype, as determined by echocardiography. We
      found that the optimal surgical management of patients classified as
      normal/committed/no RVOTO, normal/committed/RVOTO, and abnormal/committed/no
      RVOTO was, respectively, like that for patients with large ventricular septal
      defects, tetralogy of Fallot, and transposition of the great arteries without
      RVOTO. Patients with abnormal/committed/RVOTO anatomy and those with
      abnormal/noncommitted/RVOTO anatomy underwent intraventricular repair and double
      root translocation. For patients with other types of DORV, choosing the
      appropriate surgical approach and biventricular repair techniques was more
      complex. We think that our classification system accurately groups DORV patients
      and enables surgeons to select the best approach for each patient's cardiac
      anatomy.

PMID- 28878578
TI  - Single-Breath-Hold Evaluation of Cardiac Function with Use of Time-Resolved
      Parallel Cardiac Magnetic Resonance.
AB  - Using cardiac magnetic resonance, we tested whether a single-breath-hold approach
      to cardiac functional evaluation was equivalent to the established multiple
      breath-hold method. We examined 39 healthy volunteers (mean age, 31.9 +/- 11.4
      yr; 22 men) by using 1.5 T with multiple breath-holds and our proposed single
      breath-hold. Left ventricular and right ventricular ejection fractions (LVEF and
      RVEF), LV and RV end-diastolic volumes (LVEDV and RVEDV), and LV myocardial mass
      (LVMM) were compared by using Bland-Altman plots; LVEF and RVEF were tested for
      equivalence by inclusion of 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Equivalence of the
      methods was assumed within the range of -5% to 5%. In the multiple- versus the
      single-breath-hold method, LVEF was 0.62 +/- 0.05 versus 0.62 +/- 0.04, and RVEF
      was 0.59 +/- 0.06 versus 0.59 +/- 0.07. The mean difference in both methods was 
      0.2% (95% CI, -1 to 0.6) for LVEF and 0.3% (95% CI, -0.8 to 1.5) for RVEF. The
      mean differences between methods fit within the predetermined range of
      equivalence, including the 95% CI. The mean relative differences between the
      methods were 3.8% for LVEDV, 4.5% for RVEDV, and 1.6% for LVMM. Results of our
      single-breath-hold method to evaluate LVEF and RVEF were equivalent to those of
      the multiple-breath-hold technique. In addition, LVEDV, RVEDV, and LVMM showed
      low bias between methods.

PMID- 28878579
TI  - Left Ventricular Noncompaction Cardiomyopathy Presenting with Heart Failure in a
      35-Year-Old Man.
AB  - Isolated ventricular noncompaction, a rare genetic cardiomyopathy, is thought to
      be caused by the arrest of normal myocardial morphogenesis. It is characterized
      by prominent, excessive trabeculation in a ventricular wall segment and deep
      intertrabecular recesses perfused from the ventricular cavity. The condition can
      present with heart failure, systematic embolic events, and ventricular
      arrhythmias. Two-dimensional echocardiography is the typical diagnostic method.
      We report a case of heart failure in a 35-year-old man who presented with
      palpitations. Two-dimensional echocardiograms revealed left ventricular
      noncompaction, which markedly improved after standard heart failure therapy.

PMID- 28878580
TI  - Can Left Ventricular Noncompaction Be Acquired, and Can It Disappear?

PMID- 28878581
TI  - Optical Coherence Tomographic Evaluation of Hyperacute Bivalirudin-Induced
      Coronary Stent Thrombosis.
AB  - Thrombus formation after stent deployment has been linked to the use of heparin
      and of antithrombotic agents, such as bivalirudin, during percutaneous coronary
      intervention. Fluoroscopy has been used to identify stent thrombosis, typically
      after patients become symptomatic. We describe our use of optical coherence
      tomography to diagnose and evaluate intraprocedural stent thrombosis in a 68-year
      old man who was given bivalirudin just before a percutaneous coronary procedure.
      This imaging method enabled immediate therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28878582
TI  - Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement with the Edwards Sapien 3 Valve.
AB  - We describe the case of a 57-year-old man who had severe mitral valve stenosis
      and regurgitation without significant annular calcification. He was not a
      candidate for surgical valve replacement or repair because of his substantial
      comorbid conditions, overall frailty, and elevated surgical risk. He underwent
      successful transcatheter mitral valve replacement of his native mitral valve with
      compassionate, off-label use of an Edwards Sapien 3 valve. A search of the
      literature produced no other cases like ours, which represents a further
      evolution of the transcatheter valve implantation concept. Further studies are
      needed to help define accurate valve sizing, intraprocedural positioning, and
      long-term device stability, as well as to determine which patients might benefit
      from this commercially available valve. In the meantime, our findings could
      present a means of treating patients who have no other options.

PMID- 28878583
TI  - Balloon Repositioning of Transcatheter Aortic Valve after Migration into the Left
      Ventricular Outflow Tract, Followed by Valve-in-Valve Procedure.
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is an established option for treating
      patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis; however, severe, life-threatening
      complications, such as valve migration, are possible. We report the case of an 82
      year-old woman whose Edwards Sapien XT valve migrated into the left ventricular
      outflow tract one day after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. We used an
      inflated balloon to adjust the position of the migrated valve before performing a
      valve-in-valve procedure via a transapical approach, which resulted in a good
      valve implantation.

PMID- 28878584
TI  - Healthy Adolescent with a Mycotic Aortic Aneurysm from Community-Acquired
      Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Mycotic aneurysm after bacteremia is a rare diagnosis in children and
      adolescents. We report the case of a previously healthy adolescent who presented
      with chest pain and fever and who developed a mycotic aneurysm of the aorta after
      contracting community-acquired, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
      Early recognition of widening of the patient's superior mediastinum, noted during
      a comparison of the patient's initial and follow-up chest radiographs, prompted
      computed tomographic angiography of the chest and led to a timely diagnosis,
      rapid surgical intervention, and a good clinical outcome. To our knowledge, this
      is the first reported case of mycotic aortic aneurysm from community-acquired
      methicillin-resistant S. aureus in a healthy adolescent who had no predisposing
      cardiac or aortic anomalies.

PMID- 28878585
TI  - Selective Upper-Body Perfusion Technique for Removal of Renal Cell Carcinoma
      Extending into the Inferior Vena Cava and Right Atrium.
AB  - Invasion of a renal cell carcinoma thrombus into the inferior vena cava and right
      atrium is infrequent. Reaching and completely excising a tumor from the inferior
      vena cava is particularly challenging because the liver covers the surgical
      field. We report the case of a 61-year-old man who underwent surgery for a renal
      cell carcinoma of the right kidney that extended into the inferior vena cava and
      right atrium. During dissection of the liver to expose the inferior vena cava,
      transesophageal echocardiograms revealed right atrial mass migration into the
      tricuspid valve. On emergency sternotomy, the tumor embolized into the main
      pulmonary artery. We used a selective upper-body perfusion technique involving
      moderately hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass, cardioplegic arrest, and clamping
      of the descending aorta, which provided a bloodless surgical field for precise
      removal of the mass and resulted in minimal blood loss. Our technique might be
      useful in other patients with tumor thrombus extending into the right atrium
      because it reduces the need for transfusion and avoids the deleterious effects of
      deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. Our case also illustrates the importance of
      continuous transesophageal echocardiographic monitoring to detect thrombus
      embolization.

PMID- 28878586
TI  - Isolated Diffuse Supravalvular Aortic Stenosis with Severe Aortic Narrowing in a
      41-Year-Old Man.
AB  - Isolated supravalvular aortic stenosis in adults is a rare form of left
      ventricular outflow tract obstruction. We describe a case in a 41-year-old man in
      whom the supravalvular aorta had narrowed to approximately the size of the left
      anterior descending coronary artery. The patient underwent aortic surgery with
      replacement of the ascending aorta and repair of supravalvular aortic stenosis
      with a pantaloon graft. A postoperative echocardiogram showed substantial
      improvement: the mean gradient across the aorta had fallen from 48 to 8 mmHg.
      Surgery is the definitive treatment in symptomatic patients with supravalvular
      aortic stenosis.

PMID- 28878588
TI  - Bigeminy and a Pacemaker.

PMID- 28878587
TI  - Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy in an Endurance Athlete
      Presenting with Ventricular Tachycardia and Normal Right Ventricular Function.
AB  - Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a genetically inherited disease
      that results in fibrofatty replacement of normal cardiac myocytes, has been
      associated with sudden cardiac death in athletes. Long-term participation in
      endurance exercise hastens the development of both the arrhythmic and structural
      arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy phenotypes. We describe the
      unusual case of a 34-year-old, symptomatic, female endurance athlete who had
      arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy in the presence of a structurally
      normal right ventricle. Clinicians should be aware of this infrequent
      presentation when evaluating athletic patients who have ventricular arrhythmias
      and normal findings on cardiac imaging studies.

PMID- 28878589
TI  - Diagnostic Imaging and Treatment of a Left Atrial Paraganglioma.

PMID- 28878590
TI  - Enzymatically modified isoquercitrin supplementation intensifies plantaris muscle
      fiber hypertrophy in functionally overloaded mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Enzymatically modified isoquercitrin (EMIQ) is produced from rutin
      using enzymatic hydrolysis followed by treatment with glycosyltransferase in the
      presence of dextrin to add glucose residues. EMIQ is absorbed in the same way as
      quercetin, a powerful antioxidant reported to prevent disused muscle atrophy by
      targeting mitochondria and to have ergogenic effects. The present study
      investigated the effect of EMIQ on skeletal muscle hypertrophy induced by
      functional overload. METHODS: In Study 1, 6-week-old ICR male mice were divided
      into 4 groups: sham-operated control, sham-operated EMIQ, overload-operated
      control, and overload-operated EMIQ groups. In Study 2, mice were divided into 3
      groups: overload-operated whey control, overload-operated whey/EMIQ (low dose),
      and overload-operated whey/EMIQ (high dose) groups. The functional overload of
      the plantaris muscle was induced by ablation of the synergist (gastrocnemius and
      soleus) muscles. EMIQ and whey protein were administered with food. Three weeks
      after the operation, the cross-sectional area and minimal fiber diameter of the
      plantaris muscle fibers were measured. RESULTS: In Study 1, functional overload
      increased the cross-sectional area and minimal fiber diameter of the plantaris
      muscle. EMIQ supplementation significantly increased the cross-sectional area and
      minimal fiber diameter of the plantaris muscle in both the sham-operated and
      overload-operated groups. In Study 2, EMIQ supplementation combined with whey
      protein administration significantly increased the cross-sectional area and
      minimal fiber diameter of the plantaris muscle. CONCLUSION: EMIQ, even when
      administered as an addition to whey protein supplementation, significantly
      intensified the fiber hypertrophy of the plantaris muscle in functionally
      overloaded mice. EMIQ supplementation also induced fiber hypertrophy of the
      plantaris in sham-operated mice.

PMID- 28878592
TI  - The Management of Unplanned Erection during Endoscopic Urological Surgery.
AB  - Penile erection at the time of urological surgery is a rare but problematic event
      which can delay, complicate or even lead to the cancellation of planned surgery.
      Erection may occur irrespective of the type of anesthetic method employed.
      Several techniques for treatment of this troublesome complication have been
      described in the literature, all with varying levels of success and potential
      adverse effects. In our experience over the last 25 years, we have found that
      intracavernous injection of ephedrine into the penis has a 100% success rate in
      safely producing detumescence with minimum side effects and should therefore be
      considered early among the treatment options for this condition.

PMID- 28878591
TI  - Mutations in the gene of the Galpha subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein are
      the cause for the brachytic1 semi-dwarf phenotype in barley and applicable for
      practical breeding.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Short-culm mutants have been widely used in breeding programs to
      increase lodging resistance. In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), several hundreds of
      short-culm mutants have been isolated over the years. The objective of the
      present study was to identify the Brachytic1 (Brh1) semi-dwarfing gene and to
      test its effect on yield and malting quality. RESULTS: Double-haploid lines
      generated through a cross between a brh1.a mutant and the European elite malting
      cultivar Quench, showed good malting quality but a decrease in yield. Especially
      the activities of the starch degrading enzymes beta-amylase and free limit
      dextrinase were high. A syntenic approach comparing markers in barley to those in
      rice (Oryza sativa L.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench) and brachypodium
      (Brachypodium distachyon P. Beauv) helped us to identify Brh1 as an orthologue of
      rice D1 encoding the Galpha subunit of a heterotrimeric G protein. We
      demonstrated that Brh1 is allelic to Ari-m. Sixteen different mutant alleles were
      described at the DNA level. CONCLUSIONS: Mutants in the Brh1 locus are deficient
      in the Galpha subunit of a heterotrimeric G protein, which shows that
      heterotrimeric G proteins are important regulators of culm length in barley.
      Mutant alleles do not have any major negative effects on malting quality.

PMID- 28878594
TI  - Outcomes of Ureteral Stent Placement for Hydronephrosis in Patients with
      Gynecological Malignancies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We examined the outcomes of patients undergoing ureteral stent
      placement for hydronephrosis that occurred during treatment for gynecological
      malignancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 2004 to December 2009, we
      enrolled 33 patients with 45 ureters undergoing ureteral stent placement for
      hydronephrosis which occurred during treatment for gynecological malignancies. We
      examined the outcomes of the patients after stent placement. RESULTS: The causes
      of hydronephrosis were obstruction of the urinary tract by a tumor (n = 22),
      obstruction due to lymph node swelling (n = 6), ureteral stenosis after radiation
      therapy (n = 4), and others (n = 1). The ureteral stent was inserted into both
      ureters in 12 cases, and into one ureter in 21 cases. Ureteral stents were
      replaced 1-26 times during the observation period (median 3 times). Eighteen
      (40%) ureteral stents were removed. The reasons for ureteral stent removal were
      hydronephrosis improvement (11 ureters, 24.4%), a change to nephrostomy
      (cystectomy: 1 ureter, progression of ureteral stenosis: 2 ureters), renal
      atrophy (3 ureters), and ureteral dilatation (1 ureter). All of the cases in
      which ureteral stent withdrawal due to hydronephrosis improvement were cases in
      which the ureter was compressed by a tumor and were lower ureteral obstructions.
      Twenty-one patients (64%) died due to cancer after stent placement. The periods
      from the first stent placement to death ranged from 1 to 58 months (median 18
      months). CONCLUSION: Ureteral stent placement was associated with a poor
      prognosis in patients with gynecological malignancies. There were a few cases in
      which stent withdrawal became possible due to the improvement of hydronephrosis.
      In such cases, the withdrawal rate varied according to the cause and obstructive
      level.

PMID- 28878593
TI  - Low-Risk Prostate Cancer and Tumor Upgrading in the Surgical Specimen: Analysis
      of Clinical Factors Predicting Tumor Upgrading in a Contemporary Series of
      Patients Who were Evaluated According to the Modified Gleason Score Grading
      System.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify significant clinical factors associated with prostate
      cancer (PCa) upgrading the low-risk PCa patients graded according to the modified
      Gleason score system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The logistic regression model was
      used to evaluate the records of 438 patients. RESULTS: There were 170 cases
      (38.8%) of low-risk PCa and tumors were upgraded in 111 patients (65.3%). Only
      prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the proportion of positive cores (P+) were
      independent predictors of tumor upgrading. Further exploration was investigated
      by categorizing and regressing PSA (<= 5.0 vs. > 5.0 ng/ml) and P+ (<= 0.20 vs. >
      0.20). The odds ratio of PSA > 5 ng/ml was 1.32 and of P+ > 0.20 was 2.71. The
      population was stratified into very low-risk with PSA <= 5 ng/ml and P+ <= 0.20
      (class A), low-risk with PSA > 5 ng/ml and P+ <= 0.20 (class B), intermediate
      risk with PSA <= 5 ng/ml and P+ > 0.20 (class C), and high risk with PSA > 5
      ng/ml and P+ 0.20 (class D). Upgrading rates were extremely low in class A (9%),
      extremely high in D (50.5%), and moderate (20%) in B and C. CONCLUSION: Patients
      diagnosed with low-risk PCa at biopsy are a heterogeneous population because they
      include subsets with undetected high-grade disease. Significant clinical
      predictors of upgrading include the PSA value and P+. In low-risk PCa, we
      identified a high-risk upgrading subgroup that needed repeat biopsies in order to
      reclassify the tumor grade and to reassess the clinical risk category.

PMID- 28878595
TI  - Neoadjuvant Platinum-Based Chemotherapy is an Independent Predictor for
      Preoperative Thromboembolic Events in Bladder Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical
      Cystectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) confers a significant survival
      benefit in patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer. Platinum-based
      chemotherapy increases the risk of thromboembolic events (TEE). We determined the
      effect of cisplatin-based NAC on the incidence of preoperative TEEs in radical
      cystectomy patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective matched case-control
      study was performed on 55 patients undergoing radical cystectomy for muscle
      invasive bladder cancer. Group 1 (n = 20) included patients that received NAC
      prior to radical cystectomy and Group 2 (n = 35) included patients that underwent
      radical cystectomy without NAC. Logistic regression analyses tested potential
      predictors for TEEs in both groups (age, American Society of Anesthesiologists
      grade, use of NAC, histological subtype, pathological stage). RESULTS: In total,
      6 patients of 55 developed a TEE. Five patients of 20 (25%) treated with NAC
      prior to radical cystectomy developed TEEs, while 1 of 35 (2.9%) treated with
      radical cystectomy alone developed a TEE. On univariate and multivariate
      regression analysis, NAC prior to radical cystectomy was an independent predictor
      for TEE prior to radical cystectomy (p = 0.033 and p = 0.043, respectively). The
      effect of perioperative anticoagulation on operative blood loss and postoperative
      hemoglobin level was not statistically significant between both groups (p = 0.22
      and p = 0.08, respectively). CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy
      is a significant predictor for preoperative TEE in patients undergoing radical
      cystectomy.

PMID- 28878596
TI  - Nucleotide Transition 390C-T in the Wilms' Tumor 1 Gene: A Risk Factor of
      Hypospadias?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The gene Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) encodes a unique transcription
      factor. Its defects are known to cause a wide range of complex genitourinary
      malformations and may contribute to non-syndromic forms of hypospadias. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We performed WT1 mutation analysis and copy number analysis of WT1
      interacting protein in 13 Hungarian patients diagnosed with isolated hypospadias.
      RESULTS: Sequencing of WT1 revealed a high frequency of heterozygosity for
      transition 390C-T (5 heterozygotes out of 13 patients, including 2 brothers). WT1
      interacting protein had a normal copy number in all patients. CONCLUSION:
      Nucleotide substitution 390C-T may play a role in the pathogenesis of non
      syndromic hypospadias. The genotype-phenotype correlation should be confirmed by
      a larger-scale analysis.

PMID- 28878597
TI  - The Advantages of Transurethral Resection of the Prostate in Patients with an
      Elevated or Rising Prostate Specific Antigen, Mild or Moderate Lower Urinary
      Tract Symptoms, Bladder Outlet Obstruction and Negative Prostate Cancer Imaging
      or Prostate Biopsies: A Prospective Analysis in 105 Consecutive Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate elevated or rising prostate specific antigen (PSA) as a
      marker for bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) in patients with minor lower urinary
      tract symptoms (LUTS) and without prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One
      hundred and five consecutive patients were prospectively analyzed between 2005
      and 2013. All patients were referred to the principal investigator by their
      general practitioner as a result of an elevated and/or rising PSA. Only patients
      with minor LUTS [International Prostate Symptom Score (I-PSS) 0-19] and without
      suspicion for prostate cancer were included. All patients had BOO, shown by full
      urodynamics, and underwent transurethral resection of the prostate. The resected
      tissue was histologically examined and PSA and I-PSS were evaluated after 3, 6
      and 12 months and later on yearly. RESULTS: Mean pre-operative PSA and I-PSS
      values were 8.8 ng/ml and 11.1, respectively. The mean detrusor pressure at
      maximum flow was 93.6 cmH2O. The mean resected volume was 52 g and the mean
      prostate biopsy rate was 1.8. Eighty-three of 105 patients (79%) had no
      malignancy and were diagnosed with BOO due to benign prostate hyperplasia
      (subgroup 1). Their mean PSA decreased from 9.2 to 0.7 ng/ml and 0.9 ng/ml after
      6 and 12 months post-operation, respectively. The mean I-PSS declined from 11 to
      3 after 6 and 12 months. Sixteen of 105 patients (15%) were treated for prostate
      cancer (subgroup 2). Radical prostatectomy was performed in 11 patients,
      brachytherapy in 3 patients and external beam radiotherapy in 2 patients. Six of
      105 patients (5.7%) had active surveillance (subgroup 3). CONCLUSION: BOO can
      cause an elevated or rising PSA in patients with minor LUTS and negative
      screening for prostate cancer. Transurethral resection of the prostate is an
      adequate treatment for these patients.

PMID- 28878598
TI  - Bladder Neck Contracture Following Radical Retropubic versus Robotic-Assisted
      Laparoscopic Prostatectomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) and robotic-assisted
      laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) are co-standard surgical therapies for
      localized prostatic adenocarcinoma. These surgical modalities offer similar
      outcomes; however, lower rate of bladder neck contracture (BNC) is amongst the
      touted benefits of RALP. The differences between approaches are largely
      elucidated through multiple-surgeon comparisons, which can be biased by
      differential experience and practice patterns. We aimed to eliminate inter
      surgeon bias through this single-surgeon comparison of BNC rates following RRP
      and RALP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all RRPs and RALPs
      performed by one surgeon over 4 years. We compared clinical characteristics,
      intraoperative and postoperative outcomes. RESULTS: RRP patients had more
      advanced cancer and a higher biochemical recurrence rate. No significant
      differences were noted between groups in rates of anastomotic leakage, BNC, or 12
      month postoperative pad-free continence. CONCLUSION: RRP offers similar outcomes
      to RALP with regard to postoperative urinary extravasation, urinary continence,
      and BNC.

PMID- 28878599
TI  - Clinical Importance of Histopathological Inflammation in Patients with Lower
      Urinary Tract Symptoms Due to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Prospective Study
      of 222 Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the severity of
      histopathological prostatic inflammation with lower urinary tract symptoms and
      prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels. METHODS: We prospectively included 222
      consecutive patients eligible for transurethral resection of the prostate in a
      non-academic referral center by a single surgeon. Patients with proven urinary
      tract infection or prostate cancer were excluded. Preoperative assessment
      included PSA levels, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), mean peak flow,
      mean resected prostate weight and post-residual volume. Finally, the presence and
      severity of inflammation was determined histopathologically. RESULTS: Mean
      patient age was 69.1 +/- 8.6 years with mean preoperative PSA levels of 4.7 +/-
      5.4 ng/mL and IPSS of 15.7 +/- 6.9. Mean peak flow was 10.7 +/- 6.5 ml/s and the
      mean resected prostate weight 39.4 +/- 27.3 g. Positive correlations between PSA
      (log) and prostate weight (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) and between PSA (log) and active
      (r = 0.30, p < 0.0001) and chronic inflammation (r = 0.19, p = 0.005) were
      observed. No correlations were found between IPSS and PSA (log) (r = -0.14, p =
      0.040) or between IPSS and active inflammation (p = 0.659) or chronic
      inflammation (p = 0.125). CONCLUSION: The study showed a weak correlation between
      PSA and the active or chronic inflammation. It also showed that there was no
      correlation between the active or chronic histopathological inflammation and
      IPSS.

PMID- 28878600
TI  - Kenalog Injection into Hunner's Lesions as a Treatment for Interstitial
      Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of kenalog injection
      into Hunner's lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients had cystoscopy and
      bladder hydrodistention with corticosteroid injection into Hunner's lesions over
      a 2.5-year period. Data include patient characteristics and pre- and post
      operative validated questionnaires. Spearman Correlation and Wilcoxon t-tests
      were used for analysis. RESULTS: One hundred patients were reviewed
      retrospectively. There was a 1.1 point decrease in pain at 12 weeks post
      operation (p = 0.435). Urinary frequency decreased from a mean of 11.7 to 9.1
      daily episodes (p = 0.05), and nocturia from a mean of 3 to 1.6 nightly episodes
      (p = 0.008). CONCLUSION: The use of a corticosteroid may be beneficial to symptom
      control and improvement in the quality of life of interstitial cystitis/painful
      bladder syndrome patients. Patients had improved frequency and nocturia 12 weeks
      post injection.

PMID- 28878601
TI  - An Atypical Presentation of Retroperitoneal Fibrosis.
AB  - A 69-year-old man with a psoriatic arthritis treated with infliximab for 1 month
      presented to the urology clinic for lower urinary tract symptoms. He was found to
      have a new diagnosis of elevated creatinine. Computed tomography of the abdomen
      and pelvis revealed bilateral severe hydronephrosis with abnormal soft tissue
      thickening of the right renal pelvis and proximal ureter. Bilateral stents were
      placed after ureteroscopy demonstrated no abnormalities. A computed tomography
      guided biopsy of the peri-ureteral lesions revealed fibroadipose tissue with
      sclerosis and extensive chronic inflammation consistent with retroperitoneal
      fibrosis. Infliximab was discontinued and the patient was started on
      corticosteroids. Follow-up magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen and pelvis
      at 2 months revealed total resolution of soft tissue and inflammation along the
      proximal ureter bilaterally. Repeat imaging demonstrated no hydronephrosis after
      stents removal, and the patient's creatinine remains normal at 12 months follow
      up.

PMID- 28878602
TI  - Post Traumatic Isolated Ureteropelvic Junction Avulsion in a Child.
AB  - Isolated ureteropelvic junction injuries due to blunt trauma are very rare and
      are missed at initial presentation in more than 50% patients. Hence they need
      high index of suspicion for diagnosis which is the main aim of reporting this
      case.

PMID- 28878603
TI  - Abdominal Mass After Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy: Spigelian Type
      Trocar Hernia.
AB  - Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Men are diagnosed at early
      stages of prostate cancer with the use of prostate specific antigen. Surgical
      removal of the prostate is the standard treatment in localized prostate cancer.
      Complications after surgical procedures are inevitable. Although robotic
      prostatectomy has resulted in decreased complications compared to open surgery,
      complications occur. After an uneventful robotic assisted laparoscopic
      prostatectomy in a 71-year-old gentleman, with history of chronic cough and
      continued low dose glucocorticoid use, the patient returned to hospital with
      complain of a tender abdominal mass in right lower quadrant. After performing a
      computed tomography of the contrast, a Spigelian type trocar hernia was noted.
      The patient underwent a laparoscopic diagnostic surgery followed by small bowel
      resection and abdominal wall defect repair. The patient was discharged home with
      no other complains.

PMID- 28878605
TI  - Adding Insult to Injury, Complexity to Intricacy.

PMID- 28878604
TI  - The Effects of Different Doses and Patterns of Docetaxel Chemotherapy in Japanese
      Patients with Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.

PMID- 28878606
TI  - Major Contribution of Genomic Copy Number Variation in Syndromic Congenital Heart
      Disease: The Use of MLPA as the First Genetic Test.
AB  - Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital disorder among live
      births. When associated with extracardiac abnormalities, it is characterized as a
      syndromic heart disease (syndromic CHD) and corresponds to 25% of all liveborn
      infants with a heart defect. The etiology in about 65% of the cases still remains
      unknown, and in about 35% of the patients, it is associated with genetic factors.
      In the present study, MLPA and SNP-array techniques were used to investigate a
      group of 47 patients with syndromic CHD. In total, 16 defects (34%) were
      identified, of which 12 (25.5%) were classified as pathogenic or probably
      pathogenic. The most frequent abnormalities were 22q11.2 deletion (22q11.2
      deletion syndrome) and 7q11.23 deletion (Williams-Beuren syndrome). We also show
      that rarer malformations may be associated with syndromic CHD, such as 14q32.33
      deletion as well as 17q25.3, 15q11.2 (BP1-BP2), 22q13.31, and 12p13.31 (SLC2A3)
      duplications. The present study demonstrates that CNVs are important causal
      factors and should be studied in patients with syndromic CHD. Furthermore, the
      use of MLPA as a first screening test was appropriate, as this less expensive
      technology detected 11 of the 12 pathogenic abnormalities (91.6%).

PMID- 28878607
TI  - Genetic Testing in a Cohort of Complex Esophageal Atresia.
AB  - The objective of the present study is to describe a cohort of complex esophageal
      atresia and the yield of genetic tests performed for such patients. We selected
      45 patients with complex esophageal atresia (EA), namely those having at least
      one associated anomaly. We reviewed their medical records to assess clinical
      features, other diagnoses, and genetic investigations. Most of the patients had a
      diagnosis of VACTERL association (56%) with no genetic variant identified.
      Interestingly, 5 patients in the cohort (11%) had a right pulmonary hypoplasia or
      agenesis. A majority of our cohort (73%) had genetic testing; 60% were karyotyped
      (abnormal in 4 of the 27 patients tested), 31% had aCGH (abnormal in 1 of the 14
      patients tested), and 31% had diepoxybutane (DEB) testing for Fanconi anemia
      (abnormal in 2 of the 14 patients tested). One patient had exome sequencing
      studies, but no candidate gene was identified. Various anomalies were associated
      with EA, and overall a genetic variant could be identified in 7 of the 33
      patients tested. Chromosomal studies such as aCGH and chromosomal breakage
      studies should be considered, and their yield varied between 7 and 14%. Other
      genetic investigations such as exome sequencing could possibly have even higher
      yields but will need to be assessed in a large cohort. Improved genetic diagnoses
      in EA may improve the management of these patients by directing specific
      surveillance and management schemes.

PMID- 28878608
TI  - Diagnostic Approach to Microdeletion Syndromes Based on 22q11.2 Investigation:
      Challenges in Four Cases.
AB  - In the last few decades, different methods for the detection of genomic
      imbalances, such as the microdeletion syndromes, were developed. The 22q11.2
      deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is the most common microdeletion syndrome and
      presents wide clinical heterogeneity. The aim of this study was to describe 4
      unusual cases of genomic imbalances found in individuals with suspected
      microdeletion syndromes. Different methods were necessary to complete the
      diagnosis and to obtain information for genetic counseling. The study was
      retrospective and descriptive. From August 2014 to December 2015, 39 individuals
      were assessed using FISH and/or MLPA; in 15 cases, chromosomal microarray (CMA)
      analysis was carried out. Of 39 registered individuals, we found deletions in the
      22q11.2 region in 10 individuals (8 individuals with 22q11.2DS and 2 individuals
      presenting with atypical deletions in the 22q11.2 region: 1 distal deletion and 1
      central deletion). In one case with a typical 22q11.2 deletion, a familial
      balanced translocation was detected. In another case without a 22q11.2 deletion,
      a 6p duplication concomitant with a 9p deletion was detected by CMA. Clinical
      data are reported and diagnostic investigations are discussed. Essential aspects
      for the understanding of different diagnostic techniques of genomic imbalances
      are considered, and the 4 cases described underline the complexity and the
      difficulties involved in the diagnostic process. The approach is informative for
      clinical practice and may be applied in other contexts of genomic imbalance
      investigation in microdeletion syndromes.

PMID- 28878610
TI  - A Novel Loss-of-Function Mutation in HOXB1 Associated with Autosomal Recessive
      Hereditary Congenital Facial Palsy in a Large Iranian Family.
AB  - Hereditary congenital facial palsy (HCFP) is a rare congenital cranial
      dysinnervation disorder, recognisable by non-progressive isolated facial nerve
      palsy (cranial nerve VII). It is caused by developmental abnormalities of the
      facial nerve nucleus and its nerve. So far, 4 homozygous mutations have been
      identified in 5 unrelated families (12 patients) with HCFP worldwide. In this
      study, a large Iranian consanguineous kindred with 5 members affected by HCFP
      underwent thorough clinical and genetic evaluation. The candidate gene HOXB1 was
      screened and analysed by Sanger sequencing. As in previous cases, the most
      remarkable findings in the affected members of the family were mask-like faces,
      bilateral facial palsy with variable sensorineural hearing loss, and some
      dysmorphic features. Direct sequencing of the candidate gene HOXB1 identified a
      novel homozygous frameshift mutation (c.296_302del; p.Y99Wfs*20) which co
      segregated with the disease phenotype within the extended family. Our findings
      expand the mutational spectrum of HOXB1 involved in HCFP and consolidate the role
      of the gene in the development of autosomal recessive HCFP. Moreover, the
      truncating mutation identified in this family leads to a broadly similar
      presentation and severity observed in previous patients with nonsense and
      missense mutations. This study characterises and defines the phenotypic features
      of this rare syndrome in a larger family than has previously been reported.

PMID- 28878609
TI  - Novel Mutation of the RUNX2 Gene in Patients with Cleidocranial Dysplasia.
AB  - Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) is an autosomal dominant disorder linked to
      mutations in the Runt-related transcription factor 2, encoded by the RUNX2 gene,
      which is essential for osteoblast differentiation and skeletal development. Here,
      we describe a novel nonsense mutation (c.532C>T; p.Q178X) in RUNX2 identified in
      3 affected members of a Polish family with CCD. The localization and
      transcriptional transactivation studies show that the mutated form of the protein
      has altered the subcellular localization and significantly decreased
      transactivation properties, respectively. Consequently, our data show that the
      c.532C>T mutation generates a defective RUNX2 protein and is genetically linked
      to the CCD phenotype.

PMID- 28878611
TI  - Low-Level Chromosomal Mosaicism in Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
AB  - Chromosomal mosaicism, which represents a diagnostic challenge for detection and
      interpretation, has been described in several genetic conditions. It can
      contribute to a large phenotypic variation in diseases. At analysis of a well
      characterized cohort of 714 patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) of
      unknown etiology using a high-resolution chromosomal microarray platform, we
      found 2 cases (0.28%) of low-level mosaicism and defined a previously detected
      extra chromosome in a third patient. Two of the cases were mosaics for segmental
      imbalances (a partial trisomy 3q26.1q27.3 and a partial monosomy 18q21.2qter with
      14.6 and 20% mosaic ratios in lymphocytes, respectively), and 1 was a mosaic for
      an entire chromosome (trisomy 14, mosaic ratio 20%). Our diagnostic yield is in
      line with the ratios previously published in patients with intellectual
      disability. Notably, the partial trisomy 3q26.1q27.3 case is an example of a rare
      and unusual class of a rearranged neocentric ring chromosome, which can neither
      be categorized in class I, nor in class II of such rearrangements. Our cases
      further elucidate the phenotypes related to the aberrations of the specific
      chromosome segments observed and underline the important role of low-level
      mosaics in the pathogenesis of NDDs of unknown etiology even in the absence of
      clinical signs of mosaicism.

PMID- 28878612
TI  - Whole-Exome Sequencing Reveals FAT4 Mutations in a Clinically Unrecognizable
      Patient with Syndromic CAKUT: A Case Report.
AB  - We present the case of a patient of Macedonian origin with unilateral renal
      agenesis and ureterovesical junction obstruction in combination with further
      abnormalities including midface hypoplasia, scoliosis as well as camptodactyly of
      one toe. Whole-exome sequencing analysis revealed compound heterozygous variants
      in the FAT4 gene. Recessive variants in FAT4 are a known cause of van Maldergem
      syndrome (VMS) in which congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract are
      a less characteristic but common feature. The initial presentation of our patient
      was not clinically recognizable. However, in view of the molecular findings, the
      most likely diagnosis is a mild manifestation of VMS. Only very few publications
      have reported patients with VMS and mutations in FAT4 to date. With this case, we
      hope to provide further insight into the phenotypic variability of this syndrome.

PMID- 28878613
TI  - Mixed Adenocarcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Duodenum: A Case Report and
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - Despite being the largest part of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the
      small intestine accounts for only 1-1.4% of all GI malignancies. Adenocarcinoma
      is the most common primary small bowel malignancy, with the most common site
      being the duodenum. On the other hand, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the
      duodenum is extremely uncommon. We report the first case of mixed adenocarcinoma
      and SCC occurring in the third part of duodenum (D3). Our patient, a 64-year-old
      female with history of GERD, hypertension, and IDDM presented with 4 weeks of
      nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Tomographic imaging of her abdomen
      demonstrated a distended stomach and a proximal duodenum with narrow caliber
      changes at the level of D3. An EGD revealed a tight stricture at D3 that could
      not be traversed. Stricture biopsies revealed duodenal mucosa with two small foci
      of SCC (positive for p63 and CK5/6) and adenocarcinoma (positive for CK7 and
      Moc31). Peritoneal metastases were detected on exploratory laparotomy, making the
      tumor surgically incurable. As she progressively declined and with worsening
      liver enzymes and general debility, she was not a candidate for chemotherapy and
      was eventually discharged on home hospice. Small bowel SCC/adenocarcinoma is an
      exceedingly uncommon cancer, making further case reports such as ours important
      to understand the nature of this entity and establish management guidelines.

PMID- 28878614
TI  - Fatal Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage in a Patient with Brunner's Gland Hyperplasia.
AB  - Brunner's gland hyperplasia is a rare cause of duodenal mass and gastrointestinal
      hemorrhage. Imaging and esophagoduodenoscopic evaluation of this condition are
      frequently consistent with a duodenal malignancy often resulting in surgical
      resection. However, the malignant potential of these lesions is still unknown,
      and most are benign. We report the case of a 74-year-old man who presented with
      fatal gastrointestinal bleeding and esophagoduodenoscopy findings consistent with
      a duodenal mass and mucosal ulceration. At autopsy, histologic examination of the
      mass revealed Brunner's gland hyperplasia with associated ulcer formation. In
      this report, we review the findings associated with this case as well the
      literature regarding presentation, clinical associations, and treatment of
      Brunner's gland hyperplasia.

PMID- 28878615
TI  - Clinically Silent Intracardiac Metastasis with Extremely Poor Prognosis in a
      Patient with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - Intracavitary cardiac extension remains an unusual site of extrahepatic
      metastasis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. While patients can present
      with signs and symptoms suggestive of right-sided heart failure, it may be
      totally asymptomatic, which is very rare with only a few cases reported so far.
      Also, cardiac metastasis is of great prognostic importance as patients with
      intracardiac metastasis can have an extremely poor prognosis. Here, we present
      the case of a 52-year-old male patient with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma,
      with an incidentally found tumor thrombus extending from the inferior vena cava
      to the right atrium, protruding through the tricuspid valve into the right
      ventricle, on routine echocardiography. The patient did not have any signs or
      symptoms of heart involvement and unfortunately died on the 18th day of the
      hospital stay.

PMID- 28878616
TI  - Interim Results of a Multicenter Trial with the New Electronic Subretinal Implant
      Alpha AMS in 15 Patients Blind from Inherited Retinal Degenerations.
AB  - Purpose: We assessed the safety and efficacy of a technically advanced subretinal
      electronic implant, RETINA IMPLANT Alpha AMS, in end stage retinal degeneration
      in an interim analysis of two ongoing prospective clinical trials. The purpose of
      this article is to describe the interim functional results (efficacy). Methods:
      The subretinal visual prosthesis RETINA IMPLANT Alpha AMS (Retina Implant AG,
      Reutlingen, Germany) was implanted in 15 blind patients with hereditary retinal
      degenerations at four study sites with a follow-up period of 12 months
      (www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT01024803 and NCT02720640). Functional outcome measures
      included (1) screen-based standardized 2- or 4-alternative forced-choice (AFC)
      tests of light perception, light localization, grating detection (basic grating
      acuity (BaGA) test), and Landolt C-rings; (2) gray level discrimination; (3)
      performance during activities of daily living (ADL-table tasks). Results: Implant
      mediated light perception was observed in 13/15 patients. During the observation
      period implant mediated localization of visual targets was possible in 13/15
      patients. Correct grating detection was achieved for spatial frequencies of 0.1
      cpd (cycles per degree) in 4/15; 0.33 cpd in 3/15; 0.66 cpd in 2/15; 1.0 cpd in
      2/15 and 3.3 cpd in 1/15 patients. In two patients visual acuity (VA) assessed
      with Landolt C- rings was 20/546 and 20/1111. Of 6 possible gray levels on
      average 4.6 +/- 0.8 (mean +/- SD, n = 10) were discerned. Improvements (power ON
      vs. OFF) of ADL table tasks were measured in 13/15 patients. Overall, results
      were stable during the observation period. Serious adverse events (SAEs) were
      reported in 4 patients: 2 movements of the implant, readjusted in a second
      surgery; 4 conjunctival erosion/dehiscence, successfully treated; 1 pain event
      around the coil, successfully treated; 1 partial reduction of silicone oil
      tamponade leading to distorted vision (silicon oil successfully refilled). The
      majority of adverse events (AEs) were transient and mostly of mild to moderate
      intensity. Conclusions: Psychophysical and subjective data show that RETINA
      IMPLANT Alpha AMS is reliable, well tolerated and can restore limited visual
      functions in blind patients with degenerations of the outer retina. Compared with
      the previous implant Alpha IMS, longevity of the new implant Alpha AMS has been
      considerably improved. Alpha AMS has meanwhile been certified as a commercially
      available medical device, reimbursed in Germany by the public health system.

PMID- 28878617
TI  - Corrigendum: Spiking Neural Networks Based on OxRAM Synapses for Real-Time
      Unsupervised Spike Sorting.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 474 in vol. 10, PMID: 27857680.].

PMID- 28878619
TI  - miRNA Enriched in Human Neuroblast Nuclei Bind the MAZ Transcription Factor and
      Their Precursors Contain the MAZ Consensus Motif.
AB  - While the cytoplasmic function of microRNA (miRNA) as post-transcriptional
      regulators of mRNA has been the subject of significant research effort, their
      activity in the nucleus is less well characterized. Here we use a human neuronal
      cell model to show that some mature miRNA are preferentially enriched in the
      nucleus. These molecules were predominantly primate-specific and contained a
      sequence motif with homology to the consensus MAZ transcription factor binding
      element. Precursor miRNA containing this motif were shown to have affinity for
      MAZ protein in nuclear extract. We then used Ago1/2 RIP-Seq to explore nuclear
      miRNA-associated mRNA targets. Interestingly, the genes for Ago2-associated
      transcripts were also significantly enriched with MAZ binding sites and neural
      function, whereas Ago1-transcripts were associated with general metabolic
      processes and localized with SC35 spliceosomes. These findings suggest the MAZ
      transcription factor is associated with miRNA in the nucleus and may influence
      the regulation of neuronal development through Ago2-associated miRNA induced
      silencing complexes. The MAZ transcription factor may therefore be important for
      organizing higher order integration of transcriptional and post-transcriptional
      processes in primate neurons.

PMID- 28878618
TI  - The Non-Survival Effects of Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor on Neural
      Cells.
AB  - Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was first characterized as a
      survival-promoting molecule for dopaminergic neurons (DANs). Afterwards, other
      cells were also discovered to respond to GDNF not only as a survival factor but
      also as a protein supporting other cellular functions, such as proliferation,
      differentiation, maturation, neurite outgrowth and other phenomena that have been
      less studied than survival and are now more extendedly described here in this
      review article. During development, GDNF favors the commitment of neural
      precursors towards dopaminergic, motor, enteric and adrenal neurons; in addition,
      it enhances the axonal growth of some of these neurons. GDNF also induces the
      acquisition of a dopaminergic phenotype by increasing the expression of Tyrosine
      Hydroxylase (TH), Nurr1 and other proteins that confer this identity and promote
      further dendritic and electrical maturation. In motor neurons (MNs), GDNF not
      only promotes proliferation and maturation but also participates in regenerating
      damaged axons and modulates the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) at both presynaptic
      and postsynaptic levels. Moreover, GDNF modulates the rate of neuroblastoma (NB)
      and glioblastoma cancer cell proliferation. Additionally, the presence or absence
      of GDNF has been correlated with conditions such as depression, pain, muscular
      soreness, etc. Although, the precise role of GDNF is unknown, it extends beyond a
      survival effect. The understanding of the complete range of properties of this
      trophic molecule will allow us to investigate its broad mechanisms of action to
      accelerate and/or improve therapies for the aforementioned pathological
      conditions.

PMID- 28878621
TI  - The Networks of Genes Encoding Palmitoylated Proteins in Axonal and Synaptic
      Compartments Are Affected in PPT1 Overexpressing Neuronal-Like Cells.
AB  - CLN1 disease (OMIM #256730) is an early childhood ceroid-lipofuscinosis
      associated with mutated CLN1, whose product Palmitoyl-Protein Thioesterase 1
      (PPT1) is a lysosomal enzyme involved in the removal of palmitate residues from S
      acylated proteins. In neurons, PPT1 expression is also linked to synaptic
      compartments. The aim of this study was to unravel molecular signatures connected
      to CLN1. We utilized SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells overexpressing wild type CLN1
      (SH-p.wtCLN1) and five selected CLN1 patients' mutations. The cellular
      distribution of wtPPT1 was consistent with regular processing of endogenous
      protein, partially detected inside Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein 2
      (LAMP2) positive vesicles, while the mutants displayed more diffuse cytoplasmic
      pattern. Transcriptomic profiling revealed 802 differentially expressed genes
      (DEGs) in SH-p.wtCLN1 (as compared to empty-vector transfected cells), whereas
      the number of DEGs detected in the two mutants (p.L222P and p.M57Nfs*45) was
      significantly lower. Bioinformatic scrutiny linked DEGs with neurite formation
      and neuronal transmission. Specifically, neuritogenesis and proliferation of
      neuronal processes were predicted to be hampered in the wtCLN1 overexpressing
      cell line, and these findings were corroborated by morphological investigations.
      Palmitoylation survey identified 113 palmitoylated protein-encoding genes in SH
      p.wtCLN1, including 25 ones simultaneously assigned to axonal growth and synaptic
      compartments. A remarkable decrease in the expression of palmitoylated proteins,
      functionally related to axonal elongation (GAP43, CRMP1 and NEFM) and of the
      synaptic marker SNAP25, specifically in SH-p.wtCLN1 cells was confirmed by
      immunoblotting. Subsequent, bioinformatic network survey of DEGs assigned to the
      synaptic annotations linked 81 DEGs, including 23 ones encoding for palmitoylated
      proteins. Results obtained in this experimental setting outlined two affected
      functional modules (connected to the axonal and synaptic compartments), which can
      be associated with an altered gene dosage of wtCLN1. Moreover, these modules were
      interrelated with the pathological effects associated with loss of PPT1 function,
      similarly as observed in the Ppt1 knockout mice and patients with CLN1 disease.

PMID- 28878620
TI  - Autophagy Dysregulation in ALS: When Protein Aggregates Get Out of Hand.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that results
      from the loss of upper and lower motor neurons. One of the key pathological
      hallmarks in diseased neurons is the mislocalization of disease-associated
      proteins and the formation of cytoplasmic aggregates of these proteins and their
      interactors due to defective protein quality control. This apparent imbalance in
      the cellular protein homeostasis could be a crucial factor in causing motor
      neuron death in the later stages of the disease in patients. Autophagy is a major
      protein degradation pathway that is involved in the clearance of protein
      aggregates and damaged organelles. Abnormalities in autophagy have been observed
      in numerous neurodegenerative disorders, including ALS. In this review, we
      discuss the contribution of autophagy dysfunction in various in vitro and in vivo
      models of ALS. Furthermore, we examine the crosstalk between autophagy and other
      cellular stresses implicated in ALS pathogenesis and the therapeutic implications
      of regulating autophagy in ALS.

PMID- 28878622
TI  - Ganaxolone: A New Treatment for Neonatal Seizures.
AB  - Neonatal seizures are amongst the most common neurologic conditions managed by a
      neonatal care service. Seizures can exacerbate existing brain injury, induce "de
      novo" injury, and are associated with neurodevelopmental disabilities in post
      neonatal life. In this mini-review, we present evidence in support of the use of
      ganaxolone, a GABAA agonist neurosteroid, as a novel neonatal therapy. We discuss
      evidence that ganaxolone can provide both seizure control and neuroprotection
      with a high safety profile when administered early following birth-related
      hypoxia, and show evidence that it is likely to prevent or reduce the incidence
      of the enduring disabilities associated with preterm birth, cerebral palsy, and
      epilepsy. We suggest that ganaxolone is an ideal anti-seizure treatment because
      it can be safely used prospectively, with minimal or no adverse effects on the
      neonatal brain.

PMID- 28878623
TI  - Mechanisms of Spontaneous Climbing Fiber Discharge-Evoked Pauses and Output
      Modulation of Cerebellar Purkinje Cell in Mice.
AB  - Climbing fiber (CF) afferents modulate the frequency and patterns of cerebellar
      Purkinje cell (PC) simple spike (SS) activity, but its mechanism is unclear. In
      the present study, we investigated the mechanisms of spontaneous CF discharge
      evoked pauses and the output modulation of cerebellar PCs in urethane
      anesthetized mice using in vivo whole-cell recording techniques and
      pharmacological methods. Under voltage-clamp recording conditions, spontaneous CF
      discharge evoked strong inward currents followed by small conductance calcium
      activated potassium (SK) channels that mediated outward currents. The application
      of a GABAA receptor antagonist did not significantly alter the spontaneous SS
      firing rate, although an AMPA receptor blocker abolished complex spike (CS)
      activity and induced significantly increased SS firing rates and a decreased
      coefficient of variation (CV) SS value. Either removal of extracellular calcium
      or chelated intracellular calcium induced a decrease in amplitude of CS-evoked
      after-hyperpolarization (AHP) potential accompanied by an increase in SS firing
      rate. In addition, blocking SK channels activity with a selective antagonist,
      dequalinium decreased the amplitude of AHP and increased SS firing rate.
      Moreover, we found repeated CF stimulation at 1 Hz induced a significant decrease
      in the spontaneous firing rate of SS, and accompanied with an increase in CV of
      SS in cerebellar slices, which was also abolished by dequalinium. These results
      indicated that the spontaneous CF discharge contributed to decreasing SS firing
      rate via activation of SK channels in the cerebellar PCs in vivo in mice.

PMID- 28878626
TI  - MAP Kinase Phosphatase 3 (MKP3) Preserves Norepinephrine Transporter Activity by
      Modulating ERK1/2 Kinase-Mediated Gene Expression.
AB  - The norepinephrine transporter (NET) mediates the clearance of norepinephrine
      (NE) from the extracellular space and is a target of therapeutic antidepressants
      and psychostimulants. Previously we identified a MAP kinase phosphatase 3 (MKP3),
      as an important modulator of protein kinase C (PKC) mediated internalization of
      the related dopamine transporter (DAT). Here we show that MKP3 decreases PKC
      mediated down regulation of NET expressed in PC12 cells. We demonstrate that this
      process involves a PKC-stimulated decrease of NET surface expression that is
      dependent on dynamin. Surprisingly, MAP kinase inhibitors have no effect on the
      PKC-mediated regulation of NET activity, suggesting that, like PKC-mediated
      regulation of the DAT, the acute activation of MAP kinases is not likely to be
      involved. To elucidate potential mechanisms we used a substrate trap-based assay
      to identify extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 as the predominant
      substrate of MKP3. Furthermore we also established that brief chemical
      stabilization of a modified destabilized MKP3 does not alter PKC-mediated down
      regulation of NET. Finally, the expression of a dominant negative version of H
      Ras, an upstream activator of ERK1/2, abolishes phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate
      (PMA)-mediated down regulation of NET in a manner similar to MKP3. Taken together
      we propose that chronic MKP3 expression regulates surface NET through the
      sustained inhibition of ERK1/2 MAP kinase signaling that alters gene expression
      in PC12 cells. This is supported by gene expression data from naive and MKP3
      expressing PC12 cells that reveal robust decreases in gene expression of several
      genes in the MKP3-tranfected cells. Interestingly, caveolin-1, a protein with a
      critical role in membrane protein trafficking is down regulated by MKP3
      expression. We further show that selective silencing of the caveolin-1 gene in
      naive PC12 cells attenuates PKC-mediated downregulation of NET activity,
      consistent with a potential role for caveolins in regulating NET surface
      expression. In summary, these results suggest that chronic MKP3 expression alters
      the expression of genes in PC12 cells that are involved in the regulation of NET
      surface expression.

PMID- 28878625
TI  - Non-autonomous Cellular Responses to Ototoxic Drug-Induced Stress and Death.
AB  - The first major recognition of drug-induced hearing loss can be traced back more
      than seven decades to the development of streptomycin as an antimicrobial agent.
      Since then at least 130 therapeutic drugs have been recognized as having ototoxic
      side-effects. Two important classes of ototoxic drugs are the aminoglycoside
      antibiotics and the platinum-based antineoplastic agents. These drugs save the
      lives of millions of people worldwide, but they also cause irreparable hearing
      loss. In the inner ear, sensory hair cells (HCs) and spiral ganglion neurons
      (SGNs) are important cellular targets of these drugs, and most mechanistic
      studies have focused on the cell-autonomous responses of these cell types in
      response to ototoxic stress. Despite several decades of studies on ototoxicity,
      important unanswered questions remain, including the cellular and molecular
      mechanisms that determine whether HCs and SGNs will live or die when confronted
      with ototoxic challenge. Emerging evidence indicates that other cell types in the
      inner ear can act as mediators of survival or death of sensory cells and SGNs.
      For example, glia-like supporting cells (SCs) can promote survival of both HCs
      and SGNs. Alternatively, SCs can act to promote HC death and inhibit neural fiber
      expansion. Similarly, tissue resident macrophages activate either pro-survival or
      pro-death signaling that can influence HC survival after exposure to ototoxic
      agents. Together these data indicate that autonomous responses that occur within
      a stressed HC or SGN are not the only (and possibly not the primary) determinants
      of whether the stressed cell ultimately lives or dies. Instead non-cell
      autonomous responses are emerging as significant determinants of HC and SGN
      survival vs. death in the face of ototoxic stress. The goal of this review is to
      summarize the current evidence on non-cell-autonomous responses to ototoxic
      stress and to discuss ways in which this knowledge may advance the development of
      therapies to reduce hearing loss caused by these drugs.

PMID- 28878627
TI  - Optic Nerve Degeneration after Retinal Ischemia/Reperfusion in a Rodent Model.
AB  - Retinal ischemia is a common pathomechanism in many ocular disorders such as age
      related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma or retinal
      vascular occlusion. Several studies demonstrated that ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)
      leads to morphological and functional changes of different retinal cell types.
      However, little is known about the ischemic effects on the optic nerve. The goal
      of this study was to evaluate these effects. Ischemia was induced by raising the
      intraocular pressure (IOP) in one eye of rats to 140 mmHg for 1 h followed by
      natural reperfusion. After 21 days, histological as well as quantitative real
      time PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses of optic nerves were performed. Ischemic optic nerves
      showed an infiltration of cells and also degeneration with signs of
      demyelination. Furthermore, a migration and an activation of microglia could be
      observed histologically as well as on mRNA level. In regard to macroglia, a trend
      toward gliosis could be noted after ischemia induction by vimentin staining.
      Additionally, an up-regulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) mRNA was
      found in ischemic optic nerves. Counting of oligodendrocyte transcription factor
      2 positive (Olig2+) cells revealed a decrease of oligodendrocytes in the ischemic
      group. Also, myelin basic protein (MBP) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein
      (MOG) mRNA expression was down-regulated after induction of I/R. On
      immunohistological level, a decrease of MOG was detectable in ischemic optic
      nerves as well. In addition, SMI-32 stained neurofilaments of longitudinal optic
      nerve sections showed a strong structural damage of the ischemic optic nerves in
      comparison to controls. Consequently, retinal ischemia impacts optic nerve
      degeneration. These findings could help to better understand the course of
      destruction in the optic nerve after an ischemic insult. Especially for
      therapeutic studies, the optic nerve is important because of its susceptibility
      to be damaged as a result to retinal ischemic injury and also its connecting
      function between the eye and the brain. So, future drug screenings should target
      not only the retina, but also the functionality and structure of the optic nerve.
      In the future, these results could lead to the development of new therapeutic
      strategies for treatment of ischemic injury.

PMID- 28878628
TI  - Early Correlated Network Activity in the Hippocampus: Its Putative Role in
      Shaping Neuronal Circuits.
AB  - Synchronized neuronal activity occurring at different developmental stages in
      various brain structures represents a hallmark of developmental circuits. This
      activity, which differs in its specific patterns among animal species may play a
      crucial role in de novo formation and in shaping neuronal networks. In the rodent
      hippocampus in vitro, the so-called giant depolarizing potentials (GDPs)
      constitute a primordial form of neuronal synchrony preceding more organized forms
      of activity such as oscillations in the theta and gamma frequency range. GDPs are
      generated at the network level by the interaction of the neurotransmitters
      glutamate and GABA which, immediately after birth, exert both a depolarizing and
      excitatory action on their targets. GDPs are triggered by GABAergic interneurons,
      which in virtue of their extensive axonal branching operate as functional hubs to
      synchronize large ensembles of cells. Intrinsic bursting activity, driven by a
      persistent sodium conductance and facilitated by the low expression of Kv7.2 and
      Kv7.3 channel subunits, responsible for IM, exerts a permissive role in GDP
      generation. Here, we discuss how GDPs are generated in a probabilistic way when
      neuronal excitability within a local circuit reaches a certain threshold and how
      GDP-associated calcium transients act as coincident detectors for enhancing
      synaptic strength at emerging GABAergic and glutamatergic synapses. We discuss
      the possible in vivo correlate of this activity. Finally, we debate recent data
      showing how, in several animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders including
      autism, a GDPs dysfunction is associated to morphological alterations of neuronal
      circuits and behavioral deficits reminiscent of those observed in patients.

PMID- 28878629
TI  - Higher Arc Nucleus-to-Cytoplasm Ratio during Sleep in the Superficial Layers of
      the Mouse Cortex.
AB  - The activity-regulated cytoskeleton associated protein Arc is strongly and
      quickly upregulated by neuronal activity, synaptic potentiation and learning. Arc
      entry in the synapse is followed by the endocytosis of glutamatergic AMPA
      receptors (AMPARs), and its nuclear accumulation has been shown in vitro to
      result in a small decline in the transcription of the GluA1 subunit of AMPARs.
      Since these effects result in a decline in synaptic strength, we asked whether a
      change in Arc dynamics may temporally correlate with sleep-dependent GluA1 down
      regulation. We measured the ratio of nuclear to cytoplasmic Arc expression (Arc
      Nuc/Cyto) in the cerebral cortex of EGFP-Arc transgenic mice that were awake most
      of the night and then perfused immediately before lights on (W mice), or were
      awake most of the night and then allowed to sleep (S mice) or sleep deprived (SD
      mice) for the first 2 h of the light phase. In primary motor cortex (M1), neurons
      with high levels of nuclear Arc (High Arc cells) were present in all mice, but in
      these cells Arc Nuc/Cyto was higher in S mice than in W mice and, importantly,
      ~15% higher in S mice than in SD mice collected at the same time of day, ruling
      out circadian effects. Greater Arc Nuc/Cyto with sleep was observed in the
      superficial layers of M1, but not in the deep layers. In High Arc cells, Arc
      Nuc/Cyto was also ~15%-30% higher in S mice than in W and SD mice in the
      superficial layers of primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and cingulate cortex area
      1 (Cg1). In High Arc Cells of Cg1, Arc Nuc/Cyto and cytoplasmic levels of GluA1
      immunoreactivities in the soma were also negatively correlated, independent of
      behavioral state. Thus, Arc moves to the nucleus during both sleep and wake, but
      its nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio increases with sleep in the superficial layers
      of several cortical areas. It remains to be determined whether the relative
      increase in nuclear Arc contributes significantly to the overall decline in the
      strength of excitatory synapses that occurs during sleep. Similarly, it remains
      to be determined whether the entry of Arc into specific synapses is gated by
      sleep.

PMID- 28878630
TI  - Temporal Expression of Wnt1 Defines the Competency State and Terminal Identity of
      Progenitors in the Developing Cochlear Nucleus and Inferior Colliculus.
AB  - The auditory system contains a diverse array of interconnected anatomical
      structures that mediate the perception of sound. The cochlear nucleus of the
      hindbrain serves as the initial site of convergence for auditory stimuli, while
      the inferior colliculus of the midbrain serves as an integration and relay
      station for all ascending auditory information. We used Genetic Inducible Fate
      Mapping (GIFM) to determine how the timing of Wnt1 expression is related to the
      competency states of auditory neuron progenitors. We demonstrate that the Wnt1
      lineage defines progenitor pools of auditory neurons in the developing midbrain
      and hindbrain. The timing of Wnt1 expression specifies unique cell types during
      embryogenesis and follows a mixed model encompassing a brief epoch of de novo
      expression followed by rapid and progressive lineage restriction to shape the
      inferior colliculus. In contrast, Wnt1 fate mapping of the embryonic hindbrain
      revealed de novo induction of Wnt1 in auditory hindbrain progenitors, which is
      related to the development of biochemically distinct neurons in the cochlear
      nucleus. Thus, we uncovered two modes of lineage allocation that explain the
      relationship between the timing of Wnt1 expression and the development of the
      cochlear nucleus and the inferior colliculus. Finally, our analysis of Wnt1sw/sw
      mutant mice demonstrated a functional requirement of Wnt1 for the development of
      auditory midbrain and hindbrain neurons. Collectively, our study provides a
      deeper understanding of Wnt1 lineage allocation and function in mammalian brain
      development.

PMID- 28878624
TI  - Cell Death in the Developing Brain after Hypoxia-Ischemia.
AB  - Perinatal insults such as hypoxia-ischemia induces secondary brain injury. In
      order to develop the next generation of neuroprotective therapies, we urgently
      need to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms leading to cell death. The
      cell death mechanisms have been shown to be quite different in the developing
      brain compared to that in the adult. The aim of this review is update on what
      cell death mechanisms that are operating particularly in the setting of the
      developing CNS. In response to mild stress stimuli a number of compensatory
      mechanisms will be activated, most often leading to cell survival. Moderate-to
      severe insults trigger regulated cell death. Depending on several factors such as
      the metabolic situation, cell type, nature of the stress stimulus, and which
      intracellular organelle(s) are affected, the cell undergoes apoptosis (caspase
      activation) triggered by BAX dependent mitochondrial permeabilzation, necroptosis
      (mixed lineage kinase domain-like activation), necrosis (via opening of the
      mitochondrial permeability transition pore), autophagic cell death
      (autophagy/Na+, K+-ATPase), or parthanatos (poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1,
      apoptosis-inducing factor). Severe insults cause accidental cell death that
      cannot be modulated genetically or by pharmacologic means. However, accidental
      cell death leads to the release of factors (damage-associated molecular patterns)
      that initiate systemic effects, as well as inflammation and (regulated) secondary
      brain injury in neighboring tissue. Furthermore, if one mode of cell death is
      inhibited, another route may step in at least in a scenario when upstream
      damaging factors predominate over protective responses. The provision of
      alternative routes through which the cell undergoes death has to be taken into
      account in the hunt for novel brain protective strategies.

PMID- 28878633
TI  - The Role of Monoaminergic Neurotransmission for Metabolic Control in the Fruit
      Fly Drosophila Melanogaster.
AB  - Hormones control various metabolic traits comprising fat deposition or starvation
      resistance. Here we show that two invertebrate neurohormones, octopamine (OA) and
      tyramine (TA) as well as their associated receptors, had a major impact on these
      metabolic traits. Animals devoid of the monoamine OA develop a severe obesity
      phenotype. Using flies defective in the expression of receptors for OA and TA, we
      aimed to decipher the contributions of single receptors for these metabolic
      phenotypes. Whereas those animals impaired in octbeta1r, octbeta2r and tar1 share
      the obesity phenotype of OA-deficient (tbetah-deficient) animals, the octbeta1r,
      octbeta2r deficient flies showed reduced insulin release, which is opposed to the
      situation found in tbetah-deficient animals. On the other hand, OAMB deficient
      flies were leaner than controls, implying that the regulation of this phenotype
      is more complex than anticipated. Other phenotypes seen in tbetah-deficient
      animals, such as the reduced ability to perform complex movements tasks can
      mainly be attributed to the octbeta2r. Tissue-specific RNAi experiments revealed
      a very complex interorgan communication leading to the different metabolic
      phenotypes observed in OA or OA and TA-deficient flies.

PMID- 28878632
TI  - The Influence of Regional Distribution and Pharmacologic Specificity of GABAAR
      Subtype Expression on Anesthesia and Emergence.
AB  - Anesthetics produce unconsciousness by modulating ion channels that control
      neuronal excitability. Research has shown that specific GABAA receptor (GABAAR)
      subtypes in particular regions of the central nervous system contribute to
      different hyperpolarizing conductances, and behaviorally to distinct components
      of the anesthetized state. The expression of these receptors on the neuron cell
      surface, and thus the strength of inhibitory neurotransmission, is dynamically
      regulated by intracellular trafficking mechanisms. Pharmacologic or activity
      based perturbations to these regulatory systems have been implicated in pathology
      of several neurological conditions, and can alter the individual response to
      anesthesia. Furthermore, studies are beginning to uncover how anesthetic exposure
      itself elicits enduring changes in subcellular physiology, including the
      processes that regulate ion channel trafficking. Here, we review the mechanisms
      that determine GABAAR surface expression, and elaborate on influences germane to
      anesthesia and emergence. We address known trafficking differences between the
      intrasynaptic receptors that mediate phasic current and the extra-synaptic
      receptors mediating tonic current. We also describe neurophysiologic consequences
      and network-level abnormalities in brain function that result from receptor
      trafficking aberrations. We hypothesize that the relationship between commonly
      used anesthetic agents and GABAAR surface expression has direct consequences on
      mature functioning neural networks and by extension ultimately influence the
      outcome of patients that undergo general anesthesia. Rational design of new
      anesthetics, anesthetic techniques, EEG-based monitoring strategies, or emergence
      treatments will need to take these effects into consideration.

PMID- 28878631
TI  - A Laminar Organization for Selective Cortico-Cortical Communication.
AB  - The neocortex is central to mammalian cognitive ability, playing critical roles
      in sensory perception, motor skills and executive function. This thin, layered
      structure comprises distinct, functionally specialized areas that communicate
      with each other through the axons of pyramidal neurons. For the hundreds of such
      cortico-cortical pathways to underlie diverse functions, their cellular and
      synaptic architectures must differ so that they result in distinct computations
      at the target projection neurons. In what ways do these pathways differ? By
      originating and terminating in different laminae, and by selectively targeting
      specific populations of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, these "interareal"
      pathways can differentially control the timing and strength of synaptic inputs
      onto individual neurons, resulting in layer-specific computations. Due to the
      rapid development in transgenic techniques, the mouse has emerged as a powerful
      mammalian model for understanding the rules by which cortical circuits organize
      and function. Here we review our understanding of how cortical lamination
      constrains long-range communication in the mammalian brain, with an emphasis on
      the mouse visual cortical network. We discuss the laminar architecture underlying
      interareal communication, the role of neocortical layers in organizing the
      balance of excitatory and inhibitory actions, and highlight the structure and
      function of layer 1 in mouse visual cortex.

PMID- 28878634
TI  - Localized vs. Systematic Neurodegeneration: A Paradigm Shift in Understanding
      Neurodegenerative Diseases.

PMID- 28878635
TI  - Alcohol Intake Increases in Adolescent C57BL/6J Mice during Intermittent Cycles
      of Phase-Delayed, Long-Light Conditions.
AB  - : Adolescents naturally go to bed and awaken late, but are forced to awaken early
      for school and work. This leads to "social jetlag", a state of circadian
      desynchrony (CD), in which internal biological rhythms are out of sync with
      behavioral rhythms. CD is associated with increased alcohol intake in adults, but
      has been less well-studied in adolescents. The goal of this study was to model
      adolescent alcohol intake during similar CD conditions in male C57BL/6J mice.
      Free access alcohol intake, water intake and wheel-running activity were measured
      during a normal 12HR photoperiod or during alternating photoperiod (Experiment 1:
      12 h light for 4 days followed by 18 h light for 3 days, with dark (activity
      onset) delayed 9 h during the 18HR photoperiod; Experiment 2: 12 h light for 4
      days followed by 6 h light for 3 days, with dark onset delayed 3 h during the 6HR
      photoperiod). In Experiment 1, CD produced a small but significant increase in
      the total alcohol intake per day as well as in intake in bouts, with the greatest
      increase over controls in the hours following the 6HR dark period. Additionally,
      the pattern of alcohol intake in bouts shifted to increase alcohol intake during
      the shorter dark period. In Experiment 2, the opposite effect occurred-the longer
      dark cycle led to lower alcohol drinking in the second half of the dark period.
      However, in Experiment 2, CD produced no significant changes in either total
      alcohol intake or alcohol intake in bouts. CONCLUSION: shifts in the light cycle
      that disrupt the regular pattern of day and night, and increase the length of the
      night phase, are sufficient to increase both drinking in bouts and restricted
      drinking in adolescent mice, modeling increased alcohol intake in adolescents
      during CD.

PMID- 28878636
TI  - Do Insects Have Emotions? Some Insights from Bumble Bees.
AB  - While our conceptual understanding of emotions is largely based on human
      subjective experiences, research in comparative cognition has shown growing
      interest in the existence and identification of "emotion-like" states in non
      human animals. There is still ongoing debate about the nature of emotions in
      animals (especially invertebrates), and certainly their existence and the
      existence of certain expressive behaviors displaying internal emotional states
      raise a number of exciting and challenging questions. Interestingly, at least
      superficially, insects (bees and flies) seem to fulfill the basic requirements of
      emotional behavior. Yet, recent works go a step further by adopting terminologies
      and interpretational frameworks that could have been considered as crude
      anthropocentrism and that now seem acceptable in the scientific literature on
      invertebrate behavior and cognition. This change in paradigm requires, therefore,
      that the question of emotions in invertebrates is reconsidered from a cautious
      perspective and with parsimonious explanations. Here we review and discuss this
      controversial topic based on the recent finding that bumblebees experience
      positive emotions while experiencing unexpected sucrose rewards, but also
      incorporating a broader survey of recent literature in which similar claims have
      been done for other invertebrates. We maintain that caution is warranted before
      attributing emotion-like states to honey bees and bumble bees as some
      experimental caveats may undermine definitive conclusions. We suggest that
      interpreting many of these findings in terms of motivational drives may be less
      anthropocentrically biased and more cautious, at least until more careful
      experiments warrant the use of an emotion-related terminology.

PMID- 28878637
TI  - Corrigendum: The Australian Bogong Moth Agrotis infusa: A Long-Distance Nocturnal
      Navigator.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 77 in vol. 10, PMID: 27147998.].

PMID- 28878638
TI  - Evolutionary and Modern Image Content Differentially Influence the Processing of
      Emotional Pictures.
AB  - From an evolutionary perspective, environmental threats relevant for survival
      constantly challenged human beings. Current research suggests the evolution of a
      fear processing module in the brain to cope with these threats. Recently, humans
      increasingly encountered modern threats (e.g., guns or car accidents) in addition
      to evolutionary threats (e.g., snakes or predators) which presumably required an
      adaptation of perception and behavior. However, the neural processes underlying
      the perception of these different threats remain to be elucidated. We
      investigated the effect of image content (i.e., evolutionary vs. modern threats)
      on the activation of neural networks of emotion processing. During functional
      magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) 41 participants watched affective pictures
      displaying evolutionary-threatening, modern-threatening, evolutionary-neutral and
      modern-neutral content. Evolutionary-threatening stimuli evoked stronger
      activations than modern-threatening stimuli in left inferior frontal gyrus and
      thalamus, right middle frontal gyrus and parietal regions as well as bilaterally
      in parietal regions, fusiform gyrus and bilateral amygdala. We observed the
      opposite effect, i.e., higher activity for modern-threatening than for
      evolutionary-threatening stimuli, bilaterally in the posterior cingulate and the
      parahippocampal gyrus. We found no differences in subjective arousal ratings
      between the two threatening conditions. On the valence scale though, subjects
      rated modern-threatening pictures significantly more negative than evolutionary
      threatening pictures, indicating a higher level of perceived threat. The majority
      of previous studies show a positive relationship between arousal rating and
      amygdala activity. However, comparing fMRI results with behavioral findings we
      provide evidence that neural activity in fear processing areas is not only driven
      by arousal or valence, but presumably also by the evolutionary content of the
      stimulus. This has also fundamental methodological implications, in the sense to
      suggest a more elaborate classification of stimulus content to improve the
      validity of experimental designs.

PMID- 28878639
TI  - Differential Associations between Cortical Thickness and Striatal Dopamine in
      Treatment-Naive Adults with ADHD vs. Healthy Controls.
AB  - Alterations in catecholamine signaling and cortical morphology have both been
      implicated in the pathophysiology of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
      (ADHD). However, possible links between the two remain unstudied. Here, we report
      exploratory analyses of cortical thickness and its relation to striatal dopamine
      transmission in treatment-naive adults with ADHD and matched healthy controls.
      All participants had one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and two [11C]raclopride
      positron emission tomography scans. Associations between frontal cortical
      thickness and the magnitude of d-amphetamine-induced [11C]raclopride binding
      changes were observed that were divergent in the two groups. In the healthy
      controls, a thicker cortex was associated with less dopamine release; in the ADHD
      participants the converse was seen. The same divergence was seen for baseline
      D2/3 receptor availability. In healthy volunteers, lower D2/3 receptor
      availability was associated with a thicker cortex, while in the ADHD group lower
      baseline D2/3 receptor availability was associated with a thinner cortex.
      Individual differences in cortical thickness in these regions correlated with
      ADHD symptom severity. Together, these findings add to the evidence of
      associations between dopamine transmission and cortical morphology, and suggest
      that these relationships are altered in treatment-naive adults with ADHD.

PMID- 28878640
TI  - Neural Pattern Similarity in the Left IFG and Fusiform Is Associated with Novel
      Word Learning.
AB  - Previous studies have revealed that greater neural pattern similarity across
      repetitions is associated with better subsequent memory. In this study, we used
      an artificial language training paradigm and representational similarity analysis
      to examine whether neural pattern similarity across repetitions before training
      was associated with post-training behavioral performance. Twenty-four native
      Chinese speakers were trained to learn a logographic artificial language for 12
      days and behavioral performance was recorded using the word naming and picture
      naming tasks. Participants were scanned while performing a passive viewing task
      before training, after 4-day training and after 12-day training. Results showed
      that pattern similarity in the left pars opercularis (PO) and fusiform gyrus (FG)
      before training was negatively associated with reaction time (RT) in both word
      naming and picture naming tasks after training. These results suggest that neural
      pattern similarity is an effective neurofunctional predictor of novel word
      learning in addition to word memory.

PMID- 28878641
TI  - The Emergence of Language in the Hominin Lineage: Perspectives from Fossil
      Endocasts.

PMID- 28878642
TI  - Binary Associative Memories as a Benchmark for Spiking Neuromorphic Hardware.
AB  - Large-scale neuromorphic hardware platforms, specialized computer systems for
      energy efficient simulation of spiking neural networks, are being developed
      around the world, for example as part of the European Human Brain Project (HBP).
      Due to conceptual differences, a universal performance analysis of these systems
      in terms of runtime, accuracy and energy efficiency is non-trivial, yet
      indispensable for further hard- and software development. In this paper we
      describe a scalable benchmark based on a spiking neural network implementation of
      the binary neural associative memory. We treat neuromorphic hardware and software
      simulators as black-boxes and execute exactly the same network description across
      all devices. Experiments on the HBP platforms under varying configurations of the
      associative memory show that the presented method allows to test the quality of
      the neuron model implementation, and to explain significant deviations from the
      expected reference output.

PMID- 28878643
TI  - Homologous Basal Ganglia Network Models in Physiological and Parkinsonian
      Conditions.
AB  - The classical model of basal ganglia has been refined in recent years with
      discoveries of subpopulations within a nucleus and previously unknown
      projections. One such discovery is the presence of subpopulations of arkypallidal
      and prototypical neurons in external globus pallidus, which was previously
      considered to be a primarily homogeneous nucleus. Developing a computational
      model of these multiple interconnected nuclei is challenging, because the
      strengths of the connections are largely unknown. We therefore use a genetic
      algorithm to search for the unknown connectivity parameters in a firing rate
      model. We apply a binary cost function derived from empirical firing rate and
      phase relationship data for the physiological and Parkinsonian conditions. Our
      approach generates ensembles of over 1,000 configurations, or homologies, for
      each condition, with broad distributions for many of the parameter values and
      overlap between the two conditions. However, the resulting effective weights of
      connections from or to prototypical and arkypallidal neurons are consistent with
      the experimental data. We investigate the significance of the weight variability
      by manipulating the parameters individually and cumulatively, and conclude that
      the correlation observed between the parameters is necessary for generating the
      dynamics of the two conditions. We then investigate the response of the networks
      to a transient cortical stimulus, and demonstrate that networks classified as
      physiological effectively suppress activity in the internal globus pallidus, and
      are not susceptible to oscillations, whereas parkinsonian networks show the
      opposite tendency. Thus, we conclude that the rates and phase relationships
      observed in the globus pallidus are predictive of experimentally observed higher
      level dynamical features of the physiological and parkinsonian basal ganglia, and
      that the multiplicity of solutions generated by our method may well be indicative
      of a natural diversity in basal ganglia networks. We propose that our approach of
      generating and analyzing an ensemble of multiple solutions to an underdetermined
      network model provides greater confidence in its predictions than those derived
      from a unique solution, and that projecting such homologous networks on a lower
      dimensional space of sensibly chosen dynamical features gives a better chance
      than a purely structural analysis at understanding complex pathologies such as
      Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28878644
TI  - Coexisting Behaviors of Asymmetric Attractors in Hyperbolic-Type Memristor based
      Hopfield Neural Network.
AB  - A new hyperbolic-type memristor emulator is presented and its frequency-dependent
      pinched hysteresis loops are analyzed by numerical simulations and confirmed by
      hardware experiments. Based on the emulator, a novel hyperbolic-type memristor
      based 3-neuron Hopfield neural network (HNN) is proposed, which is achieved
      through substituting one coupling-connection weight with a memristive synaptic
      weight. It is numerically shown that the memristive HNN has a dynamical
      transition from chaotic, to periodic, and further to stable point behaviors with
      the variations of the memristor inner parameter, implying the stabilization
      effect of the hyperbolic-type memristor on the chaotic HNN. Of particular
      interest, it should be highly stressed that for different memristor inner
      parameters, different coexisting behaviors of asymmetric attractors are emerged
      under different initial conditions, leading to the existence of multistable
      oscillation states in the memristive HNN. Furthermore, by using commercial
      discrete components, a nonlinear circuit is designed and PSPICE circuit
      simulations and hardware experiments are performed. The results simulated and
      captured from the realization circuit are consistent with numerical simulations,
      which well verify the facticity of coexisting asymmetric attractors' behaviors.

PMID- 28878646
TI  - Continuous Timescale Long-Short Term Memory Neural Network for Human Intent
      Understanding.
AB  - Understanding of human intention by observing a series of human actions has been
      a challenging task. In order to do so, we need to analyze longer sequences of
      human actions related with intentions and extract the context from the dynamic
      features. The multiple timescales recurrent neural network (MTRNN) model, which
      is believed to be a kind of solution, is a useful tool for recording and
      regenerating a continuous signal for dynamic tasks. However, the conventional
      MTRNN suffers from the vanishing gradient problem which renders it impossible to
      be used for longer sequence understanding. To address this problem, we propose a
      new model named Continuous Timescale Long-Short Term Memory (CTLSTM) in which we
      inherit the multiple timescales concept into the Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM)
      recurrent neural network (RNN) that addresses the vanishing gradient problem. We
      design an additional recurrent connection in the LSTM cell outputs to produce a
      time-delay in order to capture the slow context. Our experiments show that the
      proposed model exhibits better context modeling ability and captures the dynamic
      features on multiple large dataset classification tasks. The results illustrate
      that the multiple timescales concept enhances the ability of our model to handle
      longer sequences related with human intentions and hence proving to be more
      suitable for complex tasks, such as intention recognition.

PMID- 28878645
TI  - Adaptive Control Strategies for Interlimb Coordination in Legged Robots: A
      Review.
AB  - Walking animals produce adaptive interlimb coordination during locomotion in
      accordance with their situation. Interlimb coordination is generated through the
      dynamic interactions of the neural system, the musculoskeletal system, and the
      environment, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recently,
      investigations of the adaptation mechanisms of living beings have attracted
      attention, and bio-inspired control systems based on neurophysiological findings
      regarding sensorimotor interactions are being developed for legged robots. In
      this review, we introduce adaptive interlimb coordination for legged robots
      induced by various factors (locomotion speed, environmental situation, body
      properties, and task). In addition, we show characteristic properties of adaptive
      interlimb coordination, such as gait hysteresis and different time-scale
      adaptations. We also discuss the underlying mechanisms and control strategies to
      achieve adaptive interlimb coordination and the design principle for the control
      system of legged robots.

PMID- 28878647
TI  - Adenocarcinoma of the Lung Acquiring Resistance to Afatinib by Transformation to
      Small Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report.
AB  - A 65-year-old woman visited our hospital due to right chest pain and dyspnea on
      exertion. Chest radiography revealed decreased permeability of the right lung.
      Computed tomography demonstrated a huge mass in the right upper lobe and right
      pleural effusion. Right pleural effusion cytology yielded a diagnosis of
      adenocarcinoma and was positive for mutation of epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR; exon 21 L858R). Afatinib was selected for the initial treatment. Multiple
      tumors regressed remarkably, but then rapidly progressed 3 months later. We
      performed re-biopsy to detect the mechanism of resistance to afatinib.
      Histopathology revealed a mixture of small cell carcinoma (SCC) and
      adenocarcinoma harboring same EGFR mutation. To the best of our knowledge, this
      is the first report of transformation to SCC after treatment with afatinib.

PMID- 28878648
TI  - Acquired Pulmonary Arteriovenous Fistula within Metastasis from Choriocarcinoma:
      A Case Report.
AB  - Choriocarcinoma is a highly malignant neoplasm arising from the trophoblast of a
      human pregnancy, which may have distant spread to multiple organs, particularly
      to the lung. We report a case of a pulmonary arteriovenous fistula that developed
      after chemotherapy within a choriocarcinoma metastasis. A 24-year-old female with
      a history of uterine choriocarcinoma presented with multiple hypervascular
      pulmonary nodules on the initial chest computed tomography (CT) scan, consistent
      with lung metastases. Four months after chemotherapy, follow-up chest CT revealed
      a decrease in the size and vascularity of the lung metastases, except for 1
      nodule that persisted with marked contrast enhancement and developed a
      communication with a pulmonary artery and vein. These findings were consistent
      with an acquired arteriovenous fistula. Physicians should be aware of the risk of
      acquired arteriovenous fistula in pulmonary metastases after chemotherapy because
      it can lead to a right-to-left shunt, pulmonary hemorrhage, and paradoxical
      emboli. It is also important for the definition of therapeutic planning, in order
      to avoid it being misdiagnosed as a site of disease progression.

PMID- 28878649
TI  - A Symptomatic Case of Adenomatous Ductal Proliferation/Hyperplasia with a Large
      Cystic Lesion.
AB  - Adenomatous ductal proliferation/hyperplasia (ADP/H) of the salivary gland, a
      rare asymptomatic nonneoplastic lesion that histopathologically resembles basal
      cell adenoma, is typically incidentally identified in resected specimens of other
      salivary diseases such as tumors and chronic sialadenitis. A 70-year-old male was
      referred to our hospital with a 9-month history of continuous swelling in the
      left parotid region. A physical examination revealed a soft mass in the left
      parotid gland, which was identified as a cystic mass by computed tomography. A
      parotid tumor with cystic components was suspected, and partial parotidectomy was
      performed under general anesthesia. The histopathological findings were
      consistent with the diagnosis of ADP/H of the salivary gland. This case report
      emphasizes the necessity for a proper diagnosis of ADP/H of the salivary gland.
      Further large case series are required for a modification of the definition of
      ADP/H for its correct diagnosis.

PMID- 28878650
TI  - Interstitial Lung Disease Following Single-Agent Nanoparticle Albumin-Bound
      Paclitaxel Treatment in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a serious and potentially fatal adverse event
      in lung cancer therapy. Nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-PTX) is a
      novel, solvent-free formulation of paclitaxel (PTX). Although the incidence of
      nab-PTX-induced ILD is not clear, it is generally considered that this
      formulation presents a similar risk of developing ILD as PTX. Here, we report 3
      patients who developed severe ILD following treatment with nab-PTX. We draw
      attention to the risk of developing drug-induced ILD following nab-PTX treatment,
      and highlight that this novel formulation might therefore not be as safe as PTX
      with respect to the development of ILD.

PMID- 28878652
TI  - Solitary Skeletal Muscle Metastasis as First Site of Recurrence of Cervical
      Cancer: A Case Report.
AB  - Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, with a large
      majority of prevalence (85%) in developing countries. As of 2012, it accounts for
      7.5% of all female cancer deaths. Despite its high prevalence, skeletal muscle
      metastasis from cervical cancer is extremely uncommon. In our extensive
      literature search, we were able to find only 8 cases where skeletal muscle
      metastasis was the only site of recurrence. We report a case of a 52-year-old
      African-American woman with a past medical history of cervical cancer (stage
      IIIB) who presented with pain and swelling in her left upper arm over the
      preceding 2 months. MRI of the left upper arm showed a solid well-circumscribed
      mass measuring 7.0 * 2.8 * 2.5 cm, deep to the biceps. Biopsy of the mass
      revealed a metastatic squamous cell carcinoma that was p16-positive. PET scan
      showed that the lesion was the sole site of metastasis. She received local
      radiation with concurrent chemotherapy. Follow-up MRI 6 months after the
      completion of therapy showed resolution of the mass. She has remained disease
      free for the last 24 months as evidenced by a PET/CT scan in May 2016. In this
      case report, we discuss the role of imaging and pathology in the diagnosis of a
      solitary metastatic lesion. This case also emphasizes the importance of a close
      follow-up which aids in early intervention, increasing overall survival.

PMID- 28878651
TI  - Ischemic Colitis Associated with Paclitaxel and Carboplatin Combination.
AB  - A 62-year-old white female with a history of early-stage triple-negative breast
      cancer on a combination of carboplatin and paclitaxel in the adjuvant setting
      presented with lower gastrointestinal bleeding. She tolerated 4 cycles of dose
      dense adriamycin/cyclophosphamide with no major symptoms. After 6 cycles of
      weekly paclitaxel in combination with carboplatin every 3 weeks, she presented
      with diarrhea and lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Colonosopic examination showed
      erythema and inflammation in the splenic flexure, descending colon, and sigmoid
      colon consistent with ischemic colitis. Pathology favored the same diagnosis. She
      was treated conservatively with intravenous fluids and bowel rest. Chemotherapy
      was held for 2 weeks and resumed after recovery without carboplatin. She was able
      to tolerate the remaining 6 cycles of paclitaxel with no recurrence of her
      symptoms.

PMID- 28878653
TI  - Correlation between Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes and Pathological Response in
      Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Patients Who Received Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in
      H. Adam Malik General Hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are emerging as biomarkers
      mediating tumor response to treatments. Earlier studies have provided evidence
      that the level of TILs has prognostic value, particularly in triple-negative and
      human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-positive breast cancer. Moreover, the
      level of TILs has been associated with treatment outcome in patients undergoing
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and there is a strong correlation with pathologically
      complete response. In this study, we analyzed whether changes in TILs take place
      after neoadjuvant therapy and if they correlate with pathological response to
      treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the specimen slides
      from the Department of Anatomic Pathology of H. Adam Malik General Hospital
      during 2011-2015. We identified 51 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria of
      this study. The histological sections had already been evaluated by hematoxylin
      and eosin slides. They were reassessed by our pathologist for the percentage of
      intratumoral and stromal TILs. The correlation with pathological response of the
      tumor after neoadjuvant therapy was also studied in these patients. Each case was
      also defined as high- or low-TIL breast cancer adopting previously validated
      cutoffs. RESULTS: The mean age of the 51 patients was 49.22 years. The most
      frequent type of breast cancer histology was invasive ductal breast carcinoma in
      49 (96%) patients, and there were 2 (4%) patients with lobular carcinoma. The
      histopathological grading for high TILs was grade 1 in 5 patients, grade 2 in 15
      patients, and grade 3 in 3 patients. High TILs that had a pathologically complete
      response were found in 47.8% of patients, and low TILs were found in 28.8%. There
      was no significant correlation between TILs and pathological response in patients
      with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.157). CONCLUSIONS: This research has not
      been able to demonstrate a significant correlation between TILs and pathological
      response in patients with locally advanced breast cancer who received neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy, but high TILs were more likely to have a complete response. Further
      information may prove useful for future biomarker trials.

PMID- 28878655
TI  - Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma in the Spermatic Cord Finally Diagnosed at 7th
      Resection of Recurrence: A Case Report and Bibliographic Consideration.
AB  - Liposarcoma in the spermatic cord is infrequent, and accurate diagnosis of
      histopathological subtype is often difficult in spite of the importance of
      differential diagnosis for adequate treatment. A 54-year-old man underwent left
      sided high orchiectomy with inguinal lymphadenectomy for a spermatic cord tumor
      in July 2006. The initial histopathological report diagnosed leiomyosarcoma in
      the spermatic cord. He then underwent surgeries for repeated recurrences a
      further 6 times between July 2008 and May 2014. Pathological finding at the 7th
      resection of the recurrent tumor was osteosarcoma, which was uncommon in the
      spermatic cord. With a thorough overview of all specimens, the histopathological
      diagnosis was finally confirmed as dedifferentiated liposarcoma because of a
      biphasic pattern in the specimen of high orchiectomy at the first resection. A
      biphasic pattern represents high-grade sarcoma like osteosarcoma and well
      differentiated liposarcoma, and is characteristic of dedifferentiated
      liposarcoma. Although the dedifferentiated type is one of poor prognosis, the
      diagnosing of liposarcoma histopathologically was found to be difficult
      throughout this case. In this report we discuss the accurate histopathological
      diagnosis of liposarcoma in the spermatic cord in order to prevent repeated
      recurrences based on a review of the literature, as well as the difficulty in
      recognizing dedifferentiated liposarcoma macroscopically and morphologically. Our
      experience suggests that, after much difficulty, accurate histopathological
      diagnosis of liposarcoma in the spermatic cord is still clinically challenging.

PMID- 28878654
TI  - Advanced Tracheal Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma with Thyroid Invasion Mimicking
      Thyroid Cancer Treated with Definitive Radiation: Case Report and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - A 54-year-old female patient, a breast cancer survivor and a case of unresectable
      adenoid cystic carcinoma of the trachea, with thyroid invasion, presented with
      suprasternal neck swelling mimicking thyroid primary. A literature search was
      undertaken to highlight this rare presentation. There have been few reports in
      the literature describing tracheal adenoid cystic carcinoma involving the
      thyroid.

PMID- 28878656
TI  - Dramatic Response of a Metastatic Primary Small-Cell Carcinoma of the Pancreas to
      a Trial of Immunotherapy with Nivolumab: A Case Report.
AB  - Extrapulmonary small-cell neuroendocrine cancers are rare in clinical practice.
      They are frequently metastatic at the time of diagnosis with survival in months
      even with the most intensive treatment. So far, treatment recommendations for
      this group rely on data from the similar but more common small-cell carcinoma of
      the lungs. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are being investigated for the treatment
      of metastatic small-cell lung cancer with positive outcome. We applied the
      experience from these studies to a case of metastatic small-cell neuroendocrine
      cancer of the pancreas using nivolumab as a treatment of last resort. We noted a
      favorable and durable response suggesting that this may be superior to all
      currently available options for palliative treatment in a similar scenario.

PMID- 28878657
TI  - Targeted Approaches Applied to Uncommon Diseases: A Case of Salivary Duct
      Carcinoma Metastatic to the Brain Treated with the Multikinase Inhibitor
      Neratinib.
AB  - Salivary duct carcinoma is a rare malignancy associated with hormone receptor and
      human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression. Local surgical
      control is the cornerstone of therapy, but a subset of patients develops
      metastatic disease portending a poor prognosis and limited management options.
      Intracranial metastases are an uncommon manifestation and present a therapeutic
      challenge. We report the case of a 31-year-old male who presented with facial
      pain and swelling subsequently diagnosed with salivary duct carcinoma. Our
      patient underwent extensive locoregional resection and analysis of the tumor
      tissue demonstrated evidence of androgen receptor expression and HER2
      overexpression. His course was complicated by metastatic extra- and intracranial
      recurrence despite combined modality treatment with radiation and chemotherapy
      followed by anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody therapy and androgen deprivation
      therapy. After exhausting standard treatment options, he received experimental
      therapy with a new small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, neratinib, with
      evidence of a transient clinical response and no significant adverse effects.
      This case exemplifies the potential and limitations of targeted therapy,
      particularly when applied to patients with rare diseases and presentations.

PMID- 28878658
TI  - Synchronous Endometrial and Ovarian Carcinoma: A Case Series.
AB  - Synchronous ovarian and endometrial cancer (SEOC) is a rare instance but it
      accounts for 50-70% of all synchronous female genital tract tumors. We report
      three cases of women who were diagnosed with SEOC and underwent surgical staging.
      All cases were of the endometrioid subtype, grade 1, both in the ovarian and
      endometrial component. Two of them were stage Ia/Ia, and the third was stage
      Ib/Ib. More than 2 years after the diagnosis, all patients were alive and
      recurrence-free. The present report critically discusses the main
      characteristics, risk factors, and management of patients with SEOCs.

PMID- 28878659
TI  - A Case of Cervical Carcinoid and Review of the Literature.
AB  - Uterine cervix carcinoids are distinct neuroendocrine cervical tumors,
      representing a comparatively small percentage of them. These well-differentiated
      neoplasms are far less prevalent than small- and large-cell carcinomas,
      characterized by a more favorable biological course. We report a case of a 43
      year-old woman with a nonmetastatic cervical carcinoid, managed with radical
      hysterectomy. She still remains free of disease. Scant reports in the literature
      prohibit any reliable prediction of cervical carcinoid prognosis. Thus, prompt
      identification of the disease and subsequent therapeutic intervention could alter
      the final outcome.

PMID- 28878660
TI  - Long-Term Progression of Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Tinnitus after Combined
      Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy and Cisplatin-Based Chemotherapy for
      Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Case Report.
AB  - Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a common adverse effect for nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma (NPC) patients treated with chemoradiotherapy. We report a case of 12
      year follow-up from a patient with stage IIB NPC, treated in 2004 with intensity
      modulated radiotherapy and cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Pure-tone audiograms
      were conducted before treatment and at two other points in the 12-year period
      after treatment. Analysis of the patient's audiograms reveals that the
      development of high-frequency SNHL started after treatment and reached a plateau
      accompanied by tinnitus approximately 32 months after treatment conclusion. After
      the plateau, high-frequency SNHL continued to develop slowly in the next 10
      years, possibly a long-term effect from radiation-induced microvascular change of
      the hearing apparatus. The continuous high-frequency hearing decline is
      associated with increased tinnitus pitch in the patient. With experience learned
      from this case, we recommend hearing tests at regular intervals for at least 3-5
      years for NPC patients treated with chemoradiotherapy. Patients need to be
      educated about tinnitus and counseling can be offered when they begin to feel
      inconvenienced by tinnitus. These patients also need to be advised against
      exposure to noise that can aggravate the already compromised hearing apparatus,
      leading to further hearing loss and worsening tinnitus. Limiting the peak dose
      and total cumulative dose of cisplatin should be considered based on the
      patients' risk factors to achieve a balance between treatment efficacy and long
      term adverse effects.

PMID- 28878661
TI  - The Successful Treatment of Pulmonary Pleomorphic Carcinoma with Pembrolizumab: A
      Case Report.
AB  - Pulmonary pleomorphic carcinomas are rare malignant tumors, and no standard
      treatments have been established. We herein report the successful treatment of a
      patient with pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma with pembrolizumab. A 51-year-old
      man who was a current smoker presented to our hospital due to dyspnea and
      hemosputum. Chest X-ray showed right-sided pneumothorax with pleural effusion;
      chest tube drainage was therefore performed. Computed tomography after chest tube
      drainage showed a cavitary nodule in the right upper lobe and right hilar and
      bilateral mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Surgery was performed for the diagnosis
      and treatment. He was eventually diagnosed with pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma
      corresponding to clinical stage IVB (cT2aN2M1c [PLE, ADR, HEP]). The giant cells
      strongly expressed programmed death ligand-1, and the tumor proportion score was
      more than 50%. Therefore, pembrolizumab was introduced as the first-line therapy.
      After 3 cycles of pembrolizumab, his right hilar and bilateral mediastinal
      lymphadenopathy and pleural dissemination notably decreased. Pembrolizumab might
      be an effective therapy for pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma.

PMID- 28878662
TI  - Epulis-Like Presentation of Gingival Renal Cancer Metastasis.
AB  - Mouth metastatic cancers are very rare and they usually represent the evidence of
      a widespread disease. Common primary tumors are lung carcinoma in men and breast
      carcinoma in women, followed by kidney cancer. In the oral soft tissues, the
      gingiva is the most common site, suggesting a possible role of inflammation in
      the attraction of circulating tumor cells. Oral metastasis has a serious
      prognosis. In this work, we describe the case of a 58-year-old man affected by
      renal cancer, who was brought to our attention for the appearance of a gingival
      swelling. Initially, the lesion was excised through a provisional clinical
      diagnosis of epulis. Subsequently, anatomopathological analysis showed a
      metastasis compatible with clear-cell carcinoma and specifically its renal origin
      was confirmed by immunohistochemical techniques.

PMID- 28878663
TI  - Subacute Cerebellar Degeneration due to a Paraneoplastic Phenomenon Associated
      with Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this article is to illustrate the diagnostic challenges and
      management of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes in Merkel cell carcinoma.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: We describe a previously functionally independent 85-year
      old woman who presented with subacute onset of dizziness and gait ataxia in the
      setting of metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma. RESULTS: Diagnosis was made on
      biopsy after positron emission tomography imaging revealed increased metabolic
      activity in 2 left inguinofemoral lymph nodes. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis was
      positive for anti-Hu on subsequent admission. Her functional status improved with
      methylprednisolone treatment and radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: The case highlights
      the challenge of the evaluation of patients who present with progressive
      cerebellar signs and the need to consider a paraneoplastic syndrome, especially
      in the setting of previous malignancy.

PMID- 28878664
TI  - A Novel PRKAR1A Mutation Identified in a Patient with Isolated Primary Pigmented
      Nodular Adrenocortical Disease.
AB  - Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease (PPNAD) is a rare cause of
      Cushing syndrome, especially the isolated form without Carney complex, associated
      with germline mutations in PRKAR1A, the protein kinase A regulatory subunit type
      1 alpha gene. We report a 31-year-old female who presented with secondary
      amenorrhea, cushingoid appearance, and hypertension without Carney complex.
      Biochemical laboratory examinations confirmed the ACTH-independent adrenal
      Cushing syndrome with negative Liddle test. A small right adrenal adenoma of 0.8
      cm was shown on computed tomography while magnetic resonance imaging revealed
      nodularity of both adrenal glands. The histological report confirmed PPNAD using
      laparoscopic right adrenalectomy, and subsequent left adrenalectomy was performed
      6 months later. She had inherited heterozygosity of a novel germline mutation of
      the PRKAR1A gene (g.114213T>=G or c.709-5T>=G). This splice site mutation results
      in exon 8 skipping. Her father carrying the same mutation had no clinical
      features of either PPNAD or Carney complex. This novel PRKAR1A gene mutation,
      c.709-5T>=G, is reported here for the first time manifesting as an incomplete
      clinical expression of the isolated form of PPNAD and being inherited with low
      penetrance unlike other inherited mutations of the Carney complex which have a
      penetrance of almost 100%.

PMID- 28878665
TI  - Memory Alteration Test to Detect Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early
      Alzheimer's Dementia in Population with Low Educational Level.
AB  - Background/Aims: Short tests to early detection of the cognitive impairment are
      necessary in primary care setting, particularly in populations with low
      educational level. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of Memory
      Alteration Test (M@T) to discriminate controls, patients with amnestic Mild
      Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and patients with early Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) in
      a sample of individuals with low level of education. Methods: Cross-sectional
      study to assess the performance of the M@T (study test), compared to the
      neuropsychological evaluation (gold standard test) scores in 247 elderly subjects
      with low education level from Lima-Peru. The cognitive evaluation included three
      sequential stages: (1) screening (to detect cases with cognitive impairment); (2)
      nosological diagnosis (to determinate specific disease); and (3) classification
      (to differentiate disease subtypes). The subjects with negative results for all
      stages were considered as cognitively normal (controls). The test performance was
      assessed by means of area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
      curve. We calculated validity measures (sensitivity, specificity and correctly
      classified percentage), the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient),
      and concurrent validity (Pearson's ratio coefficient between the M@T and Clinical
      Dementia Rating (CDR) scores). Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.79
      and Pearson's ratio coefficient was 0.79 (p < 0.01). The AUC of M@T to
      discriminate between early AD and aMCI was 99.60% (sensitivity = 100.00%,
      specificity = 97.53% and correctly classified = 98.41%) and to discriminate
      between aMCI and controls was 99.56% (sensitivity = 99.17%, specificity = 91.11%,
      and correctly classified = 96.99%). Conclusions: The M@T is a short test with a
      good performance to discriminate controls, aMCI and early AD in individuals with
      low level of education from urban settings.

PMID- 28878666
TI  - Weight Rich-Club Analysis in the White Matter Network of Late-Life Depression
      with Memory Deficits.
AB  - Patients with late-life depression (LLD) have a higher incident of developing
      dementia, especially individuals with memory deficits. However, little is known
      about the white matter characteristics of LLD with memory deficits (LLD-MD) in
      the human connectome, especially for the rich-club coefficient, which is an
      indicator that describes the organization pattern of hub in the network. To
      address this question, diffusion tensor imaging of 69 participants [15 LLD-MD
      patients; 24 patients with LLD with intact memory (LLD-IM); and 30 healthy
      controls (HC)] was applied to construct a brain network for each individual. A
      full-scale battery of neuropsychological tests were used for grouping, and
      evaluating executive function, processing speed and memory. Rich-club analysis
      and global network properties were utilized to describe the topological features
      in each group. Network-based statistics (NBS) were calculated to identify the
      impaired subnetwork in the LLD-MD group relative to that in the LLD-IM group. We
      found that compared with HC participants, patients with LLD (LLD-MD and LLD-IM)
      had relatively impaired rich-club organizations and rich-club connectivity. In
      addition, LLD-MD group exhibited lower feeder and local connective average
      strength than LLD-IM group. Furthermore, global network properties, such as the
      shortest path length, connective strength, efficiency and fault tolerant
      efficiency, were significantly decreased in the LLD-MD group relative to those in
      the LLD-IM and HC groups. According to NBS analysis, a subnetwork, including
      right cognitive control network (CCN) and corticostriatal circuits, were
      disrupted in LLD-MD patients. In conclusion, the disease effects of LLD were
      prevalent in rich-club organization. Feeder and local connections, especially in
      the subnetwork including right CCN and corticostriatal circuits, were further
      impaired in those with memory deficits. Global network properties were disrupted
      in LLD-MD patients relative to those in LLD-IM patients.

PMID- 28878668
TI  - Analysis of Regional Variation in the Scope of Eligibility Defined by Ages in
      Children's Medical Expense Subsidy Program in Japan.
AB  - Children's medical expense subsidy programs are programs run by local governments
      that use public monies to reduce or eliminate the copayments for children's
      medical treatment including pharmaceutical cost (typically 20% for preschoolers
      and 30% thereafter). Currently, all prefectures and municipalities in Japan
      provide subsidies for infants' and children's medical expenses, but scope on ages
      of eligibility, income limits, and copayment requirements vary. The fact that
      these programs are run by local governments has given rise to differences in the
      costs borne by households with children, depending on the jurisdiction in which
      they live. Therefore, although it would be desirable to gain society's
      understanding of such variation, the factors have not been fully studied. This
      analysis investigates what factors could impact such variation. In it, we looked
      at 219 municipalities in the prefectures in the Kanto region, focusing on the gap
      from the average age eligibility of municipalities, which reflects the scope of
      eligibility. Neither a regression analysis using the instrumental variable method
      to account for simultaneous decision bias nor an ordered logit analysis with rank
      of coverage as an order variable revealed that differences in copayments by
      locale had any impact on the scope of age eligibility. Residents' income and the
      number of children tended to narrow scope of eligibility for subsidies, but the
      strength of local government finances were not a significant factor of influence.
      In designing these programs, local government bodies take into account the local
      population's ability to pay and the number of eligible people, but their
      awareness of the local government's financial condition seems to be scant. Local
      governments are currently moving to expand their children's medical expense
      subsidy programs, but in the future they will need to pay more attention to
      balancing an expanded scope of eligibility by ages with the maintenance of local
      government fiscal discipline. In addition, copayments have not been adequately
      linked to the expansion of eligibility, so it would be advisable to clearly
      demonstrate the reason for this limit in order to eliminate perceptions of
      unfairness.

PMID- 28878667
TI  - Adaptive Pathways: Possible Next Steps for Payers in Preparation for Their
      Potential Implementation.
AB  - Medicines receiving a conditional marketing authorization through Medicines
      Adaptive Pathways to Patients (MAPPs) will be a challenge for payers. The
      "introduction" of MAPPs is already seen by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as
      a fait accompli, with payers not consulted or involved. However, once medicines
      are approved through MAPPs, they will be evaluated for funding by payers through
      different activities. These include Health Technology Assessment (HTA) with often
      immature clinical data and high uncertainty, financial considerations, and
      negotiations through different types of agreements, which can require monitoring
      post launch. Payers have experience with new medicines approved through
      conditional approval, and the fact that MAPPs present additional challenges is a
      concern from their perspective. There may be some activities where payers can
      collaborate. The final decisions on whether to reimburse a new medicine via MAPPs
      will have more variation than for medicines licensed via conventional processes.
      This is due not only to increasing uncertainty associated with medicines
      authorized through MAPPs but also differences in legal frameworks between member
      states. Moreover, if the financial and side-effect burden from the period of
      conditional approval until granting full marketing authorization is shifted to
      the post-authorization phase, payers may have to bear such burdens. Collection of
      robust data during routine clinical use is challenging along with high prices for
      new medicines during data collection. This paper presents the concept of MAPPs
      and possible challenges. Concerns and potential ways forward are discussed and a
      number of recommendations are presented from the perspective of payers.

PMID- 28878669
TI  - Picrorhiza kurroa Enhances beta-Cell Mass Proliferation and Insulin Secretion in
      Streptozotocin Evoked beta-Cell Damage in Rats.
AB  - Autoimmune destruction of insulin producing pancreatic beta-cells leads to
      insulin insufficiency and hyperglycemia in type 1 diabetes mellitus. Regeneration
      of beta-cells is one of the proposed treatment for type 1 diabetes and insulin
      insufficiency. Picrorhiza kurroa is a medicinal herb and is traditionally being
      used for the treatment of various diseases. Previous studies reported the
      hypoglycemic potential of P. kurroa. However, its potential role in beta-cell
      induction in insulin secretion have not been fully investigated. Here, we
      characterized the hydro alcoholic extract of P. kurroa rhizome (PKRE) and further
      studied its beta-cell regeneration and induction of insulin secretion potential
      in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats as well as in insulin producing
      Rin5f cells. 1H-NMR revealed the presence of more than thirty metabolites
      including picroside I and II in PKRE. Further, we found that PKRE treatment (100
      and 200 mg/kg dose for 30 days) significantly (p <= 0.05) protected the
      pancreatic beta-cells against streptozotocin (STZ) evoked damage and inhibited
      the glucagon receptor expression (Gcgr) in hepatic and renal tissues. It
      significantly (p <= 0.05) enhanced the insulin expression and aids in
      proliferation of insulin producing Rin5f cells with elevated insulin secretion.
      Furthermore it significantly (p <= 0.05) increased insulin mediated glucose
      uptake in 3T3L1 and L6 cells. On the contrary, in diabetic rats, PKRE
      significantly (p <= 0.05) decreased high blood glucose and restored the normal
      levels of serum biochemicals. Altogether, our results showed that PKRE displayed
      beta-cell regeneration with enhanced insulin production and antihyperglycemic
      effects. PKRE also improves hepatic and renal functions against oxidative damage.

PMID- 28878671
TI  - A Pilot Study Evaluating the Safety of Intravenously Administered Human Amnion
      Epithelial Cells for the Treatment of Hepatic Fibrosis.
AB  - Liver cirrhosis is the 6th leading cause of death in adults aged 15-59 years in
      high-income countries. For many who progress to cirrhosis, the only prospect for
      survival is liver transplantation. While there is some indication that
      mesenchymal stem cells may be useful in reversing established liver fibrosis,
      there are limitations to their widespread use - namely their rarity, the need for
      extensive serial passaging and the associated potential for genomic instability
      and cellular senescence. To this end, we propose the use of allogeneic amnion
      epithelial cells. This clinical trial will assess the safety of intravenously
      delivered allogeneic human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) in patients with
      compensated liver cirrhosis. This will also provide clinical data that will
      inform phases 2 and 3 clinical trials with the ultimate goal of developing hAECs
      as a therapeutic option for patients with cirrhosis who are at significant risk
      of disease progression. We will recruit 12 patients with compensated cirrhosis,
      based on their hepatic venous pressure gradient, for a dose escalation study.
      Patients will be closely monitored in the first 24 h post-infusion, then via
      daily telephone interviews until clinical assessment on day 5. Long term follow
      up will include standard liver tests, transient elastography and hepatic
      ultrasound. Ethics approval was obtained from Monash Health for this trial
      16052A, "A Pilot Study Evaluating the Safety of Intravenously Administered Human
      Amnion Epithelial Cells for the Treatment of Liver Fibrosis, A First in Adult
      Human Study." The trial will be conducted in accordance to Monash Health Human
      Ethics guidelines. Outcomes from this study will be disseminated in the form of
      conference presentations and submission to a peer reviewed journal. This trial
      has been registered on the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
      ACTRN12616000437460.

PMID- 28878670
TI  - DAF-16/FOXO Transcription Factor in Aging and Longevity.
AB  - Aging is associated with age-related diseases and an increase susceptibility of
      cancer. Dissecting the molecular mechanisms that underlie aging and longevity
      would contribute to implications for preventing and treating the age-dependent
      diseases or cancers. Multiple signaling pathways such as the insulin/IGF-1
      signaling pathway, TOR signaling, AMPK pathway, JNK pathway and germline
      signaling have been found to be involved in aging and longevity. And DAF-16/FOXO,
      as a key transcription factor, could integrate different signals from these
      pathways to modulate aging, and longevity via shuttling from cytoplasm to
      nucleus. Hence, understanding how DAF-16/FOXO functions will be pivotal to
      illustrate the processes of aging and longevity. Here, we summarized how DAF
      16/FOXO receives signals from these pathways to affect aging and longevity. We
      also briefly discussed the transcriptional regulation and posttranslational
      modifications of DAF-16/FOXO, its co-factors as well as its potential downstream
      targets participating in lifespan according to the published data in C. elegans
      and in mammals, and in most cases, we may focus on the studies in C. elegans
      which has been considered to be a very good animal model for longevity research.

PMID- 28878672
TI  - Differences in Spatial Memory Recognition Due to Cognitive Style.
AB  - Field independence refers to the ability to perceive details from the surrounding
      context as a whole and to represent the environment by relying on an internal
      reference frame. Conversely, field dependence individuals tend to focus their
      attention on single environmental features analysing them individually. This
      cognitive style affects several visuo-spatial abilities including spatial memory.
      This study assesses both the effect of field independence and field dependence on
      performance displayed on virtual environments of different complexity. Forty
      young healthy individuals took part in this study. Participants performed the
      Embedded Figures Test for field independence or dependence assessment and a new
      spatial memory recognition test. The spatial memory recognition test demanded to
      memorize a green box location in a virtual room picture. Thereafter, during ten
      trials participants had to decide if a green box was located in the same position
      as in the sample picture. Five of the pictures were correct. The information
      available in the virtual room was manipulated. Hence, two different experimental
      conditions were tested: a virtual room containing all landmarks and a virtual
      room with only two cues. Accuracy and reaction time were registered. Analyses
      demonstrated that higher field independent individuals were related to better
      spatial memory performance in two landmarks condition and were faster in all
      landmark condition. In addition, men and women did not differ in their
      performance. These results suggested that cognitive style affects spatial memory
      performance and this phenomenon is modulated by environment complexity. This does
      not affect accuracy but time spent. Moreover, field dependent individuals are
      unable to organize the navigational field by relying on internal reference frames
      when few landmarks are available, and this causes them to commit more errors.

PMID- 28878673
TI  - Review of the Reported Measures of Clinical Validity and Clinical Utility as
      Arguments for the Implementation of Pharmacogenetic Testing: A Case Study of
      Statin-Induced Muscle Toxicity.
AB  - Advances from pharmacogenetics (PGx) have not been implemented into health care
      to the expected extent. One gap that will be addressed in this study is a lack of
      reporting on clinical validity and clinical utility of PGx-tests. A systematic
      review of current reporting in scientific literature was conducted on
      publications addressing PGx in the context of statins and muscle toxicity. Eighty
      nine publications were included and information was selected on reported measures
      of effect, arguments, and accompanying conclusions. Most authors report
      associations to quantify the relationship between a genetic variation an outcome,
      such as adverse drug responses. Conclusions on the implementation of a PGx-test
      are generally based on these associations, without explicit mention of other
      measures relevant to evaluate the test's clinical validity and clinical utility.
      To gain insight in the clinical impact and select useful tests, additional
      outcomes are needed to estimate the clinical validity and utility, such as cost
      effectiveness.

PMID- 28878675
TI  - Inhibition of Collagen-Induced Platelet Aggregation by the Secobutanolide
      Secolincomolide A from Lindera obtusiloba Blume.
AB  - Atherothrombosis is one of the main underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases.
      In addition to treating atherothrombosis with antithrombotic agents, there is
      growing interest in the role of natural food products and biologically active
      ingredients for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. This
      study aimed to investigate the effect of secolincomolide A (3) isolated from
      Lindera obtusiloba Blume on platelet activity and identify possible signaling
      pathways. In our study, the antiplatelet activities of 3 were measured by
      collagen-induced platelet aggregation and serotonin secretion in freshly isolated
      rabbit platelets. Interestingly, 3 effectively inhibited the collagen-induced
      platelet aggregation and serotonin secretion via decreased production of
      diacylglycerol, arachidonic acid, and cyclooxygenase-mediated metabolites such as
      thromboxane B2 (TXB2), and prostaglandin D2 (PGD2). In accordance with the
      antiplatelet activities, 3 prolonged bleeding time and attenuated FeCl3-induced
      thrombus formation in arterial thrombosis model. Notably, 3 abolished the
      phosphorylation of phospholipase Cgamma2 (PLCgamma2), spleen tyrosine kinase
      (Syk), p47, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), protein kinase B
      (Akt) by inhibiting the activation of the collagen receptor, glycoprotein VI
      (GPVI). Taken together, our results indicate the therapeutic potential of 3 in
      antiplatelet action through inhibition of the GPVI-mediated signaling pathway and
      the COX-1-mediated AA metabolic pathways.

PMID- 28878676
TI  - PD-1 and PD-L1 Checkpoint Signaling Inhibition for Cancer Immunotherapy:
      Mechanism, Combinations, and Clinical Outcome.
AB  - Several cancers are highly refractory to conventional chemotherapy. The survival
      of tumors in several cases is assisted by checkpoint immunomodulation to maintain
      the imbalance between immune surveillance and cancer cell proliferation. Check
      point antibody inhibitors, such as anti-PD-1/PD-L1, are a novel class of
      inhibitors that function as a tumor suppressing factor via modulation of immune
      cell-tumor cell interaction. These checkpoint blockers are rapidly becoming a
      highly promising cancer therapeutic approach that yields remarkable antitumor
      responses with limited side effects. In recent times, more than four check point
      antibody inhibitors have been commercialized for targeting PD-1, PDL-1, and CTLA
      4. Despite the huge success and efficacy of the anti-PD therapy response, it is
      limited to specific types of cancers, which attributes to the insufficient and
      heterogeneous expression of PD-1 in the tumor microenvironment. Herein, we review
      the current landscape of the PD-1/PD-L1 mechanistic role in tumor immune evasion
      and therapeutic outcome for cancer treatment. We also review the current progress
      in clinical trials, combination of drug therapy with immunotherapy, safety, and
      future of check point inhibitors for multiple types of cancer.

PMID- 28878674
TI  - Sphingosine Kinases and Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Receptors: Signaling and Actions
      in the Cardiovascular System.
AB  - The sphingosine kinases 1 and 2 (SphK1 and 2) catalyze the phosphorylation of the
      lipid, sphingosine, generating the signal transmitter, sphingosine 1-phosphate
      (S1P). The activation of such kinases and the subsequent S1P generation and
      secretion in the blood serum of mammals represent a major checkpoint in many
      cellular signaling cascades. In fact, activating the SphK/S1P system is critical
      for cell motility and proliferation, cytoskeletal organization, cell growth,
      survival, and response to stress. In the cardiovascular system, the physiological
      effects of S1P intervene through the binding and activation of a family of five
      highly selective G protein-coupled receptors, called S1PR1-5. Importantly,
      SphK/S1P signal is present on both vascular and myocardial cells. S1P is a well
      recognized survival factor in many tissues. Therefore, it is not surprising that
      the last two decades have seen a flourishing of interest and investigative
      efforts directed to obtain additional mechanistic insights into the signaling, as
      well as the biological activity of this phospholipid, and of its receptors,
      especially in the cardiovascular system. Here, we will provide an up-to-date
      account on the structure and function of sphingosine kinases, discussing the
      generation, release, and function of S1P. Keeping the bull's eye on the
      cardiovascular system, we will review the structure and signaling cascades and
      biological actions emanating from the stimulation of different S1P receptors. We
      will end this article with a summary of the most recent, experimental and
      clinical observations targeting S1PRs and SphKs as possible new therapeutic
      avenues for cardiovascular disorders, such as heart failure.

PMID- 28878677
TI  - Teuvincenone F Suppresses LPS-Induced Inflammation and NLRP3 Inflammasome
      Activation by Attenuating NEMO Ubiquitination.
AB  - Inflammation causes many diseases that are serious threats to human health.
      However, the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of inflammation and
      inflammasome activation are not fully understood which has delayed the discovery
      of new anti-inflammatory drugs of urgent clinic need. Here, we found that the
      natural compound Teuvincenone F, which was isolated and purified from the stems
      and leaves of Premna szemaoensis, could significantly inhibit lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS)-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines production and NLRP3 inflammasome
      activation. Our results showed that Teuvincenone F attenuated K63-linked
      ubiquitination of NF-kappaB-essential modulator (NEMO, also known as IKKgamma) to
      suppress LPS-induced phosphorylation of NF-kappaB, and inhibited mRNA expression
      of IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and NLRP3. In addition, we found that decreased
      NLRP3 expression by Teuvincenone F suppressed NLRP3 inflammasome activation and
      IL-1beta/IL-18 maturation. In vivo, we revealed that Teuvincenone F treatment
      relieved LPS-induced inflammation. In conclusion, Teuvincenone F is a highly
      effective natural compound to suppress LPS-induced inflammation by attenuating
      K63-linked ubiquitination of NEMO, highlighting that Teuvincenone F may be a
      potential new anti-inflammatory drug for the treatment of inflammatory and NLRP3
      inflammasome-driven diseases.

PMID- 28878679
TI  - Time Investment in Drug Supply Problems by Flemish Community Pharmacies.
AB  - Introduction: Drug supply problems are a known problem for pharmacies. Community
      and hospital pharmacies do everything they can to minimize impact on patients.
      This study aims to quantify the time spent by Flemish community pharmacies on
      drug supply problems. Materials and Methods: During 18 weeks, employees of 25
      community pharmacies filled in a template with the total time spent on drug
      supply problems. The template stated all the steps community pharmacies could
      undertake to manage drug supply problems. Results: Considering the median over
      the study period, the median time spent on drug supply problems was 25 min per
      week, with a minimum of 14 min per week and a maximum of 38 min per week. After
      calculating the median of each pharmacy, large differences were observed between
      pharmacies: about 25% spent less than 15 min per week and one-fifth spent more
      than 1 h per week. The steps on which community pharmacists spent most time are:
      (i) "check missing products from orders," (ii) "contact wholesaler/manufacturers
      regarding potential drug shortages," and (iii) "communicating to patients." These
      three steps account for about 50% of the total time spent on drug supply problems
      during the study period. Conclusion: Community pharmacies spend about half an
      hour per week on drug supply problems. Although 25 min per week does not seem
      that much, the time spent is not delineated and community pharmacists are
      constantly confronted with drug supply problems.

PMID- 28878678
TI  - Verapamil Blocks Scopolamine Enhancement Effect on Memory Consolidation in
      Passive Avoidance Task in Rats.
AB  - Our recent data have indicated that scopolamine, a non-selective muscarinic
      receptor antagonist, improves memory consolidation, in a passive avoidance task,
      tested in rats. It has been found that verapamil, a phenylalkylamine class of the
      L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel antagonist, inhibits [3H] N-methyl
      scopolamine binding to M1 muscarinic receptors. However, there are no data about
      the effect of verapamil on memory consolidation in the passive avoidance task, in
      rats. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of verapamil
      (0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, 10, or 20 mg/kg i.p.) as well as the interaction between
      scopolamine and verapamil on memory consolidation in the step-through passive
      avoidance task, in Wistar rats. Our results showed that verapamil (1.0 and 2.5
      mg/kg) administered immediately after the acquisition task significantly
      increased the latency of the passive avoidance response, on the 48 h retested
      trial, improving memory consolidation. On the other hand, verapamil in a dose of
      5 mg/kg, that per se does not affect memory consolidation, significantly reversed
      the memory consolidation improvement induced by scopolamine (1 mg/kg, i.p.,
      administered immediately after verapamil treatment) but did not change the
      passive avoidance response in rats treated by an ineffective dose of scopolamine
      (30 mg/kg). In conclusion, the present data suggest that (1) the post-training
      administration of verapamil, dose-dependently, improves the passive avoidance
      response; (2) verapamil, in ineffective dose, abolished the improvement of memory
      consolidation effect of scopolamine; and (3) exists interaction between
      cholinergic muscarinic receptors and calcium homeostasis-related mechanisms in
      the consolidation of emotional memory.

PMID- 28878680
TI  - Andrographolide, a New Hope in the Prevention and Treatment of Metabolic
      Syndrome.
AB  - Recently, the use of plant-derived medicines is increasing interest in the
      prevention and treatment of a variety of disorders including metabolic syndromes.
      Metabolic syndrome is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases
      (CVDs) and incidence of mortality worldwide. Scientific evidence suggests that
      Andrographis paniculata and its derived components, especially andrographolide
      (AGL) and its analogs/derivatives have a broad spectrum of biological activities.
      This review aims to sketch the activity of AGL and its analogs/derivatives
      against the components of metabolic syndromes such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia,
      hypertension, and obesity. Additionally, AGL activity against CVDs is also
      summarized. The finding suggests that AGL and its analogs/derivatives have a
      potential role in the management of metabolic syndrome; however, more studies
      should be conducted to evaluate their effectiveness.

PMID- 28878681
TI  - Alpha5 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Contributes to Nicotine-Induced Lung
      Cancer Development and Progression.
AB  - Nicotine and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are considered to be
      involved in lung cancer risk, onset and progression, but their precise
      physiological roles in these contexts remain unclear. Our previous studies
      suggested that alpha5-nAChR mediates nicotine-induced lung cancer cell
      proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. In this study, we aimed to
      determine the role of alpha5-nAChR in the development and progression of non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Our microarray results reveal that knockdown of
      the CHRNA5 gene encoding alpha5-nAChR significantly modulates key pathways
      including the cell cycle, DNA replication, pathway in cancer. alpha5-nAChR
      knockdown in cultured A549 cells affected cell cycle distribution, apoptosis, and
      cyclin expression. In vivo, alpha5-nAChR silencing inhibited the growth of lung
      tumors, especially in the context of nicotine exposure. Importantly, alpha5-nAChR
      expression in patient tumors correlated with the primary T stage, N stage, and
      reduced survival time. These results reveal that alpha5-nAChR silencing inhibits
      the progression of nicotine-related NSCLC, making this receptor a potential
      pharmacological target for the treatment of nicotine-related lung carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28878682
TI  - Experience-Related Changes in Place Cell Responses to New Sensory Configuration
      That Does Not Occur in the Natural Environment in the Rat Hippocampus.
AB  - The hippocampal formation (HF) is implicated in a comparator that detects sensory
      conflict (mismatch) among convergent inputs. This suggests that new place cells
      encoding the new configuration with sensory mismatch develop after the HF learns
      to accept the new configuration as a match. To investigate this issue, HF CA1
      place cell activity in rats was analyzed after the adaptation of the rats to the
      same sensory mismatch condition. The rats were placed on a treadmill on a stage
      that was translocated in a figure 8-shaped pathway. We recorded HF neuronal
      activities under three conditions; (1) an initial control session, in which both
      the stage and the treadmill moved forward, (2) a backward (mismatch) session, in
      which the stage was translocated backward while the rats locomoted forward on the
      treadmill, and (3) the second control session. Of the 161 HF neurons, 56 place
      differential activities were recorded from the HF CA1 subfield. These place
      differential activities were categorized into four types; forward-related,
      backward-related, both-translocation-related, and session-dependent. Forward
      related activities showed predominant spatial firings in the forward sessions,
      while backward-related activities showed predominant spatial firings in the
      backward sessions. Both-translocation-related activities showed consistent
      spatial firings in both the forward and backward conditions. On the other hand,
      session-dependent activities showed different spatial firings across the
      sessions. Detailed analyses of the place fields indicated that mean place field
      sizes were larger in the forward-related, backward-related, and both
      translocation-related activities than in the session-dependent activities.
      Furthermore, firing rate distributions in the place fields were negatively skewed
      and asymmetric, which is similar to place field changes that occur after repeated
      experience. These results demonstrate that the HF encodes a naturally impossible
      new configuration of sensory inputs after adaptation, suggesting that the HF is
      capable of updating its stored memory to accept a new configuration as a match by
      repeated experience.

PMID- 28878683
TI  - Association between Diastolic Dysfunction with Inflammation and Oxidative Stress
      in Females ob/ob Mice.
AB  - Objective: To evaluate autonomic and cardiovascular function, as well as
      inflammatory and oxidative stress markers in ob/ob female mice. Methods:
      Metabolic parameters, cardiac function, arterial pressure (AP), autonomic,
      hormonal, inflammatory, and oxidative stress markers were evaluated in 12-weeks
      female wild-type (WT group) and ob/ob mice (OB group). Results: OB animals showed
      increased body weight, blood glucose, and triglyceride levels, along with glucose
      intolerance, when compared to WT animals. Ejection fraction (EF) and AP were
      similar between groups; however, the OB group presented diastolic dysfunction, as
      well as an impairment on myocardial performance index. Moreover, the OB group
      exhibited important autonomic dysfunction and baroreflex sensitivity impairment,
      when compared to WT group. OB group showed increased Angiotensin II levels in
      heart and renal tissues; decreased adiponectin and increased inflammatory markers
      in adipose tissue and spleen. Additionally, OB mice presented a higher damage to
      proteins and lipoperoxidation and lower activity of antioxidant enzymes in kidney
      and heart. Correlations were found between autonomic dysfunction with angiotensin
      II and inflammatory mediators, as well as between inflammation and oxidative
      stress. Conclusions: Our results showed that female adult ob/ob mice presented
      discrete diastolic dysfunction accompanied by autonomic disorder, which is
      associated with inflammation and oxidative stress in these animals.

PMID- 28878684
TI  - Ecdysis Triggering Hormone Signaling (ETH/ETHR-A) Is Required for the Larva-Larva
      Ecdysis in Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae).
AB  - Insects must undergo ecdysis for successful development and growth, and the
      ecdysis triggering hormone (ETH), released by the Inka cells, is a master hormone
      in this process. In this study, we determined the sequence of the ETH precursor
      and receptors in an agriculturally important pest insect, the oriental fruit fly
      Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel). We identified two functionally distinct splice
      receptor isoforms: BdETH-R-A and BdETH-R-B, and when expressed in Chinese hamster
      ovary (CHO-WTA11) cells, they exhibited a high sensitivity to the two mature
      peptides BdETH1 and BdETH2. The BdETH transcript was detected in the tracheal
      tissue of the larvae. Inka cells were identified with immunohistochemical
      antibody staining against Drosophila melanogaster ETH1, and in situ hybridization
      with specific DNA probes. Selective RNA silencing of BdETH or BdETH-R-A, but not
      of BdETH-R-B, caused developmental failure at ecdysis. The dsRNA-treated larvae
      displayed tracheal defects and could not shed the old cuticle followed by death.
      Our results demonstrated that BdETH, via activation of BdETH-R-A but not ETH-R-B,
      plays an essential role in regulating the process of larva-larva ecdysis in B.
      dorsalis.

PMID- 28878686
TI  - Comparative Analysis of 3D Bladder Tumor Spheroids Obtained by Forced Floating
      and Hanging Drop Methods for Drug Screening.
AB  - Introduction: Cell-based assays using three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures may
      reflect the antitumor activity of compounds more accurately, since these models
      reproduce the tumor microenvironment better. Methods: Here, we report a
      comparative analysis of cell behavior in the two most widely employed methods for
      3D spheroid culture, forced floating (Ultra-low Attachment, ULA, plates), and
      hanging drop (HD) methods, using the RT4 human bladder cancer cell line as a
      model. The morphology parameters and growth/metabolism of the spheroids generated
      were first characterized, using four different cell-seeding concentrations (0.5,
      1.25, 2.5, and 3.75 * 104 cells/mL), and then, subjected to drug resistance
      evaluation. Results: Both methods generated spheroids with a smooth surface and
      round shape in a spheroidization time of about 48 h, regardless of the cell
      seeding concentration used. Reduced cell growth and metabolism was observed in 3D
      cultures compared to two-dimensional (2D) cultures. The optimal range of spheroid
      diameter (300-500 MUm) was obtained using cultures initiated with 0.5 and 1.25 *
      104 cells/mL for the ULA method and 2.5 and 3.75 * 104 cells/mL for the HD
      method. RT4 cells cultured under 3D conditions also exhibited a higher resistance
      to doxorubicin (IC50 of 1.00 and 0.83 MUg/mL for the ULA and HD methods,
      respectively) compared to 2D cultures (IC50 ranging from 0.39 to 0.43).
      Conclusions: Comparing the results, we concluded that the forced floating method
      using ULA plates was considered more suitable and straightforward to generate RT4
      spheroids for drug screening/cytotoxicity assays. The results presented here also
      contribute to the improvement in the standardization of the 3D cultures required
      for widespread application.

PMID- 28878688
TI  - Dynamics of Stride Interval Characteristics during Continuous Stairmill Climbing.
AB  - It has been shown that statistical persistence in stride intervals
      characteristics exist during walking, running and cycling and were speed
      dependent among healthy young adults. The purpose of this study was to determine
      if such statistical persistence in stride time interval, stride length and stride
      speed also exists during self-paced continuous stairmill climbing and if the
      strength is dependent on stepping rate. Stride time, stride length, and stride
      speed were collected from nine healthy participants during 3 min of stairmill
      climbing at 100, 110, and 120% of their preferred stepping rate (PSR) and 5 min
      of treadmill walking at preferred walking speed (PWS). The amount of variability
      (assessed by standard deviation and coefficient of variation) and dynamics
      (assessed by detrended fluctuation analysis and sample entropy) of the stride
      time, stride length, and stride speed time series were investigated. The amounts
      of variability were significantly higher during stairmill climbing for the stride
      time, stride length, and stride speed and did only change with increased stepping
      rate for stride speed. In addition to a more irregular pattern during stairmill
      climbing, the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) revealed that the stride
      length fluctuations were statistical anti-persistent for all subjects. On a group
      level both stride time and stride speed fluctuations were characterized by an
      uncorrelated pattern which was more irregular compared to that during treadmill
      walking. However, large inter-participant differences were observed for these two
      variables. In addition, the dynamics did not change with increase in stepping
      rate.

PMID- 28878685
TI  - Oxidative Stress-Mediated Atherosclerosis: Mechanisms and Therapies.
AB  - Atherogenesis, the formation of atherosclerotic plaques, is a complex process
      that involves several mechanisms, including endothelial dysfunction,
      neovascularization, vascular proliferation, apoptosis, matrix degradation,
      inflammation, and thrombosis. The pathogenesis and progression of atherosclerosis
      are explained differently by different scholars. One of the most common theories
      is the destruction of well-balanced homeostatic mechanisms, which incurs the
      oxidative stress. And oxidative stress is widely regarded as the redox status
      realized when an imbalance exists between antioxidant capability and activity
      species including reactive oxygen (ROS), nitrogen (RNS) and halogen species, non
      radical as well as free radical species. This occurrence results in cell injury
      due to direct oxidation of cellular protein, lipid, and DNA or via cell death
      signaling pathways responsible for accelerating atherogenesis. This paper
      discusses inflammation, mitochondria, autophagy, apoptosis, and epigenetics as
      they induce oxidative stress in atherosclerosis, as well as various treatments
      for antioxidative stress that may prevent atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28878687
TI  - NO-sGC Pathway Modulates Ca2+ Release and Muscle Contraction in Zebrafish
      Skeletal Muscle.
AB  - Vertebrate skeletal muscle contraction and relaxation is a complex process that
      depends on Ca2+ ions to promote the interaction of actin and myosin. This process
      can be modulated by nitric oxide (NO), a gas molecule synthesized endogenously by
      (nitric oxide synthase) NOS isoforms. At nanomolar concentrations NO activates
      soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), which in turn activates protein kinase G via
      conversion of GTP into cyclic GMP. Alternatively, NO post-translationally
      modifies proteins via S-nitrosylation of the thiol group of cysteine. However,
      the mechanisms of action of NO on Ca2+ homeostasis during muscle contraction are
      not fully understood and we hypothesize that NO exerts its effects on Ca2+
      homeostasis in skeletal muscles mainly through negative modulation of Ca2+
      release and Ca2+ uptake via the NO-sGC-PKG pathway. To address this, we used 5-7
      days-post fecundation-larvae of zebrafish, a well-established animal model for
      physiological and pathophysiological muscle activity. We evaluated the response
      of muscle contraction and Ca2+ transients in presence of SNAP, a NO-donor, or L
      NAME, an unspecific NOS blocker in combination with specific blockers of key
      proteins of Ca2+ homeostasis. We also evaluate the expression of NOS in
      combination with dihydropteridine receptor, ryanodine receptor and
      sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase. We concluded that endogenous NO reduced
      force production through negative modulation of Ca2+ transients via the NO-sGC
      pathway. This effect could be reversed using an unspecific NOS blocker or sGC
      blocker.

PMID- 28878689
TI  - A20/TNFAIP3 Discriminates Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-Induced NF-kappaB from JNK
      Pathway Activation in Hepatocytes.
AB  - In the liver tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced signaling critically regulates
      the immune response of non-parenchymal cells as well as proliferation and
      apoptosis of hepatocytes via activation of the NF-kappaB and JNK pathways.
      Especially, the induction of negative feedback regulators, such as IkappaBalpha
      and A20 is responsible for the dynamic and time-restricted response of these
      important pathways. However, the precise mechanisms responsible for different TNF
      induced phenotypes under physiological stimulation conditions are not completely
      understood so far. In addition, it is not known if varying TNF concentrations may
      differentially affect the desensitization properties of both pathways. By using
      computational modeling, we first showed that TNF-induced activation and
      downstream signaling is qualitatively comparable between primary mouse
      hepatocytes and immortalized hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. In order to
      define physiologically relevant TNF levels, which allow for an adjustable and
      dynamic NF-kappaB/JNK pathway response in parenchymal liver cells, a range of
      cytokine concentrations was defined that led to gradual pathway responses in HCC
      cells (1-5 ng/ml). Repeated stimulations with low (1 ng/ml), medium (2.5 ng/ml)
      and high (5 ng/ml) TNF amounts demonstrated that JNK signaling was still active
      at cytokine concentrations, which led to dampened NF-kappaB signaling
      illustrating differential pathway responsiveness depending on TNF input dynamics.
      SiRNA-mediated inhibition of the negative feedback regulator A20 (syn. TNFAIP3)
      or its overexpression did not significantly affect the NF-kappaB response. In
      contrast, A20 silencing increased the JNK response, while its overexpression
      dampened JNK phosphorylation. In addition, the A20 knockdown sensitized
      hepatocellular cells to TNF-induced cleavage and activity of the effector caspase
      3. In conclusion, a mathematical model-based approach shows that the TNF-induced
      pathway responses are qualitatively comparable in primary and immortalized mouse
      hepatocytes. The cytokine amount defines the pathway responsiveness under
      repeated treatment conditions with NF-kappaB signaling being dampened 'earlier'
      than JNK. A20 appears to be the molecular switch discriminating between NF-kappaB
      and JNK signaling when stimulating with varying physiological cytokine
      concentrations.

PMID- 28878690
TI  - Regulation of Pulmonary Vascular Smooth Muscle Contractility in Pulmonary
      Arterial Hypertension: Implications for Therapy.
AB  - There are two primary components that produce pulmonary arterial hypertension
      (PAH); aberrant structural changes (smooth muscle cell proliferation, smooth
      muscle cell hypertrophy, and the deposition of matrix proteins within the media
      of pulmonary arterial vessels), and excess vasoconstriction. However, in PAH, the
      target and aim of all current therapeutic agents is to reduce the contractility
      of the pulmonary vasculature; prostaglandins, phosphodiesterase inhibitors,
      guanylate cyclase stimulators, endothelin antagonists, NO inhalation and Rho
      kinase inhibitors all influence signaling pathways in the pulmonary vascular
      smooth muscle to decrease vasoconstriction, and hence, pulmonary vascular
      resistance (PVR). This review will therefore primarily focus on discussing the
      signaling pathways regulating contractility in pulmonary vascular smooth muscle,
      the mechanism for current treatments, as well as highlighting potential targets
      for the development of novel therapies.

PMID- 28878691
TI  - Spontaneous Preterm Birth Is Associated with Differential Expression of Vaginal
      Metabolites by Lactobacilli-Dominated Microflora.
AB  - A major challenge in preventing preterm birth (PTB) is identifying women at
      greatest risk. This pilot study prospectively examined the differences in vaginal
      microbiota and metabolite profiles of women who delivered prematurely compared to
      their term counterparts in a cohort of asymptomatic (studied at 20-22, n = 80;
      and 26-28 weeks, n = 41) and symptomatic women (studied at 24-36 weeks, n = 37).
      Using 16S rRNA sequencing, the vaginal microbiota from cervicovaginal fluid
      samples was characterized into five Community State Types (CST) dominated by
      Lactobacillus spp.: CSTI (Lactobacillus crispatus), CSTII (Lactobacillus
      gasseri), CSTIII (Lactobacillus iners), CSTV (Lactobacillus jensenii); and mixed
      anaerobes-CSTIV. This was then related to the vaginal metabolite profile and pH
      determined by 1H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and pH indicator paper,
      respectively. At 20-22 weeks, the term-delivered women (TDW) indicated a
      proportion of CSTI-dominated microbiota >2-fold higher compared to the preterm
      delivered women (PTDW) (40.3 vs. 16.7%, P = 0.0002), and a slightly higher
      proportion at 26-28 weeks (20.7 vs. 16.7%, P = 0.03). CSTV was >2-fold higher in
      the PTDW compared to TDW at 20-22 (22.2 vs. 9.7%, P = 0.0002) and 26-28 weeks
      (25.0 vs. 10.3%, P = 0.03). Furthermore, at 26-28 weeks no PTDW had a CSTII
      dominated microbiome, in contrast to 28% of TDW (P < 0.0001). CSTI-dominated
      samples showed higher lactate levels than CSTV at 20-22 weeks (P < 0.01), and 26
      28 weeks (P < 0.05), while CSTII-dominated samples indicated raised succinate
      levels over CSTV at 26-28 weeks (P < 0.05). These were supported by Principal
      coordinates analysis, which revealed strong clustering of metabolites according
      to CST. In addition, the CSTI-dominated samples had an average pH of 3.8, which
      was lower than those of CSTII-4.4, and CSTV-4.2 (P < 0.05). Elevated vaginal
      lactate and succinate were associated with predominance of CSTI and II over CSTV
      in women who delivered at term compared with their preterm counterparts. This
      suggests that L. jensenii-dominance and decreased lactate and/or succinate could
      increase the risk of PTB, while L. crispatus/gasseri may confer some protection
      against inflammation-associated PTB and highlight the need for further study in
      this area.

PMID- 28878692
TI  - Optimization of an In silico Cardiac Cell Model for Proarrhythmia Risk
      Assessment.
AB  - Drug-induced Torsade-de-Pointes (TdP) has been responsible for the withdrawal of
      many drugs from the market and is therefore of major concern to global regulatory
      agencies and the pharmaceutical industry. The Comprehensive in vitro
      Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) was proposed to improve prediction of TdP risk, using
      in silico models and in vitro multi-channel pharmacology data as integral parts
      of this initiative. Previously, we reported that combining dynamic interactions
      between drugs and the rapid delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) with multi
      channel pharmacology is important for TdP risk classification, and we modified
      the original O'Hara Rudy ventricular cell mathematical model to include a Markov
      model of IKr to represent dynamic drug-IKr interactions (IKr-dynamic ORd model).
      We also developed a novel metric that could separate drugs with different TdP
      liabilities at high concentrations based on total electronic charge carried by
      the major inward ionic currents during the action potential. In this study, we
      further optimized the IKr-dynamic ORd model by refining model parameters using
      published human cardiomyocyte experimental data under control and drug block
      conditions. Using this optimized model and manual patch clamp data, we developed
      an updated version of the metric that quantifies the net electronic charge
      carried by major inward and outward ionic currents during the steady state action
      potential, which could classify the level of drug-induced TdP risk across a wide
      range of concentrations and pacing rates. We also established a framework to
      quantitatively evaluate a system's robustness against the induction of early
      afterdepolarizations (EADs), and demonstrated that the new metric is correlated
      with the cell's robustness to the pro-EAD perturbation of IKr conductance
      reduction. In summary, in this work we present an optimized model that is more
      consistent with experimental data, an improved metric that can classify drugs at
      concentrations both near and higher than clinical exposure, and a physiological
      framework to check the relationship between a metric and EAD. These findings
      provide a solid foundation for using in silico models for the regulatory
      assessment of TdP risk under the CiPA paradigm.

PMID- 28878693
TI  - Brain Activation during Perception and Anticipation of Dyspnea in Chronic
      Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
AB  - Background: Dyspnea is the impairing cardinal symptom in COPD, but the underlying
      brain mechanisms and their relationships to clinical patient characteristics are
      widely unknown. This study compared neural responses to the perception and
      anticipation of dyspnea between patients with stable moderate-to-severe COPD and
      healthy controls. Moreover, associations between COPD-specific brain activation
      and clinical patient characteristics were examined. Methods: During functional
      magnetic resonance imaging, dyspnea was induced in patients with stable moderate
      to-severe COPD (n = 17) and healthy control subjects (n = 21) by resistive-loaded
      breathing. Blocks of severe and mild dyspnea were alternating, with each block
      being preceded by visually cued anticipation phases. Results: During the
      perception of increased dyspnea, both patients and controls showed comparable
      brain activation in common dyspnea-relevant sensorimotor and cortico-limbic brain
      regions. During the anticipation of increased dyspnea, patients showed higher
      activation in hippocampus and amygdala than controls which was significantly
      correlated with reduced exercise capacity, reduced health-related quality of
      life, and higher levels of dyspnea and anxiety. Conclusions: This study suggests
      that patients with stable moderate-to-severe COPD show higher activation in
      emotion-related brain areas than healthy controls during the anticipation, but
      not during the actual perception of experimentally induced dyspnea. These brain
      activations were related to important clinical characteristics and might
      contribute to an unfavorable course of the disease via maladaptive psychological
      and behavioral mechanisms.

PMID- 28878694
TI  - Physiological Responses to Firefighting in Extreme Temperatures Do Not Compare to
      Firefighting in Temperate Conditions.
AB  - Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine physiological responses to two
      different simulated firefighting exercises: a firefighting exercise with
      flashovers, smoke, poor visibility and extreme temperatures (300 degrees ) in a
      burning container and a standard firefighting exercise in temperate conditions.
      Furthermore, a second purpose of the study was to find out if the contribution of
      strength and endurance capacities to firefighting performance changes when the
      demands of the firefighting exercise change. Methods: Sixteen professional
      firefighters performed a maximum treadmill test, strength testing, a standard
      simulated firefighting exercise (SFE) without heat and flashovers and a
      firefighting exercise with a simulation of the flashover phenomenon in a burning
      container (FOT). The treadmill testing was used to determine peak oxygen uptake
      (VO2peak), ventilatory threshold (VT1) and respiratory compensation point (RCP).
      Three intensity zones were identified according to heart rate (HR) values
      corresponding to VT1 and RCP: zone 1-HR below VT1, zone 2-HR between VT1 and RCP,
      zone 3-HR above RCP. Firefighting performance was determined by a simple time
      strain-air depletion model (TSA) taking the sum of z-transformed parameters of
      time to finish the exercise, strain in terms of mean heart rate, and air
      depletion from the breathing apparatus. Correlations were then established
      between TSA based firefighting performance parameters and fitness variables
      representing strength and endurance. Results: HR was significantly lower during
      SFE (79.9 +/- 6.9%HRmax) compared to FOT (85.4 +/- 5.2%HRmax). During SFE
      subjects spent 24.6 +/- 30.2% of time in zone 1, 65.8 +/- 28.1% in zone 2 and 9.7
      +/- 16.6% in zone 3. During FOT subjects spent 16.3 +/- 12.8% in zone 1, 50.4 +/-
      13.2% in zone 2 and 33.3 +/- 16.6% in zone 3. Out of all correlations, relative
      VO2peak showed the highest relation to mean HR during SFE (-0.593) as well as FOT
      (-0.693). Conclusions: Endurance in terms of VO2peak is an important prerequisite
      for both firefighting exercises. However, for standard simulated firefighting
      exercises it is important to work below VT1. For firefighting exercises in
      extreme temperatures with smoke, poor visibility and unexpected flashovers a high
      fitness level is required in order to keep the time spent above RCP as short as
      possible.

PMID- 28878695
TI  - Erratum: Vitamin A Affects Flatfish Development in a Thyroid Hormone Signaling
      and Metamorphic Stage Dependent Manner.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 458 in vol. 8, PMID: 28713287.].

PMID- 28878696
TI  - "I Am I and My Bacterial Circumstances": Linking Gut Microbiome,
      Neurodevelopment, and Depression.
AB  - Recently, there has been renewed interest in the role played by microbiome in
      both human health and human disease. A correct equilibrium between the human host
      and their microorganisms is important for an appropriate physiological function.
      Extensive research has shown that microbes that inhabit the gastrointestinal
      tract-or gut microbiota-are involved not only in both nutritive and digestive
      activities but also in immunological processes. Moreover, the gut microbiome
      influences both central nervous system and energy homeostasis. An altered gut
      microbiome has been associated with the pathophysiology of different diseases,
      including neuropsychiatric disorders. Apparently, both environmental-diet,
      exposition to antibiotics, and infections-and host-genetic factors have a strong
      influence on gut microbiome, modulating the risk for neuropsychiatric illness.
      Also, early life disruption of the microbiome-gut-brain (MGB) axis has been
      associated with an increased risk of developing depression later in life,
      suggesting a link between gut microbiome, neurodevelopment, and depression. This
      review aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring the role
      played by the gut microbiome in neurodevelopment and in the etiology of the
      depressive syndrome, including nutritional, immunological, and energy homeostasis
      approaches.

PMID- 28878697
TI  - Dietary Supplement for Core Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Where Are We
      Now and Where Should We Go?
AB  - Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a class of severe and chronic conditions and
      core symptoms are deficits in social interaction, language communication
      impairments, and repetitive/stereotyped behavior. Given the limitations of
      available treatments and substantially increased prevalence of the disease,
      additional interventions are needed. Since the use of dietary supplements for ASD
      is of high prevalence, up-to-date information about those supplements are
      required for both parents and clinicians. Relevant articles were identified
      through a systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and PsychINFO
      databases (through May 2017). Current best evidences of 22 randomized controlled
      trials on 8 different dietary supplements for core symptoms of ASD were reviewed.
      For each supplement, this report focuses on the definition and potential
      therapeutic mechanisms, the latest advances, and discussion of study limitations
      and future directions. Most studies were small and short term, and there is
      little evidence to support effectiveness of dietary supplements for children with
      ASD.

PMID- 28878699
TI  - Bodily Reactions to Emotional Words Referring to Own versus Other People's
      Emotions.
AB  - According to embodiment theories, language and emotion affect each other. In line
      with this, several previous studies investigated changes in bodily responses
      including facial expressions, heart rate or skin conductance during affective
      evaluation of emotional words and sentences. This study investigates the
      embodiment of emotional word processing from a social perspective by
      experimentally manipulating the emotional valence of a word and its personal
      reference. Stimuli consisted of pronoun-noun pairs, i.e., positive, negative, and
      neutral nouns paired with possessive pronouns of the first or the third person
      ("my," "his") or the non-referential negation term ("no") as controls.
      Participants had to quickly evaluate the word pairs by key presses as either
      positive, negative, or neutral, depending on the subjective feelings they elicit.
      Hereafter, they elaborated the intensity of the feeling on a non-verbal scale
      from 1 (very unpleasant) to 9 (very pleasant). Facial expressions (M.
      Zygomaticus, M. Corrugator), heart rate, and, for exploratory purposes, skin
      conductance were recorded continuously during the spontaneous and elaborate
      evaluation tasks. Positive pronoun-noun phrases were responded to the quickest
      and judged more often as positive when they were self-related, i.e., related to
      the reader's self (e.g., "my happiness," "my joy") than when related to the self
      of a virtual other (e.g., "his happiness," "his joy"), suggesting a self
      positivity bias in the emotional evaluation of word stimuli. Physiologically,
      evaluation of emotional, unlike neutral pronoun-noun pairs initially elicited an
      increase in mean heart rate irrespective of stimulus reference. Changes in facial
      muscle activity, M. Zygomaticus in particular, were most pronounced during
      spontaneous evaluation of positive other-related pronoun-noun phrases in line
      with theoretical assumptions that facial expressions are socially embedded even
      in situation where no real communication partner is present. Taken together, the
      present results confirm and extend the embodiment hypothesis of language by
      showing that bodily signals can be differently pronounced during emotional
      evaluation of self- and other-related emotional words.

PMID- 28878698
TI  - Synthetic Cathinone and Cannabinoid Designer Drugs Pose a Major Risk for Public
      Health.
AB  - As part of an increasing worldwide use of designer drugs, recent use of compounds
      containing cathinones and synthetic cannabinoids is especially prevalent. Here,
      we reviewed current literature on the prevalence, epidemiology, bio-behavioral
      effects, and detection of these compounds. Gender differences and clinical
      effects will also be examined. Chronic use of synthetic cathinone compounds can
      have major effects on the central nervous system and can induce acute psychosis,
      hypomania, paranoid ideation, and delusions, similar to the effects of other
      better-known amphetamine-type stimulants. Synthetic cannabinoid products have
      effects that are somewhat similar to those of natural cannabis but more potent
      and long-lasting than THC. Some of these compounds are potent and dangerous,
      having been linked to psychosis, mania, and suicidal ideation. Novel compounds
      are developed rapidly and new screening techniques are needed to detect them as
      well as a rigorous regulation and legislation reinforcement to prevent their
      distribution and use. Given the rapid increase in the use of synthetic cathinones
      and cannabinoid designer drugs, their potential for dependence and abuse, and
      harmful medical and psychiatric effects, there is a need for research and
      education in the areas of prevention and treatment.

PMID- 28878700
TI  - Growth Mixture Modeling of Depression Symptoms Following Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - Growth Mixture Modeling (GMM) was used to investigate the longitudinal trajectory
      of groups (classes) of depression symptoms, and how these groups were predicted
      by the covariates of age, sex, severity, and length of hospitalization following
      Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in a group of 1074 individuals (696 males, and 378
      females) from the Royal Hobart Hospital, who sustained a TBI. The study began in
      late December 2003 and recruitment continued until early 2007. Ages ranged from
      14 to 90 years, with a mean of 35.96 years (SD = 16.61). The study also examined
      the associations between the groups and causes of TBI. Symptoms of depression
      were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale within 3 weeks of
      injury, and at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months post-injury. The results revealed three
      groups: low, high, and delayed depression. In the low group depression scores
      remained below the clinical cut-off at all assessment points during the 24-months
      post-TBI, and in the high group, depression scores were above the clinical cut
      off at all assessment points. The delayed group showed an increase in depression
      symptoms to 12 months after injury, followed by a return to initial assessment
      level during the following 12 months. Covariates were found to be differentially
      associated with the three groups. For example, relative to the low group, the
      high depression group was associated with more severe TBI, being female, and a
      shorter period of hospitalization. The delayed group also had a shorter period of
      hospitalization, were younger, and sustained less severe TBI. Our findings show
      considerable fluctuation of depression over time, and that a non-clinical level
      of depression at any one point in time does not necessarily mean that the person
      will continue to have non-clinical levels in the future. As we used GMM, we were
      able to show new findings and also bring clarity to contradictory past findings
      on depression and TBI. Consequently, we recommend the use of this approach in
      future studies in this area.

PMID- 28878702
TI  - Stigma-Stop: A Serious Game against the Stigma toward Mental Health in
      Educational Settings.
AB  - This paper presents the results from the application of a serious game called
      Stigma-Stop among a group of high school students with the aim of reducing the
      stigma toward mental illnesses. The video game features characters with various
      mental disorders (schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and panic disorder
      with agoraphobia) and provides information about these problems. Additionally,
      the game asks players about whether they have ever felt the same as the
      characters, if they believe the characters are psychologically well, and if they
      think they could help these individuals. Similarly, a variety of reactions are
      provided for players to choose from when they encounter the characters with these
      problems. A total of 552 students between the ages of 14 and 18 participated in
      the study, and they were randomly assigned to either the experimental group,
      which used Stigma-Stop, or the control group, which utilized a video game
      completely unrelated to mental health. Both video games were used for similar
      lengths of time. Following the application of Stigma-Stop, a statistically
      significant decrease was obtained in levels of stigma toward schizophrenia, both
      in terms of stereotypes and, to a greater extent, its potential dangerousness.
      However, this was not the case in the control group. Results thus demonstrate the
      video game's usefulness toward eradicating erroneous notions about serious mental
      disorders like schizophrenia.

PMID- 28878701
TI  - Working Memory Capacity Limits Motor Learning When Implementing Multiple
      Instructions.
AB  - Although it is generally accepted that certain practice conditions can place
      large demands on working memory (WM) when performing and learning a motor skill,
      the influence that WM capacity has on the acquisition of motor skills remains
      unsubstantiated. This study examined the role of WM capacity in a motor skill
      practice context that promoted WM involvement through the provision of explicit
      instructions. A cohort of 90 children aged 8 to 10 years were assessed on
      measures of WM capacity and attention. Children who scored in the lowest and
      highest thirds on the WM tasks were allocated to lower WM capacity (n = 24) and
      higher WM capacity (n = 24) groups, respectively. The remaining 42 participants
      did not participate in the motor task. The motor task required children to
      practice basketball shooting for 240 trials in blocks of 20 shots, with pre- and
      post-tests occurring before and after the intervention. A retention test was
      administered 1 week after the post-test. Prior to every practice block, children
      were provided with five explicit instructions that were specific to the technique
      of shooting a basketball. Results revealed that the higher WM capacity group
      displayed consistent improvements from pre- to post-test and through to the
      retention test, while the opposite effect occurred in the lower WM capacity
      group. This implies that the explicit instructions had a negative influence on
      learning by the lower WM capacity children. Results are discussed in relation to
      strategy selection for dealing with instructions and the role of attention
      control.

PMID- 28878703
TI  - You Look Human, But Act Like a Machine: Agent Appearance and Behavior Modulate
      Different Aspects of Human-Robot Interaction.
AB  - Gaze following occurs automatically in social interactions, but the degree to
      which gaze is followed depends on whether an agent is perceived to have a mind,
      making its behavior socially more relevant for the interaction. Mind perception
      also modulates the attitudes we have toward others, and determines the degree of
      empathy, prosociality, and morality invested in social interactions. Seeing mind
      in others is not exclusive to human agents, but mind can also be ascribed to non
      human agents like robots, as long as their appearance and/or behavior allows them
      to be perceived as intentional beings. Previous studies have shown that human
      appearance and reliable behavior induce mind perception to robot agents, and
      positively affect attitudes and performance in human-robot interaction. What has
      not been investigated so far is whether different triggers of mind perception
      have an independent or interactive effect on attitudes and performance in human
      robot interaction. We examine this question by manipulating agent appearance
      (human vs. robot) and behavior (reliable vs. random) within the same paradigm and
      examine how congruent (human/reliable vs. robot/random) versus incongruent
      (human/random vs. robot/reliable) combinations of these triggers affect
      performance (i.e., gaze following) and attitudes (i.e., agent ratings) in human
      robot interaction. The results show that both appearance and behavior affect
      human-robot interaction but that the two triggers seem to operate in isolation,
      with appearance more strongly impacting attitudes, and behavior more strongly
      affecting performance. The implications of these findings for human-robot
      interaction are discussed.

PMID- 28878704
TI  - The Reporting Quality of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses in Industrial and
      Organizational Psychology: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Objective: The goal of this systematic review was to examine the reporting
      quality of the method section of quantitative systematic reviews and meta
      analyses from 2009 to 2016 in the field of industrial and organizational
      psychology with the help of the Meta-Analysis Reporting Standards (MARS), and to
      update previous research, such as the study of Aytug et al. (2012) and Dieckmann
      et al. (2009). Methods: A systematic search for quantitative systematic reviews
      and meta-analyses was conducted in the top 10 journals in the field of industrial
      and organizational psychology between January 2009 and April 2016. Data were
      extracted on study characteristics and items of the method section of MARS. A
      cross-classified multilevel model was analyzed, to test whether publication year
      and journal impact factor (JIF) were associated with the reporting quality scores
      of articles. Results: Compliance with MARS in the method section was generally
      inadequate in the random sample of 120 articles. Variation existed in the
      reporting of items. There were no significant effects of publication year and
      journal impact factor (JIF) on the reporting quality scores of articles.
      Conclusions: The reporting quality in the method section of systematic reviews
      and meta-analyses was still insufficient, therefore we recommend researchers to
      improve the reporting in their articles by using reporting standards like MARS.

PMID- 28878705
TI  - Children Affected by War and Armed Conflict: Parental Protective Factors and
      Resistance to Mental Health Symptoms.
AB  - This study examined the role of parenting styles and parental warmth in
      moderating relations between exposure to political life events and mental health
      symptoms among 277 Israeli adolescents aged 12-14 and their parents, who had been
      exposed to protracted periods of war, missile bombardments, and terrorism.
      Adolescents completed the Political Life Events (PLE) scale, Brief Symptom
      Inventory and questionnaires regarding parenting style and parental warmth. The
      primary caregiver completed the Child Behavior Checklist for assessment of the
      child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results confirmed that severity
      of PLE exposure was positively correlated with psychological distress and with
      internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Maternal authoritativeness and warmth
      functioned as protective factors and had moderating effects on the relation
      between PLE exposure and mental health symptoms. In contrast, maternal
      authoritarianism exacerbated the relation between PLE exposure and children's
      externalizing symptoms. Fathers' parenting style and warmth had no significant
      relationship with children's mental health outcomes. These findings have
      important clinical and practical implications for parental guidance and support
      during periods of war and armed conflict.

PMID- 28878706
TI  - Does More Respect from Leaders Postpone the Desire to Retire? Understanding the
      Mechanisms of Retirement Decision-Making.
AB  - The demographic trends (i.e., low birth rates and increasing longevity) pose
      challenges with regard to the increase of the average employee age along with a
      lack of skilled personnel on the labor market. Society, organizations, and
      individuals are confronted with the question on how to prolong working lives in
      the future. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory, the purpose of this study
      was to investigate the relationship between respectful leadership and older
      workers' desired retirement age. In particular, we took a closer look at job
      satisfaction, subjective health, and work-to-private life conflict as underlying
      mechanisms. Further, we tested for the moderating role of occupational self
      efficacy as an auxiliary condition for the assumed relationships of respectful
      leadership. We tested our hypothesized model using data from 1,130 blue- and
      white-collar workers aged 45-65 years. The results of structural equation
      modeling indicated that respectful leadership was positively related to older
      workers' desired retirement age and that this relationship was mediated by
      subjective health and work-to-private life conflict but not by job satisfaction.
      The findings add to the literature on resources in retirement decision-making;
      notably, they highlight the importance of leadership behavior for older workers'
      motivation and socioemotional needs.

PMID- 28878707
TI  - Secondary Students' Writing Achievement Goals: Assessing the Mediating Effects of
      Mastery and Performance Goals on Writing Self-Efficacy, Affect, and Writing
      Achievement.
AB  - The two studies reported here explored the factor structure of the newly
      constructed Writing Achievement Goal Scale (WAGS), and examined relationships
      among secondary students' writing achievement goals, writing self-efficacy,
      affect for writing, and writing achievement. In the first study, 697 middle
      school students completed the WAGS. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a
      good fit for this data with a three-factor model that corresponds with mastery,
      performance approach, and performance avoidance goals. The results of Study 1
      were an indication for the researchers to move forward with Study 2, which
      included 563 high school students. The secondary students completed the WAGS, as
      well as the Self-efficacy for Writing Scale, and the Liking Writing Scale.
      Students also self-reported grades for writing and for language arts courses.
      Approximately 6 weeks later, students completed a statewide writing assessment.
      We tested a theoretical model representing relationships among Study 2 variables
      using structural equation modeling including students' responses to the study
      scales and students' scores on the statewide assessment. Results from Study 2
      revealed a good fit between a model depicting proposed relationships among the
      constructs and the data. Findings are discussed relative to achievement goal
      theory and writing.

PMID- 28878708
TI  - Inferential Costs of Trait Centrality in Impression Formation: Organization in
      Memory and Misremembering.
AB  - An extension of the DRM paradigm was used to study the impact of central traits
      (Asch, 1946) in impression formation. Traits corresponding to the four clusters
      of the implicit theory of personality-intellectual, positive and negative; and
      social, positive and negative (Rosenberg et al., 1968)-were used to develop lists
      containing several traits of one cluster and one central trait prototypical of
      the opposite cluster. Participants engaging in impression formation relative to
      participants engaging in memorization not only produced higher levels of false
      memories corresponding to the same cluster of the list traits but, under response
      time pressure at retrieval, also produced more false memories of the cluster
      corresponding to the central trait. We argue that the importance of central
      traits stems from their ability to activate their corresponding semantic space
      within a specialized associative memory structure underlying the implicit theory
      of personality.

PMID- 28878709
TI  - Why Is 10 Past 10 the Default Setting for Clocks and Watches in Advertisements? A
      Psychological Experiment.
AB  - Have you ever noticed that in watch advertisements the time is usually set at
      10:10? The reasons and psychological effects of this default time setting are
      elusive. In Experiment 1, we hypothesized that watches showing a time setting
      resembling a smiling face (10:10) would enhance emotional valence and intention
      to buy compared to a neutral time setting (11:30), whereas a time setting
      resembling a sad face (8:20) would have the opposite effect. Moreover, we
      investigated a possible interaction effect with the gender of the participants.
      In Experiment 2, we directly tested the hypotheses that watches set at 10:10
      resemble a smiling face, whereas watches set at 8:20 resemble a sad face. The
      data of the first experiment reveal that watches set at 10:10 showed a
      significant positive effect on the emotion of the observer and the intention to
      buy. However, watches set at 8:20 did not show any effect on the emotion or the
      intention to buy. Moreover, watches set at 10:10 induced in women significantly
      stronger ratings of pleasure than in men. The data of the second experiment show
      that participants consistently perceive high resemblance between watches set at
      10:10 and a smiling face as well as high resemblance between watches set at 8:20
      and a sad face. This study provides for the first time empirical evidence for the
      notion that using watches with a time setting resembling a smiling face (like
      10:10) can positively affect the emotional response of the observers and their
      evaluation of a seen watch, even though they are not aware of the fact that the
      shown time setting is inducing this effect. Practical implications of the
      observed findings and alternative explanations are discussed.

PMID- 28878710
TI  - Examining Depressive Symptoms and Their Predictors in Malaysia: Stress, Locus of
      Control, and Occupation.
AB  - The 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey estimated that over 29% of the
      adult population of Malaysia suffers from mental distress, a nearly 3-fold
      increase from the 10.7% estimated by the NHMS in 1996 pointing to the potential
      beginnings of a public health crisis. This study aimed to better understand this
      trend by assessing depressive symptoms and their correlates in a cross-section of
      Malaysians. Specifically, it assesses stress, perceived locus of control, and
      various socio-demographic variables as possible predictors of depressive symptoms
      in the Malaysian context. A total of 728 adults from three Malaysian states
      (Selangor, Penang, Terengganu) completed Beck's depression inventory as well as
      several other measures: 10% of respondents reported experiencing severe levels of
      depressive symptoms, 11% reported moderate and 15% reported mild depressive
      symptoms indicating that Malaysians are experiencing high levels of emotional
      distress. When controlling for the influence of other variables, depressive
      symptoms were predictably related to higher levels of stress and lower levels of
      internal locus of control. Ethnic Chinese Malaysians, housewives and those
      engaged in professional-type occupations reported less depressive symptoms.
      Business owners reported more depressive symptoms. Further research should look
      more into Malaysians' subjective experience of stress and depression as well as
      explore environmental factors that may be contributing to mental health issues.
      It is argued that future policies can be designed to better balance individual
      mental health needs with economic growth.

PMID- 28878711
TI  - Parental Factors Associated with Child Post-traumatic Stress Following Injury: A
      Consideration of Intervention Targets.
AB  - Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are relatively common following
      pediatric traumatic injury and are related to poor long-term child outcomes.
      However, due to concerns regarding the efficacy of early child preventive
      interventions, and difficulty intervening with injured and medicated children
      soon after the event, it is not feasible to provide early psychological
      interventions to children exposed to traumatic injury. Parental PTSD symptoms and
      reactions to the child's traumatic injury impact child outcomes and provide
      potential targets for early intervention to reduce child symptom development
      without involving the child. The authors conducted a review of the literature
      using Psycinfo and Pubmed research databases (publication years = 1990-2017) and
      identified 65 published studies relevant to the topic of the review. The present
      review considers parent factors [parenting styles, parental post-traumatic
      pathology (PTS), adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies, and communication
      regarding the traumatic injury] and their impact on child PTS. We focus
      specifically on factors amenable to intervention. We further review moderators of
      these relationships (e.g., child age and gender, parent gender) and conclude that
      it is unlikely that a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment will be successful.
      Rather, it is necessary to consider the age and gender of parent child dyads in
      designing and providing targeted interventions to families following the
      traumatic injury of a child.

PMID- 28878712
TI  - How Game Location Affects Soccer Performance: T-Pattern Analysis of Attack
      Actions in Home and Away Matches.
AB  - The influence of game location on performance has been widely examined in sport
      contexts. Concerning soccer, game-location affects positively the secondary and
      tertiary level of performance; however, there are fewer evidences about its
      effect on game structure (primary level of performance). This study aimed to
      detect the effect of game location on a primary level of performance in soccer.
      In particular, the objective was to reveal the hidden structures underlying the
      attack actions, in both home and away matches played by a top club (Serie A
      2012/2013-First Leg). The methodological approach was based on systematic
      observation, supported by digital recordings and T-pattern analysis. Data were
      analyzed with THEME 6.0 software. A quantitative analysis, with nonparametric
      Mann-Whitney test and descriptive statistics, was carried out to test the
      hypotheses. A qualitative analysis on complex patterns was performed to get in
      depth information on the game structure. This study showed that game tactics were
      significantly different, with home matches characterized by a more structured and
      varied game than away matches. In particular, a higher number of different
      patterns, with a higher level of complexity and including more unique behaviors
      was detected in home matches than in the away ones. No significant differences
      were found in the number of events coded per game between the two conditions.
      THEME software, and the corresponding T-pattern detection algorithm, enhance
      research opportunities by going further than frequency-based analyses, making
      this method an effective tool in supporting sport performance analysis and
      training.

PMID- 28878713
TI  - Human-Animal Interaction and Older Adults: An Overview.
AB  - Both pet ownership and animal-assisted therapy are becoming increasingly popular
      in the United States, and the science of human-animal interaction (HAI) seeks to
      explore how these relationships with animals can impact health and well-being. In
      particular, one burgeoning area of research is the role of HAI in healthy aging,
      given the potential for HAI as an important feature of health and well-being in
      older adults. The purpose of this review is to summarize and evaluate existing
      research in this innovative area of scholarship, identifying the potential
      benefits and risks of both pet ownership and animals in therapeutic settings for
      older adults. We will also identify recommendations for future research and
      applications in this developing area of scholarship.

PMID- 28878714
TI  - Modulating the Activity of the DLPFC and OFC Has Distinct Effects on Risk and
      Ambiguity Decision-Making: A tDCS Study.
AB  - Human beings are constantly exposed to two types of uncertainty situations, risk
      and ambiguity. Neuroscientific studies suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal
      cortex (DLPFC) and the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) play significant roles in
      human decision making under uncertainty. We applied the transcranial direct
      current stimulation (tDCS) device to modulate the activity of participants' DLPFC
      and OFC separately, comparing the causal relationships between people's behaviors
      and the activity of the corresponding brain cortex when confronted with
      situations of risk and ambiguity. Our experiment employed a pre-post design and a
      risk/ambiguity decision-making task, from which we could calculate the
      preferences via an estimation model. We found evidences that modulating the
      activity of the DLPFC using right anodal/left cathodal tDCS significantly
      enhanced the participants' preferences for risk, whereas modulating the activity
      of the OFC with right anodal/left cathodal tDCS significantly decreased the
      participants' preferences for ambiguity. The reverse effects were also observed
      in the reversed tDCS treatments on the two areas. Our results suggest that
      decision-making processes under risk and ambiguity are complicated and may be
      encoded in two distinct circuits in our brains as the DLPFC primarily impacts
      decisions under risk whereas the OFC affects ambiguity.

PMID- 28878715
TI  - Commentary: Task-Switching in Pigeons: Associative Learning or Executive Control?

PMID- 28878717
TI  - Understanding the Self in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): A
      Review of Literature.
AB  - When the system of self is explored in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
      (ASDs), it is important to measure it via both their own perceptions of the self
      and their understanding of others' perceptions on themselves at a
      multidimensional level. This paper reviews existing research in this area using a
      three-dimension approach. Researchers have found that impairments in the self
      system are usually correlated with these individuals' social and cognitive
      functioning levels: high functioning individuals with ASD who have higher IQ are
      found to have better awareness of their limitations in social and communication
      domains than those with lower IQ. Many researchers believe that there are
      impairments in the psychological (but not physical) self in individuals with ASD,
      such as theory of mind deficits due to social and communicative impairments. On
      the other hand, some researchers argue that individuals with ASD have selective
      rather than global impairments in the self. In other words, the impairment
      usually lies in a specific aspect of functioning in individuals with ASD.
      Insights from the review of existing literature on this topic may be able to shed
      some lights on the development of effective intervention programs to improve
      social communication deficits in this population.

PMID- 28878718
TI  - Errors in the 2017 APA Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of PTSD:
      What the Data Actually Says.
AB  - The American Psychological Association (APA) Practice Guidelines for the
      Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concluded that there was strong
      evidence for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing therapy
      (CPT), cognitive therapy (CT), and exposure therapy yet weak evidence for eye
      movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). This is despite the findings
      from an associated systematic review which concluded that EMDR leads to loss of
      PTSD diagnosis and symptom reduction. Depression symptoms were also found to
      improve more with EMDR than control conditions. In that review, EMDR was marked
      down on strength of evidence (SOE) for symptom reduction for PTSD. However, there
      were several problems with the conclusions of that review. Firstly, in assessing
      the evidence in one of the studies, the reviewers chose an incorrect measure that
      skewed the data. We recalculated a meta-analysis with a more appropriate measure
      and found the SOE improved. The resulting effect size for EMDR on PTSD symptom
      reduction compared to a control condition was large for studies that meet the APA
      inclusion criteria (SMD = 1.28) and the heterogeneity was low (I2= 43%).
      Secondly, even if the original measure was chosen, we highlight inconsistencies
      with the way SOE was assessed for EMDR, CT, and CPT. Thirdly, we highlight two
      papers that were omitted from the analysis. One of these was omitted without any
      apparent reason. It found EMDR superior to a placebo control. The other study was
      published in 2015 and should have been part of APA guidelines since they were
      published in 2017. The inclusion of either study would have resulted in an
      improvement in SOE. Including both studies results in standard mean difference
      and confidence intervals that were better for EMDR than for CPT or CT. Therefore,
      the SOE should have been rated as moderate and EMDR assessed as at least
      equivalent to these CBT approaches in the APA guidelines. This would bring the
      APA guidelines in line with other recent practice guidelines from other
      countries. Less critical but also important, were several inaccuracies in
      assessing the risk of bias and the failure to consider studies supporting strong
      gains of EMDR at follow-up.

PMID- 28878716
TI  - Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Directional and Non-directional Spatial-Numerical
      Associations across the Lifespan.
AB  - There is accumulating evidence suggesting an association of numbers with physical
      space. However, the origin of such spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) is still
      debated. In the present study we investigated the development of two SNAs in a
      cross-sectional study involving children, young and middle-aged adults as well as
      the elderly: (1) the SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes)
      effect, reflecting a directional SNA; and (2) the numerical bisection bias in a
      line bisection task with numerical flankers. Results revealed a consistent SNARC
      effect in all age groups that continuously increased with age. In contrast, a
      numerical bisection bias was only observed for children and elderly participants,
      implying an U-shaped distribution of this bias across age groups. Additionally,
      individual SNARC effects and numerical bisection biases did not correlate
      significantly. We argue that the SNARC effect seems to be influenced by longer
      lasting experiences of cultural constraints such as reading and writing direction
      and may thus reflect embodied representations. Contrarily, the numerical
      bisection bias may originate from insufficient inhibition of the semantic
      influence of irrelevant numerical flankers, which should be more pronounced in
      children and elderly people due to development and decline of cognitive control,
      respectively. As there is an ongoing debate on the origins of SNAs in general and
      the SNARC effect in particular, the present results are discussed in light of
      these differing accounts in an integrative approach. However, taken together, the
      present pattern of results suggests that different cognitive mechanisms underlie
      the SNARC effect and the numerical bisection bias.

PMID- 28878719
TI  - Different and Similar at the Same Time. Cultural Competence through the Leans of
      Healthcare Providers.
AB  - Cultural competence (CC) for professionals and organizations has been recognized
      as a key strategy to reduce health care inequalities for migrants and to promote
      responsiveness to diversity. For decades its main aim has been matching health
      services to the cultural needs of migrant users. Otherwise literature highlighted
      the need to find a pragmatic middle way between the 'static' and the 'dynamic'
      views of culture that are recognizable in CC approaches. A pragmatic middle way
      to CC will be proposed as the way to respect diversity, even responding to
      cultural issues, without stereotyping or discriminating. To understand conditions
      that favor this pragmatic middle way this study aims to explore: (1) perceptions
      of healthcare providers in managing diversity; (2) strategies used to meet health
      needs at a professional and organizational level. A qualitative case study was
      conducted in a healthcare service renowned for its engagement in migrant
      sensitive care. Four different professional figures involved in CC strategies at
      different levels, both managerial and non-managerial, were interviewed. Data were
      analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings indicated that dealing with diversity
      poses challenges for healthcare providers, by confronting them with multilevel
      barriers to quality of care. A pragmatic middle way to CC seems to rely on
      complex understanding of the interaction between patients social conditions and
      the capacity of the institutional system to promote equity. Professional and
      organizational strategies, such as inter-professional and intersectional
      collaboration, cultural food adaptation and professional training can enhance
      quality of care, patient compliance responding to social and cultural needs.

PMID- 28878720
TI  - Cross-Cultural Investigation of Male Gait Perception in Relation to Physical
      Strength and Speed.
AB  - Previous research documents that men and women can accurately judge male physical
      strength from gait, but also that the sexes differ in attractiveness judgments of
      strong and weak male walkers. Women's (but not men's) attractiveness assessments
      of strong male walkers are higher than for weak male walkers. Here, we extend
      this research to assessments of strong and weak male walkers in Chile, Germany,
      and Russia. Men and women judged videos of virtual characters, animated with the
      walk movements of motion-captured men, on strength and attractiveness. In two
      countries (Germany and Russia), these videos were additionally presented at 70%
      (slower) and 130% (faster) of their original speed. Stronger walkers were judged
      to be stronger and more attractive than weak walkers, and this effect was
      independent of country (but not sex). Women tended to provide higher
      attractiveness judgments to strong walkers, and men tended to provide higher
      attractiveness judgments to weak walkers. In addition, German and Russian
      participants rated strong walkers most attractive at slow and fast speed. Thus,
      across countries men and women can assess male strength from gait, although they
      tended to differ in attractiveness assessments of strong and weak male walkers.
      Attractiveness assessments of male gait may be influenced by society-specific
      emphasis on male physical strength.

PMID- 28878721
TI  - Guiding Framework for Driver Assessment Using Driving Simulators.

PMID- 28878722
TI  - Prenatal Internal Locus of Control Is Positively Associated with Offspring IQ,
      Mediated through Parenting Behavior, Prenatal Lifestyle and Social Circumstances.
AB  - Locus of control (LOC) is a measure that identifies the likelihood as to whether
      an individual considers what happens to him is largely a matter of luck or fate
      (known as externally oriented) or whether it is something that the individual can
      influence (internality). Here we have used data collected as part of the Avon
      Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to determine the associations
      between the mothers' LOC orientation before the birth of the child and her
      child's cognition measured at age 8. Using results from 6801 children we show
      that maternal internal LOC is associated with increased ability in offspring IQ,
      as measured using the WISC, with children of internally oriented mothers having
      an advantage of approximately 7 IQ points at age 8. As a sensitivity analysis we
      used the IQ test results of a sample of 986 preschool children tested using the
      WPSSI at age 4. A similar advantage was found among the offspring of the
      internally oriented mothers. We investigated mechanistic explanations for these
      results firstly by determining the extent to which three separate sets of factors
      known to be influenced by the LOC orientation might explain these findings. We
      showed that (a) perinatal life-style exposures, (b) parenting attitudes and
      strategies and (c) socio-economic circumstances, largely explain the mechanism
      through which the internality of the mother influences the cognition of the
      child. Similar effects were found using the smaller sample tested at age 4. The
      results indicate that efforts made to foster internality in adolescents and young
      adults prior to parenthood may result in improvements in the cognitive
      development of the next generation. Intervention studies are urgently needed.

PMID- 28878723
TI  - Fitting the Fractional Polynomial Model to Non-Gaussian Longitudinal Data.
AB  - As in cross sectional studies, longitudinal studies involve non-Gaussian data
      such as binomial, Poisson, gamma, and inverse-Gaussian distributions, and
      multivariate exponential families. A number of statistical tools have thus been
      developed to deal with non-Gaussian longitudinal data, including analytic
      techniques to estimate parameters in both fixed and random effects models.
      However, as yet growth modeling with non-Gaussian data is somewhat limited when
      considering the transformed expectation of the response via a linear predictor as
      a functional form of explanatory variables. In this study, we introduce a
      fractional polynomial model (FPM) that can be applied to model non-linear growth
      with non-Gaussian longitudinal data and demonstrate its use by fitting two
      empirical binary and count data models. The results clearly show the efficiency
      and flexibility of the FPM for such applications.

PMID- 28878724
TI  - Commentary: The Need for Bayesian Hypothesis Testing in Psychological Science.

PMID- 28878725
TI  - The Logic of Appearance: Dennett, Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis.
AB  - In the present essay, we aim to develop and contrast three different positions
      toward Sellars' distinction between the manifest and scientific images of man:
      Dennett's philosophical reconstruction of neurocognitive science, contemporary
      phenomenology and psychoanalysis. We will suggest that these respective
      traditions and the substantial differences between them can be understood in
      terms of a 'logic of appearance.' Related to this are differing ideas about the
      rights and limits of the first-person perspective, the relation between conscious
      experience and belief, and the issue of naturalization. In the final part, we
      will try to specify, on the basis of a detailed reading of the disagreement
      between Dennett and phenomenology, in what way psychoanalytic theory could
      respond to these different issues.

PMID- 28878726
TI  - The Family Alliance Model: A Way to Study and Characterize Early Family
      Interactions.
AB  - The aim of this paper is to present the family alliance (FA) model, which is
      designed to conceptualize the relational dynamics in the early family. FA is
      defined as the coordination a family can reach when fulfilling a task, such as
      playing a game or having a meal. According to the model, being coordinated as a
      family depends on four interactive functions: participation (all members are
      included), organization (members assume differentiated roles), focalization
      (family shares a common theme of activity), affect sharing (there is empathy
      between members). The functions are operationalized through the spatiotemporal
      characteristics of non-verbal interactions: for example, distance between the
      partners, orientation of their bodies, congruence within body segments, signals
      of readiness to interact, joint attention, facial expressions. Several
      standardized observational situations have been designed to assess FA: The
      Lausanne Trilogue Play (with its different versions), in which mother, father,
      and baby interact in all possible configurations of a triad, and the PicNic Game
      for families with several children. Studies in samples of non-referred and
      referred families (for infant or parental psychopathology) have highlighted
      different types of FA: disorganized, conflicted, and cooperative. The type of FA
      in a given family is stable through the first years and is predictive of
      developmental outcomes in children, such as psychofunctional symptoms,
      understanding of complex emotions, and Theory of Mind development.

PMID- 28878727
TI  - Exploring Memories of the Self: 2412 Self-image Norms for Adults Aged 17 to 88.

PMID- 28878728
TI  - Patient Affected by Beta-Propeller Protein-Associated Neurodegeneration: A
      Therapeutic Attempt with Iron Chelation Therapy.
AB  - Here, we report the case of a 36-year-old patient with a diagnosis of de novo
      mutation of the WDR45 gene, responsible for beta-propeller protein-associated
      neurodegeneration, a phenotypically distinct, X-linked dominant form of
      Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation. The clinical history is
      characterized by a relatively stable intellectual disability and a hypo
      bradykinetic and hypertonic syndrome with juvenile onset. Genetic investigations
      and T1 and T2-weighted MR images align with what is described in literature. The
      patient was also subjected to PET with 18-FDG investigation and DaT-Scan study.
      In reporting relevant clinical data, we want to emphasize the fact that the
      patient received a chelation therapy with deferiprone (treatment already used in
      other forms of NBIA with encouraging results), which, however, had to be
      interrupted because the parkinsonian symptoms worsened. Conversely, the patient
      has benefited from non-drug therapies and, in particular, from an adapted motor
      activity with assisted pedaling (method in the process of validation in
      treatments of parkinsonian syndromes), which started before the treatment with
      deferiprone and still continues.

PMID- 28878729
TI  - Structural, Functional, and Metabolic Brain Markers Differentiate Collision
      versus Contact and Non-Contact Athletes.
AB  - There is growing concern about how participation in contact sports affects the
      brain. Retrospective evidence suggests that contact sports are associated with
      long-term negative health outcomes. However, much of the research to date has
      focused on former athletes with significant health problems. Less is known about
      the health of current athletes in contact and collision sports who have not
      reported significant medical issues. In this cross-sectional study, advanced
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to evaluate multiple aspects of brain
      physiology in three groups of athletes participating in non-contact sports (N =
      20), contact sports (N = 22), and collision sports (N = 23). Diffusion tensor
      imaging was used to assess white matter microstructure based on measures of
      fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD); resting-state functional
      MRI was used to evaluate global functional connectivity; single-voxel
      spectroscopy was used to compare ratios of neural metabolites, including N-acetyl
      aspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), choline, and myo-inositol. Multivariate analysis
      revealed structural, functional, and metabolic measures that reliably
      differentiated between sport groups. The collision group had significantly
      elevated FA and reduced MD in white matter, compared to both contact and non
      contact groups. In contrast, the collision group showed significant reductions in
      functional connectivity and the NAA/Cr metabolite ratio, relative to only the non
      contact group, while the contact group overlapped with both non-contact and
      collision groups. For brain regions associated with contact sport participation,
      athletes with a history of concussion also showed greater alterations in FA and
      functional connectivity, indicating a potential cumulative effect of both contact
      exposure and concussion history on brain physiology. These findings indicate
      persistent differences in brain physiology for athletes participating in contact
      and collision sports, which should be considered in future studies of concussion
      and subconcussive impacts.

PMID- 28878730
TI  - Stepping to the Beat: Feasibility and Potential Efficacy of a Home-Based Auditory
      Cued Step Training Program in Chronic Stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemiparesis after stroke typically results in a reduced walking
      speed, an asymmetrical gait pattern and a reduced ability to make gait
      adjustments. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the feasibility
      and preliminary efficacy of home-based training involving auditory cueing of
      stepping in place. METHODS: Twelve community-dwelling participants with chronic
      hemiparesis completed two 3-week blocks of home-based stepping to music overlaid
      with an auditory metronome. Tempo of the metronome was increased 5% each week.
      One 3-week block used a regular metronome, whereas the other 3-week block had
      phase shift perturbations randomly inserted to cue stepping adjustments. RESULTS:
      All participants reported that they enjoyed training, with 75% completing all
      training blocks. No adverse events were reported. Walking speed, Timed Up and Go
      (TUG) time and Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) scores (median [inter-quartile range])
      significantly improved between baseline (speed = 0.61 [0.32, 0.85] m?s-1; TUG =
      20.0 [16.0, 39.9] s; DGI = 14.5 [11.3, 15.8]) and post stepping training (speed =
      0.76 [0.39, 1.03] m?s-1; TUG = 16.3 [13.3, 35.1] s; DGI = 16.0 [14.0, 19.0]) and
      was maintained at follow-up (speed = 0.75 [0.41, 1.03] m?s-1; TUG = 16.5 [12.9,
      34.1] s; DGI = 16.5 [13.5, 19.8]). CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests that
      auditory-cued stepping conducted at home was feasible and well-tolerated by
      participants post-stroke, with improvements in walking and functional mobility.
      No differences were detected between regular and phase-shift training with the
      metronome at each assessment point.

PMID- 28878731
TI  - Head-Eye Vestibular Motion Therapy Affects the Mental and Physical Health of
      Severe Chronic Postconcussion Patients.
AB  - CONTEXT: Approximately 1.8-3.6 million annual traumatic brain injuries occur in
      the United States. An evidence-based treatment for concussions that is reliable
      and effective has not been available. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is
      to test whether head-eye vestibular motion (HEVM) therapy is associated with
      decreased symptoms and increased function in postconcussive syndrome (PCS)
      patients that have been severely impaired for greater than 6 months after a mild
      traumatic brain injury. DESIGN: Retrospective clinical chart review. SETTING AND
      PARTICIPANTS: Tertiary Specialist Brain Rehabilitation Center. INTERVENTIONS: All
      subjects underwent comprehensive neurological examinations including measurement
      of eye and head movement. The seven modules of the C3 Logix Comprehensive
      Concussion Management System were used for pre- and postmeasurements of outcome
      of HEVM therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We utilized an objective validated
      measurement of physical and mental health characteristics of our patients before
      and after a 1-week HEVM rehabilitation program. We included only PCS patients
      that were disabled from work or school for a period of time exceeding 6 months
      after suffering a sports concussion. These subjects all were enrolled in a 5-day
      HEVM rehabilitation program at our Institutional Brain Center with pre- and post
      C3 Logix testing outcomes. RESULTS: There were statistical and substantive
      significant decreases in PCS symptom severity after treatment and statistical and
      substantive significant increases in standardized assessment of concussion
      scores. The outcomes were associated with positive changes in mental and physical
      health issues. This is a retrospective review and no control group has been
      included in this study. These are major limitations with retrospective reviews
      and further investigations with prospective designs including a randomized
      controlled study are necessary to further our understanding. CONCLUSION: Head-eye
      vestibular motion therapy of 5 days duration is associated with statistical and
      substantive significant decreases of symptom severity associated with chronic
      PCS.

PMID- 28878732
TI  - Multiple Sclerosis Treatments Affect Monocyte-Derived Microvesicle Production.
AB  - Microvesicles (MVs) are released by immune cells especially of the myeloid
      lineage upon stimulation with ATP on its cognate receptor P2X7, both in
      physiological and pathological conditions. In multiple sclerosis (MS) the role of
      MVs remains little investigated. We aimed to compare the release of MVs in
      peripheral blood monocytes from MS patients with healthy donors (HDs) and to see
      how current MS treatment may affect such a production. We also assessed the
      treatment effect on M1 and M2 monocyte polarization and on the inflammasome
      components. Spectrophotometric quantification was performed to compare monocyte
      derived MVs from 20 untreated relapsing-remitting MS patients and 20 HDs and to
      evaluate the effect of different treatments. Subgroups of nine interferon-beta
      and of five teriflunomide-treated MS patients were evaluated at baseline and
      after 2, 6, and 12 months of treatment. Six MS patients taking Fingolimod, after
      switching from a first-line therapy, were included in the study and analyzed only
      at 12 months of treatment. MVs analysis revealed that monocytes from MS patients
      produced vesicles in higher amounts than controls. All treatments reduced vesicle
      production but only teriflunomide was associated with a downregulation of
      purinergic P2X7 receptor and inflammasome components expression. The therapies
      modulated mRNA expression of both M1 and M2 monocyte markers. Our results,
      suggesting new molecular targets for drugs currently used in MS, may potentially
      provide useful novel evidence to approach the disease.

PMID- 28878733
TI  - Clinical Approach to Supranuclear Brainstem Saccadic Gaze Palsies.
AB  - Failure of brainstem supranuclear centers for saccadic eye movements results in
      the clinical presence of a brainstem-mediated supranuclear saccadic gaze palsy
      (SGP), which is manifested as slowing of saccades with or without range of motion
      limitation of eye movements and as loss of quick phases of optokinetic nystagmus.
      Limitation in the range of motion of eye movements is typically worse with
      saccades than with smooth pursuit and is overcome with vestibular-ocular
      reflexive eye movements. The differential diagnosis of SGPs is broad, although
      acute-onset SGP is most often from brainstem infarction and chronic vertical SGP
      is most commonly caused by the neurodegenerative condition progressive
      supranuclear palsy. In this review, we discuss the brainstem anatomy and
      physiology of the brainstem saccade-generating network; we discuss the clinical
      features of SGPs, with an emphasis on insights from quantitative ocular motor
      recordings; and we consider the broad differential diagnosis of SGPs.

PMID- 28878735
TI  - MicroRNA Regulation of Brown Adipogenesis and Thermogenic Energy Expenditure.
AB  - Obesity, diabetes, and associated metabolic diseases have become global
      epidemics. Obesity results from excess accumulation of white fat, while brown and
      its related beige fat function to dissipate energy as heat, thus counteracting
      obesity and its related metabolic disorders. Understanding the regulatory
      mechanisms for both white and brown adipogenesis provides new insights for
      prevention and treatment of these metabolic diseases. In addition to traditional
      gene transcription and translation, microRNA (miRNA) represents a new layer of
      regulatory mechanism in many biological processes and has attracted a great deal
      of research interests in exploring their roles in physiological and
      pathophysiological conditions. This review focuses on the recent advances of
      regulating brown adipogenesis and energy metabolism by miRNAs, aiming to
      delineate the regulatory principles of miRNAs on this unique aspect of energy
      homeostasis.

PMID- 28878736
TI  - Commentary: Torpor: The Rise and Fall of 3-Monoiodothyronamine from Brain to Gut
      From Gut to Brain?

PMID- 28878734
TI  - Speech and Voice Response to a Levodopa Challenge in Late-Stage Parkinson's
      Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are affected by hypokinetic
      dysarthria, characterized by hypophonia and dysprosody, which worsens with
      disease progression. Levodopa's (l-dopa) effect on quality of speech is
      inconclusive; no data are currently available for late-stage PD (LSPD).
      OBJECTIVE: To assess the modifications of speech and voice in LSPD following an
      acute l-dopa challenge. METHOD: LSPD patients [Schwab and England score <50/Hoehn
      and Yahr stage >3 (MED ON)] performed several vocal tasks before and after an
      acute l-dopa challenge. The following was assessed: respiratory support for
      speech, voice quality, stability and variability, speech rate, and motor
      performance (MDS-UPDRS-III). All voice samples were recorded and analyzed by a
      speech and language therapist blinded to patients' therapeutic condition using
      Praat 5.1 software. RESULTS: 24/27 (14 men) LSPD patients succeeded in performing
      voice tasks. Median age and disease duration of patients were 79 [IQR: 71.5-81.7]
      and 14.5 [IQR: 11-15.7] years, respectively. In MED OFF, respiratory breath
      support and pitch break time of LSPD patients were worse than the normative
      values of non-parkinsonian. A correlation was found between disease duration and
      voice quality (R = 0.51; p = 0.013) and speech rate (R = -0.55; p = 0.008). l
      Dopa significantly improved MDS-UPDRS-III score (20%), with no effect on speech
      as assessed by clinical rating scales and automated analysis. CONCLUSION: Speech
      is severely affected in LSPD. Although l-dopa had some effect on motor
      performance, including axial signs, speech and voice did not improve. The
      applicability and efficacy of non-pharmacological treatment for speech impairment
      should be considered for speech disorder management in PD.

PMID- 28878737
TI  - Conservation of Three-Dimensional Helix-Loop-Helix Structure through the
      Vertebrate Lineage Reopens the Cold Case of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone
      Associated Peptide.
AB  - GnRH-associated peptide (GAP) is the C-terminal portion of the gonadotropin
      releasing hormone (GnRH) preprohormone. Although it was reported in mammals that
      GAP may act as a prolactin-inhibiting factor and can be co-secreted with GnRH
      into the hypophyseal portal blood, GAP has been practically out of the research
      circuit for about 20 years. Comparative studies highlighted the low conservation
      of GAP primary amino acid sequences among vertebrates, contributing to consider
      that this peptide only participates in the folding or carrying process of GnRH.
      Considering that the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein may define its
      function, the aim of this study was to evaluate if GAP sequences and 3D
      structures are conserved in the vertebrate lineage. GAP sequences from various
      vertebrates were retrieved from databases. Analysis of primary amino acid
      sequence identity and similarity, molecular phylogeny, and prediction of 3D
      structures were performed. Amino acid sequence comparison and phylogeny analyses
      confirmed the large variation of GAP sequences throughout vertebrate radiation.
      In contrast, prediction of the 3D structure revealed a striking conservation of
      the 3D structure of GAP1 (GAP associated with the hypophysiotropic type 1 GnRH),
      despite low amino acid sequence conservation. This GAP1 peptide presented a
      typical helix-loop-helix (HLH) structure in all the vertebrate species analyzed.
      This HLH structure could also be predicted for GAP2 in some but not all
      vertebrate species and in none of the GAP3 analyzed. These results allowed us to
      infer that selective pressures have maintained GAP1 HLH structure throughout the
      vertebrate lineage. The conservation of the HLH motif, known to confer biological
      activity to various proteins, suggests that GAP1 peptides may exert some
      hypophysiotropic biological functions across vertebrate radiation.

PMID- 28878739
TI  - Precocious Puberty or Premature Thelarche: Analysis of a Large Patient Series in
      a Single Tertiary Center with Special Emphasis on 6- to 8-Year-Old Girls.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We describe the etiology, MRI findings, and growth patterns in
      girls who had presented with signs of precocious puberty (PP), i.e., premature
      breast development or early menarche. Special attention was paid to the
      diagnostic findings in 6- to 8-year-olds. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the
      medical records of 149 girls (aged 0.7-10.3 years) who had been evaluated for PP
      in the Helsinki University Hospital between 2001 and 2014. RESULTS: In 6- to 8
      year-old girls, PP was most frequently caused by idiopathic gonadotropin
      releasing hormone (GnRH)-dependent PP (60%) and premature thelarche (PT; 39%).
      The former subgroup grew faster (8.7 +/- 2.0 cm/year, n = 58) than the girls with
      PT (7.0 +/- 1.1 cm/year, n = 32) (P < 0.001), and the best discrimination for
      GnRH-dependent PP was achieved with a growth velocity cut-off value of 7.0
      cm/year (sensitivity 92% and specificity 58%) [area under the curve 0.82, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) 0.73-0.91, P < 0.001]. Among asymptomatic and previously
      healthy 6- to 8-year-old girls with GnRH-dependent PP, one (1.7%, 95% CI 0.3
      9.7%) had a pathological brain MRI finding requiring surgical intervention
      (craniopharyngioma). In girls younger than 3 years, the most frequent cause of
      breast development was PT, and, in 3- to 6-year-olds, GnRH-dependent PP.
      CONCLUSION: In 6- to 8-year-old girls, analysis of growth velocity is helpful in
      differentiating between PT and GnRH-dependent PP. Although the frequency of
      clinically relevant intracranial findings in previously healthy, asymptomatic 6-
      to 8-year-old girls was low, they can present without any signs or symptoms,
      which favors routine MRI imaging also in this age group.

PMID- 28878738
TI  - Overlooked Mechanisms in Type 1 Diabetes Etiology: How Unique Costimulatory
      Molecules Contribute to Diabetogenesis.
AB  - Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) develops when immune cells invade the pancreatic islets
      resulting in loss of insulin production in beta cells. T cells have been proven
      to be central players in that process. What is surprising, however, is that
      classic mechanisms of tolerance cannot explain diabetogenesis; alternate
      mechanisms must now be considered. T cell receptor (TCR) revision is the process
      whereby T cells in the periphery alter TCR expression, outside the safety-net of
      thymic selection pressures. This process results in an expanded T cell
      repertoire, capable of responding to a universe of pathogens, but limitations are
      that increased risk for autoimmune disease development occurs. Classic T cell
      costimulators including the CD28 family have long been thought to be the major
      drivers for full T cell activation. In actuality, CD28 and its family member
      counterparts, ICOS and CTLA-4, all drive regulatory responses. Inflammation is
      driven by CD40, not CD28. CD40 as a costimulus has been largely overlooked. When
      naive T cells interact with antigen presenting cell CD154, the major ligand for
      CD40, is induced. This creates a milieu for T cell (CD40)-T cell (CD154)
      interaction, leading to inflammation. Finally, defined pathogenic effector cells
      including TH40 (CD4+CD40+) cells can express FOXP3 but are not Tregs. The cells
      loose FOXP3 to become pathogenic effector cells. Each of these mechanisms creates
      novel options to better understand diabetogenesis and create new therapeutic
      targets for T1D.

PMID- 28878740
TI  - DNA Delivery and Genomic Integration into Mammalian Target Cells through Type IV
      A and B Secretion Systems of Human Pathogens.
AB  - We explore the potential of bacterial secretion systems as tools for genomic
      modification of human cells. We previously showed that foreign DNA can be
      introduced into human cells through the Type IV A secretion system of the human
      pathogen Bartonella henselae. Moreover, the DNA is delivered covalently attached
      to the conjugative relaxase TrwC, which promotes its integration into the
      recipient genome. In this work, we report that this tool can be adapted to other
      target cells by using different relaxases and secretion systems. The promiscuous
      relaxase MobA from plasmid RSF1010 can be used to deliver DNA into human cells
      with higher efficiency than TrwC. MobA also promotes DNA integration, albeit at
      lower rates than TrwC. Notably, we report that DNA transfer to human cells can
      also take place through the Type IV secretion system of two intracellular human
      pathogens, Legionella pneumophila and Coxiella burnetii, which code for a
      distantly related Dot/Icm Type IV B secretion system. This suggests that DNA
      transfer could be an intrinsic ability of this family of secretion systems,
      expanding the range of target human cells. Further analysis of the DNA transfer
      process showed that recruitment of MobA by Dot/Icm was dependent on the IcmSW
      chaperone, which may explain the higher DNA transfer rates obtained. Finally, we
      observed that the presence of MobA negatively affected the intracellular
      replication of C. burnetii, suggesting an interference with Dot/Icm translocation
      of virulence factors.

PMID- 28878741
TI  - Heat Stress Dictates Microbial Lipid Composition along a Thermal Gradient in
      Marine Sediments.
AB  - Temperature exerts a first-order control on microbial populations, which
      constantly adjust the fluidity and permeability of their cell membrane lipids to
      minimize loss of energy by ion diffusion across the membrane. Analytical advances
      in liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry have allowed the detection
      of a stunning diversity of bacterial and archaeal lipids in extreme environments
      such as hot springs, hydrothermal vents and deep subsurface marine sediments.
      Here, we investigated a thermal gradient from 18 to 101 degrees C across a marine
      sediment field and tested the hypothesis that cell membrane lipids provide a
      major biochemical basis for the bioenergetics of archaea and bacteria under heat
      stress. This paper features a detailed lipidomics approach with the focus on
      membrane lipid structure-function. Membrane lipids analyzed here include polar
      lipids of bacteria and polar and core lipids of archaea. Reflecting the low
      permeability of their ether-linked isoprenoids, we found that archaeal polar
      lipids generally dominate over bacterial lipids in deep layers of the sediments
      influenced by hydrothermal fluids. A close examination of archaeal and bacterial
      lipids revealed a membrane quandary: not only low permeability, but also
      increased fluidity of membranes are required as a unified property of microbial
      membranes for energy conservation under heat stress. For instance, bacterial
      fatty acids were composed of longer chain lengths in concert with higher degree
      of unsaturation while archaea modified their tetraethers by incorporation of
      additional methyl groups at elevated sediment temperatures. It is possible that
      these configurations toward a more fluidized membrane at elevated temperatures
      are counterbalanced by the high abundance of archaeal glycolipids and bacterial
      sphingolipids, which could reduce membrane permeability through strong
      intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Our results provide a new angle for interpreting
      membrane lipid structure-function enabling archaea and bacteria to survive and
      grow in hydrothermal systems.

PMID- 28878743
TI  - Characterization of the Copy Number and Variants of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) in
      the Pairs of Honey Bee Pupa and Infesting Varroa destructor or Tropilaelaps
      mercedesae.
AB  - Recent honey bee colony losses, particularly during the winter, have been shown
      to be associated with the presence of both ectoparasitic mites and Deformed Wing
      Virus (DWV). Whilst the role of Varroa destructor mites as a viral vector is well
      established, the role of Tropilaelaps mercedesae mites in viral transmission has
      not been fully investigated. In this study, we tested the effects that V.
      destructor and T. mercedesae infestation have on fluctuation of the DWV copy
      number and alteration of the virus variants in honey bees by characterizing
      individual pupae and their infesting mites. We observed that both mite species
      were associated with increased viral copy number in honey bee pupae. We found a
      positive correlation between DWV copy number in pupae and copy number in
      infesting mites, and the same DWV type A variant was present in either low or
      high copy number in both honey bee pupae and infesting V. destructor. These data
      also suggest that variant diversity is similar between honey bee pupae and the
      mites that infest them. These results support a previously proposed hypothesis
      that DWV suppresses the honey bee immune system when virus copy number reaches a
      specific threshold, promoting greater replication.

PMID- 28878744
TI  - Guanidine N-methylation by BlsL Is Dependent on Acylation of Beta-amine Arginine
      in the Biosynthesis of Blasticidin S.
AB  - The peptidyl nucleoside blasticidin S (BS) produced by Streptomyces
      griseochromogenes was the first non-mercurial fungicide used to prevent rice
      blast and increasingly used as a selection reagent in transgenic study. Acylation
      by addition of a leucine residue at the beta amine group of arginine side chain
      of demethylblasticidin S (DBS) has been proposed as a novel self-resistance to
      the cytotoxic biosynthetic intermediate. But the resultant product
      leucyldemethylblasticidin S (LDBS) has not been isolated as a metabolite, and
      LDBS synthetase activity remained to be demonstrated in S. griseochromogenes. In
      this study, we isolated LDBS in a BS heterologous producer S. lividans WJ2 upon
      the deletion of blsL, which encodes a S-Adenosyl methionine-dependent
      methyltransferase. Purified BlsL efficiently methylated LDBS at the delta N of
      beta-arginine to generate the ultimate intermediate LBS, but nearly didn't
      methylate DBS to final product BS. Above experiments demonstrated that LDBS is
      indeed an intermediate in BS biosynthetic pathway, and acylation of beta-amino
      group of arginine side chain is prerequisite for efficient guanidine N
      methylation in addition to being a self-resistance mechanism.

PMID- 28878742
TI  - Zika Virus: What Have We Learnt Since the Start of the Recent Epidemic?
AB  - Zika is a viral disease transmitted mainly by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. In
      recent years, it has expanded geographically, changing from an endemic mosquito
      borne disease across equatorial Asia and Africa, to an epidemic disease causing
      large outbreaks in several areas of the world. With the recent Zika virus (ZIKV)
      outbreaks in the Americas, the disease has become a focus of attention of public
      health agencies and of the international research community, especially due to an
      association with neurological disorders in adults and to the severe neurological
      and ophthalmological abnormalities found in fetuses and newborns of mothers
      exposed to ZIKV during pregnancy. A large number of studies have been published
      in the last 3 years, revealing the structure of the virus, how it is transmitted
      and how it affects human cells. Many different animal models have been developed,
      which recapitulate several features of ZIKV disease and its neurological
      consequences. Moreover, several vaccine candidates are now in active preclinical
      development, and three of them have already entered phase I clinical trials.
      Likewise, many different compounds targeting viral and cellular components are
      being tested in in vitro and in experimental animal models. This review aims to
      discuss the current state of this rapidly growing literature from a
      multidisciplinary perspective, as well as to present an overview of the public
      health response to Zika and of the perspectives for the prevention and treatment
      of this disease.

PMID- 28878745
TI  - Coordination of Chromosome Segregation and Cell Division in Staphylococcus
      aureus.
AB  - Productive bacterial cell division and survival of progeny requires tight
      coordination between chromosome segregation and cell division to ensure equal
      partitioning of DNA. Unlike rod-shaped bacteria that undergo division in one
      plane, the coccoid human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus divides in three
      successive orthogonal planes, which requires a different spatial control compared
      to rod-shaped cells. To gain a better understanding of how this coordination
      between chromosome segregation and cell division is regulated in S. aureus, we
      investigated proteins that associate with FtsZ and the divisome. We found that
      DnaK, a well-known chaperone, interacts with FtsZ, EzrA and DivIVA, and is
      required for DivIVA stability. Unlike in several rod shaped organisms, DivIVA in
      S. aureus associates with several components of the divisome, as well as the
      chromosome segregation protein, SMC. This data, combined with phenotypic analysis
      of mutants, suggests a novel role for S. aureus DivIVA in ensuring cell division
      and chromosome segregation are coordinated.

PMID- 28878746
TI  - Inhibition of New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase 1 (NDM-1) Producing Escherichia
      coli IR-6 by Selected Plant Extracts and Their Synergistic Actions with
      Antibiotics.
AB  - Improper use of antibiotics has led to a great concern in the development of
      pathogenic microbial resistance. New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1)
      producing bacteria are resistant to most of the beta-lactam antibiotics, and so
      far, no new compounds have been clinically tested against these bacteria. In this
      study, ethanol extracts from the leaves of 240 medicinal plant species were
      screened for antibacterial activity against an NDM-1 Escherichia coli strain. The
      extracts that showed antibacterial activity were then tested for minimum
      inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and zones of inhibition. The extract from
      Combretum albidum G. Don, Hibiscus acetosella Welw. ex Hiern, Hibiscus cannabinus
      L., Hibiscus furcatus Willd., Punica granatum L., and Tamarindus indica L. showed
      bactericidal activity between 5 and 15 mg/ml and the MIC was between 2.56 and
      5.12 mg/ml. All six plant extracts inhibited activity of the NDM-1 enzyme in
      vitro, and the IC50 value ranged between 0.50 and 1.2 ng/MUl. Disruption of
      bacterial cell wall integrity by the plant extracts was clearly visible with
      scanning electron microscopy. Increases in membrane permeability caused 79.4
      89.7% bacterial cell deaths as investigated by fluorescence-activated cell
      sorting. All the plant extracts showed synergistic effects when combined with
      colistin [fractional inhibitory concentration (SigmaFIC) = 0.125-0.375],
      meropenem (SigmaFIC = 0.09-0.313), and tetracycline (SigmaFIC = 0.125-0.313).
      Thus, the plant extracts can be fractionated for the identification of active
      compounds, which could be used as new antibacterial compounds for the development
      of drugs against NDM-1 E. coli in addition to their use in combination therapy.

PMID- 28878747
TI  - In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Unconjugated and Conjugated Bile Salts on
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Bile salts are potent antimicrobial agents and are an important component of
      innate defenses in the intestine, giving protection against invasive organisms.
      They play an important role in determining microbial ecology of the intestine and
      alterations in their levels can lead to increased colonization by pathogens. We
      have previously demonstrated survival of the opportunistic pathogen
      Staphylococcus aureus in the human colonic model. Thus investigating the
      interaction between S. aureus and bile salts is an important factor in
      understanding its ability to colonize in the host intestine. Harnessing bile
      salts may also give a new avenue to explore in the development of therapeutic
      strategies to control drug resistant bacteria. Despite this importance, the
      antibacterial activity of bile salts on S. aureus is poorly understood. In this
      study, we investigated the antibacterial effects of the major unconjugated and
      conjugated bile salts on S. aureus. Several concentration-dependent antibacterial
      mechanisms were found. Unconjugated bile salts at their minimum inhibitory
      concentration (cholic and deoxycholic acid at 20 and 1 mM, respectively) killed
      S. aureus, and this was associated with increased membrane disruption and leakage
      of cellular contents. Unconjugated bile salts (cholic and deoxycholic acid at 8
      and 0.4 mM, respectively) and conjugated bile salts (glycocholic and taurocholic
      acid at 20 mM) at their sub inhibitory concentrations were still able to inhibit
      growth through disruption of the proton motive force and increased membrane
      permeability. We also demonstrated that unconjugated bile salts possess more
      potent antibacterial action on S. aureus than conjugated bile salts.

PMID- 28878748
TI  - Transcriptomic Analysis of Oenococcus oeni SD-2a Response to Acid Shock by RNA
      Seq.
AB  - Oenococcus oeni can be applied to conduct malolactic fermentation (MLF), but also
      is the main species growing naturally in wine. Due to the high stress tolerance,
      it is an interesting model for investigating acid response mechanisms. In this
      study, the changes in the transcriptome of O.oeni SD-2a during the adaptation
      period have been studied. RNA-seq was introduced for the transcriptomic analysis
      of O. oeni samples treated with pH 4.8 and pH 3.0 at 0 and 1 h, respectively.
      Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genome (KEGG) were
      performed to compare the transcriptome data between different treatments. From GO
      analysis, the majority of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (pH 3.0_1 h-VS-pH
      4.8_1 h, pH 3.0_1 h-VS-pH 4.8_0 h, and pH 4.8_1 h-VS-pH 4.8_0 h) were found to be
      involved in the metabolic process, catalytic activity, cellular process, and
      binding. KEGG analysis reveals that the most functional gene categories affected
      by acid are membrane transport, amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate
      metabolism. Some genes, like the heat shock protein Hsp20, malate transporter and
      malate permease, were also over-expressed in response to acid stress. In
      addition, a considerable proportion of gene indicate a significantly different
      expression in this study, are novel, which needs to be investigated further.
      These results provide a new viewpoint and crucial resource on the acid stress
      response in O. oeni.

PMID- 28878749
TI  - In Vitro Evaluation of the Impact of the Probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 on
      Campylobacter jejuni's Invasion and Intracellular Survival in Human Colonic
      Cells.
AB  - Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of bacterial food poisoning in humans.
      Due to the rise in antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter, there exists a need to
      develop antibiotic-independent interventions to control infections in humans.
      Here, we evaluated the impact of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN), a probiotic
      strain, on C. jejuni's invasion and intracellular survival in polarized human
      colonic cells (HT-29). To further understand how EcN mediates its impact, the
      expression of 84 genes associated with tight junctions and cell adhesion was
      profiled in HT-29 cells after treatment with EcN and challenge with C. jejuni.
      The pre-treatment of polarized HT-29 cells with EcN for 4 h showed a significant
      effect on C. jejuni's invasion (~2 log reduction) of the colonic cells.
      Furthermore, no intracellular C. jejuni were recovered from EcN pre-treated HT-29
      cells at 24 h post-infection. Other probiotic strains tested had no significant
      impact on C. jejuni invasion and intracellular survival. C. jejuni decreased the
      expression of genes associated with epithelial cells permeability and barrier
      function in untreated HT-29 cells. However, EcN positively affected the
      expression of genes that are involved in enhanced intestinal barrier function,
      decreased cell permeability, and increased tight junction integrity. The results
      suggest that EcN impedes C. jejuni invasion and subsequent intracellular survival
      by affecting HT-29 cells barrier function and tight junction integrity. We
      conclude that EcN might be a viable alternative for controlling C. jejuni
      infections.

PMID- 28878750
TI  - Identification of the Tolfenamic Acid Binding Pocket in PrbP from Liberibacter
      asiaticus.
AB  - In Liberibacter asiaticus, PrbP is an important transcriptional accessory protein
      that was found to regulate gene expression through interactions with the RNA
      polymerase beta-subunit and a specific sequence on the promoter region. It was
      found that inactivation of PrbP, using the inhibitor tolfenamic acid, resulted in
      a significant decrease in the overall transcriptional activity of L. asiaticus,
      and the suppression of L. asiaticus infection in HLB symptomatic citrus
      seedlings. The molecular interactions between PrbP and tolfenamic acid, however,
      were yet to be elucidated. In this study, we modeled the structure of PrbP and
      identified a ligand binding pocket, TaP, located at the interface of the
      predicted RNA polymerase interaction domain (N-terminus) and the DNA binding
      domain (C-terminus). The molecular interactions of PrbP with tolfenamic acid were
      predicted using in silico docking. Site-directed mutagenesis of specific amino
      acids was followed by electrophoresis mobility shift assays and in vitro
      transcription assays, where residues N107, G109, and E148 were identified as the
      primary amino acids involved in interactions with tolfenamic acid. These results
      provide insight into the binding mechanism of PrbP to a small inhibitory
      molecule, and a starting scaffold for the identification and development of
      therapeutics targeting PrbP and other homologs in the CarD_CdnL_TRCF family.

PMID- 28878752
TI  - Myxobacteria Are Able to Prey Broadly upon Clinically-Relevant Pathogens,
      Exhibiting a Prey Range Which Cannot Be Explained by Phylogeny.
AB  - Myxobacteria are natural predators of microorganisms and the subjects of
      concerted efforts to identify novel antimicrobial compounds. Myxobacterial
      predatory activity seems to require more than just the possession of specific
      antimicrobial metabolites. Thus a holistic approach to studying predation
      promises novel insights into antimicrobial action. Here, we report the isolation
      of 113 myxobacteria from samples of soil taken from a range of habitats in mid
      Wales. Predatory activity of each isolate was quantified against a panel of
      clinically important prey organisms, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus
      mirabilis, Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, and three species of
      Staphylococcus. Myxobacterial isolates exhibited a wide range of predation
      activity profiles against the panel of prey. Efficient predation of all prey by
      isolates within the collection was observed, with K. pneumoniae and C. albicans
      proving particularly susceptible to myxobacterial predation. Notably efficient
      predators tended to be proficient at predating multiple prey organisms,
      suggesting they possess gene(s) encoding a broad range killing activity. However,
      predatory activity was not congruent with phylogeny, suggesting prey range is
      subject to relatively rapid specialization, potentially involving lateral gene
      transfer. The broad but patchy prey ranges observed for natural myxobacterial
      isolates also implies multiple (potentially overlapping) genetic determinants are
      responsible for dictating predatory activity.

PMID- 28878753
TI  - Conserved TRAM Domain Functions as an Archaeal Cold Shock Protein via RNA
      Chaperone Activity.
AB  - Cold shock proteins (Csps) enable organisms to acclimate to and survive in cold
      environments and the bacterial CspA family exerts the cold protection via its RNA
      chaperone activity. However, most Archaea do not contain orthologs to the
      bacterial csp. TRAM, a conserved domain among RNA modification proteins
      ubiquitously distributed in organisms, occurs as an individual protein in most
      archaeal phyla and has a structural similarity to Csp proteins, yet its
      biological functions remain unknown. Through physiological and biochemical
      studies on four TRAM proteins from a cold adaptive archaeon Methanolobus
      psychrophilus R15, this work demonstrated that TRAM is an archaeal Csp and
      exhibits RNA chaperone activity. Three TRAM encoding genes (Mpsy_0643, Mpsy_3043,
      and Mpsy_3066) exhibited remarkable cold-shock induced transcription and were
      preferentially translated at lower temperature (18 degrees C), while the fourth
      (Mpsy_2002) was constitutively expressed. They were all able to complement the
      cspABGE mutant of Escherichia coli BX04 that does not grow in cold temperatures
      and showed transcriptional antitermination. TRAM3066 (gene product of Mpsy_3066)
      and TRAM2002 (gene product of Mpsy_2002) displayed sequence-non-specific RNA but
      not DNA binding activity, and TRAM3066 assisted RNases in degradation of
      structured RNA, thus validating the RNA chaperone activity of TRAMs. Given the
      chaperone activity, TRAM is predicted to function beyond a Csp.

PMID- 28878755
TI  - Fermentation Process and Metabolic Flux of Ethanol Production from the Detoxified
      Hydrolyzate of Cassava Residue.
AB  - With the growth of the world population, energy problems are becoming
      increasingly severe; therefore, sustainable energy sources have gained enormous
      importance. With respect to ethanol fuel production, biomass is gradually
      replacing grain as the main raw material. In this study, we explored the
      fermentation of five- and six-carbon sugars, the main biomass degradation
      products, into alcohol. We conducted mutagenic screening specifically for Candida
      tropicalis CICC1779 to obtain a strain that effectively used xylose (Candida
      tropicalis CICC1779-Dyd). By subsequently studying fermentation conditions under
      different initial liquid volume oxygen transfer coefficients (kLalpha), and
      coupling control of the aeration rate and agitation speed under optimal
      conditions, the optimal dissolved oxygen change curve was obtained. In addition,
      we constructed metabolic flow charts and equations to obtain a better
      understanding of the fermentation mechanism and to improve the ethanol yield. In
      our experiment, the ethanol production of the wild type stain was 17.58 g.L-1 at
      a kLalpha of 120. The highest ethanol yield of the mutagenic strains was 24.85
      g.L-1. The ethanol yield increased to 26.56 g.L-1 when the dissolved oxygen
      content was optimized, and the conversion of sugar into alcohol reached 0.447 g.g
      1 glucose (the theoretical titer of yeast-metabolized xylose was 0.46 g ethanol/g
      xylose and the glucose ethanol fermentation titer was 0.51 g ethanol/g glucose).
      Finally, the detected activity of xylose reductase and xylose dehydrogenase was
      higher in the mutant strain than in the original, which indicated that the mutant
      strain (CICC1779-Dyd) could effectively utilize xylose for metabolism.

PMID- 28878751
TI  - Burkholderia cenocepacia Infections in Cystic Fibrosis Patients: Drug Resistance
      and Therapeutic Approaches.
AB  - Burkholderia cenocepacia is an opportunistic pathogen particularly dangerous for
      cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. It can cause a severe decline in CF lung function
      possibly developing into a life-threatening systemic infection known as cepacia
      syndrome. Antibiotic resistance and presence of numerous virulence determinants
      in the genome make B. cenocepacia extremely difficult to treat. Better
      understanding of its resistance profiles and mechanisms is crucial to improve
      management of these infections. Here, we present the clinical distribution of B.
      cenocepacia described in the last 6 years and methods for identification and
      classification of epidemic strains. We also detail new antibiotics, clinical
      trials, and alternative approaches reported in the literature in the last 5 years
      to tackle B. cenocepacia resistance issue. All together these findings point out
      the urgent need of new and alternative therapies to improve CF patients' life
      expectancy.

PMID- 28878754
TI  - Marine Microbial Gene Abundance and Community Composition in Response to Ocean
      Acidification and Elevated Temperature in Two Contrasting Coastal Marine
      Sediments.
AB  - Marine ecosystems are exposed to a range of human-induced climate stressors, in
      particular changing carbonate chemistry and elevated sea surface temperatures as
      a consequence of climate change. More research effort is needed to reduce
      uncertainties about the effects of global-scale warming and acidification for
      benthic microbial communities, which drive sedimentary biogeochemical cycles. In
      this research, mesocosm experiments were set up using muddy and sandy coastal
      sediments to investigate the independent and interactive effects of elevated
      carbon dioxide concentrations (750 ppm CO2) and elevated temperature (ambient +4
      degrees C) on the abundance of taxonomic and functional microbial genes. Specific
      quantitative PCR primers were used to target archaeal, bacterial, and
      cyanobacterial/chloroplast 16S rRNA in both sediment types. Nitrogen cycling
      genes archaeal and bacterial ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) and bacterial nitrite
      reductase (nirS) were specifically targeted to identify changes in microbial gene
      abundance and potential impacts on nitrogen cycling. In muddy sediment, microbial
      gene abundance, including amoA and nirS genes, increased under elevated
      temperature and reduced under elevated CO2 after 28 days, accompanied by shifts
      in community composition. In contrast, the combined stressor treatment showed a
      non-additive effect with lower microbial gene abundance throughout the
      experiment. The response of microbial communities in the sandy sediment was less
      pronounced, with the most noticeable response seen in the archaeal gene
      abundances in response to environmental stressors over time. 16S rRNA genes (amoA
      and nirS) were lower in abundance in the combined stressor treatments in sandy
      sediments. Our results indicated that marine benthic microorganisms, especially
      in muddy sediments, are susceptible to changes in ocean carbonate chemistry and
      seawater temperature, which ultimately may have an impact upon key benthic
      biogeochemical cycles.

PMID- 28878757
TI  - Different Origins of Newcastle Disease Virus Hemagglutinin-Neuraminidase Protein
      Modulate the Replication Efficiency and Pathogenicity of the Virus.
AB  - To investigate the exact effects of different origins of Newcastle disease virus
      (NDV) hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein to the biological characteristics
      of the virus, we systematically studied the correlation between the HN protein
      and NDV virulence by exchanging the HN of velogenic or lentogenic NDV strains
      with the HN from other strains of different virulence. The results revealed that
      the rSG10 or rLaSota derivatives bearing the HN gene of other viruses exhibited
      decreased or increased hemadsorption (HAd), neuraminidase and fusion promotion
      activities. In vitro and in vivo tests further showed that changes in replication
      level, tissue tropism and virulence of the chimeric viruses were also consistent
      with these biological activities. These findings demonstrated that the balance
      among three biological activities caused variation in replication and
      pathogenicity of the virus, which was closely related to the origin of the HN
      protein. Our study highlights the importance of the HN glycoprotein in modulating
      the virulence of NDV and contributes to a more complete understanding of the
      virulence of NDV.

PMID- 28878758
TI  - Differences in Growth Properties among Two Human Cytomegalovirus Glycoprotein O
      Genotypes.
AB  - Glycoprotein O (gO) of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the critical subunit
      of the envelope trimer gH/gL/gO as it interacts with platelet-derived growth
      factor alpha receptor upon fibroblast entry, and triggers gB-mediated fusion for
      fibroblast and epithelial cell infection. Eight genotypes (GT) of the highly
      polymorphic gO gene are described, yet it is unclear whether the distinct GTs
      differ in their function. Thus, we aimed to elucidate potential functional
      differences between two highly diverse gO GTs in an otherwise genomically
      identical HCMV strain. Therefore, resident gO GT1c sequence of strain TB40-BAC4
      luc was entirely replaced by gO GT4 of strain Towne and both, GT1c and GT4
      viruses, were investigated for their growth properties in fibroblasts and
      epithelial cells. In addition, two conserved gO cysteines involved in gH/gL/gO
      stabilization were mutated to serine either in GT1c (C218S and C343S) or GT4
      (C216S and C336S) and their effects on cell-free infectivity were assessed. GT4
      viruses displayed a significantly enhanced epithelial cell tropism and this
      resulted in higher virus release upon replication in epithelial cells when
      compared to GT1c viruses. Further, when the two cysteines were individually
      mutated in gO GT1c no impairment in cell-free infectivity was observed. This,
      however, was in sharp contrast to gO GT4, in which both of the corresponding
      cysteine mutations led to a substantial reduction in cell-free infectivity which
      was even more pronounced upon mutation of GT4-C336 than of GT4-C216. In
      conclusion, these findings provide evidence that the two highly diverse gO
      genotypes, GT1c and GT4, differ in their functional properties as revealed by
      their different infection capacities for epithelial cells and by their different
      responsiveness to mutation of strictly conserved cysteine residues. Thus, it is
      likely that the gO heterogeneity influences cell-free infectivity of HCMV also in
      vivo which may have important implications for virus host transmission.

PMID- 28878759
TI  - Editorial: Microbial Food Safety along the Dairy Chain.

PMID- 28878756
TI  - Analysis of Microbial Functions in the Rhizosphere Using a Metabolic-Network
      Based Framework for Metagenomics Interpretation.
AB  - Advances in metagenomics enable high resolution description of complex bacterial
      communities in their natural environments. Consequently, conceptual approaches
      for community level functional analysis are in high need. Here, we introduce a
      framework for a metagenomics-based analysis of community functions. Environment
      specific gene catalogs, derived from metagenomes, are processed into metabolic
      network representation. By applying established ecological conventions, network
      edges (metabolic functions) are assigned with taxonomic annotations according to
      the dominance level of specific groups. Once a function-taxonomy link is
      established, prediction of the impact of dominant taxa on the overall community
      performances is assessed by simulating removal or addition of edges (taxa
      associated functions). This approach is demonstrated on metagenomic data
      describing the microbial communities from the root environment of two crop plants
      - wheat and cucumber. Predictions for environment-dependent effects revealed
      differences between treatments (root vs. soil), corresponding to documented
      observations. Metabolism of specific plant exudates (e.g., organic acids,
      flavonoids) was linked with distinct taxonomic groups in simulated root, but not
      soil, environments. These dependencies point to the impact of these metabolite
      families as determinants of community structure. Simulations of the activity of
      pairwise combinations of taxonomic groups (order level) predicted the possible
      production of complementary metabolites. Complementation profiles allow
      formulating a possible metabolic role for observed co-occurrence patterns. For
      example, production of tryptophan-associated metabolites through complementary
      interactions is unique to the tryptophan-deficient cucumber root environment. Our
      approach enables formulation of testable predictions for species contribution to
      community activity and exploration of the functional outcome of structural shifts
      in complex bacterial communities. Understanding community-level metabolism is an
      essential step toward the manipulation and optimization of microbial function.
      Here, we introduce an analysis framework addressing three key challenges of such
      data: producing quantified links between taxonomy and function; contextualizing
      discrete functions into communal networks; and simulating environmental impact on
      community performances. New technologies will soon provide a high-coverage
      description of biotic and a-biotic aspects of complex microbial communities such
      as these found in gut and soil. This framework was designed to allow the
      integration of high-throughput metabolomic and metagenomic data toward tackling
      the intricate associations between community structure, community function, and
      metabolic inputs.

PMID- 28878760
TI  - Respiratory Commensal Bacteria Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum Improves
      Resistance of Infant Mice to Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Streptococcus
      pneumoniae Superinfection.
AB  - Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum is a Gram-positive bacterium found as a
      member of the normal microbiota of the upper respiratory tract. It was suggested
      that C. pseudodiphtheriticum may be potentially used as a next-generation
      probiotic for nasal application, although no deep studies were performed in this
      regard. We hypothesized that human isolate C. pseudodiphtheriticum strain 090104
      is able to modulate the respiratory innate immune response and beneficially
      influence the resistance to viral and bacterial infections. Therefore, in the
      present study we investigated how the exposure of infant mice to nasal priming
      with viable or non-viable C. pseudodiphtheriticum 090104 influences the
      respiratory innate immune response triggered by Toll-like receptor (TLR)-3
      activation, the susceptibility to primary Respiratory Synsytial Virus (RSV)
      infection, and the resistance to secondary Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia. We
      demonstrated that the nasal priming with viable C. pseudodiphtheriticum 090104
      differentially modulated TLR3-mediated innate antiviral immune response in the
      respiratory tract of infant mice, improving their resistance to primary RSV
      infection, and secondary pneumococcal pneumonia. In association with the
      protection against RSV-pneumococcal superinfection, we found that viable C.
      pseudodiphtheriticum improved lung CD3+CD4+IFN-gamma+, and CD3+CD4+IL-10+ T cells
      as well as CD11c+SiglecF+IFN-beta+ alveolar macrophages. Of interest, non-viable
      bacteria did not have the same protective effect, suggesting that C.
      pseudodiphtheriticum colonization is needed for achieving its protective effect.
      In conclusion, we present evidence that nasal application of viable C.
      pseudodiphtheriticum could be thought as an alternative to boost defenses against
      RSV and secondary pneumococcal pneumonia, which should be further studied and
      validated in clinical trials. Due to the absence of a long-lasting immunity, re
      infection with RSV throughout life is common. Thus, a possible perspective use
      could be a seasonal application of a nasal probiotic spray to boost respiratory
      innate immunity in immunocompetent subjects.

PMID- 28878761
TI  - Effect of Different Antibiotic Chemotherapies on Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection
      In Vitro of Primary Human Corneal Fibroblast Cells.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of bacterial keratitis (BK) worldwide.
      Inappropriate or non-optimal antibiotic chemotherapy can lead to corneal
      perforation and rapid sight loss. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that P.
      aeruginosa strain PAO1 invades primary human corneal fibroblasts (hCFs) in vitro
      and persists intracellularly, despite chemotherapy with antibiotics used commonly
      to treat BK. In rank order, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and polymyxin B showed
      the highest activity against planktonic PAO1 growth (100% inhibitory
      concentration <=10 MUg/mL; 50% inhibitory concentration <=1 MUg/mL), followed by
      gentamicin and ofloxacin (100% inhibitory concentration <=50 MUg/mL; 50%
      inhibitory concentration <=10 MUg/mL). These bactericidal antibiotics (50-200
      MUg/mL concentrations) all killed PAO1 in the extracellular environment of
      infected hCF monolayers. By contrast, the bactericidal antibiotic cefuroxime and
      the bacteriostatic antibiotic chloramphenicol failed to sterilize both PAO1 broth
      cultures, even at a concentration of >=200 MUg/mL) and infected hCF monolayers.
      Statistically, all antibiotics were able to prevent LDH release from PAO1
      infected hCF monolayers at both concentrations tested. Intracellular Pseudomonas
      were significantly reduced (>99%, P < 0.05) following treatment with
      ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and ofloxacin, whereas gentamicin, polymyxin B and
      cefuroxime failed to clear intracellular bacteria over 24 h. Intracellular
      Pseudomonas infection was resistant to chloramphenicol, with hCF death observed
      by 9 h. Eventual growth of remaining intracellular Pseudomonas was observed in
      hCF after removal of all antibiotics, resulting in re-infection cycles and cell
      death by 48 h. All of the antibiotics reduced significantly (P < 0.05) IL-1beta
      secretion by hCF infected with a Multiplicity Of Infection (MOI) = 1 of PAO1.
      With higher MOI, no pro-inflammatory effects were observed with antibiotic
      treatment, expect with polymyxin B and ofloxacin, which induced significant
      increased IL-1beta secretion (P < 0.001). The findings from our study
      demonstrated that bactericidal and bacteriostatic antibiotics, routinely used to
      treat BK, failed to eradicate Pseudomonas infection of hCFs in vitro and that
      their bactericidal efficacies were influenced by the cellular location of the
      organism.

PMID- 28878762
TI  - The C-terminal Six Amino Acids of the FNT Channel FocA Are Required for Formate
      Translocation But Not Homopentamer Integrity.
AB  - FocA is the archetype of the pentameric formate-nitrite transporter (FNT)
      superfamily of channels, members of which translocate small organic and inorganic
      anions across the cytoplasmic membrane of microorganisms. The N- and C-termini of
      each protomer are cytoplasmically oriented. A Y-L-R motif is found immediately
      after transmembrane helix 6 at the C-terminus of FNT proteins related to FocA, or
      those with a role in formate translocation. Previous in vivo studies had revealed
      that formate translocation through FocA was controlled by interaction with the
      formate-producing glycyl-radical enzyme pyruvate formate-lyase (PflB) or its
      structural and functional homolog, TdcE. In this study we analyzed the effect on
      in vivo formate export and import, as well as on the stability of the
      homopentamer in the membrane, of successively removing amino acid residues from
      the C-terminus of FocA. Removal of up to five amino acids was without consequence
      for either formate translocation or oligomer stability. Removal of a sixth
      residue (R280) prevented formate uptake by FocA in a strain lacking PflB and
      significantly reduced, but did not prevent, formate export. Sensitivity to the
      toxic formate analog hypophosphite, which is also transported into the cell by
      FocA, was also relieved. Circular dichroism spectroscopy and blue-native PAGE
      analysis revealed, however, that this variant had near identical secondary and
      quaternary structural properties to those of native FocA. Interaction with the
      glycyl radical enzyme, TdcE, was also unaffected by removal of the C-terminal 6
      amino acid residues, indicating that impaired interaction with TdcE was not the
      reason for impaired formate translocation. Removal of a further residue (L279)
      severely restricted formate export, the stability of the protein and its ability
      to form homopentamers. Together, these studies revealed that the Y278-L279-R280
      motif at the C-terminus is essential for bidirectional formate translocation by
      FocA, but that L279 is both necessary and sufficient for homopentamer integrity.

PMID- 28878763
TI  - Experimental Hyalohyphomycosis by Purpureocillium lilacinum: Outcome of the
      Infection in C57BL/6 Murine Models.
AB  - Purpureocillium lilacinum is a filamentous, hyaline fungus considered an emerging
      pathogen in humans. The aim of our study was to evaluate the outcome of
      hyalohyphomycosis in C57BL/6 murine models inoculated with two clinical P.
      lilacinum isolates (S1 and S2). Each isolate was inoculated in mice randomly
      distributed in immunocompetent (CPT) and immunosuppressed (SPS) groups. Mice were
      evaluated at day 7, 21, and 45 after inoculation for histopathological analysis,
      recovery of fungal cells, and immunological studies. Histological analysis showed
      scarce conidia-like structures in lung tissue from CPT mice and a lot of fungal
      cells in SPS mice inoculated with S2 compared to mice inoculated with S1. The
      maximum recovery of fungal cells was seen in CPT mice inoculated with both
      isolates at day 7, but with mean significantly higher in those inoculated with S2
      isolate. Phenotypical characterization of T cells showed TCD8+ lymphocytes
      predominance over TCD4+ in immunosuppressed mice infected and control groups. We
      also observed higher percentages of the central and effector memory/effector
      phenotype in CPT mice infected with S2 strain, especially in TCD8+ in the initial
      period of infection. Regulatory T cells showed higher percentages in
      immunosuppressed, predominantly after the acute phase. Our results showed that
      the P. lilacinum is a fungus capable to cause damages in competent and
      immunosuppressed experimental hosts. Furthermore, S2 isolate seems to cause more
      damage to the experimental host and it was possible to identify different
      cellular subsets involved in the mice immune response.

PMID- 28878764
TI  - Molecular Cloning, Characterization, and Anti-avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli
      Innate Immune Response of the Cherry Valley Duck CIITA Gene.
AB  - Class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II) transactivator (CIITA) is a
      member of the pattern recognition receptor in cytoplasm, which is involved in
      host innate immune responses. In this study, the full-length cDNA of Cherry
      Valley duck CIITA (duCIITA) was cloned from the spleen of healthy Cherry Valley
      ducks for the first time. The CDs of duCIITA have 3648 bp and encode 1215 amino
      acids. The homology analysis of CIITAs amino acid sequence showed that the
      duCIITA has the highest identity with the Anas platyrhynchos (94.9%), followed by
      Gallus gallus and Meleagris gallopavo. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis
      indicated that duCIITA mRNA has a broad expression level in healthy Cherry Valley
      duck tissues. It was highly expressed in the lung and cerebellum, and lowly
      expressed in the rectum and esophagus. After the avian pathogenic Escherichia
      coli (APEC) O1K1 infection, the ducks exhibited the typical clinical symptoms,
      and a severe fibrinous exudate in the heart and liver surface was observed.
      Meanwhile, a significant up-regulation of duCIITA was detected in the infected
      liver. The inflammatory cytokines IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-8 have a significant up
      regulation in the infected liver, spleen and brain. In addition, knockdown of the
      duCIITA reduces antibacterial activity and inflammatory cytokine production of
      the duck embryo fibroblast cells. Our research is the first study of the cloning,
      tissue distribution, and antibacterial immune responses of duCIITA, and these
      findings imply that duCIITA was an important receptor, which was involved in the
      early stage of the antibacterial innate immune response to APEC O1K1 infection of
      Cherry Valley duck.

PMID- 28878765
TI  - Dyslipidemic Diet-Induced Monocyte "Priming" and Dysfunction in Non-Human
      Primates Is Triggered by Elevated Plasma Cholesterol and Accompanied by Altered
      Histone Acetylation.
AB  - Monocytes and the recruitment of monocyte-derived macrophages into sites of
      inflammation play a key role in atherogenesis and other chronic inflammatory
      diseases linked to cardiometabolic syndrome and obesity. Previous studies from
      our group have shown that metabolic stress promotes monocyte priming, i.e.,
      enhanced adhesion and accelerated chemotaxis of monocytes in response to
      chemokines, both in vitro and in dyslipidemic LDLR-/- mice. We also showed that
      metabolic stress-induced monocyte dysfunction is, at least to a large extent
      caused by the S-glutathionylation, inactivation, and subsequent degradation of
      mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1. Here, we analyzed the effects of
      a Western-style, dyslipidemic diet (DD), which was composed of high levels of
      saturated fat, cholesterol, and simple sugars, on monocyte (dys)function in non
      human primates (NHPs). We found that similar to mice, a DD enhances monocyte
      chemotaxis in NHP within 4 weeks, occurring concordantly with the onset of
      hypercholesterolemia but prior to changes in triglycerides, blood glucose,
      monocytosis, or changes in monocyte subset composition. In addition, we
      identified transitory decreases in the acetylation of histone H3 at the lysine
      residues 18 and 23 in metabolically primed monocytes, and we found that monocyte
      priming was correlated with the acetylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 after an 8
      week DD regimen. Our data show that metabolic stress promotes monocyte priming
      and hyper-chemotactic responses in NHP. The histone modifications accompanying
      monocyte priming in primates suggest a reprogramming of the epigenetic landscape,
      which may lead to dysregulated responses and functionalities in macrophages
      derived from primed monocytes that are recruited to sites of inflammation.

PMID- 28878766
TI  - Chronic Exposure to Malaria Is Associated with Inhibitory and Activation Markers
      on Atypical Memory B Cells and Marginal Zone-Like B Cells.
AB  - In persistent infections that are accompanied by chronic immune activation, such
      as human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, and malaria, there is an
      increased frequency of a phenotypically distinct subset of memory B cells lacking
      the classic memory marker CD27 and showing a reduced capacity to produce
      antibodies. However, critical knowledge gaps remain on specific B cell changes
      and immune adaptation in chronic infections. We hypothesized that expansion of
      atypical memory B cells (aMBCs) and reduction of activated peripheral marginal
      zone (MZ)-like B cells in constantly exposed individuals might be accompanied by
      phenotypic changes that would confer a tolerogenic profile, helping to establish
      tolerance to infections. To better understand malaria-associated phenotypic
      abnormalities on B cells, we analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 55
      pregnant women living in a malaria-endemic area of Papua Nueva Guinea and 9
      Spanish malaria-naive individuals using four 11-color flow cytometry panels. We
      assessed the expression of markers of B cell specificity (IgG and IgM),
      activation (CD40, CD80, CD86, b220, TACI, and CD150), inhibition (PD1, CD95, and
      CD71), and migration (CCR3, CXCR3, and CD62l). We found higher frequencies of
      active and resting aMBC and marked reduction of MZ-like B cells, although changes
      in absolute cell counts could not be assessed. Highly exposed women had higher
      PD1+-, CD95+-, CD40+-, CD71+-, and CD80+-activated aMBC frequencies than non
      exposed subjects. Malaria exposure increased frequencies of b220 and proapoptotic
      markers PD1 and CD95, and decreased expression of the activation marker TACI on
      MZ-like B cells. The increased frequencies of inhibitory and apoptotic markers on
      activated aMBCs and MZ-like B cells in malaria-exposed adults suggest an immune
      homeostatic mechanism for maintaining B cell development and function while
      simultaneously downregulating hyperreactive B cells. This mechanism would keep
      the B cell activation threshold high enough to control infection but impaired
      enough to tolerate it, preventing systemic inflammation.

PMID- 28878767
TI  - Human Blood CD1c+ Dendritic Cells Promote Th1 and Th17 Effector Function in
      Memory CD4+ T Cells.
AB  - Dendritic cells (DC) initiate the differentiation of CD4+ helper T cells into
      effector cells including Th1 and Th17 responses that play an important role in
      inflammation and autoimmune disease pathogenesis. In mice, Th1 and Th17 responses
      are regulated by different conventional (c) DC subsets, with cDC1 being the main
      producers of IL-12p70 and inducers of Th1 responses, while cDC2 produce IL-23 to
      promote Th17 responses. The role that human DC subsets play in memory CD4+ T cell
      activation is not known. This study investigated production of Th1 promoting
      cytokine IL-12p70, and Th17 promoting cytokines, IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-23, by
      human blood monocytes, CD1c+ DC, CD141+ DC, and plasmacytoid DC and examined
      their ability to induce Th1 and Th17 responses in memory CD4+ T cells. Human
      CD1c+ DC produced IL-12p70, IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-23 in response to R848
      combined with LPS or poly I:C. CD141+ DC were also capable of producing IL-12p70
      and IL-23 but were not as proficient as CD1c+ DC. Activated CD1c+ DC were endowed
      with the capacity to promote both Th1 and Th17 effector function in memory CD4+ T
      cells, characterized by high production of interferon-gamma, IL-17A, IL-17F, IL
      21, and IL-22. These findings support a role for CD1c+ DC in autoimmune
      inflammation where Th1/Th17 responses play an important role in disease
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28878768
TI  - Natural IgM and TLR Agonists Switch Murine Splenic Pan-B to "Regulatory" Cells
      That Suppress Ischemia-Induced Innate Inflammation via Regulating NKT-1 Cells.
AB  - Natural IgM anti-leukocyte autoantibodies (IgM-ALAs) inhibit inflammation by
      several mechanisms. Here, we show that pan-B cells and bone marrow-derived
      dendritic cells (BMDCs) are switched to regulatory cells when pretreated ex vivo
      with IgM. B cells are also switched to regulatory cells when pretreated ex vivo
      with CpG but not with LPS. Pre-emptive infusion of such ex vivo induced
      regulatory cells protects C57BL/6 mice from ischemia-induced acute kidney injury
      (AKI) via regulation of in vivo NKT-1 cells, which normally amplify the innate
      inflammatory response to DAMPS released after reperfusion of the ischemic kidney.
      Such ex vivo induced regulatory pan-B cells and BMDC express low CD1d and inhibit
      inflammation by regulating in vivo NKT-1 in the context of low-lipid antigen
      presentation and by a mechanism that requires costimulatory molecules, CD1d,
      PDL1/PD1, and IL10. Second, LPS and CpG have opposite effects on induction of
      regulatory activity in BMDC and B cells. LPS enhances regulatory activity of IgM
      pretreated BMDC but negates the IgM-induced regulatory activity in B cells, while
      CpG, with or without IgM pretreatment, induces regulatory activity in B cells but
      not in BMDC. Differences in the response of pan-B and dendritic cells to LPS and
      CpG, especially in the presence of IgM-ALA, may have relevance during infections
      and inflammatory disorders where there is an increased IgM-ALA and release of
      TLRs 4 and 9 ligands. Ex vivo induced regulatory pan-B cells could have
      therapeutic relevance as these easily available cells can be pre-emptively
      infused to prevent AKI that can occur during open heart surgery or in transplant
      recipients receiving deceased donor organs.

PMID- 28878769
TI  - Protective Role of Mast Cells in Primary Systemic Vasculitis: A Perspective.
AB  - Mast cells are important cells of the immune system. Although traditionally
      considered as key players in allergic and hypersensitivity reactions, emerging
      evidence suggests that mast cells have many complex roles in vascular disease.
      These include regulation of vasodilation, angiogenesis, activation of matrix
      metalloproteinases, apoptosis of smooth muscle cells, and activation of the renin
      angiotensin system. Mast cells are also known to play an immunomodulatory role
      via modulation of regulatory T-cell (Treg), macrophage and endothelial cell
      functions. This dual role of the mast cells is evident in myeloperoxidase anti
      neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-mouse model of glomerulonephritis in which mast
      cell deficiency worsens glomerulonephritis, whereas inhibition of mast cell
      degranulation is effective in abrogating the development of glomerulonephritis.
      Our previous work demonstrated that mast cell degranulation inhibits
      lipopolysaccharide-induced interleukin 6 (IL-6) production in mice. This effect
      was not seen in histamine-1-receptor knockout (H1R-/-) mice suggesting a role for
      histamine in IL-6 homeostasis. In addition, mast cell degranulation-mediated
      decrease in IL-6 production was associated with an upregulation of suppressor of
      cytokine signaling-1 protein in the aorta. We propose that mast cells regulate
      large artery inflammation through T-cells, shifting a primarily Th1 and Th17
      toward a Th2 response and leading to enhanced IL-10 production, activation Treg
      cells, and the inhibition of macrophage functions.

PMID- 28878770
TI  - Changes in Reactivity In Vitro of CD4+CD25+ and CD4+CD25- T Cell Subsets in
      Transplant Tolerance.
AB  - Transplant tolerance induced in adult animals is mediated by alloantigen-specific
      CD4+CD25+ T cells, yet in many models, proliferation of CD4+ T cells from hosts
      tolerant to specific-alloantigen in vitro is not impaired. To identify changes
      that may diagnose tolerance, changes in the patterns of proliferation of CD4+,
      CD4+CD25+, and CD4+CD25- T cells from DA rats tolerant to Piebald Virol Glaxo rat
      strain (PVG) cardiac allografts and from naive DA rats were examined.
      Proliferation of CD4+ T cells from both naive and tolerant hosts was similar to
      both PVG and Lewis stimulator cells. In mixed lymphocyte culture to PVG,
      proliferation of naive CD4+CD25- T cells was greater than naive CD4+ T cells. In
      contrast, proliferation of CD4+CD25- T cells from tolerant hosts to specific
      donor PVG was not greater than CD4+ T cells, whereas their response to Lewis and
      self-DA was greater than CD4+ T cells. Paradoxically, CD4+CD25+ T cells from
      tolerant hosts did not proliferate to PVG, but did to Lewis, whereas naive
      CD4+CD25+ T cells proliferate to both PVG and Lewis but not to self-DA. CD4+CD25+
      T cells from tolerant, but not naive hosts, expressed receptors for interferon
      (IFN)-gamma and IL-5 and these cytokines promoted their proliferation to specific
      alloantigen PVG but not to Lewis or self-DA. We identified several differences in
      the patterns of proliferation to specific-donor alloantigen between cells from
      tolerant and naive hosts. Most relevant is that CD4+CD25+ T cells from tolerant
      hosts failed to proliferate or suppress to specific donor in the absence of
      either IFN-gamma or IL-5. The proliferation to third-party and self of each cell
      population from tolerant and naive hosts was similar and not affected by IFN
      gamma or IL-5. Our findings suggest CD4+CD25+ T cells that mediate transplant
      tolerance depend on IFN-gamma or IL-5 from alloactivated Th1 and Th2 cells.

PMID- 28878771
TI  - Coordinated Role of Toll-Like Receptor-3 and Retinoic Acid-Inducible Gene-I in
      the Innate Response of Bovine Endometrial Cells to Virus.
AB  - Bovine herpesvirus-4 (BoHV-4) and bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) infect the
      uterus of cattle, often resulting in reduced fertility, or abortion of the fetus,
      respectively. Here, exposure of primary bovine endometrial cells to BoHV-4 or
      BVDV modulated the production of inflammatory mediators. Viral pathogen
      associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) are detected via pattern-recognition
      receptors (PRRs). However, the relative contribution of specific PRRs to innate
      immunity, during viral infection of the uterus, is unclear. Endometrial
      epithelial and stromal cells constitutively express the PRR Toll-like receptor
      (TLR)-3, but, the status of retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I), a sensor of
      cytosolic nucleic acids, is unknown. Primary endometrial epithelial and stromal
      cells had low expression of RIG-I, which was increased in stromal cells after 12
      h transfection with the TLR3 ligand Poly(I:C), a synthetic analog of double
      stranded RNA. Furthermore, short interfering RNA targeting TLR3, or interferon
      (IFN) regulatory transcription factor 3, an inducer of type I IFN transcription,
      reduced Poly(I:C)-induced RIG-I protein expression and reduced inflammatory
      mediator secretion from stromal cells. We conclude that antiviral defense of
      endometrial stromal cells requires coordinated recognition of PAMPs, initially
      via TLR3 and later via inducible RIG-I.

PMID- 28878773
TI  - Response: Commentary: The Scavenger Receptor SSc5D Physically Interacts with
      Bacteria through the SRCR-Containing N-Terminal Domain.

PMID- 28878772
TI  - Lactobacillus plantarum Strains Can Enhance Human Mucosal and Systemic Immunity
      and Prevent Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug Induced Reduction in T
      Regulatory Cells.
AB  - Orally ingested bacteria interact with intestinal mucosa and may impact immunity.
      However, insights in mechanisms involved are limited. In this randomized placebo
      controlled cross-over trial, healthy human subjects were given Lactobacillus
      plantarum supplementation (strain TIFN101, CIP104448, or WCFS1) or placebo for 7
      days. To determine whether L. plantarum can enhance immune response, we compared
      the effects of three stains on systemic and gut mucosal immunity, by among others
      assessing memory responses against tetanus toxoid (TT)-antigen, and mucosal gene
      transcription, in human volunteers during induction of mild immune stressor in
      the intestine, by giving a commonly used enteropathic drug, indomethacin [non
      steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)]. Systemic effects of the interventions
      were studies in peripheral blood samples. NSAID was found to induce a reduction
      in serum CD4+/Foxp3 regulatory cells, which was prevented by L. plantarum
      TIFN101. T-cell polarization experiments showed L. plantarum TIFN101 to enhance
      responses against TT-antigen, which indicates stimulation of memory responses by
      this strain. Cell extracts of the specific L. plantarum strains provoked
      responses after WCFS1 and TIFN101 consumption, indicating stimulation of immune
      responses against the specific bacteria. Mucosal immunomodulatory effects were
      studied in duodenal biopsies. In small intestinal mucosa, TIFN101 upregulated
      genes associated with maintenance of T- and B-cell function and antigen
      presentation. Furthermore, L. plantarum TIFN101 and WCFS1 downregulated
      immunological pathways involved in antigen presentation and shared downregulation
      of snoRNAs, which may suggest cellular destabilization, but may also be an
      indicator of tissue repair. Full sequencing of the L. plantarum strains revealed
      possible gene clusters that might be responsible for the differential biological
      effects of the bacteria on host immunity. In conclusion, the impact of oral
      consumption L. plantarum on host immunity is strain dependent and involves
      responses against bacterial cell components. Some strains may enhance specific
      responses against pathogens by enhancing antigen presentation and leukocyte
      maintenance in mucosa. In future studies and clinical settings, caution should be
      taken in selecting beneficial bacteria as closely related strains can have
      different effects. Our data show that specific bacterial strains can prevent
      immune stress induced by commonly consumed painkillers such as NSAID and can have
      enhancing beneficial effects on immunity of consumers by stimulating antigen
      presentation and memory responses.

PMID- 28878774
TI  - Goose Mx and OASL Play Vital Roles in the Antiviral Effects of Type I, II, and
      III Interferon against Newly Emerging Avian Flavivirus.
AB  - Duck Tembusu virus (TMUV), an emerging avian flavivirus, is highly pathogenic to
      birds and has the potential to become a zoonotic pathogen. Here, the molecular
      antiviral mechanism of goose type I, II, and III interferon (goIFNalpha,
      goIFNgamma, and goIFNlambda), the key components of the innate immune pathway,
      against TMUV was studied. We found that the transcription of goIFNs was obviously
      driven by TMUV infection in vivo and in vitro, and the titers and copies of TMUV
      were significantly reduced following treatment with goIFNs. The results of RNA
      sequencing (RNA-seq) revealed that goIFN stimulation triggered a set of
      differentially expressed genes at different levels and a positive regulatory
      feedback loop of IFN release against infection. Two important interferon
      stimulated genes, goMx and goOASL, were identified as workhorse IFNs in the
      inhibition of TMUV replication. The antiviral effects of goMx and goOASL were
      confirmed by transient overexpression and knockdown assay in vitro. Overall, our
      findings defined that goose Mx and OASL play key roles in the antiviral effects
      of type I, II, and III interferon against the TMUV. These results extend our
      understanding of the transcriptional profile of the goose IFN-mediated signaling
      pathway and provide insight into the antiviral mechanism of goIFNs against
      flavivirus infection.

PMID- 28878775
TI  - RTS,S/AS01E Malaria Vaccine Induces Memory and Polyfunctional T Cell Responses in
      a Pediatric African Phase III Trial.
AB  - Comprehensive assessment of cellular responses to the RTS,S/AS01E vaccine is
      needed to understand potential correlates and ultimately mechanisms of protection
      against malaria disease. Cellular responses recognizing the RTS,S/AS01E
      containing circumsporozoite protein (CSP) and Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)
      were assessed before and 1 month after primary vaccination by intracellular
      cytokine staining and 16-color flow cytometry in 105 RTS,S/AS01-vaccinated and 74
      rabies-vaccinated participants (controls) in a pediatric phase III trial in
      Africa. RTS,S/AS01E-vaccinated children had significantly higher frequencies of
      CSP- and HBsAg-specific CD4+ T cells producing IL-2, TNF-alpha, and CD40L and
      HBsAg-specific CD4+ T producing IFN-gamma and IL-17 than baseline and the control
      group. Vaccine-induced responses were identified in both central and effector
      memory (EM) compartments. EM CD4+ T cells expressing IL-4 and IL-21 were detected
      recognizing both vaccine antigens. Consistently higher response rates to both
      antigens in RTS,S/AS01E-vaccinated than comparator-vaccinated children were
      observed. RTS,S/AS01E induced polyfunctional CSP- and HBsAg-specific CD4+ T
      cells, with a greater degree of polyfunctionality in HBsAg responses. In
      conclusion, RTS,S/AS01E vaccine induces T cells of higher functional
      heterogeneity and polyfunctionality than previously characterized. Responses
      detected in memory CD4+ T cell compartments may provide correlates of RTS,S/AS01
      induced immunity and duration of protection in future correlates of immunity
      studies.

PMID- 28878776
TI  - Interferon-lambdas and Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells: A Close Relationship.
AB  - Interferon lambdas (IFNlambdas) are recently discovered cytokines acting not only
      at the first line of defense against viral infections but also at the mucosal
      barriers. In fact, a peculiar feature of the IFNlambda system is the restricted
      expression of the functional IFNlambdaR, which is known to be limited to
      epithelial cells and discrete leukocyte subsets, including the plasmacytoid
      dendritic cells (pDCs). In the latter case, current data, discussed in this
      minireview, indicate that IFNlambdas positively regulate various pDC functions,
      including pDC expression of interferon-dependent gene (ISG) mRNAs, production of
      cytokines, survival, and phenotype. Although the knowledge of the effects on pDCs
      by IFNlambdas is still incomplete, we speculate that the peculiar pDC
      responsiveness to IFNlambdas provide unique advantages for these innate immune
      cells, not only for viral infections but also during autoimmune disorders and/or
      tumors, in which pDC involvement and activation variably contribute to their
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28878777
TI  - Zika Virus Promotes Neuronal Cell Death in a Non-Cell Autonomous Manner by
      Triggering the Release of Neurotoxic Factors.
AB  - Zika virus (ZIKV) has recently caused a worldwide outbreak of infections
      associated with severe neurological complications, including microcephaly in
      infants born from infected mothers. ZIKV exhibits high neurotropism and promotes
      neuroinflammation and neuronal cell death. We have recently demonstrated that N
      methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) blockade by memantine prevents ZIKV-induced
      neuronal cell death. Here, we show that ZIKV induces apoptosis in a non-cell
      autonomous manner, triggering cell death of uninfected neurons by releasing
      cytotoxic factors. Neuronal cultures infected with ZIKV exhibit increased levels
      of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and
      glutamate. Moreover, infected neurons exhibit increased expression of GluN2B and
      augmented intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Blockade of GluN2B-containing NMDAR
      by ifenprodil normalizes Ca2+ levels and rescues neuronal cell death. Notably,
      TNF-alpha and IL-1beta blockade decreases ZIKV-induced Ca2+ flux through GluN2B
      containing NMDARs and reduces neuronal cell death, indicating that these
      cytokines might contribute to NMDAR sensitization and neurotoxicity. In addition,
      ZIKV-infected cultures treated with ifenprodil exhibits increased activation of
      the neuroprotective pathway including extracellular signal-regulated kinase and
      cAMP response element-binding protein, which may underlie ifenprodil-mediated
      neuroprotection. Together, our data shed some light on the neurotoxic mechanisms
      triggered by ZIKV and begin to elucidate how GluN2B-containing NMDAR blockade can
      prevent neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28878778
TI  - Multivariate Analysis As a Support for Diagnostic Flowcharts in Allergic
      Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis: A Proof-of-Concept Study.
AB  - Molecular-based allergy diagnosis yields multiple biomarker datasets. The
      classical diagnostic score for allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), a
      severe disease usually occurring in asthmatic patients and people with cystic
      fibrosis, comprises succinct immunological criteria formulated in 1977: total
      IgE, anti-Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) IgE, anti-Af "precipitins," and anti-Af IgG.
      Progress achieved over the last four decades led to multiple IgE and IgG(4) Af
      biomarkers available with quantitative, standardized, molecular-level reports.
      These newly available biomarkers have not been included in the current diagnostic
      criteria, either individually or in algorithms, despite persistent underdiagnosis
      of ABPA. Large numbers of individual biomarkers may hinder their use in clinical
      practice. Conversely, multivariate analysis using new tools may bring about a
      better chance of less diagnostic mistakes. We report here a proof-of-concept work
      consisting of a three-step multivariate analysis of Af IgE, IgG, and IgG4
      biomarkers through a combination of principal component analysis, hierarchical
      ascendant classification, and classification and regression tree multivariate
      analysis. The resulting diagnostic algorithms might show the way for novel
      criteria and improved diagnostic efficiency in Af-sensitized patients at risk for
      ABPA.

PMID- 28878779
TI  - Wip1 Deficiency Promotes Neutrophil Recruitment to the Infection Site and
      Improves Sepsis Outcome.
AB  - Sepsis is defined as an uncontrolled host response to infection, and no specific
      therapy or drugs have been used in clinical trials currently. Discovering new
      therapeutic targets for sepsis treatment has always been a central problem in the
      field of sepsis research. Neutrophils stand at the first line in controlling
      infection and have been identified to be dysregulated with impaired migration and
      antimicrobial function during sepsis. Based on our previous results on
      demonstrating wild-type p53-induced phosphatase 1 in controlling neutrophil
      development, we explored the possible relationship among Wip1, neutrophils, and
      sepsis in the present study. Wip1-deficient mice exhibited improved outcomes in
      cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis model with enhanced bacterial
      clearance and less multi-organ damage. The protection seen in Wip1 KO mice was
      mainly due to an increased accumulation of neutrophils in the primary infectious
      locus mediated by the decreased internalization of CXCR2, as well as by an
      increased antimicrobial function. Additionally, we also identified a negative
      correlation between CXCR2 and Wip1 in human neutrophils during sepsis.
      Pharmacological inhibition of Wip1 with its inhibitor can also prevent the
      internalization of CXCR2 on human neutrophils treated with lipopolysaccharides in
      vitro and significantly improve the outcome in CLP-induced sepsis model. Taken
      together, our results demonstrate that Wip1 can negatively regulate neutrophil
      migration and antimicrobial immunity during sepsis and inhibition of Wip1 can be
      a potential therapeutic target for sepsis treatment.

PMID- 28878780
TI  - P2Y6 Receptor Activation Promotes Inflammation and Tissue Remodeling in Pulmonary
      Fibrosis.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disease with a poor prognosis and very
      few available treatment options. The involvement of the purinergic receptor
      subtypes P2Y2 and P2X7 in fibrotic lung disease has been demonstrated recently.
      In this study, we investigated the role of P2Y6 receptors in the pathogenesis of
      IPF in humans and in the animal model of bleomycin-induced lung injury. P2Y6R
      expression was upregulated in lung structural cells but not in bronchoalveolar
      lavage (BAL) cells derived from IPF patients as well as in animals following
      bleomycin administration. Furthermore, BAL fluid levels of the P2Y6R agonist
      uridine-5'-diphosphate were elevated in animals with bleomycin-induced pulmonary
      fibrosis. Inflammation and fibrosis following bleomycin administration were
      reduced in P2Y6R-deficient compared to wild-type animals confirming the
      pathophysiological relevance of P2Y6R subtypes for fibrotic lung diseases.
      Experiments with bone marrow chimeras revealed the importance of P2Y6R expression
      on lung structural cells for pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis. Similar effects
      were obtained when animals were treated with the P2Y6R antagonist MRS2578. In
      vitro studies demonstrated that proliferation and secretion of the pro
      inflammatory/pro-fibrotic cytokine IL-6 by lung fibroblasts are P2Y6R-mediated
      processes. In summary, our results clearly demonstrate the involvement of P2Y6R
      subtypes in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Thus, blocking pulmonary P2Y6
      receptors might be a new target for the treatment of IPF.

PMID- 28878781
TI  - Calreticulin Release at an Early Stage of Death Modulates the Clearance by
      Macrophages of Apoptotic Cells.
AB  - Calreticulin (CRT) is a well-known "eat-me" signal harbored by dying cells
      participating in their recognition by phagocytes. CRT is also recognized to
      deeply impact the immune response to altered self-cells. In this study, we focus
      on the role of the newly exposed CRT following cell death induction. We show that
      if CRT increases at the outer face of the plasma membrane and is well recognized
      by C1q even when phosphatidylserine is not yet detected, CRT is also released in
      the surrounding milieu and is able to interact with phagocytes. We observed that
      exogenous CRT is endocytosed by THP1 macrophages through macropinocytosis and
      that internalization is associated with a particular phenotype characterized by
      an increase of cell spreading and migration, an upregulation of CD14, an increase
      of interleukin-8 release, and a decrease of early apoptotic cell uptake.
      Importantly, CRT-induced pro-inflammatory phenotype was confirmed on human
      monocytes-derived macrophages by the overexpression of CD40 and CD274, and we
      found that monocyte-derived macrophages exposed to CRT display a peculiar
      polarization notably associated with a downregulation of the histocompatibility
      complex of class II molecules hampering its description through the classical
      M1/M2 dichotomy. Altogether our results highlight the role of soluble CRT with
      strong possible consequences on the macrophage-mediated immune response to dying
      cell.

PMID- 28878782
TI  - In Planta Synthesis of Designer-Length Tobacco Mosaic Virus-Based Nano-Rods That
      Can Be Used to Fabricate Nano-Wires.
AB  - We have utilized plant-based transient expression to produce tobacco mosaic virus
      (TMV)-based nano-rods of predetermined lengths. This is achieved by expressing
      RNAs containing the TMV origin of assembly sequence (OAS) and the sequence of the
      TMV coat protein either on the same RNA molecule or on two separate constructs.
      We show that the length of the resulting nano-rods is dependent upon the length
      of the RNA that possesses the OAS element. By expressing a version of the TMV
      coat protein that incorporates a metal-binding peptide at its C-terminus in the
      presence of RNA containing the OAS we have been able to produce nano-rods of
      predetermined length that are coated with cobalt-platinum. These nano-rods have
      the properties of defined-length nano-wires that make them ideal for many
      developing bionanotechnological processes.

PMID- 28878785
TI  - Phenotypic Stability of Zea mays Grain Yield and Its Attributing Traits under
      Drought Stress.
AB  - Phenotypic stability under stress environment facilitate the fitness of genotype
      and opens new horizons to explore the cryptic genetic variation. Variation in
      tolerance to drought stress, a major grain yield constraint to global maize
      production, was identified, at the phenotypic and genotypic level. Here we found
      a prominent hybrid H9 that showed fitness over four growing seasons for grain
      yield under water stress conditions. Genotypic and phenotypic correlation of
      yield attributing traits over four seasons demonstrated that cobs per plant, 100
      seed weight, number of grains rows per cob, total dry matter, cob diameter had
      positive association (r2 = 0.3-0.9) to grain yield. The perturbation was found
      for chlorophyll content as it showed moderate to strong association (P < 0.01)
      over four seasons, might be due to environment or genotype dependent. Highest
      heritability (95%) and genetic advance (79%) for grain yield was found in H9 over
      four consecutive crop growing seasons. Combined analysis over four seasons showed
      that studied variables together explained 85% of total variation in dependent
      structure (grain yield) obtained by Principal component analysis. This
      significant finding is the best example of phenotypic stability of grain yield in
      H9 and made it best fitted for grain yield under drought stress scenario.
      Detailed genetic analysis of H9 will help us to identify significant loci and
      alleles that made H9 the best fitted and it could serve as a potential source to
      generate novel transgressive levels of tolerance for drought stress in
      arid/semiarid regions.

PMID- 28878784
TI  - Quantitative Disease Resistance under Elevated Temperature: Genetic Basis of New
      Resistance Mechanisms to Ralstonia solanacearum.
AB  - In the context of climate warming, plants will be facing an increased risk of
      epidemics as well as the emergence of new highly aggressive pathogen species.
      Although a permanent increase of temperature strongly affects plant immunity, the
      underlying molecular mechanisms involved are still poorly characterized. In this
      study, we aimed to uncover the genetic bases of resistance mechanisms that are
      efficient at elevated temperature to the Ralstonia solanacearum species complex
      (RSSC), one of the most harmful phytobacteria causing bacterial wilt. To start
      the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with natural
      variation of response to R. solanacearum, we adopted a genome wide association
      (GWA) mapping approach using 176 worldwide natural accessions of Arabidopsis
      thaliana inoculated with the R. solanacearum GMI1000 strain. Following two
      different procedures of root-inoculation (root apparatus cut vs. uncut), plants
      were grown either at 27 or 30 degrees C, with the latter temperature mimicking a
      permanent increase in temperature. At 27 degrees C, the RPS4/RRS1-R locus was the
      main QTL of resistance detected regardless of the method of inoculation used.
      This highlights the power of GWA mapping to identify functionally important loci
      for resistance to the GMI1000 strain. At 30 degrees C, although most of the
      accessions developed wilting symptoms, we identified several QTLs that were
      specific to the inoculation method used. We focused on a QTL region associated
      with response to the GMI1000 strain in the early stages of infection and, by
      adopting a reverse genetic approach, we functionally validated the involvement of
      a strictosidine synthase-like 4 (SSL4) protein that shares structural
      similarities with animal proteins known to play a role in animal immunity.

PMID- 28878783
TI  - Extra-Cellular But Extra-Ordinarily Important for Cells: Apoplastic Reactive
      Oxygen Species Metabolism.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS), by their very nature, are highly reactive, and it
      is no surprise that they can cause damage to organic molecules. In cells, ROS are
      produced as byproducts of many metabolic reactions, but plants are prepared for
      this ROS output. Even though extracellular ROS generation constitutes only a
      minor part of a cell's total ROS level, this fraction is of extraordinary
      importance. In an active apoplastic ROS burst, it is mainly the respiratory burst
      oxidases and peroxidases that are engaged, and defects of these enzymes can
      affect plant development and stress responses. It must be highlighted that there
      are also other less well-known enzymatic or non-enzymatic ROS sources. There is a
      need for ROS detoxification in the apoplast, and almost all cellular antioxidants
      are present in this space, but the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the
      concentration of low-mass antioxidants is very low. The low antioxidant
      efficiency in the apoplast allows ROS to accumulate easily, which is a condition
      for ROS signaling. Therefore, the apoplastic ROS/antioxidant homeostasis is
      actively engaged in the reception and reaction to many biotic and abiotic
      stresses.

PMID- 28878786
TI  - Functional Analysis of the Pepper Ethylene-Responsive Transcription Factor,
      CaAIEF1, in Enhanced ABA Sensitivity and Drought Tolerance.
AB  - Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone that plays a critical role in the response
      to environmental stress conditions, especially regulation of the stomatal
      aperture under water-deficit conditions. The signal transduction occurring during
      the stress response is initiated by transcription of defense-related genes. Here,
      we isolated the pepper ethylene-responsive transcription factor CaAIEF1 (Capsicum
      annuum ABA Induced ERF 1). The CaAIEF1 gene was significantly induced after
      exposure to ABA, drought, and high salinity. Fusion of the acidic domain in the C
      terminal region of CaAIEF1 to the GAL4 DNA-binding domain had a transactivation
      effect on the reporter gene in yeast. Further, the CaAIEF1-GFP fusion constructs
      localized in the nucleus. We used CaAIEF1-silenced plants and CaAIEF1
      overexpressing (OX) plants to elucidate the biological function of CaAIEF1 in
      response to ABA and drought stress. CaAIEF1-silenced pepper plants and CaAIEF1-OX
      Arabidopsis plants displayed drought-sensitive and -tolerant phenotypes,
      respectively, which were characterized by regulation of transpirational water
      loss and stomatal aperture. In drought stress condition, quantitative RT-PCR
      analyses revealed that the expression levels of pepper stress-related genes were
      higher in CaAIEF1-silenced pepper plants than control plants. Moreover,
      expression levels of Arabidopsis stress-related genes were significantly reduced
      in CaAIEF1-OX plants compared with control plants in drought stress condition.
      Our findings suggest that CaAIEF1 positively regulates the drought stress
      response and the ABA signaling.

PMID- 28878787
TI  - Planting Patterns and Deficit Irrigation Strategies to Improve Wheat Production
      and Water Use Efficiency under Simulated Rainfall Conditions.
AB  - The ridge furrow (RF) rainwater harvesting system is an efficient way to enhance
      rainwater accessibility for crops and increase winter wheat productivity in semi
      arid regions. However, the RF system has not been promoted widely in the semi
      arid regions, which primarily exist in remote hilly areas. To exploit its
      efficiency on a large-scale, the RF system needs to be tested at different
      amounts of simulated precipitation combined with deficit irrigation. Therefore,
      in during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 winter wheat growing seasons, we examined the
      effects of two planting patterns: (1) the RF system and (2) traditional flat
      planting (TF) with three deficit irrigation levels (150, 75, 0 mm) under three
      simulated rainfall intensity (1: 275, 2: 200, 3: 125 mm), and determined soil
      water storage profile, evapotranspiration rate, grain filling rate, biomass,
      grain yield, and net economic return. Over the two study years, the RF treatment
      with 200 mm simulated rainfall and 150 mm deficit irrigation (RF2150)
      significantly (P < 0.05) increased soil water storage in the depth of (200 cm);
      reduced ET at the field scale by 33%; increased total dry matter accumulation per
      plant; increased the grain-filling rate; and improved biomass (11%) and grain
      (19%) yields. The RF2150 treatment thus achieved a higher WUE (76%) and RIWP
      (21%) compared to TF. Grain-filling rates, grain weight of superior and inferior
      grains, and net economic profit of winter wheat responded positively to simulated
      rainfall and deficit irrigation under both planting patterns. The 200 mm
      simulated rainfall amount was more economical than other precipitation amounts,
      and led to slight increases in soil water storage, total dry matter per plant,
      and grain yield; there were no significant differences when the simulated
      rainfall was increased beyond 200 mm. The highest (12,593 Yuan ha-1) net income
      profit was attained using the RF system at 200 mm rainfall and 150 mm deficit
      irrigation, which also led to significantly higher grain yield, WUE, and RIWP
      than all other treatments. Thus, we recommend the RF2150 treatment for higher
      productivity, income profit, and improve WUE in the dry-land farming system of
      China.

PMID- 28878788
TI  - Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Candidate Genes for Female Sterility in
      Pomegranate Flowers.
AB  - Pomegranate has two types of flowers on the same plant: functional male flowers
      (FMF) and bisexual flowers (BF). BF are female-fertile flowers that can set
      fruits. FMF are female-sterile flowers that fail to set fruit and that eventually
      drop. The putative cause of pomegranate FMF female sterility is abnormal ovule
      development. However, the key stage at which the FMF pomegranate ovules become
      abnormal and the mechanism of regulation of pomegranate female sterility remain
      unknown. Here, we studied ovule development in FMF and BF, using scanning
      electron microscopy to explore the key stage at which ovule development was
      terminated and then analyzed genes differentially expressed (differentially
      expressed genes - DEGs) between FMF and BF to investigate the mechanism
      responsible for pomegranate female sterility. Ovule development in FMF ceased
      following the formation of the inner integument primordium. The key stage for the
      termination of FMF ovule development was when the bud vertical diameter was 5.0
      13.0 mm. Candidate genes influencing ovule development may be crucial factors in
      pomegranate female sterility. INNER OUTER (INO/YABBY4) (Gglean016270) and
      AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) homolog genes (Gglean003340 and Gglean011480), which regulate
      the development of the integument, showed down-regulation in FMF at the key stage
      of ovule development cessation (ATNSII). Their upstream regulator genes, such as
      AGAMOUS-like (AG-like) (Gglean028014, Gglean026618, and Gglean028632) and
      SPOROCYTELESS (SPL) homolog genes (Gglean005812), also showed differential
      expression pattern between BF and FMF at this key stage. The differential
      expression of the ethylene response signal genes, ETR (ethylene-resistant)
      (Gglean022853) and ERF1/2 (ethylene-responsive factor) (Gglean022880), between
      FMF and BF indicated that ethylene signaling may also be an important factor in
      the development of pomegranate female sterility. The increase in BF observed
      after spraying with ethephon supported this interpretation. Results from qRT-PCR
      confirmed the findings of the transcriptomic analysis.

PMID- 28878790
TI  - Optimum Temperatures for Net Primary Productivity of Three Tropical Seagrass
      Species.
AB  - Rising sea water temperature will play a significant role in responses of the
      world's seagrass meadows to climate change. In this study, we investigated
      seasonal and latitudinal variation (spanning more than 1,500 km) in seagrass
      productivity, and the optimum temperatures at which maximum photosynthesis and
      net productivity (for the leaf and the whole plant) occurs, for three seagrass
      species (Cymodocea serrulata, Halodule uninervis, and Zostera muelleri). To
      obtain whole plant net production, photosynthesis, and respiration rates of
      leaves and the root/rhizome complex were measured using oxygen-sensitive optodes
      in closed incubation chambers at temperatures ranging from 15 to 43 degrees C.
      The temperature-dependence of photosynthesis and respiration was fitted to
      empirical models to obtain maximum metabolic rates and thermal optima. The
      thermal optimum (Topt) for gross photosynthesis of Z. muelleri, which is more
      commonly distributed in sub-tropical to temperate regions, was 31 degrees C. The
      Topt for photosynthesis of the tropical species, H. uninervis and C. serrulata,
      was considerably higher (35 degrees C on average). This suggests that seagrass
      species are adapted to water temperature within their distributional range;
      however, when comparing among latitudes and seasons, thermal optima within a
      species showed limited acclimation to ambient water temperature (Topt varied by 1
      degrees C in C. serrulata and 2 degrees C in H. uninervis, and the variation did
      not follow changes in ambient water temperature). The Topt for gross
      photosynthesis were higher than Topt calculated from plant net productivity,
      which includes above- and below-ground respiration for Z. muelleri (24 degrees C)
      and H. uninervis (33 degrees C), but remained unchanged at 35 degrees C in C.
      serrulata. Both estimated plant net productivity and Topt are sensitive to the
      proportion of below-ground biomass, highlighting the need for consideration of
      below- to above-ground biomass ratios when applying thermal optima to other
      meadows. The thermal optimum for plant net productivity was lower than ambient
      summer water temperature in Z. muelleri, indicating likely contemporary heat
      stress. In contrast, thermal optima of H. uninervis and C. serrulata exceeded
      ambient water temperature. This study found limited capacity to acclimate: thus
      the thermal optima can forewarn of both the present and future vulnerability to
      ocean warming during periods of elevated water temperature.

PMID- 28878789
TI  - Effect of Co-segregating Markers on High-Density Genetic Maps and Prediction of
      Map Expansion Using Machine Learning Algorithms.
AB  - Advances in sequencing and genotyping methods have enable cost-effective
      production of high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers,
      making them the choice for linkage mapping. As a result, many laboratories have
      developed high-throughput SNP assays and built high-density genetic maps.
      However, the number of markers may, by orders of magnitude, exceed the resolution
      of recombination for a given population size so that only a minority of markers
      can accurately be ordered. Another issue attached to the so-called 'large p,
      small n' problem is that high-density genetic maps inevitably result in many
      markers clustering at the same position (co-segregating markers). While there are
      a number of related papers, none have addressed the impact of co-segregating
      markers on genetic maps. In the present study, we investigated the effects of co
      segregating markers on high-density genetic map length and marker order using
      empirical data from two populations of wheat, Mohawk * Cocorit (durum wheat) and
      Norstar * Cappelle Desprez (bread wheat). The maps of both populations consisted
      of 85% co-segregating markers. Our study clearly showed that excess of co
      segregating markers can lead to map expansion, but has little effect on markers
      order. To estimate the inflation factor (IF), we generated a total of 24,473
      linkage maps (8,203 maps for Mohawk * Cocorit and 16,270 maps for Norstar *
      Cappelle Desprez). Using seven machine learning algorithms, we were able to
      predict with an accuracy of 0.7 the map expansion due to the proportion of co
      segregating markers. For example in Mohawk * Cocorit, with 10 and 80% co
      segregating markers the length of the map inflated by 4.5 and 16.6%,
      respectively. Similarly, the map of Norstar * Cappelle Desprez expanded by 3.8
      and 11.7% with 10 and 80% co-segregating markers. With the increasing number of
      markers on SNP-chips, the proportion of co-segregating markers in high-density
      maps will continue to increase making map expansion unavoidable. Therefore, we
      suggest developers improve linkage mapping algorithms for efficient analysis of
      high-throughput data. This study outlines a practical strategy to estimate the IF
      due to the proportion of co-segregating markers and outlines a method to scale
      the length of the map accordingly.

PMID- 28878791
TI  - Characterization and Mapping of Leaf Rust and Stripe Rust Resistance Loci in
      Hexaploid Wheat Lines UC1110 and PI610750 under Mexican Environments.
AB  - Growing resistant wheat varieties is a key method of minimizing the extent of
      yield losses caused by the globally important wheat leaf rust (LR) and stripe
      rust (YR) diseases. In this study, a population of 186 F8 recombinant inbred
      lines (RILs) derived from a cross between a synthetic wheat derivative (PI610750)
      and an adapted common wheat line (cv. "UC1110") were phenotyped for LR and YR
      response at both seedling and adult plant stages over multiple seasons. Using a
      genetic linkage map consisting of single sequence repeats and diversity arrays
      technology markers, in combination with inclusive composite interval mapping
      analysis, we detected a new LR adult plant resistance (APR) locus, QLr.cim-2DS,
      contributed by UC1110. One co-located resistance locus to both rusts, QLr.cim
      3DC/QYr.cim-3DC, and the known seedling resistance gene Lr26 were also mapped.
      QLr.cim-2DS and QLr.cim-3DC showed a marginally significant interaction for LR
      resistance in the adult plant stage. In addition, two previously reported YR APR
      loci, QYr.ucw-3BS and Yr48, were found to exhibit stable performances in rust
      environments in both Mexico and the United States and showed a highly significant
      interaction in the field. Yr48 was also observed to confer intermediate seedling
      resistance against Mexican YR races, thus suggesting it should be re-classified
      as an all-stage resistance gene. We also identified 5 and 2 RILs that possessed
      all detected YR and LR resistance loci, respectively. With the closely linked
      molecular markers reported here, these RILs could be used as donors for multiple
      resistance loci to both rusts in wheat breeding programs.

PMID- 28878792
TI  - UV Screening in Native and Non-native Plant Species in the Tropical Alpine:
      Implications for Climate Change-Driven Migration of Species to Higher Elevations.
AB  - Ongoing changes in Earth's climate are shifting the elevation ranges of many
      plant species with non-native species often experiencing greater expansion into
      higher elevations than native species. These climate change-induced shifts in
      distributions inevitably expose plants to novel biotic and abiotic environments,
      including altered solar ultraviolet (UV)-B (280-315 nm) radiation regimes. Do the
      greater migration potentials of non-native species into higher elevations imply
      that they have more effective UV-protective mechanisms than native species? In
      this study, we surveyed leaf epidermal UV-A transmittance (TUV A) in a diversity
      of plant species representing different growth forms to test whether native and
      non-native species growing above 2800 m elevation on Mauna Kea, Hawaii differed
      in their UV screening capabilities. We further compared the degree to which TUV A
      varied along an elevation gradient in the native shrub Vaccinium reticulatum and
      the introduced forb Verbascum thapsus to evaluate whether these species differed
      in their abilities to adjust their levels of UV screening in response to
      elevation changes in UV-B. For plants growing in the Mauna Kea alpine/upper
      subalpine, we found that adaxial TUV A, measured with a UVA-PAM fluorometer,
      varied significantly among species but did not differ between native (mean =
      6.0%; n = 8) and non-native (mean = 5.8%; n = 11) species. When data were pooled
      across native and non-native taxa, we also found no significant effect of growth
      form on TUV A, though woody plants (shrubs and trees) were represented solely by
      native species whereas herbaceous growth forms (grasses and forbs) were dominated
      by non-native species. Along an elevation gradient spanning 2600-3800 m, TUV A
      was variable (mean range = 6.0-11.2%) and strongly correlated with elevation and
      relative biologically effective UV-B in the exotic V. thapsus; however, TUV A was
      consistently low (3%) and did not vary with elevation in the native V.
      reticulatum. Results indicate that high levels of UV protection occur in both
      native and non-native species in this high UV-B tropical alpine environment, and
      that flexibility in UV screening is a mechanism employed by some, but not all
      species to cope with varying solar UV-B exposures along elevation gradients.

PMID- 28878793
TI  - Activation of ABA Receptors Gene GhPYL9-11A Is Positively Correlated with Cotton
      Drought Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis.
AB  - The sensitivity to abscisic acid (ABA) by its receptors, pyrabactin resistance
      like proteins (PYLs), is considered a most important factor in activating the ABA
      signal pathway in response to abiotic stress. However, it is still unknown which
      PYL is the crucial ABA receptor mediating response to drought stress in cotton
      (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Here, we reported the identification and
      characterization of highly induced ABA receptor GhPYL9-11A in response to drought
      in cotton. It is observed that GhPYL9-11A was highly induced by ABA treatment.
      GhPYL9-11A binds to protein phosphatase 2Cs (PP2Cs) in an ABA-independent manner.
      Moreover, the GhPYL-11A-PP2C interactions are partially disrupted by mutations,
      proline (P84) and histidine (H111), in the gate-latch region. Transgenic
      Arabidopsis overexpressing GhPYL9-11A plants were hypersensitive to ABA during
      seed germination and early seedling stage. Further, the increased in root growth
      and up regulation of drought stress-related genes in transgenic Arabidopsis as
      compared to wild type confirmed the potential role of GhPYL9-11A in abiotic
      stress tolerance. Consistently, the expression level of GhPYL9-11A is on average
      higher in drought-tolerant cotton cultivars than in drought-sensitive cottons
      under drought treatment. In conclusion, the manipulation of GhPYL9-11A expression
      could be a useful strategy for developing drought-tolerant cotton cultivars.

PMID- 28878794
TI  - A Tau Class Glutathione-S-Transferase is Involved in Trans-Resveratrol Transport
      Out of Grapevine Cells.
AB  - Vitis vinifera cell cultures respond to pathogens and elicitors by synthesizing
      and extracellularly accumulating stilbenoid phytoalexins. Large amounts of trans
      resveratrol (t-R) are produced when a cell culture is elicited with methylated
      cyclodextrins (MBCD), either alone or combined with methyl jasmonate (MeJA). t-R
      transport to the extracellular medium, which represents the apoplastic space,
      would place this antifungal defense right in the battlefield to efficiently fight
      against pathogen attack. Yet despite their physiological relevance, these
      transport pathways are mostly unknown. A broad hypothesis-free DIGE-based
      proteomic experiment of a temporal series of elicited grapevine cell cultures was
      performed to explore the expression profiles of t-R biosynthetic proteins and
      other co-expressing proteins potentially involved in such a cell response. A
      correlation between two tau class glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) with several
      stilbene synthase and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase isoforms, and with the t-R
      metabolite itself, was found and further assessed by a qRT-PCR gene expression
      analysis. The best candidate, GSTU-2, was cloned from the cDNA of the MBCD + MeJA
      elicited grapevine cells and used for Agrobacterium-mediated grapevine cell
      transformation. The non-elicited lines that overexpressed GSTU-2 displayed an
      extracellular t-R accumulating phenotype, but stabilization of t-R required the
      addition to culture medium of adsorbent compounds, e.g., PVP or beta
      cyclodextrin. The wild-type cell cultures accumulated no t-R, not even in the
      presence of adsorbents. The transient expression of the GSTU-2-GFP fusion
      proteins in grapevine cells showed localisation in the plasma membrane, and the
      immunoprecipitation of HA-tagged GSTU-2 revealed its interaction with HIR, a
      plasma membrane-bound protein. These findings are consistent with a functional
      role in transport. This is the first report providing several pieces of
      experimental evidence for the involvement of a specific tau class GST in t-R
      transport to the extracellular medium.

PMID- 28878795
TI  - Organization and Regulation of Soybean SUMOylation System under Abiotic Stress
      Conditions.
AB  - Covalent attachment of the small ubiquitin-related modifier, SUMO, to substrate
      proteins plays a significant role in plants under stress conditions, which can
      alter target proteins' function, location, and protein-protein interactions.
      Despite this importance, information about SUMOylation in the major legume crop,
      soybean, remains obscure. In this study, we performed a bioinformatics analysis
      of the entire soybean genome and identified 40 genes belonged to six families
      involved in a cascade of enzymatic reactions in soybean SUMOylation system. The
      cis-acting elements analysis revealed that promoters of SUMO pathway genes
      contained different combinations of stress and development-related cis-regulatory
      elements. RNA-seq data analysis showed that SUMO pathway components exhibited
      versatile tissue-specific expression patterns, indicating coordinated functioning
      during plant growth and development. qRT-PCR analysis of 13 SUMO pathway members
      indicated that majority of the SUMO pathway members were transcriptionally up
      regulated by NaCl, heat and ABA stimuli during the 24 h period of treatment.
      Furthermore, SUMOylation dynamics in soybean roots under abiotic stress treatment
      were analyzed by western blot, which were characterized by regulation of
      SUMOylated proteins. Collectively, this study defined the organization of the
      soybean SUMOylation system and implied an essential function for SUMOylation in
      soybean abiotic stress responses.

PMID- 28878796
TI  - Autophagy Is Rapidly Induced by Salt Stress and Is Required for Salt Tolerance in
      Arabidopsis.
AB  - Salinity stress challenges agriculture and food security globally. Upon salt
      stress, plant growth slows down, nutrients are recycled, osmolytes are produced,
      and reallocation of Na+ takes place. Since autophagy is a high-throughput
      degradation pathway that contributes to nutrient remobilization in plants, we
      explored the involvement of autophagic flux in salt stress response of
      Arabidopsis with various approaches. Confocal microscopy of GFP-ATG8a in
      transgenic Arabidopsis showed that autophagosome formation is induced shortly
      after salt treatment. Immunoblotting of ATG8s and the autophagy receptor NBR1
      confirmed that the level of autophagy peaks within 30 min of salt stress, and
      then settles to a new homeostasis in Arabidopsis. Such an induction is absent in
      mutants defective in autophagy. Within 3 h of salt treatment, accumulation of
      oxidized proteins is alleviated in the wild-type; however, such a reduction is
      not seen in atg2 or atg7. Consistently, the Arabidopsis atg mutants are
      hypersensitive to both salt and osmotic stresses, and plants overexpressing ATG8
      perform better than the wild-type in germination assays. Quantification of
      compatible osmolytes further confirmed that the autophagic flux contributes to
      salt stress adaptation. Imaging of intracellular Na+ revealed that autophagy is
      required for Na+ sequestration in the central vacuole of root cortex cells
      following salt treatment. These data suggest that rapid protein turnover through
      autophagy is a prerequisite for salt stress tolerance in Arabidopsis.

PMID- 28878797
TI  - Overexpression of Hevea brasiliensis HbICE1 Enhances Cold Tolerance in
      Arabidopsis.
AB  - Rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) were successfully introduced to south China in
      the 1950s on a large-scale; however, due to the climate, are prone to cold injury
      during the winter season. Increased cold tolerance is therefore an important
      goal, yet the mechanism underlying rubber tree responses to cold stress remains
      unclear. This study carried out functional characterization of HbICE1 (Inducer of
      CBF Expression 1) from H. brasiliensis. A nucleic protein with typical features
      of ICEs, HbICE1 was able to bind to MYC recognition sites and had strong
      transactivation activity. HbICE1 was constitutively expressed in all tested
      tissues, with highest levels in the bark, and was up-regulated when subjected to
      various stresses including cold, dehydration, salinity and wounding. When
      overexpressed in Arabidopsis, 35S::HbICE1 plants showed enhanced cold resistance
      with increased proline content, reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) metabolism and
      electrolyte leakage, and decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation.
      Expression of the cold responsive genes (COR15A, COR47, RD29A, and KIN1) was also
      significantly promoted in 35S::HbICE1 compared to wild-type plants under cold
      stress. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis showed that cold treatment
      changed genes expression profiles involved in many biological processes and
      phytohormones perception and transduction. Ethylene, JA, ABA, as well as ICE-CBF
      signaling pathways might work synergistically to cope with cold tolerance in
      rubber tree. Taken together, these findings suggest that HbICE1 is a member of
      the ICE gene family and a positive regulator of cold tolerance in H.
      brasiliensis.

PMID- 28878798
TI  - Characterization of Genetic Basis on Synergistic Interactions between Root
      Architecture and Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Soybean.
AB  - Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr] is an important legume crop and its yield largely
      depends on root architecture (RA) and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF).
      However, the relationship between RA and BNF, and its genetics behind remain
      unclear. Here, two soybean genotypes contrasting in RA and their 175 F9:11
      recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were evaluated in field. The shallow-root parent,
      JD12, had better nodulation and higher yield than the deep-root parent, NF58.
      Strong correlations between shoot dry weight (SDW) and RA or BNF traits existed
      in the RILs, and the shallow-root group had more and heavier nodules, as well as
      higher SDW. After inoculating with rhizobia, roots became shallower and bigger,
      showing strong synergistic interactions between RA and BNF. In total, 70 QTLs
      were identified for the 21 tested traits. Among them, qBNF-RA-C2, qBNF-RA-O, and
      qBNF-RA-B1, were newly identified QTLs for BNF and/or RA traits in soybean, which
      co-located with the QTLs for SDW detected presently, and with the QTLs for yield
      identified previously. The results together suggest that there are synergistic
      interactions between RA and BNF, and the QTLs identified here could be used for
      breeding new soybean varieties with higher yields through optimization of RA
      traits and BNF capacity.

PMID- 28878799
TI  - Integration of Physical, Genetic, and Cytogenetic Mapping Data for Cellulose
      Synthase (CesA) Genes in Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.).
AB  - Flax, Linum usitatissimum L., is a valuable multi-purpose plant, and currently,
      its genome is being extensively investigated. Nevertheless, mapping of genes in
      flax genome is still remaining a challenging task. The cellulose synthase (CesA)
      multigene family involving in the process of cellulose synthesis is especially
      important for metabolism of this fiber crop. For the first time, fluorescent in
      situ hybridization (FISH)-based chromosomal localization of the CesA conserved
      fragment (KF011584.1), 5S, and 26S rRNA genes was performed in landrace, oilseed,
      and fiber varieties of L. usitatissimum. Intraspecific polymorphism in
      chromosomal distribution of KF011584.1 and 5S DNA loci was revealed, and the
      generalized chromosome ideogram was constructed. Using BLAST analysis, available
      data on physical/genetic mapping and also whole-genome sequencing of flax,
      localization of KF011584.1, 45S, and 5S rRNA sequences on genomic scaffolds, and
      their anchoring to the genetic map were conducted. The alignment of the results
      of FISH and BLAST analyses indicated that KF011584.1 fragment revealed on
      chromosome 3 could be anchored to linkage group (LG) 11. The common LG for 45S
      and 5S rDNA was not found probably due to the polymorphic localization of 5S rDNA
      on chromosome 1. Our findings indicate the complexity of integration of physical,
      genetic, and cytogenetic mapping data for multicopy gene families in plants.
      Nevertheless, the obtained results can be useful for future progress in
      constructing of integrated physical/genetic/cytological maps in L. usitatissimum
      which are essential for flax breeding.

PMID- 28878800
TI  - Transcriptome Assembly and Systematic Identification of Novel Cytochrome P450s in
      Taxus chinensis.
AB  - Taxus spp. is a highly valuable medicinal plant with multiple pharmacological
      effects on various cancers. Cytochrome P450s (CYP450s) play important roles in
      the biosynthesis of active compounds in Taxus spp., such as the famous
      diterpenoid, Taxol. However, some specific CYP450 enzymes involved in the
      biosynthesis of Taxol remain unknown, and the systematic identification of
      CYP450s in Taxus has not been reported. In this study, 118 full-length and 175
      partial CYP450 genes were identified in Taxus chinensis transcriptomes. The 118
      full-length genes were divided into 8 clans and 29 families. The CYP71 clan
      included all A-type genes (52) belonging to 11 families. The other seven clans
      possessed 18 families containing 66 non-A-type genes. Two new gymnosperm-specific
      families were discovered, and were named CYP864 and CYP947 respectively. Protein
      sequence alignments revealed that all of the T. chinensis CYP450s hold distinct
      conserved domains. The expression patterns of all 118 CYP450 genes during the
      long-time subculture and MeJA elicitation were analyzed. Additionally, the
      expression levels of 15 novel CYP725 genes in different Taxus species were
      explored. Considering all the evidence, 6 CYP725s were identified to be
      candidates for Taxol biosynthesis. The cis-regulatory elements involved in the
      transcriptional regulation were also identified in the promoter regions of
      CYP725s. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the CYP450 gene family
      in T. chinensis and can provide important insights into the functional gene
      studies of Taxol biosynthesis.

PMID- 28878802
TI  - Development of Highly Informative Genome-Wide Single Sequence Repeat Markers for
      Breeding Applications in Sesame and Construction of a Web Resource: SisatBase.
AB  - The sequencing of the full nuclear genome of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) provides
      the platform for functional analyses of genome components and their application
      in breeding programs. Although the importance of microsatellites markers or
      simple sequence repeats (SSR) in crop genotyping, genetics, and breeding
      applications is well established, only a little information exist concerning SSRs
      at the whole genome level in sesame. In addition, SSRs represent a suitable
      marker type for sesame molecular breeding in developing countries where it is
      mainly grown. In this study, we identified 138,194 genome-wide SSRs of which
      76.5% were physically mapped onto the 13 pseudo-chromosomes. Among these SSRs, up
      to three primers pairs were supplied for 101,930 SSRs and used to in silico
      amplify the reference genome together with two newly sequenced sesame accessions.
      A total of 79,957 SSRs (78%) were polymorphic between the three genomes thereby
      suggesting their promising use in different genomics-assisted breeding
      applications. From these polymorphic SSRs, 23 were selected and validated to have
      high polymorphic potential in 48 sesame accessions from different growing areas
      of Africa. Furthermore, we have developed an online user-friendly database,
      SisatBase (http://www.sesame-bioinfo.org/SisatBase/), which provides free access
      to SSRs data as well as an integrated platform for functional analyses.
      Altogether, the reference SSR and SisatBase would serve as useful resources for
      genetic assessment, genomic studies, and breeding advancement in sesame,
      especially in developing countries.

PMID- 28878801
TI  - CRISPR/Cas9: A Practical Approach in Date Palm Genome Editing.
AB  - The genetic modifications through breeding of crop plants have long been used to
      improve the yield and quality. However, precise genome editing (GE) could be a
      very useful supplementary tool for improvement of crop plants by targeted genome
      modifications. Various GE techniques including ZFNs (zinc finger nucleases),
      TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases), and most recently
      clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 (CRISPR
      associated protein 9)-based approaches have been successfully employed for
      various crop plants including fruit trees. CRISPR/Cas9-based approaches hold
      great potential in GE due to their simplicity, competency, and versatility over
      other GE techniques. However, to the best of our knowledge no such genetic
      improvement has ever been developed in date palm-an important fruit crop in Oasis
      agriculture. The applications of CRISPR/Cas9 can be a challenging task in date
      palm GE due to its large and complex genome, high rate of heterozygosity and
      outcrossing, in vitro regeneration and screening of mutants, high frequency of
      single-nucleotide polymorphism in the genome and ultimately genetic instability.
      In this review, we addressed the potential application of CRISPR/Cas9-based
      approaches in date palm GE to improve the sustainable date palm production. The
      availability of the date palm whole genome sequence has made it feasible to use
      CRISPR/Cas9 GE approach for genetic improvement in this species. Moreover, the
      future prospects of GE application in date palm are also addressed in this
      review.

PMID- 28878803
TI  - Purification of Maize Nucleotide Pyrophosphatase/Phosphodiesterase Casts Doubt on
      the Existence of Zeatin Cis-Trans Isomerase in Plants.
AB  - Almost 25 years ago, an enzyme named zeatin cis-trans isomerase from common bean
      has been described by Bassil et al. (1993). The partially purified enzyme
      required an external addition of FAD and dithiothreitol for the conversion of cis
      zeatin to its trans- isomer that occurred only under light. Although an existence
      of this important enzyme involved in the metabolism of plant hormones cytokinins
      was generally accepted by plant biologists, the corresponding protein and
      encoding gene have not been identified to date. Based on the original paper, we
      purified and identified an enzyme from maize, which shows the described zeatin
      cis-trans isomerase activity. The enzyme belongs to nucleotide
      pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase family, which is well characterized in mammals,
      but less known in plants. Further experiments with the recombinant maize enzyme
      obtained from yeast expression system showed that rather than the catalytic
      activity of the enzyme itself, a non-enzymatic flavin induced photoisomerization
      is responsible for the observed zeatin cis-trans interconversion in vitro. An
      overexpression of the maize nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase gene led
      to decreased FAD and increased FMN and riboflavin contents in transgenic
      Arabidopsis plants. However, neither contents nor the ratio of zeatin isomers was
      altered suggesting that the enzyme is unlikely to catalyze the interconversion of
      zeatin isomers in vivo. Using enhanced expression of a homologous gene,
      functional nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase was also identified in
      rice.

PMID- 28878804
TI  - The Latex Protein MLX56 from Mulberry (Morus multicaulis) Protects Plants against
      Insect Pests and Pathogens.
AB  - Biotic stresses are major constraints limiting the leaf quality and productivity
      of mulberry. MLX56 is a unique chitin-binding protein isolated from Shin-Ichinose
      (Morus alba) latex that displays toxicity against lepidopteran caterpillars. In
      this study, the full-length cDNA encoding MLX56 was isolated from Husang 32 (M.
      multicaulis) and designated HMLX56. Amino acid sequence analysis and protein
      modeling of three MLX56 proteins showed that they were highly conserved among
      Morus species. Tissue expression pattern analysis showed that the HMLX56 gene was
      strongly expressed in mulberry bark and leaves but only slightly expressed in
      fruits. In addition, analysis of GUS expression indicated that the promoter of
      HMLX56 showed higher transcriptional activity along the vascular strands, and its
      activity can be regulated by various environmental factors. Like the MLX56
      protein from M. alba, the HMLX56 protein showed toxicity to Plutella xylostella.
      Moreover, when the HMLX56 gene was ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis, the
      transgenic plants showed enhanced resistance to aphids, the fungal pathogen
      Botrytis cinerea and the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato
      DC3000. Our data suggest that the HMLX56 protein has a lectin-like molecular
      structure consisting of two hevein-like chitin-binding domains which provide not
      only chitin-binding activities but also other mechanisms of defense. The
      information provided here improves our understanding of the potential functions
      and defense mechanisms of MLX56 proteins, enabling in-depth functional analysis
      of latex exudates and perhaps facilitating mulberry genetic improvement in the
      future.

PMID- 28878805
TI  - Corrigendum: Transcriptomic Identification of Drought-Related Genes and SSR
      Markers in Sudan Grass Based on RNA-Seq.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 687 in vol. 8, PMID: 28523007.].

PMID- 28878806
TI  - Measuring Animal Age with DNA Methylation: From Humans to Wild Animals.
AB  - DNA methylation (DNAm) is a key mechanism for regulating gene expression in
      animals and levels are known to change with age. Recent studies have used DNAm
      changes as a biomarker to estimate chronological age in humans and these
      techniques are now also being applied to domestic and wild animals. Animal age is
      widely used to track ongoing changes in ecosystems, however chronological age
      information is often unavailable for wild animals. An ability to estimate age
      would lead to improved monitoring of (i) population trends and status and (ii)
      demographic properties such as age structure and reproductive performance. Recent
      studies have revealed new examples of DNAm age association in several new species
      increasing the potential for developing DNAm age biomarkers for a broad range of
      wild animals. Emerging technologies for measuring DNAm will also enhance our
      ability to study age-related DNAm changes and to develop new molecular age
      biomarkers.

PMID- 28878808
TI  - Luteolin, quercetin, genistein and quercetagetin inhibit the effects of
      lipopolysaccharide obtained from Porphyromonas gingivalis in H9c2
      cardiomyoblasts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the microorganisms from dental plaque associated with severe
      inflammatory responses in infectious endocarditis is Porphyromonas gingivalis. It
      is a Gram-negative bacteria harvested from chronic periodontitis patients.
      Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) obtained from P. gingivalis promotes the expressions of
      interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha).
      Flavonoids are thought to participate in processes that control inflammation,
      such as the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). METHODS: We investigated the
      effects of luteolin, quercetin, genistein and quercetagetin on cardiomyoblasts
      treated with LPS alone or in combination with following inhibitors p38
      (SB203580), ERK (PD98059), JNK (SP600125) and PKC (Calphostin C) for 1 h. The
      kinase activation and COX-2 expression levels were determined at the gene and
      protein levels. RESULTS: These flavonoids are considered to inhibit the
      activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and the degradation of
      inhibitor of kappa B-alpha (IkappaB-alpha). They also play a role in COX-2
      expression. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the tested flavonoids inhibit
      inflammatory responses induced by LPS in H9c2 cells.

PMID- 28878807
TI  - Distribution and Functionality of Copy Number Variation across European Cattle
      Populations.
AB  - Copy number variation (CNV), which is characterized by large-scale losses or
      gains of DNA fragments, contributes significantly to genetic and phenotypic
      variation. Assessing CNV across different European cattle populations might
      reveal genetic changes responsible for phenotypic differences, which have
      accumulated throughout the domestication history of cattle as consequences of
      evolutionary forces that act upon them. To explore pattern of CNVs across
      European cattle, we genotyped 149 individuals, that represent different European
      regions, using the Illumina Bovine HD Genotyping array. A total of 9,944
      autosomal CNVs were identified in 149 samples using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM)
      as employed in PennCNV. Animals originating from several breeds of British Isles,
      and Balkan and Italian regions, on average, displayed higher abundance of CNV
      counts than Dutch or Alpine animals. A total of 923 CNV regions (CNVRs) were
      identified by aggregating CNVs overlapping in at least two animals. The
      hierarchical clustering of CNVRs indicated low differentiation and sharing of
      high-frequency CNVRs between European cattle populations. Various CNVRs
      identified in the present study overlapped with olfactory receptor genes and
      genes related to immune system. In addition, we also detected a CNV overlapping
      the Kit gene in English longhorn cattle which has previously been associated with
      color-sidedness. To conclude, we provide a comprehensive overview of CNV
      distribution in genome of European cattle. Our results indicate an important role
      of purifying selection and genomic drift in shaping CNV diversity that exists
      between different European cattle populations.

PMID- 28878810
TI  - Prevalence and clinical features of adverse food reactions in Portuguese
      children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of adverse food reactions (AFR) has been increasing in
      the western world. Clinical manifestations are diversified and it may not be
      possible to clinically discriminate between IgE and non-IgE mediated AFR. In
      Portugal, the prevalence of AFR and food allergies in children is not known.
      Thus, the objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of AFR in
      central Portugal. METHODS: Point prevalence study in 3-11 year-old schoolchildren
      from Central Portugal. Food-related questionnaires, skin prick tests (SPT) with
      foods and determination of food-specific IgE levels were performed. RESULTS: Of
      4045 schoolchildren, 2474 (61.2%) accepted to be included in the study. Global
      prevalence of AFR was 7.1% (95% CI 6.2-8.1), based upon the initial
      questionnaire, 4.6% (95% CI 3.9-5.5), based upon a confirmatory questionnaire and
      the prevalence of probable food allergy (IgE-associated AFR: positive history +
      positive SPT and/or positive specific IgE) was 1.4% (95% CI 0.9-1.9). Most
      frequently implicated foods were fresh fruits, fish and egg. A first episode at
      an earlier age, mucocutaneous and anaphylactic reactions were more frequent in
      IgE-associated AFR. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of probable food allergy in 3-11
      year old Portuguese children from central Portugal is low and parents over-report
      its frequency. Most frequently implicated foods were fresh fruit and fish.
      Immediate type, polysymptomatic, and more severe reactions may commence at an
      earlier age and be more frequent in IgE-associated than in non-IgE associated
      reactions.

PMID- 28878809
TI  - Are online prediction tools a valid alternative to genomic profiling in the
      context of systemic treatment of ER-positive breast cancer?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinicians use clinical and pathological parameters, such as tumour
      size, grade and nodal status, to make decisions on adjuvant treatments for breast
      cancer. However, therapeutic decisions based on these features tend to vary due
      to their subjectivity. Computational and mathematical algorithms were developed
      using clinical outcome data from breast cancer registries, such as Adjuvant!
      Online and NHS PREDICT. More recently, assessments of molecular profiles have
      been applied in the development of better prognostic tools. METHODS: Based on the
      available literature on online registry-based tools and genomic assays, we
      evaluated whether these online tools could be valid and accurate alternatives to
      genomic and molecular profiling of the individual breast tumour in aiding
      therapeutic decisions, particularly in patients with early ER-positive breast
      cancer. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Early breast cancer is currently considered a
      systemic disease and a complex ecosystem with behaviour determined by the complex
      genetic and molecular signatures of the tumour cells, mammary stem cells,
      microenvironment and host immune system. We anticipate that molecular profiling
      will continue to evolve, expanding beyond the primary tumour to include the
      tumour microenvironment, cancer stem cells and host immune system. This should
      further refine therapeutic decisions and optimise clinical outcome. This article
      was specially invited by the editors and represents work by leading researchers.

PMID- 28878811
TI  - Serum metabolites in non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease development or reversion;
      a targeted metabolomic approach within the PREDIMED trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited prospective studies have examined changes in non-alcoholic
      fatty-liver disease (NAFLD) related serum-metabolites and none the effects of
      NAFLD-reversion. We aimed to evaluate whether perturbations in metabolites
      indicate predisposition to NAFLD development and to assess the effects of NAFLD
      reversion on metabolite profiles. METHODS: A targeted liquid-chromatography
      tandem mass-spectrometry metabolic profiling (n = 453 metabolites) approach was
      applied, using serum from 45 subjects of the PREDIMED study, at baseline and
      after a median 3.8-year follow-up. NAFLD was determined using the hepatic
      steatosis index; with three groups classified and studied: Group 1, not
      characterized as NAFLD cases during the follow-up (n = 15); Group 2,
      characterized as NAFLD during the follow-up (n = 15); Group 3, characterized as
      NAFLD-reversion during the follow-up (n = 15). RESULTS: At baseline,
      significantly lower storage and transport lipids (triacylglycerols and
      cholesteryl esters), several monoetherglycerophosphocholines,
      acylglycerophosphocholines, ceramides and ceramide to sphingomyelin ratio (P <
      0.05), were found; whereas a higher L-cystine to L-glutamate ratio (P < 0.05) was
      observed, in group 2 as compared to group 1.P-ether acylglycerophosphocholines,
      ceramides and sphingolipids were significantly different betweengroup 3 and group
      1 (P < 0.05). Higher 16:1n-7 to 16:0, and 18:0 to16:0 ratio (P < 0.05), while
      lower 18:1n-9 to 18:0, 16:0 to 18:2n-6, and 18:3n-6 to 18:2n-6 ratio (P < 0.05)
      were observed in the final, compared to baseline values, in groups 2 and 3.
      CONCLUSION: The rearrangement of lipid biosynthesis and serum transport may
      indicate predisposition to NAFLD development. Despite an expected reduction of
      hepatic lipotoxicity and improved hepatic function in the participants of the
      study characterized as NAFLD-reversing, the side effects of NAFLD in serum
      metabolic profiles remained present. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered
      at ISRCTN35739639. Registration date: 5th October 2005.

PMID- 28878812
TI  - An arabic translation, reliability, and validation of Patient Health
      Questionnaire in a Saudi sample.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psychological disorders including depression and anxiety are not rare
      in primary care clinics. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) is a clinical
      diagnostic tool that is widely utilized by primary health care physicians
      worldwide because it provides a practical in-clinic tool to screen for
      psychological disorders. This study evaluated the validity of the Arabic version
      of the PHQ in all six modules including depression, anxiety, somatic, panic,
      eating, and alcohol abuse disorders. METHODS: This is a quantitative
      observational cross-sectional study that was conducted by administrating the
      translated Arabic version of PHQ to a sample of King Saud University students in
      Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: The sample was 731 university students who
      participated in this study including 376 (51.6%) females and 354 (48.4%) males
      with a mean age of 21.30 years. Eight mental health experts carried out the face
      validation process of the PHQ Arabic version. The internal consistency
      reliability was measured using Cronbach's alpha for the PHQ9, GAD7, PHQ15, and
      panic disorder modules. The results were 0.857, 0.763, 0.826, and 0.696,
      respectively. In comparison, the eating disorders and alcohol abuse modules
      demonstrated poor internal consistency due to small number of participants in
      these modules. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the Arabic version of the
      PHQ is a valid and reliable tool to screen for depression, anxiety, somatic, and
      panic disorders in a Saudi sample.

PMID- 28878813
TI  - Health utilities for chronic low back pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem, with a large
      potential for primary prevention. Health utilities (HU) reflect which proportion
      of their expected remaining life time individuals would hypothetically trade to
      be alleviated of a health condition of interest. A value of 0 means "prefer to
      die immediately", a value of 1 means "not willing to trade any life time". The
      aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess HU for LBP patients and for
      healthy participants and to examine whether HU for LBP are useful indicators to
      substantiate preventive and therapeutic decision making. METHODS: Healthy
      participants (n = 126) and LBP patients (n = 32) were recruited mainly among the
      employees of a tertiary care hospital in Germany. Standardized LBP scenarios were
      presented to all participants and HU values were assessed using the time-trade
      off method. RESULTS: Median HU for LBP were 0.90 (IQR 0.31) for participants and
      0.93 (IQR 0.10) for LBP patients. Measurements were consistent across illness
      severity ratings with HU and with a visual analogue scale (VAS); in the healthy
      sample the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.61 (95% CI 0.23-1.00,
      F(1125) = 190, p < .001), in the patient sample the ICC was 0.66 (95% CI = 0.24
      1.00, F(1,31) = 62, p < .001). 8% of participants reported HU of 1. There was no
      statistically significant relation between HU and age, income, or gender.
      CONCLUSION: On average, participants chose a 7 to 10% shorter life expectancy to
      avoid LBP, but almost 1 in 10 participants were not willing to trade any life
      years. The results indicate a certain stability of HU due to the comparability of
      HU ratings across patients and healthy participants, the measurement consistency
      when comparing VAS and HU ratings, and the lack of association between
      demographic variables and HU. This underlines the usefulness of HU for measuring
      illness severity in comparative health economics evaluations of preventive and
      therapeutic measures that address chronic LBP or other pain-characterized
      diseases. Future studies should focus on different LBP intensities and derive
      stratified HU that reflect the distribution of pain intensity in the population.

PMID- 28878814
TI  - Thoracic trauma severity contributes to differences in intensive care therapy and
      mortality of severely injured patients: analysis based on the TraumaRegister
      DGU(r).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thoracic trauma is a relevant source of comorbidity throughout
      multiply-injured patient care. We aim to determine a measurable influence of
      chest trauma's severity on early resuscitation, intensive care therapy, and
      mortality in severely injured patients. METHODS: Patients documented between 2002
      and 2012 in the TraumaRegister DGU(r), aged >= 16 years, injury severity score
      (ISS) >= 16 are analyzed. Isolated brain injury and severe head injury led to
      exclusion. Subgroups are formed using the Abbreviated Injury ScaleThorax.
      RESULTS: Twenty-two thousand five hundred sixty-five patients were predominantly
      male (74%) with mean age of 45.7 years (SD 19.3), blunt trauma (95%), mean ISS
      25.6 (SD 9.6). Overall mean intubation period was 5.6 days (SD 10.7). Surviving
      patients were discharged from the ICU after a mean of about 5 days following
      extubation. Thoracic trauma severity (AISThorax >= 4) and fractures to the
      thoracic cage significantly prolonged the ventilation period. Additionally,
      fractures extended the ICU stay significantly. Suffering from more than one
      thoracic injury was associated with a mean of 1-2 days longer intubation period
      and longer ICU stay. Highest rates of sepsis, respiratory, and multiple organ
      failure occurred in patients with critical compared to lesser thoracic trauma
      severity. CONCLUSION: Thoracic trauma severity in multiply-injured patients has a
      measurable impact on rates of respiratory and multiple organ failure, sepsis,
      mortality, time of mechanical ventilation, and ICU stay.

PMID- 28878816
TI  - A child with anorexia nervosa presenting with severe infection with cytopenia and
      hemophagocytosis: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with anorexia nervosa in the acute phase have physical
      complications, such as infectious disease. Although hemophagocytic syndrome due
      to infection is a rare complication in anorexia nervosa, early identification for
      hemophagocytosis is important for avoiding a life-threatening condition. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We report a case of a 12-year-old girl with anorexia nervosa
      presenting with infection with cytopenia and hemophagocytosis during initial
      nutritional therapy. She developed pyrexia, abdominal pain, and diarrhea during
      inpatient treatment. Although intravenous antibiotics were administered, the
      symptoms persisted. Acinetobacter baumannii was detected in blood culture.
      Hemophagocytosis was present in the bone marrow. Gamma globulin therapy was
      effective, with improvement in symptoms and cytopenia. CONCLUSIONS: Although our
      case did not fulfill the criteria of hemophagocytic syndrome, clinicians should
      consider severe infection in anorexia nervosa with cytopenia and
      hemophagocytosis.

PMID- 28878815
TI  - Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine for stroke modifiable risk factors: a
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The vast majority of stroke burden is attributable to its modifiable
      risk factors. This paper aimed to systematically summarise the evidence of
      Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) interventions on stroke modifiable risk factors for
      stroke prevention. METHODS: A literature search was conducted via the MEDLINE,
      CINAHL/EBSCO, SCOPUS, and Cochrane Database from 1996 to 2016. Randomised
      controlled trials or cross-over studies were included. Risk of bias was assessed
      according to the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. RESULTS: A total of 46 trials (6895
      participants) were identified regarding the use of CHM interventions in the
      management of stroke risk factors, including 12 trials for hypertension, 10
      trials for diabetes, eight trials for hyperlipidemia, seven trials for impaired
      glucose tolerance, three trials for obesity, and six trials for combined risk
      factors. Amongst the included trials with diverse study design, an intervention
      of CHM as a supplement to biomedicine and/or a lifestyle intervention was found
      to be more effective in lowering blood pressure, decreasing blood glucose level,
      helping impaired glucose tolerance reverse to normal, and/or reducing body weight
      compared to CHM monotherapy. While no trial reported deaths amongst the CHM
      groups, some papers do report moderate adverse effects associated with CHM use.
      However, the findings of such beneficial effects of CHM should be interpreted
      with caution due to the heterogeneous set of complex CHM studied, the various
      control interventions employed, the use of different participants' inclusion
      criteria, and low methodological quality across the published studies. The risk
      of bias of trials identified was largely unclear in the domains of selection bias
      and detection bias across the included studies. CONCLUSION: This study showed
      substantial evidence of varied CHM interventions improving the stroke modifiable
      risk factors. More rigorous research examining the use of CHM products for sole
      or multiple major stroke risk factors are warranted.

PMID- 28878817
TI  - Children's mental health problems and their relation to parental stress in foster
      mothers and fathers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study focuses on children living in foster families with a
      history of maltreatment or neglect. These children often show adverse mental
      health outcomes reflected in increased externalizing and internalizing problems.
      It is expected that these adverse outcomes are associated with increased parental
      stress levels experienced by foster mothers as well as foster fathers. METHODS:
      The study sample included 79 children living in foster families and 140 children
      living in biological families as comparison group. The age of the children ranged
      from 2 to 7 years. Mental health problems were assessed with the Child Behavior
      Checklist, while parenting stress was measured with a parenting stress
      questionnaire including subscales on the amount of experienced stress and the
      amount of perceived support. The Child Behavior Checklist assessments were based
      mainly on maternal reports, while the parental stress assessments were based on
      maternal as well as paternal reports. RESULTS: As expected the results showed
      increased externalizing and internalizing scores for the foster children
      accompanied by increased parental stress experiences in the foster family sample
      (however only in the maternal, but not in the paternal stress reports). The
      stress differences between the foster and biological family groups disappeared,
      when the children's mental health problem scores were included as covariates.
      Moreover, especially the externalizing scores were strong predictors of parental
      stress in both, the groups of foster and biological parents. The amount of
      perceived social support was associated with reduced parental stress, but only in
      the group of biological fathers. CONCLUSION: The emergence of parental stress in
      biological as well as foster parents is closely related to child characteristics
      (mainly externalizing child problems). Possible implications for the reduction of
      parental stress are discussed as a consequence of the present results.

PMID- 28878818
TI  - Socioeconomic position and self-harm among adolescents: a population-based cohort
      study in Stockholm, Sweden.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the association between parental socioeconomic position
      and self-harm in adolescence is crucial due to its substantial magnitude and
      associated inequality. Most previous studies have been either of cross-sectional
      nature or based solely on self-reports or hospital treated self-harm. The aim of
      this study is to determine the association between parental socioeconomic
      position and self-harm among adolescents with a specific focus on gender and
      severity of self-harm. METHODS: A total of 165,932 adolescents born 1988-1994 who
      lived in Stockholm at the age of 13 were followed in registers until they turned
      18. Self-harm was defined as first time self-harm and severity of self-harm was
      defined as hospitalized or not. Socioeconomic position was defined by parental
      education and household income. Cox proportional hazards regression were used to
      estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Analyses
      showed an association between parental socioeconomic position and self-harm.
      Among adolescents with parents with primary and secondary education compared to
      tertiary parental education the HR were 1.10 (95% CI 0.97-1.24) and 1.16 (95% CI
      1.08-1.25) respectively. Compared to the highest income category, adolescents
      from the lower income categories were 1.08 (95% CI 0.97-1.22) to 1.19 (95% CI
      1.07-1.33) times more likely to self-harm. In gender-stratified analyses, an
      association was found only among girls. Further, restriction to severe cases
      eliminated the association. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that low parental
      socioeconomic position is associated with self-harm in adolescence, predominantly
      among girls. The desertion of an association among severe cases may be explained
      by differences in suicidal intent and underlying psychiatric diagnosis. Efforts
      to prevent self-harm should consider children with low parental socioeconomic
      position as a potential target group.

PMID- 28878820
TI  - Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain comparison in glucose-xylose fermentations on
      defined substrates and in high-gravity SSCF: convergence in strain performance
      despite differences in genetic and evolutionary engineering history.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most advanced strains of xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae still utilize xylose far less efficiently than glucose, despite the
      extensive metabolic and evolutionary engineering applied in their development.
      Systematic comparison of strains across literature is difficult due to widely
      varying conditions used for determining key physiological parameters. Here, we
      evaluate an industrial and a laboratory S. cerevisiae strain, which has the
      assimilation of xylose via xylitol in common, but differ fundamentally in the
      history of their adaptive laboratory evolution development, and in the cofactor
      specificity of the xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH).
      RESULTS: In xylose and mixed glucose-xylose shaken bottle fermentations, with and
      without addition of inhibitor-rich wheat straw hydrolyzate, the specific xylose
      uptake rate of KE6-12.A (0.27-1.08 g gCDW-1 h-1) was 1.1 to twofold higher than
      that of IBB10B05 (0.10-0.82 g gCDW-1 h-1). KE6-12.A further showed a 1.1 to
      ninefold higher glycerol yield (0.08-0.15 g g-1) than IBB10B05 (0.01-0.09 g g-1).
      However, the ethanol yield (0.30-0.40 g g-1), xylitol yield (0.08-0.26 g g-1),
      and maximum specific growth rate (0.04-0.27 h-1) were in close range for both
      strains. The robustness of flocculating variants of KE6-12.A (KE-Flow) and
      IBB10B05 (B-Flow) was analyzed in high-gravity simultaneous saccharification and
      co-fermentation. As in shaken bottles, KE-Flow showed faster xylose conversion
      and higher glycerol formation than B-Flow, but final ethanol titres (61 g L-1)
      and cell viability were again comparable for both strains. CONCLUSIONS:
      Individual specific traits, elicited by the engineering strategy, can affect
      global physiological parameters of S. cerevisiae in different and, sometimes,
      unpredictable ways. The industrial strain background and prolonged evolution
      history in KE6-12.A improved the specific xylose uptake rate more substantially
      than the superior XR, XDH, and xylulokinase activities were able to elicit in
      IBB10B05. Use of an engineered XR/XDH pathway in IBB10B05 resulted in a lower
      glycerol rather than a lower xylitol yield. However, the strain development
      programs were remarkably convergent in terms of the achieved overall strain
      performance. This highlights the importance of comparative strain evaluation to
      advance the engineering strategies for next-generation S. cerevisiae strain
      development.

PMID- 28878819
TI  - Construction of an easy-to-use CRISPR-Cas9 system by patching a newly designed
      EXIT circuit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Plasmid-borne genetic editing tools, including the widely used CRISPR
      Cas9 system, have greatly facilitated bacterial programming to obtain novel
      functionalities. However, the lack of effective post-editing plasmid elimination
      methods impedes follow-up genetic manipulation or application. Conventional
      strategies including exposure to physical and chemical treatments, or exploiting
      temperature-sensitive replication origins have several drawbacks (e.g., they are
      limited for efficiency and are time-consuming). Therefore, the demand is apparent
      for easy and rapid elimination of the tool plasmids from their bacterial hosts
      after genetic manipulation. RESULTS: To bridge this gap, we designed a novel EXIT
      circuit with the homing endonuclease, which can be exploited for rapid and
      efficient elimination of various plasmids with diverse replication origins. As a
      proof of concept, we validated the EXIT circuit in Escherichia coli by harnessing
      homing endonuclease I-SceI and its cleavage site. When integrated into multiple
      plasmids with different origins, the EXIT circuit allowed them to be eliminated
      from the host cells, simultaneously. By combining the widely used plasmid-borne
      CRISPR-Cas9 system and the EXIT circuit, we constructed an easy-to-use CRISPR
      Cas9 system that eliminated the Cas9- and the single-guide RNA (sgRNA)-encoding
      plasmids in one-step. Within 3 days, we successfully constructed an atrazine
      degrading E. coli strain, thus further demonstrating the advantage of this new
      CRISPR-Cas9 system for bacterial genome editing. CONCLUSIONS: Our novel EXIT
      circuit, which exploits the homing endonuclease I-SceI, enables plasmid(s) with
      different replication origins to be eliminated from their host cells rapidly and
      efficiently. We also developed an easy-to-use CRISPR-Cas9 system with the EXIT
      circuit, and this new system can be widely applied to bacterial genome editing.

PMID- 28878821
TI  - High-throughput analysis of chemical components and theoretical ethanol yield of
      dedicated bioenergy sorghum using dual-optimized partial least squares
      calibration models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to its chemical composition and abundance, lignocellulosic
      biomass is an attractive feedstock source for global bioenergy production.
      However, chemical composition variations interfere with the success of any single
      methodology for efficient bioenergy extraction from diverse lignocellulosic
      biomass sources. Although chemical component distributions could guide process
      design, they are difficult to obtain and vary widely among lignocellulosic
      biomass types. Therefore, expensive and laborious "one-size-fits-all" processes
      are still widely used. Here, a non-destructive and rapid analytical technology,
      near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) coupled with multivariate calibration, shows
      promise for addressing these challenges. Recent advances in molecular
      spectroscopy analysis have led to methodologies for dual-optimized NIRS using
      sample subset partitioning and variable selection, which could significantly
      enhance the robustness and accuracy of partial least squares (PLS) calibration
      models. Using this methodology, chemical components and theoretical ethanol yield
      (TEY) values were determined for 70 sweet and 77 biomass sorghum samples from six
      sweet and six biomass sorghum varieties grown in 2013 and 2014 at two study sites
      in northern China. RESULTS: Chemical components and TEY of the 147 bioenergy
      sorghum samples were initially analyzed and compared using wet chemistry methods.
      Based on linear discriminant analysis, a correct classification assignment rate
      (either sweet or biomass type) of 99.3% was obtained using 20 principal
      components. Next, detailed statistical analysis demonstrated that partial
      optimization using sample set partitioning based on joint X-Y distances (SPXY)
      for sample subset partitioning enhanced the robustness and accuracy of PLS
      calibration models. Finally, comparisons between five dual-optimized strategies
      indicated that competitive adaptive reweighted sampling coupled with the SPXY
      (CARS-SPXY) was the most efficient and effective method for improving predictive
      performance of PLS multivariate calibrations. CONCLUSIONS: As a dual-optimized
      methodology, sample subset partitioning combined with variable selection is an
      efficient and straightforward strategy to enhance the accuracy and robustness of
      NIRS models. This knowledge should facilitate generation of improved
      lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks for bioethanol production. Moreover, methods
      described here should have wider applicability for use with feedstocks
      incorporating multispecies biomass resource streams.

PMID- 28878822
TI  - Coexistence and competition of sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations in
      an anaerobic hexadecane-degrading culture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over three-fifths of the world's known crude oil cannot be recovered
      using state-of-the-art techniques, but microbial conversion of petroleum
      hydrocarbons trapped in oil reservoirs to methane is one promising path to
      increase the recovery of fossil fuels. The process requires cooperation between
      syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea, which can be affected by sulfate
      reducing prokaryotes (SRPs). However, the effects of sulfate on hydrocarbon
      degradation and methane production remain elusive, and the microbial communities
      involved are not well understood. RESULTS: In this study, a methanogenic
      hexadecane-degrading enrichment culture was treated with six different
      concentrations of sulfate ranging from 0.5 to 25 mM. Methane production and
      maximum specific methane production rate gradually decreased to 44 and 56% with
      sulfate concentrations up to 25 mM, respectively. There was a significant
      positive linear correlation between the sulfate reduction/methane production
      ratio and initial sulfate concentration, which remained constant during the
      methane production phase. The apparent methanogenesis fractionation factor
      (alphaapp) gradually increased during the methane production phase in each
      treatment, the alphaapp for the treatments with lower sulfate (0.5-4 mM)
      eventually plateaued at ~1.047, but that for the treatment with 10-25 mM sulfate
      only reached ~1.029. The relative abundance levels of Smithella and
      Methanoculleus increased almost in parallel with the increasing sulfate
      concentrations. Furthermore, the predominant sulfate reducer communities shifted
      from Desulfobacteraceae in the low-sulfate cultures to Desulfomonile in the high
      sulfate cultures. CONCLUSION: The distribution of hexadecane carbon between
      methane-producing and sulfate-reducing populations is dependent on the initial
      sulfate added, and not affected during the methane production period. There was a
      relative increase in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis activity over time for all
      sulfate treatments, whereas the total activity was inhibited by sulfate addition.
      Both Smithella and Methanoculleus, the key alkane degraders and methane
      producers, can adapt to sulfate stress. Specifically, different SRP populations
      were stimulated at various sulfate concentrations. These results could help to
      evaluate interactions between sulfate-reducing and methanogenic populations
      during anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation in oil reservoirs.

PMID- 28878824
TI  - CMA analysis identifies homozygous deletion of MCPH1 in 2 brothers with primary
      Microcephaly-1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Homozygous mutations and deletions of the microcephalin gene (MCPH1;
      OMIM *607117) have been identified as a cause of autosomal recessive primary
      microcephaly and intellectual disability (MIM #251200). Previous studies in
      families of Asian descent suggest that the severity of the phenotype may vary
      based on the extent of the genomic alteration. We report chromosome microarray
      (CMA) findings and the first described family study of a patient with primary
      microcephaly in a consanguineous Hispanic family. CASE PRESENTATION: The proband,
      a boy born at full-term to consanguineous parents from Mexico, presented at 35
      months of age with microcephaly, abnormal brain MRI findings, underdeveloped
      right lung, almond-shaped eyes, epicanthal folds, bilateral esotropia, low
      hairline, large ears, smooth philtrum, thin upper lip, and developmental delay.
      MRI of the brain showed a small dermoid or lipoma (without mass effect) within
      the interpeduncular cistern and prominent arachnoid granulation. The
      underdeveloped right lung was managed with long-acting inhaled corticosteroids.
      Otherwise the proband did not have any other significant medical history. The
      proband had 2 older brothers, ages 14 and 16, from the same consanguineous
      parents. The 14-year-old brother had a phenotype similar to that of the proband,
      while both parents and the oldest brother did not have the same phenotypic
      findings as the proband. The SNP-based CMA analysis of the proband detected a
      homozygous 250-kb microdeletion at 8p23.2p23.1, extending from 6,061,169 to
      6,310,738 bp [hg19]. This genomic alteration encompasses the first 8 exons of
      MCPH1. Follow-up studies detected the same homozygous deletion in the affected
      brother, segregating with microcephaly and intellectual disability. Regions of
      homozygosity (ROHs) were also observed in the affected brother. Since ROHs are
      associated with an increased risk for recessive disorders, presence of ROH may
      also contribute to the phenotype of the affected brothers. The parents were both
      hemizygous for the deletion. CONCLUSION: Here we report a homozygous deletion of
      multiple exons of the MCPH1 gene that was associated with primary microcephaly
      and intellectual disability in a Hispanic family. In the context of previous
      studies, our results support the idea that deletions involving multiple exons
      cause a more severe phenotype than point mutations.

PMID- 28878823
TI  - A de novo complex chromosome rearrangement associated with multisystematic
      abnormalities, a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Complex chromosomal rearrangements (CCRs) are constitutional
      structural rearrangements that involve three or more chromosomes or that have
      more than two breakpoints. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we describe a four-way CCR
      involving chromosomes 4, 5, 6 and 8. The patient had mild multisystematic
      abnormalities during his development, including defects in his eyes and teeth,
      exomphalos and asthenozoospermia. His wife had two spontaneous abortions during
      the first trimester. The translocations in 4q27, 5q22, 6q22.3, and 8p11.2 were
      diagnosed by conventional cytogenetic analysis and confirmed by fluorescence in
      situ hybridization(FISH). After analysis using a SNP array, we defined three
      microdeletions, including 0.89 Mb on chromosome 4, 5.39 Mb on chromosome 5 and
      0.43 Mb on chromosome 8. His mother had a chimera karyotype of 47, XXX[5]/45,
      X[4]/46, XX[91]; the other chromosomes were normal. After one cycle of in vitro
      fertility (IVF) treatment followed by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD),
      they obtained two embryos, but neither was balanced. CONCLUSIONS: The patient's
      phenotype resulted from the CCR and microdeletion of chromosomes 4, 5 and 8. The
      couple decided to use artificial insemination by donor (AID) technology.

PMID- 28878825
TI  - RNA-sequence data normalization through in silico prediction of reference genes:
      the bacterial response to DNA damage as case study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Measuring how gene expression changes in the course of an experiment
      assesses how an organism responds on a molecular level. Sequencing of RNA
      molecules, and their subsequent quantification, aims to assess global gene
      expression changes on the RNA level (transcriptome). While advances in high
      throughput RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) technologies allow for inexpensive data
      generation, accurate post-processing and normalization across samples is required
      to eliminate any systematic noise introduced by the biochemical and/or technical
      processes. Existing methods thus either normalize on selected known reference
      genes that are invariant in expression across the experiment, assume that the
      majority of genes are invariant, or that the effects of up- and down-regulated
      genes cancel each other out during the normalization. RESULTS: Here, we present a
      novel method, moose2 , which predicts invariant genes in silico through a dynamic
      programming (DP) scheme and applies a quadratic normalization based on this
      subset. The method allows for specifying a set of known or experimentally
      validated invariant genes, which guides the DP. We experimentally verified the
      predictions of this method in the bacterium Escherichia coli, and show how moose2
      is able to (i) estimate the expression value distances between RNA-seq samples,
      (ii) reduce the variation of expression values across all samples, and (iii) to
      subsequently reveal new functional groups of genes during the late stages of DNA
      damage. We further applied the method to three eukaryotic data sets, on which its
      performance compares favourably to other methods. The software is implemented in
      C++ and is publicly available from http://grabherr.github.io/moose2/.
      CONCLUSIONS: The proposed RNA-seq normalization method, moose2 , is a valuable
      alternative to existing methods, with two major advantages: (i) in silico
      prediction of invariant genes provides a list of potential reference genes for
      downstream analyses, and (ii) non-linear artefacts in RNA-seq data are handled
      adequately to minimize variations between replicates.

PMID- 28878826
TI  - Analysis of factors influencing glucose tolerance in Japanese patients with non
      alcoholic fatty liver disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While the association of the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease (NAFLD) with impaired glucose metabolism has been reported, the factors
      influencing glucose tolerance in NAFLD remain to be clarified. METHODS: Glucose
      tolerance of 131 Japanese patients diagnosed as NAFLD by histological findings of
      liver biopsy specimen was examined using 75 g-OGTT. According to Matteoni's
      classification, patients were divided to 4 groups [M1 ~ 4, M1, 2: non-alcoholic
      fatty liver (NAFL); and M3, 4: non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)]. Based on
      the OGTT data, insulinogenic index (IGI) and QUICKI were calculated as indices of
      insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity, respectively. Plasma glucose 120 min
      after glucose loading (G120) was used as the index for glucose intolerance.
      RESULTS: Stepwise multiple regression analysis using G120 as a dependent variable
      and loge-IGI, QUICKI, sex, BMI, age, NAFL/NASH as independent variables revealed
      that loge-IGI (beta = -0.595) and QUICKI (beta = -0.323) are significant factors
      predicting glucose intolerance (R2 = 0.403), indicating an important role of
      insulin secretion in glucose tolerance. These findings accord with glucose
      intolerance as high as 89.7% in patients with impaired insulin secretion defined
      by <=43.2 pmol/mmol (40 MUU/mg) IGI. Stepwise multiple regression analysis using
      QUICKI as a dependent variable and NAFL/NAFLD, sex, BMI, and age as independent
      variables revealed that BMI (beta = -0.469) and NAFL/NAFLD (beta = -0.204) are
      significant factors predicting insulin sensitivity (R2 = 0.248). CONCLUSION:
      Impairment of insulin secretion is the most important factor to predict glucose
      intolerance in NAFLD; severity of histological findings is associated with
      insulin sensitivity independent of adiposity in NAFLD.

PMID- 28878827
TI  - Association of the leptin-to-adiponectin ratio with metabolic syndrome in a sub
      Saharan African population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Worldwide there is an increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome
      mainly due to life-style modifications, and Africans are not saved of this
      situation. Many markers have been studied to predict the risk of this syndrome
      but the most used are leptin and adiponectin. Data on these metabolic markers are
      scare in Africa and this study aimed to assess the association between the leptin
      to-adiponectin ratio (LAR) with metabolic syndrome in a Cameroonian population.
      METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study that included 476 adults among a
      general population of Cameroon. Data collected concerned the body mass index,
      waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting
      blood glucose, plasma lipids, adiponectin, leptin, insulin and homeostasis model
      for assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). To assess correlations we used
      Spearman's analyses and association of the studied variables with metabolic
      syndrome were done using binary logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The leptin
      to adiponectin ratio was significantly and positively correlated with the body
      mass index (r = 0.669, p < 0.0001), waist circumference (r = 0.595, p < 0.0001),
      triglycerides (r = 0.190, p = 0.001), insulin levels (r = 0.333, p < 0.0001) and
      HOMA-IR (r = 0.306, p < 0.0001). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed
      that leptin, adiponectin and LAR were significantly associated with metabolic
      syndrome with respective unadjusted OR of 1.429, 0.468 and 1.502. After
      adjustment, for age and sex, the associations remained significative; LAR was
      also found to be significantly associated with metabolic syndrome (OR = 1.573, p
      value =0.000) as well as lower levels of adiponectin (OR = 0.359, p value =0.000)
      and higher levels of leptin (OR = 1.469, p value =0.001). CONCLUSION: This study
      revealed that LAR is significantly associated with metabolic syndrome in sub
      Saharan African population, independently to age and sex.

PMID- 28878829
TI  - The Antibodies: What a Universe!

PMID- 28878828
TI  - Elevated serum interleukin-6 is predictive of coronary artery disease in
      intermediate risk overweight patients referred for coronary angiography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) plays a central role in atherosclerosis and
      inflammation. It may improve risk prediction in patients at intermediate
      cardiovascular risk. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the impact of serum IL-6 in predicting
      early angiographic coronary artery disease in patients at intermediate
      cardiovascular risk with chest pain. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study,
      patients referred for coronary angiography due to suspected coronary artery
      disease (CAD) were included. Coronary artery disease was defined as the presence
      of at least 30% stenosis in one or more coronary artery. Severity of CAD was
      classified by the anatomic burden score. Performance of serum IL-6 assay was
      compared with ACC/AHA atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score
      and hs-CRP through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: We
      have included 48 patients with a mean 10-year ASCVD risk of 10.0 +/- 6.8%. The
      prevalence of CAD was 72.9%. The presence of CAD was associated with higher mean
      levels of IL-6 (p = 0.025). Patients with CAD had significantly more overweight
      than subjects without CAD. In 27% of patients, IL-6 was >1.0 pg/mL and 100% of
      these patients had CAD, while only 64% in those with IL-6 <1.0 pg/mL,
      corresponding to a positive predictive value of 100% (p = 0.015). The area under
      the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of IL-6, hs-CRP and ASCVD were
      respectively 0.72, 0.60 and 0.54. Intermediate risk patients with IL-6 >1.0 pg/mL
      were further reclassified into ASCVD high risk due to the presence of coronary
      lesions. CONCLUSION: In intermediate risk patients referred for coronary
      angiography, a serum IL-6 level above 1 pg/mL is predictive of significant CAD.
      IL-6 determination may be useful to reclassify ASCVD intermediate risk patients
      into higher risk categories.

PMID- 28878830
TI  - Caesarean Birth in Romania: Safe Motherhood Between Ethical, Medical and
      Statistical Arguments.
AB  - The number of caesarean sections increased significantly in Romania. In 2012,
      caesarean sections accounted for 41.2% of total births, according to a study of
      the Romanian National School for Public Health. This estimation is in agreement
      with the statistical data on caesarean sections recorded in one of the most
      important hospitals in Bucharest, Romania, Filantropia Hospital. Many factors
      have influenced the large number and sharply increasing trend of caesarean
      sections, from the historical ones, with roots in the communist regime, when
      abortions were outlawed, to current day doctors' medical practices and mothers'
      beliefs and fears related to the process of labor and the newborn's health. This
      paper aims to examine the pros and cons for caesarean birth. The analysis is
      presented from three perspectives: expressed by the doctor/medical caregiver, the
      patient/mother and some of the third parties indirectly involved in the medical
      decision: the foetus/newborn, the hospital/medical unit and the society as a
      whole, knowing that ethics is beyond the legal, economic or administrative
      frames.

PMID- 28878831
TI  - The Mirage of Long Term Vital Benefice - Risk for the Beginning of Life?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cord blood is the "life" of the fetus until birth. After delivery,
      the newborn is "single" and forced to adapt to live using the latest resources
      provided by the mother. Those who believe that a newborn is just a miniature
      independent adult are just trusting one of the illusions of secular medicine.
      Cord blood contains precious cells, stem, red and white blood cells. T cells as a
      part of white blood cells prevent infections and other illnesses. Cochrane
      Database 2013 published a study reporting the role of delayed umbilical cord
      clamping for the benefit of infants. Harvesting of stem cells increases early
      clamping. So, is prevention better than treatment, speaking about possible
      pathologies that can occur throughout life? MATERIAL AND METHODS: prospective
      study of newborns in "Alessandrescu-Rusescu" National Institute for Mother and
      Child Health, Bucharest, Romania, was monitored by their adaptation to
      extrauterine life, depending on time and technique of clamping. The impact of
      harvesting stem cells after birth was explored. RESULTS: Of all babies, 8.23%
      were premature. Maternal pathology (arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus,
      infections, thrombophilia) was present in 31.76% of cases. Of the 85 newborns
      with harvested stem cells, 47% needed assistance in the neonatal intensive care
      unit (NICU). Birth asphyxia (SA.7) was present in 10.58% of cases. CONCLUSIONS:
      Two protocols with strong recommendations about umbilical cord clamping and
      harvesting stem cells, respectively, are necessary.

PMID- 28878832
TI  - Concomitant Lung and Liver Hydatid Cyst Managed as One-Stage Surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Over the world, hydatidosis is endemic in many countries. It is more
      prevalent in Turkey. We came across with concomitant hydatidosis of the lung and
      liver and reviewed the management. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a prospective
      study that was carried out in the Government Medical College and Hospital, sector
      32, Chandigarh, India, between 2004 and 2010, in the Department of Surgery. A
      total of five patients diagnosed with concomitant liver and pulmonary hydatid
      disease underwent surgery. They were operated by thoracotomy and laparotomy in
      the same sitting. RESULTS: Hydatid cysts located in the lungs were managed by
      means of cystotomy and capitonnage. For liver cysts, cystotomy and inversion of
      the cavity with sutures was the surgical method of choice, and a drain was left
      in place. Excessive biliary drainage occurred in one patient who was managed
      successfully. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that simultaneous management of pulmonary
      and hepatic cysts through the thoracic route and by laparotomy is convenient and
      should be encouraged in patients because this approach decreased morbidity and
      mortality by deferring second operation. Needle aspiration can be applied only
      for liver cysts but it is absolutely contraindicated in lung hydatid cysts.

PMID- 28878833
TI  - Unusual Entities of Appendix Mimicking Appendicitis Clinically - Emphasis on
      Diagnosis and Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abdomen is considered a magic box or a Pandora box where you will get
      different, unexpected pathologies along with rare entities. Appendicitis is the
      commonest emergency in surgery which presents challenges to surgeons because of a
      myriad list of differential diagnosis including both medical and gynaecological
      pathologies. Preoperative imaging plays an important role in diagnosis and
      management. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To study the rare atypical anatomical and
      surgical presentations of appendix in patients with clinical features of
      appendicitis. We focus on the clinical features and the role of investigations
      for the radiological part and management. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was
      done in M.M. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana, Ambala, from
      November 2014 to July 2016. This was a retrospective study. We found 168 cases
      with the diagnosis of appendicitis, out of which 19 were with rare entities.
      RESULTS: Subjects of both genders were aged between 20 and 60 years. Out of 19,
      15 were males and 4 females. Four patients were operated for inguinal hernia but
      incidentally we found appendix in the hernial sac termed as Amyand's hernia.
      Another patient presented with obstruction and appendix was forming a band
      diagnosed as torsion of appendix. Two most interesting cases were diagnosed as
      appendicular neuralgia and relieved by appendectomy. Out of 19 cases, 7 cases
      were operated for appendicitis diagnosed as appendicolith. In all the cases
      appendectomy was done without encountering any complications. Symptom free
      patients were operated for appendicular neuralgia. No malignancy was found in
      mucocele appendix at follow up. There were no complications by the 6-month follow
      up. CONCLUSION: As we came across with different entities of appendix presented
      with appendicitis, patients should be investigated before proceeding for surgery.
      In our study, there were incidental findings for which surgeons were not aware of
      the diagnosis and even for the patient. In inguinal hernia, ultrasonography was
      not done, diagnosis being made on clinical basis. Clinical and radiological
      investigations play an important part in early diagnosis and management.

PMID- 28878834
TI  - Combined Anatomic Anterior Cruciate Ligament and Anterolateral Ligament
      Reconstruction.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of the current paper was to report the surgical technique of
      combined anatomic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and anterolateral ligament
      (ALL) reconstruction as well as the short term clinical results after this
      surgical procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The current prospective study included
      32 patients (5 females and 27 males) with combined ACL and ALL reconstruction
      performed between December 2015 and July 2016. The patients were included in the
      study taking into consideration the following criteria: chronic ACL lesion, high
      grade rotational instability (pivot shift grade II and III) and participation in
      high grade pivoting sports. Patient evaluation followed an established clinical
      and imaging protocol both preoperatively and at 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively.
      This included clinical knee stability testing (Lachman test, Pivot shift test),
      Rolimeter differential laxity testing, subjective and objective IKDC scores and
      Lysholm score and Tegner score. RESULTS: Postoperative stability at 6 weeks and
      12 weeks as tested with Lachman test (p=0.02 and 0.01, respectively), pivot shift
      test (p=0.03 and 0.01, respectively) and the Rolimeter arthrometer (p=0.008 and
      0.006, respectively) showed a statistically significant difference as compared to
      preoperative values. Postoperative scores at 6 weeks and 12 weeks as measured
      using objective IKDC form (p=0.008 and 0.006, respectively), subjective IKDC form
      (p=0.04 and 0.03, respectively) and Lysholm form (p=0.02 and 0.01, respectively)
      were statistically significant improved as compared to preoperative values. All
      patients had a negative Lachman test at 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively. One
      patient had a positive grade I pivot shift test at 6 weeks postoperatively and
      two patients had a positive grade I pivot shift test at 12 weeks postoperatively.
      Differential anteroposterior laxity as measured with the Rolimeter arthrometer
      improved from 7.19+/-1.96 mm preoperatively to 0.28+/-0.45 mm and 0.13+/-0.34 mm,
      at 6 weeks and 12 weeks postoperatively, respectively. According to the objective
      IKDC form, 29 patients were normal or nearly normal (grade A and B) at 6 weeks
      postoperatively and 31 patients were normal or nearly normal at 12 weeks
      postoperatively. Subjective IKDC score improved from 47.72+/-17.18 preoperatively
      to 56.52+/-11.74 and 73.38+/-14.28 at 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively,
      respectively. Lysholm score improved from 63.44+/-23.01 preoperatively to 80.41+/
      11.94 and 90.47+/-8.22 at 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively, respectively. Improved
      Tegner activity scores were present at 12 weeks postoperatively as compared with
      6 weeks postoperatively, but still lower as compared to pre-traumatic scores. No
      significant complications were present in the current study group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Combined ACL and ALL reconstruction is an effective surgical procedure, with
      improved postoperative clinical results and no significant short term
      complications. Longer follow-up is necessary in order to better evaluate the
      results of this procedure.

PMID- 28878835
TI  - Uterine Artery Doppler Flow Indices in Pregnant Women During the 11 Weeks + 0
      Days and 13 Weeks + 6 Days Gestational Ages: a Study of 168 Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Uterine artery Doppler flow studies during the 11th and 14th week of
      pregnancy are important in the prediction of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth
      restriction in pregnant women as well as in the prevention thereof. METHODS: Our
      study on Doppler flow indices of the uterine arteries involved 168 patients
      examined in our clinic, with pregnancies ranging from 11 weeks + 0 days to 13
      weeks + 6 days. RESULTS: There were 72 patients from 11 weeks + 0 days to 11
      weeks + 6 days (42.86%), 43 from 12 weeks + 0 days to 12 weeks + 6 days (25.60%),
      and 53 from 13 weeks + 0 days to 13 weeks + 6 days (31.55%). The mean values of
      the Doppler indices were PI 1.75+/-0.79, 1.88+/- 0.81, 1.71+/-0.81, and 1.58+/
      0.72 and RI 0.72+/-0.14, 0.75+/-0.14, 0.71+/-0.14, and 0.70+/-0.14 for the entire
      group and for the three intervals, respectively. There were 71 (42.26%), 33
      (19.64%, with 18 cases or 54.55% on the right side), and 64 (38.10%) patients
      with bilateral, unilateral and absent uterine artery notching, respectively. The
      mean Doppler indices for the three aforementioned groups were 2.18+/-0.79, 1.63+/
      0.72, and 1.33+/-0.57 for the PI, and 0.79+/-0.11, 0.71+/-0.14, and 0.66+/-0.14
      for the RI, respectively. The indices for the 175 arteries with and 161 without
      notching, taken separately, in all patients, as well as for the uterine arteries
      with and without notching in patients with unilateral notching only were 2.16+/
      0.76, 1.30+/-0.54, 2.08+/-0.66, and 1.17+/-0.43 for the PI, and 0.79+/-0.11,
      0.65+/-0.14, 0.79+/-0.11, and 0.63+/-0.12 for the RI, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      The mean uterine artery PI and RI decrease from 11 weeks + 0 days-11 weeks + 6
      days to 13 weeks + 0 days-13 weeks + 6 days. They also decrease from patients
      with bilateral uterine artery notching to those without notching. The frequency
      of uterine artery notching decreases with increasing gestational age. Our results
      are similar to those in literature.

PMID- 28878836
TI  - Newborn Skin: Common Skin Problems.
AB  - The newborn skin can be separated from adult's skin in several ways. In
      dermatologic examination it can be easily observed that it is thinner, less hairy
      and has less sweat and sebaceous gland secretions. These differentiations present
      especially in preterm newborns. Their skin is exposed to mechanical trauma,
      bacteria and weather, heat alterations. At birth, newborn skin is protected by
      the coverage of vernix caseosa, which has lubricating and antibacterial features
      and its pH ranges from 6.7 to 7.4. Beneath the vernix caseosa the skin has a pH
      of 5.5-6.0. In newborn dermatologic examination it is very important to
      distinguish transient benign dermatoses and severe diseases, make early diagnosis
      and treat congenital skin disorders. Although the benign cases are common in this
      life period, clinical presentations can be much more exaggerated, dramatic and
      cause a great deal of anxiety to parents. Therefore, as a doctor, knowing the
      dermatological, pathological and non-pathological common skin rashes guides the
      family in the right direction, offers advice to reduce uncertainty and time for
      the treatment of severe conditions and builds a confidential doctor-patient
      relationship. In this review, our aim is to provide a general overview to common
      skin rashes in newborn period.

PMID- 28878837
TI  - Cutaneous Toxicities of Molecular Targeted Therapies.
AB  - Antineoplastic targeted therapies, such as EGFR inhibitors, tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors and BRAF inhibitors, frequently lead to systemic and cutaneous side
      effects, significantly affecting patient's quality of life. Patients with new
      targeted therapies have an increased risk of developing skin reactions. The new
      molecular target therapies developed in the last decades can induce severe skin
      reactions, which may require dose reduction or discontinuation of treatment and
      consequently, a decrease in patient's quality of life. The present paper
      describes toxic cutaneous reactions associated with the most frequently used
      molecular therapies (epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors, BRAF-inhibitors), frequency of occurrence and methods of diagnosis
      and treatment, in order to offer a clinically efficient management for
      maintaining a good quality of life, with compliance to treatment and good
      therapeutic efficacy. Knowledge of cutaneous adverse reactions in new therapies
      is mandatory in order to have a proper management of oncologic patients.
      Recognizing target therapy toxicities by both oncologists and dermatologists,
      understanding therapeutic mechanisms and choosing optimum treatments for
      oncologic patients are critical. A correct evaluation of skin toxicity can allow
      for an adequate decision regarding treatment dose or discontinuation, impacting
      therapy response and patient survival.

PMID- 28878838
TI  - Correlation Between Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome and Atopy in Children - Short
      Review.
AB  - The idiopathic nephrotic syndrome is a common chronic kidney diseases in children
      defined by the association of massive proteinuria and hypoalbuminemia in a
      relapsing/remission course, with histological aspect of minimal changes (also
      called minimal change disease) in the majority of the cases, but its pathogenesis
      remains not very well known. Clinical and immunological studies have consistently
      shown a relationship between atopic diathesis, immunoglobulin E and cytokines
      involved in immunoglobulin E synthesis and idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.
      Additional research is necessary to clarify this relationship and to explore the
      contribution of allergic disease to the development of nephrotic syndrome and to
      identify potential new strategies of diagnosis and treatment.

PMID- 28878839
TI  - A Case Report of 9p Deletion Syndrome Associated with Partial Trisomy of 1q42.
AB  - We report a case of partial deletion of 9p with partial trisomy of 1q42 syndrome,
      which is a rare clinical and cytogenetic report. The dysmorphic features of the
      patient include microcephaly, plagiocephaly, trigonocephaly with metopic ridge,
      arched eyebrows, hypertelorism, down-slanting palpebral fissure, ptosis,
      blepharophimosis, unilateral left epicanthic fold, long eyelashes, low-set and
      posteriorly rotated ears, long philtrum, anteverted nares, retrognathia and
      unilateral undescended testis. Chromosomal analysis revealed partial monosomy of
      9p24 associated with partial trisomy of 1q42q>ter.

PMID- 28878840
TI  - Chronic Venous Insufficiency: a Frequently Underdiagnosed and Undertreated
      Pathology.
AB  - The article describes the medical approach of a frequent pathology, chronic
      venous insufficiency. Chronic venous insufficiency requires early diagnosis as
      well as an evaluation of the associated risk factors; also, patients need to
      understand the disease and its treatment, and to become compliant with all their
      physician's recommendations. Importantly, the physician should correctly evaluate
      the disease and decide the best option for the patient. These days, it is crucial
      that the patient benefits from optimal treatment choice in order to prevent
      complications. CVI is a potentially severe pathology that has been underdiagnosed
      and undertreated for a long time and requires patience from the patient as well
      as care from the physician.

PMID- 28878841
TI  - Thyroid Association Ophthalmopathy in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: a Case Report.
AB  - Thyroid associated ophthalmopathy is a constellation of symptoms caused by an
      autoimmune process involving the orbital tissue. It is common in hyperthyroid
      patients due to Graves' disease and also reported in euthyroid and hypothyroid
      Graves' patients with positive thyroid receptor antibodies. But in Hashimoto's
      thyroiditis, thyroid associated ophthalmopathy is a rarely reported and poorly
      understood entity. Here we report thyroid associated ophthalmopathy in a patient
      with hypothyroidism and negative thyroid receptor antibodies who showed
      heterogeneously hypoechoic thyroid gland on ultrasonography, diffuse lymphocytic
      infiltrate on fine needle aspiration citology and reduced 99m Tc radioisotope
      uptake, supporting the diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The patient was
      treated with levothyroxine and artificial tear drops.

PMID- 28878844
TI  - Message from the Editor-in-Chief.

PMID- 28878842
TI  - Efficacy of EZH2 inhibitory drugs in human papillomavirus-positive and human
      papillomavirus-negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most
      prevalent cancer worldwide with rates of HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma (OPSCC) dramatically increasing. The overexpression of enhancer of
      zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), a histone methyltransferase responsible for the
      trimethylation at lysine 27 of histone 3 (H3K27me3), is associated with a poor
      clinical prognosis and aggressive HPV-positive phenotypes. METHODS: We utilized
      three EZH2 pathway inhibitors, GSK-343, DZNeP, and EPZ-5687, and tested their
      efficacy in two HPV-positive and two HPV-negative OPSCC cell lines. RESULTS:
      Treatment with GSK-343 decreased H3K27me3 in all cell lines and treatment with
      DZNeP decreased H3K27me3 in only HPV-negative cell lines as determined by Western
      blot. Cells treated with EPZ-5687 displayed no appreciable change in H3K27me3.
      Epigenetic effect on gene expression was measured via ddPCR utilizing 11 target
      probes. Cells treated with DZNeP showed the most dramatic expressional changes,
      with decreased EGFR in HPV-positive cell lines and an overall increase in
      proliferation markers in HPV-negative cell lines. GSK-343-treated cells displayed
      moderate expressional changes, with CCND1 increased in HPV-positive cell lines
      and decreased TP53 in HPV-negative SCC-1. EPZ-5687-treated cell lines displayed
      few expressional changes overall. Only DZNeP-treated cells displayed anti
      proliferative characteristics shown in wound-healing assays. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings suggest that EZH2 inhibitors are a viable therapeutic option for the
      role of epigenetic effect, potentially sensitizing tumors to current
      chemotherapies or limiting cell differentiation.

PMID- 28878843
TI  - Prognostic relevance of an epigenetic biomarker panel in sentinel lymph nodes
      from colon cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with early colorectal cancer (stages I-II) generally have a
      good prognosis, but a subgroup of 15-20% experiences relapse and eventually die
      of disease. Occult metastases have been suggested as a marker for increased risk
      of recurrence in patients with node-negative disease. Using a previously
      identified, highly accurate epigenetic biomarker panel for early detection of
      colorectal tumors, we aimed at evaluating the prognostic value of occult
      metastases in sentinel lymph nodes of colon cancer patients. RESULTS: The
      biomarker panel was analyzed by quantitative methylation-specific PCR in primary
      tumors and 783 sentinel lymph nodes from 201 patients. The panel status in
      sentinel lymph nodes showed a strong association with lymph node stage (P = 8.2E
      17). Compared with routine lymph node diagnostics, the biomarker panel had a
      sensitivity of 79% (31/39). Interestingly, among 162 patients with negative lymph
      nodes from routine diagnostics, 13 (8%) were positive for the biomarker panel.
      Colon cancer patients with high sentinel lymph node methylation had an inferior
      prognosis (5-year overall survival P = 3.0E-4; time to recurrence P = 3.1E-4),
      although not significant. The same trend was observed in multivariate analyses (P
      = 1.4E-1 and P = 6.7E-2, respectively). Occult sentinel lymph node metastases
      were not detected in early stage (I-II) colon cancer patients who experienced
      relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Colon cancer patients with high sentinel lymph node
      methylation of the analyzed epigenetic biomarker panel had an inferior prognosis,
      although not significant in multivariate analyses. Occult metastases in TNM stage
      II patients that experienced relapse were not detected.

PMID- 28878845
TI  - Influence of Androgen Deprivation Therapy on the Uptake of PSMA-Targeted Agents:
      Emerging Opportunities and Challenges.
AB  - Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is an attractive target for both
      diagnosis and therapy because of its high expression in the vast majority of
      prostate cancers. Development of small molecules for targeting PSMA is important
      for molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy of prostate cancer. Recent
      evidence implies that androgen-deprivation therapy increase PSMA-ligand uptake in
      some cases. The reported upregulations in PSMA-ligand uptake after exposure to
      second-generation antiandrogens such as enzalutamide and abiraterone might
      disturb PSMA-targeted imaging for staging and response monitoring of patients
      undergoing treatment with antiandrogen-based drugs. On the other hand, second
      generation antiandrogens are emerging as potential endoradio-/chemosensitizers.
      Therefore, the enhancement of the therapeutic efficiency of PSMA-targeted
      theranostic methods can be listed as a new capability of antiandrogens. In this
      manuscript, we will present what is currently known about the mechanism of
      increasing PSMA uptake following exposure to antiandrogens. In addition, we will
      discuss whether these above-mentioned antiandrogens could play the role of
      endoradio-/chemosensitizers in combination with the well-established PSMA
      targeted methods for pre-targeting of prostate cancer.

PMID- 28878846
TI  - What Do We Measure in Oncology PET?
AB  - Positron emission tomography (PET) has come to the practice of oncology. It is
      known that 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET is more sensitive for the assessment
      of treatment response than conventional imaging. In addition, PET has an
      advantage in the use of quantitative analysis of the study. Nowadays, various PET
      parameters are adopted in clinical settings. In addition, a wide range of factors
      has been known to be associated with FDG uptake. Therefore, there has been a need
      for standardization and harmonization of protocols and PET parameters. We will
      introduce PET parameters and discuss major issues in this review.

PMID- 28878847
TI  - Potential Clinical Applications of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission
      Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Mammography in Breast Cancer.
AB  - The whole-body positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) scan is
      a cutting edge technology providing comprehensive structural information from MR
      imaging and functional features from PET in a single session. Recent research
      findings and clinical experience have shown that 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)
      whole-body PET/MR imaging has a diagnostic performance comparable with or
      superior to that of PET/CT in the field of oncology, including for breast cancer.
      In particular, FDG PET/MR mammography in the prone position with the breast
      hanging in a pendant manner can provide more comprehensive information about the
      metabolism, anatomy, and functional features of a breast lesion than a whole-body
      PET/MR scan. This article reports on current state-of-the-art PET/MR mammography
      in patients with breast cancer and the prospects for potential application in the
      future.

PMID- 28878848
TI  - Quantification of Contraction Synchronicity and Contraction Work in Coronary
      Artery Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study quantified the contraction synchronicity (CS; with 100%
      representing full synchrony and -100% dyssynchrony) and contraction work (CW,
      millijoules per centimeter squared; representing myocardial area) in patients
      with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) associated with coronary
      artery disease (CAD). METHODS: CS, CW and LVEF in 104 subjects (54 CAD patients
      and 50 control subjects without CAD) were measured using rest electrocardiography
      gated single-photon emission computed tomography (ECG SPECT). Contraction
      amplitude (CA), synchronous contraction index (SCI), and CW were evaluated using
      the program Quantification of Segmental Function by Solving the Poisson Equation
      (QSFP) developed in-house. RESULTS: The mean CA, SCI and CW of 17 segments in the
      control subjects were 33.8 +/- 4.1% (+/-SD), 96.6 +/- 1.4%, and 6.9 +/- 1.0
      mJ/cm2, respectively. In the patients with CAD, the respective values were 26.1
      +/- 7.3%, 82.1 +/- 16.8%, and 5.4 +/- 1.6 mJ/cm2. In the CAD patients with LVEF
      <40% (n = 14), the mean CA, SCI,and CW were 17.9 +/- 4.0%, 63.0 +/- 18.4%, and
      3.5 +/- 1.1 mJ/cm2, respectively. These values were significantly lower than in
      the control subjects (p < 0.005). Using receiver operating characteristic
      analysis, values for the area under the curve showing the performance of CA, CS,
      CW and LVEF in the diagnosis of CAD were 0.81, 0.86, 0.78, and 0.84,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Asynchrony shown using the QSFP is useful for CAD
      detection.

PMID- 28878850
TI  - Difference in F-18 FDG Uptake After Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and Colonoscopy in
      Healthy Sedated Subjects.
AB  - PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate the difference in fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake
      in sedated healthy subjects after they underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD)
      and colonoscopy procedures. METHODS: The endoscopy group (n = 29) included
      healthy subjects who underwent screening via F-18 FDG positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) after an EGD and/or colonoscopy under
      sedation on the same day. The control group (n = 35) included healthy subjects
      who underwent screening via PET/CT only. FDG uptake in the tongue, uvula,
      epiglottis, vocal cords, esophagus, stomach, duodenum, liver, cecum, colon, anus,
      and muscle were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Maximum standardized
      uptake value (SUVmax) in the tongue, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus did not
      significantly differ between the endoscopy and control groups. In contrast, mean
      SUVmax in the whole stomach was 18 % higher in the endoscopy group than in the
      control group (SUVmax: 2.96 vs. 2.51, P = 0.010). In the lower gastrointestinal
      track, SUVmax from the cecum to the rectum was not significantly different
      between the two groups, whereas SUVmax in the anus was 20 % higher in the
      endoscopy group than in the control group (SUVmax: 4.21 vs. 3.50, P = 0.002).
      SUVmax in the liver and muscle was not significantly different between the two
      groups. Mean volume of the stomach and mean cross section of the colon was
      significantly higher in the endoscopy group than in the control group (stomach:
      313.28 cm3 vs. 209.93 cm3, P < 0.001, colon: 8.82 cm2 vs. 5.98 cm2, P = 0.001).
      CONCLUSIONS: EGD and colonoscopy under sedation does not lead to significant
      differences in SUVmax in most parts of the body. Only gastric FDG uptake in the
      EGD subjects and anal FDG uptake in the colonoscopy subjects was higher than
      uptake in those regions in the control subjects.

PMID- 28878849
TI  - Prognostic Value of Tumor-to-Blood Standardized Uptake Ratio in Patients with
      Resectable Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Previously published studies showed that the standard tumor-to-blood
      standardized uptake value (SUV) ratio (SUR) was a more accurate prognostic method
      than tumor maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). This study evaluated and
      compared prognostic value of positron emission tomography (PET) parameters and
      normalized value of PET parameters by blood pool SUV in non-small-cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC) patients who received curative surgery. METHODS: Seventy-seven
      patients who underwent curative resection for NSCLC between January 2010 to
      December 2013 were enrolled in this study. 18Fluorine-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F
      FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) was performed
      before surgery. The mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), SUVmax, metabolic
      tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of each lesion was
      measured, on the workstation. SURmean, SURmax, and TLGSUR were calculated by
      dividing each of them by descending aorta SUVmean. Cox proportional hazards
      regression was used to analyze the effect of age, sex, pathological parameters,
      and PET parameters on recurrence and death. RESULTS: In Cox regression analysis,
      N stage predicted for both recurrence (p < 0.0001) and death (p < 0.0001). SURmax
      predicted recurrence (p = 0.0014), not death. Area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve of SURmax was 0.759 with cutoff value 4.004. However,
      SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV, TLG, SURmean, and TLGSUR predicted neither recurrence nor
      death. CONCLUSIONS: Among PET parameters, SURmax was the independent predictor of
      recurrence in NSCLC patients who received curative surgery. N stage was the
      independent prognostic factor for both recurrence and death. Both parameters
      could be used to stratify the risk of NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28878851
TI  - Clinical Significance of Incidental Focal 18F-FDG Uptake in the Spinal Cord of
      Patients with Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: We investigated the incidence, location, and clinical significance of
      focal 18F-FDG uptake of the spinal cord in patients with cancer. METHODS: We
      reviewed the medical records of 22,937 consecutive adult patients with known or
      suspicious malignancy who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT. PET/CT scans with incidental
      focal spinal cord uptake were selected and retrospectively reviewed to determine
      the presence, location, number, and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of
      any focal hypermetabolic lesions of the spinal cord. In subjects with focal
      spinal uptake, clinical characteristics and clinical follow-up results, including
      follow-up PET/CT, were reviewed. RESULTS: Incidental focal spinal cord uptake was
      observed in 69 of 22,937 adult patients (incidence = 0.3%; M:F = 31:38; age, 55.8
      +/- 14.7 years). Seventy-eight focal hypermetabolic lesions on spinal cord in the
      PET/CT scans of the 69 study subjects were analyzed. The most common sites of
      focal spinal cord uptake were the T12 vertebra (47/78; 60.3%) and L1 vertebra
      (20/78; 25.6%). Multifocal cord uptake was found in 8 of 69 patients (11.6%). The
      average SUVmax for cord uptake was 2.5 +/- 0.5 (range, 1.4~3.9). There was no
      clinical or imaging evidence of abnormalities in the spinal cord, both at the
      time of PET/CT and during clinical follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Although incidental
      focal 18F-FDG uptake of the spinal cord is rare in patients with cancer, it may
      be physiological or benign, but it should not be considered as malignant
      involvement. Common sites for the uptake were in the T12 and L1 spine levels.

PMID- 28878852
TI  - Potential Adjunctive Role of Radiosynovectomy in Primary Synovial
      Osteochondromatosis of the Knee: A Case Report.
AB  - Primary synovial osteochondromatosis (PSOC) is a rare but clinically significant
      cause of morbidity especially in the male population. Surgery is the primary
      treatment of choice, but the recurrence rate is reported to be high. Moreover,
      the presence of widespread loose bodies makes it a cumbersome procedure. The
      complete removal of the disease is tough at times and results in early
      recurrence. Radiosynovectomy is an established technique for treating various
      joint arthropathies. The role of radiosynovectomy in case of PSOC has not yet
      been explored. This case report described the case of a young male with PSOC of
      the knee joint who was treated with radiosynovectomy for pain relief. The patient
      reported complete relief from the pain along with significant improvement in
      joint mobility. The post-therapy three-phase bone scan also validated the
      reduction in joint inflammation. The patient was taken for surgical removal of
      the redundant loose bodies after a significant improvement in the pain and
      reduction in inflammation. Post-therapy radiation fibrosis of the synovium also
      helped in the en bloc removal of the disease. The role of radiosynovectomy in
      PSOC needs to be further explored concerning its potential role as an adjuvant to
      surgical procedures.

PMID- 28878853
TI  - Bilateral Renal Metastasis of Hurthle Cell Thyroid Cancer with Discordant Uptake
      Between I-131 Sodium Iodide and F-18 FDG.
AB  - Renal metastasis of thyroid cancer is extremely rare. We report the case of a 62
      year-old woman with Hurthle cell thyroid cancer (HCTC) with lungs, bones, and
      bilateral kidneys metastases. The renal metastatic lesions were clearly
      demonstrated by 131I whole body scan (WBS) with SPECT/CT. However, they exhibited
      false-negative results in 18F-FDG PET/CT, kidney ultrasonography, and contrast
      enhanced CT scan. The findings imply that tumors have low glucose metabolism and
      are able to accumulate radioiodine, which is not commonly found in the relatively
      aggressive nature of HCTC. The patient received two sessions of 200 mCi 131I
      therapy within 6 months duration. There was complete treatment response as
      evaluated by the second post-therapeutic 131I SPECT/CT and serum thyroglobulin.
      To our knowledge, renal metastasis from HCTC with positive 131I but negative 18F
      FDG uptake has not been reported in the literature. This case suggests that 131I
      SPECT/CT is useful for lesion localization and prediction of 131I therapy
      response.

PMID- 28878854
TI  - Composite Cutaneous Lymphoma (Iatrogenic Immunodeficiency-Associated
      Lymphoproliferative Disorder) in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with
      Methotrexate: Staging and Evaluation of Response to Therapy with 18F-FDG PET/CT.
AB  - A 67 year old woman with a 10 year history of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated
      with methotrexate and prednisone, presented with a 2 year history of worsening
      multiple cutaneous plaques of variable appearance. Two distinct skin lesions were
      biopsied to reveal a composite cutaneous lymphoma, possibly caused by long term
      methotrexate therapy. An [18F] fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) positron
      emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) was performed to stage the
      malignancy, and was later repeated to evaluate response to chemotherapy, which
      guided subsequent management. We present the PET/CT imaging findings of this very
      rare iatrogenic (methotrexate induced) immunodeficiency-associated
      lymphoproliferative disorder.

PMID- 28878855
TI  - Incidentally Detected Small Intestine Intussusception Caused by Primary Small
      Intestine Carcinoma on 18F-FDG PET/CT.
AB  - Small intestine intussusception in adults is a rare condition mainly caused by
      primary or metastatic small intestine malignancy. Here, we present a 72-year-old
      male patient who was diagnosed with small intestine cancer that was presented as
      small intestine intussusception on hybrid 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron
      emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT). The patient was initially
      referred for an abnormality on a chest radiography and severe anemia. FDG PET/CT
      showed the lung lesion in the right upper lobe of lung as a high FDG uptake mass.
      Accidentally, FDG PET demonstrated another intense hypermetabolic intraluminal
      lesion in the small intestine accompanied with intussusception shown as a
      circumferential hypermetabolic wall. By pathologic examination, the patient was
      diagnosed as primary small intestine cancer with lung metastasis. This case
      highlights usefulness of hybrid FDG PET/CT to identify unexpected malignancy.

PMID- 28878856
TI  - 68Gallium-Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic Acid and 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron
      Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography in Chondroblastic Osteosarcoma of the
      Skull.
AB  - We report the case of a 32 year-old male with Chondroblastic Osteosarcoma of the
      skull, which was imaged with both 18[F]fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron
      emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and 68Gallium-arginine-glycine
      aspartic acid (68Ga-RGD) PET/CT. The 18F-FDG PET/CT did not demonstrate the
      tumour, whereas the 68Ga-RGD PET/CT clearly depicted a left-sided frontal tumour.
      68Ga-RGD PET/CT may be a clinically useful imaging modality for early detection
      of recurrent osteosarcoma, considering the limitations of 18F-FDG PET in a
      setting of low glycolytic activity.

PMID- 28878857
TI  - Unusual Soft Tissue Uptake of F-18 Sodium Fluoride in Three Patients Undergoing F
      18 NaF PET/CT Bone Scans for Prostate Cancer.
AB  - Three males aged 71 to 80 years with known stage IV metastatic prostate cancer
      underwent F-18 sodium fluoride (NaF) PET/CT to assess osseous metastatic disease
      burden and stability. In addition to F-18 NaF avid known osseous metastases, each
      patient also exhibited increased F-18 NaF activity in soft tissues. The first
      patient exhibited multiple F-18 NaF avid enlarged retroperitoneal and pelvic
      lymph nodes on consecutive PET/CT scans. The second patient demonstrated an F-18
      NaF avid thyroid nodule on consecutive PET/CT scans. The third patient exhibited
      increased F-18 NaF activity in a hepatic metastasis.

PMID- 28878858
TI  - 18F-FDG PET/CT Imaging of Pulmonary Mucinous Cystadenocarcinoma with Signet Ring
      Cells.
AB  - A 63-year-old male with a recently diagnosed right lung lesion was referred for
      staging. F-FDG PET/CT scan revealed a hypodense, cystic-like mass in the right
      upper lung lobe, which demonstrated low, diffuse 18F-FDG uptake, likely due to
      the presence of mucus, as well as intensely hypermetabolic right hilar and right
      paratracheal lymph nodes. Transbronchial biopsy revealed a primary pulmonary
      mucinous cystadenocarcinoma with the presence of signet ring cell carcinoma, a co
      existence of two rare variants of lung adenocarcinoma. This case report
      demonstrates the metabolic phenotype along with the radiographic characteristics
      of this rare tumor and its metastases.

PMID- 28878859
TI  - Radioprotective activity of blackcurrant extract evaluated by in vitro
      micronucleus and gene mutation assays in TK6 human lymphoblastoid cells.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Blackcurrant (Ribs nigrum L.) is a classical fruit that has long
      been used to prepare juice, jam, liqueur, and sometimes medicines in Europe.
      Previously, we reported a genome defense effect by the antioxidative activity of
      several types of blackcurrant extracts (BCEs) in yeast and human cell gene
      mutation assays. In this study, we determined if BCE exerted radioprotective
      activity against DNA damage, chromosomal aberration, and gene mutations in the
      TK6 human lymphoblastoid cell line. We prepared aqueous BCE extracted from mature
      fruits cultivated in the Aomori Prefecture, Japan. FINDINGS: In the micronucleus
      test and TK gene mutation assay, TK6 cells were irradiated with 0, 0.125, 0.250,
      0.500, and 1.000 Gy with or without 1.0 mg/mL BCE. Intracellular hydrogen
      peroxide (H2O2) was measured using the fluorescent probe BES-H2O2-Ac. Induction
      of micronuclei and gene mutations by gamma-irradiation exposure was suppressed in
      combination with BCE. In addition, BCE reduced intracellular H2O2 levels caused
      by gamma-irradiation. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings clearly support the genome
      defense potential of blackcurrant against gamma-induced DNA damage. We postulate
      that these genome defense activities are related to the antioxidant compounds in
      blackcurrant.

PMID- 28878860
TI  - Draft genome sequences of two opportunistic pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus
      cohnii isolated from human patients.
AB  - Herein, we report the draft-genome sequences and annotation of two opportunistic
      pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus cohnii isolated from humans. One strain (SC
      57) was isolated from blood from a male patient in May 2006 and the other (SC
      532) from a catheter from a male patient in June 2006. Similar to other genomes
      of Staphylococcus species, most genes (42%) of both strains are involved in
      metabolism of amino acids and derivatives, carbohydrates and proteins. Eighty
      (4%) genes are involved in virulence, disease, and defense and both species show
      phenotypic low biofilm production and evidence of increased antibiotic resistance
      associated to biofilm production. From both isolates, a new Staphylococcal
      Cassette Chromosome mec was detected: mec class A, ccr type 1. This is the first
      report of whole genome sequences of opportunistic S. cohnii isolated from human
      patients.

PMID- 28878861
TI  - Genome sequence of the sulfur-oxidizing Bathymodiolus thermophilus gill
      endosymbiont.
AB  - Bathymodiolus thermophilus, a mytilid mussel inhabiting the deep-sea hydrothermal
      vents of the East Pacific Rise, lives in symbiosis with chemosynthetic
      Gammaproteobacteria within its gills. The intracellular symbiont population
      synthesizes nutrients for the bivalve host using the reduced sulfur compounds
      emanating from the vents as energy source. As the symbiont is uncultured,
      comprehensive and detailed insights into its metabolism and its interactions with
      the host can only be obtained from culture-independent approaches such as
      genomics and proteomics. In this study, we report the first draft genome sequence
      of the sulfur-oxidizing symbiont of B. thermophilus, here tentatively named
      Candidatus Thioglobus thermophilus. The draft genome (3.1 Mb) harbors 3045
      protein-coding genes. It revealed pathways for the use of sulfide and thiosulfate
      as energy sources and encodes the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle for CO2 fixation.
      Enzymes required for the synthesis of the tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates
      oxaloacetate and succinate were absent, suggesting that these intermediates may
      be substituted by metabolites from external sources. We also detected a
      repertoire of genes associated with cell surface adhesion, bacteriotoxicity and
      phage immunity, which may perform symbiosis-specific roles in the B. thermophilus
      symbiosis.

PMID- 28878862
TI  - Permanent draft genome sequence of Frankia sp. NRRL B-16219 reveals the presence
      of canonical nod genes, which are highly homologous to those detected in
      Candidatus Frankia Dg1 genome.
AB  - Frankia sp. NRRL B-16219 was directly isolated from a soil sample obtained from
      the rhizosphere of Ceanothus jepsonii growing in the USA. Its host plant range
      includes members of Elaeagnaceae species. Phylogenetically, strain NRRL B-16219
      is closely related to "Frankia discariae" with a 16S rRNA gene similarity of
      99.78%. Because of the lack of genetic tools for Frankia, our understanding of
      the bacterial signals involved during the plant infection process and the
      development of actinorhizal root nodules is very limited. Since the first three
      Frankia genomes were sequenced, additional genome sequences covering more diverse
      strains have helped provide insight into the depth of the pangenome and attempts
      to identify bacterial signaling molecules like the rhizobial canonical nod genes.
      The genome sequence of Frankia sp. strain NRRL B-16219 was generated and
      assembled into 289 contigs containing 8,032,739 bp with 71.7% GC content.
      Annotation of the genome identified 6211 protein-coding genes, 561 pseudogenes,
      1758 hypothetical proteins and 53 RNA genes including 4 rRNA genes. The NRRL B
      16219 draft genome contained genes homologous to the rhizobial common nodulation
      genes clustered in two areas. The first cluster contains nodACIJH genes whereas
      the second has nodAB and nodH genes in the upstream region. Phylogenetic analysis
      shows that Frankia nod genes are more deeply rooted than their sister groups from
      rhizobia. PCR-sequencing suggested the widespread occurrence of highly homologous
      nodA and nodB genes in microsymbionts of field collected Ceanothus americanus.

PMID- 28878863
TI  - Innate lymphoid cells in tissue homeostasis and diseases.
AB  - Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are the most recently discovered family of innate
      immune cells. They are a part of the innate immune system, but develop from the
      lymphoid lineage. They lack pattern-recognition receptors and rearranged
      receptors, and therefore cannot directly mediate antigen specific responses. The
      progenitors specifically associated with the ILCs lineage have been uncovered,
      enabling the distinction between ILCs and natural killer cells. Based on the
      requirement of specific transcription factors and their patterns of cytokine
      production, ILCs are categorized into three subsets (ILC1, ILC2 and ILC3). First
      observed in mucosal surfaces, these cell populations interact with hematopoietic
      and non-hematopoietic cells throughout the body during homeostasis and diseases,
      promoting immunity, commensal microbiota tolerance, tissue repair and
      inflammation. Over the last 8 years, ILCs came into the spotlight as an essential
      cell type able to integrate diverse host immune responses. Recently, it became
      known that ILC subsets play a key role in immune responses at barrier surfaces,
      interacting with the microbiota, nutrients and metabolites. Since the liver
      receives the venous blood directly from the intestinal vein, the intestine and
      liver are essential to maintain tolerance and can rapidly respond to infections
      or tissue damage. Therefore, in this review, we discuss recent findings regarding
      ILC functions in homeostasis and disease, with a focus on the intestine and
      liver.

PMID- 28878865
TI  - MicroRNAs and clinical implications in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - AIM: To assess the role of some circulating miRNAs (miR-23a, miR-203, miR338, miR
      34, and miR-16) as tumor markers for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      METHODS: One hundred and seventy-one subjects were enrolled, 57 patients with
      HCC, 57 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) and 57 healthy subjects as control
      group. Severity of liver disease was assessed by Child Pugh score. Tumor staging
      was done using Okuda staging system. Quantification of Micro RNA (miR-23a, miR
      203, miR338, miR-34, and miR-16) was performed. RESULTS: All studied miRNA showed
      significant difference between HCC and cirrhotic patients in comparison to
      healthy control. miR-23a showed statistically significant difference between HCC
      and cirrhotic patients being higher in HCC group than cirrhotic. miR-23a is
      significantly higher in HCC patients with focal lesion size equal or more than 5
      cm, patients with multiple focal lesions and Okuda stage III. At cutoff value >=
      210, miR-23a showed accuracy 79.3% to diagnose HCC patients with sensitivity
      89.47% and specificity about 64.91%. At cut off level >= 200 ng/mL, serum alpha
      fetoprotein had 73.68% sensitivity, 52.63% specificity, 43.75% PPV, 80% NPV for
      diagnosis of HCC. CONCLUSION: MicroRNA 23a can be used as a screening test for
      early detection of HCC. Also, it is related to larger size of tumour, late Okuda
      staging and multiple hepatic focal lesions, so it might be a prognostic
      biomarker.

PMID- 28878866
TI  - Association of autoimmune hepatitis type 1 in a child with Evans syndrome.
AB  - Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a progressive liver disease that is often
      associated with extrahepatic autoimmune disorders. Evans syndrome (ES) is a rare
      autoimmune disorder, which is characterized by immune thrombocytopenia and
      autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Association of AIH with ES is rare, especially in
      children. We report a 3-year-old female with a past medical history of ES who
      presented with jaundice and significant transaminitis due to AIH type 1. She
      required multiple treatments with steroids as well as azathioprine, intravenous
      immunoglobulin and a course of rituximab.

PMID- 28878864
TI  - Use of everolimus in liver transplantation.
AB  - In recent years, the use of mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors has gained
      traction in their use as alternative or adjunct immunosuppressants in the post
      liver transplantation (LT) setting. The efficacy of everolimus (EVR) in de novo
      LT is established and a reasonable time to initiate EVR is 30 d from LT surgery.
      Initiating EVR early post-LT allows for calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) reduction,
      thus reducing nephrotoxicity in LT recipients. However, data is inadequate on the
      appropriate timing for conversion from CNI to EVR maintenance in order to achieve
      optimal renoprotective effect without compromising drug efficacy. Adverse effects
      of proteinuria, hypercholesterolemia and hyperlipidemia are significantly higher
      as compared to standard CNI and long-term implications on graft and patient
      survival in LT is still unclear. Future research to explore strategies to
      minimise EVR adverse effects will be crucial for the success of EVR as an
      important alternative or adjunct immunosuppressive therapy in LT.

PMID- 28878867
TI  - Prevalence of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Esophagus in a Single Tertiary
      Center of South Africa: A Cross Sectional Analytic Study.
AB  - The incidence of esophageal cancer varies widely in the world. In the Middle
      East, Africa, and Asia and parts of Europe, squamous cell carcinoma of the
      esophagus dominates the esophageal cancer landscape. Worldwide the rates are
      highest in Northern China, South Africa, Turkey and Iran. In the United States,
      the black population has a five-fold higher incidence of esophageal squamous cell
      carcinoma than the white population. To determine the prevalence of squamous cell
      carcinoma of the esophagus in a single tertiary center in South Africa. Patients
      referred to Gastroenterology Division of Steve Biko Academic Hospital for upper
      gastrointestinal endoscopy were recruited. Those with a known diagnoses of
      squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus were recorded and those with suspicious
      lesions had biopsies done. These were then evaluated by an experienced
      histopathologist. 6118 patients were recruited. Squamous cell carcinoma was found
      in 59 patients giving us a prevalence of 0.96% 95%CI. The cancer was found mainly
      in back elderly males. The prevalence of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus
      in this single center study is 0.96%, 95% confidence interval and is a disease of
      black elderly males as seen elsewhere. Bigger multicenter studies are needed to
      further clarify this findings.

PMID- 28878868
TI  - HIV Testing and Risk Perceptions: A Qualitative Analysis of Secondary School
      Students in Kampala, Uganda.
AB  - The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of self-reported HIV
      testing and risk behavior among sexually active adolescents and youth in
      secondary schools in Kampala Uganda. This was a cross-sectional survey conducted
      between June and October 2010 among secondary school students in Kampala, Uganda.
      Forty eight (48) students across the 54 schools were purposively selected for the
      qualitative sub-study based on their responses to particular questions. We
      thematically analyzed 28 interviews for our qualitative study using Nvivo
      software. Drug and alcohol use coupled with peers pressure impaired students'
      perceptions towards HIV risk and therefore increased their susceptibility to HIV
      risk behaviors. Of the 28 scripts analyzed, 82% (23/28) had ever had sexual
      partners, 79% (22/28) were currently sexually active, and 57% (16/28) had ever
      been tested for HIV. In conclusion, most adolescents interviewed did not perceive
      HIV testing to be important to HIV prevention and reported low perception of
      susceptibility to HIV infection. Development of an adolescent HIV prevention
      model is important in improving uptake of HIV services.

PMID- 28878869
TI  - The Mortality of Ill Infants with False Tooth Extraction in a Rural Ugandan
      Emergency Department.
AB  - False tooth extraction (FTE), a cultural practice in East Africa used to treat
      fever and diarrhea in infants, has been thought to increase infant mortality. The
      mortality of clinically similar infants with and without false tooth extraction
      has not previously been examined. The objective of our retrospective cohort study
      was to examine the mortality, clinical presentation, and treatment of infants
      with and without false tooth extraction. We conducted a retrospective chart
      review of records of infants with diarrhea, sepsis, dehydration, and fever in a
      rural Ugandan emergency department. Univariate analysis was used to test
      statistical significance. We found the mortality of infants with false tooth
      extraction (FTE+) was 18% and without false tooth extraction (FTE-) was 14%
      (P=0.22). The FTE+ study group, and FTE- comparison group, had similar
      proportions of infants with abnormal heart rate and with hypoxia. There was a
      significant difference in the portion of infants that received antibiotics
      (P=0.001), and fluid bolus (P=0.002). Although FTE+ infants had clinically
      similar ED presentations to FTE- infants, the FTE+ infants were significantly
      more likely to receive emergency department interventions, and had a higher
      mortality than FTE- infants.

PMID- 28878870
TI  - Determinants of Knowledge and Safety Practices of Occupational Hazards of Textile
      Dye Workers in Sokoto, Nigeria: A Descriptive Analytic Study.
AB  - Textile dye workers are subject to occupational hazards on a daily basis due to
      exposure to precarious conditions in the workplace. This study aimed to assess
      the knowledge, attitude and safety practices and its determinants among textile
      dye workers in Sokoto metropolis, Nigeria. This is a descriptive cross-sectional
      study conducted among 200 textile dye workers and the respondents were selected
      by multi stage sampling technique. Data was collected using an interviewer
      administered questionnaire. Data was processed using SPSS IBM version 20 and
      analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Majority of the
      respondents (74.0%) had good knowledge of workplace hazards; (81.0%) had positive
      attitude and only 20% observed all the safety practices. Formal education
      (P=0.047); working less than 5 days a week (P=0.001) and permanent employment
      (P=0.013) were found to be determinants of respondents' knowledge and attitude
      towards workplace hazards. Although the respondents had good knowledge and
      positive attitude, their lack of observance of safety practices brings to fore
      the need for direct safety instruction and training and retraining of textile dye
      workers on workplace hazards and safety practices.

PMID- 28878871
TI  - A Behavioral and Serological Survey on HIV Prevalence Among Prisoners in Benin.
AB  - Cases of HIV are common in Benin, with infection rates varying according to
      socioeconomic and cultural factors, and by region. Certain segments of the
      population, such as prison inmates, sex worker clients and truck drivers are at
      high risk for HIV/AIDS. The aim of this study is to identify which behavioral and
      serological indicators contribute to the spread of HIV among prisoners. A total
      of 496 inmates from prisons located in all major cities in Benin were surveyed.
      Data was collected through interview sessions carried out using a questionnaire
      and through blood samples. The results show that most inmates are Beninese
      (83.5%), and the average age is 33 years (range: 14-80 years). No prisoner
      reported using a condom the last time they engaged in sexual intercourse. Blood
      exposure was found in 14.6% of inmates and HIV was detected in 1.4% of cases. Our
      analysis indicates that the length of detention and gender are factors that
      influence HIV status. However, age, education, nationality and HIV awareness had
      no significant effect on HIV prevalence among inmates. The results highlight the
      need to raise awareness in prisons about HIV. This can be achieved by
      strengthening communication strategies and by organizing HIV and sexually
      transmitted diseases information sessions for both prison officers and inmates.

PMID- 28878872
TI  - Quantum crystallography.
AB  - Approximate wavefunctions can be improved by constraining them to reproduce
      observations derived from diffraction and scattering experiments. Conversely,
      charge density models, incorporating electron-density distributions, atomic
      positions and atomic motion, can be improved by supplementing diffraction
      experiments with quantum chemically calculated, tailor-made electron densities
      (form factors). In both cases quantum chemistry and diffraction/scattering
      experiments are combined into a single, integrated tool. The development of
      quantum crystallographic research is reviewed. Some results obtained by quantum
      crystallography illustrate the potential and limitations of this field.

PMID- 28878876
TI  - An unusual case of disappearing bone disease in the mandible and literature
      review.
AB  - Disappearing bone disease is a rare disorder that causes spontaneous and
      progressive osteolysis and proliferation of lymphatic tissue and blood vessels.
      It is debilitating and there is evidence of mortality in reported cases including
      those affecting mandible. A 38-year-old man was diagnosed with disappearing bone
      disease of the mandible in 2013. This had progressed from being in the right
      ramus only, and now extends to the lower right first molar and affects the left
      coronoid process and ramus. Mandibular involvement has shown to be high-risk. In
      older patients, misdiagnosis can occur without thorough investigation, and
      education of clinicians needs to be paramount to provide the appropriate
      treatment for this rare condition. The disease can be debilitating and as such
      education and support of patients is essential.

PMID- 28878874
TI  - PaxA, but not PaxC, is required for cnidocyte development in the sea anemone
      Nematostella vectensis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pax genes are a family of conserved transcription factors that
      regulate many aspects of developmental morphogenesis, notably the development of
      ectodermal sensory structures including eyes. Nematostella vectensis, the starlet
      sea anemone, has numerous Pax orthologs, many of which are expressed early during
      embryogenesis. The function of Pax genes in this eyeless cnidarian is unknown.
      RESULTS: Here, we show that PaxA, but not PaxC, plays a critical role in the
      development of cnidocytes in N. vectensis. Knockdown of PaxA results in a loss of
      developing cnidocytes and downregulation of numerous cnidocyte-specific genes,
      including a variant of the transcription factor Mef2. We also demonstrate that
      the co-expression of Mef2 in a subset of the PaxA-expressing cells is associated
      with the development with a second lineage of cnidocytes and show that knockdown
      of the neural progenitor gene SoxB2 results in downregulation of expression of
      PaxA, Mef2, and several cnidocyte-specific genes. Because PaxA is not co
      expressed with SoxB2 at any time during cnidocyte development, we propose a
      simple model for cnidogenesis whereby a SoxB2-expressing progenitor cell
      population undergoes division to give rise to PaxA-expressing cnidocytes, some of
      which also express Mef2. DISCUSSION: The role of PaxA in cnidocyte development
      among hydrozoans has not been studied, but the conserved role of SoxB2 in
      regulating the fate of a progenitor cell that gives rise to neurons and
      cnidocytes in Nematostella and Hydractinia echinata suggests that this SoxB2/PaxA
      pathway may well be conserved across cnidarians.

PMID- 28878873
TI  - Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) as a model for studying inhibition of protein
      protein interactions.
AB  - The modulation of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) represents a major
      challenge in modern chemical biology. Current approaches (e.g. high-throughput
      screening, computer aided ligand design) are recognised as having limitations in
      terms of identification of hit matter. Considerable success has been achieved in
      terms of developing new approaches to PPI modulator discovery using the p53/hDM2
      and Bcl-2 family of PPIs. However these important targets in oncology might be
      considered as "low-hanging-fruit". Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) is an emerging,
      but not yet fully validated target for cancer chemotherapy. Its role is to
      regulate the hypoxic response and it does so through a plethora of protein
      protein interactions of varying topology, topography and complexity: its
      modulation represents an attractive approach to prevent development of new
      vasculature by hypoxic tumours.

PMID- 28878877
TI  - Multiple small intestinal perforations in a patient with Hepatitis B Virus
      associated Polyarteritis Nodosa.
AB  - We present the case of a 38-year-old patient with a history of Hepatitis B Virus
      associated Polyarteritis Nodosa, who presented with acute abdomen and septic
      shock. The patient initially had three perforations of the small intestine that
      were treated with segmental enterectomy and anastomosis at two sites. During his
      postoperative course he continued to develop new perforations and necrotic
      lesions along the whole length of the small intestine, that mandated repetitive
      laparotomies and the technique of the open abdomen was employed. Despite the
      aggressive surgical treatment and the medical treatment with corticosteroids,
      cyclophosphamide and plasma exchanges, the patient died 15 days after the first
      operation due to septic shock and multiple organ failure.

PMID- 28878878
TI  - Successful treatment of aortic root dissection complicated with extensive
      myocardial infarction using the total artificial heart.
AB  - Acute Type A aortic dissection is a surgical emergency. Urgent repair is
      indicated to avoid complications such as acute aortic insufficiency, coronary
      ischemia and aortic rupture with cardiac tamponade. This report details the
      management of a patient with acute Type A aortic dissection complicated by an
      extensive anterolateral myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock who was
      successfully bridged to transplantation with a total artificial heart.

PMID- 28878879
TI  - If I had a hammer.
AB  - We present the case of a 64-year-old man who was referred to our service after
      sustaining a self-inflicted nail-gun injury to his chest. He received three nails
      penetrated into his chest. Computer tomography revealed no massive haemorrhage or
      damage to major vessels. He underwent an emergency sternotomy, two nails caused
      pericardial perforation and myocardial injury were noted easily and removed
      easily via sternotomy. Myocardial injury showed a trajectory near the junction of
      the left anterior descending artery and the diagonal artery with no significant
      bleeding appreciated. The third nail was deep in the lung parenchyma at the
      hilum. A pacemaker magnet was used to locate the third nail, which was
      subsequently removed. Our case demonstrates the use of magnets in emergency
      surgery, to locate and remove metallic foreign bodies.

PMID- 28878880
TI  - Greater saphenous vein anomaly and aneurysm with subsequent pulmonary embolism.
AB  - Venous aneurysms often present as painful masses. They can present either in the
      deep or superficial venous system. Deep venous system aneurysms have a greater
      risk of thromboembolism. Though rare, there have been case reports of superficial
      aneurysms and thrombus causing significant morbidity such as pulmonary embolism.
      We present a case of an anomalous greater saphenous vein connection with an
      aneurysm and thrombus resulting in a pulmonary embolism. This is the only
      reported case of an anomalous greater saphenous vein connection with aneurysm and
      thrombus, which eventually led to a pulmonary embolism. Recognition of the
      morbidity and mortality associated with superficial venous aneurysms can help
      prevent catastrophic outcomes such as pulmonary embolism. Surgical intervention
      on large symptomatic superficial venous aneurysms may be the optimal treatment in
      preventing unwanted complications compared to anticoagulation alone.

PMID- 28878881
TI  - Tracking low back pain in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: a prospective cohort
      study protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous methodological limitations have constrained the findings of
      previous studies that have examined the prevalence of low back pain in
      adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. This article presents a study protocol
      that has been designed to address the shortcomings of prior research in this
      area. In addition, it will establish the level of disease burden associated with
      acute, recurrent, and chronic low back pain in adolescents with idiopathic
      scoliosis. METHODS: This study will involve a prospective cohort of adolescents
      with idiopathic scoliosis presenting to an outpatient department in a paediatric
      hospital. Potential participants will be eligible for inclusion if they are aged
      10-17 years, experience adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, own a mobile phone, and
      are able to communicate in either French or English adequately. The primary
      outcome measure is the presence of low back pain. The secondary outcome will be
      measures with the Brief Pain Questionnaire and the PedsQL questionnaire.
      Participants will be followed over a 12-month period reporting weekly, via SMS
      tracking. DISCUSSION: Previous studies frequently established the prevalence of
      low back pain through asking participants to recall whether they experienced low
      back pain over certain periods. These periods often extended beyond many months,
      and hence were subject to recall bias. Our study addresses such bias through
      gathering data on a weekly basis using SMS-tracking providing detailed
      information about the progression of low back pain, which allows researchers to
      establish the prevalence of acute, recurrent, and chronic low back pain with a
      better certainty. Furthermore, the previous studies failed to use a standardised
      definition of low back pain. As such, it is not possible to determine whether the
      reported low back pain was experienced at the following standardised defined
      location: "pain in the space between the lower posterior margin of the rib cage
      and the horizontal gluteal fold". CONCLUSION: This research protocol will be the
      first study to determine the proportion of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis
      who experience acute, recurrent, and chronic low back pain, and establish the
      level of the burden associated with these subgroups of low back pain.

PMID- 25901276
TI  - Long read nanopore sequencing for detection of HLA and CYP2D6 variants and
      haplotypes.
AB  - Haplotypes are often critical for the interpretation of genetic laboratory
      observations into medically actionable findings. Current massively parallel DNA
      sequencing technologies produce short sequence reads that are often unable to
      resolve haplotype information. Phasing short read data typically requires
      supplemental statistical phasing based on known haplotype structure in the
      population or parental genotypic data. Here we demonstrate that the MinION
      nanopore sequencer is capable of producing very long reads to resolve both
      variants and haplotypes of HLA-A, HLA-B and CYP2D6 genes important in determining
      patient drug response in sample NA12878 of CEPH/UTAH pedigree 1463, without the
      need for statistical phasing. Long read data from a single 24-hour nanopore
      sequencing run was used to reconstruct haplotypes, which were confirmed by HapMap
      data and statistically phased Complete Genomics and Sequenom genotypes. Our
      results demonstrate that nanopore sequencing is an emerging standalone technology
      with potential utility in a clinical environment to aid in medical decision
      making.

PMID- 26478812
TI  - Ligand uptake in Mycobacterium tuberculosis truncated hemoglobins is controlled
      by both internal tunnels and active site water molecules.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of human tuberculosis, has two
      proteins belonging to the truncated hemoglobin (trHb) family. Mt-trHbN presents
      well-defined internal hydrophobic tunnels that allow O 2 and *NO to migrate
      easily from the solvent to the active site, whereas Mt-trHbO possesses tunnels
      interrupted by a few bulky residues, particularly a tryptophan at position G8.
      Differential ligand migration rates allow Mt-trHbN to detoxify *NO, a crucial
      step for pathogen survival once under attack by the immune system, much more
      efficiently than Mt-trHbO. In order to investigate the differences between these
      proteins, we performed experimental kinetic measurements, *NO decomposition, as
      well as molecular dynamics simulations of the wild type Mt-trHbN and two mutants,
      VG8F and VG8W. These mutations affect both the tunnels accessibility as well as
      the affinity of distal site water molecules, thus modifying the ligand access to
      the iron. We found that a single mutation allows Mt-trHbN to acquire ligand
      migration rates comparable to those observed for Mt-trHbO, confirming that ligand
      migration is regulated by the internal tunnel architecture as well as by water
      molecules stabilized in the active site.

PMID- 26448859
TI  - Theoretical modelling of epigenetically modified DNA sequences.
AB  - We report herein a set of calculations designed to examine the effects of
      epigenetic modifications on the structure of DNA. The incorporation of methyl,
      hydroxymethyl, formyl and carboxy substituents at the 5-position of cytosine is
      shown to hardly affect the geometry of CG base pairs, but to result in rather
      larger changes to hydrogen-bond and stacking binding energies, as predicted by
      dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) methods. The same
      modifications within double-stranded GCG and ACA trimers exhibit rather larger
      structural effects, when including the sugar-phosphate backbone as well as sodium
      counterions and implicit aqueous solvation. In particular, changes are observed
      in the buckle and propeller angles within base pairs and the slide and roll
      values of base pair steps, but these leave the overall helical shape of DNA
      essentially intact. The structures so obtained are useful as a benchmark of
      faster methods, including molecular mechanics (MM) and hybrid quantum
      mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods. We show that previously developed
      MM parameters satisfactorily reproduce the trimer structures, as do QM/MM
      calculations which treat bases with dispersion-corrected DFT and the sugar
      phosphate backbone with AMBER. The latter are improved by inclusion of all six
      bases in the QM region, since a truncated model including only the central CG
      base pair in the QM region is considerably further from the DFT structure. This
      QM/MM method is then applied to a set of double-stranded DNA heptamers derived
      from a recent X-ray crystallographic study, whose size puts a DFT study beyond
      our current computational resources. These data show that still larger structural
      changes are observed than in base pairs or trimers, leading us to conclude that
      it is important to model epigenetic modifications within realistic molecular
      contexts.

PMID- 26167275
TI  - Longitudinal variations of brain functional connectivity: A case report study
      based on a mouse model of epilepsy.
AB  - Brain Functional Connectivity (FC) quantifies statistical dependencies between
      areas of the brain. FC has been widely used to address altered function of brain
      circuits in control conditions compared to different pathological states,
      including epilepsy, a major neurological disorder. However, FC also has the as
      yet unexplored potential to help us understand the pathological transformation of
      the brain circuitry. Our hypothesis is that FC can differentiate global brain
      interactions across a time-scale of days. To this end, we present a case report
      study based on a mouse model for epilepsy and analyze longitudinal intracranial
      electroencephalography data of epilepsy to calculate FC changes from the initial
      insult (status epilepticus) and over the latent period, when epileptogenic
      networks emerge, and at chronic epilepsy, when unprovoked seizures occur as
      spontaneous events. We found that the overall network FC at low frequency bands
      decreased immediately after status epilepticus was provoked, and increased
      monotonously later on during the latent period. Overall, our results demonstrate
      the capacity of FC to address longitudinal variations of brain connectivity
      across the establishment of pathological states.

PMID- 26339477
TI  - Intracellular Dynamics of the Ubiquitin-Proteasome-System.
AB  - The ubiquitin-proteasome system is the major degradation pathway for short-lived
      proteins in eukaryotic cells. Targets of the ubiquitin-proteasome-system are
      proteins regulating a broad range of cellular processes including cell cycle
      progression, gene expression, the quality control of proteostasis and the
      response to geno- and proteotoxic stress. Prior to degradation, the proteasomal
      substrate is marked with a poly-ubiquitin chain. The key protease of the
      ubiquitin system is the proteasome. In dividing cells, proteasomes exist as holo
      enzymes composed of regulatory and core particles. The regulatory complex confers
      ubiquitin-recognition and ATP dependence on proteasomal protein degradation. The
      catalytic sites are located in the proteasome core particle. Proteasome holo
      enzymes are predominantly nuclear suggesting a major requirement for proteasomal
      proteolysis in the nucleus. In cell cycle arrested mammalian or quiescent yeast
      cells, proteasomes deplete from the nucleus and accumulate in granules at the
      nuclear envelope (NE) / endoplasmic reticulum ( ER) membranes. In prolonged
      quiescence, proteasome granules drop off the nuclear envelopeNE / ER membranes
      and migrate as droplet-like entitiesstable organelles  throughout the cytoplasm,
      as thoroughly investigated in yeast. When quiescence yeast cells are allowed to
      resume growth, proteasome granules clear and proteasomes are rapidly imported
      into the nucleus. Here, we summarize our knowledge about the enigmatic structure
      of proteasome storage granules and the trafficking of proteasomes and their
      substrates between the cyto- and nucleoplasm. Most of our current knowledge is
      based on studies in yeast. Their translation to mammalian cells promises to
      provide keen insight into protein degradation in non-dividing cells, which
      comprise the majority of our body's cells.

PMID- 26594347
TI  - Impact of a structured review session on medical student psychiatry subject
      examination performance.
AB  - Introduction: The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject examinations
      are used as a standardized metric for performance in required clerkships for
      third-year medical students. While several medical schools have implemented a
      review session to help consolidate knowledge acquired during the clerkship, the
      effects of such an intervention are not yet well-established. An improvement in
      NBME psychiatry examination scores has previously been reported with a single end
      of-clerkship review session, but this was limited by a small sample size and the
      fact that attendance at the review session was optional, leading to likely
      selection bias. Methods: A 1.5-hour structured review session was conducted for
      medical students in the last week of each 4-week psychiatry clerkship between
      September 2014 and July 2015. Students were required to attend unless excused due
      to scheduling conflicts. Scores on the NBME psychiatry subject exam were compared
      with those of students taking the examination in the corresponding time period in
      each of the previous two academic years. Results: 83 students took the exam
      during the experimental period, while 176 took the exam during the control
      period. Statistically significant improvements were found in mean score (p=0.03),
      mean for the two lowest scores in each group (p<0.0007), and percentage of
      students scoring 70 or less (p=0.03). Percentage of students achieving the
      maximum possible score (99) was higher in the experimental group, but did not
      reach significance (p=0.06). Conclusions: An end-of-clerkship review session led
      to increased mean scores on the NBME psychiatry subject examination, particularly
      for students at the lower end of the score range. Future research should
      investigate the impact of such an intervention in other specialties and other
      institutions.

PMID- 28878888
TI  - Cardiovascular and thermal strain during 3-4 days of a metabolically demanding
      cold-weather military operation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular (CV) and thermal responses to metabolically demanding
      multi-day military operations in extreme cold-weather environments are not well
      described. Characterization of these operations will provide greater insights
      into possible performance capabilities and cold injury risk. METHODS: Soldiers
      from two cold-weather field training exercises (FTX) were studied during 3-day
      (study 1, n = 18, age: 20 +/- 1 year, height: 182 +/- 7 cm, mass: 82 +/- 9 kg)
      and 4-day (study 2, n = 10, age: 20 +/- 1 year, height: 182 +/- 6 cm, mass: 80.7
      +/- 8.3 kg) ski marches in the Arctic. Ambient temperature ranged from -18 to -4 
      degrees C during both studies. Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE, from doubly
      labeled water), heart rate (HR), deep body (Tpill), and torso (Ttorso) skin
      temperature (obtained in studies 1 and 2) as well as finger (Tfing), toe (Ttoe),
      wrist, and calf temperatures (study 2) were measured. RESULTS: TDEE was 6821 +/-
      578 kcal day-1 and 6394 +/- 544 for study 1 and study 2, respectively. Mean HR
      ranged from 120 to 140 bpm and mean Tpill ranged between 37.5 and 38.0  degrees C
      during skiing in both studies. At rest, mean Tpill ranged from 36.0 to 36.5 
      degrees C, (lowest value recorded was 35.5  degrees C). Mean Tfing ranged from 32
      to 35  degrees C during exercise and dropped to 15  degrees C during rest, with
      some Tfing values as low as 6-10  degrees C. Ttoe was above 30  degrees C during
      skiing but dropped to 15-20  degrees C during rest. CONCLUSIONS: Daily energy
      expenditures were among the highest observed for a military training exercise,
      with moderate exercise intensity levels (~65% age-predicted maximal HR) observed.
      The short-term cold-weather training did not elicit high CV and Tpill strain.
      Tfing and Ttoe were also well maintained while skiing, but decreased to values
      associated with thermal discomfort at rest.

PMID- 28878889
TI  - Preoperative fluid retention increases blood loss during major open abdominal
      surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quantification of renal fluid conservation is possible by urine
      analysis, and the results can indicate dehydration. The present report sought to
      determine whether this fluid retention correlates with fluid requirements during
      major abdominal surgeries that have estimated operating times >= 2 h. METHODS:
      Urine colour, specific weight, osmolality and creatinine concentration were used
      to calculate a composite "fluid retention index" (FRI) in 97 patients prior to
      major abdominal surgery. Goal-directed fluid volume optimization, with
      hydroxyethyl starch supplemented with a background administration of crystalloid
      fluid, was used. RESULTS: The median preoperative FRI was 3.0. Fluid retention,
      considered as present when FRI >= 3.5, was found in 37% of the patients. Fluid
      retention was followed by a significantly larger blood loss (+ 125%; 450 vs. 200
      ml), higher haemorrhage rate (+ 41%; 123 vs. 87 ml/h) and greater need for both
      colloid (+ 43%; 1.43 vs. 1.00 l) and crystalloid (+ 18%; 1.28 vs. 1.08 l) fluids.
      Despite the larger blood loss, the total fluid balance was more positive after
      surgery in the dehydrated patients (+ 26%; 1.91 vs. 1.51 l; P < 0.02).
      CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative fluid retention, as detected in a urine sample, was
      associated with a greater blood loss and a more positive fluid balance during
      major abdominal surgery. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01458678.

PMID- 28878890
TI  - Key features of mcr-1-bearing plasmids from Escherichia coli isolated from humans
      and food.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mcr-1-harboring Enterobacteriaceae are reported worldwide since their
      first discovery in 2015. However, a limited number of studies are available that
      compared full-length plasmid sequences of human and animal origins. METHODS: In
      this study, mcr-1-bearing plasmids from seven Escherichia coli isolates recovered
      from patients (n = 3), poultry meat (n = 2) and turkey meat (n = 2) in
      Switzerland were further analyzed and compared. Isolates were characterized by
      multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The mcr-1-bearing plasmids were transferred by
      transformation into reference strain E. coli DH5alpha and MCR-1-producing
      transformants were selected on LB-agar supplemented with 2 mg/L colistin.
      Purified plasmids were then sequenced and compared. RESULTS: MLST revealed six
      distinct STs, illustrating the high clonal diversity among mcr-1-positive E. coli
      isolates of different origins. Two different mcr-1-positive plasmids were
      identified from a single E. coli ST48 human isolate. All other isolates possessed
      a single mcr-1 harboring plasmid. Transferable IncI2 (size ca. 60-61 kb) and
      IncX4 (size ca. 33-35 kb) type plasmids each bearing mcr-1 were found associated
      with human and food isolates. None of the mcr-1-positive IncI2 and IncX4 plasmids
      possessed any additional resistance determinants. Surprisingly, all but one of
      the sequenced mcr-1-positive plasmids lacked the ISApl1 element, which is a key
      element mediating acquisition of mcr-1 into various plasmid backbones.
      CONCLUSIONS: There is strong evidence that the food chain may be an important
      transmission route for mcr-1-bearing plasmids. Our data suggest that some
      "epidemic" plasmids rather than specific E. coli clones might be responsible for
      the spread of the mcr-1 gene along the food chain.

PMID- 28878892
TI  - Laparoscopic and open inguinal hernia repair: Patient reported outcomes in the
      elderly from a single centre - A prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With those over 65 making up over 16% of the UK's population,
      surgeons are counselling increasing numbers of elderly patients for hernia
      repair. Data is currently lacking comparing different repair methods of inguinal
      hernias in the elderly population with regards to patient reported outcomes. AIM:
      To compare open and laparoscopic hernia repair in patients >65 years old and
      those <65 years old with respect to patient reported outcomes. METHOD: As part of
      a quality assurance process patients receive a telephone consultation day 2 post
      procedure. This includes an optional survey with questions to quantify pain,
      general feeling, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, satisfaction and vomiting since
      the operation. Patients were then classified into age >= 65 years or <65 years
      and subclassified into totally extraperitoneal (TEP) or open inguinal hernia
      repair (IHR). RESULTS: Data is presented from patients treated between January
      2009 and August 2016, totalling those included 1167 of 2522 (55.5%). Only five
      patients (4.42%) reported moderate pain; in the >65 TEP group this was
      significantly lower (10.2% open IHR <65; 6.7% TEP <65; 12.8% open IHR >65).
      Patient satisfaction with the surgery was satisfied or very satisfied in all
      patients in all groups. CONCLUSION: Time off work is not an absolute appropriate
      measure of return to premorbid status with respect to the elderly as a
      substantial number of >65 year olds have retired. We therefore present this
      interesting insight into patient perceptions following hernia repair by age
      group. Overall patients over 65 can expect the same high levels of satisfaction
      and low levels of pain following either technique for inguinal hernia repair as
      younger patients.

PMID- 28878891
TI  - Epidemic characterization and molecular genotyping of Shigella flexneri isolated
      from calves with diarrhea in Northwest China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The widespread presence of antibiotics resistance genes in pathogenic
      bacteria can cause enormous problems. Food animals are one of the main reservoirs
      of intestinal pathogens that pose a potential risk to human. Analyzing the
      epidemiological characteristics and resistance patterns of Shigella flexneri in
      calves is necessary for animal and human health. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of
      54 Shigella flexneri isolates, including six serotypes (1a, 2a, 2b, 4a, 6 and
      Xv), were collected from 837 fecal samples obtained from 2014 to 2016. We
      performed pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and applied the restriction
      enzyme NotI to analyze the genetic relatedness among the 54 isolates and to
      categorize them into 31 reproducible and unique PFGE patterns. According to the
      results of antimicrobial susceptibility tests, all 26 Shigella flexneri 2a
      serotypes were resistant to cephalosporin and/or fluoroquinolones. The genes
      blaTEM-1 , blaOXA-1 , and blaCTX-M-14 were detected in 19 cephalosporin-resistant
      S. flexneri 2a isolates. Among 14 fluoroquinolone-resistant isolates, the aac(6')
      Ib-cr gene was largely present in each strain, followed by qnrS (5). Only one
      ciprofloxacin-resistant isolate harbored the qepA gene. Sequencing the quinolone
      resistance determining regions (QRDRs) of the fluoroquinolone-resistant isolates
      revealed two point mutations in gyrA (S83 L, D87N/Y) and a single point mutation
      in parC (S80I). Interestingly, two gyrA (D87N/Y) strains were resistant to
      ciprofloxacin. CONCLUSIONS: The current study enhances our knowledge of Shigella
      in cattle, although continual surveillance is necessary for the control of
      shigellosis. The high level of cephalosporin and/or fluoroquinolone resistance in
      Shigella warns us of a potential risk to human and animal health.

PMID- 28878893
TI  - S-shaped versus conventional straight skin incision: Impact on primary functional
      maturation, stenosis and thrombosis of autogenous radiocephalic arteriovenous
      fistula: Impact of incision on maturation, stenosis & failure of RCAVF. Study
      design: Prospective observational comparative.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study is to test the null hypothesis that an
      S-shaped surgical incision versus conventional (straight) skin incision in the
      creation of autogenous radiocephalic arteriovenous fistulas (RCAVFs) have no
      impact on the primary end-point of primary functional maturation and secondary
      end points of stenosis and thrombosis. METHODS: A prospective observational
      comparative consecutive study with intention-to-treat on individuals undergoing
      only radiocephalic arteriovenous fistula (RCAVFs) over a period of 12 months was
      conducted. Variables on patient's demographics, comorbidities, anesthesia type,
      mean arterial blood pressure, thrill, laterality, cephalic vein and radial artery
      diameter were collated. The test of probability was assessed through Chi-Square,
      Kaplan-Meier survival estimator and Log-Rank analysis. RESULTS: Total of n = 83
      individuals with median age of 67 years (IQR, 20-89) and male predominance 83%
      during this period were subjected to RCAVF formation. Total of n = 45 patients in
      straight skin incision were compared to n = 38 individuals in S-shaped group.
      Despite equal prevalence of demographics, comorbidities, anesthesia type, mean
      arterial blood pressure (MAP), thrill, laterality, cephalic vein and radial
      artery diameter (p > 0.05) higher incidence of juxta-anastomotic stenosis was
      noted in the straight skin incision group (p = 0.029) in comparative and survival
      analysis (Log-Rank, p = 0.036). The maturation of the entire cohort was 69% (S
      shaped 76% vs. straight group 62%) (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The outcome of this
      study demonstrates that S-shaped surgical skin incision is associated with a
      lower incidence of stenosis in comparison to straight incision type in RCAVF
      formation.

PMID- 28878895
TI  - Social determinants and risk behaviors associated with prevalent Hepatitis C and
      HIV/HCV co-infection among male injection drug users in Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nepal is facing double burden of injecting drug use and HIV, yet the
      problem of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) has not been so well addressed, where there is
      large population known to be at risk for HCV. This study assessed the prevalence
      of HCV infection and HIV/HCV co-infection among male injection drug users (IDUs)
      in Nepal and identified factors associated with infection. METHODS: Cross
      sectional surveys in 2015 aimed to sample 1045 male IDUs in the Kathmandu valley,
      Pokhara Valley and Eastern Terai districts of Nepal. Information about socio
      demographic characteristics, injecting and sexual risk behaviours were obtained,
      and biological specimens tested for HCV and HIV. The logistic regression model
      was used to identify the determinants associated with HCV and HIV/HCV co
      infection. RESULTS: HCV prevalence was 28.8% and HIV/HCV co-infection was 4%.
      Among the 6% of HIV positive male IDUs, 65% were found to be co-infected. The
      multivariate logistic analysis revealed that HCV prevalence was higher in Eastern
      Terai districts, longer duration of drug use and injecting drugs and presence of
      HIV. Similarly, HIV/HCV co-infection was associated with Eastern highway
      districts, older age and longer duration of injecting drugs. CONCLUSION: The
      factors strongly contributing to HCV and HIV/HCV co-infection was longer duration
      of injecting drugs. Highest HCV and HIV/HCV co-infection was found in Eastern
      Terai districts. Target health interventions need to be focused in Eastern Terai
      districts and IDUs with longer duration of injecting drugs for the prevention of
      HCV and HIV/HCV transmission.

PMID- 28878894
TI  - Genomic regions and pathways associated with gastrointestinal parasites
      resistance in Santa Ines breed adapted to tropical climate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to estimate variance components and to
      identify genomic regions and pathways associated with resistance to
      gastrointestinal parasites, particularly Haemonchus contortus, in a breed of
      sheep adapted to tropical climate. Phenotypes evaluations were performed to
      verify resistance to gastrointestinal parasites, and were divided into two
      categories: i) farm phenotypes, assessing body condition score (BCS), degree of
      anemia assessed by the famacha chart (FAM), fur score (FS) and feces consistency
      (FC); and ii) lab phenotypes, comprising blood analyses for hematocrit (HCT),
      white blood cell count (WBC), red blood cell count (RBC), hemoglobin (HGB),
      platelets (PLT) and transformed (log10) egg per gram of feces (EPGlog). A total
      of 576 animals were genotyped with the Ovine SNP12k BeadChip (Illumina, Inc.),
      that contains 12,785 bialleleic SNP markers. The variance components were
      estimated using a single trait model by single step genomic BLUP procedure.
      RESULTS: The overall linkage disequilibrium (LD) mean between pairs of markers
      measured by r2 was 0.23. The overall LD mean between markers considering windows
      up to 10 Mb was 0.07. The mean LD between adjacent SNPs across autosomes ranged
      from 0.02 to 0.10. Heritability estimates were low for EPGlog (0.11), moderate
      for RBC (0.18), PLT (0.17) HCT (0.20), HGB (0.16) and WBC (0.22), and high for
      FAM (0.35). A total of 22, 21, 23, 20, 26, 25 and 23 windows for EPGlog for FAM,
      WBC, RBC, PLT, HCT and HGB traits were identified, respectively. Among the
      associated windows, 10 were shown to be common to HCT and HGB traits on OAR1,
      OAR2, OAR3, OAR5, OAR8 and OAR15. CONCLUSION: The traits indicating
      gastrointestinal parasites resistance presented an adequate genetic variability
      to respond to selection in Santa Ines breed, and it is expected a higher genetic
      gain for FAM trait when compared to the others. The level of LD estimated for
      markers separated by less than 1 Mb indicated that the Ovine SNP12k BeadChip
      might be a suitable tool for identifying genomic regions associated with traits
      related to gastrointestinal parasite resistance. Several candidate genes related
      to immune system development and activation, inflammatory response, regulation of
      lymphocytes and leukocytes proliferation were found. These genes may help in the
      selection of animals with higher resistance to parasites.

PMID- 28878897
TI  - Severe phenotype of X-linked dominant chondrodysplasia punctata.
AB  - A prenatally ascertained case representing the more severe end of the X-linked
      dominant chondrodysplasia punctata (CDPX2).

PMID- 28878896
TI  - Oral manifestations of a rare variant of Marfan syndrome.
AB  - This article reports the oral manifestations of an unusual presentation of Marfan
      syndrome (MFS) and provides an evidence to the importance of recognizing the oral
      features in confirming the diagnosis of MFS. Dentists have a vital role in
      confirming the diagnosis of developmental disorders that involve the craniofacial
      compendium.

PMID- 28878898
TI  - Tourniquet-induced common peroneal nerve injury in a pediatric patient after knee
      arthroscopy - raising the red flag.
AB  - Peripheral nerve injury following the use of arterial tourniquets is a rare but
      potentially debilitating complication. Further education on the safe and
      appropriate practice of tourniquets is imperative to reduce the incidence of
      tourniquet-related complications.

PMID- 28878899
TI  - Left ventricular blood cyst in an adult case.
AB  - We present a 57-year-old man with a 1.5-cm-diameter blood cyst in the left
      ventricle, which was incidentally detected by conventional diagnostic
      echocardiography before colon surgery. The cyst originated from the papillary
      muscle, and the pathological findings were compatible with a cardiac blood cyst.

PMID- 28878900
TI  - Intravascular large B-cell lymphoma presenting as Richter's syndrome with
      cerebral involvement in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - Intravascular large B-cell lymphoma (IVLBCL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin's
      lymphoma which can present with B symptoms, rash, and neurological deterioration.
      Up to 10% of cases of IVLBCL are associated with other hematological neoplasms,
      including this extremely rare presentation of IVLBCL as Richter's transformation
      in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

PMID- 28878901
TI  - Breast reconstruction in pregnancy: a case report of multidisciplinary team
      approach in immediate autologous flap reconstruction for pregnancy-associated
      breast cancer.
AB  - This report presents the results of immediate breast reconstruction with
      autologous flap in Pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). There was no
      obstetrics and surgical complications in our report. Immediate breast
      reconstruction can be performed in PABC after a careful selection.
      Multidisciplinary team approach is the key in managing these groups of patients.

PMID- 28878903
TI  - Combined LASER and femoral approach to remove a previous failure of Riata lead
      extraction.
AB  - Transvenous extraction of Riata lead could be a challenging procedure due to
      insulation failure and conductor cables' externalization through the eroded outer
      insulation. In this case, a complete lead extraction was achieved through a
      combined LASER and femoral approach because of the massive conductors'
      externalization.

PMID- 28878902
TI  - Primary cardiac lymphoma with central nervous system relapse.
AB  - Primary cardiac lymphoma (PCL), a rare disease, often presents with symptoms
      resembling other cardiac diseases. The correct diagnosis is crucial, as cardiac
      lymphoma can be cured with immuno-chemotherapy. PCL has a high risk of central
      nervous system recurrence (CNS); therefore, screening for CNS involvement and
      even prophylaxis may be necessary.

PMID- 28878904
TI  - A case of choledochoduodenal fistula - an unusual case report.
AB  - Choledochoduodenal fistula (CDF) is an abnormal communication between the
      choledochus and the duodenum, accounts for 5-25% of all internal biliary
      fistulas. Here, we report a case of CDF secondary to chronic duodenal ulcer who
      presented with cholangitis. CDF is suspected in case of pneumobilia, and surgery
      is recommended for refractory cases.

PMID- 28878906
TI  - First patient with hereditary spastic paraplegia type 8 in Poland.
AB  - SPG 8 is an autosomal dominant HSP, which phenotype results from KIAA0196 gene
      mutations. There have been twelve types of KIAA0196 mutations described in HGMD,
      which are located in conservative region of gene encoding strumpellin. We
      describe first patient in Poland, simultaneously second in the world with
      KIAA0196 mutation - p.V620A.

PMID- 28878905
TI  - Severe obstructive sleep apnea: first screening with an implanted pacemaker.
AB  - Sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) is a chronic condition associated with cardiovascular
      disease. In some pacemakers, an advanced algorithm using transthoracic impedance
      may be used to identify SAS. This algorithm may be also a useful tool for a long
      term monitoring helping physicians to optimize therapy, reducing risk factors,
      and improving therapeutic compliance.

PMID- 28878907
TI  - Salvage of an osteocutaneous thermonecrosis secondary to tibial reaming by the
      induced membrane procedure.
AB  - Osteocutaneous thermonecrosis is a rare but devastating complication of tibial
      reaming, which can cause large and infected bone and cutaneous defects. The case
      presented here illustrates that the induced membrane technique described by
      Masquelet is a valuable option in treating this complication.

PMID- 28878908
TI  - A case report of spontaneous rupture of the quadriceps tendon.
AB  - Spontaneous quadriceps tendon rupture is a rare occurrence in patients with
      primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), which is less common in adolescents. We first
      reported a spontaneous unilateral rupture in a young patient with PHPT.

PMID- 28878909
TI  - A rare case of Epstein-Barr virus-related plasmacytoma involving maxillary sinus
      mucosa.
AB  - Extramedullary plasmacytomas, Epstein-Bar virus (EBV) associated, are rarely
      encountered and usually have a fairly good clinical outcome. EBV+ plasmacytoma
      may cause a diagnostic dilemma as it phenotypically resembles an aggressive
      plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL). Herein, we report a unique case with maxillary EBV+
      plasmacytoma from a 76-year-old immunocompetent individual.

PMID- 28878910
TI  - Hemophagocytosis lymphocytosis presenting as pulmonary-renal syndrome: a case
      report and literature review.
AB  - Hemophagocytosis Lymphocytosis (HLH) is a rare and life-threatening illness that
      is more commonly seen in infants; however, its incidence in adults is becoming
      more common. Recognizing HLH in a complicated clinical scenario is key to early
      recognition, treatment, as well as improved morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28878911
TI  - Severe autoimmune hemolytic anemia during pegylated interferon plus ribavirin
      treatment for chronic hepatitis C: a case report.
AB  - We report a rare case of severe autoimmune hemolytic anemia triggered by
      pegylated interferon during combination therapy for chronic HCV. This case
      demonstrated that interferon can de novo induce autoimmune hemolytic anemia
      during therapy for chronic hepatitis C in a previously healthy patient.

PMID- 28878912
TI  - Multiple myeloma presenting in association with gastric phytobezoar.
AB  - We present a rare case of a patient with delayed gastric emptying, gastric
      phytobezoar formation, and osteosclerotic bone lesions as an atypical association
      with multiple myeloma. Associated gastric features in myeloma, which include
      diffuse infiltration, gastric plasmacytomas, or delayed gastric emptying, are
      rare and have a poor prognosis.

PMID- 28878913
TI  - Induction treatment of acute myeloid leukemia in an elderly patient with
      intramarrow injection/administration of cytarabine. Second case report.
AB  - We show for the second time that intramarrow injection/administration of
      chemotherapeutic agents such as cytarabine (Ara-C) can be used safely and
      effectively and is associated with no toxicity, promising antileukemic activity
      and possible improved survival.

PMID- 28878914
TI  - A novel keratin 13 variant in a four-generation family with white sponge nevus.
AB  - We report a novel KRT13 germ line variant that causes white sponge nevus (WSN)
      with mucosal dysplasia. Genital, vaginal, and cervical WSN were observed in four
      female patients, of whom two had premalignant cervical lesions at young age. Two
      of the 12 patients with oral WSN developed oral squamous cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28878915
TI  - Ethanol injection into the Marshall vein provoking a pericardial effusion
      resulting in a fatal complication in a patient with persistent atrial
      fibrillation.
AB  - An EIM (ethanol infusion into the vein of Marshall [VOM]) provoked a fatal
      complication in a chronic hemodialysis patient. Autopsy revealed a lacerated VOM
      covered with thrombi as the only potential cause. The EIM caused vascular damage
      and clots resulting in myocardial necrosis and interstitial bleeding around the
      lacerated VOM.

PMID- 28878916
TI  - What is the cause of this synchronous palpable abdominal mass in a woman recently
      diagnosed with lung cancer as demonstrated in Figure 1?
AB  - Colonic metastases from lung cancer are rare [1, 2]. Presentation of an abdominal
      mass in the setting of a new lung cancer diagnosis should prompt complete
      evaluation including endoscopic and CT imaging. This case also highlights the
      need for immunohistochemical analysis of unusual tumor deposits facilitating
      appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28878917
TI  - Management of a patient with Opalski's syndrome in intensive care unit.
AB  - Opalski syndrome is a rare vascular brainstem syndrome which is accepted as a
      variant of Wallenberg syndrome. Opalski syndrome should be considered in acute
      conditions in which typical symptoms of lateral medullary infarct are accompanied
      by ipsilateral hemiparesis. Other brain stem syndromes are distinguished from
      Opalski syndrome by the presence of contralateral hemiparesis.

PMID- 28878918
TI  - Development of Harlequin Syndrome following placement of thoracic epidural
      anesthesia in a pediatric patient undergoing Nuss procedure.
AB  - We report the development of Harlequin Syndrome following thoracic epidural
      placement in a pediatric patient. Unilateral facial flushing with contralateral
      pallor and anhidrosis is the clinical presentation. This syndrome is typically
      benign. When related to regional anesthesia, treatment involves reducing the
      local anesthetic infusion or stopping it altogether.

PMID- 28878919
TI  - From anemia to polycythemia in 4 weeks.
AB  - Primary polycythemia (PCV) may coexist in otherwise asymptomatic patients
      particularly in the presence of unsuspecting conditions such as Thrombotic
      thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). In presumed "idiopathic TTP," autoimmune
      conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) should be investigated as a possible
      etiology for TTP. Standardization of targeted therapy with immunomodulatory
      agents may be recommended for this subset of patients.

PMID- 28878920
TI  - Full mouth rehabilitation with retrievable metal-ceramic implant-supported fixed
      prostheses for a young patient with atrophic jaws: a clinical report.
AB  - Treatment of atrophic edentulous jaws with implant-supported fixed prostheses is
      one of the most complicated challenges in dentistry. This clinical report
      describes the prosthesis which consists of screw retained frameworks with
      individual cement retained crowns which combines the advantages of the screw
      retained restoration with the advantage of cement retained.

PMID- 28878921
TI  - T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia and tuberculosis: a puzzling association.
AB  - T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia can result in severe immune T-cell deficiency.
      Clinicians should be aware of this complication in this rare lymphoid malignancy,
      and opportunistic infections should be ruled out before the use of usual
      immunosuppressive procedures such as alemtuzumab and hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation.

PMID- 28878922
TI  - Visualization of poikilothermia using handheld thermography.
AB  - Poikilothermia is a fundamental symptom of acute limb ischemia (ALI) and is known
      as "6Ps". Herein, we present the visualization of poikilothermia caused by ALI
      using handheld thermography. We believe that handheld thermography could be
      useful to assess poikilothermia objectively as a supplementary method to physical
      examination.

PMID- 28878923
TI  - A 31-year-old with idiopathic reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome.
AB  - In our patient with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS)
      syndrome, presenting with thunderclap-like headache, there is a possibility to be
      readily confused with migraine. Initiating treatment with selective serotonin
      reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and triptans can further aggravate the condition.
      Therefore, it is essential to understand the nature and type of headache and
      correlate the clinical findings with imaging studies.

PMID- 28878924
TI  - Serpentine supravenous hyperpigmentation.
AB  - Serpentine supravenous hyperpigmentation is a peculiar cutaneous eruption that
      follows the path of vein after intravenous injection of the chemotherapeutic
      agent. The lesions gradually resolve spontaneously if administration of the
      offending agent is stopped through the affected limb. Drugs such as 5
      fluorouracil, docetaxel, vinorelbine, hydroxychloroquine, fotemustine, and
      minocycline are implicated.

PMID- 28878925
TI  - Severe Japanese Mamushi (Gloydius blomhoffii) bite.
AB  - Venomous snake bites can be life threatening, occasionally requiring intensive
      care. For Mamushi bites, conservative treatment may be possible in mild cases but
      for severe cases or in cases where symptoms do not improve, a horse-derived
      antivenom is indicated.

PMID- 28878926
TI  - What is this very big skin lesion?
AB  - This clinical image shows the importance of the early diagnosis and treatment of
      any suspicious skin lesion.

PMID- 28878927
TI  - Themes arising in clinical consultation for therapists implementing family-based
      treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our study aims to explore and describe themes arising in sessions of
      clinical consultation with therapists implementing Family-Based Treatment (FBT)
      for adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). There is currently no literature
      describing the content of clinical consultation for FBT. Thus, this knowledge
      will add to the evidence-base on what therapists need from consultants in ongoing
      clinical consultation. METHODS: Eight therapists at four sites participated in
      this study, which spanned a two-year period. Following a two-day training
      workshop, each therapist treated at least one adolescent patient presenting with
      a restrictive eating disorder with FBT, focusing on adherence to the treatment
      manual. Clinical consultation sessions occurred monthly and were led by an
      external FBT expert. Thirty-five (average per site = 9) audio recorded group
      clinical consultation sessions were transcribed verbatim and coded for themes.
      Twenty percent of the transcripts were double-coded to ensure consistency.
      Fundamental qualitative description guided the sampling and data collection.
      RESULTS: Thematic content analysis revealed ten common themes relating to the
      provision of clinical consultation to therapists implementing FBT in clinical
      practice: encouraging parental meal time supervision,discussing the role of
      mothers, how to align parents, ensuring parental buy-in, when to transition to
      Phase 2, weighing the patient and the patients' knowledge of their weight, the
      role of siblings in FBT sessions, how best to manage patient co-morbidities, the
      role of the father in FBT and how best to manage the family meal. CONCLUSIONS: In
      conclusion, clinical consultation themes aligned with many of the central tenets
      of FBT, including how to help parents align their supportive approach during the
      refeeding process, and how to help parents assume control of eating disordered
      behaviours. This knowledge helps to guide consultants to anticipate common issues
      brought forward by therapists attempting to implement FBT.

PMID- 28878928
TI  - Evaluation of a guided continuous quality improvement program in community
      pharmacies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The importance of creating and sustaining a strong culture of patient
      safety has been recognized as a critical component of safe medication use. This
      study aims to assess changes in attitudes toward patient safety culture and
      frequency of quality-related event (QRE) reporting after guided implementation of
      a continuous quality improvement (CQI) program in a panel of community pharmacies
      in the United States (U.S.). METHODS: Twenty-one community pharmacies volunteered
      to participate in the project and were randomly assigned to intervention or
      control groups. Pharmacy staff in the intervention group received guided training
      to ensure full implementation of a CQI program while those in the control group
      partially implemented the program. Pharmacy staff in both groups completed
      retrospective pre-post safety culture questionnaires and reported medication
      errors and near misses that occurred in their practices. Rasch analysis was
      applied to assess questionnaire validity and reliability and to confirm if the
      ordinal level data approximated interval level measures. Paired t-tests and
      repeated measure analysis of covariance tests were subsequently used to compare
      observed changes in the attitudes of subjects and frequency of QREs reporting in
      intervention and control groups. RESULTS: Sixty-nine employees completed the
      questionnaire, a 43.9% response rate. Improvement in attitudes toward patient
      safety was statistically significant in the intervention group in six domains:
      staff, training, and skill (p = 0.017); patient counseling (p = 0.043);
      communication about mistakes (p < 0.001); response to mistakes (p < 0.001);
      organizational learning - continuous improvement (p < 0.001); and overall patient
      safety perceptions (p = 0.033). No significant differences were observed in QRE
      reporting rates between intervention and control groups. However, differences
      were observed in the types of QREs reported (e.g., incorrect safety cap) and the
      point in the prescription processing workflow where a QRE was detected (e.g.,
      partner check station, and drug utilization review station) in the intervention
      group (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Guided CQI program implementation increased the
      self-reported patient safety culture attitudes among staff.

PMID- 28878929
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance in India.

PMID- 28878930
TI  - Non-adherence to eye care in people with diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Evaluate individual factors that impact adherence to eye care follow
      up in patients with diabetes. DESIGN AND METHODS: A 4-year retrospective chart
      review was conducted for 1968 patients with diabetes over age 40 from an urban
      academic center. Data collected included demographics, insurance, visual acuity,
      smoking status, medications, dates of dilated fundus examinations (DFE), and
      reported hemoglobin A1C and blood glucose levels. The primary outcome was timely
      DFE follow-up adherence following the initial eye exam visit. RESULTS: Overall,
      41.6% of patients adhered to initial follow-up eye care recommendations.
      Multivariable analysis demonstrated that patients with severe diabetic
      retinopathy (DR) were more adherent than patients with mild DR (OR 1.86). Other
      variables associated with increased adherence were visual impairment and reported
      A1C or blood glucose. Smoking was associated with decreased adherence. Ethnicity
      and insurance were also significantly associated with adherence. Longitudinal
      follow-up rates were influenced by additional factors, including ethnicity and
      neighborhood deprivation index. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with moderate to severe DR
      and/or visual impairment were more likely to adhere to timely DFE follow-up. This
      could relate to the presence of visual symptoms and/or other systemic
      manifestations of diabetes. Smokers were less likely to adhere to timely DFE
      follow-up. One hypothesis is patients who smoke have other symptomatic health
      problems which patients prioritize over asymptomatic ocular disorders. In order
      to reduce vision loss from DR, practitioners should be aware that patients with
      mild and moderate DR, patients with normal vision, and smokers are at greater
      risk for poor follow-up eye care adherence.

PMID- 28878931
TI  - Comorbid depression and risk of lower extremity amputation in people with
      diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the risk of lower extremity amputation (LEA) in people with
      diabetes with and without comorbid depression. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A
      systematic review of the published literature was conducted. Six databases were
      searched including PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, the Cochrane Library and
      PsycARTICLES from inception to 22 June 2016, using a detailed search strategy and
      cross-checking of reference lists for potentially eligible studies published in
      English. No date restrictions were employed. All studies were reviewed
      independently for inclusion by two review authors. Data extraction was performed
      using a standardized data abstraction form, and study quality was assessed
      independently by two reviewers. A meta-analysis was performed reporting pooled
      hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs in Review Manager software. RESULTS: In total,
      seven studies were eligible for inclusion in the systematic review. Data on 767
      997 patients from five studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled
      estimates across the studies were obtained using a random-effects model due to
      significant heterogeneity (I2=87%). People with diabetes and depression had an
      increased hazard of LEA (HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.19 to 2.60) compared to people with
      diabetes and no depression. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the available evidence,
      comorbid depression appears to increase the risk of LEA in people with diabetes.
      Limited data were available, however, with significant heterogeneity between
      studies. Further research is needed to inform intervention and clinical practice
      development in the management of diabetes.

PMID- 28878932
TI  - Individuals at high risk for type 2 diabetes invited to a lifestyle program:
      characteristics of participants versus non-participants (the HUNT Study) and 24
      month follow-up of participants (the VEND-RISK Study).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus is possible through lifestyle
      programs, but the effect depends on the program's content, resources, and
      setting. Lifestyle programs are often confronted with high rates of non
      participation and attrition. This study invited individuals at high risk for type
      2 diabetes to a lifestyle program in the Norwegian primary healthcare setting.
      The aims were to investigate possible differences in characteristics between
      participants and non-participants and to study the effect of the lifestyle
      program at 24-month follow-up for participants. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:
      Individuals identified at high risk for type 2 diabetes during the third survey
      of the Nord-Trondelag Health Study (HUNT3) from two municipalities (n=332) were
      invited to a lifestyle program (the VEND-RISK Study). A cross-sectional design
      was used to explore if the participants' characteristics differed from non
      participants. A non-randomized, single-arm, pre-post examination was used to
      examine the effect of the lifestyle program on participants' characteristics at
      24-month follow-up. RESULTS: Of all individuals at high risk for type 2 diabetes
      invited to the lifestyle program, 86% (287/332) declined to participate. Non
      participating women had fewer years of education (p<0.001), compared with
      participating women. For men, no differences were seen between non-participants
      and participants. Among all participants (n=45) at 24-month follow-up, none had
      developed type 2 diabetes, and HbA1c (p<0.001) had decreased significantly. There
      was a small reduction in mean body mass index from baseline to 24 months that was
      not statistically significant. For women, waist circumference (-4.0 cm, p<0.001)
      decreased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Future research regarding individuals at
      high risk for type 2 diabetes in the primary healthcare lifestyle program should
      focus on how to promote recruitment of women with low education. Participants
      attending this study's lifestyle program improved their cardiometabolic markers.
      CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: NCT01135901; Results.

PMID- 28878933
TI  - Comparison of a 'two-bag system' versus conventional treatment protocol ('one-bag
      system') in the management of diabetic ketoacidosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We compared the conventional 'one-bag protocol' of management of
      diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) with the 'two-bag protocol' which utilizes two bags
      of fluids, one containing saline and supplemental electrolytes and the other
      containing the same solution with the addition of 10% dextrose. RESEARCH DESIGN
      AND METHODS: A retrospective chart review and analysis was done on adult patients
      admitted for DKA to the Riverside University Health System Medical Center from
      2008 to 2015. There were 249 cases of DKA managed by the one-bag system and 134
      cases managed by the two-bag system. RESULTS: The baseline patient
      characteristics were similar in both groups. The anion gap closed in 13.56 hours
      in the one-bag group versus 10.94 hours in the two-bag group (p value <0.0002).
      None of the individual factors significantly influenced the anion gap closure
      time; only the two-bag system favored earlier closure of the anion gap. Plasma
      glucose levels improved to <250 mg/dL earlier with two-bag protocol (9.14 vs 7.82
      hours, p=0.0241). The incidence of hypoglycemic events was significantly less
      frequent with the two-bag protocol compared with the standard one-bag system
      (1.49% vs 8.43%, p=0.0064). Neither the time to improve serum HCO3 level >18
      mg/dL nor the hospital length of stay differed between the two groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that the two-bag protocol closes the anion gap
      earlier than the one-bag protocol in adult patients with DKA. Blood glucose
      levels improved faster with the two-bag protocol compared with the one-bag
      protocol with fewer associated episodes of hypoglycemia. Prospective studies are
      needed to evaluate the clinical significance of these findings.

PMID- 28878934
TI  - Postauthorization safety study of the DPP-4 inhibitor saxagliptin: a large-scale
      multinational family of cohort studies of five outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the risk of serious adverse events among patients with
      type 2 diabetes mellitus initiating saxagliptin compared with oral antidiabetic
      drugs (OADs) in classes other than dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors.
      RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Cohort studies using 2009-2014 data from two UK
      medical record data sources (Clinical Practice Research Datalink, The Health
      Improvement Network) and two USA claims-based data sources (HealthCore Integrated
      Research Database, Medicare). All eligible adult patients newly prescribed
      saxagliptin (n=110 740) and random samples of up to 10 matched initiators of non
      DPP-4 inhibitor OADs within each data source were selected (n=913 384). Outcomes
      were hospitalized major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), acute kidney injury
      (AKI), acute liver failure (ALF), infections, and severe hypersensitivity events,
      evaluated using diagnostic coding algorithms and medical records. Cox regression
      was used to determine HRs with 95% CIs for each outcome. Meta-analyses across
      data sources were performed for each outcome as feasible. RESULTS: There were no
      increased incidence rates or risk of MACE, AKI, ALF, infection, or severe
      hypersensitivity reactions among saxagliptin initiators compared with other OAD
      initiators within any data source. Meta-analyses demonstrated a reduced risk of
      hospitalization/death from MACE (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.97) and no increased
      risk of hospitalization for infection (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.02) or AKI (HR
      0.99, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.11) associated with saxagliptin initiation. ALF and
      hypersensitivity events were too rare to permit meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS:
      Saxagliptin initiation was not associated with increased risk of MACE, infection,
      AKI, ALF, or severe hypersensitivity reactions in clinical practice settings.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01086280, NCT01086293, NCT01086319, NCT01086306,
      and NCT01377935; Results.

PMID- 28878936
TI  - Primary care physicians' utilization of type 2 diabetes screening guidelines and
      referrals to behavioral interventions: a survey-linked retrospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess primary care physicians' (PCPs) knowledge of type 2 diabetes
      screening guidelines (American Diabetes Association (ADA) and 2008 US Preventive
      Services Task Force (USPSTF)), the alignment between their self-reported
      adherence and actual practice, and how often PCPs recommended diabetes prevention
      and self-management education programs (DPP/DSME). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:
      An online survey of PCPs to understand knowledge and adherence toward use of
      USPSTF/ADA guidelines and recommendation of DPP/DSME. Patient data from
      electronic medical records (EMRs) for each PCP were used to identify rates of
      screening in eligible patients as per guidelines and the two sources were
      compared to assess concordance. RESULTS: Of 305 surveyed physicians, 38% reported
      use of both guidelines (33% use ADA only, 25% USPSTF only). Approximately one
      third of physicians who reported use of USPSTF/ADA guidelines had non-concordant
      EMR data. Similarly, while most PCPs reported they are 'very likely' to screen
      patients with risk factors listed in guidelines, for each criterion at least one
      fourth (24%) of PCPs survey responses were non-concordant with EMRs. PCPs
      reported they provide referral to DPP and DSME on average to 45% and 67% of their
      newly diagnosed patients with pre-diabetes and diabetes, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Findings show disconnect between PCPs' perceptions of adherence to
      screening guidelines and actual practice, and highlight limited referrals to
      DPP/DSME programs. More research is needed to understand barriers to guideline
      consistent screening and uptake of DPP/DSME, particularly in light of recent
      policy changes such as the linking USPSTF criteria to reimbursement and expected
      Medicare DPP reimbursement in 2018.

PMID- 28878935
TI  - Elevated incidence rates of diabetes in Peru: report from PERUDIAB, a national
      urban population-based longitudinal study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A recent report from a non-nationally representative, geographically
      diverse sample in four separate communities in Peru suggests an unusually high
      diabetes incidence. We aimed to estimate the national diabetes incidence rate
      using PERUDIAB, a probabilistic, national urban population-based longitudinal
      study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: 662 subjects without diabetes, selected by
      multistage, cluster, random sampling of households, representing the 24
      administrative and the 3 (coast, highlands and jungle) natural regions across the
      country, from both sexes, aged 25+ years at baseline, enrolled in 2010-2012, were
      followed for 3.8 years. New diabetes cases were defined as fasting blood glucose
      >=126 mg/dL or on medical diabetes treatment. RESULTS: There were 49 cases of
      diabetes in 2408 person-years follow-up. The weighted cumulative incidence of
      diabetes was 7.2% while the weighted incidence rate was estimated at 19.5 (95% CI
      13.9 to 28.3) new cases per 1000 person-years. Older age, obesity and technical
      or higher education were statistically associated with the incidence of diabetes.
      CONCLUSION: Our results confirm that the incidence of diabetes in Peru is among
      the highest reported globally. The fast economic growth in the last 20 years,
      high overweight and obesity rates may have triggered this phenomenon.

PMID- 28878937
TI  - Contrast sensitivity to spatial gratings in moderate and dim light conditions in
      patients with diabetes in the absence of diabetic retinopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the ability of contrast sensitivity (CS) to discriminate
      loss of visual function in diabetic subjects with no clinical signs of
      retinopathy relative to that of normal subjects. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In
      this prospective cross-sectional study, we measured CS in 46 diabetic subjects
      with a mean age of 48+/-6 years, a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/20 and no
      signs of diabetic retinopathy. The CS in these subjects was compared with CS
      measurements in 46 normal control subjects at four spatial frequencies (3, 6, 12,
      18 cycles per degree) under moderate (500 lux) and dim (less than 2 lux)
      background light conditions. RESULTS: CS was approximately 0.16 log units lower
      in patients with diabetes relative to controls both in moderate and in dim
      background light conditions. Logistic regression classification and receiver
      operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that CS analysis using two
      light conditions was more accurate (0.78) overall compared with CS analysis using
      only a single illumination condition (accuracy values were 0.67 and 0.70 in
      moderate and dim light conditions, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed
      that patients with diabetes without clinical signs of retinopathy exhibit a
      uniform loss in CS at all spatial frequencies tested. Measuring the loss in CS at
      two spatial frequencies (3 and 6 cycles per degree) and two light conditions
      (moderate and dim) is sufficiently robust to classify diabetic subjects with no
      retinopathy versus control subjects.

PMID- 28878939
TI  - Insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant obese and non-obese phenotypes: role in
      prediction of incident pre-diabetes in a longitudinal biracial cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We measured insulin sensitivity with euglycemic clamp (Si-clamp) in
      initially normoglycemic African Americans (AA) and European Americans (EA), to
      probe the existence of subphenotypes of obesity and leanness, and their impact on
      incident dysglycemia during longitudinal follow-up. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:
      320 healthy subjects (176 AA, 144 EA; mean age 44.2+/-10.6 years) underwent
      baseline assessments, including Si-clamp and homeostasis model of insulin
      resistance (HOMA-IR) and were stratified into: insulin-resistant obese (IRO)
      (body mass index (BMI) >30 kg/m2, Si-clamp <0.1, HOMA-IR >2.5); insulin-sensitive
      obesity (ISO) (BMI >30 kg/m2, Si-clamp >0.1, HOMA-IR <2.5); insulin-resistant non
      obese (IRN) (BMI <28 kg/m2, Si-clamp <0.1, HOMA-IR >2.5); insulin-sensitive non
      obese (ISN) (BMI <28 kg/m2, Si-clamp >0.1, HOMA-IR <2.5). Outcome measures were
      cardiometabolic risks and incident pre-diabetes/type 2 diabetes (T2D) during 5.5
      years. RESULTS: Compared with IRO, subjects with ISO had lower abdominal fat,
      triglycerides and high-sensitivity C reactive protein and higher adiponectin
      (p=0.015 to <0.0001). IRN subjects had higher cardiometabolic risk markers than
      ISN (p=0.03 to <0.0001). During 5.5-year follow-up, incident pre-diabetes/T2D was
      lower in ISO (31.3% vs 48.7%) among obese subjects and higher in IRN (47.1% vs.
      26.0%) among non-obese subjects (p=0.0024). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed
      significantly different pre-diabetes/T2D survival probabilities across insulin
      sensitivity/adiposity phenotypes (p=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Insulin sensitivity
      predicts ~40% decrease in the relative risk of incident pre-diabetes/T2D among
      obese persons, whereas insulin resistance predicts ~80% increased risk among non
      obese persons. This is the first documentation of healthy and unhealthy
      phenotypes of obesity and leanness in a prospective biracial cohort, using
      rigorous measurement of insulin sensitivity.

PMID- 28878938
TI  - Presentation, pathology and prognosis of renal disease in type 2 diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Non-diabetic renal disease (NDRD) is common in patients with type 2
      diabetes (T2D), but the relationship between its presentation and prognosis is
      unknown. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study, we
      compared renal and patient survival among 263 patients with T2D who had native
      renal biopsies between 2002 and 2008 from three Auckland hospitals in New
      Zealand. The presence of diabetic nephropathy (DN), NDRD or mixed (DN and NDRD)
      was determined from biopsy. We examined clinical associations according to NDRD
      etiologies and mode of presentation-acute (defined by acute kidney injury (AKI))
      or non-acute. Patients were followed until end-stage renal disease, death or
      December 2015. Survival was compared using Log-rank test. RESULTS: 94 (36%)
      patients had DN, 72 (27%) had NDRD, and 97 (37%) had mixed pathologies. Obesity
      related focal segmental glomerulosclerosis was the most common NDRD (46%) in
      patients with non-acute presentations, whereas interstitial nephritis or immune
      complex glomerulonephritides were the most prevalent in those with acute
      presentations (60%). DN was commonly associated with AKI (p<0.001). The
      prevalence of DN increased with diabetes duration (p<0.001), but NDRD was still
      found in 55% of subjects with >=14 years T2D. NDRD was strongly associated with
      the absence of retinopathy (p<0.001). Renal survival was best in the NDRD group
      (p<0.001). Among those with DN, renal prognosis was worse in those with more
      advanced DN lesions and those with an acute presentation (p<0.001). The
      proportion of all-cause mortality was similar in all three groups, but overall
      survival was poorest in the DN group (p=0.025). CONCLUSIONS: Renal disease in
      patients with T2D is heterogeneous. The renal prognosis differs markedly
      according to histopathological diagnosis and mode of presentation.

PMID- 28878940
TI  - Ethnic differences in early glycemic control in childhood-onset type 1 diabetes.
AB  - : Some ethnic minorities with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have worse glycemic control
      (higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)) and increased risk for vascular
      complications. There is limited evidence on the impact of ethnicity on early
      glycemic control when most patients experience transient remission postdiagnosis.
      We examined associations between ethnicity and longitudinal HbA1c trajectories
      during the first 6 months postdiagnosis in a multiethnic cohort in East London.
      RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data on 443 (50% female) children <19 years of age,
      with T1D and attending one of three clinics in East London between January 2005
      and December 2015 were included. Linear mixed-effects modeling was used to assess
      ethnic differences in longitudinal HbA1c trajectories during the first 6 months
      postdiagnosis (1,028 HbA1c data points), adjusting for sex, age at diagnosis,
      socioeconomic status and pH at diagnosis. Growth curve modeling was used to plot
      discrete HbA1c trajectories by ethnicity. RESULTS: Longitudinal modeling revealed
      that all ethnic minorities had higher mean HbA1c at diagnosis compared with White
      children and highest in Bangladeshi (9.7 mmol/mol, 95% CI 5.1 to 14.3), Asian
      Other (5.8 mmol/mol, 95% CI 2.2 to 9.3) and Somali (5.2 mmol/mol, 95% CI 0.1 to
      10.2) children, and these differences persisted over the 6-month period after
      diagnosis. During the first month, HbA1c decreased on average by 19.6 mmol/mol
      (95% CI -21 to -18) for all children. Population averaged HbA1c decreased between
      diagnosis and 4 months, followed by a gradual increase in HbA1c levels (mean
      difference of -30 mmol/mol between diagnosis and 6 months). CONCLUSIONS: Ethnic
      minorities present with higher HbA1c at diagnosis, with the largest mean
      differences observed in Bangladeshi, Asian-Other and Somali children. These
      higher levels (indicating poorer glycemic control) track into the first 6 months
      postdiagnosis.

PMID- 28878941
TI  - Clinical profiles, comorbidities and complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus in
      patients from United Arab Emirates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess clinical profiles of patients with type 2 diabetes in the
      United Arab Emirates (UAE), including patterns, frequencies, and risk factors of
      microvascular and macrovascular complications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Four
      hundred and ninety patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled from two major
      hospitals in Abu Dhabi. The presence of microvascular and macrovascular
      complications was assessed using logistic regression, and demographic, clinical
      and laboratory data were collected. Significance was set at p<0.05. RESULTS:
      Hypertension (83.40%), obesity (90.49%) and dyslipidemia (93.43%) were common
      type 2 diabetes comorbidities. Most of the patients had relatively poor glycemic
      control and presented with multiple complications (83.47% of patients had one or
      more complication), with frequent renal involvement. The most frequent
      complication was retinopathy (13.26%). However, the pattern of complications
      varied based on age, where in patients <65 years, a single pattern presented,
      usually retinopathy, while multiple complications was typically seen in patients
      >65 years old. Low estimated glomerular filtration rate in combination with
      disease duration was the most significant risk factor in the development of a
      diabetic-associated complication especially for coronary artery disease, whereas
      age, lipid values and waist circumference were significantly associated with the
      development of diabetic retinopathy. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with type 2 diabetes
      mellitus in the UAE frequently present with comorbidities and complications.
      Renal disease was found to be the most common comorbidity, while retinopathy was
      noted as the most common diabetic complication. This emphasizes the need for
      screening and prevention program toward early, asymptomatic identification of
      comorbidities and commence treatment, especially for longer disease duration.

PMID- 28878942
TI  - Medication adherence and glycemic control among newly diagnosed diabetes
      patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Poor medication adherence can have negative consequences for the
      patients, the provider, the physician, and the sustainability of the healthcare
      system. To our knowledge, the association between medication adherence and
      glycemic control among newly diagnosed diabetes patients has not been studied.
      This study aims to bridge the gap. METHOD: This is a retrospective cohort study
      of 2463 patients managed in the National Healthcare Group in Singapore with newly
      diagnosed diabetes. Patients were followed up for the first two years from their
      first medication dispensed for measuring medication adherence, proportion of days
      covered (PDC); and for another three years for investigating outcomes of glycemic
      control, emergency department visit, and hospitalization. Multivariable
      regressions were performed to study the association between medication adherence
      and the outcomes as well as the risk factors of poor adherence. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of medication adherence (PDC>=80%) was 65.0% (95% CI 63.1% to 66.9%)
      among newly diagnosed diabetes patients in Singapore. Male, Indian, or patients
      without hypertension or dyslipidemia were associated with poorer medication
      adherence. The HbA1c level of poor adherent patients (PDC <40%) increased by 0.4
      (95% CI 0.2 to 0.5) over the two years, and they were also more likely to have
      hospitalization (OR 2.6,95% CI 1.7 to 3.8) or emergency department visit (OR
      2.4,95% CI 1.7 to 3.4) compared with the fully adherent patients (PDC=100%).
      CONCLUSIONS: The medication adherence in the early stage of diabetes is important
      for maximizing the effectiveness of pharmaceutical therapy. Health policies or
      interventions targeting the improvement of medication adherence among newly
      diagnosed diabetes patients are in need.

PMID- 28878943
TI  - Obstructive sleep apnea in adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes: perspectives
      from a quality improvement initiative in a university-based diabetes center.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and diabetes are frequent comorbid
      conditions. Screening for OSA in patients with diabetes is recommended but the
      frequency with which this is done in clinical practice is unknown. The objectives
      of this quality improvement initiative were to identify clinician and patient
      perceptions regarding OSA and to identify the prevalence of patients at high risk
      for OSA (HROSA). METHODS: A quality improvement initiative was conducted to query
      clinicians and patients attending a specialty diabetes clinic regarding attitudes
      and beliefs related to OSA. The Berlin Questionnaire was embedded in patient
      questionnaires to identify patients as low risk for OSA (LROSA) or HROSA.
      RESULTS: 35 clinicians completed questionnaires with >80% agreement that OSA
      contributed to blood pressure (BP), glycemic control, and diabetes complications
      and that screening is a shared responsibility with other physicians; but only 17%
      indicated regular screening due predominantly to insufficient time. Of 107
      patients (26 type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and 81 type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM)), 30% were aware that OSA could affect diabetes outcomes. The prevalence
      of known OSA, LROSA, and HROSA was similar in T1DM (15%, 50%, 35%) and T2DM (36%,
      33%, 31%, respectively) (p=0.21). 59% of all HROSA patients indicated that OSA
      screening had never been discussed with them. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      demonstrate that providers, but not patients, are knowledgeable about the
      importance of OSA screening, but insufficient time is a major barrier to wider
      screening. Approximately, 30% of patients with T1DM and T2DM were identified as
      HROSA supporting the need for procedures that improve detection and treatment.

PMID- 28878944
TI  - Development and validation of a clinical risk score to predict mortality after
      percutaneous coronary intervention.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a contemporary clinical risk score to predict
      mortality after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: Using data
      collected from patients undergoing PCI at the South Yorkshire Cardiothoracic
      Centre, Sheffield, UK, between January 2007 and September 2013, a risk score was
      developed to predict mortality. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the
      effect of each variable upon 30-day mortality. A backwards stepwise logistic
      regression model was then used to build a predictive model. The results were
      validated both internally and externally with data from Manchester Royal
      Infirmary, UK. 30-Day mortality status was determined from the UK Office of
      National Statistics. RESULTS: The development data set comprised 6522 patients
      from Sheffield. Five risk factors, including cardiogenic shock, procedural
      urgency, history of renal disease, diabetes mellitus and age, were statistically
      significant to predict 30-day mortality. The risk score was validated internally
      on a further 3290 patients from Sheffield and externally on 3230 patients from
      Manchester. The discrimination of the model was high in the development (C
      statistic=0.82, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.85), internal (C-statistic=0.81, 95% CI 0.76 to
      0.86) and external (C statistics=0.90, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.93) cohorts. There was no
      significant difference between observed and predicted mortality in any group.
      CONCLUSION: This contemporary risk score reliably predicts 30-day mortality after
      PCI using a small number of clinical variables obtainable prior to the procedure,
      without knowledge of the coronary anatomy.

PMID- 28878945
TI  - Gated metabolic myocardial imaging, a surrogate for dual perfusion-metabolism
      imaging by positron emission tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Perfusion-metabolism mismatch pattern on positron emission tomography
      (PET) predicts hibernating myocardium. We assess the ECG-gated metabolic PET as a
      surrogate for the perfusion-metabolism mismatch pattern on PET imaging. METHODS:
      13N-Ammonia (NH3) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) are respectively perfusion and
      metabolism PET tracers. We used ECG gating to acquire FDG-PET to collect wall
      thickening (mechanical) data. These allow detection of metabolic activity in
      regions with reduced contraction (metabolism-mechanical mismatch pattern). We had
      two data sets on each patient: perfusion-metabolism and metabolism-mechanical
      data sets. We tested the hypothesis that metabolism-mechanical pattern on PET
      could predict perfusion-metabolism mismatch pattern. RESULTS: We studied 55
      patients (48 males), mean age 62 years. All were in sinus rhythm, and had
      impaired left ventricular contraction. Perfusion-metabolism mismatch pattern was
      found in 26 patients. Metabolism-mechanical mismatch pattern was found in 25
      patients. The results were concordant in 52 patients (95%). As a surrogate for
      perfusion-metabolism mismatch pattern, demonstration of metabolism-mechanical
      mismatch pattern is highly sensitive (92%) and specific (97%). In this cohort,
      the positive and negative predictive accuracy of the new method are 96% and 93%,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Metabolism-mechanical mismatch pattern could predict
      perfusion-metabolism mismatch pattern in patients with myocardial viability
      criteria on PET. Prospective validation against the gold standard of improved
      myocardial contraction after revascularisation is needed.

PMID- 28878947
TI  - The importance of early life family factors in the association between
      cardiovascular risk factors and early cardiovascular mortality.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the importance of early life factors shared by siblings,
      such as parental socioeconomic position, parental practices, housing and
      neighbourhood, for the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk
      factors and mortality from CVD, ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebrovascular
      disease. METHODS: Norwegian health surveys (1974-2003) were linked with data from
      the Norwegian Family Based Life Course Study and the Cause of Death Registry.
      Participants with at least one full sibling among survey participants (n=2 71
      643) were included. Data on CVD risk factors, body mass index (BMI), height,
      systolic blood pressure (SBP) and total cholesterol (TC) were stratified into
      'low', 'medium' and 'high' risk, and smoking to 'daily smoking' and 'not daily
      smoking'. RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 41 years, mean follow-up time was
      19 years and during follow-up 2512 died from CVD. For each category of increased
      risk factor level, the per step HR of CVD mortality was increased by 1.91 (95% CI
      1.78 to 2.05) for SBP, 1.67 (1.58 to 1.76) for TC, 1.44 (1.36 to 1.53) for BMI,
      1.26 (1.18 to 1.35) for height and 2.89 (2.66 to 3.14) for smoking. In analyses
      where each sibship (groups of full siblings) had a group-specific baseline
      hazard, these associations were attenuated to 1.74, 1.51, 1.29, 1.18 and 2.63,
      respectively. The associations between risk factors and IHD mortality followed
      the same pattern. CONCLUSION: Early life family factors explained a small part of
      the association between risk factors and mortality from CVD and IHD in a
      relatively young sample.

PMID- 28878946
TI  - Supplemental N-acetylcysteine and other measures that boost intracellular
      glutathione can downregulate interleukin-1beta signalling: a potential strategy
      for preventing cardiovascular events?

PMID- 28878948
TI  - The impact of passive and active smoking on inflammation, lipid profile and the
      risk of myocardial infarction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of passive smoking, active smoking and
      smoking cessation on inflammation, lipid profile and the risk of myocardial
      infarction (MI). METHODS: A total of 423 cases with a first MI and 465 population
      controls from the Maltese Acute Myocardial Infarction (MAMI) Study were analysed.
      Data were collected through an interviewer-led questionnaire, and morning fasting
      blood samples were obtained. ORs adjusted for the conventional risk factors of MI
      (aORs) were calculated as an estimate of the relative risk of MI. The influence
      of smoking on biochemical parameters was determined among controls. RESULTS:
      Current smokers had a 2.7-fold (95% CI 1.7 to 4.2) and ex-smokers a 1.6-fold (95%
      CI 1.0 to 2.4) increased risk of MI. Risk increased with increasing pack-years
      and was accompanied by an increase in high-sensitivity C reactive protein levels
      and an abnormal lipid profile. Smoking cessation was associated with lower
      triglyceride levels. Exposure to passive smoking increased the risk of MI (aOR
      3.2 (95% CI 1.7 to 6.3)), with the OR being higher for individuals exposed to
      passive smoking in a home rather than in a public setting (aOR 2.0 (95% CI 0.7 to
      5.6) vs aOR 1.2 (95% CI 0.7 to 2.0)). Passive smoke exposure was associated with
      higher levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol:high
      density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio compared with individuals not exposed to
      passive smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Both active and passive smoking are strong risk
      factors for MI. This risk increased with increasing pack-years and decreased with
      smoking cessation. Such effects may be partly mediated through the influence of
      smoking on inflammation and lipid metabolism.

PMID- 28878949
TI  - Association of Life's Simple 7 and presence of cardiovascular disease in general
      Australians.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The American Heart Association developed Life's Simple 7 to define and
      monitor cardiovascular health (CVH), but their contributions to cardiovascular
      disease (CVD) in general Australians are still unclear. Our study aimed to
      evaluate the separate and combined effects of Life's Simple 7 on CVD among
      Australians. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study based on 7499 adults
      (>=18 years) who have been tested for total cholesterol and fasting plasma
      glucose as part of the 2011-2012 Australian Health Survey. Poisson regression
      analyses were used to estimate the incidence rate ratios and population
      attributable fractions of those metrics to CVD prevalence. Participants were
      classified into three CVH status groups based on the number of ideal metrics:
      inadequate (0-2), average (3-4) and optimal (5-7). Logistic regression analyses
      were performed to illustrate the relationships between overall CVH and CVD
      prevalence. RESULTS: 2100 (21.0%) participants were having CVD. Smoking, elevated
      body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose and
      physical inactivity were observed as significant indicators of CVD. Compared with
      the inadequate category, participants in the optimal and average category have a
      66% (adjusted OR, 0.34; 95% CI 0.22 to 0.54) and a 33% (adjusted OR, 0.67; 95% CI
      0.56 to 0.81) lower CVD risk. One more ideal metric was associated with a 21%
      reduced CVD risk (adjusted OR, 0.79; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.84). CONCLUSIONS: We have
      identified several modifiable risk factors and contributors of CVD in general
      Australians. The improvement of overall CVH may also reduce CVD risk.

PMID- 28878950
TI  - Exercise dose and all-cause mortality within extended cardiac rehabilitation: a
      cohort study.
AB  - AIMS: To investigate the relationship between exercise participation, exercise
      'dose' expressed as metabolic equivalent (MET) hours (h) per week, and prognosis
      in individuals attending an extended, community-based exercise rehabilitation
      programme. METHODS: Cohort study of 435 participants undertaking exercise-based
      cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK between 1994 and 2006,
      followed up to 1 November 2013. MET intensity of supervised exercise was
      estimated utilising serial submaximal exercise test results and corresponding
      exercise prescriptions. Programme participation was routinely monitored. Cox
      regression analysis including time-varying and propensity score adjustment was
      applied to identify predictors of long-term, all-cause mortality across exercise
      dose and programme duration groups. RESULTS: There were 133 events (31%) during a
      median follow-up of 14 years (range, 1.2 to 18.9 years). The significant
      univariate association between exercise dose and all-cause mortality was
      attenuated following multivariable adjustment for other predictors, including
      duration in the programme. Longer-term adherence to supervised exercise training
      (>36 months) was associated with a 33% lower mortality risk (multivariate
      adjusted HR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.47 to 0.97; p=0.033) compared with all lesser
      durations of CR (3, 12, 36 months), even after adjustment for baseline fitness,
      comorbidities and survivor bias. CONCLUSION: Exercise dose (MET-h per week)
      appears less important than long-term adherence to supervised exercise for the
      reduction of long-term mortality risk. Extended, supervised CR programmes within
      the community may play a key role in promoting long-term exercise maintenance and
      other secondary prevention therapies for survival benefit.

PMID- 28878951
TI  - High-pitch versus conventional cardiovascular CT in patients being assessed for
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a real-world appraisal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: High-pitch protocols are increasingly used in cardiovascular CT
      assessment for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), but the impact on
      diagnostic image quality is not known. METHODS: We reviewed 95 consecutive TAVI
      studies: 44 (46%) high-pitch and 51 (54%) standard-pitch. Single high-pitch scans
      were performed regardless of heart rate. For standard-pitch acquisitions, a
      separate CT-aortogram and CT-coronary angiogram were performed with prospective
      gating, unless heart rate was >=70 beats/min, when retrospective gating was used.
      The aortic root and coronary arteries were assessed for artefact (significant
      artefact=1; artefact not limiting diagnosis=2; no artefact=3). Aortic scans were
      considered diagnostic if the score was >1; the coronaries, if all three
      epicardial arteries scored >1. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in
      diagnostic image quality for either the aorta (artefact-free high-pitch: 31 (73%)
      scans vs standard-pitch: 40 (79%), p=0.340) or the coronary tree as a whole (10
      (23%) vs 15 (29%), p=0.493). However, proximal coronary arteries were less well
      visualised using high-pitch acquisitions (16 (36%) vs 30 (59%), p=0.04). The
      median (IQR) radiation dose was significantly lower in the high-pitch cohort
      (dose-length product: 347 (318-476) vs 1227 (1150-1474) mGy cm, respectively,
      p<0.001), and the protocol required almost half the amount of contrast.
      CONCLUSIONS: The high-pitch protocol significantly reduces radiation and contrast
      doses and is non-inferior to standard-pitch acquisitions for aortic assessment.
      For aortic root assessment, the high-pitch protocol is recommended. However, if
      coronary assessment is critical, this should be followed by a conventional
      standard-pitch, low-dose, prospectively gated CT-coronary angiogram if the high
      pitch scan is non-diagnostic.

PMID- 28878952
TI  - Pathophysiology of exercise intolerance in chronic diseases: the role of
      diminished cardiac performance in mitochondrial and heart failure patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Exercise intolerance is a clinical hallmark of chronic conditions. The
      present study determined pathophysiological mechanisms of exercise intolerance in
      cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and metabolic disorders. METHODS: In a prospective
      cross-sectional observational study 152 patients (heart failure reduced ejection
      fraction, n=32; stroke, n=34; mitochondrial disease, n=28; type two diabetes,
      n=28; and healthy controls, n=30) performed cardiopulmonary exercise testing with
      metabolic and haemodynamic measurements. Peak exercise O2 consumption and cardiac
      power output were measures of exercise tolerance and cardiac performance.
      RESULTS: Exercise tolerance was significantly diminished in patients compared
      with controls (ie, by 45% stroke, 39% mitochondria disease, and 33% diabetes and
      heart failure, p<0.05). Cardiac performance was only significantly reduced in
      heart failure (due to reduced heart rate, stroke volume, and blood pressure) and
      mitochondrial patients (due reduced stroke volume) compared with controls (ie, by
      53% and 26%, p<0.05). Ability of skeletal muscles to extract oxygen (ie, arterial
      venous O2 difference) was diminished in mitochondrial, stroke, and diabetes
      patients (by 24%, 22%, and 18%, p<0.05), but increased by 21% in heart failure
      (p<0.05) compared with controls. Cardiac output explained 65% and 51% of the
      variance in peak O2 consumption (p<0.01) in heart failure and mitochondrial
      patients, whereas arterial-venous O2 difference explained 69% (p<0.01) of
      variance in peak O2 consumption in diabetes, and 65% and 48% in stroke and
      mitochondrial patients (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Different mechanisms explain
      exercise intolerance in patients with heart failure, mitochondrial dysfunction,
      stroke and diabetes. Their better understanding may improve management of
      patients, their stress tolerance and quality of life.

PMID- 28878953
TI  - Extracellular cardiac matrix biomarkers in patients with reduced ejection
      fraction heart failure as predictors of response to cardiac resynchronisation
      therapy: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is an effective therapy for
      selected patients with heart failure (HF); however, a significant non-response
      rate exists. We examined current evidence on extracellular cardiac matrix (ECM)
      biomarkers in predicting response following CRT. METHODS: Complete literature
      review of PubMed, Ovid SP MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and TRIP, reference lists,
      international cardiology conferences and ongoing studies between December 1999
      and December 2015 conducted according to prospectively registered study selection
      and analysis criteria (PROSPERO:CRD42016025864) was performed. All observational
      and randomised control trials (RCT) were included if they tested prespecified ECM
      biomarkers' ability to predict CRT response. Risk of bias assessment and data
      extraction determined pooling of included studies was not feasible due to
      heterogeneity of the selected studies. RESULTS: A total of 217 studies were
      screened; six (five prospective cohort and one RCT substudy) were included in
      analysis with 415 participants in total. Study sizes varied (n=55-260), cohort
      characteristics contrasted (male: 67.8%-83.6%, ischaemic aetiology: 40.2%-70.3%)
      and CRT response definitions differed (three clinical/functional, three
      echocardiographic). Consistent observation in all ECM biomarker behaviour before
      and after CRT implantation was not observed between studies. Lower type I and
      type III collagen synthesis biomarkers (N-terminal propeptides of type I and III
      procollagens) expression demonstrated replicated ability to predict reverse left
      ventricular remodelling. CONCLUSION: Collagen synthesis biomarkers offer the most
      potential as ECM biomarkers for predicting CRT response. Heterogeneity between
      these studies was large and limited the ability to pool and compare results
      numerically. Use of different response definitions was one of the biggest
      challenges.

PMID- 28878954
TI  - Brainstem dermoid cyst rupture with hydrocephalus in a child.
AB  - Intracranial dermoid cysts are ectodermal lesions of embryological origin. They
      are of slow progression and symptoms associated with unruptured cysts are most
      commonly due to mass effect. However, a potential rupture in the ventricular
      system is rare and can cause meningitis, seizures and hydrocephalus. Hereby, we
      report a case of a 12-year-old boy presenting with obstructive hydrocephalus due
      to brainstem dermoid cyst rupture.

PMID- 28878955
TI  - Chimpanzees recognize their own delayed self-image.
AB  - Unlike mirror self-recognition, recognizing one's own image in delayed video
      footage may indicate the presence of a concept of self that extends across time
      and space. While humans typically show this ability around 4 years of age, it is
      unknown whether this capacity is found in non-human animals. In this study,
      chimpanzees performed a modified version of the mark test to investigate whether
      chimpanzees could remove stickers placed on the face and head while watching live
      and delayed video images. The results showed that three of five chimpanzees
      consistently removed the mark in delayed-viewing conditions, while they removed
      the stickers much less frequently in control video conditions which lacked a link
      to their current state. These findings suggest that chimpanzees, like human
      children at the age of 4 years and more, can comprehend temporal dissociation in
      their concept of self.

PMID- 28878956
TI  - Object recognition and localization from 3D point clouds by maximum-likelihood
      estimation.
AB  - We present an algorithm based on maximum-likelihood analysis for the automated
      recognition of objects, and estimation of their pose, from 3D point clouds.
      Surfaces segmented from depth images are used as the features, unlike 'interest
      point'-based algorithms which normally discard such data. Compared to the 6D
      Hough transform, it has negligible memory requirements, and is computationally
      efficient compared to iterative closest point algorithms. The same method is
      applicable to both the initial recognition/pose estimation problem as well as
      subsequent pose refinement through appropriate choice of the dispersion of the
      probability density functions. This single unified approach therefore avoids the
      usual requirement for different algorithms for these two tasks. In addition to
      the theoretical description, a simple 2 degrees of freedom (d.f.) example is
      given, followed by a full 6 d.f. analysis of 3D point cloud data from a cluttered
      scene acquired by a projected fringe-based scanner, which demonstrated an RMS
      alignment error as low as 0.3 mm.

PMID- 28878957
TI  - Control mechanisms for stochastic biochemical systems via computation of
      reachable sets.
AB  - Controlling the behaviour of cells by rationally guiding molecular processes is
      an overarching aim of much of synthetic biology. Molecular processes, however,
      are notoriously noisy and frequently nonlinear. We present an approach to
      studying the impact of control measures on motifs of molecular interactions that
      addresses the problems faced in many biological systems: stochasticity, parameter
      uncertainty and nonlinearity. We show that our reachability analysis formalism
      can describe the potential behaviour of biological (naturally evolved as well as
      engineered) systems, and provides a set of bounds on their dynamics at the level
      of population statistics: for example, we can obtain the possible ranges of means
      and variances of mRNA and protein expression levels, even in the presence of
      uncertainty about model parameters.

PMID- 28878959
TI  - Influence of tangential displacement on the adhesion strength of a contact
      between a parabolic profile and an elastic half-space.
AB  - The adhesion strength of a contact between a rotationally symmetric indenter and
      an elastic half-space is analysed analytically and numerically using an extension
      of the method of dimensionality reduction for superimposed normal/tangential
      adhesive contacts. In particular, the dependence of the critical adhesion force
      on the simultaneously applied tangential force is obtained and the relevant
      dimensionless parameters of the problem are identified. The fracture criterion
      used coincides with that suggested by Johnson. In this paper, it is used to
      develop a method that is applicable straightforwardly to adhesive contacts of
      arbitrary bodies of revolution with compact contact area.

PMID- 28878958
TI  - Tumour heterogeneity promotes collective invasion and cancer metastatic
      dissemination.
AB  - Heterogeneity within tumour cell populations is commonly observed in most
      cancers. However, its impact on metastatic dissemination, one of the primary
      determinants of the disease prognosis, remains poorly understood. Working with a
      simplified numerical model of tumour spheroids, we investigated the impact of
      mechanical heterogeneity on the onset of tumour invasion into surrounding
      tissues. Our work establishes a positive link between tumour heterogeneity and
      metastatic dissemination, and recapitulates a number of invasion patterns
      identified in vivo, such as multicellular finger-like protrusions. Two
      complementary mechanisms are at play in heterogeneous tumours. A small proportion
      of stronger cells are able to initiate and lead the escape of cells, while
      collective effects in the bulk of the tumour provide the coordination required to
      sustain the invasive process through multicellular streaming. This suggests that
      the multicellular dynamics observed during metastasis is a generic feature of
      mechanically heterogeneous cell populations and might rely on a limited and
      generic set of attributes.

PMID- 28878960
TI  - Eversion and withdrawal of an intromittent organ before sexual maturation
      prepares male beetles for copulation.
AB  - Some species of criocerine beetles have a hyper-elongated part of the
      intromittent organ called a flagellum. In resting position, the flagellum is
      stored in a specialized internal sac in the intromittent organ. This specialized
      state of the flagellum and internal sac is indispensable during copulation for
      flagellar insertion into the female spermathecal duct for sperm transfer.
      However, the morphogenesis of the flagellum does not generate the active state of
      the flagellum; rather, the flagellum is generated in an inactive and completely
      coiled state. After eclosion, males of Lema coronata evert and withdraw the
      internal sac multiple times before sexual maturation, without mounting a female.
      This behaviour serves to uncoil the flagellum and guide it into the active state
      with the aid of surface structures on the internal sac. A closely related
      species, Lema dilecta, also has a long flagellum and undergoes the same behaviour
      to place the flagellum in the active position. However, some other species of
      criocerine beetles with much shorter flagella can attain the active state without
      exhibiting this behaviour. Based on a previously proposed phylogenetic tree, we
      discuss the evolutionary history of the hyper-elongation of the flagellum and
      associated behaviour.

PMID- 28878961
TI  - Utterance-final position and pitch marking aid word learning in school-age
      children.
AB  - We investigated the effects of word order and prosody on word learning in school
      age children. Third graders viewed photographs belonging to one of three semantic
      categories while hearing four-word nonsense utterances containing a target word.
      In the control condition, all words had the same pitch and, across trials, the
      position of the target word was varied systematically within each utterance. The
      only cue to word-meaning mapping was the co-occurrence of target words and
      referents. This cue was present in all conditions. In the Utterance-final
      condition, the target word always occurred in utterance-final position, and at
      the same fundamental frequency as all the other words of the utterance. In the
      Pitch peak condition, the position of the target word was varied systematically
      within each utterance across trials, and produced with pitch contrasts typical of
      infant-directed speech (IDS). In the Pitch peak + Utterance-final condition, the
      target word always occurred in utterance-final position, and was marked with a
      pitch contrast typical of IDS. Word learning occurred in all conditions except
      the control condition. Moreover, learning performance was significantly higher
      than that observed with simple co-occurrence (control condition) only for the
      Pitch peak + Utterance-final condition. We conclude that, for school-age
      children, the combination of words' utterance-final alignment and pitch
      enhancement boosts word learning.

PMID- 28878962
TI  - Age of enlightenment: long-term effects of outdoor aesthetic lights on bats in
      churches.
AB  - We surveyed 110 country churches in south-western Sweden for presence of brown
      long-eared bats Plecotus auritus in summer 2016 by visual inspection and/or
      evening emergence counts. Each church was also classified according to the
      presence and amount of aesthetic directional lights (flood-lights) aimed on its
      walls and tower from the outside. Sixty-one of the churches had previously been
      surveyed by one of us (J.R.) between 1980 and 1990, before lights were installed
      on Swedish churches, using the same methods. Churches with bat colonies had
      decreased significantly in frequency from 61% in 1980s to 38% by 2016. All
      abandoned churches had been fitted with flood-lights in the period between the
      two surveys. The loss of bat colonies from lit churches was highly significant
      and most obvious when lights were applied from all directions, leaving no dark
      corridor for the bats to leave and return to the roost. In contrast, in churches
      that were not lit, all of 13 bat colonies remained after 25+ years between the
      surveys. Lighting of churches and other historical buildings is a serious threat
      to the long-term survival and reproduction of light-averse bats such as Plecotus
      spp. and other slow-flying species. Bat roosts are strictly protected according
      to the EU Habitats Directive and the EUROBATS agreement. Lighting of buildings
      for aesthetic purposes is becoming a serious environmental issue, because
      important bat roosts are destroyed in large numbers, and the problem should be
      handled accordingly. As a start, installation of flood-lights on historical
      buildings should at least require an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

PMID- 28878963
TI  - The impact of weather and storm water management ponds on the transmission of
      West Nile virus.
AB  - West Nile virus (WNV) is the most widely distributed arbovirus in the world and
      the spread is influenced by complex factors including weather conditions and
      urban environmental settings like storm water management ponds (SWMP). The
      purpose of this work was to develop an ordinary differential equation model to
      explore the impacts of SWMP, temperature and precipitation on WNV vector
      abundance and the transmission of WNV between mosquito and bird populations. The
      model was used to analyse how weather conditions and SWMP can influence the basic
      reproduction number. The results found that an excess of precipitation and
      fiercer intraspecific competition will reduce vector population and the peak
      value of infectious vectors and birds. This information can be used to identify
      measures that would be useful to control larval abundance in SWMP and the
      transmission of WNV.

PMID- 28878964
TI  - The role of climatic and geological events in generating diversity in Ethiopian
      grass frogs (genus Ptychadena).
AB  - Ethiopia is a world biodiversity hotspot and harbours levels of biotic endemism
      unmatched in the Horn of Africa, largely due to topographic-and thus habitat
      complexity, which results from a very active geological and climatic history.
      Among Ethiopian vertebrate fauna, amphibians harbour the highest levels of
      endemism, making amphibians a compelling system for the exploration of the
      impacts of Ethiopia's complex abiotic history on biotic diversification. Grass
      frogs of the genus Ptychadena are notably diverse in Ethiopia, where they have
      undergone an evolutionary radiation. We used molecular data and expanded taxon
      sampling to test for cryptic diversity and to explore diversification patterns in
      both the highland radiation and two widespread lowland Ptychadena. Species
      delimitation results support the presence of nine highland species and four
      lowland species in our dataset, and divergence dating suggests that both geologic
      events and climatic fluctuations played a complex and confounded role in the
      diversification of Ptychadena in Ethiopia. We rectify the taxonomy of the endemic
      P. neumanni species complex, elevating one formally synonymized name and
      describing three novel taxa. Finally, we describe two novel lowland Ptychadena
      species that occur in Ethiopia and may be more broadly distributed.

PMID- 28878965
TI  - Social seeking declines in young adolescents.
AB  - The desire to engage with others is an important motivational force throughout
      our lifespan. It is known that social behaviour and preferences change from
      childhood to adulthood, but whether this change is linked with any changes in
      social motivation is not known. We evaluated 255 typically developing
      participants from ages 4-20 years on a behavioural paradigm 'Choose a Movie'
      (CAM). On every trial, participants had a choice between viewing social or non
      social movies presented with different levels of effort (key presses/screen touch
      required). Hence, participants chose not only the movie they would watch but also
      how much effort they would make. The difference between the effort levels of the
      chosen and not chosen stimuli helps in quantifying the motivation to seek it.
      This task could be used with all the age groups with minimal adaptations,
      allowing comparison between the groups. Results showed that children (4-8 years),
      older adolescents (12-16 years) and young adults (17-20 years) made more effort
      to look at social movies. Counterintuitively, this preference was not seen in
      young adolescents (around 9-12 years), giving a U-shaped developmental trajectory
      over the population. We present the first evidence for non-monotonic
      developmental change in social motivation in typical participants.

PMID- 28878966
TI  - Assessment and analysis of human laterality for manipulation and communication
      using the Rennes Laterality Questionnaire.
AB  - Despite significant scientific advances, the nature of the left-hemispheric
      systems involved in language (speech and gesture) and manual actions is still
      unclear. To date, investigations of human laterality focused mainly on non
      communication functions. Although gestural laterality data have been published
      for infants and children, relatively little is known about laterality of human
      gestural communication. This study investigated human laterality in depth
      considering non-communication manipulation actions and various gesture types
      involving hands, feet, face and ears. We constructed an online laterality
      questionnaire including 60 items related to daily activities. We collected 317
      594 item responses by 5904 randomly selected participants. The highest
      percentages of strong left-lateralized (6.76%) and strong right-lateralized
      participants (75.19%) were for manipulation actions. The highest percentages of
      mixed left-lateralized (12.30%) and ambidextrous (50.23%) participants were found
      for head-related gestures. The highest percentage of mixed right-lateralized
      participants (55.33%) was found for auditory gestures. Every behavioural category
      showed a significant population-level right-side bias. More precisely,
      participants were predominantly right-lateralized for non-communication manual
      actions, for visual iconic, visual symbolic, visual deictic (with and without
      speech), tactile and auditory manual gestures as well as for podial and head
      related gestures. Our findings support previous studies reporting that humans
      have left-brain predominance for gestures and complex motor activities such as
      tool-use. Our study shows that the Rennes Laterality Questionnaire is a useful
      research instrument to assess and analyse human laterality for both manipulation
      and communication functions.

PMID- 28878967
TI  - Resisting the urge to smoke: inhibitory control training in cigarette smokers.
AB  - Impaired response inhibition is an important factor in tobacco dependence. We
      examined the effects of inhibitory control training (ICT) on inhibition, smoking
      resistance and cigarette use. Smokers (n = 55) abstained from smoking for 12 h
      prior to testing. On the test day, participants recorded cigarette use and
      completed pre-training measures of global and cue-specific (smoking-related)
      response inhibition. Participants were randomized to either an active or a
      control ICT group. The active group was required to repeatedly inhibit a response
      towards smoking cues (100%), while the control group was required to inhibit a
      response towards smoking and neutral cues with equal frequency (50%).
      Participants performed post-training measures of response inhibition, smoking
      resistance and cigarette use. Inhibition data did not indicate time (pre
      training, post-training) * group (active training, control training) or time *
      group * cue (smoking, neutral) interactions. There was weak evidence that smokers
      in the active group were more likely to resist smoking than those in the control
      group. Cigarette use data did not indicate a time * group interaction. Our data
      suggest that ICT may enhance the ability to resist smoking, indicating that
      training may be a promising adjunct to smoking pharmacotherapy.

PMID- 28878968
TI  - The leading-edge vortex of swift wing-shaped delta wings.
AB  - Recent investigations on the aerodynamics of natural fliers have illuminated the
      significance of the leading-edge vortex (LEV) for lift generation in a variety of
      flight conditions. A well-documented example of an LEV is that generated by
      aircraft with highly swept, delta-shaped wings. While the wing aerodynamics of a
      manoeuvring aircraft, a bird gliding and a bird in flapping flight vary
      significantly, it is believed that this existing knowledge can serve to add
      understanding to the complex aerodynamics of natural fliers. In this
      investigation, a model non-slender delta-shaped wing with a sharp leading edge is
      tested at low Reynolds number, along with a delta wing of the same design, but
      with a modified trailing edge inspired by the wing of a common swift Apus apus.
      The effect of the tapering swift wing on LEV development and stability is
      compared with the flow structure over the unmodified delta wing model through
      particle image velocimetry. For the first time, a leading-edge vortex system
      consisting of a dual or triple LEV is recorded on a swift wing-shaped delta wing,
      where such a system is found across all tested conditions. It is shown that the
      spanwise location of LEV breakdown is governed by the local chord rather than
      Reynolds number or angle of attack. These findings suggest that the trailing-edge
      geometry of the swift wing alone does not prevent the common swift from
      generating an LEV system comparable with that of a delta-shaped wing.

PMID- 28878970
TI  - Building information modelling review with potential applications in tunnel
      engineering of China.
AB  - Building information modelling (BIM) can be applied to tunnel engineering to
      address a number of problems, including complex structure, extensive design, long
      construction cycle and increased security risks. To promote the development of
      tunnel engineering in China, this paper combines actual cases, including the
      Xingu mountain tunnel and the Shigu Mountain tunnel, to systematically analyse
      BIM applications in tunnel engineering in China. The results indicate that BIM
      technology in tunnel engineering is currently mainly applied during the design
      stage rather than during construction and operation stages. The application of
      BIM technology in tunnel engineering covers many problems, such as a lack of
      standards, incompatibility of different software, disorganized management,
      complex combination with GIS (Geographic Information System), low utilization
      rate and poor awareness. In this study, through summary of related research
      results and engineering cases, suggestions are introduced and an outlook for the
      BIM application in tunnel engineering in China is presented, which provides
      guidance for design optimization, construction standards and later operation
      maintenance.

PMID- 28878969
TI  - Natal foraging philopatry in eastern Pacific hawksbill turtles.
AB  - The complex processes involved with animal migration have long been a subject of
      biological interest, and broad-scale movement patterns of many marine turtle
      populations still remain unresolved. While it is widely accepted that once marine
      turtles reach sexual maturity they home to natal areas for nesting or
      reproduction, the role of philopatry to natal areas during other life stages has
      received less scrutiny, despite widespread evidence across the taxa. Here we
      report on genetic research that indicates that juvenile hawksbill turtles
      (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the eastern Pacific Ocean use foraging grounds in the
      region of their natal beaches, a pattern we term natal foraging philopatry. Our
      findings confirm that traditional views of natal homing solely for reproduction
      are incomplete and that many marine turtle species exhibit philopatry to natal
      areas to forage. Our results have important implications for life-history
      research and conservation of marine turtles and may extend to other wide-ranging
      marine vertebrates that demonstrate natal philopatry.

PMID- 28878972
TI  - Chemical element transport in stellar evolution models.
AB  - Stellar evolution computations provide the foundation of several methods applied
      to study the evolutionary properties of stars and stellar populations, both
      Galactic and extragalactic. The accuracy of the results obtained with these
      techniques is linked to the accuracy of the stellar models, and in this context
      the correct treatment of the transport of chemical elements is crucial.
      Unfortunately, in many respects calculations of the evolution of the chemical
      abundance profiles in stars are still affected by sometimes sizable
      uncertainties. Here, we review the various mechanisms of element transport
      included in the current generation of stellar evolution calculations, how they
      are implemented, the free parameters and uncertainties involved, the impact on
      the models and the observational constraints.

PMID- 28878971
TI  - Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing.
AB  - The diverse hummingbird family (Trochilidae) has unique adaptations for
      nectarivory, among which is the ability to sustain hover-feeding. As hummingbirds
      mainly feed while hovering, it is crucial to maintain this ability throughout the
      annual cycle-especially during flight-feather moult, in which wing area is
      reduced. To quantify the aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms of a
      hummingbird wing throughout the annual cycle, time-accurate aerodynamic loads and
      flow field measurements were correlated over a dynamically scaled wing model of
      Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna). We present measurements recorded over a model
      of a complete wing to evaluate the baseline aerodynamic characteristics and flow
      mechanisms. We found that the vorticity concentration that had developed from the
      wing's leading-edge differs from the attached vorticity structure that was
      typically found over insects' wings; firstly, it is more elongated along the wing
      chord, and secondly, it encounters high levels of fluctuations rather than a
      steady vortex. Lift characteristics resemble those of insects; however, a 20%
      increase in the lift-to-torque ratio was obtained for the hummingbird wing model.
      Time-accurate aerodynamic loads were also used to evaluate the time-evolution of
      the specific power required from the flight muscles, and the overall wingbeat
      power requirements nicely matched previous studies.

PMID- 28878974
TI  - Multilevel and quasi-Monte Carlo methods for uncertainty quantification in
      particle travel times through random heterogeneous porous media.
AB  - In this study, we apply four Monte Carlo simulation methods, namely, Monte Carlo,
      quasi-Monte Carlo, multilevel Monte Carlo and multilevel quasi-Monte Carlo to the
      problem of uncertainty quantification in the estimation of the average travel
      time during the transport of particles through random heterogeneous porous media.
      We apply the four methodologies to a model problem where the only input
      parameter, the hydraulic conductivity, is modelled as a log-Gaussian random field
      by using direct Karhunen-Loeve decompositions. The random terms in such
      expansions represent the coefficients in the equations. Numerical calculations
      demonstrating the effectiveness of each of the methods are presented. A
      comparison of the computational cost incurred by each of the methods for three
      different tolerances is provided. The accuracy of the approaches is quantified
      via the mean square error.

PMID- 28878973
TI  - Making better decisions in groups.
AB  - We review the literature to identify common problems of decision-making in
      individuals and groups. We are guided by a Bayesian framework to explain the
      interplay between past experience and new evidence, and the problem of exploring
      the space of hypotheses about all the possible states that the world could be in
      and all the possible actions that one could take. There are strong biases, hidden
      from awareness, that enter into these psychological processes. While biases
      increase the efficiency of information processing, they often do not lead to the
      most appropriate action. We highlight the advantages of group decision-making in
      overcoming biases and searching the hypothesis space for good models of the world
      and good solutions to problems. Diversity of group members can facilitate these
      achievements, but diverse groups also face their own problems. We discuss means
      of managing these pitfalls and make some recommendations on how to make better
      group decisions.

PMID- 28878975
TI  - Export of ice nucleating particles from a watershed.
AB  - Ice nucleating particles (INP) active at a few degrees below 0 degrees C are
      produced by a range of organisms and released into the environment. They may
      affect cloud properties and precipitation when becoming airborne. So far, our
      knowledge about sources of biological INP is based on grab samples of vegetation,
      soil or water studied in the laboratory. By combining measurements of INP
      concentrations in river water with river water discharge rates over the course of
      16 months, we obtained a lower limit for the production rate of INP in a
      watershed covering most of Switzerland (4 * 105 INP-8 m-2 d-1). Coincidentally,
      we found that INP-8 are likely to retain their potential for catalysing ice
      formation in the natural environment for at least several months before they are
      mobilized by an intensive rainfall, washed into the river and exported from the
      watershed.

PMID- 28878976
TI  - The nature and distribution of affiliative behaviour during exposure to mild
      threat.
AB  - Individual reactions to danger in humans are often characterized as antisocial
      and self-preservative. Yet, more than 50 years of research have shown that humans
      often seek social partners and behave prosocially when confronted by danger. This
      research has relied on post hoc verbal reports, which fall short of capturing the
      more spontaneous reactions to danger and determine their social nature. Real
      world responses to danger are difficult to observe, due to their evanescent
      nature. Here, we took advantage of a series of photographs freely accessible
      online and provided by a haunted house attraction, which enabled us to examine
      the more immediate reactions to mild threat. Regarding the nature and structure
      of affiliative behaviour and their motivational correlates, we were able to
      analyse the distribution of gripping, a behaviour that could either be linked to
      self- or other-oriented protection. We found that gripping, an affiliative
      behaviour, was common, suggestive of the social nature of human immediate
      reactions to danger. We also found that, while gripping behaviour is quite stable
      across group sizes, mutual gripping dropped dramatically as group size increases.
      The fact that mutual gripping disappears when the number of available partners
      increases suggests that gripping behaviour most probably reflects a self
      preservative motivation. We also found age class differences, with younger
      individuals showing more gripping but receiving little reciprocation. Also, the
      most exposed individuals received little mutual gripping. Altogether, these
      results suggest that primary reactions to threat in humans are driven by
      affiliative tendencies serving self-preservative motives.

PMID- 28878977
TI  - How effective is incidental learning of the shape of probability distributions?
AB  - The idea that people learn detailed probabilistic generative models of the
      environments they interact with is intuitively appealing, and has received
      support from recent studies of implicit knowledge acquired in daily life. The
      goal of this study was to see whether people efficiently induce a probability
      distribution based upon incidental exposure to an unknown generative process.
      Subjects played a 'whack-a-mole' game in which they attempted to click on objects
      appearing briefly, one at a time on the screen. Horizontal positions of the
      objects were generated from a bimodal distribution. After 180 plays of the game,
      subjects were unexpectedly asked to generate another 180 target positions of
      their own from the same distribution. Their responses did not even show a bimodal
      distribution, much less an accurate one (Experiment 1). The same was true for a
      pre-announced test (Experiment 2). On the other hand, a more extreme bimodality
      with zero density in a middle region did produce some distributional learning
      (Experiment 3), perhaps reflecting conscious hypothesis testing. We discuss the
      challenge this poses to the idea of efficient accurate distributional learning.

PMID- 28878978
TI  - Error rate on the director's task is influenced by the need to take another's
      perspective but not the type of perspective.
AB  - Adults are prone to responding erroneously to another's instructions based on
      what they themselves see and not what the other person sees. Previous studies
      have indicated that in instruction-following tasks participants make more errors
      when required to infer another's perspective than when following a rule. These
      inference-induced errors may occur because the inference process itself is error
      prone or because they are a side effect of the inference process. Crucially, if
      the inference process is error-prone, then higher error rates should be found
      when the perspective to be inferred is more complex. Here, we found that
      participants were no more error-prone when they had to judge how an item appeared
      (Level 2 perspective-taking) than when they had to judge whether an item could or
      could not be seen (Level 1 perspective-taking). However, participants were more
      error-prone in the perspective-taking variants of the task than in a version that
      only required them to follow a rule. These results suggest that having to
      represent another's perspective induces errors when following their instructions
      but that error rates are not directly linked to errors in inferring another's
      perspective.

PMID- 28878979
TI  - Oriented, molecularly imprinted cavities with dual binding sites for highly
      sensitive and selective recognition of cortisol.
AB  - Novel, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were developed for the highly
      sensitive and selective recognition of the stress marker cortisol. Oriented,
      homogeneous cavities with two binding sites for cortisol were fabricated by
      surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization, using a cortisol motif
      template molecule (TM1) which consists of a polymerizable moiety attached at the
      3-carbonyl group of cortisol via an oxime linkage and an adamantane carboxylate
      moiety coupled with the 21-hydroxyl group. TM1 was orientationally immobilized on
      a beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD)-grafted gold-coated sensor chip by inclusion of the
      adamantane moiety of TM1, followed by copolymerization of a hydrophilic
      comonomer, 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine, with or without a cross
      linker, N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide. Subsequent cleavage of the oxime linkage
      leaves the imprinted cavities that contain dual binding sites-namely, the
      aminooxy group and beta-CD-capable of oxime formation and hydrophobic
      interaction, respectively. As an application, MIP-based picomolar level detection
      of cortisol was demonstrated by a competitive binding assay using a fluorescent
      competitor. Cross-linking of the MIP imparts rigidity to the binding cavities,
      and improves the selectivity and sensitivity significantly, reducing the limit of
      detection to 4.8 pM. In addition, detection of cortisol in saliva samples was
      demonstrated as a feasibility study.

PMID- 28878980
TI  - The origins of babytalk: smiling, teaching or social convergence?
AB  - When addressing their young infants, parents systematically modify their speech.
      Such infant-directed speech (IDS) contains exaggerated vowel formants, which have
      been proposed to foster language development via articulation of more distinct
      speech sounds. Here, this assumption is rigorously tested using both acoustic
      and, for the first time, fine-grained articulatory measures. Mothers were
      recorded speaking to their infant and to another adult, and measures were taken
      of their acoustic vowel space, their tongue and lip movements and the length of
      their vocal tract. Results showed that infant- but not adult-directed speech
      contains acoustically exaggerated vowels, and these are not the product of
      adjustments to tongue or to lip movements. Rather, they are the product of a
      shortened vocal tract due to a raised larynx, which can be ascribed to speakers'
      unconscious effort to appear smaller and more non-threatening to the young
      infant. This adjustment in IDS may be a vestige of early mother-infant
      interactions, which had as its primary purpose the transmission of non
      aggressiveness and/or a primitive manifestation of pre-linguistic vocal social
      convergence of the mother to her infant. With the advent of human language, this
      vestige then acquired a secondary purpose-facilitating language acquisition via
      the serendipitously exaggerated vowels.

PMID- 28878981
TI  - Taxonomy assignment approach determines the efficiency of identification of OTUs
      in marine nematodes.
AB  - Precision and reliability of barcode-based biodiversity assessment can be
      affected at several steps during acquisition and analysis of data. Identification
      of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) is one of the crucial steps in the process
      and can be accomplished using several different approaches, namely, alignment
      based, probabilistic, tree-based and phylogeny-based. The number of identified
      sequences in the reference databases affects the precision of identification.
      This paper compares the identification of marine nematode OTUs using alignment
      based, tree-based and phylogeny-based approaches. Because the nematode reference
      dataset is limited in its taxonomic scope, OTUs can only be assigned to higher
      taxonomic categories, families. The phylogeny-based approach using the
      evolutionary placement algorithm provided the largest number of positively
      assigned OTUs and was least affected by erroneous sequences and limitations of
      reference data, compared to alignment-based and tree-based approaches.

PMID- 28878982
TI  - Biophysical properties of the human finger for touch comprehension: influences of
      ageing and gender.
AB  - The human finger plays an extremely important role in tactile perception, but
      little is known about how age and gender affect its biophysical properties and
      their role in tactile perception. We combined studies on contact characteristics,
      mechanical properties and surface topography to understand age and gender effects
      on the human finger. The values obtained regarding contact characteristics (i.e.
      adhesive force) were significantly higher for women than for men. As for
      mechanical properties (i.e. Young's modulus E), a significant and positive
      correlation with age was observed and found to be higher for women. A positive
      correlation was observed between age and the arithmetic mean of surface roughness
      for men. However, an inverse age effect was highlighted for women. The age and
      gender effects obtained have never been reported previously in the literature.
      These results open new perspectives for understanding the weakening of tactile
      perception across ages and how it differs between men and women.

PMID- 28878983
TI  - Development of a novel and cost-effective redox sensor for voltammetric
      determination of pantoprazole sodium during pharmacokinetic studies.
AB  - A pencil graphite electrode modified with poly (bromocresol green (BCG)) was
      prepared by electro-polymerization process for the determination of pantoprazole
      sodium. The surface morphology and structure of poly (BCG) film were
      characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy. The determination of pantoprazole sodium in Britton-Robinson buffer
      (pH 7.0) was carried out by square wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric
      technique. Under optimum conditions, the linear response of the peak with
      concentration of the cited drug was in the range of 6.6-360 * 10-8 M with limit
      of detection of 2.2 * 10-8 M. Moreover, the poly (BCG)-modified electrode has
      been successfully applied to determine pantoprazole sodium in tablets, vials and
      during pharmacokinetic studies.

PMID- 28878984
TI  - A mix-and-click method to measure amyloid-beta concentration with sub-micromolar
      sensitivity.
AB  - Aggregation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) protein plays a central role in Alzheimer's
      disease. Because protein aggregation is a concentration-dependent process,
      rigorous investigations require accurate concentration measurements. Owing to the
      high aggregation propensity of Abeta protein, working solutions of Abeta are
      typically in the low micromolar range. Therefore, an ideal Abeta quantification
      method requires high sensitivity without sacrificing speed and accuracy.
      Absorbance at 280 nm is frequently used to measure Abeta concentration, but the
      sensitivity is low with only one tyrosine and no tryptophan residues in the Abeta
      sequence. Here we present a fluorescence method for Abeta quantification using
      fluorescamine, which gives high fluorescence upon reaction with primary amines.
      We show that, using hen egg white lysozyme as a standard, fluorescence correlates
      linearly with primary amine concentration across a wide range of fluorescamine
      concentrations, from 62.5 to 1000 uM. The maximal sensitivity of detection is
      achieved at a fluorescamine concentration of 250 uM or higher. The fluorescamine
      method is compatible with the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide, which is commonly
      used in the preparation of Abeta oligomers, and limits the use of absorbance at
      280 nm due to its high background reading. Using aggregation kinetics, we show
      that the fluorescamine method gives accurate concentration measurements at low
      micromolar range and leads to highly consistent aggregation data. We recommend
      the fluorescamine assay to be used for routine and on-the-fly concentration
      determination in Abeta oligomerization and fibrillization experiments.

PMID- 28878985
TI  - Task allocation and site fidelity jointly influence foraging regulation in
      honeybee colonies.
AB  - Variation in behaviour among group members often impacts collective outcomes.
      Individuals may vary both in the task that they perform and in the persistence
      with which they perform each task. Although both the distribution of individuals
      among tasks and differences among individuals in behavioural persistence can each
      impact collective behaviour, we do not know if and how they jointly affect
      collective outcomes. Here, we use a detailed computational model to examine the
      joint impact of colony-level distribution among tasks and behavioural persistence
      of individuals, specifically their fidelity to particular resource sites, on the
      collective trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar
      ones. We developed an agent-based model of foraging honeybees, parametrized by
      data from five colonies, in which we simulated scouts, who search the environment
      for new resources, and individuals who are recruited by the scouts to the newly
      found resources, i.e. recruits. We varied the persistence of returning to a
      particular food source of both scouts and recruits and found that, for each value
      of persistence, there is a different optimal ratio of scouts to recruits that
      maximizes resource collection by the colony. Furthermore, changes to the
      persistence of scouts induced opposite effects from changes to the persistence of
      recruits on the collective foraging of the colony. The proportion of scouts that
      resulted in the most resources collected by the colony decreased as the
      persistence of recruits increased. However, this optimal proportion of scouts
      increased as the persistence of scouts increased. Thus, behavioural persistence
      and task participation can interact to impact a colony's collective behaviour in
      orthogonal directions. Our work provides new insights and generates new
      hypotheses into how variations in behaviour at both the individual and colony
      levels jointly impact the trade-off between exploring for new resources and
      exploiting familiar ones.

PMID- 28878986
TI  - The in situ synthesis of PbS nanocrystals from lead(II) n-octylxanthate within a
      1,3-diisopropenylbenzene-bisphenol A dimethacrylate sulfur copolymer.
AB  - The synthesis of lead sulfide nanocrystals within a solution processable sulfur
      'inverse vulcanization' polymer thin film matrix was achieved from the in situ
      thermal decomposition of lead(II) n-octylxanthate, [Pb(S2COOct)2]. The growth of
      nanocrystals within polymer thin films from single-source precursors offers a
      faster route to networks of nanocrystals within polymers when compared with ex
      situ routes. The 'inverse vulcanization' sulfur polymer described herein contains
      a hybrid linker system which demonstrates high solubility in organic solvents,
      allowing solution processing of the sulfur-based polymer, ideal for the formation
      of thin films. The process of nanocrystal synthesis within sulfur films was
      optimized by observing nanocrystal formation by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
      and X-ray diffraction. Examination of the film morphology by scanning electron
      microscopy showed that beyond a certain precursor concentration the nanocrystals
      formed were not only within the film but also on the surface suggesting a loading
      limit within the polymer. We envisage this material could be used as the basis of
      a new generation of materials where solution processed sulfur polymers act as an
      alternative to traditional polymers.

PMID- 28878987
TI  - Effects of the distant population density on spatial patterns of demographic
      dynamics.
AB  - Spatio-temporal patterns of population changes within and across countries have
      various implications. Different geographical, demographic and econo-societal
      factors seem to contribute to migratory decisions made by individual inhabitants.
      Focusing on internal (i.e. domestic) migration, we ask whether individuals may
      take into account the information on the population density in distant locations
      to make migratory decisions. We analyse population census data in Japan recorded
      with a high spatial resolution (i.e. cells of size 500*500 m) for the entirety of
      the country, and simulate demographic dynamics induced by the gravity model and
      its variants. We show that, in the census data, the population growth rate in a
      cell is positively correlated with the population density in nearby cells up to a
      distance of 20 km as well as that of the focal cell. The ordinary gravity model
      does not capture this empirical observation. We then show that the empirical
      observation is better accounted for by extensions of the gravity model such that
      individuals are assumed to perceive the attractiveness, approximated by the
      population density, of the source or destination cell of migration as the spatial
      average over a circle of radius ~1 km.

PMID- 28878988
TI  - Bias associated with the detectability of the coral-eating pest crown-of-thorns
      seastar and implications for reef management.
AB  - Outbreaks of the predator crown-of-thorns seastar (COTS) Acanthaster planci cause
      widespread coral mortality across the Indo-Pacific. Like many marine
      invertebrates, COTS is a nocturnal species whose cryptic behaviour during the day
      can affect its detectability, particularly in structurally complex reef habitats
      that provide many refuges for benthic creatures. We performed extensive day and
      night surveys of COTS populations in coral reef habitats showing differing levels
      of structural complexity and COTS abundance. We tested whether estimations of
      COTS density varied between day and night observations, and if the differences
      were related to changes in COTS abundance, reef structural complexity and the
      spatial scale of observation. Estimations of COTS density were on average 27%
      higher at night than during the day. Differences in COTS detection varied with
      changing seastar abundance but not reef structural complexity or scale of
      observation. Underestimation of COTS abundance in daytime was significant for a
      broad seastar density range, thus potentially affecting most outbreak events. Our
      study suggests that portions of COTS populations can be undetected during
      conventional surveys and control campaigns, which are exclusively conducted by
      day, and significantly affect the trajectory of coral reefs. Accounting for bias
      in COTS detection can strengthen coral reef management broadly.

PMID- 28878989
TI  - Expansion of the known distribution of Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) in the
      Late Pleistocene of the Southern Levant.
AB  - Wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) bones recovered from the Natufian site of Shubayqa 1
      demonstrate a wider distribution of mouflon in the Late Pleistocene of the
      Southern Levant than previously known. Early Epipalaeolithic sites are common in
      the limestone steppe region of eastern Jordan but have yielded only a handful of
      caprine bones that cannot be identified to species level and few faunal remains
      from excavated Late Epipalaeolithic sites have been reported. Analysis of animal
      bone from Shubayqa 1 suggests a significant population of wild sheep could be
      found concentrated in the basalt desert environment of eastern Jordan during the
      Late Pleistocene, especially where higher rainfall over the Jebel Druze provided
      more water. A population of wild sheep was still present in the Pre-Pottery
      Neolithic A when the nearby site of Shubayqa 6 was occupied. Hunting of diverse,
      locally available resources including wild sheep at the end of the Pleistocene
      illustrates the flexible and adaptive exploitation strategies that hunter-forager
      groups engaged in. This provides further evidence to the increasing body of data
      showing the creative and opportunistic approach of terminal Pleistocene groups
      allowing continued occupation even in more marginal environments in a period of
      environmental change.

PMID- 28878990
TI  - Human altruism, evolution and moral philosophy.
AB  - This paper has two central aims. The first is to explore philosophical
      complications that arise when we move from (i) explaining the evolutionary
      origins of genetically influenced traits associated with human cooperation and
      altruism, to (ii) explaining present manifestations of human thought, feeling and
      behaviour involving cooperation and altruism. While the former need only appeal
      to causal factors accessible to scientific inquiry, the latter must engage also
      with a distinctive form of explanation, i.e. reason-giving explanation, which in
      turn raises important philosophical questions, the answers to which will affect
      the nature of the ultimate explanations of our moral beliefs and related actions.
      On one possibility I will explore, this explanatory project cannot avoid engaging
      with first-order ethical theory. The second aim is to apply lessons from these
      explanatory complications to the critique of 'evolutionary debunking arguments',
      which seek to debunk morality, or at least objective construals of it (i.e. moral
      realism), by appeal to allegedly scientific debunking explanations of our moral
      beliefs that would defeat our justification for them. The explanatory
      complications brought out in the first half raise difficulties for such debunking
      arguments. If we avoid begging central philosophical questions then such
      debunking arguments pose little threat of saddling us with moral scepticism or
      subjectivism, though they do pose an important challenge for those developing a
      moral realist view.

PMID- 28878991
TI  - Synthesis of isopropyl-substituted anthraquinones via Friedel-Crafts acylations:
      migration of isopropyl groups.
AB  - Friedel-Crafts reactions of isopropyl-substituted benzenes with phthalic
      anhydride in the presence of aluminium trichloride, followed by cyclization of
      the products with strong sulfuric acid give, as expected, anthraquinones. The
      syntheses, however, often afford more than one anthraquinone. In some cases the
      isopropyl groups migrate cleanly to other ring positions; in other cases they are
      lost.

PMID- 28878992
TI  - One step at a time in investigating relationships between self-directed
      behaviours and parasitological, social and environmental variables.

PMID- 28878993
TI  - Differential metal-binding properties of dynamic acylhydrazone polymers and their
      sensing applications.
AB  - As one of common dynamic covalent bonds, acylhydrazone bond plays an important
      role in developing intelligent responsive materials. In this report, we present
      acylhydrazone-based dynamic polymers with multi-stimuli responsiveness,
      particularly metal recognition behaviours and their modulation. A series of
      polyacylhydrazones with different metal-binding sites were designed and prepared
      in a modular fashion. Titration of these receptors with a diverse set of metal
      ions, including Cu2+, Zn2+ and La3+, resulted in unique optical changes, and both
      the sensitivity and selectivity profiles can be regulated. Moreover, the metal
      binding feature was facilely modulated by changing the solvent. The addition of
      weakly basic anions was employed to further fine-tune the responsiveness of the
      polymers by taking advantage of the cooperative effect with metal coordination.
      Finally, the sensitive detection of 6-mercaptopurine and pyrophosphate was
      achieved to demonstrate the application potential of these systems.

PMID- 28878994
TI  - Stochastic phase segregation on surfaces.
AB  - Phase separation and coarsening is a phenomenon commonly seen in binary physical
      and chemical systems that occur in nature. Often, thermal fluctuations, modelled
      as stochastic noise, are present in the system and the phase segregation process
      occurs on a surface. In this work, the segregation process is modelled via the
      Cahn-Hilliard-Cook model, which is a fourth-order parabolic stochastic system.
      Coarsening is analysed on two sample surfaces: a unit sphere and a dumbbell. On
      both surfaces, a statistical analysis of the growth rate is performed, and the
      influence of noise level and mobility is also investigated. For the spherical
      interface, it is also shown that a lognormal distribution fits the growth rate
      well.

PMID- 28878995
TI  - A generalized solution procedure for in-plane free vibration of rectangular
      plates and annular sectorial plates.
AB  - A generalized solution procedure is developed for in-plane free vibration of
      rectangular and annular sectorial plates with general boundary conditions. For
      the annular sectorial plate, the introduction of a logarithmic radial variable
      simplifies the basic theory and the expression of the total energy. The
      coordinates, geometric parameters and potential energy for the two different
      shapes are organized in a unified framework such that a generalized solving
      procedure becomes feasible. By using the improved Fourier-Ritz approach, the
      admissible functions are formulated in trigonometric form, which allows the
      explicit assembly of global mass and stiffness matrices for both rectangular and
      annular sectorial plates, thereby making the method computationally effective,
      especially when analysing annular sectorial plates. Moreover, the improved
      Fourier expansion eliminates the potential discontinuity of the original normal
      and tangential displacement functions and their derivatives in the entire domain,
      and accelerates the convergence. The generalized Fourier-Ritz approach for both
      shapes has the characteristics of generality, accuracy and efficiency. These
      features are demonstrated via a few numerical examples.

PMID- 28878996
TI  - Stable, metastable and unstable cellulose solutions.
AB  - We have characterized the dissolution state of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC)
      in aqueous tetrabutylammonium hydroxide, TBAH(aq), at different concentrations of
      TBAH, by means of turbidity and small-angle X-ray scattering. The solubility of
      cellulose increases with increasing TBAH concentration, which is consistent with
      solubilization driven by neutralization. When comparing the two polymorphs, the
      solubility of cellulose I is higher than that of cellulose II. This has the
      consequence that the dissolution of MCC (cellulose I) may create a supersaturated
      solution with respect to cellulose II. As for the dissolution state of cellulose,
      we identify three different regimes. (i) In the stable regime, corresponding to
      concentrations below the solubility of cellulose II, cellulose is molecularly
      dissolved and the solutions are thermodynamically stable. (ii) In the metastable
      regime, corresponding to lower supersaturations with respect to cellulose II, a
      minor aggregation of cellulose occurs and the solutions are kinetically stable.
      (iii) In the unstable regime, corresponding to larger supersaturations, there is
      macroscopic precipitation of cellulose II from solution. Finally, we also discuss
      strong alkali solvents in general and compare TBAH(aq) with the classical
      NaOH(aq) solvent.

PMID- 28878997
TI  - Social learning in otters.
AB  - The use of information provided by others to tackle life's challenges is
      widespread, but should not be employed indiscriminately if it is to be adaptive.
      Evidence is accumulating that animals are indeed selective and adopt 'social
      learning strategies'. However, studies have generally focused on fish, bird and
      primate species. Here we extend research on social learning strategies to a
      taxonomic group that has been neglected until now: otters (subfamily Lutrinae).
      We collected social association data on captive groups of two gregarious species:
      smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata), known to hunt fish cooperatively
      in the wild, and Asian short-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus), which feed
      individually on prey requiring extractive foraging behaviours. We then presented
      otter groups with a series of novel foraging tasks, and inferred social
      transmission of task solutions with network-based diffusion analysis. We show
      that smooth-coated otters can socially learn how to exploit novel food sources
      and may adopt a 'copy when young' strategy. We found no evidence for social
      learning in the Asian short-clawed otters. Otters are thus a promising model
      system for comparative research into social learning strategies, while
      conservation reintroduction programmes may benefit from facilitating the social
      transmission of survival skills in these vulnerable species.

PMID- 28878998
TI  - Flame-retardant polyvinyl alcohol membrane with high transparency based on a
      reactive phosphorus-containing compound.
AB  - Flame-retardant polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membranes with high transparency and
      flexibility were prepared by mixing an aqueous solution of a phosphorus
      containing acrylic acid (AOPA) with PVA. The reaction between AOPA and PVA, the
      transparency, the crystallinity and the flexibility of the membrane were
      investigated with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), UV-vis light
      transmittance, X-ray diffraction and tensile tests, respectively. The limited
      oxygen index (LOI) and vertical flame (UL 94 VTM), microscale combustion
      calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and TGA-FTIR were employed to
      evaluate the flame retardancy as well as to reveal the corresponding mechanisms.
      Results showed that PVA containing 30 wt% of AOPA can reach the UL 94 VTM V0
      rating with an LOI of 27.3% and retain 95% of the original transparency of pure
      PVA. Adding AOPA reduces crystallinity of PVA, while the flexibility is
      increased. AOPA depresses the thermal degradation of PVA and promotes char
      formation during combustion. The proposed decomposition mechanism indicates that
      AOPA acts mainly in the condensed phase.

PMID- 28879000
TI  - An investigation into the unusual linkage isomerization and nitrite reduction
      activity of a novel tris(2-pyridyl) copper complex.
AB  - The copper-containing nitrite reductases (CuNIRs) are a class of enzymes that
      mediate the reduction of nitrite to nitric oxide in biological systems. Metal
      ligand complexes that reproduce the salient features of the active site of CuNIRs
      are therefore of fundamental interest, both for elucidating the possible mode of
      action of the enzymes and for developing biomimetic catalysts for nitrite
      reduction. Herein, we describe the synthesis and characterization of a new tris(2
      pyridyl) copper complex ([Cu1(NO2)2]) that binds two molecules of nitrite, and
      displays all three of the common binding modes for [Formula: see text], with one
      nitrite bound in an asymmetric quasi-bidentate kappa2-ONO manner and the other
      bound in a monodentate fashion with a linkage isomerism between the kappa1-ONO
      and kappa1-NO2 binding modes. We use density functional theory to help
      rationalize the presence of all three of these linkage isomers in one compound,
      before assessing the redox activity of [Cu1(NO2)2]. These latter studies show
      that the complex is not a competent nitrite reduction electrocatalyst in non
      aqueous solvent, even in the presence of additional proton donors, a finding
      which may have implications for the design of biomimetic catalysts for nitrite
      reduction.

PMID- 28879001
TI  - Booming far: the long-range vocal strategy of a lekking bird.
AB  - The pressures of selection acting on transmission of information by acoustic
      signals are particularly high in long-distance communication networks. Males of
      the North African houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata) produce
      extremely low-frequency vocalizations called 'booms' as a component of their
      courtship displays. These displays are performed on sites separated by a distance
      of on average 550 m, constituting exploded leks. Here, we investigate the
      acoustic features of booms involved in species-specific identity. We first
      assessed the modifications of acoustic parameters during boom transmission at
      long range within the natural habitat of the species, finding that the frequency
      content of booms was reliably transmitted up to 600 m. Additionally, by testing
      males' behavioural responses to playbacks of modified signals, we found that the
      presence of the second harmonic and the frequency modulation are the key
      parameters for species identification, and also that a sequence of booms elicited
      stronger responses than a single boom. Thus, the coding-decoding process relies
      on redundant and propagation-resistant features, making the booms particularly
      well adapted for the long-range transmission of information between males.
      Moreover, by experimentally disentangling the presentation of visual and acoustic
      signals, we showed that during the booming phase of courtship, the two sensory
      modalities act in synergy. The acoustic component is dominant in the context of
      intra-sexual competition. While the visual component is not necessary to induce
      agonistic response, it acts as an amplifier and reduces the time of detection of
      the signaller. The utilization of these adaptive strategies allows houbara males
      to maximize the active space of vocalizations emitted in exploded leks.

PMID- 28878999
TI  - Gamete compatibility genes in mammals: candidates, applications and a potential
      path forward.
AB  - Fertilization represents a critical stage in biology, where successful alleles of
      a previous generation are shuffled into new arrangements and subjected to the
      forces of selection in the next generation. Although much research has been
      conducted on how variation in morphological and behavioural traits lead to
      variation in fertilization patterns, surprisingly little is known about
      fertilization at a molecular level, and specifically about how genes expressed on
      the sperm and egg themselves influence fertilization patterns. In mammals,
      several genes have been identified whose products are expressed on either the
      sperm or the egg, and which influence the fertilization process, but the specific
      mechanisms are not yet known. Additionally, in 2014 an interacting pair of
      proteins was identified: 'Izumo' on the sperm, and 'Juno' on the egg. With the
      identification of these genes comes the first opportunity to understand the
      molecular aspects of fertilization in mammals, and to identify how the genetic
      characteristics of these genes influence fertilization patterns. Here, we review
      recent progress in our understanding of fertilization and gamete compatibility in
      mammals, which should provide a helpful guide to researchers interested in
      untangling the molecular mechanisms of fertilization and the resulting impacts on
      population biology and evolutionary processes.

PMID- 28879002
TI  - Polarized light use in the nocturnal bull ant, Myrmecia midas.
AB  - Solitary foraging ants have a navigational toolkit, which includes the use of
      both terrestrial and celestial visual cues, allowing individuals to successfully
      pilot between food sources and their nest. One such celestial cue is the
      polarization pattern in the overhead sky. Here, we explore the use of polarized
      light during outbound and inbound journeys and with different home vectors in the
      nocturnal bull ant, Myrmecia midas. We tested foragers on both portions of the
      foraging trip by rotating the overhead polarization pattern by +/-45 degrees .
      Both outbound and inbound foragers responded to the polarized light change, but
      the extent to which they responded to the rotation varied. Outbound ants, both
      close to and further from the nest, compensated for the change in the overhead e
      vector by about half of the manipulation, suggesting that outbound ants choose a
      compromise heading between the celestial and terrestrial compass cues. However,
      ants returning home compensated for the change in the e-vector by about half of
      the manipulation when the remaining home vector was short (1-2 m) and by more
      than half of the manipulation when the remaining vector was long (more than 4 m).
      We report these findings and discuss why weighting on polarization cues change in
      different contexts.

PMID- 28879003
TI  - Non-contact incipient fault diagnosis method of fixed-axis gearbox based on
      CEEMDAN.
AB  - Gearbox plays most essential role in the modern machinery for transmitting the
      required torque along with motion and contributes to wide range of applications.
      Any failure in gearbox components affects the productivity and efficiency of the
      system. Most machine breakdowns related to gears are a result of improper
      operating conditions and loading, hence lead to failure of the whole mechanism.
      Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) comprises advancement and valuable
      addition in Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and has been widely used in fault
      detection of rotating machines. However, intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) produced
      by EEMD often carry the residual noise. Also, the produced IMFs are different in
      number due to addition of white Gaussian noise, which leads to final averaging
      problem. To alleviate these drawbacks, Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode
      Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (CEEMDAN) was previously presented. This paper
      describes and presents the implementation of CEEMDAN for fault diagnosis of
      simulated local defects using sound signals in a fixed-axis gearbox. Statistical
      parameters are extracted from decomposed sound signals for different simulated
      faults. Results show the effectiveness of CEEMDAN over EEMD in order to obtain
      more accurate IMFs and fault severity.

PMID- 28879004
TI  - Diving behaviour of Cuvier's beaked whales exposed to two types of military
      sonar.
AB  - Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) have stranded in association with
      mid-frequency active sonar (MFAS) use, and though the causative mechanism linking
      these events remains unclear, it is believed to be behaviourally mediated. To
      determine whether MFAS use was associated with behavioural changes in this
      species, satellite tags were used to record the diving and movements of 16
      Cuvier's beaked whales for up to 88 days in a region of frequent MFAS training
      off the coast of Southern California. Tag data were combined with summarized
      records of concurrent bouts of high-power, surface-ship and mid-power, helicopter
      deployed MFAS use, along with other potential covariates, in generalized additive
      mixed-effects models. Deep dives, shallow dives and surface intervals tended to
      become longer during MFAS use, with some variation associated with the total
      amount of overlapping MFAS during the behaviour. These changes in dives and
      surface intervals contributed to a longer interval between deep dives, a proxy
      for foraging disruption in this species. Most responses intensified with
      proximity and were more pronounced during mid-power than high-power MFAS use at
      comparable distances within approximately 50 km, despite the significantly lower
      source level of mid-power MFAS. However, distance-mediated responses to high
      power MFAS, and increased deep dive intervals during mid-power MFAS, were evident
      up to approximately 100 km away.

PMID- 28879005
TI  - Starvation effects on nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes of animals: an insight
      from meta-analysis of fasting experiments.
AB  - Nitrogen and carbon stable isotopic compositions (delta15N and delta13C) of
      consumers have been used for physiological and food web studies. Previous studies
      have shown delta15N and delta13C values are affected by several biological and
      environmental factors during starvation, but the generality of the effect of
      starvation on delta15N and delta13C values has not yet been tested. Here, we
      performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of starvation on delta15N and
      delta13C values of consumers, and the underlying factors that may explain the
      observed variation. The delta15N and delta13C values were calculated as the
      differences between the final delta15N and delta13C values of consumers (post
      starvation) and the pre-starvation values on each experiment. Our meta-analysis
      showed a large variation in the delta15N and delta13C values of consumers
      (delta15N range: -0.82 to 4.300/00; mean: 0.470/00 and delta13C range: -1.92 to
      2.620/00; mean: 0.010/00). The delta15N values of most consumers increased along
      the length of the starvation period and were influenced by nitrogen excretion and
      thermoregulation types, probably because differences in nitrogen metabolism and
      thermoregulation affect nitrogen processing and excretion rates. None of our
      predictor variables accounted for the variation in delta13C values, which showed
      both increases and decreases due to fasting. Our findings suggest that starvation
      results in changes in consumer delta15N values which are mainly explained by the
      length of the fasting period and by nitrogen and energy metabolism, but the
      underlying mechanisms of the starvation effects on delta13C values seem to be
      more complex than previously thought.

PMID- 28879006
TI  - A framework for the identification of long-term social avoidance in longitudinal
      datasets.
AB  - Animal sociality is of significant interest to evolutionary and behavioural
      ecologists, with efforts focused on the patterns, causes and fitness outcomes of
      social preference. However, individual social patterns are the consequence of
      both attraction to (preference for) and avoidance of conspecifics. Despite this,
      social avoidance has received far less attention than social preference. Here, we
      detail the necessary steps to generate a spatially explicit, iterative null model
      which can be used to identify non-random social avoidance in longitudinal studies
      of social animals. We specifically identify and detail parameters which will
      influence the validity of the model. To test the usability of this model, we
      applied it to two longitudinal studies of social animals (Eastern water dragons
      (Intellegama lesueurii) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus)) to identify
      the presence of social avoidances. Using this model allowed us to identify the
      presence of social avoidances in both species. We hope that the framework
      presented here inspires interest in addressing this critical gap in our
      understanding of animal sociality, in turn allowing for a more holistic
      understanding of social interactions, relationships and structure.

PMID- 28879007
TI  - Investigating the impact of feedback update interval on the efficacy of
      restorative brain-computer interfaces.
AB  - Restorative brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been proposed to enhance stroke
      rehabilitation. Restorative BCIs are able to close the sensorimotor loop by
      rewarding motor imagery (MI) with sensory feedback. Despite the promising results
      from early studies, reaching clinically significant outcomes in a timely fashion
      is yet to be achieved. This lack of efficacy may be due to suboptimal feedback
      provision. To the best of our knowledge, the optimal feedback update interval
      (FUI) during MI remains unexplored. There is evidence that sensory feedback
      disinhibits the motor cortex. Thus, in this study, we explore how shorter than
      usual FUIs affect behavioural and neurophysiological measures following BCI
      training for stroke patients using a single-case proof-of-principle study design.
      The action research arm test was used as the primary behavioural measure and
      showed a clinically significant increase (36%) over the course of training. The
      neurophysiological measures including motor evoked potentials and maximum
      voluntary contraction showed distinctive changes in early and late phases of BCI
      training. Thus, this preliminary study may pave the way for running larger
      studies to further investigate the effect of FUI magnitude on the efficacy of
      restorative BCIs. It may also elucidate the role of early and late phases of
      motor learning along the course of BCI training.

PMID- 28879008
TI  - The effects of geometric uncertainties on computational modelling of knee
      biomechanics.
AB  - The geometry of the articular components of the knee is an important factor in
      predicting joint mechanics in computational models. There are a number of
      uncertainties in the definition of the geometry of cartilage and meniscus, and
      evaluating the effects of these uncertainties is fundamental to understanding the
      level of reliability of the models. In this study, the sensitivity of knee
      mechanics to geometric uncertainties was investigated by comparing polynomial
      based and image-based knee models and varying the size of meniscus. The results
      suggested that the geometric uncertainties in cartilage and meniscus resulting
      from the resolution of MRI and the accuracy of segmentation caused considerable
      effects on the predicted knee mechanics. Moreover, even if the mathematical
      geometric descriptors can be very close to the imaged-based articular surfaces,
      the detailed contact pressure distribution produced by the mathematical geometric
      descriptors was not the same as that of the image-based model. However, the
      trends predicted by the models based on mathematical geometric descriptors were
      similar to those of the imaged-based models.

PMID- 28879010
TI  - Modelling radicalization: how small violent fringe sects develop into large
      indoctrinated societies.
AB  - We model radicalization in a society consisting of two competing religious,
      ethnic or political groups. Each of the 'sects' is divided into moderate and
      radical factions, with intra-group transitions occurring either spontaneously or
      through indoctrination. We also include the possibility of one group violently
      attacking the other. The intra-group transition rates of one group are modelled
      to explicitly depend on the actions and characteristics of the other, including
      violent episodes, effectively coupling the dynamics of the two sects. We use a
      game theoretic framework and assume that radical factions may tune 'strategic'
      parameters to optimize given utility functions aimed at maximizing their ranks
      while minimizing the damage inflicted by their rivals. Constraints include
      limited overall resources that must be optimally allocated between indoctrination
      and external attacks on the other group. Various scenarios are considered, from
      symmetric sects whose behaviours mirror each other, to totally asymmetric ones
      where one sect may have a larger population or a superior resource availability.
      We discuss under what conditions sects preferentially employ indoctrination or
      violence, and how allowing sects to readjust their strategies allows for small,
      violent sects to grow into large, indoctrinated communities.

PMID- 28879009
TI  - Iron-based magnetic molecular imprinted polymers and their application in removal
      and determination of di-n-pentyl phthalate in aqueous media.
AB  - Iron-based magnetic molecular imprinted polymers (Fe@SiO2@MIP) were synthesized
      for highly selective removal and recognition of di-n-pentyl phthalate (DnPP) from
      water. Well-defined core-shell Fe@SiO2 nanoparticles (less than 70 nm) were
      decorated on MIPs reticular layers to endow DnPP-MIPs with magnetic property for
      the first time. Five other phthalic acid esters including dimethyl phthalate,
      diethyl phthalate, dipropyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate and di-iso-octyl
      phthalate were used to investigate the adsorptive selectivity to DnPP. The
      designed experiments were carried out to explore the adsorption kinetics,
      isotherms and thermodynamics and the results demonstrated that the adsorption was
      a spontaneous, exothermal and physical adsorption process. The materials were
      proved to be excellent adsorbents in removal of DnPP with an adsorption capacity
      as high as 194.15 mg g-1 in optimal condition. Furthermore, a magnetic solid
      phase extraction with Fe@SiO2@MIP coupled to high-performance liquid
      chromatography method was successfully developed for the determination of DnPP,
      and the proposed method achieved a good linear range of 0.5-250 ug l-1 with a
      correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.999 and low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.31 ug
      l-1. These materials exhibited excellent capacity in removal and highly sensitive
      identification of DnPP from aqueous environment samples, and opened a valuable
      direction for developing new adsorbents for the removal and enrichment of
      important pollutants.

PMID- 28879011
TI  - The morphology of the inner ear of squamate reptiles and its bearing on the
      origin of snakes.
AB  - The inner ear morphology of 80 snake and lizard species, representative of a
      range of ecologies, is here analysed and compared to that of the fossil stem
      snake Dinilysia patagonica, using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics.
      Inner ear morphology is linked to phylogeny (we find here a strong phylogenetic
      signal in the data that can complicate ecological correlations), but also
      correlated with ecology, with Dinilysia resembling certain semi-fossorial forms
      (Xenopeltis and Cylindrophis), consistent with previous reports. We here also
      find striking resemblances between Dinilysia and some semi-aquatic snakes, such
      as Myron (Caenophidia, Homalopsidae). Therefore, the inner ear morphology of
      Dinilysia is consistent with semi-aquatic as well as semi-fossorial habits: the
      most similar forms are either semi-fossorial burrowers with a strong affinity to
      water (Xenopeltis and Cylindrophis) or amphibious, intertidal forms which shelter
      in burrows (Myron). Notably, Dinilysia does not cluster as closely with snakes
      with exclusively terrestrial or obligate burrowing habits (e.g. scolecophidians
      and uropeltids). Moreover, despite the above similarities, Dinilysia also
      occupies a totally unique morphospace, raising issues with linking it with any
      particular ecological category.

PMID- 28879012
TI  - Essential oil optimizes the susceptibility of Callosobruchus maculatus and
      enhances the nutritional qualities of stored cowpea Vigna unguiculata.
AB  - The intensive use of synthetic pesticides in cowpea storage has led to the
      development of resistance by Callosobruchus maculatus and subsequent degradation
      of grain quality. In an attempt to circumvent these constraints, the
      susceptibility of C. maculatus to 2,2-dichlorovinyldimethyl phosphate (DDVP) and
      Lippia adoensis essential oil (EO) was investigated and variations in the
      proportions of nutritional values of treated grains 150 days after storage were
      assessed. The survival rate was recorded after five generations. The resistance
      index and biochemical parameters of grains were determined. The results from this
      study revealed that the survival rate and resistance index significantly
      increased proportionally with damage in DDVP treatments (r = 0.889; p = 0.018)
      while in EO treatments, those values remained low without significant variations
      (p = 0.0764) throughout the generations. DDVP stored grains yielded higher crude
      protein values, but lower carbohydrates, tannins, phenolics and minerals compared
      to EO. Eighteen amino acids were detected in EO treated grains and 14 in DDVP
      which was devoid of albumin and prolamin. Lippia adoensis EO could therefore
      represent a safe alternative bio-pesticide to cope with insect resistance and
      enhance the nutritional qualities of stored cowpea seeds.

PMID- 28879013
TI  - The dual impact of ecology and management on social incentives in marine common
      pool resource systems.
AB  - Understanding how and when cooperative human behaviour forms in common-pool
      resource systems is critical to illuminating social-ecological systems and
      designing governance institutions that promote sustainable resource use. Before
      assessing the full complexity of social dynamics, it is essential to understand,
      concretely and mechanistically, how resource dynamics and human actions interact
      to create incentives and pay-offs for social behaviours. Here, we investigated
      how such incentives for information sharing are affected by spatial dynamics and
      management in a common-pool resource system. Using interviews with fishermen to
      inform an agent-based model, we reveal generic mechanisms through which, for a
      given ecological setting characterized by the spatial dynamics of the resource,
      the two 'human factors' of information sharing and management may heterogeneously
      impact various members of a group for whom theory would otherwise predict the
      same strategy. When users can deplete the resource, these interactions are
      further affected by the management approach. Finally, we discuss the implications
      of alternative motivations, such as equity among fishermen and consistency of the
      fleet's output. Our results indicate that resource spatial dynamics, form of
      management and level of depletion can interact to alter the sociality of people
      in common-pool resource systems, providing necessary insight for future study of
      strategic decision processes.

PMID- 28879014
TI  - Annulus fibrosus functional extrafibrillar and fibrous mechanical behaviour:
      experimental and computational characterisation.
AB  - The development of current surgical treatments for intervertebral disc damage
      could benefit from virtual environment accounting for population variations. For
      such models to be reliable, a relevant description of the mechanical properties
      of the different tissues and their role in the functional mechanics of the disc
      is of major importance. The aims of this work were first to assess the
      physiological hoop strain in the annulus fibrosus in fresh conditions (n = 5) in
      order to extract a functional behaviour of the extrafibrillar matrix; then to
      reverse-engineer the annulus fibrosus fibrillar behaviour (n = 6). This was
      achieved by performing both direct and global controlled calibration of material
      parameters, accounting for the whole process of experimental design and in silico
      model methodology. Direct-controlled models are specimen-specific models
      representing controlled experimental conditions that can be replicated and
      directly comparing measurements. Validation was performed on another six
      specimens and a sensitivity study was performed. Hoop strains were measured as 17
      +/- 3% after 10 min relaxation and 21 +/- 4% after 20-25 min relaxation, with no
      significant difference between the two measurements. The extrafibrillar matrix
      functional moduli were measured as 1.5 +/- 0.7 MPa. Fibre-related material
      parameters showed large variability, with a variance above 0.28. Direct
      controlled calibration and validation provides confidence that the model
      development methodology can capture the measurable variation within the
      population of tested specimens.

PMID- 28879016
TI  - Correction to 'Fossil skulls reveal that blood flow rate to the brain increased
      faster than brain volume during human evolution'.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160305.].

PMID- 28879015
TI  - Connecting the dots across time: reconstruction of single-cell signalling
      trajectories using time-stamped data.
AB  - Single-cell responses are shaped by the geometry of signalling kinetic
      trajectories carved in a multidimensional space spanned by signalling protein
      abundances. It is, however, challenging to assay a large number (more than 3) of
      signalling species in live-cell imaging, which makes it difficult to probe single
      cell signalling kinetic trajectories in large dimensions. Flow and mass cytometry
      techniques can measure a large number (4 to more than 40) of signalling species
      but are unable to track single cells. Thus, cytometry experiments provide
      detailed time-stamped snapshots of single-cell signalling kinetics. Is it
      possible to use the time-stamped cytometry data to reconstruct single-cell
      signalling trajectories? Borrowing concepts of conserved and slow variables from
      non-equilibrium statistical physics we develop an approach to reconstruct
      signalling trajectories using snapshot data by creating new variables that remain
      invariant or vary slowly during the signalling kinetics. We apply this approach
      to reconstruct trajectories using snapshot data obtained from in silico
      simulations, live-cell imaging measurements, and, synthetic flow cytometry
      datasets. The application of invariants and slow variables to reconstruct
      trajectories provides a radically different way to track objects using snapshot
      data. The approach is likely to have implications for solving matching problems
      in a wide range of disciplines.

PMID- 28879017
TI  - Correction to 'RNA sequencing reveals a complete but an unconventional type of
      dosage compensation in the domestic silkworm Bombyx mori'.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170261.].

PMID- 28879018
TI  - Are we missing non-motor seizures in Parkinson's disease? Two case reports.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is predominantly recognized for its motor
      symptoms, but patients struggle from a morbid and heterogeneous collection of non
      motor symptoms (NMS-PD) that can affect their quality of life even more. NMS-PD
      is a rather generalized term and the heterogeneity and non-specific nature of
      many symptoms poses a clinical challenge when a PD patient presents with non
      motor complaints that may not be NMS-PD. CASE PRESENTATION: We report two
      patients with idiopathic PD who presented with acute episodes of cognitive
      changes. Structural brain images, cardiovascular and laboratory assessment were
      unremarkable. Both patients experienced a considerable delay before receiving an
      epilepsy-evaluation, at which point electroencephalogram abnormalities supported
      the diagnosis of focal non-motor seizures with alteration of awareness.
      Antiepileptic therapy was implemented and was effective in both cases.
      CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosing non-motor seizures can be challenging. However, PD
      patients pose an even greater challenge given their eclectic non-motor clinical
      manifestations and other disease-related complications that could confound and
      mislead adequate clinical interpretation. Our two cases provide examples of non
      motor seizures that may mimic non-motor symptoms of PD. Treating physicians
      should always consider other possible causes of non-motor symptoms that may
      coexist in PD patients. Epilepsy work-up should be contemplated in the
      differential of acute changes in cognition, behavior, or alertness.

PMID- 28879019
TI  - Contraception and fertility transition in AMHARA National Regional State of
      ETHIOPIA: an application of BONGAARTS' model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The overall decline of fertility in Amhara National Regional State
      between 2000 and 2011 was the highest in Ethiopia. The aim of the present study
      was to determine the most significant proximate determinant of fertility change
      during the last decade in the region using Bongaarts' model. METHODS: The sources
      of data were the 2000, 2005, and 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys.
      The model indices were calculated for each survey. Decomposition of fertility
      change into components of proximal determinants was also carried out. An index
      value close to 1 is a negligible inhibiting effect while a large inhibiting
      effect when the value very closes to 0. RESULTS: The fertility-constraining
      effect of contraception increased from 0.93 in 2000 to 0.65 in 2011; however, it
      was lower than the effect of postpartum insusceptibility at all given times. The
      index of marriage remained unchanged in constraining fertility over the period
      (0.71 in 2000 and 0.70 in 2011) while the influence of postpartum
      insusceptibility slightly declined from 0.49 in 2000 to 0.54 in 2011 but was
      stronger than contraception and marriage. The contribution of contraception was
      most important in urban areas (0.46 in 2011 from 0.52 in 2005 and 0.64 in 2000);
      however, in rural areas, it became an important determinant over the period (0.95
      in 2000 and 0.69 in 2011). The effect of postpartum insusceptibility in rural
      areas showed a decreasing trend (0.48 in 2000 and 0.53 in 2011). The index of
      marriage in rural areas was stable overtime (0.75 in 2000 and 0.73 in 2011) while
      in urban areas the effect declined from 0.42 in 2000 to 0.65 in 2011. Marriage
      was the most important proximate determinant of fertility among women with
      secondary and above education but the impact declined during the period (0.41 in
      2000 and 0.61 in 2011). The importance of postpartum insusceptibility in limiting
      fertility among women with secondary and above education declined overtime (0.77
      in 2000 and 0.87 in 2011) whereas the contribution of contraception became more
      important (0.44 in 2000 and 0.35 in 2011). CONCLUSIONS: An increase in the level
      of contraceptive use and effectiveness overtime was the single most important
      contributing factor for the recent fertility decline in the region.

PMID- 28879020
TI  - Surgical castration with pain relief affects the health and productive
      performance of pigs in the suckling period.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical castration is still practiced in many EU countries to avoid
      undesirable aggressive behavior and boar taint in male pigs. However, evidence
      shows that castration is painful and has a detrimental influence on pig health.
      This study investigated the clinical and productive effects of surgical
      castration in the suckling period. A total of 3696 male pigs, 3 to 6 days old,
      comprising of 721 litters from two different farms were included in the study.
      Within each litter, half of the males were kept as intact males (IM) and half
      were surgically castrated (CM). Surgical castration was conducted by a trained
      farmer. Average daily gain (ADG), body weight at weaning (BWW), percentage of pre
      weaning mortality (PWM) and antibiotic usage were measured. Pig major acute phase
      protein (PigMAP) serum concentrations were analyzed prior to castration, and on
      days 1 and 10 after castration. Productive performance data were analyzed using a
      linear mixed model. Mortality and percentage of pigs treated with antibiotics
      were analyzed using the Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: No overall differences in
      BWW and ADG were observed between the two groups. However, differences were
      observed when the same effects were analyzed in the 25% lightest, 50% medium and
      25% heaviest pigs at birth. PWM was higher in CM than in IM groups (6.3% vs 3.6%;
      p < 0.001), especially in the light (12.2% vs 6.2%; p = 0.02) and in the medium
      (5.5% vs 2.7%; p = 0.04) weight groups. In the heaviest pigs group PWM was not
      affected by castration, but IM tended to show higher ADG (p = 0.06) and showed
      higher BWW (8.0 kg vs 7.8 kg; p = 0.05) than CM. There were no differences in
      percentage of pigs treated with antibiotics between the two groups (5.8% vs 5.8%;
      p = 0.98) in this study. Furthermore, PigMAP was increased in CM the day after
      castration (0.944 mg/ml vs 0.847 mg/ml; p = 0.025), but there was no difference
      between CM and IM groups at day 10. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical castration has a
      negative impact on production in the suckling period because it causes an
      increase in PWM, especially in pigs in the three lower quartiles for body weight,
      and negatively affects the BWW in pigs born in the highest quartile for body
      weight.

PMID- 28879021
TI  - DIAMOND (DIgital Alcohol Management ON Demand): a mixed methods feasibility RCT
      and embedded process evaluation of a digital health intervention to reduce
      hazardous and harmful alcohol use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol is a major risk factor for preventable illness, with huge
      cost to healthcare economies. There is a role for alcohol-specific digital health
      interventions (DHI), but there have been few randomised controlled trials (RCT)
      comparing DHI with face-to-face treatment. Such trials are complex and face
      obstacles in recruitment and retention. METHODS: Mixed-methods feasibility RCT of
      an alcohol DHI, testing recruitment, online data-collection and randomisation
      processes, with an embedded process evaluation. Recruitment ran from October 2014
      for 9 months. Participants were adults drinking at hazardous and harmful levels,
      attending four community drug and alcohol services (CDAS) in London. Participants
      completed baseline demographic, alcohol-related and other psychological
      questionnaires online and were randomised to HeLP-Alcohol, a six-module DHI with
      weekly reminder prompts (phone, email or text message), which mirrors face-to
      face treatment, or to face-to-face treatment at CDAS. Alcohol counsellors took
      part in qualitative interviews at the end of the study. RESULTS: Alcohol
      counsellors screened 1253 patients. One thousand one hundred eighty-nine did not
      meet inclusion criteria so were excluded: 579 were dependent drinkers, 548 had
      health conditions that made them ineligible to take part and 62 were ineligible
      for other reasons including homelessness. Of the 64 patients who were eligible to
      take part, 54 declined to participate, with 36 stating a preference for face-to
      face treatment, 13 gave no reason, and 5 gave other reasons including not wanting
      to use a computer. Ten consented but then 3 changed their minds, so we were able
      to randomise 7 participants to the study (11% of eligible). Five alcohol
      counsellors agreed to be interviewed for the process evaluation and provided the
      following feedback: Although most of their colleagues were enthusiastic about the
      trial, some were not at equipoise in recruiting; potential participants also
      declared strong preference to intervention arm from the outset. These factors
      affected recruitment. Counsellors also lacked time to undertake the data
      inputting and follow-up of participants in addition to their everyday work.
      CONCLUSIONS: This feasibility study aimed to test recruitment, randomisation,
      retention and data collection methods but recruited only 7 participants so these
      aims were not fully achieved. This illustrates to all researchers of complex
      interventions the importance of conducting feasibility studies and is
      generalisable to areas other than alcohol research. CDAS were seeing larger
      numbers of non-dependent drinkers with complex additional problems than alcohol
      commissioners expected. CDAS clients and some counsellors were not at equipoise
      for recruitment. Alternative settings for recruitment need to be explored in
      future trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Standard Randomized Controlled
      Trial Number: ISRCTN31789096, DOI 10.1186/ISRCTN31789096.

PMID- 28879022
TI  - Pitch-side management of acute shoulder dislocations: a conceptual review.
AB  - The shoulder, specifically the glenohumeral joint, by virtue of its anatomical
      characteristics and biomechanics confers a large range of movement, which
      ultimately results in a joint that is inherently prone to becoming unstable. The
      incidence of acute traumatic shoulder dislocation varies within the sporting
      environment, commonly occurring following direct trauma. Anterior dislocations
      account for nearly 90% of all dislocations. While most are referred and managed
      in the emergency department, pitch-side relocation by experienced clinicians does
      occur prior to referral. The aim of this study was to delineate a guideline
      specifically for the pitch-side management of this common injury. A literature
      search of PubMed and Medline using the keywords 'prehospital', 'pitch-side',
      'shoulder dislocation' and 'reduction' or 'relocation technique' was performed,
      and the available literature was reviewed and collated. Articles focusing on
      reduction techniques were then reviewed, with particular consideration on their
      applicability to a pitch-side setting. While studies exist that compare and
      contrast examination and reduction techniques, most are based in a hospital
      setting. To date, there is no standardised management protocol published for the
      initial management of an anterior dislocated shoulder in a pitch-side setting.
      This article addresses this discrepancy and proposes a structured, algorithmic
      approach to the pitch-side management of a shoulder dislocation. The article
      addresses factors to consider in a pitch-side setting, suitable techniques and
      postreduction care. While a systematic approach has been delineated in this
      article, we recommend those pitch-side medical practitioners who provide this
      form of support should have attended appropriate training and ensure adequate
      malpractice cover.

PMID- 28879023
TI  - Sports injuries and illnesses during the Granada Winter Universiade 2015.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse the incidence of diseases and injuries suffered by athletes
      participating in the 27th Winter Sports Universiade held in Granada, Spain.
      METHODS: The daily occurrence of injuries and diseases was registered at the
      point of first aid (Borreguiles, 2665 metres above sea level (masl)) and in the
      clinic of Pradollano (2017 masl), both in Sierra Nevada, as well as in medical
      services provided by the organising committee of Granada 2015 Universiade and
      located in sport pavilions in which indoor competitions are held. RESULTS: A
      total of 1109 athletes (650 men, 58.61%; 459 women, 41.39%). Nine diseases and 68
      injuries were recorded. In total, the rate of injury was 6.13% (7.07% for men and
      4.79% for women). The percentage of injury was highest in alpine skiing (10.34%)
      followed by freestyle skiing (8.62%). In relation to the time of exposure,
      freestyle skiing showed the shortest time of exposure (0.31 hours) before
      suffering an injury. Short track speed skating showed the longest exposure (9.80
      hours), before suffering an injury. The most common anatomical areas of injury
      were the head, shoulder and knee (13.23%). Only nine diseases were suffered (four
      women and five men) of which six were infections, one was a friction burn, one
      was a lipothymy and one a cluster headache due to height. CONCLUSION: In general,
      6.13% of the athletes sustained at least one injury and 0.81% a disease, which is
      a much lower percentage than that recorded in similar events. The incidence of
      injuries and diseases varied among sport specialities.

PMID- 28879024
TI  - Randomised, prospective, non-blinded pilot study comparing the effect of
      intramuscular steroid injections and intralesional steroid injections in the
      management of tennis elbow.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tennis elbow is an overuse injury affecting people performing
      repetitive forearm movements. It is a soft tissue disorder that causes
      significant disability and pain. The aim of the study was to establish that an
      intramuscular steroid injection is effective in the short-term pain relief and
      functional improvement of tennis elbow. The severity of pain at the injection
      site was monitored to determine whether the intramuscular injection is better
      tolerated than the intralesional injection. METHODS AND RESULTS: 19 patients, who
      had no treatment for tennis elbow in the preceding 3 months, were recruited from
      Whipps Cross University Hospital, London, and were randomised to receive either
      80 mg of intramuscular Depo-Medrone or 40 mg of intralesional Depo-Medrone
      injection. Blinding proved difficult as the injection sites differed and placebo
      arms were not included in the study. A Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation
      (PRTEE) Questionnaire and a 10-point Likert scale were used to assess primary
      outcome. Six weeks after the treatment, there was a reduction in pain,
      improvement in function and total PRTEE scores in both intramuscular and
      intralesional groups (p=0.008) using a 95% CI for mean treatment difference of 
      26 to +16 points. A statistically significant result (p=0.001) in favour of
      intramuscular causing less pain at the injection site was noted. CONCLUSION: Non
      inferiority of intramuscular to intralesional injections was not confirmed;
      however, the intramuscular injection proved to be effective in reducing tennis
      elbow-related symptoms and was found less painful at the site of injection at the
      time of administration. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: EUDRACT Number: 2010-022131
      11. REC Number: 10/H0718/76 (NRES, Central London REC 1).

PMID- 28879025
TI  - Are parents' motivations to exercise and intention to engage in regular family
      based activity associated with both adult and child physical activity?
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To examine the associations between parents' motivation to
      exercise and intention to engage in family-based activity with their own and
      their child's physical activity. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from 1067 parent
      child pairs (76.1% mother-child); children were aged 5-6 years. Parents reported
      their exercise motivation (ie, intrinsic motivation, identified regulation,
      introjected regulation, external regulation and amotivation) as described in self
      determination theory and their intention to engage in family-based activity.
      Parents' and children's mean minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical
      activity (MVPA) and mean counts per minute were derived from ActiGraph
      accelerometers worn for 3 to 5 days (including a mixture of weekdays and weekend
      days). Multivariable linear regression models, adjusted for parent sex, number of
      children, indices of multiple deprivation and clustering of children in schools
      were used to examine associations (total of 24 associations tested). RESULTS: In
      fully adjusted models, each unit increase in identified regulation was associated
      with a 6.08 (95% CI 3.27 to 8.89, p<0.001) min-per-day increase in parents' MVPA.
      Parents' external regulation was associated with children performing 2.93 (95% CI
      -5.83 to -0.03, p=0.05) fewer minutes of MVPA per day and a 29.3 (95% CI -53.8 to
      -4.7, p=0.02) accelerometer count-per-minute reduction. There was no evidence of
      association for the other 21 associations tested. CONCLUSIONS: Future family
      based physical activity interventions may benefit from helping parents identify
      personal value in exercise while avoiding the use of external control or coercion
      to motivate behaviour.

PMID- 28879027
TI  - Movement and physical demands of school and university rugby union match-play in
      England.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In England, rugby union is a popular sport and is widely played
      within schools. Despite the large participation numbers, the movement and
      physical demands of the sport and how they progress by age have not been
      explored. METHOD: Ninety-six male rugby union players wore microtechnology
      devices during six rugby union matches within the education pathway to
      investigate the movement and physical demands of match-play. To quantify the
      positional differences and progression by age, data were obtained for
      participants at the under 16 (U16) (n=31 participants), under 18 (U18) (n=34
      participants) and university (n=31 participants) levels. Players were further
      divided in forwards and backs. Data were analysed using magnitude-based
      inferences. RESULTS: For the movement demands, U16 total distance and 'striding'
      was likely higher for forwards than backs, whereas at U18, unclear differences
      were observed and from university players the inverse was observed (very likely).
      In all age groups sprint distance was likely to very likely greater for backs
      than forwards. Forwards had greater physical demands than backs at all age
      groups. For consecutive age groups, U16 had a likely higher relative distance
      than U18, and U18 had a likely lower relative distance than university players.
      Physical demands were similar across age groups for forwards, and greater for
      backs at older age groups. CONCLUSION: The movement and physical demands of rugby
      union players participating in schools (U16 and U18), may not be as expected,
      however, the findings from university players show a similar pattern to the
      senior game.

PMID- 28879026
TI  - Update on the effects of physical activity on insulin sensitivity in humans.
AB  - PURPOSE AND METHODS: This review presents established knowledge on the effects of
      physical activity (PA) on whole-body insulin sensitivity (SI) and summarises the
      findings of recent (2013-2016) studies. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Recent
      studies provide further evidence to support the notion that regular PA reduces
      the risk of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, and SI
      improves when individuals comply with exercise and/or PA guidelines. Many studies
      indicate a dose response, with higher energy expenditures and higher exercise
      intensities, including high intensity interval training (HIIT), producing greater
      benefits on whole-body SI, although these findings are not unanimous. Aerobic
      exercise interventions can improve SI without an associated increase in
      cardiorespiratory fitness as measured by maximal or peak oxygen consumption. Both
      aerobic and resistance exercise can induce improvements in glycaemic regulation,
      with some suggestions that exercise regimens including both may be more
      efficacious than either exercise mode alone. Some studies report exercise-induced
      benefits to SI that are independent of habitual diet and weight loss, while
      others indicate an association with fat reduction, hence the debate over the
      relative importance of PA and weight loss continues. During exercise, muscle
      contraction stimulated improvements in SI are associated with increases in AMPK
      activity, which deactivates TCB1D1, promoting GLUT4 translocation to the cell
      membrane and thereby increasing glucose uptake. Postexercise, increases in Akt
      deactivate TCB1D4 and thereby increase GLUT4 translocation to the cell membrane.
      The reduction in intramuscular saturated fatty acids and concomitant reductions
      in ceramides, but not diacylglycerols, provide a potential link between
      intramuscular lipid content and SI. Increased skeletal muscle capillarisation
      provides another independent adaptation through which SI is improved, as does
      enhanced beta cell activity. Recent studies are combining exercise interventions
      with dietary and feeding manipulations to investigate the potential for
      augmenting the exercise-induced improvements in SI and glycaemic control.

PMID- 28879028
TI  - Reduced muscular fatigue after a 12-week leucine-rich amino acid supplementation
      combined with moderate training in elderly: a randomised, placebo-controlled,
      double-blind trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Age-related muscle loss is characterised by a progressing decrease in
      muscle mass, strength and function. Besides resistance training and physical
      activity, appropriate nutrition that is rich in protein, especially branched
      chain amino acids, is very important to support training effects and positively
      influence the protein synthesis to degradation ratio. AIM: The purpose of this
      study was to evaluate the effect of a 12-week leucine-rich amino acid
      supplementation in combination with moderate training. METHODS: Forty-eight
      healthy subjects exercised for 30 min three times per week and received either a
      leucine-rich amino acid supplementation or a placebo. Before and after
      supplementation, volunteers performed an exhaustive eccentric exercise protocol.
      Maximal concentric strength, muscle soreness, creatine kinase (CK), type II
      collagen collagenase cleavage neoepitope (C2C), C propeptide of type II
      procollagen (CP2) and safety assessments were performed before exercise and after
      3, 24, 48 and 72 hours. RESULTS: The supplementation with leucine resulted in
      reduced loss of strength at 0 and 3 hours after downhill walking compared with
      the placebo (p=0.0439). The reduction of C2C/CP2 ratio deflection was
      significantly increased (p=0.038) due to leucine compared with the placebo. The
      same tendency could be observed for the recovery phase. No significant supplement
      effects for muscle soreness and CK could be observed. CONCLUSION: The principle
      findings show that leucine-rich amino acid supplementation can counteract the
      negative effects of eccentric exercise. The treatment resulted in a reduction of
      exercise-induced strength loss.

PMID- 28879029
TI  - Prevalence of FAI radiographic hip abnormalities in elite soccer players: are
      there differences related to skeletal maturity?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) can be a source of hip pain in
      young adults. Some reports have revealed that participation in high-impact sports
      may play a role in the development of cam deformity, and there is a higher
      prevalence of signs of cam impingement in asymptomatic adolescents who
      participate in soccer and basketball than in non-athlete controls; however,
      current evidence is scarce regarding the initiation and development of
      deformities. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of
      radiographic hip abnormalities related to FAI in young elite soccer players and
      compare this with findings in a group of adult elite soccer players. SUBJECTS AND
      METHODS: Anteroposterior pelvic and cross-table hip radiographs were obtained for
      75 young elite soccer players with skeletal immaturity (group 1) and for 75 adult
      elite soccer players (group 2), all of whom were previously asymptomatic and had
      no history of hip disease. After exclusion, group 1 included 72 patients, and
      group 2 included 70 patients. Radiological signs of FAI were evaluated. RESULTS:
      34 subjects in groups 1 and 2 demonstrated cam morphology. The prevalence of
      pincer morphology was 30 in group 1 and 36 in group 2. However, these differences
      were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: We found no differences in the
      prevalence of FAI radiological signs between soccer players in their late
      adolescence and adult soccer players.

PMID- 28879030
TI  - Metabolic equivalents fail to indicate metabolic load in post-myocardial
      infarction patients during the modified Bruce treadmill walking test.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the suitability of metabolic equivalents (METs) for
      determining exercise intensity in phase-IV post-myocardial infarction (MI) men
      during the modified Bruce treadmill walking test (MBWT). METHODS: Twenty phase-IV
      post-MI men (mean+/-SD, aged 64.4+/-5.8 years) and 20 healthy non-cardiac male
      controls (59.8+/-7.6 years) participated. Participants performed a MBWT.
      Throughout the participants' heart rate (HR), heart rhythm, expired air
      parameters and ratings of perceived exertion (RPEs) were measured. MET values
      were compared between groups and those currently ascribed to each stage of the
      MBWT. RESULTS: General linear model analysis found no significant differences
      between groups during the MBWT for VO2, VCO2, HR, METs or RPEs (Borg 6-20 scale).
      Ascribed METs did not differ from mean METs of post-MIs or controls other than at
      stage 5 where post-MI METs were significantly lower. Irrespective, the post-MI
      group worked at a higher percentage of their anaerobic threshold (AT)
      (respiratory exchange ratio, RER=1.0) (F(2,5)=7.22, p<0.008), higher RER
      (F(2,5)=11.25, p<0.001) with increased breathing frequency (F(2,5)=7.22,
      p<0.001). Regression analysis revealed AT to be VO2 25.6 (mL/kg/min) for post-MI
      versus VO2 31.1 (mL/kg/min) for controls. Gross energy expenditure (kcal/min) was
      greater for the post-MI group compared with controls (F(2,5)=11.22, p<0.001).
      Throughout the MBWT, post-MI group worked at a higher %AT/MET than controls
      (F(2,196)=211.76, p<0.01). Body composition did not strongly influence %AT/MET,
      parameters of VO2, METs or RPE. CONCLUSION: During the MBWT, post-MI men worked
      more anaerobically per MET (%AT/MET) than controls. Therefore, current METs based
      on non-cardiac individuals appear unsuitable in determining the full metabolic
      load of the exercise intensity for cardiac patients during the MBWT.

PMID- 28879031
TI  - Descriptive analysis of objectively assessed physical activity among talented
      soccer players: a study of three Norwegian professional football clubs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Talented football players are expected to overcome large training and
      match loads, indicating a high weekly level of physical activity (PA). AIMS: With
      the use of accelerometers, the aim of this study was to objectively describe the
      players' total time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), vigorous PA (VPA)
      and very vigorous PA (VVPA) per day in 1 week. Since high-intensity PA has been
      highlighted as important in terms of overall PA load, we also included 2 and 4
      min bouts of VPA. METHODS: Data were collected in three junior teams in
      professional football clubs in March (club 1: 2014, club 2: 2012 and club 3:
      2011). A one-way analysis of variance was applied to analyse differences between
      the three respective clubs. RESULTS: The players averaged 77.2-86.2 min in MVPA,
      14.9-18.5 min in VPA and 1.0-3.1 in VVPA per day. While there were no differences
      in total time spent in MVPA and VPA per day, VVPA was significantly higher in
      club 1 (p<0.01) compared with clubs 2 and 3. Moreover, when using the VPA bouts,
      club 3 (p<0.01) achieved significantly more time in this intensity compared with
      clubs 1 and 2. CONCLUSION: This study acknowledges the importance of including
      both club-related and non-club-related PA when analysing talented football
      players' PA level. We suggest that future studies examining players' PA with
      accelerometers should emphasise time spent in high-intensity PA and how this is
      associated with physical overload, psychological burnout and risk of injury.

PMID- 28879032
TI  - Epidemiology of injuries in the Spanish national futsal male team: a five-season
      retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Futsal started being played in 1930 and the number of futsal players
      has increased all over the world ever since. Nonetheless, despite the fact that
      Spain is one of the most relevant national teams worldwide, information on the
      incidence of injuries and their anthropometric characteristics is sparse in this
      country. AIM: To analyse medical assistance provided to players in their prematch
      concentration camps with the Spanish national team over five seasons, from 2010
      2011 to 2014-2015, and also to collect data regarding anthropometric
      characteristics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective and detailed
      study of injuries players suffered over these five seasons. All variables were
      registered on an Excel spreadsheet and later analysed statistically. RESULTS: 411
      injuries were studied in total. The dominant somatotype was mesomorph and the
      injured pivots were both the most endomorphic and the most mesomorphic. The most
      injured body structure was the hamstring muscles, occurring due to training and
      intrinsic mechanisms, where fatigue was the most frequent diagnosis. Only a few
      complementary examinations were carried out and prematch withdrawal was rare.
      DISCUSSION: The skinfold test total sum was lower than that of the Spanish 11-a
      side players or than that in the lower category futsal Spanish players. In
      various research studies analysing exclusively injuries occurring in matches, the
      most frequent injury is ligament injury by extrinsic mechanism. The body mass
      index was not a useful parameter when assessing players' appropriate weight. Most
      injuries occurred in training sessions, mostly by intrinsic mechanism; the
      highest percentage of traumatic injuries occurred in official matches.

PMID- 28879033
TI  - Effects of a systemic enzyme therapy in healthy active adults after exhaustive
      eccentric exercise: a randomised, two-stage, double-blinded, placebo-controlled
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic enzyme therapy may improve symptoms of exhaustive eccentric
      exercise due to anti-inflammatory properties. METHODS: In a randomised, placebo
      controlled, two-stage clinical trial, systemic enzyme therapy (Wobenzym) was
      administered for 72 hours before and 72 hours following a day on which subjects
      performed an exhaustive eccentric exercise (isokinetic loading of the
      quadriceps). Efficacy criteria (maximal strength and pain) and time points were
      selected to account for the multidimensional nature of exercise-induced muscle
      damage symptoms. Subjects were randomised in a crossover (stage I, n=28) and
      parallel group design (stage II, n=44). RESULTS: Analysis of stage I data
      demonstrated a significant superiority (Mann-Whitney=0.6153; p=0.0332; one sided)
      for systemic enzyme therapy compared with placebo. Stage II was designed as a
      randomised controlled parallel group comparison. Heterogeneity (I2>0.5) between
      stages led to separate analyses of stage I (endurance-trained subjects) and stage
      II (strength-trained subjects). Combined analysis resulted in no evidence for
      corresponding treatment effects. Analysis of pooled biomarker data, however,
      demonstrated significant favourable effects for systemic enzyme therapy in both
      stages. CONCLUSION: Systemic enzyme therapy before and after exhaustive eccentric
      exercise resulted in higher maximal concentric strength in the less strength
      trained subjects (stage I) and in significant favourable effects on biomarkers
      (inflammatory, metabolic and immune) in all subjects. The application of these
      findings needs further evaluation.

PMID- 28879034
TI  - Unloading knee brace is a cost-effective method to bridge and delay surgery in
      unicompartmental knee arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unloading knee braces can provide good short-term pain relief for
      some patients with unicompartmental osteoarthritis (UOA). Their cost is
      relatively small compared with surgical interventions. However, no previous
      studies have reported their use over a duration of 5 years or more. METHODS: Up
      to 8 years of prospective data were collected from 63 patients who presented with
      UOA. After conservative management with analgesia and physiotherapy, patients
      were offered an unloading brace. EQ-5D (EuroQol five dimensions) questionnaires
      were collected at baseline and after wearing the brace. Cost and quality-adjusted
      life years (QALYs) were compared with a total knee replacement (TKR) with an 8
      month waiting duration and 8 years of results. RESULTS: Patients experienced a
      mean increase in EQ-5D of 0.42 with an average duration of wear of 26.1 months
      resulting in an increase of 0.44 in QALYs with a mean cost of L625. The adoption
      of an unloader knee brace was found to be a short-term cost-effective treatment
      option with an 8-month incremental cost effectiveness ratio of L9599. Compared
      with no treatment, the unloader knee brace can be considered cost effective at 4
      months or more. At 8 years follow-up, the unloader knee brace demonstrated QALYs
      gain of 0.43 and with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of -L6467 compared
      with TKR. CONCLUSION: Unloading knee braces are cost effective for the management
      of UOA. These findings strongly support the undertaking of further research into
      the long-term impact of unloading knee brace. The unloader knee brace has
      benefits to the National Health Service for capacity, budget, waiting list
      duration, frequency of surgery and reducing the required severity of surgical
      intervention.

PMID- 28879035
TI  - Objective functional results in patients with knee osteoarthritis submitted to a
      2-day educational programme: a prospective randomised clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although education is recommended for the treatment of knee
      osteoarthritis (KOA), its effectiveness in osteoarthritis (OA) remains low
      according to subjective questionnaires. The timed-up-and-go (TUG) and five-times
      sit-to-stand tests (FTSST) reflect muscle strength and balance and could be used
      as objective measures of effectiveness. AIM: To measure the effect of an
      educational programme in patients with KOA by TUG and FTSST and correlate these
      results to those of subjective questionnaires. METHODS: Prospective randomised
      controlled trial of patients with KOA. Participants (n=198) were allocated into
      four groups. Three groups participated in 2 days of lectures with 1 (group 1), 2
      (group 2) and 3-month (group 3) intervals between classes. Group 4 had no
      classes. Participants were asked to exercise at least three times a week. Half of
      the patients from all groups received bimonthly telephone calls reinforcing diet
      and exercise instructions. All four groups received the printed and video
      material presented in the classes. At baseline and at 1 year after initial
      assessment, patients performed the FTSST and TUG and answered WOMAC, Lequesne, SF
      36 and Visual Analogue Scale questionnaires. RESULTS: The TUG results did not
      change at 1 year follow-up, whereas FTSST improved (average difference of 4.66,
      p<0.001) irrespective of the implementation of classes or telephone calls. Both
      baseline and 1 year TUG and FTSST results correlated weakly (r<0.3) to the
      subjective functional, pain and quality of life results (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      This educational programme improved function as determined by lower limb muscle
      strength (FTSST) irrespective of the patients' subjective non-improvement. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: Clinical trials registration number: NCT01572051. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Level 1A.

PMID- 28879036
TI  - Evaluation of determinants of walking fitness in patients attending cardiac
      rehabilitation.
AB  - AIM: This study aims to investigate the ability of patients' baseline
      characteristics to predict the distance walked during the incremental shuttle
      walk test (ISWT) in the cardiac rehabilitation (CR) population and to produce
      reference values to guide practice. METHODS: Secondary analysis was conducted on
      National Audit Cardiac Rehabilitation data collected between 2010 and 2015.
      Patients (n=8863) were included if they were aged >=18 years and had a recorded
      ISWT score assessed before starting CR. Stepwise regression was used to identify
      factors predicting the ISWT distance. Age, gender, body mass index, height,
      weight; presence of hypertension, dyslipidemia or diabetes; smoking and physical
      activity were independent variables. ISWT distance was the dependent variable.
      The 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles of the ISWT distance were used as reference
      values. RESULTS: Age and gender explained 27% of the variance of the distance
      covered in the ISWT (R2=0.27, adjusted R2=0.27,Standard Error of the Estimate
      (SEE) = 148.7, p<0.001). Reference values using age and gender categories were
      developed. CONCLUSION: Age and gender were the significant factors for predicting
      the walking fitness in the CR population, with age being the best predictor. The
      age and gender reference values produced represent a potentially valuable tool to
      be used in the clinical setting.

PMID- 28879037
TI  - Outcomes in patients with glenoid labral lesions: a cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: For patients presenting with glenoid labral pathologies, there is
      little information on how operative interventions affect long-term outcomes and
      health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study evaluated outcomes in
      operative and non-operative patients presenting with labral tears versus labral
      degenerations. METHODS: Participants completed a pain Visual Analogue Scale
      (VAS), the Veterans RAND 12-item Health Survey, Western Ontario Rotator Cuff
      Index, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons instrument, Scapular Assistance Test
      (SAT), Shoulder Activity Level, and Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation at
      baseline and at 6-month, 12-month and 2-year follow-ups. chi2and Student's t-test
      were used to test the differences between categorical and continuous variables.
      Analysis of variance investigated the differences between groups, and linear
      regression analyses explored the relationship of baseline characteristics with
      outcome scores. RESULTS: After 2 years, the operative cohort (n=68) significantly
      improved in all measures. The non-operative cohort (n=55) showed significant
      improvements in all scores except the mental component summary (MCS) and pain
      VAS. Labral tear patients (n=52) within the operative group (n=28) significantly
      improved in all measures except MCS. Non-operative labral tear patients (n=24)
      indicated significant improvements in all measures except MCS, VAS and SAT.
      Labral degeneration patients (n=71) within the operative group (n=27)
      significantly improved in all measures except MCS and SAT. Non-operative labral
      degeneration patients (n=44) indicated significant improvements in all measures
      except the physical component summary, MCS, VAS and SAT. CONCLUSION: Patients who
      were surgically treated for labral tears or degenerations had significantly
      improved outcomes and HRQoL scores after 2 years compared with the non-operative
      cohort.

PMID- 28879038
TI  - No effects of functional exercise therapy on walking biomechanics in patients
      with knee osteoarthritis: exploratory outcome analyses from a randomised trial.
AB  - AIM: To assess the effects of a functional and individualised exercise programme
      on gait biomechanics during walking in people with knee OA. METHODS: Sixty
      participants were randomised to 12 weeks of facility-based functional and
      individualised neuromuscular exercise therapy (ET), 3 sessions per week
      supervised by trained physical therapists, or a no attention control group (CG).
      Three-dimensional gait analyses were used, from which a comprehensive list of
      conventional gait variables were extracted (totally 52 kinematic, kinetic and
      spatiotemporal variables). According to the protocol, the analyses were based on
      the 'Per-Protocol' population (defined as participants following the protocol
      with complete and valid gait analyses). Analysis of covariance adjusting for the
      level at baseline was used to determine differences between groups (95% CIs) in
      the changes from baseline at follow-up. RESULTS: The per-protocol population
      included 46 participants (24 ET/22 CG). There were no group differences in the
      analysed gait variables, except for a significant group difference in the second
      peak knee flexor moment and second peak vertical ground reaction force.
      CONCLUSION: While plausible we have limited confidence in the findings due to
      multiple statistical tests and lack of biomechanical logics. Therefore we
      conclude that a 12-week supervised individualised neuromuscular exercise
      programme has no effects on gait biomechanics. Future studies should focus on
      exercise programmes specifically designed to alter gait patterns, or include
      other measures of mobility, such as walking on stairs or inclined surfaces. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01545258.

PMID- 28879039
TI  - The tymbal muscle of cicada has flight muscle-type sarcomeric architecture and
      protein expression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The structural and biochemical features of the tymbal (sound
      producing) muscle of cicadas were studied by X-ray diffraction and
      immunochemistry, and compared with those of flight muscles from the same species.
      RESULTS: The X-ray diffraction pattern of the tymbal muscle was very similar to
      that of the dorsal longitudinal flight muscle: In both muscles, the 2,0
      equatorial reflection is much more intense than the 1,1, indicating that both
      muscles have a flight muscle-type myofilament lattice. In rigor, the first
      myosin/actin layer line reflection was finely lattice-sampled, indicating that
      the contractile proteins are arranged with a crystalline regularity as in
      asynchronous flight muscles. In contrast, the diffraction pattern from the tensor
      muscle, which modulates the sound by stressing the tymbal, did not show signs of
      such high regularity or flight muscle-type filament lattice. Electrophoretic
      patterns of myofibrillar proteins were also very similar in the tymbal muscle and
      flight muscles, but distinct from those from the tensor or leg muscles. The
      antibody raised against the flight muscle-specific troponin-I isoform reacted
      with an 80-kDa band from both tymbal and flight muscles, but with none of the
      bands from the tensor or leg muscles. CONCLUSION: The close similarities of the
      structural and biochemical profiles between the tymbal and the flight muscles
      suggest the possibility that a set of flight muscle-specific proteins is diverted
      to the tymbal muscle to meet its demand for fast, repetitive contractions.

PMID- 28879040
TI  - Comparison of effects between calcium channel blocker and diuretics in
      combination with angiotensin II receptor blocker on 24-h central blood pressure
      and vascular hemodynamic parameters in hypertensive patients: study design for a
      multicenter, double-blinded, active-controlled, phase 4, randomized trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke,
      and is one of the leading causes of death. Although over a billion people are
      affected worldwide, only half of them receive adequate treatment. Current
      guidelines on antihypertensive treatment recommend combination therapy for
      patients not responding to monotherapy, but as the number of pills increase,
      patient compliance tends to decrease. As a result, fixed-dose combination drugs
      with different antihypertensive agents have been developed and widely used in
      recent years. CCBs have been shown to be better at reducing central blood
      pressure and arterial stiffness than diuretics. Recent studies have reported that
      central blood pressure and arterial stiffness are associated with cardiovascular
      outcomes. This trial aims to compare the efficacy of combination of calcium
      channel blocker (CCB) or thiazide diuretic with an angiotensin receptor blocker
      (ARB). METHODS: This is a multicenter, double-blinded, active-controlled, phase
      4, randomized trial, comparing the antihypertensive effects of
      losartan/amlodipine and losartan/hydrochlorothiazide in patients unresponsive to
      treatment with losartan. The primary endpoint is changes in mean sitting systolic
      blood pressure (msSBP) after 4 weeks of treatment. Secondary endpoints are
      changes in msSBP, mean 24-h ambulatory mobile blood pressure, mean 24-h
      ambulatory mobile central SBP, mean 24-h ambulatory carotid-femoral pulse wave
      velocity, ambulatory augmentation index, and microalbuminuria/proteinuria after
      20 weeks of treatment. The sample size will be 119 patients for each group in
      order to confer enough power to test for non-inferiority regarding the primary
      outcome. CONCLUSION: The investigators aim to prove that combination of a CCB
      with ARB shows non-inferiority in lowering blood pressure compared with a
      combination of thiazide diuretic and ARB. We also hope to distinguish the subset
      of patients that are more responsive to certain types of combination drugs. The
      results of this study should aid physicians in selecting appropriate combination
      regimens to treat hypertension in certain populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02294539. Registered 12 November 2014.

PMID- 28879041
TI  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension, a novelty in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies:
      insights and first experiences with vasoactive therapy.
AB  - To characterise the different types of pulmonary hypertension (PH) among
      idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). A retrospective case series with
      assessment of PH by right heart catheterisation, extent of interstitial lung
      disease (ILD) and outcome of vasoactive therapy.The group of patients with IIM
      with PH (n=9) showed a median age at PH diagnosis of 62 years (IQR 48-71 years;
      eight women), seven diagnosed with polymyositis and two with dermatomyositis;
      median disease duration of 5.7 years and five patients with a positive anti-Jo1
      antibody. We found one patient to be classified in PH WHO group 2 (left heart
      disease), five patients in WHO group 3 (lung disease) and three patients in WHO
      group 1 (pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)). During median observed follow-up
      of 24 months, mortality for the total group was 44%. Surprisingly, we found a
      relevant group (33%) of patients with IIM who suffered from non-ILD-PH, which
      reflects the presence of PAH phenotype. This result should lead to more awareness
      among treating physicians that complaints of dyspnoea among patient with IIM
      could be related to PAH and not only ILD. The role of vasoactive therapy remains
      to be defined in patients with IIM suffering from PAH or PH-ILD.

PMID- 28879043
TI  - Fully automated joint space width measurement and digital X-ray radiogrammetry in
      early RA.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To study fully automated digital joint space width (JSW) and bone
      mineral density (BMD) in relation to a conventional radiographic scoring method
      in early rheumatoid arthritis (eRA). METHODS: Radiographs scored by the modified
      Sharp van der Heijde score (SHS) in patients with eRA were acquired from the
      SWEdish FarmacOTherapy study. Fully automated JSW measurements of bilateral
      metacarpals 2, 3 and 4 were compared with the joint space narrowing (JSN) score
      in SHS. Multilevel mixed model statistics were applied to calculate the
      significance of the association between DeltaJSW and DeltaBMD over 1 year, and
      the JSW differences between damaged and undamaged joints as evaluated by the JSN.
      RESULTS: Based on 576 joints of 96 patients with eRA, a significant reduction
      from baseline to 1 year was observed in the JSW from 1.69 (+/-0.19) mm to 1.66
      (+/-0.19) mm (p<0.01), and BMD from 0.583 (+/-0.068) g/cm2 to 0.566 (+/-0.074)
      g/cm2 (p<0.01). A significant positive association was observed between DeltaJSW
      and DeltaBMD over 1 year (p<0.0001). On an individual joint level, JSWs of
      undamaged (JSN=0) joints were wider than damaged (JSN>0) joints: 1.68 mm (95% CI
      1.70 to 1.67) vs 1.54 mm (95% CI 1.63 to 1.46). Similarly the unadjusted
      multilevel model showed significant differences in JSW between undamaged (1.68 mm
      (95% CI 1.72 to 1.64)) and damaged joints (1.63 mm (95% CI 1.68 to 1.58))
      (p=0.0048). This difference remained significant in the adjusted model: 1.66 mm
      (95% CI 1.70 to 1.61) vs 1.62 mm (95% CI 1.68 to 1.56) (p=0.042). CONCLUSIONS: To
      measure the JSW with this fully automated digital tool may be useful as a quick
      and observer-independent application for evaluating cartilage damage in eRA.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT00764725.

PMID- 28879042
TI  - Salivary gland ultrasound abnormalities in primary Sjogren's syndrome: consensual
      US-SG core items definition and reliability.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Ultrasonography (US) is sensitive for detecting echostructural
      abnormalities of the major salivary glands (SGs) in primary Sjogren's syndrome
      (pSS). Our objectives were to define selected US-SG echostructural abnormalities
      in pSS, set up a preliminary atlas of these definitions and evaluate the
      consensual definitions reliability in both static and acquisition US-SG images.
      METHODS: International experts in SG US in pSS participated in consensus meetings
      to select and define echostructural abnormalities in pSS. The US reliability of
      detecting these abnormalities was assessed using a two-step method. First 12
      experts used a web-based standardised form to evaluate 60 static US-SG images.
      Intra observer and interobserver reliabilities were expressed in kappa values.
      Second, five experts, who participated all throughout the study, evaluated US-SG
      acquisition interobserver reliability in pSS patients. RESULTS: Parotid glands
      (PGs) and submandibular glands (SMGs) intra observer US reliability on static
      images was substantial (kappa > 0.60) for the two main reliable items
      (echogenicity and homogeneity) and for the advised pSS diagnosis. PG inter
      observer reliability was substantial for homogeneity. SMGs interobserver
      reliability was moderate for homogeneity (kappa = 0.46) and fair for echogenicity
      (kappa = 0.38). On acquisition images, PGs interobserver reliability was
      substantial (kappa = 0.62) for echogenicity and moderate (kappa = 0.52) for
      homogeneity. The advised pSS diagnosis reliability was substantial (kappa =
      0.66). SMGs interobserver reliability was fair (0.20< kappa <= 0.40) for
      echogenicity and homogeneity and either slight or poor for all other US core
      items. CONCLUSION: This work identified two most reliable US-SG items
      (echogenicity and homogeneity) to be used by US-SG trained experts. US-PG
      interobserver reliability result for echogenicity is in line with diagnosis of
      pSS.

PMID- 28879044
TI  - Evaluating quality of care in rheumatoid arthritis: the patient perspective.

PMID- 28879045
TI  - Functional limitations in the phase of clinically suspect arthralgia are as
      serious as in early clinical arthritis; a longitudinal study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A phase of arthralgia may precede the emergence of rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA). Although several studies have focused on biomarkers, the
      relevance of this phase for patients is less studied. It is unknown if patients
      already have functional limitations and if this is correlated to the extent of
      subclinical inflammation. Therefore, we assessed functional disability in
      patients with clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA), its association with MRI
      detected subclinical inflammation and its course during progression to clinical
      arthritis. METHODS: From April 2012 to March 2015, 241 patients had arthralgia
      for <1 year and were, based on clinical presentation, considered at risk for RA
      by their rheumatologists. At baseline, Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)
      scores were determined and unilateral 1.5 T MRI of metacarpophalangeal, wrist and
      metatarsophalangeal joints were made. Presence of MRI-detected subclinical
      inflammation was assessed by summing synovitis, tenosynovitis and bone marrow
      oedema scores (range 0-189). Patients were followed on arthritis development and
      HAQ scores were repeated when clinical arthritis had developed. RESULTS: The
      median HAQ score at presentation with CSA was 0.50. Higher MRI-inflammation
      scores were associated with higher HAQ scores (beta=0.017, 95% CI=0.004 to
      0.030). During median 103 weeks follow-up, 44 patients progressed to clinical
      arthritis. HAQ scores >=1.0 were associated with arthritis development (HR=2.50,
      95% CI=1.03 to 6.10). Within converters, median HAQ scores did not increase from
      presentation with CSA to arthritis development (0.88 and 0.75, p=0.36).
      CONCLUSIONS: HAQ scores >=1.0 at presentation were associated with the
      development of clinical arthritis. Functional limitations in the prearthritis
      phase of CSA were as serious as in the early clinical phase, demonstrating the
      relevance of CSA from patients' perspectives.

PMID- 28879046
TI  - Flares assessed weekly in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or axial
      spondyloarthritis and relationship with physical activity measured using a
      connected activity tracker: a 3-month study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The evolution of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and axial
      spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is marked by flares, although their frequency is
      unclear. Flares may impact physical activity. Activity can be assessed
      objectively using activity trackers. The objective was to assess longitudinally
      the frequency of flares and the association between flares and objective physical
      activity. METHODS: This prospective observational study (ActConnect) included
      patients with definite clinician-confirmed RA or axSpA, owning a smartphone.
      During 3 months, physical activity was assessed continuously by number of
      steps/day, using an activity tracker, and disease flares were self-assessed
      weekly using a specific flare question and, if relevant, the duration of the
      flare. The relationship between flares and physical activity for each week (time
      point) was assessed by linear mixed models. RESULTS: In all, 170/178 patients (91
      patients with RA and 79 patients with axSpA; 1553 time points) were analysed:
      mean age was 45.5+/-12.4 years, mean disease duration was 10.3+/-8.7 years, 60
      (35.3%) were men and 90 (52.9%) received biologics. The disease was well
      controlled (mean Disease Activity Score 28: 2.3+/-1.2; mean Bath Ankylosing
      Spondylitis Disease Activity Index score: 3.3+/-2.1). Patients self-reported
      flares in 28.2%+/-28.1% of the weekly assessments. Most flares (78.9%+/-31.4%)
      lasted <=3 days. Persistent flares lasting more than 3 days were independently
      associated with less weekly physical activity (p=0.03), leading to a relative
      decrease of 12%-21% and an absolute decrease ranging from 836 to 1462 steps/day.
      CONCLUSION: Flares were frequent but usually of short duration in these stable
      patients with RA and axSpA. Persistent flares were related to a moderate decrease
      in physical activity, confirming objectively the functional impact of patient
      reported flares.

PMID- 28879047
TI  - Treatment of polyarteritis nodosa with tocilizumab: a new therapeutic approach?
AB  - We describe the effect of interleukin 6 (IL-6) blockade using tocilizumab (TCZ)
      for inducing and maintaining remission of refractory polyarteritis nodosa (PAN).
      Three patients with refractory PAN defined according to the American College of
      Rheumatology criteria were treated with TCZ infusions (8 mg/kg) on a monthly
      basis. All of them had severe cutaneous and articular involvement with elevated
      biological inflammatory markers. One suffered from a neuritis multiplex and one
      from renal and digestive damage. All three patients were dependent on high doses
      of glucocorticoids (above 0.5 mg/kg) and two of them were resistant to
      immunosuppressive drugs. All patients achieved and maintained clinical response
      and normalisation of the inflammation acute-phase proteins after a few weeks of
      treatment with TCZ. Prednisolone could be reduced by an average of 41-13 mg/day.
      These first case reports suggest that IL-6 blockade using TCZ could be a
      therapeutic alternative to induce remission in patients with polyarteritis nodosa
      resistant or intolerant to the reference treatment.

PMID- 28879048
TI  - No evidence for a direct role of HLA-B27 in pathological bone formation in axial
      SpA.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The strong genetic association between HLA-B27 and ankylosing
      spondylitis has been known for over 40 years. HLA-B27 positivity is possibly
      associated with severity of ankylosis. We studied the in vitro and in vivo impact
      of HLA-B27 in models of chondrogenesis and osteogenesis. METHODS: Different in
      vitro differentiation systems were used to mimic endochondral and direct bone
      formation. ATDC5 cells and primary human periosteum-derived cells (hPDCs) were
      transduced with lentiviral vectors expressing HLA-B27 or HLA-B7. These cells and
      limb bud cells (from HLA-B27 transgenic and wild-type (WT) mice) were cultured in
      micromasses. To study direct osteogenesis in hPDCs, cells were cultured as
      monolayers and stimulated with osteogenic media. Chondrogenesis (COL2, ACAN,
      COL10) and osteogenesis (OSC, ALP, RUNX2) marker expression was studied by
      quantitative RT-PCR. Colorimetric tests were performed to measure proteoglycans,
      mineralization and collagens. Collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) was
      induced in HLA-B27 transgenic and WT mice. Clinical scoring and uCTs were
      performed. Statistical analyses were performed by two-way ANOVA. RESULTS: There
      was no difference in chondrogenesis markers or in colorimetric tests between HLA
      B27+ and HLA-B7+ micromasses. Expression of osteogenesis markers and Alizarin red
      staining was comparable in the HLA-B27+ and the HLA-B7+ hPDCs in monolayers. HLA
      B27 transgenic mice showed more severe arthritis compared with WT mice in the
      CAIA model. uCT analysis showed no increased bone formation in HLA-B27 transgenic
      mice. CONCLUSION: HLA-B27 seems to enhance joint inflammation in the CAIA model.
      We could not document a direct effect of HLA-B27 on chondrogenesis or
      osteogenesis.

PMID- 28879049
TI  - Rituximab in early systemic sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: (1) Hypothesis testing of the potency of rituximab (RTX) in
      preventing fibrotic complications and (2) assessing acceptability and feasibility
      of RTX in early systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: A small, 24-month, randomised,
      double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-centre trial in patients with SSc
      diagnosed <2 years was conducted. Patients received RTX or placebo infusions at
      t=0, t=15 days and t=6 months. Patients were clinically evaluated every 3 months,
      with lung function tests and high-resolution CT every other visit. Skin biopsies
      were taken at baseline and month 3. Immunophenotyping of peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells was performed at every visit, except at months 9 and 18.
      Adverse events, course of skin and pulmonary involvement and B cell populations
      in skin and peripheral blood were evaluated. RESULTS: In total 16, patients
      (rituximab n=8, placebo n=8) were included. Twelve patients had diffuse cutaneous
      SSc. Eighty-eight adverse events (RTX n=53, placebo n=35, p=0.22) and 11 serious
      adverse events (RTX n=7, placebo n=4, p=0.36) occurred. No unexpected RTX-related
      events were observed. Mean skin score over time did not differ between the
      groups. Over time, forced vital capacity and extent of lung involvement slightly
      improved with RTX, but this difference was insignificant. In peripheral blood B
      cells depletion was demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS: No unexpected safety issues were
      observed with RTX in early SSc. Although this small trial could not confirm or
      reject potential efficacy of RTX in these patients, future placebo-controlled
      trials are warranted, specifically in the subgroup of patients with pulmonary
      involvement. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: EudraCT 2008-07180-16; Results.

PMID- 28879050
TI  - Relationship between the gut and the spine: a pilot study of first-degree
      relatives of patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

PMID- 28879051
TI  - Targeting danger molecules in tendinopathy: the HMGB1/TLR4 axis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To seek evidence of the danger molecule, high-mobility group protein
      B1 (HMGB1) expression in human tendinopathy and thereafter, to explore mechanisms
      where HMGB1 may regulate inflammatory mediators and matrix regulation in human
      tendinopathy. METHODS: Torn supraspinatus tendon (established pathology) and
      matched intact subscapularis tendon (representing 'early pathology') biopsies
      were collected from patients undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Control
      samples of subscapularis tendon were collected from patients undergoing
      arthroscopic stabilisation surgery. Markers of inflammation and HMGB1 were
      quantified by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry. Human
      tendon-derived primary cells were derived from hamstring tendon tissue obtained
      during hamstring tendon anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and used
      through passage 3. In vitro effects of recombinant HMGB1 on tenocyte matrix and
      inflammatory potential were measured using quantitative RT-PCR, ELISA and
      immunohistochemistry staining. RESULTS: Tendinopathic tissues demonstrated
      significantly increased levels of the danger molecule HMGB1 compared with control
      tissues with early tendinopathy tissue showing the greatest expression. The
      addition of recombinant human HMGB1 to tenocytes led to significant increase in
      expression of a number of inflammatory mediators, including interleukin 1 beta
      (IL-1beta), IL-6, IL-33, CCL2 and CXCL12, in vitro. Further analysis demonstrated
      rhHMGB1 treatment resulted in increased expression of genes involved in matrix
      remodelling. Significant increases were observed in Col3, Tenascin-C and Decorin.
      Moreover, blocking HMGB1 signalling via toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) silencing
      reversed these key inflammatory and matrix changes. CONCLUSION: HMGB1 is present
      in human tendinopathy and can regulate inflammatory cytokines and matrix changes.
      We propose HMGB1 as a mediator driving the inflammatory/matrix crosstalk and
      manipulation of the HMGB1/TLR4 axis may offer novel therapeutic approaches
      targeting inflammatory mechanisms in the management of human tendon disorders.

PMID- 28879052
TI  - Obesity is a strong predictor of worse clinical outcomes and treatment responses
      in early rheumatoid arthritis: results from the SWEFOT trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper was to analyse the impact of obesity, in
      addition to known predictors, on disease outcome in early rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA). METHODS: Body mass index (BMI) was available in 260 patients from the
      Swedish pharmacotherapy trial (SWEFOT). Differences in disease activity (DAS28),
      functional impairment (HAQ), pain (Visual Analogue Scale, VAS-pain) and
      radiographic damage were evaluated over 24 months between BMI categories (obese
      BMI >30, n=43; overweight BMI=25-29.9, n=74; normal BMI <25, n=143) using non
      parametric testing. Predictors of European League Against Rheumatism non
      remission (DAS28 >=2.6) at 24 months of follow-up were evaluated using binary
      univariate and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Obesity at baseline was
      associated with worse continuous-scale clinical outcomes over 24 months (DAS28,
      HAQ and VAS-pain at last visit: obese vs normal: p<0.001; obese vs overweight:
      p<0.05). Furthermore, obese patients compared with non-obese patients had
      significantly greater odds of non-remission at 24 months (adjusted OR (aOR) 5.2;
      95% CI 1.8 to 15.2). Other independent predictors were female sex (aOR 2.6; 95%
      CI 1.1 to 5.8), current smoking (aOR 2.6; 95% CI 1.1 to 6.3) and HAQ (per-unit
      increase, aOR 1.9; 95% CI 1.1 to 3.4). The pattern was similar among seropositive
      and seronegative patients; and in the subgroups of methotrexate responders and
      patients randomised at 3 months to add-on of sulfasalazine+hydroxychloroquine,
      although not significant with add-on of infliximab. Obesity had no independent
      association to radiographic progression. CONCLUSIONS: In this early RA trial
      reflecting today's standard treatment, obesity, in addition to sex, smoking and
      functional impairment strongly lowered the chance of attaining good clinical
      outcomes, including remission, today's treatment goal. This highlights the
      importance of considering lifestyle modification as one of the cornerstones of RA
      care. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT00764725; Post-results. WHO database at the
      Karolinska University Hospital: CT20080004.

PMID- 28879053
TI  - Efficacy of embedded nurse-led versus conventional physician-led follow-up in
      rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of embedded nurse-led versus conventional
      physician-led follow-up on disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA). METHODS: In a systematic literature search, we identified randomised
      controlled trials (RCTs) reporting on the efficacy of nurse-led follow-up on
      disease control in patients with RA compared with physician-led follow-up.
      Primary outcome was disease activity indicated by Disease Activity Score (DAS)
      28. Secondary outcomes were: patient satisfaction, physical disability, fatigue,
      self-efficacy and quality of life. Outcomes were assessed after 1-year and 2 year
      follow-ups. RESULTS: Seven studies representing five RCTs, including a total of
      723 participants, were included. All but one study included stable patients in
      low disease activity or remission at baseline. No difference in DAS-28 was found
      after 1 year (mean difference (MD) -0.07 (95% CI -0.23 to 0.09)). After 2 years,
      a statistically significant difference was seen in favour of nurse-led follow-up
      (MD -0.28 (95% CI -0.53 to -0.04)). However, the difference did not reach a
      clinically relevant level. No difference was found in patient satisfaction after
      1 year (standard mean difference (SMD) -0.17 (95 % CI -1.0 to 0.67), whereas a
      statistical significant difference in favour of nurse-led follow-up was seen
      after 2 years (SMD: 0.6 (95% CI -0.00 to 1.20)). CONCLUSION: After 1 year no
      difference in disease activity, indicated by DAS-28, were found between embedded
      nurse-led follow-up compared with conventional physician-led follow-up, in RA
      patients with low disease activity or remission.

PMID- 28879054
TI  - Achilles enthesitis defined by ultrasound is not associated with clinical
      enthesitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare clinical and ultrasonographic (US) evaluation of Achilles
      enthesitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). METHODS: The Achilles
      insertion of outpatients with PsA was examined by clinical assessment of
      tenderness and US evaluation of (1) inflammatory activity (defined as the
      presence of power Doppler signal, tendon thickening and/or hypoechogenicity) and
      (2) structural damage (defined as the presence of erosions, calcifications and/or
      enthesophytes). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were
      performed0.4 to explore the associations between clinical characteristics and US
      scores. RESULTS: 282 Achilles tendons in 141 patients with PsA were assessed.
      Mean (SD) age was 52.4 (10.2) years, disease duration 9.5 (6.6) years and 50.4%
      were females. Palpatory tenderness was found in 88 (31.2%), US-verified
      inflammatory activity in 46 (16.3%) and structural damage in 148 (52.5%) of the
      Achilles. Total US scores, as well as their components, were similar for patients
      with and without palpatory tenderness. None of the clinical characteristics were
      associated with inflammatory activity. Age, body mass index (BMI), regular
      physical exercise and current use of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic
      drugs (bDMARDs) were associated with structural damage. CONCLUSION: There appears
      to be a lack of association between clinical and US signs of Achilles enthesitis
      in PsA. Age, BMI, regular physical exercise and current use of bDMARDs were
      associated with structural damage on US.

PMID- 28879055
TI  - Working in cold environment and risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis: results
      from the Swedish EIRA case-control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate (1) whether working in cold environment (WCE) is
      associated with an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
      (overall), anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-positive RA and ACPA
      negative RA and (2) whether WCE interacts with occupational physical workload in
      conferring RA risk. METHODS: Data from the Swedish population-based case-control
      study Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis involving 3659
      incident cases and 5925 controls were analysed. Study participants were asked
      whether they had ever worked in cold/outdoor environment along with their
      exposure duration and frequency. Occurrence of RA among exposed and unexposed
      subjects were compared by calculating ORs with 95% CI using logistic regression.
      Additive interactions between WCE and six types of physical workload were
      assessed using the principle of departure from additivity by calculating
      attributable proportion due to interaction (AP). RESULTS: The OR associated with
      having ever worked in cold environment was 1.5 (95% CI 1.4 to 1.7) for RA
      (overall), 1.6 (95% CI 1.4 to 1.8) for ACPA-positive RA and 1.4 (95% CI 1.2 to
      1.6) for ACPA-negative RA. The risk of developing RA increased with increasing
      cumulative dose of working in cold indoor environment (p value <0.001), but not
      working in cold outdoor environment. Positive additive interaction was observed
      between WCE and repetitive hand/finger movements (AP 0.3 (95% CI 0.1 to 0.5)).
      CONCLUSIONS: WCE is associated with increased risk of developing both ACPA
      positive and ACPA-negative RA. A dose-response relationship was found between
      working in cold indoor environment and risk of developing RA. Moderate additive
      interaction was observed between exposure to cold environment and exposure to
      repetitive hand/finger movements.

PMID- 28879057
TI  - Erratum: Clinical responses to ERK inhibition in BRAFV600E-mutant colorectal
      cancer predicted using a computational model.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41540-017-0016-1.].

PMID- 28879056
TI  - Ultrasound-detected osteophytes predict the development of radiographic and
      clinical features of hand osteoarthritis in the same finger joints 5 years later.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Structural pathology may be present in joints without radiographic
      evidence of osteoarthritis (OA). Ultrasound is a sensitive tool for early
      detection of osteophytes. Our aim was to explore whether ultrasound-detected
      osteophytes (in radiographically and clinically normal finger joints) predicted
      the development of radiographic and clinical hand OA 5 years later. METHODS: We
      included finger joints without radiographic OA (Kellgren-Lawrence grade (KLG)=0;
      n=301) or no clinical bony enlargements (n=717) at baseline and examined whether
      ultrasound-detected osteophytes predicted incident radiographic OA (KLG >=1,
      osteophytes or joint space narrowing (JSN)) or incident clinical bony enlargement
      (dependent variables) in the same joints 5 years later. We applied logistic
      regression with generalised estimating equations adjusted for age, sex, body mass
      index and follow-up time. RESULTS: Ultrasound demonstrated osteophytes in 86/301
      (28.6%) joints without radiographic OA and 392/717 (54.7%) joints without
      clinical bony enlargement. These osteophytes were confirmed in the majority of
      joints where MRI assessment was available. Significant associations were found
      between ultrasound-detected osteophytes and development of both radiographic OA
      (OR=4.1, 95% CI 2.0 to 8.1) and clinical bony enlargement (OR=3.5, 95% CI 2.4 to
      5.1) and also incident radiographic osteophytes (OR=4.2, 95% CI 2.1 to 8.5) and
      JSN (OR=5.3, 95% CI 2.1 to 13.4). CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-detected osteophytes
      predicted incident radiographic and clinical hand OA 5 years later. These results
      support the use of ultrasound for early detection of OA.

PMID- 28879059
TI  - Pulmonary hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy in children recipients of
      orthotopic living related liver transplantation.
AB  - Surgical stress, liberation of cytokines associated with re-perfusion injury, and
      long standing use of immune suppressive medications in children recipients of
      orthotopic living related liver transplantation (OLRLT) pose cardiovascular risk.
      Reported cardiovascular adverse effects vary from left ventricular wall
      thickening, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to resting ECG abnormalities,
      asymptomatic ST depression following increased heart rate and ventricular
      arrhythmias. Twenty-five consecutive children recipients of OLRLT were assessed
      by conventional 2-D, M-mode echocardiography and Doppler. The mean age +/- SD at
      transplantation and at enrollment in study was 6.3 +/- 4.5 and 13.5 +/- 5.6 years
      respectively. All children were on immunosuppressive medications, with tacrolimus
      being constant among all. Long-term post-transplant echocardiography revealed
      statistically significant interventricular septal hypertrophy among all (mean
      thickness 0.89 +/- 0.16 cm), (P = 0.0001) in comparison to reference range for
      age, 24 had pulmonary hypertension (mean mPAP 36.43 +/- 5.60 mm Hg, P = 0.0001),
      and early diastolic dysfunction with a mean Tei index of 0.40 +/- 0.10. However
      cardiac function was generally preserved. Children recipients of OLRLT have
      cardiac structural and functional abnormalities that can be asymptomatic.
      Pulmonary hypertension, increased cardiac mass, de novo aortic stenosis and
      diastolic heart failure were among abnormalities encountered in the studied
      population. Echocardiography is indispensible in follow-up of children recipients
      of OLRLT.

PMID- 28879060
TI  - Onset of human preterm and term birth is related to unique inflammatory
      transcriptome profiles at the maternal fetal interface.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is a main determinant of neonatal mortality and
      morbidity and a major contributor to the overall mortality and burden of disease.
      However, research of the preterm birth is hindered by the imprecise definition of
      the clinical phenotype and complexity of the molecular phenotype due to multiple
      pregnancy tissue types and molecular processes that may contribute to the preterm
      birth. Here we comprehensively evaluate the mRNA transcriptome that characterizes
      preterm and term labor in tissues comprising the pregnancy using precisely
      phenotyped samples. The four complementary phenotypes together provide
      comprehensive insight into preterm and term parturition. METHODS: Samples of
      maternal blood, chorion, amnion, placenta, decidua, fetal blood, and myometrium
      from the uterine fundus and lower segment (n = 183) were obtained during cesarean
      delivery from women with four complementary phenotypes: delivering preterm with
      (PL) and without labor (PNL), term with (TL) and without labor (TNL). Enrolled
      were 35 pregnant women with four precisely and prospectively defined phenotypes:
      PL (n = 8), PNL (n = 10), TL (n = 7) and TNL (n = 10). Gene expression data were
      analyzed using shrunken centroid analysis to identify a minimal set of genes that
      uniquely characterizes each of the four phenotypes. Expression profiles of 73
      genes and non-coding RNA sequences uniquely identified each of the four
      phenotypes. The shrunken centroid analysis and 10 times 10-fold cross-validation
      was also used to minimize false positive finings and overfitting. Identified were
      the pathways and molecular processes associated with and the cis-regulatory
      elements in gene's 5' promoter or 3'-UTR regions of the set of genes which
      expression uniquely characterized the four phenotypes. RESULTS: The largest
      differences in gene expression among the four groups occurred at maternal fetal
      interface in decidua, chorion and amnion. The gene expression profiles showed
      suppression of chemokines expression in TNL, withdrawal of this suppression in
      TL, activation of multiple pathways of inflammation in PL, and an immune
      rejection profile in PNL. The genes constituting expression signatures showed
      over-representation of three putative regulatory elements in their 5'and 3' UTR
      regions. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that pregnancy is maintained by
      downregulation of chemokines at the maternal-fetal interface. Withdrawal of this
      downregulation results in the term birth and its overriding by the activation of
      multiple pathways of the immune system in the preterm birth. Complications of the
      pregnancy associated with impairment of placental function, which necessitated
      premature delivery of the fetus in the absence of labor, show gene expression
      patterns associated with immune rejection.

PMID- 28879061
TI  - A practical guide to build de-novo assemblies for single tissues of non-model
      organisms: the example of a Neotropical frog.
AB  - Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is a very valuable resource to understand the
      evolutionary history of poorly known species. However, in organisms with large
      genomes, as most amphibians, WGS is still excessively challenging and
      transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) represents a cost-effective tool to explore
      genome-wide variability. Non-model organisms do not usually have a reference
      genome and the transcriptome must be assembled de-novo. We used RNA-seq to obtain
      the transcriptomic profile for Oreobates cruralis, a poorly known South American
      direct-developing frog. In total, 550,871 transcripts were assembled,
      corresponding to 422,999 putative genes. Of those, we identified 23,500, 37,349,
      38,120 and 45,885 genes present in the Pfam, EggNOG, KEGG and GO databases,
      respectively. Interestingly, our results suggested that genes related to immune
      system and defense mechanisms are abundant in the transcriptome of O. cruralis.
      We also present a pipeline to assist with pre-processing, assembling, evaluating
      and functionally annotating a de-novo transcriptome from RNA-seq data of non
      model organisms. Our pipeline guides the inexperienced user in an intuitive way
      through all the necessary steps to build de-novo transcriptome assemblies using
      readily available software and is freely available at:
      https://github.com/biomendi/TRANSCRIPTOME-ASSEMBLY-PIPELINE/wiki.

PMID- 28879062
TI  - A modeling approach to evaluate the balance between bioactivation and
      detoxification of MeIQx in human hepatocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) are environmental and food
      contaminants that are potentially carcinogenic for humans. 2-Amino-3,8
      dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx) is one of the most abundant HAA formed
      in cooked meat. MeIQx is metabolized by cytochrome P450 1A2 in the human liver
      into detoxificated and bioactivated products. Once bioactivated, MeIQx
      metabolites can lead to DNA adduct formation responsible for further genome
      instability. METHODS: Using a computational approach, we developed a numerical
      model for MeIQx metabolism in the liver that predicts the MeIQx biotransformation
      into detoxification or bioactivation pathways according to the concentration of
      MeIQx. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate that (1) the detoxification pathway
      predominates, (2) the ratio between detoxification and bioactivation pathways is
      not linear and shows a maximum at 10 uM of MeIQx in hepatocyte cell models, and
      (3) CYP1A2 is a key enzyme in the system that regulates the balance between
      bioactivation and detoxification. Our analysis suggests that such a ratio could
      be considered as an indicator of MeIQx genotoxicity at a low concentration of
      MeIQx. CONCLUSIONS: Our model permits the investigation of the balance between
      bioactivation (i.e., DNA adduct formation pathway through the prediction of
      potential genotoxic compounds) and detoxification of MeIQx in order to predict
      the behaviour of this environmental contaminant in the human liver. It highlights
      the importance of complex regulations of enzyme competitions that should be taken
      into account in any further multi-organ models.

PMID- 28879063
TI  - The influence of fundamental frequency on perceived duration in spectrally
      comparable sounds.
AB  - The perceived duration of a sound is affected by its fundamental frequency and
      intensity: higher sounds are judged to be longer, as are sounds with greater
      intensity. Since increasing intensity lengthens the perceived duration of the
      auditory object, and increasing the fundamental frequency increases the sound's
      perceived loudness (up to ca. 3 kHz), frequency modulation of duration could be
      potentially explained by a confounding effect where the primary cause of the
      modulation would be variations in intensity. Here, a series of experiments are
      described that were designed to disentangle the contributions of fundamental
      frequency, intensity, and duration to perceived loudness and duration. In two
      forced-choice tasks, participants judged duration and intensity differences
      between two sounds varying simultaneously in intensity, fundamental frequency,
      fundamental frequency gliding range, and duration. The results suggest that
      fundamental frequency and intensity each have an impact on duration judgments,
      while frequency gliding range did not influence the present results. We also
      demonstrate that the modulation of perceived duration by sound fundamental
      frequency cannot be fully explained by the confounding relationship between
      frequency and intensity.

PMID- 28879064
TI  - Measuring coral calcification under ocean acidification: methodological
      considerations for the 45Ca-uptake and total alkalinity anomaly technique.
AB  - As the oceans become less alkaline due to rising CO2 levels, deleterious
      consequences are expected for calcifying corals. Predicting how coral
      calcification will be affected by on-going ocean acidification (OA) requires an
      accurate assessment of CaCO3 deposition and an understanding of the relative
      importance that decreasing calcification and/or increasing dissolution play for
      the overall calcification budget of individual corals. Here, we assessed the
      compatibility of the 45Ca-uptake and total alkalinity (TA) anomaly techniques as
      measures of gross and net calcification (GC, NC), respectively, to determine
      coral calcification at pHT 8.1 and 7.5. Considering the differing buffering
      capacity of seawater at both pH values, we were also interested in how strongly
      coral calcification alters the seawater carbonate chemistry under prolonged
      incubation in sealed chambers, potentially interfering with physiological
      functioning. Our data indicate that NC estimates by TA are erroneously ~5% and
      ~21% higher than GC estimates from 45Ca for ambient and reduced pH, respectively.
      Considering also previous data, we show that the consistent discrepancy between
      both techniques across studies is not constant, but largely depends on the
      absolute value of CaCO3 deposition. Deriving rates of coral dissolution from the
      difference between NC and GC was not possible and we advocate a more direct
      approach for the future by simultaneously measuring skeletal calcium influx and
      efflux. Substantial changes in carbonate system parameters for incubation times
      beyond two hours in our experiment demonstrate the necessity to test and optimize
      experimental incubation setups when measuring coral calcification in closed
      systems, especially under OA conditions.

PMID- 28879065
TI  - Pharmacologic inhibition of MEK1/2 reduces lung inflammation without impairing
      bacterial clearance in experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia.
AB  - This study was designed to test the therapeutic potential of a MEK1/2 inhibitor
      (MEKi) in an experimental model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia. The study
      found that treatment with MEKi reduced alveolar neutrophilic inflammation and led
      to faster recovery of weight compared to carrier-treated mice, without impairing
      bacterial clearance. Alveolar macrophages isolated from MEKi-treated mice also
      had increased M2 gene and protein expression, supporting the concept that MEKi
      modulates in vivo macrophage inflammatory responses. In summary, this report
      demonstrates the potential of MEKi to promote the resolution of inflammation in
      vivo during a primary lung infection without impairing bacterial clearance.

PMID- 28879066
TI  - Obstetricians and gynecologists' opinions about the Affordable Care Act and their
      expectations about how it will impact their practice.
AB  - As the primary healthcare providers for women, obstetrician-gynecologists'
      (OB/GYNs) experiences with and opinions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are
      important to understand. An online survey was sent to 1000 randomly selected
      OB/GYNs who were members of the American College of Obstetricians and
      Gynecologists (ACOG) in 2014. Of those, 523 opened the email and 163 responded
      (31% participation rate). Data were collected August 2014-October 2014 and
      analyzed in 2015-2016. Support for the ACA was widely distributed, with the
      largest subset of the sample (about 21%) in the "very supportive" category.
      Opinions of the ACA were more supportive than they were in a previous study
      conducted in 2011. When given a list of possible positive and negative impacts of
      the ACA on their practice, roughly 1 in 5 reported that the ACA increased work
      related stress (28%), decreased total profits (22%), and lowered career
      satisfaction (22%), whereas 8.6% reported that the ACA increased quality of care.
      Around half of the providers thought that their newly insured patients would have
      the same level of education (42%) and numeric ability (55%) as their current
      patients. Almost all respondents (87%) indicated that it is at least slightly
      important for patients to understand their numeric likelihood of risk (such as
      numeric risk information from medications, treatments, and other procedures you
      might prescribe) -31% think it is extremely important and 44% think it is
      moderately important.

PMID- 28879067
TI  - Sedentary time, physical activity and compliance with IOM recommendations in
      young children at childcare.
AB  - The aim of this study was to report patterns of sitting, standing and physical
      activity (PA) and compliance with Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations for
      sedentary behavior (SB) and PA among children aged 1 to 5 years at childcare, and
      examine sociodemographic variations. Sitting, standing and PA time was assessed
      using an activPAL inclinometer over a period of 1 to 5 days in 301 children (49%
      boys; mean age = 3.7 +/- 1.0 years) across 11 childcare services in Illawarra,
      NSW, Australia. Breaks and bouts of sitting and standing were calculated and
      categorized. Height and weight were assessed and parents completed a demographic
      survey. Differences by sex, age category (< 3 vs >= 3 years), weight status and
      SES were examined. Children spent 48.4% of their time at childcare sitting, 32.5%
      standing, and 19.1% in PA. Boys spent significantly more time in PA compared to
      girls (20.8% vs 17.7%; P = 0.003). Toddlers (< 3 years) spent significantly more
      time in PA compared to preschoolers (>= 3 years) (22.2% vs 18.3%; P < 0.001).
      Children who were underweight spent significantly more time sitting compared with
      their overweight peers (52.4% vs 46.8%; P = 0.003). 56% and 16% of children met
      the IOM SB and PA recommendations, respectively. Girls (odds ratio [OR]; 95%CI =
      0.26; 0.13 to 0.55) and preschoolers (0.16; 0.07 to 0.38) were less likely to
      meet the IOM PA recommendation compared to boys and toddlers. Young children
      spent ~ 50% of their time at childcare sitting. Girls and preschoolers sit more
      and are less likely to meet PA recommendations, making them important groups to
      target in future interventions.

PMID- 28879068
TI  - Self-collected vaginal swabs for HPV screening: An exploratory study of rural
      Black Mississippi women.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the post-procedure acceptability of self-collecting a
      vaginal swab for HPV testing among a highly impoverished and geographically
      isolated population of medically underserved Black women residing in the
      Mississippi Delta. Further, to test correlates of reporting that self-collection
      is preferred over Pap testing. Finally, to determine the prevalence of any of 13
      high-risk HPV types among this population and the correlates of testing positive.
      METHODS: Eighty-eight women were recruited from two churches located in different
      towns of the Mississippi Delta. After completing a survey, women were provided
      instructions for self-collecting a cervico-vaginal swab and completing a post
      collection survey. Specimens were tested for 13 oncogenic HPV types. Due to the
      exploratory nature of the study, significance was defined by a 0.15 alpha-level.
      RESULTS: Comfort levels with self-collection were high: 78.4% indicated a
      preference for self-collecting a specimen compared to Pap testing. Overall, 24
      women (28.7%) tested positive for one or more of the 13 HPV types. Significant
      associations with testing positive were found for women having sex with females
      (P = 0.09), those never having an abnormal Pap (P = 0.06), younger women (P =
      0.10), those with greater fatalism scores (P = 0.006), and those having less
      trust in doctors (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Black rural women from the deep-south
      are generally comfortable self-collecting cervico-vaginal swabs for HPV testing.
      Given that nearly 30% tested positive for oncogenic HPV, and that fatalism as
      well a lack of trust in doctors predicted prevalence, a reasonable screening
      alternative to Pap testing may be community-based testing for HPV using self
      collected vaginal swabs.

PMID- 28879069
TI  - Biking practices and preferences in a lower income, primarily minority
      neighborhood: Learning what residents want.
AB  - This paper examines if, in a lower-income minority neighborhood, bicycling
      practices and bicycle-environment preferences of Blacks and Hispanics were
      different from Whites. During the summer of 2014, surveys were mailed to 1537
      households near a proposed cycle track on Malcolm X Boulevard in Roxbury, MA. On
      the Boulevard, intercept surveys were distributed to cyclists and observations
      noted about passing cyclist's characteristics. Data were analyzed from 252
      returned-mailed surveys, 120 intercept surveys, and 709 bicyclists. White (100%),
      Hispanic (79%), and Black (76%) bicyclists shown pictures of 6 bicycle facility
      types in intercept surveys perceived the cycle track as safest. More White mailed
      survey respondents thought bikes would not be stolen which may explain why more
      Hispanics (52%) and Blacks (47%) preferred to park their bikes inside their home
      compared with Whites (28%), with H/W B/W differences statistically significant (p
      < 0.05). More Hispanic (81%) and Black (54%) mailed-survey respondents thought
      they would bicycle more if they could bicycle with family and friends compared
      with Whites (40%). Bicyclists observed commuting morning and evening included
      Blacks (55%), Whites (36%) and Hispanics (9%). More Whites (68%) wore helmets
      compared with Hispanics (21%) and Blacks (17%) (p < 0.001). More Blacks (94%) and
      Hispanics (94%) rode a mountain bike compared with Whites (75%). Minority
      populations are biking on roads but prefer cycle tracks. They also prefer to park
      bikes inside their homes and bicycle with family and friends. Wide cycle tracks
      (bicycling with family/friends) and home bike parking should be targeted as
      capital investments in lower-income minority neighborhoods.

PMID- 28879070
TI  - Trends in breast and colorectal cancer screening among U.S. adults by race,
      healthcare coverage, and SES before, during, and after the great recession.
AB  - The aim of this study is examine trends in breast and colorectal cancer screening
      in the U.S. by race, healthcare coverage, and socio-economic status (SES) before
      the Great Recession (2003-2005), during the recession (2007-2009), and post
      recession/Affordable Care Act (ACA) period (2010 - 2012). Data on a
      representative sample of U.S. adults was obtained from the Behavioral Risk Factor
      Surveillance System (BRFSS). Breast and colorectal cancer screening were defined
      in line with U.S. Preventative Services Task Force guidelines, and survey
      weighted statistical methods were utilized to analyze trends in cancer screening
      among 1,858,572 BRFSS participants. Overall, 83% of women received mammograms in
      the past 2 years, while 95% of adults received colorectal cancer screening in the
      past 10 years. Compared with the pre-recession period, the odds of colorectal
      screening within 5 years were slightly higher during the recession (OR: 1.05, 95%
      CI: 1.03-1.08) but significantly lower in the post-recession/ACA period (OR:
      0.73, 95% CI: 0.72-0.75). Odds of mammography screening were lower during (OR:
      0.94,95% CI: 0.91-0.96) and post-recession/ACA period (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.78
      0.82). Breast cancer screening rates declined in the recession and post
      recession, while colorectal cancer screening rates increased during the recession
      and decreased post-recession. Low SES adults and those without healthcare
      coverage were the least likely to receive screening.

PMID- 28879071
TI  - An examination of compensation effects in accelerometer-measured occupational and
      non-occupational physical activity.
AB  - Self-report data suggests a large proportion of total physical activity (PA)
      occurs at work. However, adults with higher levels of occupational PA may
      compensate by engaging in less non-occupational PA. The study aims were to 1)
      estimate the intensity, volume, and duration of PA in American adults that occurs
      at work, and 2) determine if those more active at work are less active outside of
      work. A cross-sectional sample of full-time employed adults (N = 510) was
      recruited from Georgia city and county governments in 2013-2015. Participants
      wore an Actigraph GT3X + accelerometer for two weeks. In 2016, for 442
      participants with complete data including work schedules and self-reported job
      titles, accelerometer wear minutes were classified as either occupational or non
      occupational, and as sedentary, LPA (light-intensity PA), or MVPA (moderate-to
      vigorous intensity PA). The proportion of daily PA that occurred during work was
      41.2% for total PA, 41.0% for LPA, and 39.5% for MVPA. Higher levels of
      occupational LPA were associated with lower levels of non-occupational LPA (r = -
      0.38, P < 0.0001). However, higher levels of occupational MVPA were associated
      with higher levels of non-occupational MVPA (r = 0.17, P < 0.0001). These
      associations remained significant in a MANOVA adjusting for labor sector and
      other covariates. On average, employed adults get more LPA and MVPA outside of
      work. Adults who do more occupational MVPA do not compensate by doing less non
      occupational MVPA. In contrast, adults who do more occupational LPA do compensate
      by doing less non-occupational LPA. Evaluations of interventions to reduce
      sedentary behavior should be designed to detect compensation effects.

PMID- 28879072
TI  - Association between screen time and depression among US adults.
AB  - Epidemiological surveys conducted in general populations have found that the
      prevalence of depression is about 9% in the United States. World Health
      Organization has projected that depression will be leading cause of disease
      burden by the year 2030. Growing evidence suggests that sedentary lifestyle is an
      important risk factor of depression among adults. The relationship between
      television watching/computer use and depression in US adults is still unknown.
      The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between television
      watching/computer use and depression. This is a cross-sectional study that used
      the secondary data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey
      (NHANES) (2011/2012). Participants were 3201 US adults who were 20 years or more.
      Self-reported Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9] was used to classify
      depression level; self-reported hours of watching TV and use of computer/day, and
      demographic information were obtained from NHANES data set. SAS(r)9.4was used to
      perform all statistical analyses and final model selection procedure. Depression
      was found to be significantly higher among female. Results showed that moderate
      or severe depression level was associated with higher time spent on TV watching
      and use of computer (> 6 h/day) (adjusted odds ratio: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.602-3.442).
      Duration of screen time was significantly associated when all covariates were
      adjusted. TV watching and computer use can predict the depression level among
      adults. Prospective studies and measurement of factors such as: work place
      sitting, social relationship, and family history of depression are warranted.

PMID- 28879073
TI  - Process evaluation of a culturally-tailored physical activity intervention in
      African-American mother-daughter dyads.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to describe process evaluation data including
      intervention fidelity, dosage, quality, participant responsiveness, and program
      reach for the Mothers And dauGhters daNcing togEther Trial (MAGNET) in
      Springfield, MA, in Spring 2013 and 2014. Seventy-six mother-daughter dyads were
      randomized to the mother-daughter group (CH-M, n = 28), the child-only group (CH,
      n = 25), or the health education group (CON, n = 23). CH-M consisted of 60 min of
      moderate-to-vigorous culturally-tailored dance classes for dyads. CH consisted of
      dance classes for the child. All groups received homework tutoring and weekly
      health newsletters. Process evaluation data were assessed at each intervention
      session (three days/week, 6-months) with semi-structured questionnaires by
      researchers. CH dance classes were slightly longer (58.2 +/- 3.5 min) than CH-M
      (54.4 +/- 5.5 min). In both groups, participants spent the majority of the dance
      intervention in light intensity physical activity (PA). Participants in the CH-M
      group enjoyed participating in MAGNET > 90% of the time. Mothers (92%) indicated
      that they wanted to continue dance as a form of PA. Mothers expressed that
      transportation, time commitment, and assessments were barriers to participation.
      Participants suggested future interventions should include longer intervention
      length and more communications between research staff and mothers. The MAGNET
      intervention matched the originally intended program in most aspects. A lower
      intervention dose was delivered to the CH-M group potentially due to barriers
      described by mothers. Because mother-daughter interventions have shown minimal
      effects on increasing PA, it is imperative that researchers utilize process
      evaluation data to shape future studies.

PMID- 28879074
TI  - A case report of EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinoma that acquired resistance to EGFR
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors with T790M mutation and epithelial-to-mesenchymal
      transition.
AB  - Although a secondary mutation and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)
      are encountered very often in patients received the EGFR-TKI targeted treatment.
      The entire detrimental morphological change of the cancer entity was rare
      reported. Herein we report a case that acquired resistance to EGFR-TKI with T790M
      mutation and complete EMT morphological change of the tumor tissue. The primary
      lung tumor from a 52-year-old woman was diagnosed with moderate differentiated
      adenocarcinoma, with intensively positiveTTF-1 and E-cadherin in differentiated
      glandular structure but not the budding cancer cell cluster which with an
      intensive Vimentin staining. Molecular analysis revealed an EGFR exon 19 deletion
      and with an excellent response to Gefitinib treatment. Microscopic examination of
      recurred tumor specimens revealed a diffuse poorer differentiated proliferation
      of atypical cells. Immunostaining showed intensive Vimentin but almost completely
      negative for E-cadherin and TTF-1. Genetic analyses revealed T790M mutation. It
      is worth noting that rare clinical studies have been reported that acquired EGFR
      TKI resistant lung adenocarcinoma underwent T790M mutation and almost complete
      EMT together. More significantly, the similarity of poorly differentiated cancer
      cell cluster in the primary lesions to recurred tumor lesions, which may pre
      harbor drug resistance mutation should not be neglected underneath the
      predominant morphologic patterns.

PMID- 28879075
TI  - Endobronchial ultrasound convex probe for lymphoma, sarcoidosis, lung cancer and
      other thoracic entities. A case series.
AB  - Endobronchial ultrasound endoscopy is a state of the art diagnostic endoscopic
      procedure for the thorax. Firstly it was designed mainly for the staging of lung
      cancer and of course for the diagnosis of suspicious findings in large central
      airways. The main limitation of the equipment is the diameter of the instrument
      and therefore it can only be guided through large airways. However; the diameter
      of the working channel also provides a large tissue sample nowadays with the 19G
      biopsy needle. We will provide our experience with the 22G needle of the
      endobronchial convex-probe in several medical situations of the thorax.

PMID- 28879076
TI  - Immunotherapy "Shock" a case series of PD-L1 100% and pembrolizumab first-line
      treatment.
AB  - In this decade a "bloom" of novel therapies has been observed for non-small cell
      lung cancer. We have new tools for the diagnosis of lung cancer and also we can
      re-biospy easier than before in different lesions and obtain tissue samples in
      order to investigate whether a patient can receive new targeted therapies.
      Immunotherapy has been well established previously for other forms of cancer, and
      nowadays it is also available for lung cancer. There are two immunotherapies for
      now nivolumab and pembrolizumab which can be administered as second line
      treatment, the second can also be administered as first-line if there is a
      programmed death-ligand 1 >=50% expression.

PMID- 28879077
TI  - A rare case of Actinomyces meyeri empyema: Still a challenging entity to manage.
AB  - Actinomyces meyeri is a rare pathogen and an infrequent cause of human
      actinomycosis. Less than ten cases were reported in the English-literature to
      date concerning A. meyeri empyema. We herein report a case to promote the
      awareness and adequate management of the disease. A 44-year-old immunocompetent
      male with known pulmonary disease was diagnosed with an A. meyeri empyema. He
      underwent chest tube drainage and a short-term treatment with clindamycin for 4
      months. This is the first report of a patient with structural pulmonary disease
      with an A. meyeri empyema treated with 4-month of clindamycin and chest tube
      drainage. In comparison to previous reports, our case was diagnosed early,
      empyema was effectively drained with one chest tube and symptoms and radiological
      findings were rapidly improved. Short-term antibiotic treatment can be well
      succeeded if an early diagnosis is made, there is no evidence of dissemination
      and adequate management is promptly instituted.

PMID- 28879078
TI  - Left ventricle and systemic air embolism after percutaneous lung biopsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic arterial air embolism following a percutaneous transthoracic
      lung biopsy is a rare but known complication, with current literature reporting
      an incidence of 0.01-0.45%. A prompt diagnosis of arterial air embolism is
      important as complications resulting from migration of air to the systemic
      circulation with correspondent complications. CASE REPORT: A 60-year-old female
      who presented for an elective percutaneous lung biopsy of an incidentally found
      pulmonary nodule. The procedure was performed, following the completion of the
      procedure the patient experiment syncopal symptoms and was diagnosed by CT scan
      with Left ventricular air embolism, subsequently transferred to Intensive care
      unit for medical attention, she was placed on right lateral decubitus
      Trendelenburg for 24 hours and administer 100% oxygen via a nonrebreather mask.
      Repeat chest CT the following day revealed complete resolution of her
      intracardiac free air. CONCLUSION: Although systemic arterial air embolism
      remains a rare complication of percutaneous lung biopsies, recognition prevents
      potential mortality which can develop due to neurological and cardiac
      complications. Close vigilance in the intensive care unit is recommended and
      hyperbaric chamber when appropriate.

PMID- 28879079
TI  - Intrathoracic ganglioneuroma presenting as an endobronchial mass.
AB  - : Peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNST) are exceedingly rare, especially outside
      of the posterior mediastinum. These tumors represent less than 1% of pulmonary
      tumors. Very few pulmonary PNSTs are ganglioneuromas. We present a case of a
      ganglioneuroma presenting as an endobronchial mass. CASE PRESENTATION: An 80 year
      old male was seen in pulmonary clinic for routine cancer screening. He had a 60
      pack year smoking history. CT evaluation noted a 1cm right lower lobe
      endobronchial lesion. This lesion was present since 2012 and had slightly
      increased in size since that time from 8mm (Figure 1). The lesion was further
      assessed using virtual bronchoscopy (Figure 2). Bronchoscopy revealed an
      obstructing lesion, which was completely excised with the snare (Figure 3).
      Pathology revealed well-circumscribed tumor consisting of nests and trabeculae of
      round/polygonal cells with granular eosinophilic and basophilic cytoplasm. The
      tumor was chromogranin, synaptophysin, S-100, pancytokeratin, SOX10, and TTF-1
      positive, consistent with a ganglioneuroma. DISCUSSION: Aside from a solitary
      article regarding 75 patient samples (which included only one ganglioneuroma)
      only a small number of intrathoracic PNSTs have been reported. Only a single case
      report of an endobronchial ganglioneuroma has been reported. Each of these
      lesions were benign, and detected on routine imaging evaluations. CONCLUSIONS: An
      intrapulmonary endobronchial location for a PNST is an exceedingly rare
      presentation of an already uncommon pathology.

PMID- 28879080
TI  - Diffuse parenchymal lung disease with micro aspirations in presence of hiatal
      hernia.
AB  - There has been controversy regarding the relationship between gastroesophageal
      reflux, microaspiration, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). In the last
      decade, there is increasing evidence supporting a relationship between
      gastroesophageal reflux, microaspiration, and IPF. The presence of hiatal hernia
      further propagates microaspirations. Surgical management of hiatal hernia plays a
      vital role in the treatment.

PMID- 28879081
TI  - Validity and reliability of four language mapping paradigms.
AB  - Language areas of the brain can be mapped in individual participants with
      functional MRI. We investigated the validity and reliability of four language
      mapping paradigms that may be appropriate for individuals with acquired aphasia:
      sentence completion, picture naming, naturalistic comprehension, and narrative
      comprehension. Five neurologically normal older adults were scanned on each of
      the four paradigms on four separate occasions. Validity was assessed in terms of
      whether activation patterns reflected the known typical organization of language
      regions, that is, lateralization to the left hemisphere, and involvement of the
      left inferior frontal gyrus and the left middle and/or superior temporal gyri.
      Reliability (test-retest reproducibility) was quantified in terms of the Dice
      coefficient of similarity, which measures overlap of activations across time
      points. We explored the impact of different absolute and relative voxelwise
      thresholds, a range of cluster size cutoffs, and limitation of analyses to a
      priori potential language regions. We found that the narrative comprehension and
      sentence completion paradigms offered the best balance of validity and
      reliability. However, even with optimal combinations of analysis parameters,
      there were many scans on which known features of typical language organization
      were not demonstrated, and test-retest reproducibility was only moderate for
      realistic parameter choices. These limitations in terms of validity and
      reliability may constitute significant limitations for many clinical or research
      applications that depend on identifying language regions in individual
      participants.

PMID- 28879082
TI  - Hemodynamic variability in soldiers with trauma: Implications for functional MRI
      connectivity studies.
AB  - Functional MRI (fMRI) is an indirect measure of neural activity as a result of
      the convolution of the hemodynamic response function (HRF) and latent
      (unmeasured) neural activity. Recent studies have shown variability of HRF across
      brain regions (intra-subject spatial variability) and between subjects (inter
      subject variability). Ignoring this HRF variability during data analysis could
      impair the reliability of such fMRI results. Using whole-brain resting-state fMRI
      (rs-fMRI), we employed hemodynamic deconvolution to estimate voxel-wise HRF.
      Studying the impact of mental disorders on HRF variability, we identified HRF
      aberrations in soldiers (N = 87) with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and
      mild-traumatic brain injury (mTBI) compared to combat controls. Certain
      subcortical and default-mode regions were found to have significant HRF
      aberrations in the clinical groups. These brain regions have been previously
      associated with neurochemical alterations in PTSD, which are known to impact the
      shape of the HRF. We followed-up these findings with seed-based functional
      connectivity (FC) analysis using regions-of-interest (ROIs) whose HRFs differed
      between the groups. We found that part of the connectivity group differences
      reported from traditional FC analysis (no deconvolution) were attributable to HRF
      variability. These findings raise the question of the degree of reliability of
      findings from conventional rs-fMRI studies (especially in psychiatric populations
      like PTSD and mTBI), which are corrupted by HRF variability. We also report and
      discus, for the first time, voxel-level HRF alterations in PTSD and mTBI. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report evidence for the impact
      of HRF variability on connectivity group differences. Our work has implications
      for rs-fMRI connectivity studies. We encourage researchers to incorporate
      hemodynamic deconvolution during pre-processing to minimize the impact of HRF
      variability.

PMID- 28879083
TI  - Monitoring disease progression in mild cognitive impairment: Associations between
      atrophy patterns, cognition, APOE and amyloid.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A disease severity index (SI) for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been
      proposed that summarizes MRI-derived structural measures into a single score
      using multivariate data analysis. OBJECTIVES: To longitudinally evaluate the use
      of the SI to monitor disease progression and predict future progression to AD in
      mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Further, to investigate the association between
      longitudinal change in the SI and cognitive impairment, Apolipoprotein E (APOE)
      genotype as well as the levels of cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-beta 1-42 (Abeta)
      peptide. METHODS: The dataset included 195 AD, 145 MCI and 228 control subjects
      with annual follow-up for three years, where 70 MCI subjects progressed to AD
      (MCI-p). For each subject the SI was generated at baseline and follow-ups using
      55 regional cortical thickness and subcortical volumes measures that extracted by
      the FreeSurfer longitudinal stream. RESULTS: MCI-p subjects had a faster increase
      of the SI over time (p < 0.001). A higher SI at baseline in MCI-p was related to
      progression to AD at earlier follow-ups (p < 0.001) and worse cognitive
      impairment (p < 0.001). AD-like MCI patients with the APOE epsilon4 allele and
      abnormal Abeta levels had a faster increase of the SI, independently (p = 0.003
      and p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Longitudinal changes in the SI reflect structural
      brain changes and can identify MCI patients at risk of progression to AD. Disease
      related brain structural changes are influenced independently by APOE genotype
      and amyloid pathology. The SI has the potential to be used as a sensitive tool to
      predict future dementia, monitor disease progression as well as an outcome
      measure for clinical trials.

PMID- 28879084
TI  - Quantitative susceptibility mapping to evaluate the early stage of Alzheimer's
      disease.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate susceptibility changes caused by iron
      accumulation in cognitive normal (CN) elderly, those with amnestic mild cognitive
      impairment (aMCI), and those with early state AD, and to compare the findings
      with gray matter volume (GMV) changes caused by neuronal loss. The participants
      included 19 elderly CN, 19 aMCI, and 19 AD subjects. The voxel-based quantitative
      susceptibility map (QSM) and GMV in the brain were calculated and the differences
      of those insides were compared among the three groups. The differences of the QSM
      data and GMVs among the three groups were investigated by voxel-based and region
      of interest (ROI)-based comparisons using a one-way analysis of covariance
      (ANCOVA) test with the gender and age as covariates. Finally, a receiver
      operating-characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed. The voxel-based
      results showed that QSM demonstrated more areas with significant difference
      between the CN and AD groups compared to GMV. GMVs were decreased, but QSM values
      were increased in aMCI and AD groups compared with the CN group. QSM better
      differentiated aMCI from CN than GMV in the precuneus and allocortex regions. In
      the accumulation regions of iron and amyloid beta, QSM can be used to
      differentiate between CN and aMCI groups, indicating a useful an auxiliary
      imaging for early diagnosis of AD.

PMID- 28879085
TI  - Progressive medial temporal lobe atrophy during preclinical Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - This study examined whether longitudinal MRI trajectories in medial temporal lobe
      (MTL) brain regions differed among groups of cognitively normal individuals
      defined by their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels when they were first enrolled
      (N = 207; mean clinical follow-up = 13.3 years (max = 20 years), mean MRI follow
      up = 2.4 years (max = 8 years)). We first compared atrophy rates among groups
      defined by CSF amyloid and phosphorylated-tau (p-tau) vs. CSF amyloid and total
      tau (t-tau). We also examined whether, in the presence of amyloid or tau/p-tau,
      the atrophy rates differed based on whether the subjects ultimately progressed to
      a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), as well as whether apolipoprotein
      epsilon4 (Apoepsilon4) status had an impact on the longitudinal MRI trajectories.
      The primary finding was that when the groups were defined using CSF amyloid and p
      tau, individuals with low levels of CSF amyloid and high levels of CSF p-tau
      (referred to as Stage 2) showed a significantly greater rate of atrophy in a
      composite measure of MTL volumes compared to groups defined by evidence of
      abnormal CSF levels in only one of the brain proteins (but not both), or no
      evidence of CSF abnormality. In contrast, there were no differences in rate of
      MTL atrophy when the groups were defined by levels of CSF amyloid and t-tau
      (instead of p-tau). Additionally, the rate of MTL atrophy did not differ between
      subjects who progressed to MCI at follow-up vs. those who remained cognitively
      normal when CSF levels of amyloid, t-tau, or p-tau were covaried. Lastly, the
      presence of an APOE epsilon4 genotype did not modulate the degree of MTL atrophy
      once baseline levels of CSF amyloid, p-tau or t-tau were accounted for. These
      results suggest that abnormal levels of CSF amyloid and CSF p-tau (but not t-tau)
      maximize the likelihood of observing significant MTL atrophy over time among
      individuals with normal cognition at baseline, and emphasize the importance of
      differentiating biomarkers that primarily reflect neurofibrillary tangle
      pathology (CSF p-tau) compared with biomarkers of neuronal injury (CSF t-tau).

PMID- 28879088
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28879086
TI  - Emotion detection deficits and changes in personality traits linked to loss of
      white matter integrity in primary progressive aphasia.
AB  - Non-cognitive features including personality changes are increasingly recognized
      in the three PPA variants (semantic-svPPA, non fluent-nfvPPA, and logopenic
      lvPPA). However, differences in emotion processing among the PPA variants and its
      association with white matter tracts are unknown. We compared emotion detection
      across the three PPA variants and healthy controls (HC), and related them to
      white matter tract integrity and cortical degeneration. Personality traits in the
      PPA group were also examined in relation to white matter tracts. Thirty-three
      patients with svPPA, nfvPPA, lvPPA, and 32 HC underwent neuropsychological
      assessment, emotion evaluation task (EET), and MRI scan. Patients' study partners
      were interviewed on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) and completed an
      interpersonal traits assessment, the Interpersonal Adjective Scale (IAS).
      Diffusion tensor imaging of uncinate fasciculus (UF), superior longitudinal
      fasciculus (SLF) and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and voxel-based
      morphometry to derive gray matter volumes for orbitofrontal cortex (OFC),
      anterior temporal lobe (ATL) regions were performed. In addition, gray matter
      volumes of white matter tract-associated regions were also calculated: inferior
      frontal gyrus (IFG), posterior temporal lobe (PTL), inferior parietal lobe (IPL)
      and occipital lobe (OL). ANCOVA was used to compare EET performance. Partial
      correlation and multivariate linear regression were conducted to examine
      association between EET and neuroanatomical regions affected in PPA. All three
      variants of PPA performed significantly worse than HC on EET, and the svPPA group
      was least accurate at recognizing emotions. Performance on EET was related to the
      right UF, SLF, and ILF integrity. Regression analysis revealed EET performance
      primarily relates to the right UF integrity. The IAS subdomain, cold-hearted, was
      also associated with right UF integrity. Disease-specific emotion recognition and
      personality changes occur in the three PPA variants and are likely associated
      with disease-specific neuroanatomical changes. Loss of white matter integrity
      contributes as significantly as focal atrophy in behavioral changes in PPA.

PMID- 28879087
TI  - Chronic exposure to dopamine agonists affects the integrity of striatal D2
      receptors in Parkinson's patients.
AB  - We aimed to investigate the integrity and clinical relevance of striatal dopamine
      receptor type-2 (D2R) availability in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. We
      studied 68 PD patients, spanning from early to advanced disease stages, and 12
      healthy controls. All participants received one [11C]raclopride PET scan in an
      OFF medication condition for quantification of striatal D2R availability in vivo.
      Parametric images of [11C]raclopride non-displaceable binding potential were
      generated from the dynamic [11C]raclopride scans using implementation of the
      simplified reference tissue model with cerebellum as the reference tissue. PET
      data were interrogated for correlations with clinical data related to disease
      burden and dopaminergic treatment. PD patients showed a mean 16.7% decrease in
      caudate D2R and a mean 3.5% increase in putaminal D2R availability compared to
      healthy controls. Lower caudate [11C]raclopride BPND correlated with longer PD
      duration. PD patients on dopamine agonist treatment had 9.2% reduced D2R
      availability in the caudate and 12.8% in the putamen compared to PD patients who
      never received treatment with dopamine agonists. Higher amounts of lifetime
      dopamine agonist therapy correlated with reduced D2Rs availability in both
      caudate and putamen. No associations between striatal D2R availability and
      levodopa treatment and dyskinesias were found. In advancing PD the caudate and
      putamen D2R availability are differentially affected. Chronic exposure to
      treatment with dopamine agonists, but no levodopa, suppresses striatal D2R
      availability, which may have relevance to output signaling to frontal lobes and
      the occurrence of executive deficits, but not dyskinesias.

PMID- 28879089
TI  - Pathology, clinical signs, and tissue distribution of Toxoplasma gondii in
      experimentally infected reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite found in vertebrates worldwide for which
      felids serve as definitive hosts. Despite low densities of felids in northern
      Canada, Inuit people in some regions show unexpectedly high levels of exposure,
      possibly through handling and consumption of Arctic wildlife. Free-ranging
      caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are widely harvested for food across the Canadian
      North, show evidence of seroexposure to T. gondii, and are currently declining in
      numbers throughout the Arctic. We experimentally infected three captive reindeer
      (conspecific with caribou) with 1000, 5000 or 10,000 oocysts of T. gondii via
      stomach intubation to assess clinical signs of infection, pathology, and tissue
      distribution. An unexposed reindeer served as a negative control. Signs of
      stress, aggression, and depression were noted for the first two weeks following
      infection. By 4 weeks post infection, all infected reindeer were positive on a
      modified agglutination test at the highest titer tested (1:200) for antibodies to
      T. gondii. At 20 weeks post infection, no gross abnormalities were observed on
      necropsy. Following histopathology and immunohistochemistry, tissue cysts were
      visualized in the reindeer given the highest and lowest dose of oocysts. Focal
      pleuritis and alveolitis were associated with respiratory problems in reindeer
      given the middle dose. DNA of T. gondii was detected following traditional DNA
      extraction and conventional PCR on 25 mg samples from 17/33 muscles and organs,
      and by magnetic capture DNA extraction from 100 g samples from all 26 tissues
      examined. This research demonstrated that reindeer/caribou can serve as
      intermediate hosts for T. gondii, and that the parasite may be associated with
      health effects in wildlife. The presence of T. gondii in all tissues tested, many
      of which are commonly consumed raw, smoked, or dried in northern communities,
      suggests that caribou may serve as a source of human exposure to T. gondii.

PMID- 28879090
TI  - Faciobrachial dystonic seizures result from fronto-temporo-basalganglial network
      involvement.
AB  - *Faciobrachial dystonic seizures (FBDS) are caused by autoantibodies to leucine
      rich glioma-inactivated1 proteins, a component of the voltage-gated potassium
      channel complex (VGKC-complex) and precede the clinical presentation of limbic
      encephalitis.*The exact pathophysiology of FBDS is not known and whether they are
      seizures or movement disorder is still debated.*We suggest the fronto-temporo
      basal ganglia network involving the medial frontal and temporal regions along
      with the corpus striatum and substantia nigra being responsible for the clinical
      phenomenon of FBDS.*The varied clinical, electrical and imaging features of FBDS
      in our cases and in the literature are best explained by involvement of this
      network.*Entrainment from any part of this network will result in similar
      clinical expression of FBDS, whereas other electro-clinical associations and
      duration depends on the extent of involvement of the network.

PMID- 28879091
TI  - Desensitization of stimulation-induced weight loss: A secondary finding in a
      patient with vagal nerve stimulator for drug-resistant epilepsy.

PMID- 28879092
TI  - Scabies.

PMID- 28879093
TI  - Refractory acute respiratory failure due to Pneumocystis jiroveci (PCP) and
      Cytomegalovirus (CMV) pneumonitis: A case report and review of literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opportunistic infections with Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP)
      are common in patients with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and are
      encountered once the CD4 count decreases below 200 cells/mm3. Cytomegalovirus
      (CMV) tends to cause disease once the CD4 count drops below 50 cells/mm3. CMV
      pneumonitis is not common in this population. However, detecting its presence in
      broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) fluid has been associated with increased morbidity
      and mortality. The role of antiviral therapy against CMV remains unclear. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We report a newly diagnosed HIV patient with a CD4 count of 44
      cells/mm3 presenting with acute respiratory failure secondary to PCP that failed
      to respond to 3 weeks of standard therapy with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and
      corticosteroids. He was later diagnosed to have a CMV co-infection causing
      pneumonitis with BAL cytology findings showing CMV cytopathic effects and PCP.
      Plasma CMV DNA PCR was 17,424 copies/mL. He responded well after introduction of
      intravenous ganciclovir. CONCLUSION: The presence of histopathologic changes
      demonstrating viral cytopathic effects on BAL cytology along with a high plasma
      CMV DNA PCR should raise the specificity for diagnosing CMV pneumonitis. True PCP
      and CMV pneumonitis can occur, and the addition of antiviral therapy with
      ganciclovir may benefit such patients in the right clinical scenario.

PMID- 28879094
TI  - Vertebral osteomyelitis as a rare manifestation of Lemierre's syndrome.

PMID- 28879095
TI  - Unilateral Complete Agenesis of Mesonephric Duct Derivatives in an 82-year-Old
      Male Cadaver: Embryology, Anatomy and Clinical Considerations.
AB  - Development of urogenital anatomy in the human fetus is the result of a complex
      interplay between multiple different tissues. The time course of development is
      well documented and the morphologic outcomes of insults at various time points
      during development are predictable. We present a cadaveric case of unilateral
      agenesis of the left kidney, ureter, bladder hemitrigone, ureteric opening,
      seminal vesicle, vas deferens, and epididymis. Failure of development of the
      mesonephric duct early during embryogenesis, likely between the third and fifth
      week, caused ipsilateral urogenital organ agenesis.

PMID- 28879096
TI  - Spontaneous miscarriage in first trimester pregnancy is associated with altered
      urinary metabolite profile.
AB  - Threatened miscarriage is the most common gynecological emergency, occurring in
      about 20% of pregnant women. Approximately one in four of these patients go on to
      have spontaneous miscarriage and the etiology of miscarriage still remains
      elusive. In a bid to identify possible biomarkers and novel treatment targets,
      many studies have been undertaken to elucidate the pathways that lead to a
      miscarriage. Luteal phase deficiency has been shown to contribute to
      miscarriages, and the measurement of serum progesterone as a prognostic marker
      and the prescription of progesterone supplementation has been proposed as
      possible diagnostic and treatment methods. However, luteal phase deficiency only
      accounts for 35% of miscarriages. In order to understand the other causes of
      spontaneous miscarriage and possible novel urine biomarkers for miscarriage, we
      looked at the changes in urinary metabolites in women with threatened
      miscarriage. To this end, we performed a case-control study of eighty patients
      who presented with threatened miscarriage between 6 and 10 weeks gestation. Urine
      metabolomics analyses of forty patients with spontaneous miscarriages and forty
      patients with ongoing pregnancies at 16 weeks gestation point to an impaired
      placental mitochondrial beta-oxidation of fatty acids as the possible cause of
      spontaneous miscarriage. This study also highlighted the potential of urine
      metabolites as a non-invasive screening tool for the risk stratification of women
      presenting with threatened miscarriage.

PMID- 28879097
TI  - Signatures derived from increase in SHARPIN gene copy number are associated with
      poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer.
AB  - We report three signatures produced from SHARPIN gene copy number increase (GCN
      Increase) and their effects on patients with breast cancer (BC). In the Metabric
      dataset (n = 2059, cBioPortal), SHARPIN GCN-Increase occurs preferentially or
      mutual exclusively with mutations in TP53, PIK3CA, and CDH1. These genomic
      alterations constitute a signature (SigMut) that significantly correlates with
      reductions in overall survival (OS) in BC patients (n = 1980; p = 1.081e - 6).
      Additionally, SHARPIN GCN-Increase is associated with 4220 differentially
      expressed genes (DEGs). These DEGs are enriched in activation of the pathways
      regulating cell cycle progression, RNA transport, ribosome biosynthesis, DNA
      replication, and in downregulation of the pathways related to extracellular
      matrix. These DEGs are thus likely to facilitate the proliferation and metastasis
      of BC cells. Additionally, through forward (FWD) and backward (BWD) stepwise
      variate selections among the top 160 downregulated and top 200 upregulated DEGs
      using the Cox regression model, a 6-gene (SigFWD) and a 50-gene (SigBWD)
      signature were derived. Both signatures robustly associate with decreases in OS
      in BC patients within the Curtis (n = 1980; p = 6.16e - 11 for SigFWD; p = 1.06e 
      10, for SigBWD) and TCGA cohort (n = 817; p = 4.53e - 4 for SigFWD and p =
      0.00525 for SigBWD). After adjusting for known clinical factors, SigMut (HR 1.21,
      p = 0.0297), SigBWD (HR 1.25, p = 0.0263), and likely SigFWD (HR 1.17, p = 0.062)
      remain independent risk factors of BC deaths. Furthermore, the proportion of
      patients positive for these signatures is significantly increased in ER -, Her2
      enriched, basal-like, and claudin-low BCs compared to ER + and luminal BCs.
      Collectively, these SHARPIN GCN-Increase-derived signatures may have clinical
      applications in management of patients with BC.

PMID- 28879098
TI  - Red cell allo- and autoimmunisation in transfused sickle cell and cancer patients
      in Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, no data are available on the prevalence of red blood cell
      (RBC) antibody formation amongst Kenyan patients with multiple transfusion needs,
      such as patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) or haematological malignancies
      (HM) and solid (SM) malignancies. OBJECTIVES: We determined the prevalence and
      specificities of RBC alloantibodies and autoantibodies in two patient groups with
      recurrent transfusion demands at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.
      METHOD: Between February and August 2014, 300 samples from SCD, HM and SM
      patients were collected and screened for alloantibodies. Samples from 51 healthy
      blood donors were screened for irregular antibodies and phenotyped. RESULTS:
      Amongst the 228 patients with viable samples (SCD, n = 137; HM, n = 48; SM, n =
      43), the median transfusion frequency was two to three events per group, 38
      (16.7%) were RBC immunised and 32 (14.0%) had a positive direct antiglobulin
      test. We identified specific alloantibodies in six patients (2.6%). Four of these
      six were SCD patients (2.9%) who had specific RBC alloantibodies (anti-Cw, anti
      M, anti-Cob, anti-S); amongst HM patients one had anti-K and one had anti-Lea.
      RBC autoantibody prevalence was 3.1% (7/228). Amongst the healthy blood donors,
      the Ror, ccD.ee and R2r, ccD.Ee phenotypes accounted for 82% of the Rhesus
      phenotypes and all were Kell negative. CONCLUSION: The numbers of transfusions
      and the rates of RBC alloantibodies are low and the most important RBC
      alloantibody-inducing blood group antigens are relatively homogeneously
      distributed in this population. A general change in the Kenyatta National
      Hospital pre-transfusion test regimen is thus not necessary. The current
      transfusion practice should be reconsidered if transfusion frequencies increase
      in the future.

PMID- 28879099
TI  - ISO 15189:2012: What changes for African laboratories?

PMID- 28879100
TI  - Development of immunohistochemistry services for cancer care in western Kenya:
      Implications for low- and middle-income countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer is becoming a major cause of mortality in low- and middle
      income countries. Unlike infectious disease, malignancy and other chronic
      conditions require significant supportive infrastructure for diagnostics, staging
      and treatment. In addition to morphologic diagnosis, diagnostic pathways in
      oncology frequently require immunohistochemistry (IHC) for confirmation. We
      present the experience of a tertiary-care hospital serving rural western Kenya,
      which developed and validated an IHC laboratory in support of a growing cancer
      care service. OBJECTIVES METHODS AND OUTCOMES: Over the past decade, in an
      academic North-South collaboration, cancer services were developed for the
      catchment area of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in western Kenya. A major
      hurdle to treatment of cancer in a resource-limited setting has been the lack of
      adequate diagnostic services. Building upon the foundations of a histology
      laboratory, strategic investment and training were used to develop IHC services.
      Key elements of success in this endeavour included: translation of resource-rich
      practices to a resource-limited setting, such as using manual, small-batch IHC
      instead of disposable- and maintenance-intensive automated machinery, engagement
      of outside expertise to develop reagent-efficient protocols and supporting all
      levels of staff to meet the requirements of an external quality assurance
      programme. CONCLUSION: Development of low- and middle-income country models of
      services, such as the IHC laboratory presented in this paper, is critical for the
      infrastructure in resource-limited settings to address the growing cancer burden.
      We provide a low-cost model that effectively develops these necessary services in
      a challenging laboratory environment.

PMID- 28879101
TI  - Real-time polymerase chain reaction optimised for hepatitis C virus detection in
      dried blood spots from HIV-exposed infants, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data on the prevalence of hepatitis C virus
      (HCV) in children, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. A major obstacle in
      resource-limited settings for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is the
      necessity for specimen transportation and storage at low temperatures. There are
      numerous recent studies of using real-time HCV PCR for diagnosis and screening of
      plasma and serum, but few have looked at using dried blood spot (DBS) specimens.
      OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to optimise a real-time HCV PCR method to
      detect HCV RNA from infant DBS specimens for use as a tool for HCV surveillance
      in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. METHOD: The LightCycler(r) 2.0 instrument was
      used for the HCV PCR using the LightCycler(r) RNA Master SYBR Green I kit.
      Template volume, primer concentration and primer annealing temperatures were
      optimised and the method was used on 179 DBS specimens from HIV-exposed infants
      in KwaZulu-Natal. RESULTS: Primer concentrations adjusted to 0.25 uM and a
      template volume of 10 uL improved the PCR amplification. Primer annealing
      temperatures lowered from 65  degrees C to 58  degrees C resulted in higher
      quantities of amplified PCR product. The limit of detection of the optimised HCV
      PCR assay was between 1200 IU/mL and 3580 IU/mL of HCV RNA. HCV was not detected
      in any of the 179 DBS specimens. CONCLUSION: The optimised real-time HCV PCR on
      infant DBS specimens performed well, but HCV was not found in this surveillance
      study. HIV infection may have little impact on the vertical transmission of HCV
      in this region.

PMID- 28879102
TI  - Performance of the Cellslide(r) automated liquid-based cytology system amongst
      HIV-positive women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many women undergoing cervical screening as part of a national South
      African screening programme may be positive for HIV. The performance of liquid
      based cytology (LBC) on samples from HIV-positive women needs to be determined.
      OBJECTIVES: The performance of the Cellslide(r) automated LBC system was
      evaluated as a possible alternative to conventional cytology in a national
      cervical cancer screening programme. METHODS: Split samples from 348 HIV-positive
      women attending an HIV treatment clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa were
      examined by conventional cytology and monolayer LBC methods. All samples were
      stained, examined and reported in the same manner. Cytotechnologists were blinded
      to the conventional smear diagnosis if the LBC smear was screened and vice versa.
      RESULTS: The same percentage of inadequate smears (1.4%) was obtained by
      conventional cytology and LBC. Atypical squamous cells of undetermined
      significance were observed in 5.2% of conventional smears and 4.0% of LBC smears.
      Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions were found in 35.6% of conventional
      smears and 32.7% of LBC smears. Only one conventional smear was categorised as
      atypical squamous cells - cannot exclude a high-grade lesion, whereas five such
      cases were identified on LBC. High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions were
      seen in 21.6% of conventional smears and 23.3% LBC smears. No invasive carcinoma
      was identified. CONCLUSION: The performance of the Cellslide(r) LBC system was
      similar to that of conventional cytology in this population of high-risk HIV
      positive women, indicating that it may be introduced successfully as part of a
      cervical cancer screening programme.

PMID- 28879103
TI  - Implementation of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa
      Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The increase in disease burden has continued to weigh upon health
      systems in Africa. The role of the laboratory has become increasingly critical in
      the improvement of health for diagnosis, management and treatment of diseases. In
      response, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) and
      its partners created the WHO AFRO Stepwise Laboratory (Quality) Improvement
      Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) program. SLIPTA IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS:
      WHO AFRO defined a governance structure with roles and responsibilities for six
      main stakeholders. Laboratories were evaluated by auditors trained and certified
      by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine. Laboratory performance was
      measured using the WHO AFRO SLIPTA scoring checklist and recognition certificates
      rated with 1-5 stars were issued. PRELIMINARY RESULTS: By March 2015, 27 of the
      47 (57%) WHO AFRO member states had appointed a SLIPTA focal point and 14
      Ministers of Health had endorsed SLIPTA as the desired programme for continuous
      quality improvement. Ninety-eight auditors from 17 African countries, competent
      in the Portuguese (3), French (12) and English (83) languages, were trained and
      certified. The mean score for the 159 laboratories audited between May 2013 and
      March 2015 was 69% (median 70%; SD 11.5; interquartile range 62-77). Of these
      audited laboratories, 70% achieved 55% compliance or higher (2 or more stars) and
      1% scored at least 95% (5 stars). The lowest scoring sections of the WHO AFRO
      SLIPTA checklist were sections 6 (Internal Audit) and 10 (Corrective Action),
      which both had mean scores below 50%. CONCLUSION: The WHO AFRO SLIPTA is a
      process that countries with limited resources can adopt for effective
      implementation of quality management systems. Political commitment, ownership and
      investment in continuous quality improvement are integral components of the
      process.

PMID- 28879104
TI  - The prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in HIV-positive and HIV-negative
      infants: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) amongst South African
      infants and children has been reported in the pre-HIV era. Despite the reported
      high prevalence of HIV in the general population of South Africa, the rate of
      HIV/HBV co-infection amongst infants and children remains poorly reported.
      OBJECTIVES: We describe the prevalence of HBV infection amongst HIV-positive and
      HIV-negative infants by molecular methods of diagnosis using dried blood spot
      samples. METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted between
      July 2011 and December 2011 in an academic referral laboratory offering viral
      diagnostic services to the entire KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. A total
      of 322 study samples were collected from discarded residual dried blood spot
      samples following routine infant diagnosis of HIV. Equal proportions of HIV
      positive and HIV-negative infant specimens were studied. Statistical differences
      in the prevalence of HBV between the HIV-positive and HIV-negative samples were
      calculated using the Pearson chi-square test, and a p-value < 0.05 was considered
      statistically significant. Further testing for HBV DNA using a nested polymerase
      chain reaction method was performed. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of HBV was
      10%. In the HIV-positive group, 21 of 161 infants tested positive for HBV
      compared with 12 of 161 HIV-negative infants who tested positive for HBV. The
      proportion of infants infected with HBV was marginally higher amongst HIV
      positive infants (13.0%; 95% CI 6.8-19.9) compared with HIV-negative infants
      (7.5%; 95% CI 2.5-13.7; P = 0.098), though not statistically significant.
      CONCLUSION: The finding of a 10% HBV prevalence in this infant cohort is
      clinically significant. The non-statistically significant difference in HBV
      prevalence between the HIV-positive and HIV-negative infants suggests that high
      prevalence of HBV infection in children may be a problem independent of HIV.

PMID- 28879105
TI  - Molecular confirmation of Lassa fever imported into Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent reports have shown an expansion of Lassa virus from the area
      where it was first isolated in Nigeria to other areas of West Africa. Two
      Ghanaian soldiers on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia were taken
      ill with viral haemorrhagic fever syndrome following the death of a sick
      colleague and were referred to a military hospital in Accra, Ghana, in May 2013.
      Blood samples from the soldiers and five asymptomatic close contacts were
      subjected to laboratory investigations. OBJECTIVE: We report the results of these
      investigations to highlight the importance of molecular diagnostic applications
      and the need for heightened awareness about Lassa fever in West Africa. METHODS:
      We used molecular assays on sera from the two patients to identify the causative
      organism. Upon detection of positive signals for Lassa virus ribonucleic material
      by two different polymerase chain reaction assays, sequencing and phylogenetic
      analyses were performed. RESULTS: The presence of Lassa virus in the soldiers'
      blood samples was shown by L-gene segment homology to be the Macenta and
      las803792 strains previously isolated in Liberia, with close relationships then
      confirmed by phylogenetic tree construction. The five asymptomatic close contacts
      were negative for Lassa virus. CONCLUSIONS: The Lassa virus strains identified in
      the two Ghanaian soldiers had molecular epidemiological links to strains from
      Liberia. Lassa virus was probably responsible for the outbreak of viral
      haemorrhagic fever in the military camp. These data confirm Lassa fever
      endemicity in West Africa.

PMID- 28879106
TI  - Evaluation of the accuracy of the CellaVisionTM DM96 in a high HIV-prevalence
      population in South Africa.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The CellaVisionTM DM96 (DM96) is a digital microscopy system which
      performs well in developed countries. However, to date it has not been evaluated
      in Africa, where the pathology spectrum encountered is very different. In
      particular, its utility in a setting with high HIV prevalence has not been
      assessed, which is of interest because of the morphological aberrations often
      seen in HIV-positive patients. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the
      accuracy of the DM96 in a South African laboratory, with emphasis on its
      performance in samples collected from HIV-positive patients. METHODS: A total of
      149 samples submitted for a routine differential white cell count in 2012 and
      2013 at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, South
      Africa were included, of which 79 (53.0%) were collected from HIV-positive
      patients. Results of DM96 analysis pre- and post-classification were compared
      with a manual differential white cell count and the impact of HIV infection and
      other variables of interest were assessed. RESULTS: Pre- and post-classification
      accuracies were similar to those reported in developed countries.
      Reclassification was required in 16% of cells, with particularly high
      misclassification rates for eosinophils (31.7%), blasts (33.7%) and basophils
      (93.5%). Multivariate analysis revealed a significant relationship between the
      number of misclassified cells and both the white cell count (p = 0.035) and the
      presence of malignant cells in the blood (p = 0.049), but not with any other
      variables analysed, including HIV status. CONCLUSION: The DM96 exhibited
      acceptable accuracy in this South African laboratory, which was not impacted by
      HIV infection. However, as it does not eliminate the need for experienced
      morphologists, its cost may be unjustifiable in a resource-constrained setting.

PMID- 28879107
TI  - Implications of the introduction of laboratory demand management at primary care
      clinics in South Africa on laboratory expenditure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnostic health laboratory services are regarded as an integral
      part of the national health infrastructure across all countries. Clinical
      laboratory tests contribute substantially to health system goals of increasing
      quality of care and improving patient outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to
      analyse current laboratory expenditures at the primary healthcare (PHC) level in
      South Africa as processed by the National Health Laboratory Service and to
      determine the potential cost savings of introducing laboratory demand management.
      METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of laboratory expenditures for
      the 2013/2014 financial year across 11 pilot National Health Insurance health
      districts was conducted. Laboratory expenditure tariff codes were cross-tabulated
      to the PHC essential laboratory tests list (ELL) to determine inappropriate
      testing. Data were analysed using a Microsoft Access database and Excel software.
      RESULTS: Approximately R35 million South African Rand (10%) of the estimated R339
      million in expenditures was for tests that were not listed within the ELL.
      Approximately 47% of expenditure was for laboratory tests that were indicated in
      the algorithmic management of patients on antiretroviral treatment. The other
      main cost drivers for non-ELL testing included full blood count and urea, as well
      as electrolyte profiles usually requested to support management of patients on
      antiretroviral treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable annual savings of up to 10%
      in laboratory expenditure are possible at the PHC level by implementing
      laboratory demand management. In addition, to achieve these savings, a
      standardised PHC laboratory request form and some form of electronic gatekeeping
      system that must be supported by an educational component should be implemented.

PMID- 28879108
TI  - Dried blood spot specimen quality and validation of a new pre-analytical
      processing method for qualitative HIV-1 PCR, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Poor quality dried blood spot (DBS) specimens are usually rejected by
      virology laboratories, affecting early infant diagnosis of HIV. The practice of
      combining two incompletely-filled DBS in one specimen preparation tube during pre
      analytical specimen processing (i.e., the two-spot method) has been implemented
      to reduce the number of specimens being rejected for insufficient volume.
      OBJECTIVES: This study analysed laboratory data to describe the quality of DBS
      specimens and the use of the two-spot method over a one-year period, then
      validated the two-spot method against the standard (one-spot) method. METHODS:
      Data on HIV-1 PCR test requests submitted in 2014 to the Department of Virology
      at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa
      were analysed to describe reasons for specimen rejection, as well as results of
      the two-spot method. The accuracy, lower limit of detection and precision of the
      two-spot method were assessed. RESULTS: Of the 88 481 specimens received, 3.7%
      were rejected for pre-analytical problems. Of those, 48.9% were rejected as a
      result of insufficient specimen volume. Two health facilities had significantly
      more specimen rejections than other facilities. The two-spot method prevented 10
      504 specimen rejections. The Pearson correlation coefficient comparing the
      standard to the two-spot method was 0.997. CONCLUSIONS: The two-spot method was
      comparable with the standard method of pre-analytical specimen processing. Two
      health facilities were identified for targeted retraining on specimen quality.
      The two-spot method of DBS specimen processing can be used as an adjunct to
      retraining, to reduce the number of specimens rejected and improve linkage to
      care.

PMID- 28879109
TI  - Whole blood pathogen reduction technology and blood safety in sub-Saharan Africa:
      A systematic review with regional discussion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite vast improvements in transfusion services in sub-Saharan
      Africa over the last decade, there remain serious concerns on the safety and
      adequacy of the blood supply across the region. OBJECTIVE: This review paper
      ascertains the role of pathogen reduction technology (PRT) in improving blood
      safety and supply adequacy in the region. METHOD: The state of blood safety in
      sub-Saharan Africa was reviewed. Meetings, seminars and correspondence were
      undertaken with key clinicians, scientists and professional bodies in the region,
      including the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Africa, to examine
      the suitability of PRT for improving the safety of whole blood transfusion, a
      prevalent transfusion format in the region. RESULTS: Existing literature suggests
      that combining PRT with current blood safety measures (such as serology) would
      improve the safety and adequacy of the blood supply for transfusions in sub
      Saharan Africa. This was echoed by the findings of the stakeholder meetings.
      CONCLUSION: Following a detailed appraisal of two leading PRT systems, the
      Mirasol(r) PRT System and the Cerus S-303 System, we suggest that companies
      conduct comprehensive toxicological evaluation of the agents used for PRT and
      publish this in the scientific literature. We also recommend that the safety and
      efficacy of these technologies should be established in a randomised clinical
      trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa.

PMID- 28879110
TI  - The viable but non-culturable state in pathogenic Escherichia coli: A general
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The persistence and pathogenicity of pathogenic bacteria are
      dependent on the ability of the species to survive in adverse conditions. During
      the infectious process, the organism may need to pass through certain hostile
      anatomical sites, such as the stomach. Under various environmental stresses, many
      bacteria enter into the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, where they are
      'alive' or metabolically active, but will not grow on conventional media.
      Escherichia coli bacteria encounter several diverse stress factors during their
      growth, survival and infection and thus may enter into the VBNC state.
      OBJECTIVES: This review discusses various general aspects of the VBNC state, the
      mechanisms and possible public health impact of indicator and pathogenic E. coli
      entering into the VBNC state. METHOD: A literature review was conducted to
      ascertain the possible impact of E. coli entering into the VBNC state. RESULTS:
      Escherichia coli enter into the VBNC state by means of several induction
      mechanisms. Various authors have found that E. coli can be resuscitated post
      VBNC. Certain strains of pathogenic E. coli are still able to produce toxins in
      the VBNC state, whilst others are avirulent during the VBNC state but are able to
      regain virulence after resuscitation. CONCLUSION: Pathogenic and indicator E.
      coli entering into the VBNC state could have an adverse effect on public health
      if conventional detection methods are used, where the number of viable cells
      could be underestimated and the VBNC cells still produce toxins or could, at any
      time, be resuscitated and become virulent again.

PMID- 28879111
TI  - Evaluating laboratory request forms submitted to haematology and blood
      transfusion departments at a hospital in Northwest Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The laboratory request form (LRF) is a communication link between
      laboratories, requesting physicians and users of laboratory services. Inadequate
      information or errors arising from the process of filling out LRFs can
      significantly impact the quality of laboratory results and, ultimately, patient
      outcomes. OBJECTIVE: We assessed routinely-submitted LRFs to determine the degree
      of correctness, completeness and consistency. METHODS: LRFs submitted to the
      Department of Haematology (DH) and Blood Transfusion Services (BTS) of Aminu Kano
      Teaching Hospital in Kano, Nigeria, between October 2014 and December 2014, were
      evaluated for completion of all items on the forms. Performance in four quality
      indicator domains, including patient identifiers, test request details,
      laboratory details and physician details, was derived as a composite percentage.
      RESULTS: Of the 2084 LRFs evaluated, 999 were from DH and 1085 from BTS. Overall,
      LRF completeness was 89.5% for DH and 81.2% for BTS. Information on patient name,
      patient location and laboratory number were 100% complete for DH, whereas only
      patient name was 100% complete for BTS. Incomplete information was mostly
      encountered on BTS forms for physician's signature (60.8%) and signature of
      laboratory receiver (63.5%). None of the DH and only 9.4% of BTS LRFs met all
      quality indicator indices. CONCLUSION: The level of completion of LRFs from these
      two departments was suboptimal. This underscores the need to review and redesign
      the LRF, improve on training and communication between laboratory and clinical
      staff and review specimen rejection practices.

PMID- 28879112
TI  - Verification of chemistry reference ranges using a simple method in sub-Saharan
      Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chemistry safety assessments are interpreted by using chemistry
      reference ranges (CRRs). Verification of CRRs is time consuming and often
      requires a statistical background. OBJECTIVES: We report on an easy and cost
      saving method to verify CRRs. METHODS: Using a former method introduced by Sigma
      Diagnostics, three study sites in sub-Saharan Africa, Bondo, Kenya, and Pretoria
      and Bloemfontein, South Africa, verified the CRRs for hepatic and renal
      biochemistry assays performed during a clinical trial of HIV antiretroviral pre
      exposure prophylaxis. The aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase,
      creatinine and phosphorus results from 10 clinically-healthy participants at the
      screening visit were used. In the event the CRRs did not pass the verification,
      new CRRs had to be calculated based on 40 clinically-healthy participants.
      RESULTS: Within a few weeks, the study sites accomplished verification of the
      CRRs without additional costs. The aspartate aminotransferase reference ranges
      for the Bondo, Kenya site and the alanine aminotransferase reference ranges for
      the Pretoria, South Africa site required adjustment. The phosphorus CRR passed
      verification and the creatinine CRR required adjustment at every site. The newly
      established CRR intervals were narrower than the CRRs used previously at these
      study sites due to decreases in the upper limits of the reference ranges. As a
      result, more toxicities were detected. CONCLUSION: To ensure the safety of
      clinical trial participants, verification of CRRs should be standard practice in
      clinical trials conducted in settings where the CRR has not been validated for
      the local population. This verification method is simple, inexpensive, and can be
      performed by any medical laboratory.

PMID- 28879113
TI  - Evaluation of the BioFire(r) FilmArray(r) Blood Culture Identification Panel on
      positive blood cultures in a regional hospital laboratory in KwaZulu-Natal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are presently many non-culture-based methods commercially
      available to identify organisms and antimicrobial susceptibility from blood
      culture bottles. Each platform has its benefits and limitations. However, there
      is a need for an improved system with minimal hands-on requirements and short run
      times. OBJECTIVES: In this study, the performance characteristics of the
      FilmArray(r) BCID Panel kit were evaluated to assess the efficiency of the kit
      against an existing system used for identification and antimicrobial
      susceptibility of organisms from blood cultures. METHODS: Positive blood cultures
      that had initially been received from hospitalised patients of a large quaternary
      referral hospital in Durban, South Africa were processed as per routine protocol
      at its Medical Microbiology Laboratory. Positive blood cultures were processed on
      the FilmArray BCID Panel kit in parallel with the routine sample processing.
      Inferences were then drawn from results obtained. RESULTS: Organism detection by
      the FilmArray BCID panel was accurate at 92.6% when organisms that were on the
      repertoire of the kit were considered, compared to the combination methods
      (reference method used in the study laboratory). Detection of the antimicrobial
      resistance markers provided by the panel and reference method demonstrated 100%
      consistency. Blood cultures with a single organism were accurately identified at
      93.8% by FilmArray, while blood cultures with more than one organism were
      identified at 85.7%. CONCLUSION: The FilmArray BCID Panel kit is valuable for
      detection of organisms and markers of antibiotic resistance for an extensive
      range of organisms.

PMID- 28879114
TI  - A review of antimicrobial resistance in East Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Knowledge of local and regional antimicrobial
      resistance (AMR) is important for clinical decision making. However, surveillance
      capacity for AMR is lacking throughout East Africa, and current AMR data are
      sparse. We sought to address this gap by summarising all available high-quality
      data on AMR in the East Africa region. METHOD: We searched the PubMed database
      and African Journals Online archives in April and May 2015 using the search term
      'antimicrobial resistance AND sub-Saharan Africa' to find articles published from
      2005 onwards. Only full-text articles in English were included. RESULTS: We
      included 12 published articles in our analysis. Most articles were on bloodstream
      infections, hospital-based and cross-sectional in design; a majority described
      either community- or hospital-acquired infections. High levels of AMR to commonly
      used antibiotics were reported, including 50% - 100% resistance to ampicillin and
      cotrimoxazole infections, emerging resistance to gentamicin (20% - 47%) and
      relatively high levels of resistance to ceftriaxone (46% - 69%) among Gram
      negative infections. Much of the resistance was reported to be in Klebsiella
      species and Escherichia coli. Among Gram-positive infections, extensive
      resistance was reported to ampicillin (100%), gentamicin and ceftriaxone (50% -
      100%), with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus prevalence ranging from
      2.6% - 4.0%. CONCLUSION: Overall, bacterial resistance was reported among
      commonly-used antibiotics (ampicillin, gentamicin and ceftriaxone), raising
      concern that these antibiotics may no longer be useful for treating moderate or
      severe bacterial infections in East Africa. Thus, empirical treatment of
      bacterial infections needs to be reconsidered and guided by local assessment of
      AMR. Improvements in the limited amount of quality data and lack of harmonisation
      in assessing the burden of AMR are also needed.

PMID- 28879115
TI  - Laboratory evaluation of the Chembio Dual Path Platform HIV-Syphilis Assay.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Use of rapid diagnostic tests for HIV and syphilis has increased
      remarkably in the last decade. As new rapid diagnostic tests become available,
      there is a continuous need to assess their performance and operational
      characteristics prior to use in clinical settings. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we
      evaluated the performance of the Chembio Dual Path Platform (DPP(r)) HIV-Syphilis
      Assay to accurately diagnose HIV, syphilis, and HIV/syphilis co-infection.
      METHOD: In 2013, 990 serum samples from the Georgia Public Health Laboratory in
      Atlanta, Georgia, United States were characterised for HIV and syphilis and used
      to evaluate the platform. HIV reference testing combined third-generation Enzyme
      Immunoassay and Western Blot, whereas reference testing for syphilis was
      conducted by the Treponema pallidum passive particle agglutination method and the
      TrepSure assay. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the DPP assay on
      this panel by comparing results with the HIV and syphilis reference testing
      algorithms. RESULTS: For HIV, sensitivity was 99.8% and specificity was 98.4%;
      for syphilis, sensitivity was 98.8% and specificity was 99.4%. Of the 348 co
      infected sera, 344 (98.9%) were detected accurately by the DPP assay, but 11
      specimens had false-positive results (9 HIV and 2 syphilis) due to weak
      reactivity. CONCLUSION: In this evaluation, the Chembio DPP HIV-Syphilis Assay
      had high sensitivity and specificity for detecting both HIV and treponemal
      antibodies. Our results indicate that this assay could have a significant impact
      on the simultaneous screening of HIV and syphilis using a single test device for
      high-risk populations or pregnant women needing timely care and treatment.

PMID- 28879116
TI  - Experimental phage therapy against haematogenous multi-drug resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Community-acquired haematogenous Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia is a
      rare infection, though it can be acquired nosocomially. Currently, antibiotics
      used against S. aureus pneumonia have shown reduced efficacy. Thus, there is need
      for an alternative therapy against multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA) strains
      in the community. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the efficacy of
      environmentally-obtained S. aureus lytic phage against haematogenous MDRSA
      pneumonia in mice. METHODS: Phages and MDRSA were isolated from sewage samples
      collected within Nairobi County, Kenya. Isolated S. aureus bacteria were screened
      for resistance against ceftazidime, oxacillin, vancomycin, netilmicin,
      gentamicin, erythromycin, trimethroprim-sulfamethoxazole and cefuroxime. Thirty
      BALB/c mice aged six to eight weeks were randomly assigned into three groups: the
      MDRSA-infection group (n = 20), the phage-infection group (n = 5) and the non
      infection group (n = 5). Mice were infected with either MDRSA or phage (108
      CFU/mL) and treated after 72 hours with a single dose of clindamycin (8
      mg/kg/bwt) or 108 PFU/mL of phage or a combination therapy (clindamycin and
      phage). The efficacy of phage, clindamycin or clindamycin with phage combination
      was determined using resolution of lung pathology and bacterial load in lung
      homogenates. RESULTS: The viable MDRSA count was 0.5 +/- 0.2 log10 CFU/gm in the
      phage-treated group, 4.4 +/- 0.2 log10 CFU/gm in the clindamycin-treated group
      and 4.0 +/- 0.2 log10 CFU/gm in the combination-treated group. The efficacy of
      phage therapy was significantly different from other therapeutic modes (p = 0 <
      0.0001). Histology showed that the mice treated with phage did not develop
      pneumonia. CONCLUSION: Phage therapy is effective against haematogenous MDRSA
      infection. Thus, it can be explored as an alternative treatment method.

PMID- 28879117
TI  - Experiential Bloom's Taxonomy learning framework for point-of-care diagnostics
      training of primary healthcare workers.

PMID- 28879119
TI  - The diagnostic-clinical chasm: Work in progress?

PMID- 28879118
TI  - Biosafety level-2 laboratory diagnosis of Zaire Ebola virus disease imported from
      Liberia to Nigeria.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Global travel is an efficient route of transmission for highly
      infectious pathogens and increases the chances of such pathogens moving from high
      disease-endemic areas to new regions. We describe the rapid and safe
      identification of the first imported case of Ebola virus disease in a traveler to
      Lagos, Nigeria, using conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain
      reaction (RT-PCR) in a biosafety level (BSL)-2 facility. CASE PRESENTATION: On 20
      July 2014, a traveler arrived from Liberia at Lagos International Airport and was
      admitted to a private hospital in Lagos, with clinical suspicion of Ebola virus
      disease. METHODOLOGY AND OUTCOME: Blood and urine specimens were collected,
      transported to the Virology Unit Laboratory at the College of Medicine,
      University of Lagos, and processed under stringent biosafety conditions for viral
      RNA extraction. RT-PCR was set-up to query the Ebola, Lassa and Dengue fever
      viruses. Amplicons for pan-filoviruses were detected as 300 bp bands on a 1.5%
      agarose gel image; there were no detectable bands for Lassa and Dengue viral RNA.
      Nucleotide BLAST and phylogenetic analysis of sequence data of the RNA-dependent
      RNA polymerase (L) gene confirmed the sequence to be Zaire ebolavirus
      (EBOV/Hsap/NGA/2014/LIB-NIG 01072014; Genbank: KM251803.1). CONCLUSION: Our BSL-2
      facility in Lagos, Nigeria, was able to safely detect Ebola virus disease using
      molecular techniques, supporting the reliability of molecular detection of highly
      infectious viral pathogens under stringent safety guidelines in BSL-2
      laboratories. This is a significant lesson for the many under-facilitated
      laboratories in resource-limited settings, as is predominantly found in sub
      Saharan Africa.

PMID- 28879120
TI  - South Africa's experience with provision of quality HIV diagnostic services.

PMID- 28879121
TI  - Experience from a pilot point-of-care CD4 enumeration programme in Kenya.

PMID- 28879122
TI  - Establishing a national laboratory quality system for HIV diagnosis and
      monitoring in resource-limited settings: Experience from Senegal.

PMID- 28879123
TI  - QASI: A collaboration for implementation of an independent quality assessment
      programme in India.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The HIV pandemic remains a significant global health concern. Accurate
      determination of CD4+ T-cells in patient samples relies on reliable CD4
      enumeration. The Quality Assessment and Standardization programme for
      Immunological measures relevant to HIV/AIDS (QASI) programme of the Public Health
      Agency of Canada provides clinical laboratories from resource-limited countries
      with a mechanism to evaluate the quality of CD4 testing and develop the
      implementation of an independent national External Quality Assessment (EQA)
      programme. This study describes how QASI helped develop the capacity for managing
      a sustainable national CD4 EQA programme in India. DESIGN: Supported by the
      Public Health Agency of Canada and Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, QASI
      engaged with the National AIDS Control Organization and the Indian National AIDS
      Research Institute to assist in technology transfer in preparation for the
      implementation/management of an independent CD4 EQA programme. Technology
      transfer training was provided to support corrective actions and to improve the
      quality of CD4 testing. Inter-laboratory variation of EQA surveys between pre-
      and post-skill development was compared. RESULTS: Prior to training, coefficient
      of variation values were 14.7% (mid-level CD4 count controls) and 39.0% (low
      level). Following training, variation was reduced to 10.3% for mid-level controls
      and 20.0% for low-level controls. CONCLUSION: This training assisted the National
      AIDS Control Organization and the Indian National AIDS Research Institute in
      identifying the information necessary for management of an EQA programme, and
      developed the foundation for India to provide corrective actions for sites with
      challenges in achieving reliable results for CD4 enumeration. This led to a
      demonstrable improvement in CD4 testing quality and illustrates how country
      specific training significantly improved CD4 enumeration performance for better
      clinical management of HIV care in India.

PMID- 28879124
TI  - Quality assurance for point-of-care testing in Mozambique's National Health
      Service.

PMID- 28879125
TI  - Quality assurance as an integral component of diagnostic testing in clinical
      laboratories and point-of-care testing: The Uganda experience.

PMID- 28879126
TI  - Quality assurance for point-of-care testing in Zimbabwe.

PMID- 28879127
TI  - Quality assurance for point-of-care testing: Ethiopia's experience.

PMID- 28879128
TI  - Implementing quality assurance for laboratory-based and point-of-care HIV testing
      in Nigeria.

PMID- 28879129
TI  - Data connectivity: A critical tool for external quality assessment.
AB  - Point-of-care (POC) tests have been useful in increasing access to testing and
      treatment monitoring for HIV. Decentralising testing from laboratories to
      hundreds of sites around a country presents tremendous challenges in training and
      quality assurance. In order to address these concerns, companies are now either
      embedding connectivity in their new POC diagnostic instruments or providing some
      form of channel for electronic result exchange. These will allow automated key
      performance and operational metrics from devices in the field to a central
      database. Setting up connectivity between these POC devices and a central
      database at the Ministries of Health will allow automated data transmission,
      creating an opportunity for real-time information on diagnostic instrument
      performance as well as the competency of the operator through external quality
      assessment. A pilot programme in Zimbabwe shows that connectivity has
      significantly improve the turn-around time of external quality assessment result
      submissions and allow corrective actions to be provided in a timely manner.
      Furthermore, by linking the data to existing supply chain management software,
      stock-outs can be minimised. As countries are looking forward to achieving the 90
      90-90 targets for HIV, such innovative technologies can automate disease
      surveillance, improve the quality of testing and strengthen the efficiency of
      health systems.

PMID- 28879130
TI  - A national quality assurance programme for point-of-care testing in Malawi.

PMID- 28879131
TI  - Quality assurance for point-of-care diagnostic testing: It is not negotiable.

PMID- 28879132
TI  - External quality assurance for HIV point-of-care testing in Africa: A
      collaborative country-partner approach to strengthen diagnostic services.
AB  - It is important to consider the role of diagnostics and the critical need for
      quality diagnostics services in resource-limited settings. Accurate diagnostic
      tests play a key role in patient management and the prevention and control of
      most infectious diseases. As countries plan for implementation of HIV early
      infant diagnosis and viral load point-of-care testing, the London School of
      Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has worked with countries and partners with an
      interest in external quality assurance to support quality point-of-care testing
      on the continent. Through a series of collaborative consultations and workshops,
      the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has gathered lessons learned,
      tools, and resources and developed quality assurance models that will support
      point-of-care testing. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is
      committed to the continued advancement of laboratory diagnostics in Africa and
      quality laboratory services and point-of-care testing.

PMID- 28879134
TI  - Assuring the quality of diagnostic testing: The future is now.

PMID- 28879133
TI  - Quality assurance for HIV point-of-care testing and treatment monitoring assays.
AB  - In 2015, UNAIDS launched the 90-90-90 targets aimed at increasing the number of
      people infected with HIV to become aware of their status, access antiretroviral
      therapies and ultimately be virally suppressed. To achieve these goals, countries
      may need to scale up point-of-care (POC) testing in addition to strengthening
      central laboratory services. While decentralising testing increases patient
      access to diagnostics, it presents many challenges with regard to training and
      assuring the quality of tests and testing. To ensure synergies, the London School
      of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine held a series of consultations with countries with
      an interest in quality assurance and their implementing partners, and agreed on
      an external quality assessment (EQA) programme to ensure reliable results so that
      the results lead to the best possible care for HIV patients. As a result of the
      consultations, EQA International was established, bringing together EQA providers
      and implementers to develop a strategic plan for countries to establish national
      POC EQA programmes and to estimate the cost of setting up and maintaining the
      programme. With the dramatic increase in the number of proficiency testing panels
      required for thousands of POC testing sites across Africa, it is important to
      facilitate technology transfer from global EQA providers to a network of regional
      EQA centres in Africa for regional proficiency testing panel production. EQA
      International will continue to identify robust and cost-effective EQA
      technologies for quality POC testing, integrating novel technologies to support
      sustainable country-owned EQA programmes in Africa.

PMID- 28879135
TI  - The WHO AFRO external quality assessment programme (EQAP): Linking laboratory
      networks through EQA programmes.
AB  - External Quality Assessment (EQA) surveys performed by the World Health
      Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) revealed the need for the
      strengthening of public health microbiology laboratories, particularly for
      testing of epidemic-prone diseases in the African Region. These surveys revealed
      common issues such as supply chain management, skilled personnel, logistical
      support and overall lack of quality standards. For sustainable improvements to
      health systems as well as global health security, deficiencies identified need to
      be actively corrected through robust quality assurance programmes and
      implementation of laboratory quality management systems. Given all the pathogens
      of public health importance, an external quality assessment programme with a
      focus on vaccine-preventable diseases and emerging and re-emerging dangerous
      pathogens is important, and should not be stand-alone, but integrated within
      laboratory networks as seen in polio, measles, yellow fever and rubella. In 2015,
      WHO AFRO collaborated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
      London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and partners in a series of
      consultations with countries and national and regional EQA providers for the
      development of quality assurance models to support HIV point-of-care testing and
      monitoring. These consultations revealed similar challenges as seen in the WHO
      AFRO surveys. WHO AFRO brought forth its experience in implementing quality
      standards for health programmes, and also opened discussions on how lessons
      learned through such established programmes can be utilised to supporting and
      strengthening the introduction of early infant diagnosis of HIV and viral load
      point-of-care testing. An optimised external quality assessment programme will
      impact the ability of countries to meet core capacities, providing improved
      quality management systems, improving the confidence of diagnostic network
      services in Africa, and including capacities to detect events of international
      public health importance.

PMID- 28879136
TI  - Integrating laboratory networks, surveillance systems and public health
      institutes in Africa.
AB  - The Ebola outbreak in West Africa underlined the urgent need for integration of
      public health systems, including the establishment of national laboratory
      networks, surveillance systems, and health research institutions at all levels of
      service delivery. The integration schema presented here would assist in driving
      the immediate steps needed for integration of public health systems, particularly
      laboratory networks, in support of the implementation of International Health
      Regulations and the Global Health Security Agenda in the African region.
      Increased funding, political willingness from countries, and coordination through
      enhanced technical assistance from international partners, are critical in
      achieving this objective.

PMID- 28879137
TI  - Practical recommendations for strengthening national and regional laboratory
      networks in Africa in the Global Health Security era.
AB  - The role of national health laboratories in support of public health response has
      expanded beyond laboratory testing to include a number of other core functions
      such as emergency response, training and outreach, communications, laboratory
      based surveillance and data management. These functions can only be accomplished
      by an efficient and resilient national laboratory network that includes public
      health, reference, clinical and other laboratories. It is a primary
      responsibility of the national health laboratory in the Ministry of Health to
      develop and maintain the national laboratory network in the country. In this
      article, we present practical recommendations based on 17 years of network
      development experience for the development of effective national laboratory
      networks. These recommendations and examples of current laboratory networks, are
      provided to facilitate laboratory network development in other states. The
      development of resilient, integrated laboratory networks will enhance each
      state's public health system and is critical to the development of a robust
      national laboratory response network to meet global health security threats.

PMID- 28879138
TI  - Stepwise approach for implementation of antimicrobial resistance surveillance in
      Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has reached an end point, prompting a
      worldwide scare as no new antibiotics are in the pipeline, particularly for
      treatment of Gram-negative bacteria. To prevent further development and spread of
      AMR and to inform empirical treatment guidelines, surveillance of AMR is
      necessary. OBJECTIVE: We aim to provide a framework for a stepwise approach
      toward implementation of laboratory-based surveillance for AMR in African
      countries. METHODS AND RESULTS: Building up a surveillance system is a robust
      process that begins with a gap analysis in each participating country. This
      framework provides practical guidance on how to set up surveillance, identify
      responsibilities and set timelines in sustainable manner for African countries.
      It addresses sampling strategies, human resources, procurement and maintenance
      issues for AMR testing at routine clinical and national reference and public
      health laboratories involved in AMR surveillance. Key issues such as laboratory
      capacity building, training and continuous education, quality and diagnostic
      stewardship are discussed in detail. DISCUSSION: There are several priorities for
      AMR surveillance that need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner at regional
      and national levels, whilst keeping in line with current and proposed initiatives
      for laboratory capacity building, in order for African countries to achieve goals
      for combatting the real and current threat of AMR.

PMID- 28879139
TI  - A framework for the assessment and implementation of diagnostics in outbreak
      situations.
AB  - OBSERVATION: Outbreak situations require in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) to identify
      those who are infected and to track the infectious agent in the population.
      However, such IVDs are typically not available and must be developed. In
      addition, the process of IVD development, assessment, and implementation are very
      time and resource intensive. Recognising the extraordinary public health need for
      IVDs in an outbreak situation, streamlined processes are needed to provide tests
      that meet the standard of a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness in
      the shortest amount of time. These IVDs are designated for outbreak use.
      ADDRESSING ISSUES: This paper presents a pathway to the outbreak use of IVDs that
      can be considered by countries experiencing an outbreak situation. It takes into
      account recognition of the outbreak, product development, regulatory evaluation,
      implementation, and monitoring of the outbreak-use test. Streamlined assessment
      programmes for emergency-use tests have been established by the US Food and Drug
      Administration and the World Health Organization. These programmes take into
      account test requirements for the country in which the outbreak exists.
      Therefore, countries can consider adopting these tests without the need to
      conduct expensive and time consuming assessments, such as performance studies.
      Key responsible parties are identified for each step of the pathway, recognising
      that transparency and communication among all parties are critical.

PMID- 28879140
TI  - Laboratory systems as an antibacterial resistance containment tool in Africa.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As crucial as clinical laboratories are to preventing, identifying
      and managing resistance problems, laboratory scientists are among the most
      overlooked stakeholders. This review outlines the contributions that diagnostic
      laboratory systems should make toward all five of the World Health Organization's
      2015 strategic objectives for antimicrobial resistance containment. LABORATORY
      SYSTEMS IN RESISTANCE CONTAINMENT: Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and
      surveillance are central to antibacterial resistance management and control and
      need to be implemented more commonly and closer to sick patients. However, the
      scope of tests that promote judicious antimicrobial use extend beyond
      susceptibility testing. Laboratory tests for pathogens or their associated
      biomarkers confirm or rule out specific causes of signs and symptoms associated
      with infection. Laboratory systems also provide critical support to infection
      control programmes. All of these functions promote rational antimicrobial use and
      contain the spread of resistance. Routine laboratory data supports the
      development of vaccines and other technologies that could ease the pressure
      placed by antimicrobials. Laboratories are also a rich source of information for
      health professionals, policymakers and the general public about the urgency of
      the resistance problem and progress in containing it. CONCLUSION: Laboratory
      systems are integral to antimicrobial resistance containment and contributions
      from African laboratories to addressing resistance need to be enhanced.

PMID- 28879141
TI  - A new matrix for scoring the functionality of national laboratory networks in
      Africa: introducing the LABNET scorecard.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional national laboratory networks and systems are indispensable
      to the achievement of global health security targets according to the
      International Health Regulations. The lack of indicators to measure the
      functionality of national laboratory network has limited the efficiency of past
      and current interventions to enhance laboratory capacity in resource-limited
      settings. SCORECARD FOR LABORATORY NETWORKS: We have developed a matrix for the
      assessment of national laboratory network functionality and progress thereof,
      with support from the African Society of Laboratory Medicine and the Association
      of Public Health Laboratories. The laboratory network (LABNET) scorecard was
      designed to: (1) Measure the status of nine overarching core capabilities of
      laboratory network required to achieve global health security targets, as
      recommended by the main normative standards; (2) Complement the World Health
      Organization joint external evaluation tool for the assessment of health system
      preparedness to International Health Regulations (2005) by providing detailed
      information on laboratory systems; and (3) Serve as a clear roadmap to guide the
      stepwise implementation of laboratory capability to prevent, detect and act upon
      infectious threats. CONCLUSIONS: The application of the LABNET scorecard under
      the coordination of the African Society of Laboratory Medicine and the
      Association of Public Health Laboratories could contribute to the design,
      monitoring and evaluation of upcoming Global Health Security Agenda-supported
      laboratory capacity building programmes in sub Saharan-Africa and other resource
      limited settings, and inform the development of national laboratory policies and
      strategic plans. Endorsement by the World Health Organization Regional Office for
      Africa is foreseen.

PMID- 28879142
TI  - Pre-Ebola virus disease laboratory system and related challenges in Liberia.
AB  - Prior to the Ebola virus disease outbreak in Liberia, the laboratory system was
      duplicative, fragmented and minimally coordinated. The National Reference
      Laboratory was conceptualised to address the existing challenges by promoting the
      implementation of effective and sustainable laboratory services in Liberia.
      However, in a resource-limited environment such as Liberia, progress regarding
      the rebuilding of the health system can be relatively slow, while efforts to
      sustain the transient gains remain a key challenge for the Ministry of Health. In
      this paper, we describe the pre-Ebola virus disease laboratory system in Liberia
      and its prevailing efforts to address future emerging infectious diseases, as
      well as current Infectious diseases, all of which are exacerbated by poverty. We
      conclude that laboratory and diagnostic services in Liberia have encountered
      numerous challenges regarding its efforts to strengthen the healthcare delivery
      system. These challenges include limited trained human resource capacity,
      inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of coordination. As with most countries in
      sub-Saharan Africa, when comparing urban and rural settings, diagnostic and
      clinical services are generally skewed toward urban health facilities and
      private, faith-based health facilities. We recommend that structured policy be
      directed at these challenges for national institutions to develop guidelines to
      improve, strengthen and sustain diagnostic and curative laboratory services to
      effectively address current infectious diseases and prepare for future emerging
      and re-emerging infectious diseases.

PMID- 28879143
TI  - The laboratory health system and its response to the Ebola virus disease outbreak
      in Liberia.
AB  - The laboratory system in Liberia has generally been fragmented and uncoordinated.
      Accordingly, the country's Ministry of Health established the National Reference
      Laboratory to strengthen and sustain laboratory services. However, diagnostic
      testing services were often limited to clinical tests performed in health
      facilities, with the functionality of the National Reference Laboratory
      restricted to performing testing services for a limited number of epidemic-prone
      diseases. The lack of testing capacity in-country for Lassa fever and other
      haemorrhagic fevers affected the response of the country's health system during
      the onset of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak. Based on the experiences of
      the EVD outbreak, efforts were initiated to strengthen the laboratory system and
      infrastructure, enhance human resource capacity, and invest in diagnostic
      services and public health surveillance to inform admittance, treatment, and
      discharge decisions. In this article, we briefly describe the pre-EVD laboratory
      capability in Liberia, and extensively explore the post-EVD strengthening
      initiatives to enhance capacity, mobilise resources and coordinate disaster
      response with international partners to rebuild the laboratory infrastructure in
      the country. Now that the EVD outbreak has ended, additional initiatives are
      needed to revise the laboratory strategic and operational plan for post-EVD
      relevance, promote continual human resource capacity, institute accreditation and
      validation programmes, and coordinate the investment strategy to strengthen and
      sustain the preparedness of the laboratory sector to mitigate future emerging and
      re-emerging infectious diseases.

PMID- 28879144
TI  - Sierra Leone laboratory systems - now and future.

PMID- 28879145
TI  - Building laboratory capacity to combat disease outbreaks in Africa.

PMID- 28879146
TI  - Trends in leprosy case detection in Rwanda, 1995-2011: analysis of 17 years of
      laboratory data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a chronic, infectious disease caused
      by Mycobacterium leprae. It remains one of the leading causes of deformity and
      physical disability. OBJECTIVE: We analysed laboratory records to assess trends
      in prevalence rates and case detection rates (CDRs) in Rwanda. METHODS: A
      retrospective review of detected leprosy cases from the records of the Rwanda
      National Reference Laboratory over a 17-year period (1995-2011) was conducted.
      Skin biopsy samples were analysed microscopically using Ziehl-Neelsen staining
      technique to identify M. leprae. RESULTS: Cumulatively, 266 suspected cases were
      reported between 1995 and 2011. Of the suspected cases, 77 (28.9%) were
      laboratory confirmed as having leprosy. Among detected cases, 59 (76.6%) were men
      and 18 (23.4%) women. The male:female ratio was 3:1. There were 77 registered
      leprosy cases over the 17-year period of the study, and the prevalence rate was
      0.005 per 10 000 population. A gradual decrease in the prevalence rate was
      observed from 0.015 per 10 000 population in 2003 to 0.003 per 10 000 population
      in 2010. From 1995 to 2011, the CDR did not exceed one per 10 000 population.
      CONCLUSION: This laboratory review demonstrates a declining trend in prevalence
      rates and CDR during the period of the study. Early case detection and a
      sustainable leprosy control programme remain the cornerstones of reducing the
      physical and socio-economic burden of leprosy in Rwanda.

PMID- 28879147
TI  - Laboratory test result interpretation for primary care doctors in South Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Challenges and uncertainties with test result interpretation can lead
      to diagnostic errors. Primary care doctors are at a higher risk than specialists
      of making these errors, due to the range in complexity and severity of conditions
      that they encounter. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the challenges
      that primary care doctors face with test result interpretation, and to identify
      potential countermeasures to address these. METHODS: A survey was sent out to
      7800 primary care doctors in South Africa. Questionnaire themes included doctors'
      uncertainty with interpreting test results, mechanisms used to overcome this
      uncertainty, challenges with appropriate result interpretation, and perceived
      solutions for interpreting results. RESULTS: Of the 552 responses received, the
      prevalence of challenges with result interpretation was estimated in an average
      of 17% of diagnostic encounters. The most commonly-reported challenges were not
      receiving test results in a timely manner (51% of respondents) and previous
      results not being easily available (37%). When faced with diagnostic uncertainty,
      84% of respondents would either follow-up and reassess the patient or discuss the
      case with a specialist, and 67% would contact a laboratory professional. The most
      useful test utilisation enablers were found to be: interpretive comments (78% of
      respondents), published guidelines (74%), and a dedicated laboratory phone line
      (72%). CONCLUSION: Primary care doctors acknowledge uncertainty with test result
      interpretation. Potential countermeasures include the addition of patient
      specific interpretive comments, the availability of guidelines or algorithms, and
      a dedicated laboratory phone line. The benefit of enhanced test result
      interpretation would reduce diagnostic error rates.

PMID- 28879148
TI  - Implementation of broad screening with Ebola rapid diagnostic tests in
      Forecariah, Guinea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laboratory-enhanced surveillance is critical for rapidly detecting
      the potential re-emergence of Ebola virus disease. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDT)
      for Ebola antigens could expand diagnostic capacity for Ebola virus disease.
      OBJECTIVES: The Guinean National Coordination for Ebola Response conducted a
      pilot implementation to determine the feasibility of broad screening of patients
      and corpses with the OraQuick(r) Ebola RDT. METHODS: The implementation team
      developed protocols and trained healthcare workers to screen patients and corpses
      in Forecariah prefecture, Guinea, from 15 October to 30 November 2015. Data
      collected included number of consultations, number of fevers reported or
      measured, number of tests performed for patients or corpses and results of
      confirmatory RT-PCR testing. Data on malaria RDT results were collected for
      comparison. Feedback from Ebola RDT users was collected informally during
      supervision visits and forums. RESULTS: There were 3738 consultations at the 15
      selected healthcare facilities; 74.6% of consultations were for febrile illness.
      Among 2787 eligible febrile patients, 2633 were tested for malaria and 1628
      OraQuick(r) Ebola RDTs were performed. A total of 322 OraQuick(r) Ebola RDTs were
      conducted on corpses. All Ebola tests on eligible patients were negative.
      CONCLUSIONS: Access to Ebola testing was expanded by the implementation of RDTs
      in an emergency situation. Feedback from Ebola RDT users and lessons learned will
      contribute to improving quality for RDT expansion.

PMID- 28879149
TI  - Development and implementation of the Caribbean Laboratory Quality Management
      Systems Stepwise Improvement Process (LQMS-SIP) Towards Accreditation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implementing quality management systems and accrediting laboratories
      in the Caribbean has been a challenge. OBJECTIVES: We report the development of a
      stepwise process for quality systems improvement in the Caribbean Region.
      METHODS: The Caribbean Laboratory Stakeholders met under a joint Pan American
      Health Organization/US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative and
      developed a user-friendly framework called 'Laboratory Quality Management System 
      Stepwise Improvement Process (LQMS-SIP) Towards Accreditation' to support
      countries in strengthening laboratory services through a stepwise approach toward
      fulfilling the ISO 15189: 2012 requirements. RESULTS: This approach consists of a
      three-tiered framework. Tier 1 represents the minimum requirements corresponding
      to the mandatory criteria for obtaining a licence from the Ministry of Health of
      the participating country. The next two tiers are quality improvement milestones
      that are achieved through the implementation of specific quality management
      system requirements. Laboratories that meet the requirements of the three tiers
      will be encouraged to apply for accreditation. The Caribbean Regional
      Organisation for Standards and Quality hosts the LQMS-SIP Secretariat and will
      work with countries, including the Ministry of Health and stakeholders, including
      laboratory staff, to coordinate and implement LQMS-SIP activities. The Caribbean
      Public Health Agency will coordinate and advocate for the LQMS-SIP
      implementation. CONCLUSION: This article presents the Caribbean LQMS-SIP
      framework and describes how it will be implemented among various countries in the
      region to achieve quality improvement.

PMID- 28879150
TI  - Failure of BACTECTM MGIT 960TM to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex
      within a 42-day incubation period.
AB  - For the optimal recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the BACTECTM
      Mycobacterium Growth Indicator Tube 960TM system, an incubation period of 42-56
      days is recommended by the manufacturer. Due to logistical reasons, it is common
      practice to follow an incubation period of 42 days. We undertook a retrospective
      study to document positive Mycobacterium Growth Indicator Tube cultures beyond
      the 42-day incubation period. In total, 98/110 (89%) were positive for M.
      tuberculosis complex. This alerted us to M. tuberculosis growth detection failure
      at 42 days.

PMID- 28879151
TI  - Programmatic implications of implementing the relational algebraic capacitated
      location (RACL) algorithm outcomes on the allocation of laboratory sites, test
      volumes, platform distribution and space requirements.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: CD4 testing in South Africa is based on an integrated tiered
      service delivery model that matches testing demand with capacity. The National
      Health Laboratory Service has predominantly implemented laboratory-based CD4
      testing. Coverage gaps, over-/under-capacitation and optimal placement of point
      of-care (POC) testing sites need investigation. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the
      impact of relational algebraic capacitated location (RACL) algorithm outcomes on
      the allocation of laboratory and POC testing sites. METHODS: The RACL algorithm
      was developed to allocate laboratories and POC sites to ensure coverage using a
      set coverage approach for a defined travel time (T). The algorithm was repeated
      for three scenarios (A: T = 4; B: T = 3; C: T = 2 hours). Drive times for a
      representative sample of health facility clusters were used to approximate T.
      Outcomes included allocation of testing sites, Euclidian distances and test
      volumes. Additional analysis included platform distribution and space requirement
      assessment. Scenarios were reported as fusion table maps. RESULTS: Scenario A
      would offer a fully-centralised approach with 15 CD4 laboratories without any POC
      testing. A significant increase in volumes would result in a four-fold increase
      at busier laboratories. CD4 laboratories would increase to 41 in scenario B and
      61 in scenario C. POC testing would be offered at two sites in scenario B and 20
      sites in scenario C. CONCLUSION: The RACL algorithm provides an objective
      methodology to address coverage gaps through the allocation of CD4 laboratories
      and POC sites for a given T. The algorithm outcomes need to be assessed in the
      context of local conditions.

PMID- 28879152
TI  - National laboratory policies and plans in sub-Saharan African countries: gaps and
      opportunities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 2008 Maputo Declaration calls for the development of dedicated
      national laboratory policies and strategic plans supporting the enhancement of
      laboratory services in response to the long-lasting relegation of medical
      laboratory systems in sub-Saharan Africa. OBJECTIVES: This study describes the
      extent to which laboratories are addressed in the national health policies and
      plans created directly following the 2008 momentum for laboratory strengthening.
      METHOD: National health policies and plans from 39 sub-Saharan African countries,
      valid throughout and beyond 31 December 2010 were collected in March 2012 and
      analysed during 2013. RESULTS: Laboratories were addressed by all countries.
      Human resources were the most addressed topic (38/39) and finances and budget
      were the least addressed (< 5/39). Countries lagging behind in national
      laboratory strategic planning at the end of 2013 (17/39) were more likely to be
      francophone countries located in West-Central Africa (13/17) and have
      historically low HIV prevalence. The most common gaps anticipated to compromise
      the implementation of the policies and plans were the disconnect between policies
      and plans, under-developed finance sections and monitoring and evaluating
      frameworks, absence of points of reference to define gaps and shortages, and
      inappropriate governance structure. CONCLUSION: The availability of laboratory
      policy and plan implementation can be improved by strictly applying a more
      standardised methodology for policy development, using harmonised norms to set
      targets for improvement and intensifying the establishment of directorates of
      laboratory services directly under the authority of Ministries of Health.
      Horizontal programmes such as the Global Health Security Agenda could provide the
      necessary impulse to take the least advanced countries on board.

PMID- 28879153
TI  - Implementing SLMTA in the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service: lessons
      learned.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service (KNBTS) is mandated to
      provide safe and sufficient blood and blood components for the country. In 2013,
      the KNBTS National Testing Laboratory and the six regional blood transfusion
      centres were enrolled in the Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward
      Accreditation (SLMTA) programme. The process was supported by Global Communities
      with funding from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
      METHODS: The SLMTA implementation at KNBTS followed the standard three-workshop
      series, on-site mentorships and audits. Baseline, midterm and exit audits were
      conducted at the seven facilities, using a standard checklist to measure
      progress. Given that SLMTA was designed for clinical and public health
      laboratories, key stakeholders, guided by Global Communities, tailored SLMTA
      materials to address blood transfusion services, and oriented trainers, auditors
      and mentors on the same. RESULTS: The seven facilities moved from an average of
      zero stars at baseline to an average of three stars at the exit audit. The
      average baseline audit score was 38% (97 points), midterm 71% (183 points) and
      exit audit 79% (205 points). The Occurrence Management and Process Improvement
      quality system essential had the largest improvement (at 67 percentage points),
      from baseline to exit, whereas Facilities and Safety had the smallest improvement
      (at 31 percentage points). CONCLUSION: SLMTA can be an effective tool for
      preparing a blood transfusion service for accreditation. Key success factors
      included customising SLMTA to blood transfusion activities; sensitising trainers,
      mentors and auditors on operations of blood transfusion service; creating SLMTA
      champions in key departments; and integrating other blood transfusion-specific
      accreditation standards into SLMTA.

PMID- 28879154
TI  - Performance evaluation of tuberculosis smear microscopists working at rechecking
      laboratories in Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis. According to the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of
      Health's 2013-2014 report, the tuberculosis case detection rate was 53.7%, which
      was below the target of 81% set for that year. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the
      performance of tuberculosis smear microscopists at external quality assessment
      rechecking laboratories in Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      conducted at 81 laboratories from April to July 2015. Panel slides were prepared
      and validated at the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory. The validated
      panel slides were used to evaluate the performance of microscopists at these
      laboratories compared with readers from the reference laboratory. RESULTS: A
      total of 389 external quality assessment rechecking laboratory microscopists
      participated in the study, of which 268 (68.9%) worked at hospitals, 241 (62%)
      had more than five years of work experience, 201 (51.7%) held Bachelors degrees,
      and 319 (82%) reported tuberculosis smear microscopy training. Overall, 324
      (83.3%) participants scored >= 80%. Sensitivity for detecting tuberculosis
      bacilli was 84.5% and specificity was 93.1%. The overall percent agreement
      between participants and reference readers was 87.1 (kappa=0.72). All 10 slides
      were correctly read (i.e., scored 100%) by 80 (20.6%) participants, 156 (40.1%)
      scored 90% - 95%, 88 (22.6%) scored 80% - 85% and 65 (16.7%) scored below 80%.
      There were 806 (20.7%) total errors, with 143 (3.7%) major and 663 (17%) minor
      errors. CONCLUSION: The overall performance of participants in reading the slides
      showed good agreement with the reference readers. Most errors were minor, and the
      ability to detect tuberculosis bacilli can be improved through building the
      capacity of professionals.

PMID- 28879155
TI  - Cylindrocarpon lichenicola keratomycosis in Nigeria: the challenge of limited
      access to effective antimicrobials.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We report a rare cause of keratitis, due to Cylindrocarpon
      lichenicola, in a farmer with keratomycosis. Despite the acknowledged virulence
      of this fungus, a suitable antifungal for its management was not accessible. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 67-year-old farmer presented with a two-week history of pain,
      mucopurulent discharge, redness and a corneal ulcer with a visual acuity of hand
      movement in the right eye. With a working diagnosis of infective keratitis,
      corneal scrapings were taken under a slit lamp biomicroscope for microbiological
      testing. Direct lactophenol cotton blue mounts revealed septate fungal hyphae,
      while fungal culture on Sabouraud dextrose agar at room temperature grew woolly
      mould phenotypically consistent with C. lichenicola. MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME: The
      patient was started on hourly topical natamycin (5%), ciprofloxacin (0.3%), two
      hourly instillation of tobramycin (0.3%) and atropine (1%) twice daily for three
      months following the isolation of the fungus. The eye healed with a corneal scar
      and no improvements in visual acuity. DISCUSSION: This infection was difficult to
      manage due to the inaccessibility of a suitable antifungal, namely, voriconazole
      in our setting. Hence, there is a need for prompt identification and early
      institution of suitable antifungals in any patient with suspected keratomycosis.

PMID- 28879156
TI  - Africa CDC: Establishing Integrated Surveillance and Laboratory Networks for
      Rapid Disease Detection and Response, Control, Prevention, and Clinical Care in
      Africa.

PMID- 28879157
TI  - Evaluation of the SD Bioline TB Ag MPT64 test for identification of Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis complex from liquid cultures in Southwestern Uganda.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To confirm presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, some
      tuberculosis culture laboratories still rely on para-nitrobenzoic acid (PNB), a
      traditional technique that requires sub-culturing of clinical isolates and two to
      three weeks to give results. Rapid identification tests have improved turnaround
      times for mycobacterial culture results. Considering the challenges of the PNB
      method, we assessed the performance of the SD Bioline TB Ag MPT64 assay by using
      PNB as gold standard to detect M. tuberculosis complex from acid-fast bacilli
      (AFB) positive cultures. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the
      sensitivity, specificity and turnaround time of the SD MPT64 assay for
      identification of M. tuberculosis complex, in a setting with high prevalence of
      tuberculosis and HIV. METHODS: A convenience sample of 690 patients, with
      tuberculosis symptoms, was enrolled at Epicentre Mbarara Research Centre between
      April 2010 and June 2011. The samples were decontaminated using NALC-NaOH and re
      suspended sediments inoculated in Mycobacterium Growth Indicator Tubes (MGIT)
      media, then incubated at 37  degrees C for a maximum of eight weeks. A random
      sample of 50 known negative cultures and 50 non-tuberculous mycobacteria isolates
      were tested for specificity, while sensitivity was based on AFB positivity. The
      time required from positive culture to reporting of results was also assessed
      with PNB used as the gold standard. RESULTS: Of the 138 cultures that were AFB
      positive, the sensitivity of the SD MPT64 assay was 100.0% [95% CI: 97.3 - 100]
      and specificity was 100.0% (95% CI, 96.4 - 100). The median time from a specimen
      receipt to confirmation of strain was 10 days [IQR: 8-12] with SD MPT64 and 24
      days [IQR: 22-26] with PNB. CONCLUSION: The SD MPT64 assay is comparable to PNB
      for identification of M. tuberculosis complex and reduces the time to detection.

PMID- 28879158
TI  - Tuberculosis diagnostic technology: an African solution ... think rats.

PMID- 28879159
TI  - Molecular characterisation of rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      strains from Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Availability and access to the detection of resistance to anti
      tuberculosis drugs remains a significant challenge in Malawi due to limited
      diagnostic services. The Xpert(r) MTB/RIF can detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      and resistance to rifampicin in a single, rapid assay. Rifampicin-resistant M.
      tuberculosis has not been well studied in Malawi. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to
      determine mutations in the rifampicin resistance determining region (RRDR) of the
      rpoB gene of M. tuberculosis strains which were defined as resistant to
      rifampicin by the Xpert MTB/RIF assay. METHODS: Rifampicin-resistant isolates
      from 43 adult patients (>= 18 years) from various districts of Malawi were
      characterised for mutations in the RRDR (codons 507-533) of the rpoB gene by DNA
      sequencing. RESULTS: Mutations were found in 37/43 (86%) of the resistant
      isolates in codons 511, 512, 513, 516, 522, 526 and 531. The most common
      mutations were in codons 526 (38%), 531 (29.7%) and 516 (16.2%). Mutations were
      not found in 6/43 (14%) of the resistant isolates. No novel rpoB mutations other
      than those previously described were found among the rifampicin-resistant M.
      tuberculosis complex strains. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to characterise
      rifampicin resistance in Malawi. The chain-termination DNA sequencing employed in
      this study is a standard method for the determination of nucleotide sequences and
      can be used to confirm rifampicin resistance obtained using other assays,
      including the Xpert MTB/RIF. Further molecular cluster analysis, such as
      spoligotyping and DNA finger printing, is still required to determine
      transmission dynamics and the epidemiological link of the mutated strains.

PMID- 28879160
TI  - Performance of Xpert(r) MTB/RIF among tuberculosis outpatients in Lilongwe,
      Malawi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Xpert(r) MTB/RIF is a molecular test for the detection of
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance. It is considered to be a
      great advance over smear microscopy and culture. However, there is very little
      information regarding the performance characteristics of Xpert MTB/RIF in Malawi.
      OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the performance of Xpert MTB/RIF in a Malawian
      setting. METHODS: Stored sputum pellets were processed on Xpert MTB/RIF between
      June 2012 and May 2014. Results were compared to mycobacteria growth indicator
      tube and Lowenstein-Jensen cultures, LED fluorescent microscopy and GenoType(r)
      MTBDRplus assay. Rifampicin resistance was confirmed by DNA sequencing. RESULTS:
      Of the 348 specimens with valid Xpert MTB/RIF results, 129/348 (37%) were smear
      positive and 198/348 (57%) were culture-positive. Xpert MTB/RIF demonstrated a
      sensitivity of 93.8% (95% CI 89.4% - 96.8%) and specificity of 97.4% (95% CI
      93.5% - 99.3%), with a positive predictive value of 97.8% (95% CI 94.6% - 99.4%)
      and a negative predictive value of 92.6% (95% CI 87.4% - 96.1%). Xpert MTB/RIF
      correctly identified 185/186 (99.5%) rifampicin-sensitive and 2/2 (100%)
      rifampicin-resistant M. tuberculosis strains. Mutations were not detected by
      sequencing in one isolate which was rifampicin resistant on Xpert MTB/RIF but
      sensitive on MTBDRplus. Four non-tuberculous mycobacteria grew from four smear
      negative specimens, namely, M. avium (n = 1) and M. intracellulare (n = 3). No
      cross-reactivity was observed with any of the non-tuberculous mycobacteria when
      using Xpert MTB/RIF. CONCLUSION: When fully implemented, Xpert MTB/RIF may have
      an impact on patient care in Malawi. The increased diagnostic yield of Xpert
      MTB/RIF over smear microscopy can increase laboratory-confirmed tuberculosis
      detection and ensure that treatment is given to appropriate individuals or
      groups.

PMID- 28879161
TI  - Implementation of quality management systems and progress towards accreditation
      of National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratories in Africa.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laboratory services are essential at all stages of the tuberculosis
      care cascade, from diagnosis and drug resistance testing to monitoring response
      to treatment. Enabling access to quality services is a challenge in low-resource
      settings. Implementation of a strong quality management system (QMS) and
      laboratory accreditation are key to improving patient care. OBJECTIVES: The study
      objective was to determine the status of QMS implementation and progress towards
      accreditation of National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratories (NTRLs) in the
      African Region. METHOD: An online questionnaire was administered to NTRL managers
      in 47 World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa member states in the
      region, between February and April 2015, regarding the knowledge of QMS tools and
      progress toward implementation to inform strategies for tuberculosis diagnostic
      services strengthening in the region. RESULTS: A total of 21 laboratories (43.0%)
      had received SLMTA/TB-SLMTA training, of which 10 had also used the Global
      Laboratory Initiative accreditation tool. However, only 36.7% of NTRLs had
      received a laboratory audit, a first step in quality improvement. Most NTRLs
      participated in acid-fast bacilli microscopy external quality assurance (95.8%),
      although external quality assurance for other techniques was lower (60.4% for
      first-line drug susceptibility testing, 25.0% for second-line drug susceptibility
      testing, and 22.9% for molecular testing). Barriers to accreditation included
      lack of training and accreditation programmes. Only 28.6% of NTRLs had developed
      strategic plans and budgets which included accreditation. CONCLUSION: Good
      foundations are in place on the continent from which to scale up accreditation
      efforts. Laboratory audits should be conducted as a first step in developing
      quality improvement action plans. Political commitment and strong leadership are
      needed to drive accreditation efforts; advocacy will require clear evidence of
      patient impact and cost-benefit.

PMID- 28879162
TI  - Mozambique's journey toward accreditation of the National Tuberculosis Reference
      Laboratory.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Internationally-accredited laboratories are recognised for their
      superior test reliability, operational performance, quality management and
      competence. In a bid to meet international quality standards, the Mozambique
      National Institute of Health enrolled the National Tuberculosis Reference
      Laboratory (NTRL) in a continuous quality improvement process towards ISO 15189
      accreditation. Here, we describe the road map taken by the NTRL to achieve
      international accreditation. METHODS: The NTRL adopted the Strengthening
      Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme as a strategy to
      implement a quality management system. After SLMTA, the Mozambique National
      Institute of Health committed to accelerate the NTRL's process toward
      accreditation. An action plan was designed to streamline the process. Quality
      indicators were defined to benchmark progress. Staff were trained to improve
      performance. Mentorship from an experienced assessor was provided. Fulfilment of
      accreditation standards was assessed by the Portuguese Accreditation Board.
      RESULTS: Of the eight laboratories participating in SLMTA, the NTRL was the best
      performing laboratory, achieving a 53.6% improvement over the SLMTA baseline
      conducted in February 2011 to the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process
      Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) assessment in June 2013. During the accreditation
      assessment in September 2014, 25 minor nonconformities were identified and
      addressed. In March 2015, the NTRL received Portuguese Accreditation Board
      recognition of technical competency for fluorescence smear microscopy, and solid
      and liquid culture. The NTRL is the first laboratory in Mozambique to achieve ISO
      15189 accreditation. CONCLUSIONS: From our experience, accreditation was made
      possible by institutional commitment, strong laboratory leadership, staff
      motivation, adequate infrastructure and a comprehensive action plan.

PMID- 28879163
TI  - Diagnostic system strengthening for drug resistant tuberculosis in Nigeria:
      impact and challenges.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis and the
      threat of extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis in HIV hotspots have made the
      detection and treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the sub-Saharan Africa
      setting a global public health priority. OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine the
      impact and challenges of tuberculosis diagnostic capacity development for the
      detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis and bio-surveillance using a modular
      biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory in Nigeria. METHOD: In 2010, the United
      States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme, through the
      Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland,
      United States, deployed a modular, BSL-3 laboratory to support the national
      tuberculosis programme in drug-resistant tuberculosis detection and bio
      surveillance for effective tuberculosis prevention and control. RESULTS: From
      2010 until present, sputum samples from 11 606 suspected cases in 33 states were
      screened for drug-resistant tuberculosis. Of those, 1500 (12.9%) had mono
      resistant tuberculosis strains, and 459 (4.0%) cases had multidrug-resistant
      tuberculosis. Over the last four years, 133 scientists were trained in a train
      the-trainer programme on advanced tuberculosis culture, drug susceptibility
      testing, line-probe assays and Xpert(r) MTB/RIF, in addition to safety operations
      for biosafety facilities. Power instability, running cost and seasonal dust are
      notable challenges to optimal performance and scale up. CONCLUSION: Movable BSL-3
      containment laboratories can be deployed to improve diagnostic capacity for drug
      resistant tuberculosis and bio-surveillance in settings with limited resources.

PMID- 28879164
TI  - Stronger tuberculosis laboratory networks and services in Africa essential to
      ending tuberculosis.

PMID- 28879165
TI  - Developing a customised approach for strengthening tuberculosis laboratory
      quality management systems toward accreditation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quality-assured tuberculosis laboratory services are critical to
      achieve global and national goals for tuberculosis prevention and care.
      Implementation of a quality management system (QMS) in laboratories leads to
      improved quality of diagnostic tests and better patient care. The Strengthening
      Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme has led to
      measurable improvements in the QMS of clinical laboratories. However, progress in
      tuberculosis laboratories has been slower, which may be attributed to the need
      for a structured tuberculosis-specific approach to implementing QMS. We describe
      the development and early implementation of the Strengthening Tuberculosis
      Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (TB SLMTA) programme. DEVELOPMENT: The
      TB SLMTA curriculum was developed by customizing the SLMTA curriculum to include
      specific tools, job aids and supplementary materials specific to the tuberculosis
      laboratory. The TB SLMTA Harmonized Checklist was developed from the World Health
      Organisation Regional Office for Africa Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement
      Process Towards Accreditation checklist, and incorporated tuberculosis-specific
      requirements from the Global Laboratory Initiative Stepwise Process Towards
      Tuberculosis Laboratory Accreditation online tool. IMPLEMENTATION: Four regional
      training-of-trainers workshops have been conducted since 2013. The TB SLMTA
      programme has been rolled out in 37 tuberculosis laboratories in 10 countries
      using the Workshop approach in 32 laboratories in five countries and the Facility
      based approach in five tuberculosis laboratories in five countries. CONCLUSION:
      Lessons learnt from early implementation of TB SLMTA suggest that a structured
      training and mentoring programme can build a foundation towards further quality
      improvement in tuberculosis laboratories. Structured mentoring, and
      institutionalisation of QMS into country programmes, is needed to support
      tuberculosis laboratories to achieve accreditation.

PMID- 28879166
TI  - Tuberculosis diagnostic networks: Moving beyond the laboratory to end
      tuberculosis in Africa.

PMID- 28879167
TI  - Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, Irradiation, and Axitinib Have Diverse
      Effects on Motility and Proliferation of Glioblastoma Multiforme Cells.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor. It is
      highly aggressive with an unfavorable prognosis for the patients despite
      therapies including surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy. One important
      characteristic of highly vascularized GBM is the strong expression of vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF has become a new target in the treatment
      of GBM, and targeted therapies such as the VEGF-receptor blocker axitinib are in
      clinical trials. Most studies focus on VEGF-induced angiogenesis, but only very
      few investigations analyze autocrine or paracrine effects of VEGF on the tumor
      cells. In this study, we examined the impact of VEGF, irradiation, and axitinib
      on cell proliferation and cell motility in human GBM cell lines U-251 and U-373.
      VEGF receptor 2 was shown to be expressed within both cell lines by using PCR and
      immunochemistry. Moreover, we performed 24-h videography to analyze motility, and
      a viability assay for cell proliferation. We observed increasing effects of VEGF
      and irradiation on cell motility in both cell lines, as well as strong inhibiting
      effects on cellular motility by VEGF-receptor blockade using axitinib. Moreover,
      axitinib diminished irradiation induced accelerating effects. While VEGF
      stimulation or irradiation did not affect cell proliferation, axitinib
      significantly decreased cell proliferation in both cell lines. Therefore, the
      impairment of VEGF signaling might have a crucial role in the treatment of GBM.

PMID- 28879168
TI  - The Oncopig Cancer Model: An Innovative Large Animal Translational Oncology
      Platform.
AB  - Despite an improved understanding of cancer molecular biology, immune landscapes,
      and advancements in cytotoxic, biologic, and immunologic anti-cancer
      therapeutics, cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide. More than 8.2
      million deaths were attributed to cancer in 2012, and it is anticipated that
      cancer incidence will continue to rise, with 19.3 million cases expected by 2025.
      The development and investigation of new diagnostic modalities and innovative
      therapeutic tools is critical for reducing the global cancer burden. Toward this
      end, transitional animal models serve a crucial role in bridging the gap between
      fundamental diagnostic and therapeutic discoveries and human clinical trials.
      Such animal models offer insights into all aspects of the basic science-clinical
      translational cancer research continuum (screening, detection, oncogenesis, tumor
      biology, immunogenicity, therapeutics, and outcomes). To date, however, cancer
      research progress has been markedly hampered by lack of a genotypically,
      anatomically, and physiologically relevant large animal model. Without
      progressive cancer models, discoveries are hindered and cures are improbable.
      Herein, we describe a transgenic porcine model-the Oncopig Cancer Model (OCM)-as
      a next-generation large animal platform for the study of hematologic and solid
      tumor oncology. With mutations in key tumor suppressor and oncogenes, TP53R167H
      and KRASG12D , the OCM recapitulates transcriptional hallmarks of human disease
      while also exhibiting clinically relevant histologic and genotypic tumor
      phenotypes. Moreover, as obesity rates increase across the global population,
      cancer patients commonly present clinically with multiple comorbid conditions.
      Due to the effects of these comorbidities on patient management, therapeutic
      strategies, and clinical outcomes, an ideal animal model should develop cancer on
      the background of representative comorbid conditions (tumor macro- and
      microenvironments). As observed in clinical practice, liver cirrhosis frequently
      precedes development of primary liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma. The OCM
      has the capacity to develop tumors in combination with such relevant
      comorbidities. Furthermore, studies on the tumor microenvironment demonstrate
      similarities between OCM and human cancer genomic landscapes. This review
      highlights the potential of this and other large animal platforms as transitional
      models to bridge the gap between basic research and clinical practice.

PMID- 28879169
TI  - Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Neuronal Infection Perturbs Golgi Apparatus Integrity
      through Activation of Src Tyrosine Kinase and Dyn-2 GTPase.
AB  - Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a ubiquitous pathogen that establishes a
      latent persistent neuronal infection in humans. The pathogenic effects of
      repeated viral reactivation in infected neurons are still unknown. Several
      studies have reported that during HSV-1 epithelial infection, the virus could
      modulate diverse cell signaling pathways remodeling the Golgi apparatus (GA)
      membranes, but the molecular mechanisms implicated, and the functional
      consequences to neurons is currently unknown. Here we report that infection of
      primary neuronal cultures with HSV-1 triggers Src tyrosine kinase activation and
      subsequent phosphorylation of Dynamin 2 GTPase, two players with a role in GA
      integrity maintenance. Immunofluorescence analyses showed that HSV-1 productive
      neuronal infection caused a scattered and fragmented distribution of the GA
      through the cytoplasm, contrasting with the uniform perinuclear distribution
      pattern observed in control cells. In addition, transmission electron microscopy
      revealed swollen cisternae and disorganized stacks in HSV-1 infected neurons
      compared to control cells. Interestingly, PP2, a selective inhibitor for Src
      family kinases markedly reduced these morphological alterations of the GA induced
      by HSV-1 infection strongly supporting the possible involvement of Src tyrosine
      kinase. Finally, we showed that HSV-1 tegument protein VP11/12 is necessary but
      not sufficient to induce Dyn2 phosphorylation. Altogether, these results show
      that HSV-1 neuronal infection triggers activation of Src tyrosine kinase,
      phosphorylation of Dynamin 2 GTPase, and perturbation of GA integrity. These
      findings suggest a possible neuropathogenic mechanism triggered by HSV-1
      infection, which could involve dysfunction of the secretory system in neurons and
      central nervous system.

PMID- 28879171
TI  - The Genomics of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
AB  - Significant variability has been observed in the development and severity of
      neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) among neonates exposed to prenatal opioids.
      Since maternal opioid dose does not appear to correlate directly with neonatal
      outcome, maternal, placental, and fetal genomic variants may play important roles
      in NAS. Previous studies in small cohorts have demonstrated associations of
      variants in maternal and infant genes that encode the MU-opioid receptor (OPRM1),
      catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), and prepronociceptin (PNOC) with a shorter
      length of hospital stay and less need for treatment in neonates exposed to
      opioids in utero. Consistently falling genomic sequencing costs and computational
      approaches to predict variant function will permit unbiased discovery of genomic
      variants and gene pathways associated with differences in maternal and fetal
      opioid pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and with placental opioid transport
      and metabolism. Discovery of pathogenic variants should permit better delineation
      of the risk of developing more severe forms of NAS. This review provides a
      summary of the current role of genomic factors in the development of NAS and
      suggests strategies for further genomic discovery.

PMID- 28879170
TI  - Helicobacter pylori cagA+ Is Associated with Milder Duodenal Histological Changes
      in Chilean Celiac Patients.
AB  - HIGHLIGHTS What is already known about this subject?Celiac disease (CD) has a
      high clinical and histological diversity and the mechanisms underlying this
      phenomenon remain elusive.H. pylori is a bacterium that chronically infect
      gastric and duodenal mucosa activating both a Th1/Th17 and T-reg pathways.The
      role of H. pylori (and the effect of their virulence factors) in CD have not yet
      completely elucidated.What are the new findings?cagA+ H. pylori strains are
      associated to milder histological damage in infected CD patients.In active-CD
      patients the presence of cagA+ H. pylori is associated to an increase in T-reg
      markers, contrasting with a downregulation in cagA+ infected potential-CD
      individuals.How might it impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable
      future?The identification of microbiological factors that could modulate
      inflammation and clinical expression of CD may be used in the future as
      preventive strategies or as supplementary treatment in patients that cannot
      achieve complete remission, contributing to the better care of these patients.
      Background: Mechanisms underlying the high clinical and histological diversity of
      celiac disease (CD) remain elusive. Helicobacter pylori (Hp) chronically infects
      gastric and duodenal mucosa and has been associated with protection against some
      immune-mediated conditions, but its role (specifically of cagA+ strains) in CD is
      unclear. Objective: To assess the relationship between gastric Hp infection
      (cagA+ strains) and duodenal histological damage in patients with CD. Design:
      Case-control study including patients with active-CD, potential-CD and non-celiac
      individuals. Clinical presentation, HLA genotype, Hp/cagA gene detection in
      gastric mucosa, duodenal histology, Foxp3 positive cells and TGF-beta expression
      in duodenal lamina propria were analyzed. Results: We recruited 116 patients, 29
      active-CD, 37 potential-CD, and 50 non-CD controls. Hp detection was similar in
      the three groups (~30-40%), but cagA+ strains were more common in infected
      potential-CD than in active-CD (10/11 vs. 4/10; p = 0.020) and non-CD (10/20; p =
      0.025). Among active-CD patients, Foxp3 positivity was significantly higher in
      subjects with cagA+ Hp+ compared to cagA- Hp+ (p < 0.01) and Hp- (p < 0.01). In
      cagA+ Hp+ individuals, Foxp3 positivity was also higher comparing active- to
      potential-CD (p < 0.01). TGF-beta expression in duodenum was similar in active-CD
      with cagA+ Hp+ compared to Hp- and was significantly downregulated in cagA+
      potential-CD subjects compared to other groups. Conclusion: Hp infection rates
      were similar among individuals with/without CD, but infection with cagA+ strains
      was associated with milder histological damage in celiac patients infected by Hp,
      and in active-CD cases with higher expression of T-reg markers. Results suggest
      that infection by cagA+ Hp may be protective for CD progression, or conversely,
      that these strains are prone to colonize intestinal mucosa with less severe
      damage.

PMID- 28879173
TI  - Integrating Public Health and Health Promotion Practice in the Medical
      Curriculum: A Self-Directed Team-Based Project Approach.
AB  - Preparing health professionals in health promotion (HP) and disease prevention is
      essential for improvement of population health, community HP, and better health
      care for individuals. The aim of this article is to describe an HP project in the
      form of a major self-directed project-based learning task integrated within the
      curriculum in the second year of the medical degree program at United Arab
      Emirates University. The project introduces students to public health and HP
      practice and develops students' literature searching, writing, presentation
      skills, and team work. Students learn the principles underlying behavioral
      change, and the design of HP programs and materials, through a lecture format.
      Small groups of students each choose a specific health topic for their project.
      Over 11 weeks, students obtain information about their topic from appropriate
      sources (library, PubMed, Google Scholar, credible health sources such as World
      Health Organization). Using the principles learned in the lectures, they develop
      appropriate materials for their target audience: for example, posters, a
      pamphlet, social media content, or a video or radio message. Students seek advice
      from specialist faculty as needed. In week 12, each team presents their project
      background, rationale, and materials to their colleagues in a seminar format open
      to all faculty. They then submit the materials they developed for assessment.
      Group marks are assigned for presentations and materials. Key concepts are
      assessed by multiple choice questions in comprehensive course examinations. By
      participation in the HP project, many students develop a solid background in
      prevention. The information retrieval, writing, and presentation skills, as well
      as experience of team work, are valuable both for the remaining years of their
      training and their future careers.

PMID- 28879174
TI  - Mobile Technology to Increase HIV/HCV Testing and Overdose Prevention/Response
      among People Who Inject Drugs.
AB  - The United States faces dramatically increasing rates of opioid overdose deaths,
      as well as persistent ongoing problems of undiagnosed HIV and HCV infection.
      These problems commonly occur together in substance using populations that have
      limited, if any, access to primary care and other routine health services. To
      collectively address all three issues, we developed the Mobile Intervention Kit
      (MIK), a tablet computer-based intervention designed to provide overdose
      prevention and response training and to facilitate HIV/HCV testing in community
      settings. Intervention content was produced in collaboration with experienced
      street outreach workers who appear onscreen in a series of educational videos. A
      preliminary pilot test of the MIK in a Bronx, NY street outreach syringe exchange
      program found the MIK is feasible and highly acceptable to a population of people
      who inject drugs. Participants accepted HIV and HCV testing post-intervention, as
      well as naloxone training to reverse overdose events. Pre-post tests also showed
      significant increases in knowledge of overdose prevention, HIV testing
      procedures, and asymptomatic HCV infection. Future iterations of the MIK can be
      optimized for use in community as well as clinical settings nationwide, and
      perhaps globally, with a focus on underserved urban populations.

PMID- 28879175
TI  - Computer Vision Malaria Diagnostic Systems-Progress and Prospects.
AB  - Accurate malaria diagnosis is critical to prevent malaria fatalities, curb
      overuse of antimalarial drugs, and promote appropriate management of other causes
      of fever. While several diagnostic tests exist, the need for a rapid and highly
      accurate malaria assay remains. Microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests are the
      main diagnostic modalities available, yet they can demonstrate poor performance
      and accuracy. Automated microscopy platforms have the potential to significantly
      improve and standardize malaria diagnosis. Based on image recognition and machine
      learning algorithms, these systems maintain the benefits of light microscopy and
      provide improvements such as quicker scanning time, greater scanning area, and
      increased consistency brought by automation. While these applications have been
      in development for over a decade, recently several commercial platforms have
      emerged. In this review, we discuss the most advanced computer vision malaria
      diagnostic technologies and investigate several of their features which are
      central to field use. Additionally, we discuss the technological and policy
      barriers to implementing these technologies in low-resource settings world-wide.

PMID- 28879172
TI  - Epigenetic Matters: The Link between Early Nutrition, Microbiome, and Long-term
      Health Development.
AB  - Epigenetic modifications are among the most important mechanisms by which
      environmental factors can influence early cellular differentiation and create new
      phenotypic traits during pregnancy and within the neonatal period without
      altering the deoxyribonucleic acid sequence. A number of antenatal and postnatal
      factors, such as maternal and neonatal nutrition, pollutant exposure, and the
      composition of microbiota, contribute to the establishment of epigenetic changes
      that can not only modulate the individual adaptation to the environment but also
      have an influence on lifelong health and disease by modifying inflammatory
      molecular pathways and the immune response. Postnatal intestinal colonization, in
      turn determined by maternal flora, mode of delivery, early skin-to-skin contact
      and neonatal diet, leads to specific epigenetic signatures that can affect the
      barrier properties of gut mucosa and their protective role against later insults,
      thus potentially predisposing to the development of late-onset inflammatory
      diseases. The aim of this review is to outline the epigenetic mechanisms of
      programming and development acting within early-life stages and to examine in
      detail the role of maternal and neonatal nutrition, microbiota composition, and
      other environmental factors in determining epigenetic changes and their short-
      and long-term effects.

PMID- 28879176
TI  - Nature, Eco, and Adventure Therapies for Mental Health and Chronic Disease.

PMID- 28879177
TI  - Comparison of Orthodontic Medicaid Funding in the United States 2006 to 2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Orthodontic treatment is reimbursed by Medicaid based on
      orthodontic and financial need with qualifiers determined by individual states.
      Changes in Medicaid-funded orthodontic treatment following the "Great Recession"
      in 2007 and the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 were compared for
      the 50 United States and the District of Columbia to better understand
      disparities in access to care. The results from this 2015 survey were compared to
      data gathered in 2006 (1). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medicaid officials were
      contacted by email, telephone, or postal mail regarding the age limit for
      treatment, practitioner type who can determine eligibility and provide treatment,
      records required for case review, and rate and frequency of reimbursement. When
      not attained by direct contact, the information was gleaned from online websites,
      provider manuals, and state orthodontists. RESULTS: Information gathered from 50
      states and the District of Columbia documents that Medicaid program
      characteristics and expenditures continue to vary by state. Expenditures and
      reimbursement rates have decreased since 2006 and vary widely by geographic
      region. Some states have tightened restrictions on qualifiers and increased
      submission requirements by providers. CONCLUSION: The variation and lack of
      uniformity that still exists among Medicaid orthodontic programs in different
      states creates disparities in orthodontic care for US citizens. Barriers to care
      for Medicaid-funded orthodontic treatment have increased since 2006.

PMID- 28879178
TI  - Identification of Delivery Models for the Provision of Predictive Genetic Testing
      in Europe: Protocol for a Multicentre Qualitative Study and a Systematic Review
      of the Literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The appropriate application of genomic technologies in healthcare
      is surrounded by many concerns. In particular, there is a lack of evidence on
      what constitutes an optimal genetic service delivery model, which depends on the
      type of genetic test and healthcare context considered. The present project aims
      to identify, classify, and evaluate delivery models for the provision of
      predictive genetic testing in Europe and in selected Anglophone extra-European
      countries (the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). It also sets out to
      survey the European public health community's readiness to incorporate public
      health genomics into their practice. MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT: The project
      consists of (i) a systematic review of published literature and selected country
      websites, (ii) structured interviews with health experts on the genetic service
      delivery models in their respective countries, and (iii) a survey of European
      Public Health Association (EUPHA) members' knowledge and attitudes toward
      genomics applications in clinical practice. The inclusion criteria for the
      systematic review are that articles be published in the period 2000-2015; be in
      English or Italian; and be from European countries or from Canada, the USA,
      Australia, or New Zealand. Additional policy documents will be retrieved from
      represented countries' government-affiliated websites. The results of the
      research will be disseminated through the EUPHA network, the Italian Network for
      Genomics in Public Health (GENISAP), and seminars and workshops. EXPECTED IMPACT
      OF THE STUDY ON PUBLIC HEALTH: The transfer of genomic technologies from research
      to clinical application is influenced not only by several factors inherent to
      research goals and delivery of healthcare but also by external and commercial
      interests that may cause the premature introduction of genetic tests in the
      public and private sectors. Furthermore, current genetic services are delivered
      without a standardized set of process and outcome measures, which makes the
      evaluation of healthcare services difficult. The present study will identify and
      classify delivery models and, subsequently, establish which are appropriate for
      the provision of predictive genetic testing in Europe by comparing sets of
      process and outcome measures. In this way, the study will provide a basis for
      future recommendations to decision makers involved in the financing, delivery,
      and consumption of genetic services.

PMID- 28879180
TI  - Gene Expression Patterns in Brachiopod Larvae Refute the "Brachiopod-Fold"
      Hypothesis.

PMID- 28879179
TI  - Capturing the Cranio-Caudal Signature of a Turn with Inertial Measurement
      Systems: Methods, Parameters Robustness and Reliability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Turning is a challenging mobility task requiring coordination and
      postural stability. Optimal turning involves a cranio-caudal sequence (i.e., the
      head initiates the motion, followed by the trunk and the pelvis), which has been
      shown to be altered in patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as
      Parkinson's disease as well as in fallers and frails. Previous studies have
      suggested that the cranio-caudal sequence exhibits a specific signature
      corresponding to the adopted turn strategy. Currently, the assessment of cranio
      caudal sequence is limited to biomechanical labs which use camera-based systems;
      however, there is a growing trend to assess human kinematics with wearable
      sensors, such as attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS), which enable
      recording of raw inertial signals (acceleration and angular velocity) from which
      the orientation of the platform is estimated. In order to enhance the
      comprehension of complex processes, such as turning, signal modeling can be
      performed. AIM: The current study investigates the use of a kinematic-based
      model, the sigma-lognormal model, to characterize the turn cranio-caudal
      signature as assessed with AHRS. METHODS: Sixteen asymptomatic adults (mean age =
      69.1 +/- 7.5 years old) performed repeated 10-m Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) with 180
      degrees  turns, at varying speed. Head and trunk kinematics were assessed with
      AHRS positioned on each segments. Relative orientation of the head to the trunk
      was then computed for each trial and relative angular velocity profile was
      derived for the turn phase. Peak relative angle (variable) and relative velocity
      profiles modeled using a sigma-lognormal approach (variables: Neuromuscular
      command amplitudes and timing parameters) were used to extract and characterize
      the cranio-caudal signature of each individual during the turn phase. RESULTS:
      The methodology has shown good ability to reconstruct the cranio-caudal signature
      (signal-to-noise median of 17.7). All variables were robust to speed variations
      (p > 0.124). Peak relative angle and commanded amplitudes demonstrated moderate
      to strong reliability (ICC between 0.640 and 0.808). CONCLUSION: The cranio
      caudal signature assessed with the sigma-lognormal model appears to be a
      promising avenue to assess the efficiency of turns.

PMID- 28879181
TI  - Regulation of the Sar1 GTPase Cycle Is Necessary for Large Cargo Secretion from
      the Endoplasmic Reticulum.
AB  - Proteins synthesized within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are transported to the
      Golgi via coat protein complex II (COPII)-coated vesicles. The formation of COPII
      coated vesicles is regulated by the GTPase cycle of Sar1. Activated Sar1 is
      recruited to ER membranes and forms a pre-budding complex with cargoes and the
      inner-coat complex. The outer-coat complex then stimulates Sar1 inactivation and
      completes vesicle formation. The mechanisms of forming transport carriers are
      well-conserved among species; however, in mammalian cells, several cargo
      molecules such as collagen, and chylomicrons are too large to be accommodated in
      conventional COPII-coated vesicles. Thus, special cargo-receptor complexes are
      required for their export from the ER. cTAGE5/TANGO1 complexes and their isoforms
      have been identified as cargo receptors for these macromolecules. Recent reports
      suggest that the cTAGE5/TANGO1 complex interacts with the GEF and the GAP of Sar1
      and tightly regulates its GTPase cycle to accomplish large cargo secretion.

PMID- 28879182
TI  - Vasopressin Receptor Antagonists in Hyponatremia: Uses and Misuses.
AB  - Decreases in the concentration of sodium in plasma constitute hyponatremia, the
      commonest electrolyte disorder in clinical medicine. It is now well established
      that its presence conveys an increased mortality risk even when the decrement is
      mild. In addition, recent evidence suggests that chronic and apparently
      asymptomatic hyponatremia is associated with increased morbidity including
      neurocognitive deficits and bone fractures. Furthermore, hyponatremia is
      associated with higher health care-related expenses. Consequently, exploring new
      therapeutic strategies that increase plasma sodium in a safe and effective manner
      is of paramount importance. In this regard, there are scant data to support the
      use of traditional management strategies for hyponatremia (fluid restriction,
      salt tablets, loop diuretics, and normal saline). Furthermore, data from a large
      hyponatremia registry reveal the limited efficacy of these therapies. More
      recently vasopressin receptor antagonists provide a promising treatment for
      hyponatremia by targeting its most common mechanism, namely, increased
      vasopressin activity. However, uncertainty still lingers as to the optimal
      indications for the use of vasopressin receptor antagonists in hyponatremia and a
      few reports have described complications resulting from their misuse. This review
      summarizes the appropriate and inappropriate uses of vasopressin receptor
      antagonists in the treatment of hyponatremia.

PMID- 28879183
TI  - Deep Sequencing Transcriptome Analysis of Murine Wound Healing: Effects of a
      Multicomponent, Multitarget Natural Product Therapy-Tr14.
AB  - Wound healing involves an orchestrated response that engages multiple processes,
      such as hemostasis, cellular migration, extracellular matrix synthesis, and in
      particular, inflammation. Using a murine model of cutaneous wound repair, the
      transcriptome was mapped from 12 h to 8 days post-injury, and in response to a
      multicomponent, multi-target natural product, Tr14. Using single-molecule RNA
      sequencing (RNA-seq), there were clear temporal changes in known transcripts
      related to wound healing pathways, and additional novel transcripts of both
      coding and non-coding genes. Tr14 treatment modulated >100 transcripts related to
      key wound repair pathways, such as response to wounding, wound contraction, and
      cytokine response. The results provide the most precise and comprehensive
      characterization to date of the transcriptome's response to skin damage, repair,
      and multicomponent natural product therapy. By understanding the wound repair
      process, and the effects of natural products, it should be possible to intervene
      more effectively in diseases involving aberrant repair.

PMID- 28879184
TI  - Hsp78 (78 kDa Heat Shock Protein), a Representative AAA Family Member Found in
      the Mitochondrial Matrix of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities (AAA+) form a superfamily of
      proteins involved in a variety of functions and are characterized by the presence
      of an ATPase module containing two conserved motifs known as Walker A and Walker
      B. ClpB and Hsp104, chaperones that have disaggregase activities, are members of
      a subset of this superfamily, known as the AAA family, and are characterized by
      the presence of a second highly conserved motif, known as the second region of
      homology (SRH). Hsp104 and its homolog Hsp78 (78 kDa heat shock protein) are
      representatives of the Clp family in yeast. The structure and function of Hsp78
      is reviewed and the possible existence of other homologs in metazoans is
      discussed.

PMID- 28879186
TI  - Bullying and Quality of Life in Pediatric Alopecia Areata.
AB  - Alopecia areata (AA) is a clinically heterogeneous disease that is characterized
      by nonscarring hair loss, nail changes, and increased risk of other autoimmune
      disease. During clinical visits, children with AA often report bullying. We
      report survey results that highlight the prevalence of bullying and surrounding
      emotional impact of AA in pediatric patients. We found that bullying was common
      overall and additional psychological impact, including impairment of social and
      home life, was even more common. Children of all ages experienced bullying. Boys
      reported increased physical bullying. Interestingly, those with more severe
      disease and longer duration of disease experienced less bullying than those with
      less severe disease.

PMID- 28879185
TI  - Increased Potency of a Bi-specific TL1A-ADAM17 (TACE) Inhibitor by Cell Surface
      Targeting.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a multifactorial disease characterized by the
      dysregulated activity of many pro-inflammatory factors. Thus, bi-specific
      inhibitors for the simultaneous inhibition of two pro-inflammatory factors can
      exhibit high therapeutic potential. Here, we developed a novel bi-specific
      inhibitor targeting the TL1A cytokine and ADAM17/TACE metalloprotease.
      Biochemical analysis of the bi-specific inhibitor revealed high TL1A binding and
      TACE inhibition that is similar to the two respective mono-specific inhibitors.
      Interestingly, cell based assays for TL1A inhibition revealed strong synergism
      between the inhibitory domains showing an up to 80-fold increase in potency of
      the bi-specific inhibitor. The dramatic increase in potency is associated with
      binding to cell membranes through the TACE inhibitory domain leading to increased
      concentration of the inhibitor on the cell surface. Our study highlights the high
      potential of the simultaneous targeting of cell surface metalloprotease (TACE)
      and soluble pro-inflammatory cytokine (TL1A) as a potential therapeutic approach
      in IBD.

PMID- 28879187
TI  - Clinical and Dermoscopic Features of the Scalp in 31 Patients with
      Dermatomyositis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Scalp involvement is not directly evaluated in patients with
      dermatomyositis (DM). Therefore, the exact frequency of scalp dermatomyositis
      (SDM) and its clinical and trichoscopic characteristics have been poorly
      described. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and
      clinical and dermoscopic features of SDM in patients diagnosed with DM. METHODS:
      We performed a descriptive prospective, cross-sectional observational study that
      included all patients diagnosed with DM at a Mexican academic institute over the
      course of a year. RESULTS: Twenty-four out of 31 patients with DM had scalp
      involvement at clinical examination, with a prevalence of 77.4%. SDM was
      clinically characterized by erythema in all cases, scales in 20 (83.3%) patients,
      nonscarring alopecia in 21 (87.5%) patients, pruritus in 17 (70.8%) patients, and
      poikiloderma of the scalp in 16 (51.6%) patients. Twenty-eight patients were
      evaluated by trichoscopy. The most consistent finding was the presence of
      enlarged capillaries, found in 20 (71.4%) cases, followed by peripilar casts
      (57.1%) and tufting and interfollicular scales in 14 (50%) cases. Twenty-two
      patients also had positive nail fold capillaroscopic features similar to those
      observed by trichoscopy. LIMITATIONS: The simple size was limited. CONCLUSIONS:
      Scalp involvement and alopecia are common in patients with DM, and trichoscopy
      shows features similar to those found at capillaroscopy. Trichoscopy is a very
      important tool for diagnosis of scalp involvement in patients with DM.

PMID- 28879188
TI  - The Use of Direct Immunofluorescence in Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) differs from lichen planopilaris
      (LPP) in many clinical aspects, but histology fails to distinguish between these
      entities. Direct immunofluorescence (DIF) is a diagnostic technique used for
      autoimmune diseases, including those affecting skin and hair. OBJECTIVE: To
      characterize DIF patterns in patients with FFA. METHOD: Data was collected
      retrospectively from FFA cases presenting to the Centre de Sante Sabouraud Hair
      Clinic in Paris from November 2013 to November 2014. RESULTS: Of 149 patients
      with FFA, 44 cases underwent DIF. Thirteen cases showed positive results with
      DIF. Patterns characteristic of LPP and lupus erythematosus were observed, with
      nearly half showing nonspecific staining. CONCLUSION: DIF patterns in patients
      with FFA were variable. This diagnostic technique should be used with caution in
      cases of cicatricial alopecia, particularly FFA.

PMID- 28879189
TI  - An Unusual Periungual Lesion.

PMID- 28879190
TI  - Primary Scarring Alopecia: Clinical-Pathological Review of 72 Cases and Review of
      the Literature.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To analyze the epidemiologic, demographic, clinical, and
      histological characteristics of primary scarring alopecia (PSA) cases diagnosed
      over a 7-year period at the Department of Dermatology, Hospital Clinic,
      Barcelona, Spain. PROCEDURES: Seventy-two patients diagnosed with PSA between
      2006 and 2012 were included. Age, sex, ethnic group, clinical pattern,
      predominant histological infiltrate, final clinical diagnosis, time of onset,
      treatments used, and clinical evolution were evaluated and correlated. RESULTS:
      The ethnic groups were distributed as follows: 93% European-Caucasian, 5% Mestizo
      American, 1% oriental, and 1% Afro-American. Most cases were females (71%), and
      mean age was 51 +/- 6 years. The follicular pattern was the most common, and the
      predominant inflammatory infiltrate was lymphocytic. Lichen planopilaris and
      frontal fibrosing alopecia were the main diagnoses. When correlating clinical
      aspects and histopathology, lymphocytic PSAs had a subacute onset and resulted in
      a nonchanging, more stable form, while neutrophilic PSAs had a more acute onset
      with an evolution of acute outbreaks. PSAs in a late stage with an absent/mild
      infiltrate had a subclinical onset and a slowly progressive or stable evolution.
      CONCLUSIONS: The PSAs are severe trichological conditions. Their high clinical
      and histopathological variability make them a diagnostic and therapeutic
      challenge. MESSAGE OF THE PAPER: Knowing the clinical and histopathological
      aspects of PSAs should be of crucial importance to the dermatologist.

PMID- 28879191
TI  - Patient-Reported Outcomes in Onychomycosis: A Review of Psychometrically
      Evaluated Instruments in Assessing Treatment Effectiveness.
AB  - PURPOSE: Onychomycosis is the most common nail disorder and causes morbidity and
      impaired quality of life (QOL). Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) are patients'
      assessment of their health status or treatment response. PROs help assess what is
      most bothersome to patients to identify targets for intervention. We sought to
      review the PRO instruments currently used to assess QOL and treatment response in
      onychomycosis patients. PROCEDURES: A systematic review was performed by
      searching PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases through December 31,
      2016, to identify all English language literature on onychomycosis, PRO, and QOL.
      RESULTS: Currently, 5 validated PRO instruments exist specifically for
      onychomycosis. Oral therapies were most extensively studied using PRO
      instruments. QOL data generally correlated with clinical change, although
      patients sometimes reported improvement without any clinically significant nail
      clearance. The only psychometrically validated PRO instrument used to evaluate
      treatment response is the OnyCOE-tTM. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians may underestimate
      the impact of onychomycosis on patients. With recent initiatives from health-care
      management organizations to improve patient experience and the recent approval of
      expensive and nonsuperior topical antifungal medications, PROs will be
      increasingly important in onychomycosis to assess patient priorities and optimize
      treatment. Future research should evaluate these instruments in special
      populations and fingernail disease.

PMID- 28879192
TI  - Unsuccessful Treatment of Alopecia Areata with Simvastatin/Ezetimibe: Experience
      in 12 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Alopecia areata is a common immune-mediated hair condition with
      limited treatment options and success rates. There is evidence that statins,
      which are used for reducing atherogenesis and cardiovascular disease, have
      immunomodulatory activities and therefore may also be used for treatment of
      selected dermatologic conditions, including alopecia areata. Among treatments
      evaluated for alopecia areata, oral simvastatin/ezetimibe therapy is currently
      under the scrutiny of expert opinion. METHODS: Prospective observational study of
      the efficacy and tolerability of simvastatin/ezetimibe 40/10 mg (Inegy; MSD Merck
      Sharp & Dohme AG, Lucerne, Switzerland) over a treatment period of 6 months in
      alopecia totalis, universalis, multipatch involvement of the scalp >30%,
      ophiasis, or diffuse alopecia areata. RESULTS: Of the 12 patients included in the
      study, 67% had no hair regrowth, 24% transient diffuse or patchy hair regrowth,
      and 24% patchy regrowth of pigmented hair which was not considered cosmetically
      satisfactory. Adverse effects were observed in 24% of patients, who reported
      myalgia. One patient showed elevation of creatine phosphokinase. CONCLUSION:
      Simvastatin/ezetimibe is not effective for treatment of alopecia areata, at least
      in severe and/or cases refractory to other treatments, either as monotherapy or
      as adjuvant. Ultimately, in choosing such a treatment with questionable benefit,
      one must take the risk of serious adverse effects into careful consideration.

PMID- 28879193
TI  - Minocycline-Induced Blue-Gray Discoloration.

PMID- 28879194
TI  - An Unusual Case of Contact Dermatitis.
AB  - We report a case of acute psoriasiform contact dermatitis of the forehead and
      scalp related to the use of a low-laser light cap. The patient had a positive
      patch test to dimethylol dihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDE), methylisothiazolinone,
      kathon CG, and cobalt. We believe that DMDE in the fabric of the cap was
      responsible for the allergic contact dermatitis in this case as the lesions
      resolved with cessation of cap use.

PMID- 28879195
TI  - A Review of the Use of Biotin for Hair Loss.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Biotin has gained commercial popularity for its claimed benefits on
      healthy hair and nail growth. Despite its reputation, there is limited research
      to support the utility of biotin in healthy individuals. OBJECTIVE: To
      systematically review the literature on biotin efficacy in hair and nail growth.
      METHODS: We conducted a PubMed search of all case reports and randomized clinical
      trials (RCTs) using the following terms: (biotin and hair); (biotin and
      supplementation and hair); (biotin supplementation); (biotin and alopecia);
      (biotin and nails); (biotin and dermatology), and (biotin recommendations).
      RESULTS: We found 18 reported cases of biotin use for hair and nail changes. In
      all cases, patients receiving biotin supplementation had an underlying pathology
      for poor hair or nail growth. All cases showed evidence of clinical improvement
      after receiving biotin. CONCLUSIONS: Though its use as a hair and nail growth
      supplement is prevalent, research demonstrating the efficacy of biotin is
      limited. In cases of acquired and inherited causes of biotin deficiency as well
      as pathologies, such as brittle nail syndrome or uncombable hair, biotin
      supplementation may be of benefit. However, we propose these cases are uncommon
      and that there is lack of sufficient evidence for supplementation in healthy
      individuals.

PMID- 28879196
TI  - Assessment of Whole-Exome Sequence Data in Attempted Suicide within a Bipolar
      Disorder Cohort.
AB  - Suicidal behavior is a complex and devastating phenotype with a heritable
      component that has not been fully explained by existing common genetic variant
      analyses. This study represents the first large-scale DNA sequencing project
      designed to assess the role of rare functional genetic variation in suicidal
      behavior risk. To accomplish this, whole-exome sequencing data for ~19,000 genes
      were generated for 387 bipolar disorder subjects with a history of suicide
      attempt and 631 bipolar disorder subjects with no prior suicide attempts. Rare
      functional variants were assessed in all exome genes as well as pathways
      hypothesized to contribute to suicidal behavior risk. No result survived
      conservative Bonferroni correction, though many suggestive findings have arisen
      that merit additional attention. In addition, nominal support for past
      associations in genes, such as BDNF, and pathways, such as the hypothalamic
      pituitary-adrenal axis, was also observed. Finally, a novel pathway was
      identified that is driven by aldehyde dehydrogenase genes. Ultimately, this
      investigation explores variation left largely untouched by existing efforts in
      suicidal behavior, providing a wealth of novel information to add to future
      investigations, such as meta-analyses.

PMID- 28879197
TI  - A Preliminary Study of the Opioid System and Personality Traits Using Positron
      Emission Tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Personality traits, such as Neuroticism and Extraversion, have been
      implicated in the processing of emotion. The neural correlates most often
      associated with Neuroticism and Extraversion are the insular cortex,
      orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and ventral striatum. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the
      current study was to explore neurotransmitter systems underlying those neural
      correlates and investigate the relationship between personality traits and opioid
      receptor binding potential. METHOD: Twelve healthy participants completed an
      [11C]diprenorphine positron emission tomography scan at rest. Endogenous opioid
      levels as indicated by opioid receptor binding potential was examined in relation
      to personality phenotype. RESULTS: A high score of Neuroticism, a personality
      trait characterized by negative affect, was found to be associated with high
      opioid receptor binding in the right anterior insula. Conversely, a high score of
      Extraversion, a personality trait characterized by positive affect, was found to
      be associated with low opioid receptor binding in the left posterior insula.
      CONCLUSIONS: While preliminary, the results of this study suggest that the
      expression of Neuroticism and Extraversion is related to baseline function of the
      opioid neurotransmitter system in the insular cortex. These findings may help
      elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the expression of personality traits,
      particularly those implicated in affective processing.

PMID- 28879198
TI  - Complement C3 Expression Is Decreased in Autism Spectrum Disorder Subjects and
      Contributes to Behavioral Deficits in Rodents.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with hallmark
      symptoms including social deficits, communication deficits and repetitive
      behaviors. Accumulating evidence suggests a potential role of the immune system
      in the pathophysiology of ASD. The complement system represents one of the major
      effector mechanisms of the innate immune system, and regulates inflammation, and
      orchestrates defense against pathogens. However, the role of CNS complement
      system in ASD is not well understood. In the present study, we found a
      significant increase in C2, C5, and MASP1, but a decrease in C1q, C3, and C4 mRNA
      levels in the middle frontal gyrus of ASD subjects compared to controls.
      Significant decreases in the mRNA levels of 2 key proinflammatory cytokines, IL
      17 and IL-23 were observed in ASD subjects. Our study further demonstrated a
      strong association of complement genes with IL-17 and IL-23, suggesting a
      possible role of the complement system in immune dysregulation in ASD. We
      observed significant associations between complement components and abnormality
      of development scores in subjects with ASD. In rodents, C3 knockdown in the
      prefrontal cortex induced social interaction deficits and repetitive behavior in
      mice. Together, these studies suggest a potential role of C3 in the
      pathophysiology of ASD.

PMID- 28879199
TI  - Low-Density Neuronal Cultures from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.
AB  - Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based technologies offer an unprecedented
      possibility to investigate defects occurring during neuronal differentiation in
      neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, but the density and intricacy
      of intercellular connections in neuronal cultures challenge currently available
      analytic methods. Low-density neuronal cultures facilitate the morphometric and
      functional analysis of neurons. We describe a differentiation protocol to
      generate low-density neuronal cultures (~2,500 neurons/cm2) from human iPSC
      derived neural stem cells/early neural progenitor cells. We generated low-density
      cultures using cells from 3 individuals. We also evaluated the morphometric
      features of neurons derived from 2 of these individuals, one harboring a
      microdeletion on chromosome 15q11.2 and the other without the microdeletion. An
      approximately 7.5-fold increase in the density of dendritic filopodia was
      observed in the neurons with the microdeletion, consistent with previous reports.
      Low-density neuronal cultures enable facile and unbiased comparisons of iPSC
      derived neurons from different individuals or clones.

PMID- 28879200
TI  - The Nuclear Proteome of White and Gray Matter from Schizophrenia Postmortem
      Brains.
AB  - Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a serious neuropsychiatric disorder that manifests through
      several symptoms from early adulthood. Numerous studies over the last decades
      have led to significant advances in increasing our understanding of the factors
      involved in SCZ. For example, mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis has
      provided important insights by uncovering protein dysfunctions inherent to SCZ.
      Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the nuclear proteome of postmortem
      brain tissues from corpus callosum (CC) and anterior temporal lobe (ATL). We show
      an overview of the role of deregulated nuclear proteins in these two main regions
      of the brain: the first, mostly composed of glial cells and axons of neurons, and
      the second, represented mainly by neuronal cell bodies. These samples were
      collected from SCZ patients in an attempt to characterize the role of the nucleus
      in the disease process. With the ATL nucleus enrichment, we found 224 proteins
      present at different levels, and 76 of these were nuclear proteins. In the CC
      analysis, we identified 119 present at different levels, and 24 of these were
      nuclear proteins. The differentially expressed nuclear proteins of ATL are mainly
      associated with the spliceosome, whereas those of the CC region are associated
      with calcium/calmodulin signaling.

PMID- 28879202
TI  - Roadmap to the Digital Transformation of Animal Health Data.

PMID- 28879201
TI  - WNT/beta-Catenin Pathway and Epigenetic Mechanisms Regulate the Pitt-Hopkins
      Syndrome and Schizophrenia Risk Gene TCF4.
AB  - Genetic variation within the transcription factor TCF4 locus can cause the
      intellectual disability and developmental disorder Pitt-Hopkins syndrome (PTHS),
      whereas single-nucleotide polymorphisms within noncoding regions are associated
      with schizophrenia. These genetic findings position TCF4 as a link between
      transcription and cognition; however, the neurobiology of TCF4 remains poorly
      understood. Here, we quantitated multiple distinct TCF4 transcript levels in
      human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural progenitors and differentiated
      neurons, and PTHS patient fibroblasts. We identify two classes of pharmacological
      treatments that regulate TCF4 expression: WNT pathway activation and inhibition
      of class I histone deacetylases. In PTHS fibroblasts, both of these perturbations
      upregulate a subset of TCF4 transcripts. Finally, using chromatin
      immunoprecipitation sequencing in conjunction with genome-wide transcriptome
      analysis, we identified TCF4 target genes that may mediate the effect of TCF4
      loss on neuroplasticity. Our studies identify new pharmacological assays, tools,
      and targets for the development of therapeutics for cognitive disorders.

PMID- 28879203
TI  - A Stakeholder Survey on Live Bird Market Closures Policy for Controlling Highly
      Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Vietnam.
AB  - Extensive research in Vietnam and elsewhere has shown that live bird markets
      (LBMs) play a significant role in the ecology and zoonotic transmission of avian
      influenzas (AIs) including H5N1 and H7N9. Vietnam has a large number of LBMs
      reflecting the consumer preferences for live poultry. Under pressure to mitigate
      risks for H7N9 and other zoonotic AIs, Vietnam is considering, among other
      mitigation measures, temporary closures of LBMs as a policy to reduce risk of AI
      outbreaks. However, the efficacy of market closure is debated, particularly
      because little is known about how poultry traders may react, and whether trading
      may emerge outside formal marketplaces. Combining efforts of anthropologists,
      economists, sociologists, and veterinarians can be useful to elucidate the
      drivers behind poultry traders' reactions and better understanding the barriers
      to implementing risk mitigation measures. In this paper, we present results from
      a stakeholder survey of LBM stakeholders in Vietnam. Our qualitative data show
      that trading outside formal markets is very likely to occur in the event of a
      temporary LBM market closure. Our data show that the poultry value chain in
      Vietnam remains highly flexible, with traders willing and able to trade poultry
      in many possible locations. Our results indicate that simplification of the
      poultry value chain along with strict enforcement, engagement of stakeholders,
      and adequate communication would be a necessary prerequisite before market
      closure could be an effective policy.

PMID- 28879204
TI  - Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast Perfusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Demonstrates
      Reduced Periventricular Cerebral Blood Flow in Dogs with Ventriculomegaly.
AB  - The nature of ventriculomegaly in dogs is still a matter of debate. Signs of
      increased intraventricular pressure and atrophy of the cerebral white matter have
      been found in dogs with ventriculomegaly, which would imply increased
      intraventricular pressure and, therefore, a pathological condition, i.e., to some
      extent. Reduced periventricular blood flow was found in people with high elevated
      intraventricular pressure. The aim of this study was to compare periventricular
      brain perfusion in dogs with and without ventriculomegaly using perfusion
      weighted-magnetic-resonance-imaging to clarify as to whether ventriculomegaly
      might be associated with an increase in intraventricular pressure. Perfusion was
      measured in 32 Cavalier King Charles spaniels (CKCS) with ventriculomegaly, 10
      CKCSs were examined as a control group. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured
      using free-hand regions of interest (ROI) in five brain regions: periventricular
      white matter, caudate nucleus, parietal cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus. CBF
      was significantly lower in the periventricular white matter of the dogs with
      ventriculomegaly (p = 0.0029) but not in the other ROIs. Reduction of
      periventricular CBF might imply increase of intraventricular pressure in
      ventriculomegaly.

PMID- 28879206
TI  - Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Management of Bleeding Rectal Varices.
AB  - Rectal variceal bleeding, though rare, can pose significant morbidity and
      mortality in the wake of treatment failure. Conventional treatment utilizing
      endoscopic glue injection might not be feasible in all cases due to poor
      visualization and inadvertent missing of variceal source of bleed. Endoscopic
      ultrasound (EUS)-guided rectal variceal management is a promising and effective
      modality. We provide real-time images and a video of EUS-guided precision
      management of rectal variceal bleed using coiling and glue in a cirrhotic.

PMID- 28879205
TI  - Pediatric burn resuscitation: past, present, and future.
AB  - Burn injury is a leading cause of unintentional death and injury in children,
      with the majority being minor (less than 10%). However, a significant number of
      children sustain burns greater than 15% total body surface area (TBSA), leading
      to the initiation of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome. These patients
      require IV fluid resuscitation to prevent burn shock and death. Prompt
      resuscitation is critical in pediatric patients due to their small circulating
      blood volumes. Delays in resuscitation can result in increased complications and
      increased mortality. The basic principles of resuscitation are the same in adults
      and children, with several key differences. The unique physiologic needs of
      children must be adequately addressed during resuscitation to optimize outcomes.
      In this review, we will discuss the history of fluid resuscitation, current
      resuscitation practices, and future directions of resuscitation for the pediatric
      burn population.

PMID- 28879207
TI  - Delayed Spontaneous Passage of Gallstones via Cholecystocutaneous Fistula.

PMID- 28879208
TI  - Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitor-Induced Acute Pancreatitis.
AB  - Treatment of acute pancreatitis remains a challenge, with therapy focused on
      supportive care and treating the inciting etiology. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNFalpha) inhibitors have shown promising results treating acute pancreatitis in
      animal models, but they have not been evaluated in human trials yet. A 25-year
      old woman presented with ulcerative colitis. She was unresponsive to
      immunomodulators and developed acute pancreatitis shortly after initiation of a
      TNFalpha inhibitor. Her symptoms subsided after discontinuation of the
      medication, but reemerged when a different TNFalpha inhibitor was introduced to
      control her ulcerative colitis. Other potential etiologies were investigated and
      clinically excluded by laboratory and imaging studies.

PMID- 28879209
TI  - Colorectal Cancer Associated with Strongyloides stercoralis Colitis.
AB  - Strongyloides stercoralis colitis is a severe but easily curable disease with a
      high mortality rate if left untreated. Strongyloidiasis can persist up to several
      decades and may lead to a chronic colitis similar to that seen in inflammatory
      bowel disease (IBD), and the two are often confused. Chronic colitis from IBD is
      associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, so it is plausible that
      chronic colitis from strongyloidiasis may carry a similar risk. Our case report
      associates chronic Strongyloides colitis and colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28879210
TI  - Gastroduodenal Artery Psuedoaneurysm Bleed through a Spontaneous
      Pancreaticoduodenal Fistula as a Result of Acute Necrotizing Pancreatitis.
AB  - Spontaneous pancreaticoduodenal fistulization and arterial psuedoaneurysm
      formation are both complications of acute pancreatitis. We present a 27-year-old
      man with hematemesis who was found to be bleeding from a gastroduodenal artery
      psuedoaneurysm through a spontaneous pancreaticoduodenal fistula as a result of
      severe alcohol-related necrotizing pancreatitis. This is the first reported case
      in the literature to describe this occurrence.

PMID- 28879211
TI  - Common Variable Immunodeficiency with Several Gastrointestinal Manifestations.
AB  - Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is an immunodeficiency disorder with a
      high incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations and an increased risk of
      gastric malignancy. We report a case of a CVID with mild anemia presenting with
      multiple GI manifestations: gastric low-grade dysplasia (LGD), enteropathy with
      villous atrophy, refractory Giardia infection, nodular lymphoid hyperplasia, and
      inflammatory bowel-like disease. The differential diagnosis with celiac sprue
      could be challenging because of CVID enteropathy with villous flattening. Gastric
      LGD in a patient with an increased risk for gastric malignancy makes the
      appropriate surveillance of gastric cancer in CVID challenging.

PMID- 28879212
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of the Complement Inhibitor AMY-101 in a Natural Model of
      Periodontitis in Non-human Primates.
AB  - Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with overactivation of
      the complement system. Recent preclinical studies suggest that host-modulation
      therapies may contribute to effective treatment of human periodontitis, which may
      lead to loss of teeth and function if untreated. We previously showed that
      locally administered AMY-101 (Cp40), a peptidic inhibitor of the central
      complement component C3, can inhibit naturally occurring periodontitis in non
      human primates (NHPs) when given once a week. This study was undertaken to
      determine the local safety of increasing doses of the drug as well as its
      efficacy when given at a reduced frequency or after systemic administration. Our
      findings have determined a local dose of AMY-101 (0.1 mg/site) that is free of
      local irritation and effective when given once every 3 weeks. Moreover, a daily
      subcutaneous dose of AMY-101 (4 mg/kg bodyweight) was protective against NHP
      periodontitis, suggesting that patients treated for systemic disorders (e.g.,
      paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria) can additionally benefit in terms of
      improved periodontal condition. In summary, AMY-101 appears to be a promising
      candidate drug for the adjunctive treatment of human periodontitis, a notion that
      merits investigation in human clinical trials.

PMID- 28879213
TI  - DNA-Loaded Cationic Liposomes Efficiently Function as a Vaccine against Malarial
      Proteins.
AB  - The delivery of antigens as DNA vaccines is an efficient alternative to induce
      immune responses against antigens, which are difficult to produce in recombinant
      form. However, the delivery of naked DNA is ineffective or relies on
      sophisticated ballistic devices. Here, we show a combination of liposome
      application and naked DNA vaccine that successfully overcomes these problems.
      Upon entrapment of plasmids encoding different antigens in cationic particles,
      transfection efficiencies similar to commercial kits were achieved in in vitro
      cell cultures. The liposome-based approach provided strong humoral responses
      against three malarial antigens, namely the Circumsporozoite protein and the C
      terminus of merozoite surface protein 1 from Plasmodium vivax (titers 104 or 103
      104, respectively) and P. falciparum Rhoptry antigen 5 from Plasmodium falciparum
      (titers 103-104). When employed in P. falciparum growth-inhibition assays,
      antibodies demonstrated consistent reinvasion-blocking activities that were dose
      dependent. Liposome-formulated DNA vaccines may prove useful when targets cannot
      be produced as recombinant proteins and when conformation-dependent and highly
      specific antibodies are mandatory.

PMID- 28879215
TI  - Synthesis of adsorbent from Tamarix hispida and modified by lanthanum metal for
      fluoride ions removal from wastewater: Adsorbent characteristics and real
      wastewater treatment data.
AB  - This data article describes a facile method for production of an adsorbent from
      Tamarix hispida wasted wood and modified by lanthanum metal for fluoride ions
      removal from wastewater. The main characteristics of the adsorbent consist of BET
      surface area, functional groups, and elemental analysis is presented. The data
      for attenuating the pollutants from a real wastewater treatment which was
      provided from a glass factory is also represented. More than 90% of fluoride
      content of the real wastewater was treated by the adsorbent. Generally, these
      data would be informative for extend research aim to industrial wastewater
      treatment and those who work in the wastewater treatment plants.

PMID- 28879214
TI  - Chicken domestication changes expression of stress-related genes in brain,
      pituitary and adrenals.
AB  - Domesticated species have an attenuated behavioral and physiological stress
      response compared to their wild counterparts, but the genetic mechanisms
      underlying this change are not fully understood. We investigated gene expression
      of a panel of stress response-related genes in five tissues known for their
      involvement in the stress response: hippocampus, hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal
      glands and liver of domesticated White Leghorn chickens and compared it with the
      wild ancestor of all domesticated breeds, the Red Junglefowl. Gene expression was
      measured both at baseline and after 45 min of restraint stress. Most of the
      changes in gene expression related to stress were similar to mammals, with an
      upregulation of genes such as FKBP5, C-FOS and EGR1 in hippocampus and
      hypothalamus and StAR, MC2R and TH in adrenal glands. We also found a decrease in
      the expression of CRHR1 in the pituitary of chickens after stress, which could be
      involved in negative feedback regulation of the stress response. Furthermore, we
      observed a downregulation of EGR1 and C-FOS in the pituitary following stress,
      which could be a potential link between stress and its effects on reproduction
      and growth in chickens. We also found changes in the expression of important
      genes between breeds such as GR in the hypothalamus, POMC and PC1 in the
      pituitary and CYP11A1 and HSD3B2 in the adrenal glands. These results suggest
      that the domesticated White Leghorn may have a higher capacity for negative
      feedback of the HPA axis, a lower capacity for synthesis of ACTH in the pituitary
      and a reduced synthesis rate of corticosterone in the adrenal glands compared to
      Red Junglefowl. All of these findings could explain the attenuated stress
      response in the domesticated birds.

PMID- 28879216
TI  - Data on the construction of a recombinant HEK293 cell line overexpressing hERG
      potassium channel and examining the presence of hERG mRNA and protein expression.
AB  - The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled
      "The effects of deoxyelephantopin on the cardiac delayed rectifier potassium
      channel current (IKr) and human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) expression"
      (Y.F. Teah, M.A. Abduraman, A. Amanah, M.I. Adenan, S.F. Sulaiman, M.L. Tan) [1],
      which the possible hERG blocking properties of deoxyelephantopin were
      investigated. This article describes the construction of human embryonic kidney
      293 (HEK293) cells overexpressing HERG potassium channel and verification of the
      presence of hERG mRNA and protein expression in this recombinant cell line.

PMID- 28879217
TI  - Data on SEM, TEM and Raman Spectra of doped, and wool carbon nanotubes made
      directly from CO2 by molten electrolysis.
AB  - This SEM, TEM and Raman Spectra and economic calculations data provides a
      benchmark for carbon nanotubes synthesized via molten electrolyte via the carbon
      dioxide to carbon nanotube (C2CNT) process useful for comparison to other data on
      longer length C2CNT wools; specifically: (I) C2CNT electrosynthesis with bare
      (uncoated) cathodes and without pre-electrolysis low current activation. (II)
      C2CNT Intermediate length CNTs with intermediate integrated electrolysis charge
      transfer. (III) C2CNT Admixing of sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorous (in addition
      to boron) to carbon nanotubes, and (IV) Scalability of the C2CNT process. This
      data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled
      "Carbon Nanotube Wools Made Directly from CO2 by Molten Electrolysis: Value
      Driven Pathways to Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Gas Mitigation" (Johnson et al.,
      2017) [1].

PMID- 28879218
TI  - Identification of epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl)-gallate (EGCG3''Me) and amino
      acid profiles in various tea (Camellia sinensis L.) cultivars.
AB  - This article includes experimental data on the identification of epigallocatechin
      3-O-(3-O-methyl)-gallate (EGCG3''Me) by 2-dimensional (2D) proton (1H) NMR
      analysis and on the information of amino acid and catechin compound profiles by
      HPLC analysis in leaf extracts of various tea cultivars. These data are related
      to the research article "Metabolic phenotyping of various tea (Camellia sinensis
      L.) cultivars and understanding of their intrinsic metabolism" (Ji et al., 2017)
      [1]. The assignment for EGCG3x''Me by 1H NMR analysis was also confirmed with
      spiking experiment of its pure chemical.

PMID- 28879219
TI  - Delayed-onset vemurafenib-induced panniculitis.

PMID- 28879220
TI  - Pyoderma gangrenosum in pregnancy successfully treated with infliximab and
      prednisone.

PMID- 28879221
TI  - Delusional parasitosis secondary to severe iron deficiency anemia.

PMID- 28879222
TI  - Multiple fixed drug eruption to minocycline at sites of healed burn and zoster:
      An interesting case of locus minoris resistentiae.

PMID- 28879223
TI  - Blinatumomab-associated vasculitis.

PMID- 28879224
TI  - Amicrobial pustulosis of the folds and palmoplantar pustulosis simultaneously
      induced by different tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors: Demonstration of a
      shared pathophysiology.

PMID- 28879225
TI  - Preoperative biliary drainage by plastic or self-expandable metal stents in
      patients with periampullary tumors: results of a randomized clinical study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS : Preoperative biliary drainage in patients with
      periampullary tumors and jaundice has been popularized to improve the quality of
      life and minimize the risks associated with subsequent radical surgery. The aim
      of this study was to investigate the possible superiority of self-expandable
      metal stents (SEMS) over plastic stents, by comparing the amount of bacteria in
      intraoperatively collected bile and using this variable as a proxy for the
      efficacy of the respective biliary drainage modalities. PATIENTS AND METHODS : In
      this randomized clinical trial, 92 patients with obstructive jaundice were
      enrolled; 45 were allocated to the plastic stent group and 47 to the SEMS group.
      The primary outcome was the extent and magnitude of biliary bacterial growth at
      the time of surgical exploration. Secondary outcomes were: macroscopic grading of
      inflammation of the stented bile ducts, occurrence of adverse events after
      stenting, stent dysfunction, recognized surgical complexities, and incidence of
      postoperative complications. RESULTS:  The patients were well matched regarding
      clinical and disease-specific characteristics. At surgery, there were no group
      differences in the bacterial amount and composition of the bile cultures or the
      perceived difficulty of surgical dissection. During the preoperative biliary
      drainage period, more instances of stent dysfunction requiring stent replacement
      were recorded in the plastic stent group (19 % vs. 0 %; P  = 0.03). Postoperative
      complications in patients who underwent curative surgery were more common in
      patients with plastic stents (72 % vs. 52 %), among which clinically significant
      leakage from the pancreatic anastomoses seemed to predominate (12 % vs. 3.7 %);
      however, none of these differences in postoperative adverse events reached
      statistical significance. CONCLUSION:  This randomized clinical study was unable
      to demonstrate any superiority of SEMS in the efficacy of preoperative bile
      drainage, as assessed by the amount of bacteria in the intraoperatively collected
      bile. However, some data in favor of SEMS were observed among the clinical
      secondary outcomes variables (preoperative stent exchange rates) without
      increases in local inflammatory reactions.

PMID- 28879226
TI  - Increased risk and severity of ERCP-related complications associated with
      asymptomatic common bile duct stones.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  Endoscopic removal of asymptomatic common bile duct
      stones (CBDS) is generally recommended. Although many reports have described the
      risk of complications in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP),
      no studies have addressed this problem in the context of asymptomatic CBDS. This
      study examines the risk of complications arising in ERCP for asymptomatic CBDS.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS:  This retrospective study included 425 patients with naive
      papilla who underwent therapeutic ERCP for choledocholithiasis at 2 institutions
      in Japan for 2 years. The risk of complications was examined in patients who were
      divided into the asymptomatic and symptomatic CBDS groups. We used propensity
      score analysis to adjust for confounding effects. RESULTS:  Complications were
      observed in 32 (7.5 %) of the 425 patients. Of the 358 patients with symptomatic
      CBDS, 14 patients (3.9 %) had complications. In contrast, of the 67 patients with
      asymptomatic CBDS, 18 patients (26.9 %) had complications. Propensity score
      analysis revealed that asymptomatic CBDS was a significant risk factor, with a
      significantly higher incidence of complications compared with symptomatic CBDS
      (odds ratio, 5.3). Moderate to severe complications were observed in 15 of 18
      patients (83.3 %) in the asymptomatic CBDS group, with significantly more
      moderate to severe complications than those in the symptomatic CBDS (odds ratio,
      6.7). CONCLUSIONS:  Asymptomatic CBDS carried a high risk of ERCP-related
      complications, and these were often more severe. In asymptomatic CBDS, endoscopic
      treatment should be carefully performed after considering the patient's
      background, and detailed explanation of its possible complications should be
      given to patients in advance.

PMID- 28879227
TI  - Assessment of quality indicators among nurse practitioners performing upper
      endoscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS:  Limited international data have shown that non
      physicians can safely perform upper endoscopy, but no such study has been
      performed in the United States. Our aim was to assess the quality of outpatient
      upper endoscopies performed by nurse practitioners (NPs). PATIENTS AND METHODS: 
      Retrospective chart review of upper endoscopies performed by 3 NPs between 2010
      and 2013 was performed. Comparisons among all NPs performing upper endoscopy and
      assessment of individual NP performance over time with respect to quality
      indicators were performed. RESULTS : Three NPs performed 333 upper endoscopies
      (distribution of 166, 44, and 123, respectively). Of the cases, 98.2 %s were
      successfully completed to the second portion of the duodenum. In most cases,
      photo-documentation of required anatomical landmarks was performed: GE junction
      (84.2 %), GE junction in retroflexed view (84.2 %), antrum (82.1 %) and duodenum
      (80.9 %). Photo-documentation improved with increasing experience. NPs
      appropriately performed biopsies for specific medical conditions: 10/11 (90.9 %)
      gastric ulcers were biopsied and 63/66 (95.5) of patients with iron deficiency
      had duodenal biopsies performed for celiac disease. A physician endoscopist was
      required during the procedure 22.5 % of the time. Important parameters such as
      documenting informed consent (100 %) and documenting a discharge plan (99.4 %) in
      the procedure reports were overwhelming present. There was a single adverse event
      during the study period. CONCLUSION:  In the first US study of NPs performing
      upper endoscopy, they were able to perform high-quality and safe upper
      endoscopies. These findings support incorporation of non-physicians alongside
      physicians to help meet the growing demand for endoscopic services across the
      United States.

PMID- 28879228
TI  - Thermodiffusion in multicomponent n-alkane mixtures.
AB  - Compositional grading within a mixture has a strong impact on the evaluation of
      the pre-exploitation distribution of hydrocarbons in underground layers and
      sediments. Thermodiffusion, which leads to a partial diffusive separation of
      species in a mixture due to the geothermal gradient, is thought to play an
      important role in determining the distribution of species in a reservoir.
      However, despite recent progress, thermodiffusion is still difficult to measure
      and model in multicomponent mixtures. In this work, we report on experimental
      investigations of the thermodiffusion of multicomponent n-alkane mixtures at
      pressure above 30 MPa. The experiments have been conducted in space onboard the
      Shi Jian 10 spacecraft so as to isolate the studied phenomena from convection.
      For the two exploitable cells, containing a ternary liquid mixture and a
      condensate gas, measurements have shown that the lightest and heaviest species
      had a tendency to migrate, relatively to the rest of the species, to the hot and
      cold region, respectively. These trends have been confirmed by molecular dynamics
      simulations. The measured condensate gas data have been used to quantify the
      influence of thermodiffusion on the initial fluid distribution of an idealised
      one dimension reservoir. The results obtained indicate that thermodiffusion tends
      to noticeably counteract the influence of gravitational segregation on the
      vertical distribution of species, which could result in an unstable fluid column.
      This confirms that, in oil and gas reservoirs, the availability of
      thermodiffusion data for multicomponent mixtures is crucial for a correct
      evaluation of the initial state fluid distribution.

PMID- 28879229
TI  - Erratum: A cubesat centrifuge for long duration milligravity research.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41526-017-0021-0.].

PMID- 28879230
TI  - Polarization recovery through scattering media.
AB  - The control and use of light polarization in optical sciences and engineering are
      widespread. Despite remarkable developments in polarization-resolved imaging for
      life sciences, their transposition to strongly scattering media is currently not
      possible, because of the inherent depolarization effects arising from multiple
      scattering. We show an unprecedented phenomenon that opens new possibilities for
      polarization-resolved microscopy in strongly scattering media: polarization
      recovery via broadband wavefront shaping. We demonstrate focusing and recovery of
      the original injected polarization state without using any polarizing optics at
      the detection. To enable molecular-level structural imaging, an arbitrary
      rotation of the input polarization does not degrade the quality of the focus. We
      further exploit the robustness of polarization recovery for structural imaging of
      biological tissues through scattering media. We retrieve molecular-level
      organization information of collagen fibers by polarization-resolved second
      harmonic generation, a topic of wide interest for diagnosis in biomedical optics.
      Ultimately, the observation of this new phenomenon paves the way for extending
      current polarization-based methods to strongly scattering environments.

PMID- 28879231
TI  - Homeodomain-like DNA binding proteins control the haploid-to-diploid transition
      in Dictyostelium.
AB  - Homeodomain proteins control the developmental transition between the haploid and
      diploid phases in several eukaryotic lineages, but it is not known whether this
      regulatory mechanism reflects the ancestral condition or, instead, convergent
      evolution. We have characterized the mating-type locus of the amoebozoan
      Dictyostelium discoideum, which encodes two pairs of small proteins that
      determine the three mating types of this species; none of these proteins display
      recognizable homology to known families. We report that the nuclear magnetic
      resonance structures of two of them, MatA and MatB, contain helix-turn-helix
      folds flanked by largely disordered amino- and carboxyl-terminal tails. This fold
      closely resembles that of homeodomain transcription factors, and, like those
      proteins, MatA and MatB each bind DNA characteristically using the third helix of
      their folded domains. By constructing chimeric versions containing parts of MatA
      and MatB, we demonstrate that the carboxyl-terminal tail, not the central DNA
      binding motif, confers mating specificity, providing mechanistic insight into how
      a third mating type might have originated. Finally, we show that these
      homeodomain-like proteins specify zygote function: Hemizygous diploids, formed in
      crosses between a wild-type strain and a mat null mutant, grow and differentiate
      identically to haploids. We propose that Dictyostelium MatA and MatB are
      divergent homeodomain proteins with a conserved function in triggering the
      haploid-to-diploid transition that can be traced back to the last common ancestor
      of eukaryotes.

PMID- 28879232
TI  - Intracellular spectral recompositioning of light enhances algal photosynthetic
      efficiency.
AB  - Diatoms, considered as one of the most diverse and largest groups of algae, can
      provide the means to reach a sustainable production of petrochemical substitutes
      and bioactive compounds. However, a prerequisite to achieving this goal is to
      increase the solar-to-biomass conversion efficiency of photosynthesis, which
      generally remains less than 5% for most photosynthetic organisms. We have
      developed and implemented a rapid and effective approach, herein referred to as
      intracellular spectral recompositioning (ISR) of light, which, through absorption
      of excess blue light and its intracellular emission in the green spectral band,
      can improve light utilization. We demonstrate that ISR can be used
      chemogenically, by using lipophilic fluorophores, or biogenically, through the
      expression of an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) in the model diatom
      Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Engineered P. tricornutum cells expressing eGFP
      achieved 28% higher efficiency in photosynthesis than the parental strain, along
      with an increased effective quantum yield and reduced nonphotochemical quenching
      (NPQ) induction levels under high-light conditions. Further, pond simulator
      experiments demonstrated that eGFP transformants could outperform their wild-type
      parental strain by 50% in biomass production rate under simulated outdoor
      sunlight conditions. Transcriptome analysis identified up-regulation of major
      photosynthesis genes in the engineered strain in comparison with the wild type,
      along with down-regulation of NPQ genes involved in light stress response. Our
      findings provide a proof of concept for a strategy of developing more efficient
      photosynthetic cell factories to produce algae-based biofuels and bioactive
      products.

PMID- 28879233
TI  - Low-energy transmission electron diffraction and imaging of large-area graphene.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted interest because of their excellent
      properties and potential applications. A key step in realizing industrial
      applications is to synthesize wafer-scale single-crystal samples. Until now,
      single-crystal samples, such as graphene domains up to the centimeter scale, have
      been synthesized. However, a new challenge is to efficiently characterize large
      area samples. Currently, the crystalline characterization of these samples still
      relies on selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) or low-energy electron
      diffraction (LEED), which is more suitable for characterizing very small local
      regions. This paper presents a highly efficient characterization technique that
      adopts a low-energy electrostatically focused electron gun and a super-aligned
      carbon nanotube (SACNT) film sample support. It allows rapid crystalline
      characterization of large-area graphene through a single photograph of a
      transmission-diffracted image at a large beam size. Additionally, the low-energy
      electron beam enables the observation of a unique diffraction pattern of
      adsorbates on the suspended graphene at room temperature. This work presents a
      simple and convenient method for characterizing the macroscopic structures of 2D
      materials, and the instrument we constructed allows the study of the weak
      interaction with 2D materials.

PMID- 28879234
TI  - Significant and stable drag reduction with air rings confined by alternated
      superhydrophobic and hydrophilic strips.
AB  - Superhydrophobic surfaces have the potential to reduce the viscous drag of
      liquids by significantly decreasing friction at a solid-liquid interface due to
      the formation of air layers between solid walls and interacting liquids. However,
      the trapped air usually becomes unstable due to the finite nature of the domain
      over which it forms. We demonstrate for the first time that a large surface
      energy barrier can be formed to strongly pin the three-phase contact line of
      air/water/solid by covering the inner rotor of a Taylor-Couette flow apparatus
      with alternating superhydrophobic and hydrophilic circumferential strips. This
      prevents the disruption of the air layer, which forms stable and continuous air
      rings. The drag reduction measured at the inner rotor could be as much as 77.2%.
      Moreover, the air layers not only significantly reduce the strength of Taylor
      vortexes but also influence the number and position of the Taylor vortex pairs.
      This has strong implications in terms of energy efficiency maximization for
      marine applications and reduction of drag losses in, for example, fluid transport
      in pipelines and carriers.

PMID- 28879235
TI  - Spectral purity and tunability of terahertz quantum cascade laser sources based
      on intracavity difference-frequency generation.
AB  - Terahertz sources based on intracavity difference-frequency generation in mid
      infrared quantum cascade lasers (THz DFG-QCLs) have recently emerged as the first
      monolithic electrically pumped semiconductor sources capable of operating at room
      temperature across the 1- to 6-THz range. Despite tremendous progress in power
      output, which now exceeds 1 mW in pulsed and 10 MUW in continuous-wave regimes at
      room temperature, knowledge of the major figure of merits of these devices for
      high-precision spectroscopy, such as spectral purity and absolute frequency
      tunability, is still lacking. By exploiting a metrological grade system
      comprising a terahertz frequency comb synthesizer, we measure, for the first
      time, the free-running emission linewidth (LW), the tuning characteristics, and
      the absolute center frequency of individual emission lines of these sources with
      an uncertainty of 4 * 10-10. The unveiled emission LW (400 kHz at 1-ms
      integration time) indicates that DFG-QCLs are well suited to operate as local
      oscillators and to be used for a variety of metrological, spectroscopic,
      communication, and imaging applications that require narrow-LW THz sources.

PMID- 28879237
TI  - Moisture-triggered physically transient electronics.
AB  - Physically transient electronics, a form of electronics that can physically
      disappear in a controllable manner, is very promising for emerging applications.
      Most of the transient processes reported so far only occur in aqueous solutions
      or biofluids, offering limited control over the triggering and degradation
      processes. We report novel moisture-triggered physically transient electronics,
      which exempt the needs of resorption solutions and can completely disappear
      within well-controlled time frames. The triggered transient process starts with
      the hydrolysis of the polyanhydride substrate in the presence of trace amounts of
      moisture in the air, a process that can generate products of corrosive organic
      acids to digest various inorganic electronic materials and components.
      Polyanhydride is the only example of polymer that undergoes surface erosion, a
      distinct feature that enables stable operation of the functional devices over a
      predefined time frame. Clear advantages of this novel triggered transience mode
      include that the lifetime of the devices can be precisely controlled by varying
      the moisture levels and changing the composition of the polymer substrate. The
      transience time scale can be tuned from days to weeks. Various transient devices,
      ranging from passive electronics (such as antenna, resistor, and capacitor) to
      active electronics (such as transistor, diodes, optoelectronics, and memories),
      and an integrated system as a platform demonstration have been developed to
      illustrate the concept and verify the feasibility of this design strategy.

PMID- 28879236
TI  - Cardiolipin mediates membrane and channel interactions of the mitochondrial TIM23
      protein import complex receptor Tim50.
AB  - The phospholipid cardiolipin mediates the functional interactions of proteins
      that reside within energy-conserving biological membranes. However, the molecular
      basis by which this lipid performs this essential cellular role is not well
      understood. We address this role of cardiolipin using the multisubunit
      mitochondrial TIM23 protein transport complex as a model system. The early stages
      of protein import by this complex require specific interactions between the
      polypeptide substrate receptor, Tim50, and the membrane-bound channel-forming
      subunit, Tim23. Using analyses performed in vivo, in isolated mitochondria, and
      in reductionist nanoscale model membrane systems, we show that the soluble
      receptor domain of Tim50 interacts with membranes and with specific sites on the
      Tim23 channel in a manner that is directly modulated by cardiolipin. To obtain
      structural insights into the nature of these interactions, we obtained the first
      small-angle x-ray scattering-based structure of the soluble Tim50 receptor in its
      entirety. Using these structural insights, molecular dynamics simulations
      combined with a range of biophysical measurements confirmed the role of
      cardiolipin in driving the association of the Tim50 receptor with lipid bilayers
      with concomitant structural changes, highlighting the role of key structural
      elements in mediating this interaction. Together, these results show that
      cardiolipin is required to mediate specific receptor-channel associations in the
      TIM23 complex. Our results support a new working model for the dynamic structural
      changes that occur within the complex during transport. More broadly, this work
      strongly advances our understanding of how cardiolipin mediates interactions
      among membrane-associated proteins.

PMID- 28879238
TI  - Mechanistic basis for the recognition of laminin-511 by alpha6beta1 integrin.
AB  - Laminins regulate diverse cellular functions through interaction with integrins.
      Two regions of laminins-three laminin globular domains of the alpha chain (LG1-3)
      and the carboxyl-terminal tail of the gamma chain (gamma-tail)-are required for
      integrin binding, but it remains unclear how the gamma-tail contributes to the
      binding. We determined the crystal structure of the integrin binding fragment of
      laminin-511, showing that the gamma-tail extends to the bottom face of LG1-3.
      Electron microscopic imaging combined with biochemical analyses showed that
      integrin binds to the bottom face of LG1-3 with the gamma1-tail apposed to the
      metal ion-dependent adhesion site (MIDAS) of integrin beta1. These findings are
      consistent with a model in which the gamma-tail coordinates the metal ion in the
      MIDAS through its Glu residue.

PMID- 28879239
TI  - Understanding Pediatric Dentists' Dental Caries Management Treatment Decisions: A
      Conjoint Experiment.
AB  - When traditional ranking and rating surveys are used to assess dentists'
      treatment decisions, the patient's source of payment appears to be of little
      importance. Therefore, this study used the marketing research tool conjoint
      analysis to investigate the relative impact of source of payment along with the
      child's age and cooperativeness on pediatric dentists' willingness to use
      Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) to restore posterior primary teeth. A
      conjoint survey was completed by 707 pediatric dentists. Three factors (age of
      the child, cooperativeness, type of insurance) were varied across 3 levels to
      create 9 patient scenarios. The relative weights that dentists placed on these
      factors in the restorative treatment decision process were determined by conjoint
      analysis. "Cooperativeness" (52%) was the most important factor, "age of the
      child" (26%) the second-most important factor, followed by "insurance status of
      the child" (22%). For the third factor, insurance, pediatric dentists were least
      willing to use ART with publicly insured children (-0.082), and this was
      significantly different from their willingness to use ART with uninsured children
      (0.010) but not significantly different than their willingness to use ART for
      children with private insurance (0.073). Unlike traditional ranking and rating
      tools, conjoint analysis found that the insurance status of the patient appeared
      to be an important factor in dentists' decisions about different restorative
      treatment options. When pediatric dentists were forced to make tradeoffs among
      different patients' factors, they were most willing to use ART technique with
      young, uncooperative patients when they had no insurance. Knowledge Transfer
      Statement: The present study suggests the feasibility of using techniques
      borrowed from marketing research, such as conjoint analysis, to understand
      dentists' restorative treatment decisions. Results of this study demonstrate
      pediatric dentists' willingness to use a particular restorative treatment option
      (Atraumatic Restorative Treatment in this application) when forced to make
      tradeoffs in a "conjoined," or holistic, context among different factors
      presented in real-life patient scenarios. A deeper understanding of dentists'
      treatment decisions is vital to develop valid practice guidelines and
      interventions that encourage the use of appropriate restorative treatment
      modalities.

PMID- 28879240
TI  - Early Childhood Caries: Future Perspectives in Risk Assessment.

PMID- 28879241
TI  - Parents' Experiences of Toothbrushing with Children: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - Globally, dental caries is one of the most prevalent diseases and is more common
      in children living in deprived areas. Dental caries is preventable, and guidance
      in the United Kingdom recommends parental supervised brushing (PSB): a collection
      of behaviors-including twice-daily toothbrushing with fluoridated toothpaste-that
      should begin upon eruption of the first tooth (approximately 6 to 12 mo of age)
      and for which children need to be helped or supervised by an adult until at least
      7 y of age. The aim of this study was to explore parents' experiences of
      toothbrushing with their young children and to establish barriers and
      facilitators to PSB at individual, interpersonal, and environmental levels
      according to the theoretical domains framework. Qualitative semistructured
      interviews guided by the framework were conducted with 27 parents of young
      children (<7 y) in 2 deprived areas of the United Kingdom. Framework analysis was
      used. Parents were not aware of national guidance concerning their active
      involvement in toothbrushing; however, they did have detailed knowledge of
      toothbrushing practices for children, and their intentions were to brush their
      children's teeth themselves twice every day as part of a family routine.
      Nonetheless, parents' difficulties experienced in managing their children's
      challenging behavior and the environmental context of their stressful lives meant
      that many parents adopted a role of simply reminding their children to brush or
      watching them brush. As such, the main barriers to PSB among parents living in
      deprived areas were skills in managing their children's behavior and
      environmental influences on family life. The results of our study have clear
      implications for the development of appropriate interventions to address the
      modifiable barriers to improve parental adoption of PSB. Knowledge Transfer
      Statement: The results of this study will be used to develop a behavior change
      intervention to encourage parental supervised brushing. The intervention-which is
      likely to be delivered through health practitioners rather than dental teams-will
      be developed to reduce dental caries among young children and will require
      evaluation in terms of its clinical and cost effectiveness.

PMID- 28879242
TI  - Disparities in Emergency Department Pain Treatment for Toothache.
AB  - Racial disparities in how pain is treated in the emergency department (ED) for
      toothache have not been reported. Due to increasing reliance on EDs for dental
      care, the authors investigated whether race/ethnicity and insurance type are
      associated with treatment for toothache pain. The authors conducted a nationally
      representative cross-sectional study of ED toothache visits by adults (19 to 64 y
      old), using the 2008-2010 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
      Multinomial regression models accounted for the complex survey design. Outcomes
      were pain medicines received: none, nonopioid only, or opioids. After adjusting
      for sociodemographic factors, black patients had 1.99 greater odds (P < 0.005)
      than white patients of receiving only a nonopioid pain medicine for toothache.
      Visits made by patients on Medicare, Medicaid, uninsured, or "other" insurance
      status had greater odds than the privately insured of receiving only a nonopioid
      pain medicine rather than an opioid (odds ratios, respectively: 4.8, P < 0.001;
      2.1, P <= 0.001; 2.3, P < 0.01; and 4.1, P < 0.001). Blacks are less likely than
      whites to receive opioids in the ED for a toothache, even with similar levels of
      pain. Nonprivately insured patients have lower odds than the privately insured to
      receive opioids for toothache pain. A better understanding of the etiology of
      these disparities could lead to directed interventions. Knowledge Transfer
      Statement: This study presents findings novel to the body of pain and oral health
      care literature. Because there is an increasing reliance on the emergency
      department to address dental pain, disparities in how toothache pain is treated
      will be of great interest to a growing number of Americans, clinicians, and
      policy makers.

PMID- 28879243
TI  - Development and Testing of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Resource for Children's
      Dental Anxiety.
AB  - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for dental
      anxiety; however, access to therapy is limited. The current study aimed to
      develop a self-help CBT resource for reducing dental anxiety in children, and to
      assess the feasibility of conducting a trial to evaluate the treatment efficacy
      and cost-effectiveness of such an intervention. A mixed methods design was
      employed. Within phase 1, a qualitative "person-based" approach informed the
      development of the self-help CBT resource. This also employed guidelines for the
      development and evaluation of complex interventions. Within phase 2, children,
      aged between 9 and 16 y, who had elevated self-reported dental anxiety and were
      attending a community dental service or dental hospital, were invited to use the
      CBT resource. Children completed questionnaires, which assessed their dental
      anxiety and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) prior to and following their
      use of the resource. Recruitment and completion rates were recorded.
      Acceptability of the CBT resource was explored using interviews and focus groups
      with children, parents/carers and dental professionals. For this analysis, the
      authors adhered to the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool criteria. There were 24
      families and 25 dental professionals participating in the development and
      qualitative evaluation of the CBT resource for children with dental anxiety. A
      total of 56 children agreed to trial the CBT resource (66% response rate) and 48
      of these children completed the study (86% completion rate). There was a
      significant reduction in dental anxiety (mean score difference = 7.7, t = 7.9, df
      = 45, P < 0.001, Cohen's d ES = 1.2) and an increase in HRQoL following the use
      of the CBT resource (mean score difference = -0.03, t = 2.14, df = 46, P < 0.05,
      Cohen's d ES = 0.3). The self-help approach had high levels of acceptability to
      stakeholders. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness
      and acceptability of the resource in reducing dental anxiety in children and
      support the further evaluation of this approach in a randomized control trial.
      Knowledge Transfer Statement: This study details the development of a guided self
      help Cognitive Behavioral Therapy resource for the management of dental anxiety
      in children and provides preliminary evidence for the feasibility and
      acceptability of this approach with children aged between 9 and 16 y. The results
      of this study will inform the design of a definitive trial to examine the
      treatment- and cost-effectiveness of the resource for reducing dental anxiety in
      children.

PMID- 28879244
TI  - Care Pathways in Persistent Orofacial Pain: Qualitative Evidence from the DEEP
      Study.
AB  - Persistent orofacial pain is relatively common and known to have an adverse
      effect on quality of life. Previous studies suggest that the current care pathway
      may be problematic, but it is not well understood which health services patients
      access and what their experience is. The aim of this study was to explore care
      pathways and their impact from the perspective of patients. Qualitative
      interviews were conducted with a maximum variation sample of patients recruited
      from primary (community based) and secondary (specialist hospital based) care in
      the United Kingdom. Questions focused on the stages in their pathway and the
      impact of the care that they had received. Interviews were digitally recorded and
      transcribed verbatim, and analysis followed principles of the constant
      comparative method. NVivo 10 was used to help organize and analyze data. Twenty
      two patients were interviewed at baseline, and 18 took part in a second interview
      at 12 mo. Three main themes emerged from the data: the "fluidity of the care
      pathway," in which patients described moving among health care providers in
      attempts to have their pain diagnosed and managed, occurring alongside a "failure
      to progress," where despite multiple appointments, patients described frustration
      at delays in obtaining a diagnosis and effective treatment for their pain.
      Throughout their care pathways, patients described the "effects of unmanaged
      pain," where the longer the pain went unmanaged, the greater its potential to
      negatively affect their lives. Findings of this study suggest that the current
      care pathway is inefficient and fails to meet patient needs. Future work needs to
      focus on working with stakeholder groups to redesign patient-centered care
      pathways. Knowledge Transfer Statement: Data from qualitative interviews
      conducted with patients with persistent orofacial pain suggest significant
      problems with the existing care pathway, consisting of delays to diagnosis,
      treatment, and referral. Patients describing their struggle to progress through
      the current care pathway highlighted the difficulties occurring while living with
      orofacial pain. This study suggests a need for a revised care pathway, which
      better meets the needs of people with persistent orofacial pain.

PMID- 28879245
TI  - Effects of High-Dose Capsaicin on TMD Subjects: A Randomized Clinical Study.
AB  - Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a complex musculoskeletal disorder that
      presents with pain, limited jaw opening, and abnormal noises in the
      temporomandibular joint. Despite the significant impact that TMD has in terms of
      suffering and financial burden, relatively few new treatments have emerged;
      therefore, development of novel treatments to treat TMD pain remains a high
      priority. The rationale of this study was to use a double-blind, vehicle
      controlled clinical trial to evaluate the effects of a high-concentration (8%)
      capsaicin cream on TMD. This is based on the hypothesis that targeting TRP
      vanilloid subfamily member 1 (TRPV1) for pain control may provide a novel method
      for pain relief in TMD patients. TRPV1 is primarily expressed on a population of
      nociceptive-specific neurons and provides a candidate target for the development
      of pain treatments. Capsaicin is the primary agonist for TRPV1 and has been used
      previously in relatively low doses (0.025% to 0.075%) as a therapeutic for a
      variety of pain disorders, including postherpetic neuralgia and osteoarthritis;
      however, analgesic efficacy remains equivocal. TMD and healthy control subjects
      were assigned to either an active capsaicin or vehicle control group. The
      treatments were applied for 2 h and then removed. Quantitative sensory testing
      (QST) was completed prior to drug application (baseline), 2 h after drug
      application, and 1 wk later. Perceived pain intensity was measured using a visual
      analog scale (VAS) following capsaicin or vehicle cream application.
      Significantly lower pain was reported in the week after application in the
      capsaicin-treated TMD subjects. For QST measures, there was a decreased thermal
      pain threshold 2 h after capsaicin application for both the control and TMD
      groups, but this resolved within a week. Capsaicin had no effect on pressure pain
      threshold or mechanical sensitivity in both TMD and healthy individuals. This
      study demonstrates that 8% topical capsaicin therapy is a relatively safe,
      simple, and effective treatment for patients with TMD. Knowledge Transfer
      Statement: This study evaluated a novel topical capsaicin therapy for reducing
      orofacial pain. The results of this study can be used to provide another
      treatment option for patients with TMD.

PMID- 28879246
TI  - Opioid Analgesic Prescribing Practices of Dental Professionals in the United
      States.
AB  - The prescription of opioid analgesics by dental professionals is widespread in
      the United States. Policy makers, government agencies, and professional
      organizations consider this phenomenon a growing public health concern. This
      study examined trends in the prescription of opioid analgesics for adults by
      dental professionals and associated factors in the United States. Data from the
      Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (1996-2013) were analyzed. Descriptive
      statistics were calculated separately for each year. Logistic regression analyses
      were conducted to estimate the overall trend during the period with and without
      adjusting for dental procedures and personal characteristics. Survey weights were
      incorporated to handle the sampling design. The prescription of opioid analgesics
      following dental care increased over time. After adjusting for sociodemographic
      factors, source of payment, and type of dental procedure, the odds ratio (OR) of
      prescribing opioid analgesics following a dental visit per each decade difference
      was 1.28 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19-1.38). Surgical, root canal, and
      implant procedures had the highest rates of opioid prescriptions and the greatest
      increases in rates over the study period. After adjusting for personal
      characteristics and type of dental procedure, the OR of receiving a prescription
      for opioids comparing blacks, Asians, and Hispanics to whites was 1.29 (95% CI,
      1.17-1.41), 0.57 (95% CI, 0.47-0.70), and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.75-0.95), respectively.
      Opioid analgesic prescriptions following dental visits increased over time after
      adjusting for personal characteristics and type of dental procedure. The odds of
      receiving a prescription for opioids were higher for certain racial/ethnic
      minority groups. Knowledge Transfer Statement: This study highlights dental
      professionals prescribing practices of opioid analgesics by following dental
      treatments in the United States. With this knowledge, appropriate guidelines,
      protocols, and policies can be developed and implemented to address any
      inappropriate prescribing practices of opioid analgesics. In addition, this
      information could lead to an improvement in the prescribing practices of dental
      professionals and to evidence-based therapeutic decision making.

PMID- 28879247
TI  - Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in African Americans with Localized
      Aggressive Periodontitis.
AB  - This study aims to investigate the prevalence of the highly leukotoxic JP2
      sequence versus the minimally leukotoxic non-JP2 sequence of Aggregatibacter
      actinomycetemcomitans within a cohort of 180 young African Americans, with and
      without localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP), in north Florida. The study
      included patients aged 5 to 25 y: 60 LAP patients, 60 healthy siblings (HS), and
      60 unrelated healthy controls (HC). Subgingival plaque was collected from LAP
      sites-diseased (PD >=5 mm with bleeding on probing) and healthy (PD <=3 mm with
      no bleeding on probing)-and from healthy sites of HS and HC. Plaque DNA was
      extracted and analyzed by polymerase chain reaction for the detection of the JP2
      and non-JP2 sequences of A. actinomycetemcomitans. Overall, 90 (50%) subjects
      tested positive for the JP2 sequence. Fifty (83.33%) LAP subjects were carriers
      of the highly leukotoxic JP2 sequence, detected in 45 (75%) diseased sites and 34
      (56.67%) healthy sites. Additionally, JP2 carriage was found in 16 HS (26.67%)
      and 24 HC (40%; P < 0.0001, among groups). The non-JP2 sequence was detected in
      26 (14.44%) total subjects: 17 (28.33%) LAP patients detected in equal amounts of
      diseased and healthy sites (n = 11, 18.33%), 6 (10%) HS sites, and 3 (5%) HC
      sites (P < 0.05, among groups). The JP2 sequence was strongly associated with LAP
      diseased sites in young African Americans, significantly more so than the non-JP2
      (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01330719). Knowledge Transfer Statement: Clinicians may
      use the results of this study to identify susceptible individuals to aggressive
      periodontitis, potentially leading to more appropriate selection of therapeutic
      choices.

PMID- 28879248
TI  - Local and Plasma Biomarker Profiles in Localized Aggressive Periodontitis.
AB  - Localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP) patients possess a systemic
      hyperinflammatory response after lipopolysaccharide stimulation. However, the
      levels of inflammatory and bone biomarkers in plasma, as well as possible
      associations between local and plasma biomarkers, are unknown in LAP. This cross
      sectional study aimed to characterize gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and plasma
      biomarker profiles in LAP patients, their healthy siblings (HS), and healthy
      unrelated controls (HC). Fifty-eight LAP subjects, 33 HS, and 49 HC (African
      Americans, aged 5 to 25 y) were included. Following collection of clinical
      parameters with GCF and plasma samples, levels of 16 inflammatory and bone
      resorption biomarkers were determined with Milliplex. Univariate and correlation
      analyses were performed among all clinical and laboratorial parameters.
      Discriminant analyses were used to investigate groups of biomarkers
      discriminating LAP from HS and HC in GCF and plasma. GCF levels of multiple
      cytokines and chemokines and RANKL:OPG ratio (receptor activator of nuclear
      factor kappa-B ligand:osteoprotegerin) were higher in LAP disease, most of which
      positively correlated with probing depth and attachment loss of sampled sites. A
      group of IL-12p40, IL-6, IL-12p70, IL-2, and MIP-1alpha discriminated LAP
      diseased sites from twheir healthy sites, as well as from HS and HC healthy
      sites. In plasma, only RANKL levels were increased in LAP versus controls, which
      positively correlated with the percentage of affected sites and deep/bleeding
      sites. A plasma inflammatory profile including MIP-1alpha, IL-8, IL-10, and INF
      gamma could significantly discriminate LAP patients from HS and HC. No
      correlations were found between GCF and plasma levels of biomarkers. In
      conclusion, an inflammatory profile including groups of specific biomarkers in
      GCF and plasma may significantly discriminate LAP from healthy individuals. The
      hyperinflammatory response previously found in the peripheral blood of LAP
      patients is dependent on lipopolysaccharide stimulation, apparently resulting
      mostly in local tissue destruction and changes in biomarker profile, with a
      slight influence in the systemic inflammatory profile (ClinicalTrials.gov
      NCT01330719). Knowledge Transfer Statement: The results of this study can be
      possibly used by clinicians in the future as diagnostic tools for localized
      aggressive periodontitis. Thus, in the future, with proper consideration of cost,
      patient preference, chair-side feasibility and ultimately further studies
      validating the role of GCF markers for disease progression and response to
      treatment, this information could lead to more appropriate therapeutic decisions
      and the development of preventive approaches for susceptible patients.

PMID- 28879249
TI  - Gingival Fluid Inflammatory Biomarkers and Hypertension in African Americans.
AB  - Hypertension and periodontitis are highly prevalent among African Americans. This
      cross-sectional study investigated the relationships among inflammatory
      biomarkers in the gingival fluid, periodontitis, and blood pressure in these
      individuals. Twenty-one subjects who reported a diagnosis of hypertension and a
      comparison group of 26 nonhypertensive participants were enrolled. All were
      African Americans, non-cigarette smoking, and free from other systemic illness.
      Blood pressure and body mass index were assessed. A comprehensive periodontal
      examination was performed. Gingival fluid was collected from 3 healthy sites and
      3 diseased sites when available. Samples were assessed for 8-isoprostane,
      interleukin 1beta, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, tumor necrosis factor
      alpha (TNFalpha), C-reactive protein (CRP), and matrix metalloproteinase 8.
      Regardless of hypertension status, diseased sites were associated with increased
      levels of these biomarkers. CRP and TNFalpha levels were also significantly
      higher in hypertensive than nonhypertensive individuals without diseased sites.
      After adjusting for demographics and body mass index, periodontal attachment loss
      was higher among hypertensive than nonhypertensive subjects. TNFalpha and CRP
      levels and hypertension were in the same association pathway with attachment
      loss. Elevated blood pressure may increase the risk of periodontitis through a
      localized inflammatory mechanism. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The results of
      this study can be used by clinicians to better understand the etiology and
      pathogenesis of periodontitis in hypertensive individuals in general and African
      Americans in particular. The information could lead to better management of
      periodontal disease.

PMID- 28879250
TI  - Dental Care-Related Fear and Anxiety: Distress Tolerance as a Possible Mechanism.
AB  - Distress tolerance, the degree to which one is able to cope with and endure
      negative emotional states, has been broadly applied to understand and treat a
      variety of health (including behavioral) problems, but little is known about its
      role in oral health care and specifically dental care-related fear and anxiety,
      making it a novel construct in the oral health care literature. This cross
      sectional study examined distress tolerance as a possible predictor of dental
      fear and anxiety among a sample of adults with and without diagnoses of dental
      phobia, investigated possible differences in levels of distress tolerance between
      adults with and without dental phobia, and determined possible associations
      between distress tolerance and fear of pain, anxiety sensitivity, and depression.
      Using 52 volunteers (n = 31, dental phobia group; n = 21, healthy comparison
      group), this investigation used self-report measures of distress tolerance, fear
      of pain, anxiety sensitivity, dental fear, and depression. The Anxiety Disorders
      Interview Schedule, a semi-structured interview, was used to assess for dental
      phobia and other psychological disorders. Distress tolerance significantly
      predicted dental fear and anxiety, even after controlling for age, sex, fear of
      pain, anxiety sensitivity, and depression. In addition, the dental phobia group
      had lower distress tolerance than the healthy comparison group. Distress
      tolerance was significantly associated with fear of pain, anxiety sensitivity,
      and depression. Findings indicate that low distress tolerance plays a unique and
      distinct role as a possible mechanism in the genesis of dental care-related fear
      and anxiety and phobia and may exacerbate the experience of other states,
      including fear of pain and anxiety sensitivity. Knowledge Transfer Statement:
      Results indicate that patients who have a lower ability to tolerate emotional and
      physical distress may have higher levels of dental care-related fear and anxiety
      and even dental phobia, as well as associated sequelae (e.g., avoidance of dental
      care). Treatment of highly fearful dental patients may helpfully include a focus
      on increasing distress tolerance.

PMID- 28879251
TI  - The alternative of oral sedation for pediatric dental care.
AB  - In pediatric dentistry, chloral hydrate is habitually selected for sedation of
      uncooperative children. Although chloral hydrate has been used for decades,
      various adverse effects are reported and necessity for new alternative drugs has
      increased. Dexmedetomidine was approved by FDA for sedation at intensive care
      units (ICU) in 1999. Compared to conventional sedative drugs, dexmedetomidine has
      not only analgesic and sedative effects but also it barely suppresses the
      respiratory system. Due to these characteristics, dexmedetomidine is known as
      safe sedative drug for children and elderly patients. Furthermore, approved by
      KFDA in 2010 in Korea, the frequency of sedation using dexmedetomidine is
      increasing. However, due to its intravenous administration method, it was
      difficult to apply in pediatric dentistry. Recently, intranasal administration
      method was introduced which might be a new possible alternative of oral sedation.
      In this study, we compare the mechanisms, pros and cons of chloral hydrate and
      dexmedetomidine, introducing new possibilities.

PMID- 28879252
TI  - Telephone follow-up care for disabled patients discharged after receiving dental
      treatment under outpatient general anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients were subjected to post-discharge follow-up (by telephone) in
      order to investigate the potential complications of outpatient general anesthesia
      or deep sedation that could develop in disabled dental patients discharged from
      the hospital. The ultimate aim of this study was to establish an appropriate
      response measure for such complications. METHODS: The caregivers of 79 disabled
      patients who underwent dental procedures under general anesthesia at our
      outpatient clinic were interviewed over telephone. Necessary care instructions
      were provided during the phone calls when required. The patient satisfaction
      level regarding the telephonic follow-up care was surveyed by additional
      telephone calls. RESULTS: Most of the patients did not suffer any serious
      complications; however, some reported fever and bleeding. The data obtained in
      this study can be utilized towards the development of caregiver education
      pertaining to the ambulatory general anesthesia of dental patients with
      disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Additionally, we hope that the findings of this study
      will help minimize the effects of complications experienced by disabled dental
      patients undergoing ambulatory general anesthesia, as well as increase the
      overall patient satisfaction level.

PMID- 28879253
TI  - Using nasal cannula for sevoflurane deep sedation in emergency dental treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emergency room doctors run into difficulties in treating injured
      pediatric patients because usually they fell into panic after trauma. In these
      situation, deep sedation with sevoflurane is fully recommendable method. The
      conventional way can interrupt common dental treatment procedure. METHODS: In the
      present study, nasal cannula was used for sevoflurane deep sedation in 11 dental
      emergency treatment. Age ranged from 0 to 3 years old (average of 1.8 years).
      RESULTS: Treatment duration was from 10 to 35 minutes (average of 16.7 minutes).
      Average duration of sedation was 25.5 minutes ranging from 15 to 45 minutes.
      CONCLUSIONS: It has advantages to use nasal cannula for sevoflurane deep sedation
      rather than conventional intubation; saves time and secures good operation field.

PMID- 28879254
TI  - Protective dental splint for oroendotracheal intubation: experience of 202 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dental injury as a result of oroendotracheal intubation during
      general anesthesia is very common. We report our experiences of using mouthguard
      to prevent dental injury during intubation based on our protocol. METHODS: This
      retrospective study enrolled patients referred for preanesthetic evaluation,
      those patients with a history of any of the dental treatments to their anterior
      teeth listed on our fabrication protocol from January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.
      RESULTS: No cases of dental trauma during oroendotracheal intubation were
      reported among the 202 patients who used a protective device. 66% of the patients
      had risk factors for hard tissue damage aged 10-40 years. At the ages of 40-70
      years, the incidence of risk group for periodontal damage was higher.
      CONCLUSIONS: Preanesthetic consultation was effective for preventing dental
      injury, so preanesthetic questionnaire and proper dental consultation would be
      helpful.

PMID- 28879255
TI  - Factor XI deficiency and orthognathic surgery: a case report on anesthesia
      management.
AB  - Factor XI deficiency (Hemophilia C) is a very rare autosomal recessive bleeding
      disorder. Patients with factor XI deficiency do not typically show any
      spontaneous bleeding or specific symptoms. Sometimes those who have this disorder
      are identified during special situations such as trauma or surgery. Orthognathic
      surgery is particularly associated with a high bleeding risk. Therefore, great
      care must be taken when treating patients with bleeding disorders such as factor
      XI deficiency. There are a few reports that address the management of patients
      with bleeding disorders during orthognathic surgery. The current report describes
      a patient with factor XI deficiency who underwent Le Fort I osteotomy together
      with bilateral sagittal split osteotomy. The patient's condition was assessed
      using both rotation thromboelastometry (ROTEMTM) and noninvasive measurements of
      total hemoglobin (SpHb) using Masimo Radical 7 (Masimo Co. CA, USA).

PMID- 28879256
TI  - Acute mediastinitis secondary to delayed vascular injury by a central venous
      catheter and total parenteral nutrition.
AB  - Vascular injury caused by a central venous catheter (CVC) has been reported to be
      a rare complication, especially delayed vascular injury due to CVC has a few
      cases and it can be fatal because of delayed recognition and more serious
      complications. A 59-year-old woman with no available medical history was admitted
      for treatment of ovarian cancer. For the surgery, a triple-lumen CVC was placed
      through the left subclavian vein. Parenteral nutrition through the CVC was used
      for postoperative nutritional management in the first postoperative day. On the
      sixth postoperative day (POD), the patient suddenly complained of dyspnea. The CT
      revealed bilateral pleural effusion and irregular soft tissue density and air
      bubble in anterior mediastinum suggesting migration of the distal portion of the
      CVC into the anterior mediastium. In the intensive care unit (ICU) bilateral
      thoracentesis and percutaneous drainage were performed. She was discharged from
      the ICU in 3 days later and transferred to the general ward. This case emphasizes
      the possibility of the delayed vascular injury related to CVC and some strategies
      for prevention of vascular injury.

PMID- 28879257
TI  - The effect of stellate ganglion block on the atypical facial pain.
AB  - Atypical facial pain (AFP) is a type of facial pain which does not fulfill any
      other diagnosis. It has several features such as no objective signs, no obvious
      explanation of the cause and poor response to treatments. We report a case of a
      female patient with AFP on the left maxillary area. The pain was increased by
      cold innocuous stimulation and thermography showed that the temperature on the
      painful area was significantly decreased. The pain was successfully alleviated by
      stellate ganglion block (SGB). Therefore, SGB can be effectively used to treat
      AFP.

PMID- 28879258
TI  - Considerations for submucosal midazolam administration in combination with oral
      and inhaled medications for sedation of pediatric dental patients.
AB  - Sedation allows patients to maintain their airway independently and respond
      appropriately to physical stimulation and verbal command while maintaining a
      minimum depressed level of consciousness. Drugs commonly used for sedation of
      pediatric dental patients include a combination of chloral hydrate, hydroxyzine,
      and nitrous oxide-oxygen. Midazolam is a benzodiazepine and currently one of the
      most commonly used intravenous sedative agents. It can be easily titrated to
      provide a wide range of sedation, from conscious sedation to deep sedation, and
      exhibits a wide safety margin without severe respiratory and circulatory
      depression. At an appropriate dose, it also decreases patient anxiety and induces
      amnesia. We found that the submucosal administration of midazolam combined with
      chloral hydrate provided increased sedative effects and decreased the
      postoperative vomiting response compared with conventional chloral hydrate
      administration, with no significant difference in physiological responses. The
      depth of sedation can be titrated using this technique.

PMID- 28879260
TI  - Advantages of anterior inferior alveolar nerve block with felypressin
      propitocaine over conventional epinephrine-lidocaine: an efficacy and safety
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conventional anesthetic nerve block injections into the mandibular
      foramen risk causing nerve damage. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and
      safety of the anterior technique (AT) of inferior alveolar nerve block using
      felypressin-propitocaine with a conventional nerve block technique (CT) using
      epinephrine and lidocaine for anesthesia via the mandibular foramen. METHODS:
      Forty healthy university students with no recent dental work were recruited as
      subjects and assigned to two groups: right side CT or right side AT. Anesthesia
      was evaluated in terms of success rate, duration of action, and injection pain.
      These parameters were assessed at the first incisor, premolar, and molar, 60 min
      after injection. Chi-square and unpaired t-tests were used for statistical
      comparisons, with a P value of < 0.05 designating significance. RESULTS: The two
      nerve block techniques generated comparable success rates for the right mandible,
      with rates of 65% (CT) and 60% (AT) at both the first molar and premolar, and
      rates of 60% (CT) and 50% (AT) at the lateral incisor. The duration of anesthesia
      using the CT was 233 +/- 37 min, which was approximately 40 min shorter than
      using the AT. This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Injection
      pain using the AT was rated as milder compared with the CT. This difference was
      also statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The AT is no less
      successful than the CT for inducing anesthesia, and has the added benefits of a
      significantly longer duration of action and significantly less pain.

PMID- 28879259
TI  - Dental fear & anxiety and dental pain in children and adolescents; a systemic
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are few previous studies investigating the relationship of
      dental fear and anxiety (DFA) with dental pain among children and adolescents. To
      address this issue, we examined the literature published between November 1873
      and May 2015 to evaluate the prevalence of DFA and dental pain among children and
      adolescents, and their relationships with age and sex. METHODS: We performed a
      broad search of the PubMed database using 3 combinations of the search terms
      dental fear, anxiety, and dental pain and prevalence. A large proportion of the
      identified articles could not be used for the review due to inadequate end points
      or measures, or because of poor study design. Thirty-two papers of acceptable
      quality were identified and reviewed. RESULTS: We found that the prevalence of
      DFA was estimated to be 10%, with a decrease in prevalence with age. It was more
      frequently seen in girls, and was related to dental pain. CONCLUSIONS: We
      concluded that dental fear, anxiety, and pain are common, and several
      psychological factors are associated with their development. In order to better
      understand these relationships, further clinical evaluations and studies are
      required.

PMID- 28879261
TI  - The efficacy of an elevated concentration of lidocaine HCl in impacted lower
      third molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There have been few studies on the effect of an elevated
      concentration of lidocaine hydrochloride in the surgical removal of an impacted
      lower third molar. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of 4% lidocaine along
      with 1:100,000 epinephrine compared to 2% lidocaine along with 1:100,000
      epinephrine as inferior alveolar nerve block for the removal of an impacted lower
      third molar. METHODS: This single-blind study involved 31 healthy patients (mean
      age: 23 y; range: 19-33 y) with symmetrically impacted lower third molars as
      observed on panoramic radiographs. Volunteers required 2 surgical interventions
      by the same surgeon with a 3-week washout period. The volunteers were assigned
      either 4% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine or 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000
      epinephrine as local anesthetic during each operation. RESULTS: We recorded the
      time of administration, need for additional anesthetic administration, total
      volume of anesthetic used. We found that the patient's preference for either of
      the 2 types of local anesthetic were significantly different (P < 0.05). However,
      the extent of pulpal anesthesia, surgical duration, and duration of soft tissue
      anesthesia were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested
      that inferior alveolar nerve block using 4% lidocaine HCl with 1:100,000
      epinephrine as a local anesthetic was clinically more effective than that using
      2% lidocaine HCl with 1:100,000 epinephrine; the surgical duration was not
      affected, and no clinically adverse effects were encountered.

PMID- 28879262
TI  - Emergency response team activation in the outpatient clinic of a single dental
      teaching hospital in Korea: a retrospective study of 10 years' records.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To prepare for possible emergency situations during dental treatment,
      it is helpful to know how often and what kinds of emergencies may arise. This
      study set out to evaluate the incidences, causes, treatments, and outcomes of
      emergency situations in the outpatient clinic of a dental teaching hospital in
      Korea. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients who had
      experienced an emergency situation and emergency response team activated in a
      selected outpatient clinic between November 2004 and November 2013. Specific
      information about the emergency cases was collected, including the patient
      characteristics and the frequency, types, treatments, and outcomes of the
      emergency situations. RESULTS: We identified 35 instances of emergency situations
      in 2,890,424 patients (incidence = 0.012 per 10,000 outpatients). The number of
      cases was as follows: 10 (28.6%) in the Department of Periodontics, 10 (28.6%) in
      the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 6 (17.1%) in the Department of
      Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, 4 (11.4%) in the Department of Prosthodontics,
      2 (5.7%) in the Department of Conservative Dentistry, 2 (5.7%) in the Department
      of Pediatric Dentistry, and 1 (2.9%) in the Department of Orthodontics. Three
      (8.6%) of the emergency situations arose before treatment, 22 (62.9%) during
      treatment, 7 (20.0%) after treatment, and 2 (5.7%) in a patient's guardian.
      CONCLUSIONS: In accordance with the growing elderly population and more
      aggressive dental procedures, the number of emergency situations may increase in
      the future. We recommend that clinicians keep in mind airway management and the
      active control of emergency situations.

PMID- 28879263
TI  - Reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Dental Fear Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many people experience varying levels of discomfort when confronted
      with the prospect of dental treatment. Dental treatment can be a traumatic
      experience, especially for children and adolescents with dental anxiety. In this
      age group, dental fear causes a significant problem in dental management and has
      been related to severe dental caries and dental pain. The Dental Fear Survey (
      DFS ) is the most widely used measure of dental fear. This study was undertaken
      to develop the Korean version of the DFS ( K-DFS ) and test its reliability and
      validity. METHODS: The K-DFS, which uses projective techniques to measure
      children's and adolescents' dental fear, was developed. The DFS was translated
      into Korean and participants were selected via convenience sampling. Reliability
      and validity were tested using data from a sample of 813 middle school students
      in Gyeonggi Province, selected from the Self questionnaire survey. The K-DFS was
      administered twice to 102 adolescents aged 12-15 years. RESULTS: The K-DFS had
      high internal consistency reliability (99.1%) but low test-retest reliability.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the Korean versions of the DFS have good
      internal consistency reliabilities and test-retest validities. However, we need
      to further examine the test-retest reliability of the K-DFS and replicate the
      current study in different samples covering various age groups.

PMID- 28879264
TI  - Diplopia after inferior alveolar nerve block: case report and related physiology.
AB  - Although inferior alveolar nerve block is one of the most common procedures
      performed at dental clinics, complications or adverse effects can still occur. On
      rare occasions, ocular disturbances, such as diplopia, blurred vision, amaurosis,
      mydriasis, abnormal pupillary light reflex, retrobulbar pain, miosis, and
      enophthalmos, have also been reported after maxillary and mandibular anesthesia.
      Generally, these symptoms are temporary but they can be rather distressing to
      both patients and dental practitioners. Herein, we describe a case of diplopia
      caused by routine inferior alveolar nerve anesthesia, its related physiology, and
      management.

PMID- 28879265
TI  - The surgical retrieval of a broken dental needle: A case report.
AB  - One complication related to local anesthesia in the dental clinic is a broken
      needle. Although rare, a broken needle may be difficult to retrieve. Dental
      radiographs and 3D CT have been used in the past to confirm the location of a
      broken needle. We present the case of a broken needle, which was successfully
      removed using a careful, microscopic approach.

PMID- 28879266
TI  - Damage to the pilot balloon of the nasotracheal tube during orthognathic double
      jaw surgery: A case report.
AB  - In oral and maxillofacial surgery, many complications associated with
      nasotracheal tube can be caused. In this case, we reported ballooning tube damage
      of nasotracheal tube during orthognathic double-jaw surgery and replacement of
      tube through cut down of tube and tube exchange using airway exchange catheter.
      The patient scheduled for high Le Fort I osteotomy and bilateral sagittal split
      osteotomy was intubated nasotracheally with nasal endotracheal tube. During
      maxilla osteotomy, air bubble was detected in the oral blood. In spite of our
      repeated ballooning, the results were the same so we changed damaged tube using
      airway exchange catheter aseptically. Tiny and superficial cutting site was
      detected in the middle of pilot tube. As we know in our case, tiny injury impeded
      a normal airway management and prevention is important.

PMID- 28879267
TI  - The influence of mandibular skeletal characteristics on inferior alveolar nerve
      block anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) is the most common
      anesthetic techniques in dentistry; however, its success rate is low. The purpose
      of this study was to determine the correlation between IANB failure and
      mandibular skeletal characteristics. METHODS: In total, 693 cases of lower third
      molar extraction (n = 575 patients) were examined in this study. The ratio of the
      condylar and coronoid distances from the mandibular foramen (condyle-coronoid
      ratio [CC ratio]) was calculated, and the mandibular skeleton was then classified
      as normal, retrognathic, or prognathic. The correlation between IANB failure and
      sex, treatment side, and the CC ratio was assessed. RESULTS: The IANB failure
      rates for normal, retrognathic, and prognathic mandibles were 7.3%, 14.5%, and
      9.5%, respectively, and the failure rate was highest among those with a CC ratio
      < 0.8 (severe retrognathic mandible). The failure rate was significantly higher
      in the retrognathic group than in normal group (P = 0.019), and there was no
      statistically significant difference between the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      IANB failure could be attributable, in part, to the skeletal characteristics of
      the mandible. In addition, the failure rate was found to be significantly higher
      in the retrognathic group.

PMID- 28879268
TI  - Hemodynamic changes associated with a novel concentration of lidocaine HCl for
      impacted lower third molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors studied the hemodynamic effect influent by using the
      novel high concentration of lidocaine HCl for surgical removal impacted lower
      third molar. The objective of this study was to evaluate the hemodynamic change
      when using different concentrations of lidocaine in impacted lower third molar
      surgery. METHODS: Split mouth single blind study comprising 31 healthy patients
      with a mean age of 23 years (range 19-33 years). Subjects had symmetrically
      impacted lower third molars as observed on panoramic radiograph. Each participant
      required 2 surgical interventions by the same surgeon with a 3-week washout
      period washout period. The participants were alternately assigned one of two
      types of local anesthetic (left or right) for the first surgery, then the other
      type of anesthetic for the second surgery. One solution was 4% lidocaine with
      1:100,000 epinephrine and the other was 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine.
      A standard IANB with 1.8 ml volume was used. Any requirement for additional
      anesthetic and patient pain intra-operation was recorded. Post-operatively,
      patient was instructed to fill in the patient report form for any adverse effect
      and local anesthetic preference in terms of intra-operative pain. This form was
      collected at the seven day follow up appointment. RESULTS: In the 4% lidocaine
      group, the heart rate increased during the first minute post-injection (P <
      0.05). However, there was no significant change in arterial blood pressure during
      the operation. In the 2% lidocaine group, there was a significant increase in
      arterial blood pressure and heart rate in the first minute following injection
      for every procedure. When the hemodynamic changes in each group were compared,
      the 4% lidocaine group had significantly lower arterial blood pressure compared
      to the 2% lidocaine group following injection. Post-operatively, no adverse
      effects were observed by the operator and patient in either local anesthetic
      group. Patients reported less pain intra-operation in the 4% lidocaine group
      compared with the 2% lidocaine group (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest
      that a 4% concentration of lidocaine HCl with 1:100,000 epinephrine has better
      clinical efficacy than 2% lidocaine HCl with 1:100,000 epinephrine when used for
      surgical extraction of lower third molars. Neither drug had any clinical adverse
      effects.

PMID- 28879269
TI  - Comparison of the hemodynamic effects of propofol and ketamine as anesthetic
      induction agents during high-dose remifentanil administration: a single-center
      retrospective comparative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We hypothesized that ketamine, when administered as the anesthetic
      induction agent, may prevent cardiovascular depression during high-dose
      remifentanil administration, unlike propofol. To test our hypothesis, we
      retrospectively compared the hemodynamic effects of ketamine, during high-dose
      remifentanil administration, with those of propofol. METHODS: Thirty-eight
      patients who underwent oral surgery at the Nagasaki University Hospital between
      April 2014 and June 2015 were included in this study. Anesthesia was induced by
      the following procedure: First, high-dose remifentanil (0.3-0.5 ug/kg/min) was
      administered 2-3 min before anesthesia induction; next, the anesthetic induction
      agent, either propofol (Group P) or ketamine (Group K), was administered. Mean
      arterial pressure (MAP) and the heart rate were recorded by the automated
      anesthesia recording system at four time points: immediately before the
      administration of high-dose remifentanil (T1); immediately before the
      administration of propofol or ketamine (T2); 2.5 min (T3), and 5 min (T4) after
      the administration of the anesthetic induction agent. RESULTS: In Group P, the
      MAP at T3 (75.7 +/- 15.5 mmHg, P = 0.0015) and T4 (68.3 +/- 12.5 mmHg, P < 0.001)
      were significantly lower than those at T1 (94.0 +/- 12.4 mmHg). However, the MAP
      values in the K group were very similar (P = 0.133) at all time points. The heart
      rates in both Groups P (P = 0.254) and K (P = 0.859) remained unchanged over
      time. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that ketamine, when administered as the anesthetic
      induction agent during high-dose remifentanil administration, prevents
      cardiovascular depression.

PMID- 28879270
TI  - Diagnostic value of procalcitonin and CRP in critically ill patients admitted
      with suspected sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identifying early markers of septic complications can aid in the
      diagnosis and therapeutic management of hospitalized patients. In this study, the
      utility of procalcitonin (PCT) vs. C-reactive protein (CRP) as early markers of
      sepsis was compared. METHODS: A series of 2,697 consecutive blood samples was
      collected from hospitalized patients and serum PCT and CRP levels were measured.
      Patients were categorized by PCT level as follows: < 0.05 ng/ml, 0.05-0.49 ng/ml,
      0.5-1.99 ng/ml, 2-9.99 ng/ml, and > 10 ng/ml. Diagnostic utility was analyzed by
      receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Mean CRP levels varied
      among the five PCT categories at 0.31 +/- 2.87, 5.65 +/- 6.26, 13.78 +/- 8.01,
      12.15 +/- 10.16, and 17.77 +/- 10.59, respectively (P < 0.05). PCT and CRP
      differed between positive and negative blood culture groups (PCT: 15.9 vs. 4.78
      mg/dl; CRP: 11.5 ng/ml vs. 9.57 ng/ml; P < 0.05). The areas under the ROC curves
      (PCT, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.743, range: 0.698-0.789 at a threshold of
      0.5 ng/ml; CRP, 95% CI: 0.540, range: 0.478-0.602 at a threshold of 8 mg/l)
      differed for PCT and CRP (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, PCT is a reliable
      marker for sepsis diagnosis and is more relevant than CRP in patients with a
      positive blood culture. These findings can be useful for the treatment of
      critically ill sepsis patients.

PMID- 28879271
TI  - Circadian variation of IV PCA use in patients after orthognathic surgery - a
      retrospective comparative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An understanding of the features of postoperative pain is essential
      for optimal analgesic dosing strategies. Using a visual analogue scale (VAS)
      score and patient controlled analgesia (PCA) infusion pattern analysis, an
      anesthesiologist can estimate when and how severely patients suffer from pain.
      Several reports have been published about circadian changes in the pain
      threshold. Postoperative pain was analyzed retrospectively in 250 patients who
      underwent orthognathic surgery. METHODS: A total of 250 patients were allocated
      into two groups according to the time of recovery from anesthesia. Patients in
      the early group (group E) recovered from anesthesia before 06:00 p.m. Patients in
      the late group (group L) recovered from anesthesia after 06:00 p.m. All patients
      received intravenous patient controlled analgesia (IV PCA) at the end of the
      operation. The VAS score of pain intensity was measured. Self-administration of
      bolus analgesic from the IV PCA device was also analyzed according to actual time
      and elapsed time. RESULTS: VAS scores showed no difference between the two groups
      except 36 hours after recovery from anesthesia. On POD1, there were two peaks for
      self-administration of bolus analgesics in group L and one peak in the morning
      for group E. Two peaks each in the morning and in the afternoon were shown in
      both groups on POD2. CONCLUSIONS: Diurnal variance in pain should be considered
      for effective dosing strategies.

PMID- 28879272
TI  - Immediate implant placement for schizophrenic patient with outpatient general
      anesthesia.
AB  - The difficult oral healthcare in intellectually disabled patients with poor
      behavioral control has led to debate over the cost-effectiveness and validity of
      implant treatment in these patients. The patient in the present report had
      schizophrenia that had led to poor oral care and severe dental caries in the full
      mouth. Tooth extraction and a removable prosthesis were planned, but the guardian
      wanted an implant procedure. Since the guardian showed strong will and
      cooperation with regard to the patient's oral healthcare, extraction followed by
      immediate implant placement was performed across two rounds of general
      anesthesia. Since the outcome appears successful, we present this case report.
      Immediate implant placement after tooth extraction requires fewer surgeries and
      rounds of general anesthesia, reduces horizontal bone resorption, and can achieve
      better esthetic results. Therefore, as long as a certain degree of oral care is
      possible, this can be a positive option for restoration of a partially edentulous
      mouth, even in intellectually disabled patients.

PMID- 28879273
TI  - Difficult airway management in a patient with a parapharyngeal tumor.
AB  - A 47-year-old man was referred to the operating room to treat a dentigenous cyst
      of the mandibular bone. Initial assessment of the airway was considered normal.
      However, after the induction of anesthesia, we could not intubate the patient due
      to severe distortion of the glottis. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy and video
      laryngoscopy were not effective. Intubation using a retrograde wire technique was
      successful. After the conclusion of surgery, the patient recovered without any
      complications. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging of the patient's neck showed
      a 6 * 4 * 8.6 cm heterogeneous T2 hyperintense, T1 isointense well-enhancing mass
      in the prestyloid parapharyngeal space. The patient was scheduled for excision of
      the mass. We planned awake intubation with fiberoptic bronchoscopy. The procedure
      was successful and the patient recovered without complications. Anesthetic
      induction can decrease the muscle tone of the airway and increase airway
      distortion. Therefore, careful airway assessment is necessary.

PMID- 28879274
TI  - Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a patient with oral cancer.
AB  - A patient with squamous cell carcinoma on the left mandible presented with
      symptoms similar to acute coronary syndrome just after surgery. The exact
      etiology was unclear, but following transthoracic echocardiogram, takotsubo
      cardiomyopathy was diagnosed. This is a rare, acute, and reversible form of heart
      failure, and the patient recovered completely within weeks. Related risk factors
      are believed to include extended surgery times and extended time under general
      anesthesia. Early recognition, followed by postoperative control of pain and
      anxiety are crucial to patient recovery.

PMID- 28879275
TI  - Dental treatment of a patient with long QT syndrome under moderate sedation with
      target-controlled infusion of propofol.
AB  - Long QT syndrome (LQTs) is a rare congenital disorder of the heart's electrical
      activity. Patients with LQTs are at increased risk of developing fatal
      ventricular arrhythmias. Elevated levels of sympathetic stimulation can
      exacerbate this risk. Successful behavior management is indispensable in the
      treatment of patients with LQTs. However, many drugs involved in pharmacologic
      behavior management are known to adversely affect the QT interval. Therefore,
      careful selection of a sedative drug is essential in avoiding such incidences. A
      10-year-old boy with a known diagnosis of LQTs required restorative treatment due
      to dental caries at the permanent molar. He required sedation since treatment was
      painful and dental phobia can trigger sympathetic stimulation, creating a
      dangerous situation for patients with LQTs. Therefore, the treatment was
      performed over two sessions under moderate sedation involving propofol combined
      with nitrous oxide. Restorative treatment was successful without any
      complications under sedation with a target-controlled infusion (TCI) of propofol.
      There was no significant QT prolongation during pulpal treatment. Propofol TCI
      may be a good candidate for sedation in patients with LQTs.

PMID- 28879277
TI  - Full mouth rehabilitation of a patient with Sturge-Weber syndrome using a mixture
      of general and sedative anesthesia.
AB  - Issues related to the control of seizures and bleeding, as well as behavioral
      management due to mental retardation, render dental treatment less accessible or
      impossible for patients with Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS). A 41-year-old man with
      SWS visited a dental clinic for rehabilitation of missing dentition. A bilateral
      port-wine facial nevus and intraoral hemangiomatous swollen lesion of the left
      maxillary and mandibular gingivae, mucosa, and lips were noted. The patient
      exhibited extreme anxiety immediately after injection of a local anesthetic and
      required various dental treatments to be performed over multiple visits.
      Therefore, full-mouth rehabilitation over two visits with general anesthesia and
      two visits with target-controlled intravenous infusion of a sedative anesthesia
      were planned. Despite concerns regarding seizure control, bleeding control, and
      airway management, no specific complications occurred during the treatments, and
      the patient was satisfied with the results.

PMID- 28879276
TI  - Difficult intubation using intubating laryngeal mask airway in conjunction with a
      fiber optic bronchoscope.
AB  - When anesthesiologists encounter conditions in which intubation is not possible
      using a conventional direct laryngoscope, they can consider using other available
      techniques and devices such as fiber optic bronchoscope (FOB)-guided intubation,
      a laryngeal mask airway (LMA), intubating LMA (ILMA), a light wand, and the
      Combitube. FOB-guided intubation is frequently utilized in predicted difficult
      airway cases and is generally performed when the patient is awake to enable
      easier access to the trachea. An LMA can be introduced to ventilate the patient
      with relative ease, while an ILMA can be used for definite endotracheal
      intubation. However, occasionally, an endotracheal tube (ETT) cannot pass through
      the larynx, despite successful introduction of a FOB into the trachea and
      placement of an ILMA by the anesthesiologist. Therefore, we initially introduced
      an ILMA for emergent ventilation, followed by successful insertion of an ETT
      under FOB guidance. In this report, we describe three cases of difficult
      intubation using a FOB and ILMA combination approach.

PMID- 28879278
TI  - Blind nasal intubation as an alternative to difficult intubation approaches.
AB  - Airway difficulties are a major concern for anesthesiologists. Even though
      fiberoptic intubation is the generally accepted method for management of
      difficult airways, it is not without disadvantages-requires patient cooperation,
      and cannot be performed on soiled airway or upper airways with pre-existing
      narrowing pathology. Additionally, fiberoptic bronchoscopy is not available at
      every medical institution. In this case, we encountered difficult airway
      management in a 71-year-old man with a high Mallampati grade and a thick neck who
      had undergone urologic surgery. Several attempts, including a bronchoscope-guided
      intubation, were unsuccessful. Finally, blind nasal intubation was successful
      while the patient's neck was flexed and the tracheal cartilage was gently pressed
      down. We suggest that blind nasal intubation is a helpful alternative in
      difficult airway management and it can be a lifesaving technique in emergencies.
      Additionally, its simplicity makes it a less expensive option when advanced
      airway technology (fiberoptic bronchoscopy) is unavailable.

PMID- 28879279
TI  - Clinical considerations in the use of forced-air warming blankets during
      orthognathic surgery to avoid postanesthetic shivering.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During head and neck surgery including orthognathic surgery, mild
      intraoperative hypothermia occurs frequently. Hypothermia is associated with
      postanesthetic shivering, which may increase the risk of other postoperative
      complications. To improve intraoperative thermoregulation, devices such as forced
      air warming blankets can be applied. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of
      supplemental forced-air warming blankets in preventing postanesthetic shivering.
      METHODS: This retrospective study included 113 patients who underwent
      orthognathic surgery between March and September 2015. According to the active
      warming method utilized during surgery, patients were divided into two groups:
      Group W (n = 55), circulating-water mattress; and Group F (n = 58), circulating
      water mattress and forced-air warming blanket. Surgical notes and anesthesia and
      recovery room records were evaluated. RESULTS: Initial axillary temperatures did
      not significantly differ between groups (Group W = 35.9 +/- 0.7C, Group F = 35.8
      +/- 0.6C). However, at the end of surgery, the temperatures in Group W were
      significantly lower than those in Group F (35.2 +/- 0.5C and 36.2 +/- 0.5C,
      respectively, P = 0.04). The average body temperatures in Groups W and F were,
      respectively, 35.9 +/- 0.5C and 36.2 +/- 0.5C (P = 0.0001). In Group W, 24
      patients (43.6%) experienced postanesthetic shivering, while in Group F, only 12
      (20.7%) patients required treatment for postanesthetic shivering (P = 0.009, odds
      ratio = 0.333, 95% confidence interval: 0.147-0.772). CONCLUSIONS: Additional use
      of forced-air warming blankets in orthognathic surgery was superior in
      maintaining normothermia and reduced the incidence of postanesthetic shivering.

PMID- 28879280
TI  - Articaine (4%) with epinephrine (1:100,000 or 1:200,000) in inferior alveolar
      nerve block: Effects on the vital signs and onset, and duration of anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This prospective, randomized, double-blind, clinical study was
      conducted to compare the effects of 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine
      (A100) and 4% articaine with 1:200,000 epinephrine (A200) on the vital signs and
      onset and duration of anesthesia in an inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB).
      METHODS: In the first appointment, an IANB was performed by injecting A100 or
      A200 in 1 side of the mouth (right or left) randomly in patients referred for
      extraction of both their first mandibular molars. In the second appointment, the
      protocol was repeated and the other anesthetic solution was injected in the side
      that had not received the block in the previous session. Systolic and diastolic
      blood pressures (SBP and DBP) and pulse rate were measured during and 5 min after
      the injection. The onset and duration of anesthesia were also evaluated. Data
      were analyzed using t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test, and p-value was set at 0.05.
      RESULTS: SBP and pulse rate changes were slightly more with A100; however, DBP
      changes were more with A200, although the differences were not significant (P >
      0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in the parameters
      evaluated in this study. The onset and duration of anesthesia, and the changes in
      SBP, DBP, and pulse rate during and 5 min after the injection were the same in
      both the groups. CONCLUSIONS: For an IANB, A200 and A100 were equally efficient
      and successful in producing the block. Epinephrine concentration did not
      influence the effects of 4% articaine.

PMID- 28879281
TI  - Endotracheal intubation by inexperienced trainees using the Clarus Video System:
      learning curve and orodental trauma perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The ideal alternative airway device should be intuitive to use,
      yielding proficiency after only a few trials. The Clarus Video System (CVS) is a
      novel optical stylet with a semi-rigid tip; however, the learning curve and
      associated orodental trauma are poorly understood. METHODS: Two novice
      practitioners with no CVS experience performed 30 intubations each. Each trial
      was divided into learning (first 10 intubations) and standard phases (remaining
      20 intubations). Total time to achieve successful intubation, number of
      intubation attempts, ease of use, and orodental trauma were recorded. RESULTS:
      Intubation was successful in all patients. In 51 patients (85%), intubation was
      accomplished in the first attempt. Nine patients required two or three intubation
      attempts; six were with the first 10 patients. Learning and standard phases
      differed significantly in terms of success at first attempt, number of attempts,
      and intubation time (70% vs. 93%, 1.4 +/- 0.7 vs. 1.1 +/- 0.3, and 71.4 +/- 92.3
      s vs. 24.6 +/- 21.9 s, respectively). The first five patients required longer
      intubation times than the subsequent five patients (106.8 +/- 120.3 s vs. 36.0 +/
      26.8 s); however, the number of attempts was similar. Sequential subgroups of
      five patients in the standard phase did not differ in the number of attempts or
      intubation time. Dental trauma, lip laceration, or mucosal bleeding were absent.
      CONCLUSIONS: Ten intubations are sufficient to learn CVS utilization properly
      without causing any orodental trauma. A relatively small number of experiences
      are required in the learning curve compared with other devices.

PMID- 28879282
TI  - A retrospective study of deep sedation with concomitant administration of
      sedative agents in children undergoing surgical removal of a mesiodens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric dentists face challenges when young patients require a
      mesiodens extraction. General anesthesia may be a burden to the child as well as
      the parent due to dental fears and costs. The aim of this study was to evaluate
      oral and intravenous sedation in the outpatient setting as a safe and effective
      means of managing patients who require a mesiodens extraction. METHODS: Records
      were reviewed retrospectively to find patients who underwent a mesiodens removal
      procedure from January 2013 to September 2014 in the Department of Pediatric
      Dentistry at Ajou University Hospital (Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea). A
      total of 81 patients (62 male and 19 female) between 4 and 11 years of age (mean
      [+/- SD] 81.6 +/- 14.1 months) were studied, with a mean weight of 22.9 +/- 3.3
      kg (16 kg to 30 kg). Vital signs, sedation drug dosage, and sedation time were
      studied. RESULTS: Mean doses of 63.7 +/- 2.5 mg/kg chloral hydrate and 1.36 +/-
      0.22 mg/kg hydroxyzine were used for oral sedation. Nitrous oxide/oxygen was
      administrated for 40.0 +/- 2.1 min. The mean dose of midazolam administered
      intravenously was 0.14 +/- 0.06 mg/kg (2.38 +/- 0.97 times). In all cases, the
      mesiodens was removed successfully. CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous sedation combined
      with oral sedation and nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation can be an alternative to
      general anesthesia when administrated and monitored properly.

PMID- 28879283
TI  - Optimal effect-site concentration of remifentanil for minimizing cardiovascular
      changes caused by fiberoptic nasotracheal intubation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endotracheal intubation induces clinically adverse cardiovascular
      changes. Various pharmacological strategies for controlling these responses have
      been suggested with opioids being widely administered. In this study, the optimal
      effect-site concentration (Ce) of remifentanil for minimizing hemodynamic
      responses to fiberoptic nasotracheal intubation was evaluated. METHODS: Thirty
      patients, aged 18-63 years, scheduled for elective surgery were included.
      Anesthesia was induced with a propofol and remifentanil infusion via target
      controlled infusion (TCI). Remifentanil infusion was initiated at 3.0 ng/mL, and
      the response of each patient determined the Ce of remifentanil for the next
      patient by the Dixon up-and-down method at an interval of 0.5 ng/mL. Rocuronium
      was administered after propofol and remifentanil reached their preset Ce; 90
      seconds later fiberoptic nasotracheal intubation was initiated. Non-invasive
      blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were measured at pre-induction, the time Ce
      was reached, immediately before and after intubation, and at 1 and 3 minutes
      after intubation. The up-and-down criteria comprised a 20% change in mean blood
      pressure and HR between just prior to intubation and 1 minute after intubation.
      RESULTS: The median effective effect-site concentration (EC50) of remifentanil
      was 3.11 +/- 0.38 ng/mL by the Dixon's up-and-down method. From the probit
      analysis, the EC50 of remifentanil was 3.43 ng/mL (95% confidence interval, 2.90
      4.06 ng/mL). In PAVA, the EC50 and EC95 of remifentanil were 3.57 ng/mL (95% CI,
      2.95-3.89) and 4.35 ng/mL (95% CI, 3.93-4.45). No remifentanil-related
      complications were observed. CONCLUSIONS: The EC50 of remifentanil for minimizing
      the cardiovascular changes and side effects associated with fiberoptic
      nasotracheal intubation was 3.11-3.43 ng/mL during propofol TCI anesthesia with a
      Ce of 4 ug/mL.

PMID- 28879284
TI  - Hemolysis of irradiated leukoreduced red blood cells during rapid warming: An in
      vitro experimental study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although water chambers are often used as surrogate blood-warming
      devices to facilitate rapid warming of red blood cells (RBCs), these cells may be
      damaged if overheated. Moreover, filtered and irradiated RBCs may be damaged
      during the warming process, resulting in excessive hemolysis and extracellular
      potassium release. METHODS: Using hand-held syringes, each unit of irradiated and
      leukocyte-filtered RBCs was rapidly passed through a water chamber set to
      different temperatures (baseline before blood warming, 50C, 60C, and 70C). The
      resulting plasma potassium and free hemoglobin levels were then measured.
      RESULTS: Warming RBCs to 60C and 70C induced significant increases in free
      hemoglobin (median [interquartile ranges] = 60.5 mg/dl [34.9-101.4] and 570.2
      mg/dl [115.6-2289.7], respectively). Potassium levels after warming to 70C (31.4
      +/- 7.6 mEq/L) were significantly higher compared with baseline (29.7 +/- 7.1
      mEq/L; P = 0.029). Potassium levels were significantly correlated with storage
      duration after warming to 50C and 60C (r = 0.450 and P = 0.001; r = 0.351 and P =
      0.015, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Rapid warming of irradiated leukoreduced RBCs
      to 50C may not further increase the extracellular release of hemoglobin or
      potassium. However, irradiated leukoreduced RBCs that have been in storage for
      long periods of time and contain higher levels of potassium should be infused
      with caution.

PMID- 28879285
TI  - Combitube insertion in the situation of acute airway obstruction after extubation
      in patients underwent two-jaw surgery.
AB  - The Combitube is an emergency airway-maintaining device, which can supply oxygen
      to dyspneic patients in emergency situations following two-jaw surgery. These
      patients experience difficulty in opening the mouth or have a partially
      obstructed airway caused by edema or hematoma in the oral cavity. As such, they
      cannot maintain the normal airway. The use of a Combitube may be favorable
      compared to the laryngeal mask airway because it is a thin and relatively
      resilient tube. A healthy 24-year-old man was dyspneic after extubation. Oxygen
      saturation fell below 90% despite untying the bimaxillary fixation and
      ambubagging. The opening of the mouth was narrow; thus, emergency airway
      maintenance was gained by insertion of a Combitube. The following day, a facial
      computer tomography revealed that the airway space narrowing was severe compared
      to its pre-operational state. After the swelling subsided, the patient was
      successfully extubated without complications.

PMID- 28879286
TI  - Management of traumatic neuralgia in a patient with the extracted teeth and
      alveoloplasty: a case report.
AB  - A majority of patients who sustain injuries to the peripheral sensory nerves of
      the face and jaws experience a slow but gradual return of sensation that is
      functional and tolerable, if not the same as before the injuries. However, long
      term effects of such injuries are aggravating for many patients, and a few
      patients experience significant suffering. In some of these patients,
      posttraumatic symptoms become pathological and are painful. The predominant
      painful components are (1) numbing anesthesia dolorosa pain, (2) triggered
      neuralgiaform pain, (3) burning and aching causalgiaform pain, and (4) phantom
      pain. This is a case report of conservative management of traumatic neuralgia and
      neuritis as part of posttraumatic pain syndromes in geriatric patients who have
      undergone the teeth extraction and alveoloplasty.

PMID- 28879287
TI  - Treatment of herpes zoster with ultrasound-guided superficial cervical plexus
      block.
AB  - Herpes zoster most commonly occurs in elderly patients, and usually affects
      sensory neurons. Therefore, its characteristic symptoms are segmental pain,
      itching, and sensory changes in the affected areas. A 71-yr-old woman experienced
      painful herpetic rash on the right cervical 2-4 dermatomes for 16 days. Two days
      after the onset of the rash, she was diagnosed with herpes zoster, and prescribed
      250 mg famciclovir three times a day for 7 days, pregabalin 150 mg twice a day,
      and tramadol 150 mg once a day for 14 days, by a dermatologist. Despite
      medication, her pain was rated at an intensity of 6/10 on the numeric rating
      scale. In addition, she complained of severe itching sensation on the affected
      dermatomes. Superficial cervical plexus block (SCPB) was performed at the right
      C4 level with 15 ml 0.5% lidocaine plus triamcinolone 30 mg. Five days after the
      procedure, pain and itching completely disappeared. SCPB may be an effective
      option for the treatment of acute pain and itching arising from herpes zoster,
      and for the prevention of postherpetic neuralgia.

PMID- 28879288
TI  - An 18-year-old patient with Prader-Willi syndrome: a case report on dental
      management under sedation and general anesthesia.
AB  - Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder reported rarely in
      dentistry. Dental practitioners should know the features of PWS because affected
      patients have a variety of dental symptoms. The current report describes a case
      of PWS. An 18-year-old male patient presented with traumatic injuries. Initial
      emergency treatments were performed under sedation, and further treatments were
      conducted under general anesthesia. After adequate healing, periodic follow-up
      and dietary management according to the patient's age and nutritional phase were
      recommended. Dental management of PWS patients consists of active preventive
      measures in addition to dietary consultation according to age and nutritional
      phase.

PMID- 28879289
TI  - Diagnosis and treatment of abnormal dental pain.
AB  - Most dental pain is caused by an organic problem such as dental caries,
      periodontitis, pulpitis, or trauma. Diagnosis and treatment of these symptoms are
      relatively straightforward. However, patients often also complain of abnormal
      dental pain that has a non-dental origin, whose diagnosis is challenging. Such
      abnormal dental pain can be categorized on the basis of its cause as referred
      pain, neuromodulatory pain, and neuropathic pain. When it is difficult to
      diagnose a patient's dental pain, these potential alternate causes should be
      considered. In this clinical review, we have presented a case of referred pain
      from the digastric muscle (Patient 1), of pulpectomized (Patient 2), and of
      pulpectomized pain (Patient 3) to illustrate referred, neuromodulatory, and
      neuropathic pain, respectively. The Patient 1 was advised muscle stretching and
      gentle massage of the trigger points, as well as pain relief using a nonsteroidal
      anti-inflammatory and the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline. The pain in
      Patient 2 was relieved completely by the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline.
      In Patient 3, the pain was controlled using either a continuous drip infusion of
      adenosine triphosphate or intravenous Mg2+ and lidocaine administered every 2
      weeks. In each case of abnormal dental pain, the patient's diagnostic chart was
      used (Fig.2 and 3). Pain was satisfactorily relieved in all cases.

PMID- 28879290
TI  - Pediatric advanced life support and sedation of pediatric dental patients.
AB  - Programs provided by the Korea Association of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
      include Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric
      Advanced Life Support (PALS), and Korean Advanced Life Support (KALS). However,
      programs pertinent to dental care are lacking. Since 2015, related organizations
      have been attempting to develop a Dental Advanced Life Support (DALS) program,
      which can meet the needs of the dental environment. Generally, for initial
      management of emergency situations, basic life support is most important.
      However, emergencies in young children mostly involve breathing. Therefore,
      physicians who treat pediatric dental patients should learn PALS. It is necessary
      for the physician to regularly renew training every two years to be able to
      immediately implement professional skills in emergency situations. In order to
      manage emergency situations in the pediatric dental clinic, respiratory support
      is most important. Therefore, mastering professional PALS, which includes
      respiratory care and core cases, particularly upper airway obstruction and
      respiratory depression caused by a respiratory control problem, would be highly
      desirable for a physician who treats pediatric dental patients. Regular training
      and renewal training every two years is absolutely necessary to be able to
      immediately implement professional skills in emergency situations.

PMID- 28879291
TI  - Antimicrobial effect of topical local anesthetic spray on oral microflora.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of lidocaine (LD) topical
      anesthetic spray against oral microflora. METHODS: Antimicrobial effects of 10%
      LD spray were assessed against six bacterial cultures obtained from volunteers:
      Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus
      salivarius, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Streptococcus sanguinis. The filter
      papers contained 50-ul LD, brain heart infusion (BHI) broth, or 0.2%
      chlorhexidine. Papers were placed on the cultured blood plates for 1-3 min. After
      the papers were removed, plates were incubated for 24 h. Bacterial growth on the
      contact areas was recorded as the antimicrobial score. The split mouth technique
      was use in for sample collection in clinical study. Filter papers soaked with
      either BHI broth or LD were placed on the right or left buccal mucosa for 1 min,
      and replaced with other papers to imprint biofilms onto the contact areas. Papers
      were placed on blood plates, incubated for 24 h, and antimicrobial scores were
      determined. Experiments were conducted for 2- and 3-min exposure times with a 1
      day washout period. RESULTS: LD exhibited bactericidal effects against E. coli,
      S. sanguinis, and S. salivarius within 1 min but displayed no effect against S.
      aureus, E. faecalis, and S. pyogenes. The antimicrobial effect of LD on oral
      microflora depended upon exposure time, similar to the results obtained from the
      clinical study (P < 0.05). LD showed 60-95% biofilm reduction on buccal mucosa.
      CONCLUSIONS: Antimicrobial activity of 10% LD topical anesthetic spray was
      increased by exposure time. The 3 min application reduced oral microflora in the
      buccal mucosa.

PMID- 28879292
TI  - Intranasal administration of dexmedetomidine (DEX) as a premedication for
      pediatric patients undergoing general anesthesia for dental treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most important reason for pre-operative administration of
      medication is to reduce anxiety. Alleviation of fear and anxiety about surgery
      enables patients to remain comfortable during treatment. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is
      a fast-acting drug that is used as a premedication in different circumstances
      because it has sedative and anti-anxiolytic effects, and stable hemodynamics. It
      also has the advantage of intranasal administration. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the effects and hemodynamic stability of DEX by retrospectively
      analyzing cases in which DEX was administered nasally as a premedication.
      METHODS: Ten patients treated at Dankook University Dental Hospital, recruited
      between February and April 2015, received intranasal delivery of 2 ug/kg DEX, 30
      minutes prior to general anesthesia. Anesthesia records of anxiety, blood
      pressure, respiration, pulse, estimated arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2), and
      partial pressure, or maximum concentration, of carbon dioxide (ETCO2) were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Administration of DEX prior to a general anesthetic
      effectively relieved anxiety. Respiratory depression, the most severe adverse
      effect of other sedatives, was not observed. Hemodynamic stability under general
      anesthesia was maintained during treatment and a reduction in emergence delirium
      was observed upon completion of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Premedication
      administration of DEX is safe for pediatric patients undergoing dental treatment
      under general anesthesia.

PMID- 28879293
TI  - Study on the trends in Korean clinical practice guidelines development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The definition of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs)
      is "statements that are systematically developed to assist in the doctors' and
      patients' decision-making in certain situations." This study aims to establish
      the concept of evidence-based CPGs and investigate the development status to seek
      measures to apply evidence-based methods to CPG development for dental sedation
      in Korea. METHODS: The study conducted systematic searching methods based on
      evidence-based CPGs. Articles published between 1995 to 2015 were searched on a
      Korean database and the international database PubMed. The search was based on
      keywords related to four subjects (dentistry, clinical practice, guideline,
      recommendation). Two authors independently reviewed the searched articles to
      determine their analysis inclusion and the convergence stages, and to arrive at a
      conclusion through discussion. RESULTS: A total of 65 Korean CPGs were included.
      There were 51 medical guidelines, of which seven were dental and seven were
      Oriental medicine. CONCLUSIONS: As a basic direction for the development of
      evidence-based CPGs, this work suggests the following: increased awareness;
      consensus on the need to supply evidence-based development methods; education,
      computerization, and systematic observation of evidence-based CPG development
      methods; continuous research development and distribution of CPGs; and creation
      of a database for Korean clinical dentistry practice outcomes.

PMID- 28879294
TI  - Effects of propofol-induced autophagy against oxidative stress in human
      osteoblasts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress occurs during the aging process and other conditions
      such as bone fracture, bone diseases, and osteoporosis, but the role of oxidative
      stress in bone remodeling is unknown. Propofol exerts antioxidant effects, but
      the mechanisms of propofol preconditioning on oxidative stress have not been
      fully explained. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the protective
      effects of propofol against H2O2-induced oxidative stress on a human fetal
      osteoblast (hFOB) cell line via activation of autophagy. METHODS: Cells were
      randomly divided into the following groups: control cells were incubated in
      normoxia (5% CO2, 21% O2, and 74% N2) without propofol. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
      group cells were exposed to H2O2 (200 uM) for 2 h, propofol preconditioning
      (PPC)/H2O2 group cells were pretreated with propofol then exposed to H2O2, 3
      methyladenine (3-MA)/PPC/H2O2 cells were pretreated with 3-MA (1 mM) and
      propofol, then were exposed to H2O2. Cell viability and apoptosis were evaluated.
      Osteoblast maturation was determined by assaying bone nodular mineralization.
      Expression levels of bone related proteins were determined by western blot.
      RESULTS: Cell viability and bone nodular mineralization were decreased
      significantly by H2O2, and this effect was rescued by propofol preconditioning.
      Propofol preconditioning effectively decreased H2O2-induced hFOB cell apoptosis.
      However, pretreatment with 3-MA inhibited the protective effect of propofol. In
      western blot analysis, propofol preconditioning increased protein levels of
      collagen type I, BMP-2, osterix, and TGF-beta1. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests
      that propofol preconditioning has a protective effect on H2O2-induced hFOB cell
      death, which is mediated by autophagy activation.

PMID- 28879295
TI  - The use of laryngeal mask airway in dental treatment during sevoflurane deep
      sedation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: General anesthesia is frequently considered for pediatric patients,
      as they often find it difficult to cooperate and stay calm during administration
      of potentially painful treatments. Sedation can overcome these adversities;
      however, this is challenging while maintaining unobstructed airways. METHODS: The
      study involved 11 pediatric dental patients treated with LMA under deep sedation
      with sevoflurane, from 2011 through 2015. LMA size, sevoflurane concentration,
      and the vital signs of patients were assessed through a chart review. RESULTS:
      The age distribution of the patients ranged from 6 to 10 years old. A total of 3
      patients underwent mesiodens extraction, while the remaining 8 underwent an
      surgically assisted orthodontic forced tooth eruption The average sedation period
      was approximately 45 minutes and the LMA size was 21/2. The sevoflurane
      concentration was maintained at 2% on average, and overall, the measurements of
      vital signs were within the normal range; the patients had an average blood
      pressure of 98/49 mmHg, breathing rate of 26 times/min, pulse frequency of 95
      times/min, SpO2s level of 99 mmHg, and ETCO2 level of 41.2 mmHg. CONCLUSIONS:
      Deep sedation with sevoflurane coupled with LMA may be applied successfully in
      pediatric patients who undergo mesiodens extraction or a surgically assisted
      orthodontic forced tooth eruption.

PMID- 28879296
TI  - Dexmedetomidine intravenous sedation using a patient-controlled sedation infusion
      pump: a case report.
AB  - Dental treatment under sedation requires various sedation depths depending on the
      invasiveness of the procedure and patient drug sensitivity. Inappropriate
      sedation depth may cause patient discomfort or endangerment. For these reasons,
      patient-controlled sedation (PCS) pumps are commonly used. Patients are able to
      control the sedation depths themselves by pushing the demand button after the
      practitioner sets up the bolus dose and lock-out time. Dexmedetomidine is an
      alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonist with sedative, analgesic, and anxiolytic
      properties. It has been widely used for sedation for its minimal respiratory
      depression; however, there are few studies on PCS using dexmedetomidine. This
      study assessed the applicability of dexmedetomidine to PCS.

PMID- 28879297
TI  - Displacement of deciduous tooth into hypopharynx due to endotracheal intubation.
AB  - Intubation may lead to several dental complications. Furthermore, a tooth damaged
      during intubation may be subsequently dislocated. In the present case, the upper
      primary incisor was avulsed during intubation and, unbeknownst to the
      anesthesiologist, displaced to the larynx. We report here on the findings and
      indicate appropriate treatment. Intubation for general anesthesia in children can
      result in tooth damage and/or dislocation of primary teeth with subsequent root
      resorption. Prevention is key, and thus it is critical to evaluate the patient's
      dental status before and after intubation. Furthermore, anesthesiologists and
      dentists should pay close attention to this risk to prevent any avulsed,
      dislocated, or otherwise displaced teeth from remaining undetected and
      subsequently causing serious complications.

PMID- 28879298
TI  - Deep sedation for dental treatment in a Down syndrome patient with Eisenmenger
      syndrome: A case report.
AB  - Eisenmenger syndrome (ES) is characterized by pulmonary arterial hypertension and
      right-to-left shunting. The signs and symptoms of ES include cyanosis, shortness
      of breath, fatigue, hemoptysis, and sudden death. In patients with ES, it is
      important that the systemic and pulmonary circulations be properly distributed
      and maintained. General dental treatment is not known to be particularly
      dangerous. To control pain and anxiety, local anesthetics without epinephrine are
      usually recommended. However, in cases of difficulty of cooperation, general
      anesthesia for dental treatment makes the condition worse. In the present case,
      intravenous deep sedation with propofol and remifentanil was administered for
      behavioral management during dental treatment successfully.

PMID- 28879299
TI  - Computer-controlled local anesthetic delivery for painless anesthesia: a
      literature review.
AB  - Local anesthesia is administered to reduce pain during dental treatments, but may
      itself cause pain and contribute to increased dental fear. Computer-controlled
      local anesthetic delivery (CCLAD) is one the method to reduce patient pain during
      local anesthesia; it is a device that slowly administers anesthetics by using a
      computerized device to control the injection speed. This literature review aims
      to provide an objective assessment of the usefulness of CCLAD for controlling
      pain by reviewing papers published to date that have used CCLAD.

PMID- 28879300
TI  - Current trends in intravenous sedative drugs for dental procedures.
AB  - Anxiety and phobia in dental procedures are common deterrents for patients
      visiting the dental care unit. For these individuals, procedural sedation may aid
      in completion of dental treatments. In most cases, the patients are conscious
      during sedation, thereby allowing spontaneous ventilation. Intravenous sedation
      (IVS) is widely used during dental treatment to relieve patient anxiety. IVS is
      the most effective route of administration to achieve this goal, but it requires
      advanced training, more than that provided during undergraduate education. During
      IVS, rapid onset, repetitive drug administration, easy titration, and rapid
      recovery from sedation can be achieved. However, conscious sedation during IVS
      can result in deep sedation that can cause respiratory and cardiovascular
      depression. Therefore, the characteristics of intravenous sedatives should be
      known. The purpose of this review is to discuss the characteristics and usage of
      intravenous sedatives currently used for dental procedures.

PMID- 28879301
TI  - The efficacy of dexamethasone injection on postoperative pain in lower third
      molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgery on the lower impacted third molar usually involves trauma in
      the highly vascularized loose connective tissue area, leading to inflammatory
      sequelae including postoperative pain, swelling, and general oral dysfunction
      during the immediate post-operative phase. This study aimed to investigate the
      effectiveness of preoperative injection of a single dose of 8 mg dexamethasone
      for postoperative pain control in lower third molar surgery. METHODS: A
      controlled, randomized, split-mouth, prospective study involving lower third
      molar surgery was performed in 31 patients. The randomized sampling group was
      preoperatively injected, after local anesthesia, with a single dose of
      dexamethasone (8 mg in 2 ml) through the pterygomandibular space; 2 ml of normal
      saline (with no dexamethasone) was injected as a placebo. RESULTS: The pain VAS
      score was significantly different on the day of the operation compared to the
      first post-operative day (P = 0.00 and 0.01, respectively), but it was not
      significantly different on the third and seventh postoperative day between the
      control and study groups. There was a significant reduction in swelling on the
      second postoperative day, and a difference between the second postoperative day
      and baseline value in the study group (P < 0.05). Trismus was highly
      significantly different on the second postoperative day and between baseline and
      second postoperative day between the groups (P = 0.04 and 0.02, respectively).
      Descriptive statistics and independent-samples t- test were used to assess the
      significance of differences. CONCLUSIONS: Injection of 8 mg dexamethasone into
      the pterygomandibular space effectively reduced the postoperative pain and other
      postoperative sequalae.

PMID- 28879302
TI  - Identifying the more suitable nostril for nasotracheal intubation using
      radiographs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One nostril must be selected for nasotracheal intubation. In some
      cases, structural anomalies within the nasal cavity hinder the insertion of the
      tube or complications, such as epistaxis, develop. This study examined the
      possibility of using radiography to select the nostril that would induce fewer
      complications. METHODS: Four hundred and five patients who underwent nasotracheal
      intubation under general anesthesia were studied. A 7.0-mm internal diameter
      nasal right angle endotracheal (RAE) tube and 6.5-mm internal diameter nasal RAE
      tube were inserted into men and women, respectively. Complications were
      considered to have developed in cases in which insertion of the tube into the
      nasal cavity failed or epistaxis occurred. The tube was inserted into the other
      nostril for insertion failures and hemostasis was performed in cases of
      epistaxis. The degree of nasal septal deviation was determined from
      posteroanterior skull radiographs or panoramic radiographs; the incidence of
      complications was compared depending on the direction of the septal deviation and
      the intubated nostril. RESULTS: The radiographs of 390 patients were readable; 94
      had nasal septum deviation. The incidence of complications for cases without
      nasal septum deviation was 16.9%, that for cases in which the tube was inserted
      into the nostril on the opposite side of the deviation was 18.5%, and that for
      cases in which the tube was inserted into the nostril with the deviation was
      35.0%, showing a high incidence of complications when intubation is performed
      through the nostril with septum deviation (chi-square test, P < 0.05 ).
      CONCLUSIONS: Although there were no differences in the incidence rates of
      complications between intubation through the left nostril and that through the
      right nostril, radiological findings indicated that incidence of complications
      significantly increased when the tube was inserted into the nostril with the
      septum deviation.

PMID- 28879303
TI  - Success rates of the first inferior alveolar nerve block administered by dental
      practitioners.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) of the mandible is commonly used
      in the oral cavity as an anesthetic technique for dental procedures. This study
      evaluated the success rate of the first IANB administered by dental
      practitioners. METHODS: Volunteer dental practitioners at Mahidol University who
      had never performed an INAB carried out 106 INAB procedures. The practitioners
      were divided into 12 groups with their advisors by randomized control trials. We
      recorded the success rate via pain visual analog scale (VAS) scores. RESULTS: A
      large percentage of the dental practitioners (85.26%) used the standard method to
      locate the anatomical landmarks, injecting the local anesthetic at the correct
      position, with the barrel of the syringe parallel to the occlusal plane of the
      mandibular teeth. Further, 68.42% of the dental practitioners injected the local
      anesthetic on the right side by using the left index finger for retraction. The
      onset time was approximately 0-5 mins for nearly half of the dental practitioners
      (47.37% for subjective onset and 43.16% for objective onset), while the duration
      of the IANB was approximately 240-300 minutes (36.84%) after the initiation of
      numbness. Moreover, the VAS pain scores were 2.5 +/- 1.85 and 2.1 +/- 1.8 while
      injecting and delivering local anesthesia, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The only
      recorded factor that affected the success of the local anesthetic was the
      administering practitioner. This reinforces the notion that local anesthesia
      administration is a technique-sensitive procedure.

PMID- 28879304
TI  - Comparative study of analgesia with bupivacaine 0.25% versus 0.5% for third molar
      removal under general anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness and duration
      of action of two concentrations of bupivacaine with adrenaline for postoperative
      pain in patients undergoing surgical removal of four third molars under general
      anesthesia. METHODS: Sixty patients undergoing surgical removal of four wisdom
      teeth received bupivacaine 0.5% (n = 30) or 0.25% (n = 30). The severity of pain
      in the immediate recovery period and at 2 and 24 h after surgery was recorded
      using the visual analogue scale. Differences were assessed by box and whisper
      plot and the Student's t-test. RESULTS: The analgesic effects of the 0.25% and
      0.5% doses were significantly different (P = 0.022) at 30 min after surgery but
      not after 2 and 24 h. The difference of mean of 0.25% and 0.5% was much higher
      after 0.5 h but less after 2 and 24 h. CONCLUSIONS: Bupivacaine 0.5% was
      statistically better for pain control during the immediate postoperative period,
      but there was no significant difference in pain control between the two dose
      strengths at 2 and 24 h after surgery.

PMID- 28879305
TI  - A survey of the intravenous sedation status in one provincial dental clinic
      center for the disabled in Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of the present study was to examine the status of
      patients who had received dental treatment under intravenous (IV) sedation at
      Chungnam Dental Clinic for the Disabled in Korea from its inception to the
      present time, and to review the analysis results. METHODS: Retrospective analysis
      was performed on 305 cases of patients who had received dental treatments under
      IV sedation between January 2011 and May 2016. The analysis examined the
      patient's sex, age, primary reason for IV sedation, duration of anesthesia and
      dental treatment, type of dental treatment performed, number of clinical
      departments involved in the dental treatment and level of multidisciplinary
      cooperation, and annual trends. RESULTS: Most dental treatments using intravenous
      sedation were performed on medically disabled patients or dentally disabled
      patients with an extreme gag reflex or dental phobia. The mean duration of IV
      sedation was 72.5 min, while the mean duration of treatment was 58.0 min. The
      types of dental treatments included surgical treatment (n = 209), periodontal
      treatment (n = 28), prosthodontic treatment (n = 28), restorative treatment (n =
      23), implant surgery (n = 22), endodontic treatment (n = 9), reduction of
      temporomandibular joint dislocation (n = 1), and treatment of traumatic injuries
      (n = 1), with treatments mostly performed on adult patients. CONCLUSIONS: With
      increasing demand for minimally painful treatment, cases using IV sedation are on
      an upward trend and are expected to continue to increase.

PMID- 28879306
TI  - Pain and quality of life related to suture removal after 3 or 7 days at the
      extraction sites of impacted lower third molars.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the patient's pain and quality of life
      after suture removal at either 3 or 7 days following the bilateral surgical
      extraction of impacted lower third molars. METHODS: This study was a prospective,
      randomized controlled clinical trial carried out in 30 patients, who acted as
      their own control. Each patient required the bilaterally impacted mandibular
      third molars to be extracted. The impacted teeth were removed and the wound
      margins were approximated and sutured with black braided silk. The suture
      material was removed on day 3 on one side and on day 7 on the other. Each
      participant was asked to complete a questionnaire after the removal of the suture
      material on each designated day. RESULTS: Regarding overall clinical symptoms,
      the mean VAS scores of male and female participants on day 3 were not
      significantly different from those on day 7. A significant difference was found
      in female participants, in that overall daily activity was better on day 7. There
      were significant differences in the ability to smile and laugh in both sexes and
      the ability to chew in the male participants was better on day 7. CONCLUSIONS:
      There were no significant differences in the patient's pain and quality of life
      between suture removal on day 3 or on day 7 following surgery to remove impacted
      lower third molars.

PMID- 28879307
TI  - Local anesthesia of the temporomandibular joint to reduce pain during mouth
      opening for dental treatment in a patient with spinal muscular atrophy.
AB  - Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive, severe neuromuscular
      disorder in which degeneration of alpha motor neurons in the spine progressively
      weakens and ultimately paralyzes the proximal muscles. It occurs in one per 6,000
      10,000 infants, and is a genetic disorder with the second-highest mortality rate
      worldwide. An 18-year-old male patient with SMA was referred for general
      anesthesia for difficulty in performing dental treatment due to limited mouth
      opening caused by temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain. However, the patient had a
      high risk of general anesthesia complications, so TMJ pain during mouth opening
      was reduced through local anesthesia of the TMJ. Fortunately, the anesthesia was
      successful in reducing pain during mouth opening, enabling the patient to receive
      dental treatment with an adequate mouth opening.

PMID- 28879308
TI  - Occurrence of bilateral pneumothorax during tracheostomy in a patient with deep
      neck infection.
AB  - Infection that progresses to deep areas of the neck requires appropriate
      assessment of the airway, and securing of the airway is critical in patients with
      deep neck infection. In the patient in our case report, bilateral pneumothorax
      occurred while performing tracheostomy to the airways of a patient with deep neck
      infection, and therefore, this paper details the method used to secure the airway
      of patients with deep neck infection.

PMID- 28879309
TI  - Management of hyperthyroid patients in dental emergencies: a case report.
AB  - The prevalence of thyroid disease, particularly hyperthyroidism, has rapidly
      increased in Korea in the past 10 years. Therefore, it is important to consider
      the complete medical history including thyroid disease in patients under dental
      treatment. Both the drugs used for dental treatment and psychological symptoms
      associated with treatment can induce emergencies in hyperthyroid patients. This
      case report considers emergency situations during dental treatment for
      hyperthyroid patients, and discusses risk factors and related concerns.

PMID- 28879310
TI  - Education that allows South Korean Colleges of Dentistry to teach Emergency Care.
AB  - As the medical environment and dental services change, the importance of
      educating dentists in responses to systemic emergencies is increasing. The
      current student-oriented education paradigm is moving towards training students
      in the abilities required to address the daily crises they will face, while also
      providing them with the ability to deliver knowledge. Before addressing a
      patient's situation, emergency physicians begin by diagnosing symptoms. As they
      must decide on the tests and treatments that are immediately required and must
      solve problems through interdisciplinary treatment, emergency physicians require
      additional skills and communication abilities besides clinical knowledge. Since
      dentistry colleges provide education that emphasizes the skills dentists require
      to treat oral diseases, they do not have sufficient time to teach emergency care.
      Additionally, because their professors lack expertise in pedagogy, dental
      students also have insufficient motivation to study the pathophysiology of
      systemic diseases. This review proposes a direction of teaching that can help
      dental students recognize problems and situations in emergency cases and that can
      help them develop their capability to immediately make a decision and resolve the
      problem. To do this, the author surveyed the educational philosophy and knowledge
      provided in the instructional design of clinical professors who give lectures on
      emergency care, and also examined the teaching methods of the learner-oriented
      education paradigm.

PMID- 28879311
TI  - Recent advances in topical anesthesia.
AB  - Topical anesthetics act on the peripheral nerves and reduce the sensation of pain
      at the site of application. In dentistry, they are used to control local pain
      caused by needling, placement of orthodontic bands, the vomiting reflex, oral
      mucositis, and rubber-dam clamp placement. Traditional topical anesthetics
      contain lidocaine or benzocaine as active ingredients and are used in the form of
      solutions, creams, gels, and sprays. Eutectic mixtures of local anesthesia cream,
      a mixture of various topical anesthetics, has been reported to be more potent
      than other anesthetics. Recently, new products with modified ingredients and
      application methods have been introduced into the market. These products may be
      used for mild pain during periodontal treatment, such as scaling. Dentists should
      be aware that topical anesthetics, although rare, might induce allergic reactions
      or side effects as a result of an overdose. Topical anesthetics are useful aids
      during dental treatment, as they reduce dental phobia, especially in children, by
      mitigating discomfort and pain.

PMID- 28879312
TI  - Regional anesthesia for maxillofacial surgery in developing countries.
AB  - Regional anesthesia in the maxillofacial region is safer and more efficient than
      general anesthesia when its indications are carefully considered. In addition,
      the majority of medical institutions in developing countries are not well
      equipped for proper anesthesia and elective surgery. In this review, we describe
      regional anesthesia and cutaneous nerve divisions in the maxillofacial region. In
      addition, we summarize detailed regional anesthetic techniques adapted for
      representative cleft lip cases in developing countries.

PMID- 28879313
TI  - Developmental procedures for the clinical practice guidelines for conscious
      sedation in dentistry for the Korean Academy of Dental Sciences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are defined as
      "statements that are scientifically reviewed about evidence and systematically
      developed to assist in the doctors' and patients' decision making in certain
      clinical situations." This recommendation aims to promote good clinical practice
      for the provision of safe and effective practices of conscious sedation in
      dentistry. METHODS: The development of this clinical practice guideline was
      conducted by performing a systematic search of the literature for evidence-based
      CPGs. Existing guidelines, relevant systematic reviews, policy documents,
      legislation, or other recommendations were reviewed and appraised. To supplement
      this information, key questions were formulated by the Guideline Development
      Group and used as the basis for designing systematic literature search strategies
      to identify literature that may address these questions. Guideline documents were
      evaluated through a review of domestic and international databases for the
      development of a renewing of existing conscious sedation guidelines for
      dentistry. Clinical practice guidelines were critically appraised for their
      methodologies using Appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE)
      II. RESULTS: A total of 12 existing CPGs were included and 13 recommendations
      were made in a range of general, adult, and pediatric areas. CONCLUSION: The
      clinical practice guidelines for conscious sedation will be reviewed in 5 years'
      time for further updates to reflect significant changes in the field.

PMID- 28879314
TI  - Protective effects of remifentanil against H2O2-induced oxidative stress in human
      osteoblasts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone injury is common in many clinical situations, such as surgery or
      trauma. During surgery, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production
      decreases the quality and quantity of osteoblasts. Remifentanil decreases ROS
      production, reducing oxidative stress and the inflammatory response. We
      investigated remifentanil's protective effects against H2O2-induced oxidative
      stress in osteoblasts. METHODS: To investigate the effect of remifentanil on
      human fetal osteoblast (hFOB) cells, the cells were incubated with 1 ng/ml of
      remifentanil for 2 h before exposure to H2O2. For induction of oxidative stress,
      hFOB cells were then treated with 200 uM H2O2 for 2 h. To evaluate the effect on
      autophagy, a separate group of cells were incubated with 1 mM 3-methyladenine (3
      MA) before treatment with remifentanil and H2O2. Cell viability and apoptotic
      cell death were determined via MTT assay and Hoechst staining, respectively.
      Mineralized matrix formation was visualized using alizarin red S staining.
      Western blot analysis was used to determine the expression levels of bone-related
      genes. RESULTS: Cell viability and mineralized matrix formation increased on
      remifentanil pretreatment before exposure to H2O2-induced oxidative stress. As
      determined via western blot analysis, remifentanil pretreatment increased the
      expression of bone-related genes (Col I, BMP-2, osterix, and TGF-beta). However ,
      pretreatment with 3-MA before exposure to remifentanil and H2O2 inhibited
      remifentanil's protective effects on hFOB cells during oxidative stress.
      CONCLUSIONS: We showed that remifentanil prevents oxidative damage in hFOB cells
      via a mechanism that may be highly related to autophagy. Further clinical studies
      are required to investigate its potential as a therapeutic agent.

PMID- 28879315
TI  - Postoperative nausea and vomiting after general anesthesia for oral and
      maxillofacial surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is one of the most common
      postoperative complications. Despite this, few papers have reported the incidence
      and independent risk factors associated with PONV in the context of oral and
      maxillofacial surgery (OMFS). Therefore, we sought to determine the incidence of
      PONV, as well as to identify risk factors for the condition in patients who had
      undergone OMFS under general anesthesia. METHODS: A total of 372 patients' charts
      were reviewed, and the following potential risk factors for PONV were analyzed:
      age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, history of PONV and/or motion
      sickness, duration of anesthesia, amount of blood loss, nasogastric tube
      insertion and retention and postoperative opioid used. Univariate analysis was
      performed, and variables with a P-value less than 0.1 were entered into a
      multiple logistic regression analysis, wherein P-values < 0.05 were considered
      significant. RESULTS: The overall incidence of PONV was 25.26%. In the multiple
      logistic regression analysis, the following variables were independent predictors
      of PONV: age < 30 years, history of PONV and/or motion sickness, and anesthesia
      duration > 4 h. Furthermore, the number of risk factors was proportional to the
      incidence of PONV. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of PONV in patients who have
      undergone OMFS varies from center to center depending on patient characteristics,
      as well as on anesthetic and surgical practice. Identifying the independent risk
      factors for PONV will allow physicians to optimize prophylactic, antiemetic
      regimens.

PMID- 28879316
TI  - Survey of the sevoflurane sedation status in one provincial dental clinic center
      for the disabled.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sevoflurane sedation in pediatric and disabled patients has the
      advantage of faster induction and recovery compared to general anesthesia, as
      well as minimum influence on the respiratory and cardiovascular functions, and
      airway protective reflexes. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of
      sevoflurane sedation used in dental treatment at one provincial dental clinic
      center for the disabled. METHODS: We investigated patients' gender, age, reasons
      for undergoing sedation, medication history prior to treatment, duration of
      anesthesia, treatment length, type of treatment, and yearly patterns, for 387
      cases of dental treatment performed using sevoflurane sedation from January 2013
      to October 2016. RESULTS: We analyzed 387 cases (215 male patients, 172 female
      patients). Male patients aged 20 year or older accounted for 39.0% of all
      patients, marking the highest proportion. Patient's lack of cooperation was the
      most common reason for performing dental sedation. Prosthetic treatment was the
      most frequently practiced, accounting for 174 treatment cases. The mean lengths
      of the entire treatment and of the dental procedure were 55.2 min and 39.8 min,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Sevoflurane sedation has the advantage of fast
      anesthesia induction and recovery compared to general anesthesia; therefore, it
      can be used efficiently to induce anesthesia in pediatric and disabled patients
      during short dental procedures, enabling stable treatment of these patients.

PMID- 28879317
TI  - The evaluation of implementing smart patient controlled analgesic pump with a
      different infusion rate for different time duration on postoperative pain
      management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Control of postoperative pain is an important aspect of postoperative
      patient management. Among the methods of postoperative pain control, patient
      controlled analgesia (PCA) has been the most commonly used. This study tested the
      convenience and safety of a PCA method in which the dose adjusted according to
      time. METHODS: This study included 100 patients who had previously undergone
      orthognathic surgery, discectomy, or total hip arthroplasty, and wished to
      control their postoperative pain through PCA. In the test group (n = 50), the
      rate of infusion was changed over time, while in the control group (n = 50),
      drugs were administered at a fixed rate. Patients' pain scores on the visual
      analogue scale, number of rescue analgesic infusions, side effects, and patients'
      satisfaction with analgesia were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The
      patients and controls were matched for age, gender, height, weight, and body mass
      index. No significant difference in the mount of drug administered was found
      between the test and control groups at 0-24 h after the operation; however, a
      significant difference was observed at 24-48 h after the operation between the
      two groups. No difference was found in the postoperative pain score, number of
      side effects, and patient satisfaction between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patient-controlled anesthesia administered at changing rates of infusion has
      similar numbers of side effects as infusion performed at a fixed rate; however,
      the former allows for efficient and safe management of postoperative pain even in
      small doses.

PMID- 28879318
TI  - Dexmedetomidine attenuates H2O2-induced cell death in human osteoblasts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reactive oxygen species play critical roles in homeostasis and cell
      signaling. Dexmedetomidine, a specific agonist of the alpha2-adrenoceptor, has
      been commonly used for sedation, and it has been reported to have a protective
      effect against oxidative stress. In this study, we investigated whether
      dexmedetomidine has a protective effect against H2O2-induced oxidative stress and
      the mechanism of H2O2-induced cell death in normal human fetal osteoblast (hFOB)
      cells. METHODS: Cells were divided into three groups: control group-cells were
      incubated in normoxia without dexmedetomidine, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) group
      cells were exposed to H2O2 (200 uM) for 2 h, and Dex/H2O2 group-cells were
      pretreated with dexmedetomidine (5 uM) for 2 h then exposed to H2O2 (200 uM) for
      2 h. Cell viability and apoptosis were evaluated. Osteoblast maturation was
      determined by assaying bone nodular mineralization. Expression levels of bone
      related proteins were determined by western blot. RESULTS: Cell viability was
      significantly decreased in the H2O2 group compared with the control group, and
      this effect was improved by dexmedetomidine. The Hoechst 33342 and Annexin-V
      FITC/PI staining revealed that dexmedetomidine effectively decreased H2O2-induced
      hFOB cell apoptosis. Dexmedetomidine enhanced the mineralization of hFOB cells
      when compared to the H2O2 group. In western blot analysis, bone-related protein
      was increased in the Dex/H2O2 group. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated the potential
      therapeutic value of dexmedetomidine in H2O2-induced oxidative stress by
      inhibiting apoptosis and enhancing osteoblast activity. Additionally, the current
      investigation could be evidence to support the antioxidant potential of
      dexmedetomidine in vitro.

PMID- 28879319
TI  - Efficacy evaluation of syringe pump developed for continuous drug infusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In dental intravenous sedation, continuous intravenous infusion of a
      low-dose drug requires an infusion pump such as a syringe pump. To develop a new
      syringe pump for clinical use, the functions of the pump must meet certain
      international standards. Various safety and efficacy tests must be performed on
      the syringe pump, as stipulated by these standards, and an approval must be
      received from the approving agency based on such test results. METHODS: The
      authors of the present study developed a novel syringe pump and performed
      efficacy evaluation by testing its infusion speed at 1 and 25 ml/h, and infusion
      performance testing at 2 and 24 h. Moreover, performance evaluation was conducted
      by comparing the novel pump to an existing pump with the infusion speed varied
      from 1 to 5 ml/h. RESULTS: In the efficacy testing on the newly developed syringe
      pump, infusion with the infusion speed initially set to 1 ml/h resulted in
      infusion speeds of 1.00 and 0.99 ml/h in the 2- and 24-h assessment,
      respectively. Changing the infusion speed setting to 25 ml/h resulted in an
      infusion speed of 25.09 and 23.92 ml/h in the 2- and 24-h assessment,
      respectively. These results show no significant differences when compared with
      other commercially available pumps. CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy testing of the
      newly developed syringe pump showed the accuracy to be within tolerance. Based on
      these findings, we believe that the newly developed syringe pump is suitable for
      clinical use.

PMID- 28879320
TI  - Pharyngeal flap damage caused by nasotracheal intubation in a patient who
      underwent palatoplasty and pharyngoplasty.
AB  - Patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) must undergo corrective surgeries during
      infancy and early childhood. Many patients with CLP undergo orthognathic surgery
      during their childhood for correction of skeletal asymmetries or pharyngoplasty
      with a pharyngeal flap to improve the quality of speech and velopharyngeal
      function. During orthognathic surgeries, nasotracheal intubation is performed
      under general anesthesia. In our case report, the patient had undergone
      palatoplasty and pharygoplasty previously. During the orthognathic surgery, a
      flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope-guided nasotracheal tube was inserted through
      the pharyngeal flap ostium; however, active bleeding occurred in the nasopharynx.
      Bleeding occurred because the flap was torn. After achieving hemostasis, the
      surgery was completed successfully. Thus, if a patient may show the potential for
      velopharyngeal port obstruction, nasotracheal intubation should be performed with
      utmost care.

PMID- 28879321
TI  - Perioperative airway management of a patient with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome.
AB  - Airway obstruction in pediatric patients always poses a challenge for
      anesthesiologists. Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome causes various abnormalities such
      as macroglossia and omphalocele. Patients with these abnormalities often need
      corrective surgeries. Management of difficult airway caused by conditions such as
      macroglossia in patients with this syndrome could be challenging. We encountered
      a case of difficult airway in an infant with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. It was
      predicted that macroglossia might cause difficult ventilation, intubation, and
      extubation. Preoperative assessment and preparations for difficult airway should
      be considered.

PMID- 28879322
TI  - Difficult airway management in a patient with a thin mandible.
AB  - A 47-year-old woman was referred for surgical treatment of osteomyelitis of the
      mandible. She had already undergone three previous surgeries. Pre-anesthetic
      airway evaluation predicted a difficult airway, due to the thin, retro-positioned
      mandible, tongue, and atrophic changes in the lips and soft tissue. We inserted
      packing gauzes in the buccal mucosa for easier mask fitting and ventilation.
      During direct laryngoscopic intubation with a nasotracheal tube (NTT), fracture
      of a thin mandible can easily occur. Therefore, we used a fiberoptic bronchoscope
      to insert the NTT. After surgery, we performed a tongue-tie to protect against
      airway obstruction caused by the backward movement of the tongue during recovery.
      The patient recovered without any complications. We determined the status of the
      patient precisely and consequently performed thorough preparations for the
      surgery, allowing the patient to be anesthetized safely and recover after
      surgery. Careful assessment of the patient and airway prior to surgery is
      necessary.

PMID- 28879324
TI  - Cause analysis, prevention, and treatment of postoperative restlessness after
      general anesthesia in children with cleft palate.
AB  - Cleft palate is one of the most common congenital malformations of the oral and
      maxillofacial region, with an incidence rate of around 0.1%. Early surgical
      repair is the only method for treatment of a cleft lip and palate. However,
      because of the use of inhalation anesthesia in children and the physiological
      characteristics of the cleft palate itself combined with the particularities of
      cleft palate surgery, the incidence rate of postoperative emergence agitation
      (EA) in cleft palate surgery is significantly higher than in other types of
      interventions. The exact mechanism of EA is still unclear. Although restlessness
      after general anesthesia in children with cleft palate is self-limiting, its
      effects should be considered by clinicians. In this paper, the related literature
      on restlessness after surgery involving general anesthesia in recent years is
      summarized. This paper focuses on induction factors as well as prevention and
      treatment of postoperative restlessness in children with cleft palate after
      general anesthesia. The corresponding countermeasures to guide clinical practice
      are also presented in this paper.

PMID- 28879323
TI  - Pneumonitis and pneumonia after aspiration.
AB  - Aspiration pneumonitis and aspiration pneumonia are clinical syndromes caused by
      aspiration. These conditions are clinically significant due to their high
      morbidity and mortality. However, aspiration as a preceding event are often
      unwitnessed, particularly in cases of asymptomatic or silent aspiration.
      Furthermore, despite the difference in treatment approaches for managing
      aspiration pneumonitis and aspiration pneumonia, these two disease entities are
      often difficult to discriminate from one another, resulting in inappropriate
      treatment. The use of unclear terminologies hinders the comparability among
      different studies, making it difficult to produce evidence-based conclusions and
      practical guidelines. We reviewed the most recent studies to define aspiration,
      aspiration pneumonitis, and aspiration pneumonia, and to further assess these
      conditions in terms of incidence and epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors,
      diagnosis, management and treatment, and prevention.

PMID- 28879325
TI  - Propofol protects human keratinocytes from oxidative stress via autophagy
      expression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The skin consists of tightly connected keratinocytes, and prevents
      extensive water loss while simultaneously protecting against the entry of
      microbial pathogens. Excessive cellular levels of reactive oxygen species can
      induce cell apoptosis and also damage skin integrity. Propofol (2,6
      diisopropylphenol) has antioxidant properties. In this study, we investigated how
      propofol influences intracellular autophagy and apoptotic cell death induced by
      oxidative stress in human keratinocytes. METHOD: The following groups were used
      for experimentation: control, cells were incubated under normoxia (5% CO2, 21%
      O2, and 74% N2) without propofol; hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), cells were exposed to
      H2O2 (300 uM) for 2 h; propofol preconditioning (PPC)/H2O2, cells pretreated with
      propofol (100 uM) for 2 h were exposed to H2O2; and 3-methyladenine (3
      MA)/PPC/H2O2, cells pretreated with 3-MA (1 mM) for 1 h and propofol were exposed
      to H2O2. Cell viability, apoptosis, and migration capability were evaluated.
      Relation to autophagy was detected by western blot analysis. RESULTS: Cell
      viability decreased significantly in the H2O2 group compared to that in the
      control group and was improved by propofol preconditioning. Propofol
      preconditioning effectively decreased H2O2-induced cell apoptosis and increased
      cell migration. However, pretreatment with 3-MA inhibited the protective effect
      of propofol on cell apoptosis. Autophagy was activated in the PPC/H2O2 group
      compared to that in the H2O2 group as demonstrated by western blot analysis and
      autophagosome staining. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that propofol
      preconditioning induces an endogenous cellular protective effect in human
      keratinocytes against oxidative stress through the activation of signaling
      pathways related to autophagy.

PMID- 28879326
TI  - 4% lidocaine versus 4% articaine for inferior alveolar nerve block in impacted
      lower third molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No study has compared lidocaine with articaine, each at a
      concentration of 4% and combined with epinephrine. The purpose of this study was
      to compare the effectiveness of 4% lidocaine with that of 4% articaine, with a
      concentration of 1:100,000 epinephrine added to each, in an inferior alveolar
      nerve block for surgery on impacted lower third molars. METHOD: This study was
      conducted at the Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand.
      The randomized, single-blind, comparative split-mouth study was carried out in
      patients with symmetrically impacted lower third molars, as identified on
      panoramic radiographs. Each patient underwent surgery for the removal of the
      lower third molars by the same surgeon under local anesthesia at two separate
      visits, 3 weeks apart. The onset and duration of local anesthesia, intra
      operative pain, surgical duration, and number of additional anesthetics
      administered were recorded. RESULTS: The subjective and objective onset of action
      for the local anesthetics showed statistically significant differences (P <
      0.05). However, the intra-operative pain, surgical duration, duration of local
      anesthesia, and number of additional anesthetics administered did not show
      statistically significant differences. CONCLUSION: The use of 4% articaine for
      the inferior alveolar nerve block was clinically more effective in the onset of
      subjective and objective anesthesia as compared with the use of 4% lidocaine.
      Based on the pain scores from the visual analogue scale, 4% lidocaine provided
      more analgesia during the procedure, and patients noted less intra-operative pain
      than with 4% articaine; however, the difference was not clinically significant.

PMID- 28879327
TI  - Propofol protects against oxidative-stress-induced COS-7 cell apoptosis by
      inducing autophagy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production
      contributes to cellular dysfunction and initiates the apoptotic cascade.
      Autophagy is considered the mechanism that decreases ROS concentration and
      oxidative damage. Propofol shows antioxidant properties, but the mechanisms
      underlying the effect of propofol preconditioning (PPC) on oxidative injury
      remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether PPC protects against cell
      damage from hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced oxidative stress and influences
      cellular autophagy. METHOD: COS-7 cells were randomly divided into the following
      groups: control, cells were incubated in normoxia (5% CO2, 21% O2, and 74% N2)
      for 24 h without propofol; H2O2, cells were exposed to H2O2 (400 uM) for 2 h; PPC
      + H2O2, cells pretreated with propofol were exposed to H2O2; and 3-methyladenine
      (3-MA) + PPC + H2O2, cells pretreated with 3-MA (1 mM) for 1 h and propofol were
      exposed to H2O2. Cell viability was determined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)
      2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide thiazolyl blue (MTT) reduction. Apoptosis was
      determined using Hoechst 33342 staining and fluorescence microscopy. The
      relationship between PPC and autophagy was detected using western blot analysis.
      RESULTS: Cell viability decreased more significantly in the H2O2 group than in
      the control group, but it was improved by PPC (100 uM). Pretreatment with
      propofol effectively decreased H2O2-induced COS-7 cell apoptosis. However,
      pretreatment with 3-MA inhibited the protective effect of propofol during
      apoptosis. Western blot analysis showed that the level of autophagy-related
      proteins was higher in the PPC + H2O2 group than that in the H2O2 group.
      CONCLUSION: PPC has a protective effect on H2O2-induced COS-7 cell apoptosis,
      which is mediated by autophagy activation.

PMID- 28879328
TI  - Decreased post-operative pain using a sublingual injection of dexamethasone (8
      mg) in lower third molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Every patient who undergoes mandibular third molar surgery is
      concerned about post-operative pain. Indeed, previous researchers have used
      various methods to treat such pain. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness
      of sublingual injection of dexamethasone (8 mg) to treat post-operative pain
      after mandibular third molar surgery. METHOD: This was a randomized, double
      blind, split-mouth, clinical trial, involving 48 healthy patients who required
      surgical removal of two mandibular third molars with similar bilateral positions.
      All operations were performed by the same experienced surgeon. The patients were
      randomized into a study group (8 mg dexamethasone injection) and a placebo group
      (normal saline injection). Both interventions were injected into the sublingual
      space immediately after local anesthesia, 30 min before the first incision. The
      study group received an 8 mg dexamethasone injection, while the placebo group
      received a normal saline injection. The wash period between the patients' two
      operations was 3 to 4 weeks. Pain was assessed by recording the number of
      analgesic tablets (rescue drug) consumed, as well as by noting the patients'
      responses to the visual analog scale (VAS) on the first, second, and third days
      after surgery. RESULTS: The study group differed significantly from the placebo
      group in terms of VAS score and analgesic consumption. CONCLUSION: Dexamethasone
      (8 mg), injected sublingually, significantly eased post-operative pain after
      surgical removal of the mandibular third molar.

PMID- 28879329
TI  - Creating protective appliances for preventing dental injury during endotracheal
      intubation using intraoral scanning and 3D printing: a technical note.
AB  - Digital dentistry has influenced many dental procedures, such as three
      dimensional (3D) diagnosis and treatment planning, surgical splints, and
      prosthetic treatments. Patient-specific protective appliances (PSPAs) prevent
      dental injury during endotracheal intubation. However, the required laboratory
      work takes time, and there is the possibility of tooth extraction while obtaining
      the dental impression. In this technical report, we utilized new digital
      technology for creating PSPAs, using direct intraoral scanners and 3D printers
      for dental cast fabrication.

PMID- 28879330
TI  - Flexible laryngeal mask airway management for dental treatment cases associated
      with difficult intubation.
AB  - Nasotracheal intubation is generally a useful maxillofacial surgery that provides
      good surgical access for intraoral procedures. When nasotracheal intubation is
      difficult, laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion can be performed, and the
      flexible LMATM (FLMA) is also useful for anesthetic management. However, the FLMA
      provides limited access to the mouth, which restricts the insertion of
      instrumentation and confines the surgical field available. Here, we present our
      experience using the FLMA airway management for dental treatment cases involving
      difficulty with intubation.

PMID- 28879331
TI  - Dental treatment in patients with severe gag reflex using propofol-remifentanil
      intravenous sedation.
AB  - Patients with severe gag reflex (SGR) have difficulty getting the treatment they
      require in local clinics, and many tend to postpone the start of their treatment.
      To address this problem, dentists have used behavioral techniques and/or
      pharmacological techniques for treatment. Among the pharmacological methods
      available, propofol IV sedation is preferred over general anesthesia because it
      is a simpler procedure. Propofol in combination with remifentanil is
      characterized by stable sedative effects and quick recovery, leading to a deep
      sedation. Remifentanil acts to reduce the pain caused by lipid-soluble propofol
      on injection. The synergistic effects of propofol-remifentanil include reduction
      in the total amount of drug required to achieve a desired sedation level and anti
      emetic effects. In this case report, we outline how the use of propofol
      remifentanil IV sedation enabled us to successfully complete a wide range of
      dental treatments in a patient with SGR.

PMID- 28879332
TI  - Anesthetic management for simultaneous drug-induced sleep endoscopy and
      maxillomandibular advancement in a patient with obstructive sleep apnea.
AB  - Drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) is used to identify areas of upper airway
      obstruction, which occurs when patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) snore.
      DISE enables effective diagnosis and appropriate treatment of the obstruction
      site. Among surgical treatment methods for OSA, maxillomandibular advancement
      surgery (MMA) is performed to move a jaw forward; the surgery has a high success
      rate for OSA treatment. In DISE, anesthetics such as propofol and midazolam must
      be administered to induce snoring while the patient is deeply sedated for an
      accurate diagnosis to be made. When inducing deep sedation in a patient with OSA,
      airway obstruction may increase, causing oxygen saturation to drop; airway
      interventions are necessary in such cases. Effective DISE and MMA surgery can be
      performed by administering propofol through target-controlled infusion while
      monitoring the bispectral index (BIS).

PMID- 28879333
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Effects of airway evaluation parameters on the laryngeal
      view grade in mandibular prognathism and retrognathism patients.

PMID- 28879334
TI  - Authors' Reply to Letter to the Editor "Effects of airway evaluation parameters
      on the laryngeal view grade in mandibular prognathism and retrognathism
      patients".

PMID- 28879335
TI  - Use of local anesthetics for dental treatment during pregnancy; safety for
      parturient.
AB  - Pregnancy induces significant anatomical and physiological changes in the mother.
      Many pregnant women need dental treatment due to poor oral hygiene related to
      pregnancy. However, most dentists are reluctant to provide, and most pregnant
      women are reluctant to receive, dental treatment during pregnancy. Theoretically,
      maternally administered drugs are transferred to the fetus. Depending on the
      types of drugs and the stage of pregnancy, the effects of drugs on the mother, as
      well as the fetus, may vary. Local anesthetics are the most widely used in dental
      treatment. It is, therefore, important to understand the potential effects of
      local anesthetics during pregnancy. In this review, we will focus on the maternal
      and fetal effects of local anesthetics widely used in dental treatment with
      consideration of the use of local anesthetics during pregnancy.

PMID- 28879336
TI  - The use of general anesthesia to facilitate dental treatment in adult patients
      with special needs.
AB  - General anesthesia is commonly used to facilitate dental treatment in patients
      with anxiety or challenging behavior, many of whom are children or patients with
      special needs. When performing procedures under general anesthesia, dental
      surgeons must perform a thorough pre-operative assessment, as well as ensure that
      the patients are aware of the potential risks and that informed consent has been
      obtained. Such precautions ensure optimal patient management and reduce the
      frequency of morbidities associated with this form of sedation. Most guidelines
      address the management of pediatric patients under general anesthesia. However,
      little has been published regarding this method in patients with special needs.
      This article constitutes a review of the current literature regarding management
      of patients with special needs under general anesthesia.

PMID- 28879337
TI  - Hemodynamic changes and pain perception-related anxiety after experiencing an
      impacted-tooth removal: clinical practice outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dental fear is usually associated with hemodynamic changes. Fear of
      pain during the surgical removal of a lower impacted third molar might cause
      patients anxiety, thereby leading to avoidance of any future dental therapy. This
      study aimed to determine the effect of experiencing a surgical impacted-tooth
      removal on the pain perception-related anxiety and hemodynamic status. METHODS:
      Twenty-seven healthy patients aged 15-30 years (mean age, 24 years), for whom
      surgical removal of bilateral lower third molars was advised, were included. This
      prospective, randomized, controlled, split-mouth study involved operations on
      both sides of the mandibular arch, with a 1-month washout period in between.
      Blood pressure and heart rate were measured before the surgical procedure, during
      and after the injection, preoperatively, and postoperatively. Pain perception was
      evaluated using a 100-mm visual analog scale during the injection,
      preoperatively, and postoperatively after the numbness disappeared. Differences
      in the blood pressure, heart rate, and pain perception between the two
      appointments were analyzed using the paired t-test. For all statistical analyses,
      SPSS version 11.5 was used. RESULTS: The mean pain perception values during the
      injection and preoperatively showed no significant differences between the two
      appointments (P > 0.05); however, significant differences in the blood pressure
      and heart rate were noted before the surgical procedure; preoperatively, the
      blood pressure alone showed a significant difference (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      There was a significant decrease in the blood pressure and heart rate
      preoperatively; hence, experiencing a surgical impacted-tooth removal can reduce
      the subsequent preoperative anxiety in healthy patients.

PMID- 28879338
TI  - Distribution of medical status and medications in elderly patients treated with
      dental implant surgery covered by national healthcare insurance in Korea.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution of
      systemic diseases and medications in patients older than 65 years of age who
      visited the hospital for implant treatment, as well as to investigate basic
      information about surgical complications that may occur after insured implant
      treatment. METHODS: A total of 126 patients over 65 years of age were treated for
      implant surgery from October 1, 2013 to October 30, 2016. Electronic chart review
      was conducted to obtain medical records, which included sex, age, systemic
      diseases, medication(s) being taken, and control of the medications. Five
      patients were excluded due to lack of medical records giving information about
      systemic disease. RESULTS: Of the 126 patients, 112 (88.9%) were taking
      medication due to systemic disease and 9 patients (7.1%) were not. The sex
      distribution was 71 women and 55 men and the highest proportion of patients were
      between 65 and 69 years old. The most common diseases were, from most to least
      frequent, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. The
      drug groups that can cause major complications after dental treatment were
      classified as hemorrhagic, osteoporotic, and immunosuppressive agents, and were
      taken by 45 (35.7%), 22 (17.5%) and 4 (3.2%) patients, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Given that 88.9% of the elderly patients who were eligible for insurance implant
      treatment had systemic disease, it is necessary to carefully evaluate patients'
      medical histories and their general conditions in order to prevent emergencies
      during implant surgery.

PMID- 28879339
TI  - Double versus single cartridge of 4% articaine infiltration into the retro-molar
      area for lower third molar surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are no studies regarding 4% articaine infiltration injection
      into the retro-molar area for an impacted lower third molar (LITM) surgery. This
      study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of infiltration using 1.7 ml (single
      cartridge: SC) of 4% articaine versus 3.4 ml (double cartridges: DC) of 4%
      articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine in LITM surgery. METHOD: This study involved
      30 healthy patients with symmetrical LITM. The patients were assigned to receive
      either a DC or SC of 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine as a local
      anesthetic for each operation. Onset, duration, profoundness, need for additional
      anesthetic administration, total volume of anesthetic used, vitality of the
      tooth, and pain score during operation were recorded. RESULTS: The DC of 4 %
      articaine had a significantly higher success rate (83.3%) than did the SC (53.3%;
      P < 0.05). The duration of soft tissue anesthesia was longer in the DC group. The
      intra-operative pain was higher in the SC group with a significant (P < 0.05)
      requirement for a supplementary local anesthetic. CONCLUSION: We concluded that
      using DC for the infiltration injection had a higher success rate, longer
      duration of anesthesia, less intra-operative pain, and a lower amount of
      additional anesthesia than SC in the surgical removal of LITM. We recommend that
      a DC of 4% articaine and a 1:100,000 epinephrine infiltration in the retro-molar
      region can be an alternative anesthetic for LITM surgery.

PMID- 28879340
TI  - Application of augmented reality for inferior alveolar nerve block anesthesia: A
      technical note.
AB  - Efforts to apply augmented reality (AR) technology in the medical field include
      the introduction of AR techniques into dental practice. The present report
      introduces a simple method of applying AR during an inferior alveolar nerve
      block, a procedure commonly performed in dental clinics.

PMID- 28879341
TI  - Airway obstruction by dissection of the inner layer of a reinforced endotracheal
      tube in a patient with Ludwig's angina: A case report.
AB  - Intraoperative airway obstruction is perplexing to anesthesiologists because the
      patient may fall into danger rapidly. A 74-year-old woman underwent an emergency
      incision and drainage for a deep neck infection of dental origin. She was orally
      intubated with a 6. 0 mm internal diameter reinforced endotracheal tube by video
      laryngoscope using volatile induction and maintenance anesthesia (VIMA) with
      sevoflurane, fentanyl (100 ug), and succinylcholine (75 mg). During surgery, peak
      inspiratory pressure increased from 22 to 38 cmH2O and plateau pressure increased
      from 20 to 28 cmH2O. We maintained anesthesia because we were unable to access
      the airway, which was covered with surgical drapes, and tidal volume was
      delivered. At the end of surgery, we found a longitudinal fold inside the tube
      with a fiberoptic bronchoscope. The patient was reintubated with another tube and
      ventilation immediately improved. We recognized that the tube was obstructed due
      to dissection of the inner layer.

PMID- 28879342
TI  - Anesthetic management of a patient with chromosome 6p duplication: a case report.
AB  - Chromosome 6p duplication is very rare and clinically characterized by short
      stature, mental retardation, and congenital heart diseases. Patients with mental
      retardation may present with poor oral health conditions. Dental treatment may
      need to be performed under general anesthesia in such patients. Our case report
      deals with induction of general anesthesia to a patient with chromosome 6p
      duplication, for dental treatment. The selection of a nasotracheal tube of an
      appropriate size, because of the patient's short stature, was especially
      important for airway management. In the present case, the patient with chromosome
      6p duplication was intubated with a nasotracheal tube, which was not age-matched
      but adapted to the height and physique of the patient.

PMID- 28879343
TI  - Delayed bleeding after implant surgery in patients taking novel oral
      anticoagulants: a case report.
AB  - The use of novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) has increased in recent times in an
      effort to overcome the shortcomings of warfarin. They are being used primarily
      for the prevention of thrombosis caused by atrial fibrillation and offer the
      advantages of having fewer drug interactions than warfarin, no dietary
      restrictions, and no requirement for regular blood tests. Although there is
      reportedly less postoperative bleeding even if the drug is not discontinued
      during procedures that can cause local bleeding, such as dental procedures, no
      well-designed clinical studies have assessed postoperative bleeding associated
      with the use of these drugs. This article reports a case of a 74-year-old male
      patient who was taking rivaroxaban. The patient underwent a dental implant
      procedure after discontinuing rivaroxaban for one day and subsequently suffered
      delayed bleeding on postoperative day 6. Accordingly, this article also reports
      that the use of NOACs may also lead to delayed bleeding.

PMID- 28879344
TI  - Prognosis after treatment with multiple dental implants under general anesthesia
      and sedation in a cerebral palsy patient with mental retardation: A case report.
AB  - Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive disorder resulting from central nervous
      system damage caused by multiple factors. Almost all cerebral palsy patients have
      a movement disorder that makes dental treatment difficult. Oral hygiene
      management is difficult and the risks for periodontitis, dental caries and loss
      of multiple teeth are high. Placement of dental implants for multiple missing
      teeth in cerebral palsy patients needs multiple rounds of general anesthesia, and
      the prognosis is poor despite the expense. Therefore, making the decision to
      perform multiple dental implant treatments on cerebral palsy patients is
      difficult. A 33-year-old female patient with cerebral palsy and mental
      retardation was scheduled for multiple implant treatments. She underwent computed
      tomography (CT) under sedation and the operation of nine dental implants under
      general anesthesia. Implant-supported fixed prosthesis treatment was completed.
      During follow-up, she had the anterior incisors extracted and underwent the
      surgery of 3 additional dental implants, completing the prosthetic treatment.
      Although oral parafunctions existed due to cerebral palsy, no implant failure was
      observed 9 years after the first implant surgery.

PMID- 28879345
TI  - Managing the behavior of a patient with autism by sedation via submucosal route
      during dental treatment.
AB  - In sedation via the submucosal route, the drug is administered through the
      maxillary buccal submucosa. It is time saving, effective, and safe. Patients with
      autism, a mental disorder, often find it hard to make relationships with other
      people. These patients display a strong resistance to dental treatment and
      sedation. This study reports a successful case of behavioral management during
      dental treatment, using sedation via the submucosal route. The patient was
      strongly resistant to sedation via the oral, intramuscular, and intravenous
      routes. The drug used was 9 mg (0.1 mg/kg) of midazolam. Through this case
      report, we reaffirm the significance of sedation via the submucosal route, and
      expect that it will be used more frequently for patients with autism, who display
      behaviors that are difficult to manage, patients with other disabilities, and
      children.

PMID- 28879346
TI  - Can Cut-Off-Values for Tumor Size or Patient Age in Breast Ultrasound Reduce
      Unnecessary Biopsies or is it all About Bi-rads?- A Retrospective Analysis of 763
      Biopsied T1-Sized Lesions.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess whether it is possible to establish a size cut-off
      value for sonographically visible breast lesions in a screening situation, under
      which it is justifiable to obviate a biopsy and to evaluate the grayscale
      characteristics of the identified lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Images of
      sonographically visible and biopsied breast lesions of 684 patients were
      retrospectively reviewed and assessed for the following parameters: size, shape,
      margin, lesion boundary, vascularity, patient's age, side of breast, histological
      result, and initial BI-RADS category. Statistical analyses (t-test for
      independent variables, ROC analyses, binary logistic regression models, cross
      tabulations, positive/negative predictive values) were performed using IBM SPSS
      (Version 21.0). RESULTS: Of all 763 biopsied lesions, 223 (29.2%) showed a
      malignant histologic result, while 540 (70.8%) were benign. Although we did find
      a statistically significant correlation of malignancy and lesion size (p=0.031),
      it was not possible to define a cut-off value, under which it would be
      justifiable to obviate a biopsy in terms of sensitivity and specificity (AUC:
      0.558) at any age. Lesions showing the characteristics of a round or oval shape,
      a sharp delineation and no echogenic rim (n=112) were benign with an NPV of
      99.1%. CONCLUSION: It is not possible to define a cut-off value for size or age,
      under which a biopsy of a sonographically visible breast lesion can be obviated
      in the screening situation. The combination of the 3 grayscale characteristics,
      shape (round or oval), margin (circumscribed) and no echogenic-rim sign, showed
      an NPV of 99.1%. Therefore, it seems appropriate to classify such lesions as BI
      RADS 2.

PMID- 28879347
TI  - Towards ionic liquids with tailored magnetic properties: bmim+ salts of ferro-
      and antiferromagnetic Cu triangles.
AB  - Complexes (bmim)2[Cu3(MU3-Cl)2(MU-pz)3Cl3] (1), (bmim)[Cu3(MU3-OH)(MU-pz)3Cl3]
      (2) and (bmim)2[Cu3(MU3-OH)(MU-Cl)(MU-pz)3Cl3] (3) were synthesized (bmim+ = 1
      butyl-3-methylimidazolium, pz- = pyrazolato anion). Dianionic complexes 1 and 3
      were obtained as crystalline solids, whereas the monoanionic complex 2 was
      obtained as a viscous paste. Magnetic susceptibility and X-band EPR studies
      revealed intramolecular ferromagnetic interactions for 1 with small
      magnetoanisotropy in its ground state (D3/2~ 10-3 cm-1) and intramolecular
      antiferromagnetic interactions for 2 and 3 (-285 and -98 cm-1 average J,
      respectively) with important magnetic anisotropy in their ground states stemming
      from a combination of low magnetic symmetry and antisymmetric exchange
      interactions. Thermal studies revealed a clear melting point of 140  degrees C
      for 1, which is lower than that of its PPN+ and Bu4N+ analogues (1PPN and 1Bu4N,
      respectively, PPN+ = bis(triphenylphosphine)iminium). Upon cooling, 1 remains
      molten down to 70  degrees C. Mixtures of the salts 1, 1PPN and 1Bu4N, exhibited
      modified melting behaviours, with the mixtures exhibiting lower melting points
      than those of either of their pure components.

PMID- 28879348
TI  - The elemental role of iron in DNA synthesis and repair.
AB  - Iron is an essential redox element that functions as a cofactor in many metabolic
      pathways. Critical enzymes in DNA metabolism, including multiple DNA repair
      enzymes (helicases, nucleases, glycosylases, demethylases) and ribonucleotide
      reductase, use iron as an indispensable cofactor to function. Recent striking
      results have revealed that the catalytic subunit of DNA polymerases also contains
      conserved cysteine-rich motifs that bind iron-sulfur (Fe/S) clusters that are
      essential for the formation of stable and active complexes. In line with this,
      mitochondrial and cytoplasmic defects in Fe/S cluster biogenesis and insertion
      into the nuclear iron-requiring enzymes involved in DNA synthesis and repair lead
      to DNA damage and genome instability. Recent studies have shown that yeast cells
      possess multi-layered mechanisms that regulate the ribonucleotide reductase
      function in response to fluctuations in iron bioavailability to maintain optimal
      deoxyribonucleotide concentrations. Finally, a fascinating DNA charge transport
      model indicates how the redox active Fe/S centers present in DNA repair machinery
      components are critical for detecting and repairing DNA mismatches along the
      genome by long-range charge transfers through double-stranded DNA. These
      unexpected connections between iron and DNA replication and repair have to be
      considered to properly understand cancer, aging and other DNA-related diseases.

PMID- 28879349
TI  - The necessity of bioanalytical tools for advancing water and sediment quality
      assessment.

PMID- 28879350
TI  - Mechanisms of molecular water oxidation in solution and on oxide surfaces.
AB  - Initial experiments on water oxidation by well-defined molecular catalysts were
      initiated with the goal of finding solutions to solar energy conversion. This
      account is a summary of research in this area by the T. J. Meyer research group.
      It begins with the design and characterization of the first catalyst, the blue Ru
      dimer, to current applications with surface-bound complexes on photoanodes for
      water oxidation in Dye Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cells.

PMID- 28879351
TI  - Design and construction of a bifunctional magnetically recyclable 3D CoMn2O4/CF
      hybrid as an adsorptive photocatalyst for the effective removal of contaminants.
AB  - Herein, a magnetic microsphere CoMn2O4 (MS-CoMn2O4) with a 3D architecture was
      constructed directly on cellulose fiber (CF) substrates from wastepaper by a
      solvothermal synthesis method with further calcination treatment. The designed
      hybrid shows excellent dual functions including rapid catalytic oxidation of
      tetracycline (TC)/methylene blue (MB) and a high adsorption capacity. What's
      more, the hybrid is easily recycled using an external magnetic field. In
      comparison with that of pure MS-CoMn2O4, the enhanced adsorption ability and
      photocatalytic activity of MS-CoMn2O4/CFs can mainly be attributed to the
      introduced cellulose fiber supporter in the hybrid system. MS-CoMn2O4
      incorporated CFs can improve the efficient separation of photogenerated electron
      hole pairs and the transport pathway of electrons. More importantly, introduction
      of CFs can help to enrich and further improve the degradation efficiency of
      organic contaminants. The possible mechanism for the enhancement of the
      photocatalytic activity has been elucidated in detail. The reusability analysis
      revealed that the MS-CoMn2O4/CF hybrid exhibited superb cycling stability after 5
      cycles. This study provides novel insights into the design and construction of
      high capacity sorbents as strongly adsorptive photocatalysts to perform catalytic
      degradation of organic contaminants.

PMID- 28879352
TI  - A new family of clusters containing a silver-centered tetracapped [Ag@Ag4(MU3
      P)4] tetrahedron, inscribed within a N12 icosahedron.
AB  - An unprecedented silver-centered P-tetracapped [Ag@Ag4(MU3-P)4] tetrahedron
      inscribed within a N12 icosahedral cage has been discovered in the novel family
      of luminescent clusters. The latter are easily self-assembled by reacting AgI
      salts with tris(2-pyridyl)phosphine (Py3P).

PMID- 28879353
TI  - Correction: The effect of wall depletion and hydrodynamic interactions on stress
      gradient-induced polymer migration.
AB  - Correction for 'The effect of wall depletion and hydrodynamic interactions on
      stress-gradient-induced polymer migration' by Hossein Rezvantalab et al., Soft
      Matter, 2016, 12, 5883-5897.

PMID- 28879354
TI  - Bio-based chemicals: general discussion.

PMID- 28879355
TI  - Rare earth elements in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems in the
      eastern Canadian Arctic.
AB  - Few ecotoxicological studies exist for rare earth elements (REEs), particularly
      field-based studies on their bioaccumulation and food web dynamics. REE mining
      has led to significant environmental impacts in several countries (China, Brazil,
      U.S.), yet little is known about the fate and transport of these contaminants of
      emerging concern. Northern ecosystems are potentially vulnerable to REE
      enrichment from prospective mining projects at high latitudes. To understand how
      REEs behave in remote northern food webs, we measured REE concentrations and
      carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (?15N, ?13C) in biota from marine,
      freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems of the eastern Canadian Arctic (N = 339).
      Wildlife harvesting and tissue sampling was partly conducted by local hunters
      through a community-based monitoring project. Results show that REEs generally
      follow a coherent bioaccumulation pattern for sample tissues, with some anomalies
      for redox-sensitive elements (Ce, Eu). Highest REE concentrations were found at
      low trophic levels, especially in vegetation and aquatic invertebrates.
      Terrestrial herbivores, ringed seal, and fish had low total REE levels in muscle
      tissue (?REE for 15 elements <0.1 nmol g-1), yet accumulation was an order of
      magnitude higher in liver tissues. Age- and length-dependent REE accumulation
      also suggest that REE uptake is faster than elimination for some species.
      Overall, REE bioaccumulation patterns appear to be species- and tissue-specific,
      with limited potential for biomagnification. This study provides novel data on
      the behaviour of REEs in ecosystems and will be useful for environmental impact
      assessment of REE enrichment in northern regions.

PMID- 28879356
TI  - Feedstocks and analysis: general discussion.

PMID- 28879357
TI  - Fluorescent mesogenic boron difluoride complexes derived from heterocyclic
      benzoxazoles.
AB  - One new series of boron difluoride complexes 1 derived from heterocyclic
      benzoxazoles 2 was reported, and their mesomorphic and optical properties were
      also investigated. One single crystal of the mesogenic BF2 complex 1a (m = 12, n
      = 8) was obtained, and its single crystal and molecular structure were resolved.
      The geometry coordination at the central boron atom is tetrahedral. It
      crystallizes in a triclinic space group P1[combining macron] with Z = 4. The
      overall molecular shape was described as slightly bent Z-shapes, and the
      molecular length was ca. 34.06 A. Weak intramolecular and intermolecular H-bonds
      observed in the crystal lattice were attributed to the formation of mesophases.
      The results indicated that benzoxazoles 2a (n = 6, 8, 12) formed monotropic SmA
      phases, while boron difluoride complexes 1a (n = 6, 8, 12, 16) exhibited
      monotropic SmC mesophases. In contrast, all compounds of 2b and 1b (m = 1, n = 12
      for all) were not mesogenic. Boron complexes 1 emitted a pronounced violet
      emission at lambdamax = 399 nm in solution at room temperature.

PMID- 28879358
TI  - Conversion technologies: general discussion.

PMID- 28879359
TI  - Enantioselective synthesis of sulfoxide using an SBA-15 supported vanadia
      catalyst: a computational elucidation using a QM/MM approach.
AB  - Metal catalyzed asymmetric oxidation of prochiral sulfides is one of the
      prevailing strategies to produce enantiopure sulfoxides. Keeping in view the
      reported reactivity of peroxo vanadium complexes towards asymmetric oxidation
      reactions, this study explores the reactivity of vanadia represented as a VO4
      cluster with CH3-S-Ph through DFT computations. The mechanism of the oxidation of
      sulfides to sulfoxides with unsupported VO4 is thoroughly investigated. The
      chiral centre in the VO4 cluster is introduced by grafting it on an SBA-15
      support and two conformers of the supported cluster are thus obtained. The study
      was extended to locate transition states for the reaction of each conformer with
      CH3-S-Ph. The large enantiomeric excess obtained from the energy difference of
      the transition states confirms the formation of enantiopure sulfoxide. Analysis
      of the computational results provides a rational explanation for the observed
      enantioselectivity, which is remarkable. The optical stability as well as
      asymmetry of chiral sulfoxides obtained by the current approach has been further
      confirmed by locating the planar transition state, through which conversion from
      one enantiomer to another takes place. The calculations suggest that transition
      between the two enantiomers of sulfoxide is hampered by sufficiently high
      inversion barriers.

PMID- 28879360
TI  - Target-induced cyclic DNAzyme formation for colorimetric and chemiluminescence
      imaging assay of protein biomarkers.
AB  - A target-induced cyclic strategy for DNAzyme formation was proposed to achieve
      simple, sensitive and universal detection of protein biomarkers with convenient
      colorimetric or chemiluminescence imaging readout. In the assay, the target
      protein was recognized by a pair of DNA-labeled antibodies (Ab1-DNA1 and Ab2
      DNA2) to form a proximate complex, which could hybridize with the conjugate
      DNA3/DNA4 to release the guanine-rich DNA4 and thus formed G-quadruplex/hemin
      horseradish peroxidase-mimicking DNAzyme. The process could be further recycled
      with Exonuclease III by cleaving DNA3 to free the proximate complex, resulting in
      the cyclic formation of DNAzyme. The G-quadruplex/hemin DNAzyme could catalyze
      the H2O2-mediated oxidation of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine to produce the color
      change from colorless to blue or enhance the chemiluminescence of a luminol-H2O2
      system. Thus the signal could be read out with the naked eye, and by colorimetry
      and chemiluminescence imaging. Using a carcinoembryonic antigen as a model
      target, the proposed assay showed a detection range of 4 orders of magnitude
      along with detection limits of 170 and 16 pg mL-1 for colorimetric and
      chemiluminescence imaging assays respectively. This assay had the advantages of
      easy operation, sensitive detection, target flexibility and diversified signal
      readout, providing a great opportunity for commercial application.

PMID- 28879361
TI  - Development of lithium attachment mass spectrometry - knudsen effusion and
      chemical ionisation mass spectrometry (KEMS, CIMS).
AB  - Lithium ion attachment mass spectrometry provides a non-specific, non
      fragmenting, sensitive and robust method for the detection of volatile species in
      the gas phase. The design, manufacture and results of lithium based ion
      attachment ionisation sources for two different mass spectrometry systems are
      presented. In this study trace gas analysis is investigated using a modified
      Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) and vapour pressure measurements are
      made using a modified Knudsen Effusion Mass Spectrometer (KEMS). In the Li+ CIMS,
      where the Li+ ionization acts a soft and unselective ionization source, limits of
      detection of 0.2 ppt for formic acid, 15 ppt for nitric acid and 120 ppt for
      ammonia were achieved, allowing for ambient measurements of such species at
      atmospherically relevant concentrations. In the first application of Lithium ion
      attachment in ultra-high vacuum (UHV), vapor pressures of various atmospherically
      relevant species were measured with the adapted KEMS, giving measured values
      equivalent to previous results from electron impact KEMS. In the Li+ KEMS vapour
      pressures <10-3 mbar can be measured without any fragmentation, as is seen with
      the initial electron impact (EI) set up, allowing the vapor pressure of
      individual components within mixtures to be determined.

PMID- 28879362
TI  - Self-assembly and rheology of dipolar colloids in simple shear studied using
      multi-particle collision dynamics.
AB  - Magnetic nanoparticles in a colloidal solution self-assemble in various aligned
      structures, which has a profound influence on the flow behavior. However, the
      precise role of the microstructure in the development of the rheological response
      has not been reliably quantified. We investigate the self-assembly of dipolar
      colloids in simple shear using hybrid molecular dynamics and multi-particle
      collision dynamics simulations with explicit coarse-grained hydrodynamics,
      conduct simulated rheometric studies and apply micromechanical models to produce
      master curves, showing evidence of the universality of the structural behavior
      governed by the competition between the bonding (dipolar) and erosive (thermal
      and/or hydrodynamic) stresses. The simulations display viscosity changes across
      several orders of magnitude in fair quantitative agreement with various
      literature sources, substantiating the universality of the approach, which seems
      to apply generally across vastly different length scales and a broad range of
      physical systems.

PMID- 28879363
TI  - Bio-based materials: general discussion.

PMID- 28879364
TI  - A novel supramolecular magnesoborate framework with snowflake-like channels built
      by unprecedented huge B69 cluster cages.
AB  - A novel magnesoborate, Mg7@[B69O108(OH)18], with a 3D supramolecular framework
      has been made under solvothermal conditions, and features wonderful snowflake
      like channels assembled from unprecedented [B69O108(OH)18] clusters. Notably,
      unique triple-helical ribbons reside in the middle of the B69 cluster. Up to now,
      the discovery of a B69 cluster sets a new record in cluster sizes among borates.

PMID- 28879365
TI  - Plasmonic response and SERS modulation in electrochemical applied potentials.
AB  - We study the optical response of individual nm-wide plasmonic nanocavities using
      a nanoparticle-on-mirror design utilised as an electrode in an electrochemical
      cell. In this geometry Au nanoparticles are separated from a bulk Au film by an
      ultrathin molecular spacer, giving intense and stable Raman amplification of 100
      molecules. Modulation of the plasmonic spectra and the SERS response is observed
      with an applied voltage under a variety of electrolytes. Different scenarios are
      discussed to untangle the various mechanisms that can be involved in the
      electronic interaction between NPs and electrode surfaces.

PMID- 28879366
TI  - Phase diagrams of the LiBH4-NaBH4-KBH4 system.
AB  - A combination of experimental and computational techniques has been used to fully
      describe the thermodynamic properties and phase diagrams of the LiBH4-NaBH4-KBH4
      system. The Calphad method was used to assess the thermodynamic properties of
      LiBH4-NaBH4, LiBH4-KBH4, and NaBH4-KBH4 binary systems and to extend the
      investigation to the LiBH4-NaBH4-KBH4 ternary system. Samples with various
      compositions in the ternary system were synthesised, both by ball milling and
      manual mixing of the parent borohydrides, and their thermal stability has been
      studied using in situ synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction as a function of
      temperature and using differential scanning calorimetry. From collected
      experimental and literature data, a thermodynamic assessment of the ternary
      system led to the determination of the phase diagrams. In all cases, the solid
      solutions can be described in the frame of the regular solution model, with
      interaction parameters positive or equal to zero (i.e. ideal solution). In
      contrast, the liquid phase was described using negative interaction parameters. A
      new ternary eutectic composition was estimated and it was confirmed
      experimentally to be equal to a molar fraction of 0.66LiBH4-0.11NaBH4-0.23KBH4
      with a melting temperature of 102  degrees C.

PMID- 28879367
TI  - Conducting redox polymers with non-activated charge transport properties.
AB  - Non-activated charge transport has been demonstrated in terephthalate
      functionalized conducting redox polymers. The transition from a temperature
      activated conduction mechanism to a residual scattering mechanism was dependent
      on the doping level. The latter mechanism is associated with apparent negative
      activation barriers to charge transport and is generally found in polymer
      materials with a high degree of order. Crystallographic data, however, suggested
      a low degree of order in this polymer, indicating the existence of interconnected
      crystal domains in the predominantly amorphous polymer matrix through which the
      charge was transported. We have thus shown that the addition of bulky pendant
      groups to conducting polymers does not prevent efficient charge transport via the
      residual scattering mechanism with low barriers to charge transport.

PMID- 28879368
TI  - Shift work and the incidence of prostate cancer: a 10-year follow-up of a German
      population-based cohort study.
AB  - Objectives We investigated the association of shift and night work with the
      incidence of prostate cancer using data of the population-based prospective Heinz
      Nixdorf Recall Study from the highly industrialized Ruhr area in Germany. Methods
      Participants of the baseline survey were recruited between 2000-2003. A follow-up
      survey including, a detailed interview on shift and night work, was conducted
      from 2011-2014. We included 1757 men who did not report a history of prostate
      cancer at baseline. We assessed shift- and night-work exposure up to time of the
      baseline interview. Incident prostate cancers were recorded from baseline through
      September 2014. We calculated hazard ratios (HR) of shift- and night-work
      exposure using Cox proportional hazards regression with age at event as
      timescale, adjusting for smoking status, family history of prostate cancer,
      education (<=13, 14-17, >=18 years), and equivalent income (low, medium, high).
      Results We observed a twofold increased HR for prostate cancer among shift and
      night workers. Ever employment in shift work was associated with HR 2.29, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) 1.43-3.67 and night work with HR 2.27, 95% CI 1.42-3.64.
      HR increased steadily with duration of employment in shift or night work.
      Stratifying analyses by preferred midpoint of sleep, yielded strongly elevated HR
      among subjects with early sleep preference, although these analyses were limited
      by small number of cases. Conclusions We identified increased risks for prostate
      cancer among men with employment in shift or night work. HR were strongly
      elevated among long-term employed shift workers and men with early preferred
      midpoint of sleep.

PMID- 28879369
TI  - Surgical tricks for open lumbar discectomy.

PMID- 28879370
TI  - Radiofrequency facet joint denervation in the lumbar spine.

PMID- 28879371
TI  - Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion.

PMID- 28879372
TI  - PLIF and modified TLIF using the PLIF approach.

PMID- 28879373
TI  - Single level anterior cervical discectomy and interbody fusion.

PMID- 28879374
TI  - Lumbar and cervical injection techniques.

PMID- 28879375
TI  - Comment on: International Hernia Collaboration Consensus on Nomenclature of
      Abdominal Wall Hernia Repair: Reply.

PMID- 28879377
TI  - Erratum to: Extended diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging with two
      compartment and anomalous diffusion models for differentiation of low-grade and
      high-grade brain tumors in pediatric patients.

PMID- 28879378
TI  - Erratum to: Determinants of bone mineral density in young Australian women;
      results from the Safe-D study.

PMID- 28879380
TI  - [Report on the dermatopathology working group meeting : 101st anniversary of the
      DGP, Erlangen 24.06.2017].

PMID- 28879381
TI  - Erratum to: Cementless total hip arthroplasty in the treatment after acetabular
      fractures.

PMID- 28879383
TI  - Pediatric head injury-an opportunity to make a difference in the global burden of
      disease.

PMID- 28879384
TI  - Eulogy for Prof. Mami Yamasaki.

PMID- 28879382
TI  - The dawn of neurosurgery in pre-conquest Mesoamerican territories.

PMID- 28879387
TI  - ?

PMID- 28879390
TI  - Erratum to: Highlight report: co-cultures of hepatocytes and macrophages for
      hepatotoxicity testing.

PMID- 28879392
TI  - ?

PMID- 28879391
TI  - Response to comments on "Effect of high-intensity aerobic exercise on aerobic
      fitness and HbA1c in patients with type 2 diabetes".

PMID- 28879393
TI  - [Basic therapeutics : What are the features of modern personal care products to
      protect and regenerate the skin barrier?]
AB  - It is international consensus that the daily use of properly selected products
      for the maintenance therapy is a must in the adjuvant treatment of most chronic
      skin diseases. In a first step, the selection of an adequate product can be
      guided by the classical triangle of the dermal vehicles. However, modern skin
      care products use diverse excipients, e. g. emulsifiers and viscosity enhancers,
      to improve the galenical and haptic properties of the formulations. It is thus no
      longer sufficient to simply have knowledge about the oil and water content of a
      cream in order to make a proper selection. A very positive effect on the skin
      barrier can be achieved using biomimetic lipids which can be incorporated into
      the epidermal lipid barrier. The application of such products as a foam cream is
      the most convenient way especially favorable when inflamed or hardly accessible
      skin areas have to be treated.

PMID- 28879394
TI  - Measurement uncertainty and clinical impact of target-to-background ratios
      derived by interim FDG-PET/CT in Hodgkin lymphoma: reply to Laffon and Martan.

PMID- 28879395
TI  - A comparison of laparoscopic and open D3 lymphadenectomy for transverse colon
      cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The type of surgery or surgical approach for transverse colon cancer
      treatment largely depends on the tumor location or surgeon's preference. However,
      extensive lymphadenectomy appears to improve the long-term outcomes of locally
      advanced colon cancers. This study was designed to compare the short- and long
      term outcomes after surgery via the laparoscopic or open approach with radical D3
      lymph node dissection in patients with stage II and III transverse colon cancer.
      METHODS: Patients were treated for stage II and III transverse colon cancer
      between May 2006 and December 2014. This retrospective study evaluated data
      collected prospectively at a tertiary teaching hospital. Radical D3
      lymphadenectomy included the principal middle colic artery nodes. RESULTS: The
      study included 144 patients among whom 118 (81.9%) underwent laparoscopic
      surgery. Significantly more patients in the laparoscopic group underwent extended
      right hemicolectomy compared with the open group (90.7 vs. 65.4%, p = 0.005). The
      operative time was longer in the laparoscopic group (151.3 vs. 131.2 min, p =
      0.021), and the open group had a greater estimated blood loss volume (160.8 vs.
      289.3 ml, p = 0.011). Although the groups differed in terms of tumor size (5.8 vs
      7.9 cm, p = 0.007), other pathologic outcomes did not differ. The groups did not
      differ regarding postoperative parameters or disease-free, overall, and cancer
      specific survivals. CONCLUSION: Despite differences in surgical methods and
      related factors, no long-term differences in outcomes were observed between
      laparoscopic and open approaches to radical D3 lymphadenectomy in patients with
      stage II and III transverse colon cancer.

PMID- 28879397
TI  - Detection and tissue distribution of potato spindle tuberviroid in infected
      tomato plants by tissue print hybridization.
AB  - Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) was detected in two cultivars of tomato
      (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) by tissue print hybridization of cross-sections
      of stem and rhachis, using a 35S-labeled PSTVd RNA probe. PSTVd was detectable in
      the viroid-sensitive and symptom-developping cv "Rutgers" 2 weeks p.i., and in
      the viroid-tolerant and practically symptomless cv "Goldkugel" 3 weeks p.i. In
      both tomato cultivars, PSTVd accumulated in the upper parts of the plants newly
      grown after inoculation. It was predominantly found in association with the ring
      formed by the vascular tissue. The final accumulation of PSTVd as well as its
      spatial distribution were similar in the sensitive and in the tolerant tomato
      cultivar, as estimated from the tissue print autoradiographs. Thus, tissue print
      hybridization provides a rapid and sensitive means for viroid diagnosis and for
      the assessment of tissue-specific localization of the viroid RNA.

PMID- 28879396
TI  - Vestibulo-ocular reflex deficits with medial longitudinal fasciculus lesions.
AB  - The medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF) is the final common pathway for all
      conjugate adducting horizontal eye movements, as well as for the vertical
      torsional vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). MLF lesion causes adduction paresis of
      ipsilesional (adducting) eye with dissociated nystagmus of contralesional
      (abducting) eye-the well-known clinical syndrome of internuclear ophthalmoplegia
      (INO). We measured the VOR stimulation and also any catch-up saccades, from
      individual semicircular canal (SCC) evoked by the head impulse test (HIT), using
      head and binocular 3-dimensional scleral search coils in 27 multiple sclerosis
      (MS) patients, 8 with unilateral, 19 with bilateral INO. In unilateral INO, VOR
      gain (normal >0.90) from ipsilesional lateral SCC stimulation was 0.48 for the
      adducting eye and 0.81 for the abducting eye; 0.61 from contralesional anterior
      SCC stimulation and only 0.29 from contralesional posterior SCC stimulation. In
      bilateral INO, there were VOR gain deficits from all six SCCs: lateral SCC gains
      were asymmetrically reduced to 0.45 in the adducting eye and 0.66 in the
      abducting eye; anterior SCC gain was 0.48 and posterior SCC gain was only 0.19.
      Horizontal VOR versional dysconjugacy between adducting and abducting eyes at
      0.66 was less severe than horizontal catch-up saccade versional dysconjugacy
      (0.44); normal >0.80. Unexpected partial preservation of horizontal VOR with
      greater catch-up saccade impairment from the adducting than abducting eye
      suggests that the ascending tract of Deiters (ATD), an extra-MLF pathway, also
      mediates the horizontal VOR, but not adducting horizontal saccades. Vertical VOR
      deficits will produce vertical oscillopsia with any vertical head movement and
      measurement of the vertical VOR could help with the diagnosis and quantitative
      evaluation of MLF lesions in suspected MS. Horizontal VOR deficits and catch-up
      saccade versional dysconjugacy in INO will cause gaze instability and horizontal
      oscillopsia during active horizontal head movements.

PMID- 28879398
TI  - A novel synthetic reversible inhibitor of sialidase efficiently blocks secondary
      but not primary influenza virus infection of MDCK cells in culture.
AB  - The sodium salts of 2-difluoromethyl-phenyl-alpha-ketoside of N-acetyl-neuraminic
      acid (compound 1) and of 4-difluoromethyl-2-methoxy-phenyl-alpha-ketoside of N
      acetylneuraminic acid (compound 2) were designed as potential mechanism-based
      inhibitors of sialidase. In vitro both of these compounds competitively inhibited
      the sialidases of Clostridium perfringens and of influenza virus A/HK/1/68.
      Inhibition was irreversible with the sialidase of Clostridium perfringens whereas
      it was reversible with that of A/HK/1/68. Compound 2 did not inhibit the
      hemagglutinin of the virus but exhibited significant anti-influenza activity when
      added to the medium of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells infected by
      influenza virus. In non-infected MDCK cells no inhibition of cellular sialidase
      was observed. Compound 2 did not block primary infection, but inhibited the
      release of progeny virus from infected cells. Even after 8 passages in its
      presence, no resistant strains were detected. Because of its high Ki (8 * 10-5M)
      compared to the low Ki (1 * 1-10 M) of 4 guanidino-Neu 5 Ac 2en and its
      reversible inhibition of viral sialidase, its development as an anti-influenza
      agent is no longer envisaged. Nevertheless, as a mechanism-based irreversible
      inhibitor of the bacterial enzyme, it could at least be useful for investigating
      the intrinsic role of sialidase in infections caused by this strain.

PMID- 28879399
TI  - Taxonomic changes in tailed phages of enterobacteria.
AB  - Out of 136 new phages, 80 (59%) are classified into 23 species according to
      morphology and physicochemical properties. Six new species are described and
      species b4, from a previous classification scheme, is renamed T1. The morphology
      of 36 phage species is schematically represented.

PMID- 28879400
TI  - Human T-lymphotropic Virus Type II Infection inVietnamese Thalassemic Patients.
AB  - Anti-human T-lymphotropic virus type I/II (HTLV-I/II) antibodies were screened by
      particle agglutination test in a total of 66 patients with thalassemia major who
      received multiple transfusion from paid donors at the Blood Transfusion
      Hematology Center of Ho Chi Minh City in South Vietnam. HTLV-II infection was
      confirmed in 6 patients (9.1%) by Western blot analysis and/or polymerase chain
      reaction. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that long terminal repeat sequences of
      HTLV-II proviruses from 5 thalassemic patients in Vietnam belonged to the same
      phylogenetic subgroup of HTLV-IIb as those from intravenous drug abusers in North
      America and Europe. These data shed light on the route of introducing HTLV-II
      into Vietnam.

PMID- 28879401
TI  - Phylogenetic analysis of feline immunodeficiency virus isolated from cats in
      Taiwan.
AB  - Feline immunodeficiency virus was isolated from four cats from Taiwan. The
      isolates were designated TI-1, TI-2, TI-3 and TI-4. Each was isolated from PBMCs
      following co-cultivation of PBMCs with a feline T-lymphoblastoid cell line (MYA-1
      cells). However, the Taiwanese isolates did not grow in a feline kidney cell line
      (CRFK cells). The nucleotide sequences of the V3-V5 region of the envelope gene
      of the Taiwanese isolates were determined and compared with those of previously
      described isolates. Phylogenetic analysis of this region indicates that Taiwanese
      isolates belong to subtype C.

PMID- 28879402
TI  - Genetic Variation in the VP7 Gene of Human Rotavirus Serotype 3 (G3 Type)
      Isolated in China and Japan.
AB  - Sequence analysis of the VP7 gene was performed on twenty-one human isolates of
      serotype 3 related-rotavirus in China and Japan. The five Chinese isolates were
      found to be not similar to the 16 Japanese isolates and to SAff11 (simian
      rotavirus). The Chinese isolates, especially CHW2 and CH-32, were different from
      the major serotype 3 human isolates. AU-1 and 02/92 which previously showed a
      wider spacing between RNA segments 10 and 11 by RNA polyacrylamide gel
      electrophoretic analysis, were more closely related to each other and could be
      differentiated from the other Chinese and Japanese isolates. For these reasons,
      serotype 3 viruses were considered to be intra-serotypically more heterologous
      than serotype 1, 2 and 4 viruses.

PMID- 28879403
TI  - Detection and Characterization of a Distinct Type of Beet Necrotic Yellow Vein
      Virus RNA 5 in a Sugarbeet Growing Area in Europe.
AB  - A fifth beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) RNA species has been detected in
      Europe in sugarbeet infected with P-type BNYVV. Very little sequence variation
      was found between two European sources of this RNA 5*, but considerable
      differences were detected between these two European sources on the one hand and
      the four Japanese sources recently analysed by Kiguchi et al. on the other. The
      BNYVV RNA 5-encoded 26K proteins share a stretch of six amino acids (FRGPGN) with
      the BNYVV RNA 3-encoded 25K protein which may be of interest in view of the
      reported interactions between the two RNAs in pathogenicity.

PMID- 28879404
TI  - Guidelines to the demarcation of virus species.

PMID- 28879405
TI  - Infection control interventions affected by resource shortages: impact on the
      incidence of bacteremias caused by carbapenem-resistant pathogens.
AB  - We evaluated an infection control (IC) program influenced by personnel and
      material resource shortages on the incidence of bloodstream infections (BSI) due
      to carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP), Acinetobacter baumannii
      (CRAB), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) in an endemic region. Between January
      2010 and December 2015, all BSI episodes caused by CRKP, CRAB, and CRPA were
      recorded. An IC bundle was implemented in January 2012. We evaluated the effect
      of the interventions on BSI rates between the pre-intervention (2010-2011) and
      intervention (2012-2013) periods, using an interrupted time-series model. From
      2014, when interventions were still applied, BSI incidence was gradually
      increased. For this reason, we evaluated with a linear mixed effects model
      several factors possibly contributing to this increase for the years 2012-2015,
      which was considered as the intervention/follow-up period. During the study
      period, 351 patients with BSI were recorded, with a total of 538 episodes; the
      majority (83.6%) occurred in the intensive care unit (ICU). The BSI incidence
      rate per year during 2010-2015 for ICU patients was
      21.03/19.63/17.32/14.45/22.85/25.02 per 1000 patient-days, respectively, with the
      reduction in BSI levels after the start of intervention marginal (p = 0.054).
      During the follow-up period (2014-2015), the most influential factors for the
      increased BSI incidence were the reduced participation in educational courses and
      compliance with hand hygiene. The implementation of IC interventions reduced the
      BSI incidence rates, particularly for ICU patients. However, factors possibly
      related to the restrictions of human and material resources apparently
      contributed to the observed expansion of BSI in our endemic setting.

PMID- 28879406
TI  - Whole-tumor histogram analysis of the cerebral blood volume map: tumor volume
      defined by 11C-methionine positron emission tomography image improves the
      diagnostic accuracy of cerebral glioma grading.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare the tumor volume definition using
      conventional magnetic resonance (MR) and 11C-methionine positron emission
      tomography (MET/PET) images in the differentiation of the pre-operative glioma
      grade by using whole-tumor histogram analysis of normalized cerebral blood volume
      (nCBV) maps. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-four patients with histopathologically
      proven primary brain low-grade gliomas (n = 15) and high-grade gliomas (n = 19)
      underwent pre-operative or pre-biopsy MET/PET, fluid-attenuated inversion
      recovery, dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance
      imaging, and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted at 3.0 T. The histogram distribution
      derived from the nCBV maps was obtained by co-registering the whole tumor volume
      delineated on conventional MR or MET/PET images, and eight histogram parameters
      were assessed. RESULTS: The mean nCBV value had the highest AUC value (0.906)
      based on MET/PET images. Diagnostic accuracy significantly improved when the
      tumor volume was measured from MET/PET images compared with conventional MR
      images for the parameters of mean, 50th, and 75th percentile nCBV value (p =
      0.0246, 0.0223, and 0.0150, respectively). CONCLUSION: Whole-tumor histogram
      analysis of CBV map provides more valuable histogram parameters and increases
      diagnostic accuracy in the differentiation of pre-operative cerebral gliomas when
      the tumor volume is derived from MET/PET images.

PMID- 28879407
TI  - MicroRNA Profiling in Aging Brain of PSEN1/PSEN2 Double Knockout Mice.
AB  - MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that function as regulators of gene
      expression. The altered expression of microRNAs influences the pathogenesis of
      Alzheimer's disease. Many researchers have focused on studies based on the
      relatively distinctive etiology of familial Alzheimer's disease due to the
      absence of risk factors in the pathogenesis of sporadic Alzheimer's disease.
      Although there is a limitation in Alzheimer's disease studies, both Alzheimer's
      disease types have a common risk factor-aging. No study to date has examined the
      aging factor in Alzheimer's disease animal models with microRNAs. To investigate
      the effect of aging on the changes in microRNA expressions in the Alzheimer's
      disease animal model, we selected 37 hippocampal microRNAs whose expression in 12
      and 18-month aged mice changed significantly using microRNA microarray. On the
      basis of bioinformatics databases, 30 hippocampal microRNAs and their putative
      targets of PSEN1/PSEN2 double knockout mice were included in 28 pathways such as
      the wnt signaling pathway and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis pathway. Cortical
      microRNAs and its putative targets involved in pathological aging were included
      in only four pathways such as the heparin sulfate biosynthesis. The altered
      expressions of these hippocampal microRNAs were associated to the imbalance
      between neurotoxic and neuroprotective functions and seemed to affect
      neurodegeneration in PSEN1/PSEN2 double knockout mice more severely than in wild
      type mice. This microRNA profiling suggests that microRNAs play potential roles
      in the normal aging process, as well as in the Alzheimer's disease process.

PMID- 28879408
TI  - Neuromelanin in Parkinson's Disease: from Fenton Reaction to Calcium Signaling.
AB  - Neuromelanin is supposed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's
      disease. A common theory is the formation of reactive oxygen species through the
      Fenton reaction catalyzed by neuromelanin-bound iron ions and subsequent death of
      the dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra. From a physicochemical point of
      view, this pathway is rather implausible: a highly reactive radical built within
      a powerful radical scavenger would more promptly be inactivated before it might
      diffuse within the cell to reach a target to exert its deleterious potential.
      This review of the literature provides evidence for an interaction of
      neuromelanin with the calcium signaling pathway in Parkinson's disease and
      expands the view of the pathophysiological contribution of neuromelanin towards a
      cytoprotective involvement of this macromolecule in the calcium signaling system.
      More probably than being directly involved in the production of reactive oxygen
      species, neuromelanin may act as a calcium reservoir and thus protect
      dopaminergic cells from cell death. A loss of neuromelanin, as observed in the
      substantia nigra of Parkinson patients, would lead to enhanced calcium messaging
      through the loss of an important calcium reservoir and thus finally via the
      formation of reactive oxygen species to cell death within the substantia nigra.

PMID- 28879409
TI  - Erratum to: Minimum-Norm Estimation of Motor Representations in Navigated TMS
      Mappings.

PMID- 28879410
TI  - Vesicovaginal reflux and urocolpos with bilateral pelviureteric junction
      obstruction.

PMID- 28879411
TI  - Serial changes in anatomy and ventricular function on dual-source cardiac
      computed tomography after the Norwood procedure for hypoplastic left heart
      syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate evaluation of anatomy and ventricular function after the
      Norwood procedure in hypoplastic left heart syndrome is important for treatment
      planning and prognostication, but echocardiography and cardiac MRI have
      limitations. OBJECTIVE: To assess serial changes in anatomy and ventricular
      function on dual-source cardiac CT after the Norwood procedure for hypoplastic
      left heart syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 14 consecutive patients with
      hypoplastic left heart syndrome, end-systolic and end-diastolic phase cardiac
      dual-source CT was performed before and early (average: 1 month) after the
      Norwood procedure, and repeated late (median: 4.5 months) after the Norwood
      procedure in six patients. Ventricular functional parameters and indexed
      morphological measurements including pulmonary artery size, right ventricular
      free wall thickness, and ascending aorta size on cardiac CT were compared between
      different time points. Moreover, morphological features including ventricular
      septal defect, endocardial fibroelastosis and coronary ventricular communication
      were evaluated on cardiac CT. RESULTS: Right ventricular function and volumes
      remained unchanged (indexed end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes: 38.9+/-14.0
      vs. 41.1+/-21.5 ml/m2, P=0.7 and 99.5+/-30.5 vs. 105.1+/-33.0 ml/m2, P=0.6;
      ejection fraction: 60.1+/-7.3 vs. 63.8+/-7.0%, P=0.1, and indexed stroke volume:
      60.7+/-18.0 vs. 64.0+/-15.6 ml/m2, P=0.5) early after the Norwood procedure, but
      function was decreased (ejection fraction: 64.2+/-2.6 vs. 58.1+/-7.1%, P=0.01)
      and volume was increased (indexed end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes: 39.2+/
      14.9 vs. 68.9+/-20.6 ml/m2, P<0.003 and 107.8+/-36.5 vs. 162.9+/-36.2 ml/m2,
      P<0.006, and indexed stroke volume: 68.6+/-21.7 vs. 94.0+/-21.3 ml/m2, P=0.02)
      later. Branch pulmonary artery size showed a gradual decrease without asymmetry
      after the Norwood procedure. Right and left pulmonary artery stenoses were
      identified in 21.4% (3/14) of the patients. Indexed right ventricular free wall
      thickness showed a significant increase early after the Norwood procedure (25.5+/
      3.5 vs. 34.8+/-5.1 mm/m2, P=0.01) and then a significant decrease late after the
      Norwood procedure (34.8+/-5.1 vs. 27.2+/-4.2 mm/m2, P<0.0001). The hypoplastic
      ascending aorta smaller than 2 mm in diameter was identified in 21.4% (3/14) of
      the patients. Ventricular septal defect (n=3), endocardial fibroelastosis (n=2)
      and coronary ventricular communication (n=1) were detected on cardiac CT.
      CONCLUSION: Cardiac CT can be used to assess serial changes in anatomy and
      ventricular function after the Norwood procedure in patients with hypoplastic
      left heart syndrome.

PMID- 28879414
TI  - Language Skills in Classical Chinese Text Comprehension.
AB  - This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the role of
      lower- and higher-level language skills in classical Chinese (CC) text
      comprehension. A CC word and sentence translation test, text comprehension test,
      and questionnaire were administered to 393 Secondary Four students; and 12 of
      these were randomly selected to participate in retrospective interviews. The
      findings revealed that students' CC reading performance was unsatisfactory with
      respect to both lower- and text-level comprehension. Among the different factors
      examined, the most crucial to CC reading comprehension was lower-level reading
      skill. Owing to students' weak lower-level reading skills, participants relied
      heavily on contextual clues when reading in CC. The implications of these
      findings for understanding factors that contribute to CC reading comprehension,
      and for planning effective instruction to enhance students' CC reading competence
      are discussed.

PMID- 28879413
TI  - Predictors of patient decision to discontinue anti-rheumatic medication in
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis: results from the Ontario best practices
      research initiative.
AB  - Despite the availability of treatment guidelines and effective treatments, real
      world effectiveness remains suboptimal partly due to poor patient medication
      adherence. We evaluated a comprehensive set of sociodemographic, health
      insurance, and disease-related factors for association with patient decision to
      discontinue anti-rheumatic medications (ARMs) in a large observational RA cohort
      in Ontario, Canada. Patients from the Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative
      registry were included. The following predictors of ARM discontinuation were
      evaluated with cox-regression: patient age, gender, education, income, smoking,
      health insurance type/coverage, RA duration, erosion presence, RF positivity,
      DAS28-ESR, physician global, HAQ-DI, comorbidity number, ARM types, and physician
      characteristics (gender, academic position, urban vs. rural, distance from
      patient's residence). Patients (1762) were included with a mean (SD) age of 57.4
      years (13.0). Approximately 80% were female, 29% had early (<= 1 year) RA, and
      70% were RF-positive. Mean (SD) baseline DAS28-ESR and HAQ-DI were 4.5 (1.5) and
      1.2 (0.76), respectively. In multivariate analysis, married status (HR [95%CI]
      0.73 [0.56-0.96]), RF positivity (0.73 [0.56-0.96]), and higher comorbidity
      number (0.92 [0.85-0.99]) were significant predictors of ARMs continuation while
      higher physician global (1.10 [1.04-1.15]), NSAID use (1.75 [1.29-2.38]), and
      number of ARMs (1.23 [1.07-1.40]) were associated with ARMs discontinuation. In a
      subset analysis assessing conventional or biologic DMARD discontinuation, higher
      HAQ-DI and biologic use over time were associated with lower hazard for
      discontinuation. Several sociodemographic, disease, and treatment parameters were
      identified as independent predictors of patient discontinuation of ARMs. These
      results should be considered when developing patient adherence support programs
      and in the choice of treatment regimens.

PMID- 28879412
TI  - The sequence of disease-modifying therapies in relapsing multiple sclerosis:
      safety and immunologic considerations.
AB  - The treatment landscape for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS) has
      expanded considerably over the last 10 years with the approval of multiple new
      disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), and others in late-stage clinical
      development. All DMTs for RMS are believed to reduce central nervous system
      immune-mediated inflammatory processes, which translate into demonstrable
      improvement in clinical and radiologic outcomes. However, some DMTs are
      associated with long-lasting effects on the immune system and/or serious adverse
      events, both of which may complicate the use of subsequent therapies. When
      customizing a treatment program, a benefit-risk assessment must consider multiple
      factors, including the efficacy of the DMT to reduce disease activity, the short-
      and long-term safety and immunologic profiles of each DMT, the criteria used to
      define switching treatment, and the risk tolerance of each patient. A
      comprehensive benefit-risk assessment can only be achieved by evaluating the
      immunologic, safety, and efficacy data for DMTs in the controlled clinical trial
      environment and the postmarketing clinical practice setting. This review is
      intended to help neurologists make informed decisions when treating RMS by
      summarizing the known data for each DMT and raising awareness of the multiple
      considerations involved in treating people with RMS throughout the entire course
      of their disease.

PMID- 28879415
TI  - Development of metabolic syndrome in high-sucrose diet fed rats is not associated
      with decrease in adiponectin levels.
AB  - PURPOSE: Association of circulating adiponectin levels with metabolic syndrome
      has been controversial, with studies reporting low as well as high circulating
      adiponectin levels in metabolic syndrome. Present study aims to examine
      prospectively the course of circulating adiponectin levels during development of
      metabolic syndrome in a diet-induced rat model of metabolic syndrome. METHODS: In
      a prospective study, eight-week-old male wistar rats were randomized into two
      groups (n = 24 each). Group A: standard chow diet and group B: high sucrose diet.
      Body weight, total and high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin and insulin levels
      were measured during the study. Oral fat and glucose tolerance tests were done
      during the study at various time points from weeks 2 to 26. Visceral fat,
      subcutaneous fat, and adiponectin levels were also measured at week 48 in some of
      the rats. RESULTS: Significantly higher total adiponectin levels were found from
      week 2 to 26 in group B compared to group A (P = <0.05), whereas HMW adiponectin
      levels were similar in both the groups. Postprandial triglycerides, obesity,
      insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance were also found to be significantly
      higher in group B compared to group A during this period (P = <0.05). Total
      adiponectin levels of week 26 showed significant positive correlation with
      preceding postprandial triglyceride burden in group B (r = 0.60, P = 0.002).
      CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the present study finds that development of metabolic
      syndrome in high-sucrose diet fed rats is not associated with decrease in
      circulating adiponectin levels.

PMID- 28879416
TI  - Patient Age and Tumor Subtype Predict the Extent of Axillary Surgery Among Breast
      Cancer Patients Eligible for the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group
      Trial Z0011.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z0011 trial
      established the safety of omitting axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for
      early-stage breast cancer patients with limited nodal disease undergoing
      lumpectomy. We examined the extent of axillary surgery among women eligible for
      Z0011 based on patient age and tumor subtype. METHODS: Patients with cT1-2, cN0
      breast cancers and one or two positive nodes diagnosed from 2009 to 2014 and
      treated with lumpectomy were identified in the National Cancer Data Base.
      Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was defined as the removal of 1-5 nodes and
      ALND as the removal of 10 nodes or more. Tumor subtype was categorized as
      luminal, human epidermal growth factor 2-positive (HER2+), or triple-negative.
      Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of receiving SLNB alone versus
      ALND. RESULTS: The inclusion criteria were met by 28,631 patients (21,029 SLNB
      alone and 7602 ALND patients). Patients 70 years of age or older were more likely
      to undergo SLNB alone than ALND (27.0% vs 20.1%; p < 0.001). The radiation
      therapy use rate was 89.4% after SLNB alone and 89.7% after ALND. In the
      multivariate analysis, the uptake of Z0011 recommendations increased over time
      (2014 vs 2009: odds ratio [OR] 13.02; p < 0.001). Younger patients were less
      likely to undergo SLNB alone than older patients (age <40 vs >=70: OR 0.59; p <
      0.001). Patients with HER2+ (OR 0.89) or triple-negative disease (OR 0.79) (p <
      0.001) were less likely to undergo SLNB alone than those with luminal subtypes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among women potentially eligible for ACOSOG Z0011, the use of SLNB
      alone increased over time in all groups, but the extent of axillary surgery
      differed by patient age and tumor subtype.

PMID- 28879417
TI  - Potential for aerobic NO2- reduction and corresponding key enzyme genes involved
      in Alcaligenes faecalis strain NR.
AB  - The potential for aerobic NO2- removal by Alcaligenes faecalis strain NR was
      investigated. 35 mg/L of NO2--N was removed by strain NR under aerobic conditions
      in the presence of NH4+. 15N-labeling experiment demonstrated that N2O and N2
      were possible products during the aerobic nitrite removal process by strain NR.
      The key enzyme genes of nirK, norB and nosZ, which regulate the aerobic nitrite
      denitrification process, were successfully amplified from strain NR. The gene
      sequence analysis indicates that copper-containing nitrite reductase (NIRK) and
      periplasmic nitrous oxide reductase (NOSZ) were both hydrophilic protein and the
      transmembrane structures were absent, while nitric oxide reductase large subunit
      (NORB) was a hydrophobic and transmembrane protein. According to the three
      dimensional structure and binding site analysis, the bulky and hydrophobic
      methionine residue proximity to the nitrite binding sites of NIRK was speculated
      to be related to the oxygen tolerance of NIRK from strain NR.

PMID- 28879418
TI  - Thread like calcifications in mesenteric phlebosclerosis.

PMID- 28879420
TI  - Estimated incidence of high altitude retinal hemorrhages.

PMID- 28879419
TI  - Experience and dissection device are more relevant than patient-related factors
      for operation time in laparoscopic sigmoid resection-a retrospective 8-year
      observational study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Surgical outcome is influenced by multiple patient-specific factors and
      operative expertise of the surgeon. Clinical relevance of medical technical
      innovations often remains unclear even though laparoscopic surgical procedures
      are characterized by continual advancement of various devices. Lately, in
      dissection and sealing technology, fast-cutting ultrasonic scissors are combined
      with simultaneous bipolar coagulation (bimodal dissection device (BDD)). We
      investigated how this new technology, operative expertise, and patient-specific
      factors (body mass index, age) influence operation time in laparoscopic-assisted
      sigmoid resection. METHODS: Between 2008 and 2016, 161 laparoscopic sigmoid
      resections (52% conventional dissection device (CDD); 48% BDD) performed in a
      single center were retrospectively evaluated. Biometric patient data,
      complication rates, and surgery duration, reflecting the learning curve, were
      analyzed. Operations were performed by experienced surgeons (n = 3) and trainees
      (n = 4). RESULTS: Minor postoperative complications (e.g., impaired wound
      healing, non-revisional secondary bleeding) occurred in 11 cases (6.8%). Major
      complications (e.g., bleeding requiring revision, anastomotic leakage) were
      observed in 3.7%. No heat-related coagulation damage was observed. BDD reduced
      operation time for both experienced (CDD 150 min, BDD 125 min; p < 0.001) and
      trainee surgeons (CDD 169 min, BDD 135 min; p = 0.036). Reduction of operation
      time (indicative of a learning curve in progress) was observed for all surgeons.
      The curve was steeper using BDD. CONCLUSIONS: Patient-specific factors did not
      have a significant effect on operation time. Even taking the learning curve into
      account, a combination of ultrasonic dissection and simultaneous bipolar
      coagulation reduces operation time of laparoscopic-assisted sigmoid resection,
      regardless of surgeon's expertise.

PMID- 28879421
TI  - The history of Rhoton's Lab.
AB  - The work performed in Dr. Rhoton's Lab, represented by over 500 publications on
      microneurosurgical anatomy, greatly contributed to improving the level of
      neurosurgical treatment throughout the world. The authors reviewed the
      development and activities of the Lab over 40 years. Dr. Albert L. Rhoton Jr.,
      the founder of, and leader in, this field, displayed great creativity and
      ingenuity during his life. He devoted himself to perfecting his study
      methodology, employing high-definition photos and slides to enhance the quality
      of his published papers. He dedicated his life to the education of neurosurgeons.
      His "lab team," which included microneuroanatomy research fellows, medical
      illustrators, lab directors, and secretaries, worked together under his
      leadership to develop the methods and techniques of anatomical study to complete
      over 160 microneurosurgical anatomy projects. The medical illustrators adapted
      computer technologies and integrated art and science in the field of
      microneurosurgical anatomy. Dr. Rhoton's fellows established methods of injecting
      colors and pursued a series of projects to innovate surgical approaches and
      instruments over a 40-year period. They also continued to help Dr. Rhoton to
      conduct international educational activities after returning to their home
      countries. Rhoton's Lab became a world-renowned anatomical lab as well as a
      microsurgical training center and generated the knowledge necessary to perform
      accurate, gentle, and safe surgery for the sake of patients.

PMID- 28879422
TI  - Differentiating primary hepatic angiosarcomas from hemangiomatosis and
      epithelioid hemangioendotheliomas using gadoxetic acid-enhanced and diffusion
      weighted MR imaging.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the value of gadoxetic acid-enhanced and diffusion-weighted
      (DW) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for differentiating primary hepatic
      angiosarcomas from hemangiomatosis and epithelioid hemangioendotheliomas (EHEs).
      METHODS: We reviewed MR images of seven patients with pathologically determined
      hepatic angiosarcomas, 11 patients with hemangiomatosis, and five patients with
      EHEs. Two radiologists assessed morphologic features, signal intensity (SI),
      enhancement patterns, and the presence of diffusion restriction by consensus and
      compared between angiosarcoma vs hemangiomatosis and angiosarcoma vs EHEs.
      RESULTS: Angiosarcomas more frequently showed mixed well- and ill-defined margins
      (6, 85.7%), mixed strong and intermediate-high SI (5, 71.4%) on T2-weighted
      images, mixed peripheral and/or central nodular and rim and/or target enhancement
      (5, 71.4%), and mixed presence and absence of diffusion restriction (7, 100%)
      compared with hemangiomatosis and EHEs (P < 0.05). The overall survival rate in
      patients with angiosarcomas was 42.9% at 3 months and 14.3% at 14 months, whereas
      all patients with EHEs were alive during the follow-up period from 4 to 43 months
      (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Gadoxetic acid-enhanced and DW MR imaging may help
      differentiate primary hepatic angiosarcomas with hemangioma-like appearance, EHE
      like appearance, or both; and poor prognosis from hemangiomatosis and EHEs.

PMID- 28879424
TI  - Increasing the involvement of diverse populations in genomics-based health care
      lessons from haemoglobinopathies.
AB  - Integrating genomic medicine into health care delivery poses significant
      challenges to health professionals. To draw clinical benefit from genomic
      information, there is a need to build an evidence-based relationship between
      genotype and the physical expression of that genomic information. The work
      presented here uses preliminary work in the field of haemoglobinopathies to
      address two important challenges: to ensure that health care professionals in low
      and middle-income countries are actively involved in the processes that will
      support genomic medicine, and that equity and diversity concerns are met so that
      clinical services can have relevance across all population and sub-population
      groups. Haemoglobinopathies provide an opportunity for gaining a better
      understanding of how long-standing genetic knowledge can be leveraged to
      determine if genomic-based services can be beneficial in low-resource settings.
      The Global Globin 2020 Challenge (GG2020) is an international initiative that
      uses haemoglobinopathies as an entry point to achieving growth in the quality and
      quantity of curated inputs into internationally recognised databases, harmonising
      the sharing of variant information within and between countries for better health
      care delivery and ensuring that storing, curation and sharing of variant
      information become an integral part of health care. Early findings from GG2020
      indicate that paying attention to population diversity is an integral part of
      prevention and control of haemoglobinopathies.

PMID- 28879425
TI  - Erratum to: Non-coding RNA: It's Not Junk.

PMID- 28879426
TI  - Cerebral amyloid angiopathy: subtypes, treatment and role in cognitive
      impairment.

PMID- 28879423
TI  - Transcriptional Effects of ApoE4: Relevance to Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - The major genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the lipid
      binding and transporting carrier protein apolipoprotein E, epsilon 4 allele
      (ApoE4). One of the unsolved mysteries of AD is how the presence of ApoE4 elicits
      this age-associated, currently incurable neurodegenerative disease. Recently, we
      showed that ApoE4 acts as a transcription factor and binds to the promoters of
      genes involved in a range of processes linked to aging and AD disease
      pathogenesis. These findings point to novel therapeutic strategies for AD and
      aging, resulting in an extension of human healthspan, the disease-free and
      functional period of life. Here, we review the effects and implications of the
      putative transcriptional role of ApoE4 and propose a model of Alzheimer's disease
      that focuses on the transcriptional nature of ApoE4 and its downstream effects,
      with the aim that this knowledge will help to define the role ApoE4 plays as a
      risk factor for AD, aging, and other processes such as inflammation and
      cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28879427
TI  - Relapsed subcutaneous panniculitis-like T cell lymphoma: role of haploidentical
      hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

PMID- 28879428
TI  - Difficult-to-treat idiopathic nephrotic syndrome: established drugs, open
      questions and future options.
AB  - The idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in childhood can be classified according to the
      International Study of Kidney Disease in Children (ISKDC) based on the response
      to steroids. Typically, steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) is
      characterised by minimal changes in disease (MCD) histology, whereas in steroid
      resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is
      the most prevalent lesion. Patients with SSNS may develop frequent relapses
      and/or steroid dependency, which can be difficult to treat. New studies confirm
      the value of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) and mycophenolic acid in preventing
      relapses of SSNS. Rituximab also plays an important role, but many questions
      regarding initial dosing, repetitions of courses, and long-term side effects
      remain unclear. SRNS, especially when unresponsive to treatment, can lead to
      chronic kidney disease. In particular, treatment with CNIs has improved the
      prognosis and recent data indicate that treatment can even be discontinued in
      many patients with full remission. In CNI-unresponsive SRNS, rituximab is less
      effective than in SSNS and the role of other biologicals (such as ofatumumab,
      abatacept, and others) remains unclear. A significant proportion of children with
      FSGS have genetic causes and most patients do not respond to immunosuppression,
      although individual patients with partial and even complete response have been
      documented. Future studies should evaluate treatments leading to long-term
      remission without maintenance immunosuppression in SSNS; in both genetic and
      immune-mediated SRNS, novel options to decrease the number of treatment
      unresponsive patients seem mandatory, as they are at a high risk of developing
      end-stage renal disease.

PMID- 28879429
TI  - An observational study investigating failure of primary endocrine therapy for
      operable breast cancer in the elderly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elderly patients are more likely to have oestrogen receptor positive
      cancers that can be treated without surgery with primary endocrine therapy (PET).
      Few studies have sought to identify predictors of failure of PET and so the aim
      of this study was to evaluate treatment failures in elderly breast cancer
      patients treated with PET and to determine predictors of failure. METHODS: A
      retrospective observational study was performed on consecutive patients with ER
      positive early stage breast cancer treated with PET between 2005 and 2015 in the
      three breast units in the North East of England. The primary outcome measure was
      treatment failure and secondary outcome measure was disease progression. RESULTS:
      488 patients were included with mean follow-up 31 months (SD 23). Overall, 206
      patients were still alive with their disease controlled at the end of follow-up,
      219 had died with their disease controlled and 63 (12%) experienced treatment
      failure. Younger age [SHR 0.96 (95% CI 0.94-0.99) p 0.013], larger tumours [SHR
      1.03 (1.01-1.06) p 0.015], grade 3 cancers [SHR 3.58 (1.93-6.63) p < 0.001] and
      axillary lymph node metastases [SHR 1.93 (1.06-3.52) p 0.030] were all
      independent predictors of treatment failure. Disease progression was reported in
      86 (17.6%) of patients. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest retrospective series
      evaluating PET treatment failure. Clear predictors of failure have been
      identified, which can be used to facilitate treatment decision making. These
      results support previous analyses, further validating our results.

PMID- 28879430
TI  - High mobility group box 1 enhances hyperthermia-induced seizures and secondary
      epilepsy associated with prolonged hyperthermia-induced seizures in developing
      rats.
AB  - Levels of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), an important inflammatory mediator,
      are high in the serum of febrile seizure (FS) patients. However, its roles in FS
      and secondary epilepsy after prolonged FS are poorly understood. We demonstrate
      HMGB1's role in the pathogenesis of hyperthermia-induced seizures (HS) and
      secondary epilepsy after prolonged hyperthermia-induced seizures (pHS). In the
      first experiment, 14-15-day-old male rats were divided into four groups: high
      dose HMGB1 (100 MUg), moderate-dose (10 MUg), low-dose (1 MUg), and control. Each
      rat was administered HMGB1 intranasally 1 h before inducing HS. Temperature was
      measured at seizure onset with electroencephalography (EEG). In the second
      experiment, 10-11-day-old rats were divided into four groups: pHS + HMGB1 (10
      MUg), pHS, HMGB1, and control. HMGB1 was administered 24 h after pHS. Video-EEGs
      were recorded for 24 h at 90 and 120 days old; histological analysis was
      performed at 150 days old. In the first experiment, the temperature at seizure
      onset was significantly lower in the high- and moderate-dose HMGB1 groups than in
      the control group. In the second experiment, the incidence of spontaneous
      epileptic seizure was significantly higher in the pHS + HMGB1 group than in the
      other groups. Comparison between pHS + HMGB1 groups with and without epilepsy
      revealed that epileptic rats had significantly enhanced astrocytosis in the
      hippocampus and corpus callosum. In developing rats, HMGB1 enhanced HS and
      secondary epilepsy after pHS. Our findings suggest that HMGB1 contributes to FS
      pathogenesis and plays an important role in the acquired epileptogenesis of
      secondary epilepsy associated with prolonged FS.

PMID- 28879431
TI  - Bootstrap-Calibrated Interval Estimates for Latent Variable Scores in Item
      Response Theory.
AB  - In most item response theory applications, model parameters need to be first
      calibrated from sample data. Latent variable (LV) scores calculated using
      estimated parameters are thus subject to sampling error inherited from the
      calibration stage. In this article, we propose a resampling-based method, namely
      bootstrap calibration (BC), to reduce the impact of the carryover sampling error
      on the interval estimates of LV scores. BC modifies the quantile of the plug-in
      posterior, i.e., the posterior distribution of the LV evaluated at the estimated
      model parameters, to better match the corresponding quantile of the true
      posterior, i.e., the posterior distribution evaluated at the true model
      parameters, over repeated sampling of calibration data. Furthermore, to achieve
      better coverage of the fixed true LV score, we explore the use of BC in
      conjunction with Jeffreys' prior. We investigate the finite-sample performance of
      BC via Monte Carlo simulations and apply it to two empirical data examples.

PMID- 28879432
TI  - Opportunistic Environmental Sensing with Smartphones: a Critical Review of
      Current Literature and Applications.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review sought to summarize recent literature and
      applications of passive, or opportunistic, mobile sensing in the fields of
      exposure science in built environment settings; highlight innovative
      opportunistic sensing systems; and analyze their functionality, significant
      features, and limitations. RECENT FINDINGS: Fifty-two papers related to
      opportunistic environmental sensing from 2009 or later were related to this
      review, of which 27 were included. An array of applications have emerged in
      environmental monitoring, employing anywhere from one to six of the phone's on
      board sensors. The viability of an application is determined by several key
      factors: the number and quality of sensors on-board the smartphone; power and
      processing demand; algorithm complexity; data security; mobile network coverage;
      reliance on external data sources; minimum number of users required; and degree
      of user burden when using the application. Some factors are universal, while
      others are more context-specific. Future research should assess sensing
      applications based on these factors.

PMID- 28879434
TI  - Sedentary behaviour and bone health in children, adolescents and young adults: a
      systematic review-supplementary presentation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sedentary behaviour (SB) is a potential risk factor for suboptimal
      bone deposition in youth. RESULTS: Total SB was negatively associated with lower
      extremity bone outcomes, while no association was observed with total body bone
      outcomes. Insufficient evidence was found for an association between total SB and
      lumbar spine bone outcomes. CONCLUSION: This review highlights the heterogeneity
      of the available evidence and emphasizes the need for well-designed studies.

PMID- 28879433
TI  - CBP-mediated SMN acetylation modulates Cajal body biogenesis and the cytoplasmic
      targeting of SMN.
AB  - The survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein plays an essential role in the
      biogenesis of spliceosomal snRNPs and the molecular assembly of Cajal bodies
      (CBs). Deletion of or mutations in the SMN1 gene cause spinal muscular atrophy
      (SMA) with degeneration and loss of motor neurons. Reduced SMN levels in SMA lead
      to deficient snRNP biogenesis with consequent splicing pathology. Here, we
      demonstrate that SMN is a novel and specific target of the acetyltransferase CBP
      (CREB-binding protein). Furthermore, we identify lysine (K) 119 as the main
      acetylation site in SMN. Importantly, SMN acetylation enhances its cytoplasmic
      localization, causes depletion of CBs, and reduces the accumulation of snRNPs in
      nuclear speckles. In contrast, the acetylation-deficient SMNK119R mutant promotes
      formation of CBs and a novel category of promyelocytic leukemia (PML) bodies
      enriched in this protein. Acetylation increases the half-life of SMN protein,
      reduces its cytoplasmic diffusion rate and modifies its interactome. Hence, SMN
      acetylation leads to its dysfunction, which explains the ineffectiveness of HDAC
      (histone deacetylases) inhibitors in SMA therapy despite their potential to
      increase SMN levels.

PMID- 28879435
TI  - Anti-herpes simplex virus 1 and immunomodulatory activities of a poly-gamma-
      glutamic acid from Bacillus horneckiae strain APA of shallow vent origin.
AB  - Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is responsible of common and widespread viral
      infections in humans through the world, and of rare, but extremely severe,
      clinical syndromes in the central nervous system. The emergence of resistant
      strains to drugs actually in use encourages the searching for novel antiviral
      compounds, including those of natural origin. In this study, the recently
      described poly-gamma-glutamic acid (gamma-PGA-APA), produced by the marine
      thermotolerant Bacillus horneckiae strain APA, and previously shown to possess
      biological and antiviral activity, was evaluated for its anti-HSV-1 and
      immunomodulatory properties. The biopolymer hindered the HSV-1 infection in the
      very early phase of virus replication. In addition, the gamma-PGA-APA was shown
      to exert low cytotoxicity and noticeable immunomodulatory activities towards TNF
      alpha and IL-1beta gene expression. Moreover, the capacity to positively modulate
      the transcriptional activity of the cytokine genes was paired with increased
      level of activation of the transcription factor NF-kB by gamma-PGA-APA. Overall,
      as non-cytotoxic biopolymer able to contribute in the antiviral defense against
      HSV-1, gamma-PGA-APA could lead to the development of novel natural drugs for
      alternative therapies.

PMID- 28879436
TI  - Dynamic morphological changes of thrombosed lateral sinus pericranii revealed by
      serial magnetic resonance images.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sinus pericranii (SP) is a rare venous anomaly involving an abnormal
      connection of the intracranial dural sinuses with the extracranial veins.
      Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (MRI) with MR venography can detect the typically
      congested intra- and extracranial venous components of SP. CLINICAL PRESENTATION:
      We report a rare case of lateral SP associated with the superior sagittal sinus,
      which might had already developed almost total thrombosis of the SP at the first
      MRI. As this patient had not presented with classical manifestations of SP on
      clinical or neuroradiological findings, the initial diagnosis of SP was
      difficult. Repeated MRI revealed dynamic morphological changes associated with
      reperfusion of the thrombosed SP via the cortical vein. CONCLUSION: MR venography
      combined with gadolinium enhancement was useful for diagnosis of the SP with an
      extremely slow flow status.

PMID- 28879437
TI  - Major underestimation and overestimation of visual blood loss during cesarean
      deliveries: can they be predicted?
AB  - PURPOSE: The surgeons' visual estimation is the most widely used method for
      estimating blood loss (BL) while performing cesarean deliveries (CDs). Major BL
      underestimation may adversely influence obstetric decision making, and result in
      delaying interventions. Major BL overestimation may result in unnecessary costly
      interventions. Therefore, we aimed to identify independent predictors for major
      BL underestimation and overestimation during CDs. METHODS: All CDs performed
      between 11/2008 and 6/2016, in a university-affiliated hospital, were reviewed
      for demographic and surgical data, including the surgeons' reported estimated BL
      (EBL). Calculated BL (CBL) was calculated by multiplying the calculated maternal
      blood volume by the percent of hematocrit decrease. Multivariate logistic
      regressions were performed to identify independent risk factors for major BL
      underestimation (CBL-EBL >= 400 ml) and overestimation (EBL-CBL >= 400 ml).
      RESULTS: During the study period, 3655 CDs were analyzed, of which 420 met the
      criterion for major BL underestimation and 1214 for major BL overestimation.
      Urgent surgery (aOR = 2.83; 95% CI 2.06-3.89), general anesthesia (aOR = 2.39;
      95% CI 1.71-3.33), and higher surgeon experience (aOR = 1.03; 95% CI 1.01-1.06)
      were found to be independent risk factors for major BL underestimation, while any
      previous CD (aOR = 0.47; 95% CI 0.33-0.67) decreased the risk of underestimation.
      Any previous CD (aOR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.05-1.58) and intra-abdominal adhesions (aOR
      = 1.37; 95% CI 1.11-1.70) were found to be independent risk factors for major BL
      overestimation, while urgent CD (aOR = 0.50; 95% CI 0.41-0.60) decreased the risk
      of overestimation. CONCLUSION: Various factors can predict major underestimation
      and overestimation of BL during CDs. Recognizing these factors can assist in the
      interpretation of visual EBL and improve obstetric decision making.

PMID- 28879438
TI  - Do cognition and other non-motor symptoms decline similarly among patients with
      Parkinson's disease motor subtypes? Findings from a 5-year prospective study.
AB  - Among patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), a wide range of motor and non-motor
      symptoms (NMS) are evident. PD is often divided into tremor dominant (TD) and
      postural instability gait difficulty (PIGD) motor subtypes. We evaluated the
      effect of disease duration and aimed to characterize whether there are
      differences in the deterioration of cognitive function and other NMS between the
      PIGD and TD subtypes. Sixty-three subjects were re-evaluated at the follow-up
      visit about 5 years after baseline examination. Cognitive function and other NMS
      were assessed. At follow-up, the PIGD and TD groups were similar with respect to
      medications, comorbidities and disease-related symptoms. There was a significant
      time effect for all measures, indicating deterioration and worsening in both
      groups. However, cognitive scores, particularly those related to executive
      function, became significantly worse in the PIGD with a more moderate decrease in
      the TD group. For example, the computerized global cognitive score declined in
      the PIGD group from 94.21 +/- 11.88 to 83.91 +/- 13.76, p < 0.001. This decline
      was significantly larger (p = 0.03) than the decrease observed in the TD group
      (96.56 +/- 10.29 to 92.21 +/- 14.20, p = 0.047). A significant group * time
      interaction effect was found for the change in global cognitive score (p =
      0.047), the executive function index (p = 0.002) and accuracy on a motor
      cognitive catch game (p = 0.008). In contrast, several NMS including depression,
      health-related quality of life and fear of falling deteriorated in parallel in
      both subtypes, with no interaction effect. The present findings highlight the
      difference in the natural history of the disease between the two PD "motor"
      subtypes. While the PIGD group demonstrated a significant cognitive decline,
      especially in executive functions, a more favorable course was observed in the TD
      subtype. This behavior was not seen in regards to the other NMS.

PMID- 28879439
TI  - Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) deficiency and tuberculosis infection in patients
      with ankylosing spondylitis.
AB  - Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients may have higher prevalence of mannose
      binding lectin (MBL) deficiency than normal individuals. MBL deficiency may
      influence susceptibility to infections. The aim of the study was to verify if MBL
      deficiency in patients with AS predisposes to infections. We studied 60 patients
      with AS diagnosed according to the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international
      Society (ASAS) criteria. These patients had their MBL serum levels determinated.
      Twenty-five individuals were identified as MBL deficient (serum values 100
      ng/mL). These patients were paired with 35 "sufficient" MBL producers (median
      serum level = 700 ng/mL; range 150-4100 ng/mL) for gender, age, use of
      medications, and tobacco exposure. Medical records of all patients were
      retrospectively investigated for the period of 5 years and the rate of infection
      occurrence was compared in the two groups. AS patients with MBL deficiency had
      higher number of urinary tract infections (p = 0.03; IRR = 2.33; 95% CI = 0.95
      6.04) and tuberculosis (p = 0.008; IRR = 9.8; 95% CI = 1.2-441.6) than controls.
      Regarding tuberculosis infection, one patient (2.8%) in the MBL-sufficient group
      and six (24.0%) from the deficient group had this infection. The MBL-sufficient
      patient and five from the deficient group have had latent infections, detected in
      the screening tests done previous to anti-TNF drug use. The other, in the
      deficient group, had lung infection while not on anti-TNF treatment. Another
      patient, from the deficient group, has had tuberculosis skeletal infection in the
      past. We found a significant association between MBL deficiency and higher risk
      of tuberculosis and urinary tract infection in patients with AS. More studies
      with higher number of patients are needed to confirm this finding.

PMID- 28879440
TI  - Neighborhood Influences on Vehicle-Pedestrian Crash Severity.
AB  - Socioeconomic factors are known to be contributing factors for vehicle-pedestrian
      crashes. Although several studies have examined the socioeconomic factors related
      to the location of the crashes, limited studies have considered the socioeconomic
      factors of the neighborhood where the road users live in vehicle-pedestrian crash
      modelling. This research aims to identify the socioeconomic factors related to
      both the neighborhoods where the road users live and where crashes occur that
      have an influence on vehicle-pedestrian crash severity. Data on vehicle
      pedestrian crashes that occurred at mid-blocks in Melbourne, Australia, was
      analyzed. Neighborhood factors associated with road users' residents and location
      of crash were investigated using boosted regression tree (BRT). Furthermore,
      partial dependence plots were applied to illustrate the interactions between
      these factors. We found that socioeconomic factors accounted for 60% of the 20
      top contributing factors to vehicle-pedestrian crashes. This research reveals
      that socioeconomic factors of the neighborhoods where the road users live and
      where the crashes occur are important in determining the severity of the crashes,
      with the former having a greater influence. Hence, road safety countermeasures,
      especially those focussing on the road users, should be targeted at these high
      risk neighborhoods.

PMID- 28879442
TI  - Comparing eye trackers by correlating their eye-metric data.
AB  - Up to now, the potential of eye tracking in science as well as in everyday life
      has not been fully realized because of the high acquisition cost of trackers.
      Recently, manufacturers have introduced low-cost devices, preparing the way for
      wider use of this underutilized technology. As soon as scientists show
      independently of the manufacturers that low-cost devices are accurate enough for
      application and research, the real advent of eye trackers will have arrived. To
      facilitate this development, we propose a simple approach for comparing two eye
      trackers by adopting a method that psychologists have been practicing in
      diagnostics for decades: correlating constructs to show reliability and validity.
      In a laboratory study, we ran the newer, low-cost EyeTribe eye tracker and an
      established SensoMotoric Instruments eye tracker at the same time, positioning
      one above the other. This design allowed us to directly correlate the eye
      tracking metrics of the two devices over time. The experiment was embedded in a
      research project on memory where 26 participants viewed pictures or words and had
      to make cognitive judgments afterwards. The outputs of both trackers, that is,
      the pupil size and point of regard, were highly correlated, as estimated in a
      mixed effects model. Furthermore, calibration quality explained a substantial
      amount of individual differences for gaze, but not pupil size. Since data quality
      is not compromised, we conclude that low-cost eye trackers, in many cases, may be
      reliable alternatives to established devices.

PMID- 28879441
TI  - EGFR and KRAS mutations do not enrich for the activation of IL-6, JAK1 or
      phosphorylated STAT3 in resected lung adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors
      (TKIs) against EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinoma develops after a median of nine to
      thirteen months. Upregulation of the interleukin-6 (IL-6)/Janus kinase
      (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) pathway may be a
      potential source of resistance to EGFR TKIs. We undertook a detailed assessment
      of the IL-6/JAK1/phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) pathway in resected lung
      adenocarcinoma specimens, with special interest in whether the presence of an
      EGFR mutation enriched for pSTAT3 positivity. Tumours from 143 patients with
      resected lung adenocarcinoma were assessed. EGFR and KRAS mutation status were
      scanned for with high-resolution melting and confirmed by polymerase chain
      reaction. Immunohistochemisty (IHC) was performed for IL-6, gp130, JAK1 and
      pSTAT3. Two methods for assigning IHC positivity were assessed (the presence of
      any positivity, and the presence of positivity at an H score >40). We found
      statistically significant associations between IL-6, JAK1 and pSTAT3 measured by
      IHC, consistent with the activation of the pathway in clinical specimens. No
      relationship was demonstrated between members of this pathway and oncogenic
      mutations in EGFR or KRAS. However, a proportion of tumours with EGFR mutations
      showed staining for IL-6, JAK1 and pSTAT3. No correlations with clinicopathologic
      features or survival outcomes were found for IL-6, JAK1 or pSTAT3 staining. The
      presence of EGFR or KRAS mutations did not enrich for the activation of IL-6,
      JAK1 or pSTAT3. pSTAT3 may still play a role in resistance to EGFR TKIs in
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28879443
TI  - Surgery vs. radiotherapy in patients with uveal melanoma : Analysis of the SEER
      database using propensity score matching and weighting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment modalities for uveal melanoma (UM) include surgery and
      radiotherapy (RT). The utilization of RT as a strategy for organ preservation has
      been increasing, but the survival difference between the two aforementioned
      treatment modalities has not been reported. METHODS: An observational and cohort
      study was performed using a propensity score with an already existing public
      database. Patients diagnosed with UM within the period from 2004-2013 were
      selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.
      One-to-one matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) using
      the propensity score were used to estimate and compare survival rates. RESULTS:
      Overall, 3291 patients were treated: 2503 received RT only (RT group) and 788
      received surgical resection only (surgery group). The RT group had an improved
      crude 5-year overall survival (OS) rate compared with the surgery group (76% vs.
      60%, P < 0.001), and an improved 5-year melanoma-specific survival (MSS) rate
      (89% vs. 73%, P < 0.001). Compared to the surgery group, the RT group was
      associated with improved OS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      0.38-0.73, P < 0.001) and MSS (HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.35-0.65, P < 0.001) in the
      matched cohort. The survival benefit of the RT group maintained after adjustment
      with IPTW, both in OS and MSS. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, the present study
      was the first to demonstrate the survival difference between the two treatment
      modalities for UM using both the propensity score matching and weighting methods
      with the SEER database. The current study suggests that RT may provide a survival
      advantage over surgery in the treatment of UM.

PMID- 28879444
TI  - Comparative Study on Whole Genome Sequences of Aspergillus terreus (Soil Fungus)
      and Diaporthe ampelina (Endophytic Fungus) with Reference to Lovastatin
      Production.
AB  - Lovastatin is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme hydroxymethyl glutaryl
      coenzyme A reductase (HMGR) in cholesterol biosynthetic pathway and hence used in
      the treatment of hyperlipidemia. In a previous study, we report a tropical soil
      isolate, Aspergillus terreus (KM017963), which produces ample amount of
      lovastatin than its counterpart that are endophytic in origin. Bioinformatic
      analysis of whole genome sequence of A. terreus (AH007774.1), a soil isolate
      revealed the presence of gene cluster (AF141924.1 & AF141925.1) responsible for
      lovastatin production, whereas endophytic fungi including a strain of A. terreus
      showed no homology with the lovastatin gene cluster. The molecular study was also
      carried out targeting PCR amplification of the two important genes, lovE (a
      regulatory gene) and lovF (transcriptional regulatory factor) in genomic and c
      DNA of soil and endophytic fungi. Expression of the two genes was successful in
      A. terreus (KM017963), whereas the same was not achieved in endophytic fungi. To
      further validate our above findings, in the present study, the whole genome
      sequencing of A. terreus and a selected endophytic fungus, Diaporthe ampelina
      (Phomopsis) was performed. Lovastatin gene cluster, when aligned on the consensus
      sequence of both genomes, the entire lovastatin gene cluster was detected in a
      single scaffold (1.16) of A.terreus genome. On the contrary, there was a complete
      absence of lovastatin gene cluster in the genome of D. ampelina (an endophyte).
      The probable reasons for the absence of lovastatin gene cluster in endophytic
      fungi are discussed.

PMID- 28879445
TI  - Validity, reliability, and responsiveness to change of the "Osteoporosis and You"
      knowledge scale.
AB  - : We studied the Osteoporosis and You knowledge scale in 7749 participants
      enrolled in a clinical trial. Results confirmed its psychometric properties in a
      diverse audience. Baseline scores were associated with better recall of bone
      mineral density test results at follow-up; however, the scale was not responsive
      to knowledge change. INTRODUCTION: The goal of this study was to confirm the
      measurement properties of the Osteoporosis and You (O&Y) knowledge scale using
      classic test theory methods in the 7749 men and women participating in the
      Patient Activation After DXA Result Notification (PAADRN) randomized controlled
      trial. We hypothesized a simple factor structure that would reflect the four
      factor model previously published. METHODS: We conducted psychometric analyses
      which included item analysis, internal consistency reliability, construct
      validity using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA and CFA),
      comparing knowledge levels across pre-specified groups, and responsiveness to
      change. RESULTS: PAADRN participants were predominantly college educated, White
      females with low bone density, and a moderate level of 10-year fracture risk. EFA
      revealed four domains closely matching those in two previous reports. While
      overall scale reliability was minimally acceptable at 0.68, the reliabilities of
      the domain subscales were unacceptably low (0.59, 0.64, 0.45, and 0.36 for the
      Biological, Lifestyle, Consequences, and Prevention and Treatment subscales). CFA
      revealed the data fit the hypothesized model reasonably well with the items
      loading on their expected latent variable. The scale was not responsive to
      change, but although not significant, improved knowledge indicated better DXA
      result recall at 12 and 52 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: In the PAADRN population, the O&Y
      knowledge scale had psychometric properties similar to those previously reported.
      Over 12 and 52 weeks, participants did not demonstrate significant changes in
      knowledge, but those with higher knowledge at baseline were more likely to
      accurately recall their baseline DXA result.

PMID- 28879446
TI  - Parkinsonian symptoms in normal pressure hydrocephalus: a population-based study.
AB  - It may be challenging to differentiate normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) from
      neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease. In this population-based
      study, we wanted to describe the frequency of parkinsonian symptoms among
      individuals with and without NPH, and whether the motor examination part of the
      Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-m) score differs between these
      groups. Furthermore, we wanted to find out whether there was a relationship
      between UPDRS-m score, NPH symptoms, and radiological signs of NPH. A sample of
      168 individuals over the age of 65 with and without self-reported symptoms of NPH
      underwent a computerized tomography of the brain and clinical examination,
      including UPDRS-m to grade parkinsonian symptoms. According to diagnostic
      guidelines, 38 fulfilled criteria for NPH, whereas 130 had unlikely NPH.
      Bradykinesia was significantly more common among those with NPH (79%) compared to
      those with unlikely NPH (32%) (p < 0.001). The corresponding figures for rigidity
      were 43 vs. 15% (p < 0.001), for postural instability 71 vs. 22% (p < 0.001), and
      for tremor at rest 5 vs. 6% (not significant). The total UPDRS-m score was
      significantly higher among individuals with NPH (median = 12) than without
      (median = 1) and correlated significantly with the degree of NPH symptoms (r = 
      0.72) and ventriculomegaly (r = 0.31). In this study, parkinsonian symptoms,
      except resting tremor, were frequent in individuals with NPH and correlated with
      the severity of NPH symptoms. Asymmetric symptoms were uncommon. We recommend a
      liberal use of neuroradiological imaging when investigating a patient with
      parkinsonian features.

PMID- 28879447
TI  - Lactic acid bacteria isolated from yak milk show probiotic potential.
AB  - Probiotic industries strive for new, efficient and promising probiotic strains
      that impart a positive impact on consumer health. Challenges are persisting in
      isolation, screening, and selection of the new indigenous probiotic strains. In
      the present research, we explored the probiotic potential of 17 lactic acid
      bacteria isolated from Yak milk in a series of in vitro tests. We also
      demonstrated their health benefits, i.e., cholesterol degradation, lactose
      digestion, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant, and anticancer activities.
      Principal component analysis revealed that more than 50% of the strains fulfilled
      the examined criteria, e.g., survival in acidic pH, bile concentrations, and
      adherent property. Approximately all the strains produced antimicrobial
      substances against the maximum number of tested strains including clinical
      strains. Most strains degraded cholesterol in comparison to the reference
      probiotic strain whereas strain Yc showed 1.5 times higher the degradation
      efficiency of the control strain. Lan4 strain exhibited remarkable anticancer
      activity and induced the maximum apoptosis (87%) in the Hela cells and was non
      toxic to the non-cancerous HEK293 cells. Around ten strains showed positive
      lactose digestion. Overall, this can be concluded that selected lactic acid
      bacteria revealed excellent probiotic properties along with desirable health
      benefits. These strains need to be further investigated in details for their
      application in the development of novel probiotic preparations for the
      improvement of public health.

PMID- 28879448
TI  - Pre-decannulation flexible bronchoscopy in tracheostomized children.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed to evaluate the utility and benefits of flexible
      fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FFB) prior to tracheostomy decannulation. METHODS:
      Besides demographic data, initial cause of tracheostomy, primary diagnosis, pre
      tracheostomy and pre-decannulation bronchoscopic findings and duration of
      tracheostomy were collected from medical charts. The type of active intervention
      following bronchoscopy and outcome after decannulation were recorded.
      Departmental decannulation policy and procedure were used in all patients.
      RESULTS: Forty-nine tracheostomized patients who underwent decannulation attempt
      were included. The median age of the children at the time of decannulation was 3
      years (range 4 months-16 years). The median duration of tracheostomy was 8 months
      (range 1-86 months). Prolonged mechanical ventilation was the commonest
      indication for tracheostomy. There were 45 abnormal findings on FFB in 36
      patients. Airway granulation was the commonest abnormality (23/45, 51%).
      Successful decannulation without any intervention was possible in 23 (46.9%)
      cases. 12 of these had normal bronchoscopy. Fifteen (30.6%) patients required
      surgical interventions before attempting decannulation. In five patients
      decannulation failed, while in six children decannulation was not attempted after
      FFB. CONCLUSION: Pre-decannulation flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in children
      with tracheostomy helps in identifying the possible causes of decannulation
      failure and helps in deciding the appropriate intervention.

PMID- 28879449
TI  - Prognostic factors of mortality in Iranian patients with systemic lupus
      erythematosus admitted to intensive care unit.
AB  - The aim was to determine the course, outcome, and determinants of mortality in
      patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in intensive care unit (ICU).
      SLE patients admitted to ICU from 2004 to 2015 were recruited retrospectively.
      Demographic data, disease characteristics, causes of admission, baseline SLE
      disease activity index-2K (SLEDAI-2K) and Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health
      Evaluation II (APACHE) score, the outcome, and the causes of death were recorded.
      Predictors of mortality were compared between alive and dead patients by Cox
      regression analysis. Ninety-four patients with SLE were enrolled. Mean age at the
      time of ICU admission was 29.6 years. Average scores of SLEDAI and APACHE II were
      11.3 and 19.8, respectively. The most common causes of ICU admission were
      pneumonia, diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH), and seizure. Forty-seven patients
      (50%) died in ICU. The principal causes of death were septic shock (25.5%), multi
      organ failure (12.5%), DAH (10.6%), and pneumonia (10.6%). After multivariate
      analysis, high APACHE II, septic shock, and duration of mechanical ventilation
      were indicators of survival outcome. Mean (95% CI) survival days in ICU in
      patients with and without respiratory failure were 14.6 (10.4-18.9) and 28.7
      (17.9-39.5) days, respectively (P = 0.001). This figure for those with and
      without septic shock was 13.5 (4.9-11.1) and 22.3 (9.3-24.7) days, respectively
      (P = 0.016). High APACHE II, septic shock, and duration of mechanical ventilation
      were the main predictors of death in patients with SLE in ICU. Multicenter
      studies are needed to draw a fine picture of SLE behavior in ICU.

PMID- 28879450
TI  - Estimation of neonatal outcome artery pH value according to CTG interpretation of
      the last 60 min before delivery: a retrospective study. Can the outcome pH value
      be predicted?
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze whether the umbilical artery pH
      value can be estimated throughout CTG assessment 60 min prior to delivery and if
      the estimated umbilical artery pH value correlates with the actual one. This
      includes analysis of correlation between CTG trace classification and actual
      umbilical artery pH value. Intra-and interobserver agreement and the impact of
      professional experience on visual analysis of fetal heart rate tracing were
      evaluated. METHODS: This was a retrospective study. 300 CTG records of the last
      60 min before delivery were picked randomly from the computer database with the
      following inclusion criteria; singleton pregnancy >37 weeks, no fetal anomalies,
      vaginal delivery either spontaneous or instrumental-assisted. Five obstetricians
      and two midwives of different professional experience classified 300 CTG traces
      according to the FIGO criteria and estimated the postnatal umbilical artery pH.
      RESULTS: The results showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in estimated and
      actual pH value, independent of professional experience. Analysis and correlation
      of CTG assessment and actual umbilical artery pH value showed significantly (p <
      0.05) diverging results. Intra- and interobserver variability was high.
      Intraobserver variability was significantly higher for the resident (p = 0.001).
      No significant differences were detected regarding interobserver variability.
      CONCLUSION: An estimation of the pH value and consequently of neonatal outcome on
      the basis of a present CTG seems to be difficult. Therefore, not only CTG
      training but also clinical experience and the collaboration and consultation
      within the whole team is important.

PMID- 28879451
TI  - Prognostic factors and disease course in aquaporin-4 antibody-positive Chinese
      patients with acute optic neuritis.
AB  - The objective is to assess the frequency of AQP4-Ab in Chinese patients with
      optic neuritis (ON) and to investigate the prognostic implications of AQP4-Ab
      seropositivity in such patients. The presence of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibodies in
      human AQP4-transfected cells was determined by indirect immunofluorescence, and
      the diagnostic and prognostic relevance of AQP4 antibodies in 215 Chinese
      patients with optic neuritis was evaluated. The patients were enrolled from the
      Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital (PLAGH) and followed up to 1
      228 months. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to investigate the visual
      outcomes and prognostic characteristics of 70 patients who were aquaporin-4
      antibody seropositive, and altogether 115 eyes were involved. AQP4-Ab was
      detectable in 70/215 (32.6%) patients with acute monosymptomatic optic neuritis.
      These AQP4-Ab seropositive patients were diagnosed as sufferers of neuromyelitis
      optica (NMO) (n = 10), NMO spectrum disease (NMOSD) (n = 41), multiple sclerosis
      (MS) (n = 1), and acute optic neuritis (AON) (n = 18). Moreover, AQP4-Ab levels
      did not vary between seropositive AON and NMO-ON and did not correlate with
      disease severity. Finally, the male gender, older age at onset, number of
      relapses, concomitant autoimmune antibodies, and optic lesions in magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) were associated with the AQP4-Ab seropositive status and
      the risk of developing permanent visual disability. Acute optic neuritis has a
      higher incidence of anti-aquaporin-4 antibody in China than in Western countries,
      and AQP4 antibody is a sensitive and specific biomarker for discriminating NMO-ON
      from other types of optic neuritis during the early stage of the disease course.

PMID- 28879452
TI  - Methylprednisolone plus diazepam i.v. as bridge therapy for medication overuse
      headache.
AB  - Management of medication overuse headache (MOH) requires abrupt suspension of
      overused drugs either alone or in association with a detoxification protocol to
      prevent withdrawal. However, there is no consensus about which suspension
      strategy is the most effective. Moreover, reliable data about the possible mid
      term effect of detoxification are not available. The objective of this study was
      to evaluate whether a bridge therapy consisting of a 5-day i.v. infusion of
      methylprednisolone and diazepam determines a significant reduction in headache
      frequency and drug assumption during the detoxification protocol (day 5) and in
      the first 3 months in patients with MOH. We conducted a retrospective non
      randomized before-and-after study comparing patients with MOH undergoing a bridge
      therapy protocol (5-day infusion of methylprednisolone, diazepam) with those who
      refused the treatment and were only recommended to suspend overused painkillers.
      Both groups started a prophylactic treatment and were followed-up for 3 months.
      At day 5, 82% of our patients were headache-free; moreover, 48% of the patients
      did not take any painkiller during the 5-day treatment. Three months after, the
      intervention group showed a greater reduction of monthly headache days (9.4 vs
      3.0) and drugs (19.7 vs 6.5), a greater rate of patients with a >= 50% reduction
      of monthly headaches (p = 0.019) and symptomatic drug consumption (p = 0.000),
      than the control group. The methylprednisolone and diazepam detoxification
      protocol reduced headache attacks and drug assumption immediately and in the
      first 3 months after the intervention, concurring to improve the effect of a new
      prophylactic therapy.

PMID- 28879453
TI  - Fecal Calprotectin Rise in Chronic Granulomatous Disease-Associated Colitis.

PMID- 28879454
TI  - [Acute skin disorders in children].

PMID- 28879455
TI  - Suicide in children and adolescents: a Tunisian perspective from 2009 to 2015.
AB  - This study presents the characteristics of child and adolescent suicides which
      occurred in Kairouan, Tunisia. Data were collected from autopsy records of the
      Forensic Department of the University Hospital Ibn El Jazzar of Kairouan. General
      characteristics of suicides among children and adolescents (under the age of 18)
      between 2009 and 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 49 cases, with a
      female predominance (61.2%) and a mean age of 15.4 +/- 2.1, were registered. Most
      of the victims were from rural areas (93.1%). In most cases, suicide occurred in
      the victim's home or the surrounding area (73.4%). The identified precipitating
      factors were family problems in 55.1%, and school issues in 12.2%. The most
      common suicide method was hanging (69.38%) for both genders, followed by self
      immolation for males and poisoning for females, the majority using pesticides.
      This study offers useful information to understand the risk factors in Tunisian
      child and adolescent suicides and provides a basis for the development of
      urgently needed preventive strategies.

PMID- 28879456
TI  - Experimental and kinetic study for lead removal via photosynthetic consortia
      using genetic algorithms to parameter estimation.
AB  - This work presents an experimental-theoretical strategy for a batch process for
      lead removal by photosynthetic consortium, conformed by algae and bacteria.
      Photosynthetic consortium, isolated from a treatment plant wastewater of Tecamac
      (Mexico), was used as inoculum in bubble column photobioreactors. The consortium
      was used to evaluate the kinetics of lead removal at different initial
      concentrations of metal (15, 30, 40, 50, and 60 mgL-1), carried out in batch
      culture with a hydraulic residence time of 14 days using Bold's Basal mineral
      medium. The photobioreactor was operated under the following conditions: aeration
      of 0.5 vvm, 80 MUmol m-2 s-1 of photon flux density and a photoperiod light/dark
      12:12. After determining the best growth kinetics of biomass and metal removal,
      they were tested under different ratios (30 and 60%) of wastewater-culture
      medium. Additionally, the biomass growth (X), nitrogen consumption (N), chemical
      oxygen demand (COD), and metal removal (Pb) were quantified. Achieved lead
      removal was 97.4% when the initial lead concentration was up to 50 mgL-1 using
      60% of wastewater. Additionally, an unstructured-type mathematical model was
      developed to simulate COD, X, N, and lead removal. Furthermore, a comparison
      between the Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) optimization approach and Genetic
      Algorithms (GA) was carried out for parameter estimation. Also, it was concluded
      that GA has a slightly better performance and possesses better convergence and
      computational time than L-M. Hence, the proposed method might be applied for
      parameter estimation of biological models and be used for the monitoring and
      control process.

PMID- 28879457
TI  - Combining local and global cues to motion.
AB  - A spinning, moving object, such as a football with a surface texture, combines
      motion signals from rotation and translation. The interaction between these two
      kinds of signal was studied psychophysically with moving, circular clouds of
      dots, which also could move within the cloud. If the cloud moved near-vertically
      downwards but the dots within it moved obliquely, the apparent path of the cloud
      was attracted to that of the dots, as previously demonstrated with moving Gabor
      patches (Tse & Hseih Vision Research, 46, 3881-3885, 2006; Lisi & Cavanagh
      Current Biology, 25, 2535-40, 2015). This attractive effect was enhanced in
      parafoveal viewing and by not presenting a frame around the dots. A larger effect
      in the opposite direction (repulsion) was found for the perceived direction of
      the dots when they moved near-vertically and the cloud containing them moved
      obliquely. These results are discussed in relation to Gestalt principles of
      perceived relative motion and, more recently, Bayes-inspired accounts of the
      interaction between local and global motion.

PMID- 28879458
TI  - Magnetic Carbon Microspheres as a Reusable Adsorbent for Sulfonamide Removal from
      Water.
AB  - Novel reusable magnetic carbon microspheres (MCMs) were prepared by hydrothermal
      method with glucose as carbon source and Fe3O4 nanoparticles as magnetic raw
      materials. And adsorption performance of MCMs for sulfonamide removal from water
      was investigated in detail. The results indicated that the calcination
      temperature and calcination time had significant effects on the surface area and
      its volume porous of MCMs. When MCMs were calcined in 600  degrees C for 1 h, the
      surface area and volume porous of MCMs were 1228 m2/g and 0.448 m3/g,
      respectively. The adsorption results showed that the adsorption data fitted well
      with the Langmuir isotherm model and followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. When
      the pH value was changed from 4.0 to 10.0, the adsorption capacity of MCMs for
      sulfonamide was decreased from 24.6 to 19.2 mg/g. The adsorption capacity of as
      synthesized MCMs achieved 18.31 mg/g after it was reused four times, which
      exhibited a desirable adsorption capacity and reusability.

PMID- 28879459
TI  - Hypofractionated radiotherapy with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) plus
      temozolomide in good prognosis patients with glioblastoma: a multicenter phase II
      study by the Brain Study Group of the Italian Association of Radiation Oncology
      (AIRO).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A multicenter phase II study for assessing the efficacy and the
      toxicity of hypofractionated radiotherapy with SIB plus temozolomide in patients
      with glioblastoma was carried out by the Brain Study Group of the Italian
      Association of Radiation Oncology. METHODS: Twenty-four patients with newly
      diagnosed glioblastoma belonging to Recursive Partitioning Analysis classes III
      and IV were enrolled. The prescribed dose was 52.5 Gy in 15 fractions of 3.5 Gy
      and 67.5 in 15 fractions of 4.5 Gy to the SIB volume. Dose constraints for the
      hypofractionated schedule were provided. Radiotherapy was associated with
      concomitant and sequential temozolomide. RESULTS: Median overall survival (OS)
      was 15.1 months, while median progression-free survival (PFS) was 8.6 months.
      Actuarial OS at 12 months was 65.6% +/- 0.09, whereas actuarial PFS at 12 months
      was 41.2% +/- 0.10. Status of methylation of MGMT promoter resulted to be a
      significant prognostic factor for OS. Radiotherapy-related acute toxicity was not
      relevant. Three patients (12.5%) had G3 myelotoxicity that required temozolomide
      temporary interruption or dose reduction during the chemotherapy. However,
      chemotherapy was not definitely discontinued for toxicity in any case. One
      patient out of 24 (4.2%) developed radionecrosis that required surgical resection
      with no evidence of disease in the surgical specimen. CONCLUSIONS: This trial
      confirms that hypofractionated radiotherapy with SIB and association with
      temozolomide may be a reasonable and feasible option for good prognosis patients
      with GBM.

PMID- 28879462
TI  - Abstracts of Scientific Oral and Poster Presentations at the 19th Meeting of the
      Biofeedback Federation of Europe.

PMID- 28879460
TI  - Vitamin B6 Reduces Neurochemical and Long-Term Cognitive Alterations After
      Polymicrobial Sepsis: Involvement of the Kynurenine Pathway Modulation.
AB  - Neurological dysfunction as a result of neuroinflammation has been reported in
      sepsis and cause high mortality. High levels of cytokines stimulate the formation
      of neurotoxic metabolites by kynurenine (KYN) pathway. Vitamin B6 (vit B6) has
      anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and also acts as a cofactor for
      enzymes of the KYN pathway. Thus, by using a relevant animal model of
      polymicrobial sepsis, we studied the effect of vit B6 on the KYN pathway, acute
      neurochemical and neuroinflammatory parameters, and cognitive dysfunction in
      rats. Male Wistar rats (250-300 g) were submitted to cecal ligation and
      perforation (CLP) and divided into sham + saline, sham + vit B6, CLP + saline,
      and CLP + vit B6 (600 mg/kg, s.c.) groups. Twenty-four hours later, the
      prefrontal cortex and hippocampus were removed for neurochemical and
      neuroinflammatory analyses. Animals were followed for 10 days to determine
      survival rate, when cognitive function was assessed by behavioral tests. Vitamin
      B6 interfered in the activation of kynurenine pathway, which led to an
      improvement in neurochemical and neuroinflammatory parameters and, consequently,
      in the cognitive functions of septic animals. Thus, the results indicate that vit
      B6 exerts neuroprotective effects in acute and late consequences after sepsis.

PMID- 28879463
TI  - Predictors of complications of snake envenomation in Cayenne, French Guiana, 2007
      2015.

PMID- 28879461
TI  - Perinatal Exposure to the Cyanotoxin beta-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine (BMAA) Results
      in Long-Lasting Behavioral Changes in Offspring-Potential Involvement of DNA
      Damage and Oxidative Stress.
AB  - We recently demonstrated that perinatal exposure to the glutamate-related
      herbicide, glufosinate ammonium, has deleterious effects on neural stem cell
      (NSC) homeostasis within the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ), probably leading to ASD
      like symptoms in offspring later in life. In the present study, we aimed to
      investigate whether perinatal exposure to another glutamate-related toxicant, the
      cyanobacterial amino acid beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), might also trigger
      neurodevelopmental disturbances. With this aim, female mice were intranasally
      exposed to low doses of BMAA, 50 mg kg-1 three times a week from embryonic days 7
      10 to postnatal day 21. Behavioral analyses were performed during the offspring's
      early life and during adulthood. Developmental analyses revealed that perinatal
      exposure to BMAA hastened the appearance of some reflexes and communicative
      skills. BMAA-exposed offspring displayed sex-dependent changes in emotional
      cognition shortly after exposure. Later in life, the female offspring continued
      to express emotional defects and to display abnormal sociability, while males
      were less affected. To assess whether early exposure to BMAA had deleterious
      effects on NSC homeostasis, we exposed mice NSCs to 1 and 3 mM BMAA during 24 h.
      We found that BMAA-exposed NSCs produced high levels of ROS, highlighting the
      ability of BMAA to induce oxidative stress. We also showed that BMAA exposure
      increased the number of gammaH2AX/53BP1 foci per nucleus, suggesting that BMAA
      induced DNA damage in NSCs. Collectively, this data strongly suggests that
      perinatal exposure to the cyanobacteria BMAA, even at low doses, results in
      neurobehavioral disturbances during both the postnatal period and adulthood. This
      is considered to be underpinned at the cellular level through dysregulation of
      NSC homeostasis in the developing brain.

PMID- 28879465
TI  - [Nodular lymphocyte-dominant Hodgkin's lymphoma : LP cells show recurrent
      mutations in DUSP2, SGK1 and JUNB].

PMID- 28879464
TI  - Prevalence of Subclinical Enteric Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Loss in Children with
      Univentricular Circulation Following Total Cavopulmonary Connection.
AB  - Protein-Losing Enteropathy post Fontan palliation is associated with significant
      morbidity and mortality. To date, very little research has been carried out to
      improve early identification of enteric protein loss in these patients. We
      hypothesise that subclinical enteric protein loss may occur in patients post
      Fontan surgery. A cross-sectional study was performed on 43 patients post Fontan
      surgery. We collected specimens of stool and blood from patients with no symptoms
      of protein-losing enteropathy post Fontan. Stool samples were assessed for alpha
      one antitrypsin. The stool samples of two patients were discarded, leaving 41
      stool samples. Blood samples were also collected to review albumin, C-reactive
      protein, liver and renal function. Twenty-eight (65%) of those enrolled were
      male. The median (IQR) age between Fontan and collection of study specimens was
      3.5 (2-7) years. Two (5%) patients had elevated levels of alpha-1-antitrypsin.
      There was no correlation between blood biochemistry and elevated stool alpha-1
      antitrypsin. Subclinical protein loss is rare in asymptomatic children after
      Fontan procedure with only 5% of patients having elevated stool alpha-1
      antitrypsin but no other symptoms. These findings may relate to our small cohort
      size and the time to testing post cardiac surgery. Future longitudinal follow-up
      studies should assess the ability of alpha-1-antitrypsin to provide earlier
      detection of protein-losing enteropathy in asymptomatic patients post Fontan.
      Given the serious prognosis of protein-losing enteropathy in this patient group,
      further work is warranted.

PMID- 28879467
TI  - Relieving the Bottleneck: An Investigation of Barriers to Expansion of
      Supervision Networks at Genetic Counseling Training Programs.
AB  - Rapid growth in the demand for genetic counselors has led to a workforce
      shortage. There is a prevailing assumption that the number of training slots for
      genetic counseling students is linked to the availability of clinical
      supervisors. This study aimed to determine and compare barriers to expansion of
      supervision networks at genetic counseling training programs as perceived by
      supervisors, non-supervisors, and Program Directors. Genetic counselors were
      recruited via National Society of Genetic Counselors e-blast; Program Directors
      received personal emails. Online surveys were completed by 216 supervisors, 98
      non-supervisors, and 23 Program Directors. Respondents rated impact of 35
      barriers; comparisons were made using Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon ranked sum
      tests. Half of supervisors (51%) indicated willingness to increase supervision.
      All non-supervisors were willing to supervise. However, all agreed that being too
      busy impacted ability to supervise, highlighted by supervisors' most impactful
      barriers: lack of time, other responsibilities, intensive nature of supervision,
      desire for breaks, and unfilled positions. Non-supervisors noted unique barriers:
      distance, institutional barriers, and non-clinical roles. Program Directors'
      perceptions were congruent with those of genetic counselors with three exceptions
      they rated as impactful: lack of money, prefer not to supervise, and never been
      asked. In order to expand supervision networks and provide comprehensive student
      experiences, the profession must examine service delivery models to increase
      workplace efficiency, reconsider the supervision paradigm, and redefine what
      constitutes a countable case or place value on non-direct patient care
      experiences.

PMID- 28879466
TI  - Involvement of metabolic components, volatile compounds, PR proteins, and
      mechanical strengthening in multilayer protection of cucumber plants against
      Rhizoctonia solani activated by Trichoderma atroviride TRS25.
AB  - In the present study, the spread of Rhizoctonia solani-induced disease was
      limited when cucumber plants were pretreated with Trichoderma atroviride TRS25.
      The systemic disease suppression was related to TRS25-induced resistance (TISR)
      induction with simultaneous plant growth promotion. Protection of cucumber was
      related to enhanced activity of defense enzymes, e.g., guaiacol peroxidase (GPX),
      syringaldazine peroxidase (SPX), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), and
      polyphenol oxidase (PPO) as well as phenolic (PC) concentration increases in the
      conditions of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) accumulation, resulting in thiobarbituric
      acid reactive substance (TBARS) decrease. Moreover, the obtained results
      indicated that TISR might depend on accumulation of salicylic acid derivatives,
      that is methyl salicylate (MeSA), ethylhexyl salicylate (EHS), salicylic acid
      glucosylated conjugates (SAGC), and beta-cyclocitral as well as volatile organic
      compounds (VOC) such as Z-3-hexanal, Z-3-hexenol, and E-2-hexenal. The results
      point to important, not previously documented, roles of these VOC in TISR
      signaling with up-regulation of PR1 and PR5 gene characteristic of systemic
      acquired resistance (SAR) and of PR4 gene, marker of induced systemic resistance
      (ISR). The study established that TRS25 enhanced deposition of callose and lignin
      in specialized plant cells, which protected vascular system in cucumber shoots
      and roots as well as assimilation cells and dermal tissues in shoots and leaves.
      These compounds protected cucumber organs against R. solani influence and made
      them more flexible and resilient, which contributed to better nutrition and
      hydration of plants. The growth promotion coupled with systemic mobilization of
      biochemical and mechanical strengthening might be involved in multilayer
      protection of cucumber against R. solani activated by TRS25.

PMID- 28879468
TI  - Source contributions to total concentrations and carcinogenic potencies of
      polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in
      ambient air: a case study in Suzhou City, China.
AB  - The potential source categories and source contributions of polychlorinated
      dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in ambient air from
      Suzhou City, China, were performed by principal component analysis-multiple
      linear regression (PCA-MLR) and positive matrix factorization (PMF). The
      carcinogenic potencies of PCDD/Fs were quantitatively apportioned based on the
      positive matrix factorization-toxic equivalent concentration (PMF-TEQ) method.
      The results of the present study were summarized as follows. (1) The total
      concentrations and toxic equivalent concentrations of PCDD/Fs (?PCDD/Fs and TEQ)
      in ambient air from Suzhou City were 1.34-42.80 pg N m-3 and 0.081-1.22 pg I-TEQ
      N m-3, respectively. (2) PCA-MLR suggested that industrial combustion (IC),
      electric arc furnaces (EAFs) and secondary aluminum smelters (ALSs), unleaded gas
      fueled vehicle sources (UGFVs), ALSs, and hazardous solid waste incinerators
      (HSWIs) could be the primary PCDD/F contributors, accounting for 13.2, 16.7,
      35.5, 19.4, and 15.2% of ?PCDD/Fs, respectively. (3) PMF and PMF-TEQ indicated
      that EAFs (carbon steel), UGFVs, IC, ALSs, municipal solid waste incinerators
      (MSWIs) and hospital waste incinerators (HWIs), and HSWIs contributed 10.9, 10.9,
      42.8, 11.3, 10.7, and 13.4% to ?PCDD/Fs, but contributed 8.3, 12.3, 50.3, 12.7,
      6.0, and 10.4% to carcinogenic potencies of PCDD/Fs. This study was the first
      attempt to quantitatively apportion the source-specific carcinogenic potencies of
      PCDD/Fs in ambient air.

PMID- 28879469
TI  - Pancreatic Cancer Screening.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review describes the rationale for pancreatic cancer
      screening, outlines groups that are at elevated risk for pancreatic cancer, and
      summarizes the relative risk in each setting. We also review the methods
      available for performing pancreatic cancer screening and the recommended
      screening intervals. RECENT FINDINGS: Several genetic mutations have been
      identified that increase the risk for pancreatic cancer. Most are rare, however,
      and at-risk individuals are most often those with a strong family history of
      pancreatic cancer (with multiple family members affected) but no identifiable
      genetic mutation. Known genetic syndromes that increase the risk for pancreatic
      cancer include hereditary pancreatitis, familial atypical mole and multiple
      melanoma, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, Lynch syndrome, BRCA mutations, and Li-Fraumeni
      syndrome. Genetic testing should be performed in conjunction with genetic
      counseling, and testing of an affected family member is preferred if possible.The
      goal of pancreatic cancer screening is to identify pancreatic cancer at an early,
      curable stage or, ideally, to identify precancerous lesions that can be resected
      to prevent the development of cancer. Imaging can be performed with either
      endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) or magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography
      (MRCP). These techniques are generally considered to be complementary, although
      an advantage of EUS is that cysts or solid lesions can be sampled at the time of
      the procedure. Published results of small cohorts of high-risk patients in
      pancreatic cancer screening programs have demonstrated a high prevalence of small
      cystic lesions identified on EUS or MRCP, which often represent side-branch
      intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN). Knowledge of conditions and
      syndromes that increase pancreatic cancer risk allows one to identify those
      patients that may benefit from pancreatic cancer screening. As we gather evidence
      from large, international, multicenter cohorts of patients at high-risk for
      pancreatic cancer who are undergoing screening and as our understanding of the
      genetic underpinnings of pancreatic cancer improve, recommendations on screening
      will continue to be refined.

PMID- 28879471
TI  - ?

PMID- 28879470
TI  - Childhood maltreatment and the medical morbidity in bipolar disorder: a case
      control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment (abuse and neglect) can have long-term
      deleterious consequences, including increased risk for medical and psychiatric
      illnesses, such as bipolar disorder in adulthood. Emerging evidence suggests that
      a history of childhood maltreatment is linked to the comorbidity between medical
      illnesses and mood disorders. However, existing studies on bipolar disorder have
      not yet explored the specific influence of child neglect and have not included
      comparisons with individuals without mood disorders (controls). This study aimed
      to extend the existing literature by examining the differential influence of
      child abuse and child neglect on medical morbidity in a sample of bipolar cases
      and controls. METHODS: The study included 72 participants with bipolar disorder
      and 354 psychiatrically healthy controls (average age of both groups was 48
      years), who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and were interviewed
      regarding various medical disorders. RESULTS: A history of any type of childhood
      maltreatment was significantly associated with a diagnosis of any medical illness
      (adjusted OR = 6.28, 95% confidence intervals 1.70-23.12, p = 0.006) and an
      increased number of medical illnesses (adjusted OR = 3.77, 95% confidence
      intervals 1.34-10.57, p = 0.012) among adults with bipolar disorder. Exposure to
      child abuse was more strongly associated with medical disorders than child
      neglect. No association between childhood maltreatment and medical morbidity was
      detected among controls. CONCLUSIONS: To summarise, individuals with bipolar
      disorder who reported experiencing maltreatment during childhood, especially
      abuse, were at increased risk of suffering from medical illnesses and warrant
      greater clinical attention.

PMID- 28879475
TI  - Comparing analyses of corticosteroids and transition to delirium in critically
      ill patients.

PMID- 28879474
TI  - Pregnancy-related fractures: a retrospective study of a French cohort of 52
      patients and review of the literature.
AB  - : A retrospective, multicentre study involving 52 patients was carried out to
      define the causes and characteristics of pregnancy-related osteoporosis. The mean
      number of vertebral fractures occurring during the last trimester of pregnancy or
      at the time of delivery was 3.8. This is often promoted by risk factors before or
      during pregnancy. INTRODUCTION: In order to define the causes or predisposing
      factors of pregnancy-related osteoporosis and its clinical, radiological and bone
      density characteristics, laboratory findings, course and outcome, we carried out
      a retrospective multicentre study. METHODS: The records of 52 women hospitalised
      over the last 10 years in the rheumatology departments of six French university
      hospitals and with a diagnosis of pregnancy-related osteoporosis were examined.
      RESULTS: The patients' mean age at time of fracture was 32.1 years. In 10
      patients, the fractures had occurred during the last trimester of pregnancy, and
      in 36 at the time of delivery or during the first 2 months post-partum. The mean
      number of vertebral fractures was 3.8 +/- 2.0. Thirty three of the 52 patients
      had a risk factor of low bone mass before pregnancy. Twelve had disorders or
      treatments (heparin) that might promote osteoporosis during pregnancy, while 14
      had no trigger factors before or during pregnancy. Overall, phosphate and calcium
      levels were normal, except for hyperphosphoraemia in lactating women (90%). On
      DXA scan, osteoporosis predominated in the trabecular bone (spinal T-score - 3.4,
      hip T-score - 2). Only 10 patients had a repeat fracture, and the increase in
      bone mineral density during follow-up was considerable, and improved by
      bisphosphonates (annual gain + 10% in the spine) or teriparatide (+ 15%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy-related osteoporosis gives rise to multiple vertebral
      fractures. It is often promoted by risk factors before or during pregnancy. Its
      mechanism is still unknown. Treatment with bisphosphonates or teriparatide
      appears to improve the recovery of bone mineral density.

PMID- 28879476
TI  - Impact Assessment of Atmospheric Dust on Foliage Pigments and Pollution
      Resistances of Plants Grown Nearby Coal Based Thermal Power Plants.
AB  - Plant species grown in the vicinity of thermal power plants (TPP) are one of the
      immobile substrates to sink most of the pollutants emitted from their stacks. The
      continuous exposure of toxic pollutants to these plants may affect their
      resistances and essential biochemical's concentrations. In the present study, we
      estimated the impact of dust load generated by a TPPs to plant's dust retention
      capacity and pollution resistances (APTI and API). The observed ambient air
      quality index (AQI) showed that the surroundings of TPPs are in the severe air
      pollution category. Observed AQI was greater than 100 in the surrounding area of
      TPP. The mean dust load on plant foliage was significantly greater in the
      polluted site compared with the control site: 4.45 +/- 1.96 versus 1.38 +/- 0.41
      mg cm-2. Nearby, TPP highest and lowest dust load were founded in F. benghalensis
      (7.58 +/- 0.74) and F. religiosa (2.25 +/- 0.12 mg cm-2) respectively. Analysis
      revealed the strong negative correlation between dust load and essential pigments
      of foliage, such as chlorophyll content, carotenoids, pH of foliage extract, and
      relative water content. Conversely, strong positive correlation was observed with
      the ascorbic acid content of plant species. Correlation and percentage change
      analysis in ascorbic acid content for the polluted site against the control site
      showed the adverse impact on plants due to dust load. Based on their responses to
      dust pollution, A. scholaris, P. longifolia, and M. indica were observed as most
      suitable plant species. Estimation of DRC, chlorophyll a/b ratio, APTI and API
      revealed the A. scholaris, F. benghalensis, P. longifolia, and M. indica as the
      most suitable plant species for green belt formation. The high gradation was
      obtained in A. scholaris, F. benghalensis, P. longifolia, and M. indica for opted
      parameters and showed their most suitability for green belt formation. Salient
      features of the present study provide useful evidences to estimate the combined
      effect of DRC and pollution resistances of plant species on green belt
      establishment for long-term environmental management around industries.

PMID- 28879477
TI  - Sex-specific inhibition and stimulation of worker-reproductive transition in a
      termite.
AB  - In social insects, the postembryonic development of individuals exhibits strong
      phenotypic plasticity in response to the environment, thus generating the caste
      system. Different from eusocial Hymenoptera, in which queens dominate
      reproduction and inhibit worker fertility, the primary reproductive caste in
      termites (kings and queens) can be replaced by neotenic reproductives derived
      from functionally sterile individuals. Feedback regulation of nestmate
      differentiation into reproductives has been suggested, but the sex specificity
      remains inconclusive. In the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes
      flavipes, we tested the hypothesis that neotenic reproductives regulate worker
      reproductive transition in a sex-specific manner. With this R. flavipes system,
      we demonstrate a sex-specific regulatory mechanism with both inhibitory and
      stimulatory functions. Neotenics inhibit workers of the same sex from
      differentiating into additional reproductives but stimulate workers of the
      opposite sex to undergo this transition. Furthermore, this process is not
      affected by the presence of soldiers. Our results highlight the reproductive
      plasticity of termites in response to social cues and provide insights into the
      regulation of reproductive division of labor in a hemimetabolous social insect.

PMID- 28879478
TI  - Influence of oxygen availability on the metabolism and morphology of Yarrowia
      lipolytica: insights into the impact of glucose levels on dimorphism.
AB  - Dynamic behavior of Yarrowia lipolytica W29 strain under conditions of
      fluctuating, low, and limited oxygen supply was characterized in batch and
      glucose-limited chemostat cultures. In batch cultures, transient oscillations
      between oxygen-rich and -deprived environments induced a slight citric acid
      accumulation (lower than 29 mg L-1). By contrast, no citric acid was detected in
      continuous fermentations for all stress conditions: full anoxia (zero pO2 value,
      100% N2), limited (zero pO2 value, 75% of cell needs), and low (pO2 close to 2%)
      dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. The macroscopic behavior (kinetic parameters,
      yields, viability) of Y. lipolytica was not significantly affected by the
      exposure to DO fluctuations under both modes of culture. Nevertheless, conditions
      of oxygen limitation resulted in the destabilization of the glucose-limited
      growth during the continuous cultivations. Morphological responses of Y.
      lipolytica to DO oscillations were different between batch and chemostat runs.
      Indeed, a yeast-to-mycelium transition was induced and progressively intensified
      during the batch fermentations (filamentous subpopulation reaching 74% (v/v)).
      While, in chemostat bioreactors, the culture consisted mainly of yeast-like cells
      (mean diameter not exceeding 5.7 MUm) with a normal size distribution. During the
      continuous cultures, growth at low DO concentration did not induce any changes in
      Y. lipolytica morphology. Dimorphism (up to 80.5% (v/v) of filaments) was only
      detected under conditions of oxygen limitation in the presence of a residual
      glucose excess (more than 0.75 g L-1). These data suggest an impact of glucose
      levels on the signaling pathways regulating dimorphic responses in Y. lipolytica.

PMID- 28879479
TI  - The Italian master Leonardo da Vinci and his early understanding of the brachial
      plexus.

PMID- 28879480
TI  - Mortality in Patients with Splenic Injuries: The Role of Multi-Organ Failure.

PMID- 28879481
TI  - Association between the number of oocytes retrieved and cumulative live birth
      rate in women aged 35-40 years undergoing long GnRH agonist IVF/ICSI cycles.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the association between the numbers of oocytes retrieved and
      the cumulative live birth rates (LBR) in women aged 35-40 years undergoing long
      GnRH agonist IVF/ICSI cycles. METHODS: A total of 931 women aged 35-40 years who
      underwent their first cycle of IVF/ICSI treatment between January 2010 and
      December 2013 at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital were identified and reviewed. The
      main endpoint of this study was the cumulative LBR after one complete oocyte
      retrieval, which included fresh and all subsequent frozen-thaw embryo transfer
      cycles. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for live birth were
      estimated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, all the
      women were divided into four groups based on the number of oocytes retrieved: 0
      4, 5-9, 10-14 or >=15 oocytes group. Variables were then compared among groups.
      RESULTS: We found that 634 out of the 931 patients (68.1%) achieved at least one
      live birth. The number of oocytes retrieved was an independent predictive factor
      for live birth, with OR 1.20 (95% CI 1.15-1.26) when adjusted for age (years),
      duration of infertility and Gn (gonadotrophin) doses. The cumulative LBR in the
      four different oocyte groups was 35.6, 68.8, 83.4 and 89.2%, respectively. When
      the 1-4 oocytes group was issued as a reference, the ORs for cumulative LBR
      gradually increased to 3.66, 6.74 and 11.77 in other three oocytes groups,
      respectively. The moderate-severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) rate
      was dramatically increased in the >=15 oocytes group (6.9%) when compared to that
      in the 10-14 oocytes group (0.8%), while the cumulative LBR only increased 5.8%
      (from 83.4 to 89.2%). CONCLUSIONS: The ideal number of oocytes retrieved in women
      aged 35-40 years is 10-14 oocytes, which achieves a high cumulative LBR while
      maintaining an acceptable low OHSS rate.

PMID- 28879482
TI  - Pristane-induced lupus: considerations on this experimental model.
AB  - Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multifactorial, autoimmune inflammatory
      disease with pleomorphic clinical manifestations involving different organs and
      tissues. The etiology of this disease has been associated with a dysfunctional
      response of B and T lymphocytes against environmental stimuli in individuals
      genetically susceptible to SLE, which determines an immune response against
      different autoantigens and, consequently, tissue damage. The study of different
      murine models has provided a better understanding of these autoimmune phenomena.
      This review primarily focuses on that has been learned from the pristane-induced
      lupus (PIL) model and how this model can be used to supplement recent advances in
      understanding the pathogenesis of SLE. We also consider both current and future
      therapies for this disease. The PubMed, SciELO, and Embase databases were
      searched for relevant articles published from 1950 to 2016. PIL has been shown to
      be a useful tool for understanding the multiple mechanisms involved in systemic
      autoimmunity. In addition, it can be considered an efficient model to evaluate
      the environmental contributions and interferon signatures present in patients
      with SLE.

PMID- 28879483
TI  - Molecular characterization of Acanthamoeba strains isolated from the oral cavity
      of hemodialysis patients in Iran.
AB  - Free-living amoebae (FLA) of the genus Acanthamoeba are opportunistic pathogenic
      agents able to cause life-threatening infections in immunosuppressed patients.
      Chronic kidney disease impairs adaptive and innate immunity. Thus, patients with
      chronic kidney disease are prone to opportunistic infections by potentially
      pathogenic FLA. Therefore, in the present study, the investigation of
      Acanthamoeba genotypes isolated from the oral cavity of hemodialysis patients of
      reference hospitals in Iran was aimed, using both morphology and molecular
      (sequence-based analysis) tools. Furthermore, classification of the strains at
      the genotype level was performed on the basis of differences in the diagnostic
      fraction 3 (DF3) region of the 18S rRNA gene. The pathogenic potential of the
      isolated amoebae was also determined using thermotolerance and osmotolerance
      assays. Out of the 187 oral cavity samples investigated, nine (4.8%) were
      positive for FLA. DNA sequencing of the ASA.A1 region of the 18S rRNA gene
      revealed that the isolated strains belonged to the Acanthamoeba T1 and T4
      genotypes. Genotype T1 was isolated for the first time from a patient in Iran.
      Interestingly, the T1 strain (AN2 strain) exhibits a high pathogenic potential in
      tolerance assays. The pathogenicity assay revealed that five strains were able to
      grow at high temperatures (37-40  degrees C) and high osmolarity (0.5 and 1 M D
      mannitol) conditions; thus, they were considered as potentially pathogenic
      strains. Moreover, two of the patients were positive for Vermamoeba genus. The
      present study is the first report of genotype T1 isolation in Iran and the first
      to identify the occurrence of Acanthamoeba and Vermamoeba genera in patients
      undergoing hemodialysis worldwide. Monitoring hemodialysis and renal failure
      patients should be a priority for possible control of Acanthamoeba and other FLA
      related diseases.

PMID- 28879484
TI  - ACEt: An R Package for Estimating Dynamic Heritability and Comparing Twin Models.
AB  - Estimating dynamic effects of age on the genetic and environmental variance
      components in twin studies may contribute to the investigation of gene
      environment interactions, and may provide more insights into more accurate and
      powerful estimation of heritability. Existing parametric models for estimating
      dynamic variance components suffer from various drawbacks such as limitation of
      predefined functions. We present ACEt, an R package for fast estimating dynamic
      variance components and heritability that may change with respect to age or other
      moderators. Building on the twin models using penalized splines, ACEt provides a
      unified framework to incorporate a class of ACE models, in which each component
      can be modeled independently and is not limited by a linear or quadratic
      function. We demonstrate that ACEt is robust against misspecification of the
      number of spline knots, and offers a refined resolution of dynamic behavior of
      the genetic and environmental components and thus a detailed estimation of age
      specific heritability. Moreover, we develop resampling methods for testing twin
      models with different variance functions including splines, log-linearity and
      constancy, which can be easily employed to verify various model assumptions. We
      evaluated the type I error rate and statistical power of the proposed hypothesis
      testing procedures under various scenarios using simulated datasets. Potential
      numerical issues and computational cost were also assessed through simulations.
      We applied the ACEt package to a Finnish twin cohort to investigate age-specific
      heritability of body mass index and height. Our results show that the age
      specific variance components of these two traits exhibited substantially
      different patterns despite of comparable estimates of heritability. In summary,
      the ACEt R package offers a useful tool for the exploration of age-dependent
      heritability and model comparison in twin studies.

PMID- 28879485
TI  - Sensitivity ranking for freshwater invertebrates towards hydrocarbon
      contaminants.
AB  - Hydrocarbons have an utmost economical importance but may also cause substantial
      ecological impacts due to accidents or inadequate transportation and use.
      Currently, freshwater biomonitoring methods lack an indicator that can
      unequivocally reflect the impacts caused by hydrocarbons while being independent
      from effects of other stressors. The aim of the present study was to develop a
      sensitivity ranking for freshwater invertebrates towards hydrocarbon
      contaminants, which can be used in hydrocarbon-specific bioindicators. We
      employed the Relative Sensitivity method and developed the sensitivity ranking S
      hydrocarbons based on literature ecotoxicological data supplemented with rapid
      and mesocosm test results. A first validation of the sensitivity ranking based on
      an earlier field study has been conducted and revealed the S hydrocarbons ranking
      to be promising for application in sensitivity based indicators. Thus, the first
      results indicate that the ranking can serve as the core component of future
      hydrocarbon-specific and sensitivity trait based bioindicators.

PMID- 28879486
TI  - Forster Resonance Energy Transfer Study of Cytochrome c-Lipid Interactions.
AB  - Specific interactions between a mitochondrial hemoprotein cytochrome c (cyt c)
      and cardiolipin, a lipid component of mitochondrial membrane, are crucial to
      electron shuttling and apoptotic activities of this protein. In the present study
      the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between anthrylvinyl-labeled
      phosphatidylcholine as a donor and heme moiety of cyt c as an acceptor was
      employed to give a quantitative characterization of the protein binding to the
      model membranes from the mixtures of phosphatidylcholine (PC) with
      phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylserine (PS) or cardiolipin (CL) in
      different molar ratios. The multiple arrays of the FRET data were globally
      analyzed in terms of the model of energy transfer in two-dimensional systems
      combined with the scaled particle adsorption model. The arguments in favor of the
      specificity of cyt c interactions with CL were obtained, including the higher
      adsorption potential and the deeper protein insertion in the lipid bilayer.

PMID- 28879487
TI  - Effects of supplement with sanitary landfill leachate in gas exchange of
      sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seedlings under drought stress.
AB  - Sanitary landfill leachate is one of the major problems arising from disposal of
      urban waste. Sanitary landfill leachate may, however, have use in agriculture.
      This study, therefore, aimed to analyze initial plant growth and gas exchange in
      sunflower seedlings supplemented with sanitary landfill leachate and subjected to
      drought stress through variables of root fresh mass (RFM), shoot fresh mass
      (SFM), total fresh mass (TFM), relative chlorophyll content (CL), stomatal
      conductance (g s ), transpiration rate (E), net photosynthetic rate (A), ratio of
      internal to external CO2 concentration (Ci/Ca),water use efficiency (EUA),
      instantaneous carboxylation efficiency (A/Ci), and electron transport rate (ETR).
      The experimental design was a completely randomized 2 (irrigated and non
      irrigated) * 4 (sand, sand + 100 kg N ha-1 organic fertilizer, sand + 100 kg N ha
      1 sanitary landfill leachate, and sand + 150 kg N ha-1 sanitary landfill
      leachate) factorial with five replicates. Under drought stress conditions,
      leachate treatment supplemented with 100 kg N ha-1 exhibited higher plant fresh
      weights than those of the treatment containing 150 kg N ha-1. Increases in fresh
      mass in plant treatments supplemented with 100 and 150 kg N ha-1 sanitary
      landfill leachate were related to higher photosynthetic rates.

PMID- 28879488
TI  - Diabetes and the Stomach.
AB  - OPINION STATEMENT: Longstanding diabetes mellitus (both type 1 and type 2) can
      impair gastric motor function and cause significant upper gastrointestinal
      symptoms which significantly degrade quality of life, cause nutritional deficits,
      and degrade healthcare resource use. The most commonly considered gut
      complication of diabetes, diabetic gastroparesis, is a syndrome of delayed
      gastric emptying in the absence of mechanical obstruction which leads to symptoms
      of nausea, vomiting, postprandial fullness, early satiation, bloating, and upper
      abdominal pain. Gastroparesis also can lead to loss of glycemic control. A
      diagnosis of gastroparesis is made by documenting delayed gastric emptying and
      excluding mechanical obstruction. Gastric emptying scintigraphy is the most
      commonly utilized test for the diagnosis of gastroparesis but novel tests of
      gastric function have recently been introduced including the gastric emptying
      breath test and wireless motility capsule. Management most often is aimed at
      controlling symptoms, which includes dietary modification, optimization of
      glycemic control, and medication therapy with prokinetics, antiemetics, and
      neuromodulatory agents. Endoscopic and/or surgical therapies may be considered
      for refractory cases of gastroparesis. Recent research has provided new insights
      into the pathophysiology of this disease and is characterizing potential benefits
      of novel therapeutic agents which show promise in the treatment of this
      condition. This article will review the pathophysiology, new insights into
      disease mechanism, and treatment options for diabetic gastroparesis.

PMID- 28879489
TI  - Place Still Matters: Racial/Ethnic and Geographic Disparities in HIV Transmission
      and Disease Burden.
AB  - Neighborhood-level structural interventions are needed to address HIV/AIDS in
      highly affected areas. To develop these interventions, we need a better
      understanding of contextual factors that drive the pandemic. We used multinomial
      logistic regression models to examine the relationship between census tract of
      current residence and mode of HIV transmission among HIV-positive cases. Compared
      to the predominantly white high HIV prevalence tract, both the predominantly
      black high and low HIV prevalence tracts had greater odds of transmission via
      injection drug use and heterosexual contact than male-to-male sexual contact.
      After adjusting for current age, gender, race/ethnicity, insurance status, and
      most recently recorded CD4 count, there was no statistically significant
      difference in mode of HIV transmission by census tract. However, heterosexual
      transmission and injection drug use remain key concerns for underserved
      populations. Blacks were seven times more likely than whites to have heterosexual
      versus male-to-male sexual contact. Those who had Medicaid or were uninsured
      (versus private insurance) were 23 and 14 times more likely, respectively, to
      have injection drug use than male-to-male sexual contact and 10 times more likely
      to have heterosexual contact than male-to-male sexual contact. These findings can
      inform larger studies for the development of neighborhood-level structural
      interventions.

PMID- 28879490
TI  - Homogeneous Subgroups of Young Children with Autism Improve Phenotypic
      Characterization in the Study to Explore Early Development.
AB  - The objective of this study was to identify homogenous classes of young children
      with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to improve phenotypic characterization.
      Children were enrolled in the Study to Explore Early Development between 2 and 5
      years of age. 707 children were classified with ASD after a comprehensive
      evaluation with strict diagnostic algorithms. Four classes of children with ASD
      were identified from latent class analysis: mild language delay with cognitive
      rigidity, mild language and motor delay with dysregulation, general developmental
      delay, and significant developmental delay with repetitive motor behaviors. We
      conclude that a four-class phenotypic model of children with ASD best describes
      our data and improves phenotypic characterization of young children with ASD.
      Implications for screening, diagnosis, and research are discussed.

PMID- 28879491
TI  - Profiling of cardio-metabolic risk factors and medication utilisation among Type
      II diabetes patients in Ghana: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is complicated by multiple cardio
      metabolic risk factors. Controlling these factors requires lifestyle
      modifications alongside utilisation of anti-diabetic medications. Different
      glucose lowering [(biguanides (BIGs), sulfonylureas (SUAs), thiazolidinediones
      (TNZ)], lipid lowering (statins), and anti-hypertensive medicines [angiotensin
      converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), calcium channel blockers (CCBs),
      angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) and central acting drugs (CADs)] have
      been approved for controlling hyperglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and hypertension
      respectively. Here, we examined factors that characterise T2DM and explored the
      response to medication therapy among T2DM patients. METHODS: This prospective
      cohort study recruited 241 T2DM patients reporting at a clinic in Ghana, from
      January through to August, 2016. Each patient's demographic, medications and
      anthropometric data was obtained while information on medication adherence was
      captured using Morisky adherence scale-8 (MMAS-8). Fasting blood samples were
      collected for biochemical analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was
      57.82 years for baseline and six-month follow-up. Physical activity differed at
      baseline and follow up (p < 0.05) but not body mass index (BMI). BIG alone, or in
      combination with SUA and TNZ did not improve glycaemic status at follow up (p >
      0.05). Many participants using either ACEI or ARB were able to control their
      blood pressures. Among dyslipidaemia patients under statin treatment, there was
      an improved lipid profile at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Statin medications are
      effective for reducing dyslipidaemia in T2DM patients. However, control of
      modifiable risk factors, particularly blood glucose and to a lesser degree blood
      pressure is suboptimal. Addressing these will require concomitant interventions
      including education on medication adherence and correct dietary plans, lifestyle
      modifications and physical activity.

PMID- 28879492
TI  - Molecular modeling and structure-based drug discovery approach reveals protein
      kinases as off-targets for novel anticancer drug RH1.
AB  - Potential drug target identification and mechanism of action is an important step
      in drug discovery process, which can be achieved by biochemical methods, genetic
      interactions or computational conjectures. Sometimes more than one approach is
      implemented to mine out the potential drug target and characterize the on-target
      or off-target effects. A novel anticancer agent RH1 is designed as pro-drug to be
      activated by NQO1, an enzyme overexpressed in many types of tumors. However,
      increasing data show that RH1 can affect cells in NQO1-independent fashion. Here,
      we implemented the bioinformatics approach of modeling and molecular docking for
      search of RH1 targets among protein kinase species. We have examined 129 protein
      kinases in total where 96 protein kinases are in complexes with their inhibitor,
      11 kinases were in the unbound state with any ligand and for 22 protein kinases
      3D structure were modeled. Comparison of calculated free energy of binding of RH1
      with indigenous kinase inhibitors binding efficiency as well as alignment of
      their pharmacophoric maps let us predict and ranked protein kinases such as KIT,
      CDK2, CDK6, MAPK1, NEK2 and others as the most prominent off-targets of RH1. Our
      finding opens new avenues in search of protein targets that might be responsible
      for curing cancer by new promising drug RH1 in NQO1-independent way.

PMID- 28879493
TI  - Neural Progenitor Cells Undergoing Yap/Tead-Mediated Enhanced Self-Renewal Form
      Heterotopias More Easily in the Diencephalon than in the Telencephalon.
AB  - Spatiotemporally ordered production of cells is essential for brain development.
      Normally, most undifferentiated neural progenitor cells (NPCs) face the apical
      (ventricular) surface of embryonic brain walls. Pathological detachment of NPCs
      from the apical surface and their invasion of outer neuronal territories, i.e.,
      formation of NPC heterotopias, can disrupt the overall structure of the brain.
      Although NPC heterotopias have previously been observed in a variety of
      experimental contexts, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Yes
      associated protein 1 (Yap1) and the TEA domain (Tead) proteins, which act
      downstream of Hippo signaling, enhance the stem-like characteristics of NPCs.
      Elevated expression of Yap1 or Tead in the neural tube (future spinal cord)
      induces massive NPC heterotopias, but Yap/Tead-induced expansion of NPCs in the
      developing brain has not been previously reported to produce NPC heterotopias. To
      determine whether NPC heterotopias occur in a regionally characteristic manner,
      we introduced the Yap1-S112A or Tead-VP16 into NPCs of the telencephalon and
      diencephalon, two neighboring but distinct forebrain regions, of embryonic day 10
      mice by in utero electroporation, and compared NPC heterotopia formation.
      Although NPCs in both regions exhibited enhanced stem-like behaviors,
      heterotopias were larger and more frequent in the diencephalon than in the
      telencephalon. This result, the first example of Yap/Tead-induced NPC heterotopia
      in the forebrain, reveals that Yap/Tead-induced NPC heterotopia is not specific
      to the neural tube, and also suggests that this phenomenon depends on regional
      factors such as the three-dimensional geometry and assembly of these cells.

PMID- 28879494
TI  - Regeneration of sciatic nerve crush injury by a hydroxyapatite nanoparticle
      containing collagen type I hydrogel.
AB  - The current study aimed to enhance the efficacy of peripheral nerve regeneration
      using a hydroxyapatite nanoparticle-containing collagen type I hydrogel. A
      solution of type I collagen, extracted from the rat tails, was incorporated with
      hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (with the average diameter of ~212 nm) and
      crosslinked with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC) to prepare
      the hydrogel. The Schwann cell cultivation on the prepared hydrogel demonstrated
      a significantly higher cell proliferation than the tissue culture plate, as
      positive control, after 48 h (n = 3, P < 0.005) and 72 h (n = 3, P < 0.01). For
      in vivo evaluation, the prepared hydrogel was administrated on the sciatic nerve
      crush injury in Wistar rats. Four groups were studied: negative control (with
      injury but without interventions), positive control (without injury), collagen
      hydrogel and hydroxyapatite nanoparticle-containing collagen hydrogel. After 12
      weeks, the administration of hydroxyapatite nanoparticle-containing collagen
      significantly (n = 4, P < 0.005) enhanced the functional behavior of the rats
      compared with the collagen hydrogel and negative control groups as evidenced by
      the sciatic functional index, hot plate latency and compound muscle action
      potential amplitude measurements. The overall results demonstrated the
      applicability of the produced hydrogel for the regeneration of peripheral nerve
      injuries.

PMID- 28879495
TI  - A quantum theory account of order effects and conjunction fallacies in political
      judgments.
AB  - Are our everyday judgments about the world around us normative? Decades of
      research in the judgment and decision-making literature suggest the answer is no.
      If people's judgments do not follow normative rules, then what rules if any do
      they follow? Quantum probability theory is a promising new approach to modeling
      human behavior that is at odds with normative, classical rules. One key advantage
      of using quantum theory is that it explains multiple types of judgment errors
      using the same basic machinery, unifying what have previously been thought of as
      disparate phenomena. In this article, we test predictions from quantum theory
      related to the co-occurrence of two classic judgment phenomena, order effects and
      conjunction fallacies, using judgments about real-world events (related to the
      U.S. presidential primaries). We also show that our data obeys two a priori and
      parameter free constraints derived from quantum theory. Further, we examine two
      factors that moderate the effects, cognitive thinking style (as measured by the
      Cognitive Reflection Test) and political ideology.

PMID- 28879497
TI  - Does Time Difference in CT Scan Causes More Mortality?

PMID- 28879496
TI  - Tinea corporis caused by Trichophyton equinum in a rider and review of the
      literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trichophyton equinum is a zoophilic dermatophyte usually causing
      ringworm in horses. Cases of skin infections in humans are very rare. CASE REPORT
      : We describe a case of tinea corporis caused by T. equinum on a buttock of a
      rider who often rode bareback with short trousers. CONCLUSION: Although T.
      equinum was considered in the past as a strict zoophilic dermatophyte, our case
      report confirms that it can cause dermatophytoses also in humans. A review of
      epidemiological and clinical features of human infections caused by T. equinum is
      presented.

PMID- 28879498
TI  - Locating QTLs controlling overwintering trait in Chinese perennial Dongxiang wild
      rice.
AB  - Overwintering (OW) is the process by which rice passes through the winter season
      and germinates in the following spring. OW is also a typical quantitative
      inheritance trait. Currently, the molecular genetic basis of OW trait in Chinese
      perennial Dongxiang wild rice (DXWR) still remains to be known. In this study, a
      linkage map consisting of 139 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers was
      constructed using an F2 population derived from a cross between DXWR and 93-11.
      This map covered the rice genome by approximately 1778.72 cM with approximately
      12.80 cM average interval. The phenotype data of OW trait were investigated for
      QTL analysis in the following spring of 2017. The gene ontology (GO) annotation
      of the M-QTL was performed through the rice genome annotation project system. A
      major QTL-qOW6 was flanked by RM20069 (16,542,428 bp) and RM3498 (20,982,059 bp)
      on chromosome 6 and detected repeatedly by both inclusive composite interval and
      single-marker analysis mapping with an LOD score of 9.45 and explained 22.22% of
      phenotypic variance. In addition, two small QTLs (qOW2 and qOW3) controlling OW
      trait were detected on the second and third chromosomes, respectively. No
      epistatic interaction was detected between these QTLs, suggesting their unique
      genetic model. A total of 183 candidate genes at qOW6 locus were involved in 887
      GO terms. Among them, 52 candidate genes were involved in response to stress. The
      other 28 candidate genes were related to cell membrane, which might affect the OW
      trait in perennial DXWR. These results may establish the foundation for
      understanding the genetic mechanism about OW trait and provide a novel gene
      resource for OW rice variety improvement.

PMID- 28879499
TI  - Impaired Dopamine-Dependent Locomotory Behavior of C. elegans Neuroligin Mutants
      Depends on the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase COMT-4.
AB  - Neurexins and neuroligins are neuronal membrane adhesion molecules that have been
      involved in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. The nrx-1 and nlg
      1 genes of Caenorhabditis elegans encode NRX-1 and NLG-1, orthologue proteins of
      human neurexins and neuroligins, respectively. Dopaminergic and serotoninergic
      signalling control the locomotory rate of the nematode. When well-fed animals are
      transferred to a plate with food (bacterial lawn), they reduce the locomotory
      rate. This behavior, which depends on dopamine, is known as basal slowing
      response (BSR). Alternatively, when food-deprived animals are moved to a plate
      with a bacterial lawn, further decrease their locomotory rate. This behavior,
      known as enhanced slowing response (ESR), is serotonin dependent. C. elegans nlg
      1-deficient mutants are impaired in BSR and ESR. Here we report that nrx-1
      deficient mutants were defective in ESR, but not in BSR. The nrx-1;nlg-1 double
      mutant was impaired in both behaviors. Interestingly, the nlg-1 mutants
      upregulate the expression of comt-4 which encodes an enzyme with putative
      catechol-O-methyltransferase activity involved in dopamine degradation. Our study
      also shows that comt-4(RNAi) in nlg-1-deficient mutants rescues the wild type
      phenotypes of BSR and ESR. On the other hand, comt-4(RNAi) in nlg-1-deficient
      mutants also recovers, at least partially, the gentle touch response and the
      pharyngeal pumping rate that were impaired in these mutants. These latter
      behaviors are dopamine and serotonin dependent, respectively. Based on these
      results we propose a model for the neuroligin function in modulating the dopamine
      dependent locomotory behavior in the nematode.

PMID- 28879500
TI  - In silico probing and biological evaluation of SETDB1/ESET-targeted novel
      compounds that reduce tri-methylated histone H3K9 (H3K9me3) level.
AB  - ERG-associated protein with the SET domain (ESET/SET domain bifurcated
      1/SETDB1/KMT1E) is a histone lysine methyltransferase (HKMT) and it
      preferentially tri-methylates lysine 9 of histone H3 (H3K9me3). SETDB1/ESET leads
      to heterochromatin condensation and epigenetic gene silencing. These functional
      changes are reported to correlate with Huntington's disease (HD) progression and
      mood-related disorders which make SETDB1/ESET a viable drug target. In this
      context, the present investigation was performed to identify novel peptide
      competitive small molecule inhibitors of the SETDB1/ESET by a combined in silico
      in vitro approach. A ligand-based pharmacophore model was built and employed for
      the virtual screening of ChemDiv and Asinex database. Also, a human SETDB1/ESET
      homology model was constructed to supplement the data further. Biological
      evaluation of the selected 21 candidates singled out 5 compounds exhibiting a
      notable reduction of the H3K9me3 level via inhibitory potential of SETDB1/ESET
      activity in SETDB1/ESET-inducible cell line and HD striatal cells. Later on, we
      identified two compounds as final hits that appear to have neuronal effects
      without cytotoxicity based on the result from MTT assay. These compounds hold the
      calibre to become the future lead compounds and can provide structural insights
      into more SETDB1/ESET-focused drug discovery research. Moreover, these
      SETDB1/ESET inhibitors may be applicable for the preclinical study to ameliorate
      neurodegenerative disorders via epigenetic regulation.

PMID- 28879502
TI  - Role of macrophages in depot-dependent browning of white adipose tissue.
AB  - Sympathetic stimulation induces beige adipocytes in white adipose tissue (WAT),
      known as browning of WAT. In this study, exposure of mice to cold ambient
      temperature (10  degrees C) for 24 h induced the mRNA expression of uncoupling
      protein 1 (UCP1), a marker for beige adipocytes, in inguinal WAT, but not in
      perigonadal WAT. Thus, we examined the role of macrophages in depot-dependent WAT
      browning in mice. Flowcytometric analysis showed that total number of macrophages
      was higher in perigonadal WAT than in inguinal WAT. Cold exposure failed to
      change the expression of macrophage marker genes in inguinal WAT; however, it
      increased the mRNA expression of CD11c and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in
      perigonadal WAT, indicating that proinflammatory M1 macrophage is activated. The
      removal of macrophages using clodronate significantly enhanced cold-induced UCP1
      mRNA expression in perigonadal WAT. These results suggest that M1 macrophages are
      involved in the phenotype of perigonadal WAT that hardly undergo browning.

PMID- 28879503
TI  - Asthma Phenotypes and Endotypes: Implications for Personalised Therapy.
AB  - Asthma is increasingly recognised as a heterogeneous group of diseases with
      similar clinical presentations rather than a singular disease entity. Asthma was
      historically categorised by clinical symptoms; however, newer methods of
      subgrouping, describing and categorising the disease have sub-defined asthma.
      These sub-definitions are intermittently called phenotypes or endotypes, but the
      real meanings of these words are poorly understood. Novel treatments are
      currently and increasingly available, partly in the monoclonal antibody
      environment, and also some physical therapies (bronchial thermoplasty), but
      additionally small molecules are not far away from clinical practice.
      Understanding the disease pathogenesis and the mechanism of action more
      completely may enable identification of treatable traits, biomarkers, mediators
      and modifiable therapeutic targets. However, there remains a danger that
      clinicians become preoccupied with the concept of endotypes and biomarkers,
      ignoring therapies that are hugely effective but have no companion biomarker.
      This review discusses our understanding of the concept of phenotypes and
      endotypes in appreciating and managing the heterogeneous condition that is
      asthma. We consider the role of functional imaging, physiology, blood-, sputum-
      and breath-based biomarkers and clinical manifestations that could be used to
      produce a personalised asthma profile, with implications on prognosis,
      pathophysiology and most importantly specific therapeutic responses. With the
      advent of increasing numbers of biological therapies and other interventional
      options such as bronchial thermoplasty, the importance of targeting expensive
      therapies to patients with the best chance of clinical response has huge health
      economic importance.

PMID- 28879501
TI  - Child and adolescent self-report symptom measurement in pediatric oncology
      research: a systematic literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Previous work in pediatric oncology has found that clinicians and
      parents tend to under-report the frequency and severity of treatment-related
      symptoms compared to child self-report. As such, there is a need to identify high
      quality self-report instruments to be used in pediatric oncology research
      studies. This study's objective was to conduct a systematic literature review of
      existing English language instruments used to measure self-reported symptoms in
      children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment. METHODS: A comprehensive
      literature search was conducted in MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO
      to identify relevant articles published through November 10, 2016. Using pre
      specified inclusion/exclusion criteria, six trained reviewers carefully screened
      abstracts and full-text articles for eligibility. RESULTS: There were 7738 non
      duplicate articles identified in the literature search. Forty articles met our
      eligibility criteria, and within these articles, there were 38 self-report
      English symptom instruments. Most studies evaluated only cross-sectional
      psychometric properties, such as reliability or validity. Ten studies assessed an
      instrument's responsiveness or ability to detect changes in symptoms over time.
      Eight instruments met our criteria for use in future longitudinal pediatric
      oncology studies. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review aids pediatric oncology
      researchers in identifying and selecting appropriate symptom measures with strong
      psychometric evidence for their studies. Enhancing the child's voice in pediatric
      oncology research studies allows us to better understand the impact of cancer and
      its treatment on the lives of children.

PMID- 28879504
TI  - [TKI 2.0 - changes in the medical treatment of renal cell carcinoma].
AB  - Only for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in a local stage curative treatment option by
      surgical resection exists. For metastatic disease the 5-year survival rate
      decreases radically. A factor that contributes to this is the low sensibility to
      radiation and chemotherapeutics. Since the approval of the tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors in 2006 effective drugs for the treatment of mRCC is available. The
      specific inhibition of the vascular-endothelial-growth (VEGF)-receptor and the
      "mammalian Target of Rapamycin" (mTOR) leads to a prolongation of the progression
      free survival as well as the overall survival rate. For a long time, the current
      target therapy with TKI appeared to be exhausted, but since recently research has
      gone a step further. Thus, Cabozantinib and Lenvatinib in the combination with
      Everolimus have been approved for second-line therapy in mRCC. For the first time
      a clinical study demonstrated positive results for an adjuvant treatment with
      sunitinib in patients with a high-risk RCC. Furthermore, in april 2016 the immune
      checkpoint inhibitor Nivolumab was approved for second-line therapy in mRCC in
      Germany. The following report examines briefly the current therapeutic
      recommendations, new findings and drug approvals and ongoing clinical trials.

PMID- 28879505
TI  - Recovery of oculomotor nerve palsy after endovascular treatment of ruptured
      posterior communicating artery aneurysm.
AB  - PURPOSE: Oculomotor nerve palsy (ONP) may result from Posterior communicating
      artery (Pcom) aneurysms. Endovascular treatment of ruptured Pcom aneurysms
      generally is a safe procedure, but the effect of this therapy on ONP is
      incompletely elucidated. This retrospective study evaluates outcomes of ONP after
      endovascular treatment for ruptured Pcom aneurysm and with the intention to
      clarify predictors of recovery. METHODS: From May 2010 to October 2015, 210
      patients with Pcom aneurysms underwent endovascular treatment at our institution.
      Among them, 34 patients with ruptured aneurysms and either complete or incomplete
      ONP were identified. The outcomes and predictors of ONP recovery were analyzed.
      RESULTS: At the last available clinical follow-up, ONP resolution was complete in
      21 (61.8%) patients and incomplete in 8 (23.5%) patients. The mean resolution
      time after embolization was 24.5 days. Five patients showed no signs of ONP
      recovery. In no case was an initial incomplete ONP observed to worsen. There was
      a statistically insignificant trend toward complete recovery among patients with
      initial incomplete ONP (OR = 4.17; 95% CI, 0.75-23.18; P = 0.103). CONCLUSION:
      Endovascular treatment appears to be an effective treatment modality for ruptured
      Pcom aneurysm and related ONP. The initial incomplete ONP might encourage
      complete ONP recovery after endovascular treatment.

PMID- 28879506
TI  - Proton Induced Modulation of ICT and PET Processes in an Imidazo-phenanthroline
      Based BODIPY Fluorophores.
AB  - BODIPY fluorophores linked with an imidazo-phenanthroline donor at alpha and beta
      positions have been synthesized. Intriguing intramolecular charge transfer
      phenomenon is observed in both the dyes which has been extensively investigated
      using UV-vis absorption, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence
      measurements. H-bonding and intrinsic polarity of the solvents has modulated the
      absorption and emission bands of these fluorophores strongly causing significant
      increase in the Stokes shifts. In spite of having difference only in terms of the
      position of donor subunit, the photophysics of these dyes are not only
      significantly different from each other, but contradictory too. Interestingly,
      acidochromic studies revealed the shuttling mechanism between ICT and PET
      processes for BDP 2. Quantum chemical calculations have been employed further to
      support experimental findings. DFT and TD-DFT method of analysis have been used
      to optimize ground and excited state geometries of the synthesized dyes.

PMID- 28879508
TI  - Response to letter re: Carotid atherosclerotic plaques standardized uptake
      values: methodological issues on reproducibility and accuracy.

PMID- 28879507
TI  - Methanethiol generation potential from anaerobic degradation of municipal solid
      waste in landfills.
AB  - Volatile sulfur compounds are the main odorants at landfills. In this study,
      methanethiol (CH3SH) was chosen as a typical volatile organic sulfur compound,
      and its generation potential was investigated during the anaerobic degradation of
      the organic fractions of municipal solid waste (MSW) including rice, flour food,
      vegetable, fish and pork, paper, cellulose textile, and yard wastes. Among the
      experimental wastes, gas generation was the highest in the fish and pork waste
      with a high CH3SH concentration of up to 2.5% (v/v). Sulfur reduction in the
      solid phase was mostly converted into gaseous sulfur compounds. During the whole
      experiment, the cumulative CH3SH generation from the fish and pork waste was
      0.139 L kgdw-1, which was about 2 and 6 orders of magnitude higher than that from
      the other experimental wastes. The ratio of CH3SH-S to TS reduction was 31.56% in
      the fish and pork waste. These results would be helpful to understand the
      generation of volatile sulfur compounds during the anaerobic degradation of MSW
      and develop techniques to control odor pollution at landfills.

PMID- 28879509
TI  - IL26 modulates cytokine response and anti-TNF consumption in Crohn's disease
      patients with bacterial DNA.
AB  - : Interleukin IL26 supports killing of microbes and the innate sensing of
      bacterial-derived DNA (bactDNA). We evaluated the relationship between IL26 serum
      levels and bactDNA translocation in Crohn's disease (CD). We ran a prospective
      study on CD patients in remission. IL26 common polymorphisms, serum cytokines and
      complement protein, amplified-bactDNA, and anti-TNF-alpha were evaluated. In
      vitro PBMC analysis was performed. Three hundred and thirteen patients were
      included (mean CDAI: 83.6 +/- 32.8; mean fecal calprotectin: 55.4 +/- 35.3
      MUg/g). A total of 106 patients (33.8%) showed bactDNA and 223 patients (71%) had
      a varIL26 genotype. BactDNA significantly correlated with increased IL26 levels
      compared with bactDNA-negative patients. PBMCs from varIL26 patients
      significantly reduced E. coli killing capacity compared with wtIL26-genotyped
      patients. The stimulation with a recombinant IL26 protein reduced pro
      inflammatory cytokines in response to E. coli in the varIL26 cell supernatants.
      Serum anti-TNF-alpha levels in varIL26 vs wtIL26-genotyped patients on biologics
      were significantly lower in the presence of bactDNA. Cells from varIL26 vs wtIL26
      genotyped patients cultured with E. coli DNA and infliximab showed a significant
      decrease in free anti-TNF-alpha concentration. A varIL26 genotype was associated
      with the initiation of anti-TNF-alpha in CD patients during the 6-month follow
      up. IL26 polymorphisms may prevent bactDNA clearance and identify CD patients
      with a worse inflammatory evolution and response to therapy. KEY MESSAGES:
      BactDNA translocation in CD is associated with an increased risk of relapse. IL26
      is sensitive to bactDNA and modulates the inflammatory response in CD patients.
      The varIL26 genotype is associated with reduced PMN capacity to kill bacteria. A
      varIL26 genotype is associated with decreased levels of anti-TNF-alpha in CD
      patients. IL26 may help explain the role of bactDNA as a risk factor of flare in
      CD patients.

PMID- 28879510
TI  - Examining impairment of adaptive compensation for stabilizing motor repetitions
      in stroke survivors.
AB  - The hand, one of the most versatile but mechanically redundant parts of the human
      body, suffers more and longer than other body parts after stroke. One of the
      rehabilitation paradigms, task-oriented rehabilitation, encourages motor
      repeatability, the ability to produce similar motor performance over repetitions
      through compensatory strategies while taking advantage of the motor system's
      redundancy. The previous studies showed that stroke survivors inconsistently
      performed a given motor task with limited motor solutions. We hypothesized that
      stroke survivors would exhibit deficits in motor repeatability and adaptive
      compensation compared to healthy controls in during repetitive force-pulse (RFP)
      production tasks using multiple fingers. Seventeen hemiparetic stroke survivors
      and seven healthy controls were asked to repeatedly press force sensors as fast
      as possible using the four fingers of each hand. The hierarchical variability
      decomposition model was employed to compute motor repeatability and adaptive
      compensation across finger-force impulses, respectively. Stroke survivors showed
      decreased repeatability and adaptive compensation of force impulses between
      individual fingers as compared to the control (p < 0.05). The stroke survivors
      also showed decreased pulse frequency and greater peak-to-peak time variance than
      the control (p < 0.05). Force-related variables, such as mean peak force and peak
      force interval variability, demonstrated no significant difference between
      groups. Our findings indicate that stroke-induced brain injury negatively affects
      their ability to exploit their redundant or abundant motor system in an RFP task.

PMID- 28879511
TI  - Risk Factors for Unresectable Recurrence After Up-Front Surgery for Colorectal
      Liver Metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is no clear evidence that preoperative chemotherapy for
      resectable colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) is superior to up-front surgery
      (UFS). The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with
      poor prognosis after UFS for CRLM. METHODS: Data about consecutive patients with
      CRLM who underwent liver resection at Nara Medical University Hospital between
      January 2000 and December 2015 were retrieved from a prospective database.
      Recurrence that developed within 2 years after liver resection and could not be
      surgically resected was defined as unresectable recurrence (UR). Preoperative
      risk factors associated with UR after UFS were analyzed. Among the patients with
      the identified risk factors, the patients who were treated with UFS were compared
      with those who received preoperative chemotherapy via propensity score-matching
      analysis. RESULTS: There were 167 patients treated with UFS, and 71 of them
      developed UR (the UR group). The overall survival (OS) rate of the UR group was
      significantly worse than that of the non-UR group (5-year survival rate: 3.8 vs.
      66.8%, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified a primary colorectal cancer N
      factor of N2-3 as a risk factor for UR (hazard ratio 2.72, p = 0.004). Propensity
      score-matching analysis demonstrated that among patients with N2-3 primary
      colorectal cancer the post-initial treatment OS of the patients treated with UFS
      was significantly worse than that of the patients who received preoperative
      chemotherapy (5-year survival rate: 11.1 vs. 30.0%, p = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with CRLM with a primary colorectal cancer N factor of N2-3 should be
      considered for preoperative chemotherapy.

PMID- 28879512
TI  - Feasibility of Intraoperative Navigation for Liver Resection Using Real-time
      Virtual Sonography With Novel Automatic Registration System.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clinical feasibility and usability of intraoperative
      ultrasonography (IOUS) tracked by computed tomography (CT) images have been
      proposed; however, it requires technically demanding manual registration
      procedure. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective study using real-time virtual sonography
      (RVS) with novel automatic registration system was conducted in four high-volume
      centers of liver resection from 2015 to 2016. The requiring time for registration
      of IOUS and CT images and positional error of confluence of middle hepatic venous
      tributaries (V8-MHV, V5-MHV) were measured in patients undergoing laparotomy.
      RESULTS: Automatic registration was successful in 43 of 52 enrolled patients
      (83%), with error ranges of 11.4 (3.1-69.4) mm for V8-MHV and 16.2 (4.3-66.8) mm
      for V5-MHV. Time required for total registration process was 36 (27-74) s.
      CONCLUSIONS: The RVS with novel automatic registration system can provide quick
      and easy registration and acceptable accuracy, which can promote the usage of
      IOUS.

PMID- 28879513
TI  - High contrast sensitivity for visually guided flight control in bumblebees.
AB  - Many insects rely on vision to find food, to return to their nest and to
      carefully control their flight between these two locations. The amount of
      information available to support these tasks is, in part, dictated by the spatial
      resolution and contrast sensitivity of their visual systems. Here, we investigate
      the absolute limits of these visual properties for visually guided position and
      speed control in Bombus terrestris. Our results indicate that the limit of
      spatial vision in the translational motion detection system of B. terrestris lies
      at 0.21 cycles deg-1 with a peak contrast sensitivity of at least 33. In the
      perspective of earlier findings, these results indicate that bumblebees have
      higher contrast sensitivity in the motion detection system underlying position
      control than in their object discrimination system. This suggests that
      bumblebees, and most likely also other insects, have different visual thresholds
      depending on the behavioral context.

PMID- 28879514
TI  - Maternal doubled haploid production in interploidy hybridization between Brassica
      napus and Brassica allooctaploids.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: We found a new in vivo route to produce maternal doubled haploid
      of Brassica napus . The pollen donor, an allooctaploid rapeseed, acts as a DH
      inducer. Inbred line has a powerful advantage in cultivar breeding and genetic
      analysis. Compared to the traditional breeding methods, doubled haploid
      production can save years off the breeding process. Though genotype-dependent
      tissue culture methods are widely used in the Brassica crops, seed-based in vivo
      doubled haploid developing systems are rare in nature and in the laboratory. As
      interspecific cross and interploid hybridization play an important role in genome
      evolution and plant speciation, we created a new Brassica artificial hybrid, a
      Brassica allooctaploid (AAAACCCC, 2n = 8* = 76), by interspecific crossing and
      genome doubling. A homozygous line was observed at the third self-generation of a
      synthesized Brassica allohexaploid (AAAACC, 2n = 6* = 58). Crosses between B.
      napus as female and Brassica allooctaploid as pollen donor were conducted, which
      yielded maternal doubled haploid B. napus that were identified based on
      phenotype, ploidy, and molecular analysis. The Brassica octaploid acted as a
      maternal doubled haploid inducer and had a relatively high induction rate. Our
      research provides a new insight for generation of homozygous lines in vivo using
      a single-step approach, as well as promotes the understanding in breeding
      programs and genetic studies involving the Brassicas.

PMID- 28879515
TI  - Testicular adrenal rest tumors in congenital adrenal hyperplasia-cross-sectional
      study of 51 Croatian male patients.
AB  - : Testicular adrenal rest tumors (TARTs) are common cause of infertility in males
      with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). We studied the role of genotype and
      disease regulation on TART development, their impact on gonadal function, and
      frequency in 47 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) and four 11-hydroxylase
      deficiency (11-OHD) male patients. Testicular ultrasound (TU), genotype, hormonal
      measurement in 51, and spermiogram in five patients were performed. TARTs were
      detected in 14 SW21-OHD and one 11-OHD patient: 1/8 patients aged <7 years (1.8
      years old is the youngest), 1/8 patients aged <12 years, 5/17 patients aged <18
      years, and in 8/18 adults. All 21-OHD TART patients had exclusively severe
      mutations of CYP21A2 gene. Poor hormonal control in 8/15 patients with and 12/36
      patients without TART indicates correlation of tumor development with poor
      disease control. None of the TART patients fathered a child. Low inhibin-B was
      found in 7/15 TART patients. Azoospermia was found in four and
      oligoasthenozoospermia in one patient. CONCLUSION: TART was detected exclusively
      in patients with severe CYP21A2 mutations. Disease regulation plays a role in
      development of TART that impairs testicular function and increases the risk of
      infertility. Screening for TART by TU is indicated from early childhood. What is
      Known: * Due to improved diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities, majority of
      the male patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia nowadays reach adulthood
      and screening for long-term complications is becoming more important. *
      Testicular adrenal rest tumors (TARTs) are common cause of infertility and
      impaired gonadal function in males with CAH. What is New: * A 1.8-year-old boy
      described in this paper is the youngest reported patient with TART. * Screening
      for TART by testicular ultrasound from early childhood, especially in patients
      with severe CYP21A mutations, is recommended.

PMID- 28879516
TI  - The Influence of Temperature on Chytridiomycosis In Vivo.
AB  - Chytridiomycosis, an amphibian disease caused by the fungal pathogen
      Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is an ideal system for studying the
      influence of temperature on host-pathogen relationships because both host and
      pathogen are ectothermic. Studies of Bd in culture suggest that optimal growth
      occurs between 17 and 23 degrees C, and death of the fungus occurs above 29 or
      below 0 degrees C. Amphibian immune systems, however, are also temperature
      dependent and often more effective at higher temperatures. We therefore
      hypothesized that pathogen load, probability of infection and mortality in Bd
      exposed frogs would peak at a lower temperature than that at which Bd grows best
      in vitro. To test this, we conducted a study where Bd- and sham-exposed Northern
      cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) were incubated at six temperatures between 11 and
      26 degrees C. While probability of infection did not differ across temperatures,
      pathogen load and mortality were inversely related to temperature. Survival of
      infected hosts was greatest between 20 and 26 degrees C, temperatures where Bd
      grows well in culture. These results demonstrate that the conditions under which
      a pathogen grows best in culture do not necessarily reflect patterns of
      pathogenicity, an important consideration for predicting the threat of this and
      other wildlife pathogens.

PMID- 28879518
TI  - Virginity Requirement Versus Sexually-Active Young People: What Girls and Boys
      Think About Virginity in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
AB  - This article aims to explore Congolese male and female high school students'
      cultural attitudes concerning virginity. The study employed a qualitative
      approach to collect data from 56 boys and girls aged 16-20 years old. Eight focus
      group discussions and 40 individual interviews were conducted among participants
      from two urban and two rural high schools in South Kivu province. Findings
      indicate that men are disappointed when they marry non-virgin girls. In fact,
      most male and female participants perceived girls who were virgins as trustworthy
      individuals. They believe that the girl's virginity loss brings shame to her
      family. However, some female participants clearly dissociate from societal views
      or norms about virginity, and remark that virginity itself is not the key to a
      successful household nor a guarantee for remaining faithful after marriage. Such
      traditional norms-in the context of high levels of rape-place enormous pressure
      on young women and cause them to lie about virginity because they fear losing
      their fiances. They indicated that they would lie about it regardless of any
      consequences they may encounter. In fact, some traditional beliefs need to be
      challenged and modified.

PMID- 28879517
TI  - Glioma targeting peptide in combination with the P53 C terminus inhibits glioma
      cell proliferation in vitro.
AB  - Glioma is a prevalent malignant primary brain tumor in adults, the treatment for
      which remains a challenge due to its high infiltration and recurrence. Hence,
      treatments that lead to the suppression of glioma cell migration and invasion may
      be used in addition to surgery to increase the therapeutic outcome. In this
      study, we aimed to construct a multifunctional protein that would exert an effect
      on glioma cell proliferation and migration. The protein is named GL1-P53C-11R and
      it consists of the glioma-targeting peptide GL1 (G), the P53 C terminus (Pc) and
      the cell-penetrating peptide arginine (R). GL1-P53C-R was expressed with the
      fusion protein ZZ and immunofluorescence analysis showed effective delivery of
      the fused ZZ-GL1-P53C-R protein represented as ZZ-GPcR. The ZZ-GPcR exhibited an
      inhibitory effect on the proliferation, migration and invasion of U87DeltaEGFR
      cells. Western blotting results indicated that it caused significant changes in
      the expression levels of cell cycle and apoptotic proteins. Flow cytometric
      analysis showed increase apoptosis. Our findings suggest that the P53C in the
      fusion protein ZZ-GPcR can enter into glioma cells to exert its inhibitory
      effect.

PMID- 28879519
TI  - Safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetic profile of dabrafenib in Japanese
      patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive solid tumors: a phase 1 study.
AB  - Background Dabrafenib is a BRAF inhibitor that has demonstrated clinical activity
      with a good tolerability profile in patients with BRAF V600E mutated metastatic
      melanoma. This study evaluated the safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics and
      preliminary efficacy of dabrafenib in Japanese patients. Methods This phase I,
      open-label, dose escalation study was conducted in 12 Japanese patients with BRAF
      V600 mutation positive solid tumours. Primary endpoint was safety, assessed by
      monitoring and recording of all adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, drug-related
      AEs; secondary endpoints were pharmacokinetic profiles and efficacy measured by
      tumour response. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number
      NCT01582997. Results Of the 12 patients enrolled, 3 each received 75 mg and 100
      mg dabrafenib while 6 received 150 mg dabrafenib twice daily orally. Melanoma and
      thyroid cancer were the primary tumours reported in 11 (92%) and 1 (8%) patients
      respectively. Most AEs were grade 1 or 2 and considered related to study
      treatment. Most common AEs reported in the 12 patients were alopecia in 7 (58%);
      pyrexia, arthralgia and leukopenia in 6 (50%) each, hyperkeratosis and nausea in
      4 (33%) each. Partial response as best overall response was reported in 7 of 12
      (58%) patients and in 6 (55%) with malignant melanoma. No dose-limiting toxicity
      (DLTs) were reported during the DLT evaluation periods. Conclusions Dabrafenib
      was well tolerated and rapidly absorbed administered as single- or multiple dose.
      Comparable safety and pharmacokinetic profiles were observed compared with non
      Japanese patients. Dabrafenib has promising clinical activity in Japanese
      patients with BRAF mutated malignant melanoma.

PMID- 28879520
TI  - Transnasal Snare Technique for Retrograde Primary Jejunostomy Placement After
      Surgical Gastrojejunostomy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a transnasal snare technique for retrograde primary
      jejunostomy placement after surgical gastrojejunostomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Two patients underwent the transnasal snare technique for retrograde primary
      jejunostomy placement. Patients included two females, age 58 and 62. In both
      patients, a gooseneck snare was inserted in a transnasal fashion. After insertion
      of the snare into the jejunum, the location was confirmed with ultrasound. The
      snare was then targeted using a Chiba needle through which a 0.018-inch wire was
      advanced and snared through the nose. The wire was exchanged for a 0.035-inch
      Amplatz wire over which the tract was serially dilated followed by insertion of
      the jejunostomy catheter through a peel-away sheath. Technical success,
      complications, and follow-up were recorded. RESULTS: Primary jejunostomy
      placement was technically successful in both patients. No minor or major
      complications occurred. Both patients received enteral nutrition the day
      following placement. Follow-up was at 54 and 38 days for patients 1 and 2,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: The transnasal snare technique provides a novel
      alternative for primary jejunostomy insertion allowing for targeting of the
      jejunum with improved procedural success and no complications.

PMID- 28879521
TI  - FCRLA-A Resident Endoplasmic Reticulum Protein that Associates with Multiple
      Immunoglobulin Isotypes in B Lineage Cells.
AB  - FCRLA is homologous to receptors for the Fc portion of IgG (FcgammaR) and is
      located in the same region of human chromosome one, but has several unusual and
      unique features. It is a soluble resident ER protein retained in this organelle
      by unknown mechanisms involving the N-terminal domain, a disordered domain with
      three Cys residues in close proximity in the human protein. Unlike the FcgammaRs,
      FCRLA is not glycosylated and has no transmembrane region. FCRLA is included in
      this CTMI volume on IgM-binding proteins because it binds IgM in the ER, but
      quite surprisingly, given the isotype-restricted ligand specificity of the other
      FcRs, it also binds all other Ig isotypes so far tested, IgG and IgA. In the case
      of IgM, there is even preferential binding of the secretory and not the
      transmembrane form. Among B cells, FCRLA is most highly expressed in the germinal
      center and shows little expression in plasma cells. Based on these observations,
      we propose that one human FCRLA function is to stop GC B cells from secreting
      IgM, which would act as a decoy receptor, thus preventing the B cells from
      capturing antigen, processing it, and presenting the antigen-derived peptides to
      T follicular helper cells. Without help from these T cells, there would be
      limited B cell isotype switching, proliferation, and differentiation. On the
      other hand, FCRLA is downregulated in plasma cells, where IgM secretion is an
      essential function. FCRLA may also act as a chaperone involved by unknown
      mechanisms in the proper assembly of Ig molecules of all isotypes.

PMID- 28879522
TI  - Cell Non-autonomous UPRER Signaling.
AB  - The UPRER is an important regulator of secretory pathway homeostasis, and plays
      roles in many physiological processes. Its broad range of targets and ability to
      modulate secretion and membrane trafficking make it perfectly positioned to
      influence intercellular communication, enabling the UPRER to coordinate
      physiological processes between cells and tissues. Recent evidence suggests that
      the activation of the UPRER can itself be communicated between cells. This cell
      non-autonomous route to UPRER activation occurs in multiple species, and enables
      organism-wide responses to stress that involve processes as diverse as immunity,
      metabolism, aging and reproduction. It may also play roles in disease
      progression, making the pathways that mediate cell non-autonomous UPRER signaling
      a potential source of novel future therapeutics.

PMID- 28879523
TI  - Regulatory T Cells: Molecular and Cellular Basis for Immunoregulation.
AB  - CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a highly immune-suppressive subset of CD4+ T
      cells, characterized by expression of the master regulatory transcription factor
      FOXP3. Tregs are proven to play central roles in the maintenance of self
      tolerance in healthy individuals. Tregs are involved in maintaining immune
      homeostasis: they protect hosts from developing autoimmune diseases and allergy,
      whereas in malignancies, they promote tumor progression by suppressing anti-tumor
      immunity. Elucidating factors influencing Treg homeostasis and function have
      important implications for understanding disease pathogenesis and identifying
      therapeutic opportunities. Thus, the manipulating Tregs for up- or down
      regulation of their suppressive function is a new therapeutic strategy for
      treating various diseases including autoimmune disorders and cancer. This review
      will focus on recent advances in how Tregs integrate extracellular and
      intracellular signals to control their survival and stability. Deeper mechanistic
      understanding of disease-specific Treg development, maintenance, and function
      could make disease-specific Treg-targeted therapy more effective, resulting in an
      increase of efficacy and decrease of side effects related to manipulating Tregs.

PMID- 28879524
TI  - Uptake of Clostridial Neurotoxins into Cells and Dissemination.
AB  - Clostridial neurotoxins, botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) and tetanus neurotoxin
      (TeNT), are potent toxins, which are responsible for severe neurological diseases
      in man and animals. BoNTs induce a flaccid paralysis (botulism) by inhibiting
      acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junctions, whereas TeNT causes a
      spastic paralysis (tetanus) by blocking the neurotransmitter release (glycine,
      GABA) in inhibitory interneurons within the central nervous system. Clostridial
      neurotoxins recognize specific receptor(s) on the target neuronal cells and enter
      via a receptor-mediated endocytosis. They transit through an acidic compartment
      which allows the translocation of the catalytic chain into the cytosol, a
      prerequisite step for the intracellular activity of the neurotoxins. TeNT
      migrates to the central nervous system by using a motor neuron as transport cell.
      TeNT enters a neutral pH compartment and undergoes a retrograde axonal transport
      to the spinal cord or brain, where the whole undissociated toxin is delivered and
      interacts with target neurons. Botulism most often results from ingestion of food
      contaminated with BoNT. Thus, BoNT passes through the intestinal epithelial
      barrier mainly via a transcytotic mechanism and then diffuses or is transported
      to the neuromuscular junctions by the lymph or blood circulation. Indeed,
      clostridial neurotoxins are specific neurotoxins which transit through a
      transport cell to gain access to the target neuron, and use distinct trafficking
      pathways in both cell types.

PMID- 28879525
TI  - Colonic Spirochetes: What Has Genomics Taught Us?
AB  - The 'colonic' spirochetes assigned to the genus Brachyspira are slow-growing
      anaerobic bacteria. The genus includes both pathogenic and non-pathogenic
      species, and these variously colonise the large intestines of different species
      of birds and animals, including humans. Scientific understanding of the
      physiology and molecular biology of Brachyspira spp. remains very limited
      compared with that of other pathogenic spirochetes, and there are few
      descriptions of successful genetic manipulations undertaken to investigate gene
      function. An important boost to knowledge occurred in 2009 when, for the first
      time, the whole genome sequence of a Brachyspira strain (Brachyspira
      hyodysenteriae strain WA1) was obtained. The genomics analysis provided a
      significant increase in knowledge: for example, a previously unknown ~36 Kb
      plasmid was discovered and metabolic pathways were constructed. The study also
      revealed likely acquisition of genes involved in transport and central metabolic
      functions from other enteric bacterial species. Four subsequent publications have
      provided a similarly detailed analysis of other Brachyspira genomes, but of these
      only two included more than one strain of a species (20 strains of B.
      hyodysenteriae in one and three strains of B. pilosicoli in the other). Since
      then, more Brachyspira genomes have been made publicly available, with the
      sequences of at least one representative of each of the nine officially
      recognised species deposited at public genome repositories. All species have a
      single circular chromosome varying in size from ~2.5 to 3.3 Mb, with a C + G
      content of around 27%. In this chapter, we summarise the current knowledge and
      present a preliminary comparative genomic analysis conducted on 56 strains
      covering the official Brachyspira species. Besides providing detailed genetic
      maps of the bacteria, this analysis has revealed gene island rearrangements,
      putative phenotypes (including antimicrobial drug resistance) and genetic
      mutation mechanisms that enable brachyspires to evolve and respond to stress. The
      application of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) to generate genomic data from
      many more Brachyspira species and strains increasing will improve our
      understanding of these enigmatic spirochetes.

PMID- 28879527
TI  - Diabetes and pachymetry changes in pregnancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Purpose of this study is to evaluate changes in the central corneal
      thickness (CCT) in patients during the third trimester and postpartum phases of
      normal pregnancy, pregestational diabetes mellitus (DM), and gestational diabetes
      mellitus (GDM). METHODS: This was a prospective study. Patients that fulfilled
      the inclusion criteria were recruited from the obstetric clinic. They were
      grouped into normal pregnancy, pregestational DM, and GDM. Ophthalmic assessment
      and haematological investigations were done during the third trimester (after 28
      weeks of gestation) and in the postpartum phase (6 weeks postpartum). RESULTS: A
      total of 192 pregnant patients were recruited for this study. Out of the 192
      patients, only 143 of them came back for their follow-up 6 weeks postpartum. A
      total of 70 (36.5%) normal pregnancy patients, 51 (26.6%) DM patients, and 71
      (36.9%) GDM patients were included in this prospective study. Our study showed
      that the CCT decreased postpartum in all three groups. Patients in all three
      groups did not have significantly different CCT during the third trimester of
      pregnancy and postpartum phase. However, patients who had thicker CCT
      irrespective of the grouping during the third trimester also had a thicker CCT
      post-delivery (p value <0.001). However, these changes did not appear to affect
      refractive error and visual acuity. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes mellitus during
      pregnancy did not appear to influence the CCT.

PMID- 28879526
TI  - Intracardiac Echocardiography for Structural Heart and Electrophysiological
      Interventions.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: With an increasing number of interventional procedures
      performed for structural heart disease and cardiac arrhythmias each year,
      echocardiographic guidance is necessary for safe and efficient results. The
      purpose of this review article is to overview the principles of intracardiac
      echocardiography (ICE) and describes the peri-interventional role of ICE in a
      variety of structural heart disease and electrophysiological interventions.
      RECENT FINDINGS: Both transthoracic (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography
      have limitations. ICE provides the advantage of imaging from within the heart,
      providing shorter image distances and higher resolution. ICE may be performed
      without sedation and avoids esophageal intubation as with transesophageal
      echocardiography (TEE). Limitations of ICE include the need for additional venous
      access with possibility of vascular complications, potentially higher costs, and
      a learning curve for new operators. Data supports the use of ICE in guiding
      device closure of interatrial shunts, transseptal puncture, and
      electrophysiologic procedures. This paper reviews the more recent reports that
      ICE may be used for primary guidance or as a supplement to TEE in patients
      undergoing left atrial appendage (LAA) closure, interatrial shunt closure,
      transaortic valve implantation (TAVI), percutaneous mitral valve repair (PMVR),
      paravalvular leak (PVL) closure, aortic interventions, transcatheter pulmonary
      valve replacement (tPVR), ventricular septal defect (VSD), and patent ductus
      arteriosus (PDA) closure. ICE imaging technology will continue to expand and help
      improve structural heart and electrophysiology interventions.

PMID- 28879528
TI  - Effects of chronic kidney disease on myocardial washout rate of thallium-201 in
      patients with normal myocardial perfusion on single photon emission computed
      tomography.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT) is often performed even in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We
      assessed the effects of CKD on myocardial washout rate (WR) of thallium (Tl)-201
      in patients with normal myocardial perfusion on SPECT. METHODS: Two hundred and
      fifty-six patients with normal myocardial perfusion were enrolled in this study.
      CKD was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 ml/min/1.73
      m2. Patients with eGFR >= 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 were assigned to a control group. The
      mean myocardial WR of Tl-201 was calculated from the stress and the
      redistribution Bull's eye maps. RESULTS: With progressive CKD stages, systolic
      blood pressure and incindence of hypertension were increased. All patients in CKD
      stage 5 group were being treated with hemodialysis. Myocardial WR of Tl-201 was
      significantly higher in all of the CKD groups than control group. With
      progressive CKD stages, myocardial WR of Tl-201 was increased (stage 3, 52.2 +/-
      9.2%; stage 4, 55.5 +/- 8.1%; and stage 5, 58.9 +/- 5.6%). Multivariate analysis
      showed that hemoglobin (beta = -0.24, p < 0.001) and eGFR (beta = -0.24, p =
      0.002) were the major determinants of myocardial WR of Tl-201, but hemodialysis
      was not. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that CKD is associated with increased
      myocardial WR of Tl-201 in patients with normal perfusion on SPECT.

PMID- 28879529
TI  - Costs and Treatment Pathways for Type 2 Diabetes in the UK: A Mastermind Cohort
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Medication therapy for type 2 diabetes has become increasingly
      complex, and there are few reliable data on the current state of clinical
      practice. We report treatment pathways and associated costs of medication therapy
      for people with type 2 diabetes in the UK, their variability and changes over
      time. METHODS: Prescription and biomarker data for 7159 people with type 2
      diabetes were extracted from the GoDARTS cohort study, covering the period 1989
      2013. Average follow-up was 10 years. Individuals were prescribed on average 2.4
      (SD: 1.2) drugs with average annual costs of L241. We calculated summary
      statistics for first- and second-line therapies. Linear regression models were
      used to estimate associations between therapy characteristics and baseline
      patient characteristics. RESULTS: Average time from diagnosis to first
      prescription was 3 years (SD: 4.0 years). Almost all first-line therapy (98%) was
      monotherapy, with average annual cost of L83 (SD: L204) for 3.8 (SD: 3.5) years.
      Second-line therapy was initiated in 73% of all individuals, at an average annual
      cost of L219 (SD: L305). Therapies involving insulin were markedly more expensive
      than other common therapies. Baseline HbA1c was unrelated to future therapy
      costs, but higher average HbA1c levels over time were associated with higher
      costs. CONCLUSIONS: Medication therapy has undergone substantial changes during
      the period covered in this study. For example, therapy is initiated earlier and
      is less expensive than in the past. The data provided in this study will prove
      useful for future modelling studies, e.g. of stratified treatment approaches.

PMID- 28879531
TI  - PD1 blockade with low-dose nivolumab in NK/T cell lymphoma failing L
      asparaginase: efficacy and safety.

PMID- 28879530
TI  - Correlation analyses revealed global microRNA-mRNA expression associations in
      human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can regulate gene expression through binding to complementary
      sites in the 3'-untranslated regions of target mRNAs, which will lead to
      existence of correlation in expression between miRNA and mRNA. However, the miRNA
      mRNA correlation patterns are complex and remain largely unclear yet. To
      establish the global correlation patterns in human peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells (PBMCs), multiple miRNA-mRNA correlation analyses and expression
      quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis were conducted in this study. We
      predicted and achieved 861 miRNA-mRNA pairs (65 miRNAs, 412 mRNAs) using multiple
      bioinformatics programs, and found global negative miRNA-mRNA correlations in
      PBMC from all 46 study subjects. Among the 861 pairs of correlations, 19.5% were
      significant (P < 0.05) and ~70% were negative. The correlation network was
      complex and highlighted key miRNAs/genes in PBMC. Some miRNAs, such as hsa-miR
      29a, hsa-miR-148a, regulate a cluster of target genes. Some genes, e.g., TNRC6A,
      are regulated by multiple miRNAs. The identified genes tend to be enriched in
      molecular functions of DNA and RNA binding, and biological processes such as
      protein transport, regulation of translation and chromatin modification. The
      results provided a global view of the miRNA-mRNA expression correlation profile
      in human PBMCs, which would facilitate in-depth investigation of biological
      functions of key miRNAs/mRNAs and better understanding of the pathogenesis
      underlying PBMC-related diseases.

PMID- 28879532
TI  - Basic leucine zipper domain transcription factors: the vanguards in plant
      immunity.
AB  - Regulation of spatio-temporal expression patterns of stress tolerance associated
      plant genes is an essential component of the stress responses. Eukaryotes assign
      a large amount of their genome to transcription with multiple transcription
      factors (TFs). Often, these transcription factors fit into outsized gene groups
      which, in several cases, exclusively belong to plants. Basic leucine zipper
      domain (bZIP) transcription factors regulate vital processes in plants and
      animals. In plants, bZIPs are implicated in numerous fundamental processes like
      seed development, energy balance, and responses to abiotic or biotic stresses.
      Systematic analysis of the information obtained over the last two decades
      disclosed a constitutive role of bZIPs against biotic stress. bZIP TFs are vital
      players in plant innate immunity due to their ability to regulate genes
      associated with PAMP-triggered immunity, effector-triggered immunity, and
      hormonal signaling networks. Expression analysis of studied bZIP genes suggests
      that exploration and functional characterization of novel bZIP TFs in planta is
      helpful in improving crop resistance against pathogens and environmental
      stresses. Our review focuses on major advancements in bZIP TFs and plant
      responses against different pathogens. The integration of genomics information
      with the functional studies provides new insights into the regulation of plant
      defense mechanisms and engineering crops with improved resistance to invading
      pathogens. Conclusively, succinct functions of bZIPs as positive or negative
      regulator mediate resistance to the plant pathogens and lay a foundation for
      understanding associated genes and TFs regulating different pathways. Moreover,
      bZIP TFs may offer a comprehensive transgenic gizmo for engineering disease
      resistance in plant breeding programs.

PMID- 28879533
TI  - Patient-specific activity or scan-time in SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging: A
      hands-on approach.

PMID- 28879534
TI  - Children and Careers: How Family Size Affects Parents' Labor Market Outcomes in
      the Long Run.
AB  - We estimate the effect of family size on various measures of labor market
      outcomes over the whole career until retirement, using instrumental variables
      estimation in data from Norwegian administrative registers. Parents' number of
      children is instrumented with the sex mix of their first two children. We find
      that having additional children causes sizable reductions in labor supply for
      women, which fade as children mature and even turn positive for women without a
      college degree. Among women with a college degree, there is evidence of
      persistent and even increasing career penalties of family size. Having additional
      children reduces these women's probability of being employed by higher-paying
      firms, their earnings rank within the employing firm, and their probability of
      being the top earner at the workplace. Some of the career effects persist long
      after labor supply is restored. We find no effect of family size on any of men's
      labor market outcomes in either the short or long run.

PMID- 28879535
TI  - Hypercalcemia: a consultant's approach.
AB  - Due to their daily involvement in mineral metabolism, nephrologists are often
      asked to consult on children with hypercalcemia. This might become even more
      pertinent when the hypercalcemia is associated with acute kidney injury and/or
      hypercalciuria and renal calcifications. The best way to assess the severity of
      hypercalcemia is by measurement of plasma ionized calcium, and if not available
      by adjusting serum total calcium to albumin concentration. The differential
      diagnosis of the possible etiologies of the disturbance in the mineral
      homeostasis starts with the assessment of serum parathyroid hormone
      concentration, followed by that of vitamin D metabolites in search of both
      genetic and acquired etiologies. Several tools are available to acutely treat
      hypercalcemia with the current main components being fluids, loop diuretics, and
      antiresorptive agents. This review will address the pathophysiologic mechanisms,
      clinical manifestations, and treatment modalities involved in hypercalcemia.

PMID- 28879536
TI  - Binding affinities of the farnesoid X receptor in the D3R Grand Challenge 2
      estimated by free-energy perturbation and docking.
AB  - We have studied the binding of 102 ligands to the farnesoid X receptor within the
      D3R Grand Challenge 2016 blind-prediction competition. First, we employed docking
      with five different docking software and scoring functions. The selected docked
      poses gave an average root-mean-squared deviation of 4.2 A. Consensus scoring
      gave decent results with a Kendall's tau of 0.26 +/- 0.06 and a Spearman's rho of
      0.41 +/- 0.08. For a subset of 33 ligands, we calculated relative binding free
      energies with free-energy perturbation. Five transformations between the ligands
      involved a change of the net charge and we implemented and benchmarked a semi
      analytic correction (Rocklin et al., J Chem Phys 139:184103, 2013) for artifacts
      caused by the periodic boundary conditions and Ewald summation. The results gave
      a mean absolute deviation of 7.5 kJ/mol compared to the experimental estimates
      and a correlation coefficient of R 2 = 0.1. These results were among the four
      best in this competition out of 22 submissions. The charge corrections were
      significant (7-8 kJ/mol) and always improved the results. By employing 23
      intermediate states in the free-energy perturbation, there was a proper overlap
      between all states and the precision was 0.1-0.7 kJ/mol. However, thermodynamic
      cycles indicate that the sampling was insufficient in some of the perturbations.

PMID- 28879538
TI  - Persistence length of collagen molecules based on nonlocal viscoelastic model.
AB  - Persistence length is one of the most interesting properties of a molecular
      chain, which is used to describe the stiffness of a molecule. The experimentally
      measured values of the persistence length of the collagen molecule are widely
      scattered from 14 to 180 nm. Therefore, an alternative approach is highly
      desirable to predict the persistence length of a molecule and also to explain the
      experimental results. In this paper, a nonlocal viscoelastic model is developed
      to obtain the persistence length of the collagen molecules in solvent. A new
      explicit formula is proposed for the persistence length of the molecule with the
      consideration of the small-scale effect, viscoelastic properties of the molecule,
      loading frequency, and viscosity of the solvent. The presented model indicates
      that there exists a range of molecule lengths in which the persistence length
      strongly depends on the frequency and spatial mode of applied loads, small-scale
      effect, and viscoelastic properties of the collagen.

PMID- 28879537
TI  - Assessing reserve-building pursuits and person characteristics: psychometric
      validation of the Reserve-Building Measure.
AB  - AIMS: A growing body of research suggests that regularly engaging in stimulating
      activities across multiple domains-physical, cultural, intellectual, communal,
      and spiritual-builds resilience. This project investigated the psychometric
      characteristics of the DeltaQuest Reserve-Building Measure for use in prospective
      research. METHODS: The study included Rare Patient Voice panel participants. The
      web-based survey included the Reserve-Building Measure with one-week re-test,
      measures of quality of life (QOL) and well-being (PROMIS General Health; NeuroQOL
      Cognitive Function and Positive Affect & Well-Being short-forms; Ryff
      Environmental Mastery subscale); and the Big Five Inventory-10 personality
      measure. Classical test theory and item response theory (IRT) analyses
      investigated psychometric characteristics of the Reserve-Building Measure.
      RESULTS: This North American sample (n = 592) included both patients and
      caregivers [mean age = 44, SD 19)]. Psychometric analyses revealed distinct
      subscales measuring current reserve-building activities (Active in the World,
      Games, Outdoors, Creative, Religious/Spiritual, Exercise, Inner Life,
      Shopping/Cooking, Passive Media Consumption,), past reserve-building activities
      (Childhood Activities, Achievement), and reserve-related person-factors
      (Perseverance, Current and Past Social Support, and Work Value). Test-retest
      stability (n = 101) was moderately high for 11 of 15 subscales (ICC range 0.78
      0.99); four were below 0.59 indicating a need for further refinement. IRT
      analyses supported the item functioning of all subscales. Correlational analyses
      suggest the measure's subscales tap distinct constructs (range r = 0.11-0.46)
      which are not redundant with QOL, well-being, or personality (range r = 0.11
      0.48). CONCLUSIONS: The Reserve-Building Measure provides a measure of activities
      and person-factors related to reserve that may potentially be useful in
      prospective research.

PMID- 28879540
TI  - Enasidenib: First Global Approval.
AB  - Enasidenib (Idhifa(r)) is an oral isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 (IDH2) inhibitor
      developed by Celgene Corporation under a global, exclusive license from Agios
      Pharmaceuticals. Enasidenib has been approved in the USA for the treatment of
      adults with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and an IDH2
      mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test. It is at various stages of
      development in other countries for AML, myelodysplastic syndromes and solid
      tumours. This article summarizes the milestones in the development of enasidenib
      leading to this first global approval in the USA for the treatment of adults with
      relapsed or refractory IDH2-mutated AML.

PMID- 28879539
TI  - Synergistic effect of two beta globin gene cluster mutations leading to the
      hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) phenotype.
AB  - Co-inheritance of gamma and beta globin gene mutations in a compound heterozygous
      state is rare but of clinical interest as it provides an important data on
      understanding the HbF expression. Hematological analysis was carried out (Sysmex
      KX-21). F-cells were enumerated using flow cytometry. Beta globin gene was
      analysed by CRDB technique and by DNA sequencing. Gamma globin promoter region
      was sequenced and expression studies were carried out using real time Taqman
      assay. We report a family, where two inherited defects of the beta globin gene
      cluster segregate. The proband and her sibling were compound heterozygotes for a
      novel Ggamma promoter mutation and the 619 bp deletion a common Indian beta
      thalassemia mutation. Molecular characterization revealed that the father (HbA2
      5.1%, HbF 5.4%), proband (HbA2 3.6%, HbF 31.7%) and her brother (HbA2 3.9%, HbF
      23.6%) were heterozygous for the 619 bp deletion. The mother (HbA2 2.1%, HbF
      3.4%) had a normal beta globin gene. As both the children showed high HbF levels,
      the gamma globin gene work up was carried out. The Ggamma-globin gene promoter
      analysis revealed that the mother and the two children were heterozygous for a 5
      bp deletion -ATAAG (-533 to -529) that resides in the GATA binding site. These
      findings suggest that the 5 bp deletion in the Ggamma globin promoter has a
      functional role in silencing the gamma-globin gene expression in adults by
      disrupting GATA-1 binding and the associated repressor complex and results in the
      up-regulation of gamma globin gene expression. When co-inherited with beta 
      thalassemia trait it leads to a phenotype of HPFH.

PMID- 28879542
TI  - Competency-Based Education in Low Resource Settings: Development of a Novel
      Surgical Training Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The unmet burden of surgical disease represents a major global health
      concern, and a lack of trained providers is a critical component of the
      inadequacy of surgical care worldwide. Competency-based training has been
      advanced in high-income countries, improving technical skills and decreasing
      training time, but it is poorly understood how this model might be applied to low
      and middle-income countries. We describe the development of a competency-based
      program to accelerate specialty training of in-country providers in cleft surgery
      techniques. METHODS: The program was designed and piloted among eight trainees at
      five international cleft lip and palate surgical mission sites in Latin America
      and Africa. A competency-based evaluation form, designed for the program, was
      utilized to grade general technical and procedure-specific competencies, and pre-
      and post-training scores were analyzed using a paired t test. RESULTS: Trainees
      demonstrated improvement in average procedure-specific competency scores for both
      lip repairs (60.4-71.0%, p < 0.01) and palate (50.6-66.0%, p < 0.01). General
      technical competency scores also improved (63.6-72.0%, p < 0.01). Among the
      procedural competencies assessed, surgical markings showed the greatest
      improvement (19.0 and 22.8% for lip and palate, respectively), followed by nasal
      floor/mucosal approximation (15.0%) and hard palate dissection (17.1%).
      CONCLUSION: Surgical delivery models in LMICs are varied, and trade-offs often
      exist between goals of case throughput, quality and training. Pilot program
      results show that procedure-specific and general technical competencies can be
      improved over a relatively short time and demonstrate the feasibility of
      incorporating such a training program into surgical outreach missions.

PMID- 28879541
TI  - Postural perturbation does not reset stepping rhythm in humans, but brief
      intermission does.
AB  - In the present study, we tested a hypothesis that the rhythm generator in humans
      keeps the rhythm of periodic motor output during brief inactivation of the
      pattern generator. This investigation was made through testing whether the step
      rhythm was reset after an interruptive event. A reset of the step rhythm was
      defined as an observation that the step re-emerges at random timing after an
      interruptive event regardless of the step rhythm before the interruption. This
      observation reflects an intermission of rhythm-keeping activity. Healthy
      participants stepped on a platform that could translate forward or backward. They
      continued stepping after the platform translation (non-stop session) or stopped
      briefly after the translation before resuming step with their own timing (stop
      session). In the non-stop session, the second step after the platform translation
      appeared at the integer multiple of the pre-existing step period in most
      participants, indicating that step rhythm was not reset. This finding indicates
      that postural perturbation does not interfere the rhythm-keeping activity. In the
      stop session, the step immediately after the intermission of stepping appeared at
      random time regardless of the step rhythm before the intermission in most
      participants. The actual side of the first step after the intermission was
      consistent with the predicted first step side at a 0.5 probability. Those
      findings indicate that step rhythm is reset after brief intermission of stepping,
      and contradict with the hypothesis that the activity of the rhythm generator is
      maintained, while the pattern generator is temporally inactive during a brief
      intermission of periodic motor output. This analysis could help to determine
      whether rhythm-keeping activity is inactivated by an interruptive event during
      periodic motor activity.

PMID- 28879543
TI  - Apex predatory mammals as bioindicator species in environmental monitoring of
      elements in Dinaric Alps (Croatia).
AB  - Tissue element investigations of apex terrestrial mammals are very scarce in
      Europe. We quantified 16 essential and nonessential elements in the kidney
      cortex, liver, and muscle tissue of 467 brown bears (Ursus arctos), 125 gray
      wolves (Canis lupus), one Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), and three golden jackals
      (Canis aureus) from Croatia by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP
      MS). Renal cadmium (0.6% of animals) and lead (1%) and hepatic lead (5%) were
      found in toxicologically relevant levels for mammals only in bears, while the
      other elements were within normal range. The association of age, sex, season, and
      region with measured tissue elements in bear and wolf was estimated by multiple
      regression analyses. Age-related accumulation of cadmium was observed in bears
      and wolves. Lead tissue content increased with the age of bears but declined in
      wolves. Female bears and wolves had higher arsenic, iron, and thallium than males
      in some tissues. Also, cadmium, mercury, copper, zinc, selenium, molybdenum, and
      uranium were more abundant only in female bears. Male bears had higher potassium,
      zinc, and magnesium, while male wolves had higher calcium in some tissues
      compared to female wolves. Seasonal differences were mainly observed for bears'
      tissues and region-specific differences only in wolves. The bear kidneys had the
      highest levels of cobalt, copper, molybdenum, cadmium, and lead among the four
      studied species. The element levels reported for bears and wolves represent
      baseline values for the Dinaric population.

PMID- 28879544
TI  - Brain cortical characteristics of lifetime cognitive ageing.
AB  - Regional cortical brain volume is the product of surface area and thickness.
      These measures exhibit partially distinct trajectories of change across the
      brain's cortex in older age, but it is unclear which cortical characteristics at
      which loci are sensitive to cognitive ageing differences. We examine associations
      between change in intelligence from age 11 to 73 years and regional cortical
      volume, surface area, and thickness measured at age 73 years in 568 community
      dwelling older adults, all born in 1936. A relative positive change in
      intelligence from 11 to 73 was associated with larger volume and surface area in
      selective frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions (r < 0.180, FDR
      corrected q < 0.05). There were no significant associations between cognitive
      ageing and a thinner cortex for any region. Interestingly, thickness and surface
      area were phenotypically independent across bilateral lateral temporal loci,
      whose surface area was significantly related to change in intelligence. These
      findings suggest that associations between regional cortical volume and cognitive
      ageing differences are predominantly driven by surface area rather than thickness
      among healthy older adults. Regional brain surface area has been relatively
      underexplored, and is a potentially informative biomarker for identifying
      determinants of cognitive ageing differences.

PMID- 28879545
TI  - Real-life use of onabotulinumtoxinA for symptom relief in patients with chronic
      migraine: REPOSE study methodology and baseline data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Migraine is a debilitating neurological disorder that affects 14.1%
      of the US and 14.7% of the European populations. Chronic migraine (CM) is broadly
      defined as headache occurring on >=15 days per month for >=3 months, and has an
      estimated worldwide prevalence of 1.4% to 2.2%. OnabotulinumtoxinA is currently
      approved for the treatment of CM in most European countries, and is the only
      preventative treatment approved for adults with CM, based on results from the
      PREEMPT clinical trial programme. The ongoing prospective, observational REal
      life use of botulinum toxin for the symptomatic treatment of adults with chronic
      migraine, measuring healthcare resource utilisation, and Patient-reported
      OutcomeS observed in practice (REPOSE) Study aims to describe real-world
      healthcare resource utilisation and patient-reported outcomes over a 2-year
      period in Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom,
      among patients with CM prescribed onabotulinumtoxinA. METHODS: Herein,
      methodology and baseline characteristics of patients who participated for >=6
      months in REPOSE are reported. No outcomes data are presented, although the
      methods for collecting these data are detailed. In REPOSE, onabotulinumtoxinA is
      administered at baseline and each follow-up visit (approximately every 3 months)
      during the 24-month treatment period, according to the treating physician's best
      clinical judgment and standard of care, guided by the terms of the marketing
      authorisation described in the Summary of Product Characteristics. Outcome
      assessments include Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MSQ),
      EuroQol Group Questionnaire (EQ-5D), headache-day frequency, treatment
      satisfaction, headache-related healthcare resource utilisation (ie, healthcare
      professional visits, hospital admissions, medication use), onabotulinumtoxinA
      utilisation (ie, dose, sites), and safety/tolerability. RESULTS: As of the
      interim assessment date for this analysis, the study has enrolled 644 patients
      from 78 sites throughout Europe, and baseline data are available for 336 patients
      from 61 sites who participated in the study for >=6 months. Baseline measures
      indicate substantial disease burden and healthcare resource utilisation.
      CONCLUSIONS: Final results from the REPOSE Study will provide the largest real
      world, long-term analysis of the clinical use of onabotulinumtoxinA for the
      treatment of CM and will add important information to existing real-world
      findings. Future analyses will assess the long-term safety and efficacy of
      onabotulinumtoxinA in this population.

PMID- 28879546
TI  - The Btk-dependent PIP5K1gamma lipid kinase activation by Fas counteracts FasL
      induced cell death.
AB  - The Fas/FasL system plays a critical role in death by apoptosis and immune escape
      of cancer cells. The Fas receptor being ubiquitously expressed in tissues, its
      apoptotic-inducing function, initiated upon FasL binding, is tightly regulated by
      several negative regulatory mechanisms to prevent inappropriate cell death. One
      of them, involving the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Btk, was reported mainly in B
      cells and only poorly described. We report here that Btk negatively regulates,
      through its tyrosine kinase activity, the FasL-mediated cell death in epithelial
      cell lines from colon cancer origin. More importantly, we show that Btk interacts
      not only with Fas but also with the phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase,
      PIP5K1gamma, which, upon stimulation by Fas ligand, is responsible of a rapid and
      transient synthesis of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2). This
      production requires both the presence and the tyrosine kinase activity of Btk,
      and participates in the negative regulation of FasL-mediated cell death since
      knocking down PIP5K1gamma expression significantly strengthens the apoptotic
      signal upon FasL engagement. Altogether, our data demonstrate the cooperative
      role of Btk and PIP5K1gamma in a FasL-induced PI(4,5)P2 production, both proteins
      participating to the threshold setting of FasL-induced apoptotic commitment in
      colorectal cell lines.

PMID- 28879547
TI  - Comparison of ICD-9 Codes for Depression and Alcohol Misuse to Survey Instruments
      Suggests These Codes Should Be Used with Caution.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research suggests depression and alcohol misuse are highly prevalent
      among chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients, which is of clinical concern. AIMS: To
      compare ICD-9 codes for depression and alcohol misuse to validated survey
      instruments. METHODS: Among CHC patients, we assessed how well electronic ICD-9
      codes for depression and alcohol misuse predicted these disorders using validated
      instruments. RESULTS: Of 4874 patients surveyed, 56% were male and 52% had a
      history of injection drug use. Based on the PHQ-8, the prevalence of depression
      was 30% compared to 14% based on ICD-9 codes within 12 months of survey, 37% from
      ICD-9 codes any time before or within 12 months after survey, and 48% from ICD-9
      codes any time before or within 24 months after survey. ICD-9 codes predicting
      PHQ-8 depression had a sensitivity ranging from 59 to 88% and a specificity
      ranging from 33 to 65%. Based on the AUDIT-C, the prevalence of alcohol misuse
      was 21% compared to 3-23% using ICD-9 codes. The sensitivity of ICD-9 codes to
      predict AUDIT-C score ranged from 9 to 35% and specificity from 80 to 98%.
      Overall 39% of patients reported ever binge drinking, with a sensitivity of ICD-9
      to predict binge drinking ranging from 7 to 33% and a specificity from 84 to 98%.
      More than half of patients had either an ICD-9 code for depression, a survey
      score indicating depression, or both (59%); more than one-third had the same
      patterns for alcohol misuse (36%). CONCLUSIONS: ICD-9 codes were limited in
      predicting current depression and alcohol misuse, suggesting that caution should
      be exercised when using ICD-9 codes to assess depression or alcohol misuse among
      CHC patients.

PMID- 28879548
TI  - Cepharanthine Inhibits IFN-gamma-Induced CXCL10 by Suppressing the JAK2/STAT1
      Signal Pathway in Human Salivary Gland Ductal Cells.
AB  - Cepharanthine, a biscolaurine alkaloid isolated from the plant Stephania
      cephalantha Hayata, has been reported to have potent anti-inflammatory
      properties. Here, we investigated the effects of cepharanthine on the expression
      of CXCL10 (a CXC chemokine induced by interferon-gamma [IFN-gamma] that has been
      observed in a wide variety of chronic inflammatory disorders and autoimmune
      conditions) in IFN-gamma-treated human salivary gland cell lines. We observed
      that IFN-gamma-induced CXCL10 production in NS-SV-DC cells (a human salivary
      gland ductal cell line), but not in NS-SV-AC cells (a human salivary gland acinar
      cell line). Cepharanthine inhibited the IFN-gamma-induced CXCL10 production in NS
      SV-DC cells. A Western blot analysis showed that cepharanthine prevented the
      phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT1, but did not interfere with the NF-kappaB
      pathway. Moreover, cepharanthine inhibited the IFN-gamma-mediated chemotaxis of
      Jurkat T cells. These results suggest that cepharanthine suppresses IFN-gamma
      induced CXCL10 production via the inhibition of the JAK2/STAT1 signaling pathway
      in human salivary gland ductal cells. Our findings also indicate that
      cepharanthine could inhibit the chemotaxis of Jurkat T cells by reducing CXCL10
      production.

PMID- 28879549
TI  - Decreased platelet count in children with epilepsy treated with valproate and its
      relationship to the immature platelet fraction.
AB  - This study examined relationships between valproate (VPA) and platelet count and
      immature platelet fraction (IPF). We compared the platelet count and IPF among
      three groups of children: those treated with VPA, those treated with other
      antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), and a reference group. IPF was measured using flow
      cytometry, and absolute immature platelet count (A-IPC) was calculated. The
      platelet count was significantly lower in the VPA group than in other AED and
      reference groups. In all groups, IPF was negatively correlated with platelet
      count. IPF was significantly higher in the VPA group than in the reference group,
      whereas A-IPC was similar among all groups. After stratification of the platelet
      count, IPF and A-IPC of the three groups did not differ significantly in any
      strata. No relationship was observed between serum VPA level and platelet count,
      IPF, or A-IPC. Our study suggests that VPA is associated with a decreased
      platelet count, although thrombocytopoiesis is not affected, even in children
      with a reduced platelet count. The suppression of platelet production in the bone
      marrow is unlikely to be the cause of thrombocytopenia in patients treated with
      VPA.

PMID- 28879550
TI  - New Protocol Based on UHPLC-MS/MS for Quantitation of Metabolites in Xylose
      Fermenting Yeasts.
AB  - Xylose fermentation is a bottleneck in second-generation ethanol production. As
      such, a comprehensive understanding of xylose metabolism in naturally xylose
      fermenting yeasts is essential for prospection and construction of recombinant
      yeast strains. The objective of the current study was to establish a reliable
      metabolomics protocol for quantification of key metabolites of xylose catabolism
      pathways in yeast, and to apply this protocol to Spathaspora arborariae. Ultra
      high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC
      MS/MS) was used to quantify metabolites, and afterwards, sample preparation was
      optimized to examine yeast intracellular metabolites. S. arborariae was
      cultivated using xylose as a carbon source under aerobic and oxygen-limited
      conditions. Ion pair chromatography (IPC) and hydrophilic interaction liquid
      chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) were shown to efficiently
      quantify 14 and 5 metabolites, respectively, in a more rapid chromatographic
      protocol than previously described. Thirteen and eleven metabolites were
      quantified in S. arborariae under aerobic and oxygen-limited conditions,
      respectively. This targeted metabolomics protocol is shown here to quantify a
      total of 19 metabolites, including sugars, phosphates, coenzymes,
      monosaccharides, and alcohols, from xylose catabolism pathways (glycolysis,
      pentose phosphate pathway, and tricarboxylic acid cycle) in yeast. Furthermore,
      to our knowledge, this is the first time that intracellular metabolites have been
      quantified in S. arborariae after xylose consumption. The results indicated that
      fine control of oxygen levels during fermentation is necessary to optimize
      ethanol production by S. arborariae. The protocol presented here may be applied
      to other yeast species and could support yeast genetic engineering to improve
      second generation ethanol production. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28879551
TI  - Clinical grade manufacturing of genetically modified, CAR-expressing NK-92 cells
      for the treatment of ErbB2-positive malignancies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The NK-92/5.28.z cell line (also referred to as HER2.taNK) represents
      a stable, lentiviral-transduced clone of ErbB2 (HER2)-specific, second-generation
      CAR-expressing derivative of clinically applicable NK-92 cells. This study
      addresses manufacturing-related issues and aimed to develop a GMP-compliant
      protocol for the generation of NK-92/5.28.z therapeutic doses starting from a
      well-characterized GMP-compliant master cell bank. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Commercially available GMP-grade culture media and supplements (fresh frozen
      plasma, platelet lysate) were evaluated for their ability to support expansion of
      NK-92/5.28.z. Irradiation sensitivity and cytokine release were also
      investigated. RESULTS: NK-92/5.28.z cells can be grown to clinically applicable
      cell doses of 5 * 108 cells/L in a 5-day batch culture without loss of viability
      and potency. X-Vivo 10 containing recombinant transferrin supplemented with 5%
      FFP and 500 IU/mL IL-2 in VueLife 750-C1 bags showed the best results. Platelet
      lysate was less suited to support NK-92/5.28.z proliferation. Irradiation with 10
      Gy completely abrogated NK-92/5.28.z proliferation and preserved viability and
      potency for at least 24 h. NK-92/5.28.z showed higher baseline cytokine release
      compared to NK-92, which was significantly increased upon encountering ErbB2(+)
      targets [GZMB (twofold), IFN-gamma (fourfold), IL-8 (24-fold) and IL-10
      (fivefold)]. IL-6 was not released by NK cells, but was observed in some
      stimulated targets. Irradiation resulted in upregulation of IL-8 and
      downregulation of sFasL, while other cytokines were not impacted. CONCLUSION: Our
      concept suggests NK-92/5.28.z maintenance culture from which therapeutic doses up
      to 5 * 109 cells can be expanded in 10 L within 5 days. This established process
      is feasible to analyze NK-92/5.28.z in phase I/II trials.

PMID- 28879553
TI  - Frontal lobe syndrome associated with intracranial hemorrhages.

PMID- 28879554
TI  - Congenital dyserythropoietic anemia type II mimicking hereditary spherocytosis in
      Indian patient with SEC23B-Y462C mutations.

PMID- 28879552
TI  - Considerations for Hartmann's reversal and Hartmann's reversal outcomes-a
      multicenter study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Hartmann's procedure is commonly practiced in emergent cases with the
      restoration of bowel continuity planned at a second stage. This study assessed
      the rate of restorations following Hartmann's procedure and evaluated factors
      affecting decision-making. METHODS: Data on patient demographics, comorbidities,
      causes for Hartmann's procedure, reversal rate, and complications were collected
      in a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent Hartmann's
      procedure in five medical centers. RESULTS: Six hundred forty patients underwent
      Hartmann's procedure for diverticular disease (36.1%), obstructing malignancy
      (31.8%), benign obstruction (5%), and other reasons (23.1%). Overall, 260 (40.6%)
      patients underwent subsequent restoration of bowel continuity. One hundred twenty
      one (46.5%) patients had post-reversal complications, with an average Clavien
      Dindo score of 1.4 and a mortality rate of 0.77%. Decision to avoid reversal was
      mostly related to comorbidities (49.7%) and metastatic disease (21.6%). Factors
      associated with the decision to restore bowel continuity included male gender (P
      = 0.02), patient age (62.3 years in Hartmann's reversal patients vs 73.5 years in
      non-reversal patients; P < 0.0001), number of comorbidities (1.1 vs 1.58; P <
      0.001), average Charlson score (1.93 vs 3.44; P < 0.001), and a neoplastic
      etiology (P < 0.0001). A sub-analysis excluding all patients who died in the 30
      days following Hartmann's procedure showed similar factors associated with ostomy
      closure. CONCLUSION: Many patients do not have restoration of bowel continuity
      after undergoing Hartmann's procedure. Hartmann's reversal is associated with a
      significant postoperative morbidity. Surgeons and patients should be aware of the
      possibility that the colostomy might become permanent.

PMID- 28879555
TI  - Effects of photodynamic therapy plus intravitreal aflibercept with subtenon
      triamcinolone injections for aflibercept-resistant polypoidal choroidal
      vasculopathy.

PMID- 28879556
TI  - We are operating too much.
AB  - With the increase of superspecialisation, there has been a recent trend for a
      rising number of operations for both trauma and orthopaedic ailments. This flies
      against the results of properly planned, well performed, adequately powered, with
      clinically relevant outcome measures and long enough follow-up level I studies
      which challenge the received wisdom that surgery is actually superior to
      conservative management or even supervised neglect. This editorial outlines some
      of these issues, and suggests that orthopaedic and trauma surgeons should
      actually think twice before operating on anything that comes our way.

PMID- 28879557
TI  - A Pilot Study of Perceived Mouth Dryness, Perceived Swallowing Effort, and Saliva
      Substitute Effects in Healthy Adults Across the Age Range.
AB  - Xerostomia, or perceived mouth dryness, increases with advancing age, but its
      influence on swallowing effort is unknown. This study: (1) quantified
      relationships among age, perceived sense of swallowing effort, and ratings of
      perceived mouth dryness, and (2) examined changes in swallowing effort following
      application of a gel-based saliva substitute in healthy participants. This was a
      cross-sectional observational study and data were collected from attendees of a
      community healthy aging fair. Forty-two healthy participants (mean age = 65
      years; 20 female) were enrolled. Each participant rated perceived effort with
      swallowing and perceived mouth dryness on a 10-cm horizontal, undifferentiated
      line. After participants applied a gel-based saliva substitute (Biotene(r) Oral
      Balance) to their tongue and oral mucosa, they rated perceived effort with
      swallowing again. Age was associated with greater perceived mouth dryness (r =
      0.37, p < 0.03) but not with perceived swallowing effort (r = 0.16, p = 0.32).
      Perceived mouth dryness was associated with greater perceived swallowing effort
      (r = 0.62, p < 0.001). Perceived swallowing effort declined following application
      of the salivary substitute (mean difference = 9.39 mm, p < 0.002). Age was found
      to be a significant predictor of perceived mouth dryness (p < .02); and perceived
      mouth dryness was found to significantly predict perceived swallow effort (p <
      .001). Perceived mouth dryness increased with advancing age, but perceived
      swallowing effort did not. Regardless of age, participants with higher levels of
      perceived mouth dryness also reported more perceived effort with swallowing
      suggesting a role for adequate oral lubrication in this perception. Even in
      healthy participants, use of a gel-based saliva substitute lowered perceived
      swallowing effort.

PMID- 28879558
TI  - Second opinion strategies in breast pathology: a decision analysis addressing
      over-treatment, under-treatment, and care costs.
AB  - PURPOSE: To estimate the potential near-term population impact of alternative
      second opinion breast biopsy pathology interpretation strategies. METHODS:
      Decision analysis examining 12-month outcomes of breast biopsy for nine breast
      pathology interpretation strategies in the U.S. health system. Diagnoses of 115
      practicing pathologists in the Breast Pathology Study were compared to reference
      standard-consensus diagnoses with and without second opinions. Interpretation
      strategies were defined by whether a second opinion was sought universally or
      selectively (e.g., 2nd opinion if invasive). Main outcomes were the expected
      proportion of concordant breast biopsy diagnoses, the proportion involving over-
      or under-interpretation, and cost of care in U.S. dollars within one-year of
      biopsy. RESULTS: Without a second opinion, 92.2% of biopsies received a
      concordant diagnosis. Concordance rates increased under all second opinion
      strategies, and the rate was highest (95.1%) and under-treatment lowest (2.6%)
      when all biopsies had second opinions. However, over-treatment was lowest when
      second opinions were sought selectively for initial diagnoses of invasive cancer,
      DCIS, or atypia (1.8 vs. 4.7% with no 2nd opinions). This strategy also had the
      lowest projected 12-month care costs ($5.907 billion vs. $6.049 billion with no
      2nd opinions). CONCLUSIONS: Second opinion strategies could lower overall care
      costs while reducing both over- and under-treatment. The most accurate cost
      saving strategy required second opinions for initial diagnoses of invasive
      cancer, DCIS, or atypia.

PMID- 28879559
TI  - Yonsei Experience of 5000 Gasless Transaxillary Robotic Thyroidectomies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the use of robot systems in thyroid surgery was introduced in
      2007, we have advanced a novel method of robotic thyroidectomy (RT) using a
      gasless transaxillary approach (TAA). We report our experience with this
      technique and detail the surgical outcome of 5000 robotic thyroidectomies.
      METHODS: From October 2007 to May 2016, we successfully performed 5000 robotic
      thyroidectomies using a gasless TAA at the Department of Surgery, Yonsei
      University Health System. The medical records of the patients are reviewed
      retrospectively, and the details of clinicopathologic characteristics, operation
      times, perioperative complications, and oncologic outcomes are analyzed. RESULTS:
      The 5000 patients with thyroid tumor (4804 with cancer and 196 with benign tumor)
      underwent RT using a gasless TAA. Mean operation time was 134.5 +/- 122.0 min.
      The most common histologic subtype of thyroid cancer was papillary (98%), and the
      mean tumor size was 8.0 +/- 6.0 mm. Stage I was found in 85.4% patients regarding
      tumor nodes metastasis staging. The 196 benign tumors consisted of 104
      adenomatous hyperplasias (53.0%), 43 follicular adenomas (21.9%), 30 Graves'
      diseases (15.3%), and 19 others (9.7%). Postoperative complication occurred in
      24.1% without any serious one, and overall morbidity tended to decrease over
      time. No disease-specific mortality was observed during the follow-up period.
      Locoregional recurrence was developed in 26 patients (0.5%). CONCLUSION: The
      authors have tried to improve RT technique using gasless TAA and achieved
      acceptable surgical outcomes. The rapid evolution of surgical robot technology
      and our constant effort to advance RT technique using gasless TAA would make it
      possible to reduce the perioperative morbidity and gain the best possible
      operative and oncologic outcomes.

PMID- 28879561
TI  - Backbone 1H, 13C and 15N chemical shift assignment of full-length human uracil
      DNA glycosylase UNG2.
AB  - Human uracil N-glycosylase isoform 2-UNG2 consists of an N-terminal intrinsically
      disordered regulatory domain (UNG2 residues 1-92, 9.3 kDa) and a C-terminal
      structured catalytic domain (UNG2 residues 93-313, 25.1 kDa). Here, we report the
      backbone 1H, 13C, and 15N chemical shift assignment as well as secondary
      structure analysis of the N-and C-terminal domains of UNG2 representing the full
      length UNG2 protein.

PMID- 28879560
TI  - Involvement of miR-155/FOXO3a and miR-222/PTEN in acquired radioresistance of
      colorectal cancer cell line.
AB  - PURPOSE: Finding a novel biomarker for determining the radiosensitivity of
      colorectal cancer (CRC) is critical. The aim of this study is to evaluate the
      role of two main miRNAs including miR-222 and miR-155 in radiation response of
      CRC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The radioresistant CRC cell lines were established by
      exposing the HCT 116 cell line to fractional X-ray radiation. SubG1 fraction
      analysis, MTT and clonogenic assays were applied to evaluate acquired
      radioresistant cell line radiosensitivity. miR-222/PTEN and miR-155/FOXO3a
      expressions were detected by RT PCR. RESULTS: The clonogenic assay and sub
      G1fraction analysis indicated that the RR2 sub-line was significantly more
      resistant than the parental cell line. MiR-222 and miR-155 were significantly
      upregulated in the radioresistant cell lines compared with the parental cell
      lines. The PTEN and FOXO3a expressions in the radioresistant cell lines were
      significantly higher than in the parental line. CONCLUSION: These observations
      indicate that miR-222 and miR-155 could induce radiation resistance in colorectal
      cancer by targeting PTEN and FOXO3a genes, respectively. Therefore, miR-222 and
      miR-155 can be suggested as good biomarkers of CRC radiation response.

PMID- 28879562
TI  - The Knowledge of South African Men Relating to Cervical Cancer and Cervical
      Cancer Screening.
AB  - Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in South African women, but the
      most common cancer in Black women. Despite having a national cervical cancer
      screening programme, most women present with advanced disease. Men play a role in
      cervical cancer as the HPV, the major cause of cervical cancer, is sexually
      transmitted. The purpose of our study was to describe the knowledge men, living
      in Muldersdrift, had about cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening and the
      cervical cancer screening programme and how they preferred to be taught about
      these health issues. We used a survey design and convenience sampling to select
      101 men older than 18 years (n = 101). A pretested self-developed questionnaire
      was used as the data collection instrument, and the data were analyzed using the
      SPSS version 22-computer program and quantitative content analyses. The Fischer's
      exact test measured associations between variables (p = 0.05). The ages of the
      sample (n = 101) ranged from 18 to 92 years; most were from the Zulu cultural
      group, unemployed and unmarried. The majority (66.3%, n = 67) had not heard of
      cervical cancer, the cervical cancer screening programme (60.4%, n = 61) or the
      Pap smear (67.3%, n = 68). Age and educational level did not influence having
      ever heard of these health issues. HPV infection was the most well-known risk
      factor, and the very late symptoms of cervical cancer were the least known. Most
      men preferred to be educated in a group, which provided a practical, feasible and
      cost effective way of educating men living in this community about these health
      issues.

PMID- 28879563
TI  - Erratum to: The Sesquiterpene Lactone, Budlein A, Inhibits Antigen-Induced
      Arthritis in Mice: Role of NF-kappaB and Cytokines.

PMID- 28879564
TI  - The effect of breathing on ductus arteriosus blood flow directly after birth.
AB  - : Spontaneous breathing at birth influences ductus arteriosus (DA) flow. This
      study quantifies the effect of breathing on DA shunting directly after birth. In
      healthy term infants born by elective cesarean section, simultaneous measurements
      of DA shunting and tidal volumes during spontaneous breathing were performed at 2
      5, 5-8, and 10-13 min after birth. Eight infants with a mean (SD) gestational age
      of 40 (1) weeks and 3216 (616) grams were studied. Inspiratory tidal volume was
      5.8 (3.3-7.7), 5.7 (4.0-7.1), and 5.2 (4.3-6.1) mL/kg at 2-5, 5-8, and 10-13 min.
      The velocity time integral of left-to-right shunting significantly increased
      during inspiration when compared to expiration (8.4 (5.2) vs. 3.7 (2.3) cm, 8.9
      (4.4) vs. 5.6 (3.4) cm, and 14.0 (6.7) vs. 8.4 (6.9) cm; all p < 0.0001) at 2-5,
      5-8, and 10-13 min, respectively. In contrast, right-to-left shunting was not
      different between inspiration and expiration at 2-5 and 10-13 min (11.1 (2.4) vs.
      11.1 (2.6) cm and 10.7 (2.3) vs. 10.6 (3.0) cm; p > 0.05), but there was a small
      increase at 5-8 min (12.1 (2.4) vs. 10.8 (2.9) cm; p = 0.001) during expiration.
      CONCLUSION: Directly after birth, ductal shunting is influenced by breathing
      effort, predominantly with an increase in left-to-right shunt due to inspiration.
      What is Known: * Spontaneous breathing at birth influences ductus arteriosus flow
      and pulmonary blood flow. * Crying causes a significant increase in left-to-right
      ductus arteriosus shunting. What is New: * Left-to-right ductus arteriosus
      shunting increases during inspiration compared to expiration. * Breathing is
      important for ductal shunting and contributes to pulmonary blood flow.

PMID- 28879565
TI  - Comparative computational assessment of the pathogenicity of mutations in the
      Aspartoacylase enzyme.
AB  - Aspartoacylase (ASPA) is a zinc-dependent abundant enzyme in the brain, which
      catalyzes the conversion of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) into acetate and aspartate.
      Mutations in the ASPA gene are associated with the development of Canavan disease
      (CD), leading to the deficiency of ASPA activity. Patients with CD were
      characterized by degeneration of the white matter of the brain. We reported
      earlier on two patients with severe form of CD that both had two novel missense
      mutations in the ASPA: c.427 A > G; p. I143V and c.557 T > A; p. V186D (Zaki et
      al. 2017a), patient 1 harbored both mutations (p.I143V and p.V186D) in a
      heterozygous form together with four other mutations, and patient 2 had both
      mutations in homozygous form. Wijayasinghe et al. (2014) crystallized the 3D
      structures of four different ASPA mutants (p.K213E, p.Y231C, p.E285A, and
      p.F295S). In this study, we used in silico prediction methods and molecular
      dynamics simulation (MDS) to understand the structural impact of all these
      mutations. Moreover, we used molecular docking (MD) to investigate the binding
      patterns of the NAA substrate to the native and mutant proteins. Among the
      mutations, p.E285A (crystallized mutant) was predicted to be the most deleterious
      for the protein function and the least deleteriousness mutant was the p.I143V
      (novel mutant). Among the novel mutations, p.V186D was observed to be disruptive
      for both the zinc binding and NAA binding than the p.I143V. This study provides
      practical insights on the effect of these mutations on the ASPA function and
      might serve as a platform for drug design for CD treatment.

PMID- 28879566
TI  - Success Rate and Complications of Sharp Recanalization for Treatment of Central
      Venous Occlusions.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate success and safety of needle (sharp) recanalization as a
      method to re-establish access in patients with chronic central venous occlusions.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-nine consecutive patients who underwent this
      procedure were retrospectively reviewed to establish success rate and associated
      complications. In all cases, a 21- or 22-gauge needle was used to restore
      connection between two chronically occluded segments after conventional wire and
      catheter techniques had failed. The needle was guided toward a target placed
      through a separate access by fluoroscopic guidance. When successful, the
      procedure was completed by placing a catheter, ballooning the segment, and/or
      stenting. RESULTS: The procedure was successful in 37 of the 39 patients (95%).
      The vast majority of the treated lesions were in the SVC and/or right innominate
      vein. Occlusions ranged in length between 10 and 110 mm, and the average length
      of occluded venous segment was 40 mm in the treated group. There were four minor
      (SIR classification B) complications involving pain management after the
      procedure. There were two major (SIR classification D) complications both of
      which involved hemorrhage into the pericardium treated with covered stents
      (5.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Sharp recanalization is a viable procedure for patients who
      have exhausted standard wire and catheter techniques. The operator performing
      this procedure should be familiar with potential complications so that they can
      be addressed urgently if needed.

PMID- 28879567
TI  - mPGES-1-derived prostaglandin E2 stimulates Stat3 to promote podocyte apoptosis.
AB  - We previously reported that microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1)
      contributed to adriamycin (Adr)-induced podocyte apoptosis. However, the
      molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here we studied the role of mPGES-1/PGE2
      cascade in activating Stat3 signaling and the contribution of Stat3 in PGE2- and
      Adr-induced podocyte apoptosis. In murine podocytes, PGE2 dose- and time
      dependently increased the phosphorylation of Stat3 in line with the enhanced cell
      apoptosis and reduced podocyte protein podocin. In agreement with the increased
      Stat3 phosphorylation, Stat3-derived cytokines including IL-6, IL-17, MCP-1, and
      ICAM-1 were significantly upregulated following PGE2 treatment. By application of
      a specific Stat3 inhibitor S3I-201, PGE2-induced podocyte apoptosis was largely
      abolished in parallel with a blockade of podocin reduction. Next, we observed
      that Adr treatment also enhanced p-Stat3 and activated mPGES-1/PGE2 cascade.
      Blockade of Stat3 by S3I-201 significantly ameliorated Adr-induced cell apoptosis
      and podocin reduction. More interestingly, silencing mPGES-1 in podocytes by
      mPGES-1 siRNA blocked Adr-induced increments of Stat-3 phosphorylation, PGE2
      production, and Stat3-derived inflammatory cytokines. Taken together, this study
      suggested that mPGES-1-derived PGE2 could activate Stat3 signaling to promote
      podocyte apoptosis. Targeting mPGES-1/PGE2/Stat3 signaling might be a potential
      strategy for the treatment of podocytopathy.

PMID- 28879568
TI  - A Model-Based Approach to Simultaneous Clustering and Dimensional Reduction of
      Ordinal Data.
AB  - The literature on clustering for continuous data is rich and wide; differently,
      that one developed for categorical data is still limited. In some cases, the
      clustering problem is made more difficult by the presence of noise
      variables/dimensions that do not contain information about the clustering
      structure and could mask it. The aim of this paper is to propose a model for
      simultaneous clustering and dimensionality reduction of ordered categorical data
      able to detect the discriminative dimensions discarding the noise ones. Following
      the underlying response variable approach, the observed variables are considered
      as a discretization of underlying first-order latent continuous variables
      distributed as a Gaussian mixture. To recognize discriminative and noise
      dimensions, these variables are considered to be linear combinations of two
      independent sets of second-order latent variables where only one contains the
      information about the cluster structure while the other one contains noise
      dimensions. The model specification involves multidimensional integrals that make
      the maximum likelihood estimation cumbersome and in some cases infeasible. To
      overcome this issue, the parameter estimation is carried out through an EM-like
      algorithm maximizing a composite log-likelihood based on low-dimensional margins.
      Examples of application of the proposal on real and simulated data are performed
      to show the effectiveness of the proposal.

PMID- 28879569
TI  - [Virus-associated arthritis].
AB  - Epidemiological studies suggest a viral etiology in approximately 1% of patients
      presenting with acute arthritis. The arthritogenic effect of viral infections may
      be related to viral invasion of synovial cells, the cellular and humoral immune
      response to viral antigens or by induction of autoimmunity. Viral arthritis can
      mimic rheumatoid arthritis by presenting as a symmetrical polyarticular disease
      often accompanied by a rash and influenza-like symptoms. Serological testing for
      pathogen-specific IgM and IgG antibodies is frequently performed for establishing
      a viral etiology of arthritis. Virus isolation from the joints or detection of
      viral nucleic acids in the synovium or synovial fluid is only rarely successful
      and does not always provide proof of a viral origin of arthritis. While viral
      arthritis in most cases is self-limiting, protracted disease can occur.

PMID- 28879571
TI  - Risk Factors for Non-Contact Injury in Adolescent Cricket Pace Bowlers: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adolescent cricket pace bowlers are prone to injury. Recognising the
      risk factors for non-contact injury in this population will aid future injury
      prevention strategies. OBJECTIVE: To identify the risk factors for non-contact
      injury in adolescent cricket pace bowlers. METHODS: We systematically searched
      PubMed, Cochrane Library, PEDro, SPORTDiscus, Embase, and the South African
      Journal of Sports Medicine to identify all experimental and observational studies
      reporting risk factors for non-contact injuries in pace bowlers (aged 12-19
      years). The search syntax included terms relevant to cricket bowling, injury, and
      known risk factors for injury. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale and
      a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale were used to assess the risk
      of bias in the cohort and cross-sectional studies, respectively. RESULTS: Sixteen
      studies (five cross-sectional studies, 11 cohort studies) comprising 687
      participants (96% male, 75% playing cricket in Australia) met the selection
      criteria and were included for qualitative synthesis. Three cross-sectional
      studies were rated as high risk of bias and two as very high risk of bias. For
      the cohort studies, three were rated as low risk of bias, and eight as high risk
      of bias. Injury was associated with bowling biomechanics (excessive lateral trunk
      flexion and pelvis/hip kinematics), reduced trunk endurance, poor lumbo-pelvic
      hip movement control, and early signs of lumbar bone stress. Conflicting results
      were found by studies examining the mixed technique, bowling workload and
      quadratus lumborum asymmetry. CONCLUSIONS: The current systematic review
      identified a number bowling biomechanics and various neuromuscular deficiencies
      as risk factors for non-contact injury in adolescent pace bowlers. These factors
      may provide a useful target for future interventional research aiming to prevent
      injury in this population. Future studies should utilise prospective cohort
      designs, and ensure that participants are injury-free at baseline, confounding
      factors are well controlled and attrition rates are reported. REGISTRATION: This
      systematic review was registered a priori (PROSPERO, CRD42016043956).

PMID- 28879570
TI  - Preoperative Pulmonary Function Tests Predict Aspiration Pneumonia After Gastric
      Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: ESD allows higher rates of en-bloc and R0 resections, but has
      occasionally complications such as aspiration pneumonia. Factors associated with
      aspiration pneumonia are not completely understood. AIMS: To analyze the
      relationship between aspiration pneumonia and preoperative factors including
      pulmonary function tests. METHODS: A total of 978 patients with gastric tumors
      who had received pulmonary function tests were treated by ESD between June 2006
      and May 2014. Pulmonary function tests were assessed using a spirometer. The
      patients were categorized into four groups according to the predicted vital
      capacity (%VC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s as a percentage of forced
      vital capacity (FEV1.0%): normal; restrictive pulmonary dysfunction; obstructive;
      and mixed. The factors associated with aspiration pneumonia were retrospectively
      analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 268 cases with abnormal pulmonary function, 10 cases
      (3.7%) developed aspiration pneumonia. On the other hand, 7 cases (1.0%) with
      normal pulmonary function developed pneumonia. There was a significant
      correlation between pulmonary function and aspiration pneumonia (p = 0.010). When
      the pulmonary function cases were stratified into subgroups, 2.5% of cases with
      obstructive pulmonary dysfunction developed pneumonia, 5.5% with restrictive and
      5.3% with mixed. By logistic regression analysis, pulmonary function, the
      presence of cerebral vascular disease, and procedure time were identified as
      significant independent risk factors associated with aspiration pneumonia. The
      odds ratios for pulmonary function, cerebral vascular disease, and procedure time
      were 3.6, 5.1, and 5.2, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative pulmonary
      function tests may be useful markers to evaluate the risk for aspiration
      pneumonia after gastric ESD.

PMID- 28879572
TI  - Diligustilide releases H2S and stabilizes S-nitrosothiols in ethanol-induced
      lesions on rat gastric mucosa.
AB  - (Z,Z')-Diligustilide (DLG) or levistolide A is a dimeric phthalide isolated from
      Ligusticum porteri (Osha), the roots of which are used in the traditional
      treatment of many diseases including gastric aches. However, its action has not
      been completely elucidated. We analyzed the contributions of hydrogen sulfide and
      S-nitrosothiols to the action of DLG. Animals were pretreated with freshly formed
      in vitro nitrosothiol using Na2S and sodium nitroprusside to elucidate
      participation in the action of DLG. We also evaluated the production of H2S in
      vivo and in real time on the stomach via a specific electrode introduced into the
      stomachs of anaesthetized animals pretreated with DLG. Treatment with 10 mg/kg
      DLG increases gastric H2S production in vivo from 7.8 +/- 0.81 ppm to 13.1 +/-
      3.01 ppm and prevents the decrease in gastric injury caused by absolute ethanol.
      In addition, it maintains endogenous concentrations of GSH and NO.. Exogenous S
      nitrosothiols protect the gastric mucosa from damage, suggesting that the action
      of DLG might be associated with S-nitrosothiol and H2S formation.

PMID- 28879573
TI  - Metabolism or behavior: explaining the performance of aphids on alkaloid
      producing fungal endophytes in annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum).
AB  - Plant-herbivore interactions are often mediated by plant microorganisms, and the
      "defensive mutualism" of epichloid fungal endophytes of grasses is an example.
      These endophytes synthesize bioactive alkaloids that generally have detrimental
      effects on the performance of insect herbivores, but the underlying mechanisms
      are not well understood. Our objective was to determine whether changes in the
      physiology and/or behavior of aphids explain the changes in performance of
      insects feeding on endophytic plants. We studied the interaction between the
      aphid Rhopalosiphum padi and the annual ryegrass Lolium multiflorum symbiotic
      (E+) or not symbiotic (E-) with the fungus Epichloe occultans that can synthesize
      loline alkaloids. We hypothesized that aphids feeding on E+ plants have higher
      energetic demands for detoxification of fungal alkaloids, thereby negatively
      impacting the individual performance, population growth, and structure. Aphids
      growing on E+ plants had lower values in morphometric and functional variables of
      individual performance, displayed lower birth rate, smaller population size, and
      dramatic structural changes. However, aphids exhibited lower values of standard
      metabolic rate (SMR) on E+ plants, which suggests no high costs of
      detoxification. Behavioral variables during the first 8 h of feeding showed that
      aphids did not change the phloem sap ingestion with the presence of fungal
      endophytes. We hypothesize that aphids may maintain phloem sap ingestion
      according to their fungal alkaloid tolerance capacity. In other words, when
      alkaloid concentrations overcome tolerance threshold, ingestion of phloem should
      decrease, which may explain the observed lower values of SMR in E+ feeding
      aphids.

PMID- 28879574
TI  - Genetic variants impacting metabolic outcomes among people on clozapine: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Clozapine is the gold standard medication for treatment refractory schizophrenia,
      but unfortunately, its use is also associated with many adverse metabolic side
      effects. There may be a strong genetic component to the development of these
      adverse effects. We undertook a systematic review to examine the evidence for
      genetic variation being associated with secondary metabolic outcomes in patients
      with schizophrenia on clozapine, under both longitudinal and cross-sectional
      study designs. We limited studies to those examining patients definitely taking
      clozapine, unlike prior reviews that have examined metabolic effects of patients
      taking a range of antipsychotic medications. We found associations with outcomes
      such as increases in BMI and metabolic syndrome for variants in genes such as LEP
      and HTR2C. Meta-analysis of rs381328 in HTR2C revealed that the presence of the T
      allele led to a 0.63 kg/m2 (95% CI - 1.06 to - 0.19; p = 0.005) decrease in BMI
      compared to the C allele. Study and population heterogeneity and lack of
      statistical power among reviewed articles mean that evidence is lacking to
      warrant prophylactic genotyping of patients commencing clozapine to predict those
      at increased risk of developing adverse metabolic effects. Further efforts to
      establish collaborative consortia, consensus around study design and replication
      studies in independent populations should be encouraged.

PMID- 28879575
TI  - In-Hospital Mortality for Hepatic Portal Venous Gas: Analysis of 1590 Patients
      Using a Japanese National Inpatient Database.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatic portal venous gas (HPVG) is rare but potentially serious
      condition. Main cause of HPVG is bowel ischemia, while detection of HPVG without
      bowel ischemia may have been increasing possibly due to widespread use of
      computed tomography. However, little is known about variation in etiologies of
      HPVG and mortality of HPVG with each etiology. We examined patient backgrounds,
      underlying diseases, and in-hospital mortality of HPVG patients using a national
      inpatient database. METHODS: Using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database
      in Japan, we identified inpatients diagnosed with HPVG from July 1, 2010 to March
      31, 2015. Patients' data included age, sex, comorbidities at admission,
      complications after admission, body mass index, surgical procedures, medications,
      and discharge status. In-hospital mortality was compared between the subgroups
      divided by the patient backgrounds and underlying diseases. RESULTS: A total of
      1590 patients were identified during the study period. The mean age was 79.3
      years old and the proportion of bowel ischemia was 53%. The overall in-hospital
      mortality was 27.3%. In-hospital mortality of HPVG with bowel ischemia,
      gastrointestinal tract (GIT) obstruction or dilation, GIT perforation, GIT
      infection, or sepsis was 26.8, 31.1, 33.3, 13.6, or 56.4%, respectively. Among
      patients with bowel ischemia, 32.2% patients received operation and their in
      hospital mortality was 16.5%. CONCLUSIONS: HPVG patients in the present study
      were relatively older but less likely to die than those in previous studies.
      Attention should be paid to the fact that mortality of HPVG without bowel
      ischemia was not always lower compared to that with bowel ischemia.

PMID- 28879576
TI  - Effects of acute resistance training modality on corticospinal excitability,
      intra-cortical and neuromuscular responses.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although neural adaptations from strength training are known to occur,
      the acute responses associated with heavy-strength (HST) and hypertrophy training
      (HYT) remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to compare the acute behaviour of
      corticospinal responses following a single session of HST vs HYT over a 72-h
      period. METHODS: Fourteen participants completed a random counterbalanced,
      crossover study that consisted of a single HST session [5 sets * 3 repetition
      maximum (RM)], a HYT session (3 sets * 12 RM) of the leg extensors and a control
      session (CON). Single- and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
      was used to measure changes in motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitude,
      corticospinal silent period (CSP), intra-cortical facilitation (ICF), short
      interval intra-cortical inhibition (SICI) and long-interval intra-cortical
      inhibition (LICI). Additionally, maximal muscle compound wave (M MAX) of the
      rectus femoris (RF) and maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) of the leg
      extensors were taken. All measures were taken at baseline, immediately post and
      2, 6, 24, 48 and 72 h post-training. RESULTS: A significant condition x time
      interaction was observed for MVIC (P = 0.001), M MAX (P = 0.003), MEP amplitude
      (P < 0.001) and CSP (P = 0.002). No differences were observed between HST and HYT
      for all neurophysiological measures. No changes in SICI, ICF and LICI were
      observed compared to baseline. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that: (1) the
      acute behaviour of neurophysiological measures is similar between HST and HYT;
      and (2) the increase in corticospinal excitability may be a compensatory response
      to attenuate peripheral fatigue.

PMID- 28879577
TI  - Models and tissue mimics for brain shift simulations.
AB  - Capturing the deformation of human brain during neurosurgical operations is an
      extremely important task to improve the accuracy or surgical procedure and
      minimize permanent damage in patients. This study focuses on the development of
      an accurate numerical model for the prediction of brain shift during surgical
      procedures and employs a tissue mimic recently developed to capture the
      complexity of the human tissue. The phantom, made of a composite hydrogel, was
      designed to reproduce the dynamic mechanical behaviour of the brain tissue in a
      range of strain rates suitable for surgical procedures. The use of a well
      controlled, accessible and MRI compatible alternative to real brain tissue allows
      us to rule out spurious effects due to patient geometry and tissue properties
      variability, CSF amount uncertainties, and head orientation. The performance of
      different constitutive descriptions is evaluated using a brain-skull mimic, which
      enables 3D deformation measurements by means of MRI scans. Our combined
      experimental and numerical investigation demonstrates the importance of using
      accurate constitutive laws when approaching the modelling of this complex organic
      tissue and supports the proposal of a hybrid poro-hyper-viscoelastic material
      formulation for the simulation of brain shift.

PMID- 28879578
TI  - Improved wedge method for the measurement of sub-millimeter slice thicknesses in
      magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - The standard method for measuring the slice thickness of magnetic resonance
      images uses the inclined surface of a wedge (wedge method); it is sensitive to
      small increases in noise because of the differentiation of the edge response
      function (ERF) required. The purpose of this study was to improve the wedge
      method by fitting a curve to the ERF. The curve-fit function was obtained by
      convolving an ideal ERF (a ramp function) with a Gaussian function to represent
      ERF blurring. Measurements of 5- and 3-mm slice thicknesses were performed on a
      3T scanner using the conventional wedge method, the improved wedge method, and
      another standard method using an inclined slab (slab method). Subsequently, 0.5-
      and 0.25-mm slice thicknesses from multiple slices acquired using a three
      dimensional sequence were measured using the improved wedge method. When
      measuring 5-mm slices, the differences in measurements obtained using the
      improved wedge method and the conventional slab and wedge methods were very
      small: <0.6% of the 5-mm slice thickness. The difference was <=1.7% for 3-mm
      slices. For 0.5- and 0.25-mm slices, the mean values obtained using the improved
      wedge method were 0.543 +/- 0.007 mm and 0.247 +/- 0.015 mm, with a 1.2 and 5.9%
      coefficient of variation across slices, respectively. The improved wedge method
      is valid and potentially applicable to the measurement of sub-millimeter slice
      thicknesses.

PMID- 28879579
TI  - Novel Selectivity-Based Forensic Toxicological Validation of a Paper Spray Mass
      Spectrometry Method for the Quantitative Determination of Eight Amphetamines in
      Whole Blood.
AB  - Paper spray tandem mass spectrometry is used to identify and quantify eight
      individual amphetamines in whole blood in 1.3 min. The method has been optimized
      and fully validated according to forensic toxicology guidelines, for the
      quantification of amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine
      (MDA), 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA), 3,4-methylenedioxy-N
      ethylamphetamine (MDEA), para-methoxyamphetamine (PMA), para
      methoxymethamphetamine (PMMA), and 4-fluoroamphetamine (4-FA). Additionally, a
      new concept of intrinsic and application-based selectivity is discussed,
      featuring increased confidence in the power to discriminate the amphetamines from
      other chemically similar compounds when applying an ambient mass spectrometric
      method without chromatographic separation. Accuracy was within +/-15% and average
      precision was better than 15%, and better than 20% at the LLOQ. Detection limits
      between 15 and 50 ng/mL were obtained using only 12 MUL of whole blood. Graphical
      abstract ?.

PMID- 28879582
TI  - [Vestibular schwannoma - part 2].

PMID- 28879580
TI  - Plant and Animal microRNAs (miRNAs) and Their Potential for Inter-kingdom
      Communication.
AB  - microRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of ~18-25 nucleotide (nt) single-stranded non
      coding RNAs (sncRNAs) that are the smallest known carriers of gene-encoded, post
      transcriptional regulatory information in both plants and animals. There are many
      fundamental similarities between plant and animal miRNAs-the miRNAs of both
      kingdoms play essential roles in development, aging and disease, and the shaping
      of the transcriptome of many cell types. Both plant and animal miRNAs appear to
      predominantly exert their genetic and transcriptomic influences by regulating
      gene expression at the level of messenger RNA (mRNA) stability and/or
      translational inhibition. Certain miRNA species, such as miRNA-155, miRNA-168,
      and members of the miRNA-854 family may be expressed in both plants and animals,
      suggesting a common origin and functional selection of specific miRNAs over vast
      periods of evolution (for example, Arabidopsis thaliana-Homo sapiens divergence
      ~1.5 billion years). Although there is emerging evidence for cross-kingdom miRNA
      communication-that plant-enriched miRNAs may enter the diet and play
      physiological and/or pathophysiological roles in human health and disease-some
      research reports repudiate this possibility. This research paper highlights some
      recent, controversial, and remarkable findings in plant- and animal-based miRNA
      signaling research with emphasis on the intriguing possibility that dietary
      miRNAs and/or sncRNAs may have potential to contribute to both intra- and inter
      kingdom signaling, and in doing so modulate molecular-genetic mechanisms
      associated with human health and disease.

PMID- 28879581
TI  - Activation of blood coagulation and thrombin generation in acute ischemic stroke
      treated with rtPA.
AB  - The impact of thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA)
      on blood coagulation in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients is not completely
      understood. We studied the effect of thrombolysis on the thrombin generation (TG)
      profile as well as coagulant activity of activated factors IX (FIXa), XI (FXIa)
      and tissue factor (TF) in AIS patients. In a case-control study, TG parameters as
      well as FIXa, FXIa and TF levels were assessed in 95 AIS patients, including
      individuals receiving rtPA treatment within 4.5 h since AIS onset (n = 71, 74.7%)
      and those ineligible for thrombolysis (n = 24, 25.3%). Blood samples were
      collected at baseline and after 24 h since admission. The two groups were similar
      with regard to demographics and clinical factors. In thrombolysed patients, all
      TG parameters measured after 24 h were markedly decreased, with strongest impact
      on lag time (LT), when compared with the baseline values (81.3% longer LT, p <
      0.0001), as well as when compared to the non-thrombolysed group (86% longer LT, p
      = 0.002). In non-thrombolysed AIS patients the TG remained unaltered. Logistic
      regression adjusted for potential confounders showed that high baseline ETP value
      (the top quartile) was solely predicted by the presence of circulating FIXa,
      whereas after 24 h FXIa predicted high ETP in the subgroup of thrombolysed and in
      all AIS patients. Thrombolysis in AIS patients markedly attenuates the TG.
      Elevated FXIa contributes to thrombin formation capacity after 24 h, highlighting
      a role of this factor in the regulation of blood coagulation in AIS.

PMID- 28879583
TI  - ?

PMID- 28879585
TI  - The IRAD and beyond: what have we unravelled so far?
AB  - Acute aortic dissection is a life-threatening condition associated with high
      morbidity and mortality rates and a long history of challenges to both diagnose
      and manage this condition successfully. The International Registry of Acute
      Aortic Dissection (IRAD) was established in 1996 as a global database to
      understand this old disease better and improve care for dissection. IRAD
      initially targeted various areas including etiological factors of dissection,
      modes of presentation, clinical features, physical findings, imaging, management,
      and outcomes, and is currently branching out in more specific fields such as
      endovascular intervention, genetic profiling, and functional imaging. Although
      presenting symptoms and physical findings have not changed significantly over two
      decades, the widespread use of computed tomography is standard and has improved
      the diagnostic pathway. Moreover, more patients are managed with appropriate
      procedures, such as surgery in type A, and endovascular therapy in subsets of
      type B aortic dissection. With these ongoing improvements in swift diagnostic
      work-up and therapeutic care, fewer patients are not getting appropriate
      treatment and more patients survive once they reach hospital.

PMID- 28879584
TI  - Adverse Event Profile of Pyrimethamine-Based Therapy in Toxoplasmosis: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Approximately a third of the population worldwide is chronically
      infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Pyrimethamine-based regimens are recommended for
      the treatment of toxoplasmosis. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to evaluate the safety
      profile of pyrimethamine-based treatment for the three main Toxoplasma
      manifestations: toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE), ocular toxoplasmosis, and
      congenital toxoplasmosis. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar
      databases were searched through August 1, 2016. Randomized, observational,
      prospective/retrospective, and cohort studies were eligible. Thirty-one studies
      were included with a total of 2975 patients. Of these, 13 were in congenital
      toxoplasmosis (n = 929), 11 in ocular toxoplasmosis (n = 1284), and seven in TE
      (n = 687). Across manifestations, adverse event (AE)-related treatment
      discontinuation and/or change in therapy involved <=37% of patients and occurred
      in >55% of studies: 100% for ocular toxoplasmosis, 57.1% for TE, and 61.5% for
      congenital toxoplasmosis. The most commonly observed AEs were bone marrow
      suppression, dermatologic, and gastrointestinal (GI). The prevalence of bone
      marrow suppression-related AEs was <=50% in congenital toxoplasmosis, <=42.7% in
      TE, and <=9.0% in ocular toxoplasmosis. The frequency of GI and dermatologic AEs
      were <=100 and <=11.1%, respectively, for ocular toxoplasmosis, <=10.7 and
      <=17.9% for TE, and <=10.8 and <=2.1% for congenital toxoplasmosis. Steven
      Johnson syndrome was reported in two patients with ocular toxoplasmosis and one
      with TE. CONCLUSION: The AE profile associated with pyrimethamine-based
      treatments differed by each manifestation of toxoplasmosis and within a given
      manifestation. Hematologic AEs occurred across all manifestations indicating the
      importance of monitoring the blood of patients administered pyrimethamine-based
      regimens.

PMID- 28879588
TI  - Active immunization against poliomyelitis.

PMID- 28879591
TI  - Marriage as a Search for Healing : by Jerry M. Lewis (New York: Brunner/Mazel
      Publishers, 1997).

PMID- 28879586
TI  - Multiple Myeloma Presenting as Massive Amyloid Deposition in a Parathyroid Gland
      Associated with Amyloid Goiter: A Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Mimic on Intra
      operative Frozen Section.
AB  - Clinical examples of amyloid deposition in parathyroid glands are exceedingly
      rare and usually present as an incidental finding in a patient with amyloid
      goiter. Here, we present the first histologically documented case of parathyroid
      amyloid deposition that presented as a mass. The patient did not have
      hyperparathyroidism. The parathyroid gland was submitted for intra-operative
      frozen section and concern for medullary thyroid carcinoma was raised. An
      important histologic clue arguing against medullary thyroid carcinoma was the
      evenly dispersed nature of the amyloid. Histologic perinuclear clearing and
      parathyroid hormone immunohistochemistry confirmed parathyroid origin on
      permanent sections. The patient was also found to have associated amyloid goiter.
      Mass spectrometry of the amyloid showed it to be composed of kappa light chains.
      On further work-up, the patient was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Awareness of
      parathyroid amyloid deposition is important as it is a histologic mimic of
      medullary thyroid carcinoma, especially on frozen section. Amyloid typing with
      evaluation for multiple myeloma in any patient with kappa or lambda light chain
      restriction is also important.

PMID- 28879592
TI  - [Brain tumours].

PMID- 28879594
TI  - Body mass index changes after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty do not adversely
      influence patient outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of patients
      who lost or gained weight following unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA), the
      effect of post-operative body mass index (BMI) changes on functional outcomes and
      quality of life (QoL), and predictive factors associated with BMI changes.
      METHODS: Prospectively collected data of 1043 patients who underwent UKA between
      2000 and 2014 were reviewed. BMI, Knee Society Knee Score and Function Score,
      Oxford Knee Score (OKS), Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Physical Component Score (PCS) and
      Mental Component Score and proportion of patients attaining OKS/SF-36 minimal
      clinically important differences (MCID) were recorded preoperatively and at 2
      years post-operatively. The patients were stratified into three groups based on
      weight changes for further analysis. RESULTS: Following UKA, 138 (13.3%) patients
      had lost weight, 695 (66.6%) maintained their weight, and 210 (20.1%) gained
      weight. Patients in all groups demonstrated significant improvements in
      functional and SF-36 PCS scores at 2 years post-operatively. There were no
      significant differences in functional outcomes, QoL or revision rate between the
      groups. Post-operative BMI changes were not correlated with any outcome scores or
      attainment of MCID (n.s.). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that evaluates
      change in BMI following UKA. It demonstrated a higher proportion of patients who
      gained weight as compared to those who lost weight. Post-operative BMI changes
      did not appear to affect outcomes of UKA. These findings will provide important
      information to surgeons when counselling patients regarding BMI change and its
      effect on outcomes after UKA. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level III.

PMID- 28879595
TI  - Preemptive plerixafor injection added to pegfilgrastim after chemotherapy in non
      Hodgkin lymphoma patients mobilizing poorly.
AB  - Filgrastim is usually combined with chemotherapy to mobilize hematopoietic
      progenitor cells in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients. Limited information is
      available on the efficacy of a preemptive plerixafor (PLER) injection in poor
      mobilizers after chemotherapy and pegfilgrastim. In this prospective study, 72
      patients with NHL received chemotherapy plus pegfilgrastim, and 25 hard-to
      mobilize patients received also PLER. The usefulness and efficacy of our
      previously developed algorithm for PLER use in pegfilgrastim-containing
      mobilization regimen were evaluated as well as the graft cellular composition,
      hematological recovery, and outcome after autologous stem cell transplantation
      (auto-SCT) according to the PLER use. A median 3.4-fold increase in blood CD34+
      cell counts was achieved after the first PLER dose. The minimum collection target
      was achieved in the first mobilization attempt in 66/72 patients (92%) and 68
      patients (94%) proceeded to auto-SCT. An algorithm for PLER use was fulfilled in
      76% of the poor mobilizers. Absolute numbers of T-lymphocytes and NK cells were
      significantly higher in the PLER group, whereas the number of CD34+ cells
      collected was significantly lower. Early neutrophil engraftment was slower in the
      PLER group, otherwise hematological recovery was comparable within 12 months from
      auto-SCT. No difference was observed in survival according to the PLER use.
      Chemotherapy plus pegfilgrastim combined with preemptive PLER injection is an
      effective and convenient approach to minimize collection failures in NHL patients
      intended for auto-SCT. A significant effect of PLER on the graft cellular
      composition was observed, but no difference in outcome after auto-SCT was
      detected.

PMID- 28879596
TI  - Interaction between attentional systems and episodic memory encoding: the impact
      of conflict on binding of information.
AB  - Episodic memory (EM) is defined as a long-term memory system that stores
      information that can be retrieved along with details of the context of the
      original events (binding). Several studies have shown that manipulation of
      attention during encoding can impact subsequent memory performance. An
      influential model of attention distinguishes between three partially independent
      attentional networks: the alerting, the orienting and the executive or conflict
      resolution component. To date, the impact of the engagement of these sub-systems
      during encoding on item and relational context binding has not been investigated.
      Here, we developed a new task combining the Attentional Network Test and an
      incidental episodic memory encoding task to study this issue. We reported that
      when the alerting network was not solicited, resolving conflict hindered item
      encoding. Moreover, resolving conflict, independently of the cueing condition,
      had a negative impact on context binding. These novel findings could have a
      potential impact in the understanding EM formation, and memory disorders in
      different populations, including healthy elderly people.

PMID- 28879597
TI  - Prenatal congenital vertical talus (rocker bottom foot): a marker for multisystem
      anomalies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Congenital vertical talus is a rare foot anomaly characterized by a
      prominent calcaneus and rigid forefoot dorsiflexion. While congenital vertical
      talus has been associated with anomalies such as trisomy 18, myelomeningocele and
      arthrogryposis, postnatal series have reported cases of isolated congenital
      vertical talus. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to determine the
      incidence of isolated congenital vertical talus prenatally and identify the most
      common anomalies associated with this finding. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective review was performed of congenital vertical talus cases identified
      in our fetal center from 2006 to 2015. The prenatal US and MR imaging appearance
      of congenital vertical talus was evaluated and differentiation from congenital
      talipes equinovarus was assessed. Studies were evaluated for additional
      abnormalities affecting the central nervous system, face, limbs, viscera, growth
      and amniotic fluid. Imaging findings were recorded and correlated with outcomes
      when available. RESULTS: Twenty-four cases of congenital vertical talus were
      identified prenatally (gestational age: 19-36 weeks). All 24 had prenatal US and
      21 also underwent fetal MRI on the same day. There were no isolated cases of
      congenital vertical talus in this series; all 24 had additional anomalies
      identified prenatally. Sixteen cases had bilateral congenital vertical talus
      (67%). Additional anomalies were identified in the brain (15), spine (11), face
      (6), abdominal wall (3), heart (8) and other limbs (12). Chromosomal
      abnormalities were identified in 6 of 20 patients who underwent genetic testing.
      Overall, US held some advantage in detecting the abnormality: in 10 cases, US
      depicted congenital vertical talus more clearly than MRI; in 8 cases, US and MRI
      were equal in detection and in 3 cases, MRI was superior. In 9/15 cases with
      intracranial abnormalities, MRI was superior to US in demonstrating structural
      anomalies. Outcomes included termination (11), intrauterine fetal demise (1),
      stillbirth or immediate neonatal demise (5), lost to follow-up (1), and 6
      survivors with postnatal follow-up. CONCLUSION: In our series, there were no
      cases of isolated congenital vertical talus, with additional anomalies variably
      affecting multiple systems including the brain, spine, face, viscera and limbs.
      When congenital vertical talus is identified prenatally, a thorough search for
      additional anomalies is indicated. Fetal MRI can be a useful adjunct in
      confirming the diagnosis and further delineating additional anomalies,
      particularly in the brain and spine.

PMID- 28879598
TI  - Implications of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Etiology on Recurrence and
      Prognosis after Curative-Intent Resection: a Multi-Institutional Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We sought to investigate the prognosis of patients following curative
      intent surgery for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) stratified by hepatitis
      B (HBV-ICC), hepatolithiasis (Stone-ICC), and no identifiable cause (conventional
      ICC) etiologic subtype. METHODS: 986 patients with HBV-ICC (n = 201), stone-ICC
      (n = 103), and conventional ICC (n = 682) who underwent curative-intent resection
      were identified from a multi-institutional database. Propensity score matching
      (PSM) was used to mitigate residual bias. RESULTS: HBV-ICC patients more often
      had cirrhosis, earlier stage tumors, a mass-forming lesion, well-to-moderate
      tumor differentiation, and an R0 resection versus stone-ICC or conventional ICC
      patients. Five-year recurrence-free survival among HBV-ICC and conventional ICC
      patients was 23.9 and 17.8%, respectively, versus a recurrence-free of only 8.3%
      among patients with stone-ICC. Similarly, 5-year overall survival among patients
      with stone-ICC was only 18.3% compared with 48.9 and 38.0% for patients with HBV
      ICC and conventional ICC, respectively. On PSM, patients with stone-ICC group had
      equivalent long-term outcomes as HBV-ICC patients. In contrast, on PSM, stone-ICC
      patients had a median overall survival of only 18.0 months versus 44.0 months for
      patients with conventional ICC. Median overall survival after intrahepatic-only
      recurrence among patients who had stone-ICC (6.0 months) was worse than OS among
      HBV-ICC (13.0 months) or conventional ICC (12.0 months) (p = 0.006 and p = 0.082,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: While HBV-ICC had a better prognosis on unadjusted
      analyses, these differences were mitigated on PSM suggesting no stage-for-stage
      differences in outcomes compared with stone-ICC or conventional ICC. In contrast,
      patients with stone-ICC had worse long-term outcomes. These data highlight the
      relative importance of ICC etiology relative to established clinicopathological
      factors in the prognosis of patients with ICC.

PMID- 28879599
TI  - Secular trends in sickness absence among Swedish patients with ankylosing
      spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.
AB  - The aim was to investigate whether secular trends in sickness absence (SA) were
      present in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis
      (PsA) receiving their diagnosis between 2002 and 2011. A repeated cross-sectional
      study design was used. Patients were identified in the Skane Healthcare Register
      (SHR). A washout period of 18 months was applied. The general population seeking
      health care was used as a reference cohort. SA data from 2003 to 2012 were
      obtained from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and converted into net days of
      SA per year. Within diagnosis and sex, the average number of net days of SA
      during the calendar year following diagnosis was calculated and plotted against
      calendar year together with the corresponding SA of the age-standardized
      reference population. Linear regression on aggregated data, within diagnosis and
      sex, was applied to formally investigate differences in secular trends among
      patients and referents. There were 3173 patients and 992,502 referents. Among men
      diagnosed with AS, the average amount of SA declined by 8.1 net days per year in
      patients as compared with 2.4 in the referents (p = 0.01). Among PsA patients,
      the average amount of SA declined by 11.7 net days per year in women as compared
      with 2.7 in the referents (p < 0.001) and by 7.6 net days per year in men as
      compared with 1.9 in the referents (p < 0.001). Secular trends of declining SA
      were present among AS and PsA patients. Trends were also present among the
      referents, although not at all of the same magnitude.

PMID- 28879600
TI  - Infections and the kidney: a tale from the tropics.
AB  - Tropical infections are caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses and parasitic
      organisms across varying geographical regions and are more often reported in
      adults than in children. Most of the infections are acute, presenting as a
      febrile illness with involvement of multiple organ systems, including the kidney.
      The gamut of renal manifestations extends from asymptomatic urinary abnormalities
      to acute kidney injury and-albeit rarely-chronic kidney disease. Tropical
      infections can involve the glomerular, tubulointerstitial and vascular
      compartments of the kidney. Leptospirosis, malaria, dengue, rickettsial fever and
      schistosomiasis are the most prevalent tropical infections which affect the
      kidneys of children living in the tropics. In this review we discuss renal
      involvement in these most prevalent tropical infections.

PMID- 28879601
TI  - Investigations on the dose-response relationship of combined exposure to low
      doses of three anti-androgens in Wistar rats.
AB  - The current investigation examines whether combined exposure to three anti
      androgens (flutamide, prochloraz, vinclozolin) result in interference with
      endocrine homeostasis when applied at very low dose levels, and whether the
      results of combined exposure are more pronounced than to the individual
      compounds. A pre-post-natal in vivo study design was chosen with more parameters
      than regulatory testing protocols require (additional endpoints addressing
      hormone levels, morphology and histopathological examinations). Dose levels were
      chosen to represent the lowest observed adverse effect level (LOAEL), the no
      observed adverse effect level (NOAEL), and the acceptable daily intake for each
      individual substance. Anti-androgenic changes were observable at the effect level
      (LOAEL) but not at lower exposures. Nipple/areola counts appeared to be a
      sensitive measure of effect, in addition to male sex organ weights at sexual
      maturation, and finally gross findings. The results indicate the absence of
      evidence for effects at low or very low dose levels. No (adverse) effects were
      seen at the NOAEL dose. A non-monotonic dose-response relationship was not
      evident. Combined exposure at LOAEL level resulted in enhanced responses for
      anogenital index, number of areolas/nipples, delayed preputial separation and
      reduced ventral prostate weight in comparison to the individual compounds.

PMID- 28879602
TI  - A fluorescent, supramolecular chemosensor to follow steroid depletion in
      bacterial cultures.
AB  - Steroids have been identified as endocrine-disrupting agents, which are thought
      to impact the fertility of aquatic organisms and may even have direct effects on
      humans. The removal of steroids from wastewater is therefore essential, and this
      is most efficiently achieved by microbial treatment. We report herein a simple
      fluorescent method to identify microorganisms that are capable of steroid
      degradation and to optimize the conditions for steroid removal. The method is
      based on the supramolecular macrocycle cucurbit[8]uril (CB8), which can bind
      either the fluorescent dye berberine or a steroid in their inner cavity. In
      absence of steroid, the cavity is free to bind the dye, leading to a strong
      increase in fluorescence. In contrast, in the presence of steroid, the dye is
      displaced into the bulk solution. This principle affords a stable (no thermal or
      photodegradation was noted), fluorescent chemosensor (excitation ca. 450 nm,
      maximum emission at 525 nm), which can detect testosterone at concentrations >
      0.7 MUM. We show that this displacement principle can be applied to follow the
      removal of micromolar concentrations of the steroid testosterone from a bacterial
      culture of Buttiauxella sp. S19-1. The reliability of the chemosensor in
      screening applications is demonstrated by an excellent Z-factor, which was in the
      range of 0.52 to 0.74 for all experiments carried out with this assay. Graphical
      abstract Steroid depletion by bacterial cultures can be followed by fluorescence
      spectroscopy using a supramolecular chemosensor based on berberine and
      cucurbit[8]uril.

PMID- 28879603
TI  - Cohort Contributions to Race- and Gender-Specific Trends in the Incidence of
      Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the USA.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Increasing incidence of lifelong obesity and associated
      nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in younger birth cohorts may have contributed to
      growing incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the USA. Yet, the
      contribution of cohort effects to trends in HCC incidence is unclear. METHODS:
      Using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program
      1973-2013, race- and gender-specific trends in HCC incidence in the USA were
      decomposed using age-period-cohort (APC) modeling. RESULTS: Among SEER registry
      sites included in the analysis, there were 25,532 cases of HCC diagnosed
      including 15,867 (62%) White males, 3541 (14%) Black males, 5009 (20%) White
      females, and 1115 (4%) Black females. HCC incidence increases across periods,
      especially among men. Underlying this increase, APC models found significant
      cohort effects among White men, White women, and Black men, with rapid growth in
      HCC risk among cohorts born after 1940. A similar cohort trend among Black women
      did not reach statistical significance when compared to an age-period model.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cohort-specific trends have significantly contributed to increasing
      HCC incidence in recent decades. The rapid increase in HCC risk among younger
      cohorts suggests that the incidence of HCC will continue increasing in the near
      future.

PMID- 28879604
TI  - Experiments for the Development of a Steerable Microcatheter.
AB  - PURPOSE: Sumitomo Bakelite has developed a steerable microcatheter with a
      mechanism on the handle for changing the direction of the catheter tip.
      Experiments were conducted in an animal model to evaluate the practicality of the
      catheter with the goal of introduction into clinical use. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The steerable microcatheter has the following specifications: external diameter
      2.4F/2.9F (distal/proximal portion); internal diameter 0.021 inches; effective
      length 125 cm; and it is fitted with a dial on the proximal portion for moving
      the tip. Five interventional radiologists evaluated the microcatheter in animal
      experiments using piglets. The test catheter was compared with commercial
      straight microcatheters based on procedure time required to insert the catheter
      into two prescribed patterns of arterial branching (P-1: hepatic artery, P-2:
      iliac artery), fluoroscopy time, amount of contrast agent used, and frequency of
      guidewire use. Furthermore, the renal arteries into which each catheter was
      inserted were excised and examined for the extent of vascular damage. RESULTS:
      Compared to the commercial products, the steerable microcatheter used without a
      guidewire required shorter procedure time (43.0/75.2% reductions in P-1/P-2),
      fluoroscopy time tended to be shorter (5.1/74.1% reductions), and the amount of
      contrast agent used tended to be lower (38.2/52.3% reductions). No damage was
      seen to the luminal surface of the renal arteries traversed by either
      microcatheter. During the experiment, there were no problems or defects with
      either microcatheter while intravascular procedure. CONCLUSION: These animal
      experiments confirmed that the steerable microcatheter had the functionality
      required for its development as a commercial medical device.

PMID- 28879605
TI  - In-vitro evaluation of limitations and possibilities for the future use of
      intracorporeal gas exchangers placed in the upper lobe position.
AB  - The lack of donor organs has led to the development of alternative "destination
      therapies", such as a bio-artificial lung (BA) for end-stage lung disease.
      Ultimately aiming at a fully implantable BA, general capabilities and limitations
      of different oxygenators were tested based on the model of BA positioning at the
      right upper lobe. Three different-sized oxygenators (neonatal, paediatric, and
      adult) were tested in a mock circulation loop regarding oxygenation and
      decarboxylation capacities for three respiratory pathologies. Blood flows were
      imitated by a roller pump, and respiration was imitated by a mechanical
      ventilator with different FiO2 applications. Pressure drops across the
      oxygenators and the integrity of the gas-exchange hollow fibers were analyzed.
      The neonatal oxygenator proved to be insufficient regarding oxygenation and
      decarboxylation. Despite elevated pCO2 levels, the paediatric and adult
      oxygenators delivered comparable sufficient oxygen levels, but sufficient
      decarboxylation across the oxygenators was ensured only at flow rates of 0.5 L
      min. Only the adult oxygenator indicated no significant pressure drops. For all
      tested conditions, gas-exchange hollow fibers remained intact. This is the first
      study showing the general feasibility of delivering sufficient levels of gas
      exchange to an intracorporeal BA via patient's breathing, without damaging gas
      exchange hollow fiber membranes.

PMID- 28879606
TI  - History of clubfoot treatment; part III (twentieth century): back to the future.
AB  - Clubfoot is one of the most common congenital orthopaedic anomalies and was
      described by Hippocrates in the year 400 BC. From manipulation in antiquity to
      splint and plaster in the Renaissance the treatment had improved before tenotomy.
      Many surgical treatments were tested during the nineteenth and twentieth
      centuries and will be explained in this manuscript; however, the pathology still
      continues to challenge the paediatric orthopedic surgeon as it has a notorious
      tendency to relapse, irrespective of whether the foot is treated with
      conservative or operative means. Part of the reason that the foot relapses is the
      surgeon's failure to recognize the underlying pathoanatomy. Clubfoot is often
      automatically assumed to be an equinovarus deformity, however, other permutations
      and combinations, such as calcaneovalgus, equinovalgus and calcaneovarus, are
      possible. Out of these combinations, calcaneovalgus occurs most frequently,
      followed by equinovarus deformity. In more than 90% of the cases, calcaneovalgus
      responds to conservative treatment, which involves passive manipulation and
      usually does not require casting or operative intervention as has been
      demonstrated by Ponseti.

PMID- 28879608
TI  - Response to the letter to the editor of Lambros et al.

PMID- 28879607
TI  - Arthroscopic management of suprascapular neuropathy of the shoulder improves pain
      and functional outcomes with minimal complication rates.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to systematically assess the arthroscopic
      management of suprascapular neuropathy, including the aetiology, surgical
      decision-making, clinical outcomes, and complications associated with the
      procedure. METHODS: Three databases [PubMed, Ovid (Medline), and Embase] were
      searched. Systematic literature screening and data abstraction was performed in
      duplicate to present a review of studies reporting on arthroscopic management of
      suprascapular neuropathy. The quality of the included studies was assessed using
      level of evidence and the MINORS (Methodological Index for Nonrandomized Studies)
      checklist. RESULTS: In total, 40 studies (17 case reports, 20 case series, 2
      retrospective comparative studies, and 1 prospective comparative study) were
      identified, including 259 patients (261 shoulders) treated arthroscopically for
      suprascapular neuropathy. The most common aetiology of suprascapular neuropathy
      was suprascapular nerve compression by a cyst at the spinoglenoid notch (42%),
      and the decision to pursue arthroscopic surgery was most commonly based on the
      results of clinical findings and investigations (47%). Overall, 97% of patients
      reported significant improvement in or complete resolution of their pre-operative
      symptoms (including pain, strength, and subjective function of the shoulder) over
      a mean follow-up period of 23.7 months. Further, there was a low overall
      complication rate (4%) associated with the arthroscopic procedures. CONCLUSION:
      While most studies evaluating arthroscopic management of suprascapular neuropathy
      are uncontrolled studies with lower levels of evidence, results indicate that
      such management provides patients with significant improvements in pain,
      strength, and subjective function of the shoulder, and has a low incidence of
      complications. Patients managed arthroscopically for suprascapular neuropathy may
      expect significant improvements in pain, strength, and subjective function of the
      shoulder. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, systematic review of level II to IV
      studies.

PMID- 28879609
TI  - [Bacterial skin and soft tissue infections].
AB  - Bacterial skin and soft tissue infections are frequent and represent one of the
      most important differential diagnoses in patients presenting with reddened and
      swollen skin and soft tissue. Among these infections, cellulitis (phlegmon),
      erysipelas and abscesses are the most frequent. Whereas erysipelas is almost
      exclusively caused by streptococci and can be successfully treated with
      penicillin, an effective antibiotic therapy targeted at Staphylococcus aureus
      should be empirically considered for abscesses and phlegmon; other pathogens,
      such as gram negative and anaerobic bacteria can be found in patients with the
      corresponding underlying disease and certain risk factors. Severe necrotizing
      soft tissue infections are acutely life-threatening and require rapid and broad
      antibiotic therapy followed by immediate surgery. Depending on the medical
      history or exposure (including bite wounds), other pathogens may have to be
      considered in special situations including the increasing prevalence of community
      acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outside hospitals.

PMID- 28879610
TI  - Reply to Lancelot et al.: 'Lack of evidence of a relationship between magnetic
      resonance signal intensity changes in the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus,
      and repeated administrations of gadoterate meglumine in children'.

PMID- 28879611
TI  - Evaluation of 15N-detected H-N correlation experiments on increasingly large
      RNAs.
AB  - Recently, 15N-detected multidimensional NMR experiments have been introduced for
      the investigation of proteins. Utilization of the slow transverse relaxation of
      nitrogen nuclei in a 15N-TROSY experiment allowed recording of high quality
      spectra for high molecular weight proteins, even in the absence of deuteration.
      Here, we demonstrate the applicability of three 15N-detected H-N correlation
      experiments (TROSY, BEST-TROSY and HSQC) to RNA. With the newly established 15N
      detected BEST-TROSY experiment, which proves to be the most sensitive 15N
      detected H-N correlation experiment, spectra for five RNA molecules ranging in
      size from 5 to 100 kDa were recorded. These spectra yielded high resolution in
      the 15N-dimension even for larger RNAs since the increase in line width with
      molecular weight is more pronounced in the 1H- than in the 15N-dimension.
      Further, we could experimentally validate the difference in relaxation behavior
      of imino groups in AU and GC base pairs. Additionally, we showed that 15N
      detected experiments theoretically should benefit from sensitivity and resolution
      advantages at higher static fields but that the latter is obscured by exchange
      dynamics within the RNAs.

PMID- 28879613
TI  - Vaccines for Conservation: Plague, Prairie Dogs & Black-Footed Ferrets as a Case
      Study.
AB  - The endangered black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is affected by plague,
      caused by Yersinia pestis, both directly, as a cause of mortality, and
      indirectly, because of the impacts of plague on its prairie dog (Cynomys spp.)
      prey base. Recent developments in vaccines and vaccine delivery have raised the
      possibility of plague control in prairie dog populations, thereby protecting
      ferret populations. A large-scale experimental investigation across the western
      US shows that sylvatic plague vaccine delivered in oral baits can increase
      prairie dog survival. In northern Colorado, an examination of the efficacy of
      insecticides to control fleas and plague vaccine shows that timing and method of
      plague control is important, with different implications for long-term and large
      scale management of Y. pestis delivery. In both cases, the studies show that
      ambitious field-work and cross-sectoral collaboration can provide potential
      solutions to difficult issues of wildlife management, conservation and disease
      ecology.

PMID- 28879612
TI  - How long noncoding RNAs enforce their will on mitochondrial activity: regulation
      of mitochondrial respiration, reactive oxygen species production, apoptosis, and
      metabolic reprogramming in cancer.
AB  - The cellular transcriptome contains a wide diversity of untranslated RNAs, of
      which the class of regulatory long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) has only recently
      been recognized. Evidence swiftly accumulates of lncRNAs influencing
      mitochondrial activities of eukaryotic cells, and perturbed expression is
      conspicuously associated with human diseases. In this review, we describe the
      multifaceted effects of lncRNAs on mitochondrial function, more particularly on
      the balance between oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis, on the production
      of reactive oxygen species, and on apoptosis in human cells. Emphasis is placed
      on the involvement of lncRNAs in cancer metabolism, as tumor cells rely heavily
      on modifications of mitochondrial functioning as an essential component for
      sustained tumorigenesis and cancer progression. From the nonexhaustive list of
      lncRNAS described in this review, ANRIL, AScmtRNA, H19, HOTAIR, LincRNA-p21,
      MALAT1, RMRP, SAMMSON, and VL30 have emerged as potent regulators of
      mitochondrial metabolism. Due to their key role in cancer progression, they
      represent potential targets of innovative lncRNA-based treatment strategies.

PMID- 28879614
TI  - Plant sex affects the structure of plant-pollinator networks in a subtropical
      forest.
AB  - Although it has long been recognized that the diversified sexual systems of
      plants could influence community patterns and pollination specialization, plant
      sex is not usually incorporated to quantify plant-pollinator networks. In this
      study, we observed 1776 visitations corresponding to 84 pollinator species and 28
      plant species (19 sexually monomorphic plants and 9 dioecious plants) in a
      subtropical forest, China. We constructed three networks by, respectively,
      combining visitations to dioecious female and male plants at the species level,
      separating them, and retaining the shared visitations between them. When the
      shared visitations between male and female plants were considered, the modularity
      was increased and the nestedness was decreased with a significantly low
      robustness for the plant community. Only in this network, most dioecious and
      hermaphroditic plants were associated with different pollinator groups and
      separated to different modules. The results also showed that dioecious plants
      were more generalized and more likely to be module hubs in sex-combined network
      and sex-separated network but not in sex-shared network. Only in the sex
      separated network, pollinators in dioecious modules were less selective than in
      hermaphroditic modules. Our study shows incorporating the different visitations
      between plant sexes could affect the analysis of key network structure properties
      and the description of pollination niche. To better understand niche partitioning
      and stability of plant-pollinator communities, it is necessary to compare
      pollination networks considering plant sexual diversity.

PMID- 28879615
TI  - Synthesis of novel quinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives containing the 7-oxo-1,2,4
      triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine moiety as effective agricultural bactericides against
      the pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.
AB  - A series of novel quinazolin-4-one derivatives (7a-7n) bearing the 7-oxo-1,2,4
      triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine moiety were designed, synthesized and evaluated for
      their inhibition activities against phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi in vitro.
      All of the target compounds were fully characterized through [Formula: see text]
      NMR, [Formula: see text] NMR, HRMS and IR spectra. Among these compounds, the
      structure of compound 7e was unambiguously confirmed via single-crystal X-ray
      diffraction analysis. The turbidimetric assays indicated that compounds 7b, 7d,
      7g, 7k and 7n exhibited much more potent inhibition activities against the
      pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), relative to control Bismerthiazol.
      Moreover, antibacterial activities of compounds 7j, 7k and 7n against the
      pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri (Xac) were comparable to that of
      control Bismerthiazol. As for the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum (Rs), only
      compounds 7g and 7i demonstrated inhibition activities similar to control
      Thiadiazole-copper. Moreover, this class of compounds did not display inhibition
      activity against three fungi tested. The above findings indicated that quinazolin
      4-one derivatives containing the 7-oxo-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine moiety
      have a potential as promising candidates for the development of new and more
      efficient agricultural bactericides.

PMID- 28879616
TI  - Isolation and identification of five cold-inducible promoters from Oryza sativa.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: Five promoters of the cold-inducible rice genes were isolated.
      The quantitative and qualitative expression analyses in the high generation
      transgenic rice suggest that the genes are stably induced by low temperature.
      Cold-inducible promoters are highly desirable for stress-inducible gene
      expression in crop genetic engineering. In this study, five rice genes, including
      OsABA8ox1, OsMYB1R35, OsERF104, OsCYP19-4, and OsABCB5, were found to be
      transcriptionally induced by cold stress. The promoters of these five genes were
      isolated, and their activities were identified in various tissues of transgenic
      rice plants at different growth stages both before and after cold stress.
      Histochemical staining, quantitative fluorescence assays, and GUSplus gene
      expression assays in corresponding promoter-GUSplus transgenic rice plants
      confirmed that the five promoters were cold-inducible with different expression
      patterns and strengths. The OsABA8ox1 and OsERF104 promoters had very low
      background expression; in contrast, the OsMYB1R35 promoter had higher basal
      activity in the roots, and OsCYP19-4 promoter activity was preferentially high in
      leaves and flowers of untreated transgenic lines. The OsABCB5 promoter had the
      highest basal activity among the five promoters. After cold induction, the
      activities of the OsABA8ox1, OsMYB1R35, and OsABCB5 promoters were high in both
      roots and leaves, slightly lower than that of the constitutively expressed
      OsActin1 promoter but comparable to that of the AtRD29A promoter. During the cold
      treatment time course, the activities of OsABA8ox1 and OsABCB5 promoters were
      quickly up-regulated in the early period and peaked at 24 h, after which the
      induction level gradually decreased until 48 h. The activities of the OsMYB1R35
      and OsCYP19-4 promoters increased under stress in a time-dependent manner, while
      OsERF104 promoter activity began to increase at 4 h and then decreased strongly.
      Furthermore, activities' analysis in T3, T4, and T5 homozygous progeny of single
      copy plants revealed that five promoters maintained their activities at
      comparable levels with no evidence of silencing under cold stress. Overall, the
      five cold-inducible rice promoters described herein could potentially be used in
      crop biotechnology.

PMID- 28879618
TI  - Assessment and review of organochlorine pesticide pollution in Kyrgyzstan.
AB  - The current study describes the preliminary assessment and securing activities of
      the largest and most hazardous POPs-contaminated sites in Kyrgyzstan. In 2010,
      cattle died and population were found with high pesticide levels in blood, human
      milk, and placenta. In the first phase of the study, a historic assessment of the
      pesticide dumping at the landfill/dump sites have been conducted. In the second
      phase, soil analysis for organochlorine pesticides in the areas of the pesticide
      disposal sites, the former pesticides storehouses, agro-air strips, and the
      cotton-growing fields were conducted. By this assessment, a first overview of the
      types and sources of pollution and of the scale of the problem is compiled
      including information gaps. From major pesticides used, DDT, DDE, and HCH were
      measured in the highest concentrations. With the limited analytical capacity
      present, a reasonable risk assessment could be performed. This paper also reports
      on practical risk reduction measures that have been carried out recently at the
      two major pesticide disposal sites with support of a Dutch environmental
      engineering company, an international NGO (Green Cross Switzerland) and local
      authorities from the Suzak region within an UN project. Local population living
      near the sites of the former pesticide storehouses and agro-airstrips are advised
      not to cultivate vegetables and melons or to raise cattle on these areas.
      Instead, it is recommended to grow technical crops or plant trees. Further
      recommendations on monitoring and assessment is given including the suggestion to
      consider the findings in the National Implementation Plan of Kyrgyzstan.

PMID- 28879617
TI  - High but not moderate-intensity endurance training increases pain tolerance: a
      randomised trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine the effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT)
      compared to volume-matched moderate-intensity continuous training (CONT) on
      muscle pain tolerance and high-intensity exercise tolerance. METHODS: Twenty
      healthy adults were randomly assigned (1:1) to either 6 weeks of HIIT [6-8 * 5
      min at halfway between lactate threshold and maximal oxygen uptake (50%Delta)] or
      volume-matched CONT (~60-80 min at 90% lactate threshold) on a cycle ergometer. A
      tourniquet test to examine muscle pain tolerance and two time to exhaustion (TTE)
      trials at 50%Delta to examine exercise tolerance were completed pre- and post
      training; the post-training TTE trials were completed at the pre-training
      50%Delta (same absolute-intensity) and the post-training 50%Delta (same relative
      intensity). RESULTS: HIIT and CONT resulted in similar improvements in markers of
      aerobic fitness (all P >= 0.081). HIIT increased TTE at the same absolute- and
      relative-intensity as pre-training (148 and 43%, respectively) to a greater
      extent than CONT (38 and -4%, respectively) (both P <= 0.019). HIIT increased
      pain tolerance (41%, P < 0.001), whereas CONT had no effect (-3%, P = 0.720).
      Changes in pain tolerance demonstrated positive relationships with changes in TTE
      at the same absolute- (r = 0.44, P = 0.027) and relative-intensity (r = 0.51, P =
      0.011) as pre-training. CONCLUSION: The repeated exposure to a high-intensity
      training stimulus increases muscle pain tolerance, which is independent of the
      improvements in aerobic fitness induced by endurance training, and may contribute
      to the increase in high-intensity exercise tolerance following HIIT.

PMID- 28879619
TI  - Borrelia miyamotoi, Other Vector-Borne Agents in Cat Blood and Ticks in Eastern
      Maryland.
AB  - We collected blood and tick samples in eastern Maryland to quantify vector-borne
      pathogen exposure and infection in healthy cats and to assess occupational
      disease risk to veterinary professionals and others who regularly interact with
      household pets. Thirty-six percent of healthy cats parasitized by ticks at time
      of examination (9/25) were exposed to, and 14% of bloods (7/49) tested PCR
      positive for, at least one vector-borne pathogen including several bloods and
      ticks with Borrelia miyamotoi, a recently recognized tick-borne zoonotic
      bacterium. There was no indication that high tick burdens were associated with
      exposure to vector-borne pathogens. Our results underscore the potential
      importance of cats to human vector-borne disease risk.

PMID- 28879620
TI  - Historical perspectives on the biology of brain metastasis.

PMID- 28879621
TI  - Survival Analysis of Advanced HCC Treated with Radioembolization: Comparing
      Impact of Clinical Performance Status Versus Vascular Invasion/Metastases.
AB  - PURPOSE: In this study, we aim to compare the effects of prognostic indicators on
      survival analysis for Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) C patients undergoing
      yttrium-90 radioembolization (Y-90). METHODS: A prospectively acquired database
      (2003-2017) for BCLC C hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients that underwent
      radioembolization with Y-90 was searched. The criteria for BCLC C status (Eastern
      Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) of 1 or 2, metastases,
      and/or portal vein thrombosis (PVT)) were recorded. Kaplan-Meier survival
      analyses were performed from the date of the first radioembolization with Y-90,
      censored to curative treatment, to determine median overall survival (OS). Cox
      regression hazards model was used for multivariate analyses. Significance was set
      at P < 0.05. RESULTS: 547 BCLC C patients treated with radioembolization with Y
      90 had a median OS of 10.7 months (range: 9.5-12.9). 43% (233 of 547) patients
      classified as BCLC C solely by their ECOG PS had a median OS of 19.4 months (14.7
      23.7); 57% (314 of 547) patients with PVT/metastases had a median OS of 7.7
      months (6.7-8.7). On multivariate analysis, ECOG PS was not found to be a
      statistically significant prognostic indicator of OS in BCLC C whereas metastases
      and PVT exhibited hazards ratios (95%CI) of 0.51 (0.38-0.69) and 0.49 (0.38
      0.63), respectively (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Patients classified as BCLC C due
      to ECOG PS 1 demonstrated longer survival when compared to those presenting with
      PVT, metastases and/or ECOG PS 2. Hence, ECOG PS 1, as an isolated variable, may
      not be a true indicator of advanced disease.

PMID- 28879622
TI  - Simulation-Based Design of ED Operations with Care Streams to Optimize Care
      Delivery and Reduce Length of Stay in the Emergency Department.
AB  - Faced with the opportunity to significantly deviate from classic operations, a
      new emergency department (ED) and novel strategy for patient care delivery were
      simultaneously initiated with the aid of model-based simulation. To answer the
      design and implementation questions, a traditional strategy for construction of
      discrete-eventmodel simulation was employed to define ED operations for a newly
      constructed facility in terms of workflow, variables, resources, structure,
      process logic and associated assumptions. Benefits were achieved before, during
      and after implementation of an unprecedented operations strategy-i.e., the
      organization of the ED care delivery around four care streams: Critical,
      Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Fast Track. Prior to opening, it shed light on the
      range of context variables where benefits might be anticipated, and it
      facilitated staff understanding and judgements of performance. Two years after
      opening, the operations data is compared to the simulation with encouraging
      results that shed light on where to continue pursuit of improvement.

PMID- 28879623
TI  - The risk factors associated with postoperative hemorrhage after tooth extraction:
      a multi-center retrospective study of patients receiving oral antithrombotic
      therapy.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to retrospectively investigate the multivariate
      relationships between specific risk factors and postoperative hemorrhage after
      tooth extraction in patients who were prescribed oral antithrombotic therapy.
      Risk factors for postoperative hemorrhage after tooth extraction were evaluated
      using univariate and multivariate analyses. Patient characteristics such as age
      and gender; the presence or absence of known comorbidities such as diabetes
      mellitus, hypertension, cerebral infarction, and alcohol consumption; and
      perioperative diarrhea were assessed. The drug used for antithrombotic therapy,
      preoperative blood test results, the presence or absence of preoperative
      antibiotics or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) administration, the
      total number of extracted teeth, and the type of surgical procedures were also
      evaluated. We found that the preoperative administration of antibiotics (odds
      ratio (OR) = 2.52), an increased prothrombin time international normalized ratio
      (PT-INR) value (OR = 1.94), and the extraction of multiple teeth (OR = 2.10) were
      significantly associated with postoperative hemorrhage. There was no significant
      association between postoperative hemorrhage and any other demographic factors or
      comorbidities, including concomitant alcohol use. We demonstrated the
      multivariate relationship between the risk factors and postoperative hemorrhage
      after tooth extraction in patients receiving oral antithrombotic therapy.
      Surgeons should be aware of these risks and monitor the PT-INR of anticoagulated
      patients.

PMID- 28879625
TI  - Effects of Arsenic Compounds on Microminerals Content and Antioxidant Enzyme
      Activities in Rat Liver.
AB  - Interactions of arsenic with essential trace elements may result in disturbances
      on body homeostasis. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of
      different arsenic compounds on micromineral content and antioxidant enzyme
      activities in rat liver. Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups
      and exposed to sodium arsenite and sodium arsenate at 0.01 and 10 mg/L for 8
      weeks in drinking water. The concentration of arsenic increased in the liver of
      all arsenic-exposed animals. The proportion of zinc and copper increased in
      animals exposed to 0.01 mg/L sodium arsenite. In addition, these animals
      presented a reduction in magnesium and sodium content. Superoxide dismutase
      activity decreased mainly in arsenite-exposed animals, whereas catalase activity
      decreased in animals exposed to 10 mg/L sodium arsenate. Further, exposure to
      sodium arsenate at 10 mg/L altered copper and magnesium content in the liver, and
      reduced total protein levels. Overall, both arsenic compounds altered the liver
      histology, with reduction in the proportion of cytoplasm and hepatocyte, and
      increased the percentage of sinusoidal capillaries and macrophages. In
      conclusion, our findings showed that oral exposure to arsenic compounds disturbs
      the trace elements balance in the liver, especially at low concentration,
      altering enzymatic and stereological parameters. We concluded that despite the
      increase in trace elements content, the antioxidant enzyme activities were
      downregulated and did not prevent morphological alterations in the liver of
      animals exposed to both arsenic compounds.

PMID- 28879624
TI  - The herbicides trifluralin and tebuthiuron have no genotoxic or mutagenic
      potential as evidenced by genetic tests.
AB  - Brazil has been the largest world consumer of pesticides since 2008, followed by
      the USA. The herbicides trifluralin and tebuthiuron have been widely applied in
      agriculture. These herbicides are selective for some plant species, and their use
      brings various benefits. However, the genotoxic and mutagenic effects of
      tebuthiuron on non-target organisms are poorly known, and in addition, the
      effects of trifluralin must be better investigated. Therefore, this study
      employed genetic tests including the comet assay and micronucleus test to
      evaluate the genotoxic effects of trifluralin and tebuthiuron on HepG2 cells. In
      addition, we have used the Ames test to assess the mutagenic effects of the
      herbicides on the TA97a, TA98, TA100, and TA1535 strains of Salmonella
      typhimurium. On the basis of the comet assay and the micronucleus test,
      trifluralin did not cause genetic damage to HepG2 cells. In addition, trifluralin
      did not impact the tested S. typhimurium strains. Regarding tebuthiuron,
      literature has shown that this herbicide damaged DNA in Oreochromis niloticus.
      Nevertheless, we have found that tebuthiuron was not genotoxic to either HepG2
      cells or the S. typhimurium strains. Therefore, neither trifluralin nor
      tebuthiuron exerted genotoxic or mutagenic potential at the tested conditions.

PMID- 28879626
TI  - Effects of membrane deformability and bond formation/dissociation rates on
      adhesion dynamics of a spherical capsule in shear flow.
AB  - Cellular adhesion plays a critical role in biological systems and biomedical
      applications. Cell deformation and biophysical properties of adhesion molecules
      are of significance for the adhesion behavior. In the present work, dynamic
      adhesion of a deformable capsule to a planar substrate, in a linear shear flow,
      is numerically simulated to investigate the combined influence of membrane
      deformability (quantified by the capillary number) and bond
      formation/dissociation rates on the adhesion behavior. The computational model is
      based on the immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method for the capsule-fluid
      interaction and a probabilistic adhesion model for the capsule-substrate
      interaction. Three distinct adhesion states, detachment, rolling adhesion and
      firm adhesion, are identified and presented in a state diagram as a function of
      capillary number and bond dissociation rate. The impact of bond formation rate on
      the state diagram is further investigated. Results show that the critical bond
      dissociation rate for the transition of rolling or firm adhesion to detachment is
      strongly related to the capsule deformability. At the rolling-adhesion state,
      smaller off rates are needed for larger capillary number to increase the rolling
      velocity and detach the capsule. In contrast, the critical off rate for firm-to
      detach transition slightly increases with the capillary number. With smaller on
      rate, the effect of capsule deformability on the critical off rates is more
      pronounced and capsules with moderate deformability are prone to detach by the
      shear flow. Further increasing of on rate leads to large expansion of both
      rolling-adhesion and firm-adhesion regions. Even capsules with relatively large
      deformability can maintain stable rolling adhesion at certain off rate.

PMID- 28879627
TI  - The effect of viscosity, friction, and sonication on the morphology and
      metabolite production from Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542.
AB  - This study investigates the effects of viscosity, friction, and sonication on the
      morphology and the production of lovastatin, (+)-geodin, and sulochrin by
      Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542. Sodium alginate and gelatine were used to protect
      the fungal pellet from mechanical force by increasing the media viscosity. Sodium
      alginate stimulated the production of lovastatin by up to 329.0% and sulochrin by
      128.7%, with inhibitory effect on (+)-geodin production at all concentrations
      used. However, the use of gelatine to increase viscosity significantly suppressed
      lovastatin, (+)-geodin, and sulochrin's production (maximum reduction at day 9 of
      42.7, 60.8, and 68.3%, respectively), which indicated that the types of chemical
      play a major role in metabolite production. Higher viscosity increased both
      pellet biomass and size in all conditions. Friction significantly increased (+)
      geodin's titre by 1527.5%, lovastatin by 511.1%, and sulochrin by 784.4% while
      reducing pellet biomass and size. Conversely, sonication produced disperse
      filamentous morphology with significantly lower metabolites. Sodium alginate
      induced lovastatin and sulochrin production suggest that these metabolites are
      not affected by viscosity; rather, their production is affected by the specific
      action of certain chemicals. In contrast, low viscosity adversely affected (+)
      geodin's production, while pellet disintegration can cause a significant
      production of (+)-geodin.

PMID- 28879628
TI  - In vitro Approaches to Support Bioequivalence and Substitutability of Generic
      Proton Pump Inhibitors via Nasogastric Tube Administration.
AB  - Administration of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) through nasogastric tubes may
      present risks. If the PPI drug products are not prepared properly, clogging or
      obstruction of nasogastric tubes can pose a safety concern. In addition, the
      integrity of the enteric coating of the drug product may be damaged resulting in
      reduced bioavailability of the active moiety. From the perspective of
      administration of generic PPIs when compared to the reference drug product,
      differences in formulation can potentially result in a greater relative risk for
      the generic drug product. As part of the assessment of bioequivalence, the Office
      of Generic Drugs (OGD) has developed a suite of in vitro testing to compare the
      delivery of the generic and reference products via nasogastric tubes. These in
      vitro tests assess essential attributes associated with the likelihood of
      clogging and maintenance of the enteric coating. These in vitro tests include
      studies evaluating sedimentation, granule size distribution, drug recovery, and
      acid resistance. One of the challenges is that while the administration of PPIs
      through nasogastric tubes is common in clinical practice, this issue is not
      uniformly addressed in the FDA approved label of the reference drug products.
      This paper discusses the design and rationale for in vitro testing of PPI
      formulations with respect to bioequivalence via nasogastric tube administration
      and in addition, it summarizes commonly occurring deficiencies in the in vitro
      nasogastric tube testing of 14 recent Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA)
      submitted for five generic PPI drug products.

PMID- 28879629
TI  - Feasibility of Coping Effectiveness Training for Caregivers of Children with
      Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Genetic Counseling Intervention.
AB  - Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may find it difficult
      to feel a sense of control and to cope with the overall physical and emotional
      demands of caring for their child. While caregivers are able to successfully cope
      with a high level of stress, there are limits to their resources and abilities to
      cope over time. Genetic counselors working with affected families may be able to
      help parents more effectively manage stress related to the disorder. Few short
      term interventions have been reported in genetic counseling yet implementation of
      evidence-based examples may be achievable. This study aimed to assess the
      feasibility of a coping effectiveness training (CET) intervention designed to
      enhance coping self-efficacy (CSE) among caregivers of children with ASD, with
      the eventual goal of translating this intervention into genetic counseling
      practice. A randomized treatment-control design was used to investigate the
      feasibility of an intervention using CET among caregivers of children with ASD.
      The primary outcome was the feasibility of the intervention; the secondary
      outcome was improvements in CSE in the intervention group as compared to the
      control group. Caregivers were recruited and randomized into the treatment (n=15)
      or control (n=13) groups. Of these, 22 completed the study (retention: 78.6%).
      The intervention was highly feasible; most caregivers found the CET helpful,
      practical, useful, and relatively easy to attend. The treatment group
      demonstrated significantly increased CSE from pre-intervention to post
      intervention (p=0.02). Between group differences were not significant when
      comparing the pre-post changes. We provide preliminary evidence that CET may be
      beneficial to caregivers of children with ASD. The results of this feasibility
      study support development of a phase II study of this intervention in a larger
      cohort, aimed to be implemented into a genetic counseling setting.

PMID- 28879630
TI  - Polymorphism in IKZF1 gene affects clinical outcome in diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma.
AB  - IKZF1 encodes a transcription factor involved in B-cell maturation and
      differentiation. We genotyped 218 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients
      and 715 unrelated controls using a TaqMan allelic discrimination assay. No
      statistical difference was observed in the genotype distribution of the IKZF1
      rs4132601 polymorphism between DLBCL patients and controls. However, the 2-year
      PFS rate of patients with the IKZF1 TT genotype was 54.3% compared to 68.6% in
      those with the IKZF1 G+ genotypes. Moreover, the IKZF1 rs4132601 polymorphism
      retained its independent prognostic impact on PFS. A more pronounced effect of
      the IKZF1 TT genotype on PFS was detected in patients with low/intermediate low
      IPI-risk group. When analysis was restricted to patients with GCB-type pattern,
      those with the IKZF1 TT genotype achieved a lower 5-year OS rate than the
      patients with the IKZF1 G+ genotypes (19.6 vs. 56%). This study provides the
      first evidence for the association of IKZF1 variants with DLBCL outcome.

PMID- 28879631
TI  - Biodegradation of phenol and its derivatives by engineered bacteria: current
      knowledge and perspectives.
AB  - Biodegradation of phenolic compounds is a promising alternative to physical and
      chemical methods used to remove these toxic pollutants from the environment. The
      ability of various microorganisms to metabolize phenol and its derivatives
      (alkylphenols, nitrophenols and halogenated derivatives) has therefore been
      intensively studied. Knowledge of the enzymes catalyzing the individual
      reactions, the genes encoding these enzymes and the regulatory mechanisms
      involved in the expression of the respective genes in bacteria serves as a basis
      for the development of more efficient degraders of phenols via genetic
      engineering methods. Engineered bacteria which efficiently degrade phenolic
      compounds were constructed in laboratories using various approaches such as
      cloning the catabolic genes in multicopy plasmids, the introduction of
      heterologous genes or broadening the substrate range of key enzymes by
      mutagenesis. Efforts to apply the engineered strains in in situ bioremediation
      are problematic, since engineered strains often do not compete successfully with
      indigenous microorganisms. New efficient degraders of phenolic compounds may be
      obtained by complex approaches at the organism level, such as genome shuffling or
      adaptive evolution. The application of these engineered bacteria for
      bioremediation will require even more complex analysis of both the biological
      characteristics of the degraders and the physico-chemical conditions at the
      polluted sites.

PMID- 28879632
TI  - Real-Time Clustered Multiple Signal Classification (RTC-MUSIC).
AB  - Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography provide a high temporal
      resolution, which allows estimation of the detailed time courses of neuronal
      activity. However, in real-time analysis of these data two major challenges must
      be handled: the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the limited time available
      for computations. In this work, we present real-time clustered multiple signal
      classification (RTC-MUSIC) a real-time source localization algorithm, which can
      handle low SNRs and can reduce the computational effort. It provides correlation
      information together with sparse source estimation results, which can, e.g., be
      used to identify evoked responses with high sensitivity. RTC-MUSIC clusters the
      forward solution based on an anatomical brain atlas and optimizes the scanning
      process inherent to MUSIC approaches. We evaluated RTC-MUSIC by analyzing MEG
      auditory and somatosensory data. The results demonstrate that the proposed method
      localizes sources reliably. For the auditory experiment the most dominant
      correlated source pair was located bilaterally in the superior temporal gyri. The
      highest activation in the somatosensory experiment was found in the contra
      lateral primary somatosensory cortex.

PMID- 28879633
TI  - The Initial Evaluation and Management of a Patient with Heart Failure.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The goal of this review is to summarize and discuss a thorough
      and effective manner in the evaluation of the patient with heart failure. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Heart failure is a prevalent disease worldwide and while the diagnosis
      of heart failure has remained relatively unchanged via a careful history and
      physical examination, identification of the etiology of the heart failure and
      treatment has made significant advances. Mechanical circulatory support (MCS),
      neprilysin inhibitors, and chronic resynchronization therapy (CRT) are just some
      of the relatively recent therapies afforded to assist heart failure patients.
      Heart failure is a complicated, multifactorial diagnosis that requires a careful
      history and physical for diagnosis with the support of laboratory tests. While
      the prognosis for heart failure patients remains poor in comparison to other
      cardiovascular disease and even certain cancers, new advancements in therapy have
      shown survival and quality of life improvement.

PMID- 28879634
TI  - Does low uranium concentration generates phytotoxic symptoms in Pisum sativum L.
      in nutrient medium?
AB  - Due to excessive mining and use of radionuclide especially uranium (U) and its
      fission products, numerous health hazards as well as environmental contamination
      worldwide have been created. The present study focused on demonstrating whether
      low concentration of U treatment in liquid nutient medium may translocate traces
      of U in plants and in fruits of Pisum sativum after 30 and 60 days of exposure
      for the safe use as a food supplement for human/animals. Hydroponically grown
      plants (in amended Hoagland medium) were treated with two different
      concentrations of uranium ([U] = 100 and 500 nM, respectively). Plants showed a
      decrease in total chlorophyll after 60 days of treatment. On the other hand, Eh
      of the nutrient medium was not affected from the initial days till 60 days of
      treatment, but pH of nutrient medium was increased upon durations, highest at 60
      days of treatment. In seeds, micro/macro elements were under limit as well as U
      concentration was also under detection limit. We did not observe any U in the
      above ground parts (shoots/seeds) of the plant, i.e., under detection limit. Our
      observation suggests that P. sativum plants may be useful to grow at low
      radionuclide [U]-contaminated areas for safe human/animal use, but for other
      fission products, we have to investigate further for the safe human/animal use.

PMID- 28879635
TI  - Ectopic Hamartomatous Thymoma: A Review Of The Literature With Report Of New
      Cases And Proposal Of A New Name: Biphenotypic Branchioma.
AB  - Ectopic hamartomatous thymoma (EHT) is a rare benign neoplasm of the lower neck
      suggesting branchial origin. Despite use of the term thymoma in the nomenclature,
      there is no evidence of thymic origin or differentiation. It affects middle-aged
      adults with a remarkable male predominance. To date less than 80 cases have been
      reported in the English literature. We present here two additional cases of EHT.
      The first is a benign case in a 31-year-old man, showing typical histological
      features. The second is a malignant case in a 70-year-old woman, showing
      intraductal carcinoma arising in intimate association with an EHT. These cases
      are presented in the context of a review of cases reported in the English
      literature. The exact origin has not been identified, but is considered to be of
      branchial apparatus, creating a quandary about the best terminology. Recently,
      the designation "branchial anlage mixed tumor" or "thymic anlage tumor" were
      proposed, but do not quite reflect the true nature of the neoplasm. To avoid
      taxonomic confusion, international consensus on terminology is desired. As this
      entity is a neoplasm that shows dual mesoderm and endoderm
      derivation/differentiation, we propose a new name "biphenotypic branchioma."

PMID- 28879636
TI  - [Cr3O(O2CCH2CH3)6(H2O)3]NO3.H2O (Cr3) Toxicity Potential in Bacterial and
      Mammalian Cells.
AB  - Chromium(III) has generally been considered to be essential for proper
      carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, and, despite recent evidence to the contrary,
      chromium(III)-containing compounds remain one of the most popular commercial
      dietary supplements. Cr3, or [Cr3O(O2CCH2CH3)6(H2O)3]NO3.H2O, is a trivalent
      chromium compound that is a promising chromium nutritional supplement. Studies
      with Cr3 have indicated that it is non-toxic in developmental and short- and long
      term exposure studies in rodents, but the safety of this compound to chromosomes
      and cells has not been explored. The current study evaluates the mutagenicity,
      cytotoxicity, and clastogenicity of Cr3 in bacterial and mammalian cells and
      compares these results with similar studies using the bestselling Cr(III)
      nutritional supplement, chromium picolinate (CrPic). The mutagenicity of CrPic
      and Cr3 was tested in Escherichia coli FX-11 and Salmonella typhimurium (TA 98
      and TA 100). Cytotoxicity was measured as a decrease in plating efficiency
      relative to controls after treatment with Cr3 and CrPic for 24 h in CHO K1 cells.
      Clastogenicity was measured by counting the number of metaphases damaged and of
      the total number chromosomal aberrations in CHO K1 cells. Mutagenesis assays in
      E. coli and S. typhimurium were negative. All treatments of Cr3 produced >= 84%
      plating efficiency except 80 MUg/cm2, which reduced the plating efficiency to
      62%. Cr3 at any treatment level did not produce a significant increase in the
      number of cells with abnormal metaphases, while treatments using >= 40 MUg/cm2 of
      CrPic elevated the number significantly. These data suggest that Cr3 is
      significantly less mutagenic in bacteria cells and less clastogenic in CHO K1
      cells, while CrPic is clastogenic in CHO K1 cells.

PMID- 28879637
TI  - Oligo p-Phenylenevinylene Derivatives as Electron Transfer Matrices for UV-MALDI.
AB  - Phenylenevinylene oligomers (PVs) have outstanding photophysical characteristics
      for applications in the growing field of organic electronics. Yet, PVs are also
      versatile molecules, the optical and physicochemical properties of which can be
      tuned by manipulation of their structure. We report the synthesis, photophysical,
      and MS characterization of eight PV derivatives with potential value as electron
      transfer (ET) matrices for UV-MALDI. UV-vis analysis show the presence of strong
      characteristic absorption bands in the UV region and molar absorptivities at 355
      nm similar or higher than those of traditional proton (CHCA) and ET (DCTB) MALDI
      matrices. Most of the PVs exhibit non-radiative quantum yields (phi) above 0.5,
      indicating favorable thermal decay. Ionization potential values (IP) for PVs,
      calculated by the Electron Propagator Theory (EPT), range from 6.88 to 7.96 eV,
      making these oligomers good candidates as matrices for ET ionization. LDI
      analysis of PVs shows only the presence of radical cations (M+.) in positive ion
      mode and absence of clusters, adducts, or protonated species; in addition, M+.
      threshold energies for PVs are lower than for DCTB. We also tested the
      performance of four selected PVs as ET MALDI matrices for analytes ranging from
      porphyrins and phthalocyanines to polyaromatic compounds. Two of the four PVs
      show S/N enhancement of 1961% to 304% in comparison to LDI, and laser energy
      thresholds from 0.17 MUJ to 0.47 MUJ compared to 0.58 MUJ for DCTB. The use of PV
      matrices also results in lower LODs (low fmol range) whereas LDI LODs range from
      pmol to nmol. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28879639
TI  - Nitisinone-Induced Keratopathy in Alkaptonuria: A Challenging Diagnosis Despite
      Clinical Suspicion.
AB  - Alkaptonuria is a rare disorder of amino acid metabolism that causes premature
      large joint and spine arthropathy and cardiac valvular disease. It is
      characterised by elevated levels of homogentisic acid. Nitisinone (NTBC) is a
      benzoylcyclohexane-1,3-dione that reversibly inhibits the activity of the
      enzymatic step immediately prior to homogentisate dioxygenase, hence reducing the
      production of homogentisic acid. Thus it is thought that nitisinone might be a
      treatment for alkaptonuria. A side effect of NTBC therapy is elevation of plasma
      tyrosine levels in a manner analogous to tyrosinemia type 2, another related
      condition which causes a painful palmoplantar hyperkeratosis and eye pathology
      described as conjunctivitis and herpetic-like corneal ulceration. There are only
      two previous reports of NTBC causing eye symptoms in patients with alkaptonuria.
      Here we provide further evidence of this side effect of treatment and its
      resolution with cessation of NTBC. Repeat challenges with NTBC provoked symptoms,
      but introducing a low protein diet with low dose NTBC was successful in
      controlling plasma tyrosine levels and the patient remained free of symptoms when
      levels were below 600 MUmol/L. Our patient was remarkable for the low dose of
      NTBC that precipitated symptoms (as little as 0.5 mg daily), and for the
      difficulty in proving its causation despite clinical suspicion.

PMID- 28879640
TI  - Creative tensions: mutual responsiveness adapted to private sector research and
      development.
AB  - The concept of mutual responsiveness is currently based on little empirical data
      in the literature of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). This paper
      explores RRI's idea of mutual responsiveness in the light of recent RRI case
      studies on private sector research and development (R&D). In RRI, responsible
      innovation is understood as a joint endeavour of innovators and societal
      stakeholders, who become mutually responsive to each other in defining the 'right
      impacts' of the innovation in society, and in steering the innovation towards
      realising those impacts. Yet, the case studies identified several reasons for why
      the idea of mutual responsiveness does not always appear feasible or desirable in
      actual R&D situations. Inspired by the discrepancies between theory and practice,
      we suggest three further elaborations for the concept of responsiveness in RRI.
      Process-responsiveness is suggested for identifying situations that require
      stakeholder involvement specifically during R&D. Product-responsiveness is
      suggested for mobilising the potential of innovation products to be adaptable
      according to diverse stakeholder needs. Presponsiveness is suggested as
      responsiveness towards stakeholders that are not (yet) reachable at a given time
      of R&D. Our aim is to contribute to a more tangible understanding of
      responsiveness in RRI, and suggest directions for further analysis in upcoming
      RRI case studies.

PMID- 28879638
TI  - Impact of Etoposide on BRCA1 Expression in Various Breast Cancer Cell Lines.
AB  - Breast cancer 1 (BRCA1), as a tumor suppressor, exerts an effective influence on
      protecting DNA integrity to suppress the development of breast cancer (BC). BRCA1
      expression is induced in response to DNA-damaging agents such as etoposide.
      Germline BRCA1 gene mutations are associated with development of hereditary BC.
      However, besides BRCA-mutated BCs, some sporadic cancers may also exhibit a BRCA
      like phenotype, displaying so-called 'BRCAness'. This common phenotype may
      respond to similar therapeutic approaches as BRCA-mutated tumors and may thus
      have important implications for the clinical management of these cancers. In
      order to determine whether and how etoposide regulates the protein levels of
      BRCA1 in BC cells, we exposed a panel of five selected cell lines to etoposide,
      compared the results to untreated control cells, and then stained the cells with
      the specific, reliable, and reproducible MS110 antibody directed against
      phosphorylated Ser1423 BRCA1. By evaluating cytoplasmic BRCA1 protein levels, we
      were able to distinguish three aggressive BC subtypes with BRCAness
      characteristics. In addition, determination of early and late apoptosis helped to
      complete the analysis of BRCA1 functions in the DNA damage pathway of aggressive
      BC. In conclusion, our study suggested that high cytoplasmic BRCA1 protein levels
      could be considered as a potential predictive marker for response to chemotherapy
      in both sporadic and hereditary BC. Tumors with either BRCAness phenotype or
      germline BRCA1 mutation are both aggressive BCs associated with poor prognosis
      and could both be subjected to targeted therapies against BRCA1-mutated BC in
      future clinical management strategies.

PMID- 28879641
TI  - 3D Atlas of the Brain, Head and Neck in 2953 pieces.

PMID- 28879643
TI  - Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity: Radiology-Pathology Correlation.
AB  - Adenoid cystic carcinoma in the oral cavity is an uncommon salivary gland
      malignancy that has a propensity for perineural spread. A high-grade variant is
      evidenced by an abundance of pleomorphic cells, loss of the classic biphasic
      epithelial-myoepithelial growth pattern, and comedonecrosis, as well as elevated
      Ki-67. CT and MRI can both be useful for demonstrating the extent of invasion in
      oral cavity-associated adenoid cystic carcinoma, which can attain the inferior
      alveolar nerve for perineural spread by direct invasion through the mandible.
      Reflecting the aggressive nature of this high-grade malignancy, 18FDG-PET can
      demonstrate hypermetabolism and can be useful for staging. These features are
      exemplified in this sine qua non radiology-pathology correlation article.

PMID- 28879642
TI  - Determination of Fecal Sterols Following a Diet with and without Plant Sterols.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a method for neutral fecal sterols
      determination in subjects receiving a normal diet with or without a plant sterols
      enriched beverage using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Sample
      preparation conditions (homogenization of lyophilized feces with water) were
      evaluated. Sterol determination required direct hot saponification,
      unsaponifiable extraction with hexane, and the formation of trimethylsilyl (TMS)
      ether derivatives. The method allows the quantification of cholesterol, plant
      sterols and their metabolites (coprostanol, coprostanone, cholestanol,
      cholestanone, methylcoprostanol, methylcoprostanone, ethylcoprostenol,
      stigmastenol, ethylcoprostanol and ethylcoprostanone). Good linearity was
      obtained (r > 0.96) and interference was only observed for coprostanone, where
      the standard addition method proved necessary for quantification. The limits of
      detection (LOD) ranged from 0.10 to 3.88 ug/g dry feces and the limits of
      quantitation (LOQ) from 0.34 to 12.94 ug/g dry feces. Intra- and inter-assay
      precision (RSD %) were 0.9-9.2 and 2.1-11.3, respectively. Accuracy, expressed as
      percentage recovery (80-119%) was obtained for all determined sterols.

PMID- 28879644
TI  - Adenosine reduces reactive oxygen species and interleukin-8 production by
      Trichomonas vaginalis-stimulated neutrophils.
AB  - Trichomonas vaginalis is a flagellated protozoan that affects the human
      urogenital tract causing 276.4 million new infections a year. The parasite
      elicits a vaginal mucosal infiltration of immune cells, especially neutrophils
      which are considered to be primarily responsible for cytological change observed
      at the infection site as well as the major contributor in the inflammatory
      response against the parasite. Extracellular nucleotides and their nucleosides
      are signaling compounds involved in several biological processes, including
      inflammation and immune responses. Once in the extracellular space, the
      nucleotides and nucleosides can directly activate the purinergic receptors.
      Herein, we investigated the involvement of purinergic signaling on the production
      of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cytokines by T. vaginalis-stimulated
      neutrophils. Parasites were able to induce an increase in ROS and IL-8 levels
      while they did not promote IL-6 secretion or neutrophil elastase activity.
      Adenine and guanine nucleotides or nucleosides were not able to modulate ROS and
      cytokine production; however, when T. vaginalis-stimulated neutrophils were
      incubated with adenosine and adenosine deaminase inhibitor, the levels of ROS and
      IL-8 were significantly reduced. These immunosuppressive effects were probably a
      response to the higher bioavailability of adenosine found in the supernatant as
      result of inhibition of enzyme activity. The involvement of P1 receptors was
      investigated by immunofluorescence and A1 receptor was the most abundant. Our
      data show that the influence of purinergic signaling, specifically those effects
      associated with adenosine accumulation, on the modulation of production of
      proinflammatory mediators by T. vaginalis-stimulated neutrophils contribute to
      the understanding of immunological aspects of trichomoniasis.

PMID- 28879645
TI  - Pharmacokinetic Effects of Antidrug Antibodies Occurring in Healthy Subjects
      After a Single Dose of Intravenous Infliximab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infliximab pharmacokinetic studies have been performed in patients
      receiving chronic infliximab therapy. In these patients, infliximab antidrug
      antibodies (ADAs) increase infliximab clearance and decrease serum levels and
      drug efficacy. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the pharmacokinetic effect of
      infliximab ADAs in healthy subjects receiving a single dose of intravenous
      infliximab. METHODS: Data were obtained from a single-blind, parallel-group,
      single-dose study of healthy subjects receiving 5 mg/kg of intravenous SB2
      (infliximab biosimilar), EU-sourced Remicade (EU-IFX) or US-sourced Remicade (US
      IFX). Serum infliximab was measured at 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h and at 5,
      7, 14, 21, 28, 42, 56, and 70 days after administration. ADAs were measured pre
      dose and at 29 and 71 days. Data from the first ten subjects randomized to each
      treatment arm were utilized for this study. A two-compartment model of the serum
      infliximab vs. time curve was developed using nonlinear regression. RESULTS: At
      10 weeks, 11 subjects (37%) developed ADAs. ADAs were detected in four subjects
      after SB2, one subject after EU-IFX, and six subjects after US-IFX infusion. Of
      these, neutralizing antibodies occurred in one subject after SB2, in no subjects
      after EU-IFX, and in three subjects after US-IFX infusion. Infliximab clearance
      was increased in subjects with ADAs vs. those without ADAs (12.89 +/- 2.69 vs.
      9.90 +/- 1.74 ml/h; p < 0.0005). The elimination half-time was shorter in
      subjects with ADAs (282.4 +/- 56.4 vs. 343.3 +/- 61.9 h; p < 0.01). Serum
      infliximab measured at 8 weeks correlated closely with infliximab clearance (R 2
      = 0.5494; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: ADAs are common in healthy subjects after a
      single intravenous dose of infliximab and result in faster infliximab clearance,
      shorter elimination time, and lower serum infliximab levels. These data confirm
      that ADAs are common with biologic therapy and significantly impact the efficacy
      of these drugs.

PMID- 28879646
TI  - Acromegaly treatment in Romania. How close are we to disease control?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Romania, no nationwide data for acromegaly treatment and control
      rate are available. Our objective was to assess the acromegaly control rate in a
      tertiary referral centre, which covers an important part of Romanian territory
      and population of patients with acromegaly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed
      the records of all 164 patients (49 males and 115 females; median age 55 [47,
      63.5] years) with newly or previously diagnosed acromegaly, who have been
      assessed at least once in our tertiary referral centre between January 1, 2012
      and March 31, 2016. This sample represents 13.6% of the total expected 1200
      Romanian patients with acromegaly and covers 82.9% of the counties in Romania.
      Control of acromegaly was defined as a random serum growth hormone (GH) < 1 ng/mL
      and an age-normalised serum insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) value. The GH
      and IGF-I values used for calculation of the control rate were those at the last
      evaluation. The same assays for GH and IGF-I measurement were used in all
      patients. RESULTS: There were 147 treated and 17 untreated patients. Of the 147
      patients assessed after therapy, 137 (93.2%) had pituitary surgery, 116 (78.9%)
      were on medical treatment at the last evaluation, and 67 (45.5%) had
      radiotherapy. Seventy-one (48.3%) had a random GH < 1 ng/mL, 54 (36.7%) had a
      normalised, age-adjusted IGF-I, and 42 (28.6%) had both normal random serum GH
      and IGF-I. CONCLUSIONS: In Romania, acromegaly benefits from the whole spectrum
      of therapeutic interventions. However, the control rate remains disappointing.

PMID- 28879647
TI  - Evaluation of vitamin D concentration in a population of young, healthy women -
      the effects of vitamin D supplementation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The goal of the study was an evaluation of serum vitamin D
      concentrations in healthy young women. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 106
      healthy women, aged 20-30 years, were included in the study. Monthly evaluation -
      for three months - of the effects of calcium (500 mg) and vitamin D (1500 IU)
      administration in women with baseline values of vitamin D < 20 ng/mL (Group 1)
      plus the effects of an 800 IU/d dose in women with the baseline value of D > 20
      ng/mL (Group 2). Additionally, calcium and PTH concentrations were assessed at
      the study onset and after a three-month supplementation. Only 67 women adhered to
      the prescribed therapeutic regime during the three months of observation.
      RESULTS: The mean vitamin D concentration in the entire study group was 16.56
      ng/mL, being 12.6 ng/mL in Group 1 and 25.22 ng/mL in Group 2. In the course of
      vitamin D administration, its concentration increased statistically
      significantly, both in the entire group and in the subgroups, at all time points
      compared with the study onset. Moreover, its concentration in the whole
      population and in Group 1 was significantly higher in each of the time points not
      only in relation to the baseline, but also in comparison with the results of the
      previous measurements (after 1 and 2 months of supplementation). In Group 2,
      vitamin D levels also increased systematically throughout the whole study period,
      and after 3 months its concentration was significantly higher than after 1 and 2
      months. Although there were no differences in calcium concentration after those
      three months, a statistically significant drop of PTH (p < 0.05) was recorded in
      the entire population and in Group 1. CONCLUSIONS: A moderate deficiency of
      vitamin D was observed in the studied population of young women. A
      supplementation with calcium plus vitamin D brought about an increase of vitamin
      D concentration as early as in the first month of administration. The optimal
      concentration of > 30 ng/mL was achieved in Group 1 after three months of vitamin
      D administration in 1500 IU/d dose.

PMID- 28879648
TI  - Is there any difference in acromegaly and other chronic disease in quality of
      life and psychiatric morbidity?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The study aimed to evaluate the psychological profile of patients
      with acromegaly in comparison to other chronic diseases such as non-functioning
      pituitary adenomas, Cushing disease, and plaque psoriasis, and to a healthy
      control group. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total sample of 153 participants in
      clinical groups underwent a cross-sectional assessment including the quality of
      life (AcroQoL, WHOQoL-BREF), psychiatric morbidity (GHQ-28), and the acceptance
      of illness (AIS), as well as 65 participants in the healthy control group.
      RESULTS: The whole study sample had a predominance of urban married females (61%)
      with medium level of education (41%). Patients with acromegaly were diagnosed
      significantly later than patients from other clinical groups, after the onset of
      the first symptoms. Acromegaly was related to the presence of more symptoms of
      anxiety and insomnia, and poorer social relationships compared with the general
      population but not more than in other chronic diseases. A better quality of life
      score in all domains of WHOQoL-BREF was associated with a better score on the
      acceptance of illness scale and lower scores on GHQ-28. CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric
      morbidity, mainly anxiety and insomnia, occurs in 50% of patients with
      acromegaly. However, the psychological wellbeing and mood seem to be related to
      other factors such as the acceptance of the illness. Thus, concerning the
      diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of acromegaly an interdisciplinary approach,
      taking into account psychological and psychiatric consultation, is needed.

PMID- 28879649
TI  - Melatonin receptor 1B gene polymorphism rs10830963 and gestational diabetes
      mellitus among a Chinese population: a meta-analysis of association studies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Studies have been conducted to investigate the association between
      rs10830963 of MTNR1B and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but
      with inconclusive results. We aimed to clarify these controversies, especially
      with regard to the association in the Chinese population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      systemic literature reference search inclusive to August 12, 2016 yielded 35
      articles, from which 11 studies met the inclusion criteria for the final meta
      analysis, including 3889 patients with GDM and 6708 controls. RESULTS: We found
      statistically significant associations between rs10830963 and GDM using odds
      ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) [GG genotype vs. CC genotype: OR
      = 1.70, 95%CI: 1.38-2.10; G allele vs C allele: OR = 1.27, 95%CI: 1.20-1.36;
      GG+CG vs. CC (dominant model): OR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.20-1.44; GG vs CG+CC
      (recessive model): OR = 1.41, 95%CI: 1.26-1.58]. In subgroup analyses stratified
      by ethnicity, we also observed rs10830963 to be associated with significantly
      increased risk of GDM in all genetic models in the Chinese population.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis indicated that the rs10830963 polymorphism might
      serve as a risk factor of GDM in the Chinese population.

PMID- 28879650
TI  - Vascular and cardiac function in young adults with classical congenital adrenal
      hyperplasia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have
      increased cardiovascular risk, but the vascular and cardiac function during
      longitudinal corticoids replacement therapy is not known thoroughly. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 19 Caucasian adults with CAH (age 23.7 +/- 3.8
      years; twelve males) compared to 20 healthy volunteers matched for origin, sex,
      age, and body mass index (BMI). All of the participants were assessed for flow
      mediated dilatation of the brachial artery (FMD), intima-media thickness of the
      common carotid artery (cIMT) and common femoral artery (fIMT), standard
      echocardiography, and global longitudinal left ventricular function using two
      dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (LSTE). RESULTS: The patients with
      CAH, compared with controls, had decreased FMD (9.4 +/- 3.9 vs. 19.8 +/- 5.2; p <
      0.01), and the difference was still significant after correction for potential
      confounders. cIMT and fIMT were higher in the CAH group at baseline (for cIMT
      0.47 +/- 0.4 mm vs. 0.40 +/- 0.03 mm; p < 0.01, for fIMT 0.47 +/- 0.05 mm vs.
      0.41 +/- 0.04 mm; p < 0.01) but not after correction for potential confounders.
      The CAH subjects, compared with controls, had normal or similar left ventricular
      (LV) ejection fraction and LV mass index. The mean absolute value of LSTE
      differed in the CAH patients compared with controls (-20.5% +/- 1.2 vs. -22.5% +/
      1.7; p < 0.01), but it was still within the normal range. CONCLUSIONS: Young
      adults with CAH and glucocorticoid long-lasting treatment had impaired FMD, an
      insignificant increase of IMT, and subclinical changes in LV diastolic function
      in echocardiography.

PMID- 28879651
TI  - Preliminary studies on the differential expression of adrenocorticotropic hormone
      receptor in adrenal adenomas.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The ACTH receptor (ACTHR) is primarily expressed in the adrenal
      cortex. Previous studies focused on the regulatory function of ACTHR in
      glucocorticoid secretion, but research on adrenal tumours is rare. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate ACTHR expression in common adrenal adenomas and
      investigate its influence on adrenal tumorigenesis using adrenocortical H295R
      cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Real-time polymerase chain reaction and western
      blot were used to detect the expression of ACTHR in 18 aldosterone-producing
      adenomas, 16 cortisol-producing adenomas, 9 non-functional adenomas, and 12
      normal adrenal samples. Lentiviral vector pLVX-mCMV-ACTHR-ZsGreen was transfected
      into the H295R cells to increase ACTHR expression. WST-1 and cell count were
      applied to evaluate cell proliferation at different ACTHR levels. TUNEL staining
      was used to measure cell apoptosis. RESULTS: Compared with normal adrenal
      samples, the aldosterone-producing adenoma samples had higher ACTHR mRNA and
      protein levels. However, the mRNA and protein levels of ACTHR in non-functional
      adenomas and cortisol-producing adenomas were lower than those in the normal
      adrenal samples. Proliferative activity in the experimental cells was higher than
      that in the control cells in the first three days. The proliferative activity
      peaked in the second day. However, this trend was reversed in the fourth day and
      became more apparent with time. By contrast, TUNEL staining showed that ACTHR
      overexpression did not induce a significant difference between the two groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Differential ACTHR expression may be determined by different types
      of adrenocortical tumours. ACTHR is more likely to have induced the proliferation
      rather than the apoptosis of H295R cells.

PMID- 28879652
TI  - Primary squamous-cell thyroid carcinoma - a successful treatment with five-year
      follow-up.
AB  - Squamous cell carcinoma is an extremely rare neoplasm of the thyroid (SCTC) that
      represents no more than 1% of all primary thyroid malignancies. We report a case
      of a 42-year-old woman with rapidly growing mass in the right lower neck,
      primarily diagnosed in fineneedle aspiration cytology as a low-differentiated
      carcinoma. After the surgery, exclusion of all the other possible primary tumour
      locations, and immunohistochemistry tests, the diagnosis of primary squamous cell
      carcinoma of the thyroid gland was established. Because of close surgical margins
      and metastatic neck node, the patient was referred to adjuvant postoperative
      irradiation. With five-year follow-up the patient is free of disease and still in
      very good condition.

PMID- 28879653
TI  - Primary neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast - a report of four cases.
AB  - Breast neuroendocrine tumours are rare, accounting for up to 5% of all breasts
      tumours and approximately 1% of all neuroendocrine tumours. In most cases, breast
      neuroendocrine tumours are histologically and moderately well differentiated.
      Neuroendocrine breast tumours lack characteristic imaging patterns. The
      histopathological assessment of these tumours is difficult, and in most cases the
      correct diagnosis is made after proper examination of the postsurgical specimen.

PMID- 28879654
TI  - Prognostic effect of parotid area lymph node metastases after preliminary
      diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a propensity score matching study.
AB  - Parotid area lymph node (PLN) metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is
      rare, and its prognosis remains largely unknown. Our study aimed to investigate
      the prognostic value and staging categories of PLN metastasis in patients with
      NPC and treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), to provide a
      reference for clinical treatment for NPC with PLN metastasis. Records for 1616
      untreated NPC patients without distant metastasis was retrospectively reviewed.
      All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination prior to
      treatment and then received IMRT as their primary treatment. Forty-five NPC
      patients (2.8%) showed initial PLN metastasis on follow-up MRI. PLN metastasis
      was significantly associated with the N classification and clinical stage.
      Univariate analysis showed that PLN metastasis had an unfavorable influence on
      overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), distant metastasis-free
      survival (DMFS), and regional relapse-free survival (RRFS) in NPC patients. Using
      propensity score matching (PSM) to calibrate selection bias and confounding bias,
      it was observed that PLN metastasis remained an adverse prognostic factor for OS,
      PFS, DMFS, and RRFS. Furthermore, the 5-year DMFS and RRFS curves for PLN
      metastasis were significantly separated from that for N2 disease but crossed that
      for N3 disease. Therefore, PLN metastasis was found to be an adverse prognostic
      factor for NPC and to be associated with the same DMFS as N3 disease. Therefore,
      more aggressive therapeutic strategies consistent with those for N3 disease are
      recommended for NPC with PLN metastasis to reduce distant metastasis.

PMID- 28879655
TI  - Pretreatment with fish oil attenuates heart ischaemia consequences in rats.
AB  - NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? We investigated whether
      pretreatment with fish oil could prevent the major consequences of ischaemic
      injury to the heart. What is the main finding and its importance? Fish oil
      pretreatment attenuated the consequences of ischaemic injury as indicated by the
      small infarction area and the preservation of systolic function and coronary
      blood flow. These findings support the use of fish oil in order to reduce the
      impact of heart ischaemia. omega-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acid (omega-3 PUFA)-rich
      fish oil supplementation has protective effects on heart ischaemic injury. Left
      ventricular (LV) ischaemia was induced in rats by permanent ligation of the left
      descending coronary artery. Saline, fish oil or soybean oil was administered
      daily by gavage [3 g (kg body weight)-1 ] for 20 days before inducing ischaemia.
      Outcomes were assessed 24 h after left descending coronary artery ligation.
      Pretreatment with fish oil decreased the omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio in the
      LV. A reduction in infarct size and in the intensity of ventricular systolic
      dysfunction was found in the fish oil group compared with the saline or soybean
      oil groups through echocardiographic evaluation. Before infarction, LV glycogen
      concentrations were decreased in the fish oil group compared with the saline
      group. Soybean oil pretreatment led to a further increase in the LV levels of
      CINC-2/alphabeta, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha induced by the heart infarction. In
      heart-infarcted rats, fish oil pretreatment decreased creatine kinase and caspase
      3 activities; prevented the decrease in the coronary blood flow; increased LV
      contents of ATP and lactate; increased the mRNA levels of iNOS, eNOS, HIF1alpha,
      GLUT1, VEGF-alpha and p53 in the LV as measured by RT-PCR; and did not change LV
      pro-inflammatory cytokine concentrations compared with the control group. Fish
      oil protected the heart from ischaemia, as indicated by the decrease in the heart
      infarction area and systolic dysfunction associated with increased LV ATP
      concentrations and maintenance of the coronary blood flow with no change in pro
      inflammatory cytokine levels.

PMID- 28879656
TI  - Variability in responses observed in human white adipose tissue models.
AB  - Obesity is a risk factor for a myriad of diseases including diabetes,
      cardiovascular dysfunction, cirrhosis, and cancer, and there is a need for new
      systems to study how excess adipose tissue relates to the onset of disease
      processes. This study provides proof-of-concept patient-specific tissue models of
      human white adipose tissue to accommodate the variability in human samples. Our
      3D tissue engineering approach established lipolytic responses and changes in
      insulin-stimulated glucose uptake from small volumes of human lipoaspirate,
      making this methodology useful for patient specific sample source assessments of
      treatment strategies, drug responses, disease mechanisms, and other responses
      that vary between patients. Mature unilocular cells were maintained ex vivo in
      silk porous scaffolds for up to a month of culture and imaged non-invasively with
      coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering. Interestingly, differences in
      responsiveness between tissues were observed in terms of magnitude of lipolysis,
      ability to suppress lipolysis, differences in glucose uptake, and lipid droplet
      size. Body mass index was not a factor in determining tissue responsiveness;
      rather, it is speculated that other unknown variables in the backgrounds of
      different patients (ethnicity, athleticism, disease history, lifestyle choices,
      etc.) likely had a more significant effect on the observed differences. This
      study reinforces the need to account for the variability in backgrounds and
      genetics within the human population to determine adipose tissue responsiveness.
      In the future, this tissue system could be used to inform individualized care
      strategies-enhancing therapeutic precision, improving patient outcomes, and
      reducing clinical costs.

PMID- 28879657
TI  - An exploratory investigation of echocardiographic parameters and the effects of
      posture on cardiac structure and function in the Livingstone's fruit bat
      (Pteropus livingstonii).
AB  - There is growing evidence that dilated cardiomyopathy may be a major cause of
      death in captive Livingstone's fruit bats (Pteropus livingstonii). Therefore, the
      primary aim of this prospective, exploratory study was to examine whether a
      systematic cardiac ultrasound protocol is feasible in this critically endangered
      species and to report basic measures of cardiac structure and function from a
      cohort of apparently healthy bats. A secondary aim was to test the effect posture
      (dorsal recumbency vs. roosting) has upon cardiac function in this species.
      Transthoracic echocardiograms, including 2D, Doppler, and tissue Doppler measures
      of cardiac structure and function were completed as part of routine health
      examinations for bats at a single center (n = 19). Bats were then grouped by age
      and disease status and the mean and range data reported for each group. In
      healthy adult bats, with the exception of a reduction in heart rate (P <= 0.05),
      right atrial systolic area (P <= 0.05), and right ventricular velocity during
      atrial contraction, there were no significant changes in cardiac structure or
      function in response to the roosting position. However, in the bats presenting
      with dilated cardiomyopathy the current data suggest that left ventricular
      ejection fraction is improved while roosting. Further work is required to confirm
      our initial findings, generate diagnostic reference intervals, and explore the
      causes of dilated cardiomyopathy in this species.

PMID- 28879658
TI  - Long-term outcomes in patients treated with proton therapy for localized prostate
      cancer.
AB  - The aim of this retrospective study was to report long-term clinical outcomes in
      patients treated with proton therapy (PT) for localized prostate cancer. Between
      2001 and 2014, 1375 consecutive patients were treated with PT. Patients were
      classified into prognostic risk groups based on the National Comprehensive Cancer
      Network criteria. Freedom from biochemical relapse (FFBR), cancer-specific
      survival (CSS) and incidence of late gastrointestinal (GI)/genitourinary (GU)
      toxicities were calculated. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify
      clinical prognostic factors for FFBR and late toxicities. The median follow-up
      period was 70 months (range, 4-145 months). In total, 99% of patients received 74
      Gy (relative biologic effectiveness [RBE]); 56% of patients received neoadjuvant
      androgen deprivation therapy. For the low-, intermediate-, high-, and very high
      risk groups, 5-year FFBR was 99% (95% confidence intervals [CI], 96-100%), 91%
      (95% CI, 88-93%), 86% (95% CI, 82-89%), and 66% (95% CI, 53-76%), respectively,
      and 5-year CSS was 100% (95% CI, 100-100%), 100% (95% CI, 100-100%) , 99% (95%
      CI, 97-100%), and 95% (95% CI, 94-98%), respectively. Patient age, T
      classification, Gleason score, prostate-specific antigen, and percentage of
      positive cores were significant prognostic factors for FFBR. Grade 2 or higher GI
      and GU toxicities were 3.9% and 2.0%. Patient age was a prognostic factor for
      both late GI and GU toxicities. This study represents the largest cohort of
      patients treated with PT for localized prostate cancer, with the longest follow
      up to date. Our results demonstrate that the biochemical control of PT is
      favorable particularly for high- and very high-risk patients with lower late
      genitourinary toxicity and indicates the necessity of considering patient age in
      the treatment protocols.

PMID- 28879659
TI  - Extracellular matrix particle-glycosaminoglycan composite hydrogels for
      regenerative medicine applications.
AB  - Tissue extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex material made up of fibrous
      proteins and ground substance (glycosaminoglycans, GAGs) that are secreted by
      cells. ECM contains important biological cues that modulate cell behaviors, and
      it also serves as a structural scaffold to which cells can adhere. For clinical
      applications, where immune rejection is a constraint, ECM can be processed using
      decellularization methods intended to remove cells and donor antigens from tissue
      or organs, while preserving native biological cues essential for cell growth and
      differentiation. In this study, a decellularized ECM-based composite hydrogel was
      formulated by using modified GAGs that covalently bind tissue particles. These
      GAG-ECM composite hydrogels combine the advantages of solid decellularized ECM
      scaffolds and pepsin-digested ECM hydrogels by facilitating ECM hydrogel
      formation without a disruptive enzymatic digestion process. Additionally,
      engineered hydrogels can contain more than one type of ECM (from bone, fat,
      liver, lung, spleen, cartilage, or brain), at various concentrations. These
      hydrogels demonstrated tunable gelation kinetics and mechanical properties,
      offering the possibility of numerous in vivo and in vitro applications with
      different property requirements. Retained bioactivity of ECM particles
      crosslinked into this hydrogel platform was confirmed by the variable response of
      stem cells to different types of ECM particles with respect to osteogenic
      differentiation in vitro, and bone regeneration in vivo. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 147-159, 2018.

PMID- 28879660
TI  - National trends in long-term use of prescription opioids.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study examined recent trends and correlates of prescription opioid
      use and long-term use in the United States. METHODS: Data were from 47 356 adult
      participants of National Health and Nutrition Survey from 1999-2000 to 2013-2014.
      Participants were asked about prescription medications used in the past 30 days.
      Long-term use of prescription opioids was defined by use for 90 days or longer.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of prescription opioid use increased from 4.1% of US
      adults in 1999-2000 to 6.8% in 2013-2014 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.38, 95% confidence
      interval [CI] = 1.10-1.75, P = .007). This trend was driven by a sharp increase
      in long-term use which increased from 1.8% to 5.4% (OR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.65
      3.00, P < .001). Of all opioid users in 2013-2014, 79.4% were long-term users
      compared with 45.1% in 1999-2000. Long-term use was associated with poorer
      physical health, concurrent benzodiazepine use, and history of heroin use.
      CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the need for research on potential benefits
      and harms of long-term use of opioids and efforts to restrict long-term use to
      patients for whom the benefits outweigh the risks.

PMID- 28879662
TI  - Setting research priorities in tobacco control: a stakeholder engagement project.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group (TAG) conducts
      systematic reviews of the evidence for tobacco cessation and prevention
      interventions. In 2016 TAG conducted a priority-setting, stakeholder engagement
      project to identify where further research is needed in the areas of tobacco
      control and smoking cessation. DESIGN: The project comprised two surveys and a
      workshop. A range of stakeholders participated, including members of the public
      (smokers and ex-smokers), clinicians, researchers, research funders, health-care
      commissioners and public health organizations. The first survey phase identified
      unanswered research questions in the field of tobacco control. The second phase
      asked participants to rank these, with overall rankings calculated by combining
      scores across participants. The workshop allowed attendees to discuss
      prioritization of topics and questions in more depth. Workshop discussions were
      transcribed and analysed thematically, and a final voting activity at the close
      of the workshop allowed participants to choose topics to prioritize and to de
      prioritize. FINDINGS: A total of 304 stakeholders (researchers, health
      professionals, smokers and ex-smokers, guideline developers, research funders and
      policymakers, representing 28 countries) identified 183 unanswered research
      questions. These were categorized into 15 research categories. A total of 175
      participants prioritized categories and questions in the second survey phase,
      with 'electronic cigarettes'; 'addressing inequalities'; and 'mental health and
      other substance abuse' prioritized as the top three categories. Forty-three
      stakeholders attended the workshop and discussed reasons for and against category
      prioritization. Prioritized research categories largely mirrored those in the
      survey stage, although 'treatment delivery' also emerged as a key category. Five
      cross-cutting themes emerged: efficacy; relative efficacy; cost effectiveness;
      addressing inequalities; and different types of evidence. CONCLUSIONS: There are
      many unanswered questions in the field of tobacco control. Stakeholders
      highlighted electronic cigarettes, addressing inequalities and mental health and
      other substance abuse as key areas for further research, and efficacy, relative
      efficacy, cost-effectiveness and use of non-randomized studies as important
      themes cutting across research areas. Future prioritization work would benefit
      from targeting non-US and non-UK stakeholders explicitly and from examining where
      priorities may differ based on stakeholder group.

PMID- 28879661
TI  - Survival of cutaneous melanoma based on sex, age, and stage in the United States,
      1992-2011.
AB  - Women diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma have a survival advantage compared to
      men, which has been hypothesized to be due to difference in behavior and/or
      biology (sex hormones). It remains controversial whether this advantage is
      dependent on age or stage of disease. We sought to compare melanoma-specific
      survival between females in pre, peri, and postmenopausal age groups to males in
      the same age group, adjusting for stage of disease. This is a retrospective
      population-based cohort study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End
      Results (SEER) database. Patients diagnosed from 1 January 1992 through 31
      January 2011 with primary invasive cutaneous melanoma were included in our
      cohort. Melanoma-specific survival was the main outcome studied. Of the 106,511
      subjects that were included, 45% were female. Females in all age groups (18-45,
      46-54, and >=55) with localized and regional disease, were less likely to die
      from melanoma compared to males in the same age group. Among patients with
      localized and regional disease, the relative risk of death due to melanoma
      increased with advancing age at diagnosis; this increase was more pronounced
      among females than males. In contrast, we observed no female survival advantage
      among patients with distant disease and no effect of age on relative risk of
      death from melanoma. Females with localized and regional melanoma have a
      decreased risk of death compared to males within all age groups. Our data show no
      differences in survival between men and women with metastatic melanoma,
      indicating that the influence of sex on survival is limited to early stage
      disease but not confined to pre or perimenopausal age groups.

PMID- 28879663
TI  - Roadside drug testing: An evaluation of the Alere DDS(r) 2 mobile test system.
AB  - The number of drivers using drugs has increased over the last few years, and is
      likely to continue its upward trend. Testing drivers for alcohol use is routine
      and standardized, but the same is not true for the identification of driving
      under the influence of drugs (DUID). The Drug Evaluation and Classification
      Program (DECP) was developed to train police officers to recognize the signs and
      symptoms of recent drug use and remains an invaluable program; however, there are
      insufficient numbers of these highly trained drug recognition experts (DREs)
      available to attend every potential drug involved traffic incident. While blood
      and urine samples are used to test for drugs in a driver, both have
      disadvantages, particularly as they pertain to the length of time required after
      a traffic stop to sample collection. Therefore, the development of oral fluid
      testing devices which can be operated at the roadside and have the potential to
      assist officers in the identification of drug use is a major advancement in DUID
      cases. This project evaluated the performance of one instrumental oral fluid
      roadside testing device (Alere DDS(r)2) compared to DRE opinion, oral fluid
      laboratory-based analysis, and routine blood testing. The results showed that
      there was a good correlation with DRE observations and the device performance was
      >80% in all drug categories compared to laboratory-based analytical testing, both
      in oral fluid and blood, with few exceptions. The instrument can be considered a
      useful tool to assist law enforcement in identifying a drugged driver. Because
      the device does not test for all potentially impairing drugs, the opinion of the
      police officer regarding the condition of the driver should still be considered
      the most important aspect for arrest and further action.

PMID- 28879664
TI  - Fast simulations of multidimensional NMR spectra of proteins and peptides.
AB  - To simulate full multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of peptides
      and proteins in a reasonable time frame, a strategy for separating the time
      consuming full-density matrix calculations from the chemical shift prediction and
      calculation of coupling patterns is presented. The simulation setup uses
      SIMulation Program for SOlid-state NMR (SIMPSON) to calculate total correlation
      spectroscopy transfer amplitudes and average distances as a source for nuclear
      Overhauser effect spectroscopy transfer amplitudes. Simulated 1 H 1D, 2D total
      correlation spectroscopy, and 2D nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy nuclear
      magnetic resonance spectra of peptides with sequence Pro?Ala?Gly?Tyr?Asn and
      Asn?Phe?Gly?Ala?Ile?Leu and of ubiquitin are presented. In all cases, the
      simulations lasted from a few seconds to tens of seconds on a normal laptop
      computer.

PMID- 28879665
TI  - Effects of low-to-moderate alcohol supplementation on urinary estrogen
      metabolites in postmenopausal women in a controlled feeding study.
AB  - Heavy alcohol drinking is associated with increased breast cancer risk, but
      associations with low-to-moderate alcohol consumption are less clear and the
      biological mechanisms are not well defined. The objective of this study was to
      evaluate the effects of 8 weeks of low (15 g/d) and moderate (30 g/d) alcohol
      ingestion on concentrations of 15 urinary estrogen metabolites (EMs) in
      postmenopausal women (n = 51) in a controlled feeding study with a randomized
      crossover design. Compared to no alcohol, 15 g/day for 8 weeks had no effect on
      urinary EMs. However, compared to no alcohol, 30 g/day for 8 weeks decreased
      urinary 2-hydroestrone (2-OHE1) by 3.3% (P = 0.055) and increased 16-epiestriol
      (16-EpiE3) by 26.6% (P = 0.037). Trends for reduced urinary 2-OHE1 (P = 0.045),
      reduced ratio of 2-OH:16OH pathways (P = 0.008), and increased 16-EpiE3 (P =
      0.035) were observed as alcohol ingestion increased from 0 g to 15 g to 30 g/d.
      Moderate alcohol consumption for 8 weeks had modest effects on urinary
      concentrations of 2-OHE1 and 16-EpiE3 among postmenopausal women in a carefully
      controlled feeding study.

PMID- 28879666
TI  - Perforating ocular fishhook trauma: a case report.

PMID- 28879667
TI  - Clinical biomicroscopy and retinoscopy findings of keratoconus in a Middle
      Eastern population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present work was conducted to investigate the prevalence of
      clinical biomicroscopy and retinoscopy findings of corneas with keratoconus (KC)
      at first presentation and their relationship with disease severity. METHOD: In a
      prospective cross-sectional study, 371 consecutive KC patients were examined by
      slitlamp biomicroscopy and retinoscopy at the time of diagnosis. This research
      evaluates the prevalence of clinical findings such as a corneal protrusion,
      Vogt's striae, Fleischer's ring, Munson's sign, Rizzuti's sign, corneal scars, as
      well as any additional KC signs such as prominent nerve fibres, scissoring reflex
      and Charleaux 'oil droplet' sign on retinoscopy. Keratometry (mean K), central
      and thinnest corneal thickness (CCT and TCT), anterior and posterior elevation
      (AE and PE), and astigmatism by means of Pentacam, and visual acuity (VA) were
      recorded for each patient. The severity of KC was graded on the basis of the
      Keratoconus Severity Score. RESULTS: Corneal protrusion, scissoring reflex,
      corneal thinning, Fleischer's ring, and prominent nerve fibres were the most
      prevalent findings in the keratoconic corneas (71.7 per cent, 64.2 per cent, 56.6
      per cent, 55.5 per cent and 54.7 per cent, respectively). Those KC patients with
      these clinical findings had significantly higher mean K, AE and PE, while having
      significantly lower CCT, TCT and VA compared to those who did not present these
      signs (p < 0.05). The presence of clinical findings was associated with more
      severe disease (p < 0.001, all comparisons). Wearing contact lenses was
      associated with the increase in the risk of corneal scarring (p = 0.009, odds
      ratio = 1.761, 95 per cent confidence interval = 1.126 to 2.755). CONCLUSION:
      This study provided information regarding the presence of the clinical slitlamp
      biomicroscopic and retinoscopic findings with severity of KC. A positive
      association was found between the presence of clinical signs and topographic
      parameters. In addition, wearing contact lenses was associated with the increase
      in the risk of corneal scarring.

PMID- 28879668
TI  - N-Acetylcysteine as a chemical scavenger for sulfur mustard: New insights by mass
      spectrometry.
AB  - The vesicant sulfur mustard (SM) is a banned chemical warfare agent. Although, SM
      has been used in combat since WWI, there is no causal therapy currently
      available. Accordingly, development and investigation of antidotes and scavengers
      targeting SM are of high clinical relevance. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) was shown to
      mitigate symptoms of SM intoxications in vitro and in vivo. However, it is still
      unclear whether the beneficial effects of NAC are only due to physiological
      processes or also due to chemical scavenging of SM. Therefore, in this study, we
      examined the scavenging potential of NAC toward SM. Co-incubations of SM and
      different NAC concentrations in human serum were performed to monitor diverse
      adducts (covalent reaction products) of human serum albumin (HSA), NAC, and SM.
      After proteolytic cleavage of HSA with proteinase K the alkylated tripeptide
      hydroxyethylthioethyl-CysProPhe (HETE-CPF) and the disulfide bridged tripeptide
      NAC-CPF were detected. Samples were analyzed by microbore liquid chromatography
      electrospray ionization-high-resolution tandem-mass spectrometry (MULC-ESI MS/HR
      MS). Furthermore, degradation kinetics of SM in phosphate buffered saline were
      measured in the presence and absence of NAC. Although NAC-CPF was identified and
      characterized for the first time by mass spectrometry and reaction products of
      NAC and SM were detected and identified by MS/HR MS, analyses clearly documented
      minor reactivity not significantly contributing to reduction of SM
      concentrations. Therefore, we conclude that chemical scavenging of SM by NAC does
      not play the key role in NAC therapy of SM poisoning.

PMID- 28879669
TI  - Optimizing combination of vascular endothelial growth factor and mesenchymal stem
      cells on ectopic bone formation in SCID mice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Insufficient blood supply may limit bone regeneration in bone
      defects. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) promotes angiogenesis by
      increasing endothelial migration. This outcome, however, could depend on time of
      application. Sheep mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in severe combined
      immunodeficient (SCID) mice were used in this study to evaluate optimal time
      points for VEGF stimulation to increase bone formation. METHODS: Twenty-eight
      SCID (NOD.CB17-Prkdcscid /J) mice had hydroxyapatite granules seeded with 5 * 105
      MSCs inserted subcutaneous. Pellets released VEGF on days 1-7, days 1-14, days 1
      21, days 1-42, days 7-14, and days 21-42. After 8 weeks, the implant-bone-blocks
      were harvested, paraffin embedded, sectioned, and stained with both hematoxylin
      and eosin (HE) and immunohistochemistry for human vimentin (hVim) staining. Blood
      samples were collected for determination of bone-related biomarkers in serum.
      RESULTS: The groups with 5 * 105 MSCs and VEGF stimulation on days 1-14 and days
      1-21 showed more bone formation when compared to the control group of 5 * 105
      MSCs alone (p < 0.01). Serum biomarkers had no significant values. The hVim
      staining confirmed the ovine origin of the observed ectopic bone formation.
      CONCLUSION: Optimal bone formation of MSCs was reached when stimulating with VEGF
      during the first 14 or 21 days after surgery. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3326-3332, 2017.

PMID- 28879670
TI  - Assessments for bone regeneration using the polycaprolactone SLUP (salt-leaching
      using powder) scaffold.
AB  - Salt-leaching using powder (SLUP) scaffolds are novel salt-leaching scaffolds
      with well-interconnected pores that do not require an organic solvent or high
      pressure. In this study, in vitro and in vivo cell behaviors were assessed using
      a PCL (polycaprolactone) SLUP scaffold. Moreover, using PCL, conventional salt
      leaching and 3D-plotted scaffolds were fabricated as control scaffolds.
      Morphology, mechanical property, water absorption, and in vitro/in vivo cell
      response assessments were performed to clarify the characteristics of the SLUP
      scaffold compared with control scaffolds. Consequently, we verified that the
      interconnectivity between the pores of the SLUP scaffold was enhanced compared
      with conventional salt-leaching scaffolds. Moreover, in vitro cell attachment and
      proliferation of the SLUP scaffold were higher than those of the 3D-plotted
      scaffold because of their morphological characteristic. Furthermore, we revealed
      that new bone formation and bone ingrowth of the SLUP scaffold was superior to
      those of the calvarial defect model and 3D-plotted scaffold because of the high
      porosity and improved interconnectivity of pores by the SLUP technique without
      high pressure using powders. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res
      Part A: 105A: 3432-3444, 2017.

PMID- 28879671
TI  - Manipulation of Biomolecule-Modified Liquid-Metal Blobs.
AB  - Soft and deformable liquid metals (LMs) are building components in various
      systems related to uncertain and dynamic task environments. Herein we describe
      the development of a biomolecule-triggered external-manipulation method involving
      LM conjugates for the construction of future innovative soft robotics operating
      in physiological environments. Functional soft hybrids composed of a liquid-metal
      droplet, a thiolated ligand, and proteins were synthesized for the expression of
      diverse macroscopic commands, such as attachment to cells, binary fusion, and
      self-propelled movement through molecular recognition and enzymatic reactions.
      Our technology could be used to create new state-of-the-art soft robots for
      chemical and biomedical engineering applications.

PMID- 28879672
TI  - Three-factor structure and psychometric properties of Witte's Risk Behaviour
      Diagnosis Scale: A French version adapted to diabetes.
AB  - The aim of this study was to verify the psychometric properties and the factorial
      structure of Witte's Risk Behaviour Diagnosis (RBD). This article shows the
      results of a French version of the RBD adapted to diabetes screening. An
      exploratory factor analysis was carried out in order to understand the number of
      underlying factors, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed and the four
      factor model proposed by the author and alternative models were compared. The
      concurrent validity was tested by a correlational analysis with the Perceived
      Fear Emotions Scale. The results confirmed a stable factor structure for the 12
      item version, with three factors reflecting total efficacy, severity of and
      susceptibility to threat. The value of having a psychometrically valid instrument
      to assess the impact of fear appeal-based campaigns is linked to the current lack
      of a comprehensive assessment tool and the importance of preventing health risk
      behaviours.

PMID- 28879673
TI  - Response of preosteoblasts to titanium with periodic micro/nanometer scale
      grooves produced by femtosecond laser irradiation.
AB  - To investigate the cellular response to designed topography in vitro, we studied
      the adhesion, proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, and calcification of
      mouse preosteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) cultured on titanium (Ti) surfaces with periodic
      micrometer scale grooves containing nanometer scale ripples in the vertical
      direction fabricated by single-shot, femtosecond laser irradiation (fsTi). The
      surface composition and chemical state of fsTi were almost the same as those of
      mirror-polished Ti without femtosecond laser irradiation (mTi). Cells cultured on
      fsTi were highly aligned, whereas the cell proliferation rate on fsTi was less
      than that on mTi. Higher gene expressions of Spp1 and Bglap1 were detected in
      cells cultured on fsTi than those on mTi, indicating that the periodic
      micro/nanometer scale grooves topography promoted osteogenic differentiation and
      calcification. This initial activation of osteoinduction on fsTi generated
      calcified deposits that were thicker and larger than those on mTi and hence,
      osteoconductivity was promoted on fsTi. Our findings indicate that femtosecond
      laser irradiation is a technique with potential for controlling biomaterial-cell
      interfaces and, in particular, the promotion of osseointegration of Ti. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3456-3464, 2017.

PMID- 28879674
TI  - Comparisons between elastographic stiffness scores for benign versus malignant
      lymph nodes in dogs and cats.
AB  - Lymph node evaluation is an important component of oncology staging in dogs and
      cats, however diagnosis of malignancy currently requires cytology or
      histopathology. Elastography is an ultrasound technique that allows estimation of
      tissue stiffness. In people, it has been shown to increase the sensitivity of
      sonography in detection of metastatic lymph nodes. The objective of this
      prospective, cross-sectional study was to determine if elastographic stiffness
      differs for malignant versus benign canine and feline lymph nodes that were
      considered abnormal in gray-scale ultrasound imaging. Animals scheduled for
      ultrasound-guided fine needle aspirates of a lymph node at a single center were
      prospectively enrolled. Elastography was performed by a board-certified
      veterinary radiologist (G.S.) prior to tissue sampling. Softness was scored
      qualitatively as 1-4 (1 = hard; 4 = soft) on an image depicted by a color scale
      (blue = hard, red = soft). Quantitative analysis was performed using custom-made
      software. Fifty-one lymph nodes were included in the evaluation, 21 had benign
      and 30 had neoplastic cytology. Benign lymph nodes were softer (median score of
      2.5, range 1-4) than malignant lymph nodes (median = 2, range 1-3), and
      differences were significant in qualitative and quantitative analyses (P < 0.01).
      Of the lymph nodes with a score of 2 or below (hard), 19/25 (76%) were malignant,
      of the lymph nodes with a score over 2 (soft), 24/36 (67%) were benign. Findings
      indicated that elastographic stiffness scores differed between benign and
      malignant lymph node groups; however overlapping scores for the two groups
      limited the use of this technique for routine clinical diagnosis of malignancy.

PMID- 28879676
TI  - Understanding MCP-MOD dose finding as a method based on linear regression.
AB  - MCP-MOD is a testing and model selection approach for clinical dose finding
      studies. During testing, contrasts of dose group means are derived from candidate
      dose response models. A multiple-comparison procedure is applied that controls
      the alpha level for the family of null hypotheses associated with the contrasts.
      Provided at least one contrast is significant, a corresponding set of "good"
      candidate models is identified. The model generating the most significant
      contrast is typically selected. There have been numerous publications on the
      method. It was endorsed by the European Medicines Agency. The MCP-MOD procedure
      can be alternatively represented as a method based on simple linear regression,
      where "simple" refers to the inclusion of an intercept and a single predictor
      variable, which is a transformation of dose. It is shown that the contrasts are
      equal to least squares linear regression slope estimates after a rescaling of the
      predictor variables. The test for each contrast is the usual t statistic for a
      null slope parameter, except that a variance estimate with fewer degrees of
      freedom is used in the standard error. Selecting the model corresponding to the
      most significant contrast P value is equivalent to selecting the predictor
      variable yielding the smallest residual sum of squares. This criteria orders the
      models like a common goodness-of-fit test, but it does not assure a good fit.
      Common inferential methods applied to the selected model are subject to
      distortions that are often present following data-based model selection.

PMID- 28879677
TI  - Transcriptomic analysis of gingival mesenchymal stem cells cultured on 3D
      bioprinted scaffold: A promising strategy for neuroregeneration.
AB  - The combined approach of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and scaffolds has been
      proposed as a potential therapeutic tool for the treatment of neurodegenerative
      diseases. Indeed, even if MSCs can promote neuronal regeneration, replacing lost
      neurons or secreting neurotrophic factors, many limitations still exist for their
      application in regenerative medicine, including the low survival and
      differentiation rate. The scaffolds, by mimicking the endogenous
      microenvironment, have shown to promote cell survival, proliferation, and
      differentiation. In this work, gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs), isolated
      from healthy donors, were expanded in vitro, by culturing them adherent in
      plastic dishes (CTR-GMSCs) or on a poly(lactic acid) scaffold (SC-GMSCs). In
      order to evaluate the survival and the neurogenic differentiation potential, we
      performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis between CTR-GMSCs and SC-GMSCs by
      next generation sequencing. We found that SC-GMSCs showed an increased expression
      of neurogenic and prosurvival genes. In particular, genes involved in
      neurotrophin signaling and PI3K/Akt pathways were upregulated. On the contrary,
      proapoptotic and negative regulator of neuronal growth genes were downregulated.
      Moreover, nestin and GAP-43 protein levels increased in SC-GMSCs, confirming the
      neurogenic commitment of these cells. In conclusion, the scaffold, providing a
      trophic support for MSCs, may promote GMSCs differentiation toward a neuronal
      phenotype and survival. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part
      A: 106A: 126-137, 2018.

PMID- 28879675
TI  - miR-199a-3p and miR-214-3p improve the overall survival prediction of muscle
      invasive bladder cancer patients after radical cystectomy.
AB  - To improve the clinical decision-making regarding further treatment management
      and follow-up scheduling for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC)
      after radical cystectomy (RC), a better prediction accuracy of prognosis for
      these patients is urgently needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate
      the validity of differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) based on a previous
      study as prognostic markers for overall survival (OS) after RC in models combined
      with clinicopathological data. The expression of six miRNAs (miR-100-5p, miR-130b
      3p, miR-141-3p, miR-199a-3p, miR-205-5p, and miR-214-3p) was measured by RT-qPCR
      in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 156 MIBC patients who
      received RC in three urological centers. Samples from 2000 to 2013 were used
      according to their tissue availability, with follow-up until June 2016. The
      patient cohort was randomly divided into a training (n = 100) and test set (n =
      56). Seventy-three samples from adjacent normal tissue were used as controls.
      Kaplan-Meier, univariate and multivariate Cox regression, and decision curve
      analyses were carried out to assess the association of clinicopathological
      variables and miRNAs to OS. Both increased (miR-130b-3p and miR-141-3p) and
      reduced (miR-100-5p, miR-199a-3p, and miR-214-3p) miRNA expressions were found in
      MIBC samples in comparison to nonmalignant tissue samples (P < 0.0001). miR-199a
      3p and miR-214-3p were independent markers of OS in Cox regression models with
      the significant clinicopathological variables age, tumor status, and lymph node
      status. The prediction model with the clinicopathological variables was improved
      by these two miRNAs in both sets. The predictive benefit was confirmed by
      decision curve analysis. In conclusion, the inclusion of both miRNAs into models
      based on clinical data for the outcome prediction of MIBC patients after RC could
      be a valuable approach to improve prognostic accuracy.

PMID- 28879678
TI  - A Diversity-Oriented Library of Fluorophore-Modified Receptors Constructed from a
      Chemical Library of Synthetic Fluorophores.
AB  - The practical application of biosensors can be determined by evaluating the
      sensing ability of fluorophore-modified derivatives of a receptor with
      appropriate recognition characteristics for target molecules. One of the key
      determinants for successfully obtaining a useful biosensor is wide variation in
      the fluorophores attached to a given receptor. Thus, using a larger fluorophore
      modified receptor library provides a higher probability of obtaining a
      practically useful biosensor. However, no effective method has yet been developed
      for constructing such a diverse library of fluorophore-modified receptors.
      Herein, we report a method for constructing fluorophore-modified receptors by
      using a chemical library of synthetic fluorophores with a thiol-reactive group.
      This library was converted into a library of fluorophore-modified adenosine
      binding ribonucleopeptide (RNP) receptors by introducing the fluorophores to the
      Rev peptide of the RNP complex by alkylation of the thiol group. This method
      enabled the construction of 263 fluorophore-modified ATP-binding RNP receptors
      and allowed the selection of suitable receptor-based fluorescent sensors that
      target ATP.

PMID- 28879679
TI  - Antioxidant activity of oleuropein and semisynthetic acetyl-derivatives
      determined by measuring malondialdehyde in rat brain.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was the evaluation of the antioxidant
      activity of natural and semisynthetic polyphenol derivatives from Olea europea
      L., by assessing malondialdehyde (MDA), an important marker of oxidative stress.
      METHODS: Polyphenol as hydroxytyrosol, oleuropein, oleuropein aglycone as mix of
      four tautomeric forms and their respective acetyl-derivatives were obtained from
      olive leaves using semisynthetic protocols. These compounds were administered
      intraperitoneally to Wistar rats treated with paraquat, an herbicide which is
      able to cause oxidative stress after central administration. Malondialdehyde was
      derivatized with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine to produce hydrazone that was
      purified by solid-phase extraction. Using high-performance liquid chromatography
      coupled with a diode array, free and total MDA was measured on homogenate rat
      brain as marker of lipid peroxidation. The analytical method was fully validated
      and showed linearity in the tested concentration range, with detection limit of 5
      ng/ml. Recovery ranged from 94.1 to 105.8%. KEY FINDINGS: Both natural and
      semisynthetic polyphenol derivatives from a natural source as olive leaves were
      able to reduce MDA detection. The more lipophilic acetyl-derivatives showed an
      antioxidant activity greater than parent compounds. This potency seems to put in
      evidence a strict correlation between lipophilicity and bioavailability.

PMID- 28879680
TI  - Combining growth factor releasing microspheres within aligned nanofibers enhances
      neurite outgrowth.
AB  - Current treatments for peripheral nerve injuries include autografts, the gold
      standard, and commercially available nerve growth conduits (NGCs). Autografts
      have several drawbacks including donor site morbidity and nerve size mismatch,
      which lead to incomplete recovery. However, even with these drawbacks, autografts
      work better then commercially available NGCs that lack sufficient cues to promote
      complete regeneration. This study evaluated a combination of biomaterial
      components that can be added to the hollow internal space of a NGC to promote and
      direct nerve regeneration; specifically, mechanical, chemical, and topographical
      cues. Methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA, mechanical cue) is electrospun into
      aligned fibers (topographical cue), with poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid
      microspheres to deliver nerve growth factor (NGF, chemical cue). The properties
      of the scaffold were evaluated under physiological conditions using environmental
      scanning electron microscopy and mechanical testing. The resulting scaffolds have
      hydrated porosities of 35-55% and Young's modulus in the range of 0.43-2.86 MPa.
      Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that NGF is released from the
      microspheres for up to 4 weeks. Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons showed that the
      released NGF is bioactive. DRG testing on the scaffolds also showed that the
      combination of NGF released from the microspheres and the aligned nanofibers
      significantly enhanced neurite outgrowth. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 17-25, 2018.

PMID- 28879681
TI  - Aromatic Halogenation by Using Bifunctional Flavin Reductase-Halogenase Fusion
      Enzymes.
AB  - The remarkable site selectivity and broad substrate scope of flavin-dependent
      halogenases (FDHs) has led to much interest in their potential as biocatalysts.
      Multiple engineering efforts have demonstrated that FDHs can be tuned for non
      native substrate scope and site selectivity. FDHs have also proven useful as in
      vivo biocatalysts and have been successfully incorporated into biosynthetic
      pathways to build new chlorinated aromatic compounds in several heterologous
      organisms. In both cases, reduced flavin cofactor, usually supplied by a separate
      flavin reductase (FR), is required. Herein, we report functional synthetic, fused
      FDH-FR proteins containing various FDHs and FRs joined by different linkers. We
      show that FDH-FR fusion proteins can increase product titers compared to the
      individual components for in vivo biocatalysis in Escherichia coli.

PMID- 28879682
TI  - Criminal thinking shifts among male prisoners participating in a cognitive-based
      education programme.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many prisoners rationalise criminal behaviour, and this type of
      thinking has been linked to recidivism. Correctional programmes for modifying
      criminal thinking can reshape how offenders view themselves and their
      circumstances. AIM: Our aim was to test whether participation in a cognitive
      based curriculum called Steps to Economic and Personal Success (STEPS) was
      associated with changes in criminal thinking. METHODS: The STEPS curriculum is
      delivered in 15 video-based facilitated classes. A pre-intervention/post
      intervention survey design was applied to 128 adult male prisoners who completed
      the programme. Criminal thinking was measured by the Texas Christian University
      Criminal Thinking Scale, a self-report instrument with the six domains:
      entitlement, justification, power orientation, cold heartedness, criminal
      rationalisation and personal irresponsibility. RESULTS: Participants had lower
      scores in most of the criminal thinking domains after the intervention than
      before, with largest reductions in justification and power orientation.
      CONCLUSION: Findings provide evidence that attitudes to crime can be changed in a
      correctional setting, and the programme under study shows promise as an effective
      intervention for changing these attitudes among prisoners. Future research should
      build on these findings to examine whether and how such changes are related to
      desistance from offending behaviours. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28879683
TI  - Psychological status in depressive patients correlates with metabolic gene
      expression.

PMID- 28879684
TI  - Epigenetic regulation of sirtuin 1-induced skeletal muscle mass: exercise and
      heart disease.

PMID- 28879685
TI  - Interface-Driven Structural Distortions and Composition Segregation in Two
      Dimensional Heterostructures.
AB  - The discovery of emergent phenomena in 2D materials has sparked substantial
      research efforts in the materials community. A significant experimental challenge
      for this field is exerting atomistic control over the structure and composition
      of the constituent 2D layers and understanding how the interactions between
      layers drive both structure and properties. While no segregation for single
      bilayers was observed, segregation of Pb to the surface of three bilayer thick
      PbSe-SnSe alloy layers was discovered within [(Pbx Sn1-x Se)1+delta ]n (TiSe2 )1
      heterostructures using electron microscopy. This segregation is thermodynamically
      favored to occur when Pbx Sn1-x Se layers are interdigitated with TiSe2
      monolayers. DFT calculations indicate that the observed segregation depends on
      what is adjacent to the Pbx Sn1-x Se layers. The interplay between interface- and
      volume-free energies controls both the structure and composition of the
      constituent layers, which can be tuned using layer thickness.

PMID- 28879686
TI  - Development of a bioactive porous collagen/beta-tricalcium phosphate bone graft
      assisting rapid vascularization for bone tissue engineering applications.
AB  - We developed collagen (COL) and collagen/beta tricalcium phosphate (COL/beta-TCP)
      scaffolds with a beta-TCP/collagen weight ratio of 4 by freeze-drying. Mouse bone
      marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) were cultured on these scaffolds
      for 14 days. Samples were characterized by physicochemical analyses and their
      biological properties such as cell viability and alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
      activity was, also, examined. Additionally, the vascularization potential of the
      prepared scaffolds was tested subcutaneously in Wistar rats. We observed a
      microporous structure with large porosity (~95-98%) and appropriate pore size
      (120-200 um). The COL/beta-TCP scaffolds had a much higher compressive modulus
      (970 +/- 1.20 KPa) than pure COL (0.8 +/- 1.82 KPa). In vitro model of apatite
      formation was established by immersing the composite scaffold in simulated body
      fluid for 7 days. An ALP assay revealed that porous COL/beta-TCP can effectively
      activate the differentiation of BMMSCs into osteoblasts. The composite scaffolds
      also promoted vascularization with good integration with the surrounding tissue.
      Thus, introduction of beta-TCP powder into the porous collagen matrix effectively
      improved the mechanical and biological properties of the collagen scaffolds,
      making them potential bone substitutes for enhanced bone regeneration in
      orthopedic and dental applications. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed
      Mater Res Part A: 106A: 73-85, 2018.

PMID- 28879688
TI  - Building a learning culture and prevention of error - to near miss or not.
AB  - This editorial provides an insight into learning and prevention of error through
      near miss event reporting.

PMID- 28879687
TI  - Recombinant Synthesis of Hybrid Lipid-Peptide Polymer Fusions that Self-Assemble
      and Encapsulate Hydrophobic Drugs.
AB  - Inspired by biohybrid molecules that are synthesized in Nature through post
      translational modification (PTM), we have exploited a eukaryotic PTM to
      recombinantly synthesize lipid-polypeptide hybrid materials. By co-expressing
      yeast N-myristoyltransferase with an elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) fused to a
      short recognition sequence in E. coli, we show robust and high-yield modification
      of the ELP with myristic acid. The ELP's reversible phase behavior is retained
      upon myristoylation and can be tuned to span a 30-60  degrees C. Myristoylated
      ELPs provide a versatile platform for genetically pre-programming self-assembly
      into micelles of varied size and shape. Their lipid cores can be loaded with
      hydrophobic small molecules by passive diffusion. Encapsulated doxorubicin and
      paclitaxel exhibit cytotoxic effects on 4T1 and PC3-luc cells, respectively, with
      potencies similar to chemically conjugated counterparts, and longer plasma
      circulation than free drug upon intravenous injection in mice.

PMID- 28879689
TI  - Patient safety is everyone's business.
AB  - This editorial addresses the importance of incident reporting, checklists and a
      just culture to patient safety.

PMID- 28879690
TI  - Design principles for lymphatic drainage of fluid and solutes from collagen
      scaffolds.
AB  - In vivo, tissues are drained of excess fluid and macromolecules by the lymphatic
      vascular system. How to engineer artificial lymphatics that can provide
      equivalent drainage in biomaterials remains an open question. This study
      elucidates design principles for engineered lymphatics, by comparing the rates of
      removal of fluid and solute through type I collagen gels that contain lymphatic
      vessels or unseeded channels, or through gels without channels. Surprisingly, no
      difference was found between the fluid drainage rates for gels that contained
      vessels or bare channels. Moreover, solute drainage rates were greater in
      collagen gels that contained lymphatic vessels than in those that had bare
      channels. The enhancement of solute drainage by lymphatic endothelium was more
      pronounced in longer scaffolds and with smaller solutes. Whole-scaffold imaging
      revealed that endothelialization aided in solute drainage by impeding solute
      reflux into the gel without hindering solute entry into the vessel lumen. These
      results were reproduced by computational models of drainage with a flow-dependent
      endothelial hydraulic conductivity. This study shows that endothelialization of
      bare channels does not impede the drainage of fluid from collagen gels and can
      increase the drainage of macromolecules by preventing solute transport back into
      the scaffold. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A:
      106-114, 2018.

PMID- 28879691
TI  - The Correlation between Body Mass Index and Routine Parameters in Men Over Fifty.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between body mass
      index (BMI) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, international prostate
      symptom score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL), and prostate volume (PV). MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Height, weight, PSA levels, PV, and IPSS were analyzed in 15,435
      patients who underwent a prostate examination between 2001 and 2014. Patients
      aged <50 years or with a PSA level >=10 ng/mL were excluded. The relationships
      between BMI and PSA, IPSS, QoL, and PV were analyzed by a scatter plot, one-way
      analysis of variance, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean
      age was 71.95+/-7.63 years, the mean BMI was 23.59+/-3.08 kg/m2, the mean PSA
      level was 1.45+/-1.45 ng/mL, the mean IPSS was 15.53+/-8.31, the mean QoL score
      was 3.48+/-1.25, and the mean PV was 29.72+/-14.02 mL. PSA, IPSS, and QoL showed
      a tendency to decrease with increasing BMI, and there were statistically
      significant differences for each parameter (p<=0.001). PV showed a significant
      tendency to increase with BMI (p<0.001). In the correlation analysis, BMI showed
      a statistically significant correlation (p<0.001) with PSA, IPSS, and QoL,
      although the correlations were very weak. In contrast, BMI showed a significant
      correlation with PV (p<0.001), with a meaningful Pearson correlation coefficient
      of 0.124. CONCLUSIONS: Higher BMI was associated with lower PSA levels and higher
      IPSS and QoL scores. Meanwhile, PV increased with BMI. Although obese individuals
      had a greater PV, obesity did not aggravate lower urinary tract symptoms.

PMID- 28879692
TI  - Safety and Effectiveness of Once-Daily Tadalafil (5 mg) Therapy in Korean Men
      with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia/Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in a Real-World
      Clinical Setting: Results from a Post-Marketing Surveillance Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the safety and effectiveness of
      tadalafil 5 mg once daily (quaque die [everyday], QD) among Korean men with
      benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)/lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in a real
      world clinical setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a single-country,
      prospective, observational cohort study in which patients newly prescribed
      tadalafil 5 mg QD for the treatment of BPH/LUTS were followed-up for 12+/-2 or
      24+/-2 weeks, or to the last treatment, during post-marketing surveillance.
      Safety was evaluated in terms of the frequency of treatment-emergent adverse
      events (TEAEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs). Effectiveness was assessed by
      changes in the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) from baseline to each
      endpoint. RESULTS: All patients receiving >=1 dose of tadalafil 5 mg QD (N=637)
      were included in the safety population. Two percent of patients (n=13)
      experienced 15 TEAEs of mild (n=10; 66.7%) or moderate (n=5; 33.3%) severity. No
      severe TEAEs and no SAEs were reported. Effectiveness evaluations included all
      patients receiving tadalafil who had both baseline and endpoint observations (12
      week, N=265; 24-week, N=44). Compared with baseline, the mean IPSS total score
      (+/-standard error) significantly improved by 4.7+/-0.3 and 6.4+/-0.7 points at
      the 12- and 24-week endpoints, respectively (p<0.0001), with significant
      improvements also observed on the storage, voiding, and quality of life
      subscores. In total, 69.1% of the patients had a clinically meaningful >=3-point
      improvement in the IPSS total score. CONCLUSIONS: Tadalafil 5 mg QD was well
      tolerated and effective in Korean men with BPH/LUTS in a real-world clinical
      setting.

PMID- 28879693
TI  - Collagenase Clostridium Histolyticum in the Treatment of Peyronie's Disease:
      Review of a Minimally Invasive Treatment Option.
AB  - Peyronie's disease (PD) is an inflammatory disorder characterized by an abnormal
      collagen deposition in the tunica albuginea of the penis, leading to fibrous and
      non-compliant plaques that can impede normal erection. Although pharmacological
      treatments are available, only intralesional injection therapy and surgical
      reconstruction have demonstrated tangible clinical efficacy in the management of
      this condition. Intralesional injection of collagenase clostridium histolyticum
      (CCH) has come to the forefront of minimally invasive treatment of PD. In this
      review, the authors provide an update on the safety, efficacy, and indications
      for CCH. The efficacy of CCH will be assessed on the basis of improvement in the
      severity of penile fibrosis, curvature, and pain. Numerous well-designed clinical
      trials and post-approval studies involving more than 1,500 patients have
      consistently demonstrated the efficacy and tolerability of CCH in the treatment
      of PD. CCH significantly decreases penile curvature and plaque consistency, as
      well as improves quality of life. Post-approval studies continue to demonstrate
      the efficacy of CCH despite broader inclusion criteria for treatment, such as the
      case with acute phase disease and atypical plaque deformities (i.e., ventral
      plaques, hourglass narrowing). CCH continues to be the gold standard for non
      surgical management of stable phase PD, in the absence of strong evidence
      supporting oral therapy agents and ongoing evaluation of extracorporeal shockwave
      therapy. However, recent studies are beginning to provide precedent for the use
      of CCH in the management of acute phase and atypical PD.

PMID- 28879694
TI  - Male Infertility Associated with a Supernumerary Marker Chromosome.
AB  - A marker chromosome (mar) is a structurally abnormal chromosome in which no part
      can be identified. The significance of a marker varies, depending on the material
      contained within the marker. Very few reports have been published of marker
      chromosomes associated with male infertility. Here, we report the case of an
      infertile man with a rare variant of a marker chromosome of a mos
      47,XY,+mar[25]/46,XY[25] karyotype.

PMID- 28879695
TI  - Functional Genetic Variants in SPHK1 Affect Susceptibility to Gastric Cancer in a
      Chinese Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An escalating number of studies have provided identified evidence
      that sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) plays an essential role in carcinogenesis. This
      present study was devised to seek the possible correlation of two tag single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in SPHK1 (rs3744037 T>C, rs346801 C>T) with the
      susceptibility to gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: This present case-control study
      was comprised of 710 patients with GC and 710 gender- and age-matched cancer-free
      individuals. The genotypes of the individuals were acquired by the TaqMan-MGB
      method. SPHK1 mRNA level was examined in 60 paired cancerous and noncancerous
      tissues using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT
      PCR). RESULTS: Our results suggested that the variant genotype T allele of SPHK1
      rs346801 increased the GC risk in the study population [CT vs. CC, odds ratio
      (OR) = 1.385, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.096 - 1.751; TT vs. CC, OR =
      2.502, 95% CI = 1.078 - 5.806; CT+TT vs. CC, OR = 1.434, 95% CI = 1.140 - 1.804].
      Furthermore, in stratified analyses, rs346801 variant genotypes were associated
      with a conspicuous risk of GC in younger individuals (< 62 years), females, non
      smokers, and individuals from rural areas. In addition, the carriers with variant
      genotype CT, TT, and CT+TT were observed to possess the higher SPHK1 messenger
      RNA levels than those with CC genotype in GC specimens. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results strongly demonstrated that the SPHK1 rs346801 C>T polymorphism may
      contribute to the susceptibility to gastric cancer in Chinese population and
      affect the expression of SPHK1 and, therefore, may act as a novel biomarker for
      predicting gastric cancer.

PMID- 28879696
TI  - Clinical Usefulness of Measuring Red Blood Cell Distribution Width in Patients
      with Hepatitis B Virus-Related Acute-On-Chronic Liver Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is increased in chronic
      liver disease, but its clinical significance in hepatitis B virus-related acute
      on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) is still unclear. The aim of the present
      study was to investigate the clinical significance of RDW in HBV-ACLF patients.
      METHODS: The medical records of HBV-ACLF patients who were admitted to The Second
      Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University between April 2012 and December
      2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Correlations between RDW, neutrophil
      lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scores
      were analyzed using the Spearman's approach. Multivariable stepwise logistic
      regression test was used to evaluate independent clinical parameters predicting 3
      month mortality of HBV-ACLF patients. The association between RDW and
      hospitalization outcome was estimated by receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis.
      Patient survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and subsequently compared
      by log-rank test. RESULTS: Sixty-two HBV-ACLF patients and sixty CHB patients
      were enrolled. RDW were increased in HBVACLF patients and positively correlated
      with the NLR as well as MELD scores. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that RDW
      value was an independent predictor for mortality. RDW had an area under the ROC
      of 0.799 in predicting 3-month mortality of HBV-ACLF patients. Patients with HBV
      ACLF who had RDW > 17% showed significantly poorer survival than those who had
      RDW <= 17%. CONCLUSIONS: RDW values are significantly increased in patients with
      HBV-ACLF. Moreover, RDW values are an independent predicting factor for an in
      hospital mortality in patients with HBV-ACLF.

PMID- 28879697
TI  - Exogenous Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor at a 50 ng/mL Concentration has a
      Significant Protective Effect on Bilirubin-Induced Cerebral Cortex Neuronal
      Injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bilirubin encephalopathy is a common disabling disease in neonates.
      Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in the repair
      and regeneration of nerves following injury, as well as the maintenance of
      neuronal growth and differentiation. This study aimed to investigate the effect
      of exogenous BDNF on the apoptosis and survival of in vitro cultured neurons
      injured by bilirubin as well as determine the optimal BDNF concentration.
      METHODS: Rat cerebral cortex neurons cultured for 8 days were randomly divided
      into the control, bilirubin, and BDNF groups. A bilirubin injury model was
      established. BDNF was added to the BDNF group at a final concentration of 5, 50,
      and 100 ng/mL 4 hours prior to the addition of bilirubin. The cell morphology was
      observed via phase contrast microscopy, and the cell viability and apoptotic rate
      were detected using the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium method and flow cytometry.
      RESULTS: The neuronal viability in the bilirubin group was significantly
      decreased and the apoptotic rate was significantly increased compared with the
      control group. BDNF significantly improved the impact of bilirubin on neuronal
      activity; the apoptotic rate was significantly decreased (p < 0.05); however,
      within 24 - 48 hours, BDNF had no significant effect on the nerve cell viability
      (p > 0.05). Moreover, the protective effect of different BDNF concentrations also
      varied (p < 0.05), with the most substantial protective effect at a final
      concentration of 50 ng/mL. CONCLUSIONS: Bilirubin may damage rat cerebral cortex
      neurons and induce their apoptosis, whereas BDNF has a protective effect on
      bilirubin-induced cerebral cortex neuronal injury.

PMID- 28879698
TI  - Undetectable Vancomycin Concentrations Utilizing a Particle Enhanced
      Turbidimetric Inhibition Immunoassay in a Patient with an Elevated IgM Level.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A case of undetectable vancomycin concentrations with the use of a
      particle enhanced turbidimetric inhibition immunoassay is reported. METHODS: A 73
      year-old woman with B-cell lymphoma, chronic neutropenia with myelodysplastic
      syndrome and elevated IgM levels displayed repeated undetectable vancomycin
      concentrations, despite appropriate empiric vancomycin dosing. The vancomycin
      concentrations were processed utilizing a particle enhanced turbidimetric
      inhibition immunoassay (PETINIA). Patients with high concentrations of
      paraproteins in their serum may have interference with the PETINIA. This may
      include patients with plasma cell dyscrasias and lymphoreticular malignancies
      associated with abnormal immunoglobulin synthesis. RESULTS: Repeated undetectable
      vancomycin drug concentrations prompted us to send a serum sample to an outside
      facility to utilize another standardized assay, enzyme multiplied immunoassay
      (EMIT), which resulted in a detectable vancomycin serum concentration. The
      patient's undetectable vancomycin drug concentrations with the PETINIA may have
      been due to abnormal immunoglobulin synthesis interference with the assay. A
      limited number of case reports have been published demonstrating undetectable or
      unexpectedly elevated vancomycin concentrations due to monoclonal immunoglobulin
      interference in patients with immunological disorders. CONCLUSIONS: A 73-year-old
      woman with B-cell lymphoma, chronic neutropenia with myelodysplastic syndrome and
      elevated IgM levels may have had interference with a PETINIA resulting in
      undetectable vancomycin concentrations.

PMID- 28879699
TI  - Interleukin 20 Gene Polymorphism (rs1518108) is not Associated with Sustained
      Virological Response in Iranian Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection.
AB  - METHODS: This case-control study, was performed on 136 blood samples based on 81
      patients with chronic HCV genotypes 1 and 3 including 64 SVR positive and 17
      negative and 55 healthy individual controls. DNA was isolated from the samples
      and the frequency of the polymorphism was analyzed using a PCR-RFLP method.
      Finally, the products were detected on 3.5% agarose gel electrophoresis. RESULTS:
      The analysis of the data for C/T polymorphism indicated that the CC genotype was
      found in 19 of 64 patients who achieved SVR, while the TT genotype was detected
      in 3 patients and SVR was achieved in 2. Finally, heterozygous CT was identified
      in 53 patients and 10 patients were resistant to treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The
      results did not support any significant effects of TT or CT genotypes on
      susceptibility to HCV infection (p = 0.935, OR = 1.031, CI = 0.464 - 2.026).
      Moreover, there was no significant correlation between SVR to PEG-IFN combined by
      ribavirin therapy in patients with genotype CC (p = 0.601, OR = 0.736, CI = 0.234
      - 2.319).

PMID- 28879700
TI  - Whole Exome Sequencing Identifies a c.C2566T Mutation in the Androgen Receptor in
      a Chinese Family.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whole exome sequencing (WES) is one of the most valuable tools for
      the detection of Mendelian diseases in clinical laboratory. We performed WES for
      a family of 46,XY disorders of gender development and compared the applicability
      of public databases for the subsequent phenotype studies of WES-identified
      mutations. METHODS: DNA samples from the two patients were analyzed by WES. The
      mutated protein was studied using the HomoloGene database, Polyphen2, and SIFT.
      The phenotype of the mutation was studied using ClinVar, the androgen receptor
      gene mutations database, AR database at Leiden Open Variation Database, and
      PubMed. RESULTS: A c.C2566T (p.R856C) mutation in the androgen receptor gene was
      detected for the patients. The in silico studies indicated that the p.R856C
      mutation is deleterious to the function of the androgen receptor. Unlike those of
      other databases, the variations listed in the androgen receptor gene mutations
      database were classified as complete androgen insensitivity-, partial androgen
      insensitivity-, or mild androgen insensitivity-relevant according to their
      clinical phenotype. In addition, the publications of the collected mutations in
      the androgen receptor gene mutations database are complete and easily accessible,
      which facilitates in depth studies of clinically identified mutations.
      CONCLUSIONS: We identified a c.C2566T (p.R856C) mutation of the AR gene in cases
      of familial complete androgen insensitivity by WES, and provided genetic
      counseling to related family members. This is the first study reporting this
      mutation in Chinese patients. We also compared the applicability of several
      public databases for phenotype studies of clinically identified Androgen Receptor
      mutations and suggest that the androgen receptor gene mutations database best
      satisfies clinical demands.

PMID- 28879701
TI  - miRNAs Expressions and Interaction with Biological Systems in Patients with
      Alzheimer's Disease. Using miRNAs as a Diagnosis and Prognosis Biomarker.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A high percentage of patients develop Alzheimer's disease (AD). The
      main signs are loss of memory and cognitive functions which have a significant
      impact on lifestyle. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify new
      biomarkers for early diagnosis of patients with AD. An ideal biomarker is
      represented by the expression of miRNAs. In this paper, we want to summarize
      expressions miRNAs in AD. We also want to present the pathophysiological and
      genetic interactions of miRNAs with protein systems in these patients. METHODS:
      For the study, we examined available studies in scientific databases, such as
      PubMed and Scopus. The studies were searched using the keywords "miRNAs
      expression", "Alzheimer's disease", "genetic polymorphisms", and "genetic
      biomarkers". RESULTS: For the assessment and monitoring of patients with AD, the
      expression of miRNAs can be used successfully due to increased specificity and
      selectivity. Moreover, the expression of miRNAs can provide important answers
      regarding possible genetic interactions and genetic therapeutic regimens.
      CONCLUSIONS: For the evaluation and non-invasive monitoring of patients with
      Alzheimer's disease the expression of miRNAs can be successfully used.

PMID- 28879702
TI  - Diagnostic Values of sVEGFR-1 and Endostatin in Malignant Pleural Effusions in
      Patients with Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) remains a common
      clinical challenge because of the sensitivity of conventional cytology for the
      detection is insufficient. Thus, a sensitive clinical marker for diagnosis is
      required. The aim of this study was to assess the role of two anti-angiogenic
      cytokines, soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1) and
      endostatin, in diagnosing MPE. METHODS: Effusion samples from 44 patients with
      MPE caused by lung cancer and from 36 patients with benign pleural effusion (BPE)
      were collected. The concentrations of sVEGFR-1 and endostatin in pleural fluid
      were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The diagnostic
      performance was measured by receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs).
      RESULTS: The levels of sVEGFR-1 and endostatin in MPE due to lung cancer were
      significantly higher than those in BPE (p < 0.05). The sensitivity and
      specificity of endostatin were 52.27% and 86.11%, respectively, while for sVEGFR
      1, the sensitivity was 88.64% and the specificity was 58.33%. Interestingly, the
      combination of sVEGFR1 and endostatin produced better sensitivity and specificity
      of 72.73% and 83.33%, respectively. In addition, the levels of sVEGFR-1 and
      endostatin were significantly related to each other (p < 0.05), and the levels of
      endostatin in bloody effusions were significantly higher than those in non-bloody
      effusions (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that the levels of sVEGFR
      1 and endostatin were significantly elevated in MPE. The combined detection of
      sVEGFR-1 and endostatin may be useful in the diagnosis of MPE.

PMID- 28879703
TI  - A Novel Case of 15q24 Microdeletion Syndrome Detected by MLPA in a Chinese
      Family.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chromosome 15q24 microdeletion syndrome is a rare disease. To date,
      only 40 cases have been reported. Here, we also confirmed a 15q24 microdeletion
      syndrome in a chorionic villus of miscarriage. METHODS: The microdeletion was
      screened by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) and then
      identified by chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA). RESULTS: A 15q24
      microdeletion syndrome was screened by MLPA in the chorionic villus of
      miscarriage in a Chinese family and was confirmed to be a de novo 3.143 Mb
      15q24.1q24.2 deletion (chr15:72930195-76073450) by chromosomal microarray
      analysis (CMA). CONCLUSIONS: We first reported the 15q24 microdeletion syndrome
      screened by MLPA in Chinese population, and we also considered that the technique
      of MLPA with a suitable kit and probe could screen such a rare microdeletion
      quickly, economically, and efficiently.

PMID- 28879704
TI  - A Case of Cutaneous Involvement in T Lymphoblastic Lymphoma Leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cutaneous involvement is more prevalent in B lymphoblastic lymphoma
      (B-LBL) than T lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL). The authors describe a rare case
      of cutaneous involvement in a 25-year-old woman with T lymphoblastic lymphoma
      leukemia. METHODS: Hematologic investigation, bone marrow aspirate and biopsy,
      cytogenetic analysis and cutaneous lesion biopsy were performed. RESULTS: The
      patient achieved complete remission after induction therapy with the regimen of
      CHOEP + P, then received another CHOEP + P regimen. Unfortunately, the patient
      refused further treatment and was lost to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Skin biopsy,
      immunohistochemistry of the skin lesions, bone marrow aspirate, and biopsy are
      important to confirm a diagnosis of T-LBL. Cutaneous involvement in T-LBL as a
      prognostic factor needs further studies.

PMID- 28879705
TI  - Guillain-Barre Syndrome Induced by Heat Stroke: a Case Report and Literature
      Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heat stroke is a potentially fatal condition that is caused by
      elevated core temperature. GuillainBarre syndrome (GBS) induced by heat stroke is
      extremely rare, and its manifestation with damage to multiple cranial nerves has
      not been described. METHODS: We describe a rare case of GBS induced by heat
      stroke with damage to multiple cranial and peripheral nerves. The clinical,
      radiological, and electrophysiological profiles were presented and analyzed.
      RESULTS: A 41-year-old man presented with aggressive speech difficulty,
      dysphagia, right blepharoptosis, and quadriplegia following coma. A diagnosis of
      glossopharyngeal, vagus, oculomotor, and peripheral nerve damage was made. After
      immunoglobulin administration, the patient's neurological deficiencies were
      relieved significantly. During a follow-up period of 3 months, the patient
      experienced complete remission. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first
      reported case of GBS induced by heat stroke presenting with damage to multiple
      cranial and peripheral nerves. The early diagnosis and timely immunological
      treatment of GBS should be emphasized, as they facilitate a favorable prognosis.

PMID- 28879706
TI  - National Survey on Internal Quality Control Practice for Lipid Parameters in
      Laboratories of China from 2014 to 2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To investigate the situation of Internal Quality Control (IQC)
      practice for total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and LDL
      cholesterol from 2014 to 2016 in laboratories in China and provide improvement
      measurements. METHODS: A web-based External Quality Assessment (EQA) system was
      used to collect IQC data of lipid parameters in laboratories which continuously
      participated in the national EQA programs in China from 2014 to 2016. Pass rate
      of the coefficients of variation (CVs) of two level quality controls in four
      lipid parameters were calculated according to six quality specifications for
      precision to evaluate the current status of precision level of the four lipid
      parameters and their change over time in China. RESULTS: 533, 512, 504, and 466
      laboratories continuously reported the data of level one for total cholesterol,
      triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, and 212, 210, 208 and 198
      laboratories reported the level two, respectively. The percentage of laboratories
      meeting the quality specification varied based on different criteria. Non
      significant change can be found in the pass rate of CVs over time. The number of
      laboratories using a closed system increased over time, but still only accounted
      for a small proportion. There is no significant difference in the pass rate of
      CVs between closed and open systems. CONCLUSIONS: Triglycerides currently have a
      fairly good performance in China. While the performance of laboratories on total
      cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol has yet to be improved.

PMID- 28879707
TI  - Analysis of Hepatitis C Virus NS5A Region in Patients with Cirrhosis Using an
      Ultra-Deep Pyrosequencing Method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) is genetically more diverse than HBV and HIV
      (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and exists as quasispecies within infected
      individuals. This is due to the lack of efficient proofreading of the viral RNA
      dependent RNA polymerase. Consequently, quasispecies emerge depending on the
      mutation rate of the viral polymerase, which may display a high level of genetic
      variability in a population. In infected individuals, HCV replicates and
      circulates as quasispecies composed of a complex mixture of different but closely
      related genomes that undergoes continuous change due to competitive selection and
      cooperation between arising mutants. The aim of this study is to investigate
      mutations in the NS5A region as a whole, including ISDR, PKRBD, IRRDR, and V3 of
      HCV genotype 1b cirrhosis patients being naive and nonresponders, treated with
      IFN (interferon) + ribavirin (RBN) by using an ultra-deep pyrosequencing method
      (UDPS). METHODS: During the study, five patients (four females, and one male,
      mean age 59.8 +/- 11 years) with HCV related cirrhosis were analyzed. Three
      patients received IFN + RBN for six months, but two patients did not receive any
      therapy. HCV-RNA concentrations in patients' sera were determined using a COBAS
      AMPLICOR HCV MONITOR Test, Version 2.0. Genotyping was performed by using a
      commercial reverse hybridization method, Line Probe Assay. The quasispecies for
      the NS5A region were investigated using UDPS. RESULTS: All five patients were HCV
      genotype 1b (Mean Child-Pugh score 7.2 +/- 1.9, 2 pts Child A, 2 pts Child B, and
      one pt Child C) but only one patient had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total
      of 19 different mutations were detected in each of the five patients (ranging
      from 3 to 6 mutations per patient). In all five patients, several mutations in
      the ISDR and PKR-BD regions were detected. On the other hand, mutations in the V3
      and IRRDR regions were only detected in one patient. CONCLUSIONS: UDPS is a new
      sequencing technology and a very sensitive method in detection of quasispecies
      with low frequency NS5A region mutations. These mutations may affect the
      antiviral response and development of HCC. However, further studies in larger
      number of patients should be conducted to clarify this hypothesis.

PMID- 28879708
TI  - Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma with De Novo c-Met Amplification.
AB  - The study presented a case of lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) with de novo c
      Met amplification. Four cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were administered and
      partial response was achieved. Surgery was performed and the surgical margin was
      positive. Pathological diagnosis was lung SCC with c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS1) (+,
      5%) and c-Met (++, 20%). The ROS1 rearrangement and c-Met amplification were
      detected using fluorescence in situ hybridization, and the result showed c-Met
      amplification positive and ROS1 negative. Four weeks after surgery, thoracic
      computed tomography scan showed a relapse of hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes.
      After three days, the patient died of hemoptysis.

PMID- 28879710
TI  - Heat Shock Protein 90 Alpha, Lass B Member 1: a Key Regulative Gene of Monitoring
      Duodenal Tumor for Obesity Induced by High-Fat Diet.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Effective methods of preventing and treating duodenal carcinoma,
      especially cancer induced by obesity (resulting from a high-fat diet) remains a
      longstanding challenge in medicine. METHODS: With regard to the objective, key
      genes were explored in the evolutional process in a group of normal, obese (high
      fat diet), and duodenal tumor mice. Here, 23 genes were selected by the
      bioinformatics method. In order to correct the result, verification experiments
      were performed twice through online analysis. RESULTS: Finally, heat shock
      protein 90 alpha class B member 1, enriched in inflammation, tumors and steroid
      hormones-related pathways, was the statistically different gene in the
      evolutional process. CONCLUSIONS: This work provided a new perspective to
      understand the evolutional process in a group of normal, obese (high-fat diet),
      and duodenal tumor mice and a potential target gene for monitoring duodenal
      tumors for normal individuals especially for obesity induced by high-fat diet.

PMID- 28879709
TI  - Reference Intervals for Fecal Calprotectin in Adults Using Two Different
      Extraction Methods in the Uppsala-SCAPIS Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fecal calprotectin measurement is generally recommended to exclude
      inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients with suspected IBD. A problem with
      the fecal calprotectin assays so far has been the rather long test-turnaround
      times. Recently a particle enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (PETIA) for fecal
      calprotectin with assay times of approximately 10 minutes has been introduced on
      the European market. The aim of this study was to define reference intervals for
      adults with this new fecal calprotectin PETIA using two different extraction
      methods. METHODS: Samples were collected from 382 healthy individuals from the
      Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) Uppsala cohort in the age range
      50 - 65 years. 202 samples were processed with CALEX(r) Cap extraction device
      (BUHLMANN, Schonenbuch, Switzerland) and 180 samples were extracted using weighed
      samples. The extracted samples were analyzed on a Mindray BS-380 using the fCal
      Turbo PETIA reagent (BUHLMANN). RESULTS: The calculated reference values for the
      Calex device were < 199 ug/g for the whole cohort, < 184 ug/g for females, and <
      215 ug/g for males, while the corresponding values for weighed samples were < 153
      ug/g for the whole cohort, < 141 ug/g for females, and < 215 ug/g for males.
      There were no significant statistical differences for calprotectin levels in
      males and females. CONCLUSIONS: The CALEX device yielded slightly higher
      calprotectin values. As there were no significant gender differences, the study
      indicates gender independent reference intervals of < 199 ug/g feces for the
      CALEX device and < 153 ug/g feces for weighed samples in patients in the 50 - 65
      year age range.

PMID- 28879711
TI  - Systematic Comparison of IgM and IgG ABO Antibody Titers by Using Tube and Gel
      Card Techniques and its Relevance for ABO-Incompatible Kidney Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the determination of the ABO antibody titers is necessary
      for the decision-making in ABOincompatible (ABOi) kidney transplantations,
      various methods for the determination of the ABO antibody titers are being used.
      However, the absence of uniform standards makes their comparability far more
      difficult. Two of the most commonly used methods are the tube method and the gel
      card method. In this study, we systematically investigate to what extent these
      two methods affect the result of ABO antibody titers. METHODS: ABO antibodies
      were determined from plasmas of 90 donors (30 individuals each with blood group
      A, B, and O). Seven further donors with blood group A, B, and AB provided
      erythrocytes for the testing. A total of 360 ABO antibody titers were determined;
      180 tests for each method, each with 90 determinations of immunoglobulin G (IgG)
      and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody titers. In addition, we also made a
      differentiation by blood groups to find out if and to what extent the blood
      groups have an impact on the results. RESULTS: Our analysis shows that the choice
      of method has a highly significant (p < 0.0001) impact on the titer level of the
      ABO antibodies. The median values of ABO antibody titers determined by using the
      gel card method are two titer steps lower than the titers, which are determined
      when using the tube method. Moreover, our data shows that there are major
      differences in the ABO antibody titer level among the blood groups, regardless of
      the choice of methods. CONCLUSIONS: We consider changing to the gel card method
      for determining the ABO antibody titers as a simple and effective way to achieve
      a standardized and uniform method. Here, too, the clinicians should be provided
      with sufficient information by the laboratories, in order to draw the right
      consequence from this change, while considering all the relevant data. As a
      consequence of this study, the transplant center of the University of Hamburg
      Eppendorf paired a change from tube to gel card regarding the ABO antibody titer
      determination of ABOi kidney transplantations with an intensification of the
      preoperative target titer from <= 1:8 to <= 1:4.

PMID- 28879712
TI  - Prevalence of ST131 and ST1193 Among Bloodstream Isolates of Escherichia coli not
      Susceptible to Ciprofloxacin in a Tertiary Care University Hospital in Korea,
      2013 - 2014.
AB  - We investigated the ST distribution of bloodstream isolates of E. coli that were
      not susceptible to ciprofloxacin (CIP-NS isolates), collected from 2013 to 2014
      in a tertiary care hospital. Fifty-nine CIP-NS isolates were collected. ST131 was
      the most frequent ST (37.3%) isolate, followed by ST1193 (23.7%). ST131 and
      ST1193 showed significant differences in ESBL production and lactose
      fermentation. Further study should be continued on the monitoring of resistant
      strains.

PMID- 28879713
TI  - Impact of Moderate Altitude on Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Healthy Volunteers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The induction of microvascular inflammation and the effects on
      cytokine production in blood due to hypoxia has been shown in the past. We have
      previously reported a statistically significant increase of the pro-inflammatory
      cytokine interleukin-8 (IL-8) in normobaric hypoxia in the setting of a hypoxia
      chamber. In the present study, we sought to analyze plasma levels of inflammatory
      cytokines in a real-life stetting in order to foster our knowledge on hypoxia
      induced microvascular inflammation at moderate altitude. METHODS: Pro
      inflammatory cytokines (IL-8, IL-6, TNF-alpha) were measured in an experimental
      field study, exposing 18 healthy volunteers to moderate hypoxia while staying at
      a mountain lodge in Diavolezza, Switzerland (2978 meters above sea level). Plasma
      cytokine levels were measured by ELISA. RESULTS: In contradiction to our results
      in a normobaric hypoxia-chamber, exposure to moderate hypoxia led to a
      significant decrease of plasma IL-8 levels in a real-life setting (from 2.902
      (1.046 - 4.984) pg/mL to 1.395 (0.698 - 3.712) pg/mL, p = 0.034). Concentrations
      of IL-6 and TNF-alpha did not show statistically significant changes in
      comparison to baseline measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show
      a decrease of proinflammatory cytokine IL-8 in a real life setting of moderate
      altitude in healthy individuals. Initiation of angiogenesis or subliminal
      stimulus for an altitude-induced inflammatory reaction may be explanations for
      this unexpected finding.

PMID- 28879714
TI  - Serum IgG4 Concentration in IgG4-Related Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is an immune-mediated and chronic
      fibroinflammatory condition that affects almost any organ and often involves
      multiple organs in the same patient. In this review article, we address the
      clinical utility of measuring serum immunoglobulin G subclass 4 concentration
      ([IgG4]) in IgG4-RD diagnosis and in disease monitoring. METHODS: We discuss the
      latest literature on the relevance of [IgG4] to the investigation and management
      of IgG4RDs. In addition, we discuss the potential role of serum [IgG4]
      measurements in other inflammatory conditions and cancers. RESULTS: Increasing
      awareness of IgG4-RD among clinicians has led to a growing list of organ systems
      that can be affected by this chronic condition and the development of new organ
      specific diagnostic guidelines. Diagnosis of IgG4-RD depends on multiple clinical
      and laboratory tests, including serology. Quantification of serum [IgG4] is
      included in all IgG4-RD diagnostic guidelines available to-date. The scientific
      literature supports the idea that elevated serum [IgG4], typically > 135 mg/dL,
      identifies patients with a more active form of the disease, which correlates with
      increased concentrations of inflammatory serum biomarkers and hypocomplementemia,
      increased number of organs affected by the disease, and more extensive organ
      involvement. These patients seem more resistant to treatment and experience a
      shorter time to disease relapse compared to IgG4-RD patients with normal serum
      [IgG4] at the time of diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Despite better understanding of how
      to diagnose IgG4-RD, monitoring for accurate prediction of disease relapse, which
      may involve organs not affected at the time of presentation, is poorly
      understood. Timely diagnosis and early detection of disease relapse is important
      to avoid delayed treatment and potential organ damage.

PMID- 28879715
TI  - Bacteremia Caused by Campylobacter Fetus in a Patient With Hepatitis B Virus
      Infection Complicated with Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis.
AB  - Campylobacter fetus (C. fetus) bacteremia is rarely reported. In this article, a
      51-year-old Chinese woman with severe hepatitis B virus infection complicated
      with alcoholic liver cirrhosis was admitted with a 3-month history of fatigue,
      jaundice, and edema of lower extremity, as well as presenting a high fever. Blood
      cultures were positive for Campylobacter fetus. The patient was started on
      treatment with cefuroxime, which was switched after 3 days to meropenem for an
      additional 2 weeks. The patient was successfully treated with the 3-week course
      of intravenous antibiotic therapy.

PMID- 28879716
TI  - Concomitant Occurrence of Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm and Acute
      Myeloid Leukaemia after Lenalidomide Treatment for.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myelodysplastic syndromes with chromosome 5 long arm deletion (5q
      mds) may benefit from lenalidomide treatment. However, unresponsive patients have
      a high risk for clonal evolution and progression to acute myeloid leukemia. Case:
      We describe a 5q-patient treated with lenalidomide, who concomitantly developed
      acute myeloid leukemia and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, a rare
      and highly aggressive lymphoma. CONCLUSIONS: Evolution of 5q- syndrome to acute
      myeloid leukemia and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm may have
      occurred through various mechanisms, including persistence of neoplastic
      lenalidomide-resistant stem cells and selection of a more aggressive clone via
      lenalidomide augmentation of the ARPC1B gene, or because of lenalidomide
      stimulation on dendritic cells. Further studies are needed to clarify
      lenalidomide oncogenic potential.

PMID- 28879717
TI  - Increased Expression of Long Noncoding RNA RP11-62F24.2 in Gastric Cancer and Its
      Clinical Significance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200
      nucleotides and have no proteincoding capacity. In recent years, they have been
      believed to be major players in biological processes. However, there is limited
      understanding of the many lncRNAs' expressions and their clinical significances
      in gastric cancer. METHODS: Quantitative RT-PCR was performed to investigate the
      lncRNA expression in gastric cancer. Then, we further explored the potential
      association between RP11-62F24.2 level and the clinicopathological features in
      gastric cancer tissue samples. RESULTS: The results showed that RP11-62F24.2 was
      significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissues compared with matched normal
      tissues (p < 0.05). Its expression level was significantly correlated with
      invasion and tumor size. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that lncRNA RP11
      62F24.2 may be a potential biomarker in the diagnosis of gastric cancer.

PMID- 28879718
TI  - Interleukin 6 Receptor (IL6-R) Gene Polymorphisms Underlie Susceptibility to
      Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased production of interleukin 6 (IL-6) is associated with
      rheumatoid arthritis that acts through its receptor, IL-6R (interleukin 6
      receptor). Various single nucleotide polymorphisms in the IL6R gene conferring
      susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis have been identified in various
      populations yet these associations have not been fully established. The present
      study was pursued with the aim to evaluate a possible association between three
      single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2228145, rs4537545, rs4845617) of the IL6R
      gene and rheumatoid arthritis in Pakistani patients. METHODS: For this purpose,
      we recruited 60 patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and 60 healthy age
      and gender matched controls. Blood samples were collected and DNA was extracted.
      Sanger DNA sequencing was performed to evaluate the SNPs in IL6R and the data
      were statistically evaluated using chi-square test. RESULTS: Results of our study
      indicated that rs2228145 and rs4845617 were significantly associated with
      rheumatoid arthritis in Pakistani population. However, no association could be
      established between IL6R (rs4537545) and rheumatoid arthritis in Pakistani
      population. CONCLUSIONS: This study reports a possible genetic association of
      IL6R (rs2228145 and rs4845617) to the genetic susceptibility of rheumatoid
      arthritis.

PMID- 28879719
TI  - Interleukin-24 Concentrations Not Related with Age, but Affect Pro- and Anti
      Inflammatory Cytokines Differently in Healthy Donors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interleukin 24 (IL-24) is expressed at different levels in a variety
      of tumor tissues and matched normal tissues and is regarded as a potential tumor
      biomarker as its expression levels in tumor tissues are associated with tumor
      patient prognosis. At present, the expression level of IL-24 in healthy human
      peripheral blood is unknown. METHODS: In this study, 1940 blood samples were
      collected using different processing methods from healthy donors. ELISA was used
      to detect IL-24 concentrations. RESULTS: The results showed that processing
      methods had the greatest influence on test results, with the highest IL24
      concentration in EDTA plasma and the lowest in sodium citrate plasma. Lengths of
      storage time at 4 degrees C had no obvious effect on IL-24 test results, and IL
      24 in peripheral blood was stable for 15 days. IL-24 concentration in the sera of
      healthy donors showed no associations with age, blood glucose, hemoglobin, total
      cholesterol, carcinoembryonic antigen, absolute lymphocyte counts, alpha
      fetoprotein, white blood cells, thyroid stimulating hormone, or cereal third
      transaminase. We also confirmed that IL-24 expression level in the blood of
      healthy subjects was positively correlated with pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and interleukin 6 (IL-6), but negatively
      correlated with anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10. CONCLUSIONS: We observed that
      sample processing methods influence the detection of IL-24 levels as EDTA plasma
      had the highest IL-24 concentration, and citric acid sodium, the lowest. Age,
      gender, and physical and chemical indicators were not related to IL-24
      concentrations. We confirmed the IL-24 concentration was positively related to IL
      6 and TNF-alpha and negatively to IL-10.

PMID- 28879720
TI  - Long Non-Coding RNA Expression Signature Hallmarks Promising Efficacy in
      Identification of Human Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: a Meta-Analysis Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are significantly altered in an
      expanding list of malignant neoplasms, suggesting that they might be popularized
      as potential biomarkers for cancer detection. This study sought to validate the
      diagnostic efficacy of lncRNA expression signature(s) as potential biomarker(s)
      for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosis. METHODS: We conducted the
      online databases search for all eligible studies. A quantitative meta-analysis
      was performed using Stata 12.0 and Meta-Disc 1.4 statistical programs.
      Sensitivity analysis and a meta-regression test were applied to deeply trace the
      underlying heterogeneity sources. RESULTS: Eight cohorts comprised 775 NSCLC
      patients and 630 matched controls were included. Our data manifested that lncRNA
      expression profiling harbored a pooled sensitivity of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.71 - 0.82)
      and specificity of 0.86 (95% CI: 0.80 - 0.90) in discriminating NSCLC cases from
      cancer-free individuals, along with an AUC (area under the curve) value of 0.88.
      Further subgroup analysis revealed that paralleled testing of lncRNAs
      (sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of 0.90, 0.80 and 0.96, respectively)
      substantially strengthened the diagnostic efficacy as compared with the single
      testing pattern (sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of 0.71, 0.77 and 0.82,
      respectively). Other stratified analysis of ethnicity, histology type, and test
      matrix also presented robust results. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, our results
      indicate that lncRNA expression signature(s) might be applicable as complementary
      biomarker(s) for the identification of NSCLC.

PMID- 28879721
TI  - Value of Red Cell Distribution Width in Assessing the Severity of Hepatitis B
      Virus-Related Decompensated Cirrhosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus infection is the main reason for liver cirrhosis in
      China. Thus, evaluating the disease severity of hepatitis B-related decompensated
      cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi) is very important. The red cell distribution width (RDW) is
      thought to be correlated with the severity of various diseases. The purpose of
      this investigation is to verify whether RDW can estimate the disease severity of
      HBV-DeCi. METHODS: This retrospective study included 172 subjects who had been
      diagnosed with HBV-DeCi. They were categorized into three groups on the basis of
      their RDW values. Receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to estimate the
      severity predictive performances and binary logistic regression was used to
      assess the independent variable predicting the severity of liver disease.
      RESULTS: The RDW values were evidently increased in the HBV-DeCi patients in
      comparison with the healthy controls (18.00% +/- 0.04 vs. 13.19% +/- 0.74, p <
      0.001). There was also a significant difference in the model for endstage liver
      disease score of the three different RDW groups of A, B and C (13.2 +/- 4.6, 16.0
      +/- 9.0, and 18.8 +/- 6.5, p = 0.002). The RDW was an independent risk factor of
      the severity of HBV-DeCi. The cutoff level for RDW was > 14.0%, where the
      sensitivity and specificity were 90.7%, 100.0%, respectively, and the area under
      the curve (AUC) of ROC was 0.969. For a combination of RDW and MELD score, the
      AUC was 0.997, and the sensitivity and specificity were 98.3% and 99.1%,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The RDW is a simple biomarker that may play an
      important role in predicting the severity of HBVDeCi.

PMID- 28879722
TI  - Novel and Simple Approach to Estimating the Actual Incidence of Blood and Body
      Fluid Exposure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is no current way to determine the actual blood and body fluid
      exposure (BBFE) incidence in hospitals. We propose a simple, reliable, and widely
      available method for the accurate estimation of BBFE. METHODS: Data for BBFE for
      healthcare workers between 2006 and 2015 at Osaka University Hospital were
      retrospectively extracted from the electronic records. Annual positivity of
      hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody in the source individuals and overall patient
      population were calculated over time. We created an estimation formula focusing
      on the difference in HCV positivity between the source individuals and overall
      patient population for the actual number of BBFEs. A linear regression model was
      used to evaluate the temporal change in the reported and estimated BBFEs.
      RESULTS: During the study period, 937 BBFEs were reported. HCV positivity between
      the post-BBFE cohort and overall patient population greatly differed; the
      incidence ratio ranged from 2.1 to 5.7. The linear regression model revealed that
      the reported BBFEs did not significantly change during the study period (the
      slope, 1.315 [95% confidence interval (C.I.): -0.849 to 3.480, p = 0.199]). The
      annual incidence ratio of the estimated and reported BBFEs significantly reduced
      over time (the slope, -0.287 [95% C.I.: -0.488 to -0.086, p = 0.011]), indicating
      that, although the reported number of BBFEs seemed unchanged, the estimated
      incidence decreased. CONCLUSIONS: We propose a novel and simple approach to
      estimating the actual incidence of BBFEs in hospitals using the difference in HCV
      positivity between the post-BBFE cohort and overall patient population.

PMID- 28879723
TI  - Mean Platelet Volume and Platelet Count are Elevated in Patients with Subacute
      Thyroiditis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Platelet parameters have been studied in many diseases. This study
      explored the changes of mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet count (PLT) in
      subacute thyroiditis (SAT). METHODS: We retrospectively studied 44 patients with
      SAT and 45 healthy individuals. Diagnosis was confirmed by pathologic examination
      of surgical specimens. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in age and
      gender between the SAT group and the control group. We compared the above indexes
      between the two groups. WBC and PLT were significantly higher and MPV was
      obviously lower in the SAT group. PLT had high sensitivity for diagnosis of SAT.
      CONCLUSIONS: PLT was elevated and MPV was decreased in SAT patients. A negative
      correlation between PLT and MPV was found.

PMID- 28879724
TI  - UGT1A1 Gene Polymorphism Predicts Irinotecan-Induced Severe Neutropenia and
      Diarrhea in Chinese Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Irinotecan was widely used in colon cancer and lung cancer, etc., and
      adverse reactions occur some times. The primary aim of this research is to
      investigate the association between UGT1A1 gene polymorphisms and irinotecan
      related adverse effect in Chinese Han population with a novel kind of gene chip
      technology. METHODS: UGT1A1*6/*28 gene polymorphisms were detected by PCR and
      gene chip as well as sequencing. The correlation between UGT1A1 gene
      polymorphisms and severe delayed diarrhea or neutropenia and effect on response
      rate and progression-free survival were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 106
      patients receiving irinotecan-based regimens and with detected UGT1A1 gene
      polymorphisms were enrolled in this research. According to our results, no
      significant differences of severe diarrhea were found in patients with UGT1A1*6
      genotypes (p = 0.608). However, the incidence of severe diarrhea in patients with
      TA7/7 genotype (66.7%, 4/6) was significantly higher than that in patients with
      TA6/7 (31.5%, 6/19) or TA6/6 (1.28%, 1/78) genotypes (p < 0.001). The incidence
      of severe hematologic toxicity in patients with AA (100%, 2/2) was significantly
      higher than that in patients with GA (33.3%, 7/21) or GG genotype (7.23%, 6/83)
      (p = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: In terms of irinotecan-based regimens in cancers,
      UGT1A1*6 plays a more vital role in hematologic toxicity (p = 0.011) whereas
      UGT1A1*28 get more involved in diarrhea (p < 0.001).

PMID- 28879725
TI  - Quantification of Renal Function and Cardiovascular Mortality in Patients
      Admitted to the Emergency Department with Suspected Acute Coronary Syndromes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increases in the novel serum marker cystatin C are detectable much
      earlier in the course of chronic kidney disease (CKD) even when levels of serum
      creatinine are still in the normal range. A major factor causing a decrease in
      serum creatinine is increasing age. Patients with CKD are more likely to develop
      cardiovascular disease (CVD) than a healthy population and to suffer premature
      deaths from CVD related to CKD. The aim of this study was to investigate whether
      cystatin C, serum creatinine, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)
      predict cardiovascular mortality in patients admitted to the emergency department
      (ED) with suspected acute coronary syndromes (ACS). METHODS: In 1,282 patients
      (mean age 62 +/- 15 years, 477 women, 805 men) with suspected ACS, baseline
      cystatin C concentrations, serum creatinine, and estimated glomerular filtration
      rate (eGFR) were measured at the ED. Clinical assessment and serial high
      sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) measurements were used for the diagnosis
      of ACS. Seventeen cardiovascular deaths were registered during a median follow-up
      of 365 days. RESULTS: HRs from univariate Cox regression models for each of the
      potential biomarkers were 12.02 (95% CI 5.10 - 28.34) for cystatin C, 4.53 (1.75 
      11.70) for serum creatinine, and 0.97 (0.96 - 0.99) for eGFR. All three
      biomarkers showed a significant association with cardiovascular mortality in
      univariate analyses. The HRs from a model with all three potential biomarkers
      were 59.21 (95% CI 9.69 - 361.76) for cystatin C, 0.08 (0.01 - 0.58) for serum
      creatinine, and 0.98 (0.96 - 1.01) for eGFR. The risk association was significant
      for ln (cystatin C) and ln (serum creatinine). CONCLUSIONS: Results of this
      prospective study show that the quantification of renal function using cystatin C
      is useful for predicting cardiovascular mortality in patients with suspected ACS
      at the ED.

PMID- 28879726
TI  - [Analysis of several key problems of good agricultural practice (GAP) of Chinese
      materia medica].
AB  - This paper reviewed the historical background of the GAP, analyzed the
      development experience of five Ps (GMP, GLP, GSP, GCP, GAP), analyzed the GAP
      based on economic theories, and pointed out that the core problem of GAP is
      ignoring economic laws. Once the GAP, is a process of certification, but neither
      the GAP announcement could be transformed into signal transmission quality in the
      product market, nor consumers could recognize the difference between GAP and non
      GAP herbs in the terminal market, so manufacturers lack motivation for GAP
      certification. In this paper, we pointed out, that the GAP certification system
      should be redesigned under the guidance of economics, third party certification
      body, supervised by drug administration organization, to certificate GAP as high
      quality standards, to improve signal transduction mechanism of GAP certification,
      and to integrate GAP with the market.

PMID- 28879727
TI  - [Absorption and metabolism of Chuanxiong Rhizoma decoction with multi-component
      sequential metabolism method].
AB  - The multiple components in Chinese herbal medicines (CHMS) will experience
      complex absorption and metabolism before entering the blood system. Previous
      studies often lay emphasis on the components in blood. However, the dynamic and
      sequential absorption and metabolism process following multi-component oral
      administration has not been studied. In this study, the in situ closed-loop
      method combined with LC-MS techniques were employed to study the sequential
      process of Chuanxiong Rhizoma decoction (RCD). A total of 14 major components
      were identified in RCD. Among them, ferulic acid, senkyunolide J, senkyunolide I,
      senkyunolide F, senkyunolide G, and butylidenephthalide were detected in all of
      the samples, indicating that the six components could be absorbed into blood in
      prototype. Butylphthalide, E-ligustilide, Z-ligustilide, cnidilide, senkyunolide
      A and senkyunolide Q were not detected in all the samples, suggesting that the
      six components may not be absorbed or metabolized before entering the hepatic
      portal vein. Senkyunolide H could be metabolized by the liver, while senkyunolide
      M could be metabolized by both liver and intestinal flora. This study clearly
      demonstrated the changes in the absorption and metabolism process following multi
      component oral administration of RCD, so as to convert the static multi-component
      absorption process into a comprehensive dynamic and continuous absorption and
      metabolism process.

PMID- 28879728
TI  - [Overall intestinal permeability of multiple components in lotus leaves].
AB  - In the study of biopharmaceutics classification system of Chinese materia medica
      (CMMBCS), the interactions of multiple components in the absorption should be
      taken into consideration in simultaneous multi-component determination. To
      investigate the absorption of multiple components, the in vitro everted gut sac
      model was used in this study, wtih lotus leaves as the research object.
      Aquantitative analysis was also carried out for the known components in this
      study. Totally 19 components in lotus extracts were absorbed by the intestinal
      tract, the Papp levels of the known components were nuciferine (1*10-5-1*10-6
      cm*s-1), rutin (1*10-6-1*10-7 cm*s-1), hyperoside (1*10-6 cm*s-1), isoquercitrin
      (1*10-6-1*10-7 cm*s-1) and astragalin (1*10-6-1*10-7 cm*s-1), respectively. These
      components showed a low permeability under a multi-component environment. This
      study was carried out to lay a foundation for further relevant target studies for
      different categories of components.

PMID- 28879729
TI  - [Evaluation for impacts of gut wall metabolism of multiple components in
      Chuanxiong Rhizoma during intestinal absorption with S9 incubation].
AB  - The information of drug deposition in the intestine is required in the study for
      the drug absorption in biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS). To
      illustrate the impacts of gut wall metabolism on the absorption, metabolism of
      multiple components in Chuanxiong Rhizoma in gut wall was tested by rat S9
      incubation in vitro. The chemical fingerprint technology was used in this study
      to simultaneously detect multiple components in Chuanxiong, and peak areas before
      and after S9 incubation were compared. The results showed that senkyunolide I and
      several constituents were metabolized by gut wall, and one new metabolite was
      founded. However, ferulic acid and other compounds remained unchanged after
      incubation. Therefore, the subsequent intestinal permeability of multiple
      components in Chuanxiong that were not metabolized in the intestine was suggested
      to be detected directly by in situ single-pass intestinal perfusion
      (SPIP).Nonetheless, the intestinal permeability of the constituents that were
      metabolized in the intestine shall be explored by appropriate approaches.

PMID- 28879730
TI  - [Study on property of biopharmaceutics classification system of berberine in
      Huanglian decoction].
AB  - The study of single component in the multicomponent environment is one of the
      basic researches for biopharmaceutics classification system of Chinese materia
      medica (CMMBCS). That is to say, the classification research shall be based on
      the respective lift of solubility and permeability in the multicomponent
      environment, besides solubility and intestinal permeability of the single
      component. We chose berberine as the main research object to investigate the
      changes of its solubility and intestinal permeability in Huanglian decoction.
      Shake-flask and HPLC were used to detect the solubility of berberine in different
      pH buffer solutions and different concentrations of Huanglian decoction. In situ
      single-pass intestinal perfusion (SPIP) and intestinal perfusion with venous
      sampling (IPVS) were carried out to study berberine's intestinal absorption and
      absorption into blood, respectively.

PMID- 28879731
TI  - [Biopharmaceutics classification and absorption mechanisms primary study on four
      kinds of flavonoids].
AB  - The solubility and permeability on four kinds of flavonoids (kaempferol,
      hesperidin, apigenin, genistein) were test according to the theory of
      biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS), and their absorption mechanism. The
      solubility was investigated by the method in determination of solubility of
      "Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2010". To detect appearance permeability of compounds
      mentioned above, the appropriate concentrations were selected by the MTT method
      in cell transfer experiments in Caco-2 cell model, which established by in vitro
      cell culture method. Therefore, these compounds were classified with BCS
      according to solubility and permeability. In addition, to explore absorption
      mechanisms, the experiments in three different concentrations of compounds in
      high, medium and low in bidirectional transformation methods in Caco-2 cell model
      contacted. The study indicated that all of kaempferol, hesperidin, apigenin,
      genistein have the characteristics in low solubility and high permeability, which
      belong to BCSII, and the absorption mechanism of kaempferol was active
      transportation. Whereas, hesperidin, apigenin, genistein were passive
      transportation. In this study, it carried out initial explorations on
      establishment of determination for solubility and permeability in flavonoids, and
      provided theoretical reference for further research on BCS in traditional Chinese
      medicine.

PMID- 28879732
TI  - [Research progress on chemical constituents and their differences between
      Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and Lonicerae Flos].
AB  - The dried flower buds or initial flowers of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and
      Lonicerae Flos, which belong to different species of Lonicera or Caprifoliaceae,
      are usually taken to clear away heat and toxic material and treat the
      exopathogenic wind-heat. They are two different herbs, and due to various
      reasons, there are far more controversies. This paper reviews the research on the
      chemical constituents and their differences between Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and
      Lonicerae Flos. Both of them contain the similar chemical constituents, such as
      organic acids, flavonoids, triterpenoidal saponins, iridoids, volatile oils and
      trace elements. But there are also differences between them. The main
      differences:Lonicerae Japonicae Flos contains a wealth of iridoids and
      flavonoids, while Lonicerae Flos contains more kinds of triterpenoidal saponins;
      the content of chlorogenic acid in Lonicerae Flos is significantly higher than
      that of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos; the content of rutin, luteoloside,luteolin-7-O
      beta-D-galactoside and lonicerin in Lonicerae Japonicae Flos is much higher than
      that of Lonicerae Flos; the content of Fe and Ni in Lonicerae Japonicae Flos is
      higher, while the content of Mn is higher in Lonicerae Flos. Finally, main
      problems and suggestions on chemical composition between Lonicerae Japonicae Flos
      and Lonicerae Flos were also discussed.

PMID- 28879733
TI  - [Correlation analysis between effectiveness of element in rhizonsphere soil and
      quality of Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza)].
AB  - In order to investigate the content and distribution of available element in the
      rhizonsphere soil of the growing areas of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, the contents
      of available element (N,P,K,B,Cu,Zn,Fe,Mn) in 26 soil samples were tested and
      evaluated. The results showed that the contents of available P and Fe were very
      plentiful, available K, Cu and Zn were rich, available N and Mn were deficient,
      available B was extremely deficient in all growing areas of S. miltiorrhiza of
      eight provinces in China. The correlation analysis showed that the contents of
      eight kinds of available elements were varying degree correlation. The stepwise
      regression analysis between the contents of available elements of rhizonsphere
      soil and ten kinds of active ingredients of Danshen (Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix
      et Rhizoma) were researched. The results showed that the rates of contribution of
      available N,B,Mn and Fe to quality of Danshen were relatively large and they were
      the significant factors, and the other factors did not show statistical
      significance. The recommended fertilizing strategies is that the usage of N,B and
      Mn fertilizers should be controlled according to different stages of growth of S.
      miltiorrhiza, and P fertilizer should be reduced in all growing areas of S.
      miltiorrhiza.

PMID- 28879734
TI  - [HPLC-ELSD for determining contents of three triterpenoidal saponins in fruits of
      Buddleja lindleyana from different habitats].
AB  - To establish an HPLC-ELSD method for the quantification of triterpenoids in the
      fruits of Buddleja lindleyana. The RP-HPLC-ELSD method was used for the
      determination of triterpenoids in B. lindleyana fruits, which were collected from
      different habitats. The column used was a packed with 5 MUm stationary phase
      Waters SunFireTM C18 (4.6 mm*150 mm, 5 MUm). The mobile phase consisted of
      Methanol-water(82?18) at a flow rate of 1 mL*min-1. Column temperature: 30 C.
      ELSD conditions: drift tube temperature: 106 C; carrier gas (nitrogen) flow rate:
      1.5 L*min-1; amplification factor: 1. The calibration curves showed good linear
      relationship on a range from 0.702 to 28.08 MUg(r=0.999 2) for Clinoposaponin
      III, 0.390 to 15.60 MUg(r=0.998 9) for Desrhamnoverbascosaponin and 0.192 to
      7.68MUg(r=0.999 0) for Mimengoside I. The average recovery rate(n=6) were 99.41%,
      99.08% and 98.67% and it's RSD were 0.86%, 1.56% and 1.80%. This method can be
      used to determine the contents of triterpenoids in the fruits of Buddleja
      lindleyana for its simplicity, accurateness and reliability.

PMID- 28879735
TI  - [Effect of moisture content on vigor of Cyathula officinalis seeds and its anti
      aging mechanism analysis].
AB  - Effects of nine different moisture contents on vigor of Cyathula officinalis
      seeds and its anti-aging mechanism were studied by artificial accelerated aging
      through high temperature and wet. The research results showedthat seed vigor were
      generally decreased after artificial aging; in general, seed vigor and its anti
      aging ability are relatively stronger within the scope of 6.55%-4.78% moisture
      content, the increase range of seed conductivity, peroxidase activity,
      malondialdehyde content,and reduce amplitude of activityof dehydrogenase ,
      superoxide dismutaseare alllower as well. And when the moisture content reduced
      to 5.77%, all of the germination tests index of the non-aged seeds are the
      highest, and the activity of peroxidase the lowest,conductivity of leaching
      solution relatively low, activity of dehydrogenase and superoxide dismutase the
      highest,and catalase activityrelatively high.Therefore, in the low temperature
      germplasm preservation of C. officinalis seeds, the seed moisture content should
      be controlled close to the range of (5.70+/-1)% to keep higher vigor and anti
      aging ability.

PMID- 28879736
TI  - [Community composition and diversity of endophytic fungi from roots of
      Sinopodophyllum hexandrum in forest of Upper-north mountain of Qinghai province].
AB  - High throughput sequencing technology is also called Next Generation Sequencing
      (NGS), which can sequence hundreds and thousands sequences in different samples
      at the same time. In the present study, the culture-independent high throughput
      sequencing technology was applied to sequence the fungi metagenomic DNA of the
      fungal internal transcribed spacer 1(ITS 1) in the root of Sinopodophyllum
      hexandrum. Sequencing data suggested that after the quality control, 22 565 reads
      were remained. Cluster similarity analysis was done based on 97% sequence
      similarity, which obtained 517 OTUs for the three samples (LD1, LD2 and LD3). All
      the fungi which identified from all the reads of OTUs based on 0.8 classification
      thresholds using the software of RDP classifier were classified as 13 classes, 35
      orders, 44 family, 55 genera. Among these genera, the genus of Tetracladium was
      the dominant genera in all samples(35.49%, 68.55% and 12.96%).The Shannon's
      diversity indices and the Simpson indices of the endophytic fungi in the samples
      ranged from 1.75-2.92, 0.11-0.32, respectively.This is the first time for
      applying high through put sequencing technol-ogyto analyze the community
      composition and diversity of endophytic fungi in the medicinal plant, and the
      results showed that there were hyper diver sity and high community composition
      complexity of endophytic fungi in the root of S. hexandrum. It is also proved
      that the high through put sequencing technology has great advantage for analyzing
      ecommunity composition and diversity of endophtye in the plant.

PMID- 28879737
TI  - [Preparation and characterization of ginsenoside-Rh2 lipid nanoparticles and
      synergistic effect with borneol in resisting tumor activity].
AB  - To prepare ginsenoside-Rh2 lipid nanoparticles, and investigate the synergistic
      effect with borneol in resisting tumor activity in vitro. Ginsenoside-Rh2 lipid
      nanoparticles were prepared by ultrasonic-assisted solvent evaporation method,
      and orthogonal design was adopted to optimize formulation process. Its
      encapsulation efficiency, drug loading ratio, particle size distribution, Zeta
      potential, morphology and in vitro drug release behavior were characterized, and
      synergistic effect with borneol in resisting tumor activity were preliminarily
      studied by MTT. These nanoemulsion particles prepared by the optimized process
      method were rounding and even in a good shape. Encapsulation efficiency and drug
      loading ratio of three batches of nanoemulsion particles were (77.3+/-2.5)% and
      (7.2+/-0.2)%, respectively. Nanoemulsion particles showed an obvious sustained
      release characteristics, with 52.42% cumulative release within 96 h. The killing
      effect of nanoemulsion particles on glioma cells was dose-dependent, with IC50 of
      22.33 MUmol*L-1 and 11.46 MUmol*L-1 after 24 h and 48 h, respectively. After the
      combination with borneol, the killing effect of nanoemulsion particles on glioma
      cells was dose-dependent, with IC50 of 16.36 MUmol*L-1 and 8.04 MUmol*L-1 after
      24 h and 48 h, respectively.

PMID- 28879738
TI  - [Screening and identification of DPP-4 inhibitors from Xiaokean formula by a
      fluorescent probe].
AB  - Fluorescent bio-probes have attracted increasing attentions in studies for
      screening bioactive compounds from traditional Chinese medicines. In this study,
      a new-type fluorescent probe with the function of aggregation-induced emission
      (AIE) was used to screen dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor from Xiaokean
      formula, which has been clinically used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus. Potential DPP-4 inhibitors were screened by the fluorescent probe, with
      diprotin A as the positive control; totally 43 components were isolated from
      Xiaokean formula by systematic separation. The results showed that 13 components
      can exert inhibitory effects on DPP-4 activity; 16 compounds were further
      identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) from those active
      components. The inhibitory effects of 14 compounds were further verified, while
      five of them showed significant inhibition against DPP-4. Salvianolicacid C,
      ginsenoside Rg5 and timosaponin AI inhibited DPP-4 activity at the concentration
      of 5-50 MUmol*L-1 in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, our study provided a
      successful example for screening bioactive compounds from traditional Chinese
      medicines by using a novelfluorescent probe.

PMID- 28879739
TI  - [Iridoids from stem bark of Syringa pinnatifolia].
AB  - One new iridoid, named alashanidoid A, and five known analogues, were isolated
      from the stem bark of Syringa pinnatifolia by various chromatographic methods.
      Their structures were determined on the basis of MS and NMR spectroscopic data
      analyses, and comparison with those in literature. Among them, compounds 3-5 were
      isolated from this genus for the first time, and 2 and 6 were isolated from the
      species for the first time.These isolates were tested for their in vitro anti
      inflammatory activities against NO production in lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced
      RAW264.7 macrophages in mice and cytotoxicity of HepG2 cell line, however, no
      obvious activity was observed at the concentration of 40 MUmol*L-1.

PMID- 28879740
TI  - [Triterpenoid saponins from Bupleurum marginatum var. stenophyllum].
AB  - Twelve compounds were obtained by phytochemical investigation of 70% EtOH (
      containing 0.5%NH3*H2O )extract of the roots of Bupleurum marginatum var.
      stenophyllum. Based on comparison of their spectral data, including HR-ESI-MS, 1H
      NMR, 13C-NMR data, with those of the literature, their structures were elucidated
      as saikosaponin b2 (1), saikosaponin a(2), saikosaponin b1(3), saikosaponin d
      (4), hydroxysaikosaponin a (5), saikosaponin b3 (6), saikosaponin
      c(7),saikosaponin i (8), saikosaponin f (9), chikusaikosides II(10), saikosaponin
      s (11), and saikosaponin I(12). All compounds belong to olean-type triterpenoid
      saponin and compounds 1, 3, 5, 8-9,11, and 12 were isolated from this plant for
      the first time. At a concentration of 20 MUmol*L-1, compounds 2, 4, 6, 8, 11 and
      12 showed strong inhibition activity against influenza virus WSN33 with the
      inhibition rate of 91.3%,88.6%,53.4%,61.3%,77.3% and 57.4%,respectively.

PMID- 28879741
TI  - [Identification of chemical constituents in Scrophulariae Radix by HPLC-IT-TOF
      MS].
AB  - This experiment was performed to establish a qualitative analysis on chemical
      constituents of Scrophulariae Radix by HPLC-ESI-IT-TOF-MS.The analysis was
      conducted on a C18 column (Kromasil 100-5, 4.6 mm*250 mm, 5 MUm) with 0.1% formic
      acid-acetonitrile as the mobile phase for gradient elution; ESI ion source was
      used for mass spectra, and data were collected innegative and positive modes. The
      results showed that 64 compounds from Scrophulariae Radix had been identified by
      analyzing negative ion mass data including element composition and by comparing
      with data from literature. Two new compounds (4-hydroxy-6-O-methylcatalpol and
      acetylangoroside C) and seventeen known compounds were detected from
      Scrophulariae Radix for the first time. Seventeen known compounds included twelve
      iridoid glycosides, three phenylpropanoid glycosides and two other kind
      compounds. This study will provide chemical basis for elucidation of the
      effective substance in the Scrophulariae Radix.

PMID- 28879743
TI  - [Thymopolypeptides combined with matrine type alkaloids suppress HBV
      replication].
AB  - To investigate the antiviral effect of thymopolypeptides combined with 4 kinds of
      matrine type alkaloids on HepG2.2.15 cells, oxymatrine, sophocarpidine,
      sophocarpine, and sophoridine (at concentration of 0.2 mmol*L-1 respectively)
      were respectively combined with thymopolypeptides (0.025, 0.1 g*L-1), and after
      48 h and 72 h treatment on HepG2.2.15 cells, the cells and supernatants were
      collected. The cells activity in various groups was determined by CCK-8 method to
      evaluate the toxic effects of the drugs on HepG2.2.15 cells. Enzyme linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine HBeAg and HBsAg levels in
      cellular supernatants. HBV DNA levels in cellular supernatants andcells were
      quantified with fluorogenic quantitative PCR method; and the expression level of
      IFN-alpha in supernatants was detected with CBA method. The results indicated
      that single thymopolypeptides at 0.025-0.4 g*L-1 had no toxicity to cells.
      Thymopolypeptides in this concentration range combined with 0.2 mmol*L-1 matrine
      type alkaloids also had no toxicity to cells. Anti-HBV activity of drug
      combination was better than that of alkali or thymopolypeptides alone.
      Thymopolypeptides at 0.025 g*L-1 had better inhibitory effect than
      thymopolypeptides at 0.1 g*L-1 on intracellular HBV DNA expression, but the
      inhibitory effect on supernatant HBeAg level was on the contrary. Anti-HBV
      activity was similar between alkaloids combined with 0.1 g*L-1 and alkaloids
      combined with 0.025 g*L-1. There was no statistical difference in anti-HBV effect
      between various combined groups (P<0.05). In general, 72 h anti-HBV effect was
      better than 48 h anti-HBV effect (P<0.05). The expression of IFN-alpha was
      increased after drug combination, with positive correlation to the changes of
      other four indicators (P<0.05). In conclusion, oxymatrine, sophocarpidine,
      sophocarpine and sophoridine combined with thymopolypeptides could inhibit HBsAg
      and HBeAg secretion in HepG2.2.15 cells and HBV DNA replication, and further
      promote the antiviral effect by promoting the expression of IFN-alpha.

PMID- 28879742
TI  - [Effect of six class of Kaixin San formulas on pharmacological and preliminary
      mechanism of Alzheimer's disease mice].
AB  - The efficacy of Chinese herbal formulas in treating Alzheimer has been proved in
      many studies. In this study, six different Kaixin San formulas were compared to
      investigate their effects on learning and memory decline, brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus, tau protein, acetylcholinesterase
      (AChE) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). Kunming mice
      were selected and established a mouse model of Alzheimer's by intraperitoneal
      injection of D-galactose and sodium nitrite, continued intragastric 4 weeks,
      using the ability of learning and memory in Morris water maze test to evaluate
      the animals in each group; the content of BDNF in the hippocampus of mice with
      Western blotting detected; ELISA method for the detection of each group of mice
      hippocampal tau protein,p-Tau protein, Abeta,Ach,AchE and serum NT-proBNP levels.
      The results showed that, Kaixin San of Qianjin Yaofang three dose recorded
      significantly improved learning and memory ability of mice; increased the content
      of BDNF and Ach in the hippocampus; decreased the content of Abeta, Tau protein,
      p-Tau protein in the hippocampus; high, middle dose significantly decreased the
      serum NT-proBNP and AchE in hippocampus, the effect is most significant. Part
      dose of Kaixin San of Yixin Fang, Kaixin Wan of Yimen Fang, Dingzhi Xiaowan of
      Beji Qianjin Yaofang and Dingzhi Wan of Guji Luyan could improve the learning and
      memory ability evaluation indicators, significantly increased BDNF and Ach in the
      hippocampus of AD model mice, reduced the Abeta, Tau protein, p-Tau protein in
      hippocampus of AD model mice, decreased the NT-proBNP and AchE in serum of AD
      mice, the effect is more significant. Three does of Buxin Tang of Qianjin Yi had
      no effects of treatment in Alzheimer's disease. The results showed the treatment
      in AD of Kaixin San of Qianjin Yaofang is the most significant.

PMID- 28879744
TI  - [Protective effect of beta-asarone on PC12 cells injury induced by Abeta1-42
      astrocytic activation].
AB  - This study was aimed to investigate the protective effect and mechanism of beta
      asarone on PC12 cells injury induced byAbeta1-42 activated astrocytes, and
      provide experimental basis for beta-asarone application in the prevention and
      control of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Firstly, RA-h and PC12 cells were co
      cultured in the special transwell chamber, and the Real time cell analysis (RTCA)
      system was used to real-time observe its effect on PC12 cells survival rate in
      the co-culture system after astrocytes injury induced by Abeta1-42. The best
      intervention time of beta-asarone was selected according to the survival curve
      and parameters generated automatically. beta-asarone with different
      concentrations was used for intervention on astrocytes, then the changes of PC12
      cells survival rate in the co-culture system were observed. Secondly, MTT assay
      was used to detect the effect of Abeta1-42 on PC12 cells survival rate as well as
      the intervention effect of beta-asarone, and verify the testing results of RTCA.
      The levels of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and BDNF in culture media of the lower chamber
      were detected by ELISA. The NF-kappaB activity and phosphorylation levels of ERK,
      p38 and JNK were detected by Western blot. Results showed that beta-asarone (55.5
      mg*L-1) could significantly slowdown the decline of PC12 cells survival rate
      caused by Abeta1-42-induced RA-h activation (P<0.01), significantly reduce the
      levels of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and the phosphorylation levels of ERK, p38 and JNK
      in culture media of the lower chamber (P<0.01). beta-asarone(166.7 mg*L-1) could
      promote the release of BDNF in culture media of the lower chamber(P<0.05). These
      results indicated that Abeta1-42 could induce RA-h activation and its release of
      IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and other inflammatory factors to aggravate the PC12 cells
      injury; beta-asarone could reduce the levels of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, promote the
      release of BDNF, and inhibit the NF-kappaB activity as well as phosphorylation
      levels of ERK, p38 and JNK protein in PC12 cells.

PMID- 28879745
TI  - [Exploration research on hepatotoxic constituents from Polygonum multiflorum
      root].
AB  - By observing the cytotoxic effects of anthraquinones on HepG2 cell and using the
      precision-cut liver slices technique to authenticate the cytotoxic constituents,
      the paper aims to explore the material basis of Polygonum multiflorum root to
      cause liver toxicity. Firstly, MTT method was used to detect the effect of 11
      anthraquinone derivatives on HepG2 cell. Then, the clear cytotoxic ingredients
      were co-cultured with rat liver slices for 6h respectively, and the liver tissue
      homogenate was prepared. BCA method was used to determine the content of protein
      in the homogenate and continuous monitoring method was used to monitor the
      leakage of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST),
      gamma-glutamine amino transpeptidase (GGT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). The
      toxic effect of these ingredients on liver tissue was tested by calculating the
      leakage rate of the monitored enzymes. As a result, rhein, emodin, physcion-8-O
      beta-D-glucopyranoside and physcion-8-O-(6'-O-acetyl)-beta-D-glucopyranoside
      showed cytotoxic effects on HepG2 cell and their IC50 values were 71.07, 125.62,
      242.27, 402.32 MUmol*L-1 respectively, but the other 7 compounds are less toxic
      and their IC50 values can not be calculated. The precision-cut liver slices tests
      showed that rhein group of 400 MUmol*L-1 concentration significantly increased
      the leakage rate of ALT, AST and LDH (P<0.01), and the rhein group of 100 MUmol*L
      1 concentration only increased the leakage rate of LDH (P<0.05). With the
      increase of rhein concentration, the protein content in liver slices decreased
      significantly (P<0.05) with a certain range of does. Emodin group of 400 MUmol*L
      1 concentration significantly increased the leakage rate of ALT, GGT and LDH
      (P<0.01). Physcion-8-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside group of 800 MUmol*L-1
      concentration also significantly increased the leakage rate of ALT, AST and LDH
      (P<0.01 or P<0.05), but the group of 200 MUmol*L-1 concentration only
      significantly increased the LDH leakage (P<0.05). Along with the increase of the
      concentration of physcion-8-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, the leakage rate of ALT,
      AST and LDH showed a trend of increase, but the protein content in liver slices
      was in decline. Furthermore, MTT reduction ability of liver slices significantly
      decreased (P<0.01) in the physcion-8-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside group of 800
      MUmol*L-1 concentration. The results suggested that rhein, emodin and physcion-8
      O-beta-D-glucopyranoside at high concentrations (>=400 MUmol*L-1) can produce
      some damage to the liver tissue. However, the exposure levels of these
      constituents are very low, so to reach the toxic concentration (400 MUmol*L-1 or
      800 MUmol*L-1) an adult of 65 kg body weight will need at least a single oral 4
      898 g, 339 g and 5 581 g of P.multiflorum root respectively, which is far from
      the statutory dose of crude P. multiflorum root (3-6 g) or its processed product
      (6-12 g). Therefore, the conclusion that anthraquinones are the prime
      constituents of the hepatotoxicity of P. multiflorum root are still not be
      proved.

PMID- 28879746
TI  - [Effect and mechanism of danshensu on hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase and
      antigen expression].
AB  - MTT assay was used in this study to investigate the inhibitory effect of
      danshensu on the activity of 2.2.15 cells among human hepatoma cell line (HepG2);
      indirect fluorescence labeling method was used to measure the changes of reactive
      oxygen levels in the cells; ELISA method was used to determine hepatitis B
      surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) levels in cellular
      supernatants; HBV DNA level was measured with fluorogenic quantitative PCR
      method. The inhibitory effect of danshensu on HBV RT(hepatitis B virus reverse
      transcriptase) was studied by using enzyme inhibition dynamics, and the effect of
      danshensu on secondary structure of HBV reverse transcriptase was monitored by
      using circular dichroism. The results showed that danshensu had a good inhibitory
      effect on the growth of HepG2.2.15 cells, with a half inhibitory concentration
      (IC50) of (15.35+/-2.43) MUmol*L-1; danshensu could significantly inhibit HBsAg
      and HBeAg expressions, and showed an inhibitory effect on HBV DNA replication. In
      addition, danshensu was an effective inhibitor for HBV reverse transcriptase
      [IC50 (21.32+/-2.43) MUmol*L-1]. The fluorescence labeling results showed that
      the reactive oxygen levels in the cells were increased with the increase of
      danshensu concentration. Circular dichroism analysis showed that danshensu could
      induce partial change of conformation of HBV reverse transcriptase and gradually
      increased alpha-helical content. These results indicated that danshensu could
      make the structure of the enzyme become closer by binding to HBV reverse
      transcriptase, which was not conducive to the formation of the active center, so
      it could finally decrease the activity of HBV reverse transcriptase. Such
      decrease in enzyme activity would directly affect the HBV DNA replication, and
      combined with the decrease of the antigen levels, the effect of danshensu on HBV
      was increased.

PMID- 28879747
TI  - [Protective effects of oxymatrine against H2O2-induced damage in L02 cells].
AB  - To investigate the protective effects of oxymatrine (OMT) against H2O2-induced
      damage in L02 cells and research the mechanism,L02 cells were used as the
      research object. The oxidative stress model of L02 was established by hydrogen
      peroxide (H2O2). CCK-8 was used to detect the cell activation of L02 cells
      treated by different OMT. FCM (flow cytometry) assay was used to evaluate the
      cell proliferation of L02 cells treated by OMT. The apoptosis of L02 cells was
      detected using Annexin-V/7-AAD apoptosis detection kit. The level of ROS was
      detected by DCFH-DA fluorescence probe. The GSH-PX and SOD were detected by micro
      plate and colorimetric method. Results showed that when the concentration of OMT
      is between 6.25 and 100 mg*L-1, it could promote the production of NADPH and
      strengthen the activity of GSH-PX and SOD to get rid of the ROS to protect the
      L02 cell from the apoptosis of L02 cell induced by H2O2.

PMID- 28879748
TI  - [Target protein candidates of hypothalamus in aging rats with intervention by
      Qiongyugao].
AB  - To explore the associated proteins of the hypothalamus in aging rat models with
      intervention by Qiongyugao(QYG) based on iTRAQ technology, find out the target
      protein candidates and investigate the mechanism of delaying aging for
      Qiongyugao. The results showed that Qiongyugao increased GSH-Px activity in serum
      and SOD activity in liver; the total protein count identified by iTRAQ was 3 522,
      FDR<1%. There were 20 kinds of differential proteins between the blank group and
      model group; there were 295 kinds of differential proteins between model group
      and QYG group, and 40 kinds of them had a difference multiple >=1.30 (the maximum
      value was 1.47). Compared with blank group, there were 14 kinds of proteins that
      were down-regulated in model group and up-regulated in QYG group. Combined with
      literature search and gene function search, 12 kinds of target protein candidates
      were screened out : ST18, Ptprc, PSMB8, INPP4B, Shc3, Pik3r1, PIP5K1C, Nampt,
      Rasgrp2, Asah2, Pdpk1, and Map2k7. The expression of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF
      kappaB) in the hypothalamic inflammatory pathway was detected by Western blot and
      the results showed that its expression level in model group(0.96) was higher than
      that in control group(0.85), while its expression level in QYG group(0.89) was
      lower than that in model group. Q-PCR results showed that the relative mRNA
      expression levels of PIP5K1C and Ptprc in model group were significantly lower
      than those in blank group(P<0.01); while compared with the model group, the mRNA
      expression levels of PIP5K1C and Ptprc in QYG group were significantly
      increased(P<0.01) . This result was consistent with proteomics data. QYG may
      delay aging by regulating hypothalamic inflammatory reaction.

PMID- 28879749
TI  - [3D evaluation model for drug hepatotoxicity testing on HepG2 cells and its
      application in drug safety evaluation].
AB  - 3D in vitro toxicity testing model was developed by magnetic levitation method
      for culture of the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 and applied to evaluate the
      drug hepatotoxicity. After formation of stable 3D structure for HepG2 cells,
      their glycogen storage capacity under 2D and 3D culture conditions were detected
      by immunohistochemistry technology, and the mRNA expression levels of phase I and
      II drug metabolism enzymes, drug transporters, nuclear receptors and liver
      specific marker albumin(ALB) were compared between 2D and 3D culture conditions
      by using RT-PCR method. Immunohistochemistry results showed that HepG2 cells had
      abundant glycogen storage capacity under 3D culture conditions, which was similar
      to human liver tissues. The mRNA expression levels of major drug metabolism
      enzymes, drug transporters, nuclear receptors and ALB in HepG2 cells under 3D
      culture conditions were up-regulated as compared with 2D culture conditions. For
      drug hepatotoxicity evaluation, the typical hepatotoxic drug acetaminophen(APAP),
      and most reported drugs Polygonum multiflorum Thunb.(Chinese name He-shou-wu) and
      Psoraleae corylifolia L.(Chinese name Bu-gu-zhi) were selected for single dose
      and repeated dose(7 d) exposure. In the repeated dose exposure test, 3D HepG2
      cells showed higher sensitivity. This established 3D HepG2 cells model with
      magnetic levitation 3D culture techniques was more close to the human liver
      tissues both in morphology and functions, so it was a better 3D hepatotoxicity
      evaluation model.

PMID- 28879750
TI  - [Effect of vinegar-processed Curcumae Rhizoma on bile metabolism in rats].
AB  - To explore the effect of vinegar-processed Curcumae Rhizoma on endogenous
      metabolites in bile by investigating the endogenous metabolites difference in
      bile before and after Curcumae Rhizoma was processed with vinegar. Alcohol
      extracts of crude and vinegar-processed Curcumae Rhizoma, as well as normal
      saline were prepared respectively, which were then given to the rats by
      intragastric administration for 0.5 h. Then common bile duct intubation drainage
      was conducted to collect 12 h bile of the rats. UPLC-TOF-MS analysis of bile
      samples was applied after 1?3 acetonitrile protein precipitation; unidimensional
      statistics were combined with multivariate statistics and PeakView software was
      compared with network database to identify the potential biomarkers. Vinegar
      processed Curcumae Rhizoma extracts had significant effects on metabolites
      spectrum in bile of the rats. With the boundaries of P<0.05, 13 metabolites with
      significant differences were found in bile of crude and vinegar-processed
      Curcumae Rhizoma groups, and 8 of them were identified when considering the
      network database. T-test unidimensional statistical analysis was applied between
      administration groups and blank group to obtain 7 metabolites with significant
      differences and identify them as potential biomarkers. 6 of the potential
      biomarkers were up-regulated in vinegar-processed group, which were related to
      the metabolism regulation of phospholipid metabolism, fat metabolism, bile acid
      metabolism, and N-acylethanolamine hydrolysis reaction balance, indicating the
      mechanism of vinegar-processed Curcumae Rhizoma on endogenous metabolites in bile
      of the rats.

PMID- 28879751
TI  - [Traditional Chinese medicine syndrome distribution and neuroendocrine mechanisms
      of irritable bowel syndrome: cross-sectional study].
AB  - In order to clarify the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndrome distribution
      and pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome(IBS), the patients in the first
      affiliated hospital of Guangzhou university of Chinese medicine were enrolled for
      the cross-sectional study. The data of 12 sociological variables, 13 risk
      factors, 84 symptoms and signs variables(in 9 aspects), and 19 neuroendocrine
      indices were extracted for group-between analysis with one-way ANOVA, chi-square
      test and nonparametric test, and the relationship analysis between clinical
      symptoms and diseases sub-types was done with binary Logistic regression. In
      addition, the patterns of TCM syndromes were divided by several syndrome factors
      to analyze the difference in neuroendocrine indices between various patterns and
      syndrome factors. A total of 383 IBS patients were enrolled, including 353(92.2%)
      cases of diarrhea, 14(3.7%) cases of constipation and 16(4.1%) cases of mixed
      types. In IBS-diarrhea patients, there were 291(76.0%), 18(4.7%), 48(12.5%) and
      26(6.8%)cases of syndrome of liver depression and spleen deficiency (sLDSD),
      syndrome of liver depression and qi stagnation (sLDQS), syndrome of dampness-heat
      in the spleen and stomach (sDHSS), and syndrome of spleen deficiency with
      dampness encumbrance (sSDDE) respectively. There was significant differences in
      blood groups between IBS-diarrhea patients, IBS-constipation patients and IBS
      mixed types patients; their disease classification was significantly correlated
      with the allergies, drinking, irregular meals habits, no or less vacations, and
      other causes of morbidity (P<0.05, f<0.3). A total of 15 symptoms and signs
      variables (e.g., chills, facial abnormalities, epigastric fullness, etc.) had
      significant differences between different groups (P<0.05), and 5, 8, 5 variables
      were respective independent factors for IBS-diarrhea, constipation and mixed
      type. There was no significant difference in neuroendocrine indices between
      various groups. The sLDSD, sLDQS, sDHSS, sSDDE patients had significant
      differences in genders, living conditions and occupations, and the TCM syndrome
      type was significantly correlated with the drinking, smoking, no or less
      breakfast, less than 8 sleeping hours(P<0.05, f<0.3). Meanwhile, a total of 14
      symptoms and signs variables (e.g., dysphoria heat, fatigue, stretching, etc.)
      had significant differences between various groups(P<0.05) and 3, 4, 6, 3
      variables were respective independent factors for sLDSD, sLDQS, sDHSS, and sSDDE.
      There were significant differences in acetylcholine(Ach) and angiotensin II(AT
      II) between the sLDSD group and sSDDE group. There were significant difference in
      Ach, AT-II, adrenotrophin(ACTH) and estradiol (E2) in comparison between several
      pattern factors. This study preliminary identified the sociological characters,
      risk factors, syndromes distribution, diseases and subgroup mechanisms of this
      disease. More samples and multi-centers are required for future study to improve
      the scientificity and representativeness.

PMID- 28879752
TI  - [Clinical application characteristics of Danggui-Chuanxiong herb pair in Chinese
      medicines on basis of real-world].
AB  - To analyze the clinical application characteristics of Danggui-Chuanxiong(DG-CX)
      herb pair in Chinese medicines on basis of real-world, and provide reference for
      explaining the inherent compatibility regularity and the relationship between
      clinical applications and disease species. From April 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014, a
      total of 8 792 prescriptions with both "DG"and "CX" in a large third-grade class
      A traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) hospital were selected to establish the
      database for analyzing the ratio, dosage, and corresponding disease species of DG
      CX herb pair. The results showed that, "DG-CX" with ratio "1?1" had the highest
      frequency in clinical application(42.4%); the dosage was mainly of 15 g for both
      DG and CX; the disease species were mainly of encephalopathy and pulmonary
      diseases. "DG-CX" herb pairs with a ratio greater than "1?1" accounted for 33.3%
      of all the prescriptions, and the ratio "3?2" appeared to be most frequent among
      them; the dosage was mainly of 15 g for DG and and 10 g for CX; the disease
      species were mainly of encephalopathy diseases. "DG-CX" herb pairs with a ratio
      less than "1?1" accounted for 24.3% of all the prescriptions, and the ratio "2?3"
      appeared to be most frequent among them; the dosage was mainly of 10 g for DG and
      15 g for CX; the disease species were mainly of encephalopathy diseases.
      Statistical method was applied to study the compatibility and application
      characteristics of Chinese herb pairs in clinical prescriptions, effectively
      discover the medication regularity, provide theoretical basis for clinical herbal
      prescriptions and provide scientific guidance and reliable data for modern
      research of Chinese herb pairs.

PMID- 28879753
TI  - [Analysis on composition principles of formulae containing Gardeniae Fructus in
      dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions].
AB  - Gardeniae Fructus, which is widely used in health foods and clinical medicines,
      is a type of edible food and medicine. Dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine
      prescriptions provides good materials for prescription analysis and the R&D of
      traditional Chinese medicines. The composition regularity of formulae containing
      Gardeniae Fructus in dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions was
      analyzed on the basis of the traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support
      system(TCMISS), in order to provide reference for clinical application and the
      R&D of new drugs. TCMISS was applied to establish a database of prescriptions
      containing Gardeniae Fructus. The software's frequency statistics and association
      rules and other date mining technologies were adopted to analyze commonly used
      drugs, combination rules and core combined formulae containing Gardeniae Fructus.
      Totally 3 523 prescriptions were included in this study and involved 1 725
      Chinese herbs. With a support degree of 352(10%) and confidence coefficient of
      90%, 57 most commonly used drug combinations were screened. Drugs adopted in core
      combinations were relatively concentrated and selected according to definite
      composition methods. They were used to mainly treat 18 diseases. Gardeniae
      Fructus have often been combined with herbs for heat-clearing and detoxification,
      expelling pathogenic wind, relieving exterior syndrome, invigorating the
      circulation of blood and gas and promoting blood circulation for removing blood
      stasis to mainly treat jaundice, typhoid, headache and other syndromes.

PMID- 28879754
TI  - [Research on evolution and transition of quality evaluation of Shihu].
AB  - Shihu is one of the most valuable Chinese medicines in China. The sources of
      Shihu are complex and the quality evaluation of it mainly depends on morphologic
      characteristics distinction. In order to understand the Shihu's quality
      evaluation concept of Chinese herbalists in the past dynasties. This paper
      summarizes the methods of quality evaluation in ancient bencao systematically.
      The ancient bencao records that the quality of Shihu is closely related to its
      germplasm, habitat, processing and character. The concept of germplasm about
      shihu includes generalized and narrow sense, besides, the clinical applications
      of Dendrobium huoshanenese, D. officinale and D. nobile are focused on different
      diseases. D. huoshanenese has been regarded as Dao-di herbs since Qing Dynasty.
      The main products of Shihu contain fresh goods and dry goods, their clinical
      applications are also treated differently. Fengdou is one of the commodity
      specifications in Shihu. Its processing method probably dated from the Qing
      Dynasty, but now, it has become the mainstream commodityform. There was a common
      sense that different kinds of Shihu owed different characters and curative
      effects in ancient bencao, and the quality would enhance with the increasing
      viscidity. Therefore, the "Germplasm", "Geoherbs", "processing", "characters"
      were integrated into traditional quality evaluation methods of Shihu. Meanwhile,
      we should pay attention to the clinical efficacy of shihu with different species
      and processing methods.

PMID- 28879755
TI  - [New study on species of Chinese medicine dragon's blood].
AB  - Through comprehensive study on the descriptions of dragon's blood in traditional
      medical books, we pointed out that before Tang Dynasty, Butea monosperma was used
      as dragon's blood; during Tang and Song Dynasty, Liquidambar formosana. was used
      as dragon's blood; in Commentaries on the illustrations of Song Dynasty, the
      author made a mistake by combined the descriptions of Butea monosperma with the
      descriptions of the prepared medicine of Dracaena cochinchinensis in dragon's
      blood, and thus the oversea species D. cochinchinensis became the mainstream of
      dragon's blood source in homeland. Until the foundation of the Republic of China,
      Daemonorops draco replaced D. cochinchinensis to the main source of dragon's
      blood.

PMID- 28879756
TI  - [New records of distribution of medical plants in Anhui province].
AB  - During the fourth national survey of Chinese material medica resources inventory,
      9 species of medical plants in Huangshan area of Anhui Province were newly
      recorded, including Microlepia calvescens, Dryopteris hangchowensis, Fatoua
      pilosa, Girardinia chingiana, Lecanthus peduncularis, Galium kamtschaticum,
      Carpesium minus,Cirsium racemiforme, Globba racemosa, which belong to seven
      families and nine genera. Among these, 3 genera (Girardinia, Lecanthus, Globba)
      are new geographical distribution in Anhui Province. All of voucher specimens are
      preserved in ACM. These discoveries enrich the content of flora in Anhui and
      provide fundamental materials for studying the plants of Anhui.

PMID- 28879757
TI  - [Indiscriminate use of Latin name for natural Cordyceps sinensis insect-fungi
      complex and multiple Ophiocordyceps sinensis fungi].
AB  - Natural Cordyceps sinensis(Dongchongxiacao) is an insect-fungi complex containing
      multiple Ophiocordyceps sinensis(=Cordyceps sinensis) fungi and dead body of
      larva of the family of Hepialidae. But natural C. sinensis and O. sinensis fungi
      use the same Latin name, resulting in uncertainty of the specific meaning, even
      disturbing the formulation and implementation of governmental policies and
      regulations, and influencing consumer psychology onthe market. This paper reviews
      the history and current status of the indiscriminate use of the Latin name O.
      sinensis for both the natural insect-fungi complex C. sinensis and O. sinensis
      fungi and lists the rename suggetions. Some scholars suggested using the term O.
      sinensis for the fungi and renaming the natural C. sinensis "Chinese cordyceps".
      Others suggested renaming the natural C. sinensis "Ophiocordyceps & Hepialidae".
      Both suggestions have not reached general consensus due to various academic
      concerns. This paper also reviews the exacerbation of the academic uncertainties
      when forcing implementing the 2011 Amsterdam Declaration "One Fungus=One Name"
      under the academic debate. Joint efforts of mycological, zoological and botany
      TCM taxonomists and properly initiating the dispute systems offered by
      International Mycology Association may solve the debate on the indiscriminate use
      of the Latin name O.sinensis for the natural insect-fungi complex,the teleomorph
      and anamorph(s) of O. sinensis fungi.

PMID- 28879758
TI  - Light-Controlled BMSC Sheet-Implant Complexes with Improved Osteogenesis via an
      LRP5/beta-Catenin/Runx2 Regulatory Loop.
AB  - The combination of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) sheets and titanium
      implants (BMSC sheet-implant complexes) can accelerate osseointegration. However,
      methods of fabricating BMSC sheet-implant complexes are quite limited, and the
      survival of BMSC sheet-implant complexes is one of the key barriers. Here, we
      show that a light-controlled fabricating system can generate less injured BMSC
      sheet-implant complexes with improved viability and osteogenesis and that
      noninvasive monitoring of the viability of BMSC sheet-implant complexes using a
      lentiviral delivery system is feasible. Enhanced green fluorescent protein- and
      luciferase-expressing BMSC sheets were used to track the viability of BMSC sheet
      implant complexes in vivo. The experiments of micro-computed tomography analysis
      and hard tissue slices were performed to evaluate the osteogenic ability of BMSC
      sheet-implant complexes in vivo. The results showed that BMSC sheet-implant
      complexes survived for almost 1 month after implantation. Notably, BMSC sheet
      implant complexes fabricated by the light-controlled fabricating system had
      upregulating expression levels of low-density lipoprotein-receptor-related
      protein 5 (LRP5), beta-catenin, and runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2)
      compared to the complexes fabricated by mechanical scraping. Furthermore, we
      found that Runx2 directly bound to the rat LRP5 promoter and the LRP5/beta
      catenin/Runx2 regulatory loop contributed to the enhancement of the
      osseointegrating potentials. In this study, we successfully fabricated BMSC sheet
      implant complexes with improved viability and osteogenesis and established a
      feasible, noninvasive, and continuous method for tracking BMSC sheet-implant
      complexes in vivo. Our findings lay the foundation for the application of BMSC
      sheet-implant complexes in vivo and open new avenues for engineered BMSC sheet
      implant complexes.

PMID- 28879759
TI  - Improving Efficiency and Reproducibility of Perovskite Solar Cells through
      Aggregation Control in Polyelectrolytes Hole Transport Layer.
AB  - Here, we report that the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can be
      improved by aggregation control in polyelectrolytes interlayer. Through
      counterions tailoring and solvent optimization, the strong aggregation of
      polyelectrolytes P3CT-Na can be broken up by P3CT-CH3NH2. When using P3CT-CH3NH2
      to replace P3CT-Na as hole transport layer, the average efficiency is greatly
      improved from 16.9 to 18.9% (highest 19.6%). Importantly, efficiency over 15% is
      obtained in 1 cm2 devices with P3CT-CH3NH2, ~50% higher than that with P3CT-Na
      (10.3%). Our work demonstrates the important role of aggregation control in
      polyelectrolytes interlayer, providing new opportunities to promote its
      application in PSCs.

PMID- 28879760
TI  - Reprogrammable, Reprocessible, and Self-Healable Liquid Crystal Elastomer with
      Exchangeable Disulfide Bonds.
AB  - A liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) can be regarded as an integration of mesogenic
      molecules into a polymer network. The LCE can generate large mechanical actuation
      when subjected to various external stimuli. Recently, it has been extensively
      explored to make artificial muscle and multifunctional devices. However, in the
      commonly adopted two-step crosslinking method for synthesizing monodomain LCEs,
      the LCE needs to be well-cross-linked in the first step before stretching, which
      increases the disorder of mesogenic molecules in the final state of the LCE and
      makes it very challenging to fabricate the LCE of complex shapes. In this
      article, we developed a new LCE with disulfide bonds, which can be reprogrammed
      from the polydomain state to the monodomain state either through heating or UV
      illumination, owing to the rearrangement of the polymer network induced by the
      metathesis reaction of disulfide bonds. In addition, the newly developed LCE can
      be easily reprocessed and self-healed by heating. Because of the excellent
      reprogrammability as well as reprocessability of the LCE, we further fabricated
      LCE-based active micropillar arrays through robust imprint lithography, which can
      be hardly achieved using the LCE prepared previously. Finally, we showed an
      excellent long-term durability of the newly developed LCE.

PMID- 28879761
TI  - New and Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Production from Water Splitting:
      Inexpensive, Robust Metallic Glassy Ribbons Based on Iron and Cobalt.
AB  - Efficient, stable electrocatalysts are required to promote the hydrogen evolution
      reaction (HER) to obtain hydrogen as a clean, sustainable fuel via water
      splitting. In the present work, ribbons of the metallic glass Fe40Co40P13C7 were
      produced using a conventional melt-spinning technique and assessed as
      electrocatalysts for HER. In 0.5 M H2SO4, these ribbons generated an
      overpotential of 118 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2. This overpotential
      remained essentially constant over 20 h under these conditions. On the basis of
      the excellent properties, these glassy ribbons represent a new type of highly
      active, robust HER catalyst suitable for practical applications.

PMID- 28879762
TI  - Catalytic Enantioselective Vinylogous Allylic Alkylation of Coumarins.
AB  - An unprecedented, organocatalytic enantioselective vinylogous gamma-allylic
      alkylation of 4-methylcoumarins has been developed. Using allylic carbonates as
      the allyl source, this reaction is catalyzed by Lewis basic dimeric Cinchona
      alkaloid (QD)2PHAL and proceeds exclusively in a gamma- and branched-selective
      manner to produce densely functionalized coumarin derivatives generally in good
      yields with good to high enantioselectivities (up to 97:3 er).

PMID- 28879763
TI  - Hydrogelation of a Naphthalene Diimide Appended Peptide Amphiphile and Its
      Application in Cell Imaging and Intracellular pH Sensing.
AB  - This study reports the self-assembly and application of a naphthalene diimide
      (NDI)-appended peptide amphiphile (PA). H-bonding among the peptide moiety in
      conjunction with pi-stacking between NDI and hydrophobic interactions within the
      alkyl chain are the major driving forces behind the stepwise aggregation of the
      PA to form hydrogels. The PA produced efficient self-assemblies in water, forming
      a nanofibrous network that further formed a self-supportive hydrogel. The
      molecule followed a three-step self-assembly mechanism. At a lower concentration
      (50 MUM), it forms extremely small aggregates with a very low population of the
      molecules. With an increase in concentration, spherical aggregates are formed
      above 450 MUM concentration. Importantly, this water-soluble conjugate was found
      to be nontoxic, cell permeable, and usable for cell imaging. Moreover, the
      aggregation process and consequently the emission behavior are highly responsive
      to the pH of the medium. Thus, the pH responsive aggregation and emission
      behavior has an extended biological application for assessing intracellular pH.
      The biocompatibility and intracellular pH determining capability suggest it is a
      promising candidate for use as a supramolecular material in biomedical
      applications.

PMID- 28879764
TI  - Palladium-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxygenation of Allylarenes.
AB  - An efficient and practical protocol for the synthesis of (E)-allylethers from
      readily available olefins with alcohols or phenols was developed. This aerobic
      oxidative allylic C-H oxygenation protocol features mild conditions, broad
      substrate scope, and high atom and step economy, making it a valuable and
      convenient synthetic method. Notably, molecular oxygen is the sole oxidant in
      this novel transformation.

PMID- 28879765
TI  - Transfer of Materials from Water to Solid Surfaces Using Liquid Marbles.
AB  - Remotely controlling the movement of small objects is desirable, especially for
      the transportation and selection of materials. Transfer of objects between liquid
      and solid surfaces and triggering their release would allow for development of
      novel material transportation technology. Here, we describe the remote transport
      of a material from a water film surface to a solid surface using quasispherical
      liquid marbles (LMs). A light-induced Marangoni flow or an air stream is used to
      propel the LMs on water. As the LMs approach the rim of the water film, gravity
      forces them to slide down the water rim and roll onto the solid surface. Through
      this method, LMs can be efficiently moved on water and placed on a solid surface.
      The materials encapsulated within LMs can be released at a specific time by an
      external stimulus. We analyzed the velocity, acceleration, and force of the LMs
      on the liquid and solid surfaces. On water, the sliding friction due to the drag
      force resists the movement of the LMs. On a solid surface, the rolling distance
      is affected by the surface roughness of the LMs.

PMID- 28879766
TI  - Label-Free Transient Absorption Microscopy for Red Blood Cell Flow Velocity
      Measurement in Vivo.
AB  - Red blood cells have intrinsic transient absorption property at the near-infrared
      region, allowing for label-free detection and imaging. We present a new approach
      to measure the blood flow velocity in vivo with a transient absorption microscope
      and correlation analyses of signal sequences. With specific scan modes, we have
      quantitatively obtained the flow velocity in capillaries, arteries, and veins in
      a live zebrafish with accuracy of about 30 MUm/s. In addition, a high-resolution
      three-dimensional vessel network can be reconstructed through this approach with
      spatial resolution of 1 MUm.

PMID- 28879768
TI  - Supramolecular Copolymerization of Short Peptides and Polyoxometalates: toward
      the Fabrication of Underwater Adhesives.
AB  - Peptide assembly has reached exquisite levels of efficiency in the creation of
      bioactive materials. However, we have not yet been able to take what we have
      learned from peptide assembly to develop a general strategy for the fabrication
      of biomimetic underwater adhesives, which retain significant advantages as
      medical glue for clinical treatment. Herein we report a simple approach to
      prepare peptide-based adhesives through the supramolecular polymerization of
      cationic peptides drove by polyoxometalates (PMs). Mass spectra, Fourier
      transform infrared spectra and 183W NMR spectra confirmed the structural
      integrity of peptides and PMs during the coassembly process. Scanning electron
      microscopy demonstrated that the multivalent interactions between peptides and
      polyoxometaltes led to the formation of robust 3D network structures. The
      rheological study revealed that the peptide/PM assemblies exhibited mechanically
      rigid gel-like behavior and self-healing property. Interestingly, the assemblies
      showed the capacity to adhere various wet solid materials under waterline. The
      shear strength of the peptide-based adhesives are stronger than that of the
      commercially available fibrin glue. This finding is exciting and serves to expand
      our capability of the fabrication of peptide-based materials.

PMID- 28879767
TI  - Transmembrane Pore Structures of beta-Hairpin Antimicrobial Peptides by All-Atom
      Simulations.
AB  - Protegrin-1 is an 18-residue beta-hairpin antimicrobial peptide (AMP) that has
      been suggested to form transmembrane beta-barrels in biological membranes.
      However, alternative structures have also been proposed. Here, we performed
      multimicrosecond, all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of various protegrin-1
      oligomers on the membrane surface and in transmembrane topologies. The membrane
      surface simulations indicated that protegrin dimers are stable, whereas trimers
      and tetramers break down. Tetrameric arcs remained stably inserted in lipid
      membranes, but the pore water was displaced by lipid molecules. Unsheared
      protegrin beta-barrels opened into beta-sheets that surrounded stable aqueous
      pores, whereas tilted barrels with sheared hydrogen bonding patterns were stable
      in most topologies. A third type of observed pore consisted of multiple small
      oligomers surrounding a small, partially lipidic pore. We also considered the
      beta-hairpin AMP tachyplesin, which showed less tendency to oligomerize than
      protegrin: the octameric bundle resulted in small pores surrounded by six
      peptides as monomers and dimers, with some peptides returning to the membrane
      surface. The results imply that multiple configurations of protegrin oligomers
      may produce aqueous pores and illustrate the relationship between topology and
      putative steps in protegrin-1's pore formation. However, the long-term stability
      of these structures needs to be assessed further.

PMID- 28879769
TI  - Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Isoquinolines and Pyridines Using Hydrogen Halide
      Generated in Situ as Activator.
AB  - By employing halogenide trichloroisocyanuric acid as a traceless activation
      reagent, a general iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of isoquinolines
      and pyridines is developed with up to 99% ee. This method avoids tedious steps of
      installation and removal of the activating groups. The mechanism studies
      indicated that hydrogen halide generated in situ acted as an activator of
      isoquinolines and pyridines.

PMID- 28879770
TI  - In Situ Synthesis of Monomer Casting Nylon-6/Graphene-Polysiloxane
      Nanocomposites: Intercalation Structure, Synergistic Reinforcing, and Friction
      Reducing Effect.
AB  - On the basis of the industrialized graphene nanosheets (GNs) product, we
      synthesized monomer casting nylon-6 (MC PA6)/GN-3-aminopropyl-terminated
      poly(dimethylsiloxane) (APDMS) nanocomposite in situ through the anchoring effect
      of APDMS onto the GN surface. APDMS/PA6 molecules were confirmed to intercalate
      into the GN layers by the formation of strong interfacial interactions. The
      intercalation ratio and the average layer thickness of the grafted GN sample
      decreased in the presence of APDMS. Moreover, for MC PA6/GN-APDMS nanocomposite,
      GN-APDMS was uniformly distributed in the matrix and no phase separation was
      observed. The size of spherical APDMS particles was obviously reduced compared
      with that of MC PA6/APDMS composite, revealing a strong interaction between APDMS
      and GN and the enhancement of compatibility in the composite system. Compared
      with neat MC PA6, the addition of GN-APDMS resulted in 12% increase in the
      tensile strength and 37% increase in the impact strength; meanwhile, increase in
      both the storage modulus (E') and the glass transition temperature (Tg) indicated
      synergistic reinforcing and toughening effect of GN-APDMS on MC PA6. Furthermore,
      over 81 and 48% reduction in the friction coefficient and the specific wear rate,
      respectively, was achieved for the nanocomposite, and the worn surface displayed
      flat and smooth features with a uniform depth distribution, a low annealing
      effect, and a reduced friction heat, further confirming the synergistic friction
      reducing effect of GN-APDMS on MC PA6.

PMID- 28879771
TI  - Nanopore-Based Electrochemiluminescence for Detection of MicroRNAs via Duplex
      Specific Nuclease-Assisted Target Recycling.
AB  - In this study, we proposed a nanopore-based electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor
      combined with duplex-specific nuclease (DSN)-assisted target recycling
      amplification to detect microRNAs. Because of the synergetic effect of
      electrostatic repulsion and volume exclusion of gold nanoparticle-labeled DNA
      capture (DNA-Au NPs) to the negatively charged luminol anion probe, the DNA-Au NP
      modified anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) nanopore electrode exhibited high ECL
      decline in comparison with the bare AAO electrode. Upon the introduction of DSN
      and target microRNA, the specific DNA-RNA binding and enzyme cleaving could
      trigger the detachment of capture DNA from the membrane surface, resulting in
      uncapping of AAO and an increased ECL signal. For comparison, positively charged
      Ru(bpy)32+ was used as the ECL probe instead of luminol. Because the
      electrostatic attraction effect between DNA and Ru(bpy)32+ is partially offset by
      the volume exclusion effect of Au NPs, the AAO electrode modified with only DNA
      capture is more suitable for the Ru(bpy)32+ case. In our experiment, the case of
      negatively charged luminol combined with the synergetic effect of electrostatic
      repulsion and volume exclusion of DNA-Au NPs provides a quantitative readout
      proportional to the target microRNA concentration in the range of 1.0 fM to 1.0
      nM, with a lower detection limit of 1 fM.

PMID- 28879772
TI  - Brain Membrane Proteome and Phosphoproteome Reveal Molecular Basis Associating
      with Nursing and Foraging Behaviors of Honeybee Workers.
AB  - The brain is a vital organ in regulating complex social behaviors of honeybees
      including learning and memory. Knowledge of how brain membrane proteins and their
      phosphorylation underlie the age-related behavioral polyethism is still lacking.
      A hitherto age-resolved brain membrane proteome and phosphoproteome were reported
      in adult worker bees from two strains of honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica):
      Italian bee (ITB) and Royal Jelly bee (RJB), a line selected from ITB for
      increased RJ outputs over four decades. There were 1079 membrane protein groups
      identified, and 417 unique phosphosites were located in 179 membrane protein
      groups mainly phosphorylated by kinase families of MAPKs, CDKs, and CK2. Age
      resolved dynamics of brain membrane proteome and phosphoproteome are indicative
      of their correlation with the neurobiological requirements during the adult life
      of honeybee workers. To stimulate immature brain cell development in newly
      emerged bees (NEBs), the enriched functional classes associated with metabolism
      of carbohydrates, nucleosides, and lipids by the up-regulated proteins suggest
      their enhanced role in driving cell maturity of the brain. In nurse bees (NBs)
      and forager bees (FBs), a higher number of membrane proteins and phosphoproteins
      were expressed as compared with in the young stages, and the enriched signal
      transduction-related pathways by the up-regulated proteins suggest their
      significances in sustaining the intensive information processing during nursing
      and foraging activities. Notably, RJB has shaped unique membrane proteome and
      phosphoproteome settings to consolidate nursing and foraging behaviors in
      response to decades of selection underpinning the elevated RJ yields. In RJB NBs,
      the enriched pathways of phosphatidylinositol signaling and arachidonic acid
      metabolism indicate a stronger olfaction sensation in response to larval
      pheromone stimulation. In RJB FBs, the enriched pathways related to signal
      processing such as SNARE interactions in vesicular transport, wnt signaling, TGF
      beta signaling, and taurine and hypotaurine metabolism suggest an enhanced nerve
      sensitivity to prime the stronger tendency to pollen collection. Our data gain a
      novel insight into membrane proteome and phosphoproteome-driven cerebral
      regulation of honeybee behaviors, which is potentially useful for further
      neurobiological investigation in both honeybees and other social insects.

PMID- 28879773
TI  - Association of admission and discharge anemia status with outcomes in patients
      hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure: Differences between patients
      with preserved and reduced ejection fraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In acute decompensated heart failure patients with a preserved or
      reduced ejection fraction, the association of admission and discharge anemia
      status with outcomes remains unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS: Of the 4842 patients
      enrolled in the Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Syndromes (ATTEND) registry,
      4433 patients (2017 with a preserved and 2416 with a reduced ejection fraction)
      were examined to investigate associations among the anemia status at admission
      and discharge (no anemia, developed anemia, resolved anemia, or persistent
      anemia), a preserved or reduced ejection fraction and the primary endpoint (all
      cause death and readmission for heart failure). In the preserved ejection
      fraction group, adjusted analysis showed that either developed or persistent
      anemia was associated with a significantly higher risk of the primary endpoint
      relative to no anemia (hazard ratio: 1.53; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11
      2.11; p=0.009 and hazard ratio: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.26-2.04; p<0.001, respectively),
      but there was no association between resolved anemia and the primary endpoint
      (hazard ratio: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.67-1.45; p=0.937). In the reduced ejection
      fraction group, either developed or resolved anemia was associated with a
      tendency toward higher risk of the primary endpoint relative to no anemia (hazard
      ratio: 1.29; 95% CI: 0.95-1.62; p=0.089, and hazard ratio: 1.31; 95% CI: 0.96
      1.77; p=0.085, respectively), while persistent anemia was associated with a
      significantly higher risk of the primary endpoint relative to no anemia (hazard
      ratio: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.12-1.65; p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: In acute decompensated
      heart failure patients, the association of admission and discharge anemia status
      with outcomes differs markedly between patients with a preserved or reduced
      ejection fraction.

PMID- 28879775
TI  - Direct, indirect and total bilirubin and risk of incident coronary heart disease
      in the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Total bilirubin (TBIL) is known to be inversely associated with
      coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, however, whether this association is dose
      response remains inconsistent and it is unclear which subtype of bilirubin is
      responsible for the potential protective effect. METHODS: We included 12,097
      participants who were free of CHD, stroke, cancer and potential liver, biliary
      and renal diseases at baseline from September 2008 to June 2010 and were followed
      up until October 2013. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the
      hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of bilirubin with
      incident CHD risk. RESULTS: The adjusted HRs for incident CHD increased with
      increasing direct bilirubin (DBIL) (p for trend = .013). Participants within the
      highest quintile of DBIL had 30% higher risk of incident CHD compared to those in
      the lowest quintile (95% CI: 1.07, 1.58). In contrast, compared with subjects in
      the lowest quintile of TBIL, those in the third quintile had the lowest of 24%
      risk for CHD incidence (95% CI: 0.63, 0.92), which showed a U-shaped association
      (p for quadratic trend = .040). CONCLUSIONS: DBIL was associated with a dose
      response increased risk for CHD incidence. However, a U-shaped association
      existed between TBIL, indirect bilirubin and incident CHD risk. Key messages
      Direct bilirubin is independently associated with incident coronary heart disease
      (CHD) in a dose-response manner. A similarly consistent U-shaped association was
      found between total bilirubin, indirect bilirubin and incident CHD. The potential
      protective effect of total bilirubin within the normal range on incident CHD
      should be mainly attributed to mild-to moderate elevated levels of indirect
      bilirubin.

PMID- 28879776
TI  - Themes Associated With Top-Grossing Films Released From 2005 to 2015.
AB  - Films continue to be a popular form of entertainment among children. The
      objective of this study was to determine the most common themes found in the top
      grossing films released from 2005 to 2015. Forty-five films were independently
      viewed and analyzed by 5 reviewers. The most common positive themes were
      "importance of helping others," "working as a team," and "standing up for what
      you believe in" (5.71, 4.08, and 3.78 mean events per hour, respectively). The
      most common negative themes were "use of guns/knives/lethal weapons," "acts of
      violence/fighting," and "demonstrating excessive anger" (5.78, 5.64, and 3.09
      mean events per hour, respectively). In conclusion, the most common positive
      themes in our sample were associated with service, collaboration, and courage,
      and the most common negative themes were associated with violence. We encourage
      co-viewing and active mediation, focusing on the positive and negative themes
      found in film, as a method to guide children through their development process.

PMID- 28879777
TI  - Morphological transition of Helicobacter pylori adapted to water.
AB  - AIM: This study aims to investigate the morphological transition of Helicobacter
      pylori during adaptation to water. MATERIALS & METHODS: Different strains were
      adapted to water. Changes regarding cultivability and cellular morphology were
      recorded. Expression of 11 genes involved in H. pylori morphological changes was
      evaluated by real-time PCR. RESULTS: H. pylori presented increased cultivability
      in water after adaptation. The permanent loss of the spiral shape was observed,
      but no transition into coccoid form has occurred. Expression levels of genes
      involved in peptidoglycan assembly of H. pylori 26695 have shown significant
      changes between adapted and nonadapted strains. CONCLUSION: Adaption to water
      favors the culturable phenotype and the morphological transition to the rod
      shape, into a process that implicates the peptidoglycan turnover.

PMID- 28879778
TI  - Percutaneous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in electrical storm: five case
      reports addressing efficacy, transferring allowance or radiofrequency ablation
      support.
AB  - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation systems have undergone rapid technological
      improvements and are now feasible options for medium-term support of severe
      cardiac or pulmonary failure. We report five cases of electrical storm that was
      rescued by the insertion of peripheral veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation systems. This device could help to restore systemic circulation as
      well as permitting organ perfusion in patients with cardiogenic shock in relation
      to electrical storm thus achieving greater electrical stability. Also, in some
      cases extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support could facilitate
      electrophysiology study.

PMID- 28879779
TI  - Supervising trainees in research: what does it take to be a scholarly project
      supervisor?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Scholarly projects (SPs) are a compulsory component of psychiatry
      training in Australasia. This article outlines the role of a research supervisor
      in supporting a trainee to complete an SP. METHODS: A total of 10 old age and
      forensic psychiatry SPs were reviewed with regard to aims, methodology,
      supervisor input, trainee tasks and additional resources. RESULTS: The main
      supervisor tasks are described and discussed. They include practical advice on
      study design, ethics applications, critical appraisal, data analysis, academic
      writing and publication. CONCLUSIONS: Supervising SPs can bring significant
      rewards in awakening a trainee's interest in research. Key competencies for
      research supervision are discussed and further recommendations for supervisor
      support and training are provided.

PMID- 28879780
TI  - Management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and spondyloarthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: More than half of the patients with inflammatory bowel disease
      (IBD) experience at least one extra-intestinal manifestation (EIM). The most
      common EIM in patients with IBD is spondyloarthritis (SpA). Microscopic
      intestinal inflammation is documented in almost 50% of the patients with SpA.
      Areas covered: We give an overview of the classification, the epidemiology and
      the diagnosis of IBD and SpA. The treatment goals, the pharmacologic management
      options and the available treatment guidelines in IBD patients with SpA are
      discussed. Expert commentary: The coexistence of IBD and SpA generates challenges
      and opportunities for both the gastroenterologist and the rheumatologist. The
      potential of drugs with a gut-specific mode of action in the treatment of IBD
      related arthritis warrants further exploration.

PMID- 28879781
TI  - An investigation of the use of the Kinect system as a measure of dynamic balance
      and forward reach in the elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the reliability and correlations of Kinect-derived
      valuables of forward reach distance and velocity with the traditional functional
      reach distance, scores on posturography, and other measures of physical fitness.
      DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: Community hospital. SUBJECTS: Individuals
      >65 years who attended a geriatric health examination were enrolled. MAIN
      MEASURES: The Kinect system was used to record the reach distance and velocity of
      the forward reach test. Center of pressure displacement was measured by
      posturography. Physical fitness performance was assessed using the 2-Minute Step
      Test, the 30-Second Chair Stand Test, the Sit-and-Reach Test, grip strength, and
      walking speed. RESULTS: A total of 442 individuals were enrolled (mean age: 73.3
      +/- 5.2 years). Forward reach tracking using the Kinect system showed good
      repeatability and correlated with traditional functional reach ( r = 0.719, P <
      0.001); the reaching velocity correlated with scores on posturography ( r = 
      0.257, P = 0.047). Reach distances were significantly decreased in the older
      group (>=75 years) than in the younger group (<75 years) ( P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: The Kinect system provides a simple, reliable, and age-sensitive
      assessment of balance in older adults. The valuables correlate with the
      traditional functional reach, scores on posturography, and physical fitness
      performance. It provides alternative representation of both static and dynamic
      balance function.

PMID- 28879783
TI  - A 5-Step Approach Protocol Using CareLink Therapy Software in Type 1 Diabetes
      Patients.

PMID- 28879782
TI  - Characteristics and trends of clinical trials funded by the National Institutes
      of Health between 2005 and 2015.
AB  - Background The National Institutes of Health is one of the largest biomedical
      research agencies in the world. Clinical trials are an important component of
      National Institutes of Health research efforts. Given the recent updates in
      National Institutes of Health trial reporting requirements, more information
      regarding the current state of National Institutes of Health-funded clinical
      trials is warranted. The objective of this analysis was to describe
      characteristics and trends of clinical trials funded by the National Institutes
      of Health over time and by Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of
      Health. Methods Interventional studies funded by the National Institutes of
      Health and registered in ClinicalTrials.gov between 2005 and 2015 were included
      in the analysis. Trials were identified from the 27 March 2016 Clinical Trials
      Transformation Initiative Aggregate Analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov database. A
      descriptive analysis of trials by year and National Institutes of Health
      Institute/Center was performed. Results There were 12,987 National Institutes of
      Health-funded clinical trials registered between 2005 and 2015. There were 1,580,
      1,116, and 930 trials registered in 2005, 2010, and 2015, respectively. The
      majority were early-development trials (phases 0, 1, or 2; 53%), randomized
      (61%), and single-center (63%). Trial demographics have remained unchanged over
      time. Median trial sample size was 64 (interquartile range 29-192) with 10% of
      trials enrolling >=500 participants. Most trials were completed within 5 years of
      enrollment start (69%). Trial characteristics varied considerably across National
      Institutes of Health Institutes and Centers. Results were reported under the
      assumptions that most National Institutes of Health-funded trials are registered
      in ClinicalTrials.gov and that trials are being registered completely and
      accurately. Conclusion In conclusion, there has been a decline in the number of
      trials being funded over time, explained in part by a relatively constant budget,
      increases in trial costs, or other factors that cannot be quantified. National
      Institutes of Health-funded trials are relatively small and tend to be single
      centered. There are substantial differences in the number and types of trials
      done by Institutes and Centers within the National Institutes of Health.

PMID- 28879784
TI  - Non-chemotherapy drug-induced neutropenia - an update.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To date, non-chemotherapy drug-induced severe neutropenia
      (neutrophil count of <=0.5 x 109/L) also called idiosyncratic drug-induced
      agranulocytosis is little discussed in the literature. In the present paper, we
      report and discuss the clinical data and management of this rare disorder. Areas
      covered: To do this, we carried out a review of the literature using PubMed
      database of the US National Library of Medicine. We also used data from the
      American Society of Hematology educational books, textbooks of Hematology and
      Internal medicine, and information gleaned from international meetings. Expert
      opinion: Idiosyncratic agranulocytosis remains a potentially serious adverse
      event due to the frequency of severe sepsis with severe deep tissue infections
      (e.g., pneumonia), septicemia, and septic shock in approximately two-thirds of
      all hospitalized patients. In this context, several prognostic factors have been
      identified that may be helpful when identifying 'susceptible' patients. Old age
      (>65 years), septicemia or shock, renal failure, and a neutrophil count <=0.1 *
      109/L have been consensually accepted as poor prognostic factors. In our
      experience, modern management with pre-established procedures, intravenous broad
      spectrum antibiotics and hematopoietic growth factors (particularly G-CSF) is
      likely to improve the prognosis. Thus with appropriate management, the mortality
      rate is currently between 5 to 10%.

PMID- 28879785
TI  - Contribution of VMA5 to vacuolar function, stress response, ion homeostasis and
      autophagy in Candida albicans.
AB  - AIM: V-ATPase is a conservative multi-subunit enzyme in eukaryotes and modulates
      several cellular responses. This study aimed to illustrate the roles of Vma5 in
      vacuolar function, oxidative stress response, calcium homeostasis, autophagy and
      virulence. MATERIALS & METHODS: The vma5Delta/Delta mutant was obtained using PCR
      mediated homologous recombination. The functions of Vma5 were investigated by a
      series of biochemical and systemic infection methods. RESULTS: Disruption of VMA5
      led to growth inhibition, vacuolar dysfunction, disturbance of calcium
      homeostasis and inhibition of calcium-related oxidative stress response.
      Furthermore, its deletion caused defects in autophagy completion and hyphal
      development, and resulted in attenuated Candida albicans virulence. CONCLUSION:
      Our findings provide new insights into V-ATPase functions in C. albicans, and
      reveal a potential candidate for development of antifungal drugs.

PMID- 28879786
TI  - Pharmacological management of type 2 diabetes: what's new in 2017?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Novelties in the management of type 2 diabetes are dominated by the
      commercialisation of new glucose-lowering agents, which offer alternatives to
      older antidiabetic medications, and by the publication of several prospective
      placebo-controlled outcome trials, which demonstrated not only cardiovascular
      safety but also cardiovascular and renal protection with some new medications.
      Areas covered: Updates regarding the use of glucose-lowering agents are discussed
      from a clinical point of view. Some new viewpoints concern older antidiabetic
      agents such as metformin, sulfonylureas and glitazones whose benefit-risk balance
      has been revisited, especially in high risk patients. The recent data regarding
      DPP-4 inhibitors (gliptins) focused on the safety profile of this pharmacological
      class, including in patients with impaired renal function. The highlight concerns
      the cardiovascular (and renal) protection by some GLP-1 receptor agonists
      (liraglutide, semaglutide) and SGLT2 inhibitors (empagliflozin, canagliflozin) in
      patients with high cardiovascular risk. Finally, efficacy and safety of new
      combinations and advances in insulin therapy will be briefly discussed. Expert
      commentary: The recent data from randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses and
      observational real-life studies should trigger a revision of the algorithm for
      the treatment of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes, especially in patients with
      high cardiovascular and/or renal risk.

PMID- 28879787
TI  - Moving forward with treatment options for HIV-infected children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Current international guidelines recommend to treat all HIV-1
      infected patients regardless of CD4 cell count. Despite the remarkable worldwide
      progress for universal access to antiretroviral during the last decade, the
      pediatric population remains fragile due to lack of randomized studies,
      inappropriate antiretroviral formulations, adherence difficulties, drug toxicity
      and development of resistance. Areas covered: This review summarizes the latest
      recommendations and advances for the treatment of HIV-infected children and
      highlights the potential complications of a lifelong antiretroviral treatment
      initiated early in life. Expert opinion: International guidelines recommend to
      start combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) as fast as possible in all
      children diagnosed with HIV-1. The principal goal is to improve survival and
      reduce mortality as well as rapidly decrease HIV reservoirs. This remains a
      challenge in resource-limited settings were diagnostic tools and treatment access
      may be limited. Different new strategies are in the pipeline such as
      immunotherapy in combination with very early cART initiation to seek remission or
      functional cure. For the time being and awaiting for long term remission or cure,
      there is a need for further pharmacokinetics studies, more pediatric formulations
      with improved palatability and implementation of randomized trials for the newer
      antiretroviral drugs.

PMID- 28879788
TI  - Development of an epitope-based HIV-1 vaccine strategy from HIV-1 lipopeptide to
      dendritic-based vaccines.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Development of a safe, effective and globally affordable Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus strain 1 (HIV-1) vaccine offers the best hope for future
      control of the HIV-1 pandemic. However, with the exception of the recent RV144
      trial, which elicited a modest level of protection against infection, no vaccine
      candidate has shown efficacy in preventing HIV-1 infection or in controlling
      virus replication in humans. There is also a great need for a successful
      immunotherapeutic vaccine since combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) does
      not eliminate the reservoir of HIV-infected cells. But to date, no vaccine
      candidate has proven to significantly alter the natural history of an individual
      with HIV-1 infection. Areas covered: For over 25 years, the ANRS (France
      Recherche Nord&Sud Sida-HIV hepatites) has been committed to an original program
      combining basic science and clinical research developing an epitope-based vaccine
      strategy to induce a multiepitopic cellular response against HIV-1. This review
      describes the evolution of concepts, based on strategies using HIV-1 lipopeptides
      towards the use of dendritic cell (DC) manipulation. Expert commentary:
      Understanding the crucial role of DCs in immune responses allowed moving from the
      non-specific administration of HIV-1 sequences with lipopeptides to DC-based
      vaccines. These DC-targeting strategies should improve HIV-1 vaccine efficacy.

PMID- 28879789
TI  - A review article on brodalumab in the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque
      psoriasis.
AB  - Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated skin disorder affecting approximately 2-3%
      of the worldwide population. Recent advances in our understanding of the
      immunopathogenesis of psoriasis have resulted in novel therapeutic agents. IL-17,
      a pro-inflammatory cytokine, plays a pivotal role in psoriasis. Therapeutic
      agents targeting this cytokine have shown clinical effectiveness in the treatment
      of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Brodalumab, a human antibody against IL
      17 receptor A, has been approved by the US FDA in February 2017, by the Japanese
      Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency in July 2016 and by the EMA in July
      2017 for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis. This article reviews the
      published data relating to brodalumab for the treatment of moderate-to-severe
      plaque psoriasis.

PMID- 28879790
TI  - Validity of test stimuli for nasalance measurement in speakers of Jordanian
      Arabic.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to establish the validity of passages
      for measuring nasalance of Jordanian speakers of Arabic. DESIGN: Two Arabic text
      passages were constructed; the Spring Passage is devoid of nasal consonants and
      the Home Passage contains both oral and nasal consonants. Nasalance was measured
      for participants while reciting each passage three times. Perceptual ratings of
      hypernasality were also obtained for each participant on each passage using a 5
      point equal-appearing rating scale. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-seven children and adults
      ranging in age between 9 and 26 years participated in the study. Twenty-three
      participants had no history of communication disorders, and 24 had repaired cleft
      palate. RESULTS: Correlation coefficient between ratings of hypernasality and the
      nasalance scores was significant for the Spring Passage (r = 0.88, p > 0.001) and
      for the Home Passage (r = 0.78, p > .001). Using cutoff scores of 17% and 36% of
      nasalance for the Spring and the Home Passages, respectively, and a threshold
      score of 1.5 for hypernasality, sensitivity for the Spring Passage was 88% and
      the Home Passage was 78%. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed the validity of the Spring
      Passage and the Home Passage in measuring nasalance scores as proved by their
      high sensitivity and strong correlation with perceptual rating of hypernasality.

PMID- 28879791
TI  - Incorporation of PCSK9 inhibitors into prevention of atherosclerotic
      cardiovascular disease.
AB  - Primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
      (ASCVD) has become recently more complex than ever, leaving the clinicians
      perplexed with outdated guidelines and emerging evidence about new LDL-C lowering
      therapies. 2013 American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association
      (AHA) guidelines have focused on high intensity statin therapy for specific
      groups of patients, while abandoning long established LDL-C goals, a strategy
      which no longer seems valid. PCSK9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type
      9) inhibitors have emerged as the add-on therapy on top of statins and/or
      ezetimibe for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia and ASCVD prevention. In
      several clinical trials, PCSK9 inhibitors have demonstrated their safety and
      robust LDL-C-lowering power. One completed cardiovascular (CV) outcomes trial
      (FOURIER; Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibitions in
      Subjects with Elevated Risk) has demonstrated that PCSK9 inhibition reduces rates
      of CV death as well as non-fatal stroke and MI, while another major CV outcome
      trial is under way (ODYSSEY-OUTCOMES). Several trials studying CV benefits of
      novel LDL-C-lowering therapies are also being conducted. Prompt revision of
      ACC/AHA guidelines is necessary. In the meantime, physicians need to use clinical
      judgment integrating the most recent evidence into their practice.

PMID- 28879795
TI  - The Literature of EOH II. The Scientific Research Paper.

PMID- 28879792
TI  - Analysis of acute naproxen administration on memory in young adults: A
      randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
AB  - Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs work by non-selectively inhibiting
      cyclooxygenase enzymes. Evidence indicates that metabolites of the cyclooxygenase
      pathway play a critical role in the process of learning and memory. We evaluated
      whether acute naproxen treatment impairs short-term working memory, episodic
      memory, or semantic memory in a young, healthy adult population. Participants
      received a single dose of placebo or naproxen (750 mg) in random order separated
      by 7-10 days. Two hours following administration, participants completed five
      memory tasks. The administration of acute high-dose naproxen had no effect on
      memory in healthy young adults.

PMID- 28879796
TI  - Assessment of the pulmonary CYP1A1 metabolism of mavoglurant (AFQ056) in rat.
AB  - 1. AFQ056 phenotyping results indicate that CYP1A1 is responsible for the
      formation of the oxidative metabolite, M3. In line with the predominant
      assumption that CYP1A1 is mainly expressed in extrahepatic tissues, only traces
      of M3 were detected in hepatic systems. The aim of this study was to investigate
      the pulmonary CYP1A1 mediated metabolism of AFQ056 in rat. 2. Western blot
      analysis confirmed that CYP1A1 is expressed in rat lung albeit at low levels. M3
      formation was clearly observed in recombinant rat CYP1A1, lung microsomes and
      lung tissue slices and was strongly inhibited by ketoconazole in the incubations.
      As CYP3A4 and CYP2C9 metabolites were only observed at trace levels, we concluded
      that the reduced M3 formation was due to CYP1A1 inhibition. 3. AFQ056 lung
      clearance (CLlung) as estimated from in vitro data was predicted to be negligible
      (<1% pulmonary blood flow). This was confirmed by in vivo experiments where
      intravenous and intra-arterial dosing to rats failed to show significant
      pulmonary extraction. 4. While rat lung may make a contribution to the formation
      of M3, it is unlikely to be the only organ involved in this process and further
      experiments are required to investigate the potential metabolic elimination
      routes for AFQ056.

PMID- 28879797
TI  - Amorfrutin A inhibits TNF-alpha induced JAK/STAT signaling, cell survival and
      proliferation of human cancer cells.
AB  - CONTEXT: Amorfrutin A is a natural product isolated from the fruits of Amorpha
      fruticosa L. and has been shown to exhibit multiple bioeffector functions. In the
      present study, we investigated whether amorfrutin A exerts anticancer effects by
      inhibiting STAT3 activation in cervical cancer cells. OBJECTIVE: To investigate
      the effectiveness of amorfrutin A as a treatment of cancer, and determine the
      underlying pharmacological mechanism of action. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HeLa, SK
      Hep1, MDA-MB-231 and HCT116 cells were used in this study. Major assays were
      luciferase reporter assay, MTT, Western blot analysis, immunofluorescence assay,
      reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), flow cytometric analysis, EdU labeling and
      immunofluorescence, xenografted assay. RESULTS: Amorfrutin A significantly
      inhibited tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-induced phosphorylation and
      nuclear translocation of STAT3 in human cervical carcinoma cells. Amorfrutin A
      also inhibited activation of the upstream kinases Janus-activated kinase 1
      (JAK1), JAK2 and Src signaling pathways. Furthermore, amorfrutin A increased the
      expression of p53, p21, p27, induced cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase as well as
      decreased levels of various oncogene protein products. In vivo studies further
      confirmed the inhibitory effect of amorfrutin A on the expression of STAT3
      proteins, leading to a decrease growth of HeLa cells in a xenograft tumor model.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that amorfrutin A is a potent
      inhibitor of STAT3 and provide new perspectives into the mechanism of its
      anticancer activity.

PMID- 28879799
TI  - Review of Before Their Time: The World of Child Labor.

PMID- 28879798
TI  - Inhalation exposure of nano diamond induced oxidative stress in lung, heart and
      brain.
AB  - 1. Today, diamond nanoparticles have several industrial applications. Nano
      diamond (ND) as a carbon allotrope diffuses in the air easily during producing
      and processing procedures. 2. In this study, we investigated sub-acute exposed to
      ND at the exposure chamber in mice. The animals were divided into two groups
      (control and exposed group to ND at the concentration of 3 ug/m3 for 3 h/day, 5
      days/week for 30 days) in a whole-body inhalation chamber. 3. Our results showed
      that exposure to ND induced the hematological and biochemical changes. The target
      organs for ND were the lungs, brain and heart in the mice, respectively. Also, ND
      increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, lipid peroxidation (LPO), the
      collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), decreased a level of reduced
      glutathione (GSH) and finally increased a level of glutathione disulfide (GSSG)
      in lung, brain and heart tissues. Our results suggest that exposure to ND can
      induce oxidative stress in the tissue mentioned. 4. These results suggest that
      exposure of researchers and workers with diamond nanoparticles probably increase
      a risk of respiratory, cardiovascular and cerebral disorders through oxidative
      stress. However, good ventilation, appropriate personal protective equipment and
      using of anti-oxidant compounds in daily diet of worker are suggested.

PMID- 28879800
TI  - Acute caffeine ingestion affects surround suppression of perceived contrast.
AB  - Caffeine is a widely used psychostimulant that is associated with increased
      acetylcholine levels in mammalian brain and acetycholinesterase antagonism.
      Acetylcholine, a neuromodulator, plays an important role in the processing of
      visual information. One key example in human vision, thought to at least partly
      involve cholinergic neuromodulation, is perceptual surround suppression of
      contrast, whereby the perceived contrast of a pattern is altered by the presence
      of a neighbouring pattern. Perceptual surround suppression is weaker with
      pharmacological administration of donepezil (a centrally-acting acetylcholine
      enzyme inhibitor) in healthy human observers. Here, we test whether temporarily
      manipulating caffeine levels (from complete washout to a controlled dose of
      caffeine) has a similar effect on perceptual surround suppression in 21 healthy
      young adults (aged 20-24 years, 11 females). Neither ingestion of a caffeine pill
      nor placebo altered contrast judgments when the target pattern was presented on a
      uniform grey background ( p=0.54). With caffeine ingestion, perceptual surround
      suppression strength was reduced relative to baseline (prior to pill ingestion,
      p=0.003) and placebo ( p=0.029), irrespective of whether the surround was
      oriented parallel or orthogonal to the central target. While daily habitual
      caffeine consumption of low-to-moderate doses (<400 mg/day, estimated from a
      written questionnaire) is not predictive of performance, our study indicates that
      acute consumption of caffeine on the day of testing influences perceptual
      surround suppression strength. Perceptual surround suppression is predominantly
      attributed to inhibitory processes involving the major cortical inhibitory
      neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid. Our results point to the involvement
      of other neuromodulators, possibly cholinergic, in perceptual surround
      suppression.

PMID- 28879801
TI  - Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Seizure Recurrence After a First
      Unprovoked Seizure in 815 Neurologically and Developmentally Normal Children.
AB  - Limited data exist for health care providers regarding seizure recurrence after a
      first unprovoked seizure in previously neurologically and developmentally normal
      children. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess seizure
      recurrence after a first unprovoked seizure by performing an electronic search in
      PubMed, Embase, and Scopus. Six studies from 2817 met the inclusion criteria. The
      sample size consisted of 815 neurologically and developmentally normal children
      (1 month-17.5 years) on no antiepileptic drugs. This systematic review and meta
      analysis estimated a recurrence rate within 3 years of 45% (95% CI: 37%, 60%).
      This estimate provides a touchstone for health care providers who are managing
      this particular population of children.

PMID- 28879803
TI  - Practice patterns of retrievable inferior vena cava filters and predictors of
      filter retrieval in patients with pulmonary embolism.
AB  - Retrievable inferior vena cava (IVC) filters are increasingly used in patients
      with venous thromboembolism (VTE) who have contraindications to anticoagulant
      therapy. However, previous studies have shown that many retrievable filters are
      left permanently in patients. This study aimed to identify the common indications
      for IVC filter insertion, the filter retrieval rate, and the predictive factors
      for filter retrieval attempts. To this end, a retrospective cohort study was
      performed at a tertiary care center in South Korea between January 2010 and May
      2016. Electronic medical charts were reviewed for patients with pulmonary
      embolism (PE) who underwent IVC filter insertion. A total of 439 cases were
      reviewed. The most common indication for filter insertion was a
      preoperative/procedural aim, followed by extensive iliofemoral deep vein
      thrombosis (DVT). Retrieval of the IVC filter was attempted in 44.9% of patients.
      The retrieval success rate was 93.9%. History of cerebral hemorrhage, malignancy,
      and admission to a nonsurgical department were the significant predictive factors
      of a lower retrieval attempt rate in multivariate analysis. With the increased
      use of IVC filters, more issues should be addressed before placing a filter and
      physicians should attempt to improve the filter retrieval rate.

PMID- 28879802
TI  - Anti-nociceptive interactions between opioids and a cannabinoid receptor 2
      agonist in inflammatory pain.
AB  - The cannabinoid 1 receptor and cannabinoid 2 receptor can both be targeted in the
      treatment of pain; yet, they have some important differences. Cannabinoid 1
      receptor is expressed at high levels in the central nervous system, whereas
      cannabinoid 2 receptor is found predominantly, although not exclusively, outside
      the central nervous system. The objective of this study was to investigate
      potential interactions between cannabinoid 2 receptor and the mu-opioid receptor
      in pathological pain. The low level of adverse side effects and lack of tolerance
      for cannabinoid 2 receptor agonists are attractive pharmacotherapeutic traits.
      This study assessed the anti-nociceptive effects of a selective cannabinoid 2
      receptor agonist (JWH-133) in pathological pain using mice subjected to
      inflammatory pain using the formalin test. Furthermore, we examined several ways
      in which JWH-133 may interact with morphine. JWH-133 produces dose-dependent anti
      nociception during both the acute and inflammatory phases of the formalin test.
      This was observed in both male and female mice. However, a maximally efficacious
      dose of JWH-133 (1 mg/kg) was not associated with somatic withdrawal symptoms,
      motor impairment, or hypothermia. After eleven once-daily injections of 1 mg/JWH
      133, no tolerance was observed in the formalin test. Cross-tolerance for the anti
      nociceptive effects of JWH-133 and morphine were assessed to gain insight into
      physiologically relevant cannabinoid 2 receptor and mu-opioid receptor
      interaction. Mice made tolerant to the effects of morphine exhibited a lower JWH
      133 response in both phases of the formalin test compared to vehicle-treated
      morphine-naive animals. However, repeated daily JWH-133 administration did not
      cause cross-tolerance for morphine, suggesting opioid and cannabinoid 2 receptor
      cross-tolerance is unidirectional. However, preliminary data suggest co
      administration of JWH-133 with morphine modestly attenuates morphine tolerance.
      Isobolographic analysis revealed that co-administration of JWH-133 and morphine
      has an additive effect on anti-nociception in the formalin test. Overall these
      findings show that cannabinoid 2 receptor may functionally interact with mu
      opioid receptor to modulate anti-nociception in the formalin test.

PMID- 28879804
TI  - Evaluation of the endocrine-disrupting effects of homosalate (HMS) and 2
      ethylhexyl 4-dimethylaminobenzoate (OD-PABA) in rat pups during the prenatal,
      lactation, and early postnatal periods.
AB  - Homosalate (HMS) and 2-ethylhexyl 4-dimethylaminobenzoate (OD-PABA) are
      ultraviolet filters. We aimed to investigate the effects of dermal exposure to
      HMS and OD-PABA during the prenatal, lactation, and early infancy periods on
      pubertal development and thyroid function in male and female rats. The thyroid
      glands, uteri, testes, prostate glands, and seminal vesicles were excised and
      weighed, the reproductive organs were analyzed histologically, and the serum
      hormone levels were measured. In the prenatal period, the thyroxine (T4) levels
      increased in the female rats in the exposed groups ( p < 0.05); the thyroid
      weights, reproductive organ weights, and gonadal hormone levels were not altered.
      In males, the testosterone levels decreased ( p < 0.05), but the thyroid weights,
      T4 levels, prostate, and testis weights were not changed. In the lactation
      period, the weights of the thyroid glands increased in the exposed female groups
      ( p < 0.05), but the T4, gonadal hormone levels, and reproductive organ weights
      were not changed. In the males, the thyroid gland weights, T4 levels,
      reproductive organ weights, and gonadal hormone levels were not changed. During
      infancy, the thyroid gland weights increased in the female rats in the exposed
      groups ( p < 0.05), but the T4 levels, gonadal hormone levels, and reproductive
      organ weights were not affected. In the male rats in the exposed groups, the T4
      levels were increased ( p < 0.05), but the thyroid and reproductive organ
      weights, gonadal hormone levels were not affected. Organ histopathology was not
      affected in all groups. HMS and OD-PABA do not have endocrine disruptor effects
      on thyroid function and the pubertal development of female and male rats.

PMID- 28879805
TI  - Venom peptides as therapeutics: advances, challenges and the future of venom
      peptide discovery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Animal venoms are complex chemical arsenals. Most venoms are rich
      in bioactive peptides with proven potential as research tools, drug leads and
      drugs. Areas covered: We review recent advances in venom-peptide discovery,
      particularly the adoption of combined transcriptomic/proteomic approaches for the
      exploration of venom composition. Expert commentary: Advances in transcriptomics
      and proteomics have dramatically altered the manner and rate of venom-peptide
      discovery. The increasing trend towards a toxin-driven approach, as opposed to
      traditional target-based screening of venoms, is likely to expedite the discovery
      of venom-peptides with novel structures and new and unanticipated mechanisms of
      action. At the same time, these advances will drive the development of higher
      throughput approaches for target identification. Taken together, these approaches
      should enhance our understanding of the natural ecological function of venom
      peptides and increase the rate of identification of novel venom-derived
      pharmacological tools, drug leads and drugs.

PMID- 28879807
TI  - The Literature of EOH. III. The Review Paper.

PMID- 28879806
TI  - Distinct sensitivity to caffeine-induced insomnia related to age.
AB  - Caffeine acts by antagonizing the effect of the endogenous homeostatic sleep
      factor adenosine. In the current study we aimed to evaluate the pattern of
      caffeine-induced insomnia and its relation to age and sex in a general population
      sample derived from a web survey. The sample included 75,534 participants (28.1%
      men) from 18 to 75 years who answered self-report questionnaires by accessing a
      website in Brazilian Portuguese (BRAINSTEP project). In our sample, 3620 (17.0%)
      men and 9920 (18.3%) women reported insomnia due to caffeine intake. Caffeine
      induced insomnia increased with aging in both men and women. This difference
      remained after adjusting for sociodemographic, psychiatric and sleep related
      variables as well as caffeine intake. Women showed higher proportion of caffeine
      induced insomnia than men, but this difference did not remain after controlling
      for covariates. Also, individuals with caffeine-induced insomnia reported poorer
      sleep quality, higher latency to fall asleep and a higher proportion of
      psychiatric diagnoses and daily use of hypnotic drugs. In conclusion, our results
      show an age-associated increase in caffeine-induced insomnia and poorer mental
      health indicators among people with caffeine-induced insomnia complaints.

PMID- 28879809
TI  - The Funny-Looking B.

PMID- 28879811
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28879812
TI  - Evidence-Based Practice and Social Work.
AB  - The essential features of contemporary evidence-based practice (EBP) are
      outlined, with specific reference to the applications of this model to various
      areas of social work, micro through macro. EBP is seen as a welcome addition to
      our field, representing a fuller and more comprehensive development of earlier
      and related positions such as empirical clinical practice within social work, and
      the delineation of empirically-supported therapies within psychology. Social work
      should proactively adopt EBP as its preferred conceptual model, reorient BSW and
      MSW training programs along the lines advocated by EBP, and inculcate these
      principles into the delivery of social work services. This is seen as both a
      professional and ethical imperative necessary for the survival of the field.

PMID- 28879813
TI  - Child and Adolescent Alcohol Use and Abuse.
AB  - Alcohol abuse adversely affects the social, psychological, and physical health of
      children and adolescents. Therefore, it is imperative that youth receive the most
      reliable and valid assessment and methodologically proven interventions
      understood by research to date. Empirically supported child and adolescent
      assessment and interventions are described.

PMID- 28879814
TI  - Adolescent Preventive Health and Teams-Games-Tournaments.
AB  - The problematic behaviors of teenagers and the subsequent negative consequences
      are extensive and well documented: unwanted pregnancy, substance abuse, violent
      behavior, depression, and social and psychological consequences of unemployment.
      In this article the authors review an approach that uses a cooperative learning,
      empirically-based intervention that employs peers as teachers. This intervention
      of choice is Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), a paradigm backed by four decades of
      empirical support. The application of TGT in preventive health programs
      incorporates elements in common with other prevention programs that are based on
      a public health orientation and comprise the essential components of health
      education, that is skills training and practice in applying skills. The Teams
      Games-Tournaments intervention supports the idea that children and adolescents
      from various socioeconomic classes, between the ages of 8 to 18, in classrooms or
      groups ranging in size from 4 to 17 members, can work together effectively in
      cooperative instructional situations where group members serve as teachers for
      one another. Teams-Games-Tournaments has been applied successfully in such
      diverse areas as adolescent development, sexuality education, psychoactive
      substance use, anger control, coping with depression and suicide, nutrition,
      comprehensive employment preparation, and family intervention. This article
      reviews the extensive research on TGT using examples of successful projects in
      substance abuse and nutrition. Issues are raised that relate to the
      implementation of preventive health strategies for adolescents, including
      cognitive aspects, social and family networks, and intervention components.

PMID- 28879815
TI  - Treating Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.
AB  - Research on the treatment of eating disorders is a relatively new field, dating
      back approximately 20 years (Peterson & Mitchell, 1999). The purpose of this
      article is to describe the most widely used treatments for anorexia nervosa (AN)
      and bulimia nervosa (BN) and review the existing literature on the effectiveness
      of the identified treatments. Specifically, this article examines the
      effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy, family therapy, interpersonal
      therapy, and pharmacotherapy in the treatment of AN and BN. Each of the reviewed
      treatment modalities has some level of effectiveness, either alone or in
      conjunction with another treatment approach, in treating either AN or BN.

PMID- 28879816
TI  - Revisiting Recent Research on Social Learning Theory as an Etiological
      Proposition for Sexually Abusive Male Adolescents.
AB  - This article examines social learning theory as a construct that is applicable to
      adolescent sexual abusers based upon recent published research. Bandura's (1986)
      work is used to outline the theory and then research on victimization,
      aggression, criminality, pornography and personality is reviewed to assess the
      theory as a reasonable fit for adolescent sexually abusive behavior. Research
      implications are offered that argue for rigorous research methods in the field to
      allow for further test of this theory.

PMID- 28879818
TI  - HIGH PREVALENCE OF VOLUNTARY STERILIZATION AMONG AMERICAN WOMEN EXPLAINED BY
      TRADE-OFFS RESULTING FROM MALE PARENTAL COMMITMENT.
AB  - SummaryTubal ligation is the modal form of family planning among American women
      aged 30 and older. As the preference for tubal ligation over cheaper, lower risk
      and more reliable methods, such as vasectomy, has puzzled experts, a theoretical
      approach that explains this preference would be useful. The present study
      investigates the high prevalence of voluntary sterilization among American women
      from the perspective of life history theory, arguing that the trade-offs between
      investing in current and future offspring will favour tubal ligation when women
      cannot obtain reliable male commitment to future parental investment. Data came
      from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), a nationally
      representative survey of 4712 American women aged 25-45 conducted between 2004
      and 2007. Four novel predictions of the prevalence of tubal ligation, drawn from
      life history theory, were developed and tested: 1) it is most common among
      unpartnered women with children, and least common among married women with
      children; 2) it is negatively correlated with age at first birth; 3) it is least
      common among highly educated women without children, and most common among less
      educated women with children; and 4) among women with two or more children, it is
      positively correlated with lifetime number of long-term partners. These
      predictions were tested using multivariate regression analysis. The first
      prediction was not supported: women with children were more likely to be
      sterilized, regardless of their marital status. The other three predictions were
      all supported by the data. The results suggest that trade-offs influence women's
      decisions to undergo voluntary sterilization. Women are most likely to opt for
      tubal ligation when the costs of an additional child will impinge on their
      ability to invest in existing offspring, especially in the context of reduced
      male commitment.

PMID- 28879817
TI  - Editorial: Proteomic alterations by mutations involved in Parkinson's disease and
      related disorders.

PMID- 28879819
TI  - Clinical utility of MRI and SPECT in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment
      referred to memory clinic.
AB  - : ABSTRACTBackground:Despite of their limited availability and potential for
      significant variation between and within each modality, this is the first study
      to prospectively measure the clinical utility of MRI and/or SPECT brain scanning
      in addition to the routine diagnostic workup of patients presenting to memory
      clinic. METHODS: A single center study was conducted over a convenience of 12
      month sampling period. For each patient referred for MRI and/or SPECT scanning,
      the primary geriatrician or psychogeriatrician was asked to assign an initial
      diagnosis. The initial diagnosis was then compared with the final consensus
      diagnosis after any scans or neuropsychology testing had been completed. RESULTS:
      During the 12-month study period, 66 patients (26%) were referred for scans out
      of a total of 253 patients included in the study. There were 16/44 (36%) positive
      MRI outcomes and 13/35 (37%) positive SPECT outcomes. The diagnosis changed
      consistent with the MRI scan findings in 11/44 (25%) and changed consistent with
      the SPECT scan findings in 9/35 (26%). Potentially reversible pathology was
      identified in a single patient, 1/50 (2%), via an MRI scan that suggested normal
      pressure hydrocephalus. The number needed to test for one positive outcome was
      3.8 (95% CI 2.0-23.3), 6.0 (95% CI NA), and 1.7 (95% CI 1.3-2.5) for MRI only,
      SPECT only, and MRI and SPECT together, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical
      utility of MRI and/or SPECT scanning in this study may be broadly superior to the
      available international evidence, and further research is needed to identify
      predictors of positive scan outcomes.

PMID- 28879820
TI  - Effects of the Healthy Start randomized intervention on dietary intake among
      obesity-prone normal-weight children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the impact of a 15-month intervention on
      dietary intake conducted among obesity-prone normal-weight pre-school children.
      DESIGN: Information on dietary intake was obtained using a 4 d diet record. A
      diet quality index was adapted to assess how well children's diet complied with
      the Danish national guidelines. Linear regression per protocol and intention-to
      treat analyses of differences in intakes of energy, macronutrients, fruit,
      vegetables, fish, sugar-sweetened beverages and diet quality index between the
      two groups were conducted. SETTING: The Healthy Start study was conducted during
      2009-2011, focusing on changing diet, physical activity, sleep and stress
      management to prevent excessive weight gain among Danish children. SUBJECTS: From
      a population of 635 Danish pre-school children, who had a high birth weight
      (>=4000 g), high maternal pre-pregnancy BMI (>=28.0 kg/m2) or low maternal
      educational level (<10 years of schooling), 285 children completed the
      intervention and had complete information on dietary intake. RESULTS: Children in
      the intervention group had a lower energy intake after the 15-month intervention
      (group means: 5.29 v. 5.59 MJ, P=0.02) compared with the control group. We
      observed lower intakes of carbohydrates and added sugar in the intervention group
      compared with the control group after the intervention (P=0.002, P=0.01).
      CONCLUSIONS: The intervention resulted in a lower energy intake, particularly
      from carbohydrates and added sugar after 15 months of intervention, suggesting
      that dietary intake can be changed in a healthier direction in children
      predisposed to obesity.

PMID- 28879821
TI  - Associations between perceived friends' support of healthy eating and meal
      skipping in adolescence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Meal skipping is a relatively common behaviour during adolescence. As
      peer influence increases during adolescence, friendship groups may play a role in
      determining eating patterns such as meal skipping. The current study examined
      cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between perceived friends' support
      of healthy eating and breakfast and lunch skipping among adolescents. DESIGN:
      Survey of intrapersonal, social and environmental factors that may influence
      eating patterns at baseline (2004/05) and follow-up (2006/07). SETTING: Thirty
      seven secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. SUBJECTS: Sample of 1785 students
      aged 12-15 years at baseline. RESULTS: Adolescents who reported that their
      friends sometimes or often ate healthy foods with them were less likely (adjusted
      OR; 95 % CI) to skip breakfast (sometimes: 0.71; 0.57, 0.90; often: 0.54; 0.38,
      0.76) or lunch (sometimes: 0.61; 0.41, 0.89; often: 0.59; 0.37, 0.94) at baseline
      than those who reported their friends never or rarely displayed this behaviour.
      Although this variable was associated with lunch skipping at follow-up, there was
      no evidence of an association with breakfast skipping at follow-up. There was no
      evidence of an association between perceived encouragement of healthy eating, and
      an inconsistent relationship between perceived discouragement of junk food
      consumption, and meal skipping. CONCLUSIONS: Friends eating healthy foods
      together may serve to reduce meal skipping during early adolescence, possibly due
      to the influence of directly observable behaviour and shared beliefs held by
      those in the same friendship group. Verbal encouragement or discouragement from
      friends may be less impactful an influence on meal skipping (than directly
      observable behaviours) in adolescents.

PMID- 28879822
TI  - The impact of pathogen burden on leukocyte telomere length in the Multi-Ethnic
      Study of Atherosclerosis.
AB  - Several infections have been linked to telomere shortening and in some cases
      these associations have varied by sex. We assessed the association between
      seropositivity to four persistent pathogens (cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes
      simplex virus-1, Helicobacter pylori, Chlamydia pneumoniae), and total pathogen
      burden on leukocyte telomere length in a diverse US sample. Data came from the
      Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a population-based cohort study. We
      utilized cross-sectional survey data, and biological samples from participants
      tested for pathogens and telomere length (N = 163). Linear regression was used to
      examine the association between seropositivity for individual pathogens as well
      as total pathogen burden and telomere length, adjusting for various confounders.
      CMV seropositivity and increased total pathogen burden level were significantly
      associated with shorter telomere length among females (beta = -0.1204 (standard
      error (s.e.) 0.06), P = 0.044) and (beta = -0.1057 (s.e. = 0.05), P = 0.033),
      respectively. There was no statistically significant association among males. Our
      findings suggest that prevention or treatment of persistent pathogens, in
      particular CMV, may play an important role in reducing telomere shortening over
      the life course among women. Future research is needed to confirm these novel
      findings in larger longitudinal samples.

PMID- 28879823
TI  - First-time mothers' breast-feeding maintenance: role of experiences and changes
      in maternal perceptions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Breast-feeding initiation rates have increased in the USA; however,
      maintenance of breast-feeding for recommended durations is low. The objective of
      the present study was to identify factors that may facilitate breast-feeding for
      longer durations among first-time mothers, including physiological and social
      experiences and changes in maternal perceptions. DESIGN: Survival analysis and
      linear regression methods were used to explore the relationship between
      experiences and breast-feeding duration, and the possible mediating effect of
      changes in maternal perceptions. SETTING: Secondary data from the Infant Feeding
      Practices Study II, conducted in the USA between 2005 and 2007. SUBJECTS: Data
      from 762 first-time mothers who ever breast-fed were analysed. RESULTS:
      Experiencing trouble with baby's latch, problems with milk flow/supply and
      painful breast-feeding were significantly associated with breast-feeding duration
      (64, 26 and 36 % shorter duration, respectively). Meanwhile, positive changes in
      perception with respect to breast-feeding self-efficacy, opinion about infant
      feeding and belief about breast milk were associated with 16-27 % longer
      duration. Furthermore, changes in perception were observed to partially mediate
      the impact of physiological experiences on breast-feeding duration. CONCLUSIONS:
      Perceptions of breast-feeding self-efficacy, beliefs and opinions can change over
      time and are influenced by breast-feeding experiences. The combined effect of
      experience and perception plays a key role in influencing breast-feeding
      duration. Future research should explore interventions to maintain or improve
      these perceptions while accounting for physiological experiences to support
      breast-feeding for recommended durations among first-time mothers.

PMID- 28879824
TI  - Under-reporting giardiasis: time to consider the public health implications.
AB  - Giardiasis is a treatable disease, caused by the flagellated protozoan parasite,
      Giardia duodenalis (G. duodenalis). It is one of the most common enteric
      parasites found globally to cause gastrointestinal disturbances, and infections
      may result in long-term irritable bowel syndrome-like symptoms. It is a common
      misconception that giardiasis is associated with foreign travel, which results in
      locally acquired cases in the UK being underdiagnosed. This report highlights the
      findings from one large Scottish Health Board, arising from a change in testing
      methodology, which resulted in the screening of all stools submitted for enteric
      investigations for G. duodenalis. Previous selection criteria were restricted to
      patients with a travel history to specific regions of the world, or on the basis
      of certain clinical details. In this report, clinical details were recorded from
      samples shown to be positive using two methods: an ELISA-based antigen detection
      assay and microscopy. Clinical details were assessed for a total of 28 laboratory
      confirmed positive cases against the original selection criteria. Twenty-six
      cases (93%) would have been excluded from Giardia testing if the previous
      selection criteria had been applied. Although nine cases stated foreign travel,
      only two had been to regions deemed to be 'high risk'. Therefore, those seven
      cases that travelled to perceived 'low-risk' regions would have been excluded
      from testing for this reason. This summary highlights the need for significant
      improvements to the selection criteria for Giardia testing. Laboratories should
      be encouraged towards the testing of all routinely submitted stools for this
      neglected pathogen to ensure cases that are acquired locally are properly
      identified and treated effectively.

PMID- 28879825
TI  - Changes in consumption of food away from home and intakes of energy and other
      nutrients among US working-age adults, 2005-2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To document changes in consumption of food away from home (FAFH) and
      intakes of selected nutrients by working-age adults between 2005-06 and 2013-14,
      covering the most recent recessionary period and recovery. DESIGN: Means were
      compared across survey rounds relative to 2005-06. Multivariate regression was
      used to account for changes in demographic characteristics over time. SETTING:
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2005-2014. SUBJECTS:
      Working-age adults born in 1951-80 (n 12 129) and adolescents and young adults
      born in 1981-90 (n 5197) who reported day 1 dietary intake data. RESULTS:
      Approximately 34 % of energy consumed by working-age adults came from FAFH (14 %
      from fast foods) in 2005-06. Levels of FAFH consumption were lowest in 2009-10,
      at 28 and 11 % of energy from FAFH and fast foods, respectively. Percentage of
      energy from fast foods was 1.9 percentage points higher in 2013-14. Percentage of
      energy from saturated fat and total mg of cholesterol consumed were lower in 2009
      14, while intake of fibre was higher in 2011-14. At-home foods had less saturated
      fat and more fibre in 2009-14. The greater the percentage of energy from FAFH in
      the day, the greater the intakes of fat and cholesterol. Percentage of energy
      from FAFH was highest among those born in 1981-90 and lowest among those born in
      1951-60. CONCLUSIONS: FAFH is a significant source of energy, fat and cholesterol
      among working-age adults. Menu labelling may lower FAFH's energy content and make
      it easier for consumers to choose more healthful items.

PMID- 28879826
TI  - Management of paediatric acute mastoiditis: systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute mastoiditis remains the commonest intratemporal complication of
      otitis media in the paediatric population. There has been a lack of consensus
      regarding the diagnosis and management of acute mastoiditis, resulting in
      considerable disparity in conservative and surgical management. OBJECTIVES: To
      review the current literature, proposing recommendations for the management of
      paediatric acute mastoiditis and appraising the treatment outcomes. METHOD: A
      systematic review was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library
      databases. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were included, with a total of 564
      patients. Cure rates of medical treatment, conservative surgery and mastoidectomy
      were 95.9 per cent, 96.3 per cent and 89.1 per cent, respectively. CONCLUSION:
      Mastoidectomy may be the most definitive treatment available; however, reviewed
      data suggest that conservative treatment alone has high efficacy as first-line
      treatment in uncomplicated cases of acute mastoiditis, and conservative therapy
      may be an appropriate first-line management when treating acute mastoiditis.

PMID- 28879827
TI  - The prevalence and factors associated with stunting among infants aged 6 months
      in a peri-urban South African community.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with stunting in 6
      month-old South African infants. DESIGN: This cross-sectional study was part of
      the baseline of a randomized controlled trial. Weight-for-length, length-for-age
      and weight-for-age Z-scores were based on the WHO classification. Blood samples
      were analysed for Hb, plasma ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR).
      Socio-economic, breast-feeding and complementary feeding practices were assessed
      by questionnaire. Setting/Subjects Infants aged 6 months (n 750) from a peri
      urban area of Matlosana Municipality, North West Province of South Africa.
      RESULTS: Stunting, underweight, wasting and overweight affected 28.5, 11.1, 1.7
      and 10.1 % of infants, respectively. Exclusive breast-feeding to 6 months of age
      was reported in 5.9 % of the infants. Multivariable binary logistic regression
      showed that birth weight (OR=0.12; 95 % CI 0.07, 0.21, P8.3 mg/l) concentrations.
      CONCLUSIONS: The association between stunting and lower birth weight, shorter
      maternal height and male sex reflects possibly the intergenerational origins of
      stunting. Therefore, interventions that focus on improving preconceptual and
      maternal nutritional status, combined with strategies to promote appropriate
      infant feeding practices, may be an important strategy to prevent stunting in
      vulnerable settings.

PMID- 28879828
TI  - Potential of telepresence robots to enhance social connectedness in older adults
      with dementia: an integrative review of feasibility.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Socially assistive robots are increasingly used as a therapeutic tool
      for people with dementia, as a means to improve quality of life through social
      connection. This paper presents a mixed-method integrative review of telepresence
      robots used to improve social connection of people with dementia by enabling real
      time communication with their carers. METHODS: A systematic search of Medline,
      ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, EMBASE, and the Cochrane
      library was conducted to gather available evidence on the use of telepresence
      robots, specifically videoconferencing, to improve social connectedness, in
      people with dementia. A narrative synthesis was used to analyze the included
      studies. RESULTS: A review of 1,035 records, identified four eligible peer
      reviewed publications, reporting findings about three different mobile
      telepresence robots. The study designs included qualitative and mixed-methods
      approaches, focusing primarily on examining the feasibility and acceptability of
      the telepresence robots within the context of dementia care. These studies
      reported both positive outcomes of using telepresence robots to connect people
      with dementia to others, as well as barriers, such as a lack of experience in
      using a robot and technological issues. CONCLUSION: Although limited, the current
      literature suggests that telepresence robots have potential utility for improving
      social connectedness of people with dementia and their carers. However, more
      systematic feasibility studies are needed to inform the development of
      telepresence robots followed by clinical trials to establish efficacy within
      dementia care.

PMID- 28879829
TI  - Five-year surveillance of human tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis in
      Bologna, Italy: an underestimated problem.
AB  - Human tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis surveillance is affected by
      a lack of data. The aims of the present study were: (i) to estimate the
      proportion of human TB caused by M. bovis over a period of 5 years in Bologna,
      Northern Italy, which, like most Western European countries, has been declared
      bovine TB-free; (ii) to compare the genetic profiles of M. bovis strains
      identified in humans with those circulating in cattle in the last 15 years in
      Italy. Among 511 TB patients, the proportion of human TB caused by M. bovis was
      1.76%, significantly associated to extra-pulmonary localization (P = 0.004) and
      to being elderly (P < 0.001) and Italy-born (P = 0.036). The molecular
      epidemiology analysis by spoligotyping and Multilocus Variable Tandem Repeat
      Analysis confirmed that most M. bovis strains from Italy-born patients matched
      those circulating in cattle herds in Italy between 2001 and 2016. Two cases of
      Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection were also characterized. In conclusion, the
      rate of human TB caused by M. bovis was not negligible, highlighting the
      relevance of molecular typing in evaluating the effectiveness of programmes
      designed to eradicate TB in cattle in Italy.

PMID- 28879830
TI  - The legislative framework for salt iodization in Asia and the Pacific and its
      impact on programme implementation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Fortification of food-grade (edible) salt with iodine is recommended
      as a safe, cost-effective and sustainable strategy for the prevention of iodine
      deficiency disorders. The present paper examines the legislative framework for
      salt iodization in Asian countries. DESIGN: We reviewed salt iodization
      legislation in thirty-six countries in Asia and the Pacific. We obtained copies
      of existing and draft legislation for salt iodization from UNICEF country offices
      and the WHO's Global Database of Implementation of Nutrition Actions. We compiled
      legislation details by country and report on commonalities and gaps using a
      standardized form. The association between type of legislation and availability
      of iodized salt in households was assessed. RESULTS: We identified twenty-one
      countries with existing salt iodization legislation, of which eighteen were
      mandatory. A further nine countries have draft legislation. The majority of
      countries with draft and existing legislation used a mandatory standard or
      technical regulation for iodized salt under their Food Act/Law. The remainder
      have developed a 'stand-alone' Law/Act. Available national surveys indicate that
      the proportion of households consuming adequately iodized salt was lowest in
      countries with no, draft or voluntary legislation, and highest in those where the
      legislation was based on mandatory regulations under Food Acts/Laws. CONCLUSIONS:
      Legislation for salt iodization, particularly mandatory legislation under the
      national food law, facilitates universal salt iodization. However, additional
      important factors for implementation of salt iodization and maintenance of
      achievements include the salt industry's structure and capacity to adequately
      fortify, and official commitment and capacity to enforce national legislation.

PMID- 28879831
TI  - Adherence to dietary recommendations for Swedish adults across categories of
      greenhouse gas emissions from food.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore associations between diet-related greenhouse gas emissions
      (GHGE), nutrient intakes and adherence to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations
      among Swedish adults. DESIGN: Diet was assessed by 4d food records in the Swedish
      National Dietary Survey. GHGE was estimated by linking all foods to carbon
      dioxide equivalents, using data from life cycle assessment studies. Participants
      were categorized into quartiles of energy-adjusted GHGE and differences between
      GHGE groups regarding nutrient intakes and adherence to nutrient recommendations
      were explored. SETTING: Sweden. SUBJECTS: Women (n 840) and men (n 627) aged 18
      80 years. RESULTS: Differences in nutrient intakes and adherence to nutrient
      recommendations between GHGE groups were generally small. The dietary intake of
      participants with the lowest emissions was more in line with recommendations
      regarding protein, carbohydrates, dietary fibre and vitamin D, but further from
      recommendations regarding added sugar, compared with the highest GHGE group. The
      overall adherence to recommendations was found to be better among participants
      with lower emissions compared with higher emissions. Among women, 27 % in the
      lowest GHGE group adhered to at least twenty-three recommendations compared with
      only 12 % in the highest emission group. For men, the corresponding figures were
      17 and 10 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study compared nutrient intakes as
      well as adherence to dietary recommendations for diets with different levels of
      GHGE from a national dietary survey. We found that participants with low-emission
      diets, despite higher intake of added sugar, adhered to a larger number of
      dietary recommendations than those with high emissions.

PMID- 28879832
TI  - Supermarket access, transport mode and BMI: the potential for urban design and
      planning policy across socio-economic areas.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate dietary intake, BMI and supermarket access at varying
      geographic scales and transport modes across areas of socio-economic
      disadvantage, and to evaluate the implementation of an urban planning policy that
      provides guidance on spatial access to supermarkets. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
      study used generalised estimating equations to investigate associations between
      supermarket density and proximity, vegetable and fruit intake and BMI at five
      geographic scales representing distances people travel to purchase food by
      varying transport modes. A stratified analysis by area-level disadvantage was
      conducted to detect optimal distances to supermarkets across socio-economic
      areas. Spatial distribution of supermarket and transport access was analysed
      using a geographic information system. SETTING: Melbourne, Australia. SUBJECTS:
      Adults (n 3128) from twelve local government areas (LGA) across Melbourne.
      RESULTS: Supermarket access was protective of BMI for participants in high
      disadvantaged areas within 800 m (P=0.040) and 1000 m (P=0.032) road network
      buffers around the household but not for participants in less disadvantaged
      areas. In urban growth area LGA, only 26 % of dwellings were within 1 km of a
      supermarket, far less than 80-90 % of dwellings suggested in the local urban
      planning policy. Low public transport access compounded disadvantage.
      CONCLUSIONS: Rapid urbanisation is a global health challenge linked to increases
      in dietary risk factors and BMI. Our findings highlight the importance of
      identifying the most appropriate geographic scale to inform urban planning policy
      for optimal health outcomes across socio-economic strata. Urban planning policy
      implementation in disadvantaged areas within cities has potential for reducing
      health inequities.

PMID- 28879833
TI  - Prevalence of mild behavioral impairment in mild cognitive impairment and
      subjective cognitive decline, and its association with caregiver burden.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mild behavioral impairment (MBI) describes later life acquired,
      sustained neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in cognitively normal individuals or
      those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), as an at-risk state for incident
      cognitive decline and dementia. We developed an operational definition of MBI and
      tested whether the presence of MBI was related to caregiver burden in patients
      with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or MCI assessed at a memory clinic.
      METHODS: MBI was assessed in 282 consecutive memory clinic patients with SCD (n =
      119) or MCI (n = 163) in accordance with the International Society to Advance
      Alzheimer's Research and Treatment - Alzheimer's Association (ISTAART-AA)
      research diagnostic criteria. We operationalized a definition of MBI using the
      Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q). Caregiver burden was assessed
      using the Zarit caregiver burden scale. Generalized linear regression was used to
      model the effect of MBI domains on caregiver burden. RESULTS: While MBI was more
      prevalent in MCI (85.3%) than in SCD (76.5%), this difference was not
      statistically significant (p = 0.06). Prevalence estimates across MBI domains
      were affective dysregulation (77.8%); impulse control (64.4%); decreased
      motivation (51.7%); social inappropriateness (27.8%); and abnormal perception or
      thought content (8.7%). Affective dysregulation (p = 0.03) and decreased
      motivation (p=0.01) were more prevalent in MCI than SCD patients. Caregiver
      burden was 3.35 times higher when MBI was present after controlling for age,
      education, sex, and MCI (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: MBI was common in memory
      clinic patients without dementia and was associated with greater caregiver
      burden. These data show that MBI is a common and clinically relevant syndrome.

PMID- 28879834
TI  - Prospective associations between dietary patterns and body composition changes in
      European children: the IDEFICS study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe dietary patterns by applying cluster analysis and to
      describe the cluster memberships of European children over time and their
      association with body composition changes. DESIGN: The analyses included k-means
      clustering based on the similarities between the relative frequencies of
      consumption of forty-three food items and regression models were fitted to assess
      the association between dietary patterns and body composition changes. SETTING:
      Primary schools and pre-schools of selected regions in Italy, Estonia, Cyprus,
      Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Spain. SUBJECTS: Participants (n 8341) in
      the baseline (2-9 years old) and follow-up (4-11 years old) surveys of the
      IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health
      EFfects In Children and infantS) study. RESULTS: Three persistent clusters were
      obtained at baseline and follow-up. Children consistently allocated to the
      'processed' cluster presented increased BMI (beta=0.050; 95 % CI 0.006, 0.093),
      increased waist circumference (beta=0.071; 95 % CI 0.001, 0.141) and increased
      fat mass gain (beta=0.052; 95 % CI 0.014, 0.090) over time v. children allocated
      to the 'healthy' cluster. Being in the 'processed'-'sweet' cluster combination
      was also linked to increased BMI (beta=0.079; 95 % CI 0.015, 0.143), increased
      waist circumference (beta=0.172; 95 % CI 0.069, 0.275) and increased fat mass
      gain (beta=0.076; 95 % CI 0.019, 0.133) over time v. the 'healthy' cluster.
      CONCLUSIONS: Children consistently showing a processed dietary pattern or
      changing from a processed pattern to a sweet pattern presented the most
      unfavourable changes in fat mass and abdominal fat. These findings support the
      need to promote overall healthy dietary habits in obesity prevention and health
      promotion programmes targeting children.

PMID- 28879835
TI  - The nutritional quality of New Zealand breakfast cereals: an update.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the nutritional quality of New Zealand breakfast cereals in
      2013 and 2017. DESIGN: Nutrition Information Panel data were collected from all
      cereals available from two large supermarket chains in 2017 and compared with
      earlier published data collected in 2013. SETTING: Urban New Zealand
      supermarkets. SUBJECTS: The nutritional content of breakfast cereals ('biscuits
      and bites', 'brans', 'bubbles, flakes and puffs', 'children's cereals', 'muesli'
      and 'oats') was analysed for total energy, protein, fat (total and saturated),
      carbohydrate, sugar, fibre and Na. The Nutrient Profile Scoring Criterion (NPSC)
      for each cereal was calculated to determine the proportion of 'less healthy'
      cereals (NPSC>=4) in each product category. RESULTS: The energy and fat content
      of bubbles, flakes and puffs, muesli and oats were significantly higher in 2017
      compared with 2013 (all P<=0.01). However, there was a small reduction in Na
      overall in 2017 (P<0.05). There was no change between 2013 and 2017 in the
      proportion of 'healthy' or 'less healthy' breakfast cereals available.
      CONCLUSIONS: The nutrient profile of breakfast cereals has not improved since
      2013, suggesting that industry self-regulation of the nutritional composition of
      cereals in New Zealand is not working and needs urgent reconsideration.

PMID- 28879836
TI  - Care staff and the creative arts: exploring the context of involving care
      personnel in arts interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arts-based interventions play an important role in the care of people
      with dementia. Yet, creative arts are seldom implemented as a tool to enhance the
      care and wellbeing of people with dementia. METHODS: We examined the involvement
      of care staff in creative arts activities in residential care. Aspects of
      involvement that appear to influence outcomes in people with dementia were
      identified and analyzed. A broad systematic literature search of MedLine, EMBASE,
      PsychInfo, CINAHL, ASSIA, SCOPUS, and Web of Science led to the identification of
      14 papers. The studies identified through the search process were examined in
      terms of intervention, context, mechanism and outcome, and the relationships
      between these aspects. RESULTS: Training sessions were identified as an
      opportunity to educate care personnel on useful techniques that are relevant to
      daily care practice. Evidence from the literature suggests that creative arts
      programs play a significant role in the way staff and residents interact and as a
      result influence the care practice of staff. Under certain conditions creative
      arts programs, that involve and engage staff, facilitate enhanced interactions
      and improve care strategies, which leads to the recognition and validation of
      personhood in residents with dementia. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a
      basis for illustrating which elements of care staff involvement in creative arts
      programs could be implemented in residential care contexts in order to have the
      upmost benefit.

PMID- 28879837
TI  - Bacillus endozanthoxylicus sp. nov., an endophytic bacterium isolated from
      Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim leaves.
AB  - A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, motile bacterium, designated as 1404T, was
      isolated from leaves of Chinese red pepper (Huajiao) (Zanthoxylum bungeanum
      Maxim) collected from Gansu, north-west China. Spores were not observed under a
      range of conditions. Strain 1404T was observed to grow at 15-45  degrees C and pH
      6.0-10.0 and in presence of 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl concentration. The cell wall of
      strain 1404T was found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid, and the predominant
      respiratory quinone was identified as MK-7. The major polar lipids were
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an
      unidentified phospholipid as well as three unidentified polar lipids. The major
      fatty acids profile of strain 1404T consisted of iso-C15 : 0 (25.6 %), anteiso
      C15 : 0 (18.4 %) and iso-C14 : 0 (12.1 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S
      rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 1404T was affiliated to the genus
      Bacillus and was closely related to Bacillusoryzisoli 1DS3-10T,
      Bacillusbenzoevorans DSM 5391T and Bacilluscirculans DSM 11T with sequence
      similarity of 98.3, 98.2 and 96.9 %, respectively. The G+C content of the genomic
      DNA was determined to be 39.4 mol%. DNA-DNA hybridization values indicated that
      relatedness between strain 1404T and the type strains of closely related species
      of the genus Bacillus was below 41 %. Therefore, on the basis of the data from
      the polyphasic taxonomic study presented, strain 1404T represents a novel species
      of the genus Bacillus, for which the name proposed is Bacillus endozanthoxylicus
      sp. nov. The type strain is 1404T (=CCTCC AB 2017021T=KCTC 33827T).

PMID- 28879838
TI  - Agarilytica rhodophyticola gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from Gracilaria
      blodgettii.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, aerobic, agarolytic
      bacterium, designated 017T, was isolated from Gracilaria blodgettii collected at
      the coast of Lingshui county, Hainan province, China. Optimal growth occurred at
      28-33  degrees C (range 15-40  degrees C), with 3 % (w/v) NaCl (range 2-4 %) and
      at pH 8.0 (range pH 6.5-8.5). Cells of strain 017T were motile and formed yellow
      colonies on marine agar 2216. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene
      sequences revealed that strain 017T shared the highest similarity with
      Teredinibacter turnerae T7902T (94.4 %). The predominant polar lipids of the
      novel isolate consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine,
      aminophospholipid and some other unknown lipids. Major cellular fatty acids (>10
      %) were C16 : 0, C18 : 1omega7c and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c/iso-C15 : 0
      2-OH), and the sole respiratory lipoquinone was Q-8. The DNA G+C content of
      strain 017T was 40.2 mol%. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences and
      phenotypic characterization indicated that strain 017T represents a novel species
      in a new genus of the family Cellvibrionaceae, order Cellvibrionales, for which
      the name Agarilytica rhodophyticola gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type
      strain of Agarilytica rhodophyticola is 017T (=KCTC 42584T=MCCC 1H00123T).

PMID- 28879839
TI  - Ramlibacter rhizophilus sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere soil of national
      flower Mugunghwa from South Korea.
AB  - A Gram-negative, aerobic, non-motile, long rods or coccoid without flagellum
      strain, designated THG-YS3.2.7T, was isolated from therhizosphere soil of a
      Mugunghwa flower collected from Kyung Hee University, Yongin, South Korea. Growth
      occurred at 10-40  degrees C (optimum 28-37  degrees C), at pH 6-8 (optimum 7)
      and at 0-5 % NaCl (optimum 1 %). The predominant ubiquinone was ubiquinone 8 (Q
      8). The major cellular fatty acids were C10 : 0, C10 : 0 3OH, C16 : 0, C17 : 0,
      C17 : 0 cyclo, C18 : 0, C18 : 3omega6c (6,9,12), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c
      and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 omega7c and/or C18 :
      1omega6c). The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG),
      phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine
      (PC). The DNA G+C content of strain THG-YS3.2.7T was 69.4 mol%. Based on 16S rRNA
      gene sequence analysis, the nearest phylogenetic neighbours of strain THG
      YS3.2.7T were identified as Ramlibacter henchirensis DSM 14656T (97.92 %),
      Ramlibacter tataouinensis DSM 14655T (97.90 %), Ramlibacter solisilvae KACC
      17567T (97.04 %). DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain THG-YS3.2.7T and R.
      henchirensis DSM 14656T, R. tataouinensis DSM 14655T, R. solisilvae KACC 17567T
      were 32.5+/-1.5, 43.1+/-1.1, 42.8+/-1.1 %, respectively. On the basis of the
      phylogenetic analysis, chemotaxonomic data, physiological characteristics and DNA
      DNA hybridization data, strain THG-YS3.2.7T represent a novel species of the
      genus Ramlibacter, for which the name Ramlibacter rhizophilus sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is THG-YS3.2.7T (=KCTC 52083T=CCTCC AB 2015357T).

PMID- 28879840
TI  - Larkinella ripae sp. nov., isolated from seashore soil.
AB  - Strain 15J11-11T was isolated from soil collected at the seashore and was Gram
      staining-negative, short-rod-shaped, gliding and pale-pink pigmented. Flexirubin
      type pigments were absent. The isolate grew at a temperature range of 15 to 30 
      degrees C and a pH range of 7 to 8. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence studies
      showed that strain 15J11-11T belonged to the genus Larkinella within the phylum
      Bacteroidetes and was most closely related to Larkinella arboricola Z0532T (95.6
      %), Larkinella bovis M2TB15T (95.4 %), and Larkinella insperata LMG 22510T (95.2
      %). The genomic DNA G+C content of strain 15J11-11T was 53.2 mol%. The strain
      contained phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, an unidentified
      aminophospholipid and two unidentified polar lipids as the major polar lipids;
      menaquinone-7 as the predominant quinone and C16 : 1omega5c, iso-C15 : 0 and iso
      C17 : 0 3-OH as the major fatty acids which supported the affiliation of strain
      15J11-11T to the genus Larkinella. Based on its phenotypic properties and
      phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain 15J11-11T represents a novel species of the
      genus Larkinella, for which the name Larkinella ripae sp. nov. is proposed. The
      type strain is 15J11-11T (=KCTC 42996T=JCM 31657T).

PMID- 28879841
TI  - Pontibacterium granulatum gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, moderately halophilic bacterium,
      designated A-1T, was isolated from a tidal flat of the Taean coast in South
      Korea. Cells were motile rods with a single flagellum showing oxidase-negative
      and catalase-positive activities and contained poly-beta-hydroxyalkanoic acid
      granules. Growth of strain A-1T was observed at 20-40  degrees C (optimum, 30 
      degrees C), pH 6.0-10.5 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the presence of 1.0-6.0 % (w/v)
      NaCl (optimum, 2.0 %). Strain A-1T contained C16 : 0, summed feature 3
      (comprising C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and summed feature 8
      (comprising C18 : 1omega7c and/or C18 : 1omega6c) as the major fatty acids. The
      major polar lipids of strain A-1T were phosphatidylethanolamine,
      phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The isoprenoid quinones detected
      were ubiquinone-7 and ubiquinone-8. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 51.5
      mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain A
      1T formed a distinct phylogenetic lineage from other genera within the family
      Oceanospirillaceae. Strain A-1T shared low 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities
      with other taxa (<=94.9 %). On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and
      molecular properties, it is clear that strain A-1T represents a novel genus and
      species of the family Oceanospirillaceae, for which the name Pontibacterium
      granulatum gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is A-1T (=KACC
      18119T=JCM 30136T).

PMID- 28879842
TI  - Maribacter pelagius sp. nov., isolated from seawater.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, gliding, non-endospore-forming and slightly halophilic
      bacterial strain, CBA3204T, was isolated from seawater and characterized by
      polyphasic taxonomic analysis. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA sequences
      revealed that strain CBA3204T formed a distinct lineage within the family
      Flavobacteriaceae. The 16S rRNA sequences of strain CBA3204T had a sequence
      similarity level of 96.96 % to Maribacter arcticus KOPRI 20941T as the nearest
      phylogenetic neighbour. The strain grew optimally at 25-30  degrees C and in the
      presence of 2-4 % (w/v) NaCl. The dominant menaquinone was MK-6 and the major
      fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 1 G. The DNA G+C
      content was 35.1 mol%. There were some differences in phenotypic properties among
      strain CBA3204T and other Maribacter species. On the basis of polyphasic analysis
      containing phenotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic data, strain CBA3204T
      (=KACC 17671T=JCM 19533T) is proposed as a novel species Maribacter pelagius sp.
      nov.

PMID- 28879843
TI  - Transfer of 13 species of the genus Burkholderia to the genus Caballeronia and
      reclassification of Burkholderia jirisanensis as Paraburkholderia jirisanensis
      comb. nov.
AB  - A recent study of a group of Burkholderia glathei-like bacteria resulted in the
      description of 13 novel species of the genus Burkholderia. However, our analysis
      of phylogenetic positions of these species and their molecular signatures
      (conserved protein sequence indels) showed that they belong to the genus
      Caballeronia, and we propose to transfer them to this genus. The reclassified
      species names are proposed as Caballeroniaarationis comb. nov., Caballeroniaarvi
      comb. nov., Caballeroniacalidae comb. nov., Caballeroniacatudaia comb. nov.,
      Caballeroniaconcitans comb. nov., Caballeroniafortuita comb. nov.,
      Caballeroniaglebae comb. nov., Caballeroniahypogeia comb. nov., Caballeroniapedi
      comb. nov., Caballeroniaperedens comb. nov., Caballeroniaptereochthonis comb.
      nov., Caballeroniatemeraria comb. nov. and Caballeronia turbans comb. nov. It is
      also proposed to reclassify Burkholderia jirisanensis as
      Paraburkholderiajirisanensis comb. nov. Based on the results of the polyphasic
      study, B. jirisanensis had been described as a member of the A-group of the genus
      Burkholderiaand the most closely related to Burkholderia rhizosphaerae,
      Burkholderia humisilvae and Burkholderia solisilvae currently classified as
      belonging to the genus Paraburkholderia.

PMID- 28879844
TI  - Lactobacillus silagincola sp. nov. and Lactobacillus pentosiphilus sp. nov.,
      isolated from silage.
AB  - Three Gram-stain positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming, catalase-negative and
      rod-shaped bacterial strains (IWT5T, IWT25T and IWT140), isolated from silage,
      were investigated by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strains IWT5T and
      IWT25T grew at 10-37  degrees C and 30-37  degrees C, and at pH 4.0-7.5 and 4.0
      7.0, respectively. The G+C contents of genomic DNA of strains IWT5T and IWT25T
      were 43.2 and 44.4 mol%, respectively. Strains IWT5T and IWT25T contained C16 :
      0, C18 : 1 omega9c and summed feature 7 (unknown 18.846/C19 : 1 omega6c/C19 :
      0cyclo omega10c) as the major fatty acids. Strain IWT5T was most closely related
      to the type strains of Lactobacillus mixtipabuli (99.9 % 16S rRNA gene sequence
      similarity) and Lactobacillus silagei (99.5 %). For IWT25T, the 16S rRNA gene
      sequence similarities with the closely related neighbour type strains L.
      mixtipabuli and L. silagei were 99.5 and 99.5 %, respectively. The 16S rRNA gene
      sequence similarities among the three novel isolates were 99.5-99.9 %. The
      average nucleotide identities of strains IWT5T and IWT25T to other neighbours of
      the genus Lactobacillus were less than 82 % and the genomes of IWT25T and IWT140
      shared 97.3 % average nucleotide identity, demonstrating that the three strains
      were allocated to two different novel species of the genus Lactobacillus.
      Together with multilocus sequence analysis, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic
      characteristics, strains IWT5T (=JCM 31144T=DSM 102973T) and IWT25T (=JCM
      31145T=DSM 102974T) are proposed as the type strains of novel species of the
      genus Lactobacillus, with the names Lactobacillus silagincola sp. nov. and
      Lactobacillus pentosiphilus sp. nov., respectively.

PMID- 28879845
TI  - Pseudokineococcus basanitobsidens sp. nov., isolated from volcanic rock.
AB  - A novel Gram-strain-positive, non-spore-forming bacterial strain, designated SKC1
      2T, was isolated from volcanic rock of the scoria cone of Seobjikoji, Jeju,
      Republic of Korea. Cells were aerobic, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative,
      motile and cocci. Colonies of cells were dark orange-coloured, circular, smooth
      and convex. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that
      the isolate was related to members of the genus Pseudokineococcus. Phylogenetic
      neighbours were P. marinus KCCM 42250T (98.2 %, 16S rRNA gene sequence
      similarity) and P. lusitanus DSM 23768T (98.0 %). The diagnostic diamino acid in
      the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant
      respiratory quinone was MK-9(H2). The predominant respiratory quinone was MK
      9(H2) and the major fatty acid was anteiso-C15 : 0. The polar lipid profile
      included major amounts of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylinositol, two unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified
      phosphoglycolipids. The DNA G+C content was 74.9 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness values
      between strain SKC1-2T and P. lusitanus DSM 23768T or P. marinus KCCM 42250T were
      37.5-38.1 % or 45.4-46.4 %, respectively. On the basis of the phenotypic
      differences and DNA-DNA relatedness data, the isolate represents a new species of
      the genus Pseudokineococcus, for which the name Pseudokineococcus basanitobsidens
      sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SKC1-2T (=DSM 103726T=KCCM 43221T).

PMID- 28879846
TI  - Promicromonospora soli sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from soil.
AB  - A novel actinobacterium, designated strain NEAU-GS50T, was isolated from soil
      collected from Mount Song and characterized by using a polyphasic approach.
      Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the
      organism should be assigned to the genus Promicromonospora and that it forms a
      monophyletic clade with its closest relatives Promicromonospora umidemergens JCM
      17975T (98.94 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Promicromonospora alba 1C
      HV12T (98.82 %) and Promicromonospora kermanensis DSM45485T (98.68 %). Similarly,
      chemotaxonomic data including major menaquinones, fatty acid compositions and
      polar lipid profiles, also supported the placement of strain NEAU-GS50T in the
      genus Promicromonospora. However, DNA-DNA relatedness, physiological and
      biochemical data showed that strain NEAU-GS50T could be distinguished from its
      closest relatives. Therefore, strain NEAU-GS50T represents a novel species of the
      genus Promicromonospora, for which the name Promicromonospora soli sp. nov. is
      proposed, with strain NEAU-GS50T (CGMCC4.7398T=DSM 104515T) as the type strain.

PMID- 28879847
TI  - Endozoicomonas acroporae sp. nov., isolated from Acropora coral.
AB  - Strain Acr-14T, isolated from Acropora coral, was characterized by using a
      polyphasic taxonomy approach. Cells of strain Acr-14T were Gram-stain-negative,
      aerobic, non-motile, poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate-accumulating, rod-shaped and
      formed creamy white colonies. Optimal growth occurred at 30  degrees C, pH 7 and
      in the presence of 2 % NaCl. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene
      sequences showed that strain Acr-14T belonged to the genus Endozoicomonas and was
      most closely related to Endozoicomonas atrinae WP70T with sequence similarity of
      96.7 %. Strain Acr-14T contained summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 :
      1omega6c), summed feature 8 (C18 : 1omega7c and/or C18 : 1omega6c) and C16 : 0 as
      the predominant fatty acids. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was Q-9. The
      major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and
      diphosphatidylglycerol. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain Acr-14T was 49.1
      mol%. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic
      inference, demonstrated that strain Acr-14T should be classified as a novel
      species of the genus Endozoicomonas, for which the name Endozoicomonas acroporae
      sp. nov. is presented. The type strain is Acr-14T (=BCRC 80922T=LMG 29482T=KCTC
      42901T).

PMID- 28879848
TI  - Altererythrobacter deserti sp. nov., isolated from desert soil.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, short rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium (THG-S3T),
      was isolated from desert soil. Growth occurred at 15-35  degrees C (optimum 28 
      degrees C), at pH 5-10 (optimum 7) and at 0-4 % NaCl (optimum 1 %). Based on 16S
      rRNA gene sequence analysis, the nearest phylogenetic neighbours of strain THG
      S3T were identified as Altererythrobacter rigui KCTC 42620T (99.0 %),
      Altererythrobacter dongtanensis KCTC 22672T (97.1 %), Altererythrobacter
      xinjiangensis CCTCC AB 207166T (96.9 %), Altererythrobacter troitsensis KCTC
      12303T (96.9 %). Levels of relatedness among strain THG-S3T and other
      Altererythrobacter species were lower than 96.0 %. DNA-DNA hybridization values
      between strain THG-S3T and A. rigui KCTC 42620T, A. dongtanensis KCTC 22672T, A.
      xinjiangensis CCTCC AB 207166T and A. troitsensis KCTC 12303T were 59.7 % (42.8
      %, reciprocal analysis), 45.1 % (36.3 %), 34.7 % (25.1 %) and 15.1 % (12.3 %),
      respectively. The DNA G+C content of strain THG-S3T was 69 mol%. The polar lipids
      were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and
      three unidentified lipids The quinone was ubiquinone-10. The major fatty acids
      were C16 : 0, C17 : 1 omega6c, C18 : 1 omega7c and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1
      omega7c and/or C16 : 1 omega6c). On the basis of the phylogenetic analysis,
      chemotaxonomic data, physiological characteristics and DNA-DNA hybridization
      data, strain THG-S3T represents a novel species of the genus Altererythrobacter,
      for which the name Altererythrobacter deserti sp. nov. is proposed. The type
      strain is THG-S3T (=KACC 19190T=CGMCC 1.15959T).

PMID- 28879849
TI  - Altererythrobacter xixiisoli sp. nov., isolated from wetland soil.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, coccoid, yellow, non-motile, aerobic bacterium, designated
      strain S36T, was isolated from soil of the Xixi wetland in Zhejiang province, PR
      China. Phylogenetic analysis, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, revealed that
      strain S36T could represent a novel species of genus Altererythrobacter showing
      highest similarity to Altererythrobacter atlanticus 26DY36T (96.31 % 16S rRNA
      gene sequence similarity). The temperature, pH and NaCl concentration ranges for
      growth were 10-37  degrees C (optimum 32  degrees C), pH 5.0-10.0 (optimum pH
      7.0) and 0.5-3 % (optimum 1 %, w/v), respectively. The predominant respiratory
      quinone of strain S36T was Q-10. The major fatty acids were C16 : 0, C17 :
      1omega6c, C18 : 1omega7c and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or iso-C15 : 0
      2-OH). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 62.7 mol%. These data all support
      the affiliation of strain S36T to the genus Altererythrobacter. The polar lipids
      profile of strain S36T comprised diphosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified phospholipids
      and two unidentified glycolipids. The results of physiological and biochemical
      tests allowed differentiation of strain S36T from other members of the genus
      Altererythrobacter. Therefore, strain S36T represents a novel species of the
      genus Altererythrobacter, for which the name Altererythrobacter xixiisoli sp.
      nov. is proposed; the type strain is S36T (=CGMCC 1.12804T=NBRC 110413T).

PMID- 28879850
TI  - Limibaculum halophilum gen. nov., sp. nov., a new member of the family
      Rhodobacteraceae.
AB  - A Gram-stain-negative, cream-pigmented, aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming
      and short-rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated CAU 1123T, was isolated from
      mud from reclaimed land. The strain's taxonomic position was investigated by
      using a polyphasic approach. Strain CAU 1123T grew optimally at 37  degrees C and
      at pH 7.5 in the presence of 2 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on the
      16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain CAU 1123T formed a monophyletic
      lineage within the family Rhodobacteraceae with 93.8 % or lower sequence
      similarity to representatives of the genera Rubrimonas, Oceanicella,
      Pleomorphobacterium, Rhodovulum and Albimonas. The major fatty acids were C18 : 1
      omega7c and 11-methyl C18 : 1 omega7c and the predominant respiratory quinone was
      Q-10. The polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two
      unidentified phospholipids, one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified
      lipid. The DNA G+C content was 71.1 mol%. Based on the data from phenotypic,
      chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic studies, it is proposed that strain CAU 1123T
      represents a novel genus and novel species of the family Rhodobacteraceae, for
      which the name Limibaculumhalophilum gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is CAU
      1123T (=KCTC 52187T, =NBRC 112522T).

PMID- 28879852
TI  - Type III CRISPR-Cas System: Introduction And Its Application for Genetic
      Manipulations.
AB  - Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR
      associated (Cas) genes provide adaptive immunity against invasion of foreign
      nucleic acids in archaea and bacteria. The system functions in three distinct
      stages: adaptation, biogenesis, and interference. CRISPR-Cas systems are
      currently classified into at least five different types, each with a signature
      protein among which Type III systems exhibit a dual DNA/RNA interference
      activity. Structures of a few Type III surveillance complexes have been
      determined: they are composed of several different subunits and exhibit striking
      architectural similarities to Type I surveillance complexes. Here, we review the
      genetic, biochemical, and structural studies concerning CRISPR-Cas Type III
      systems and discuss their application for genetic manipulations, including genome
      engineering and gene silencing.

PMID- 28879853
TI  - dCas9: A Versatile Tool for Epigenome Editing.
AB  - The epigenome is a heritable layer of information not encoded in the DNA sequence
      of the genome, but in chemical modifications of DNA or histones. These chemical
      modifications, together with transcription factors, operate as spatiotemporal
      regulators of genome activity. Dissecting epigenome function requires controlled
      site-specific alteration of epigenetic information. Such control can be obtained
      using designed DNA-binding platforms associated with effector domains to function
      as targeted transcription factors or epigenetic modifiers. Here, we review the
      use of dCas9 as a novel and versatile tool for fundamental studies on epigenetic
      landscapes, chromatin structure and transcription regulation, and the potential
      of this approach in basic research in these fields.

PMID- 28879851
TI  - Fundamental bound on the persistence and capacity of short-term memory stored as
      graded persistent activity.
AB  - It is widely believed that persistent neural activity underlies short-term
      memory. Yet, as we show, the degradation of information stored directly in such
      networks behaves differently from human short-term memory performance. We build a
      more general framework where memory is viewed as a problem of passing information
      through noisy channels whose degradation characteristics resemble those of
      persistent activity networks. If the brain first encoded the information
      appropriately before passing the information into such networks, the information
      can be stored substantially more faithfully. Within this framework, we derive a
      fundamental lower-bound on recall precision, which declines with storage duration
      and number of stored items. We show that human performance, though inconsistent
      with models involving direct (uncoded) storage in persistent activity networks,
      can be well-fit by the theoretical bound. This finding is consistent with the
      view that if the brain stores information in patterns of persistent activity, it
      might use codes that minimize the effects of noise, motivating the search for
      such codes in the brain.

PMID- 28879854
TI  - Treating Genetic Disorders Using State-Of-The-Art Technology.
AB  - CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR
      associated Protein 9), basically a bacterial immune system is now widely
      applicable to engineer genomes of a number of cells and organisms because of its
      simplicity and robustness. In research avenue the system has been optimized to
      regulate gene expression, modify epigenome and edit target locus. These
      applications make CRISPR/Cas9, a technology of choice to edit disease causing
      mutations as well as the epigenome more efficiently than ever before. Meanwhile
      its application in in vivo and ex vivo cells is encouraging the scientific
      community for more vigorous gene therapy and in clinical setups for therapeutic
      genome editing. Here we review the recent advances that CRISPR-Cas9 mediated
      genome editing has achieved and is reported in previous studies and address the
      challenges associated with it.

PMID- 28879855
TI  - An Era of CRISPR/ Cas9 Mediated Plant Genome Editing.
AB  - Recently the engineered nucleases have revolutionized genome editing to perturb
      gene expression at specific sites in complex eukaryotic genomes. Three important
      classes of these genome editing tools are Moreover, the more recent type II
      Clustered Regularly Inter-spaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Crispr associated
      protein (CRISPR/Cas9) system has become the most favorite plant genome editing
      tool for its precision and RNA based specificity unlike its counterparts which
      rely on protein based specificity. Plasmid-mediated co-delivery of multiple
      sgRNAs and Cas9 to the Plant cell can simultaneously alter more than one target
      loci which enable multiplex genome editing. In this review, we discuss recent
      advancements in the CRISPR/ Cas9 technology mechanism, theory and its
      applications in plants and agriculture. We also suggest that the CRISPR/ Cas9 as
      an effective genome editing tool, has vast potential for crop improvement and
      studying gene regulation mechanism and chromatin remodeling.

PMID- 28879856
TI  - CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Immunity in Plants Against Pathogens.
AB  - Global crop production is highly threatened due to pathogen invasion. The huge
      quantity of pesticides application, although harmful to the environment and human
      health, is carried out to prevent the crop losses worldwide, every year.
      Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity and plant
      resistance against pathogen is important. The resistance against pathogens is
      regulated by three important phytohormones viz. salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic
      acid (JA) and ethylene (ET). Here we review possible role of CRISPR technology to
      understand the plant pathogenicity by mutating genes responsible for pathogen
      invasion or up-regulating the phytohormones genes or resistant genes. Thus
      hormone biosynthesis genes, receptor and feeding genes of pathogens could be
      important targets for modifications using CRISPR/Cas9 following multiplexing tool
      box strategy in order to edit multiple genes simultaneously to produce super
      plants. Here we put forward our idea thatthe genes would be either mutated in
      case of plant receptor protein targets of pathogens or up-regulation of resistant
      genes or hormone biosynthesis genes will be better choice for resistance against
      pathogens.

PMID- 28879857
TI  - Improving CRISPR-Cas9 On-Target Specificity.
AB  - The CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the field of molecular biology, medical
      genetics and medicine. The technology is robust, facile and simple to achieve
      genome targeting in cells and organisms. However, to propagate these nucleases
      for therapeutic application, the on-target specificity is of paramount
      importance. Although the binding and cleavage of off-target sites by Cas9 is
      issue of concern, however the specificity of CRISPR technology is greatly
      improved in current research employing the use of engineer nucleases, improved
      gRNA selection, novel Cas9 orhtologs and the advancement in methods to detect and
      screen off-target sites and its effects. Here we summarize the advances in this
      state-of-the-art technology that will equip the genome editing tools to be
      applied in clinical research. The researcher should optimize these methods with
      emphasize to achieve perfection in the specificity.

PMID- 28879858
TI  - CRISPR Mediated Genome Engineering and its Application in Industry.
AB  - The CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-Cas9
      (CRISPR-associated nuclease 9) method has been dramatically changing the field of
      genome engineering. It is a rapid, highly efficient and versatile tool for
      precise modification of genome that uses a guide RNA (gRNA) to target Cas9 to a
      specific sequence. This novel RNA-guided genome-editing technique has become a
      revolutionary tool in biomedical science and has many innovative applications in
      different fields. In this review, we briefly introduce the Cas9-mediated genome
      editing tool, summarize the recent advances in CRISPR/Cas9 technology to engineer
      the genomes of a wide variety of organisms, and discuss their applications to
      treatment of fungal and viral disease. We also discuss advantageous of
      CRISPR/Cas9 technology to drug design, creation of animal model, and to food,
      agricultural and energy sciences. Adoption of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology in
      biomedical and biotechnological researches would create innovative applications
      of it not only for breeding of strains exhibiting desired traits for specific
      industrial and medical applications, but also for investigation of genome
      function.

PMID- 28879859
TI  - Applications of CRISPR/Cas9 in Reproductive Biology.
AB  - Genome editing is unraveling its benefits in wide areas of scientific development
      and understanding. The advances of genome editing from ZFNs and TALLENs to
      CRISPRs defines it wide applicability. Reproduction is the fundamental process by
      which all organisms maintain their generations. CRISPR/Cas9, a new versatile
      genome editing tool is recently tamed to correct several disease causing genetic
      mutations spreading its arms to improve reproductive health. It not only edit
      harmful genetic mutations but is also applied to control the spread of parasitic
      diseases like malaria by introducing selfish genetic elements, propagated through
      generations and population via reproduction. These applications made us to review
      the recent developments of CRISPRs use in reproductive biology.

PMID- 28879860
TI  - Ethical Issues Regarding CRISPR Mediated Genome Editing.
AB  - CRISPR-Cas9 has emerged as a simple, precise and most rapid genome editing
      technology. With a number of promising applications ranging from agriculture and
      environment to clinical therapeutics, it is greatly transforming the field of
      molecular biology. However, there are certain ethical, moral and safety concerns
      related to the attractive applications of this technique. The most contentious
      issues concerning human germline modifications are the challenges to human safety
      and morality such as risk of unforeseen, undesirable effects in clinical
      applications particularly to correct or prevent genetic diseases, matter of
      informed consent and the risk of exploitation for eugenics. Stringent regulations
      and guidelines as well as worldwide debate and awareness are required to ensure
      responsible and wise use of CRISPR mediated genome editing technology. There is a
      need for an extensive dialogue among scientists, ethicists, industrialists and
      policy makers on its societal implications. The opinion of different elements of
      the society including the general public as well as religious scholars is also
      critical. In countries with existing legislative framework, it might be
      appropriate to allow CRISPR based research to proceed with proper justification.
      However, much anticipated future clinical applications must be strictly regulated
      with newly established regulations.

PMID- 28879862
TI  - Improved charge separation efficiency of hematite photoanodes by coating an
      ultrathin p-type LaFeO3 overlayer.
AB  - Many metal-oxide candidates for photoelectrochemical water splitting exhibit
      localized small polaron carrier conduction. Especially hematite (alpha-Fe2O3)
      photoanodes often suffer from low carrier mobility, which causes the serious bulk
      electron-hole recombination and greatly limits their PEC performances. In this
      study, the charge separation efficiency of hematite was enhanced greatly by
      coating an ultrathin p-type LaFeO3 overlayer. Compared to the hematite
      photoanodes, the solar water splitting photocurrent of the Fe2O3/LaFeO3 n-p
      junction exhibits a 90% increase at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen
      electrode, due to enlarging the band bending and expanding the depletion layer.

PMID- 28879861
TI  - Integrating exhaled breath diagnostics by disease-sniffing dogs with instrumental
      laboratory analysis.
AB  - Dogs have been studied for many years as a medical diagnostic tool to detect a
      pre-clinical disease state by sniffing emissions directly from a human or an in
      vitro biological sample. Some of the studies report high sensitivity and
      specificity in blinded case-control studies. However, in these studies it is
      completely unknown as to which suites of chemicals the dogs detect and how they
      ultimately interpret this information amidst confounding background odors.
      Herein, we consider the advantages and challenges of canine olfaction for early
      (meaningful) detection of cancer, and propose an experimental concept to narrow
      the molecular signals used by the dog for sample classification to laboratory
      based instrumental analysis. This serves two purposes; first, in contrast to
      dogs, analytical methods could be quickly up-scaled for high throughput sampling.
      Second, the knowledge gained from identifying probative chemicals could be
      helpful in learning more about biochemical pathways and disease progression. We
      focus on exhaled breath aerosol, arguing that the semi-volatile fraction should
      be given more attention. Ultimately, we conclude that the interaction between dog
      based and instrument-based research will be mutually beneficial and accelerate
      progress towards early detection of cancer by breath analysis.

PMID- 28879863
TI  - A novel, stepwise approach combining conventional and endobronchial ultrasound
      needle aspiration for mediastinal lymph node sampling.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Since the introduction of endobronchial ultrasound
      guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), most pulmonary centers use
      this technique exclusively for mediastinal lymph node (LN) sampling. Conventional
      "blind" TBNA (cTBNA), however, is cheaper, more accessible, provides more tissue,
      and requires less training. We evaluated whether sampling of mediastinal LN using
      EBUS-TBNA or cTBNA according to a predefined set of criteria provides acceptable
      diagnostic yield. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sampling method was determined
      prospectively according to a predefined set of criteria based on LN station, LN
      size, and presumed diagnosis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative
      predictive value were evaluated for each modality. RESULTS: One hundred and
      eighty-six biopsies were carried out over a 3-year period (86 cTBNA, 100 EBUS
      TBNA). Seventy-seven percent of LN biopsied by EBUS-TBNA were <20 mm, while 83%
      of cTBNA biopsies were >=20 mm. Most common sites of cTBNA sampling were station
      7, 4R, and 11R as opposed to 7, 11R, 4R, and 4 L in the case of EBUS-TBNA. Most
      common EBUS-TBNA diagnosis was malignancy versus sarcoidosis in cTBNA. EBUS-TBNA
      and cTBNA both had a true positive yield of 65%, but EBUS-TBNA had a higher true
      negative rate (21% vs. 2% for cTBNA) and a lower false negative rate (7% vs.
      28%). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative
      predictive value for EBUS-TBNA were 90%, 100%, 100%, and 75%, respectively, and
      for cTBNA were 68%, 100%, 100%, and 7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: A stepwise
      approach based on LN size, station, and presumed diagnosis may be a reasonable,
      cost-effective approach in choosing between cTBNA and EBUS-TBNA.

PMID- 28879864
TI  - Linked Color Imaging Technology for Diagnosis of Gastric Mucosa-associated
      Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma.

PMID- 28879865
TI  - Proton-pump inhibitor use does not affect semen quality in subfertile men.
AB  - Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most widely used drugs worldwide. PPI
      use has recently been linked to adverse changes in semen quality in healthy men;
      however, the effects of PPI use on semen parameters remain largely unknown
      specifically in cases with male factor infertility. We examined whether PPI use
      was associated with detrimental effects on semen parameters in a large population
      of subfertile men. We retrospectively reviewed data from 12 257 subfertile men
      who had visited our fertility clinic from 2003 to 2013. Patients who reported
      using any PPIs for >3 months before semen sample collection were included; 7698
      subfertile men taking no medication served as controls. Data were gathered on
      patient age, medication use, and conventional semen parameters; patients taking
      any known spermatotoxic medication were excluded. Linear mixed-effect regression
      models were used to test the effect of PPI use on semen parameters adjusting for
      age. A total of 248 patients (258 samples) used PPIs for at least 3 months before
      semen collection. In regression models, PPI use (either as the only medication or
      when used in combination with other nonspermatotoxic medications) was not
      associated with statistically significant changes in semen parameters. To our
      knowledge, this is the largest study to compare PPI use with semen parameters in
      subfertile men. Using PPIs was not associated with detrimental effects on semen
      quality in this retrospective study.

PMID- 28879866
TI  - Management and outcomes of penile fracture: a retrospective analysis of 62 cases
      with long-term assessment.

PMID- 28879867
TI  - PSA screening - for whom and when?

PMID- 28879868
TI  - Mycobacterium chelonae infection complicating traumatic and surgical wounds: A
      case series.
AB  - Mycobacterium chelonae is a rapidly growing non-tuberculous mycobacterium. The
      skin and soft tissue infections due to this organism are steadily on the rise and
      need to be delineated specifically as most of these are not responsive to routine
      antituberculosis treatment. Here, we report 3 different presentations caused by
      Mycobacterium chelonae in traumatic and surgical wounds. Mycobacterium chelonae
      can complicate surgical or traumatic wounds.This infection may also present as
      injection site abscesses. Diabetics on insulin injections are especially at risk.
      A high index of suspicion is necessary in long standing culture negative lesions
      for clinching the diagnosis. PCR can be helpful in confirming the diagnosis.

PMID- 28879869
TI  - Pemphigus vegetans arising in umbilicus: Successful clearance with intralesional
      steroid.

PMID- 28879870
TI  - A study of the histopathology of palmo-plantar psoriasis and hyperkeratotic palmo
      plantar dermatitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Palmo-plantar psoriasis and dermatitis show several
      overlapping clinical features. We undertook this retrospective study to elucidate
      and compare the histological findings in these two dermatoses. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Biopsies of 31 clinically diagnosed cases of palmo-plantar psoriasis and
      24 cases of hyperkeratotic palmo-plantar dermatitis, with concomitant presence of
      representative lesions at other body sites, were retrieved and analysed. RESULTS:
      Histologically, confluent parakeratosis, suprapapillary thinning and dermal edema
      were observed in significantly greater number of palmo-plantar psoriasis biopsies
      while an inflammatory infiltrate confined to the papillary dermis only, was a
      significant feature in palmo-plantar dermatitis. The two conditions could not be
      differentiated on the basis of features like focal parakeratosis, presence of
      neutrophils and fibrin globules in the stratum corneum, hypogranulosis,
      acanthosis, spongiosis, rete ridge pattern, or vascularity. CONCLUSION:
      Histopathology of palmo-plantar psoriasis and dermatitis can have several
      overlapping features. In our study, we found only few features as strong pointers
      towards psoriasis.

PMID- 28879871
TI  - The cover page.

PMID- 28879872
TI  - Memorable clinical experiences, all in one year at Queen Square, London, United
      Kingdom (1968-1969): A tribute to Neurology legends.

PMID- 28879873
TI  - Dr. Harry M. Zimmerman (1901 - 1995): Neuropathologist who autopsied Dr. Harvey
      Cushing, and his interactions with Indian colleagues.

PMID- 28879874
TI  - Diffusion tensor imaging in spinal pathology: A robust investigative tool in
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28879875
TI  - Spinal cord diffusion tensor imaging: Developing a research tool for clinical
      use.

PMID- 28879876
TI  - Muscular dystrophy: The long road ahead.

PMID- 28879878
TI  - Guillian-Barre syndrome and variants: Antiganglioside antibodies.

PMID- 28879877
TI  - Muscular dystrophies: An Indian scenario.

PMID- 28879879
TI  - Enigmas in immunobiology of Guillain-Barre syndrome: Ganglioside antibodies and
      beyond!

PMID- 28879880
TI  - Antiganglioside antibody: A hope or hype?

PMID- 28879881
TI  - Can arterial spin labelling really replace dynamic susceptibility contrast
      perfusion techniques for assessing brain tumours in clinical practice?

PMID- 28879882
TI  - Arterial spin labelling: A novel promising perfusion technique - Can it be a
      replacement to dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI ?

PMID- 28879883
TI  - The role of diffusion tensor imaging in spinal pathology: A review.
AB  - Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows for noninvasive, in vivo visualization of
      white matter fiber tracts in the central nervous system by measuring the
      diffusion of water molecules. It provides both quantitative and qualitative
      (i.e., tractography) means to describe a region-of-interest. While protocols for
      the use of DTI are better established in the brain, the efficacy and potential
      applications of DTI in spinal cord pathology are less understood. In this review,
      we examine the current literature regarding the use of DTI in the spinal cord
      pathology, and in particular its diagnostic and prognostic value in traumatic
      injury, spinal tumors, cervical myelopathies, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and
      multiple sclerosis. Although structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has long
      been the gold standard for noninvasive imaging of soft tissues, DTI provides
      additional tissue characteristics not found in the conventional MRI. We place
      emphasis on the unique characteristics of DTI, its potential value as an adjunct
      imaging modality, and its impact on clinical practice.

PMID- 28879884
TI  - Global muscular dystrophy research: A 25-year bibliometric perspective.
AB  - Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder leading to progressive weakness of
      muscles caused due to dysfunction in or lack of protein in muscle cells. The
      prevalence of muscular dystrophy has been observed globally and is becoming a
      critical area of study for better health services. The purpose of the study is to
      analyze the research strength of muscular dystrophy using bibliographic
      literature. A quantitative literature analysis was carried out on muscular
      dystrophy from 1991 to 2015 for assessing the global research trends. This
      literature-based study was conducted using the documents retrieved from the
      Science Citation Index using the keywords: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD),
      Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD), Congenital Muscular Dystrophy (CMD), Myotonic
      Dystrophy, Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy, Facioscapulohumeral Muscular
      Dystrophy, Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy, and Limb-Girdle Muscular
      Dystrophy. Analysis was done for annual productivity of publication, authorship,
      collaboration, country performance, citation frequency, characteristics of most
      cited document, journal productivity, etc.

PMID- 28879885
TI  - Anti-ganglioside antibodies profile in Guillain-Barre syndrome: Correlation with
      clinical features, electrophysiological pattern, and outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and its subtypes are associated with
      distinct anti-ganglioside antibodies. Hence, we aimed to determine the frequency
      of anti-ganglioside antibodies and its correlation with clinical features,
      electrophysiological patterns, and outcome in patients with GBS. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The data regarding clinical features, electrophysiological patterns, and
      outcome at 6 months were collected and analyzed from the case records of patients
      diagnosed with GBS during 2008-2013 at a tertiary care hospital in south India.
      RESULTS: A total of 204 patients with GBS were studied, and 73 patients (mean
      age: 37.6 +/- 17.5 years) who underwent anti-ganglioside antibody testing were
      analyzed. Male-to-female ratio was 2.5:1. IgG anti-ganglioside antibodies were
      positive in 41/73 patients. The most common IgG anti-ganglioside antibody
      observed in the acute demyelinating variant was anti-GT1b (n = 13; 17.8%), and,
      those in the acute axonal variant were anti-GM1, anti-GM2, anti-GD1b, and anti
      GT1b antibodies (n = 9;12.3% each). Three patients died and 5 patients were
      unable to walk independently at the end of 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency
      of anti-ganglioside antibodies in our cohort with GBS was 56%, with IgG anti-GT1b
      antibody being the most common. The anti-ganglioside antibodies were
      significantly positive in acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) subtype of GBS.
      The presence of anti-ganglioside antibodies was not found to be of significant
      use in predicting the outcome. Although it was observed that the absence, and not
      the presence, of anti-ganglioside antibodies was associated with antecedent
      infection, dysautonomia, and requirement of ventilator support, the overall
      disease severity was not antibody dependant.

PMID- 28879886
TI  - A study on the clinical outcomes and management of meningitis at a tertiary care
      centre.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Meningitis is a life threatening central nervous system infection
      that is prevalent worldwide. Many studies have been conducted on bacterial
      meningitis, but the information is inadequate on the other types of meningitis,
      especially prevalent in India. Regional information regarding trends, in terms of
      etiology and microbiological susceptibility, are essential for timely and
      adequate management of meningitis. AIMS: The present study was undertaken to
      evaluate the changing epidemiology of meningitis by reviewing the causative
      agents, the available laboratory methods for making the etiological diagnosis,
      the risk factors and the clinical outcomes, and the management of meningitis in
      our patient population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It is an observational study
      conducted at a tertiary care centre. A structured data form was designed to
      collect the information from the medical records and charts of medical
      investigations of the patients. Details regarding etiological agents, prevalence
      of clinical features and management were recorded and interpreted. RESULTS: A
      total of 147 patients suspected to be having meningitis were included. The common
      types of meningitis in our study were aseptic (39%), tuberculous (28%), pyogenic
      (28%), fungal (3%) and others (2%). The classical triad of headache with fever,
      neck stiffness, and altered mental sensorium was seen in 26% patients, and 83%
      had at least 2 out of these 4 symptoms. The incidence of seizures was found to be
      63% in the presence of aseptic meningitis. Significant clinical improvement was
      seen in 89% of the patients suffering from aseptic meningitis. CONCLUSIONS:
      Aseptic meningitis was found to be the predominant type among all different
      varieties of meningitis. An increased incidence of meningitis was seen in
      patients with diabetes mellitus. The incidence of seizures was high in
      viral/aseptic meningitis. The empirical treatment given in most of the cases was
      ceftriaxone. Isolation of the culpable organisms was possible in a very few cases
      due to the usage of empirical antibiotics prior to the performance of the lumbar
      puncture for the diagnostic analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid.

PMID- 28879887
TI  - Characteristics of nerve conduction studies in carpal tunnel syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous nerve conduction tests are used for the electrodiagnosis of
      carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), with a wide range of sensitivity and specificity
      reported for each test in clinical studies. AIMS: The purpose of this study was
      to compare the diagnostic accuracy of various nerve conduction tests and
      determine the properties of the most accurate test. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A
      prospective observational case control study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighty
      patients with clinically confirmed CTS and 80 asymptomatic healthy controls were
      included in the study. All patients underwent the routine hematological
      investigations as per the protocol. All cases and controls were subjected to
      various nerve conduction study protocols for CTS. Results were analyzed
      statistically. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The two-tailed Student's t-test was
      used for the comparative statistical analysis. The sensitivity of each test was
      calculated as (the number of hands with an abnormal study result/the number of
      CTS hands) * 100. Comparison between percentages was performed by the McNemar
      test. RESULTS: The mean age was 38.19 +/- 10.13 years and the female:male ratio
      was 1.5:1. The mean duration of disease was 0.89 +/- 0.61 years. Hypothyroidism
      was present in 21 (26.25%) patients, whereas 13 (16.25%) and 4 (5%) patients had
      diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid arthritis, respectively. The median nerve motor
      latency was 4.73 +/- 0.83 ms while the sensory latency was 3.44 +/- 0.56 ms. The
      median nerve orthodomic sensory latency was found to be 2.57 +/- 0.31 ms. The
      conduction velocity across the palm and wrist was 41.37 +/- 0.67 ms. The
      sensitivity was the highest in the inching method (86.25%) and lowest for the
      conventional median motor and sensory latencies (56.25% and 45%, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Addition of a single test of median and ulnar sensory latency, the
      median and radial sensory latency or the inching method, in routine protocol will
      improve the sensitivity for the diagnosis of CTS in all patients.

PMID- 28879888
TI  - Carpal tunnel syndrome with equivocal electrophysiological findings: Additional
      testing may improve diagnostic sensitivity.

PMID- 28879889
TI  - Predictors of quality of life among adolescents with epilepsy in the state of
      Andhra Pradesh.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Assessment of quality of life (QOL) reveals the impact of diseases
      and factors responsible for the impairment of quality of life. The purpose of
      this study was to evaluate the QOL among adolescents with epilepsy (AWE) in the
      state of Andhra Pradesh. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and fifty AWE aged 13
      19 years were evaluated for QOL using the Telugu version of the Quality of Life
      in Epilepsy Inventory for Adolescents (QOLIE) AD-48 and the data were analyzed to
      predict the factors responsible for determining the QOL. RESULTS: The mean age of
      AWE was 15.86 +/- 2.14 years. The age at onset of seizures among AWE was 9.28 +/-
      4.90 years. Generalized (45%) and partial seizures (34%) were the predominant
      types of seizures. The majority of AWE (77%) were taking anti epileptic
      medication for 1-8 years, were on monotherapy (55%), and were seizure free for
      the last 1 year (56%). The mean total QOL score in AWE was 72 +/- 15. The high
      school-educated, seizure-free, and monotherapy-taking AWEs showed a significantly
      higher mean total QOL when compared to the primary school- educated, seizure
      frequent, and polytherapy-taking AWEs (P < 0.01). Education (standardized beta
      [Sbeta] = 0.163 P < 0.05), seizure frequency (Sbeta-0.603; P < 0.01), and poly
      therapy (Sbeta-0.08; P < 0.01) were significant predictors of QOL in AWE.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study suggest that in addition to seizure
      control, encouraging monotherapy and enhancing the education level may improve
      the QOL in AWE.

PMID- 28879890
TI  - Evaluation of hand function in healthy individuals and patients undergoing
      uninstrumented central corpectomy for cervical spondylotic myelopathy using nine
      hole peg test.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the hand function in healthy individuals and in patients
      with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) undergoing central corpectomy using
      the nine-hole peg test (NHPT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The NHPT was performed in
      healthy adults and in patients with CSM; overall, five trials were performed in
      the right and left hand separately. The preoperative and follow up NHPT score was
      compared to the normal and correlated with Nurick and modified Japanese
      Orthopedic Association (mJOA) scales. RESULTS: The NHPT score was significantly
      less in adult healthy female compared to adult healthy male subjects (difference,
      0.71 s, P < 0.002). The distribution of the NHPT scores in normal adults followed
      the normal binomial distribution. The time taken to perform the NHPT with the
      right hand was significantly lower than the time taken to perform the NHPT with
      the left hand in both the sexes (P < 0.001). Thirty-six of the 47 patients with
      CSM (76.6%) had a prolonged preoperative NHPT score. There was a strong negative
      correlation between the preoperative NHPT score and the preoperative upper limb
      component of the modified-Japanese Orthopedic Association (UlmJOA) score. No
      significant change was detected in the NHPT score at one week postoperatively. On
      follow-up at six months or more (n = 21), the NHPT score normalized in five
      (35.7%) of the 14 patients in whom it was prolonged preoperatively. The NHPT
      score remained the same as the preoperative status in the other 16 patients, 7 of
      whom had a normal score preoperatively. The change in the NHPT score at follow-up
      did not correlate with the change in the UlmJOA score. CONCLUSIONS: Normative
      data among the Indian population suggest that female subjects have significantly
      lower scores than the male ones, and that there is a difference between the two
      sides that needs to be considered while reporting the NHPT scores in disease. The
      NHPT scores were prolonged preoperatively in CSM and showed a correlation with
      the UlmJOA score, and there was no significant change noted at one week follow
      up. While the NHPT score is a good quantitative test to evaluate hand function in
      patients with CSM and could detect subtle hand dysfunction preoperatively, it has
      a limited role, when used alone, to detect changes in hand function
      postoperatively.

PMID- 28879891
TI  - Restoration of hand function: A critical parameter during neurorehabilitation,
      and the confounding factors influencing its evaluation.

PMID- 28879892
TI  - Nine-hole peg test for evaluation of hand function: The advantages and
      shortcomings.

PMID- 28879893
TI  - A novel swine model of subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced cerebral vasospasm.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: One of the most serious complications following subarachnoid
      hemorrhage (SAH) is delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) secondary to symptomatic
      vasospasm. An animal model mimicking post SAH vasospasm is essential for enabling
      the translation of newer technologies from the conceptual phase to animal
      studies, and eventually to clinical trials. Various animal models of DCI
      following SAH have been reported, with canine models being the most common. Due
      to the similarity of the swine cardiovascular system and its dimensions to the
      human's system, the main objective of this study was to establish a consistent
      and quantitatively representative model of SAH-induced vasospasm in swine.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve female swines (57 +/- 3 kg) were injected twice
      (with a 2-day interval between injections) with autologous blood into the
      subarachnoid space at the level of C2-3 vertebrae. Different volumes were
      injected to identify clinical and radiological changes. The effect of volume
      variations on hematoma size and vasospasm intensity in the circle of Willis
      arteries were studied 7-14 days after the first injection using ascending
      pharyngeal angiographic measurements of vessel diameter. Neurological outcome
      using a modified scoring table based on clinical parameters (e.g., appetite,
      behavior, walking, posture, and eye movement) was recorded. RESULTS: Our results
      demonstrate that between volume combinations, intrathecal injection of 12 ml
      followed by 15 ml, with a 2-day interval in between, resulted in the most
      extensive angiographically-assessed vasospasm 12 +/- 2 days following the first
      injection. The degree of vasospasm in the intracranial internal carotid artery
      was 22% and 16% for the left and right sides, respectively. Vasoconstriction of
      the anterior cerebral artery was 34% and 27% for the left and right sides,
      respectively. The vasoconstriction was not associated with either overt clinical
      signs or clinical outcome, which is indicative of an ischemic event. CONCLUSIONS:
      The relative scarcity of swine models for SAH-induced vasospasm motivated us to
      develop and quantify a straightforward protocol for producing consistent mild-to
      moderate vasospasm following SAH. As swine is commonly used in translational
      cardiovascular research, we believe that this study constitutes an important
      phase in the study of SAH and in developing pharmacological agents and medical
      devices for interventions.

PMID- 28879894
TI  - Animal models for cerebral vasospasm: Where do we stand?

PMID- 28879895
TI  - Perfusion MR imaging of enhancing brain tumors: Comparison of arterial spin
      labeling technique with dynamic susceptibility contrast technique.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion is a
      noninvasive and repeatable method for quantitatively measuring cerebral blood
      flow (CBF). This study aims to compare measurements of ASL-derived CBF with
      dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI in the assessment of enhancing brain
      tumors (primary and metastatic), with an aim to use ASL as an alternative to DSC.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with newly diagnosed brain tumors (16
      meningiomas, 6 gliomas, 3 metastases, 2 cerebellopontine angle schwannoma, 1
      central neurocytoma, and 2 low-grade gliomas) were examined using a 3T MR
      scanner. Values of CBF, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and regional
      cerebral blood volume (rCBV) were determined in the tumor (T) as well as in the
      contralateral normal gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM). Tumor-to-GM or WM
      CBF, rCBF, and rCBV ratios were calculated to estimate normalized perfusion
      values (i.e., ASL normalized tumor blood flow [nTBF], DSC nTBF, and DSC
      normalized tumor blood volume [nTBV]) from the ASL and DSC techniques. ASL and
      DSC MRI derived perfusion parameters were compared using paired t-test and
      correlated using Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Mean values for ASL
      nTBF and DSC nTBF using contralateral GM as the reference point were 2.98 +/-
      1.67and 2.91 +/- 1.43, respectively. A very strong correlation coefficient was
      found between ASL nTBF and DSC nTBF with contralateral GM as the reference region
      (r = 0.903; R2= 0.813). Mean DSC nTBF and DSC nTBV also showed strong correlation
      (r = 0.83; R2= 0.701). CONCLUSION: Our study results suggested that measurement
      of CBF from ASL possesses the potential for a noninvasive assessment of blood
      flow in intracranial tumors as an alternate to DSC MRI, in those patients
      requiring multiple follow-up imaging and in patients with impaired renal
      functions.

PMID- 28879896
TI  - A comparison of the recovery profiles of desflurane and isoflurane anesthesia in
      patients undergoing elective supratentorial craniotomy: A randomized controlled
      trial.
AB  - CONTEXT: Few studies have compared recovery profiles of desflurane and isoflurane
      for patients undergoing elective supratentorial craniotomy. It is not known if
      the choice of inhalational agent can affect the duration of transient
      postoperative neurological deficits in these patients. AIMS: To compare the
      effect of desflurane and isoflurane on time-to-emergence and time-to-recovery of
      transient postoperative neurological deficits in patients undergoing
      supratentorial craniotomy. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Prospective, double-blinded,
      randomized controlled trial at a tertiary care hospital. METHODS AND MATERIALS:
      We randomly assigned 60 patients to receive either desflurane or isoflurane
      during elective supratentorial craniotomy for intra-axial mass lesions. Time-to
      emergence and time-to-recovery of transient postoperative neurological deficits
      were recorded and compared. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Parametric variables were
      compared by the Student's t test. Baseline data was compared using Pearson's chi
      square test, Fisher's exact test and two proportion Z test. RESULTS: There was a
      35.7%, 31.4% and 34.5% reduction in median times to eye opening, obeying commands
      and orientation in the desflurane group (n=27) as compared to the isoflurane
      group (n=28). Five patients were enrolled but not included for analysis-Twelve
      patients sustained transient neurological deficits after surgery (desflurane,
      n=3; isoflurane, n=9). No significant difference in the time-to-recovery of
      transient postoperative neurological deficits was observed. CONCLUSIONS:
      Desflurane significantly reduced emergence times, and was able to facilitate an
      early neurological examination for patients. Additional studies are required to
      establish the impact of inhalational agents on transient postoperative
      neurological deficits.

PMID- 28879897
TI  - The art of waking up a neurosurgical patient: It is time to hone our skills.

PMID- 28879898
TI  - Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in a 44-year old male with idiopathic
      CD4+ T-lymphocytopenia treated with mirtazapine and mefloquine.
AB  - Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is an opportunistic viral
      infection of the central nervous system caused by the reactivation of John
      Cunningham virus (JCV) in immunocompromised patients, most commonly in human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and less commonly in those receiving
      various immunosuppressive regimens. Prognosis of untreated PML is grave and the
      mainstay of treatment is the reversal of immunosuppression, usually by
      institution of antiretroviral drugs in HIV patients and cessation of
      immunosuppressive therapies in others. PML is increasingly being reported in
      those with minimal or occult immunosuppression. A small fraction of these
      patients meet the criteria for idiopathic CD4+ T-lymphocytopenia (ICL) after
      exclusion of all secondary causes of lymphocytopenia, including HIV. A 44-year
      old previously healthy male presented with clinical and radiological features
      suggestive of PML. Cerebrospinal fluid samples were repeatedly negative for JCV.
      Immunohistochemistry on brain biopsy eventually confirmed PML. Despite extensive
      work-up, the only abnormality detected was an unexplained and persistently low
      absolute CD4+ T-lymphocyte count. Based on the limited available literature on
      the treatment of non-HIV PML, he was treated with a combination of mirtazapine
      and mefloquine with clinical improvement. Non-HIV PML remains relatively
      uncommon, and PML as a presenting feature of ICL is rare. It is important to
      document and follow these patients to be able to assess the relative risks
      associated with various causes and formulate effective therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28879899
TI  - Hyperekplexia: A forgotten diagnosis clinched by next-generation sequencing.
AB  - Hyperekplexia is a rare early neonatal onset, potentially treatable, neurological
      disorder, characterized by a triad of immediate neonatal-onset stiffness, an
      exaggerated startle reflex in response to tactile or auditory stimuli followed by
      short periodical generalized stiffness. It is a monogenic genetically
      heterogeneous condition which can be potentially life threatening due to apneic
      episodes and is usually misdiagnosed as seizures. Here, we report two female
      siblings with hyperekplexia who were being treated by multiple antiepileptic
      medications for seizure-like episodes. Hyperekplexia was diagnosed by next
      generation sequencing, which has emerged as a powerful diagnostic tool over the
      last few years.

PMID- 28879900
TI  - Simultaneous odontoid excision with bilateral posterior C1-2 distraction and
      stabilization utilizing bilateral posterolateral corridors and a single posterior
      midline incision.
AB  - A simultaneous odontoid decompression and bilateral posterior atlanto-axial
      facetal distraction, C1-2 joint spacer/bone graft placement and stabilization may
      be performed utilizing the 'posterior-only' approach. This procedure may be
      performed utilizing a single posterior midline incision, a bilateral posterior
      approach to the C1-2 facet joints and a bilateral posterolateral approach to the
      odontoid process and C2 body. It may be carried out in situations where a C1-2
      non-reduction/partial reduction using a 'posterior alone' procedure is
      anticipated due to the complex bony/soft tissue configuration anterior at the
      thecal sac existing at the cervicomedullary junction. In the four cases described
      in this report, the procedure led to a successful circumferential decompression
      at the level of foramen magnum along with posterior C1-2 facetal distraction and
      stabilization in various complex craniovertebral junction anomalies (atlantoaxial
      dislocation [AAD] and/or a high basilar invagination [BI] associated with a
      significantly retroverted dens, along with a rotatory component, due to grossly
      asymmetrical facet joints). This technique may also be utilized in those diseases
      that result in an anterior osteoligamentous mass at the CVJ associated with C1-2
      instability.

PMID- 28879901
TI  - BRAF gene alterations and enhanced mammalian target of rapamycin signaling in
      gangliogliomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gangliogliomas (GGs) are slow-growing glioneuronal tumors seen in
      children and young adults. They are associated with intractable epilepsy, and
      have recently been found to harbor BRAF (B- rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma)
      gene mutations. However, the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling
      pathway, downstream of BRAF, has not been evaluated extensively in GGs. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: GG cases were retrieved, clinical data obtained, and
      histopathological features reviewed. Sequencing for BRAF V600E mutation, analysis
      of BRAF copy number by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and
      immunohistochemistry for mTOR pathway markers p-S6 and p-4EBP1 were performed.
      RESULTS: Sixty-four cases of GG were identified (0.9% of central nervous system
      tumors). Of these, 28 had sufficient tumor tissue for further evaluation. Mixed
      glial and neuronal morphology was the commonest (64%) type. Focal cortical
      dysplasia was identified in the adjacent cortex (6 cases). BRAF V600E mutation
      was identified in 30% of GGs; BRAF copy number gain was observed in 50% of them.
      p-S6 and p-4EBP1 immunopositivity was seen in 57% cases each. Thus, mTOR pathway
      activation was seen in 81% cases, and was independent of BRAF alterations. 87%
      patients had Engel grade I outcome, while 13% had Engel grade II outcome. Both
      the Engel grade II cases analyzed showed BRAF V600E mutation. CONCLUSION: BRAF
      V600E mutation is frequent in GGs, as is BRAF gain; the former may serve as a
      target for personalized therapy in patients with residual tumors, necessitating
      its assessment in routine pathology reporting of these tumors. Evidence of mTOR
      pathway activation highlights similarities in the pathogenetic mechanisms
      underlying GG and focal cortical dysplasia, and suggests that mTOR inhibitors may
      be of utility in GG patients with persistent seizures after surgery.

PMID- 28879902
TI  - Review of tremor in Parkinson's disease and atypical parkinsonian disorders.
AB  - Rest tremor (RT), a cardinal feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is often
      accompanied by other types of tremor such as action tremor, which includes
      postural tremor, kinetic tremor, re-emergent tremor (ReT), and orthostatic tremor
      (OT). Literature on other tremors of PD, especially ReT and OT, is scarce. Tremor
      can be present in any of the atypical parkinsonian disorders such as progressive
      supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, corticobasal degeneration, and
      dementia with Lewy bodies. RT can even be the presenting symptom of these
      disorders. The objective of this review is to provide a comprehensive review of
      lesser known tremors in PD and to critically look at the prevalence of tremor in
      atypical Parkinsonian disorders.

PMID- 28879903
TI  - Management strategies in tremors: A bird's eye view.

PMID- 28879904
TI  - A neurosurgical perspective to approaches to the orbit: A cadaveric study.
AB  - Neurosurgeons are getting increasingly involved in surgery for orbital tumours.
      The various approaches to the orbit can be challenging. The authors have
      demonstrated on cadavers the various approaches to the orbit which are required
      to be mastered by the neurosurgeon. The superior approaches which include the
      transcranial, supraorbital and the hybrid approaches are the most commonly
      utilized surgical approaches by the neurosurgeon for excision of orbital
      pathologies. The lateral orbitotomy is an elegant approach for excision of the
      tumours lateral to the optic Nerve and lacrimal gland tumours. The authors also
      demonstrate the medial approach through a medial orbitotomy which is a relatively
      unfamiliar approach to neurosurgeons. The importance of the various landmarks in
      each approach is emphasised along with the methods to minimize complications. It
      is imperative that neurosurgeons are intimately familiar with the microsurgical
      anatomy of the orbit and the various approaches to it.

PMID- 28879905
TI  - Endonasal endoscopic approach to orbit.

PMID- 28879906
TI  - Neurosurgery at Kasturba Medical College: Past, present and future.
AB  - Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal, is the oldest and one of the most
      reputed medical institutes in coastal Karnataka, catering to a population of over
      4 million, spanning a stretch of over 350 kms along the southwest coast of India
      from Mangalore to Goa. The Department of Neurosurgery at KMC, established in
      1968, continues to be the leading and most preferred referral center providing
      high quality neurosurgical services in this region. The article provides an
      insight into the origin of the department, its infancy and teething troubles, its
      continuous growth and landmark achievements over the years. This brief review
      also highlights the current area of focus and describes the plans for its future
      development.

PMID- 28879907
TI  - A summary of some of the recently published, seminal papers in neuroscience.

PMID- 28879909
TI  - Acute spinal cord infarction after aortobifemoral bypass.

PMID- 28879908
TI  - Multiple paraneoplastic antibodies (anti-SOX1, anti-Hu, and anti-Amphiphysin)
      detected in a patient with limbic encephalitis and small cell lung cancer.

PMID- 28879910
TI  - MRI findings in a fetus with a tight cord around the neck.

PMID- 28879911
TI  - Neurosarcoidosis-induced longitudinal extensive transverse myelitis.

PMID- 28879912
TI  - A case of clear cell ependymoma with bizarre aggressiveness: Are we
      underestimating its ferocity?

PMID- 28879913
TI  - Acute hemicerebellitis in children: A report and literature review.

PMID- 28879914
TI  - Palatal tremor secondary to a dolichoectatic basilar artery.

PMID- 28879915
TI  - Novel c.775_781dup,p(Thr261fs) mutation in SPG 7 gene in a patient with
      hereditary spastic paraparesis.

PMID- 28879916
TI  - Meningitis, polyradiculopathy, and optic nerve involvement in neurobrucellosis: A
      rare clinical presentation.

PMID- 28879917
TI  - Anarthria in a patient with bilateral striopallidodentate calcinosis.

PMID- 28879918
TI  - Magnetic resonance imaging findings in heat stroke-related encephalopathy.

PMID- 28879919
TI  - Faciobrachial dystonic spells: Presenting feature of autoimmune encephalopathy.

PMID- 28879920
TI  - Stiff-person syndrome after thymectomy in myasthenia gravis mimicking a post
      thymectomy myasthenic crisis.

PMID- 28879921
TI  - Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PMID- 28879922
TI  - Commentary: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Ongoing search for prognostic
      biomarkers of longevity.

PMID- 28879923
TI  - Unusual presentation and temporal events in a patient with cavernous carotid
      aneurysm.

PMID- 28879924
TI  - "Round the Houses" sign and apraxia of eyelid opening in a 62-year old man.

PMID- 28879925
TI  - Granular cell tumor at an unusual site masquerading as a neurofibroma.

PMID- 28879926
TI  - Thyrotropic pituitary adenoma with plurihormonal immunoreactivity.

PMID- 28879927
TI  - Hemorrhagic colloid cyst.

PMID- 28879928
TI  - Primary pituitary abscess in preadolescence mimicking a sellar mass.

PMID- 28879929
TI  - Intracranial inflammatory pseudotumor presenting as an en plaque mass.

PMID- 28879930
TI  - Management of a case of neglected atlantoaxial rotatory dislocation.

PMID- 28879931
TI  - Dural-based giant cavernous hemangioma mimicking a meningioma: Lessons learnt.

PMID- 28879932
TI  - Rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor of the fourth ventricle.

PMID- 28879933
TI  - Subgaleoatrial shunt: Further progress in the management of iatrogenic cranial
      pseudomeningoceles.

PMID- 28879934
TI  - Primary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the dorsal spine: A review.

PMID- 28879935
TI  - Spontaneous resolution of syringomyelia in Chiari I malformation: A review of
      literature.

PMID- 28879936
TI  - Gestational Wernicke's encephalopathy.

PMID- 28879937
TI  - Canavan disease with typical brain MRI and MRS findings.

PMID- 28879938
TI  - Isoniazid toxicity presenting as bilateral dentate hyperintensities.

PMID- 28879939
TI  - A report of third case of Susac syndrome from India.

PMID- 28879940
TI  - Isolated globus pallidi hypointensities in type 2 GM1 gangliosidoses.

PMID- 28879941
TI  - A rare cause of neck pain: Holocord intramedullary lipoma.

PMID- 28879942
TI  - Incidental finding of an accessory middle cerebral artery in a patient with
      multiple aneurysms.

PMID- 28879943
TI  - Synthesis and Characterization of Self-Assembled Nanogels Made of Pullulan.
AB  - Self-assembled nanogels made of hydrophobized pullulan were obtained using a
      versatile, simple, reproducible and low-cost method. In a first reaction pullulan
      was modified with hydroxyethyl methacrylate or vinyl methacrylate, further
      modified in the second step with hydrophobic 1-hexadecanethiol, resulting as an
      amphiphilic material, which self-assembles in water via the hydrophobic
      interaction among alkyl chains. Structural features, size, shape, surface charge
      and stability of the nanogels were studied using hydrogen nuclear magnetic
      resonance, fluorescence spectroscopy, cryo-field emission scanning electron
      microscopy and dynamic light scattering. Above the critical aggregation
      concentration spherical polydisperse macromolecular micelles revealed long-term
      colloidal stability in aqueous medium, with a nearly neutral negative surface
      charge and mean hydrodynamic diameter in the range 100-400 nm, depending on the
      polymer degree of substitution. Good size stability was observed when nanogels
      were exposed to potential destabilizing pH conditions. While the size stability
      of the nanogel made of pullulan with vinyl methacrylate and more hydrophobic
      chains grafted was affected by the ionic strength and urea, nanogel made of
      pullulan with hydroxyethyl methacrylate and fewer hydrophobic chains grafted
      remained stable.

PMID- 28879944
TI  - Enhancing Crystallinity and Orientation by Hot-Stretching to Improve the
      Mechanical Properties of Electrospun Partially Aligned Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)
      Nanocomposites.
AB  - Partially aligned polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based nanofibers were electrospun from
      PAN and PAN/single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in a solution of
      dimethylformamide (DMF) to make the nanofiber composites. The as-spun nanofibers
      were then hot-stretched in the oven to enhance its orientation and crystallinity.
      With the introduction of SWNTs and by the hot-stretched process, the mechanical
      properties will be enhanced correspondingly. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray scattering (XRD), differential
      scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the tensile test were used to characterize the
      microstructure and performances of the nanofibers. The orientation and
      crystallinity of the as-spun and hot-stretched nanofibers confirmed by X-ray have
      increased. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the glass transition
      temperature of PAN increased about 3  degrees C by an addition of 0.75 wt% SWNTs
      indicating a strong interfacial interaction between PAN and SWNTs. The tensile
      strength and the modulus of the nanofibers increased revealing significant load
      transfer across the nanotube-matrix interface. For PAN nanofibers, the improved
      fiber alignment, orientation and crystallinity resulted in enhanced mechanical
      properties, such as the tensile strength and modulus of the nanofibers. It was
      concluded that the hot-stretched nanofiber and the PAN/SWNTs nanofibers can be
      used as a potential precursor to produce high-performance nanocomposites.

PMID- 28879945
TI  - Prior Surface Integrity Assessment of Coated and Uncoated Carbide Inserts Using
      Atomic Force Microscopy.
AB  - Coated carbide inserts are considered vital components in machining processes and
      advanced functional surface integrity of inserts and their coating are decisive
      factors for tool life. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) implementation has gained
      acceptance over a wide spectrum of research and science applications. When used
      in a proper systematic manner, the AFM features can be a valuable tool for
      assessment of tool surface integrity. The aim of this paper is to assess the
      integrity of coated and uncoated carbide inserts using AFM analytical parameters.
      Surface morphology of as-received coated and uncoated carbide inserts is
      examined, analyzed, and characterized through the determination of the
      appropriate scanning setting, the suitable data type imaging techniques and the
      most representative data analysis parameters using the MultiMode AFM microscope
      in contact mode. The results indicate that it is preferable to start with a wider
      scan size in order to get more accurate interpretation of surface topography.
      Results are found credible to support the idea that AFM can be used efficiently
      in detecting flaws and defects of coated and uncoated carbide inserts using
      specific features such as "Roughness" and "Section" parameters. A recommended
      strategy is provided for surface examination procedures of cutting inserts using
      various AFM controlling parameters.

PMID- 28879946
TI  - Magnetoelectric Interactions in Lead-Based and Lead-Free Composites.
AB  - Magnetoelectric (ME) composites that simultaneously exhibit ferroelectricity and
      ferromagnetism have recently gained significant attention as evident by the
      increasing number of publications. These research activities are direct results
      of the fact that multiferroic magnetoelectrics offer significant technological
      promise for multiple devices. Appropriate choice of phases with co-firing
      capability, magnetostriction and piezoelectric coefficient, such as Ni-PZT and
      NZFO-PZT, has resulted in fabrication of prototype components that promise
      transition. In this manuscript, we report the properties of Ni-PZT and NZFO-PZT
      composites in terms of ME voltage coefficients as a function of frequency and
      magnetic DC bias. In order to overcome the problem of toxicity of lead, we have
      conducted experiments with Pb-free piezoelectric compositions. Results are
      presented on the magnetoelectric performance of Ni-NKN, Ni-NBTBT and NZFO-NKN,
      NZFO-NBTBT systems illustrating their importance as an environmentally friendly
      alternative.

PMID- 28879947
TI  - Efficacy and Durability in Direct Labeling of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using
      Ultrasmall Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Organosilica, Dextran,
      and PEG Coatings.
AB  - We herein report a comparative study of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) labeling
      using spherical superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles containing
      different coatings, namely, organosilica, dextran, and poly(ethylene glycol)
      (PEG). These nanomaterials possess a similar SPIO core size of 6-7 nm. Together
      with their coatings, the overall sizes are 10-15 nm for all SPIO@SiO2,
      SPIO@dextran, and SPIO@PEG nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were investigated
      for their efficacies to be uptaken by rabbit bone marrow-derived MSCs without any
      transfecting agent. Experimentally, both SPIO@SiO2 and SPIO@PEG nanoparticles
      could be successfully uptaken by MSCs while the SPIO@dextran nanoparticles
      demonstrated limited labeling efficiency. The labeling durability of SPIO@SiO2
      and SPIO@PEG nanoparticles in MSCs after three weeks of culture were compared by
      Prussian blue staining tests. SPIO@SiO2 nanoparticles demonstrated more blue
      staining than SPIO@PEG nanoparticles, rendering them better materials for MSCs
      labeling by direct uptake when durable intracellullar retention of SPIO is
      desired.

PMID- 28879948
TI  - New Approaches to the Computer Simulation of Amorphous Alloys: A Review.
AB  - In this work we review our new methods to computer generate amorphous atomic
      topologies of several binary alloys: SiH, SiN, CN; binary systems based on group
      IV elements like SiC; the GeSe2 chalcogenide; aluminum-based systems: AlN and
      AlSi, and the CuZr amorphous alloy. We use an ab initio approach based on density
      functionals and computationally thermally-randomized periodically-continued cells
      with at least 108 atoms. The computational thermal process to generate the
      amorphous alloys is the undermelt-quench approach, or one of its variants, that
      consists in linearly heating the samples to just below their melting (or
      liquidus) temperatures, and then linearly cooling them afterwards. These
      processes are carried out from initial crystalline conditions using short and
      long time steps. We find that a step four-times the default time step is adequate
      for most of the simulations. Radial distribution functions (partial and total)
      are calculated and compared whenever possible with experimental results, and the
      agreement is very good. For some materials we report studies of the effect of the
      topological disorder on their electronic and vibrational densities of states and
      on their optical properties.

PMID- 28879949
TI  - Open-Cellular Co-Base and Ni-Base Superalloys Fabricated by Electron Beam
      Melting.
AB  - Reticulated mesh samples of Co-29Cr-6Mo alloy and Ni-21Cr-9Mo-4Nb alloy (625) and
      stochastic foam samples of Co-29Cr-6Mo alloy fabricated by electron beam melting
      were characterized by optical metallography, and the dynamic stiffness (Young's
      modulus) was measured by resonant frequency analysis. The relative stiffness
      (E/Es) versus relative density (rho/rhos) plotted on a log-log basis resulted in
      a fitted straight line with a slope n ? 2, consistent with that for ideal open
      cellular materials.

PMID- 28879950
TI  - Gold Nanostructures for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Prepared by
      Electrodeposition in Porous Silicon.
AB  - Electrodeposition of gold into porous silicon was investigated. In the present
      study, porous silicon with ~100 nm in pore diameter, so-called medium-sized
      pores, was used as template electrode for gold electrodeposition. The growth
      behavior of gold deposits was studied by scanning electron microscope observation
      of the gold deposited porous silicon. Gold nanorod arrays with different rod
      lengths were prepared, and their surface-enhanced Raman scattering properties
      were investigated. We found that the absorption peak due to the surface plasmon
      resonance can be tuned by changing the length of the nanorods. The optimum length
      of the gold nanorods was ~600 nm for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy using a
      He-Ne laser. The reason why the optimum length of the gold nanorods was 600 nm
      was discussed by considering the relationship between the absorption peak of
      surface plasmon resonance and the wavelength of the incident laser for Raman
      scattering.

PMID- 28879951
TI  - Structural Consideration in Designing Organotin Polyethers to Arrest the Growth
      of Breast Cancer Cells In Vitro.
AB  - The ability to inhibit cancer is inherent in organotin materials yet the
      structural relationships that regulate/direct this activity remains unknown. We
      measured antitumor activity using a matched pair of cell lines MDA-MB-231 cells
      that are estrogen-independent, estrogen receptor negative and MCF-7 cells, a cell
      line that is estrogen receptor (ER) positive. Those polyethers that contained a O
      phenyl unit were able to significantly inhibit the non-estrogen sensitive cell
      line but were much less effective against the estrogen sensitive cell line; that
      is, the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 showed better test results for
      polymers derived from diols containing the O-phenyl moiety than the breast cancer
      cell line MCF-7, a well-characterized estrogen receptor positive control cell
      line. Those polyethers that did not contain the O-phenyl unit inhibited both cell
      lines approximately the same. The differential activity of the O-phenyl
      containing polyethers is likely due to the estrogen-sensitive cells combining
      with some of the organotin polyethers minimizing their ability to inhibit cell
      growth.

PMID- 28879952
TI  - Progress of Application Researches of Porous Fiber Metals.
AB  - Metal fiber porous materials with intrinsic properties of metal and functional
      properties of porous materials have received a great deal of attention in the
      fundamental research and industry applications. With developments of the
      preparation technologies and industrial requirements, porous fiber metals with
      excellent properties are developed and applied in many industry areas, e.g.,
      sound absorption, heat transfer, energy absorption and lightweight structures.
      The applied research progress of the metal fiber porous materials in such
      application areas based on the recent work in our group was reviewed in this
      paper.

PMID- 28879953
TI  - Electrochemically Formed Porous Silica.
AB  - Controlled electrochemical formation of porous silica can be realized in dilute
      aqueous, neutral-pH, fluoride medium. Formation of a porous film is initiated by
      sweeping the potential applied to silicon to values higher than 20 V. Film
      formation, reaching a steady state, may be pursued in a wide range of potentials,
      including lower potentials. The origin of a threshold potential for porous film
      initiation has been explained quantitatively. All of the films appear mesoporous.
      Films grown at high potentials exhibit a variety of macrostructures superimposed
      on the mesoporosity. These macrostructures result from selective dissolution of
      silica induced by local pH lowering due to oxygen evolution. Films grown at
      potentials lower than 15 V appear uniform on the micrometer scale. However, all
      of the films also exhibit a stratified structure on the scale of a few tens of
      nanometres. This periodic structure can be traced back to the oscillatory
      behavior observed during the electrochemical dissolution of silicon in fluoride
      medium. It suggests that periodic breaking of the growing film may be responsible
      for this morphology.

PMID- 28879954
TI  - Preparation, Characterization and Performance of Templated Silica Membranes in
      Non-Osmotic Desalination.
AB  - In this work we investigate the potential of a polyethylene glycol-polypropylene
      glycol-polyethylene glycol, tri-block copolymer as a template for a hybrid
      carbon/silica membrane for use in the non-osmotic desalination of seawater.
      Silica samples were loaded with varying amounts of tri-block copolymer and
      calcined in a vacuum to carbonize the template and trap it within the silica
      matrix. The resultant xerogels were analyzed with FTIR, Thermogravimetric
      analysis (TGA) and N2 sorption techniques, wherein it was determined that
      template loadings of 10 and 20% produced silica networks with enhanced pore
      volumes and appropriately sized pores for desalination. Membranes were created
      via two different routes and tested with feed concentrations of 3, 10 and 35 ppk
      of NaCl at room temperature employing a transmembrane pressure drop of 85% (in
      most cases >95%) and fluxes higher than 1.6 kg m-2 h-1. Furthermore, the
      carbonized templated membranes displayed equal or improved performance compared
      to similarly prepared non-templated silica membranes, with the best results of a
      flux of 3.7 kg m-2 h-1 with 98.5% salt rejection capacity, exceeding previous
      literature reports. In addition, the templated silica membranes exhibited
      superior hydrostability demonstrating their potential for long-term operation.

PMID- 28879955
TI  - Thermodynamic Origin of the Vitreous Transition.
AB  - The vitreous transition is characterized by a freezing of atomic degrees of
      freedom at a temperature Tg depending on the heating and cooling rates. A kinetic
      origin is generally attributed to this phenomenon instead of a thermodynamic one
      which we develop here. Completed homogeneous nucleation laws reflecting the
      energy saving due to Fermi energy equalization of nascent crystals and their melt
      are used. They are applied to bulk metallic glasses and extended to inorganic
      glasses and polymers. A transition T*g among various Tg corresponds to a crystal
      homogeneous nucleation temperature, leading to a preliminary formation of a
      cluster distribution during the relaxation time preceding the long steady-state
      nucleation time of crystals in small samples. The thermally-activated energy
      barrier DeltaG*2ls/kBT at T*g for homogeneous nucleation is nearly the same in
      all glass-forming melts and determined by similar values of viscosity and a
      thermally-activated diffusion barrier from melt to cluster. The glass transition
      T*g is a material constant and a linear function of the energy saving associated
      with charge transfers from nascent clusters to the melt. The vitreous transition
      and the melting temperatures alone are used to predict the free-volume
      disappearance temperature equal to the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann temperature of
      fragile glass-forming melts, in agreement with many viscosity measurements. The
      reversible thermodynamic vitreous transition is determined by the disappearance
      temperature T*g of the fully-relaxed enthalpy Hr that is not time dependent; the
      observed specific heat jump at T*g is equal to the proportionality coefficient of
      Hr with (T*g - Ta) for T <= T*g as expected from the enthalpy excess stored by a
      quenched undercooled melt at the annealing temperature Ta and relaxed towards an
      equilibrium vitreous state. However, the heat flux measurements found in
      literature over the last 50 years only gave an out-of-equilibrium Tg since the
      enthalpy is continuous at T*g without visible heat jump.

PMID- 28879956
TI  - Role of Titanium Surface Topography and Surface Wettability on Focal Adhesion
      Kinase Mediated Signaling in Fibroblasts.
AB  - Changes of titanium surface roughness and surface free energy may influence
      protein absorption that increases cell differentiation through activation of
      focal adhesion kinase related pathways. However, the influence of titanium
      surface roughness and hydrophilicity on fibroblast behavior is not well
      understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of topography
      and hydrophilicity on fibroblast attachment, spreading, morphology, intracellular
      signaling, proliferation, and collagen I mRNA levels. Using a cellular FAK
      knockout (FAK-/-) model and wild-type (WT) controls, we also investigated the
      contribution of adhesion in fibroblasts cultured on smooth (PT), sand-blasted,
      large grit, acid-etched (SLA) and hydrophilic SLA topographies. Loss of FAK did
      not significantly affect fibroblast attachment to any surface, but SLA and
      hydrophilic SLA surface attenuated spreading of WT cells significantly more than
      FAK-/- fibroblasts. Both FAK-/- and WT cells formed numerous focal adhesions on
      PT surfaces, but significantly less on SLA and hydrophilic SLA surfaces. In WT
      cells, phosphorylation levels of FAK were lower on SLA and hydrophilic SLA in
      comparison with PT 24 h post seeding. Labeling of cells with antibodies to
      cortactin showed that FAK-/-cells contained significantly more cortactin-rich
      focal adhesion in comparison with WT cells on PT surfaces, but not on SLA or
      hydrophilic SLA. ERK 1/2 phosphorylation was highest in WT cells on all surfaces
      which correlated with collagen I expression levels. We conclude that fibroblasts
      are sensitive to changes in surface roughness and hydrophilicity, with adhesive
      interactions mediated through FAK, an important modulator of fibroblast response.

PMID- 28879957
TI  - Magnetic Nanoparticles Embedded in a Silicon Matrix.
AB  - This paper represents a short overview of nanocomposites consisting of magnetic
      nanoparticles incorporated into the pores of a porous silicon matrix by two
      different methods. On the one hand, nickel is electrochemically deposited whereas
      the nanoparticles are precipitated on the pore walls. The size of these particles
      is between 2 and 6 nm. These particles cover the pore walls and form a tube-like
      arrangement. On the other hand, rather well monodispersed iron oxide
      nanoparticles, of 5 and 8 nm respectively, are infiltrated into the pores. From
      their size the particles would be superparamagnetic if isolated but due to
      magnetic interactions between them, ordering of magnetic moments occurs below a
      blocking temperature and thus the composite system displays a ferromagnetic
      behavior. This transition temperature of the nanocomposite can be varied by
      changing the filling factor of the particles within the pores. Thus samples with
      magnetic properties which are variable in a broad range can be achieved, which
      renders this composite system interesting not only for basic research but also
      for applications, especially because of the silicon base material which makes it
      possible for today's process technology.

PMID- 28879958
TI  - Nanohardness and Residual Stress in TiN Coatings.
AB  - TiN films were prepared by the Cathodic arc evaporation deposition method under
      different negative substrate bias. AFM image analyses show that the growth mode
      of biased coatings changes from 3D island to lateral when the negative bias
      potential is increased. Nanohardness of the thin films was measured by
      nanoindentation, and residual stress was determined using Grazing incidence X ray
      diffraction. The maximum value of residual stress is reached at -100 V substrate
      bias coinciding with the biggest values of adhesion and nanohardness.
      Nanoindentation measurement proves that the force-depth curve shifts due to
      residual stress. The experimental results demonstrate that nanohardness is
      seriously affected by the residual stress.

PMID- 28879959
TI  - Layer Transfer from Chemically Etched 150 mm Porous Si Substrates.
AB  - We demonstrate for the first time the successful layer transfer of an epitaxially
      grown monocrystalline Si film from a purely chemically etched porous Si substrate
      of 150 mm diameter to a glass carrier. The surface conditioning for all Si layer
      transfer processes based on porous Si has been, up to now without exception,
      carried out by electrochemical etching. In contrast, our chemical stain etching
      process uses an aqueous HF-rich HF/HNO3 solution. The porosity increases with
      increasing doping concentration of the Si substrate wafer and with increasing
      porous layer thickness. In contrast to the electrochemically etched double
      layers, the porosity profile of the stain etched substrates is highest at the
      original wafer surface and lowest at the interface between the porous layer and
      the Si bulk. The epitaxy process is adapted to the high porosity at the surface
      with regard to the reorganization of the porous layer.

PMID- 28879960
TI  - Study of Ni Metallization in Macroporous Si Using Wet Chemistry for Radio
      Frequency Cross-Talk Isolation in Mixed Signal Integrated Circuits.
AB  - A highly conductive moat or Faraday cage of through-the-wafer thickness in Si
      substrate was proposed to be effective in shielding electromagnetic interference
      thereby reducing radio frequency (RF) cross-talk in high performance mixed signal
      integrated circuits. Such a structure was realized by metallization of selected
      ultra-high-aspect-ratio macroporous regions that were electrochemically etched in
      p- Si substrates. The metallization process was conducted by means of wet
      chemistry in an alkaline aqueous solution containing Ni2+ without reducing agent.
      It is found that at elevated temperature during immersion, Ni2+ was rapidly
      reduced and deposited into macroporous Si and a conformal metallization of the
      macropore sidewalls was obtained in a way that the entire porous Si framework was
      converted to Ni. A conductive moat was as a result incorporated into p- Si
      substrate. The experimentally measured reduction of crosstalk in this structure
      is 5~18 dB at frequencies up to 35 GHz.

PMID- 28879961
TI  - Microstructural and Process Characterization of Conductive Traces Printed from Ag
      Particulate Inks.
AB  - Conductive inks are key enablers for the use of printing techniques in the
      fabrication of electronic systems. Focus on the understanding of aspects
      controlling the electrical performance of conductive ink is paramount. A
      comparison was made between microparticle Ag inks and an Ag nanoparticle ink. The
      microstructures resulting from thermal cure processes were characterized
      morphologically and also in terms of their effect on the resistivity of printed
      traces. For microparticle inks, the variability of resistivity measurements
      between samples as defined by coefficient of variation (CV) was greater than 0.1
      when the resistivity was 10 to 50 times that of bulk Ag. When the resistivity was
      lower (~1.4 times that of bulk Ag) the CV of sample sets was less than 0.1. In
      the case of the nanoparticle ink, resistivity was found to decrease by a factor
      ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 after doubling the amount of layers printed prior to
      curing though it was expected to remain the same. Increasing the amount of layers
      printed also enhanced the sintering process.

PMID- 28879962
TI  - Luminescent Afterglow Behavior in the M2Si5N8: Eu Family (M = Ca, Sr, Ba).
AB  - Persistent luminescent materials are able to emit light for hours after being
      excited. The majority of persistent phosphors emit in the blue or green region of
      the visible spectrum. Orange- or red-emitting phosphors, strongly desired for
      emergency signage and medical imaging, are scarce. We prepared the nitrido
      silicates Ca2Si5N8:Eu (orange), Sr2Si5N8:Eu (reddish), Ba2Si5N8:Eu (yellowish
      orange), and their rare-earth codoped variants (R = Nd, Dy, Sm, Tm) through a
      solid state reaction, and investigated their luminescence and afterglow
      properties. In this paper, we describe how the persistent luminescence is
      affected by the type of codopant and the choice and ratio of the starting
      products. All the materials exhibit some form of persistent luminescence, but for
      Sr2Si5N8:Eu,R this is very weak. In Ba2Si5N8:Eu the afterglow remains visible for
      about 400 s, and Ca2Si5N8:Eu,Tm shows the brightest and longest afterglow,
      lasting about 2,500 s. For optimal persistent luminescence, the dopant and
      codopant should be added in their fluoride form, in concentrations below 1 mol%.
      A Ca3N2 deficiency of about 5% triples the afterglow intensity. Our results show
      that Ba2Si5N8:Eu(,R) and Ca2Si5N8:Eu(,R) are promising persistent phosphors for
      applications requiring orange or red light.

PMID- 28879964
TI  - Synthesis and Properties of a Chiroptically Active Oligomer from 3,4
      Ethylenedioxythiophene and (-)-Myrtenal.
AB  - Oxidative polycondensation of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene and (-)-myrtenal was
      carried out with POCl3. A p-conjugated system thus constructed consists of
      aromatic and quinoidal alternating structure linked via methine groups. We
      examined iodine doping effect for the resultant material with electron spin
      resonance spectroscopy. Circular dichroism spectra in chloroform solution showed
      blue-shift with increase of iodine concentration. This result indicates that the
      doping process can tune chiroptical activity of the chiral pi-conjugated system.

PMID- 28879965
TI  - A Mechanochemical Approach to Porous Silicon Nanoparticles Fabrication.
AB  - Porous silicon samples have been reduced in nanometric particles by a well known
      industrial mechanical process, the ball grinding in a planetary mill; the process
      has been extended to crystalline silicon for comparison purposes. The silicon
      nanoparticles have been studied by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, gas
      porosimetry and transmission electron microscopy. We have estimated crystallites
      size from about 50 nm for silicon to 12 nm for porous silicon. The specific
      surface area of the powders analyzed ranges between 100 m2/g to 29 m2/g depending
      on the milling time, ranging from 1 to 20 h. Electron microscopy confirms the
      nanometric size of the particles and reveals a porous structure in the powders
      obtained by porous silicon samples which has been preserved by the fabrication
      conditions. Chemical functionalization during the milling process by a siloxane
      compound has also been demonstrated.

PMID- 28879966
TI  - Storage Phosphors for Medical Imaging.
AB  - Computed radiography (CR) uses storage phosphor imaging plates for digital
      imaging. Absorbed X-ray energy is stored in crystal defects. In read-out the
      energy is set free as blue photons upon optical stimulation. In the 35 years of
      CR history, several storage phosphor families were investigated and developed. An
      explanation is given as to why some materials made it to the commercial stage,
      while others did not. The photo stimulated luminescence mechanism of the current
      commercial storage phosphors, BaFBr:Eu2+ and CsBr:Eu2+ is discussed. The relation
      between storage phosphor plate physical characteristics and image quality is
      explained. It is demonstrated that the morphology of the phosphor crystals in the
      CR imaging plate has a very significant impact on its performance.

PMID- 28879963
TI  - Antiviral Activity of Metal-Containing Polymers-Organotin and Cisplatin-Like
      Polymers.
AB  - Polymers containing platinum and to a lesser extent tin, have repeatedly
      demonstrated antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo against a variety of cell
      and tumor types. The mechanisms responsible for the antitumor activity include
      inducing a delay in cell proliferation and sister chromatid exchanges blocking
      tumor growth. As most DNA and some RNA viruses require, and even induce, infected
      cells to initiate DNA replication and subsequent cell division, compounds with
      antitumor activity will very likely also possess antiviral activity. This article
      examines the use of metal-containing polymers as a novel class of antivirals.

PMID- 28879967
TI  - Fabrication of Multiferroic Co-Substituted BiFeO3 Epitaxial Films on SrTiO3 (100)
      Substrates by Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering.
AB  - The 10 at.% Co-substituted BiFeO3 films (of thickness 50 nm) were successfully
      prepared by radio frequency (r.f.) magnetron sputtering on SrTiO3 (100)
      substrates with epitaxial relationships of [001](001)Co-BiFeO3//[001](001)SrTiO3.
      In this study, a single phase Co-substituted BiFeO3 epitaxial film was fabricated
      by r.f. magnetron sputtering. Sputtering conditions such as Ar, O2 gas pressure,
      annealing temperature, annealing atmosphere, and sputtering power were
      systematically changed. It was observed that a low Ar gas pressure and low
      sputtering power is necessary to suppress the formation of the secondary phases
      of BiOx. The Co-substituted BiFeO3 films were crystalized with post-annealing at
      600  degrees C in air. The process window for single phase films is narrower than
      that for pure BiFeO3 epitaxial films. By substituting Fe with Co in BiFeO3, the
      magnetization at room temperature increased to 20 emu/cm3. This result suggests
      that Co-substituted BiFeO3 films can be used in spin-filter devices.

PMID- 28879968
TI  - Correlation of Nitrogen Sorption and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy for the
      Analysis of Amino Group Distributions on Mesoporous Silica.
AB  - Aminopropylalkoxysilanes are frequently used for the functionalization of
      mesoporous silica. The analysis of amino group distributions on arrays of silica
      nanochannels by a combination of nitrogen sorption and confocal laser scanning
      microscopy provides valuable insight into the mechanisms underlying the
      interaction of these silanes with mesoporous silica surfaces. Tendencies towards
      external surface functionalization, non-uniform distribution in the pores, and
      hydrolysis of the silica framework are shown to depend to a large extent on the
      mobility of the aminopropylalkoxysilane molecules, which can be adjusted by the
      number and type of alkoxy groups.

PMID- 28879969
TI  - The Role Played by Computation in Understanding Hard Materials.
AB  - In the last decade, computation has played a valuable role in the understanding
      of materials. Hard materials, in particular, are only part of the application.
      Although materials involving B, C, N or O remain the most valued atomic component
      of hard materials, with diamond retaining its distinct superiority as the
      hardest, other materials involving a wide variety of metals are proving
      important. In the present work the importance of both ab-initio approaches and
      molecular dynamics aspects will be discussed with application to quite different
      systems. On one hand, ab-initio methods are applied to lightweight systems and
      advanced nitrides. Following, the use of molecular dynamics will be considered
      with application to strong metals that are used for high temperature
      applications.

PMID- 28879970
TI  - Teriparatide Therapy as an Adjuvant for Tissue Engineering and Integration of
      Biomaterials.
AB  - Critically sized large bone defects commonly result from trauma, radical tumor
      resections or infections. Currently, massive allografting remain as the clinical
      standard to treat these critical defects. Unfortunately, allograft healing is
      limited by the lack of osteogenesis and bio-integration of the graft to the host
      bone. Based on its widely studied anabolic effects on the bone, we have proposed
      that teriparatide [recombinant parathyroid hormone (PTH1-34)] could be an
      effective adjuvant for massive allograft healing. In support of this theory, here
      we review studies that have demonstrated that intermittent PTH1-34 treatment
      enhances and accelerates the skeletal repair process via a number of mechanisms
      including: effects on mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), angiogenesis, chondrogenesis,
      bone formation and remodeling. We also review the current literature on the
      effects of PTH1-34 therapy on bone healing, and discuss this drug's long term
      potential as an adjuvant for endogenous tissue engineering.

PMID- 28879971
TI  - Optical Properties of ZnO Nanoparticles Capped with Polymers.
AB  - Optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles capped with polymers were investigated.
      Polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) were used as capping
      reagents. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol-gel method. Fluorescence
      and absorption spectra were measured. When we varied the timing of the addition
      of the polymer to the ZnO nanoparticle solution, the optical properties were
      drastically changed. When PEG was added to the solution before the synthesis of
      ZnO nanoparticles, the fluorescence intensity increased. At the same time, the
      total particle size increased, which indicated that PEG molecules had capped the
      ZnO nanoparticles. The capping led to surface passivation, which increased
      fluorescence intensity. However, when PEG was added to the solution after the
      synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles, the fluorescence and particle size did not
      change. When PVP was added to the solution before the synthesis of ZnO
      nanoparticles, aggregation of nanoparticles occurred. When PVP was added to the
      solution after the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles, fluorescence and particle size
      increased. This improvement of optical properties is advantageous to the
      practical usage of ZnO nanoparticles, such as bioimaging.

PMID- 28879972
TI  - In Vivo Corrosion of Two Novel Magnesium Alloys ZEK100 and AX30 and Their
      Mechanical Suitability as Biodegradable Implants.
AB  - In magnesium alloys, the components used modify the alloy properties. For
      magnesium implants in contact with bone, rare earths alloys are commonly
      examined. These were shown to have a higher corrosion resistance than other
      alloys and a high mechanical strength, but their exact composition is hard to
      predict. Therefore a reduction of their content could be favorable. The alloys
      ZEK100 and AX30 have a reduced content or contain no rare earths at all. The aim
      of the study was to investigate their in vivo degradation and to assess the
      suitability of the in vivo uCT for the examination of their corrosion. Implants
      were inserted in rabbit tibiae. Clinical examinations, X-rays and in vivo uCT
      scans were done regularly. Afterwards implants were analyzed with REM, electron
      dispersive X-ray (EDX), weighing and mechanical testing. The in vivo uCT is of
      great advantage, because it allows a quantification of the corrosion rate and
      qualitative 3D assessment of the corrosion morphology. The location of the
      implant has a remarkable effect on the corrosion rate. Due to its mechanical
      characteristics and its corrosion behavior, ZEK100 was judged to be suitable,
      while AX30, which displays favorable degradation behavior, has too little
      mechanical strength for applications in weight bearing bones.

PMID- 28879973
TI  - Delocalization of Electrons in Strong Insulators at High Dynamic Pressures.
AB  - Systematics of material responses to shock flows at high dynamic pressures are
      discussed. Dissipation in shock flows drives structural and electronic
      transitions or crossovers, such as used to synthesize metallic liquid hydrogen
      and most probably Al2O3 metallic glass. The term "metal" here means electrical
      conduction in a degenerate system, which occurs by band overlap in degenerate
      condensed matter, rather than by thermal ionization in a non-degenerate plasma.
      Since H2 and probably disordered Al2O3 become poor metals with minimum metallic
      conductivity (MMC) virtually all insulators with intermediate strengths do so as
      well under dynamic compression. That is, the magnitude of strength determines the
      split between thermal energy and disorder, which determines material response.
      These crossovers occur via a transition from insulators with electrons localized
      in chemical bonds to poor metals with electron energy bands. For example, radial
      extents of outermost electrons of Al and O atoms are 7 a0 and 4 a0, respectively,
      much greater than 1.7 a0 needed for onset of hybridization at 300 GPa. All such
      insulators are Mott insulators, provided the term "correlated electrons" includes
      chemical bonds.

PMID- 28879975
TI  - Magnetization Dynamics of Amorphous Ribbons and Wires Studied by Inductance
      Spectroscopy.
AB  - Inductance spectroscopy is a particular formulation variant of the well known
      complex impedance formalism typically used for the electric characterization of
      dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric materials. It has been successfully
      exploited as a versatile tool for characterization of the magnetization dynamics
      in amorphous ribbons and wires by means of simple experiments involving coils for
      sample holding and impedance analyzer equipment. This technique affords the
      resolution of the magnetization processes in soft magnetic materials, in terms of
      reversible deformation of pinned domain walls, domain wall displacements and spin
      rotation, for which characteristic parameters such as the alloy initial
      permeability and the relaxation frequencies, indicating the dispersion of each
      process, can be defined. Additionally, these parameters can be correlated with
      chemical composition variation, size effects and induced anisotropies, leading to
      a more physical insight for the understanding of the frequency dependent magnetic
      response of amorphous alloys, which is of prime interest for the development of
      novel applications in the field of telecommunication and sensing technologies. In
      this work, a brief overview, together with recent progress on the magnetization
      dynamics of amorphous ribbons, wires, microwires and biphase wires, is presented
      and discussed for the intermediate frequency interval between 10 Hz and 13 MHz.

PMID- 28879974
TI  - Negative Refractive Index Metasurfaces for Enhanced Biosensing.
AB  - In this paper we review some metasurfaces with negative values of effective
      refractive index, as scaffolds for a new generation of surface plasmon polariton
      based biological or chemical sensors. The electromagnetic properties of a
      metasurface may be tuned by its full immersion into analyte, or by the adsorption
      of a thin layer on it, both of which change its properties as a plasmonic guide.
      We consider various simple forms of plasmonic crystals suitable for this purpose.
      We start with the basic case of a freestanding, electromagnetically symmetrical
      plasmonic slab and analyze different ultrathin, multilayer structures, to finally
      consider some two-dimensional "wallpaper" geometries like split ring resonator
      arrays and fishnet structures. A part of the text is dedicated to the possibility
      of multifunctionalization where a metasurface structure is simultaneously
      utilized both for sensing and for selectivity enhancement. Finally we give an
      overview of surface-bound intrinsic electromagnetic noise phenomena that limits
      the ultimate performance of a metasurfaces sensor.

PMID- 28879976
TI  - Surfactant Effects on Microemulsion-Based Nanoparticle Synthesis.
AB  - The effect of the surfactant on the size, polydispersity, type of size
      distribution and structure of nanoparticles synthesized in microemulsions has
      been studied by computer simulation. The model simulates the surfactant by means
      of two parameters: the intermicellar exchange parameter, kex, related to dimer
      life time, and film flexibility parameter, f, related to interdroplet channel
      size. One can conclude that an increase in surfactant flexibility leads to bigger
      and polydisperse nanoparticle sizes. In addition, at high concentrations, the
      same reaction gives rise to a unimodal distribution using a flexible surfactant,
      and a bimodal distribution using a rigid one. In relation to bimetallic
      nanoparticles, if the nanoparticle is composed of two metals with a moderate
      difference in reduction potentials, increasing the surfactant flexibility
      modifies the nanoparticle structure, giving rise to a transition from a nanoalloy
      (using a rigid film) to a core-shell structure (using a flexible one).

PMID- 28879977
TI  - Active Microwave Metamaterials Incorporating Ideal Gain Devices.
AB  - Incorporation of active devices/media such as transistors for microwave and gain
      media for optics may be very attractive for enabling desired low loss and
      broadband metamaterials. Such metamaterials can even have gain which may very
      well lead to new and exciting physical phenomena. We investigate microwave
      composite right/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH-TL) incorporating ideal gain
      devices such as constant negative resistance. With realistic lumped element
      values, we have shown that the negative phase constant of this kind of
      transmission lines is maintained (i.e., left-handedness kept) while gain can be
      obtained (negative attenuation constant of transmission line) simultaneously.
      Possible implementation and challenging issues of the proposed active CRLH-TL are
      also discussed.

PMID- 28879979
TI  - Plasmonic Coaxial Waveguides with Complex Shapes of Cross-Sections.
AB  - In this paper, we describe waveguide properties of new optical waveguides made of
      noble metals and filled with glass and air. Such waveguides are coaxial cables
      and differ from a conventional coaxial in the shape of their central rods.
      Coaxial waveguide with annular and elliptic central rods are considered.
      Numerical simulations demonstrate that these waveguides, having nanosize cross
      section, support propagation of few comparatively low-loss modes, having phase
      velocity close to the speed of light and the fields localized in a small area
      outside a metal. We illustrate excitation of these coaxial modes by dipole-like
      sources.

PMID- 28879978
TI  - Optical and Electric Multifunctional CMOS Image Sensors for On-Chip Biosensing
      Applications.
AB  - In this review, the concept, design, performance, and a functional demonstration
      of multifunctional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors
      dedicated to on-chip biosensing applications are described. We developed a sensor
      architecture that allows flexible configuration of a sensing pixel array
      consisting of optical and electric sensing pixels, and designed multifunctional
      CMOS image sensors that can sense light intensity and electric potential or apply
      a voltage to an on-chip measurement target. We describe the sensors' architecture
      on the basis of the type of electric measurement or imaging functionalities.

PMID- 28879980
TI  - Sub-Wavelength Resonances in Metamaterial-Based Multi-Cylinder Configurations.
AB  - Sub-wavelength resonances known to exist in isolated metamaterial-based
      structures of circular cylindrical shape are investigated with the purpose of
      determining whether the individual resonances are retained when several of such
      resonant structures are grouped to form a new structure. To this end, structures
      consisting of 1, 2 and 4 sets of metamaterial-based concentric cylinders excited
      by an electric line current are analyzed numerically. It is demonstrated that
      these structures recover the resonances of the individual structures even when
      the cylinders are closely spaced and the new structure is thus electrically
      small. The investigation is conducted through a detailed analysis of the electric
      near-field distribution as well as the radiation resistance in those cases where
      the individual structures are made of simple dielectric materials in conjunction
      with simple, but lossy and dispersive, metamaterials.

PMID- 28879981
TI  - 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of Lodgepole Pine Wood Chips Affected by the
      Mountain Pine Beetle.
AB  - In this study, wood-water interactions of mountain pine beetle affected lodgepole
      pine were found to vary with time since death. Based on an analysis of
      magnetization components and spin-spin relaxation times from 1H NMR, it was
      determined that the mountain pine beetle attack does not affect the crystalline
      structure of the wood. Both the amorphous structure and the water components vary
      with time since death, which could be due to the fungi present after a mountain
      pine beetle attack, as well as the fact that wood from the grey-stage of attack
      cycles seasonally through adsorption and desorption in the stand.

PMID- 28879982
TI  - Emission Enhancement in a Plasmonic Waveguide at Cut-Off.
AB  - Enhancement of molecular emission is usually obtained by coupling small optical
      emitters with external resonant structures and systems, as first established by
      Purcell several decades ago, and verified in several recent investigations using
      molecules or quantum dots coupled with plasmonic nanoantennas. Here we
      theoretically investigate in detail a different mechanism for emission
      enhancement, based on our recent idea of a plasmonic nanolauncher [Phys. Rev.
      Lett. 2009, 103, 043902], i.e., a metamaterial-inspired ultranarrow waveguide
      channel operating near its cut-off frequency. Such system is not necessarily at
      resonance, but its peculiar operation may provide enhanced emission over a
      relatively broad physical area, which may allow enhancement of emission
      independent of the position of an individual or of a group of molecules along
      such plasmonic channel, and the possibility to bend and route the emitted energy
      with large flexibility. We present here extensive theoretical and numerical
      results that confirm this intuition and may envision a novel method for molecular
      emission enhancement at the nanoscale, with more flexibility than the
      conventional Purcell resonance techniques.

PMID- 28879983
TI  - Multiferroic Compounds with Double-Perovskite Structures.
AB  - New multiferroic compounds with double-perovskite structures were synthesized.
      Bi2NiMnO6 was synthesized in bulk form by high-pressure synthesis and also in a
      thin-film form by epitaxial growth. The material showed both ferromagnetic and
      ferroelectric properties, i.e., the multiferroic property at low temperature.
      Bi2FeCrO6 was also fabricated in a (1 1 1) oriented BiFeO3/BiCrO3 artificial
      superlattice, with a 1/1 stacking period. The superlattice film showed
      ferromagnetic behavior and polarization switching at room temperature. In the
      compounds, Bi3+ ion, located at the A site in the perovskite structure, caused
      ferroelectric structural distortion, and the B-site ordering of the Ni2+ and Mn4+
      ions (Fe3+ and Cr3+ ions) in a rock-salt configuration led to ferromagnetism
      according to the Kanamori-Goodenough rule.

PMID- 28879984
TI  - Roll-to-Roll Processing of Inverted Polymer Solar Cells using Hydrated
      Vanadium(V)Oxide as a PEDOT:PSS Replacement.
AB  - The use of hydrated vanadium(V)oxide as a replacement of the commonly employed
      hole transporting material PEDOT:PSS was explored in this work. Polymer solar
      cells were prepared by spin coating on glass. Polymer solar cells and modules
      comprising 16 serially connected cells were prepared using full roll-to-roll
      (R2R) processing of all layers. The devices were prepared on flexible
      polyethyleneterphthalate (PET) and had the structure
      PET/ITO/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/V2O5.(H2O)n/Ag. The ITO and silver electrodes were
      processed and patterned by use of screen printing. The zinc oxide, P3HT:PCBM and
      vanadium(V)oxide layers were processed by slot-die coating. The hydrated
      vanadium(V)oxide layer was slot-die coated using an isopropanol solution of
      vanadyl-triisopropoxide (VTIP). Coating experiments were carried out to establish
      the critical thickness of the hydrated vanadium(V)oxide layer by varying the
      concentration of the VTIP precursor over two orders of magnitude. Hydrated
      vanadium(V)oxide layers were characterized by profilometry, scanning electron
      microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and grazing incidence wide
      angle X-ray scattering. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) for completed
      modules was up to 0.18%, in contrast to single cells where efficiencies of 0.4%
      were achieved. Stability tests under indoor and outdoor conditions were
      accomplished over three weeks on a solar tracker.

PMID- 28879985
TI  - Organic Zeolite Analogues Based on Multi-Component Liquid Crystals: Recognition
      and Transformation of Molecules within Constrained Environments.
AB  - In liquid crystals (LCs), molecules are confined in peculiar environments, where
      ordered alignment and certain mobility are realized at the same time. Considering
      these characteristics, the idea of "controlling molecular events within LC media"
      seems reasonable. As a suitable system for investigating this challenge, we have
      recently developed a new class of ionic LCs; the salts of amphiphilic carboxylic
      acids with 2-amino alcohols, or those of carboxylic acids with amphiphilic 2
      amino alcohols, have a strong tendency to exhibit thermotropic LC phases. Because
      of the noncovalent nature of the interaction between molecules, one of the two
      components can easily be exchanged with, or transformed into, another molecule,
      without distorting the original LC architecture. In addition, both components are
      common organic molecules, and a variety of compounds are easily available. Taking
      advantage of these characteristics, we have succeeded in applying two-component
      LCs as chiral media for molecular recognition and reactions. This review presents
      an overview of our recent studies, together with notable reports related to this
      field.

PMID- 28879987
TI  - Electronic and Structural Properties of ABO3: Role of the B-O Coulomb Repulsions
      for Ferroelectricity.
AB  - We have investigated the role of the Ti-O Coulomb repulsions in the appearance of
      the ferroelectric state in BaTiO3 as well as the role of the Zn-O Coulomb
      repulsions in BiZn0.5Ti0.5O3, using a first-principles calculation with optimized
      structures. In tetragonal BaTiO3, it is found that the Coulomb repulsions between
      Ti 3s and 3p states and O 2s and 2p states have an important role for the
      appearance of Ti ion displacement. In BiZn0.5Ti0.5O3, on the other hand, the
      stronger Zn-O Coulomb repulsions, which are due to the 3s, 3p, and 3d (d10)
      states of the Zn ion, have more important role than the Ti-O Coulomb repulsions
      for the appearance of the tetragonal structure. Our suggestion is consistent with
      the other ferroelectric perovskite oxides ABO3 in the appearance of tetragonal
      structures as well as rhombohedral structures.

PMID- 28879986
TI  - Thermotropic Ionic Liquid Crystals.
AB  - The last five years' achievements in the synthesis and investigation of
      thermotropic ionic liquid crystals are reviewed. The present review describes the
      mesomorphic properties displayed by organic, as well as metal-containing ionic
      mesogens. In addition, a short overview on the ionic polymer and self-assembled
      liquid crystals is given. Potential and actual applications of ionic mesogens are
      also discussed.

PMID- 28879988
TI  - Enhanced Hydrogen Storage Kinetics of Nanocrystalline and Amorphous Mg2Ni-type
      Alloy by Melt Spinning.
AB  - Mg2Ni-type Mg2Ni1-xCox (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) alloys were fabricated by melt
      spinning technique. The structures of the as-spun alloys were characterized by X
      ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The hydrogen
      absorption and desorption kinetics of the alloys were measured by an
      automatically controlled Sieverts apparatus. The electrochemical hydrogen storage
      kinetics of the as-spun alloys was tested by an automatic galvanostatic system.
      The results show that the as-spun (x = 0.1) alloy exhibits a typical
      nanocrystalline structure, while the as-spun (x = 0.4) alloy displays a
      nanocrystalline and amorphous structure, confirming that the substitution of Co
      for Ni notably intensifies the glass forming ability of the Mg2Ni-type alloy. The
      melt spinning treatment notably improves the hydriding and dehydriding kinetics
      as well as the high rate discharge ability (HRD) of the alloys. With an increase
      in the spinning rate from 0 (as-cast is defined as spinning rate of 0 m/s) to 30
      m/s, the hydrogen absorption saturation ratio () of the (x = 0.4) alloy increases
      from 77.1 to 93.5%, the hydrogen desorption ratio () from 54.5 to 70.2%, the
      hydrogen diffusion coefficient (D) from 0.75 * 10-11 to 3.88 * 10-11 cm2/s and
      the limiting current density IL from 150.9 to 887.4 mA/g.

PMID- 28879989
TI  - Laser Fabrication of 3D Gelatin Scaffolds for the Generation of Bioartificial
      Tissues.
AB  - In the present work, the two-photon polymerization (2PP) technique was applied to
      develop precisely defined biodegradable 3D tissue engineering scaffolds. The
      scaffolds were fabricated via photopolymerization of gelatin modified with
      methacrylamide moieties. The results indicate that the gelatin derivative
      (GelMod) preserves its enzymatic degradation capability after
      photopolymerization. In addition, the developed scaffolds using 2PP support
      primary adipose-derived stem cell (ASC) adhesion, proliferation and
      differentiation into the anticipated lineage.

PMID- 28879990
TI  - {Fe6O2}-Based Assembly of a Tetradecanuclear Iron Nanocluster.
AB  - The tetradecanuclear FeIII pivalate nanocluster [Fe14O10(OH)4(Piv)18], comprising
      a new type of metal oxide framework, has been solvothermally synthesized from a
      hexanuclear iron pivalate precursor in dichlormethane/acetonitrile solution.
      Magnetic measurements indicate the presence of very strong antiferromagnetic
      interactions in the cluster core.

PMID- 28879991
TI  - Masonry Columns Confined by Steel Fiber Composite Wraps.
AB  - The application of steel fiber reinforced polymer (SRP) as a means of increasing
      the capacity of masonry columns is investigated in this study. The behavior of 23
      solid-brick specimens that are externally wrapped by SRP sheets in low volumetric
      ratios is presented. The specimens are subjected to axial monotonic load until
      failure occurs. Two widely used types of masonry columns of differing square
      cross-sections were tested in compression (square and octagonal cross-sections).
      It is concluded that SRP-confined masonry behaves very much like fiber reinforced
      polymers (FRP)-confined masonry. Confinement increases both the load-carrying
      capacity and the deformability of masonry almost linearly with average confining
      stress. A comparative analysis between experimental and theoretical values
      computed in compliance with the Italian Council of Research (CNR) was also
      developed.

PMID- 28879992
TI  - Cell-Based Fabrication of Organic/Inorganic Composite Gel Material.
AB  - Biomaterials containing components similar to the native biological tissue would
      have benefits as an implantable scaffold material. To obtain such biomimetic
      materials, cells may be great contributors because of their crucial roles in
      synthetic organics. In addition, the synthesized organics-especially those
      derived from osteogenic differentiated cells-become a place where mineral
      crystals nucleate and grow even in vitro. Therefore to fabricate an
      organic/inorganic composite material, which is similar to the biological osteoid
      tissue, bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were cultured in a 3D
      fibrin gel in this study. BMSCs secreted bone-related proteins that enhanced the
      biomineralization within the gel when the cells were cultured with an osteogenic
      differentiation medium. The compositions of both synthesized matrices and
      precipitated minerals in the obtained materials altered depending on the cell
      culture period. The mineral obtained in the 3D gel showed low crystalline
      hydroxyapatite. The composite materials also showed excellent osteoconductivity
      with new bone formation when implanted in mice tibiae. Thus, we demonstrated the
      contributions of cells for fabricating implantable organic/inorganic composite
      gel materials and a method for controlling the material composition in the gel.
      This cell-based material fabrication method would be a novel method to fabricate
      organic/inorganic composite biomimetic materials for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28879994
TI  - In vitro Biocompatibility of New Silver(I) Coordination Compound Coated-Surfaces
      for Dental Implant Applications.
AB  - Biofilm formation on implant materials causes a common problem: resistance to
      aggressive pharmacological agents as well as host defenses. Therefore, to reduce
      bacterial adhesion to implant surfaces we propose to use silver(I) coordination
      networks as it is known that silver is the most powerful antimicrobial inorganic
      agent. As a model surface, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold Au(111) was
      used to permit permanent attachment of our silver(I) coordination networks. The
      surface coatings showed typical nano-structured surfaces with a good
      biocompatibility for soft-tissue integration with fibroblast cells.

PMID- 28879993
TI  - A New Highly Bioactive Composite for Scaffold Applications: A Feasibility Study.
AB  - Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been widely investigated as scaffolding material for bone
      tissue engineering, mainly for its excellent biocompatibility. Presently, there
      is an increasing interest in the composites of hydroxyapatite with bioactive
      glasses, with the aim to obtain systems with improved bioactivity or mechanical
      properties. Moreover, modifying the ratio between bioactive glass and
      hydroxyapatite results in the possibility of controlling the reaction rate of the
      composite scaffold in the human body. However, high temperature treatments are
      usually required in order to sinter HA-based composites, causing the bioactive
      glass to crystallize into a glass-ceramic, with possible negative effects on its
      bioactivity. In the present research work, a glass composition belonging to the
      Na2O-CaO-P2O5-SiO2 system, with a reduced tendency to crystallize, is applied to
      realize HA-based composites. The novel samples can be sintered at a relative low
      temperature (750  degrees C) compared to the widely studied HA/45S5 Bioglass(r)
      composites. This fact greatly helps to preserve the amorphous nature of the
      glass, with excellent effects in terms of bioactivity, according to in vitro
      tests. As a first application, the obtained composites are also tested to realize
      highly porous scaffolds by means of the standard burning out method.

PMID- 28879995
TI  - Coalescence and Collisions of Gold Nanoparticles.
AB  - We study the assembling of small gold clusters subject to collisions and close
      contact coalescence by using molecular dynamics simulations to simulate events
      that occur typically in the sputtering process of synthesis. Our results support
      the notion that the kinetics of coalescence processes strongly determine the
      geometry and structure of the final particle. While impact velocities, relative
      orientations, and the initial shape of the interacting particles are unlikely to
      strictly determine the structural details of the newly formed particle, we found
      that high initial temperatures and/or impact velocities increase the probability
      of appearance of icosahedral-like structures, Wulff polyhedra are likely to be
      formed as a product of the interactions between nanospheres, while the appearance
      of fcc particles of approximately cuboctahedral shape is mainly due to the
      interaction between icosahedra.

PMID- 28879996
TI  - Different Molecular Weight Chitosan-Based Membranes for Tissue Regeneration.
AB  - Natural polymers, such as chitosan, obtained from chitin, are been widely studied
      for use in the tissue regeneration field. This study established a protocol to
      attain membranes made from this biopolymer, consisting of high or low molecular
      weight chitosan. The biocompatibility of these membranes was histologically
      evaluated, comparing them to collagen membrane surgically implanted in rat
      subcutaneous tissue. Fifteen Holtzmann rats were divided in three experimental
      groups: High and Low Molecular Weight Chitosan membranes (HMWC and LMWC) and
      Collagen membranes (C-control group); each of them with three experimental
      periods: 7, 15 and 30 days. As a result, after the seven days evaluation, the
      membranes were present and associated with a variable degree of inflammation, and
      after the 15 and 30 days evaluations, the membranes were absent in all groups. It
      is concluded that the chitosan-based membranes were successfully attained and
      presented comparable resorption times to collagen membranes.

PMID- 28879998
TI  - A Review of Domain Modelling and Domain Imaging Techniques in Ferroelectric
      Crystals.
AB  - The present paper reviews models of domain structure in ferroelectric crystals,
      thin films and bulk materials. Common crystal structures in ferroelectric
      materials are described and the theory of compatible domain patterns is
      introduced. Applications to multi-rank laminates are presented. Alternative
      models employing phase-field and related techniques are reviewed. The paper then
      presents methods of observing ferroelectric domain structure, including optical,
      polarized light, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray and neutron diffraction,
      atomic force microscopy and piezo-force microscopy. Use of more than one
      technique for unambiguous identification of the domain structure is also
      described.

PMID- 28879997
TI  - Electro-Optic Effects in Colloidal Dispersion of Metal Nano-Rods in Dielectric
      Fluid.
AB  - In modern transformation optics, one explores metamaterials with properties that
      vary from point to point in space and time, suitable for application in devices
      such as an "optical invisibility cloak" and an "optical black hole". We propose
      an approach to construct spatially varying and switchable metamaterials that are
      based on colloidal dispersions of metal nano-rods (NRs) in dielectric fluids, in
      which dielectrophoretic forces, originating in the electric field gradients,
      create spatially varying configurations of aligned NRs. The electric field
      controls orientation and concentration of NRs and thus modulates the optical
      properties of the medium. Using gold (Au) NRs dispersed in toluene, we
      demonstrate electrically induced change in refractive index on the order of 0.1.

PMID- 28879999
TI  - Iron Oxide Silica Derived from Sol-Gel Synthesis.
AB  - In this work we investigate the effect of iron oxide embedded in silica matrices
      as a function of Fe/Si molar ratio and sol pH. To achieve homogeneous dispersion
      of iron oxide particles, iron nitrate nonahydrate was dissolved in hydrogen
      peroxide and was mixed with tetraethyl orthosilicate and ethanol in a sol-gel
      synthesis method. Increasing the calcination temperature led to a reduction in
      surface area, although the average pore radius remained almost constant at about
      10 A, independent of the Fe/Si molar ratio or sol pH. Hence, the densification of
      the matrix was accompanied by similar reduction in pore volume. However,
      calcination at 700  degrees C resulted in samples with similar surface area
      though the iron oxide content increased from 5% to 50% Fe/Si molar ratio. As
      metal oxide particles have lower surface area than polymeric silica structures,
      these results strongly suggest that the iron oxides opposed the silica structure
      collapse. The effect of sol pH was found to be less significant than the Fe/Si
      molar ratio in the formation of molecular sieve structures derived from iron
      oxide silica.

PMID- 28880000
TI  - Durability of Starch Based Biodegradable Plastics Reinforced with Manila Hemp
      Fibers.
AB  - The biodegradability of Manila hemp fiber reinforced biodegradable plastics was
      studied for 240 days in a natural soil and 30 days in a compost soil. After
      biodegradability tests, weights were measured and both tensile strength tests and
      microscopic observation were performed to evaluate the biodegradation behavior of
      the composites. The results indicate that the tensile strength of the composites
      displays a sharp decrease for up to five days, followed by a gradual decrease.
      The weight loss and the reduction in tensile strength of biodegradable composite
      materials in the compost soil are both significantly greater than those buried in
      natural soil. The biodegradability of these composites is enhanced along the
      lower portion because this area is more easily attacked by microorganisms.

PMID- 28880001
TI  - Sol-Gel Entrapped Levonorgestrel Antibodies: Activity and Structural Changes as a
      Function of Different Polymer Formats.
AB  - The paper describes development of a sol-gel based immunoaffinity method for the
      steroid hormone levonorgestrel (LNG) and the effects of changes in the sol-gel
      matrix format on the activity of the entrapped antibodies (Abs) and on matrix
      structure. The best sol-gel format for Ab entrapment was found to be a
      tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) based matrix at a TMOS:water ratio of 1:8, containing
      10% polyethylene glycol (PEG) of MW 0.4 kDa. Addition of higher percentages of
      PEG or a higher MW PEG did not improve activity. No activity was obtained with a
      TMOS:water ratio of 1:12, most likely because of the very dense polymer that
      resulted from these polymerization conditions. Only minor differences in the non
      specific binding were obtained with the various formats. TMOS was found to be
      more effective than tetrakis (2-hydroxyethyl)orthosilicate (THEOS) for entrapment
      of anti-levonorgestrel (LNG) Abs. However, aging the THEOS-based sol-gel for a
      few weeks at 4  degrees C stabilized the entrapped Abs and increased its binding
      capacity. Confocal fluorescent microscopy with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)
      labeled immunoglobulines (IgGs) entrapped in the sol-gel matrix showed that the
      entrapped Abs were distributed homogenously within the gel. Scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM) images have shown the diverse structures of the various sol-gel
      formats and precursors.

PMID- 28880002
TI  - Progress in Nano-Engineered Anodic Aluminum Oxide Membrane Development.
AB  - The anodization of aluminum is an electro-chemical process that changes the
      surface chemistry of the metal, via oxidation, to produce an anodic oxide layer.
      During this process a self organized, highly ordered array of cylindrical shaped
      pores can be produced with controllable pore diameters, periodicity and density
      distribution. This enables anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes to be used as
      templates in a variety of nanotechnology applications without the need for
      expensive lithographical techniques. This review article is an overview of the
      current state of research on AAO membranes and the various applications of
      nanotechnology that use them in the manufacture of nano-materials and devices or
      incorporate them into specific applications such as biological/chemical sensors,
      nano-electronic devices, filter membranes and medical scaffolds for tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28880003
TI  - Dual-Scale Polymeric Constructs as Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering.
AB  - This research activity was aimed at the development of dual-scale scaffolds
      consisting of three-dimensional constructs of aligned poly(epsilon-caprolactone)
      (PCL) microfilaments and electrospun poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) fibers.
      PCL constructs composed by layers of parallel microsized filaments (0/90 degrees 
      lay-down pattern), with a diameter of around 365 MUm and interfilament distance
      of around 191 MUm, were produced using a melt extrusion-based additive
      manufacturing technique. PLGA electrospun fibers with a diameter of around 1 MUm
      were collected on top of the PCL constructs with different thicknesses, showing a
      certain degree of alignment. Cell culture experiments employing the MC3T3 murine
      preosteoblast cell line showed good cell viability and adhesion on the dual-scale
      scaffolds. In particular, the influence of electrospun fibers on cell morphology
      and behavior was evident, as well as in creating a structural bridging for cell
      colonization in the interfilament gap.

PMID- 28880004
TI  - Crosslinked Graft Copolymer of Methacrylic Acid and Gelatin as a Novel Hydrogel
      with pH-Responsiveness Properties.
AB  - In this paper, a novel gelatin-based hydrogel was synthesized through
      crosslinking graft copolymerization of methacrylic acid (MAA) onto gelatin, using
      ammonium persulfate (APS) as a free radical initiator in the presence of
      methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. A proposed mechanism for hydrogel
      formation was suggested and the structure of the product was established using
      FTIR spectroscopy and gravimetric analysis of the products. Moreover, morphology
      of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
      thermogravimetric analysis (TGA/DTG). The effect of reaction variables such as
      concentration of APS and MBA were systematically optimized to achieve a hydrogel
      with swelling capacity as high as possible. The gelatin-g-PMAA hydrogel exhibited
      a pH-responsiveness character so that a swelling-deswelling pulsatile behavior
      was recorded at pHs 2 and 8. This on-off switching behavior makes the hydrogel as
      a good candidate for controlled delivery of bioactive agents.

PMID- 28880006
TI  - Synthesis, Characterization and Photophysical Properties of Pyridine-Carbazole
      Acrylonitrile Derivatives.
AB  - We synthesized three novel highly fluorescent compounds, 2-(2'-pyridyl)-3-(N
      ethyl-(3'-carbazolyl))acrylonitrile, 2-(3"-pyridyl)-3-(N-ethyl-(3'
      carbazolyl))acrylonitrile, and 2-(4-pyridyl)-3-(N-ethyl-(3'
      carbazolyl))acrylonitrile by Knoevenagel condensation. The first two were
      synthesized without solvent in the presence of piperidine as a catalyst; the
      third was synthesized without a catalyst and with N,N-dimethylformamide as a
      solvent. In solution, the molar absorption coefficients showed absorptions at
      380, 378, and 396 nm, respectively; in solid state, absorptions were at 398, 390,
      and 442 nm, respectively. The fluorescence emission was at 540, 540 and 604 nm,
      respectively, the 2-(4-pyridyl)-3-(N-ethyl-(3'-carbazolyl))acrylonitrile showed a
      red shift in the emission of 64 nm compared to the other two compounds. The
      fluorescence quantum yield for the compounds in powder form showed values of
      0.05, 0.14, and 0.006, respectively; compared with the value measured for the
      Alq3 reference, 2-(3"-pyridyl)-3-(N-ethyl-(3'-carbazolyl))acrylonitrile had a
      lightly higher value. The third harmonic generation measurement for 2-(2'
      pyridyl)-3-(N-ethyl-(3'-carbazolyl))acrylonitrile yielded a chi(3) value of 5.5 *
      10-12 esu, similar to that reported for commercial polymers.

PMID- 28880005
TI  - A Preliminary Study on the Effect of Macro Cavities Formation on Properties of
      Carbon Nanotube Bucky-Paper Composites.
AB  - In this study, we focus on processing and characterizing composite material
      structures made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and reproducibly engineering macro
      pores inside their structure. Highly porous bucky-papers were fabricated from
      pure carbon nanotubes by dispersing and stabilizing large 1 MUm polystyrene beads
      within a carbon nanotube suspension. The polystyrene beads, homogeneously
      dispersed across the thickness of the bucky-papers, were then either dissolved or
      carbonized to generate macro cavities of different shape and properties. The
      impact of adding these macro cavities on the porosity, specific surface area and
      Young's modulus was investigated and some benefits of the macro cavities will be
      demonstrated.

PMID- 28880007
TI  - Using Converter Dust to Produce Low Cost Cementitious Composites by in situ
      Carbon Nanotube and Nanofiber Synthesis.
AB  - Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanofibers (CNFs) were synthesized on clinker and
      silica fume particles in order to create a low cost cementitious nanostructured
      material. The synthesis was carried out by an in situ chemical vapor deposition
      (CVD) process using converter dust, an industrial byproduct, as iron precursor.
      The use of these materials reduces the cost, with the objective of application in
      large-scale nanostructured cement production. The resulting products were
      analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy
      (TEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and were found to be polydisperse in
      size and to have defective microstructure. Some enhancement in the mechanical
      behavior of cement mortars was observed due to the addition of these nano-size
      materials. The contribution of these CNTs/CNFs to the mechanical strength of
      mortar specimens is similar to that of high quality CNTs incorporated in mortars
      by physical mixture.

PMID- 28880008
TI  - Bond Behavior of Historical Clay Bricks Strengthened with Steel Reinforced
      Polymers (SRP).
AB  - In the strengthening interventions of past and historical masonry constructions,
      the non-standardized manufacture processes, the ageing and the damage of masonry
      units, could significantly affect the properties of the surfaces where
      strengthening materials are applied. This aspect requires particular care in
      evaluating the performance of externally bonded strengthening layers, especially
      with reference to the detachment mechanism. The bond response of old masonries
      could be very different from that occurring in new masonry units which are the
      ones generally considered in most of the bond tests available in technical
      literature. The aim of the present paper is the study of the bond behavior of
      historical clay bricks strengthened with steel reinforced polymers (SRP)
      materials. In particular, the results of an experimental study concerning new
      manufactured clay bricks and old bricks extracted from different historical
      masonry buildings are presented. The obtained results, particularly in terms of
      bond resistance, detachment mechanism and strain distributions, are discussed for
      the purpose of analyzing the peculiarities of the historical bricks in comparison
      with new manufactured ones. Some considerations on the efficacy of the
      theoretical formulations of the recent Italian code are also carried out.

PMID- 28880010
TI  - Chronic pancreatitis.
AB  - Chronic pancreatitis is defined as a pathological fibro-inflammatory syndrome of
      the pancreas in individuals with genetic, environmental and/or other risk factors
      who develop persistent pathological responses to parenchymal injury or stress.
      Potential causes can include toxic factors (such as alcohol or smoking),
      metabolic abnormalities, idiopathic mechanisms, genetics, autoimmune responses
      and obstructive mechanisms. The pathophysiology of chronic pancreatitis is fairly
      complex and includes acinar cell injury, acinar stress responses, duct
      dysfunction, persistent or altered inflammation, and/or neuro-immune crosstalk,
      but these mechanisms are not completely understood. Chronic pancreatitis is
      characterized by ongoing inflammation of the pancreas that results in progressive
      loss of the endocrine and exocrine compartment owing to atrophy and/or
      replacement with fibrotic tissue. Functional consequences include recurrent or
      constant abdominal pain, diabetes mellitus (endocrine insufficiency) and
      maldigestion (exocrine insufficiency). Diagnosing early-stage chronic
      pancreatitis is challenging as changes are subtle, ill-defined and overlap those
      of other disorders. Later stages are characterized by variable fibrosis and
      calcification of the pancreatic parenchyma; dilatation, distortion and
      stricturing of the pancreatic ducts; pseudocysts; intrapancreatic bile duct
      stricturing; narrowing of the duodenum; and superior mesenteric, portal and/or
      splenic vein thrombosis. Treatment options comprise medical, radiological,
      endoscopic and surgical interventions, but evidence-based approaches are limited.
      This Primer highlights the major progress that has been made in understanding the
      pathophysiology, presentation, prevalence and management of chronic pancreatitis
      and its complications.

PMID- 28880011
TI  - Corrigendum: Guilty repair sustains cooperation, angry retaliation destroys it.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep46709.

PMID- 28880012
TI  - GOLPH2-regulated oncolytic adenovirus, GD55, exerts strong killing effect on
      human prostate cancer stem-like cells in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - GOLPH2 (also called GP73) is a Golgi glycoprotein, which has been identified as a
      novel tumor marker upregulated in various cancers, including prostate cancer
      (PCa). GD55 is a novel GOLPH2-regulated oncolytic adenovirus that exhibits a
      strong killing effect on hepatoma cells. Here, we investigate the antitumor
      effect of GD55 on prostate cancer stem cell (CSC)-like cells in vitro and in
      vivo. Prostate CSC-like sphere cells were acquired and enriched by culturing
      DU145, LNCap or P3 prostate cancer cells in suspension. The prostate CSC-like
      sphere cells were capable of self-renewal, differentiation and quiescence,
      displaying tumorigenic feature and chemo-resistance to 5-FU, doxorubicin and DDP.
      Treatment with GD55 (1, 5, 10 MOI) dose-dependently suppressed the viability of
      DU145 sphere cells, which was a more pronounced compared to its cytotoxic action
      on the parental DU145 cells. In a mouse xenograft prostate CSC-like model,
      intratumoral injection of GD55 markedly suppressed the growth rate of xenograft
      tumors and induced higher levels of cell death and necrosis within the tumor
      tissues. Our results demonstrate that GD55 infection exerts strong anticancer
      effects on prostate CSC-like cells in vitro and in vivo, and has a potential to
      be used in the clinical therapy of PCa.

PMID- 28880013
TI  - Osimertinib (AZD9291) decreases programmed death ligand-1 in EGFR-mutated non
      small cell lung cancer cells.
AB  - Osimertinib (AZD9291) is a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that has been approved for the treatment
      of EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In NSCLC patients, an EGFR
      mutation is likely to be correlated with high levels of expression of programmed
      death ligand-1 (PD-L1). Here, we showed that osimertinib decreased PD-L1
      expression in human EGFR mutant NSCLC cells in vitro. Osimertinib (125 nmol/L)
      markedly suppressed PD-L1 mRNA expression in both NCI-H1975 and HCC827 cells.
      Pretreatment with the N-linked glycosylation inhibitor tunicamycin, osimertinib
      clearly decreased the production of new PD-L1 protein probably due to a reduction
      in mRNA. After blocking transcription and translation processes with actinomycin
      D and cycloheximide, respectively, osimertinib continued to reduce the expression
      of PD-L1, demonstrating that osimertinib might degrade PD-L1 at the post
      translational level, which was confirmed by a cycloheximide chase assay,
      revealing that osimertinib (125 nmol/L) decreased the half-life of PD-L1 from
      approximately 17.8 h and 13.8 h to 8.6 h and 4.6 h, respectively, in NCI-H1975
      and HCC827 cells. Pretreatment with the proteasome inhibitors (MG-132 or
      bortezomib) blocked the osimertinib-induced degradation of PD-L1, but an
      inhibitor of autophagy (chloroquine) did not. In addition, inhibition of GSK3beta
      by LiCl prevented osimertinib-induced PD-L1 degradation. The results demonstrate
      that osimertinib reduces PD-L1 mRNA expression and induces its protein
      degradation, suggesting that osimertinib may reactivate the immune activity of T
      cells in the tumor microenvironment in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28880014
TI  - Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-transduced natural killer cells in tumor
      immunotherapy.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells are potential effector cells in cell-based cancer
      immunotherapy, particularly in the control of hematological malignancies. The
      chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is an artificially modified fusion protein that
      consists of an extracellular antigen recognition domain fused to an intracellular
      signaling domain. T cells genetically modified with a CAR have demonstrated
      remarkable success in the treatment of hematological cancers. Compared to T
      cells, CAR-transduced NK cells (CAR-NK) exhibit several advantages, such as
      safety in clinical use, the mechanisms by which they recognize cancer cells, and
      their abundance in clinical samples. Human primary NK cells and the NK-92 cell
      line have been successfully transduced to express CARs against both hematological
      cancers and solid tumors in pre-clinical and clinical trials. However, many
      challenges and obstacles remain, such as the ex vivo expansion of CAR-modified
      primary NK cells and the low transduction efficiency of NK cells. Many strategies
      and technologies have been developed to improve the safety and therapeutic
      efficacy in CAR-based immunotherapy. Moreover, NK cells express a variety of
      activating receptors (NKRs), such as CD16, NKG2D, CD226 and NKp30, which might
      specifically recognize the ligands expressed on tumor cells. Based on the
      principle of NKR recognition, a strategy that targets NKRs is rapidly emerging.
      Given the promising clinical progress described in this review, CAR- and NKR-NK
      cell-based immunotherapy are likely promising new strategies for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28880015
TI  - Integrated pharmacokinetic/viral dynamic model for daclatasvir/asunaprevir in
      treatment of patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C.
AB  - In order to develop an integrated pharmacokinetic/viral dynamic (PK/VD) model to
      predict long-term virological response rates to daclatasvir (DCV) and asunaprevir
      (ASV) combination therapy in patients infected with genotype 1 (GT1) chronic
      hepatitis C virus (HCV), a systematic publication search was conducted for DCV
      and ASV administered alone and/or in combination in healthy subjects or patients
      with GT1 HCV infection. On the basis of a constructed meta-database, an
      integrated PK/VD model was developed, which adequately described both DCV and ASV
      PK profiles and viral load time curves. The IC50 values of DCV and ASV were
      estimated to be 0.041 and 2.45 MUg/L, respectively, in GT1A patients. A sigmoid
      Emax function was applied to describe the antiviral effects of DCV and ASV,
      depending on the drug concentrations in the effect compartment. An empirical
      exponential function revealed that IC50 changing over time described drug
      resistance in HCV GT1A patients during DCV or ASV monotherapy. Finally, the PK/VD
      model was evaluated externally by comparing the expected and observed virological
      response rates during and post-treatment with DCV and ASV combination therapy in
      HCV GT1B patients. Both the rates were in general agreement. Our PK/VD model
      provides a useful platform for the characterization of
      pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationships and the prediction of long-term
      virological response rates to aid future development of direct acting antiviral
      drugs.

PMID- 28880017
TI  - Will rising prices and budget constraints prevent patients from accessing novel
      gene therapies?

PMID- 28880018
TI  - Spinraza-the patient perspective.

PMID- 28880016
TI  - (5R)-5-hydroxytriptolide ameliorates anti-glomerular basement membrane
      glomerulonephritis in NZW mice by regulating Fcgamma receptor signaling.
AB  - (5R)-5-hydroxytriptolide (LLDT-8) is a novel triptolide analog that has been
      identified as a promising candidate for treating autoimmune diseases and has been
      shown to be effective in treating murine collagen-induced arthritis and lupus
      nephritis. In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic effect and
      possible mechanism of action of LLDT-8 in a murine anti-glomerular basement
      membrane (GBM) glomerulonephritis model. NZW mice were injected with rabbit anti
      GBM serum (500 MUL, ip). The mice were orally treated with LLDT-8 (0.125 mg/kg,
      every other day) or a positive control prednisolone (2 mg/kg every day) for 14 d.
      Blood and urine samples as well as spleen and kidney tissues were collected for
      analyses. LLDT-8 treatment did not affect the generation of mouse anti-rabbit
      antibodies. LLDT-8 significantly reversed established proteinuria, improved renal
      histopathology and attenuated renal dysfunction in glomerulonephritis mice.
      Furthermore, LLDT-8 inhibited inflammation in the kidney evidenced by
      significantly decreasing C3 and IgG deposition, reducing the levels of the
      pathogenic cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-17, and IFN-gamma, and reducing related
      chemokine expression and leukocyte infiltration in kidneys. Moreover, LLDT-8
      treatment significantly increased the expression of FcgammaRIIB in the kidney and
      spleen. In addition, the treatment restored the reduced expression of FcgammaRIIB
      on the surface of kidney effector cells, CD11b+ cells, and interfered with
      FcgammaR-dependent signaling, especially FcgammaRIIB-mediated downstream kinases,
      such as BTK. These results demonstrate that LLDT-8 ameliorates anti-GBM
      glomerulonephritis by regulating the Fcgamma receptor signaling.

PMID- 28880019
TI  - Market access of Spinraza (Nusinersen) for spinal muscular atrophy: intellectual
      property rights, pricing, value and coverage considerations.

PMID- 28880020
TI  - Novel GP64 envelope variants for improved delivery to human airway epithelial
      cells.
AB  - Lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with the baculovirus envelope protein GP64
      transduce primary cultures of human airway epithelia (HAE) at their apical
      surface. Our goal in this study was to harness a directed evolution approach to
      develop a novel envelope glycoprotein with increased transduction properties for
      HAE. Using error-prone PCR, a library of GP64 mutants was generated and used to
      prepare a diverse pool of lentiviral virions pseudotyped with GP64 variants. The
      library was serially passaged on HAE and three GP64 mutations were recovered.
      Single-, double- and the triple-combination mutant envelope glycoproteins were
      compared with wild-type GP64 for their ability to transduce HAE. Our results
      suggest that lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with evolved GP64 transduced HAE with
      greater efficiency than wild-type GP64. This effect was not observed in primary
      cultures of porcine airway epithelial cells, suggesting that the directed
      evolution protocol was species specific. In summary, our studies indicate that
      serial passage of a GP64 mutant library yielded specific variants with improved
      HAE cell tropism, yielding tools with the potential to improve the success of
      gene therapy for airway diseases.

PMID- 28880022
TI  - Basic research: Standardizing animal atherosclerosis studies to improve
      reproducibility.

PMID- 28880021
TI  - Long-term expression of melanopsin and channelrhodopsin causes no gross
      alterations in the dystrophic dog retina.
AB  - Several preclinical studies have investigated the potential of algal
      channelrhodopsin and human melanopsin as optogenetic tools for vision
      restoration. In the present study, we assessed the potentially deleterious
      effects of long-term expression of these optogenes on the diseased retina in a
      large animal model of retinal degeneration, the RPE65-deficient Briard dog model
      of Leber congenital amaurosis. Intravitreal injection of adeno-associated virus
      vectors expressing channelrhodopsin and melanopsin had no effect on retinal
      thickness over a 16-month period post injection. Our data support the safety of
      the optogenetic approach for the treatment of blindness.

PMID- 28880024
TI  - Dyslipidaemia: Monoclonal antibody targeting lipoprotein-bound human apoC-III.

PMID- 28880023
TI  - Sudden infant death syndrome and inherited cardiac conditions.
AB  - Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of post-neonatal infant
      mortality in developed countries, characterized by the death of infants for no
      obvious reason and without prior warning. The complex interaction of multiple
      factors in the pathogenesis of SIDS is illustrated by the 'triple risk
      hypothesis', which proposed that SIDS results from a convergence of three
      overlapping risk factors: a critical developmental period, an exogenous stressor,
      and underlying genetic and/or nongenetic vulnerability in the infant. Rare
      variants in genes associated with inherited arrhythmia syndromes and
      cardiomyopathies have been proposed as the substrate for an infant's critical
      vulnerability in a small subset of SIDS cases. Given the potential risk of
      inherited cardiac disease, current guidelines recommend post-mortem genetic
      testing (molecular autopsy) and cardiological investigation of the surviving
      family, complemented by targeted genetic testing if appropriate. In this Review,
      we highlight the latest developments in understanding the spectrum and prevalence
      of cardiac-mediated SIDS, and discuss the clinical implications of SIDS in the
      surviving family and the general population.

PMID- 28880025
TI  - Expert consensus document: A 'diamond' approach to personalized treatment of
      angina.
AB  - In clinical guidelines, drugs for symptomatic angina are classified as being
      first choice (beta-blockers, calcium-channel blockers, short-acting nitrates) or
      second choice (ivabradine, nicorandil, ranolazine, trimetazidine), with the
      recommendation to reserve second-choice medications for patients who have
      contraindications to first-choice agents, do not tolerate them, or remain
      symptomatic. No direct comparisons between first-choice and second-choice
      treatments have demonstrated the superiority of one group of drugs over the
      other. Meta-analyses show that all antianginal drugs have similar efficacy in
      reducing symptoms, but provide no evidence for improvement in survival. The
      newer, second-choice drugs have more evidence-based clinical data that are more
      contemporary than is available for traditional first-choice drugs. Considering
      some drugs, but not others, to be first choice is, therefore, difficult.
      Moreover, double or triple therapy is often needed to control angina. Patients
      with angina can have several comorbidities, and symptoms can result from various
      underlying pathophysiologies. Some agents, in addition to having antianginal
      effects, have properties that could be useful depending on the comorbidities
      present and the mechanisms of angina, but the guidelines do not provide
      recommendations on the optimal combinations of drugs. In this Consensus
      Statement, we propose an individualized approach to angina treatment, which takes
      into consideration the patient, their comorbidities, and the underlying mechanism
      of disease.

PMID- 28880026
TI  - Corrigendum: Towards automatic pulmonary nodule management in lung cancer
      screening with deep learning.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep46479.

PMID- 28880027
TI  - Tandem Wittig/Diels-Alder diversification of genetically encoded peptide
      libraries.
AB  - In this paper, we developed a tandem of two carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions
      to chemically diversify the libraries of peptides displayed on a bacteriophage.
      The Wittig reaction of a biotin-ester from a stabilized phosphorane ylide with
      model peptides containing N-terminal glyoxal exhibits reaction rates of 0.07 to 5
      M-1 s-1 in water at pH 6.5-8. The log(k) scaled linearly with pH from pH 6 to 8;
      above pH 9 the reaction is accompanied by the hydrolysis of the ester
      functionality. Capture of the phage displaying the biotinylated product by
      streptavidin beads confirmed the rate of this reaction in a library of 108
      peptides (k = 0.23 M-1 s-1 at pH = 6.5) and also confirmed the regioselectivity
      of this modification. Olefins introduced into the Wittig reaction can act as
      Michael acceptors: addition of glutathione, cysteamine, and DYKDDDDKC ("FLAG
      Cys") peptide occurs with k = 0.12-4.1 M-1 s-1 at pH 7.8. Analogous reactions
      with the DYKDDDDKC peptide take place on phage-displayed peptides modified via
      the Wittig reaction. This reaction is manifested as a progressive emergence of a
      FLAG-epitope on the phage and detected by the capture of this phage using an anti
      FLAG antibody. Olefins introduced into the Wittig reaction also act as
      dienophiles in the Diels-Alder reaction with cyclopentadiene. The conversion of
      the dienophile to norbornene-like adducts on the phage was observed by monitoring
      the disappearance of the thiol-reactive olefin on the phage. This report broadens
      the reaction scope of genetically-encoded peptide libraries displayed on the
      phage, expanding the structural diversity of these platforms and increasing their
      potential to be used in screening against important protein targets. The
      possibility of monitoring tandem reactions by the use of different labels
      illustrates the feasibility of obtaining highly functionalized peptides with
      chemical motifs impossible to achieve using conventional translational machinery.

PMID- 28880028
TI  - Why do zeolites induce an unprecedented electronic state on exchanged metal ions?
AB  - Understanding the exact position and the detailed role of the Al array in
      zeolites is essential for elucidating the origin of unique properties that can be
      derived from the metal-ion exchanged in zeolite samples and for designing zeolite
      materials with high efficiency in catalytic and adsorption processes. In this
      work, we investigate, for the first time, the important role of the Al array in
      the reactivity observed on the metal-ion exchanged in zeolites on the basis of
      the calculation method by utilizing the spontaneous heterolytic cleavage of H2
      observed experimentally on the Zn2+-ion exchanged in MFI-type zeolites (Zn2+-MFI)
      as the model reaction. In the case of calculation, two main types of models for
      considering the Al positions in MFI-type zeolites were adopted: in the first
      type, the Al atoms with appropriate distances are aligned in the circumferential
      direction of the straight channel (abbreviated as a circumferentially arrayed Al
      Al site); in the second type, the nearest neighbouring Al atoms with appropriate
      distances are directed toward the straight channel axis (abbreviated as a channel
      directionally arrayed Al-Al site). Results indicated that the Al-array direction
      governs the reactivity of Zn2+-MFI. The former type of array well explains the
      experimental fact that spontaneous and irreversible heterolysis of H2 takes place
      on Zn2+-MFI, even at room temperature, whereas the latter type of array is less
      reactive; high activation energy is required for the heterolytic cleavage of H2
      (ca. >70 kJ mol-1). A detailed analysis of the geometric and electronic
      structures of a series of Zn2+-MFI models with various Al-array directions
      clarified the following facts: the circumferentially arrayed Al-Al site induces
      an inevitable environment around the Zn2+ site, with the simultaneous existence
      of both a Lewis acid point (coordinatively unsaturated and distorted Zn2+) and a
      Lewis base point (the lattice oxygen atom juxtaposed with exchanged Zn2+, which
      participates in the activation of H2: OjL). It is the circumferentially arrayed
      Al-Al atoms that confer acidic and basic nature on the metal ion and the lattice
      oxygen atom (OjL), and ultimately trigger the heterolytic dissociation of H2,
      even at 300 K.

PMID- 28880029
TI  - Fluorescence labelling of extracellular vesicles using a novel thiol-based
      strategy for quantitative analysis of cellular delivery and intracellular
      traffic.
AB  - Extracellular vesicles, including exosomes, are naturally derived nanovesicles
      generated in and released by numerous cell types. As extracellular entities they
      have the capacity to interact with neighbouring cells and distant tissues and
      affect physiological processes as well as being implicated in numerous diseases
      including tumorigenesis and neurodegeneration. They are also under intense
      investigation as delivery vectors for biotherapeutics. The ways in which EVs
      interact with recipient cells to influence cell physiology and deliver a
      macromolecular payload are at the early stages of exploration. A significant
      challenge within these studies is the ability to label EVs directly or indirectly
      with fluorescent probes to allow visualization without compromising
      functionality. Here, we present a thiol-based fluorescence labelling method
      allowing comprehensive analysis of the cellular uptake of prostate cancer derived
      EVs in live cells using confocal microscopy. Labelling of the EVs in this way did
      not influence their size and had no effect on their ability to induce
      differentiation of lung fibroblasts to myofibroblasts. For endocytosis analyses,
      depletion of key endocytic proteins and the use of chemical inhibitors (Dynasore,
      EIPA, Rottlerin and IPA-3) indicated that fluid-phase endocytosis and/or
      macropinocytosis was involved in EV internalisation. Over a period of six hours
      EVs were observed to increasingly co-localise with lysosomes, indicating a
      possible termination point following internalisation. Overall this method
      provides new opportunities for analysing the cellular dynamics of EVs as
      biological entities affecting cell and whole body physiology as well as
      investigating their potential as drug delivery vectors.

PMID- 28880030
TI  - Quantitative detection of isotopically enriched E. coli cells by SERS.
AB  - It is clear that investigating how bacterial cells work by analysing their
      functional roles in microbial communities is very important in environmental,
      clinical and industrial microbiology. The benefits of linking genes to their
      respective functions include the reliable identification of the causative agents
      of various diseases, which would permit appropriate and timely treatment in
      healthcare systems. In industrial and municipal wastewater treatment and
      management, such knowledge may allow for the manipulation of microbial
      communities, such as through bioaugmentation, in order to improve the efficiency
      and effectiveness of bioremediation processes. Stable isotope probing coupled
      with identification techniques has emerged to be a potentially reliable tool for
      the discrimination, identification and characterization of bacteria at community
      and single cell levels, knowledge which can be utilized to link microbially
      mediated bioprocesses to phylogeny. Development of the surface-enhanced Raman
      scattering (SERS) technique offers an exciting alternative to the Raman and
      Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic techniques in understanding the
      metabolic processes of microorganisms in situ. SERS employing Ag and Au
      nanoparticles can significantly enhance the Raman signal, making it an exciting
      candidate for the analysis of the cellular components of microorganisms. In this
      study, Escherichia coli cells were cultivated in minimal medium containing
      different ratios of 12C/13C glucose and/or 14N/15N ammonium chloride as the only
      carbon and nitrogen sources respectively, with the overall final concentrations
      of these substrates being constant. After growth, the E. coli cells were analyzed
      with SERS employing an in situ synthesis of Ag nanoparticles. This novel
      investigation of the SERS spectral data with multivariate chemometrics
      demonstrated clear clusters which could be correlated to the SERS spectral shifts
      of biomolecules from cells grown and hence labelled with 13C and 15N atoms. These
      shifts reflect the isotopic content of the bacteria and quantification of the
      isotope levels could be established using chemometrics based on partial least
      squares regression.

PMID- 28880031
TI  - Recent advances in the synthesis of analogues of phytohormones strigolactones
      with ring-closing metathesis as a key step.
AB  - In this paper, we synthesized and evaluated the biological activity of structural
      analogues of natural strigolactones in which the butenolide D-ring has been
      replaced with a gamma-lactam. The key step to obtain the alpha,beta-unsaturated
      gamma-lactam was an RCM on suitably substituted amides. Strigolactones (SLs) are
      plant hormones with various developmental functions. As soil signaling chemicals,
      they are required for establishing beneficial mycorrhizal plant/fungus symbiosis.
      Beside these auxinic roles, recently SLs have been successfully investigated as
      antitumoral agents. Peculiar to the SL perception system is the enzymatic
      activity of the hormone receptor. SARs data have shown that the presence of the
      butenolide D-ring is crucial to retain the biological activity. The substitution
      of the butenolide with a lactam might shed light on the mechanism of perception.
      In the following, a dedicated in silico study suggested the binding modes of the
      synthesized compounds to the receptor of SLs in plants.

PMID- 28880032
TI  - In vitro and in vivo inhibitory effects of a Pleurotus eryngii protein on colon
      cancer cells.
AB  - Edible mushrooms have been considered as a good source of bioactive components
      with various health benefits. Our previous study demonstrated the identity of a
      novel protein from Pleurotus eryngii, namely PEP, and its anti-inflammatory
      activities. Herein, we further determined the inhibitory effects of PEP against
      colon cancer cells. PEP suppressed the proliferation of human and murine colon
      cancer HCT116 and MC38 cells in a dose and time-dependent fashion, while it
      showed no inhibitory effect on normal human colonic myofibroblasts CCD-18Co at
      the same concentrations tested. Moreover, PEP induced cell cycle arrest and led
      to extensive cellular apoptosis in colon cancer cells, which was associated with
      the downregulation of cell cycle-related signaling proteins, e.g. cyclin B,
      cyclin E and cdc-2, and the upregulation of apoptosis-related signaling proteins,
      e.g. p53 and c-PARP. The results from an in vivo study showed that PEP treatment
      significantly suppressed tumor development of allograft colon cancer cells in
      mice, and this inhibition was associated with the upregulation of p21, p53,
      caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3. Overall, our results provided a basis for PEP as
      a promising preventive agent against colon cancer.

PMID- 28880033
TI  - Cooperative hydrogen bonds form a pseudocycle stabilizing an isolated complex of
      isocyanic acid with urea.
AB  - The shapes of macromolecules and their complexes with small molecules are often
      determined by extended networks of hydrogen bonds. Here, for the first time, we
      provide a detailed description of a cooperative pair of hydrogen bonds to an
      individual molecule of urea. The structure and properties of a gas phase complex
      formed between urea and isocyanic acid are characterised through microwave
      spectroscopy and ab initio calculations at the CCSD(T)(F12*)/aug-cc-pVTZ level.

PMID- 28880034
TI  - Quantum dots: from fluorescence to chemiluminescence, bioluminescence,
      electrochemiluminescence, and electrochemistry.
AB  - During the past decade, nanotechnology has become one of the major forces driving
      basic and applied research. As a novel class of inorganic fluorochromes, research
      into quantum dots (QDs) has become one of the fastest growing fields of
      nanotechnology today. QDs are made of a semiconductor material with tunable
      physical dimensions as well as unique optoelectronic properties, and have
      attracted multidisciplinary research efforts to further their potential
      bioanalytical applications. Recently, numerous optical properties of QDs, such as
      narrow emission band peaks, broad absorption spectra, intense signals, and
      remarkable resistance to photobleaching, have made them biocompatible and
      sensitive for biological assays. In this review, we give an overview of these
      exciting materials and describe their potential, especially in biomolecules
      analysis, including fluorescence detection, chemiluminescence detection,
      bioluminescence detection, electrochemiluminescence detection, and
      electrochemical detection. Finally, conclusions are made, including highlighting
      some critical challenges remaining and a perspective of how this field can be
      expected to develop in the future.

PMID- 28880035
TI  - Catching the electron in action in real space inside a Ge-Si core-shell nanowire
      transistor.
AB  - Catching the electron in action in real space inside a semiconductor Ge-Si core
      shell nanowire field effect transistor (FET), which has been demonstrated (J.
      Xiang, W. Lu, Y. Hu, Y. Wu, H. Yan and C. M. Lieber, Nature, 2006, 441, 489) to
      outperform the state-of-the-art metal oxide semiconductor FET, is central to
      gaining unfathomable access into the origin of its functionality. Here, using a
      quantum transport approach that does not make any assumptions on electronic
      structure, charge, and potential profile of the device, we unravel the most
      probable tunneling pathway for electrons in a Ge-Si core-shell nanowire FET with
      orbital level spatial resolution, which demonstrates gate bias induced decoupling
      of electron transport between the core and the shell region. Our calculation
      yields excellent transistor characteristics as noticed in the experiment. Upon
      increasing the gate bias beyond a threshold value, we observe a rapid drop in
      drain current resulting in a gate bias driven negative differential resistance
      behavior and switching in the sign of trans-conductance. We attribute this
      anomalous behavior in drain current to the gate bias induced modification of the
      carrier transport pathway from the Ge core to the Si shell region of the nanowire
      channel. A new experiment involving a four probe junction is proposed to confirm
      our prediction on gate bias induced decoupling.

PMID- 28880036
TI  - Reactivity of the geminal phosphinoborane tBu2PCH2BPh2 towards alkynes, nitriles,
      and nitrilium triflates.
AB  - The reactivity of the geminal phosphinoborane tBu2PCH2BPh2 towards terminal
      alkynes, nitriles and nitrilium salts is investigated. Terminal alkynes react via
      C-H bond splitting (deprotonation) resulting in the formation of phosphonium
      borates. In contrast, both nitriles and nitrilium salts undergo addition
      reactions resulting in the formation of five-membered heterocycles. All compounds
      were characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, and single-crystal X-ray
      structure determinations. Insight into the reaction mechanisms was gained by DFT
      calculations.

PMID- 28880037
TI  - The role of spin states in the catalytic mechanism of the intra- and extradiol
      cleavage of catechols by O2.
AB  - Iron-dependent enzymes and biomimetic iron complexes can catalyze the ring
      cleavage of very inert, aromatic compounds. The mechanisms of these
      transformations and the factors that lead either to extradiol cleavage or
      intradiol cleavage have not been fully understood. By using density functional
      theory we have elucidated the mechanism of the catalytic cycle for two biomimetic
      complexes, and explained the difference in the experimentally obtained products.

PMID- 28880038
TI  - Palladium-catalyzed, unsymmetrical homocoupling of thiophenes via carbon-sulfur
      bond activation: a new avenue to homocoupling reactions.
AB  - The Pd-catalyzed, CN-directed unsymmetrical synthesis of 2,4'-bithiophenes via an
      unprecedented homocoupling reaction is described. The NH2/CN/SMe arrangement
      breaks the routine. The cooperative performance of the functional groups in
      thiophenes would open up a new vision in the field of metal catalysis
      homocoupling reactions by joining the electrophilic and nucleophilic motifs of
      the substrate. Furthermore, it is found that the alpha-chelating effect of the
      carbonyl group in amino thiophene offers a new class of synthetic protocols for C
      N cross-coupling with arylboronic acids. The bidentate N,O-chelation provides a
      series of advantages such as copper-catalyzed, ligand- and base-free under open
      flask conditions. Interestingly, the combination of the C-N cross
      coupling/homocoupling reactions in a domino fashion led to the bithiophene
      adducts featuring the C(Ar)-N bond cleavage in the nitrogen that bridged between
      the two thiophene units.

PMID- 28880039
TI  - Why can a gold salt react as a base?
AB  - This study shows that gold salts [(L)AuX] (L = PMe3, PPh3, JohnPhos, IPr; X =
      SbF6, PF6, BF4, TfO, Tf2N) act as bases in aqueous solutions and can transform
      acetone to digold acetonyl complexes [(L)2Au2(CH2COCH3)]+ without any additional
      base present in solution. The key step is the formation of digold hydroxide
      complexes [(L)2Au2(OH)]+. The kinetics of the formation of the digold complexes
      and their mutual transformation is studied by electrospray ionization mass
      spectrometry and the delayed reactant labelling method. We show that the
      formation of digold hydroxide is the essential first step towards the formation
      of the digold acetonyl complex, the reaction is favoured by more polar solvents,
      and the effect of counter ions is negligible. DFT calculations suggest that
      digold hydroxide and digold acetonyl complexes can exist in solution only due to
      the stabilization by the interaction with two gold atoms. The reaction between
      the digold hydroxide and acetone proceeds towards the dimer
      {[(L)Au(OH)].[(L)Au(CH3COCH3)]+}. The monomeric units interact at the gold atoms
      in the perpendicular arrangement typical of the gold clusters bound by the
      aurophilic interaction. The hydrogen is transferred within the dimer and the
      reaction continues towards the digold acetonyl complex and water.

PMID- 28880041
TI  - Less stable tautomers form stronger hydrogen bonds: the case of water complexes.
AB  - Hydrogen bonding in cyclic complexes of water with tautomeric pairs of molecules
      M0 and M1 is calculated to be stronger by more than 25% for the less stable
      tautomer M1 in all cases where the energy gap between the two tautomers is large
      (DeltaE(M0 - M1) > 10 kcal mol-1). This is accompanied by a large red-shift (>200
      cm-1) of the N-H/O-H stretch frequency in the complexes involving M1. Large
      barriers for double proton transfer in both directions should permit an
      experimental verification. Exceptions to this rule were found in heterocycles
      with an N-C[double bond, length as m-dash]O fragment incorporated into a
      conjugated cycle resulting in two nearly degenerate tautomers - keto and enol
      forms. The wavefunction of the keto form has a large contribution from a
      zwitterionic VB structure which is also aromatic. This increases the polarity of
      the keto group, making the oxygen atom a strong H-bond acceptor. It can also
      stabilize the keto form below the aromatic enol form. In this case the extra-HB
      stabilization is observed for the most stable tautomer (i.e. for the keto form).
      H-bonding enhances the aromatic character of less aromatic molecules, but the
      more aromatic tautomers partially loose aromaticity.

PMID- 28880040
TI  - Analysis of the vibronic structure of the trans-stilbene fluorescence and
      excitation spectra: the S0 and S1 PES along the Ce[double bond, length as m
      dash]Ce and Ce-Cph torsions.
AB  - We analyze the highly resolved vibronic structure of the low energy (<=200 cm-1)
      region of the fluorescence and fluorescence excitation spectra of trans-stilbene
      in supersonic beams. In this spectral region the vibronic structure is associated
      mainly with vibrational levels of the Ce-Ce torsion (tau) and the au combination
      of the two Ce-Cph bond twisting (phi). We base this analysis on the well
      established S0(tau, phi) two-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) and on a
      newly refined S1(tau, phi) PES. We obtain vibrational eigenvalues and
      eigenvectors of the anharmonic S0(tau, phi) and S1(tau, phi) PES using a
      numerical procedure based on the Meyer's flexible model [R. Meyer, J. Mol.
      Spectrosc., 1979, 76, 266]. Then we derive Franck-Condon factors and therefore
      intensities of the relevant vibronic bands for the S0 -> S1 excitation and S1 ->
      S0 fluorescence spectra. Furthermore, we assess the role of the bg combination of
      the two Ce-Cph bond twisting (nu48) in the structure of the S1 -> S0 fluorescence
      spectra. By the use of these results we are able to assign most of the low energy
      vibrational levels of the S0 -> S1 excitation spectra and of the fluorescence
      spectra of the emission from several low energy S1 vibronic levels. The good
      agreement between the observed and the computed vibrational structure of the S0 
      > S1 and S1 -> S0 spectra suggests that the proposed picture of the E1(tau, phi)
      and E0(tau, phi) PES, in particular along the coordinate tau governing trans-cis
      photo-isomerization in S1, is accurate. In S0, the barriers for the Ce[double
      bond, length as m-dash]Ce torsion and for the au type Ce-Cph bond twisting are 16
      080 cm-1 and 3125 cm-1, respectively, while in S1, where the bond orders of the
      Ce[double bond, length as m-dash]Ce and Ce-Cph bonds are reversed, the two
      barriers become 1350 cm-1 and 8780 cm-1, respectively.

PMID- 28880042
TI  - The fluorescently responsive 3-(naphthalen-1-ylethynyl)-3-deaza-2'-deoxyguanosine
      discriminates cytidine via the DNA minor groove.
AB  - A new environmentally responsive fluorescent nucleoside, 3-(naphthalen-1
      ylethynyl)-3-deaza-2'-deoxyguanosine (3nzG), has been synthesized. The
      nucleoside, 3nzG, exhibited solvatochromic properties and when introduced into
      ODN probes it was able to recognize 2'-deoxycytidine in target strands by a
      distinct change in its emission wavelength through probing microenvironmental
      changes in the DNA minor groove. Thus, 3nzG has the potential for use as a
      fluorescent probe molecule for micro-structural studies of nucleic acids
      including the detection of single-base alterations in target DNA sequences.

PMID- 28880043
TI  - [Interstitial nephritis in pigs].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Interstitial nephritis as a form of renal diseases can be found
      frequently among pigs. Nevertheless, prevalence and aetiology need to be
      investigated in more detail as reports about detailed analysis are lacking.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: In the present study, a total of 169 kidneys of
      conventionally and organically raised pigs were randomly chosen at slaughter and
      classified according to the degree of inflammation and the participating
      inflammatory cells. Moreover, PCV2 as an infectious agent was analysed by
      immunohistochemistry and in-situ hybridisation. RESULTS: All of the investigated
      kidneys displayed mild interstitial lesions. Inflammatory cells included
      lymphocytes, macrophages, plasma cells, eosinophilic and neutrophilic
      granulocytes. Significant (p <= 0.0001) differences concerning the grade of
      inflammation and inflammatory cell occurrence could be observed between kidneys
      of conventionally and organically raised pigs. In comparison to conventionally
      raised pigs organically raised pigs showed significant (p <= 0.0001) more
      frequently a mild form of nephritis as well as a significant (p <= 0.0001) more
      frequent occurrence of lymphocytes and macrophages. In contrast to that,
      conventionally raised pigs had a significant (p <= 0.0001) higher occurrence rate
      of a mild to moderate form of nephritis as well as a significant (p <= 0.0001)
      higher level in occurrence of lymphocytes, macrophages, plasma cells, and
      neutrophilic granulocytes when compared to organically raised pigs. PCV2 DNA was
      detected in the kidney of only one animal. CONCLUSION: Interstitial nephritis was
      found in conventionally and organically raised pigs and PCV2 was ruled out as a
      major pathogen for interstitial nephritis in slaughter pigs. CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      Because of the high prevalence and unknown cause further investigations are
      necessary to delineate the clinic relevance of this alteration and its
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28880044
TI  - [Management of the dry and transition periods of dairy cattle in free stall
      housing systems in Lower Saxony. Part 1: Farm management. Teil 1:
      Betriebsmanagement].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Describing husbandry and management of dairy cows during the dry and
      transition periods on farms of different sizes in Lower Saxony, Germany. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: A total of 51 dairy farms were visited and asked via questionnaire
      about the husbandry and management in the following categories: general operating
      data, stable and husbandry of milking cows, dry cows, transition cows and the
      youngstock, pasture management, feeding, health data and prophylactic treatments.
      In addition, during a farm inspection, data on cow comfort were collected.
      RESULTS: German Holstein was the predominant breed on the dairy farms. Most
      cattle were kept in three-rowed free-stall housing systems (74%) with straw
      bedding (47%) without division in productivity groups (59%). The dry cows were
      most frequently separated in two groups (68%) in free-stall housing systems
      (68%). The heifers were similarly mainly kept in free-stall housing systems (67%)
      and were mostly separated according to their reproductive status (74%). On 29% of
      the farms, pasture grazing was not practiced at any time. On 80% of the farms,
      cows were fed a mixed ration with computerized concentrate supplementation and on
      68% of the farms biphasic dry cow diets were used. The most frequently stated
      health problems were of the limb and claw (61%). Prophylaxis of ketosis was
      practiced on 21% of the farms and milk-fever prophylaxis on 12% of the farms,
      both for each individual cow around calving. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      Husbandry and management on farms differ widely and are still in need of
      optimization with respect to barn concepts, implementation of production groups
      and feeding, as well as veterinary consultation with respect to health problems
      and prophylactic measures.

PMID- 28880045
TI  - [Factors influencing first-colostrum calcium concentration in Holstein-Friesian
      cows and the relationship to postpartum calcium concentration].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the factors that affect the calcium content of the
      first colostrum (milk exclusively of the first withdrawal) and the relationship
      to the blood calcium concentration. We tested the hypotheses that the lactation
      number is the main influence factor and that there is a relationship to the
      postpartum serum calcium concentration. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An observational
      study was conducted from April 2012 to March 2013 at a commercial dairy farm
      (2278 Holstein-Friesian cows). The analysis comprised the following variables:
      blood serum concentrations of calcium, phosphate, non-esterified fatty acids, and
      beta-hydroxybutyrate; back-fat thickness; daily milk production; calving data;
      lactation number; male parent of the cow; length of gestation; age at first
      calving; dry-period duration; fertility parameters of prelactation; diseases
      during the dry period and up to 3 days postpartum. A stepwise analysis of the
      data for correlations and influencing factors was conducted by means of variance,
      correlation, and multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS: The mean calcium
      concentration of the colostrum was 2386 mg/l (standard deviation 550 mg/l), with
      heifers having a higher value by 148.5 mg/l than pluriparous cows. Factors
      influencing the colostrum calcium content were the mean milk production during
      the first week of lactation and the back-fat thickness at drying off. The
      correlation to the milk production was negative, which may be a dilution effect.
      An increase in back-fat thickness caused an increase in the colostrum calcium
      concentration. Together, these two factors explained 25% of the colostrum calcium
      variation. The lactation number and the blood calcium concentration were not
      significant influence factors on the colostrum calcium content. CONCLUSION AND
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The hypotheses could not be confirmed in that there was
      neither a relationship of to the blood calcium concentration nor of the lactation
      number with the colostrum calcium content. The colostrum calcium content
      displayed a wide individual variation. However, there was a possible influence
      through milk production and back-fat thickness, but this would not be beneficial
      with regard to prophylaxis of parturient paresis.

PMID- 28880046
TI  - Clinical decisions support malfunctions in a commercial electronic health record.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Determine if clinical decision support (CDS) malfunctions occur in a
      commercial electronic health record (EHR) system, characterize their pathways and
      describe methods of detection. METHODS: We retrospectively examined the firing
      rate for 226 alert type CDS rules for detection of anomalies using both expert
      visualization and statistical process control (SPC) methods over a five year
      period. Candidate anomalies were investigated and validated. RESULTS: Twenty-one
      candidate CDS anomalies were identified from 8,300 alert-months. Of these
      candidate anomalies, four were confirmed as CDS malfunctions, eight as false
      positives, and nine could not be classified. The four CDS malfunctions were a
      result of errors in knowledge management: 1) inadvertent addition and removal of
      a medication code to the electronic formulary list; 2) a seasonal alert which was
      not activated; 3) a change in the base data structures; and 4) direct editing of
      an alert related to its medications. 154 CDS rules (68%) were amenable to SPC
      methods and the test characteristics were calculated as a sensitivity of 95%,
      positive predictive value of 29% and F-measure 0.44. DISCUSSION: CDS malfunctions
      were found to occur in our EHR. All of the pathways for these malfunctions can be
      described as knowledge management errors. Expert visualization is a robust method
      of detection, but is resource intensive. SPC-based methods, when applicable,
      perform reasonably well retrospectively. CONCLUSION: CDS anomalies were found to
      occur in a commercial EHR and visual detection along with SPC analysis represents
      promising methods of malfunction detection.

PMID- 28880047
TI  - Comparison of secure messaging application (WhatsApp) and standard telephone
      usage for consultations on Length of Stay in the ED. A prospective randomized
      controlled study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Consultation, the process of an Emergency Physician seeking an opinion
      from other specialties, occurs frequently in the Emergency Department (ED). The
      aim of this study was to determine the effect of secure messaging application
      (WhatsApp) usage for medical consultations on Emergency Department Length of Stay
      (ED LOS) and consult time. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, randomized
      controlled trial in the ED using allocation concealment over three months.
      Consultations requested in the ED were allocated into two groups: consultations
      requested via the secure messaging application and consultations requested by
      telephone as verbal. RESULTS: A total of 439 consultations requested in the ED
      were assessed for eligibility and 345 were included in the final analysis: 173
      consultations were conducted using secure messaging application and 172
      consultations were conducted using standard telephone communications. The median
      ED LOS was 240 minutes (IQR:230-270, 95% CI:240 to 255.2) for patients in the
      secure messaging application group and 277 minutes (IQR:270-287.8, 95% CI:277 to
      279) for patients in the telephone group. The median total ED LOS was
      significantly lower among consults conducted using Secure messaging application
      relative to consults conducted by telephone (median dif: -30, 95%CI:-37to-25,
      p<0.0001). The median consult time was 158 minutes (IQR:133 to 177.25, 95% CI:150
      to 169) for patients in the Secure messaging application group and 170 minutes
      (IQR:165 to 188.5, 95% CI:170-171) for patients in the Telephone group (median
      dif: -12, 95%CI:-19 to-7,p<0.0001). Consultations completed without ED arrival
      was 61.8% in the secure messaging group and 33.1% in the Telephone group (dif:
      28.7, 95% CI:48.3 to 66, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Use of secure messaging
      application for consultations in the ED reduces the total ED LOS and consultation
      time. Consultation with secure messaging application eliminated more than half of
      in-person ED consultation visits.

PMID- 28880048
TI  - Histopathological changes associated to an absorbable fibrin patch (Tachosil(r))
      covering in an experimental model of high-risk colonic anastomoses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: TachoSil(r) is a fibrin sponge that contains fibrinogen and thrombin
      and is a useful adjuvant to enhance control of air leaks in thoracic surgery and
      to control bleeding in vascular and general surgery. Its use in intestinal
      surgery to prevent suture dehiscence is currently under investigation. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: We report the results of a prospective randomized experimental study
      on 33 large white pigs in which a high-risk suture was created by induction of
      ischemia. We randomly employed TachoSil(r) to cover the anastomosis in half of
      the animals compared to a control group of uncovered anastomosis. After
      euthanasia, postmortem analysis was performed describing the findings related to
      anastomotic leakage, peritonitis and grade of adhesions. The entire anastomosis
      was resected in bloc and sent for histopathological analysis. A single blinded
      pathologist evaluated the histopathological features of the specimens. RESULTS:
      We found statistically significant differences favouring the patch in decreasing
      leakage in the covered group. The healing process did not show significant
      differences between groups, although a higher rate of microscopic abscess was
      observed in the covered group. CONCLUSION: The use of fibrin sealants covering
      high-risk intestinal sutures has a positive effect in avoiding macroscopic
      anastomotic leakage. The patch did not have any influence in the anastomotic
      healing process, however, as a result of the effect in containing the
      inflammatory response, it may increase the rate of abscess.

PMID- 28880050
TI  - Effects of nanotechnology-based devices on postural control in healthy subjects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present preliminary randomized controlled study was to
      ascertain whether the use of newly developed nanotechnologies-based patches can
      influence posture control of healthy subjects. METHODS: Thirty healthy female
      subjects (age 39.4 years, BMI 22.74 kg/m2) were randomly assigned to two groups:
      one with active patches and a control group with sham patches. Two patches were
      applied with a tape: one on the subject's sternum and the other on the C7
      apophysis. Body sway during quiet upright stance was recorded with a dynamometric
      platform. Each subject was tested under two visual conditions, eyes open and
      closed. We used a blocked stratified randomization procedure conducted by a third
      party. RESULTS: Subjects wearing the sham patches showed a significant increase
      of the center of pressure sway area after 4 hours when they performed the
      habitual moderate-intensity work activities. In the active patch group, a
      decrease of the sway path was evident, providing evidence of an enhanced balance
      control. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary findings on healthy subjects indicate that
      nanotechnological devices generating ultra-low electromagnetic fields can improve
      posture control.

PMID- 28880049
TI  - Sleep and glycemic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence link sleep curtailment and circadian misalignment
      with adverse metabolic outcome. Adolescents might be most affected, given their
      late sleep timing and early school and work start times. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was
      to examine the impact of poor sleeping habits on glycemic control in adolescents
      with type 1 diabetes. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This was a non-interventional
      multicenter study across Germany recruiting pubertally mature adolescents with
      type 1 diabetes. Medical records were used to collect information on diabetes
      duration, treatment, and complications. Participants self-reported sleep quality,
      timing, chronotype, and social jetlag-a measure of circadian misalignment.
      Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was determined at the time of questionnaire response. We
      used multivariable linear regression models to examine associations between sleep
      and glycemic control. RESULTS: A total of 191 patients aged 16.5 years (mean
      HbA1c 8.0% [64 mmol/mol]) were included in this study. In multivariable adjusted
      analyses, sleep quality was significantly associated with HbA1c (mean difference;
      beta = -0.07, P = .05). Stratified analysis indicated that this association might
      be stronger in boys and also in children with migration background. In contrast,
      neither sleep duration, sleep debt, chronotype, nor social jetlag was associated
      with HbA1c . Secondary analyses showed that social jetlag was significantly
      associated with levels of insulin requirements (mean difference; beta = 0.035, P
      = .03). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that poor sleep quality is associated
      with increased HbA1c in adolescents with type 1 diabetes and that higher levels
      of circadian misalignment are associated with increased insulin requirements. If
      replicated, our results indicate a clinical relevance of sleep habits in
      adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

PMID- 28880051
TI  - Depression mediates the association between physical inactivity and cognitive
      impairment in Korean older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated the association between physical activity and
      cognitive impairment in older adults. METHODS: Data from 10245 Korean adults
      (4428 men and 5817 women) who participated in the 2008 baseline survey of the
      living profiles of older people survey were used for this analysis. Compared with
      low PA men, moderate PA men only had significantly lower odds-ratio (OR) and 95%
      confidence interval (95% CI) (OR=0.795, 95% CI: 0.654~0.965, P=0.021) for having
      cognitive impairment even after adjusting for measured covariates, which was no
      longer significant when additionally adjusted for depressive symptoms (OR=0.862,
      95% CI: 0.707~1.051, P=0.143). RESULTS: Compared with low PA women, moderate- and
      high PA women had significantly lower risks of cognitive impairment (OR=0.830,
      95% CI: 0.712~0.969, P=0.018 and OR=0.784, 95% CI: 0.651~0.943, P=0.010,
      respectively) even after adjusted for the measured covariates, which was no
      longer significant when additionally adjusted for depressive symptoms (OR=0.897,
      95% CI: 0.776~1.049, P=0.173 and OR=0.919, 95% CI: 0.761~1.111, P=0.385,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that depression mediates the
      inverse relationship between physical activity and cognitive decline among older
      adults.

PMID- 28880052
TI  - Effects of volleyball plyometric intervention program on vertical jumping ability
      in male volleyball players.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the effect of a 6-week plyometric
      exercise training program on the development of lower limb explosive power in
      terms of vertical jumping ability in university level volleyball players. The
      study involved 9 male volleyball players from the AWF Wroclaw University Sports
      Club, with a minimum of 5 years of training and competition experience. The
      program consisted of various bounds, hops, and jumps in vertical, horizontal, and
      mixed directions. During the program, a progressive overload of plyometric
      intervention was applied. Lower limb explosive power in the form of vertical
      jumping ability was developed and tested. METHODS: The jumping ability was
      evaluated via 5 types of maximum-effort vertical jumps, using the Opto Jump
      system. In addition, once each week, the heart rate was recorded using a heart
      rate monitor (Polar RS300X GPS). RESULTS: The only significant correlation was
      found between squat jump and number of jumps and between counter movement jump
      and heart rate. CONCLUSIONS: From a practical standpoint, the improvement, which
      was noticed after 3 and 6 weeks, seems to optimal period for volleyball players
      adaptation to significant increased training load.

PMID- 28880054
TI  - Effects of family-centered care based on timing it right on the care ability and
      the quality of life of family members of patients with acute myocardial
      infarction.

PMID- 28880053
TI  - Liver fibrosis: the 2017 state of art.
AB  - Liver fibrosis is a wound-healing response to a wide spectrum of chronic liver
      injuries. It is characterized by loss of hepatocytes and alteration in hepatic
      architecture following an imbalance between extracellular matrix synthesis and
      degradation. Irrespectively of underlying etiology, fibrosis may progress to
      cirrhosis and specific pathogenetic mechanisms as well as different disease
      patterns may be identified according to etiology. Liver biopsy is still
      considered the gold standard for fibrosis assessment, despite the fact that it is
      invasive, has poor patient compliance and is not exempt of complications. Several
      reliable and non-invasive tools are currently used in clinical practice,
      including imaging methods and surrogate serum biomarkers, commonly combined into
      composite scores. The main limitation of non-invasive methods is the low
      performance in the discrimination of intermediate stages of fibrosis. However,
      with the recent availability of novel treatment options, particularly for chronic
      hepatitis C, a precise staging of liver fibrosis is becoming clinically less
      relevant. Conversely, since patients with cirrhosis need to be monitored for the
      risk of hepatocellular carcinoma development, the accurate detection of this
      condition is a primary endpoint. Finally, several promising antifibrotic agents
      are under investigation in phase I and II trials. Nevertheless, further efforts
      are needed for the identification of novel potential targets for the development
      of antifibrotic drugs able to arrest, and possibly revert liver fibrogenesis.

PMID- 28880055
TI  - Resistant hypertension: an overview.
AB  - Despite the availability of anti-hypertensive medications with proven efficacy
      and good tolerability, many hypertensive patients have blood pressure (BP) levels
      not at the goals set by international societies. Some of these patients are
      either non-adherent to the prescribed drugs or not optimally treated. However, a
      proportion has resistant hypertension (RH) defined as office BP above goal
      despite the use of >=3 antihypertensive medications at maximally tolerated doses
      (one ideally being a diuretic). Diagnosis of RH based upon office measurements,
      however, needs confirmation through 24-h BP monitoring to exclude "white coat" RH
      since cardiovascular events and mortality rates follow mean ambulatory BPs.
      Standardized combination therapy based upon angiotensin converting enzyme
      inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, amlodipine or other dihydropiridine
      calcium channel blockers and thiazide or thiazide-like diuretics has been
      advocated to treat RH with spironolactone as preferred fourth add-on drug.
      Interventional procedures such as renal denervation have been devised to treat RH
      and tested with insofar not positive results in series of patients not responding
      to medical treatment. It is unclear whether RH constitutes a specific phenotype
      of EH or should rather be considered a more serious form of uncontrolled
      hypertension. Whatever the case, its presence associates with an increased cardio
      and cerebrovascular risk and deserves, therefore, particular care.

PMID- 28880056
TI  - Ultrasound and ultrasound-related techniques in endocrine diseases.
AB  - Ultrasound examination has become essential to evaluate morphology and size of
      several endocrine glands and detect the presence of lesions within these organs.
      Nevertheless, with the recent advances of ultrasound technology, we have
      opportunity to correlate the echostructure of thyroid, ovary, testis,
      parathyroids, etc. to their function. Thus, the ultrasound systems are in-office
      essential instruments for many clinical specialists. Herein we presented the most
      updated information about the use of ultrasound in specific endocrine-related
      issues, such as thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal gland, and testicle.

PMID- 28880057
TI  - Comparative study of thyroid hormone and antithyroid antibody levels in patients
      with gestational diabetes mellitus and pregnant patients with diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of thyroid
      hormone and antithyroid antibodies and their relationship with pregnancy outcome
      in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and diabetic patients.
      METHODS: Fifty patients with GDM and 50 pregnant patients with diabetes were
      selected. Their levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycosylated hemoglobin,
      FT3, FT4, TGab, TSH, TPOab were measured until parturition. RESULTS: There were
      no statistically significant differences in the age, gestational age, weight, FBG
      and glycosylated hemoglobin between the two groups (P>0.05). The levels of FT3
      and FT4 in patients with GDM were significantly lower than those in diabetic
      pregnant patients, while the levels of TSH, TGab, TPOab of GDM patients were
      significantly higher than in diabetic pregnant patients (P<0.05). The total
      incidence rates of premature delivery, post-term birth and cesarean section in
      patients with GDM were significantly higher than those in diabetic pregnant
      patients. At six-month follow-up, the intellectual levels of infants delivered by
      patients with GDM were significantly lower than those of diabetic pregnant
      patients (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The levels of thyroid hormones and related
      antibodies in patients with GDM were abnormal, which may have affected outcome of
      pregnancy and the intellectual level of their infants.

PMID- 28880058
TI  - Acromegaly and bone.
AB  - Growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) have pleiotropic
      effects on the skeleton throughout the lifespan by influencing bone formation and
      resorption. Despite these positive effects on skeletal metabolism, in presence of
      GH and IGF-I excess, bone turnover increases excessively leading to deterioration
      of bone microarchitecture and high risk of fragility fractures, thereby impairing
      quality of life. Coexistent hypogonadism, diabetes mellitus, hypovitaminosis D,
      hyperparathyroidism, and over-replacement with glucocorticoids impair bone
      framework, however, the effects of acromegaly on bone mineral density (BMD) are
      still controversial and despite normalization of bone turnover after treatment,
      the risk for fractures remains increased. As a matter of fact, a major clinical
      aspect emerging from the studies published so far is the lack of clinical
      diagnostic tools able to reliably predict the appearance of fractures in patients
      with acromegaly occurring even in the presence of normal or low-normal BMD. New
      radiological software and clinical devices have been employed in acromegaly
      patients highlighting a significant impairment of both cortical and cancellous
      bone. In this article, we summarize the pathophysiology, clinical aspects and the
      new diagnostic tools to better understand bone impairment in acromegaly.

PMID- 28880059
TI  - Evaluation of somatic genomic imbalances in thyroid carcinomas of follicular
      origin by CGH-based approaches.
AB  - Application of distinct technologies of cancer genome analysis has provided
      important information for the molecular characterization of several human
      neoplasia, including follicular cell-derived thyroid carcinoma. Among them,
      comparative genomic hybridization (CGH)-based procedures have been extensively
      applied to evaluate genomic imbalances present in these tumours, obtaining data
      leading to an increase in the understanding of their complexity and diversity. In
      this review, after a brief overview of the most commonly used CGH-based
      technichs, we will describe the major results deriving from the most influential
      studies in the literature which used this approach to investigate the genomic
      aberrations of thyroid cancer cells. In most studies a small number of patients
      have been analyzed. Deletions and duplications at different chromosomal regions
      were detected in all investigated cohorts. A higher number of genomic imbalances
      has been detected in anaplastic or poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas
      compared to well differentiated ones. Limitations in the interpretation of the
      results, as well the potential impact in the clinical practice are discussed.
      Though a quite heterogeneous picture arises from results so far available, CGH
      array, combined with other methodologies as well as an accurate clinical
      management, may offer novel opportunities for a better stratification of thyroid
      cancer patients.

PMID- 28880060
TI  - Comparison of orthopantomography and CT accuracy in predicting inferior alveolar
      nerve injury following lower third molar surgical extraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare orthopantomography (OPG) and
      computed tomography (CT) accuracy in predicting inferior alveolar nerve (IAN)
      injury after lower wisdom teeth extraction. METHODS: Twenty-three patients with
      completely impacted lower third molars were enrolled in this study and OPG and CT
      exams were obtained before surgical intervention. Finally, a total of 26 lower
      third molars were extracted and cases of paresthesia following a IAN lesion have
      been registered. Then, OPG and CT images of the same patients have been randomly
      submitted to four experienced oral surgeons (with a seniority of at least 5
      years) who were required to predict the possibility of a IAN injury by only
      evaluating the radiological exams. The images were anonymous and have been
      submitted to the surgeons without an order avoiding to influencing the answers.
      The agreement between the predicted and the real outcomes was statistically
      evaluated using the positive predictive value (PPV), the negative predictive
      value (NPV), Sensitivity, Specificity and the Spearman's rank correlation
      coefficient. RESULTS: A perfect agreement between OPG-based prevision and the
      real development of paresthesia due to IAN injury has been observed. This
      agreement was only moderate when considering CT images. CONCLUSIONS: OPG is a
      first-level diagnostic exam that provides enough information for predicting IAN
      lesions after impacted lower third molars surgery. CT is a second-level
      radiological exam that provides more information on roots morphology and on the
      amount of the contiguity between roots and mandibular canal resulting useful in
      performing a minimally invasive surgery.

PMID- 28880061
TI  - Clinical course of asthma patients with H1N1 influenza infection and oseltamivir.
AB  - BACKGROUND: H1N1 influenza virus prevailed throughout the world in 2009. However,
      there are few reports on the clinical features of H1N1 influenza infection in
      adult asthma patients. We evaluated the clinical features in asthma patients with
      H1N1 influenza infection who took oseltamivir and compared them to those with
      other upper respiratory infections. METHODS: We reviewed asthma patients over 15
      years of age who had visited Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul
      National University Bundang Hospital for suspected H1N1 influenza infection from
      August 2009 to March 2010. Various clinical features such as hospital admission
      days, respiratory symptoms, basal lung function, and past history was compared
      between H1N1 influenza PCR positive and negative groups. RESULTS: A total of 111
      asthmatics were enrolled. All patients took oseltamivir. H1N1 RT-PCR was positive
      in 62 patients (55.9%), negative in 49 patients (44.1%). Wheezing developed more
      frequently in the H1N1 positive group. (43.5 vs. 16.7%, P=0.044). The rate of
      acute asthma exacerbations and pneumonia development were higher in the H1N1
      positive group (59.7 vs. 51%, P=0.015, 25.0% vs. 0%, P<0.001). The rates for
      emergency room visit, hospital admissions, intensive care unit admissions,
      hospital days were not different between the groups. Underlying medical
      conditions were accompanied more frequently in the H1N1 negative patients (21.6%
      vs. 30.6%, P=0.002), especially cardiac disease (7.2% vs. 15.3%, P=0.011).
      CONCLUSIONS: H1N1 influenza infection may affect the clinical course of asthma
      combined with more severe manifestations; however, Oseltamivir could have
      affected the clinical course of H1N1 infected patients and made it milder than
      expected.

PMID- 28880063
TI  - Correction to "Silver Nanowire/MnO2 Nanowire Hybrid Polymer Nanocomposites:
      Materials with High Dielectric Permittivity and Low Dielectric Loss".

PMID- 28880062
TI  - Following the ACA Repeal-and-Replace Effort, Where Does the U.S. Stand on
      Insurance Coverage? Findings from the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act
      Tracking Survey, March--June 2017.
AB  - Issue: After Congress's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act,
      some policy leaders are calling for bipartisan approaches to address weaknesses
      in the law's coverage expansions. To do this, policymakers will need data about
      trends in insurance coverage, reasons why people remain uninsured, and consumer
      perceptions of affordability. Goal: To examine U.S. trends in insurance coverage
      and the demographics of the remaining uninsured population, as well as
      affordability and satisfaction among adults with marketplace and Medicaid
      coverage. Methods: Analysis of the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking
      Survey, March-June 2017 Findings and Conclusions: The uninsured rate among 19-to
      64-year-old adults was 14 percent in 2017, or an estimated 27 million people,
      statistically unchanged from one year earlier. Uninsured rates ticked up
      significantly in three subgroups: 35-to-49-year-olds, adults with incomes of 400
      percent of poverty or more (about $48,000 for an individual), and adults living
      in states that had not expanded Medicaid. Half of uninsured adults, or an
      estimated 13 million, are likely eligible for marketplace subsidies or the
      Medicaid expansion in their state. Four of 10 uninsured adults are unaware of the
      marketplaces. Adults in marketplace plans with incomes below 250 percent of
      poverty are much more likely to view their premiums as easy to afford compared
      with people with higher incomes. Policies to improve coverage include a federal
      commitment to supporting the marketplaces and the 2018 open enrollment period,
      expansion of Medicaid in 19 remaining states, and enhanced subsidies for people
      with incomes of 250 percent of poverty or more.

PMID- 28880064
TI  - Fullerene-Free Organic Solar Cells with an Efficiency of 10.2% and an Energy Loss
      of 0.59 eV Based on a Thieno[3,4-c]Pyrrole-4,6-dione-Containing Wide Band Gap
      Polymer Donor.
AB  - Although the combination of wide band gap polymer donors and narrow band gap
      small-molecule acceptors achieved state-of-the-art performance as bulk
      heterojunction (BHJ) active layers for organic solar cells, there have been only
      several of the wide band gap polymers that actually realized high-efficiency
      devices over >10%. Herein, we developed high-efficiency, low-energy-loss
      fullerene-free organic solar cells using a weakly crystalline wide band gap
      polymer donor, PBDTTPD-HT, and a nonfullerene small-molecule acceptor, ITIC. The
      excessive intermolecular stacking of ITIC is efficiently suppressed by the
      miscibility with PBDTTPD-HT, which led to a well-balanced nanomorphology in the
      PBDTTPD-HT/ITIC BHJ active films. The favorable optical, electronic, and
      energetic properties of PBDTTPD-HT with respect to ITIC achieved panchromatic
      photon-to-current conversion with a remarkably low energy loss (0.59 eV).

PMID- 28880065
TI  - A Low-Cost and High-Performance Sulfonated Polyimide Proton-Conductive Membrane
      for Vanadium Redox Flow/Static Batteries.
AB  - A novel side-chain-type fluorinated sulfonated polyimide (s-FSPI) membrane is
      synthesized for vanadium redox batteries (VRBs) by high-temperature
      polycondensation and grafting reactions. The s-FSPI membrane has a vanadium ion
      permeability that is over an order of magnitude lower and has a proton
      selectivity that is 6.8 times higher compared to those of the Nafion 115
      membrane. The s-FSPI membrane possesses superior chemical stability compared to
      most of the linear sulfonated aromatic polymer membranes reported for VRBs. Also,
      the vanadium redox flow/static batteries (VRFB/VRSB) assembled with the s-FSPI
      membranes exhibit stable battery performance over 100- and 300-time charge
      discharge cycling tests, respectively, with significantly higher battery
      efficiencies and lower self-discharge rates than those with the Nafion 115
      membranes. The excellent physicochemical properties and VRB performance of the s
      FSPI membrane could be attributed to the specifically designed molecular
      structure with the hydrophobic trifluoromethyl groups and flexible sulfoalkyl
      pendants being introduced on the main chains of the membrane. Moreover, the cost
      of the s-FSPI membrane is only one-fourth that of the commercial Nafion 115
      membrane. This work opens up new possibilities for fabricating high-performance
      proton-conductive membranes at low costs for VRBs.

PMID- 28880066
TI  - Environmentally Safe Mercury(II) Ions Aided Zero-Background and Ultrasensitive
      SERS Detection of Dipicolinic Acid.
AB  - Field, reliable, and ultrasensitive detection of dipicolinic acid (DPA), a
      general biomarker of bacterial spores and especially Bacillus anthracis, is
      highly desirable but still challenging in current biometric security emergency
      response system. Herein we report an environmentally safe mercury(II) ions
      mediated and competitive coordination interaction based approach for rationally
      designed surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active gold nanoparticles
      (AuNPs), enabling rapid, ultrasensitive and zero-background detection of DPA
      without the pretreatment of samples. By means of competitiveness, these papain
      capped gold nanoparticles (P-AuNPs) are induced to undergo controllable
      aggregation upon the addition of Hg2+ ions and DPA with a concentration range (1
      nM~8 MUM), which correspondingly cause quantitative changes of SERS intensity of
      cresyl violet acetate (CVa) conjugated AuNPs. The decreased Raman intensity
      obtained by subtracting two cases of additives that contain only Hg2+ and the
      mixture of Hg2+ and DPA is proportional to the concentration of DPA over a range
      of 1 nM~8 MUM (R2 = 0.9824), with by far the lowest limit of detection (LOD) of
      67.25 pM (0.01 ppb, S/N = 3:1). Of particular significance, mercury(II) ions
      actually play two roles in the process of measurements: a mediator for two
      designed competitive ligands (DPA and papain), and also a scavenger for the
      possibly blended ligands due to the different interaction time between DPA and
      the interferent with Hg2+ ions, which guarantees the interference-free detection
      of DPA even under real conditions.

PMID- 28880067
TI  - Selective Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Ethylene on Nanopores-Modified
      Copper Electrodes in Aqueous Solution.
AB  - Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide was carried out on copper foil
      electrodes modified with nanopores on the surface. Such nanopores modified
      structure was obtained through an alloying-dealloying process. Scanning electron
      microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the formation of alloy layer and the final
      nanoporous morphology of such copper electrodes. When used in electrolysis
      process, the as-prepared nanopores-modified electrodes can suppress the Faradaic
      efficiency toward methane to less than 1%, while keeping that of ethylene in a
      high level of 35% in aqueous 0.1 M KHCO3 solution under -1.3 V (vs reversible
      hydrogen electrode), thus revealing a remarkable selectivity toward ethylene
      production. The high yield of ethylene can be ascribed to the exposed specific
      crystalline orientations.

PMID- 28880068
TI  - Direct Electrophoretic Deposition of Binder-Free Co3O4/Graphene Sandwich-Like
      Hybrid Electrode as Remarkable Lithium Ion Battery Anode.
AB  - Co3O4 is emerging as a promising anode candidate for lithium ion batteries (LIBs)
      with high theoretical capacity (890 mAh g-1) but suffers from poor
      electrochemical cycling stability resulting from the inferior intrinsic
      electronic conductivity and large volume changes during electrochemical cycling.
      Here, a new electrophoretic deposition Co3O4/graphene (EPD Co3O4/G) hybrid
      electrode is developed to improve the electrochemical performance. Through EPD,
      Co3O4 nanocubes can be homogeneously embedded between graphene sheets to form a
      sandwich-like structure. Owing to the excellent flexibility of graphene and a
      large number of voids in this sandwich-like structure, the structural integrity
      and unobstructed conductive network can be maintained during cycling. Moreover,
      the electrode kinetics has proved to be a fast surface-controlled lithium storage
      process. As a result, the Co3O4/G hybrid electrode exhibits high specific
      capacity and excellent electrochemical cycling performance. The Co3O4/G hybrid
      electrode was also further studied by in situ electrochemical XRD to understand
      the relationship of its structure and performance: (1) The observed LixCo3O4
      indicates an intermediate of possible small volume change in the first
      discharging. (2) The theoretical capacity achievement of the Co3O4 in hybrid
      electrode was evidenced. (3) The correlation between the electrochemical
      performance and the structural evolution of the Co3O4/G hybrid electrode was
      discussed detailedly.

PMID- 28880069
TI  - Flexible Poly(vinyl chloride) Nanocomposites Reinforced with Hyperbranched
      Polyglycerol-Functionalized Graphene Oxide for Enhanced Gas Barrier Performance.
AB  - Herein, we describe the preparation of flexible poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)
      containing hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG)-functionalized graphene oxide (HGO)
      as a reinforcing filler and reveal that the obtained composites exhibit greatly
      improved gas barrier properties. Moreover, we show that HGO, synthesized by
      surface-initiated ring-opening polymerization of glycidol followed by
      esterification with butyric anhydride, exists as individual exfoliated nanosheets
      possessing abundant functional groups capable of interacting with PVC. A
      comparative study of butyl-terminated graphene oxide (BGO) reveals that
      functionalization with HPG is of key importance for achieving a uniform
      dispersion of HGO in the PVC matrix and results in strong interfacial
      interactions between HGO and PVC. As a result, flexible PVC/HGO nanocomposite
      films exhibit significantly enhanced tensile strength and toughness compared to
      those of neat plasticized PVC while maintaining its inherent stretchability.
      Furthermore, the two-dimensional planar structure and homogeneous distribution of
      HGO in PVC/HGO nanocomposites make gas molecules follow a highly tortuous path,
      resulting in remarkably reduced oxygen permeability, which is more than 60% lower
      than that of neat plasticized PVC. Consequently, HGO is demonstrated to be
      promising component of flexible and gas-impermeable PVC films for a wide range of
      applications.

PMID- 28880070
TI  - Tris(trimethylsilyl) Phosphite as an Efficient Electrolyte Additive To Improve
      the Surface Stability of Graphite Anodes.
AB  - Tris(trimethylsilyl) phosphite (TMSP) has received considerable attention as a
      functional additive for various cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries, but
      the effect of TMSP on the surface stability of a graphite anode has not been
      studied. Herein, we demonstrate that TMSP serves as an effective solid
      electrolyte interphase (SEI)-forming additive for graphite anodes in lithium-ion
      batteries (LIBs). TMSP forms SEI layers by chemical reactions between TMSP and a
      reductively decomposed ethylene carbonate (EC) anion, which is strikingly
      different from the widely known mechanism of the SEI-forming additives. TMSP is
      stable under cathodic polarization, but it reacts chemically with radical anion
      intermediates derived from the electrochemical reduction of the carbonate
      solvents to generate a stable SEI layer. These TMSP-derived SEI layers improve
      the interfacial stability of the graphite anode, resulting in a retention of
      96.8% and a high Coulombic efficiency of 95.2%. We suggest the use of TMSP as a
      functional additive that effectively stabilizes solid electrolyte interfaces of
      both the anode and cathode in lithium-ion batteries.

PMID- 28880071
TI  - Phase-Field Based Multiscale Modeling of Heterogeneous Solid Electrolytes:
      Applications to Nanoporous Li3PS4.
AB  - Modeling the effective ion conductivities of heterogeneous solid electrolytes
      typically involves the use of a computer-generated microstructure consisting of
      randomly or uniformly oriented fillers in a matrix. However, the structural
      features of the filler/matrix interface, which critically determine the interface
      ion conductivity and the microstructure morphology, have not been considered
      during the microstructure generation. Using nanoporous beta-Li3PS4 electrolyte as
      an example, we develop a phase-field model that enables generating nanoporous
      microstructures of different porosities and connectivity patterns based on the
      depth and the energy of the surface (pore/electrolyte interface), both of which
      are predicted through density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Room
      temperature effective ion conductivities of the generated microstructures are
      then calculated numerically, using DFT-estimated surface Li-ion conductivity
      (3.14 * 10-3 S/cm) and experimentally measured bulk Li-ion conductivity (8.93 *
      10-7 S/cm) of beta-Li3PS4 as the inputs. We also use the generated
      microstructures to inform effective medium theories to rapidly predict the
      effective ion conductivity via analytical calculations. When porosity approaches
      the percolation threshold, both the numerical and analytical methods predict a
      significantly enhanced Li-ion conductivity (1.74 * 10-4 S/cm) that is in good
      agreement with experimental data (1.64 * 10-4 S/cm). The present phase-field
      based multiscale model is generally applicable to predict both the microstructure
      patterns and the effective properties of heterogeneous solid electrolytes.

PMID- 28880072
TI  - Novel Smart Microreactors Equipped with Responsive Catalytic Nanoparticles on
      Microchannels.
AB  - Nowadays efficient and reliable control of highly exothermic reactions to
      effectively prevent overheating or even explosions still remains a challenging
      task, although newly developed microreactor technology has shown promise. Here,
      we report a novel smart microreactor system equipped with responsive catalytic
      nanoparticles on microchannels for self-regulated control over highly exothermic
      reactions by responding to the reaction-generated heat. On the basis of
      shrinking/swelling behaviors of polymeric networks in the responsive catalytic
      nanoparticles, the smart microreactor could respond to the change of reaction
      temperature to tune the catalysis activity of catalytic particles in a thermo
      feedback process. As a breakthrough result, highly exothermic reactions carried
      out in such a microreactor can be well-controlled in a self-regulation process
      without any manual assistance, efficiently ensuring the safety of the reaction.
      Such smart responsive catalytic systems have high potential and are attractive as
      a new generation of efficient tools that feature a self-regulation property for
      highly exothermic catalytic reactions.

PMID- 28880073
TI  - Elucidating the Intercalation Pseudocapacitance Mechanism of MoS2-Carbon
      Monolayer Interoverlapped Superstructure: Toward High-Performance Sodium-Ion
      Based Hybrid Supercapacitor.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials have shown great promise for
      electrochemical energy storage applications. However, they are usually limited by
      the sluggish kinetics and poor cycling stability. Interface modification on 2D
      layered materials provides an effective way for increasing the active sites,
      improving the electronic conductivity, and enhancing the structure stability so
      that it can potentially solve the major issues on fabricating energy storage
      devices with high performance. Herein, we synthesize a novel MoS2-carbon (MoS2-C)
      monolayer interoverlapped superstructure via a facile interface-modification
      route. This interlayer overlapped structure is demonstrated to have a wide sodium
      ion intercalation/deintercalation voltage range of 0.4-3.0 V and the typical
      pseudocapacitive characteristics in fast kinetics, high reversibility, and robust
      structural stability, thus displaying a large reversible capacity, a high rate
      capability, and an improved cyclability. A full cell of sodium-ion hybrid
      supercapacitor based on this MoS2-C hybrid architecture can operate up to 3.8 V
      and deliver a high energy density of 111.4 Wh kg-1 and a high power density
      exceeding 12 000 W kg-1. Furthermore, a long cycle life of 10 000 cycles with
      over 77.3% of capacitance retention can be achieved.

PMID- 28880074
TI  - Multibond Model of Single-Asperity Tribochemical Wear at the Nanoscale.
AB  - Single-asperity wear experiments and simulations have identified different
      regimes of wear including Eyring- and Archard-like behaviors. A multibond
      dynamics model has been developed based on the friction model of Filippov et al.
      [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 135503 (2004)]. This new model captures both qualitatively
      distinct regimes of single-asperity wear under a unified theoretical framework.
      In this model, the interfacial bond formation, wearless rupture, and transfer of
      atoms are governed by three competing thermally activated processes. The Eyring
      regime holds under the conditions of low load and low adhesive forces; few bonds
      form between the asperity and the surface, and wear is a rare and rate-dependent
      event. As the normal stress increases, the Eyring behavior of wear rate breaks
      down. A nearly rate-independent regime arises under high load or high adhesive
      forces, in which wear becomes very nearly, but not precisely, proportional to
      sliding distance. In this restricted regime, the dependence of wear rate per unit
      contact area is nearly independent of the normal stress at the point of contact.
      In true contact between rough elastic surfaces, where contact area is expected to
      grow linearly with normal load, this would lead to behavior very similar to that
      described by the Archard equation. Detailed comparisons to experimental and
      molecular dynamics simulation investigations illustrate both Eyring and Archard
      regimes, and an intermediate crossover regime between the two.

PMID- 28880075
TI  - Integrated Energy Aerogel of N,S-rGO/WSe2/NiFe-LDH for Both Energy Conversion and
      Storage.
AB  - High-performance active materials for energy-storage and energy-conversion
      applications require a novel class of electrodes: ones with a structure conducive
      to conductivity, large specific surface area, high porosity, and mechanical
      robustness. Herein, we report the design and fabrication of a new ternary hybrid
      aerogel. The process entails an in situ assembly of 2D WSe2 nanosheets and NiFe
      LDH nanosheets on a 3D N,S-codoped graphene framework, accomplished by a facile
      hydrothermal method and electrostatic self-assembly technology. The obtained
      nanocomposite architecture maximizes synergistic effects among its three 2D-layer
      components. To assess the performance of this hybrid material, we deployed it as
      an advanced electrode in overall water splitting and in a supercapacitor. Results
      in both scenarios attest to its excellent electrochemical properties.
      Specifically, serving as a catalyst in an oxygen evolution reaction, our
      nanocomposite requires overpotentials of 1.48 and 1.59 V to obtain current
      densities of 10 and 100 mA cm-2, respectively. The hybrid material also
      efficiently electrocatalyzes hydrogen evolution reactions in base solution,
      necessitating overpotentials of -50 and -237 mV for current densities of 1.0 and
      100 mA cm-2, respectively. The 3D hybrid, when applied to a symmetric
      supercapacitor device, achieves 125.6 F g-1 capacitance at 1 A g-1 current
      density. In summary, our study elucidates a new strategy to maximize efficiency
      via synergetic effects that is likely applicable to other 2D materials.

PMID- 28880076
TI  - Exploiting Overlapping Advantages of In Vitro and In Cellulo Selection Systems to
      Isolate a Novel High-Affinity cJun Antagonist.
AB  - We have combined two peptide library-screening systems, exploiting the benefits
      offered by both to select novel antagonistic agents of cJun. CIS display is an in
      vitro cell-free system that allows very large libraries (<=1014) to be
      interrogated. However, affinity-based screening conditions can poorly reflect
      those relevant to therapeutic application, particularly for difficult
      intracellular targets, and can lead to false positives. In contrast, an in
      cellulo screening system such as the Protein-fragment Complementation Assay (PCA)
      selects peptides with high target affinity while additionally profiling for
      target specificity, protease resistance, solubility, and lack of toxicity in a
      more relevant context. A disadvantage is the necessity to transform cells,
      limiting library sizes that can be screened to <=106. However, by combining both
      cell-free and cell-based systems, we isolated a peptide (CPW) from a ~1010 member
      library, which forms a highly stable interaction with cJun (Tm = 63  degrees C,
      Kd = 750 nM, DeltaG = -8.2 kcal/mol) using the oncogenic transcriptional
      regulator Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) as our exemplar target. In contrast, CIS
      display alone selected a peptide with low affinity for cJun (Tm = 34  degrees C,
      Kd = 25 MUM, DeltaG = -6.2 kcal/mol), highlighting the benefit of CIS -> PCA.
      Furthermore, increased library size with CIS -> PCA vs PCA alone allows the
      freedom to introduce noncanonical options, such as interfacial aromatics, and
      solvent exposed options that may allow the molecule to explore alternative
      structures and interact with greater affinity and efficacy with the target. CIS 
      > PCA therefore offers significant potential as a peptide-library screening
      platform by synergistically combining the relative attributes of both assays to
      generate therapeutically interesting compounds that may otherwise not be
      identified.

PMID- 28880077
TI  - Loss of Fourth Electron-Transferring Tryptophan in Animal (6-4) Photolyase
      Impairs DNA Repair Activity in Bacterial Cells.
AB  - (6-4) photolyases [(6-4)PLs] are flavoproteins that use blue light to repair the
      ultraviolet-induced pyrimidine(6-4)pyrimidone photoproduct in DNA. Their flavin
      adenine dinucleotide (FAD) cofactor can be reduced to its repair-active FADH-
      form by a photoinduced electron transfer reaction. In animal (6-4)PLs, a chain of
      four Trp residues was suggested to be involved in a stepwise transfer of an
      oxidation hole from the flavin to the surface of the protein. Here, we
      investigated the effect of mutation of the fourth Trp on the DNA photorepair
      activity of Xenopus laevis (6-4)PL (Xl64) in bacterial cells. The photoreduction
      and photorepair properties of this mutant protein were independently
      characterized in vitro. Our results demonstrate that the mutation of the fourth
      Trp in Xl64 drastically impairs the DNA repair activity in cells and that this
      effect is due to the inhibition of the photoreduction process. We thereby show
      that the photoreductive formation of FADH- through the Trp tetrad is essential
      for the biological function of the animal (6-4)PL. The role of the Trp cascade,
      and of the fourth Trp in particular, is discussed.

PMID- 28880078
TI  - The Role of Disulfide Bond Replacements in Analogues of the Tarantula Toxin ProTx
      II and Their Effects on Inhibition of the Voltage-Gated Sodium Ion Channel
      Nav1.7.
AB  - Spider venom toxins, such as Protoxin-II (ProTx-II), have recently received much
      attention as selective Nav1.7 channel blockers, with potential to be developed as
      leads for the treatment of chronic nocioceptive pain. ProTx-II is a 30-amino acid
      peptide with three disulfide bonds that has been reported to adopt a well-defined
      inhibitory cystine knot (ICK) scaffold structure. Potential drawbacks with such
      peptides include poor pharmacodynamics and potential scrambling of the disulfide
      bonds in vivo. In order to address these issues, in the present study we report
      the solid-phase synthesis of lanthionine-bridged analogues of ProTx-II, in which
      one of the three disulfide bridges is replaced with a thioether linkage, and
      evaluate the biological properties of these analogues. We have also investigated
      the folding and disulfide bridging patterns arising from different methods of
      oxidation of the linear peptide precursor. Finally, we report the X-ray crystal
      structure of ProTx-II to atomic resolution; to our knowledge this is the first
      crystal structure of an ICK spider venom peptide not bound to a substrate.

PMID- 28880080
TI  - Comparison Study of Polar and Nonpolar Contributions to Solvation Free Energy.
AB  - In this study, we compared the contributions of polar and nonpolar interactions
      to the solvation free energy of a solute in solvent, which is decomposed into
      four different terms based on the nature of interactions: (i) electrostatic
      solvation free energy term counting for the work done to move solute charges from
      fixed points in some reference environment to their configuration positions in
      solvent; (ii) solute-solvent van der Waals dispersion interactions; (iii) change
      on solvent-solvent interactions and solvent entropy due to reorganization of
      solvent around solute cavity in solvent; and (iv) compensation of electrostatic
      forces acting on the dielectric surface boundary between solvent and solute. We
      compared these contributions to each other for a data set of 573 proteins, which
      were prepared using CHARMM22 and AMBER force fields. In addition, we compared the
      calculated with experimental hydration free energies for a data set of 642 small
      molecules, which were prepared using the general AMBER force field. Our results
      indicated the significance of each term to the total solvation free energy.

PMID- 28880081
TI  - Formation of Reactive Intermediates, Color, and Antioxidant Activity in the
      Maillard Reaction of Maltose in Comparison to d-Glucose.
AB  - In this study, the Maillard reaction of maltose and d-glucose in the presence of
      l-alanine was investigated in aqueous solution at 130  degrees C and pH 5. The
      reactivity of both carbohydrates was compared in regards of their degradation,
      browning, and antioxidant activity. In order to identify relevant differences in
      the reaction pathways, the concentrations of selected intermediates such as 1,2
      dicarbonyl compounds, furans, furanones, and pyranones were determined. It was
      found, that the degradation of maltose predominantly yields 1,2-dicarbonyls that
      still carry a glucosyl moiety and thus subsequent reactions to HMF, furfural, and
      2-acetylfuran are favored due to the elimination of d-glucose, which is an
      excellent leaving group in aqueous solution. Consequently, higher amounts of
      these heterocycles are formed from maltose. 3-deoxyglucosone and 3
      deoxygalactosone represent the only relevant C6-1,2-dicarbonyls in maltose
      incubations and are produced in nearly equimolar amounts during the first 60 min
      of heating as byproducts of the HMF formation.

PMID- 28880079
TI  - Quantitative Multiple-Reaction Monitoring Proteomic Analysis of Gbeta and Ggamma
      Subunits in C57Bl6/J Brain Synaptosomes.
AB  - Gbetagamma dimers are one of the essential signaling units of activated G protein
      coupled receptors (GPCRs). There are five Gbeta and 12 Ggamma subunits in humans;
      numerous studies have demonstrated that different Gbeta and Ggamma subunits
      selectively interact to form unique Gbetagamma dimers, which in turn may target
      specific receptors and effectors. Perturbation of Gbetagamma signaling can lead
      to impaired physiological responses. Moreover, previous targeted multiple
      reaction monitoring (MRM) studies of Gbeta and Ggamma subunits have shown
      distinct regional and subcellular localization patterns in four brain regions.
      Nevertheless, no studies have quantified or compared their individual protein
      levels. In this study, we have developed a quantitative MRM method not only to
      quantify but also to compare the protein abundance of neuronal Gbeta and Ggamma
      subunits. In whole and fractionated crude synaptosomes, we were able to identify
      the most abundant neuronal Gbeta and Ggamma subunits and their subcellular
      localizations. For example, Gbeta1 was mostly localized at the membrane while
      Gbeta2 was evenly distributed throughout synaptosomal fractions. The protein
      expression levels and subcellular localizations of Gbeta and Ggamma subunits may
      affect the Gbetagamma dimerization and Gbetagamma-effector interactions. This
      study offers not only a new tool for quantifying and comparing Gbeta and Ggamma
      subunits but also new insights into the in vivo distribution of Gbeta and Ggamma
      subunits, and Gbetagamma dimer assembly in normal brain function.

PMID- 28880082
TI  - Perovskite-Type InCoO3 with Low-Spin Co3+: Effect of In-O Covalency on Structural
      Stabilization in Comparison with Rare-Earth Series.
AB  - Perovskite rare-earth cobaltites ACoO3 (A = Sc, Y, La-Lu) have been of enduring
      interest for decades due to their unusual structural and physical properties
      associated with the spin-state transitions of low-spin Co3+ ions. Herein, we have
      synthesized a non-rare-earth perovskite cobaltite, InCoO3, at 15 GPa and 1400 
      degrees C and investigated its crystal structure and magnetic ground state. Under
      the same high-pressure and high-temperature conditions, we also prepared a
      perovskite-type ScCoO3 with an improved cation stoichiometry in comparison to
      that in a previous study, where synthesis at 6 GPa and 1297  degrees C yielded a
      perovskite cobaltite with cation mixing on the A-site, (Sc0.95Co0.05)CoO3. The
      two perovskite phases have nearly stoichiometric cation compositions,
      crystallizing in the orthorhombic Pnma space group. In the present investigation,
      comprehensive studies on newly developed and well-known Pnma ACoO3 perovskites (A
      = In, Sc, Y, Pr-Lu) show that InCoO3 does not fulfill the general evolution of
      crystal metrics with A-site cation size, indicating that InCoO3 and rare-earth
      counterparts have different chemistry for stabilizing the Pnma structures.
      Detailed structural analyses combined with first-principles calculations reveal
      that the origin of the anomaly for InCoO3 is ascribed to the A-site cation
      displacements that accompany octahedral tilts; despite the highly tilted CoO6
      network, the In-O covalency makes In3+ ions reluctant to move from their ideal
      cubic-symmetry position, leading to less orthorhombic distortion than would be
      expected from electrostatic/ionic size mismatch effects. Magnetic studies
      demonstrate that InCoO3 and ScCoO3 are diamagnetic with a low-spin state of Co3+
      below 300 K, in contrast to the case of (Sc0.95Co0.05)CoO3, where the high-spin
      Co3+ ions on the A-site generate a large paramagnetic moment. The present work
      extends the accessible composition range of the low-spin orthocobaltite series
      and thus should help to establish a more comprehensive understanding of the
      structure-property relation.

PMID- 28880083
TI  - Solvent-Free Biodiesel Production Catalyzed by Crude Lipase Powder from Seeds:
      Effects of Alcohol Polarity, Glycerol, and Thermodynamic Water Activity.
AB  - The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of crude lipase powders made
      from Adansonia grandidieri and Jatropha mahafalensis seeds for the synthesis of
      fatty acid alkyl esters in a solvent-free system. The influence of the nature of
      the alcohol, the amount of glycerol, and hydration of the powder was
      investigated. Results showed that the activity of these crude lipase powders was
      inversely proportional to the alcohol polarity and the amount of the glycerol in
      the reaction medium. To ensure optimum activity, A. grandidieri and J.
      mahafalensis powders must be conditioned to a water activity of 0.33 and 0.66. To
      obtain a fatty acid ethyl ester yield greater than 95% with A. grandidieri,
      ethanol should be introduced at an amount corresponding to a triacylglycerol to
      ethanol molar ratio of 2:1 every 15 h for 96 h and use 25% of preconditioned
      crude lipase powders (2 additions of 12.5%).

PMID- 28880084
TI  - Chemical Composition and Water Permeability of Fruit and Leaf Cuticles of Olea
      europaea L.
AB  - The plant cuticle, protecting against uncontrolled water loss, covers olive (Olea
      europaea) fruits and leaves. The present study describes the organ-specific
      chemical composition of the cuticular waxes and the cutin and compares three
      developmental stages of fruits (green, turning, and black) with the leaf surface.
      Numerous organ-specific differences, such as the total coverage of cutin
      monomeric components (1034.4 MUg cm-2 and 630.5 MUg cm-2) and the cuticular waxes
      (201.6 MUg cm-2 and 320.4 MUg cm-2) among all three fruit stages and leaves,
      respectively, were detected. Water permeability as the main cuticular function
      was 5-fold lower in adaxial leaf cuticles (2.1 * 10-5 m s-1) in comparison to all
      three fruit stages (9.5 * 10-5 m s-1). The three fruit developmental stages have
      the same cuticular water permeability. It is hypothesized that a higher weighted
      average chain length of the acyclic cuticular components leads to a considerably
      lower permeability of the leaf as compared to the fruit cuticle.

PMID- 28880085
TI  - Isotropic Zero Thermal Expansion and Local Vibrational Dynamics in (Sc,Fe)F3.
AB  - Scandium fluoride (ScF3) exhibits a pronounced negative thermal expansion (NTE),
      which can be suppressed and ultimately transformed into an isotropic zero thermal
      expansion (ZTE) by partially substituting Sc with Fe in (Sc0.8Fe0.2)F3 (Fe20).
      The latter displays a rather small coefficient of thermal expansion of -0.17 * 10
      6/K from 300 to 700 K. Synchrotron X-ray and neutron pair distribution functions
      confirm that the Sc/Fe-F bond has positive thermal expansion (PTE). Local
      vibrational dynamics based on extended X-ray absorption fine structure indicates
      a decreased anisotropy of relative vibration in the Sc/Fe-F bond. Combined
      analysis proposes a delicate balance between the counteracting effects of the
      chemical bond PTE and NTE from transverse vibration. The present study extends
      the scope of isotropic ZTE compounds and, more significantly, provides a complete
      local vibrational dynamics to shed light on the ZTE mechanism in chemically
      tailored NTE compounds.

PMID- 28880086
TI  - Adsorption and Photodesorption of CO from Charged Point Defects on TiO2(110).
AB  - The adsorption and photochemistry of CO on rutile TiO2(110) are studied with
      scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), temperature-programmed desorption, and angle
      resolved photon-stimulated desorption (PSD) at low temperatures. Site
      occupancies, when weighted by the concentration of each kind of adsorption site
      on the reduced surface, show that the adsorption probability is the highest for
      the bridging oxygen vacancies (VO). The probability distribution for the
      different adsorption sites corresponds to very small differences in CO adsorption
      energies (<0.02 eV). UV irradiation stimulates diffusion and desorption of CO at
      low temperature. CO photodesorbs primarily from the vacancies with a bimodal
      angular distribution, indicating some scattering from the surface, which also
      leads to photostimulated diffusion. Hydroxylation of VO's does not significantly
      change the CO PSD yield or the angular distribution, which suggests that
      photodesorption can be initiated by recombination of photogenerated holes with
      excess electrons localized near the charged point defect (either VO or bridging
      hydroxyl).

PMID- 28880087
TI  - Predicting Accurate Solvation Free Energy in n-Octanol Using 3D-RISM-KH Molecular
      Theory of Solvation: Making Right Choices.
AB  - Molecular theory of solvation, a.k.a., three-dimensional reference interaction
      site model theory of solvation with Kovalenko-Hirata closure relation (3D-RISM
      KH), is an accurate and fast theory predicting solvation free energy and
      structure. Here we report a benchmark study of n-octanol solvation free energy
      calculations using this theory. The choice of correct force field parameters is
      quintessential for the success of 3D-RISM theory, and we present a guideline to
      obtain them for n-octanol solvent. Our best prediction of the solvation free
      energy on a set of 205 small organic molecules supplemented with the so-called
      "universal correction" scheme yields relative mean unsigned error of 0.94
      kcal/mol against the reported database. The best agreement is obtained with the
      united atom (UA) type force field parametrization of n-octanol with the van der
      Waals parameters of hydroxyl hydrogen reported by Kobryn et al. [ Kobryn , A. E.
      ; Kovalenko , A. J. Chem. Phys. 2008 , 129 , 134701 ].

PMID- 28880088
TI  - Brain Accumulation of Ponatinib and Its Active Metabolite, N-Desmethyl Ponatinib,
      Is Limited by P-Glycoprotein (P-GP/ABCB1) and Breast Cancer Resistance Protein
      (BCRP/ABCG2).
AB  - Ponatinib is an oral BCR-ABL1 inhibitor for treatment of advanced leukemic
      diseases that carry the Philadelphia chromosome, specifically containing the
      T315I mutation yielding resistance to previously approved BCR-ABL1 inhibitors.
      Using in vitro transport assays and knockout mouse models, we investigated
      whether the multidrug efflux transporters ABCB1 and ABCG2 transport ponatinib and
      whether they, or the drug-metabolizing enzyme CYP3A, affect the oral availability
      and brain accumulation of ponatinib and its active N-desmethyl metabolite (DMP).
      In vitro, mouse Abcg2 and human ABCB1 modestly transported ponatinib. In mice,
      both Abcb1 and Abcg2 markedly restricted brain accumulation of ponatinib and DMP,
      but not ponatinib oral availability. Abcg2 deficiency increased DMP plasma levels
      ~3-fold. Cyp3a deficiency increased the ponatinib plasma AUC 1.4-fold. Our
      results suggest that pharmacological inhibition of ABCG2 and ABCB1 during
      ponatinib therapy might benefit patients with brain (micro)metastases positioned
      behind an intact blood-brain barrier, or with substantial expression of these
      transporters in the malignant cells. CYP3A inhibitors might increase ponatinib
      oral availability, enhancing efficacy but possibly also toxicity of this drug.

PMID- 28880089
TI  - Pickering Membranes Stabilized by Saturn Particles.
AB  - We report on a novel method to synthesize particles-called by us Saturn particles
      having two hydrophobic caps that oppose each other and are separated from each
      other by a hydrophilic belt that encircles the particle. Mixtures of these
      particles with water and air, without the usage of low molar mass surfactants,
      easily form Pickering foams and Pickering membranes that are stable for days.
      These Pickering membranes are composed of a thin film of water into which the
      particles are embedded in such a way that the belt is surrounded by the water and
      the caps protrude out of the water into the air at the top and bottom side of the
      water film. As expected for a liquid membrane, these Pickering membranes are
      permeable for gases, with the permeance being proportional to the solubility and
      diffusion coefficient of the gas considered. Experimentally obtained permeance
      values agree reasonably well with theoretical calculations.

PMID- 28880090
TI  - Thermoresponsive Stability of Colloids in Butyl Acetate/Ethanol Binary Solvent
      Realized by Grafting Linear Acrylate Copolymers.
AB  - We have developed a new class of thermoresponsive colloids that can exhibit a
      sharp reversible transition between dispersion and aggregation in binary
      BuAc/EtOH solvents based on the UCST (upper critical solution temperature)-type
      phase separation. This is realized by grafting linear PMMA-BA (random) copolymer
      onto the colloidal particles. We have selected TiO2/PS hybrid spheres (HSs) as a
      model system to demonstrate our general design concept. By grafting the linear
      PMMA-BA copolymer onto the HS surface, with the molecular weight from 30 to 40
      kDa, we found that the thermoresponsive transition between dispersion and
      aggregation is fast, sharp, and reversible. At high mass fractions of the HSs, we
      have even observed a sharp transition between dispersion and gelation (or phase
      separation). The transition temperature can be tuned by varying the binary
      solvent composition, BuAc/EtOH, and the molecular weight of the grafted linear
      copolymer in the range from 5 to 55  degrees C. One of the most important
      features of this work is that the thermoresponsive materials used in organic
      solvents are initially synthesized in water with widely applied conventional
      (instead of research-based) techniques, thus being well suited for industrial
      production. In addition, the proposed approach is rather general and applicable
      to realizing the thermoresponsive transition for various types of colloids and
      nanoparticles.

PMID- 28880091
TI  - Mycolic Acid Containing Bacterium Stimulates Tandem Cyclization of Polyene
      Macrolactam in a Lake Sediment Derived Rare Actinomycete.
AB  - Two novel macrolactams, dracolactams A and B, were identified from a combined
      culture of Micromonospora species and a mycolic-acid containing bacterium (MACB).
      Their structures and stereochemistries were completely assigned, based on
      spectroscopic analyses and chemical derivatization. Both dracolactams were
      probably generated from a common macrolactam precursor produced by the
      Micromonospora species. In this combined-culture system, MACB is likely to
      activate cryptic oxidase genes in the Micromonospora species and induce the
      downstream polyene macrolactam cyclization.

PMID- 28880092
TI  - Using Peptide Aptamer Targeted Polymers as a Model Nanomedicine for Investigating
      Drug Distribution in Cancer Nanotheranostics.
AB  - Theranostics is a strategy that combines multiple functions such as targeting,
      stimulus-responsive drug release, and diagnostic imaging into a single platform,
      often with the aim of developing personalized medicine.1,2 Based on this concept,
      several well-established hyperbranched polymeric theranostic nanoparticles were
      synthesized and characterized as model nanomedicines to investigate how their
      properties affect the distribution of loaded drugs at both the cell and whole
      animal levels. An 8-mer peptide aptamer was covalently bound to the periphery of
      the nanoparticles to achieve both targeting and potential chemosensitization
      functionality against heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70). Doxorubicin was also bound
      to the polymeric carrier as a model chemotherapeutic drug through a degradable
      hydrazone bond, enabling pH-controlled release under the mildly acid conditions
      that are found in the intracellular compartments of tumor cells. In order to
      track the nanoparticles, cyanine-5 (Cy5) was incorporated into the polymer as an
      optical imaging agent. In vitro cellular uptake was assessed for the
      hyperbranched polymer containing both doxorubicin (DOX) and Hsp70 targeted
      peptide aptamer in live MDA-MB-468 cells, and was found to be greater than that
      of either the untargeted, DOX-loaded polymer or polymer alone due to the specific
      affinity of the peptide aptamer for the breast cancer cells. This was also
      validated in vivo with the targeted polymers showing much higher accumulation
      within the tumor 48 h postinjection than the untargeted analogue. More detailed
      assessment of the nanomedicine distribution was achieved by directly following
      the polymeric carrier and the doxorubicin at both the in vitro cellular level via
      compartmental analysis of confocal images of live cells and in whole tumors ex
      vivo using confocal imaging to visualize the distribution of the drug in tumor
      tissue as a function of distance from blood vessels. Our results indicate that
      this polymeric carrier shows promise as a cancer theranostic, demonstrating
      active targeting to tumor cells with the capability for simultaneous drug
      release.

PMID- 28880093
TI  - Quantification of Transporter and Receptor Proteins in Dog Brain Capillaries and
      Choroid Plexus: Relevance for the Distribution in Brain and CSF of Selected BCRP
      and P-gp Substrates.
AB  - Transporters at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the blood-cerebrospinal fluid
      barrier (BCSFB) play a pivotal role as gatekeepers for efflux or uptake of
      endogenous and exogenous molecules. The protein expression of a number of them
      has already been determined in the brains of rodents, nonhuman primates, and
      humans using quantitative targeted absolute proteomics (QTAP). The dog is an
      important animal model for drug discovery and development, especially for safety
      evaluations. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the relevance of the
      transporter protein expression for drug distribution in the dog brain and CSF. We
      used QTAP to examine the protein expression of 17 selected transporters and
      receptors at the dog BBB and BCSFB. For the first time, we directly linked the
      expression of two efflux transporters, P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer
      resistance protein (BCRP), to regional brain and CSF distribution using specific
      substrates. Two cocktails, each containing one P-gp substrate (quinidine or
      apafant) and one BCRP substrate (dantrolene or daidzein) were infused
      intravenously prior to collection of the brain. Transporter expression varied
      only slightly between the capillaries of different brain regions and did not
      result in region-specific distribution of the investigated substrates. There
      were, however, distinct differences between brain capillaries and choroid plexus.
      Largest differences were observed for BCRP and P-gp: both were highly expressed
      in brain capillaries, but no BCRP and only low amounts of P-gp were detected in
      the choroid plexus. Kp,uu,brain and Kp,uu,CSF of both P-gp substrates were
      indicative of drug efflux. Also, Kp,uu,brain for the BCRP substrates was low. In
      contrast, Kp,uu,CSF for both BCRP substrates was close to unity, resulting in
      Kp,uu,CSF/Kp,uu,brain ratios of 7 and 8, respectively. We conclude that the drug
      transporter expression profiles differ between the BBB and BCSFB in dogs, that
      there are species differences in the expression profiles, and that CSF is not a
      suitable surrogate for unbound brain concentrations of BCRP substrates in dogs.

PMID- 28880094
TI  - Enantiospecific Synthesis of beta-Substituted Tryptamines.
AB  - Functionalized tryptamines are targets of interest for development as small
      molecule therapeutics. The ring opening of aziridines with indoles is a powerful
      method for tryptamine synthesis where isomer formation can be controlled. 3,5
      Dinitrobenzoyl (DNB)-protected aziridines undergo regioselective, enantiospecific
      ring opening to produce beta-substituted tryptamines for a series of indoles.
      Attack at the more substituted aziridine carbon occurs in an SN2-like fashion to
      generate DNB-tryptamine products as synthetic precursors.

PMID- 28880096
TI  - Synthesis of Octahydro- and Decahydroquinolines by a One-Pot Cascade Reaction of
      Tetrasubstituted Enecarbamate.
AB  - A transition-metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation followed by ring opening was
      investigated for the synthesis of octahydroquinolines 4 and decahydroquinolines 5
      having a quaternary carbon center at the angular position, which are core
      structures of the fawcettimine-type alkaloids. A tandem reaction was also
      established for the synthesis of decahydroquinolines 5 and the tricyclic compound
      6 through an iminium ion intermediate, readily produced by acidic treatment of
      cyclopropane 2.

PMID- 28880095
TI  - Transition-Metal-Free Quinoline Synthesis from Acetophenones and Anthranils via
      Sequential One-Carbon Homologation/Conjugate Addition/Annulation Cascade.
AB  - A transition-metal-free method for the construction of functionalized quinolines
      from readily available acetophenones and anthranils is reported. This one-pot
      reaction cascade involves in situ generation of alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones
      from the acetophenone via one-carbon homologation by DMSO followed by the aza
      Michael addition of anthranils and subsequent annulation. DMSO acted in this
      reaction not only as solvent but also as one carbon source, thus providing a
      highly atom-economical and environmentally benign approach for the synthesis of 3
      substituted quinolines.

PMID- 28880097
TI  - Constructing emotion categorization: Insights from developmental psychology
      applied to a young adult sample.
AB  - Previous research has found that the categorization of emotional facial
      expressions is influenced by a variety of factors, such as processing time,
      facial mimicry, emotion labels, and perceptual cues. However, past research has
      frequently confounded these factors, making it impossible to ascertain how adults
      use this varied information to categorize emotions. The current study is the
      first to explore the magnitude of impact for each of these factors on emotion
      categorization in the same paradigm. Participants (N = 102) categorized anger and
      disgust emotional facial expressions in a novel computerized task, modeled on
      similar tasks in the developmental literature with preverbal infants.
      Experimental conditions manipulated (a) whether the task was time-restricted, and
      (b) whether the labels "anger" and "disgust" were used in the instructions.
      Participants were significantly more accurate when provided with unlimited
      response time and emotion labels. Participants who were given restricted sorting
      time (2s) and no emotion labels tended to focus on perceptual features of the
      faces when categorizing the emotions, which led to low sorting accuracy. In
      addition, facial mimicry related to greater sorting accuracy. These results
      suggest that when high-level (labeling) categorization strategies are
      unavailable, adults use low-level (perceptual) strategies to categorize facial
      expressions. Methodological implications for the study of emotion are discussed.
      (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID- 28880098
TI  - Moving research on health and close relationships forward-a challenge and an
      obligation: Introduction to the special issue.
AB  - Close relationships are integral to the health and adaptation of our species. The
      evidence is incontestable, and it is the building block upon which future theory,
      research, and practice rests. This foreword notes the distinct domains and
      independent histories of relationship science and health psychology and calls for
      further thorough integration within the broader context of team science. The
      articles in this special issue focus on interpersonal mechanisms, cultural
      specificity, personality and emotion regulation, couples dynamics in chronic
      disease, and the increasingly complex biological mechanisms involved in linking
      relationships to health outcomes. They point to the importance of life stage,
      especially childhood and late adulthood, for understanding unique relationship
      and health issues. The challenge remains to translate existing and future
      knowledge into interventions to improve social relationships for the benefit of
      physical and mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28880099
TI  - Advancing social connection as a public health priority in the United States.
AB  - A robust body of scientific evidence has indicated that being embedded in high
      quality close relationships and feeling socially connected to the people in one's
      life is associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality as well as a range
      of disease morbidities. Despite mounting evidence that the magnitude of these
      associations is comparable to that of many leading health determinants (that
      receive significant public health resources), government agencies, health care
      providers and associations, and public or private health care funders have been
      slow to recognize human social relationships as either a health determinant or
      health risk marker in a manner that is comparable to that of other public health
      priorities. This article evaluates current evidence (on social relationships and
      health) according to criteria commonly used in determining public health
      priorities. The article discusses challenges for reducing risk in this area and
      outlines an agenda for integrating social relationships into current public
      health priorities. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28880101
TI  - Incorporating the cultural diversity of family and close relationships into the
      study of health.
AB  - Relationships are at the center of the human social environment, and their
      quality and longevity are now recognized to have particular relevance for health.
      The goal of this article is to bring attention to the role of culture in how
      relationships, particularly close relationships and family relationships,
      influence health. To this end, 2 contexts that are characterized by 2 distinct
      forms of cultural collectivism (East Asian and Latino) are spotlighted to
      highlight the unique patterns that underlie broader cultural categories (e.g.,
      collectivism). In addition, related research on other understudied cultures and
      nonethnic or nonnational forms of culture (e.g., social class, religion) is also
      discussed. The review centers on social support, a key pathway through which
      relationships shape psychological and physical health, as the psychological
      process that has received the most empirical attention in this area. Overall, it
      is clear that new and more systematic approaches are needed to generate a more
      comprehensive, novel, and inclusive understanding of the role of culture in
      relationship processes that shape health. Three recommendations are offered for
      researchers and professionals to generate and incorporate knowledge of culture
      specific relationship processes into their understanding of health. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28880100
TI  - Interpersonal mechanisms linking close relationships to health.
AB  - Close relationships play a vital role in human health, but much remains to be
      learned about specific mechanisms of action and potential avenues for
      intervention. This article provides an evaluation of research on close
      relationships processes relevant to health, drawing on themes from major
      relationship science theories to present a broad conceptual framework for
      understanding the interpersonal processes and intrapersonal pathways linking
      relationships to health and disease outcomes. The analysis reveals that both
      social connection and social disconnection broadly shape biological responses and
      behaviors that are consequential for health. Furthermore, emerging work offers
      insights into the types of social dynamics that are most consequential for
      health, and the potential pathways through which they operate. Following from
      this analysis, the authors suggest several research priorities to facilitate the
      translation of discoveries from relationship science into relationship-based
      interventions and public health initiatives. These priorities include developing
      finer grained theoretical models to guide research, the systematic investigation
      of potential mediating pathways such as dyadic influences on health behavior and
      physiological coregulation, and taking into account individual differences and
      contextual factors such as attachment style, gender, socioeconomic status, and
      culture. In addition, a pressing need exists for laboratory and field research to
      determine which types of interventions are both practical and effective.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28880102
TI  - Childhood close family relationships and health.
AB  - Emerging data suggest that during childhood, close family relationships can
      ameliorate the impact that adversity has on life span physical health. To explain
      this phenomenon, a developmental stress buffering model is proposed in which
      characteristics of family relationships including support, conflict, obligation,
      and parenting behaviors evolve and change from childhood to adolescence.
      Together, these characteristics govern whether childhood family relationships are
      on balance positive enough to fill a moderating role in which they mitigate the
      effects that childhood adversities have on physical health. The benefits of some
      family relationship characteristics are hypothesized to stay the same across
      childhood and adolescence (e.g., the importance of comfort and warmth from family
      relationships) whereas the benefits of other characteristics are hypothesized to
      change from childhood to adolescence (e.g., from a need for physical proximity to
      parents in early childhood to a need for parental availability in adolescence).
      In turn, close, positive family relationships in childhood operate via a variety
      of pathways, such as by reducing the impact that childhood stressors have on
      biological processes (e.g., inflammation) and on health behaviors that in turn
      can shape physical health over a lifetime. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28880104
TI  - Intimate relationships, individual adjustment, and coronary heart disease:
      Implications of overlapping associations in psychosocial risk.
AB  - Being married or involved in a similar intimate relationship is associated with
      reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the quality of these
      relationships matters, as strain and disruption are associated with increased
      risk. These effects are typically studied separately from well-established
      psychosocial factors for CHD that are aspects of personality and emotional
      adjustment, even though discord and disruption in intimate relationships are
      related to these same individual characteristics. Thus, research to date tends to
      parse correlated risks, often taking a piecemeal approach by focusing on intimate
      relationships without considering aspects of personality and emotional adjustment
      that contribute to risk and protection, or focusing on individual-level risks
      while largely ignoring closely related health-relevant relationships. As an
      alternative, this article describes an integrative approach, first reviewing
      associations of the quality of intimate relationships with personality
      characteristics and aspects of emotional adjustment that confer CHD risk, and
      then discussing conceptual models of these associations and the biobehavioral
      mechanisms linking them with CHD. Current approaches to couple interventions are
      then discussed, including those that have a combined focus on intimate
      relationship difficulties and emotional adjustment. An integrative agenda for
      future research emphasizes aggregated risks, combining concepts and methods in
      current relationship science with those in biobehavioral research on CHD, and
      including parallel disparities in relationship functioning, emotional adjustment,
      and CHD risk. Such efforts could ultimately inform empirically based assessments
      and interventions for interrelated aspects of individuals and their intimate
      relationships that influence the development and course of CHD. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28880105
TI  - Integrative pathways linking close family ties to health: A neurochemical
      perspective.
AB  - The quality of one's familial life, for better or worse, has been linked to
      physical health. Such associations are evident across a number of acute and
      chronic conditions and highlight the widespread impact that close relationships
      have on physical health. However, the field currently lacks a complete
      understanding of the integrative biological pathways underlying the association
      between close relationships and disease risk. This article reviews the main
      peripheral biological and central nervous system pathways linking positive and
      negative familial relationship processes to physical health outcomes. It
      emphasizes the role of neurochemical pathways in mediating the influence of
      social relationships on health-relevant peripheral physiological systems using
      the oxytocin system as a model. Such neurochemical approaches are an important
      step toward a more integrative understanding of complex biological pathways and
      has novel theoretical and intervention implications. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28880103
TI  - Close social ties and health in later life: Strengths and vulnerabilities.
AB  - The world is aging at an unprecedented rate, with older adults representing the
      fastest-growing segment of the population in most economically developed and
      developing countries. This demographic shift leaves much uncharted territory for
      researchers who study social relationships and health. Social relationships exert
      powerful influences on physical health in later adulthood, a critical
      consideration given age-related increases in the prevalence of chronic health
      conditions and physical disability. A large body of research indicates that older
      adults report greater satisfaction with their social networks than do younger
      adults, and that they often take measures to minimize their exposure to negative
      social encounters. These emotionally satisfying and generally positive social
      ties afford some health protection against a backdrop of mounting physical
      limitations and play an important role when juxtaposed with the potentially
      health-damaging frictions that sometimes emerge in older adults' social
      relationships. Although most older adults report that they are satisfied with
      their social ties, some older adults experience frequent conflicts or ambivalent
      exchanges with members of their social networks, and these experiences detract
      from their health. In addition, many older adults will experience the loss of one
      or more close relationships during the course of their lives, with ramifications
      for their health and, often, for the reorganization of their social lives over
      time. Understanding how both the strengths and vulnerabilities of close social
      relationships affect health and well-being in later life is an important goal,
      particularly in view of the accelerating rate of population aging worldwide.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28880106
TI  - Close relationships and the management of chronic illness: Associations and
      interventions.
AB  - Self-management of a chronic illness involves not only monitoring symptoms,
      adhering to medication regimens, and keeping medical appointments but also making
      and maintaining difficult lifestyle changes. This article highlights
      correlational and intervention research suggesting family members are influential
      in children's and adults' illness management. The argument is made that a dyadic
      approach to chronic illness management that targets the influence of close
      relationships may yield more sustainable effects on patient behavior than has
      been achieved in the past. In particular, dyadic approaches aimed at helping
      patients and family members to find ways to collaborate in goal setting for these
      behaviors is recommended. Such dyadic interventions may also benefit family
      members who are ill or are at risk because of poor health behaviors. (PsycINFO
      Database Record

PMID- 28880107
TI  - Association of GOLPH2 expression with survival in non-small-cell lung cancer:
      clinical implications and biological validation.
AB  - AIM: We investigated the role of GOLPH2 in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
      METHODS: We analyzed the relationship between the expression of GOLPH2 and the
      clinical pathological characteristics of patients with NSCLC. The function of
      GOLPH2 in NSCLC cell lines was also explored through overexpression and knockdown
      studies. RESULTS: The positive expression rate of GOLPH2 protein in NSCLC tissue
      was higher than that of normal lung tissue. We found that positive GOLPH2
      expression was closely associated with unfavorable features of patients with
      NSCLC. The GOLPH2 expression was an independent predictor of the prognosis of
      patients with NSCLC. That GOLPH2 can promote the proliferation and invasion of
      NSCLC cells. CONCLUSION: The GOLPH2 is a novel marker for NSCLC.

PMID- 28880109
TI  - How adolescents perceive that community-based exercise improves their well-being.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine if adolescents perceive community-based exercise as
      beneficial to their well-being and in what ways. METHODS: A New South Wales
      Police Citizens Youth Club ran a four-week fitness course. The classes involved:
      1) sports including basketball and soccer, 2) non-contact boxing drills, and 3)
      games, both team games such as dodgeball and non-team games such as line tag.
      Parental consent to offer a survey at the completion of the course was requested
      during registration. The survey was the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being
      Scale; it was minimally modified to measure perceived benefit to mental well
      being instead of actual benefit. RESULTS: Thirty-one high school adolescents,
      ages 13-18, completed the survey. As a group, participants reported that they
      believed their well-being had improved after the course. The mean score for each
      survey item showed an improvement in every area of mental well-being for this
      sample of adolescents. Thirty-two per cent of adolescents reported having less
      energy. Survey scores indicated a statistically significant improvement in
      perceived well-being ( p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest
      that four weeks of community-based exercise improves perceived mental well-being
      in adolescent participants.

PMID- 28880110
TI  - Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitory activity of cone oils from Juniperus
      chinensis cv. Kaizuca and in silico theoretical explanation.
AB  - Juniperus chinensis cv. Kaizuca has extensive pharmacological activities. The
      cone oils exhibited protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitory activity in vitro.
      The IC50 value was 4.49 +/- 0.04 MUg/mL. A total of 17 compounds were
      characterised from the cone oils by GC-MS. In order to explain the activity
      against protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, the identified compounds from cone oils
      were individually docked with the protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B protein by
      virtual molecular docking. As a result, thunbergene was completely wrapped by the
      active site of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, and its binding energy was -6.41
      kcal/mol. The result indicated that thunbergene possessed the potential protein
      tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitory activity, which may be responsible for the
      activity of cone oils.

PMID- 28880108
TI  - Reduced length of uninterrupted institutional stay after implementing a fast
      track protocol for primary total hip replacement.
AB  - Background and purpose - Fast-track protocols have been successfully implemented
      in many hospitals as they have been shown to result in shorter length of stay
      (LOS) without compromising results. We evaluated the effect of fast-track
      implementation on the use of institutional care and results after total hip
      replacement (THR). Patients and methods - 3,193 THRs performed in 4 hospitals
      between 2009-2010 and 2012-2013 were identified from the Finnish Hospital
      Discharge Register and the Finnish Arthroplasty Register. Hospitals were
      classified as fast-track (Hospital A) and non-fast-track (Hospitals B, C, and D).
      We analyzed LOS, length of uninterrupted institutional care (LUIC, including
      LOS), discharge destination, readmission, revision rate, and mortality in each
      hospital. We compared these outcomes for THRs performed in Hospital A before and
      after fast-track implementation and we also compared outcomes, excluding
      readmission rates, with the corresponding outcomes for the other hospitals.
      Results - After fast-track implementation, median LOS in Hospital A diminished
      from 5 to 2 days (p < 0.001) and (median) LUIC from 6 to 3 (p = 0.001) days. No
      statistically significant changes occurred in discharge destination. However, the
      reduction in LOS was combined with an increase in the 42-day readmission rate
      (3.1% to 8.3%) (p < 0.001). A higher proportion of patients were at home 1 week
      after THR (p < 0.001) in Hospital A after fast-tracking than before.
      Interpretation - The fast-track protocol reduces LUIC but needs careful
      implementation to maintain good quality of care throughout the treatment process.

PMID- 28880111
TI  - Anti-NDV activity of 9-oxo10,11-dehydroageraphorone extracted from Eupatorium
      adenophorum Spreng in vitro.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-Newcastle disease virus
      (NDV) activities of 9-oxo-10,11-dehydroageraphorone (euptox A) from Eupatorium
      adenophorum Spreng (E. adenophorum) in vitro. NDV infection of chicken embryo
      fibroblasts (CEFs) was performed. Cytotoxicities and antiviral activities of
      euptox A was assessed by the MTT method. The interaction of NDV with cell
      membrane protein was detected by virus overlay protein binding assay (VOPBA). The
      expression levels of NDV genes in CEFs was tested by RTFQ PCR. The results showed
      that the maximal safe concentrations of euptox A to CEFs was 10 MUg/mL. Euptox A
      could directly neutralise NDV, inhibit the infectivity of NDV to CEFs and block
      intracellular NDV treat NDV infection. And euptox A brings competitiveness
      inhibition for NDV binding to its receptors and then prevent NDV infection. These
      results indicated that euptox A possessed anti-NDV activity has potential use as
      components of a natural antiviral drug.

PMID- 28880112
TI  - Coumarins and alkaloids from the roots of Toddalia asiatica.
AB  - The EtOAc and MeOH extracts of the roots of Toddalia asiatica Lam. were
      investigated for the roots' chemical constituents. Two new compounds including
      2'R-acetoxytoddanol (1) and 8S-10-O-demethylbocconoline (3) as well as 15 known
      compounds were isolated. Compound 10 showed strong cytotoxicity against KB cells
      with an IC50 value of 2.60 MUg/mL, which is nearly equal to the ellipticine
      standard, but showed no activity against Vero cells. Alkaloid 3 displayed weak
      cytotoxicity against the KB cell line with an IC50 value of 21.69 MUg/mL.

PMID- 28880114
TI  - A new pair of enantiomeric lignans from the fruits of Morinda citrifolia and
      their absolute configuration.
AB  - A new pair of sesamin-type lignan enantiomers (+/-)-morifolia A (1a/1b) together
      with eight known analogues (2-9) were isolated from the fruits of Morinda
      citrifolia. Their structures were established by spectroscopic data and the
      absolute configurations of 1a/1b were determined by ECD calculation. All
      compounds were examined for their inhibitory effects on the nitric oxide (NO)
      production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW 264.7 macrophages, and
      compounds 1a, 1b, 2-4 and 7-9 exhibited pronounced inhibition with IC50 values in
      the range of 1.97-8.01 (MUM, being more active than the positive control,
      quercetin (IC50 = 15.32 (M).

PMID- 28880113
TI  - Increasing age and tear size reduce rotator cuff repair healing rate at 1 year.
AB  - Background and purpose - There is a need to understand the reasons why a high
      proportion of rotator cuff repairs fail to heal. Using data from a large
      randomized clinical trial, we evaluated age and tear size as risk factors for
      failure of rotator cuff repair. Patients and methods - Between 2007 and 2014, 65
      surgeons from 47 hospitals in the National Health Service (NHS) recruited 447
      patients with atraumatic rotator cuff tendon tears to the United Kingdom Rotator
      Cuff Trial (UKUFF) and 256 underwent rotator cuff repair. Cuff integrity was
      assessed by imaging in 217 patients, at 12 months post-operation. Logistic
      regression analysis was used to determine the influence of age and intra
      operative tear size on healing. Hand dominance, sex, and previous steroid
      injections were controlled for. Results - The overall healing rate was 122/217
      (56%) at 12 months. Healing rate decreased with increasing tear size (small tears
      66%, medium tears 68%, large tears 47%, and massive tears 27% healed). The mean
      age of patients with a healed repair was 61 years compared with 64 years for
      those with a non-healed repair. Mean age increased with larger tear sizes (small
      tears 59 years, medium tears 62 years, large tears 64 years, and massive tears 66
      years). Increasing age was an independent factor that negatively influenced
      healing, even after controlling for tear size. Only massive tears were an
      independent predictor of non-healing, after controlling for age. Interpretation -
      Although increasing age and larger tear size are both risks for failure of
      rotator cuff repair healing, age is the dominant risk factor.

PMID- 28880115
TI  - Physiologic and metabolic effects of exogenous kojic acid and tyrosol, chemicals
      produced by endophytic fungus, on wheat seeds germination.
AB  - Antioxidant compounds have the ability to scavenge the reactive oxygen species in
      an attempt to minimise damage in seeds during the germination. This study aimed
      to evaluate the physiological and metabolic process of two well-established
      antioxidant compounds: kojic acid and hydroxyphenyl ethanol (tyrosol), at
      increasing concentrations, on wheat seeds. The use of different concentrations of
      tyrosol or kojic acid not showed any interference on seed germination rate.
      However, we observed isolated effect of antioxidants and their concentrations to:
      germination speed index, shoot length and electrolyte leakage; and significant
      interaction between the factors to: seedling total length, seedling fresh matter
      and alpha-amylase activity. Our results suggest that the use of antioxidant
      molecules can be applied on seed treatments for protection against damage
      oxidative stress and improve seed metabolism.

PMID- 28880116
TI  - Photoacoustic Imaging for Noninvasive Periodontal Probing Depth Measurements.
AB  - The periodontal probe is the gold standard tool for periodontal examinations,
      including probing depth measurements, but is limited by systematic and random
      errors. Here, we used photoacoustic ultrasound for high-spatial resolution
      imaging of probing depths. Specific contrast from dental pockets was achieved
      with food-grade cuttlefish ink as a contrast medium. Here, 39 porcine teeth (12
      teeth with artificially deeper pockets) were treated with the contrast agent, and
      the probing depths were measured with novel photoacoustic imaging and a Williams
      periodontal probe. There were statistically significant differences between the 2
      measurement approaches for distal, lingual, and buccal sites but not mesial.
      Bland-Altman analysis revealed that all bias values were < +/-0.25 mm, and the
      coefficients of variation for 5 replicates were <11%. The photoacoustic imaging
      approach also offered 0.01-mm precision and could cover the entire pocket, as
      opposed to the probe-based approach, which is limited to only a few sites. This
      report is the first to use photoacoustic imaging for probing depth measurements
      with potential implications to the dental field, including tools for automated
      dental examinations or noninvasive examinations.

PMID- 28880117
TI  - International variation in shoulder arthroplasty.
AB  - Background and purpose - The number of shoulder registries increases. We assessed
      international trends in use of shoulder arthroplasty, and described the current
      state of procedure selection and outcome presentation as documented in national
      and regional joint registries. Methods - Published reports from 9 population
      based shoulder arthroplasty registries (country/region: Norway, Sweden, New
      Zealand, Denmark, California, Australia, Emilia-Romagna, Germany, and United
      Kingdom) were analyzed. Data were extracted on age, sex, disease indication, type
      of surgical procedure, surgical volume, and outcomes. Results - Shoulder
      arthroplasty incidence rate in 2012 was 20 procedures/105 population with a 6
      fold variation between the highest (Germany) and lowest (United Kingdom) country.
      The annual incidence rate increased 2.8-fold in the past decade. Within the
      indications osteoarthritis, fracture, and cuff-tear arthropathy variations in
      procedure choice between registries were large. Outcomes evaluation focused on
      revision in all registries, but different measures and strata were used. Only
      Australia provided revision rates for prosthesis brands stratified by both
      indication and procedure. Finally, in 2 registries with available data surgeons
      performed on average 10-11 procedures yearly. Interpretation - Annual incidence
      rates of shoulder arthroplasty have almost tripled over the past decade. There is
      wide variation in procedure selection for the major indications, a low average
      surgeon volume, a substantial number of brands with small annual volume, and
      large variation in outcome presentation. The internationally increasing registry
      activity is an excellent basis for improving the so far weak evidence in shoulder
      arthroplasty.

PMID- 28880118
TI  - Effects of flour or flaxseed oil upon testis mass in rats subjected to early
      weaning.
AB  - Study evaluates testis mass in rats subjected to early weaning and subsequently
      nourished with diet containing flour or flaxseed oil. Pups were weaned for
      separation from mothers at 14 days (early weaning, EW) and 21 days (control, C).
      After 21 days, the control group (C60) was nourished with control diet. EW was
      divided as: control (EWC60), flaxseed flour (EWFF60) and flaxseed oil (EWFO60)
      group diets for the next 60 days. At 21st and 60th day, body mass, serum
      cholesterol and triglycerides and testis mass were evaluated. At 21 day, EW group
      showed lower (p < 0.05) body mass, serum cholesterol and testis mass. At 60 days,
      EWC60 and EWFO60 groups showed lower (p < 0.05) body mass (vs. C60 and EWFF60).
      EWFF60 group showed lower (p < 0.05) serum cholesterol (vs. EWC60 and EWFO60) and
      higher (p < 0.05) testis mass (vs. C60, EWC60 and EWFO60). Flaxseed flour (vs.
      oil) was associated with higher testis mass following early weaning.

PMID- 28880119
TI  - Aldose reductase inhibitory activity studies of THERACURMIN.
AB  - THERACURMIN a commercially available nano-dispersion of curcumin used to treat
      after effects of alcohol has been evaluated for in vitro ARI activity on Aldose
      reductase isolated from the bovine lens. As envisaged, the product displays
      better ARI activity with IC50 value of 3 MUM. The observed ARI activity of
      THERACURMIN is of therapeutic significance as the limited bioavailability of
      curcumin limits its clinical use.

PMID- 28880120
TI  - Reward-related limbic memory and stimulation of the cannabinoid system: An
      upgrade in value attribution?
AB  - While a lot is known about the mechanisms promoting aversive learning, the impact
      of rewarding factors on memory has received comparatively less attention. This
      research investigates reward-related explicit memory in male rats, by taking
      advantage of the emotional-object recognition test. This is based on the prior
      association, during conditioned learning, between a rewarding experience (the
      encounter with a receptive female rat) and an object; afterwards rat
      discrimination and recognition of the 'emotional object' is recorded in the
      presence of a novel object, as a measure of positive limbic memory formation.
      Since endocannabinoids are critical for processing reward and motivation, the
      consequences of the stimulation of cannabinoid signalling are also assessed by
      the administration of WIN 55,212-2 at pre- and post-conditioning time. Our
      results show that rats encode the association between object and rewarding
      experience, form positive limbic memory of the emotional object, and retrieve
      this information in the face of novelty. Stimulation of the cannabinoid system at
      pre-conditioning time is able to strengthen reward-related explicit memory in the
      presence of novelty, whereas post-conditioning activation increases approach
      behaviour to novel stimuli. The assessment of limbic memory by the emotional
      object recognition test can help unveiling the addictive and confounding
      properties of psychotropic drugs.

PMID- 28880121
TI  - Improvement of anti-biofouling properties of hollow fiber membranes with bismuth
      BAL chelates (BisBAL).
AB  - In this study, hollow fiber membranes with and without bismuth dimercaptopropanol
      (Bis-BAL) additive were fabricated. Membranes were characterized in terms of
      permeability, surface properties, anti-biofouling and antibacterial properties.
      Membranes were operated in a lab-scale submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR).
      During the MBR operation, flux, chemical oxygen demand, volatile suspended solids
      and suspended solids were calculated for 30 days. Results showed that
      extracellular polymeric substance and soluble microbial product amounts were
      decreased in BisBAL-containing membranes. BisBAL-added membranes had the ability
      to inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli. BisBAL as an additive for membranes
      was found to be an effective, cheap alternative for enhancing anti-biofouling
      properties of the membranes.

PMID- 28880122
TI  - Expression of AMPK, SIRT1, and ACC Differs between Winter- and Summer
      Acclimatized Djungarian Hamsters.
AB  - The wintering strategy of the Djungarian hamster (Phodopus sungorus) includes a
      naturally occurring decrease in food intake and body mass. Our aim was to
      investigate the conceivable role of the metabolic regulators, AMP-activated
      protein kinase (AMPK) and sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), in the seasonal adaptation of the
      Djungarian hamster. In addition, a rate-limiting enzyme in fatty acid synthesis
      and oxidation, acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC), was studied. Relative protein
      expressions and phosphorylated forms (pAMPK and pACC) were determined by Western
      blot from subcutaneous white adipose tissues (sWAT), abdominal white adipose
      tissues (aWAT), interscapular brown adipose tissues (iBAT), skeletal muscle, and
      hypothalamus of winter- and summer-acclimatized hamsters. The winter group had
      higher AMPK expression in sWAT, aWAT, and iBAT, but the relative amount of
      phosphorylated protein (pAMPK/AMPK ratio) was lower in these tissues.
      Furthermore, ACC expression was higher in sWAT and iBAT of the winter animals.
      pACC (inactive form) levels were higher in all adipose tissues, yet a lower
      pACC/ACC ratio was detected in iBAT of the winter hamsters. Muscle AMPK
      expression was lower but pAMPK/AMPK ratio higher in the winter group. SIRT1
      expression was higher in muscle and all adipose tissues of the winter hamsters.
      Hypothalamic protein expressions did not differ between the groups. Higher
      expressions of AMPK, ACC, and SIRT1 in WAT and iBAT of the winter hamsters
      suggest a role in the regulation of lipid reserves and increased thermogenic
      capacity characteristic to the winter-adapted Djungarian hamsters.

PMID- 28880123
TI  - Commentary: "Validation of a Theory of Planned Behavior-Based Questionnaire to
      Examine Factors Associated With Milk Expression" by Y. K. Bai & L. M. Dinour.

PMID- 28880124
TI  - Efficacy and safety of posaconazole in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      patients with invasive fungal disease.
AB  - AIM: Invasive fungal disease (IFD) is a significant cause of morbidity and
      mortality in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients. This study
      reports real-world efficacy and safety of posaconazole (POS) in HSCT recipients
      with IFD. PATIENTS & METHODS: We performed a retrospective study to investigate
      the efficacy and safety of POS oral suspension in 45 HSCT patients with IFD from
      December 2013 to December 2016. RESULTS: The success rate at 12 weeks after POS
      treatment was 57.8%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that
      persistent neutropenia, severe graft-versus-host disease, high-dose steroid and
      cytomegalovirus infection were independently associated with inferior responses
      to POS. POS caused some adverse effects of mild or moderate severity that were of
      short duration. CONCLUSION: This study provides encouraging data regarding the
      efficacy and safety of POS in HSCT recipients. Neutropenia, graft-versus-host
      disease, steroid use and cytomegalovirus infection are possibly associated with
      inferior responses to POS therapy.

PMID- 28880125
TI  - Consensus statement of the international summit on intellectual disability and
      Dementia related to post-diagnostic support.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Post diagnostic support (PDS) has varied definitions within
      mainstream dementia services and different health and social care organizations,
      encompassing a range of supports that are offered to adults once diagnosed with
      dementia until death. METHOD: An international summit on intellectual disability
      and dementia held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2016 identified how PDS applies to
      adults with an intellectual disability and dementia. The Summit proposed a model
      that encompassed seven focal areas: post-diagnostic counseling; psychological and
      medical surveillance; periodic reviews and adjustments to the dementia care plan;
      early identification of behaviour and psychological symptoms; reviews of care
      practices and supports for advanced dementia and end of life; supports to carers/
      support staff; and evaluation of quality of life. It also explored current
      practices in providing PDS in intellectual disability services. RESULTS: The
      Summit concluded that although there is limited research evidence for
      pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions for people with intellectual
      disability and dementia, viable resources and guidelines describe practical
      approaches drawn from clinical practice. Post diagnostic support is essential,
      and the model components in place for the general population, and proposed here
      for use within the intellectual disability field, need to be individualized and
      adapted to the person's needs as dementia progresses. CONCLUSIONS:
      Recommendations for future research include examining the prevalence and nature
      of behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) in adults with an intellectual
      disability who develop dementia, the effectiveness of different non
      pharmacological interventions, the interaction between pharmacological and non
      pharmacological interventions, and the utility of different models of support.

PMID- 28880126
TI  - Detecting allocentric and egocentric navigation deficits in patients with
      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using virtual reality.
AB  - Present evidence suggests that the use of virtual reality has great advantages in
      evaluating visuospatial navigation and memory for the diagnosis of psychiatric or
      other neurological disorders. There are a few virtual reality studies on
      allocentric and egocentric memories in schizophrenia, but studies on both
      memories in bipolar disorder are lacking. The objective of this study was to
      compare the performance of allocentric and egocentric memories in patients with
      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. For this resolve, an advanced virtual reality
      navigation task (VRNT) was presented to distinguish the navigational performances
      of these patients. Twenty subjects with schizophrenia and 20 bipolar disorder
      patients were compared with 20 healthy-matched controls on the newly developed
      VRNT consisting of a virtual neighbourhood (allocentric memory) and a virtual
      maze (egocentric memory). The results demonstrated that schizophrenia patients
      were significantly impaired on all allocentric, egocentric, visual, and verbal
      memory tasks compared with patients with bipolar disorder and normal subjects.
      Dissimilarly, the performance of patients with bipolar disorder was slightly
      lower than that of control subjects in all these abilities, but no significant
      differences were observed. It was concluded that allocentric and egocentric
      navigation deficits are detectable in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar
      disorder using VRNT, and this task along with RAVLT and ROCFT can be used as a
      valid clinical tool for distinguishing these patients from normal subjects.

PMID- 28880127
TI  - Evaluation of Regional-Scale Receptor Modeling.
AB  - The ability of receptor models to estimate regional contributions to fine
      particulate matter (PM2.5) was assessed with synthetic, speciated datasets at
      Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge (BRIG) in New Jersey and Great Smoky
      Mountains National Park (GRSM) in Tennessee. Synthetic PM2.5 chemical
      concentrations were generated for the summer of 2002 using the Community
      Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and chemically speciated PM2.5 source
      profiles from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s SPECIATE and
      Desert Research Institute's source profile databases. CMAQ estimated the "true"
      contributions of seven regions in the eastern United States to chemical species
      concentrations and individual source contributions to primary PM2.5 at both
      sites. A seven-factor solution by the positive matrix factorization (PMF)
      receptor model explained approximately 99% of the variability in the data at both
      sites. At BRIG, PMF captured the first four major contributing sources (including
      a secondary sul-fate factor), although diesel and gasoline vehicle contributions
      were not separated. However, at GRSM, the resolved factors did not correspond
      well to major PM2.5 sources. There were no correlations between PMF factors and
      regional contributions to sulfate at either site. Unmix produced five- and seven
      factor solutions, including a secondary sulfate factor, at both sites. Some PMF
      factors were combined or missing in the Unmix factors. The trajectory mass
      balance regression (TMBR) model apportioned sulfate concentrations to the seven
      source regions using Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory
      (HYSPLIT) trajectories based on Meteorological Model Version 5 (MM5) and Eta Data
      Simulation System (EDAS) meteorological input. The largest estimated sulfate
      contributions at both sites were from the local regions; this agreed
      qualitatively with the true regional apportionments. Estimated regional
      contributions depended on the starting elevation of the trajectories and on the
      meteorological input data.

PMID- 28880128
TI  - Thank You for Your Continued Support.

PMID- 28880129
TI  - Toward Effective Source Apportionment Using Positive Matrix Factorization:
      Experiments with Simulated PM2.5 Data.
AB  - To elucidate the relationship between factors resolved by the positive matrix
      factorization (PMF) receptor model and actual emission sources and to refine the
      PMF modeling strategy, speciated PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic
      diameter <2.5 MUm) data generated from a state-of-the-art chemical transport
      model for two rural sites in the eastern United States are subjected to PMF
      analysis. In addition to chi-2 and R 2 used to infer the quality of fitting, the
      interpretability of PMF factors with respect to known primary and secondary
      sources is evaluated using a root mean square difference analysis. For the most
      part, factors are found to represent imperfect combinations of sources, and the
      optimal number of factors should be just adequate to explain the input data
      (e.g., R 2 > 0.95). Retaining more factors in the model does not help resolve
      minor sources, unless temporal resolution of the data is increased, thus allowing
      more information to be used by the model. If guided with a priori knowledge of
      source markers and/or special events, rotation of factors leads to more
      interpretable PMF factors. The choice of uncertainty weighting coefficients
      greatly influences the PMF modeling results, but it cannot usually be determined
      for simulated or real-world data. A simple test is recommended to check whether
      the weighting coefficients are suitable. However, uncertainties in the data
      divert PMF solutions even when the optimal weighting coefficients and number of
      factors are in place.

PMID- 28880130
TI  - The effects of semi-immersive virtual reality therapy on standing balance and
      upright mobility function in individuals with chronic incomplete spinal cord
      injury: A preliminary study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI)
      commonly face persistent balance or mobility impairments. Virtual reality (VR)
      therapy is a useful rehabilitation approach; however, little is known about its
      effects in individuals with chronic iSCI. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects
      of semi-immersive VR therapy on standing balance and upright mobility function in
      individuals with chronic iSCI. METHODS: Ten subjects with chronic iSCI underwent
      VR therapy 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week, for 6 weeks. Limit of stability (LOS)
      and the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) were used to evaluate standing balance function.
      The Timed Up & Go (TUG) test, Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABS) Scale,
      and Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury-II (WISCI-II) were used to measure the
      subject's upright mobility function. Outcomes were assessed and recorded pre- and
      post-intervention. RESULTS: After semi-immersive VR therapy, LOS and BBS scores
      were significantly increased. In addition, the TUG test results increased
      significantly over time, while ABC scale scores and WSCI-II levels improved
      significantly. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to assess the effects of semi
      immersive VR therapy for patients with chronic iSCI and limited functional
      abilities. These results indicated that semi-immersive VR therapy has a positive
      effect and is a useful intervention for standing balance and upright mobility
      function in patients with chronic iSCI.

PMID- 28880131
TI  - Prediction of specific hand movements using electroencephalographic signals.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify specific hand movements from electroencephalographic
      activity. DESIGN: Proof of concept study. SETTING: Rehabilitation hospital in
      Toronto, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Fifteen healthy individuals with no neurological
      conditions. INTERVENTION: Each individual performed six different hand movements,
      including four grasps commonly targeted during rehabilitation. All of them used
      their dominant hand and four of them repeated the experiment with their non
      dominant hand. EEG was acquired from 8 different locations (C1, C2, C3, C4, CZ,
      F3, F4 and Fz). Time-frequency distributions (spectrogram) of the pre-movement
      EEG activity for each electrode were generated and each of the time-resolved
      spectral components (1 Hz to 50 Hz) was correlated with a hyperbolic tangent
      function to detect power decreases. The spectral components and time ranges with
      the largest correlation values were identified using a threshold. The resulting
      features were then used to implement a distance-based classifier. OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Accuracy of classification. RESULTS: A minimum of three different
      dominant hand movements were classified correctly with average accuracies between
      65-75% across all 15 participants. Average accuracies between 67-85% for the same
      three movements were achieved across four of the 15 participants who were tested
      with their non-dominant hand. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that it may be
      possible to predict specific hand movements from a small number of
      electroencephalographic electrodes. Further studies including members of the
      spinal cord injury community are necessary to verify the suitability of the
      proposed process.

PMID- 28880132
TI  - Linking spinal cord injury rehabilitation between the World Wars: The R. Tait
      McKenzie legacy.
AB  - Spinal cord injury (SCI) medicine emerged after World War II due to mass
      casualties, which required specialized treatment centers. This approach to
      categorical care, however, was first developed during World War I, led by
      pioneers R. Tait McKenzie and George Deaver, who demonstrated that soldiers
      disabled by paralysis could return to society through fitness/mobility,
      recreational and vocational training. McKenzie, a Canadian and the first
      professor of physical therapy in the US, influenced Deaver and military
      physicians in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. with his achievements and
      publications. Although early mortality from SCI was high, advances in the
      treatment of skin and bladder complications coupled with rehabilitation developed
      through lessons learned in World War I, resulted in major changes in survival and
      quality of life for veterans of World War II in England, US, and Canada. Harry
      Botterell and Al Jousse, founders of Lyndhurst Lodge, the first SCI center in
      Canada, adopted Deaver's principles and techniques of rehabilitation and Donald
      Munro's approach to medical complications. The consequences of failing to
      organize continuity of care in World War I were recognized both by consumers and
      physicians. Together with John Counsell, a World War II veteran, they formed the
      Canadian Paraplegic Association, which "revolutionized" the care of veterans with
      SCI, as well as civilians, women, and children.

PMID- 28880135
TI  - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

PMID- 28880133
TI  - Epidemiological study of Spinal Cord Injury individuals from halfway houses in
      Shanghai, China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of spinal cord injury (SCI)
      individuals in Shanghai and examine their treatment and rehabilitation for
      traumatic and complete SCI individuals. DESIGN: Community-based secondary data
      analyses. SETTING: Shanghai, China. METHODS: We analyzed gender, age at injury,
      complications, disturbances of function, treatment, etiology, and severity of
      injury of SCI individuals that enrolled in "halfway houses", government-supported
      community co-op centers. Bivariate statistical analyses were conducted to examine
      the factors associated with complete and traumatic SCI. RESULTS: We analyzed 808
      SCI individuals who participated in halfway houses in Shanghai during 2009-2015.
      The male-to-female ratio was 2.1:1. The proportion of middle or elder age groups
      at injury (age 46 to 60 and age 61 or over) showed a rising trend from 1970 to
      2015. The leading causes of SCIs in Shanghai were traumatic injuries (58%),
      followed by disease (29.5%). The proportion of traumatic injuries decreased over
      time, while the proportion of non-traumatic injuries rose significantly. A
      majority of traumatic injury individuals were aged between 16-45. CONCLUSION: The
      middle or elder age groups at injury among SCI individuals increased continuously
      from 1970 to 2015. The principal causes of injury in Shanghai were traumatic
      injuries and disease-related injuries. Men had a higher prevalence of traumatic
      SCI in Shanghai. Preventive measures should focus on male and middle-aged adults.
      As a fast-aging society in Shanghai, more effective prevention, medical care, and
      rehabilitation schemes should be implemented for aging SCI individuals.

PMID- 28880138
TI  - Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study: Design and Methods Validation of
      Personal, Indoor, and Outdoor Air Pollution Monitoring.
AB  - The Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study evaluated the contribution of
      ambient air pollutants to personal and indoor exposures of adults and asthmatic
      children living in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In addition, the role of personal,
      indoor, and outdoor air pollution exposures upon asthmatic children's respiratory
      health was assessed. Several active and passive sampling methods were applied, or
      adapted, for personal, indoor, and outdoor residential monitoring of nitrogen
      dioxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter (PM; PM <= 2.5 MUm
      [PM2.5] and <= 10 MUm [PM10] in aerodynamic diameter),elemental carbon, ultrafine
      particles, ozone, air exchange rates, allergens in settled dust, and particulate
      associated metals. Participants completed five consecutive days of monitoring
      during the winter and summer of 2005 and 2006. During 2006, in addition to
      undertaking the air pollution measurements, asthmatic children completed
      respiratory health measurements (including peak flow meter tests and exhaled
      breath condensate) and tracked respiratory symptoms in a diary. Extensive quality
      assurance and quality control steps were implemented, including the collocation
      of instruments at the National Air Pollution Surveillance site operated by
      Environment Canada and at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality site
      in Allen Park, Detroit, MI. During field sampling, duplicate and blank samples
      were also completed and these data are reported. In total, 50 adults and 51
      asthmatic children were recruited to participate, resulting in 922 participant
      days of data. When comparing the methods used in the study with standard
      reference methods, field blanks were low and bias was acceptable, with most
      methods being within 20% of reference methods. Duplicates were typically within
      less than 10% of each other, indicating that study results can be used with
      confidence. This paper covers study design, recruitment, methodology, time
      activity diary, surveys, and quality assurance and control results for the
      different methods used. [Box: see text].

PMID- 28880139
TI  - Dysphagia screening after intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - Background Dysphagia screening is recommended after acute stroke to identify
      patients at risk of aspiration and implement appropriate care. However, little is
      known about the frequency and outcomes of patients undergoing dysphagia screening
      after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Methods We used the Ontario Stroke Registry
      from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2013 to identify patients hospitalized with acute
      stroke and to compare dysphagia screening rates in those with ICH and ischemic
      stroke. In patients with ICH we assessed predictors of receiving dysphagia
      screening, predictors of failing screening, and outcomes after failing screening.
      Results Among 1091 eligible patients with ICH, 354 (32.4%) patients did not have
      documented dysphagia screening. Patients with mild ICH were less likely to
      receive screening (40.4% of patients were omitted, adjusted odds ratio (aOR)
      0.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26-0.63). Older age, greater stroke
      severity, speech deficits, lower initial level of consciousness, and admission to
      intensive care unit were predictive of failing the screening test. Failing
      screening was associated with poor outcomes, including pneumonia (aOR 5.3, 95% CI
      2.36-11.88), severe disability (aOR 4.78, 95% CI 3.08-7.41), and 1-year mortality
      (adjusted hazard ratio 2.1, 95% CI 1.38-3.17). When compared to patients with
      ischemic stroke, patients with ICH were less likely to receive dysphagia
      screening (aOR 0.64, 95% CI 0.54-0.76) and more likely to fail screening (aOR
      1.98, 95% 1.62-2.42). Conclusion One-third of patients with ICH did not have
      documented dysphagia screening, increasing to 40% in patients with mild clinical
      severity. Failing screening was associated with poor outcomes. Patients with ICH
      were less like to receive screening and twice as likely to fail compared to
      patients with ischemic stroke, and thus efforts should be made to include ICH
      patients in dysphagia screening protocols whenever possible.

PMID- 28880140
TI  - [Diving accident-induced arterial gas embolism].
AB  - BACKGROUND: During scuba diving, nitrogen dissolves into the body tissues due to
      elevated pressure under water. During a sudden drop in pressure due to a rapid
      return to the water surface, arterial gas embolism can arise from pulmonary
      barotrauma. In a later phase, nitrogen bubbles can also arise in the venous
      circulation (decompression sickness). Arterial bubbles can incur vascular damage,
      obstruction, hypoxia and infarction. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 53-year-old healthy
      sport diver presented at the emergency department in a hypovolemic shock with
      progressive paresis of all the extremities. He had made an emergency ascent from
      a depth of 47 meter. During recompression therapy his condition deteriorated. It
      transpired that he had an patent foramen ovale. As a consequence of this,
      nitrogen bubbles due to decompression sickness entered the arterial circulation.
      Despite maximum therapeutic intervention the patient remained paretic.
      CONCLUSION: After an ill-fated dive, this patient with patent foramen ovale
      contracted arterial gas embolism due to pulmonary barotrauma and, at a later
      stage, decompression sickness. There was increasing damage to the spinal cord
      resulting in severe physiological disruption.

PMID- 28880141
TI  - [Clioquinol use for Dientamoeba fragilis infections is questionable].
AB  - Clioquinol is used for treatment of amoebiasis and infection with Dientamoeba
      fragilis. In a guideline of the Dutch Working Party on Antibiotic Policy,
      clioquinol is recommended as a first-choice treatment for Dientamoeba fragilis.
      This drug, however, is associated with subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy (SMON).
      It was withdrawn from the market worldwide in 1985 by manufacturer Ciba-Geigy.
      Although the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board has registered no products for
      systemic use of clioquinol since then, the drug is available as a pharmacy
      compounded drug and the last few years the use of clioquinol in the Netherlands
      has risen again. The Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb has received a
      growing number of reports of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with the
      use of clioquinol, including nervous system disorder ADRs occurring at
      recommended dosages. Therefore, we debate the use of clioquinol as a first-choice
      treatment option for Dientamoeba fragilis.

PMID- 28880142
TI  - [An elderly couple dies of natural causes on the same day].
AB  - BACKGROUND: A 77-year-old woman died of metastatic colorectal cancer. On that
      same day, her 82-year-old husband, who had stayed in bed next to her during the
      last days of her life, also died. CASE DESCRIPTION: We describe their two
      separate trajectories to death: anticipated dying and unexpected death with
      diagnostic uncertainty. We analysed the general practitioner's role in this
      scenario. Existential suffering was partly the reason for commencing palliative
      sedation for the husband after his wife had died. CONCLUSION: General
      practitioners might find it difficult to change their course in care management
      for terminal patients from "life preserving" to "letting go". An effective
      handover between physicians is essential in the palliative phase. No evidence was
      found in literature for the hypothesis that dying people can influence their own
      time of death.

PMID- 28880143
TI  - [An infant with a nevus on the upper leg].
AB  - We present a 4-month-old infant with an eczematous halo around a congenital
      melanocytic nevus. After diagnostic excision, histopathologic examination
      revealed a Meyerson's nevus. This is a benign skin tumour that may show clinical
      signs of melanoma. It is therefore important to include Meyerson's nevus in the
      differential diagnosis of melanoma.

PMID- 28880144
TI  - [Periodical medication review: bigger and better?]
AB  - The Netherlands' practice guideline 'Polypharmacy in older people' (2012)
      proposed selecting patients who would benefit from a periodical medication
      review. The guideline committee made it clear that firm evidence supporting
      selection was lacking, and recent studies evaluating the effects of medication
      review on relevant patient-related outcomes have failed to show a positive effect
      on almost any of these outcomes. Regulatory authorities have advised expanding
      the target population for medication review. We have to conclude, however, that
      rather than implementing medication reviews across a broad population of older
      people, many with a low risk of adverse events, it may be more cost-effective to
      limit this potentially useful but time-consuming intervention to a more select
      population who would benefit the most from it.

PMID- 28880145
TI  - [Dementia care in Germany].
AB  - In Germany there are approximately 1.6 million people with dementia. A quarter of
      them live in a care home, often alongside residents who have a physical
      condition. The quality of nursing for physical conditions is good; although
      specialised dementia care is less developed, this lag is slowly being addressed.
      Medical care in German care homes is delivered by GPs. Preservation of life is
      the norm. Due to the lack of both advance care planning and a non-resuscitation
      policy, many care home residents with dementia undergo life-extending measures.
      Through the use of an advance health care directive, people can protect
      themselves from such a situation occurring.

PMID- 28880147
TI  - Correction: Re-visiting the trans insertion model for complexin clamping.

PMID- 28880146
TI  - The physical dimensions of amyloid aggregates control their infective potential
      as prion particles.
AB  - Transmissible amyloid particles called prions are associated with infectious
      prion diseases in mammals and inherited phenotypes in yeast. All amyloid
      aggregates can give rise to potentially infectious seeds that accelerate their
      growth. Why some amyloid seeds are highly infectious prion particles while others
      are less infectious or even inert, is currently not understood. To address this
      question, we analyzed the suprastructure and dimensions of synthetic amyloid
      fibrils assembled from the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) prion protein
      Sup35NM. We then quantified the ability of these particles to induce the [PSI+]
      prion phenotype in cells. Our results show a striking relationship between the
      length distribution of the amyloid fibrils and their ability to induce the
      heritable [PSI+] prion phenotype. Using a simple particle size threshold model to
      describe transfection activity, we explain how dimensions of amyloid fibrils are
      able to modulate their infectious potential as prions.

PMID- 28880148
TI  - Reconciling isothermal titration calorimetry analyses of interactions between
      complexin and truncated SNARE complexes.
AB  - Neurotransmitter release depends on the SNARE complex formed by syntaxin-1,
      synaptobrevin and SNAP-25, as well as on complexins, which bind to the SNARE
      complex and play active and inhibitory roles. A crystal structure of a Complexin
      I fragment bearing a so-called 'superclamp' mutation bound to a truncated SNARE
      complex lacking the C-terminus of the synaptobrevin SNARE motif (SNAREDelta60)
      suggested that an 'accessory' alpha-helix of Complexin-I inhibits release by
      inserting into the C-terminus of the SNARE complex. Previously, isothermal
      titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments performed in different laboratories
      yielded apparently discrepant results in support or against the existence of such
      binding mode in solution (Trimbuch et al., 2014; Krishnakumar et al., 2015).
      Here, ITC experiments performed to solve these discrepancies now show that the
      region containing the Complexin-I accessory helix and preceding N-terminal
      sequences does interact with SNAREDelta60, but the interaction requires the
      polybasic juxtamembrane region of syntaxin-1 and is not affected by the
      superclamp mutation within the experimental error of these experiments.

PMID- 28880151
TI  - Salivary Markers for Quantitative Dehydration Estimation During Physical
      Exercise.
AB  - Salivary markers have been proposed as noninvasive and easy-to-collect indicators
      of dehydrations during physical exercise. It has been demonstrated that threshold
      based classifications can distinguish dehydrated from euhydrated subjects.
      However, considerable challenges were reported simultaneously, for example, high
      intersubject variabilities in these markers. Therefore, we propose a machine
      learning approach to handle the intersubject variabilities and to advance from
      binary classifications to quantitative estimations of total body water (TBW)
      loss. For this purpose, salivary samples and reference values of TBW loss were
      collected from ten subjects during a 2-h running workout without fluid intake.
      The salivary samples were analyzed for previously investigated markers
      (osmolality, proteins) as well as additional unexplored markers (amylase,
      chloride, cortisol, cortisone, and potassium). Processing all these markers with
      a Gaussian process approach showed that quantitative TBW loss estimations are
      possible within an error of 0.34 l, roughly speaking, a glass of water.
      Furthermore, a data analysis illustrated that the salivary markers grow
      nonlinearly during progressive dehydration, which is in contrast to previously
      reported linear observations. This insight could help to develop more accurate
      physiological models for salivary markers and TBW loss. Such models, in turn,
      could facilitate even more precise TBW loss estimations in the future.

PMID- 28880149
TI  - Dual function of the PI3K-Akt-mTORC1 axis in myelination of the peripheral
      nervous system.
AB  - Myelination is a biosynthetically demanding process in which mTORC1, the
      gatekeeper of anabolism, occupies a privileged regulatory position. We have shown
      previously that loss of mTORC1 function in Schwann cells (SCs) hampers
      myelination. Here, we genetically disrupted key inhibitory components upstream of
      mTORC1, TSC1 or PTEN, in mouse SC development, adult homeostasis, and nerve
      injury. Surprisingly, the resulting mTORC1 hyperactivity led to markedly delayed
      onset of both developmental myelination and remyelination after injury. However,
      if mTORC1 was hyperactivated after myelination onset, radial hypermyelination was
      observed. At early developmental stages, physiologically high PI3K-Akt-mTORC1
      signaling suppresses expression of Krox20 (Egr2), the master regulator of PNS
      myelination. This effect is mediated by S6K and contributes to control mechanisms
      that keep SCs in a not-fully differentiated state to ensure proper timing of
      myelination initiation. An ensuing decline in mTORC1 activity is crucial to allow
      myelination to start, while remaining mTORC1 activity drives myelin growth.

PMID- 28880150
TI  - Post-translational thioamidation of methyl-coenzyme M reductase, a key enzyme in
      methanogenic and methanotrophic Archaea.
AB  - Methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR), found in strictly anaerobic methanogenic and
      methanotrophic archaea, catalyzes the reversible production and consumption of
      the potent greenhouse gas methane. The alpha subunit of MCR (McrA) contains
      several unusual post-translational modifications, including a rare thioamidation
      of glycine. Based on the presumed function of homologous genes involved in the
      biosynthesis of thioviridamide, a thioamide-containing natural product, we
      hypothesized that the archaeal tfuA and ycaO genes would be responsible for post
      translational installation of thioglycine into McrA. Mass spectrometric
      characterization of McrA from the methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina
      acetivorans lacking tfuA and/or ycaO revealed the presence of glycine, rather
      than thioglycine, supporting this hypothesis. Phenotypic characterization of the
      ?ycaO-tfuA mutant revealed a severe growth rate defect on substrates with low
      free energy yields and at elevated temperatures (39 degrees C - 45 degrees C).
      Our analyses support a role for thioglycine in stabilizing the protein secondary
      structure near the active site.

PMID- 28880153
TI  - Erratum to "Visually Meaningful Histopathological Features for Automatic Grading
      of Prostate Cancer".

PMID- 28880154
TI  - Micromagnetic Stimulation of the Mouse Auditory Cortex In Vivo Using an
      Implantable Solenoid System.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recent studies have reported that micromagnetic stimulation ( MS),
      which can activate neurons and neural networks via submillimeter inductors, may
      address several limitations of conventional magnetic stimulation methods.
      Previous studies have examined the effects of MS on single neurons, yet little is
      known about how MS can affect brain tissue including local neural networks. Here,
      we propose a new, readily available implantable MS system and computationally and
      experimentally evaluate its validity. METHODS: We conducted numerical
      calculations and experiments to evaluate the physical characteristics, including
      magnetic flux density, temperature, coil impedance, and structural integrity of
      the flexible board supporting the MS coils. We then compared sound- and MS-driven
      neural responses in the mouse auditory cortex using flavoprotein autofluorescence
      imaging. RESULTS: Our system successfully activated neural tissue, and we
      observed activity propagation in local neural networks on the brain surface
      beyond restricted activation of single neurons. Examining the relationships
      between stimulation parameters and response characteristics, we found that
      stimulation amplitude and pulse width were the two most important parameters to
      effectively induce neural activity. CONCLUSION: Our MS device has sufficient
      potential to drive the brain as an implantable magnetic stimulator for basic
      neuroscience and clinical applications, although further investigation is
      required. SIGNIFICANCE: MS can selectively drive and modulate activity in local
      neural network even at an in vivo tissue level.

PMID- 28880155
TI  - Identification of Ion Currents Components Generating Field Potential Recorded in
      MEA From hiPSC-CM.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Multi electrodes arrays (MEAs) combined with cardiomyocytes derived
      from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CMs) can enable high- or medium
      throughput drug screening in safety pharmacology. This technology has recently
      attracted a lot of attention, in particular from an international initiative
      named CiPA. But it is currently limited by the difficulty to analyze the measured
      signals. We propose a strategy to analyze the signals acquired by the MEA and to
      automatically deduce the channels affected by the drug. METHODS: Our method is
      based on the bidomain equations, a model for the MEA electrodes, and an inverse
      problem strategy. RESULTS: in silico MEA signals are obtained for two commercial
      devices and an example of early after depolarization is presented. Then, by
      processing real signals obtained for four different compounds, our algorithm was
      able to provide dose-response curves for potassium, sodium, and calcium channels.
      For ivabradine and moxifloxacin, the IC50 and dose-response curves are in very
      good agreement with known values. SIGNIFICANCE: The proposed strategy offers a
      possible answer to a major question raised by the community of safety
      pharmacology. By allowing a more automated analysis of the signals, our approach
      could contribute to promote the technology based on MEA and hiPSC-CMs and,
      therefore, improve reliability and efficiency of drug screening.

PMID- 28880152
TI  - An Open Benchmark Challenge for Motion Correction of Myocardial Perfusion MRI.
AB  - Cardiac magnetic resonance perfusion examinations enable noninvasive
      quantification of myocardial blood flow. However, motion between frames due to
      breathing must be corrected for quantitative analysis. Although several methods
      have been proposed, there is a lack of widely available benchmarks to compare
      different algorithms. We sought to compare many algorithms from several groups in
      an open benchmark challenge. Nine clinical studies from two different centers
      comprising normal and diseased myocardium at both rest and stress were made
      available for this study. The primary validation measure was regional myocardial
      blood flow based on the transfer coefficient (Ktrans), which was computed using a
      compartment model and the myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) index. The ground
      truth was calculated using contours drawn manually on all frames by a single
      observer, and visually inspected by a second observer. Six groups participated
      and 19 different motion correction algorithms were compared. Each method used one
      of three different motion models: rigid, global affine, or local deformation. The
      similarity metric also varied with methods employing either sum-of-squared
      differences, mutual information, or cross correlation. There were no significant
      differences in Ktrans or MPR compared across different motion models or
      similarity metrics. Compared with the ground truth, only Ktrans for the sum-of
      squared differences metric, and for local deformation motion models, had
      significant bias. In conclusion, the open benchmark enabled evaluation of
      clinical perfusion indices over a wide range of methods. In particular, there was
      no benefit of nonrigid registration techniques over the other methods evaluated
      in this study. The benchmark data and results are available from the Cardiac
      Atlas Project ( www.cardiacatlas.org).

PMID- 28880156
TI  - A High-Resolution Minimicroscope System for Wireless Real-Time Monitoring.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Compact, cost-effective, and high-performance microscope that enables
      the real-time imaging of cells and lab-on-a-chip devices is highly demanded for
      cell biology and biomedical engineering. This paper aims to present the design
      and application of an inexpensive wireless minimicroscope with resolution up to
      2592 * 1944 pixels and speed up to 90 f/s. METHODS: The minimicroscope system was
      built on a commercial embedded system (Raspberry Pi). We modified a camera module
      and adopted an inverse dual lens system to obtain the clear field of view and
      appropriate magnification for tens of micrometer objects. RESULTS: The system was
      capable of capturing time-lapse images and transferring image data wirelessly.
      The entire system can be operated wirelessly and cordlessly in a conventional
      cell culturing incubator. The developed minimicroscope was used to monitor the
      attachment and proliferation of NIH-3T3 and HEK 293 cells inside an incubator for
      50 h. In addition, the minimicroscope was used to monitor a droplet generation
      process in a microfluidic device. The high-quality images captured by the
      minimicroscope enabled us an automated analysis of experimental parameters.
      CONCLUSION: The successful applications prove the great potential of the
      developed minimicroscope for monitoring various biological samples and
      microfluidic devices. SIGNIFICANCE: This paper presents the design of a high
      resolution minimicroscope system that enables the wireless real-time imaging of
      cells inside the incubator. This system has been verified to be a useful tool to
      obtain high-quality images and videos for the automated quantitative analysis of
      biological samples and lab-on-a-chip devices in the long term.

PMID- 28880157
TI  - Hierarchical Sparse Representation for Robust Image Registration.
AB  - Similarity measure is an essential component in image registration. In this
      article, we propose a novel similarity measure for registration of two or more
      images. The proposed method is motivated by the fact that optimally registered
      images can be sparsified hierarchically in the gradient domain and frequency
      domain with the separation of sparse errors. One of the key advantages of the
      proposed similarity measure is its robustness in dealing with severe intensity
      distortions, which widely exist on medical images, remotely sensed images and
      natural photos due to differences of acquisition modalities or illumination
      conditions. Two efficient algorithms are proposed to solve the batch image
      registration and pair registration problems in a unified framework. We have
      validated our method on extensive and challenging data sets. The experimental
      results demonstrate the robustness, accuracy and efficiency of our method over
      nine traditional and state-of-the-art algorithms on synthetic images and a wide
      range of real-world applications.

PMID- 28880158
TI  - Highly Articulated Kinematic Structure Estimation Combining Motion and Skeleton
      Information.
AB  - In this paper, we present a novel framework for unsupervised kinematic structure
      learning of complex articulated objects from a single-view 2D image sequence. In
      contrast to prior motion-based methods, which estimate relatively simple
      articulations, our method can generate arbitrarily complex kinematic structures
      with skeletal topology via a successive iterative merging strategy. The iterative
      merge process is guided by a density weighted skeleton map which is generated
      from a novel object boundary generation method from sparse 2D feature points. Our
      main contributions can be summarised as follows: (i) An unsupervised complex
      articulated kinematic structure estimation method that combines motion segments
      with skeleton information. (ii) An iterative fine-to-coarse merging strategy for
      adaptive motion segmentation and structural topology embedding. (iii) A skeleton
      estimation method based on a novel silhouette boundary generation from sparse
      feature points using an adaptive model selection method. (iv) A new highly
      articulated object dataset with ground truth annotation. We have verified the
      effectiveness of our proposed method in terms of computational time and
      estimation accuracy through rigorous experiments with multiple datasets. Our
      experiments show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods
      both quantitatively and qualitatively.

PMID- 28880159
TI  - Bilinear Factor Matrix Norm Minimization for Robust PCA: Algorithms and
      Applications.
AB  - The heavy-tailed distributions of corrupted outliers and singular values of all
      channels in low-level vision have proven effective priors for many applications
      such as background modeling, photometric stereo and image alignment. And they can
      be well modeled by a hyper-Laplacian. However, the use of such distributions
      generally leads to challenging non-convex, non-smooth and non-Lipschitz problems,
      and makes existing algorithms very slow for large-scale applications. Together
      with the analytic solutions to $?ell _{p}$ -norm minimization with two specific
      values of $p$ , i.e., $p=1/2$ and $p=2/3$ , we propose two novel bilinear factor
      matrix norm minimization models for robust principal component analysis. We first
      define the double nuclear norm and Frobenius/nuclear hybrid norm penalties, and
      then prove that they are in essence the Schatten- $1/2$ and $2/3$ quasi-norms,
      respectively, which lead to much more tractable and scalable Lipschitz
      optimization problems. Our experimental analysis shows that both our methods
      yield more accurate solutions than original Schatten quasi-norm minimization,
      even when the number of observations is very limited. Finally, we apply our
      penalties to various low-level vision problems, e.g., text removal, moving object
      detection, image alignment and inpainting, and show that our methods usually
      outperform the state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28880161
TI  - Unsupervised Segmentation of 5D Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 MRI Data Using a Fuzzy
      Markov Random Field Model.
AB  - Hyperpolarized MRI with 13C-labelled compounds is an emerging clinical technique
      allowing in vivo metabolic processes to be characterized non-invasively. Accurate
      quantification of 13C data, both for clinical and research purposes, typically
      relies on the use of region-of-interest analysis to detect and compare regions of
      altered metabolism. However, it is not clear how this should be determined from
      the five-dimensional data produced and most standard methodologies are unable to
      exploit the multidimensional nature of the data. Here we propose a solution to
      the novel problem of 13C image segmentation using a hybrid Markov random field
      model with continuous fuzzy logic. The algorithm fully utilizes the multi
      dimensional data format in order to classify each voxel into one of six distinct
      classes based on its metabolic characteristics. Bayesian priors fully incorporate
      spatial, temporal and ratiometric contextual information whilst image contrast
      from multiple spectral dimensions are considered concurrently by using an analogy
      from color image segmentation. Performance of the algorithm is demonstrated on in
      silico data, where the superiority of the approach over a reference thresholding
      method is consistently observed. Application to in vivo animal data from a pre
      clinical subcutaneous tumor model illustrates the ability of the MRF algorithm to
      successfully detect tumor location whilst avoiding image artifacts. This work has
      the potential to assist the analysis of human hyperpolarized 13C data in the
      future.

PMID- 28880160
TI  - PVR: Patch-to-Volume Reconstruction for Large Area Motion Correction of Fetal
      MRI.
AB  - In this paper, we present a novel method for the correction of motion artifacts
      that are present in fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the whole
      uterus. Contrary to current slice-to-volume registration (SVR) methods, requiring
      an inflexible anatomical enclosure of a single investigated organ, the proposed
      patch-to-volume reconstruction (PVR) approach is able to reconstruct a large
      field of view of non-rigidly deforming structures. It relaxes rigid motion
      assumptions by introducing a specific amount of redundant information that is
      exploited with parallelized patchwise optimization, super-resolution, and
      automatic outlier rejection. We further describe and provide an efficient
      parallel implementation of PVR allowing its execution within reasonable time on
      commercially available graphics processing units, enabling its use in the
      clinical practice. We evaluate PVR's computational overhead compared with
      standard methods and observe improved reconstruction accuracy in the presence of
      affine motion artifacts compared with conventional SVR in synthetic experiments.
      Furthermore, we have evaluated our method qualitatively and quantitatively on
      real fetal MRI data subject to maternal breathing and sudden fetal movements. We
      evaluate peak-signal-to-noise ratio, structural similarity index, and cross
      correlation with respect to the originally acquired data and provide a method for
      visual inspection of reconstruction uncertainty. We further evaluate the distance
      error for selected anatomical landmarks in the fetal head, as well as calculating
      the mean and maximum displacements resulting from automatic non-rigid
      registration to a motion-free ground truth image. These experiments demonstrate a
      successful application of PVR motion compensation to the whole fetal body,
      uterus, and placenta.

PMID- 28880162
TI  - Radon Space Dose Optimization in Repeat CT Scanning.
AB  - We present a new method for on-line radiation dose optimization in repeat
      computer tomography (CT) scanning. Our method uses the information of the
      baseline scan during the repeat scanning to significantly reduce the radiation
      dose without compromising the repeat scan quality. It automatically registers the
      patient to the baseline scan using fractional scanning and detects in sinogram
      space the patient regions where changes have occurred without having to
      reconstruct the repeat scan image. It scans only these regions in the patient,
      thereby considerably reducing the necessary radiation dose. It then completes the
      missing values of the sparsely sampled repeat scan sinogram with those of the
      fully sampled baseline sinogram in regions where no changes were detected and
      computes the repeat scan image by standard filtered backprojection
      reconstruction. Experiments on a patient scan with simulated changes yield a mean
      recall of 98% using <19% of a full dose. Experiments on real CT scans of an
      abdomen phantom produce similar results, with a mean recall of 94.5% and only
      14.4% of a full dose more than the theoretical optimum. As hardly any changed
      rays are missed, the reconstructed images are practically indistinguishable from
      a full dose scan. Our method successfully detects small, low contrast changes and
      produces an accurate repeat scan reconstruction using three times less radiation
      than an image space baseline method.

PMID- 28880163
TI  - Structured Sparse Principal Components Analysis With the TV-Elastic Net Penalty.
AB  - Principal component analysis (PCA) is an exploratory tool widely used in data
      analysis to uncover the dominant patterns of variability within a population.
      Despite its ability to represent a data set in a low-dimensional space, PCA's
      interpretability remains limited. Indeed, the components produced by PCA are
      often noisy or exhibit no visually meaningful patterns. Furthermore, the fact
      that the components are usually non-sparse may also impede interpretation, unless
      arbitrary thresholding is applied. However, in neuroimaging, it is essential to
      uncover clinically interpretable phenotypic markers that would account for the
      main variability in the brain images of a population. Recently, some alternatives
      to the standard PCA approach, such as sparse PCA (SPCA), have been proposed,
      their aim being to limit the density of the components. Nonetheless, sparsity
      alone does not entirely solve the interpretability problem in neuroimaging, since
      it may yield scattered and unstable components. We hypothesized that the
      incorporation of prior information regarding the structure of the data may lead
      to improved relevance and interpretability of brain patterns. We therefore
      present a simple extension of the popular PCA framework that adds structured
      sparsity penalties on the loading vectors in order to identify the few stable
      regions in the brain images that capture most of the variability. Such structured
      sparsity can be obtained by combining, e.g., and total variation (TV) penalties,
      where the TV regularization encodes information on the underlying structure of
      the data. This paper presents the structured SPCA (denoted SPCA-TV) optimization
      framework and its resolution. We demonstrate SPCA-TV's effectiveness and
      versatility on three different data sets. It can be applied to any kind of
      structured data, such as, e.g., -dimensional array images or meshes of cortical
      surfaces. The gains of SPCA-TV over unstructured approaches (such as SPCA and
      ElasticNet PCA) or structured approach (such as GraphNet PCA) are significant,
      since SPCA-TV reveals the variability within a data set in the form of
      intelligible brain patterns that are easier to interpret and more stable across
      different samples.

PMID- 28880164
TI  - Low-Dose Dynamic Cerebral Perfusion Computed Tomography Reconstruction via
      Kronecker-Basis-Representation Tensor Sparsity Regularization.
AB  - Dynamic cerebral perfusion computed tomography (DCPCT) has the ability to
      evaluate the hemodynamic information throughout the brain. However, due to
      multiple 3-D image volume acquisitions protocol, DCPCT scanning imposes high
      radiation dose on the patients with growing concerns. To address this issue, in
      this paper, based on the robust principal component analysis (RPCA, or
      equivalently the low-rank and sparsity decomposition) model and the DCPCT imaging
      procedure, we propose a new DCPCT image reconstruction algorithm to improve low
      dose DCPCT and perfusion maps quality via using a powerful measure, called
      Kronecker-basis-representation tensor sparsity regularization, for measuring low
      rankness extent of a tensor. For simplicity, the first proposed model is termed
      tensor-based RPCA (T-RPCA). Specifically, the T-RPCA model views the DCPCT
      sequential images as a mixture of low-rank, sparse, and noise components to
      describe the maximum temporal coherence of spatial structure among phases in a
      tensor framework intrinsically. Moreover, the low-rank component corresponds to
      the "background" part with spatial-temporal correlations, e.g., static anatomical
      contribution, which is stationary over time about structure, and the sparse
      component represents the time-varying component with spatial-temporal continuity,
      e.g., dynamic perfusion enhanced information, which is approximately sparse over
      time. Furthermore, an improved nonlocal patch-based T-RPCA (NL-T-RPCA) model
      which describes the 3-D block groups of the "background" in a tensor is also
      proposed. The NL-T-RPCA model utilizes the intrinsic characteristics underlying
      the DCPCT images, i.e., nonlocal self-similarity and global correlation. Two
      efficient algorithms using alternating direction method of multipliers are
      developed to solve the proposed T-RPCA and NL-T-RPCA models, respectively.
      Extensive experiments with a digital brain perfusion phantom, preclinical monkey
      data, and clinical patient data clearly demonstrate that the two proposed models
      can achieve more gains than the existing popular algorithms in terms of both
      quantitative and visual quality evaluations from low-dose acquisitions,
      especially as low as 20 mAs.

PMID- 28880165
TI  - Power Spectrum Computation for an Arbitrary Phase Noise Using Middleton's
      Convolution Series: Implementation Guideline and Experimental Illustration.
AB  - In this paper, we revisit the convolution series initially introduced by
      Middleton several decades ago to determine the power spectrum (or spectral line
      shape) of a periodic signal from its phase noise power spectral density. This
      topic is of wide interest, as it has an important impact on many scientific areas
      that involve lasers and oscillators. We introduce a simple guideline that enables
      a fairly straightforward computation of the power spectrum corresponding to an
      arbitrary phase noise. We show the benefit of this approach on a computational
      point of view, and apply it to various types of experimental signals with
      different phase noise levels, showing a very good agreement with the experimental
      spectra. This approach also provides a qualitative and intuitive understanding of
      the power spectrum corresponding to different regimes of phase noise.

PMID- 28880167
TI  - Lead-Free Piezoelectric Ceramic Coatings Fabricated by Thermal Spray Process.
AB  - This paper starts from a review on the progress in fabrication of piezoelectric
      ceramic coatings by thermal spray method. For our experimental work, two types of
      lead-free piezoelectric ceramic coatings, including potassium-sodium niobate
      based and bismuth sodium titanate-based, are fabricated by thermal spray process,
      and their structure, morphology, and piezoelectric properties are characterized.
      Our obtained lead-free ceramic coatings exhibit single phase of perovskite
      structure, relatively dense morphology, and competitive piezoelectric
      coefficients. The mechanism of forming the piezoelectric perovskite crystalline
      phase by thermal spray involving melting-recrystallization process is analyzed in
      comparison to that of ceramic synthesis through solid-state reaction. Suppression
      of volatile loss and decomposition at high temperature due to the extremely high
      melting and cooling rate in the thermal spray process, and the impact on the
      resulting structure are discussed. Significant advantages of the thermal spray
      method over alternative processing methods for forming piezoelectric ceramic
      coatings are summarized. The combination of environmentally friendly lead-free
      compositions and the scalable thermal spray processing method will promote more
      applications of piezoelectric ceramic coatings for producing distributive sensors
      and transducers, and forming advanced smart structures and systems.

PMID- 28880168
TI  - A New Dynamic Complex Baseband Pulse Compression Method for Chirp-Coded
      Excitation in Medical Ultrasound Imaging.
AB  - Chirp-coded excitation can increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) without
      degrading the axial resolution. Effective pulse compression (PC) is important to
      maintain the axial resolution and can be achieved with radio frequency (RF) and
      complex baseband (CBB) data (i.e., and , respectively). can further reduce the
      computational complexity compared to ; however, suffers from a degraded SNR due
      to tissue attenuation. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic CBB PC method (
      that can improve the SNR while compensating for tissue attenuation. The
      compression filter coefficients in the method are generated by dynamically
      changing the demodulation frequencies along with the depth. For PC, the obtained
      coefficients are independently applied to the in-phase and quadrature components
      of the CBB data. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, simulation,
      phantom, and in vivo studies were conducted, and all three studies showed
      improved SNR, i.e., maximally 3.87, 7.41, and 5.75 dB, respectively. In addition,
      the measured peak range sidelobe level of the proposed method yielded lower
      values than the and , and it also derived a suitable target location, i.e., a
      <0.07-mm target location error, while maintaining the axial resolution. In an in
      vivo abdominal experiment, the method depicted brighter and clearer features in
      the hyperechoic region because highly correlated signals were produced by
      compensating for tissue attenuation. These results demonstrated that the proposed
      method can improve the SNR of chirp-coded excitation while preserving the axial
      resolution and the target location and reducing the computational complexity.

PMID- 28880166
TI  - Catheter Hydrophone Aberration Correction for Transcranial Histotripsy Treatment
      of Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Proof-of-Concept.
AB  - Histotripsy is a minimally invasive ultrasound therapy that has shown rapid
      liquefaction of blood clots through human skullcaps in an in vitro intracerebral
      hemorrhage model. However, the efficiency of these treatments can be compromised
      if the skull-induced aberrations are uncorrected. We have developed a catheter
      hydrophone which can perform aberration correction (AC) and drain the liquefied
      clot following histotripsy treatment. Histotripsy pulses were delivered through
      an excised human skullcap using a 256-element, 500-kHz hemisphere array
      transducer with a 15-cm focal distance. A custom hydrophone was fabricated using
      a mm PZT-5h crystal interfaced to a coaxial cable and integrated into a drainage
      catheter. An AC algorithm was developed to correct the aberrations introduced
      between histotripsy pulses from each array element. An increase in focal pressure
      of up to 60% was achieved at the geometric focus and 27%-62% across a range of
      electronic steering locations. The sagittal and axial -6-dB beam widths decreased
      from 4.6 to 2.2 mm in the sagittal direction and 8 to 4.4 mm in the axial
      direction, compared to 1.5 and 3 mm in the absence of aberration. After
      performing AC, lesions with diameters ranging from 0.24 to 1.35 mm were generated
      using electronic steering over a mm grid in a tissue-mimicking phantom. An
      average volume of 4.07 +/- 0.91 mL was liquefied and drained after using
      electronic steering to treat a 4.2-mL spherical volume in in vitro bovine clots
      through the skullcap.

PMID- 28880169
TI  - Noise Equalization for Ultrafast Plane Wave Microvessel Imaging.
AB  - Ultrafast plane wave microvessel imaging significantly improves ultrasound
      Doppler sensitivity by increasing the number of Doppler ensembles that can be
      collected within a short period of time. The rich spatiotemporal plane wave data
      also enable more robust clutter filtering based on singular value decomposition.
      However, due to the lack of transmit focusing, plane wave microvessel imaging is
      very susceptible to noise. This paper was designed to: 1) study the relationship
      between ultrasound system noise (primarily time gain compensation induced) and
      microvessel blood flow signal and 2) propose an adaptive and computationally cost
      effective noise equalization method that is independent of hardware or software
      imaging settings to improve microvessel image quality.

PMID- 28880170
TI  - Rapid Spatial Mapping of Focused Ultrasound Fields Using a Planar Fabry-Perot
      Sensor.
AB  - Measurement of high acoustic pressures is necessary in order to fully
      characterize clinical high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) fields, and for
      accurate validation of computational models of ultrasound propagation. However,
      many existing measurement devices are unable to withstand the extreme pressures
      generated in these fields, and those that can often exhibit low sensitivity.
      Here, a planar Fabry-Perot interferometer with hard dielectric mirrors and spacer
      was designed, fabricated, and characterized, and its suitability for measurement
      of nonlinear focused ultrasound fields was investigated. The noise equivalent
      pressure (NEP) of the scanning system scaled with the adjustable pressure
      detection range between 49 kPa for pressures up to 8 MPa and 152 kPa for
      measurements up to 25 MPa, over a 125 MHz measurement bandwidth. Measurements of
      the frequency response of the sensor showed that it varied by less than 3 dB in
      the range 1-62 MHz. The effective element size of the sensor was 65 and waveforms
      were acquired at a rate of 200 Hz. The device was used to measure the acoustic
      pressure in the field of a 1.1 MHz single-element spherically focused bowl
      transducer. Measurements of the acoustic field at low pressures compared well
      with measurements made using a Polyvinylidene difluoride needle hydrophone. At
      high pressures, the measured peak focal pressures agreed well with the focal
      pressure modeled using the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov equation. Maximum peak
      positive pressures of 25 MPa and peak negative pressures of 12 MPa were measured,
      and planar field scans were acquired in scan times on the order of 1 min. The
      properties of the sensor and scanning system are well suited to measurement of
      nonlinear focused ultrasound fields, in both the focal region and the low
      pressure peripheral regions. The fast acquisition speed of the system and its low
      NEP are advantageous, and with further development of the sensor, it has
      potential in application to HIFU metrology.

PMID- 28880171
TI  - Q-Factor Spectrum of a Piezoceramic Resonator and Method for Piezoelectric Loss
      Factor Determination.
AB  - The quality factor (Q) spectrum of a piezoceramic resonator, as a Q-factor
      frequency dependence for the specific resonator and its vibrational modes, was
      determined under baseline low-excitation level with a new approach proposed. The
      theoretical prediction was experimentally confirmed that the resonator Q-factor
      increases with frequency nearly linearly from the resonance reaching its maximum
      near the antiresonance. For the industrial PZT-5A piezoceramic the antiresonance
      to-resonance quality factor ratio is 1.8 to 2.4 as much, depending on the type of
      vibration. As the theory states, this effect is directly related to the
      piezoelectric "losses" in piezoceramics, usually represented by the imaginary
      part of complex piezocoefficients, which have a unique property of lowering the
      total cumulative energy dissipation in a resonator in certain frequency
      intervals. Based on the electromechanical Q-factor (EMQ) concept, a new
      relatively simple method was proposed for the piezoelectric loss factor
      determination at just a single resonance frequency-it requires measurements of
      the resonance Q-factor and its frequency derivative at the resonance, or the
      first and second frequency derivatives of the immittance phase at the resonance.
      Experimentally determined is close to near 0.8 of its upper (positive)
      phenomenological limit in the conventional PZT-5A piezoceramic at the basic
      vibrational modes. The piezoelectric loss factor, theoretically reaching the
      upper limit, can provide extremely high value of the Q-factor (near the
      fundamental antiresonance) with possible an order of magnitude EMQ increase. That
      paradoxical fact for the piezoelectric "losses" is a novel possible way of
      improving the piezoceramic performance and operation.

PMID- 28880172
TI  - Spectrum Compensation for Time-Reversal Method on Ultrasonic Target Detection
      Using Pulse Compression.
AB  - This paper discusses a method of time reversal (TR) for target detection using a
      signal with a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and higher resolution. To
      acquire a signal with a higher SNR and broader spectrum, we have proposed a
      sensitivity-compensated (SC) signal. In this paper, we propose three types of SC
      for-TR signals. An SC-amplitude-modulated (AM)-for-TR signal and an SC-frequency
      modulated (FM)-for-TR signal are calculated using squared spectrum compensation.
      Moreover, to enhance the transmitting energy of a time-reversed wave for a higher
      SNR, we propose an SC-amplitude-and-frequency-modulated-for-TR (SCAFM-for-TR)
      signal. The SCAFM-for-TR signal is calculated by AM and FM for deriving a TR wave
      with a constant envelope waveform and compensated spectrum. In this paper, the
      efficiency of the SC-for-TR signals is investigated on target ranging in water
      using pulse compression. Accordingly, the SC-for-TR signals derive a pulse
      compressed signal with a higher resolution. In addition, the precision of target
      ranging using the SCAFM-for-TR signal is greater than that using the other SC-for
      TR signals at an arrangement when a target was fixed at a position where a signal
      with a lower SNR is received. These results show that the measurements using the
      SC-for-TR signals improve time resolution and the SNR.

PMID- 28880173
TI  - Reflection Removal Under Fast Forward Camera Motion.
AB  - The image quality of an in-vehicle black box camera is often degraded by the
      reflections of internal objects, dirt, and dust on the windshield. In this paper,
      we propose a novel algorithm that simultaneously removes the reflections and
      small dirt artifacts from in-vehicle black box videos under fast forward camera
      motion. The algorithm exploits the spatiotemporal coherence of the reflection and
      dirt, which remain stationary relative to the fast-moving background. Unlike
      previous algorithms, the algorithm first separates stationary reflection and then
      restores the background scene. To this end, we propose an average image prior,
      thereby imposing spatiotemporal coherence. The separation model is a two-layer
      model composed of stationary and background layers, where different gradient
      sparsity distributions are utilized in a region-based manner. Motion compensation
      in postprocessing is proposed to alleviate layer jitter due to vehicle
      vibrations. In evaluation experiments, the proposed algorithm successfully
      extracts the stationary layer from several real and synthetic black box videos.

PMID- 28880174
TI  - Learning the Distribution Preserving Semantic Subspace for Clustering.
AB  - This paper proposes a new clustering method for images called distribution
      preserving indexing (DPI). It aims to find a lower dimensional semantic space
      approximating the original image space in the sense of preserving the
      distribution of the data. In the theory, the intrinsic structure of the data
      clusters can be described by the distribution of the data effectively. Therefore,
      the cluster structure of the data in a lower dimensional semantic space derived
      by the DPI becomes clear. Unlike these distance-based clustering methods, which
      reveal the intrinsic Euclidean structure of data, our method attempts to discover
      the intrinsic cluster structure of the data space that actually is the union of
      some sub-manifolds. Moreover, we propose a revised kernel density estimator for
      the case of high-dimensional data, which is a crucial step in DPI. In addition,
      we provide a theoretical analysis of the bound of our method. Finally, the
      extensive experiments compared with other algorithms, on COIL20, CBCL, and MNIST
      demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.

PMID- 28880175
TI  - Hyper-Lapse From Multiple Spatially-Overlapping Videos.
AB  - Hyper-lapse video with high speed-up rate is an efficient way to overview long
      videos, such as a human activity in first-person view. Existing hyper-lapse video
      creation methods produce a fast-forward video effect using only one video source.
      In this paper, we present a novel hyper-lapse video creation approach based on
      multiple spatially-overlapping videos. We assume the videos share a common view
      or location, and find transition points where jumps from one video to another may
      occur. We represent the collection of videos using a hyper-lapse transition
      graph; the edges between nodes represent possible hyper-lapse frame transitions.
      To create a hyper-lapse video, a shortest path search is performed on this
      digraph to optimize frame sampling and assembly simultaneously. Finally, we
      render the hyper-lapse results using video stabilization and appearance smoothing
      techniques on the selected frames. Our technique can synthesize novel virtual
      hyper-lapse routes, which may not exist originally. We show various application
      results on both indoor and outdoor video collections with static scenes, moving
      objects, and crowds.

PMID- 28880176
TI  - Spectral-Spatial Scale Invariant Feature Transform for Hyperspectral Images.
AB  - Spectral-spatial feature extraction is an important task in hyperspectral image
      processing. In this paper we propose a novel method to extract distinctive
      invariant features from hyperspectral images for registration of hyperspectral
      images with different spectral conditions. Spectral condition means images are
      captured with different incident lights, viewing angles, or using different
      hyperspectral cameras. In addition, spectral condition includes images of objects
      with the same shape but different materials. This method, which is named spectral
      spatial scale invariant feature transform (SS-SIFT), explores both spectral and
      spatial dimensions simultaneously to extract spectral and geometric
      transformation invariant features. Similar to the classic SIFT algorithm, SS-SIFT
      consists of keypoint detection and descriptor construction steps. Keypoints are
      extracted from spectral-spatial scale space and are detected from extrema after
      3D difference of Gaussian is applied to the data cube. Two descriptors are
      proposed for each keypoint by exploring the distribution of spectral-spatial
      gradient magnitude in its local 3D neighborhood. The effectiveness of the SS-SIFT
      approach is validated on images collected in different light conditions,
      different geometric projections, and using two hyperspectral cameras with
      different spectral wavelength ranges and resolutions. The experimental results
      show that our method generates robust invariant features for spectral-spatial
      image matching.

PMID- 28880178
TI  - Adaptive Chroma Subsampling-Binding and Luma-Guided Chroma Reconstruction Method
      for Screen Content Images.
AB  - In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive chroma subsampling-binding and luma
      guided (ASBLG) chroma reconstruction method for screen content images (SCIs).
      After receiving the decoded luma and subsampled chroma image from the decoder, a
      fast winner-first voting strategy is proposed to identify the used chroma
      subsampling scheme prior to compression. Then, the decoded luma image is
      subsampled as the identified subsampling scheme was performed on the chroma image
      such that we are able to conclude an accurate correlation between the subsampled
      decoded luma image and the decoded subsampled chroma image. Accordingly, an
      adaptive sliding window-based and luma-guided chroma reconstruction method is
      proposed. The related computational complexity analysis is also provided. We take
      two quality metrics, the color peak signal-to-noise ratio (CPSNR) of the
      reconstructed chroma images and SCIs and the gradient-based structure similarity
      index (CGSS) of the reconstructed SCIs to evaluate the quality performance. Let
      the proposed chroma reconstruction method be denoted as 'ASBLG'. Based on 26
      typical test SCIs and 6 JCT-VC test screen content video sequences (SCVs),
      several experiments show that on average, the CPSNR gains of all the
      reconstructed UV images by 4:2:0(A)-ASBLG, SCIs by 4:2:0(MPEG-B)-ASBLG, and SCVs
      by 4:2:0(A)-ASBLG are 2.1, 1.87, and 1.87 dB, respectively, when compared with
      that of the other combinations. Specifically, in terms of CPSNR and CGSS,
      CSBILINEAR-ASBLG for the test SCIs and CSBICUBIC-ASBLG for the test SCVs
      outperform the existing state-of-the-art comparative combinations, where
      CSBILINEAR and CSBICUBIC denote the luma-aware based chroma subsampling schemes
      by Wang et al.

PMID- 28880177
TI  - Hashing with Angular Reconstructive Embeddings.
AB  - Large-scale search methods are increasingly critical for many content-based
      visual analysis applications, among which hashing-based approximate nearest
      neighbor search techniques have attracted broad interests due to their high
      efficiency in storage and retrieval. However, existing hashing works are commonly
      designed for measuring data similarity by the Euclidean distances. In this paper,
      we focus on the problem of learning compact binary codes using the cosine
      similarity. Specifically, we proposed novel angular reconstructive embeddings
      (ARE) method, which aims at learning binary codes by minimizing the
      reconstruction error between the cosine similarities computed by original
      features and the resulting binary embeddings. Furthermore, we devise two
      efficient algorithms for optimizing our ARE in continuous and discrete manners,
      respectively. We extensively evaluate the proposed ARE on several large-scale
      image benchmarks. The results demonstrate that ARE outperforms several state-of
      the-art methods.

PMID- 28880179
TI  - Bridging from Goals to Tasks with Design Study Analysis Reports.
AB  - Visualization researchers and practitioners engaged in generating or evaluating
      designs are faced with the difficult problem of transforming the questions asked
      and actions taken by target users from domain-specific language and context into
      more abstract forms. Existing abstract task classifications aim to provide
      support for this endeavour by providing a carefully delineated suite of actions.
      Our experience is that this bottom-up approach is part of the challenge: low
      level actions are difficult to interpret without a higher-level context of
      analysis goals and the analysis process. To bridge this gap, we propose a
      framework based on analysis reports derived from open-coding 20 design study
      papers published at IEEE InfoVis 2009-2015, to build on the previous work of
      abstractions that collectively encompass a broad variety of domains. The
      framework is organized in two axes illustrated by nine analysis goals. It helps
      situate the analysis goals by placing each goal under axes of specificity
      (Explore, Describe, Explain, Confirm) and number of data populations (Single,
      Multiple). The single-population types are Discover Observation, Describe
      Observation, Identify Main Cause, and Collect Evidence. The multiple-population
      types are Compare Entities, Explain Differences, and Evaluate Hypothesis. Each
      analysis goal is scoped by an input and an output and is characterized by
      analysis steps reported in the design study papers. We provide examples of how we
      and others have used the framework in a top-down approach to abstracting domain
      problems: visualization designers or researchers first identify the analysis
      goals of each unit of analysis in an analysis stream, and then encode the
      individual steps using existing task classifications with the context of the
      goal, the level of specificity, and the number of populations involved in the
      analysis.

PMID- 28880180
TI  - ConceptVector: Text Visual Analytics via Interactive Lexicon Building Using Word
      Embedding.
AB  - Central to many text analysis methods is the notion of a concept: a set of
      semantically related keywords characterizing a specific object, phenomenon, or
      theme. Advances in word embedding allow building a concept from a small set of
      seed terms. However, naive application of such techniques may result in false
      positive errors because of the polysemy of natural language. To mitigate this
      problem, we present a visual analytics system called ConceptVector that guides a
      user in building such concepts and then using them to analyze documents. Document
      analysis case studies with real-world datasets demonstrate the fine-grained
      analysis provided by ConceptVector. To support the elaborate modeling of
      concepts, we introduce a bipolar concept model and support for specifying
      irrelevant words. We validate the interactive lexicon building interface by a
      user study and expert reviews. Quantitative evaluation shows that the bipolar
      lexicon generated with our methods is comparable to human-generated ones.

PMID- 28880181
TI  - EVA: Visual Analytics to Identify Fraudulent Events.
AB  - Financial institutions are interested in ensuring security and quality for their
      customers. Banks, for instance, need to identify and stop harmful transactions in
      a timely manner. In order to detect fraudulent operations, data mining techniques
      and customer profile analysis are commonly used. However, these approaches are
      not supported by Visual Analytics techniques yet. Visual Analytics techniques
      have potential to considerably enhance the knowledge discovery process and
      increase the detection and prediction accuracy of financial fraud detection
      systems. Thus, we propose EVA, a Visual Analytics approach for supporting fraud
      investigation, fine-tuning fraud detection algorithms, and thus, reducing false
      positive alarms.

PMID- 28880182
TI  - Pondering the Concept of Abstraction in (Illustrative) Visualization.
AB  - We explore the concept of abstraction as it is used in visualization, with the
      ultimate goal of understanding and formally defining it. Researchers so far have
      used the concept of abstraction largely by intuition without a precise meaning.
      This lack of specificity left questions on the characteristics of abstraction,
      its variants, its control, or its ultimate potential for visualization and, in
      particular, illustrative visualization mostly unanswered. In this paper we thus
      provide a first formalization of the abstraction concept and discuss how this
      formalization affects the application of abstraction in a variety of
      visualization scenarios. Based on this discussion, we derive a number of open
      questions still waiting to be answered, thus formulating a research agenda for
      the use of abstraction for the visual representation and exploration of data.
      This paper, therefore, is intended to provide a contribution to the discussion of
      the theoretical foundations of our field, rather than attempting to provide a
      completed and final theory.

PMID- 28880183
TI  - Gaussian Process Autoregression for Simultaneous Proportional Multi-Modal
      Prosthetic Control With Natural Hand Kinematics.
AB  - Matching the dexterity, versatility, and robustness of the human hand is still an
      unachieved goal in bionics, robotics, and neural engineering. A major limitation
      for hand prosthetics lies in the challenges of reliably decoding user intention
      from muscle signals when controlling complex robotic hands. Most of the
      commercially available prosthetic hands use muscle-related signals to decode a
      finite number of predefined motions and some offer proportional control of
      open/close movements of the whole hand. Here, in contrast, we aim to offer users
      flexible control of individual joints of their artificial hand. We propose a
      novel framework for decoding neural information that enables a user to
      independently control 11 joints of the hand in a continuous manner-much like we
      control our natural hands. Toward this end, we instructed six able-bodied
      subjects to perform everyday object manipulation tasks combining both dynamic,
      free movements (e.g., grasping) and isometric force tasks (e.g., squeezing). We
      recorded the electromyographic and mechanomyographic activities of five extrinsic
      muscles of the hand in the forearm, while simultaneously monitoring 11 joints of
      hand and fingers using a sensorized data glove that tracked the joints of the
      hand. Instead of learning just a direct mapping from current muscle activity to
      intended hand movement, we formulated a novel autoregressive approach that
      combines the context of previous hand movements with instantaneous muscle
      activity to predict future hand movements. Specifically, we evaluated a linear
      vector autoregressive moving average model with exogenous inputs and a novel
      Gaussian process ( ) autoregressive framework to learn the continuous mapping
      from hand joint dynamics and muscle activity to decode intended hand movement.
      Our approach achieves high levels of performance (RMSE of 8 degrees /s and ).
      Crucially, we use a small set of sensors that allows us to control a larger set
      of independently actuated degrees of freedom of a hand. This novel undersensored
      control is enabled through the combination of nonlinear autoregressive continuous
      mapping between muscle activity and joint angles. The system evaluates the muscle
      signals in the context of previous natural hand movements. This enables us to
      resolve ambiguities in situations, where muscle signals alone cannot determine
      the correct action as we evaluate the muscle signals in their context of natural
      hand movements. autoregression is a particularly powerful approach which makes
      not only a prediction based on the context but also represents the associated
      uncertainty of its predictions, thus enabling the novel notion of risk-based
      control in neuroprosthetics. Our results suggest that autoregressive approaches
      with exogenous inputs lend themselves for natural, intuitive, and continuous
      control in neurotechnology, with the particular focus on prosthetic restoration
      of natural limb function, where high dexterity is required for complex movements.

PMID- 28880184
TI  - Seizure Classification From EEG Signals Using Transfer Learning, Semi-Supervised
      Learning and TSK Fuzzy System.
AB  - Recognition of epileptic seizures from offline EEG signals is very important in
      clinical diagnosis of epilepsy. Compared with manual labeling of EEG signals by
      doctors, machine learning approaches can be faster and more consistent. However,
      the classification accuracy is usually not satisfactory for two main reasons: the
      distributions of the data used for training and testing may be different, and the
      amount of training data may not be enough. In addition, most machine learning
      approaches generate black-box models that are difficult to interpret. In this
      paper, we integrate transductive transfer learning, semi-supervised learning and
      TSK fuzzy system to tackle these three problems. More specifically, we use
      transfer learning to reduce the discrepancy in data distribution between the
      training and testing data, employ semi-supervised learning to use the unlabeled
      testing data to remedy the shortage of training data, and adopt TSK fuzzy system
      to increase model interpretability. Two learning algorithms are proposed to train
      the system. Our experimental results show that the proposed approaches can
      achieve better performance than many state-of-the-art seizure classification
      algorithms.

PMID- 28880185
TI  - 3-D Object Recognition of a Robotic Navigation Aid for the Visually Impaired.
AB  - This paper presents a 3-D object recognition method and its implementation on a
      robotic navigation aid to allow real-time detection of indoor structural objects
      for the navigation of a blind person. The method segments a point cloud into
      numerous planar patches and extracts their inter-plane relationships (IPRs).Based
      on the existing IPRs of the object models, the method defines six high level
      features (HLFs) and determines the HLFs for each patch. A Gaussian-mixture-model
      based plane classifier is then devised to classify each planar patch into one
      belonging to a particular object model. Finally, a recursive plane clustering
      procedure is used to cluster the classified planes into the model objects. As the
      proposed method uses geometric context to detect an object, it is robust to the
      object's visual appearance change. As a result, it is ideal for detecting
      structural objects (e.g., stairways, doorways, and so on). In addition, it has
      high scalability and parallelism. The method is also capable of detecting some
      indoor non-structural objects. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed
      method has a high success rate in object recognition.

PMID- 28880186
TI  - Cooperative Raman Spectroscopy for Real-Time In Vivo Nano-Biosensing.
AB  - In the last few decades, the development of miniature biological sensors that can
      detect and measure different phenomena at the nanoscale has led to transformative
      disease diagnosis and treatment techniques. Among others, biofunctional Raman
      nanoparticles have been utilized in vitro and in vivo for multiplexed diagnosis
      and detection of different biological agents. However, existing solutions require
      the use of bulky lasers to excite the nanoparticles and similarly bulky and
      expensive spectrometers to measure the scattered Raman signals, which limit the
      practicality and applications of this nano-biosensing technique. In addition, due
      to the high path loss of the intra-body environment, the received signals are
      usually very weak, which hampers the accuracy of the measurements. In this paper,
      the concept of cooperative Raman spectrum reconstruction for real-time in vivo
      nano-biosensing is presented for the first time. The fundamental idea is to
      replace the single excitation and measurement points (i.e., the laser and the
      spectrometer, respectively) by a network of interconnected nano-devices that can
      simultaneously excite and measure nano-biosensing particles. More specifically,
      in the proposed system, a large number of nanosensors jointly and distributively
      collect the Raman response of nano-biofunctional nanoparticles (NBPs) travelling
      through the blood vessels. This paper presents a detailed description of the
      sensing system and, more importantly, proves its feasibility, by utilizing the
      accurate models of optical signal propagation in intra-body environment and low
      complexity estimation algorithms. The numerical results show that with a certain
      density of NBPs, the reconstructed Raman spectrum can be recovered and utilized
      to accurately extract the targeting intra-body information.

PMID- 28880188
TI  - A Review of Safety and Hazards Associated With the Artificial Pancreas.
AB  - The artificial pancreas (AP) is a closed-loop device with the potential to reduce
      the complications associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus by maintaining
      euglycemia in patients. The AP encompasses an algorithm that determines the
      amount of insulin (and other hormones) to be administered to the patient via a
      continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pump using information provided by a
      continuous glucose monitor and other sensors. As the AP approaches
      commercialization, special attention must be given to safety within all the
      individual components, including physiological changes in the patient, as well as
      safety issues that can arise when these components are combined into a single
      system. Therefore, we analyzed the specific hazards applicable to the AP with the
      aim of exposing areas of safety that are yet to be addressed.

PMID- 28880187
TI  - Integrating Imaging Genomic Data in the Quest for Biomarkers of Schizophrenia
      Disease.
AB  - It's increasingly important but difficult to determine potential biomarkers of
      schizophrenia (SCZ) disease, owing to the complex pathophysiology of this
      disease. In this study, a network-fusion based framework was proposed to identify
      genetic biomarkers of the SCZ disease. A three-step feature selection was applied
      to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), DNA methylation, and functional
      magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to select important features, which were
      then used to construct two gene networks in different states for the SNPs and DNA
      methylation data, respectively. Two health networks (one is for SNP data and the
      other is for DNA methylation data) were combined into one health network from
      which health minimum spanning trees (MSTs) were extracted. Two disease networks
      also followed the same procedures. Those genes with significant changes were
      determined as SCZ biomarkers by comparing MSTs in two different states and they
      were finally validated from five aspects. The effectiveness of the proposed
      discovery framework was also demonstrated by comparing with other network-based
      discovery methods. In summary, our approach provides a general framework for
      discovering gene biomarkers of the complex diseases by integrating imaging
      genomic data, which can be applied to the diagnosis of the complex diseases in
      the future.

PMID- 28880190
TI  - Learning Semantic-Aligned Action Representation.
AB  - A fundamental bottleneck for achieving highly discriminative action
      representation is that local motion/appearance features are usually not semantic
      aligned. Namely, a local feature, such as a motion vector or motion trajectory,
      does not possess any attribute that indicates which moving body part or operated
      object it is associated with. This mostly leads to global feature
      pooling/representation learning methods that are often too coarse. Inspired by
      the recent success of end-to-end (pixel-to-pixel) deep convolutional neural
      networks (DCNNs), in this paper, we first propose a DCNN architecture, which maps
      a human centric image region onto human body part response maps. Based on these
      response maps, we propose a second DCNN, which achieves semantic-aligned feature
      representation learning. Prior knowledge that only a few parts are responsible
      for a certain action is also utilized by introducing a group (part) sparseness
      prior during feature learning. The learned semantic-aligned feature not only
      boosts the discriminative capability of action representation, but also possesses
      the good nature of robustness to pose variations and occlusions. Finally, an
      iterative mining method is employed for learning discriminative action primitive
      detectors. Extensive experiments on action recognition benchmarks demonstrate a
      superior recognition performance of the proposed framework.

PMID- 28880189
TI  - Event-Triggered State Estimation for Delayed Stochastic Memristive Neural
      Networks With Missing Measurements: The Discrete Time Case.
AB  - In this paper, the event-triggered state estimation problem is investigated for a
      class of discrete-time stochastic memristive neural networks (DSMNNs) with time
      varying delays and missing measurements. The DSMNN is subject to both the
      additive deterministic disturbances and the multiplicative stochastic noises. The
      missing measurements are governed by a sequence of random variables obeying the
      Bernoulli distribution. For the purpose of energy saving, an event-triggered
      communication scheme is used for DSMNNs to determine whether the measurement
      output is transmitted to the estimator or not. The problem addressed is to design
      an event-triggered estimator such that the dynamics of the estimation error is
      exponentially mean-square stable and the prespecified disturbance rejection
      attenuation level is also guaranteed. By utilizing a Lyapunov-Krasovskii
      functional and stochastic analysis techniques, sufficient conditions are derived
      to guarantee the existence of the desired estimator, and then, the estimator
      gains are characterized in terms of the solution to certain matrix inequalities.
      Finally, a numerical example is used to demonstrate the usefulness of the
      proposed event-triggered state estimation scheme.

PMID- 28880191
TI  - Exploiting Spatio-Temporal Structure With Recurrent Winner-Take-All Networks.
AB  - We propose a convolutional recurrent neural network (ConvRNNs), with winner-take
      all (WTA) dropout for high-dimensional unsupervised feature learning in
      multidimensional time series. We apply the proposed method for object recognition
      using temporal context in videos and obtain better results than comparable
      methods in the literature, including the deep predictive coding networks (DPCNs)
      previously proposed by Chalasani and Principe. Our contributions can be
      summarized as a scalable reinterpretation of the DPCNs trained end-to-end with
      backpropagation through time, an extension of the previously proposed WTA
      autoencoders to sequences in time, and a new technique for initializing and
      regularizing ConvRNNs.

PMID- 28880192
TI  - Global Exponential Stability of Impulsive Fuzzy High-Order BAM Neural Networks
      With Continuously Distributed Delays.
AB  - This paper investigates the stability of equilibrium point and periodic solution
      for impulsive fuzzy high-order bidirectional associative memory neural networks
      with continuously distributed delays. By applying the inequality analysis
      technique, -matrix, and Banach contraction mapping principle and constructing
      some suitable Lyapunov functionals, some sufficient conditions for the uniqueness
      and global exponential stability of equilibrium point and global exponential
      stability of periodic solutions are established. In addition, three examples with
      numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and
      effectiveness of the theoretical results.

PMID- 28880193
TI  - Beyond Pairwise Matching: Person Reidentification via High-Order Relevance
      Learning.
AB  - Person reidentification has attracted extensive research efforts in recent years.
      It is challenging due to the varied visual appearance from illumination, view
      angle, background, and possible occlusions, leading to the difficulties when
      measuring the relevance, i.e., similarities, between probe and gallery images.
      Existing methods mainly focus on pairwise distance metric learning for person
      reidentification. In practice, pairwise image matching may limit the data for
      comparison (just the probe and one gallery subject) and yet lead to suboptimal
      results. The correlation among gallery data can be also helpful for the person
      reidentification task. In this paper, we propose to investigate the high-order
      correlation among the probe and gallery data, not the pairwise matching, to
      jointly learn the relevance of gallery data to the probe. Recalling recent
      progresses on feature representation in person reidentification, it is difficult
      to select the best feature and each type of feature can benefit person
      description from different aspects. Under such circumstances, we propose a
      multihypergraph joint learning algorithm to learn the relevance in corporation
      with multiple features of the imaging data. More specifically, one hypergraph is
      constructed using one type of feature and multiple hypergraphs can be generated
      accordingly. Then, the learning process is conducted on the multihypergraph
      structure, and the identity of a probe is determined by its relevance to each
      gallery data. The merit of the proposed scheme is twofold. First, different from
      pairwise image matching, the proposed method jointly explores the relationships
      among different images. Second, multimodal data, i.e., different features, can be
      formulated in the multihypergraph structure, which can convey more information in
      the learning process and can be easily extended. We note that the proposed method
      is a general framework to incorporate with any combination of features, and thus
      is flexible in practice. Experimental results and comparisons with the state-of
      the-art methods on three public benchmarking data sets demonstrate the
      superiority of the proposed method.

PMID- 28880194
TI  - Stability and Guaranteed Cost Analysis of Time-Triggered Boolean Networks.
AB  - This paper investigates stability and guaranteed cost of time-triggered Boolean
      networks (BNs) based on the semitensor product of matrices. The time triggering
      is generated by mode-dependent average dwell-time switching signals in the BNs.
      With the help of the copositive Lyapunov function, a sufficient condition is
      derived to ensure that the considered network is globally stable under a designed
      average dwell-time switching signal. Subsequently, an infinite time cost function
      is further discussed and its bound is presented according to the obtained
      stability result. Numerical examples are finally given to show the feasibility of
      the theoretical results.

PMID- 28880195
TI  - LANN-SVD: A Non-Iterative SVD-Based Learning Algorithm for One-Layer Neural
      Networks.
AB  - In the scope of data analytics, the volume of a data set can be defined as a
      product of instance size and dimensionality of the data. In many real problems,
      data sets are mainly large only on one of these aspects. Machine learning methods
      proposed in the literature are able to efficiently learn in only one of these two
      situations, when the number of variables is much greater than instances or vice
      versa. However, there is no proposal allowing to efficiently handle either
      circumstances in a large-scale scenario. In this brief, we present an approach to
      integrally address both situations, large dimensionality or large instance size,
      by using a singular value decomposition (SVD) within a learning algorithm for one
      layer feedforward neural network. As a result, a noniterative solution is
      obtained, where the weights can be calculated in a closed-form manner, thereby
      avoiding low convergence rate and also hyperparameter tuning. The proposed
      learning method, LANN-SVD in short, presents a good computational efficiency for
      large-scale data analytic. Comprehensive comparisons were conducted to assess
      LANN-SVD against other state-of-the-art algorithms. The results of this brief
      exhibited the superior efficiency of the proposed method in any circumstance.

PMID- 28880196
TI  - Estimation of Pulse Transit Time From Radial Pressure Waveform Alone by
      Artificial Neural Network.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To validate the feasibility of the estimation of pulse transit time
      (PTT) by artificial neural network (ANN) from radial pressure waveform alone.
      METHODS: A cascade ANN with ten-fold cross validation was applied to invasively
      and simultaneously recorded aortic and radial pressure waveforms during rest and
      nitroglycerin infusion () for the estimation of mean and beat-to-beat PTT. The
      results of the ANN models were compared to a multiple linear regression (LR)
      model when the features of radial arterial pressure waveform in time and
      frequency domains were used as the predictors of the models. RESULTS: For the
      estimation of mean PTT and beat-to-beat PTT by ANN ( ), the correlation
      coefficient between the and the measured PTT () (mean: ; beat-to-beat: ) is
      higher than that between the PTT estimated by LR ( ) and (mean: ; beat-to-beat:
      ). The standard deviation (SD) of the difference between the and ( ; beat-to
      beat: ) is significantly less than that between the and (; beat-to-beat: 10 ms),
      but no significant difference exists between their mean ( ). The lack of
      frequency features of radial pressure waveform caused obvious reduction in the
      correlation coefficient and SD of the difference between the and . The
      performance of the ANN was improved by increasing the sample number but not by
      increasing the neuron number. CONCLUSION: ANN is a potential method of PTT
      estimation from a single pressure measurement at radial artery.

PMID- 28880197
TI  - Short Course of Postoperative Hepatitis B Immunoglobulin Plus Antivirals Prevents
      Reinfection of Liver Transplant Recipients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) has been an integral component of
      prophylaxis against hepatitis B virus (HBV) recurrence in liver transplantation
      (LT) recipients, but HBIG is costly and inconvenient to administer, prompting
      consideration of alternative regimens. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort, we
      report on the success of antiviral therapy combined with a short course (in
      hospital only) HBIG in liver transplant recipients with HBV DNA less than 100
      IU/mL pre-LT. RESULTS: A total of 42 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)
      positive, human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis D virus-negative patients
      with pretransplant HBV DNA undetectable to 100 IU/mL who received HBIG 5000 IU in
      anhepatic phase and daily for 5 days together with nucleos(t)ide analogues
      indefinitely yielded 1- and 3-year cumulative incidences of recurrence, defined
      by positive serum HBsAg, of 2.9% (upper 95% confidence interval, 19%). One
      patient had HBV viremia 16 months post-LT without detectable HBsAg. Both patients
      with either HBsAg positivity or viremia had recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma
      diagnosed within a month of detection. Post-LT survival was 98% and 94% at 1 and
      5 years, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a very short course of HBIG
      combined with long-term antiviral therapy is highly effective in preventing HBV
      recurrence and should be the preferred strategy for LT recipients with
      undetectable or low-level viremia at time of LT.

PMID- 28880198
TI  - Aptamer-Based Single-Step Assay by the Fluorescence Enhancement on Electroless
      Plated Nano Au Substrate.
AB  - A new single-step aptamer-based surface-enhanced fluorescent optical sensor is
      built, by combining an aptamer-target interaction for target recognition and a
      fluorophore interaction for signal enhancement. The developed aptasensor is
      simple, sensitive, specific and stable for the detection of thrombin. A new
      nanometallic Au structure in the range of 100 nm was constructed through
      effective electroless plating method on a Cu thin film. Cu+ ions act as
      sacrificial seeds for the reduction of Au2+/3+ ions to form Au nanolawns. In
      order to utilize the structure for a fluorescence-based sensor, aptamer
      conjugated with Cy3 was immobilized on the nanogold substrate through
      electrostatic attraction. The Au substrate was coated with chitosan (molecular
      weight 1000 Da). Thrombin binding aptamer (TBA) was applied as a model system
      demonstrating the aptamer-based fluorescence assay on nanogold substrates. Thrice
      enhanced fluorescence emission was achieved with Cy3-conjugated TBA stably
      immobilized on the chitosan-coated Au substrate. The intensity change was
      proportional to the concentration of thrombin from 10 MUM to 10 pM, whereas the
      intensity change was ignorable for other proteins such as human serum albumin
      (HSA). Aptamer-based assay benefited from simple immobilization of receptors and
      Au nanostructure contributed in building an effective surface
      enhancing/positively charged substrate was proved. Such an aptasensor holding
      high utilities for point-of-care devices by incorporating simplicity, sensitivity
      and selectivity in detection, low-cost for test, small sample volumes has been
      developed.

PMID- 28880199
TI  - The Role of Focal Adhesion Kinase in Keratinocyte Fibrogenic Gene Expression.
AB  - Abnormal skin scarring causes functional impairment, psychological stress, and
      high socioeconomic cost. Evidence shows that altered mechanotransduction pathways
      have been linked to both inflammation and fibrosis, and that focal adhesion
      kinase (FAK) is a key mediator of these processes. We investigated the importance
      of keratinocyte FAK at the single cell level in key fibrogenic pathways critical
      for scar formation. Keratinocytes were isolated from wildtype and keratinocyte
      specific FAK-deleted mice, cultured, and sorted into single cells. Keratinocytes
      were evaluated using a microfluidic-based platform for high-resolution
      transcriptional analysis. Partitive clustering, gene enrichment analysis, and
      network modeling were applied to characterize the significance of FAK on
      regulating keratinocyte subpopulations and fibrogenic pathways important for scar
      formation. Considerable transcriptional heterogeneity was observed within the
      keratinocyte populations. FAK-deleted keratinocytes demonstrated increased
      expression of genes integral to mechanotransduction and extracellular matrix
      production, including Igtbl, Mmpla, and Col4a1. Transcriptional activities upon
      FAK deletion were not identical across all single keratinocytes, resulting in
      higher frequency of a minor subpopulation characterized by a matrix-remodeling
      profile compared to wildtype keratinocyte population. The importance of
      keratinocyte FAK signaling gene expression was revealed. A minor subpopulation of
      keratinocytes characterized by a matrix-modulating profile may be a keratinocyte
      subset important for mechanotransduction and scar formation.

PMID- 28880201
TI  - Decrease in Healthcare Utilization and Costs for Opioid Users Following
      Residential Integrated Treatment for Co-Occurring Disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid use results in higher healthcare utilization and costs,
      particularly among those with co-occurring mental health disorders. Presumably,
      effective treatment would result in a reduction in healthcare utilization and
      costs. To date, research has not examined this question. As such, the purpose of
      this study was to estimate and compare pre- and post-treatment healthcare
      utilization and costs for individuals receiving residential integrated treatment
      for co-occurring mental health and opioid use disorders. METHODS: A single-group,
      repeated measures design was used to examine changes in pre- and post-treatment
      healthcare utilization and costs among a sample of individuals with co-occurring
      mental health and opioid use disorders who received residential, integrated
      treatment. RESULTS: Significant reductions in emergency rooms visits, inpatient
      admissions, and resulting costs were observed in the six months following
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Residential, integrated treatment of co-occurring mental
      health and opioid use disorders can significantly decrease both utilization and
      cost of healthcare among opioid users with co-occurring mental health disorders.

PMID- 28880200
TI  - The Endocannabinoid System and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Insights from Animal
      Models.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) defines a group of neurodevelopmental disorders
      whose symptoms include impaired communication and social interaction with
      restricted or repetitive motor movements, frequently associated with general
      cognitive deficits. Although it is among the most severe chronic childhood
      disorders in terms of prevalence, morbidity, and impact to the society, no
      effective treatment for ASD is yet available, possibly because its
      neurobiological basis is not clearly understood hence specific drugs have not yet
      been developed. The endocannabinoid (EC) system represents a major
      neuromodulatory system involved in the regulation of emotional responses,
      behavioral reactivity to context, and social interaction. Furthermore, the EC
      system is also affected in conditions often present in subsets of patients
      diagnosed with ASD, such as seizures, anxiety, intellectual disabilities, and
      sleep pattern disturbances. Despite the indirect evidence suggestive of an
      involvement of the EC system in ASD, only a few studies have specifically
      addressed the role of the EC system in the context of ASD. This review describes
      the available data on the investigation of the presence of alterations of the EC
      system as well as the effects of its pharmacological manipulations in animal
      models of ASD-like behaviors.

PMID- 28880202
TI  - Research on the Optimum Water Content of Detecting Soil Nitrogen Using Near
      Infrared Sensor.
AB  - Nitrogen is one of the important indexes to evaluate the physiological and
      biochemical properties of soil. The level of soil nitrogen content influences the
      nutrient levels of crops directly. The near infrared sensor can be used to detect
      the soil nitrogen content rapidly, nondestructively, and conveniently. In order
      to investigate the effect of the different soil water content on soil nitrogen
      detection by near infrared sensor, the soil samples were dealt with different
      drying times and the corresponding water content was measured. The drying time
      was set from 1 h to 8 h, and every 1 h 90 samples (each nitrogen concentration of
      10 samples) were detected. The spectral information of samples was obtained by
      near infrared sensor, meanwhile, the soil water content was calculated every 1 h.
      The prediction model of soil nitrogen content was established by two linear
      modeling methods, including partial least squares (PLS) and uninformative
      variable elimination (UVE). The experiment shows that the soil has the highest
      detection accuracy when the drying time is 3 h and the corresponding soil water
      content is 1.03%. The correlation coefficients of the calibration set are 0.9721
      and 0.9656, and the correlation coefficients of the prediction set are 0.9712 and
      0.9682, respectively. The prediction accuracy of both models is high, while the
      prediction effect of PLS model is better and more stable. The results indicate
      that the soil water content at 1.03% has the minimum influence on the detection
      of soil nitrogen content using a near infrared sensor while the detection
      accuracy is the highest and the time cost is the lowest, which is of great
      significance to develop a portable apparatus detecting nitrogen in the field
      accurately and rapidly.

PMID- 28880203
TI  - Temperature Dependence of Faraday Effect-Induced Bias Error in a Fiber Optic
      Gyroscope.
AB  - Improving the performance of interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) in
      harsh environments, such as magnetic field and temperature field variation, is
      necessary for its practical applications. This paper presents an investigation of
      Faraday effect-induced bias error of IFOG under varying temperature. Jones matrix
      method is utilized to formulize the temperature dependence of Faraday effect
      induced bias error. Theoretical results show that the Faraday effect-induced bias
      error changes with the temperature in the non-skeleton polarization maintaining
      (PM) fiber coil. This phenomenon is caused by the temperature dependence of
      linear birefringence and Verdet constant of PM fiber. Particularly, Faraday
      effect-induced bias errors of two polarizations always have opposite signs that
      can be compensated optically regardless of the changes of the temperature. Two
      experiments with a 1000 m non-skeleton PM fiber coil are performed, and the
      experimental results support these theoretical predictions. This study is
      promising for improving the bias stability of IFOG.

PMID- 28880204
TI  - Is the Effect of Body Mass Index on Hypertension Modified by the Elevation? A
      Cross-Sectional Study of Rural Areas in Japan.
AB  - Obesity is an established independent risk factor for developing hypertension. A
      recent study showed that the effect of obesity on hypertension varies by the
      elevation of the residence area. Thus, we hypothesized that the interaction
      effect of body mass index (BMI) and elevation has a significant association with
      hypertension. The first aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine whether
      BMI was associated with hypertension, after adjustment for covariates. The second
      aim was to examine whether the interaction term between BMI and elevation was
      associated with hypertension, after adjustment for covariates. Data were
      collected from a cross-sectional study conducted in a rural area of Japan in
      2016. After excluding participants with missing data (n = 2), data from 729
      participants were analyzed. We found that BMI was significantly associated with
      hypertension. In addition, the interaction term between BMI and elevation had a
      significant association with hypertension. The findings of the present study
      support the recent evidence that high BMI is an independent risk factor for
      hypertension, but its effect varies by elevation. Thus, context-specific
      interventions could be an effective approach to prevent hypertension in this
      area.

PMID- 28880205
TI  - Poor Hand Hygiene Procedure Compliance among Polish Medical Students and
      Physicians-The Result of an Ineffective Education Basis or the Impact of
      Organizational Culture?
AB  - Objective: The objective of the study was to examine the knowledge of Polish
      physicians and medical students about the role of hand hygiene (HH) in healthcare
      associated infection (HAI) prevention. Study design: A survey was conducted using
      an author-prepared questionnaire, which was filled out on the first day of
      hospital work (or internship) by newly admitted physicians who had worked in
      other hospitals and students of different medical schools in Poland. Methods: 100
      respondents participated in the study: 28 students, 18 medical interns and 54
      physicians. Results: As many as 3/4 of physicians and students did not use the HH
      techniques correctly. The respondents declared that they perform HH in the
      following situations: 74.4% of respondents before an aseptic task; 60.8% before
      patient contact; 57.0% after patient contact; 11.5% after body fluid exposure
      risk, and only two respondents (1.1%) after contact with patient surroundings.
      64% of respondents declared that their supervisor checked their knowledge of the
      HH technique when they were touching patients, but their supervisors checked the
      five instances for HH only in the case of 27 respondents (27%). Students
      experienced any control of HH in the workplace less often. Interns and physicians
      mentioned that the most important preventive action in HAI is HH, but for
      students it is the use of gloves. Conclusions: The level of knowledge and skills
      of physicians and students in the field of HH is insufficient. Deficiencies in
      skills and knowledge of HH were identified as early as at the level of the first
      internship.

PMID- 28880207
TI  - Rapid Evaporation of Water on Graphene/Graphene-Oxide: A Molecular Dynamics
      Study.
AB  - To reveal the mechanism of energy storage in the water/graphene system and
      water/grapheme-oxide system, the processes of rapid evaporation of water
      molecules on the sheets of graphene and graphene-oxide are investigated by
      molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that both the water/graphene and
      water/grapheme-oxide systems can store more energy than the pure water system
      during evaporation. The hydroxyl groups on the surface of graphene-oxide are able
      to reduce the attractive interactions between water molecules and the sheet of
      graphene-oxide. Also, the radial distribution function of the oxygen atom
      indicates that the hydroxyl groups affect the arrangement of water molecules at
      the water/graphene-oxide interface. Therefore, the capacity of thermal energy
      storage of the water/graphene-oxide system is lower than that of the
      water/graphene system, because of less desorption energy at the water/graphene
      oxide interface. Also, the evaporation rate of water molecules on the graphene
      oxide sheet is slower than that on the graphene sheet. The Leidenfrost phenomenon
      can be observed during the evaporation process in the water/grapheme-oxide
      system.

PMID- 28880208
TI  - Dual Role of MiR-21-Mediated Signaling in HUVECs and Rat Surgical Flap under
      Normoxia and Hypoxia Condition.
AB  - Restoring sufficient vascularity of the ischemia/hypoxia flap is always the
      critical issue in flap surgeries. In a previous studies microRNA-21 (miR-21)
      expression was upregulated after rat skin flap surgery. MiR-21 has been reported
      to be induced by hypoxia and the function of miR-21 involves in the process of
      angiogenesis. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms in miR-21-mediated
      pathways are still unclear. These issues were investigated via in vitro and in
      vivo experiments in this study. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells
      (HUVEC), the expression of hsa-miR-21-5p was induced after hypoxic culture and
      the induction of hsa-miR-21-5p was suppressed after sequential normoxic culture.
      Moreover, transfection of hsa-miR-21-5p mimic enhanced tube formation capacity in
      normoxia, but attenuated it in hypoxia. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis
      suggested that SMAD7 was a predicted target of hsa-miR-21-5p. Our results
      demonstrated the effect of hsa-miR-21-5p was different on SMAD7 expression in
      normoxia and hypoxia. In rat skin flaps, blockage of miR-21-5p significantly
      increased angiogenesis via analysis of color laser Doppler imaging and repressed
      SMAD7 expression in ischemic skin tissue. Our study showed the opposite effect of
      miR-21-5p mediating angiogenesis in normoxia and hypoxia, providing important
      implications regarding the design of novel miRNA-based therapeutic strategies in
      flap surgeries.

PMID- 28880209
TI  - Variations in Obesity Rates between US Counties: Impacts of Activity Access, Food
      Environments, and Settlement Patterns.
AB  - There is much ongoing research about the effect of the urban environment as
      compared with individual behaviour on growing obesity levels, including food
      environment, settlement patterns (e.g., sprawl, walkability, commuting patterns),
      and activity access. This paper considers obesity variations between US counties,
      and delineates the main dimensions of geographic variation in obesity between
      counties: by urban-rural status, by region, by area poverty status, and by
      majority ethnic group. Available measures of activity access, food environment,
      and settlement patterns are then assessed in terms of how far they can account
      for geographic variation. A county level regression analysis uses a Bayesian
      methodology that controls for spatial correlation in unmeasured area risk
      factors. It is found that environmental measures do play a significant role in
      explaining geographic contrasts in obesity.

PMID- 28880210
TI  - Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study for Linezolid and Two Novel Antibacterial
      Oxazolidinone Derivatives in Rabbits: Can Differences in the Pharmacokinetic
      Properties Explain the Discrepancies between Their In Vivo and In Vitro
      Antibacterial Activities?
AB  - This is a comparative pharmacokinetics study of linezolid (Lzd), and two novel
      oxazolidinone antibacterial agents-PH027 and PH051-in rabbits to determine if the
      discrepancy between the in vitro and in vivo activities of the novel compounds is
      due to pharmacokinetic factors. The pharmacokinetics after IV and oral
      administration, plasma protein binding and tissue distribution for the three
      compounds were compared. The elimination half-lives were 52.4 +/- 6.3, 68.7 +/-
      12.1 and 175 +/- 46.1 min for Lzd, PH027 and PH051, respectively. The oral
      bioavailability for Lzd, PH027 and PH051 administered as suspension were 38.7%,
      22.1% and 4.73%, which increased significantly when administered as microemulsion
      to 51.7%, 72.9% and 13.9%. The plasma protein binding were 32-34%, 37-38% and 90
      91% for Lzd, PH027 and PH051. The tissue distribution for PH027 and PH051 in all
      investigated tissues were higher than that for Lzd. It can be concluded that the
      lower bioavailability of PH027 and PH051 compared to Lzd when administered as
      suspension is the main cause of their lower in vivo activity, despite their
      comparable in vitro activity. Differences in the other pharmacokinetic
      characteristics cannot explain the lower in vivo activity. The in vivo activity
      of the novel compounds should be re-evaluated using formulations with good oral
      bioavailability.

PMID- 28880212
TI  - Topological Characterization of Carbon Graphite and Crystal Cubic Carbon
      Structures.
AB  - Graph theory is used for modeling, designing, analysis and understanding chemical
      structures or chemical networks and their properties. The molecular graph is a
      graph consisting of atoms called vertices and the chemical bond between atoms
      called edges. In this article, we study the chemical graphs of carbon graphite
      and crystal structure of cubic carbon. Moreover, we compute and give closed
      formulas of degree based additive topological indices, namely hyper-Zagreb index,
      first multiple and second multiple Zagreb indices, and first and second Zagreb
      polynomials.

PMID- 28880206
TI  - Comparative Response of Brain to Chronic Hypoxia and Hyperoxia.
AB  - Two antithetic terms, hypoxia and hyperoxia, i.e., insufficient and excess oxygen
      availability with respect to needs, are thought to trigger opposite responses in
      cells and tissues. This review aims at summarizing the molecular and cellular
      mechanisms underlying hypoxia and hyperoxia in brain and cerebral tissue, a
      context that may prove to be useful for characterizing not only several
      clinically relevant aspects, but also aspects related to the evolution of oxygen
      transport and use by the tissues. While the response to acute hypoxia/hyperoxia
      presumably recruits only a minor portion of the potentially involved cell
      machinery, focusing into chronic conditions, instead, enables to take into
      consideration a wider range of potential responses to oxygen-linked stress,
      spanning from metabolic to genic. We will examine how various brain subsystems,
      including energetic metabolism, oxygen sensing, recruitment of pro-survival
      pathways as protein kinase B (Akt), mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK),
      neurotrophins (BDNF), erythropoietin (Epo) and its receptors (EpoR), neuroglobin
      (Ngb), nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), deal with chronic hypoxia and
      hyperoxia to end-up with the final outcomes, oxidative stress and brain damage. A
      more complex than expected pattern results, which emphasizes the delicate balance
      between the severity of the stress imposed by hypoxia and hyperoxia and the
      recruitment of molecular and cellular defense patterns. While for certain
      functions the expectation that hypoxia and hyperoxia should cause opposite
      responses is actually met, for others it is not, and both emerge as dangerous
      treatments.

PMID- 28880211
TI  - Dual-Mode Electro-Optical Techniques for Biosensing Applications: A Review.
AB  - The monitoring of biomolecular interactions is a key requirement for the study of
      complex biological processes and the diagnosis of disease. Technologies that are
      capable of providing label-free, real-time insight into these interactions are of
      great value for the scientific and clinical communities. Greater understanding of
      biomolecular interactions alongside increased detection accuracy can be achieved
      using technology that can provide parallel information about multiple parameters
      of a single biomolecular process. For example, electro-optical techniques combine
      optical and electrochemical information to provide more accurate and detailed
      measurements that provide unique insights into molecular structure and function.
      Here, we present a comparison of the main methods for electro-optical biosensing,
      namely, electrochemical surface plasmon resonance (EC-SPR), electrochemical
      optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy (EC-OWLS), and the recently reported
      silicon-based electrophotonic approach. The comparison considers different
      application spaces, such as the detection of low concentrations of biomolecules,
      integration, the tailoring of light-matter interaction for the understanding of
      biomolecular processes, and 2D imaging of biointeractions on a surface.

PMID- 28880213
TI  - Comparative Gene Mapping as a Tool to Understand the Evolution of Pest Crop
      Insect Chromosomes.
AB  - The extent of the conservation of synteny and gene order in aphids has been
      previously investigated only by comparing a small subset of linkage groups
      between the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum and a few other aphid species. Here we
      compared the localization of eight A. pisum scaffolds (covering more than 5 Mb
      and 83 genes) in respect to the Drosophila melanogaster Muller elements
      identifying orthologous loci spanning all the four A. pisum chromosomes.
      Comparison of the genetic maps revealed a conserved synteny across different loci
      suggesting that the study of the fruit fly Muller elements could favour the
      identification of chromosomal markers useful for the study of chromosomal
      rearrangements in aphids. A. pisum is the first aphid species to have its genome
      sequenced and the finding that there are several chromosomal regions in synteny
      between Diptera and Hemiptera indicates that the genomic tools developed in A.
      pisum will be broadly useful not only for the study of other aphids but also for
      other insect species.

PMID- 28880215
TI  - The Effect of Flexible Pavement Mechanics on the Accuracy of Axle Load Sensors in
      Vehicle Weigh-in-Motion Systems.
AB  - Weigh-in-Motion systems are tools to prevent road pavements from the adverse
      phenomena of vehicle overloading. However, the effectiveness of these systems can
      be significantly increased by improving weighing accuracy, which is now
      insufficient for direct enforcement of overloaded vehicles. Field tests show that
      the accuracy of Weigh-in-Motion axle load sensors installed in the flexible
      (asphalt) pavements depends on pavement temperature and vehicle speeds. Although
      this is a known phenomenon, it has not been explained yet. The aim of our study
      is to fill this gap in the knowledge. The explanation of this phenomena which is
      presented in the paper is based on pavement/sensors mechanics and the application
      of the multilayer elastic half-space theory. We show that differences in the
      distribution of vertical and horizontal stresses in the pavement structure are
      the cause of vehicle weight measurement errors. These studies are important in
      terms of Weigh-in-Motion systems for direct enforcement and will help to improve
      the weighing results accuracy.

PMID- 28880214
TI  - Monitoring Autophagy Immunohistochemically and Ultrastructurally during Human
      Head and Neck Carcinogenesis. Relationship with the DNA Damage Response Pathway.
AB  - Autophagy is a catabolic process that preserves cellular homeostasis. Its exact
      role during carcinogenesis is not completely defined. Specifically in head and
      neck cancer, such information from clinical settings that comprise the whole
      spectrum of human carcinogenesis is very limited. Towards this direction, we
      examined the in situ status of the autophagy-related factors, Beclin-1,
      microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3, member B (LC3B) and sequestosome
      1/p62 (p62) in clinical material covering all histopathological stages of human
      head and neck carcinogenesis. This material is unique as each panel of lesions is
      derived from the same patient and moreover we have previously assessed it for the
      DNA damage response (DDR) activation status. Since Beclin-1, LC3B and p62 reflect
      the nucleation, elongation and degradation stages of autophagy, respectively,
      their combined immunohistochemical (IHC) expression profiles could grossly mirror
      the autophagic flux. This experimental approach was further corroborated by
      ultrastructural analysis, applying transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The
      observed Beclin-1/LC3B/p62 IHC patterns, obtained from serial sections analysis,
      along with TEM findings are suggestive of a declined authophagic activity in
      preneoplastic lesions that was restored in full blown cancers. Correlating these
      findings with DDR status in the same pathological stages are indicative of: (i)
      an antitumor function of autophagy in support to that of DDR, possibly through
      energy deprivation in preneoplastic stages, thus preventing incipient cancer
      cells from evolving; and (ii) a tumor-supporting role in the cancerous stage.

PMID- 28880216
TI  - Inhibition of NAT10 Suppresses Melanogenesis and Melanoma Growth by Attenuating
      Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor (MITF) Expression.
AB  - N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) has been considered a target for the treatment of
      human diseases such as cancer and laminopathies; however, its functional role in
      the biology of melanocytes is questionable. Using a small molecule or small
      interfering RNA targeting NAT10, we examined the effect of NAT10 inhibition on
      melanogenesis and melanoma growth in human and mouse melanoma cells. Genetic
      silencing or chemical inhibition of NAT10 resulted in diminished melanin
      synthesis through the suppression of melanogenesis-stimulating genes such as
      those encoding dopachrome tautomerase (DCT) and tyrosinase in B16F10 melanoma
      cells. In addition, NAT10 inhibition significantly increased cell cycle arrest in
      S-phase, thereby suppressing the growth and proliferation of malignant melanoma
      cells in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate the potential role of NAT10
      in melanogenesis and melanoma growth through the regulation of microphthalmia
      associated transcription factor (MITF) expression and provide a promising
      strategy for the treatment of various skin diseases (melanoma) and pigmentation
      disorders (chloasma and freckles).

PMID- 28880217
TI  - The Ameliorative Effects of a Tocotrienol-Rich Fraction on the AGE-RAGE Axis and
      Hypertension in High-Fat-Diet-Fed Rats with Metabolic Syndrome.
AB  - The clinical value of tocotrienols is increasingly appreciated because of the
      unique therapeutic effects that are not shared by tocopherols. However, their
      effect on metabolic syndrome is not well-established. This study aimed to
      investigate the effects of a tocotrienol-rich fraction (TRF) from palm oil in
      high-fat-diet-treated rats. Male, post-weaning Sprague Dawley rats were provided
      high-fat (60% kcal) diet for eight weeks followed by a TRF (60 mg/kg) treatment
      for another four weeks. Physical, metabolic, and histological changes were
      compared to those on control and high-fat diets respectively. High-fat feeding
      for eight weeks induced all hallmarks of metabolic syndrome. The TRF reversed
      systolic and diastolic hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hepatic steatosis,
      impaired antioxidant defense, and myeloperoxidase hyperactivity triggered by the
      high-fat diet. It also conferred an inhibitory effect on protein glycation to
      reduce glycated hemoglobin A1c and advanced glycation end products (AGE). This
      was accompanied by the suppression of the receptor for advanced glycation end
      product (RAGE) expression in the liver. The treatment effects on visceral
      adiposity, glycemic control, triglyceride level, as well as peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor alpha and gamma expression were negligible. To
      conclude, treatment with a TRF exhibited protective effects on the cardiovascular
      and liver health in addition to the amelioration of plasma redox imbalance and
      AGE-RAGE activation. Further investigation as a therapy for metabolic syndrome is
      therefore worthwhile.

PMID- 28880218
TI  - Development of Multiplexed Infectious Disease Lateral Flow Assays: Challenges and
      Opportunities.
AB  - Lateral flow assays (LFAs) are the mainstay of rapid point-of-care diagnostics,
      with the potential to enable early case management and transform the epidemiology
      of infectious disease. However, most LFAs only detect single biomarkers.
      Recognizing the complex nature of human disease, overlapping symptoms and states
      of co-infections, there is increasing demand for multiplexed systems that can
      detect multiple biomarkers simultaneously. Due to innate limitations in the
      design of traditional membrane-based LFAs, multiplexing is arguably limited to a
      small number of biomarkers. Here, we summarize the need for multiplexed LFA, key
      technical and operational challenges for multiplexing, inherent in the design and
      production of multiplexed LFAs, as well as emerging enabling technologies that
      may be able to address these challenges. We further identify important areas for
      research in efforts towards developing multiplexed LFAs for more impactful
      diagnosis of infectious diseases.

PMID- 28880219
TI  - Influence of Skeletal Muscle Carnosine Content on Fatigue during Repeated
      Resistance Exercise in Recreationally Active Women.
AB  - Carnosine is a naturally occurring intramuscular dipeptide that is thought to
      attenuate fatigue during high-intensity exercise. Carnosine content is influenced
      by various factors, including gender and diet. Despite research reporting that
      carnosine content is lower in women compared to men and lower in vegetarians
      compared to omnivores, no investigations have examined carnosine content in women
      based on dietary protein intake and its effect on muscle fatigue. Twenty
      recreationally active women were assigned to either a high (HI; n = 5), moderate
      (MOD; n = 10), or low (LO; n = 5) group based upon intramuscular carnosine
      content of the vastus lateralis. Each participant underwent two unilateral
      maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) of the knee extensors separated
      by an isokinetic exercise protocol consisting of five sets of 50 repeated maximal
      unilateral contractions. Magnitude-based inferences were used to analyze group
      differences. Percent decline in rate of force development and peak torque (PT)
      during the MVICs and changes in PT and mean torque during the muscle-fatiguing
      protocol were lower in HI compared to both MOD and LO. Additionally, absolute and
      relative dietary protein intake were greater in HI compared to MOD or LO. Results
      indicated that greater intramuscular carnosine content was reflective of greater
      dietary protein intake and that individuals with higher carnosine content
      displayed a greater attenuation of fatigue compared to those with lower
      carnosine.

PMID- 28880220
TI  - Real-Time Two-Dimensional Magnetic Particle Imaging for Electromagnetic
      Navigation in Targeted Drug Delivery.
AB  - Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are effective drug carriers. By using
      electromagnetic actuated systems, MNPs can be controlled noninvasively in a
      vascular network for targeted drug delivery (TDD). Although drugs can reach their
      target location through capturing schemes of MNPs by permanent magnets, drugs
      delivered to non-target regions can affect healthy tissues and cause undesirable
      side effects. Real-time monitoring of MNPs can improve the targeting efficiency
      of TDD systems. In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) real-time monitoring scheme
      has been developed for an MNP guidance system. Resovist particles 45 to 65 nm in
      diameter (5 nm core) can be monitored in real-time (update rate = 2 Hz) in 2D.
      The proposed 2D monitoring system allows dynamic tracking of MNPs during TDD and
      renders magnetic particle imaging-based navigation more feasible.

PMID- 28880221
TI  - The Macular Carotenoids Lutein and Zeaxanthin Are Related to Increased Bone
      Density in Young Healthy Adults.
AB  - Lutein (L) and zeaxanthin (Z) status can be quantified by measuring their
      concentrations both in serum and, non-invasively, in retinal tissue. This has
      resulted in a unique ability to assess their role in a number of tissues ranging
      from cardiovascular to central nervous system tissue. Recent reports using animal
      models have suggested yet another role, a developmental increase in bone mass. To
      test this, we assessed L and Z status in 63 young healthy adults. LZ status was
      determined by measuring LZ in serum (using HPLC) and retina tissue (measuring
      macular pigment optical density, MPOD, using customized heterochromatic flicker
      photometry). Bone density was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
      (DXA). Although serum LZ was generally not related to bone mass, MPOD was
      significantly related to bone density in the proximal femur and lumbar spine. In
      general, our results are consistent with carotenoids, specifically LZ, playing a
      role in optimal bone health.

PMID- 28880223
TI  - How Social Care Beneficiaries in Poland Rate Relative Harmfulness of Various
      Tobacco and Nicotine-Containing Products.
AB  - The aim of the study was to examine how social care beneficiaries rate the
      relative harmfulness of tobacco/nicotine-containing products compared to
      traditional cigarettes. This information is crucial for the development of
      effective tobacco control strategies targeting disadvantaged populations. The
      cross-sectional study covered 1817 respondents who were taking advantage of
      social aid services offered by the local social care institutions in the
      Piotrkowski district, via face-to-face interviews. The linear regression analysis
      indicated that relative to women, men consider slim cigarettes, smokeless tobacco
      and e-cigarettes to be more harmful than traditional cigarettes (p < 0.05). The
      smokers of traditional cigarettes reported menthol cigarettes to be less harmful
      than traditional cigarettes, relative to the non-smokers (p = 0.05). The current
      results demonstrate that social care beneficiaries are not aware of the fact that
      some products are less harmful than others. Education concerning tobacco/nicotine
      products should include advice on how to reduce the adverse health effects of
      smoking (e.g., avoiding inhalation of combusted products), while driving the
      awareness that no nicotine-containing products are safe.

PMID- 28880222
TI  - Western Dietary Pattern Is Associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the French
      NutriNet Cohort.
AB  - Background: Diet appears to play a key role in the pathogenesis of the irritable
      bowel syndrome (IBS). Some dietary patterns (DP) could increase the risk of
      triggering or worsening IBS symptoms. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess
      the association between a posteriori derived DP and IBS in a large French
      population, the web-based NutriNet-Sante cohort. Methods: Study population
      included participants of the NutriNet-Sante study who completed a questionnaire
      based on Rome III criteria assessing IBS. A principal component analysis (PCA)
      was performed to identify major DPs based on 29 food groups' consumption.
      Associations between DP quintiles and IBS were investigated with multivariable
      logistic regressions. Results: 44,350 participants were included, with 2423
      (5.5%) presenting IBS. Three major DP were extracted using PCA, "healthy,"
      "western," and "traditional." After adjustments on confounders, the "western" DP
      was positively associated with IBS (OR Q5 vs. Q1 = 1.38, 95% CI 1.19-1.61, p
      trend < 0.0001) and the "traditional" DP was positively associated with IBS in
      women (OR Q5 vs. Q1 = 1.29 95% CI 1.08-1.54, p trend = 0.001). Conclusions: In
      this study, a "western" DP-highly correlated with the consumption of fatty and
      sugary products and snacks-was associated with a moderate increased risk of IBS.

PMID- 28880224
TI  - Parenteral Nutrition-Associated Liver Disease: The Role of the Gut Microbiota.
AB  - Parenteral nutrition (PN) provides life-saving nutritional support in situations
      where caloric supply via the enteral route cannot cover the necessary needs of
      the organism. However, it does have serious adverse effects, including parenteral
      nutrition-associated liver disease (PNALD). The development of liver injury
      associated with PN is multifactorial, including non-specific intestine
      inflammation, compromised intestinal permeability, and barrier function
      associated with increased bacterial translocation, primary and secondary
      cholangitis, cholelithiasis, short bowel syndrome, disturbance of hepatobiliary
      circulation, lack of enteral nutrition, shortage of some nutrients (proteins,
      essential fatty acids, choline, glycine, taurine, carnitine, etc.), and toxicity
      of components within the nutrition mixture itself (glucose, phytosterols,
      manganese, aluminium, etc.). Recently, an increasing number of studies have
      provided evidence that some of these factors are directly or indirectly
      associated with microbial dysbiosis in the intestine. In this review, we focus on
      PN-induced changes in the taxonomic and functional composition of the microbiome.
      We also discuss immune cell and microbial crosstalk during parenteral nutrition,
      and the implications for the onset and progression of PNALD. Finally, we provide
      an overview of recent advances in the therapeutic utilisation of pro- and
      prebiotics for the mitigation of PN-associated liver complications.

PMID- 28880225
TI  - Silver Oxide Coatings with High Silver-Ion Elution Rates and Characterization of
      Bactericidal Activity.
AB  - This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of silver oxide films for
      use as bactericidal coatings. Synthesis parameters, dissolution/elution rate, and
      bactericidal efficacy are reported. Synthesis conditions were developed to create
      AgO, Ag2O, or mixtures of AgO and Ag2O on surfaces by reactive magnetron
      sputtering. The coatings demonstrate strong adhesion to many substrate materials
      and impede the growth of all bacterial strains tested. The coatings are effective
      in killing Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, demonstrating a clear zone
      of-inhibition against bacteria growing on solid media and the ability to rapidly
      inhibit bacterial growth in planktonic culture. Additionally, the coatings
      exhibit very high elution of silver ions under conditions that mimic dynamic
      fluid flow ranging between 0.003 and 0.07 ppm/min depending on the media
      conditions. The elution of silver ions from the AgO/Ag2O surfaces was directly
      impacted by the complexity of the elution media, with a reduction in elution rate
      when examined in complex cell culture media. Both E. coli and S. aureus were
      shown to bind ~1 ppm Ag+/mL culture. The elution of Ag+ resulted in no increases
      in mammalian cell apoptosis after 24 h exposure compared to control, but
      apoptotic cells increased to ~35% by 48 and 72 h of exposure. Taken together, the
      AgO/Ag2O coatings described are effective in eliciting antibacterial activity and
      have potential for application on a wide variety of surfaces and devices.

PMID- 28880226
TI  - Quantitative Analysis, Extraction Optimization, and Biological Evaluation of
      Cudrania tricuspidata Leaf and Fruit Extracts.
AB  - Cudrania tricuspidata Bureau (Moraceae) shows numerous pharmacological effects
      and has been used in traditional herbal remedies for inflammation, gastritis,
      tumors, and liver diseases. However, no validated analytical method for the
      standardization and optimization of the biological properties of C. tricuspidata
      preparations has been reported. We developed and validated a reverse-phase high
      performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the separation and
      quantification of active markers. Ethanolic extracts of C. tricuspidata leaves
      were prepared and evaluated for chemical profiles and biological activities. The
      80% ethanolic extract demonstrated the greatest antioxidant activity and phenolic
      content, while the 100% ethanolic extract had the greatest total flavonoid
      content and xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitory activity. The validated HPLC method
      confirmed that chlorogenic acid, rutin, and kaempferol were present in C.
      tricuspidata leaf extracts. We postulated that the antioxidant and anti
      hyperuricemic/gout effects of C. tricuspidata extract could be attributed to
      these marker compounds. Our results suggested that the flavonoid-rich fraction of
      the leaf extract may be utilized for the treatment and prevention of
      hyperuricemia-related diseases, and the validated method and marker compounds
      could be applied for the quality control of C. tricuspidata preparations.

PMID- 28880228
TI  - A Multi-Sensor Data Fusion Approach for Atrial Hypertrophy Disease Diagnosis
      Based on Characterized Support Vector Hyperspheres.
AB  - Disease diagnosis can be performed based on fusing the data acquired by multiple
      medical sensors from patients, and it is a crucial task in sensor-based e
      healthcare systems. However, it is a challenging problem that there are few
      effective diagnosis methods based on sensor data fusion for atrial hypertrophy
      disease. In this article, we propose a novel multi-sensor data fusion method for
      atrial hypertrophy diagnosis, namely, characterized support vector hyperspheres
      (CSVH). Instead of constructing a hyperplane, as a traditional support vector
      machine does, the proposed method generates "hyperspheres" to collect the
      discriminative medical information, since a hypersphere is more powerful for data
      description than a hyperplane. In detail, CSVH constructs two characterized
      hyperspheres for the classes of patient and healthy subject, respectively. The
      hypersphere for the patient class is developed in a weighted version so as to
      take the diversity of patient instances into consideration. The hypersphere for
      the class of healthy people keeps furthest away from the patient class in order
      to achieve maximum separation from the patient class. A query is labelled by
      membership functions defined based on the two hyperspheres. If the query is
      rejected by the two classes, the angle information of the query to outliers and
      overlapping-region data is investigated to provide the final decision. The
      experimental results illustrate that the proposed method achieves the highest
      diagnosis accuracy among the state-of-the-art methods.

PMID- 28880227
TI  - Providing Personalized Energy Management and Awareness Services for Energy
      Efficiency in Smart Buildings.
AB  - Considering that the largest part of end-use energy consumption worldwide is
      associated with the buildings sector, there is an inherent need for the
      conceptualization, specification, implementation, and instantiation of novel
      solutions in smart buildings, able to achieve significant reductions in energy
      consumption through the adoption of energy efficient techniques and the active
      engagement of the occupants. Towards the design of such solutions, the
      identification of the main energy consuming factors, trends, and patterns, along
      with the appropriate modeling and understanding of the occupants' behavior and
      the potential for the adoption of environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes have
      to be realized. In the current article, an innovative energy-aware information
      technology (IT) ecosystem is presented, aiming to support the design and
      development of novel personalized energy management and awareness services that
      can lead to occupants' behavioral change towards actions that can have a positive
      impact on energy efficiency. Novel information and communication technologies
      (ICT) are exploited towards this direction, related mainly to the evolution of
      the Internet of Things (IoT), data modeling, management and fusion, big data
      analytics, and personalized recommendation mechanisms. The combination of such
      technologies has resulted in an open and extensible architectural approach able
      to exploit in a homogeneous, efficient and scalable way the vast amount of
      energy, environmental, and behavioral data collected in energy efficiency
      campaigns and lead to the design of energy management and awareness services
      targeted to the occupants' lifestyles. The overall layered architectural approach
      is detailed, including design and instantiation aspects based on the selection of
      set of available technologies and tools. Initial results from the usage of the
      proposed energy aware IT ecosystem in a pilot site at the University of Murcia
      are presented along with a set of identified open issues for future research.

PMID- 28880229
TI  - Study on Topology Optimization Design, Manufacturability, and Performance
      Evaluation of Ti-6Al-4V Porous Structures Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting
      (SLM).
AB  - The combination of topology optimization (TOP) and selective laser melting (SLM)
      provides the possibility of fabricating the complex, lightweight and high
      performance geometries overcoming the traditional manufacturing "bottleneck".
      This paper evaluates the biomechanical properties of porous structures with
      porosity from 40% to 80% and unit cell size from 2 to 8 mm, which are designed by
      TOP and manufactured by SLM. During manufacturability exploration, three typical
      structures including spiral structure, arched bridge structure and structures
      with thin walls and small holes are abstracted and investigated, analyzing their
      manufacturing limits and forming reason. The property tests show that dynamic
      elastic modulus and compressive strength of porous structures decreases with
      increases of porosity (constant unit cell size) or unit cell size (constant
      porosity). Based on the Gibson-Ashby model, three failure models are proposed to
      describe their compressive behavior, and the structural parameter lambda is used
      to evaluate the stability of the porous structure. Finally, a numerical model for
      the correlation between porous structural parameters (unit cell size and
      porosity) and elastic modulus is established, which provides a theoretical
      reference for matching the elastic modulus of human bones from different age,
      gender and skeletal sites during innovative medical implant design and
      manufacturing.

PMID- 28880230
TI  - Design, Synthesis, Antimycobacterial Evaluation, and In Silico Studies of 3
      (Phenylcarbamoyl)-pyrazine-2-carboxylic Acids.
AB  - Pyrazinamide, the first-line antitubercular drug, has been regarded the basic
      component of tuberculosis treatment for over sixty years. Researchers have
      investigated its effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis for this long time, and as
      a result, new potential targets of pyrazinamide or its active form, pyrazinoic
      acid, have been found. We have designed and prepared 3-(phenyl-carbamoyl)pyrazine
      2-carboxylic acids as more lipophilic derivatives of pyrazinoic acid. We also
      prepared methyl and propyl derivatives as prodrugs with further increased
      lipophilicity. Antimycobacterial, antibacterial and antifungal growth inhibiting
      activity was investigated in all prepared compounds. 3-[(4
      Nitrophenyl)carbamoyl]pyrazine-2-carboxylic acid (16) exerted high
      antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv with MIC =
      1.56 MUg.mL-1 (5 MUM). Propyl 3-{[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]carbamoyl}pyrazine-2
      carboxylate (18a) showed also high antimycobacterial activity against
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv with MIC = 3.13 MUg.mL-1. In vitro cytotoxicity
      of the active compounds was investigated and no significant cytotoxic effect was
      observed. Based to structural similarity to known inhibitors of
      decaprenylphosphoryl-beta-d-ribose oxidase, DprE1, we performed molecular docking
      of the prepared acids to DprE1. These in silico experiments indicate that
      modification of the linker connecting aromatic parts of molecule does not have
      any negative influence on the binding.

PMID- 28880231
TI  - The Impact of Sex and 25(OH)D Deficiency on Metabolic Function in Mice.
AB  - Both dietary fat and vitamin D deficiency have been linked with increased
      incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance. While sex
      differences in disease prevalence and severity are well known, the impact on
      disease pathogenesis remains unclear. To further explore the effect of these
      exposures on metabolic function, C57BL/6 male and female mice were weaned onto
      one of four diets; low fat vitamin D replete, low fat vitamin D deficient, or two
      high fat diets, one vitamin D replete and one deficient. Visceral fat, hepatic
      adiposity, and insulin resistance were measured after five and a half weeks.
      Vitamin D deficiency, independent of dietary fat, increased hepatic fat
      accumulation in both sexes (p = 0.003), although did not increase hepatic
      expression of interleukin-6 (p = 0.92) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (p = 0.78).
      Males were observed to have greater insulin resistance (glucose area under the
      curve: p < 0.001, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance: p =
      0.046), and have greater visceral adiposity (p < 0.001), while female mice had
      greater hepatic fat accumulation (p < 0.001). This study is the first to
      demonstrate vitamin D deficiency alone can cause hepatic accumulation while also
      being the first to observe higher liver fat percentages in female mice.

PMID- 28880232
TI  - Railway Tunnel Clearance Inspection Method Based on 3D Point Cloud from Mobile
      Laser Scanning.
AB  - Railway tunnel clearance is directly related to the safe operation of trains and
      upgrading of freight capacity. As more and more railway are put into operation
      and the operation is continuously becoming faster, the railway tunnel clearance
      inspection should be more precise and efficient. In view of the problems existing
      in traditional tunnel clearance inspection methods, such as low density, slow
      speed and a lot of manual operations, this paper proposes a tunnel clearance
      inspection approach based on 3D point clouds obtained by a mobile laser scanning
      system (MLS). First, a dynamic coordinate system for railway tunnel clearance
      inspection has been proposed. A rail line extraction algorithm based on 3D linear
      fitting is implemented from the segmented point cloud to establish a dynamic
      clearance coordinate system. Second, a method to seamlessly connect all rail
      segments based on the railway clearance restrictions, and a seamless rail
      alignment is formed sequentially from the middle tunnel section to both ends.
      Finally, based on the rail alignment and the track clearance coordinate system,
      different types of clearance frames are introduced for intrusion operation with
      the tunnel section to realize the tunnel clearance inspection. By taking the
      Shuanghekou Tunnel of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway as an example, when the
      clearance inspection is carried out by the method mentioned herein, its precision
      can reach 0.03 m, and difference types of clearances can be effectively
      calculated. This method has a wide application prospects.

PMID- 28880233
TI  - Magnetoelectric Force Microscopy on Antiferromagnetic 180? Domains in Cr2O3.
AB  - Magnetoelectric force microscopy (MeFM) is characterized as methodical tool for
      the investigation of antiferromagnetic domain states, in particular of the 180 ?
      variety. As reference compound for this investigation we use Cr 2 O 3 . Access to
      the antiferromagnetic order is provided by the linear magnetoelectric effect. We
      resolve the opposite antiferromagnetic 180 ? domain states of Cr 2 O 3 and
      estimate the sensitivity of the MeFM approach, its inherent advantages in
      comparison to alternative techniques and its general feasibility for probing
      antiferromagnetic order.

PMID- 28880234
TI  - Typhonium giganteum Lectin Exerts A Pro-Inflammatory Effect on RAW 264.7 via ROS
      and The NF-kappaB Signaling Pathway.
AB  - Typhonii rhizoma, a widely used herb in traditional Chinese medicine, has acute
      irritating toxicity related to Typhonium giganteum lectin (TGL). TGL exhibits
      acute inflammatory effects, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are largely
      unknown. This paper is designed to assess the pro-inflammatory response of TGL on
      RAW 264.7 cells. RAW 264.7 treated with 6.25, 12.5, 25, and 50 ug/mL TGL showed
      elevated levels of inflammatory factors (TNF-alpha, IL-1beta) and of p-IkappaB
      and p-p65, all dose-dependent, indicating that TGL had a substantial inflammatory
      effect and mobilized the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) pathway. All four TGL
      treatments also induced the up-regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
      cytosolic free Ca2+ and down-regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential
      (MMP). The production of cytokines and p-IkappaB, p-p65 were reduced by N
      acetylcysteine (NAC), an ROS scavenger, which somewhat abrogated ROS production.
      The results showed the TGL-activated inflammatory signaling pathway NF-kappaB to
      be associated with the overproduction of ROS. Moreover, 50 MUg/mL treatment with
      TGL led to cell apoptosis after 1 h and increased necrosis over time. These
      results provided potential molecular mechanisms for the observed inflammatory
      response to TGL including up-regulation of ROS and cytosolic free Ca2+, down
      regulation of MMP, the mobilization of the NF-kappaB pathway, and the subsequent
      overproduction of pro-inflammatory factors resulting in apoptosis. Long-term
      stimulation with TGL resulted in strong toxic effects related to inflammation
      that induced necrosis in macrophages.

PMID- 28880235
TI  - Risk Assessment of Metals in Urban Soils from a Typical Industrial City, Suzhou,
      Eastern China.
AB  - Risk of metals in urban soils is less studied, compared to that in other types of
      soils, hindering accurate assessment of human exposure to metals. In this study,
      the concentrations of five metals (As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg) were analyzed in 167
      surface soil samples collected from Suzhou city and their potential ecological
      and human health risks were assessed. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, and
      Hg except Cr, were higher than the background values in Jiangsu Province. Metal
      concentrations varied among districts, where sites of high contamination showed a
      punctate distribution. Principal components and correlation analyses revealed
      that As, Pb, and Cd could originate from the same sources. The geo-accumulation
      (Igeo) and potential ecological risk indices (RI) were calculated and the
      relatively low values of Igeo (<0) and RI (<150) suggested generally low
      ecological risk. The noncarcinogenic risks of the metals were relatively low for
      Suzhou residents (i.e., average hazard index or HI: 0.1199 for adults and 0.5935
      for children, <1), while the total carcinogenic risks (TCR) of Cr and As were
      acceptable (TCR in the range of 1.0 * 10-6 to 1.0 * 10-4). Children faced a
      higher threat than adults. Results of Monte-Carlo simulations were lower than
      those obtained from models using deterministic parameters. Of all the uncertain
      parameters, the ingestion rate and body weight were the most sensitive for adults
      and children, respectively, while As was an important factor for both. The
      results as well as the factors controlling risks of metals could help better
      understand the risks of metals in urban soils of industrial cities in China.

PMID- 28880236
TI  - Sedentary and Physical Activity Patterns in Adults with Intellectual Disability.
AB  - Little is known about the patterns of sedentary time (ST) and physical activity
      (PA) levels throughout the week among adults and older adults with Intellectual
      Disability (ID). We analyzed ST and PA patterns of adults and older adults with
      ID. Forty-two adults and 42 older adults with mild to severe ID participated in
      this study. Height and weight were obtained to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI).
      Body fat and fat-free mass percentages were also obtained. Patterns of PA levels
      and ST were assessed with GT3X Actigraph accelerometers. Adults performed higher
      amounts of total PA and moderate to vigorous PA than older adults during the
      week, on weekdays and in center time (all p > 0.05). No differences between males
      and females were found for either PA levels or ST. Only 10.7% of the participants
      met the global recommendations on PA for health. The participants of the current
      study showed low PA levels and a high prevalence of ST. Interestingly, when
      comparing age and/or sex groups, no differences were observed for ST. Our
      findings provide novel and valuable information to be considered in future
      interventions aiming to increase PA levels and reduce ST.

PMID- 28880237
TI  - Analysis of Baseline Computerized Neurocognitive Testing Results among 5-11-Year
      Old Male and Female Children Playing Sports in Recreational Leagues in Florida.
AB  - There is a paucity of data related to sports injuries, concussions, and
      computerized neurocognitive testing (CNT) among very young athletes playing
      sports in recreational settings. The purpose of this study was to report baseline
      CNT results among male and female children, ages 5-11, playing sports in
      Hillsborough County, Florida using ImPACT Pediatric, which is specifically
      designed for this population. Data were collected from 2016 to 2017. The results
      show that 657 baseline tests were conducted and t-tests and linear regression
      were used to assess mean significant differences in composite scores with sex and
      age. Results showed that females scored better on visual memory and in general as
      age increased, baseline scores improved. The results can be used to build further
      studies on the use of CNT in recreational settings and their role in concussion
      treatment, management, and interventions.

PMID- 28880239
TI  - Strait Gate: Special Issue on Advances in Silicon Chemistry.
AB  - Manufacturing high-purity element silicon and organic polysilicones are two major
      silicon industries, supporting the basis of the modern electronic industry and
      our daily lives [...].

PMID- 28880238
TI  - Implications of ABCG2 Expression on Irinotecan Treatment of Colorectal Cancer
      Patients: A Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of the main chemotherapeutic drugs used on a routine basis in
      patients with metastatic colorectal cancer ((m)CRC) is the topoisomerase-1
      inhibitor, irinotecan. However, its usefulness is limited by the pre-existing or
      inevitable development of resistance. The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter
      ABCG2/breast cancer resistance protein (BRCP) through its function in xenobiotic
      clearance might play an important role in irinotecan resistance. With a goal to
      evaluate the clinical significance of ABCG2 measurements, we here review the
      current literature on ABCG2 in relation to irinotecan treatment in CRC patients.
      RESULTS: Few studies have evaluated the association between ABCG2 gene or protein
      expression and prognosis in CRC patients. Discordant results were reported. The
      discrepancies might be explained by the use of different criteria for
      interpretation of results in the immunohistochemistry studies. Only one large
      study evaluated the ABCG2 protein expression and efficacy of irinotecan in mCRC
      (CAIRO study, n = 566). This study failed to demonstrate any correlation between
      ABCG2 protein expression in the primary tumor and response to irinotecan-based
      treatment. We recently raised questions on how to evaluate ABCG2 immunoreactivity
      patterns, and the results in the CAIRO study might be influenced by using a
      different scoring protocol than the one proposed by us. In contrast, our recent
      exploratory study of ABCG2 mRNA expression in 580 patients with stage III primary
      CRC (subgroup from the randomized PETACC-3 study) indicated that high ABCG2 tumor
      tissue mRNA expression might be predictive for lack of efficacy of irinotecan.
      CONCLUSION: The biological role of ABCG2 in predicting clinical irinotecan
      sensitivity/resistance in CRC is uncertain. In particular, the significance of
      ABCG2 cellular localization needs to be established. Data concerning ABCG2 mRNA
      expression and prediction of adjuvant irinotecan efficacy are still sparse and
      need to be confirmed.

PMID- 28880240
TI  - Effect of Sipjeondaebo-Tang on the Pharmacokinetics of S-1, an Anticancer Agent,
      in Rats Evaluated by Population Pharmacokinetic Modeling.
AB  - S-1 (TS-1(r)) is an oral fluoropyrimidine anticancer agent containing tegafur,
      oteracil, and gimeracil. Sipjeondaebo-tang (SDT) is a traditional oriental herbal
      medicine that has potential to alleviate chemotherapy-related adverse effects.
      The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of SDT on the
      pharmacokinetics of S-1. Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated with a single dose
      or repeated doses of SDT for seven consecutive days (1200 mg/kg/day). After the
      completion of pretreatment with SDT, S-1 was orally administered and plasma
      concentrations of tegafur, its active metabolite 5-FU, and gimeracil were
      determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). A
      population pharmacokinetic model was developed to evaluate the effect of SDT on
      pharmacokinetics of tegafur and 5-FU. Although a single dose of SDT did not have
      any significant effect, the absorption rate of tegafur decreased, and the plasma
      levels of 5-FU reduced significantly in rats pretreated with SDT for seven days
      in parallel to the decreased gimeracil concentrations. Population pharmacokinetic
      modeling also showed the enhanced elimination of 5-FU in the SDT-pretreated
      group. Repeated doses of SDT may inhibit the absorption of gimeracil, an
      inhibitor of 5-FU metabolism, resulting in enhanced elimination of 5-FU and
      decrease its plasma level.

PMID- 28880241
TI  - Cyclodextrin-Catalyzed Organic Synthesis: Reactions, Mechanisms, and
      Applications.
AB  - Cyclodextrins are well-known macrocyclic oligosaccharides that consist of alpha
      (1,4) linked glucose units and have been widely used as artificial enzymes,
      chiral separators, chemical sensors, and drug excipients, owing to their
      hydrophobic and chiral interiors. Due to their remarkable inclusion capabilities
      with small organic molecules, more recent interests focus on organic reactions
      catalyzed by cyclodextrins. This contribution outlines the current progress in
      cyclodextrin-catalyzed organic reactions. Particular emphases are given to the
      organic reaction mechanisms and their applications. In the end, the future
      directions of research in this field are proposed.

PMID- 28880242
TI  - Synthesis and Antidepressant Activity Profile of Some Novel Benzothiazole
      Derivatives.
AB  - Within the scope of our new antidepressant drug development efforts, in this
      study, we synthesized eight novel benzothiazole derivatives 3a-3h. The chemical
      structures of the synthesized compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods.
      Test compounds were administered orally at a dose of 40 mg/kg to mice 24, 5 and 1
      h before performing tail suspension, modified forced swimming, and activity cage
      tests. The obtained results showed that compounds 3c, 3d, 3f-3h reduced the
      immobility time of mice as assessed in the tail suspension test. Moreover, in the
      modified forced swimming tests, the same compounds significantly decreased the
      immobility, but increased the swimming frequencies of mice, without any
      alteration in the climbing frequencies. These results, similar to the results
      induced by the reference drug fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, po), indicated the
      antidepressant-like activities of the compounds 3c, 3d, 3f-3h. Owing to the fact
      that test compounds did not induce any significant alteration in the total number
      of spontaneous locomotor activities, the antidepressant-like effects of these
      derivatives seemed to be specific. In order to predict ADME parameters of the
      synthesized compounds 3a-3h, some physicochemical parameters were calculated. The
      ADME prediction study revealed that all synthesized compounds may possess good
      pharmacokinetic profiles.

PMID- 28880244
TI  - Forbidden Coherence Transfer of 19F Nuclei to Quantitatively Measure the Dynamics
      of a CF3-Containing Ligand in Receptor-Bound States.
AB  - The dynamic property of a ligand in the receptor-bound state is an important
      metric to characterize the interactions in the ligand-receptor interface, and the
      development of an experimental strategy to quantify the amplitude of motions in
      the bound state is of importance to introduce the dynamic aspect into structure
      guided drug development (SGDD). Fluorine modifications are frequently introduced
      at the hit-to-lead optimization stage to enhance the binding potency and other
      characteristics of a ligand. However, the effects of fluorine modifications are
      generally difficult to predict, owing to the pleiotropic nature of the
      interactions. In this study, we report an NMR-based approach to experimentally
      evaluate the local dynamics of trifluoromethyl (CF3)-containing ligands in the
      receptor-bound states. For this purpose, the forbidden coherence transfer (FCT)
      analysis, which has been used to study the dynamics of methyl moieties in
      proteins, was extended to the 19F nuclei of CF3-containing ligands. By applying
      this CF3-FCT analysis to a model interaction system consisting of a ligand, AST
      487, and a receptor, p38alpha, we successfully quantified the amplitude of the
      CF3 dynamics in the p38alpha-bound state. The strategy would bring the CF3
      containing ligands within the scope of dynamic SGDD to improve the affinity and
      specificity for the drug-target receptors.

PMID- 28880243
TI  - Simultaneous Determination of Seven Phenolic Acids in Rat Plasma Using UHPLC-ESI
      MS/MS after Oral Administration of Echinacea purpurea Extract.
AB  - A rapid and sensitive Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography Electrospray
      Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method was developed and
      validated to simultaneously determine the concentration of seven phenolic acids
      (syringic acid, ferulic acid, caffeic acid, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, 3,4
      dihydroxybenzoic acid and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid) in rat plasma after oral
      administration of Echinacea purpurea extract. After mixing with the internal
      standard (IS), butylparaben, plasma samples were prepared by liquid-liquid
      extraction with ethyl acetate. The separation was performed using the Agilent
      Eclipse Plus C18 column (1.8 MUm, 2.1 mm * 50 mm) with a gradient system
      consisting of solution A (0.1% acetic acid in water) and solution B (methanol) at
      a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The detection was accomplished by a multiple reaction
      monitoring (MRM) mode with electrospray ionization (ESI). The method was
      validated in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, extraction recovery, matrix
      effect and stability. This method was successfully applied to study the
      pharmacokinetic properties of the seven compounds after oral administration of
      Echinacea purpurea extract in rats.

PMID- 28880245
TI  - Evaluation of the Healing Potential of Demineralized Dentin Matrix Fixed with
      Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 in Bone Grafts.
AB  - We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of demineralized dentin matrix (DDM) fixed with
      recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) through an experimental
      and a clinical study. Unilateral upper second and third premolars of eight
      beagles were extracted. A mucoperiosteal flap was elevated around the extraction
      socket, and a bone defect was made using a surgical drill. Each DDM was fixed
      with rhBMP-2, and autogenous bone was grafted at the bone defect area with a
      collagenous membrane. The beagles were euthanized at two, four, eight, and 12
      weeks after receiving the bone graft. Block specimens involving grafted bone and
      surrounding natural bone were extracted. A total of 23 patients who received bone
      grafts using human DDM fixed with rhBMP-2 (AutoBT BMP) with implant placements
      (36 implants; maxilla: 14, mandible: 22) were selected. The implant stability,
      marginal bone loss, and clinical outcome were evaluated. Three trephine cores
      were harvested fourmonths after bone grafting, and histologic examination was
      performed. In the histological evaluation performed four weeks after the bone
      graft, autogenous bone showed 52% new bone formation and DDM fixed with rhBMP-2
      showed 33% new bone formation. Twelve weeks after the bone graft, autogenous bone
      showed 75% new bone formation and DDM fixed with rhBMP-2 showed 48% new bone
      formation. In the clinical study, favorable osseointegration was obtained in 35
      out of 36 implant sites (one case of osseointegration failure). In all cases,
      severe complications were not observed. Histomorphometrically, new bone formation
      was observed in 14.98% of the cases. The residual DDM particles were 6.22%.
      AutoBT BMP provides good osteoinductive and osteoconductive potential and
      clinical efficacy.

PMID- 28880246
TI  - Dental Composite Formulation Design with Bioactivity on Protein Adsorption
      Combined with Crack-Healing Capability.
AB  - Fracture and secondary caries are the primary reasons for the failure of dental
      restorations. To face this omnipresent problem, we report the formulation design
      and synthesis of a protein-resistant dental composite composed of 2
      methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) that also can self-repair damage and
      recover the load-bearing capability via microencapsulated triethylene glycol
      dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) and N,N-dihydroxy ethyl-p-toluidine (DHEPT). The
      bioactivity of the resulting MPC-microencapsulated TEGDMA-DHEPT was evaluated on
      protein adsorption through early bacterial attachment. Its mechanical properties
      were also investigated, including self-healing assessment. Microcapsules of poly
      (urea-formaldehyde) (PUF) were synthesized by incorporating a TEGDMA-DHEPT
      healing liquid. A set of composites that contained 7.5% of MPC, 10% of
      microcapsules, and without MPC/microcapsules were also prepared as controls. The
      two distinct characteristics of strong protein repellency and load-bearing
      recovery were achieved by the combined strategies. The novel dual composite with
      a combination of protein-repellent MPC and PUF microcapsules for restoring
      microcracks is a promising strategy for dental restorations to address the two
      main challenges of fracture and secondary caries. The new dual composite
      formulation design has the potential to improve the longevity of dental
      restorations significantly.

PMID- 28880247
TI  - The Actin Cytoskeleton Is Involved in Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
      (GDNF)-Induced Ret Translocation into Lipid Rafts in Dopaminergic Neuronal Cells.
AB  - Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a potential therapeutic
      factor for Parkinson's disease (PD), exerts its biological effects through the
      Ret receptor tyrosine kinase. The redistribution of Ret into lipid rafts
      substantially influences Ret signaling, but the mechanisms underlying Ret
      translocation remain unclear. The purpose of our study was to further explore the
      signaling mechanisms of GDNF and to determine whether the actin cytoskeleton is
      involved in the GDNF-induced Ret translocation into lipid rafts. In MN9D
      dopaminergic neuronal cells, we used density gradient centrifugation and
      immunofluorescence confocal microscopy to separate and visualize lipid rafts, co
      immunoprecipitation to analyze protein-protein interactions, and latrunculin B
      (Lat B) and jasplakinolide (Jas) to disrupt and enhance the polymerization of the
      actin cytoskeleton, respectively. The results showed that Ret translocated into
      lipid rafts and coimmunoprecipitated with actin in response to GDNF treatment.
      After Lat B or Jas treatment, the Ret-F-actin association induced by GDNF was
      impaired or enhanced respectively and then the levels of Ret translocated into
      lipid rafts were correspondingly inhibited or promoted. These data indicate that
      actin polymerization and cytoskeletal remodeling are integral to GDNF-induced
      cell signaling in dopaminergic cells and define a new role of the actin
      cytoskeleton in promoting Ret redistribution into lipid rafts.

PMID- 28880248
TI  - X-ray Free Electron Laser Determination of Crystal Structures of Dark and Light
      States of a Reversibly Photoswitching Fluorescent Protein at Room Temperature.
AB  - The photochromic fluorescent protein Skylan-NS (Nonlinear Structured illumination
      variant mEos3.1H62L) is a reversibly photoswitchable fluorescent protein which
      has an unilluminated/ground state with an anionic and cis chromophore
      conformation and high fluorescence quantum yield. Photo-conversion with
      illumination at 515 nm generates a meta-stable intermediate with neutral trans
      chromophore structure that has a 4 h lifetime. We present X-ray crystal
      structures of the cis (on) state at 1.9 Angstrom resolution and the trans (off)
      state at a limiting resolution of 1.55 Angstrom from serial femtosecond
      crystallography experiments conducted at SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron
      Laser (SACLA) at 7.0 keV and 10.5 keV, and at Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
      at 9.5 keV. We present a comparison of the data reduction and structure
      determination statistics for the two facilities which differ in flux, beam
      characteristics and detector technologies. Furthermore, a comparison of droplet
      on demand, grease injection and Gas Dynamic Virtual Nozzle (GDVN) injection shows
      no significant differences in limiting resolution. The photoconversion of the on-
      to the off-state includes both internal and surface exposed protein structural
      changes, occurring in regions that lack crystal contacts in the orthorhombic
      crystal form.

PMID- 28880249
TI  - Event-Associated Oxygen Consumption Rate Increases ca. Five-Fold When Interictal
      Activity Transforms into Seizure-Like Events In Vitro.
AB  - Neuronal injury due to seizures may result from a mismatch of energy demand and
      adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis. However, ATP demand and oxygen
      consumption rates have not been accurately determined, yet, for different
      patterns of epileptic activity, such as interictal and ictal events. We studied
      interictal-like and seizure-like epileptiform activity induced by the GABAA
      antagonist bicuculline alone, and with co-application of the M-current blocker XE
      991, in rat hippocampal slices. Metabolic changes were investigated based on
      recording partial oxygen pressure, extracellular potassium concentration, and
      intracellular flavine adenine dinucleotide (FAD) redox potential. Recorded data
      were used to calculate oxygen consumption and relative ATP consumption rates,
      cellular ATP depletion, and changes in FAD/FADH2 ratio by applying a reactive
      diffusion and a two compartment metabolic model. Oxygen-consumption rates were
      ca. five times higher during seizure activity than interictal activity.
      Additionally, ATP consumption was higher during seizure activity (~94% above
      control) than interictal activity (~15% above control). Modeling of FAD
      transients based on partial pressure of oxygen recordings confirmed increased
      energy demand during both seizure and interictal activity and predicted actual
      FAD autofluorescence recordings, thereby validating the model. Quantifying
      metabolic alterations during epileptiform activity has translational relevance as
      it may help to understand the contribution of energy supply and demand mismatches
      to seizure-induced injury.

PMID- 28880250
TI  - Glycans as Regulatory Elements of the Insulin/IGF System: Impact in Cancer
      Progression.
AB  - The insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system in mammals comprises a
      dynamic network of proteins that modulate several biological processes such as
      development, cell growth, metabolism, and aging. Dysregulation of the insulin/IGF
      system has major implications for several pathological conditions such as
      diabetes and cancer. Metabolic changes also culminate in aberrant glycosylation,
      which has been highlighted as a hallmark of cancer. Changes in glycosylation
      regulate every pathophysiological step of cancer progression including tumour
      cell-cell dissociation, cell migration, cell signaling and metastasis. This
      review discusses how the insulin/IGF system integrates with glycosylation
      alterations and impacts on cell behaviour, metabolism and drug resistance in
      cancer.

PMID- 28880252
TI  - BMRC: A Bitmap-Based Maximum Range Counting Approach for Temporal Data in Sensor
      Monitoring Networks.
AB  - Due to the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), many feasible
      deployments of sensor monitoring networks have been made to capture the events in
      physical world, such as human diseases, weather disasters and traffic accidents,
      which generate large-scale temporal data. Generally, the certain time interval
      that results in the highest incidence of a severe event has significance for
      society. For example, there exists an interval that covers the maximum number of
      people who have the same unusual symptoms, and knowing this interval can help
      doctors to locate the reason behind this phenomenon. As far as we know, there is
      no approach available for solving this problem efficiently. In this paper, we
      propose the Bitmap-based Maximum Range Counting (BMRC) approach for temporal data
      generated in sensor monitoring networks. Since sensor nodes can update their
      temporal data at high frequency, we present a scalable strategy to support the
      real-time insert and delete operations. The experimental results show that the
      BMRC outperforms the baseline algorithm in terms of efficiency.

PMID- 28880251
TI  - Studying Electrotaxis in Microfluidic Devices.
AB  - Collective cell migration is important in various physiological processes such as
      morphogenesis, cancer metastasis and cell regeneration. Such migration can be
      induced and guided by different chemical and physical cues. Electrotaxis,
      referring to the directional migration of adherent cells under stimulus of
      electric fields, is believed to be highly involved in the wound-healing process.
      Electrotactic experiments are conventionally conducted in Petri dishes or cover
      glasses wherein cells are cultured and electric fields are applied. However,
      these devices suffer from evaporation of the culture medium, non-uniformity of
      electric fields and low throughput. To overcome these drawbacks, micro-fabricated
      devices composed of micro-channels and fluidic components have lately been
      applied to electrotactic studies. Microfluidic devices are capable of providing
      cells with a precise micro-environment including pH, nutrition, temperature and
      various stimuli. Therefore, with the advantages of reduced cell/reagent
      consumption, reduced Joule heating and uniform and precise electric fields,
      microfluidic chips are perfect platforms for observing cell migration under
      applied electric fields. In this paper, I review recent developments in designing
      and fabricating microfluidic devices for studying electrotaxis, aiming to provide
      critical updates in this rapidly-growing, interdisciplinary field.

PMID- 28880253
TI  - Modeling Burns for Pre-Cooled Skin Flame Exposure.
AB  - On a television show, a pre-cooled bare-skinned person (TV host) passed through
      engulfing kerosene flames. The assumption was that a water film should protect
      him during 0.74 s flame exposure in an environment of 86 kW/m2 heat flux. The TV
      host got light burn inflammation on the back, arms and legs. The present work
      studies skin temperatures and burn damage integral of such dangerous flame
      exposure. The skin temperature distribution during water spray pre-cooling,
      transport to the flames, flame exposure, transport to the water pool, and final
      water pool cooling is modelled numerically. Details of the temperature
      development of the skin layers are presented, as well as the associated damage
      integral. It is shown that 5  degrees C water spray applied for a 30 s period pre
      cooled the skin sufficiently to prevent severe skin injury. Soot marks indicate
      that the water layer evaporated completely in some areas resulting in skin flame
      contact. This exposed dry skin directly to the flames contributing significantly
      to the damage integral. It is further analyzed how higher water temperature,
      shorter pre-cooling period or longer flame exposure influence the damage
      integral. It is evident that minor changes in conditions could lead to severe
      burns and that high heat flux levels at the end of the exposure period are
      especially dangerous. This flame stunt should never be repeated.

PMID- 28880254
TI  - Concrete Crack Identification Using a UAV Incorporating Hybrid Image Processing.
AB  - Crack assessment is an essential process in the maintenance of concrete
      structures. In general, concrete cracks are inspected by manual visual
      observation of the surface, which is intrinsically subjective as it depends on
      the experience of inspectors. Further, it is time-consuming, expensive, and often
      unsafe when inaccessible structural members are to be assessed. Unmanned aerial
      vehicle (UAV) technologies combined with digital image processing have recently
      been applied to crack assessment to overcome the drawbacks of manual visual
      inspection. However, identification of crack information in terms of width and
      length has not been fully explored in the UAV-based applications, because of the
      absence of distance measurement and tailored image processing. This paper
      presents a crack identification strategy that combines hybrid image processing
      with UAV technology. Equipped with a camera, an ultrasonic displacement sensor,
      and a WiFi module, the system provides the image of cracks and the associated
      working distance from a target structure on demand. The obtained information is
      subsequently processed by hybrid image binarization to estimate the crack width
      accurately while minimizing the loss of the crack length information. The
      proposed system has shown to successfully measure cracks thicker than 0.1 mm with
      the maximum length estimation error of 7.3%.

PMID- 28880256
TI  - Improvement of Early Strength of Cement Mortar Containing Granulated Blast
      Furnace Slag Using Industrial Byproducts.
AB  - In the field of construction, securing the early strength of concrete (on the
      first and third days of aging) has been an important problem in deciding the mold
      release time (i.e., shortening the construction time period). Therefore, the
      problem of reduced compressive strength in the early aging stage caused by mixing
      granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) with concrete must certainly be resolved. In
      this study, we conduct experiments to explore methods for generating a concrete
      that develops an early strength equivalent to that of 100% OPC. The objective of
      this study is the development of an early-strength accelerator (ESA) made from an
      industrial by-product, for a GBFS-mixed cement mortar. This study also analyzes
      the mechanism of the early-strength generation in the concrete to evaluate the
      influence of the burning temperature of ESA on the optimal compressive strength
      of the concrete. According to the results of the experiment, GBFS, whose ESA is
      burnt at 800  degrees C, shows an activation factor of 102.6-104.7% in comparison
      with 100% OPC on the first and third days during early aging, thereby meeting the
      target compressive strength. The results of the micro-analytic experiment are as
      follows: ESA showed a pH of strongly alkaline. In addition, it was found that the
      content of SO3 was high in the chemical components, thus activating the hydration
      reaction of GBFS in the early age. This initial hydration reaction was thought to
      be due to the increase in the filling effect of the hydrate and the generation of
      C-S-H of the early age by the mass production of Ettringite.

PMID- 28880255
TI  - Evaluation of Different Dose-Response Models for High Hydrostatic Pressure
      Inactivation of Microorganisms.
AB  - Modeling of microbial inactivation by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) requires a
      plot of the log microbial count or survival ratio versus time data under a
      constant pressure and temperature. However, at low pressure and temperature
      values, very long holding times are needed to obtain measurable inactivation.
      Since the time has a significant effect on the cost of HHP processing it may be
      reasonable to fix the time at an appropriate value and quantify the inactivation
      with respect to pressure. Such a plot is called dose-response curve and it may be
      more beneficial than the traditional inactivation modeling since short holding
      times with different pressure values can be selected and used for the modeling of
      HHP inactivation. For this purpose, 49 dose-response curves (with at least 4
      log10 reduction and >=5 data points including the atmospheric pressure value (P =
      0.1 MPa), and with holding time <=10 min) for HHP inactivation of microorganisms
      obtained from published studies were fitted with four different models, namely
      the Discrete model, Shoulder model, Fermi equation, and Weibull model, and the
      pressure value needed for 5 log10 (P5) inactivation was calculated for all the
      models above. The Shoulder model and Fermi equation produced exactly the same
      parameter and P5 values, while the Discrete model produced similar or sometimes
      the exact same parameter values as the Fermi equation. The Weibull model produced
      the worst fit (had the lowest adjusted determination coefficient (R2adj) and
      highest mean square error (MSE) values), while the Fermi equation had the best
      fit (the highest R2adj and lowest MSE values). Parameters of the models and also
      P5 values of each model can be useful for the further experimental design of HHP
      processing and also for the comparison of the pressure resistance of different
      microorganisms. Further experiments can be done to verify the P5 values at given
      conditions. The procedure given in this study can also be extended for enzyme
      inactivation by HHP.

PMID- 28880257
TI  - Inverse association between cigarette and water pipe smoking and hypertension in
      an elderly population in Iran: Bushehr elderly health programme.
AB  - The collected data in Bushehr Elderly Health (BEH) Program which had detailed the
      data on participants' smoking status and habits, was analysed to investigate the
      association between smoking of both water pipes and cigarettes and hypertension
      in an elderly population. Three thousand elderly men and women who participated
      in the baseline assessment of the BEH Program-a prospective population-based
      study being conducted in Bushehr, Iran-were selected randomly through a
      multistage, stratified cluster sampling method. Systolic and diastolic blood
      pressures were measured twice using a mercury sphygmomanometer, and researchers
      asked participants about medical history of hypertension as well as history of
      cigarette and water pipe smoking. Researchers used binary logistic regression
      models to assess the association of hypertension and smoking, and found an
      inverse, statistically significant association between current smoking and
      hypertension (odds ratio (OR)=0.50 (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.41, 0.60)).
      The association remained statistically significant after controlling for age,
      education and body mass index (OR=0.54 (95% CI=0.45, 0.66)). Findings were
      consistent for cigarette and water pipe smoking by sex (all ORs were inverse and
      statistically significant). Both cigarette and water pipe smoking were associated
      with reduced hypertension among older people, but the strength of association was
      different between men and women and also between cigarette and water pipe
      smoking. The reasons behind the association as well as the differences observed
      need to be investigated through more comprehensive, longitudinal studies.

PMID- 28880258
TI  - Do trials reduce uncertainty? Assessing impact through cumulative meta-analysis
      of neonatal RCTs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of the latest randomized controlled trial (RCT)
      to each systematic review (SR) in Cochrane Neonatal Reviews. STUDY DESIGN: We
      selected meta-analyses reporting the typical point estimate of the risk ratio for
      the primary outcome of the latest study (n=130), mortality (n=128) and the mean
      difference for the primary outcome (n=44). We employed cumulative meta-analysis
      to determine the typical estimate after each trial was added, and then performed
      multivariable logistic regression to determine factors predictive of study
      impact. RESULTS: For the stated primary outcome, 18% of latest RCTs failed to
      narrow the confidence interval (CI), and 55% failed to decrease the CI by ?20%.
      Only 8% changed the typical estimate directionality, and 11% caused a change to
      or from significance. Latest RCTs did not change the typical estimate in 18% of
      cases, and only 41% changed the typical estimate by at least 10%. The ability to
      narrow the CI by >20% was negatively associated with the number of previously
      published RCTs (odds ratio 0.707). Similar results were found in analysis of
      typical estimates for the outcomes of mortality and mean difference. CONCLUSION:
      Across a broad range of clinical questions, the latest RCT failed to
      substantially narrow the CI of the typical estimate, to move the effect estimate
      or to change its statistical significance in a majority of cases. Investigators
      and grant peer review committees should consider prioritizing less-studied topics
      or requiring formal consideration of optimal information size based on extant
      evidence in power calculations.

PMID- 28880259
TI  - Management of asymptomatic neonates born in the setting of chorioamnionitis: a
      safety comparison of the well-baby and intensive care setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluate the safety of a change in care setting for asymptomatic
      neonates born to mothers with chorioamnionitis from the neonatal intensive care
      unit to the well baby nursery.Local problem:The neonatal intensive care unit
      evaluation and management of babies born to mothers with chorioamionitis often
      involves separation of the mother-baby dyad and more invasive interventions.
      METHODS: A single-center pre/post-intervention study of neonates born from
      January 2011 to November 2016, comparing safety outcomes in the neonatal
      intensive care unit (pre-intervention) and well baby nursery (post-intervention),
      following initiation of a triage protocol. INTERVENTIONS: A protocolized,
      systematic change was done in the practice location. RESULTS: Groups were similar
      for time to first antibiotic administration, sepsis symptom development and
      positive blood cultures. Length of stay (median 73.5 vs 64.4 h, P=0.0192) and %
      of neonates with intravenous fluid exposure (50.4% vs 7.6%, P<0.0001) were lower
      in the post-intervention group. Exclusive breastfeeding rates improved (pre-7.3%
      vs post-46.1%, P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Asymptomatic neonates born to mothers with
      chorioamnionitis were safely treated in a well baby nursery under the guidance of
      a protocol for triage, thereby reducing NICU exposure for these neonates.

PMID- 28880261
TI  - Bronchopulmonary dysplasia-associated pulmonary hypertension: clues from
      placental pathology.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and the associated complication of
      pulmonary hypertension (PH) leads to increased mortality and a longer length of
      stay among survivors. Placental histopathology may give early clues of subsequent
      events. The objective was to evaluate the relationship of maternal vascular
      underperfusion (MVU) changes on placental histopathology with subsequent
      development of BPD-associated PH in a cohort of extremely premature infants.
      STUDY DESIGN: In a cohort of preterm infants '?28 weeks' gestational age (GA) and
      with 'severe' BPD, this retrospective study evaluated specific placental
      histopathological changes and assessed the relationship with subsequent
      development of PH. 'Severe' BPD was defined as the need for ?30% oxygen and/or
      positive pressure ventilation at 36 weeks postmenstrual age. Placental and
      echocardiographic assessments were done by investigators masked to the grouping
      and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Fifty six infants with severe BPD formed the
      cohort; PH was noted in 22 (39.3%) infants. The GA of the infants with and
      without PH was comparable (25.8+/-1.6 vs 25.8+/-1.3 weeks, P=0.9). On placental
      histopathological examination, 13 (23%) had features of MVU. On univariate
      logistic regression, the presence of changes consistent with MVU increased the
      relative risk of subsequent BPD-associated PH by 2.75 (95% confidence interval
      1.56 to 4.85, P=0.004). The significance persisted after adjustment for GA.
      Stratification by the presence or absence of fetal growth restriction, yielded
      nonsignificant associations (P=0.17). CONCLUSION: Based on the results of the
      present study, specific placental histopathological changes may give early clues
      to the subsequent development of BPD-associated PH.

PMID- 28880260
TI  - Barriers to enrollment in a randomized controlled trial of hydrocortisone for
      cardiovascular insufficiency in term and late preterm newborn infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze reasons for low enrollment in a randomized controlled trial
      (RCT) of the effect of hydrocortisone for cardiovascular insufficiency on
      survival without neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in term/late preterm
      newborns. STUDY DESIGN: The original study was a multicenter RCT. Eligibility:
      ?34 weeks' gestation, <72 h old, mechanically ventilated, receiving inotrope.
      Primary outcome was NDI at 2 years; infants with diagnoses at high risk for NDI
      were excluded. This paper presents an analysis of reasons for low patient
      enrollment. RESULTS: Two hundred and fifty-seven of the 932 otherwise eligible
      infants received inotropes; however, 207 (81%) had exclusionary diagnoses. Only
      12 infants were randomized over 10 months; therefore, the study was terminated.
      Contributing factors included few eligible infants after exclusions, open-label
      steroid therapy and a narrow enrollment window. CONCLUSION: Despite an
      observational study to estimate the population, very few infants were enrolled.
      Successful RCTs of emergent therapy may require fewer exclusions, a short-term
      primary outcome, waiver of consent and/or other alternatives.

PMID- 28880262
TI  - Acceleration of pancreatic tumorigenesis under immunosuppressive microenvironment
      induced by Reg3g overexpression.
AB  - Reg3g is a potential risk for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We
      previously demonstrated that Reg3g promoted pancreatic carcinogenesis via a STAT3
      signaling pathway in a murine model of chronic pancreatitis. Whether the immune
      response is involved in tumorigenesis induced by Reg3g remains unknown. In this
      study, Reg3g-regulated tumor immunity was evaluated in tumor-implanted murine
      models, immune cells, and tumor microenvironment. In mice that had been
      orthotopically or ectopically implanted with Panc02 cells, Reg3g overexpression
      increased EGFR and Ki67, diminished MHC-I and caspase-3 expression, and
      accelerated growth of tumors. By interacting with PD-1/PD-L1, Reg3g also promoted
      differentiation of Tregs and recruitment of MDSC, retarded maturation of DCs and
      inactivation of CD8+ T cells, and suppressed cross-priming of CD8+ T-cell
      responses by DCs in tumor-bearing mice. Knockdown of Reg3g delayed tumor
      development in normal mice, but not in CD8+ T-cell-deficient mice. In vitro,
      Reg3g upregulated EGFR in DCs, activated heme oxygenase-1 (Hmox1) involved
      JAK2/STAT3 signaling, raised levels of Th2 cytokines in and suppressed maturation
      of DCs, and enhanced tumor cell proliferation. These results reveal a novel role
      of Reg3g as an immunosuppressive promoter that weakens tumor-specific
      antigenicity and suppresses antitumor effects of CD8+ T cells in a murine model
      of pancreatic cancer. Reg3g produces these effects by activating the JAK2/STAT3
      signaling pathway in DCs, triggering the generation of an immunosuppressive tumor
      microenvironment.

PMID- 28880263
TI  - LRP6 is identified as a potential prognostic marker for oral squamous cell
      carcinoma via MALDI-IMS.
AB  - Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths
      worldwide, with 500 000 new cases each year. However, the mechanisms underlying
      OSCC development are relatively unknown. In this study, matrix-assisted laser
      desorption ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS)-based proteomic
      strategy was used to profile the differentially expressed peptides/proteins
      between OSCC tissues and their adjacent noncancerous tissues. Sixty-seven unique
      peptide peaks and five distinct proteins were identified with changed expression
      levels. Among them, LRP6 expression was found to be upregulated in OSCC tissues,
      and correlated with a cluster of clinicopathologic parameters, including smoking,
      drinking, tumor differentiation status, lymph node metastasis and survival time.
      Notably, knockdown of LRP6 inhibited the proliferation ability of OSCC cells.
      Furthermore, we demonstrated that the expression of LRP6 in OSCC cells is
      positively correlated with its downstream oncogene, FGF8. The present study
      suggests that LRP6 could be a potential biomarker for OSCC patients, and might
      further assist in the therapeutic decisions in OSCC treatment.

PMID- 28880264
TI  - Knockdown of SIRT7 enhances the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow
      mesenchymal stem cells partly via activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling
      pathway.
AB  - Sirtuin 7 (SIRT7) is a NAD+-dependent deacetylase in the sirtuin family. In a
      previous study, human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) with reduced
      SIRT7 activity were developed to evaluate the effect of SIRT7 on osteogenesis.
      SIRT7 knockdown significantly enhanced osteoblast-specific gene expression,
      alkaline phosphatase activity, and mineral deposition in vitro. Additionally,
      SIRT7 knockdown upregulated beta-catenin. The enhanced osteogenesis due to SIRT7
      knockdown was partially rescued by a Wnt/beta-catenin inhibitor. Furthermore,
      SIRT7 knockdown hBMSCs combined with a chitosan scaffold significantly promoted
      bone formation in a rat tibial defect model, as determined by imaging and
      histological examinations. These findings suggest that SIRT7 has an essential
      role in osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs, partly by activation of the
      Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.

PMID- 28880265
TI  - CDP138 silencing inhibits TGF-beta/Smad signaling to impair radioresistance and
      metastasis via GDF15 in lung cancer.
AB  - CDP138, a CDK5 binding partner, regulates cell proliferation and migration.
      However, the mechanisms by which CDP138 functions in these processes remain
      unclear. In this study, we show that CDP138 is frequently overexpressed and that
      high levels of CDP138 are correlated with lymph node metastasis in lung cancer.
      Furthermore, we provide evidence that CDP138-depleted lung cancer cells exhibit
      enhanced radiosensitivity as well as reduced migration and invasion.
      Mechanistically, we identify GDF15, a member of the TGF-beta superfamily, as a
      key downstream effector of CDP138. CDP138 silencing attenuates TGF-beta/Smad
      signaling activation at least in part through the downregulation of GDF15. More
      importantly, the observed phenotypes caused by CDP138 knockdown are partially
      dependent on GDF15 inhibition. Together, our findings demonstrate that CDP138
      positively modulates the TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathway via GDF15 to promote
      radioresistance and metastasis, suggesting CDP138 as a potential oncogenic
      biomarker and a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of lung cancer.

PMID- 28880266
TI  - The intracellular angiotensin system buffers deleterious effects of the
      extracellular paracrine system.
AB  - The 'classical' renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is a circulating system that
      controls blood pressure. Local/paracrine RAS, identified in a variety of tissues,
      including the brain, is involved in different functions and diseases, and RAS
      blockers are commonly used in clinical practice. A third type of RAS
      (intracellular/intracrine RAS) has been observed in some types of cells,
      including neurons. However, its role is still unknown. The present results
      indicate that in brain cells the intracellular RAS counteracts the intracellular
      superoxide/H2O2 and oxidative stress induced by the extracellular/paracrine
      angiotensin II acting on plasma membrane receptors. Activation of nuclear
      receptors by intracellular or internalized angiotensin triggers a number of
      mechanisms that protect the cell, such as an increase in the levels of protective
      angiotensin type 2 receptors, intracellular angiotensin, PGC-1alpha and IGF
      1/SIRT1. Interestingly, this protective mechanism is altered in isolated nuclei
      from brains of aged animals. The present results indicate that at least in the
      brain, AT1 receptor blockers acting only on the extracellular or paracrine RAS
      may offer better protection of cells.

PMID- 28880267
TI  - p73 is required for appropriate BMP-induced mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition
      during somatic cell reprogramming.
AB  - The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by somatic cell
      reprogramming holds great potential for modeling human diseases. However, the
      reprogramming process remains very inefficient and a better understanding of its
      basic biology is required. The mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) has
      been recognized as a crucial step for the successful reprogramming of fibroblasts
      into iPSCs. It has been reported that the p53 tumor suppressor gene acts as a
      barrier of this process, while its homolog p63 acts as an enabling factor. In
      this regard, the information concerning the role of the third homolog, p73,
      during cell reprogramming is limited. Here, we derive total Trp73 knockout mouse
      embryonic fibroblasts, with or without Trp53, and examine their reprogramming
      capacity. We show that p73 is required for effective reprogramming by the
      Yamanaka factors, even in the absence of p53. Lack of p73 affects the early
      stages of reprogramming, impairing the MET and resulting in altered maturation
      and stabilization phases. Accordingly, the obtained p73-deficient iPSCs have a
      defective epithelial phenotype and alterations in the expression of pluripotency
      markers. We demonstrate that p73 deficiency impairs the MET, at least in part, by
      hindering BMP pathway activation. We report that p73 is a positive modulator of
      the BMP circuit, enhancing its activation by DNp73 repression of the Smad6
      promoter. Collectively, these findings provide mechanistic insight into the MET
      process, proposing p73 as an enhancer of MET during cellular reprogramming.

PMID- 28880268
TI  - Cezanne predicts progression and adjuvant TACE response in hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - We have previously reported that Cezanne could be a prognostic biomarker for
      survival in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, the role of Cezanne
      genes in HCC cells and its response to postoperative adjuvant transcatheter
      arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in HCC patients remains unknown. In this study,
      Cezanne expression was detected in human HCC using real-time PCR, western blot
      and immunohistochemistry. The function of Cezanne in HCC cells was determined by
      Transwell invasion assays and nude mice metastasis assay. The response of Cezanne
      in patients who received adjuvant TACE after hepatectomy was evaluated.
      Functional study demonstrated that interference of Cezanne expression promoted
      the migration and invasion of HCC cells in vitro and boosted metastasized HCC
      formation in mice. Upregulation of Cezanne diminished the adhesion and migration
      of hepatoma cells. Further study indicated that Cezanne might inhibit invasion of
      HCC cells by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In addition,
      patients with low Cezanne expression had significant improvement in prognosis
      after receiving adjuvant TACE. In contrast, patients with high Cezanne expression
      had a poorer response to adjuvant TACE. Moreover, Cezanne status was associated
      with response to adjuvant TACE in patients subgroup stratified by vascular
      invasion, tumor size and tumor number. In conclusion, Cezanne may be a novel
      antioncogene that has a pivotal role in the invasion of HCC and contribute to the
      selection of patients who may benefit from adjuvant TACE to prevent recurrence.

PMID- 28880269
TI  - A stress-induced cellular aging model with postnatal neural stem cells.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2014.82.

PMID- 28880270
TI  - Circulating microRNAs in breast cancer: novel diagnostic and prognostic
      biomarkers.
AB  - Effective management of breast cancer depends on early diagnosis and proper
      monitoring of patients' response to therapy. However, these goals are difficult
      to achieve because of the lack of sensitive and specific biomarkers for early
      detection and for disease monitoring. Accumulating evidence in the past several
      years has highlighted the potential use of peripheral blood circulating nucleic
      acids such as DNA, mRNA and micro (mi)RNA in breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis
      and for monitoring response to anticancer therapy. Among these, circulating miRNA
      is increasingly recognized as a promising biomarker, given the ease with which
      miRNAs can be isolated and their structural stability under different conditions
      of sample processing and isolation. In this review, we provide current state-of
      the-art of miRNA biogenesis, function and discuss the advantages, limitations, as
      well as pitfalls of using circulating miRNAs as diagnostic, prognostic or
      predictive biomarkers in breast cancer management.

PMID- 28880271
TI  - Matrine derivate MASM uncovers a novel function for ribosomal protein S5 in
      osteoclastogenesis and postmenopausal osteoporosis.
AB  - Postmenopausal osteoporosis (POMP) is a public health problem characterized by
      decreased bone density and increased fracture risk. Over-activated
      osteoclastogenesis plays a vital role in POMP. Here we developed a novel
      bioactive compound MASM (M19) based on sophocarpine. Although it showed no
      significant effects on osteogenesis and adipogenesis for bone marrow-derived
      mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in vitro, it could significantly inhibit RANKL/M
      CSF induced osteoclastogenesis through suppressing NF-kappaB, MAPKs and PI3K/Akt
      pathways in vitro and ameliorate bone loss in ovariectomized mice in vivo.
      Ribosomal protein s5 (RPS5) has been identified as a target of M19 and regulates
      PI3K/Akt, NF-kappaB and MAPKs pathways in osteoclastogenesis. Overexpressions of
      RPS5 synergistically inhibited osteoclastogenesis with M19 while silencing RPS5
      compromised M19 inhibitory effects on osteoclastogenesis in vitro. Among the
      three pathways, Akt plays a major role in M19 effects. The Akt activator SC79
      partially reversed the inhibitory effects on osteoclastogenesis by M19 and RPS5
      knocking-down. It indicates that RPS5 serves as a potential candidate target for
      inhibiting osteoclastogenesis and osteoporosis therapy and M19 is a promising
      agent for POMP treatment.

PMID- 28880272
TI  - Abcb1a and Abcb1b genes function differentially in blood-testis barrier dynamics
      in the rat.
AB  - During spermatogenesis, immature spermatocytes traverse the blood-testis barrier
      (BTB) and enter the apical apartment of seminiferous epithelium for further
      development. This course involves extensive junction disassembly and reassembly
      at the BTB. P-glycoprotein is known to be coded by two genes in rodents, namely
      Abcb1a and Abcb1b. Our previous studies showed that simultaneously silencing
      Abcb1a and Abcb1b genes in Sertoli cells impeded BTB integrity. However, the
      individual role of Abcb1a and Abcb1b in regulating BTB dynamics remains
      uninvestigated. Here, single knockdown of Abcb1a by RNAi impeded the in vitro
      Sertoli cell permeability barrier via redistributing TJ proteins, accelerating
      endocytosis, and affecting endocytic vesicle-mediated protein transportation that
      undermined Sertoli cell barrier. F5-peptide model was used to induce cell
      junction disruption and subsequent restructuring in primary Sertoli cells. F5
      peptide perturbed this barrier, but its removal allowed barrier 'resealing'.
      Abcb1b knockdown was found to inhibit barrier resealing following F5-peptide
      removal by suppressing the restore of the expression and distribution of junction
      proteins at BTB, and reducing the migration of internalized junction proteins
      back to Sertoli cell interface. In summary, Abcb1a is critical in maintaining BTB
      integrity, while Abcb1b is crucial for junction reassembly at the BTB.

PMID- 28880273
TI  - Tailored therapy guided by multichannel intraluminal impedance pH monitoring for
      refractory non-erosive reflux disease.
AB  - A relevant percentage of non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) is refractory to
      proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) treatment. Multichannel intraluminal impedance pH
      (MII-pH) monitoring should give useful pathophysiological information about
      refractoriness. Therefore, our aim was to assess whether this technique could be
      useful to guide a 'tailored' therapy in refractory NERD. We retrospectively
      recruited NERD patients undergoing MII-pH monitoring for unsuccessful treatment.
      All patients had undergone upper endoscopy, and those with erosive esophagitis
      were excluded. No patient received PPI during MII-pH monitoring. Subjects were
      subgrouped into three categories: acid reflux, non-acid reflux and functional
      heartburn. MII-pH-guided therapy was performed for 4 weeks as follows: patients
      with acid reflux received PPI at double dose, patients with non-acid reflux PPI
      at full dose plus alginate four times a day and patients with functional
      heartburn levosulpiride 75 mg per day. A visual analog scale (VAS) ranging from 0
      to 100 mm was administered before and after such tailored therapy to evaluate
      overall symptoms. Responders were defined by VAS improvement of at least 40%.
      Sixty-nine patients with refractory NERD were selected (female-male ratio 43 :
      26, mean age 47.6+/-15.2 years). Overall effectiveness of tailored therapy was
      84% without statistical difference among subgroups (88.5% acid reflux, 92% non
      acid reflux, 66.6% functional heartburn; P=0.06). Univariate analysis showed that
      therapy failure directly correlated with functional heartburn diagnosis (OR=4.60)
      and suggested a trend toward a negative correlation with smoking and a positive
      one with nausea. However, at multivariate analysis, these parameters were not
      significant. Functional heartburn experienced a lower median percent VAS
      reduction than acid reflux (52.5% versus 66.6%, P<0.01) even if equal to non-acid
      reflux (66.6%). In conclusion, a tailored approach to refractory NERD, guided by
      MII-pH monitoring, demonstrated to be effective and should be promising to cure
      symptom persistence after conventional therapy failure. Nevertheless,
      standardized guidelines are advisable.

PMID- 28880274
TI  - The functional relationship between transglutaminase 2 and transforming growth
      factor beta1 in the regulation of angiogenesis and endothelial-mesenchymal
      transition.
AB  - The importance of transglutaminase 2 (TG2) in angiogenesis has been highlighted
      in recent studies, but other roles of this multi-functional enzyme in endothelial
      cell (EC) function still remains to be fully elucidated. We previously showed
      that the extracellular TG2 is involved in maintaining tubule formation in ECs by
      a mechanism involving matrix-bound vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      signalling. Here, by using the ECs and fibroblast co-culture and ECs 3D culture
      models, we demonstrate a further role for TG2 in both endothelial tubule
      formation and in tubule loss, which involves its role in the regulation of
      transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1) and Smad signalling. We demonstrate
      that inhibition of tubule formation by TG2 inhibitors can be restored by add-back
      of exogenous TGFbeta1 at pg/ml levels and show that TG2 -/- mouse ECs are unable
      to form tubules in 3D culture and display negligible Smad signalling compared to
      wild-type cells. Loss of tubule formation in the TG2 -/- ECs can be reconstituted
      by transduction with TG2. We demonstrate that extracellular TG2 also has an
      important role in TGFbeta1-induced transition of ECs into myofibroblast-like
      cells (endothelial-mesenchymal transition), resulting in loss of EC tubules and
      tubule formation. Our data also indicate that TG2 may have a role in regulating
      TGFbeta signalling through entrapment of active TGFbeta1 into the extracellular
      matrix. In conclusion, our work demonstrates that TG2 has multi-functional roles
      in ECs where its ability to fine-tune of TGFbeta1 signalling means it can be
      involved in both endothelial tubule formation and tubule rarefaction.

PMID- 28880275
TI  - LGR5 promotes cancer stem cell traits and chemoresistance in cervical cancer.
AB  - Cancer stem cells (CSCs), also known as tumor-initiating cells, contribute to
      tumorigenesis, resistance to chemoradiotherapy and recurrence in human cancers,
      suggesting targeting CSCs may represent a potential therapeutic strategy. Leucine
      rich repeat-containing G-protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) has recently been
      found to be a bona fide marker of colorectal CSCs. Our previous study showed that
      LGR5 functions as a tumor promoter in cervical cancer by activating the Wnt/beta
      catenin pathway. However, very little is known about the function or contribution
      of LGR5 to cervical CSCs. Here, we have modulated the expression of LGR5 using an
      overexpression vector or short hairpin RNA in cervical cancer cell lines. We
      demonstrated that elevated LGR5 expression in cervical cancer cells increased
      tumorsphere-forming efficiency; conferred chemoresistance to cisplatin treatment;
      augmented cell migration, invasion and clonogenicity; and elevated the levels of
      stem cell-related transcription factors in vitro. Furthermore, modulated LGR5+
      cells, unlike LGR5- cells, were highly tumorigenic in vivo. In addition, the
      modulated LGR5+ cells could give rise to both LGR5+ and LGR5- cells in vitro and
      in vivo, thereby establishing a cellular hierarchy. Finally, we found that the
      increased tumorsphere-forming efficiency induced by LGR5 could be regulated
      through the inhibition or activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in cervical
      cancer cells. Taken together, these results indicate that LGR5 has a vital
      oncogenic role by promoting cervical CSC traits and may represent a potential
      clinical target.

PMID- 28880277
TI  - Use of a neonatal rat system as a bioincubator to generate adult-like mature
      cardiomyocytes from human and mouse pluripotent stem cells.
AB  - Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including induced PSCs, hold great potential for
      personalized disease modeling, drug testing and cell-based therapeutics. However,
      cells differentiated from PSCs remain immature in a dish, and thus there are
      serious caveats to their use in modeling adult-onset diseases such as
      cardiomyopathies and Alzheimer's disease. By taking advantage of knowledge gained
      about mammalian development and from bioinformatics analyses, we recently
      developed a neonatal rat system that enables maturation of PSC-derived
      cardiomyocytes into cardiomyocytes analogous to those seen in adult animals. Here
      we describe a detailed protocol that describes how to initiate the in vitro
      differentiation of mouse and human PSCs into cardiac progenitor cells, followed
      by intramyocardial delivery of the progenitor cells into neonatal rat hearts, in
      vivo incubation and analysis. The entire process takes ~6 weeks, and the
      resulting cardiomyocytes can be analyzed for morphology, function and gene
      expression. The neonatal system provides a valuable tool for understanding the
      maturation and pathogenesis of adult human heart muscle cells, and this concept
      may be expanded to maturing other PSC-derived cell types, including those
      containing mutations that lead to the development of diseases in the adult.

PMID- 28880278
TI  - Preparation of biogenic gas vesicle nanostructures for use as contrast agents for
      ultrasound and MRI.
AB  - Gas vesicles (GVs) are a unique class of gas-filled protein nanostructures that
      are detectable at subnanomolar concentrations and whose physical properties allow
      them to serve as highly sensitive imaging agents for ultrasound and MRI. Here we
      provide a protocol for isolating GVs from native and heterologous host organisms,
      functionalizing these nanostructures with moieties for targeting and
      fluorescence, characterizing their biophysical properties and imaging them using
      ultrasound and MRI. GVs can be isolated from natural cyanobacterial and
      haloarchaeal host organisms or from Escherichia coli expressing a heterologous GV
      gene cluster and purified using buoyancy-assisted techniques. They can then be
      modified by replacing surface-bound proteins with engineered, heterologously
      expressed variants or through chemical conjugation, resulting in altered
      mechanical, surface and targeting properties. Pressurized absorbance spectroscopy
      is used to characterize their mechanical properties, whereas dynamic light
      scattering (DLS)and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to determine
      nanoparticle size and morphology, respectively. GVs can then be imaged with
      ultrasound in vitro and in vivo using pulse sequences optimized for their
      detection versus background. They can also be imaged with hyperpolarized xenon
      MRI using chemical exchange saturation transfer between GV-bound and dissolved
      xenon-a technique currently implemented in vitro. Taking 3-8 d to prepare, these
      genetically encodable nanostructures enable multimodal, noninvasive biological
      imaging with high sensitivity and potential for molecular targeting.

PMID- 28880276
TI  - LncRNA ZNF503-AS1 promotes RPE differentiation by downregulating ZNF503
      expression.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have important roles in various biological
      processes. Our previous work has revealed that dedifferentiation of retinal
      pigment epithelium (RPE) cells contributes to the pathology of age-related
      macular degeneration (AMD). Herein, we show roles of lncRNAs in RPE
      differentiation. We used microarray to identify lncRNA expression profiles in
      human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and hiPSC-derived RPE cells. A
      total of 217 differentially expressed lncRNAs along with the differentiation were
      initially identified, among which 13 lncRNAs showed a consistent fold change of
      over 2. LncRNA ZNF503-AS1, located in the cytoplasm of RPE cells, was found
      consistently upregulated along with RPE differentiation, and downregulated in the
      RPE-choroid of AMD patients. In vitro study further suggested that ZNF503-AS1
      insufficiency could inhibit RPE differentiation, and promote its proliferation
      and migration. As ZNF503-AS1 is transcribed from the antisense strand of the
      ZNF503 gene locus, we further revealed its regulatory role in ZNF503 expression.
      ZNF503-AS1 was reversely correlated with ZNF503 expression. Our results also
      suggested that ZNF503 could inhibit RPE differentiation, and promote its
      proliferation and migration. Thus, ZNF503-AS1 potentially promotes RPE
      differentiation through downregulation of ZNF503 expression. In addition, nuclear
      factor-kappaB was recognized as a potential upstream transcript factor for ZNF503
      AS1, which might participate in promoting RPE differentiation by regulating the
      expression of ZNF503-AS1. Taken together, our study identifies a group of RPE
      differentiation relevant lncRNAs, and the potential role of ZNF503-AS1 in the
      pathology of atrophic AMD, which might help with the intervention of AMD
      patients.

PMID- 28880279
TI  - Live-cell confocal microscopy and quantitative 4D image analysis of anchor-cell
      invasion through the basement membrane in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Cell invasion through basement membrane (BM) barriers is crucial in development,
      leukocyte trafficking and the spread of cancer. The mechanisms that direct
      invasion, despite their importance in normal and disease states, are poorly
      understood, largely because of the inability to visualize dynamic cell-BM
      interactions in vivo. This protocol describes multichannel time-lapse confocal
      imaging of anchor-cell invasion in live Caenorhabditis elegans. Methods presented
      include outline-slide preparation and worm growth synchronization (15 min),
      mounting (20 min), image acquisition (20-180 min), image processing (20 min) and
      quantitative analysis (variable timing). The acquired images enable direct
      measurement of invasive dynamics including formation of invadopodia and cell
      membrane protrusions, and removal of BM. This protocol can be combined with
      genetic analysis, molecular-activity probes and optogenetic approaches to uncover
      the molecular mechanisms underlying cell invasion. These methods can also be
      readily adapted by any worm laboratory for real-time analysis of cell migration,
      BM turnover and cell-membrane dynamics.

PMID- 28880280
TI  - Multiparametric characterization of rare HIV-infected cells using an RNA-flow
      FISH technique.
AB  - Efforts to cure HIV are hampered by limited characterization of the cells
      supporting HIV replication in vivo and inadequate methods for quantifying the
      latent viral reservoir in individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). We
      describe a protocol for flow cytometric identification of viral reservoirs, based
      on concurrent detection of cellular HIV Gagpol mRNA by in situ RNA hybridization
      combined with antibody staining for the HIV Gag protein. By simultaneously
      detecting both HIV RNA and protein, the CD4 T cells harboring translation
      competent virus can be identified. The HIVRNA/Gag method is 1,000-fold more
      sensitive than Gag protein staining alone, with a detection limit of 0.5-1 Gagpol
      mRNA+/Gag protein+ cells per million CD4 T cells. Uniquely, the HIVRNA/Gag assay
      also allows parallel phenotyping of viral reservoirs, including reactivated
      latent reservoirs in clinical samples. The assay takes 2 d, and requires antibody
      labeling for surface and intracellular markers, followed by mRNA labeling and
      multiple signal amplification steps.

PMID- 28880282
TI  - Quantum gravity: Quantum effects in the gravitational field.

PMID- 28880281
TI  - A right-handed signalling pathway drives heart looping in vertebrates.
AB  - Most animals show external bilateral symmetry, which hinders the observation of
      multiple internal left-right (L/R) asymmetries that are fundamental to organ
      packaging and function. In vertebrates, left identity is mediated by the left
      specific Nodal-Pitx2 axis that is repressed on the right-hand side by the
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) inducer Snail1 (refs 3, 4). Despite some
      existing evidence, it remains unclear whether an equivalent instructive pathway
      provides right-hand-specific information to the embryo. Here we show that, in
      zebrafish, BMP mediates the L/R asymmetric activation of another EMT inducer,
      Prrx1a, in the lateral plate mesoderm with higher levels on the right. Prrx1a
      drives L/R differential cell movements towards the midline, leading to a leftward
      displacement of the cardiac posterior pole through an actomyosin-dependent
      mechanism. Downregulation of Prrx1a prevents heart looping and leads to
      mesocardia. Two parallel and mutually repressed pathways, respectively driven by
      Nodal and BMP on the left and right lateral plate mesoderm, converge on the
      asymmetric activation of the transcription factors Pitx2 and Prrx1, which
      integrate left and right information to govern heart morphogenesis. This
      mechanism is conserved in the chicken embryo, and in the mouse SNAIL1 acts in a
      similar manner to Prrx1a in zebrafish and PRRX1 in the chick. Thus, a
      differential L/R EMT produces asymmetric cell movements and forces, more
      prominent from the right, that drive heart laterality in vertebrates.

PMID- 28880285
TI  - Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017).

PMID- 28880284
TI  - Direct instrumental identification of catalytically active surface sites.
AB  - The activity of heterogeneous catalysts-which are involved in some 80 per cent of
      processes in the chemical and energy industries-is determined by the electronic
      structure of specific surface sites that offer optimal binding of reaction
      intermediates. Directly identifying and monitoring these sites during a reaction
      should therefore provide insight that might aid the targeted development of
      heterogeneous catalysts and electrocatalysts (those that participate in
      electrochemical reactions) for practical applications. The invention of the
      scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) and the electrochemical STM promised to
      deliver such imaging capabilities, and both have indeed contributed greatly to
      our atomistic understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. But although the STM has
      been used to probe and initiate surface reactions, and has even enabled local
      measurements of reactivity in some systems, it is not generally thought to be
      suited to the direct identification of catalytically active surface sites under
      reaction conditions. Here we demonstrate, however, that common STMs can readily
      map the catalytic activity of surfaces with high spatial resolution: we show that
      by monitoring relative changes in the tunnelling current noise, active sites can
      be distinguished in an almost quantitative fashion according to their ability to
      catalyse the hydrogen-evolution reaction or the oxygen-reduction reaction. These
      data allow us to evaluate directly the importance and relative contribution to
      overall catalyst activity of different defects and sites at the boundaries
      between two materials. With its ability to deliver such information and its ready
      applicability to different systems, we anticipate that our method will aid the
      rational design of heterogeneous catalysts.

PMID- 28880287
TI  - Molecular biology: Rhino gives voice to silent chromatin.

PMID- 28880288
TI  - Applied physics: Quantum signals could soon span the globe.

PMID- 28880289
TI  - Herbarium collections: Venezuela's botanic heritage in jeopardy.

PMID- 28880292
TI  - Biomedical literature: Testers wanted for article search tool.

PMID- 28880290
TI  - Tribute to Daedalus: Fertile mind that led to unexpected places.

PMID- 28880294
TI  - Discrete and broadband electron acceleration in Jupiter's powerful aurora.
AB  - The most intense auroral emissions from Earth's polar regions, called discrete
      for their sharply defined spatial configurations, are generated by a process
      involving coherent acceleration of electrons by slowly evolving, powerful
      electric fields directed along the magnetic field lines that connect Earth's
      space environment to its polar regions. In contrast, Earth's less intense auroras
      are generally caused by wave scattering of magnetically trapped populations of
      hot electrons (in the case of diffuse aurora) or by the turbulent or stochastic
      downward acceleration of electrons along magnetic field lines by waves during
      transitory periods (in the case of broadband or Alfvenic aurora). Jupiter's
      relatively steady main aurora has a power density that is so much larger than
      Earth's that it has been taken for granted that it must be generated primarily by
      the discrete auroral process. However, preliminary in situ measurements of
      Jupiter's auroral regions yielded no evidence of such a process. Here we report
      observations of distinct, high-energy, downward, discrete electron acceleration
      in Jupiter's auroral polar regions. We also infer upward magnetic-field-aligned
      electric potentials of up to 400 kiloelectronvolts, an order of magnitude larger
      than the largest potentials observed at Earth. Despite the magnitude of these
      upward electric potentials and the expectations from observations at Earth, the
      downward energy flux from discrete acceleration is less at Jupiter than that
      caused by broadband or stochastic processes, with broadband and stochastic
      characteristics that are substantially different from those at Earth.

PMID- 28880295
TI  - Surface science: Catalytic hotspots get noisy.

PMID- 28880296
TI  - Materials science: Pulley protection in batteries.

PMID- 28880298
TI  - North Korea's nuclear test, cash for Italy's scientists and Zika-vaccine pause.

PMID- 28880297
TI  - How labs are coping with Hurricane Harvey's devastating floods.

PMID- 28880299
TI  - Germany must go back to its low-carbon future.

PMID- 28880301
TI  - Budget battle looms for US science programmes.

PMID- 28880300
TI  - Stop this waste of people, animals and money.

PMID- 28880302
TI  - Skeleton plundered from Mexican cave was one of the Americas' oldest.

PMID- 28880303
TI  - Massive Ebola data site planned to combat outbreaks.

PMID- 28880304
TI  - Plot a course through the genome.

PMID- 28880305
TI  - Artificial warming trial reveals striking sea-floor changes.

PMID- 28880306
TI  - Cuckoo call adds another layer of deception.

PMID- 28880307
TI  - Merkel deserves another term as German chancellor.

PMID- 28880308
TI  - Illegitimate journals scam even senior scientists.

PMID- 28880309
TI  - Science must acknowledge its past mistakes and crimes.

PMID- 28880310
TI  - The secret to Germany's scientific excellence.

PMID- 28880311
TI  - Scavenger templates: a systems chemistry approach to the synthesis of porphyrin
      based molecular wires.
AB  - A hexa-pyridyl template can be used as a scavenger to facilitate the synthesis of
      a linear porphyrin dodecamer from a mixture of linear hexamers with one or two
      terminal reactive groups. The template suppresses polymer formation by rapidly
      cyclizing the fully deprotected hexamer, thus up-regulating formation of the
      linear dodecamer.

PMID- 28880312
TI  - Faradaic processes beyond Nernst's law: density functional theory assisted
      modelling of partial electron delocalisation and pseudocapacitance in graphene
      oxides.
AB  - The study of electron delocalisation in oxygen atom segregated zones in graphene,
      aided by the first-principles density functional theory, has revealed extra
      energy bands of >=2 eV wide around the Fermi level, predicting Faradaic charge
      storage occurring in a wide range of potentials, which disagrees with Nernst's
      law but accounts well for the so called pseudocapacitance of heteroatom-modified
      graphene based electrode materials in supercapacitors.

PMID- 28880313
TI  - 3D printed poly(epsilon-caprolactone) scaffolds modified with hydroxyapatite and
      poly(propylene fumarate) and their effects on the healing of rabbit femur
      defects.
AB  - A large variety of approaches have been used to treat large and irregular shaped
      bone defects with less than optimal success due to material or design issues. In
      recent years patient specific constructs prepared by additive manufacturing
      provided a solution to the need for shaping implants to fit irregular defects in
      the surgery theater. In this study, cylindrical disks of poly(epsilon
      caprolactone) (PCL) were printed by fused deposition modeling and modified with
      nanohydroxyapatite (HAp) and poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF) to create a
      mechanically strong implant with well-defined pore size and porosity,
      controllable surface hydrophilicity (with PPF) and osteoconductivity (with HAp).
      Cytotoxicity, irritation and inflammation tests demonstrated that the scaffolds
      were biocompatible. PCL/HAp and PCL/HAp/PPF scaffolds were implanted in the
      femurs of rabbits with and without seeding with rabbit Bone Marrow Stem Cells
      (BMSC) and examined after 4 and 8 weeks with micro-CT, mechanically and
      histologically. BMSC seeded PCL/HAp/PPF scaffolds showed improved tissue
      regeneration as determined by bone mineral density and micro-CT. Compressive and
      tension stiffness values (394 and 463 N mm-1) were significantly higher than
      those of the healthy rabbit femur (316 and 392 N mm-1, respectively) after 8
      weeks of implantation. These 3D implants have great potential for patient
      specific bone defect treatments.

PMID- 28880315
TI  - A methyl pivalate based electrolyte for non-aqueous lithium-oxygen batteries.
AB  - A methyl pivalate (MP) based electrolyte was for the first time reported for non
      aqueous lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries. This new electrolyte in both superoxide
      radical solution and a real Li-O2 battery environment showed good chemical
      stability against superoxide radicals, which was confirmed by 1H NMR and 13C NMR
      measurements.

PMID- 28880314
TI  - High yielding and extremely site-selective covalent functionalization of
      graphene.
AB  - We describe a method to functionalize graphene covalently with 92% yield and 98%
      site-selectivity and strict spatial periodicity on the nanometer scale. This
      method could be extended to other functional molecules.

PMID- 28880317
TI  - Two fluorescein-based chemosensors for the fast detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol
      (TNP) in water.
AB  - Two fluorescein-based chemosensors have been developed. They exhibited rapid and
      selective detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) via fluorescence quenching both
      in ethanol and water solution when excited by visible light.

PMID- 28880316
TI  - A modular design for minor groove binding and recognition of mixed base pair
      sequences of DNA.
AB  - The design and synthesis of compounds that target mixed, AT/GC, DNA sequences is
      described. The design concept connects two N-methyl-benzimidazole-thiophene
      single GC recognition units with a flexible linker that lets the compound fit the
      shape and twist of the DNA minor groove while covering a full turn of the double
      helix.

PMID- 28880318
TI  - Palladium-catalyzed oxidative amination of homoallylic alcohols: sequentially
      installing carbonyl and amino groups along an alkyl chain.
AB  - A novel Pd-catalyzed intermolecular cascade oxidative amination of homoallylic
      alcohols to yield beta-amino ketones has been developed by using TBHP as the
      terminal oxidant. The synthetic utility of the reaction can be performed by
      installing the carbonyl and amino groups along an alkyl chain in one step,
      offering several advantages such as simple starting materials and easy operation.
      The resultant beta-amino ketones should have potential applications in the fields
      of biopharmaceutical and functional materials.

PMID- 28880319
TI  - Rational design of a fast and selective near-infrared fluorescent probe for
      targeted monitoring of endogenous nitric oxide.
AB  - The real-time monitoring of nitric oxide (NO) at the subcellular level is still a
      great challenge. To attain this goal, we developed a fast and selective near
      infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe for the targeted tracing of endogenous NO. This
      probe possesses vital features for the real-time detection of intracellular NO
      including a significant turn-on NIR response, high specificity, and a fast
      response by a controlled photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process, which is
      applicable to the real-time monitoring of endogenous NO in mitochondria.

PMID- 28880320
TI  - Using a non-spin flip model to rationalize the irregular patterns observed in the
      activation of the C-H and Si-H bonds of small molecules by CpMCO (M = Co, Rh)
      complexes.
AB  - The activation of the C-H and Si-H bonds of CH(CH3)3 and SiH(CH3)3 molecules by
      organometallic compounds CpMCO (M = Co, Rh) has been investigated through DFT and
      CASSCF-MRMP2 calculations. In particular, we have analyzed the pathways joining
      the lowest-lying triplet and singlet states of the reactants with the products
      arising from the insertion of the metal atom into the C-H or Si-H bonds of the
      organic molecules. Channels connecting the reactants with the inserted structure
      Cp(CO)H-M-C(CH3)3 through the oxidative addition of the C-H bond of the organic
      molecule to the metal fragment were found only for the reaction CpRhCO +
      CH(CH3)3. However, inserted structures could also be obtained for the
      interactions of SiH(CH3)3 with CpCoCO and CpRhCO by two sequential reactions
      involving the formation and rebounding of the radical fragments Cp(CO)H-M +
      Si(CH3)3. According to this two-step reaction scheme, the complex CpCoCO is
      unable to activate the C-H bond of the CH(CH3)3 molecule due to the high energy
      at which the radical fragments Cp(CO)H-M + C(CH3)3 are located. The picture
      attained for these interactions is consistent with the available experimental
      data for this kind of reaction and allows rationalization of the differences in
      the reactivity patterns determined for them without using spin-flip models, as
      has been proposed in previous studies.

PMID- 28880321
TI  - Real-time dynamic SERS detection of galectin using glycan-decorated gold
      nanoparticles.
AB  - We present the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
      spectroscopy for the fast, sensitive and highly specific detection of the
      galectin-9 (Gal-9) protein in binding buffer (mimicking natural conditions). The
      method involves the use of specifically designed nanotags comprising glycan
      decorated gold nanoparticles encoded with 4-mercaptobenzoic acid. At fast time
      scales Gal-9 can be detected down to a concentration of 1.2 nM by monitoring the
      SERS signal of the reporter, driven by aggregation of the functionalized Au NPs
      tags, induced by Gal-9 recognition. We additionally demonstrate that the
      sensitivity and concentration working range of the sensor can be tuned via
      control of aggregation dynamics and cluster size distribution.

PMID- 28880322
TI  - Peptides, polypeptides and peptide-polymer hybrids as nucleic acid carriers.
AB  - Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), and protein transduction domains (PTDs) of
      viruses and other natural proteins serve as a template for the development of
      efficient peptide based gene delivery vectors. PTDs are sequences of acidic or
      basic amphipathic amino acids, with superior membrane trespassing efficacies.
      Gene delivery vectors derived from these natural, cationic and cationic
      amphipathic peptides, however, offer little flexibility in tailoring the
      physicochemical properties of single chain peptide based systems. Owing to
      significant advances in the field of peptide chemistry, synthetic mimics of
      natural peptides are often prepared and have been evaluated for their gene
      expression, as a function of amino acid functionalities, architecture and net
      cationic content of peptide chains. Moreover, chimeric single polypeptide chains
      are prepared by a combination of multiple small natural or synthetic peptides,
      which imparts distinct physiological properties to peptide based gene delivery
      therapeutics. In order to obtain multivalency and improve the gene delivery
      efficacies of low molecular weight cationic peptides, bioactive peptides are
      often incorporated into a polymeric architecture to obtain novel 'polymer-peptide
      hybrids' with improved gene delivery efficacies. Peptide modified polymers
      prepared by physical or chemical modifications exhibit enhanced endosomal escape,
      stimuli responsive degradation and targeting efficacies, as a function of
      physicochemical and biological activities of peptides attached onto a polymeric
      scaffold. The focus of this review is to provide comprehensive and step-wise
      progress in major natural and synthetic peptides, chimeric polypeptides, and
      peptide-polymer hybrids for nucleic acid delivery applications.

PMID- 28880323
TI  - Wormlike micelles versus water-soluble polymers as rheology-modifiers:
      similarities and differences.
AB  - Wormlike micelles (WLMs) formed from surfactants have attracted much attention
      for their ability to thicken water in a manner similar to water-soluble polymers.
      It is known that WLMs are cylindrical filaments that can attain very long contour
      lengths (~few MUm), akin to chains of polymers with ultra-high molecular weights
      (UHMWs). In this study, we aim to make a direct comparison between the thickening
      capabilities of WLMs and UHMW polymers. The chosen surfactant is erucyl dimethyl
      amidopropyl betaine (EDAB), a C22-tailed zwitterionic surfactant known to form
      particularly long WLMs independent of salt. The chosen polymer is nonionic
      polyacrylamide (PAM) having an UHMW of 12 MDa. Both EDAB WLMs and the PAM show
      strong thickening capability in saline water at 25  degrees C, but the WLMs are
      more efficient. For example, a 1.0 wt% EDAB WLM sample has a similar zero-shear
      viscosity eta0 (~40 000 mPa s) to a 2.5 wt% PAM solution. When temperature is
      increased, both samples show an exponential reduction in viscosity, but the WLMs
      are more sensitive to temperature. Microstructural differences between the two
      systems are confirmed by data from small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and cryo
      transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). As expected, the key differences are
      that the WLM chains have a larger core radius (Rcore) and in turn, a longer
      persistence length (lp) than the PAM chains.

PMID- 28880324
TI  - Electrografted monolayer based on a naphthalene diimide-ruthenium terpyridine
      complex dyad: efficient creation of large-area molecular junctions with high
      current densities.
AB  - An electron donor-acceptor dyad has been designed for the creation of large-area
      molecular junctions (MJ). Diazonium cation electrografting was used to form well
      controlled monolayers. The robustness of the monolayer enabled the creation of
      MJs using direct top-coat evaporation with a high yield of operating devices.

PMID- 28880326
TI  - Fast flip-flop of halogenated cobalt bis(dicarbollide) anion in a lipid bilayer
      membrane.
AB  - Transmembrane translocation (flip-flop) of cobalt bis(dicarbollide) (COSAN)
      anions, elicited by application of a voltage-jump across the lipid bilayer
      membrane, manifested itself in monoexponential electrical current transients in
      the microsecond time scale. Halogenation of COSAN led to multi-fold acceleration
      of the flip-flop, the effect increasing with the molecular weight of the
      halogens. The exception was a fluorinated analog which exhibited slowing of the
      translocation kinetics. Measurements of the fluorescence ratio of the dye di-4
      ANEPPS in lipid vesicles showed significant differences in the adsorption of
      studied hydrophobic anions. Based on these data, it can be concluded that COSAN
      and COSAN-F2 were located on the surface of the lipid membrane in the cisoid
      conformation increasing the dipole potential of the lipid membrane, while other
      halogenated COSAN analogs were adsorbed in the transoid conformation. Differences
      in the flip-flop kinetics of COSAN analogs were attributed to variation in the
      molecular volume of the anions and their orientation on the membrane surface.

PMID- 28880325
TI  - Computational study on the origin of the cancer immunotherapeutic potential of B
      and T cell epitope peptides.
AB  - Immune therapy is generally seen as the future of cancer treatment. The discovery
      of tumor-associated antigens and cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitope peptides spurned
      intensive research into effective peptide-based cancer vaccines. One of the major
      obstacles hindering the development of peptide-based cancer vaccines is the lack
      of humoral response induction. As of now, very limited work has been performed to
      identify epitope peptides capable of inducing both cellular and humoral
      anticancer responses. In addition, no research has been carried out to analyze
      the structure and properties of peptides responsible for such immunological
      activities. This study utilizes a machine learning method together with
      interpretable descriptors in an attempt to identify parameters determining the
      immunotherapeutic activity of cancer epitope peptides.

PMID- 28880327
TI  - Liposome-encoded magnetic beads initiated by padlock exponential rolling circle
      amplification for portable and accurate quantification of microRNAs.
AB  - Development of reliable and affordable quantitative methods for miRNAs with high
      specificity and sensitivity is a central challenge to make miRNA testing a
      routine part of medical care with respect to cancer. Herein, we propose a
      strategy for glucoamylase-encapsulated liposome-encoded magnetic beads initiated
      by padlock exponential rolling circle amplification (P-ERCA) for portable and
      accurate quantification of miRNA by using a glucometer readout.

PMID- 28880328
TI  - Visible-light/temperature dual-responsive hydrogel constructed by alpha
      cyclodextrin and an azobenzene linked surfactant.
AB  - A novel photo-responsive anionic surfactant with a dimethylamino-substituted
      azobenzene located at the end of the hydrophobic chain, 6-(4
      dimethylaminoazobenzene-4'-oxy)hexanoate sodium (DAH), has been designed. Through
      the host-guest interaction in aqueous solution, the trans-DAH could be
      spontaneously included by using two native alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CD)
      molecules. The formed hydrophilic inclusion complex (DAH@2alpha-CD), however,
      could act as a gelator to induce the formation of a supramolecular hydrogel,
      which is driven mainly by hydrogen bonds between neighboring alpha-CDs and also
      between the carboxylate in DAH and water. Compared with common hydrogels that
      consist of networks with fibres or discrete polymer chains, the hydrogel formed
      by DAH@2alpha-CD was composed of periodic lamellar structures possessing good
      shear-thinning behavior and much swollen water layers. The more interesting point
      for such a hydrogel was its visible-light responsibility for gel-sol reversible
      phase transition. This originated from the introduction of an electron-donating
      group (dimethylamino) to azobenzene, which noticeably red-shifted the responsive
      wavelength for its trans-to-cis isomerization. It was also worth noting that the
      host-guest interaction between azobenzene in DAH and alpha-CD significantly
      improved the photo-transition efficiency from trans to cis forms of azobenzene,
      which played a critical role in the visible-light responsibility of the hydrogel.
      This unique visible-light-responsive behavior combined with the inherent thermo
      responsive property from alpha-CD should make the prepared hydrogel find more
      potential applications in biomedical systems.

PMID- 28880329
TI  - Exploiting Le Chatelier's principle for a one-pot synthesis of nontoxic HHogGNPs
      with the sharpest nanoscopic features suitable for tunable plasmon spectroscopy
      and high throughput SERS sensing.
AB  - Applying Le Chatelier's principle, a one-pot synthesis method is reported that
      generates highly anisotropic hedgehog gold nanoparticles (HHogGNPs), undemanding
      of a preformed seed or surfactant. These non-toxic HHogGNPs are potent candidates
      for nanomedicinal applications owing to their broad-band plasmon tunability,
      gigantic Raman enhancement and remarkable retention in a highly salted
      physiological environment.

PMID- 28880330
TI  - Effect of mode of addition of flaxseed oil on the quality characteristics of
      chicken sausage containing vitamin E and omega 3 fatty acids at levels to support
      a health claim.
AB  - Vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids can be incorporated into meat products at
      levels supporting health claims of "protecting against oxidative stress" and
      "maintaining normal blood cholesterol levels", respectively. Chicken sausages
      were formulated to contain vitamin E (12 mg per 100 g) and flaxseed oil (2 g per
      100 g) using different oil incorporation methods. The formulations were: (1)
      control (no oil); (2) oil; (3) emulsified oil; (4) freeze-dried encapsulated oil;
      (5) freeze-dried encapsulated oil with cross-linker genipin; (6) spray-dried
      encapsulated oil. alpha-Linolenic acid and alpha-tocopherol were retained in all
      fortified formulations at levels to meet nutrient and health claims but
      emulsification or encapsulation had no additional benefit in retention following
      cooking or on product quality as measured by proximate composition, lipid
      oxidation, colour, microbial analysis, cook loss and texture profile analysis.
      While the addition of flaxseed oil had a negative effect on consumer acceptance
      of flavour (although not when emulsified), overall acceptance of the chicken
      sausages was only reduced significantly (p <= 0.05) when oil was encapsulated.

PMID- 28880331
TI  - Ciliary Muscle Electrostimulation to Restore Accommodation in Patients With Early
      Presbyopia: Preliminary Results.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report short-term results of pulsed ciliary muscle electrostimulation
      to improve near vision, likely through restoring accommodation in patients with
      emmetropic presbyopia. METHODS: In a prospective non-randomized trial, 27
      patients from 40 to 51 years old were treated and 13 age- and refraction-matched
      individuals served as untreated controls. All patients had emmetropia and needed
      near sphere add between +0.75 and +1.50 diopters. The protocol included four
      sessions (one every 2 weeks within a 2-month period) of bilateral pulsed (2 sec
      on; 6 sec off) micro-electrostimulation with 26 mA for 8 minutes, using a
      commercially available medical device. The uncorrected distance visual acuity
      (UDVA) (logMAR) for each eye, uncorrected near (40 cm) visual acuity in each eye
      (UNVA) and with both eyes (UNVA OU) (logMAR), and reading speed (number of words
      read per minute at 40 cm) were measured preoperatively and 2 weeks after each
      session. Overall satisfaction (0 to 4 scale) was assessed 2 weeks after the last
      session. RESULTS: UDVA did not change and no adverse events were noted in either
      group. Bilateral and monocular UNVA and reading speed were stable in the control
      group, whereas they continuously improved in the treated group (Friedman, P <
      .00001). Post-hoc significant differences were found for monocular and binocular
      UNVA after the second treatment and after the first treatment considering words
      read per minute (P < .001). One patient (3.7%) was not satisfied and 18 patients
      (66.7%) were very satisfied (score of 4). Average satisfaction score was 3
      (satisfied). CONCLUSIONS: Ciliary muscle contraction to restore accommodation was
      safe and improved the short-term accommodative ability of patients with early
      emmetropic presbyopia. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):578-583.].

PMID- 28880332
TI  - A Technique to Reduce Incidence of Opaque Bubble Layer Formation During LASIK
      Flap Creation Using the VisuMax Femtosecond Laser.
AB  - PURPOSE: To identify risk factors for opaque bubble layer (OBL) formation and
      compare the incidence of OBL using a cone modification technique versus the
      original technique for LASIK flap creation using the VisuMax laser (Carl Zeiss
      Meditec, Jena, Germany). METHODS: This retrospective study examined videos of
      flap creation using the VisuMax laser to identify OBL occurrence. Eyes were
      divided into three groups: eyes where OBL occurred using the original technique
      (OBL group), eyes where OBL did not occur using the original technique (no OBL
      group), and eyes in which the cone modification technique was used for LASIK flap
      creation (larger flap diameter) (cone modification technique group). Preoperative
      measurements including simulated keratometry (flat and steep) values, white-to
      white distance (WTW), pachymetry, patient age and gender, amount of correction,
      flap parameters, energy setting, corneal hysteresis, and corneal resistance
      factor were analyzed to identify parameters with statistical difference between
      the OBL and no OBL groups. Incidence of OBL was compared between the original and
      cone modification techniques. RESULTS: OBL incidence was significantly lower with
      the cone modification technique (7.6%; 7 of 92 eyes) than with the original
      technique (28.8%; 34 of 118 eyes) (Fisher's exact test, P = .0009). Factors
      identified with a significant difference between eyes with and without OBL using
      the original technique were: corneal thickness (OBL: 561.2 MUm, no OBL: 549.6
      MUm, P = .0132), WTW diameter (OBL: 11.6 mm, no OBL: 11.9 mm, P = .0048), corneal
      resistance factor (OBL: 10.4 mm Hg, no OBL: 9.6 mm Hg, P = 0.0329), and corneal
      astigmatism (OBL: 0.80 diopter, no OBL: 1.00 diopter, P = .0472) CONCLUSIONS:
      Less astigmatic, thicker, denser, and smaller corneas increased the risk of OBL
      using the original technique for flap creation. The cone modification technique
      was associated with lower risk of OBL formation, even in eyes with significant
      risk factors for OBL using the original technique. [J Refract Surg.
      2017;33(9):584-590.].

PMID- 28880333
TI  - Predicting Refractive Surgery Outcome: Machine Learning Approach With Big Data.
AB  - PURPOSE: To develop a decision forest for prediction of laser refractive surgery
      outcome. METHODS: Data from consecutive cases of patients who underwent LASIK or
      photorefractive surgeries during a 12-year period in a single center were
      assembled into a single dataset. Training of machine-learning classifiers and
      testing were performed with a statistical classifier algorithm. The decision
      forest was created by feature vectors extracted from 17,592 cases and 38 clinical
      parameters for each patient. A 10-fold cross-validation procedure was applied to
      estimate the predictive value of the decision forest when applied to new
      patients. RESULTS: Analysis included patients younger than 40 years who were not
      treated for monovision. Efficacy of 0.7 or greater and 0.8 or greater was
      achieved in 16,198 (92.0%) and 14,945 (84.9%) eyes, respectively. Efficacy of
      less than 0.4 and less than 0.5 was achieved in 322 (1.8%) and 506 (2.9%) eyes,
      respectively. Patients in the low efficacy group (< 0.4) had statistically
      significant differences compared with the high efficacy group (>= 0.8), yet were
      clinically similar (mean differences between groups of 0.7 years, of 0.43 mm in
      pupil size, of 0.11 D in cylinder, of 0.22 logMAR in preoperative CDVA, of 0.11
      mm in optical zone size, of 1.03 D in actual sphere treatment, and of 0.64 D in
      actual cylinder treatment). The preoperative subjective CDVA had the highest gain
      (most important to the model). Correlations analysis revealed significantly
      decreased efficacy with increased age (r = -0.67, P < .001), central corneal
      thickness (r = -0.40, P < .001), mean keratometry (r = -0.33, P < .001), and
      preoperative CDVA (r = -0.47, P < .001). Efficacy increased with pupil size (r =
      0.20, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: This model could support clinical decision making
      and may lead to better individual risk assessment. Expanding the role of machine
      learning in analyzing big data from refractive surgeries may be of interest. [J
      Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):592-597.].

PMID- 28880334
TI  - A Multicenter Retrospective Survey of Refractive Surgery in 78,248 Eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To retrospectively evaluate the current practice, trends, and outcomes
      of refractive surgery in Japan. METHODS: This multicenter survey comprised 78,248
      eyes of 39,727 consecutive patients who underwent refractive surgery at 45 major
      institutions in Japan. The corresponding ophthalmologists responded to a
      selfadministered questionnaire. The authors especially evaluated the safety,
      efficacy, predictability, stability, and adverse events of LASIK and phakic
      intraocular lens (IOL) implantation 3 months postoperatively. RESULTS: The most
      common refractive surgery was LASIK (90.9%), followed by corneal inlay (5.0%),
      posterior chamber phakic IOL implantation (1.3%), laser-assisted subepithelial
      keratomileusis (1.0%), refractive lens exchange (0.9%), photorefractive
      keratectomy (0.3%), and refractive lenticule extraction (0.2%). For subgroup
      analysis, 69,987 eyes (99.5%) and 67,512 eyes (95.9%) achieved corrected and
      uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/20 or better, respectively, after LASIK,
      and 935 eyes (98.8%) and 890 eyes (94.1%), respectively, after phakic IOL
      implantation. There were 69,176 eyes (98.3%) and 908 eyes (96.0%) within +/-1.00
      diopter (D) of the attempted correction after LASIK and phakic IOL implantation,
      respectively. There were 1,926 eyes (2.7%) and 1 eye (0.1%) with changes in
      refraction of 1.00 D or less from 1 week to 3 months after LASIK and phakic IOL
      implantation, respectively. No vision-threatening complications occurred in any
      case. CONCLUSIONS: According to this survey, LASIK remains the most prevalent
      surgical technique in Japan. Both LASIK and phakic IOL implantation offered good
      safety and efficacy outcomes, yielding predictable and stable results. [J Refract
      Surg. 2017;33(9):598-602.].

PMID- 28880335
TI  - Refractive Outcomes of 20 Eyes Undergoing ICL Implantation for Correction of
      Hyperopic Astigmatism.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze 1-week, 1-month, and 12-month postoperative refractive
      outcomes of eyes that under-went ICL implantation to correct hyperopic
      astigmatism. METHODS: The study enrolled 20 eyes of patients with an average age
      of 32 years (range: 21 to 40 years). The outcomes of spherical and cylindrical
      refraction, uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), corrected distance visual
      acuity (CDVA), vault, and angle parameters were evaluated 1 week, 1 month, and 12
      months postoperatively. RESULTS: The preoperative mean UDVA was 0.15 +/- 0.11
      (decimal) (20/133 Snellen) and increased to 0.74 +/- 0.25 (20/27 Snellen)
      postoperatively, with a change of 0.59 (decimal) (20/33.9 Snellen) (P < .0001),
      which was statistically significant. The preoperative mean CDVA was 0.74 +/- 0.25
      (decimal) (20/27 Snellen) and increased to 0.78 +/- 0.21 (20/25 Snellen), with a
      change of 0.03 (decimal) (20/666 Snellen) (P < .052), which was not statistically
      significant. The mean preoperative sphere was 6.86 +/- 1.77 diopters (D) and the
      mean preoperative cylinder was -1.44 +/- 0.88 D. The mean 12-month postoperative
      sphere decreased to 0.46 +/- 0.89 D (P < .001) and cylinder decreased to -0.61 +/
      0.46 D (P < .001), with a change of 6.40 D, both of which were statistically
      significant. The mean 1-month postoperative vault was 0.65 +/- 0.13 mm and
      decreased to 0.613 +/- 0.10 mm at 1 year postoperatively, with a change of 0.44
      mm (P < .003). The preoperative/12-month and 1-month/12-month trabecular-iris
      angle (TIA), trabecular-iris space area 500 mm from the scleral spur (TISA500),
      and angle opening distance 500 mm from the scleral spur (AOD500) values were
      analyzed nasally, temporally, and inferiorly. All differences were statistically
      significant between preoperative/12-month analysis. The only differences between
      1- and 12-month analysis were on TISA500 inferior (P < .002) and AOD500 nasal
      (0.031) values. CONCLUSIONS: ICL hyperopic toric implantation is a safe method
      and provides stable refractive outcomes in patients with high hyperopia (up to
      10.00 D) and astigmatism (up to 6.00 D). [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):604-609.].

PMID- 28880336
TI  - Toric ICL Implantation After Sequential Intracorneal Ring Segments Implantation
      and Corneal Cross-linking in Keratoconus: 2-Year Follow-up.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate 6-month and 2-year safety and clinical outcomes of Visian
      toric Implantable Collamer Lens (toric ICL) (STAAR Surgical, Monrovia, CA)
      implantation for the treatment of residual refractive errors after sequential
      intracorneal ring segments (ICRS) insertion and cross-linking (CXL) in
      keratoconus. METHODS: This consecutive case series included the results of a
      three-step ICRS-CXL-toric ICL procedure in 16 eyes of 13 patients with moderate
      to severe keratoconus (stages II and III of Amsler-Krumeich classification). The
      ICRS and CXL procedures were performed sequentially with an interval of 4 weeks
      and the toric ICL implantation was performed at least 6 months after CXL. Data
      were collected preoperatively, at 6 months after sequential ICRS-CXL, and at 6
      and 24 months following toric ICL implantation. All 16 eyes were evaluated at the
      2-year follow-up. RESULTS: There was a significant decrease in keratometry
      (steep, flat, and maximum) and refraction (sphere and spherical equivalence, but
      not cylinder) and a significant increase in both uncorrected (UDVA) (from 1.06 to
      0.76 logMAR, P = .004) and corrected (CDVA) (from 0.42 to 0.26 logMAR; P = .002)
      distance visual acuity 6 months following sequential ICRS-CXL, whereas UDVA and
      refraction significantly improved 6 months after ICL insertion (UDVA reached 0.33
      logMAR, P = .001). At the 24-month follow-up, UDVA and keratometric readings were
      stable, whereas CDVA, sphere, and cylinder showed a significant improvement.
      CONCLUSIONS: Implantation of Visian toric ICL following sequential ICRS insertion
      and CXL is an effective and safe option for correcting high residual refractive
      error and improving visual acuity in patients with moderate to severe keratoconus
      in the long term. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):610-616.].

PMID- 28880337
TI  - Effect of Lowering Laser Energy on the Surface Roughness of Human Corneal
      Lenticules in SMILE.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the effect of lowering femtosecond laser energy on the
      surface quality of the intrastromal interface during small incision lenticule
      extraction (SMILE). METHODS: Forty age- and diopter-matched female patients (40
      eyes) with moderate myopia received SMILE with different energy levels (100 to
      150 nJ) and fixed spot separation (4.5 MUm). Five human corneal lenticules from
      each energy group were evaluated by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron
      microscopy (SEM). Both anterior and posterior surface characteristics of the
      lenticules were assessed. RESULTS: All measurements of surface roughness were
      approximately three times higher and in the anterior and posterior surface of the
      lenticules with the energy level of 150 nJ than with 100 nJ (P < .001).
      Furthermore, atomic force microscopy analysis found that energy differences of 15
      nJ or more made a significant difference in surface roughness at energy levels of
      115 nJ or higher. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in all
      roughness values of both surfaces among the 100, 105, and 110 nJ groups. In
      addition, all values of surface roughness were significantly positively
      correlated with laser energy for both anterior and posterior surfaces of the
      lenticule (P < .001). Consistent with atomic force microscopy results, SEM also
      showed that the SMILE lenticules in the higher laser energy group had more
      irregular surfaces. CONCLUSIONS: Lowering laser energy levels can improve surface
      quality of the lenticule of SMILE. To achieve better visual outcomes with faster
      recovery after the procedure, it is recommended to reduce the laser energy to
      less than 115 nJ at a spot separation of 4.5 MUm. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):617
      624.].

PMID- 28880338
TI  - Comparison of Corneal Deformation Parameters in Keratoconic and Normal Eyes Using
      a Non-contact Tonometer With a Dynamic Ultra-High-Speed Scheimpflug Camera.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare biomechanical properties in normal and
      keratoconic eyes using a dynamic ultra-high-speed Scheimpflug camera equipped
      with a non-contact tonometer (Corvis ST; Oculus Optikgerate GmbH, Wetzlar,
      Germany). METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated 89 eyes (47 normal, 42
      keratoconic) and a validation arm of 72 eyes (33 normal, 39 keratoconic) using
      the Corvis ST. A diagnosis of keratoconus was established by clinical findings
      confirmed by topography and tomography. Dynamic corneal response parameters
      collected by the Corvis ST (A1 velocity, deformation amplitude [DA], DA Ratio Max
      1mm, and Max Inverse Radius) and a stiffness parameter at first applanation (SP
      A1) were incorporated into a novel logistic regression equation (DCR index). Area
      under the receiver operating curve (AUC) was used to assess the sensitivity and
      specificity of the DCR index. RESULTS: DA, DA Ratio Max 1mm, Max Inverse Radius,
      and SP-A1 were each found to be statistically significantly different between
      normal and keratoconic eyes (Mann-Whitney test [independent samples]; P = .0077,
      < .0001, < .0001, and < .0001, respectively; significance level: P < .05). DCR
      index demonstrated high sensitivity, specificity, and overall correct detection
      rate (92.9%, 95.7%, and 94.4%, respectively; AUC = 98.5). The sensitivity and
      overall correct detection rate improved when eyes with Topographical Keratoconus
      Classification grades (TKC) greater than 0 were reevaluated (from 92.9% to 96.6%
      and from 94.4% to 96.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Combining multiple
      biomechanical parameters (A1 velocity, DA, DA Ratio Max 1mm, Max Inverse Radius,
      and SP-A1) into a logistic regression equation allows for high sensitivity and
      specificity for distinguishing keratoconic from normal eyes. [J Refract Surg.
      2017;33(9):625-631.].

PMID- 28880339
TI  - Comparison of Corneal Dynamic and Tomographic Analysis in Normal, Forme Fruste
      Keratoconic, and Keratoconic Eyes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate and compare the diagnostic ability of corneal tomography
      and dynamic corneal response to differentiate between normal eyes and those with
      forme fruste keratoconus and keratoconus. METHODS: Corneal tomography was
      performed using Pentacam (Pentacam HR; Oculus Optikgerate, Wetzlar, Germany).
      Corneal deformation response was captured via Corvis ST (Optikgerate) using a
      beta version of Corvis software. Classification analysis between normal eyes and
      eyes with forme fruste keratoconus and between normal and keratoconic eyes was
      evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves. The area under the ROC
      curve (AUC) and partial AUC (pAUC) for each classifying parameter were compared.
      RESULTS: Twenty-one patients with forme fruste keratoconus in one eye and
      clinically evident keratoconus in the fellow eye and 38 normal individuals were
      recruited. Overall, 21 eyes with forme fruste keratoconus and 18 eyes with
      keratoconus were compared with 73 normal eyes. The mean age of the participants
      was comparable between groups. Comparative analysis between Pentacam and Corvis
      ST parameters showed significantly lower AUC and pAUC for Corvis ST parameters in
      differentiating keratoconic from normal eyes (P >= .049). However, comparable AUC
      and pAUC was observed between the Corvis Biomechanical Index (AUC = 0.785; pAUC =
      0.079) and D value of the Belin/Ambrosio Enhanced Ectasia Display (AUC = 0.757;
      pAUC = 0.068) (P >= .477) for detection of forme fruste keratoconus with
      sensitivities of 63.2% and 52.6%, given a common specificity of 80.3%.
      CONCLUSIONS: The current study showed the feasibility of use of non-tomographical
      parameters obtained from the Corvis ST for differentiating normal eyes and those
      with forme fruste keratoconus and keratoconus. The diagnostic ability of the
      Corvis ST was comparable to that of the Pentacam for differentiating normal eyes
      and eyes with forme fruste keratoconus. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):632-638.].

PMID- 28880340
TI  - Topography-Guided Photorefractive Keratectomy in the Treatment of Corneal
      Scarring.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the outcome of topography-guided photorefractive keratectomy
      (TG-PRK) in the treatment of patients with corneal scarring. METHODS: A
      retrospective, interventional case series including 6 eyes of 6 patients with
      corneal scarring and irregular astigmatism who underwent TG-PRK. The etiologies
      for scarring were: infectious corneal ulcers, foreign body trauma, LASIK flap
      buttonhole, and lamellar keratoplasties performed to correct corneal perforation
      secondary to corneal melting. Main outcome measures were corrected distance
      visual acuity, uncorrected distance visual acuity, manifest refraction, and
      corneal regularity on topography maps. RESULTS: Average age was 56.5 +/- 19.6
      years and average follow-up time was 14.8 +/- 6.1 months. Three patients had
      corneal scarring with cataract and underwent TG-PRK to achieve sufficient
      regularization of corneal astigmatism to enable the implantation of a toric
      intraocular lens (IOL). The three remaining patients had TG-PRK performed to
      improve visual acuity, and all had improvement in uncorrected (improvement
      between one and three Snellen lines) and corrected (improvement between two and
      three Snellen lines) distance visual acuity. There were no intraoperative or
      postoperative complications and no loss of visual acuity. CONCLUSIONS: The use of
      TG-PRK for corneal scarring may improve visual acuity in selected cases, obviate
      the need for keratoplasty in some cases, and facilitate toric IOL implantation in
      some cases. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):639-644.].

PMID- 28880341
TI  - Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Intraocular Lens Fragmentation: Low Energy
      Transection.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe a case of femtosecond laser-assisted hydrophobic intraocular
      lens transection. METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: Femtosecond laser-assisted
      transection of a one-piece acrylic hydrophobic intraocular lens for explantation
      via a small surgical incision was successfully performed with low energy
      parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This case illustrates a novel and effective clinical
      application of the femtosecond laser. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(9):646-648.].

PMID- 28880342
TI  - Differential Diagnosis of Erythema Multiforme in Childhood: A Comment to Siedner
      Weintraub et al.

PMID- 28880343
TI  - Granuloma Faciale Treatment: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Granuloma faciale is an uncommon benign chronic dermatosis characterized by
      reddish-brown to violaceous asymptomatic plaques appearing predominantly on the
      face. The pathogenesis of granuloma faciale remains unclear, and it is frequently
      unresponsive to therapy. This systematic review aims to summarize all recent
      publications on the management of granuloma faciale. The publications are mainly
      individual case reports, small case series and a few retrospective studies.
      Treatment options included topical, intralesional and systemic corticosteroids,
      topical pimecrolimus and tacrolimus, topical and systemic dapsone, systemic
      hydroxychloroquine, clofazimine, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors.
      More invasive therapies using lasers as well as cryosurgery and surgery were also
      reported. Topical glucocorticosteroids and tacrolimus remain treatments of first
      choice, possibly supplemented by topical dapsone.

PMID- 28880345
TI  - [Neuro-science fiction?]

PMID- 28880344
TI  - Need for Improved Definition of "Chronic Wounds" in Clinical Studies.

PMID- 28880346
TI  - [ROM for the elderly: a prospective cohort study of the outcomes on the HoNOS 65+
      in various diagnostic groups].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Routine outcome monitoring (rom) provides us with opportunities to
      study treatment outcome in daily clinical practice and to learn from the
      results.<br/> AIM: To assess the changes that occur in the psychological and
      social functioning of patients in geriatric psychiatry who are suffering from
      substance dependence, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, psychotic disorder, or
      personality disorder.<br/> METHOD: We analysed data relating to 1,810 patients
      (aged 60-101) from nine mental health care organisations that together form
      SynQuest cv. The total scores and item scores on the Health of the Nation Outcome
      Scales for older people (Honos 65+) at the beginning and end of treatment were
      also analysed and were linked to the diagnosis.<br/> RESULTS: Patients improved
      significantly (es=0.8). The degree of improvement depended on the patient's
      principal diagnosis; patients with a mood or anxiety disorder improved the most
      (es=1.0 and 0.8). The degree of improvement varied per Honos 65+ item. In
      particular, patients with 'depressive problems' and 'other mental and behavioral
      problems' showed considerable improvement.<br/> CONCLUSION: Many older patients
      benefited from the treatment they received in gerontopsychiatry departments. This
      helps to give elderly patients with psychiatric disorders hope for the future.
      The scores on the individual items of the Honos 65+ can help clinicians to tailor
      treatment to the patient's specific problems and to monitor and evaluate
      treatment outcome in conjunction with the patient.

PMID- 28880347
TI  - [Using resource groups in assertive community treatment; literature review and
      recommendation].
AB  - BACKGROUND: In psychiatry there is an increasing interest in giving patients and
      their relatives control over the goals of treatment and the way in which
      treatment is carried out. A structural method of organising this within assertive
      community treatment (ACT) is to let patients and their relatives participate in
      what is known as a resource group (RG).<br/> AIM: To provide a systematic view of
      the advantages of giving patients control over their treatment and the way in
      which it is carried out via ACT, particularly if this control is organised in the
      form of an RG.<br/> METHOD: We reviewed the relevant literature on the basis of
      search instructions in the databases of PubMed and Cochrane Library. We found
      nine trials that had a randomised controlled design (RCT). Only one of these RCTs
      involved the use of an RG in ACT.<br/> RESULTS: The approaches used in ACT,
      whereby patients with schizophrenia had control over their treatment, led to
      significant improvements that were considerably greater than those achieved in
      standard care. Improvements were found in symptomatology, social functioning and
      in the quality of life. There are indications that treatment satisfaction and
      social functioning improve still further if patients' control over their
      treatment is organised in an RG.<br/> CONCLUSION: Research demonstrates that
      positive results are achieved with ACT whereby patients have control over their
      treatment and the way in which it is carried out. However, further research is
      needed to determine whether this addition to ACT in the form of an RG is superior
      to other approaches used previously in ACT, particularly if it concerns the
      inclusion of an RG.

PMID- 28880348
TI  - [Psychodynamic consequences of a family history with psychiatric disorders].
AB  - BACKGROUND: A positive family history for psychiatric disorders is the most
      important risk indicator for developing psychopathology. Often, the psychological
      consequences of a positive family history are insufficiently acknowledged. <br/>
      AIM: To provide insight into the psychodynamics of children who grow up in a
      family with psychopathology, such as psychosis, to demonstrate how these effects
      can last a lifetime, and to suggest ways in which such effects might be
      prevented.<br/> METHOD: We review the relevant literature, discuss theoretical
      concepts, and make clinical recommendations.<br/> RESULTS: Parental
      psychopathology, including psychosis, can have a strong and lasting influence on
      the child's identity and sense of self.<br/> CONCLUSION: A positive family
      history for psychiatric disorders has the potential to seriously disrupt the
      normal development of identity and sense of self. Various types of psychosocial
      interventions might be able to reduce these harmful effects.

PMID- 28880349
TI  - [Parental alienation and the controversy surrounding psychiatric diagnostics].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The phenomenon of parental alienation can arise when a child allies
      with one parent and refuses to have contact with the other parent. The concept
      has attracted a great deal of attention over the last few years. There has been
      controversy about whether parental alienation should be recognised as a
      psychiatric syndrome of the alienated child caught up in a conflict between
      supporters and opponents.<br/> AIM: To try to determine whether parental
      alienation belongs to psychiatric diagnostics.<br/> METHOD: We made a careful
      study of various databases in order to find literature relating to parental
      alienation.<br/> RESULTS: Parental alienation is situated on the border between
      psychiatry, sociology and justice. One of the main tasks of psychiatry in this
      border area is to safeguard the domain of diagnostics.<br/> CONCLUSION: Because
      so much attention is being given to the question of whether parental alienation
      syndrome should be recognised as a diagnosis, there is often a tendency to ignore
      the possible impact of parental alienation and to pay very little attention to
      ways of coping with the problem.

PMID- 28880350
TI  - [ROM as a GPS navigation system: how can ROM be used routinely in treatment
      procedures?]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Routine outcome monitoring (rom) is becoming an integral part of many
      treatment procedures. In order to promote the use of rom in such procedures
      attention needs to focus more on the functions of rom than on implementation
      strategies.<br/> AIM: To clarify what functions rom must be able to perform for
      the clinician and client if it is to be used routinely.<br/> METHOD: We discuss
      the functions of rom as described in the literature.<br/> RESULTS: The
      fundamental role of rom is to signal that the client is not responding
      satisfactorily to treatment. Therefore, rom has to perform three main functions:
      1. predict, at any moment, whether the goal will be reached via the current
      route; 2. provide, at crucial moments, correct and meaningful information about
      what options are available that will make it easier to achieve the desired goals;
      3. integration - in such a way that the system can be used routinely and will
      switch on automatically when treatments starts.<br/> CONCLUSION: rom seems to be
      able to provide a range of functions that are urgently required by clinicians and
      their clients.

PMID- 28880351
TI  - [Refeeding syndrome during alcohol detoxification].
AB  - Refeeding syndrome (RS) can occur when malnourished patients are reintroduced to
      carbohydrates. The symptoms are caused by a combination of electrolyte shifts and
      fluid retention. Symptoms are wide-ranging; some patients may suffer from
      harmless muscle cramps, others from more severe neurological and cardiological
      symptoms that can even lead to death. Although alcohol dependence is a risk
      factor for the development of RS, little attention is being given to this problem
      in addiction treatment. In this article we report a case of RS that occurred
      during alcohol detoxification. We also present the results of a pilot study on
      the incidence of RS during the alcohol detoxification of 12 patients.

PMID- 28880352
TI  - [Transformation of mental health care in Belgium: good vision, difficult
      implementation?]

PMID- 28880353
TI  - [Sleep-wake patterns in adults with autism spectrum disorders in a clinical
      setting: a pilot study].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The negative consequences of sleep-wake disorders in the general
      population and in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well
      established. However, little is known about sleep-wake disorders in adults with
      ASD.<br/> AIM: To study and measure sleep-wake disorders and sleep-wake patterns
      in adults in a clinical facility who have been diagnosed primarily as having ASD
      without any comorbid intellectual disability.<br/> METHOD: We assessed the sleep
      patterns of 19 patients in a residential facility. We asked patients to provide
      their sleep history, answer questionnaires and keep a sleep diary (subjective
      measurement). We also asked patients to collect actigraphy data (objective
      measurement) for seven days and to provide information about comorbid symptoms of
      anxiety and depression and use of medication.<br/> RESULTS: Nine patients (47%)
      had undiagnosed comorbid sleep-wake disorders. Patients in our study overrated
      their sleep efficiency (diary) compared to objective data (actigraphy). However,
      patients' subjective sleep quality did match patients' sleep efficiency. Only two
      out of 14 patients with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression were diagnosed with
      a comorbid depressive disorder, 15 patients were treated with medication.<br/>
      CONCLUSION: Sleep-wake disorders and comorbid symptoms of anxiety and depression
      might be more prevalent in adults with ASD in a residential facility than
      reported so far. This possibility needs to be considered more carefully during
      the diagnostic process and during treatment.

PMID- 28880354
TI  - [Pimavanserin: a new treatment for the Parkinson's disease psychosis].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clozapine is an effective drug for treating psychosis in Parkinson's
      disease (PDP) and is registered as such in the Netherlands. However, clozapine
      can have adverse effects, including agranulocytosis. The new drug pimavanserin
      was recently registered in the United States for the treatment of PDP.<br/> AIM:
      To review the literature on pimavanserin and discuss the position it currently
      occupies in the Netherlands as a potential treatment for PDP.<br/> METHOD:
      Systematic search of the literature.<br/> RESULTS: We found reports on four
      randomised controlled trials (RCTs), one review and six articles about the
      pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of pimavanserin. Pimavanserin is an
      effective treatment for PDP, and, like clozapine, it has very few negative
      effects on motor skills. However, all of the RCTs were funded by the manufacturer
      of pimavanserin and the trials were conducted in a very selective patient
      population. This means that results cannot be generalised. Long-term results are
      not yet available. In earlier trials clozapine was shown to have a greater and
      faster antipsychotic effect. Many clinicians and psychiatrists have a great deal
      of experience with this drug. Another important point is that no-one has yet
      conducted a trial comparing clozapine and pimavanserin.<br/> CONCLUSION: Given
      that the current second drug of choice, namely quetiapine, has not been found to
      be effective for PDP, we are of the opinion that - if pimavanserin is registered
      in the Netherlands - pimavanserin could be used when the current drug of choice,
      clozapine, is not completely effective or is poorly tolerated. For patients who
      have cognitive impairments in addition to psychosis, we advise testing the
      patient's reaction to a cholinesterase inhibitor before starting the patient on a
      course of antipsychotics.

PMID- 28880355
TI  - [Mental health as a front-line service for bewildered persons].
AB  - BACKGROUND: 'Bewildered persons' have often been in the news over the last few
      years. There has been much discussion about the meaning of the term 'bewildered
      persons', the number of people involved, the way the problem should be tackled
      and the role of the mental health services.<br/> AIM: To look critically at the
      term 'bewildered persons' and to discuss the suspected increase in numbers and
      the role of mental health services.<br/> METHOD: Review and discussion of the
      relevant literature relating to 'bewildered persons' which has been published in
      the last 25 years.<br/> RESULTS: The term 'bewildered persons' is a general label
      given by the Dutch police to several groups of people. Suicide rates are rising
      and more and more people are being compulsorily admitted to psychiatric clinics
      and hospitals. These factors indicate that increasing numbers of people may now
      be a danger to themselves and to their fellow-citizens. It is not clear whether
      the increase in numbers is real or simply reflects the extra attention given by
      the police. These people may in fact be a new group consisting of persons already
      known to the mental health services. A national team that aims to improve the
      care of 'bewildered persons' has made several recommendations to stop the
      increase: prevention and better cooperation between municipalities and mental
      health facilities. In our view the mental health services should operate at the
      front-line of the public mental health service, providing low-threshold
      diagnostics, assertive outreach and treatment for patients who have mental
      disorders but are unwilling to accept care or treatment. Such a service requires
      adequate finance, good cooperative agreements and removal of the bureaucratic and
      financial barriers that prevent patients from seeking care.<br/> CONCLUSION:
      'Bewildered persons' is an umbrella term used to denote people who urgently
      require care and are a public nuisance and who display disturbing behavior.
      'Bewildered persons', who now form a part of the group of people targeted by the
      public health services, have been around for a long time but have been referred
      to by different names. They require the structured assistance of integrated care,
      access to social and medical services and timely diagnosis and treatment. People
      who have somehow slipped through the net of care facilities should not be left to
      fend for themselves.

PMID- 28880356
TI  - [Diagnostics of attachment in child and adolescent psychiatry].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growing concern about how the neglect and abuse of children can be
      tackled and prevented has led to increased interest in the parent-child
      relationship and the concept of attachment. It is vitally important that the
      diagnostics relating to attachment are accurate. One of the main problems is that
      up till now the parent-child relationship has not been assessed and analysed in
      accordance with reliable, unambiguous standards.<br/> AIM: To search the
      literature in order to identify the prerequisites for reliable diagnostics of
      attachment.<br/> METHOD: PubMed articles concerning instruments for measuring
      attachment were reviewed. The found articles were based on more extensive search
      strategies used in English-language meta-analysis, and included reflections on
      possible implications of mental health care.<br/> RESULTS: Accurate detailed
      analysis of attachment is particularly important in cases that involve cumulative
      risk factors. The task must be performed by trained professionals who used
      thoroughly tested, reliable measuring instruments.<br/> CONCLUSION: The
      application of the concept of attachment in child and adolescent psychiatry is in
      its infancy. Those applying the concept need to have breadth of vision and
      evidence-based skills in applying relevant diagnostics.

PMID- 28880357
TI  - [The use of dexmedetomidine in extreme agitation].
AB  - BACKGROUND: In clinical practice antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and/or
      antihistamines are used to calm agitated patients. If agitation persists and
      patients have contraindications for these substances, then anesthetics, such as
      propofol, can also be used as well, to serve as a sedative. Our attention was
      drawn to a particular case in which dexmedetomidine was used as a sedative.<br/>
      AIM: To study the literature on the use of alpha2-agonists, such as
      dexmedetomidine, in the treatment of extreme agitation.<br/> METHOD: We reviewed
      the relevant scientific literature.<br/> RESULTS: alpha2-agonists, such as
      dexmedetomidine, are new anesthetic agents that have analgetic and sympatholytic
      effects without suppressing respiration. These agents are used frequently in
      intensive care because their sedative effect are short-lived and do not cause
      amnesia, sleep deprivation or cognitive disturbance. Excited delirium syndrome
      (eds) is a type of extreme agitation for which dexmedetomidine can be used.<br/>
      CONCLUSION: There may well be a place for dexmedetomidine in the treatment of
      extreme agitation when standard treatments have failed. Further research is
      needed in order to ascertain whether dexmedetomidine should play a role in such
      treatment.

PMID- 28880359
TI  - [A young boy with periodic strange behavior and hypersomnia: Kleine-Levin
      syndrome].
AB  - Kleine-Levin syndrome is a rare neuro-psychiatric disease. Most of the young
      patients are males who present with hypersomnia, cognitive dysfunction, altered
      perception, eating disorder (e.g. hyperphagia) or disinhibited behaviour (e.g.
      hypersexuality). Psychiatric symptoms such as apathy, delusions and
      hallucinations, depressed mood and compulsive behaviours also appear often and
      result frequently in a psychiatric referral. These symptoms, however, should be
      distinguished from those of psychiatric diseases as early as possible in order to
      ensure that patients do not receive the wrong treatment. We present the case of
      an 11-year-old boy in whom the psychiatric symptoms were initially the most
      prominent ones.

PMID- 28880358
TI  - [Lithium and its protective effect in Alzheimer's disease].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lithium is associated with adverse effects on cognitive functioning.
      However, there are published trials that have investigated the protective effects
      of lithium in cognitive decline.<br/> AIM: To review studies that investigate the
      potentially protective effects of lithium on cognitive disorders.<br/> METHOD: We
      studied English-language and Dutch reports on controlled, clinical trials
      published up to October 2016.<br/> RESULTS: We found four relevant articles. Two
      studies indicated that cognitive functioning remained more stable when patients
      were given lithium than when they were given a placebo. One study, however, could
      not detect any difference between the effects of lithium and the effects of
      placebos. The fourth study, which examined patients' ability to tolerate lithium,
      could not find any difference in the cognitive functioning of patients.<br/>
      CONCLUSION: The reported results indicate that the cognitive functioning of
      patients with pre-stage Alzheimer's disease remains more stable after patients
      have taken lithium than after they have taken a placebo.

PMID- 28880360
TI  - The effect of whole body vibration on fracture healing - a systematic review.
AB  - This systematic review examines the efficacy and safety of whole body vibration
      (WBV) on fracture healing. A systematic literature search was conducted with
      relevant keywords in PubMed and Embase, independently, by two reviewers. Original
      animal and clinical studies about WBV effects on fracture healing with available
      full-text and written in English were included. Information was extracted from
      the included studies for review. In total, 19 articles about pre-clinical studies
      were selected. Various vibration regimes are reported; of those, the frequencies
      of 35 Hz and 50 Hz show better results than others. Most of the studies show
      positive effects on fracture healing after vibration treatment and the responses
      to vibration are better in ovariectomised (OVX) animals than non-OVX ones.
      However, several studies provide insufficient evidence to support an improvement
      of fracture healing after vibration and one study even reports disruption of
      fracture healing after vibration. In three studies, vibration results in positive
      effects on angiogenesis at the fracture site and surrounding muscles during
      fracture healing. No serious complications or side effects of vibration are found
      in these studies. WBV is suggested to be beneficial in improving fracture healing
      in animals without safety problem reported. In order to apply vibration on
      fractured patients, more well-designed randomised controlled clinical trials are
      needed to examine its efficacy, regimes and safety.

PMID- 28880361
TI  - A randomized multicenter study: safety and efficacy of mini-pool intravenous
      immunoglobulin versus standard immunoglobulin in children aged 1-18 years with
      immune thrombocytopenia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because there is a global shortage of intravenous immunoglobulin,
      there is a need for new products to fill the gap. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This
      was a multicenter, open-label study investigating the safety and efficacy of a
      newly developed mini-pool intravenous immunoglobulin G for children with immune
      thrombocytopenia. Seventy-two patients ages 1 to 18 years with newly diagnosed
      (<1 month) immune thrombocytopenia who had platelet counts from 5 to 20 * 109 /L
      with no serious bleeding were recruited from four centers in Egypt. Eligible
      patients were randomized into three groups 1:1:1. Group A (n = 24) received blood
      group-specific mini-pool intravenous immunoglobulin in a dose equivalent to
      immunoglobulin 1 g/kg over 6 to 8 hours, Group B (n = 24) received standard
      intravenous immunoglobulin (approximately 1g/kg) as a single dose, and Group C (n
      = 24) did not receive any platelet-enhancing therapy. Parents signed informed
      consent. RESULTS: Of the patients who received mini-pool intravenous
      immunoglobulin, 14 achieved a complete response (CR) (58.8%), and four had a
      response (16.6%). Of the patients who received intravenous immunoglobulin G, 16
      achieved a complete response (66.6%), and four had a response (16.6%). In Group
      C, eight patients achieved a complete response (33.3%), and four had a response
      (16.6%). The median time to response was 8, 9, and 21 days in Group A, B, and C,
      respectively, which was significantly higher in Group C than Groups A and B (p <
      0.001). Patients in Groups A and B reported 16 adverse drug reactions.
      CONCLUSION: Mini-pool intravenous immunoglobulin G was well tolerated, presented
      no safety issues, and was effective in the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia,
      with efficacy comparable to that of the standard intravenous immunoglobulin G
      group, and it was significantly more effective than no treatment.

PMID- 28880362
TI  - Cold platelets for trauma-associated bleeding: regulatory approval, accreditation
      approval, and practice implementation-just the "tip of the iceberg".
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laboratory and clinical evidence suggest that cold-stored platelets
      (CS-PLTs) might be preferable to room temperature platelets (RT-PLTs) for active
      bleeding. Ease of prehospital use plus potential hemostatic superiority led our
      facility to pursue approval of CS-PLTs for actively bleeding trauma patients.
      STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: From November 18, 2013, through October 8, 2015,
      correspondence was exchanged between our facility, the AABB, and the US Food and
      Drug Administration (FDA). An initial AABB variance request was for 5-day CS-PLTs
      without agitation. The AABB deferred its decision pending FDA approval to use our
      platelet (PLT) bags for CS-PLTs. On March 27, 2015, the FDA approved 3-day CS
      PLTs without agitation. On October 8, 2015, the AABB approved 3-day CS-PLTs
      without agitation and without bacterial testing for actively bleeding trauma
      patients. Our facility's goal is to carry CS-PLTs on air ambulances. RESULTS: CS
      PLTs have been used for trauma patients at our facility since October 2015. As of
      August 2016, a total of 21 (19.1%) of 119 CS-PLTs have been transfused. The short
      3-day storage period combined with the formation of clots in plasma-rich CS-PLTs
      during storage have been the major causes of a high (80.9%) discard rate.
      CONCLUSION: In the future, pathogen-reduced (PR), PLT additive solution (PAS) CS
      PLTs seem more practical due to low risks of bacterial contamination and storage
      related clotting. This should make longer storage of CS-PLTs feasible (e.g., 10
      days or more). With a longer shelf life, PR PAS CS-PLTs could potentially be used
      in a wider range of patient populations.

PMID- 28880363
TI  - Apheresis technology correlates with bacterial contamination of platelets and
      reported septic transfusion reactions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Apheresis technology to collect platelet (PLT) components differs
      among devices. We evaluated the relationship of the plateletpheresis device with
      bacterial contamination and reported septic transfusion reactions. STUDY DESIGN
      AND METHODS: Plateletpheresis was performed using Amicus (Fenwal, a Fresenius
      Kabi Company) or Trima (Trima Accel, TerumoBCT) from 2010 to 2014. All donations
      used inlet-line sample diversion and were tested by quality control (QC; Day 1)
      aerobic culture. Rates of bacterial contamination and septic reactions to PLTs
      were calculated for both devices. RESULTS: During the 5-year study period,
      plateletpheresis collections using Amicus and Trima devices totaled 1,486,888 and
      671,955 donations, respectively. The rate of confirmed-positive bacterial
      cultures of apheresis PLT donations was significantly higher with Amicus than
      with Trima (252 vs. 112 per 106 donations [odds ratio {OR}, 2.3; 95% confidence
      interval {CI}, 1.8-2.9]). Septic transfusion reactions were caused by 30
      apheresis PLT units from 25 contaminated Amicus procedures and three apheresis
      PLT units from three contaminated Trima procedures. The overall rate of septic
      reactions was significantly higher with apheresis PLT components collected with
      Amicus than with Trima (16.8 vs. 4.5 per 106 donations [OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.1
      12.5]). All apheresis PLT components implicated in septic transfusion reactions
      had negative QC culture results incubated through Day 5 (i.e., false negatives).
      CONCLUSION: Apheresis technology affects bacterial contamination of
      plateletpheresis collections. The device-specific, higher rate of confirmed
      positive bacterial culture results also correlated with a significantly higher
      rate of reported septic transfusion reactions to apheresis PLTs.

PMID- 28880364
TI  - Reply to letter 'Early identification of renal tubular injury: more questions
      than solutions'.

PMID- 28880365
TI  - Use of urine N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase for early identification of renal
      tubular injury: more questions than solutions.

PMID- 28880366
TI  - Determining the inventory impact of extended-shelf-life platelets with a network
      simulation model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The regulatory shelf life for platelets (PLTs) in many jurisdictions
      is 5 days. PLT shelf life can be extended to 7 days with an enhanced bacterial
      detection algorithm. Enhanced testing, however, comes at a cost, which may be
      offset by reductions in wastage due to longer shelf life. This article describes
      a method for estimating systemwide reductions in PLT outdates after PLT shelf
      life is extended. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A simulation was used to evaluate the
      impact of an extended PLT shelf life within a national blood network. A network
      model of the Canadian Blood Services PLT supply chain was built and validated.
      PLT shelf life was extended from 5 days to 6, 7, and 8 days and runs were
      completed to determine the impact on outdates. RESULTS: Results suggest that, in
      general, a 16.3% reduction in PLT wastage can be expected with each additional
      day that PLT shelf life is extended. Both suppliers and hospitals will experience
      fewer outdating units, but wastage will decrease at a faster rate at hospitals.
      No effect was seen by blood group, but there was some evidence that supplier site
      characteristics influences both the number of units wasted and the site's ability
      to benefit from extended-shelf-life PLTs. CONCLUSION: Extended-shelf-life PLTs
      will reduce wastage within a blood supply chain. At 7 days, an improvement of 38%
      reduction in wastage can be expected with outdates being equally distributed
      between suppliers and hospital customers.

PMID- 28880367
TI  - Cytokeratin-positive primary effusion lymphoma: a diagnostic challenge.

PMID- 28880368
TI  - Optimization of Monte Carlo particle transport parameters and validation of a
      novel high throughput experimental setup to measure the biological effects of
      particle beams.
AB  - PURPOSE: Accurate modeling of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of
      particle beams requires increased systematic in vitro studies with human cell
      lines with care towards minimizing uncertainties in biologic assays as well as
      physical parameters. In this study, we describe a novel high-throughput
      experimental setup and an optimized parameterization of the Monte Carlo (MC)
      simulation technique that is universally applicable for accurate determination of
      RBE of clinical ion beams. Clonogenic cell-survival measurements on a human lung
      cancer cell line (H460) are presented using proton irradiation. METHODS:
      Experiments were performed at the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center (HIT) with
      support from the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany
      using a mono-energetic horizontal proton beam. A custom-made variable range
      selector was designed for the horizontal beam line using the Geant4 MC toolkit.
      This unique setup enabled a high-throughput clonogenic assay investigation of
      multiple, well defined dose and linear energy transfer (LETs) per irradiation for
      human lung cancer cells (H460) cultured in a 96-well plate. Sensitivity studies
      based on application of different physics lists in conjunction with different
      electromagnetic constructors and production threshold values to the MC
      simulations were undertaken for accurate assessment of the calculated dose and
      the dose-averaged LET (LETd ). These studies were extended to helium and carbon
      ion beams. RESULTS: Sensitivity analysis of the MC parameterization revealed
      substantial dependence of the dose and LETd values on both the choice of physics
      list and the production threshold values. While the dose and LETd calculations
      using FTFP_BERT_LIV, FTFP_BERT_EMZ, FTFP_BERT_PEN and QGSP_BIC_EMY physics lists
      agree well with each other for all three ions, they show large differences when
      compared to the FTFP_BERT physics list with the default electromagnetic
      constructor. For carbon ions, the dose corresponding to the largest LETd value is
      observed to differ by as much as 78% between FTFP_BERT and FTFP_BERT_LIV.
      Furthermore, between the production threshold of 700 MUm and 5 MUm, proton dose
      varies by as much as 19% corresponding to the largest LETd value sampled in the
      current investigation. Based on the sensitivity studies, the FTFP_BERT physics
      list with the low energy Livermore electromagnetic constructor and a production
      threshold of 5 MUm was employed for determining accurate dose and LETd . The
      optimized MC parameterization results in a different LETd dependence of the RBE
      curve for 10% SF of the H460 cell line irradiated with proton beam when compared
      with the results from a previous study using the same cell line. When the MC
      parameters are kept consistent between the studies, the proton RBE results agree
      well with each other within the experimental uncertainties. CONCLUSIONS: A custom
      high-throughput, high-accuracy experimental design for accurate in vitro cell
      survival measurements was employed at a horizontal beam line. High sensitivity of
      the physics-based optimization establishes the importance of accurate MC
      parameterization and hence the conditioning of the MC system on a case-by-case
      basis. The proton RBE results from current investigations are observed to agree
      with a previous measurement made under different experimental conditions. This
      establishes the consistency of our experimental findings across different
      experiments and institutions.

PMID- 28880369
TI  - Optimization of beam arrangements in proton minibeam radiotherapy by cell
      survival simulations.
AB  - PURPOSE: Proton minibeam radiotherapy using submillimeter beam dimensions allows
      to enhance tissue sparing in the entrance channel by spatial fractionation
      additionally to advantageous proton depth dose distribution. In the entrance
      channel, spatial fractionation leads to reduced side effects compared to
      conventional proton therapy. The submillimeter sized beams widen with depth due
      to small angle scattering and enable therefore, in contrary to x-ray microbeam
      radiation therapy (MRT), the homogeneous irradiation of a tumor. Proton minibeams
      can either be applied as planar minibeams or pencil shaped with an additional
      possibility to vary between a quadratic and a hexagonal arrangement for pencil
      minibeams. The purpose of this work is to deduce interbeam distances to achieve a
      homogeneous dose distribution for different tumor depths and tumor thicknesses.
      Furthermore, we aim for a better understanding of the sparing effect on the basis
      of surviving cells calculated by the linear-quadratic model. METHODS: Two
      dimensional dose distributions are calculated for proton minibeams of different
      shapes and arrangements. For a tumor in 10-15 cm depth, treatment plans are
      calculated with initial beam size of sigma0  = 0.2 mm in a water phantom. Proton
      minibeam depth dose distributions are finally converted into cell survival using
      a linear-quadratic model. RESULTS: Inter proton beam distances are maximized
      under the constraint of dose homogeneity in the tumor for tumor depths ranging
      from 4 to 15 cm and thickness ranging from 0.5 to 10 cm. Cell survival
      calculations for a 5 cm thick tumor covered by 10 cm healthy tissue show less
      cell death by up to 85%, especially in the superficial layers, while keeping the
      cell death in the tumor as in conventional therapy. In the entrance channel, the
      pencil minibeams result in higher cell survival in comparison to the planar
      minibeams while all proton minibeam irradiations show higher cell survival than
      conventional broadbeam irradiation. CONCLUSION: The deduced constraints for
      interbeam distances simplify treatment planning for proton minibeam radiotherapy
      applications in future studies. The cell survival results indicate that proton
      minibeam radiotherapy reduces side effects but keeps tumor control as in
      conventional proton therapy. It makes proton minibeam, especially pencil minibeam
      radiotherapy a potentially attractive new approach for radiation therapy.

PMID- 28880370
TI  - Langerhans cell histiocytosis in an adult female presenting with widespread
      confluent crusted papules and review of adult cases confined to skin.

PMID- 28880371
TI  - Cultures of choice: towards a sociology of choice as a cultural phenomenon.
AB  - The article explores different ways to conceptualize the relationship between
      choice and culture. These two notions are often constructed as opposites: while
      sociologies of modernization (such as Giddens') portray a shift from cultural
      traditions to culturally disembedded choice, dispositional sociologies (such as
      Bourdieu's) uncover cultural determination as the hidden truth behind apparent
      choice. However, choice may be real and cultural simultaneously. Culture moulds
      choice not only by inculcating dispositions or shaping repertoires of
      alternatives, but also by offering culturally specific choice practices, ways of
      choosing embedded in meaning, normativity, and materiality; and by shaping
      attributions of choice in everyday life. By bringing together insights from rival
      schools, I portray an outline for a comparative cultural sociology of choice, and
      demonstrate its purchase while discussing the digitalization of choice; and
      cultural logics that shape choice attribution in ways opposing neoliberal trends.

PMID- 28880372
TI  - The making of a moral economy: women's views of monetary transactions in an 'egg
      sharing for research' scheme.
AB  - There are growing debates about the appropriateness of offering money in exchange
      for the provision of bodily materials for clinical treatment and research. The
      bioethics literature and many practice guidelines have generally been opposed to
      such entanglement, depicting the use of money as contaminating, creating undue
      inducement, exploitation and commodification of the human body. However, two
      elements have been missing from these debates: (i) the perspectives of those
      people providing bodily materials when money is offered; and (ii) systematic
      empirical engagement with the notion of 'money' itself. This article seeks to
      fill those gaps in knowledge by providing detailed insights from a project
      investigating the views and experiences of women who volunteered to provide eggs
      for research in exchange for reduced fees for fertility treatment. Analysis of 29
      semi-structured interviews reveals multiple ways in which volunteers reason
      through the involvement of 'money' in this domain and shows how their accounts
      diverge from pessimistic understandings of the role of monies in everyday life.
      When volunteers speak in detail about the monetary aspects of their participation
      they draw major, recurring, distinctions in five overlapping areas: their
      depiction of the monetized world of fertility treatment; their views of the
      different forms that money can take; a distancing of their actions from their
      understandings of how markets and commodities work; their location of the
      transactions within a particular clinic, and the ongoing importance of their
      eggs, post-transaction. This article: (i) responds to calls for concrete case
      studies to assist understandings of the inter-relationships of money and specific
      aspects of social life; (ii) adds to the sociology of money literature by
      providing empirical insights into how notions of money are deployed; (iii)
      presents much-needed perspectives from providers of bodily materials; and (iv)
      contributes to ongoing conversations between bioethics and sociology.

PMID- 28880373
TI  - Supernatants and lipids from stored red blood cells activate pulmonary
      microvascular endothelium through the BLT2 receptor and protein kinase C
      activation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although transfusion is a lifesaving intervention, it may be
      associated with significant morbidity in injured patients. We hypothesize that
      stored red blood cells (RBCs) induce proinflammatory activation of human
      pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HMVECs) resulting in neutrophil (PMN)
      adhesion and predisposition to acute lung injury (ALI). STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
      Ten units of RBCs were collected; 50% (by weight) were leukoreduced (LR-RBCs) and
      the remainder was unmodified and stored in additive solution-5 (AS-5). An
      additional 10 units of RBCs were collected, leukoreduced, and stored in AS-3.
      HMVECs were incubated with [10%-40%]FINAL of the supernatants on Day (D)1 to D42
      of storage, lipid extracts, and purified lipids. Endothelial surface expression
      of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), interleukin (IL)-8 release, and
      PMN adhesion to HMVECs were measured. HMVEC signaling via the BLT2 receptor was
      evaluated. Supernatants and lipids were also employed as the first event in a two
      event model of ALI. RESULTS: The supernatants [10%-40%]FINAL from D21 LR-RBCs and
      D42 RBCs and LR-RBCs and the lipids from D42 stored in AS-5 induced increased
      ICAM-1 surface expression on endothelium, IL-8 release, and PMN adhesion. In
      addition, the supernatants [20%-40%]FINAL from D21 and D42 RBCs in AS-5 also
      increased endothelial surface expression of ICAM-1. D42 supernatants and lipids
      also caused coprecipitation of beta-arrestin-1 with BLT2, protein kinase C
      (PKC)betaI , and PKCdelta and served as the first event in a two-event rodent
      model of ALI. CONCLUSION: Lipids that accumulate during RBC storage activate
      endothelium and predispose to ALI, which may explain some of the adverse events
      associated with the transfusion of critically injured patients.

PMID- 28880374
TI  - Skeletal and myocardial microvascular blood flow in hydroxycarbamide-treated
      patients with sickle cell disease.
AB  - In sickle cell disease (SCD), abnormal microvascular function combined with
      chronic anaemia predisposes patients to perfusion-demand mismatch. We
      hypothesized that skeletal muscle and myocardial perfusion, normalized to the
      degree of anaemia, is reduced at basal-state compared to controls, and that this
      defect is ameliorated by hydroxycarbamide (HC; also termed hydroxyurea) therapy.
      Twenty-one SCD patients, of whom 15 were treated with HC, and 27 controls
      underwent contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEU) perfusion imaging of the forearm as
      well as the myocardium. HC treatment was associated with lower white cell and
      reticulocyte counts, and higher fetal haemoglobin and total haemoglobin levels.
      When corrected for the degree of anaemia in SCD patients, skeletal flow in HC
      treated patients was significantly higher than in untreated SCD patients (217.7
      +/- 125.4 vs. 85.9 +/- 40.2, P = 0.018). Similarly, when normalized for both
      anaemia and increased myocardial work, resting myocardial perfusion was also
      significantly higher in HC-treated patients compared with untreated SCD patients
      (0.53 +/- 0.47 vs. 0.13 +/- 0.07, P = 0.028). Haemoglobin F (HbF) levels
      correlated with skeletal muscle microvascular flow (r = 0.55, P = 0.01). In
      conclusion, patients with SCD not on HC therapy have resting flow deficits in
      both skeletal muscle and myocardial flow. HC therapy normalizes flow and there is
      a direct correlation with HbF levels. Clinical trial registration
      ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01602809;
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01602809?term=sACHDEV&rank=9.

PMID- 28880376
TI  - 'Luck, chance, and happenstance? Perceptions of success and failure amongst fixed
      term academic staff in UK higher education'.
AB  - What does it mean to attribute success to 'luck', but failure to personal
      deficiency? In 2015/16, more than 34 per cent of academic employees in UK higher
      education institutions were employed on temporary contracts, and the sector
      itself has undergone a substantial transformation in recent years in terms of
      expansion, measurement, and marketization. Based on two waves of interviews
      conducted with fixed-term academic employees at different career stages, the
      article explores the narrativization of success and failure amongst staff working
      at the 'sharp end' of the so-called neoliberal academy. Arguing that precarious
      employment situations precipitate the feeling of being 'out of control', the
      majority of the participants' narratives were characterized by a distinct lack of
      agency. The paper explores the recourse to notions of chance and the
      consolidation of 'luck' as an explanatory factor in accounting for why good
      things happen; however, in tandem with this inclination is the tendency to
      individualize failure when expectations have been thwarted. While accounts of
      fixed-term work are suffused with notions of chance and fortune, 'luck' remains
      an under-researched concept within sociology. The article thus concludes by
      considering what the analysis of 'luck' might offer for a fuller, politicized
      understanding of processes at work in the contemporary academy.

PMID- 28880377
TI  - Detection of clinically relevant early genomic lesions in B-cell malignancies
      from circulating tumour DNA using a single hybridisation-based next generation
      sequencing assay.

PMID- 28880375
TI  - Melatonin: does it have utility in the treatment of haematological neoplasms?
AB  - Melatonin, discovered in 1958 in the bovine pineal tissue, is an indoleamine that
      modulates circadian rhythms and has a wide variety of other functions.
      Haematological neoplasms are the leading cause of death in children and
      adolescents throughout the world. Research has demonstrated that melatonin is a
      low-toxicity protective molecule against experimental haematological neoplasms,
      but the mechanisms remain poorly defined. Here, we provide an introduction to
      haematological neoplasms and melatonin, especially as they relate to the actions
      of melatonin on haematological carcinogenesis. Secondly, we summarize what is
      known about the mechanisms of action of melatonin in the haematological system,
      including its pro-apoptotic, pro-oxidative, anti-proliferative and
      immunomodulatory actions. Thirdly, we discuss the advantages of melatonin in
      combination with other drugs against haematological malignancy, as well as its
      other benefits on the haematological system. Finally, we summarize the findings
      that are contrary to the suppressive effects of melatonin on cancers of
      haematological origin. We hope that this information will be helpful in the
      design of studies related to the therapeutic efficacy of melatonin in
      haematological neoplasms.

PMID- 28880378
TI  - Leukocyte and plasma activation profiles in chronically transfused patients with
      a history of allergic reactions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergic transfusion reactions are drawbacks to the benefits of
      transfusion. Classically, allergic transfusion reactions depend on histamine
      release from mast cells or basophils, but other leukocyte subsets may also be
      important. Thus, we propose to better define the exact leukocyte subsets involved
      in allergic transfusion reactions. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: The overall
      objective of the current study was to compare the activation of specific
      peripheral blood leukocyte subsets (monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, and
      basophils) in a cohort of 13 patients who received chronic transfusions and had a
      history of allergic transfusion reactions compared with a control group of
      patients who received chronic transfusions and had no history of allergic
      transfusion reactions. Leukocyte subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry at
      baseline and after red blood cell transfusion, and cytokine levels in platelet
      free plasma collected at the same time points were measured by Luminex assay.
      RESULTS: Flow cytometry and cytokine profiles before and after transfusion did
      not differ significantly between patients who did and did not have a history of
      allergic transfusion reactions (p > 0.05). However, post-transfusion samples from
      both groups showed a decrease in CD63 expression in basophils, monocytes, and
      eosinophils and a decrease in CD45 expression in all leukocyte subsets compared
      with pretransfusion samples. Interleukin 10 levels increased after transfusion in
      the group with a history of allergic transfusion reactions (p = 0.0469), and
      RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted) was
      significantly decreased post-transfusion in all patients (p = 0.0122).
      CONCLUSION: None of the leukocyte subsets from patients who had a history of
      allergic transfusion reactions significantly increased in activation either
      before or after transfusion. All leukocyte subsets from patients who did and did
      not have a history of allergic transfusion reactions decreased in their
      activation profile upon transfusion challenge.

PMID- 28880379
TI  - Red blood cell alloimmunization in neonates and children up to 3 years of age.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An alloimmune response to red blood cell (RBC) transfusion in
      neonates is a rare event. Several guidelines recommend limited pretransfusion
      testing in neonates. The evidence for these recommendations is based on small
      studies with sample sizes of between 30 and 90 infants. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
      We conducted a retrospective cohort study among consecutive patients who received
      transfusions at a single university medical center. All non-alloimmunized
      patients who had received their first RBC transfusion between 1994 and 2013 and
      who underwent at least one antibody screening follow-up visit between 7 and 365
      days after transfusion were included. RESULTS: The incidence of alloimmunization
      in the control group of 17,084 adult patients age 45 years or older who had
      received a median of 5 RBC units (interquartile range, 2-12 RBC units) was 3.55%
      (n = 607 alloimmunized patients). After transfusion of 40 RBC units, the
      cumulative incidence of alloimmunization in adult controls was 10.24% (95%
      confidence interval, 7.71%-13.17%). In total, 1641 neonates and children up to
      age 3 years received a median of 4 RBC units (interquartile range, 2-7 RBC units)
      in a median of two RBC transfusion episodes (interquartile range, one to five RBC
      transfusion episodes). Two children developed anti-M and anti-E antibodies post
      transfusion at the ages of 181 and 611 days, respectively. CONCLUSION: To our
      knowledge, this study presents the largest longitudinal cohort study of RBC
      alloimmunization in neonates. Antibodies against RBC antigens were not detected
      within the first 6 months of life. Repeat antibody screening and cross-matching
      during the first months of life can be safely omitted.

PMID- 28880380
TI  - Faster Improvement in Migraine Pain Intensity and Migraine-Related Disability at
      Early Time Points with AVP-825 (Sumatriptan Nasal Powder Delivery System) versus
      Oral Sumatriptan: A Comparative Randomized Clinical Trial Across Multiple Attacks
      from the COMPASS Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fast relief of migraine pain, associated symptoms, and migraine
      related disability are priorities in the acute treatment of migraine. Efforts to
      improve the pharmacokinetic profiles of acute migraine treatments with the aim of
      providing faster relief include the development of non-oral routes of
      administration. AVP-825 (ONZETRA(r) Xsail(r) ) is a delivery system containing 22
      mg sumatriptan powder that uses a patient's own breath to deliver medication
      intranasally, targeting the upper posterior nasal cavity beyond the narrow nasal
      valve, an area lined with vascular mucosa conducive to rapid drug absorption into
      the systemic circulation. While most studies comparing treatments measure
      differences in proportions of patients achieving a dichotomous endpoint at fixed
      time intervals, in this study we compare trajectories of migraine pain and
      disability over time for AVP-825 versus 100 mg oral sumatriptan tablets. METHODS:
      We used data from the COMPASS study (NCT01667679, clinicaltrials.gov), a double
      blind, double-dummy, active-comparator, cross-over study of people with a
      diagnosis of migraine. Participants treated up to five qualifying migraine
      attacks within 1 hour of onset with either AVP-825 plus placebo tablets or 100 mg
      oral sumatriptan tablets plus placebo delivery system during the first of two 12
      week treatment periods, and then switched treatment sequences to treat up to five
      more attacks in the second treatment period. Patients recorded ordinal migraine
      pain intensity and migraine-related disability before dosing (predose), and at
      10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. Three-level ordinal multilevel models
      accounted for unique data structure (repeated measures nested within attacks for
      each patient) and tested for treatment differences in migraine pain and migraine
      related disability through the first 2 hours of attacks post dose. RESULTS: Among
      259 study participants (mean age 40.0 years, 84.6% female, 78.4% white), there
      was significant between and within person variability in migraine pain intensity
      and migraine-related disability. A typical individual showed significantly faster
      reductions in migraine pain over the first 30 minutes and migraine-related
      disability over the first 45 minutes when treating with AVP-825 compared with
      oral sumatriptan. Overall levels of pain and disability also favored AVP-825 over
      2 h following treatment. Model-based odds ratios (OR) comparing AVP-825 to oral
      sumatriptan ranged from 0.38 to 0.76 for pain and 0.37 to 0.65 for disability,
      with OR <1 indicating reduced pain/disability in the AVP-825 condition.
      CONCLUSIONS: Compared with 100 mg oral sumatriptan, treatment with AVP-825 was
      associated with faster reductions in migraine pain intensity and migraine-related
      disability starting at 10 minutes postdose and continuing through the first 30
      minutes for migraine pain intensity and the first 45 minutes for migraine-related
      disability, resulting in lower overall pain intensity and disability that lasted
      through the first 2 h following treatment. Both migraine pain intensity and
      disability varied substantially both across subjects and within subjects across
      attacks.

PMID- 28880381
TI  - Evaluation of feasibility of 1.5 Tesla prostate MRI using body coil RF transmit
      in a patient with an implanted vagus nerve stimulator.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess risks of RF-heating of a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) during
      1.5 T prostate MRI using body coil transmit and to compare these risks with those
      associated with MRI head exams using a transmit/receive head coil. METHODS:
      Spatial distributions of radio-frequency (RF) B1 fields generated by
      transmit/receive (T/R) body and head coils were empirically assessed along the
      long axis of a 1.5 T MRI scanner bore. Measurements were obtained along the
      center axis of the scanner and laterally offset by 15 cm (body coil) and 7 cm
      (head coil). RF-field measurements were supplemented with direct measurements of
      RF-heating of 15 cm long copper wires affixed to and submerged in the "neck"
      region of the gelled saline-filled (sodium chloride and polyacrylic acid) "head
      and-torso" phantom. Temperature elevations at the lead tips were measured using
      fiber-optic thermometers with the phantom positioned at systematically increased
      distances from the scanner isocenter. RESULTS: B1 field measurements demonstrated
      greater than 10 dB reduction in RF power at distances beyond 28 cm and 24 cm from
      isocenter for body and head coil, respectively. Moreover, RF power from body coil
      transmit at distances greater than 32 cm from isocenter was found to be lower
      than from the RF power from head coil transmit measured at locations adjacent to
      the coil array at its opening. Correspondingly, maximum temperature elevations at
      the tips of the copper wires decreased with increasing distance from isocenter -
      from 7.4 degrees C at 0 cm to no appreciable heating at locations beyond 40 cm.
      CONCLUSIONS: For the particular scanner model evaluated in this study,
      positioning an implanted VNS farther than 32 cm from isocenter (configuration
      achievable for prostate exams) can reduce risks of RF-heating resulting from the
      body coil transmit to those associated with using a T/R head coil.

PMID- 28880383
TI  - Diagnosis of broncho-pleural fistula: Is there a role for sonography?

PMID- 28880382
TI  - Reproducibility of point-of-care ultrasonography for central vein diameter
      measurement: Separating image acquisition from interpretation.
AB  - PURPOSE: Central vein point-of-care ultrasonography must be reproducible to
      detect intravascular volume changes. We sought to determine which measurement
      step, image acquisition or interpretation, could be more compromising for
      reproducibility. METHODS: Three investigators each acquired inferior vena cava
      (IVC) and internal jugular (IJV) vein ultrasonographic sequences (US) from a
      convenience sample of 21 hospitalized general medicine participants and then
      interpreted each US three separate times. We partitioned the random errors of
      acquisition and interpretation, attributing wider dispersions of each to larger
      reductions in reproducibility. RESULTS: We analyzed 351 interpretations of 39 IVC
      and 432 interpretations of 48 IJV US. Reproducibility of the maximum (standard
      error of measurement 3.3 mm [95% confidence interval, CI 2.7-4.2 mm]) and minimum
      (4.8 mm [3.9-6.3 mm]) IVC diameter measurements were worse than that of the
      mediolateral (2.5 mm [2.0-3.2 mm]) and anteroposterior (2.5 mm [2.0-3.1 mm]) IJV
      diameters. The dispersions of random measurement errors were wider among
      acquisitions than interpretations. CONCLUSIONS: Among our investigators, central
      vein diameter measurements obtained by point-of-care ultrasonography are not
      sufficiently reproducible to distinguish clinically meaningful intravascular
      volume changes from measurement errors. Reproducibility could be most effectively
      improved by reducing the random measurement errors of acquisition. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:488-496, 2017.

PMID- 28880384
TI  - Transabdominal sonography to measure the total vaginal and mucosal thicknesses.
AB  - Transabdominal and transvaginal sonography are used to measure bladder wall and
      detrusor thickness. Only transvaginal sonography has been used to measure the
      vaginal wall thickness. We describe the use of transabdominal sonography to
      measure the total vaginal wall thickness and total vaginal mucosal thickness at
      the bladder trigone. The mean bladder wall thickness and SD from published data
      were within the 95% confidence interval of our data. Total vaginal and mucosal
      thicknesses are reliable measurements, which require specific evaluation in a
      postmenopausal population. They could be used to quantify vaginal atrophy and
      could correlate to symptoms of atrophy and response to treatment. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:461-464, 2017.

PMID- 28880388
TI  - Wearable medical device improves survival for glioblastoma patients.

PMID- 28880385
TI  - Echocardiographic features of right ventricular diverticulum: A case report.
AB  - Right ventricular diverticulum is a rare form of cardiac deformity, with a very
      few cases caused by pericarditis. A 60-year-old man sought medication because of
      chest congestion and shortness of breath. CT showed a soft tissue mass at the
      heart apex and pericardial calcification. Doppler echocardiography demonstrated a
      mixed cystic solid mass at the right ventricular apex. Surgical cure confirmed
      the diagnosis of right ventricular apex diverticulum with pericarditis.
      Echocardiography is contributive to the diagnosis of ventricular diverticula in
      measuring their size and showing the local thinning of the ventricular wall with
      localized bulging and abnormal motion. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin
      Ultrasound 45:531-534, 2017.

PMID- 28880389
TI  - More breast cancer patients could benefit from PARP inhibitors.

PMID- 28880390
TI  - Researchers delve into thyroid cancer disparities in race and age: Incidence of
      the disease continues to grow, but at a slower rate in some groups.

PMID- 28880391
TI  - Meta-analysis of the association between alcohol consumption and abdominal aortic
      aneurysm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alcohol is a possible risk factor for abdominal aortic aneurysm
      (AAA), but evidence from individual studies is weak and inconsistent. Existing
      narrative reviews suggest the possibility of non-linear associations. The aim
      here was to quantify any association using a systematic literature review,
      followed by dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. METHODS: MEDLINE,
      Embase and Web of Science were searched systematically to January 2017 for
      relevant prospective studies of alcohol consumption and AAA risk. Summary
      estimates of highest versus lowest levels of consumption, and linear and non
      linear dose-response curves were quantified using random-effects models. RESULTS:
      Eleven relevant cohorts were identified describing results from 3580 individuals
      with among 473 092 participants. Data were extracted from ten cohorts for meta
      analyses of high versus low levels of alcohol consumption (risk ratio for AAA
      0.93, 95 per cent c.i. 0.78 to 1.11; P = 0.4, I2  = 47 per cent). The linear dose
      response risk ratio for AAA, derived from 11 cohorts, was 1.00 (0.97 to 1.04) per
      8 g alcohol per day (P = 0.9, I2  = 73 per cent). Non-linear dose-response
      results showed a tick-shaped curve with lower risk up to 2 units/day, but
      increasing risk beyond that (P = 0.05). The increase in risk beyond 2 units/day
      was stronger in men than in women. CONCLUSION: Although the linear dose-response
      analysis revealed little evidence of an association between alcohol consumption
      and AAA risk, a tick-shaped trend in the association was observed. This non
      linear dose-response analysis revealed reduced risks for alcohol consumption
      below 2 units/day, masking increased risks for 2 or more units/day.

PMID- 28880392
TI  - Pedal peptide/orcokinin-type neuropeptide signaling in a deuterostome: The
      anatomy and pharmacology of starfish myorelaxant peptide in Asterias rubens.
AB  - Pedal peptide (PP) and orcokinin (OK) are related neuropeptides that were
      discovered in protostomian invertebrates (mollusks, arthropods). However,
      analysis of genome/transcriptome sequence data has revealed that PP/OK-type
      neuropeptides also occur in a deuterostomian phylum-the echinoderms. Furthermore,
      a PP/OK-type neuropeptide (starfish myorelaxant peptide, SMP) was recently
      identified as a muscle relaxant in the starfish Patiria pectinifera. Here mass
      spectrometry was used to identify five neuropeptides (ArPPLN1a-e) derived from
      the SMP precursor (PP-like neuropeptide precursor 1; ArPPLNP1) in the starfish
      Asterias rubens. Analysis of the expression of ArPPLNP1 and neuropeptides derived
      from this precursor in A. rubens using mRNA in situ hybridization and
      immunohistochemistry revealed a widespread pattern of expression, with labeled
      cells and/or processes present in the radial nerve cords, circumoral nerve ring,
      digestive system (e.g., cardiac stomach) and body wall-associated muscles (e.g.,
      apical muscle) and appendages (e.g., tube feet and papulae). Furthermore, our
      data provide the first evidence that neuropeptides are present in the lateral
      motor nerves and in nerve processes innervating interossicular muscles. In vitro
      pharmacological tests with SMP (ArPPLN1b) revealed that it causes dose-dependent
      relaxation of apical muscle, tube foot and cardiac stomach preparations from A.
      rubens. Collectively, these anatomical and pharmacological data indicate that
      neuropeptides derived from ArPPLNP1 act as inhibitory neuromuscular transmitters
      in starfish, which contrasts with the myoexcitatory actions of PP/OK-type
      neuropeptides in protostomian invertebrates. Thus, the divergence of
      deuterostomes and protostomes may have been accompanied by an inhibitory
      excitatory transition in the roles of PP/OK-type neuropeptides as regulators of
      muscle activity.

PMID- 28880393
TI  - The feasibility and acceptability of nurse-led chronic disease management
      interventions in primary care: An integrative review.
AB  - AIMS: To explore the feasibility and acceptability of nurse-led chronic disease
      management and lifestyle risk factor reduction interventions in primary care
      (general practice/family practice). BACKGROUND: Growing international evidence
      suggests that interventions delivered by primary care nurses can assist in
      modifying lifestyle risk factors and managing chronic disease. To date, there has
      been limited exploration of the feasibility and acceptability of such
      interventions. DESIGN: Integrative review guided by the work of Whittemore and
      Knafl (). DATA SOURCES: Database search of CINAHL, Medline and Web of Science was
      conducted to identify relevant literature published between 2000-2015. REVIEW
      METHODS: Papers were assessed for methodological quality and data abstracted
      before thematic analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: Eleven papers met the inclusion
      criteria. Analysis uncovered four themes: (1) facilitators of interventions; (2)
      barriers to interventions; (3) consumer satisfaction; and (4) primary care nurse
      role. CONCLUSION: Literature supports the feasibility and acceptability of nurse
      led interventions in primary care for lifestyle risk factor modification. The
      ongoing sustainability of these interventions rests largely on organizational
      factors such as funding, educational pathways and professional support of the
      primary care nursing role. Further robust research around primary care nurse
      interventions is required to strengthen the evidence base.

PMID- 28880395
TI  - Predictors of depressive symptoms among psychiatric nurses who suffered from
      workplace violence.
AB  - AIMS: We examined the possible factors that contributed to or prevented
      developing depressive symptoms among psychiatric nurses who suffered from
      workplace violence under Hill's ABC-X Model. BACKGROUND: Workplace violence
      related depressive symptoms are some of the major causes leading to impaired
      quality of life of victims and a heavy burden on society. DESIGN: This is a cross
      sectional and correlational study. METHOD: All participants were recruited from
      psychiatric wards of six hospitals in Taiwan. The data were collected through
      structured questionnaires from October 2013-March 2014 and a total of 278
      psychiatric wards nurses participated in this study and completed all
      questionnaires. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationships among
      types and severity of violence, social support and depressive symptoms. RESULTS:
      Of assaulted psychiatric ward nurses, 75.9% had depressive symptoms and those
      with higher family support had significantly lower depressive symptoms.
      CONCLUSIONS: Family support plays the most important role among assaulted
      psychiatric ward nurses as a protective factor against developing depressive
      symptoms in this study.

PMID- 28880394
TI  - An assessment of pregnant women's knowledge and use of the Internet for
      medication safety information and purchase.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to assess pregnant women's Internet searching
      activity about medication safety, knowledge and perceptions of medication risk
      and willingness to take prescribed and non-prescribed medication or make online
      medication purchases. BACKGROUND: Online medication advice for pregnant women is
      complex. The quality and veracity of this data is increasingly important as more
      midwives report women are bringing retrieved online information to clinical
      appointments. Pregnant women's use of the Internet for seeking medication advice
      and purchasing medications has not yet been fully investigated. DESIGN: Online
      survey conducted from January - March 2013. FINDINGS: Of the 284 respondents, 39%
      were taking a medication when they became pregnant and 76% had searched the
      Internet for medication safety information. Analgesics were the most commonly
      searched category (41%). Health service sites were the most common online source
      and regarded as the most helpful and trusted. Regardless of age and education
      level, 90% of women agreed that if trying to become pregnant they would
      reconsider taking any medications because of the potential risk to their unborn
      baby. Forty-six percent of women with higher levels of education consider buying
      medication online as safe, a greater proportion than those of lower education.
      Five percent of women reported buying medication online. CONCLUSION: The lack of
      specific recommendations for medication use during pregnancy is challenging for
      healthcare staff and pregnant women who need robust evidence to make informed
      treatment decisions. The Internet is a recognized, commonly accessed, source of
      medication information for pregnant women.

PMID- 28880396
TI  - Drug repurposing to treat asthma and allergic disorders: Progress and prospects.
AB  - Allergy and atopic asthma have continued to become more prevalent in modern
      society despite the advent of new treatments, representing a major global health
      problem. Common medications such as antihistamines and steroids can have
      undesirable long-term side-effects and lack efficacy in some resistant patients.
      Biologic medications are increasingly given to treatment-resistant patients, but
      they can represent high costs, complex dosing and management, and are not widely
      available around the world. The field needs new, cheap, and convenient treatment
      options in order to bring better symptom relief to patients. Beyond continued
      research and development of new drugs, a focus on drug repurposing could
      alleviate this problem by repositioning effective and safe small-molecule drugs
      from other fields of medicine and applying them toward the treatment for asthma
      and allergy. Herein, preclinical models, case reports, and clinical trials of
      drug repurposing efficacy in allergic disease are reviewed. Novel drugs are also
      proposed for repositioning based on their mechanism of action to treat asthma and
      allergy. Overall, drug repurposing could become increasingly important as a way
      of advancing allergy and atopic asthma therapy, filling a need in treatment of
      patients today.

PMID- 28880397
TI  - Transcranial Doppler: a stethoscope for the brain-neurocritical care use.
AB  - Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography is a noninvasive bedside monitoring
      technique that can evaluate cerebral blood flow hemodynamics in the intracranial
      arterial vasculature. TCD allows assessment of linear cerebral blood flow
      velocity, with a high temporal resolution and is inexpensive, reproducible, and
      portable. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the most commonly
      used TCD derived signals and measurements used commonly in neurocritical care. We
      describe both basic (flow velocity, pulsatility index) and advanced concepts,
      including critical closing pressure, wall tension, autoregulation, noninvasive
      intracranial pressure, brain compliance, and cerebrovascular time constant; we
      also describe the clinical applications of TCD to highlight their utility in the
      diagnosis and monitoring of cerebrovascular diseases as the "stethoscope for the
      brain."

PMID- 28880399
TI  - Failing to meet relative humidity targets for incubated neonates causes higher
      heat loss and metabolic costs in the first week of life.
AB  - AIM: Frequent nursing procedures can modify a newborn infant's thermal
      environment when their incubator is opened. This study evaluated the impact of
      relative humidity (RH) on preterm infants in closed incubators and calculated
      their heat loss and additional metabolic cost. METHODS: We studied 45 preterm
      infants born before 32 + 0 weeks, nursed at the neonatal intensive care unit at
      Amiens University Hospital, France from January 2009 to November 2011. Their
      body, skin and air temperatures and the incubator's RH were continuously recorded
      from day 1 to 8 of life, and the differences between the measured and target RH
      were calculated. Body heat loss (BHL) was also calculated. RESULTS: On day one,
      the measured RH (68.7 +/- 1.0%) was significantly lower than the target RH (75%,
      p < 0.05), but this difference, together with BHL (p < 0.001) and evaporative
      heat loss (p < 0.001), fell significantly over time (p < 0.05). The additional
      metabolic cost correlated with the difference between measured and target RH (p <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: RH from day 1 to 8 was below the recommended target value for
      preterm infants and resulted in high evaporative and greater total BHL and
      additional metabolic cost. The findings pose numerous challenges, including
      nursing care and incubator design.

PMID- 28880398
TI  - Association of Incident, Clinically Undiagnosed Radiographic Vertebral Fractures
      With Follow-Up Back Pain Symptoms in Older Men: the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men
      (MrOS) Study.
AB  - Prior data in women suggest that incident clinically undiagnosed radiographic
      vertebral fractures (VFs) often are symptomatic, but misclassification of
      incident clinical VF may have biased these estimates. There are no comparable
      data in men. To evaluate the association of incident clinically undiagnosed
      radiographic VF with back pain symptoms and associated activity limitations, we
      used data from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study, a prospective
      cohort study of community-dwelling men aged >=65 years. A total of 4396 men
      completed spine X-rays and symptom questionnaires at baseline and visit 2, about
      4.6 years later. Incident clinical VFs during this interval were defined by self
      reported clinical diagnosis plus community imaging showing a centrally
      adjudicated >=1 increase in semiquantitative (SQ) grade in any thoracic or lumbar
      vertebra versus baseline study X-rays. Incident radiographic VFs (>=1 increase in
      SQ grade between baseline and visit 2 study X-rays) were categorized as
      radiographic-only (not clinically diagnosed) or radiographic plus clinical (also
      clinically diagnosed). Multivariable-adjusted log binomial regression was used to
      calculate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Men with
      incident radiographic plus clinical VF were most likely to have back pain
      symptoms and associated activity limitation at follow-up. However, versus men
      without incident VF, those with incident radiographic-only VF also were
      significantly more likely at follow-up to report any back pain (70% versus 59%;
      PR, 1.2 [95% CI, 1.1 to 1.3]), severe back pain (8% versus 4%; PR, 1.9 [95% CI,
      1.1 to 3.3]), bother from back pain most/all the time (22% versus 13%; PR, 1.7
      [95% CI, 1.3 to 2.2]), and limited usual activity from back pain (34% versus 18%;
      PR, 1.9 [95% CI, 1.5 to 2.4]). Clinically undiagnosed, incident radiographic VFs
      were associated with an increased likelihood of back pain symptoms and associated
      activity limitation. Results suggest incident radiographic-only VFs often were
      symptomatic, and were associated with both new and worsening back pain.
      Preventing these fractures may reduce back pain and related disability in older
      men. (c) 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28880400
TI  - Effects of ivermectin and its combination with alpha lipoic acid on expression of
      IGFBP-3 and HSPA1 genes and male rat fertility.
AB  - This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of ivermectin (IVM) with
      therapeutic dose (injected with 0.56 mg/kg b.wt.) either alone or combined with
      alpha lipoic acid (ALA) (50 mg/kg b.wt daily) on expression of testicular insulin
      like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) and heat-shock protein A1 (HSPA1))
      genes in the testes, as well as on male rat fertility parameters. Results
      revealed that expression levels of IGFBP-3 and HSPA1 were significantly increased
      in testis of the IVM-treated group relative to the control group. Furthermore,
      injection of ivermectin showed a significant decrease in serum testosterone
      level, sperm count, motility %, live sperm% and index weight of reproductive
      organs, and a significant increase in sperm abnormalities. Moreover, IVM induced
      oxidative stress and pathological alterations in the testes. Meanwhile, the
      administration of ALA with IVM prevented testicular damage and improved all
      previous parameters. We concluded that ivermectin has undesirable effects on male
      fertility and altered expression of IGFBP-3 and HSPA1 genes in the testes, while
      the administration of alpha lipoic acid can ameliorate the adverse effects of
      ivermectin.

PMID- 28880402
TI  - Sonographic Characteristics of Apocrine Nodular Hidradenoma of the Skin.
AB  - Nodular hidradenomas are benign sweat gland-derived tumors that can produce
      clinical and dermatoscopic misdiagnoses. Histologically, these tumors can be
      classified into eccrine and apocrine subtypes. We present the sonographic
      characteristics of 6 cases of apocrine nodular hidradenomas, which, to our
      knowledge, is so far the largest series reported. A detailed sonographic analysis
      included layers, body location, shape, diameters, echostructure patterns, and
      vascularity. Two sonographic signs not previously reported in these or other
      common dermatologic lesions were detected: "snow falling" and "fluid-fluid
      level." The sonographic characteristics of apocrine nodular hidradenomas can
      support their earlier and more precise diagnosis.

PMID- 28880401
TI  - Reduced number of CD169+ macrophages in pre-metastatic regional lymph nodes is
      associated with subsequent metastatic disease in an animal model and with poor
      outcome in prostate cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumor-derived antigens are captured by CD169+ (SIGLEC1+ ) sinus
      macrophages in regional lymph nodes (LNs), and are presented to effector cells
      inducing an anti-tumor immune response. Reduced CD169 expression in pre
      metastatic regional LNs is associated with subsequent metastatic disease and a
      poor outcome in several tumor types, but if this is the case in prostate cancer
      has not been explored. METHODS: CD169 expression was measured with
      immunohistochemistry in metastasis-free regional LNs from 109 prostate cancer
      patients treated with prostatectomy (January 1996 to April 2002). Possible
      associations of CD169 expression with PSA-relapse, prostate cancer death, Gleason
      score, and other clinical data were assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival- and Cox
      regression analysis. In addition, the Dunning rat prostate tumor model was used
      to examine CD169 expression in pre-metastatic LNs draining either highly
      metastatic MatLyLu- or poorly metastatic AT1-tumors. RESULTS: In patients with
      low CD169 immunostaining in metastasis-free regional LNs, 8 of the 27 patients
      died from prostate cancer compared with only three of the 82 patients with high
      immunostaining (P < 0.001). CD169 expression in regional LNs was not associated
      with PSA-relapse. Rats with highly metastatic tumors had decreased CD169
      immunoreactivity in pre-metastatic regional LNs compared with rats with poorly
      metastatic tumors. CONCLUSION: Low expression of CD169 in metastasis-free
      regional LNs indicates a reduced anti-tumor immune response. If verified in other
      studies, CD169 expression in regional LNs could, in combination with other
      factors, potentially be used as a marker of prostate cancer aggressiveness.

PMID- 28880404
TI  - Cultivation and quantitative single-cell analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on
      a multifunctional microfluidic device.
AB  - Here, we present a multifunctional microfluidic device whose integrative design
      enables to combine cell culture studies and quantitative single cell biomolecule
      analysis. The platform consists of 32 analysis units providing two key features;
      first, a micrometer-sized trap for hydrodynamic capture of a single Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) yeast cell; second, a convenient double-valve
      configuration surrounding the trap. Actuating of the outer valve with integrated
      opening results in a partial isolation in a volume of 11.8 nL, i.e. the cell
      surrounding fluid can be exchanged diffusion-based without causing shear stress
      or cell loss. Actuation of the inner ring-shaped valve isolates the trapped cell
      completely in a small analysis volume of 230 pL. The device was used to determine
      the growth rate of yeast cells (S. cerevisiae) under under optimum and oxidative
      stress conditions. In addition, we successfully quantified the cofactor beta
      nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAD(P)H) in single and few cells
      exposed to the different microenvironments. In conclusion, the microdevice
      enables to analyze the influence of an external stress factor on the cellular
      fitness in a fast and more comprehensive way as cell growth and intracellular
      biomolecule levels can be investigated.

PMID- 28880403
TI  - Natural immunoglobulin M initiates an inflammatory response important for both
      hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury and regeneration in mice.
AB  - : Complement plays a role in both hepatic ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury (IRI)
      and liver regeneration, but it is not clear how complement is activated in either
      process. We investigated the role of self-reactive immunoglobulin M (IgM)
      antibodies in activating complement after hepatic IR and liver resection. Natural
      IgM antibodies that recognize danger-associated molecular patterns (neoepitopes)
      activate complement following both hepatic IR and liver resection. Antibody
      deficient Rag1-/- mice were protected from hepatic IRI, but had increased hepatic
      injury and an impaired regenerative response after 70% partial hepatectomy (PHx).
      We identified two IgM monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that specifically reversed the
      effect of Rag1 deficiency in both models; B4 (recognizes Annexin IV) and C2
      (recognizes subset of phospholipids). Focusing on the B4-specific response, we
      demonstrated sinusoidal colocalization of IgM and C3d in Rag1-/- mice that were
      reconstituted with B4 mAb, and furthermore that the Annexin IV neoepitope is
      specifically and similarly expressed after both hepatic IR and PHx in wild-type
      (WT) mice. A single-chain antibody construct (scFv) derived from B4 mAb blocked
      IgM binding and reduced injury post-IR in WT mice, although, interestingly,
      B4scFv did not alter regeneration post-PHx, indicating that anti-Annexin IV
      antibodies are sufficient, but not necessary, for the regenerative response in
      the context of an entire natural antibody repertoire. We also demonstrated
      expression of the B4 neoepitope in postischemic human liver samples obtained
      posttransplantation and a corollary depletion in IgM recognizing the B4 and C2
      neoepitopes in patient sera following liver transplantation. CONCLUSION: These
      data indicate an important role for IgM in hepatic IRI and regeneration, with a
      similar cross-species injury-specific recognition system that has implications
      for the design of neoepitope targeted therapeutics. (Hepatology 2017).

PMID- 28880405
TI  - Differentiation of the Follicular Variant of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma From
      Classic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: An Ultrasound Analysis and Complement to
      Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: It is difficult to establish a diagnosis of the follicular variant of
      papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) using fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).
      Preoperative features on ultrasound (US) imaging are different between follicular
      PTC and classic PTC. This study developed a risk score system to differentiate
      follicular PTC from classic PTC and to correlate the risk score of follicular PTC
      with its FNAC categories and pathologic features. METHODS: The US features, FNAC
      results, and pathologic reports of 156 follicular PTC nodules and 152 classic PTC
      nodules from 296 patients with PTC along with their clinical characteristics were
      reviewed retrospectively. A risk score system based on US features was developed
      by multivariate logistic regression to differentiate classic PTC from follicular
      PTC nodules. The risk scores were then correlated with the FNAC category and
      pathologic features of the nodules. RESULTS: The US risk score (5 * echogenicity
      + 3 * calcifications + 3 * marginal regularity) had an area under the receiver
      operating characteristic curve of 0.85 and a cutoff value of 8.0, with
      specificity of 87% and sensitivity of 69% for predicting a classic PTC nodule.
      The follicular PTC nodules with low Bethesda categorization (I-III) had a median
      US risk score of 6 (range, 0-11), which was higher than that of nodules with high
      categorization (IV-VI; median, 3; range, 0-11). CONCLUSIONS: The US risk score
      may be useful in differentiating classic PTC from follicular PTC and
      complementary to FNAC in identifying follicular PTC.

PMID- 28880406
TI  - Incidental neuronal intermediate filament inclusion pathology: unexpected biopsy
      findings in a 37-year-old woman with epilepsy.

PMID- 28880407
TI  - Biomarkers in solid organ transplantation.
AB  - Recipients of solid organs such as the kidney and heart are treated with standard
      immunosuppressive regimens, and personalized medicine has not yet reached the
      clinic for this patient population. Biomarkers potentially will allow treatment
      regimens to be adjusted, according to the needs of the individual patient.
      Biomarkers may reflect the degree of immunosuppression of the immune system, or
      they may reflect early damage to the transplanted organ.

PMID- 28880408
TI  - Quality evaluation of Guan-Xin-Ning injection based on fingerprint analysis and
      simultaneous separation and determination of seven bioactive constituents by
      capillary electrophoresis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive, rapid and practical
      capillary electrophoresis (CE) method for quality control (QC) of Guan-Xin-Ning
      (GXN) injection based on fingerprint analysis and simultaneous separation and
      determination of seven constituents. In fingerprint analysis, a capillary zone
      electrophoresis (CZE) method with a running buffer of 30 mM borate solution (pH
      9.3) was established. Meanwhile, ten batches of samples were used to establish
      the fingerprint electropherogram and 34 common peaks were obtained within 20 min.
      The RSD of relative migration times (RMT) and relative peak areas (RPA) were less
      than 5%. In order to further evaluate the quality of GXN injection, a micellar
      electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method was developed for simultaneous
      separation and determination of bioactive constituents. Seven components reached
      baseline separation with a running buffer containing 35 mM SDS and 45 mM borate
      solution (pH 9.3). A good linearity was obtained with correlation coefficients
      from 0.9906 to 0.9997. The LOD and LOQ ranged from 0.12 to 1.50 MUg/mL and from
      0.40 to 4.90 MUg/mL, respectively. The recoveries ranged between 99.0 and 104.4%.
      Therefore, it was concluded that the proposed method can be used for full-scale
      quality analysis of GXN injection.

PMID- 28880410
TI  - Staff awareness of food and fluid care needs for older people with dementia in
      residential care: A qualitative study.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine awareness of aged care home staff regarding daily
      food and fluid care needs of older people with dementia. BACKGROUND: Older people
      in residential care frequently are malnourished, and many have dementia. Staff
      knowledge of the food and fluid needs of people with dementia is limited.
      Qualitative research on this topic is scarce but can provide insight into how
      nutrition and hydration care may be improved. DESIGN: Qualitative, interview
      based study. METHODS: Eleven staff in a range of positions at one care home were
      interviewed regarding their perceptions of current and potential food/fluid care
      practices. Transcripts were coded and analysed thematically. RESULTS: Key food
      and fluid issues reported by these staff members were weight loss and
      malnutrition, chewing and swallowing difficulties (dysphagia), and inadequate
      hydration. Staff identified a number of current care practices that they felt to
      be effective in facilitating older people's food and fluid intake, including
      responsiveness to their needs. Staff suggestions to facilitate food and fluid
      intake centred on improved composition and timing of meals, enhanced physical and
      social eating environment, and increased hydration opportunities. Staff commented
      on factors that may prevent changes to care practices, particularly the part-time
      workforce, and proposed changes to overcome such barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Staff
      were aware of key food and fluid issues experienced by the older people in their
      care and of a range of beneficial care practices, but lacked knowledge of many
      promising care practices and/or how to implement such practices. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: Staff need to be supported to build on their existing
      knowledge around effective food and fluid care practices. The numerous ideas
      staff expressed for changing care practices can be leveraged by facilitating
      staff networking to work and learn together to implement evidence-based change.

PMID- 28880409
TI  - The Rate of Cervical Length Shortening in the Management of Vasa Previa.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: There is no consensus about the optimal surveillance strategy in
      women with a diagnosis of vasa previa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      role of the rate of change in cervical length measurements in the management of
      singleton pregnancies with a diagnosis of vasa previa. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective case-control study of our databases for pregnancies with a prenatal
      diagnosis of vasa previa that were followed with transvaginal sonography for
      cervical length and evaluated the impact of the changes in cervical length on the
      need for emergency cesarean delivery. RESULTS: The cohort included 29 singleton
      pregnancies with a prenatal diagnosis of vasa previa in the second trimester.
      There were 14 and 15 pregnancies that underwent elective and emergency cesarean
      delivery, respectively. The rate of cervical length shortening was significantly
      slower for women with elective compared to emergency cesarean delivery (median
      [range], 0.7 [0.1-2.0] versus 1.5 [0.25-3.0] mm/wk; P = .011). For each
      additional millimeter-per-week decrease in cervical length, the odds of emergency
      cesarean delivery increased by 6.50 (95% confidence interval, 1.02-41.20). The
      receiver operating characteristic curve for the rate of cervical length
      shortening in the prediction of emergency cesarean delivery yielded an area under
      the curve of 0.85 (95% confidence interval, 0.69-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      indicate an association between the rate of cervical length shortening and the
      risk of emergency cesarean delivery in pregnancies with a diagnosis of vasa
      previa in the second trimester. Further multicentric studies are required to
      validate our data prospectively and, in particular, the role of serial cervical
      length measurements in determining the optimal delivery time for individual
      cases.

PMID- 28880411
TI  - Preschool children living in joint physical custody arrangements show less
      psychological symptoms than those living mostly or only with one parent.
AB  - AIM: Joint physical custody (JPC), where children spend about equal time in both
      parent's homes after parental separation, is increasing. The suitability of this
      practice for preschool children, with a need for predictability and continuity,
      has been questioned. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we used data on 3656
      Swedish children aged three to five years living in intact families, JPC, mostly
      with one parent or single care. Linear regression analyses were conducted with
      the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, completed by parents and preschool
      teachers, as the outcome measure. RESULTS: Children in JPC showed less
      psychological problems than those living mostly (adjusted B 1.81; 95% CI [0.66 to
      2.95]) or only with one parent (adjusted B 1.94; 95% CI [0.75 to 3.13]), in
      parental reports. In preschool teacher reports, the adjusted Betas were 1.27, 95%
      CI [0.14 to 2.40] and 1.41, 95% CI [0.24 to 2.58], respectively. In parental
      reports, children in JPC and those in intact families had similar outcomes, while
      teachers reported lower unadjusted symptom scores for children in intact
      families. CONCLUSION: Joint physical custody arrangements were not associated
      with more psychological symptoms in children aged 3-5, but longitudinal studies
      are needed to account for potential preseparation differences.

PMID- 28880412
TI  - Diagnostic Efficiency of Quantitative Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Indicators for
      Discriminating Benign From Malignant Solid Thyroid Nodules.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine the most efficient quantitative parameters to
      establish a contrast-enhanced ultrasound (US) assessment system for
      distinguishing between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. METHODS: A total of
      167 patients with thyroid solitary nodules had the diagnosis confirmed by surgery
      or fine-needle aspiration. Quantitative contrast-enhanced US indicators (time to
      peak, time from peak to one-half, ascend slope, descend slope, peak intensity,
      and area under the curve [AUC]) were gathered in nodule and perinodule areas.
      Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Receiver
      operating characteristic curves were generated. Sensitivities, specificities, and
      positive and negative predictive values were calculated to identify the best
      cutoff value. RESULTS: The univariate logistic regression model showed that the
      peak intensity, ascend slope, descend slope, and AUC were significant indicators
      for discriminating benign from malignant nodules under contrast-enhanced US (P <
      .0001). For thyroid nodules, low peak intensity, ascend slope, and AUC and high
      descend slope values were significant indicators of malignancy. However, in
      perinodule areas, high peak intensity, ascend slope, and AUC and low descend
      slope values were significantly associated with malignancies. The cutoff values
      for the nodule peak intensity, ascend slope, descend slope, and AUC were 20.75,
      0.91, -0.2, and 1818.23, respectively. The cutoff values for the ratios of the
      nodule versus perinodule peak intensity, ascend slope, descend slope, and AUC
      were 0.90, 0.95, 0.96, and 0.96. The nodule-to-perinodule peak intensity ratio
      showed the best diagnostic efficiency, with 80.41% sensitivity and 80.00%
      specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative contrast-enhanced US indicators help
      discriminate benign from malignant thyroid nodules. The nodule-to-perinodule peak
      intensity ratio showed the best diagnostic efficiency.

PMID- 28880413
TI  - Curcuminoids Lower Plasma Leptin Concentrations: A Meta-analysis.
AB  - Curcumin is a naturally occurring polyphenol that has been suggested to improve
      several metabolic diseases. Leptin is an adipokine involved in metabolic status
      and appetite, with marked crosstalk with other systems. Available data suggest
      that curcumin may affect leptin levels; therefore, this meta-analysis was
      performed to evaluate this. A systematic review and meta-analysis were undertaken
      on all randomized controlled trials of curcumin studies that included the
      measurement of leptin. The search included PubMed-Medline, Scopus, ISI Web of
      Knowledge, and Google Scholar databases. Quantitative data synthesis was
      performed by using a random-effects model, with standardized mean difference and
      95% confidence interval as summary statistics. A funnel plot, Begg's rank
      correlation, and Egger's weighted regression tests assessed the presence of
      publication bias. Four eligible articles comprising five treatment arms were
      selected for the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis showed a significant decrease in
      plasma leptin concentrations following curcumin treatment (standardized mean
      difference: -0.69, 95% confidence interval: -1.16, -0.23, p = 0.003; I2  =
      76.53%). There was no evidence of publication bias. This meta-analysis showed
      that curcumin supplementation is associated with a decrease in leptin levels that
      may be regarded as a potential mechanism for the metabolic effects of curcumin.
      Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28880414
TI  - Levodopa treatment and dendritic spine pathology.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with the
      progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. Levodopa is the most
      effective treatment for the motor symptoms of PD. However, chronic oral levodopa
      treatment can lead to various motor and nonmotor complications because of
      nonphysiological pulsatile dopaminergic stimulation in the brain. Examinations of
      autopsy cases with PD have revealed a decreased number of dendritic spines of
      striatal neurons. Animal models of PD have revealed altered density and
      morphology of dendritic spines of neurons in various brain regions after
      dopaminergic denervation or dopaminergic denervation plus levodopa treatment,
      indicating altered synaptic transmission. Recent studies using rodent models have
      reported dendritic spine head enlargement in the caudate-putamen, nucleus
      accumbens, primary motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex in cases where chronic
      levodopa treatment following dopaminergic denervation induced dyskinesia-like
      abnormal involuntary movement. Hypertrophy of spines results from insertion of
      alpha-amino-2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-oxo-4-isoxazolepropanoic acid receptors into
      the postsynaptic membrane. Such spine enlargement indicates hypersensitivity of
      the synapse to excitatory inputs and is compatible with a lack of depotentiation,
      which is an electrophysiological hallmark of levodopa-induced dyskinesia found in
      the corticostriatal synapses of dyskinetic animals and the motor cortex of
      dyskinetic PD patients. This synaptic plasticity may be one of the mechanisms
      underlying the priming of levodopa-induced complications such as levodopa-induced
      dyskinesia and dopamine dysregulation syndrome. Drugs that could potentially
      prevent spine enlargement, such as calcium channel blockers, N-methyl-D-aspartate
      receptor antagonists, alpha-amino-2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-oxo-4-isoxazolepropanoic
      acid receptor antagonists, and metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists, are
      candidates for treatment of levodopa-induced complications in PD. (c) 2017
      International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28880415
TI  - Pregnant substance abusers in voluntary and coercive treatment in Norway:
      Therapists' reflections on change processes and attachment experiences.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore therapists' discourses on treatment processes,
      when working with pregnant substance abusers in voluntary and coercive treatment,
      and looking for the clinical implications of these discourses. BACKGROUND:
      Treatment of substance use disorder faces many challenges. One is pregnancy and
      motherhood, which are vulnerable and complex processes. The literature emphasises
      lack of optimal and knowledge-based treatment for this group. DESIGN: The study
      follows a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis. METHOD: Forty therapists from
      four different residential units in Norway, offering both voluntary and coercive
      treatment of pregnant women with substance use disorders, were interviewed in
      focus groups. The semi-structured interview schedule focused on exploring how
      therapists' discourses on change processes and relationship experiences informed
      their clinical practice. RESULTS: How to start "healthy" attachment processes
      between the pregnant woman and the unborn child was the dominant discourse among
      the therapists. Another important theme was coercion, and whether that as a
      contextual frame was negative or positive in creating attachment between mother
      and child. Other discourses were varieties of understanding attachment when the
      mothers had difficulties with substance abuse, the mothers' own attachment
      histories, and social and cultural challenges. CONCLUSION: Systematic work with
      attachment issues between the pregnant woman and her unborn child was the
      dominant perspective of nearly all the therapists. The contextual factors in the
      lives of the women were less prioritised, even though they are of decisive
      importance for the relationship between mother and child. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL
      PRACTICE: Treatment professionals need to focus more on the discursive dilemmas
      encountered in the relation between substance use disorders and the unborn child.

PMID- 28880416
TI  - The effect of self-administered superficial local hot and cold application
      methods on pain, functional status and quality of life in primary knee
      osteoarthritis patients.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of the self-administered
      superficial local hot and cold applications on pain, and the functional status
      and the quality of life in primary knee osteoarthritis patients. BACKGROUND:
      Superficial local hot and cold application is used as a nonpharmacological method
      for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. However, various guidelines for the
      management of knee osteoarthritis have conflicting recommendation for hot and
      cold therapy. DESIGN: A randomised clinical trial design. METHODS: The sample
      consisted of patients (n = 96) who were diagnosed with primary knee
      osteoarthritis. During the application stage, patients were designated to the hot
      and cold application groups and administered hot and cold application twice a day
      for 3 weeks together with standard osteoarthritis treatment. The control group
      only used standard osteoarthritis treatment. The data were collected with a
      Descriptive Information Form, a Pain Scale, the WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index, the
      Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and a Patient Satisfaction Evaluation Form.
      Outcome measures included pain intensity, functional status and quality of life.
      RESULTS: We found decreased primary measurement pain scores and improved
      functional status scores and quality of life scores after the application
      programme compared to the pre-application stage in both the hot and cold
      application groups. Once the application was completed, the pain scores,
      functional status scores and quality-of-life scores on the second measurements
      were found to be still statistically lower than the pre-application scores but
      higher than the first measurement ([p < .001, chi2  = 48.000; p < .001, chi2  =
      34.000], [p < .001, chi2  = 22.000; p = .001 chi2 =14.000] and [p = .005, chi2  =
      16.000; p = .001, chi2  = 12.500]). There was no difference in the perceived
      pain, functional status and quality of life between the pre-application,
      postapplication and 2 weeks postapplication periods of the individuals in three
      groups (p > .05). CONCLUSION: It was found that both hot and cold application
      resulted in a mild improvement in pain, functional status and quality of life,
      but this improvement was not sufficient to create a significant difference
      between the groups. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study contributes to the
      literature on hot and cold application methods as self-management strategies for
      patients with knee osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28880417
TI  - Review: Neuropathology and behavioural features of transgenic murine models of
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Our understanding of the underlying biology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been
      steadily progressing; however, this is yet to translate into a successful
      treatment in humans. The use of transgenic mouse models has helped to develop our
      understanding of AD, not only in terms of disease pathology, but also with the
      associated cognitive impairments typical of AD. Plaques and neurofibrillary
      tangles are often among the last pathological changes in AD mouse models, after
      neuronal loss and gliosis. There is a general consensus that successful
      treatments need to be applied before the onset of these pathologies and
      associated cognitive symptoms. This review discusses the different types of AD
      mouse models in terms of the temporal progression of the disease, how well they
      replicate the pathological changes seen in human AD and their cognitive defects.
      We provide a critical assessment of the behavioural tests used with AD mice to
      assess cognitive changes and decline, and discuss how successfully they correlate
      with cognitive impairments in humans with AD. This information is an important
      tool for AD researchers when deciding on appropriate mouse models, and when
      selecting measures to assess behavioural and cognitive change.

PMID- 28880418
TI  - Diagnostic utility of cerebrospinal fluid alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease:
      A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein aggregates is
      associated with PD. However, the diagnostic value of the alpha-synuclein levels
      in CSF is still under investigation. METHODS: A comprehensive search of the
      literature was performed, yielding 34 studies eligible for meta-analysis. We
      included studies that reported data on CSF total, oligomeric and phosphorylated
      alpha-synuclein in patients with PD and healthy participants, neurological
      controls, or other parkinsonisms. Standardized mean differences were pooled using
      random-effects models, and heterogeneity was reported as I2 . Bivariate random
      effects meta-analysis was also performed on diagnostic data. Methodological
      quality of the selected studies was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool. RESULTS:
      Concentrations of alpha-synuclein species in PD did not show significant
      differences with respect to the levels found in other parkinsonisms. Total alpha
      synuclein was significantly reduced in PD when compared with controls
      (standardized mean differences -0.48; P < .001, I2 = 60%). Oligomeric
      (standardized mean differences 0.57; P < .001, I2 = 44%) and phosphorylated alpha
      synuclein (standardized mean differences 0.86; P < .001) were significantly
      increased in PD when compared with controls. Sensitivity and specificity for
      distinguishing PD and controls were 0.72 and 0.65, respectively, for total alpha
      synuclein, and 0.71 and 0.64, respectively, for oligomeric alpha-syn. CONCLUSION:
      Most of the studies were at high risk of bias and have concerns regarding
      applicability. Diagnostic performance of CSF alpha-synuclein species is still
      below what would be considered acceptable for their introduction in clinical
      practice. Future research should focus on combining alpha-synuclein species with
      other biochemical markers as well on improving the standardization of current
      assays. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28880419
TI  - Effects of a nurse-led transitional care programme on readmission, self-efficacy
      to implement health-promoting behaviours, functional status and life quality
      among Chinese patients with coronary artery disease: A randomised controlled
      trial.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine the effectiveness of a nurse-led transitional
      care programme on readmission, self-efficacy to implement health-promoting
      behaviours, functional status and life quality among Chinese patients with
      coronary artery disease. BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease is a major cause of
      mortality in China. Transitional care could help to ensure improved patient
      outcomes. Nevertheless, our knowledge of how to perform transitional care for
      patients with coronary artery disease is insufficient in mainland China. DESIGN:
      Randomised controlled trial. METHODS: The nurse-led transitional care
      intervention in the experimental group adopted the Omaha system and Pender's
      health-promoting model as its frameworks. The control group received a comparable
      length routine care and follow-up contacts. Evaluations were conducted at
      baseline before discharge and after 7 months after discharge using hospital
      readmission rate, self-rated abilities for health practices scale and Seattle
      Angina Questionnaire for functional status and life quality. Data were collected
      between March 2014-October 2014. RESULTS: Compared with the control group,
      participants in the experimental group showed greater self-efficacy to implement
      health-promoting behaviours, more angina stability, less angina frequency, more
      satisfaction with treatment and better quality of life. The difference in
      readmission rate and physical limitations was not significant between the two
      groups. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence for the effectiveness of a nurse
      led transitional care programme in improving the ability to implement health
      promoting behaviours, the functional status and life quality among Chinese
      patients with coronary artery disease. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The nurse
      led transitional care programme is helpful for coronary artery disease patients
      to promote their effective transfer from hospital to community and provide an
      evidence for nursing managers to train their nurses for transitional care
      knowledge and skills.

PMID- 28880420
TI  - Latent Risk Subtypes Based on Injection and Sexual Behavior Among People Who
      Inject Drugs in Rural Puerto Rico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: People who inject drugs (PWID) in Puerto Rico engage in high levels
      of injection and sexual risk behavior, and they are at high risk for HIV and
      hepatitis C (HCV) infection, relative to their US counterparts. Less is known,
      however, about the clustering of risk behavior conducive to HIV and HCV infection
      among rural Puerto Rican communities. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was
      to examine concurrent injection and sexual risk subtypes among a rural sample of
      PWID in Puerto Rico. METHODS: Data were drawn from a respondent-driven sample
      collected in 2015 of 315 PWID in 4 rural communities approximately 30-40 miles
      from San Juan. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to examine risk subtypes
      using 3 injection and 3 sexual risk indicators. In addition, demographic and
      other PWID characteristics were examined as possible predictors of latent class
      membership. RESULTS: Four LCA subtypes were identified: low risk (36%), high
      injection/low sexual risk (22%), low injection/high sexual risk (20%), and high
      risk (22%). Younger age and past year homelessness predicted high risk latent
      class membership, relative to the other classes. In addition, daily speedball use
      predicted membership in the high injection/low sexual risk class, relative to the
      low risk and low injection/high sexual risk classes. CONCLUSION/IMPORTANCE: The
      findings suggest ways in which PWID risk clusters can be identified for targeted
      interventions.

PMID- 28880421
TI  - Diffuse midline gliomas with histone H3-K27M mutation: A rare case with PNET-like
      appearance and neuropil-like islands.
AB  - Diffuse midline glioma with histone H3-K27M mutation is a new tumor entity
      defined by the 2016 WHO Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System. A
      51-year-old Chinese woman presented with neck pain for a month. Subsequent MRI
      revealed an intramedullary neoplasm extending from C5 to C7. Histologically, the
      cellular area of the tumor was composed of primitive, poorly differentiated,
      small cells with scant cytoplasm, nuclear molding, and brisk mitotic activity,
      exhibiting PNET-like appearance, while in the hypocellular area,
      oligodendroglioma-like cells were observed. More importantly, neuropil-like
      islands were observed in the cellular area. Microvascular proliferation was
      noted, with no necrosis. Besides histone H3K27M mutation, immunohistochemical
      staining also showed that the tumor cells were positive for oligodendrocyte
      lineage transcription factor 2 and ATRX. The neuropil-like areas were positive
      for synaptophysin, intermingled with scattered neuronal nuclear antigen positive
      cells. The Ki-67 proliferation index was about 30%, and tumor cells were highly
      immunopositive for p53. Sequencing for IDH1 codon 132 and IDH2 codon 172 gene
      mutations showed negative results. Furthermore, fluorescent analysis revealed 1p
      deletion in the lesion but no 19q deletion. Based on these findings, the tumor
      was diagnosed as diffuse midline gliomas with histone H3-K27M mutation in the
      spinal cord, corresponding to WHO grade IV. After 4 months of remission, the
      tumor recurred; 2 months later, the patient died. Herein, we report an extremely
      rare case of diffuse midline glioma with histone H3K27M mutation, which was
      morphologically characterized simultaneously by primitive neuroectodermal tumor
      like appearance and neuropil-like islands.

PMID- 28880422
TI  - Deep brain stimulation modulates the shape of cortical beta oscillations in
      Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28880424
TI  - XXXV Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Blood Transfusion Society, SEC
      Centre, Glasgow, UK, 13-15 September 2017.

PMID- 28880423
TI  - Variation in job titles within the nursing workforce.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES/BACKGROUND: The work of specialist nursing has been under
      scrutiny for many years in the UK due to a perception that it is not cost
      effective. A common issue is the lack of consistency of job titles, which causes
      confusion to the public, employing organisations, colleagues and commissioners of
      services. Lack of consistency has implications for the wider perception of
      advanced specialist practice in the worldwide community and the workforce more
      generally. This study aims to understand the variation in job titles in the UK
      population. METHODS: A pre-existing data set of accrued studies into the work of
      nurses working in specialisms was mined for insight (N = 17,960). This study used
      knowledge discovery through data and descriptive statistics to perform secondary
      analysis. RESULTS: Mining these data revealed 595 job titles in use in 17,960
      specialist posts once the specialism had been removed. The most commonly used
      titles were Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse Specialist/Specialist Nurse,
      Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Practitioner. There were three other
      primary groupings. These were variants with a specialist or technical prefix of
      suffix, for example Nurse Endoscopist, variants of seniority such as trainee,
      senior nurse for [specialism] or variants of function such as Nurse Prescriber.
      The clustering was driven primarily by pay band. A total of 323 posts were
      recorded as holding titles such as Advanced Nurse Practitioner or Specialist
      Nurse who were not registered with the Nursing & Midwifery Council. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: In this data set, there is a large array of titles, which
      appear to have little relationship with other factors like education. This is
      confusing to the public, employers and those commissioning services. It also
      demonstrates that the previous assumptions by Council for Healthcare Regulatory
      Excellence that advanced practice labels are associated with career progression
      are unsound and should be addressed by the regulator.

PMID- 28880426
TI  - Dual Visible Light-Triggered Photoswitch of a Diarylethene Supramolecular
      Assembly with Cucurbit[8]uril.
AB  - Research on photochromic molecules switched by visible light is of particular
      interest for their application in bioimaging and stimuli-responsive materials.
      Here, a photoswitchable supramolecular assembly comprised of monocharged
      bispyridinium-modified diarylethenes (DAEs) and cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) has been
      constructed, which exhibits reversible photochromic behaviour with visible light
      in both directions. The transformation of CB[8] not only prompts the DAEs to form
      charge-transfer complexes, but also restricts its intramolecular rotation to
      enhance fluorescence emission. In this CB[8]-containing supramolecular system,
      the pi-conjugation is extended and its absorption is bathochromically shifted for
      visible light-driven cyclization of DAEs. Meanwhile, the fluorescence of the
      supramolecular assembly can also be reversibly modulated by visible light. These
      findings may furnish a new strategy for the development of visible light-driven
      fluorescent biomaterials and molecular machines.

PMID- 28880425
TI  - Chronic sleep reduction is associated with academic achievement and study
      concentration in higher education students.
AB  - Inadequate sleep impairs cognitive function and has been associated with worse
      academic achievement in higher education students; however, studies that control
      for relevant background factors and include knowledge on sleep hygiene are
      scarce. This study examined the association of chronic sleep reduction (i.e.
      symptoms of chronic sleep reduction such as shortness of sleep, sleepiness and
      irritation), subjective sleep quality and sleep hygiene knowledge with academic
      achievement (grades and study credits) and study concentration among 1378 higher
      education students (71% female, mean age 21.73 years, SD = 3.22) in the
      Netherlands. Demographic, health, lifestyle and study behaviour characteristics
      were included as covariates in hierarchical regression analyses. After
      controlling for significant covariates, only chronic sleep reduction remained a
      significant predictor of lower grades (last exam, average in current academic
      year). Better sleep quality and sleep hygiene knowledge were associated with
      better academic achievement, but significance was lost after controlling for
      covariates, except for a remaining positive association between sleep hygiene
      beliefs and grades in the current academic year. Moreover, better sleep quality
      and lower scores on chronic sleep reduction were associated with better study
      concentration after controlling for significant covariates. To conclude, chronic
      sleep reduction is associated with academic achievement and study concentration
      in higher education students. Inadequate sleep hygiene knowledge is moderately
      associated with worse academic achievement. Future research should investigate
      whether sleep hygiene interventions improve academic achievement in students of
      higher education.

PMID- 28880428
TI  - Induction of autophagy by an oleanolic acid derivative, SZC017, promotes ROS
      dependent apoptosis through Akt and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in human lung
      cancer cells.
AB  - The signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling
      pathway is a common feature in many solid tumors including non-small cell lung
      cancer, whereas current therapies usually fail to treat this disease in majority
      of cases. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the cytotoxic effect and
      the underlying mechanisms of SZC017, an oleanolic acid derivative, on human lung
      cancer cells. Cell viability was significantly decreased in SZC017-treated lung
      cancer cells. Mechanistically, SZC017 reduced A549 cell viability by activating
      both apoptosis and autophagy pathways. SZC017 was able to inhibit the
      phosphorylation of Akt, JAK2, and STAT3 in A549 cells, resulting in the
      inactivation of Akt and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathways. In addition, SZC017 could
      induce ROS generation and Ca2+ release. Pretreatment with N-Acetyl L-Cysteine, a
      ROS scavenger, could fully reverse SZC017-induced ROS and increase the expression
      of Akt, p-STAT3, and procaspase-3, while decrease the ratio of LC3-II/I and the
      expression of Beclin-1. In summary, our study provides pharmacological evidence
      that SZC017 exhibits potential use in the treatment of lung cancer.

PMID- 28880427
TI  - Stigmatic exudate in the Annonaceae: Pollinator reward, pollen germination medium
      or extragynoecial compitum?
AB  - Although "dry-type" stigmas are widely regarded as ancestral in angiosperms, the
      early-divergent family Annonaceae has copious stigmatic exudate. We evaluate
      three putative functions for this exudate: as a nutritive reward for pollinators;
      as a pollen germination medium; and as an extragynoecial compitum that enables
      pollen tube growth between carpels. Stigmatic exudate is fructose dominated
      (72.2%), but with high levels of glucose and sucrose; the dominance of hexose
      sugars and the diversity of amino acids observed, including many that are
      essential for insects, support a nutritive role for pollinators. Sugar
      concentration in pre-receptive flowers is high (28.2%), falling during the peak
      period of stigmatic receptivity (17.4%), and then rising again toward the end of
      the pistillate phase (32.9%). Pollen germination was highest in sugar
      concentrations <20%. Sugar concentrations during the peak pistillate phase
      therefore provide optimal osmolarity for pollen hydration and germination;
      subsequent changes in sugar concentration during anthesis reinforce protogyny (in
      which carpels mature before stamens), enabling the retention of concentrated
      exudate into the staminate phase as a pollinator food reward without the
      possibility of pollen germination. Intercarpellary growth of pollen tubes was
      confirmed: the exudate therefore also functions as a suprastylar extragynoecial
      compitum, overcoming the limitations of apocarpy.

PMID- 28880429
TI  - List randomization for soliciting experience of intimate partner violence:
      Application to the evaluation of Zambia's unconditional child grant program.
AB  - Social scientists have increasingly invested in understanding how to improve data
      quality and measurement of sensitive topics in household surveys. We utilize the
      technique of list randomization to collect measures of physical intimate partner
      violence in an experimental impact evaluation of the Government of Zambia's Child
      Grant Program. The Child Grant Program is an unconditional cash transfer, which
      targeted female caregivers of children under the age of 5 in rural areas to
      receive the equivalent of US $24 as a bimonthly stipend. The implementation
      results show that the list randomization methodology functioned as planned, with
      approximately 15% of the sample identifying 12-month prevalence of physical
      intimate partner violence. According to this measure, after 4 years, the program
      had no measurable effect on partner violence. List randomization is a promising
      approach to incorporate sensitive measures into multitopic evaluations; however,
      more research is needed to improve upon methodology for application to
      measurement of violence.

PMID- 28880430
TI  - Human Leukocyte Antigen Sensitization in Solid Organ Transplantation: A Primer on
      Terminology, Testing, and Clinical Significance for the Apheresis Practitioner.
AB  - The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is an important immunologic barrier that
      must be considered for successful solid organ transplantation. Formation of donor
      specific HLA antibodies in solid organ transplantation is an important cause of
      allograft injury and may contribute to recipient morbidity and mortality.
      Therapeutic plasma exchange is often requested to lower HLA antibody levels prior
      to or after transplantation and for management of HLA antibodies in the context
      of organ rejection. In this review, we summarize the current terminology,
      laboratory testing, and clinical significance of HLA sensitization in the solid
      organ transplant population. Furthermore, to illustrate applications of HLA
      testing in clinical practice, we summarize our own lung and kidney institutional
      protocols for managing HLA antibodies in the peri-transplant setting.

PMID- 28880431
TI  - The role of herbivore- and plant-related experiences in intraspecific host
      preference of a relatively specialized parasitoid.
AB  - Parasitoids use odor cues from infested plants and herbivore hosts to locate
      their hosts. Specialist parasitoids of generalist herbivores are predicted to
      rely more on herbivore-derived cues than plant-derived cues. Microplitis
      croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a relatively specialized larval
      endoparasitoid of Heliothis virescens (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), which is a
      generalist herbivore on several crops including cotton and soybean. Using M.
      croceipes/H. virescens as a model system, we tested the following predictions
      about specialist parasitoids of generalist herbivores: (i) naive parasitoids will
      show innate responses to herbivore-emitted kairomones, regardless of host plant
      identity and (ii) herbivore-related experience will have a greater influence on
      intraspecific oviposition preference than plant-related experience. Inexperienced
      (naive) female M. croceipes did not discriminate between cotton-fed and soybean
      fed H. virescens in oviposition choice tests, supporting our first prediction.
      Oviposition experience alone with either host group influenced subsequent
      oviposition preference while experience with infested plants alone did not elicit
      preference in M. croceipes, supporting our second prediction. Furthermore,
      associative learning of oviposition with host-damaged plants facilitated host
      location. Interestingly, naive parasitoids attacked more soybean-fed than cotton
      fed host larvae in two-choice tests when a background of host-infested cotton
      odor was supplied, and vice versa. This suggests that plant volatiles may have
      created an olfactory contrast effect. We discussed ecological significance of the
      results and concluded that both plant- and herbivore-related experiences play
      important role in parasitoid host foraging.

PMID- 28880432
TI  - Tyrosine-Kinase Inhibitors for Treatment in Hemodialysis Patients on Kidney
      Transplant Waiting List. Comment on: Nakai et al.

PMID- 28880433
TI  - The effect of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles on mechanical behavior and biological
      performance of porous shape memory polyurethane scaffolds.
AB  - The scaffold which provides space for cell growth, proliferation, and
      differentiation, is a key factor in bone tissue engineering. However,
      improvements in scaffold design are needed to precisely match the irregular
      boundaries of bone defects as well as facilitate clinical application. In this
      study, controllable three-dimensional (3D) porous shape memory polyurethane/nano
      hydroxyapatite (SMPU/nHAP) composite scaffold was successfully fabricated for
      bone defect reparation. Detailed studies were performed to evaluate its
      structure, apparent density, porosity, and mechanical properties, emphasizing the
      contribution of nHAP particles on shape recovery behaviors and biological
      performance in vitro. The effect of nHAP particles in porous SMPU/nHAP composite
      scaffold was found to enhance the compression resistance by 37%, shorten the
      compression recovery time by 41%, reduce the tensile resistance by 78%, reach the
      shape recovery ratio of 99%, and promote the cell proliferation by 13% after 7
      days of culture. These results revealed that the 3D structure and aperture of as
      prepared scaffold were controllable. And in minimally invasive surgery and bone
      repair surgery, this porous composite scaffold could significantly reduce the
      operative time and promote the bone cell growth. Therefore, this porous SMPU/nHAP
      composite scaffold design has potential applications for the bone tissue
      engineering. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A:
      244-254, 2018.

PMID- 28880434
TI  - A Bayesian CUSUM plot: Diagnosing quality of treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To present a CUSUM plot based on Bayesian diagnostic reasoning
      displaying evidence in favour of "healthy" rather than "sick" quality of
      treatment (QOT), and to demonstrate a technique using Kaplan-Meier survival
      curves permitting application to case series with ongoing follow-up. METHODS: For
      a case series with known final outcomes: Consider each case a diagnostic test of
      good versus poor QOT (expected vs. increased failure rates), determine the
      likelihood ratio (LR) of the observed outcome, convert LR to weight taking log to
      base 2, and add up weights sequentially in a plot showing how many times odds in
      favour of good QOT have been doubled. For a series with observed survival times
      and an expected survival curve: Divide the curve into time intervals, determine
      "healthy" and specify "sick" risks of failure in each interval, construct a
      "sick" survival curve, determine the LR of survival or failure at the given
      observation times, convert to weights, and add up. RESULTS: The Bayesian plot was
      applied retrospectively to 39 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with
      completed follow-up, using Nordic collaborative results as reference, showing
      equal odds between good and poor QOT. In the ongoing treatment trial, with 22 of
      37 children still at risk for event, QOT has been monitored with average survival
      curves as reference, odds so far favoring good QOT 2:1. CONCLUSION: QOT in small
      patient series can be assessed with a Bayesian CUSUM plot, retrospectively when
      all treatment outcomes are known, but also in ongoing series with unfinished
      follow-up.

PMID- 28880435
TI  - Thrombocytopenia and CD34 expression is decoupled from alpha-granule deficiency
      with mutation of the first growth factor-independent 1B zinc finger.
AB  - : Essentials The phenotypes of different growth factor-independent 1B (GFI1B)
      variants are not established. GFI1B variants produce heterogeneous clinical
      phenotypes dependent on the site of mutation. Mutation of the first non-DNA
      binding zinc-finger causes a mild platelet and clinical phenotype. GFI1B
      regulates the CD34 promoter; platelet CD34 expression is an indicator of GFI1B
      mutation. SUMMARY: Background Mutation of the growth factor-independent 1B
      (GFI1B) fifth DNA-binding zinc-finger domain causes macrothrombocytopenia and
      alpha-granule deficiency leading to clinical bleeding. The phenotypes associated
      with GFI1B variants disrupting non-DNA-binding zinc-fingers remain
      uncharacterized. Objectives To determine the functional and phenotypic
      consequences of GFI1B variants disrupting non-DNA-binding zinc-finger domains.
      Methods The GFI1B C168F variant and a novel GFI1B c.2520 + 1_2520 + 8delGTGGGCAC
      splice variant were identified in four unrelated families. Phenotypic features,
      DNA-binding properties and transcriptional effects were determined and compared
      with those in individuals with a GFI1B H294 fs mutation of the fifth DNA-binding
      zinc-finger. Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived
      megakaryocytes were generated to facilitate disease modeling. Results The DNA
      binding GFI1B variant C168F, which is predicted to disrupt the first non-DNA
      binding zinc-finger domain, is associated with macrothrombocytopenia without
      alpha-granule deficiency or bleeding symptoms. A GFI1B splice variant, c.2520 +
      1_2520 + 8delGTGGGCAC, which generates a short GFI1B isoform that lacks non-DNA
      binding zinc-fingers 1 and 2, is associated with increased platelet CD34
      expression only, without quantitative or morphologic platelet abnormalities.
      GFI1B represses the CD34 promoter, and this repression is attenuated by different
      GFI1B zinc-finger mutations, suggesting that deregulation of CD34 expression
      occurs at a direct transcriptional level. Patient-specific iPSC-derived
      megakaryocytes phenocopy these observations. Conclusions Disruption of GFI1B non
      DNA-binding zinc-finger 1 is associated with mild to moderate thrombocytopenia
      without alpha-granule deficiency or bleeding symptomatology, indicating that the
      site of GFI1B mutation has important phenotypic implications. Platelet CD34
      expression appears to be a common feature of perturbed GFI1B function, and may
      have diagnostic utility.

PMID- 28880436
TI  - Redox luminescence switch based on Mn2+ -doped NaYF4 :Yb,Er upconversion
      nanorods.
AB  - An redox luminescence switch was developed for the sensing of glutathione (GSH),
      l-cysteine (Cys) or l-ascorbic acid (AA) based on redox reaction. The Mn2+ -doped
      NaYF4 :Yb,Er upconversion nanorods (UCNRs) with an emission peak located in the
      red region were synthesized. The luminescence intensity of the UCNRs could be
      quenched due to the Mn2+ could be oxidized to MnO2 by KMnO4 . Subsequently, when
      the AA, GSH or Cys was added into the MnO2 modified upconversion nanosystem,
      which could reduced MnO2 to Mn2+ and the luminescence intensity was recovered.
      The concentration ranges of the nanosystem are 0.500-3.375 mM (R2  = 0.99) for
      AA, 0.6250-11.88 mM (R2  = 0.99) for GSH and 0.6250-9.375 mM (R2  = 0.99) for
      Cys, respectively.

PMID- 28880438
TI  - Prevalence and factors associated with mild cognitive impairment among Chinese
      older adults with depression.
AB  - AIM: Depression and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are common among older
      adults. Most of the existing studies were carried out in developed countries, and
      evidence from developing countries are lacking. In the present study, using a
      national sample, we aimed to describe the prevalence of MCI and its associated
      factors among Chinese older adults with depression. METHOD: The present study
      uses data from a national survey of the 2011 Comprehensive Assessment of Elderly
      Health, which involved 8113 older adults from eight provinces or municipalities
      directly under the Central Government of six regions in China. The Geriatric
      Depression Scale was used to assess depression, and the Mini-Mental State
      Examination was used as the measurement of cognitive function. RESULTS: The
      results showed that the prevalence of geriatric depression was 15.9%, and 36.4%
      of those with depression had MCI. Geriatric depression was found to be
      significantly associated with MCI after controlling for demographics. Among
      participants with geriatric depression, female sex, older age, rural or suburban
      residence, poor physical health status, education level of illiterate or
      elementary school, having no daily physical activity, and living in Central China
      or West China were associated with an increased risk of MCI. CONCLUSIONS: The
      present study showed a high prevalence rate of MCI among Chinese older adults
      with depression. Early screening and treatment for MCI are necessary among people
      with geriatric depression. Further research and health services innovations are
      required to address the high prevalence of MCI in this population. Geriatr
      Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 263-268.

PMID- 28880437
TI  - Prevalence of Earlobe Creases and Their Association With History of
      Cardiovascular Disease in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis: A Cross-Sectional
      Study.
AB  - Earlobe creases are surrogate markers for high risk of cardiovascular disease.
      There is no data concerning earlobe creases among hemodialysis patients, who have
      an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. A cross-sectional study was
      conducted to determine the prevalence of earlobe creases and their association
      with prevalent cardiovascular disease among hemodialysis patients. Patients
      undergoing hemodialysis were recruited from five outpatient hemodialysis centers.
      Both earlobes were photographed during a dialysis session with the patient in a
      supine position and the photos evaluated independently by two experienced
      nephrologists blinded to the participants' clinical characteristics. Prevalent
      cardiovascular diseases were defined as a history of myocardial infarction,
      cerebrovascular accident, or peripheral vascular disease. Sensitivity,
      specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for detection of
      prevalent cardiovascular disease were calculated. Logistic analysis was used to
      examine the association between earlobe creases and prevalent cardiovascular
      disease. Earlobe creases were identified in 24.5% of 330 hemodialysis patients
      (200 men; mean age, 67.8 years). The prevalence of earlobe creases increased with
      age for men (P for trend <0.0001), but not for women (P for trend = 0.07).
      Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 30.9%
      (95% confidence interval, 21.9-41.6), 77.5% (71.9-82.3), 30.9% (21.9-41.6), and
      77.5% (71.9-82.3), respectively. Multivariate logistic analyses indicated the
      prevalence of earlobe crease was not associated with prevalent cardiovascular
      diseases. The prevalence is similar to that previously reported for Japanese
      individuals not undergoing dialysis. No association between earlobe creases and
      prevalent cardiovascular diseases was identified.

PMID- 28880439
TI  - Complete response in a patient with stage IV adrenocortical carcinoma treated
      with adjuvant trans-catheter arterial chemo-embolization (TACE).
AB  - Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare cancer, with estimate population incidence of
      0.7-2.0 cases per 1 million each year. It also carries poor prognosis with
      estimated 5-year survival of less than 15% of those with metastatic disease and
      has a poor response to cytotoxic treatment. A randomized controlled trial
      published in 2012 by Fassnacht et al. demonstrated improved progression-free
      survival with first-line etoposide-doxirubicin-cisplatin-mitotane (EDP-M)
      compared to first-line streptozocin-mitotane in patients with stage III-IV
      disease. We report a case of a 25-year-old female diagnosed with adrenocortical
      carcinoma with liver and lung metastases treated with adjuvant EDP-M
      chemotherapy. During her treatment, the patient experienced ongoing significant
      liver-associated burden of disease, which prompted a trial of trans-hepatic
      arterial chemoembolization with doxorubicin and mitomycin. The patient
      subsequently experienced complete remission of disease at 18 months with no
      fludeoxyglucose (FDG) avid lesions on PET/CT.

PMID- 28880440
TI  - Editorial: subgroups in irritable bowel syndrome-more than just diarrhoea and
      constipation? Authors' reply.

PMID- 28880441
TI  - Letter: CYP2C19 polymorphisms and exacerbation of rabeprazole's effects on
      celecoxib-induced small bowel injury-authors' reply.

PMID- 28880442
TI  - Editorial: challenges in the development of a magnetic resonance imaging index
      for fistulising Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28880443
TI  - Editorial: diagnosing bile acid diarrhoea with blood tests.

PMID- 28880444
TI  - Letter: the potential risk of HBV reactivation in patients with resolved HBV
      infection during direct-acting antiviral therapy.

PMID- 28880445
TI  - Editorial: subgroups in irritable bowel syndrome-more than just diarrhoea and
      constipation?

PMID- 28880446
TI  - Letter: CYP2C19 polymorphisms and exacerbation of rabeprazole's effects on
      celecoxib-induced small bowel injury.

PMID- 28880447
TI  - Letter: bleeding in cirrhotics receiving coronary stenting and antiplatelet
      therapy.

PMID- 28880448
TI  - Letter: the potential risk of HBV reactivation in patients with resolved HBV
      infection during direct-acting antiviral therapy - authors' reply.

PMID- 28880449
TI  - Reduced risk of decompensation and death associated with use of statins in
      patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. A nationwide case-cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reports have indicated that the use of statins may ameliorate the
      course of cirrhosis. AIM: To determine the relationship between use of statins
      and mortality rate in patients with cirrhosis. METHODS: We did a retrospective
      case-cohort analysis based on data from the Danish registers from the period 1995
      through 2014. Index date was time of diagnosis of cirrhosis (ICD-10: K703) and
      cohort entry depended on whether the patient was statin user or not. We used
      propensity score matching with a statin:non-statin ratio of 1:2. We included the
      exposure to statins (ATC classification C10AA) from the index date until death or
      end of follow-up based on prescription claims. Use of statins based on at least
      two statin claims as well as the longitudinal pattern over time of statin claims
      was tested against mortality. The main outcome was mortality rate. RESULTS: A
      total of 24 748 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis were identified and 5417 were
      eligible for matching. The mean age was 56 (SD 10) years and 36% were females.
      The prevalence of use of statins was 15%. We included 744 in the matched cohort.
      Mortality rates were 88 (95% CI 73-105) per 1000 years for patients using statin
      and 127 (95% CI 114-141) for non-statin patients with a HR of 0.57 (95% CI 0.45
      0.71). A more regular pattern of statin claims was related to a lower risk of
      death. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed an association between regular use of
      statins and reduced mortality in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.

PMID- 28880450
TI  - Letter: the importance of dosing and baseline haemoglobin when establishing the
      relative efficacy of intravenous iron therapies.

PMID- 28880451
TI  - Editorial: treatments for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis - still a long way to go.

PMID- 28880452
TI  - Letter: bleeding in cirrhotics receiving coronary stenting and antiplatelet
      therapy - author's reply.

PMID- 28880453
TI  - Letter: the importance of dosing and baseline haemoglobin when establishing the
      relative efficacy of intravenous iron therapies-authors' reply.

PMID- 28880454
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28880455
TI  - Automated cell counts on CSF samples: A multicenter performance evaluation of the
      GloCyte system.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Automated cell counters have replaced manual enumeration of cells in
      blood and most body fluids. However, due to the unreliability of automated
      methods at very low cell counts, most laboratories continue to perform labor
      intensive manual counts on many or all cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. This
      multicenter clinical trial investigated if the GloCyte System (Advanced
      Instruments, Norwood, MA), a recently FDA-approved automated cell counter, which
      concentrates and enumerates red blood cells (RBCs) and total nucleated cells
      (TNCs), is sufficiently accurate and precise at very low cell counts to replace
      all manual CSF counts. METHODS: The GloCyte System concentrates CSF and stains
      RBCs with fluorochrome-labeled antibodies and TNCs with nucleic acid dyes. RBCs
      and TNCs are then counted by digital image analysis. Residual adult and pediatric
      CSF samples obtained for clinical analysis at five different medical centers were
      used for the study. Cell counts were performed by the manual hemocytometer method
      and with the GloCyte System following the same protocol at all sites. The limits
      of the blank, detection, and quantitation, as well as precision and accuracy of
      the GloCyte, were determined. RESULTS: The GloCyte detected as few as 1 TNC/MUL
      and 1 RBC/MUL, and reliably counted as low as 3 TNCs/MUL and 2 RBCs/MUL. The
      total coefficient of variation was less than 20%. Comparison with cell counts
      obtained with a hemocytometer showed good correlation (>97%) between the GloCyte
      and the hemocytometer, including at very low cell counts. CONCLUSIONS: The
      GloCyte instrument is a precise, accurate, and stable system to obtain red cell
      and nucleated cell counts in CSF samples. It allows for the automated enumeration
      of even very low cell numbers, which is crucial for CSF analysis. These results
      suggest that GloCyte is an acceptable alternative to the manual method for all
      CSF samples, including those with normal cell counts.

PMID- 28880457
TI  - Development of quality metrics for ambulatory care in pediatric patients with
      tetralogy of Fallot.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop quality metrics (QMs)
      relating to the ambulatory care of children after complete repair of tetralogy of
      Fallot (TOF). DESIGN: A workgroup team (WT) of pediatric cardiologists with
      expertise in all aspects of ambulatory cardiac management was formed at the
      request of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Adult Congenital and
      Pediatric Cardiology Council (ACPC), to review published guidelines and consensus
      data relating to the ambulatory care of repaired TOF patients under the age of 18
      years. A set of quality metrics (QMs) was proposed by the WT. The metrics went
      through a two-step evaluation process. In the first step, the RAND-UCLA modified
      Delphi methodology was employed and the metrics were voted on feasibility and
      validity by an expert panel. In the second step, QMs were put through an "open
      comments" process where feedback was provided by the ACPC members. The final QMs
      were approved by the ACPC council. RESULTS: The TOF WT formulated 9 QMs of which
      only 6 were submitted to the expert panel; 3 QMs passed the modified RAND-UCLA
      and went through the "open comments" process. Based on the feedback through the
      open comment process, only 1 metric was finally approved by the ACPC council.
      CONCLUSIONS: The ACPC Council was able to develop QM for ambulatory care of
      children with repaired TOF. These patients should have documented genetic testing
      for 22q11.2 deletion. However, lack of evidence in the literature made it a
      challenge to formulate other evidence-based QMs.

PMID- 28880456
TI  - Urinary miR-155-5p and CXCL10 as prognostic and predictive biomarkers of
      rejection, graft outcome and treatment response in kidney transplantation.
AB  - AIMS: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) may be useful biomarkers of rejection and allograft
      outcome in kidney transplantation. Elevated urinary CXCL10 levels have been
      associated with acute rejection (AR) and may predict allograft failure. We
      examined the correlation of miRNA, CXCL10 levels and immunosuppressive drug
      exposure with AR and graft function in kidney transplant recipients. METHODS:
      Eighty de novo kidney transplant recipients were recruited from four European
      centres. All patients received tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, and
      methylprednisolone. Urinary pellet expression of miR-142-3p, miR-210-3p and miR
      155-5p was assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and
      urinary CXCL10 levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at the 1st week and
      the 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 6th months post-transplantation. RESULTS: Eight patients
      experienced AR. Before and during AR, patients showed a significant increase of
      urinary miR-142-3p, miR-155-5p and CXCL10 levels and a decrease of miR-210-3p
      levels. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that miR-155-5p
      (area under the curve = 0.875; P = 0.046) and CXCL10 (area under the curve =
      0.865; P = 0.029) had excellent capacity to discriminate between rejectors and
      nonrejectors. The optimal cut-off values for the prognosis of AR were 0.51, with
      85% sensitivity and 86% specificity for miR-155-5p and 84.73 pg ml-1 , with 84%
      sensitivity and 80% specificity for CXCL10. miR-155-5p and CXCL10 levels
      correlated with glomerular filtration rate. Levels of both biomarkers normalized
      after recovery of graft function. CONCLUSIONS: The regular early post
      transplantation monitoring of urinary miR-155-5p and CXCL10 can help in the
      prognosis of AR and graft dysfunction. Large prospective randomized multicentre
      trials are warranted to refine our cut-off values and validate the clinical
      usefulness of these biomarkers.

PMID- 28880459
TI  - Current Advances in Quantum-Dots-Based Photoelectrochemical Immunoassays.
AB  - As a newly developed technique, photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunoassays have
      attracted great attention in recent years because of their low cost and desirable
      sensitivity. Because the detection signal originates from the photoelectric
      conversion of photoelectric materials, the appearance and application of quantum
      dots (QDs), which possess unique photophysical properties and regulated
      optoelectronic characteristics, has taken the development of PEC immunoassays to
      new heights. This review concisely introduces the general mechanism of QDs-based
      photoelectric conversion for immunoassays and summarizes the current advances in
      QD applications in immunoassays. Given that signal strategies and photoactive
      materials are the key elements in PEC biosensor systems, we comprehensively
      highlight the state-of-the-art signaling strategies and various applications of
      QDs in PEC immunoassays to introduce advances in QDs-based PEC immunoassays.
      Finally, challenges and future developmental trends are briefly discussed.

PMID- 28880458
TI  - Determinants of platelet count in pediatric patients with congenital cyanotic
      heart disease: Role of immature platelet fraction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Congenital heart defects are common noninfectious causes of mortality
      in children. Bleeding and thrombosis are both limiting factors in the management
      of such patients. We assessed the frequency of thrombocytopenia in pediatric
      patients with congenital cyanotic heart disease (CCHD) and evaluated determinants
      of platelet count including immature platelet fraction (IPF) and their role in
      the pathogenesis of thrombocytopenia. METHODS: Forty-six children and adolescents
      with CCHD during pre-catheter visits were studied; median age was 20.5 months.
      Complete blood count including IPF as a marker of platelet production and
      reticulated hemoglobin content (RET-He) as a marker of red cell production and
      iron status were done on Sysmex XE 2100 (Sysmex, Japan). C-reactive protein,
      prothrombin time (PT), Activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) were also
      assessed. RESULTS: Thrombocytopenia was found in 6 patients (13%). PT was
      prolonged (P = .016) and IPF was significantly higher in patients with
      thrombocytopenia compared with patients with normal platelet count (14.15 +/-
      5.2% vs 6.68 +/- 3.39%; P = .003). Platelet count was negatively correlated with
      IPF while significant positive correlations were found between IPF and
      hemoglobin, red blood cells (RBCs) count, hematocrit (Hct), PT, reticulocytes
      count, and immature reticulocyte fraction. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that elevated
      IPF in CCHD patients with thrombocytopenia may denote peripheral platelets
      destruction as an underlying mechanism. Hemoglobin level, RBCs count, Hct, and
      RET-He were not significant determinants for platelet count in CCHD.

PMID- 28880460
TI  - Cryopreserved Off-the-Shelf Allogeneic Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells for Therapy
      in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease and Heart Failure-A Safety Study.
AB  - The present first-in-human clinical trial evaluated the safety and feasibility of
      a newly developed and cryopreserved Cardiology Stem Cell Centre adipose-derived
      stromal cell (CSCC_ASC) product from healthy donors for intramyocardial injection
      in ten patients with ischemic heart disease and ischemic heart failure (IHF).
      Batches of CSCC_ASC were isolated from three healthy donors by liposuction from
      abdominal adipose tissue. Adipose mesenchymal stromal cells were culture expanded
      in bioreactors without the use of animal constituents, cryopreserved, and stored
      in vials in nitrogen dry-storage containers until use. Direct injection of
      CSCC_ASC into the myocardium did not cause any complications or serious adverse
      events related to either treatment or cell administration in a 6-month follow-up
      period. Four out of ten heart failure patients developed donor-specific de novo
      human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I antibodies, and two out of ten patients had
      donor-specific HLA antibodies already at baseline. There were no clinical
      symptoms or changes in inflammatory parameters in the follow-up period that
      indicated an ongoing immune response. There was a tendency toward improvement in
      cardiac function after CSCC_ASC treatment at 6-month follow-up: left ventricular
      end systolic volume decreased and left ventricular ejection fraction increased.
      In addition, exercise capacity increased. These changes were independent of the
      presence or absence of HLA antibodies. It is concluded that the newly developed
      cryopreserved product CSCC_ASC from healthy donors was a safe and feasible
      treatment. We observed a tendency toward efficacy in patients with IHF. These
      findings have to be confirmed in larger placebo controlled clinical trials. Stem
      Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1963-1971.

PMID- 28880461
TI  - Grief reactions of couples to perinatal loss: A one-year prospective follow-up.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore couples' perceptions of the effects of perinatal
      loss on their marital relationship, social support and grief 1 year postloss, and
      analyse what factors changed the severity of their grief. BACKGROUND: Perinatal
      losses are traumatic events in the lives of families and can have serious long
      term consequences for the psychological health of parents and any subsequent
      children. DESIGN: A prospective follow-up study. METHODS: We recruited, at a
      teaching hospital in southern Taiwan, a convenience sample of 30 couples whose
      babies either miscarried or were stillborn. At 1 month (T1), 3 months (T2), 6
      months (T3) and 1 year (T4) after the pregnancy loss, all participants completed
      four questionnaires. To analyse the changing status of their grief and its
      related factors, we used a generalised estimating equation (GEE) to account for
      correlations between repeated observations. RESULTS: Postbereavement grief levels
      fell over the four time-points. Mothers reported feeling more grief than did the
      fathers. Couples with a history of infertility, no religious beliefs or no living
      children before the loss felt more grief from a perinatal miscarriage or
      stillbirth. Furthermore, couples reported more grief if their marital
      satisfaction level was low, if their socioemotional support from husband's
      parents was low or if they had never participated in a ritual for their deceased
      baby. CONCLUSIONS: Six months postloss is the crucial period for bereaved parents
      after a perinatal loss. Being a mother, having no previous living children and
      low-level socioemotional support from the husband's parents are significant high
      risk factors for a high level of grief 1 year after perinatal death. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: We recommend that health professionals increase their ability
      to identify the factors that psychologically affect postloss grief. Active
      postloss follow-up programmes should focus on these factors to offer specific
      support and counselling.

PMID- 28880462
TI  - Indeterminate dendritic cell neoplasm of the skin: A 2-case report and review of
      the literature.
AB  - Indeterminate dendritic cell neoplasm (IDCN) is an exceedingly rare and mostly
      cutaneous histiocytosis, frequently associated with other hematopoietic
      malignancies. We report 2 cases of multilesional cutaneous IDCN. A 55-year-old
      male with no associated malignancy and complete response to ultraviolet
      phototherapy; and a 72-year-old male with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML).
      Both cases showed histiocytoid cytology, positivity for CD1a and no expression of
      langerin or BRAFV600E . With our patients, the literature describes 79 cases of
      IDCNs, including 65 (82%) with only skin involvement, 7 cases (9%) with
      involvement of skin and a second site, 5 cases (6%) involving lymph nodes only, 1
      splenic lesion and 1 systemic disease. Seventeen cases (22%) were associated with
      other hematopoietic malignancies, most commonly CMML (6 cases), follicular
      lymphoma (4 cases) and acute myeloid leukemia (3 cases). All IDCNs associated
      with myeloid malignancies were limited to the skin, while most cases associated
      with lymphoma were limited to lymph nodes. Reported responses of cutaneous
      lesions to ultraviolet phototherapy are encouraging, while systemic chemotherapy
      is appropriate for clinically aggressive cases and treatment of associated
      malignancies. Recognition of the clinico-morphologic spectrum of IDCNs should
      prevent misdiagnoses and prompt investigation of possible associated neoplasms.

PMID- 28880463
TI  - Exploratory and descriptive study on nutritional characteristics and quality of
      eggs from Chilean partridge (Nothoprocta perdicaria).
AB  - This work aims to contribute more information on tinamou eggs by performing an
      exploratory and descriptive study of some of their nutritional and quality
      characteristics. The chemical composition of tinamou egg showed a high protein
      content in white (85% dry basis) and high lipid concentration in yolk (52% db).
      The iron (Fe) content in white was higher than hen egg (0.47 mg/100 g) and this
      could be associated with the observed pinkish color of the white. As in the hen
      egg, the major fatty acids in tinamou yolk were: oleic (39%), linoleic (23%) and
      palmitic (20%). The cholesterol content of tinamou was 21.2 mg/g of yolk, and 100
      g of whole egg provides 589 mg of cholesterol. As in the hen egg, tinamou egg
      white showed high levels of lysine, sulfur-containing amino acids, threonine and
      valine with respect to the recommended allowance for an adult man. All essential
      amino acids with the exception of histidine cover the adult requirements. The
      shell inorganic composition of these eggs is calcium carbonate and the morphology
      was similar to other avian eggs. Tinamou egg is small and elongated, with a dark
      brown color. The eggshell is thinner and experiences more deformation but less
      breaking strength than hen eggshell.

PMID- 28880464
TI  - Dual growth factor-immobilized asymmetrically porous membrane for bone-to-tendon
      interface regeneration on rat patellar tendon avulsion model.
AB  - Insufficient repair of the bone-to-tendon interface (BTI) with
      structural/compositional gradients has been a significant challenge in
      orthopedics. In this study, dual growth factor (platelet-derived growth factor-BB
      [PDGF-BB] and bone morphogenetic protein-2 [BMP-2])-immobilized polycaprolactone
      (PCL)/Pluronic F127 asymmetrically porous membrane was fabricated to estimate its
      feasibility as a potential strategy for effective regeneration of BTI injury. The
      growth factors immobilized (via heparin-intermediated interactions) on the
      membrane were continuously released for up to ~80% of the initial loading amount
      after 5 weeks without a significant initial burst. From the in vivo animal study
      using a rat patellar tendon avulsion model, it was observed that the PDGF-BB/BMP
      2-immobilized membrane accelerates the regeneration of the BTI injury, probably
      because of the continuous release of both growth factors (biological stimuli) and
      their complementary effect to create a multiphasic structure (bone,
      fibrocartilage, and tendon) like a native structure, as well as the role of the
      asymmetrically porous membrane as a physical barrier (nanopore side; prevention
      of fibrous tissue invasion into the defect site) and scaffold (micropore side;
      guidance for tissue regeneration). (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed
      Mater Res Part A: 106A: 115-125, 2018.

PMID- 28880466
TI  - Enhanced hemostasis with a sealant consisting of Hydrofit and Surgicel.
AB  - Bleeding is a serious concern during surgery for acute aortic dissections. We
      have used Hydrofit and Surgicel together to achieve hemostasis at the graft
      anastomotic sites during replacement of the ascending aorta and aortic arch.
      Complete hemostasis was achieved without further need for any additional sutures.

PMID- 28880465
TI  - Profiling novel metabolic biomarkers for Parkinson's disease using in-depth
      metabolomic analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To profile the amine/phenol submetabolome to determine potential
      metabolite biomarkers associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) and PD with
      incipient dementia. METHODS: At baseline of a 3-wave (18-month intervals)
      longitudinal study, serum samples were collected from 42 healthy controls and 43
      PD patients. By wave 3 (year 3), 16 PD patients were diagnosed with dementia and
      were classified as PD with incipient dementia at baseline. Metabolomic profiling
      using dansylation isotope labeling liquid chromatography mass spectrometry was
      conducted to compare controls with the full PD, PD with no dementia, and PD with
      incipient dementia groups. RESULTS: Metabolomic analyses detected 719 common
      metabolites in 80% of the samples. Some were significantly altered in pairwise
      comparison of different groups (fold change of >1.2 or <0.83 with q < 0.05). We
      discriminated PD and controls by using a 5-metabolite panel, vanillic acid, 3
      hydroxykynurenine, isoleucyl-alanine, 5-acetylamino-6-amino-3-methyluracil, and
      theophylline. The receiver operating characteristic curve produced an area-under
      the-curve value of 0.955 with 87.5% sensitivity and 93.0% specificity. In
      comparing PD with no dementia with PD with incipient dementia, we used an 8
      metabolite panel, His-Asn-Asp-Ser, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetone, desaminotyrosine,
      hydroxy-isoleucine, alanyl-alanine, putrescine [-2H], purine [+O] and its
      riboside. This produced an area-under-the-curve value of 0.862 with 80.0%
      sensitivity and 77.0% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: The significantly altered
      metabolites can be used to differentiate (1) PD patients from healthy controls
      with high accuracy and (2) the stable PD with no dementia group from those with
      incipient dementia. Following further validation in larger cohorts, these
      metabolites could be used for both discrimination and establishing prognosis in
      PD. (c) 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28880467
TI  - Patient prosthetic mismatch following aortic valve replacement-It may not all be
      due to the prosthesis.

PMID- 28880468
TI  - Lugones' technique for correction of Scimitar syndrome.
AB  - Several surgical techniques have been described to channel the right pulmonary
      venous return to the left atrium in the Scimitar syndrome which includes direct
      reimplantation, graft interposition, or repair. Because these techniques can
      result in pathway obstruction, Lugones has devised a technique which uses in situ
      pericardium to construct a wide tunnel connecting the pulmonary venous return to
      the left atrium. We report the use of Lugones technique in an adult with Scimitar
      syndrome.

PMID- 28880469
TI  - Quadricuspid aortic valve replacement.

PMID- 28880470
TI  - A new device to maintain the sternum open.

PMID- 28880472
TI  - Role of the glucose-sensing receptor in insulin secretion.
AB  - Glucose is a primary stimulator of insulin secretion. It has been thought that
      glucose exerts its effect by a mechanism solely dependent on glucose metabolism.
      We show here that glucose induces rapid Ca2+ and cyclic AMP signals in beta
      cells. These rapid signals are independent of glucose-metabolism and are
      reproduced by non-metabolizable glucose analogues. These results led us to
      postulate that glucose activates a cell-surface receptor, namely the glucose
      sensing receptor. Rapid signals induced by glucose are blocked by inhibition of a
      sweet taste receptor subunit T1R3 and a calcium-sensing receptor subunit CaSR. In
      accordance with these observations, T1R3 and CaSR form a heterodimer. In
      addition, a heterodimer of T1R3 and CaSR is activated by glucose. These results
      suggest that a heterodimer of T1R3 and CaSR is a major component of the glucose
      sensing receptor. When the glucose-sensing receptor is blocked, glucose-induced
      insulin secretion is inhibited. Also, ATP production is significantly attenuated
      by the inhibition of the receptor. Conversely, stimulation of the glucose-sensing
      receptor by either artificial sweeteners or non-metabolizable glucose analogue
      increases ATP. Hence, the glucose-sensing receptor signals promote glucose
      metabolism. Collectively, glucose activates the cell-surface glucose-sensing
      receptor and promotes its own metabolism. Glucose then enters the cells and is
      metabolized through already activated metabolic pathways. The glucose-sensing
      receptor is a key molecule regulating the action of glucose in beta-cells.

PMID- 28880473
TI  - NMDAR antagonists for the treatment of diabetes mellitus-Current status and
      future directions.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus is characterized by chronically elevated blood glucose levels
      accelerated by a progressive decline of insulin-producing beta-cells in the
      pancreatic islets. Although medications are available to transiently adjust blood
      glucose to normal levels, the effects of current drugs are limited when it comes
      to preservation of a critical mass of functional beta-cells to sustainably
      maintain normoglycemia. In this review, we recapitulate recent evidence on the
      role of pancreatic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) in beta-cell
      physiology, and summarize effects of morphinan-based NMDAR antagonists that are
      beneficial for insulin secretion, glucose tolerance and islet cell survival. We
      further discuss NMDAR-mediated molecular pathways relevant for neuronal cell
      survival, which may also be important for the preservation of beta-cell function
      and mass. Finally, we summarize the literature for evidence on the role of NMDARs
      in the development of diabetic long-term complications, and highlight beneficial
      pharmacologic aspects of NMDAR antagonists in diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy
      as well as neuropathy.

PMID- 28880471
TI  - Signals in the pancreatic islet microenvironment influence beta-cell
      proliferation.
AB  - The progressive loss of pancreatic beta-cell mass that occurs in both type 1 and
      type 2 diabetes is a primary factor driving efforts to identify strategies for
      effectively increasing, enhancing or restoring beta-cell mass. While factors that
      seem to influence beta-cell proliferation in specific contexts have been
      described, reliable stimulation of human beta-cell proliferation has remained a
      challenge. Importantly, beta-cells exist in the context of a complex, integrated
      pancreatic islet microenvironment where they interact with other endocrine cells,
      vascular endothelial cells, extracellular matrix, neuronal projections and islet
      macrophages. This review highlights different components of the pancreatic
      microenvironment, and reviews what is known about how signaling that occurs
      between beta-cells and these other components influences beta-cell proliferation.
      Future efforts to further define the role of the pancreatic islet
      microenvironment on beta-cell proliferation may lead to the development of
      successful approaches to increase or restore beta-cell mass in diabetes.

PMID- 28880474
TI  - beta-Cell signalling and insulin secretagogues: A path for improved diabetes
      therapy.
AB  - Insulin secretagogues including sulfonylureas, glinides and incretin-related
      drugs such as dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide
      1 receptor agonists are widely used for treatment of type 2 diabetes. In
      addition, glucokinase activators and G-protein-coupled receptor 40 (GPR40)
      agonists also have been developed, although the drugs are not clinically usable.
      These different drugs exert their effects on insulin secretion by different
      mechanisms. Recent advances in beta-cell signalling studies have not only
      deepened our understanding of insulin secretion but also revealed novel
      mechanisms of insulin secretagogues. Clarification of the signalling mechanisms
      of the insulin secretagogues will contribute to improved drug therapy for
      diabetes.

PMID- 28880475
TI  - Recent new insights into the role of SNARE and associated proteins in insulin
      granule exocytosis.
AB  - Initial work on the exocytotic machinery of predocked insulin secretory granules
      (SGs) in pancreatic beta-cells mimicked the SNARE hypothesis work in neurons,
      which includes SM/SNARE complex and associated priming proteins, fusion clamps
      and Ca2+ sensors. However, beta-cell SGs, unlike neuronal synaptic vesicles,
      exhibit a biphasic secretory response that requires additional distinct features
      in exocytosis including newcomer SGs that undergo minimal docking time at the
      plasma membrane (PM) before fusion and multi-SG (compound) fusion. These
      exocytotic events are mediated by Munc18/SNARE complexes distinct from that which
      mediates predocked SG fusion. We review some recent insights in SNARE complex
      assembly and the promiscuity in SM/SNARE complex formation, whereby both
      contribute to conferring different insulin SG fusion kinetics. Some SNARE and
      associated proteins play non-fusion roles, including tethering SGs to Ca2+
      channels, SG recruitment from cell interior to PM, and inhibitory SNAREs that
      block the action of profusion SNAREs. We discuss new insights into how sub-PM
      cytoskeletal mesh gates SG access to the PM and the targeting of SG exocytosis to
      PM domains in functionally polarized beta-cells within intact islets. These
      recent developments have major implications on devising clever SNARE replacement
      therapies that could restore the deficient insulin secretion in diabetic islet
      beta-cells.

PMID- 28880476
TI  - Allosteric modulation as a unifying mechanism for receptor function and
      regulation.
AB  - Four major receptor families enable cells to respond to chemical and physical
      signals from their proximal environment. The ligand- and voltage-gated ion
      channels, G-protein-coupled receptors, nuclear hormone receptors and receptor
      tyrosine kinases are all allosteric proteins that carry multiple, spatially
      distinct, yet conformationally linked ligand-binding sites. Recent studies point
      to common mechanisms governing the allosteric transitions of these receptors,
      including the impact of oligomerization, pre-existing and functionally distinct
      conformational ensembles, intrinsically disordered regions, and the occurrence of
      allosteric modulatory sites. Importantly, synthetic allosteric modulators are
      being discovered for these receptors, providing an enriched, yet challenging,
      landscape for novel therapeutics.

PMID- 28880477
TI  - Exosomes as new players in metabolic organ cross-talk.
AB  - Blood glucose homeostasis requires a constant communication between insulin
      secreting and insulin-sensitive cells. A wide variety of circulating factors,
      including hormones, cytokines and chemokines work together to orchestrate the
      systemic response of metabolic organs to changes in the nutritional state.
      Failure in the coordination between these organs can lead to a rise in blood
      glucose levels and to the appearance of metabolic disorders such as diabetes
      mellitus. Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles (EVs) that are produced via
      the endosomal pathway and are released from the cells upon fusion of
      multivesicular bodies with the plasma membrane. There is emerging evidence
      indicating that these EVs play a central role in cell-to-cell communication. The
      interest in exosomes exploded when they were found to transport bioactive
      proteins, messenger RNA (mRNAs) and microRNA (miRNAs) that can be transferred in
      active form to adjacent cells or to distant organs. In this review, we will first
      outline the mechanisms governing the biogenesis, the cargo upload and the release
      of exosomes by donor cells as well as the uptake by recipient cells. We will then
      summarize the studies that support the novel concept that miRNAs and other
      exosomal cargo components are new important vehicles for metabolic organ cross
      talk.

PMID- 28880479
TI  - A 4D view on insulin secretory granule turnover in the beta-cell.
AB  - Insulin secretory granule (SG) turnover consists of several highly regulated
      processes allowing for proper beta-cell function and insulin secretion. Besides
      the spatial distribution of insulin SGs, their age has great impact on the
      likelihood of their secretion and their behaviour within the beta-cell. While
      quantitative measurements performed decades ago demonstrated the preferential
      secretion of young insulin, new experimental approaches aim to investigate
      insulin ageing at the granular level. Live-cell imaging, automated image analysis
      and correlative light and electron microscopy have fostered knowledge of age
      defined insulin SG dynamics, their interaction with the cytoskeleton and
      ultrastructural features. Here, we review our recent work in regards to the
      connection between insulin SG age, SG dynamics, intracellular location and
      interaction with other proteins.

PMID- 28880478
TI  - Role of G-proteins in islet function in health and diabetes.
AB  - Glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) involves interplay between metabolic
      and cationic events. Seminal contributions from multiple laboratories affirm
      essential roles for small G-proteins (Rac1, Cdc42, Arf6, Rab27A) in GSIS.
      Activation of these signalling proteins promotes cytoskeletal remodeling,
      transport and docking of insulin granules on the plasma membrane for exocytotic
      secretion of insulin. Evidence in rodent and human islets suggests key roles for
      lipidation (farnesylation and geranylgeranylation) of these G-proteins for their
      targeting to appropriate cellular compartments for optimal regulation of
      effectors leading to GSIS. Interestingly, however, inhibition of prenylation
      appears to cause mislocalization of non-prenylated, but (paradoxically) activated
      G-proteins, in "inappropriate" compartments leading to activation of stress
      kinases and onset of mitochondrial defects, loss in GSIS and apoptosis of the
      islet beta-cell. This review highlights our current understanding of roles of G
      proteins and their post-translational lipidation (prenylation) signalling
      networks in islet function in normal health, metabolic stress (glucolipotoxicity
      and ER stress) and diabetes. Critical knowledge gaps that need to be addressed
      for the development of therapeutics to halt defects in these signalling steps in
      beta-cells in models of impaired insulin secretion and diabetes are also
      highlighted and discussed.

PMID- 28880480
TI  - Monoacylglycerol signalling and ABHD6 in health and disease.
AB  - Lipid metabolism dysregulation underlies chronic pathologies such as obesity,
      diabetes and cancer. Besides their role in structure and energy storage, lipids
      are also important signalling molecules regulating multiple biological functions.
      Thus, understanding the precise lipid metabolism enzymatic steps that are altered
      in some pathological conditions is helpful for designing better treatment
      strategies. Several monoacylglycerol (MAG) species are only recently being
      recognized as signalling lipid molecules in different tissues. Recent studies
      indicated the importance of the ubiquitously expressed serine hydrolase
      alpha/beta-hydrolase domain 6 (ABHD6), which is a MAG hydrolase, in regulating
      signalling competent MAG in both central and peripheral tissues. The central and
      peripheral function of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol, which is a 2
      MAG, and its breakdown by both ABHD6 and classical MAG lipase has been well
      documented. ABHD6 and its substrate MAG appear to be involved in the regulation
      of various physiological and pathological processes including insulin secretion,
      adipose browning, food intake, neurotransmission, autoimmune disorders,
      neurological and metabolic diseases as well as cancer. Diverse cellular targets
      such as mammalian unc13-1 (Munc13-1), PPARs, GPR119 and CB1/2 receptors, for MAG
      mediated signalling processes have been proposed in different cell types. The
      purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of the current state
      of knowledge regarding ABHD6/MAG signalling and its possible therapeutic
      implications.

PMID- 28880481
TI  - beta-Cells are not uniform after all-Novel insights into molecular heterogeneity
      of insulin-secreting cells.
AB  - While the beta-cells of the endocrine pancreas are defined as cells with high
      levels of insulin production and tight stimulus-secretion coupling, the existence
      of functional heterogeneity among them has been known for decades. Recent
      advances in molecular technologies, in particular single-cell profiling on both
      the protein and messenger RNA level, have uncovered that beta-cells exist in
      several antigenically and molecularly definable states. Using antibodies to cell
      surface markers or multidimensional clustering of beta-cells using more than 20
      protein markers by mass cytometry, 4 distinct groups of beta-cells could be
      differentiated. However, whether these states represent permanent cell lineages
      or are readily interconvertible from one group to another remains to be
      determined. Nevertheless, future analysis of the pathogenesis of type 1 and type
      2 diabetes will certainly benefit from a growing appreciation of beta-cell
      heterogeneity. Here, we aim to summarize concisely the recent advances in the
      field and their possible impact on our understanding of beta-cell physiology and
      pathophysiology.

PMID- 28880483
TI  - Alain Ktorza, PhD.

PMID- 28880482
TI  - Metabolomics applied to islet nutrient sensing mechanisms.
AB  - After multiple decades of investigation, the precise mechanisms involved in fuel
      stimulated insulin secretion are still being revealed. One avenue for gaining
      deeper knowledge is to apply emergent tools of "metabolomics," involving mass
      spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance-based profiling of islet cells in
      their fuel-stimulated compared with basal states. The current article summarizes
      recent insights gained from application of metabolomics tools to the specific
      process of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, revealing 2 new mechanisms that
      may provide targets for improving insulin secretion in diabetes.

PMID- 28880484
TI  - Health checkup behavior and individual health beliefs in older adults.
AB  - AIM: Despite Japan being a developed nation, half of its older population does
      not attend regular health checkups. The aim of the present study was to examine
      the individual health beliefs and personal recommendations that strongly
      influence health checkup attendance among community-dwelling older adults.
      METHODS: In 2013, questionnaires were sent to 5401 community-dwelling older
      adults who were not receiving long-term institutionalized care. The response rate
      was 94.3%. We analyzed response data from 4984 older adults using multiple
      imputation to manage missing data. Participation in health checkups was defined
      as having undergone at least one checkup in the past 3 years, and non
      participation as having attended no checkups in this period. RESULTS: The
      participants' mean age was 75.8 years, and 57.9% were women. The adjusted odds
      ratio of health checkup participation ranged from 1.35 (95% confidence interval
      [CI] 1.13-1.61) to 1.62 (95% CI 1.34-1.95) for positive individual health beliefs
      about health checkups, and was 2.21 (95% CI: 1.51-3.24) and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.17
      2.08) for recommendations to participate from family and neighbors, respectively.
      All odds ratios were adjusted for age, sex, driving by oneself to daily shopping
      or clinic, paid work, method of response, internal medical therapy, polypharmacy,
      serious disease, periodic blood test, frailty and neighborly relationships.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that both individual and community
      approaches might be effective in promoting participation in health checkups among
      community-dwelling older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 338-351.

PMID- 28880485
TI  - Pediatric diabetes training for healthcare professionals in Europe: Time for
      change.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Training for healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Europe who care for
      children and young people (CYP) with type 1 diabetes and their families is
      variable depending on the country. Building on the work of SWEET (Better control
      in Pediatric and Adolescent diabeteS: Working to crEate CEnTers of Reference) and
      using the German Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) curriculum, a European
      collaboration of pediatric diabetes experts aimed to (1) establish current core
      elements that should be included in a pediatric diabetes education training
      course and (2) create a template for a European CDE's training curriculum.
      METHODS: A qualitative methodology incorporating a survey questionnaire, focus
      group discussions, individual semi-structured interviews and workshops was
      employed to explore participants' experiences and opinions. HCPs-pediatric
      consultants, diabetes nurses, dietitians and psychologists, national and local
      diabetes leads, academic and education leads and children, and young people with
      diabetes and families took part in the study. The total number of participants
      equaled 186. RESULTS: A template for a European Certified Diabetes Educator
      Curriculum (EU-CDEC) was developed based on the themes that emerged from the
      participants' expertise and experiences. This provides a model for HCPs'
      pediatric diabetes training provision. CONCLUSIONS: There is a severe shortage of
      high quality, standardized training for HCPs across the majority of European
      countries. Lack of trained HCPs for CYP with diabetes will result in the delivery
      of suboptimal care and impact on health, wellbeing and clinical and psychological
      outcomes. The EU-CDEC template can be used to increase access to high quality
      training provision for all HCPs across Europe and worldwide.

PMID- 28880486
TI  - Out of focus: tailoring the cascade of care to the needs of women living with
      HIV.
AB  - Around half of the global adult HIV-positive population are women, yet
      historically women have been under-represented in clinical studies of
      antiretroviral therapy (ART) and there has been minimal exploration of gender
      specific factors related to the response to and appropriateness of treatment
      choices in women living with HIV (WLWH). There are several key issues pertaining
      to the cascade of HIV care that make it important to differentiate WLWH from men
      living with HIV. Factors that are gender specific may impact on the status of
      WLWH, affecting access to diagnosis and treatment, optimal clinical management,
      ART outcomes, retention in care, and the overall long-term wellbeing of WLWH. In
      this review, we discuss the results of recently reported women-only clinical
      trials and highlight the key unmet needs of WLWH as they pertain to the cascade
      of HIV care across World Health Organization European Region countries. As
      significant knowledge gaps remain, the review identifies key areas where further
      research is required, in order to support improved management of WLWH and guide
      informed clinical decision-making, including addressing psychosocial factors as
      part of comprehensive care.

PMID- 28880487
TI  - Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) promotes cardiac differentiation of
      bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells via activating ERK1/2 signaling.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: The differentiation efficiency of bone marrow mesenchymal stem
      cells (BM-MSCs) is low in vivo after transplantation. Therefore, it is necessary
      to look for effective reagents for enhancing cardiac differentiation of BM-MSCs.
      It has been reported that cardiac differentiation of stem cells depends on the
      activation of extracellular signal-regulated protein 1/2 (ERK1/2) signaling.
      Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is a potent reagent for ERK1/2
      activation. This indicates that ox-LDL may be a potential reagent to stimulate
      cardiac differentiation of stem cells. In this study, we investigated the effect
      of ox-LDL on cardiac differentiation of BM-MSCs and its relationship with ERK1/2
      signaling. METHODS: BM-MSCs were isolated from mouse bone marrow, cultured in
      DMEM supplemented with 15% FBS, and passaged up to the 3rd passage. Following
      culture with 5 MUg/mL ox-LDL for 3 weeks, the cardiac differentiation of the 3rd
      passage BM-MSCs was identified by immunostaining, Western blotting, and RT-PCR
      assays for measuring the expression of cardiac-specific markers. To further
      explore the role of ERK1/2 signaling in cardiac differentiation of BM-MSCs, we
      simultaneously exposed BM-MSCs to ERK1/2 inhibitor (U0126) and ox-LDL, and
      identified the cardiac differentiation again. RESULTS: The expressions of cardiac
      specific markers including alpha-cardiac actin, alpha-MHC, beta-MHC, ANP, and BNP
      were markedly increased in BM-MSCs following treatment with ox-LDL (P < .05),
      which indicates a directional differentiation of BM-MSCs to cardiac cells.
      Further, ox-LDL could also activate ERK1/2 in BM-MSCs, and application of U0126
      markedly inhibited ox-LDL-induced cardiac transformation of BM-MSCs. CONCLUSIONS:
      Ox-LDL induces cardiac differentiation of BM-MSCs via activation of ERK1/2
      signaling.

PMID- 28880488
TI  - Characteristics and Prognosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Japanese Patients
      Undergoing Dialysis.
AB  - Patients with end-stage renal disease who are undergoing dialysis may be at high
      risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We investigated the
      characteristics and prognosis of HCC in patients undergoing dialysis in Japan.
      Patients characteristics, progression of HCC at diagnosis, and survival rates
      after diagnosis were compared between 108 HCC patients undergoing dialysis and
      526 non-dialysis patients followed up at liver center. The comparisons were also
      performed after adjusting for patient age, gender, platelet count, and etiology
      using propensity-score matching. HCC was more advanced in patients undergoing
      dialysis than in non-dialysis controls. The 3- and 5-year survival rates of
      patients undergoing dialysis were 56.3% and 38.3%, respectively, which were lower
      than those of non-dialysis controls (66.5% and 52.7%, respectively, P = 0.0026).
      The results were the same after propensity score matching (P = 0.0014). In Japan,
      HCC was more advanced at diagnosis in patients undergoing dialysis in comparison
      to HCC in patients at liver centers, resulting in a lower survival rate after
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28880489
TI  - miRNA-4317 suppresses human gastric cancer cell proliferation by targeting
      ZNF322.
AB  - Studies have shown that miR-4317 is dysregulated in tumor, but the biologic role
      of miR-4317 in tumor development and progression remains unknown. The present
      study aimed to investigate the role of miR-4317 in human gastric cancer.
      Quantitative real-time PCR was used to quantify miR-4317 expression levels in
      clinical gastric cancer specimens and cell lines. MTT, colony formation and cell
      cycle assays were performed to identify the contributions of miR-4317 to cell
      proliferation in gastric cancer cell lines. The results showed that miR-4317 was
      significantly decreased in 17 clinical gastric cancer specimens compared with
      adjacent non-tumor stomach tissues. Forced expression of miR-4317 suppressed
      gastric cancer cell proliferation and blocked S-G2/M transition. Bioinformatics
      and dual-luciferase reporter assays confirmed that ZNF322 is a direct target of
      miR-4317. Silencing ZNF322 recapitulated the cellular and molecular effects seen
      upon miR-4317 overexpression. These findings indicate that miR-4317 represses the
      proliferation of gastric cancer cell, at least in part, by targeting and
      suppressing ZNF322 and that it may serve as a therapeutic target for gastric
      cancer treatment.

PMID- 28880490
TI  - Not all phonological awareness deficits are created equal: evidence from a
      comparison between children with Otitis Media and poor readers.
AB  - Children with reading difficulties and children with a history of repeated ear
      infections (Otitis Media, OM) are both thought to have phonological impairments,
      but for quite different reasons. This paper examines the profile of phonological
      and morphological awareness in poor readers and children with OM. Thirty-three
      poor readers were compared to individually matched chronological age and reading
      age controls. Their phonological awareness and morphological awareness skills
      were consistently at the level of reading age matched controls. Unexpectedly, a
      significant minority (25%) of the poor readers had some degree of undiagnosed
      mild or very mild hearing loss. Twenty-nine children with a history of OM and
      their matched controls completed the same battery of tasks. They showed
      relatively small delays in their literacy and showed no impairment in
      morphological awareness but had phonological awareness scores below the level of
      reading age matched controls. Further analysis suggested that this weakness in
      phonological awareness was carried by a specific weakness in segmenting and
      blending phonemes, with relatively good performance on phoneme manipulation
      tasks. Results suggest that children with OM show a circumscribed deficit in
      phoneme segmentation and blending, while poor readers show a broader
      metalinguistic impairment which is more closely associated with reading
      difficulties.

PMID- 28880491
TI  - Reflecting on clinical practice: hectoring talk or reality?
AB  - Reflection can be seen as a useful tool to enable the practitioner to explore the
      everyday world of clinical practice. This paper reviews the background to
      reflection and its relevance to nursing in reducing the theory - practice gap and
      its role in generating theory from practice. Exemplars from clinical practice are
      reflected upon and Carper's (1978) 'Patterns of Knowing' are used as a framework
      to identify nursing knowledge embedded in practice. The process of reflection is
      critically discussed in the light of the author's experience.

PMID- 28880492
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28880493
TI  - Research in Brief: Health education needs of people with schizophrenia taking
      clozapine.

PMID- 28880494
TI  - Clinical psychopathology in youth at familial high risk for psychosis.
AB  - AIM: While the course of psychopathology has been explored from an index mental
      health diagnosis onwards, there are few detailed, prospective studies of the
      occurrence of clinical psychopathology in youth with familial risk for severe
      mental illnesses such as psychosis. We sought to describe the appearance of Axis
      I psychopathology in a unique sample of adolescents with a family history of
      schizophrenia (FHR). METHODS: One hundred and sixty two first- and second-degree
      relatives (mean age 15.7 +/- 3.6; range 8-25) of probands with schizophrenia or
      schizoaffective disorder were assessed at baseline and annual intervals for up to
      3 years, focusing on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
      Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) Axis I psychopathology. RESULTS:
      Fourteen individuals (8.6%) developed a psychotic disorder. One hundred and five
      subjects (65%) met criteria for an Axis I disorder over the course of the study,
      the most common of which was a depressive episode (40 subjects; 25%). Of the 148
      individuals who did not develop psychosis, 91 (61%) had one or more Axis I
      disorders compared with 10/14 converters who had a comorbid Axis I disorder
      (71%). Ordered by increasing age of onset, diagnoses included cognitive and
      externalizing disorders, anxiety disorders, affective disorders, substance use
      disorders and psychotic disorders. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to an elevated risk
      of psychosis, young FHR relatives manifest a broad range of non-psychotic Axis I
      psychopathology in childhood and adolescence. This breadth of diagnoses has
      implications for the structure and function of mental health services for young
      people.

PMID- 28880495
TI  - Case report of perineal hernia after laparoscopic abdominoperineal resection.
AB  - Perineal hernia (PH) is a rare complication following laparoscopic
      abdominoperineal resection (APR) for rectal cancer. We present a case report of
      perineal hernia after laparoscopic APR and discuss its management. The patient
      was a 77-year-old man who was diagnosed with lower rectal cancer. He underwent
      laparoscopic APR and bilateral lateral lymph node dissection. Two months after
      the surgery, pain and bulging in the perineal region developed, and PH was
      diagnosed by CT. Repair with a polypropylene mesh was performed using a
      combination of laparoscopic abdominal and transperineal approaches. Reportedly,
      the incidence of secondary PH after APR has increased along with the rate of
      laparoscopic surgery. Treatment of secondary PH with transperineal repair alone
      may cause injuries to other organs because of adhesion of the pelvic viscera. In
      the present case, we safely repaired the hernia repair using a laparoscopy
      assisted perineal approach.

PMID- 28880496
TI  - Sensitivity to auditory-tactile colocation in early infancy.
AB  - An ability to detect the common location of multisensory stimulation is essential
      for us to perceive a coherent environment, to represent the interface between the
      body and the external world, and to act on sensory information. Regarding the
      tactile environment "at hand", we need to represent somatosensory stimuli
      impinging on the skin surface in the same spatial reference frame as distal
      stimuli, such as those transduced by vision and audition. Across two experiments
      we investigated whether 6- (n = 14; Experiment 1) and 4-month-old (n = 14;
      Experiment 2) infants were sensitive to the colocation of tactile and auditory
      signals delivered to the hands. We recorded infants' visual preferences for
      spatially congruent and incongruent auditory-tactile events delivered to their
      hands. At 6 months, infants looked longer toward incongruent stimuli, whilst at 4
      months infants looked longer toward congruent stimuli. Thus, even from 4 months
      of age, infants are sensitive to the colocation of simultaneously presented
      auditory and tactile stimuli. We conclude that 4- and 6-month-old infants can
      represent auditory and tactile stimuli in a common spatial frame of reference. We
      explain the age-wise shift in infants' preferences from congruent to incongruent
      in terms of an increased preference for novel crossmodal spatial relations based
      on the accumulation of experience. A comparison of looking preferences across the
      congruent and incongruent conditions with a unisensory control condition
      indicates that the ability to perceive auditory-tactile colocation is based on a
      crossmodal rather than a supramodal spatial code by 6 months of age at least.

PMID- 28880497
TI  - Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as Functional Supramolecular Architectures for
      Anion Recognition and Sensing.
AB  - Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have experienced a tremendous growth during last
      few decades as porous crystalline molecular materials. The comprehensive effect
      of structural diversity, tunability and high surface area makes MOFs suitable for
      multifarious applications. MOFs can act as potential receptors toward different
      target components along with ionic species, small molecules, solvents, explosives
      etc. Anion recognition remains an important phenomena due to its involvement in
      many chemical and biological processes. Ligand designing, incorporation of
      appropriate functional groups and post-synthetic modifications are key strategies
      in MOFs for selective recognition and scavenging of environmentally toxic and
      detrimental anions (i. e. cyanide, oxo-anions etc.). The main focus of this
      personal account is on our research towards development and potential
      applications of MOFs with special emphasis on selective and sensitive anion
      sensing.

PMID- 28880499
TI  - Transurethral microwave thermotherapy.

PMID- 28880500
TI  - Hip resurfacing.

PMID- 28880501
TI  - Early, Goal-Directed Therapy for Septic Shock - A Patient-Level Meta-Analysis

PMID- 28880502
TI  - Buprenorphine for the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

PMID- 28880503
TI  - Buprenorphine for the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

PMID- 28880519
TI  - High-Performance Doping-Free Hybrid White OLEDs Based on Blue Aggregation-Induced
      Emission Luminogens.
AB  - Doping-free white organic light-emitting diodes (DF-WOLEDs) have aroused research
      interest because of their simple properties. However, to achieve doping-free
      hybrid WOLEDs (DFH-WOLEDs), avoiding aggregation-caused quenching is challenging.
      Herein, blue luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics,
      for the first time, have been demonstrated to develop DFH-WOLEDs. Unlike previous
      DFH-WOLEDs, both thin (<1 nm) and thick (>10 nm) AIE luminogen (AIEgen) can be
      used for devices, enhancing the flexibility. Two-color devices show (i) pure
      white emission, (ii) high CRI (85), and (iii) high efficiency. Particularly, 19.0
      lm W1- is the highest for pure-white DF-WOLEDs, while 35.0 lm W1- is the best for
      two-color hybrid WOLEDs with CRI >= 80. A three-color DFH-WOLED shows broad color
      correlated temperature span (2301-11628 K), (i) the first sunlight-like OLED
      (2500-8000 K) operating at low voltages, (ii) the broadest span among sunlight
      like OLED, and (iii) possesses comparable efficiency with the best doping
      counterpart. Another three-color DFH-WOLED exhibits CRI > 90 at >=3000 cd m-2,
      (i) the first DF-WOLED with CRI >= 90 at high luminances, and (ii) the CRI (92.8)
      is not only the highest among AIE-based WOLEDs but also the highest among DF
      WOLEDs. Such findings may unlock an alternative concept to develop DFH-WOLEDs.

PMID- 28880520
TI  - Conductive Polymer Waving in Liquid Nitrogen.
AB  - The poor mechanical properties and processability of pristine heterocyclic
      conductive polymers represent the most notable scientific and technological
      challenges that have greatly limited the application of these polymers. We report
      a soft and mechanically processable free-standing pristine polypyrrole (PPy)
      membrane (PPy-N) that is as soft in liquid nitrogen (-196  degrees C) as it is at
      room temperature, despite a glass transition temperature (Tg) above 100  degrees
      C. This PPy membrane also displays a highly attractive combination of properties,
      including mechanical processability, lightweight (9 g m-2), large surface area
      (14.5 m2 g-1), stable electrothermal behavior, amphiphilicity, excellent
      cytocompatibility, and easy synthesis, at virtually any size. This discovery
      demonstrates an approach to changing the mechanical property of heterocyclic
      conductive polymer with no chemical alterations or compounding and may enhance
      the development of inherently conducting polymers for applications in energy
      storage and biomedicine and as lightweight conducting and heating materials.

PMID- 28880521
TI  - Peptide Dendrons as Thermal-Stability Amplifiers for Immunoglobulin G1 Monoclonal
      Antibody Biotherapeutics.
AB  - Biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have a major share of the
      pharmaceutical industry for treatment of life-threatening chronic diseases such
      as cancer, skin ailments, and immune disorders. Instabilities such as
      aggregation, fragmentation, oxidation, and reduction have resulted in the
      practice of storing these products at low temperatures (-80 to -20  degrees C).
      However, reliable storage at these temperatures can be a challenge, particularly
      in developing and underdeveloped countries; hence, lately, there has been a
      renewed interest in creating formulations that would offer stability at higher
      temperatures (25 to 55  degrees C). Most therapeutic formulations contain
      excipients such as salts, sugars, amino acids, surfactants, and polymers to
      provide stability to the biotherapeutic, but their efficacy at high temperatures
      is limited. The current work proposes the use of peptide dendrons of different
      generations to create formulations that would be stable at high temperature.
      Among these dendrons, third-generation lysine dendron L6 has been identified to
      provide the highest stability to mAbs, as demonstrated by a host of analytical
      techniques such as size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), dynamic light scattering
      (DLS), Nanoparticle tracking Analysis (NTA), and circular dichroism (CD). The
      biocompatibility of these dendrons was confirmed by hemolytic activity tests. Non
      interference of the dendrons with the activity of the mAb was confirmed using a
      surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based activity assay. We hope that this study
      will stimulate utilization of such higher-generation dendrons for enhancing the
      thermal stability of mAbs.

PMID- 28880522
TI  - Correction to "Vitamin-Derived Nanolipoidal Carriers for Brain Delivery of
      Dimethyl Fumarate: A Novel Approach with Preclinical Evidence".

PMID- 28880523
TI  - Efficient Removal of Heavy Metals from Polluted Water with High Selectivity for
      Mercury(II) by 2-Imino-4-thiobiuret-Partially Reduced Graphene Oxide (IT-PRGO).
AB  - A novel chelating adsorbent, based on the chemical modification of graphene oxide
      by functionalization amidinothiourea to form 2-imino-4-thiobiuret-partially
      reduced graphene oxide (IT-PRGO), is used for the effective extraction of the
      toxic metal ions Hg(II), Cu(II), Pb(II), Cr(VI), and As(V) from wastewater. FTIR
      and Raman spectroscopy, XRD, and XPS confirm the successful incorporation of the
      amidinothiourea groups within the partially reduced GO nanosheets through
      nucleophilic substitution reactions with the acyl chloride groups in the
      chemically modified GO. The IT-PRGO adsorbent shows exceptional selectivity for
      the extraction of Hg(II) with a capacity of 624 mg/g, placing it among the top of
      carbon-based materials known for the high capacity of Hg(II) removal from aqueous
      solutions. The maximum sorption capacities for As(V), Cu(II), Cr(VI), and Pb(II)
      are 19.0, 37.0, 63.0, and 101.5 mg/g, respectively. The IT-PRGO displays a 100%
      removal of Hg(II) at concentrations up to 100 ppm with 90%, 95%, and 100% removal
      within 15, 30, and 90 min, respectively, at 50 ppm concentration. In a mixture of
      six heavy metal ions containing 10 ppm of each ion, the IT-PRGO shows a removal
      of 3% Zn(II), 4% Ni(II), 9% Cd(II), 21% Cu(II), 63% Pb(II), and 100% Hg(II). A
      monolayer adsorption behavior is suggested based on the excellent agreement of
      the experimental sorption isotherms with the Langmuir model. The sorption
      kinetics can be fitted well to a pseudo-second-order kinetic model which suggests
      a chemisorption mechanism via the amidinothiourea groups grafted on the reduced
      graphene oxide nanosheets. Desorption studies demonstrate that the IT-PRGO is
      easily regenerated with the desorption of the metal ions Hg(II), Cu(II), Pb(II),
      Cr(VI), and As(V) reaching 96%, 100%, 100%, 96%, and 100%, respectively, from
      their maximum sorption capacities using different eluents. The IT-PRGO is
      proposed as a top performing remediation adsorbent for the extraction of heavy
      metals from waste and polluted water.

PMID- 28880524
TI  - Nonconjugated Polymer Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) as an Efficient Interlayer Promoting
      Electron Transport for Perovskite Solar Cells.
AB  - The interfaces between perovskite layer and electrodes play a crucial role on
      efficient charge transport and extraction in perovskite solar cells (PSCs).
      Herein, for the first time we applied a low-cost nonconjugated polymer
      poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as a new interlayer between PCBM electron transport
      layer (ETL) and Ag cathode for high-performance inverted planar heterojunction
      perovskite solar cells (iPSCs), leading to a dramatic efficiency enhancement. The
      CH3NH3PbI3-xClx-based iPSC device incorporating the PVP interlayer exhibited a
      power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.55%, which is enhanced by ~15.9% relative
      to that of the control device without PVP interlayer (10.83%). The mechanistic
      investigations based on morphological, optical, and impedance spectroscopic
      characterizations reveal that incorporation of PVP interlayer promotes electron
      transport across the CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite/Ag interface via PCBM ETL.
      Besides, PVP incorporation induces the formation of a dipole layer, which may
      enhance the built-in potential across the device, conjunctly promoting electron
      transport from PCBM to Ag cathode and consequently leading to significantly
      improved fill factor (FF) from 58.98 to 66.13%.

PMID- 28880526
TI  - High-Performance Charge Transport in Semiconducting Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons
      Grown Directly on Germanium.
AB  - The growth of graphene on Ge(001) via chemical vapor deposition can be highly
      anisotropic, affording the facile synthesis of crystallographically controlled,
      narrow, long, oriented nanoribbons of graphene that are semiconducting, whereas
      unpatterned continuous graphene is semimetallic. This bottom-up growth overcomes
      long-standing challenges that have limited top-down ribbon fabrication (e.g.,
      inadequate resolution and disordered edges) and yields ribbons with long segments
      of smooth armchair edges. The charge transport characteristics of sub-10 nm
      ribbons synthesized by this technique (which are expected to have band gaps
      sufficiently large for semiconductor electronics applications) have not yet been
      characterized. Here, we show that sub-10 nm nanoribbons grown on Ge(001) can
      simultaneously achieve a high on/off conductance ratio of 2 * 104 and a high on
      state conductance of 5 MUS in field-effect transistors, favorably comparing to or
      exceeding the performance of nanoribbons fabricated by other methods. These
      promising results demonstrate that the direct synthesis of nanoribbons on Ge(001)
      could provide a scalable pathway toward the practical realization of high
      performance semiconducting graphene electronics, provided that the width
      uniformity and positioning of the nanoribbons are improved.

PMID- 28880525
TI  - MitoNEET (CISD1) Knockout Mice Show Signs of Striatal Mitochondrial Dysfunction
      and a Parkinson's Disease Phenotype.
AB  - Mitochondrial dysfunction is thought to play a significant role in
      neurodegeneration observed in Parkinson's disease (PD), yet the mechanisms
      underlying this pathology remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that loss of
      mitoNEET (CISD1), an iron-sulfur containing protein that regulates mitochondrial
      bioenergetics, results in mitochondrial dysfunction and loss of striatal dopamine
      and tyrosine hydroxylase. Mitochondria isolated from mice lacking mitoNEET were
      dysfunctional as revealed by elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reduced
      capacity to produce ATP. Gait analysis revealed a shortened stride length and
      decreased rotarod performance in knockout mice, consistent with the loss of
      striatal dopamine. Together, these data suggest that mitoNEET KO mice exhibit
      many of the characteristics of early neurodegeneration in PD and may provide a
      novel drug discovery platform to evaluate compounds for enhancing mitochondrial
      function in neurodegenerative disorders.

PMID- 28880527
TI  - Two Analogous Polyhedron-Based MOFs with High Density of Lewis Basic Sites and
      Open Metal Sites: Significant CO2 Capture and Gas Selectivity Performance.
AB  - By means of modulating the axial ligand and adopting supermolecular building
      blocks (SBBs) strategy, two polyhedron-based metal-organic frameworks (PMOFs)
      have been successfully synthesized
      [Cu6(C17O9N2H8)3(C6H12N2)(H2O)2(DMF)2].3DMF.8H2O (JLU-Liu46) and
      [Cu6(C17O9N2H8)3(C4H4N2)(H2O)2(DMF)2].3DMF.8H2O (JLU-Liu47), which possess a high
      density of Lewis basic sites (LBSs) and open metal sites (OMSs). Since the size
      of axial ligand in JLU-Liu47 is smaller than that in JLU-Liu46, JLU-Liu47 shows
      larger pore volume and higher BET surface area. Then, the adsorption ability of
      JLU-Liu47 for some small gases is better than JLU-Liu46. It is worthwhile to
      mention that both of the two compounds exhibit outstanding adsorption capability
      for CO2 ascribed to the introducing of urea groups. In addition, the theoretical
      ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) calculation and transient breakthrough
      simulation indicate that JLU-Liu46 and JLU-Liu47 should be potential materials
      for gas storage and separation, particularly for CO2/N2, CO2/CH4, and C3H8/CH4
      separation.

PMID- 28880528
TI  - Silver-Coated Colloidosomes as Carriers for an Anticancer Drug.
AB  - Small drug molecules are widely developed and used in the pharmaceutical
      industry. In the past few years, loading and delivering such molecules using
      polymer-shell colloidosomes has attracted interest. Traditional polymer capsules
      fail to encapsulate low-molecular-weight materials for long times, since they are
      inherently porous and permeable for small molecules. In this paper, we report a
      method for encapsulating an anticancer drug with small molecule weight, for cell
      viability tests. The silver-coated colloidosomes are prepared by making an
      aqueous core capsule with a polymer shell and then adding AgNO3, surfactant, and
      l-ascorbic acid to form a second shell. The capsules are impermeable and can be
      triggered using ultrasound. We propose to use the capsules as drug carriers. The
      silver demonstrates a low cytotoxicity for up to 10 capsules per cell. After the
      silver shells are triggered by ultrasound, the released doxorubicin, the broken
      silver fragments, and the doxorubicin loading on the capsule surface all kill
      cells. The results demonstrate a nonpermeable silver-shell microcapsule with
      ultrasound sensitivity for potential medical applications.

PMID- 28880529
TI  - High-Velocity Saturation in Graphene Encapsulated by Hexagonal Boron Nitride.
AB  - We measure drift velocity in monolayer graphene encapsulated by hexagonal boron
      nitride (hBN), probing its dependence on carrier density and temperature. Due to
      the high mobility (>5 * 104 cm2/V/s) of our samples, the drift velocity begins to
      saturate at low electric fields (~0.1 V/MUm) at room temperature. Comparing
      results to a canonical drift velocity model, we extract room-temperature electron
      saturation velocities ranging from 6 * 107 cm/s at a low carrier density of 8 *
      1011 cm-2 to 2.7 * 107 cm/s at a higher density of 4.4 * 1012 cm-2. Such drift
      velocities are much higher than those in silicon (~107 cm/s) and in graphene on
      SiO2, likely due to reduced carrier scattering with surface optical phonons whose
      energy in hBN (>100 meV) is higher than that in other substrates.

PMID- 28880530
TI  - Novel in Situ Techniques for Studies of Model Catalysts.
AB  - Motivated mainly by catalysis, gas-surface interaction between single crystal
      surfaces and molecules has been studied for decades. Most of these studies have
      been performed in well-controlled environments and have been instrumental for the
      present day understanding of catalysis, providing information on surface
      structures, adsorption sites, and adsorption and desorption energies relevant for
      catalysis. However, the approach has been criticized for being too far from a
      catalyst operating under industrial conditions at high temperatures and
      pressures. To this end, a significant amount of effort over the years has been
      used to develop methods to investigate catalysts at more realistic conditions
      under operating conditions. One result from this effort is a vivid and sometimes
      heated discussion concerning the active phase for the seemingly simple CO
      oxidation reaction over the Pt-group metals in the literature. In recent years,
      we have explored the possibilities to perform experiments at conditions closer to
      those of a technical catalyst, in particular at increased pressures and
      temperatures. In this contribution, results from catalytic CO oxidation over a
      Pd(100) single crystal surface using Near Ambient Pressure X-ray Photo emission
      Spectroscopy (NAPXPS), Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF), and High Energy
      Surface X-ray Diffraction (HESXRD) are presented, and the strengths and
      weaknesses of the experimental techniques are discussed. Armed with structural
      knowledge from ultrahigh vacuum experiments, the presence of adsorbed molecules
      and gas-phase induced surface structures can be identified and related to changes
      in the reactivity or to reaction induced gas-flow limitations. In particular, the
      application of PLIF to catalysis allows one to visualize how the catalyst itself
      changes the gas composition close to the model catalyst surface upon ignition,
      and relate this to the observed surface structures. The effect obscures a
      straightforward relation between the active phase and the activity, since in the
      case of CO oxidation, the gas-phase close to the model catalyst surface is shown
      to be significantly more oxidizing than far away from the catalyst. We show that
      surface structural knowledge from UHV experiments and the composition of the gas
      phase close to the catalyst surface are crucial to understand structure-function
      relationships at semirealistic conditions. In the particular case of Pd, we argue
      that the surface structure of the PdO(101) has a significant influence on the
      activity, due to the presence of Coordinatively Unsaturated Sites (CUS) Pd atoms,
      similar to undercoordinated Ru and Ir atoms found for RuO2(110) and IrO2(110),
      respectively.

PMID- 28880531
TI  - Janus Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Chirality-Dependent Cell Adhesion and
      Migration.
AB  - Recently, there has been much interest in the chirality-dependent cell affinity
      to enantiomorphous nanomaterials (NMs), since, at the nanoscale level,
      enantiomers of (bio)molecules have different effects on cell behaviors. In this
      respect, this study used enantiomorphous NMs with which to generate the Janus
      nanocomposite (NC) hydrogels as multifunctional biomaterials for studying
      chirality-dependent cell adhesion and cell migration. These Janus NC hydrogels
      possess two enantiomorphous NC hydrogels, in which the different halves of the
      hydrogel contain the opposite enantiomers of a biopolymer functionalized
      nanomaterials. Thus, the enantiomers contact each other only at the midline of
      the hydrogel but are otherwise separated, yet they are present in the same
      system. This advanced system allows us to simultaneously study the impact that
      each enantiomer of a biopolymer has on cell behavior under the same reaction
      conditions, at the same time, and using only a single biomaterial. Our results
      show that cells have higher affinity for and migrate toward the part of the Janus
      NC hydrogel containing the biopolymer enantiomer that the cells prefer.

PMID- 28880532
TI  - High Quantum Yield Blue Emission from Lead-Free Inorganic Antimony Halide
      Perovskite Colloidal Quantum Dots.
AB  - Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) of lead halide perovskite have recently received
      great attention owing to their remarkable performances in optoelectronic
      applications. However, their wide applications are hindered from toxic lead
      element, which is not environment- and consumer-friendly. Herein, we utilized
      heterovalent substitution of divalent lead (Pb2+) with trivalent antimony (Sb3+)
      to synthesize stable and brightly luminescent Cs3Sb2Br9 QDs. The lead-free, full
      inorganic QDs were fabricated by a modified ligand-assisted reprecipitation
      strategy. A photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) was determined to be 46% at
      410 nm, which was superior to that of other reported halide perovskite QDs. The
      PL enhancement mechanism was unraveled by surface composition derived quantum
      well band structure and their large exciton binding energy. The Br-rich surface
      and the observed 530 meV exciton binding energy were proposed to guarantee the
      efficient radiative recombination. In addition, we can also tune the inorganic
      perovskite QD (Cs3Sb2X9) emission wavelength from 370 to 560 nm via anion
      exchange reactions. The developed full-inorganic lead-free Sb-perovskite QDs with
      high PLQY and stable emission promise great potential for efficient emission
      candidates.

PMID- 28880533
TI  - Damage-Free Smooth-Sidewall InGaAs Nanopillar Array by Metal-Assisted Chemical
      Etching.
AB  - Producing densely packed high aspect ratio In0.53Ga0.47As nanostructures without
      surface damage is critical for beyond Si-CMOS nanoelectronic and optoelectronic
      devices. However, conventional dry etching methods are known to produce
      irreversible damage to III-V compound semiconductors because of the inherent high
      energy ion-driven process. In this work, we demonstrate the realization of
      ordered, uniform, array-based In0.53Ga0.47As pillars with diameters as small as
      200 nm using the damage-free metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) technology
      combined with the post-MacEtch digital etching smoothing. The etching mechanism
      of InxGa1-xAs is explored through the characterization of pillar morphology and
      porosity as a function of etching condition and indium composition. The etching
      behavior of In0.53Ga0.47As, in contrast to higher bandgap semiconductors (e.g.,
      Si or GaAs), can be interpreted by a Schottky barrier height model that dictates
      the etching mechanism constantly in the mass transport limited regime because of
      the low barrier height. A broader impact of this work relates to the complete
      elimination of surface roughness or porosity related defects, which can be
      prevalent byproducts of MacEtch, by post-MacEtch digital etching. Side-by-side
      comparison of the midgap interface state density and flat-band capacitance
      hysteresis of both the unprocessed planar and MacEtched pillar In0.53Ga0.47As
      metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors further confirms that the surface of the
      resultant pillars is as smooth and defect-free as before etching. MacEtch
      combined with digital etching offers a simple, room-temperature, and low-cost
      method for the formation of high-quality In0.53Ga0.47As nanostructures that will
      potentially enable large-volume production of In0.53Ga0.47As-based devices
      including three-dimensional transistors and high-efficiency infrared
      photodetectors.

PMID- 28880534
TI  - Synthesis and Characterization of Alkylamine-Functionalized Si(111) for
      Perovskite Adhesion With Minimal Interfacial Oxidation or Electronic Defects.
AB  - We investigated synthetic strategies for the functionalization of Si(111)
      surfaces with organic species containing amine moieties. We employed the
      functionalized surfaces to chemically "glue" perovskites to silicon with
      efficient electron transfer and minimal oxidation leading to deleterious
      recombination at the silicon substrate. A two-step halogenation-alkylation
      reaction produced a mixed allyl-methyl monolayer on Si(111). Subsequent reactions
      utilized multiple methods of brominating the allyl double bond including reaction
      with HBr in acetic acid, HBr in THF, and molecular bromine in dichloromethane.
      Reaction with ammonia in methanol effected conversion of the bromide to the
      amine. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) quantified chemical states and
      coverages, transient-microwave photoconductivity ascertained photogenerated
      carrier lifetimes, atomic force microscopy (AFM) quantified perovskite-silicon
      adhesion, and nonaqueous photoelectrochemistry explored solar-energy-conversion
      performance. The HBr bromination followed by the amination yielded a surface with
      ~10% amine sites on the Si(111) with minimal oxide and surface recombination
      velocity values below 120 cm s-1, following extended exposures to air.
      Importantly, conversion of amine sites to ammonium and deposition of
      methylammonium lead halide via spin coating and annealing did not degrade carrier
      lifetimes. AFM experiments quantified adhesion between perovskite films and
      alkylammonium-functionalized or native-oxide silicon surfaces. Adhesion
      forces/interactions between the perovskite and the alkylammonium-functionalized
      films were comparable to the interaction between the perovskite and native-oxide
      silicon surface. Photoelectrochemistry of perovskite thin films on alkylammonium
      functionalized n+-Si showed significantly higher Voc than n+-Si with a native
      oxide when in contact with a nonaqueous ferrocene+/0 redox couple. We discuss the
      present results in the context of utilizing molecular organic recognition to
      attach perovskites to silicon utilizing organic linkers so as to inexpensively
      modify silicon for future tandem-junction photovoltaics.

PMID- 28880535
TI  - Single-Ion Li+, Na+, and Mg2+ Solid Electrolytes Supported by a Mesoporous
      Anionic Cu-Azolate Metal-Organic Framework.
AB  - A novel Cu(II)-azolate metal-organic framework (MOF) with tubular pores undergoes
      a reversible single crystal to single crystal transition between neutral and
      anionic phases upon reaction with stoichiometric amounts of halide or
      pseudohalide salts. The stoichiometric transformation between the two phases
      allows loading of record amounts of charge-balancing Li+, Na+, and Mg2+ ions for
      MOFs. Whereas the halide/pseudohalide anions are bound to the metal centers and
      thus stationary, the cations move freely within the one-dimensional pores, giving
      rise to single-ion solid electrolytes. The respective Li+-, Na+-, and Mg2+-loaded
      materials exhibit high ionic conductivity values of 4.4 * 10-5, 1.8 * 10-5, and
      8.8 * 10-7 S/cm. With addition of LiBF4, the Li+ conductivity improves to 4.8 *
      10-4 S/cm. These are the highest values yet observed for MOF solid electrolytes.

PMID- 28880536
TI  - Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Selective [2 + 2]-Cycloaddition and Dearomatizing Cascade
      Reaction of Aryl Alkynes with Acrylates.
AB  - Combined Lewis acid, consisting of two or more Lewis acids, sometimes shows
      unique catalytic ability, and it may promote reactions which could not be
      catalyzed by any of the Lewis acids solely. On the other hand, the development of
      efficient methods for the facile synthesis of cyclobutenes and densely
      functionalized decalins is an attractive target for synthetic chemists due to
      their versatile synthetic utilities and widespread occurrence in natural
      products. Herein, we wish to report an efficient method for the assembly of
      cyclobutenes and densely functionalized decalin skeletons through In(tfacac)3
      TMSBr catalyzed selective [2 + 2]-cycloaddition and dearomatizing cascade
      reaction of aryl alkynes with acrylates with high chemo- and stereoselectivity.
      The obtained cyclobutene could be easily converted into cyclobutane as well as
      synthetically useful 1,4- and 1,5-diketones with high chemo- and
      stereoselectivity. On the basis of mechanistic studies, plausible reaction
      mechanisms were proposed for both the [2 + 2]-cycloaddition and the dearomatizing
      cascade reaction. Finally, the computational studies of reaction mechanisms were
      conducted, and the results suggest that the combined Lewis acid could efficiently
      promote both reactions.

PMID- 28880537
TI  - Hydrophobic Collapse of the Intrinsically Disordered Transcription Factor Myc
      Associated Factor X.
AB  - The conformational space of the proto-oncogenic transcription factor Myc
      associated factor X (MAX) comprises a dynamic equilibrium between a stably folded
      coiled-coil homodimer and an intrinsically disordered ensemble of states. We show
      by means of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy that the intrinsically
      disordered ensemble samples structures that are even as compact as the folded
      dimer. These extremely dense, hydrophobically collapsed globules might be of
      importance for interconversion between different conformations of intrinsically
      disordered proteins.

PMID- 28880539
TI  - Quick Way to Port Existing C/C++ Chemoinformatics Toolkits to the Web Using
      Emscripten.
AB  - Emscripten is a special open source compiler that compiles C and C++ code into
      JavaScript. By utilizing this compiler, some typical C/C++ chemoinformatics
      toolkits and libraries are quickly ported to to web. The compiled JavaScript
      files have sizes similar to native programs, and from a series of constructed
      benchmarks, the performance of the compiled JavaScript codes is also close to
      that of the native codes and is better than the handwritten JavaScript codes.
      Therefore, we believe that Emscripten is a feasible and practical tool for
      reusing existing C/C++ codes on the web, and many other chemoinformatics or
      molecular calculation software tools can also be easily ported by Emscripten.

PMID- 28880538
TI  - Characterization of the Functional Variance in MbtH-like Protein Interactions
      with a Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase.
AB  - Many nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) require MbtH-like proteins (MLPs)
      for solubility or for activation of amino acid substrate by the adenylation
      domain. MLPs are capable of functional crosstalk with noncognate NRPSs at varying
      levels. Using enterobactin biosynthesis in Escherichia coli as a model MLP
      dependent NRPS system, we use in vivo and in vitro techniques to characterize how
      seven noncognate MLPs influence the function of the enterobactin NRPS EntF when
      the cognate MLP, YbdZ, is absent. Using a series of in vitro assays to analyze
      EntF solubility, adenylation, aminoacylation, and in vitro enterobactin
      production, we show that interactions between MLPs and NRPSs are multifaceted and
      more complex than previously appreciated. We separate MLP influence on solubility
      and function in a manner that shows altered solubility is not indicative of a
      functional MLP/NRPS pair. Although much of the functional variation among these
      noncognates can be explained by differences in EntF affinity for an MLP or the
      extent an MLP alters EntF l-Ser affinity, we demonstrate that MLPs can have a
      broader impact beyond solubility and adenylation. First, we show that a
      noncognate MLP can affect formation of l-Ser-S-EntF. Second, under in vitro
      conditions saturating for substrate and MLP, enterobactin production remains
      compromised in the absence of an appropriate MLP partner. These data suggest that
      we expand our investigations into how the MLPs influence NRPS enzymology. A more
      detailed understanding of these influences will be essential for downstream
      engineering of hybrid NRPS systems.

PMID- 28880540
TI  - Hydrocarbon and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes from Natural Gas Well Pad Soils and
      Surrounding Soils in Eastern Utah.
AB  - We measured fluxes of methane, nonmethane hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide from
      natural gas well pad soils and from nearby undisturbed soils in eastern Utah.
      Methane fluxes varied from less than zero to more than 38 g m-2 h-1. Fluxes from
      well pad soils were almost always greater than from undisturbed soils. Fluxes
      were greater from locations with higher concentrations of total combustible gas
      in soil and were inversely correlated with distance from well heads. Several
      lines of evidence show that the majority of emission fluxes (about 70%) were
      primarily due to subsurface sources of raw gas that migrated to the atmosphere,
      with the remainder likely caused primarily by re-emission of spilled liquid
      hydrocarbons. Total hydrocarbon fluxes during summer were only 39 (16, 97)% as
      high as during winter, likely because soil bacteria consumed the majority of
      hydrocarbons during summer months. We estimate that natural gas well pad soils
      account for 4.6 * 10-4 (1.6 * 10-4, 1.6 * 10-3)% of total emissions of
      hydrocarbons from the oil and gas industry in Utah's Uinta Basin. Our undisturbed
      soil flux measurements were not adequate to quantify rates of natural hydrocarbon
      seepage in the Uinta Basin.

PMID- 28880541
TI  - Selenomethionine as a Safer Substitute for Barium Selenate in Long-Acting
      Injectable Se Supplements for Food-Producing Animals.
AB  - Nutritional supplementation with selenium (Se) can prevent Se deficiency in food
      producing animals. Injection with slow-release formulations is a preferred method
      for free-range grazing sheep and cattle, and barium selenate (BaSeO4) provides
      optimal efficacy. This chemical can become a health risk to humans if the
      concentrated depot of an injection site is consumed, and consequently such use is
      recently banned in the EU. A possible replacement is selenomethionine (SeMet), a
      naturally occurring form of Se supplementation hitherto only administered orally.
      In four animal studies we found that injection with SeMet maintained
      nutritionally adequate concentrations of Se in blood and tissues of lambs for at
      least 191 days and in blood and milk of dairy cows for at least 95 days.
      Stereoisomer forms L- and DL-SeMet were functionally equivalent. This is the
      first demonstration that injectable SeMet can deliver efficacy similar to BaSeO4
      but with less risk of undesirable residues in edible tissues.

PMID- 28880542
TI  - Influence of Size and Shape on the Biodistribution of Nanoparticles Prepared by
      Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly.
AB  - Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is a facile one-pot synthetic
      technique for preparing polymeric nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes
      for application in a variety of fields including nanomedicine. However, the in
      vivo biodistribution of nanoparticles obtained by PISA still remains unclear. To
      address this knowledge gap, we report the synthesis, cytotoxicity, and
      biodistribution in an in vivo tumor-bearing mouse model of polystyrene micelles
      with various sizes and polystyrene filomicelles with different lengths prepared
      by PISA. First, a library of nanoparticles was prepared comprised of
      poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-b-poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether
      methacrylate)-b-polystyrene polymers, and their size and morphology were tuned by
      varying the polystyrene block length without affecting the surface chemistry. The
      3H) ethanolamine, and a biodistribution study was carried out in nude mice
      bearing HT1080 tumor xenografts 48 h after intravenous delivery. In this model,
      we found that small spherical polystyrene core nanoparticles with a PEG corona
      (diameter 21 nm) have the highest tumor accumulation when compared to the larger
      spherical nanoparticles (diameter 33 nm) or rodlike (diameter 37 nm, contour
      length 350-500 nm) or wormlike counterparts (diameter 45 nm, contour length 1-2
      MUm). This finding has provided critical information on the biodistribution of
      polystyrene core nanoparticles with a PEG corona of different sizes and shapes
      prepared by the PISA technique and will inform their use in medical applications.

PMID- 28880544
TI  - Remote Migratory Cross-Electrophile Coupling and Olefin Hydroarylation Reactions
      Enabled by in Situ Generation of NiH.
AB  - A highly efficient strategy for remote reductive cross-electrophile coupling has
      been developed through the ligand-controlled nickel migration/arylation. This
      general protocol allows the use of abundant and bench-stable alkyl bromides and
      aryl bromides for the synthesis of a wide range of structurally diverse 1,1
      diarylalkanes in excellent yields and high regioselectivities under mild
      conditions. We also demonstrated that alkyl bromide could be replaced by the
      proposed olefin intermediate while using n-propyl bromide/Mn0 as a potential
      hydride source.

PMID- 28880543
TI  - The Transition-State Structure for Human MAT2A from Isotope Effects.
AB  - Human methionine S-adenosyltransferase (MAT2A) catalyzes the formation of S
      adenosylmethionine (SAM) from ATP and methionine. Synthetic lethal genetic
      analysis has identified MAT2A as an anticancer target in tumor cells lacking
      expression of 5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP). Approximately 15% of
      human cancers are MTAP-/-. The remainder can be rendered MTAP- through MTAP
      inhibitors. We used kinetic isotope effect (KIE), commitment factor (Cf), and
      binding isotope effect (BIE) measurements combined with quantum mechanical (QM)
      calculations to solve the transition state structure of human MAT2A. The reaction
      is characterized by an advanced SN2 transition state. The bond forming from the
      nucleophilic methionine sulfur to the 5'-C of ATP is 2.03 A at the transition
      state (bond order of 0.67). Departure of the leaving group triphosphate of ATP is
      well advanced and forms a 2.32 A bond between the 5'-C of ATP and the oxygen of
      the triphosphate (bond order of 0.23). Interaction of MAT2A with its MAT2B
      regulatory subunit causes no change in the intrinsic KIEs, indicating the same
      transition state structure. The transition state for MAT2A is more advanced along
      the reaction coordinate (more product-like) than that from the near-symmetrical
      transition state of methionine adenosyltransferase from E. coli.

PMID- 28880545
TI  - Substantial Expansion of Detectable Size Range in Ionic Current Sensing through
      Pores by Using a Microfluidic Bridge Circuit.
AB  - Measuring ionic currents passing through nano- or micropores has shown great
      promise for the electrical discrimination of various biomolecules, cells,
      bacteria, and viruses. However, conventional measurements have shown there is an
      inherent limitation to the detectable particle volume (1% of the pore volume),
      which critically hinders applications to real mixtures of biomolecule samples
      with a wide size range of suspended particles. Here we propose a rational
      methodology that can detect samples with the detectable particle volume of 0.01%
      of the pore volume by measuring a transient current generated from the potential
      differences in a microfluidic bridge circuit. Our method substantially suppresses
      the background ionic current from the MUA level to the pA level, which
      essentially lowers the detectable particle volume limit even for relatively large
      pore structures. Indeed, utilizing a microscale long pore structure (volume of
      5.6 * 104 aL; height and width of 2.0 * 2.0 MUm; length of 14 MUm), we
      successfully detected various samples including polystyrene nanoparticles
      (volume: 4 aL), bacteria, cancer cells, and DNA molecules. Our method will expand
      the applicability of ionic current sensing systems for various mixed biomolecule
      samples with a wide size range, which have been difficult to measure by
      previously existing pore technologies.

PMID- 28880546
TI  - Transcriptomic and Functional Analyses on the Effects of Dioxin on Insulin
      Secretion of Pancreatic Islets and beta-Cells.
AB  - In this study, transcriptomic and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) underlined
      that an ex-vivo TCDD treatment (0.1 nM) stimulated insulin-release in mouse
      pancreatic islets via the effect on the Akt-mTOR-p70S6K, AMPK and ERK1/2
      pathways. Functional studies using both ex-vivo islets and the mouse beta-cell
      line (Min-6) validated the stimulatory effects of TCDD (0.1 and 1 nM) on basal
      insulin secretion. At 0.1 nM TCDD treatment on Min-6, Western blot analysis
      showed activation of ERK1/2 and decreased expression of pyruvate dehydrogenase
      kinase (PDK). A reduction of PDK expression is associated with an increase of
      pyruvate dehydrogenase flux. This observation was supported by the detection of
      significantly higher cellular ATP levels, an increase of glucose-stimulated
      insulin-secretion (GSIS), and an inhibition of the AMPK pathway. At 1 nM TCDD
      treatment on Min-6, significant inhibitions of the Akt-mTOR pathway, cellular ATP
      production, and GSIS were evident. The experimental studies in Min-6 supported
      the IPA of transcriptomic data in pancreatic islets. Collectively, TCDD treatment
      caused an elevated basal-insulin release in both islets and beta-cell cultures.
      Moreover, our data revealed that the modulation of the Akt-mTOR-p70S6K, AMPK and
      ERK1/2 pathways might be an important component of the mechanism for the TCDD
      perturbing effects on ATP production in beta-cells in affecting insulin
      secretion.

PMID- 28880547
TI  - Probing Distance Dependent Charge-Transfer Character in Excimers of Extended
      Viologen Cyclophanes Using Femtosecond Vibrational Spectroscopy.
AB  - Facile exciton transport within ordered assemblies of pi-stacked chromophores is
      essential for developing molecular photonic and electronic materials. Excimer
      states having variable charge transfer (CT) character are frequently implicated
      as promoting or inhibiting exciton mobility in such systems. However, determining
      the degree of CT character in excimers as a function of their structure has
      proven challenging. Herein, we report on a series of cyclophanes in which the
      interplanar distance between two phenyl-extended viologen (ExV2+) chromophores is
      varied systematically using a pair of o-, m-, or p-xylylene (o-, m-, or p-Xy)
      covalent linkers to produce o-ExBox4+ (3.5 A), m-ExBox4+ (5.6 A), and p-ExBox4+
      (7.0 A), respectively. The cyclophane structures are characterized using NMR
      spectroscopy in solution and single-crystal X-ray diffraction in the solid state.
      Femtosecond transient mid-IR and stimulated Raman spectroscopies show that the CT
      contribution to the excimer states formed in o-ExBox4+ and m-ExBox4+ depends on
      the distance between the chromophores within the cyclophanes, while in the weak
      interaction limit, as represented by p-ExBox4+ (7.0 A), the lowest excited
      singlet state of ExV2+ exclusively photo-oxidizes the p-Xy spacer to give the p
      Xy+*-ExV+* ion pair. Moreover, the vibrational spectra of the excimer state show
      that it assumes a geometry that is intermediate between that of the locally
      excited and CT states, approximately reflecting the degree of CT character.

PMID- 28880548
TI  - Transketolase A from E. coli Significantly Suppresses Protein Glycation by
      Glycolaldehyde and Glyoxal in Vitro.
AB  - Short-chained carbonyl species such as glycolaldehyde and its oxidized pendant
      glyoxal are highly reactive Maillard agents, leading to the formation of protein
      modifications. These advanced glycation endproducts have gained considerable
      interest as they have been linked to various pathologies in vivo. The ability of
      transketolase to use glycolaldehyde as a substrate suggested the possibility to
      modulate carbonyl-driven Maillard reactions. Model incubations with recombinant
      transketolase A from Escherichia coli in the presence of bovine serum albumin and
      glycolaldehyde indeed led to a decrease in glycolaldehyde concentrations
      paralleled by the enzymatic conversion to erythrulose. As a result, reversibly
      protein-bound glycolaldehyde and the major final endproduct N6-carboxymethyl
      lysine were significantly reduced by approximately 50%, respectively.
      Glycolaldehyde is easily oxidized to glyoxal in the presence of amines and
      oxygen. In the presence of transketolase, the lower amounts of glycolaldehyde
      therefore also strongly suppressed the formation of glyoxal specific arginine
      modifications, measured as 5-(2-imino-5-oxo-1-imidazolidinyl)norvaline after acid
      hydrolysis.

PMID- 28880549
TI  - Binding and Release between Polymeric Carrier and Protein Drug: pH-Mediated
      Interplay of Coulomb Forces, Hydrogen Bonding, van der Waals Interactions, and
      Entropy.
AB  - The accelerating search for new types of drugs and delivery strategies poses
      challenge to understanding the mechanism of delivery. To this end, a detailed
      atomistic picture of binding between the drug and carrier is quintessential.
      Although many studies focus on the electrostatics of drug-vector interactions, it
      has also been pointed out that entropic factors relating to water and counterions
      can play an important role. By carrying out extensive molecular dynamics
      simulations and subsequently validating with experiments, we shed light herein on
      the binding in aqueous solution between a protein drug and polymeric carrier. We
      examined the complexation between the polymer poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether
      acrylate-b-poly(carboxyethyl acrylate (PEGMEA-b-PCEA) and the protein egg white
      lysozyme, a system that acts as a model for polymer-vector/protein-drug delivery
      systems. The complexation has been visualized and characterized using contact
      maps and hydrogen bonding analyses for five independent simulations of the
      complex, each running over 100 ns. Binding at physiological pH is, as expected,
      mediated by Coulombic attraction between the positively charged protein and
      negatively charged carboxylate groups on the polymer. However, we find that
      consideration of electrostatics alone is insufficient to explain the complexation
      behavior at low pH. Intracomplex hydrogen bonds, van der Waals interactions, as
      well as water-water interactions dictate that the polymer does not release the
      protein at pH 4.8 or indeed at pH 3.2 even though the Coulombic attractions are
      largely removed as carboxylate groups on the polymer become titrated. Experiments
      in aqueous solution carried out at pH 7.0, 4.5, and 3.0 confirm the veracity of
      the computed binding behavior. Overall, these combined simulation and
      experimental results illustrate that coulomb interactions need to be complemented
      with consideration of other entropic forces, mediated by van der Waals
      interactions and hydrogen bonding, to search for adequate descriptors to predict
      binding and release properties of polymer-protein complexes. Advances in
      computational power over the past decade make atomistic molecular dynamics
      simulations such as implemented here one of the few avenues currently available
      to elucidate the complexity of these interactions and provide insights toward
      finding adequate descriptors. Thus, there remains much room for improvement of
      design principles for efficient capture and release delivery systems.

PMID- 28880550
TI  - A Polymer Therapeutic Having Universal Heparin Reversal Activity: Molecular
      Design and Functional Mechanism.
AB  - Heparins are widely used to prevent blood clotting during surgeries and for the
      treatment of thrombosis. However, bleeding associated with heparin therapy is a
      concern. Protamine, the only approved antidote for unfractionated heparin (UFH)
      could cause adverse cardiovascular events. Here, we describe a unique molecular
      design used in the development of a synthetic dendritic polycation named as
      universal heparin reversal agent (UHRA), an antidote for all clinically used
      heparin anticoagulants. We elucidate the mechanistic basis for the selectivity of
      UHRA to heparins and its nontoxic nature. Isothermal titration calorimetry based
      binding studies of UHRAs having different methoxypolyethylene glycol (mPEG) brush
      structures with UFH as a function of solution conditions, including ionic
      strength, revealed that mPEG chains impose entropic penalty to the electrostatic
      binding. Binding studies confirm that, unlike protamine or N-UHRA (a truncated
      analogue of UHRA with no mPEG chains), the mPEG chains in UHRA avert nonspecific
      interactions with blood proteins and provide selectivity toward heparins through
      a combined steric repulsion and Donnan shielding effect (a balance of Fel and
      Fsteric). Clotting assays reveal that UHRA with mPEG chains did not adversely
      affect clotting, and neutralized UFH over a wide range of concentrations.
      Conversely, N-UHRA and protamine display intrinsic anticoagulant activity and
      showed a narrow concentration window for UFH neutralization. In addition, we
      found that mPEG chains regulate the size of antidote-UFH complexes, as revealed
      by atomic force microscopy and dynamic light scattering studies. UHRA molecules
      with mPEG chains formed smaller complexes with UFH, compared to N-UHRA and
      protamine. Finally, fluorescence and ELISA experiments show that UHRA disrupts
      antithrombin-UFH complexes to neutralize heparin's activity.

PMID- 28880551
TI  - Cationic Poly(benzyl ether)s as Self-Immolative Antimicrobial Polymers.
AB  - Self-immolative polymers (SIMPs) are macromolecules that spontaneously undergo
      depolymerization into small molecules when triggered by specific external
      stimuli. We report here the first examples of antimicrobial SIMPs with potent,
      rapid, and broad-spectrum bactericidal activity. Their antibacterial and
      hemolytic activities were examined as a function of cationic functionality.
      Polymers bearing primary ammonium cationic groups showed more potent bactericidal
      activity against Escherichia coli, relative to tertiary and quaternary ammonium
      counterparts, whereas the quaternary ammonium polymers showed the lowest
      hemolytic toxicity. These antibacterial polycations undergo end-to-end
      depolymerization when triggered by an externally applied stimulus. Specifically,
      poly(benzyl ether)s end-capped with a silyl ether group and bearing pendant allyl
      side chains were converted to polycations by photoinitiated thiol-ene radical
      addition using cysteamine HCl. The intact polycations are stable in solution, but
      they spontaneously unzip into their component monomers upon exposure to fluoride
      ions, with excellent sensitivity and selectivity. Upon triggered
      depolymerization, the antibacterial potency was largely retained but the
      hemolytic toxicity was substantially reduced. Thus, we reveal the first example
      of a self-immolative antibacterial polymer platform that will enable
      antibacterial materials to spontaneously unzip into biologically active small
      molecules upon the introduction of a specifically designed stimulus.

PMID- 28880553
TI  - Investigation of Water Dissociation and Surface Hydroxyl Stability on Pure and Ni
      Modified CoOOH by Ambient Pressure Photoelectron Spectroscopy.
AB  - Water adsorption and reaction on pure and Ni-modified CoOOH nanowires were
      investigated using ambient pressure photoemission spectroscopy (APPES). The
      unique capabilities of APPES enable us to observe water dissociation and monitor
      formation of surface species on pure and Ni-modified CoOOH under elevated
      pressures and temperatures for the first time. Over a large range of pressures
      (UHV to 1 Torr), water dissociates readily on the pure and Ni-modified CoOOH
      surfaces at 27  degrees C. With an increase in H2O pressure, a greater degree of
      surface hydroxylation was observed for all samples. At 1 Torr H2O, ratios of
      different oxygen species indicate a transformation of CoOOH to CoOxHy in pure and
      Ni-modified CoOOH. In temperature dependent studies, desorption of weakly bound
      water and surface dehydroxylation were observed with increasing temperature.
      Larger percentages of surface hydroxyl groups at higher temperatures were
      observed on Ni-modified CoOOH compared to pure CoOOH, which indicates an
      increased stability of surface hydroxyl groups on these Ni-modified surfaces.

PMID- 28880552
TI  - Novel Inhibitors of Staphyloxanthin Virulence Factor in Comparison with Linezolid
      and Vancomycin versus Methicillin-Resistant, Linezolid-Resistant, and Vancomycin
      Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus Infections in Vivo.
AB  - Our previous work ( Wang et al. J. Med. Chem. 2016 , 59 , 4831 - 4848 ) revealed
      that effective benzocycloalkane-derived staphyloxanthin inhibitors against
      methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections were
      accompanied by poor water solubility and high hERG inhibition and dosages
      (preadministration). In this study, 92 chroman and coumaran derivatives as novel
      inhibitors have been addressed for overcoming deficiencies above. Derivatives 69
      and 105 displayed excellent pigment inhibitory activities and low hERG
      inhibition, along with improvement of solubility by salt type selection. The
      broad and significantly potent antibacterial spectra of 69 and 105 were displayed
      first with normal administration in the livers and hearts in mice against
      pigmented S. aureus Newman, Mu50 (vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus), and NRS271
      (linezolid-resistant S. aureus), compared with linezolid and vancomycin. In
      summary, both 69 and 105 have the potential to be developed as good antibacterial
      candidates targeting virulence factors.

PMID- 28880555
TI  - Modulating the Proton Affinity of Silanol and Siloxane Derivatives by Tetrel
      Bonds.
AB  - The proton affinity (PA) on the oxygen atom in silanol and siloxane derivatives
      is enhanced by the formation of tetrel bonds with small Lewis bases [B...R3SiOH,
      B...R3SiOSiR3, B...R3SiOSiR3...B; B = H2O, CO, NH3, HCN, H2S; R = H, Me], as
      shown by MP2/jul-cc-pVTZ calculations. The complexed systems become more basic
      than ether and other carbon-related compounds, and even more basic than pyridine
      in some specific cases, reaching values up to 959.4 kJ/mol (H3N...H3SiOSiH3...NH3
      complex). Changes on PAs are directly related to very large binding energies for
      the protonated species. Topological methods and the natural bond orbital scheme
      are used to rationalize the observed trends. The PA enhancement should be taken
      into account when dealing with silanols and siloxanes in different environments.

PMID- 28880554
TI  - Visible Light Promoted Metal- and Photocatalyst-Free Synthesis of Allylarenes.
AB  - The metal- and photocatalyst-free synthesis of substituted allylarenes has been
      carried out under visible light driven conditions. The process was based on the
      photogeneration of aryl radicals from arylazo sulfones and their ensuing reaction
      with allyl sulfones. The developed procedure was very efficient when using
      substrates bearing electron-withdrawing groups, and allowed for the preparation
      of alpha-benzyl styrenes and 2-benzyl acrylates in good yields.

PMID- 28880556
TI  - Initial Stages in the Formation of Nickel Phosphides.
AB  - Metal phosphides have emerged as a new powerful class of materials that can be
      employed as heterogeneous catalysts in transformations mainly to generate new
      energy vectors and the valorization of renewables. Synthetic protocols based on
      wet techniques are available and are based on the decomposition of the organic
      layer decorating the nanoparticles. For nickel, the phosphine of choice is
      trioctylphosphine, and this leads to the formation of NiPx materials. However,
      the temperature at which the decomposition starts has been found to depend on the
      quality of the nickel surface. Density functional theory, DFT, holds the key to
      analyze the initial steps of the formation of these phosphide materials. We have
      found how clean nickel surfaces, either (111) or (100), readily breaks the ligand
      P-C bonds. This triggers the process that leads to the replacement of a surface
      nickel atom by P and concomintantly forms a Ni adatom on the surface surrounded
      by two methyl groups, thus starting the formation of the NiPx phase. The whole
      process requires low energies, in agreement with the low temperature found in the
      experiments, 150  degrees C. In contrast, if the surface is oxidized, the
      reaction does not proceed at low temperatures and oxygen vacancies need to be
      created first to start the P-C bond breaking on the Ni-clean patches. Our results
      show that the cleaner the surface is, the milder the reactions are required for
      the NiPx formation, and thus they pave the way for gentler synthetic protocols
      that can improve the control of these materials.

PMID- 28880557
TI  - Ag2S Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells by First Principles: The Effect of
      Capping Ligands and Linkers.
AB  - Quantum dots solar cells, QDSCs, are one of the candidates for being a reliable
      alternative to fossil fuels. However, the well-studied CdSe and CdTe-based QDSCs
      present a variety of issues for their use in consumer-goods applications. Silver
      sulfide, Ag2S, is a promising material, but poor efficiency has been reported for
      QDSCs based on this compound. The potential influence of each component of QDSCs
      is critical and key for the development of more efficient devices based on Ag2S.
      In this work, density functional theory calculations were performed to study the
      nature of the optoelectronic properties for an anatase-TiO2(101) surface
      sensitized with different silver sulfide nanoclusters. We demonstrated how it is
      possible to deeply tune of its electronic properties by modifying the capping
      ligands and linkers to the surface. Finally, an analysis of the electron
      injection mechanism for this system is presented.

PMID- 28880558
TI  - Correction to Constituents of Polygala flavescens ssp. flavescens and Their
      Activity as Inhibitors of Human Lactate Dehydrogenase.

PMID- 28880559
TI  - Cobalt Intercalated Layered NiFe Double Hydroxides for the Oxygen Evolution
      Reaction.
AB  - We present a combined experimental and theoretical study to demonstrate that the
      electrocatalytic activity of NiFe layered double hydroxides (NiFe LDHs) for the
      oxygen evolution reaction (OER) can be significantly enhanced by systematic
      cobalt incorporation using coprecipitation and/or intercalation. Electrochemical
      measurements show that cobalt modified NiFe LDH possesses an enhanced activity
      for the OER relative to pristine NiFe LDH. The Co-modified NiFe LDH exhibits
      overpotentials in the range of 290-322 mV (at 10 mA cm-2), depending on the
      degree of cobalt content. The best catalyst, cobalt intercalated NiFe LDH
      achieved a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at an overpotential of ~265 mV (compared
      to 310 mV for NiFe LDH), with a near unity (99%) faradaic efficiency and long
      term stability. Density functional theory calculations revealed that enhanced
      activity of Co-modified NiFe LDH could be attributed to the ability of Co to tune
      the electronic structure of the NiFe LDH so that optimal binding of OER reaction
      intermediates could be achieved.

PMID- 28880560
TI  - From Linear to Foldamer and Assembly: Hierarchical Transformation of a Coplanar
      Conjugated Polymer into a Microsphere.
AB  - Despite the coplanar structure, a conjugated alternating copolymer forms
      amorphous, well-defined microspheres without pi-stacked crystalline domains.
      Here, we gain insights into the mechanism of how the coplanar conjugated polymer
      forms amorphous microspheres by means of spectroscopic studies on the
      assembly/disassembly processes. The difference of the spectral profiles of
      photoabsorption and photoluminescence with varying solvent/nonsolvent composition
      clarifies that stepwise assembly takes place through the microsphere formation;
      [1] intrapolymer linear-to-folding transformation upon diffusion of polar
      nonsolvent and [2] interpolymer assembly of the foldamers upon further addition
      of the nonsolvent to form microspheres. As shown in various biopolymers such as
      proteins and DNA, such stepwise folding and assembly behaviors of conjugated
      polymers from primary to secondary and tertiary structure open a new way to
      create transformable functional materials.

PMID- 28880561
TI  - Therapeutic Mechanistic Studies of ShuFengJieDu Capsule in an Acute Lung Injury
      Animal Model Using Quantitative Proteomics Technology.
AB  - ShuFengJieDu capsule (SFJDC), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that contains
      eight medicinal herbs, has been extensively utilized for the treatment of acute
      lung injury (ALI) and respiratory infections for more than 30 years in China.
      SFJDC has also been listed in the official guidelines of the China Food and Drug
      Administration (CFDA) due to its stable clinical manifestations. However, the
      underlying mechanism of SFJDC during ALI repair remains unclear. In the present
      study, we explored the protective and therapeutic mechanisms of SFJDC in a rat
      model by performing qualitative and label-free quantitative proteomics studies.
      After establishing lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI rat models, we profiled
      macrophage cells isolated from freshly resected rat lung tissues derived from ALI
      models and ALI rat lung tissue sections using a high performance liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) shotgun proteomics approach to
      identify changes in the expression levels of proteins of interest. On the basis
      of our proteomics results and the results of a protein dysregulation analysis of
      ALI rat lung tissues and rat lung macrophages, AKT1 was selected as a putative
      key factor that may play an important role in mediating the effects of SFJDC
      treatment during ALI progression. Follow-up validation studies demonstrated that
      AKT1 expression effectively regulates various ALI-related molecules, and Gene
      Ontology analysis indicated that SFJDC-treated ALI rat macrophages were
      influenced by AKT1-based networks. Gain- and loss-of-function analyses following
      lentivirus-AKT1 or lentivirus-si-AKT1 infection in macrophages also indicated
      that AKT1 was essential for the development of ALI due to its ability to regulate
      oxidative stress, apoptosis, or inflammatory responses. In summary, SFJDC
      effectively modulated anti-inflammatory and immunomodulation activity during ALI,
      potentially due to AKT1 regulation during ALI progression. New insights into
      SFJDC mechanisms may facilitate the development of novel pharmaceutical
      strategies to control the expression of inflammatory factors.

PMID- 28880562
TI  - Nicotabin A, a Sesquiterpenoid Derivative from Nicotiana tabacum.
AB  - Nicotabin A (1), a sesquiterpenoid derivative possessing a fused 5/6/5/5/5 ring
      system, was isolated from leaves of Nicotiana tabacum. The structure was
      elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods and confirmed by single crystal X
      ray diffraction. The plausible biosynthetic pathway for 1 was proposed. Compound
      1 inhibited nitric oxide production in LPS-activated RAW264.7 macrophages with an
      IC50 of 22.1 MUM.

PMID- 28880563
TI  - Softened Mechanical Properties of Graphene Induced by Electric Field.
AB  - The understanding on the mechanical properties of graphene under the applications
      of physical fields is highly relevant to the reliability and lifetime of graphene
      based nanodevices. In this work, we demonstrate that the application of electric
      field could soften the mechanical properties of graphene dramatically on the
      basis of the conductive AFM nanoindentation method. It has been found that the
      Young's modulus and fracture strength of graphene nanosheets suspended on the
      holes almost stay the same initially and then exhibit a sharp drop when the
      normalized electric field strength increases to be 0.18 +/- 0.03 V/nm. The
      threshold voltage of graphene nanosheets before the onset of fracture under the
      fixed applied load increases with the thickness. Supported graphene nanosheets
      can sustain larger electric field under the same applied load than the suspended
      ones. The excessively regional Joule heating caused by the high electric current
      under the applied load is responsible for the electromechanical failure of
      graphene. These findings can provide a beneficial guideline for the
      electromechanical applications of graphene-based nanodevices.

PMID- 28880564
TI  - Optical Measurement of Radiocarbon below Unity Fraction Modern by Linear
      Absorption Spectroscopy.
AB  - High-precision measurements of radiocarbon (14C) near or below a fraction modern
      14C of 1 (F14C <= 1) are challenging and costly. An accurate, ultrasensitive
      linear absorption approach to detecting 14C would provide a simple and robust
      benchtop alternative to off-site accelerator mass spectrometry facilities. Here
      we report the quantitative measurement of 14C in gas-phase samples of CO2 with
      F14C < 1 using cavity ring-down spectroscopy in the linear absorption regime.
      Repeated analysis of CO2 derived from the combustion of either biogenic or
      petrogenic sources revealed a robust ability to differentiate samples with F14C <
      1. With a combined uncertainty of 14C/12C = 130 fmol/mol (F14C = 0.11), initial
      performance of the calibration-free instrument is sufficient to investigate a
      variety of applications in radiocarbon measurement science including the study of
      biofuels and bioplastics, illicitly traded specimens, bomb dating, and
      atmospheric transport.

PMID- 28880565
TI  - Electroabsorption Spectroscopy Studies of (C4H9NH3)2PbI4 Organic-Inorganic Hybrid
      Perovskite Multiple Quantum Wells.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite multiple quantum wells
      that consist of multilayers of alternate organic and inorganic layers exhibit
      large exciton binding energies of order of 0.3 eV due to the dielectric
      confinement between the inorganic and organic layers. We have investigated the
      exciton characteristics of 2D butylammonium lead iodide, (C4H9NH3)2PbI4 using
      photoluminescence and UV-vis absorption in the temperature range of 10 K to 300
      K, and electroabsorption spectroscopy. The evolution of an additional
      absorption/emission at low temperature indicates that this compound undergoes a
      phase transition at ~250 K. We found that the electroabsorption spectrum of each
      structural phase contains contributions from both quantum confined exciton Stark
      effect and Franz-Keldysh oscillation of the continuum band, from which we could
      determine more accurately the 1s exciton, continuum band edge, and the exciton
      binding energy.

PMID- 28880566
TI  - Divinylsulfonamides as Specific Linkers for Stapling Disulfide Bonds in Peptides.
AB  - A new class of N-phenyl-divinylsulfonamides which can be easily prepared have
      been successfully developed and utilized as efficient linkers in the field of
      disulfide bond modification. Functional divinylsulfonamides provide opportunities
      for the specific introduction of various functionalities, including affinity
      probes, fluorescent tags, and drugs, into peptides.

PMID- 28880567
TI  - Direct Synthesis of 4-Quinolones via Copper-Catalyzed Intermolecular Cyclization
      of Anilines and Alkynes.
AB  - A unique and direct approach for constructing 4-quinolones from simple and
      readily available anilines and alkynes is described. Under the optimal
      conditions, both N-alkyl- and N-aryl-substituted anilines can be successfully
      transformed into the corresponding 4-quinolones. This reaction is characterized
      by mild reaction conditions, high functional-group tolerance, and amenability to
      gram-scale synthesis.

PMID- 28880568
TI  - Macro- and Micronutrients of Human Milk Composition: Are They Related to Maternal
      Diet? A Comprehensive Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims at systematically reviewing the observational and
      interventional studies on the association of maternal macro- and micronutrient
      intake with breast milk content. METHODS: We systematically searched the Medline
      via PubMed, Scopus, and ISI Web of Knowledge till October 2016 with the following
      search strategy: ("human milk" OR "breast milk" OR "breast milk composition" OR
      "human breast milk composition" OR "composition breast milk" OR "mother milk" OR
      "human breast milk") AND ("maternal diet" OR "maternal nutrition"). We also
      searched Google scholar for increasing the sensitivity of our search. The search
      was not limited to title and abstract due to the possibility that the desired
      outcome might have been considered a secondary aim. We excluded conference
      papers, editorials, letters, commentary, short survey, and notes. The search was
      refined to English language, and we did not consider any time limitation. To
      increase the sensitivity and to select more studies, the reference list of the
      published studies was checked as well. RESULTS: This review included 59
      observational and 43 interventional studies on maternal diet related to breast
      milk composition. Different studies determined the associations and effects of
      some maternal dietary intake of micro and macronutrients and its reflection in
      human milk. CONCLUSION: Maternal dietary intake, particularly fatty acids, and
      some micronutrients, including fat soluble vitamins, vitamin B1, and vitamin C,
      was related to their content in breast milk composition.

PMID- 28880570
TI  - Differentially Culturable Tubercule Bacilli Are Generated during Nonpulmonary
      Tuberculosis Infection.

PMID- 28880569
TI  - Importing Well-Researched Practices from Other Traditions: Thoughts from a
      Conservative Society.

PMID- 28880571
TI  - Minding the Mind-Body Literature: Focusing on Women's Health and Pregnancy.

PMID- 28880573
TI  - Bacteriocins as food preservatives: Challenges and emerging horizons.
AB  - The increasing demand for fresh-like food products and the potential health
      hazards of chemically preserved and processed food products have led to the
      advent of alternative technologies for the preservation and maintenance of the
      freshness of the food products. One such preservation strategy is the usage of
      bacteriocins or bacteriocins producing starter cultures for the preservation of
      the intended food matrixes. Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized smaller
      polypeptide molecules that exert antagonistic activity against closely related
      and unrelated group of bacteria. This review is aimed at bringing to lime light
      the various class of bacteriocins mainly from gram positive bacteria. The
      desirable characteristics of the bacteriocins which earn them a place in food
      preservation technology, the success story of the same in various food systems,
      the various challenges and the strategies employed to put them to work
      efficiently in various food systems has been discussed in this review. From the
      industrial point of view various aspects like the improvement of the producer
      strains, downstream processing and purification of the bacteriocins and recent
      trends in engineered bacteriocins has also been briefly discussed in this review.

PMID- 28880574
TI  - Selection of Suitable Internal Control Genes for Accurate Normalization of Real
      Time Quantitative PCR Data of Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Blastocysts Produced by
      SCNT and IVF.
AB  - We evaluated the suitability of 10 candidate internal control genes (ICGs),
      belonging to different functional classes, namely ACTB, EEF1A1, GAPDH, HPRT1,
      HMBS, RPS15, RPS18, RPS23, SDHA, and UBC for normalizing the real-time
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) data of blastocyst-stage buffalo
      embryos produced by hand-made cloning and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Total RNA
      was isolated from three pools, each of cloned and IVF blastocysts (n = 50/pool)
      for cDNA synthesis. Two different statistical algorithms geNorm and NormFinder
      were used for evaluating the stability of these genes. Based on gene stability
      measure (M value) and pairwise variation (V value), calculated by geNorm
      analysis, the most stable ICGs were RPS15, HPRT1, and ACTB for cloned
      blastocysts, HMBS, UBC, and HPRT1 for IVF blastocysts and RPS15, GAPDH, and HPRT1
      for both the embryo types analyzed together. RPS18 was the least stable gene for
      both cloned and IVF blastocysts. Following NormFinder analysis, the order of
      stability was RPS15 = HPRT1>GAPDH for cloned blastocysts, HMBS = UBC>RPS23 for
      IVF blastocysts, and HPRT1>GAPDH>RPS15 for cloned and IVF blastocysts together.
      These results suggest that despite overlapping of the three most stable ICGs
      between cloned and IVF blastocysts, the panel of ICGs selected for normalization
      of qPCR data of cloned and IVF blastocyst-stage embryos should be different.

PMID- 28880572
TI  - Examining Play Counts and Measurements of Injury Incidence in Youth Football.
AB  - CONTEXT:   Whereas researchers have provided estimates for the number of head
      impacts sustained within a youth football season, less is known about the number
      of plays across which such impact exposure occurs. OBJECTIVE:   To estimate the
      number of plays in which youth football players participated during the 2013
      season and to estimate injury incidence through play-based injury rates. DESIGN: 
      Descriptive epidemiology study. SETTING:   Youth football. PATIENTS OR OTHER
      PARTICIPANTS:   Youth football players (N = 2098; age range, 5-15 years) from 105
      teams in 12 recreational leagues across 6 states. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):   We
      calculated the average number of athlete-plays per season and per game using
      independent-samples t tests to compare age groups (5-10 years old versus 11-15
      years old) and squad sizes (<20 versus >=20 players); game injury rates per 1000
      athlete-exposures (AEs) and per 10 000 athlete-plays; and injury rate ratios
      (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to compare age groups. RESULTS:   On
      average, youth football players participated in 333.9 +/- 178.5 plays per season
      and 43.9 +/- 24.0 plays per game. Age groups (5- to 10-year-olds versus 11- to 15
      year-olds) did not differ in the average number of plays per season (335.8 versus
      332.3, respectively; t2086.4 = 0.45, P = .65) or per game (44.1 versus 43.7,
      respectively; t2092.3 = 0.38, P = .71). However, players from smaller teams
      participated in more plays per season (373.7 versus 308.0; t1611.4 = 8.15, P <
      .001) and per game (47.7 versus 41.4; t1523.5 = 5.67, P < .001). Older players
      had a greater game injury rate than younger players when injury rates were
      calculated per 1000 AEs (23.03 versus 17.86/1000 AEs; IRR = 1.29; 95% CI = 1.04,
      1.60) or per 10 000 athlete-plays (5.30 versus 4.18/10 000 athlete-plays; IRR =
      1.27; 95% CI = 1.02, 1.57). CONCLUSIONS:   A larger squad size was associated
      with a lower average number of plays per season and per game. Increasing youth
      football squad sizes may help reduce head-impact exposure for individual players.
      The AE-based injury rates yielded effect estimates similar to those of play-based
      injury rates.

PMID- 28880575
TI  - From Stem Cell Research to Three-Dimensional Organoids and Their Applications in
      Cancer Research: Meeting Report on the 9th International Meeting of the Stem Cell
      Network North Rhine Westphalia.

PMID- 28880576
TI  - Increasing physical activity through an Internet-based motivational intervention
      supported by pedometers in a sample of sedentary students: A randomised
      controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of an Internet-based
      motivational intervention (IMI) supported by pedometers (in comparison with IMI
      alone and non-intervention) on increasing daily steps and changing constructs
      related to physical activity (PA) in a sample of sedentary students. DESIGN: A
      randomised-controlled trial was conducted with 76 sedentary or low-active college
      students. The purpose of the IMI was to deliver information to increase
      motivation and set individualised PA goals. It involved a 3-week intervention and
      a 3-months follow-up. OUTCOME MEASURES: Objective measures were used to measure
      daily steps, and self-report questionnaires to assess different constructs
      related to PA. RESULTS: Results revealed that IMI supported by pedometers
      condition increased significantly more the daily steps (post-intervention: M =
      2069; SD = 1827; follow-up: M = 2227; SD = 2477) and enjoyment than non
      intervention condition at both points in time. Moreover, results showed that IMI
      alone condition increased more the scores in variables involved in PA behaviour
      than non-intervention condition. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the effectiveness
      of a self-administered IMI using pedometers in increasing PA and enjoyment, and
      the effectiveness of the IMI alone in changing different theoretical constructs
      related to the PA behaviour.

PMID- 28880577
TI  - Diverse bodies: the challenge of new theoretical approaches to medical
      anthropology.

PMID- 28880578
TI  - Correction to: Counting bodies? On future engagements with science studies in
      medical anthropology.

PMID- 28880580
TI  - IHC Posters - Saturday and Sunday.

PMID- 28880579
TI  - Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Chinese Adolescents with Overweight
      and Obesity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between psychological factors and obesity has become
      a hot topic in psychosomatic research. The aim of this study was to examine the
      characteristics of cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies in Chinese
      adolescents with different weight status. METHODS: Using stratified random
      cluster sampling, 700 and 321 adolescents were defined as adolescents with
      overweight status and obese status, respectively. One thousand and twenty-one
      adolescents with normal-weight status were also selected. All participants
      completed a general questionnaire and Chinese version of the Cognitive Emotion
      Regulation Questionnaire. RESULTS: Adolescents in the obesity group obtained the
      highest scores on self-blame and rumination in three groups, and those from the
      obesity group obtained lower scores on acceptance, positive refocusing, and
      positive reappraisal than those from normal group (ps < 0.05). Cognitive emotion
      regulation strategies had a significant impact on BMI, accounting for 32.0%
      variance (p < 0.001). Higher scores on self-blame and rumination were associated
      with higher BMI, but greater acceptance and positive refocusing were associated
      with lower BMI (ps < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Self-blame, rumination, acceptance, and
      positive refocusing have considerable effects on BMI in Chinese adolescents. The
      causal relationship of CER strategies and BMI should be explained more accurately
      and thoroughly to prevent and intervene in cases of adolescent obesity.

PMID- 28880581
TI  - IHC Posters - Thursday and Friday.

PMID- 28880582
TI  - IHC Electronic Posters - Saturday and Sunday.

PMID- 28880583
TI  - IHC Oral Abstracts.

PMID- 28880584
TI  - Headache Pathophysiology - Imaging and Neurophysiology.

PMID- 28880586
TI  - Have Fun and Enjoy it Together at the Joint JSOPMB/CTS Conference.

PMID- 28880587
TI  - Seventy-Two-Hour Preservation, Resuscitation, and Transplantation of an Isolated
      Rat Heart with High Partial Pressure Carbon Monoxide Gas (PCO = 400 hPa) and High
      Partial Pressure Carbon Dioxide (PCO2 = 100 hPa).
AB  - The cardiac cavity of an isolated rat heart was filled with a Krebs-Henseleit
      (KH) solution, and the heart was hung in a high-pressure chamber. After the high
      pressure chamber had been filled with a mixed gas (PCO = 400 hPa, PCO2 = 100 hPa,
      PO2 = 900 hPa, PHe = 5600 hPa) and preserved for 72 h, we performed a cervical
      ectopic heart transplantation on a recipient rat and resuscitated the preserved
      heart. This is the first incidence in the world of a mammalian organ having been
      successfully preserved and resuscitated after 72 h via a desiccation method.

PMID- 28880590
TI  - Foot Pain in Relation to Ipsilateral and Contralateral Lower-Extremity Pain in a
      Population-Based Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical observations note that foot pain can be linked to
      contralateral pain at the knee or hip, yet we are unaware of any community-based
      studies that have investigated the sidedness of pain. Because clinic-based
      patient samples are often different from the general population, the purpose of
      this study was to determine whether knee or hip pain is more prevalent with
      contralateral foot pain than with ipsilateral foot pain in a population-based
      cohort. METHODS: Framingham Foot Study participants (2002-2008) with information
      on foot, knee, and hip pain were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Foot
      pain was queried as pain, aching, or stiffness on most days. Using a manikin
      diagram, participants indicated whether they had experienced pain, aching, or
      stiffness at the hip or knee and specified the side of any reported pain. Sex
      specific multinomial logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs)
      and 95% confidence intervals for the association of foot pain with knee and hip
      pain, adjusting for age and body mass index. RESULTS: In the 2,181 participants,
      the mean +/- SD age was 64 +/- 9 years; 56% were women, and the mean body mass
      index was 28.6. For men and women, bilateral foot pain was associated with
      increased odds of knee pain on any side (ORs = 2-3; P < .02). Men with foot pain
      were more likely to have ipsilateral hip pain (ORs = 2-4; P<.03), whereas women
      with bilateral foot pain were more likely to have hip pain on any side (OR = 2-3;
      P < .02). CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral foot pain was associated with increased odds of
      knee and hip pain in men and women. For ipsilateral foot and hip pain, men had a
      stronger effect compared with women.

PMID- 28880588
TI  - How Sensitive Is Genetic Data?
AB  - The rising demand to use genetic data for research goes hand in hand with an
      increased awareness of privacy issues related to its use. Using human genetic
      data in a legally compliant way requires an examination of the legal basis as
      well as an assessment of potential disclosure risks. Focusing on the relevant
      legal framework in the European Union, we discuss open questions and
      uncertainties around the handling of genetic data in research, which can result
      in the introduction of unnecessary hurdles for data sharing. First, we discuss
      defining features and relative disclosure risks of some DNA-related biomarkers,
      distinguishing between the risk for disclosure of (1) the identity of an
      individual, (2) information about an individual's health and behavior, including
      previously unknown phenotypes, and (3) information about an individual's blood
      relatives. Second, we discuss the European legal framework applicable to the use
      of DNA-related biomarkers in research, the implications of including both
      inherited and acquired traits in the legal definition, as well as the issue of
      "genetic exceptionalism"-the notion that genetic information has inherent
      characteristics that require different considerations than other health and
      medical information. Finally, by mapping the legal to specific technical
      definitions, we draw some initial conclusions concerning how sensitive different
      types of "genetic data" may actually be. We argue that whole genome sequences may
      justifiably be considered "exceptional" and require special protection, whereas
      other genetic data that do not fulfill the same criteria should be treated in a
      similar manner to other clinical data. This kind of differentiation should be
      reflected by the law and/or other governance frameworks as well as agreed Codes
      of Conduct when using the term "genetic data."

PMID- 28880591
TI  - Remote Ischemic ConditioningPromising Potential in Wound Repair in Diabetes?
AB  - Remote ischemic conditioning involves the use of a blood pressure cuff or similar
      device to induce brief (3-5 min) episodes of limb ischemia. This, in turn, seems
      to activate a group of distress signals that has shown the potential ability to
      improve healing of the heart muscle and other organ systems. Until recently, this
      has not been tested in people with diabetic foot ulcers. The purpose of this
      review was to provide background on remote ischemic conditioning and recent data
      to potentially support its use as an adjunct to healing diabetic foot ulcers and
      other types of tissue loss. We believe that this inexpensive therapy has the
      potential to be deployed and incorporated into a variety of other therapies to
      prime patients for healing and to reduce morbidity in patients with this common,
      complex, and costly complication.

PMID- 28880592
TI  - Synovial Lipoma of the Subtalar Joint.
AB  - Lipomas are benign adipose masses that are rarely associated with synovial
      membranes. In addition, there are only a few reports describing synovial lipomas
      in the foot. No reported occurrence of this lesion in the subtalar joint
      currently exists. This case report documents the presentation, clinical
      evaluation, advanced imaging, and surgical management of a 45-year-old man with a
      large synovial lipoma of the subtalar joint.

PMID- 28880594
TI  - Pregnancy and Pelvic Girdle PainAnalysis of Center of Pressure During Gait.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A woman's body undergoes many changes during pregnancy, and it adapts
      by developing compensatory strategies, which can be sources of pain. We sought to
      analyze the effects of pregnancy and pelvic girdle pain (PGP) on center of
      pressure (COP) parameters during gait at different speeds. METHODS: Sixty-one
      healthy pregnant women, 66 women with PGP between 18 and 27 weeks of pregnancy,
      and 22 healthy nonpregnant women walked at different velocities (slow,
      preferential, and fast) on a walkway with built-in pressure sensors. An analysis
      of variance was performed to determine the effects of gait speed and group on COP
      parameters. RESULTS: In healthy pregnant women and women with PGP, COP parameters
      were significantly modified compared with those in nonpregnant women (P < .01).
      Support time was increased regardless of gait speed, and anteroposterior COP
      displacement was significantly decreased for women with PGP compared with healthy
      pregnant women. In addition, mediolateral COP displacement was significantly
      decreased in pregnant women compared with nongravid women. CONCLUSIONS: Gait
      speed influenced COP displacement and velocity parameters, and gait velocity
      potentiated the effect of pregnancy on the different parameters. Pelvic girdle
      pain had an influence on COP anteroposterior length only. With COP parameters
      being only slightly modified by PGP, the gait of pregnant women with PGP was
      similar to that of healthy pregnant women but differed from that of nonpregnant
      women.

PMID- 28880595
TI  - Lower-Leg and Foot Contributions to Turnout in University-Level Female Ballet
      DancersA Preliminary Investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Turnout in ballet is produced through summation of the joint
      structure characteristics and ranges of motion at the hip, knee, ankle, and foot.
      Contributions of the hip joint to functional turnout in dancers have received
      extensive examination, whereas little is known about contributions from the knee,
      ankle, and foot. The aim of this study was to explore the nonhip components of
      turnout to dancers' functional turnout in first position by assessing passive
      external tibiofemoral rotation and active measures of foot pronation, ie,
      navicular drop and Foot Posture Index. METHODS: Nineteen female university-level
      dance students aged 16 to 19 years participated in this descriptive correlational
      study. External tibiofemoral rotation, navicular drop, Foot Posture Index, and
      functional turnout were measured for the participants' right and left legs.
      RESULTS: Regression analyses revealed a weak relationship between passive
      external tibiofemoral rotation and functional turnout. Correlation analysis
      revealed a moderate negative relationship between passive tibiofemoral external
      rotation and the Foot Posture Index in functional turnout. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings suggest that the lower leg does contribute to dancers' overall position
      of functional turnout. However, current methods are not useful in predicting a
      dancer's lower-leg contribution and alignment in functional turnout in first
      position.

PMID- 28880596
TI  - Does Baseline Hemoglobin A1c Level Predict Diabetic Foot Ulcer Outcome or Wound
      Healing Time?
AB  - BACKGROUND: We sought to evaluate the relationship between baseline hemoglobin
      A1c (HbA1c) level and clinical outcomes, including foot ulcer outcome (resolved
      versus unresolved) and wound-healing time, in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
      METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted on 99 patients
      presenting with a diabetic foot ulceration. Patient and ulcer characteristics
      were recorded. Patients were followed up for a maximum of 1 year. RESULTS: After
      1 year of follow-up, 77% of ulcers healed and 23% did not heal. Although this
      study demonstrated that the baseline HbA1c reading was not a significant
      predictor of foot ulcer outcome (P = .603, resolved versus amputated), on further
      statistical analyses, when HbA1c was compared with the time taken for complete
      ulcer healing in the resolved group (n = 77), it proved to be significant (P =
      .009). CONCLUSIONS: These findings have important implications for clinical
      practice, especially in an outpatient setting. Improving glycemic control may
      improve ulcer outcomes. Prediction of outcome may be helpful for health-care
      professionals in individualizing and optimizing clinical assessment and
      management of patients. Identification of determinants of outcome could result in
      improved health outcomes, improved quality of life, and fewer diabetes-related
      foot complications.

PMID- 28880597
TI  - Evaluating Quality of Life in Patients with Hallux Abducto Valgus Deformity After
      a Taping Technique.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life in
      patients living with hallux abducto valgus deformity before and after a taping
      technique. METHODS: This study used a time series, quasi-experimental, same
      subject design. Thirty-five patients with hallux abducto valgus were recruited in
      this study. Nonelastic zinc oxide tape was applied for 4 weeks. The Foot Health
      Status Questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life of participants
      before and after the intervention. The paired samples t test was used to test for
      statistical significance at the 95% confidence level. RESULTS: In this study, a
      statistical reduction was seen in foot pain, foot function, and general foot
      health (P < .0001) after applying the nonelastic zinc oxide tape for 10 hours
      daily for 4 weeks. No statistically significant difference was found in the
      remaining domains of the Foot Health Status Questionnaire, although a difference
      in mean scores was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with nonelastic zinc oxide
      tape led to improved management of hallux abducto valgus and better quality of
      life; it is a safe, easy-to-use method with minimal adverse effects. Future
      studies should evaluate this method using larger sample groups and longer
      treatment periods while comparing this method with alternative treatment
      approaches, such as exercise or orthotic devices.

PMID- 28880599
TI  - Giant Plantar Epidermoid Cyst with Invasion of the Interosseous Muscles.
AB  - Epidermoid cysts of the sole of the foot are rare lesions that must be
      differentiated from other, more common subcutaneous pathologic abnormalities
      located on the sole. Cases of epidermoid cysts that extend to the interosseous
      musculature are rarer still. We report the case of a giant epidermal cyst in a 64
      year-old individual that extended to the intrinsic musculature of the third space
      of the right foot and that was diagnosed after fine-needle aspiration biopsy and
      subsequent cytologic study. Differential diagnosis of these lesions should be
      made with the support of additional imaging tests, and diagnostic confirmation
      should always be obtained after surgical removal and subsequent histopathologic
      study.

PMID- 28880600
TI  - Rare Giant Cell Tumor of the Distal Flexor Digitorum Longus Tendon Sheath and
      Early Diagnosis with Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
AB  - Giant-cell tumor of the tendon sheath (GCT-TS) is an uncommon occurrence for a
      foot and ankle surgeon. However, there is a need to recognize the symptoms of
      typical and atypical presentations of this pathology. These benign neoplasms are
      recognized clinically as a soft-tissue mass that is usually painless and
      palpable. The foot and ankle account for only 3% to 5% of all GCT-TS in the body,
      with most being located in the hand. Giant cell tumor in the tendon sheath
      occurring in the foot and ankle is usually encountered on the lateral ankle and
      dorsum of the foot, occupying the extensor tendons. Additionally, it is commonly
      misdiagnosed clinically. This case study illustrates how early use of magnetic
      resonance imaging decreased patient morbidity with early recognition and excision
      of GCT-TS.

PMID- 28880601
TI  - Onychomycosis InfectionsDo Polymerase Chain Reaction and Culture Reports Agree?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mycological culture is the traditional method for identifying
      infecting agents of onychomycosis despite high false-negative results, slower
      processing, and complications surrounding nondermatophyte mold (NDM) infections.
      Molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods are faster and suited for
      ascertaining NDM infections. METHODS: To measure agreement between culture and
      PCR methods for identification of infecting species of suspected onychomycosis,
      single toenail samples from 167 patients and repeated serial samples from 43
      patients with suspected onychomycosis were processed by culture and PCR for
      identification of 16 dermatophytes and five NDMs. Agreement between methods was
      quantified using the kappa statistic (kappa). RESULTS: The methods exhibited fair
      agreement for the identification of all infecting organisms (single samples:
      kappa = 0.32; repeated samples: kappa = 0.38). For dermatophytes, agreement was
      moderate (single samples: kappa = 0.44; repeated samples: kappa = 0.42). For
      NDMs, agreement was poor with single samples (kappa = 0.16) but fair with
      repeated samples (kappa = 0.25). Excluding false-negative reports from analyses
      improved agreement between methods in all cases except the identification of NDMs
      from single samples. CONCLUSIONS: Culture was three or four times more likely to
      report a false-negative result compared with PCR. The increased agreement between
      methods observed by excluding false-negative reports statistically clarifies and
      highlights the major discord caused by false-negative cultures. The increased
      agreement of NDM identification from poor to fair with repeated sampling along
      with their poor agreement in the single samples, with and without false
      negatives, affirms the complications of NDM identification and supports the
      recommendation that serial samples help confirm the diagnosis of NDM infections.

PMID- 28880602
TI  - Osteoid Osteoma at the Proximal Diaphysis of the Fifth Metatarsal.
AB  - The foot is rarely the focus of osteoid osteoma, and only a few of those cases
      are related to the fifth metatarsal. The present case demonstrates that atypical
      symptoms with suspicious findings on plain radiographs that are not associated
      with trauma must be analyzed carefully to determine the nature of the lesion and
      perform the precise treatment to obtain and sustain the cure. A 29-year-old man
      presented to the outpatient clinic with a 2-year history of chronic pain in the
      lateral aspect of his left forefoot. The onset was not related to trauma,
      surgery, local infection, osteomyelitis, or another entity regarding the proximal
      fifth metatarsal. The patient noted that the pain was aggravated at night and
      typically subsided with the use of salicylates or other nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs. Initial plain radiographs demonstrated cortical thickening
      and a lytic lesion at the proximal diaphysis of the fifth metatarsal. Because the
      pain relief was transient, we suspected an osteoid osteoma lesion, and subsequent
      magnetic resonance imaging manifested pathognomonic signs of subperiosteal
      osteoid osteoma. Diagnosis was followed by planning of the surgery that ended the
      patient's symptoms.

PMID- 28880603
TI  - Pedal Cutaneous Manifestations of Tuberous Sclerosis.
AB  - This case report concerns a patient with a painful soft-tissue mass on his fourth
      toe. He was evaluated for this soft-tissue mass and was diagnosed as having
      tuberous sclerosis. The podiatric physician should be able to evaluate a patient
      with a lower-extremity complaint and relate whether this complaint may correlate
      with a systemic disorder. This case report will make the podiatric physician more
      aware of tuberous sclerosis and the manifestations of the disorder.

PMID- 28880604
TI  - A Novel Technique to Determine Foot Contribution to Limb-Length Discrepancy.
AB  - Evaluation for limb-length discrepancy is an important part of the biomechanical
      work-up in the podiatric musculoskeletal exam. By understanding the foot's
      contribution to such a discrepancy, the podiatric clinician will have better
      insight regarding treatment strategy. This technique will provide the clinician
      with a simple method to gain such insight.

PMID- 28880605
TI  - Podiatric Physicians and Genomic Medicine.
AB  - It has been more than 14 years since identification of the human genome. This
      phenomenon is creating a revolution in all components of the health-care world.
      To date, little has been included in the podiatric medical literature despite the
      fact that so many of the conditions affecting the pedal extremity have genomic
      implications. Genomics will have a major effect on prevention, diagnosis, and
      patient management and needs to be included in podiatric medical practice as well
      as in the curriculum of podiatric medical schools.

PMID- 28880607
TI  - Mind-Body Therapy for Military Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A
      Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: About one-third of service members returning from post-9/11 deployment
      in Afghanistan and Iraq report combat-related mental health conditions, but many
      do not seek conventional treatment. Mind-body therapies have been offered as
      alternative approaches to decreasing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but
      no review of studies with veterans of post-9/11 operations was found. The
      objective of this study was to fill that gap. DESIGN: A systematic literature
      review was conducted following the preferred items for systematic reviews and
      meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. PubMed MeSH terms were used to capture
      articles reporting on the military population (veteran and veterans) with PTSD
      who received a portable mind-body intervention (e.g., mindfulness, mind-body
      therapy, and yoga). PubMed/MEDLINE and PsycINFO were searched. Studies were
      included if participants were a mixed group of war veterans, as long as some post
      9/11 veterans were included. In addition, participants must have had a diagnosis
      of PTSD or subthreshold PTSD, and the PTSD must have been attributable to combat,
      rather than another event, such as sexual trauma or natural disaster. RESULTS: Of
      175 records identified, 15 met inclusion criteria. Studies reported on seated or
      gentle yoga that included breath work, meditation, mantra repetition, or
      breathing exercises. For 14 of the 15 studies, study retention was 70% or higher.
      Overall, studies reported significant improvements in PTSD symptoms in
      participants in these interventions. Although each study included post-9/11
      veterans, about 85% of participants were from other conflicts, predominantly
      Vietnam. CONCLUSION: Although findings were positive, future studies are needed
      to evaluate the short- and long-term impact of mind-body therapies on larger
      samples of post-9/11 veterans and to address research questions related to
      broadening service member and veteran participation in these therapies.

PMID- 28880606
TI  - Fibular-Lengthening Osteotomy to Correct a Malunited Ankle Fracture Using Fresh
      Frozen Femoral Head Allograft.
AB  - Malreduction of a distal fibular fracture can lead to degenerative changes in the
      ankle joint. Previous studies have shown that the selective use of various
      fibular reconstructive osteotomies may halt the progression of degenerative
      arthritis by restoring the normal tibiotalar contact area and decreasing the
      stresses on the articular cartilage. In this case report, we achieved alignment
      with restoration of the talocrural angle and Shenton's line of the ankle using a
      transfibular osteotomy and an allogeneic fresh-frozen femoral head graft to fill
      the resultant defect. The advantage of this procedure is twofold. First, fibular
      lengthening procedures may potentially decrease the eventual need for joint
      sacrificing procedures such as an arthrodesis or arthroplasty. Second, an
      allograft allows for larger deficit correction without concern for donor-site
      morbidity. To our knowledge, this is the first case report using a fresh-frozen
      femoral head allograft for a fibular-lengthening osteotomy in the podiatric
      medical literature. Further research with larger patient populations is needed to
      establish whether fresh-frozen femoral head allograft is a reliable graft option
      for fibular-lengthening procedures.

PMID- 28880608
TI  - Application of a Predictive Growth Model of Pseudomonas spp. for Estimating Shelf
      Life of Fresh Agaricus bisporus.
AB  - For prediction of the shelf life of the mushroom Agaricus bisporus, the growth
      curve of the main spoilage microorganisms was studied under isothermal conditions
      at 2 to 22 degrees C with a modified Gompertz model. The effect of temperature on
      the growth parameters for the main spoilage microorganisms was quantified and
      modeled using the square root model. Pseudomonas spp. were the main
      microorganisms causing A. bisporus decay, and the modified Gompertz model was
      useful for modelling the growth curve of Pseudomonas spp. All the bias factors
      values of the model were close to 1. By combining the modified Gompertz model
      with the square root model, a prediction model to estimate the shelf life of A.
      bisporus as a function of storage temperature was developed. The model was
      validated for A. bisporus stored at 6, 12, and 18 degrees C, and adequate
      agreement was found between the experimental and predicted data.

PMID- 28880609
TI  - Improved Metabolic and Psychiatric Outcomes with Discontinuation of Atypical
      Antipsychotics in Youth Hospitalized in a State Psychiatric Facility.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of antipsychotic tapering and discontinuation on
      measures of metabolic functioning and psychiatric symptom severity in severely
      impaired youth hospitalized in a psychiatric state hospital. METHODS: The study
      examined psychiatric and metabolic measures in 67 hospitalized children and
      adolescents (mean age 11.9; 56 with discontinued use of antipsychotics, 10 with
      continued use of antipsychotics, and 1 started on an antipsychotic) from
      admission to discharge. RESULTS: Upon admission, 56 youth were tapered off of
      antipsychotic medications, started on other forms of pharmacotherapy (92.9% were
      started on medications used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder),
      and received evidence-based behavioral programming and were ultimately discharged
      from the hospital. The mean duration of treatment was 228 days for the
      discontinuation group and 204 days for the continuation group. Significant
      decreases in body mass index [BMI; t(53) = 7.12, p = 0.0001] and BMI percentile
      [t(53) = 6.73, p = 0.0001] were found from admission to discharge in the
      antipsychotic discontinuation group. Changes in BMI, BMI percentile, or systolic
      blood pressure were not found in the group (n = 10) who were maintained on
      antipsychotics. Both groups experienced a significant increase in their Global
      Assessment of Functioning score [t(52) = 19.98, p = 0.0001 for discontinued; t(8)
      = 5.092, p = 0.001 for maintained]. Psychiatric symptom severity scores
      significantly improved in many subscales relevant to disruptive behaviors and
      mood disorders for those who were removed from the medications. For those
      maintained on the antipsychotics, there were fewer changes in psychiatric symptom
      scores. CONCLUSION: Discontinuation of atypical antipsychotic medications in
      conjunction with tailoring treatment to presenting diagnoses resulted in
      metabolic and psychiatric symptom improvement among severely impaired state
      hospital inpatient youth. These results serve as a feasibility demonstration that
      discontinuation of antipsychotics does not provoke psychiatric destabilization,
      particularly among disruptive behavior disordered youth.

PMID- 28880611
TI  - The buzz is coming: are you ready to 'bee' a flu fighter?

PMID- 28880610
TI  - Perceptions and development needs of assistant practitioners supporting
      individuals with dementia.
AB  - In the UK there are an estimated 850 000 people living with dementia. The
      condition costs the NHS L26 billion each year and it is estimated that this
      amount will treble over the next 30 years. Thus, there is a need for health and
      social care staff to be increasingly competent in the delivery of care to those
      living with dementia. The education of staff will improve knowledge and build
      capability to support and care for individuals with dementia. This research
      involved 44 assistant practitioners who shared opinions about their preparation
      for practice in dementia care. Focus groups and questionnaires were used to
      collect data that were then thematically analysed. The research also considered
      the assistant practitioner role in relation to workforce development. Key themes
      were 'training, awareness and knowledge associated with dementia care' and 'the
      perceptions of the assistant practitioner regarding confidence to support
      individuals with dementia'. There was role and responsibility protection from
      staff, for example, doctors and nurses were reluctant to delegate duties to the
      assistant practitioner. Participants' commentary indicated, however, that they
      were competent to support service users with dementia, although there were gaps
      in their experiences. The case study demonstrated the positive achievement of
      partnership working between a higher education institution and the workplace,
      which supported the assistant practitioners' learning and development.

PMID- 28880612
TI  - Resilience in the workplace: personal and organisational factors.
AB  - Janet Scammell, Associate Professor (Nursing), Bournemouth University, explains
      that although resilience is seen as a personal attribute, the role of
      organisational policies in fostering it must not be overlooked.

PMID- 28880613
TI  - Getting the basics right: why we should focus on infection prevention.

PMID- 28880614
TI  - Professional and political reflections on the 'grand round': a critical case
      study.
AB  - This case study presents a critical reflective account of a change to working
      practices in one NHS Trust. To promote quality care and effective clinical
      decision making, a 'grand round' was introduced in the orthopaedic department.
      Implementation presented frustrations and challenges for members of the
      multidisciplinary team. These are explored using transformative learning and
      critical reflection, enabling connections to be made between micro-level
      interactions of clinical care and macro-level structures that frame healthcare
      services. It is important that nurses recognise the escalating impact of a
      neoliberal agenda, and new public management, that drive UK health policy and
      politics. The value base of nursing is threatened by a corporate culture that
      measures performance in terms of institutional targets rather than individual
      care.

PMID- 28880615
TI  - Defence nursing reflection: getting the most out of revalidation.

PMID- 28880616
TI  - A nurse by another name?

PMID- 28880617
TI  - A workforce fit to support.

PMID- 28880618
TI  - Safe disposal of cytotoxic waste: an evaluation of an air-tight system.
AB  - A 3-month evaluation was undertaken at the Kent Oncology Centre's chemotherapy
      day unit (CDU) to trial an air-tight sealing disposal system for cytotoxic waste
      management. Research has identified the potential risk to staff who handle waste
      products that are hazardous to health. Staff safety was a driving force behind a
      trial of a new way of working. This article provides an overview of the
      evaluation of the Pactosafe system in one clinical area, examining reviews by
      oncology healthcare workers, the practicalities in the clinical setting,
      training, cost effectiveness and the environmental benefits.

PMID- 28880620
TI  - Time to act to improve mental health care services.
AB  - John Tingle, Reader in Health Law at Nottingham Trent University, discusses the
      Care Quality Commission report on specialist mental health services.

PMID- 28880619
TI  - Reflective practice applied in a clinical oncology research setting.
AB  - : Regular reflective practice group sessions, focusing on enhancing mindfulness,
      were piloted as part of a support programme for researchers in a clinical
      oncology setting. METHODS: As a previous systematic review highlighted a wide
      variety of approaches and a lack of published evidence on the use of specific
      models for reflective practice in health care, a scoping review of existing
      literature describing reflective practice models preceded piloting the programme
      with the research team. The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was used to
      assess the benefit for participants. Scores from the first and last session were
      analysed using a paired-sample t-test. Feedback from questionnaires was analysed
      using descriptive statistics (for Likert scales) and direct quotes from free text
      exemplified the experience. RESULTS: Seven people participated. Six were female,
      all were research nurses except for one research allied health professional. The
      median age was 37 (range: 23-40 years). The average time since graduation was 10
      years (range: 1.5-18 years). All researchers worked in a tertiary oncology
      setting. Although a total of 21 reflective practice sessions were facilitated,
      the median number of sessions attended was 9 (range: 2-21). The mean MAAS score
      improved from 57.83 to 62.83 (p=0.0146). The participants rated the experience
      and impact as positive. CONCLUSION: The results of the MAAS score indicate that
      mindfulness was enhanced by the sessions. The feedback from the participants
      highlighted the impact on their professional development. This is encouraging to
      support developing similar facilitated reflective practice programmes in
      different settings.

PMID- 28880621
TI  - Research into experiential learning in nurse education.
AB  - This research is founded on an innovative pedagogical project as part of a higher
      education lecturer teaching qualification. This project involved redesigning the
      module 'advanced history taking and physical examination with clinical
      reasoning', a continuing professional development at a higher education
      institution. The author undertook an exploration of the literature, considering
      evidence on teaching styles and the way in which students learn and gain
      knowledge. The module was redesigned, impelemented and then evaluated by the
      student participants. Key themes in the evaluation centred on the experiential
      learning style and experiential teaching style. There are numerous internal and
      external factors that affect teaching, and student learning. Experiential
      learning has provided a successful teaching pedagogy when applied to clinical
      skill acquisition, and has positively benefited the module delivery and pass
      rate, suggesting it has embedded 'deep learning'. Student feedback was positive,
      and the redesigned module has had a positive impact on student engagement and the
      teacher-student interaction.

PMID- 28880622
TI  - Perceived adverse effects from handling systemic anti-cancer therapy agents.
AB  - This article explores the immediate adverse effects experienced by nurses during
      the administration of systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT), specifically cytotoxic
      chemotherapy, and whether closed systems are being used to minimise exposure
      risk. Many SACT agents are known to be carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic
      and this has led to concerns relating to the increased number of healthcare
      workers potentially exposed to these agents. An anonymous online survey was
      designed, made up of four questions, to elicit whether adverse effects were
      experienced by nurses during preparation, administration or following
      administration of chemotherapy. A total of 46% of respondents stated that they
      experienced some form of adverse effect either during preparation, administration
      or following administration of SACT. More formal research is required in this
      area to explore the relationship between exposure to SACT and perceived adverse
      effects in healthcare workers administering SACT.

PMID- 28880623
TI  - Cuts to sexual health services.

PMID- 28880624
TI  - Promoting mental health first aid literacy in secondary schools.
AB  - Emeritus Professor Alan Glasper, from the University of Southampton, discusses a
      new initiative designed to help teachers in secondary schools better understand
      and identify mental health issues in children.

PMID- 28880625
TI  - Biosimilar monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in oncology.
AB  - Biological medicines are derived from living cells and organisms. Monoclonal
      antibodies (mAbs) are biological agents that are widely used to treat
      malignancies including non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
      They are effective but expensive. The patents for many mAbs are expiring, so
      biosimilar medicines, which contain a version of the active ingredient of the
      original drug, are being developed. Biological medicines cannot be assessed in
      the same way as standard generic medications because they are difficult to copy
      and can change over time. A pathway regulates how biosimilars are assessed and
      compared with the original drug to ensure they are highly similar and have no
      clinically meaningful differences in terms of structure, function,
      pharmacodynamics and mechanism of action, pharmacokinetic properties, clinical
      efficacy and safety. Truxima(r) ?(rituximab), the first biosimilar monoclonal
      antibody to be approved for use in the UK in an oncology setting, is biosimilar
      to intravenous (IV) rituximab; rituximab improves the effectiveness of standard
      chemotherapy for lymphoma. The two drugs are comparable in efficacy and safety
      and have the same indications, dosing regimen and storage procedures.

PMID- 28880627
TI  - Limits to consent to care and treatment.
AB  - Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, considers
      the requirements for a valid consent and the limits to that consent in light of a
      case of a surgeon jailed for performing unnecessary operations.

PMID- 28880626
TI  - Implementing safety huddles.
AB  - Sam Foster, at time of writing Chief Nurse at Heart of England NHS Foundation
      Trust, considers the implications for patient outcomes of implementing safety
      huddles.

PMID- 28880654
TI  - Comparison of Tolerated and Rejected Islet Grafts: A Gene Expression Study.
AB  - Recently we showed that donor-specific tolerance to MHC-matched islet allografts
      in diabetic NOD mice could be induced by simultaneous islet and bone marrow
      transplantation. Mononuclear cell infiltration surrounding the islets was also
      found in tolerated grafts. In this study, we compared gene expression in the
      tolerated and rejected islet grafts by using Affymetrix Murine U74A
      oligonucleotide arrays. To confirm the results of microarray analysis, we
      performed real-time PCR and RNase protection assay on selected genes. Of over
      12,000 genes studied, 57 genes were expressed at consistently higher levels in
      tolerated islet grafts, and 524 genes in rejected islet grafts. Genes from a
      variety of functional clusters were found to be different between rejected and
      tolerated grafts. In the rejected islet grafts, a number of T-cell surface
      markers and of cytotoxicity-related genes were highly expressed. Also in the
      rejected grafts, a number of cytokines and chemokines and their receptors were
      highly expressed. The differential expression of selected genes found by
      microarray analysis was also confirmed by real-time PCR and RNase protection
      assay. Our results indicated that gene microarray analysis can help us to detect
      gene expression differences representative of the biologic mechanisms of
      tolerance and rejection.

PMID- 28880655
TI  - Methods of Human Islet Culture for Transplantation.
AB  - The ability to maintain isolated human islet preparations in tissue culture has
      recently been adopted by most islet transplant centers, and improves the safety
      as well as the practicality of islet transplantation. Maintaining islet viability
      and recovery, however, remains challenging in a clinical setting, due to
      stringent conditions required for culture. Islet culture is further complicated
      by the fact that islets do not form a monolayer. This review aims to clarify
      media, supplementation, and conditions that have been shown to be relevant to
      human islets, as well as to offer avenues of future research. Factors examined
      that may influence islet survival include base medium, glucose concentration,
      vitamin, inorganic ion, lipid, hormone, growth factor, amino acid, and binding
      protein composition and concentration, as well as culture temperature and seeding
      density. In addition, this article reviews novel techniques, such as coculture
      and matrices, that have been employed in an attempt to improve islet survival and
      functional viability.

PMID- 28880656
TI  - Viability of Allogeneic Bone Marrow Stromal Cells following Local Delivery into
      Patella Tendon in Rabbit Model.
AB  - Bone marrow stromal cells are potentially useful for tendon repair and
      regeneration. To provide lasting benefits, the seeded cells must survive
      implantation at local tendon sites. Our objective was to determine the in vivo
      fate of allogeneic bone marrow stromal cells (bMSCs) at different time points
      after implantation into patella tendon defects (i.e., at 2, 3, 5, and 8 weeks).
      The protocol involved the labeling of bMSCs with green fluorescent protein (GFP)
      or carboxyfluorescein diacetate (CFDA) before implantation. A window defect (5 *
      5 mm) was created at the central portion of rabbit patella tendon and
      subsequently treated with GFP- or CFDA-marked bMSCs. The marked bMSCs were loaded
      into the window defect with fibrin glue. Upon sacrifice of the rabbits at the
      different time points, the implant site of the patellar tendon was immediately
      retrieved and the viability of the labeled cells was assessed under confocal
      microscopy. The results showed that the seeded bMSCs remained viable within the
      tendon wound site for at least 8 weeks after implantation. The cell morphology
      was changed from a round shape at 2 weeks to a spindle shape at 5 weeks after
      implantation. This study demonstrated that the bMSCs remained viable for
      prolonged periods after implantation and therefore have the potential to
      influence the formation and remodeling of neotendon tissue after tendon repair.

PMID- 28880657
TI  - Analysis of Multivariables during Porcine Liver Digestion to Improve Hepatocyte
      Yield and Viability for Use in Bioartificial Liver Support Systems.
AB  - In order to achieve optimal BALSS function, preparation of porcine hepatocytes
      with high yield, viability, and P450 activity is known to be important. To date
      hepatocyte yields have varied from 0.58 * 1010 to 3.45 * 10 and viabilities from
      75% to 95% within and between laboratories, even when using the same digestion
      methods and procedures, indicating that hepatocyte isolation during porcine liver
      digestion is not fully optimized. The aim of this work was to identify the
      critical parameters affecting cell recovery during porcine liver harvesting by
      investigating 21 variables involved in the process, including pig body and liver
      weight, different digestion times of perfusates, pH, a range of concentrations of
      sodium and chloride in EDTA, and collagenase perfusates. Univariate and
      multivariate analysis of a retrospective study (n = 23) revealed that low
      perfusate pH during the process of digestion had a positive effect on hepatocyte
      yield (p < 0.05), while high (relative) concentrations of sodium and chloride in
      the perfusates had significant negative effects on hepatocyte viability (both p <
      0.05). Sodium and chloride had narrow optimal ranges for achieving a >90%
      viability. These findings were then tested in a prospective study (n = 10) and
      further verified. High hepatocyte viabilities (91.8 +/- 1.6%, p = 0.036) and
      yields (2.56 +/- 0.48 * 1010) were achieved consistently, and P450IA1 activity
      was increased after sodium and chloride concentrations and pH in the perfusates
      were controlled. The physiological mechanism by which sodium and chloride affects
      hepatocyte viability during porcine liver digestion is discussed.

PMID- 28880658
TI  - In Vivo Persistence of Donor Cells following Adoptive Transfer of Allogeneic
      Dendritic Cells in HIV-Infected Patients.
AB  - Peripheral blood samples from HIV-seropositive individuals enrolled in a pilot
      clinical trial investigating the use of allogeneic dendritic cell therapy were
      evaluated for mixed chimerism. In this study, dendritic cells from HLA-identical,
      HIV-seronegative siblings were used. Patients received an infusion of dendritic
      cells pulsed with HIV MN gp160 protein or with peptides from HLA-A2 restricted
      epitopes of env, gag, and pol proteins every month for 6-9 months. Of the five
      allogeneic dendritic cell recipients, two showed increases in HIV antigen
      specific immune responses. Allele-specific polymorphisms were identified in three
      sib-pairs that allowed infused donor cells to be detected using sensitive PCR
      based molecular methods. Analysis of blood samples from patients showed similar
      patterns of donor cell persistence after the first infusion, in that cells were
      detectable for at least 1 week. Also, differences were observed in the kinetics
      of cell survival between the first and subsequent infusion cycles in all three
      patients. This suggests variation in HIV-specific immune responses detected among
      these three patients was not due to differences in persistence of infused donor
      cells.

PMID- 28880659
TI  - Islet Cell Transplantation: In Vivo and in Vitro Functional Assessment of
      Nonhuman Primate Pancreatic Islets.
AB  - Transplantation of pancreatic islets of Langerhans as a therapeutic approach for
      treatment of type I diabetes offers an alternative to subcutaneous insulin
      injections. Normalization of blood glucose levels by transplanted islets may
      prevent the development of diabetes-related complications. Problems related to
      rejection, recurrence of autoimmunity, and local inflammation upon
      transplantation of islets into the liver need to be solved before the
      implementation of islet cell transplantation can be viewed as a justifiable
      procedure in a large cohort of patients. Islet cell isolation has been quite
      successful in small animals, but the translation of this approach to nonhuman
      primates has been less rewarding. One of the main problems encountered in
      nonhuman primate models is the difficulty of isolating an adequate number of
      functional islets for transplantation. The aim of the present study was to
      develop a method for isolating a sufficient number of viable islets from nonhuman
      primates to allow for reversal of diabetes. By implementing minor modifications
      in the automated method for human islet isolation we were able to obtain viable,
      functional islets that responded normally to glucose stimulation in vitro. These
      islets were also able to reverse diabetes in immunocompromised nude mice,
      rendered diabetic by streptozotocin. This method of islet cell isolation has
      enabled us to proceed with protocols of allogeneic islet cell transplantation in
      preclinical, nonhuman primate models.

PMID- 28880662
TI  - Cell Therapy '99: Introduction.

PMID- 28880660
TI  - Proceedings of the Meeting of the American Society for Neural Transplantation and
      Repair (ASNTR), 1999.

PMID- 28880669
TI  - Tribute to Dr. Thomas J. Walsh.

PMID- 28880670
TI  - Expansion of Hepatic and Hematopoietic Stem Cells Utilizing Mouse Embryonic Liver
      Explants.
AB  - Ex vivo embryonic liver explant culture is a novel and attractive approach to
      obtain abundant hepatic and hematopoietic stem cells. Gene therapy of autologous
      hepatic and hematopoietic stem cells represents an alternative therapeutic
      approach to liver transplantation for genetic and metabolic disorders. In this
      study we characterize the growth and differentiation of hepatic stem cells
      utilizing embryonic liver cultures. Day 9.5 liver buds are microdissected and
      cultured under specific conditions. Modulation of growth conditions by addition
      of hepatocyte growth factor, Flt-3 ligand, and stem cell factor leads to
      enrichment of hepatic progenitor cells in embryonic liver explants. Under these
      conditions, we also demonstrate the role of a novel marker PRAJA-1 to identify
      hepatic stem cells and transitional hepatocytes. Utilization of dexamethasone
      enhanced pseudolobule formation with increased hepatocytic and biliary
      differentiation. Transforming growth factor-beta leads to enrichment of biliary
      cells in the culture. Gut formation is enhanced in the presence of interleukin-3
      and blood formation by increasing the mesodermal tissue in these cultures. We
      also show increased retroviral-mediated expression of the green fluorescent
      protein expression in the expanded hepatic and hematopoietic stem cells under
      different culture conditions. Thus, the embryonic liver explant culture is an
      attractive source for hepatic progenitors and is a possible step towards
      generating nontumorigenic immortalized hepatocytes with possible transplantation
      applications.

PMID- 28880671
TI  - A Coculture Model of Intrahepatic Islet Transplantation: Activation of Kupffer
      Cells by Islets and Acinar Tissue.
AB  - Clinical and experimental studies of intrahepatic islet transplantation have
      allowed histological and systemic observations to be made, but the location of
      the transplanted islets makes it difficult to assess direct effects on the cells
      of the liver. An in vitro coculture model of Kupffer cells with islets or
      pancreatic acinar tissue is described, using porcine tissue and measuring the
      secretion of thromboxane B2, prostaglandin E2, 6-keto-prostaglandin F1alpha, and
      prostaglandin F2alpha as an indicator of Kupffer cell stimulation. The results
      have demonstrated activation of Kupffer cells in the presence of acinar or islet
      tissue, both when the cells were in direct contact and when separated by a
      membrane. This indicated that the stimulation was due to a soluble factor or
      factors, and was confirmed by the culture of Kupffer cells with acinar
      conditioned medium. The degree of stimulation was much greater with acinar tissue
      than with islets. In subsequent experiments, aprotinin, an enzyme activation
      inhibitor, was added to the cocultures in an attempt to reduce Kupffer cell
      activation. This had no effect, possibly due to the fact that the endogenous
      pancreatic enzymes may already be activated during digestion of the pancreas.
      Aprotinin alone caused an increase in secretion of eicosanoids from Kupffer
      cells. The high response to acinar tissue is of particular relevance to islet
      autotransplantation in which unpurified pancreatic digest is often transplanted.
      The clinical effectiveness of aprotinin in the light of these results is
      discussed. In conclusion, although unable to mimic the complex situation
      following intrahepatic islet transplantation, the coculture model described here
      allows the opportunity to assess the events relating to specific cell types, and
      will provide the scope to undertake more detailed studies on the mechanisms
      involved. The same model could be applied to the coculture of pancreatic tissue
      with hepatocytes to determine any effects on the normal function of hepatocytes.

PMID- 28880675
TI  - Detection of Microbial Contamination during Human Islet Isolation.
AB  - Current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) islet processing facilities provide an
      ultraclean environment for the safe production of clinical grade islets for
      transplantation into immunosuppressed diabetic recipients. The objective of this
      study was to monitor the rate of microbial contamination in islet products after
      implementation of good manufacturing practice conditions. Fluid samples for
      microbial contamination were collected at the following steps: from the pancreas
      transport solution upon arrival of the organ (n = 157), after surface
      decontamination of the pancreas with antiseptic agents (n = 89), from islet
      supernatant at the end of the isolation (n = 104), and from islet supernatant as
      a final transplantable product after culture (n = 53). Bacterial, fungal, and
      mycoplasma cultures were conducted for 2, 2, and 3 weeks, respectively. Microbial
      contamination was detected in 31% of transport solution. The contamination was
      not associated with the presence of the duodenum during the preservation, cold
      ischemia time, or procurement team (local vs. distant). Surface decontamination
      of the pancreas resulted in clearance of 92% of the microbial contamination. Six
      preparations at the end of the isolation revealed microbial growth. All were de
      novo contamination during the processing. Fifty-three preparations that met our
      release criteria in terms of product sterility were transplanted into type 1
      diabetic patients. In two instances, positive culture of the islet preparation
      was reported after transplantation had occurred. No patient showed any clinical
      findings suggestive of infection or any radiological abnormalities suggestive of
      abscess; a single dose of antibiotic coverage was given routinely to recipients
      prior to islet infusion. Although transport solution carries a high risk of
      microbial contamination, most contaminants become undetectable during islet
      processing. Microbial contamination in final products is rare, but de novo
      contamination still occurs during processing even under cGMP conditions.

PMID- 28880672
TI  - Apoptosis Occurs in Isolated and Banked Primary Mouse Hepatocytes.
AB  - Isolation and cryopreservation of freshly isolated hepatocytes is considered a
      standard procedure for the long-term storage of liver cells. However, most
      existing methods for banking hepatocytes do not allow sufficient recovery of
      viable cells to meet the needs of basic research or clinical trials of hepatocyte
      transplantation. The mechanisms underlying this poor rate of hepatocyte recovery
      are unknown. Although much of the cellular damage in freezing is caused by
      formation of ice crystals within the cells, this is largely prevented by the use
      of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and controlled rate freezing. As we demonstrated
      recently, necrosis does occur in primary hepatocytes following isolation and
      cryopreservation. In the present study, we explored the contribution of
      apoptosis, another form of cell death, in primary hepatocytes banked for
      transplantation. We evaluated apoptosis of C57BL/6J mouse primary hepatocytes
      using several different methods. Annexin binding and the TUNEL assay, in
      conjunction with flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy, revealed
      that the percentage of apoptotic cells was dramatically elevated in cryopreserved
      cells compared with that in the control group of unfrozen cells. DNA laddering
      detected by DNA electrophoresis in agarose gel also supported the presence of
      apoptosis in isolated and banked liver cells. Moreover, we found that the
      addition of glucose (from 10 to 20 mM) into the freezing solution (University of
      Wisconsin Solution) decreased the rate of apoptosis by 84% and improved the cell
      attachment at least fourfold in cryopreserved cells. These results suggest that
      apoptosis might contribute to cell death in isolated and banked primary
      hepatocytes.

PMID- 28880676
TI  - Factors Influencing the Loss of beta-Cell Mass in Islet Transplantation.
AB  - Recent advances in clinical islet transplantation have clearly demonstrated that
      this procedure can provide excellent glycemic control and often insulin
      independence in a population of patients with type 1 diabetes. A key limitation
      in the widespread application of clinical islet transplantation is the
      requirement of 10,000 islet equivalents/kg in most recipients, generally derived
      from two or more cadaveric donors. It has been determined that a majority of the
      transplanted islets fail to engraft and become fully functional. In this review
      article, the factors that contribute to this early loss of islets following
      transplantation are discussed in depth.

PMID- 28880677
TI  - Functional and Phenotypic Alteration of Intrasplenic Lymphocytes Affected by
      Mesenchymal Stem Cells in a Murine Allosplenocyte Transfusion Model.
AB  - Previous data have demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can exert
      immunomodulatory activity in vitro, in which of the process nearly all kinds of
      immune cell subsets are involved. However, there is still a paucity of
      information about whether and why MSCs inhibit the ongoing immune responses in
      vivo. Working in a murine splenocyte transfusion model across the major
      histocompatibility barrier (C57BL/6 -> BALB/c, H2b -> H2d), we have found that
      MSC coinfusion prolongs the mean survival time (MST) of the recipient mice in a
      dose-dependent manner and reduces graft-versus-host-associated histopathology in
      comparison to the allosplenocyte transfusion controls. In vivo eGFP tracing with
      polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that grafted MSCs could migrate and
      settle into the lungs, spleen, liver, intestine, and skin shortly after
      administration. Further investigations into the functional characteristics of
      intrasplenic lymphocytes showed that their proliferation and cytotoxic activity
      against P815 cells (H2d) were significantly restrained by MSC cotransfer. FACS
      analysis demonstrated that MSC infusion not only increased the proportion of CD4+
      subset but also decreased that of CD8+ cells at the belated observation points,
      resulting in the increase of the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ cells. Also, in contrast to
      the slight increase of the proportion of CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells (Tregs) in
      MSC cotransfer mice, the ratio of Tregs/CD8+ cells was dramatically elevated.
      Furthermore, RT-PCR analysis on the cytokine array of IL-2, IL-4, IL-12, TNF
      alpha, and TGF-beta in recipient splenocytes implied the Th1 to Th2 polarization.
      Therefore, it is deducible that alteration in the proportions of different T
      lymphocyte subsets may be one of the main mechanisms by which grafted MSCs
      suppress the ongoing immune responses in vivo. The study here might provide some
      new clues for the design of therapeutic approaches for MSC transplantation.

PMID- 28880678
TI  - Assault-related mild traumatic brain injury, expectations of injury outcome, and
      the effect of different perpetrators: A vignette study.
AB  - Few studies have examined the effect of varying the assault perpetrator on
      expectations of outcome from mild TBI. Using a cross sectional between groups
      design, individuals with no history of mild TBI were randomly allocated to one of
      two vignette conditions. The vignette depicted a mild TBI with fixed injury
      parameters and a different assault perpetrator (partner, n = 27; or stranger, n =
      27). The participants were instructed to imagine that they had been injured as
      per the depiction, and then to anticipate the injury consequences 6-months later.
      An online questionnaire was used including: the Neurobehavioral Symptom
      Inventory, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version, the
      Impact of Events Scale-Revised, and the Perceived Ability to Cope with Trauma.
      The depicted injury was rated for the extent to which it was perceived as life
      threatening, the subsequent diagnosis, and the global recovery prospects. The
      anticipated consequences of the injury (symptoms and trauma variables) did not
      differ across the conditions, all p's > 0.05. The expected outcomes for an
      assault-related mild TBI were not affected by perpetrator type. However, the
      study had several limitations and further consideration of this factor may still
      be warranted.

PMID- 28880679
TI  - Application of nanocarrier-based drug delivery system in treatment of oral
      cancer.
AB  - Oral cancer includes cancer of lips, oral cavity and oropharynx. Oral cancer is
      the sixth most life-threatening disease affecting 65% of population. The delivery
      of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic anticancer drugs is a challenging task due to
      unfavorable properties. Both synthetic chemotherapeutic agents and herbal
      constituents are used in treatment of oral cancer. The purpose of present article
      is to overcome the limitations through concept of nanotechnology and conjugation
      approach. Also, it will provide better therapeutic effect and sustain long life
      of healthy and recovered cells. Moreover, development in this area will raise
      opportunities for the oncologist, researchers and pharmaceutical scientists. This
      review summarizes the clinical findings and patents on various oral anticancer
      drugs for effective pharmacotherapeutics.

PMID- 28880680
TI  - The effect and possible clinical efficacy of in vivo inhibition of neutrophil
      extracellular traps by blockade of PI3K-gamma on the pathogenesis of microscopic
      polyangiitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are peculiar structures composed
      of the externalized chromatin with intracellular proteins and formed by activated
      neutrophils in a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent manner. Aberrant NETs
      are considered to be autoantigens for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies
      (ANCAs) underling the development of microscopic polyangiitis (MPA). However,
      little is known regarding the therapeutic efficacy of in vivo inhibition of NET
      formation (NETosis) on MPA pathogenesis. This study determines whether reducing
      NETosis prevents ANCA production and improves characteristic involvement.
      METHODS: A mouse model of MPA induced by administering a novel extract from
      Candida albicans was devised. By applying this method to mice lacking
      phosphoinositide 3-kinase gamma (PI3K-gamma), which is indispensable for ROS
      production in neutrophils, we investigated the levels of in vivo NETs, ANCA
      titers and histological damage. RESULTS: Our model exhibited accumulation of NETs
      in vivo, elevation of ANCA titers and characteristic pathologies mimicking human
      MPA, including small-vessel vasculitis and crescentic glomerulonephritis.
      Strikingly, these abnormalities were reduced by genetically and/or
      pharmacologically blocking PI3K-gamma. Moreover, a pharmacological PI3K-gamma
      blockade decreased the levels of human NETs. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that
      in vivo inhibition of NETosis by blocking PI3K-gamma could be a promising
      therapeutic strategy for the pathogenesis of MPA.

PMID- 28880681
TI  - Synthesis and antioxidant properties of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides capped
      selenium nanoparticles using tea extract.
AB  - Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have attracted increasing interest over the last
      decades because of their activities on redox balance in human body. However, the
      SeNPs tend to aggregate into large clusters, resulting in lower bioactivity,
      bioavailability and biocompatibility. Surface-capping agents on SeNPs play
      crucial roles in its stabilization and biological activity. Here, a green
      synthesis method for the preparation of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides capped
      SeNPs using green tea extracts as reductants under mild conditions, at room
      temperature, is reported. The structure, size, morphology and thermal behaviour
      were analyzed by various characterization techniques. The functionalized
      nanoparticles demonstrated high antioxidant activity, including DPPH and ABTS
      free radical scavenging. Moreover, the SeNPs significantly protected the H2O2
      induced PC-12 cell death. Taken together, these results evidence the possible
      application of these SeNPs as antioxidants food supplement or ingredient and
      neuroprotective agent.

PMID- 28880682
TI  - Investigating patterns of memory impairment in ischemic stroke in an iranian
      population.
AB  - Up until the date of this research, studies have examined poststroke cognitive
      impairments in attention, memory, and executive functions. In this study, we
      investigated the occurrence of memory problems in various patterns of memory in
      ischemic stroke patients in an attempt to determine specific memory profiles of
      the patients. The goal was to determine the severity and patterns of memory
      impairments in ischemic stroke patients and to identify specific profiles of
      memory impairments in stroke patients, in order to help therapists to develop
      more appropriate memory rehabilitation programs for the patients. The sample
      consisted of 35 patients with ischemic stroke. Thirty-five individuals who were
      matched with the patients were selected as the control group. Demographic
      questionnaires, subscales of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III), including
      logical memory I and II and visual reproduction I and II, digit span from the
      Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-R (WAIS-R), and the Corsi span test were
      administered to both of the patients and control groups. Multivariate analysis of
      covariance (MANCOVA) was carried out to unveil possible differences in memory
      between the two groups. The mean scores of different memory patterns were
      significantly higher in the control group comparing to the patient group (p <
      0.05). Among different aspects of memory, visual long-term memory and visual
      short-term memory had the largest effect sizes. Substantial impairments were also
      found in visual short-term memory, visuospatial short-term memory, and visual
      long-term memory. The findings suggest that the stroke patients have identifiable
      patterns of memory impairment.

PMID- 28880683
TI  - RANKL: A therapeutic target for bone destruction in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by
      progressive joint destruction. Recent studies have indicated the critical
      involvement of osteoclasts in bone destruction in RA. The osteoclast
      differentiation factor receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL), which
      belongs to the tumor necrosis factor superfamily, plays a critical role in
      osteoclast differentiation and bone destruction in RA. Denosumab, an antibody
      against human RANKL, efficiently suppressed the progression of bone erosion in RA
      patients in randomized controlled studies, and is considered as a putative
      therapeutic option for preventing bone destruction in RA.

PMID- 28880684
TI  - Reduction of methotrexate and glucocorticoids use after the introduction of
      biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis in daily practice based on the IORRA cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate usage patterns for methotrexate (MTX) and/or
      glucocorticoids in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving biological
      disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) in daily practice. METHODS: Data
      from RA patients who commenced treatment with bDMARDs (infliximab [IFX],
      etanercept [ETN], tocilizumab [TCZ], or adalimumab [ADA]) from 2008 to 2010 were
      extracted from the Institute of Rheumatology, Rheumatoid Arthritis (IORRA)
      database. The proportions of patients taking concomitant MTX and glucocorticoids
      and doses of these medications were evaluated before and 2 years after initiation
      of each bDMARD. RESULTS: A total of 470 RA patients who had initiated a bDMARD
      (IFX: n = 98, ETN: n = 181, TCZ: n = 90, and ADA: n = 101) were evaluated. The
      proportion of patients taking MTX decreased over time among ETN and TCZ users,
      while it increased among ADA users. The MTX dose decreased over time among IFX,
      ETN, and TCZ users, but not among ADA users. Although the rate of glucocorticoid
      use and dose decreased after bDMARD initiation in all four bDMARD groups,
      approximately 50% of patients continued to receive glucocorticoids 2 years after
      bDMARD initiation. CONCLUSION: MTX and glucocorticoid use and doses in daily
      practice were commonly reduced after the initiation of bDMARDs, with the dose
      adjustment varied depending on the bDMARD.

PMID- 28880685
TI  - Tydeman tube for impacted foetal head at caesarean section: Some concerns and
      suggestions.

PMID- 28880686
TI  - Preliminary evidence of attenuated blood pressure reactivity to acute stress in
      adults following a recent marital separation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study explores cardiovascular reactivity during an acute-stress
      task in a sample of recently separated adults. DESIGN: In a cross-sectional
      design, we examined the association between adults' subjective separation-related
      distress and changes in heart rate and blood pressure across the acute-stress
      laboratory paradigm in a sample of 133 (n = 49 men) recently separated adults.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Heart rate (HR) and Blood pressure (BP) were recorded
      across a resting baseline period, a math stressor task, and a recovery period.
      RESULTS: Multilevel analyses revealed that adults who reported greater separation
      related distress exhibited higher initial BP and a slower linear increase in BP
      across the study period. In addition, adults reporting greater separation-related
      distress evidenced significantly slower declines in diastolic blood pressure
      (DBP) following the acute-stress task. HR reactivity was not moderated by
      separation-related distress. CONCLUSIONS: In recently separated adults,
      preliminary evidence suggests that the context of the stressors may reveal
      differential patterns of problematic reactivity (exaggerated or blunted
      responding). Greater emotional intrusion and hyperactivity symptoms may index
      increased risk for blunted cardiovascular reactivity to general stressors. This
      pattern of reactivity is consistent with models of allostatic load that emphasise
      the deleterious effect of hyporesponsivity to environmental demands.

PMID- 28880687
TI  - TNF-alpha potentiates uric acid-induced interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) secretion in
      human neutrophils.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Monosodium urate (MSU) has been shown to promote interleukin-1beta (IL
      1beta) secretion in human monocytes, but the priming signals for NOD-like
      receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway remains
      elusive. In this study, we investigated the role of Tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNF-alpha) on MSU-mediated IL-1beta induction in human neutrophils. METHODS:
      Human neutrophils were stimulated with MSU, in the presence or absence of TNF
      alpha priming. The cellular supernatants were analyzed for IL-1beta, IL-18, and
      caspase-1 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Pro-IL-1beta mRNA
      expressions in human neutrophils were analyzed by real-time PCR method. RESULTS:
      TNF-alpha stimulation induced pro-IL-1beta mRNA expression; however, MSU
      stimulation did not induce pro-IL-1beta mRNA expression in human neutrophils. TNF
      alpha alone or MSU stimulation did not result in efficient IL-1beta secretion in
      human neutrophils, whereas in TNF-alpha-primed neutrophils, MSU stimulation
      resulted in a marked IL-1beta and IL-18 secretion. TNF-alpha-primed neutrophils
      secreted cleaved caspase-1 (p20), in response to MSU stimulation. CONCLUSION: Our
      data demonstrate that priming of human neutrophils with TNF-alpha promotes uric
      acid-mediated IL-1beta secretion in the absence of microbial stimulation. These
      findings provide insights into the neutrophils-mediated inflammatory processes in
      gouty arthritis.

PMID- 28880688
TI  - Neonatal rat age, sex and strain modify acute antioxidant response to ozone.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death
      in the US and its impact continues to increase in women. Oxidant insults during
      critical periods of early life appear to increase risk of COPD through-out the
      life course. To better understand susceptibility to early life exposure to
      oxidant air pollutants we used Fisher (F344), Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Wistar
      (WIS) male and female neonatal rat pups to assess: (A) if strain (i.e. genetics),
      sex, or stage of early life development affected baseline lung antioxidant or
      redox enzyme levels and (B) if these same factors modulated antioxidant
      responsiveness to acute ozone exposure (1 ppm * 2 h) on post-natal day (PND) 14,
      21, or 28. In air-exposed pups from PND14-28, some parameters were unchanged
      (e.g. uric acid), some decreased (e.g. superoxide dismutase), while others
      increased (e.g. glutathione recycling enzymes) especially post-weaning. Lung
      total glutathione levels decreased in F344 and SD pups, but were relatively
      unchanged in WIS pups. Post-ozone exposure, data suggest that: (1) the youngest
      (PND14) pups were the most adversely affected; (2) neonatal SD and WIS pups,
      especially females, were more prone to ozone effects than males of the same age
      and (3) F344 neonates (females and males) were less susceptible to oxidative lung
      insult, not unlike F344 adults. Differences in antioxidant levels and
      responsiveness between sexes and strains and at different periods of development
      may provide a basis for assessing later life health outcomes - with implications
      for humans with analogous genetic or dietary-based lung antioxidant deficits.

PMID- 28880689
TI  - Prodromal signs and symptoms of serious infections with tocilizumab treatment for
      rheumatoid arthritis: Text mining of the Japanese postmarketing adverse event
      reporting database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To search for signs and symptoms before serious infection (SI) occurs
      in tocilizumab (TCZ)-treated rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS:
      Individual case safety reports, including structured (age, sex, adverse event
      [AE]) and unstructured (clinical narratives) data, were analyzed by automated
      text mining from a Japanese post-marketing AE-reporting database (16 April 2008
      10 April 2015) assuming the following: treated in Japan; TCZ RA treatment; >=1
      SI; unable to exclude causality between TCZ and SIs. RESULTS: The database
      included 7653 RA patients; 1221 reports met four criteria, encompassing 1591 SIs.
      Frequent SIs were pneumonia (15.9%), cellulitis (9.9%), and sepsis (5.0%).
      Reports for 782 patients included SI onset date; 60.7% of patients had
      signs/symptoms <=28 days before SI diagnosis, 32.7% had signs/symptoms with date
      unidentified, 1.7% were asymptomatic, and 4.9% had unknown signs/symptoms. The
      most frequent signs/symptoms were for skin (swelling and pain) and respiratory
      (cough and pyrexia) infections. Among 68 patients who had normal laboratory
      results for C-reactive protein, body temperature, and white blood cell count,
      94.1% had signs or symptoms of infection. CONCLUSION: This study identified
      prodromal signs and symptoms of SIs in RA patients receiving TCZ. Data mining
      clinical narratives from post-marketing AE databases may be beneficial in
      characterizing SIs.

PMID- 28880690
TI  - Cognitive intervention for early stage dementia: Research and techniques.
AB  - : Dementia is a growing world-wide phenomenon, impacting more than six million
      people in the United States. Despite its high projected prevalence, it is a
      significantly under-estimated phenomena, with estimates ranging from 15 to 25% of
      the current U.S. POPULATION: The effect of the aging of the population and
      significant increase in life expectancy has combined to catapult dementia into
      the range of one of world's most alarming healthcare problems. Diverse and
      emerging literature in the area of cognitive prevention/intervention for mild
      cognitive impairment (MCI)/early stage dementia will be reviewed. Additionally,
      future research and clinical directions will be explored.

PMID- 28880691
TI  - Changes in serum interleukin-6 levels as possible predictor of efficacy of
      tocilizumab treatment in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the association between the change in serum IL-6
      during the clinical course of tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy and rheumatoid arthritis
      (RA) disease activity or occurrence of adverse events. METHODS: General
      laboratory data including serum IL-6 levels and physical findings were obtained
      every 4 weeks, and, in addition, at the time when any adverse events occurred.
      RESULTS: The proportion achieving Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI)
      remission at 52 weeks was significantly lower in 20 patients with serum IL-6 >=
      30 pg/ml at 12 weeks than 24 patients with serum IL-6 < 30 pg/ml. In 17 patients
      with serum IL-6 >= 30 pg/ml at 24 weeks, the proportion achieving CDAI remission
      was also significantly lower than 27 patients with serum IL-6 < 30 pg/ml then. In
      these 17 patients, Disease Activity Score (DAS) 28-ESR and CDAI at 52 weeks were
      significantly higher than those with serum IL-6 < 30 pg/ml. Age- and sex-adjusted
      logistic regression analysis showed logIL-6 at 12 weeks to be a predictive factor
      for DAS28-ESR remission at 52 weeks. CONCLUSION: Serum IL-6 levels from 12 to 24
      weeks after TCZ initiation better reflect the efficacy of TCZ at 52 weeks.

PMID- 28880692
TI  - Clinical outcome of pregnancies with the prenatal double bubble sign - a five
      year experience from one single centre in mainland China.
AB  - The aim of this study was to describe the risk of aneuploidy, associated
      structural anomalies and clinical outcome in pregnancies with the prenatal double
      bubble sign. A retrospective study on ultrasound reports and pregnancy outcomes
      was performed in 71 foetuses with double bubble sign, who were examined at the
      Guangzhou Women and Children Medical Center during a five-year period. Forty-nine
      patients had the regular prenatal care since first trimester; of these, 20 had
      the sonographic sign before 24 weeks and the remaining 29 had the sonographic
      diagnosis after 24 weeks. Twenty-two patients presented beyond 24 weeks and the
      sonographic diagnosis was late. Fetal trisomy 21 was found in one of the 49
      patients who had early and regular prenatal visits, but was confirmed in six out
      of the 22 patients who had late prenatal care. Only one out of the 49 cases had
      additional malformation. In the 22 subset cases, seven had additional
      malformations. Two pregnancies ended in intrauterine foetal demise and five
      patients opted for termination of pregnancy because of additional anomalies or
      abnormal karyotype. There were 63 live births. Postnatal verification revealed
      duodenal obstruction secondary to intrinsic or extrinsic cause in 60 cases; three
      cases excluded duodenal obstruction. The implementation of first trimester
      screening programme has significantly reduced the number of duodenal obstruction
      cases with trisomy 21 and associated malformations. Impact statement What is
      already known on this subject: The double bubble sign is strongly indicative of
      duodenal atresia. More than one-half of foetuses with duodenal atresia have
      associated anomalies, especially trisomy 21. What the results of this study add:
      The clinical outcome of foetuses with double bubble sign was first reported in
      mainland China. The implementation of first trimester screening programme has
      significantly reduced the number of duodenal atresia cases with trisomy 21 and
      associated malformations. What the implications are of these findings for
      clinical practice and/or further research: The early diagnosis of duodenal
      obstruction, as well as of other associated anomalies, will allow complementary
      investigation, immediate and proper care at birth and family counselling.

PMID- 28880693
TI  - Clinical features and radiological findings of 67 patients with SAPHO syndrome.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to facilitate the understanding of the
      SAPHO (Synovitis, Acne, Pustulosis, Hyperostosis, and Osteitis) syndrome by
      analyzing the clinical and radiological features of 67 Japanese patients with
      SAPHO syndrome. METHODS: Sixty-seven Japanese patients (female/male: 44/23, mean
      age at onset: 48.5 years) were diagnosed with SAPHO syndrome from 2002 to 2013 at
      our hospital. Medical records and radiological imaging of these patients were
      retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Among the 67 patients, 41 had dermatological
      manifestations, such as palmoplantar pustulosis, acne, and psoriasis. Initial
      symptom was local pain in all patients, and the most common initial site of the
      symptom was the anterior chest. Bacterial and fungal cultures from 20 bone
      biopsies were all negative. Histopathological diagnosis of the specimens was non
      specific inflammation in all cases. Bone lesions were observed in 65 patients
      (97.0%). On the other hand, articular lesions including enthesitis were found in
      31 patients (46.2%). CONCLUSION: SAPHO syndrome had different clinical and
      radiological aspects. The clinical features were not remarkable, except the
      dermatological manifestations and the involvement of the anterior chest. Bone
      lesions including hyperostosis and osteitis were found radiographically in the
      majority of patients with SAPHO syndrome. These are the characteristics of the
      SAPHO syndrome, with the exclusion of other bone diseases.

PMID- 28880695
TI  - Influences on students' assistive technology use at school: the views of
      classroom teachers, allied health professionals, students with cerebral palsy and
      their parents.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study explored how classroom teachers, allied health professionals,
      students with cerebral palsy, and their parents view high-tech assistive
      technology service delivery in the classroom. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews
      with six classroom teachers and six parents and their children were conducted.
      Additionally, two focus groups comprising 10 occupational therapists and six
      speech pathologists were carried out. Ethical and confidentiality considerations
      meant that the groups were not matched. RESULTS: Results revealed that it is
      often untrained staff member who determine students' educational needs. The
      participants' experiences suggested that, particularly in mainstream settings,
      there is a need for support and guidance from a professional with knowledge of
      assistive technology who can also take a lead and guide classroom teachers in how
      to meet students' needs. Students' motivation to use the technology was also
      found to be critical for its successful uptake. CONCLUSIONS: The study points to
      the need for classroom teachers to be given sufficient time and skill development
      opportunities to enable them to work effectively with assistive technology in the
      classroom. The participants' experiences suggest that such opportunities are not
      generally forthcoming. Only in this way can it be ensured that students with
      disabilities receive the education that is their right. Implications for
      Rehabilitation Classroom teachers, allied health professionals, students, parents
      need ongoing support and opportunities to practise operational, strategic and
      linguistic skills with the assistive technology equipment. System barriers to the
      uptake of assistive technology need to be addressed. To address the lack of time
      available for training, programing and other support activities around assistive
      technology, dedicated administrative support is crucial. Professional development
      around the use of the quality low cost ICF-CY checklist is recommended for both
      school and allied health staff.

PMID- 28880694
TI  - Pronounced decline of serum HBsAg in chronic hepatitis B patients with long-term
      effective nucleos(t)ide analogs therapy.
AB  - AIMS: This study aims to investigate the kinetics of serum HBsAg levels in
      chronic hepatitis B patients with long-term nucleos(t)ide analogs (NAs) therapy.
      METHODS: This was a retrospective clinical study. Serum HBsAg in serial samples
      of 94 patients, who received at least 8 years of NAs therapy, were measured using
      Elecsys(r) HBsAg II Quant Assay. RESULTS: In this cohort, serum HBsAg levels
      reduced from 3.80 log10 IU/mL at baseline to 2.72 log10 IU/mL at year 8 (p <
      .001), and the percentage of patients with HBsAg <1000 IU/mL increased from 14.9%
      at baseline to 55.3% at year 8 (p < .001). The reduction of serum HBsAg did not
      differ significantly between patients stratified by baseline virological
      parameters and type of antiviral agents. But as compared to patients without
      HBeAg seroconversion, HBsAg levels were significant lower in patients with HBeAg
      seroconversion (3.19 vs. 2.47 log10 IU/mL at year 8, p = .001). As compared to
      patients with slow (0-1 log10 IU/mL) or steady HBsAg(<=0 log10 IU/mL) decline at
      year 1, patients with a rapid HBsAg (>=1 log10 IU/mL) decline had a significantly
      lower HBsAg levels from year 2 to 8. However, Cox regression analysis showed that
      only absolute HBsAg levels at year 1 was an independent predictor of subsequent
      HBsAg <1000 IU/mL at year 8 of antiviral therapy(HR 0.242, p = .004). CONCLUSION:
      Pronounced HBsAg declines could be achieved in patients after long-term effective
      therapy with NAs, and on-treatment low serum HBsAg level at year 1 might be a
      predictor of serum HBsAg <1000 IU/mL at year 8.

PMID- 28880696
TI  - Sex-discordant monochorionic dizygotic twins: a case report.

PMID- 28880697
TI  - Tentative diagnostic criteria and disease severity classification for Castleman
      disease: A report of the research group on Castleman disease in Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the tentative diagnostic criteria and disease severity
      classification for Castleman disease (CD) and describe the clinical and
      pathologic features among human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) negative idiopathic
      multicentric CD (iMCD) in the Japanese population. METHODS: We established the
      working groups for the research of CD in Japan and had meetings to discuss and
      define the tentative diagnostic criteria and disease severity classification for
      CD. We subsequently analyzed 142 patients classified into iMCD by using the
      nationwide Japanese patient registry. RESULTS: We proposed the preliminary
      diagnostic criteria and disease severity classification for CD based on our
      discussion. In addition, we made a proposal for the disease activity score. We
      identified clinical and pathological features of patients with iMCD diagnosed by
      these diagnostic criteria. In the disease severity classification, 37, 33 and 30%
      patients were categorized into mild, moderate and severe diseases, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: This is the first proposal for diagnosis and classification of CD by
      the Japanese group. Further studies are required to validate whether they can
      distinguish CD from other inflammatory diseases and to determine their
      sensitivity and specificity.

PMID- 28880699
TI  - Mobile ECMO - A divine technology or bridge to nowhere?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Extracorporeal life support emerged as a salvage option in patients
      with therapy-refractory severe hemodynamic or respiratory failure. However, this
      promising therapy option has been limited by the use of experienced teams in
      highly specialized tertiary-care centers. Thus, in order to provide this standard
      of care in local hospitals and due to increasing evidence on improved outcomes
      using ECMO devices and setting for patients with heart and lung failure, an
      increasing number of experienced ECMO centers have launched mobile ECMO retrieval
      services in recent years. Areas covered: This review provides a summary on the
      current scientific status concerning use, indications and complications of mobile
      ECMO devices and services. A scientific literature research was conducted in
      MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science databases using keywords denoted.
      Expert commentary: Mobile ECMO devices and setting offer severely ill patients
      refractory to maximal conventional treatment an option of hemodynamic and/or
      respiratory stabilization and subsequent transportation to specialized care
      centers for further treatment. Compared to in-hospital ECMO support, out-of
      hospital mobile ECMO implantation, transport and retrieval of patients require
      additional organizational, logistical and clinical efforts. This review provides
      a summary on the current scientific status concerning use, indications and
      complications of mobile ECMO services.

PMID- 28880698
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of a chronic pain intervention for people living with HIV
      (PLWH).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic pain is a common, disabling, and costly comorbidity,
      particularly in people living with HIV (PLWH). This study developed and pilot
      tested a pain self-management intervention for chronic pain tailored to PLWH
      called Skills TO Manage Pain (STOMP). OBJECTIVES: Given the additional resources
      needed to deliver STOMP in HIV clinical settings, an important objective of the
      pilot study was to assess not only STOMP's preliminary efficacy, but also its
      cost-effectiveness. RESEARCH DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: The present study draws from a
      44-participant, 2-arm randomized pilot trial of the STOMP intervention vs usual
      care among PLWH and at least moderate chronic pain (Clinicaltrials.gov:
      NCT02824562). Cost-effectiveness is presented as the incremental cost
      effectiveness ratio (ICER). Costs were considered from the clinic perspective
      over a 1-year time horizon using real costs from the pilot trial. It was
      conservatively assumed there would be no costs savings. The Standard Gamble (SG)
      method was used to directly measure utilities. RESULTS: Thirty-six participants
      met inclusion criteria for the present analyses. Mean age was 52 years; 61% were
      female and 86% were black. The total cost of STOMP was $483.83 per person. Using
      the SG method, the change in QALYs was 0.15, corresponding to an ICER of $3,225.
      CONCLUSIONS: STOMP's cost/QALY is substantially lower than the $50,000 to
      $100,000/QALY benchmark often used to indicate cost-effectiveness. Although based
      on a pilot trial and, therefore, preliminary, these findings are promising, and
      suggest the importance of cost analyses in future STOMP trials.

PMID- 28880701
TI  - ?

PMID- 28880700
TI  - Anti-Ro52 antibody level is an important marker of fetal congenital heart block
      risk in anti-Ro/SSA antibody positive pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to determine the incidence of congenital
      heart block (CHB) in the Japanese population and identify maternal factors
      predicting fetal CHB in anti-Ro/SSA antibody positive pregnancy. METHODS: A
      retrospective study was performed using 52,147 clinical records of pregnancies
      followed in a single center. For 183 anti-Ro/SSA antibody-positive women, anti
      Ro52 and Ro60 antibodies were measured, and the odds of CHB in relation to
      maternal clinical features were calculated by multivariate analysis. The receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curves for predicting CHB were constructed for the
      titers of anti-Ro/SSA, anti-Ro52 and anti-Ro60 antibodies. RESULTS: Fetal CHB
      occurred in two pregnancies among those without known risks such as positive anti
      Ro/SSA antibody or previous CHB-affected pregnancy, suggesting an incidence
      similar to that in Caucasian populations. As for the anti-Ro/SSA antibody
      positive pregnancies, the titers of anti-Ro/SSA, anti-Ro52 and anti-Ro60
      antibodies were independent risk factors for fetal CHB and the use of
      corticosteroids before 18 gestational weeks was an independent protective factor.
      The area under the ROC was 0.84, 0.73 and 0.74 for anti-Ro52, anti-Ro60 and anti
      Ro/SSA antibodies, respectively. CONCLUSION: CHB occurred in two among
      approximately 50,000 pregnancies without known risks such as positive anti-Ro/SSA
      antibody or previous delivery of CHB-affected babies. Measurement of anti-Ro52
      antibody levels may be helpful in extracting a risk group of delivering CHB
      infants in the anti-Ro/SSA antibody positive pregnancy.

PMID- 28880702
TI  - The Feasibility and Validity of Body-Worn Sensors to Supplement Timed Walking
      Tests for Children with Neurological Conditions.
AB  - AIMS: The 10-meter walk test (10 mWT) and Timed Up and Go (TUG) are assessments
      of speed/time with a ceiling effect in pediatric populations. This study aimed to
      (1) determine whether collecting spatiotemporal data with inertial sensors
      (Mobility Lab, APDM Inc.) during these tests improves their discriminative
      validity, and (2) evaluate the clinical feasibility of Mobility Lab. METHODS:
      Fifteen children with spina bifida (SB) or cerebral palsy (CP) (7.9 +/- 3.1 years
      old) and fifteen age- and sex-matched typically-developing (TD) children
      completed the 10 mWT and TUG wearing Mobility Lab. Spatiotemporal data were
      compared between groups. Mobility Lab's potential to distinguish children with
      SB/CP from TD children was examined using conditional logistic regression.
      Feasibility was evaluated through participant adherence and a clinical utility
      scale. RESULTS: For the 10 mWT, group differences (p < 0.01) were found in
      horizontal and frontal trunk range of motion, horizontal trunk velocity, and
      swing asymmetry. Children with SB/CP took significantly longer to turn during the
      TUG. These five variables together distinguished the two groups (p = 0.006). 78%
      of participants with SB/CP completed the testing protocol. Mobility Lab scored
      4/10 on the clinical utility scale. CONCLUSIONS: Instrumenting the 10 mWT and TUG
      improves the tests' ability to discriminate between children with SB/CP and TD
      children.

PMID- 28880703
TI  - The association between surgical complications and the POSSUM score in head and
      neck reconstruction: a retrospective single-center study.
AB  - The Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the Enumeration of Mortality
      and Morbidity (POSSUM) is widely used to predict surgical complications affecting
      various organs. However, there are few reports about objective evaluation methods
      for head and neck surgery. In this study, we retrospectively examined the
      association between POSSUM score and actual surgical complications of head and
      neck reconstruction surgery. In total, 711 patients who underwent head and neck
      reconstruction after cancer extirpation between January 2007 and January 2015
      were studied. The predicted risk of complications was calculated using the POSSUM
      score and compared with the actual rate of perioperative complications.
      Perioperative complications occurred in 178 (25%) patients, comprising systemic
      complications in 52 (7%) patients, surgical site infection of the head and neck
      area in 78 (11%) patients and failure of the free flap in 55 (8.8%) patients.
      When patients were divided into a perioperative complication group and a no
      complication group, a significant difference between the two groups was observed
      in the predicted postoperative rate calculated from the POSSUM score (p < .0001,
      odds ratio 1.03, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.04). Furthermore, the cutoff
      value of the POSSUM score calculated from the receiver operating characteristic
      curve using Youden's index was 43.0%. POSSUM is a useful risk indicator for head
      and neck reconstruction surgery. It is possible to objectively calculate the
      prediction level using a standard assessment method without adding burden to any
      medical facility. Therefore, patients may be considered at high risk for
      perioperative complications when the POSSUM score is 43.0% or higher.

PMID- 28880704
TI  - Sample Size Estimation for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's In Vitro
      Population Bioequivalence Test of DPIs, MDIs, Nasal Sprays, and Nebules.

PMID- 28880706
TI  - Identification of cellular responses to low-dose radiation by the profiling of
      phosphorylated proteins in human B-lymphoblast IM-9 cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore the potential for radiation
      specific signaling of various LDIR-induced effects in human B-lymphoblast IM-9
      cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human lymphoblast IM-9 cells were exposed to
      ionizing radiation at 0.1 and 2 Gy using a 137Cs gamma-irradiator at a dose rate
      of 0.8 Gy/min. Cell viability and DNA fragmentation were determined using MTT
      assay and TUNEL assay at 24 h after irradiation. Profiling of protein
      phosphorylation by radiation was identified using a phospho-antibody array at 4 h
      after irradiation and Dataset of the profiling was analyzed by IPA. RESULTS: Cell
      survival and apoptotic signaling were not affected by 0.1 Gy of radiation,
      whereas 2 Gy induced cellular damage. The analysis of low-dose ionizing radiation
      (LDIR) or high-dose ionizing radiation (HDIR)-specific responses by IPA generated
      different results. Various cell maintenance functions were only apparent
      following the analysis of increased protein phosphorylation by LDIR, whereas
      several cancer formation- and development-related functions were only detected
      following the analysis of increased protein phosphorylation by HDIR. CONCLUSIONS:
      The LDIR-induced protein phosphorylation patterns might be involved in various
      cell survival responses or cellular maintenance functions, which provide
      important insight into our understanding of the different effects of LDIR and
      HDIR.

PMID- 28880705
TI  - Healthcare Access and Cancer Screening Among Victims of Intimate Partner
      Violence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) victims often experience substantial
      and persistent mental and physical health problems, including increased risk for
      chronic disease and barriers to healthcare access. This study investigated the
      association between IPV and cancer screening. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Behavioral
      Risk Factor Surveillance System data from the eight states and one U.S. territory
      that administered the optional IPV module in 2006 were analyzed to examine
      demographic characteristics, health behaviors, health status, healthcare
      coverage, use of health services, and cancer screening among men and women who
      reported IPV victimization compared with those among men and women who did not.
      IPV victimization included physical violence, threats, and sexual violence.
      RESULTS: In the nine jurisdictions that administered the IPV module, 23.6% of
      women and 11.3% of men experienced IPV. Fewer women and men reporting IPV
      victimization had health insurance, a personal doctor or healthcare provider, or
      regular checkups within the past 2 years than nonvictims. More male and female
      IPV victims were current tobacco users and engaged in binge drinking in the past
      month. IPV victims of both sexes also had poorer health status, lower life
      satisfaction, less social and emotional support, and more days with poor physical
      and mental health in the past month than nonvictims. IPV victimization was
      associated with lower rates of mammography and colorectal cancer screening but
      not cervical cancer screening in women and was not associated with colorectal
      cancer screening in men. In multivariable logistic regression results presented
      as adjusted proportions controlling for demographics, health status, and
      healthcare access, only the association with mammography screening remained
      significant, and the magnitude of this association was modest. CONCLUSIONS: There
      were consistent differences between IPV victims and nonvictims in nearly every
      measure of healthcare access, health status, and preventive service use. Much of
      this association seems explained by population characteristics associated with
      both IPV and lower use of preventive service use, including differences in
      demographic characteristics, health status, and healthcare access. Healthcare
      providers could take steps to identify populations at high risk for lack of
      access or use of preventive services and IPV victimization.

PMID- 28880707
TI  - Relationship between achievement of physical activity goal and characteristics of
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to identify the relationship between achievement of a
      physical activity goal and the characteristics of patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA). METHODS: Overall, 137 patients with RA who performed physical
      activity were enrolled. Statistical analysis was performed to examine
      relationship between patient characteristics and achievement of physical activity
      goal by univariate analysis, multivariate logistic regression analysis and the
      receiver operating characteristic method. RESULTS: The significant factors
      considered for univariate analysis performed to compare RA patients with and
      without achievement in physical activity goal were age, disease duration, BMI,
      global VAS, pain VAS, CRP, DAS28-CRP, and HAQ-DI. The significant related factors
      by multivariate logistic regression analysis were age (OR: 0.926), BMI (OR:
      1.180), pain VAS (OR: 0.969), and HAQ-DI (OR: 0.229). The cutoff values were 62.0
      years for age (sensitivity 72.5%, specificity 59.6%), 19.7 for BMI (sensitivity
      91.2%, specificity 36.2%), 20.0 for pain VAS (sensitivity 63.7%, specificity
      71.9%), and 0.30 for HAQ-DI (sensitivity 48.8%, specificity 89.5%). CONCLUSION:
      We aim to preserve activities of daily living in patients with RA. To achieve
      physical activity goal, we should control pain VAS, and HAQ-DI. Further, the
      patients the value of HAQ-DI should be kept very low.

PMID- 28880709
TI  - Pyrexia in cats: Retrospective analysis of signalment, clinical investigations,
      diagnosis and influence of prior treatment in 106 referred cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The main aim of the study was to describe the features and diagnoses
      of a population of cats referred with pyrexia. Other aims were to report and
      evaluate the utility of clinical investigations performed, and describe any
      effect of treatment before referral on temperature at presentation and ability to
      make a diagnosis. METHODS: Clinical records of cats with pyrexia (?39.2 degrees
      C) documented at least twice were retrospectively reviewed. Cases were assigned
      to disease categories (infectious, inflammatory, immune-mediated, neoplastic,
      miscellaneous and no diagnosis [pyrexia of unknown origin, PUO]) based on
      diagnosis. The overall value of clinical investigations was assessed by
      classifying them as 'enabling', 'assisting' or 'no assistance' in achieving each
      diagnosis. The effect of treatment before referral was assessed for any
      association with temperature at presentation and ability to make a diagnosis (PUO
      vs other disease categories). RESULTS: One hundred and six cases were identified.
      The most common cause of pyrexia was feline infectious peritonitis (22 cats,
      20.8%) and the largest disease category was infectious (41/106, 38.7%).
      Inflammatory conditions were found in 19 (17.9%) cats, neoplasia in 13 (12.3%),
      miscellaneous causes in 11 (10.4%) and immune-mediated disease in six (5.7%). No
      diagnosis was reached in 16 (15.0%) cats, often despite extensive diagnostic
      investigations. Cytology and histopathology most often 'enabled' or 'assisted' in
      obtaining a diagnosis. Most cats (91, 85.8%) received treatment before referral,
      with antimicrobial treatment given to 87 (82.1%). Prior treatment before referral
      was not associated with temperature at presentation nor with success in
      establishing a diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This is the first study
      investigating causes of pyrexia in cats. Infectious diseases were most common and
      immune-mediated diseases were comparatively rare.

PMID- 28880708
TI  - Inhibition of E2F1 activity and cell cycle progression by arsenic via
      retinoblastoma protein.
AB  - The regulation of cell cycle progression by steroid hormones and growth factors
      is important for maintaining normal cellular processes including development and
      cell proliferation. Deregulated progression through the G1/S and G2/M cell cycle
      transitions can lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation and cancer. The
      transcription factor E2F1, a key cell cycle regulator, targets genes encoding
      proteins that regulate cell cycle progression through the G1/S transition as well
      as proteins important in DNA repair and apoptosis. E2F1 expression and activity
      is inhibited by inorganic arsenic (iAs) that has a dual role as a cancer
      therapeutic and as a toxin that leads to diseases including cancer. An
      understanding of what underlies this dichotomy will contribute to understanding
      how to use iAs as a more effective therapeutic and also how to treat cancers that
      iAs promotes. Here, we show that quiescent breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells
      treated with 17-beta estradiol (E2) progress through the cell cycle, but few
      cells treated with E2 + iAs progress from G1 into S-phase due to a block in cell
      cycle progression. Our data support a model in which iAs inhibits the
      dissociation of E2F1 from the tumor suppressor, retinoblastoma protein (pRB) due
      to changes in pRB phosphorylation which leads to decreased E2F1 transcriptional
      activity. These findings present an explanation for how iAs can disrupt cell
      cycle progression through E2F1-pRB and has implications for how iAs acts as a
      cancer therapeutic as well as how it may promote tumorigenesis through decreased
      DNA repair.

PMID- 28880711
TI  - Curcumin Alleviates the Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders of Mice In Vivo.
AB  - Curcumin is a natural polyphenol extracted from the turmeric rhizome, which has a
      wide range of biological activities, but until now the effects of curcumin on the
      gastrointestinal peristalsis have not been fully understood. In vivo study, we
      observed the effects of curcumin on gastric emptying and intestinal propulsion
      rates of mice in normal state and in delayed state by atropine (ATR) or nitric
      oxide precursor L-arginine (L-Arg). An in vitro study explored the direct effects
      of curcumin on the intestinal contractility, but were studied through measuring
      spontaneous contraction of isolated jejunum of mice. Our results showed that
      intragastric administration of curcumin (200 mg/kg/day) for 10-20 days
      significantly improved gastric emptying and intestinal propulsion rates of mice
      delayed by ATR. Moreover, intragastric administration of curcumin (200 mg/kg/day)
      for 15 days also significantly improved mice gastric emptying and intestinal
      propulsion rates delayed by L-Arg. There was no significant effect on normal
      gastrointestinal propulsion of mice after intragastric administration of curcumin
      (200 mg/kg/day) for 1-20 days. When normal isolated jejunum of mice were
      incubated with curcumin in vitro, the amplitude of the spontaneous contractile
      waves of jejunum was reduced in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover,
      curcumin reduced the amplitude of the contractile waves of jejunum in both
      contracted and relaxed state induced by acetylcholine or ATR individually. Taken
      together, our results suggest that curcumin has quite different effects on
      gastrointestinal peristalsis in vivo and in vitro. Moderate dose of curcumin by
      intragastric administration for more than 10 days can alleviate the functional
      gastrointestinal disorders of mice, but cannot affect normal gastrointestinal
      propulsion.

PMID- 28880710
TI  - Serum Immune Proteins in Limb Lymphedema Reflecting Tissue Processes Caused by
      Lymph Stasis and Chronic Dermato-lymphangio-adenitis (Cellulitis).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymphedema of limbs affects a large mass of tissues. Pathological
      changes develop in skin and subcutaneous tissue. Bacterial retention in edema
      fluid is followed by chronic inflammatory reaction. The question arises whether
      the chronic processes affecting a large mass of limb tissues are reflected in the
      serum by appearance of specific proteins accumulating and subsequently absorbed
      from the lymphedematous tissues Aim: To measure the concentration of serum
      proteins (1) participating in cellular disintegration such as caspase 1, sFas,
      high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), and serpin, (2) cell growth regulating factors
      such as cortisol, human growth hormone, keratinocyte growth factor, and insulin
      like growth factor (IGF), and (3) angiogenic and growth factors such as
      angiopoetins 1 and 2, adiponectin, leptin, and transforming growth factor beta.
      RESULTS: We found (1) increased concentration of serum caspase 1, sFas, serpin,
      and HMGB1 accounting for cellular destruction, (2) raised levels of cortisol and
      IGF, confirming active cellular processes, and (3) elevated concentrations of
      angiopoetin 1, adiponectin, and leptin, indicating proliferation of adipose
      tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Proteins appearing in serum in high concentrations in
      patients with lymphedema without systemic clinical and biochemical signs of
      inflammation indicate that multiple processes of destruction and rebuilding
      proceed in the lymphedematous tissues. Measuring concentration of caspase 1,
      sFas, serpin, HMGB1 protein, adiponectin, and leptin give insight into these
      processes. Lymphedema should be considered as tissue process characterized not
      only by increase in mobile tissue fluid volume but also tissue restructuring.
      Compression and drainage therapy should be complemented by anti-inflammatory
      medication.

PMID- 28880712
TI  - The efficacy of the Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Questionnaire (ETDQ-7) for
      patulous Eustachian tube patient.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of the Eustachian Tube Dysfunction
      Questionnaire (ETDQ-7) for patulous Eustachian tube (PET) patients. METHODS: A
      prospective survey of medical records identified 36 patients and 47 ears with
      PET, and 15 patients and 15 ears as control. The ETDQ-7, patulous Eustachian tube
      handicap inventory-10 (PHI-10) and Likert scale were evaluated. PET patients were
      divided into two groups based on severity of symptoms using the PHI score.
      RESULTS: The Cronbach alpha value of the PET group was 0.765. The average total
      score of the ETDQ-7 in the control group was 7.6 +/- 1.1 and 22.5 +/- 10.0 in the
      PET group (p < .01). No correlation was found between ETDQ-7 and Likert scale (r
      = 0.248, p = .09). The average total score of the ETDQ-7 in the mild or moderate
      PET group was 19.9 +/- 9.0 and 25.3 +/- 11.1 in the severe PET group and this was
      not statistically different (p = .08). CONCLUSION: The highest ETDQ-7 score was
      also observed in PET patients and in ET dysfunction patients. These findings
      necessitate careful discrimination between ET dysfunction and PET in balloon
      dilation Eustachian tuboplasty (BET) based on ETDQ-7.

PMID- 28880713
TI  - Sexual Violence as a Key Contributor to Poor Mental Health Among Japanese Women
      Subjected to Intimate Partner Violence.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of sexual intimate
      partner violence (IPV) on mental health among Japanese women and to explore to
      what extent sexual IPV is an important contributor to the severity of mental
      health problems in comparison with physical and psychological IPV. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of the medical records of
      participants during psychiatric consultation at the Institute of Women's Health,
      Tokyo Women's Medical University, including 62 women who experienced IPV without
      sexual violence and 83 women who experienced IPV with sexual violence. Mental
      health problems were compared, including anxiety, depression, suicidality, post
      traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and dissociative experiences. RESULTS: The
      results demonstrated a higher incidence and severity of somatic symptoms,
      insomnia, social dysfunction, severe depression and suicidality, PTSD, and
      dissociative experiences among women in the sexual IPV group than in the women
      who experienced IPV without sexual violence. In analyzing the relative
      contribution of sexual, physical, and psychological violence to the severity of
      mental health problems of the survivors, results indicated that sexual violence
      was an independent predictor of both PTSD and dissociative experiences.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present research showed that significant adverse effects on
      mental health were observed among women who experienced IPV with sexual violence
      compared with the ones without. These findings provide important implications for
      considering the specific approaches to meet the needs of those women experiencing
      sexual IPV and the need for timely and effective interventions, including
      healthcare, social services, and primary prevention.

PMID- 28880714
TI  - Long-Term Economic and Employment Outcomes Among Partners of Women With Early
      Stage Breast Cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Work loss is one of many personal costs for patients with cancer and
      their families. Many women with breast cancer face long-term job loss that stems
      from their diagnoses. However, little is known about the economic and employment
      outcomes of partners of women with breast cancer. METHODS: Women with
      nonmetastatic breast cancer identified by the Detroit and Los Angeles SEER
      registries between June 2005 and February 2007 were surveyed at both 9 months and
      4 years after diagnosis. Partners were surveyed 4 years after patients'
      diagnoses. Nonretired partners were asked about employment and financial
      consequences that stemmed from the patients' breast cancer diagnoses and
      treatments. RESULTS: A total of 517 (67%) of 774 eligible partners completed the
      survey; 32% reported worsened financial status attributed to patients' breast
      cancers. Two hundred forty nonretired partners worked during the year after the
      patients' diagnoses; 90% were still working 4 years postdiagnosis. A total of 32%
      of partners decreased their work hours as a result of patients' breast cancer
      diagnoses and treatments; 64% of partners reported that, as a result of patients'
      breast cancer diagnoses and treatments, it was very/extremely important to keep
      working to keep health insurance. Overall, 51% of partners reported that it was
      very/extremely important to avoid changing jobs, because they were worried about
      loss of health insurance. CONCLUSION: Nearly one third of partners reported that
      their financial status was worse because of the patient's breast cancer, although
      most remained working 4 years after a diagnosis. Partners may continue to work
      longer than desired to compensate for a loss of financial resources in the
      family.

PMID- 28880715
TI  - Defective Mineralization in X-Linked Hypophosphatemia Dental Pulp Cell Cultures.
AB  - X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is a skeletal disease caused by inactivating
      mutations in the PHEX gene. Mutated or absent PHEX protein/enzyme leads to a
      decreased serum phosphate level, which cause mineralization defects in the
      skeleton and teeth (osteomalacia/odontomalacia). It is not yet altogether clear
      whether these manifestations are caused solely by insufficient circulating
      phosphate availability for mineralization or also by a direct, local intrinsic
      effect caused by impaired PHEX activity. Here, we evaluated the local role of
      PHEX in a 3-dimensional model of extracellular matrix (ECM) mineralization. Dense
      collagen hydrogels were seeded either with human dental pulp cells from patients
      with characterized PHEX mutations or with sex- and age-matched healthy controls
      and cultured up to 24 d using osteogenic medium with standard phosphate
      concentration. Calcium quantification, micro-computed tomography, and histology
      with von Kossa staining for mineral showed significantly lower mineralization in
      XLH cell-seeded scaffolds, using nonparametric statistical tests. While apatitic
      mineralization was observed along collagen fibrils by electron microscopy in both
      groups, Raman microspectrometry indicated that XLH cells harboring the PHEX
      mutation produced less mineralized scaffolds having impaired mineral quality with
      less carbonate substitution and lower crystallinity. In the XLH cultures,
      immunoblotting revealed more abundant osteopontin (OPN), dentin matrix protein 1
      (DMP1), and matrix extracellular phosphoglycoprotein (MEPE) than controls, as
      well as the presence of fragments of these proteins not found in controls,
      suggesting a role for PHEX in SIBLING protein degradation. Immunohistochemistry
      revealed altered OPN and DMP1 associated with an increased alkaline phosphatase
      staining in the XLH cultures. These results are consistent with impaired PHEX
      activity having local ECM effects in XLH. Future treatments for XLH should target
      both systemic and local manifestations.

PMID- 28880716
TI  - Safety and quality in maternal and neonatal care: the introduction of the
      modified WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist.
AB  - Maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity associated with childbirth is a
      problem of the highest priority. This research has been aimed at testing a
      modified version of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist in one Italian hospital and
      to evaluate the tool in terms of its impact on clinical practice and safety.
      Results show that the presence of correctly compiled partogram tool is strongly
      and significantly associated with the checklist implementation (OR = 14.9, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] = 3.5, 63.9). Compliance to the checklist was high for
      mid-wives (96%) and very low for obstetricians (3%). The discrepancy is the
      result of a misinterpretation by obstetricians: they signed only in case they
      prescribed therapy or when they identified risk factors, but not to underline
      that they checked for those factors independently by their existence. While the
      checklist promotes the interdisciplinary work, field studies generally show
      strong hierarchical rather than partnership interaction. Practitioner Summary:
      The study is aimed at evaluating: the checklist impact on clinical practice
      through a prospective pre- and post-intervention study based on clinical records
      review, the usability of the tool and the user's compliance. The research gives
      evidences on the importance of the tool for reducing risks related to delivery.

PMID- 28880717
TI  - Bivalent Histone Codes on WNT5A during Odontogenic Differentiation.
AB  - Lineage-committed differentiation is an essential biological program during
      odontogenesis, which is tightly regulated by lineage-specific genes. Some of
      these genes are modified by colocalization of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 marks at
      promoter regions in progenitors. These modifications, named "bivalent domains,"
      maintain genes in a poised state and then resolve for later activation or
      repression during differentiation. Wnt5a has been reported to promote odontogenic
      differentiation in dental mesenchyme. However, relatively little is known about
      the epigenetic modulations on Wnt5a activation during tooth development. Here, we
      investigated the spatiotemporal patterns of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 marks in
      developing mouse molars. Associated H3K4me3 methylases (mixed-lineage leukemia
      [MLL] complex) and H3K27me3 demethylases (JMJD3 and UTX) were dynamically
      expressed between early and late bell stage of human tooth germs and in cultured
      human dental papilla cells (hDPCs) during odontogenic induction. Poised WNT5A
      gene was marked by bivalent domains containing repressive marks (H3K27me3) and
      active marks (H3K4me3) on promoters. The bivalent domains tended to resolve
      during inducted differentiation, with removal of the H3K27me3 mark in a JMJD3
      dependent manner. When JMJD3 was knocked down in cultured hDPCs, odontogenic
      differentiation was suppressed. The depletion of JMJD3 epigenetically repressed
      WNT5A activation by increased H3K27me3 marks. In addition, JMJD3 could physically
      interact with ASH2L, a component of the MLL complex, to form a coactivator
      complex, cooperatively modulating H3K4me3 marks on WNT5A promoters. Overall, our
      study reveals that transcription activities of WNT5A were epigenetically
      regulated by the negotiated balance between H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 marks and
      tightly mediated by JMJD3 and MLL coactivator complex, ultimately modulating
      odontogenic commitment during dental mesenchymal cell differentiation.

PMID- 28880719
TI  - Talking About Death.

PMID- 28880718
TI  - Codon adaptation to tRNAs with Inosine modification at position 34 is widespread
      among Eukaryotes and present in two Bacterial phyla.
AB  - The modification of adenosine to inosine at position 34 of tRNA anticodons has a
      profound impact upon codon-anticodon recognition. In bacteria, I34 is thought to
      exist only in tRNAArg, while in eukaryotes the modification is present in eight
      different tRNAs. In eukaryotes, the widespread use of I34 strongly influenced the
      evolution of genomes in terms of tRNA gene abundance and codon usage. In humans,
      codon usage indicates that I34 modified tRNAs are preferred for the translation
      of highly repetitive coding sequences, suggesting that I34 is an important
      modification for the synthesis of proteins of highly skewed amino acid
      composition. Here we extend the analysis of distribution of codons that are
      recognized by I34 containing tRNAs to all phyla known to use this modification.
      We find that the preference for codons recognized by such tRNAs in genes with
      highly biased codon compositions is universal among eukaryotes, and we report
      that, unexpectedly, some bacterial phyla show a similar preference. We
      demonstrate that the genomes of these bacterial species contain previously
      undescribed tRNA genes that are potential substrates for deamination at position
      34.

PMID- 28880720
TI  - Surgical Treatment of Primary Lymphedema.
AB  - Primary lymphedema is due to abnormal congenital development or dysfunction in
      the lymphatic system. Limited data exist on the prevalence of primary lymphedema
      and there are only few studies focusing on primary lymphedema. The purpose of
      this article is to review the current options for surgical treatment of primary
      lymphedema.

PMID- 28880722
TI  - Attitudes of Older Chinese Patients Toward Death and Dying.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to the aging population of China, the need for palliative care
      will increase. However, one of the barriers to utilization of palliative care is
      the traditional belief that talking about death and dying is taboo. OBJECTIVE:
      The aim of this study was to examine to what extent older Chinese patients were
      willing to answer questions about death and dying by asking them about "fear of
      death" and their desire to "use advanced life support when dying." DESIGN: Survey
      questionnaire. SETTING/SUBJECTS: Convenience sample (N = 993 hospitalized
      patients). RESULTS: Only 215 (21.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 16.2%-27.1%)
      and 99 (9.9%; 95% CI 4.1%-15.8%) patients did not answer the questions related to
      "fear of death" and "use of advanced life support when dying," respectively,
      while 439 (44.2%; 95% CI 38.7%-49.7%) answered "yes" and 339 (34.1%; 95% CI 28.7%
      39.6%) answered "no" for "fear of death" and 382 (38.5%; 95% CI 32.6%-44.3%)
      answered "yes" and 512 (51.6%; 95% CI 45.7%-57.4%) answered "no" for "use of
      advanced life support when dying." In multinomial logistic regression analysis,
      fear of death was associated with younger age, lowest level of function, and
      desire to use advanced life support. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of older patients
      were willing to answer the two questions about death and dying. About one-third
      of patients were not afraid of death, and older patients were less likely to be
      afraid of death. More than 50% of patients answered that they would not choose
      advanced life support when dying. More research in this area is needed to help
      advance palliative care in China.

PMID- 28880723
TI  - The effects of emotion regulation strategies on positive and negative affect in
      early adolescents.
AB  - Recent research suggests that impaired emotion regulation (ER) may play an
      important role in the development of youth psychopathology. However, little
      research has explored the effects of ER strategies on affect in early
      adolescents. In Study 1 (n = 76), we examined if early adolescents are able to
      use distraction and whether the effects of this strategy are similar to talking
      to one's mother. In Study 2 (n = 184), we compared the effects of distraction,
      cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination. In both studies, participants
      received instructions on how to regulate their emotions after a standardised
      negative mood induction. In general, the results indicated that distraction, but
      also cognitive reappraisal and acceptance, had promising short-term effects on
      positive and negative affect in early adolescents. These findings suggest that
      targeting adaptive ER skills, such as distraction, acceptance, and cognitive
      reappraisal, may be an important strategy to prevent or treat psychological
      problems in early adolescents.

PMID- 28880721
TI  - Role of NADPH oxidase in radiation-induced pro-oxidative and pro-inflammatory
      pathways in mouse brain.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present study was designed to investigate our hypothesis that NADPH
      oxidase plays a role in radiation-induced pro-oxidative and pro-inflammatory
      environments in the brain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: C57BL/6 mice received either
      fractionated whole brain irradiation or sham-irradiation. The mRNA expression
      levels of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as TNF-alpha and MCP-1, were
      determined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The protein expression levels of TNF
      alpha, MCP-1, NOX-2 and Iba1 were detected by immunofluorescence staining. The
      levels of ROS were visualized by in situ DHE fluorescence staining. RESULTS: A
      significant up-regulation of mRNA and protein expression levels of TNF-alpha and
      MCP-1 was observed in irradiated mouse brains. Additionally, immunofluorescence
      staining of Iba1 showed a marked increase of microglial activation in mouse brain
      after irradiation. Moreover, in situ DHE fluorescence staining revealed that
      fractionated whole brain irradiation significantly increased production of ROS.
      Furthermore, a significant increase in immunoreactivity of NOX-2 was detected in
      mouse brain after irradiation. On the contrary, an enhanced ROS generation in
      mouse brain after irradiation was markedly attenuated in the presence of NOX
      inhibitors or NOX-2 neutralizing antibody. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest
      that NOX-2 may play a role in fractionated whole brain irradiation-induced pro
      oxidative and pro-inflammatory pathways in mouse brain.

PMID- 28880724
TI  - Prevalence of Recent Antimicrobial Exposure among Elective Surgical Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The annual prevalence of antimicrobial exposure is high in the
      outpatient setting and should be a common exposure for surgical patients.
      Antimicrobials have negative side effects and may be associated with poor
      outcomes. Logically, one would expect surgical patients to be particularly
      susceptible to any negative effects of recent antimicrobial exposure. Despite
      these observations, however, the prevalence of recent antimicrobial exposure
      among surgical patients remains undefined. The purpose of this study is to define
      the prevalence of antimicrobial exposure in patients undergoing elective surgical
      procedures. METHODS: Patients presenting for elective operations between August
      4, 2015 and August 3, 2016 at our institution were asked prospectively about any
      antimicrobial exposure in the previous three months. Answers were recorded as
      either Yes, No, or Unsure. Patients were grouped according to age, American
      Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, primary operative service, and post
      operative destination. Descriptive statistics were employed using simple
      percentages and chi-square analysis when appropriate. Cochrane-Armitage test was
      used to evaluate temporal trends. RESULTS: There were 21,473 elective surgical
      procedures performed during the study period across 13 operative services.
      Answers were recorded for 91.2% cases. The overall prevalence of exposure during
      this period was 28.6%. Exposure varied with age, ASA score, and surgical
      specialty. Vascular and transplant operations had the highest prevalence of
      exposure while ophthalmology and pediatric orthopedic procedures had the lowest.
      Patients with recent antimicrobial exposure were less likely to be discharged
      home on the same day and more likely to be admitted to an intensive care or
      intermediate care unit than those who denied recent exposure. CONCLUSION: In this
      descriptive analysis, the prevalence of recent antimicrobial exposure is overall
      approximately 28.6% and is higher than anticipated. Further work is needed to
      determine to what extent, if any, recent antimicrobial exposure impacts post
      operative outcomes.

PMID- 28880725
TI  - Synergistic relationship between auxin and cytokinin in the ovary and the
      participation of the transcription factor SPATULA.
AB  - The phytohormones auxin and cytokinin are key regulators of plant development,
      and both regulate almost all aspects of plant growth and development.
      Communication between auxin-cytokinin signaling pathways has been the subject of
      intense research. However, few studies have focused specifically on the
      development of the early gynoecium. We have recently discovered that cytokinin
      signaling plays a role in the regulation of auxin biosynthesis and transport in
      the ovary region of the gynoecium, and that the transcription factor SPATULA
      (SPT) is necessary. Here, we provide evidence that indicates that cytokinin and
      auxin have a synergistic relationship at the medial domain during gynoecium
      development, and that SPT is important for this interaction.

PMID- 28880726
TI  - Parents' Spatial Language Mediates a Sex Difference in Preschoolers' Spatial
      Language Use.
AB  - Do boys produce more terms than girls to describe the spatial world-that is,
      dimensional adjectives (e.g., big, little, tall, short), shape terms (e.g.,
      circle, square), and words describing spatial features and properties (e.g.,
      bent, curvy, edge)? If a sex difference in children's spatial-language use
      exists, is it related to the spatial language that parents use when interacting
      with children? We longitudinally tracked the development of spatial-language
      production in children between the ages of 14 and 46 months in a diverse sample
      of 58 parent-child dyads interacting in their homes. Boys produced and heard more
      of these three categories of spatial words, which we call "what" spatial types
      (i.e., unique "what" spatial words), but not more of all other word types, than
      girls. Mediation analysis revealed that sex differences in children's spatial
      talk at 34 to 46 months of age were fully mediated by parents' earlier spatial
      language use, when children were 14 to 26 months old, time points at which there
      was no sex difference in children's spatial-language use.

PMID- 28880728
TI  - Reply to: Precautionary Behaviors and Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema.

PMID- 28880727
TI  - Prevalence of Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) inactive
      disease in a cohort of patients treated with TNF-alpha inhibitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treat to target (T2T), aiming at inactive disease (ID), has become
      the recommended strategy for axial-SpA (ax-SpA). Using the Ankylosing Spondylitis
      Disease Activity Score (ASDAS), we assessed the prevalence of ID in ax-SpA
      patients treated with TNFalpha inhibitors (TNFi). METHODS: A multicentric, cross
      sectional study was performed assessing disease activity status (BASDAI and
      ASDAS) of consecutive patients with ax-SpA on stable treatment with TNFi for at
      least six months. We analyzed differences with nonradiographic axSpA (nr-ax-SpA)
      and the influence of population characteristics and comorbidities in reaching ID.
      ID was defined as ASDAS-CRP <1.3. RESULTS: A total of 218 patients were enrolled,
      165 with AS and 53 with nr-ax-SpA. ASDAS-CRP ID was reached by 89 (40.8%)
      patients, while 163 (74.8%) of patients achieved good disease control with
      BASDAI. There were no significant differences between the two diagnostic groups.
      Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated a negative correlation of
      concomitant fibromyalgia, higher BASMI and current NSAIDs with the chances of
      reaching ASDAS-CRP ID or BASDAI <4. CONCLUSION: T2T represents a new challenge in
      the management of ax-SpA, with recently introduced disease activity measures
      being significantly more stringent. The prevalence of ID was affected by
      concomitant fibromyalgia, decreased spine mobility and concomitant NSAIDs.

PMID- 28880729
TI  - Outcomes following laparoscopic versus open major hepatectomy: a meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The role of laparoscopic major hepatectomy (LMH) remains uncertain in
      current liver surgery. This meta-analysis aimed to compare surgical and
      oncological outcomes of LMH versus open major hepatectomy (OMH). METHODS: A
      systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library
      database to identify all relevant publications. The statistical analysis was
      performed using Review Manager version 5.3. Continuous variables were calculated
      by standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI), whereas
      dichotomous variables were calculated by odds ratio (OR) with 95%CI. RESULTS: A
      total of 10 eligible studies with 1130 patients were identified, of which 455
      (40.3%) patients in the LMH group and 675 (59.7%) patients in the OMH group. LMH
      was associated with less blood loss (SMD = -0.30, 95%CI: -0.43 to -0.18, p <
      .00001), less transfusion requirement (OR = 0.49, 95%CI: 0.29-0.82, p = .007),
      decreased postoperative morbidity (OR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.42-0.76, p = .0001), and
      shorter hospital stay (SMD = -0.46, 95%CI: -0.69 to -0.24, p < .0001) when
      compared with the OMH group. But the operative time was significantly longer in
      LMH group (SMD = 0.61, 95%CI: 0.79-1.86, p = .01). Both the two groups achieved
      similar surgical margin and R0 resection rate for malignant lesions. CONCLUSIONS:
      This meta-analysis demonstrated that LMH appeared to be feasible and safe in
      current liver surgery. LMH is associated with less blood loss, decreased
      postoperative morbidity, shorter hospital stay, and comparable oncological
      outcomes compared with OMH.

PMID- 28880730
TI  - Tyrosine-derived novel antimicrobial hydantoin polymers: synthesis and evaluation
      of anti-bacterial activities.
AB  - A new approach for the design and synthesis of cyclic N-halamine polymers having
      anti-bacterial activity based on a vinyl derivative of tyrosine-derived hydantoin
      is reported. The synthesis of N-halamine polymers generally involves the chemical
      modification of 5,5'-disubstituted hydantoin to introduce polymerizable vinyl
      moieties thereby restricting the halogen capture only on the amide nitrogen. Here
      we show the possibility of synthesizing vinyl monomers of N-halamine from alpha
      amino acids wherein both the amide and imide nitrogens are available for halogen
      capture. Thus, a hydantoin monomer was synthesized from L-tyrosine and
      copolymerized with methyl methacrylate and 2-(hydroxyethyl)methacrylate, to
      obtain random co-polymers. The monomer and its co-polymers were characterized
      using NMR, IR, HRMS, GPC, DSC, EDAX and TGA analysis. Films of the co-polymers
      cast from 10% acetone solutions were exposed to sodium hypochlorite solution to
      activate the hydantoin moieties. The oxidative chlorine content of the films
      ranged from 0.6 to 0.9%. The activated films were exposed to both Gram positive
      (S. aureus) and Gram negative (E. coli) bacteria using standard protocols.
      Polymers having chlorine content as little as 0.6% exhibited 6 log reduction in
      the bacterial growth within 30 min of exposure. The method allows the
      halogenation of both amide and imide nitrogens and could be applied to the
      preparation of a number of vinyl hydantoins from many amino acids.

PMID- 28880731
TI  - Reference Ranges Using Bioimpedance for Detection of Lymphedema in Chinese Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bioimpedance is a commonly used technique for detection of early
      lymphedema. The thresholds used for detection are based on impedance measurements
      obtained in Western populations. It is unknown whether these thresholds are
      applicable to a Chinese population. METHODS AND RESULTS: Impedance measurements
      were obtained for both arms in 391 women, ranging in age from 20 to 84 years,
      using a standardized protocol. Frequency distributions of interlimb impedance arm
      ratios for both dominant:non-dominant and non-dominant:dominant were used to
      determine thresholds at two and three standard deviations (SDs) above the mean.
      Absolute impedance was significantly higher in the youngest group (20-39 years)
      compared to other age groups. However, there was no significant effect of age on
      impedance ratios. Similarly, there was no significant difference between
      impedance ratios determined in this study and those from recent studies in the
      Australia and the United States, which used similar protocols. New two and three
      SDs above the mean thresholds, using a weighted average from the pooled data of
      these studies are 1.108 and 1.153 for use when the dominant limb is at-risk and
      1.072 and 1.116 when the non-dominant limb is at-risk. CONCLUSION: There was no
      effect of ethnicity on impedance ratios. Consequently, the proposed pooled
      thresholds can be used, irrespective of ethnicity.

PMID- 28880732
TI  - Numerical Activities of Daily Living - Financial (NADL-F): A tool for the
      assessment of financial capacities.
AB  - Financial capacity is the ability to manage one's own finances according to self
      interests. Failure in financial decisions and lack of independence when dealing
      with money can affect people's quality of life and are associated with
      neuropsychological deficits or clinical conditions such as mild cognitive
      impairment or Alzheimer's disease. Despite the importance of evaluating financial
      capacity in the assessment of patients with neuropsychological and psychiatric
      disorders, only a few tools have been developed. In the present article, the
      authors introduce the Numerical Activities of Daily Living - Financial (NADL-F)
      test, a new test to assess financial capacity in clinical populations. The NADL-F
      is relatively short, yet it encompasses the most common activities involving
      financial capacities. The NADL-F proved to have satisfactory psychometric
      properties and overall good validity for measuring financial abilities.
      Associations with performance on basic neuropsychological tests were
      investigated, in particular focusing on mathematical abilities as cognitive
      correlates of financial capacity. Results indicate that the NADL-F could be a
      useful tool to guide treatments for the enhancement of financial capacities. By
      sharing all materials and procedures, the authors hope to promote the development
      of further versions of the NADL-F in different languages, taking into account the
      necessary adjustments related to different socio-cultural contexts.

PMID- 28880734
TI  - Precautionary Behaviors and Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema.

PMID- 28880733
TI  - Healthcare resource utilization and costs by age and joint location among
      osteoarthritis patients in a privately insured population.
AB  - AIMS: To compare healthcare resource utilization and costs between patients aged
      18-64 years with osteoarthritis (OA) and matched controls without OA in a
      privately insured population. METHODS: Patients with OA were selected from de
      identified US-based employer claims (Q1:1999-Q3:2011). The index date was defined
      as the first OA diagnosis indicated by ICD-9-CM codes. One year before and after
      the index date were defined as the baseline and study periods, respectively. A
      second OA diagnosis during the study period was also required. Patients with OA
      were matched one-to-one on age, gender, index date, and minimum length of follow
      up to controls without OA. Baseline characteristics and study period resource
      utilization and costs (2016 USD) were compared between cohorts. RESULTS: This
      study identified 199,539 patients with OA (knee: 87,271, hip: 19,953, hand:
      15,670, spine: 12,496). The average age was 54 years, and 58% were female. OA
      patients had higher healthcare resource utilization than matched controls in
      inpatient, emergency room, and outpatient settings (p < .001 for all). Further,
      patients with OA had 4-times the excess total medical costs of their matched
      controls ($14,521 vs $3,629; p < .001). Patients with hip OA had the highest
      medical costs among all joint locations. Outpatient and pharmacy costs were
      similar among patients with knee, hip, and hand OA, but higher in patients with
      spine OA. In sub-group analyses, older patients (45-64 years old) had higher
      costs. LIMITATIONS: This sample, obtained using claims data, only includes
      patients who were actively seeking care for OA and were likely symptomatic.
      Asymptomatic patients would likely not be captured in this analysis. CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients with OA incur greater healthcare resource utilization and costs than
      patients without OA, with substantial variation by joint location.

PMID- 28880735
TI  - 2017 Midwest Zebrafish Meeting Report.
AB  - The 2017 Midwest Zebrafish meeting was held from June 16 to 18 at the University
      of Cincinnati, sponsored by the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Divisions of
      Developmental Biology, Molecular Cardiovascular Biology, and Gastroenterology,
      Hepatology, and Nutrition. The meeting, organized by Saulius Sumanas, Joshua
      Waxman, and Chunyue Yin, hosted >130 attendees from 16 different states.
      Scientific sessions were focused on morphogenesis, neural development, novel
      technologies, and disease models, with Steve Ekker, Stephen Potter, and Lila
      Solnica-Krezel presenting keynote talks. In this article, we highlight the
      results and emerging themes from the meeting.

PMID- 28880736
TI  - Maternal determinist of term intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) in the
      Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
AB  - Intrauterine growth restriction was defined as occurring if birth weight of the
      newborn is below 10th percentile for gestational age. We investigated its
      maternal determinants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by comparing 76 cases to 76
      controls to aid in early detection, diagnosis and proper prevention. A history of
      stillbirth, less than three years interpregnancy intervals, experiencing
      preeclampsia during pregnancy besides gaining less than nine kilograms during
      term pregnancy would signal a risk of having intrauterine growth restriction
      babies. Mothers living in rural areas as well as smokers along with those above
      34 years old were associated with the same risk.

PMID- 28880737
TI  - Cost-effectiveness of osimertinib in the UK for advanced EGFR-T790M non-small
      cell lung cancer.
AB  - AIM: This study presents the cost-utility analysis that was developed to inform
      the NICE health technology assessment of osimertinib vs platinum-based doublet
      chemotherapy (PDC) in patients with EGFR-T790M mutation-positive non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on epidermal growth factor receptor
      tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A
      partitioned survival model with three health states (progression-free, progressed
      disease, and death) from a UK payer perspective and over lifetime (15 years) was
      developed. Direct costs included disease management, treatment-related
      (acquisition, administration, monitoring, adverse events), and T790M testing
      costs. Efficacy and safety data were taken from clinical trials AURA extension
      and AURA2 for osimertinib and IMPRESS for PDC. An adjusted indirect treatment
      comparison was applied to reduce the potential bias in the non-randomized
      comparison. Parametric functions were utilized to extrapolate survival beyond the
      observed period. Health state utility values were calculated from EQ-5D data
      collected in the trials and valued using UK tariffs. Resource use and costs were
      based on published sources. RESULTS: Osimertinib was associated with a gain of
      1.541 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) at an incremental cost of L64,283 vs
      PDC (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio [ICER]: L41,705/QALY gained). Scenario
      analyses showed that none of the plausible scenarios produced an ICER above
      L44,000 per QALY gained, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses demonstrated a
      63.4% probability that osimertinib will be cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay
      threshold of L50,000. LIMITATIONS: The analysis is subject to some level of
      uncertainty inherent to phase 2 single-arm data and the immaturity of the
      currently available survival data for osimertinib. CONCLUSIONS: Osimertinib may
      be considered a cost-effective treatment option compared with PDC in the second
      line setting in patients with EGFR-T790M mutation-positive NSCLC from a UK payer
      perspective. Further data from the ongoing AURA clinical trial program will
      reduce the inherent uncertainty in the analysis.

PMID- 28880738
TI  - Military Sexual Trauma and Obesity Among Women Veterans.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the experience of
      military sexual trauma (MST) that may contribute to PTSD, and obesity are three
      issues that complicate care for our population of new veterans. Our aim was to
      analyze the association of MST and diagnosed PTSD with obesity among female
      veterans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Women 20-103 years old using the Veterans Health
      Administration (VA) in fiscal year 2014 (October 2013-September 2014) with
      diagnosis and body-mass data were identified in administrative databases (213,985
      of 404,183 women). MST was defined by use of an MST clinic or positive MST
      screen, PTSD by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9)
      diagnosis code (309.81), and weight categories from body-mass index. RESULTS: The
      unadjusted chi-square of MST by obesity showed a modest association: 52% MST
      affected versus 46% non-MST women were obese. MST status was associated with PTSD
      (50% MST vs. 15% non-MST women). A multivariable model of obesity adjusting for
      clinical and demographic covariates estimated a 9% increased risk of obesity from
      MST (adjusted risk ratio [RR] = 1.09). Younger age, African American race, and
      chronic disease such as hypertension and dyslipidemia correlated with obesity.
      Adding PTSD to the model did not affect the association with MST: RR (MST) =
      1.09, RR (PTSD) = 1.00 (not significant). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed
      association of MST with obesity in female veterans, independent of PTSD. Weight
      gain in patients with trauma may add psychological or medical risk to the burden
      of disease shouldered by female veterans with MST. Primary care clinicians may
      need to consider integrating mental health into care of patients with suspected
      history of trauma especially sexual trauma.

PMID- 28880740
TI  - Cytogenetic monitoring of hospital staff exposed to ionizing radiation: optimize
      protocol considering DNA repair genes variability.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chronic occupational exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) induces a wide
      spectrum of DNA damages. The aim of this study was to assess the frequencies of
      micronucleus (MN), sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) and to evaluate their
      association with XRCC1 399 Arg/Gln and XRCC3 241 Thr/Met polymorphisms in
      Hospital staff occupationally exposed to IR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      questionnaire followed by a cytogenetic analysis was concluded for each subject
      in our study. The exposed subjects were classified into two groups based on
      duration of employment (Group I < 15 years; Group II >=15years). The genotypes of
      all individuals (subjects and controls) were determined by the polymerase chain
      reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). RESULTS: DNA damage
      frequencies were significantly greater in IR workers compared with controls (p <
      .05). However, no association arised between XRCC1 399 Arg/Gln and XRCC3 241
      Thr/Met polymorphisms, on one hand, and the severity of DNA damages in the
      studied cohort of Tunisian population, on the other hand. CONCLUSION: Our data
      provide evidence for an obvious genotoxic effect associated with IR exposure and
      reinforce the high sensitivity of cytogenetic assays for biomonitoring of
      occupationally exposed populations. These results indicate that workers exposed
      to IR should have periodic monitoring, along their exposure. The variants,
      rs25487 and rs861539, of XRCC1 and XRCC3 genes have obvious functional effects.
      Paradoxically, these variants are not associated with the severity of damages,
      according to used assays, in the studied cohort of Tunisian population, unlike
      other studies.

PMID- 28880739
TI  - Methionine-supplemented diet affects the expression of cardiovascular disease
      related genes and increases inflammatory cytokines in mice heart and liver.
AB  - Some important environmental factors that influence the development of
      cardiovascular diseases (CVD) include tobacco, excess alcohol, and unhealthy
      diet. Methionine obtained from the diet participates in the synthesis of DNA,
      proteins, lipids and affects homocysteine levels, which is associated with the
      elevated risk for CVD development. Therefore, the aim of this study was to
      investigate the manner in which dietary methionine might affect cellular
      mechanisms underlying CVD occurrence. Swiss albino mice were fed either control
      (0.3% DL-methionine), methionine-supplemented (2% DL-methionine), or a methionine
      deprived diet (0% DL-methionine) over a 10-week period. The parameters measured
      included plasma homocysteine concentrations, oxidative stress by reduced
      glutathione (GSH)/oxidized glutathione (GSSG) ratio, levels of inflammatory
      cytokines IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, and IL-6, as well as expression of genes
      associated with CVD. The levels of apolipoprotein A5 (APOA5), a regulator of
      plasma triglycerides, were measured. The methionine-supplemented diet increased
      oxidative stress by lowering the GSH/GSSG ratio in heart tissues and decreased
      expression of the genes Apob, Ctgf, Serpinb2, Spp1, Il1b, and Sell, but elevated
      expression of Thbs4, Tgfb2, Ccr1, and Vegfa. Methionine-deprived diet reduced
      expression of Col3a1, Cdh5, Fabp3, Bax, and Hbegf and increased expression of
      Sell, Ccl5, Itga2, Birc3, Msr1, Bcl2a1a, Il1r2, and Selp. Methionine-deprived
      diet exerted pro-inflammatory consequences as evidenced by elevated levels of
      cytokines IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, and IL-6 noted in liver. Methionine-supplemented
      diet increased hepatic IL-6 and cardiac TNF-alpha. Both methionine
      supplementation and deprivation lowered hepatic levels of APOA5. In conclusion,
      data demonstrated that a methionine-supplemented diet modulated important
      biological processes associated with high risk of CVD development.

PMID- 28880741
TI  - The impact of repeated organophosphorus pesticide exposure on biomarkers and
      neurobehavioral outcomes among adolescent pesticide applicators.
AB  - Egyptian adolescents are hired as seasonal workers to apply pesticides to the
      cotton crop and may perform this occupation for several years. However, few
      studies examined the effects of repeated pesticide exposure on health outcomes
      The goal of this study was to determine the impact of repeated pesticide exposure
      on neurobehavioral (NB) performance and biomarkers of exposure (urinary
      metabolite) and effect (cholinesterase activity). Eighty-four adolescents from
      two field stations in Menoufia, Egypt, were examined four times: before and
      during pesticide application season in 2010 and again before and during
      application season in 2011. At each of the four time points, participants
      completed a questionnaire, performed an NB test battery, and were assessed for
      urinary levels of the chlorpyrifos metabolite TCPy (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol)
      and blood cholinesterase activity. Following the study cohort over two
      consecutive pesticide application seasons revealed that TCPy levels significantly
      increased following exposure, and returned to baseline levels following the end
      of the application season. Blood butyryl cholinesterase activity exhibited a
      similar pattern. Although NB outcomes displayed learning and practice effects
      over time, deficits in performance were significantly associated with increased
      TCPy levels with reduction in the number of NB measures showing improvement over
      time. Biomarkers of exposure and effect demonstrated changes associated with
      pesticide application and recovery after application ended. Deficits in NB
      performance were correlated with elevated pesticide exposure. Data demonstrated
      that repeated pesticide exposure may exert a long-term adverse impact on human
      health.

PMID- 28880743
TI  - Researching Lift-Assists: Nebulous Complexity.

PMID- 28880742
TI  - Decreased levels of Th17 cells are associated with invasion fungal infections
      after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Delayed immune reconstitution is an important risk factor for
      increased susceptibility to fungal pathogens. However, little is known about the
      association between the recovery of CD4+T cell subsets and invasion fungal
      infections (IFIs) in patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (allo-HSCT). The aim of the study was to analyze the immune
      reconstitution characteristics of CD4+T cell subsets and their association with
      the incidence of IFIs over the first 3 months after allo-HSCT. METHODS: Fifty
      three patients were included, 13 with IFIs. We assessed CD4+T cell subsets and
      the mRNA expression of specific transcription factors T-bet, GATA3, RORgammat,
      and Foxp3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells over three time points. The serum
      levels of IFN-gamma, IL-6, IL-10, and TGF-beta were detected using the enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: CD4+T cell subsets increased progressively
      in non-IFI patients after allo-HSCT. In IFI patients, Th17 cell counts were
      significantly decreased compared to non-IFI patients at 3 months after allo-HSCT.
      IFI patients showed the lower ratios of RORgammat/GATA3 and RORgammat/Foxp3
      compared with non-IFI patients. In addition, we observed increased levels of IFN
      gamma and IL-10 in IFI patients after allo-HSCT. In the multivariate analysis,
      the occurrence of IFIs was independently associated with the incidence of IFIs.
      Finally, we observed a lower CD4:CD8 ratio in IFI patients and its association
      with Th17 cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings supported that Th17 cells may be
      involved in the immune pathology of IFIs after allo-HSCT.

PMID- 28880744
TI  - The effects of phenylethanoid glycosides, derived from Herba cistanche, on
      cognitive deficits and antioxidant activities in male SAMP8 mice.
AB  - Cognitive deficits are closely associated with hippocampal synaptic changes.
      Phenylethanoid glycosides (PhG), derived from Herba cistanche, are known to exert
      protective effects on cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD); however,
      the underlying mechanisms of this herbal extract on cognitive performance remain
      unclear. The aim of this study was thus to examine the protective mechanism
      attributed to PhG on cognitive deficits in an AD senescence accelerated mouse
      prone 8 (SAMP8) model. Cognitive deficit parameters examined included (1) Morris
      water maze (MWM) assessing cognitive performance and (2) quantification of
      dendritic spine density in hippocampal CA1 region by Golgi staining, a molecular
      biomarker of synaptic function. In addition, levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and
      activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and gluthathione peroxidase (GSH-Px)
      were determined to examine the potential role of oxidant processes in cognitive
      dysfunction. Data showed that PhG significantly decreased escape latency and path
      length, associated with a rise in the percentage of time spent in the target
      quadrant and number of platform crossings. In addition, PhG significantly
      increased dendritic spine density in the hippocampal CA1 region accompanied by
      elevated expression levels of synaptophysin (SYN) and post synaptic density 95
      (PSD-95), reduced MDA content, and elevated the activities of SOD and GSH-Px.
      Data suggest that the ability of PhG to ameliorate cognitive deficits in SAMP8
      mice may be related to promotion in synaptic plasticity involving antioxidant
      processes.

PMID- 28880745
TI  - Reply to F. Tomao et al.

PMID- 28880747
TI  - Pembrolizumab in Programmed Death Ligand 1-Positive Endometrial Cancer.

PMID- 28880746
TI  - Metastatic Lymph Node Burden and Survival in Oral Cavity Cancer.
AB  - Purpose Current staging systems for oral cavity cancers incorporate lymph node
      (LN) size and laterality, but place less weight on the total number of positive
      metastatic nodes. We investigated the independent impact of numerical metastatic
      LN burden on survival. Methods Adult patients with oral cavity squamous cell
      carcinoma undergoing upfront surgical resection for curative intent were
      identified in the National Cancer Data Base between 2004 and 2013. A neck
      dissection of a minimum of 10 LNs was required. Multivariable models were
      constructed to assess the association between the number of metastatic LNs and
      survival, adjusting for factors such as nodal size, laterality, extranodal
      extension, margin status, and adjuvant treatment. Results Overall, 14,554
      patients met inclusion criteria (7,906 N0 patients; 6,648 node-positive
      patients). Mortality risk escalated continuously with increasing number of
      metastatic nodes without plateau, with the effect most pronounced with up to four
      LNs (HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.29 to 1.39; P < .001). Extranodal extension (HR, 1.41;
      95% CI, 1.20 to 1.65; P < .001) and lower neck involvement (HR, 1.16; 95% CI,
      1.06 to 1.27; P < .001) also predicted increased mortality. Increasing number of
      nodes examined was associated with improved survival, plateauing at 35 LNs (HR,
      0.98; 95% CI, 0.98 to 0.99; P < .001). In multivariable models accounting for the
      number of metastatic nodes, contralateral LN involvement (N2c status) and LN size
      were not associated with mortality. A novel nodal staging system derived by
      recursive partitioning analysis exhibited greater concordance than the American
      Joint Committee on Cancer (8th edition) system. Conclusion The number of
      metastatic nodes is a critical predictor of oral cavity cancer mortality,
      eclipsing other features such as LN size and contralaterality in prognostic
      value. More robust incorporation of numerical metastatic LN burden may augment
      staging and better inform adjuvant treatment decisions.

PMID- 28880748
TI  - Influence of B-Complex Vitamins on the Pharmacokinetics of Ginsenosides Rg1, Rb1,
      and Ro After Oral Administration.
AB  - After cultivation of ginseng, ginsenosides, which are the major active
      ingredients of gingeng, were approved for use by the food industry, and began to
      be used as added functional ingredients to try to improve the quality and price
      of functional foods. However, the interaction between different types of
      ginsenosides and nutrients needs further study. We investigated the effect of B
      complex vitamins (which are essential nutrients) on the pharmacokinetics of the
      ginsenosides protopanaxatriol-type saponin Rg1, protopanaxadiol-type saponin Rb1,
      and oleanolic acid-type saponin Ro after oral administration. Ginsenosides Rg1,
      Rb1, and Ro, with or without B-complex vitamins, respectively, were administered
      orally to rats to evaluate their pharmacokinetics. The concentration of
      ginsenosides in plasma was determined by liquid chromatography/tandem mass
      spectrometry. Pharmacokinetic parameters were fitted using WinNonlin v6.2. After
      oral coadministration with B-complex vitamins, the area under the concentration
      time curve from zero to infinity (AUC0-infinity) of ginsenoside Rg1 was reduced
      by 70%, that of ginsenoside Rb1 was reduced by 43%, and that of ginsenoside Ro
      was reduced by 34%. The AUC0-infinity of ginsenosides Rg1 and Rb1 showed
      significant differences between different treatments, but the AUC0-infinity of
      ginsenoside Ro did not. These results suggest significant ginsenoside-nutrient
      interactions between ginsenosides Rg1, Rb1, and B-complex vitamins.

PMID- 28880749
TI  - Exposure to decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) produces mitochondrial dysfunction
      in rat liver and cell death.
AB  - Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants.
      Exposure to these chemicals has been associated with developmental neurotoxicity,
      endocrine dysfunctions, reproductive disorders, and hepatotoxicity. The
      widespread use of PBDE as flame retardants has culminated in daily exposure of
      humans and wildlife to these contaminants and resulted in their banned use. Thus
      assessment of the potential effects of each PBDE congener on living organisms has
      become cause for concern. The aim of this study was to (1) examine the effects of
      decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE)-209 on different functions of HepG2 cells and (2)
      investigate whether this congener is involved in mitochondrial toxicity. The use
      of multiple methods was employed to (i) study the influence of BDE-209 on
      mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) process in mitochondria isolated from
      rat liver and (ii) determine the consequential cellular damage. Our results
      showed that BDE-209 induced matrix swelling related to MPT with 10 uM and ATP
      depletion with 0.1 uM. In addition, 0.5 MUM BDE-209 reduced HepG2 cell viability,
      produced collapse of membrane potential, but increased levels of reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) after 48 h incubation. After 24 h with 5 MUM treatment elevated
      levels of ROS, DNA fragmentation and cytochrome c release, accompanied by caspase
      9 and caspase 3 activation was noted. Taken together, these results suggest that
      short-duration exposure (24 or 48 h) to 0.5 MUM or 5 MUM BDE-209 concentrations
      diminished HepG2 cell viability due to apoptosis associated with mitochondrial
      dysfunction.

PMID- 28880750
TI  - Effects of Aqua-Lymphatic Therapy on Lower Extremity Lymphedema: A Randomized
      Controlled Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the aqua
      lymphatic therapy (ALT) on unilateral lower extremity lymphedema in the
      maintenance phase. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a randomized controlled trial
      with a blinded assessor. The study was completed with 30 ALT and 27 control group
      participants. Foot volume was assessed by a water displacement device, limb
      volume by circumference measurements, functional capacity by a 6-minute walk
      test, quality of life by Short Form-36, and social appearance by Social
      Appearance Anxiety Scale and hopeless by Beck Hopeless Scale. The ALT and the
      control group had group sessions twice in a week for 6 weeks directed by a
      physiotherapist. RESULTS: The mean age of ALT patients was 44.50 +/- 13.69 years,
      whereas that of the control patients was 47.66 +/- 16.82 years. After the
      intervention, both groups' measurement of edema, functional level, quality of
      life, as well as social and future concerns improved significantly but this
      improvement was higher in the ALT group (p < 0.05, p <= 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: ALT
      was found to be a safe effective method for unilateral lower extremity lymphedema
      patients during the maintenance phase of Complex Decongestive Physiotherapy.

PMID- 28880751
TI  - Biomarkers-an unmet need in wound care.

PMID- 28880752
TI  - Evaluation of osteopontin expression in chronic wounds: a potential prognostic
      and therapeutic biomarker.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Osteopontin (OPN) is abundantly expressed during tissue repair, acting
      as a powerful chemokine that recruits inflammatory cells such as neutrophils,
      macrophages, and Langerhans cells. The role of OPN in chronic wounds has not been
      explored. In this study, we assess the expression levels of OPN in chronic wounds
      to assess its potential contribution to the exacerbated inflammation seen in
      chronic ulcers, which is thought to contribute to poor healing. METHODS: This
      retrospective study included archived biopsies of chronic wounds from several
      aetiologies. Immunohistochemical staining and blind analysis of OPN expression
      were carried out. RESULTS: We assessed biopsies from venous leg ulcers (n=5),
      diabetic foot ulcers (n=5), pyoderma gangrenosum (n=5), squamous cell carcinoma
      ulcers (n=4), and calciphylaxis ulcers (n=3). The data revealed that all these
      sets of chronic ulcers expressed high levels of OPN. CONCLUSION: This study
      provides strong histopathologic evidence that OPN expression is significantly
      increased in chronic wounds, suggesting that its upregulation could contribute to
      the exacerbated inflammation. Furthermore, further characterisation of the role
      of OPN in wound healing could aid the development of specific and efficient anti
      OPN therapies for the treatment of chronic wounds.

PMID- 28880753
TI  - Patient-centred care and advocacy: a call to action.

PMID- 28880754
TI  - The prevalence and incidence of diabetic foot ulcers among five countries in the
      Arab world: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: There is a rising incidence of diabetes worldwide; however there seems
      to be a higher incidence and prevalence rates in the Arab world when compared
      with the global average. 1 Out of the top 10 countries with the highest
      prevalence rates, six are Arab countries and almost 20.5 million people in that
      part of the world live with diabetes. Despite this, published scientific research
      from the 22 Arab countries is limited and seems to be of lower quality when
      compared with the rest of the developed world. 2 Therefore, our aim was to
      explore the contribution of the different Arab countries in the world literature,
      to identify the diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) prevalence and incidence rates and to
      quality appraise these studies. METHOD: A systematic review, following PRISMA
      guidelines, was undertaken to identify the incidence and prevalence of DFUs in
      the Arab world. The following databases were searched: PubMed, Embase CINAHL, Web
      of Science (Scopus), Global Health and EBSCO Results: A total of nine papers were
      identified. The mean prevalence of DFU in Saudi Arabia was 11.85% (4.7-19%), in
      Egypt was 4.2% (1-7.4%), in Jordan was 4.65% (4-5.3%), in Bahrain was 5.9% and in
      Iraq was 2.7%. A single study identified DFU incidence in Saudi Arabia as 1.8%
      between 2009-2010. CONCLUSION: The mean prevalence rates of DFU were highest in
      Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and lowest in Iraq. Saudi Arabia had the only reported
      incidence study, thus findings could not be compared to other countries of the
      Arab world. There were no studies identified during our search reporting
      prevalence rates of DFU in 17 of the 22 Arab countries. It is clear that further
      research is required to determine the incidence and prevalance of DFUs in the
      Arab world and that progress is needed in order to improve the quality of
      research conducted in those countries.

PMID- 28880755
TI  - Potential correlation of wound bed score and biomarkers in chronic lower leg
      wounds: an exploratory study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The wound bed score is a validated tool to monitor wound healing in
      chronic wounds, and depends on visual examination by trained personnel. This
      study describes the feasibility of adding some biochemical and
      immunohistochemical parameters to increase the objectivity and specificity of the
      wound bed score Method: Patients with chronic wounds on the lower leg with
      different durations were enrolled to assess the correlation between the wound bed
      score and specific wound-related biomarkers, namely MMP-9, MMP-2, NGAL, albumin,
      integrin alpha2/beta1, and other histochemical (CD68, PK1, CD32, fractalkine,
      periostin) and immunocytochemical markers from biopsies and smears taken from
      wound edges and bed. RESULTS: The study examined samples from 10 patients.
      Patients with an unfavourable wound bed score had a low expression of periostin
      and fractalkine in the wound bed tissue. CD68 PK1 showed a low or negative
      expression in the majority of the samples. Patients negative for CD68 PK1 were
      also negative for CD32. Principal component analysis revealed that the albumin
      level and the amount of proteins were associated with a high wound bed score. Two
      different subsets of patients could be discriminated either by integrin
      alpha2/beta1 and albumin percentages or the MMP-9 and MMP-2 activities
      Conclusion: These preliminary results pave the way towards an improved wound
      status diagnosis and an advanced quality of wound care and management. These
      findings need confirming with a large number of patients and at different time
      points.

PMID- 28880756
TI  - How Greek nurses perceive and overcome the barriers in implementing treatment for
      pressure ulcers: 'against the odds'.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although the occurrence of pressure ulcers (PUs) is now considered as
      an indicator of poor quality nursing care, questions and concerns remain
      regarding situations where PUs were unavoidable, irrespective of the care
      provided. The aim of this study was to explore Greek nurses' perceptions about
      the barriers involved and to identify the factors that influence care planning in
      PU treatment. METHOD: A grounded theory approach was used and semi-structured
      interviews were conducted with nurses who provided pressure care to clients in a
      rehabilitation centre in Greece. Data were analysed using the constant
      comparative method. RESULTS: We interviewed seven nurses. Findings revealed one
      main category entitled 'anarchy' in delivery of care consisted of the following
      three subcategories: interdisciplinary conflicts; total trust in traditional
      knowledge; and devaluation of other's work/role and a core category 'Against the
      odds': the perceived value of prevention and treatment can overcome the barriers
      in treating PUs. CONCLUSION: This study gives an overview of the views and
      beliefs of nurses about the problems and barriers involved in PU prevention and
      treatment. The study reveals that although some barriers to good practice may
      exist, nurses can hold a positive attitude toward PU prevention and treatment,
      and their perceived value of prevention and treatment may help nurses to overcome
      the barriers in managing PUs.

PMID- 28880757
TI  - Prospective observational study of single- or multi-compartment pressure ulcer
      prevention cushions: PRESCAROH project.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In patients with reduced mobility, specialised pressure-relieving
      supports (mattresses, beds and cushions) are widely used to reduce or relieve the
      interface pressure between the skin and support surfaces to prevent incidence of
      pressure ulcers (PUs). The primary objective of these two observational studies
      was to assess the incidence of PUs in patients at high risk of PUs, seated in a
      wheelchair using a single- or multi-compartment air cushion. The level of patient
      satisfaction with the comfort and the views of the care team that used the air
      cushions were considered as secondary objectives. METHOD: The PRESCAROH project
      was two prospective observational studies conducted in patients free of PUs at
      baseline and at high risk of PUs (Braden score <=13 or <=16 for people with
      spinal cord injury). Patients had to spend more than eight hours a day in a
      wheelchair and use either a single-compartment air cushion (patient without
      asymmetry of support) for the first study or a multi-compartment air cushion
      (patient with asymmetry of support) for the second study. The primary end point
      was the percentage of patients in whom a PU (sacrum and/or ischium) developed
      over a 35-day period. The analysis was performed on the full-analysis set (FAS)
      of patients included with at least a second assessment. RESULTS: We recruited 152
      patients, 78 seated on a single-compartment air cushion (SiCAC group) and 74 on a
      multi-compartment air cushion (MuCAC group), in the two independent studies. All
      patients were included in the FAS (n=152). Most patients had spinal cord
      injuries. The average time spent sitting was 10.2 (standard deviation (SD): 2.3)
      hours a day in the SiCAC group and 9.1 (SD: 1.9) hours a day in the MuCAC group.
      In the SiCAC group, 6.4% (5/78) of patients dropped out of the study (one patient
      because of pulmonary infection and four patients for cushion installation
      problems). In the MuCAC group, 8.1% (6/74) of patients dropped out of the study
      (three patients because of adverse events not related to cushions, two for onset
      of PU, one for cushion-related problem). Over the study period of 35 days, 2.6%
      (2/78) [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.3-9.0%] of patients in the SiCAC group
      and 4.0% (3/74) [95%CI: 0.8-11.4%] in the MuCAC group developed a PU. CONCLUSION:
      These two observational studies showed that in patients at high risk of PUs and
      seated for more than eight hours a day in a wheelchair, the use of a single
      compartment or multi-compartment air cushion with telescopic cells was associated
      with a low incidence of PUs.

PMID- 28880758
TI  - The clinical effectiveness of haemoglobin spray as adjunctive therapy in the
      treatment of chronic wounds.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate wound healing after application of adjunctive topical
      haemoglobin spray in patients with chronic wounds. METHOD: Consecutive patients
      with a diversity of chronic wounds (defined as <40% reduction in wound size
      within 4 weeks) were treated with standard wound care plus haemoglobin spray and
      evaluated over a 26-week period. Results were compared with a retrospective
      cohort of 50 consecutive patients treated with standard wound care alone.
      RESULTS: We evaluated 50 patients for a 26-week evaluation period, during which
      45/50 patients (90%) treated with haemoglobin spray were completely healed
      compared with 19/50 retrospective control patients (38%) (p<0.001). Mean time to
      complete wound healing was 6.6 weeks (range: 3-22) in the haemoglobin spray group
      compared with 11.4 weeks (range: 3-25) in the control group (p=0.01). Cox
      proportional hazards analysis model adjusting for baseline wound size and months
      wound present also yielded significant treatment effects. Exudate, slough and
      pain levels were all reduced to a greater extent versus control group.
      CONCLUSION: Haemoglobin spray resulted in a higher number of healed wounds and a
      faster rate of healing, as well as a positive impact on other wound parameters.
      These results are in accordance with other published data and supports the
      adjunctive use of haemoglobin spray in patients with a wide variety of chronic
      wounds of all sizes and origins.

PMID- 28880759
TI  - Evidence generation for wound care dressing selection: reviewing the issues.
AB  - In the UK, dressings are categorised as medical devices and manufacturers only
      have to provide limited evidence of effectiveness before dressings are used in
      clinical practice. Therefore, evidence based on clinical trial methods is scant.
      As a direct result, governing bodies in the UK are now recommending that
      decisions to select one dressing over another could mainly be made on price.
      Placed within the movement critiquing evidence-based practice (EBP), this paper
      summarises the main issues surrounding the generation of evidence in selecting
      dressings for wound care, which is immersed in a context that lacks resources,
      legislative clarity and freedom to choose methodological alternatives. Dressings
      are therapeutic medical devices rather than consumables and any rationalisation
      based on costs may have far-reaching implications for wound care clinicians
      through purchasing decisions and thus may limit their ability to manage wounds
      effectively.

PMID- 28880760
TI  - Diabetes and pressure ulcer risk in hip fracture patients: a meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between diabetes
      and pressure ulcer (PU) risk in patients with hip fractures. METHOD: Searches of
      MEDLINE (1966-), ISI Databases (1965-) and Scopus (1996-) were performed for
      English language studies. The search data was 29 July 2016. Odds ratio (OR) for
      PUs were calculated for hip fracture patients with or without diabetes and a meta
      analysis was carried out following meta-analysis of observational studies in
      epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. RESULTS: A total of 8 studies with 22,180
      patients were included in this study. The mean PU incidence was 15.1% in group
      with diabetes compared with 7.5% in the group without diabetes. When comparing
      with and without diabetes meta-analysis showed the summary OR was 1.825 [95%
      confidence interval (CI): 1.373-2.425; z=4.15, p<0.00001]. No significant
      publication bias was found. Sensitivity analysis included prospective studies
      [OR: 1.383, 95%CI: 1.035-1.847] and pooled the adjusted OR [OR: 1.282, 95%CI:
      1.054-1.560] showed the result was robust. Subgroup analysis by PU stage showed
      the summary OR was 1.474 [95% CI 0.984-2.207] for >= category II PU, and 2.814
      [95%CI: 2.115-3.742] for >=category I PU. The meta-regression showed PU incidence
      explained 27.77% proportion of between-study variance, but statistical test
      showed no significance (t=-1.96, p=0.097). CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis
      indicates that diabetes increases the PU risk in hip fracture patients.
      Therefore, specific recommendations should apply for the management of diabetic
      patients with hip fractures at risk of PU.

PMID- 28880761
TI  - Predictive validity of the Braden scale for assessing risk of developing pressure
      ulcers and dependence-related lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In 2014, a new theoretical model explained the mechanism of the
      development of pressure ulcers (PUs) and that of seven types of lesions known as
      dependence-related lesions (DRL). The aim of this study was to calculate the
      incidence of DRL that have been classified as PUs and to check the predictive
      validity of the Braden scale for assessing DRL in accordance with the new
      theoretical model in an intensive care unit (ICU). Method This longitudinal,
      prospective study was conducted in a Spanish ICU. The patients were monitored for
      14 days in the ICU until they developed DRL, died, or were discharged. The
      patients' risk of developing DRL was assessed each day using the Braden scale.
      The following parameters were taken as reference for validating the scale:
      sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive and negative predictive values (PPV
      and NPV, respectively), relative risk (RR) and the area under the receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: Of the 295 patients included in
      the study, 27.5% developed DRL, which 50.6% were categorised as PUs, 17.3% caused
      by moisture, and 13.6% caused by friction. The rest were categorised as caused by
      a combination of factors. Risk according to the Braden scale was greater in the
      group of patients with DRL than in the group of patients without. The highest
      risk score provided the best predictive validity parameters for the DRL (Se 0.90,
      Sp 0.26, PPV 0.31, NPV 0.78 and RR 3.15 [confidence interval (CI) 95%: 1.42
      6.96]). These vaules show the individuals at risk are well detected, although it
      is at the expense of generating a number of false positive cases. CONCLUSIONS:
      The Braden scale has demonstrated a moderate capacity for predicting PUs and DRL
      caused by moisture, but no capacity for predicting DRL caused by friction.

PMID- 28880762
TI  - Low-quality evidence from RCTs is not giving us answers.

PMID- 28880763
TI  - Letters: Response to 'Food for thought: innovation and debate' Journal of Wound
      Care July 2017; 26: 7.

PMID- 28880764
TI  - Comparing the effectiveness and wash-off resistance of skin barrier creams: a
      healthy volunteer study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Preventing moisture damage and breakdown of the skin can be a
      particular challenge for patients with incontinence. The level of protection
      offered by various skin protectant products can vary according to the chemical
      nature of the formulation and can decrease following wash procedures. The aim of
      this study was to compare five silicone-containing skin barrier creams indicated
      for use on incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) in terms of their resistance
      to a standardised wash cycle in healthy volunteer subjects. METHOD: A skin
      surface hygrometer (Skicon 200EX) evaluated skin surface conduction non
      invasively on 36 non-patient subjects using a high-frequency (3.5MHz) electric
      current. This provided an index of the degree of protection given by barrier
      products after a single application and also any reduction in barrier properties
      after a repeated wash procedure. RESULTS: Medi Derma-S barrier cream (MDS),
      Cavilon barrier cream (CBC) and LBF barrier cream (LBF) all demonstrated
      statistically significant differences (p<0.001) in the Skicon values following
      the first moisture challenge compared with Medihoney (MH), Remedy barrier cream
      (RBC) and the untreated control. All other comparisons were not significant
      (p>0.05). Statistical analysis following four moisture challenges reflected the
      results following the first, whereby Skicon values following treatment with MDS,
      CBC and LBF was significantly different compared with MH, RBC and the untreated
      control. Again, all other comparisons were not significant (p>0.05). When
      expressed as percentage barrier effectiveness, the results show a similar pattern
      to the absolute Skicon values. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that
      there were differences between the barrier creams in terms of the initial
      moisture challenge and the resistance to wash-off following a repeated
      standardised wash procedure. It was concluded that MDS, CBC and LBF barrier cream
      all showed significant and equally effective moisture barrier protection and wash
      off resistance.

PMID- 28880765
TI  - The Development and Validation of an In Vitro Airway Model to Assess Realistic
      Airway Deposition and Drug Permeation Behavior of Orally Inhaled Products Across
      Synthetic Membranes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current in vitro approaches to assess lung deposition, dissolution,
      and cellular transport behavior of orally inhaled products (OIPs) have relied on
      compendial impactors to collect drug particles that are likely to deposit in the
      airway; however, the main drawback with this approach is that these impactors do
      not reflect the airway and may not necessarily represent drug deposition behavior
      in vivo. The aim of this article is to describe the development and method
      validation of a novel hybrid in vitro approach to assess drug deposition and
      permeation behavior in a more representative airway model. METHODS: The medium
      sized Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) mouth-throat (MT) and tracheal
      bronchial (TB) realistic upper airway models were used in this study as
      representative models of the upper airway. The TB model was modified to
      accommodate two Snapwell(r) inserts above the first TB airway bifurcation region
      to collect deposited nebulized ciprofloxacin-hydrochloride (CIP-HCL) droplets as
      a model drug aerosol system. Permeation characteristics of deposited nebulized
      CIP-HCL droplets were assessed across different synthetic membranes using the
      Snapwell test system. RESULTS: The Snapwell test system demonstrated reproducible
      and discriminatory drug permeation profiles for already dissolved and nebulized
      CIP-HCL droplets through a range of synthetic permeable membranes under different
      test conditions. The rate and extent of drug permeation depended on the permeable
      membrane material used, presence of a stirrer in the receptor compartment, and,
      most importantly, the drug collection method. CONCLUSIONS: This novel hybrid in
      vitro approach, which incorporates a modified version of a realistic upper airway
      model, coupled with the Snapwell test system holds great potential to evaluate
      postairway deposition characteristics, such as drug permeation and particle
      dissolution behavior of OIPs. Future studies will expand this approach using a
      cell culture-based setup instead of synthetic membranes, within a humidified
      chamber, to assess airway epithelia transport behavior in a more representative
      manner.

PMID- 28880766
TI  - Establishing a Right Frontal Beta Signature for Stopping Action in Scalp EEG:
      Implications for Testing Inhibitory Control in Other Task Contexts.
AB  - Many studies have examined the rapid stopping of action as a proxy of human self
      control. Several methods have shown that a critical focus for stopping is the
      right inferior frontal cortex. Moreover, electrocorticography studies have shown
      beta band power increases in the right inferior frontal cortex and in the BG for
      successful versus failed stop trials, before the time of stopping elapses,
      perhaps underpinning a prefrontal-BG network for inhibitory control. Here, we
      tested whether the same signature might be visible in scalp
      electroencephalography (EEG)-which would open important avenues for using this
      signature in studies of the recruitment and timing of prefrontal inhibitory
      control. We used independent component analysis and time-frequency approaches to
      analyze EEG from three different cohorts of healthy young volunteers (48
      participants in total) performing versions of the standard stop signal task. We
      identified a spectral power increase in the band 13-20 Hz that occurs after the
      stop signal, but before the time of stopping elapses, with a right frontal
      topography in the EEG. This right frontal beta band increase was significantly
      larger for successful compared with failed stops in two of the three studies. We
      also tested the hypothesis that unexpected events recruit the same frontal system
      for stopping. Indeed, we show that the stopping-related right-lateralized frontal
      beta signature was also active after unexpected events (and we accordingly
      provide data and scripts for the method). These results validate a right frontal
      beta signature in the EEG as a temporally precise and functionally significant
      neural marker of the response inhibition process.

PMID- 28880767
TI  - Cross-language Neighborhood Effects in Learners Indicative of an Integrated
      Lexicon.
AB  - This study examined how acquisition of novel words from an unknown language (L2)
      is influenced by their orthographic similarity with existing native language (L1)
      words in beginning adult learners. Participants were tested in a two-alternative
      forced-choice recognition task and a typing production task as they learned to
      associate 80 L2 (pseudo)words with pictures depicting their meanings. There was
      no effect of L1 orthographic neighborhood density on accuracy in the two
      alternative forced-choice task, but typing accuracy was higher for L2 words with
      many L1 neighbors in the earliest stages of learning. ERPs recorded during a
      language decision task before and after learning also showed differences as a
      function of L1 neighborhood density. Across sessions, L2 words with many L1
      neighbors elicited slower responses and larger N400s than words with fewer L1
      neighbors, suggesting that L1 neighbors continued to influence processing of the
      L2 words after learning (though to a lesser extent). Finally, ERPs recorded
      during a typing task after learning also revealed an effect of L1 neighborhood
      that began about 700 msec after picture onset, suggesting that the cross-language
      neighborhood effects cannot solely be attributed to bottom-up activation of L1
      neighbors. Together, these results demonstrate that strategic associations
      between novel L2 words and existing L1 neighbors scaffold learning and result in
      interactions among cross-language neighbors, suggestive of an integrated L1-L2
      lexicon.

PMID- 28880768
TI  - Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study: Design and Methods Validation of
      Personal, Indoor, and Outdoor Air Pollution Monitoring.
AB  - The Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study evaluated the contribution of
      ambient air pollutants to personal and indoor exposures of adults and asthmatic
      children living in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In addition, the role of personal,
      indoor, and outdoor air pollution exposures upon asthmatic children's respiratory
      health was assessed. Several active and passive sampling methods were applied, or
      adapted, for personal, indoor, and outdoor residential monitoring of nitrogen
      dioxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter (PM; PM <=2.5 MUm [PM2.5]
      and <= 10 MUm [PM10] in aerodynamic diameter), elemental carbon, ultrafine
      particles, ozone, air exchange rates, allergens in settled dust, and particulate
      associated metals. Participants completed five consecutive days of monitoring
      during the winter and summer of 2005 and 2006. During 2006, in addition to
      undertaking the air pollution measurements, asthmatic children completed
      respiratory health measurements (including peak flow meter tests and exhaled
      breath condensate) and tracked respiratory symptoms in a diary. Extensive quality
      assurance and quality control steps were implemented, including the collocation
      of instruments at the National Air Pollution Surveillance site operated by
      Environment Canada and at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality site
      in Allen Park, Detroit, MI. During field sampling, duplicate and blank samples
      were also completed and these data are reported. In total, 50 adults and 51
      asthmatic children were recruited to participate, resulting in 922 participant
      days of data. When comparing the methods used in the study with standard
      reference methods, field blanks were low and bias was acceptable, with most
      methods being within 20% of reference methods. Duplicates were typically within
      less than 10% of each other, indicating that study results can be used with
      confidence. This paper covers study design, recruitment, methodology, time
      activity diary, surveys, and quality assurance and control results for the
      different methods used. [Box: see text].

PMID- 28880771
TI  - The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey: Data
      Collection in Small Populations.

PMID- 28880772
TI  - Withering Syndrome in Farmed Red Abalone Haliotis rufescens: Thermal Induction
      and Association with a Gastrointestinal Rickettsiales-like Prokaryote.
AB  - Withering syndrome (WS) is a chronic wasting disease responsible for mass
      mortality in wild populations of black abalone Haliotis cracherodii. The etiology
      of WS is uncertain with limited evidence for the role of a gastrointestinal
      Rickettsiales-like prokaryote (RLP). We documented for the first time the
      occurrence of animals with clinical signs of WS and associated morphological
      changes in another haliotid species, the red abalone H. rufescens. In this study,
      60 juvenile red abalone (8 cm) were randomly selected from a farmed population
      raised at 14 degrees C that was known to have low-intensity RLP infections but
      lacked clinical signs of WS. The abalone were held in triplicate containers
      receiving water of approximately 14.7 degrees C (Control, Co) or 18.5 degrees C
      (elevated temperature, ET) and were fed equally for 220 d. Survival was 100%
      (30/30) for the Co group and 67% (20/30) for the ET group. The ET group animals
      had higher RLP infection intensities and showed more clinical signs (mantle
      retraction, lower weight gain, lower condition index) and morphological changes
      (digestive gland degeneration) associated with WS. In trials conducted
      immediately before termination of the experiment, ET group animals fed at half
      the rate of Co group animals. Among ET group animals, the intensity of RLP
      infections in the posterior portion of the esophagus was positively correlated
      with WS clinical signs and morphological changes, whereas no correlations were
      present among Co group animals. During 1997-1998 and in conjunction with elevated
      seawater temperatures associated with El Nino, several abalone farms in
      California experienced a dramatic increase in the proportion of red abalone
      showing signs of WS. Examination of 66 red abalone from five commercial farms
      revealed that animals with more advanced RLP infections had more severe WS
      clinical signs and associated morphological changes. Collectively, these data
      demonstrate that RLP infection plays a key role in the etiology of WS in red
      abalone and that warm water enhances the severity of the pathogenic effects of
      RLP infection.

PMID- 28880773
TI  - Pfiesteria piscicida and Ulcerative Mycosis of Atlantic Menhaden-Current Status
      of Understanding.
AB  - Ulcerative lesions in estuarine finfish are associated with a variety of
      parasitic, bacterial, and fungal infectious agents as well as water quality and
      other abiotic stress factors. Atlantic menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus are a
      severely affected species typically exhibiting solitary, perianal, focal, deep,
      granulomatous lesions containing oomycete hyphae. Intense recent emphasis in the
      scientific literature and in the popular press has been placed on Pfiesteria-like
      dinoflagellates and their toxins as the causative agents for ulcerative finfish
      lesions in east coast estuaries of the United States. Dramatic descriptive terms
      for Pfiesteria, including "phantom," "ambush-predator" and "the cell from hell,"
      capable of affecting humans, have appeared in scientific journals and the news
      media. However, there is no scientific evidence to date that supports a single,
      causal relationship between the presence of toxic Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellates
      and fish kills or the associated ulcerative lesions. This is due, at least in
      part, to the difficulty of maintaining toxic Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellates in
      clonal culture and, in part, to the presence of other microorganisms in
      laboratory culture systems. Further, there is at present no toxin-specific probe
      to identify Pfiesteria toxins in estuarine environments during fish kills, nor
      has Pfiesteria been isolated from fish lesions. Yet, based on the limited
      published scientific evidence and the popular press coverage, there have been
      river closures, notable economic losses, and public alarm due to Pfiesteria.
      Future research into agents infectious to menhaden, such as Aphanomyces
      (Oomycetes) and toxin-producing estuarine inhabitants like Pfiesteria, is needed.
      These organisms and the disease processes in which they are implicated may also
      serve as markers for overall estuarine condition. Control of microorganisms,
      including Pfiesteria, to improve finfish health in estuaries is unlikely.
      However, using the presence of these microorganisms and their Atlantic menhaden
      hosts as sentinels to help monitor water quality may be a viable approach to
      assist future estuarine management.

PMID- 28880774
TI  - Susceptibility of Arctic Char to Experimental Challenge with Infectious
      Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus (IHNV) and Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus
      (IPNV).
AB  - Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus were exposed to the fish pathogens infectious
      hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and infectious pancreatic necrosis virus
      (IPNV) to estimate susceptibility of the species to infection. Fish were
      immersion challenged at 46, 74, and 95 d posthatch for 5 h in viral concentration
      of 103 or 105 PFU(plaque-forming units)/mL and were monitored for 21 d
      postchallenge. Fish that died were assayed individually for virus-associated
      mortality, and survivors were assayed individually to estimate prevalence of
      virus carrier status. Arctic char succumbed to IHNV infection with population
      losses as high as 41%, and prevalence of IHNV carriers in surviving fish was 24%
      or less with virus titers in carrier fish ranging from 2.5 * 102 PFU/g to greater
      than 1.3 * 106 PFU/g. Infections with IPNV resulted in losses of 20% or less, and
      prevalence of IPNV carriers in surviving fish was as high as 82% with virus
      titers in carrier fish ranging from 2.5 * 102 PFU/g to greater than 5.0 * 106
      PFU/g. Logistic regression models were developed for the mortality and infection
      data for each virus. For IHNV, the odds of dying or becoming infected were
      significantly greater for the fish from the 74-d age-group than for the fish from
      the 46-d or 95-d age-groups. Fish exposed to 105 PFU of IHNV/mL had significantly
      greater odds of dying or becoming infected than fish exposed to 103 PFU/mL. For
      IPNV, the odds of dying were significantly greater for the 74-d age-group
      compared with the other two age-groups. The 74-d fish were also significantly
      more likely to become infected than the 95-d-old fish. Fish exposed to 105 PFU of
      IPNV/mL had significantly greater odds of dying or becoming infected than fish
      exposed to 103 PFU of IPNV /mL.

PMID- 28880775
TI  - A Herpesvirus Associated with Mass Mortality of Juvenile and Adult Koi, a Strain
      of Common Carp.
AB  - A herpesvirus was isolated from adult koi, a strain of common carp Cyprinus
      carpio, suffering mass mortality in two outbreaks-one in the mid-Atlantic region
      of the United States and the second in Israel. The principal external signs of
      dying fish were pale and irregularly colored gills. There were few consistent
      internal signs in either outbreak. The most prominent microscopic lesions were in
      the gills, where hyperplasia and necrosis of the epithelium were severe. Other
      lesions included interstitial nephritis, splenitis, and enteritis. Affected cells
      often contained nuclei with marginated chromatin and faint intranuclear
      inclusions. Typical herpesvirus particles were present in branchial epithelial
      cells, hepatocytes, and among circulating leukocytes. Inoculations of the koi fin
      (KF-1) cell line with tissue extracts from the gill and kidney-spleen resulted in
      cytopathic effects characterized by severe vacuolation first detected after 7 d
      incubation at 20 degrees C. Exposures of adult koi to the herpesvirus as
      propagated in KF-1 cells by bath or intraperitoneal injections resulted in 80
      100% mortality during a 26-d period, and the virus was reisolated from the gill,
      kidney, liver, spleen, intestine, and brain of dead fish. The viral agents from
      koi in Israel and the United States appear to be similar if not identical; both
      could be distinguished from Herpesvirus cyprini by indirect fluorescent antibody
      tests with rabbit anti-H. cyprini serum. Other factors should be examined but we
      strongly suspect that this newly recognized koi herpesvirus (KHV) has the
      potential to be a significant cause of mortality among koi and presumably common
      carp.

PMID- 28880776
TI  - Brain Monoamine Concentrations as Predictors of Growth Inhibition in Channel
      Catfish Exposed to Ammonia.
AB  - Fingerlings of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus exhibited a significant
      exposure-dependent decrease in growth (measured by weight gain and increase in
      total length) and condition factor after 9 weeks of exposure to environmental
      ammonia. Concentrations of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and dopamine in the brain
      decreased significantly whereas the ratio of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)
      to 5-HT increased significantly in exposure-dependent manners. The brain dopamine
      concentrations and the 5-HIAA : 5-HT ratio collectively explained 88% of the
      variation in growth due to ammonia exposure. This study demonstrates the
      potential to predict ammonia-induced inhibition of growth in channel catfish with
      physiological changes.

PMID- 28880777
TI  - Hermaphroditism in Laboratory-Cultured Albino Western Mosquitofish.
AB  - During routine inspection of a colony of albino western mosquitofish Gambusia
      affinis, approximately 10 females were discovered to have distended abdominal
      cavities. Cause for the distention was investigated by examination of tissue
      sections from four sacrificed individuals, all of which suffered severe ascites.
      Hermaphroditic gonads were seen in two of the fish.

PMID- 28880778
TI  - Correlation of Transforming Growth Factor-beta Messenger RNA (TGF-beta mRNA)
      Expression with Cellular Immunoassays in Triamcinolone-Treated Captive Hybrid
      Striped Bass.
AB  - Assessing fish immune status with molecular markers has been hampered by a lack
      of specific reagents. A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method
      (reverse transcription quantitative-competitive PCR, RT-qcPCR) for measuring
      transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) transcription from a broad range of
      teleost fish has recently been developed. The quantitative PCR now permits
      monitoring production of this important immunosuppressive cytokine in response to
      immunomodulating agents and conditions. We examined anterior kidney and spleen
      mononuclear cells from hybrid striped bass (female striped bass Morone saxatilis
      * male white bass M. chrysops) for production of TGF-beta messenger RNA (mRNA) in
      response to administration of the synthetic glucocorticoid triamcinolone. We also
      compared TGF-beta transcription with anterior kidney macrophage bactericidal
      activity and splenic lymphocyte blastogenesis. Anterior kidney mononuclear cell
      TGF-beta mRNA levels decreased, whereas bactericidal activity increased. Spleen
      TGF-beta mRNA levels did not change significantly, and splenic lymphocyte
      pokeweed mitogen stimulation index increased in triamcinolone-treated fish. Since
      triamcinolone is used therapeutically as a suppressive immunomodulator, the
      enhanced immune functions indicated by the cellular immunoassays were unexpected;
      however, the inverse response of TGF-beta production and macrophage bactericidal
      activity was consistent with the known relationship between TGF-beta and
      macrophage activation in mammals. Induced immunomodulation in hybrid striped bass
      was detectable by both traditional cellular immunoassays and the new RT-qcPCR for
      TGF-beta.

PMID- 28880779
TI  - Infections of Edwardsiella tarda among Brook Trout in Quebec.
AB  - Acute bacterial septicemia is commonly diagnosed in brook trout Salvelinus
      fontinalis of Quebec, Canada. The agents most commonly isolated include Aeromonas
      salmonicida (furunculosis), Aeromonas hydrophila (motile aeromonad septicemia),
      and Pseudomonas species. Septicemia in brook trout caused by the gram-negative
      bacterium Edwardsiella tarda was diagnosed for the first time in the province of
      Quebec from two different fish farms producing stock for fee fishing
      establishments. Affected fish displayed nonspecific lesions associated with
      bacterial septicemia including hemorrhages on the gills and viscera and
      exophthalmia. Stress-associated immunosuppression due to an increase in summer
      water temperatures and lack of precipitation were considered as primary causes of
      these disease outbreaks.

PMID- 28880780
TI  - Adsorption and Infectivity of Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus (IHNV) with
      Various Solids.
AB  - Adsorption of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) to sea sand,
      Japanese acid clay, diatomaceous earth, kaolin, bentonite, quartz sand, chitin,
      cellulose powder, ion exchange hydrophobic Toyopeal and Cellulofine, alundum,
      active carbon, silica gel, glass, plastic, and bacterial cells was studied. The
      IHNV adsorbed to several clays (kaolin, bentonite, Japanese acid clay) and
      diatomaceous earth in sterilized water with a wide range of pH (5-11) at
      concentrations of 1, 10, and 100 mg/mL. Except for bentonite, infectivity of clay
      adsorbed IHNV persisted for as long as 9 weeks. The clay-adsorbed IHNV also
      persisted in infectivity to rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, causing cumulative
      mortality rates of more than 73%. The results suggest that IHNV adsorbed to
      naturally occurring substances in various aquatic environments may provide a
      source of infection for susceptible fish inhabiting these environments.

PMID- 28880781
TI  - Detection of Green Turtle Herpesviral Sequence in Saddleback Wrasse Thalassoma
      duperrey: A Possible Mode of Transmission of Green Turtle Fibropapilloma.
AB  - Samples of DNA were prepared from various tissues and organs (including snout,
      gill, eye, brain, heart, liver, gut content, intestine, swim bladder, spleen,
      gallbladder, spinal cord, gonad, and muscle) of six healthy appearing reef
      cleaner fish, saddleback wrasses Thalassoma duperrey, captured from a cleaning
      station in North Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. The DNA samples were tested for
      evidence of green turtle herpesvirus infection by nested polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR). Green turtle herpesviral sequences were detected in snout (3/6),
      gill (2/6), and liver (1/6). All other tissues were negative. Except for a single
      nucleotide substitution (from A to G at position 48, resulting in a single amino
      acid change from isoleucine to methionine at position 16), the DNA sequences
      detected in the fish were identical to that of a newly reported green turtle
      herpesvirus. Although preliminary, these data represent the first evidence for an
      association of a herpesvirus with saddleback wrasse, suggesting that cleaner fish
      may serve as vectors or carriers for the transmission of the agent causing green
      turtle fibropapilloma.

PMID- 28880782
TI  - Increased Virulence in an Introduced Pathogen: Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX) in
      the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica.
AB  - The protistan parasite Haplosporidium nelsoni has caused extensive mortality in
      the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica along the mid-Atlantic coast of the
      United States since 1957. The origin of H. nelsoni has remained unresolved.
      Molecular diagnostic tools were used to examine the hypothesis that a
      haplosporidian parasite in the Pacific oyster C. gigas is H. nelsoni. A DNA probe
      specific for H. nelsoni reacted positively in in situ hybridizations with
      haplosporidian plasmodia from C. gigas collected in Korea, Japan, and California.
      Primers that specifically amplify H. nelsoni DNA in the polymerase chain reaction
      amplified product from Californian C. gigas infected with the haplosporidian
      parasite. The DNA sequence of the 565-base pair amplified product was identical
      to the H. nelsoni sequence except for a single nucleotide transition, a
      similarity of 99.8%. These results are conclusive evidence that the parasite in
      C. gigas is H. nelsoni and strongly support previous speculation that the
      parasite was introduced into Californian populations of C. gigas from Japan.
      Results also support previous speculation that H. nelsoni was introduced from the
      Pacific Ocean to C. virginica on the East Coast of the United States, likely with
      known importations of C. gigas. These results document greatly increased
      virulence in a naive host-parasite association and reinforce potential dangers of
      intentional, but improper, introductions of exotic marine organisms for
      aquaculture or resource restoration.

PMID- 28880783
TI  - Competitive balance trends in elite table tennis: the Olympic Games and World
      Championships 1988-2016.
AB  - Competitive balance is important because it enhances outcome uncertainty and
      therefore it promotes spectator interest, and encourages government investment in
      a sport. This article analyses the distribution of gold medals, medals, medal
      points and top eight points amongst nations in table tennis from 1988 to 2016 at
      the Olympic Games and the World Championships respectively. A normalised version
      of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and a coefficient of variation are calculated
      for each nation's share of these performance indicators. The key findings are
      that China dominates both events, with successful female players being more
      dominant than their male counterparts. The competitive balance for gold medals
      has declined, whilst there is a trend towards improved competitive balance for
      top eight points for women, suggesting that more teams are featuring in the top
      eight (but not necessarily the top three) placings. This research has
      implications for the development of table tennis competitions. Compared to other
      racket sports, the issue of competitive imbalance in table tennis is particularly
      thorny, which threatens the long-term development of this sport. Accordingly,
      some measures are recommended for the International Olympic Committee and the
      International Table Tennis Federation to propel a more balanced development of
      international table tennis.

PMID- 28880786
TI  - Low-Molecular-Weight Iron Chelates May Be an Alternative to Gadolinium-based
      Contrast Agents for T1-weighted Contrast-enhanced MR Imaging.
AB  - Purpose To synthesize two low-molecular-weight iron chelates and compare their T1
      contrast effects with those of a commercial gadolinium-based contrast agent for
      their applicability in dynamic contrast material-enhanced (DCE) magnetic
      resonance (MR) imaging. Materials and Methods The animal experiments were
      approved by the local ethics committee. Two previously described iron (Fe)
      chelates of pentetic acid (Fe-DTPA) and of trans-cyclohexane diamine tetraacetic
      acid (Fe-tCDTA) were synthesized with stability constants several orders of
      magnitude higher than those of gadolinium-based contrast agents. The T1 contrast
      effects of the two chelates were compared with those of gadopentetate dimeglumine
      in blood serum phantoms at 1.5 T, 3 T, and 7 T. For in vivo studies, a human
      breast cancer cell line (MDA-231) was implanted in five mice per group. The
      dynamic contrast effects of the chelates were compared by performing DCE MR
      imaging with intravenous application of Fe-DTPA or Fe-tCDTA on day 1 and DCE MR
      imaging in the same tumors with gadopentetate dimeglumine on day 2. Quantitative
      DCE maps were generated with software and were compared by means of a one-tailed
      Pearson correlation test. Results Relaxivities in serum (0.94 T at room
      temperature) of Fe-tCDTA (r1 = 2.2 mmol-1 . sec-1, r2 = 2.5 mmol-1 . sec-1) and
      Fe-DTPA (r1 = 0.9 mmol-1 . sec-1, r2 = 0.9 mmol-1 . sec-1) were approximately
      twofold and fivefold lower, respectively, compared with those of gadopentetate
      dimeglumine (r1 = 4.1 mmol-1 . sec-1, r2 = 4.8 mmol-1 . sec-1). Used at
      moderately higher concentrations, however, iron chelates generated similar
      contrast effects at T1-weighted MR imaging in vitro in serum, in vivo in blood,
      and for DCE MR imaging of breast cancer xenografts. The volume transfer constant
      values for Fe-DTPA and Fe-tCDTA in the same tumors correlated well with those
      observed for gadopentetate dimeglumine (Fe-tCDTA Pearson R, 0.99; P = .0003; Fe
      DTPA Pearson R, 0.97; P = .003). Conclusion Iron-based contrast agents are
      promising as alternatives for contrast enhancement at T1-weighted MR imaging and
      have the potential to contribute to the safety of MR imaging. (c) RSNA, 2017
      Online supplemental material is available for this article.

PMID- 28880789
TI  - Pathology of Oropharyngeal Fibropapillomatosis in Green Turtles Chelonia mydas.
AB  - Complete gross and histopathologic examinations of the oral cavity, tongue,
      pharynx, larynx, and glottis were performed in five Hawaiian green turtles
      Chelonia mydas with fibropapillomatosis. These examinations demonstrated that the
      oropharyngeal fibropapillomas were similar to characteristic external
      fibropapillomas previously described for green turtles. The size, appearance, and
      anatomic site of the tumors confirmed that these turtles presented total or
      partial occlusion of the nasopharynx, glottis, larynx, and adjacent tissues. The
      fibropapillomas of the oropharynx were considered locally invasive and severely
      modified the morphophysiology of respiration and feeding in these turtles. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first report of oropharyngeal
      fibropapillomatosis in sea turtles.

PMID- 28880787
TI  - Targeting STAT3 to Suppress Systemic Pro-Oncogenic Effects from Hepatic
      Radiofrequency Ablation.
AB  - Purpose To (a) identify key expressed genes in the periablational rim after
      radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and their role in driving the stimulation of
      distant tumor growth and (b) use adjuvant drug therapies to block key identified
      mediator(s) to suppress off-target tumorigenic effects of hepatic RFA. Materials
      and Methods This institutional animal care and use committee-approved study was
      performed in C57BL6 mice (n = 20) and F344 rats (n = 124). First, gene expression
      analysis was performed in mice after hepatic RFA or sham procedure; mice were
      sacrificed 24 hours to 7 days after treatment. Data were analyzed for
      differentially expressed genes (greater than twofold change) and their functional
      annotations. Next, animals were allocated to hepatic RFA or sham treatment with
      or without STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) inhibitor
      S3I-201 for periablational phosphorylated STAT3 immunohistochemistry analysis at
      24 hours. Finally, animals with subcutaneous R3230 adenocarcinoma tumors were
      allocated to RFA or sham treatment with or without a STAT3 inhibitor (S3I-201 or
      micellar curcumin, eight arms). Outcomes included distant tumor growth,
      proliferation (Ki-67 percentage), and microvascular density. Results At 24 hours,
      217 genes had altered expression (107 upregulated and 110 downregulated),
      decreasing to 55 genes (27 upregulated and 28 downregulated) and 18 genes (four
      upregulated, 14 downregulated) at 72 hours and 7 days, respectively. At 24 hours,
      STAT3 occurred in four of seven activated pathways associated with pro-oncogenic
      genes at network analysis. Immunohistochemistry analysis confirmed elevated
      periablational phosphorylated STAT3 24 hours after RFA, which was suppressed with
      S3I-201 (percentage of positive cells per field: 31.7% +/- 3.4 vs 3.8% +/- 1.7; P
      < .001). Combined RFA plus S3I-201 reduced systemic distant tumor growth at 7
      days (end diameter: 11.8 mm +/- 0.5 with RFA plus S3I-201, 19.8 mm +/- 0.7 with
      RFA alone, and 15 mm +/- 0.7 with sham procedure; P < .001). STAT3 inhibition
      with micellar curcumin also suppressed postablation stimulation of distant tumor
      growth, proliferation, and microvascular density (P < .01). Conclusion Gene
      expression analysis identified multiple pathways upregulated in the
      periablational rim after hepatic RFA, of which STAT3 was active in four of seven.
      Postablation STAT3 activation is linked to increased distant tumor stimulation
      and can be suppressed with adjuvant STAT3 inhibitors. (c) RSNA, 2017.

PMID- 28880788
TI  - Use of Nicotine in Electronic Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems by US
      Adults, 2015.
AB  - Nicotine in electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS)
      may present a risk of harm to those with cardiovascular disease and the fetuses
      of pregnant women. We assessed the extent to which adult users of ENDS/ENNDS used
      these products with nicotine. We obtained data for this study from a national
      probability survey of 6051 US adults that was conducted in August and September
      2015. Of 399 adult ENDS/ENNDS users who were current smokers, 337 (80.7%) used
      ENDS/ENNDS containing nicotine, whereas only 29 of 71 (36.9%) ENDS/ENNDS users
      who were never smokers used ENDS/ENNDS containing nicotine. Assessments of the
      population health impact of ENDS/ENNDS use among never smokers should take into
      account the extent to which use involves nicotine.

PMID- 28880790
TI  - Isolation, Purification, and Molecular Weight Determination of Serum
      Immunoglobulin from Gulf Menhaden: Development of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent
      Assay to Assess Serum Immunoglobulin Concentrations from Atlantic Menhaden.
AB  - An immunoglobulin M (IgM)-like immunoglobulin was isolated by polyethylene glycol
      precipitation from pooled serum collected from healthy gulf menhaden Brevoortia
      patronus. The immunoglobulin (Ig) was purified by Sephacryl-400 gel filtration
      chromatography. The molecular weight of unreduced, purified Ig was determined to
      be 850 kilodaltons (kD) by high-performance liquid chromatography. A goat
      antiserum against the purified Ig was produced and determined to react with the
      serum Ig of both gulf and Atlantic menhaden B. tyrannus by double gel diffusion.
      When reacted with sera from taxonomically unrelated species of fish, sheepshead
      minnow Cyprinodon variegatus, striped mullet Mugil cephalus, gulf flounder
      Paralichthys albigutta, and hybrid striped bass (white bass Morone chrysops *
      striped bass M. saxatilis), no precipitation bands developed. Furthermore, the
      specificity of the goat antiserum was shown by Western blot analysis to be for
      the 77,000-molecular-weight heavy chain of reduced and alkylated gulf and
      Atlantic menhaden Ig. An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was
      developed for the assessment of Ig concentrations in Atlantic menhaden serum. To
      illustrate the applicability of the ELISA, we assessed the Ig concentration in
      the serum of 542 healthy Atlantic menhaden collected from inland bays of Delaware
      and Maryland in 2000 and 2001. The amount of Ig was estimated to be in the range
      0.26-23.50 mg/mL, with a mean of 7.37 and a standard deviation of 5.12 mg/mL. The
      ELISA was reproducible, as determined by the inter- and intra-assay coefficients
      of variation (100.SD/mean) of 11.2% and 6.8%, respectively, and used very small
      amounts (1-2 MUL) of serum to assess the Ig concentrations from menhaden.

PMID- 28880791
TI  - Case Report: Viral Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis in Farmed Rainbow Trout from
      Mexico.
AB  - This case report provides pathologic and confirmatory diagnostic documentation of
      the first reported clinical epizootic of infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) in
      farmed rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss from central Mexico. Both the gross and
      microscopic pathology were consistent with IPN. A virus was isolated in cell
      culture with the cytopathic effect typical of the IPN virus (IPNV). Positive
      identification as IPNV was achieved by means of an IPNV-specific indirect
      fluorescent antibody test and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.
      Further genotyping identified this isolate as the Buhl strain of IPNV, which is a
      member of the West Buxton (A1) serotype of aquatic birnavirus serogroup A.

PMID- 28880792
TI  - The Effects of Two Rearing Salinities on Survival and Stress of Winter Flounder
      Broodstock.
AB  - The goal of this study was to determine rearing conditions that would improve the
      survival of broodstock of winter flounder Pleuronectes americanus. We
      hypothesized that keeping wild winter flounder in iso-osmotic water would reduce
      the energy costs related to osmoregulation; the resulting energy gain could then
      be used for growth or immune responses. Eighty fish were randomly separated into
      four tanks, two containing seawater (SW; 28.7 +/- 0.90/00 (mean +/- SD)) and two
      containing brackish water (BW; 14.7 +/- 1.70/00). Fish were sampled after 2 and 5
      months of captivity for evaluation of their condition and stress status. Between
      the second and fifth months, the condition index increased significantly in both
      salinity groups, whereas body water content decreased. No salinity effect in
      terms of growth, condition, or energy reserves was found. However, the fish in BW
      showed much lower mortality. We found that the fish in SW had higher levels of
      the physiological indicators of stress than those in BW, which could have
      increased the risk of opportunistic infections in the former. Also, thrombocytes
      were absent in the SW fish after 2 months of captivity, which may have
      contributed to some mortalities. The lower resistance of certain opportunistic
      pathogens to BW is another possible explanation as to why fish in BW had lower
      occurrences of infectious diseases.

PMID- 28880793
TI  - Errata.

PMID- 28880794
TI  - Histopathological Evidence of Regeneration following Hepatotoxic Effects of the
      Cyanotoxin Microcystin-LR in the Hardhead Catfish and Gulf Killifish.
AB  - The cyanobacterial toxin microcystin-LR (MC-LR) causes liver damage in several
      freshwater fish species. In the present study, two estuarine species, hardhead
      catfish Arius felis and gulf killifish Fundulus grandis, were injected
      intraperitoneally with MC-LR at 45-300 MUg/kg and their livers examined
      histopathologically for up to 23 d postinjection (PI) in the catfish and 5 d PI
      in the killifish. The livers from both species exhibited extensive, diffuse
      hepatocellular necrosis by 6 h PI. The necrosis persisted, and by day 2 large
      numbers of basophilic cells had emerged throughout the liver parenchyma. These
      cells occurred individually or in small clusters. By 72 h, the basophilic cells
      appeared to be highly proliferative with numerous mitotic figures and were
      arranged in cords and tubules similar to mature hepatic parenchyma. Regeneration
      of the liver parenchyma was noted in gulf killifish at 5 d PI, as tracts of
      basophilic cells were still evident. In hardhead catfish, there were no signs of
      necrosis or proliferating basophilic cells by 9 d PI, and the hepatic parenchyma
      appeared normal except for the vacuolation of many hepatocytes and some areas of
      hepatic megalocytosis. The degenerative changes in the two species studied were
      similar to but more pronounced than those observed in freshwater fish species
      exposed to MC-LR. Evidence of regeneration from the hepatotoxic effects of MC-LR
      suggests that the toxin can be used to study regenerative processes in fish
      livers.

PMID- 28880795
TI  - The Epidemiology of Bacterial Diseases in Food-Size Channel Catfish.
AB  - Enteric septicemia of catfish (ESC) and columnaris are the most economically
      important bacterial diseases affecting the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus
      industry in the United States. Although these two diseases have been extensively
      researched, little is known about their prevalence and epidemiology in production
      systems. In 1997, a two-part survey of catfish producers in Alabama, Arkansas,
      Louisiana, and Mississippi was conducted to estimate the proportion of ponds and
      catfish operations that have these diseases and to develop information on the
      risk factors associated with reporting an occurrence. The response rates to the
      two phases of the survey were 65.6% and 75.3%, respectively. Overall, 78.1% of
      all operations and 42.1% of all ponds experienced problems with ESC/columnaris.
      Higher percentages of large operations and ponds on large operations experienced
      these problems. The most frequently reported average loss per outbreak of the two
      diseases was 200-2,000 lb (1 lb = 0.454 kg) per outbreak. Univariate analysis and
      multivariable regression modeling of the survey data identified three possible
      risk factors associated with ESC/columnaris, namely, operation size, stocking
      density, and feeding rate. Conversely, operations that produced their own
      fingerlings and those that drained ponds at intervals of 3 years or less were
      less likely to report losses. The associations identified in this study do not
      establish firm causal relationships, but they do generate hypotheses about
      managerial and environmental interactions that represent substantial risks to
      production.

PMID- 28880796
TI  - Vaccination against Furunculosis in Arctic Char: Efficacy of a Commercial
      Vaccine.
AB  - Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus are susceptible to furunculosis, a serious
      bacterial disease that affects the productivity of salmonid farms around the
      world. The objective of this laboratory study was to evaluate the efficacy of a
      commercially available vaccine against furunculosis in two strains of Arctic
      char. Labrador and Nauyuk char were injected with Aqua Health Furogen 2 or 0.9%
      NaCl. At 87 and 108 d postvaccination, fish were challenged with Aeromonas
      salmonicida by immersion. In both challenges, the Aqua Health vaccine provided
      significant protection against furunculosis; percent cumulative mortality was
      significantly (P = 0.005) greater for the fish vaccinated with 0.9% NaCl than for
      those vaccinated with Furogen 2. Strain (P = 0.30), days since vaccination (P =
      0.38), and the interaction between vaccine and strain (P = 0.40) were not
      significant. The point estimate for the preventive fraction (PF) was greater than
      0.90 for the Labrador fish vaccinated with Furogen 2; for the Nauyuk fish, the PF
      was 0.89 and 0.38 at 87 and 108 d, respectively. Relative proportion survival
      values were also estimated and were usually similar to, but always lower than,
      the PF estimates.

PMID- 28880797
TI  - Naturally Occurring Invasive Walleye Dermal Sarcoma and Attempted Experimental
      Transmission of the Tumor.
AB  - During the spring 2000 spawning season in Oneida Lake, New York, three walleyes
      Stizostedion vitreum with invasive walleye dermal sarcoma (WDS) were found. This
      was the first observation of invasive WDS in wild adult walleyes. A transmission
      trial was attempted to determine whether the virus associated with these invasive
      lesions would support the development of invasive WDS in an experimental
      transmission model. Transmission using inocula prepared from the invasive lesions
      was very poor compared with that resulting from our typical pooled-tumor
      inoculum. In addition, no invasive WDS developed. We believe that these results
      are due, in part, to a relatively low amount of virus in the invasive tumors,
      which appeared to be in a necrotic state.

PMID- 28880798
TI  - In Memoriam.

PMID- 28880799
TI  - Dose Titration of Walleye Dermal Sarcoma (WDS) Tumor Filtrate.
AB  - Walleyes Stizostedion vitreum were challenged with a topical application of a
      dilution series of cell-free dermal sarcoma tumor filtrates to determine the
      minimum dose of virus needed to induce these walleye tumors. A series of six 10
      fold dilutions of the filtrate were applied to the side of the fish, which were
      allowed to develop grossly visible tumors at 15 degrees C for 20 weeks.
      Quantification of the virus in the filtrates was accomplished by quantitative
      (real-time) reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. We determined that
      there are approximately 1010 viral RNA copies in 100 MUL of walleye dermal
      sarcoma inoculum. The minimum dose of walleye dermal sarcoma virus that could
      induce tumors by the topical challenge method was the 1,000-fold dilution of this
      1010 inoculum, or approximately 107 viral RNA copies.

PMID- 28880800
TI  - Morphologic, Pathologic, and Genetic Investigations of Bolbophorus Species
      Affecting Cultured Channel Catfish in the Mississippi Delta.
AB  - Trematodes belonging to the genus Bolbophorus have recently been reported as the
      cause of substantial morbidity and mortality in cultured channel catfish
      Ictalurus punctatus in Mississippi and Louisiana. Previous investigators
      identified only a single species, B. confusus. In this investigation, genetic
      techniques were used to identify all stages of the parasite in all of its hosts.
      The 18s rRNA genes from specimens collected in Mississippi were sequenced and
      compared; this analysis revealed that there are two distinct species, B.
      damnificus (previously identified as B. confusus) and another, undescribed
      species. (Phylogenetic analysis indicated that a third species, B. levantinus, is
      also closely related to the Mississippi species.) Species-specific polymerase
      chain reaction assays capable of identifying and differentiating between these
      two parasites were developed. Both species were found to infect the first
      intermediate host (the ram's horn snail Planorbella trivolvis) in commercial
      channel catfish ponds, but only B. damnificus was recovered from the fish
      themselves. The new, unidentified Bolbophorus species was determined to be highly
      pathogenic to a number of fish species. The contribution of B. damnificus to
      disease in cultured channel catfish remains undetermined. Future investigations
      of these parasites must now take into account the presence of two distinct
      species.

PMID- 28880801
TI  - EFFECT OF CATALYST PREPARATION CONDITIONS ON THE HYDRODESULFURIZATION OF
      THIOPHENE OVER Co-Mo/gamma-Al2O3.
AB  - The purpose of this research was to study the effects of preparation conditions
      on the catalytic properties of the Co-Mo/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst. The work included
      catalyst preparations and reactions. In the preparations, cobalt-impregnated
      Mo/gamma-Al2O3 (designated as IcIM) was found to have a promoting effect on the
      hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of thiophene. Activity and stability of IcIM was
      higher than that of Mo/gamma-Al2O3. Conversely, when cobalt was added onto
      Mo/gamma-Al2O3 by the mechanical mixing method, no promoting effect was observed.
      Mo/gamma-Al2O3 was also prepared using the two different methods (incipient
      impregnation or mechanical mixing). The differently prepared Mo/gamma-Al2O3
      resulted in no obvious difference in activity of IcIM. It was further found that
      Co-Mo/gamma-Al2O3 activity initially increased appreciably with Mo content and
      leveled off at Mo contents above 9 wt.%. The catalyst exhibited a maximum
      activity at Co/Mo ratio 0.3. The order in which metal species were added had a
      great influence on the activity of the Co-Mo/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst. Higher
      activity was obtained when Co was added into Mo/gamma-Al2O3 as opposed to Mo
      added into Co/gamma-Al2O3.

PMID- 28880802
TI  - ESTIMATION OF ATMOSPHERIC MIXING HEIGHTS OVER LARGE AREAS USING DATA FROM AIRPORT
      METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS.
AB  - For this study, ground and sounding meteorological data at 16 airports were used
      for estimating the atmospheric mixing heights in Hebei Province of China,
      including Beijing and Tanjing areas. Three methods were compared for this
      purpose, which are the dry adiabatic method, the conventional Nozaki model, and a
      modified Nozaki model. The feasibility of using airport meteorological data to
      determine mixing heights in large area was verified through the use of measured
      mixing heights and observed SO2 vertical profiles. The study not only estimated
      the mixing heights over large areas but also compared different early morning
      sounding temperature profiles to identify feasibility of using 2:00 a.m. sounding
      profiles to estimate mixing height by the dry adiabatic method. The paper also
      described the mixing heights over different areas such as mountain, sea boundary
      and plain areas. The results have considerable significance for air quality
      prediction and environmental management. A novel approach to estimation of
      atmospheric mixing heights over large area is introduced, requiring only the
      input of readily available airport meteorological data.

PMID- 28880803
TI  - THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF USING RIVER SEDIMENT FOR VIETNAMESE AGRICULTURE: A CASE
      STUDY OF THE NHIEU LOC CANAL IN HO CHI MINH CITY.
AB  - This study was conducted to assess the potential of river sediment for amendment
      of agricultural land with respect to heavy metal mobilization. The mobility and
      concentration of bioavailable heavy metal containing in the sediment were
      evaluated with the use of DTPA (diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid) extraction
      techniques. Sum of metals in exchangeable and carbonate fractions obtained from
      sequential extraction scheme was used to evaluate the potential plant available.
      Four land blocks of size (1 m * 5.8 m) were prepared for cabbage field experiment
      and applied with different loading rates of sediment (~28 and 42 ton/ha or
      equivalent to 100 kgN/ha and 150 kgN/ha). In parallel test, land blocks treated
      with fertilizer at similar nitrogen loading rates were also conducted for
      comparisons. Pure soil plot was used as a control system. Results show that both
      plant available and total heavy metal concentration were found higher in those
      plots treated with higher loading rates of sediment (42 ton/ha). The
      concentrations of heavy metals (Cu,Zn,Pb) in soil were decreased with time after
      crop harvesting and the residues remain in the soil were well below those of the
      UK, USA and Germany standards. Simple linear regression was used to show the
      correlation between the DTPA extractable metals and the plant metals fractions
      (root and shoot) resulting from fertilizer and sediment applications in the
      amended soils. In most cases, plant available metal concentrations showed
      positively correlated with plant metal uptake concentrations (R 2 = 0.01-0.95, n
      = 3). Concentration of metals in the cabbage tissue detected: Zn at 131.53 +/-
      10.43 mg kg-1 DM, Cu at 20.84 +/- 1.62 mg kg-1 DM, Pb at 0.09 +/- 0.01 mg kg-1
      DM, Cd at 0.21 +/- 0.09 mg kg-1 DM and Ni at 0.44 +/- 0.05 mg kg-1 DM. None of
      these metals concentration exceeded the tolerable limits of plant. One-way
      analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to find out the effect of different soil
      amendments on cabbage yield in term of fresh and dry weights. The sequence of
      crop yields in this field studies for amended soils is chemical
      fertilizer>sediment>control soil.

PMID- 28880804
TI  - AN EVALUATION OF RESIDUES AT AN OIL REFINERY SITE FOLLOWING FIRES.
AB  - Soil pollution at the oil refinery at Novi Sad following destruction of crude oil
      and its products in storage tanks during the Kosovo conflict was investigated.
      More than 100, 000 t of crude oil and its products were destroyed, and about 90%
      of these were burnt off, 10% leached and 130 t recovered. The acute injection of
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to the air of the town was widespread
      depending on the weather conditions and ranged from 1-431, 000 ng/m3. The
      presence of PAHs, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and elements in the surface
      zone and soil core samples taken from various sites were determined up to a depth
      of 100 cm. Concentrations of PAHs were in the range between 0.75 and 86.19 ug/g
      dry soil. The contaminated soil can be expected to act as a permanent pollution
      source, while the mobile constituents are likely to cause groundwater pollution.

PMID- 28880805
TI  - A Prospective One-Year Microbiologic Survey of Combined Pneumonia and Respiratory
      Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pneumonia and respiratory failure are common problems in the
      intensive care unit (ICU) setting, often occurring together. The relative
      prevalence of pneumonia types (community acquired, hospital acquired, ventilator
      associated) and causative pathogens is not well described in patients with
      respiratory failure. METHODS: This was a prospective observational cohort study
      conducted in the medical ICU (34 beds) of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, an academic
      referral center of 1,300 beds from January 2016-December 2016. All patients who
      were prospectively adjudicated to have respiratory failure and pneumonia (RFP)
      regardless of pneumonia type were classified into one of four microbiologic
      categories: pathogen negative, antibiotic-susceptible pathogen (according to
      ceftriaxone susceptibility), antibiotic-resistant pathogen, and viruses. The
      primary outcomes assessed were the hospital mortality rate and inappropriate
      initial antibiotic therapy (IIAT) for non-viral pathogens. RESULTS: Among 364
      consecutive patients with RFP, 63 (17.3%) had organisms that were antibiotic
      susceptible, 104 (28.6%) had antibiotic-resistant organisms, 118 (32.4%) were
      pathogen negative, and 79 (21.7%) had viral infections. For these categories,
      IIAT occurred in 3.2%, 21.2%, 0.8%, and 0, respectively (p < 0.001). Vasopressor
      requiring shock was present in 61.9%, 72.1%, 68.6%, and 67.1%, respectively (p =
      0.585), and the hospital mortality rates were 27.0%, 48.1%, 31.4%, and 36.7%,
      respectively (p = 0.020). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified
      IIAT as an independent predictor of in-hospital death (adjusted odds ratio 5.28;
      95% confidence interval 2.72-10.22; p = 0.012). Male gender, increasing Acute
      Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores, greater age, and the
      presence of shock also predicted death. CONCLUSIONS: Microbiologic categorization
      of patients with RFP suggests that antibiotic-resistant pathogens and viruses are
      associated with the highest mortality rates. Vasopressor-requiring shock was
      common regardless of the microbiologic categorization of RFP. Future development
      and use of rapid diagnostics and novel therapeutics targeting specific RFP
      pathogens may allow more timely administration of appropriate antimicrobial
      therapy and enhance antibiotic stewardship practices.

PMID- 28880806
TI  - Profound barriers to basic cancer care most notably experienced by uninsured
      women: Historical note on the present policy considerations.
AB  - America is considering the replacement of Obamacare with Trumpcare. This
      historical cohort revisited pre-Obamacare colon cancer care among people living
      in poverty in California (N = 5,776). It affirmed a gender by health insurance
      hypothesis on nonreceipt of surgery such that uninsured women were at greater
      risk than uninsured men. Uninsured women were three times as likely as insured
      women to be denied access to such basic care. Similar men were two times as
      likely. America is bound to repeat such profound health care inequities if
      Obamacare is repealed. Instead, Obamacare ought to be retained and strengthened
      in all states, red and blue.

PMID- 28880807
TI  - "My heart is in his hands": The lived spiritual experiences of Congolese refugee
      women survivors of sexual violence.
AB  - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced widespread violence,
      including sexual violence. Sexual violence toward women includes rape, genital
      mutilation, and sexual slavery. Many Congolese have sought to escape such
      conditions as refugees in the USA. In the present study, we examined lived
      spiritual experiences of nine Congolese refugee women survivors of sexual
      violence. Overall, this study provides new insights into participants'
      experiences of spirituality in the aftermath of sexual trauma and in living as a
      refugees. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) methods were used to analyze
      participants' responses to a semistructured interview protocol. Participants
      endorsed faith that God was in control, reliance on prayer, gratitude toward God,
      and difficulty practicing their faith in the USA relative to Africa. Results
      indicated that religion/spirituality is an integral part of the women's lives and
      that it appears to facilitate coping. Clinical and community mental health
      implications are discussed.

PMID- 28880808
TI  - Trauma and spirituality: Empirical advances in an understudied area of community
      experience.
AB  - Trauma and spirituality represent an understudied area of community experience.
      As in introductory article for this themed issue for the Journal of Prevention &
      Intervention in the Community, this article describes the importance of
      considering these topics together for individuals and communities across the
      world.

PMID- 28880809
TI  - Urban ministry workers' positive experiences of interpersonal and religious
      support during crisis.
AB  - Research on faith-based urban workers is limited despite the chronic and
      traumatic exposure inherent in their work. This study details the perception of
      positive interpersonal relationships during a time of trauma or crisis as
      described in semistructured 2- to 3-hour interviews with 13 faith-based urban
      workers in Los Angeles, California. Using strategies consistent with Consensual
      Qualitative Research, categories and subcategories defining positive
      interpersonal relationships were identified. Resulting categories suggested that
      there are specific characteristics, products, and types of relationships that
      urban workers experience as important during the time of trauma or crisis.
      Positive experiences were often religious in nature and included feeling
      supported, feeling connected, relationship growth, sharing and listening,
      authenticity, and feeling as through relationships facilitated personal growth or
      coping. The findings highlight participants' need for both practical support and
      relational support which reflects and enhances their spiritual commitment.

PMID- 28880811
TI  - The role of religion in youth exposed to disasters in Sri Lanka.
AB  - Little research is available on the role of religious coping among youth exposed
      to disasters. This study examined the role of general and religious coping in a
      sample of 669 Sri Lankan Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian youth (mean age =
      14). Youth completed a survey with measures of exposure to disaster-related
      stressors, psychological and psychosocial functioning, and general and religious
      coping. Exposure to stressors was the most consistent predictor of negative
      outcomes, while approach-related coping predicted better outcomes for Buddhist
      and Hindu youth. Religious coping was the highest reported type of coping for all
      four religious groups, but was not significantly associated with any of the
      measured outcomes. The results suggest that Sri Lankan youth of different
      religious backgrounds are probably more similar than different in the ways they
      cope with adversity.

PMID- 28880810
TI  - Theodicies and professional quality of life in a nationally representative sample
      of chaplains in the veterans' health administration.
AB  - This study examined the role of theodicies or theological/philosophic attempts to
      resolve existential dilemmas related to evil and human suffering in chaplains'
      professional quality of life (ProQOL). A nationally representative sample of 298
      VHA chaplains completed the recently developed Views of Suffering Scale (Hale
      Smith, Park, & Edmondson, 2012 ) and ProQOL-5 (Stamm, 2010 ). Descriptive results
      revealed that 20-50% endorsed strong theistic beliefs in a compassionate deity
      who reciprocally suffers with hurting people, God ultimately being responsible
      for suffering, and that suffering can provide opportunities for intimate
      encounters with God and personal growth. Other results indicated that chaplains'
      beliefs about human suffering were differentially linked with their sense of
      enjoyment/purpose in working with veterans. These results suggest that theodicies
      might serve as a pathway to resilience for individuals in spiritual communities
      and traditions in USA, particularly for clinicians and ministry professionals who
      are committed to serving the needs of traumatized persons.

PMID- 28880812
TI  - Spiritual well-being after trauma: Correlates with appraisals, coping, and
      psychological adjustment.
AB  - Spiritual issues are often implicated in trauma, yet little research has examined
      the specific pathways through which trauma may affect spiritual well-being or
      relations between spiritual well-being and other aspects of adjustment following
      trauma. Such information would be helpful in developing psychological
      interventions for trauma recovery. In a sample of 436 college students who had
      survived a traumatic experience, a transactional stress and coping perspective
      were used to examine both predictors of three components of spiritual well-being
      (faith, meaning, and peace) and relations between spiritual well-being and other
      aspects of psychological adjustment. Results suggest that different patterns of
      appraisals and coping predict each component of spiritual well-being and that all
      three components-particularly those of meaning and peace-are related to
      psychological adjustment. These results suggest that spiritual well-being is an
      important posttraumatic outcome warranting future research and clinical
      attention.

PMID- 28880813
TI  - Associations between trauma exposure, religious coping, and psychiatric distress
      in a community sample in Nairobi, Kenya.
AB  - Adults (N = 703) in Nairobi, Kenya completed a screening survey in the aftermath
      of the postelection violence (PEV) of 2008. This study examined associations
      between exposure to PEV, prior trauma exposure, religious coping, and psychiatric
      distress. Results indicated a dose-response effect of the amount of PEV and prior
      trauma exposure on the severity of concurrent symptoms of psychiatric distress.
      Over 90% of the sample reported a religious affiliation, and the majority of
      participants also reported frequent use of religious coping strategies. However,
      there was no significant effect for the use of turning to religion as a form of
      coping on psychiatric distress. Study results aligned with existing research on
      the dose-response, cumulative effect of frequent exposure to trauma. Further
      research can investigate the nuanced ways that community members use their
      religion to cope.

PMID- 28880815
TI  - Effects of a national smoking ban on hospital admissions for cardiovascular
      diseases: a time-series analysis in Taiwan.
AB  - On January 11, 2009, a comprehensive smoking ban was implemented in Taiwan. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of this ban on hospital admissions
      for ischemic heart disease (IHD). Trends in the country-level monthly hospital
      admission rates for IHD were determined and frequency compared to other
      conditions such as control conditions cholecystitis, bowel obstruction, and
      appendicitis from January 1997 (1 year before the first phase of smoke-free laws
      was implemented) to December 2012 (3 years after the second phase of the ban).
      Poisson regression with a monthly time-series model was used to determine
      alterations in the trend of admission rates for IHD with comparison to rates of
      other disorders after the ban. Hospital admissions for IHD decreased by 0.8%
      (incidence rate ratio [RR]: 0.992; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.991-0.994)
      and 1.1% (incidence RR: 0.989; 95% CI = 0.988-0.991) following the first
      (September 19, 1997 to January 10, 2009) and second (January 11, 2009 to December
      31, 2012) phases of the ban, respectively, compared with those prior to the pre
      ban period, the corresponding values for the control conditions were 0.6% (95% CI
      = 0.5%-0.7%) and 0.7% (95% CI = 0.6%-0.9%). The admission rates significantly
      fell for both men and women and for all examined age categories after both first
      and second phases of the ban. The present findings provide evidence of a
      significant reduction in hospital admissions for IHD in Taiwan following smoking
      bans.

PMID- 28880814
TI  - Investigation of full-scale ozonation at a municipal wastewater treatment plant
      using a toxicity-based evaluation concept.
AB  - Effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are known to be
      point sources of micropollutants for surface waters. The aim of this study was to
      examine a reconstructed full-scale ozonation equipped with a pump-injector system
      for ozone (O3) dosage and a fluidized moving-bed reactor as biological
      posttreatment at a municipal WWTP utilizing an effect-directed approach. This
      approach consists of chemical analysis in combination with toxicological tests
      for the assessment of treatment efficiency of the plant. Chemical analysis showed
      elimination rates > 80% for pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals. Analysis of
      endocrine disruptors was limited due to substance concentrations below the limit
      of detection (LOD). Estrogenic activity was detected by the Arxula Adeninivorans
      yeast estrogen screen (A-YES) at low concentrations (pg to ng EEQ/l range).
      Estrogenic activity was reduced by more than 90% after ozonation. In contrast,
      androgenic activity (measured in the Adeninivorans yeast androgen screen, A-YAS)
      was still found after O3 treatment and after biological posttreatment, which is
      consistent with the data obtained by chemical analysis. Furthermore, no marked
      genotoxic or cytotoxic effects were observed after ozonation using the alkaline
      comet and 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromid (MTT)
      assays, respectively. Results suggest that the applied specific O3 dose of 0.4
      mgO3/mgDOC is a safe operation setup in terms of toxicologically relevant
      transformation products. In addition, no adverse effects on primary producers, as
      evidenced by algae growth inhibition tests, were detected. The monitored biofilm
      growth in the biological posttreatment exhibited a steady state after one month.
      Based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and biomass, one might
      conclude that O3 did not apparently enter biological posttreatment to a great
      extent and that hydraulic retention time in the O3 reactor was sufficient. Our
      data demonstrate the effectiveness of a full-scale O3 treatment in combination
      with a fluidized moving-bed reactor as biological posttreatment for the reduction
      of a majority of micropollutants without the release of relevant toxic
      transformation products as assessed by a chemical and toxicity-based approach.

PMID- 28880818
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28880816
TI  - 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine, a DNA methylation inhibitor, induces cytotoxicity, cell
      cycle dynamics and alters expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 and 3A in mouse
      hippocampus-derived neuronal HT22 cells.
AB  - Epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation are essential for processes of gene
      expression in normal mammalian development. DNA methyltransferases (DNMT) are
      responsible for initiating and maintaining DNA methylation. It is known that 5
      Aza-CdR, an inhibitor of DNMT induces cytotoxicity by reducing DNMT activity in
      various tumor cell lines. However, disturbances in neuronal DNA methylation may
      also play a role in altered brain functions. Thus, it was of interest to
      determine whether alterations in DNA methylation might be associated with
      neuronal functions by using 5-Aza-CdR, on mouse hippocampus-derived neuronal HT22
      cell line. In particular, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of
      5-Aza-CdR on cell growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis as well as the
      expression levels of DNMT in HT22 cells. HT22 cells were incubated with 5 or 20
      MUmol/L 5-Aza-CdR for 24 h. Data showed that 5-Aza-CdR at both concentrations
      significantly inhibited proliferation of HT22 cells and exacerbated cytoplasmic
      vacuolization. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that 5-Aza-CdR treatment at
      both concentrations decreased early apoptosis but enhanced late apoptosis. Cell
      cycle analysis illustrated that 5-Aza-CdR treatment induced S phase arrest.
      Further, incubation with 5-Aza-CdR produced a down-regulation in expression of
      mRNA and protein DNMT1 and 3A but no marked changes were noted in DNMT 3B and p21
      expression. In addition, DNMT1 activity was significantly decreased at both 5-Aza
      CdR concentrations. Evidence indicates that 5-Aza-CdR induced cytotoxicity was
      associated with altered mRNA and protein expression of DNMT 1 and 3A associated
      with reduced DNMT1 activity in HT22 cells which might affect brain functions.

PMID- 28880821
TI  - Gu Xueqi (1911-2007).

PMID- 28880822
TI  - Tips for the New Teacher.

PMID- 28880825
TI  - Transient Elevated Serum Prolactin in Trans Women Is Caused by Cyproterone
      Acetate Treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Hormone treatment in trans women in Europe usually consists of the
      administration of estrogens and antiandrogens, for example, cyproterone acetate
      (CPA). Mild serum prolactin elevations during follow-up are attributed to
      estrogen therapy. This analysis evaluates whether CPA contributes to the
      elevation of prolactin in trans women receiving gender affirming hormones.
      METHODS: This study is part of the endocrine part of the European Network for the
      Investigation of Gender Incongruence (ENIGI). Belgian data were selected for this
      substudy. Trans women who initiated gender affirming hormone treatment and
      underwent orchiectomy were prospectively evaluated. Trans women were treated with
      oral CPA 50 mg in combination with estrogen substitution. Postsurgery, estrogen
      was reinitiated in an unchanged dose. Sex steroids, gonadotropins, and prolactin
      were compared at baseline, pre- and postsurgery in patients receiving
      orchiectomy, and at baseline, 12, and 18 months in patients who did not undergo
      orchiectomy. RESULTS: One hundred and seven trans women participated in this
      analysis, with a mean age of 31.5 years. An increase in serum prolactin levels
      was seen in the group undergoing orchiectomy (23.72 MUg/L) and not undergoing
      orchiectomy (23.05 MUg/L) at the preoperative and 12-month visit, compared with
      baseline (9.42 MUg/L, P = 0.002 and 9.94 MUg/L, P < 0.001, respectively). After
      orchiectomy, a decline in prolactin levels (10.17 MUg/L, P < 0.001) occurred.
      CONCLUSIONS: CPA is likely to cause a temporary increase in serum prolactin, with
      prolactin levels returning to normal after orchiectomy and CPA discontinuation.

PMID- 28880829
TI  - Letters to the Editor.

PMID- 28880830
TI  - Developing a High-Resolution Vehicular Emission Inventory by Integrating an
      Emission Model and a Traffic Model: Part 2-A Case Study in Beijing.
AB  - A grid-based, bottom-up method has been proposed by combining a vehicle emission
      model and a travel demand model to develop a high-resolution vehicular emission
      inventory for Chinese cities. Beijing is used as a case study in which the focus
      is on fuel consumption and emissions from hot-stabilized activities of light-duty
      gasoline vehicles (LGVs) in 2005. The total quantity of emissions, emission
      intensity, and spatial distribution of emissions at 1- by 1-km resolution are
      presented and compared with results from other inventory methods commonly used in
      China. The results show that the total daily fuel consumption and vehicular
      emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and oxides of
      nitrogen from LGVs in the Beijing urban area in 2005 were 1.95 * 107 L, 4.28 *
      104 t, 1.97 * 103 t, 0.28 * 103 t, and 0.14 * 103 t, respectively. Vehicular fuel
      consumption and emissions show spatial variations that are consistent with the
      traffic characteristics. The grid-based inventory developed in this study
      reflects the influence of traffic conditions on vehicle emissions at the
      microscale and may be applied to evaluate the effectiveness of traffic-related
      measures on emission control in China.

PMID- 28880831
TI  - Developing a High-Resolution Vehicular Emission Inventory by Integrating an
      Emission Model and a Traffic Model: Part 1-Modeling Fuel Consumption and
      Emissions Based on Speed and Vehicle-Specific Power.
AB  - To improve the accuracy and applicability of vehicular emission models, this
      study proposes a speed and vehicle-specific power (VSP) modeling method to
      estimate vehicular emissions and fuel consumption using data gathered by a
      portable emissions monitoring system (PEMS). The PEMS data were categorized into
      discrete speed-VSP bins on the basis of the characteristics of vehicle driving
      conditions and emissions in Chinese cities. Speed-VSP modal average rates of
      emissions (or fuel consumption) and the time spent in the corresponding speed-VSP
      bins were then used to calculate the total trip emissions (or fuel consumption)
      and emission factors (or fuel economy) under specific average link speeds. The
      model approach was validated by comparing it against measured data with
      prediction errors within 20% for trip emissions and link-speed-based emission
      factors. This analysis is based on the data of light-duty gasoline vehicles in
      China; however, this research approach could be generalized to other vehicle
      fleets in other countries. This modeling method could also be coupled with
      traffic demand models to establish high-resolution emissions inventories and
      evaluate the impacts of traffic-related emission control measures.

PMID- 28880833
TI  - Emission Characteristics of Granulated Fuel Produced from Sewage Sludge and Coal
      Slime.
AB  - The neutralization of wastewater treatment residues is an issue for many
      countries. The European Union (EU) legal regulations have limited the use of the
      residues in agriculture and implemented a ban for their disposal. Therefore,
      urgent action should be taken to find solutions for the safe disposal of sewage
      sludge. The problem refers in particular to the new EU member countries,
      including Poland, where one can now observe an intensive development of sewage
      system networks and new sewage treatment plants. At the same time, these
      countries have few installations for thermal sewage sludge utilization (e.g.,
      there is only one installation of that type in Poland). Simultaneously, there are
      many coal-fired mechanical stoker-fired boilers in some of these countries. This
      paper presents suggestions for the production of granulated fuel from sewage
      sludge and coal slime. Additionally, among others, lime was added to the fuel to
      decrease the sulfur compounds emission. Results are presented of research on fuel
      with two average grain diameters (~15 and 35 mm). The fuel with such diameters is
      adapted to the requirements of the combustion process taking place in a
      stokerfired boiler. The research was aimed at identifying the behavior of the
      burning fuel, with special attention paid to its emission properties (e.g., to
      the emissions of oxides of nitrogen [NOx], sulfur dioxide [SO2], and carbon mon
      oxide [CO], among others). The concentration and emission values were compared
      with similar results obtained while burning hard coal. The combustion process was
      carried out in a laboratory stand where realization of the large-scale tests is
      possible. The laboratory stand used made simulation possible for a wide range of
      burning processes in mechanical stoker-fired boilers.

PMID- 28880836
TI  - Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Virus, Tennessee, USA, March 2017.
AB  - In March 2017, highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H7N9) was detected at 2
      poultry farms in Tennessee, USA. Surveillance data and genetic analyses indicated
      multiple introductions of low pathogenicity avian influenza virus before mutation
      to high pathogenicity and interfarm transmission. Poultry surveillance should
      continue because low pathogenicity viruses circulate and spill over into
      commercial poultry.

PMID- 28880837
TI  - Public Health 3.0: A Call to Action for Public Health to Meet the Challenges of
      the 21st Century.
AB  - Public health is what we do together as a society to ensure the conditions in
      which everyone can be healthy. Although many sectors play key roles, governmental
      public health is an essential component. Recent stressors on public health are
      driving many local governments to pioneer a new Public Health 3.0 model in which
      leaders serve as Chief Health Strategists, partnering across multiple sectors and
      leveraging data and resources to address social, environmental, and economic
      conditions that affect health and health equity. In 2016, the US Department of
      Health and Human Services launched the Public Health 3.0 initiative and hosted
      listening sessions across the country. Local leaders and community members shared
      successes and provided insight on actions that would ensure a more supportive
      policy and resource environment to spread and scale this model. This article
      summarizes the key findings from those listening sessions and recommendations to
      achieve Public Health 3.0.

PMID- 28880838
TI  - Aspirin for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.
AB  - We used data from the 2013 Mississippi Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
      to examine aspirin use for the prevention of primary and secondary cardiovascular
      disease (CVD), based on the 2009 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)
      guidelines, among Mississippi men (aged 45-79 y) and women (aged 55-79 y) and to
      explore differences in aspirin use by sociodemographic characteristics. Among
      those without CVD, 39.1% of men and 45.9% of women reported taking aspirin, and
      among those with CVD, 85.9% of men and 85.1% of women reported taking aspirin.
      Data on preventive use of aspirin by sociodemographic characteristics yielded
      mixed results.

PMID- 28880839
TI  - Differences Between Younger and Older US Adults With Multiple Chronic Conditions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Adults with multiple (>=2) chronic conditions (MCCs) account for a
      large portion of US health care costs. Despite the increase in MCC rates with
      age, most people with MCCs are working age. The study objective was to compare
      adults with MCCs who were younger than 65 years with those aged 65 years or older
      on selected measures to better understand the differences between groups and
      inform interventions that could lower health care costs. METHODS: Data from
      respondents to the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (N =
      201,711) were used to compare adults aged 65 or older with MCCs with those
      younger than 65 with MCCs in unadjusted and adjusted analyses on chronic
      conditions, quality of life measures, disability status, access to health care,
      and modifiable risk factors. MCCs were based on up to 12 chronic conditions
      (heart disease, stroke, asthma, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
      high cholesterol, cognitive impairment, diabetes, depression, chronic kidney
      disease, cancer other than skin, and hypertension). RESULTS: Consistent with 80%
      of all adults being younger than 65, more than 60% of adults with MCCs were
      younger than 65 years. Compared with adults aged 65 or older with MCCs, those
      younger than 65 were more likely to report asthma, cognitive impairment,
      depression, smoking, obesity, poorer access to health care, disability, and worse
      quality of life in both unadjusted and adjusted analysis. CONCLUSION: To decrease
      the burden of chronic diseases, adults younger than 65 with MCCs should get the
      treatment they need to reduce the chance of developing more chronic conditions as
      they age. The ultimate goal is to improve health status and reduce health care
      costs for everyone with MCCs.

PMID- 28880840
TI  - Implementation of Best Practices in Obesity Prevention in Child Care Facilities:
      The Arizona Empower Program, 2013-2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Obesity is a major health concern in every US age group.
      Approximately one in 4 children in Arizona's Special Supplemental Nutrition
      Program for Women, Infants, and Children is overweight or obese. The Arizona
      Department of Health Services developed the Empower program to promote healthy
      environments in licensed child care facilities. The program consists of 10
      standards, including one standard for each of these 5 areas: physical activity
      and screen time, breastfeeding, fruit juice and water, family-style meals, and
      staff training. The objective of this evaluation was to determine the level of
      implementation of these 5 Empower standards. METHODS: A self-assessment survey
      was completed from July 2013 through June 2015 by 1,850 facilities to evaluate
      the level of implementation of 5 Empower standards. We calculated the percentage
      of facilities that reported the degree to which they implemented each standard
      and identified common themes in comments recorded in the survey. RESULTS: All
      facilities reported either full or partial implementation of the 5 standards. Of
      1,678 facilities, 21.7% (n = 364) reported full implementation of all standards,
      and 78.3% (n = 1,314) reported at least partial implementation. Staff training,
      which has only one component, had the highest level of implementation: 77.4% (n =
      1,299) reported full implementation. Only 44.0% (n = 738) reported full
      implementation of the standard on a breastfeeding-friendly environment.
      CONCLUSION: Arizona child care facilities have begun to implement the Empower
      program, but facilities will need more education, technical assistance, and
      support in some areas to fully implement the program.

PMID- 28880841
TI  - Iron replacement therapy: entering the new era without misconceptions, but more
      research is needed.

PMID- 28880843
TI  - A novel dual gating approach using joint inertial sensors: implications for
      cardiac PET imaging.
AB  - Positron emission tomography (PET) is a non-invasive imaging technique which may
      be considered as the state of art for the examination of cardiac inflammation due
      to atherosclerosis. A fundamental limitation of PET is that cardiac and
      respiratory motions reduce the quality of the achieved images. Current approaches
      for motion compensation involve gating the PET data based on the timing of
      quiescent periods of cardiac and respiratory cycles. In this study, we present a
      novel gating method called microelectromechanical (MEMS) dual gating which relies
      on joint non-electrical sensors, i.e. tri-axial accelerometer and gyroscope. This
      approach can be used for optimized selection of quiescent phases of cardiac and
      respiratory cycles. Cardiomechanical activity according to echocardiography
      observations was investigated to confirm whether this dual sensor solution can
      provide accurate trigger timings for cardiac gating. Additionally, longitudinal
      chest motions originating from breathing were measured by accelerometric- and
      gyroscopic-derived respiratory (ADR and GDR) tracking. The ADR and GDR signals
      were evaluated against Varian real-time position management (RPM) signals in
      terms of amplitude and phase. Accordingly, high linear correlation and agreement
      were achieved between the reference electrocardiography, RPM, and measured MEMS
      signals. We also performed a Ge-68 phantom study to evaluate possible metal
      artifacts caused by the integrated read-out electronics including mechanical
      sensors and semiconductors. The reconstructed phantom images did not reveal any
      image artifacts. Thus, it was concluded that MEMS-driven dual gating can be used
      in PET studies without an effect on the quantitative or visual accuracy of the
      PET images. Finally, the applicability of MEMS dual gating for cardiac PET
      imaging was investigated with two atherosclerosis patients. Dual gated PET images
      were successfully reconstructed using only MEMS signals and both qualitative and
      quantitative assessments revealed encouraging results that warrant further
      investigation of this method.

PMID- 28880845
TI  - Insulin degludec/liraglutide (Xultophy 100/3.6) for type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28880846
TI  - Prasterone (Intrarosa) for dyspareunia.

PMID- 28880847
TI  - Safinamide (Xadago) for Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28880842
TI  - Current misconceptions in diagnosis and management of iron deficiency.
AB  - The prevention and treatment of iron deficiency is a major public health goal.
      Challenges in the treatment of iron deficiency include finding and addressing the
      underlying cause and the selection of an iron replacement product which meets the
      needs of the patient. However, there are a number of non-evidence-based
      misconceptions regarding the diagnosis and management of iron deficiency, with or
      without anaemia, as well as inconsistency of terminology and lack of clear
      guidance on clinical pathways. In particular, the pathogenesis of iron deficiency
      is still frequently not addressed and iron not replaced, with indiscriminate red
      cell transfusion used as a default therapy. In our experience, this imprudent
      practice continues to be endorsed by non-evidence-based misconceptions. The
      intent of the authors is to provide a consensus that effectively challenges these
      misconceptions, and to highlight evidence-based alternatives for appropriate
      management (referred to as key points). We believe that this approach to the
      management of iron deficiency may be beneficial for both patients and healthcare
      systems. We stress that this paper solely presents the Authors' independent
      opinions. No pharmaceutical company funded or influenced the conception,
      development or writing of the manuscript.

PMID- 28880848
TI  - Deflazacort (Emflaza) for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

PMID- 28880849
TI  - Drugs for asthma.

PMID- 28880850
TI  - Comparison table: some inhaled drugs for treatment of asthma.

PMID- 28880851
TI  - Comparison table: correct use of inhalers.

PMID- 28880852
TI  - RNA Sequencing Uncovers Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Pathological Complete
      Response to Chemotherapy in Patients with Operable Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND This study aimed to identify key genes contributing to pathological
      complete response (pCR) to chemotherapy by mRNA sequencing (RNA-seq). MATERIAL
      AND METHODS RNA was extracted from the frozen biopsy tissue of patients with
      pathological complete response and patients with non-pathological complete
      response. Sequencing was performed on the HiSeq2000 platform. Differentially
      expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the pCR group and non-pCR (NpCR)
      group. Pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs was performed. A protein-protein
      interaction network was constructed, then module analysis was performed to
      identify a subnetwork. Finally, transcription factors were predicted. RESULTS A
      total of 673 DEGs were identified, including 419 upregulated ones and 254
      downregulated ones. The PPI network constructed consisted of 276 proteins forming
      471 PPI pairs, and a subnetwork containing 18 protein nodes was obtained. Pathway
      enrichment analysis revealed that PLCB4 and ADCY6 were enriched in pathways renin
      secretion, gastric acid secretion, gap junction, inflammatory mediator regulation
      of TRP channels, retrograde endocannabinoid signaling, melanogenesis, cGMP-PKG
      signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, cAMP
      signaling pathway, and rap1 signaling pathway. CNR1 was enriched in the
      neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway, retrograde endocannabinoid
      signaling pathway, and rap1 signaling pathway. The transcription factor-gene
      network consists of 15 transcription factors and 16 targeted genes, of which 5
      were downregulated and 10 were upregulated. CONCLUSIONS We found key genes that
      may contribute to pCR to chemotherapy, such as PLCB4, ADCY6, and CNR1, as well as
      some transcription factors.

PMID- 28880854
TI  - Announcement: Community Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation for
      Intensive Lifestyle Interventions for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

PMID- 28880853
TI  - Health-Related Behaviors and Academic Achievement Among High School Students -
      United States, 2015.
AB  - Studies have shown links between educational outcomes such as letter grades, test
      scores, or other measures of academic achievement, and health-related behaviors
      (1-4). However, as reported in a 2013 systematic review, many of these studies
      have used samples that are not nationally representative, and quite a few studies
      are now at least 2 decades old (1). To update the relevant data, CDC analyzed
      results from the 2015 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a biennial,
      cross-sectional, school-based survey measuring health-related behaviors among
      U.S. students in grades 9-12. Analyses assessed relationships between academic
      achievement (i.e., self-reported letter grades in school) and 30 health-related
      behaviors (categorized as dietary behaviors, physical activity, sedentary
      behaviors, substance use, sexual risk behaviors, violence-related behaviors, and
      suicide-related behaviors) that contribute to leading causes of morbidity and
      mortality among adolescents in the United States (5). Logistic regression models
      controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade in school found that students who
      earned mostly A's, mostly B's, or mostly C's had statistically significantly
      higher prevalence estimates for most protective health-related behaviors and
      significantly lower prevalence estimates for most health-related risk behaviors
      than did students with mostly D's/F's. These findings highlight the link between
      health-related behaviors and education outcomes, suggesting that education and
      public health professionals can find their respective education and health
      improvement goals to be mutually beneficial. Education and public health
      professionals might benefit from collaborating to achieve both improved education
      and health outcomes for youths.

PMID- 28880855
TI  - Notes from the Field: Clostridium perfringens Outbreak at a Catered Lunch -
      Connecticut, September 2016.

PMID- 28880856
TI  - Update: Increase in Human Infections with Novel Asian Lineage Avian Influenza
      A(H7N9) Viruses During the Fifth Epidemic - China, October 1, 2016-August 7,
      2017.
AB  - Among all influenza viruses assessed using CDC's Influenza Risk Assessment Tool
      (IRAT), the Asian lineage avian influenza A(H7N9) virus (Asian H7N9), first
      reported in China in March 2013,* is ranked as the influenza virus with the
      highest potential pandemic risk (1). During October 1, 2016-August 7, 2017, the
      National Health and Family Planning Commission of China; CDC, Taiwan; the Hong
      Kong Centre for Health Protection; and the Macao CDC reported 759 human
      infections with Asian H7N9 viruses, including 281 deaths, to the World Health
      Organization (WHO), making this the largest of the five epidemics of Asian H7N9
      infections that have occurred since 2013 (Figure 1). This report summarizes new
      viral and epidemiologic features identified during the fifth epidemic of Asian
      H7N9 in China and summarizes ongoing measures to enhance pandemic preparedness.
      Infections in humans and poultry were reported from most areas of China,
      including provinces bordering other countries, indicating extensive, ongoing
      geographic spread. The risk to the general public is very low and most human
      infections were, and continue to be, associated with poultry exposure, especially
      at live bird markets in mainland China. Throughout the first four epidemics of
      Asian H7N9 infections, only low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses were
      detected among human, poultry, and environmental specimens and samples. During
      the fifth epidemic, mutations were detected among some Asian H7N9 viruses,
      identifying the emergence of high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses as
      well as viruses with reduced susceptibility to influenza antiviral medications
      recommended for treatment. Furthermore, the fifth-epidemic viruses diverged
      genetically into two separate lineages (Pearl River Delta lineage and Yangtze
      River Delta lineage), with Yangtze River Delta lineage viruses emerging as
      antigenically different compared with those from earlier epidemics. Because of
      its pandemic potential, candidate vaccine viruses (CVV) were produced in 2013
      that have been used to make vaccines against Asian H7N9 viruses circulating at
      that time. CDC is working with partners to enhance surveillance for Asian H7N9
      viruses in humans and poultry, to improve laboratory capability to detect and
      characterize H7N9 viruses, and to develop, test and distribute new CVV that could
      be used for vaccine production if a vaccine is needed.

PMID- 28880857
TI  - BRCA Genetic Testing and Receipt of Preventive Interventions Among Women Aged 18
      64 Years with Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in Nonmetropolitan and
      Metropolitan Areas - United States, 2009-2014.
AB  - PROBLEM/CONDITION: Genetic testing for breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) and breast cancer
      2 (BRCA2) gene mutations can identify women at increased risk for breast and
      ovarian cancer. These testing results can be used to select preventive
      interventions and guide treatment. Differences between nonmetropolitan and
      metropolitan populations in rates of BRCA testing and receipt of preventive
      interventions after testing have not previously been examined. PERIOD COVERED:
      2009-2014. DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM: Medical claims data from Truven Health
      Analytics MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters databases were used to
      estimate rates of BRCA testing and receipt of preventive interventions after BRCA
      testing among women aged 18-64 years with employer-sponsored health insurance in
      metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas of the United States, both nationally and
      regionally. RESULTS: From 2009 to 2014, BRCA testing rates per 100,000 women aged
      18-64 years with employer-sponsored health insurance increased 2.3 times (102.7
      to 237.8) in metropolitan areas and 3.0 times (64.8 to 191.3) in nonmetropolitan
      areas. The relative difference in BRCA testing rates between metropolitan and
      nonmetropolitan areas decreased from 37% in 2009 (102.7 versus 64.8) to 20% in
      2014 (237.8 versus 191.3). The relative difference in BRCA testing rates between
      metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas decreased more over time in younger women
      than in older women and decreased in all regions except the West. Receipt of
      preventive services 90 days after BRCA testing in metropolitan versus
      nonmetropolitan areas throughout the period varied by service: the percentage of
      women who received a mastectomy was similar, the percentage of women who received
      magnetic resonance imaging of the breast was lower in nonmetropolitan areas (as
      low as 5.8% in 2014 to as high as 8.2% in 2011) than metropolitan areas (as low
      as 7.3% in 2014 to as high as 10.3% in 2011), and the percentage of women who
      received mammography was lower in nonmetropolitan areas in earlier years but was
      similar in later years. INTERPRETATION: Possible explanations for the 47%
      decrease in the relative difference in BRCA testing rates over the study period
      include increased access to genetic services in nonmetropolitan areas and
      increased demand nationally as a result of publicity. The relative differences in
      metropolitan and nonmetropolitan BRCA testing rates were smaller among women at
      younger ages compared with older ages. PUBLIC HEALTH ACTION: Improved data
      sources and surveillance tools are needed to gather comprehensive data on BRCA
      testing in the United States, monitor adherence to evidence-based guidelines for
      BRCA testing, and assess receipt of preventive interventions for women with BRCA
      mutations. Programs can build on the recent decrease in geographic disparities in
      receipt of BRCA testing while simultaneously educating the public and health care
      providers about U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations and other
      clinical guidelines for BRCA testing and counseling.

PMID- 28880859
TI  - QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Death Rates* from Unintentional Falls Among Adults Aged
      >=65 Years,? by Sex - National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2000-2015.

PMID- 28880858
TI  - Vital Signs: Recent Trends in Stroke Death Rates - United States, 2000-2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The prominent decline in U.S. stroke death rates observed for more
      than 4 decades has slowed in recent years. CDC examined trends and patterns in
      recent stroke death rates among U.S. adults aged >=35 years by age, sex,
      race/ethnicity, state, and census region. METHODS: Trends in the rates of stroke
      as the underlying cause of death during 2000-2015 were analyzed using data from
      the National Vital Statistics System. Joinpoint software was used to identify
      trends in stroke death rates, and the excess number of stroke deaths resulting
      from unfavorable changes in trends was estimated. RESULTS: Among adults aged >=35
      years, age-standardized stroke death rates declined 38%, from 118.4 per 100,000
      persons in 2000 to 73.3 per 100,000 persons in 2015. The annual percent change
      (APC) in stroke death rates changed from 2000 to 2015, from a 3.4% decrease per
      year during 2000-2003, to a 6.6% decrease per year during 2003-2006, a 3.1%
      decrease per year during 2006-2013, and a 2.5% (nonsignificant) increase per year
      during 2013-2015. The last trend segment indicated a reversal from a decrease to
      a statistically significant increase among Hispanics (APC = 5.8%) and among
      persons in the South Census Region (APC = 4.2%). Declines in stroke death rates
      failed to continue in 38 states, and during 2013-2015, an estimated 32,593 excess
      stroke deaths might not have occurred if the previous rate of decline could have
      been sustained. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE: Prior
      declines in stroke death rates have not continued in recent years, and
      substantial variations exist in timing and magnitude of change by demographic and
      geographic characteristics. These findings suggest the importance of
      strategically identifying opportunities for prevention and intervening in
      vulnerable populations, especially because effective and underused interventions
      to prevent stroke incidence and death are known to exist.

PMID- 28880860
TI  - Response to "Acute kidney injury occurs only rarely in patients with Kawasaki
      disease".

PMID- 28880861
TI  - Oocyte-derived histone H3 lysine 27 methylation controls gene expression in the
      early embryo.

PMID- 28880862
TI  - Aging: rewiring the circadian clock.

PMID- 28880864
TI  - Identification of an allosteric network that influences assembly and function of
      group II chaperonins.

PMID- 28880863
TI  - Eukaryotic ribosome assembly, transport and quality control.
AB  - Eukaryotic ribosome synthesis is a complex, energy-consuming process that takes
      place across the nucleolus, nucleoplasm and cytoplasm and requires more than 200
      conserved assembly factors. Here, we discuss mechanisms by which the ribosome
      assembly and nucleocytoplasmic transport machineries collaborate to produce
      functional ribosomes. We also highlight recent cryo-EM studies that provided
      unprecedented snapshots of ribosomes during assembly and quality control.

PMID- 28880865
TI  - A tripartite interface that regulates vesicle fusion.

PMID- 28880866
TI  - Ribosomal DNA copy number amplification and loss in human cancers is linked to
      tumor genetic context, nucleolus activity, and proliferation.
AB  - Ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) are transcribed from two multicopy DNA arrays: the 5S
      ribosomal DNA (rDNA) array residing in a single human autosome and the 45S rDNA
      array residing in five human autosomes. The arrays are among the most variable
      segments of the genome, exhibit concerted copy number variation (cCNV), encode
      essential components of the ribosome, and modulate global gene expression. Here
      we combined whole genome data from >700 tumors and paired normal tissues to
      provide a portrait of rDNA variation in human tissues and cancers of diverse
      mutational signatures, including stomach and lung adenocarcinomas, ovarian
      cancers, and others of the TCGA panel. We show that cancers undergo coupled 5S
      rDNA array expansion and 45S rDNA loss that is accompanied by increased estimates
      of proliferation rate and nucleolar activity. These somatic changes in rDNA CN
      occur in a background of over 10-fold naturally occurring rDNA CN variation
      across individuals and cCNV of 5S-45S arrays in some but not all tissues.
      Analysis of genetic context revealed associations between cancer rDNA CN
      amplification or loss and the presence of specific somatic alterations, including
      somatic SNPs and copy number gain/losses in protein coding genes across the
      cancer genome. For instance, somatic inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene
      TP53 emerged with a strong association with coupled 5S expansion / 45S loss in
      several cancers. Our results uncover frequent and contrasting changes in the 5S
      and 45S rDNA along rapidly proliferating cell lineages with high nucleolar
      activity. We suggest that 5S rDNA amplification facilitates increased
      proliferation, nucleolar activity, and ribosomal synthesis in cancer, whereas 45S
      rDNA loss emerges as a byproduct of transcription-replication conflict in rapidly
      replicating tumor cells. The observations raise the prospects of using the rDNA
      arrays as re-emerging targets for the design of novel strategies in cancer
      therapy.

PMID- 28880868
TI  - Towards assessing cortical bone porosity using low-frequency quantitative
      acoustics: A phantom-based study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cortical porosity is a key characteristic governing the structural
      properties and mechanical behaviour of bone, and its quantification is therefore
      critical for understanding and monitoring the development of various bone
      pathologies such as osteoporosis. Axial transmission quantitative acoustics has
      shown to be a promising technique for assessing bone health in a fast, non
      invasive, and radiation-free manner. One major hurdle in bringing this approach
      to clinical application is the entanglement of the effects of individual
      characteristics (e.g. geometry, porosity, anisotropy etc.) on the measured wave
      propagation. In order to address this entanglement problem, we therefore propose
      a systematic bottom-up approach, in which only one bone property is varied,
      before addressing interaction effects. This work therefore investigated the
      sensitivity of low-frequency quantitative acoustics to changes in porosity as
      well as individual pore characteristics using specifically designed cortical bone
      phantoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 14 bone phantoms were designed with varying pore
      size, axial-, and radial pore number, resulting in porosities (bone volume
      fraction) between 0% and 15%, similar to porosity values found in human cortical
      bone. All phantoms were manufactured using laser sintering, measured using axial
      transmission acoustics and analysed using a full-wave approach. Experimental
      results were compared to theoretical predictions based on a modified Timoshenko
      theory. RESULTS: A clear dependence of phase velocity on frequency and porosity
      produced by increasing pore size or radial pore number was demonstrated, with the
      velocity decreasing by between 2-5 m/s per percent of additional porosity, which
      corresponds to -0.5% to -1.0% of wave speed. While the change in phase velocity
      due to axial pore number was consistent with the results due to pore size and
      radial pore number, the relative uncertainties for the estimates were too high to
      draw any conclusions for this parameter. CONCLUSIONS: This work has shown the
      capability of low-frequency quantitative acoustics to reflect changes in porosity
      and individual pore characteristics and demonstrated that additive manufacturing
      is an appropriate method that allows the influence of individual bone properties
      on the wave propagation to be systematically assessed. The results of this work
      opens perspectives for the efficient development of a multi-frequency, multi-mode
      approach to screen, diagnose, and monitor bone pathologies in individuals.

PMID- 28880867
TI  - Oral tetrahydrouridine and decitabine for non-cytotoxic epigenetic gene
      regulation in sickle cell disease: A randomized phase 1 study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sickle cell disease (SCD), a congenital hemolytic anemia that exacts
      terrible global morbidity and mortality, is driven by polymerization of mutated
      sickle hemoglobin (HbS) in red blood cells (RBCs). Fetal hemoglobin (HbF)
      interferes with this polymerization, but HbF is epigenetically silenced from
      infancy onward by DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1). METHODS AND FINDINGS: To
      pharmacologically re-induce HbF by DNMT1 inhibition, this first-in-human clinical
      trial (NCT01685515) combined 2 small molecules-decitabine to deplete DNMT1 and
      tetrahydrouridine (THU) to inhibit cytidine deaminase (CDA), the enzyme that
      otherwise rapidly deaminates/inactivates decitabine, severely limiting its half
      life, tissue distribution, and oral bioavailability. Oral decitabine doses,
      administered after oral THU 10 mg/kg, were escalated from a very low starting
      level (0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, or 0.16 mg/kg) to identify minimal doses active in
      depleting DNMT1 without cytotoxicity. Patients were SCD adults at risk of early
      death despite standard-of-care, randomized 3:2 to THU-decitabine versus placebo
      in 5 cohorts of 5 patients treated 2X/week for 8 weeks, with 4 weeks of follow
      up. The primary endpoint was >= grade 3 non-hematologic toxicity. This endpoint
      was not triggered, and adverse events (AEs) were not significantly different in
      THU-decitabine-versus placebo-treated patients. At the decitabine 0.16 mg/kg
      dose, plasma concentrations peaked at approximately 50 nM (Cmax) and remained
      elevated for several hours. This dose decreased DNMT1 protein in peripheral blood
      mononuclear cells by >75% and repetitive element CpG methylation by approximately
      10%, and increased HbF by 4%-9% (P < 0.001), doubling fetal hemoglobin-enriched
      red blood cells (F-cells) up to approximately 80% of total RBCs. Total hemoglobin
      increased by 1.2-1.9 g/dL (P = 0.01) as reticulocytes simultaneously decreased;
      that is, better quality and efficiency of HbF-enriched erythropoiesis elevated
      hemoglobin using fewer reticulocytes. Also indicating better RBC quality,
      biomarkers of hemolysis, thrombophilia, and inflammation (LDH, bilirubin, D
      dimer, C-reactive protein [CRP]) improved. As expected with non-cytotoxic DNMT1
      depletion, platelets increased and neutrophils concurrently decreased, but not to
      an extent requiring treatment holds. As an early phase study, limitations include
      small patient numbers at each dose level and narrow capacity to evaluate clinical
      benefits. CONCLUSION: Administration of oral THU-decitabine to patients with SCD
      was safe in this study and, by targeting DNMT1, upregulated HbF in RBCs. Further
      studies should investigate clinical benefits and potential harms not identified
      to date. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01685515.

PMID- 28880869
TI  - Differences in chemical constituents of Artemisia annua L from different
      geographical regions in China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Daodi-herb is a part of Chinese culture, which has been naturally
      selected by traditional Chinese medicine clinical practice for many years. Sweet
      wormwood herb is a kind of Daodi-herb, and comes from Artemisia annua L.
      Artemisinin is a kind of effective antimalarial drug being extracted from A.
      annua. Because of artemisinin, Sweet wormwood herb earns a reputation. Based on
      the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (PPRC), Sweet wormwood herb
      can be used to resolve summerheat-heat, and prevent malaria. Besides, it also has
      other medical efficacies. A. annua, a medicinal plant that is widely distributed
      in the world contains many kinds of chemical composition. Research has shown that
      compatibility of artemisinin, scopoletin, arteannuin B and arteannuic acid has
      antimalarial effect. Compatibility of scopoletin, arteannuin B and arteannuic
      acid is conducive to resolving summerheat-heat. Chemical constituents in A. annua
      vary significantly according to geographical locations. So, distribution of A.
      annua may play a key role in the characteristics of efficacy and chemical
      constituents of Sweet wormwood herb. It is of great significance to study this
      relationship. OBJECTIVES: We mainly analyzed the relationship between the
      chemical constituents (arteannuin B, artemisinin, artemisinic acid, and
      scopoletin) with special efficacy in A. annua that come from different provinces
      in china, and analyzed the relationship between chemical constituents and spatial
      distribution, in order to find out the relationship between efficacy, chemical
      constituents and distribution. METHODS: A field survey was carried out to collect
      A. annua plant samples. A global positioning system (GPS) was used for obtaining
      geographical coordinates of sampling sites. Chemical constituents in A. annua
      were determined by liquid chromatography tandem an atmospheric pressure
      ionization-electrospray mass spectrometry. Relationship between chemical
      constituents including proportions, correlation analysis (CoA), principal
      component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (ClA) was displayed through Excel
      and R software version2.3.2(R), while the one between efficacy, chemical
      constituents and spatial distribution was presented through ArcGIS10.0, Excel and
      R software. RESULTS: According to the results of CoA, arteannuin B content
      presented a strong positive correlation with artemisinic acid content (p = 0),
      and a strong negative correlation with artemisinin content (p = 0). Scopoletin
      content presented a strong positive correlation with artemisinin content (p = 0),
      and a strong negative correlation with artemisinic acid content (p = 0).
      According to the results of PCA, the first two principal components accounted for
      81.57% of the total accumulation contribution rate. The contribution of the first
      principal component is about 45.12%, manly including arteannuin B and artemisinic
      acid. The contribution of the second principal component is 36.45% of the total,
      manly including artemisinin and scopoletin. According to the ClA by using the
      principal component scores, 19 provinces could be divided into two groups. In
      terms of provinces in group one, the proportions of artemisinin are all higher
      than 80%. Based on the results of PCA, ClA, percentages and scatter plot
      analysis, chemical types are defined as "QHYS type", "INT type" and "QHS type."
      CONCLUSION: As a conclusion, this paper shows the relationship between efficacy,
      chemical constituents and distribution. Sweet wormwood herb with high arteannuin
      B and artemisinic acid content, mainly distributes in northern China. Sweet
      wormwood herb with high artemisinin and scopoletin content has the medical
      function of preventing malaria, which mainly distributes in southern China. In
      this paper, it is proved that Sweet wormwood Daodi herb growing in particular
      geographic regions, has more significant therapeutical effect and higher chemical
      constituents compared with other same kind of CMM. And also, it has proved the
      old saying in China that Sweet wormwood Daodi herb which has been used to resolve
      summerheat-heat and prevent malaria, which distributed in central China. But in
      modern time, Daodi Sweet wormwood herb mainly has been used to extract
      artemisinin and prevent malaria, so the Daod-region has transferred to the
      southern China.

PMID- 28880870
TI  - C1-inactivator is upregulated in glioblastoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive type of primary brain
      tumor in adults. A key problem is the capacity of glioma cells to inactivate the
      body's immune response. The complement system acts as a functional bridge between
      the innate and adaptive immune response. Still, the role of the complement system
      has almost been forgotten in glioma research. In our present study, we
      hypothesize that C1 inactivator (C1-IA) is upregulated in astrocytoma grade IV,
      and that its inhibition of the complement system has beneficial effects upon
      survival. METHODS AND RESULTS: We have explored this hypothesis both on gene and
      protein levels and found an upregulation of C1-IA in human glioblastoma cells
      using data from a publicly available database and our own mRNA material from
      glioblastoma patients. Furthermore, we demonstrated the presence of C1-IA by
      using immunohistochemistry on glioma cells from both humans and rats in vitro.
      Finally, we could demonstrate a significantly increased survival in vivo in
      animals inoculated intracerebrally with glioma cells pre-coated with C1-IA
      antibodies as compared to control animals. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate
      that overexpression of C1-IA is present in glioblastomas. This could be
      demonstrated both at the gene level from patients with glioblastoma, on mRNA
      level and with immunohistochemistry. Treatment with antibodies against C1-IA had
      beneficial effects on survival when tested in vivo.

PMID- 28880871
TI  - Are vent crab behavioral preferences adaptations for habitat choice?
AB  - Hydrothermal vent organisms are adapted to their extreme and patchily distributed
      habitats. They are expected to have evolved mechanisms that keep them in their
      specific habitation. Since little is known about the recruitment or habitat
      selection of HV organisms such as brachyurans, we examined the properties of
      several hydrothermal vent-associated cues on the behavior of the hydrothermal
      vent (HV) crab Xenograpsus testudinatus in the laboratory that were contrasted by
      the offering of non-vent cues. This crab species is endemic and dominates the
      vent fauna of Turtle Island off the NE coast of Taiwan. HV crabs were separately
      and in combination offered the following vent-specific cues: (1) sulfuric
      sediment, (3) air-bubbling, (4) elevated temperature, (5) dead settled
      zooplankton, (7) other crabs, and (8) shade. The non-vent-specific cues were: (2)
      quarz sediment, (6) dead fish, (8) light. These cues were provided on either side
      of a two-choice chamber. The movement of individual crabs was monitored: as
      initial and final choices, and as the proportion of time the crabs spent in each
      compartment (resident time). Cues were offered alone and no such cue as a control
      in the same set-up. Sulfuric sediments and dead fish were significantly more
      attractive to females, and other crabs irrespective of gender were significantly
      more attractive to males. When compared to expected distributions, crabs,
      irrespective of gender, significantly avoided light and tended to select other
      crabs, air-bubbling, sulfuric sediment, elevated temperature, dead fish, dead
      zooplankton, and quarz sediments in the order of decreasing importance. Data do
      not support the hypothesis that dead settled zooplankton was particularly
      attractive nor that the other gender was selected. A combination of several vent
      associated cues (sulfuric sediment, elevated temperature, air-bubbling)
      facilitated the strongest attraction to the crabs as reflected by all response
      variables. The 'first choice' responses were always consistent with the side of
      the choice compartment in which they spent the longest amount of time (resident
      time), but not with the 'final choice' of crabs, suggesting that the 'resident
      time' in addition to their 'first choice' is more reliable than just the 'final
      choice'. The present results provide the first indication that several vent
      associated habitat cues function as attractors for HV crabs. Habitat choice is
      also reflected by crab larval distribution in the field which tend to stay near
      the bottom not to be carried away from their specific habitat.

PMID- 28880873
TI  - "T-bet"-ing on autoimmunity variants.

PMID- 28880872
TI  - Microtubule-actin crosslinking factor 1 (Macf1) domain function in Balbiani body
      dissociation and nuclear positioning.
AB  - Animal-vegetal (AV) polarity of most vertebrate eggs is established during early
      oogenesis through the formation and disassembly of the Balbiani Body (Bb). The Bb
      is a structure conserved from insects to humans that appears as a large granule,
      similar to a mRNP granule composed of mRNA and proteins, that in addition
      contains mitochondria, ER and Golgi. The components of the Bb, which have amyloid
      like properties, include germ cell and axis determinants of the embryo that are
      anchored to the vegetal cortex upon Bb disassembly. Our lab discovered in
      zebrafish the only gene known to function in Bb disassembly, microtubule-actin
      crosslinking factor 1a (macf1a). Macf1 is a conserved, giant multi-domain
      cytoskeletal linker protein that can interact with microtubules (MTs), actin
      filaments (AF), and intermediate filaments (IF). In macf1a mutant oocytes the Bb
      fails to dissociate, the nucleus is acentric, and AV polarity of the oocyte and
      egg fails to form. The cytoskeleton-dependent mechanism by which Macf1a regulates
      Bb mRNP granule dissociation was unknown. We found that disruption of AFs
      phenocopies the macf1a mutant phenotype, while MT disruption does not. We
      determined that cytokeratins (CK), a type of IF, are enriched in the Bb. We found
      that Macf1a localizes to the Bb, indicating a direct function in regulating its
      dissociation. We thus tested if Macf1a functions via its actin binding domain
      (ABD) and plectin repeat domain (PRD) to integrate cortical actin and Bb CK,
      respectively, to mediate Bb dissociation at the oocyte cortex. We developed a
      CRISPR/Cas9 approach to delete the exons encoding these domains from the macf1a
      endogenous locus, while maintaining the open reading frame. Our analysis shows
      that Macf1a functions via its ABD to mediate Bb granule dissociation and nuclear
      positioning, while the PRD is dispensable. We propose that Macf1a does not
      function via its canonical mechanism of linking two cytoskeletal systems together
      in dissociating the Bb. Instead our results suggest that Macf1a functions by
      linking one cytoskeletal system, cortical actin, to another structure, the Bb,
      where Macf1a is localized. Through this novel linking process, it dissociates the
      Bb at the oocyte cortex, thus specifying the AV axis of the oocyte and future
      egg. To our knowledge, this is also the first study to use genome editing to
      unravel the module-dependent function of a cytoskeletal linker.

PMID- 28880874
TI  - Discovery and mode of action of a novel analgesic beta-toxin from the African
      spider Ceratogyrus darlingi.
AB  - Spider venoms are rich sources of peptidic ion channel modulators with important
      therapeutical potential. We screened a panel of 60 spider venoms to find
      modulators of ion channels involved in pain transmission. We isolated,
      synthesized and pharmacologically characterized Cd1a, a novel peptide from the
      venom of the spider Ceratogyrus darlingi. Cd1a reversibly paralysed sheep
      blowflies (PD50 of 1318 pmol/g) and inhibited human Cav2.2 (IC50 2.6 MUM) but not
      Cav1.3 or Cav3.1 (IC50 > 30 MUM) in fluorimetric assays. In patch-clamp
      electrophysiological assays Cd1a inhibited rat Cav2.2 with similar potency (IC50
      3 MUM) without influencing the voltage dependence of Cav2.2 activation gating,
      suggesting that Cd1a doesn't act on Cav2.2 as a classical gating modifier toxin.
      The Cd1a binding site on Cav2.2 did not overlap with that of the pore blocker
      omega-conotoxin GVIA, but its activity at Cav2.2-mutant indicated that Cd1a
      shares some molecular determinants with GVIA and MVIIA, localized near the pore
      region. Cd1a also inhibited human Nav1.1-1.2 and Nav1.7-1.8 (IC50 0.1-6.9 MUM)
      but not Nav1.3-1.6 (IC50 > 30 MUM) in fluorimetric assays. In patch-clamp assays,
      Cd1a strongly inhibited human Nav1.7 (IC50 16 nM) and produced a 29 mV
      depolarising shift in Nav1.7 voltage dependence of activation. Cd1a (400 pmol)
      fully reversed Nav1.7-evoked pain behaviours in mice without producing side
      effects. In conclusion, Cd1a inhibited two anti-nociceptive targets, appearing to
      interfere with Cav2.2 inactivation gating, associated with the Cav2.2 alpha
      subunit pore, while altering the activation gating of Nav1.7. Cd1a was inactive
      at some of the Nav and Cav channels expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscles and
      nodes of Ranvier, apparently contributing to the lack of side effects at
      efficacious doses, and suggesting potential as a lead for development of
      peripheral pain treatments.

PMID- 28880875
TI  - Scaling-up the Xpert MTB/RIF assay for the detection of tuberculosis and
      rifampicin resistance in India: An economic analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: India is considering the scale-up of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay for
      detection of tuberculosis (TB) and rifampicin resistance. We conducted an
      economic analysis to estimate the costs of different strategies of Xpert
      implementation in India. METHODS: Using a decision analytical model, we compared
      four diagnostic strategies for TB patients: (i) sputum smear microscopy (SSM)
      only; (ii) Xpert as a replacement for the rapid diagnostic test currently used
      for SSM-positive patients at risk of drug resistance (i.e. line probe assay
      (LPA)); (iii) Upfront Xpert testing for patients at risk of drug resistance; and
      (iv) Xpert as a replacement for SSM for all patients. RESULTS: The total costs
      associated with diagnosis for 100,000 presumptive TB cases were: (i) US$ 619,042
      for SSM-only; (ii) US$ 575,377 in the LPA replacement scenario; (iii) US$ 720,523
      in the SSM replacement scenario; and (iv) US$ 1,639,643 in the Xpert-for-all
      scenario. Total cohort costs, including treatment costs, increased by 46% from
      the SSM-only to the Xpert-for-all strategy, largely due to the costs associated
      with second-line treatment of a higher number of rifampicin-resistant patients
      due to increased drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) case detection. The diagnostic costs
      for an estimated 7.64 million presumptive TB patients would comprise (i) 19%,
      (ii) 17%, (iii) 22% and (iv) 50% of the annual TB control budget. Mean total
      costs, expressed per DR-TB case initiated on treatment, were lowest in the Xpert
      for-all scenario (US$ 11,099). CONCLUSIONS: The Xpert-for-all strategy would
      result in the greatest increase of TB and DR-TB case detection, but would also
      have the highest associated costs. The strategy of using Xpert only for patients
      at risk for DR-TB would be more affordable, but would miss DR-TB cases and the
      cost per true DR-TB case detected would be higher compared to the Xpert-for-all
      strategy. As such expanded Xpert strategy would require significant increased TB
      control budget to ensure that increased case detection is followed by appropriate
      care.

PMID- 28880876
TI  - Induced mitochondrial membrane potential for modeling solitonic conduction of
      electrotonic signals.
AB  - A cable model that includes polarization-induced capacitive current is derived
      for modeling the solitonic conduction of electrotonic potentials in neuronal
      branchlets with microstructure containing endoplasmic membranes. A solution of
      the nonlinear cable equation modified for fissured intracellular medium with a
      source term representing charge 'soakage' is used to show how intracellular
      capacitive effects of bound electrical charges within mitochondrial membranes can
      influence electrotonic signals expressed as solitary waves. The elastic collision
      resulting from a head-on collision of two solitary waves results in localized and
      non-dispersing electrical solitons created by the nonlinearity of the source
      term. It has been shown that solitons in neurons with mitochondrial membrane and
      quasi-electrostatic interactions of charges held by the microstructure (i.e.,
      charge 'soakage') have a slower velocity of propagation compared with solitons in
      neurons with microstructure, but without endoplasmic membranes. When the
      equilibrium potential is a small deviation from rest, the nonohmic conductance
      acts as a leaky channel and the solitons are small compared when the equilibrium
      potential is large and the outer mitochondrial membrane acts as an amplifier,
      boosting the amplitude of the endogenously generated solitons. These findings
      demonstrate a functional role of quasi-electrostatic interactions of bound
      electrical charges held by microstructure for sustaining solitons with robust
      self-regulation in their amplitude through changes in the mitochondrial membrane
      equilibrium potential. The implication of our results indicate that a
      phenomenological description of ionic current can be successfully modeled with
      displacement current in Maxwell's equations as a conduction process involving
      quasi-electrostatic interactions without the inclusion of diffusive current. This
      is the first study in which solitonic conduction of electrotonic potentials are
      generated by polarization-induced capacitive current in microstructure and
      nonohmic mitochondrial membrane current.

PMID- 28880877
TI  - Incidence trends of type 1 diabetes before and after the reunification in
      children up to 14 years of age in Saxony, Eastern Germany.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence rates of type 1 diabetes
      in Saxony before and after the German reunification. METHODS: The study examined
      two registries: one until 1990 and one since 1999. Only patients under 15 years
      of age with type 1 diabetes and living in Saxony were included in the study.
      Standardized incidence rates were described based on direct age standardization
      procedures using the Standard European Population for each calendar year between
      the observation periods 1982-1989 and 1999-2014. Age was grouped into three
      classes: 0-4, 5-9 and 10-14 years of age. Incidence data were presented as age
      standardized incidence rates per 100,000 person-years (PY) with 95% confidence
      intervals [CI]. Joinpoint regression was used for trend analyses and Poisson
      regression was used to adjust for the effects of age and sex on the incidence.
      RESULTS: A total number of 2,092 incident cases of type 1 diabetes (1,109 males;
      983 females) were included. The age-standardized incidence rates of type 1
      diabetes per 100,000 PY was 7.9 [95%CI 6.8; 8.9] in the period from 1982-1989 and
      20.1 [95%CI 14.0; 26.1] in the period from 1999-2014. The yearly increase in
      incidence over the entire time period (1982-2014) was 4.3% according to the
      average annual percent change (AAPC) method, and estimated to be 4.4% [95% CI
      4.0; 4.8%] using a Poisson regression model adjusting for sex and age group.
      CONCLUSION: In this study, a significantly increasing incidence of type 1
      diabetes was observed after reunification. In future studies it would be
      interesting to follow up on the question of which environmental and lifestyle
      factors could be causing the increasing type 1 diabetes incidence.

PMID- 28880878
TI  - Rapid and accurate interpretation of dengue diagnostics in the context of dengue
      vaccination implementation: Viewpoints and guidelines issued from an experts
      group consultation.

PMID- 28880879
TI  - LOTUS overexpression accelerates neuronal plasticity after focal brain ischemia
      in mice.
AB  - Nogo receptor-1 (NgR1) and its ligands inhibit neuronal plasticity and limit
      functional recovery after brain damage such as ischemic stroke. We have
      previously shown that lateral olfactory tract usher substance (LOTUS) antagonizes
      NgR1-mediated signaling. Here, we investigated whether LOTUS enhances neuronal
      plasticity and functional recovery after brain focal ischemia in adult mice.
      Focal ischemic infarcts were induced in wild-type and LOTUS-overexpressing
      transgenic mice via middle cerebral artery occlusion. Endogenous LOTUS expression
      was increased in brain and cervical spinal cord of the contralateral side of
      ischemia in the chronic phase after brain ischemia. LOTUS overexpression
      accelerated midline-crossing axonal sprouting from the contralateral side to the
      ipsilateral side of ischemia in the medullar reticular formation and gray matter
      of denervated cervical spinal cord. Importantly, LOTUS overexpression improved
      neurological score highly correlated with laterality ratio of corticoreticular
      fibers of the medulla oblongata, indicating that LOTUS overexpression may
      overcome the inhibitory environment induced by NgR1 signaling for damaged motor
      pathway reconstruction after ischemic stroke. Thus, our data suggest that LOTUS
      overexpression accelerates neuronal plasticity in the brainstem and cervical
      spinal cord after stroke and LOTUS administration is useful for future
      therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28880880
TI  - Volunteer motivators for participating in HIV vaccine clinical trials in Nairobi,
      Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 1.5 million Kenyans are living with HIV/AIDS as per 2015 estimates.
      Though there is a notable decline in new HIV infections, continued effort is
      still needed to develop an efficacious, accessible and affordable HIV vaccine.
      HIV vaccine clinical trials bear risks, hence a need to understand volunteer
      motivators for enrolment, retention and follow-up. Understanding the factors that
      motivate volunteers to participate in a clinical trial can help to strategize,
      refine targeting and thus increase enrolment of volunteers in future HIV vaccine
      clinical trials. The health belief model classifies motivators into social
      benefits such as 'advancing research' and collaboration with science, and
      personal benefits such as health benefits and financial interests. METHOD: A
      thematic analysis was carried out on data obtained from four HIV clinical trials
      conducted at KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research in Nairobi Kenya from 2009 to
      2015. Responses were obtained from a Questionnaire administered to the volunteers
      during their screening visit at the research site. RESULTS: Of the 281 healthy,
      HIV-uninfected volunteers participating in this study; 38% were motivated by
      personal benefits including, 31% motivated by health benefits and 7% motivated by
      possible financial gains. In addition, 62% of the volunteers were motivated by
      social benefits with 20% of who were seeking to help their family/society/world
      while 42% were interested in advancing research. CONCLUSION: The majority of
      volunteers in the HIV vaccine trials at our site were motivated by social
      benefits, suggesting that altruism can be a major contributor to participation in
      HIV vaccine studies. Personal benefits were a secondary motivator for the
      volunteers. The motivators to volunteer in HIV clinical trials were similar
      across ages, education level and gender. Education on what is needed (including
      volunteer participation) to develop an efficacious vaccine could be the key to
      greater volunteer motivation to participate in HIV vaccine clinical trials.

PMID- 28880881
TI  - Comprehensive analysis of the codon usage patterns in the envelope glycoprotein
      E2 gene of the classical swine fever virus.
AB  - The classical swine fever virus (CSFV), circulating worldwide, is a highly
      contagious virus. Since the emergence of CSFV, it has caused great economic loss
      in swine industry. The envelope glycoprotein E2 gene of the CSFV is an
      immunoprotective antigen that induces the immune system to produce neutralizing
      antibodies. Therefore, it is essential to study the codon usage of the E2 gene of
      the CSFV. In this study, 140 coding sequences of the E2 gene were analyzed. The
      value of effective number of codons (ENC) showed low codon usage bias in the E2
      gene. Our study showed that codon usage could be described mainly by mutation
      pressure ENC plot analysis combined with principal component analysis (PCA) and
      translational selection-correlation analysis between the general average
      hydropathicity (Gravy) and aromaticity (Aroma), and nucleotides at the third
      position of codons (A3s, T3s, G3s, C3s and GC3s). Furthermore, the neutrality
      analysis, which explained the relationship between GC12s and GC3s, revealed that
      natural selection had a key role compared with mutational bias during the
      evolution of the E2 gene. These results lay a foundation for further research on
      the molecular evolution of CSFV.

PMID- 28880882
TI  - Putting the methodological brakes on claims to measure national happiness through
      Twitter: Methodological limitations in social media analytics.
AB  - With the rapid global proliferation of social media, there has been growing
      interest in using this existing source of easily accessible 'big data' to develop
      social science knowledge. However, amidst the big data gold rush, it is important
      that long-established principles of good social research are not ignored. This
      article critically evaluates Mitchell et al.'s (2013) study, 'The Geography of
      Happiness: Connecting Twitter Sentiment and Expression, Demographics, and
      Objective Characteristics of Place', demonstrating the importance of attending to
      key methodological issues associated with secondary data analysis.

PMID- 28880883
TI  - Multi-scale modelling to evaluate building energy consumption at the
      neighbourhood scale.
AB  - A new methodology is proposed to couple a meteorological model with a building
      energy use model. The aim of such a coupling is to improve the boundary
      conditions of both models with no significant increase in computational time. In
      the present case, the Canopy Interface Model (CIM) is coupled with CitySim.
      CitySim provides the geometrical characteristics to CIM, which then calculates a
      high resolution profile of the meteorological variables. These are in turn used
      by CitySim to calculate the energy flows in an urban district. We have conducted
      a series of experiments on the EPFL campus in Lausanne, Switzerland, to show the
      effectiveness of the coupling strategy. First, measured data from the campus for
      the year 2015 are used to force CIM and to evaluate its aptitude to reproduce
      high resolution vertical profiles. Second, we compare the use of local climatic
      data and data from a meteorological station located outside the urban area, in an
      evaluation of energy use. In both experiments, we demonstrate the importance of
      using in building energy software, meteorological variables that account for the
      urban microclimate. Furthermore, we also show that some building and urban forms
      are more sensitive to the local environment.

PMID- 28880884
TI  - Two passive mechanical conditions modulate power generation by the outer hair
      cells.
AB  - In the mammalian cochlea, small vibrations of the sensory epithelium are
      amplified due to active electro-mechanical feedback of the outer hair cells. The
      level of amplification is greater in the base than in the apex of the cochlea.
      Theoretical studies have used longitudinally varying active feedback properties
      to reproduce the location-dependent amplification. The active feedback force has
      been considered to be proportional to the basilar membrane displacement or
      velocity. An underlying assumption was that organ of Corti mechanics are governed
      by rigid body kinematics. However, recent progress in vibration measurement
      techniques reveals that organ of Corti mechanics are too complicated to be fully
      represented with rigid body kinematics. In this study, two components of the
      active feedback are considered explicitly-organ of Corti mechanics, and outer
      hair cell electro-mechanics. Physiological properties for the outer hair cells
      were incorporated, such as the active force gain, mechano-transduction
      properties, and membrane RC time constant. Instead of a kinematical model, a
      fully deformable 3D finite element model was used. We show that the organ of
      Corti mechanics dictate the longitudinal trend of cochlear amplification.
      Specifically, our results suggest that two mechanical conditions are responsible
      for location-dependent cochlear amplification. First, the phase of the outer hair
      cell's somatic force with respect to its elongation rate varies along the
      cochlear length. Second, the local stiffness of the organ of Corti complex felt
      by individual outer hair cells varies along the cochlear length. We describe how
      these two mechanical conditions result in greater amplification toward the base
      of the cochlea.

PMID- 28880885
TI  - Markers of intestinal permeability are already altered in early stages of non
      alcoholic fatty liver disease: Studies in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Recent studies have shown that patients with manifest non
      alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), e.g. steatosis grade 3 or steatohepatitis
      with or without beginning fibrosis frequently show altered fecal microbiota
      composition and elevated bacterial endotoxin levels. However, if these
      alterations are signs of a progressing disease or are already found in initial
      disease stages has not yet been clarified. METHODS: Twenty children with simple
      steatosis (grade 1) diagnosed by ultrasound and 29 normal weight healthy control
      children (age <10 years) were included in the study (mean age 7.6 +/- 1.1 years).
      Metabolic parameters, markers of intestinal barrier function and inflammation
      were determined. RESULTS: Activity of alanine aminotransferase, concentrations of
      some markers of inflammation and insulin resistance were significantly higher in
      plasma of NAFLD children than in controls. When compared to controls, plasma
      bacterial endotoxin and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) levels were
      significantly higher in NAFLD children (+50% and +24%, respectively), while
      soluble CD14 serum and D-lactate plasma levels as well as the prevalence of small
      intestinal bacterial overgrowth did not differ between groups. Plasma endotoxin
      and LBP levels were positive associated with proinflammatory markers like
      plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, c-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and leptin
      while no associations with markers of insulin resistance were found. CONCLUSIONS:
      Taken together, our results indicate that even in juvenile patients with early
      stages of NAFLD e.g. simple steatosis grade 1, plasma endotoxin concentrations
      are already elevated further suggesting that intestinal barrier dysfunction might
      be present already in the initial phases of the disease.

PMID- 28880887
TI  - The effect of health status and living arrangements on long term care models
      among older Chinese: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, there are many studies focusing on the influencing factors
      of the elderly people's living arrangements or health status, but little is known
      about the relationship between living arrangements or health status and long-term
      care models for the old-age, especially the joint effects. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to
      assess the effects of health status and living arrangements on long-term care
      models (LTCM) among the elderly of Xiamen, China, especially their cumulative
      joint effects. METHODS: A total of 14,373 participants aged >= 60 years by
      multistage sampling in Xiamen of China were enrolled. Multinomial logistic
      regression was used to estimate the Odds ratios (ORs) regressing LTCM on health
      status and living arrangements using the Anderson model as theoretical framework.
      RESULTS: Totally, 14,292 valid questionnaires were obtained, of which 86.37%
      selected home care. With the increase of disability degree, older people are more
      likely to choose institutional care, compared to living alone (ORs = 1.75, 2.06,
      4.00, 4.01 for the "relatively independent', "mild disability', "moderate
      disability', and "total disability', respectively, in comparison with "completely
      independent'). The elderly living with children and other family members
      preferred to choose home care. (ORs = 0.50, 0.39, 0.40, and 0.43 for the "living
      with children', "living with spouse', "living with children and spouse', and
      "living with others', respectively, in comparison with "alone'). Additionally,
      residence, number of children, education level, and feelings of loneliness were
      the determinants of the choice of social pension. CONCLUSION: A multitude of
      older people are trended to choose home care in Xiamen of China. There was an
      interaction and joint effect between the degree of disability and the living
      arrangements on LTCM. Therefore, policymakers should pay close attention to care
      for those living alone, childless, and disabled elders to meet their care needs,
      especially in home care. In addition, the social construction of facilities for
      elders in rural areas should be strengthened.

PMID- 28880886
TI  - The osteogenic cell surface marker BRIL/IFITM5 is dispensable for bone
      development and homeostasis in mice.
AB  - BRIL (bone-restricted IFITM-like), is a short transmembrane protein expressed
      almost exclusively in osteoblasts. Although much is known about its bone
      restricted gene expression pattern and protein biochemical and topological
      features, little information is available for BRIL physiological function. Two
      autosomal dominant forms of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) are caused by distinct,
      but recurrent mutations in the BRIL gene. Yet, the underlying mechanisms by which
      those mutations lead to OI are still poorly understood. A previous report
      indicated that BRIL knockout (KO) mice had bone deformities, shortened long
      bones, and reproductive problems. Here we generated and systematically analyzed
      the skeletal phenotype of a new global Bril KO/LacZ knockin mouse model. KO mice
      reproduced and thrived normally up to 12 month of age. The skeletal phenotype of
      KO and WT littermates was assessed at embryonic (E13.5 to E18.5) and postnatal (2
      days, 3 weeks, 3 months and 8 months) time-points. Embryos from E13.5 through to
      E18.5 showed significant X-Gal staining in all skeletal elements without any
      apparent patterning anomalies. Although bone deformities were never observed at
      any postnatal ages, minor and transient differences were noted in terms of bone
      length and static uCT parameters, but not systematically across all ages and
      genders. These changes, however, were not accompanied by significant alteration
      in bone material properties as assessed by a 3-point bending test. In addition,
      no changes were detected in circulating serum markers of bone turnover (P1NP, CTX
      I, and osteocalcin). Gene expression monitoring also revealed no major impact of
      the loss of BRIL. Further, when mice were challenged with a surgically-induced
      fracture in tibia, bones repaired equally well in the KO mice as compared to WT.
      Finally, we showed that BRIL C-terminus is not a bona fide binding site for
      calcium. In conclusion, our in depth analysis suggest that skeletal patterning,
      bone mass accrual and remodeling in mice proceeded independent of BRIL.

PMID- 28880888
TI  - Temporal interpolation alters motion in fMRI scans: Magnitudes and consequences
      for artifact detection.
AB  - Head motion can be estimated at any point of fMRI image processing. Processing
      steps involving temporal interpolation (e.g., slice time correction or outlier
      replacement) often precede motion estimation in the literature. From first
      principles it can be anticipated that temporal interpolation will alter head
      motion in a scan. Here we demonstrate this effect and its consequences in five
      large fMRI datasets. Estimated head motion was reduced by 10-50% or more
      following temporal interpolation, and reductions were often visible to the naked
      eye. Such reductions make the data seem to be of improved quality. Such
      reductions also degrade the sensitivity of analyses aimed at detecting motion
      related artifact and can cause a dataset with artifact to falsely appear artifact
      free. These reduced motion estimates will be particularly problematic for studies
      needing estimates of motion in time, such as studies of dynamics. Based on these
      findings, it is sensible to obtain motion estimates prior to any image processing
      (regardless of subsequent processing steps and the actual timing of motion
      correction procedures, which need not be changed). We also find that outlier
      replacement procedures change signals almost entirely during times of motion and
      therefore have notable similarities to motion-targeting censoring strategies
      (which withhold or replace signals entirely during times of motion).

PMID- 28880889
TI  - Loss of Kaiso expression in breast cancer cells prevents intra-vascular invasion
      in the lung and secondary metastasis.
AB  - The metastatic activity of breast carcinomas results from complex genetic changes
      in epithelial tumor cells and accounts for 90% of deaths in affected patients.
      Although the invasion of the local lymphatic vessels and veins by malignant
      breast tumor cells and their subsequent metastasis to the lung, has been
      recognized, the mechanisms behind the metastatic activity of breast tumor cells
      to other distal organs and the pathogenesis of metastatic cancer are not well
      understood. In this study, we utilized derivatives of the well-established and
      highly metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line MDA-MB-231 (MDA
      231) to study breast tumor metastasis in a mouse model. These MDA-231 derivatives
      had depleted expression of Kaiso, a POZ-ZF transcription factor that is highly
      expressed in malignant, triple negative breast cancers. We previously reported
      that Kaiso depletion attenuates the metastasis of xenografted MDA-231 cells.
      Herein, we describe the pathological features of the metastatic activity of
      parental (Kaisopositive) versus Kaisodepleted MDA-231 cells. Both Kaisopositive
      and Kaisodepleted MDA-231 cells metastasized from the original tumor in the
      mammary fat pad to the lung. However, while Kaisopositive cells formed large
      masses in the lung parenchyma, invaded large pulmonary blood vessels and formed
      secondary metastases and large tumors in the distal organs, Kaisodepleted cells
      metastasized only to the lung where they formed small metastatic lesions.
      Importantly, intravascular invasion and secondary metastases in distal organs
      were not observed in mice xenografted with Kaisodepleted cells. It thus appears
      that the lung may constitute a barrier for less invasive breast tumors such as
      the Kaisodepleted TNBC cells; this barrier may limit tumor growth and prevents
      Kaisodepleted TNBC cells from invading the pulmonary blood vessels and forming
      secondary metastases in distal organs.

PMID- 28880890
TI  - Dissection of mammalian orthoreovirus u2 reveals a self-associative domain
      required for binding to microtubules but not to factory matrix protein uNS.
AB  - Mammalian orthoreovirus protein MU2 is a component of the viral core particle.
      Its activities include RNA binding and hydrolysis of the gamma-phosphate from
      NTPs and RNA 5'-termini, suggesting roles as a cofactor for the viral RNA
      dependent RNA polymerase, lambda3, first enzyme in 5'-capping of viral plus
      strand RNAs, and/or prohibitory of RNA-5'-triphosphate-activated antiviral
      signaling. Within infected cells, MU2 also contributes to viral factories,
      cytoplasmic structures in which genome replication and particle assembly occur.
      By associating with both microtubules (MTs) and viral factory matrix protein
      MUNS, MU2 can anchor the factories to MTs, the full effects of which remain
      unknown. In this study, a protease-hypersensitive region allowed MU2 to be
      dissected into two large fragments corresponding to residues 1-282 and 283-736.
      Fusions with enhanced green fluorescent protein revealed that these amino- and
      carboxyl-terminal regions of MU2 associate in cells with either MTs or MUNS,
      respectively. More exhaustive deletion analysis defined MU2 residues 1-325 as the
      minimal contiguous region that associates with MTs in the absence of the self
      associating tag. A region involved in MU2 self-association was mapped to residues
      283-325, and self-association involving this region was essential for MT
      association as well. Likewise, we mapped that MUNS-binding site in MU2 relates to
      residues 290-453 which is independent of MU2 self-association. These findings
      suggest that MU2 monomers or oligomers can bind to MTs and MUNS, but that self
      association involving MU2 residues 283-325 is specifically relevant for MT
      association during viral factories formation.

PMID- 28880891
TI  - Altered right anterior insular connectivity and loss of associated functions in
      adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome.
AB  - Impairments in cognition, pain intolerance, and physical inactivity characterize
      adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), yet little is known about its
      neurobiology. The right dorsal anterior insular (dAI) connectivity of the
      salience network provides a motivational context to stimuli. In this study, we
      examined regional functional connectivity (FC) patterns of the right dAI in
      adolescent CFS patients and healthy participants. Eighteen adolescent patients
      with CFS and 18 aged-matched healthy adolescent control participants underwent
      resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The right dAI region of
      interest was examined in a seed-to-voxel resting-state FC analysis using SPM and
      CONN toolbox. Relative to healthy adolescents, CFS patients demonstrated reduced
      FC of the right dAI to the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) node of the
      central executive network. The decreased FC of the right dAI-PPC might indicate
      impaired cognitive control development in adolescent CFS. Immature FC of the
      right dAI-PPC in patients also lacked associations with three known functional
      domains: cognition, pain and physical activity, which were observed in the
      healthy group. These results suggest a distinct biological signature of
      adolescent CFS and might represent a fundamental role of the dAI in motivated
      behavior.

PMID- 28880893
TI  - Trends in summer bottom-water temperatures on the northern Gulf of Mexico
      continental shelf from 1985 to 2015.
AB  - We quantified trends in the 1985 to 2015 summer bottom-water temperature on the
      northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) continental shelf for data collected at 88
      stations with depths ranging from 3 to 63 m. The analysis was supplemented with
      monthly data collected from 1963 to 1965 in the same area. The seasonal summer
      peak in average bottom-water temperature varied concurrently with air
      temperature, but with a 2- to 5-month lag. The summer bottom-water temperature
      declined gradually with depth from 30 oC at stations closest to the shore, to 20
      oC at the offshore edge of the study area, and increased an average 0.051 oC y-1
      between1963 and 2015. The bottom-water warming in summer for all stations was 1.9
      times faster compared to the rise in local summer air temperatures, and 6.4 times
      faster than the concurrent increase in annual global ocean sea surface
      temperatures. The annual rise in average summer bottom-water temperatures on the
      subtropical nGOM continental shelf is comparable to the few published temperature
      trend estimates from colder environments. These recent changes in the heat
      storage on the nGOM continental shelf will affect oxygen and carbon cycling,
      spatial distribution of fish and shrimp, and overall species diversity.

PMID- 28880892
TI  - Beyond HIV-serodiscordance: Partnership communication dynamics that affect
      engagement in safer conception care.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We explored acceptability and feasibility of safer conception
      methods among HIV-affected couples in Uganda. METHODS: We recruited HIV-positive
      men and women on antiretroviral therapy (ART) ('index') from the Uganda
      Antiretroviral Rural Treatment Outcomes cohort who reported an HIV-negative or
      unknown-serostatus partner ('partner'), HIV-serostatus disclosure to partner, and
      personal or partner desire for a child within two years. We conducted in-depth
      interviews with 40 individuals from 20 couples, using a narrative approach with
      tailored images to assess acceptability of five safer conception strategies: ART
      for the infected partner, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the uninfected
      partner, condomless sex timed to peak fertility, manual insemination, and male
      circumcision. Translated and transcribed data were analyzed using thematic
      analysis. RESULTS: 11/20 index participants were women, median age of 32.5 years,
      median of 2 living children, and 80% had HIV-RNA <400 copies/mL. Awareness of HIV
      prevention strategies beyond condoms and abstinence was limited and precluded
      opportunity to explore or validly assess acceptability or feasibility of safer
      conception methods. Four key partnership communication challenges emerged as
      primary barriers to engagement in safer conception care, including: (1) HIV
      serostatus disclosure: Although disclosure was an inclusion criterion, partners
      commonly reported not knowing the index partner's HIV status. Similarly, the
      partner's HIV-serostatus, as reported by the index, was frequently inaccurate.
      (2) Childbearing intention: Many couples had divergent childbearing intentions
      and made incorrect assumptions about their partner's desires. (3) HIV risk
      perception: Participants had disparate understandings of HIV transmission and
      disagreed on the acceptable level of HIV risk to meet reproductive goals. (4)
      Partnership commitment: Participants revealed significant discord in perceptions
      of partnership commitment. All four types of partnership miscommunication
      introduced constraints to autonomous reproductive decision-making, particularly
      for women. Such miscommunication was common, as only 2 of 20 partnerships in our
      sample were mutually-disclosed with agreement across all four communication
      themes. CONCLUSIONS: Enthusiasm for safer conception programming is growing. Our
      findings highlight the importance of addressing gendered partnership
      communication regarding HIV disclosure, reproductive goals, acceptable HIV risk,
      and commitment, alongside technical safer conception advice. Failing to consider
      partnership dynamics across these domains risks limiting reach, uptake, adherence
      to, and retention in safer conception programming.

PMID- 28880894
TI  - In Ovo and dietary administration of oligosaccharides extracted from palm kernel
      cake influence general health of pre- and neonatal broiler chicks.
AB  - Palm kernel cake (PKC) is the main byproduct from the palm oil industry in
      several tropical countries that contains considerable amounts of oligosaccharide.
      We earlier demonstrated beneficial prebiotic effects of oligosaccharides extract
      of PKC (OligoPKC) in starter and finisher broiler birds. This study was envisaged
      to elucidate the effects of in ovo and/or oral administration of the OligoPKC on
      prenatal and post-hatched broiler chicks. A total of 140 broiler (Cobb500) eggs
      were randomly divided into two groups (n = 70 each), and on day 12 of incubation,
      eggs in one group received in ovo injection of 0.1 mL (containing 20 mg) of
      OligoPKC, while those in the other group received 0.1 mL of saline (placebo)
      solution. Of these in ovo placebo or OligoPKC injected eggs, after hatching, six
      chicks from each group were sampled for day-one analysis, while 48 chicks from
      each group were randomly allocated to two dietary regimes involving either no
      feeding or feeding of OligoPKC through basal diet for a 14 days experiment
      forming the experimental groups as: (i) saline-injected (Control, C), (ii)
      OligoPKC-injected (PREBovo), (iii) saline-injected, but fed 1% OligoPKC (PREBd),
      and (iv) OligoPKC-injected and also 1% OligoPKC (PREBovo+d). In ovo injection of
      prebiotic OligoPKC had no effect on body weight and serum immunoglobulins
      concentrations of day old chicks, except for IgG, which was increased
      significantly (P<0.05). Body weight and feed conversion ratio of 14 days old
      chicks were neither affected by in ovo injection nor feeding of OligoPKC.
      However, populations of cecal total bacteria and major beneficial bacteria of the
      chicks were markedly enhanced by feeding of OligoPKC (PREBd and PREBovo+d > C and
      PREBovo), but lesser influenced by in ovo OligoPKC injection. Irrespective of its
      prior in ovo exposure, chicks fed OligoPKC diets had lower population of
      pathogenic bacteria. Overall serum immunoglobulin status of birds was improved by
      feeding of OligoPKC but in ovo OligoPKC injection had minor effect on that. In
      most cases, in ovo OligoPKC injection and feeding of OligoPKC reduced the
      expression of nutrient transporters in the intestine and improved antioxidant
      capacity of liver and serum. It is concluded that in ovo injection of OligoPKC
      increased IgG production and antioxidant capacity in serum and liver of prenatal
      chicks and had limited carrying-over effects on the post-hatched chicks comparing
      to the supplementary feeding of OligoPKC.

PMID- 28880895
TI  - LAG-3 potentiates the survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in host phagocytes
      by modulating mitochondrial signaling in an in-vitro granuloma model.
AB  - CD4+ T-cell mediated Th1 immune responses are critical for immunity to TB. The
      immunomodulatory protein, lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) decreases Th1-type
      immune responses in T-cells. LAG-3 expression is significantly induced in the
      lungs of macaques with active TB and correlates with increased bacterial burden.
      Overproduction of LAG-3 can greatly diminish responses and could lead to
      uncontrolled Mtb replication. To assess the effect of LAG-3 on the progression of
      Mtb infection, we developed a co-culture system wherein blood-derived macrophages
      are infected with Mtb and supplemented with macaque blood or lung derived CD4+ T
      cells. Silencing LAG-3 signaling in macaque lung CD4+ T-cells enhanced killing of
      Mtb in co-cultures, accompanied by reduced mitochondrial electron transport and
      increased IFN-gamma expression. Thus, LAG-3 may modulate adaptive immunity to Mtb
      infection by interfering with the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Better
      understanding this pathway could allow us to circumvent immune features that
      promote disease.

PMID- 28880896
TI  - Extract of Spatholobus suberctus Dunn ameliorates ischemia-induced injury by
      targeting miR-494.
AB  - Cerebral stroke is a leading cause of death and permanent disability. The current
      therapeutic outcome of ischemic stroke (>85% of all strokes) is very poor, thus
      novel therapeutic drug is urgently needed. In vitro cell model of ischemia was
      established by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) and in vivo animal model of
      ischemia was established by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). The effects
      of Spatholobus suberctus Dunn extract (SSCE) on OGD-induced cell injury, MCAO
      induced neural injury and miR-494 level were all evaluated. The possible target
      genes were virtually screened utilizing bioinformatics and verified by luciferase
      assay. Subsequently, the effects of abnormally expressed miR-494 on OGD-induced
      cell injury and target gene expression were determined. Additionally, whether
      SSCE affected target gene expression through modulation of miR-494 was studied.
      Finally, the effects of aberrantly expressed Sox8 on OGD-induced injury and
      signaling pathways were estimated. SSCE reduced OGD-induced cell injury and
      ameliorated MCAO-induced neuronal injury, along with down-regulation of miR-494.
      Then, OGD-induced cell injury was increased by miR-494 overexpression but
      decreased by miR-494 silence. Sox8 was a target gene of miR-494, and SSCE could
      up-regulate Sox8 expression via down-regulating miR-494. Afterwards, OGD-induced
      cell injury was proved to be increased by Sox8 inhibition but reduced by Sox8
      overexpression. Finally, OGD-induced inhibition of PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MAPK
      pathways was further inhibited by Sox8 silence but activated by Sox8
      overexpression. SSCE ameliorates ischemia-induced injury both in vitro and in
      vivo by miR-494-mediated modulation of Sox8, involving activations of
      PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MAPK pathways.

PMID- 28880897
TI  - Changes in soil microbial communities after 10 years of winter wheat cultivation
      versus fallow in an organic-poor soil in the Loess Plateau of China.
AB  - Agricultural management methods, such as cultivation or fallowing, have led to
      significant changes in soil fertility and hence, crop yield. Such changes may
      have stemmed from changes in soil microbial communities and associated
      biogeochemical processes. This phenomenon is particularly true in organic-poor
      soil in the Loess Plateau of China. In this study, we examined three existing
      soil management regimes as part of a 10-year field experiment and evaluated their
      effects on fungal and bacterial community structures by performing high
      throughput 454 pyrosequencing. These management regimes were (i) fertilized
      winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (FW), (ii) continuous natural fallow with
      weeds but without crop grown (NF), and (iii) continuous bare fallow without weeds
      or crop grown (BF). After 10 years, soil organic carbon (SOC), microbial biomass
      carbon (MBC), and available potassium (K) concentrations were highest in NF. Soil
      N behaved differently, with BF obtaining the highest nitrate nitrogen (N).
      Meanwhile, slight differences in total N (TN) were observed among FW, NF, and BF.
      Available phosphorus (P) was highest and available K was lowest in FW. Microbial
      communities were dominated by Ascomycota (59.1% of fungal sequences), and
      Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria
      (75.7% of bacterial sequences) in FW, NF and BF at the phylum level. Soil
      management regimes did not affect the fungal and bacterial richness and diversity
      but significantly modified their community compositions. Compared with FW, the
      abundances of Ascomycota (fungi phylum) and Alternaria, Gibberella, and
      Emericella (fungi genus) were increased by NF, whereas the values of Chaetomium,
      Humicola, and Cryptococcus (fungi genus) were decreased by BF. The abundances of
      Verrucomicrobia (bacteria phylum), and Steroidobacter (bacteria genus) were
      increased by NF, and Bacteroides (bacteria genus) was increased by BF. Canonical
      correspondence analysis showed that SOC, available P, and TN might be the key
      factors in community formation. Therefore, the decadal absence of plants (BF)
      affected soil fertility by increased available K and nitrate N, whileas natural
      fallow (NF) affected soil fertility by increased SOC, available K, and MBC, and
      they all changed fungal and bacterial community compositions.

PMID- 28880898
TI  - QTL mapping of selenium content using a RIL population in wheat.
AB  - Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element that plays various roles in human
      health. Understanding the genetic control of Se content and quantitative trait
      loci (QTL) mapping provide a basis for Se biofortification of wheat to enhance
      grain Se content. In the present study, a set of recombinant inbred lines (RILs)
      derived from two Chinese winter wheat varieties (Tainong18 and Linmai6) was used
      to detect QTLs for Se content in hydroponic and field trials. In total, 16 QTLs
      for six Se content-related traits were detected on eight chromosomes, 1B, 2B, 4B,
      5A, 5B, 5D, 6A, and 7D. Of these, seven QTLs were detected at the seedling stage
      and nine at the adult stage. The contribution of each QTL to Se content ranged
      from 7.37% to 20.22%. QSsece-7D.2, located between marker loci D-3033829 and D
      1668160, had the highest contribution (20.22%). This study helps in understanding
      the genetic basis for Se contents and will provide a basis for gene mapping of Se
      content in wheat.

PMID- 28880899
TI  - Effects of sedation on subjective perception of pain intensity and autonomic
      nervous responses to pain: A preliminary study.
AB  - Rather than relying solely on subjective pain evaluation using means such as the
      visual analogue scale (VAS), in clinical situations it is possible to observe
      evoked responses of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as objective indicators.
      Few studies, however, have reported these relationships under finely controlled
      sedation. 16 healthy male participants were administrated in intravenous sedation
      with either propofol or midazolam randomly. We initially determined, using
      pharmacokinetic simulation, the effect-site concentration (Ce) of anaesthetic at
      loss of response to verbal command and eyelash reflex (Ce-LOR). Then subsequently
      adjusted Ce to 75%, 50%, and 25% of Ce-LOR to achieve deep, moderate, and light
      sedation. At awake control state and each sedation level, a noxious electrical
      stimulation was applied three times at the right forearm, an average pain
      intensity of the three stimuli was rated on a VAS (0-10). Changes in the
      peripheral perfusion index measured by oximetry were used as an indicator of ANS
      response. We analyzed the influence of sedation level on VAS and ANS responses
      compared to the awake control state. While ANS responses were similar in all
      conditions, VAS was statistically significantly lower in moderate (5.6+/-0.6, p
      <0.005) or deep (5.3+/-0.6, p <0.001) sedation than in the awake state (7.2+/
      0.4). This study revealed that even when the ANS responds similarly to the same
      stimulation, subjective pain perception is attenuated by sedation. A cerebral
      mechanism other than that of the brainstem might determine subjective pain
      intensity.

PMID- 28880900
TI  - Phase separation of the plasma membrane in human red blood cells as a potential
      tool for diagnosis and progression monitoring of type 1 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - Glycosylation, oxidation and other post-translational modifications of membrane
      and transmembrane proteins can alter lipid density, packing and interactions, and
      are considered an important factor that affects fluidity variation in membranes.
      Red blood cells (RBC) membrane physical state, showing pronounced alterations in
      Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), could be the ideal candidate for monitoring the
      disease progression and the effects of therapies. On these grounds, the
      measurement of RBC membrane fluidity alterations can furnish a more sensitive
      index in T1DM diagnosis and disease progression than Glycosylated hemoglobin
      (HbA1c), which reflects only the information related to glycosylation processes.
      Here, through a functional two-photon microscopy approach we retrieved fluidity
      maps at submicrometric scale in RBC of T1DM patients with and without
      complications, detecting an altered membrane equilibrium. We found that a phase
      separation between fluid and rigid domains occurs, triggered by systemic effects
      on membranes fluidity of glycation and oxidation. The phase separation patterns
      are different among healthy, T1DM and T1DM with complications patients. Blood
      cholesterol and LDL content are positively correlated with the extent of the
      phase separation patterns. To quantify this extent a machine learning approach is
      employed to develop a Decision-Support-System (DSS) able to recognize different
      fluidity patterns in RBC. Preliminary analysis shows significant
      differences(p<0.001) among healthy, T1DM and T1DM with complications patients.
      The development of an assay based on Phase separation of the plasma membrane of
      the Red Blood cells is a potential tool for diagnosis and progression monitoring
      of type 1 diabetes mellitus, and could allow customization and the selection of
      medical treatments in T1DM in clinical settings, and enable the early detection
      of complications.

PMID- 28880901
TI  - ABO blood type and the risk of cancer - Findings from the Shanghai Cohort Study.
AB  - ABO blood type is an inherited characteristic. The associations between ABO blood
      type and risk of all cancer and specific cancers were examined in a prospective
      cohort study of 18,244 Chinese men enrolled in 1986. During the 25 years of
      follow-up, 3,973 men developed cancer including 964 lung cancers, 624 colorectal
      cancers, 560 gastric cancers, 353 liver cancers, and 172 urinary bladder cancers.
      Hazard ratios (HR) for all cancer and specific cancers by ABO blood type were
      calculated using Cox proportional hazards models. Compared with blood type A,
      blood type B was associated with statistically significant reduced risk of all
      cancers (HR, 0.91, 95% CI:0.84, 0.99). Both blood types B and AB were associated
      with significantly lower risk of gastrointestinal cancer and colorectal cancer,
      respectively. Blood type B was also associated with significantly lower risk of
      stomach cancer and bladder cancer, while blood type AB was associated with
      significantly increased risk of liver cancer. By histological type, blood types B
      and AB were associated with lower risk of epidermoid carcinoma and
      adenocarcinoma, but were not associated with risk of sarcoma, lymphoma, leukemia
      or other cell types of cancer. The findings of this study support a role of
      genetic traits related to ABO blood type in the development of cancers in the
      gastrointestinal and urinary tracts.

PMID- 28880902
TI  - Clonidine used as a perineural adjuvant to ropivacaine, does not prolong the
      duration of sensory block when controlling for systemic effects: A paired,
      blinded, randomized trial in healthy volunteers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clonidine used as an adjuvant to ropivacaine have been shown to
      prolong the duration of peripheral nerve blocks. The mechanism of action remains
      unclear. We hypothesized, that clonidine used as an adjuvant to ropivacaine
      extends the duration of an adductor canal block (ACB) by a peripheral mechanism,
      compared to ropivacaine alone when controlling for systemic effects. METHODS: We
      conducted a paired, blinded, randomized trial in healthy volunteers. Participants
      received bilateral ACBs containing 20 ml ropivacaine 0.5% + 1 ml clonidine
      150MUg/ml in one leg and 20 ml ropivacaine 0.5% + 1 ml saline in the other leg.
      The primary outcome measure was duration of sensory block assessed by temperature
      sensation (alcohol swab). Secondary outcome measures were duration of sensory
      block assessed by: pinprick, maximum pain during tonic heat stimulation, warmth
      detection threshold and heat pain detection threshold. RESULTS: We enrolled 21
      volunteers and all completed the trial. There was no difference in duration of
      sensory block assessed with an alcohol swab: Mean duration in the leg receiving
      ropivacaine + clonidine was 19.4h (SD 2.7) compared to 19.3h (SD 2.4) in the leg
      receiving ropivacaine + placebo with a mean difference of 0.1h (95% CI: -1.0 to
      1.3), P = 0.83. No differences in block duration were detected when assessed by:
      Pinprick, mean difference 0.0 h (95% CI: -1.3 to 1.3), maximum pain during tonic
      heat stimulation, mean difference -0.7 h (95% CI: -2.1 to 0.8), warmth detection
      threshold, mean difference -0.1 h (95% CI: -1.8 to 1.6) or heat pain detection
      threshold, mean difference -0.2 h (95% CI: -1.7 to 1.4). CONCLUSIONS:
      Administering clonidine perineurally as an adjuvant to ropivacaine in an ACB did
      not prolong the duration of sensory block in a setup controlling for systemic
      effects of clonidine.

PMID- 28880903
TI  - Functional differences between PD-1+ and PD-1- CD4+ effector T cells in healthy
      donors and patients with glioblastoma multiforme.
AB  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)
      have been highly successful in the treatment of cancer. While PD-1 expression has
      been widely investigated, its role in CD4+ effector T cells in the setting of
      health and cancer remains unclear, particularly in the setting of glioblastoma
      multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive and common form of brain cancer. We
      examined the functional and molecular features of PD-1+CD4+CD25-CD127+Foxp3
      effector cells in healthy subjects and in patients with GBM. In healthy subjects,
      we found that PD-1+CD4+ effector cells are dysfunctional: they do not proliferate
      but can secrete large quantities of IFNgamma. Strikingly, blocking antibodies
      against PD-1 did not rescue proliferation. RNA-sequencing revealed features of
      exhaustion in PD-1+ CD4 effectors. In the context of GBM, tumors were enriched in
      PD-1+ CD4+ effectors that were similarly dysfunctional and unable to proliferate.
      Furthermore, we found enrichment of PD-1+TIM-3+ CD4+ effectors in tumors,
      suggesting that co-blockade of PD-1 and TIM-3 in GBM may be therapeutically
      beneficial. RNA-sequencing of blood and tumors from GBM patients revealed
      distinct differences between CD4+ effectors from both compartments with
      enrichment in multiple gene sets from tumor infiltrating PD-1-CD4+ effectors
      cells. Enrichment of these gene sets in tumor suggests a more metabolically
      active cell state with signaling through other co-receptors. PD-1 expression on
      CD4 cells identifies a dysfunctional subset refractory to rescue with PD-1
      blocking antibodies, suggesting that the influence of immune checkpoint
      inhibitors may involve recovery of function in the PD-1-CD4+ T cell compartment.
      Additionally, co-blockade of PD-1 and TIM-3 in GBM may be therapeutically
      beneficial.

PMID- 28880904
TI  - Prospective comparison of two models of integrating early infant male
      circumcision with maternal child health services in Kenya: The Mtoto Msafi Mbili
      Study.
AB  - As countries scale up adult voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV
      prevention, they are looking ahead to long term sustainable strategies, including
      introduction of early infant male circumcision (EIMC). To address the lack of
      evidence regarding introduction of EIMC services in sub-Saharan African settings,
      we conducted a simultaneous, prospective comparison of two models of EIMC service
      delivery in Homa Bay County, Kenya. In one division a standard delivery package
      (SDP) was introduced and included health facility-based provision of EIMC
      services with community engagement for client referral versus in a different
      division a standard package plus (SDPplus) that included community-delivered EIMC
      services. Babies 1-60 days old were eligible for EIMC. A representative sample of
      mothers and fathers of baby boys at 16 health facilities was surveyed. We
      examined differences between mothers and fathers in the SDP and SDPplus divisions
      and identified factors associated with EIMC uptake. We report adjusted prevalence
      ratios (aPR). Of 1660 mothers interviewed, 1501 (89%) gave approval to contact
      the father, and 1259 fathers (84%) were interviewed. The proportion of babies
      circumcised was slightly greater in the SDPplus division than the SDP division
      (27.3% vs 23.7%), but the difference was not significant (p = 0.08). In adjusted
      analyses, however, the prevalence of babies being circumcised was greater in the
      SDPplus division (aPR = 1.23, 95% CI:1.04-1.45) and the factors associated with a
      baby being circumcised were the mother having received information about EIMC
      (during pregnancy, aPR = 4.81, 95% CI: 2.21-3.42), having discussed circumcision
      with the father if married or cohabiting (aPR = 5.39, 95% CI: 3.31-8.80) or being
      single (aPR = 5.67, 95% CI: 3.31-9.69), perceiving herself to be living with HIV
      (aPR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.15-1.67), or having a post-secondary education (aPR =
      1.33, 95% CI: 1.04-1.69), and the father being Muslim (aPR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.29
      2.65) or circumcised (aPR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.13-1.59). The median age of 2117
      babies circumcised was 8 days (IQR: 1-36), and the median weight was 3.6 kg (IQR:
      3.2-4.4). There were 6 moderate adverse events (AEs) (0.28%); 5 severe AEs
      (0.24%), all involving an injury to the glans penis, requiring hospitalization
      and corrective surgery; and one death probably related to the procedure. There
      were no AEs among the 365 procedures performed outside health facilities.
      Information and education campaigns must reach members of the general population,
      especially men and fathers, who are influential to the EIMC decision. Serious AEs
      using the Mogen clamp are rare, but do occur and require efficient, reliable
      emergency back-up. Our results can assist countries considering scale-up of EIMC
      services for HIV prevention as their adult VMMC programs mature.

PMID- 28880906
TI  - Consequences of insecticide resistance on malaria transmission.

PMID- 28880905
TI  - Population genetics of Southern Hemisphere tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus):
      Intercontinental divergence and constrained gene flow at different geographical
      scales.
AB  - The tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus Linnaeus, 1758) is a temperate, coastal hound
      shark found in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans. In this study, the
      population structure of Galeorhinus galeus was determined across the entire
      Southern Hemisphere, where the species is heavily targeted by commercial
      fisheries, as well as locally, along the South African coastline. Analysis was
      conducted on a total of 185 samples using 19 microsatellite markers and a 671 bp
      fragment of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) gene. Across the Southern
      Hemisphere, three geographically distinct clades were recovered, including one
      from South America (Argentina, Chile), one from Africa (all the South African
      collections) and an Australia-New Zealand clade. Nuclear data revealed
      significant population subdivisions (FST = 0.192 to 0.376, p<0.05) indicating
      limited gene flow for tope sharks across ocean basins. Marked population
      connectivity was however evident across the Indian Ocean based on Bayesian
      clustering analysis. More locally in South Africa, F-statistics and multivariate
      analysis supported moderate to high gene flow across the Atlantic/Indian Ocean
      boundary (FST = 0.035 to 0.044, p<0.05), with exception of samples from
      Struisbaai and Port Elizabeth which differed significantly from the rest.
      Discriminant and Bayesian clustering analysis indicated admixture in all sampling
      populations, decreasing from west to east, corroborating possible restriction to
      gene flow across regional oceanographic barriers. Mitochondrial sequence data
      recovered seven haplotypes (h = 0.216, pi = 0.001) for South Africa, with one
      major haplotype shared by 87% of the individuals and at least one private
      haplotype for each sampling location except Port Elizabeth. As with many other
      coastal shark species with cosmopolitan distribution, this study confirms the
      lack of both historical dispersal and inter-oceanic gene flow while also
      implicating contemporary factors such as oceanic currents and thermal fronts to
      drive local genetic structure of G. galeus on a smaller spatial scale.

PMID- 28880907
TI  - Comparison of electrochemical skin conductance and vibration perception threshold
      measurement in the detection of early diabetic neuropathy.
AB  - The early diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is challenging.
      Sudomotor dysfunction is one of the earliest detectable abnormalities in DPN. The
      present study aimed to determine the diagnostic performance of the
      electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) test in detecting early DPN, compared with
      the vibration perception threshold (VPT) test and diabetic neuropathy symptom
      (DNS) score, using the modified neuropathy disability score (NDS) as the
      reference standard. Five hundred and twenty-three patients with type 2 diabetes
      underwent an NDS-based clinical assessment for neuropathy. Participants were
      classified into the DPN and non-DPN groups based on the NDS (>= 6). Both groups
      were evaluated further using the DNS, and VPT and ESC testing. A receiver
      operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to compare the
      efficacy of ESC measurements with those of DNS and VPT testing in detecting DPN.
      The DPN group (n = 110, 21%) had significantly higher HbA1c levels and longer
      diabetes durations compared with the non-DPN group (n = 413). The sensitivity of
      feet ESC < 60 MUS, VPT testing, and DNS in detecting DPN were 85%, 72%, and 52%,
      respectively. The specificity of feet ESC, VPT, and DNS in detecting DPN were
      85%, 90% and 60% respectively. The areas under the curves of the ROC plots for
      feet ESC, VPT testing, and DNS were 0.88, 0.84, and 0.6, respectively. A
      significant inverse linear relationship was noted between VPT and feet ESC (r = 
      0.45, p = <0.0001). The odds ratios for having DPN, based on the mean feet ESC
      testing < 60 MUS, VPT testing > 15 V, and DNS >= 1, were 16.4, 10.9 and 1.8,
      respectively. ESC measurement is an objective and sensitive technique for the
      early detection of DPN. Feet ESC measurement was superior to VPT testing for
      identifying patients with early DPN.

PMID- 28880908
TI  - Prostacyclin, thromboxane and glomerular filtration rate are abnormal in sickle
      cell pregnancy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pregnancy increases the risk of morbidity and mortality in sickle
      cell disease. We previously showed pregnant women with sickle cell disease to
      have a relatively low plasma renin concentration in late pregnancy, associated
      with a lack of the expected plasma volume expansion. We hypothesized this to be
      due to increased systemic vascular resistance through an imbalance between the
      vasodilator prostacyclin and vasoconstrictor thromboxane, associated with
      decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR). OBJECTIVE: To compare estimated
      prostacyclin, thromboxane and GFR in non-pregnant and pregnant women with
      hemoglobin SS (HbSS) and AA (HbAA). STUDY DESIGN: Four groups of 20 normotensive,
      nulliparous women were studied in Lagos, Nigeria: pregnant HbSS or HbAA women at
      36-40 weeks gestation; non-pregnant HbSS and HbAA controls. We measured stable
      metabolites of prostacyclin and thromboxane A2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay; GFR using the Cockcroft-Gault equation. Data analysis was by independent
      (Student's) t-test or Mann-Whitney U test for comparisons between any two groups
      of continuous variables, univariate ANOVA for multiple groups and Pearson's
      correlation coefficient for degree of association between variables. RESULTS:
      HbSS women had lower serum 6-keto-PGF1alpha concentrations than HbAA, whether
      pregnant or non-pregnant (P<0.001; P<0.004 respectively). Conversely, pregnant
      HbSS women had higher serum TxB2 (P<0.001); non-pregnant HbSS women had non
      significantly higher TxB2 concentrations. The 6-keto-PGF1alpha:TxB2 ratio was
      markedly increased (pro-vasodilatory) in HbAA pregnancy (P<0.001) but reduced in
      HbSS pregnancy (P = 0.037). GFRs (mL/min) were higher in non-pregnant HbSS than
      HbAA (P<0.008) but only marginally raised in HbSS women in late pregnancy (P =
      0.019) while markedly raised in HbAA pregnancy (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The lower
      ratio of prostacyclin-thromboxane metabolites in HbSS pregnancy may indicate
      endothelial damage and an increased tendency to vasoconstriction and clotting. If
      confirmed by subsequent longitudinal studies, interventions to increase
      prostacyclin and reduce thromboxane, such as low dose aspirin, may be potentially
      useful in their management.

PMID- 28880909
TI  - In-vivo biological activity and glycosylation analysis of a biosimilar
      recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone product (Bemfola) compared with
      its reference medicinal product (GONAL-f).
AB  - Recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (r-hFSH) is widely used in
      fertility treatment. Although biosimilar versions of r-hFSH (follitropin alfa)
      are currently on the market, given their structural complexity and manufacturing
      process, it is important to thoroughly evaluate them in comparison with the
      reference product. This evaluation should focus on how they differ (e.g., active
      component molecular characteristics, impurities and potency), as this could be
      associated with clinical outcome. This study compared the site-specific
      glycosylation profile and batch-to-batch variability of the in-vivo bioactivity
      of Bemfola, a biosimilar follitropin alfa, with its reference medicinal product
      GONAL-f. The focus of this analysis was the site-specific glycosylation at
      asparagine (Asn) 52 of the alpha-subunit of FSH, owing to the pivotal role of
      Asn52 glycosylation in FSH receptor (FSHR) activation/signalling. Overall,
      Bemfola had bulkier glycan structures and greater sialylation than GONAL-f. The
      nominal specific activity for both Bemfola and GONAL-f is 13,636 IU/mg. Taking
      into account both the determined potency and the nominal amount the average
      specific activity of Bemfola was 14,522 IU/mg (105.6% of the nominal value),
      which was greater than the average specific activity observed for GONAL-f (13,159
      IU/mg; 97.3% of the nominal value; p = 0.0048), although this was within the
      range stated in the product label. A higher batch-to-batch variability was also
      observed for Bemfola versus GONAL-f (coefficient of variation: 8.3% vs 5.8%). A
      different glycan profile was observed at Asn52 in Bemfola compared with GONAL-f
      (a lower proportion of bi-antennary structures [~53% vs ~77%], and a higher
      proportion of tri-antennary [~41% vs ~23%] and tetra-antennary structures [~5% vs
      <1%]). These differences in the Asn52 glycan profile might potentially lead to
      differences in FSHR activation. This, together with the greater bioactivity and
      higher batch-to-batch variability of Bemfola, could partly explain the reported
      differences in clinical outcomes. The clinical relevance of the differences
      observed between GONAL-f and Bemfola should be further investigated.

PMID- 28880910
TI  - No evidence for a role of the serotonin 4 receptor in five-factor personality
      traits: A positron emission tomography brain study.
AB  - Serotonin (5-HT) brain architecture appears to be implicated in normal
      personality traits as supported by genetic associations and studies using
      molecular brain imaging. However, so far, no studies have addressed potential
      contributions to variation in normal personality traits from in vivo serotonin 4
      receptor (5-HT4R) brain availability, which has recently become possible to image
      with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). This is particularly relevant since
      availability of 5-HT4R has been shown to adapt to synaptic levels of 5-HT and
      thus offers information about serotonergic tone in the healthy brain. In 69
      healthy participants (18 females), the associations between personality traits
      assessed with the five-factor NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) and
      regional cerebral 5-HT4R binding in neocortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and
      anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were investigated using linear regression models.
      The associations between each of the five personality traits and a latent
      variable construct of global 5-HT4R levels were also evaluated using latent
      variable structural equation models. We found no significant associations between
      the five NEO personality traits and regional 5-HT4R binding (all p-values > .17)
      or the latent construct of global 5-HT4R levels (all p-values > .37). Our
      findings indicate that NEO personality traits and 5-HT4R are not related in
      healthy participants. Under the assumption that global 5-HT4R levels index 5-HT
      tone, our data also suggest that 5-HT tone per se is not directly implicated in
      normal personality traits.

PMID- 28880911
TI  - Novel cutting-edge metabolite-based diagnostic tools for aspergillosis.

PMID- 28880912
TI  - Correction: Association of miR-196a-2 and miR-499 variants with ulcerative
      colitis and their correlation with expression of respective miRNAs.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173447.].

PMID- 28880914
TI  - Advocacy for identifying certain animal diseases as "neglected".

PMID- 28880913
TI  - Staphylococcal enterotoxin-like X (SElX) is a unique superantigen with functional
      features of two major families of staphylococcal virulence factors.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen that produces many virulence
      factors. Two major families of which are the staphylococcal superantigens (SAgs)
      and the Staphylococcal Superantigen-Like (SSL) exoproteins. The former are
      immunomodulatory toxins that induce a Vbeta-specific activation of T cells, while
      the latter are immune evasion molecules that interfere with a wide range of
      innate immune defences. The superantigenic properties of Staphylococcal
      enterotoxin-like X (SElX) have recently been established. We now reveal that SElX
      also possesses functional characteristics of the SSLs. A region of SElX displays
      high homology to the sialyl-lactosamine (sLacNac)-specific binding site present
      in a sub-family of SSLs. By analysing the interaction of SElX with sLacNac
      containing glycans we show that SElX has an equivalent specificity and host cell
      binding range to the SSLs. Mutation of key amino acids in this conserved region
      affects the ability of SElX to bind to cells of myeloid origin and significantly
      reduces its ability to protect S. aureus from destruction in a whole blood
      killing (WBK) assay. Like the SSLs, SElX is up-regulated early during infection
      and is under the control of the S. aureus exotoxin expression (Sae) two component
      gene regulatory system. Additionally, the structure of SElX in complex with the
      sLacNac-containing tetrasaccharide sialyl Lewis X (sLeX) reveals that SElX is a
      unique single-domain SAg. In summary, SElX is an 'SSL-like' SAg.

PMID- 28880915
TI  - An optimized method for counting dopaminergic neurons in zebrafish.
AB  - In recent years, considerable effort has been devoted to the development of a
      fish model for Parkinson's disease (PD) to examine the pathological mechanisms of
      neurodegeneration. To effectively evaluate PD pathology, the ability to
      accurately and reliably count dopaminergic neurons is important. However, there
      is currently no such standardized method. Due to the relatively small number of
      dopaminergic neurons in fish, stereological estimation would not be suitable. In
      addition, serial sectioning requires proficiency to not lose any sections, and it
      permits double counting due to the large size of some of the dopaminergic
      neurons. In this study, we report an optimized protocol for staining dopaminergic
      neurons in zebrafish and provide a reliable counting method. Finally, using our
      optimized protocol, we confirmed that administration of 6-hydroxydopamine (a
      neurotoxin) or the deletion of the PINK1 gene (one of the causative genes of
      familiar PD) in zebrafish caused significant reduction in the number of
      dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurons. In summary, this method will serve as an
      important tool for the appropriate evaluation and establishment of fish PD
      models.

PMID- 28880916
TI  - A segmentation method for lung nodule image sequences based on superpixels and
      density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise.
AB  - The fast and accurate segmentation of lung nodule image sequences is the basis of
      subsequent processing and diagnostic analyses. However, previous research
      investigating nodule segmentation algorithms cannot entirely segment cavitary
      nodules, and the segmentation of juxta-vascular nodules is inaccurate and
      inefficient. To solve these problems, we propose a new method for the
      segmentation of lung nodule image sequences based on superpixels and density
      based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN). First, our method
      uses three-dimensional computed tomography image features of the average
      intensity projection combined with multi-scale dot enhancement for preprocessing.
      Hexagonal clustering and morphological optimized sequential linear iterative
      clustering (HMSLIC) for sequence image oversegmentation is then proposed to
      obtain superpixel blocks. The adaptive weight coefficient is then constructed to
      calculate the distance required between superpixels to achieve precise lung
      nodules positioning and to obtain the subsequent clustering starting block.
      Moreover, by fitting the distance and detecting the change in slope, an accurate
      clustering threshold is obtained. Thereafter, a fast DBSCAN superpixel sequence
      clustering algorithm, which is optimized by the strategy of only clustering the
      lung nodules and adaptive threshold, is then used to obtain lung nodule mask
      sequences. Finally, the lung nodule image sequences are obtained. The
      experimental results show that our method rapidly, completely and accurately
      segments various types of lung nodule image sequences.

PMID- 28880917
TI  - Analysis of HIV prevalence among pregnant women in Liangshan Prefecture, China,
      from 2009 to 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Yi people make up about 50% of the population in Liangshan
      Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, but accounted for 88.07% of new HIV cases in
      the prefecture from 2011 to 2013. This study evaluated HIV prevalence in pregnant
      women of Liangshan Prefecture using HIV sentinel surveillance (HSS) data over the
      period of 2009 to 2015. METHODS: Xichang, Zhaojue County, and Butuo County were
      selected as HSS sites. We investigated the temporal trends in HIV prevalence in
      these areas, and the association between demographic and behavioral
      characteristics and risk of HIV infection. RESULTS: Data on a total of 2797
      pregnant women in Xichang and 3983 pregnant women in Zhaojue and Butuo was
      collected for the period 2009 to 2015. There was a fluctuating HIV prevalence
      among pregnant women of Xichang, with a rate of 0.75% in 2015 (chi2trend = 2.27,
      P = 0.13). HIV prevalence among pregnant women of Zhaojue and Butuo was
      consistently high, varying between 3.4% (9/267, 2011) and 10.3% (82/796, 2012)
      over the period of 2010 to 2015 (chi2trend = 0.12, P = 0.73). In Xichang, we
      found that Yi ethnicity (OR = 11.37, 95% CI = 2.92-44.25) and a husband who used
      drugs (OR = 32.13, 95% CI = 5.33-193.67) were significantly associated with HIV
      risk in pregnant women. For Zhaojue and Butuo, we observed that pregnant women
      had a higher risk of HIV infection when they were over 30 years old (OR = 1.72,
      95% CI = 1.17-2.52), when they had a higher number of previous births, when their
      husbands had a history of migrating for work (OR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.16-2.08), and
      when they had a history of other sexually transmitted infections (OR = 2.19, 95%
      CI = 1.16-2.08). Compared to those with a primary school education or below,
      pregnant women with a secondary or high school education level had a lower risk
      of HIV infection (OR = 0.28, 95% CI = 0.09-0.89). CONCLUSION: Our results
      indicate that there is a serious HIV epidemic among pregnant Yi women, especially
      for those with less education, more past births, or a husband with a history of
      out-migrating for work or STD infection.

PMID- 28880918
TI  - Cerebrovascular gene expression in spontaneously hypertensive rats.
AB  - Hypertension is a hemodynamic disorder and one of the most important and well
      established risk factors for vascular diseases such as stroke. Blood vessels
      exposed to chronic shear stress develop structural changes and remodeling of the
      vascular wall through many complex mechanisms. However, the molecular mechanisms
      involved are not fully understood. Hypertension-susceptible genes may provide a
      novel insight into potential molecular mechanisms of hypertension and secondary
      complications associated with hypertension. The aim of this exploratory study was
      to identify gene expression differences in the middle cerebral arteries between
      12-week-old male spontaneously hypertensive rats and their normotensive Wistar
      Kyoto rats using an Affymetrix whole-transcriptome expression profiling.
      Quantitative PCR and western blotting were used to verify genes of interest. 169
      genes were differentially expressed in the middle cerebral arteries from
      hypertensive compared to normotensive rats. The gene expression of 72 genes was
      decreased and the gene expression of 97 genes was increased. The following genes
      with a fold difference >=1.40 were verified by quantitative PCR; Postn, Olr1,
      Fas, Vldlr, Mmp2, Timp1, Serpine1, Mmp11, Cd34, Ptgs1 and Ptgs2. The gene
      expression of Postn, Olr1, Fas, Vldlr, Mmp2, Timp1 and Serpine1 and the protein
      expression of LOX1 (also known as OLR1) were significantly increased in the
      middle cerebral arteries from spontaneously hypertensive rats compared to Wistar
      Kyoto rats. In conclusion, the identified genes in the middle cerebral arteries
      from spontaneously hypertensive rats could be possible mediators of the vascular
      changes and secondary complications associated with hypertension. This study
      supports the selection of key genes to investigate in the future research of
      hypertension-induced end-organ damage.

PMID- 28880919
TI  - Factors governing the prevalence and richness of avian haemosporidian communities
      within and between temperate mountains.
AB  - Mountains are well-suited systems to disentangle the factors driving distribution
      of parasites due to their heterogeneity of climatic and habitat conditions.
      However, the information about the relative importance of environmental factors
      governing the distribution of avian haemosporidians on temperate mountains is
      very limited. The main goal of the present study is to identify the factors
      determining prevalence and richness in avian haemosporidians (Plasmodium,
      Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon) at the community level along elevational
      gradients on two mountain ranges located around the northern and southern limits
      of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain). We used samples from 68 avian species and 1,460
      breeding individuals caught over widespread woodland and open habitats. Our
      findings confirmed the importance of climatic variables explaining prevalence and
      richness on Iberian mountains. However, landscape variables and other factors
      named host richness and migration behaviour explained more variation than
      climatic ones. Plasmodium genus preferred open and warm habitats. Water sources
      were also important for the southern but not for the northern mountain.
      Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon showed affinities for woodland areas. Climatic
      conditions for Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon were dependent on the mountain
      range suggesting some adaptation of avian haemosporidian and their invertebrate
      vectors to the climatic particularities of both mountain massifs. In contrast to
      Plasmodium and Haemoproteus genera, Leucocytozoon prevalence and richness values
      were significantly higher in the southern mountain range. Overall, our findings
      at the community level has enriched the relative weight and effect direction of
      environmental factors governing the distribution and prevalence of the avian
      haemosporidian community. Also, our results provide a caution message about the
      precision of predictive models on parasite distributions based on climatic
      variables, since such predictions could overestimate the effect of climate change
      scenarios on the transmission of the haemosporidians.

PMID- 28880920
TI  - The Staphylococcus aureus superantigen SElX is a bifunctional toxin that inhibits
      neutrophil function.
AB  - Bacterial superantigens (SAgs) cause Vbeta-dependent T-cell proliferation leading
      to immune dysregulation associated with the pathogenesis of life-threatening
      infections such as toxic shock syndrome, and necrotizing pneumonia. Previously,
      we demonstrated that staphylococcal enterotoxin-like toxin X (SElX) from
      Staphylococcus aureus is a classical superantigen that exhibits T-cell activation
      in a Vbeta-specific manner, and contributes to the pathogenesis of necrotizing
      pneumonia. Here, we discovered that SElX can also bind to neutrophils from human
      and other mammalian species and disrupt IgG-mediated phagocytosis. Site-directed
      mutagenesis of the conserved sialic acid-binding motif of SElX abolished
      neutrophil binding and phagocytic killing, and revealed multiple glycosylated
      neutrophil receptors for SElX binding. Furthermore, the neutrophil binding
      deficient mutant of SElX retained its capacity for T-cell activation
      demonstrating that SElX exhibits mechanistically independent activities on
      distinct cell populations associated with acquired and innate immunity,
      respectively. Finally, we demonstrated that the neutrophil-binding activity
      rather than superantigenicity is responsible for the SElX-dependent virulence
      observed in a necrotizing pneumonia rabbit model of infection. Taken together, we
      report the first example of a SAg, that can manipulate both the innate and
      adaptive arms of the human immune system during S. aureus pathogenesis.

PMID- 28880921
TI  - Urinary Proteomics in Predicting Heart Transplantation Outcomes (uPROPHET)
      Rationale and database description.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Urinary Proteomics in Predicting Heart Transplantation Outcomes
      (uPROPHET; NCT03152422) aims: (i) to construct new multidimensional urinary
      proteomic (UP) classifiers that after heart transplantation (HTx) help in
      detecting graft vasculopathy, monitoring immune system activity and graft
      performance, and in adjusting immunosuppression; (ii) to sequence UP peptide
      fragments and to identify key proteins mediating HTx-related complications; (iii)
      to validate UP classifiers by demonstrating analogy between UP profiles and
      tissue proteomic signatures (TP) in diseased explanted hearts, to be compared
      with normal donor hearts; (iv) and to identify new drug targets. This article
      describes the uPROPHET database construction, follow-up strategies and baseline
      characteristics of the HTx patients. METHODS: HTx patients enrolled at the
      University Hospital Gasthuisberg (Leuven) collected mid-morning urine samples.
      Cardiac biopsies were obtained at HTx. UP and TP methods and the statistical work
      flow in pursuit of the research objectives are described in detail in the Data
      supplement. RESULTS: Of 352 participants in the UP study (24.4% women), 38.9%,
      40.3%, 5.7% and 15.1% had ischemic, dilated, hypertrophic or other
      cardiomyopathy. The median interval between HTx and first UP assessment
      (baseline) was 7.8 years. At baseline, mean values were 56.5 years for age, 25.2
      kg/m2 for body mass index, 142.3/84.8 mm Hg and 124.2/79.8 mm Hg for office and
      24-h ambulatory systolic/diastolic pressure, and 58.6 mL/min/1.73 m2 for the
      estimated glomerular filtration rate. Of all patients, 37.2% and 6.5% had a
      history of mild (grade = 1B) or severe (grade >= 2) cellular rejection. Anti-body
      mediated rejection had occurred in 6.2% patients. The number of follow-up urine
      samples available for future analyses totals over 950. The TP study currently
      includes biopsies from 7 healthy donors and 15, 14, and 3 patients with ischemic,
      dilated, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. CONCLUSIONS: uPROPHET constitutes a
      solid resources for UP and TP research in the field of HTx and has the ambition
      to lay the foundation for the clinical application of UP in risk stratification
      in HTx patients.

PMID- 28880922
TI  - Aphid secondary symbionts do not affect prey attractiveness to two species of
      predatory lady beetles.
AB  - Heritable symbionts have been found to mediate interactions between host species
      and their natural enemies in a variety of organisms. Aphids, their facultative
      symbionts, and their potential fitness effects have been particularly well
      studied. For example, the aphid facultative symbiont Regiella can protect its
      host from infection from a fungal pathogen, and aphids with Hamiltonella are less
      likely to be parasitized by parasitic wasps. Recent work has also found there to
      be negative fitness effects for the larvae of two species of aphidophagous lady
      beetles that consumed aphids with facultative symbionts. In both species, larvae
      that consumed aphids with secondary symbionts were significantly less likely to
      survive to adulthood. In this study we tested whether adult Harmonia axyridis and
      Hippodamia convergens lady beetles avoided aphids with symbionts in a series of
      choice experiments. Adults of both lady beetle species were as likely to choose
      aphids with symbionts as those without, despite the potential negative fitness
      effects associated with consuming aphids with facultative symbionts. This may
      suggest that under natural conditions aphid secondary symbionts are not a
      significant source of selection for predatory lady beetles.

PMID- 28880923
TI  - Automatic machine-learning based identification of jogging periods from
      accelerometer measurements of adolescents under field conditions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Assessment of health benefits associated with physical activity
      depend on the activity duration, intensity and frequency, therefore their correct
      identification is very valuable and important in epidemiological and clinical
      studies. The aims of this study are: to develop an algorithm for automatic
      identification of intended jogging periods; and to assess whether the
      identification performance is improved when using two accelerometers at the hip
      and ankle, compared to when using only one at either position. METHODS: The study
      used diarized jogging periods and the corresponding accelerometer data from
      thirty-nine, 15-year-old adolescents, collected under field conditions, as part
      of the GINIplus study. The data was obtained from two accelerometers placed at
      the hip and ankle. Automated feature engineering technique was performed to
      extract features from the raw accelerometer readings and to select a subset of
      the most significant features. Four machine learning algorithms were used for
      classification: Logistic regression, Support Vector Machines, Random Forest and
      Extremely Randomized Trees. Classification was performed using only data from the
      hip accelerometer, using only data from ankle accelerometer and using data from
      both accelerometers. RESULTS: The reported jogging periods were verified by
      visual inspection and used as golden standard. After the feature selection and
      tuning of the classification algorithms, all options provided a classification
      accuracy of at least 0.99, independent of the applied segmentation strategy with
      sliding windows of either 60s or 180s. The best matching ratio, i.e. the length
      of correctly identified jogging periods related to the total time including the
      missed ones, was up to 0.875. It could be additionally improved up to 0.967 by
      application of post-classification rules, which considered the duration of breaks
      and jogging periods. There was no obvious benefit of using two accelerometers,
      rather almost the same performance could be achieved from either accelerometer
      position. CONCLUSIONS: Machine learning techniques can be used for automatic
      activity recognition, as they provide very accurate activity recognition,
      significantly more accurate than when keeping a diary. Identification of jogging
      periods in adolescents can be performed using only one accelerometer. Performance
      wise there is no significant benefit from using accelerometers on both locations.

PMID- 28880924
TI  - Localization of (photo)respiration and CO2 re-assimilation in tomato leaves
      investigated with a reaction-diffusion model.
AB  - The rate of photosynthesis depends on the CO2 partial pressure near Rubisco, Cc,
      which is commonly calculated by models using the overall mesophyll resistance.
      Such models do not explain the difference between the CO2 level in the
      intercellular air space and Cc mechanistically. This problem can be overcome by
      reaction-diffusion models for CO2 transport, production and fixation in leaves.
      However, most reaction-diffusion models are complex and unattractive for
      procedures that require a large number of runs, like parameter optimisation. This
      study provides a simpler reaction-diffusion model. It is parameterized by both
      leaf physiological and leaf anatomical data. The anatomical data consisted of the
      thickness of the cell wall, cytosol and stroma, and the area ratios of mesophyll
      exposed to the intercellular air space to leaf surfaces and exposed chloroplast
      to exposed mesophyll surfaces. The model was used directly to estimate
      photosynthetic parameters from a subset of the measured light and CO2 response
      curves; the remaining data were used for validation. The model predicted light
      and CO2 response curves reasonably well for 15 days old tomato (cv. Admiro)
      leaves, if (photo)respiratory CO2 release was assumed to take place in the inner
      cytosol or in the gaps between the chloroplasts. The model was also used to
      calculate the fraction of CO2 produced by (photo)respiration that is re
      assimilated in the stroma, and this fraction ranged from 56 to 76%. In future
      research, the model should be further validated to better understand how the re
      assimilation of (photo)respired CO2 is affected by environmental conditions and
      physiological parameters.

PMID- 28880925
TI  - Similar levels of gene content variation observed for Pseudomonas syringae
      populations extracted from single and multiple host species.
AB  - Bacterial strains of the same species collected from different hosts frequently
      exhibit differences in gene content. In the ubiquitous plant pathogen Pseudomonas
      syringae, more than 30% of genes encoded by each strain are not conserved among
      strains colonizing other host species. Although they are often implicated in host
      specificity, the role of this large fraction of the genome in host-specific
      adaptation is largely unexplored. Here, we sought to relate variation in gene
      content between strains infecting different species to variation that persists
      between strains on the same host. We fully sequenced a collection of P. syringae
      strains collected from wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations in the Midwestern
      United States. We then compared patterns of variation observed in gene content
      within these A. thaliana-isolated strains to previously published P. syringae
      sequence from strains collected on a diversity of crop species. We find that
      strains collected from the same host, A. thaliana, differ in gene content by 21%,
      2/3 the level of gene content variation observed across strains collected from
      different hosts. Furthermore, the frequency with which specific genes are present
      among strains collected within the same host and among strains collected from
      different hosts is highly correlated. This implies that most gene content
      variation is maintained irrespective of host association. At the same time, we
      identify specific genes whose presence is important for P. syringae's ability to
      flourish within A. thaliana. Specifically, the A. thaliana strains uniquely share
      a genomic island encoding toxins active against plants and surrounding microbes,
      suggesting a role for microbe-microbe interactions in dictating the abundance
      within this host. Overall, our results demonstrate that while variation in the
      presence of specific genes can affect the success of a pathogen within its host,
      the majority of gene content variation is not strongly associated with patterns
      of host use.

PMID- 28880926
TI  - Determination of medical abortion eligibility by women and community health
      volunteers in Nepal: A toolkit evaluation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if pregnant, literate women and female community health
      volunteers (FCHVs) in Nepal can accurately determine a woman's eligibility for
      medical abortion (MA) using a toolkit, compared to comprehensive abortion care
      (CAC) trained providers. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a prospective diagnostic
      accuracy study in which women presenting for first trimester abortion, and FCHVs,
      independently assessed each woman's eligibility for MA using a modified
      gestational dating wheel to determine gestational age and a nine-point checklist
      of MA contraindications or cautions. Ability to determine MA eligibility was
      compared to experienced CAC-providers using Nepali standard of care. RESULTS:
      Both women (n = 3131) and FCHVs (n = 165) accurately interpreted the wheel 96% of
      the time, and the eligibility checklist 72% and 95% of the time, respectively. Of
      the 649 women who reported potential contraindications or cautions on the
      checklist, 88% misidentified as eligible. Positive predictive value (PPV) of
      women's assessment of eligibility based on gestational age was 93% (95% CI 92,
      94) compared to CAC-providers' (n = 47); PPV of the medical contraindications
      checklist and overall (90% [95% CI 88, 91] and 93% [95% CI 92, 94] respectively)
      must be interpreted with caution given women's difficulty using the checklist.
      PPV of FCHVs' determinations were 93% (95% CI 92, 94), 90% (95% CI 89,91), and
      93% (95% CI 91, 94) respectively. CONCLUSION: Although a promising strategy to
      assist women and FCHVs to assess MA eligibility, further refinement of the
      eligibility tools, particularly the checklist, is needed before their widespread
      use.

PMID- 28880929
TI  - Correction: Floristic characteristics and affinities in Lao PDR, with a reference
      to the biogeography of the Indochina peninsula.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179966.].

PMID- 28880928
TI  - Pseudempleurosoma haywardi sp. nov. (Monogenea: Ancyrocephalidae (sensu lato)
      Bychowsky & Nagibina, 1968): An endoparasite of croakers (Teleostei: Sciaenidae)
      from Indonesia.
AB  - An endoparasitic monogenean was identified for the first time from Indonesia. The
      oesophagus and anterior stomach of the croakers Nibea soldado (Lacepede) and
      Otolithes ruber (Bloch & Schneider) (n = 35 each) sampled from the South Java
      coast in May 2011 and Johnius amblycephalus (Bleeker) (n = 2) (all Sciaenidae)
      from Kedonganan fish market, South Bali coast, in November 2016, were infected
      with Pseudempleurosoma haywardi sp. nov. Prevalences in the first two croakers
      were 63% and 46%, respectively, and the two J. amblycephalus harboured three and
      five individuals. All three croakers represent new hosts for this monogenean
      genus. We provide infection rates, light microscopical observations, 3D confocal
      microscopical illustrations, and a morphometric comparison with all congeners.
      The new species differs in body size, the position and shape of the ovary and
      testes, and especially in the composition of the dorsal anchor complex, with the
      dorsal bar being anteriorly concave rather than planar or convex as in its
      congeners. The dorsal and ventral anchors of this new species are the longest in
      the genus, whereas the male copulatory organ is the smallest. The first DNA
      sequences for a member of this genus demonstrate the greatest similarity with
      endoparasitic freshwater monogeneans from African cichlid fishes. This suggests a
      freshwater origin for these marine endoparasitic monogeneans.

PMID- 28880927
TI  - SCF-KIT signaling induces endothelin-3 synthesis and secretion: Thereby activates
      and regulates endothelin-B-receptor for generating temporally- and spatially
      precise nitric oxide to modulate SCF- and or KIT-expressing cell functions.
AB  - We demonstrate that SCF-KIT signaling induces synthesis and secretion of
      endothelin-3 (ET3) in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and melanoma cells
      in vitro, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, human sun-exposed skin, and myenteric
      plexus of human colon post-fasting in vivo. This is the first report of a
      physiological mechanism of ET3 induction. Integrating our finding with supporting
      data from literature leads us to discover a previously unreported pathway of
      nitric oxide (NO) generation derived from physiological endothelial NO synthase
      (eNOS) or neuronal NOS (nNOS) activation (referred to as the KIT-ET3-NO pathway).
      It involves: (1) SCF-expressing cells communicate with neighboring KIT-expressing
      cells directly or indirectly (cleaved soluble SCF). (2) SCF-KIT signaling induces
      timely local ET3 synthesis and secretion. (3) ET3 binds to ETBR on both sides of
      intercellular space. (4) ET3-binding-initiated-ETBR activation increases
      cytosolic Ca2+, activates cell-specific eNOS or nNOS. (5) Temporally- and
      spatially-precise NO generation. NO diffuses into neighboring cells, thus acts in
      both SCF- and KIT-expressing cells. (6) NO modulates diverse cell-specific
      functions by NO/cGMP pathway, controlling transcriptional factors, or other
      mechanisms. We demonstrate the critical physiological role of the KIT-ET3-NO
      pathway in fulfilling high demand (exceeding basal level) of endothelium
      dependent NO generation for coping with atherosclerosis, pregnancy, and aging.
      The KIT-ET3-NO pathway most likely also play critical roles in other cell
      functions that involve dual requirement of SCF-KIT signaling and NO. New
      strategies (e.g. enhancing the KIT-ET3-NO pathway) to harness the benefit of
      endogenous eNOS and nNOS activation and precise NO generation for correcting
      pathophysiology and restoring functions warrant investigation.

PMID- 28880930
TI  - Liver stiffness measurement predicts liver-related events in patients with
      chronic hepatitis C: A retrospective study.
AB  - The management of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) depends on their
      clinical stage. Thus, noninvasive early recognition of patients with CHC at high
      risk for developing liver-related events (LREs) is important because it ensures
      optimal preventative management strategies may be employed that can affect the
      course of CHC disease. Our aim was to determine whether liver stiffness
      measurement (LSM) in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients is associated with
      a risk of LREs, particularly in cirrhotic patients. We carried out a
      retrospective study on 343 HCV-infected patients stratified according to
      cirrhosis (LSM<12.5 kPa vs. LSM>=12.5 kPa), and the cirrhotic patient group
      (LSM>=12.5 kPa) was divided according to risk of esophageal varices (LSM <25 kPa
      vs. LSM>=25 kPa). For all patients, each incremental unit in the natural
      logarithm (Ln) of LSM was associated with 14.76 times higher risk of developing
      LREs (p<0.001). Patients with cirrhosis (LSM>=12.5 kPa) had a higher risk of LREs
      than patients without cirrhosis (LSM<12.5 kPa) [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) =
      30.97; p<0.001]. When only cirrhotic patients were analyzed (n = 60), each
      incremental unit in the Ln of LSM was associated with 10.56 times higher risk of
      developing LREs (p = 0.010). Patients with LSM>=25 kPa had a greater risk for LRE
      development compared to those with LSM<25 kPa (aHR = 3.65; p = 0.045). The AUROC
      for predicting the onset of LREs was 0.876 in all patients and 0.729 in cirrhotic
      patients. In conclusion, LSM was associated with an increased risk of developing
      LREs in HCV-infected patients, even within the group of cirrhotic patients.

PMID- 28880931
TI  - Restrictive intraoperative fluid optimisation algorithm improves outcomes in
      patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy: A prospective multicentre randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - We aimed to evaluate perioperative outcomes in patients undergoing
      pancreaticoduodenectomy with or without a cardiac output goal directed therapy
      (GDT) algorithm. We conducted a multicentre randomised controlled trial in four
      high volume hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery centres. We evaluated whether the
      additional impact of a intraoperative fluid optimisation algorithm would
      influence the amount of fluid delivered, reduce fluid related complications, and
      improve length of hospital stay. Fifty-two consecutive adult patients were
      recruited. The median (IQR) duration of surgery was 8.6 hours (7.1:9.6) in the
      GDT group vs. 7.8 hours (6.8:9.0) in the usual care group (p = 0.2).
      Intraoperative fluid balance was 1005mL (475:1873) in the GDT group vs. 3300mL
      (2474:3874) in the usual care group (p<0.0001). Total volume of fluid
      administered intraoperatively was also lower in the GDT group: 2050mL (1313:2700)
      vs. 4088mL (3400:4525), p<0.0001 and vasoactive medications were used more
      frequently. There were no significant differences in proportions of patients
      experiencing overall complications (p = 0.179); however, fewer complications
      occurred in the GDT group: 44 vs. 92 (Incidence Rate Ratio: 0.41; 95%CI 0.24 to
      0.69, p = 0.001). Median (IQR) length of hospital stay was 9.5 days (IQR: 7.0,
      14.3) in the GDT vs. 12.5 days in the usual care group (IQR: 9.0, 22.3) for an
      Incidence Rate Ratio 0.64 (95% CI 0.48 to 0.85, p = 0.002). In conclusion, using
      a surgery-specific, patient-specific goal directed restrictive fluid therapy
      algorithm in this cohort of patients, can justify using enough fluid without
      causing oedema, yet as little fluid as possible without causing hypovolaemia i.e.
      "precision" fluid therapy. Our findings support the use of a perioperative
      haemodynamic optimization plan that prioritizes preservation of cardiac output
      and organ perfusion pressure by judicious use of fluid therapy, rational use of
      vasoactive drugs and timely application of inotropic drugs. They also suggest the
      need for further larger studies to confirm its findings.

PMID- 28880932
TI  - Reversible unfolding of infectious prion assemblies reveals the existence of an
      oligomeric elementary brick.
AB  - Mammalian prions, the pathogens that cause transmissible spongiform
      encephalopathies, propagate by self-perpetuating the structural information
      stored in the abnormally folded, aggregated conformer (PrPSc) of the host-encoded
      prion protein (PrPC). To date, no structural model related to prion assembly
      organization satisfactorily describes how strain-specified structural information
      is encoded and by which mechanism this information is transferred to PrPC. To
      achieve progress on this issue, we correlated the PrPSc quaternary structural
      transition from three distinct prion strains during unfolding and refolding with
      their templating activity. We reveal the existence of a mesoscopic organization
      in PrPSc through the packing of a highly stable oligomeric elementary subunit
      (suPrP), in which the strain structural determinant (SSD) is encoded. Once
      kinetically trapped, this elementary subunit reversibly loses all replicative
      information. We demonstrate that acquisition of the templating interface and
      infectivity requires structural rearrangement of suPrP, in concert with its
      condensation. The existence of such an elementary brick scales down the SSD
      support to a small oligomer and provide a basis of reflexion for prion templating
      process and propagation.

PMID- 28880933
TI  - Range of glucose as a glycemic variability and 3-month outcome in diabetic
      patients with acute ischemic stroke.
AB  - Glycemic variability (GV) is reportedly a predictor for poor outcome in various
      clinical conditions. We aimed to assess whether GV during hospital admission is
      associated with poor outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and
      diabetes. We prospectively enrolled consecutive patients with AIS from the
      registry of 6 tertiary hospitals between January 2013 and December 2014. For the
      GV index, we used a glucose level range that was divided into 4 quartiles.
      Multivariable binary and ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to
      determine the association between GV and the modified Rankin Scale score (3-6) at
      3 months. We enrolled 1,504 patients with AIS and diabetes (mean age, 68.1 years;
      male, 57.2%), of which 35.1% had poor outcomes at 3 months. An increasing glucose
      range quartile was positively associated with initial neurologic severity and
      development of hypoglycemia during hospital admission. Multivariable analysis
      showed that the glucose level range quartile was associated with poor outcomes,
      even after adjusting for the number of glucose measurement and hypoglycemia (odds
      ratio [OR] Q2 vs. Q1: 1.50, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-2.18; OR Q3 vs.
      Q1: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.34-3.01; OR Q4 vs. Q1: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.22-3.23). These
      associations remained significant after dichotomization according to glycated
      hemoglobin levels at admission. An increasing glucose level range as a GV index
      during hospital admission was associated with poor functional outcomes at 3
      months in patients with AIS and diabetes.

PMID- 28880934
TI  - DNA methylation patterns and gene expression associated with litter size in
      Berkshire pig placenta.
AB  - Increasing litter size is of great interest to the pig industry. DNA methylation
      is an important epigenetic modification that regulates gene expression, resulting
      in livestock phenotypes such as disease resistance, milk production, and
      reproduction. We classified Berkshire pigs into two groups according to litter
      size and estimated breeding value: smaller (SLG) and larger (LLG) litter size
      groups. Genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression were analyzed using
      placenta genomic DNA and RNA to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs)
      and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with litter size. The
      methylation levels of CpG dinucleotides in different genomic regions were
      noticeably different between the groups, while global methylation pattern was
      similar, and excluding intergenic regions they were found the most frequently in
      gene body regions. Next, we analyzed RNA-Seq data to identify DEGs between the
      SLG and LLG groups. A total of 1591 DEGs were identified: 567 were downregulated
      and 1024 were upregulated in LLG compared to SLG. To identify genes that
      simultaneously exhibited changes in DNA methylation and mRNA expression, we
      integrated and analyzed the data from bisulfite-Seq and RNA-Seq. Nine DEGs
      positioned in DMRs were found. The expression of only three of these genes
      (PRKG2, CLCA4, and PCK1) was verified by RT-qPCR. Furthermore, we observed the
      same methylation patterns in blood samples as in the placental tissues by PCR
      based methylation analysis. Together, these results provide useful data regarding
      potential epigenetic markers for selecting hyperprolific sows.

PMID- 28880935
TI  - Post-fatigue recovery of power, postural control and physical function in older
      women.
AB  - Low muscle power, particularly at high velocities, has been linked to poor
      physical function in older adults. Any loss in muscle power following fatiguing
      exercise or daily activities could impact physical function and postural control
      until power has fully recovered. To test the overall hypothesis that a common
      task such as walking can result in prolonged power loss and decreased physical
      function and balance, 17 healthy older (66-81 years) women completed a 32-min
      walking test (32MWT) designed to induce neuromuscular fatigue, followed by 60min
      of recovery (60R). Fatigue and recovery of knee extensor muscle power (3
      velocities) were quantified by dynamometry. Function was quantified by chair rise
      time and postural control by measures of center of pressure (COP) range (mm) and
      velocity (mm.s-1) during quiet stance. Power declined at all velocities by 8-13%
      2min following the 32MWT (p<=0.02) and remained depressed by 8-26% at 60R
      (p<=0.04). Postural control decreased following the 32MWT, indicated by increased
      COP range in the anterior-posterior (AP, p<0.01) direction and a trend in the
      medial-lateral (ML) direction (p = 0.09), and returned to baseline by 60R
      (p>=0.10). COP velocity was unchanged immediately following the 32MWT, but at 60R
      was lower in ML (p = 0.03) and tended to be reduced in AP (p = 0.07). Changes in
      high-velocity power (270 degrees .s-1) were associated with altered postural
      control (p = 0.02) and chair rise performance (p<=0.03). These results provide
      evidence of long-duration neuromuscular changes following fatigue in healthy
      older women that may place them at increased risk for functional deficits during
      everyday mobility tasks.

PMID- 28880936
TI  - Reduced microRNA-503 expression augments lung fibroblast VEGF production in
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AB  - Alterations in microRNA (miRNA) expression may contribute to COPD pathogenesis.
      In COPD, lung fibroblast repair functions are altered in multiple ways, including
      extracellular mediator release. Our prior study revealed miR-503 expression is
      decreased in COPD lung fibroblasts, although the exact role played by miR-503 is
      undetermined. The current study examined a role of miR-503 in cytokine, growth
      factor and fibronectin production by lung fibroblasts from patients with and
      without COPD. Primary adult lung fibroblasts were isolated from patients with or
      without COPD. MiR-503 expression and interleukin (IL)-6, -8, PGE2, HGF, KGF, VEGF
      and fibronectin release were examined with or without inflammatory cytokines, IL
      1beta and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. MiR-503 expression was decreased in
      COPD lung fibroblasts. The expression of miR-503 was positively correlated with
      %FVC, %FEV1, and %DLco as well as IL-6, -8, PGE2, HGF, KGF, and VEGF in the
      absence or presence of IL-1beta/TNF-alpha. In addition, IL-8 and VEGF release
      from COPD lung fibroblasts were increased compared to those from control.
      Exogenous miR-503 inhibited VEGF release from primary adult and fetal lung
      fibroblasts but not IL-8 release. As expected, COPD fibroblasts proliferated more
      slowly than control fibroblasts. MiR-503 did not affect proliferation of either
      control or COPD lung fibroblasts. MiR-503 inhibition of VEGF protein production
      and mRNA was mediated by direct binding to the 3' untranslated region of VEGF
      mRNA. Endogenous miR-503 was differently regulated by exogenous stimulants
      associated with COPD pathogenesis, including IL-1beta/TNF-alpha, TGF-beta1 and
      PGE2. Endogenous miR-503 inhibition augmented VEGF release by IL-1beta/TNF-alpha
      and TGF-beta1 but not by PGE2, demonstrating selectivity of miR-503 regulation of
      VEGF. In conclusions, reduced miR-503 augments VEGF release from lung fibroblasts
      from patients with COPD. Since VEGF contributes to disturbed vasculature in COPD,
      altered miR-503 production might play a role in modulating fibroblast-mediated
      vascular homeostasis in COPD.

PMID- 28880937
TI  - Differential expression of tetraspanin superfamily members in dendritic cell
      subsets.
AB  - Dendritic cells (DCs), which are essential for initiating immune responses, are
      comprised of different subsets. Tetraspanins organize dendritic cell membranes by
      facilitating protein-protein interactions within the so called tetraspanin web.
      In this study we analyzed expression of the complete tetraspanin superfamily in
      primary murine (CD4+, CD8+, pDC) and human DC subsets (CD1c+, CD141+, pDC) at the
      transcriptome and proteome level. Different RNA and protein expression profiles
      for the tetraspanin genes across human and murine DC subsets were identified.
      Although RNA expression levels of CD37 and CD82 were not significantly different
      between human DC subsets, CD9 RNA was highly expressed in pDCs, while CD9 protein
      expression was lower. This indicates that relative RNA and protein expression
      levels are not always in agreement. Both murine CD8alpha+ DCs and its regarded
      human counterpart, CD141+ DCs, displayed relatively high protein levels of CD81.
      CD53 protein was highly expressed on human pDCs in contrast to the relatively low
      protein expression of most other tetraspanins. This study demonstrates that
      tetraspanins are differentially expressed by human and murine DC subsets which
      provides a valuable resource that will aid the understanding of tetraspanin
      function in DC biology.

PMID- 28880939
TI  - ARF6 mediates nephrin tyrosine phosphorylation-induced podocyte cellular
      dynamics.
AB  - ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) is a small GTPase necessary for regulating
      cellular structure, motility, and vesicle trafficking. In several cellular
      systems, ARF6 was shown to regulate actin dynamics in coordination with Rac1, a
      Rho small GTPase. We examined the function of ARF6 in the kidney podocyte because
      Rac1 was implicated in kidney diseases involving this cell. We found that ARF6
      expression was enriched in human podocytes and that it modulated podocyte
      cytoskeletal dynamics through a functional interaction with nephrin, an
      intercellular junction protein necessary for podocyte injury-induced signaling
      requiring activation by tyrosine phosphorylation of its cytoplasmic domain. ARF6
      was necessary for nephrin activation-induced ruffling and focal adhesion
      turnover, possibly by altering Rac1 activity. In podocyte-specific Arf6
      (ARF6_PodKO) knockout mice, ARF6 deficiency did not result in a spontaneous
      kidney developmental phenotype or proteinuria after aging. However, ARF6_PodKO
      mice exhibited distinct phenotypes in two in vivo glomerular injury models. In
      the protamine sulfate perfusion model, which induced acute podocyte effacement,
      ARF6_PodKO mice were protected from podocyte effacement. In the nephrotoxic serum
      nephritis model, which induced immune-complex mediated injury, ARF6_PodKO mice
      exhibited aggravated proteinuria. Together, these observations suggest that while
      ARF6 is necessary for nephrin tyrosine phosphorylation-induced cytoskeletal
      dynamics in cultured podocytes, ARF6 has pleotropic podocyte roles in vivo, where
      glomerular injury-specific mechanisms might activate distinct signaling pathways
      that dictate whether ARF6 activity is beneficial or deleterious for maintaining
      the integrity of the glomerular filtration barrier.

PMID- 28880938
TI  - PrPC expression and prion seeding activity in the alimentary tract and lymphoid
      tissue of deer.
AB  - The agent responsible for prion diseases is a misfolded form of a normal protein
      (PrPC). The prion hypothesis stipulates that PrPC must be present for the disease
      to manifest. Cervid populations across the world are infected with chronic
      wasting disease, a horizontally-transmissible prion disease that is likely spread
      via oral exposure to infectious prions (PrPCWD). Though PrPCWD has been
      identified in many tissues, there has been little effort to characterize the
      overall PrPC expression in cervids and its relationship to PrPCWD accumulation.
      We used immunohistochemistry (IHC), western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay to describe PrPC expression in naive white-tailed deer. We used real-time,
      quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) to detect prion seeding activity in CWD
      infected deer. We assessed tissues comprising the alimentary tract, alimentary
      associated lymphoid tissue and systemic lymphoid tissue from 5 naive deer. PrPC
      was expressed in all tissues, though expression was often very low compared to
      the level in the CNS. IHC identified specific cell types wherein PrPC expression
      is very high. To compare the distribution of PrPC to PrPCWD, we examined 5 deer
      with advanced CWD infection. Using RT-QuIC, we detected prion seeding activity in
      all 21 tissues. In 3 subclinical deer sacrificed 4 months post-inoculation, we
      detected PrPCWD consistently in alimentary-associated lymphoid tissue,
      irregularly in alimentary tract tissues, and not at all in the brain. Contrary to
      our hypothesis that PrPC levels dictate prion accumulation, PrPC expression was
      higher in the lower gastrointestinal tissues than in the alimentary-associated
      lymphoid system and was higher in salivary glands than in the oropharyngeal
      lymphoid tissue. These data suggest that PrPC expression is not the sole driver
      of prion accumulation and that alimentary tract tissues accumulate prions before
      centrifugal spread from the brain occurs.

PMID- 28880940
TI  - Development of body, head and brain features in the Australian fat-tailed dunnart
      (Sminthopsis crassicaudata; Marsupialia: Dasyuridae); A postnatal model of
      forebrain formation.
AB  - Most of our understanding of forebrain development comes from research of
      eutherian mammals, such as rodents, primates, and carnivores. However, as the
      cerebral cortex forms largely prenatally, observation and manipulation of its
      development has required invasive and/or ex vivo procedures. Marsupials, on the
      other hand, are born at comparatively earlier stages of development and most
      events of forebrain formation occur once attached to the teat, thereby permitting
      continuous and non-invasive experimental access. Here, we take advantage of this
      aspect of marsupial biology to establish and characterise a resourceful
      laboratory model of forebrain development: the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis
      crassicaudata), a mouse-sized carnivorous Australian marsupial. We present an
      anatomical description of the postnatal development of the body, head and brain
      in dunnarts, and provide a staging system compatible with human and mouse
      developmental stages. As compared to eutherians, the orofacial region develops
      earlier in dunnarts, while forebrain development is largely protracted, extending
      for more than 40 days versus ca. 15 days in mice. We discuss the benefits of fat
      tailed dunnarts as laboratory animals in studies of developmental biology, with
      an emphasis on how their accessibility in the pouch can help address new
      experimental questions, especially regarding mechanisms of brain development and
      evolution.

PMID- 28880941
TI  - A structured training program for health workers in intravenous treatment with
      fluids and antibiotics in nursing homes: A modified stepped-wedge cluster
      randomised trial to reduce hospital admissions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Hospitalization is potentially detrimental to nursing home patients
      and resource demanding for the specialist health care. This study assessed if a
      brief training program in administrating intravenous fluids and antibiotics in
      nursing homes could reduce hospital transfers and ensure high quality care
      locally. DESIGN: A pragmatic and modified cluster randomized stepped-wedge trial
      with randomization on nursing home level. PARTICIPANTS: 330 cases in 296 nursing
      home residents from 30 nursing homes were included. Cases were patients provided
      intravenous antibiotics or intravenous fluids, in nursing home or hospital.
      Primary outcome was localization of treatment, secondary outcomes were number of
      days treated, days of hospitalization among admitted patients, type of
      antibiotics used and 30-day mortality. INTERVENTION: The nursing homes
      sequentially received a one-day educational program for the health workers
      including theory and practical training in intravenous treatment of dehydration
      and infection, run by two skilled nurses. After completing the training program,
      the nursing homes had competence to provide intravenous treatment locally.
      RESULTS: The intervention had a highly significant effect on treatment in nursing
      homes (OR 8.35, 2.08 to 33.6; P<0.01, or RR 2.23, 1.48 to 2.56). The number
      treated in nursing homes was stable over time; the number treated in hospital
      gradually decreased (chi square for trend P< 0.001). Among patients receiving
      intravenous antibiotics in the nursing homes, 50 (46%) died within 30 days,
      compared to 30 (36%) treated in the hospital (P = 0.19). Among patients receiving
      intravenous fluids locally, 21 (19%) died within 30 days, compared to 2 (8%) in
      the hospital group (P = 0.34). Mortality was associated with reduced
      consciousness and elevated c-reactive protein. CONCLUSIONS: A brief educational
      program delivered to nursing home personnel was feasible and effective in
      reducing acute hospital admissions from nursing homes for treatment of
      dehydration and infections.

PMID- 28880942
TI  - Live-cell imaging to measure BAX recruitment kinetics to mitochondria during
      apoptosis.
AB  - The pro-apoptotic BCL2 gene family member, BAX, plays a pivotal role in the
      intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Under cellular stress, BAX recruitment to the
      mitochondria occurs when activated BAX forms dimers, then oligomers, to initiate
      mitochondria outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP), a process critical for
      apoptotic progression. The activation and recruitment of BAX to form oligomers
      has been studied for two decades using fusion proteins with a fluorescent
      reporter attached in-frame to the BAX N-terminus. We applied high-speed live cell
      imaging to monitor the recruitment of BAX fusion proteins in dying cells. Data
      from time-lapse imaging was validated against the activity of endogenous BAX in
      cells, and analyzed using sigmoid mathematical functions to obtain detail of the
      kinetic parameters of the recruitment process at individual mitochondrial foci.
      BAX fusion proteins behave like endogenous BAX during apoptosis. Kinetic studies
      show that fusion protein recruitment is also minimally affected in cells lacking
      endogenous BAK or BAX genes, but that the kinetics are moderately, but
      significantly, different with different fluorescent tags in the fusion
      constructs. In experiments testing BAX recruitment in 3 different cell lines, our
      results show that regardless of cell type, once activated, BAX recruitment
      initiates simultaneously within a cell, but exhibits varying rates of recruitment
      at individual mitochondrial foci. Very early during BAX recruitment, pro
      apoptotic molecules are released in the process of MOMP, but different molecules
      are released at different times and rates relative to the time of BAX recruitment
      initiation. These results provide a method for BAX kinetic analysis in living
      cells and yield greater detail of multiple characteristics of BAX-induced MOMP in
      living cells that were initially observed in cell free studies.

PMID- 28880943
TI  - Non-pulmonary vein mediated atrial fibrillation: A novel sub-phenotype.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a mechanistically heterogeneous disorder,
      and the ability to identify sub-phenotypes ("endophenotypes") of AF would assist
      in the delivery of personalized medicine. We used the clinical response to
      pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) to identify a sub-group of patients with non-PV
      mediated AF and sought to define the clinical associations. METHODS: Subjects
      enrolled in the Vanderbilt AF Ablation Registry who underwent a repeat AF
      ablation due to arrhythmia recurrence were analyzed on the basis of PV
      reconnection. Subjects who had no PV reconnection were defined as "non-PV
      mediated AF". A comparison group of subjects were identified who had AF that was
      treated with PVI-only and experienced no arrhythmia recurrence >12 months. They
      were considered a group enriched for "PV-mediated AF". Univariate and
      multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate
      clinical associations between the PV and non-PV mediated AF groups. RESULTS: Two
      hundred and twenty nine subjects underwent repeat AF ablation and thirty three
      (14%) had no PV reconnection. They were compared with 91 subjects identified as
      having PV-mediated AF. Subjects with non-PV mediated AF were older (64 years [IQR
      60,71] vs. 60 [52,67], P = 0.01), more likely to have non-paroxysmal AF (82% [N =
      27] vs. 35% [N = 32], P<0.001), and had a larger left atrium (LA) (4.2cm
      [3.6,4.8] vs. 4.0 [3.3,4.4], P = 0.04). In univariate analysis, age (per decade:
      OR 1.56 [95% CI: 1.04 to 2.33], P = 0.03), LA size (per cm: OR 1.8 [1.06 to
      3.21], P = 0.03) and non-paroxysmal AF (OR 8.3 [3.10 to 22.19], P<0.001) were all
      significantly associated with non-PV mediated AF. However, in multivariable
      analysis only non-paroxysmal AF was independently associated with non-PV mediated
      AF (OR 7.47 [95% CI 2.62 to 21.29], P<0.001), when adjusted for age (per decade:
      OR 1.25 [0.81 to 1.94], P = 0.31), male gender (OR 0.48 [0.18 to 1.28], P =
      0.14), and LA size (per 1cm: 1.24 [0.65 to 2.33], P = 0.52). CONCLUSIONS: Non
      paroxysmal AF was the only clinical variable found to be independently associated
      with non-PV mediated AF. We demonstrated that analysis of AF ablation outcomes
      data can serve as a tool to successfully identify a sub-phenotype of subjects who
      have non-PV mediated AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID #
      NCT02404415.

PMID- 28880945
TI  - Causal knowledge promotes behavioral self-regulation: An example using climate
      change dynamics.
AB  - Adopting successful climate change mitigation policies requires the public to
      choose how to balance the sometimes competing goals of managing CO2 emissions and
      achieving economic growth. It follows that collective action on climate change
      depends on members of the public to be knowledgeable of the causes and economic
      ramifications of climate change. The existing literature, however, shows that
      people often struggle to correctly reason about the fundamental accumulation
      dynamics that drive climate change. Previous research has focused on using
      analogy to improve people's reasoning about accumulation, which has been met with
      some success. However, these existing studies have neglected the role economic
      factors might play in shaping people's decisions in relation to climate change.
      Here, we introduce a novel iterated decision task in which people attempt to
      achieve a specific economic goal by interacting with a causal dynamic system in
      which human economic activities, CO2 emissions, and warming are all causally
      interrelated. We show that when the causal links between these factors are
      highlighted, people's ability to achieve the economic goal of the task is
      enhanced in a way that approaches optimal responding, and avoids dangerous levels
      of warming.

PMID- 28880944
TI  - Spatiotemporal and molecular epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Libya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a major public health problem in
      Libya. In this paper, we describe the eco-epidemiological parameters of CL during
      the armed conflict period from January 2011 till December 2012. Current
      spatiotemporal distributions of CL cases were explored and projected to the
      future using a correlative modelling approach. In addition the present results
      were compared with our previous data obtained for the time period 1995-2008.
      METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated 312 CL patients who presented to
      the Dermatology Department at the Tripoli Central Hospital and came from 81
      endemic areas distributed in 10 districts. The patients presented with typical
      localized lesions which appeared commonly on the face, arms and legs. Molecular
      identification of parasites by a PCR-RFLP approach targeting the ITS1 region of
      the rDNA was successful for 81 patients with two causative species identified: L.
      major and L. tropica comprised 59 (72.8%) and 22 (27.2%) cases, respectively.
      Around 77.3% of L. tropica CL and 57.7% of L. major CL caused single lesions.
      Five CL patients among our data set were seropositive for HIV. L. tropica was
      found mainly in three districts, Murqub (27.3%), Jabal al Gharbi (27.3%) and
      Misrata (13.7%) while L. major was found in two districts, in Jabal al Gharbi
      (61%) and Jafara (20.3%). Seasonal occurrence of CL cases showed that most cases
      (74.2%) admitted to the hospital between November and March, L. major cases from
      November till January (69.4%), and L. tropica cases mainly in January and
      February (41%). Two risk factors were identified for the two species; the
      presence of previously infected household members, and the presence of rodents
      and sandflies in patient's neighborhoods. Spatiotemporal projections using
      correlative distribution models based on current case data and climatic
      conditions showed that coastal regions have a higher level of risk due to more
      favourable conditions for the transmitting vectors. CONCLUSION: Future projection
      of CL until 2060 showed a trend of increasing incidence of CL in the north
      western part of Libya, a spread along the coastal region and a possible emergence
      of new endemics in the north-eastern districts of Libya. These results should be
      considered for control programs to prevent the emergence of new endemic areas
      taking also into consideration changes in socio-economical factors such as
      migration, conflicts, urbanization, land use and access to health care.

PMID- 28880946
TI  - Beyond group engagement: Multiple pathways from encounters with the police to
      cooperation and compliance in Northern Ireland.
AB  - In a sample of young people in Northern Ireland (N = 819), we examine the
      relationships between the quality of experience with police officers and police
      legitimacy. We examine potential pathways through which experiences may either
      support or undermine the legitimacy of the police, and thus cooperation and
      compliance with them. We find evidence that perceptions of the police as having
      goals that align with those of wider society, and as being fair in general,
      mediate relations between the quality of encounters and legitimacy, which in turn
      mediates the relation with cooperation and compliance. Identification with wider
      society was not a reliable mediator, contrary to our predictions based on the
      Group Engagement Model. Moreover, our analysis of the structure of police
      fairness perceptions finds no support for the distinction between procedural and
      distributive police fairness as usually conceived. Implications for the social
      psychological understanding of legitimate authority are discussed.

PMID- 28880947
TI  - Comparing hair-morphology and molecular methods to identify fecal samples from
      Neotropical felids.
AB  - To avoid certain problems encountered with more-traditional and invasive methods
      in behavioral-ecology studies of mammalian predators, such as felids, molecular
      approaches have been employed to identify feces found in the field. However, this
      method requires a complete molecular biology laboratory, and usually also
      requires very fresh fecal samples to avoid DNA degradation. Both conditions are
      normally absent in the field. To address these difficulties, identification based
      on morphological characters (length, color, banding, scales and medullar
      patterns) of hairs found in feces could be employed as an alternative. In this
      study we constructed a morphological identification key for guard hairs of eight
      Neotropical felids (jaguar, oncilla, Geoffroy's cat, margay, ocelot, Pampas cat,
      puma and jaguarundi) and compared its efficiency to that of a molecular
      identification method, using the ATP6 region as a marker. For this molecular
      approach, we simulated some field conditions by postponing sample-conservation
      procedures. A blind test of the identification key obtained a nearly 70% overall
      success rate, which we considered equivalent to or better than the results of
      some molecular methods (probably due to DNA degradation) found in other studies.
      The jaguar, puma and jaguarundi could be unequivocally discriminated from any
      other Neotropical felid. On a scale ranging from inadequate to excellent, the key
      proved poor only for the margay, with only 30% of its hairs successfully
      identified using this key; and have intermediate success rates for the remaining
      species, the oncilla, Geoffroy's cat, ocelot and Pampas cat, were intermediate.
      Complementary information about the known distributions of felid populations may
      be necessary to substantially improve the results obtained with the key. Our own
      molecular results were even better, since all blind-tested samples were correctly
      identified. Part of these identifications were made from samples kept in
      suboptimal conditions, with some samples remaining outdoors for up to seven days,
      simulating conditions in the field. It appears that both methods can be used,
      depending on the available laboratory facilities and on the expected results.

PMID- 28880948
TI  - Prevention of vaginal and rectal HIV transmission by antiretroviral combinations
      in humanized mice.
AB  - With more than 7,000 new HIV infections daily worldwide, there is an urgent need
      for non-vaccine biomedical prevention (nBP) strategies that are safe, effective,
      and acceptable. Clinical trials have demonstrated that pre-exposure prophylaxis
      (PrEP) with antiretrovirals (ARVs) can be effective at preventing HIV infection.
      In contrast, other trials using the same ARVs failed to show consistent efficacy.
      Topical (vaginal and rectal) dosing is a promising regimen for HIV PrEP as it
      leads to low systematic drug exposure. A series of titration studies were carried
      out in bone marrow/liver/thymus (BLT) mice aimed at determining the adequate drug
      concentrations applied vaginally or rectally that offer protection against rectal
      or vaginal HIV challenge. The dose-response relationship of these agents was
      measured and showed that topical tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and
      emtricitabine (FTC) can offer 100% protection against rectal or vaginal HIV
      challenges. From the challenge data, EC50 values of 4.6 MUM for TDF and 0.6 MUM
      for FTC for HIV vaginal administration and 6.1 MUM TDF and 0.18 MUM for FTC for
      rectal administration were obtained. These findings suggest that the BLT mouse
      model is highly suitable for studying the dose-response relationship in single
      and combination ARV studies of vaginal or rectal HIV exposure. Application of
      this sensitive HIV infection model to more complex binary and ternary ARV
      combinations, particularly where agents have different mechanisms of action,
      should allow selection of optimal ARV combinations to be advanced into pre
      clinical and clinical development as nBP products.

PMID- 28880949
TI  - Maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response to foraging uncertainty: A
      model of individual vs. social allostasis and the "Superorganism Hypothesis".
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Food insecurity is a major global contributor to developmental
      origins of adult disease. The allostatic load of maternal food uncertainty from
      variable foraging demand (VFD) activates corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)
      without eliciting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation measured on a
      group level. Individual homeostatic adaptations of the HPA axis may subserve
      second-order homeostasis, a process we provisionally term "social allostasis." We
      postulate that maternal food insecurity induces a "superorganism" state through
      coordination of individual HPA axis response. METHODS: Twenty-four socially
      housed bonnet macaque maternal-infant dyads were exposed to 16 weeks of
      alternating two-week epochs of low or high foraging demand shown to compromise
      normative maternal-infant rearing. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) CRF concentrations
      and plasma cortisol were measured pre- and post-VFD. Dyadic distance was
      measured, and blinded observers performed pre-VFD social ranking assessments.
      RESULTS: Despite marked individual cortisol responses (mean change = 20%) there
      was an absence of maternal HPA axis group mean response to VFD (0%). Whereas
      individual CSF CRF concentrations change = 56%, group mean did increase 25% (p =
      0.002). Our "dyadic vulnerability" index (low infant weight, low maternal weight,
      subordinate maternal social status and reduced dyadic distance) predicted
      maternal cortisol decreases (p < 0.0001) whereas relatively "advantaged" dyads
      exhibited maternal cortisol increases in response to VFD exposure. COMMENT: In
      response to a chronic stressor, relative dyadic vulnerability plays a significant
      role in determining the directionality and magnitude of individual maternal HPA
      axis responses in the service of maintaining a "superorganism" version of HPA
      axis homeostasis, provisionally termed "social allostasis."

PMID- 28880950
TI  - Correction: Pollination Mode and Mating System Explain Patterns in Genetic
      Differentiation in Neotropical Plants.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158660.].

PMID- 28880952
TI  - Large scale expression and purification of secreted mouse hephaestin.
AB  - Hephaestin is a large membrane-anchored multicopper ferroxidase involved in
      mammalian iron metabolism. Newly absorbed dietary iron is exported across the
      enterocyte basolateral membrane by the ferrous iron transporter ferroportin, but
      hephaestin increases the efficiency of this process by oxidizing the transported
      iron to its ferric form and promoting its release from ferroportin. Deletion or
      mutation of the hephaestin gene leads to systemic anemia with iron accumulation
      in the intestinal epithelium. The crystal structure of human ceruloplasmin,
      another multicopper ferroxidase with 50% sequence identity to hephaestin, has
      provided a framework for comparative analysis and modelling. However, detailed
      structural information for hephaestin is still absent, leaving questions relating
      to metal coordination and binding sites unanswered. To obtain structural
      information for hephaestin, a reliable protocol for large-scale purification is
      required. Here, we present an expression and purification protocol of soluble
      mouse hephaestin, yielding milligram amounts of enzymatically active, purified
      protein using the baculovirus/insect cell system.

PMID- 28880951
TI  - Contrasting seasonal drivers of virus abundance and production in the North
      Pacific Ocean.
AB  - The North Pacific Ocean (between approximately 0 degrees N and 50 degrees N)
      contains the largest continuous ecosystem on Earth. This region plays a vital
      role in the cycling of globally important nutrients as well as carbon. Although
      the microbial communities in this region have been assessed, the dynamics of
      viruses (abundances and production rates) remains understudied. To address this
      gap, scientific cruises during the winter and summer seasons (2013) covered the
      North Pacific basin to determine factors that may drive virus abundances and
      production rates. Along with information on virus particle abundance and
      production, we collected a spectrum of oceanographic metrics as well as
      information on microbial diversity. The data suggest that both biotic and abiotic
      factors affect the distribution of virus particles. Factors influencing virus
      dynamics did not vary greatly between seasons, although the abundance of viruses
      was almost an order of magnitude greater in the summer. When considered in the
      context of microbial community structure, our observations suggest that members
      of the bacterial phyla Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Bacteroidetes were
      correlated to both virus abundances and virus production rates: these phyla have
      been shown to be enriched in particle associated communities. The findings
      suggest that environmental factors influence virus community functions (e.g.,
      virion particle degradation) and that particle-associated communities may be
      important drivers of virus activity.

PMID- 28880953
TI  - Direct and indirect impact of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
      introduction on pneumonia hospitalizations and economic burden in all age-groups
      in Brazil: A time-series analysis.
AB  - Background: Ten-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) was introduced in
      the National Immunization Program of Brazil in March/2010. Although there are
      recent reports of PCV10 impact on pneumonia hospitalizations, there is still
      uncertainty regarding the indirect impact in individuals non-targeted by
      vaccination. We assessed both direct and indirect effect of PCV10 on pneumonia
      hospitalizations and the impact on the economic burden of pneumonia
      hospitalizations. Methods: An interrupted time-series analysis was conducted
      considering monthly rates of pneumonia hospitalizations and comparison groups, in
      all age-groups, from January/2005-December/2015. We used records of the National
      Hospitalizations Information System. Observed pneumonia rates in the post
      vaccination period (2011-2015) were compared to predicted rates, should PCV10 had
      not been introduced. Relative percent difference in rates and its 95% confidence
      interval were estimated. The number of pneumonia hospitalizations averted by
      vaccination was calculated as the difference between the predicted and observed
      cumulative number of pneumonia hospitalizations in the post-vaccination period.
      The impact of PCV10 on economic burden was presented as averted costs of
      pneumonia hospitalization. Results: Significant decrease in rates of pneumonia
      hospitalization was observed in both children targeted by vaccination (17.4%
      26.5%; p<0.01), and in age-groups not targeted by vaccination (11.1%-27.1%, in
      individuals 10-49 years; p<0.01). In contrast, PCV10 introduction did not alter
      the increasing trends in pneumonia hospitalization among elderly >=65 years. A
      total of 457,564 pneumonia hospitalizations was averted in Brazil for individuals
      aged <50 years, with a total averted costs of BRL 383.2 million (Int$ 225.2
      million, and USD 147 million) for the 5 year period after PCV introduction.
      Conclusion: Vaccination with PCV10 5 years after its introduction in Brazil was
      associated with a relevant reduction in pneumonia hospitalization in the target
      age-groups, with an indirect effect in individuals aged 10-49 years, and
      significant reduction in associated economic burden. The increasing trends in
      pneumonia hospitalization rates in the elderly is a matter of concern for public
      health and should be further investigated.

PMID- 28880954
TI  - First interspecific genetic linkage map for Castanea sativa x Castanea crenata
      revealed QTLs for resistance to Phytophthora cinnamomi.
AB  - The Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata) carries resistance to Phytophthora
      cinnamomi, the destructive and widespread oomycete causing ink disease. The
      European chestnut (Castanea sativa), carrying little to no disease resistance, is
      currently threatened by the presence of the oomycete pathogen in forests,
      orchards and nurseries. Determining the genetic basis of P. cinnamomi resistance,
      for further selection of molecular markers and candidate genes, is a prominent
      issue for implementation of marker assisted selection in the breeding programs
      for resistance. In this study, the first interspecific genetic linkage map of C.
      sativa x C. crenata allowed the detection of QTLs for P. cinnamomi resistance.
      The genetic map was constructed using two independent, control-cross mapping
      populations. Chestnut populations were genotyped using 452 microsatellite and
      single nucleotide polymorphism molecular markers derived from the available
      chestnut transcriptomes. The consensus genetic map spans 498,9 cM and contains
      217 markers mapped with an average interval of 2.3 cM. For QTL analyses, the
      progression rate of P. cinnamomi lesions in excised shoots inoculated was used as
      the phenotypic metric. Using non-parametric and composite interval mapping
      approaches, two QTLs were identified for ink disease resistance, distributed in
      two linkage groups: E and K. The presence of QTLs located in linkage group E
      regarding P. cinnamomi resistance is consistent with a previous preliminary study
      developed in American x Chinese chestnut populations, suggesting the presence of
      common P. cinnamomi defense mechanisms across species. Results presented here
      extend the genomic resources of Castanea genus providing potential tools to
      assist the ongoing and future chestnut breeding programs.

PMID- 28880955
TI  - Zika genomics urgently need standardized and curated reference sequences.

PMID- 28880956
TI  - Effect of a new motorway on social-spatial patterning of road traffic accidents:
      A retrospective longitudinal natural experimental study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The World Health Organisation reports that road traffic accidents
      (accidents) could become the seventh leading cause of death globally by 2030.
      Accidents often occur in spatial clusters and, generally, there are more
      accidents in less advantaged areas. Infrastructure changes, such as new roads,
      can affect the locations and magnitude of accident clusters but evidence of
      impact is lacking. A new 5-mile motorway extension was opened in 2011 in Glasgow,
      Scotland. Previous research found no impact on the number of accidents but did
      not consider their spatial location or socio-economic setting. We evaluated
      impacts on these, both locally and city-wide. METHODS: We used STATS19 data
      covering the period 2008 to 2014 and describing the location and details of all
      reported accidents involving a personal injury. Poisson-based continuous scan
      statistics were used to detect spatial clusters of accidents and any change in
      these over time. Change in the socio-economic distribution of accident cluster
      locations during the study period was also assessed. RESULTS: In each year
      accidents were strongly clustered, with statistically significant clusters more
      likely to occur in socio-economically deprived areas. There was no significant
      shift in the magnitude or location of accident clusters during motorway
      construction or following opening, either locally or city-wide. There was also no
      impact on the socio-economic patterning of accident cluster locations.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although urban infrastructure changes occur constantly, all around
      the world, this is the first study to evaluate the impact of such changes on road
      accident clusters. Despite expectations to the contrary from both proponents and
      opponents of the M74 extension, we found no beneficial or adverse change in the
      socio-spatial distribution of accidents associated with its construction, opening
      or operation. Our approach and findings can help inform urban planning
      internationally.

PMID- 28880957
TI  - Mapping the STK4/Hippo signaling network in prostate cancer cell.
AB  - Dysregulation of MST1/STK4, a key kinase component of the Hippo-YAP pathway, is
      linked to the etiology of many cancers with poor prognosis. However, how STK4
      restricts the emergence of aggressive cancer remains elusive. Here, we
      investigated the effects of STK4, primarily localized in the cytoplasm, lipid
      raft, and nucleus, on cell growth and gene expression in aggressive prostate
      cancer. We demonstrated that lipid raft and nuclear STK4 had superior suppressive
      effects on cell growth in vitro and in vivo compared with cytoplasmic STK4. Using
      RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, we identified several differentially
      expressed (DE) genes that responded to ectopic STK4 in all three subcellular
      compartments. We noted that the number of DE genes observed in lipid raft and
      nuclear STK4 cells were much greater than cytoplasmic STK4. Our functional
      annotation clustering showed that these DE genes were commonly associated with
      oncogenic pathways such as AR, PI3K/AKT, BMP/SMAD, GPCR, WNT, and RAS as well as
      unique pathways such as JAK/STAT, which emerged only in nuclear STK4 cells. These
      findings indicate that MST1/STK4/Hippo signaling restricts aggressive tumor cell
      growth by intersecting with multiple molecular pathways, suggesting that
      targeting of the STK4/Hippo pathway may have important therapeutic implications
      for cancer.

PMID- 28880959
TI  - Correction: A new GTF2I-BRAF fusion mediating MAPK pathway activation in
      pilocytic astrocytoma.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175638.].

PMID- 28880958
TI  - Think globally, act locally: Phylodynamic reconstruction of infectious bronchitis
      virus (IBV) QX genotype (GI-19 lineage) reveals different population dynamics and
      spreading patterns when evaluated on different epidemiological scales.
AB  - Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) represents one of the poultry industry major
      threats, particularly in high density producing countries. The emergence and
      spread of new IBV genotypes have frustrated the various disease control efforts
      implemented over time. Despite that, few comprehensive and large scale studies
      have been performed to understand the international and local spreading dynamics
      of this virus. In the present work, these phenomena were evaluated by
      implementing a Bayesian phylodynamic approach to reconstruct the epidemiological
      patterns and population history of the QX genotype (currently renamed GI-19
      lineage), the most relevant IBV lineage of the Old-World. Our analysis, based on
      807 partial S1 sequences of strains collected from 18 countries between 1993 and
      2015, demonstrates that this genotype originated in China well before its first
      identification. After a prolonged local circulation, it started spreading to
      other European, Asian and Middle East countries in successive waves, which were
      mirrored by concomitant fluctuations in viral population size. Interestingly, the
      within-Europe spread was characterized by a higher estimated migration rate
      compared with the inter-continental one, potentially reflecting the closer
      geographic and economic relationships among these countries. Nevertheless, the
      colonization of new states by the GI-19 lineage appeared to occur mostly by
      single introduction events in both intra and inter-continental spread, likely
      because of epidemiological factor and health policy combination which seems to
      prevent the frequent introduction and mixing of different strains. On the other
      hand, the within Italy QX circulation reconstruction showed a much more intricate
      connection network among different locations, evidencing the difficulty in
      controlling IBV spread especially in highly densely poultry populated areas. The
      presence of several well supported epidemiological links among distantly related
      Italian regions testifies that animal transportation and indirect transmission
      routes rather than local airborne diffusion contribute to the QX success and
      persistence at local scale. Globally, the spreading dynamics and evolution of the
      QX genotype were reconstructed from its very origin to nowadays, demonstrating
      the need of more effective direct control measures, particularly within each
      country. Unfortunately, the incompleteness of available molecular epidemiology
      data represents an insurmountable limit which leaves many questions currently
      unsolved, thus highlighting the compulsoriness of a structured monitoring and
      data sharing system implementation.

PMID- 28880960
TI  - Correction: Correction: A Novel Rhabdovirus Associated with Acute Hemorrhagic
      Fever in Central Africa.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002924.].

PMID- 28880961
TI  - Experimental verification of subthreshold laser therapy using conventional
      pattern scan laser.
AB  - PURPOSE: Leading-edge therapeutic laser technologies are not available at every
      medical facility; therefore, alternative approaches incorporating novel advances
      in digital and laser technology into more readily available conventional methods
      have generated significant research interest. Using a rabbit model, this study
      investigated whether the algorithm used in the Endpoint Management (EM) software
      system of the latest devices could enable subthreshold laser treatment in
      conventional retinal tissue laser therapy systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two
      types of devices were used, the PASCAL Streamline 577 and the MC 500-VixiTM, and
      the laser method was classified into three categories: EM; single-shot using
      PASCAL with arbitrary energy settings (PSS-SDM); and MC500-VixiTM (VX-SDM), which
      were performed in eight eyes from four Dutch-Belted rabbits. In EM, 100 mW (100%)
      was set as a landmark, and the laser energy parameters were gradually decreased
      to 80%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10%, using a 2 * 3 square pattern. In PSS
      SDM and VX-SDM, as control, the laser energy was gradually decreased to 100, 80,
      60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 mW. The laser settings were fixed at 200 MUm, 20 ms,
      and a wavelength of 577 MUm. To identify and compare the extent of tissue damage
      at each spot size, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and histological findings
      were used to construct a three-dimensional histopathology image using a confocal
      laser scanning fluorescence microscope. RESULTS: The spot size at 50% setting on
      EM was 7183 MUm2; PSS-SDM required 50 mW (5503 MUm2) to 60 mW (10279 MUm2) and VX
      SDM required 50 mW (7423 MUm2) to create the approximate spot size. Furthermore,
      at 50 mW of PSS-SDM and VX-SDM, the extent of tissue damage in all three methods
      was generally in accord with the outer nuclear layer by OCT and inner nuclear
      layer by histopathological imaging. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that it
      may be possible to perform subthreshold laser therapy using approximations from
      the EM algorithm.

PMID- 28880963
TI  - Correction: Intestinal calcium and bile salts facilitate germination of
      Clostridium difficile spores.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006443.].

PMID- 28880962
TI  - Spatially explicit multi-threat assessment of food tree species in Burkina Faso:
      A fine-scale approach.
AB  - Over the last decades agroforestry parklands in Burkina Faso have come under
      increasing demographic as well as climatic pressures, which are threatening
      indigenous tree species that contribute substantially to income generation and
      nutrition in rural households. Analyzing the threats as well as the species
      vulnerability to them is fundamental for priority setting in conservation
      planning. Guided by literature and local experts we selected 16 important food
      tree species (Acacia macrostachya, Acacia senegal, Adansonia digitata, Annona
      senegalensis, Balanites aegyptiaca, Bombax costatum, Boscia senegalensis,
      Detarium microcarpum, Lannea microcarpa, Parkia biglobosa, Sclerocarya birrea,
      Strychnos spinosa, Tamarindus indica, Vitellaria paradoxa, Ximenia americana,
      Ziziphus mauritiana) and six key threats to them (overexploitation, overgrazing,
      fire, cotton production, mining and climate change). We developed a species
      specific and spatially explicit approach combining freely accessible datasets,
      species distribution models (SDMs), climate models and expert survey results to
      predict, at fine scale, where these threats are likely to have the greatest
      impact. We find that all species face serious threats throughout much of their
      distribution in Burkina Faso and that climate change is predicted to be the most
      prevalent threat in the long term, whereas overexploitation and cotton production
      are the most important short-term threats. Tree populations growing in areas
      designated as 'highly threatened' due to climate change should be used as seed
      sources for ex situ conservation and planting in areas where future climate is
      predicting suitable habitats. Assisted regeneration is suggested for populations
      in areas where suitable habitat under future climate conditions coincides with
      high threat levels due to short-term threats. In the case of Vitellaria paradoxa,
      we suggest collecting seed along the northern margins of its distribution and
      considering assisted regeneration in the central part where the current threat
      level is high due to overexploitation. In the same way, population-specific
      recommendations can be derived from the individual and combined threat maps of
      the other 15 food tree species. The approach can be easily transferred to other
      countries and can be used to analyze general and species specific threats at
      finer and more local as well as at broader (continental) scales in order to plan
      more selective and efficient conservation actions in time. The concept can be
      applied anywhere as long as appropriate spatial data are available as well as
      knowledgeable experts.

PMID- 28880964
TI  - Correction: HIV-1 competition experiments in humanized mice show that APOBEC3H
      imposes selective pressure and promotes virus adaptation.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006348.].

PMID- 28880965
TI  - Multiple evolutionary origins of Trypanosoma evansi in Kenya.
AB  - Trypanosoma evansi is the parasite causing surra, a form of trypanosomiasis in
      camels and other livestock, and a serious economic burden in Kenya and many other
      parts of the world. Trypanosoma evansi transmission can be sustained mechanically
      by tabanid and Stomoxys biting flies, whereas the closely related African
      trypanosomes T. brucei brucei and T. b. rhodesiense require cyclical development
      in tsetse flies (genus Glossina) for transmission. In this study, we investigated
      the evolutionary origins of T. evansi. We used 15 polymorphic microsatellites to
      quantify levels and patterns of genetic diversity among 41 T. evansi isolates and
      66 isolates of T. b. brucei (n = 51) and T. b. rhodesiense (n = 15), including
      many from Kenya, a region where T. evansi may have evolved from T. brucei. We
      found that T. evansi strains belong to at least two distinct T. brucei genetic
      units and contain genetic diversity that is similar to that in T. brucei strains.
      Results indicated that the 41 T. evansi isolates originated from multiple T.
      brucei strains from different genetic backgrounds, implying independent origins
      of T. evansi from T. brucei strains. This surprising finding further suggested
      that the acquisition of the ability of T. evansi to be transmitted mechanically,
      and thus the ability to escape the obligate link with the African tsetse fly
      vector, has occurred repeatedly. These findings, if confirmed, have
      epidemiological implications, as T. brucei strains from different genetic
      backgrounds can become either causative agents of a dangerous, cosmopolitan
      livestock disease or of a lethal human disease, like for T. b. rhodesiense.

PMID- 28880967
TI  - A novel approach for predicting microbe-disease associations by bi-random walk on
      the heterogeneous network.
AB  - Since the microbiome has a significant impact on human health and disease,
      microbe-disease associations can be utilized as a valuable resource for
      understanding disease pathogenesis and promoting disease diagnosis and prognosis.
      Accordingly, it is necessary for researchers to achieve a comprehensive and deep
      understanding of the associations between microbes and diseases. Nevertheless, to
      date, little work has been achieved in implementing novel human microbe-disease
      association prediction models. In this paper, we develop a novel computational
      model to predict potential microbe-disease associations by bi-random walk on the
      heterogeneous network (BiRWHMDA). The heterogeneous network was constructed by
      connecting the microbe similarity network and the disease similarity network via
      known microbe-disease associations. Microbe similarity and disease similarity
      were calculated by the Gaussian interaction profile kernel similarity measure;
      moreover, a logistic function was applied to regulate disease similarity.
      Additionally, leave-one-out cross validation and 5-fold cross validation were
      implemented to evaluate the predictive performance of our method; both cross
      validation methods performed well. The leave-one-out cross validation experiment
      results illustrate that our method outperforms other previously proposed methods.
      Furthermore, case studies on asthma and inflammatory bowel disease prove the
      favorable performance of our method. In conclusion, our method can be considered
      as an effective computational model for predicting novel microbe-disease
      associations.

PMID- 28880966
TI  - The prolyl 4-hydroxylase inhibitor GSK360A decreases post-stroke brain injury and
      sensory, motor, and cognitive behavioral deficits.
AB  - There is interest in pharmacologic preconditioning for end-organ protection by
      targeting the HIF system. This can be accomplished by inhibition of prolyl 4
      hydroxylase (PHD). GSK360A is an orally active PHD inhibitor that has been
      previously shown to protect the failing heart. We hypothesized that PHD
      inhibition can also protect the brain from injuries and resulting behavioral
      deficits that can occur as a result of surgery. Thus, our goal was to investigate
      the effect of pre-stroke surgery brain protection using a verified GSK360A PHD
      inhibition paradigm on post-stroke surgery outcomes. Vehicle or an established
      protective dose (30 mg/kg, p.o.) of GSK360A was administered to male Sprague
      Dawley rats. Initially, GSK360A pharmacokinetics and organ distribution were
      determined, and then PHD-HIF pharmacodynamic markers were measured (i.e., to
      validate the pharmacological effects of the GSK360A administration regimen).
      Results obtained using this validated PHD dose-regimen indicated significant
      improvement by GSK360A (30mg/kg); administered at 18 and 5 hours prior to
      transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (stroke). GSK360A exposure and plasma,
      kidney and brain HIF-PHD pharmacodynamics endpoints (e.g., erythropoietin; EPO
      and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor; VEGF) were measured. GSK360A provided
      rapid exposure in plasma (7734 ng/ml), kidney (45-52% of plasma level) and brain
      (1-4% of plasma level), and increased kidney EPO mRNA (80-fold) and brain VEGF
      mRNA (2-fold). We also observed that GSK360A increased plasma EPO (300-fold) and
      VEGF (2-fold). Further assessments indicated that GSK360A reduced post-stroke
      surgery neurological deficits (47-64%), cognitive dysfunction (60-75%) and brain
      infarction (30%) 4 weeks later. Thus, PHD inhibition using GSK360A pretreatment
      produced long-term post-stroke brain protection and improved behavioral
      functioning. These data support PHD inhibition, specifically by GSK360A, as a
      potential strategy for pre-surgical use to reduce brain injury and functional
      decline due to surgery-related cerebral injury.

PMID- 28880968
TI  - Purification and characterization of a novel metalloprotease from fruiting bodies
      of Oudemansiella radicata.
AB  - In this study, a 39-kDa metalloprotease was purified from a rare edible mushroom
      with health-promoting activities, Oudemansiella radicata, using a purification
      protocol which entailed anion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and Q
      Sepharose columns and gel filtration by fast protein liquid chromatography on a
      Superdex 75 column. Some peptide sequences were obtained by LC-MS/MS analysis and
      one of the sequences, DAWIQADVNR, manifested 90% identity to Coprinopsis cinerea
      metalloprotease. The optimal reaction pH and temperature for Oudemansiella
      radicata protease were pH 7.0 and 50 degrees C, respectively. The protease was
      purified 79-fold and demonstrated a specific protease activity of 2.42 U/mg. The
      Km of the purified protease for the casein substrate was 0.65 mg/mL at pH 7.0 and
      50 degrees C. The activity of the protease was inhibited by Cd2+, Hg2+, Cu2+,
      Pb2+ and Fe3+ ions, but was enhanced by K+, Mn2+ and Fe2+ ions. The marked
      suppression of the protease activity by EDTA indicates that the protease is a
      metalloprotease.

PMID- 28880969
TI  - Anti-inflammatory activities of garlic sprouts, a source of alpha-linolenic acid
      and 5-hydroxy-l-tryptophan, in RAW 264.7 cells.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to analyze the indolic, phenolic, and fatty acid
      content and antioxidant activity of garlic sprouts growing in the dark and in the
      daylight. The pro- or anti-inflammatory properties of the garlic sprout extract
      were investigated by evaluating the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), prostaglandin E
      synthase (cPGES), glutathione S transferase (GSTM1), nuclear factor NF-kappaB,
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), and aryl hydrocarbon
      receptor (AhR) protein levels in the RAW 264.7 cells activated with
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The highest amount of total indolic (73.56 mg/100 g
      f.w.) and phenolic compounds (36.23 mg/100 g f.w.) was detected in garlic sprouts
      grown in the daylight. Studies on antioxidant activity (the FRAP and DPPH method)
      of garlic sprouts showed that this activity is significantly higher for sprouts
      grown in full access to light when compared to those grown in the dark. In garlic
      sprout extracts, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) was found to be in greater amount.
      COX-2 and cPGES level was lower when compared to LPS alone activated cells. After
      garlic extract treatment, higher level of GSTM1, PPARUpsilon, cytosolic p50 and
      p65 protein, as well as a lower NF-KB p50/p65 activity was noted in the RAW 264.7
      cells which suggested PPARs and AhR transrepression mechanism of NF-KB
      signalling. The obtained results indicate Allium sativum sprouts are a rich
      source of n-3 fatty acids, indolic and phenolic compounds characterized by anti
      inflammatory and antioxidative activity, which may support their high therapeutic
      and dietary potential.

PMID- 28880970
TI  - Optimization of Western blotting analysis for the isolation and detection of
      membrane xenobiotic transporter ABCG2.
AB  - All organisms are exposed to numerous stress factors, which include harmful
      xenobiotics. The diversity of these compounds is enormous, thus in the course of
      evolution diverse biological defense mechanisms at various levels of organization
      have developed. One of them engages an evolutionarily conserved family of
      transporters from the ABC superfamily, found in most species - from bacteria to
      humans. An important example of such a transporter is the breast cancer
      resistance protein (BCRP/ABCG2), a typical integral membrane protein. It plays a
      key role in the absorption, distribution and elimination of a wide variety of
      xenobiotics, including drugs used in chemotherapy, and is involved in multidrug
      resistance. It also protects against phototoxic chlorophyll derivatives of
      dietary origin. BCRP is a hemitransporter which consists of one transmembrane
      domain, made of six alpha-helices forming a characteristic pore structure, and
      one ATP-binding domain, which provides the energy from ATP hydrolysis, required
      for active transport of the substrates. The isolation of BCRP is still not an
      easy task, because its insolubility in water and the presence of membrane rafts
      pose serious methodological and technical challenges during the purification. The
      aim of this study was to optimize the methods for detection and isolation of BCRP
      enriched fractions obtained from animal tissue samples. In this report we
      describe an optimization of isolation of a BCRP-enriched membrane fraction, which
      is suitable for further protein quantitative and qualitative analysis using the
      molecular biology tools.

PMID- 28880973
TI  - A New Monoclonal Protein Detected in a Patient With Myeloma Undergoing Elotuzumab
      Therapy.

PMID- 28880974
TI  - Pathogenesis of Ocular Findings in Congenital Zika Syndrome.

PMID- 28880971
TI  - Development and Validation of a Novel Acute Myeloid Leukemia-Composite Model to
      Estimate Risks of Mortality.
AB  - Importance: To our knowledge, this multicenter analysis is the first to test and
      validate (1) the prognostic impact of comorbidities on 1-year mortality after
      initial therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and (2) a novel, risk-stratifying
      composite model incorporating comorbidities, age, and cytogenetic and molecular
      risks. Objective: To accurately estimate risks of mortality by developing and
      validating a composite model that combines the most significant patient-specific
      and AML-specific features. Design, Setting, and Participants: This is a
      retrospective cohort study. A series of comorbidities, including those already
      incorporated into the hematopoietic cell transplantation-comorbidity index (HCT
      CI), were evaluated. Patients were randomly divided into a training set (n = 733)
      and a validation set (n = 367). In the training set, covariates associated with 1
      year overall mortality at a significance level of P < .10 constructed a
      multivariate Cox proportional hazards model in which the impact of each covariate
      was adjusted for that of all others. Then, the adjusted hazard ratios were used
      as weights. Performances of models were compared using C statistics for
      continuous outcomes and area under the curve (AUC) for binary outcomes.
      Exposures: Initial therapy for AML. Main Outcomes and Measures: Death within 1
      year after initial therapy for AML. Results: A total of 1100 patients, ages 20 to
      89 years, were treated for AML between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2012, at
      5 academic institutions specialized in treating AML; 605 (55%) were male, and 495
      (45%) were female. In the validation set, the original HCT-CI had better C
      statistic and AUC estimates compared with the AML comorbidity index for
      prediction of 1-year mortality. Augmenting the original HCT-CI with 3
      independently significant comorbidities, hypoalbuminemia, thrombocytopenia, and
      high lactate dehydrogenase level, yielded a better C statistic of 0.66 and AUC of
      0.69 for 1-year mortality. A composite model comprising augmented HCT-CI, age,
      and cytogenetic/molecular risks had even better predictive estimates of 0.72 and
      0.76, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study,
      comorbidities influenced 1-year survival of patients with AML, and comorbidities
      are best captured by an augmented HCT-CI. The augmented HCT-CI, age, and
      cytogenetic/molecular risks could be combined into an AML composite model that
      could guide treatment decision-making and trial design in AML. Studying physical,
      cognitive, and social health might further clarify the prognostic role of aging.
      Targeting comorbidities with interventions alongside specific AML therapy might
      improve survival.

PMID- 28880972
TI  - Effect of Modified Vaccinia Ankara-5T4 and Low-Dose Cyclophosphamide on Antitumor
      Immunity in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - Importance: The success of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors is not
      replicated in most cases of colorectal cancer; therefore, different strategies
      are urgently required. The oncofetal antigen 5T4 is expressed in more than 90% of
      cases of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Preliminary data using modified
      vaccinia Ankara-5T4 (MVA-5T4) in mCRC demonstrated that it safely induced
      serologic and T-cell responses. Objective: To determine whether antitumor
      immunity in mCRC could be increased using MVA-5T4, metronomic low-dose
      cyclophosphamide, or a combination of both treatments. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: In this randomized clinical trial, 55 patients with inoperable mCRC
      and prior stable disease after standard chemotherapy were enrolled at a single
      center and randomized to watch and wait (n = 9), cyclophosphamide treatment only
      (n = 9), MVA-5T4 only (n = 19), and a combination of MVA-5T4 and cyclophosphamide
      (n = 18). Patients were enrolled and treated from July 9, 2012, through February
      8, 2016, and follow-up was completed on December 13, 2016. Data were analyzed
      based on intention to treat. Interventions: Patients randomized to a
      cyclophosphamide group received 50 mg twice daily on treatment days 1 to 7 and 15
      to 21. Patients randomized to a MVA-5T4 group received an intramuscular injection
      at a dose of 1 * 109 50% tissue culture infectious dose on treatment days 22, 36,
      50, 64, 78, and 106. Main Outcomes and Measures: The predefined primary end point
      was the magnitude of anti-5T4 immune responses (5T4-specific T-cell and antibody
      levels) generated at treatment week 7. Secondary end points included analysis of
      the kinetics of anti-5T4 responses, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall
      survival (OS). Results: Fifty-two patients (38 men and 14 women; mean [SD] age,
      64.2 [10.1] years) were included in the study analysis. The 5T4-specific antibody
      immune responses were significantly increased in the MVA-5T4 (83.41 [36.09]
      relative units [RU]; P = .02) and combination treatment (65.81 [16.68] RU; P =
      .002) groups compared with no treatment (20.09 [7.20] RU). Cyclophosphamide
      depleted regulatory T cells in 24 of 27 patients receiving MVA-5T4, independently
      prolonging PFS (5.0 vs 2.5 months; hazard ratio [HR], 0.48; 95% CI, 0.21-1.11; P
      = .09). MVA-5T4 doubled baseline anti-5T4 responses in 16 of 35 patients,
      resulting in significantly prolonged PFS (5.6 vs 2.4 months; HR, 0.21; 95% CI,
      0.09-0.47; P < .001) and OS (20.0 vs 10.3 months; HR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.14-0.74; P
      = .008). No grade 3 or 4 adverse events were observed. Conclusions and Relevance:
      This initial randomized clinical immunotherapy study demonstrates a significant
      survival benefit in mCRC. Prior depletion of regulatory T cells by
      cyclophosphamide did not increase immune responses generated by MVA-5T4
      vaccination; however, cyclophosphamide and MVA-5T4 each independently induced
      beneficial antitumor immune responses, resulting in prolonged survival without
      toxic effects. Larger clinical trials are planned to further validate these data.
      Trial Registration: isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN54669986.

PMID- 28880975
TI  - Nutrition Counseling in Clinical Practice: How Clinicians Can Do Better.

PMID- 28880976
TI  - The Waiting Room.

PMID- 28880977
TI  - Speech Situation Checklist-Revised: Investigation With Adults Who Do Not Stutter
      and Treatment-Seeking Adults Who Stutter.
AB  - Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the Speech
      Situation Checklist for adults who stutter (SSC) in differentiating people who
      stutter (PWS) from speakers with no stutter based on self-reports of anxiety and
      speech disruption in communicative settings. The SSC's psychometric properties
      were examined, norms were established, and suggestions for treatment were
      formulated. Method: The SSC was administered to 88 PWS seeking treatment and 209
      speakers with no stutter between the ages of 18 and 62. The SSC consists of 2
      sections investigating negative emotional reaction and speech disruption in 38
      speech situations that are identical in both sections. Results: The SSC-Emotional
      Reaction and SSC-Speech Disruption data show that these self-report tests
      differentiate PWS from speakers with no stutter to a statistically significant
      extent and have great discriminative value. The tests have good internal
      reliability, content, and construct validity. Age and gender do not affect the
      scores of the PWS. Conclusions: The SSC-Emotional Reaction and SSC-Speech
      Disruption seem to be powerful measures to investigate negative emotion and
      speech breakdown in an array of speech situations. The item scores give direction
      to treatment by suggesting speech situations that need a clinician's attention in
      terms of generalization and carry-over of within-clinic therapeutic gains into in
      vivo settings.

PMID- 28880979
TI  - Conjunctival and Limbal Transplantation From the Same Living-Related Bone Marrow
      Donor to Patients With Severe Ocular Graft-vs-Host Disease.

PMID- 28880978
TI  - Quantitative Assessment of Microstructural Changes of the Retina in Infants With
      Congenital Zika Syndrome.
AB  - Importance: A better pathophysiologic understanding of the neurodevelopmental
      abnormalities observed in neonates exposed in utero to Zika virus (ZIKV) is
      needed to develop treatments. The retina as an extension of the diencephalon
      accessible to in vivo microcopy with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography
      (SD-OCT) can provide an insight into the pathophysiology of congenital Zika
      syndrome (CZS). Objective: To quantify the microstructural changes of the retina
      in CZS and compare these changes with those of cobalamin C (cblC) deficiency, a
      disease with potential retinal maldevelopment. Design, Setting, and Participants:
      This case series included 8 infants with CZS and 8 individuals with cblC
      deficiency. All patients underwent ophthalmologic evaluation at 2 university
      teaching hospitals and SD-OCT imaging in at least 1 eye. Patients with cblC
      deficiency were homozygous or compound heterozygotes for mutations in the
      methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria type C (MMACHC) gene. Data were
      collected from January 1 to March 17, 2016, for patients with CZS and from May 4,
      2015, to April 23, 2016, for patients with cblC deficiency. Main Outcomes and
      Measures: The SD-OCT cross-sections were segmented using automatic segmentation
      algorithms embedded in the SD-OCT systems. Each retinal layer thickness was
      measured at critical eccentricities using the position of the signal peaks and
      troughs on longitudinal reflectivity profiles. Results: Eight infants with CZS (5
      girls and 3 boys; age range, 3-5 months) and 8 patients with cblC deficiency (3
      girls and 5 boys; age range, 4 months to 15 years) were included in the analysis.
      All 8 patients with CZS had foveal abnormalities in the analyzed eyes (8 eyes),
      including discontinuities of the ellipsoid zone, thinning of the central retina
      with increased backscatter, and severe structural disorganization, with 3 eyes
      showing macular pseudocolobomas. Pericentral retina with normal lamination showed
      a thinned (<30% of normal thickness) ganglion cell layer (GCL) that colocalized
      in 7 of 8 eyes with a normal photoreceptor layer. The inner nuclear layer was
      normal or had borderline thinning. The central retinal degeneration was similar
      to that of cblC deficiency. Conclusions and Relevance: Congenital Zika syndrome
      showed a central retinal degeneration with severe GCL loss, borderline inner
      nuclear layer thinning, and less prominent photoreceptor loss. The findings
      provide the first, to date, in vivo evidence in humans for possible retinal
      maldevelopment with a predilection for retinal GCL loss in CZS, consistent with a
      murine model of the disease and suggestive of in utero depletion of this neuronal
      population as a consequence of Zika virus infection.

PMID- 28880981
TI  - Timing of Pregnancy and Survival in Women With Breast Cancer.

PMID- 28880980
TI  - Progressive Tinnitus Management Level 3 Skills Education: A 5-Year Clinical
      Retrospective.
AB  - Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether progressive
      tinnitus management Level 3 skills education workshops conducted at the Bay Pines
      and Boston Veterans Affairs hospitals result in consistent use of the presented
      tinnitus management strategies by patients 1-5 years after completing the
      workshops. Method: In fiscal year (FY) 2015, the tinnitus workshop follow-up form
      was mailed to all veterans who completed the Level 3 workshops between FY 2010
      and FY 2014. Data were compiled to determine which, if any, of the skills taught
      in the workshops were being used 1-5 years after completion of the workshops and
      the impact on quality-of-life indicators. Results: All self-management skills
      were being utilized up to 5 years postcompletion; therapeutic sound was utilized
      the most. The majority of patients reported an improved ability to manage
      reactions to tinnitus and improved quality-of-life indicators. Over 90% of
      patients from both sites recommended the program to others with tinnitus.
      Conclusion: The self-management skills taught in the progressive tinnitus
      management Level 3 workshops are sustained over time even when limited resources
      prevent the full complement of workshops or the involvement of mental health
      services. The workshops can also be successfully implemented through remote
      delivery via videoconferencing (telehealth). Supplemental Materials:
      https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5370883.

PMID- 28880983
TI  - Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Therapy.

PMID- 28880982
TI  - Association Between Eyelid Laxity and Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
AB  - Importance: While much has been reported on the relationship between floppy
      eyelid syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the diagnostic criteria of
      floppy eyelid syndrome are often subjective and vague. Objective: To evaluate the
      association between OSA and quantitative markers of eyelid laxity or secondary
      ocular surface disease in a sleep clinic population. Design, Setting, and
      Participants: This investigation was a cross-sectional observational study at the
      Center for Sleep Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
      Participants were individuals referred for overnight polysomnography from March 1
      to August 30, 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures: Eyelid laxity and ocular surface
      disease were assessed on bedside ophthalmologic examination. The presence and
      severity of OSA were determined from polysomnography results. Initial correlation
      between OSA and ocular surface and eyelid markers was calculated through
      bivariate linear regression analysis, and the association between ocular symptoms
      was obtained through bivariate ordered logistic regression. Analysis was repeated
      adjusting for known associations between OSA and sex, age, body mass index, and
      medical comorbidities through multivariable analysis. Results: In total, 201
      individuals (402 eyes) were enrolled in the study. Their mean (SD) age was 53.2
      (13.5) years, 43.3% (n = 87) were female, 56.7% (n = 114) were of white
      race/ethnicity, 26.9% (n = 54) were black/African American, 4.0% (n = 8) were
      Asian, 8.0% (n = 16) were multiracial or other, and 4.5% (n = 9) were of unknown
      race/ethnicity, with 21.9% (n = 44) of all individuals self-identifying as
      Hispanic and 75.1% (n = 151) self-identifying as non-Hispanic. After adjustment,
      no association was observed between OSA severity and an eyelid laxity score
      (regression coefficient, 0.85; 95% CI, -0.33 to 0.62; P = .40) or an ocular
      surface score (regression coefficient, 1.09; 95% CI, -0.32 to 0.29; P = .93).
      Through subset analysis, male sex was associated with a higher ocular surface
      score, while older age and diabetes were associated with a higher eyelid laxity
      score. Only one patient (0.5%) exhibited findings of floppy eyelid syndrome.
      Conclusions and Relevance: Among individuals referred for overnight
      polysomnography, quantitative markers of eyelid laxity were not associated with
      the presence or severity of OSA. Subset analysis suggests that prior studies may
      have been limited by confounding variables or the technique of identifying eyelid
      laxity.

PMID- 28880985
TI  - Dietary Modifications in the Treatment of Laryngopharyngeal Reflux-Will "an Apple
      a Day" Keep the Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Away?

PMID- 28880984
TI  - Association of a Perioperative Education Program With Unplanned Readmission
      Following Total Laryngectomy.

PMID- 28880986
TI  - Association of Disease Location and Treatment With Survival in Diffuse Large B
      Cell Lymphoma of the Eye and Ocular Adnexal Region.
AB  - Importance: Primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the ocular region is
      rare, and the utility of surgery and radiation therapy remains unresolved.
      Objective: To explore the clinical characteristics and determine factors
      associated with overall survival in primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) and
      ocular adnexal (OA)-uveal DLBCL. Design, Setting, and Participants: This
      retrospective analysis included 396 patients with ophthalmic DLBCL from January
      1, 1973, through December 31, 2014, using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End
      Results database. The median follow-up was 39.0 months (interquartile range, 5.1
      72.9 months). All patients diagnosed with primary DLBCL of the eye or retina
      (PVRL) or the eyelid, conjunctiva, choroid, ciliary body, lacrimal gland, or
      orbit (OA-uveal lymphoma) were included. Patients diagnosed at autopsy or with
      additional neoplastic disease were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures: Patient
      demographic characteristics, disease location, treatment modalities, and overall
      survival. Results: Forty-seven patients with PVRL (24 women [51.1%] and 23 men
      [48.9%]) and 349 with OA-uveal DLBCL (192 women [55.0%] and 157 men [45.0%]) had
      a similar mean (SD) age at diagnosis (69.6 [12.3] vs 66.1 [17.7] years). No
      difference in the use of surgery or radiation therapy by location was found. For
      all PVRL and OA-uveal DLBCL, a Cox proportional hazards regression model affirmed
      that age older than 60 years was associated with increased risk for death (hazard
      ratio [HR], 2.7; 95% CI, 1.9-4.0; P < .001). Gross total resection was associated
      with a decreased risk for death (HR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.9; P = .04), whereas
      radiation therapy was not. The 5-year overall survival among patients with PVRL
      was 41.4% (SE, 8.6%); among those with OA-uveal DLBCL, 59.1% (SE, 2.8%; Mantel
      Cox test, P = .007). Median overall survival was lower in PVRL (38.0 months; 95%
      CI, 14.2-61.8 months) than in OA-uveal DLBCL (96.0 months; 95% CI, 67.3-124.7
      months; Mantel-Cox test, P = .007). In addition, median overall survival in
      ophthalmic-only disease was higher (84.0 months; 95% CI, 63.2-104.8 months) than
      that in primary DLBCL that occurred outside the central nervous system and
      ophthalmic regions (46.0 months; 95% CI, 44.4-47.6 months; Mantel-Cox test, P <
      .001). Conclusions and Relevance: The 5-year survival in PVRL vs OA-uveal DLBCL
      differed by 17.7%, and overall survival was greater in ophthalmic DLBCL than in
      DLBCL located outside the central nervous system and ophthalmic regions. Younger
      age (<=60 years) and gross total resection were associated with increased
      survival.

PMID- 28880987
TI  - Association of Mohs Reconstructive Surgery Timing With Postoperative
      Complications.
AB  - Importance: Same-day Mohs reconstructive surgery is not always possible;
      moreover, a delay can offer benefits such as improved surgical planning and
      increased blood supply to the cauterized wound bed. However, recent work found
      that delaying reconstruction by more than 2 days increases the postoperative
      complication rate. Objective: To review the outcomes of Mohs micrographic surgery
      (MMS) reconstruction with respect to patient- and surgery-specific variables,
      especially timing of repair. Design, Setting, and Participants: Retrospective,
      single-institution cohort study of patients who underwent Mohs reconstructive
      surgery by 1 of the 2 senior authors from January 2012 to March 2017 for
      cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma or basal cell carcinoma. No patients had to be
      excluded for inadequate follow-up or incomplete medical records. Main Outcomes
      and Measures: Postoperative complications including hematoma, infection,
      dehiscence, and partial or full graft or flap loss. Results: A total of 633
      defects in 591 patients (median [range] age, 65 [21-96] years; 333 [56.3%]
      female) were identified over the 5-year period. Reconstructions occurred from
      less than 24 hours to 32 days after MMS, with 229 (36.2%) delayed longer than 48
      hours. Patient-specific variables reviewed included comorbidities, age, smoking
      status, and use of anticoagulant or antiplatelet medications. Surgery-specific
      variables analyzed included location and size of defect, time interval between
      MMS and reconstruction, and reconstructive modalities. Single-variable analysis
      was performed to determine whether each variable was associated with
      postoperative complications. On multivariable binary logistic regression, smoking
      status (odds ratio [OR], 2.46; 95% CI, 1.29-4.71; P = .007), defect size (OR
      exp(B), 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06; P = .006), full-thickness defects (OR, 1.56; 95%
      CI, 1.08-2.25; P = .02), interpolated flaps with cartilage grafting (OR, 8.09;
      95% CI, 2.65-24.73; P < .001), and composite grafts (OR, 6.35; 95% CI, 2.25
      17.92; P < .001) were associated with an increased risk of postoperative
      complications. Conclusions and Relevance: We found no association between timing
      of Mohs reconstructive surgery and complications, indicating that a delayed
      repair did not increase the risk of infection or flap failure. Variables
      associated with an increased risk of postoperative complications include smoking
      status, size of the defect, full-thickness defects, interpolated flaps with
      cartilage grafting, and the use of composite grafts. Level of Evidence: 3.

PMID- 28880988
TI  - The 10-Item Standardized Cosmesis and Health Nasal Outcomes Survey (SCHNOS) for
      Functional and Cosmetic Rhinoplasty.
AB  - Importance: Rhinoplasty is a common operation in which shape and function are
      intimately related, whether the procedure is cosmetic, functional, or combined in
      nature. There is currently no properly developed and validated patient-reported
      outcome measure (PROM) to evaluate both functional and cosmetic components of
      rhinoplasty. Objective: To develop, validate, and field test the Standardized
      Cosmesis and Health Nasal Outcomes Survey (SCHNOS) to evaluate both functional
      and cosmetic outcomes of rhinoplasty. Design, Setting, and Participants: Survey
      development study between October 2016 and April 2017 in a tertiary referral
      facial plastic and reconstructive surgery clinic. Preoperative and postoperative
      adult patients undergoing rhinoplasty, whether cosmetic or reconstructive, were
      included. A fifth group of adult nonrhinoplasty patients (facial cosmetic or
      reconstructive) were also included for the field test. Main Outcomes and
      Measures: Generated and reduced items, psychometric validation measures of the
      SCHNOS, and differences on scales between groups. Results: For survey
      development, a total of 18 patients and 5 experts were interviewed. Of these
      patients, 5 were male, and 13 were female. Their mean (SD) age was 38 (14.8)
      years (range, 20-64 years). Field testing included 191 patients (67% were women
      and the mean [SD] age was 41.5 [15.8] years). A total of 10 items were included
      after generation, cognitive interviews, and item reduction. The 10 items
      represent 2 domains: nasal obstruction (first 4 items) and nasal cosmesis (last 6
      items). For both domains, Cronbach alpha was excellent: 0.94 (95% CI, 0.92-0.95)
      for obstruction and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.93-0.95) for cosmesis. Exploratory factor
      analysis using scree plots for each domain showed that the domains are
      unidimensional in nature with each domain evaluating what it is intended to
      assess (nasal obstruction and cosmesis). The factor loading estimates were high
      for all the items, varying from 0.74 to 0.92. Kruskal-Wallis testing showed a
      significance level of P < .001 when evaluating the difference between groups
      (preoperative cosmetic, postoperative cosmetic, preoperative functional,
      postoperative functional, and nonrhinoplasty) for all individual questions,
      composite scores, and Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) score.
      Correlations between the obstruction composite score and the NOSE scores were r =
      0.943 (P < .001), which is very strong. The obstruction and cosmesis composite
      scores were only weakly correlated (r = 0.388; P < .001). Conclusions and
      Relevance: We have developed and validated a new PROM to evaluate both functional
      and cosmetic rhinoplasty patients. The domains of obstruction and cosmesis were
      found to be internally consistent and unidimensional. The SCHNOS provides a
      short, validated questionnaire that we recommend for use in all functional or
      cosmetic rhinoplasty patients. Level of Evidence: N/A.

PMID- 28880989
TI  - Blepharitis With Facial Numbness and Ocular Pain.

PMID- 28880990
TI  - Research Integrity, Academic Promotion, and Attribution of Authorship and
      Nonauthor Contributions.

PMID- 28880991
TI  - A Comparison of Alkaline Water and Mediterranean Diet vs Proton Pump Inhibition
      for Treatment of Laryngopharyngeal Reflux.
AB  - Importance: Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is a common disorder with protean
      manifestations in the head and neck. In this retrospective study, we report the
      efficacy of a wholly dietary approach using alkaline water, a plant-based,
      Mediterranean-style diet, and standard reflux precautions compared with that of
      the traditional treatment approach of proton pump inhibition (PPI) and standard
      reflux precautions. Objective: To determine whether treatment with a diet-based
      approach with standard reflux precautions alone can improve symptoms of LPR
      compared with treatment with PPI and standard reflux precautions. Design,
      Setting, and Participants: This was a retrospective medical chart review of 2
      treatment cohorts. From 2010 to 2012, 85 patients with LPR that were treated with
      PPI and standard reflux precautions (PS) were identified. From 2013 to 2015, 99
      patients treated with alkaline water (pH >8.0), 90% plant-based, Mediterranean
      style diet, and standard reflux precautions (AMS) were identified. The outcome
      was based on change in Reflux Symptom Index (RSI). Main Outcomes and Measures:
      Recorded change in the RSI after 6 weeks of treatment. Results: Of the 184
      patients identified in the PS and AMS cohorts, the median age of participants in
      each cohort was 60 years (95% CI, 18-82) and 57 years (95% CI, 18-93),
      respectively (47 [56.3%] and 61 [61.7%] were women, respectively). The percentage
      of patients achieving a clinically meaningful (>=6 points) reduction in RSI was
      54.1% in PS-treated patients and 62.6% in AMS-treated patients (difference
      between the groups, 8.05; 95% CI, -5.74 to 22.76). The mean reduction in RSI was
      27.2% for the PS group and 39.8% in the AMS group (difference, 12.10; 95% CI,
      1.53 to 22.68). Conclusions and Relevance: Our data suggest that the effect of
      PPI on the RSI based on proportion reaching a 6-point reduction in RSI is not
      significantly better than that of alkaline water, a plant-based, Mediterranean
      style diet, and standard reflux precautions, although the difference in the 2
      treatments could be clinically meaningful in favor of the dietary approach. The
      percent reduction in RSI was significantly greater with the dietary approach.
      Because the relationship between percent change and response to treatment has not
      been studied, the clinical significance of this difference requires further
      study. Nevertheless, this study suggests that a plant-based diet and alkaline
      water should be considered in the treatment of LPR. This approach may effectively
      improve symptoms and could avoid the costs and adverse effects of pharmacological
      intervention as well as afford the additional health benefits associated with a
      healthy, plant-based diet.

PMID- 28880993
TI  - Trends in dental caries rates over 45 years (1971-2016) among schoolchildren in
      Florianopolis, southern Brazil.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to estimate the prevalence and severity of
      dental caries in schoolchildren from Florianopolis, southern Brazil, in 2016, as
      well as to compare these findings with data obtained from six previous studies
      carried out in the same school since 1971. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was
      conducted with 133 schoolchildren, 12 and 13 years of age. Clinical data were
      collected by three previously calibrated examiners, according to the 2013 World
      Health Organization diagnostic criteria, in order to estimate the mean count of
      decayed, missing and filled teeth/surfaces (DMFT/DMFS indexes) and the
      Significant Caries Index (SiC). RESULTS: The study response rate was 87.2% (n =
      116), and the prevalence of dental caries decreased from 98.0% (95% CI: 96.0
      100.0) in 1971 to 39.6% (95% CI 30.7-49.2) in 2016. The mean DMFT index fell from
      9.2 in 1971 to 0.9 in 2016, while the DMFS index ranged from 2.0 (95% CI: 1.2
      2.8) in 2009 to 1.5 (95% CI: 1.0-1.9) in 2016. The SiC index, which was 3.4 (95%
      CI: 3.0-3.8) in 2002, reached 2.5 (95% CI: 2.0-2.9) in 2016. CONCLUSION: Over the
      45 years of monitoring, a significant decline in rates of dental caries has been
      observed. However, the SiC index suggests that dental caries lesions are
      unequally distributed in the study sample, with one-third of the schoolchildren
      showing a significantly higher mean DMFT score compared with the entire sample.

PMID- 28880992
TI  - Innate lymphoid cells at the interface between obesity and asthma.
AB  - Obesity and asthma prevalence has dramatically and concomitantly increased over
      the last 25 years, and many epidemiological studies have highlighted obesity as
      an important risk factor for asthma. Although many studies have been performed,
      the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Innate mechanisms have been
      involved in both diseases, in particular through the recently described innate
      lymphoid cells (ILCs). ILCs are subdivided into three groups that are defined by
      their cytokine production and by their master transcription factor expression, in
      sharp correlation with their T helper counterparts. However, unlike T helper
      cells, ILCs do not express antigen-specific receptors, but respond to damage
      induced signals. ILCs have been found in target tissues of both diseases, and
      data have implicated these cells in the pathogenesis of both diseases. In
      particular group 2 ILCs (ILC2) are activated in both the adipose and lung tissues
      under the effect of interleukin-33 and interleukin-25 expression. However,
      counter-intuitively to the well-known association between obesity and asthma,
      ILC2 are beneficial for obesity but deleterious for asthma. This review will
      examine the roles of ILCs in each disease and recent data highlighting ILCs as a
      putative link between obesity and asthma.

PMID- 28880994
TI  - Live long and prosper: plant-soil feedback, lifespan, and landscape abundance
      covary.
AB  - Plant soil feedbacks (PSFs) are thought to be important to plant growth and
      species coexistence, but most support for these hypotheses is derived from short
      term greenhouse experiments. Here we use a seven-year, common garden experiment
      to measure PSFs for seven native and six nonnative species common to the western
      United States. We use these long-term, field-based estimates to test correlations
      between PSF and plant landscape abundance, species origin, functional type, and
      lifespan. To assess potential PSF mechanisms, we also measured soil microbial
      community composition, root biomass, nitrogen cycling, bulk density, penetration
      resistance, and shear strength. Plant abundance on the landscape and plant
      lifespan were positively correlated with PSFs, though this effect was due to the
      relationships for native plants. PSFs were correlated with indices of soil
      microbial community composition. Soil nutrient and physical traits and root
      biomass differed among species but were not correlated with PSF. While results
      must be taken with caution because only 13 species were examined, these species
      represent most of the dominant plant species in the system. Results suggest that
      native plant abundance is associated with the ability of long-lived plants to
      create positive plant-soil microbe interactions, while short-lived nonnative
      plants maintain dominance by avoiding soil-borne antagonists, increasing nitrogen
      cycling and dedicating resources to aboveground growth and reproduction rather
      than to belowground growth. Broadly, results suggest that PSFs are correlated
      with a suite of traits that determine plant abundance.

PMID- 28880995
TI  - Vitamin A supplements for reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Strategies to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of the
      human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) include lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART)
      for HIV-positive women, exclusive breastfeeding from birth for six weeks plus
      nevirapine or replacement feeding plus nevirapine from birth for four to six
      weeks, elective Caesarean section delivery, and avoiding giving children chewed
      food. In some settings, these interventions may not be practical, feasible, or
      affordable. Simple, inexpensive, and effective interventions (that could
      potentially be implemented even in the absence of prenatal HIV testing
      programmes) would be valuable. Vitamin A, which plays a role in immune function,
      is one low-cost intervention that has been suggested in such settings.
      OBJECTIVES: To summarize the effects of giving vitamin A supplements to HIV
      positive women during pregnancy and after delivery. SEARCH METHODS: We searched
      the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed, Embase, and
      the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
      (WHO ICTRP) up to 25 August 2017, and checked the reference lists of relevant
      articles for eligible studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomized
      controlled trials conducted in any setting that compared vitamin A supplements to
      placebo or no intervention among HIV-positive women during pregnancy or after
      delivery, or both. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: At least two review authors
      independently assessed study eligibility and extracted data. We expressed study
      results as risk ratios (RR) or mean differences (MD) as appropriate, with their
      95% confidence intervals (CI), and conducted random-effects meta-analyses. This
      is an update of a review last published in 2011. MAIN RESULTS: Five trials met
      the inclusion criteria. These were conducted in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania,
      and Zimbabwe between 1995 and 2005 and none of the participants received ART.
      Women allocated to intervention arms received vitamin A supplements at a variety
      of doses (daily during pregnancy; a single dose immediately after delivery, or
      daily doses during pregnancy plus a single dose after delivery). Women allocated
      to comparison arms received identical placebo (6601 women, 4 trials) or no
      intervention (697 women, 1 trial). Four trials (with 6995 women) had low risk of
      bias and one trial (with 303 women) had high risk of attrition bias.The trials
      show that giving vitamin A supplements to HIV-positive women during pregnancy,
      the immediate postpartum period, or both, probably has little or no effect on
      mother-to-child transmission of HIV (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.26; 4428 women, 5
      trials, moderate certainty evidence) and may have little or no effect on child
      death by two years of age (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.22; 3883 women, 3 trials,
      low certainty evidence). However, giving vitamin A supplements during pregnancy
      may increase the mean birthweight (MD 34.12 g, 95% CI -12.79 to 81.02; 2181
      women, 3 trials, low certainty evidence) and probably reduces the incidence of
      low birthweight (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.97; 1819 women, 3 trials, moderate
      certainty evidence); but we do not know whether vitamin A supplements affect the
      risk of preterm delivery (1577 women, 2 trials), stillbirth (2335 women, 3
      trials), or maternal death (1267 women, 2 trials). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:
      Antepartum or postpartum vitamin A supplementation, or both, probably has little
      or no effect on mother-to-child transmission of HIV in women living with HIV
      infection and not on antiretroviral drugs. The intervention has largely been
      superseded by ART which is widely available and effective in preventing vertical
      transmission.

PMID- 28880996
TI  - Dravet syndrome and its mimics: Beyond SCN1A.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Dravet syndrome (DS) is a severe developmental and epileptic
      encephalopathy characterized by the onset of prolonged febrile and afebrile
      seizures in infancy, and evolving to drug-resistant epilepsy with accompanying
      cognitive, behavioral, and motor impairment. Most cases are now known to be
      caused by pathogenic variants in the sodium channel gene SCN1A, but several other
      genes have also been implicated. This review examines current understanding of
      the role of non-SCN1A genes in DS, and what is known about phenotypic
      similarities and differences. We discuss whether these are best thought of as
      minority causes of DS, or as similar but distinct conditions. METHODS: Based on a
      review of literature, a list of genes linked to DS was compiled and PubMed was
      searched for reports of DS-like phenotypes arising from variants in each. Online
      Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) was used to identify further reports relevant
      to each gene. RESULTS: Genes that have been reported to cause DS-like phenotypes
      include SCN2A, SCN8A, SCN9A, SCN1B, PCDH19, GABRA1, GABRG2, STXBP1, HCN1, CHD2,
      and KCNA2. Many of these genes, however, appear to be associated with their own,
      different, clinical picture. Other candidate genes for DS have been reported, but
      there is currently an insufficient body of literature to support their causative
      role. SIGNIFICANCE: Although most cases of DS arise from SCN1A variants, numerous
      other genes cause encephalopathies that are clinically similar. Increasingly, a
      tendency is noted to define newly described epileptic disorders primarily in
      genetic terms, with clinical features being linked to genotypes. As genetic
      diagnosis becomes more readily available, its potential to guide pathophysiologic
      understanding and therapeutic strategy cannot be ignored. Clinical assessment
      remains essential; the challenge now is to develop a gene-based taxonomy that
      complements traditional syndromic classifications, allowing elements of both to
      inform new approaches to treatment.

PMID- 28880997
TI  - The role of the miR-148/-152 family in physiology and disease.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenously encoded ~22 nt small non-coding RNAs. They
      function as key players of many cellular processes by base pairing with target
      mRNAs and thereby impairing gene expression at the post-transcriptional level.
      Recent findings demonstrate a critical role of many miRNAs in immune cell
      differentiation and immune responses, which is also associated with the
      development and progression of many tumor and non-tumor diseases. Here we review
      the multifaceted miRNA-148/-152 family members consisting of miR-148a, miR-148b
      and miR-152. Next to regulation mechanisms that control the expression of this
      miRNA family, we will focus on (i) the role of miR-148a in regulating B and T
      lymphocyte function and its role in associated diseases and (ii) the importance
      of miR-148/-152 family members for cancer initiation, tumor growth and metastasis
      formation. In addition, this review aims to highlight some selected targets of
      the miRNA-148/-152 family members, which are involved in the biology of cancer
      and maintenance of epigenetic patterns. In conclusion, members of the miR-148/
      152 family might represent prognostic markers and/or potential therapeutic
      targets for treatment of autoimmune disorders, chronic inflammatory diseases and
      multiple types of cancer.

PMID- 28880998
TI  - Impaired bone and muscle development in young people treated with antiepileptic
      drugs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are associated with reduced bone density,
      balance impairment, and increased fracture risk in adults. However, pediatric
      data are limited. Therefore, we aimed to examine bone, muscle, and balance
      outcomes in young patients taking AEDs. METHODS: We undertook a case-control
      study utilizing an AED exposure-discordant matched-pair approach. Subjects were
      aged 5-18 years with at least 12 months of AED exposure. Pairs were twins,
      nontwin siblings and first cousins, sex- and age-matched (to within 2 years),
      allowing for greater power than with unrelated control subjects. Dual energy x
      ray absorptiometry (DXA), peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), and
      muscle force/balance were tested, with questionnaires were administered for bone
      health and epilepsy details. RESULTS: Twenty-three pairs were recruited, (median
      age 12.9 years [subjects] and 13.5 years [controls])-7 twin, 14 sibling, and 2
      cousin pairs. Those taking AEDs had an increased prevalence of fractures (15
      fractures in 8 subjects, compared with 4 fractures in 3 controls, p < 0.01).
      Trabecular volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) measured by pQCT at the 4% site
      (tibia) was reduced by 14% (p = 0.03) in subjects. Subjects exerted a decreased
      maximum force compared to body weight (Fmax total/g) at the tibia. There were no
      differences seen in either bone mineral parameters measured by DXA or balance
      measures. SIGNIFICANCE: Young people taking AEDs reported more fractures and had
      reductions in tibial vBMD and lower limb muscle force compared to their matched
      controls. These findings suggest that further exploration of bone health issues
      of young patients on AED therapy is required. Longitudinal studies are required
      to confirm these changes in the muscle-bone unit and to further explore the
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28880999
TI  - Stereo-EEG: Diagnostic and therapeutic tool for periventricular nodular
      heterotopia epilepsies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Periventricular nodular heterotopias (PNHs) are malformations of
      cortical development related to neuronal migration disorders, frequently
      associated with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). Stereo-electroencephalography
      (SEEG) is considered a very effective step of the presurgical evaluation,
      providing the recognition of the epileptogenic zone (EZ). At the same time, via
      the intracerebral electrodes it is possible to perform radiofrequency
      thermocoagulation (SEEG-guided RF-TC) with the aim of ablating and/or disrupting
      the EZ. The purpose of this study was to evaluate both the relationships between
      PNH and the EZ, and the efficacy of SEEG-guided RF-TC. METHODS: Twenty patients
      with DRE related to PNHs were studied. Inclusion criteria were the following: (1)
      patients with epilepsy and PNHs (unilateral or bilateral, single or multiple
      nodules) diagnosed on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); (2) SEEG recordings
      available as part of the presurgical investigations, with at least one
      intracerebral electrode inside the heterotopia; (3) complete surgical workup with
      SEEG-guided RF-TC and/or with traditional neurosurgery, with a follow-up of at
      least 12 months. RESULTS: Complex and heterogenic epileptic networks were found
      in these patients. SEEG-guided RF-TC both into the nodules and/or the cortex was
      efficacious in the 76% of patients. Single or multiple, unilateral or bilateral
      PNHs are the most suitable for this procedure, whereas patients with PNHs
      associated with complex cortical malformations obtained excellent outcome only
      with traditional resective surgery. SIGNIFICANCE: Each patient had a specific
      epileptogenic network, independent from the number, size, or location of nodules
      and from the cortical malformation associated with. SEEG-guided RF-TC appears as
      a new and very effective diagnostic and therapeutic approach for DRE related to
      PNHs.

PMID- 28881001
TI  - Facial emotion recognition and eye movement behaviour in conduct disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conduct Disorder (CD) is associated with impairments in facial
      emotion recognition. However, it is unclear whether such deficits are explained
      by a failure to attend to emotionally informative face regions, such as the eyes,
      or by problems in the appraisal of emotional cues. METHOD: Male and female
      adolescents with CD and varying levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and age
      and sex-matched typically developing (TD) controls (aged 13-18) categorised the
      emotion of dynamic and morphed static faces. Concurrent eye tracking was used to
      relate categorisation performance to participants' allocation of overt attention.
      RESULTS: Adolescents with CD were worse at emotion recognition than TD controls,
      with deficits observed across static and dynamic expressions. In addition, the CD
      group fixated less on the eyes when viewing fearful and sad expressions. Across
      all participants, higher levels of CU traits were associated with fear
      recognition deficits and reduced attention to the eyes of surprised faces. Within
      the CD group, however, higher CU traits were associated with better fear
      recognition. Overall, males were worse at recognising emotions than females and
      displayed a reduced tendency to fixate the eyes. DISCUSSION: Adolescents with CD,
      and particularly males, showed deficits in emotion recognition and fixated less
      on the eyes when viewing emotional faces. Individual differences in fixation
      behaviour predicted modest variations in emotion categorisation. However, group
      differences in fixation were small and did not explain the much larger group
      differences in categorisation performance, suggesting that CD-related deficits in
      emotion recognition were not mediated by abnormal fixation patterns.

PMID- 28881000
TI  - How to survive the medical misinformation mess.
AB  - Most physicians and other healthcare professionals are unaware of the
      pervasiveness of poor quality clinical evidence that contributes considerably to
      overuse, underuse, avoidable adverse events, missed opportunities for right care
      and wasted healthcare resources. The Medical Misinformation Mess comprises four
      key problems. First, much published medical research is not reliable or is of
      uncertain reliability, offers no benefit to patients, or is not useful to
      decision makers. Second, most healthcare professionals are not aware of this
      problem. Third, they also lack the skills necessary to evaluate the reliability
      and usefulness of medical evidence. Finally, patients and families frequently
      lack relevant, accurate medical evidence and skilled guidance at the time of
      medical decision-making. Increasing the reliability of available, published
      evidence may not be an imminently reachable goal. Therefore, efforts should focus
      on making healthcare professionals, more sensitive to the limitations of the
      evidence, training them to do critical appraisal, and enhancing their
      communication skills so that they can effectively summarize and discuss medical
      evidence with patients to improve decision-making. Similar efforts may need to
      target also patients, journalists, policy makers, the lay public and other
      healthcare stakeholders.

PMID- 28881002
TI  - Clinician-targeted interventions to influence antibiotic prescribing behaviour
      for acute respiratory infections in primary care: an overview of systematic
      reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide health threat. Interventions
      that reduce antibiotic prescribing by clinicians are expected to reduce
      antibiotic resistance. Disparate interventions to change antibiotic prescribing
      behaviour for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) have been trialled and meta
      analysed, but not yet synthesised in an overview. This overview synthesises
      evidence from systematic reviews, rather than individual trials. OBJECTIVES: To
      systematically review the existing evidence from systematic reviews on the
      effects of interventions aimed at influencing clinician antibiotic prescribing
      behaviour for ARIs in primary care. METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Database of
      Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), MEDLINE,
      Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Science Citation Index to June 2016. We also
      searched the reference lists of all included reviews. We ran a pre-publication
      search in May 2017 and placed additional studies in 'awaiting classification'.We
      included both Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews of randomised controlled trials
      evaluating the effect of any clinician-focussed intervention on antibiotic
      prescribing behaviour in primary care. Two overview authors independently
      extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of included reviews using
      the ROBIS tool, with disagreements reached by consensus or by discussion with a
      third overview author. We used the GRADE system to assess the quality of evidence
      in included reviews. The results are presented as a narrative overview. MAIN
      RESULTS: We included eight reviews in this overview: five Cochrane Reviews (33
      included trials) and three non-Cochrane reviews (11 included trials). Three
      reviews (all Cochrane Reviews) scored low risk across all the ROBIS domains in
      Phase 2 and low risk of bias overall. The remaining five reviews scored high risk
      on Domain 4 of Phase 2 because the 'Risk of bias' assessment had not been
      specifically considered and discussed in the review Results and Conclusions. The
      trials included in the reviews varied in both size and risk of bias.
      Interventions were compared to usual care.Moderate-quality evidence indicated
      that C-reactive protein (CRP) point-of-care testing (risk ratio (RR) 0.78, 95%
      confidence interval (CI) 0.66 to 0.92, 3284 participants, 6 trials), shared
      decision making (odds ratio (OR) 0.44, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.75, 3274 participants, 3
      trials; RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.84, 4623 participants, 2 trials; risk
      difference -18.44, 95% CI -27.24 to -9.65, 481,807 participants, 4 trials), and
      procalcitonin-guided management (adjusted OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.14, 1008
      participants, 2 trials) probably reduce antibiotic prescribing in general
      practice. We found moderate-quality evidence that procalcitonin-guided management
      probably reduces antibiotic prescribing in emergency departments (adjusted OR
      0.34, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.43, 2605 participants, 7 trials). The overall effect of
      these interventions was small (few achieving greater than 50% reduction in
      antibiotic prescribing, most about a quarter or less), but likely to be
      clinically important.Compared to usual care, shared decision making probably
      makes little or no difference to reconsultation for the same illness (RR 0.87,
      95% CI 0.74 to 1.03, 1860 participants, 4 trials, moderate-quality evidence), and
      may make little or no difference to patient satisfaction (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.57 to
      1.30, 1110 participants, 2 trials, low-quality evidence). Similarly, CRP testing
      probably has little or no effect on patient satisfaction (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.57 to
      1.08, 689 participants, 2 trials, moderate-quality evidence) or reconsultation
      (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.27, 5132 participants, 4 trials, moderate-quality
      evidence). Procalcitonin-guided management probably results in little or no
      difference in treatment failure in general practice compared to normal care
      (adjusted OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.24, 1008 participants, 2 trials, moderate
      quality evidence), however it probably reduces treatment failure in the emergency
      department compared to usual care (adjusted OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.95, 2605
      participants, 7 trials, moderate-quality evidence).The quality of evidence for
      interventions focused on clinician educational materials and decision support in
      reducing antibiotic prescribing in general practice was either low or very low
      (no pooled result reported) and trial results were highly heterogeneous,
      therefore we were unable draw conclusions about the effects of these
      interventions. The use of rapid viral diagnostics in emergency departments may
      have little or no effect on antibiotic prescribing (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.22,
      891 participants, 3 trials, low-quality evidence) and may result in little to no
      difference in reconsultation (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.25, 200 participants, 1
      trial, low-quality evidence).None of the trials in the included reviews reported
      on management costs for the treatment of an ARI or any associated complications.
      AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence that CRP testing, shared decision making,
      and procalcitonin-guided management reduce antibiotic prescribing for patients
      with ARIs in primary care. These interventions may therefore reduce overall
      antibiotic consumption and consequently antibiotic resistance. There do not
      appear to be negative effects of these interventions on the outcomes of patient
      satisfaction and reconsultation, although there was limited measurement of these
      outcomes in the trials. This should be rectified in future trials.We could gather
      no information about the costs of management, and this along with the paucity of
      measurements meant that it was difficult to weigh the benefits and costs of
      implementing these interventions in practice.Most of this research was undertaken
      in high-income countries, and it may not generalise to other settings. The
      quality of evidence for the interventions of educational materials and tools for
      patients and clinicians was either low or very low, which prevented us from
      drawing any conclusions. High-quality trials are needed to further investigate
      these interventions.

PMID- 28881003
TI  - Drivers of synchrony of acorn production in the valley oak (Quercus lobata) at
      two spatial scales.
AB  - We investigated spatial synchrony of acorn production by valley oaks (Quercus
      lobata) among individual trees at the within-population, local level and at the
      among-population, statewide level spanning the geographic range of the species.
      At the local level, the main drivers of spatial synchrony were water availability
      and flowering phenology of individual trees, while proximity, temperature
      differences between trees, and genetic similarity failed to explain a significant
      proportion of variance in spatial synchrony. At the statewide level, annual
      rainfall was the primary driver, while proximity was significant by itself but
      not when controlling for rainfall; genetic similarity was again not significant.
      These results support the hypothesis that environmental factors, the Moran
      effect, are key drivers of spatial synchrony in acorn production at both small
      and large geographic scales. The specific environmental factors differed
      depending on the geographic scale, but were in both cases related to water
      availability. In addition, flowering phenology, potentially affecting either
      density-independent pollination failure (the pollination Moran effect) or density
      dependent pollination efficiency (pollen coupling), plays a key role in driving
      spatial synchrony at the local geographic scale.

PMID- 28881004
TI  - #colorectalsurgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of social media platforms among healthcare professionals is
      increasing. A Twitter social media campaign promoting the hashtag
      #colorectalsurgery was launched with the aim of providing a specialty-specific
      forum to collate discussions and science relevant to an engaged, global community
      of coloproctologists. This article reviews initial experiences of the early
      adoption, engagement and utilization of this pilot initiative. METHODS: The
      hashtag #colorectalsurgery was promoted via the online microblogging service
      Twitter across a 180-day interval. Data on all tweets containing the
      #colorectalsurgery hashtag were analysed using online analytical tools. Data
      included total number of tweets, number of views, and user engagement since
      registration and launch of the campaign. Content of tweet and user demographic
      analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: The number of tweets using #colorectalsurgery
      grew rapidly following the launch on 24 April 2016; #colorectalsurgery was used
      in 15 708 tweets, which resulted in 65 398 696 impressions and involved 1863
      individual Twitter accounts. Increased volumes of #colorectalsurgery tweets were
      noted in association with the timing of three major international colorectal
      surgical conferences, and geographical trends were noted. Some 88.4 per cent of
      all posts were by male users. The top 25 users by volume of #colorectalsurgery
      tweets had considerable influence and posted 8023 tweets (51.1 per cent).
      CONCLUSION: Online global communities formed via healthcare-related hashtags,
      such as #colorectalsurgery, unify social media posts, scientists, surgeons and
      authors who have an interest in coloproctology. Furthermore, they facilitate
      greater connectivity among geographically separate users.

PMID- 28881006
TI  - Simple aspiration versus intercostal tube drainage for primary spontaneous
      pneumothorax in adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For management of pneumothorax that occurs without underlying lung
      disease, also referred to as primary spontaneous pneumothorax, simple aspiration
      is technically easier to perform than intercostal tube drainage. In this
      systematic review, we seek to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of simple
      aspiration versus intercostal tube drainage for management of primary spontaneous
      pneumothorax. This review was first published in 2007 and was updated in 2017.
      OBJECTIVES: To compare the clinical efficacy and safety of simple aspiration
      versus intercostal tube drainage for management of primary spontaneous
      pneumothorax. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2017, Issue 1) in the Cochrane Library; MEDLINE (1966
      to January 2017); and Embase (1980 to January 2017). We searched the World Health
      Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry for ongoing trials
      (January 2017). We checked the reference lists of included trials and contacted
      trial authors. We imposed no language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: We
      included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adults 18 years of age and older
      with primary spontaneous pneumothorax that compared simple aspiration versus
      intercostal tube drainage. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors
      independently selected studies for inclusion, assessed trial quality, and
      extracted data. We combined studies using the random-effects model. MAIN RESULTS:
      Of 2332 publications obtained through the search strategy, seven studies met the
      inclusion criteria; one study was ongoing and six studies of 435 participants
      were eligible for inclusion in the updated review. Data show a significant
      difference in immediate success rates of procedures favouring tube drainage over
      simple aspiration for management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (risk ratio
      (RR) 0.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.69 to 0.89; 435 participants, 6
      studies; moderate-quality evidence). Duration of hospitalization however was
      significantly less for patients treated by simple aspiration (mean difference
      (MD) -1.66, 95% CI -2.28 to -1.04; 387 participants, 5 studies; moderate-quality
      evidence). A narrative synthesis of evidence revealed that simple aspiration led
      to fewer adverse events (245 participants, 3 studies; low-quality evidence), but
      data suggest no differences between groups in terms of one-year success rate (RR
      1.07, 95% CI 0.96 to 1.18; 318 participants, 4 studies; moderate-quality
      evidence), hospitalization rate (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.25 to 1.47; 245 participants,
      3 studies; very low-quality evidence), and patient satisfaction (median between
      group difference of 0.5 on a scale from 1 to 10; 48 participants, 1 study; low
      quality evidence). No studies provided data on cost-effectiveness. AUTHORS'
      CONCLUSIONS: Available trials showed low to moderate-quality evidence that
      intercostal tube drainage produced higher rates of immediate success, while
      simple aspiration resulted in a shorter duration of hospitalization. Although
      adverse events were reported more commonly for patients treated with tube
      drainage, the low quality of the evidence warrants caution in interpreting these
      findings. Similarly, although this review observed no differences between groups
      when early failure rate, one-year success rate, or hospital admission rate was
      evaluated, this too needs to be put into the perspective of the quality of
      evidence, specifically, for evidence of very low and low quality for
      hospitalization rate and patient satisfaction, respectively. Future adequately
      powered research is needed to strengthen the evidence presented in this review.

PMID- 28881005
TI  - Relationship between family history of type 2 diabetes and serum FGF21.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Determining predictive markers for the development of type 2 diabetes
      (T2D), particularly in young individuals, offers immense potential benefits in
      preventative medicine. Previous research examining serum fibroblast growth factor
      21 (FGF21) in humans has revealed equivocal relationships with clinical markers
      of metabolic dysfunction. However, it is unknown to what extent, if any, first
      degree family history of T2D (mother or father of the participant diagnosed with
      T2D) level affects serum FGF21 levels. The aim of this study was to determine
      whether in healthy individuals with FH+ (n = 18) and without FH- (n = 17) a
      family history of T2D affects serum FGF21. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fasting serum
      and clinical, metabolic and anthropometric measures were determined using a cross
      sectional design. RESULTS: Differences between groups for FGF21 were not
      significant (FH+ = 266 pg/mL +/- 51.4, FH = 180 pg/mL +/- 29; Z = 0.97, P =
      0.33). Adiponectin values were lower in FH+ (8.81 MUg/mL +/- 2.14) compared to FH
      (10.65 MUg/mL +/- 1.44; F = 8.83, P = 0.01). Resistin was negatively correlated
      with FGF21 for all participants (r = -0.38, P = 0.03), but no other clinical,
      metabolic, or serum markers were predictive for serum FGF21 in FH+ or FH-.
      CONCLUSIONS: Serum FGF21 is not significantly different between FH+ and FH- in
      young, healthy individuals. Based upon the data of this pilot study, it is
      unclear whether serum FGF21 can be used as a stand-alone predictive marker for
      T2D in healthy subjects.

PMID- 28881007
TI  - Delayed antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Concerns exist regarding antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract
      infections (RTIs) owing to adverse reactions, cost, and antibacterial resistance.
      One proposed strategy to reduce antibiotic prescribing is to provide
      prescriptions, but to advise delay in antibiotic use with the expectation that
      symptoms will resolve first. This is an update of a Cochrane Review originally
      published in 2007, and updated in 2010 and 2013. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the
      effects on clinical outcomes, antibiotic use, antibiotic resistance, and patient
      satisfaction of advising a delayed prescription of antibiotics in respiratory
      tract infections. SEARCH METHODS: For this 2017 update we searched the Cochrane
      Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (the Cochrane Library, Issue 4,
      2017), which includes the Cochrane Acute Respiratory Infection Group's
      Specialised Register; Ovid MEDLINE (2013 to 25 May 2017); Ovid Embase (2013 to
      2017 Week 21); EBSCO CINAHL Plus (1984 to 25 May 2017); Web of Science (2013 to
      25 May 2017); WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (1 September
      2017); and ClinicalTrials.gov (1 September 2017). SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised
      controlled trials involving participants of all ages defined as having an RTI,
      where delayed antibiotics were compared to immediate antibiotics or no
      antibiotics. We defined a delayed antibiotic as advice to delay the filling of an
      antibiotic prescription by at least 48 hours. We considered all RTIs regardless
      of whether antibiotics were recommended or not. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We
      used standard Cochrane methodological procedures. Three review authors
      independently extracted and collated data. We assessed the risk of bias of all
      included trials. We contacted trial authors to obtain missing information. MAIN
      RESULTS: For this 2017 update we added one new trial involving 405 participants
      with uncomplicated acute respiratory infection. Overall, this review included 11
      studies with a total of 3555 participants. These 11 studies involved acute
      respiratory infections including acute otitis media (three studies),
      streptococcal pharyngitis (three studies), cough (two studies), sore throat (one
      study), common cold (one study), and a variety of RTIs (one study). Five studies
      involved only children, two only adults, and four included both adults and
      children. Six studies were conducted in a primary care setting, three in
      paediatric clinics, and two in emergency departments.Studies were well reported,
      and appeared to be of moderate quality. Randomisation was not adequately
      described in two trials. Four trials blinded the outcomes assessor, and three
      included blinding of participants and doctors. We conducted meta-analysis for
      antibiotic use and patient satisfaction.We found no differences among delayed,
      immediate, and no prescribed antibiotics for clinical outcomes in the three
      studies that recruited participants with cough. For the outcome of fever with
      sore throat, three of the five studies favoured immediate antibiotics, and two
      found no difference. For the outcome of pain related to sore throat, two studies
      favoured immediate antibiotics, and three found no difference. One study compared
      delayed antibiotics with no antibiotic for sore throat, and found no difference
      in clinical outcomes.Three studies included participants with acute otitis media.
      Of the two studies with an immediate antibiotic arm, one study found no
      difference for fever, and the other study favoured immediate antibiotics for pain
      and malaise severity on Day 3. One study including participants with acute otitis
      media compared delayed antibiotics with no antibiotics and found no difference
      for pain and fever on Day 3.Two studies recruited participants with common cold.
      Neither study found differences for clinical outcomes between delayed and
      immediate antibiotic groups. One study favoured delayed antibiotics over no
      antibiotics for pain, fever, and cough duration (moderate quality evidence for
      all clinical outcomes - GRADE assessment).There were either no differences for
      adverse effects or results favoured delayed antibiotics over immediate
      antibiotics (low quality evidence - to GRADE assessment) with no significant
      differences in complication rates. Delayed antibiotics resulted in a significant
      reduction in antibiotic use compared to immediate antibiotics prescription (odds
      ratio (OR) 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.03 to 0.05). However, a delayed
      antibiotic was more likely to result in reported antibiotic use than no
      antibiotics (OR 2.55, 95% CI 1.59 to 4.08) (moderate quality evidence - GRADE
      assessment).Patient satisfaction favoured delayed over no antibiotics (OR 1.49,
      95% CI 1.08 to 2.06). There was no significant difference in patient satisfaction
      between delayed antibiotics and immediate antibiotics (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.39 to
      1.10) (moderate quality evidence - GRADE assessment).None of the included studies
      evaluated antibiotic resistance. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: For many clinical
      outcomes, there were no differences between prescribing strategies. Symptoms for
      acute otitis media and sore throat were modestly improved by immediate
      antibiotics compared with delayed antibiotics. There were no differences in
      complication rates. Delaying prescribing did not result in significantly
      different levels of patient satisfaction compared with immediate provision of
      antibiotics (86% versus 91%) (moderate quality evidence). However, delay was
      favoured over no antibiotics (87% versus 82%). Delayed antibiotics achieved lower
      rates of antibiotic use compared to immediate antibiotics (31% versus 93%)
      (moderate quality evidence). The strategy of no antibiotics further reduced
      antibiotic use compared to delaying prescription for antibiotics (14% versus
      28%). Delayed antibiotics for people with acute respiratory infection reduced
      antibiotic use compared to immediate antibiotics, but was not shown to be
      different to no antibiotics in terms of symptom control and disease
      complications. Where clinicians feel it is safe not to prescribe antibiotics
      immediately for people with respiratory infections, no antibiotics with advice to
      return if symptoms do not resolve is likely to result in the least antibiotic use
      while maintaining similar patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes to delaying
      prescription of antibiotics. Where clinicians are not confident in using a no
      antibiotic strategy, a delayed antibiotics strategy may be an acceptable
      compromise in place of immediate prescribing to significantly reduce unnecessary
      antibiotic use for RTIs, and thereby reduce antibiotic resistance, while
      maintaining patient safety and satisfaction levels.Editorial note: As a living
      systematic review, this review is continually updated, incorporating relevant new
      evidence as it becomes available. Please refer to the Cochrane Database of
      Systematic Reviews for the current status of this review.

PMID- 28881009
TI  - Seeking a better landscape for therapy development in neuromuscular disorders.
AB  - Although the neuromuscular field has seen accelerated approval of a drug for
      Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and full approval of one for spinal muscular
      atrophy, these experiences have shown that objective data and an adequate level
      of effect are essential for drug approval and reimbursement. The appropriateness
      and validity of biomarkers and clinically meaningful endpoints and an
      understanding of disease progression rates all played essential roles in the
      levels of evidence for these drugs. Such tools are best developed through
      integration of clinical data. The siloing of clinical data for rare neuromuscular
      diseases represents a considerable barrier to achieving better care and novel
      therapies for patients living with neuromuscular diseases. We discuss a data
      sharing model implemented for DMD and urge cultural changes in the ways natural
      history and clinical trial data are collected and shared across all neuromuscular
      diseases in order to benefit the primary stakeholder, the patient. Muscle Nerve
      57: 16-19, 2018.

PMID- 28881008
TI  - Drivers of nitrogen transfer in stream food webs across continents.
AB  - Studies of trophic-level material and energy transfers are central to ecology.
      The use of isotopic tracers has now made it possible to measure trophic transfer
      efficiencies of important nutrients and to better understand how these materials
      move through food webs. We analyzed data from thirteen 15 N-ammonium tracer
      addition experiments to quantify N transfer from basal resources to animals in
      headwater streams with varying physical, chemical, and biological features. N
      transfer efficiencies from primary uptake compartments (PUCs; heterotrophic
      microorganisms and primary producers) to primary consumers was lower (mean 11.5%,
      range <1% to 43%) than N transfer efficiencies from primary consumers to
      predators (mean 80%, range 5% to >100%). Total N transferred (as a rate) was
      greater in streams with open compared to closed canopies and overall N transfer
      efficiency generally followed a similar pattern, although was not statistically
      significant. We used principal component analysis to condense a suite of site
      characteristics into two environmental components. Total N uptake rates among
      trophic levels were best predicted by the component that was correlated with
      latitude, DIN:SRP, GPP:ER, and percent canopy cover. N transfer efficiency did
      not respond consistently to environmental variables. Our results suggest that
      canopy cover influences N movement through stream food webs because light
      availability and primary production facilitate N transfer to higher trophic
      levels.

PMID- 28881010
TI  - Multiple source feedback for teaching fellows.

PMID- 28881011
TI  - Sarcolemmal excitability in the myotonic dystrophies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chloride conductance disturbances contribute to sarcolemmal
      dysfunction in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and type 2 (DM2). Studies using
      muscle velocity recovery cycles (MVRCs) suggest Na+ /K+ -adenosine triphosphatase
      activation becomes defective in advanced DM1. We used MVRCs to investigate muscle
      excitability in DM1 and DM2. METHODS: MVRCs were measured for patients with mild
      (n = 8) and advanced (n = 11) DM1, DM2 (n = 4), and normal controls (n = 30).
      RESULTS: Residual supernormality after multiple conditioning stimuli was
      increased in DM2 and advanced DM1. Advanced DM1 was distinguished by increases in
      muscle relative refractory period (MRRP) and reduced early supernormality as well
      as peak amplitude decrements for the first and last responses in train during
      repetitive stimulation. DISCUSSION: Prolongation of the MRRP indicates that
      depolarization of the resting muscle membrane potential occurs in advanced DM1,
      with possible implications for future therapeutic approaches. Muscle Nerve 57:
      595-602, 2018.

PMID- 28881012
TI  - Integrating residents with institutional quality improvement teams.

PMID- 28881013
TI  - Pencil graphite electrodes for improved electrochemical detection of oleuropein
      by the combination of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents and graphene oxide.
AB  - A novel methodology is presented for the enhanced electrochemical detection of
      oleuropein in complex plant matrices by Graphene Oxide Pencil Grahite Electrode
      (GOPGE) in combination with a buffer modified with a Natural Deep Eutectic
      Solvent, containing 10% (v/v) of Lactic acid, Glucose and H2 O (LGH). The
      electrochemical behavior of oleuropein in the modified-working buffer was
      examined using differential pulse voltammetry. The combination of both
      modifications, NADES modified buffer and nanomaterial modified electrode, LGH
      GOPGE, resulted on a signal enhancement of 5.3 times higher than the bare
      electrode with unmodified buffer. A calibration curve of oleuropein was performed
      between 0.10 to 37 MUM and a good linearity was obtained with a correlation
      coefficient of 0.989. Detection and quantification limits of the method were
      obtained as 30 and 102 nM, respectively. In addition, precision studies indicated
      that the voltammetric method was sufficiently repeatable, %RSD 0.01 and 3.16 (n =
      5) for potential and intensity, respectively. Finally, the proposed
      electrochemical sensor was successfully applied to the determination of
      oleuropein in an olive leaf extract prepared by ultrasound-assisted extraction.
      The results obtained with the proposed electrochemical sensor were compared with
      Capillary Zone Electrophoresis analysis with satisfactory results.

PMID- 28881014
TI  - Student driven production of high value online resources.

PMID- 28881015
TI  - Exposure to suicide in the family: Suicide risk and psychache in individuals who
      have lost a family member by suicide.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to compare a sample of Portuguese
      individuals exposed to suicide in their families with a control group, for
      lifetime suicidality. This study also evaluated the incremental value of
      psychache (i.e., extreme psychological pain) in determining suicide risk beyond
      the contribution associated with having lost a family member by suicide. METHOD:
      A total of 225 community adults participated. Two groups were defined: a group
      exposed to suicide (n = 53), and a control group (n = 172). RESULTS: Results
      demonstrated that groups did significantly differ on the total score of the
      Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), on the four individual SBQ-R
      items, and on psychache. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression analysis
      demonstrated that having lost a family member by suicide and the construct of
      psychache each provided a significant unique contribution to explaining variance
      in suicide risk. The interaction between group membership and psychache also
      provided a further enhancement to the statistical prediction of suicide risk.
      CONCLUSION: Findings are discussed with regard to their implications for clinical
      intervention and postvention.

PMID- 28881016
TI  - An adult with a rare form of congenital fiber type disproportion.

PMID- 28881018
TI  - Urinary incontinence in bitches under primary veterinary care in England:
      prevalence and risk factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To estimate prevalence and demographic risk factors for urinary
      incontinence in bitches under primary veterinary care in England. METHODS: The
      study population included all bitches within the VetCompass database from
      September 1, 2009 to July 7, 2013. Electronic patient records were searched for
      urinary incontinence cases and additional demographic and clinical information
      was extracted. RESULTS: Of 100,397 bitches attending 119 clinics in England, an
      estimated 3108 were diagnosed with urinary incontinence. The prevalence of
      urinary incontinence was 3.14% (95% confidence intervals: 2.97 to 3.33). Medical
      therapy was prescribed to 45.6% cases. Predisposed breeds included the Irish
      setter (odds ratio: 8.09; 95% confidence intervals: 3.15 to 20.80; P< 0.001) and
      Dobermann (odds ratio: 7.98; 95% confidence intervals: 4.38 to 14.54; P< 0.001).
      Increased odds of a diagnosis of urinary incontinence were associated with: (1)
      weight at or above the mean adult bodyweight for the breed (odds ratio: 1.31; 95%
      confidence intervals: 1.12 to 1.54; P< 0.001), (2) age 9 to 12 years (odds ratio:
      3.86; 95% confidence intervals: 2.86 to 5.20, P< 0.001), (3) neuter status (odds
      ratio: 2.23; 95% confidence intervals: 1.52 to 3.25, P< 0.001) and (4) being
      insured (odds ratio: 1.59; 95% confidence intervals: 1.34 to 1.88, P< 0.001).
      CLINICAL IMPACT: Clinical Impact: Urinary incontinence affects just over 3% of
      bitches overall but affects more than 15% of bitches in high-risk breeds
      including the Irish setter, Dobermann, bearded collie, rough collie and
      Dalmatian. These results provide an evidence base for clinicians to enhance
      clinical recommendations on neutering and weight control, especially in high-risk
      breeds.

PMID- 28881019
TI  - Scientific Poster Abstracts Selected for the 2017 Congress on Cardiovascular
      Disease Prevention, Sept. 15-17, 2017, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

PMID- 28881017
TI  - The body composition profile is associated with response to anti-TNF therapy in
      Crohn's disease and may offer an alternative dosing paradigm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)s form a major part of therapy in
      Crohn's disease and have a primary nonresponse rate of 10%-30% and a secondary
      loss of response rate of 5% per year. Myopenia is prevalent in Crohn's disease
      and is measured using body composition analysis tools. AIM: To test the
      hypothesis that body composition can predict outcomes of anti-TNF primary
      nonresponse and secondary loss of response. METHODS: Between January 2007 and
      June 2012, 106 anti-TNF naive patients underwent anti-TNF therapy for Crohn's
      disease with body composition parameters analysed using CT scans to estimate body
      fat-free mass. The outcome measures were primary nonresponse and secondary loss
      of response. COX-regression analysis was used with 3 year follow-up data.
      RESULTS: A total of 106 patients were included for analysis with 26 (24.5%)
      primary nonresponders and 29 (27.4%) with secondary loss of response to anti-TNF
      therapy. Sex-specific cut-offs for muscle and fat were ascertained by
      stratification analysis. On univariate analysis, primary nonresponse was
      associated with low albumin (OR 0.94; 0.88-0.99, P = .04) and presence of
      myopenia (OR 4.69; 1.83-12.01, P = .001) when taking into account patient's
      medical therapy, severity of disease and body composition. On multivariate
      analysis, presence of myopenia was associated with primary nonresponse (OR 2.93;
      1.28-6.71, P = .01). Immunomodulator therapy was associated with decreased
      secondary loss of response (OR 0.48; 0.23-0.98, P = .04). BMI was poorly
      correlated with lean body mass (r2 = 0.15, P = .54). CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort
      study, body composition profiles did not correlate well with BMI. Myopenia was
      associated with primary nonresponse with potential implications for dosing and
      serves as an explanation for pharmacokinetic failure.

PMID- 28881020
TI  - Comments on assessment of polarization dependence of body shadow effect on
      dosimetry measurements in 2.4GHz band.

PMID- 28881022
TI  - Getting help from Frank and Starling (and Coats and Bowditch) to augment blood
      flow in heat-stressed older adults.

PMID- 28881021
TI  - Convergence of fMRI and ERP measures of emotional face processing in combat
      exposed U. S. military veterans.
AB  - The late positive potential (LPP) and fMRI blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD)
      activity can provide complementary measures of the processing of affective and
      social stimuli. Separate lines of research using these measures have often
      employed the same stimuli, paradigms, and samples; however, there remains
      relatively little understanding of the way in which individual differences in one
      of these measures relates to the other, and all prior research has been conducted
      in psychiatrically healthy samples and using emotional scenes (not faces). Here,
      32 combat-exposed U. S. military veterans with varying levels of posttraumatic
      stress symptomatology viewed affective social stimuli (angry, fearful, and happy
      faces) and geometric shapes during separate EEG and fMRI BOLD recordings.
      Temporospatial principal component analysis was used to quantify the face
      elicited LPP in a data-driven manner, prior to conducting whole-brain
      correlations between resulting positivities and fMRI BOLD elicited by faces.
      Participants with larger positivities to fearful faces (> shapes) showed
      increased activation in the amygdala; larger positivities to angry and happy
      faces (> shapes) were associated with increased BOLD activation in the posterior
      fusiform gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus, respectively. Across all face types,
      larger positivities were associated with increased activation in the fusiform
      "face" area. Correlations using mean area amplitude LPPs showed an association
      with increased activation in the anterior insula for angry faces (> shapes). LPP
      BOLD associations were not moderated by PTSD. Findings provide the first evidence
      of correspondence between face-elicited LPP and BOLD activation across a range of
      (normal to disordered) psychiatric health.

PMID- 28881023
TI  - Double-outlet left ventricle with a bicuspid pulmonary valve and aortic
      coarctation.
AB  - A double-outlet left ventricle (DOLV) is a rare congenital cardiac malformation.
      Here, we describe a case of DOLV with bicuspid pulmonary valve, aortic
      coarctation, and a subpulmonary ventricular septal defect in which both
      ventricles were well developed. The anatomic features were observed with
      echocardiography, and the diagnosis was confirmed at surgery. Many variations of
      DOLV have been described. The features of our case expand the spectrum of this
      entity and may provide new insight into its complex anatomy.

PMID- 28881024
TI  - Responses to comments on assessment of polarization dependence of body shadow
      effect on dosimetry measurements in the 2.4 GHz band.

PMID- 28881025
TI  - Reprioritising transfusion medicine education for graduating medical students.

PMID- 28881026
TI  - Acing education: pilot curriculum on adverse childhood experiences.

PMID- 28881027
TI  - Meeting in difference: Revisiting the therapeutic relationship based on patients'
      and therapists' experiences in several clinical contexts.
AB  - Despite decades of research on the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic
      alliance and their connection with therapeutic outcomes (Horvath, Del Re,
      Fluckiger, & Symonds, 2011), only a handful of studies have examined how they are
      experienced by the therapy participants. The aim of the present study is to
      describe the therapeutic relationship from the subjective perspective of the
      patients and therapists involved in 3 clinical cases: (a) a 7-year-old child
      diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, (b) a 29-year old woman
      diagnosed with a personality disorder, and (c) a 22-year-old man diagnosed with
      schizophrenia. We conducted semistructured interviews with patients and
      therapists that were later analyzed following grounded theory coding procedures
      (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). The results obtained reveal that the constitutive
      elements of the therapeutic relationship are linked to 2 dimensions of the
      patient-therapist meeting experience: the technical and role-related dimension,
      characterized by relational asymmetry, and the affective exchange dimension,
      characterized by relational symmetry. The article discusses the possible
      association between the asymmetrical technical dimension, whose roles are defined
      by the organization of the helping relationship, and the notion of therapeutic
      alliance as commonly conceptualized and assessed; on the other hand, the
      experience of the bidirectional and symmetrical patient-therapist affective
      exchange is linked with concepts such as real relationship and intersubjectivity.

PMID- 28881028
TI  - Specific rescue by ortho-hydroxy atorvastatin of cortical GABAergic neurons from
      previous oxygen/glucose deprivation: role of pCREB.
AB  - The statin atorvastatin (ATV) given as a post-treatment has been reported
      beneficial in stroke, although the mechanisms involved are not well understood so
      far. Here, we investigated in vitro the effect of post-treatment with ATV and its
      main bioactive metabolite ortho-hydroxy ATV (o-ATV) on neuroprotection after
      oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD), and the role of the pro-survival cAMP
      response element-binding protein (CREB). Post-OGD treatment of primary cultures
      of rat cortical neurons with o-ATV, but not ATV, provided neuroprotection to a
      specific subset of cortical neurons that were large and positive for glutamic
      acid decarboxylase (large-GAD(+) neurons, GABAergic). Significantly, only these
      GABAergic neurons showed an increase in phosphorylated CREB (pCREB) early after
      neuronal cultures were treated post-OGD with o-ATV. We found that o-ATV, but not
      ATV, increased the neuronal uptake of glutamate from the medium; this provides a
      rationale for the specific effect of o-ATV on pCREB in large-GABAergic neurons,
      which have a higher ratio of synaptic (pCREB-promoting) vs extrasynaptic (pCREB
      reducing) N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDAR) than that of small-non
      GABAergic neurons. When we pharmacologically increased pCREB levels post-OGD in
      non-GABAergic neurons, through the selective activation of synaptic NMDAR, we
      observed as well long-lasting neuronal survival. We propose that the statin
      metabolite o-ATV given post-OGD boosts the intrinsic pro-survival factor pCREB in
      large-GABAergic cortical neurons in vitro, this contributing to protect them from
      OGD.

PMID- 28881030
TI  - The association between anticoagulation therapy, maternal characteristics, and a
      failed cfDNA test due to a low fetal fraction.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify maternal characteristics
      associated with a failed cell-free DNA (cfDNA) test due to a low fetal fraction
      (FF). METHOD: Retrospective cohort study of women with singleton pregnancies who
      had cfDNA screening at 10-25 weeks gestation between October 2011 and January
      2016. cfDNA screening was performed using methylation techniques until October
      2013; thereafter, samples were run with massively parallel sequencing.
      Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify maternal
      characteristics associated with no cell free DNA result secondary to low FF.
      RESULTS: Thirty-three (1.2%) of 2890 eligible women had a failed cfDNA test,
      including 18 (0.6%) cases with a low FF. A failed cfDNA test due to a low FF was
      associated with obesity (aOR 1.11, CI 1.05-1.18, p = 0.0003) and treatment with
      enoxaparin (aOR 37.5, 11.19-125.87, p < 0.0001). 5 of 28 (18%, 95% CI: 6.1%
      36.9%) women on enoxaparin had a failed cfDNA test secondary to a low FFx.
      CONCLUSION: Enoxaparin therapy and obesity were associated with an increased
      incidence of a failed cfDNA test due to low FF. Further research is needed to
      determine the mechanism by which anticoagulation therapy alters cfDNA test
      functionality and identify approaches to improve test performance in these women.

PMID- 28881029
TI  - ProSAAS-derived peptides are regulated by cocaine and are required for
      sensitization to the locomotor effects of cocaine.
AB  - To identify neuropeptides that are regulated by cocaine, we used a quantitative
      peptidomic technique to examine the relative levels of neuropeptides in several
      regions of mouse brain following daily intraperitoneal administration of 10 mg/kg
      cocaine or saline for 7 days. A total of 102 distinct peptides were identified in
      one or more of the following brain regions: nucleus accumbens, caudate putamen,
      frontal cortex, and ventral tegmental area. None of the peptides detected in the
      caudate putamen or frontal cortex were altered by cocaine administration. Three
      peptides in the nucleus accumbens and seven peptides in the ventral tegmental
      area were significantly decreased in cocaine-treated mice. Five of these ten
      peptides are derived from proSAAS, a secretory pathway protein and neuropeptide
      precursor. To investigate whether proSAAS peptides contribute to the
      physiological effects of psychostimulants, we examined acute responses to cocaine
      and amphetamine in the open field with wild-type (WT) and proSAAS knockout (KO)
      mice. Locomotion was stimulated more robustly in the WT compared to mutant mice
      for both psychostimulants. Behavioral sensitization to amphetamine was not
      maintained in proSAAS KO mice and these mutants failed to sensitize to cocaine.
      To determine whether the rewarding effects of cocaine were altered, mice were
      tested in conditioned place preference (CPP). Both WT and proSAAS KO mice showed
      dose-dependent CPP to cocaine that was not distinguished by genotype. Taken
      together, these results suggest that proSAAS-derived peptides contribute
      differentially to the behavioral sensitization to psychostimulants, while the
      rewarding effects of cocaine appear intact in mice lacking proSAAS.

PMID- 28881031
TI  - Ribavirin steady-state plasma level is a predictor of sustained virological
      response in hepatitis C-infected patients treated with direct-acting antivirals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the era of highly effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for
      treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, ribavirin
      (RBV) is still considered beneficial in certain patients. AIM: To assess the
      association between RBV steady-state plasma levels and sustained virological
      response (SVR). METHODS: Consecutive HCV-infected patients treated with DAAs plus
      RBV from four Dutch academic medical centres were enrolled. RBV steady-state
      plasma levels were prospectively measured at treatment week 8 using validated
      assays. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the influence of
      RBV steady-state plasma level on SVR, and RBV therapeutic range was explored
      using area under the ROC curve analyses. RESULTS: A total of 183 patients were
      included, of whom 85% had one or more difficult-to-cure characteristics (ie
      treatment experienced, HCV genotype 3, cirrhosis). The majority was treated with
      a sofosbuvir-based regimen and 163 (89%) patients achieved SVR. Median RBV dose
      was 12.9 (interquartile range 11.2-14.7) mg/kg/d, and median RBV steady-state
      plasma level was 2.66 (1.95-3.60) mg/L. In multivariable analyses, higher RBV
      steady-state plasma level (adjusted odds ratio 1.79 [95% CI 1.09-2.93]) was an
      independent predictor of SVR. With regard to the optimal RBV therapeutic range,
      2.28 mg/L was the optimal lower cut-off for achieving SVR and 3.61 mg/L was the
      upper cut-off for preventing significant anaemia (Haemoglobin < 10 g/dL).
      CONCLUSION: In this cohort of mainly difficult-to-cure patients treated with DAAs
      plus RBV, higher RBV steady-state plasma level was an independent predictor of
      SVR.

PMID- 28881032
TI  - Startle reflex modulation during threat of shock and "threat" of reward.
AB  - During threat of shock, the startle reflex is potentiated, suggesting modulation
      by defensive mobilization. To determine whether startle potentiation is specific
      to aversive anticipation, startle reflexes were measured in the context of either
      aversive or appetitive anticipation in a between-subject study. Participants wore
      a device on the wrist that could deliver electrical shock (n = 49), or
      vibrotactile stimulation indicating monetary reward (n = 48). Cues signaling
      "threat" or "safe" periods were presented alone, or accompanied by presentation
      of affective and neutral pictures on half of the trials. Results indicated that
      the startle reflex was significantly potentiated when anticipating either shock
      or reward, compared to safe periods, both when no picture was presented, as well
      as during picture viewing. The difference between threat and safety in both
      reflex magnitude and skin conductance changes was larger for those anticipating
      shock, suggesting that the aversive context was more motivationally engaging. The
      pattern of reflex modulation as a function of picture valence varied under threat
      and safety, but was identical in the shock and reward groups, consistent with a
      hypothesis that anticipation of either aversive or appetitive events prompts
      heightened perceptual vigilance, potentiating the acoustic startle reflex.

PMID- 28881033
TI  - The conformational epitope for a new Abeta42 protofibril-selective antibody
      partially overlaps with the peptide N-terminal region.
AB  - Aggregation and accumulation of amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta) is a key component
      of Alzheimer's disease (AD). While monomeric Abeta appears to be benign,
      oligomers adopt a biologically detrimental structure. These soluble structures
      can be detected in AD brain tissue by antibodies that demonstrate selectivity for
      aggregated Abeta. Protofibrils are a subset of soluble oligomeric Abeta species
      and are described as small (< 100 nm) curvilinear assemblies enriched in beta
      sheet structure. Our own in vitro studies demonstrate that microglial cells are
      much more sensitive to soluble Abeta42 protofibrils compared to Abeta42 monomer
      or insoluble Abeta42 fibrils. Protofibrils interact with microglia, trigger Toll
      like receptor signaling, elicit cytokine transcription and expression, and are
      rapidly taken up by the cells. Because of the importance of this Abeta species,
      we sought to develop an antibody that selectively recognizes protofibrils over
      other Abeta species. Immunization of rabbits with isolated Abeta42 protofibrils
      generated a high-titer anti serum with a strong affinity for Abeta42
      protofibrils. The antiserum, termed AbSL, was selective for Abeta42 protofibrils
      over Abeta42 monomers and Abeta42 fibrils. AbSL did not react with amyloid
      precursor protein and recognized distinct pathological features in AD transgenic
      mouse brain slices. Competition studies with an Abeta antibody that targets
      residues 1-16 indicated that the conformational epitope for AbSL involved the N
      terminal region of protofibrils in some manner. The newly developed antibody may
      have potential diagnostic and therapeutic uses in AD tissue and patients, and
      targeting of protofibrils in AD may have beneficial effects. Read the Editorial
      Highlight for this article on page 621. Cover Image for this issue: doi.
      10.1111/jnc.13827.

PMID- 28881035
TI  - Protease-activated receptor 2 contributes to Toxoplasma gondii-mediated gut
      inflammation.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread intracellular parasite, which naturally enters
      the organism via the oral route and crosses the intestinal barrier to
      disseminate. In addition to neuronal and ocular pathologies, this pathogen also
      causes gut inflammation in a number of animals. This infection-triggered
      inflammation has been extensively studied in the C57BL/6 mice, highlighting the
      importance of the immune cells and their mediators in the development of gut
      pathology. However, despite their importance in inflammation, the role of
      protease-activated receptors (PAR) was never reported in the context of T.gondii
      mediated small intestine inflammation. Using genetically modified mice, we show
      that PAR2 plays a pathogenic role in the development of gut inflammatory lesions.
      We find that PAR2 controls the innate inflammatory mediators IL-6, KC/CXCL1, PGE2
      as well as neutrophil infiltration in T. gondii-triggered gut damage. These
      results bring new knowledge on the mechanisms operating in the gut in response to
      T. gondii infection.

PMID- 28881034
TI  - MicroRNA-27a-3p suppression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma
      contributes to cognitive impairments resulting from sevoflurane treatment.
AB  - Sevoflurane is the most widely used anaesthetic administered by inhalation.
      Exposure to sevoflurane in neonatal mice can induce learning deficits and
      abnormal social behaviours. MicroRNA (miR)-27a-3p, a short, non-coding RNA that
      functions as a tumour suppressor, is up-regulated after inhalation of
      anaesthetic, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma) is
      one of its target genes. The objective of this study was to investigate how the
      miR-27a-3p-PPAR-gamma interaction affects sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity. A
      luciferase reporter assay was employed to identify the interaction between miR
      27a-3p and PPAR-gamma. Primary hippocampal neuron cultures prepared from
      embryonic day 0 C57BL/6 mice were treated with miR-27a-3p inhibitor or a PPAR
      gamma agonist to determine the effect of miR-27a-3p and PPAR-gamma on sevoflurane
      induced cellular damage. Cellular damage was assessed by a flow cytometry assay
      to detect apoptotic cells, immunofluorescence to detect reactive oxygen species,
      western blotting to detect NADPH oxidase 1/4 and ELISA to measure inflammatory
      cytokine levels. In vivo experiments were performed using a sevoflurane-induced
      anaesthetic mouse model to analyse the effects of miR-27a-3p on neurotoxicity by
      measuring the number of apoptotic neurons using the Terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl
      Transferase Mediated Nick End Labeling (TUNEL) method and learning and memory
      function by employing the Morris water maze test. Our results revealed that PPAR
      gamma expression was down-regulated by miR-27a-3p following sevoflurane treatment
      in hippocampal neurons. Down-regulation of miR-27a-3p expression decreased
      sevoflurane-induced hippocampal neuron apoptosis by decreasing inflammation and
      oxidative stress-related protein expression through the up-regulation of PPAR
      gamma. In vivo tests further confirmed that inhibition of miR-27a-3p expression
      attenuated sevoflurane-induced neuronal apoptosis and learning and memory
      impairment. Our findings suggest that down-regulation of miR-27a-3p expression
      ameliorated sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity and learning and memory impairment
      through the PPAR-gamma signalling pathway. MicroRNA-27a-3p may, therefore, be a
      potential therapeutic target for preventing or treating sevoflurane-induced
      neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28881036
TI  - Characterization of a d-Lactate Dehydrogenase from Lactobacillus fermentum JN248
      with High Phenylpyruvate Reductive Activity.
AB  - : Phenyllactic acid (PLA) is a novel antimicrobial compound. A novel NADH
      dependent d-lactate dehydrogenase (d-LDH), named as LF-d-LDH0653, with high
      phenylpyruvate (PPA) reducing activity was isolated from Lactobacillus fermentum
      JN248. Its optimum pH and temperature were 8.0 and 50  degrees C, respectively.
      The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km ), turnover number (kcat ), and catalytic
      efficiency (kcat /Km ) for NADH were 1.20 mmol/L, 67.39 s-1 , and 56.16 (mmol/L)
      1 s-1 , respectively. The (Km ), (kcat ), and (kcat /Km ) for phenylpyruvate were
      1.68 mmol/L, 122.66 s-1 , and 73.01 (mmol/L)-1 s-1 , respectively. This enzyme
      can catalyze phenylpyruvate and the product presented excellent optical purity
      (enantioselectivity >99%). The results suggest that LF-d-LDH0653 is a promising
      biocatalyst for the efficient synthesis of optically pure d-PLA. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATION: A novel d-LDH with phenylpyruvate reducing activity has been
      isolated and identified. It could be used as a reference for improving the
      production of optically pure d-PLA. d-PLA has a potential for application as
      antimicrobial an agent in dairy industry and baking industry, pharmaceutical
      agent in medicine and cosmetics.

PMID- 28881037
TI  - Comparison of vessel enhancement algorithms applied to time-of-flight MRA images
      for cerebrovascular segmentation.
AB  - PURPOSE: Vessel enhancement algorithms are often used as a preprocessing step for
      vessel segmentation in medical images to improve the overall segmentation
      accuracy. Each algorithm uses different characteristics to enhance vessels, such
      that the most suitable algorithm may vary for different applications. This paper
      presents a comparative analysis of the accuracy gains in vessel segmentation
      generated by the use of nine vessel enhancement algorithms: Multiscale vesselness
      using the formulas described by Erdt (MSE), Frangi (MSF), and Sato (MSS),
      optimally oriented flux (OOF), ranking orientations responses path operator
      (RORPO), the regularized Perona-Malik approach (RPM), vessel enhanced diffusion
      (VED), hybrid diffusion with continuous switch (HDCS), and the white top hat
      algorithm (WTH). METHODS: The filters were evaluated and compared based on time
      of-flight MRA datasets and corresponding manual segmentations from 5 healthy
      subjects and 10 patients with an arteriovenous malformation. Additionally, five
      synthetic angiographic datasets with corresponding ground truth segmentation were
      generated with three different noise levels (low, medium, and high) and also used
      for comparison. The parameters for each algorithm and subsequent segmentation
      were optimized using leave-one-out cross evaluation. The Dice coefficient,
      Matthews correlation coefficient, area under the ROC curve, number of connected
      components, and true positives were used for comparison. RESULTS: The results of
      this study suggest that vessel enhancement algorithms do not always lead to more
      accurate segmentation results compared to segmenting nonenhanced images directly.
      Multiscale vesselness algorithms, such as MSE, MSF, and MSS proved to be robust
      to noise, while diffusion-based filters, such as RPM, VED, and HDCS ranked in the
      top of the list in scenarios with medium or no noise. Filters that assume tubular
      shapes, such as MSE, MSF, MSS, OOF, RORPO, and VED show a decrease in accuracy
      when considering patients with an AVM, because vessels may vary from its tubular
      shape in this case. CONCLUSIONS: Vessel enhancement algorithms can help to
      improve the accuracy of the segmentation of the vascular system. However, their
      contribution to accuracy has to be evaluated as it depends on the specific
      applications, and in some cases it can lead to a reduction of the overall
      accuracy. No specific filter was suitable for all tested scenarios.

PMID- 28881038
TI  - Experience of the waiting area as perceived by haemodialysis patients and family
      carers.
AB  - AIM: To identify the meaning of the waiting area based on the experiences of
      haemodialysis patients and their carers and to develop an optimal social
      environment for meaningful nursing care. BACKGROUND: Haemodialysis patients
      require treatment three times a week and they and their carers spend much of
      their time in waiting areas, where they experience a unique culture. Limited
      qualitative research has focused on the culture of the waiting area among
      haemodialysis patients in South Korea. DESIGN: A qualitative study using an
      ethnographic approach. METHODS: Eighteen participants were recruited in a
      hospital waiting area. The data were collected via participant observations and
      interviews from 24 November 2015-21 April 2016. Spradley's research sequence was
      employed to analyse the data. RESULTS: Three themes were identified that describe
      the unique characteristics of the waiting area: sharing information and
      consoling, inhabiting a separate area of ease and discomfort and experiencing
      vigilance and unsure stillness. The overarching theme was a boundary space that
      presented antithetical and dynamic patterns. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes
      to a better understanding of the distinct culture experienced by haemodialysis
      patients in the waiting area and the findings can help nurses deliver more
      meaningful care. Nursing interventions germane to psychological and emotional
      support and applicable nursing education should be seriously considered for
      haemodialysis waiting rooms.

PMID- 28881039
TI  - Dietary antioxidants and risk of Parkinson's disease in two population-based
      cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A neuroprotective effect of dietary antioxidants on Parkinson's
      disease (PD) risk has been suggested, but epidemiological evidence is limited.
      OBJECTIVES: To examine the associations between intake of dietary antioxidant
      vitamins and total antioxidant capacity and risk of PD. METHODS: We prospectively
      assessed the relationships of dietary antioxidant vitamins C and E, beta
      carotene, and total antioxidant capacity with PD risk in two population-based
      cohorts (38,937 women and 45,837 men). RESULTS: During a mean 14.9-year follow-up
      period, 1,329 PD cases were identified. Dietary intake of beta-carotene was
      associated with a lower risk of PD (hazard ratio: 0.86; 95% confidence interval:
      0.78-0.95; Ptrend  < 0.01 for women and hazard ratio: 0.91; 95% confidence
      interval: 0.84-0.99; Ptrend  = 0.05 for men). An inverse association between
      dietary vitamin E and PD risk was found in women (hazard ratio: 0.87; 95%
      confidence interval: 0.79-0.96; Ptrend  = 0.02). Dietary intake of vitamin C was
      inversely associated with PD risk in women at borderline significance (hazard
      ratio: 0.91; 95% confidence interval: 0.83-1.00; Ptrend  = 0.04). There was no
      association between dietary total antioxidant capacity and PD risk in either
      women (hazard ratio: 0.93; 95% confidence interval: 0.84-1.02; Ptrend  = 0.35) or
      men (hazard ratio: 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.93-1.07; Ptrend  = 0.97).
      CONCLUSION: Intake of dietary vitamin E and beta-carotene was associated with a
      lower risk of PD. (c) 2017 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder
      Society.

PMID- 28881040
TI  - Comprehensive histopathological comparison of epidermotropic/dermal metastatic
      melanoma and primary nodular melanoma.
AB  - AIMS: Metastatic melanoma involving the epidermis and/or upper dermis may show
      significant histological overlap with primary cutaneous melanoma, especially the
      nodular subtype. Proper histopathological classification is crucial to
      appropriate staging and management, but is often challenging. The aim of this
      study was to identify helpful histopathological features for differentiating
      epidermotropic/dermal metastatic melanoma (EDMM) and primary nodular melanoma
      (PNM). METHODS AND RESULTS: A cohort of EDMMs (n = 74) and PNMs (n = 75) was
      retrospectively reviewed for various histopathological features, and the data
      were compared between groups by the use of univariate analysis. Features
      significantly associated with EDMM included a tumour size of <2 mm, an absence of
      tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and plasma cells, monomorphism, and involvement
      of adnexal epithelium. Features associated with PNM included a polypoid
      (exophytic) configuration, prominent tumour-infiltrating plasma cells (TIPs), a
      tumour size of >10 mm, ulceration, epidermal collarettes, a higher mitotic rate,
      necrosis, multiple phenotypes, significant pleomorphism, and lichenoid
      inflammation. In multivariate analysis, a logistic regression model including
      large tumour size, ulceration, prominent TIPs, lichenoid inflammation and
      epidermal collarettes was highly predictive of PNM. Six (8%) EDMMs from three
      patients showed an 'epidermal-only' or 'epidermal-predominant' pattern closely
      simulating in-situ or microinvasive melanoma. Two of these cases were tested by
      fluorescence in-situ hybridisation, which confirmed clonal relationships with
      their corresponding primary melanomas. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first
      comprehensive histopathological comparison of EDMM and PNM. Recognition of the
      above histopathological associations should aid in the correct classification and
      staging of cutaneous melanoma. Epidermotropic metastatic melanomas may
      occasionally show an epidermal-only/epidermal-predominant pattern; accurate
      diagnosis requires prudent clinical correlation and, when necessary, ancillary
      molecular tests.

PMID- 28881041
TI  - Evaluation of CT's ASIST program: Specialized services to divert higher risk
      defendants.
AB  - Some criminal defendants with mental illness may not be referred to traditional
      mental health jail diversion programs because they have a history of non
      compliance with treatment, or complex personal circumstances such as
      homelessness. To successfully divert such individuals, Connecticut has developed
      a specialized program called the Advanced Supervision and Intervention Support
      Team (ASIST), which offers criminal justice supervision in conjunction with
      mental health treatment and support services. An evaluation of the ASIST program
      included a six-month follow-up study of 111 program clients to examine mental
      health functioning and other outcomes, and a comparison of administrative data
      for 492 ASIST clients with a propensity-matched group to examine recidivism.
      Follow-up study clients showed improvements in mental health. Administrative data
      showed no change in arrest rates, but a significant reduction in re
      incarceration. These findings must be viewed with caution due to the quasi
      experimental design of the study, but it appears that greater attention to
      criminogenic needs in addition to defendants' mental illness may help
      jurisdictions to divert a wider variety of defendants.

PMID- 28881042
TI  - Nature, nurture, and capital punishment: How evidence of a genetic-environment
      interaction, future dangerousness, and deliberation affect sentencing decisions.
AB  - Research has shown that the low-activity MAOA genotype in conjunction with a
      history of childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood of violent behaviors.
      This genetic-environment (G * E) interaction has been introduced as mitigation
      during the sentencing phase of capital trials, yet there is scant data on its
      effectiveness. This study addressed that issue. In a factorial design that varied
      mitigating evidence offered by the defense [environmental (i.e., childhood
      maltreatment), genetic, G * E, or none] and the likelihood of the defendant's
      future dangerousness (low or high), 600 mock jurors read sentencing phase
      evidence in a capital murder trial, rendered individual verdicts, and half
      deliberated as members of a jury to decide a sentence of death or life
      imprisonment. The G * E evidence had little mitigating effect on sentencing
      preferences: participants who received the G * E evidence were no less likely to
      sentence the defendant to death than those who received evidence of childhood
      maltreatment or a control group that received neither genetic nor maltreatment
      evidence. Participants with evidence of a G * E interaction were more likely to
      sentence the defendant to death when there was a high risk of future
      dangerousness than when there was a low risk. Sentencing preferences were more
      lenient after deliberation than before. We discuss limitations and future
      directions.

PMID- 28881043
TI  - Human papillomavirus prevalence in lung carcinomas in Bulgaria.
AB  - A possible association between high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) and lung
      cancer has been investigated for decades with discrepant results. The aim of this
      study was to determine the prevalence of HPV16 and 18 in Bulgarian patients with
      lung cancer. Two hundred and nine biopsy specimens from patients with
      histologically proven lung cancer and without cancer were analyzed. Each sample
      was subjected to three parallel PCRs using broad spectrum GP5+/6+ primers and
      type-specific (TS) primers for HPV types 16 and 18. Of the 132 lung carcinoma
      samples, 33 (25%) were positive for HPV16 and/or HPV18 by TS PCR whereas only
      five (3.8%) samples were HPV positive by consensus PCR. All non-malignant
      controls were HPV negative. HPV18 was the more prevalent, being found in 11.4% of
      samples, followed by HPV16 in 9.1% samples; 4.5% of lesions were positive for
      both HPV16 and HPV18. HPV16/18 were most prevalent in small cell carcinoma
      (29.2%) and least prevalent in squamous cell carcinoma (23.3%). HPV was only
      detected in squamous cell carcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma by consensus PCR.
      This study revealed a high HPV16/18 prevalence in lung carcinoma samples from
      Bulgarian patients when TS PCR was used to detect them. The difference between
      HPV positivity as detected by consensus and by TS PCR was significant, indicating
      the importance of methodological issues in explaining the discrepancies between
      previous studies. HPV18 was more common than HPV16. No association between
      HPV16/18 status and histopathological diagnosis was identified.

PMID- 28881045
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of immunofluorescence versus immunoperoxidase staining to
      distinguish immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis and C3 dominant
      glomerulopathy.
AB  - AIMS: The technique used for classification of membranoproliferative
      glomerulonephritis (MPGN) has been changed from an electron microscopy-based to
      an immunofluorescence (IF)-based semiquantitative technique with immunoperoxidase
      (IP) staining as a backup option when IF is not possible. Since data on that
      matter is lacking, our aims were to study the interobserver variability, the
      correlation and the reclassification of MPGN based on these two techniques.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively analysed cases of type 1 MPGN. We
      repeated IF staining and performed IP staining for IgG, kappa, lambda, C3c and
      C4d in 35 renal biopsies, among which 19 biopsies had matched IP and IF samples.
      We observed substantial to near-perfect agreement among the seven observers for
      both IF and IP (W coefficients from 0.66 for IF lambda to 0.89 for IF C4d). Of
      the 19 cases with matched IP and IF samples, five (26%) turned out to have
      different diagnoses on IF and on IP. Also, the ability of C4d to discriminate
      immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis (ICGN) from C3 glomerulopathy (C3G)
      was poor, with areas under the curve of 0.44 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.24
      0.63] and 0.66 (95% CI 0.50-0.81) for the receiver operating characteristic
      curves of IF and IP respectively. Limitations include the fact that no clinical
      data regarding complement activation were available. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of
      ICGN versus C3GN depends on the immunochemical technique used. Also, the use of
      C4d failed to discriminate ICGN from C3G in our study. Further validation studies
      are required to avoid misdiagnosis based on kidney biopsy.

PMID- 28881044
TI  - From large to small: the immunohistochemical panel in the diagnosis of early
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - AIMS: The aims of this study were to: validate the use of the immunohistochemical
      (IHC) markers glutamine synthetase (GS), glypican-3 (GPC3), heat shock protein-70
      (HSP70) and enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) in liver biopsies for the
      differential diagnosis between small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and non
      neoplastic liver nodules, with special attention to <10-mm nodules; and assess
      the actual sensitivity and specificity of the single markers, and their
      combination, in needle biopsies. METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred liver nodules,
      i.e. 66 HCCs and 34 non-neoplastic nodules, were prospectively collected from 43
      consecutive orthotopic liver transplantation patients, and subjected to
      'backtable' needle biopsies directly on surgical specimens. IHC evaluation was
      semi-automatically performed with a Benchmark Ultra immunostainer. The
      morphological and IHC diagnosis in surgical specimens was considered to be the
      gold standard. GS, GPC3, HSP70 and EZH2 showed 16.6%, 10.7%, 28.8% and 62.1%
      decreases in sensitivity, respectively, from surgical specimen to needle biopsy.
      Higher decreases were observed in <10-mm nodules. In 18 HCCs with no
      morphological diagnostic features of malignancy in biopsies, GPC3 or GS were
      positive in 16; in seven HCCs, neither morphology nor IHC evaluation ruled out
      the differential diagnosis made on the basis of needle biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: We
      present for the first time a direct comparison between surgical specimens and
      needle biopsies to confirm the usefulness and reproducibility of the most widely
      used antibodies for the diagnosis of small liver nodules. Our results support the
      use of IHC evaluation in biopsies for the diagnosis of small liver lesions,
      although the IHC panel could also give negative results in the presence of
      obvious HCC, and the possibility of false positives should always be considered.

PMID- 28881046
TI  - A meta-analysis of the effect on maternal health of upright positions during the
      second stage of labour, without routine epidural analgesia.
AB  - AIM: To detect the effect on maternal health of upright positions during the
      second stage of labour. BACKGROUND: Maternal position during labour has an
      important effect on maternal and foetal health. DESIGN: A meta-analysis was used
      based on the Cochrane Handbook. DATA SOURCES: Randomized/non-randomized clinical
      trials were searched with English and Turkish key words in databases (CINAHL,
      Medline, Science Direct, Springer Link, Ovid, Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials, Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations, Proquest,
      ULAKBIM (Turkish Academic Network and Information Center) and YOK (Turkish
      Council of Higher Education) (1970-December 2015). REVIEW METHODS: According to
      inclusion criteria, eligible studies were identified. Data extraction was
      performed and the bias risks of the studies were assessed independently by two
      authors. The publication bias of the main outcomes was examined. The overall
      effect size was calculated by risk ratio with a random effects model. Statistical
      heterogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses were performed. RESULTS: The
      criteria for the meta-analysis were met by 22 articles. It was detected that the
      ratio of instrumental labour and episiotomy was lower but the haemorrhage ratio
      was higher in women. There was no statistical effect of upright position on the
      other maternal outcomes. CONCLUSION: The reductions in these ratios improved
      comfort. Due to methodological shortcomings of the studies, the increased ratio
      of postpartum haemorrhage should be interpreted with caution. Researchers are
      recommended to conduct studies rigorously. In addition, healthcare professionals
      are recommended to decide the appropriate birth position by considering the
      individual risk factors and preferences of the women.

PMID- 28881047
TI  - Podoplanin expression in cancer-associated fibroblasts predicts unfavourable
      prognosis in patients with pathological stage IA lung adenocarcinoma.
AB  - AIMS: Podoplanin expression in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) has been
      proposed as an unfavourable indicator in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, but
      little is known about its clinical significance in early-stage lung
      adenocarcinoma. We evaluated the prognostic impact of podoplanin expression in
      patients with pathological stage (p-stage) IA lung adenocarcinoma as categorised
      by the 8th edition of the tumour-node-metastasis classification for lung cancer.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Immunohistochemical analyses using anti-podoplanin antibody
      were performed on resected specimens from 158 patients with p-stage IA lung
      adenocarcinoma. When more than 10% of cancer cells or CAFs showed
      immunoreactivity with podoplanin, the specimens were classified as podoplanin
      positive. Podoplanin-positive status in cancer cells (n = 8) was not correlated
      with clinicopathological factors or with patient prognosis. Podoplanin-positive
      status in CAFs (n = 41) was correlated significantly with poorer tumour
      differentiation (P < 0.001), the presence of lymphatic invasion (P < 0.001) and
      high-grade (solid and/or micropapillary) components constituting >=1% of the
      entire tumour (P < 0.001). The log-rank test showed that podoplanin-positive
      status in CAFs was associated significantly with shorter disease-free survival
      (DFS) (P < 0.001) and disease-specific survival (P = 0.015). In Cox's
      multivariate analysis, podoplanin-positive status in CAFs had the most
      significant effect on shorter DFS [hazard ratio (HR) = 4.411, P = 0.004],
      followed by the presence of high-grade components (HR = 3.581, P = 0.013).
      CONCLUSIONS: Podoplanin expression in CAFs could be an independent predictor of
      increased risk of recurrence in patients with p-stage IA lung adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28881048
TI  - A novel technique for biobanking of large sections of radical prostatectomy
      specimens.
AB  - AIMS: Harvesting of unfixed tissue from radical prostatectomy specimens for
      research purposes is challenging. Many prostate cancers cannot be identified at
      gross inspection, and this tumour is notoriously multifocal and heterogeneous. We
      aimed to develop a technique to allow detailed topographic analysis and the
      sampling of a sufficient amount of tumour without jeopardising clinical
      reporting. METHODS AND RESULTS: A custom-made double-bladed knife was utilised
      for cutting a 4-mm-thick horizontal section of the prostate. The slices were
      split into segments that were frozen in gel, cryosections were cut, and RNA
      integrity numbers (RINs) were analysed. Sections were cut from all blocks of 20
      cases, and the cutting time was monitored. Slides were scanned, and the slices
      were digitally reconstructed. Cutting frozen sections of an entire slice took 79
      253 min (mean 162 min). Tumour was detected in frozen sections of 85% (17/20) of
      cases and in 46% (72/155) of blocks. The morphological quality was determined to
      be excellent, and RIN values were high (mean 8.9). CONCLUSIONS: This novel
      protocol for biobanking of fresh tissue from prostatectomy specimens provides
      sufficient tumour material for research purposes, while also enabling reporting
      of histopathology. The harvesting of a full tissue slice facilitates studies of
      tumour multifocality and heterogeneity.

PMID- 28881049
TI  - Classical gonadoblastoma: its relationship to the 'dissecting' variant and
      undifferentiated gonadal tissue.
AB  - Classical gonadoblastoma occurs almost entirely in the dysgenetic gonads of an
      individual who has a disorder of sex development. Approximately 40% of such
      neoplasms are bilateral. Almost all gonadoblastomas occur in patients who have a
      Y chromosome or part thereof; testis-specific protein Y-encoded 1 (TSPY1) is the
      putative gene. If a gonad in a patient who has a disorder of sex development
      contains germ cells with delayed maturation, and also harbours the TSPY1 gene,
      the cells can undergo transformation to classical gonadoblastoma. The latter
      consists of rounded islands composed of germ cells, sex cord elements and hyaline
      basement membrane material surrounded by a variably cellular gonadal stroma that
      sometimes contains steroid cells. Classical gonadoblastoma can be interpreted as
      a non-invasive neoplasm that is the precursor of germinoma and, indirectly, other
      more aggressive germ cell neoplasms. Undifferentiated gonadal tissue is the
      precursor of classical gonadoblastoma and contains germ cells with delayed
      maturation that express octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4); however,
      other germ cells show normal maturation and express TSPY1. If all germ cells in a
      patient with undifferentiated gonadal tissue involute, the result is a secondary
      streak. Undifferentiated gonadal tissue is a non-neoplastic condition that should
      be distinguished clearly from 'dissecting gonadoblastoma', a neoplasm derived
      from classical gonadoblastoma that is the precursor of some germinomas.
      'Dissecting gonadoblastoma' is a variant of classical gonadoblastoma that has
      unusual growth patterns and contains both sex cord and germ cell elements. Clonal
      expansion of germ cells is a characteristic of the late stage of 'dissecting
      gonadoblastoma'.

PMID- 28881050
TI  - Pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma remains a diagnostic challenge using frozen
      sections: a clinicopathological analysis of 59 cases.
AB  - AIMS: Using intraoperative frozen sections to diagnose pulmonary sclerosing
      pneumocytoma is always challenging. However, an accurate diagnosis is needed to
      guide surgical management and prevent unnecessary treatment. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the most frequently misdiagnosed histological patterns
      and evaluate the potential diagnostic pitfalls of using frozen sections. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: We reviewed retrospectively 59 cases of sclerosing pneumocytoma that
      underwent an intraoperative frozen section examination. All original frozen
      section slides and permanent section slides were reviewed. The rate of accurate
      diagnosis using frozen sections was 44.1%, the deferral rate was 15.3% and 10
      cases (16.9%) were misdiagnosed as malignancy. A solid-predominant pattern is
      misdiagnosed more frequently than other growth patterns. We also summarised the
      five major diagnostic pitfalls, including hypercellularity, glandular spaces,
      desmoplasia-like sclerosis, cellular atypia and coagulative necrosis.
      CONCLUSIONS: In addition to evaluating the tumour circumscription and identifying
      the various growth patterns, we propose that the key to avoiding a misdiagnosis
      is to recognise the dual-cell populations in a tumour, i.e. cuboidal surface
      cells and stromal round cells.

PMID- 28881051
TI  - Heli(aza)cene: A Helical Molecular Tweezer with Tunable Intra- and Intermolecular
      Charge Transfer.
AB  - Non-planar fluorophores offer unique avenues of intra- and intermolecular energy
      transfer not available in their planar counterparts. We have rationally designed
      a molecular tweezer based on the pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide framework having two
      structurally similar arms with extended pi-surface. We termed this molecular
      tweezer as Heli(aza)cene (HAC) due to its spontaneous adoption of helical
      conformation stabilized by the amide and imine moieties present in it. In the
      helical conformation, the two arms of HAC are twisted unequally. This asymmetry
      confers dissimilar electronic character to the two arms and results in
      intramolecular charge transfer interactions in HAC. Homochiral stacking of the P-
      and the M- helices in crystal, and profound redshifting of the emission at higher
      concentrations of HAC was attributed to intermolecular charge-transfer
      interactions in aggregated/crystal state. Exposure of HAC, in solution as well as
      in the solid state, to Lewis/Bronsted acids results in rapid and vibrant color
      changes. This is the first example of a pi-layered helical molecule exhibiting
      tunable intra-/intermolecular charge-transfer characteristics.

PMID- 28881052
TI  - Asunaprevir and daclatasvir for recurrent hepatitis C after liver
      transplantation: A Japanese multicenter experience.
AB  - The safety and efficacy of an IFN-free regimen using asunaprevir (ASV) and
      daclatasvir (DCV) for recurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection after liver
      transplantation (LT) have not been evaluated in Japan. A multicenter study of LT
      recipients (n = 74) with recurrent HCV genotype 1b infection treated with ASV-DCV
      for 24 weeks was performed. Medical history was positive for pegylated interferon
      and ribavirin (Peg-IFN/RBV) in 40 (54.1%) patients, and for simeprevir (SMV) with
      Peg-IFN/RBV in 12 (16.2%) patients. Resistance-associated variants (RAVs) were
      positive at D168 (n = 1) in the NS3, and at L31 (n = 4), Y93 (n = 4), and L31/Y93
      (n = 1) in the NS5A region of the HCV genome. Sixty-one (82.4%) patients
      completed the 24-week treatment protocol. Although sustained viral response (SVR)
      was achieved in 49 (80.3%) patients, it was achieved in only two (16.7%) patients
      among those with histories of receiving SMV (n = 12). Univariate analysis showed
      that a history of SMV (P < .01) and the presence of mutations in NS5A (P = .02)
      were the significant factors for no-SVR. By excluding the patients with either a
      history of SMV-based treatment or RAVs in NS3/NS5A, the SVR rate was 96.4%. By
      excluding the patients with a history of SMV and those with RAVs in NS3/NS5A,
      viral clearance of ASV-DCV was favorable, with a high SVR rate.

PMID- 28881053
TI  - Lower percentage of allergic sensitization in children with Down syndrome.

PMID- 28881054
TI  - Facet-Specific Ligand Interactions on Ternary AgSbS2 Colloidal Quantum Dots.
AB  - Silver dimetal chalcogenide (Ag-V-VI2 ) ternary quantum dots (QDs) are emerging
      lead-free materials for optoelectronic devices due to their NIR band gaps, large
      absorption coefficients, and superior electronic properties. However, thin film
      based devices of the ternary QDs still lag behind due to the lack of
      understanding of the surface chemistry, compared to that of lead chalcogenide QDs
      even with the same crystal structure. Herein the surface ligand interactions of
      AgSbS2 QDs, synthesized with 1-dodecanethiol used as a stabilizer, are studied.
      For nonpolar (1 0 0) surfaces, it is suggested that the thiolate ligands are
      associated with the crystal lattices, thus preventing surface oxidation by
      protecting sulfur after air-exposure, as confirmed through optical and surface
      chemical analysis. Otherwise, silver rich (1 1 1) surfaces are passivated by
      thiolate ligands, allowing ligand exchange processes for the conductive films.
      This in-depth investigation of the surface chemistry of ternary QDs will prompt
      the performance enhancement of their optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28881055
TI  - Individual healthcare plan for allergic children at school: Lessons from a 2015
      2016 school year survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The individual healthcare plan (IHP) was implemented in schools in
      France in 2003 to improve management of allergic children. Our objectives were to
      assess the practical aspects of IHP (excluding asthma) and allergic reactions
      occurring at school. METHODS: Prospective study conducted in the North Department
      (France) during the 2015/2016 school year. Two questionnaires were developed: one
      for the school doctors (n = 67) and one for the school principals (n = 2372).
      RESULTS: Data from 336 (25%) of the 1325 IHPs (0.24% of children) were collected
      (mean age: 8 years; food allergy [FA]: 94% [peanut = 44%, nuts = 54%], venom:
      4%). Wide variations in emergency kit (EK) medications were observed:
      antihistamines (84%), oral corticosteroids (79%), adrenaline auto-injectors
      (70%), and inhaled bronchodilators (65%). Six hundred and seventy (28%) school
      principals' responses, representing 81% of all IHPs, were analyzed. A total of
      1935 EKs were stored (mean: 2.8/school), one or more with adrenaline, by 213
      (32%) schools: in the class room (33%), the nursery (14%), or the principal's
      office (10%). Sixty, mainly, mild-to-moderate allergic reactions (adrenaline
      injection: 2) occurred in 44 schools (0.09/school/year), in children with
      previously undocumented allergy in 50%. FA was highly suspected in 92%.
      CONCLUSION: Individual healthcare plan is mainly implemented for FA. Anaphylaxis
      remains rare in the school setting, and FA is often a suspected cause of
      reaction. Staff training should be improved. Application of the recommendations
      regarding the content and accessibility of EK and a widespread emergency action
      plan is needed.

PMID- 28881056
TI  - Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of O-Methylated Glycolipids Related to PGLs
      via Direct Stereoselective Glycosidation and Sequential Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling
      using Boracyclane.
AB  - Synthesis of O-methylated glycolipids via direct stereoselective glycosidation
      whose sugar moieties are related to those in phenolic glycolipids (PGLs) is
      reported. Treatment of 2-O-methyl-rhamnosyl imidates with I2 and nBu4 NOTf
      resulted in their activation under low temperature and provided the alpha
      rhamnosides with excellent alpha-selectivity. nBu4 NOTf enhanced the
      electorophilicity of iodine. This methodology improved the efficiency of the
      synthesis of both PGL-1 and PGL-tb1 sugars. The process involved the formation of
      2-O-naphthylmethyl-alpha-rhamnoside and 2-O-methyl-alpha-fucoside. Sequential
      Suzuki-Miyaura coupling using synthetic glycosides, boracyclane, and aryl
      bromides provided glycolipids related to PGL sugars, and was accomplished with a
      one-pot process. Finally, we elucidated the immunosuppressive activities of all
      these synthetic compounds and found that a phenyl 3-O-alpha-rhamnosyl-2-O-methyl
      alpha-rhamnoside possessing a 6-(2-naphthyl)hexyl group exhibited the strongest
      inhibitory effect.

PMID- 28881057
TI  - Efficient Sensitized Z->E Photoisomerization of an Iridium(III)-Azobenzene
      Complex over a Wide Concentration Range.
AB  - To improve the sensitized Z->E photoisomerization of azobenzenes, and circumvent
      the threshold concentration necessary for the bimolecular photoinduced electron
      transfer reaction to generate the rapidly isomerizing Z-azobenzene radical anion,
      an IrIII complex with a covalently tethered azobenzene fragment was synthesized.
      Selective irradiation of the 1 MLCT band of the IrIII complex induced an
      efficiently sensitized photoswitching of the dyad over a wide concentration range
      and even at high dilution.

PMID- 28881058
TI  - Increased regulatory T cells in pediatric acute appendicitis.

PMID- 28881059
TI  - Pancreas-preserving duodenectomy after living donor liver transplantation for
      invasive cytomegalovirus disease.
AB  - CMV infection plays an important role in the postoperative course following solid
      organ transplantation. We present the case of an 11-year-old male patient who
      underwent LDLT due to severe hepatopulmonary syndrome and biliary cirrhosis. Four
      weeks after LDLT, he developed persistent GI bleeding and was subjected to
      repeated endoscopic treatment and radiological arterial embolization to stop the
      bleeding from duodenal ulcers. Diagnostic workup was negative for CMV disease.
      Because the bleeding persisted, surgical treatment was indicated, and a pancreas
      preserving duodenectomy was performed. Immunohistochemical staining of the
      surgical specimen demonstrated diffuse endothelial infiltration by CMV. Despite
      ganciclovir treatment, the patient developed new erosions in the jejunal mucosa
      and melena; ganciclovir was discontinued, and foscarnet was started, resulting in
      clinical improvement and the cessation of bleeding. This case highlights the
      technical aspects of performing a complex upper GI resection in a patient
      recently subjected to LDLT, taking care to avoid injury to the previous liver
      graft anastomosis and restore GI continuity. Moreover, CMV tissue-invasive
      disease compartmentalized in the GI tract may be difficult to diagnose, as
      indicated by the negative results of antigenemia and PCR assays and endoscopic
      superficial mucosal biopsies.

PMID- 28881060
TI  - Outcome of kidney transplant in primary, repeat, and kidney-after-nonrenal solid
      organ transplantation: 15-year analysis of recent UNOS database.
AB  - The number of nonrenal solid-organ transplants increased substantially in the
      last few decades. Many of these patients develop renal failure and receive kidney
      transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient and kidney
      allograft survival in primary, repeat, and kidney-after-nonrenal organ
      transplantation using national data reported to United Network for Organ Sharing
      (UNOS) from January 2000 through December 2014. Survival time for each patient
      was stratified into the following: Group A (comparison group)-recipients of
      primary kidney transplant (178 947 patients), Group B-recipients of repeat kidney
      transplant (17 819 patients), and Group C-recipients of kidney transplant
      performed after either a liver, heart, or lung transplant (2365 patients). We
      compared survivals using log-rank test. Compared to primary or repeat kidney
      transplant, patient and renal allograft survival was significantly lower in those
      with previous nonrenal organ transplant. Renal allograft and patient survival
      after liver, heart, or lung transplants are comparable. Death was the main cause
      of graft loss in patients who had prior nonrenal organ transplant.

PMID- 28881061
TI  - Full breastfeeding and allergies from infancy until adolescence in the GINIplus
      cohort.

PMID- 28881062
TI  - The Brief Memory and Executive Test (BMET): A cognitive screening tool to detect
      and differentiate vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: While there are several cognitive screening tests available for the
      detection of cortical dementias such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), these are
      rarely designed to be sensitive to vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). The Brief
      Memory and Executive Test (BMET) is a screening measure designed to be sensitive
      to the cognitive profile of both VCI and AD. This study investigated the ability
      of the BMET to detect AD, and to differentiate between VCI and AD. METHODS: This
      study included 150 patients, with either SVD, both with (n = 48) and without VCI
      (n = 51), or AD (N = 51) and 51 healthy controls. Participants were aged between
      40 and 90 years of age and completed both the BMET and the MMSE. RESULTS:
      Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed as before the BMET
      is a good predictor SVD. Additionally, the BMET was a good predictor of AD (AUC =
      0.96) and performed at least as well as the MMSE (AUC = 0.92) when
      differentiating AD patients from healthy controls. The BMET had a sensitivity of
      86% and specificity of 100% for detecting AD patients from control subjects.
      Using the difference in cognitive profile between the AD and VCI group, we
      developed an index score which correctly classified 76% of patients as either
      having VCI or AD. CONCLUSION: The BMET is a brief and sensitive tool for the
      detection of cognitive impairment due to both SVD and AD and can be used to aid
      in the differentiation of the 2 diseases.

PMID- 28881063
TI  - Carbon-Rich Monolayers on ITO as Highly Sensitive Platforms for Detecting
      Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water: The Case of Pyrene.
AB  - The determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water at low
      levels is a current challenge given their great impact on the health and safety
      of the public. Here, a novel pyrene-based self-assembled monolayer (SAM) platform
      is exploited as an electrochemical sensing recognition device. Interestingly, the
      formation of pi-pi sandwich complexes between PAHs and the recognition element
      switches the surface electron transfer capability. The unique supramolecular
      interaction between identical aromatic molecules provides a highly sensitive and
      selective sensor for pyrene in the order of part per trillion. Accordingly, and
      using pyrene as a proof-of-concept, this work presents the basis for an "at-point
      of-use" impedimetric sensor focused on a highly sensitive carbon-rich SAM for
      PAHs determination in water at ultra-trace levels.

PMID- 28881064
TI  - Misdiagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients receiving no local-regional
      therapy prior to liver transplant: An analysis of the Organ Procurement and
      Transplantation Network explant pathology form.
AB  - : Patients with T1 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are not eligible for Model for
      End Stage Liver Disease (MELD) exception for liver transplant (LT) in part due to
      a high rate of misdiagnosis (no HCC on explant). The likelihood of misdiagnosis
      for T2 HCC and factors associated with misdiagnosis are unknown. We analyzed the
      Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network database including 5664 adults who
      underwent LT from 2012 to 2015 with MELD exception for T2 HCC, and searched for
      no evidence of HCC in the explant pathology file. We focused on those (n = 324)
      receiving no local-regional therapy (LRT) to evaluate the probability of no HCC
      found in explant. Median waiting time was short at 1.7 months, and 35 (11%) had
      no HCC on explant. On multivariable logistic regression, factors associated with
      no HCC on explant were age <50 (OR: 17.3, P < .001), non-HCV (OR: 5.4, P = .001),
      and alpha-fetoprotein <10 (OR: 2.9, P = .04). Tumor size and number were not
      different between groups. The proportion of misdiagnosis did not change
      significantly after implementation of Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI
      RADS) for HCC diagnosis. CONCLUSION: The rate of misdiagnosis was 11% among T2
      HCC patients who underwent LT without receiving LRT prior to LT and did not
      change significantly after implementation of LI-RADS. More efforts are needed to
      eliminate unnecessary LT for patients without HCC.

PMID- 28881065
TI  - The intergenerational transmission of at-risk/problem gambling: The moderating
      role of parenting practices.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although parenting practices are articulated as
      underlying mechanisms or protective factors in several theoretical models, their
      role in the intergenerational transmission of gambling problems has received
      limited research attention. This study therefore examined the degree to which
      parenting practices (positive parenting, parental involvement, and inconsistent
      discipline) moderated the intergenerational transmission of paternal and maternal
      problem gambling. METHODS: Students aged 12-18 years (N = 612) recruited from 17
      Australian secondary schools completed a survey measuring parental problem
      gambling, problem gambling severity, and parenting practices. RESULTS:
      Participants endorsing paternal problem gambling (23.3%) were 4.3 times more
      likely to be classified as at-risk/problem gamblers than their peers (5.4%).
      Participants endorsing maternal problem gambling (6.9%) were no more likely than
      their peers (4.0%) to be classified as at-risk/problem gamblers. Paternal problem
      gambling was a significant predictor of offspring at-risk/problem gambling after
      controlling for maternal problem gambling and participant demographic
      characteristics. The relationship between maternal problem gambling and offspring
      at-risk/problem gambling was buffered by parental involvement. DISCUSSION AND
      CONCLUSIONS: Paternal problem gambling may be important in the development of
      adolescent at-risk/problem gambling behaviours and higher levels of parental
      involvement buffers the influence of maternal problem gambling in the development
      of offspring gambling problems. Further research is therefore required to
      identify factors that attenuate the seemingly greater risk of transmission
      associated with paternal gambling problems. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Parental
      involvement is a potential candidate for prevention and intervention efforts
      designed to reduce the intergenerational transmission of gambling problems. (Am J
      Addict 2017;26:707-712).

PMID- 28881066
TI  - Molecular screening of Vel-blood donors using DNA pools in Nanjing, China.

PMID- 28881067
TI  - The diversity and biogeography of abundant and rare intertidal marine
      microeukaryotes explained by environment and dispersal limitation.
AB  - Benthic microeukaryotes are key ecosystem drivers in marine sandy beaches, an
      important and dynamic environment; however, little is known about their diversity
      and biogeography on a large spatial scale. Here, we investigated the community
      composition and geographical distributions of benthic microeukaryotes using high
      throughput sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene and quantified the contributions of
      environmental factors and spatial separation on the distribution patterns of both
      rare and abundant taxa. We collected 36 intertidal samples at 12 sandy beaches
      from four regions that spanned distances from 0.001 to 12,000 km. We found 12,890
      operational taxonomic units (OTUs; 97% sequence identity level) including members
      of all eukaryotic super-groups and several phyla of uncertain position.
      Arthropoda and Diatomeae dominated the sequence reads in abundance, but
      Ciliophora and Discoba were the most diverse groups across all samples. About one
      third of the OTUs could not be definitively classified at a similarity level of
      80%, supporting the view that a large number of rare and minute marine species
      may have escaped previous characterization. We found generally similar
      geographical patterns for abundant and rare microeukaryotic sub-communities, and
      both showed a significant distance-decay similarity trend. Variation partitioning
      showed that both rare and abundant sub-communities exhibited a slightly stronger
      response to environmental factors than spatial (distance) factors. However, the
      abundant sub-community was strongly correlated with variations in spatial,
      environmental and sediment grain size factors (66% of variance explained), but
      the rare assemblage was not (16%). This suggests that different or more complex
      mechanisms generate and maintain diversity in the rare biosphere in this habitat.

PMID- 28881069
TI  - Person-centred discharge education following coronary artery bypass graft: A
      critical review.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine the extent that individualised education helps
      reduce depression and anxiety and improves self-care for people who have
      undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery. BACKGROUND: Individualised
      discharge planning is increasingly important following cardiac surgery due to
      recurrent admissions as well as the issue of anxiety and depression, often due to
      lack of preparation. The hospital to home transition is fundamental in the
      recovery process. Individualised education and person-centred care ensure that
      patients' educational needs are met. This empowers patients, increasing self
      efficacy or confidence, resulting in autonomy, a smoother discharge process and
      avoiding postdischarge problems and rehospitalisation. DESIGN: A critical review
      of published peer-reviewed literature was conducted. METHODS: Electronic
      databases searched included MEDLINE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and PsychInfo
      2009-2015. RESULTS: Eight articles were identified for review, and a Critical
      Appraisal Skills Programme framework was used to determine the quality of the
      papers, all of the papers focussed on coronary artery bypass graft. The designs
      were typically experimental or quasi-experimental with two reviews. CONCLUSION: A
      greater understanding of the patients' needs allows tailored education to be
      provided, which promotes self-care management. This level of patient empowerment
      increases confidence and ultimately minimise anxiety and depression. Despite the
      varying teaching and learning methods associated with individualised education,
      patient-centred education has the potential to assist cardiac nurses in
      adequately preparing patients for discharge following their coronary artery
      bypass graft. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Development of individualised
      education programmes is crucial in preparing patients for discharge. The
      reduction in readmission to hospital has a significant effect on already
      stretched resources, and the reduction in postoperative complications during the
      recovery period linked with depression and anxiety will have a positive effect on
      the individuals' ability to self-care, health and well-being.

PMID- 28881070
TI  - Identification of sialyl oligosaccharides including an oligosaccharide nucleotide
      in colostrum of an addax (Addax nasomaculatus) (Subfamily Antelopinae).
AB  - Mammalian milk/colostrum usually contains milk oligosaccharides along with the
      predominant lactose. Although milk oligosaccharides of a variety of Bovidae
      species including cow, sheep and goat have been characterized, those of the
      addax, an Antelopinae species of the Bovidae, have not as yet been clarified. In
      this study, several sialyl oligosaccharides were purified from a sample of addax
      colostrum and characterized as follows: Neu5Ac(alpha2-8)Neu5Ac(alpha2-3)Gal(beta1
      4)Glc, Neu5Gc(alpha2-8)Neu5Gc(alpha2-3)Gal(beta1-4)Glc, Neu5Ac(alpha2-3)Gal(beta1
      4)Glc, Neu5Ac(alpha2-6)Gal(beta1-4)GlcNAc, Neu5Gc(alpha2-3)Gal(beta1-4)Glc,
      Neu5Gc(alpha2-6)Gal(beta1-4)Glc, Neu5Gc(alpha2-6)Gal(beta1-4)GlcNAc. In addition,
      an oligosaccharide nucleotide Neu5Gc(alpha2-6)Gal(beta1-4)GlcNAcalpha1-UDP was
      characterized. Molecular species of a variety of sialyl oligosaccharides found in
      milk and colostrum of these Bovidae were compared.

PMID- 28881071
TI  - Quantity over quality-Findings from a systematic review and environmental scan of
      patient decision aids on early abortion methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The availability and effectiveness of decision aids (DAs) on early
      abortion methods remain unknown, despite their potential for supporting women's
      decision making. OBJECTIVE: To describe the availability, impact and quality of
      DAs on surgical and medical early abortion methods for women seeking induced
      abortion. SEARCH STRATEGY: For the systematic review, we searched MEDLINE,
      Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsycINFO. For the environmental scan, we
      searched Google and App Stores and consulted key informants. INCLUSION CRITERIA:
      For the systematic review, we included studies evaluating an early abortion
      method DA (any format and language) vs a comparison group on women's decision
      making. DAs must have met the Stacey et al (2014). Cochrane review definition of
      DAs. For the environmental scan, we included English DAs developed for the US
      context. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: We extracted study and DA
      characteristics, assessed study quality using the Effective Practice and
      Organization of Care risk of bias tool and assessed DA quality using
      International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS). RESULTS: The systematic
      review identified one study, which found that the DA group had higher knowledge
      and felt more informed. The evaluated DA met few IPDAS criteria. In contrast, the
      environmental scan identified 49 DAs created by non-specialists. On average,
      these met 28% of IPDAS criteria for Content, 22% for Development and 0% for
      Effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Research evaluating DAs on early abortion methods is
      lacking, and although many tools are accessible, they demonstrate suboptimal
      quality. Efforts to revise existing or develop new DAs, support patients to
      identify high-quality DAs and facilitate non-specialist developers' adoption of
      best practices for DA development are needed.

PMID- 28881072
TI  - Self-efficacy modulates the neural correlates of craving in male smokers and ex
      smokers: an fMRI study.
AB  - The regulation of cue-induced craving for cigarettes is a key factor in smoking
      cessation. Outcomes of smoking cessation have been linked to self-efficacy, faith
      in one's own ability, in smokers. However, no study has examined the neural basis
      of self-efficacy during the control of craving. We examined whether self-efficacy
      can affect the neural response to smoking cues in smokers and ex-smokers using
      functional magnetic resonance imaging. During scanning, participants were
      instructed (1) to view smoking-related images passively, (2) to view the smoking
      related images with a strategy focused on self-efficacy to control cue-induced
      craving or (3) to view neutral images. In smokers, the self-efficacy strategy
      significantly reduced self-reported craving. This strategy was related to
      increased activation in the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC) and the
      pregenual anterior cingulate cortex in smokers compared with ex-smokers.
      Furthermore, smokers showed increased effective connectivity between rmPFC and
      hippocampus and between pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and parahippocampus
      gyrus when employing the self-efficacy strategy compared with ex-smokers. The
      magnitude of the rmPFC-hippocampus connectivity was positively correlated with
      self-reported self-efficacy. Our findings suggest that in smokers, self-efficacy
      is related to activation and connectivity in brain regions involved in regulating
      craving and self-assessment. The current study provides evidence for
      understanding the vunderlying cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms involved
      in the control of craving to smoke cigarettes.

PMID- 28881068
TI  - Molecular genetics of syndromic and non-syndromic forms of parathyroid carcinoma.
AB  - Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) may occur as part of a complex hereditary syndrome or
      an isolated (i.e., non-syndromic) non-hereditary (i.e., sporadic) endocrinopathy.
      Studies of hereditary and syndromic forms of PC, which include the
      hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome (HPT-JT), multiple endocrine neoplasia
      types 1 and 2 (MEN1 and MEN2), and familial isolated primary hyperparathyroidism
      (FIHP), have revealed some genetic mechanisms underlying PC. Thus, cell division
      cycle 73 (CDC73) germline mutations cause HPT-JT, and CDC73 mutations occur in
      70% of sporadic PC, but in only ~2% of parathyroid adenomas. Moreover, CDC73
      germline mutations occur in 20%-40% of patients with sporadic PC and may reveal
      unrecognized HPT-JT. This indicates that CDC73 mutations are major driver
      mutations in the etiology of PCs. However, there is no genotype-phenotype
      correlation and some CDC73 mutations (e.g., c.679_680insAG) have been reported in
      patients with sporadic PC, HPT-JT, or FIHP. Other genes involved in sporadic PC
      include germline MEN1 and rearranged during transfection (RET) mutations and
      somatic alterations of the retinoblastoma 1 (RB1) and tumor protein P53 (TP53)
      genes, as well as epigenetic modifications including DNA methylation and histone
      modifications, and microRNA misregulation. This review summarizes the genetics
      and epigenetics of the familial syndromic and non-syndromic (sporadic) forms of
      PC.

PMID- 28881073
TI  - Parental professional help-seeking for infant sleep.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the perceptions and experiences of parental
      professional help-seeking for infant sleep and sleep-related concerns.
      BACKGROUND: Infant sleep is a frequent concern for parents. However, very little
      is known about the reasons parents seek, do not seek or delay seeking
      professional attention about their concerns related to infant sleep. DESIGN AND
      METHODS: A qualitative study design was used. Twenty audio-taped interviews with
      parents of healthy 12-month-old infants were conducted at a university-affiliated
      hospital or parents' homes depending on where parents felt more comfortable
      discussing their personal views and medical help-seeking experiences. Thematic
      content analysis was performed to determine specific patterns and similarities
      within and between interview data. FINDINGS: Three main themes developed from the
      interviews were as follows: (i) uncertainty about infant sleep; (ii) I can handle
      infant sleep; and (iii) I am not satisfied with the professional services
      provided for infant sleep. Overall, parents knew little about or misunderstood
      infant sleep behaviours. Lack of proper information and knowledge about infant
      sleep influenced parents' motivation for professional help-seeking and help
      receiving. Parents who have consulted a healthcare professional but received
      unsatisfactory responses, such as an ambivalent attitude or insufficient
      assessment, reported being less motivated or unwilling to seek medical help
      again. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates the complexity of parental professional
      help-seeking and receiving for infant sleep. Findings suggest that parents
      perceive a wide range of barriers that influence the likelihood that they will
      seek professional advice for infant sleep. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE:
      Reducing knowledge barriers and providing adequate attention at all well-infant
      visits would facilitate parental use of healthcare services to manage problematic
      infant sleep behaviours.

PMID- 28881074
TI  - Hospital passports, patient safety and person-centred care: A review of documents
      currently used for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To review hospital passports currently in use for people
      with intellectual disabilities in the UK and to make recommendations for
      practice. BACKGROUND: Hospital passports have been introduced internationally to
      address communication barriers that may limit access to appropriate health care
      for people with intellectual disabilities. They are viewed as promoting patient
      safety and person-centred care but their format may vary, they are not always
      used appropriately, and hence, their effectiveness may be limited. DESIGN:
      Qualitative content analysis. METHODS: Sixty hospital passports in use in the UK
      were reviewed against a coding frame by two members of the research team. Areas
      of interest included key patient and primary care information, support network
      details, consent and capacity, support required in relation to activities of
      daily living, length of the document and completion details. Results were entered
      into Excel. RESULTS: Considerable variation was found between documents in terms
      of terminology, length and format. Most included information regarding
      communication and support needs although some omitted important information such
      as allergies, risk assessment and need for reasonable adjustments. CONCLUSIONS:
      Considerable variation exists between current hospital passports, which may limit
      their effectiveness: key information required may not be included and/or it may
      not be easy to locate. Greater standardisation of documents is required, but this
      process should include input from all key stakeholders. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL
      PRACTICE: Internationally nurses provide care for people with intellectual
      disabilities and others with communication difficulties. Hospital passports are
      one way of enhancing safety and person-centred care, need to be accessed and used
      as a basis for care planning. However, variation in format may limit this
      effectiveness and nurses should work with others to develop a more standardised
      approach, which better meets the needs of all stakeholders.

PMID- 28881075
TI  - Formation of Methane versus Benzene in the Reactions of (C5 Me5 )2 Th(CH3 )2 with
      [CH3 PPh3 ]X (X=Cl, Br, I) Yielding Thorium-Carbene or Thorium-Ylide Complexes.
AB  - The reaction of (C5 Me5 )2 Th(CH3 )2 with the phosphonium salts [CH3 PPh3 ]X
      (X=Cl, Br, I) was investigated. When X=Br and I, two equivalents of methane are
      liberated to afford (C5 Me5 )2 Th[CHPPh3 ]X, rare terminal phosphorano-stabilized
      carbenes with thorium. These complexes feature the shortest thorium-carbon bonds
      (~2.30 A) reported to date, and electronic structure calculations show some
      degree of multiple bonding. However, when X=Cl, only one equivalent of methane is
      lost with concomitant formation of benzene from an unstable phosphorus(V)
      intermediate, yielding (C5 Me5 )2 Th[kappa2 -(C,C')-(CH2 )(CH2 )PPh2 ]Cl. Density
      functional theory (DFT) investigations of the reaction energy profiles for [CH3
      PPh3 ]X, X=Cl and I showed that in the case of iodide, thermodynamics prevents
      the production of benzene and favors formation of the carbene.

PMID- 28881076
TI  - The relationship between psychiatric patients' caregiver burden and anger
      expression styles.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between psychiatric patients'
      caregiver burden and anger expression styles. BACKGROUND: In the caregiving
      process, when coping with problems, caregivers may exhibit emotional and
      behavioural responses, which can produce distressful results. One of these
      responses is angry. Examining the relationship between psychiatric patients'
      caregiver burden and caregivers' anger expression styles is necessary for quality
      of care. DESIGN: A descriptive and relational study. METHODS: The sample for
      study included 60 family caregivers who were stayed with patient in psychiatry
      clinic during the treatment of inpatient setting of a university hospital. Data
      for the study were collected using the Caregiver Burden Inventory and the Trait
      Anger and Anger Expression Scale. The analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test,
      Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson correlation analysis were used. RESULTS: The
      caregivers' Caregiver Burden Inventory score was found to be 24.60 +/- 1.57.
      Gender, working status, level of intimacy with patient, status of whether or not
      caregiver was living with patient and status of whether or not caregiver
      experienced difficulties in providing care had a significant effect on the
      Caregiver Burden Inventory scale as a whole, as well as its subscales. This study
      found a positive relationship between caregiver burden and caregivers' anger
      expression styles (p < .05, p < .01). CONCLUSION: The total Caregiver Burden
      Inventory mean score of caregivers was concluded to be low, with some
      introductory characteristics and anger expression styles having an impact on the
      burden experienced by caregivers. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Knowing the
      anger expression styles of caregivers is important for reducing caregiver burden
      and improving quality of care.

PMID- 28881077
TI  - Development of a rapid risk evaluation tool for herbs/drugs interactions in
      cancer patients: a multicentric experience in south of France.
AB  - Cancer patients use herbs in spite of severe interactions risks with major
      anticancer drugs. In daily practice, it is very difficult for oncologists to
      detect and define the risk of a herb-anticancer drug interaction (HDI). In this
      work, we realised a state of play in one of the most populated region of France
      by evaluating, through a specific questionnaire, the position of a representative
      panel of oncologists. About 80% of them thought that herbs interact with
      anticancer treatments whereas only 15.4% of them actually knew the real HDI.
      About 89.1% of them thought that a practical detection tool would be relevant and
      useful for their daily practice. Then, we constructed a tool in order to rapidly
      evaluate a HDI risk level. Based on experts' reviews and using a criticality
      matrix, we determined the HDI risk level between 11 herbs and 126 anticancer
      drugs. Then, we measured satisfactory of oncologists. All of them considered the
      tool as useful in their daily practice and then used it. This work highlighted
      that even if HDI has been integrated as a theoretical risk, its practical
      detection and risk evaluation is difficult to implement for oncologists in their
      daily practice. Thus, the tool we developed should answer to an unmet medical
      need.

PMID- 28881078
TI  - Effects of nurse-led clinical pathway in coronary artery bypass graft surgery: A
      quasi-experimental study.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To develop and evaluate the effects of a nurse-led clinical
      pathway for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. BACKGROUND:
      A clinical pathway is a multidisciplinary care plan, based on evidence and
      guidelines to provide consistent, quality care to patients and improve outcomes.
      DESIGN: Prospective, quasi-experimental design. METHODS: Patients hospitalised
      for coronary artery bypass graft between April 2014-November 2015 in a hospital
      in Turkey were studied. First 42 usual care patients were enrolled to determine
      outcomes and plan for the development of the clinical pathway followed by 40
      patients in the newly developed clinical pathway. The primary outcome was length
      of stay and secondary outcomes related to recovery from surgery (e.g., time to
      extubation, first feeding). RESULTS: The mean age for the clinical pathway group
      was 60 and for usual care was 63 years. Most were male (CP = 78%, UC = 69%).
      There were significant differences between groups for the primary outcome. Length
      of stay in the intensive care unit was 38.9 hr for CP and 50.7 hr for usual care
      patients p < .01. Total hospital time was 144.4 hr for clinical pathway and 162.2
      hr for usual care, p < .05. For secondary measures, the following times were less
      for the clinical pathway group than for the usual care: time to extubation and
      nasogastric tube removal (5.7 vs. 8.6 hr, p < .01), first oral feeding (4.7 vs.
      10.9 hr, p < .001), first mobilisation (8.4 vs. 22.9 hr, p < .001) and first
      bowel movement (69.8 vs. 85.9 hr, p < .01). There were no statistically
      significant differences in the 3-month readmission rates and complication rates
      between the groups, except the renal complication rates were higher in the usual
      care (n = 16, 38%) than in the clinical pathway (n = 7, 17.5%) (p < .05).
      CONCLUSION: The nurse-led clinical pathway was effective in improving length of
      stay in both the ICU and hospital as well as the secondary outcomes. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study contributes to previous studies supporting clinical
      pathway use can improve the length of stay and quality of care in patients
      undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

PMID- 28881079
TI  - Formyl Peptide Receptors in Mice and Men: Similarities and Differences in
      Recognition of Conventional Ligands and Modulating Lipopeptides.
AB  - The pattern recognition formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) belong to the class of G
      protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest group of cell surface receptors
      involved in a range of physiological processes and pathologies. The FPRs have
      regulatory function in the initiation as well as resolution of inflammatory
      reactions, making them highly interesting as targets for drug development. Recent
      research in the GPCR/FPR fields has uncovered novel receptor biology concepts,
      including biased signalling/functional selectivity, allosteric modulation,
      receptor reactivation and receptor cross-talk. When it comes to allosteric
      modulators, 'tailor-made' lipopeptides (pepducins and lipopeptoids) represent a
      novel concept of GPCR/FPR regulation. This MiniReview is focused on the basis for
      recognition of conventional ligands and immunomodulating lipopeptides, novel
      allosteric modulators for the FPRs, receptors that are highly expressed by both
      human and mouse neutrophils. The FPRs play key roles in host defence against
      microbial infections, tissue homeostasis and the initiation as well as resolution
      of inflammation but there are both similarities and differences in ligand
      recognition between mice and men. Thus, identification and functional
      characterization of activating and inhibiting ligands should provide insights
      into future design of FPR-based animal models of human diseases and development
      of therapeutics for treating inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28881082
TI  - Molecular characterisation of the broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew
      conferred by the Stpk-V gene from the wild species Haynaldia villosa.
AB  - A key member of the Pm21 resistance gene locus, Stpk-V, derived from Haynaldia
      villosa, was shown to confer broad-spectrum resistance to wheat powdery mildew.
      The present study was planned to investigate the resistance mechanism mediated by
      Stpk-V. Transcriptome analysis was performed in Stpk-V transgenic plants and
      recipient Yangmai158 upon Bgt infection, and detailed histochemical observations
      were conducted. Chromosome location of Stpk-V orthologous genes in Triticeae
      species was conducted for evolutionary study and over-expression of Stpk-V both
      in barley and Arabidopsis was performed for functional study. The transcriptome
      results indicate, at the early infection stage, the ROS pathway, JA pathway and
      some PR proteins associated with the SA pathway were activated in both the
      resistant Stpk-V transgenic plants and susceptible Yangmai158. However, at the
      later infection stage, the genes up-regulated at the early stage were
      continuously held only in the transgenic plants, and a large number of new genes
      were also activated in the transgenic plants but not in Yangmai158. Results
      indicate that sustained activation of the early response genes combined with
      later-activated genes mediated by Stpk-V is critical for resistance in Stpk-V
      transgenic plants. Stpk-V orthologous genes in the representative grass species
      are all located on homologous group six chromosomes, indicating that Stpk-V is an
      ancient gene in the grasses. Over-expression of Stpk-V enhanced host resistance
      to powdery mildew in barley but not in Arabidopsis. Our results enable a better
      understanding of the resistance mechanism mediated by Stpk-V, and establish a
      solid foundation for its use in cereal breeding as a gene resource.

PMID- 28881083
TI  - Transcriptome analysis, using RNA-Seq of Lomandra longifolia roots infected with
      Phytophthora cinnamomi reveals the complexity of the resistance response.
AB  - The plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamon the causal agent of disease in numerous
      species, is a major threat to natural vegetation and has economic impacts in
      agriculture. The pathogen principally invades the root system, which, in
      susceptible species, is rapidly colonised and functionally destroyed. Few species
      are resistant, however, where resistance is expressed the pathogen is restricted
      to small, localised lesions. The molecular mechanisms that underpin this response
      in resistant species are not well understood. Lomandra longifolia, an Australian
      native species, is highly resistant to P. cinnamomi. In an earlier study, we
      showed induction of resistance-related components such as callose, lignin and
      hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) in L. longifolia roots that had been inoculated with
      P. cinnamomi. Here, in order to further identify, during the very early stages of
      infection, the molecular components and regulatory networks that may trigger
      resistance, a comprehensive root transcriptome analysis was performed using next
      generation sequencing. Overall, 18 cDNA libraries were produced generating 52.8
      GB 126 base pair reads, which were de novo assembled into contigs. Differentially
      expressed genes (DEGs) were identified allowing the identification of infection
      responsive candidate genes that were putatively related to resistance, and from
      this set ten were selected for qRT-PCR to validate the RNA-Seq expression value.
      Further analysis of individual candidates revealed that many were involved in
      PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI; pattern recognition receptors, glutathione S
      transferase, callose synthases, pathogenesis-related protein-1, mitogen activated
      protein kinases) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) (NBS-LRR, signalling
      genes, transcription factors and anti-pathogenic compound synthase genes). As
      these candidate genes or mediated components activate different defence
      signalling systems, they may have potential for investigation of novel approaches
      to disease control and in transgenic approaches for improvement, in susceptible
      species, of resistance to P. cinnamomi.

PMID- 28881081
TI  - A genetically inducible porcine model of intestinal cancer.
AB  - Transgenic porcine cancer models bring novel possibilities for research. Their
      physical similarities with humans enable the use of surgical procedures and
      treatment approaches used for patients, which facilitates clinical translation.
      Here, we aimed to develop an inducible oncopig model of intestinal cancer.
      Transgenic (TG) minipigs were generated using somatic cell nuclear transfer by
      handmade cloning. The pigs encode two TG cassettes: (a) an Flp recombinase
      inducible oncogene cassette containing KRAS-G12D, cMYC, SV40LT - which inhibits
      p53 - and pRB and (b) a 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT)-inducible Flp recombinase
      activator cassette controlled by the intestinal epithelium-specific villin
      promoter. Thirteen viable transgenic minipigs were born. The ability of 4-OHT to
      activate the oncogene cassette was confirmed in vitro in TG colonic organoids and
      ex vivo in tissue biopsies obtained by colonoscopy. In order to provide proof of
      principle that the oncogene cassette could also successfully be activated in
      vivo, three pigs were perorally treated with 400 mg tamoxifen for 2 * 5 days.
      After two months, one pig developed a duodenal neuroendocrine carcinoma with a
      lymph node metastasis. Molecular analysis of the carcinoma and metastasis
      confirmed activation of the oncogene cassette. No tumor formation was observed in
      untreated TG pigs or in the remaining two treated pigs. The latter indicates that
      tamoxifen delivery can probably be improved. In summary, we have generated a
      novel inducible oncopig model of intestinal cancer, which has the ability to form
      metastatic disease already two months after induction. The model may be helpful
      in bridging the gap between basic research and clinical usage. It opens new
      venues for longitudinal studies of tumor development and evolution, for
      preclinical assessment of new anticancer regimens, for pharmacology and
      toxicology assessments, as well as for studies into biological mechanisms of
      tumor formation and metastasis.

PMID- 28881084
TI  - A Ferroelectric Iron(II) Spin Crossover Material.
AB  - A dual-function material in which ferroelectricity and spin crossover coexist in
      the same temperature range has been obtained. Our synthetic strategy allows the
      construction of acentric crystal structures in a predictable way and is based on
      the high directionality of hydrogen bonds. The well-known iron(II) spin crossover
      complex [Fe(bpp)2 ]2+ (bpp=2,6-bis(pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine), a four-fold
      noncentrosymmetric H-bond donor, was combined with a disymmetric H-bond acceptor
      such as the isonicotinate (isonic) anion to afford [Fe(bpp)2 ](isonic)2 ?2 H2 O.
      This low-spin iron(II) compound crystallizes in the acentric nonpolar I4? space
      group and shows piezoelectricity and SHG properties. Upon dehydration, it
      undergoes a single-crystal to single-crystal structural rearrangement to a
      monoclinic polar Pc phase that is ferroelectric and exhibits spin crossover.

PMID- 28881085
TI  - Analysis of the Catalytic Mechanism of Bifunctional Triterpene/Sesquarterpene
      Cyclase: Tyr167 Functions To Terminate Cyclization of Squalene at the Bicyclic
      Step.
AB  - Onoceroids are a group of triterpenes biosynthesized from squalene or
      dioxidosqualene by cyclization from both termini. We previously identified a
      bifunctional triterpene/sesquarterpene cyclase (TC) that constructs a tetracyclic
      scaffold from tetraprenyl-beta-curcumene (C35 ) but a bicyclic scaffold from
      squalene (C30 ) in the first reaction. TC also accepts the bicyclic intermediate
      as a substrate and generates tetracyclic and pentacyclic onoceroids in the second
      reaction. In this study, we analyzed the catalytic mechanism of an onoceroid
      synthase by using mutated enzymes. TCY167A produced an unnatural tricyclic
      triterpenol, but TCY167L , TCY167F , and TCY167W formed small quantities of
      tricyclic compounds, which suggested that the bulk size at Y167 contributed to
      termination of the cyclization of squalene at the bicyclic step. Our findings
      provide insight into the unique catalytic mechanism of TC, which triggers
      different cyclization modes depending on the substrate. These findings may
      facilitate the large-scale production of an onoceroid for which natural sources
      are limited.

PMID- 28881086
TI  - Investigation on the Interface Modification of TiO2 Surfaces by Functional Co
      Adsorbents for High-Efficiency Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.
AB  - The influence of interface modification of sensitized TiO2 surfaces by co
      adsorbents on photovoltaic performance is detailed. We investigated different
      functional groups of co-adsorbents, such as carboxylic (4-guanidino butyric acid,
      chenodeoxycholic acid), phosphinic (dineohexyl phosphinic acid), and phosphonic
      (dodecyl phosphonic acid), to better highlight their influence on the device
      performance and accurately classify them into de-aggregating agents or agents
      with both de-aggregating and co-adsorbing properties. By optimizing the type of
      co-adsorbent and its concentration in the dye solution, we reached an efficiency
      of 11.0 % using 4-guanidino butyric acid or dineohexyl phosphinic acid, compared
      to 10.6 % when the benchmark chenodeoxycholic acid was used. The presence of co
      adsorbents on the TiO2 surface was studied using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The role
      of these co-adsorbents on the band edge shift versus the recombination resistance
      is discussed.

PMID- 28881087
TI  - Organometallic DNA-B12 Conjugates as Potential Oligonucleotide Vectors: Synthesis
      and Structural and Binding Studies with Human Cobalamin-Transport Proteins.
AB  - The synthesis and structural characterization of Co-(dN)25 -Cbl (Cbl: cobalamin;
      dN: deoxynucleotide) and Co-(dN)39 -Cbl, which are organometallic DNA-B12
      conjugates with single DNA strands consisting of 25 and 39 deoxynucleotides,
      respectively, and binding studies of these two DNA-Cbl conjugates to three
      homologous human Cbl transporting proteins, transcobalamin (TC), intrinsic factor
      (IF), and haptocorrin (HC), are reported. This investigation tests the
      suitability of such DNA-Cbls for the task of eventual in vivo oligonucleotide
      delivery. The binding of DNA-Cbl to TC, IF, and HC was investigated in
      competition with either a fluorescent Cbl derivative and Co-(dN)25 -Cbl, or
      radiolabeled vitamin B12 (57 Co-CNCbl) and Co-(dN)25 -Cbl or Co-(dN)39 -Cbl.
      Binding of the new DNA-Cbl conjugates was fast and tight with TC, but poorer with
      HC and IF, which extends a similar original finding with the simpler DNA-Cbl, Co
      (dN)18 -Cbl. The contrasting affinities of TC versus IF and HC for the DNA-Cbl
      conjugates are rationalized herein by a stepwise mechanism of Cbl binding.
      Critical contributions to overall affinity result from gradual conformational
      adaptations of the Cbl-binding proteins to the DNA-Cbl, which is first bound to
      the respective beta domains. This transition is fast with TC, but slow with IF
      and HC, with which weaker binding results. The invariably tight interaction of
      the DNA-Cbl conjugates with TC makes the Cbl moiety a potential natural vector
      for the specific delivery of oligonucleotide loads from the blood into cells.

PMID- 28881088
TI  - Ectopic thyroid cancer diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound-guided
      transbronchial needle aspiration.
AB  - We report a case of papillary carcinoma in a mediastinal ectopic thyroid
      diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration
      (EBUS-TBNA). In this case, the tumor was adjacent to the central airway;
      therefore, we attempted to perform EBUS-TBNA to obtain specimens for a diagnosis
      of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Surgical resection was conducted, and
      histological evaluation of the resected specimen confirmed ectopic papillary
      thyroid carcinoma, consistent with the histology from the EBUS-TBNA specimen. As
      a safe and minimally invasive procedure, EBUS-TBNA may be considered for the
      diagnosis of mediastinal lesions, including papillary carcinoma in mediastinal
      ectopic thyroid.

PMID- 28881089
TI  - Intra- versus Intermolecular Hydrogen Bonding: Solvent-Dependent Conformational
      Preferences of a Common Supramolecular Binding Motif from 1 H NMR and Vibrational
      Circular Dichroism Spectra.
AB  - When predicting binding properties of small molecules or larger supramolecular
      aggregates, intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds are often considered the
      most important factor. Spectroscopic techniques such as 1 H NMR spectroscopy are
      typically utilized to characterize such binding events, but interpretation is
      often qualitative and follows chemical intuition. In this study, we compare the
      effects of intramolecular hydrogen bonding and solvation on two chiral 2,6
      pyridinediyl-dialkylamides. In comparison with 1 H NMR spectroscopy, vibrational
      circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy proved to be more sensitive to
      conformational changes. In fact, the change of the solvent from CDCl3 to [D6
      ]DMSO generates mirror-image VCD spectra for the same enantiomer. Here, the
      common sense that the sterically less hindered group is more prone to solvation
      proved to be wrong according predicted VCD spectra, which clearly show that both
      asymmetric amide hydrogens are equally likely to be solvated, but never
      simultaneously. The competition between intra- and intermolecular hydrogen
      bonding and their importance for a correct prediction of spectral properties are
      discussed.

PMID- 28881090
TI  - An activity transition from NADH dehydrogenase to NADH oxidase during protein
      denaturation.
AB  - A decrease in the specific activity of an enzyme is commonly observed when the
      enzyme is inappropriately handled or is stored over an extended period. Here, we
      reported a functional transition of an FMN-bound diaphorase (FMN-DI) that
      happened during the long-term storage process. It was found that FMN-DI did not
      simply lose its beta-nicotinamide adenine diphosphate (NADH) dehydrogenase
      activity after a long-time storage, but obtained a new enzyme activity of NADH
      oxidase. Further mechanistic studies suggested that the alteration of the binding
      strength of an FMN cofactor with a DI protein could be responsible for this
      functional switch of the enzyme.

PMID- 28881092
TI  - Improved Electrochemical Cycling Durability in a Nickel Oxide Double-Layered
      Film.
AB  - For the first time, a crystalline-amorphous double-layered NiOx film has been
      prepared by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering. This film has
      exhibited improved electrochemical cycling durability, whereas other
      electrochromic parameters have been maintained at the required level, namely, a
      short coloration/bleaching time (0.8 s/1.1 s) and an enhanced transmittance
      modulation range (62.2 %) at lambda=550 nm. Additionally, the double-layered film
      has shown better reversibility than that of amorphous and crystalline single
      layered films.

PMID- 28881091
TI  - Poor recovery from cystic fibrosis pulmonary exacerbations is associated with
      poor long-term outcomes.
AB  - RATIONALE: People with CF treated with IV antibiotics for a pulmonary
      exacerbation (PEx) frequently fail to recover to baseline FEV1 . The long-term
      impact of these events has not been studied. OBJECTIVES: To determine if a
      patient's spirometric recovery after a PEx is associated with time to next PEx
      within 1 year, the spirometric recovery after the next PEx, and/or the number of
      PEx episodes in the next 3 years. METHODS: We used data from the CF Foundation
      Patient Registry from 2004 to 2011. We randomly selected one PEx per patient that
      met inclusion/exclusion criteria. Patients were defined as Non-Responders if
      their best FEV1 (in liters) recorded in the 3 months after the PEx was <90% of
      the best FEV1 (in liters) in the 6 months before the PEx. We compared Responders
      and Non-Responders using multivariable regression models. RESULTS: We randomly
      chose 13 954 PEx episodes that met inclusion/exclusion criteria. A total of 2 762
      (19.8%) patients were classified as Non-Responders. Non-Responders had a shorter
      median time to the next PEx, 235 (95%CI 218, 252) days, versus >365 days for
      Responders. Thirty-four percent of Non-Responders at the initial PEx were also
      Non-Reponders at the next PEx, versus 20% of Responders at the initial PEx. Non
      Responders had more PEx episodes over the next 3 years, 4.99 (95%CI 4.84, 5.13),
      than Responders, 3.46 (95%CI 3.41, 3.51). CONCLUSIONS: Poor recovery after a PEx
      is associated with a shorter time to the next PEx, increased risk of poor
      recovery at a second PEx, and more frequent subsequent PEx treatments.

PMID- 28881093
TI  - Expansion of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Perfused 3D Ceramic
      Scaffolds Enhances In Vivo Bone Formation.
AB  - Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSC), when expanded directly
      within 3D ceramic scaffolds in perfusion bioreactors, more reproducibly form bone
      when implanted in vivo as compared to conventional expansion on 2D polystyrene
      dishes/flasks. Since the bioreactor-based expansion on 3D ceramic scaffolds
      encompasses multiple aspects that are inherently different from expansion on 2D
      polystyrene, we aimed to decouple the effects of specific parameters among these
      two model systems. We assessed the effects of the: 1) 3D scaffold vs. 2D surface;
      2) ceramic vs. polystyrene materials; and 3) BMSC niche established within the
      ceramic pores during in vitro culture, on subsequent in vivo bone formation.
      While BMSC expanded on 3D polystyrene scaffolds in the bioreactor could maintain
      their in vivo osteogenic potential, results were similar as BMSC expanded in
      monolayer on 2D polystyrene, suggesting little influence of the scaffold 3D
      environment. Bone formation was most reproducible when BMSC are expanded on 3D
      ceramic, highlighting the influence of the ceramic substrate. The presence of a
      pre-formed niche within the scaffold pores had negligible effects on the in vivo
      bone formation. The results of this study allow a greater understanding of the
      parameters required for perfusion bioreactor-based manufacturing of osteogenic
      grafts for clinical applications.

PMID- 28881094
TI  - Nontuberculous mycobacteria in cystic fibrosis: Updates and the path forward.
AB  - Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are troublesome pathogens that can cause
      significant pulmonary disease in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Diagnosis
      can be difficult in the setting of underlying CF and treatment regimens are
      burdensome on both patients and providers. Recent consensus guidelines for
      treatment of NTM in CF have provided a guide for the CF community, however
      research is lagging regarding accuracy of our diagnostic abilities and treatment
      efficacy. In this review, we provide new insights into the complexity of NTM from
      emerging whole genome sequencing data, a summary of current NTM diagnosis and
      treatment guidelines, highlight new treatment options, and discuss future
      research projects which aim to better define which patients to treat and timing
      and duration of treatment.

PMID- 28881095
TI  - Albumin-Assisted Method Allows Assessment of Release of Hydrophobic Drugs From
      Nanocarriers.
AB  - Polymeric nanoparticles have been extensively studied as drug delivery vehicles
      both in vitro and in vivo for the last two decades. In vitro methods to assess
      drug release profiles usually utilize degradation of nanoparticles in aqueous
      medium, followed by the measurement of the concentration of the released drug.
      This method, however, is difficult to use for drugs that are poorly water
      soluble. In this study, a protocol for measuring drug release kinetic using
      albumin solution as the medium is described. Albumin is a major blood transport
      protein, which mediates transport of many lipid soluble compounds including fatty
      acids, hormones, and bilirubin. The use of a dialysis-based system utilizing
      albumin dialysate solution allows hydrophobic drug release from a diverse set of
      drug delivery modalities is demonstrated. The method using liposomes and PLGA
      nanoparticles as drug carriers, and two model hydrophobic drugs, 17beta
      estradiol, and dexamethasone is validated.

PMID- 28881096
TI  - Integrated Chromatographic Platform for Simultaneous Separation of Charge
      Variants and Aggregates from Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutic Products.
AB  - Achieving consistent product quality of a biotherapeutic is a major target for
      any biopharmaceutical manufacturer, even more for a biosimilar producer as
      comparability with the innovator product is a regulatory expectation. The
      complexity of biotherapeutic products and their tedious manufacturing processes,
      however, make this a non-trivial exercise. The primary motivation of this work is
      to develop an integrated chromatographic platform for purification of monoclonal
      antibody (mAb) therapeutics that can deliver the desired separation of both
      charge variants and aggregates, in addition to the process related impurities
      like host cell proteins (HCP) and host cell DNA. To achieve the same, an
      integrated two-stage chromatographic process platform consisting of cation
      exchange chromatography and multimodal chromatography is being proposed. The
      versatility of the proposed platform has been successfully demonstrated for three
      different mAbs. It have been shown that in each case charge variant separation is
      achieved with the required clearance of aggregates (<1%), HCP (<10 ppm), and DNA
      (<5 ppb). Moreover, the proposed platform is conducive to use for development of
      a continuous process and offers smaller process time, lower buffer utilization,
      and decreased operational costs when compared to the conventional purification
      platforms.

PMID- 28881098
TI  - Identification and Engineering of Post-PKS Modification Bottlenecks for
      Ansamitocin P-3 Titer Improvement in Actinosynnema pretiosum subsp. pretiosum
      ATCC 31280.
AB  - The type-I polyketide ansamitocin P-3 (AP-3) is a potent antitumor agent. Its
      production is most likely hampered by the required multiple substrate supplies
      and complicated post-PKS modifications in Actinosynnema pretiosum subsp.
      pretiosum ATCC 31280. For titer improvement, gene ansa30, encoding for a
      glycosyltransferase competing for the N-demethyl-AP-3 (PND-3) intermediate for AP
      3 biosynthesis, was initially inactivated. In the mutant NXJ-22, the AP-3 titer
      was increased by 66% along with an obvious accumulation of PND-3, indicating that
      the N-methylation is a rate-limiting step. Alternatively, when abundant upstream
      intermediate 19-chloroproansamitocin was fed into a PKS mutant, 3-O-acylation was
      further identified along with the N-methylation as the rate-limiting steps.
      Subsequent overexpression of N-methyltransferase gene asm10 in NXJ-22 resulted in
      a 93% increase of AP-3 and a corresponding 92% decrease of PND-3. Additional
      supplementation of L-methionine, the precursor for SAM biosynthesis,
      substantially decreased the accumulation of PND-3. In parallel, the 3-O-acylation
      bottleneck was relieved by feeding with L-valine to NXJ-22, resulting in a 126%
      increase of AP-3. Eventually, a combined asm10 overexpression and supplementation
      of L-methionine and L-valine resulted in a 5-fold increase of AP-3, from 42 +/- 2
      mg L-1 to 246 +/- 6 mg L-1 , without any noticeable accumulation of PND-3.

PMID- 28881099
TI  - Renal-protective and ameliorating impacts of omega-3 fatty acids against
      aspartame damaged MDCK cells.
AB  - Aspartame is widely used artificial sweeteners as food additives. Several
      researchers have pointed that the controversial report on the use of aspartame
      over more than decades. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential and unsaturated fatty
      acids, and it plays a remarkable role in vision, intelligence, neural
      development, and metabolism of neurotransmitters. Therefore, the present study
      was aimed to investigate the effect of omega-3 fatty acids on aspartame treated
      renal cells. Experimental groups were divided into three such as sham control,
      aspartame treated, and aspartame with omega-3 fatty acids. Cell viability was
      determined by sulforhodamine-b assay and flow cytometric analysis. The
      experimental results showed that the aspartame induced altered cell viability
      were reduced following treatment of aspartame with omega-3 fatty acids. Altered
      cell morphology was recovered by omega-3 fatty acids. DNA damage appeared in the
      highest concentration of aspartame used in this study. DNA damage characteristics
      such as comet tail and tiny head sections did not appear in the omega-3 fatty
      acids treated cells. Several microvilli and vesicular structures were found in
      aspartame treated cells. Altered morphology such as rounding, microvilli, and
      formation of dome-like structures did not appear in the omega-3 fatty acids with
      aspartame treated cells. Caspase-3 mRNA and protein expression were increased in
      aspartame treated cells, and these levels were reduced following omega-3 fatty
      acids treatment. Taking all these data together, it is suggested that the omega-3
      fatty acids may be a therapeutic agent to reduce the aspartame induced
      biochemical and morphological alterations in normal renal cells. (c) 2017
      BioFactors, 43(6):847-857, 2017.

PMID- 28881101
TI  - Nasal high-frequency oscillatory ventilation impairs heated humidification: A
      neonatal bench study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nasal high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (nHFOV) is a novel mode
      of non-invasive ventilation used in neonates. However, upper airway obstructions
      due to viscous secretions have been described as specific adverse effects. We
      hypothesized that high-frequency oscillations reduce air humidity in the
      oropharynx, resulting in upper airway desiccation. Therefore, we aimed to
      investigate the effects of nHFOV ventilatory settings on oropharyngeal gas
      conditions. METHODS: NHFOV or nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP)
      was applied, along with heated humidification, to a previously established
      neonatal bench model that simulates oropharyngeal gas conditions during
      spontaneous breathing through an open mouth. A digital thermo-hygro sensor
      measured oropharyngeal temperature (T) and humidity at various nHFOV frequencies
      (7, 10, 13 Hz), amplitudes (10, 20, 30 cmH2 O), and inspiratory-to-expiratory
      (I:E) ratios (25:75, 33:66, 50:50), and also during nCPAP. RESULTS: Relative
      humidity was always >99%, but nHFOV resulted in lower mean T and absolute
      humidity (AH) in comparison to nCPAP (P < 0.001). Specifically, decreasing the
      nHFOV frequency and increasing nHFOV amplitude caused a decline in T and AH (P <
      0.001). Mean T and AH were highest during nCPAP (T 34.8 +/- 0.6 degrees C, AH
      39.3 +/- 1.3 g . m-3 ) and lowest during nHFOV at a frequency of 7 Hz and an
      amplitude of 30 cmH2 O (T 32.4 +/- 0.3 degrees C, AH 34.7 +/- 0.5 g . m-3 ).
      Increasing the I:E ratio also reduced T and AH (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION:
      Intensified nHFOV settings with low frequencies, high amplitudes, and high I:E
      ratios may place infants at an increased risk of upper airway desiccation. Future
      studies should investigate strategies to optimize heated humidification during
      nHFOV.

PMID- 28881097
TI  - Toward inclusive therapy with CFTR modulators: Progress and challenges.
AB  - Cystic fibrosis is caused by gene mutations that result in an abnormal Cystic
      Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein on the surface of
      cells. CFTR modulators are a novel class of drugs that directly target the
      molecular defect. CFTR modulators include potentiators that result in improved
      activity of the channel; correctors that help the protein traffic to the cell
      surface properly; and readthrough agents that restore full-length CFTR by
      suppression of premature termination codons, among other novel classes more
      recently established. While some of these drugs, CFTR potentiators in particular,
      have provided remarkable improvements for CF patients, others have yet to achieve
      profoundly improved outcomes, and many CF patients are not yet impacted by CFTR
      modulators due to lack of knowledge regarding susceptibility of their mutations
      to treatment. One limitation to expanding these types of therapies to the maximum
      number of patients with CF is the lack of rigorously validated clinical
      biomarkers that can determine efficacy on an individual basis, as well as few pre
      clinical tools that can predict whether an individual with a rare combination of
      mutant alleles will respond to a particular CFTR modulator regimen. In this
      review, we discuss the various groups of CFTR modulators and their status in
      clinical development, as well as address the current literature on biomarkers,
      pre-clinical cell-based tools, and the role of pharmacometrics in creating
      therapeutic strategies to improve the lives of all patients with cystic fibrosis,
      regardless of their specific mutation.

PMID- 28881100
TI  - An Engineered Glycerol Dehydratase With Improved Activity for the Conversion of
      meso-2,3-butanediol to Butanone.
AB  - There is substantial interest in engineering microorganisms to produce industrial
      chemicals that are currently derived from petroleum. One of these petrochemicals
      is butanone, which could be produced from microbially synthesized 2,3-butanediol
      through the action of a suitable dehydratase enzyme. Unfortunately, however,
      there are no known enzymes that natively catalyze this reaction. In this work,
      the authors set out to engineer the B12 -dependent glycerol dehydratase from
      Klebsiella pneumoniae (KpGDHt), in order to increase its activity for the
      conversion of meso-2,3-butanediol into butanone. The authors began by fusing the
      alpha and beta subunits of the enzyme, to simplify downstream high-throughput
      screening protocols. Serendipitously, the fusion protein showed a 20 degrees C
      increase in its temperature optimum. Using this stabilized scaffold as a starting
      point, the authors employed the combinatorial active site saturation test and
      consensus-guided mutagenesis to randomize 28 residues within 12 A of the KpGDHt
      active site. By screening over 5500 variants, the authors discovered a single
      point mutation (T200S) that increased the catalytic efficiency of meso-2,3
      butanediol dehydration by four-fold, to a value of kcat /KM  = 5.1 * 103 M-1 s-1
      . Thus the authors report what is, to date, the most comprehensive mutagenesis
      and the largest engineered increase in catalytic efficiency on the B12 -dependent
      glycerol dehydratase scaffold.

PMID- 28881102
TI  - Living with schizophrenia: Health-related quality of life among primary family
      caregivers.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine influencing factors of health-related quality of
      life in primary family caregivers of people with schizophrenia receiving
      inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation services. BACKGROUND: Families, particularly
      primary family caregivers, have become more important than ever in mental health
      care. Yet, research on health-related quality of life among primarily family
      caregivers is limited. DESIGN: A correlational study design was used. METHODS: A
      convenience sample of 122 primary family caregivers participated in the study.
      Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, Pearson's product-moment
      correlation, t test, one-way analysis of variance and a hierarchical multiple
      regression analysis. RESULTS: Primary family caregivers who were parents, older,
      less educated, and had a lower monthly household income, increased affiliate
      stigma and decreased quality of family-centred care experienced poor health
      related quality of life. Particularly, monthly household income, affiliate stigma
      and quality of family-centred care appeared to be the most critical determinants
      of health-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to enhance satisfaction
      of life should focus on reducing affiliate stigma as well as increasing monthly
      household income and strengthening the quality of family-centred care. RELEVANCE
      TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Findings may assist in the development of culturally
      integrated rehabilitation programmes to decrease affiliate stigma and increase
      family engagement as a means of promoting quality of life for primary family
      caregivers living with people who have schizophrenia.

PMID- 28881103
TI  - HLA polymorphisms and risk of red blood cell alloimmunisation in polytransfused
      patients with sickle cell anaemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunisation is an event that may occur due
      to factors such as numerous blood transfusions, age, gender and genetic factors
      such as human leukocyte antigen (HLA). AIMS/OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present
      study was to investigate the possibility of alloimmunisation to red blood cell
      group antigens associated with the HLA of individuals and to relate
      alloimmunisation to risk factors. METHODS: A total of 172 polytransfused patients
      with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) (44 alloimmunised, 128 non-alloimmunised)
      participated in this study. Blood group genotyping was performed by the DNA
      microarray method and HLA genotyping by polymerase chain reaction - specific
      sequence of oligonucleotides. RESULTS: The number of transfusions received
      directly influenced the incidence of alloimmunisation, and the most common
      alloantibodies were against Rh (48.8%) and Kell (17%) systems. The HLA-C*06 and
      HLA-DQB1*03 variants were significantly higher in alloimmunised patients. The HLA
      DRB1*04 and HLA-DRB1*11 were more often found in individuals who developed the
      alloantibodies anti-Fya and anti-K, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study suggests
      that polytransfused patients with SCA possessing the HLA-DQB1*03 and HLA-C*06
      allele variants are more susceptible to alloimmunisation. In addition, HLA
      DRB1*04 and HLA-DRB1*11 alleles were seen to be associated with the production of
      anti-Fya and anti-K antibodies, respectively.

PMID- 28881104
TI  - Bioactive Macrocyclic Inhibitors of the PD-1/PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint.
AB  - Blockade of the immunoinhibitory PD-1/PD-L1 pathway using monoclonal antibodies
      has shown impressive results with durable clinical antitumor responses. Anti-PD-1
      and anti-PD-L1 antibodies have now been approved for the treatment of a number of
      tumor types, whereas the development of small molecules targeting immune
      checkpoints lags far behind. We characterized two classes of macrocyclic-peptide
      inhibitors directed at the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway. We show that these macrocyclic
      compounds act by directly binding to PD-L1 and that they are capable of
      antagonizing PD-L1 signaling and, similarly to antibodies, can restore the
      function of T-cells. We also provide the crystal structures of two of these small
      molecule inhibitors bound to PD-L1. The structures provide a rationale for the
      checkpoint inhibition by these small molecules, and a description of their small
      molecule/PD-L1 interfaces provides a blueprint for the design of small-molecule
      inhibitors of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway.

PMID- 28881105
TI  - Decision aid use during post-biopsy consultations for localized prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Decision Aids (DAs) effectively translate medical evidence for
      patients but are not routinely used in clinical practice. Little is known about
      how DAs are used during patient-clinician encounters. OBJECTIVE: To characterize
      the content and communicative function of high-quality DAs during diagnostic
      clinic visits for prostate cancer. PARTICIPANTS: 252 men newly diagnosed with
      localized prostate cancer who had received a DA, 45 treating physicians at 4 US
      Veterans Administration urology clinics. METHODS: Qualitative analysis of
      transcribed audio recordings was used to inductively develop categories capturing
      content and function of all direct references to DAs (booklet talk). The presence
      or absence of any booklet talk per transcript was also calculated. RESULTS:
      Booklet talk occurred in 55% of transcripts. Content focused on surgical
      procedures (36%); treatment choice (22%); and clarifying risk classification
      (17%). The most common function of booklet talk was patient corroboration of
      physicians' explanations (42%), followed by either physician or patient
      acknowledgement that the patient had the booklet. Codes reflected the absence of
      DA use for shared decision-making. In regression analysis, predictors of booklet
      talk were fewer years of patient education (P = .027) and more time in the
      encounter (P = .027). Patient race, DA type, time reading the DA, physician
      informing quality and physician age did not predict booklet talk. CONCLUSIONS:
      Results show that good decision aids, systematically provided to patients,
      appeared to function not to open up deliberations about how to balance benefits
      and harms of competing treatments, but rather to allow patients to ask narrow
      technical questions about recommended treatments.

PMID- 28881106
TI  - Quantitative assessment of airway dimensions in young children with cystic
      fibrosis lung disease using chest computed tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate lung disease progression using airway and artery (AA)
      dimensions on chest CT over 2-year interval in young CF patients longitudinally
      and compare to disease controls cross-sectionally. METHODS: Retrospective
      analysis of pressure controlled end-inspiratory CTs, 12 routine baseline (CT1 )
      and follow up (CT2 ) from AREST CF cohort; 12 disease controls with normal CT.
      All visible AA-pairs were measured perpendicular to the airway axis. Inner and
      outer airway diameters and wall (outer-inner radius) thickness were divided by
      adjacent arteries to compute Ain A-, Aout A-, and AWT A-ratios, respectively.
      Differences between CF and control data were assessed using mixed effects models
      predicting AA-ratios per segmental generation (SG). Power calculations were
      performed with 80% power and alpha = 0.05. RESULTS: CF, median age CT1 2 years;
      CT2 3.9 years, 5 males. Controls, median age 2.9 years, 10 males. Total of 4798
      AA-pairs measured. Cross-sectionally: Ain A-ratio showed no difference between
      controls and CF CT1 or CT2 . Aout A-ratio was significantly higher in CF CT1 (SG
      2-4) and CT2 (SG 2-5) compared to controls. AWT A-ratio was increased for CF CT1
      (SG 1-5) and CT2 (SG 2-6) compared to controls. CF longitudinally: Ain A-ratio
      was significantly higher at CT2 compared to CT1 . Increase in Aout A-ratio at CT2
      compared to CT1 was visible in SG >=4. Sample sizes of 21 and 58 would be
      necessary for 50% and 30% Aout A-ratio reductions, respectively, between CF CT2
      and controls. CONCLUSION: AA-ratio differences were present in young CF patients
      relative to disease controls. Aout A-ratio as an objective parameter for
      bronchiectasis could reduce sample sizes for clinical trials.

PMID- 28881107
TI  - Saddle nose deformity and septal perforation in granulomatosis with polyangiitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients who have granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA, syn. M.
      Wegener) often develop an external nose deformity which may have devastating
      psychological effects. Therefore, reconstruction of nasal deformities by
      rhinoplasty may become necessary to achieve a normal appearance. OBJECTIVE OF
      REVIEW: The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the efficacy and
      safety of surgical reconstruction in external nasal deformities and septal
      perforation in GPA patients. SEARCH STRATEGY: A systematic literature search with
      defined search terms was performed for scientific articles archived in the
      MEDLINE-Database up to 10 June 2016 (PubMed Advanced MEDLINE Search), describing
      management of cases or case series in GPA patients with saddle nose deformity
      and/or septal perforation. RESULTS: Eleven of 614 publications met the criteria
      for this analysis including 41 GPA patients undergoing external nasal
      reconstruction and/or septal reconstruction with a median follow-up of 2.6 years.
      Overall, saddle nose reconstruction in GPA patients is safe even if an increased
      rate of revision surgery has to be expected compared with individuals without GPA
      undergoing septorhinoplasty. Most implanted grafts were autografts of calvarial
      bone or costal cartilage. For septal perforation reconstruction, few studies were
      available. Therefore, based on the available data for surgical outcomes, it is
      impossible to make evidence-based recommendations. All included GPA patients had
      minimal or no local disease at the time of reconstructive surgery. Therefore, the
      relationship between disease activity and its impact on surgical outcomes remains
      unanswered. The potential impact of immune-modulating medications on increased
      complication rates and the impact of prophylactic antibiotics are unknown.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study systematically reviews the efficacy and safety of
      surgical reconstruction of external nasal deformities in GPA patients for the
      first time. Saddle nose reconstruction in GPA patients with minimal or no local
      disease is a safe procedure despite an increased rate of revision surgery.
      Further research is required regarding the impact of antibiotic prophylaxis,
      immune-modulating therapy, long-term outcomes and functional outcomes measured
      with subjective and objective parameters.

PMID- 28881108
TI  - Altered oesophageal mechanosensitivity of secondary peristalsis as a
      pathophysiological marker in patients with globus sensation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Secondary peristalsis is important for clearance of retained food
      bolus and refluxate from the oesophagus. We aimed to investigate whether patients
      with globus sensation have altered physiological characteristics of secondary
      peristalsis. DESIGN: Prospective case-controlled study SETTING: Hualien Tzu Chi
      Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Hualien, Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS:
      Seventeen globus patients and 18 healthy controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: After a
      baseline recording of primary peristalsis, secondary peristalsis was stimulated
      with slow and rapid mid-oesophageal injections of air. Distension thresholds and
      peristaltic activities of secondary peristalsis were analysed and compared
      between the patients and healthy controls. RESULTS: The threshold volume for
      generating secondary peristalsis during slow air distension did not differ
      between the patient and control groups (P = .55). The threshold volume for
      generating secondary peristalsis during rapid air distension was significantly
      greater in patients with globus than healthy controls (7.0 +/- 0.9 vs 5.0 +/- 0.3
      mL, P = .04). Secondary peristalsis was triggered less frequently in globus
      patients as compared with healthy control after rapid air distension (40% [30%
      65%] vs 60% [60%-83%], P = .001). There was no difference in any of peristaltic
      parameters for primary and secondary peristalsis between the groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our work identifies functional defects of oesophageal secondary peristalsis in
      patients with globus sensation and such defects are characterised with defective
      triggering of secondary peristalsis during rapid air distension. Whether current
      findings have therapeutic implication in the management of patients with globus
      sensation warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28881109
TI  - Cell-Surface Expression Levels Are Important for Fine-Tuning the Performance of
      Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Based Signalobodies.
AB  - As receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) play important roles in cell-fate control of
      various cell types, engineered RTKs that could respond to inexpensive ligands
      might drastically reduce the cost of producing desired cells for various
      applications in regenerative medicine. We developed several engineered RTKs named
      "signalobodies" in which the ligand-recognition domain of RTKs is replaced by
      single-chain Fv for enabling recognition of a specific antigen. However, the
      remaining concern was the dysregulation of antigen-dependent on/off signaling of
      the signalobodies. This study aims at fine-tuning the performance of the
      signalobodies based on three RTKs (fibroblast growth factor receptor 1, insulin
      receptor, and c-fms). To this end, the cell-surface expression levels of the RTK
      based signalobodies were altered by locating their genes either upstream or
      downstream of the internal ribosomal entry site, and by inserting 1 to 3 alanine
      residue(s) at the intracellular juxtamembrane region. As a result, while the
      signaling response was different among the three signalobodies, the antigen
      dependent on/off regulation became tighter when the cell-surface expression
      levels of the signalobodies were lowered. Therefore, we successfully developed a
      method to diminish the leaky signaling of RTK-based signalobodies, which will be
      important for establishing the signalobody-based platform technology that can
      produce cells of interest for regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28881110
TI  - Endoscopic Spine Surgery.
AB  - Surgical treatment of the degenerative disc disease has evolved from traditional
      open spine surgery to minimally invasive spine surgery including endoscopic spine
      surgery. Constant improvement in the imaging modality especially with
      introduction of the magnetic resonance imaging, it is possible to identify
      culprit degenerated disc segment and again with the discography it is possible to
      diagnose the pain generator and pathological degenerated disc very precisely and
      its treatment with minimally invasive approach. With improvements in the optics,
      high resolution camera, light source, high speed burr, irrigation pump etc,
      minimally invasive spine surgeries can be performed with various endoscopic
      techniques for lumbar, cervical and thoracic regions. Advantages of endoscopic
      spine surgeries are less tissue dissection and muscle trauma, reduced blood loss,
      less damage to the epidural blood supply and consequent epidural fibrosis and
      scarring, reduced hospital stay, early functional recovery and improvement in the
      quality of life & better cosmesis. With precise indication, proper diagnosis and
      good training, the endoscopic spine surgery can give equally good result as open
      spine surgery. Initially, endoscopic technique was restricted to the lumbar
      region but now it also can be used for cervical and thoracic disc herniations.
      Previously endoscopy was used for disc herniations which were contained without
      migration but now days it is used for highly up and down migrated disc
      herniations as well. Use of endoscopic technique in lumbar region was restricted
      to disc herniations but gradually it is also used for spinal canal stenosis and
      endoscopic assisted fusion surgeries. Endoscopic spine surgery can play important
      role in the treatment of adolescent disc herniations especially for the persons
      who engage in the competitive sports and the athletes where less tissue trauma,
      cosmesis and early functional recovery is desirable. From simple chemonucleolysis
      to current day endoscopic procedures the history of minimally invasive spine
      surgery is interesting. Appropriate indications, clear imaging prior to surgery
      and preplanning are keys to successful outcome. In this article basic procedures
      of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy through transforaminal and
      interlaminar routes, percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy, percutaneous
      endoscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy and percutaneous endoscopic thoracic
      discectomy are discussed.

PMID- 28881111
TI  - Biomechanical Comparison of Inter-fragmentary Compression Pressures: Lag Screw
      versus Herbert Screw for Anterior Odontoid Screw Fixation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to compare inter-fragmentary
      compression pressures after fixation of a simulated type II odontoid fracture
      with the headless compression Herbert screw and a half threaded cannulated lag
      screw. METHODS: We compared inter-fragmentary compression pressures between 40-
      and 45-mm long 4.5-mm Herbert screws (n=8 and n=9, respectively) and 40- and 45
      mm long 4.0-mm cannulated lag screws (n=7 and n=10, respectively) after insertion
      into rigid polyurethane foam test blocks (Sawbones, Vashon, WA, USA). A washer
      load cell was placed between the two segments of test blocks to measure the
      compression force. Because the total length of each foam block was 42 mm, the 40
      mm screws were embedded in the cancellous foam, while the 45-mm screws penetrated
      the denser cortical foam at the bottom. This enabled us to compare inter
      fragmentary compression pressures as they are affected by the penetration of the
      apical dens tip by the screws. RESULTS: The mean compression pressures of the 40-
      and 45-mm long cannulated lag screws were 50.48+/-1.20 N and 53.88+/-1.02 N,
      respectively, which was not statistically significant (p=0.0551). The mean
      compression pressures of the 40-mm long Herbert screw was 52.82+/-2.17 N, and was
      not statistically significant compared with the 40-mm long cannulated lag screw
      (p=0.3679). However, 45-mm Herbert screw had significantly higher mean
      compression pressure (60.68+/-2.03 N) than both the 45-mm cannulated lag screw
      and the 40-mm Herbert screw (p=0.0049 and p=0.0246, respectively). CONCLUSION:
      Our results showed that inter-fragmentary compression pressures of the Herbert
      screw were significantly increased when the screw tip penetrated the opposite
      dens cortical foam. This can support the generally recommended surgical technique
      that, in order to facilitate maximal reduction of the fracture gap using anterior
      odontoid screws, it is essential to penetrate the apical dens tip with the screw.

PMID- 28881112
TI  - Morphological and Hemodynamic Parameters for Middle Cerebral Artery Bifurcation
      Aneurysm Rupture Risk Assessment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the morphological and hemodynamic parameters associated
      with middle cerebral artery (MCA)bifurcation aneurysm rupture. METHODS: A
      retrospective study of 67 consecutive patients was carried out based on 3D
      digital subtraction angiography data. Morphological and hemodynamic parameters
      including aneurysm size parameters (dome width, height, and perpendicular
      height), longest dimension from the aneurysm neck to the dome tip, neck width,
      aneurysm area, aspect ratio, Longest dimension from the aneurysm neck to the dome
      tip (Dmax) to dome width, and height-width, Bottleneck factor, as well as wall
      shear stress (WSS), low WSS area (LSA), percentage of LSA (LSA%) and energy loss
      (EL) were estimated. Parameters between ruptured and un-ruptured groups were
      analyzed. Receiver operating characteristics were generated to check prediction
      performance of all significant variables. RESULTS: Sixty-seven patients with MCA
      bifurcation aneurysm were included (31 unruptured, 36 ruptured). Dmax (p=0.008)
      was greater in ruptured group than that in un-ruptured group. D/W (p<0.001) and
      the percentage of the low WSS area (0.09+/-0.13 vs. 0.01+/-0.03, p<0.001) were
      also greater in the ruptured group. Moreover, the EL in ruptured group was higher
      than that in un-ruptured group (6.39+/-5.04 vs. 1.53+/-0.86, p<0.001).
      Multivariate regression analysis suggested D/W and EL were significant predictors
      of rupture of MCA bifurcation aneurysms. Correlation analyses revealed the D/W
      value was positively associated with the EL (R=0.442, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: D/W
      and EL might be the most two favorable factors to predict rupture risk of MCA
      bifurcation aneurysms.

PMID- 28881113
TI  - Cerebral Arterial Stenosis in Patients with Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and ischemic stroke share
      common vascular risk factors such as aging and hypertension. Previous studies
      suggested that the rate of recurrent ICH and ischemic stroke might be similar
      after ICH. Presence of cerebral arterial stenosis is a potential risk factor for
      future ischemic stroke. This study investigated the prevalence and factors
      associated with cerebral arterial stenosis in Korean patients with spontaneous
      ICH. METHODS: A total of 167 patients with spontaneous ICH were enrolled.
      Intracranial arterial stenosis (ICAS) and extracranial arterial stenosis (ECAS)
      were assessed by computed tomography angiography. Presence of ICAS was defined if
      patients had arterial stenosis in at least one intracranial artery. ECAS was
      assessed in the extracranial carotid artery. More than 50% luminal stenosis was
      defined as presence of stenosis. Prevalence and factors associated with presence
      of ICAS and cerebral arterial stenosis (presence of ICAS and/or ECAS) were
      investigated by multivariable logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Thirty-two
      (19.2%) patients had ICAS, 7.2% had ECAS, and 39 (23.4%) patients had any
      cerebral arterial stenosis. Frequency of ICAS and ECAS did not differ among
      ganglionic ICH, lobar ICH, and brainstem ICH. Age was higher in patients with
      ICAS (67.6+/-11.8 vs. 58.9+/-13.6 years p=0.004) and cerebral arterial stenosis
      (67.9+/-11.6 vs. 59.3+/-13.5 years, p<0.001) compared to those without stenosis.
      Patients with ICAS were older, more frequently had diabetes, had a higher serum
      glucose level, and had a lower hemoglobin level than those without ICAS. Patients
      with cerebral arterial stenosis were older, had diabetes and lower hemoglobin
      level, which was consistent with findings in patients with ICAS. However,
      patients with cerebral arterial stenosis showed higher prevalence of hypertension
      and decreased kidney function compared to those without cerebral arterial
      stenosis. Multivariable logistic regression analyses showed that aging and
      presence of diabetes independently predicted the presence of ICAS, and aging,
      diabetes, and hypertension were independently associated with presence of
      cerebral arterial stenosis. CONCLUSION: 19.2% of patients with spontaneous ICH
      had ICAS, but the prevalence of ECAS was relatively lower (7.2%) compared with
      ICAS. Aging and diabetes were independent factors for the presence of ICAS,
      whereas aging, hypertension, and diabetes were factors for the cerebral arterial
      stenosis.

PMID- 28881114
TI  - Intra-arterial and Intravenous Tirofiban Infusion for Thromboembolism during
      Endovascular Coil Embolization of Cerebral Aneurysm.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Thromboembolism is the one of the most serious complications that can
      occur during endovascular coil embolization of cerebral aneurysm. We report on
      the effectiveness and safety of intra-arterial/intravenous (IA/IV) glycoprotein
      IIb/IIIa inhibitor (tirofiban) infusion for treating thromboembolism during
      endovascular coil embolization of cerebral aneurysm. METHODS: We performed a
      retrospective analysis of 242 patients with ruptured or unruptured cerebral
      aneurysms (n=264) who underwent endovascular coil embolization from January 2011
      to June 2014. Thromboembolism occurred in 20 patients (7.4%), including 14 cases
      of ruptured aneurysms and 6 cases of unruptured aneurysms. The most common site
      of aneurysms was the anterior communicating artery (n=8), followed by middle
      cerebral artery (n=6). When we found an enlarged thromboembolism during coil
      embolization, we tried to dissolve it using tirofiban administered via IA and IV
      loading (5 MUg/kg, respectively) for 3-5 minutes followed by IV maintenance (0.08
      MUg/kg/min) for approximately 4-24 hours. RESULTS: In 4 of 5 patients with total
      vessel occlusion, the vessel was recanalized to Thrombolysis in Cerebral
      Infarction Perfusion Scale (TICI) grade 3, and in 1 patient to TICI grade 2a. In
      2 patients with partial vessel occlusion and 13 patients with minimal occlusion,
      the vessel recanalized to TICI grade 3. Irrelevant intracerebral hemorrhage was
      noted in 1 patient (5%), and thromboemboli-related cerebral infarction developed
      in 5 patients (25%), of which only 1 (5%) was symptomatic. CONCLUSION: IA/IV
      infusion and IV maintenance with tirofiban appear to be an effective rescue
      treatment for thromboembolism during endovascular coil embolization in patients
      with ruptured or unruptured cerebral aneurysms.

PMID- 28881115
TI  - The Role of Adjuvant Treatment in Patients with High-Grade Meningioma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of adjuvant treatment in patients with
      high-grade meningioma. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed for
      patients with high-grade meningioma, World Health Organization grade 2 or 3, in a
      single center between 2003 and 2014. The patients were reviewed according to age
      at diagnosis, sex, the location of meningioma, degree of tumor resection,
      histological features, and type of adjuvant treatment. These factors were
      analyzed by Firth logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Fifty-three patients
      with high-grade meningioma were enrolled. Thirty-four patients received adjuvant
      treatment; conventional radiotherapy or radiosurgery. Clinical follow-up ranged
      from 13-113 months with a median follow-up of 35.5 months. Gross total removal
      (GTR), Simpson grade 1 or 2, was achieved in 29 patients and, among them, 13
      patients received adjuvant treatment. In the other 24 patients with non-GTR,
      conventional adjuvant radiotherapy and radiosurgery were performed in 11 and 10
      patients, respectively. The other 3 patients did not receive any adjuvant
      treatment. Radiation-related complications did not occur. Of the 53 patients, 19
      patients had suffered from recurrence. The recurrence rate in the adjuvant
      treatment group was 23.5% (8 out of 34). On the other hand, the rate for the non
      adjuvant treatment group was 57.9% (11 out of 19) (odds ratio [OR]=0.208,
      p=0.017). In the GTR group, the recurrence rate was 7.5% (1 out of 13) for
      patients with adjuvant treatment and 50% (8 out of 16) for patients without
      adjuvant treatment (OR=0.121, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Adjuvant treatment appears to
      be safe and effective, and could lead to a lower recurrence rate in high-grade
      meningioma, regardless of the extent of removal. Our results might be used as a
      reference for making decisions when planning adjuvant treatments for patients
      with high-grade meningioma after surgery.

PMID- 28881117
TI  - Comparison of Root Images between Post-Myelographic Computed Tomography and
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients with Lumbar Radiculopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of computed tomography-myelography
      (CTM) compared to that of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with
      lumbar radiculopathy. METHODS: The study included 91 patients presenting with
      radicular leg pain caused by herniated nucleus pulposus or lateral recess
      stenosis in the lumbar spine. The degree of nerve root compression on MRI and CTM
      was classified into four grades. The results of each imaging modality as assessed
      by two different observers were compared. Visual analog scale score for pain and
      electromyography result were the clinical parameters used to evaluate the
      relationships between clinical features and nerve root compression grades on both
      MRI and CTM. These relationships were quantified by calculating the receiver
      operating characteristic curves, and the degree of relationship was compared
      between MRI and CTM. RESULTS: McNemar's test revealed that the two diagnostic
      modalities did not show diagnostic concurrence (p<0.0001). Electromyography
      results did not correlate with grades on either MRI or CTM. The visual analog
      pain scale score results were correlated better with changes of the grades on CTM
      than those on MRI (p=0.0007). CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that CTM
      could better define the pathology of degenerative lumbar spine diseases with
      radiculopathy than MRI. CTM can be considered as a useful confirmative diagnostic
      tool when the exact cause of radicular pain in a patient with lumbar
      radiculopathy cannot be identified by using MRI. However, the invasiveness and
      potential complications of CTM are still considered to be pending questions to
      settle.

PMID- 28881116
TI  - Surgical Roles for Spinal Involvement of Hematological Malignancies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with hematological malignancies frequently encounter spine
      related symptoms, which are caused by disease itself or process of treatment.
      However, there is still lack of knowledge on their epidemiology and clinical
      courses. The purpose of this article is to review clinical presentations and
      surgical results for spinal involvement of hematologic malignancies. METHODS:
      From January 2011 to September 2014, 195 patients (98 males and 97 females)
      suffering from hematological malignancies combined with spinal problems were
      retrospectively analyzed for clinical and radiological characteristics and their
      clinical results. RESULTS: The most common diagnosis of hematological malignancy
      was multiple myeloma (96 patients, 49.7%), followed by chronic myeloid leukemia
      (30, 15.2%), acute myeloid leukemia (22, 11.2%), and lymphoma (15, 7.56%). The
      major presenting symptoms were mechanical axial pain (132, 67.7%) resulting from
      pathologic fractures, and followed by radiating pain (49, 25.1%). Progressive
      neurologic deficits were noted in 15 patients (7.7%), which revealed as cord
      compression by epidural mass or compressive myelopathy combined with pathologic
      fractures. Reconstructive surgery for neurologic compromise was done in 16
      patients. Even though surgical intervention was useful for early paralysis
      (Frankel grade D or E), neurologic recovery was not satisfactory for the
      progressed paralysis (Frankel grade A or B). CONCLUSION: Hematological
      malignancies may cause various spinal problems related to disease progression or
      consequences of treatments. Conservative and palliative treatments are mainstay
      for these lesions. However, timely surgical interventions should be considered
      for the cases of pathologic fractures with progressive neurologic compromise.

PMID- 28881118
TI  - The Effect of Uncinate Process Resection on Subsidence Following Anterior
      Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Subsidence is a frequent complication of anterior cervical discectomy
      and fusion. Postoperative segmental micro-motion, thought to be a causative
      factor of subsidence, has been speculated to increase with uncinate process
      resection area (UPR). To evaluate the effect of UPR on micro-motion, we designed
      a method to measure UPR area based on pre- and postoperative computed tomography
      images and analyzed the relationship between UPR and subsidence as a proxy of
      micro-motion. METHODS: We retrospectively collected clinical and radiological
      data from January 2011 to June 2016. A total of 38 patients (53 segments) were
      included. All procedures included bilateral UPR and anterior plate fixation. UPR
      area was evaluated with reformatted coronal computer tomography images. To reduce
      level-related bias, we converted UPR area to the proportion of UPR to the pre
      operative UP area (pUPR). RESULTS: Subsidence occurred in 18 segments (34%) and
      positively correlated with right-side pUPR, left-side pUPR, and the sum of
      bilateral pUPR (sum pUPR) (R=0.310, 301, 364; p=0.024, 0.029, 0.007,
      respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that subsidence could
      be estimated with the following formula: subsidence=1.522+2.7*sum pUPR (R2=0.133,
      p=0.007). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis determined that sum
      pUPR>=0.38 could serve as a threshold for significantly increased risk of
      subsidence (p=0.005, area under curve=0.737, sensitivity=94%, specificity=51%).
      This threshold was confirmed by logistic regression analysis for subsidence
      (p=0.009, odds ratio=8.471). CONCLUSION: The UPR measurement method confirmed
      that UPR was correlated with subsidence. Particularly when the sum of pUPR is
      >=38%, the possibility of subsidence increased.

PMID- 28881119
TI  - Evaluation of Global Sagittal Balance in Koreans Adults.
AB  - OBJECTVIE: The global sagittal postural patterns as characterized by Roussouly
      classification have been previously described in various ethnicities, there were
      no studies investigated in Koreans. To analyze the distribution of the global
      sagittal postural patterns in Korean adults using Roussouly classification, the
      author prospectively studied. METHODS: 252 asymptomatic Korean adults was
      recruited. Data was obtained by reviewing the films for each subject. Spinopelvic
      parameters were measured and sagittal postural patterns were then determined
      according to Roussouly classification. We compared the data across different
      ethnicities from our study and a previous study to further characterize Korean
      sagittal postures. RESULTS: The subject included 151 males and 101 females, with
      mean age of 33.2+/-8.2 years. The average descriptive results were as below:
      thoracic kyphosis 28.6+/-7.7 degrees , lumbar lordosis 48.3+/-10.2 degrees ,
      sacral slope 37.8+/-5.8 degrees , pelvic incidence 45.1+/-7.5 degrees , pelvic
      tilt 9.4+/-6.7 degrees , spinosacral angle 130.1+/-5.4 degrees , and sagittal
      vertical axis 16.25+/-22.5 mm. 125 subjects among 252 (49.6%) belonged to
      Roussouly type 3 (namely neutral). There were also 58 (23%), 33 (13.1%), and 36
      (14.3) subjects in type 1, 2, and 4 (namely non-neutral), respectively.
      CONCLUSION: Enrolling 252 asymptomatic Korean adults, this prospective study
      found that 49.6% of asymptomatic Korean adults possessed a sagittal posture of
      Roussouly type 3. All radiologic parameters follows general concept of spinal
      sagittal balance pattern. Overall, this study might be a basis for further
      investigation of spinal sagittal balance.

PMID- 28881120
TI  - A Lower T1 Slope as a Predictor of Subsidence in Anterior Cervical Discectomy and
      Fusion with Stand-Alone Cages.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Preoperative parameters including the T1 slope (T1S) and C2-C7
      sagittal vertical axis (SVA) have been recognized as predictors of kyphosis after
      laminoplasty, which is accompanied by posterior neck muscle damage. The
      importance of preoperative parameters has been under-estimated in anterior
      cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) because there is no posterior neck muscle
      damage. We aimed to determine whether postoperative subsidence and pseudarthrosis
      could be predicted according to specific parameters on preoperative plain
      radiographs. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 41 consecutive patients (male:
      female, 22: 19; mean age, 51.15+/-9.25 years) who underwent ACDF with a stand
      alone polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) cage (>1 year follow-up). Parameters
      including SVA, T1S, segmental angle and range of motion (ROM), C2-C7 cervical
      angle and ROM, and segmental inter-spinous distance were measured on preoperative
      plain radiographs. Risk factors of subsidence and pseudarthrosis were determined
      using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Fifty-five segments (27 single
      segment and 14 two-segment fusions) were included. The subsidence and
      pseudarthrosis rates based on the number of segments were 36.4% and 29.1%,
      respectively. Demographic data and fusion level were unrelated to subsidence. A
      greater T1S was associated with a lower risk of subsidence (p=0.017, odds
      ratio=0.206). A cutoff value of T1S<28 degrees  significantly predicted
      subsidence (sensitivity: 70%, specificity: 68.6%). There were no preoperative
      predictors of pseudarthrosis except old age. CONCLUSION: A lower T1S (T1S<28
      degrees ) could be a risk factor of subsidence following ACDF. Surgeons need to
      be aware of this risk factor and should consider various supportive procedures to
      reduce the subsidence rates for such cases.

PMID- 28881121
TI  - The Predictable Factors of the Postoperative Kyphotic Change of Sagittal
      Alignment of the Cervical Spine after the Laminoplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Laminoplasty is an effective surgical method for treating cervical
      degenerative disease. However, postoperative complications such as kyphosis,
      restriction of neck motion, and instability are often reported. Despite
      sufficient preoperative lordosis, this procedure often aggravates the lordotic
      curve of the cervical spine and straightens cervical alignment. Hence, it is
      important to examine preoperative risk factors associated with postoperative
      kyphotic alignment changes. Our study aimed to investigate preoperative
      radiologic parameters associated with kyphotic deformity post laminoplasty.
      METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 49 patients who
      underwent open door laminoplasty for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) or
      ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) at Pusan National
      University Yangsan Hospital between January 2011 and December 2015. Inclusion
      criteria were as follows: 1) preoperative diagnosis of OPLL or CSM, 2) no
      previous history of cervical spinal surgery, cervical trauma, tumor, or
      infection, 3) minimum of one-year follow-up post laminoplasty with proper
      radiologic examinations performed in outpatient clinics, and 4) cases showing C7
      and T1 vertebral body in the preoperative cervical sagittal plane. The radiologic
      parameters examined included C2-C7 Cobb angles, T1 slope, C2-C7 sagittal vertical
      axis (SVA), range of motion (ROM) from C2-C7, segmental instability, and T2
      signal change observed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Clinical factors
      examined included preoperative modified Japanese Orthopedic Association scores,
      disease classification, duration of symptoms, and the range of operation levels.
      RESULTS: Mean preoperative sagittal alignment was 13.01 degrees  lordotic; 6.94
      degrees  lordotic postoperatively. Percentage of postoperative kyphosis was 80%.
      Patients were subdivided into two groups according to postoperative Cobb angle
      change; a control group (n=22) and kyphotic group (n=27). The kyphotic group
      consisted of patients with more than 5 degrees  kyphotic angle change
      postoperatively. There were no differences in age, sex, C2-C7 Cobb angle, T1
      slope, C2-C7 SVA, ROM from C2-C7, segmental instability, or T2 signal change.
      Multiple regression analysis revealed T1 slope had a strong relationship with
      postoperative cervical kyphosis. Likewise, correlation analysis revealed there
      was a statistical significance between T1 slope and postoperative Cobb angle
      change (p=0.035), and that there was a statistically significant relationship
      between T1 slope and C2-C7 SVA (p=0.001). Patients with higher preoperative T1
      slope demonstrated loss of lordotic curvature postoperatively. CONCLUSION:
      Laminoplasty has a high probability of aggravating sagittal balance of the
      cervical spine. T1 slope is a good predictor of postoperative kyphotic changes of
      the cervical spine. Similarly, T1 slope is strongly correlated with C2-C7 SVA.

PMID- 28881122
TI  - Traumatic Brain Injury in Children under Age 24 Months: Analysis of Demographic
      Data, Risk Factors, and Outcomes of Post-traumatic Seizure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children under age 24 months has
      characteristic features because the brain at this age is rapidly growing and
      sutures are opened. Moreover, children this age are completely dependent on their
      parents. We analyzed the demographic data and risk factors for outcomes in TBI
      patients in this age group to elucidate their clinical characteristics. METHODS:
      We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and radiological films of
      children under 24 months who were admitted to Kyungpook National University
      Hospital from January 2004 to December 2013 for TBI. Specifically, we analyzed
      age, cause of injury, initial Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score, radiological
      diagnosis, seizure, hydrocephalus, subdural hygroma, and Glasgow outcome scale
      (GOS) score, and we divided outcomes into good (GOS 4-5) or poor (GOS 1-3). We
      identified the risk factors for post-traumatic seizure (PTS) and outcomes using
      univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The total number of patients was
      60, 39 males and 21 females. Most common age group was between 0 to 5 months, and
      the median age was 6 months. Falls were the most common cause of injury (n=29,
      48.3%); among them, 15 were falls from household furniture such as beds and
      chairs. Ten patients (16.7%) developed PTS, nine in one week; thirty-seven
      patients (61.7%) had skull fractures. Forty-eight patients had initial GCS scores
      of 13-15, 8 had scores of 12-8, and 4 had scored 3-7. The diagnoses were as
      follows: 26 acute subdural hematomas, 8 acute epidural hematomas, 7 focal
      contusional hemorrhages, 13 subdural hygromas, and 4 traumatic intracerebral
      hematomas larger than 2 cm in diameter. Among them, two patients underwent
      craniotomy for hematoma removal. Four patients were victims of child abuse, and
      all of them had PTS. Fifty-five patients improved to good-to-moderate disability.
      Child abuse, acute subdural hematoma, and subdural hygroma were risk factors for
      PTS in univariate analyses. Multivariate analysis found that the salient risk
      factor for a poor outcome was initial GCS on admission. CONCLUSION: The most
      common cause of traumatic head injury in individuals aged less than 24 months was
      falls, especially from household furniture. Child abuse, moderate to severe TBI,
      acute subdural hematoma, and subdural hygroma were risk factors for PTS. Most of
      the patients recovered with good outcomes, and the risk factor for a poor outcome
      was initial mental status.

PMID- 28881123
TI  - Significant Risk Factors for Postoperative Enlargement of Basal Ganglia Hematoma
      after Frameless Stereotactic Aspiration: Antiplatelet Medication and Concomitant
      IVH.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Frameless stereotactic aspiration of a hematoma can be the one of the
      treatment options for spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage in the basal ganglia.
      Postoperative hematoma enlargement, however, can be a serious complication of
      intracranial surgery that frequently results in severe neurological deficit and
      even death. Therefore, it is important to identify the risk factors of
      postoperative hematoma growth. METHODS: During a 13-year period, 101 patients
      underwent minimally invasive frameless stereotactic aspiration for basal ganglia
      hematoma. Patients were classified into two groups according to whether or not
      they had postoperative hematoma enlargement in a computed tomography scan.
      Baseline demographic data and several risk factors, such as hypertension,
      preoperative hematoma growth, antiplatelet medication, presence of concomitant
      intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), were analysed via a univariate statistical
      study. RESULTS: Nine of 101 patients (8.9%) showed hematoma enlargement after
      frameless stereotactic aspiration. Among the various risk factors, concomitant
      IVH and antiplatelet medication were found to be significantly associated with
      postoperative enlargement of hematomas. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our study
      revealed that aspirin use and concomitant IVH are factors associated with
      hematoma enlargement subsequent to frameless stereotactic aspiration for basal
      ganglia hematoma.

PMID- 28881124
TI  - Minimally Invasive Anterior Decompression Technique without Instrumented Fusion
      for Huge Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament in the Thoracic
      Spine: Technical Note And Literature Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several surgical methods have been reported for treatment of
      ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) in the thoracic spine.
      Despite rapid innovation of instruments and techniques for spinal surgery, the
      postoperative outcomes are not always favorable. This article reports a minimally
      invasive anterior decompression technique without instrumented fusion, which was
      modified from the conventional procedure. The authors present 2 cases of huge
      beak-type OPLL. Patients underwent minimally invasive anterior decompression
      without fusion. This method created a space on the ventral side of the OPLL
      without violating global thoracic spinal stability. Via this space, the OPLL and
      anterior lateral side of the dural sac can be seen and manipulated directly.
      Then, total removal of the OPLL was accomplished. No orthosis was needed. In this
      article, we share our key technique and concepts for treatment of huge thoracic
      OPLL. METHODS: Case 1. 51-year-old female was referred to our hospital with right
      lower limb radiating pain and paresis. Thoracic OPLL at T6-7 had been identified
      at our hospital, and conservative treatment had been tried without success. Case
      2. This 54-year-old female with a 6-month history of progressive gait disturbance
      and bilateral lower extremity radiating pain (right>left) was admitted to our
      institute. She also had hypoesthesia in both lower legs. Her symptoms had been
      gradually progressing. Computed tomography scans showed massive OPLL at the T9-10
      level. Magnetic resonance imaging of the thoracolumbar spine demonstrated ventral
      bony masses with severe anterior compression of the spinal cord at the same
      level. RESULTS: We used this surgical method in 2 patients with a huge beaked
      type OPLL in the thoracic level. Complete removal of the OPLL via anterior
      decompression without instrumented fusion was accomplished. The 1st case had no
      intraoperative or postoperative complications, and the 2nd case had 1
      intraoperative complication (dural tear) and no postoperative complications.
      There were no residual symptoms of the lower extremities. CONCLUSION: This
      surgical technique allows the surgeon to safely and effectively perform minimally
      invasive anterior decompression without instrumented fusion via a transthoracic
      approach for thoracic OPLL. It can be applied at the mid and lower level of the
      thoracic spine and could become a standard procedure for treatment of huge beak
      type thoracic OPLL.

PMID- 28881125
TI  - Adjustable Ghajar Guide Technique for Accurate Placement of Ventricular
      Catheters: A Pilot Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: An adjustable Ghajar guide is presented to improve the accuracy of the
      original Ghajar guide technique. The accuracy of the adjustable Ghajar guide
      technique is also investigated. METHODS: The coronal adjustment angle from the
      orthogonal catheter trajectory at Kocher's point is determined based on coronal
      head images using an electronic picture archiving and communication system. For
      the adjustable Ghajar guide, a protractor is mounted on a C-shaped basal plate
      that is placed in contact with the margin of a burrhole, keeping the central 0
      degrees  line of the protractor orthogonal to the calvarial surface. A catheter
      guide, which is moved along the protractor and fixed at the pre-determined
      adjustment angle, is then used to guide the ventricular catheter into the frontal
      horn adjacent to the foramen of Monro. The adjustable Ghajar guide technique was
      applied to 20 patients, while a freehand technique based on the surface anatomy
      of the head was applied to another 47 patients. The accuracy of the ventricular
      catheter placement was then evaluated using postoperative computed tomography
      scans. RESULTS: For the adjustable Ghajar guide technique (AGT) patients, the
      bicaudate index ranged from 0.23 to 0.33 (mean+/-standard deviation [SD]: 0.27+/
      0.03) and the adjustment angle ranged from 0 degrees  to 10 degrees  (mean+/-SD:
      5.2 degrees +/-3.2 degrees ). All the AGT patients experienced successful
      cerebrospinal fluid diversion with only one pass of the catheter. Optimal
      placement of the ventricular catheter in the ipsilateral frontal horn
      approximating the foramen of Monro (grade 1) was achieved in 19 patients (95.0%),
      while a suboptimal trajectory into a lateral corner of the frontal horn passing
      along a lateral wall of the frontal horn (grade 3) occurred in 1 patient (5.0%).
      Thus, the AGT patients experienced a significantly higher incidence of optimal
      catheter placement than the freehand catheterized patients (95.0% vs. 68.3%,
      p=0.024). Moreover, none of the AGT patients experienced any tract hemorrhages
      along the catheter or procedure-related complications. CONCLUSION: The proposed
      adjustable Ghajar guide technique, using angular adjustment in the coronal plane
      from the orthogonal trajectory at Kocher's point, facilitates accurate freehand
      placement of a ventricular catheter for hydrocephalic patients.

PMID- 28881126
TI  - In Situ Stringing of Metal Organic Frameworks by SiC Nanowires for High
      Performance Electromagnetic Radiation Elimination.
AB  - The design of novel hybrid nanostructures has been seen as an effective route to
      tune the properties of materials. Herein, we provide an in situ growth strategy
      to efficiently construct kebab-like hybrids, which are composed of one
      dimensional SiC nanowires stringing polyhedral metal organic frameworks (MOFs).
      Through a heat-treatment process regardless of under air or argon, these hybrids
      generate an excellent electromagnetic absorption (EMA) ability. We
      comprehensively explored the growth and calcination process of these hybrids as
      well as their EMA enhanced mechanism. The results indicate that the MOFs kept as
      shrunken polyhedrons under air but decomposed to small particles under argon, due
      to the different calcination mechanism. In addition, the enhanced EMA ability
      should be attributed to the combined influences of the reduced dielectric
      constant, enlarged aspect ratio, and enhanced interface polarization. This
      research opens up the rational designs and applications of novel materials by the
      hybridizing of nanomaterials in multidimensions.

PMID- 28881127
TI  - A New Strategy to Stabilize Capacity and Insight into the Interface Behavior in
      Electrochemical Reaction of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4/Graphite System for High-Voltage
      Lithium-Ion Batteries.
AB  - The performance of CEI and SEI configuration and formation mechanism on the
      cathode and anode side for LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4/natural graphite (LNMO/NG) batteries is
      investigated, where series permutations of the NG electrodes modified with TEOS
      species as the anode for the LNMO full cells. It is believed that the excellent
      long-term cycling performance of LNMO/NG full cells at the high voltage is a
      result of alleviating the devastated reaction to form the CEI and SEI on the both
      electrodes with electrolyte, respectively. At a voltage range from 3.4 to 4.8 V
      for the LNMO full cells, 95.0% capacity retention after 100 cycles is achieved
      when cycled with TEOS-modifying NG anode. This mechanism may be explained that
      eliminating the HF and absorbing water impurities in the electrolyte by
      introducing the TEOS group, which can transform the SiO2 species that react with
      the acid of HF at the organic solvent environment instead of destroying/forming
      the anode SEI and attacking the LNMO spinel structure to form the dense and high
      resistance CEI, meanwhile the SiO2 species will absorb the water molecule and
      precipitate into the anode surface further stabilizing the SEI configuration
      during the cycling.

PMID- 28881128
TI  - Oxidation State-Dependent Intramolecular Electronic Interaction of Carbazole
      Based Azacyclophanes with 9,10-Anthrylene Units.
AB  - We designed an azacyclophane comprising 3,6-substituted carbazole and 9,10
      anthrylene units to investigate the unique electronic properties of the oxidation
      states arising from the presence of multiple oxidizable azacyclophane. This
      compound and its analogue containing 1,4-phenylene in substitution of 9,10
      anthrylene units were synthesized by Buchwald-Hartwig coupling reactions. Cyclic
      voltammograms of both the 9,10-anthrylene and 1,4-phenylene derivatives exhibited
      four quasi-reversible oxidation processes. The absorption spectra of the
      oxidation states of the 9,10-anthrylene derivative exhibited broad absorption
      bands in the near-infrared region arising from charge-resonance and
      intramolecular charge-transfer interactions. The photophysical and
      electrochemical properties of the 9,10-anthrylene derivative were compared with
      those of the corresponding 1,4-phenylene derivative on the basis of theoretical
      calculations to evaluate the intramolecular electronic interactions.

PMID- 28881129
TI  - Polymorphism of Lysozyme Condensates.
AB  - Protein condensates play essential roles in physiological processes and
      pathological conditions. Recently discovered mesoscopic protein-rich clusters may
      act as crucial precursors for the nucleation of ordered protein solids, such as
      crystals, sickle hemoglobin polymers, and amyloid fibrils. These clusters
      challenge settled paradigms of protein condensation as the constituent protein
      molecules present features characteristic of both partially misfolded and native
      proteins. Here we employ the antimicrobial enzyme lysozyme and examine the
      similarities between mesoscopic clusters, amyloid structures, and disordered
      aggregates consisting of chemically modified protein. We show that the mesoscopic
      clusters are distinct from the other two classes of aggregates. Whereas cluster
      formation and amyloid oligomerization are both reversible, aggregation triggered
      by reduction of the intramolecular S-S bonds is permanent. In contrast to the
      amyloid structures, protein molecules in the clusters retain their enzymatic
      activity. Furthermore, an essential feature of the mesoscopic clusters is their
      constant radius of less than 50 nm. The amyloid and disordered aggregates are
      significantly larger and rapidly grow. These findings demonstrate that the
      clusters are a product of limited protein structural flexibility. In view of the
      role of the clusters in the nucleation of ordered protein solids, our results
      suggest that fine-tuning the degree of protein conformational stability is a
      powerful tool to control and direct the pathways of protein condensation.

PMID- 28881130
TI  - Non-Noble Metal Nanoparticles Supported by Postmodified Porous Organic
      Semiconductors: Highly Efficient Catalysts for Visible-Light-Driven On-Demand H2
      Evolution from Ammonia Borane.
AB  - From the viewpoint of controlling the visible-light-driven activities of
      catalysts containing metal nanoparticles (NPs) by tuning the microstructures of
      semiconducting supports, we employed a postsynthetic thermal modification
      approach to prepare carbon nitride (C3N4) species featuring different
      microstructures and then we synthesized Co and Ni NPs supported by these C3N4
      species, which were used to catalyze the room-temperature H2 evolution from
      ammonia borane (NH3BH3). The systematic investigation showed that the catalysts
      had different activities under light irradiation. Compared with the pristine C3N4
      based catalyst, all the modified C3N4-based catalysts had enhanced activities.
      The highest active Co catalyst with a total turnover frequency of 93.8 min-1 was
      successfully obtained, which exceeded the values of all the reported
      heterogeneous noble metal-free catalysts. The structure characterizations
      indicated that the postmodified porous C3N4 species had the different band
      structures, photoluminescence lifetime, and photocurrent density under visible
      light irradiation, leading to the different separation efficiency of
      photogenerated charge carriers. These characteristics helped us regulate the
      electronic characteristics of Co and Ni NPs in the supported catalysts and then
      led to the significantly different and enhanced activity in the visible-light
      driven H2 evolution.

PMID- 28881131
TI  - Where Ion Mobility and Molecular Dynamics Meet To Unravel the (Un)Folding
      Mechanisms of an Oligorotaxane Molecular Switch.
AB  - At the interface between foldamers and mechanically interlocked molecules,
      oligorotaxanes exhibit a spring-like folded secondary structure with remarkable
      mechanical and physicochemical properties. Among these properties, the ability of
      oligorotaxanes to act as molecular switches through controlled modulations of
      their spatial extension over (un)folding dynamics is of particular interest. The
      present study aims to assess and further characterize this remarkable feature in
      the gas phase using mass spectrometry tools. In this context, we focused on the
      [4]5NPR+12 oligorotaxane molecule complexed with PF6- counterion and probed its
      co-conformational states as a function of the in-source-generated charge states.
      Data were interpreted in light of electronic secondary structure computations at
      the PM6 and DFT levels. Our results highlight two major co-conformational groups
      associated either with folded compact structures, notably stabilized by
      intramolecular pi-pi interactions and predominant for low charge states or with
      fully stretched structures resulting from significant Coulombic repulsions at
      high charge states. Between, the oligorotaxane adopts intermediate folded co
      conformations, suggesting a stepwise unfolding pathway under increasing repulsive
      Coulombic constraints. The reversibility of this superstructural transition was
      next interrogated under electron-driven (nondissociative electron transfer) and
      heat-driven (collision-induced unfolding) activation stimuli. The outcomes
      support the feasibility to either unfold or (partially) refold the oligorotaxane
      foldamer on purpose in the gas phase. Our results show that the balance between
      the stabilizing pi-pi interactions and the versatile Coulomb interactions
      dictates the elongation state of the foldamer in the gas phase and emphasizes the
      adequacy of mass spectrometry tools for the superstructural characterization of
      desolvated prototypical artificial molecular machines.

PMID- 28881132
TI  - Multistate Complete-Active-Space Second-Order Perturbation Theory Based on
      Density Matrix Renormalization Group Reference States.
AB  - We present the development of the multistate multireference second-order
      perturbation theory (CASPT2) with multiroot references, which are described using
      the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method to handle a large active
      space. The multistate first-order wave functions are expanded into the internally
      contracted (IC) basis of the single-state single-reference (SS-SR) scheme, which
      is shown to be the most feasible variant to use DMRG references. The feasibility
      of the SS-SR scheme comes from two factors: first, it formally does not require
      the fourth-order transition reduced density matrix (TRDM) and second, the
      computational complexity scales linearly with the number of the reference states.
      The extended multistate (XMS) treatment is further incorporated, giving suited
      treatment of the zeroth-order Hamiltonian despite the fact that the SS-SR based
      IC basis is not invariant with respect to the XMS rotation. In addition, the
      state-specific fourth-order reduced density matrix (RDM) is eliminated in an
      approximate fashion using the cumulant reconstruction formula, as also done in
      the previous state-specific DMRG-cu(4)-CASPT2 approach. The resultant method,
      referred to as DMRG-cu(4)-XMS-CASPT2, uses the RDMs and TRDMs of up to third
      order provided by the DMRG calculation. The multistate potential energy curves of
      the photoisomerization of diarylethene derivatives with CAS(26e,24o) are
      presented to illustrate the applicability of our theoretical approach.

PMID- 28881133
TI  - Localized Charges Control Exciton Energetics and Energy Dissipation in Doped
      Carbon Nanotubes.
AB  - Doping by chemical or physical means is key for the development of future
      semiconductor technologies. Ideally, charge carriers should be able to move
      freely in a homogeneous environment. Here, we report on evidence suggesting that
      excess carriers in electrochemically p-doped semiconducting single-wall carbon
      nanotubes (s-SWNTs) become localized, most likely due to poorly screened Coulomb
      interactions with counterions in the Helmholtz layer. A quantitative analysis of
      blue-shift, broadening, and asymmetry of the first exciton absorption band also
      reveals that doping leads to hard segmentation of s-SWNTs with intrinsic undoped
      segments being separated by randomly distributed charge puddles approximately 4
      nm in width. Light absorption in these doped segments is associated with the
      formation of trions, spatially separated from neutral excitons. Acceleration of
      exciton decay in doped samples is governed by diffusive exciton transport to, and
      nonradiative decay at charge puddles within 3.2 ps in moderately doped s-SWNTs.
      The results suggest that conventional band-filling in s-SWNTs breaks down due to
      inhomogeneous electrochemical doping.

PMID- 28881134
TI  - Modeling sigma-Bond Activations by Nickel(0) Beyond Common Approximations: How
      Accurately Can We Describe Closed-Shell Oxidative Addition Reactions Mediated by
      Low-Valent Late 3d Transition Metal?
AB  - Accurate modelings of reactions involving 3d transition metals (TMs) are very
      challenging to both ab initio and DFT approaches. To gain more knowledge in this
      field, we herein explored typical sigma-bond activations of H-H, C-H, C-Cl, and C
      C bonds promoted by nickel(0), a low-valent late 3d TM. For the key parameters of
      activation energy (DeltaE?) and reaction energy (DeltaER) for these reactions,
      various issues related to the computational accuracy were systematically
      investigated. From the scrutiny of convergence issue with one-electron basis set,
      augmented (A) basis functions are found to be important, and the CCSD(T)/CBS
      level with complete basis set (CBS) limit extrapolation based on augmented double
      zeta and triple-zeta basis pair (ADZ and ATZ), which produces deviations below 1
      kcal/mol from the reference, is recommended for larger systems. As an
      alternative, the explicitly correlated F12 method can accelerate the basis set
      convergence further, especially after its CBS extrapolations. Thus, the CCSD(T)
      F12/CBS(ADZ-ATZ) level with computational cost comparable to the conventional
      CCSD(T)/CBS(ADZ-ATZ) level, is found to reach the accuracy of the conventional
      CCSD(T)/A5Z level, which produces deviations below 0.5 kcal/mol from the
      reference, and is also highly recommendable. Scalar relativistic effects and 3s3p
      core-valence correlation are non-negligible for achieving chemical accuracy of
      around 1 kcal/mol. From the scrutiny of convergence issue with the N-electron
      basis set, in comparison with the reference CCSDTQ result, CCSD(T) is found to be
      able to calculate DeltaE? quite accurately, which is not true for the DeltaER
      calculations. Using highest-level CCSD(T) results of DeltaE? in this work as
      references, we tested 18 DFT methods and found that PBE0 and CAM-B3LYP are among
      the three best performing functionals, irrespective of DFT empirical dispersion
      correction. With empirical dispersion correction included, omegaB97XD is also
      recommendable due to its improved performance.

PMID- 28881135
TI  - Ultrasensitive Detection of Viable Enterobacter sakazakii by a Continual Cascade
      Nanozyme Biosensor.
AB  - Recent outbreaks of life-threatening neonatal infections linked to Enterobacter
      sakazakii (ES) heightened the need to develop rapid and ultrasensitive detection
      strategies, especially those capable of determining the viable cells. This study
      introduced a continual cascade nanozyme biosensor for the detection of viable ES
      based on propidium monoazide (PMA), loop-mediated isothermal amplification
      (LAMP), and Nanozyme strip. The ompA gene of ES was determined using FITC
      modified and BIO-modified primers in the LAMP process. LAMP combined with PMA
      treatment was applied for distinguishing the viable from the dead state of ES.
      Then, using Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a nanozyme probe, a magnetic
      nanoparticle (MNP)-based immunochromatographic strip (Nanozyme strip) was further
      employed for amplifying signal to allow visual detection and quantification by a
      strip reader. The LAMP products were sandwiched between the anti-FITC and the
      anti-BIO, and the accumulation of the Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles enabled the
      visual detection of ES. The detection limit of the nanozyme biosensor was
      improved by 10 CFU/mL compared with previously reported techniques, and the whole
      manipulation process was much faster (within 1 h) and simpler (without specialist
      facilities). Hence, the developed continual cascade nanozyme biosensor has
      provided a rapid, ultrasensitive, and simple tool for on-site detection of viable
      ES.

PMID- 28881136
TI  - Coordination and Substitution of DNA Polymerases in Response to Genomic
      Obstacles.
AB  - The ability for DNA polymerases (Pols) to overcome a variety of obstacles in its
      path to maintain genomic stability during replication is a complex endeavor. It
      requires the coordination of multiple Pols with differing specificities through
      molecular control and access to the replisome. Although a number of contacts
      directly between Pols and accessory proteins have been identified, forming the
      basis of a variety of holoenzyme complexes, the dynamics of Pol active site
      substitutions remain uncharacterized. Substitutions can occur externally by
      recruiting new Pols to replisome complexes through an "exchange" of enzyme
      binding or internally through a "switch" in the engagement of DNA from preformed
      associated enzymes contained within supraholoenzyme complexes. Models for how
      high fidelity (HiFi) replication Pols can be substituted by translesion synthesis
      (TLS) Pols at sites of damage during active replication will be discussed. These
      substitution mechanisms may be as diverse as the number of Pol families and types
      of damage; however, common themes can be recognized across species. Overall, Pol
      substitutions will be controlled by explicit protein contacts, complex
      multiequilibrium processes, and specific kinetic activities. Insight into how
      these dynamic processes take place and are regulated will be of utmost importance
      for our greater understanding of the specifics of TLS as well as providing for
      future novel chemotherapeutic and antimicrobial strategies.

PMID- 28881137
TI  - Fabrication of a Self-Supported Nanoparticle-Decorated Amphipathic Film at a
      Liquid/Liquid Interphase.
AB  - The design and facile fabrication of an amphipathic, mechanically durable,
      nanoparticle (NP)-decorated film has been realized at a liquid/liquid interphase.
      The innovative film is prepared by applying a changing electric field across an
      organic-aqueous interphase in the presence of 1-2 nm metal NPs, with a specific
      focus on Ir NPs in this work, self-assembled at the interphase, where the organic
      phase consists of a dissolved hydrophobic polymer in a volatile solvent. The
      electrochemical process leads to the oxidation of the Ir to IrOx, forming a
      hydrous oxide matrix at the interphase. With evaporation of the residual volatile
      solvent and precipitation of the polymer backbone, an isolable Ir/IrOx-decorated
      film is realized. The novelty of this technique stems from the ability to
      fabricate a substrate material in situ around a nanoparticle matrix, as opposed
      to transferring the matrix onto a substrate. The subsequent film exhibits a
      hydrophobic and a hydrophilic surface, permitting the film to reside at a
      water/oil, water/air, or oil/air interphase. The differences in wettability are
      attributed to the differences in the chemical and physical properties of the two
      sides of the film. Interestingly, despite both sides of the film exhibiting
      different wettabilities, both sides are electrochemically accessible. Several
      potential applications exist for this film, including the separation and
      collection of oil from water, in biosensors, and as catalyst layers.

PMID- 28881138
TI  - Impact of Rotational Twin Boundaries and Lattice Mismatch on III-V Nanowire
      Growth.
AB  - Pseudomorphic planar III-V transition layers greatly facilitate the epitaxial
      integration of vapor-liquid-solid grown III-V nanowires (NW) on Si(111)
      substrates. Heteroepitaxial (111) layer growth, however, is commonly accompanied
      by the formation of rotational twins. We find that rotational twin boundaries
      (RTBs), which intersect the surface of GaP/Si(111) heterosubstrates, generally
      cause horizontal NW growth and may even suppress NW growth entirely. Away from
      RTBs, the NW growth direction switches from horizontal to vertical in the case of
      homoepitaxial GaP NWs, whereas heteroepitaxial GaAs NWs continue growing
      horizontally. To understand this rich phenomenology, we develop a model based on
      classical nucleation theory. Independent of the occurrence of RTBs and specific
      transition layers, our model can generally explain the prevalent observation of
      horizontal III-V NW growth in lattice mismatched systems and the high crystal
      quality of horizontal nanowires.

PMID- 28881140
TI  - Proton Capture Dynamics in Quinoline Photobases: Substituent Effect and
      Involvement of Triplet States.
AB  - Converting light into chemical energy often occurs through redox reactions that
      require transfer of several electrons and protons. Using light to control proton
      transfer has the potential for driving otherwise unfavorable protonation
      reactions or producing transient pH changes. Photoacids and photobases are
      fundamental functional elements that could serve this purpose. Previously, we
      have reported the thermodynamic drive for proton removal in a series of quinoline
      photobases using Forster cycle analysis of the singlet states. Because the
      existence of thermodynamic drive does not imply that the molecules can indeed
      capture protons in the excited state, in this work we report the kinetics of
      proton removal from water by 5-R-quinolines, R = {NH2, OCH3, H, Cl, Br, CN},
      using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. We found that the time
      constants and mechanisms of proton capture from water are highly sensitive to the
      substituent. In some cases, proton transfer occurs within the singlet manifold,
      whereas in some others intersystem crossing competes with this process. We have
      evidence that the triplet states are also capable of proton capture in two of the
      compounds. This renders the excited state proton transfer process more
      complicated than can be captured by the linear free energy relationships inferred
      from the energetics of the singlet states. We have measured proton capture times
      in this family to be in the range of several tens of picoseconds with no
      discernible trend with respect to the Hammett parameter of the substituents. This
      wide range of mechanisms is attributed to the high density of excited electronic
      states in the singlet and triplet manifolds. The ordering between these states is
      expected to change by substituent, solvent, and hydrogen bonding, thus making the
      rate of intersystem crossing and proton transfer very sensitive to these
      parameters. These results are necessary fundamental steps to assess the
      capabilities of photobases in prospective applications such as photomediated
      proton removal in redox reactions, steady state optical regulation of local pH,
      and pOH jump kinetics experiments.

PMID- 28881139
TI  - Fracture-Targeted Delivery of beta-Catenin Agonists via Peptide-Functionalized
      Nanoparticles Augments Fracture Healing.
AB  - Despite several decades of progress, bone-specific drug delivery is still a major
      challenge. Current bone-acting drugs require high-dose systemic administration
      which decreases therapeutic efficacy and increases off-target tissue effects.
      Here, a bone-targeted nanoparticle (NP) delivery system for a beta-catenin
      agonist, 3-amino-6-(4-((4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)sulfonyl)phenyl)-N-(pyridin-3
      yl)pyrazine-2-carboxamide, a glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3beta)
      inhibitor, was developed to enhance fracture healing. The GSK-3beta inhibitor
      loading capacity was found to be 15 wt % within highly stable poly(styrene-alt
      maleic anhydride)-b-poly(styrene) NPs, resulting in ~50 nm particles with ~ -30
      mV surface charge. A peptide with high affinity for tartrate-resistant acid
      phosphatase (TRAP), a protein deposited by osteoclasts on bone resorptive
      surfaces, was introduced to the NP corona to achieve preferential delivery to
      fractured bone. Targeted NPs showed improved pharmacokinetic profiles with
      greater accumulation at fractured bone, accompanied by significant uptake in
      regenerative cell types (mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and osteoblasts). MSCs
      treated with drug-loaded NPs in vitro exhibited 2-fold greater beta-catenin
      signaling than free drug that was sustained for 5 days. To verify similar
      activity in vivo, TOPGAL reporter mice bearing fractures were treated with
      targeted GSK-3beta inhibitor-loaded NPs. Robust beta-galactosidase activity was
      observed in fracture callus and periosteum treated with targeted carriers versus
      controls, indicating potent beta-catenin activation during the healing process.
      Enhanced bone formation and microarchitecture were observed in mice treated with
      GSK-3beta inhibitor delivered via TRAP-binding peptide-targeted NPs.
      Specifically, increased bone bridging, ~4-fold greater torsional rigidity, and
      greater volumes of newly deposited bone were observed 28 days after treatment,
      indicating expedited fracture healing.

PMID- 28881141
TI  - Elongated Plant Virus-Based Nanoparticles for Enhanced Delivery of Thrombolytic
      Therapies.
AB  - Thrombotic cardiovascular disease, including acute myocardial infarction,
      ischemic stroke, and venous thromboembolic disease, is the leading cause of
      morbidity and mortality worldwide. While reperfusion therapy with thrombolytic
      agents reduces mortality from acute myocardial infarction and disability from
      stroke, thrombolysis is generally less effective than mechanical reperfusion and
      is associated with fatal intracerebral hemorrhage in up to 2-5% of patients. To
      address these limitations, we propose the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-based
      platform technology for targeted delivery of thrombolytic therapies. TMV is a
      plant virus-based nanoparticle with a high aspect ratio shape measuring 300 * 18
      nm. These soft matter nanorods have favorable flow and margination properties
      allowing the targeting of the diseased vessel wall. We have previously shown that
      TMV homes to thrombi in a photochemical mouse model of arterial thrombosis. Here
      we report the synthesis of TMV conjugates loaded with streptokinase (STK).
      Various TMV-STK formulations were produced through bioconjugation of STK to TMV
      via intervening PEG linkers. TMV-STK was characterized using SDS-PAGE and Western
      blot, transmission electron microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy, and cryo
      electron tomography. We investigated the thrombolytic activity of TMV-STK in
      vitro using static phantom clots, and in a physiologically relevant hydrodynamic
      model of shear-induced thrombosis. Our findings demonstrate that conjugation of
      STK to the TMV surface does not compromise the activity of STK. Moreover, the
      nanoparticle conjugate significantly enhances thrombolysis under flow conditions,
      which can likely be attributed to TMV's shape-mediated flow properties resulting
      in enhanced thrombus accumulation and dissolution. Together, these data suggest
      TMV to be a promising platform for the delivery of thrombolytics to enhance clot
      localization and potentially minimize bleeding risk.

PMID- 28881142
TI  - Thermal and cytokine responses to endotoxin challenge during early life.
AB  - Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) remains the leading cause of infant mortality
      beyond the neonatal period. An increase in body temperature as a result of high
      environmental temperature, overwrapping of infants, and (or) infection are
      associated with SIDS. Endotoxins such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and heat stress
      may perturb cardiorespiratory function and thermoregulation. Although LPS
      mediated body temperature and cytokine responses are well documented in older
      animals, the capacity of LPS to induce fever and cytokine response in young rats
      remains unclear. Therefore, we sought to investigate the acute effects of LPS on
      body temperature and cytokine concentrations in rat pups. Postnatal day 7 rat
      pups were divided into 3 groups: Group 1, rats were administered LPS
      intraperitoneally (200 MUg/kg); Group 2, rats received saline at volume equal to
      that administered in the LPS group; Group 3, rats received no treatment. Pups
      were placed in custom-made chambers maintained at ambient temperature of 33 
      degrees C. Body surface temperature was continuously monitored for 4 h.
      Thereafter, the rats were euthanized and serum was collected for cytokine
      analysis. We demonstrate that LPS treatment increased MIP-1alpha, IL-10, MCP-1,
      IP-10, fractalkine, and TNF-alpha with no concurrent rise in body surface
      temperature. Although neonatal rats produced an array of cytokines in response to
      LPS, there was no evidence of fever.

PMID- 28881143
TI  - Evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of fluocinolone acetonide 190 ug
      intravitreal implant in diabetic macular edema: a comparison between study and
      fellow eyes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare visual and anatomical outcomes between eyes treated with
      fluocinolone acetonide (FAc) 190 ug intravitreal implant for clinically
      significant chronic diabetic macular edema (DME) and fellow eyes not treated with
      FAc implant using data from the Iluvien Clinical Evidence study in the UK (ICE
      UK) study. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, data on people attending
      hospital eye services and treated with the FAc implant between April 1, 2013 and
      April 15, 2015 were collected. Changes in visual acuity (VA), central foveal
      thickness (CFT) and intraocular pressure (IOP) were compared between study eyes
      (intervention) and fellow eyes. RESULTS: A total of 208 people were selected.
      Mean age was 68.1 years and 62% were male. Mean change in VA was -0.09 LogMAR
      units for study eyes and 0.04 LogMAR units for fellow eyes at 12 months post
      implant (p < .001). Over the same period, >=5 letter, >=10 letter and >=15 letter
      improvements in Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) score were
      achieved by more FAc treated eyes than by fellow eyes (41% versus 23%, p < .001;
      28% versus 11%, p < .001; and 18% versus 4%, p < .001 at 12 months,
      respectively). Differences in the mean change in CFT (-113 um versus -13 um, p <
      .001) and IOP (3.2 mmHg versus -0.2 mmHg, p < .001) were also observed between
      study and fellow eyes at 12 months. CONCLUSION: Visual acuity improved in study
      eyes over the 12 months following FAc implant and worsened in fellow eyes. Over
      the same period, study eyes showed a larger improvement in central foveal
      thickness. Intraocular pressure worsened in study eyes only. Change in visual
      acuity, central foveal thickness and intraocular pressure between FAc implant and
      the end of the 12-month follow-up period differed significantly between study and
      fellow eyes.

PMID- 28881144
TI  - Studies on occurrence, characterisation and decontamination of emerging
      pathogenic Escherichia coli (STEC, ETEC and EIEC) in table eggs.
AB  - 1. Escherichia coli is one of the most common facultative anaerobic species
      present in the gastrointestinal tract of animals and human beings. Usually they
      occur as commensals, but some serotypes can cause significant illnesses in humans
      as well as mammals and birds. 2. The occurrence of E. coli in different
      categories of table eggs collected from markets was evaluated. Isolates were
      analysed for the presence of virulence genes, antibiotic susceptibility pattern
      and efficacy of peracetic acid and chlorine for the purpose of decontaminating
      table eggs. 3. Significant differences were observed in the occurrence of E. coli
      between different groups viz. processed (cleaned, washed, sanitised and packed
      eggs), unprocessed (un-cleaned, un-sanitised and loose eggs) and free range (eggs
      obtained from backyard poultry) table eggs. Overall, E. coli occurred in table
      eggs at 28.6% with 22.9, 29.2 and 50.0% occurrence in processed, unprocessed and
      free-range table eggs, respectively. 4. A total of 24 isolates of E. coli were
      obtained and screened for virulence genes viz. STH, SLT1/2 and INVE genes. Of the
      24 isolates recovered, 10 typeable isolates belonged to O141, O119, O9, O120 and
      O101 serotypes, while the remaining 14 were untypeable. Antibiograms of the
      isolates showed multiple antimicrobial resistance (MAR) index in the range of
      0.13-0.40. 5. Peracetic acid (PAA) and chlorine (CL) were studied for their
      sanitisation efficacy; concentrations of 100 mg/kg of PAA and 200 mg/kg of CL
      completely inactivated E. coli over the egg surface and also resulted in 2.58 and
      2.38 log reduction in total viable counts (TVC), respectively. 6. The presence of
      virulence-associated shiga-like toxin (SLT1/2) and invasion E (INVE) genes and
      antimicrobial resistance among the emerging serotypes of pathogenic E. coli
      isolated from table eggs has public health implications. It underscores the need
      to implement better management practices across the production systems and
      marketing channels to produce E. coli-free wholesome eggs for consumers.

PMID- 28881145
TI  - Secondhand tobacco smoke and severity in wheezing children: Nasal oxidant stress
      and inflammation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Prenatal and postnatal smoke exposures are associated with many lung
      diseases in children due to impaired lung function, increased inflammation, and
      oxidative stress. We aimed to determine the influence of secondhand tobacco smoke
      exposure on the levels of nasal glutathione, IL-8, IL-17, MMP-9, and TIMP-1, as
      well as serum surfactant protein-D (SP-D) in wheezy children. METHODS: We
      enrolled 150 children with recurrent wheezing and recorded wheezing
      characteristics at enrollment. We measured the levels of serum cotinine, SP-D,
      nasal glutathione, IL-8, IL-17, MMP-9, and TIMP-1. Serum cotinine levels between
      3 and 12 ng/mL, and above 12 ng/mL were defined as lower and higher level
      secondhand tobacco smoke exposure, respectively. The ANOVA test, Pearson's
      correlation analysis and multivariate analysis with a linear regression test were
      used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Ninety-one children had been exposed
      to lower level secondhand tobacco smoke, while 24 children were exposed to higher
      level secondhand tobacco smoke. Thirty-five children were not exposed to
      cigarette smoke. Wheezing symptom scores were higher in exposed children (p =
      0.03). Levels of other biomarkers showed no significant difference. CONCLUSIONS:
      Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure is associated with more severe respiratory
      symptoms in wheezing children. However, levels of nasal or serum inflammatory
      markers fail to explain this association, either because of different mechanical
      factors in the process or due to low levels of the biomarkers especially in nasal
      secretions.

PMID- 28881146
TI  - Health-economic evaluation of fluocinolone acetonide 190 ug implant in people
      with diabetic macular edema.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess healthcare resource use and costs of treating people with
      clinically significant diabetic macular edema (DME) with fluocinolone acetonide
      (FAc) 190 ug intravitreal implant in routine clinical practice. METHODS: The
      retrospective Iluvien Clinical Evidence (ICE-UK) study collected data on people
      prescribed the FAc implant in any one of 13 ophthalmology centers between April
      1, 2013 and April 15, 2015. Data were collected for 12 months before and after
      implantation. Standard UK costs were attributed to healthcare resource use.
      RESULTS: In total, 208 people contributing 233 FAc-treated eyes were selected.
      Mean age was 68.1 years and 62% were male. The mean (standard deviation, SD)
      number of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections per FAc
      treated eye in the 12 months prior to implant was 2.8 (2.5), decreasing to 0.6
      (1.4) for the same period after implant (p < .001). The corresponding figures for
      other steroid injections (dexamethasone and triamcinolone) were 0.14 (0.4) before
      and 0.08 (0.4) after implant (p = .016). There was no statistically significant
      difference in the number of laser therapies required in the 12 months before and
      after FAc implant (mean = 0.12 vs 0.11, respectively; p = .626). Overall, mean
      (SD) healthcare costs were L2,691 (L1,850) before and L1,239 (L1,203) after FAc
      implant (p < .001). The unit drug and administration cost per FAc implant was
      L5,680. CONCLUSIONS: Excluding the cost of the FAc implant, healthcare costs were
      significantly reduced in the 12 months post-implant. FAc implant has a duration
      of 3 years. This needs to be considered when interpreting the cost associated
      with the FAc implant.

PMID- 28881147
TI  - Cardiorespiratory demand of acute voluntary cycling with functional electrical
      stimulation in individuals with multiple sclerosis with severe mobility
      impairment.
AB  - Exercise training is one strategy for improving cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF)
      in multiple sclerosis (MS); however, few modalities are accessible for those with
      severe mobility impairment. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling is an
      adapted exercise modality with the potential for improving CRF in people with
      severe MS. The objective of this study was to characterize the cardiorespiratory
      response of acute voluntary cycling with FES in people with MS with severe
      mobility impairment, and to compare this response to passive leg cycling. Eleven
      participants with MS that required assistance for ambulation completed a single
      bout of voluntary cycling with FES or passive leg cycling. Oxygen consumption,
      heart rate (HR), work rate (WR), and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were
      recorded throughout the session. For the FES group, mean exercising oxygen
      consumption was 8.7 +/- 1.8 mL/(kg.min)-1, or 63.5% of peak oxygen consumption.
      Mean HR was 102 +/- 9.7 bpm, approximately 76.4% of peak HR. Mean WR was 27.0 +/-
      9.2 W, or 57.3% of peak WR, and median RPE was 13.5 (interquartile range = 5.5).
      Active cycling with FES was significantly (p < 0.05) more intense than passive
      leg cycling based on oxygen consumption, HR, WR, and RPE during exercise. In
      conclusion, voluntary cycling with FES elicited an acute response that
      corresponded with moderate-to vigorous-intensity activity, suggesting that active
      cycling with FES can elicit a sufficient stimulus for improving CRF.

PMID- 28881148
TI  - Protective effect of (-)-alpha-bisabolol on rotenone-induced toxicity in
      Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - (-)-alpha-Bisabolol (BISA) is a sesquiterpene alcohol, which has several
      recognized biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, anti-irritant, and
      antibacterial properties. In the present study, we investigated the influence of
      BISA (5, 25, and 250 MUmol/L) on rotenone (500 MUmol/L)-induced toxicity in
      Drosophila melanogaster for 7 days. BISA supplementation significantly decreased
      rotenone-induced mortality and locomotor deficits. The loss of motor function
      induced by rotenone correlated with a significant change in stress response
      factors; it decreased thiol levels, inhibited mitochondria complex I, and
      increased the mRNA expression of antioxidant marker proteins such as superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and the keap1 gene product. Taken together, our
      findings indicate that the toxicity of rotenone is likely due to the direct
      inhibition of complex I activity, resulting in a high level of oxidative stress.
      Dietary supplementation with BISA affected the expression of SOD mRNA only at a
      concentration of 250 MUmol/L, and did not affect any other parameter measured.
      Our results showed a protective effect of BISA on rotenone-induced mortality and
      locomotor deficits in Drosophila; this effect did not correlate with
      mitochondrial complex I activity, but may be related to the antioxidant
      protection afforded by eliminating superoxide generated as a result of rotenone
      induced mitochondrial dysfunction.

PMID- 28881150
TI  - Patterns of retinal thickness prior to and following treatment with fluocinolone
      acetonide 190 ug intravitreal implant for diabetic macular edema.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare retinal thickness before and after treatment with the
      fluocinolone acetonide (FAc) 190 ug intravitreal implant in people with diabetic
      macular edema (DME) using data from the Iluvien Clinical Evidence study in the UK
      (ICE-UK). METHODS: For this retrospective cohort study, data on people attending
      any one of 13 participating ophthalmology departments and treated with FAc
      intravitreal implant between April 1, 2013 and April 15, 2015 were collected for
      12 months prior to and at least 12 months after implantation. Cross-sectional and
      longitudinal patterns of central foveal thickness (CFT) were compared before and
      after FAc implant. RESULTS: There were 208 people who contributed data from 233
      individual eyes treated with the FAc implant. Mean age was 68.1 years and 62%
      were male. Median (interquartile range) CFT decreased from 462 um (354-603 um) at
      time of implant to 309 um (222-433 um) at 12 months post-implant (p < .001). Over
      the same period, a reduction of >=10%, >=25%, and >=50% in CFT was observed in
      113 (65%), 87 (50%), and 37 (21%) treated eyes, respectively. Eyes with a CFT of
      >=400 um at the time of implant were significantly more likely to achieve a
      reduction in CFT of >=10%, >=25%, and >=50% at 12 months (all p < .001) compared
      with eyes with a CFT of <400 um at implant. Both retinal thickness and changes in
      retinal thickness were loosely correlated with visual acuity. CONCLUSION: A
      marked reduction in retinal thickness was observed in people following FAc
      intravitreal implant for DME. The response was related to the degree of retinal
      thickness prior to treatment.

PMID- 28881149
TI  - Evaluation of the clinical effectiveness in routine practice of fluocinolone
      acetonide 190 ug intravitreal implant in people with diabetic macular edema.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the Iluvien Clinical Evidence study in the UK (ICE-UK) was
      to assess the real-world effectiveness of fluocinolone acetonide (FAc) 190 ug
      intravitreal implant for the treatment of clinically significant chronic diabetic
      macular edema (DME) in routine clinical practice. METHODS: This retrospective
      study collected data from patient medical records in 13 ophthalmology centers for
      people with DME prescribed FAc intravitreal implant between April 1, 2013 and
      April 15, 2015. Visual acuity (VA) and intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements
      were collected for 12 months prior to and after implant. RESULTS: Two hundred and
      eight people, contributing 233 eyes, treated with FAc implant were included. Mean
      age was 68.1 years and 62% were male. In the 12 months prior to FAc implant, VA
      declined. Median (interquartile range, IQR) VA was 0.66 (0.48-1.00) LogMAR units
      (equivalent to 52.0 ETDRS letters) at implant, improving to 0.60 (0.38-0.90)
      LogMAR units (55.0 letters) at 12 months post-implant (p < 0.001). In total, 44%,
      30%, and 18% of people achieved an improvement in ETDRS score of >=5, >=10, and
      >=15 letters, respectively, over the same period. A small but significant (p <
      .001) increase in median IOP was observed (median = 15.0, IQR = 13.0-18.0 mmHg at
      implant to 18.0, 15.0-21.0 mmHg at 12 months). In the 12 months following
      implant, additional IOP-lowering therapy was prescribed in 15% of subjects
      previously not requiring such therapy. CONCLUSION: Following FAc implant, an
      overall significant improvement in VA was observed over a period of 12 months,
      accompanied by a significant but small increase in IOP.

PMID- 28881151
TI  - Jean Marian Purdy remembered - the hidden life of an IVF pioneer.
AB  - Jean Purdy is almost forgotten as one of the British trio that introduced
      clinical IVF to the world. An unlikely pioneer, she qualified as a nurse but
      through indefatigable effort and unstinting loyalty to a programme that faced
      vitriolic opposition she became the clinical embryologist for the first IVF baby.
      In 1980, she helped to launch fertility services as the 'Technical Director' of
      Bourn Hall Clinic, near Cambridge. Although Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe
      generously credited her role in research and clinical care, a premature death in
      1985 at age 39 robbed her of the reward of witnessing the blossoming of assisted
      reproductive technologies for patients around the world. This commentary seeks to
      recognize her contribution and bring her name to the attention of professionals
      in reproductive medicine and the patients they care for.

PMID- 28881152
TI  - Determining the relative cost effectiveness of the fluocinolone acetonide
      intravitreal implant.

PMID- 28881153
TI  - A personal tribute to Terry Beveridge.

PMID- 28881154
TI  - Preconditioning with morphine protects hippocampal CA1 neurons from ischemia
      reperfusion injury via activation of the mTOR pathway.
AB  - The signaling pathway of chronic morphine treatment to prevent neuronal damage
      following transient cerebral ischemia is not clear. In this study, we examined
      the role of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) to identify the neuroprotective
      effects of chronic morphine preconditioning on the hippocampus following ischemia
      reperfusion (I/R) injury. Morphine was administered for 5 days, twice a day,
      before inducing I/R injury. The possible role of mTOR was evaluated by the
      injection of rapamycin (5 mg/kg body weight, by intraperitoneal injection) before
      I/R was induced. The passive avoidance test was used to evaluate memory
      performance. Neuronal density and apoptosis were measured in the CA1 region, 72 h
      after I/R injury. The expressions of mTOR and phosphorylated mTOR (p-mTOR), as
      well as superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were determined 24 h after I/R
      injury. Chronic morphine treatment attenuated apoptosis and neuronal loss in the
      hippocampus after I/R injury, which led to improvement in memory (P < 0.05 vs.
      untreated I/R) and increase in the expression of p-mTOR (P < 0.05 vs. untreated
      I/R) and SOD activity (P < 0.05 vs. untreated I/R) in the hippocampus.
      Pretreatment with rapamycin abolished all the above-mentioned protective effects.
      These results describe novel findings whereby chronic morphine preconditioning in
      hippocampal CA1 neurons is mediated by the mTOR pathway, and through increased
      phosphorylation of mTOR can alleviate oxidative stress and apoptosis, and
      eventually protect the hippocampus from I/R injury.

PMID- 28881155
TI  - Seasonal patterns of Asthma medication fills among diverse populations of the
      United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Nonadherence to controller and overuse of reliever asthma medications
      are associated with exacerbations. We aimed to determine patterns of seasonal
      asthma medication use and to identify time period(s) during which interventions
      to improve medication adherence could reduce asthma morbidity. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective cohort study of asthmatics 4-50 years of age and
      enrolled in three diverse health insurance plans. Seasonal patterns of
      medications were reported by monthly prescription fill rates per 1000 individuals
      with asthma from 1998 to 2013, and stratified by healthcare plan, sex, and age.
      RESULTS: There was a distinct and consistent seasonal fill pattern for all asthma
      medications. The lowest fill rate was observed in the month of July. Fills
      increased in the autumn and remained high throughout the winter and spring.
      Compared with the month of May with high medication fills, July represented a
      relative decrease of fills ranging from 13% (rate ratio, RR: 0.87, 95% confidence
      interval, 95%CI: 0.72-1.04) for the combination of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS)
      + long acting beta agonists (LABA) to 45% (RR: 0.55, 95%CI: 0.49-0.61) for oral
      corticosteroids. Such a seasonal pattern was observed each year across the 16
      year study period, among healthcare plans, sexes, and ages. LABA containing
      control medication (ICS+LABA and LABA) fill rates were more prevalent in older
      asthmatics, while leukotriene receptor antagonists were more prevalent in the
      younger population. CONCLUSIONS: A seasonal pattern of asthma medication fill
      rates likely represents a reactive response to a loss of disease control and
      increased symptoms. Adherence to and consistent use of asthma medications among
      individuals who use medications in reaction to seasonal exacerbations might be a
      key component in reducing the risk of asthma exacerbations.

PMID- 28881156
TI  - Nucleic acid-based vaccines targeting respiratory syncytial virus: Delivering the
      goods.
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a massive medical burden on a global scale.
      Infants, children and the elderly represent the vulnerable populations. Currently
      there is no approved vaccine to protect against the disease. Vaccine development
      has been hindered by several factors including vaccine enhanced disease (VED)
      associated with formalin-inactivated RSV vaccines, inability of target
      populations to raise protective immune responses after vaccination or natural
      viral infection, and a lack of consensus concerning the most appropriate virus
      associated target antigen. However, with recent advances in the molecular
      understanding of the virus, and design of highly characterized vaccines with
      enhanced immunogenicity there is new belief a RSV vaccine is possible. One
      promising approach is nucleic acid-based vaccinology. Both DNA and mRNA RSV
      vaccines are showing promising results in clinically relevant animal models,
      supporting their transition into humans. Here we will discuss this strategy to
      target RSV, and the ongoing studies to advance the nucleic acid vaccine platform
      as a viable option to protect vulnerable populations from this important disease.

PMID- 28881157
TI  - Identifying cost-effective screening algorithms for active hepatitis C virus
      infections in a high prevalence setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different screening patterns for
      active chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections utilizing the hepatitis C core
      antigen test compared to standard care in the context of a general screening
      program in a high-prevalence country. METHODS: This study developed a decision
      analytic model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of four screening algorithms
      for the detection of active HCV infections among asymptomatic individuals with an
      unknown HCV status in a context of high (>5%) HCV prevalence. Three algorithms
      started with a serological test for antibodies (AB) followed by a nucleic acid
      test for HCV-RNA (RNA), the HCVAg (AG) assay, or both. An additional single
      marker screening strategy with AG was added to the analysis. By the example of
      the Republic of Georgia, strategies were compared in terms of total costs for
      screening and diagnosis of an active infection from a health system perspective.
      RESULTS: Replacing RNA with AG for confirmation of positive AB identified fewer
      active infections (-110 per 100,000 screened subjects) at significantly reduced
      total costs (-$2.74 per screened) and costs per diagnosed infection (-$44).
      Adding a subsequent RNA confirmatory test on AG negative results captured at
      least the same rate compared to the standard (AB followed by RNA) at still
      reduced costs (-$1.16 per subject screened, -$22 per case detected). Utilizing AG
      as the frontline test revealed the highest detection rate (97.9%) at the highest
      costs (+$3.80 per subject, +$323 per case detected vs standard). CONCLUSION: A
      combined pattern of HCV AB screening followed by sequential confirmation with AG
      and RNA on AG negatives would provide equal or better diagnostic performance at
      lower cost over a broad range of scenarios. Potential long-term consequences of
      screening strategies to patients and society have to be considered, since the
      latency period for HCV to develop into severe liver disease is long.

PMID- 28881158
TI  - Long noncoding RNA DLX6-AS1 promotes renal cell carcinoma progression via miR
      26a/PTEN axis.
AB  - Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as new gene regulators and
      prognostic markers in several types of cancer, including renal cell carcinoma
      (RCC). In this study, we identified an upregulated lncRNA, DLX6-AS1, in RCC tumor
      tissues compared with normal kidney tissues. Our data suggested that DLX6-AS1
      promoted RCC cell growth and tumorigenesis via targeting miR-26a. In addition, we
      observed that PTEN overexpression restored the renal cancer cell growth and also
      rescued the RCC tumorigenesis. In summary, we conclude that DLX6-AS1 promotes
      renal cell carcinoma development via regulation of miR-26a/PTEN axis.

PMID- 28881159
TI  - Patent trend and competitive analysis of cancer immunotherapy in the United
      States.
AB  - Immunotherapy has brought high hopes for cancer treatment, and attracted
      tremendous resources from the biopharmaceutical community. Here we analyze cancer
      immunotherapy-related patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark
      Office in the past decade (2006-2016). A total of 2,229 patents were identified
      in 13 subfields. The growth of patent number in this field has outpaced the
      background rate, with cytokine-related therapies, immune checkpoint inhibitors,
      and natural killer cell therapies growing the most rapidly. The top 15 assignees
      possess 27.6% (616) of the patents. Amgen is the largest patent holder, followed
      by Novartis, and then by Chugai Seiyaku. The top assignees have focused on
      different subfields, and collaborated with each other for technology development.
      Our competitive analysis reveals that Novartis, Chugai Seiyaku, and Abbvie lead
      in both patent number and average quality of patents. Meanwhile, Immunomedics
      owns a high-quality though relatively small patent portfolio in single-chain
      variable fragment technology, which is not the focus of the abovementioned
      forerunners. Overall, our analysis illustrates an ecosystem where industry giants
      and smaller-size players each occupies a niche. Selection and succession are
      expected to continue for years in this young ecosystem.

PMID- 28881160
TI  - Effective treatment of aggressive fibromatosis with celecoxib guided by genetic
      testing.
AB  - Aggressive fibromatosis (AF) or desmoid tumors is an aggressive fibroblastic
      proliferation which is locally invasive but can not metastasize. The treatment of
      AF is challenging. Surgery was the main treatment modality for AF in the past,
      other strategies including radiotherapy, systemic therapies and wait-and-see
      policy. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and targeted
      therapies has demonstrated good results. In the case report, a 39-year-old man
      presented with progressive chest wall pain. Computed tomography (CT) showed an
      approximately 46* 13 mm soft-tissue mass between the inside of the fifth and
      sixth rib on the right side. The entire mass was excised and an AF was confirmed
      based on histopathology. Four months after surgery, magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) showed a soft-tissue mass in surgical areas and biopsy confirmed local
      recurrence. Therefore, Tomotherapy was administered. However, two months later,
      an (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) Positron Emission Tomography combined with CT
      (PET-CT) revealed the presence of an FDG-avid mass in the area of local
      recurrence. Genetic testing reported the presence of a p.T41A mutations on the
      CTNNB1 gene, which predicted that he is sensitive to the COX-2 inhibitor
      celecoxib. The tumor regressed rapidly after the application of celecoxib. Within
      the 20-month follow-up period, the patient showed remarkable regression without
      any signs and symptoms. Our case report provides further evidence for the
      efficacy of celecoxib in AF with CTNNB1 gene mutations. To our knowledge, this is
      the first report of AF treated with celecoxib under the guidance of the genetic
      testing. However, further studies are required.

PMID- 28881161
TI  - Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis from gastric cancer successfully treated by the
      intrathecal methotrexate plus temozolomide and simultaneous radiotherapy: Case
      report and literatures review.
AB  - Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LMC) from gastrointestinal cancer is rare. A 56
      year-old man with complaint of upper abdominal pain exhibited adenocarcinoma upon
      histopathologic examination of biopsy specimens. At the end of adjuvant
      chemotherapy, the patient was affected by hearing loss. Malignant cells were
      observed by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology. Therefore, the patient received
      intrathecal methotrexate and oral temozolomide chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The
      progress-free survival was approximately 11 months. To our knowledge, such cases
      of LMC from gastric cancer are very rare. Here, we describe the case of a patient
      with LMC from gastric cancer and review the literature associated with treatment.
      We hope that the present report may be helpful when considering how to improve
      treatment of LMC in gastric cancer patients and offer some tips for the adjuvant
      treatment modality.

PMID- 28881162
TI  - Perioperative Vision Loss after Non-Ocular Surgery.
AB  - Perioperative vision loss (POVL) may cause devastating visual morbidity. A prompt
      anatomical and etiologic diagnosis is paramount to guide management and assess
      prognosis. Where possible, steps should be undertaken to minimize risk of POVL
      for vulnerable patients undergoing high-risk procedures. We review the specific
      risk factors, pathophysiology, and management and prevention strategies for
      various etiologies of POVL.

PMID- 28881164
TI  - Systemic Rosai-Dorfman disease with central nervous system involvement.
AB  - Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is a rare idiopathic and lymphoproliferative
      disorder. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is infrequent and typically
      manifests as an isolated lesion. In this article, we describe an unusual case of
      RDD with multiple lesions in the CNS, upper respiratory tract and lymph nodes. A
      literature review revealed 45 cases (including the one described herein) of
      systemic RDD with CNS involvement documented to date. Among these cases, 29
      (64.4%) presented with intracranial lesions, 10 (22.2%) with spinal lesions and 6
      (13.3%) with both. While the condition of most patients was stable, only four
      died from RDD or for other reasons. Prognosis is good for most patients, even
      those with extensive lesions. Although there are various treatments for RDD,
      surgery is preferred. Given the rarity of RDD, multicenter international
      collaborations are advocated in order to study disease pathogenesis and develop
      effective treatment strategies.

PMID- 28881163
TI  - Exploiting poly(I:C) to induce cancer cell apoptosis.
AB  - TLR3 belong to the Toll-like receptors family, it is mainly expressed on immune
      cells where it senses pathogen-associated molecular patterns and initiates innate
      immune response. TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) was developed to mimic pathogens
      infection and boost immune system activation to promote anti-cancer therapy.
      Accordingly, TLR agonists were included in the National Cancer Institute list of
      immunotherapeutic agents with the highest potential to cure cancer. Besides well
      known effects on immune cells, poly(I:C) was also shown, in experimental models,
      to directly induce apoptosis in cancer cells expressing TLR3. This review
      presents the current knowledge on the mechanism of poly(I:C)-induced apoptosis in
      cancer cells. Experimental evidences on positive or negative regulators of TLR3
      mediated apoptosis induced by poly(I:C) are reported and strategies are proposed
      to successfully promote this event in cancer cells. Cancer cells apoptosis is an
      additional arm offered by poly(I:C), besides activation of immune system, for the
      treatment of various type of cancer. A further dissection of TLR3 signaling would
      contribute to greater resolution of the critical steps that impede full
      exploitation of the poly(I:C)-induced apoptosis. Experimental evidences about
      negative regulator of poly(I:C)-induced apoptotic program should be considered in
      combinations with TLR3 agonists in clinical trials.

PMID- 28881165
TI  - Safety and immunogenicity of a 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in adults
      50 to 65 years of age in India: An open-label trial.
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae infection is a major global public health concern in
      older adults, especially as life expectancy continues to increase in most
      countries, including India. Recently, a 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
      (PCV13) with the ability to enhance immunity (immunologic memory) on natural
      exposure or revaccination has been shown to protect against community-acquired
      pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease in adults 65 years of age and older.
      An unconjugated 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine has been available
      for decades; however, data on protection against pneumonia are inconsistent. For
      the first time, a multicenter study has been conducted in India to assess the
      safety and immunogenicity of a single dose of PCV13 in adults aged 50 to 65
      years. In this study, PCV13 elicited robust immune responses against all 13
      pneumococcal serotypes as reflected by the magnitude of geometric mean fold rises
      (range, 6.6-102.7) in functional antibody levels from before to 1 month after
      vaccination. No serious adverse events occurred. These clinical trial findings
      support the safety and immunogenicity of PCV13 when administered to adults in
      India and indicate that a single dose of PCV13 has the potential to protect
      against vaccine-type pneumococcal disease in adults aged 50 to 65 years.
      ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02034877.

PMID- 28881167
TI  - Meeting report: The 12th European oral microbiology workshop (EOMW) in Stockholm,
      Sweden.

PMID- 28881166
TI  - Effect of combination vaccines on completion and compliance of childhood
      vaccinations in the United States.
AB  - Vaccination at age-appropriate intervals increases protection against morbidity
      and mortality; however, compliance rates among children remain low partly due to
      a complicated vaccination schedule. Use of combination vaccines reduces the
      number of injections per visit; however, there is limited evidence quantifying
      the effect of combination vaccines on vaccination rates. To examine how
      combination vaccines impact childhood completion (receipt of recommended doses)
      and compliance (receipt of age-appropriate vaccinations) rates, this study
      analyzed vaccination data from the 2012 National Immunization Survey (NIS), a
      nationally representative cross-sectional survey of caregivers of children aged
      24 to 35 months in the United States. Vaccines were categorized as combination or
      single antigen. Vaccine completion was measured at ages 8, 18, and 24 months.
      Vaccine compliance and time undervaccinated were measured at 24 months. Children
      who received at least 1 combination vaccine (86%) had a higher completion rate
      (69%) and compliance with the full vaccine series (4:3:1:3:3:1:4 series) at 24
      months (24%) than those who received only single-antigen vaccines (50% and 13%,
      respectively). Receipt of combination vaccine was associated with an increased
      likelihood of completing all recommended vaccinations at 24 months (odds ratio
      [OR] = 2.5; P < 0.001), receiving all vaccinations at age-appropriate times (OR =
      2.2; P < 0.001), and less than 7 months undervaccinated (OR = 2.4; P < 0.001).
      Combination vaccines were associated with improved completion and compliance and
      should be encouraged among children who are undervaccinated or who received
      single-antigen vaccines only.

PMID- 28881169
TI  - Are orthodontic systematic reviews registered a priori in PROSPERO?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Aim of this study was to assess the registration of orthodontic
      systematic reviews in PROSPERO. METHOD: Seven databases were searched for
      orthodontic systematic reviews published in 2012-2016. After duplicate study
      selection and data extraction, descriptive statistics, followed by chi
      square/Fisher exact tests were calculated. Finally, bivariable/multivariable
      regression with relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was used.
      RESULTS: A total of 182 orthodontic systematic reviews were identified, 37
      (20.3%) of which were registered in PROSPERO, with registration rates ranging
      from 4.3% in 2012 to 37.0% in 2016. Differences in review registration were found
      according to publication year, geographic origin, multicentre status, funding,
      and journal category. After controlling for confounders, each additional year was
      associated with increased registration probability (RR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.19
      1.93). Reviews from South America were more likely to be registered than reviews
      from Europe (RR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.06-2.11). Finally, reviews published in
      orthodontic specialty journals were more likely to be registered than reviews in
      general dentistry journals (RR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.02-3.49). CONCLUSIONS: A small
      percentage of orthodontic systematic reviews was registered a priori, although
      improvement signs have been seen since the initiation of PROSPERO.

PMID- 28881168
TI  - Proteomic analysis reveals that a global response is induced by subinhibitory
      concentrations of ampicillin.
AB  - In this study, a recipient-donor co-culture system was used to research the
      effect of subinhibitory concentrations of antibiotics on horizontal transmission
      in bacteria and the influence of antibiotics on protein expression. We employed
      two-dimensional gel electrophoresis combined with mass spectrometry to compare
      the protein expression profiles in systems with or without 0.5 * the minimum
      inhibitory concentration of ampicillin. RT-PCR was used to assess the
      transcriptional levels of the differentially expressed genes. Fifty-seven
      different proteins were induced or suppressed. The upregulated proteins were
      involved in transcription and translation, cell wall synthesis, bacterial SOS
      response, and detoxifying functions, and the downregulated proteins were involved
      in metabolism. These results indicated that a global response was induced in the
      recipient-donor co-culture system by the subinhibitory concentration of
      ampicillin. Further analysis revealed that a global regulatory network based on
      key pathways was induced in the system in response to the antibiotic pressure.
      These findings provide a new, more comprehensive view for research on antibiotic
      resistance mechanisms in recipient-donor co-culture.

PMID- 28881170
TI  - The Book Corner.

PMID- 28881171
TI  - Meetings & Symposia.

PMID- 28881172
TI  - From ideal occlusion to dentofacial deformity and back to ideal: an
      osteochondroma treatment with lingual orthodontics.
AB  - This original case report describes the morphologic changes caused by a
      mandibular condylar osteochondroma (OC) on a female patient and its treatment.
      The changes were identified by comparing her final records from a previous
      orthodontic treatment, without the presence of OC, to records taken before a
      second treatment, with a developed OC. The diagnostics and treatment for the OC
      and its consequences were described and discussed in this paper. Treatment
      included orthodontics with a lingual appliance, low condylectomy on the affected
      side, high condylectomy on the contralateral side, bilateral disc repositioning
      and orthognathic surgery. It was concluded that the OC caused a Class III
      subdivision malocclusion, midline deviation and an edge-to-edge bite on the left
      side, a cant of the occlusal plane on the Z-axis and a deviation of the pogonion
      to the left. Treatment was successful and stable long term (36 months) with good
      occlusal, aesthetical and functional results.

PMID- 28881173
TI  - ESTIMATION OF THE EXTENT OF LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN SEVEN REGIONS OF THE
      PORCINE GENOME.
AB  - Linkage disequilibrium (LD) refers to the correlation among neighboring alleles,
      reflecting non-random patterns of association between alleles at (nearby) loci. A
      better understanding of LD in the porcine genome is of direct relevance for
      identification of genes and mutations with a certain effect on the traits of
      interest. Here, 215 SNPs in seven genomic regions were genotyped in individuals
      of three breeds. Pairwise linkage disequilibrium was calculated for all marker
      pairs. To estimate the extent of LD, all pairwise LD values were plotted against
      the distance between the markers. Based on SNP markers in four genomic regions
      analyzed in three panels from populations of Large White, Dutch Landrace, and
      Meishan origin, useful LD is estimated to extend for approximately 40 to 60 kb in
      the porcine genome.

PMID- 28881176
TI  - A HIERARCHICAL BINOMIAL-POISSON MODEL FOR THE ANALYSIS OF A CROSSOVER DESIGN FOR
      CORRELATED BINARY DATA WHEN THE NUMBER OF TRIALS IS DOSE-DEPENDENT.
AB  - The differential reinforcement of a low-rate 72-seconds schedule (DRL-72) is a
      standard behavioral test procedure for screening a potential antidepressant
      compound. The data analyzed in the article are binary outcomes from a crossover
      design for such an experiment. Recently, Shkedy et al. ( 2004 ) proposed to
      estimate the treatments effect using either generalized linear mixed models
      (GLMM) or generalized estimating equations (GEE) for clustered binary data. The
      models proposed by Shkedy et al. ( 2004 ) assumed the number of responses at each
      binomial observation is fixed. This might be an unrealistic assumption for a
      behavioral experiment such as the DRL-72 because the number of responses (the
      number of trials in each binomial observation) is expected to be influenced by
      the administered dose level. In this article, we extend the model proposed by
      Shkedy et al. ( 2004 ) and propose a hierarchical Bayesian binomial-Poisson
      model, which assumes the number of responses to be a Poisson random variable. The
      results obtained from the GLMM and the binomial-Poisson models are comparable.
      However, the latter model allows estimating the correlation between the number of
      successes and number of trials.

PMID- 28881178
TI  - GUEST EDITORS' NOTE.

PMID- 28881177
TI  - MODELING ANTI-KLH ELISA DATA USING TWO-STAGE AND MIXED EFFECTS MODELS IN SUPPORT
      OF IMMUNOTOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES.
AB  - During preclinical drug development, the immune system is specifically evaluated
      after prolonged treatment with drug candidates, because the immune system may be
      an important target system. The response of antibodies against a T-cell-dependent
      antigen is recommenced by the FDA and EMEA for the evaluation of
      immunosuppression/enhancement. For that reason, we developed a semiquantitative
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure antibodies against keyhole limpet
      hemocyanin. To our knowledge, the analysis of this kind of data is at this moment
      not yet fully explored. In this article, we describe two approaches for modeling
      immunotoxic data using nonlinear models. The first is a two-stage model in which
      we fit an individual nonlinear model for each animal in the first stage, and the
      second stage consists of testing possible treatment effects using the individual
      maximum likelihood estimates obtained in the first stage. In the second approach,
      the inference about treatment effects is based on a nonlinear mixed model, which
      accounts for heterogeneity between animals. In both approaches, we use a three
      parameter logistic model for the mean structure.

PMID- 28881180
TI  - Giant Pilomatrix Carcinoma of the Face.
AB  - This case report describes an unusually large facial pilomatrix carcinoma (PC) in
      a 60-year-old man. This PC had been growing slowly for 11 months and had recently
      ulcerated. It measured 9 cm * 7 cm * 5 cm. Initial punch biopsy findings were
      inconclusive. The tumor was excised in total with 5-mm margins in a supra
      superficial musculoaponeurotic system plane. The defect was reconstructed with a
      cervicofacial bilobed rotational advancement flap. Histopathologic findings
      confirmed the diagnosis of PC. There was no lymph node spread or distant
      metastasis. The patient recovered with a good esthetic result. This case
      represents one of the largest facial PCs reported in the literature. Diagnostic
      challenges are discussed, and the literature is reviewed.

PMID- 28881179
TI  - Correlation of body mass index Z-scores with glucose and lipid profiles among
      overweight and obese children and adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of abnormalities in plasma lipid and
      glucose profiles among overweight and obese children and adolescents, and to
      assess the presence of a correlation between body mass index Z-scores and
      indicators of comorbidities related to both profiles. METHODS: This was a
      multicenter cross-sectional study conducted at two outpatient clinics. The study
      included all 417 comers for the first visit from 2008 to 2012, aged between 7 and
      18 years, with BMI above the Z-score +1. Anthropometry and blood sampling were
      obtained. The prevalence of dyslipidemias, hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance
      were evaluated, together with the correlations of these variables with the
      increase of Z-BMI. RESULTS: Dyslipidemia was observed in 43.4% of the boys and
      66.1% of the girls, with no difference between genders. High glucose levels were
      detected in 6.2% of the individuals. Insulin resistance was present in 32.3% and
      41.7% of the cases, with no statistical significance between boys and girls.
      Correlations between the Z-BMI were noted for triglycerides in the entire group
      and among girls; for HDL-c, only among girls; for glucose, a correlation was
      observed for the entire group, but not when stratified by gender. The indicators
      of insulin resistance were all correlated with Z-BMI, even when corrected for
      age. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight and obesity give origin to a high prevalence of
      dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. BMI Z-scores showed a weak positive
      correlation with glucose and triglyceride, and negative with HDL-c. In turn, the
      strongest positive correlation was found with insulin resistance indicators.

PMID- 28881181
TI  - Digital Workflow for Computer-Guided Implant Surgery in Edentulous Patients: A
      Case Report.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to describe a fully digital workflow
      used to perform computer-guided flapless implant placement in an edentulous
      patient without the use of conventional impressions, models, or a radiographic
      guide. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Digital data for the workflow were acquired using
      an intraoral scanner and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). The image fusion
      of the intraoral scan data and CBCT data was performed by matching resin markers
      placed in the patient's mouth. RESULTS: The definitive digital data were used to
      design a prosthetically driven implant position, surgical template, and computer
      aided design and computer-aided manufacturing fabricated fixed dental prosthesis.
      CONCLUSION: The authors believe this is the first published case describing such
      a technique in computer-guided flapless implant surgery for edentulous patients.

PMID- 28881182
TI  - Surgical Staples: A Superior Alternative to Sutures for Skin Closure After Neck
      Dissection-A Single-Blinded Prospective Randomized Clinical Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of staples in skin closure after neck
      dissection in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. The authors
      hypothesized that the use of staples would result in better wound closure
      compared with the use of nonabsorbable monofilament sutures. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A prospective single-blinded randomized clinical trial was performed to
      compare various parameters, including time for wound closure, inflammatory
      changes, pain, cost efficacy, complications, and esthetic outcome of skin closure
      with surgical staples versus nonabsorbable monofilament sutures and to determine
      their statistical relevance using chi2 and Mann-Whitney U tests. RESULT: In a
      study of 124 patients, the mean skin closure time was 29.2 +/- 4 minutes with
      sutures (n = 61) and 5.3 +/- 1.29 minutes with staples (n = 63), which was
      significant (P = .01). Mean pain scores during removal using the visual analog
      scale were 5.08 +/- 1.29 and 3.15 +/- 0.89 with sutures and staples,
      respectively. Postoperative complications, such as gapping and stitch abscess
      with purulent discharge, were noted. CONCLUSION: Staples provided better
      esthetics with fewer complications, faster closure, minimal pain at removal, and
      faster healing compared with sutures. The slowest closure time in the staples
      group was 4 times faster than the fastest closure time in the sutures group.
      However, staples cost 5 times more than sutures.

PMID- 28881183
TI  - From machine learning to deep learning: progress in machine intelligence for
      rational drug discovery.
AB  - Machine intelligence, which is normally presented as artificial intelligence,
      refers to the intelligence exhibited by computers. In the history of rational
      drug discovery, various machine intelligence approaches have been applied to
      guide traditional experiments, which are expensive and time-consuming. Over the
      past several decades, machine-learning tools, such as quantitative structure
      activity relationship (QSAR) modeling, were developed that can identify potential
      biological active molecules from millions of candidate compounds quickly and
      cheaply. However, when drug discovery moved into the era of 'big' data, machine
      learning approaches evolved into deep learning approaches, which are a more
      powerful and efficient way to deal with the massive amounts of data generated
      from modern drug discovery approaches. Here, we summarize the history of machine
      learning and provide insight into recently developed deep learning approaches and
      their applications in rational drug discovery. We suggest that this evolution of
      machine intelligence now provides a guide for early-stage drug design and
      discovery in the current big data era.

PMID- 28881185
TI  - The Usefulness of Serologic Testing for Epstein-Barr Virus Before Initiation of
      Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PMID- 28881184
TI  - Developmental Delay and Colon Polyposis.

PMID- 28881186
TI  - An Unusual Liver Tumor.

PMID- 28881187
TI  - An Atypical Coincidence of Colon Ischemia and Bilateral Distal Ureteral
      Strictures.

PMID- 28881188
TI  - RE: Steatorrhea, Hyperoxaluria and Colonic Hyperproliferation After Roux-en-Y
      Gastric Bypass.

PMID- 28881189
TI  - Screening for Epstein-Barr Virus Status and Risk of Hemophagocytic
      Lymphohistiocytosis in Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease on Azathioprine.

PMID- 28881190
TI  - A Large Changing Mass in the Esophagus.

PMID- 28881191
TI  - A Rare Case of Chylous Ascites.

PMID- 28881192
TI  - A Rare Cause of Severe Hypokalemia and Back Pain.

PMID- 28881193
TI  - An Unusual Cause of Hepatic Dysfunction.

PMID- 28881194
TI  - An Unexpected Cause of Acute Abdomen.

PMID- 28881195
TI  - Detectable Viremia at the End of Treatment With Direct-Acting Antivirals Can Be
      Associated With Subsequent Clinical Cure in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C: A
      Case Series.

PMID- 28881196
TI  - A Severe But Easily Treatable Dysphagia.

PMID- 28881198
TI  - Ecophysiological strategies for growth under varying light and organic carbon
      supply in two species of green microalgae differing in their motility.
AB  - Mixing events in stratified lakes result in microalgae being exposed to varying
      conditions in light and organic carbon concentrations. Stratified lakes consist
      of an upper illuminated strata and a lower, darker strata where organic carbon
      accumulates. Therefore, in this contribution we explore the importance of
      dissolved organic carbon for growth under various light intensities by measuring
      some ecophysiological adaptations in two green microalgae. We compared the non
      motile Chlorella vulgaris with the flagellated Chlamydomonas acidophila under
      auto-, mixo-, and heterotrophic growth conditions. In both algae the maximum
      photosynthetic and growth rates were highest under mixotrophy, and both algae
      appeared inhibited in their phosphorus acquisition under heterotrophy.
      Heterotrophic conditions provoked the largest differences as C. vulgaris produced
      chlorophyll a in darkness and grew as well as in autotrophic conditions, whereas
      Chl. acidophila bleached and could not grow heterotrophically. Although the fatty
      acid composition of both phytoplankton species differed, both species reacted in
      a similar way to changes in their growth conditions, mainly by a decrease of
      C18:3n-3 and an increase of C18:1n-9 from auto- to heterotrophic conditions. The
      two contrasting responses within the group of green microalgae suggest that
      dissolved organic carbon has a high deterministic potential to explain the
      survival and behaviour of green algae in the deeper strata of lakes.

PMID- 28881197
TI  - Oleanane-type triterpene saponins from Calendula stellata.
AB  - Five previously undescribed bisdesmosidic triterpenoid saponins named
      calendustellatosides A-E, along with fifteen known compounds were isolated from
      the 70% ethanol whole plant extract of Calendula stellata Cav. (Asteraceae).
      Their structures were determined by 1D- and 2D-NMR spectroscopy as well as high
      resolution mass spectrometry and acid hydrolysis. The saponins comprised
      oleanolic acid, echinocystic acid, morolic acid or mesembryanthemoidigenic acid
      as the aglycones and saccharide moieties at C-3 and C-28. Like most Calendula
      saponins, the sugar moiety linked at C-3 was either beta-d-glucose or beta-d
      glucuronic acid which could be substituted at C-3 by a beta-d-galactose and/or C
      2 by a supplementary beta-d-galactose or a beta-d-glucose. The sugar moiety
      linked to C-28 was determined as beta-d-glucose. The antibacterial evaluation of
      compounds 1-20 by bioautography on Staphylococcus aureus followed by the
      determination of MIC values of active compounds by serial dilution technique
      against 5 bacteria revealed that; calendustellatoside D was the most active
      against Enterococcus faecalis with an antibacterial effect comparable to
      antibiotics. The cytotoxic activities of isolated compounds were evaluated
      against fibrosarcoma cell line (HT1080) and human lung cancer cell line (A549).
      Calendustellatosides B and D exhibited a low cytotoxic activity against HT1080
      cell line with IC50 values of 47 +/- 0.6 and 39 +/- 0.5 MUM, respectively.

PMID- 28881199
TI  - Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes based on melamine-formaldehyde resin as highly
      efficient catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction.
AB  - The preparation of highly efficient and cheap electrocatalysts toward oxygen
      reduction reaction is significant for many electrochemical cells. Here we
      facilely synthesized nitrogen doped carbon nanotube by pyrolyzing melamine
      formaldehyde resin and Fe loading on MgO. There were mainly three morphologies
      observed, slender bamboo-like CNT, thick bamboo-like CNT, surface smooth, hollow
      CNT. The content of Fe loading on MgO had little influence on morphologies of
      CNT, however, when no MgO as support, only carbon ribbon obtained. The MgO as
      support was also significant for the formation of CNT. The samples with CNT
      formed represented better catalytic activity than control samples with no-CNT
      obtained, the morphology of CNT was beneficial for catalytic process. The sample
      C1-CNT with lowest content of Fe on support represented best catalytic activity
      which was competitive with 20% Pt/C in half-wave potential. The C1-CNT also
      showed outstanding stability and improved selectivity towards ORR, making it a
      promising alternative to Pt in application of fuel cells and metal-air batteries.

PMID- 28881200
TI  - Facile synthesis of bimetallic gold-palladium nanocrystals as effective and
      durable advanced catalysts for improved electrocatalytic performances of ethylene
      glycol and glycerol oxidation.
AB  - In this work, well-defined bimetallic AuPd alloyed nanocrystals (AuPd NCs) were
      facilely synthesized by a straightforward and controllable one-step wet-chemical
      strategy, using a biomolecule (L-hydroxyproline, L-Hyp) as the green stabilizer
      and the structure-directing agent. Their morphology, size, composition, crystal
      structures and growth mechanism were investigated by a series of techniques. The
      synthesized architectures exhibited enlarged electrochemically active surface
      area (ECSA), improved catalytic activity, enhanced durability and stability
      towards ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR) and glycerol oxidation reaction
      (GOR) in alkaline electrolytes in comparison with commercial Pd black catalyst.

PMID- 28881202
TI  - The effect of solvent polarity on wormlike micelles using dipropylene glycol
      (DPG) as a cosolvent in an anionic/zwitterionic mixed surfactant system.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: The behavior/properties of micellar solutions are governed by
      Coulombic interactions that are influenced by the polarity of the surfactant head
      groups, hydrophobic tails, and solvent molecules. The addition of co-solvent
      should have a direct impact on solvent polarity and the size of the micelles are
      expected to decrease accordingly. EXPERIMENTS: In this study, a mixed surfactant
      system is studied composed of a common anionic surfactant, sodium laureth sulfate
      1, modified by a zwitterionic surfactant, cocamidopropyl betaine in deuterated
      water. In this system, worm-like micelles (WLMs) are formed. The influence of a
      co-solvent, dipropylene glycol (DPG) in the present of high salt content, is
      investigated. DPG primarily modifies the dielectric constant of the solvent.
      FINDINGS: It was found that the addition of DPG slightly decreased the micelle
      radius, but dramatically reduced the persistence length as well as the contour
      length of the micelles. The relative dependence of contour length on salt
      concentration is not significantly changed. Thus, it is shown that the self
      assembled structure can be tuned by adjusting solvent polarity without affecting
      the relative tunability of the WLM/ellipsoidal structure through counter ion
      concentration.

PMID- 28881201
TI  - Double Z-scheme system of silver bromide@bismuth tungstate/tungsten trioxide
      ternary heterojunction with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity.
AB  - The ternary heterojunction of silver bromide@bismuth tungstate/tungsten trioxide
      (AgBr@Bi2WO6/WO3) was designed and synthesised by hydrothermal and deposition
      precipitation approaches. The composites were characterised by X-ray diffraction,
      transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The
      photoabsorption range and bandgaps of the photocatalysts were analysed by
      ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). Compared with
      Bi2WO6/WO3 or AgBr alone, the AgBr@Bi2WO6/WO3 composites displayed higher visible
      light photocatalytic performance for degrading rhodamine B (RhB). AgBr@Bi2WO6/WO3
      with 40% AgBr concentration was optimum for photocatalytic activity. Radical
      trapping experiments revealed that superoxide anion radicals (O2-) and holes (h+)
      were the active species during photocatalytic degradation and that O2- was the
      dominant active species. Therefore, the increased photocatalytic activity of
      AgBr@Bi2WO6/WO3 was attributed to the atypical double Z-scheme system, which
      effectively improved the transfer and separation of electron-hole pairs in
      ternary heterojunction structures.

PMID- 28881203
TI  - In situ silica coating-directed synthesis of orthorhombic methylammonium lead
      bromide perovskite quantum dots with high stability.
AB  - Luminescent perovskite quantum dots (QDs) had attracted great attention by virtue
      of the merits of color-tunable and narrow-band emissions. However, sofar reported
      perovskite QDs suffered from instability more or less. In this work, a type of
      silica-coated orthorhombic CH3NH3PbBr3 QDs (SiO2-QDs) with greatly improved
      stability was reported. The SiO2-QDs were one-pot synthesized using a
      reprecipitation-encapsulation method assisted with an amine functional silane,
      which not conly controlled the crystallization of QDs, but also encapsulated QDs
      with a silica layer simultaneously. More interestingly, the in situ encapsulation
      of silica shell induced the presence of orthorhombic perovskite that was thought
      to be unstable at room temperature. This is the first report of orthorhombic
      CH3NH3PbBr3 QDs, as far as we are concerned. The orthorhombic SiO2-QDs exhibited
      narrow-band green luminescence with a quantum yield of 78%, and a high production
      yield of ~70wt%. Moreover, stability of SiO2-QDs was considerably improved due to
      silica-coating. White-LEDs were also successfully fabricated with the green SiO2
      QDs and a red commercial phosphors using a noncontact configuration. These
      results demonstrated that the orthorhombic SiO2-QDs held great promise for high
      performance display or lighting technology.

PMID- 28881204
TI  - Gelation mechanism of cellulose nanofibre gels: A colloids and interfacial
      perspective.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: Nanocellulose gels form a new category of sustainable soft materials
      of industrial interest for a wide range of applications. There is a need to map
      the rheological properties and understand the mechanism which provides the
      colloidal stability and gelation of these nanofibre suspensions. EXPERIMENTS:
      TEMPO (2,2,6,6,-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl)-oxidised cellulose nanofibre gels
      were investigated at different fibre concentrations, pH and ionic strength.
      Dynamic and cyclic rheological studies was performed to quantify gel behaviour
      and properties. Gels were produced at different pH and salt contents to map and
      understand colloidal stability of the nanocellulose gel. FINDINGS: Rheology
      indicates gelation asa transitionary state starting at a fibre concentration of
      0.1wt.%. The colloidal stability of the nanocellulose gel network is controlled
      by pH and salt, whereas fibre concentration mainly dictates the dynamic
      rheological properties. Decreasing pH and adding salt destabilises the gel
      network by eluting bound water which is correlated with the decrease in
      electrostatic repulsion between fibres. The gelation and colloidal stability of
      these nanocellulose gels is driven by electrostatic forces and the entanglement
      ability of the fibrous system to overlap.

PMID- 28881205
TI  - Near-infrared triggered co-delivery of doxorubicin and quercetin by using gold
      nanocages with tetradecanol to maximize anti-tumor effects on MCF-7/ADR cells.
AB  - Previously, combination chemotherapy of doxorubicin (DOX) and quercetin (QUR) was
      developed to improve antitumor effects and reverse multidrug resistance and
      several biocompatible nanocarriers, such as liposomes and micelles, were
      validated for their targeted delivery. In this study, we report a near-infrared
      (NIR)-responsive drug delivery system based on DOX and QUR co-loaded gold
      nanocages (AuNCs) with biotin modification. The system was simply fabricated by
      filling the hollow interiors of AuNCs with tetradecanol (TD), a phase-change
      material with a melting point of 39 degrees C, to control the drug release. The
      main cause of multidrug resistance (MDR) of DOX is the overexpression of P
      glycoprotein (P-gp), which can be inhibited by QUR. Thus the combination
      chemotherapy of DOX and QUR may provide a promising strategy for MDR. The in
      vitro cytotoxicity of DOX and QUR at several fixed mass ratios was carried out
      and showed that the combination index (CI) was the smallest at the ratio of
      1:0.2, indicating that the best synergistic effect was achieved. The resultant
      nanocomplex (abbreviated as BPQD-AuNCs) exhibited fast release (80% released in
      20min) and strong cytotoxicity against MCF-7/ADR cells (IC50, 1.5MUg/mL) under
      NIR irradiation. Additionally, BPQD-AuNCs were found to generate a large amount
      of reactive oxygen species (ROS), to inhibit P-gp expression and ATP activity.
      Taken together, the results show that BPQD-AuNC is a prospective nano-delivery
      system for overcoming multidrug-resistant cancer.

PMID- 28881206
TI  - Polyglycerolated nanocarriers with increased ligand multivalency for enhanced in
      vivo therapeutic efficacy of paclitaxel.
AB  - Despite the excellent biocompatibility and antifouling effect of poly(ethylene
      glycol) (PEG), the high steric hindrance, limited chemical functionality, and low
      ligand multivalency of PEGylated nanocarriers often lead to inefficient cell
      targeting and intracellular trafficking. Hence, a new structure of hydrophilic
      corona allowing a higher ligand density without loss of excellent
      biocompatibility is highly desirable. Here we introduce tumor-targeted
      polyglycerolated (PGylated) nanocarriers that dramatically enhance the in vivo
      therapeutic efficacy of incorporated paclitaxel simply by increasing the surface
      density of hydrophobic tumor-targeting ligands. Linear polyglycerol-poly (epsilon
      caprolactone) block copolymer (PG-b-PCL) is used to prepare PGylated lipiodol
      nanoemulsions, where PG serves as a corona conjugated with a large number of
      folic acid (FA) for efficient tumor targeting. Unlike FA-PEGylated nanoemulsions,
      FA-PGylated nanoemulsions can display a larger number of FA without structural
      destabilization. This property enables excellent anti-cancer activities and
      effective tumor regression in a cervical cancer xenograft murine model at a
      cumulative drug dose of ~5 mg kg-1, which is about four fold smaller than that of
      commercial Taxol formulation. This study highlights the importance of surface
      chemistry of nanocarriers that enable multivalent ligand functionalization and
      high tolerance to the conjugation of hydrophobic ligands, which make PG as a very
      effective hydrophilic corona for in vivo drug delivery.

PMID- 28881207
TI  - Pathway from poor self-rated health to mortality: Explanatory power of disease
      diagnosis.
AB  - Poor self-rated health has been consistently demonstrated as a reliable predictor
      for mortality, often exceeding the predictive power of other "objective" medical
      factors. Drawing from a theoretical framework for the cognitive processes
      underlying the self-assessment of health, this study seeks to test the knowledge
      mechanisms that moderate the predictive power of poor self-rated health. Using
      nationally-representative longitudinal data from the Canadian National Population
      Health Survey (NPHS) from 1994 to 2010, this study tests the effects of physician
      diagnosed disease for the life course trajectory of self-rated health, and as a
      moderator for the power of poor self-rated health to predict proximate mortality.
      Disruptions to self-rated health trajectories are measured using an interrupted
      time-series analysis. Predictive power is modelled using generalized estimating
      equation (GEE) logistic regression. Findings show that physician-diagnosed
      diseases cause a negative shock to self-rated health, even accounting for
      endogeneity. Furthermore, a major portion of the predictive power of poor self
      rated health in the final years of life is explained by respondents' knowledge of
      the disease conditions which eventually cause their death. This novel finding
      supports one of the foremost theories putting cognition and knowledge at the root
      of why poor self-rated health is such a robust predictor of mortality.

PMID- 28881208
TI  - Differential item functioning in quality of life measurement: An analysis using
      anchoring vignettes.
AB  - Systematic differences in the ways that people use and interpret response
      categories (differential item functioning, DIF) can introduce bias when using
      self-assessments to compare health or quality of life across heterogeneous
      groups. This paper reports on an exploratory analysis involving the use of
      anchoring vignettes to identify DIF in a commonly used measure for assessing
      health-related quality of life - namely the EQ-5D. Using data from a bespoke
      (i.e. custom) survey that recruited a representative sample of 4300 respondents
      from the general Australian population in 2014 and 2015, we find that the
      assumptions of response consistency (RC) and vignette equivalence (VE) hold in a
      sub-sample of respondents aged 55-65 years (n = 914), which demonstrates that
      vignettes can appropriately identify DIF in EQ-5D reporting for this age group.
      We find that the EQ-5D is indeed subject to DIF, and that failure to account for
      DIF can lead to conclusions that are misleading when using the instrument to
      compare health or quality of life across heterogeneous groups. We also provide
      several important insights in terms of the identifying assumptions of RC and VE.
      We conclude that the implications of DIF could be of considerable importance, not
      only for outcomes research, but for funding decisions in healthcare more broadly
      given the strong reliance on patient-reported outcome measures in economic
      evaluations for health technology assessment.

PMID- 28881209
TI  - Use of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry and a conventional flask
      test to identify off-flavor compounds generated from phenylalanine during
      chlorination of drinking water.
AB  - Off-flavor in drinking water can be caused by transformation products (TPs)
      generated from organic compounds, such as amino acids, present during
      chlorination. However, the contributions of many of these TPs to overall off
      flavor have not been quantified, mainly because the lack of appropriate chemical
      standards prevents sensory evaluation by means of a conventional flask test. In
      the present study, we used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (GC
      MS-O) to identify compounds responsible for the off-flavor generated by
      chlorination of an aqueous solution of the amino acid phenylalanine, and we
      propose a sensory evaluation procedure for quantification of the contributions of
      the identified TPs to the overall off-flavor, regardless of the availability of
      chemical standards of the TPs. GC-MS-O revealed that two TPs, N
      chlorophenylacetaldimine and 2-chloro-2-phenylacetaldehyde, for which chemical
      standards are not commercially available, were the main components responsible
      for the off-flavor of the chlorinated solution. By using a sensory evaluation
      procedure involving a combination of GC-MS-O and a conventional flask test, we
      quantified the contributions of TPs to the overall off-flavor of the chlorinated
      solution. Approximately 60% of the off-flavor was attributable to free chlorine
      (13%), 2-chloro-2-phenylacetaldehyde (13%), trichloramine (12%)
      phenylacetaldehyde (11%) phenylacetonitrile (8%), and N-chlorophenylacetaldimine
      (2%). Treatment with powdered activated carbon (PAC) removed the off-flavor.
      Experiments with chlorination of 15N-labeled phenylalanine suggested that PAC
      reductively decomposed trichloramine into N2 gas and adsorbed all of the other
      identified TPs. Superfine PAC (median diameter, 0.7 MUm) removed the off-flavor
      more rapidly than normal-size PAC (median diameter, 8.0 MUm).

PMID- 28881210
TI  - Total electron acceptor loading and composition affect hexavalent uranium
      reduction and microbial community structure in a membrane biofilm reactor.
AB  - Molecular microbiology tools (i.e., 16S rDNA gene sequencing) were employed to
      elucidate changes in the microbial community structure according to the total
      electron acceptor loading (controlled by influent flow rate and/or medium
      composition) in a H2-based membrane biofilm reactor evaluated for removal of
      hexavalent uranium. Once nitrate, sulfate, and dissolved oxygen were replaced by
      U(VI) and bicarbonate and the total acceptor loading was lowered, slow-growing
      bacteria capable of reducing U(VI) to U(IV) dominated in the biofilm community:
      Replacing denitrifying bacteria Rhodocyclales and Burkholderiales were spore
      producing Clostridiales and Natranaerobiales. Though potentially competing for
      electrons with U(VI) reducers, homo-acetogens helped attain steady U(VI)
      reduction, while methanogenesis inhibited U(VI) reduction. U(VI) reduction was
      reinstated through suppression of methanogenesis by addition of
      bromoethanesulfonate or by competition from SRB when sulfate was re-introduced.
      Predictive metagenome analysis further points out community changes in response
      to alterations in the electron-acceptor loading: Sporulation and homo
      acetogenesis were critical factors for strengthening stable microbial U(VI)
      reduction. This study documents that sporulation was important to long-term U(VI)
      reduction, whether or not microorganisms that carry out U(VI) reduction mediated
      by cytochrome c3, such as SRB and ferric-iron-reducers, were inhibited.

PMID- 28881211
TI  - The in situ bacterial production of fluorescent organic matter; an investigation
      at a species level.
AB  - Aquatic dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays an essential role in biogeochemical
      cycling and transport of organic matter throughout the hydrological continuum. To
      characterise microbially-derived organic matter (OM) from common environmental
      microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa),
      excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy was employed. This
      work shows that bacterial organisms can produce fluorescent organic matter (FOM)
      in situ and, furthermore, that the production of FOM differs at a bacterial
      species level. This production can be attributed to structural biological
      compounds, specific functional proteins (e.g. pyoverdine production by P.
      aeruginosa), and/or metabolic by-products. Bacterial growth curve data
      demonstrates that the production of FOM is fundamentally related to microbial
      metabolism. For example, the majority of Peak T fluorescence (> 75%) is shown to
      be intracellular in origin, as a result of the building of proteins for growth
      and metabolism. This underpins the use of Peak T as a measure of microbial
      activity, as opposed to bacterial enumeration as has been previously suggested.
      This study shows that different bacterial species produce a range of FOM that has
      historically been attributed to high molecular weight allochthonous material or
      the degradation of terrestrial FOM. We provide definitive evidence that, in fact,
      it can be produced by microbes within a model system (autochthonous), providing
      new insights into the possible origin of allochthonous and autochthonous organic
      material present in aquatic systems.

PMID- 28881212
TI  - Nanofiltration as tertiary treatment method for removing trace pharmaceutically
      active compounds in wastewater from wastewater treatment plants.
AB  - The ever-increasing occurrence and persistence of pharmaceutically active
      compounds (PhACs) in soils, sediments, drinking water supplies and wastewater
      effluents are a matter of serious environmental concern for governments and
      researchers worldwide. Nanofiltration as tertiary treatment method can be a
      viable and practical tool to remove these pollutants from aquatic environments.
      However, organic matter present in water sources can foul the membrane surface
      during operation, thus being potentially able to affect the membrane performance.
      Therefore, fouling mechanisms could heavily influence on the removal
      efficiencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of
      three nanofiltration membranes (TFC-SR2, NF-270 and MPS-34) and to study both the
      rejection of trace PhACs and the fouling mechanisms for each membrane as a
      function of feed solution pH. Fouling mechanisms were predicted by Hermia's model
      adapted to cross-flow configurations. Results demonstrated that higher removals
      were obtained at slightly alkaline pH, especially for anionic trace PhACs. At the
      same conditions, more severe fouling was observed, which resulted in strong flux
      declines and an increase in hydrophobicity. This indicates that the attached
      organic matter on the membrane surface acts as a secondary selective barrier for
      separation.

PMID- 28881213
TI  - Trends in riverine element fluxes: A chronicle of regional socio-economic
      changes.
AB  - We show how concentrations of water solutes in the Vltava River (Czech Republic)
      and their riverine outputs from the catchment were modified by socio-economic
      changes, land use, and hydrology between 1960 and 2015. In the early 1960s, HCO3
      and Ca were the dominant ions. During 1960-1989 (a period of planned economy with
      an over-use of synthetic fertilizers, excessive draining of agricultural land and
      little environmental protection), the riverine concentrations of strong acid
      anions (SAAs: SO4, NO3, and Cl) increased 2-4-fold and their leaching was
      accompanied for by a 1.4-1.8-fold increase in concentrations of Ca, Mg, K, and
      Na. SAAs mostly originated from diffuse agricultural sources (synthetic
      fertilizers and mineralization of organic matter in freshly drained and deeply
      tilled agricultural land) and their annual average concentrations (as well as
      those of Ca, Mg, and K) were positively correlated with discharge. During 1990
      2015 (a period of a re-established market economy, reduced fertilization, ceased
      drainage, partial conversion of arable land to pastures, and increasing
      environmental protection), concentrations of SO4 and NO3 significantly decreased
      due to reduced agricultural production and atmospheric pollution, and their
      positive correlations with discharge disappeared. In contrast, Na and Cl
      concentrations increased due to more intensive road de-icing, and their
      concentrations became negatively correlated with discharge. Trends in phosphorus
      concentrations reflected changes in its input by both diffuse (fertilizers) and
      point (wastewater) sources and were discharge independent.

PMID- 28881214
TI  - The influence of online images on self-harm: A qualitative study of young people
      aged 16-24.
AB  - To date, research on the role of the Internet in self-harm has focused on young
      people's interaction via the medium of text, with limited consideration of the
      effect of images. This qualitative study explores how young people understand and
      use online images of self-harm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a
      community sample of 21 individuals aged 16-24 living in Wales, UK, with a
      previous history of self-harm. Interviewees reported the role of the Internet in
      normalising young people's self-harm. Images rather than textual interactions are
      the primary reason cited for using the Internet for self-harm purposes. Images
      invoke a physical reaction and inspire behavioural enactment, with Tumblr, which
      permits the sharing of images by anonymous individuals, being the preferred
      platform. Viewing online images serves a vital role in many young people's self
      harm, as part of ritualistic practice. Online prevention and intervention need to
      attend to the importance of images.

PMID- 28881215
TI  - A systemic approach to understanding mental health and services.
AB  - In the UK mental health and associated NHS services face considerable challenges.
      This paper aims to form an understanding both of the complexity of context in
      which services operate and the means by which services have sought to meet these
      challenges. Systemic principles as have been applied to public service
      organisations with reference to interpersonal relations, the wider social culture
      and its manifestation in service provision. The analysis suggests that the wider
      culture has shaped service demand and the approaches adopted by services
      resulting in a number of unintended consequences, reinforcing loops, increased
      workload demands and the limited value of services. The systemic modelling of
      this situation provides a necessary overview prior to future policy development.
      The paper concludes that mental health and attendant services requires a systemic
      understanding and a whole system approach to reform.

PMID- 28881216
TI  - Who provides inconsistent reports of their health status? The importance of age,
      cognitive ability and socioeconomic status.
AB  - Self-assessed health (SAH) measures are widely used in models of health and
      health inequalities. Such models assume that SAH is a reliable measure of health
      status. We utilise a unique feature of a national longitudinal survey to examine
      the consistency of responses to a standard SAH question that is asked twice to
      the same individual in close temporal proximity in up to three waves (2001, 2009,
      and 2013). In particular, we analyse whether the consistency of responses varies
      with personal characteristics. The main analysis sample includes 18,834
      individual-year observations. We find that 57% of respondents provide
      inconsistent reports at least once. Characteristics that are associated with
      significantly higher inconsistencies are age, education, cognitive ability, and
      time between responses. The results suggest that there are systematic differences
      in the ability of individuals' to self-evaluate and summarise their own health.
      Consequently, failure to account for such error may lead to large estimation
      biases in models of health outcomes, particularly with respect to the
      relationship between education, cognitive ability, and health.

PMID- 28881217
TI  - Protein beta-sheet prediction using an efficient dynamic programming algorithm.
AB  - Predicting the beta-sheet structure of a protein is one of the most important
      intermediate steps towards the identification of its tertiary structure. However,
      it is regarded as the primary bottleneck due to the presence of non-local
      interactions between several discontinuous regions in beta-sheets. To achieve
      reliable long-range interactions, a promising approach is to enumerate and rank
      all beta-sheet conformations for a given protein and find the one with the
      highest score. The problem with this solution is that the search space of the
      problem grows exponentially with respect to the number of beta-strands.
      Additionally, brute-force calculation in this conformational space leads to
      dealing with a combinatorial explosion problem with intractable computational
      complexity. The main contribution of this paper is to generate and search the
      space of the problem efficiently to reduce the time complexity of the problem. To
      achieve this, two tree structures, called sheet-tree and grouping-tree, are
      proposed. They model the search space by breaking it into sub-problems. Then, an
      advanced dynamic programming is proposed that stores the intermediate results,
      avoids repetitive calculation by repeatedly uses them efficiently in successive
      steps and reduces the space of the problem by removing those intermediate results
      that will no longer be required in later steps. As a consequence, the following
      contributions have been made. Firstly, more accurate beta-sheet structures are
      found by searching all possible conformations, and secondly, the time complexity
      of the problem is reduced by searching the space of the problem efficiently which
      makes the proposed method applicable to predict beta-sheet structures with high
      number of beta-strands. Experimental results on the BetaSheet916 dataset showed
      significant improvements of the proposed method in both execution time and the
      prediction accuracy in comparison with the state-of-the-art beta-sheet structure
      prediction methods Moreover, we investigate the effect of different contact map
      predictors on the performance of the proposed method using BetaSheet1452 dataset.
      The source code is available at http://www.conceptsgate.com/BetaTop.rar.

PMID- 28881218
TI  - Downregulated expression of miR-223 promotes Toll-like receptor-activated
      inflammatory responses in macrophages by targeting RhoB.
AB  - Toll-like receptors (TLRs) induced-inflammatory response must be tightly
      regulated to avoid impairment in host itself. Numerous factors have been
      identified in regulation of TLR-triggered inflammatory response. Among these,
      microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules which have got much
      attention. MiR-223, which highly expresses in myeloid cells of the bone marrow,
      has reported to participate in kinds of inflammatory responses by targeting
      inflammasome sensor-NLRP3 to repress production of IL-6 and IL-1beta, and thus
      attenuate inflammatory response. However, the function of miR-223 in TLRs
      activated inflammatory response of macrophages is not clear. Here we found miR
      223 expression is dramatically reduced in macrophages by TLR ligand stimulation
      (e.g. LPS, CpG and poly (I:C)). The down-regulated miR-223 leads to the increase
      in the RhoB expression, which induce the activation of NF-kappaB and MAPK
      signaling, promoting TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-1beta production upon LPS
      stimulation. In addition, the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A
      increased miR-223 expression obviously in TLR-triggered macrophages, which in
      turn suppressed RhoB expression and downstream IL-6 production, suggesting that
      the inhibition of miR-223 by histone deacetylation may be involved in the
      regulation of TLR-activated inflammatory response. Herein, our findings suggest
      that miR-223-RhoB axis might be a novel target for the treatment of inflammatory
      diseases.

PMID- 28881219
TI  - 'It is not a quick fix' structural and contextual issues that affect
      implementation of integrated health and well-being services: a qualitative study
      from North East England.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to examine the factors affecting the
      design, commissioning and delivery of integrated health and well-being services
      (IHWSs), which seek to address multiple health-related behaviours, improve well
      being and tackle health inequalities using holistic approaches. STUDY DESIGN:
      Qualitative studies embedded within iterative process evaluations. METHODS: Semi
      structured interviews conducted with 16 key informants as part of two separate
      evaluations of IHWSs in North East England, supplemented by informal observations
      of service delivery. Transcripts and fieldnotes were analysed thematically.
      RESULTS: The study findings identify a challenging organisational context in
      which to implement innovative service redesign, as a result of budget cuts and
      changes in NHS and local authority capacity. Pressures to demonstrate outcomes
      affected the ability to negotiate the practicalities of joint working. Progress
      is at risk of being undermined by pressures to disinvest before the long-term
      benefits to population health and well-being are realised. The findings raise
      important questions about contract management and relationships between
      commissioners and providers involved in implementing these new ways of working.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide useful learning in terms of the delivery and
      commissioning of similar IHWSs, contributing to understanding of the benefits and
      challenges of this model of working.

PMID- 28881220
TI  - Executive function predicts cognitive-behavioral therapy response in childhood
      obsessive-compulsive disorder.
AB  - Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered first-line treatment for
      childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Despite CBT's efficacy, too many
      children and adolescents do not fully respond to treatment, making the
      identification of predictors of treatment response highly relevant. Executive
      functions (EF) have been suggested to constitute such predictors, but studies
      with pediatric samples are scarce. In the present study, we investigated latent
      level EF test performance and ratings of daily life EF behavior as predictors of
      CBT response in pediatric OCD. We further examined the stability of EF from pre
      to post-treatment and the association of EF changes with OCD severity change. EF
      test performance significantly predicted exposure-based CBT outcome. Patients
      with better EF test performance had significantly elevated risk of non-response
      relative to patients with poorer performance. Daily life EF behavior in OCD
      probands improved after treatment relative to controls. The findings suggest that
      EF performance impacts CBT outcome, and that exposure-based CBT is well-suited
      for children and adolescents with OCD and poorer EF test performance. This study
      supports the relevance of EF in CBT for childhood OCD and denotes a possible need
      for development of enhanced treatments for children and adolescents with OCD and
      superior EF performance.

PMID- 28881221
TI  - Social anxiety in pre-adolescent children: What do we know about maintenance?
AB  - The cognitive theory of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most widely
      accepted accounts of the maintenance of the disorder in adults, yet it remains
      unknown if, or to what extent, the same cognitive and behavioral maintenance
      mechanisms that occur in adult SAD also apply to SAD among pre-adolescent
      children. In contrast to the adult literature, current models of SAD in children
      mostly account for etiology and maintenance processes are given limited
      attention. Consequently, their clinical utility for the treatment of SAD in
      children may be limited. This narrative review, first, critically examines the
      different theoretical conceptualizations of the maintenance of social anxiety in
      the child and adult literature and illustrates how these have resulted in
      different treatment approaches and clinical understanding. Second, it reviews the
      available evidence relating to hypotheses about the maintenance of SAD in
      children as derived from adult cognitive and etiological models. Third, it
      highlights the need to attend directly to child specific maintenance mechanisms
      in SAD, to draw on cognitive theory, and to account for the influence of
      childhood-specific contextual (e.g. family and school-based interactions) and
      developmental factors on children's social experiences.

PMID- 28881222
TI  - Immune checkpoint blockade for unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma: A
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) for uveal melanoma (UM)
      is little established. The aim of this review was to provide a comprehensive
      overview on the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of ICB in patients with UM.
      METHODS: We performed a systematic literature research covering MEDLINE, Embase
      and CENTRAL. Abstracts of pertinent conferences and trial registers were
      handsearched for relevant studies. RESULTS: Out of 1327 records initially
      identified, 12 eligible studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. They
      comprised 7 expanded access or named patient programs (n=162), 4 phase II trials
      (n=171), and 1 phase Ib trial (sample size unknown), while no randomized
      controlled trial was found. Ipilimumab monotherapy was assessed at 3mg/kg in 5
      trials (n=186) with a response rate of 0 to 5%. Two reports investigated
      ipilimumab at 10mg/kg (n=45) with radiological responses observed in 0 to 6.5%.
      The median progression-free survival (PFS) was below 3months and the median
      overall survival was 5.2-9.8months for ipilimumab monotherapy. Severe immune
      related adverse events occurred at a frequency comparable to cutaneous melanoma
      (6 to 36%). Two studies investigated pembrolizumab (2mg/kg) and nivolumab
      (3mg/kg) with overall response rates of 30% and 6%, respectively. Data on
      combined ipilimumab and programmed cell death protein 1 inhibition were available
      from one expanded access program, but no response was observed with a median PFS
      of 2.9months. CONCLUSIONS: UM is little responsive to ipilimumab regardless of
      dosage schemes. Sound randomized clinical trials are needed to evaluate the
      efficacy of combined ICB in patients with UM.

PMID- 28881223
TI  - Efficacy of extended adjuvant therapy with aromatase inhibitors in early breast
      cancer among common clinicopathologically-defined subgroups: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown improvements in breast
      cancer outcomes from extending treatment with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) beyond
      the initial 5years after diagnosis. Consistency of this effect in common
      clinicopathologically defined subgroups was not been reported systematically.
      METHODS: We identified RCTs comparing extended AIs to placebo or no treatment
      using a systematic search of MEDLINE and a review of abstracts from key
      conferences between 2013 and 2016. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CI) for disease-free survival (DFS) were included in a meta-analysis
      using generic inverse variance and random effects modelling. Pre-specified
      subgroups included: age (<60+/-5years versus >=60+/-5 years), tumor size (>2cm
      versus <=2cm), nodal status (positive versus negative), hormone receptor status
      (double versus single receptor expression) and receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy
      (yes versus no). RESULTS: Seven trials comprising 16,349 patients were analyzed.
      Overall, the effect of extended AIs was similar in all subgroups. Non
      significantly greater effect sizes were seen in patients with larger tumors (HR
      for DFS 0.77 versus 0.88, p for difference=0.44), nodal involvement (HR=0.72
      versus 0.83, p for difference=0.22), double hormone receptor expression (HR=0.68
      versus 1.01, p for difference=0.31) and receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy (HR=0.71
      versus 0.80, p for difference=0.51). CONCLUSIONS: Extended treatment with AIs is
      associated with similar relative improvements in DFS in all subgroups analyzed.
      The combination of greater effect size and higher absolute risk of recurrence in
      node positive and larger tumors will likely translate to higher absolute benefits
      from extended AIs in these groups.

PMID- 28881224
TI  - Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of
      spoken word recognition.
AB  - Speech carries accent information relevant to determining the speaker's
      linguistic and social background. A series of web-based experiments demonstrate
      that accent cues can modulate access to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, British
      participants were more likely to retrieve the American dominant meaning (e.g.,
      hat meaning of "bonnet") in a word association task if they heard the words in an
      American than a British accent. In addition, results from a speeded semantic
      decision task (Experiment 4) and sentence comprehension task (Experiment 5)
      confirm that accent modulates on-line meaning retrieval such that comprehension
      of ambiguous words is easier when the relevant word meaning is dominant in the
      speaker's dialect. Critically, neutral-accent speech items, created by morphing
      British- and American-accented recordings, were interpreted in a similar way to
      accented words when embedded in a context of accented words (Experiment 2). This
      finding indicates that listeners do not use accent to guide meaning retrieval on
      a word-by-word basis; instead they use accent information to determine the
      dialectic identity of a speaker and then use their experience of that dialect to
      guide meaning access for all words spoken by that person. These results motivate
      a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition in which comprehenders
      determine key characteristics of their interlocutor and use this knowledge to
      guide word meaning access.

PMID- 28881225
TI  - The oxidative stress response of oxytetracycline in the ciliate Pseudocohnilembus
      persalinus.
AB  - Oxytetracycline (OTC) is commonly employed in fish farms to prevent bacterial
      infections in China, and because of their widely and intensive use, the potential
      harmful effects on organisms in aquatic environment are of great concern.
      Ciliates play an important role in aquatic food webs as secondary producers, and
      Pseudocohnilembus persalinus, is one kind of them which are easily found in fish
      farms, surviving in polluted water. Therefore, using P. persalinus as
      experimental models, this study investigated the effects of oxytetracycline (OTC)
      on the growth, antioxidant system and morphological damage in pollution-resistant
      ciliates species. Our results showed that the 96-h EC50 values for OTC of P.
      persalinus was 21.38mgL-1. The increased level of SOD and GSH during 96h OTC
      stress was related to an adaptive response under oxidative stress induced in
      ciliates. Additionally, sod1, sod2 and sod3 exhibited a significant increased
      expression level compared to control group at 24h treatment, indicating a
      promoting of dense system in ciliates at this exposure time. However, only sod1
      and sod2 showed raised expression level at 48h stress, showing the different
      sensitive of gene isoforms to some extent. With OTC treatment, damage of regular
      wrinkles, shrunk, twisted on the cell surface, even forming cyst of
      scuticociliatid ciliate cells were firstly observed by SEM (scanning electron
      microscope) in this study. Overall, physiological, molecular and morphological
      information on the toxicological studies of ciliates and more information on
      possibility of ciliates as indicators of contamination were provided in this
      study.

PMID- 28881226
TI  - A comparison of the effects of copper nanoparticles and copper sulfate on
      Phaeodactylum tricornutum physiology and transcription.
AB  - Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) have been used in a broad range of applications.
      However, they are inevitably released into the marine environment, making it
      necessary to evaluate their potential effects on marine phytoplankton. In this
      study, the short-term (96h) effects of CuNPs and CuSO4 on Phacodactylum
      tricornutum growth, photosynthesis, reactive oxygen species production and
      transcription were assessed. It was found that high concentrations (40MUM) of
      CuNPs and CuSO4 significantly inhibited the growth, photosynthesis and induced
      oxidative stress of P. tricornutum, while lower concentrations caused a hormetic
      response as indicated by a slight stimulation in algal growth. The high
      percentage of dissolved Cu (78-100%) in culture medium suggested that the
      dissolved Cu was the main driver of toxicity during CuNPs treatment. The algal
      cells upregulated electron transport chain-related genes to produce more energy
      and restore photosynthesis after 96h of treatment with CuNPs and CuSO4. This
      study delineates the cellular mechanism behind the toxicity of CuNPs and CuSO4 on
      marine diatoms.

PMID- 28881227
TI  - Test-retest reliability and smallest detectable change of the Bristol Impact of
      Hypermobility (BIoH) questionnaire.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Bristol Impact of Hypermobility (BIoH) questionnaire is a patient
      reported outcome measure developed in conjunction with adults with Joint
      Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS). It has demonstrated strong concurrent validity with
      the Short Form-36 (SF-36) physical component score but other psychometric
      properties have yet to be established. This study aimed to determine its test
      retest reliability and smallest detectable change (SDC). DESIGN: A test-retest
      reliability study. SETTING: Participants were recruited from the Hypermobility
      Syndromes Association, a patient organisation in the United Kingdom. PATIENTS:
      Recruitment packs were sent to 1080 adults who had given permission to be
      contacted about research. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: BIoH and SF-36 questionnaires
      were administered at baseline and repeated two weeks later. An 11-point global
      rating of change scale (-5 to +5) was also administered at two weeks. Test-retest
      analysis and calculation of the SDC was conducted on 'stable' patients (defined
      as global rating of change -1 to +1). RESULTS: 462 responses were received. 233
      patients reported a 'stable' condition and were included in analysis (95% women;
      mean (SD) age 44.5 (13.9) years; BIoH score 223.6 (54.0)). The BIoH questionnaire
      demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (ICC 0.923, 95% CI 0.900-0.940).
      The SDC was 42 points (equivalent to 19% of the mean baseline score). The SF-36
      physical and mental component scores demonstrated poorer test-retest reliability
      and larger SDCs (as a proportion of the mean baseline scores). CONCLUSION: The
      results provide further evidence of the potential of the BIoH questionnaire to
      underpin research and clinical practice for people with JHS.

PMID- 28881228
TI  - Dendrimer-like amino-functionalized hierarchical porous silica nanoparticle: A
      host material for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid imprinting and sensing.
AB  - In this work, a novel molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor based on the
      amino-functionalized silica nanoparticles was built for the sensitive and
      selective detection of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The hierarchical
      porous dendrimer-like silica nanoparticles (HPSNs-NH2) were synthesized by an
      ethyl ether emulsion method. The selective molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP)
      was prepared on the HPSNs-NH2 modified electrode via electropolymerization by
      using 2,4-D as the template and o-phenylenediamine (OPD) as the monomer. The
      porous structure of HPSNs-NH2 reduced the diffusion limitations of the analytes,
      enhanced the accessibility and increased the surface area of the sensor, while
      the MIP layer offered the ability to recognize and quantify target 2,4-D by using
      ferro/ferricyanide as probes. Several significant experimental parameters on the
      analytical performance of the MIP/HPSNs-NH2 sensor were explored and optimized.
      Under the optimized condition, the sensor displayed an appreciable selectivity
      over structurally related compounds and good sensitivity toward 2,4-D. The linear
      range of 2,4-D detection was from 1.00 * 10-10 to 2.50 * 10-8M and the detection
      limit was down to 1.17 * 10-11M according to the 3Sa/b criteria. This method has
      been applied to detect 2,4-D in bean sprout samples with satisfying results.

PMID- 28881229
TI  - A flow-based statistical model integrating spatial and nonspatial dimensions to
      measure healthcare access.
AB  - Assessing access to healthcare for an entire healthcare system involves
      accounting for demand, supply, and geographic variation. In order to capture the
      interaction between healthcare services and populations, various measures of
      healthcare access have been utilized, including the popular two-step floating
      catchment area (2SFCA) method. However, despite the many advantages of 2SFCA, the
      problems, such as inappropriate assumption of healthcare demand and failure to
      capture cascading effects across the system have not been satisfactorily
      addressed. In this paper, a statistical model for evaluating flows of individuals
      was added to the 2SFCA method (hereafter we refer to it as F2SFCA) in order to
      overcome limitations associated with its current restriction. The proposed F2SFCA
      model can incorporate both spatial and nonspatial dimensions and thus synthesizes
      them into one framework. Moreover, the proposed F2SFCA model can be easily
      adapted to measure access for different types of individuals, over different
      service provider types, or with capacity constraints in a healthcare system. We
      implemented the proposed model in a case study assessing access to healthcare for
      the elderly in Taipei City, Taiwan, and compared the weaknesses and strengths to
      the 2SFCA method and its variations.

PMID- 28881230
TI  - Investigation of the 5' flanking region and exon 3 polymorphisms of IGF-1 gene
      showed moderate association with semen quality in Sanjabi breed rams.
AB  - In this study, semen samples were collected from 96 Sanjabi rams in order to
      investigate the IGF-1 gene polymorphisms and their relationship with the
      characteristics of semen quality and testicular size. The dimensions of scrotal
      length, width and circumference were measured during autumn and spring over two
      years. Blood samples were simultaneously collected from jugular vein to extract
      DNA. PCR was performed using specific primers to amplify 294 and 272bp fragments
      including 5' regulatory region and exon 3 of IGF-1 gene, respectively. PCR
      products were digested by BFOI and Eco88l restriction enzymes, respectively. Two
      genotypes including AA (194 and 100bp), AB (294, 194 and 100bp) and all possible
      genotypes including CC (182 and 90bp), CT (272, 182, and 90bp) and TT (272bp)
      were observed for 5' flanking region and exon 3 of IGF-1 gene, respectively. The
      significant differences among IGF-1 genotypes for testicular dimensions were not
      observed. However, the polymorphism of 5' flanking region in the studied
      population had significant effect on individual motility and percent morphology
      traits. Animals with AB genotype had significantly higher individual motility
      compared with AA genotype (P < 0.05). Also, animals with AA genotype had
      significantly the highest percent morphology compared with AB genotype (P < 0.1).
      The exon 3 of IGF-1 gene had significant effect on individual motility,
      concentration, morphology and water test traits. Animals with CT genotype had the
      highest sperm concentration (P < 0.1) and water test (P < 0.05) compared to CC
      and TT genotypes. Moreover, animals with TT genotype had significantly the
      highest percent morphology compared with other genotypes (P < 0.05). Briefly, the
      results indicated that individual motility, concentration, percent morphology and
      water test traits could be in association with IGF-1 genotypes. It might be
      concluded that polymorphisms in IGF-1gene can be considered to develop male
      fertility in future and for using in selection process of better animals under
      masker assisted selection programs.

PMID- 28881232
TI  - Time-, spectral- and spatially resolved EPR spectroscopy enables simultaneous
      monitoring of diffusion of different guest molecules in nano-pores.
AB  - Diffusion in porous materials is under ongoing active investigation due to its
      major role in practical applications such as catalysis and chromatography. The
      complexity of these systems limits the use of the Einstein-Stokes diffusion
      theory, and it must be distinguished between the microscopic scale of diffusion
      at a molecular level, which is sensitive to the local surroundings of a diffusing
      molecule, and the macroscopic scale which takes into account diffusion spanning
      multiple pores, grain boundaries and inhomogeneity within the material. Here, we
      employ an in situ approach for quantitative measurements of the diffusion on a
      macroscopic length scale. For the first time, full time-resolved spectral spatial
      EPR imaging in combination with the simultaneous iterative reconstruction
      technique (SIRT) allows the simultaneous observation of the diffusion of two
      different molecular species inside of an aerogel in a single experiment.

PMID- 28881231
TI  - Follicles and gonadotropins during waves 2 and 3 in three-wave interovulatory
      intervals in Bos taurus heifers.
AB  - Observations were made on follicle dynamics and gonadotropin concentrations in
      anovulatory wave 2 and ovulatory wave 3 in three-wave interovulatory intervals (n
      = 15). Hypotheses were not used owing to inadequate availability of rationale.
      The future dominant follicles for waves 2 and 3 were designated DF2 and DF3 and
      the largest future subordinate follicles as SF2 and SF3, respectively. The day of
      expected diameter deviation (day 0) was defined as the day that DF2 or DF3 was
      closest to 8.5 mm. The first day that DF2 became smaller (P < 0.05) than DF3 was
      day 2 (10.7 +/- 0.2 mm vs 11.8 +/- 0.3 mm). The FSH surges 2 and 3 that
      stimulated waves 2 and 3 were similar at peak concentration, but the postsurge
      nadir of surge 2 occurred 1 day earlier than for surge 3. An LH increase was not
      temporally associated with deviation in wave 2, but an increase (P < 0.05) in LH
      in wave 3 began on day -1. Diameter of SF2 (6.5 +/- 0.2 mm) on day 0 was less (P
      < 0.005) than for SF3 (7.2 +/- 0.2 mm). Mean diameter of subordinate follicles in
      wave 2 did not differ among days. Diameter of subordinate follicles that attained
      >=6 mm in wave 3 was greater (interaction, P < 0.02) by day 3 when in the right
      ovary (RO, 7.4 +/- 0.2 mm) than when in the left ovary (LO, 5.6 +/- 0.2 mm). The
      frequency of a conventional classification of deviation (future SF greater than
      7.0 mm on day 0) was less (P < 0.001) for wave 2 (1 of 15 waves) than for wave 3
      (8 of 15 waves). Novel observations involving DF2 and DF3 were (1) before
      deviation, diameter of DF2 vs DF3 and an incline in FSH surge 2 vs surge 3 were
      similar and (2) after deviation, smaller diameter of DF2 vs DF3 by day 2 was
      associated with an earlier cessation (nadir) in FSH surge 2 vs surge 3 and an
      absence of an LH increase during deviation. Novel observations involving
      subordinate follicles >=6 mm were (1) before deviation, diameters were similar
      between waves 2 and 3 in association with the similar incline in FSH surges 2 vs
      3 and (2) after deviation, a greater diameter increase of subordinates occurred
      in RO than in LO for wave 3, but an increase did not occur for either ovary in
      wave 2. The characteristics of diameter deviation were profoundly different
      between waves 2 and 3 owing to a smaller SF2 than SF3 at deviation but similar
      diameter of DF2 and DF3.

PMID- 28881233
TI  - A rapid magnetization preparation for MRI measurements of sprays.
AB  - The process of spray atomization, i.e., the transformation of a continuous liquid
      jet into MUm-sub-mm sized droplets, is ubiquitous in industry yet quite complex
      to analyze theoretically and study experimentally. One of the main strengths of
      MRI is its ability to sensitize spatially-resolved NMR signal to a wide variety
      of physical and chemical parameters. However, standard preparation schemes are
      difficult to employ for studies of sprays due to sprays' fast speeds (>10-20m/s).
      In addition, sprays are usually low-density systems, leading to a poor SNR and a
      need for massive signal averaging and long acquisition time. In this paper, we
      reduced the interval between the preparation and the readout stages by performing
      SPI encoding on the rising gradients. This also enabled the use of 90-degree flip
      angles to maximize the spray signal and saturate the stationary water signal
      while avoiding unwanted slice-selection. The use of gradients during preparation
      stage was eliminated due to their time-consuming rise and stabilization times
      limiting possible preparation schemes to a combination of RF pulses and delays.
      The two preparation schemes presented here are Time-of-Flight (TOF) and T1rho
      weighting schemes. The total duration of the sequence (without TR) was 240
      1100MUs for the TOF and 410MUs for T1rho. The T1rho prepared images of the near
      atomization region (11 spin-locking frequencies, 0-15kHz) showed a strong signal
      attenuation at higher frequencies. In series of TOF images the clearly noticeable
      displacement of the liquid parcel can be utilized to measure spray speeds.

PMID- 28881234
TI  - Corrigendum to "Theoretical study of CP-VC: A simple, robust and accurate MAS NMR
      method for analysis of dipolar C-H interactions under rotation speeds faster than
      ca. 60kHz" [J. Magn. Reson. 252 (2015) 67-77].

PMID- 28881235
TI  - MRI compatibility study of an integrated PET/RF-coil prototype system at 3T.
AB  - We have been working on the development of a PET insert for existing magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) systems for simultaneous PET/MR imaging, which integrates
      radiofrequency (RF)-shielded PET detector modules with an RF head coil. In order
      to avoid interferences between the PET detector circuits and the different MRI
      generated electromagnetic fields, PET detector circuits were installed inside
      eight Cu-shielded fiber-reinforced plastic boxes, and these eight shielded PET
      modules were integrated in between the eight elements of a 270-mm-diameter and
      280-mm-axial-length cylindrical birdcage RF coil, which was designed to be used
      with a 3-T clinical MRI system. The diameter of the PET scintillators with a 12
      mm axial field-of-view became 255mm, which was very close to the imaging region.
      In this study, we have investigated the effects of this PET/RF-coil integrated
      system on the performance of MRI, which include the evaluation of static field
      (Bo) inhomogeneity, RF field (B1) distribution, local specific absorption rate
      (SAR) distribution, average SAR, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For the central
      170-mm-diameter and 80-mm-axial-length of a homogenous cylindrical phantom (with
      the total diameter of 200mm and axial-length of 100mm), an increase of about a
      maximum of 3MUT in the Bo inhomogeneity was found, both in the central and 40-mm
      off-centered transverse planes, and a 5 percentage point increase of B1 field
      inhomogeneity was observed in the central transverse plane (from 84% without PET
      to 79% with PET), while B1 homogeneity along the coronal plane was almost
      unchanged (77%) following the integration of PET with the RF head coil. The
      average SAR and maximum local SAR were increased by 1.21 and 1.62 times,
      respectively. However, the SNR study for both spin-echo and gradient-echo
      sequences showed a reduction of about 70% and 60%, respectively, because of the
      shielded PET modules. The overall results prove the feasibility of this
      integrated PET/RF-coil system for using with the existing MRI system.

PMID- 28881236
TI  - Investigating detailed interactions between novel PAR1 antagonist F16357 and the
      receptor using docking and molecular dynamic simulations.
AB  - Currently, Vorapaxar is the only recently FDA-approved antiplatelet drug
      targeting Protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1). However, a novel antagonist,
      F16357, has been shown to prevent painful bladder syndrome, also known as
      interstitial cystitis (IC). Unfortunately, there is no high resolution structure
      of the F16357-receptor complex, hindering its optimization as a therapeutic
      agent. In this study, we used docking and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations to
      investigate the detailed interactions between F16357 and PAR1 at a molecular
      level. The recently solved crystal structure of human PAR1 complexed with
      Vorapaxar was used in our docking of F16357 into the binding pocket of the
      receptor. To enhance binding pose selection, F16357 was docked first without
      constraints and then with a positional constraint to invert its orientation to
      become similar to that of Vorapaxar. The three systems, with crystal Vorapaxar,
      F16357 and an inverted F16357, were subjected to 3.0MUs MD simulations. The MM
      GBSA binding energy analysis showed that F16357 binds more strongly in a pose
      obtained from an unrestrained docking than in the inverted pose from a restrained
      docking; and Vorapaxar binds more strongly than F17357. This ordering is
      consistent with the experimental pIC50 values. Our structural data showed subtle
      changes in the binding pose between Vorapaxar and F16357. Transmembrane helices
      1, 2, 5, and 7 were most significantly affected; most notably a large kink at
      F2795.47 in TM helix 5 of the Vorapaxar complex was completely absent in the
      F16357 complex. The results of this study facilitate the future development of
      other therapeutic PAR1 antagonists.

PMID- 28881237
TI  - Synthesis of a series of new glycoclusters and the evaluation of their anti
      adhesion activities.
AB  - According to our early researches, some glycoclusters having glucose, mannose,
      cellose and lactose residues showed good anti-adhesion activity of leukocytes to
      endothelial cells and exerted anti-inflammatory effects. Based on these results
      and combination principles of drugs, a series of new glycoclusters modifying with
      potentially anti-oxidant activity pharmacophores have been synthesized, and their
      anti-adhesion activities were assessed by static state cell-based adhesion assay.
      The results showed that some modified glycoclusters displayed better activities
      than their leading compound.

PMID- 28881238
TI  - In silico investigation of gas/particle partitioning equilibrium of
      polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).
AB  - Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a group of typical brominated flame
      retardants (BFRs), have drawn an increasing concern due to their widespread
      manufacture, usage and disposal around the world and the frequent detection in a
      variety of environmental media. In the present study, we investigated the
      molecular mechanism of the partitioning equilibrium of PBDEs between gas and
      atmospheric particles, and developed a new temperature-dependent predictive model
      for the gas/particle partition coefficient (KP) of these chemicals. Quantum
      chemical computations were implemented at B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) level of theory based
      on the neutral electronic ground state of PBDE congeners by Gaussian 09 software
      package. The model performance was assessed by different validation strategies
      and the application domain was defined by Williams Plot. Mechanism analysis
      indicated that the interactions of dispersion, electrostatic and hydrogen bond
      play crucial roles in the partitioning of PBDEs between the two phases. The
      developed model can be used to estimate the KP values of PBDEs for which
      experimental measurements are restricted. Therefore, this work provides an
      alternative method in a regulatory context of PBDEs.

PMID- 28881239
TI  - Comparing in situ colorimetric DET and DGT techniques with ex situ core slicing
      and centrifugation for measuring ferrous iron and dissolved sulfide in coastal
      sediment pore waters.
AB  - In productive coastal sediments the separation between different biogeochemical
      zones (e.g. oxic, iron(III)-reducing and sulfate-reducing) may be on the scale of
      millimetres. Conventional measurement techniques simply cannot resolve changes in
      pore water solute concentrations over such small distances. The diffusive
      equilibration in thin films (DET) and the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT)
      techniques allow in situ determination of pore water solute concentration
      profiles with one-dimensional profiles and/or two-dimensional distributions on
      the millimetre scale. Here we compare measurements of pore water iron(II) and
      sulfide using conventional core sampling (slicing and centrifugation) and
      colorimetric DET-DGT techniques. DET-DGT samplers were deployed within replicate
      sediment cores from three different sites, which were processed by slicing and
      centrifugation following retrieval of the samplers, so that the measurements were
      approximately co-located. Iron(II) concentrations were determined by DET at all
      three sites (0.3-262 MUmol L-1), while dissolved sulfide was consistently
      measured by DGT at one site only (0.003-112 MUmol L-1). Pore water concentrations
      of iron(II) and sulfide determined conventionally following pore water extraction
      (iron(II); 0.4-88 MUmol L-1 and sulfide; 0.05-36 MUmol L-1), were systematically
      lower than the colorimetric DET and DGT measurements in the same sample. This
      underestimation was most likely due to the mixing of sediment from different
      biogeochemical zones during pore water extraction, which resulted in the
      precipitation of iron(II) and sulfide. This study shows that conventional pore
      water extraction methods can be unreliable for the determination of redox-active
      solutes due to artefacts associated with pore water mixing.

PMID- 28881240
TI  - Concentration and movement of neonicotinoids as particulate matter downwind
      during agricultural practices using air samplers in southwestern Ontario, Canada.
AB  - Atmospheric emissions of neonicotinoid seed treatment insecticides as particulate
      matter in field crops occur mainly for two reasons: 1) due to abraded dust of
      treated seed generated during planting using vacuum planters, and 2) as a result
      of disturbances (tillage or wind events) in the surface of parental soils which
      release wind erodible soil-bound residues. In the present study, concentration
      and movement of neonicotinoids as particulate matter were quantified under real
      conditions using passive and active air samplers. Average neonicotinoid
      concentrations in Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) using passive samplers were
      0.48 ng/cm2, trace, trace (LOD 0.80 and 0.04 ng/cm2 for clothianidin and
      thiamethoxam, respectively), and using active samplers 16.22, 1.91 and 0.61 ng/m3
      during planting, tillage and wind events, respectively. There was a difference
      between events on total neonicotinoid concentration collected in particulate
      matter using either passive or active sampling. Distance of sampling from the
      source field during planting of treated seed had an effect on total neonicotinoid
      air concentration. However, during tillage distance did not present an effect on
      measured concentrations. Using hypothetical scenarios, values of contact exposure
      for a honey bee were estimated to be in the range from 1.1% to 36.4% of the
      reference contact LD50 value of clothianidin of 44 ng/bee.

PMID- 28881241
TI  - Degradation of Acid Orange 7 using peroxymonosulfate catalyzed by granulated
      activated carbon and enhanced by electrolysis.
AB  - Electrochemistry coupled with granulated activated carbon catalysis of
      peroxymonosulfate (electro/GAC/PMS) as a novel wastewater treatment process was
      performed for the degradation of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) in aqueous solution. The
      decolorization of AO7 was compared under different permutations and combinations
      of electro-oxidation, GAC and PMS. It showed that the electro/GAC/PMS process was
      the most effective and the decolorization of AO7 followed pseudo-first order
      kinetics. The surface chemistry of GAC samples was analyzed by Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Compared with the
      fresh samples, pi-electron density and hydroxyl group content decreased under the
      GAC/PMS system, but kept the similar values under the electro/GAC/PMS system.
      Electron paramagnetic resonance and radical scavenger studies were used to verify
      the formation of sulfate radicals (SO4-) and hydroxyl radicals (OH). The
      optimized conditions were found to be: current density 8 mA cm-2; PMS
      concentration 5 mM; GAC dosage 0.5 g L-1; and initial pH value 5.0. GAC recycling
      experiments over 4 runs showed some decrease in reactivity. Overall, the results
      indicate that 100% color removal was readily achieved and 50.4% of TOC was
      removed which shows high efficiency of the electro/GAC/PMS process.

PMID- 28881242
TI  - Comparison of three types of oil crop rotation systems for effective use and
      remediation of heavy metal contaminated agricultural soil.
AB  - Selecting suitable plants tolerant to heavy metals and producing products of
      economic value may be a key factor in promoting the practical application of
      phytoremediation polluted soils. The aim of this study is to further understand
      the utilization and remediation of seriously contaminated agricultural soil. In a
      one-year field experiment, we grew oilseed rape over the winter and then
      subsequently sunflowers, peanuts and sesame after the first harvest. This three
      rotation system produced high yields of dry biomass; the oilseed rape-sunflower,
      oilseed rape-peanut and oilseed rape-sesame rotation allowed us to extract 458.6,
      285.7, and 134.5 g ha-1 of cadmium, and 1264.7, 1006.1, and 831.1 g ha-1 of lead
      from soil, respectively. The oilseed rape-sunflower rotation showed the highest
      phytoextraction efficiency (1.98%) for cadmium. Lead and cadmium in oils are
      consistent with standards after extraction with n-hexane. Following successive
      extractions with potassium tartrate, concentrations of lead and cadmium in
      oilseed rape and peanut seed meals were lower than levels currently permissible
      for feeds. Thus, this rotation system could be useful for local farmers as it
      would enable the generation of income during otherwise sparse phytoremediation
      periods.

PMID- 28881243
TI  - Assessing biological effects of fluoxetine in developing zebrafish embryos using
      gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based metabolomics.
AB  - Continuous low-dose exposure of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in
      aquatic ecosystems is a concern worldwide. In this study, we utilized a gas
      chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolomics approach to assess
      endogenous metabolite changes in developing zebrafish embryos exposed to
      different concentrations of the widely used antidepressant, fluoxetine. Embryos
      were exposed from 2 h post fertilization (hpf) until 96 hpf. Using the Fiehn GC
      MS library, a total of 31 metabolites were positively identified in embryos.
      Statistical analyses revealed significant dysregulation of 11 metabolites in
      fluoxetine exposed embryos. Metabolite classes that were significantly altered
      included, amino acids, monosaccharides, glycerophosphates, fatty acids,
      carboxylic acid derivatives and sugars. Concentrations of amino acids, maltose, d
      malic acid, 3-phosphoglycerate and d-glucose were significantly reduced in
      exposed embryos. Conversely, concentrations of citric acid were in some cases
      significantly elevated in exposed embryos. Metabolic pathway analysis revealed
      perturbation of five main pathways, including (i) alanine, aspartate and
      glutamate metabolism, (ii) phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis,
      (iii) phenylalanine metabolism. (iv) tyrosine metabolism and (v) starch and
      sucrose metabolism. The results indicate fluoxetine exposure causes perturbation
      of energy and amino acid metabolism, which may adversely impact embryogenesis due
      to depletion of energy reserves during this period. Also, the observed
      alterations in aspartic acid, phenylalanine and tyrosine in fluoxetine exposed
      embryos suggests potential disruption of normal neurobehavioral and liver
      function. The results further demonstrate that GC-MS based metabolomics is an
      effective approach for assessing toxicodynamics and threshold effect levels of
      environmental pollutants in aquatic organisms.

PMID- 28881244
TI  - Disinfection byproduct precursor dynamics and water treatability during an
      extreme flooding event in a coastal blackwater river in southeastern United
      States.
AB  - Coastal blackwater rivers, characterized by high concentrations of natural
      organic matter, are source water for millions of people in the southeastern US.
      In October 2015, large areas of coastal South Carolina were flooded by Hurricane
      Joaquin. This so-called "thousand-year" rainfall mobilized and flushed large
      amounts of terrestrial organic matter and associated pollutants (e.g. mercury)
      into source water, affecting water quality and safety of municipal water supply.
      To understand the dynamics of water quality and water treatability during this
      extreme flood, water samples were collected from Waccamaw River (a typical
      blackwater river in the southeastern US) during rising limb, peak discharge,
      falling limb, and base flow. Despite decreasing water flow after peak discharge,
      dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels (increased by up to 125%), and formation
      potentials of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids (increased by up to 150%)
      remained high for an extended period of time (>eight weeks after peak discharge),
      while variation in the N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) FP was negligible.
      Coagulation with alum and ferric at optimal dosage significantly reduced
      concentrations of DOC by 51-76%, but up to 10 mg/L of DOC still remained in
      treated waters. For an extended period of time, elevated levels of THMs (71-448
      MUg/L) and HAAs (88-406 MUg/L) were quantified in laboratory chlorination
      experiments under uniform formation conditions (UFC), exceeding the United States
      Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) maximum contaminant level of 80 and 60
      MUg/L, respectively. Results demonstrated that populations in coastal cities are
      at high risk with disinfection by-products (DBPs) under the changing climate.

PMID- 28881245
TI  - The influence of thermal treatment on bioweathering and arsenic sorption capacity
      of a natural iron (oxyhydr)oxide-based adsorbent.
AB  - Adsorption plays a significant role in remediation of waters contaminated with
      arsenic, but the efficiency of the process varies depending on the sorbent
      properties. Bog iron ores (BIOs), characterized by high sorption capacity and
      widespread availability, seem to be an optimal sorbent of arsenic. However, the
      use of BIOs for arsenic removal from waters may be limited by the high amount of
      organic matter, which may stimulate microbial activity, and thus decomposition of
      the sorbent. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of organic matter
      removal by thermal transformation (roasting) on the bioavailability of BIOs and
      their arsenic sorption capacity. For this purpose, the influence of bacterial
      growth and activity on untreated and treated BIOs, unloaded and loaded with
      arsenic, was studied. Moreover, the chemical and physical properties (including
      FTIR and desorption of arsenic) of BIOs were investigated as well. The results
      show that the removal of organic matter increases the stability of BIOs, and thus
      reduces the bioavailability of the immobilized arsenic.

PMID- 28881246
TI  - Avoiding harm and supporting autonomy are under-prioritised in cancer-screening
      policies and practices.
AB  - The ethical principles of avoiding harm and supporting autonomy are relevant to
      cancer-screening policy. We argue that more attention needs to be given to
      implementing them. Cancer screening may deliver excessive harms due to low-value
      or outdated screening programs and from poorly communicated screening options
      that leave people with heavy burdens of decision-making. Autonomy is inadequately
      supported due to limited opportunities for people to understand downsides of
      screening and because of institutional and societal pressures in favour of
      screening. Members of screening policy committees may have differing ideas about
      the goals of screening or have conflicts of interest that prevent them from
      addressing policy questions in a neutral way. We recommend the following: 1.
      Committees should be required to discern and discuss the values of individual
      members and the wider public; 2. Committee membership and voting procedures
      should be more carefully constructed to reduce the likelihood that committee
      members' interests are placed above public interests; 3. Committees should
      explain their policy decisions with reference to values as well as evidence, so
      that values considered in decision-making can be interrogated and challenged if
      necessary. These changes would increase the likelihood that cancer-screening
      policy decisions are in keeping with public views about what is important.

PMID- 28881248
TI  - Value of a short-term imaging follow-up after a benign result in a one-stop
      breast unit: Is it still useful?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A short-term radiologic follow-up after a benign breast biopsy or
      fine needle aspiration (FNA) is recommended in many guidelines. However, the
      current trend is to reduce imaging investigations, radiation dose and costs. The
      objectives of this study were to evaluate the cancer detection rate at short-term
      follow-up and to estimate its cost. METHODS: We retrospectively assessed all
      consecutive patients referred to our 'one-stop' breast unit between 2004 and
      2012, with a benign histological or cytological result and at least one short
      term follow-up within 3-12 months after the initial diagnosis. We evaluated the
      number of cancers detected, as well as the mean cost to detect each cancer and
      per patient. RESULTS: About 1366 patients were eligible for this study. Ten
      patients were diagnosed with cancers (0.73%) at short-term follow-up; six of 10
      were low-grade tumours or ductal carcinoma in situ. The cost for detecting one
      cancer was 19,043?, with mean cost per patient of 139?. CONCLUSION: The cancer
      detection rate at short-term follow-up after benign biopsy or FNA was low and was
      similar to that of most national screening programs. The cost of cancer detection
      appeared high, considering that most cancers were indolent. This suggests that
      radiologic follow-up could reasonably be carried out at a later point in time.

PMID- 28881247
TI  - Time trends (2006-2015) of quality indicators in EUSOMA-certified breast centres.
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: The European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) has
      fostered a voluntary certification process for breast centres to establish
      minimum standards and ensure specialist multidisciplinary care. Prospectively
      collected anonymous information on primary breast cancer cases diagnosed and
      treated in the units is transferred annually to a central EUSOMA data warehouse
      for continuous monitoring of quality indicators (QIs) to improve quality of care.
      Units have to comply with the EUSOMA Breast Centre guidelines and are audited by
      peers. The database was started in 2006 and includes over 110,000 cancers from
      breast centres located in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, The
      Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Italy. The aim of the present study is assessing
      time trends of QIs in EUSOMA-certified breast centres over the decade 2006-2015.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Previously defined QIs were calculated for 22 EUSOMA
      certified breast centres (46122 patients) during 2006-2015. RESULTS: On the
      average of all units, the minimum standard of care was achieved in 8 of 13 main
      EUSOMA QIs in 2006 and in all in 2015. All QIs, except removal of at least 10
      lymph nodes at axillary clearance and oestrogen receptor-negative tumours (T > 1
      cm or N+) receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, improved significantly in this period.
      The desirable target was reached for two QIs in 2006 and for 7 of 13 QIs in 2015.
      CONCLUSION: The EUSOMA model of audit and monitoring QIs functions well in
      different European health systems and results in better performance of QIs over
      the last decade. QIs should be evaluated and adapted on a regular basis, as
      guidelines change over time.

PMID- 28881250
TI  - Airborne radionuclides in the proglacial environment as indicators of sources and
      transfers of soil material.
AB  - A survey of artificial (137Cs, 238Pu, 239+240Pu, 241Am) and natural (226Ra,
      232Th, 40K, 210Pb) radioactive isotopes in proglacial soils of an Arctic glacier
      have revealed high spatial variability of activity concentrations and inventories
      of the airborne radionuclides. Soil column 137Cs inventories range from below the
      detection limit to nearly 120 kBq m-2, this value significantly exceeding direct
      atmospheric deposition. This variability may result from the mixing of materials
      characterised by different contents of airborne radionuclides. The highest
      activity concentrations observed in the proglacial soils may result from the
      deposition of cryoconites, which have been shown to accumulate airborne
      radionuclides on the surface of glaciers. The role of cryoconites in radionuclide
      accumulation is supported by the concordant enrichment of the naturally occurring
      airborne 210Pb in proglacial soil cores showing elevated levels of artificial
      radionuclides. The lithogenic radionuclides show less variability than the
      airborne radionuclides because their activity concentrations are controlled only
      by the mixing of material derived from the weathering of different parent rocks.
      Soil properties vary little within and between the profiles and there is no
      unequivocal relationship between them and the radionuclide contents. The
      inventories reflect the pathways and time variable inputs of soil material to
      particular sites of the proglacial zone. Lack of the airborne radionuclides
      reflects no deposition of material exposed to the atmosphere after the 1950s or
      its removal by erosion. Inventories above the direct atmospheric deposition
      indicate secondary deposition of radionuclide-bearing material. Very high
      inventories indicate sites where transport pathways of cryoconite material
      terminated.

PMID- 28881249
TI  - Cost-effectiveness analysis of PET-CT-guided management for locally advanced head
      and neck cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A recent large United Kingdom (UK) clinical trial demonstrated that
      positron-emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT)-guided administration
      of neck dissection (ND) in patients with advanced head and neck cancer after
      primary chemo-radiotherapy treatment produces similar survival outcomes to
      planned ND (standard care) and is cost-effective over a short-term horizon.
      Further assessment of long-term outcomes is required to inform a robust adoption
      decision. Here we present results of a lifetime cost-effectiveness analysis of
      PET-CT-guided management from a UK secondary care perspective. METHODS: Initial 6
      month cost and health outcomes were derived from trial data; subsequent incidence
      of recurrence and mortality was simulated using a de novo Markov model. Health
      benefit was measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and costs reported in
      2015 British pounds. Model parameters were derived from trial data and published
      literature. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the impact of
      uncertainty and broader National Health Service (NHS) and personal social
      services (PSS) costs on the results. RESULTS: PET-CT management produced an
      average per-person lifetime cost saving of L1485 and an additional 0.13 QALYs. At
      a L20,000 willingness-to-pay per additional QALY threshold, there was a 75%
      probability that PET-CT was cost-effective, and the results remained cost
      effective over the majority of sensitivity analyses. When adopting a broader NHS
      and PSS perspective, PET-CT management produced an average saving of L700 and had
      an 81% probability of being cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis indicates
      that PET-CT-guided management is cost-effective in the long-term and supports the
      case for wide-scale adoption.

PMID- 28881251
TI  - Registration and fusion quantification of augmented reality based nasal
      endoscopic surgery.
AB  - This paper quantifies the registration and fusion display errors of augmented
      reality-based nasal endoscopic surgery (ARNES). We comparatively investigated the
      spatial calibration process for front-end endoscopy and redefined the accuracy
      level of a calibrated endoscope by using a calibration tool with improved
      structural reliability. We also studied how registration accuracy was combined
      with the number and distribution of the deployed fiducial points (FPs) for
      positioning and the measured registration time. A physically integrated ARNES
      prototype was customarily configured for performance evaluation in skull base
      tumor resection surgery with an innovative approach of dynamic endoscopic vision
      expansion. As advised by surgical experts in otolaryngology, we proposed a
      hierarchical rendering scheme to properly adapt the fused images with the
      required visual sensation. By constraining the rendered sight in a known depth
      and radius, the visual focus of the surgeon can be induced only on the
      anticipated critical anatomies and vessel structures to avoid misguidance.
      Furthermore, error analysis was conducted to examine the feasibility of hybrid
      optical tracking based on point cloud, which was proposed in our previous work as
      an in-surgery registration solution. Measured results indicated that the error of
      target registration for ARNES can be reduced to 0.77 +/- 0.07 mm. For initial
      registration, our results suggest that a trade-off for a new minimal time of
      registration can be reached when the distribution of five FPs is considered. For
      in-surgery registration, our findings reveal that the intrinsic registration
      error is a major cause of performance loss. Rigid model and cadaver experiments
      confirmed that the scenic integration and display fluency of ARNES are smooth, as
      demonstrated by three clinical trials that surpassed practicality.

PMID- 28881252
TI  - Bone-derived exosomes.
AB  - Exosomes are endosomal-derived vesicles secreted by a wide range of cell types
      for transporting functional proteins, microRNAs (miRNAs) and messenger RNAs
      (mRNA) from their parental cells to affect the recipient cells. Emerging evidence
      indicates that exosomes also play an important role in the intercellular
      communication among the bone cells, that is, osteoblasts, osteoclasts and bone
      marrow stromal cells, within bone microenvironment. Here, we reviewed the local
      and systemic effects of bone-derived exosomes, and discussed the potential of
      exosomes as targeted delivery systems for molecular therapy in skeletal
      disorders.

PMID- 28881253
TI  - 5-Substituted 2-benzylidene-1-tetralone analogues as A1 and/or A2A antagonists
      for the potential treatment of neurological conditions.
AB  - Adenosine A1 and A2A receptors are attracting great interest as drug targets for
      their role in cognitive and motor deficits, respectively. Antagonism of both
      these adenosine receptors may offer therapeutic benefits in complex neurological
      diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The aim of this study was
      to explore the affinity and selectivity of 2-benzylidene-1-tetralone derivatives
      as adenosine A1 and A2A receptor antagonists. Several 5-hydroxy substituted 2
      benzylidene-1-tetralone analogues with substituents on ring B were synthesized
      and assessed as antagonists of the adenosine A1 and A2A receptors via radioligand
      binding assays. The results indicated that hydroxy substitution in the meta and
      para position of phenyl ring B, displayed the highest selectivity and affinity
      for the adenosine A1 receptor with Ki values in the low micromolar range.
      Replacement of ring B with a 2-amino-pyrimidine moiety led to compound 12 with an
      increase of affinity and selectivity for the adenosine A2A receptor. These
      substitution patterns led to enhanced adenosine A1 and A2A receptor binding
      affinity. The para-substituted 5-hydroxy analogue 3 behaved as an adenosine A1
      receptor antagonists in a GTP shift assay performed with rat whole brain
      membranes expressing adenosine A1 receptors. In conclusion, compounds 3 and 12,
      showed the best adenosine A1 and A2A receptor affinity respectively, and
      therefore represent novel adenosine receptor antagonists that may have potential
      with further structural modifications as drug candidates for neurological
      disorders.

PMID- 28881254
TI  - Is literature data useful for identifying enzyme catalysts for new substrates? A
      case study on reduction of 1-aryl-2-alkanoates.
AB  - The use of literature data to identify catalysts for a novel transformation is a
      commonly used approach. Herein, we have evaluated if this is a viable strategy in
      enzyme catalysis, using asymmetric reduction of 1-aryl-2-alkanoates asa model
      system. The study, which includes data from 24 ketone substrates and 108 enzymes,
      clearly identifies pitfalls with this approach, but anyhow shows that literature
      data is highly useful for identification of enantioselective catalysts. By
      combining data for selectivity and rate useful catalyst for converting different
      substrates to their corresponding (R)- and (S)-enantiomers are highlighted.

PMID- 28881255
TI  - Synthesis, characterization and DNA binding studies of platinum(II) complexes
      with benzimidazole derivative ligands.
AB  - The aim of this study was to synthesize and evaluate plasmid DNA interaction of
      new platinum(II) complexes with some 2-substituted benzimidazole derivatives as
      carrier ligands which may have potent anticancer activity and low toxicity.
      Twelve benzimidazole derivatives carrying indole, 2-/or 3-/or 4-methoxyphenyl, 4
      methylphenyl, 3,4-dimethoxyphenyl, 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl, 4-methoxybenzyl, 3,4,5
      trimethoxybenzyl, 3,4,5-trimethoxystyryl, 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzylthio or
      dimethylamino ethyl groups in their position 2 and twelve platinum(II) complexes
      with these carrier ligands were synthesized. The chemical structure of the
      platinum complexes have been characterized by their elemental analysis and FIR,
      1H NMR and mass spectra and their 1H NMR and FIR spectra were interpreted by
      comparison with those of the ligands. The interaction of all the ligands and
      their complexes with plasmid DNA and their restriction endonuclease reactions by
      BamHI and HindIII enzymes were studied by agarose gel electrophoresis. It was
      determined that complex 1 [dichloro-di(2-(1H-indole-3
      yl)benzimidazole)platinum(II).2H2O] has stronger interaction than carboplatin and
      complex 10 [dichloro-di(2-(3,4,5
      trimethoxystyryl)benzimidazole)platinum(II).2H2O] has stronger interaction than
      both carboplatin and cisplatin with plasmid DNA.

PMID- 28881256
TI  - Structural brain correlates of resilience to traumatic stress in Dutch police
      officers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neurobiological research has traditionally focused on vulnerability
      rather than on resilience to severe stress. So far, only a few neuroimaging
      studies examining resilience have used designs that allow disentangling of the
      neural correlates of resilience from those related to psychopathology or trauma
      exposure. The aim of this study was to identify structural brain correlates of
      resilience, and their correlations with behavioral measures. METHOD: MRI scanning
      was performed in three groups of police officers: (1) a resilient group (N=29;
      trauma-exposed, no psychopathology), (2) a vulnerable group (N=33; trauma
      exposed, psychopathology), and (3) a control group (N=19; no trauma, no
      psychopathology). Using whole brain and region-of-interest approaches, we
      examined gray matter volume and shapes, and white matter integrity using software
      tools from the FSL-library. RESULTS: We did not find patterns of gray matter
      volumes or shape specific for the resilient group. In resilient police officers,
      we found an increase in structural connectivity in the corticopontine tract.
      White matter integrity in this location correlated with a coping style of
      positive reappraisal. CONCLUSIONS: Resilient police officers show a specific
      pattern of increased structural connectivity, which is associated to the use of
      higher order emotion regulation strategies. Given this finding in an area that
      has not been implicated in stress-related disorders before, as well as the null
      findings in areas repeatedly shown to be involved in stress-related disorders,
      the current study indicates that resilience is not simply the opposite of having
      psychiatric symptoms, but rather an independent construct.

PMID- 28881257
TI  - The length of pre-existing fissures effects on the mechanical properties of
      cracked red sandstone and strength design in engineering.
AB  - It is important to study the mechanical properties of cracked rock to understand
      the engineering behavior of cracked rock mass. Consequently, the influence of the
      length of pre-existing fissures on the strength, deformation, acoustic emission
      (AE) and failure characteristics of cracked rock specimen was analyzed, and the
      optimal selection of strength parameter in engineering design was discussed. The
      results show that the strength parameters (stress of dilatancy onset and uniaxial
      compressive strength) and deformation parameters (axial strain and
      circumferential strain at dilatancy onset and peak point) of cracked rock
      specimen decrease with the increase of the number of pre-existing fissures, and
      the relations which can use the negative exponential function to fit. Compared
      with the intact rock specimens, the different degrees of stress drop phenomena
      were produced in the process of cracked rock specimens when the stress exceeds
      the dilatancy onset. At this moment, the cracked rock specimens with the
      existence of stress drop are not instantaneous failure, but the circumferential
      strain, volumetric strain and AE signals increase burstingly. And the yield
      platform was presented in the cracked rock specimen with the length of pre
      existing fissure more than 23mm, the yield failure was gradually conducted around
      the inner tip of pre-existing fissure, the development of original fissures and
      new cracks was evolved fully in rock. However, the time of dilatancy onset is
      always ahead of the the time of that point with the existence of stress drop. It
      indicates that the stress of dilatancy onset can be as the parameter of strength
      design in rock engineering, which can effectively prevent the large deformation
      of rock.

PMID- 28881258
TI  - Time-frequency analysis to a particular type of scattering problems involving
      metallic-polymer tubing structures.
AB  - In this paper, recent studies of backscattered acoustic signals in thinner steel
      polymer tubing structures have been presented. Reassigned smoothed pseudo Wigner
      Ville (rspWV) analysis has been adopted in order to diminish the cross-term
      effect, and achieve high resolution spectral. Vibration modes, which are
      associated to the resonances of circumferential waves, have been determined by
      using the modal isolation plan representation. At normalized frequencies below
      140, an appreciable influence from the polymer coating thickness on the A0+ and
      S0 modes has been noticed. Furthermore, the trajectory of the A0- wave has been
      modified in the normalized frequency band 40-42. Group velocity curves of the A0-
      wave have, then, been graphically illustrated. The findings have shown a
      particular curvature change at reduced frequency 41 in the case of an immersed
      two-layer tube in water. Studies of acoustic backscattering involving steel
      polymer tubing structures have confirmed the significant coupling of A0+ and S0
      waves. Besides, the disappearance of the A0+ resonance trajectory has been
      observed; which is a very important phenomenon to understand.

PMID- 28881259
TI  - Sodium channel blockers in KCNQ2-encephalopathy: Lacosamide as a new treatment
      option.

PMID- 28881260
TI  - Activation Status of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases as an Early Predictive Marker of
      Response to Chemotherapy in Osteosarcoma.
AB  - Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are membrane receptors that play a vital role in
      various biological processes, in particular, cell survival, cell proliferation,
      and cell differentiation. These cellular processes are composed of multitiered
      signaling cascades of kinases starting from ligand binding to extracellular
      domains of RTKs that activate the entire pathways through tyrosine
      phosphorylation of the receptors and downstream effectors. A previous study
      reported that, based on proteomics data, RTKs were a major candidate target for
      osteosarcoma. In this study, activation profiles of six candidate RTKs, including
      c-Met, c-Kit, VEGFR2, HER2, FGFR1, and PDGFRalpha, were directly examined from
      chemonaive fresh frozen tissues of 32 osteosarcoma patients using a multiplex
      immunoassay. That examination revealed distinct patterns of tyrosine
      phosphorylation of RTKs in osteosarcoma cases. Unsupervised hierarchical
      clustering was calculated using Pearson uncentered correlation coefficient to
      classify RTKs into two groups-Group A (c-Met, c-Kit, VEGFR2, and HER2) and Group
      B (FGFR1 and PDGFRalpha)-based on tyrosine phosphorylation patterns.
      Nonactivation of all Group A RTKs was associated with shorter overall survival in
      stage IIB osteosarcoma patients. Percentages of tumor necrosis in patients with
      inactive Group A RTKs were significantly lower than those in patients with at
      least one active Group A RTK. Paired primary osteosarcoma cells with fresh
      osteosarcoma tissue were extracted and cultured for cytotoxicity testing. Primary
      cells with active Group A RTKs tended to be sensitive to doxorubicin and
      cisplatin. We also found that osteosarcoma cells with active Group A RTKs were
      more proliferative than cells with inactive Group A RTKs. These findings indicate
      that the activation pattern of Group A RTKs is a potential risk stratification
      and chemoresponse predictor and might be used to guide the optimum chemotherapy
      regimen for osteosarcoma patients.

PMID- 28881261
TI  - Cardiorenal syndrome in sepsis: A narrative review.
AB  - Multi-organ dysfunction is seen in nearly 40-60% of all patients presenting with
      sepsis, including renal and cardiac dysfunction. Cardiorenal syndrome type-5
      reflects concomitant cardiac and renal dysfunction secondary to a systemic
      condition that primarily affects both organs, such as sepsis. There are limited
      data on the etiology, pathogenesis and clinical implications of cardiorenal
      syndrome in sepsis. Cardiac dysfunction and injury can be measured with cardiac
      biomarkers, echocardiographic dysfunction, and hemodynamic parameters. Acute
      kidney injury is systematically evaluated using serum creatinine and urine output
      criteria. This review seeks to systematically describe the epidemiology, risk
      factors, pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of cardiorenal syndrome type-5 in
      the setting of sepsis.

PMID- 28881262
TI  - Young children are more willing to accept group decisions in which they have had
      a voice.
AB  - People accept an unequal distribution of resources if they judge that the
      decision-making process was fair. In this study, 3- and 5-year-old children
      played an allocation game with two puppets. The puppets decided against a fair
      distribution in all conditions, but they allowed children to have various degrees
      of participation in the decision-making process. Children of both ages protested
      less when they were first asked to agree with the puppets' decision compared with
      when there was no agreement. When ignored, the younger children protested less
      than the older children-perhaps because they did not expect to have a say in the
      process-whereas they protested more when they were given an opportunity to voice
      their opinion-perhaps because their stated opinion was ignored. These results
      suggest that during the preschool years, children begin to expect to be asked for
      their opinion in a decision, and they accept disadvantageous decisions if they
      feel that they have had a voice in the decision-making process.

PMID- 28881263
TI  - Metagenetic analysis of the bacterial communities of edible insects from diverse
      production cycles at industrial rearing companies.
AB  - Despite the continuing development of new insect-derived food products, microbial
      research on edible insects and insect-based foods is still very limited. The goal
      of this study was to increase the knowledge on the microbial quality of edible
      insects by comparing the bacterial community composition of mealworms (Tenebrio
      molitor) and crickets (Acheta domesticus and Gryllodes sigillatus) from several
      production cycles and rearing companies. Remarkable differences in the bacterial
      community composition were found between different mealworm rearing companies and
      mealworm production cycles from the same company. In comparison with mealworms,
      the bacterial community composition of the investigated crickets was more similar
      among different companies, and was highly similar between both cricket species
      investigated. Mealworm communities were dominated by Spiroplasma and Erwinia
      species, while crickets were abundantly colonised by (Para)bacteroides species.
      With respect to food safety, only a few operational taxonomic units could be
      associated with potential human pathogens such as Cronobacter or spoilage
      bacteria such as Pseudomonas. In summary, our results implicate that at least for
      cricket rearing, production cycles of constant and good quality in terms of
      bacterial composition can be obtained by different rearing companies. For
      mealworms however, more variation in terms of microbial quality occurs between
      companies.

PMID- 28881264
TI  - Is endometrioma-associated damage to ovarian reserve progressive? Insights from
      IVF cycles.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The relation between endometriomas and damage to ovarian reserve
      remains controversial. In this study, we hypothesized that this damage may not be
      present at the time of endometrioma formation but may conversely gradually
      develop over time. STUDY DESIGN: To investigate the possibility of a time-related
      detrimental effect of endometriomas on ovarian reserve, we retrospectively
      selected 29 women with unilateral cysts who underwent at least two IVF cycles at
      least 6 months apart and evaluated ovarian responsiveness over time. Women were
      excluded if they conceived, developed new endometriomas or necessitated new
      medical or surgical therapies for endometriosis during the interval between the
      two cycles, RESULTS: The mean+/-SD of the diameter of the endometriomas was 26+/
      8mm. Most women (n=25) had only one endometrioma. In the first cycle, the number
      of developing follicles in the affected and contralateral intact gonads was 4.9+/
      2.5 and 5.9+/-2.4, respectively (p=0.10). In the second cycle, it was 5.0+/-2.9
      and 6.0+/-2.8, respectively (p=0.13). The median (Interquartile Range) proportion
      of follicles developing in the affected ovaries in the first and second cycles
      was 44% (31-58%) and 44% (35-55%), respectively (p=0.97). Subgroup analyses
      according to the duration of the time interval between the two assessments, the
      dimension of the endometriomas and the history of previous surgery for
      endometriosis did not show subgroups at significant risk of time-related damage.
      CONCLUSIONS: We failed to observe an endometrioma-related reduction of ovarian
      responsiveness with time. However, evidence from larger series obtained in women
      carrying larger cysts and enrolled for longer time period of time are required
      for a definitive conclusion.

PMID- 28881265
TI  - New variants near RHOJ and C2, HLA-DRA region and susceptibility to endometriosis
      in the Polish population-The genome-wide association study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Endometriosis is a common gynaecological disease, associated with
      severe pelvic pain and reduced fertility; however, molecular mechanisms remain
      largely unknown. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are able to identify
      genetic loci, which can play significant role during endometriosis development.
      AIM: The study aimed at localisation of new genes and chromosomal loci, the
      nucleotide variants of which determine the level of susceptibility to
      endometriosis. STUDY DESIGN: Blood samples from 171 patients with endometriosis
      were used as material for studies. The patients were recruited to the study at
      the Department of Operative Gynaecology of the Institute of the Polish Mother's
      Memorial Hospital in Lodz. A control group (n=2934) came from the POPULOUS
      collection registered at Biobank Lab, Department of Molecular Biophysics,
      University of Lodz. DNA of the patients with endometriosis was compared with DNA
      of women free from that disease, the comparison being supported by GWAS. RESULTS:
      Genome-wide significant correlation was identified between one new, not
      previously described, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs10129516, localised
      on chromosome 14 in intergenic region between PARP1P2 and RHOJ genes (p=1.44*10
      10, OR=3.104, 95% CI=2.329-4.136) and endometriosis. We have also identified
      significant association with endometriosis of 18 SNPs localised on chromosome 6
      in position range 31883957 - 32681631 (C2 and HLA-DRA genes region) with the
      lowest observed p value for rs644045 in C2 gene (p=2.04*10-8, OR=1.955, 95%
      CI=1.541-2.480). CONCLUSION: Reported GWAS identified the novel loci associated
      with endometriosis in Polish women, not previously reported. The most interesting
      observation shown in our study are regions associated with susceptibility to
      endometriosis of loci located near C2, HLA-DRA and RHOJ genes. RESULTS: of that
      study did not correspond to previously published data about polymorphism in that
      regions and further evaluations are necessary in groups with higher numbers of
      patients to explain whether the above-mentioned genetic variant may be the risk
      factor for pathogenesis of endometriosis.

PMID- 28881266
TI  - Lesion localization using the scroll bar on tomosynthesis: Why doesn't it always
      work?
AB  - The scroll bar on digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is an important tool that
      facilitates localization of lesions on the orthogonal view. While this works well
      most of the time, occasionally the location of the lesion as directed by the
      scroll bar is seemingly inaccurate. There are five important reasons why the
      scroll bar indicator may suggest a contradictory lesion location. Understanding
      specific scenarios when this may occur will aid the reader in reconciling these
      differences.

PMID- 28881267
TI  - Gamma-glutamyltransferase and cardiovascular mortality in Korean adults: A cohort
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Insufficient evidence has been reported on the associations
      between gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) and cardiovascular disease (CVD)
      mortality from studies with an adequate number of participants. METHODS: 512,990
      Korean adults who participated in routine health examinations during the period
      2002-2003 were followed up until 2013. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated after
      adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Each 1-unit higher natural-log
      transformed GGT (LogeGGT) level was associated with approximately 30-50% higher
      mortality risk of CVD (HR = 1.31): hypertensive diseases (HR = 1.31), ischemic
      heart diseases (IHD, HR = 1.29), total stroke (HR = 1.29), acute myocardial
      infarction (HR = 1.30), chronic IHD (HR = 1.27), heart failure (HR = 1.48),
      hemorrhagic stroke (HR = 1.42), and ischemic stroke (HR = 1.27). The associations
      with CVD mortality did not vary by sex, or alcohol use, whereas they were
      stronger in younger (<60 years), non-hypertensive (systolic blood pressure [SBP]
      <140 mmHg), physically more active, normal-weight (body mass index<25 kg/m2), and
      normocholesterolemic (total cholesterol <200 mg/dL) adults than in their
      respective counterparts. Adding LogeGGT to prediction models for CVD mortality
      increased AUC value (0.0020, p < 0.001), especially in persons aged <60 years
      (0.0055), with SBP <140 mmHg (0.0030), and with both age <60 years and SBP <140
      mmHg (0.0086). CONCLUSIONS: Higher GGT significantly increased the risk of
      mortality due to CVD and its subtypes. The relative risks were greater in
      subjects with younger age, no hypertension, more physical activity, normal
      weight, and normocholesterolemia than in their respective counterparts. In the
      general population, adding GGT to conventional CVD risk factors may improve the
      prediction of CVD mortality, especially in subjects younger than 60 years and in
      those without hypertension.

PMID- 28881268
TI  - High-density lipoprotein cholesterol associated with change in coronary plaque
      lipid burden assessed by near infrared spectroscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Little is known about the relation between serum lipid
      parameters and serial change in plaque composition using in vivo coronary
      imaging. The aim of this study was to examine the association between serum
      lipids and change in coronary plaque lipid burden assessed by near-infrared
      spectroscopy (NIRS). METHODS: We performed serial NIRS-intravascular ultrasound
      studies in 49 patients who underwent coronary angiography for an acute coronary
      syndrome (ACS) or stable ischemic symptoms. Univariable and multivariable linear
      regression analyses were applied to evaluate the relationship between serum lipid
      parameters and change in lipid core burden index at the 4-mm maximal segment (max
      LCBI4mm). RESULTS: Mean patient age was 61 +/- 9 y, 29% were women, 35% had an
      ACS clinical presentation, 78% received statin therapy at baseline, and median
      low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL
      C), total cholesterol and triglyceride levels were 101, 43, 174 and 133 mg/dL,
      respectively. During a median follow-up period of 13 months, max LCBI4mm
      significantly decreased from 277 to 194 (p = 0.001). On univariable analysis, the
      percent change in HDL-C negatively associated with the change in max LCBI4mm
      (beta = -3.19, p = 0.004). There were no significant associations between the
      other lipid parameters and change in max LCBI4mm. On multivariable analysis,
      percent change in HDL-C remained significantly associated with the change in max
      LCBI4mm (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Change in HDL-C, but not other lipids
      parameters, associated with changes in coronary plaque lipid burden assessed by
      NIRS. These findings highlight the potential therapeutic importance of high
      density lipoprotein on serial change in plaque composition.

PMID- 28881269
TI  - Coronary risk factors associated with OCT macrophage images and their response
      after CoCr everolimus-eluting stent implantation in patients with stable coronary
      artery disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the accumulation of
      optical coherence tomography (OCT)-macrophages and OCT findings after CoCr
      everolimus-eluting stent placement, in addition to coronary risk factors.
      METHODS: A total of 89 lesions in 89 patients were registered in the 1- and 3
      month cohort of the multi-centre study. Lesion characteristics and post-procedure
      OCT images were evaluated immediately and 1 and 3 months after stenting. Patients
      were divided into low and high macrophage grade groups based on the median
      macrophage grade. RESULTS: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels,
      the prevalence of diabetes mellitus, HbA1c and blood glucose levels in the high
      macrophage grade group were significantly higher than in the low macrophage grade
      group (p = 0.025, p = 0.040, p = 0.032, and p = 0.010). Moreover, total lipid arc
      and length and number of thin-cap fibroatheromas (TCFAs) in the high macrophage
      grade group were significantly higher than in the low macrophage group (p =
      0.008, p = 0.002, and p = 0.012). After CoCr everolimus-eluting stenting, there
      was a trend towards a greater number, height, and area of irregular protrusions
      in the high macrophage grade group compared to the low macrophage grade group (p
      = 0.091, p = 0.059, and p = 0.085). Multivariate logistic regression analysis
      showed that diabetes mellitus was a significant predictor of high macrophage
      grades (odds ratio: 2.8, 95% CI: 1.1-7.3, p = 0.030). CONCLUSIONS: The
      accumulation of OCT-macrophages was associated with diabetes mellitus in patients
      with coronary artery disease. Moreover, macrophage accumulation and diabetes
      mellitus may be associated with irregular protrusions just after stenting.

PMID- 28881270
TI  - Molecular and clinical characterization of a series of patients with childhood
      onset lysosomal acid lipase deficiency. Retrospective investigations, follow-up
      and detection of two novel LIPA pathogenic variants.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Childhood/Adult-onset Lysosomal Acid Lipase Deficiency (LAL
      D) is a recessive disorder due to loss of function variants of LAL, the enzyme
      which hydrolyses cholesteryl esters, derived from internalized apoB containing
      lipoproteins. The disease is characterized by multi-organ involvement including
      the liver, spleen, intestine and cardiovascular system. The aim of this study was
      the clinical and molecular characterization of 14 (13 unrelated) previously
      unreported patients with childhood-onset LAL-D. METHODS: Data collected included
      clinical and laboratory investigations, liver imaging, liver biopsy and LIPA gene
      analysis. The response to lipid-lowering medications, liver transplantation and
      enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) was reported for some patients. RESULTS: LAL-D
      was suspected at 4.4 +/- 3.3 years of age for the presence of hepatomegaly,
      elevated serum transaminases and hypercholesterolemia, and was confirmed by liver
      biopsy/imaging and LAL assay. The follow up period ranged from 3 to 40 years
      (mean 7.8 +/- 4.0 years in 13 cases). Patients treated with statins with or
      without ezetimibe showed 28% reduction of plasma LDL-cholesterol without a
      tangible effect on liver enzymes; some patients receiving ERT showed normalized
      lipoprotein profile and transaminase levels. The common c.894G > A variant was
      observed in homozygosity or compound heterozygosity in 10 patients. We found
      seven previously reported variants: p.(Trp140*), p.(Arg218*), p.(Gly266*),
      p.(Thr288Ile), p.(Leu294Ser), p.(His295Tyr) and p.(Gly342Arg) and two novel
      variants: p.(Asp345Asn), affecting the LAL catalytic triad, and c.229+3A > C,
      affecting splicing. Homozygosity for p.(Thr288Ile) or c.229+3A > C was associated
      with a severe phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides additional data on the
      features of childhood-onset LAL-D and describes two novel pathogenic variants of
      the LIPA gene.

PMID- 28881271
TI  - Factor VII activating protease (FSAP) regulates the expression of inflammatory
      genes in vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The factor VII activating protease (FSAP) knockout mice have
      a bigger neointima after vascular injury and a larger infarct volume after
      stroke. The Marburg I (MI) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the FSAP
      encoding gene is associated with an increased risk of stroke and carotid stenosis
      in humans. We hypothesize that the regulation of gene expression by FSAP in
      vascular cells accounts for its vasculo-regulatory properties. METHODS: Vascular
      smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and endothelial cells (EC) were stimulated with FSAP
      and a microarray-based expression analysis was performed. Selected genes were
      further investigated by qPCR. Receptor- and pathway-inhibitors were used to
      elucidate the mechanisms involved. RESULTS: Pathways significantly activated by
      FSAP include those related to inflammation, apoptosis and cell growth in VSMC and
      inflammation in EC. The key upregulated genes in VSMC were AREG, PTGS2 and IL6;
      and in EC these were SELE, VCAM1, and IL8. Secretion of IL6 in VSMC and IL8 in EC
      was also stimulated by FSAP. Recombinant wild type protease domain of FSAP, but
      not the MI-isoform, could recapitulate most of these effects. In VSMC, but not
      EC, gene expression by FSAP was impaired by PAR1 (protease-activated receptor1)
      receptor antagonists. In VSMC, FSAP-induced expression of AREG and IL6 was
      blocked by cAMP and MAPK pathway inhibitors indicating that multiple signalling
      pathways are likely to be involved. CONCLUSIONS: The stimulation of inflammation-
      and proliferative/apoptosis-related genes in VSMC and EC provides a comprehensive
      basis for understanding the role of FSAP in vascular diseases.

PMID- 28881273
TI  - Investigating the androgenic activity of ozonation transformation products of
      testosterone and androstenedione.
AB  - This study investigates the impact of ozonation on the concentration of two
      androgen steroid hormones, testosterone and androstenedione, and on androgenic
      activity as measured using the YAS assay. While these compounds are remarkably
      similar in chemical structure and showed comparable removal profiles in the
      presence and absence of a hydroxyl scavenger (isopropanol), large differences
      between percent removal of target compounds using chemical analysis and percent
      removal of bioactivity was observed when small ozone doses were applied. The
      dynamic change and initial increase in bioactivity during ozonation can be
      attributed to transformation products. These results demonstrate the importance
      of combining chemical analysis and bioanalytical techniques not only to perform a
      comprehensive assessment of environmental risks but also as a tool to optimize
      treatment technologies proposed as a mean to mitigate the impact of contaminants
      of emerging concern.

PMID- 28881272
TI  - A novel bioreactor system for simultaneous mutli-metal leaching from industrial
      pyrite ash: Effect of agitation and sulphur dosage.
AB  - Simultaneous multi-metal leaching from industrial pyrite ash is reported for the
      first time using a novel bioreactor system that allows natural diffusion of
      atmospheric O2 and CO2 along with the required temperature maintenance. The waste
      containing economically important metals (Cu, Co, Zn & As) was leached using an
      adapted consortium of meso-acidophilic Fe2+ and S oxidising bacteria. The unique
      property of the sample supported adequate growth and activity of the acidophiles,
      thereby, driving the (bio) chemical reactions. Oxido-reductive potentials were
      seen to improve with time and the system's pH lowered as a result of active S
      oxidation. Increase in sulphur dosage (>1g/L) and agitation speed (>150rpm) did
      not bear any significant effect on metal dissolution. The consortium was able to
      leach 94.01% Cu (11.75% dissolution/d), 98.54% Co (12.3% dissolution/d), 75.95%
      Zn (9.49% dissolution/d) and 60.80% As (7.6% dissolution/d) at 150rpm, 1g/L
      sulphur, 30 degrees C in 8days.

PMID- 28881274
TI  - Novel bacterial selenite reductase CsrF responsible for Se(IV) and Cr(VI)
      reduction that produces nanoparticles in Alishewanella sp. WH16-1.
AB  - Alishewanella sp. WH16-1 is a facultative anaerobic bacterium isolated from
      mining soil. Under aerobic conditions, this bacterium efficiently reduces
      selenite and chromate. A flavoprotein showing 37% amino acid identity to E. coli
      chromate reductase ChrR was identified from the genome (named CsrF). Gene
      mutation and complementation along with heterologous expression revealed the
      ability of CsrF to reduce selenite and chromate in vivo. The purified CsrF was
      yellow and showed an absorption spectra similar to that of FMN. The molecular
      weight of CsrF was 23,906 for the monomer and 47,960 for the dimer. In vitro,
      CsrF catalyzes the reduction of Se(IV) and Cr(VI) using NAD(P)H as cofactors with
      optimal condition of pH 7.0 and temperature of 30-37 degrees C. This enzyme also
      catalyze the reduction of sulfate and ferric iron but not arsenate and nitrate.
      Using NADPH as its electron donor, the Km for the reduction of Se(IV) and Cr(VI)
      was 204.1+/-27.91 and 250.6+/-23.46MUmol/L, respectively. Site-directed
      mutagenesis showed that Arg13 and Gly113 were essential for the reduction of
      Se(IV) and Cr(VI). The products of the reduction of Se(IV) and Cr(VI) were Se(0)-
      and Cr(III)-nanoparticles, respectively. To our knowledge, CsrF is a novel and
      well-characterized bacterial aerobic selenite reductase.

PMID- 28881275
TI  - Residence time effects on technetium reduction in slag-based cementitious
      materials.
AB  - A long-term disposal of technetium-99 (99Tc) has been considered in a type of
      cementitious formulation, slag-based grout, at the U.S. Department of Energy,
      Savannah River Site, Aiken SC, U.S.A. Blast furnace slag, which contains S and Fe
      electron donors, has been used in a mixture with fly ash, and Portland cement to
      immobilize 99Tc(VII)O4-(aq) in low level radioactive waste via reductive
      precipitation reaction. However the long-term stability of Tc(IV) species is not
      clearly understood as oxygen gradually diffuses into the solid structure. In this
      study, aging effects of Tc speciation were investigated as a function of depth
      (<2.5cm) in slag-based grout using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. All of Fe(II)
      in solids was oxidized to Fe(III) after 117d. However, elemental S, sulfide, and
      sulfoxide persists at the 0-8mm depths even after 485d, suggesting the presence
      of a reduced zone below the surface few millimeters. Pertechnetate was
      successfully reduced to Tc(IV) after 29d. Distorted hydrolyzed Tc(IV) octahedral
      molecules were partially sulfidized and or polymerized at all depths (0-8mm) and
      were stable in 485d aged sample. The results of this study suggest that variable
      S species contribute to stabilize the partially sulfidized Tc(IV) species in aged
      slag-based grout.

PMID- 28881276
TI  - Stress-induced changes of growth, yield and bioactive compounds in lemon balm
      cultivars.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of water deficiency on
      five Melissa officinalis genotypes. For three months water supply of 70%
      (control) and 40% (stress) of soil water capacity treatments have been adjusted
      in a pot experiment. Considering the morphological data, the different genetic
      potentials of cultivars were manifested only under optimum water regimes while
      under drought they merged into one homogeneous basic population representing the
      species. The biomass data decreased for all cultivars under drought stress, but
      the degree of loss was genotype specific. Genotype dependence of the change in
      essential oil accumulation was clearly proved by the data. Three of the cultivars
      ('Gold Leaf', 'Lorelei' and 'Quedlinburger Niederliegende') showed the same
      essential oil content both in control and stress treatments. Under drought stress
      the cultivar 'Lemona' produced only 35% of its essential oil content, however cv.
      'Soroksar' reacted with 58% increase of essential oil accumulation to drought
      treatment. Considering the non-volatile bioactive compounds a unique response of
      the investigated accessions to drought stress was demonstrated. Cultivar
      'Lorelei' showed an increased accumulation of total hydroxicinnamic acid
      derivatives content while cv. 'Gold Leaf' and 'Soroksar' clearly reacted with
      higher accumulation of total flavonoid fraction. In the case of cv.
      'Quedlinburger Niederliegende' the remarkable decline in total flavonoid content
      is the most obvious stress reaction. The rosmarinic acid content of all genotypes
      showed lower accumulation level in consequence of lower water supply.

PMID- 28881277
TI  - Functional identification of MdPIF1 as a Phytochrome Interacting Factor in Apple.
AB  - Light plays a central role in regulating both apple plant yield and fruit quality
      formation; however, the Phytochrome interacting factors (PIFs), which are the
      main components of Phytochrome-mediated light signal transduction in apple, have
      rarely been characterized. Here, we isolated and identified a PIF-like
      protein(MdPIF1) in apple, which is similar to AtPIF1. MdPIF1 was constitutively
      expressed at different levels in various apple tissues, and the transcription
      level of MdPIF1 was significantly induced during seed germination. A functional
      complementation assay in the Arabidopsis PIF1-deletion mutant pil5 suggested that
      MdPIF1 was a negative regulator in the Phy-mediated inhibition of hypocotyl
      elongation under far-red light conditions. MdPIF1-overexpression promoted
      hypocotyl elongation, while inhibiting seed germination and PIF1 deletion-induced
      the bleaching phenotype in the pil5 mutant. In addition, expression analysis
      indicated that MdPIF1 was involved in the germination of apple seeds and dormancy
      breaking of apple buds. Moreover, MdPIF1 inhibited the growth of apple calli via
      Phy-mediated pathways. These findings build a solid foundation for studies on
      Phytochrome-mediated light signal transduction and molecular breeding in apple.

PMID- 28881278
TI  - Deciphering the interplay among genotype, maturity stage and low-temperature
      storage on phytochemical composition and transcript levels of enzymatic
      antioxidants in Prunus persica fruit.
AB  - The aim of this study was to understand the antioxidant metabolic changes of
      peach (cvs. 'Royal Glory', 'Red Haven' and 'Sun Cloud') and nectarine fruits (cv.
      'Big Top') exposed to different combinations of low-temperature storage (0, 2, 4
      weeks storage at 0  degrees C, 90% R.H.) and additional ripening at room
      temperature (1, 3 and 5 d, shelf life, 20  degrees C) with an array of
      analytical, biochemical and molecular approaches. Initially, harvested fruit of
      the examined cultivars were segregated non-destructively at advanced and less
      pronounced maturity stages and qualitative traits, physiological parameters,
      phytochemical composition and antioxidant capacity were determined. 'Big Top' and
      'Royal Glory' fruits were characterized by slower softening rate and less
      pronounced ripening-related alterations. The coupling of HPLC fingerprints,
      consisted of 7 phenolic compounds (chlorogenic, neochlorogenic acid, catechin,
      epicatechin, rutin, quecetin-3-O-glucoside, procyanidin B1) and
      spectrophotometric methods disclosed a great impact of genotype on peach
      bioactive composition, with 'Sun Cloud' generally displaying the highest
      contents. Maturity stage at harvest did not seem to affect fruit phenolic
      composition and no general guidelines for the impact of cold storage and shelf
      life on individual phenolic compounds can be extrapolated. Subsequently, fruit of
      less pronounced maturity at harvest were used for further molecular analysis.
      'Sun Cloud' was proven efficient in protecting plasmid pBR322 DNA against ROO
      attack throughout the experimental period and against HO attack after 2 and 4
      weeks of cold storage. Interestingly, a general down-regulation of key genes
      implicated in the antioxidant apparatus with the prolongation of storage period
      was recorded; this was more evident for CAT, cAPX, Cu/ZnSOD2, perAPX3 and GPX8
      genes. Higher antioxidant capacity of 'Sun Cloud' fruit could potentially be
      linked with compounds other than enzymatic antioxidants that further regulate
      peach fruit ripening.

PMID- 28881279
TI  - Evaluation of risk change-point for novice teenage drivers.
AB  - The driving risk of novice teenagers is the highest during the initial period
      after licensure but decreases rapidly. This paper applies two recurrent-event
      change-point models to detect the time of change in driving risks. The models are
      based on a non-homogeneous Poisson process with piecewise constant intensity
      functions. We show that the maximum likelihood estimators of the change-points
      can only occur at the event times and they are consistent. A simulation study is
      conducted to demonstrate the model performance under different scenarios. The
      proposed models are applied to the Naturalistic Teenage Driving Study, which
      continuously recorded in situ driving behaviour of 42 novice teenage drivers for
      the first 18 months after licensure using sophisticated in-vehicle
      instrumentation. The results indicate that approximately half of the drivers have
      lower risk after 73.0h of independent driving after licensure while the risk for
      others increases. On the average the driving risk deceases after the change
      point. The results provide critical information for safety education, safety
      countermeasure development, and Graduated Driver Licensing policy making.

PMID- 28881281
TI  - Improvement of early functional outcomes in hospitalized geriatric patients after
      hip surgery.
AB  - Computer supported clinical practice has great potential to improve process
      performance and care outcomes. However, further research is needed to evaluate
      the efficiency of Health Information Technology (HIT) across the various clinical
      settings. This study focuses on the status of the patient as determined by
      various potential predicting factors for functional recovery during
      hospitalization after hip surgery. We assess the relations among patient's
      characteristics, (co)morbidities, surgical procedures, hospital courses and
      modified Salvati-Wilson's (SW) score on discharge. The aim is to improve decision
      making in clinical practice at General hospital "Djordje Joanovic" in Zrenjanin,
      Serbia, by applying the variation of the Johnson's algorithm for data reduction.
      The data are related to hospitalized geriatric patients after hip surgery. The
      second aim is to define the methodology for decision making based on data related
      to hospitalized geriatric patients after hip surgery in local environments. The
      SW score as a measure of results of early functional recovery, was affected by
      age, surgical procedure, the lowest postoperative value of red blood cells during
      hospitalization, haemoglobin level on discharge, length of hospitalization and
      length of rehabilitation. It is possible to improve decision making in clinical
      practice at General hospital "Djordje Joanovic" in Zrenjanin, Serbia, by applying
      the variation of the Johnson's algorithm for data reduction. The applied method
      is useful for any local environment for similar geriatric population, in effort
      to improve their own clinical practice.

PMID- 28881280
TI  - A computational study of the Fontan circulation with fenestration or hepatic vein
      exclusion.
AB  - Fontan patients may undergo additional surgical modifications to mitigate
      complications like protein-losing enteropathy, liver cirrhosis, and other issues
      in their splanchnic circulation. Recent case reports show promise for several
      types of modifications, but the subtle effects of these surgeries on the
      circulation are not well understood. In this paper, we employ mathematical
      modeling of blood flow to systematically quantify the impact of these surgical
      changes on extracardiac Fontan hemodynamics. We investigate two modifications:
      (1) the fenestrated Fontan and (2) the Fontan with hepatic vein exclusion. Closed
      loop hemodynamic models are used, which consist of one-dimensional networks for
      the major vessels and zero-dimensional models for the heart and organ beds.
      Numerical results suggest the hepatic vein exclusion has the greatest overall
      impact on the hemodynamics, followed by the largest sized fenestration. In
      particular, the hepatic vein exclusion drastically lowers portal venous pressure
      while the fenestration decreases pulmonary artery pressure. Both modifications
      increase flow to the intestines, a finding consistent with their utility in
      clinical practice for combating complications in the splanchnic circulation.

PMID- 28881282
TI  - Enlarge the biologic coating-induced absorbance enhancement of Au-Ag bimetallic
      nanoshells by tuning the metal composition.
AB  - Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption properties of biologic layer-coated Au
      Ag core-shell nanoparticle have been studied theoretically. By comparing with
      pure Au and Ag nanoparticles, the absorption peak intensity of Au-Ag bimetallic
      nanoparticle is more dependent on the dielectric coating, and the longer
      wavelength peak corresponding to the Au-Ag interface is more sensitive to the
      coating thickness. As the Au-Ag composition ratio is increased, the dielectric
      coating-dependent peak intensity change is always non-monotonous, and the
      critical Au-Ag composition ratio corresponding to the greatest peak intensity
      increase could be further tuned by changing the dielectric constant of the coated
      dielectric layer. The physical mechanism of the non-monotonous sensitivity change
      has been attributed to the Au-Ag composition ratio-dependent separation and
      overlap of the two SPR peaks from Au-Ag interface and outer Ag surface. These
      results indicate that the plasmonic absorption intensity of Au-Ag core-shell
      nanoparticle could be used in refractive index sensing and biologic detection.

PMID- 28881283
TI  - Spectroscopic study of 2-methylindole and 3-methylindole: Solvents interactions
      and DFT studies.
AB  - The interaction between the 2- and 3-methylindole derivatives has been studied
      using spectroscopic technique and molecular modeling. Solvent polarity was found
      to play a great role in the interaction with acetonitrile showing greatest
      interaction with indole derivatives but less hydrogen bonding contribution. Good
      agreement was found between the models used for the analysis of experimental data
      and the theoretical calculations. Moreover, on the part of the quenching,
      benzonitrile was found to be better quencher over chlorobenzene, with 3
      methylindole giving higher dynamic quenching constants.

PMID- 28881284
TI  - Multi-branched gold nanostars with fractal structure for SERS detection of the
      pesticide thiram.
AB  - The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of multi-branched gold
      nanostars with fractal structure has been investigated for trace detection of
      pesticide thiram. Raman spectrum results show that the gold nanostars substrate
      can produce about 102 fold stronger signal than the thiram alone with the thiram
      concentration increase of 103 times and 1.4 fold stronger signal than the gold
      nanostars without fractal feature. In the detection procedure, the most prominent
      SERS peak at 1376cm-1 has been chosen to characterize and quantify the
      concentration of thiram. Experimental results indicate this Raman substrate based
      on fractal gold nanostars exhibits excellent selective probing performance for
      thiram with a detection limit as low as 10-10M in solution and 0.24ng/cm2 in
      apple peels. Interference experiment results show that the effects from the
      interfering pesticides could be neglected in the detection procedure. Therefore,
      the gold nanostars as a SERS substrate have excellent sensitivity and
      selectivity.

PMID- 28881285
TI  - Structures and biochemical evaluation of silver(I) 5,5-diethylbarbiturate
      complexes with bis(diphenylphosphino)alkanes as potential antimicrobial and
      anticancer agents.
AB  - New silver(I) 5,5-diethylbarbiturate (barb) complexes with a series of
      bis(diphenylphosphino)alkanes such as 1,1-bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm),
      1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe), 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane (dppp)
      and 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane (dppb) were synthesized and characterized.
      [Ag2(barb)2(MU-dppm)2] (1), [Ag2(barb)2(MU-dppe)(DMSO)2] (2) and [Ag2(barb)2(MU
      dppp)2] (3) were binuclear, while [Ag(barb)(MU-dppb)]n (4) was a coordination
      polymer. 1-4 effectively bind to the G/C rich region of the major groove of DNA
      and interact with BSA via hydrophobic interactions in accordance with molecular
      docking studies. All complexes displayed significant DNA cleavage in the presence
      of H2O2. 1-4 exhibited more specificity against Gram-positive bacteria than Gram
      negative bacteria, but 2 targets both bacterial strains, being comparable to
      AgNO3 and silver sulfadiazine. Complex 1 has a strong growth inhibitory effect on
      A549 cells, while 2 and 3 exhibit considerable cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells.
      The complexes showed high accumulation in the cytosol fraction of the cells.
      Mechanistic studies showed that 1 and 2 display effective cell growth inhibition
      by triggering S and G2/M phase arrest, induce apoptosis via mitochondrial
      pathways and also damage to DNA due to the overproduction of ROS.

PMID- 28881286
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of asymmetric curcuminoid analogs as potential
      anticancer agents that downregulate NF-kappaB activation and enhance the
      sensitivity of gastric cancer cell lines to irinotecan chemotherapy.
AB  - NF-kappaB is a critical target for cancer treatment due to its central role in
      facilitating cancer progression and desensitizing cancer cells to
      chemotherapeutic drugs. In this study, a series of chemically modified asymmetric
      curcuminoid analogs named S01-S15 were synthesized and evaluated for NF-kappaB
      inhibitory activity in gastric cancer cell lines. Cell growth inhibition assays
      revealed that most of these analogs effectively inhibited the growth of BGC-823,
      SGC-7901, and MFC cells. S06 was selected for further research. MTT assay,
      clonogenic assay, Hoechst 33258 staining assay, and western blotting revealed
      that S06 could exert anti-gastric cancer effects by downregulating NF-kappaB
      activity. Moreover, via its effects on NF-kappaB, S06 effectively enhanced the
      sensitivity of the gastric cancer cells to irinotecan. Together, this study
      provide a series of new curcuminoid analogs as promising cancer therapeutic
      agents.

PMID- 28881287
TI  - Recent advances in polysaccharides for osteoarthritis therapy.
AB  - The polysaccharides used in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) mainly include
      sodium hyaluronate, chondroitin sulfate, chitosan, xanthan gum, Low molecular
      weight heparin, alginate and other polysaccharides. This review summarizes the
      recent advances in the chemistry and biological activities of polysaccharides for
      the treatment of OA.

PMID- 28881288
TI  - Hydroxytriazole derivatives as potent and selective aldo-keto reductase 1C3
      (AKR1C3) inhibitors discovered by bioisosteric scaffold hopping approach.
AB  - The aldo-keto reductase 1C3 isoform (AKR1C3) plays a vital role in the
      biosynthesis of androgens, making this enzyme an attractive target for castration
      resistant prostate cancer therapy. Although AKR1C3 is a promising drug target, no
      AKR1C3-targeted agent has to date been approved for clinical use. Flufenamic
      acid, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is known to potently inhibit AKR1C3
      in a non-selective manner as COX off-target effects are also observed. To
      diminish off-target effects, we have applied a scaffold hopping strategy
      replacing the benzoic acid moiety of flufenamic acid with an acidic
      hydroxyazolecarbonylic scaffold. In particular, differently N-substituted
      hydroxylated triazoles were designed to simultaneously interact with both
      subpockets 1 and 2 in the active site of AKR1C3, larger for AKR1C3 than other
      AKR1Cs isoforms. Through computational design and iterative rounds of synthesis
      and biological evaluation, novel compounds are reported, sharing high selectivity
      (up to 230-fold) for AKR1C3 over 1C2 isoform and minimal COX1 and COX2 off-target
      inhibition. A docking study of compound 8, the most interesting compound of the
      series, suggested that its methoxybenzyl substitution has the ability to fit
      inside subpocket 2, being involved in pi-pi staking interaction with Trp227
      (partial overlapping) and in a T-shape pi-pi staking with Trp86. This compound
      was also shown to diminish testosterone production in the AKR1C3-expressing 22RV1
      prostate cancer cell line while synergistic effect was observed when 8 was
      administered in combination with abiraterone or enzalutamide.

PMID- 28881289
TI  - Efficacy of a series of alpha-pyrone derivatives against Leishmania (L.) infantum
      and Trypanosoma cruzi.
AB  - The neglected tropical diseases Chagas disease and leishmaniasis affect together
      more than 20 million people living mainly in developing countries. The mainstay
      of treatment is chemotherapy, however the drugs of choice, which include
      benznidazole and miltefosine, are toxic and have numerous side effects. Safe and
      effective therapies are urgently needed. Marine alpha-pyrones have been
      previously identified as scaffolds with potential antiprotozoan activities. In
      this work, using a phenotypic screen, twenty-seven examples of 3-substituted 4
      hydroxy-6-methyl alpha-pyrones were synthesized and their antiparasitic efficacy
      evaluated against Leishmania (L.) infantum and Trypanosoma cruzi in order to
      evaluate structure-activity relationships within the series. The mechanism of
      action and the in vivo efficacy of the most selective compound against T. cruzi
      were evaluated using different techniques. In vitro data indicated that compounds
      8, 15, 25, 26 and 28 presented IC50 values in the range between 13 and 54 MUM
      against L. infantum intracellular amastigotes. Among them, hexanoyl substituted
      pyrone 8 was the most selective and potent, with a Selectivity Index (SI) > 14.
      Fifteen of the alpha-pyrones were effective against T. cruzi trypomastigotes,
      with 3-undecanoyl (11) and 3-tetradecanoyl (12) substituted pyrones being the
      most potent against trypomastigotes, with IC50 values of 1 and 2 MUM,
      respectively, and SI higher than 70. Using flow cytometry and fluorescent-based
      assays, pyrone 12 was found to induce hyperpolarization of the mitochondrial
      membrane potential of T. cruzi, without affecting plasma membrane permeability.
      An experimental acute phase-murine model, demonstrated that in vivo dosing of 12
      (30 mg/kg/day; 5 days), had no efficacy at the first parasitemia onset of T.
      cruzi, but reduced the second onset by 55% (p < 0.05), suggesting a delayed
      action in BALB/c mice. Additionally, a histopathology study demonstrated no toxic
      effects to the treated mice. The finding that several 3-substituted alpha-pyrones
      have in vitro efficacy against both L. infantum and T. cruzi, and that one
      analogue exhibited moderate and non-toxic in vivo efficacy against T. cruzi is
      encouraging, and suggests that this compound class should be explored as long
      term treatments in experimental Chagas disease.

PMID- 28881290
TI  - Glycyrrhizic acid increases glucagon like peptide-1 secretion via TGR5 activation
      in type 1-like diabetic rats.
AB  - Glycyrrhizic acid (GA) is belonged to triterpenoid saponin that is contained in
      the root of licorice and is known to affect metabolic regulation. Recently,
      glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has widely been applied in diabetes therapeutics.
      However, the role of GLP-1 in GA-induced anti-diabetic effects is still unknown.
      Therefore, we are interested in understanding the association of GLP-1 with GA
      induced effects. In type 1-like diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin (STZ
      treated rats), GA increased the level of plasma GLP-1, which was blocked by
      triamterene at a dose sufficient to inhibit Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5
      (TGR5). The direct effect of GA on TGR5 has been identified using the cultured
      Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO-K1 cells) transfected TGR5 gene. Moreover, in
      intestinal NCI-H716 cells that secreted GLP-1, GA promoted GLP-1 secretion with a
      marked elevation of calcium levels. However, both effects of GA were reduced by
      ablation of TGR5 with siRNA in NCI-H716 cells. Therefore, we demonstrated that GA
      can enhance GLP-1 secretion through TGR5 activation.

PMID- 28881291
TI  - A practical guide for induction of type-2 diabetes in rat: Incorporating a high
      fat diet and streptozotocin.
AB  - Prevalence of diabetes, a serious public health problem is rapidly increasing
      worldwide. Type-2 diabetes is the common form of diabetes characterized by
      insulin resistance and abnormalities in insulin production. Despite the current
      development of therapeutic agents, there is no effective treatment without side
      effects; it is therefore necessary to find new prevention strategies and better
      treatments. For this purpose animal models of diabetes are appropriate tools, of
      which rodents due to the short generation time and economic considerations are
      the first choice. The aim of this review is to present features of a frequently
      used model of type-2 diabetes in rat, induced by a high fat diet and
      streptozotocin, taking into account its advantages/disadvantages and presenting a
      practical guide.

PMID- 28881292
TI  - Exceptionally high UBE2C expression is a unique phenomenon in basal-like type
      breast cancer and is regulated by BRCA1.
AB  - Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 2C (UBE2C) is overexpressed in various types of
      cancer, leading to poor outcomes and drug resistance. UBE2C may also have a
      critical role in phenotypes associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer;
      however, the relationship between UBE2C expression and clinical outcome in breast
      cancer subtypes has not previously been investigated. We firstly analyzed breast
      cancer patient data and immunohistochemistry of breast cancer patient samples. We
      demonstrated that UBE2C was associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer,
      particularly basal-like breast cancer, a subtype with aggressive clinical
      features. Interestingly, we found that there was a close relationship between the
      expression of BRCA1 and UBE2C in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell
      lines. Upregulation of BRCA1 could inhibit the expression of UBE2C. In cells with
      BRCA1 silenced down, expression of UBE2C was obviously increased, with a
      concurrent decrease in cellular sensitivity to doxorubicin. Suppression of UBE2C
      expression by RNA interference led to decrease the mRNA expressions of BCRP, MRP1
      and P-gp in doxorubicin-treated MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, treatment with
      1MUg/ml doxorubicin led to increased expression of UBE2C. The results show high
      expression of UBE2C is a potential prognostic factor of poor outcome in basal
      like breast cancer. Moreover, loss of BRCA1 function results in an increase in
      UBE2C expression and chemical resistance to doxorubicin in breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28881293
TI  - The anti-tumor effect of aspirin: What we know and what we expect.
AB  - Aspirin has been widely used as an antipyretic analgesic drug. More and more
      evidences have shown that aspirin may be play some role on anti-tumor. In this
      article, we reviewed the research history of aspirin in the treatment and
      prevention of cancer. Many epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that
      aspirin can reduce the risk of a variety of malignant tumors and reduce cancer
      mortality. In addition, we discuss the specific mechanisms of aspirin in the anti
      tumor effects. It has been found that aspirin mainly depends on the COX pathway
      and non-COX pathway to inhibit tumor cell growth and to curb tumor development.
      In this article, clinical studies and anti-tumor mechanism studies published in
      recent years are reviewed.

PMID- 28881294
TI  - Sleep disturbance may impact treatment outcome in bipolar disorder: A preliminary
      investigation in the context of a large comparative effectiveness trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bipolar patients experience sleep disturbances during and between
      mood episodes. Yet the impact of sleep on treatment with different medications
      has not been fully explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore the
      potential impact of poor sleep at baseline on outcomes in a randomized
      effectiveness trial of quetiapine and lithium. METHODS: The Bipolar CHOICE study
      was a 6-month, parallel group, multisite randomized controlled trial.
      Participants with bipolar disorder (N = 482; 59% female and age 18-70 years)
      received quetiapine or lithium. Patients were allowed to also receive adjunctive
      personalized treatments, which were guideline-informed, empirically-based
      medications added to treatment as needed. Medication changes were recorded as
      necessary clinical adjustments (NCA). Fisher's exact tests, mixed-regression
      models, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to assess demographic and clinical
      characteristics as well as whether sleep disturbance would predict outcomes.
      RESULTS: 63% of patients had baseline sleep disturbance. Individuals with sleep
      disturbance had worse bipolar illness severity, greater severity of depression,
      mania, anxiety, irritability, and psychosis, were less likely to have sustained
      response (17% vs. 29%; adjusted RR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.38-0.78, p = 0.0006) and had
      more NCAs (median 0.71 vs. 0.59, p = 0.03). LIMITATIONS: Our findings were
      limited by how we defined sleep disturbance, and by how severity of sleep
      disturbance was assessed with one item with a non-sleep specific measure.
      CONCLUSIONS: Baseline sleep disturbance was associated with more severe bipolar
      symptoms and worse 6-month outcomes. Further research is warranted on improving
      sleep in bipolar disorder, especially the role of psychosocial interventions.

PMID- 28881295
TI  - Simultaneous quantitation of hydrazine and acetylhydrazine in human plasma by
      high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry after
      derivatization with p-tolualdehyde.
AB  - A high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS)
      method was developed for simultaneous quantitative analysis of hydrazine and
      acetylhydrazine in human plasma based on the strategy of p-tolualdehyde
      derivatization. The derivatization reactions were easily realized by ultrasonic
      manipulation for 40min. Good separation of the derivatization products was
      achieved using a C18 column by gradient elution. The optimized mass transition
      ion-pairs (m/z) monitored for the two hydrazine derivatives were m/z 237.1?>119.9
      and m/z 176.9?>117.8, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of
      quantification (LOQ) for hydrazine were 0.002 and 0.005ngmL-1 separately. And
      they were 0.03 and 0.05ngmL-1 for acetylhydrazine, respectively. The linear range
      was 0.005-50ngmL-1 for hydrazine and 0.05-500ngmL-1 for acetylhydrazine with R2
      greater than 0.999. The recovery range was determined to be 95.38-108.12% with
      the relative standard deviation (RSD) in the range of 1.24-14.89%. The method was
      successfully applied to detect 30 clinical plasma samples of pulmonary
      tuberculosis patients treated with isoniazid. The concentrations were from 0.04
      1.99ngmL-1 for hydrazine and 0.06-142.43ngmL-1 for acetylhydrazine. The results
      indicated that our developed method had the potential for the detection of
      hydrazine toxicology in complex biological samples. Furthermore, the method has
      an important significance to clinical treatment with drugs.

PMID- 28881296
TI  - Folic Acid navigated Silver Selenide nanoparticles for photo-thermal ablation of
      cancer cells.
AB  - Photothermal ablation of the cancer cells is a non-invasive technique for cancer
      treatment, involving cellular assassination in presence of photothermal agent. We
      are reporting silver selenide (Ag2Se) nanoparticles for photothermal therapy
      using folic acid for selective targeting. The material, when exposed to 808nm
      laser, the temperature got boosted to 54 degrees C in 6.5min, thus proving its
      potential for photothermal ablation. The material was highly biocompatible (95%)
      at highest concentration (10MUg/mL) against A 549 cells. However, in presence of
      laser, the cellular killing was 55%. The mode of death was analyzed using MALDI
      TOF MS.

PMID- 28881297
TI  - In vitro evaluation of sunitinib loaded bioresorbable microspheres for potential
      application in arterial chemoembolization.
AB  - Drug-loadable bioresorbable microspheres (BRMS) are designed for treating
      hypervascular tumors through chemoembolization, thereby reducing systemic side
      effects via controllable local delivery. The present study investigated the
      degradation and loading capability of bioresorbable microspheres with an anti
      angiogenic agent, sunitinib, and then evaluated the release profiles in different
      media (PBS, 10MUg/mL and 4mg/mL lysozyme solutions), and tested catheter
      deliverability as well as potential antiangiogenic effects of the loaded
      microspheres. The dry weight of the BRMS showed a consistent decrease over the
      period of incubation in a 10MUg/mL lysozyme solution with 61.3% mass remaining on
      day 21. Sunitinib was loaded efficiently onto the microspheres, with smaller
      sizes exhibiting a slightly faster loading and release rate. At 2h, the loading
      percentages were 99.28%, 97.95%, and 94.39% for 100-300, 300-500, and 500-700MUm
      microspheres, respectively. At 8h, the percentage of drug released were 78.4+/
      5.8%, 71.7+/-0.3%, and 67.0+/-2.9% for 100-300, 300-500, and 500-700MUm
      microspheres under static medium conditions, respectively. Under replacing-medium
      conditions, the presence of 10MUg/mL lysozyme slightly delayed the drug release
      while 4mg/mL lysozyme significantly facilitated the drug release from the
      microspheres as compared with PBS solution. Confocal imaging revealed an even
      distribution of sunitinib throughout the microspheres. Drug loaded microspheres
      were delivered through microcatheters smoothly without any clogging. Sunitinib
      retained its efficacy at reducing the viability of human endothelial cells after
      elution from the microspheres. Thus, these bioresorbable microspheres are
      promising for arterial chemoembolization.

PMID- 28881298
TI  - Evaluation of hemocompatibility and hemostasis of a bioflocculant.
AB  - Bioflocculants are widely used in a large variety of applications, because of
      their wide range of flocculation. There is limited information in the literature
      about the ability of bioflocculants to perform beneficial functions without
      having adverse effects on blood components. In this study, general
      hemocompatibility of a bioflocculant (MBF-06) was investigated in an in vitro
      system, measuring flocculation of plasma proteins, red blood cell integrity,
      blood cell counts, platelet activation, clot formation, complement activation,
      cytotoxicity and inflammatory response. Effects of MBF-06 included low plasma
      protein flocculation, low platelet activation, low inflammatory response, no
      hemolysis or cytotoxicity and increased expression of coagulation markers,
      including prothrombin fragments 1+2. These findings suggested that the rapid
      hemostasis caused by MBF-06 resulted, essentially, from humoral coagulation.
      Overall, our observations revealed the great potential of MBF-06 as a novel
      hemostatic agent.

PMID- 28881299
TI  - Photo-responsive tetraether lipids based vesicles for prophyrin mediated vascular
      targeting and direct phototherapy.
AB  - Tetraether lipids (TELs) derived from the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus
      acidocaldarius are dominated by polyisoprenoid skeleton. The unique molecular
      stability of TELs is attributed to the presence of cyclopentane rings, methyl
      side groups and sugar residues that create extensive hydrogen bond network. In
      addition, the presence of ether linkages and the lacking of double bonds make
      them an epitome candidate for photodynamic therapy (PDT). A subtle blend of
      formulation design to trigger efficient photo responses of protoporphyrin IX
      (PpIX) exploiting TELs was developed. The platform has demonstrated in principle
      a practical potential in PDT in terms of prompt Vascular Targeting Photodynamic
      therapy (VTP) in-ovo chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model. Short PpIX-light
      interval was associated with thrombosis and massive vascular occlusion in and out
      the irradiated area after TEL9mol% liposomes have been intravenously injected.
      Profoundly, TEL62mol% liposomes have proved to be the most effective liposomes
      that demonstrated localized suppression of angiogenesis in the irradiated area
      without quiescent vasculature damage. The massive thrombotic effect was no longer
      observed and eventually the chick has survived. After long PpIX-light interval,
      TEL62mol% has deliberately gained metronomic PDT at low rate of PpIX dosimetry
      and the radiant exposure doses in human ovarian carcinoma (SKOV-3) cells as
      determined by PpIXIC50. These findings could be explained by the fact that TELs
      impart a remarkable stability to the liposomal bilayer that makes them a
      potential platform for photodynamic applications.

PMID- 28881300
TI  - Kinetics and thermodynamics of bovine serum albumin interactions with Congo red
      dye.
AB  - To optimize the therapeutic applications of Congo red (CR), a potential inhibitor
      of protein aggregation, the kinetics and thermodynamics of the interactions
      between CR and a model protein need to be understood. We used surface plasmon
      resonance (SPR) and fluorescence techniques to determine the dynamics and
      thermodynamic parameters for the formation of complexes between CR and bovine
      serum albumin (BSA). CR interacts with BSA through a transition complex; the
      activation energy for association (Eact(a)) was determined to be 35.88kJmol-1,
      while the activation enthalpy (DeltaH?), entropy (DeltaS?), and Gibbs free energy
      (DeltaG?) are 33.41kJmol-1, 0.18Jmol-1K-1, and 33.35kJmol-1, respectively. When
      this intermediate transforms into the final CR-BSA complex, the entropy of the
      system increases and part of the absorbed energy is released; this process is
      associated with a reverse activation energy (Eact(d)) of 20.17kJmol-1, and values
      of DeltaH?, DeltaS?, and DeltaG? of 17.69kJmol-1, -162.86Jmol-1K-1, and
      66.25kJmol-1, respectively. A comparison of the SPR and fluorescence results
      suggests that there is more than one site where BSA interacts with CR.

PMID- 28881301
TI  - Surface immobilization of gelatin onto TiO2 nanotubes to modulate osteoblast
      behavior.
AB  - To improve the bioactivity of titanium implants, a homogeneous layer of TiO2
      nanotubes with a diameter of approximately 110nm was prepared by anodization.
      Gelatin was immobilized onto TiO2 nanotubes through an intermediate layer of
      polydopamine. The surface characteristics of different substrates were evaluated
      using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
      atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle measurements, respectively. These
      results demonstrate that gelatin was successfully immobilized onto TiO2
      nanotubes. In vitro cell culture experiments including immunofluorescence
      staining, cell viability, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), mineralization and the
      expression of osteogenic genes including runt-related transcription factor 2
      (Runx2), ALP, collagen type I (Col I), and osteopontin (OPN) confirm that cell
      spreading, proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation were improved when
      cells were seeded onto gelatin-immobilized TiO2 nanotubes. This resulting
      material shows great promise as a future material in titanium implant
      applications.

PMID- 28881302
TI  - Nanoparticulation of bovine serum albumin and poly-d-lysine through complex
      coacervation and encapsulation of curcumin.
AB  - Soluble coacervate nanoparticles were fabricated by mixing bovine serum albumin
      (BSA) and poly-d-lysine with low (LMW-PDL) and high molecular weights (HMW-PDL).
      The particle size was influenced by molecular weight, mass ratio of
      polyelectrolytes (PEs), and salt concentration. The smallest nanoparticles had a
      diameter of 212+/-11nm which was achieved with LMW-PDL dissolved with 0.1M NaCl
      at pH 7 and a mass ratio of 2.0 (BSA: PDL). SEM images showed that coacervate
      nanoparticles of LMW-PDL are relatively spherical in shape, while nanoparticles
      of HMW-PDL were irregular. Crosslinking of the protein/polypeptide with
      glutaraldehyde had variable impact on the stability and particle size over 21days
      at 4 and 25 degrees C. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) for curcumin to BSA
      molar ratio of 0.5 was 47%. The EE increased to 60% when the curcumin to BSA
      molar ratio was 10 with a loading capacity of 22MUg of curcumin per mg of
      coacervate nanoparticles. The average particle size of the loaded colloidal
      dispersions increased as the curcumin concentration was increased. For the
      colloidal dispersions with 0.5 molar ratio of curcumin to BSA, the particle size
      was around 204+/-14nm at day 1, while the nanoparticles with molar ratio of 10
      showed a particle size around 316+/-43nm. The curcumin loaded BSA:LMW-PDL
      nanoparticles were pretty stable over a period of 21days.

PMID- 28881303
TI  - Randomized controlled trial of a parenting program to reduce the risk of child
      maltreatment in South Africa.
AB  - Parenting programs in high-income countries have been shown to reduce the risk of
      child maltreatment. However, there is limited evidence of their effectiveness in
      low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to examine the
      initial effects of a parenting program in reducing the risk of child maltreatment
      in highly-deprived and vulnerable communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Low
      income parents (N=68) with children aged three to eight years were randomly
      assigned to either a group-based parenting program or a wait-list control group.
      Observational and parent-report assessments were taken at baseline and at
      immediate post-test after the intervention was delivered. Primary outcomes were
      parent-report and observational assessments of harsh parenting, positive
      parenting, and child behavior problems. Secondary outcomes were parent-report
      assessments of parental depression, parenting stress, and social support. Results
      indicated moderate treatment effects for increased frequency of parent-report of
      positive parenting (d=0.63) and observational assessments of parent-child play
      (d=0.57). Observational assessments also found moderate negative treatment
      effects for less frequent positive child behavior (d=-0.56). This study is the
      first randomized controlled trial design to rigorously test the effectiveness of
      a parenting program on reducing the risk of child maltreatment in sub-Saharan
      Africa using both observational and self-report assessments. Results provide
      preliminary evidence of effectiveness of reducing the risk of child maltreatment
      by improving positive parenting behavior. Further development is required to
      strengthen program components regarding child behavior management and nonviolent
      discipline strategies. Future research would benefit from a larger trial with
      sufficient power to determine program effectiveness.

PMID- 28881304
TI  - Biomarkers as indicators of fungal biomass in the atmosphere of Sao Paulo,
      Brazil.
AB  - The biogenic aerosol contribution to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) mass
      concentration is usually neglected due to the difficulty in identifying its
      components, although it can be significant. In the Metropolitan Area of Sao Paulo
      (MASP)-Brazil, several studies have been performed to identify sources for PM,
      revealing vehicular emissions and soil re-suspension as the main identified
      sources. The organic fraction has been related primarily to biomass burning (BB)
      and fuel combustion, although there is significant presence of green areas in the
      city which render biogenic emissions as an additional source of organic carbon
      (OC). The objectives of this work are to (i) characterise the composition of the
      PM10 (ii) estimate the relative mass contribution of fungal spores to PM
      concentrations with sizes smaller than 10MUm (PM10) in MASP and (iii) assess the
      main sources of PM10. To achieve these objectives, we measured markers of
      biogenic sources and BB, during the fall-winter transition, which along with
      other constituents, such as ions, organic/elemental carbon, elemental composition
      and fungal spore concentrations, help assess the PM10 sources. We used receptor
      models to identify distinct source-related PM10 fractions and conversion factors
      to convert biomarker concentrations to fungal mass. Our results show the mean
      contributions of fungal aerosol to PM10 and OC mass were 2% and 8%, respectively,
      indicating the importance of fungal spores to the aerosol burden in the urban
      atmosphere. Using specific rotation factor analysis, we identified the following
      factors contributing to PM: soil re-suspension, biogenic aerosol, secondary
      inorganic aerosol, vehicular emissions and BB/isoprene-related secondary organic
      aerosol (I-SOA). BB/I-SOA was the main source representing 28% of the PM10 mass,
      while biogenic aerosol explained a significant (11%) fraction of the PM10 mass as
      well. Our findings suggest that primary biogenic aerosol is an important fraction
      of PM10 mass, yet not considered in most studies.

PMID- 28881305
TI  - The association between cooking oil fume exposure during pregnancy and birth
      weight: A prospective mother-child cohort study.
AB  - Effects of indoor air pollution on neonatal birth weight has been studied for
      many years. In China, cooking oil fumes are important parts of indoor air
      pollution. However, whether cooking oil fume exposure during pregnancy affects
      birth weight in China remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was
      to examine the association between pregnancy exposure to cooking oil fumes and
      birth weight in a newly established prospective mother-child cohort in China. We
      finally included 1420 pregnant women from 2013 to 2015 and follow up for one year
      until the offspring was born. According to self-reported exposure status, we
      categorized mothers into non-exposure group and exposed group or three exposure
      time subgroups, including 0h/day, 0-1h/day and >1h/day respectively. By using
      multinomial logistics regression models, we found that pregnancy exposure to
      cooking oil fumes significantly increased the risk of large for gestational age
      (LGA, OR=1.58, 95% CI=1.15-2.18, P=4.88*10-3). Additionally, compared to pregnant
      women who were in non-exposure group, 0-1h/day exposure elevated the risk of LGA
      (OR=1.69, 95% CI=1.22-2.33, P=1.63*10-3), while >1h/day exposure elevated the
      risk of small for gestational age, but were not significant (SGA, OR=2.15, 95%
      CI=0.61-7.66, P=0.24). In the stratification analysis, women aged 25-29years and
      >=30years were predisposed to the influence of cooking oil fumes and have LGA
      newborns (OR=1.73, 95% CI=1.09-2.75, P=0.02; OR=1.72, 95% CI=1.07-2.77, P=0.02,
      respectively). In conclusion, the present study suggests inverse U-shape dose
      response association between maternal exposure to cooking oil fumes during
      pregnancy and birth weight, and further studies are needed to verify the effect
      of cooking oil fumes on the birth weight.

PMID- 28881306
TI  - Assessment of baseline ecotoxicity of sediments from a prospective mining area
      enriched in light rare earth elements.
AB  - Rare earth elements (REEs) disperse from indigenous rocks to the environment,
      thus making sediments one of the major sinks and sources of metal pollution. The
      emerging use of REEs and the subsequent opening of new mining areas may
      contribute to their release into surrounding ecosystems. For this reason, this
      study was performed in a natural area with geological material abundant in
      ferrocarbonatites and light REE. The aim of this work was to assess the natural
      REE availability and (eco)toxicity in freshwater sediments. Sediments showed high
      REE concentrations in samples with fine grain size fractions, and low in organic
      rich sediments. The enrichment in LREE was mostly from rocks and the obtained
      enrichment factors (EF) confirmed that the sediments are not anthropogenically
      polluted. To assess REE availability and ecotoxicity, four toxicity tests were
      performed. REEs measured as the dissolved concentration in the test media were
      very low compared to the potentially available total REE in sediments and showed
      positive or negative correlations with fine or coarse grain sizes, respectively,
      and positive correlations with the content in Mg, Fe and Al. In tests performed
      in media supplemented with salts, the availability of REEs decreased
      considerably. Only some toxic effects could be linked to the REE contents in the
      ostracodtox and luminotox tests. However, measurement of toxicity could be
      influenced by the sediment properties and lead to a potential overestimation of
      ecotoxicity if only REE are regarded. Our study reveals that the physicochemical
      properties of sediments are a key factor controlling both REE availability and
      toxicity, whereas the determination of REE effects from toxicity tests using
      liquid media with salt addition will decrease REE availability and could mask
      toxic effects. Our findings provide new knowledge about REE behaviour in
      sediments and are a starting point for understanding potential REE pollution
      around prospective mining areas.

PMID- 28881307
TI  - Using spatial-stream-network models and long-term data to understand and predict
      dynamics of faecal contamination in a mixed land-use catchment.
AB  - An 11year dataset of concentrations of E. coli at 10 spatially-distributed sites
      in a mixed land-use catchment in NE Scotland (52km2) revealed that concentrations
      were not clearly associated with flow or season. The lack of a clear flow
      concentration relationship may have been due to greater water fluxes from less
      contaminated headwaters during high flows diluting downstream concentrations, the
      importance of persistent point sources of E. coli both anthropogenic and
      agricultural, and possibly the temporal resolution of the dataset. Point sources
      and year-round grazing of livestock probably obscured clear seasonality in
      concentrations. Multiple linear regression models identified potential for
      contamination by anthropogenic point sources as a significant predictor of long
      term spatial patterns of low, average and high concentrations of E. coli. Neither
      arable nor pasture land was significant, even when accounting for hydrological
      connectivity with a topographic-index method. However, this may have reflected
      coarse-scale land-cover data inadequately representing "point sources" of
      agricultural contamination (e.g. direct defecation of livestock into the stream)
      and temporal changes in availability of E. coli from diffuse sources. Spatial
      stream-network models (SSNMs) were applied in a novel context, and had value in
      making more robust catchment-scale predictions of concentrations of E. coli with
      estimates of uncertainty, and in enabling identification of potential "hot spots"
      of faecal contamination. Successfully managing faecal contamination of surface
      waters is vital for safeguarding public health. Our finding that concentrations
      of E. coli could not clearly be associated with flow or season may suggest that
      management strategies should not necessarily target only high flow events or
      summer when faecal contamination risk is often assumed to be greatest.
      Furthermore, we identified SSNMs as valuable tools for identifying possible "hot
      spots" of contamination which could be targeted for management, and for
      highlighting areas where additional monitoring could help better constrain
      predictions relating to faecal contamination.

PMID- 28881309
TI  - In situ benthic flow-through chambers to determine sediment-to-water fluxes of
      legacy hydrophobic organic contaminants.
AB  - Contaminated sediment can release hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) and
      thereby act as a secondary source of primarily legacy hazardous substances to the
      water column. There is therefore a need for assessments of the release of HOCs
      from contaminated sediment for prioritization of management actions. In situ
      assessment of HOC sediment-to-water flux is currently done with (closed) benthic
      flux chambers, which have a sampling time exceeding one month. During this time,
      the water inside the chamber is depleted of oxygen and the effect of bioturbation
      on the sediment-to-water release of HOCs is largely ignored. Here we present a
      novel benthic flux chamber, which measures sediment-to-water flux of legacy HOCs
      within days, and includes the effect of bioturbation since ambient oxygen levels
      inside the chamber are maintained by continuous pumping of water through the
      chamber. This chamber design allows for sediment-to-water flux measurements under
      more natural conditions. The chamber design was tested in a contaminated Baltic
      Sea bay. Measured fluxes were 62-2300 ng m-2 d-1 for individual polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 5.5-150 ng m-2 d-1 for polychlorinated
      biphenyls (PCBs). These fluxes were 3-23 times (PAHs) and 12-74 times (PCBs)
      higher than fluxes measured with closed benthic chambers deployed in parallel at
      the same location. We hypothesize that the observed difference in HOC flux
      between the two chamber designs are partly an effect of bioturbation. This
      hypothesized effect of bioturbation was in accordance with literature data from
      experimental studies.

PMID- 28881308
TI  - Overexpression of Exportin-5 Overrides the Inhibitory Effect of miRNAs Regulation
      Control and Stabilize Proteins via Posttranslation Modifications in Prostate
      Cancer.
AB  - Although XPO5 has been characterized to have tumor-suppressor features in the
      miRNA biogenesis pathway, the impact of altered expression of XPO5 in cancers is
      unexplored. Here we report a novel "oncogenic" role of XPO5 in advanced prostate
      cancer. Using prostate cancer models, we found that excess levels of XPO5
      override the inhibitory effect of the canoncial miRNA-mRNA regulation, resulting
      in a global increase in proteins expression. Importantly, we found that decreased
      expression of XPO5 could promote an increase in proteasome degradation, whereas
      overexpression of XPO5 leads to altered protein posttranslational modification
      via hyperglycosylation, resulting in cellular protein stability. We evaluated the
      therapeutic advantage of targeting XPO5 in prostate cancer and found that
      knocking down XPO5 in prostate cancer cells suppressed cellular proliferation and
      tumor development without significantly impacting normal fibroblast cells
      survival. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the oncogenic
      role of XPO5 in overriding the miRNAs regulation control. Furthermore, we believe
      that these findings will provide an explanation as to why, in some cancers that
      express higher abundance of mature miRNAs, fail to suppress their potential
      protein targets.

PMID- 28881310
TI  - Multi-walled carbon nanotubes facilitated the removal of tetrabromobisphenol a
      mediated by horseradish peroxidase.
AB  - In this study, we systematically investigated the effect of multiwall carbon
      nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the removal of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) mediated by
      horseradish peroxidase (HRP) at varying important conditions. The results
      suggested that the presence of MWCNTs significantly enhanced the removal of TBBPA
      mediated by HRP and the reaction rate constant was linear with the MWCNTs dosage.
      The enhancement of MWCNTs on the HRP-mediated reaction was attributed to two
      facts, one is that MWCNTs protected HRP from inactivation, the other is that the
      presence of MWCNTs made the homogeneous reaction of TBBPA be heterogeneous
      reaction by adsorbing TBBPA on its surface. Moreover, the influence of MWCNTs on
      TBBPA products distribution was further elucidated. We found that the species of
      reaction product had no difference between the HRP-mediated systems with and
      without the presence of MWCNTs. However, the presence of MWCNTs significantly
      decreased the yields of each product. These results give insight into the role of
      MWCNTs in HRP-mediated TBBPA reactions and provide theoretical foundation for
      potential development of novel enzymatic methods to control TBBPA contamination.
      MWCNTs enhanced the removal of TBBPA mediated by HRP/H2O2, because it protected
      HRP from inactivation and adsorbed TBBPA on its surface to form a heterogeneous
      reaction process.

PMID- 28881311
TI  - Simultaneous determination of tenofovir alafenamide and its active metabolites
      tenofovir and tenofovir diphosphate in HBV-infected hepatocyte with a sensitive
      LC-MS/MS method.
AB  - Tenofovir (TFV), a first-line anti-viral agent, has been prepared as various
      forms of prodrugs for better bioavailability, lower systemic exposure and higher
      target cells loading of TFV to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity. TFV
      undergoes intracellular phosphorylation to form TFV diphosphate (TFV-DP) in
      target cell to inhibit viral DNA replication. Hence, TFV-DP is the key active
      metabolite that exhibits anti-virus activity, its intracellular exposure and half
      life determine the final activity. Therefore, simultaneous monitoring prodrug,
      TFV and TFV-DP in target cells will comprehensively evaluate TFV prodrugs, both
      considering the stability of ester prodrug, and the intracellular exposure of TFV
      DP. Thus we intended to develop a convenient general analytical method, taking
      tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) as a representative of TFV prodrugs. A sensitive LC
      MS/MS method was developed, and TAF, TFV and TFV-DP were separated on a XSelect
      HSS T3 column (4.6mm*150mm, 3.5MUm, Waters) with gradient elution after protein
      precipitation. The method provided good linearity for all the compounds (2-500nM
      for TFV and TAF; 20-5000nM for TFV-DP) with the correlation coefficients (r)
      greater than 0.999. Intra- and inter-day accuracies (in terms of relative error,
      RE<10.4%) and precisions (in terms of coefficient of variation, CV<14.1%)
      satisfied the standard of validation. The matrix effect, recovery and stability
      were also within acceptable criteria. Finally, we investigated the intracellular
      pharmacokinetics of TAF and its active metabolites in HepG2.2.15 cells with this
      method.

PMID- 28881312
TI  - LC-MS/MS assay for the quantitation of the ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor
      triapine in human plasma.
AB  - The ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor and radiosensitizer triapine (3
      aminopyridine-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazone (3-AP), NSC 663249) is
      clinically being evaluated via the intravenous (IV) route for the treatment of
      cervical and vulvar cancer in combination with primary cisplatin chemoradiation.
      The need for a 2-h infusion and frequent administration of triapine is
      logistically challenging, prompting us to pursue oral (PO) administration. In
      support of the clinical trial investigating oral triapine in combination with
      chemoradiation, we developed and validated a novel LC-MS/MS assay for the
      quantification of triapine in 50MUL human plasma. After protein precipitation,
      chromatographic separation of the supernatant was achieved with a Shodex ODP2
      column and an isocratic acetonitrile-water mobile phase with 10% ammonium
      acetate. Detection with an ABI 4000 mass spectrometer utilized electrospray
      positive mode ionization. The assay was linear from 3 to 3,000ng/mL and proved to
      be accurate (97.1-103.1%) and precise (<7.4% CV), and met the U.S. FDA guidance
      for bioanalytical method validation. This LC-MS/MS assay will be an essential
      tool to further define the pharmacokinetics and oral bioavailability of triapine.

PMID- 28881313
TI  - LC-MS/MS method for preclinical pharmacokinetic study of QX-OH, a novel long
      acting local anesthetic, in sciatic nerve blockade in rats.
AB  - QX-OH, a new synthetic local anesthetic, produced concentration-dependent,
      reversible, and long-acting local anesthesia in animal models, with moderate
      local toxicity. As part of preclinical research for drug development, we
      developed and validated a method for the determination of QX-OH in the plasma,
      muscle, and sciatic nerve using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. After a
      simple protein precipitation procedure, analysis was performed on an Extend C18
      column (100mm*3mm, 3.5MUm) by isocratic elution with 0.05% formic
      acid/acetonitrile (78:22, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.3mL/min. A multiple-reaction
      monitoring mode at the transitions of m/z 279.1->102.1 for QX-OH and m/z 275.2
      >126.1 for an internal standard (ropivacaine hydrochloride) was used for the
      quantification, with a positive electrospray ionization interface. The approach
      was validated as per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines and
      successfully used in a pharmacokinetic study of QX-OH after a sciatic nerve block
      with 0.2mL of 35mM QX-OH. The results demonstrated that the new local anesthetic,
      QX-OH, had a high concentration in tissue, low systemic exposure, and long
      duration in the sciatic nerve.

PMID- 28881314
TI  - Analytical characterization of human milk oligosaccharides - potential
      applications in pharmaceutical analysis.
AB  - Human breast milk is the gold standard for infant feeding and the best possible
      nourishment a new-born could have. Breastfeeding is the natural way to provide
      optimal nutritional, immunological and emotional nurturing for the healthy growth
      and development of infants. Human milk is a complex and dynamic biofluid
      comprised of many hundreds to thousands of distinct bioactive structures, among
      which one of the most abundant substances are the non-conjugated complex
      carbohydrates referred to as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). Due to their
      structural diversity and abundance, HMOs possess many beneficial biological
      functions. In order to understand human milk composition and HMO functions, state
      of-the-art glycomic methods are inevitable. The industrial, large scale
      chemoenzymatic production of the most abundant HMOs became a reality in the last
      years and it evokes the need for straightforward and genuine analytical
      procedures to monitor the synthetic process and the quality of the products. It
      is obvious, that HMOs represent the next breakthrough in infant nutrition, as the
      addition of HMOs (such as 2'-fucosyllactose or lacto-N-neotetraose) to infant-
      and follow-on formulas, processed cereal-based food and baby foods for infants
      and young children etc. will revolutionize this field. This review highlights the
      potential applications of HMOs in the (bio)pharmaceutical industry, also
      summarizes the analytical methods available for the characterization of HMOs. An
      overview of the structure and function of HMOs along with their determination
      methods in complex matrices are provided. Various separation methods including
      liquid- and gas chromatography and capillary electrophoresis for the
      characterization and novel approaches for the quantitation of HMOs are discussed.

PMID- 28881315
TI  - Double-Track Electrochemical Green Approach for Simultaneous Dissolution
      Profiling of Naproxen Sodium and Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride.
AB  - Acquisition of the dissolution profiles of more than single active ingredient in
      a multi-analyte pharmaceutical formulation is a mandatory manufacturing practice
      that is dominated by utilization of the off-line separation-based chromatographic
      methods. This contribution adopts a new "Double-Track" approach with the ultimate
      goal of advancing the in-line potentiometric sensors to their most effective
      applicability for simultaneous acquisition of the dissolution profiles of two
      active ingredients in a binary pharmaceutical formulation. The unique abilities
      of these sensors for real-time measurements is the key driver for adoption of
      "green analytical chemistry" (GAC) principles aiming to expand the application of
      eco-friendly analytical methods With the aim of performing a side-by-side
      comparison, this work investigates the degree of adherence of ISEs to the 12
      principles of GAC in multicomponent dissolution profiling with respect to the
      HPLC. For the proof of concept, a binary mixture of naproxen sodium (NAPR) and
      diphenhydramine hydrochloride (DIPH) marketed as Aleve pm(r) tablets was selected
      as a model for which dissolution profiles were attained by two techniques. The
      first "Double-Track" in-line strategy depends on dipping two highly integrated
      membrane sensors for continuous monitoring of the dissolution of each active
      pharmaceutical ingredient (API) by tracing the e.m.f change over the time scale.
      For the determination of NAPR, sensor I was developed using tridodecyl methyl
      ammonium chloride as an anion exchanger, while sensor II was developed for the
      determination of DIPH using potassium tetrakis (4-chlorophenyl) borate as a
      cation exchanger. The second off-line strategy utilizes a separation-based HPLC
      method via off-line tracking the increase of peak area by UV detection at 220nm
      over time using a mobile phase of acetonitrile: water (90:10) pH 3. The
      advantages of the newly introduced "Double-Track" approach regarding GAC
      principles are highlighted, and the merits of these benign real-time analyzers
      (ISEs) that can deliver equivalent analytical results as HPLC while significantly
      reducing solvent consumption/waste generation are described.

PMID- 28881316
TI  - Development and validation of a sensitive LC-MS/MS method without
      derivatization/ion-pairing agents for etimicin quantification in rat plasma,
      internal ear and kidney.
AB  - Etimicin (ETM), which belongs to the newest generation of aminoglycosides (AGs),
      has been proven to not only maintain but also strengthen the advantages of former
      AGs with relatively less toxicity. Now, it is widely applied for the treatment of
      bacterial infections in the clinic. Nevertheless, nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity
      are unavoidable issues for AGs, and while ETM is no exception, the seriousness of
      these issues is different. To explore the reason why ETM exhibits less toxicity
      and to better direct the optimization and development of new AGs, it is of great
      necessity and importance to monitor the pharmacokinetic behaviors of ETM in its
      potential toxicity target organs, the kidney and internal ear, as well as in
      plasma. Therefore, a novel, sensitive and efficient LC-MS/MS method without
      derivatization or ion-pairing agents had been developed and validated for
      quantification of ETM in rat plasma, kidney and internal ear for the first time.
      This method showed good linearity over the range of 50-2000ng/mL for rat
      plasma/internal ear and 100-5000ng/mL for rat kidney. The precision was less than
      4.4% and the accuracy was below 4.8%. Recovery and matrix effects were 71.3%
      82.8% and 97.6%-108.5%, respectively. After intravenous administration of a
      single dose of ETM, plasma drug concentrations fit well with a two-compartmental
      model, and the AUC0-infinity, t1/2alpha, t1/2beta, MRT and CL were 127.96+/
      5.52MUg*h/mL, 0.53+/-0.03h, 3.32+/-1.11h, 1.01+/-0.03h and 234.80+/-10.05mL/h/kg,
      respectively. Particularly, ETM showed a considerably long half-life in kidney
      and internal ear, up to 155.96+/-19.95h and 83.11+/-26.60h, respectively, which
      might contribute greatly to its toxicity.

PMID- 28881317
TI  - Modulation of antioxidative defense expression and osmolyte content by co
      application of 24-epibrassinolide and salicylic acid in Pb exposed Indian mustard
      plants.
AB  - The study focuses on potential of combined pre-soaking treatment of 24
      Epibrassinolide (EBL) and Salicylic acid (SA) in alleviating Pb phytotoxicity in
      Brassica juncea L. plants. The seeds after treatment with combination of both the
      hormones were sown in mixture of soil, sand and manure (3:1:1) and were exposed
      to Pb concentrations (0.25mM, 0.50mM and 0.75mM). After 30 days of growth, the
      plants were harvested and processed, for quantification of various metabolites.
      It was found that pre-sowing of seeds in combination of EBL and SA, mitigated the
      adverse effects of metal stress by modulating antioxidative defense response and
      enhanced osmolyte contents. Dry matter content and heavy metal tolerance index
      were enhanced in response to co-application of EBL and SA. The levels of
      superoxide anions, hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde were lowered by the
      combined treatment of hormones. Enhancement in activities of guaiacol peroxidase,
      catalase, glutathione reductase and glutathione-s-transferase were recorded.
      Contents of glutathione, tocopherol and ascorbic acid were also enhanced in
      response to co-application of both hormones. Expression of POD, CAT, GR and GST1
      genes were up-regulated whereas SOD gene was observed to be down-regulated.
      Contents of proline, trehalose and glycine betaine were also reported to be
      elevated as a result of treatment with EBL+SA. The results suggest that co
      application of EBL+SA may play an imperative role in improving the antioxidative
      defense expression of B. juncea plants to combat the oxidative stress generated
      by Pb toxicity.

PMID- 28881318
TI  - Alcohol and substance use diagnoses among HIV-positive patients receiving care in
      NYC clinic settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Substance use among HIV-positive persons exacerbates health problems.
      This study sought to estimate the prevalence of alcohol and drug-use diagnoses
      and examined hypothesized predictors associated with alcohol and drug-use
      diagnoses among HIV-positive patients in New York City (NYC). METHODS: This
      cohort study reviewed electronic medical records (EMRs) of 4965 HIV-positive
      patients based on diagnostic codes. These patients attended a comprehensive care
      clinic in NYC in 2012. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the
      odds of classification into substance use diagnosis grouping. RESULTS: Of the
      full sample, only 12.7% of patients had an alcohol use diagnosis documented in
      their EMR compared with more than one-quarter (26.4%) of patients having a
      recorded drug use diagnosis (p<0.001). Compared with the No Alcohol or Drugs
      group, the regression model showed that older age and having a recent inpatient
      hospital stay independently predicted being in the Alcohol Only group; years
      living with HIV, having an unsuppressed viral load, and having a recent inpatient
      hospital stay were associated with higher odds of being in the Drugs Only and
      Alcohol and Drugs groups; and being women and men who have sex with men (MSM)
      were associated with decreased odds of being in the Drugs Only and Alcohol and
      Drugs groups. CONCLUSIONS: Substance use diagnosis was associated with viremia
      and low CD4 counts and hospital stays. This implies that providers should screen
      for substance use in HIV-positive patients with poor health. Further examination
      of the extent of such comorbidity is instrumental for intervention efforts.

PMID- 28881320
TI  - Frequency and predictors of psychological distress after a diagnosis of epilepsy:
      A community-based study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the frequency and
      predictors of psychological distress after a diagnosis of epilepsy. METHODS: The
      Sydney Epilepsy Incidence Study to Measure Illness Consequences (SEISMIC) was a
      prospective, multicenter, community-based study of people of all ages with newly
      diagnosed epilepsy in Sydney, Australia. Analyses involved multivariate logistic
      regression and multinomial logit regression to identify predictors of
      psychological distress, assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
      (HADS) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), as part of
      structured interviews. RESULTS: Psychological distress occurred in 33% (95%
      confidence interval [CI] 26 to 40%) and 24% (95% CI 18 to 31%) of 180 adults at
      baseline and 12months, respectively, and 23% (95% CI 14 to 33%) of 77 children at
      both time points. Thirty adults and 7 children had distress at baseline who
      recovered at 12months, while 15 adults and 7 children had new onset of distress
      during this period. History of psychiatric or behavioral disorder (for adults,
      odds ratio [OR] 6.82, 95% CI 3.08 to 15.10; for children, OR 28.85, 95% CI 2.88
      to 288.60) and higher psychosocial disability (adults, OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.07 to
      1.27) or lower family functioning (children, OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.08 to 3.02) were
      associated with psychological distress (C statistics 0.80 and 0.78). CONCLUSIONS:
      Psychological distress is common and fluctuates in frequency after a diagnosis of
      epilepsy. Those with premorbid psychological, psychosocial, and family problems
      are at high risk of this adverse outcome.

PMID- 28881319
TI  - Acute effects of intravenous cocaine administration on serum concentrations of
      ghrelin, amylin, glucagon-like peptide-1, insulin, leptin and peptide YY and
      relationships with cardiorespiratory and subjective responses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Food intake and use of drugs of abuse like cocaine share common
      central and peripheral physiological pathways. Appetitive hormones play a major
      role in regulating food intake; however, little is known about the effects of
      acute cocaine administration on the blood concentrations of these hormones in
      cocaine users. METHODS: We evaluated serum concentrations of six appetitive
      hormones: ghrelin (total and acyl-ghrelin), amylin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP
      1), insulin, leptin and peptide YY (PYY), as well as acute cardiorespiratory and
      subjective responses of 8 experienced cocaine users who received 25mg intravenous
      (IV) cocaine. RESULTS: Serum concentrations of GLP-1 (p=0.014) and PYY (p=0.036)
      were significantly decreased one hour following IV cocaine administration; there
      was a trend towards a decrease for insulin (p=0.055) and amylin (p=0.063)
      concentrations, while no significant IV cocaine effect was observed for ghrelin
      (total or acyl-ghrelin) or leptin concentrations (p's?>0.5). We also observed
      associations between hormone concentrations acutely affected by IV cocaine (GLP
      1, PYY, insulin, amylin) and some cocaine-related cardiorespiratory and
      subjective responses (e.g., increased heart and respiratory rates; feeling high
      and anxious). DISCUSSION: These findings show a significant effect of acute IV
      cocaine administration on some appetitive hormones and suggest potential
      associations between these hormones and cocaine-related cardiorespiratory and
      subjective responses. Additional research is needed to further investigate the
      potential mechanisms underlining these associations.

PMID- 28881321
TI  - Health-related quality of life and emotional wellbeing improve in parents after
      their children have undergone epilepsy surgery - A prospective population-based
      study.
AB  - The objective was to compare parental health-related quality of life (HRQoL),
      anxiety, and depression at baseline and 2years after epilepsy surgery in a
      population-based series of children and young people who underwent surgery
      between 1995 and 1999 and to compare with population norms. Fifty mothers and 44
      fathers of 50 children and young people (age: 1-20years) completed the Medical
      Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and Hospital Anxiety and
      Depression (HAD) scale at baseline and at follow-up. Changes in SF-36 and HAD
      scores between baseline and follow-up were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank
      test. Scores on the SF-36 were compared with a reference sample from the Swedish
      population using the Mann Whitney U test. Factors associated with changes in SF
      36 and HAD scores were analyzed using regression analysis. On the SF-36, the
      Physical Component Summary (PCS) scores were not significantly different between
      baseline and follow-up for mothers (p=0.177) or fathers (p=0.054). Mental
      Component Summary (MCS) scores improved significantly for mothers (p=0.008) and
      fathers (p<0.001). Mothers' baseline scores on seven of eight SF-36 domains were
      significantly lower than reference values. Scores at follow-up improved on these
      seven domains, but on three domains (primarily mental health domains), scores
      remained significantly lower than reference values. Fathers' baseline scores on
      four of eight SF-36 domains were significantly lower than reference values, and
      scores at follow-up remained significantly lower on the four primarily mental
      health domains. The proportions of mothers and fathers classified as HAD-A and
      HAD-D cases decreased at follow-up but did not reach statistical significance.
      Child epilepsy variables were in the main not associated with parental outcomes,
      but a greater reduction in AEDs was associated with a greater reduction in PCS
      scores. Parents of young people/children with seizure-free outcome were
      significantly more likely to have a reduction in depression scores than parents
      of young people/children with continued seizures. Many aspects of HRQoL and
      emotional wellbeing improved at 2-year follow-up for parents after epilepsy
      surgery on their children. There is a need to comprehensively identify factors
      associated with changes in parental HRQoL and emotional wellbeing to provide
      adequate support.

PMID- 28881322
TI  - The use of a game-based learning platform to engage nursing students: A
      descriptive, qualitative study.
AB  - Baccalaureate nursing programs require students to complete a research course,
      and faculty find it challenging to engage students. Educational gaming has
      recently gained attention as a technique to motivate students and enhance
      learning. The purpose of this pilot study was to describe undergraduate nursing
      students' reflections of their experiences with 3D Gamelab(c), a game-based
      learning platform. A descriptive qualitative research design was used to elicit
      students' reflections of their experiences. Educational content such as handouts,
      videos, activities, and recommended resources for a required junior level nursing
      research course was organized into quests for use in 3D GameLab(c). At the end of
      the semester, students were invited to give their feedback through a survey with
      open-ended questions. Thematic analysis resulted in the following components of
      the game-based learning experience: navigation, motivation, gaming concept,
      knowledge, technology, and target population. Although the overall response to 3D
      GameLab(c) in this course was negative, game-based learning does have the
      potential to engage students and enhance learning. To better understand how
      educational gaming could be used in nursing, further research should be conducted
      to determine the most motivating elements and the types of course content best
      delivered in this manner.

PMID- 28881323
TI  - A systematic review comparing open-book and closed-book examinations: Evaluating
      effects on development of critical thinking skills.
AB  - The advantages of using traditional closed-book examinations are closely compared
      to the advantages of using open-book examinations for the development of critical
      thinking skills in nursing students. The use of critical thinking skills is vital
      among nurses to assess patient needs and modify standard approaches to
      individualize care for better patient outcomes. The following areas are compared
      and contrasted for both closed-book and open-book examinations: examination
      preparation, rote memorization versus active learning, intellectual engagement,
      simulation of working environment, higher order thinking skills, anxiety
      reduction and student satisfaction. During investigation of closed-book
      examinations and open-book examinations, the use of collaborative testing was
      unveiled. Collaborative testing combines areas from both closed-book and open
      book examinations. Based on the systematic review of literature, the
      recommendation is to use a mixed method of examination types throughout the
      course of the nursing program. Each type of examination helps develop different
      skill sets in the nursing student.

PMID- 28881324
TI  - Assessment of undergraduate nursing students from an Irish perspective: Decisions
      and dilemmas?
AB  - Assessment of clinical competence plays a pivotal role in the education of
      undergraduate nursing students in preparation for registration. The challenges
      that face preceptors are represented in the international literature yet few
      studies have focused on the factors that influence the decision-making process by
      preceptors when students under-perform or appear to be borderline status in
      relation to clinical practice. This study explored the lived experiences of the
      preceptors during the assessment process using a phenomenological approach. This
      was a qualitative study that utilised a phenomenological approach to explore the
      lived experiences of the preceptors in relation to student assessment of those
      students who were incompetent and underperformed in clinical practice. Three
      categories emerged from the findings: First impressions, Emotional turmoil of
      failing a clinical assessment and competing demands in the workplace. It is
      proposed that employing a tripartite approach would enhance the assessment
      process to ensure a more robust and decision-sharing mechanism. This would
      support decisions that are made in the cases of incompetent or borderline nursing
      students and increase the objectivity of the competency assessment to ameliorate
      the emotional turmoil that is experienced by preceptors.

PMID- 28881325
TI  - Biodegradation of high doses of commercial pesticide products in pilot-scale
      biobeds using olive-oil agroindustry wastes.
AB  - Biobeds systems containing soil, peat and straw (SPS) are used worldwide to
      eliminate pesticide point-source contamination, but implantation is difficult
      when peat and/or straw are not available. Novel biobeds composed of soil, olive
      pruning and wet olive mill cake (SCPr) or its vermicompost (SVPr) were assayed at
      pilot scale for its use in olive grove areas. Their removal efficiency for five
      pesticides applied at high concentration was compared with the biobed with SPS.
      The effect of a grass layer on the efficiency of these biobeds was also
      evaluated. Pesticides were retained mainly in the upper layer. In non-planted
      biobeds with SCPr and SVPr, pesticides dissipation was higher than in SPS, except
      for diuron. In the biobed with SVPr, with the highest pesticide dissipation
      capacity, the removed amount of dimethoate, imidacloprid, tebuconazole, diuron
      and oxyfluorfen was 100, 80, 73, 75 and 50%, respectively. The grass layer
      enhanced dehydrogenase and diphenol-oxidase activities, modified the pesticides
      dissipation kinetics and favored the pesticide downward movement. One metabolite
      of imidacloprid, 3 of oxyfluorfen and 4 of diuron were identified by GC-MS. These
      novel biobeds represent an alternative to the traditional one and a contribution
      to promote a circular economy for the olive-oil production.

PMID- 28881326
TI  - Remediation of electronic waste polluted soil using a combination of persulfate
      oxidation and chemical washing.
AB  - Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the efficiency of a
      simultaneous chemical extraction and oxidation for removing persistent organic
      pollutants (POPs) and toxic metals from an actual soil polluted by the recycling
      activity of electronic waste. Various chemicals, including hydroxypropyl-beta
      cyclodextrin (HPCD), citric acid (CA) and sodium persulfate (SP) were applied
      synchronously with Fe2+ activated oxidation to enhance the co-removal of both
      types of pollutants. It is found that the addition of HPCD can enhance POPs
      removal through solubilization of POPs and iron chelation; while the CA-chelated
      Fe2+ activation process is effective for extracting metals and degrading residual
      POPs. Under the optimized reagent conditions, 69.4% Cu, 78.1% Pb, 74.6% Ni, 97.1%
      polychlorinated biphenyls, 93.8% polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and 96.4%
      polybrominated diphenylethers were removed after the sequential application of SP
      HPCD-Fe2+ and SP-CA-Fe2+ processes with a duration of 180 and 240 min,
      respectively. A high dehalogenation efficiency (84.8% bromine and 86.2% chlorine)
      is observed, suggesting the low accumulation of halogen-containing organic
      intermediates. The remediated soil can satisfy the national soil quality standard
      of China. Collectively, co-contaminated soil can be remediated with reasonable
      time and capital costs through simultaneous application of persulfate oxidation
      and chemical extraction.

PMID- 28881327
TI  - Solving multi-objective water management problems using evolutionary computation.
AB  - Water as a resource is becoming increasingly more valuable given the changes in
      global climate. In an agricultural sense, the role of water is vital to ensuring
      food security. Therefore the management of it has become a subject of increasing
      attention and the development of effective tools to support participative
      decision-making in water management will be a valuable contribution. In this
      paper, evolutionary computation techniques and Pareto optimisation are
      incorporated in a model-based system for water management. An illustrative test
      case modelling optimal crop selection across dry, average and wet years based on
      data from the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in Australia is presented. It is shown
      that sets of trade-off solutions that provide large net revenues, or minimise
      environmental flow deficits can be produced rapidly, easily and automatically.
      The system is capable of providing detailed information on optimal solutions to
      achieve desired outcomes, responding to a variety of factors including climate
      conditions and economics.

PMID- 28881328
TI  - Photocatalytic removal of Congo red dye using MCM-48/Ni2O3 composite synthesized
      based on silica gel extracted from rice husk ash; fabrication and application.
AB  - MCM-48 mesoporous silica was successfully synthesized from silica gel extracted
      from rice husk ash and loaded by nickel oxide (Ni2O3). The resulted composite was
      characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and UV-vis
      spectrophotometer. The role of MCM-48 as catalyst support in enhancing the
      photocatalytic properties of nickel oxide was evaluated through the
      photocatalytic degradation of Congo red dye under visible light source. MCM-48 as
      catalyst support for Ni2O3 shows considerable enhancement in the adsorption
      capacity by 17% and 29% higher than the adsorption capacity of MCM-48 and Ni2O3,
      respectively. Additionally, the photocatalytic degradation percentage increased
      by about 64% relative to the degradation percentage using Ni2O3 as a single
      component. The adsorption mechanism of MCM-48/Ni2O3 is chemisorption process of
      multilayer form. The using of MCM-48 as catalyst support for Ni2O3 enhanced the
      adsorption capacity and the photocatalytic degradation through increasing the
      surface area and prevents the nickel oxide particles from agglomeration. This was
      done through fixing nickel oxide particles throughout the porous structure which
      providing more exposed active adsorption sites and active photocatalyst sites for
      the incident photons. Based on the obtained results, supporting of nickel oxide
      particles onto MCM-48 are promising active centers for the degradation of Congo
      red dye molecules.

PMID- 28881329
TI  - A reusable adsorbent polyethylenimine/polyvinyl chloride crosslinked fiber for
      Pd(II) recovery from acidic solutions.
AB  - In this study, a mixture of polyethylenimine (PEI) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
      was reacted at 80  degrees C for 6 h to synthesize crosslinked PEI/PVC polymer
      solution, which was injected to produce the PEI/PVC-crosslinked fiber (PEI/PVC
      CF). PEI/PVC-CF was investigated as an adsorbent to remove and recover Pd(II)
      from acidic solutions. In order to examine the adsorption characteristics and
      usability of PEI/PVC-CF for Pd(II) recycling, several experiments such as
      isotherm, kinetics, desorption and reuse were conducted. The adsorption isotherms
      were fitted using the Langmuir and Freundlich models, respectively. The maximum
      adsorption capacity was estimated as 146.03 mg/g according to the Langmuir model.
      The kinetic experiments demonstrated that adsorbent reaches adsorption
      equilibrium within 60 min for initial Pd(II) concentrations of 25-100 mg/L. After
      adsorption, Pd(II) on PEI/PVC-CF was easily desorbed using acidified thiourea
      solution, and the desorption efficiency increased with the thiourea
      concentration. It was also demonstrated that PEI/PVC-CF can be used repeatedly
      for at least five cycles without reduction in adsorption capacity.

PMID- 28881330
TI  - From declared asset retirement obligations to a decommissioning cost estimate for
      onshore crude oil fields in Nigeria.
AB  - As in most mature crude oil producing regions, asset divestment has commenced in
      Nigeria. Decommissioning and associated environmental liabilities are expected to
      become important problems requiring attention. Public and government engagement
      on decommissioning will be ineffective without information on cost of
      decommissioning liabilities, which are held confidential by oil companies. This
      study demonstrates a method to determine generic aggregate cost of
      decommissioning liabilities for Nigeria onshore fields, using non-proprietary
      data from annual financial reports of operating companies in Nigeria. The results
      can be used as basis for negotiation with operators and to help government in
      preparation for decommissioning risk.

PMID- 28881332
TI  - Reverse shoulder arthroplasty for deltoid-deficient shoulder following latissimus
      dorsi flap transfer. Case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The usual indication for reverse shoulder arthroplasty is
      glenohumeral arthritis with inadequate rotator cuff and intact deltoid muscle. We
      report here a case of reverse shoulder arthroplasty using a lattisimus dorsi flap
      in a patient with deltoid-deficient shoulder following a gunshot injury.
      PRESENTATION OF THE CASE: The patient was an otherwise healthy 51-year-old male
      with a history of gunshot injury of the left shoulder 2006. Upon presentation in
      2011, the patient had a loss of most of his shoulder bony and muscular
      structures. Due to deltoid muscle deficiency, the patient underwent Lattisimus
      Dorsi muscle flap followed by reverse shoulder arthroplasty in order to establish
      an upper limb function. Upon discharge, 11days after the surgery, the patient was
      able to achieve 150 degrees  flexion and 90 degrees  abduction while in the
      supine position and 45 degrees  in each direction, while sitting. He was able to
      perform internal rotation (behind back) up to the level of the L1 vertebra,
      assisted active abduction of 90 degrees , and external rotation of 20 degrees .
      Power tests showed power of grade 4/5 for both shoulder flexion and extension and
      grade 2+/5 for both abduction and adduction. At the last follow up one year after
      the operation, The patient still had passive pain-free full range of motion, but
      no progress in active range of motion beyond that upon discharge. CONCLUSION:
      Reverse shoulder arthroplasty after Latissmus dori flap in patient with deltoid
      deficient shoulders can be a successful and reproducible approach to treat such
      conditions.

PMID- 28881331
TI  - Breaking down barriers: the evolution of cell invasion.
AB  - Cell invasion is a specialized cell behavior that likely co-evolved with the
      emergence of basement membranes in metazoans as a mechanism to break down the
      barriers that separate tissues. A variety of conserved and lineage-specific
      biological processes that occur during development and homeostasis rely on cell
      invasive behavior. Recent innovations in genome editing and live-cell imaging
      have shed some light on the programs that mediate acquisition of an invasive
      phenotype; however, comparative approaches among species are necessary to
      understand how this cell behavior evolved. Here, we discuss the contexts of cell
      invasion, highlighting both established and emerging model systems, and
      underscore gaps in our understanding of the evolution of this key cellular
      behavior.

PMID- 28881333
TI  - Long-term survival of a patient with advanced gastric cancer with paraaortic
      lymph node metastasis who attained pathological complete response after S-1/CDDP
      chemotherapy: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gastric cancer with paraaortic lymph node (PAN) metastasis have
      unfavorable prognosis. There are no evidence-based preoperative chemotherapy
      regimens available. CASE PRESENTATION: A 62-year-old female was diagnosed with
      advanced gastric cancer and PAN metastasis. We attempted S-1/CDDP chemotherapy in
      six coursed and total gastrectomy as well as systematic dissection of regional
      lymph nodes and PAN. Histologically, no cancerous cells were detected in
      specimens. The patient has been disease-free for 5 years since the surgery.
      DISCUSSION: Long-term survival case of gastric cancer with PAN metastasis
      attaining pathologically complete response is extremely rare. It is possible that
      preoperative S1/CDDP with surgery might be a standard treatment strategy for
      gastric cancer with PANs. CONCLUSION: We report herein a rare case of gastric
      cancer with PAN metastases who achieved a 5-year survival after S-1/CDDP
      chemotherapy and surgery.

PMID- 28881334
TI  - Antegrade jejunojejunal intussusception inside a retrograde jejunogastric
      intussusception (double intussusception)-A rare case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Jejunogastric intussusception through a gastrojejunal stoma along
      with a jejunojejunal intussusception (intussusception within an intussusception)
      is a rare but serious complication of previous gastric surgery such as
      gastrojejunostomy and Billroth II gastrectomy. The incidence of which is less
      than 0.1%. CASE PRESENTATION: An elderly male presented with an abdominal lump,
      diffuse abdominal pain and vomiting for one-day duration. Ultrasound and CECT
      abdomen revealed dilated stomach with jejunojejunal intussusception herniating
      into stomach. Emergency laparotomy was done with manual reduction of
      intussusception loops and roux- en-y anastomosis. DISCUSSION: The number of cases
      reported in literature involving a jejunogastric intussusception following
      gastric surgery was about 300.Furthermore, there have been only two reported
      cases of jejunogastric intussusception along with jejunojejunal intussusception.
      The rarity of this clinical event makes it imperative for a high index of
      suspicion in patients presenting with abdominal pain following gastric surgery.
      CONCLUSION: The mortality of this condition ranges from 10% to 50%. Hence prompt
      diagnosis and early surgical intervention prevents vascular compromise and bowel
      gangrene.

PMID- 28881335
TI  - The great mimicker at thoracolumbar spine: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report two cases with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) in thoracolumbar
      spine with very different presentation. METHODS: Case 1; An 84-year-old female
      patient was admitted to our emergency clinic with paraparesis in both lower
      extremities. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an epidural mass at the
      level of the T12 vertebrae. She was operated immediately with wide laminectomy
      and posterior instrumentation because of the paraparesis of both lower
      extremities. Case 2; An 70-year-old female patient was admitted to our clinic
      with thoracolumbar back pain. There was a T12 vertebra compression fracture view
      in the X-ray imaging. MRI revealed multiple infiltrations in medullar canale at
      thoracolumbar spine with lytic lesion. She underwent eight cycles of
      chemotherapy. RESULTS: Multiple bone involvement was detected in both cases in
      PET-CT (Positron emission tomography-computed tomography) scans. Additionally it
      was found that there were nodal involvements accompanying these involvements in
      case 1. Because radiological examinations were not spesific enough to diagnose,
      it was necessary to perform a biopsy. The histopathological diagnosis of these
      patients revealed diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. CONCLUSIONS:
      Diagnosis of the non-Hodgkin's lymphomas that are localized in thoracolumbar
      spine is often missed or delayed due to lack of specific findings and presence
      similarities to other diseases. Diagnosis is made by histopathologic examination.
      Although the main treatment is chemotherapy for these patients, surgery is
      necessary for patients with neurological deficite.

PMID- 28881336
TI  - Perianal pseudolymphoma: A case report and review of the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Perianal pseudolymphoma is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder that
      can mimic cutaneous lymphoma. The condition can present acutely with concerns of
      perianal sepsis. The purpose of this case review is to review the current
      literature on perianal pseudolymphoma and emphasise to the surgical community its
      presentation, suggested aetiology and management. CASE PRESENTATION: In this case
      report, we detail the case of a 28-year-old female who presented with perianal
      pseudolymphoma. Malignant lymphoproliferative diseases required exclusion.
      Conservative management of this rare condition was successful. DISCUSSION: We
      highlight the differential diagnoses, investigations and treatment options for a
      rare condition. A review of the literature on the limited published data on
      perianal pseudolymphoma is briefly discussed. CONCLUSION: The aim of this case
      report is to highlight the existence of such a rare condition that can imitate an
      acute surgical presentation and its successful conservative management.

PMID- 28881337
TI  - Surgical management of a De Garengeot's hernia using a biologic mesh: A case
      report and review of literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A De Garengeot hernia is a rare form of femoral hernia, where the
      appendix is found in the herniated sac. This feature is important to report, as
      both the diagnosis and the treatment are quite challenging in this particular
      condition. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We report the case of a 77-year-old female
      presenting with a femoral hernia, containing an incarcerated necrotic vermiform
      appendix (De Garengeot hernia). A laparoscopic appendectomy was performed and the
      herniated defect was repaired according to Rives technique, using a biological
      mesh. DISCUSSION: The De Garengeot hernia is often unexpected and diagnosed intra
      operatively. A pre-operative diagnosis is quite difficult, as it often presents
      clinically as a strangled femoral hernia. In patients without peritoneal signs, a
      contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography (CT) of the abdomen is useful for the
      diagnosis. Many surgical techniques have been discussed in literature, but there
      is no consensus. We show the feasibility and safety of the hernia repair
      according to Rives technique, through an inguinotomy with a biologic mesh. A
      laparoscopic approach was used to remove the necrotic appendix. CONCLUSION: The
      De Garengeot hernia is an uncommon differential diagnosis for patients presenting
      with clinical signs of strangled femoral hernia. Although hernia repairs with a
      synthetic mesh in the presence of appendicitis have been reported, we describe a
      case of femoral hernia repair using a biologic mesh, in a patient with a De
      Garengot hernia.

PMID- 28881338
TI  - Simple Age Specific Cutoff Value for Sarcopenia Evaluated by Computed Tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Until now, cutoff values of low skeletal muscle mass using computed
      tomography (CT) were driven by optimal stratification to predict mortality in
      cancer patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the simple, age
      specific, cutoff value of low skeletal muscle mass by CT in healthy adults.
      DESIGN: This is a retrospective, observational, single-center study. SETTING:
      This study was performed in the health screening department of a university
      affiliated hospital during a 10-year period. PATIENTS: Medical records of 1,422
      patients presenting to the health screening department were reviewed. Cross
      sectional area of psoas muscle at the level of the third lumbar vertebra on
      abdominal CT was measured and adjusted by height (mm2/m2). This value (psoas
      muscle index [PMI]) was assumed to represent whole skeletal muscle mass. We
      divided the patients according to age, sex, and defined cutoff value of low
      skeletal muscle mass as 2 SDs below the mean. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS
      AND MAIN RESULTS: Among 1,422 patients, 550 patients (38.6%) were male. The mean
      PMI was 896.60 (mm2/m2) for men and 570.54 (mm2/m2) for women. Cutoff values of
      PMI for men were 592.3 mm2/m2 for 20-39 years, 474.0 mm2/m2 for 40-49 years,
      422.2 mm2/m2 for 50-59 years, 374.4 mm2/m2 for 60-69 years, and 331.5 mm2/m2 for
      70-89 years. The values for women were 399.9 mm2/m2 for 20-39 years, 287.7 mm2/m2
      for 40-49 years, 242.5 mm2/m2 for 50-59 years, 220.4 mm2/m2 for 60-69 years, and
      147.6 mm2/m2 for 70-89 years. CONCLUSIONS: Cutoff values of low skeletal muscle
      mass using CT differed in healthy adults as age increased. Further studies on the
      effect of sarcopenia intervention using this cutoff value are needed.

PMID- 28881339
TI  - Interstitial Immunostaining and Renal Outcomes in Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic
      Antibody-Associated Glomerulonephritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immunopathologic features predict renal function at baseline and
      follow-up in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated
      glomerulonephritis (GN). The interstitial infiltrate consists predominantly of T
      lymphocytes, but their pathophysiologic significance is unclear, especially in
      light of the success of B-cell-directed therapy. METHODS: Renal biopsies from 33
      patients treated with cyclophosphamide (CYC; n = 17) or rituximab (RTX; n = 16)
      in the RTX in ANCA-associated vasculitis (RAVE) trial were classified according
      to the new ANCA GN classification. T- and B-cell infiltration in the interstitium
      was assessed by immunostaining for CD3 and CD20. Correlations of clinical and
      histologic parameters with renal function at set time points were examined.
      RESULTS: The mean (SD) baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate was 36 (20)
      mL/min/1.73 m2. ANCA GN class distribution was 46% focal, 33% mixed, 12%
      sclerotic and 9% crescentic. The interstitial infiltrate consisted of >50% CD3
      positive cells in 69% of biopsies, but >50% CD20 positive cells only in 8% of
      biopsies. In a multiple linear regression model, only baseline glomerular
      filtration rate (GFR) correlated with GFR at 6, 12, and 18 months. Interstitial B
      and T-cell infiltrates had no significant impact on long-term prognosis,
      independent of the treatment limb. A differential effect was noted only at 6
      months, where a dense CD3 positive infiltrate predicted lower GFR in the RTX
      group and a CD20 positive infiltrate predicted higher GFR in the CYC group.
      CONCLUSIONS: In ANCA-associated GN, the interstitial infiltrate contains mainly T
      lymphocytes. However, it is neither reflecting baseline renal function nor
      predictive of response to treatment, regardless of the immunosuppression regimen
      employed.

PMID- 28881340
TI  - Additional Benefits of Routine Drugs on Gastrointestinal Cancer: Statins,
      Metformin, and Proton Pump Inhibitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Commonly used medications including statins, metformin, and proton
      pump inhibitors (PPIs) effectively reduce the risk of esophageal, gastric, and
      colorectal cancer (CRC). SUMMARY: A number of observational studies and meta
      analyses have shown that long-term statin use significantly reduces the incidence
      of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer. Moreover, statin use after GI cancer diagnosis
      has been significantly associated with better prognosis in large-scale cohort
      studies. Metformin was rigorously evaluated in a population-based study and meta
      analysis, and was found to have an unexpected benefit in the prevention and
      prolonged survival of CRC patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In contrast,
      few studies have demonstrated the chemopreventive effect of metformin for
      esophageal and gastric cancer. Recent observational studies have demonstrated
      that PPIs effectively reduce the progression of nondysplastic Barrett's esophagus
      into esophageal adenocarcinoma in a dose-dependent manner. However, the
      association between chronic PPI use and CRC or gastric cancer risk is still
      controversial. It was expected that these 3 routinely used medicines would show a
      synergistic effect with conventional systemic chemotherapy in advanced GI
      cancers. However, recent phase III studies failed to show significantly better
      outcomes. Key Messages: Further studies are needed to identify "additional"
      anticancer effects of these commonly used medicines.

PMID- 28881341
TI  - The Association of Combined Total Kidney and Liver Volume with Pain and
      Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Patients with Later Stage Autosomal Dominant
      Polycystic Kidney Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is an ongoing debate if and how kidney and liver volume are
      associated with pain and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in autosomal dominant
      polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) patients. Since both kidney and liver volume
      could interact, we investigated whether combined total kidney and liver volume
      had stronger associations with ADPKD-related pain and GI symptoms than the
      volumes of the organs separately. METHODS: We used baseline data from the DIPAK-1
      study, which included ADPKD patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate
      (eGFR) between 30 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. MR imaging was performed to measure
      height-adjusted total kidney volume (hTKV), height-adjusted total liver volume
      (hTLV) and the combination of both (height-adjusted total kidney liver volume
      [hTKLV]). RESULTS: Three hundred nine ADPKD patients were included with a mean
      age of 48 +/- 7 years, 53% female, eGFR 50 +/- 11 mL/min/1.73 m2 and median hTKV,
      hTLV and hTKLV of 1,095 (758-1,669), 1,173 (994-1,523) and 2,496 (1,972-3,352)
      mL/m, respectively. ADPKD-related pain and GI symptoms were present in,
      respectively, 27.5 and 61.2% of patients. Gender was no effect modifier in the
      association between kidney and/or liver volume, and symptom burden, indicating
      that all models could be tested in the overall study population. hTKLV and hTLV
      were significantly associated with pain and GI symptoms, whereas hTKV was not.
      Model testing revealed that the associations of pain and GI symptoms with hTKLV
      were significantly stronger than with hTKV (p = 0.04 and p = 0.04, respectively)
      but not when compared to hTLV (p = 0.2 and p = 0.5, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      This study indicates that combined kidney and liver volume was associated with
      the presence and severity of pain and GI symptoms in ADPKD, with a more prominent
      role for hTLV than for hTKV.

PMID- 28881342
TI  - Clinical Significance of Area of Psoas Major Muscle on Computed Tomography after
      Gastrectomy in Gastric Cancer Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The measurement of a single abdominal image on computed tomography
      (CT) can provide an estimate of the total body skeletal muscle. We evaluate the
      change of the area of the psoas major muscle (PMMA) in a CT which was performed
      routinely after gastrectomy in gastric cancer. METHODS: A total of 119 gastric
      cancer patients who underwent gastrectomy were enrolled for the study. A CT image
      at the top of the iliac crest level was obtained at the following times: 3
      postoperative months (POM), 6 POM, 1 postoperative year (POY), 2 POY, 3 POY, and
      5 POY. We analyzed the change rate of PMMA after gastrectomy and before or after
      recurrence. RESULTS: PMMA change after gastrectomy was approximately between -8
      and -10% over the 5-year observation period. PMMA in the R2 (macroscopic residual
      tumor)/recurrence group was lower than that in the no recurrence group, and a
      significant difference was observed at 2 POY (-21.7 +/- 3.6% vs. -7.9 +/- 2.3%, p
      < 0.01). PMMA after freshly diagnosed recurrence had decreased significantly by
      14.1 +/- 1.8% (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of PMMA change by CT after
      gastrectomy could assist in the diagnosis of the progression of cancer state in
      gastric cancer patients.

PMID- 28881343
TI  - The Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia Scale: A Longitudinal Study in
      Nursing Home Residents.
AB  - AIMS/BACKGROUND: The Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED) scale has
      been shown to have good psychometric properties using a range of methods
      including Mokken scaling. We aimed to study the Italian version of the EdFED
      using Mokken scaling. METHODS: Data were gathered at 7 time points from 401
      nursing home residents affected by dementia in the course of a 6-month
      intervention study using analysis of variance, Mokken scaling, and person-item
      fit statistics. RESULTS: The properties of the EdFED-I scale were stable over the
      course of the study with 4 items showing invariant item ordering at all time
      points. Some items behaved differently at different levels of difficulty in the
      scale and also depending on the mean level of feeding difficulty. The test
      information function showed a dip in the mid-range of difficulty scores.

PMID- 28881344
TI  - Long-Term Outcomes of Two Different Initial Dosing Regimens of Intravitreal
      Ranibizumab Used to Treat Myopic Choroidal Neovascularization.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare two different initial dosing regimens of intravitreal
      ranibizumab used to treat myopic choroidal neovascularization. METHODS: A total
      of 61 eyes of 56 patients were treated: 26 eyes received a single injection
      followed by treatment pro re nata (1+ PRN), while 35 eyes first received 3
      consecutive monthly injections (3+ PRN). RESULTS: The mean follow-up was 53 +/-
      16 months. The visual acuities were 51.9 +/- 16.2 letters with 3+ PRN and 53 +/-
      22.4 letters with 1+ PRN at baseline (p = 0.824); 69.5 +/- 12.3 and 69 +/- 15.1
      letters, respectively, at 12 months; and 67.1 +/- 16.2 and 66.4 +/- 19.7 letters,
      respectively, at the end of follow-up (p = 0.877). Mean survival until first
      retreatment after the loading dose was 36.9 +/- 6.1 months with 3+ PRN and 19.2
      +/- 5.4 months with 1+ PRN (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Both dosing regimens led to
      similar visual outcomes. For eyes given a single injection in the first quarter,
      retreatment was needed appreciably earlier.

PMID- 28881345
TI  - Difference in Mortality Risk in Elderly People with Bronchial Obstruction
      Diagnosed Using a Fixed Cutoff or the Lower Limit of Normal of the FEV1/FVC
      Ratio.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether a fixed cutoff or the lower limit of normal of the FEV1/FVC
      ratio should be used to diagnose bronchial obstruction is still a matter of
      debate. This issue is particularly important for elderly people. OBJECTIVES: We
      used equations applicable up to 90 years of age to evaluate the mortality of
      elderly people diagnosed with bronchial obstruction using either a fixed cutoff
      of 0.7 or the lower limit of normal (LLN). METHODS: Participants in the SaRA
      (Salute Respiratoria nell'Anziano, Italian for "Respiratory Health in the
      Elderly") study were grouped as follows: FEV1/FVC >=0.7 and >= LLN (n = 535: F-/L
      ), FEV1/FVC <0.7 but >= LLN (n = 118: F+/L-), and FEV1/FVC <0.7 and < LLN (n =
      229: F+/L+). We estimated the mortality risk in the three groups over 15 years of
      follow-up. RESULTS: The mean age was 73 years (58% men). The hazard ratio (HR)
      for mortality was 1.427 (95% CI: 1.09-1.868) in the F+/L- group and 2.143 (95%
      CI: 1.13-1.995) in the F+/L+ group. After adjustment for potential confounders,
      we found no increased mortality in the F+/L- group (HR: 1.007, 95% CI: 0.755
      1.342), while the HR in the F+/L+ group was still sizeable (1.474, 95% CI: 1.136
      1.911). CONCLUSIONS: As expected, using a fixed cutoff translates in a larger
      number of people to be classified as having bronchial obstruction. In our sample
      the increased mortality in the F+/L- group is due to the confounding effect of
      age and sex. Our study lends support to the use of LLN in elderly people.

PMID- 28881346
TI  - Hyponatremia and Bone Fractures: An Intriguing and Often Overlooked Association.

PMID- 28881347
TI  - Benefits of Curcumin Supplementation on Antioxidant Status in beta-Thalassemia
      Major Patients: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: beta-Thalassemia major, the most common inherited anemia in the
      world, is associated with imbalance in the oxidant-antioxidant system. The
      objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of curcumin supplementation
      on markers of oxidative stress in patients with beta-Thalassemia. METHODS: This
      double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was performed on 61 beta
      thalassemia major patients. Subjects in the curcumin group received two 500 mg
      curcumin capsules daily and patients in the placebo group took 2 placebo capsules
      daily for 12 weeks. Dietary intakes and biochemical parameters were assessed at
      the beginning and the end of intervention. RESULTS: At the end of the study,
      serum malondialdehyde (MDA), total and direct bilirubin significantly decreased
      (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, and p < 0.001, respectively) and total antioxidant
      capacity significantly increased (p = 0.005) in the curcumin group. Based on the
      analysis of covariance, a significant reduction in MDA, total and direct
      bilirubin was also detected in the curcumin group when compared to the placebo
      group (p = 0.001, p = 0.039, and p = 0.013, respectively). Changes in hemoglobin,
      serum iron, ferritin, catalase, and vitamin E were not significant in any of the
      2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Curcumin supplementation in combination with deferoxamin
      improved the antioxidant status in beta-thalassemia major patients. Curcumin may
      be useful for the relief of metabolic complications in these patients.

PMID- 28881348
TI  - Accelerating Topical Anaesthesia Using Microneedles.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Topical anaesthetics reduce pain during venous access procedures
      in children. However, clinical use is hindered by a significant anaesthetic onset
      time. Restricted diffusion of the topical anaesthetic through the stratum corneum
      barrier is the principal reason for the delayed onset. Microneedles can
      painlessly pierce the skin. This study evaluated microneedle pre-treatment of ex
      vivo human skin as a means to increase the rate of tetracaine permeation, in
      order to accelerate the onset of anaesthesia. METHODS: Franz-type diffusion cells
      were used to determine permeation of a commercial tetracaine formulation, Ametop
      gel, through human skin epidermis. Microneedle-assisted permeation was compared
      to untreated epidermis. Upon completion of the permeation studies, the epidermal
      membranes were visually characterised. RESULTS: At 30 min, 5.43 ug/cm2 of
      tetracaine had permeated through the untreated membrane compared to 12.13 ug/cm2
      through the microneedle-treated membrane. Insertion of a hypodermic needle
      created a large single channel in the epidermis (approx. 4,250 MUm2) whilst the
      punctured surface area following microneedle treatments was estimated to be
      75,000 MUm2. CONCLUSION: Pre-treatment of skin with microneedles significantly
      enhances the permeation of tetracaine. Microneedles have the potential to more
      than halve the onset time for anaesthesia when applying Ametop gel.

PMID- 28881349
TI  - Reduced Serum Phosphorus Levels Were Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Men
      But Not in Women: A Cross-Sectional Study among the Japanese Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reduced serum phosphorus (SP) levels are reported to be associated
      with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, there have been a
      few gender-specific studies although SP levels are substantially different
      between men and women. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. A total of
      16,041 subjects (9,076 men and 6,965 women) were analyzed. The subjects were
      divided into 3 groups of gender-specific tertiles based on phosphorus levels: the
      lowest (T1), middle (T2), and the highest (T3). RESULTS: SP levels were
      significantly lower in subjects with MetS than in those without MetS in men but
      not in women. Waist circumference and fasting plasma glucose were negatively and
      high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was positively correlated with SP levels
      both in men and women. Blood pressure (BP) and triglycerides (TG) were negatively
      correlated with SP levels in men, while they were positively correlated with SP
      levels in women. Lower SP levels were associated with the prevalence of MetS in
      men (T1; 19.9%, T2; 16.9%, and T3; 14.3%; p < 0.001) but not in women (T1; 14.1%,
      T2; 16.6%, and T3; 15.3%; p = 0.282). CONCLUSION: BP and TG were unexpectedly
      positively correlated with SP levels in women. Reduced SP levels were associated
      with MetS in men but not in women.

PMID- 28881350
TI  - Comparing Modified with Conventional Parotidectomy for Benign Parotid Tumors.
AB  - PURPOSE: We conducted a study to compare the functional outcomes and surgical
      complications of patients with benign parotid tumors treated with conventional
      parotidectomy and modified parotidectomy. METHODS: This study retrospectively
      analyzed 99 patients who had benign parotid lesions and underwent parotidectomy
      using either conventional or modified parotidectomy. The operation time, cosmetic
      outcome, great auricular nerve anesthesia, incidence of Frey syndrome, and
      secretory function with the two techniques were compared. RESULTS: The mean
      operation time was shorter and the total complication rate was obviously lower in
      the modified surgery group (p < 0.001). In the modified surgery group, the
      incision was more cosmetic (p < 0.001), the sensory deficit rate was low (p <
      0.001), and the sensory recovery rate was high, and transient facial paralysis
      and Frey syndrome were rare. Furthermore, glandular function was preserved in
      patients with a conserved Stensen duct. There was no tumor recurrence in the two
      groups during a mean follow-up of 29.8 months. CONCLUSION: Modified surgical
      techniques for benign parotid neoplasms significantly reduced the surgery time
      and improved the surgery outcomes compared with the conventional approach. This
      adds to the evidence to support the effectiveness of modified parotidectomy in
      selected patients with benign parotid tumors.

PMID- 28881351
TI  - Mild Cognitive Impairment and Progression to Dementia in Progressive Supranuclear
      Palsy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive deficits are common in progressive supranuclear palsy
      (PSP), but their relevance and the progression to dementia are still poorly
      described. The recently revised criteria for PSP consider cognitive dysfunction
      in the diagnostic work-up. METHODS: The study retrospectively evaluated a series
      of 99 PSP patients with Richardson syndrome (PSP-RS), subgrouped according to
      cognitive and behavioural performances into PSP with normal cognition (PSP-NC),
      PSP with mild cognitive impairment (PSP-MCI), and PSP with dementia (PSP-D). The
      progression to dementia at the 3-year follow-up was assessed. RESULTS: At
      baseline, 15.2% of patients were classified as PSP-NC, 43.4% as PSP-MCI, and
      41.4% as PSP-D. During the 3-year follow-up, 21 out of 29 patients, previously
      classified as PSP-NC or PSP-MCI, converted to dementia, with an incidence rate of
      241 per 1,000 patients/year. Nineteen out of 21 PSP patients (90%) developed the
      behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia phenotype. The only factor associated
      with conversion to dementia was MCI diagnosis at baseline (p = 0.023).
      CONCLUSION: Cognitive decline occurs in a great proportion of PSP-RS patients
      early during the disease course. In the absence of a specific phenotype, the
      diagnosis of MCI might identify PSP patients at greatest risk of developing
      dementia and should be considered further in the diagnostic assessment.

PMID- 28881353
TI  - Variance Formulae for Correlation Measures of Linkage Disequilibrium.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is the non-random association between
      alleles at different loci and remains important for disease mapping studies in
      humans. A common measure of LD is the sample correlation between indicator
      variables for alleles at the 2 loci. Knowledge of LD estimate precision may help
      inform biomedical decisions based on those estimates. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS:
      Variance formulae are obtained for correlation measures of LD in 4 scenarios.
      These scenarios include data in the form of gametic and genotypic counts, with
      different assumptions used to simplify the analysis. RESULTS: The formulae are
      expressed as polynomials (or ratios of polynomials) in higher-order
      disequilibrium coefficients with constants which are functions of the allele
      frequencies and Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium coefficients. With genotypic data,
      the variance is the same as with gametic data when the phase is known and there
      is random mating. When the phase is unknown, the correlation LD has variance
      which is twice as large. CONCLUSIONS: Symbolic computation proved to be effective
      in facilitating algebraic derivations which would otherwise have been
      intractable.

PMID- 28881352
TI  - Current Practice of Airway Stenting in the Adult Population in Europe: A Survey
      of the European Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology
      (EABIP).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Airway stenting (AS) commenced in Europe circa 1987 with the first
      placement of a dedicated silicone airway stent. Subsequently, over the last 3
      decades, AS was spread throughout Europe, using different insertion techniques
      and different types of stents. OBJECTIVES: This study is an international survey
      conducted by the European Association of Bronchology and Interventional
      Pulmonology (EABIP) focusing on AS practice within 26 European countries.
      METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to all EABIP National Delegates in February
      2015. National delegates were responsible for obtaining precise and objective
      data regarding the current AS practice in their country. The deadline for data
      collection was February 2016. RESULTS: France, Germany, and the UK are the 3
      leading countries in terms of number of centres performing AS. These 3 nations
      represent the highest ranked nations within Europe in terms of gross national
      income. Overall, pulmonologists perform AS exclusively in 5 countries and
      predominately in 12. AS is performed almost exclusively in public hospitals. AS
      performed under general anaesthesia is the rule for the majority of institutions,
      and local anaesthesia is an alternative in 9 countries. Rigid bronchoscopy
      techniques are predominant in 20 countries. Amongst commercially available
      stents, both Dumon and Ultraflex are by far the most commonly deployed. Finally,
      11 countries reported that AS is an economically viable activity, while 10
      claimed that it is not. CONCLUSION: This EABIP survey demonstrates that there is
      significant heterogeneity in AS practice within Europe. Therapeutic bronchoscopy
      training and economic issues/reimbursement for procedures are likely to be the
      primary reasons explaining these findings.

PMID- 28881354
TI  - Preoperative Capecitabine, Oxaliplatin, and Irinotecan in Resectable Gastric or
      Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer: Pathological Response as Primary Endpoint and
      FDG-PET Predictions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This phase II trial was aimed at assessing the safety and activity of
      capecitabine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan (COI regimen) as a preoperative
      treatment for resectable gastric cancer (GC) or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ)
      cancer. METHODS: Patients affected by T3-T4/N0-N+/M0 GC/GEJ cancer were treated
      with the COI regimen for 4 cycles followed by restaging and gastroresection with
      D2 lymphadenectomy. Four postoperative cycles were scheduled. The primary
      endpoint was pathological response rate according to Becker et al. [Cancer
      2003;98:1521-1530]. The potential role of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) as a predictive biomarker of
      pathological tumor response was assessed in a subgroup of 19 evaluable patients.
      RESULTS: Between January 2011 and October 2015, a total of 40 patients were
      enrolled. After the preoperative phase, 36 out of 40 patients (90%) were
      considered eligible for surgery: 12 patients (30%) achieved a pathological
      response. The most frequent grade 3/4 adverse events were diarrhea (27%), nausea
      (25%), and fatigue (17%). Grade 3 neutropenia occurred in 7.5% of patients. A
      lower standard uptake value at baseline FDG-PET/CT was associated with
      pathological response. CONCLUSION: COI combination is active with a manageable
      toxicity profile in patients with resectable GC or GEJ cancer. FDG-PET/CT imaging
      as a surrogate biomarker of pathological response in this setting appears
      fascinating but should be further investigated.

PMID- 28881355
TI  - Presurgical weight loss affects tumour traits and circulating biomarkers in men
      with prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with aggressive prostate cancer. To explore
      whether weight loss favourably affects tumour biology and other outcomes, we
      undertook a presurgical trial among overweight and obese men with prostate
      cancer. METHODS: This single-blinded, two-arm randomised controlled trial
      explored outcomes of a presurgical weight loss intervention (WLI) that promoted
      ~1 kg per week loss via caloric restriction and increased physical activity (PA).
      Forty overweight/obese men with clinically confirmed prostate cancer were
      randomised to the WLI presurgery or to a control arm; changes in weight, body
      composition, quality-of-life, circulating biomarkers, gene expression, and
      immunohistochemical markers in tumour and benign prostatic tissue were evaluated.
      RESULTS: The study period averaged 50 days. Mean (s.d.) change scores for the WLI
      vs control arms were as follows: weight: -4.7 (3.1) kg vs -2.2 (4.4) kg
      (P=0.0508); caloric intake: -500 (636) vs -159 (600) kcal per day (P=0.0034); PA:
      +0.9 (3.1) vs +1.7 (4.6) MET-hours per day (NS); vitality: +5.3 (7.l4) vs -1.8
      (8.1) (P=0.0491); testosterone: +55.1 (86.0) vs -48.3 (203.7) ng dl-1 (P=0.0418);
      sex hormone-binding globulin: +14.0 (14.6) vs +1.8 (7.6) nmol l-1 (P=0.0023); and
      leptin: -2.16 (2.6) vs -0.03 (3.75) (P=0.0355). Follow-up Ki67 was significantly
      higher in WLI vs control arms; median (interquartile range): 5.0 (2.5,10.0) vs
      0.0 (0.0,2.5) (P=0.0061) and several genes were upregulated, for example, CTSL,
      GSK3B, MED12, and LAMC2. CONCLUSIONS: Intentional weight loss shows mixed effects
      on circulating biomarkers, tumour gene expression, and proliferative markers.
      More study is needed before recommending weight loss, in particular rapid weight
      loss, among men with prostate cancer.

PMID- 28881356
TI  - Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1B1: a novel immunohistological marker for colorectal
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) 1A1 is an immunohistological biomarker
      of various solid tumours, but has not been successfully proved as a colorectal
      cancer (CRC) marker. We recently reported that ALDH1B1, which has functional
      roles in tumourigenesis, may be a better CRC marker than ALDH1A1. METHODS: Human
      CRC explants and cell lines were analysed to identify candidate CRC markers from
      eight ALDH isozymes including ALDH1A1 and ALDH1B1. A tissue microarray, including
      paired specimens of normal and tumour tissues, was subsequently analysed to
      determine if candidate ALDHs could distinguish CRC from normal tissue. RESULTS:
      Based on mRNA analysis, ALDH1B1 and ALDH2 were selected as suitable candidates.
      These were strongly and regularly expressed in tumour tissue and cell lines,
      including highly tumourigenic cell populations (ALDH+CD44+ cells), while other
      ALDHs, including ALDH1A1, showed differential or low expression. No genetic
      alteration of ALDH1B1 in CRC was suggested by the relationships between mRNA and
      protein levels/enzymatic activities, and cDNA sequences of CRC cell lines. Tissue
      microarray findings showed that ALDH1B1, but not ALDH2, could distinguish CRC
      from normal tissue. Furthermore, ratios of ALDH1B1 to ALDH1A1 or ALDH2 were found
      to be powerful CRC indicators. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that ALDH1B1 is
      a novel human CRC biomarker.

PMID- 28881359
TI  - HPV-positive women with normal cytology remain at increased risk of CIN3 after a
      negative repeat HPV test.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In human papillomavirus (HPV)-based screening, a repeat HPV test is
      often recommended for HPV-positive women with normal cytology (HPV-pos/cyt-neg),
      but its absolute risk of cervical precancer (CIN3+) over two screening rounds
      needs to be assessed. METHODS: We compared the 5-year risk of HPV infection and
      CIN3+ in HPV-pos/cyt-neg women with a negative repeat HPV test to the risk in HPV
      negative women with normal cytology (double negatives) in the POBASCAM cohort. We
      obtained histology data from the Dutch pathology registry (PALGA). RESULTS: Human
      papillomavirus infection risk was 20.4% (19 of 93) in HPV-pos/cyt-neg, repeat HPV
      negative women and 3.2% (294 of 9186; P<0.001) in double negatives. Corresponding
      CIN3+ risks were 2.0% (4 of 199) and 0.2% (41 of 18 562; P<0.001). Infection
      risks were also increased in type-specific analyses of HPV16, 31, 33, 39, 52, 56
      and 58. CONCLUSIONS: HPV-pos/cyt-neg women continue to have an increased CIN3+
      risk, also when the repeat HPV test is negative. Therefore, intervals in primary
      HPV screening should be determined separately for HPV-positive and -negative
      women.

PMID- 28881357
TI  - A novel inhibitory anti-invasive MAb isolated using phenotypic screening
      highlights AnxA6 as a functionally relevant target protein in pancreatic cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Discovery and validation of new antibody tractable targets is
      critical for the development of new antibody therapeutics to address unmet needs
      in oncology. METHODS: A highly invasive clonal variant of the MDA-MB-435S cell
      line was used to generate monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), which were screened for
      anti-invasive activity against aggressive cancer cells in vitro. The molecular
      target of selected inhibitory MAb 9E1 was identified using
      immunoprecipitation/liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The potential
      anti-tumour effects of MAb 9E1 were investigated in vitro together with
      immunohistochemical analysis of the 9E1 target antigen in normal and cancer
      tissues. RESULTS: MAb 9E1 significantly decreases invasion in pancreatic, lung
      squamous and breast cancer cells and silencing of its target antigen, which was
      revealed as AnxA6, leads to markedly reduced invasive capacity of pancreatic and
      lung squamous cancer in vitro. IHC using MAb 9E1 revealed that AnxA6 exhibits a
      high prevalence of membrane immunoreactivity across aggressive tumour types with
      restricted expression observed in the majority of normal tissues. In pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma, high AnxA6 IHC score correlated with the presence of
      tumour budding at the invasive front of tumours (P=0.082), the presence of
      perineural invasion (P= <0.0001) and showed a weak correlation with reduced
      survival (P=0.2242). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the use of phenotypic
      hybridoma screening as an effective strategy to select a novel function-blocking
      MAb, 9E1 with anti-cancer activity in vitro. Moreover, through characterisation
      of the 9E1 target antigen, AnxA6, our findings support further investigation of
      AnxA6 as a potential candidate target for antibody-mediated inhibition of
      pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28881360
TI  - [Is the theoretical support for the improvement of brain plasiticity in
      schizophrenic psychoses adequate?]

PMID- 28881361
TI  - [Practicals in a psychiatric clinic for occupational orientation in pupils].
AB  - This pilot study investigates the implementation of a practical program for
      pupils including psychoeducation aimed to educate them about professions in
      psychiatry. 29 persons aged between 16-21 years were included in the program for
      vocational orientation at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,
      University of Munich, from 2013-2016. The 1-2-week program provides information
      about job descriptions of psychologists and physicians. On average the pupils
      performed at M=2.75, SD=0.64 and they were motivated. At the end of their
      practical course, they reported that their fear of contact with inpatients
      decreased. Their knowledge in psychiatry and psychotherapy increased. 59 % of the
      participants reported that they plan to study medicine or psychology. All young
      adolescents reported that they satisfied with the program. Enhancing contact with
      patients and their caretakers may serve to decrease anxiety and prejudices as
      well as to increase interest and knowledge in this area.

PMID- 28881358
TI  - Ligand-dependent Hedgehog pathway activation in Rhabdomyosarcoma: the oncogenic
      role of the ligands.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common type of soft tissue sarcoma
      in children. The Hedgehog (HH) pathway is known to develop an oncogenic role in
      RMS. However, the molecular mechanism that drives activation of the pathway in
      RMS is not well understood. METHODS: The expression of HH ligands was studied by
      qPCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry. Functional and animal model studies
      were carried out with cells transduced with shRNAs against HH ligands or treated
      with HH-specific inhibitors (Vismodegib and MEDI-5304). Finally, the molecular
      characterisation of an off-target effect of Vismodegib was also made. RESULTS:
      The results showed a prominent expression of HH ligands supporting an autocrine
      ligand-dependent activation of the pathway. A comparison of pharmacologic
      Smoothened inhibition (Vismodegib) and HH ligand blocking (MEDI-5304) is also
      provided. Interestingly, a first description of pernicious off-target effect of
      Vismodegib is also reported. CONCLUSIONS: The clarification of the HH pathway
      activation mechanism in RMS opens a door for targeted therapies against HH
      ligands as a possible alternative in the future development of better treatment
      protocols. Moreover, the description of a pernicious off-target effect of
      Vismodegib, via unfolded protein response activation, may mechanistically explain
      its previously reported inefficiency in several ligand-dependent cancers.

PMID- 28881362
TI  - [Sensory Inventory (SI): self-assessment of sensory sensitivity for adults and
      adolescents].
AB  - An adequate perception of the environment is one of the main foundations of
      adaptive behavior. Furthermore, sensory sensitivity varies from person to person
      and can play a central role in the development and course of mental disorders.
      The objective was the development of a questionnaire for the multidimensional
      assessment of sensory sensitivity. A total of 1417 persons were evaluated with
      the Sensory Inventory (SI). The factorial validity was tested with exploratory
      factor analyses and exploratory structural equation modeling. A 6-factorial
      structure was established. High internal consistency and retest reliability were
      shown, as well as increased sensory sensitivity and lower body perception in
      participants with mental disorders. The SI is a short instrument with good test
      characteristics that can easily be integrated in a clinical or research
      environment.

PMID- 28881363
TI  - [Motivational interviewing with alcohol-dependent patients].
AB  - Motivational interviewing with alcohol-dependent patients Alcohol-dependent
      patients do not need to be motivated from the outside. They are mostly
      ambivalent, and the inner voice, which already speaks for change (change talk),
      is heard through motivational interviewing, carefully strengthened and developed
      together with the patient. The practitioner has to deal with the human spirit of
      motivational interviewing and should be able to communicate with empathy,
      respect, congruence, and openness. The patient's autonomy should always be
      maintained. Advice is only given upon request. The conversation style is
      directive-guiding instead of authoritariansteering. OARS and the EPE principle
      are the motivational interviewing basics, which are consistently applied over 4
      processes of motivational interviewing: engaging, focusing, evocing, and
      planning. The likelihood of change talk increases as soon as discrepancies
      between life goals and alcohol consumption emerge. An increased rate of change
      talk makes a change in behavior more likely. If a patient argues against change
      (sustain talk), one should not confront, but should consistently work with
      reflections, reframing, and an emphasis on autonomy. Motivational interviewing
      can be applied in different settings and populations, should be learned by the
      entire team (best professional guidance) in teamwork, and be subjected to a
      critical and constant evaluation.

PMID- 28881364
TI  - [Editor's Comment].

PMID- 28881365
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881366
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881367
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881368
TI  - [Overcoming the papilla for sialendoscopy].

PMID- 28881370
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881369
TI  - [Molecular Pathogenesis of Thyroid Nodules: Relevance for Clinical Care].
AB  - Thyroid nodules represent heterogeneous tumors with distinct molecular
      signatures. While benign thyroid nodules correspond to poly- or monoclonal
      tumors, thyroid carcinomas are monoclonal and thus "real" neoplasms. These are
      caused by somatic mutations that lead to the constitutive activation of specific
      signaling cascades and determine the corresponding histology and also partly the
      functional phenotype of the thyroid tumor. Dedifferentiation of thyroid
      carcinomas is accompanied by the occurrence of additional mutations in the
      tumors. The mutation load of thyroid carcinomas correlates with their biological
      behavior. In clinical practice, detection of somatic mutations can help in the
      cytological differential diagnosis. In the prognostic assessment of thyroid
      tumors, proof of classical oncogene mutations (BRAF, RAS) has little relevance.
      Other genetic alterations, especially TERT promoter mutations that occur with
      increasing frequency in advanced thyroid carcinomas, probably have a prognostic
      significance. The molecular signature, however, is of great relevance for the
      development and application of targeted therapies in advanced carcinomas
      (radioactive iodine-refractory DTC, PDTC and ATC, metastatic medullary
      carcinoma). For this, there is increasing evidence from clinical studies and case
      reports that underline the concept of "oncogene addiction" as a pathogenetically
      relevant mechanism of thyroid tumorigenesis and carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28881371
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881372
TI  - [From the Expert's Office: Adaptation of the 3-Frequency-Table of Roser (1980) to
      the importance of hearing in the contemporary working environment].

PMID- 28881373
TI  - [Not Available].

PMID- 28881374
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881375
TI  - ?

PMID- 28881376
TI  - The 2014-2015 National Impact of the 2014 American Academy of Pediatrics Guidance
      for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunoprophylaxis on Preterm Infants Born in the
      United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This article aims to compare respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
      immunoprophylaxis (IP) use and RSV hospitalization rates (RSVH) in preterm and
      full-term infants without chronic lung disease of prematurity or congenital heart
      disease before and after the recommendation against RSV IP use in preterm infants
      born at 29 to 34 weeks' gestational age (wGA). STUDY DESIGN: Infants in
      commercial and Medicaid claims databases were followed from birth through first
      year to assess RSV IP and RSVH, as a function of infant's age and wGA. RSV IP was
      based on pharmacy or outpatient medical claims for palivizumab. RSVH was based on
      inpatient medical claims with a diagnosis of RSV. RESULTS: Commercial and
      Medicaid infants 29 to 34 wGA represented 2.9 to 3.5% of all births. RSV IP use
      in infants 29 to 34 wGA decreased 62 to 95% (p < 0.01) in the 2014-2015 season
      relative to the 2013-2014 season. Compared with the 2013-2014 season, RSVH
      increased by 2.7-fold (p = 0.02) and 1.4-fold (p = 0.03) for infants aged <3
      months and 29 to 34 wGA in the 2014-2015 season with commercial and Medicaid
      insurance, respectively. In the 2014-2015 season, RSVH for infants 29 to 34 wGA
      were two to seven times higher than full-term infants without high-risk
      conditions. CONCLUSION: Following the 2014 RSV IP guidance change, RSV IP use
      declined and RSVH increased among infants born at 29 to 34 wGA and aged <3
      months.

PMID- 28881377
TI  - Comparison of unilateral versus bilateral intensity-modulated radiotherapy for
      surgically treated squamous cell carcinoma of the palatine tonsil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors hypothesized that unilateral intensity-modulated
      radiotherapy (IMRT) would decrease toxicity compared with bilateral IMRT for
      patients with lateralized palatine tonsillar cancer and a neck classification of
      N0 to N2b, with similar oncological outcomes. METHODS: A total of 154 patients
      were treated with postoperative IMRT from 1997 through 2013. Data were collected
      prospectively from 2005 to 2013 and retrospectively collected before 2005. Of
      those patients with lateralized primary and N0 to N2b disease, 48 received
      unilateral IMRT (group 1) and 59 received bilateral IMRT (group 2); a total of 47
      patients had nonlateralized primary or N2c to N3 disease and received bilateral
      IMRT (group 3). RESULTS: The median follow-up was 5.5 years. The 5-year
      locoregional control rates were similar in group 1, group 2, and group 3 (100%,
      96%, and 94%, respectively; pooled comparison: P = .39 and group 1 vs group 2
      comparison: P = .19). The 5-year overall survival rates were similar in group 1,
      group 2, and group 3 (85%, 79%, and 76%, respectively; pooled comparison: P = .60
      and group 1 vs group 2 comparison: P = .25). There were no contralateral neck
      recurrences noted among unilaterally treated patients. Unilateral IMRT reduced
      acute toxicity and improved patient-reported quality of life compared with
      bilateral IMRT. CONCLUSIONS: Unilateral IMRT appears to reduce acute toxicity and
      achieves oncological outcomes similar to those of bilateral IMRT in selected
      patients with lateralized palatine tonsillar cancer with a neck classification of
      N0 to N2b. Cancer 2017;123:4594-4607. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881378
TI  - Effects of Rifampin on the Pharmacokinetics of a Single Dose of Istradefylline in
      Healthy Subjects.
AB  - Istradefylline, a selective adenosine A2A inhibitor, is under development for the
      treatment of Parkinson's disease. The effect of oral steady-state rifampin 600
      mg/day, a potent cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 inducer, on the disposition of a
      single oral dose of istradefylline 40 mg was determined in a crossover study in
      20 healthy subjects by measuring plasma concentrations of istradefylline and its
      M1 and M8 metabolites and their derived pharmacokinetic parameters. Based on the
      geometric mean ratio of log-transformed data, rifampin reduced istradefylline
      exposure: Cmax , 0.55 (90%CI, 0.49-0.62); AUClast , 0.21 (90%CI, 0.19-0.22); and
      AUCinf , 0.19 (90%CI, 0.18-0.20), indicating nonequivalence. These changes were
      primarily because of the effect of rifampin on the elimination parameters of
      istradefylline; mean CL/F was increased from 4.0 to 20.6 L/h, and mean t1/2 was
      reduced from 94.8 to 31.5 hours. The effect of rifampin coadministration on the
      disposition of the istradefylline M1 and M8 metabolites was inconsistent and
      variable. Furthermore, as exposure of the istradefylline M1 and M8 metabolites in
      plasma was generally <9% of total drug exposure, it would be expected to have a
      negligible impact on the pharmacodynamic effect of istradefylline. Caution should
      be exercised when istradefylline is administered concurrently with strong CYP3A4
      inducers and dose adjustment considered.

PMID- 28881379
TI  - Trends in major upper abdominal surgery for cancer in octogenarians: Has there
      been a change in patient selection?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although there is a general perception that, as the older population
      grows in number, more are undergoing surgery, there are few data on trends in
      major resections for cancer and short-term outcomes in this group. METHODS: The
      Nationwide Inpatient Sample was (NIS) used to estimate the national trends of
      major upper abdominal resections (esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas) for cancer
      in octogenarians (aged >=80 years) from 2001 to 2011. Resection rates performed
      per year were incidence-adjusted within this age group for each cancer type as
      determined by the NIS database. Joinpoint regression was used to calculate
      average annual percentage changes (AAPC) when evaluating trends over time.
      RESULTS: During the study period, octogenarians underwent an estimated 30,356
      upper abdominal organ resections for cancer in the United States, representing
      3.8% of all cancer admissions among octogenarians. Resection rates in
      octogenarians increased significantly over time (AAPC, 2.54; P < .001) secondary
      to increasing trends in pancreatic (AAPC, 11.52; P < .001) and hepatic (AAPC,
      6.67; P < .001) resections. Elixhauser comorbidity index scores increased from a
      mean of 3.61 to 4.20 (AAPC, 1.31; P < .001), whereas inpatient mortality during
      this time decreased from 13.6% to 8.2% (AAPC, 5.58; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Overall rates of major upper abdominal cancer resections in octogenarians are
      increasing over time, driven by increases in liver and pancreatic resections.
      These increases were observed despite a less favorable patient morbidity profile
      over time. These patterns may suggest shifting selection criteria for
      octogenarians undergoing major abdominal surgery over time in the context of
      diminishing postoperative mortality. Cancer 2018;124:125-35. (c) 2017 American
      Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881380
TI  - Missed therapeutic and prevention opportunities in women with BRCA-mutated
      epithelial ovarian cancer and their families due to low referral rates for
      genetic counseling and BRCA testing: A review of the literature.
AB  - Answer questions and earn CME/CNE Fifteen percent of women with epithelial
      ovarian cancer have inherited mutations in the BRCA breast cancer susceptibility
      genes. Knowledge of her BRCA status has value both for the woman and for her
      family. A therapeutic benefit exists for the woman with cancer, because a new
      family of oral drugs, the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, has
      recently been approved, and these drugs have the greatest efficacy in women who
      carry the mutation. For her family, there is the potential to prevent ovarian
      cancer in those carrying the mutation by using risk-reducing surgery. Such
      surgery significantly reduces the chance of developing this, for the most part,
      incurable cancer. Despite these potential benefits, referral rates for genetic
      counseling and subsequent BRCA testing are low, ranging from 10% to 30%,
      indicating that these therapeutic and prevention opportunities are being missed.
      The authors have reviewed the relevant available literature. Topics discussed are
      BRCA and its relation to ovarian cancer, the rates of referral for genetic
      counseling/BRCA testing, reasons for these low rates, potential strategies to
      improve on those rates, lack of effectiveness of current screening strategies,
      the pros and cons of risk-reducing surgery, other prevention options, and the
      role and value of PARP inhibitors. CA Cancer J Clin 2017;67:493-506. (c) 2017
      American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881382
TI  - Cancer risk among Holocaust survivors in Israel.

PMID- 28881381
TI  - Muscle mass at the time of diagnosis of nonmetastatic colon cancer and early
      discontinuation of chemotherapy, delays, and dose reductions on adjuvant FOLFOX:
      The C-SCANS study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For many chemotherapy regimens dosed based on body surface area
      (BSA), patients experience dose reductions or delays or discontinue treatment,
      thereby reducing survival. Consideration of body composition may be useful in
      individualizing chemotherapy dosing, but to the authors' knowledge few studies to
      date have examined the association of body composition with chemotherapy
      tolerance in patients with colon cancer. METHODS: The authors identified patients
      with nonmetastatic colon cancer who were diagnosed from 2006 through 2011 at
      Kaiser Permanente and who received leucovorin calcium/calcium folinate, 5
      fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) as initial adjuvant chemotherapy (533
      patients). Patients' muscle mass was quantified using clinically acquired
      computed tomography scans. The authors quantified chemotherapy doses, treatment
      dates, and related toxicities using the electronic medical record. In logistic
      regression models adjusting for age, sex, and American Joint Committee on Cancer
      stage of disease, the authors examined associations of muscle tertiles with early
      treatment discontinuation (<6 cycles), treatment delay (>3 days off schedule for
      >=3 times), and/or dose reduction (relative dose intensity <= 0.70, based on
      planned treatment). RESULTS: The average age of the patients at the time of
      diagnosis was 58.7 years; BSA was 1.9 m2 and body mass index was 28.7 kg/m2 .
      Compared with the highest sex-specific tertile of muscle mass, patients in the
      lowest tertile were more likely to experience toxicities and had twice the risk
      of adverse outcomes while receiving FOLFOX; for early discontinuation, the odds
      ratio (OR) was 2.34 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.04-5.24; P for trend =
      .03), whereas the ORs were 2.24 (95% CI, 1.37-3.66; P for trend = .002) for
      treatment delay and 2.28 (95% CI, 1.19-4.36; P for trend = .01) for dose
      reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Lower muscle mass is associated with greater toxicity and
      poor chemotherapy adherence among patients receiving FOLFOX. Many chemotherapy
      drugs are dosed based on BSA, but treatment may be better individualized if
      muscle mass is considered. Cancer 2017;123:4868-77. (c) 2017 American Cancer
      Society.

PMID- 28881383
TI  - Processes of code status transitions in hospitalized patients with advanced
      cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although hospitalized patients with advanced cancer have a low chance
      of surviving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the processes by which they
      change their code status from full code to do not resuscitate (DNR) are unknown.
      METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods study on a prospective cohort of
      hospitalized patients with advanced cancer. Two physicians used a consensus
      driven medical record review to characterize processes that led to code status
      order transitions from full code to DNR. RESULTS: In total, 1047 hospitalizations
      were reviewed among 728 patients. Admitting clinicians did not address code
      status in 53% of hospitalizations, resulting in code status orders of "presumed
      full." In total, 275 patients (26.3%) transitioned from full code to DNR, and
      48.7% (134 of 275 patients) of those had an order of "presumed full" at
      admission; however, upon further clarification, the patients expressed that they
      had wished to be DNR before the hospitalization. We identified 3 additional
      processes leading to order transition from full code to DNR acute clinical
      deterioration (15.3%), discontinuation of cancer-directed therapy (17.1%), and
      education about the potential harms/futility of CPR (15.3%). Compared with
      discontinuing therapy and education, transitions because of acute clinical
      deterioration were associated with less patient involvement (P = .002), a shorter
      time to death (P < .001), and a greater likelihood of inpatient death (P = .005).
      CONCLUSIONS: One-half of code status order changes among hospitalized patients
      with advanced cancer were because of full code orders in patients who had a
      preference for DNR before hospitalization. Transitions due of acute clinical
      deterioration were associated with less patient engagement and a higher
      likelihood of inpatient death. Cancer 2017;123:4895-902. (c) 2017 American Cancer
      Society.

PMID- 28881384
TI  - Quality of life from the perspective of the patient with acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although outcomes for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have improved over
      time, they remain poor overall, and toxicity from both the disease and its
      treatment can affect quality of life (QOL). One barrier to including QOL
      endpoints in clinical trials is the lack of a disease-specific QOL instrument
      that can efficiently capture the major QOL deficits in this population. METHODS:
      A cross-sectional study was performed to elicit concepts for inclusion in a new
      AML-specific QOL instrument called the AML-QOL. Eighty-two patients at various
      stages of disease were interviewed about sources of support (positive concepts)
      and problems and symptoms (negative concepts) experienced over the past week, and
      they were asked to grade how much each affected their QOL. In addition, patients
      were asked to complete 2 validated instruments: the Functional Assessment of
      Cancer Therapy with the leukemia and transplant modules and the 29-item Patient
      Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System questionnaire. RESULTS: With
      data from the open-ended and questionnaire-based portions of the interview, 7
      positive concepts and 64 negative concepts were elicited. From these, 5 positive
      concepts and 21 negative concepts were selected for inclusion in the preliminary
      AML-QOL on the basis of concept prevalence and the impact on QOL. CONCLUSIONS:
      These concepts will form the basis of a new QOL instrument specific to AML.
      Cancer 2018;124:145-52. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881385
TI  - Expansion and further delineation of the SETD5 phenotype leading to global
      developmental delay, variable dysmorphic features, and reduced penetrance.
AB  - Diagnostic exome sequencing (DES) has aided delineation of the phenotypic
      spectrum of rare genetic etiologies of intellectual disability (ID). A SET domain
      containing 5 gene (SETD5) phenotype of ID and dysmorphic features has been
      previously described in relation to patients with 3p25.3 deletions and in a few
      individuals with de novo sequence alterations. Herein, we present additional
      patients with pathogenic SETD5 sequence alterations. The majority of patients in
      this cohort and previously reported have developmental delay,
      behavioral/psychiatric issues, and variable hand and skeletal abnormalities. We
      also present an apparently unaffected carrier mother of an affected individual
      and a carrier mother with normal intelligence and affected twin sons. We suggest
      that the phenotype of SETD5 is more complex and variable than previously
      presented. Therefore, many features and presentations need to be considered when
      evaluating a patient for SETD5 alterations through DES.

PMID- 28881386
TI  - Heterogeneous impact of smoking on major salivary gland cancer according to
      histopathological subtype: A case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major salivary gland cancers (M-SGCs) are rare, and have distinct
      heterogeneous histopathological subtypes. To the authors' knowledge, no
      consistent evidence of an association between cigarette smoking and the risk of M
      SGCs has appeared to date. Furthermore, evidence of potential heterogeneity in
      the impact of smoking on histopathological subtypes is scarce, despite the fact
      that the histopathological subtypes of M-SGC exhibit different genetic features.
      METHODS: The authors conducted a case-control study to investigate the
      association between smoking and M-SGC by histopathological subtype. Cases were 81
      patients with M-SGCs and the controls were 810 age-matched and sex-matched first
      visit outpatients without cancer treated at Aichi Cancer Center Hospital from
      1988 to 2005. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were
      assessed by conditional logistic regression analysis with adjustment for
      potential confounders. RESULTS: Smoking was found to be associated with a
      significantly increased risk of M-SGC overall, with an OR of 3.45 (95% CI, 1.58
      7.51; P =.001) for heavy smokers compared with never-smokers. A significant dose
      response relationship was observed (P for trend, .001). When stratified by
      histological subtype, no obvious impact of smoking was observed among patients
      with mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC). In contrast, smoking demonstrated a
      significantly increased risk of M-SGCs other than MEC, with an OR of 5.15 (95%
      CI, 2.06-12.87; P<.001) for heavy smokers compared with never-smokers. The
      authors observed possible heterogeneity with regard to the impact of smoking on
      risk between MEC and M-SGCs other than MEC (P for heterogeneity, .052).
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study demonstrate a significant positive
      association between cigarette smoking and the risk of M-SGC overall. However, the
      impact of smoking appeared to be limited to M-SGCs other than MEC. Cancer
      2018;124:118-24. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881387
TI  - Effects of lactoferrin and lactoperoxidase-containing food on the oral microbiota
      of older individuals.
AB  - The oral microbiota influences health and disease states. Some gram-negative
      anaerobic bacteria play important roles in tissue destruction associated with
      periodontal disease. Lactoferrin (LF) and lactoperoxidase (LPO) are antimicrobial
      proteins found in saliva; however, their influence on the whole oral microbiota
      currently remains unknown. In this randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled
      study, the effects of long-term ingestion of LF and LPO-containing tablets on the
      microbiota of supragingival plaque and tongue coating were assessed. Forty-six
      older individuals ingested placebo or test tablets after every meal for 8 weeks.
      The relative abundance of bacterial species was assessed by 16S rRNA gene high
      throughput sequencing. Most of the bacterial species in supragingival plaque and
      tongue coating that exhibited significant decreases in the test group were gram
      negative bacteria, including periodontal pathogens. Decreases in the total
      relative abundance of gram-negative organisms in supragingival plaque and tongue
      coating correlated with improvements in assessed variables related to oral
      health, such as oral malodor and plaque accumulation. Furthermore, there was
      significantly less microbiota diversity in supragingival plaque at 8 weeks in the
      test group than in the placebo group and low microbiota diversity correlated with
      improvements in assessed variables related to oral health. These results suggest
      that LF and LPO-containing tablets promote a shift from a highly diverse and gram
      negative-dominated to a gram-positive-dominated community in the microbiota of
      supragingival plaque and tongue coating. This microbial shift may contribute to
      improvements in oral health, including oral malodor and state of the gingiva.

PMID- 28881388
TI  - Autosomal dominant calpainopathy due to heterozygous CAPN3 C.643_663del21.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A calpain-3 (CAPN3) gene heterozygous deletion (c.643_663del21) was
      recently linked to autosomal dominant (AD) limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.
      However, the possibility of digenic disease was raised. We describe 3 families
      with AD calpainopathy carrying this isolated mutation. METHODS: Probands
      heterozygous for CAPN3 c.643_663del21 were identified by targeted next generation
      or whole exome sequencing. Clinical findings were collected for probands and
      families. Calpain-3 muscle Western blots were performed in 3 unrelated
      individuals. RESULTS: Probands reported variable weakness in their 40s or 50s,
      with myalgia, back pain, or hyperlordosis. Pelvic girdle muscles were affected
      with adductor and hamstring sparing. Creatine kinase was normal to 1,800 U/L,
      independent of weakness severity. Imaging demonstrated lumbar paraspinal muscle
      atrophy. Electromyographic findings and muscle biopsies were normal to mildly
      myopathic. Muscle calpain-3 expression was reduced. DISCUSSION: This study
      provides further evidence for AD calpainopathy associated with CAPN3
      c.643_663del21. No pathogenic variants in other genes known to cause myopathy
      were detected. Muscle Nerve 57: 679-683, 2018.

PMID- 28881389
TI  - Comparisons in fluctuation of muscle strength and function in patients with
      immune-mediated neuropathy treated with intravenous versus subcutaneous
      immunoglobulin.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Variations in muscle strength and function have not been studied in
      patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and multifocal
      motor neuropathy whose treatment regimen has been changed from intravenous to
      subcutaneous immunoglobulin (IVIg to SCIg). METHODS: In a prospective, open-label
      study, patients were changed from monthly IVIg to weekly SCIg. The primary
      endpoint was variation in isokinetic muscle strength (cIKS). Secondary endpoints
      were variations in Medical Research Council (MRC) score, grip strength (GS), 9
      hole-peg test (9-HPT), and 40-meter-walk test (40-MWT). RESULTS: The coefficient
      of variance of cIKS during the IVIg and SCIg treatment periods was unchanged
      (mean +/- SD: 6.97 +/- 4.83% vs. 5.50 +/- 3.13%, P = 0.21). The variations in the
      9-HPT and 40-MWT were significantly lower in the SCIg group (P = 0.01 and P =
      0.005, respectively). DISCUSSION: When therapy was changed from IVIg to SCIg,
      fluctuation of muscle strength was unchanged, but performance fluctuations were
      diminished. Muscle Nerve 57: 610-614, 2018.

PMID- 28881391
TI  - RNA meets DNA: The Potential for gene expression to produce short RNA molecules
      capable of generating DNA mutation and driving genome evolution (Comment on DOI:
      10.1002/bies.201700069).

PMID- 28881390
TI  - Prenatal Alcohol Exposure in Relation to Autism Spectrum Disorder: Findings from
      the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prenatal alcohol exposure can affect neurodevelopment, but few
      studies have examined associations with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS:
      We assessed the association between maternal alcohol use and ASD in the Study to
      Explore Early Development, a multi-site case-control study of children born
      between September 2003 and August 2006 in the US Regression analyses included 684
      children with research clinician-confirmed ASD, 869 children with non-ASD
      developmental delays or disorders (DDs), and 962 controls ascertained from the
      general population (POP). Maternal alcohol exposure during each month from 3
      months prior to conception until delivery was assessed by self-report. RESULTS:
      Mothers of POP children were more likely to report any prenatal alcohol use than
      mothers of children with ASD or DD. In trimester one, 21.2% of mothers of POP
      children reported alcohol use compared with 18.1% and 18.2% of mothers of
      children with ASD or DD, respectively (adjusted OR for ASD vs. POP 0.8, 95%
      confidence interval 0.6, 1.1). During preconception and the first month of
      pregnancy, one to two drinks on average per week was inversely associated with
      ASD risk. CONCLUSIONS: These results do not support an adverse association
      between low-level alcohol exposure and ASD, although these findings were based on
      retrospective self-reported alcohol use. Unmeasured confounding or exposure
      misclassification may explain inverse associations with one to two drinks per
      week. Pregnant or potentially pregnant women should continue to follow
      recommendations to avoid alcohol use because of other known effects on infant
      health and neurodevelopment.

PMID- 28881392
TI  - On the road to replacing invasive testing with cell-based NIPT: Five clinical
      cases with aneuploidies, microduplication, unbalanced structural rearrangement,
      or mosaicism.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Trophoblastic fetal cells harvested from maternal blood have the
      capacity to be used for copy number analyses in a cell-based non-invasive
      prenatal test (cbNIPT). Potentially, this will result in increased resolution for
      detection of subchromosomal aberrations due to high quality DNA not intermixed
      with maternal DNA. We present 5 selected clinical cases from first trimester
      pregnancies where cbNIPT was used to demonstrate a wide range of clinically
      relevant aberrations. METHOD: Blood samples were collected from high risk
      pregnancies in gestational week 12 + 1 to 12 + 5. Fetal trophoblast cells were
      enriched and stained using fetal cell specific antibodies. The enriched cell
      fraction was scanned, and fetal cells were picked using a capillary-based cell
      picking instrument. Subsequently, whole genome amplification (WGA) was performed
      on fetal cells, and the DNA was analyzed blindly by array comparative genomic
      hybridization (aCGH). RESULTS: We present 5 cases where non-invasive cell-based
      prenatal test results are compared with aCGH results on chorionic villus samples
      (CVS), demonstrating aneuploidies including mosaicism, unbalanced translocations,
      subchromosomal deletions, or duplications. CONCLUSION: Aneuploidy and
      subchromosomal aberrations can be detected using fetal cells harvested from
      maternal blood. The method has the future potential of being offered as a cell
      based NIPT with large high genomic resolution.

PMID- 28881393
TI  - Outcomes of Gallstone Disease during Pregnancy: a Population-based Data Linkage
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gallstone disease is a leading indication for non-obstetric abdominal
      surgery during pregnancy. There are limited whole population data on maternal and
      neonatal outcomes. This population-based study aims to describe the outcomes of
      gallstone disease during pregnancy in an Australian setting. METHODS: Linked
      hospital, birth, and mortality data for all women with singleton pregnancies in
      New South Wales, Australia, 2001-2012 were analysed. Exposure of interest was
      gallstone disease (acute biliary pancreatitis, gallstones with/without
      cholecystitis). Outcomes including preterm birth (spontaneous and planned),
      readmission, morbidity and mortality (maternal and neonatal) were compared
      between pregnancies with and without gallstone disease. Adjusted risk ratios
      (aRRs) and 99% confidence intervals were estimated using modified Poisson
      regression and adjusted for maternal and pregnancy factors. RESULTS: Among 1 064
      089 pregnancies, 1882 (0.18%) had gallstone disease. Of these, 239 (12.7%) had an
      antepartum cholecystectomy and 1643 (87.3%) were managed conservatively. Of those
      managed conservatively, 319 (19.0%) had a postpartum cholecystectomy. Gallstone
      disease was associated with increased risk of preterm birth (aRR 1.3, 99% CI 1.1,
      1.6), particularly planned preterm birth (aRR 1.6, 99% CI 1.2, 2.1), maternal
      morbidity (aRR 1.6, 99% CI 1.1, 2.3), maternal readmission (aRR 4.7, 99% CI 4.2,
      5.3), and neonatal morbidity (aRR 1.4, 99% CI 1.1, 1.7). Surgery was associated
      with decreased risk of maternal readmission (aRR 0.4, 99% CI 0.2, 0.7).
      CONCLUSIONS: Gallstone disease during pregnancy was associated with adverse
      maternal and neonatal outcomes. Most women with gallstone disease during
      pregnancy are managed conservatively. Surgical management was associated with
      decreased risk of readmission.

PMID- 28881395
TI  - Long-standing Challenges to Exposure Measurement and Outcome Definitions: the
      Case of Alcohol and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PMID- 28881394
TI  - The Effect of Vaccination Against Human Papillomavirus on Fecundability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was developed to prevent
      infection with strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. While HPV infection has
      been associated with reduced semen quality and lower pregnancy rates in some
      studies, no studies have examined the relationship between HPV vaccination and
      fecundability. We hypothesize that HPV prevention via vaccination will protect
      fecundity. METHODS: We analysed data from Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), a
      preconception cohort of North American pregnancy planners. Between 2013 and 2017,
      we followed 3483 female pregnancy planners and 1022 of their male partners for 12
      months or until reported pregnancy, whichever came first. At baseline,
      participants reported whether they had been vaccinated against HPV and their age
      at vaccination. We estimated fecundability ratios (FR) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CI) using proportional probabilities models adjusted for
      sociodemographics, smoking, and abnormal Pap test before HPV vaccination (females
      only). RESULTS: HPV vaccination was more prevalent among females (33.9%) than
      males (5.2%). There was little overall association between female vaccination (FR
      0.98, 95% CI 0.90, 1.08) or male vaccination (FR 1.07, 95% CI 0.79, 1.46) and
      fecundability. Among females with a history of sexually transmitted infections or
      pelvic inflammatory disease (i.e. a group at high risk of exposure to HPV
      infection), those vaccinated against HPV had higher fecundability than those not
      vaccinated (FR 1.35, 95% CI 0.99, 1.86). CONCLUSION: Although HPV vaccination had
      little effect on fecundability overall, HPV vaccination was positively associated
      with fecundability among women with a history of sexually transmitted infections.

PMID- 28881396
TI  - Guidelines on radiographic imaging as part of root canal treatment: a systematic
      review with a focus on review imaging after treatment.
AB  - AIM: To identify guidelines on endodontics which make recommendations relating to
      post-root canal treatment radiological review imaging, to make an objective
      assessment of their quality using the AGREE tool and to examine the evidence
      cited in support of their recommendations. METHODOLOGY: The primary sources to
      identify published guidelines were MEDLINE (Ovid(r) ) and EMBASE. The search aim
      was to identify guidelines pertaining to the post-root canal treatment follow-up
      recommendations published from 1946 with the final search date being 26 June
      2016. The primary search was supplemented by searching Internet search engines
      and several websites that might have guidelines. The guidelines obtained from the
      search end-result were assessed for quality and scientific evidence using the
      AGREE II instrument. Similarities and differences in the recommendations were
      identified. RESULTS: Thirty guidelines were identified, seven of which met the
      inclusion criteria. Two guidelines used and clearly described the methods for
      obtaining scientific evidence from which the recommendations were set. The
      recommendations varied, particularly as regards the timing of the first review
      radiograph. Some guidelines lacked supporting evidence. CONCLUSIONS: The
      recommendations for post-root canal treatment radiographic follow-up varied
      amongst the identified guidelines. However, the methodology for obtaining the
      scientific evidence was poorly described in most of the guidelines. Guideline
      development groups should use the AGREE II instrument as a guide to produce
      higher quality guidelines.

PMID- 28881397
TI  - Cholesterol-imprinted macroporous monoliths: Preparation and characterization.
AB  - The development of sorbents for selective binding of cholesterol, which is a risk
      factor for cardiovascular disease, has a great importance for analytical science
      and medicine. In this work, two series of macroporous cholesterol-imprinted
      monolithic sorbents differing in the composition of functional monomers
      (methacrylic acid, butyl methacrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and ethylene
      dimethacrylate), amount of a template (4, 6 and 8 mol%) used for molecular
      imprinting, as well as mean pore size were synthesized by in situ free-radical
      process in stainless steel housing of 50 mm * 4.6 mm i.d. All prepared materials
      were characterized regarding to their hydrodynamic permeability and porous
      properties, as well as examined by BET and SEM methods. Imprinting factors,
      apparent dynamic dissociation constants, the maximum binding capacity, the number
      of theoretical plates and the height equivalent to a theoretical palate of MIP
      monoliths at different mobile phase flow rates were determined. The separation of
      a mixture of structural analogues, namely, cholesterol and prednisolone, was
      demonstrated. Additionally, the possibility of using the developed monoliths for
      cholesterol solid-phase extraction from simulated biological solution was shown.

PMID- 28881399
TI  - Heavy-Atom Tunneling Calculations in Thirteen Organic Reactions: Tunneling
      Contributions are Substantial, and Bell's Formula Closely Approximates
      Multidimensional Tunneling at >=250 K.
AB  - Multidimensional tunneling calculations are carried out for 13 reactions, to test
      the scope of heavy-atom tunneling in organic chemistry, and to check the accuracy
      of one-dimensional tunneling models. The reactions include pericyclic,
      cycloaromatization, radical cyclization and ring opening, and SN 2. When compared
      at the temperatures that give the same effective rate constant of 3*10-5  s-1 ,
      tunneling accounts for 25-95 % of the rate in 8 of the 13 reactions. Values of
      transmission coefficients predicted by Bell's formula, kappaBell  , agree well
      with multidimensional tunneling (canonical variational transition state theory
      with small curvature tunneling), kappaSCT . Mean unsigned deviations of kappaBell
      vs. kappaSCT are 0.08, 0.04, 0.02 at 250, 300 and 400 K. This suggests that
      kappaBell is a useful first choice for predicting transmission coefficients in
      heavy-atom tunnelling.

PMID- 28881398
TI  - Acquired Arnold-Chiari malformation in a 16-year-old patient with hereditary
      angioedema.

PMID- 28881400
TI  - Quality specification and status of internal quality control of cardiac
      biomarkers in China from 2011 to 2016.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the status of internal quality
      control (IQC) for cardiac biomarkers from 2011 to 2016 so that we can have
      overall knowledge of the precision level of measurements in China and set
      appropriate precision specifications. METHODS: Internal quality control data of
      cardiac biomarkers, including creatinine kinase MB (CK-MB) (MUg/L), CK-MB(U/L),
      myoglobin (Mb), cardiac troponin I (cTnI), cardiac troponin T (cTnT), and
      homocysteines (HCY), were collected by a web-based external quality assessment
      (EQA) system. Percentages of laboratories meeting five precision quality
      specifications for current coefficient of variations (CVs) were calculated. Then,
      appropriate precision specifications were chosen for these six analytes. Finally,
      the CVs and IQC practice were further analyzed with different grouping methods.
      RESULTS: The current CVs remained nearly constant for 6 years. cTnT had the
      highest pass rates every year against five specifications, whereas HCY had the
      lowest pass rates. Overall, most analytes had a satisfactory performance (pass
      rates >80%), except for HCY, if one-third TEa or the minimum specification were
      employed. When the optimal specification was applied, the performance of most
      analytes was frustrating (pass rates < 60%) except for cTnT. The appropriate
      precision specifications of Mb, cTnI, cTnT and HCY were set as current CVs less
      than 9.20%, 9.90%, 7.50%, 10.54%, 7.63%, and 6.67%, respectively. The data of IQC
      practices indicated wide variation and substantial progress. CONCLUSION: The
      precision performance of cTnT was already satisfying, while the other five
      analytes, especially HCY, were still frustrating; thus, ongoing investigation and
      continuous improvement for IQC are still needed.

PMID- 28881402
TI  - Should there be an app for that? The case for text messaging in mHealth
      interventions.

PMID- 28881401
TI  - Generation of T follicular helper cells in vitro: requirement for B-cell receptor
      cross-linking and cognate B- and T-cell interaction.
AB  - The minimum requirements for in vitro modelling of natural CD4+ T-cell
      differentiation into T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are still under
      investigation. We co-cultured wild-type and T-cell receptor (TCR) transgenic CD4+
      T cells from naive mice with dendritic cells and B-cell receptor (BCR) transgenic
      B cells in the presence of HIV-derived virus-like particles containing matched B
      cell and T-cell epitopes. This co-culturing induced co-expression of Tfh-master
      regulator transcription factor BCL-6 and CXCR5 in up to 10% of the wild-type and
      up to 40% of the TCR-transgenic CD4+ T cells. Phenotypic markers, production of
      interleukin-21 and isotype switching of the B cells to IgG1 further indicated a
      helper function of the induced Tfh cells in vitro. Dendritic cells supported the
      generation of functional Tfh cells, but were unable to induce them without
      cognate B cells. Hence, our study presents a robust experimental system for
      efficient generation of functionally active Tfh cells in vitro and confirms the
      importance of cognate B- and T-cell cross-talk for the Tfh differentiation
      process.

PMID- 28881403
TI  - Differentiation of movement behaviour in an adaptively diverging salamander
      population.
AB  - Dispersal is considered to be a species-specific trait, but intraspecific
      variation can be high. However, when and how this complex trait starts to
      differentiate during the divergence of species/lineages is unknown. Here, we
      studied the differentiation of movement behaviour in a large salamander
      population (Salamandra salamandra), in which individual adaptations to different
      habitat conditions drive the genetic divergence of this population into two
      subpopulations. In this system, salamanders have adapted to the deposition and
      development of their larvae in ephemeral ponds vs. small first-order streams. In
      general, the pond habitat is characterized as a spatially and temporally highly
      unpredictable habitat, while streams provide more stable and predictable
      conditions for the development of larvae. We analysed the fine-scale genetic
      distribution of larvae, and explored whether the adaptation to different larval
      habitat conditions has in turn also affected dispersal strategies and home range
      size of adult salamanders. Based on the genetic assignment of adult individuals
      to their respective larval habitat type, we show that pond-adapted salamanders
      occupied larger home ranges, displayed long-distance dispersal and had a higher
      variability of movement types than the stream-adapted individuals. We argue that
      the differentiation of phenotypically plastic traits such as dispersal and
      movement characteristics can be a crucial component in the course of adaptation
      to new habitat conditions, thereby promoting the genetic divergence of
      populations.

PMID- 28881404
TI  - Heptazine: an Electron-Deficient Fluorescent Core for Discotic Liquid Crystals.
AB  - Herein, room-temperature discotic liquid crystals based on heptazine, an electron
      deficient central core, are reported for the first time. Mesomorphic behaviors of
      the materials are also investigated. Supramolecular assembly of the mesophase
      derivatives were confirmed by X-ray scattering experiments. Heptazine-based solid
      thin films are strong blue light emitters, whereas in the solution state, they
      are weakly emissive or non-emissive. The band gap energy is found to be low in
      this class of compounds. Formation of room-temperature mesophases, low band-gap
      behavior, and strong blue-light emission in the solid state are promising
      attributes for optoelectronic applications of the materials.

PMID- 28881405
TI  - Fabrication of Photocontrolled Surfaces for Oil/Water Separation through
      Sulfur(VI) Fluoride Exchange.
AB  - Smart surfaces with controllable wettability have attracted substantial interest
      owing to the potential use of these materials for the separation of oil from oily
      water caused by frequent oil-spill accidents. Because there are few separation
      materials on the market that are capable of switching between hydrophobicity and
      hydrophilicity, this work reports an efficient and low-cost method to fabricate a
      photoresponsive membrane through the sulfur(VI) fluoride exchange reaction
      (SuFEx) between poly(4-vinylphenol sulfofluoridate) and (E)-1-(4-(tert
      butoxy)phenyl)-2-(4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenyl)diazene. The resulting material
      displays switchable wettability between hydrophobic and hydrophilic states when
      subjected to ultraviolet or visible irradiation. This membrane can be recycled
      (greater than five times) and features superior efficiency (up to 97.9 %) for the
      separation of oils that have both higher and lower densities than water. This
      work is the first proof-of-concept application of SuFEx to fabricate functional
      materials for environmental remediation.

PMID- 28881406
TI  - The Circadian expression of Piezo1, TRPV4, Connexin26, and VNUT, associated with
      the expression levels of the clock genes in mouse primary cultured urothelial
      cells.
AB  - AIMS: To investigate circadian gene expressions in the mouse bladder urothelium
      to establish an experimental model and study the functions of the circadian
      rhythm. METHODS: The gene expression rhythms of the clock genes, mechano-sensors
      such as Piezo1 and TRPV4, ATP release mediated molecules (ARMM) such as Cx26 and
      VNUT were investigated in mouse primary cultured urothelial cells (UCs) of wild
      type (WT) and Clock mutant (ClockDelta19/Delta19 ) mice using quantitative real
      time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western
      blotting analysis. The long-term oscillation of the clock genes in UC was
      investigated by measuring bioluminescence from UC isolated from Period2luciferase
      knock-in mice (Per2::luc) and Per2::luc with ClockDelta19/Delta19 using a
      luminometer. The mRNA expression rhythms after treatment with Clock short
      interfering RNA (siRNA) were also measured to compare differences between Clock
      point mutations and Clock deficiency. RESULTS: The UCs from WT mice showed the
      time-dependent gene expressions for clock genes, mechano-sensors, and ARMM. The
      abundances of the products of these genes also correlated with the mRNA
      expression rhythms in UCs. The bioluminescence of Per2::Luc in UCs showed a
      circadian rhythm. By contrast, all the gene expressions rhythms observed in WT
      mice were abrogated in the ClockDelta19/Delta19 mice. Transfection with Clock
      siRNA in UCs had the same effect as the Clock mutation. CONCLUSIONS: We
      demonstrated that the time-dependent gene expressions, including clock genes,
      mechano-sensors, and ARMM, were reproducible in UCs. These findings demonstrated
      that UCs have the potential to progress research into the circadian functions of
      the lower urinary tract regulated by clock genes.

PMID- 28881408
TI  - Hydrogen Bond versus Halogen Bond in Cation-Cation Complexes: Effect of the
      Solvent.
AB  - Competition between hydrogen- (HB) and halogen-bonded (XB) 4-ammoniumpyridine and
      halogenammonium (NHn F3-n X+ ; n=0-3; X=F, Cl, Br, and I) cation-cation complexes
      are explored by means of DFT calculations. HB and XB minima structures are found
      for all systems in the gas phase. As the number of fluorine atoms increases, the
      HB complexes are more favored than those of XB. Proton transfer is generally
      observed in complexes with two, three, or four halogen atoms. The XB complexes
      evolve from traditional halogen bonds, to halogen-shared complexes, and to ionic
      complexes as the number of fluorine atoms increases. The dissociation transition
      states and their corresponding barriers are also characterized; the barriers
      increase as the number of fluorine atoms increases. The results if solvent
      effects are considered indicate that, even in an apolar solvent, such as n
      hexane, most of the complexes have favorable binding energies. Atoms-in-molecules
      theory is used to analyze the complexes, and results in good correlations between
      electron density and total electron energy density (Eta) values with the
      intermolecular bond length. According to the Eta values obtained, the covalency
      of these interactions starts to manifest at distances around 72-74 % the sum of
      the van der Waals radii of the interacting atoms.

PMID- 28881407
TI  - Quantification of AKBA in Boswellia sacra Using NIRS Coupled with PLSR as an
      Alternative Method and Cross-Validation by HPLC.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: 3-O-Acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid (AKBA), one of the
      pentacyclic triterpenoids, is the main biologically active constituent in the
      resin of Boswellia sacra and has received significant pharmacological interest in
      recent years. OBJECTIVE: It was aimed to develop a robust method to quantify the
      AKBA content in methanolic extracts of different parts of B. sacra plants and in
      various fractions of its resin exudates through near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
      coupled with partial least squares regression (PLSR). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The
      near-infrared (NIR) spectra were used to measure the AKBA standards and B. sacra
      samples at a wavelength range between 700 and 2500 nm in absorption mode. A PLSR
      model was built from the obtained spectral data using 70% of the AKBA working
      standard solutions (training set), ranging from 0.1 ppm to 100 ppm. The final
      PLSR showed a R2 value of 99% with a root mean square error of cross-validation
      (RMSECV) value of 0.39% and a R2 value of 99%. RESULTS: The results showed that a
      50% CHCl3 /n-hexane sub-fraction has the highest concentration of AKBA (14.8%),
      followed by 55% CHCl3 /n-hexane (13.6%), and 40% CHCl3 /n-hexane (6.1%).
      CONCLUSION: As the results achieved with the proposed NIRS methodology are in
      close agreement to the results of AKBA analysis using HPLC, we suggest that our
      proposed NIRS method is a fast alternative and non-destructive method for the
      analysis of AKBA in different samples of B. sacra. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley
      & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28881409
TI  - An Emerging New Risk Analysis Science: Foundations and Implications.
AB  - To solve real-life problems-such as those related to technology, health,
      security, or climate change-and make suitable decisions, risk is nearly always a
      main issue. Different types of sciences are often supporting the work, for
      example, statistics, natural sciences, and social sciences. Risk analysis
      approaches and methods are also commonly used, but risk analysis is not broadly
      accepted as a science in itself. A key problem is the lack of explanatory power
      and large uncertainties when assessing risk. This article presents an emerging
      new risk analysis science based on novel ideas and theories on risk analysis
      developed in recent years by the risk analysis community. It builds on a
      fundamental change in thinking, from the search for accurate predictions and risk
      estimates, to knowledge generation related to concepts, theories, frameworks,
      approaches, principles, methods, and models to understand, assess, characterize,
      communicate, and (in a broad sense) manage risk. Examples are used to illustrate
      the importance of this distinct/separate risk analysis science for solving risk
      problems, supporting science in general and other disciplines in particular.

PMID- 28881410
TI  - How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Alcohol consumption increases the risk of several types of
      cancer, including several common cancers. As part of their corporate social
      responsibility activities, the alcohol industry (AI) disseminates information
      about alcohol and cancer. We examined the information on this which the AI
      disseminates to the public through its 'social aspects and public relations
      organizations' and related bodies. The aim of the study was to determine its
      comprehensiveness and accuracy. DESIGN AND METHODS: Qualitative analysis of
      websites and documents from 27 AI organisations. All text relating to cancer was
      extracted and analysed thematically. RESULTS: Most of the organisations were
      found to disseminate misrepresentations of the evidence about the association
      between alcohol and cancer. Three main industry strategies were identified: (i)
      denial/omission: denying, omitting or disputing the evidence that alcohol
      consumption increases cancer risk; (ii) distortion: mentioning cancer, but
      misrepresenting the risk; and (iii) distraction: focussing discussion away from
      the independent effects of alcohol on common cancers. Breast cancer and
      colorectal cancer appeared to be a particular focus for this misrepresentation.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The AI appears to be engaged in the extensive
      misrepresentation of evidence about the alcohol-related risk of cancer. These
      activities have parallels with those of the tobacco industry. This finding is
      important because the industry is involved in developing alcohol policy in many
      countries, and in disseminating health information to the public, including
      schoolchildren. Policymakers, academics, public health and other practitioners
      should reconsider the appropriateness of their relationships to these AI bodies.

PMID- 28881411
TI  - Are cataract surgery referrals to public hospitals in Australia poorly targeted?
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Referral letters constitute the first step on the pathway to cataract
      surgery; however, little is known on how effective referral letters are in
      providing adequate information to triage patients and inform surgical
      prioritization. BACKGROUND: Benchmarking exercises are important to document
      referral processes and to identify areas where improvements can be made. DESIGN:
      Cross-sectional study with longitudinal follow-up conducted at two metropolitan
      public hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 400
      sequential cataract referral letters. METHODS: An audit of cataract referral
      letters was performed and content benchmarked against international
      prioritization tools. Medical records were reviewed 1 year following referral.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Referral quality and waiting times. RESULTS: Two-thirds of
      patients referred for cataract surgery were yet to have their initial hospital
      appointment in the year following referral (65%, 245/376). One half of referrals
      seen in clinic (49%, 64/113) were not listed for cataract surgery. Multivariate
      analysis revealed referral letter content was not indicative of surgical booking,
      with the major predictors being hospital-recorded visual acuity and grading of
      cataract (P < 0.0001). Referral content lacked sufficient detail to apply
      prioritization tools developed in other settings. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: This
      audit highlights a disconnect between referral letter content and hospital
      assessment of patients. Current referrals to public hospitals are poorly
      targeted, with high numbers of referred patients not proceeding to surgery.
      Patients commonly waited over 1 year to have their ophthalmic assessment at these
      public hospital eye clinics, revealing lengthy 'wait-for-waits' as a barrier to
      care. Standardized referral templates may facilitate improvement of referral
      pathways and shorten waiting times.

PMID- 28881412
TI  - Benefits of extracurricular participation in dissection in a prosection-based
      medical anatomy program.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extracurricular cadaveric
      dissection program available to medical students at an institution with a modern
      (time-compressed, student-centered, and prosection-based) approach to medical
      anatomy education. Quantitative (Likert-style questions) and qualitative data
      (thematic analysis of open-ended commentary) were collated from a survey of three
      medical student cohorts who had completed preclerkship. Perceived benefits of
      dissection included the hands-on learning style and the development of anatomy
      expertise, while the main barrier that limited participation was the time
      intensive nature of dissection. Despite perceived benefits, students preferred
      that dissection remain optional. Analysis of assessments for the MD2016 cohort
      revealed that dissection participation was associated with enhanced performance
      on anatomy items in each systems-based unit examination, with the largest
      benefits observed on discriminating items that assessed knowledge application. In
      conclusion, this study revealed that there are academic and perceived benefits of
      extracurricular participation in dissection. While millennial medical students
      recognized these benefits, these students also indicated strong preference for
      having flexibility and choice in their anatomy education, including the choice to
      participate in cadaveric dissection. Anat Sci Educ 11: 294-302. (c) 2017 American
      Association of Anatomists.

PMID- 28881413
TI  - Low expression of SEMA6C accelerates the primordial follicle activation in the
      neonatal mouse ovary.
AB  - The primordial follicle assembly, activation and the subsequent development are
      critical processes for female reproduction. A limited number of primordial
      follicles are activated to enter the growing follicle pool each wave, and the
      primordial follicle pool progressively diminishes over a woman's life-time. The
      number of remaining primordial follicles represents the ovarian reserve.
      Identification and functional investigation of the factors involved in follicular
      initial recruitment will be of great significance to the understanding of the
      female reproduction process and ovarian ageing. In this study, we aimed to study
      whether and how semaphorin 6C (Sema6c) regulated the primordial follicle
      activation in the neonatal mouse ovary. The attenuation of SEMA6C expression by
      SiRNA accelerated the primordial follicle activation in the in vitro ovary
      culture system. PI3K-AKT-rpS6 pathway was activated when SEMA6C expression was
      down-regulated. And the LY294002 could reverse the effect of low SEMA6C
      expression on primordial follicle activation. Our findings revealed that Sema6c
      was involved in the activation of primordial follicles, and the down-regulation
      of SEMA6C led to massive primordial follicle activation by interacting with the
      PI3K-AKT-rpS6 pathway, which might also provide valuable information for
      understanding premature ovarian failure and ovarian ageing.

PMID- 28881414
TI  - Changes in field dose-response curves for demethylation inhibitor (DMI) and
      quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides against Zymoseptoria tritici, related
      to laboratory sensitivity phenotyping and genotyping assays.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Insensitivity of Zymoseptoria tritici to demethylation inhibitor
      (DMI) and quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides has been widely reported
      from laboratory studies, but the relationships between laboratory sensitivity
      phenotype or target site genotype and field efficacy remain uncertain. This
      article reports field experiments quantifying dose-response curves, and
      investigates the relationships between field performance and in vitro half
      maximal effective concentration (EC50 ) values for DMIs, and the frequency of the
      G143A substitution conferring QoI resistance. RESULTS: Data were analysed from 83
      field experiments over 21 years. Response curves were fitted, expressed as
      percentage control, rising towards an asymptote with increasing dose. Decline in
      DMI efficacy over years was associated with a decrease in the asymptote, and
      reduced curvature. Field ED50 values were positively related to in vitro EC50
      values for isolates of Z. tritici collected over a 14-year period. Loss of QoI
      efficacy was expressed through a change in asymptote. Increasing frequency of
      G143A was associated with changes in field dose-response asymptotes. CONCLUSION:
      New resistant strains are often detected by resistance monitoring and laboratory
      phenotyped/genotyped before changes in field performance are detected. The
      relationships demonstrated here between laboratory tests and field performance
      could aid translation between laboratory and field for other fungicide groups.
      (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28881415
TI  - Uterine massage as part of active management of the third stage of labour for
      preventing postpartum haemorrhage during vaginal delivery: a systematic review
      and meta-analysis of randomised trials.

PMID- 28881416
TI  - Improved fruit alpha-tocopherol, carotenoid, squalene and phytosterol contents
      through manipulation of Brassica juncea 3-HYDROXY-3-METHYLGLUTARYL-COA SYNTHASE1
      in transgenic tomato.
AB  - 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A synthase (HMGS) in the mevalonate (MVA)
      pathway generates isoprenoids including phytosterols. Dietary phytosterols are
      important because they can lower blood cholesterol levels. Previously, the
      overexpression of Brassica juncea wild-type (wt) and mutant (S359A) BjHMGS1 in
      Arabidopsis up-regulated several genes in sterol biosynthesis and increased
      sterol content. Recombinant S359A had earlier displayed a 10-fold higher in vitro
      enzyme activity. Furthermore, tobacco HMGS overexpressors (OEs) exhibited
      improved sterol content, plant growth and seed yield. Increased growth and seed
      yield in tobacco OE-S359A over OE-wtBjHMGS1 coincided with elevations in NtSQS
      expression and sterol content. Herein, the overexpression of wt and mutant
      (S359A) BjHMGS1 in a crop plant, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), caused an
      accumulation of MVA-derived squalene and phytosterols, as well as
      methylerythritol phosphate (MEP)-derived alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and
      carotenoids, which are important to human health as antioxidants. In tomato HMGS
      OE seedlings, genes associated with the biosyntheses of C10, C15 and C20
      universal precursors of isoprenoids, phytosterols, brassinosteroids, dolichols,
      methylerythritol phosphate, carotenoid and vitamin E were up-regulated. In OE
      S359A tomato fruits, increased squalene and phytosterol contents over OE
      wtBjHMGS1 were attributed to heightened SlHMGR2, SlFPS1, SlSQS and SlCYP710A11
      expression. In both tomato OE-wtBjHMGS1 and OE-S359A fruits, the up-regulation of
      SlGPS and SlGGPPS1 in the MEP pathway that led to alpha-tocopherol and carotenoid
      accumulation indicated cross-talk between the MVA and MEP pathways. Taken
      together, the manipulation of BjHMGS1 represents a promising strategy to
      simultaneously elevate health-promoting squalene, phytosterols, alpha-tocopherol
      and carotenoids in tomato, an edible fruit.

PMID- 28881418
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic Evaluation and Missed-Dose Simulations for
      Eslicarbazepine Acetate Monotherapy in Patients With Partial-Onset Seizures.
AB  - Given the potential consequences of antiepileptic therapy nonadherence, missed
      dose scenarios of 12- to 48-hour dose delays (4-hour intervals) for
      eslicarbazepine acetate monotherapy were evaluated using simulated plasma
      concentrations of a population pharmacokinetic model (representing 493 subjects).
      When 1600-mg doses were delayed 12 to <16 or 36 to <44 hours, simulations showed
      immediate administration of 1600 mg followed by the same dose at the scheduled
      time maintained plasma concentrations within the target concentration range. With
      16- to 24- or 44- to 48-hour delays, administration of 2400 mg at the scheduled
      time followed by resumption of 1600 mg/day maintained plasma concentrations
      within the target concentration range. For exploratory purposes, the population
      pharmacokinetic model was refined to predict (n = 6 subjects) and also to allow
      for simulation of cerebrospinal fluid concentrations. Based on the plasma
      concentration simulations conducted herein, potential dosing recommendations were
      developed that suggest a missed ESL dose should be taken when remembered, and the
      usual dose regimen resumed. If it is remembered within 4 hours of the next dose,
      1.5 times the usual dose should be taken immediately, the scheduled dose for that
      day should be skipped, and the usual regimen resumed the next day.

PMID- 28881417
TI  - Central and non-central networks, cognition, clinical symptoms, and polygenic
      risk scores in schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia is a complex disorder that may be the result of aberrant
      connections between specific brain regions rather than focal brain abnormalities.
      Here, we investigate the relationships between brain structural connectivity as
      described by network analysis, intelligence, symptoms, and polygenic risk scores
      (PGRS) for schizophrenia in a group of patients with schizophrenia and a group of
      healthy controls. Recently, researchers have shown an interest in the role of
      high centrality networks in the disorder. However, the importance of non-central
      networks still remains unclear. Thus, we specifically examined network-averaged
      fractional anisotropy (mean edge weight) in central and non-central subnetworks.
      Connections with the highest betweenness centrality within the average network
      (>75% of centrality values) were selected to represent the central subnetwork.
      The remaining connections were assigned to the non-central subnetwork.
      Additionally, we calculated graph theory measures from the average network
      (connections that occur in at least 2/3 of participants). Density, strength,
      global efficiency, and clustering coefficient were significantly lower in
      patients compared with healthy controls for the average network (pFDR  < 0.05).
      All metrics across networks were significantly associated with intelligence (pFDR
      < 0.05). There was a tendency towards significance for a correlation between
      intelligence and PGRS for schizophrenia (r = -0.508, p = 0.052) that was
      significantly mediated by central and non-central mean edge weight and every
      graph metric from the average network. These results are consistent with the
      hypothesis that intelligence deficits are associated with a genetic risk for
      schizophrenia, which is mediated via the disruption of distributed brain
      networks. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5919-5930, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28881419
TI  - A 55-Year-Old Male Presenting With Altered Mental Status: A Complicated Case of
      Intracranial Aneurysm.

PMID- 28881420
TI  - Lethal Effect of Photodynamic Treatment on Persister Bacteria.
AB  - Persister bacteria tolerate bactericidal antibiotics due to transient and
      reversible phenotypic changes. As these bacteria can limit the effectiveness of
      antibiotics to eradicate certain infections, their elimination is a relevant
      issue. Photodynamic therapy seems suitable for this purpose, but phenotypic
      tolerance to it has also been reported for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To test
      whether any phenotypic feature could confer tolerance against both antibiotics
      and photoinactivation, survivors from exposures to light in the presence of
      methylene blue were treated with ofloxacin, an antibiotic effective on nongrowing
      bacteria. Susceptibility to ofloxacin was normal in these bacteria in spite of
      their increased ability to survive photodynamic inactivation, suggesting the
      absence of cross-tolerance. It thus seemed possible to use one of these
      treatments to eliminate bacteria which had phenotypic tolerance to the other. To
      test this strategy, persister bacteria emerging from ofloxacin treatments were
      submitted to the action of light and methylene blue while the antibiotic remained
      in the bacterial suspension. Persisters lost their clonogenic ability under these
      conditions and the effects of the treatments seemed to be synergistic. These
      observations suggest that photodynamic antimicrobial therapy could be used as a
      complement to antibiotic treatments to eliminate persister bacteria from
      localized infections.

PMID- 28881421
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28881422
TI  - Could Autophagy Induced by Misfolded Mutant alpha1 -Antitrypsin Z in Synovitis
      Explain the Association of alpha1 -Antitrypsin Z With Increased Anti
      Citrullinated Protein Antibody Production in Rheumatoid Arthritis? Comment on the
      Article by McCarthy et al.

PMID- 28881424
TI  - Anatomic relationship of the first olfactory neuron and trochlea: cadaveric study
      with surgical implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Iatrogenic injury to the trochlea is a potential complication of the
      Draf III or endoscopic modified Lothrop procedure; however, the location of the
      trochlea from within the sinus cavity has yet to be clearly characterized. We
      performed the first cadaveric study assessing the position of the trochlea in
      relation to the first olfactory neuron, a commonly identified landmark during the
      Draf III procedure. METHODS: Thirteen external dissections of the trochlea were
      performed on 7 disarticulated cadaveric heads via an extended Lynch type
      incision. An endoscopic Draf III procedure was then performed on all cadavers. A
      burr hole was then created at the trochlear fovea. A straight vector between the
      trochlear attachment and the ipsilateral first olfactory neuron was then created.
      The vector was then viewed from within the sinuses using a 30-degree endoscope.
      The endoscope was maneuvered to create an upright midline view centered on the
      olfactory neurons. An image was subsequently captured and analyzed using ImageJ
      software to calculate a vector angle. The linear distance between the 2
      structures was also recorded. RESULTS: Relative to the first olfactory neuron,
      the trochlea was found to be 19.52 +/- 4.68 mm away and at an angle of 39.42 +/-
      8.54 degrees in the anterolateral, superior direction along the frontal bone.
      CONCLUSION: We report the first anatomical dissection characterizing the position
      of the trochlea relative to the ipsilateral first olfactory neuron.
      Intraoperative recognition of this relationship during Draf III procedures can
      prevent potential injury to the trochlea.

PMID- 28881423
TI  - Thyroid cancer mortality is higher in Filipinos in the United States: An analysis
      using national mortality records from 2003 through 2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma has a favorable prognosis, but
      patients with multiple recurrences have drastically lower survival. Filipinos in
      the United States are known to have high rates of thyroid cancer incidence and
      disease recurrence. To the authors' knowledge, it is unknown whether Filipinos
      also have higher thyroid cancer mortality rates. METHODS: The authors studied
      thyroid cancer mortality in Filipino, non-Filipino Asian (NFA), and non-Hispanic
      white (NHW) adults using US death records (2003-2012) and US Census data. Age
      adjusted mortality rates and proportional mortality ratios (PMRs) were
      calculated. Sex, nativity status, age at death, and educational attainment also
      were examined. RESULTS: The authors examined 19,940,952 deaths. The age-adjusted
      mortality rates due to thyroid cancer were highest in Filipinos (1.72 deaths per
      100,000 population; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.51-1.95) compared with
      NFAs (1.03 per 100,000 population; 95% CI, 0.95-1.12) and NHWs (1.17 per 100,000
      population; 95% CI, 1.16-1.18). Compared with NHWs, higher proportionate
      mortality was observed in Filipino women (3-5 times higher) across all age
      groups, and among Filipino men, the PMR was 2 to 3 times higher in the subgroup
      aged >55 years. Filipinos who completed a higher educational level had a notably
      higher PMR (5.0) compared with their counterparts who had not (3.5). CONCLUSIONS:
      Negative prognostic factors for thyroid cancer traditionally include age >45
      years and male sex. The results of the current study demonstrate that Filipinos
      die of thyroid cancer at higher rates than NFA and NHW individuals of similar
      ages. Highly educated Filipinos and Filipino women may be especially at risk of
      poor thyroid cancer outcomes. Filipino ethnicity should be factored into clinical
      decision making in the management of patients with thyroid cancer. Cancer
      2017;123:4860-7. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881425
TI  - In Vitro Microfluidic Models for Neurodegenerative Disorders.
AB  - Microfluidic devices enable novel means of emulating neurodegenerative disease
      pathophysiology in vitro. These organ-on-a-chip systems can potentially reduce
      animal testing and substitute (or augment) simple 2D culture systems.
      Reconstituting critical features of neurodegenerative diseases in a biomimetic
      system using microfluidics can thereby accelerate drug discovery and improve our
      understanding of the mechanisms of several currently incurable diseases. This
      review describes latest advances in modeling neurodegenerative diseases in the
      central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. First, this study
      summarizes fundamental advantages of microfluidic devices in the creation of
      compartmentalized cell culture microenvironments for the co-culture of neurons,
      glial cells, endothelial cells, and skeletal muscle cells and in their
      recapitulation of spatiotemporal chemical gradients and mechanical
      microenvironments. Then, this reviews neurodegenerative-disease-on-a-chip models
      focusing on Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis. Finally, this study discusses about current drawbacks of these models
      and strategies that may overcome them. These organ-on-chip technologies can be
      useful to be the first line of testing line in drug development and toxicology
      studies, which can contribute significantly to minimize the phase of animal
      testing steps.

PMID- 28881426
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28881427
TI  - Active site geometry of a novel aminopropyltransferase for biosynthesis of
      hyperthermophile-specific branched-chain polyamine.
AB  - : Branched-chain polyamines are found exclusively in thermophilic bacteria and
      Euryarchaeota and play essential roles in survival at high temperatures. In the
      present study, kinetic analyses of a branched-chain polyamine synthase from the
      hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis (Tk-BpsA) were conducted,
      showing that N4 -bis(aminopropyl)spermidine was produced by sequential additions
      of decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine (dcSAM) aminopropyl groups to spermidine,
      through bifunctional catalytic action. Tk-BpsA catalyzed the aminopropylation of
      the linear-chain polyamines spermidine, spermine, norspermidine, and the tertiary
      branched polyamines N4 -aminopropylspermidine and N4 -aminopropylnorspermidine,
      but not of short-chain diamines, putrescine, and cadaverine, suggesting that Tk
      BpsA does not catalyze the aminopropylation of primary amino groups of diamines.
      X-ray structural analyses of Tk-BpsA in the presence or absence of the substrates
      spermidine and dcSAM revealed that a large, negatively charged cavity is
      responsible for the binding of branched-chain substrates. The binding is
      different from that in the active site of linear polyamine spermidine/spermine
      synthases, and loop-closures occur upon the binding of spermidine. Based on
      structural analyses, further kinetic studies were carried out for various
      mutants, revealing that Asp159, positioned between the reactive secondary amino
      group of the substrate polyamine and a sulfur atom of the product 5'
      methylthioadenosine and in a Gly-Asp-Asp-Asp motif, functions as a catalytic
      center, with reactions proceeding via a ping-pong mechanism. Our study provides a
      novel aminopropyltransfer reaction mechanism, distinct from the SN 2 displacement
      mechanism found in other known linear spermidine/spermine synthases. DATABASE:
      Atomic coordinates and structure factors have been deposited in the Protein Data
      Bank with PDB codes 5XNF for apo-Tk-BpsA, 5XNH for the binary complex, and 5XNC
      for the ternary complex.

PMID- 28881429
TI  - Pulmonary Sarcoidosis Revealed by Ulcerating Nodules Within Tattoos.

PMID- 28881430
TI  - Distinctive effects between cognitive stimulation and reminiscence therapy on
      cognitive function and quality of life for different types of behavioural
      problems in dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among the various complementary therapies for patients with dementia
      (PwD), cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) and reminiscence therapy (RT) are
      frequently used to improve cognitive function and quality of life. However, no
      studies have examined the use of complementary therapies applied to different
      types of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in PwD. AIMS: The
      purpose of this study was to investigate the distinctive effects of CST and RT on
      cognitive function and quality of life for PwD with three types of behavioural
      problems - the dispute, return and dissociate types. METHODS: A quasi
      experimental design was employed. A total of PwD residing in 10 long-term care
      institutions participated in the study and were divided into three groups. The
      CST and RT groups received 50-minute sessions of intervention therapy once a week
      for 10 continuous weeks, and the control group participated in regular
      activities. The pretest (week 1), post-test (week 12) and follow-up (week 24)
      data were collected using the Mini-Mental State Examination and Quality of Life
      Alzheimer's Disease. Two-way analysis of variance was used for data analysis.
      RESULTS: The results of our study revealed CST and RT interventions had positive
      effects on cognition and quality of life of PwD. For short-term effects on
      cognitive function, CST was the most positive intervention for the dispute type.
      With regard to short-term effects on quality of life, CST was greater than RT for
      PwD. For follow-up effects, CST and RT may have potentially sustained effects.
      CONCLUSION: This study suggests that CST and RT could be applied to improve the
      cognitive function and quality of life for PwD, as well as contribute to the
      effectiveness of nonpharmacological approaches to PwD with certain types of
      behavioural problems.

PMID- 28881428
TI  - Densification of Type I Collagen Matrices as a Model for Cardiac Fibrosis.
AB  - Cardiac fibrosis is a disease state characterized by excessive collagenous matrix
      accumulation within the myocardium that can lead to ventricular dilation and
      systolic failure. Current treatment options are severely lacking due in part to
      the poor understanding of the complexity of molecular pathways involved in
      cardiac fibrosis. To close this gap, in vitro model systems that recapitulate the
      defining features of the fibrotic cellular environment are in need. Type I
      collagen, a major cardiac extracellular matrix protein and the defining component
      of fibrotic depositions, is an attractive choice for a fibrosis model, but
      demonstrates poor mechanical strength due to solubility limits. However, plastic
      compression of collagen matrices is shown to significantly increase its
      mechanical properties. Here, confined compression of oligomeric, type I collagen
      matrices is utilized to resemble defining hallmarks seen in fibrotic tissue such
      as increased collagen content, fibril thickness, and bulk compressive modulus.
      Cardiomyocytes seeded on compressed matrices show a strong beating abrogation as
      observed in cardiac fibrosis. Gene expression analysis of selected fibrosis
      markers indicates fibrotic activation and cardiomyocyte maturation with regard to
      the existing literature. With these results, a promising first step toward a
      facile heart-on-chip model is presented to study cardiac fibrosis.

PMID- 28881431
TI  - Fractional CO2 laser of the vagina for genitourinary syndrome of menopause: Is
      the out-of-pocket cost worth the outcome of treatment?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to assess patient's satisfaction
      treatment outcomes and out-of-pocket expense for the fractional CO2 laser
      (SmartXide) in the treatment of genitourinary symptoms of menopause (GSM).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients who
      completed a course of three vaginal treatments with the SmartXide11 Fractional
      CO2 laser. Patients contacted via telephone and asked to participate in
      questionnaires to evaluate for adverse outcomes since last treatment, symptom
      severity before and after treatment, patient satisfaction with treatment, patient
      satisfaction with out-of-pocket expense, and sexual function. RESULTS: Of the 368
      patients contacted, 122 agreed to be interviewed. No patients reported seeking
      emergent medical treatment. Patient reported vaginal dryness significantly
      improved following treatment (P < 0.05). The frequency of intercourse increased
      from "once a month" to "few times a month" (P < 0.001). The vast majority of
      patients reported being satisfied with their treatment results (86%) and with the
      cost of treatment (78%). Satisfaction with the out-of-pocket expense did not
      correlate with household income (P = 0.07). CONCLUSION: The SmartXide Fractional
      CO2 laser is a safe and efficacious treatment for GSM. This treatment is
      associated with a high level of patient satisfaction with both treatment results
      and out-of-pocket expense. Lasers Surg. Med. 49:882-885, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28881432
TI  - Protein 4.1R is Involved in the Transport of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid by Interaction
      with GATs in MEF Cells.
AB  - 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-based photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been
      successfully used in the treatment of cancers. However, the mechanism of 5-ALA
      transportation into cancer cells is still not fully elucidated. Previous studies
      have confirmed that the efficiency of 5-ALA-PDT could be affected by the membrane
      skeleton protein 4.1R. In this study, we investigated the role of 4.1R in the
      transport of 5-ALA into cells. Wild-type (4.1R+/+ ) and 4.1R gene knockout (4.1R
      /- ) mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells were incubated with 1 mm 5-ALA and
      different concentrations of specific inhibitors of GABA transporters GAT (1-3).
      Our results showed that the inhibition of GAT1 and GAT2 in particular markedly
      attenuated the intracellular PpIX production, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level
      and 5-ALA-induced photodamage. However, the inhibition of GAT3 did not show such
      effects. Further research showed that 4.1R-/- MEF cells had a lower expression of
      GAT1 and GAT2 than 4.1R+/+ MEF cells. Additionally, 4.1R directly bound to GAT1
      and GAT2. Taken together, GAT1 and GAT2 transporters are involved in the uptake
      of 5-ALA in MEF cells. 4.1R plays an important role in transporting 5-ALA into
      cells via at least partly interaction with GAT1 and GAT2 transporters in 5-ALA
      PDT.

PMID- 28881433
TI  - Structural connectivity-defined thalamic subregions have different functional
      connectivity abnormalities in multiple sclerosis patients: Implications for
      clinical correlations.
AB  - In spite of the well-known importance of thalami in multiple sclerosis (MS), only
      limited data on whole and subregional thalamic functional connectivity (FC)
      changes are available. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we performed a structural
      connectivity based thalamic parcellation and investigated subregional thalamic
      resting-state (RS) FC alterations and their relationship with clinical/cognitive
      measures in MS. MRI data from a reference set of healthy controls (HC) were used
      to parcellate the thalami into five subregions, according to their structural
      connectivity. For each thalamic subregion, a seed-based RS FC analysis was
      performed in 187 MS patients and 94 HC. Correlations between thalamic RS FC and
      clinical/cognitive variables were assessed. Compared to HC, MS patients showed
      increased intra- and inter-thalamic RS FC for almost all thalamic subregions, and
      increased RS FC between all thalamic subregions and the left insula. Frontal and
      motor thalamic subregions also showed reduced RS FC with the caudate nucleus. For
      the temporal thalamic subregion, we observed reduced RS FC with the ipsilateral
      thalamus, anterior and middle cingulate cortex, and cerebellum. Compared to
      cognitively preserved, cognitively impaired MS patients had higher thalamic RS FC
      with several temporal areas. In MS patients, lower RS FC between thalamic
      subregions and the caudate and cingulate cortex correlated with worse motor
      performance, whereas higher RS FC with the insula correlated with better motor
      performance. The main thalamic subregions have different RS-FC abnormalities in
      MS patients. Increased thalamic RS FC with the insula may have a compensatory
      role, whereas increased RS FC with temporal areas, observed in patients with
      cognitive impairment may reflect maladaptive mechanisms. Hum Brain Mapp 38:6005
      6018, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28881434
TI  - Prevalence and causes of musculoskeletal impairment in Fundong District, North
      West Cameroon: results of a population-based survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Epidemiological data on musculoskeletal conditions such as
      degenerative joint diseases and bone fractures are lacking in low- and middle
      income countries. This survey aimed to estimate the prevalence and causes of
      musculoskeletal impairment in Fundong Health District, North-West Cameroon.
      METHODS: Fifty-one clusters of 80 people (all ages) were selected using
      probability proportionate to size sampling. Households within clusters were
      selected by compact segment sampling. Six screening questions were asked to
      identify participants likely to have a musculoskeletal impairment (MSI).
      Participants screening positive to any screening question underwent a
      standardised examination by a physiotherapist to assess presence, cause,
      diagnosis and severity of impairment. RESULTS: In total, 3567 of 4080 individuals
      enumerated for the survey were screened (87%). The all-age prevalence of MSI was
      11.6% (95% CI: 10.1-13.3). Prevalence increased with age, from 2.9% in children
      to 41.2% in adults 50 years and above. The majority of MSI cases (70.4%) were
      classified as mild, 27.2% as moderate and 2.4% as severe. Acquired non-trauma
      comprised 67% of the diagnoses. The remainder included trauma (14%), neurological
      (11%), infection (5%) and congenital (3%). The most common individual diagnosis
      was degenerative joint disease (43%). Over one-third (38%) of individuals with
      MSI had never received medical care or rehabilitation for their condition.
      CONCLUSIONS: This survey contributes to the epidemiological data on MSI in low-
      and middle-income countries. Nearly half of adults aged over 50 years had an MSI.
      There is a need to address the treatment and rehabilitative service gap for
      people with MSI in Cameroon.

PMID- 28881435
TI  - Versatile Method for the Site-Specific Modification of DNA with Boron Clusters:
      Anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Antisense Oligonucleotide Case.
AB  - A general and convenient approach for the incorporation of different types of
      boron clusters into specific locations of the DNA-oligonucleotide chain based on
      the automated phosphoramidite method of oligonucleotide synthesis and post
      synthetic "click chemistry" modification has been developed. Pronounced effects
      of boron-cluster modification on the physico- and biochemical properties of the
      antisense oligonucleotides were observed. The silencing activity of antisense
      oligonucleotides bearing a single boron cluster modification in the middle of the
      oligonucleotide chain was substantially higher than that of unmodified
      oligonucleotides. This finding may be of importance for the design of therapeutic
      nucleic acids with improved properties. The proposed synthetic methodology
      broadens the availability of nucleic acid-boron cluster conjugates and opens up
      new avenues for their potential practical use.

PMID- 28881436
TI  - Rational Design of Sulfur-Doped Copper Catalysts for the Selective
      Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Formate.
AB  - The selective electroreduction of CO2 to formate (or formic acid) is of great
      interest in the field of renewable-energy utilization. In this work, we designed
      a sulfur-doped Cu2 O-derived Cu catalyst and showed that the presence of sulfur
      can tune the selectivity of Cu significantly from the production of various CO2
      reduction products to almost exclusively formate. Sulfur is doped into the Cu
      catalysts by dipping the Cu substrates into ammonium polysulfide solutions.
      Catalyst films with the highest sulfur content of 2.7 at % showed the largest
      formate current density (jHCOO- ) of -13.9 mA cm-2 at -0.9 V versus the
      reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), which is approximately 46 times larger than
      that previously reported for Cu(110) surfaces. At -0.8 V versus RHE, the faradaic
      efficiency of formate was maintained at approximately 75 % for 12 h of continuous
      electrolysis. Through the analysis of the evolution of the jHCOO- and jH2 values
      with the sulfur content, we show that sulfur doping increases formate production
      and suppresses the hydrogen evolution reaction. Ag-S and Cu-Se catalysts did not
      exhibit any significant enhancement towards the reduction of CO2 to formate. This
      demonstrates clearly that sulfur and copper acted synergistically to promote the
      selective formation of formate. A hypothesis about the role of sulfur is proposed
      and discussed.

PMID- 28881437
TI  - Older people's experiences of nurse-patient telephone communication in the
      primary healthcare setting.
AB  - AIM: To determine which aspects of primary nurse-patient telephone communication
      are viewed positively or negatively in terms of meeting the older persons' needs.
      BACKGROUND: Health professionals are increasingly being called on to develop
      different ways of working and increase their capacity to meet the needs of an
      ageing population. In some countries, telephone communication between primary
      nurses and patients in General Practice is already seen as a routine practice,
      but determining the value of this type of communication as a specific health
      service needs more understanding. DESIGN: A qualitative exploratory study as the
      aim was to explore the older person's experiences. METHODS: Semi-structured
      interviews were conducted with 21 older people from General Practices in New
      Zealand during 2014-2015. Thematic analysis was informed by a constructivist
      grounded theory approach. FINDINGS: The overarching theme was the difficulties
      older people face in making decisions about whether to contact a health
      professional by telephone and whether this should be the Primary nurse.
      Accounting for some of their symptoms as age related added to the uncertainty of
      decision-making. Importantly, some older people were not raising concerns e.g.
      emotional state. CONCLUSION: Decision-making by older people around treatment
      seeking is complex. Increasing the awareness of the nurse role in the General
      Practice is integral to creating a health system which will meet the needs of a
      growing older population. Primary care practices can review their systems to
      better inform older people how the nurse-telephone role as a specific health
      service works and what they can expect when using this service.

PMID- 28881438
TI  - Host-induced gene silencing of an important pathogenicity factor PsCPK1 in
      Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici enhances resistance of wheat to stripe rust.
AB  - Rust fungi are devastating plant pathogens and cause a large economic impact on
      wheat production worldwide. To overcome this rapid loss of resistance in
      varieties, we generated stable transgenic wheat plants expressing short
      interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting potentially vital genes of Puccinia
      striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst). Protein kinase A (PKA) has been proved to play
      important roles in regulating the virulence of phytopathogenic fungi. PsCPK1, a
      PKA catalytic subunit gene from Pst, is highly induced at the early infection
      stage of Pst. The instantaneous silencing of PsCPK1 by barley stripe mosaic virus
      (BSMV)-mediated host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) results in a significant
      reduction in the length of infection hyphae and disease phenotype. These results
      indicate that PsCPK1 is an important pathogenicity factor by regulating Pst
      growth and development. Two transgenic lines expressing the RNA interference
      (RNAi) construct in a normally susceptible wheat cultivar displayed high levels
      of stable and consistent resistance to Pst throughout the T3 to T4 generations.
      The presence of the interfering RNAs in transgenic wheat plants was confirmed by
      northern blotting, and these RNAs were found to efficiently down-regulate PsCPK1
      expression in wheat. This study addresses important aspects for the development
      of fungal-derived resistance through the expression of silencing constructs in
      host plants as a powerful strategy to control cereal rust diseases.

PMID- 28881439
TI  - Natural disturbances are spatially diverse but temporally synchronized across
      temperate forest landscapes in Europe.
AB  - Natural disturbance regimes are changing substantially in forests around the
      globe. However, large-scale disturbance change is modulated by a considerable
      spatiotemporal variation within biomes. This variation remains incompletely
      understood particularly in the temperate forests of Europe, for which consistent
      large-scale disturbance information is lacking. Here, our aim was to quantify the
      spatiotemporal patterns of forest disturbances across temperate forest landscapes
      in Europe using remote sensing data and determine their underlying drivers.
      Specifically, we tested two hypotheses: (1) Topography determines the spatial
      patterns of disturbance, and (2) climatic extremes synchronize natural
      disturbances across the biome. We used novel Landsat-based maps of forest
      disturbances 1986-2016 in combination with landscape analysis to compare spatial
      disturbance patterns across five unmanaged forest landscapes with varying
      topographic complexity. Furthermore, we analyzed annual estimates of disturbances
      for synchronies and tested the influence of climatic extremes on temporal
      disturbance patterns. Spatial variation in disturbance patterns was substantial
      across temperate forest landscapes. With increasing topographic complexity,
      natural disturbance patches were smaller, more complex in shape, more dispersed,
      and affected a smaller portion of the landscape. Temporal disturbance patterns,
      however, were strongly synchronized across all landscapes, with three distinct
      waves of high disturbance activity between 1986 and 2016. All three waves
      followed years of pronounced drought and high peak wind speeds. Natural
      disturbances in temperate forest landscapes of Europe are thus spatially diverse
      but temporally synchronized. We conclude that the ecological effect of natural
      disturbances (i.e., whether they are homogenizing a landscape or increasing its
      heterogeneity) is strongly determined by the topographic template. Furthermore,
      as the strong biome-wide synchronization of disturbances was closely linked to
      climatic extremes, large-scale disturbance episodes are likely in Europe's
      temperate forests under climate changes.

PMID- 28881440
TI  - Injectable Mussel-Inspired Immobilization of Platelet-Rich Plasma on Microspheres
      Bridging Adipose Micro-Tissues to Improve Autologous Fat Transplantation by
      Controlling Release of PDGF and VEGF, Angiogenesis, Stem Cell Migration.
AB  - Platelets-rich plasma (PRP) can produce growth factors (GFs) to improve
      angiogenesis. However, direct injection of PRP does not lead to highly localized
      GFs. The current study employs a mussel-inspired polydopamine to immobilize PRP
      on gelatin microspheres (GMs) with the purpose of bridging adipose micro-tissues
      to help implanted fat survive (GM-pDA-PRP). Enhanced PRP adhesion leads to a
      prolonged and localized production of GFs, which is verified by platelet counting
      and by ELISA of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) and of platelet
      derived growth factors (PDGFs). The GM-pDA-PRP "hatches" a microenvironment for
      the proliferation of adipose-derived stem cells. After the adipose micro-tissue
      has bridged with GM-pDA-PRP after 16 weeks, triple-fluorescence staining reveals
      that the mature adipocytes, blood vessels, and capillaries are arranged like in
      normal adipose tissue. The survival fat increases significantly compared to that
      in control, PRP, and GM-PRP groups (84.8 +/- 11.4% versus 47.8 +/- 8.9%, 56.9 +/-
      9.7%, and 60.2 +/- 10.5%, respectively). Both histological assessments and CD31
      immunofluorescence indicate that the improvement of angiogenesis in GM-pDA-PRP is
      higher than in the fat graft group (6.4-fold in quantitative CD31 positive
      cells). The CD34 positive cells in the GM-pDA-PRP group are around 3.5-fold the
      amount in the fat graft group, which suggests that more stem cells migrate to the
      implant area. Cell proliferation staining shows that the number of Ki67 positive
      cells is around five times as high as that in the fat graft group.

PMID- 28881441
TI  - Effects of Self-Assembled Monolayer Modification of Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles
      Layer on the Performance and Application of Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells.
AB  - Entirely low-temperature solution-processed (<=100  degrees C) planar p-i-n
      perovskite solar cells (PSCs) offer great potential for commercialization of roll
      to-roll fabricated photovoltaic devices. However, the stable inorganic hole
      transporting layer (HTL) in PSCs is usually processed at high temperature (200
      500  degrees C), which is far beyond the tolerant temperature (<=150  degrees C)
      of roll-to-roll fabrication. In this context, inorganic NiOx nanoparticles (NPs)
      are an excellent candidate to serve as the HTL in PSCs, owing to their excellent
      solution processability at room temperature. However, the low-temperature
      processing condition is usually accompanied with defect formation, which
      deteriorates the film quality and device efficiency to a large extent. To
      suppress this setback, we used a series of benzoic acid selfassembled monolayers
      (SAMs) to passivate the surface defects of the NiOx NPs and found that 4
      bromobenzoic acid could effectively play the role of the surface passivation.
      This SAM layer reduces the trap-assisted recombination, minimizes the energy
      offset between the NiOx NPs and perovskite, and changes the HTL surface
      wettability, thus enhancing the perovskite crystallization, resulting in more
      stable PSCs with enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.4 %, exceeding
      the control device PCE (15.5 %). Also, we incorporated the above-mentioned SAMs
      into flexible PSCs (F-PSCs) and achieved one of the highest PCE of 16.2 % on a
      polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate with a remarkable power-per-weight of
      26.9 W g-1 . This facile interfacial engineering method offers great potential
      for the large-scale manufacturing and commercialization of PSCs.

PMID- 28881442
TI  - Many-to-one form-to-function mapping weakens parallel morphological evolution.
AB  - Evolutionary ecologists aim to explain and predict evolutionary change under
      different selective regimes. Theory suggests that such evolutionary prediction
      should be more difficult for biomechanical systems in which different trait
      combinations generate the same functional output: "many-to-one mapping." Many-to
      one mapping of phenotype to function enables multiple morphological solutions to
      meet the same adaptive challenges. Therefore, many-to-one mapping should
      undermine parallel morphological evolution, and hence evolutionary
      predictability, even when selection pressures are shared among populations.
      Studying 16 replicate pairs of lake- and stream-adapted threespine stickleback
      (Gasterosteus aculeatus), we quantified three parts of the teleost feeding
      apparatus and used biomechanical models to calculate their expected functional
      outputs. The three feeding structures differed in their form-to-function
      relationship from one-to-one (lower jaw lever ratio) to increasingly many-to-one
      (buccal suction index, opercular 4-bar linkage). We tested for (1) weaker linear
      correlations between phenotype and calculated function, and (2) less parallel
      evolution across lake-stream pairs, in the many-to-one systems relative to the
      one-to-one system. We confirm both predictions, thus supporting the theoretical
      expectation that increasing many-to-one mapping undermines parallel evolution.
      Therefore, sole consideration of morphological variation within and among
      populations might not serve as a proxy for functional variation when multiple
      adaptive trait combinations exist.

PMID- 28881443
TI  - Preference Functions for Spatial Risk Analysis.
AB  - When outcomes are defined over a geographic region, measures of spatial risk
      regarding these outcomes can be more complex than traditional measures of risk.
      One of the main challenges is the need for a cardinal preference function that
      incorporates the spatial nature of the outcomes. We explore preference conditions
      that will yield the existence of spatial measurable value and utility functions,
      and discuss their application to spatial risk analysis. We also present a simple
      example on household freshwater usage across regions to demonstrate how such
      functions can be assessed and applied.

PMID- 28881445
TI  - The expression of Spodoptera exigua P450 and UGT genes: tissue specificity and
      response to insecticides.
AB  - Cytochrome P450 and UDP-glucosyltransferase (UGT) as phase I and phase II
      metabolism enzymes, respectively, play vital roles in the breakdown of
      endobiotics and xenobiotics. Insects can increase the expression of
      detoxification enzymes to cope with the stress from xenobiotics including
      insecticides. However, the molecular mechanisms for insecticide detoxification in
      Spodoptera exigua remain elusive, and the genes conferring insecticide
      metabolisms in this species are less well reported. In this study, 68 P450 and 32
      UGT genes were identified. Phylogenetic analysis showed gene expansions in CYP3
      and CYP4 clans of P450 genes and UGT33 family of this pest. P450 and UGT genes
      exhibited specific tissue expression patterns. Insecticide treatments in fat body
      cells of S. exigua revealed that the expression levels of P450 and UGT genes were
      significantly influenced by challenges of abamectin, lambda-cyhalothrin,
      chlorantraniliprole, metaflumizone and indoxacarb. Multiple genes for
      detoxification were affected in expression levels after insecticide exposures.
      The results demonstrated that lambda-cyhalothrin, chlorantraniliprole,
      metaflumizone and indoxacarb induced similar responses in the expression of P450
      and UGT genes in fat body cells; eight P450 genes and four UGT genes were co-up
      regulated significantly, and no or only a few CYP/UGT genes were down-regulated
      significantly by these four insecticides. However, abamectin triggered a distinct
      response for P450 and UGT gene expression; more P450 and UGT genes were down
      regulated by abamectin than by the other four compounds. In conclusion, P450 and
      UGT genes from S. exigua were identified, and different responses to abamectin
      suggest a different mechanism for insecticide detoxification.

PMID- 28881444
TI  - GABAergic inhibition gates excitatory LTP in perirhinal cortex.
AB  - The perirhinal cortex (PRh) is a key region downstream of auditory cortex (ACx)
      that processes familiarity linked mnemonic signaling. In gerbils, ACx-driven
      EPSPs recorded in PRh neurons are largely shunted by GABAergic inhibition (Kotak
      et al., 2015, Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 9). To determine whether inhibitory
      shunting prevents the induction of excitatory long-term potentiation (e-LTP), we
      stimulated ACx-recipient PRh in a brain slice preparation using theta burst
      stimulation (TBS). Under control conditions, without GABA blockers, the majority
      of PRh neurons exhibited long-term depression. A very low concentration of
      bicuculline increased EPSP amplitude, but under this condition TBS did not
      significantly increase e-LTP induction. Since PRh synaptic inhibition included a
      GABAB receptor-mediated component, we added a GABAB receptor antagonist. When
      both GABAA and GABAB receptors were blocked, TBS reliably induced e-LTP in a
      majority of PRh neurons. We conclude that GABAergic transmission is a vital
      mechanism regulating e-LTP induction in the PRh, and may be associated with
      auditory learning.

PMID- 28881447
TI  - Combination of Histopathology and FT-Raman Spectroscopy for the Study of
      Experimental Paracoccidioidomycosis in the Spleen.
AB  - Paracoccidioides brasiliensis (Pb) can disseminate through the lymphatic and
      hematogenic pathways. As a result the spleen and other lymphoid organs are
      targets of paracoccidioidomycosis. There are few studies describing this disease
      in the spleen and more detailed descriptions are required. This study combines
      Histopathology and Fourier Transform Raman Spectroscopy (FT-Raman) methods to
      study spleen infected by Pb. The Swiss mice were euthanized after 1, 2, 4 and 8
      weeks of infection with Pb, and their spleens were removed for ex vivo analyzes.
      Histopathological evaluation revealed that the red pulp was the area most
      affected, presenting the highest concentration of yeasts, inflammatory cells and
      cells in apoptosis, with no observation of typical granuloma formation. The main
      physical-chemical changes were detected in the spectral ranges between 1730-1590
      cm-1 and 1390-1280 cm-1 attributed to amide I and vibrational deformation mode of
      CH3 and CH2 molecules, respectively. The amide I was correlated to total protein
      content and CH3 and CH2 molecules to collagen of the spleen. The association
      between histological and physical-chemical methods enabled detection of several
      alterations in the spleen, including apoptosis, contributing to a better
      understanding of paracoccidioidomycosis, a tropical neglected disease.

PMID- 28881448
TI  - Reply to cancer risk among Holocaust survivors in Israel.

PMID- 28881446
TI  - The Epidemiology of Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibody-Associated Vasculitis
      in Olmsted County, Minnesota: A Twenty-Year US Population-Based Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the annual incidence, prevalence, and mortality of
      antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) and
      its subsets, granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's) (GPA), microscopic
      polyangiitis (MPA), and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Churg
      Strauss) (EGPA), in a US-based adult population. METHODS: All medical records of
      patients with a diagnosis of, or suspicion of having, AAV in Olmsted County,
      Minnesota from January 1, 1996 to December 31, 2015 were reviewed. AAV incidence
      rates were age- and sex-adjusted to the 2010 US white population. Age- and sex
      adjusted prevalence of AAV was calculated on January 1, 2015. Survival rates
      observed in the study cohort were compared with expected rates in the Minnesota
      population. RESULTS: Of the 58 incident cases of AAV in Olmsted County during the
      study period, 23 (40%) were cases of GPA, 28 (48%) were cases of MPA, and 7 (12%)
      were cases of EGPA. Overall, 28 (48%) of the patients with AAV were women and 57
      (98%) were white. The mean +/- SD age at diagnosis was 61.1 +/- 16.5 years.
      Thirty-four patients (61%) had myeloperoxidase (MPO)-ANCAs, and 17 (30%) were
      positive for proteinase 3 (PR3)-ANCAs; 5 (9%) were ANCA-negative. The annual
      incidence of AAV was 3.3 per 100,000 population (95% confidence interval [95% CI]
      2.4-4.1). The incidence rates of GPA, MPA, and EGPA were 1.3 (95% CI 0.8-1.8),
      1.6 (95% CI 1.0-2.2), and 0.4 (95% CI 0.1-0.6), respectively. The overall
      prevalence of AAV was 42.1 per 100,000 (95% CI 29.6-54.6). The mortality rate
      among AAV patients overall, and among patients with EGPA, those with MPA, and
      those with MPO-ANCAs, was increased in comparison to the Minnesota general
      population (each P < 0.05), whereas mortality rates among patients with GPA,
      those with PR3-ANCAs, and ANCA-negative patients did not differ from that in the
      general population. CONCLUSION: The annual incidence of AAV in Olmsted County,
      Minnesota over the 20 years of the study was 3.3 per 100,000, with a prevalence
      of 42.1 per 100,000, which is substantially higher than the rates reported in
      other areas worldwide. The incidence of GPA was similar to that of MPA. Patients
      with MPA and those with EGPA, but not patients with GPA, experienced higher rates
      of mortality than that in the Minnesota general population. MPO-ANCAs were a
      marker of poor survival in this population of patients with AAV.

PMID- 28881449
TI  - Theoretical Study on the Substituent Effect on the Excited-State Proton Transfer
      in the 7-Azaindole-Water Derivatives.
AB  - The first excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) in 7AI-H2 O complex and its
      derivatives, in which the hydrogen atom at the C2 position in pyrrole ring was
      replaced by halogen atom X (X = F, Cl, Br), were studied at the TD-M06-2X/6-31 +
      G(d, p) level. The double proton transfer took place in a concerted but
      asynchronous protolysis pathway. The vibrational-mode selectivity of excited
      state double proton transfer in the model system was confirmed. The specific
      vibrational-mode could shorten the reaction path and accelerate the reaction
      rate. The substituent effects on the excited-state proton transfer process were
      discussed. When the H atom at C2 position in 7AI-H2 O complex was replaced by
      halogen atom, some geometrical parameters changed obviously, the barrier height
      of ESDPT reduced, and the asynchronicity of proton transfer enlarged. The above
      changes correlated with the Pauling electronegativity of halogen atom.

PMID- 28881450
TI  - Translation and field testing of the family functioning, family health and social
      support questionnaire in Danish outpatients with heart failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Valid and reliable instruments to assess family functioning, health
      and social support in families with heart failure constitute a cornerstone in the
      detection of the families' needs, in improving their functioning and in
      evaluating the effects of nursing interventions. AIM: To translate the three
      scales of the Family Functioning, Family Health and Social Support (FAFHES)
      questionnaire from Finnish into Danish, to test validity and reliability of the
      Danish version among outpatients with heart failure and to add to previous
      studies by reconstructing scales using confirmatory factor analysis. METHODS: A
      cross-sectional design was used to study a sample of 330 patients with heart
      failure who completed the FAFHES. The validity (dimensionality) and reliability
      (internal consistency and test-retest) were assessed for each of the three
      scales. The scales were constructed using confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS:
      Patients were primarily men (76%) with a mean age of 66.5 (SD 12.5), categorised
      as New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification II (80%) and NYHA III (20%)
      for clinical severity of symptoms. In all three modified scales, construct
      validity was supported by the analysis. There were strong correlations within the
      factors, with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.73 to 0.95 across the three scales,
      and significant, though weak, correlations between most of the factors. None of
      the revised scales showed good model fit according to the goodness-of-fit indices
      used. The test-retest showed interclass correlation coefficients ranging between
      0.69 and 0.86, indicating acceptable test-retest reliability. CONCLUSION: The
      Danish version of the FAFHES is an instrument that can be used to measure family
      functioning, family health and social support from the perspective of the patient
      with heart failure. Further testing is recommended.

PMID- 28881451
TI  - Validation of a pediatric early warning system for hospitalized pediatric
      oncology patients in a resource-limited setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pediatric oncology patients are at high risk of clinical
      deterioration, particularly in hospitals with resource limitations. The
      performance of pediatric early warning systems (PEWS) to identify deterioration
      has not been assessed in these settings. This study evaluates the validity of
      PEWS to predict the need for unplanned transfer to the pediatric intensive care
      unit (PICU) among pediatric oncology patients in a resource-limited hospital.
      METHODS: A retrospective case-control study comparing the highest documented and
      corrected PEWS score before unplanned PICU transfer in pediatric oncology
      patients (129 cases) with matched controls (those not requiring PICU care) was
      performed. RESULTS: Documented and corrected PEWS scores were found to be highly
      correlated with the need for PICU transfer (area under the receiver operating
      characteristic, 0.940 and 0.930, respectively). PEWS scores increased 24 hours
      prior to unplanned transfer (P = .0006). In cases, organ dysfunction at the time
      of PICU admission correlated with maximum PEWS score (correlation coefficient,
      0.26; P = .003), patients with PEWS results >=4 had a higher Pediatric Index of
      Mortality 2 (PIM2) (P = .028), and PEWS results were higher in patients with
      septic shock (P = .01). The PICU mortality rate was 17.1%; nonsurvivors had
      higher mean PEWS scores before PICU transfer (P = .0009). A single-point increase
      in the PEWS score increased the odds of mechanical ventilation or vasopressors
      within the first 24 hours and during PICU admission (odds ratio 1.3-1.4).
      CONCLUSIONS: PEWS accurately predicted the need for unplanned PICU transfer in
      pediatric oncology patients in this resource-limited setting, with abnormal
      results beginning 24 hours before PICU admission and higher scores predicting the
      severity of illness at the time of PICU admission, need for PICU interventions,
      and mortality. These results demonstrate that PEWS aid in the identification of
      clinical deterioration in this high-risk population, regardless of a hospital's
      resource-level. Cancer 2017;123:4903-13. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881452
TI  - Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy and Future Maternal Cardiovascular Disease:
      The Challenges of Looking Beyond First Pregnancy.

PMID- 28881453
TI  - The content of nurse unit managers' work: a descriptive study using daily
      activity diaries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NUMs' job description in Icelandic hospitals has been revised and now
      also includes managerial and financial responsibilities. AIM: To describe the
      actual work activities of nurse unit managers (NUMs) in surgical and internal
      medicine services as self-documented and reflected in their job description.
      DESIGN: Prospective exploratory study. METHOD: The study's setting was the
      largest hospital in Iceland. Data were collected over 7 days from NUMs working on
      surgical and medical units with an activity diary listing five domains and 41
      activities: 'management and planning' (seven activities), 'staff responsibility
      (seven activities), 'direct clinical work' (five activities), 'service' (12
      activities) and 'other' (nine activities). RESULTS: The managers' spent most of
      their time within the 'other' domain (32% of their time), then the next
      significant amount of time on 'management and planning' and 'clinical nursing'
      (19%), and the least amount of time on 'service' (14%). All reported working on
      two or more activities simultaneously. NUMs made erroneous estimations
      approximately half of the time about the domain they spent most of their time in
      and their satisfaction with their work each day varied greatly. CONCLUSION: The
      work of NUMs is highly diverse, including undefined miscellaneous tasks and
      clinical work beyond their job description.

PMID- 28881454
TI  - Hypersensitivity to low intensity fearful faces in autism when fixation is
      constrained to the eyes.
AB  - Previous studies that showed decreased brain activation in people with autism
      spectrum disorder (ASD) viewing expressive faces did not control that
      participants looked in the eyes. This is problematic because ASD is characterized
      by abnormal attention to the eyes. Here, we collected fMRI data from 48
      participants (27 ASD) viewing pictures of neutral faces and faces expressing
      anger, happiness, and fear at low and high intensity, with a fixation cross
      between the eyes. Group differences in whole brain activity were examined for
      expressive faces at high and low intensity versus neutral faces. Group
      differences in neural activity were also investigated in regions of interest
      within the social brain, including the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal
      cortex (vmPFC). In response to low intensity fearful faces, ASD participants
      showed increased activation in the social brain regions, and decreased functional
      coupling between the amygdala and the vmPFC. This oversensitivity to low
      intensity fear coupled with a lack of emotional regulation capacity could
      indicate an excitatory/inhibitory imbalance in their socio-affective processing
      system. This may result in social disengagement and avoidance of eye-contact to
      handle feelings of strong emotional reaction. Our results also demonstrate the
      importance of careful control of gaze when investigating emotional processing in
      ASD. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5943-5957, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28881455
TI  - The impact of enhancing perceived self-efficacy in torture survivors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Perceived self-efficacy (SE) is an important factor underlying
      psychological well-being. Refugees suffer many experiences that can compromise
      SE. This study tested the impact of enhancing perceived SE on coping with trauma
      reminders and distress tolerance in tortured refugees. METHODS: Torture survivors
      (N = 40) were administered a positive SE induction in which they retrieved
      mastery-related autobiographical memories, or a non-SE (NSE) induction, and then
      viewed trauma-related images. Participants rated their distress following
      presentation of each image. Participants then completed a frustration-inducing
      mirror-tracing task to index distress tolerance. RESULTS: Participants in the SE
      condition reported less distress and negative affect, and improved coping in
      relation to viewing the trauma-related images than those in the NSE condition.
      The SE induction also led to greater persistence with the mirror-tracing task
      than the NSE induction. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide initial evidence that
      promoting SE in tortured refugees can assist with managing distress from trauma
      reminders, and promoting greater distress tolerance. Enhancing perceived SE in
      tortured refugees may increase their capacity to tolerate distress during
      therapy, and may be a useful means to improve treatment response.

PMID- 28881457
TI  - Ocular presentation of myasthenia gravis: A natural history cohort.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There are limited data on the natural history of untreated
      myasthenia gravis (MG) with ocular presentation. METHODS: We analyzed 93 patients
      from symptom onset who presented to the Birmingham Midlands Eye Centre (BMEC)
      between January 2004 and July 2015. We used multiple stepwise logistic regression
      to identify predictive factors of generalization and Kaplan-Meier analysis on
      time to generalization. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of patients developed
      generalized symptoms during the study period. Median time to generalization was 7
      months. Time to generalization was earlier in patients seropositive for
      acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody (median 5 months vs. 21 months, P <
      0.0001) and bilateral ptosis at onset (P = 0.015). Multivariate analysis
      identified AChR seropositivity [hazard ratio (HR) 5.03; 95% confidence interval
      (CI) 1.48-17.14; P = 0.001] and disease onset < 50 years (HR 3.58; 95% CI 1.18
      10.90; P = 0.035) as risk factors for generalization. DISCUSSION: As patients
      were steroid-naive before generalization, our cohort approximated the natural
      history of the condition. Muscle Nerve 57: 622-627, 2018.

PMID- 28881456
TI  - Improvement in sexual function after ovarian cancer: Effects of sexual therapy
      and rehabilitation after treatment for ovarian cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sexual dysfunction is a distressing long-term effect after
      gynecological cancer and affects the majority of survivors for years after the
      completion of therapy. Despite its prevalence, treatment-related sexual
      dysfunction is underrecognized and undertreated for survivors. Thus, the aim of
      this study was to develop and test a brief psychoeducational intervention for
      managing sexual dysfunction for women who have undergone treatment for ovarian
      cancer (OC). METHODS: Forty-six OC survivors with documented, treatment-related
      sexual dysfunction received a single half-day group intervention that included
      sexual health education and rehabilitation training, relaxation and cognitive
      behavioral therapy skills to address sexual symptoms, and a single tailored
      booster telephone call 4 weeks after the group. Assessment measures were
      completed at the baseline (baseline 1), after an 8-week no-treatment run-in
      period (baseline 2), and then again 2 and 6 months after the intervention. The
      Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was used to assess sexual functioning, and
      the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18) was used to capture psychological
      distress. RESULTS: Between baseline 1 and baseline 2, there were no significant
      changes in the study measures, and this indicated no natural improvement during
      the run-in period. In contrast, the total FSFI scores improved significantly from
      baseline 1 to the 2- (n = 45; P < .0005) and 6-month time points (n = 42; P <
      .05). The BSI-18 scores were also significantly improved at the 2- (P < .005) and
      6-month time points (P < .01) in comparison with baseline 1. CONCLUSIONS: This
      brief behavioral intervention led to significant improvements in overall sexual
      functioning and psychological distress that were maintained at the 6-month follow
      up. The results demonstrate the feasibility of this brief, low-intensity
      behavioral intervention and support the development of a larger randomized
      controlled trial. Cancer 2018;124:176-82. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881458
TI  - Functional Hyper-Crosslinkers.
AB  - Crosslinking is an essential architecture for polymers to improve mechanical and
      thermal properties and to form three-dimensional (3D) structures. Although
      conventional synthetic crosslinkers usually only serve as bridges between
      different polymeric chains, biological crosslinkers are multifunctional.
      Recently, crosslinkers with active functionality after polymerization are
      promising a new dimension of molecular design for generating smart materials as
      they may exhibit dramatic changes in structures and properties in response to
      external stimuli. This concept article introduces several different designs of
      hyper-crosslinkers (i.e., multifunctional crosslinkers that provide three or more
      sites for generating networks) and their applications in tailoring stimuli
      responsive and self-healing soft materials. Particularly, the polymeric materials
      that contain functional hyper-crosslinkers are exhibiting anti-intuitive redox or
      thermal-pH responses. The goal of this article is to illustrate the concept that
      functional hyper-crosslinkers not only improve the physical and chemical
      performance of the polymers, but more importantly, may introduce new
      architectures and functionalities for soft materials.

PMID- 28881459
TI  - Synthesis and Microbiological Evaluation of Novel Tetracyclic Fluoroquinolones.
AB  - Conformationally constrained tetracyclic fluoroquinolones (FQs) were synthesized
      and profiled for their microbiological spectrum. The installation of a seven
      membered ring between the pyrrolidine substituents and the C8 position on the FQ
      core scaffold resulted in a remarkable enhancement of microbiological potency
      toward both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Focused optimization of
      seven-membered ring composition, stereochemistry, and amine placement led to the
      discovery of the two lead compounds that were selected for further progression.

PMID- 28881460
TI  - Endogenous oxytocin is associated with the experience of compassion and recalled
      upbringing in Borderline Personality Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: The role of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in Borderline
      Personality Disorder (BPD) is poorly understood. It is particularly unknown how
      early experiences with caregivers moderate the action of OT in BPD. Here, we
      examined the association of plasma OT levels in BPD patients with the experience
      of compassion and recalled parental behavior during childhood. METHODS: Fifty
      seven BPD patients and 43 healthy controls participated in the study. OT plasma
      levels were analyzed by radioimmunoassay. Subjects additionally completed
      questionnaires focusing on fears of compassion (FOC) and recalled upbringing
      ("Questionnaire of Recalled Parental Rearing Behavior/Fragebogen zum erinnerten
      elterlichen Erziehungsverhalten," FEE). RESULTS: BPD patients had significantly
      lower OT plasma levels than healthy controls and differed significantly on all
      FOC and FEE scales; BPD patients had higher FOC scores (indicating more aversion
      of being compassionate to themselves and others and receiving compassion from
      others). They also differed in recalled parenting. In the BPD group, scores of
      the FOC scale "fear of compassion from others" were significantly negatively
      correlated with OT levels. Moreover, recalled "emotional warmth" of their parents
      during childhood was positively correlated with OT plasma levels of BPD subjects.
      No such correlations were found in the control group. CONCLUSION: Our results
      corroborate findings from previous studies reporting lower OT levels in patients
      with BPD. Moreover, peripheral OT seems to be linked with the tolerance of
      compassionate feelings and early experiences with caregivers. This is consistent
      with other findings that OT is an important mediator of the experience of
      emotional warmth from others.

PMID- 28881461
TI  - Overdoses with Aripiprazole: Signs, Symptoms and Outcome in 239 Exposures
      Reported to the Danish Poison Information Centre.
AB  - The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical signs and symptoms of
      exposures to aripiprazole overdoses. We retrospectively identified all
      aripiprazole exposures reported to the Danish Poison Information Centre (DPIC)
      from June 2007 to May 2015. Information concerning demographics, ingested dose
      and symptoms was extracted from the DPIC database and medical records.
      Information on death and admission to hospital was obtained from Danish national
      registers. We analysed 239 cases, 86 concerning single-drug exposures to
      aripiprazole, and 153 cases where aripiprazole had been taken with at least one
      other substance (mixed-drug). The median ingested aripiprazole dose was 105 mg
      (IQR: 50-1680 mg) in the single-drug exposure group and 120 mg (IQR: 60-225 mg)
      in the mixed-drug exposure group. The most commonly reported symptom was light
      sedation, reported in 63% of the single-drug group and 50% of the mixed-drug
      exposure group. There were no malignant arrhythmias or ECG abnormalities after
      single-drug exposures. No deaths were recorded in relation to the intake. We
      found a long-term mortality rate of 13 deaths per 1000 person-years (95% CI: 7;
      23 per 1000 person-years), which is significantly higher than in an age- and
      gender-matched background population. In conclusion, we found that aripiprazole
      overdoses had few and mild symptoms predominantly related to the sedative
      properties. We detected a benign cardiovascular safety profile and no new safety
      concerns. Our findings may support an increased threshold of 300 mg for hospital
      admission after a single-drug exposure with aripiprazole and symptoms not worse
      than light sedation.

PMID- 28881462
TI  - Impact of ixekizumab on facial psoriasis and related quality of life measures in
      moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients: 12-week results from two phase III trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Facial psoriasis was reported in 17-68% of patients with psoriasis
      and shown to have a negative impact on patients' personal and health-related
      quality of life (HRQoL). OBJECTIVES: To explore the association of facial
      psoriasis with patients' HRQoL and to assess the relationship between ixekizumab
      (IXE) and improvement in facial psoriasis and changes in HRQoL. METHODS: This
      work reports the combined results of two phase III multicentre, randomized,
      double-blind, placebo-controlled, active-comparator trials in patients with
      moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Patients received placebo, etanercept (ETN; 50 mg
      twice weekly) or IXE [80 mg every 4 weeks (Q4W) or every 2 weeks (Q2W)] for up to
      12 weeks following an initial 160-mg dose. HRQoL parameters were analysed based
      on facial psoriasis status at baseline using analysis of covariance models.
      Improvement was assessed as percentage of patients with no facial psoriasis.
      RESULTS: The combined database included 1133 patients with facial psoriasis and
      1437 without. Patients treated with IXE whose facial psoriasis cleared had
      improved Dermatology Life Quality Index 0.1 responses (P < 0.01) compared with
      patients with facial psoriasis at Week 12. At Week 12, clearance of facial
      psoriasis compared with the presence of facial psoriasis was independently
      associated with significantly better improvement in Psoriasis Skin Appearance
      Bothersomeness scores in the IXE Q2W treatment group (P < 0.01). At Week 12,
      facial clearance and overall Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) improvement
      were observed in significant numbers of patients treated with IXE compared with
      ETN and placebo. Facial psoriasis clearance at Week 12 in patients treated with
      IXE or ETN was positively associated with PASI75 and PASI90 achievement.
      CONCLUSION: Facial psoriasis had a larger negative impact on HRQoL than no facial
      psoriasis. Facial psoriasis clearance was associated with improved HRQoL.
      Significantly more IXE-treated patients had rapid facial clearance vs. ETN and
      PBO, which led to better clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28881464
TI  - Immediate Postpartum Contraception: A Survey Needs Assessment of a National
      Sample of Midwives.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Immediate postpartum long-acting, reversible contraception (LARC)
      providing intrauterine devices (IUDs) and contraceptive implants immediately
      following birth-is an effective strategy to prevent unintended pregnancies and
      improve birth spacing. We measured US certified nurse-midwives' (CNMs') and
      certified midwives' (CMs') knowledge, training needs, current practice, and
      perceived barriers to providing immediate postpartum LARC. METHODS: We invited
      currently practicing CNM and CM members of the American College of Nurse-Midwives
      to complete an online survey about their knowledge and experience with the use of
      LARC and analyzed eligible questionnaires using descriptive statistics. RESULTS:
      Of 4609 eligible midwives, 794 responded (17% response rate). Most were female
      (99.5%) and non-Hispanic white (92.1%), with 45.0% attending births in urban
      settings. Responses revealed multiple knowledge gaps related to IUD expulsion
      rates and appropriateness of immediate postpartum LARC in certain clinical
      scenarios. Only 10.1% of respondents reported feeling confident to insert an
      immediate postpartum IUD and 43.3% an implant. Many reported desiring additional
      training in immediate postpartum IUD (63.5%) and implant (22.8%) insertion; few
      reported access to such training (IUD, 19.9%; implant, 15.2%). Most respondents
      had never inserted an immediate postpartum IUD (90.7%) or implant (86.8%). The
      most commonly cited barriers to immediate postpartum LARC provision were that it
      is not standard practice (IUD, 40.9%; implant, 39.0%) or is not available (IUD,
      27.8%; implant, 34.8%) at one's institution and feeling inadequately trained
      (IUD, 26.5%; implant, 10.7%). DISCUSSION: Nine in 10 midwife respondents have
      never inserted an IUD or implant immediately postpartum, but more than half
      indicated they would like the opportunity to provide these services. Our findings
      highlight opportunities to enhance the immediate postpartum LARC-related
      knowledge and skills of the midwife workforce. They also suggest that logistic
      and institutional barriers to immediate postpartum LARC access must be removed in
      order to make this evidence-based reproductive health service available to all
      women who desire it.

PMID- 28881463
TI  - A Family Based Study of Carbon Monoxide and Nitric Oxide Signalling Genes and
      Preeclampsia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is thought to originate during placentation, with
      incomplete remodelling and perfusion of the spiral arteries leading to reduced
      placental vascular capacity. Nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) are
      powerful vasodilators that play a role in the placental vascular system. Although
      family clustering of preeclampsia has been observed, the existing genetic
      literature is limited by a failure to consider both mother and child. METHODS: We
      conducted a nested case-control study within the Norwegian Mother and Child Birth
      Cohort of 1545 case-pairs and 995 control-pairs from 2540 validated dyads (2011
      complete pairs, 529 missing mother or child genotype). We selected 1518 single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with minor allele frequency >5% in NO and CO
      signalling pathways. We used log-linear Poisson regression models and likelihood
      ratio tests to assess maternal and child effects. RESULTS: One SNP met criteria
      for a false discovery rate Q-value <0.05. The child variant, rs12547243 in
      adenylate cyclase 8 (ADCY8), was associated with an increased risk (relative risk
      [RR] 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20, 1.69 for AG vs. GG, RR 2.14, 95% CI
      1.47, 3.11 for AA vs. GG, Q = 0.03). The maternal variant, rs30593 in PDE1C was
      associated with a decreased risk for the subtype of preeclampsia accompanied by
      early delivery (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.27, 0.75 for TC vs. CC; Q = 0.02). None of the
      associations were replicated after correction for multiple testing. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study uses a novel approach to disentangle maternal and child genotypic
      effects of NO and CO signalling genes on preeclampsia.

PMID- 28881466
TI  - A hot lunch for herbivores: physiological effects of elevated temperatures on
      mammalian feeding ecology.
AB  - Mammals maintain specific body temperatures (Tb ) across a broad range of ambient
      temperatures. The energy required for thermoregulation ultimately comes from the
      diet, and so what animals eat is inextricably linked to thermoregulation.
      Endothermic herbivores must balance energy requirements and expenditure with
      complicated thermoregulatory challenges from changing thermal, nutritional and
      toxicological environments. In this review we provide evidence that plant-based
      diets can influence thermoregulation beyond the control of herbivores, and that
      this can render them susceptible to heat stress. Notably, herbivorous diets often
      require specialised digestive systems, are imbalanced, and contain plant
      secondary metabolites (PSMs). PSMs in particular are able to interfere with the
      physiological processes responsible for thermoregulation, for example by
      uncoupling mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, binding to thermoreceptors,
      or because the pathways required to detoxify PSMs are thermogenic. It is likely,
      therefore, that increased ambient temperatures due to climate change may have
      greater and more-specific impacts on herbivores than on other mammals, and that
      managing internal and external heat loads under these conditions could drive
      changes in feeding ecology.

PMID- 28881465
TI  - WNK Signaling Inhibitors as Potential Antihypertensive Drugs.
AB  - Since the discovery of WNK mutations that cause an inherited form of hypertension
      in humans, there has been increasing interest in targeting WNK signaling as a
      novel strategy for modulating blood pressure. This notion is now supported by
      numerous mouse models with impaired WNK signaling that exhibit reduced blood
      pressure. Biochemical analyses of the various protein components that make up
      this signaling pathway have identified a number of plausible molecular targets
      that are amenable to targeting by small molecules. To date, a selection of small
      molecule WNK signaling inhibitors have been identified and have shown promise in
      suppressing the activity of WNK signaling in cells and in animals. In this
      Minireview, we briefly discuss the WNK signaling pathway and provide an overview
      of the various druggable targets within this cascade, as well as the different
      WNK signaling inhibitors discovered to date.

PMID- 28881467
TI  - Important factors affecting the choice of an oral anticoagulant may be missed in
      database studies.

PMID- 28881469
TI  - Biomimicry, Biofabrication, and Biohybrid Systems: The Emergence and Evolution of
      Biological Design.
AB  - The discipline of biological design has a relatively short history, but has
      undergone very rapid expansion and development over that time. This Progress
      Report outlines the evolution of this field from biomimicry to biofabrication to
      biohybrid systems' design, showcasing how each subfield incorporates bioinspired
      dynamic adaptation into engineered systems. Ethical implications of biological
      design are discussed, with an emphasis on establishing responsible practices for
      engineering non-natural or hypernatural functional behaviors in biohybrid
      systems. This report concludes with recommendations for implementing biological
      design into educational curricula, ensuring effective and responsible practices
      for the next generation of engineers and scientists.

PMID- 28881468
TI  - Parallel folding pathways of Fip35 WW domain explained by infrared spectra and
      their computer simulation.
AB  - We present a calculation of the amide I' infrared (IR) spectra of the folded,
      unfolded, and intermediate states of the WW domain Fip35, a model system for beta
      sheet folding. Using an all-atom molecular dynamics simulation in which multiple
      folding and unfolding events take place we identify six conformational states and
      then apply perturbed matrix method quantum-mechanical calculations to determine
      their amide I' IR spectra. Our analysis focuses on two states previously
      identified as Fip35 folding intermediates and suggests that a three-stranded core
      similar to the folded state core is the main source of the spectroscopic
      differences between the two intermediates. In particular, we propose a hypothesis
      for why folding via one of these intermediates was not experimentally observed by
      IR T-jump.

PMID- 28881470
TI  - Solvothermal Synthesis of Cs0.33 WO3 /LDHs Composite as a Novel Visible-Light
      Driven Photocatalyst.
AB  - A novel Cs0.33 WO3 /LDHs (CWLDH) composite was synthesized by simple two steps
      solvothermal method and first investigated as the photocatalyst for tetracycline
      (TC) and Congo red (CR) degradation under visible light irradiation. The CWLDH
      heterostructures catalysts were characterized by XRD, UV-Vis, SEM, XPS and BET.
      The composite CWLDH showed enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with pure
      Cs0.33 WO3 and NiAl-LDH under identical experimental conditions. The enhanced
      photocatalytic activity was mainly attributed to the higher visible light
      absorbing ability, efficient electron-hole separation and prolonged lifetimes of
      photogenerated charges. The photocatalyst presented a high photocatalytic
      activity (92%) at the optimum of CWLDH-3 and initial TC concentration of 40 mg L
      1 . Besides, the degradation efficiency of TC is higher than 75% for reused CWLDH
      after four cycles, demonstrating that it could be used as a potential catalyst
      with good photocatalytic activity, stability and reusability. According to the
      experimental results, a possible photocatalytic mechanism of CWLDH was discussed.

PMID- 28881472
TI  - Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics of Domagrozumab (PF
      06252616), an Antimyostatin Monoclonal Antibody, in Healthy Subjects.
AB  - Safety, tolerability, anabolic effects, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of
      single ascending and multiple doses of domagrozumab, an antimyostatin monoclonal
      antibody, were assessed following intravenous (IV) and subcutaneous (SC)
      administration in healthy subjects. A range of single ascending dose levels
      between 1 and 40 mg/kg IV and multiple doses (3 doses) of 10 mg/kg IV were tested
      (n = 8 per cohort). Additionally, a 3 mg/kg SC (n = 8) cohort also received
      domagrozumab. Magnetic resonance imaging and whole-body dual-energy x-ray
      absorptiometry imaging were conducted to investigate the anabolic effects of
      domagrozumab. Domagrozumab was well tolerated with no severe and 1 non-treatment
      related serious adverse event. The most commonly reported adverse events were
      headache (21 subjects) and fatigue, upper respiratory tract infections, and
      muscle spasms (10 subjects each). Domagrozumab demonstrated typical IgG1
      pharmacokinetics, with slow SC absorption and slow clearance, low volume of
      distribution, and a long half-life. Target engagement was observed with an
      increase in extent of myostatin modulation, plateauing at the 20 mg/kg IV dose.
      Downstream pharmacology following myostatin binding by domagrozumab was only
      observed in the 10 mg/kg single IV cohort (increase in whole-body lean mass of
      5.38% using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and the 10 mg/kg repeat-dose cohort
      (muscle volume increase of 4.49% using magnetic resonance imaging).

PMID- 28881471
TI  - Strategic recruitment of an ethnically diverse cohort of overweight survivors of
      breast cancer with lymphedema.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Black women are more likely to experience adverse effects from cancer
      treatment such as lymphedema. Thus, black women may particularly benefit from
      research regarding interventions to improve lymphedema. Herein, the authors
      report the challenges and strategies related to the recruitment of minority
      survivors of breast cancer and to the recruitment of survivors of breast cancer
      with lymphedema into the Women In Steady Exercise Research (WISER) Survivor
      Clinical Trial. METHODS: Subjects for this community-based trial were recruited
      from the Philadelphia area through active (mailings) and passive (printed
      materials and Web site) recruitment strategies. In addition, education sessions
      coordinated through partner hospitals in communities with a predominantly
      minority population were conducted to increase awareness of lymphedema in
      survivors of breast cancer. Women who were interested in the study were screened
      for lymphedema via telephone questionnaire and invited to see a study-related
      certified lymphedema therapist to confirm the presence of lymphedema. RESULTS:
      Screening was conducted among 2295 women: 628 were eligible, 450 consented, and
      351 were randomized. Minority women comprised 38% of the study population.
      Letters to women on state and hospital registries resulted in a 0.4%
      randomization rate; education sessions yielded a 10% randomization rate. The
      authors observed that approximately 23.6% of the study sample had no previous
      diagnosis of lymphedema. CONCLUSIONS: The WISER Survivor Clinical Trial faced
      multiple recruitment challenges and used unique strategies to successfully enroll
      minority survivors of breast cancer into a lifestyle intervention. Cancer
      2018;124:95-104. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881473
TI  - The classic signalling and trans-signalling of interleukin-6 are both injurious
      in podocyte under high glucose exposure.
AB  - Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that employs IL-6 classic and
      trans-signalling pathways, and these two signal channels execute different or
      even opposite effects in certain diseases. As a cardinal event of diabetic kidney
      disease (DKD), whether the podocyte abnormalities are associated with IL-6
      signalling, especially classic or trans-signalling respectively, remains unclear.
      In this study, we identified that the circulatory IL-6, soluble IL-6R (sIL-6R)
      and soluble glycoprotein 130 (sgp130) levels are elevated in patients with DKD.
      The expressions of membrane-bound IL-6R (mIL-6R), sIL-6R and gp130 are enhanced
      in kidney cortex of diabetic mice accompanying with activated STAT3 by tyrosine
      705 residue phosphorylation, while not serine 727. Above data infer both classic
      signalling and trans-signalling of IL-6 are activated during DKD. In cultured
      podocyte, high glucose (HG) up-regulates the expression of mIL-6R and gp130, as
      well as STAT3 tyrosine 705 phosphorylation, in a time-dependent manner. Entirely
      blocking IL-6 signalling by gp130 shRNA, gp130 or IL-6 neutralizing antibodies
      attenuates HG-induced podocyte injury. Interestingly, either inhibiting IL-6
      classic signalling by mIL-6R shRNA or suppressing its trans-signalling using
      sgp130 protein dramatically alleviates HG-induced podocyte injury, suggesting
      both IL-6 classic signalling and trans-signalling play a detrimental role in HG
      induced podocyte injury. Additionally, activation of IL-6 classic or trans
      signalling aggravates podocyte damage in vitro. In summary, our observations
      demonstrate that the activation of either IL-6 classic or trans-signalling
      advances podocyte harming under hyperglycaemia. Thus, suppressing IL-6 classic
      and trans-signalling simultaneously may be more beneficial in podocyte protection
      and presents a novel therapeutic target for DKD.

PMID- 28881474
TI  - Assessment of Instructions on Protection Against Food Contaminated with
      Radiocesium in Japan in 2011.
AB  - The Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has published
      instructions for radiological protection against food after the Fukushima Daiichi
      nuclear power plant accident in 2011. Following the instructions, the export and
      consumption of food items identified as being contaminated were restricted for a
      certain period. We assessed the validity of the imposed restriction periods for
      two representative vegetables (spinach and cabbage) grown in Fukushima Prefecture
      from two perspectives: effectiveness for reducing dietary dose and economic
      efficiency. To assess effectiveness, we estimated the restriction period required
      to maintain consumers' dose below the guidance dose levels. To assess economic
      efficiency, we estimated the restriction period that maximizes the net benefit to
      taxpayers. All estimated restriction periods were shorter than the actual
      restriction periods imposed on spinach and cabbage from Fukushima in 2011, which
      indicates that the food restriction effectively maintained consumers' dietary
      dose below the guidance dose level, but in an economically inefficient manner. We
      also evaluated the response of the restriction period to the sample size for each
      weekly food safety test and the instructions for when to remove the restriction.
      Stringent MHLW instructions seemed to sufficiently reduce consumers' health risk
      even when the sample size for the weekly food safety test was small, but tended
      to increase the economic cost to taxpayers.

PMID- 28881475
TI  - The Cancer of the Bladder Risk Assessment (COBRA) score: Estimating mortality
      after radical cystectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Risk stratification of patients with urothelial carcinoma of the
      bladder (UCB) after cystectomy has important clinical and research implications.
      The authors assessed the relative effect of tumor stage and lymph node status on
      cancer-specific survival (CSS) after cystectomy and developed a simplified risk
      assessment tool. METHODS: In total, 14,828 patients who underwent cystectomy with
      lymph node dissection for UCB were identified from the Surveillance,
      Epidemiology, and End Results database (1988-2011). The relative importance of
      tumor stage and lymph node status with regard to CSS was assessed using
      stratified Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional-hazards analyses. The patients were
      split randomly into development and validation cohorts. Additional validation
      using overall survival was performed on 19,362 patients from the National Cancer
      Data Base. The Cancer of Bladder Risk Assessment (COBRA) tool was created using a
      Cox model incorporating age, tumor stage, and lymph node density. Performance was
      validated using observed versus expected survival plots and the Harrell
      concordance index. RESULTS: Patients with muscle invasive (T2), lymph node
      positive disease had a survival curve similar to that in patients with
      extravesical (T3 and T4), lymph node-negative disease (2-year CSS, 67% and 70%,
      respectively). Each point increase in the COBRA score (range, 0-7) was associated
      with a 1.61-fold increase (95% confidence interval, 1.56-fold to 1.65-fold
      increase) in the risk of bladder cancer death in the development cohort. The
      model accurately stratified patients across risk levels in the development cohort
      and the 2 validation cohorts (C-index, 0.712, 0.705, and 0.68, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: The COBRA score offers a straightforward, validated risk
      stratification tool that incorporates the relative contribution of tumor stage
      and lymph node involvement to patient prognosis after cystectomy for UCB. Cancer
      2017;123:4574-4582. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28881476
TI  - Supporting patients in reducing postoperative constipation: fundamental nursing
      care - a quasi-experimental study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of constipation in the general population is 2-28%.
      Patients with constipation report symptoms of abdominal pain, bloating, nausea,
      straining to defecate and general discomfort. Strategies for preventing
      constipation include laxatives, exercise and increased fluid and fibre intake,
      but life style adjustments, such as exercise, eating more fibres and drinking
      more fluids, were not considered a solution by older patients. Previous studies
      have shown that actively involving patients through individualised care and
      support increases patients' outcome. AIM: To test the efficacy of a nursing
      intervention based on active patient involvement including individualised nursing
      care plans and daily dialogues for patients with hip fractures in preventing
      constipation after surgery. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was applied.
      Inclusion criteria hip fracture needing surgery, understand Danish. Exclusion
      criteria dementia, gastrointestinal disease. A total of 186 patients were
      included and 155 completed. An admission interview including Constipation Risk
      Assessment Scale was undertaken. On that basis an individualised nursing care
      plan was made. At admission, discharge and 30 days after surgery constipation,
      intake of fibres and fluid were measured. The Bristol Stool Scale and Rasmussen's
      scale were used to measure constipation. Patients in the control group received
      standard care of the ward. RESULTS: After 30 days constipation rates for patients
      in the intervention group were significantly lower than for patients in the
      control group (p = 0.042). The fibre intakes and fluid intakes were significantly
      higher in the intervention group (p <= 0.001). The effect of liquid intake was
      statistically significant (OR = 1.1, 95% CI: 1.0-1.2). Likewise, the effect of
      fibre intake was statistically significant; the odds of constipation decreased
      with increasing fibre intake (OR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2-0.8). CONCLUSION: Patients
      with hip fractures that were actively involved in their own care in preventing
      constipation were significantly less constipated 30 days after surgery than
      control patients. Increases in fluid and fibre intakes had significant effects on
      reducing the risk of developing constipation.

PMID- 28881477
TI  - Multimodal quantitative examination of nerve function in colorectal cancer
      patients prior to chemotherapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Given recent findings of subclinical sensory deficits in colorectal
      cancer patients before oxaliplatin treatment, in the current study we aimed to
      identify evidence of subclinical peripheral neuropathy on multimodal testing
      before chemotherapy commencement. METHODS: Clinical, functional, and
      neurophysiological assessments were undertaken in 93 colorectal cancer patients
      before chemotherapy. RESULTS: There was no neurophysiological evidence of
      neuropathy, with 92 of 93 sural sensory values within normative reference values
      for age and no significant abnormalities detected in nerve conduction or nerve
      excitability studies. Clinical neurological assessment revealed 75.9% of patients
      with no signs or symptoms, 10.3% with reduction in distal vibration or pinprick
      sensitivity, and 6.9% with reduction in ankle reflexes only. There was no
      difference in manual dexterity (using the 9-hole peg-board test) compared with
      normative data. DISCUSSION: The present study has established a low likelihood of
      significant distal symmetrical polyneuropathy in colorectal cancer patients
      before initiation of chemotherapy. Muscle Nerve 57: 615-621, 2018.

PMID- 28881479
TI  - Response to the American College of Physicians Osteoporosis Guideline, 2017
      Update.

PMID- 28881478
TI  - Properties of BioRoot RCS, a tricalcium silicate endodontic sealer modified with
      povidone and polycarboxylate.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the chemical and physical properties of a tricalcium silicate
      root canal sealer containing povidone and polycarboxylate (BioRoot RCS), a
      calcium silicate MTA-based sealer containing a salicylate resin (MTA Fillapex), a
      traditional eugenol-containing sealer (Pulp Canal Sealer) and an epoxy resin
      based root canal sealer (AH Plus). METHODOLOGY: Calcium release, pH, setting
      time, water sorption, volume of open pores, volume of impervious portion,
      apparent porosity and weight loss were measured. The ability to nucleate calcium
      phosphates (CaP) after ageing 28 days in a simulated body fluid was evaluated
      using ESEM-EDX and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Data were statistically analysed (P
      = 0.05) using one-way anova (setting time, radiopacity, solubility, water
      sorption, porosity) or two-way anova (ion release tests). RESULTS: BioRoot RCS
      had a final setting time of 300 min and adequate radiopacity (5.2 mm Al). It
      demonstrated the highest (P < 0.05) and more prolonged ability to release calcium
      ions (721 ppm at 3 h) and to increase the pH (11-12) (P < 0.05); B-type
      carbonated apatite deposits were found on aged BioRoot RCS (biointeractivity
      related CaP-forming ability). A final setting time of 270 min and good calcium
      release (17.4 ppm at 3 h) were measured for MTA Fillapex; apatite deposits were
      present on aged samples. No calcium release and no alkalizing activity were
      measured for Pulp Canal Sealer and AH Plus; no CaP nucleation was detected on
      aged Pulp Canal Sealer, and some apatite deposits were found on aged AH Plus
      (chemi/physisorption-related CaP-deposition). Higher and significantly different
      (P < 0.05) porosity, water sorption and solubility were measured for the two
      calcium silicate sealers, especially for BioRoot RCS. CONCLUSIONS: BioRoot RCS
      had bioactivity with calcium release, strong alkalizing activity and apatite
      forming ability, and adequate radiopacity.

PMID- 28881480
TI  - Hypomineralized second primary molars: prevalence, defect characteristics and
      relationship with dental caries in Melbourne preschool children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dental caries and enamel defects (DDE) are prevalent amongst
      children. The presence of DDE, especially enamel hypomineralization, may increase
      caries experience. The reported prevalence of hypomineralized second primary
      molars (HSPM) is 2.7-21.8%, although the occurrence in Australian children
      remains unknown. These HSPM represent a potential predictive factor for molar
      incisor hypomineralization (MIH). METHODS: In total, 623 children aged 3-5 years
      from 30 randomly selected kindergartens participated. The HSPM were recorded
      using an index combining the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry MIH
      Judgment Criteria and modified DDE Index. Caries was recorded using International
      Caries Detection and Assessment System criteria. RESULTS: In total, 144 HSPM were
      observed in 88 of the 623 (14.1%) children, a tooth-level prevalence of 5.8%. The
      prevalence of dentinal carious lesions was 13.2%, and caries prevalence (d2-6 mft
      > 0) was 36.4%. Cavitated carious lesions affected 30.7% of HSPM. CONCLUSIONS:
      The relationship between an increase in HSPM lesion extent and increasing number
      of HSPM per child was statistically significant. A positive association between
      HSPM severity and extent at tooth level existed (P < 0.05). There was a positive
      relationship between the extent of HSPM and carious lesion severity (P < 0.05).
      In this population, children with HSPM did not have overall greater caries
      experience.

PMID- 28881481
TI  - Oxaliplatin induces muscle loss and muscle-specific molecular changes in Mice.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Muscle wasting is a frequent, debilitating complication of cancer.
      The impact of colorectal cancer chemotherapeutic oxaliplatin on the development
      of muscle loss and associated molecular changes is of clinical importance.
      METHODS: C57BL/6J male mice were treated with oxaliplatin. Total body weights
      were measured and behavioral studies performed. Hindlimb muscle weights
      (gastrocnemius and soleus) were recorded in conjunction with gene and protein
      expression analysis. RESULTS: Oxaliplatin-treated mice displayed reduced weight
      gain and behavioral deficits. Mice treated over a shorter course had
      significantly increased STAT3 phosphorylation in gastrocnemius muscles. Mice
      receiving extended oxaliplatin treatment demonstrated reduced hindlimb muscle
      mass with upregulation of myopathy-associated genes Foxo3, MAFbx, and Bnip3.
      DISCUSSION: The findings suggest that oxaliplatin treatment can directly disrupt
      skeletal muscle homeostasis and promote muscle loss, which may be clinically
      relevant in the context of targeting fatigue and weakness in cancer patients.
      Muscle Nerve 57: 650-658, 2018.

PMID- 28881483
TI  - Meta-analysis: Risk of hyperhidrosis with second-generation antidepressants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our goal was to quantify the risk of hyperhidrosis associated with
      commonly used antidepressant agents and examine the impact of medication class,
      pharmacodynamics, and dose on risk of hyperhidrosis. METHODS: We conducted a
      PubMed search to identify all double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trials
      examining the efficacy of second-generation antidepressant medications in the
      treatment of adults with a depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, or obsessive
      compulsive disorder. We used a random-effects meta-analysis to examine the pooled
      risk ratio of hyperhidrosis reported as a side effect in adults treated with
      second-generation antidepressants compared to placebo. We used stratified
      subgroup analysis and metaregression to examine the effects of medication type,
      class, dosage, indication, and receptor affinity profile on the measured risk of
      hyperhidrosis. RESULTS: We identified 76 trials involving 28,544 subjects. There
      was no significant difference in the risk of hyperhidrosis between serotonin
      norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI) [risk ratio (RR) = 3.17, 95% CI: 2.63
      3.82] and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) (RR = 2.93, 95% CI: 2.46
      3.47) medications compared to placebo. All antidepressant medications were
      associated with a significantly increased risk of hyperhidrosis except
      fluvoxamine (RR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.12-2.53), bupropion (RR = 1.23, 95% CI: 0.57
      2.67), and vortioxetine (RR = 1.35, 95% CI: 0.79-2.33). The dose of SSRI/SNRI
      medications was not significantly associated with the risk of hyperhidrosis.
      Increased risk of hyperhidrosis was associated with increased affinity of
      SSRI/SNRI medications to the dopamine transporter. CONCLUSION: Risk of
      hyperhidrosis was significantly increased with most antidepressant medications
      but was associated with dopamine transporter affinity.

PMID- 28881482
TI  - Altered expression of antigen-specific memory and regulatory T-cell subsets
      differentiate latent and active tuberculosis.
AB  - Although one-third of the world population is infected with Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis, only 5-10% of the infected individuals will develop active
      tuberculosis (TB) disease and the rest will remain infected with no symptoms,
      known as latent TB infection (LTBI). Identifying biomarkers that differentiate
      latent and active TB disease enables effective TB control, as early detection,
      treatment of active TB and preventive treatment of individuals with LTBI are
      crucial steps involved in TB control. Here, we have evaluated the frequency of
      antigen-specific memory and regulatory T (Treg) cells in 15 healthy household
      contacts (HHC) and 15 pulmonary TB patients (PTB) to identify biomarkers for
      differential diagnosis of LTBI and active TB. Among all the antigens tested in
      the present study, early secretory antigenic target-6 (ESAT-6) -specific CD4+ and
      CD8+ central memory (Tcm) cells showed 93% positivity in HHC and 20% positivity
      in PTB. The novel test antigens Rv0753c and Rv0009 both displayed 80% and 20%
      positivity in HHC and PTB, respectively. In contrast to Tcm cells, effector
      memory T (Tem) cells showed a higher response in PTB than HHC; both ESAT-6 and
      Rv0009 showed similar positivity of 80% in PTB and 33% in HHC. PTB patients have
      a higher proportion of circulating antigen-reactive Treg cells (CD4+  CD25+ 
      FoxP3+ ) than LTBI. Rv2204c-specific Treg cells showed maximum positivity of 73%
      in PTB and 20% in HHC. Collectively, our data conclude that ESAT-6-specific Tcm
      cells and Rv2204c-specific Treg cells might be useful biomarkers to discriminate
      LTBI from active TB.

PMID- 28881484
TI  - Primary cells in BCR/FGFR1-positive 8p11 myeloproliferative syndrome are
      sensitive to dovitinib, ponatinib, and dasatinib.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Translocations involving the fibroblast growth factor receptor 1
      (FGFR1) gene are associated with the 8p11 myeloproliferative syndrome (EMS), a
      rare neoplasm that following a usually short chronic phase progresses into acute
      myeloid or lymphoid leukemia. The treatment commonly involves chemotherapy and,
      if possible, allogeneic stem cell transplantation which is the only therapeutic
      option for long-term survival. Given the aggressive course of EMS, we here
      evaluated tyrosine kinase inhibitors as treatment options to delay disease
      progression. METHODS: We described a new case of EMS and used chromosome
      analyses, PCR, and sequencing to investigate the underlying genetic aberrations.
      The sensitivity to several tyrosine kinase inhibitors was tested in vitro on the
      EMS cell line KG1 and on primary cells from the newly diagnosed EMS patient.
      RESULTS: A translocation involving chromosomes 8 and 22 was detected, and a
      BCR/FGFR1 fusion gene was confirmed and characterized by sequencing. KG1 cells
      and primary EMS cells displayed distinct sensitivity to dovitinib, ponatinib, and
      dasatinib as compared to normal bone marrow control cells. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors may be beneficial
      for patients with EMS during the search for a suitable stem cell donor and for
      those not eligible for transplantation.

PMID- 28881485
TI  - Indices of anti-dengue immunoglobulin G subclasses in adult Mexican patients with
      febrile and hemorrhagic dengue in the acute phase.
AB  - Heterologous secondary infections are at increased risk of developing dengue
      hemorrhagic fever (DHF) because of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). IgG
      subclasses can fix and activate complement and bind to Fcgamma receptors. These
      factors may also play an important role in the development of ADE and thus in the
      pathogenesis of DHF. The aim of this study was to analyze the indices of anti
      dengue IgG subclasses in adult patients with febrile and hemorrhagic dengue in
      the acute phase. In 2013, 129 patients with dengue fever (DF) and 57 with DHF in
      Veracruz, Mexico were recruited for this study and anti-dengue IgM and IgG
      determined by capture ELISA. Anti-dengue IgG subclasses were detected by indirect
      ELISA. Anti-dengue IgG2 and IgG3 subclasses were detected in patients with
      dengue. IgG1 increased significantly in the sera of patients with both primary
      and secondary infections and DHF, but was higher in patients with secondary
      infections. The IgG4 subclass index was significantly higher in the sera of
      patients with DHF than in that of those with DF, who were in the early and late
      acute phase of both primary and secondary infection. In conclusion, indices of
      subclasses IgG1 and IgG4 were higher in patients with DHF.

PMID- 28881486
TI  - How USP18 deals with ISG15-modified proteins: structural basis for the
      specificity of the protease.
AB  - The ubiquitin-specific protease 18 (USP18) has two major functions: (a) it is a
      highly specific protease that cleaves the ubiquitin-like modifier ISG15
      (interferon-stimulated gene 15) from proteins, and (b) independent from its
      enzymatic activity USP18 interacts with the type I interferon receptor and shuts
      off downstream signaling. The structures of USP18 and a USP18-ISG15 complex
      revealed the molecular basis of the unique specificity of the protease and might
      shed some light into its interaction with the interferon receptor.

PMID- 28881487
TI  - Improving properties of silk sericin membranes via enzymatic oxidation with
      laccase and TEMPO.
AB  - Silk sericin has excellent features of antioxidant ability and good
      cytocompatibility; however, high water solubility and poor mechanical properties
      have restricted its application in biomedical fields. In this study, aimed at
      improving the mechanical properties of a regenerated silk sericin, the primary
      hydroxy groups in silk sericin were enzymatically oxidized by using laccase and
      2,2',6,6'-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO), and the generated reactive groups
      then reacted further with the amino groups in the sericin chains. The efficacy of
      the enzymatic cross-linking was evaluated by means of determination of amino
      groups, SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
      spectroscopy, and size exclusion chromatography. The results indicated that
      either laccase/TEMPO incubation or laccase treatment alone incurred a noticeable
      increase in the molecular weight of the sericin. FTIR analysis revealed that
      there was small change in the structure of the silk sericin after laccase/TEMPO
      treatment, and the obtained air-dried sericin membrane exhibited remarkably
      improved mechanical properties relative to those of the uncross-linked sericin
      membrane. In addition, the biocompatibility of the sericin membrane was at an
      acceptable level according to the cell viability of NIH/3T3 cells. The present
      work provides a novel method for the preparation of sericin-based biomaterials.

PMID- 28881488
TI  - Case series of pleomorphic carcinomas of the lung treated with nivolumab.
AB  - Pleomorphic carcinoma (PC) of the lung is a rare type of non-small cell lung
      cancer, exhibiting aggressive behavior and resistance to chemotherapy and
      radiotherapy. A previous study reported that PCs expressed high levels of PD-L1,
      suggesting the potential efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in these
      tumors. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of three patients with
      PC of the lung treated with nivolumab: a 59-year-old woman (Case 1), a 66-year
      old man (Case 2), and an 83-year-old man (Case 3). PD-L1 was highly expressed in
      their tumor cells. Two cases showed a partial response with long progression-free
      survival. However, in Case 2, brain and bone metastases progressed during
      nivolumab treatment in spite of high PD-L1 expression. This case series indicates
      that nivolumab is effective to some extent for PC of the lung. However, the
      clinical course of patients treated with nivolumab should be carefully observed,
      even when PD-L1 is highly expressed.

PMID- 28881489
TI  - Behavioral Modeling of Adversaries with Multiple Objectives in Counterterrorism.
AB  - Attacker/defender models have primarily assumed that each decisionmaker optimizes
      the cost of the damage inflicted and its economic repercussions from their own
      perspective. Two streams of recent research have sought to extend such models.
      One stream suggests that it is more realistic to consider attackers with multiple
      objectives, but this research has not included the adaption of the terrorist with
      multiple objectives to defender actions. The other stream builds off experimental
      studies that show that decisionmakers deviate from optimal rational behavior. In
      this article, we extend attacker/defender models to incorporate multiple
      objectives that a terrorist might consider in planning an attack. This includes
      the tradeoffs that a terrorist might consider and their adaption to defender
      actions. However, we must also consider experimental evidence of deviations from
      the rationality assumed in the commonly used expected utility model in
      determining such adaption. Thus, we model the attacker's behavior using
      multiattribute prospect theory to account for the attacker's multiple objectives
      and deviations from rationality. We evaluate our approach by considering an
      attacker with multiple objectives who wishes to smuggle radioactive material into
      the United States and a defender who has the option to implement a screening
      process to hinder the attacker. We discuss the problems with implementing such an
      approach, but argue that research in this area must continue to avoid
      misrepresenting terrorist behavior in determining optimal defensive actions.

PMID- 28881490
TI  - Diabetic retinopathy screening using deep neural network.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: There is a burgeoning interest in the use of deep neural network in
      diabetic retinal screening. BACKGROUND: To determine whether a deep neural
      network could satisfactorily detect diabetic retinopathy that requires referral
      to an ophthalmologist from a local diabetic retinal screening programme and an
      international database. DESIGN: Retrospective audit. PARTICIPANTS: Diabetic
      retinal photos from Otago database photographed during October 2016 (485 photos),
      and 1200 photos from Messidor international database. METHODS: Receiver operating
      characteristic curve to illustrate the ability of a deep neural network to
      identify referable diabetic retinopathy (moderate or worse diabetic retinopathy
      or exudates within one disc diameter of the fovea). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Area
      under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity and specificity.
      RESULTS: For detecting referable diabetic retinopathy, the deep neural network
      had an area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.901 (95%
      confidence interval 0.807-0.995), with 84.6% sensitivity and 79.7% specificity
      for Otago and 0.980 (95% confidence interval 0.973-0.986), with 96.0% sensitivity
      and 90.0% specificity for Messidor. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This study has
      shown that a deep neural network can detect referable diabetic retinopathy with
      sensitivities and specificities close to or better than 80% from both an
      international and a domestic (New Zealand) database. We believe that deep neural
      networks can be integrated into community screening once they can successfully
      detect both diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular oedema.

PMID- 28881491
TI  - In Vivo X-ray Imaging of Transport of Renal Clearable Gold Nanoparticles in the
      Kidneys.
AB  - With more and more engineered nanoparticles (NPs) being designed renal clearable
      for clinical translation, fundamental understanding of their transport in the
      different compartments of kidneys becomes increasingly important. Here, we report
      noninvasive X-ray imaging of renal clearable gold NPs (AuNPs) in normal and
      nephropathic kidneys. By quantifying the transport kinetics of the AuNPs in
      cortex, medulla and pelvis of the normal and injured kidneys, we found that
      ureteral obstruction not just blocked the NP elimination through the ureter but
      also slowed down their transport from the medulla to pelvis and enhanced the
      cellular uptake. Moreover, the transport kinetics of the NPs and renal anatomic
      details can be precisely correlated with local pathological lesion. These
      findings not only advance our understandings of the nano-bio interactions in
      kidneys but also offer a new pathway to noninvasively image kidney dysfunction
      and local injuries at the anatomical level.

PMID- 28881492
TI  - Brief Report: A Novel ELANE Mutation Associated With Inflammatory Arthritis,
      Defective NETosis, and Recurrent Parvovirus Infection.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We describe a 38-year-old woman who presented with a history of
      inflammatory arthritis, rash, and daily fevers. She was noted to have chronic
      parvovirus infection with persistently detectable viral titers and a novel
      mutation in the ELANE gene. ELANE encodes neutrophil elastase, a neutrophil
      serine protease with important antimicrobial effects, and is found as part of
      neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) complexes. Pathogenic ELANE mutations have
      been identified in forms of hereditary neutropenia. However, our patient never
      had neutropenia. Because of the striking clinical scenario, we investigated this
      mutation functionally. METHODS: NET formation by neutrophils was assessed by
      scanning electron microscopy. Neutrophil activation and neutrophil elastase
      production were evaluated by flow cytometry and fluorescent substrate-based
      functional assay, respectively. A multiplex assay was used to quantitate
      neutrophil inflammatory cytokine production. PyMOL software was used to generate
      3-dimensional models of mutant elastase. RESULTS: Activated neutrophils from the
      patient demonstrated a significantly decreased ability to form NETs on scanning
      electron microscopy, as well as quantitative defects in neutrophil activation and
      neutrophil elastase activity. The patient's neutrophils showed altered levels of
      interleukin-12 (IL-12) and IL-8, which are key cytokines for antiviral immunity
      and neutrophil chemotaxis. Three-dimensional mapping revealed that the mutation
      could alter protein folding and surface charge distribution, potentially
      perturbing protein trafficking. Thus, the mutation could affect neutrophil
      function by decreasing NETosis and altering key antiviral activities of
      neutrophils. CONCLUSION: This is the first report of a human pathogenic ELANE
      mutation associated with a defect in NETosis and a distinct syndrome of recurrent
      viral infection and chronic inflammation.

PMID- 28881493
TI  - Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics of Therapeutic and Supratherapeutic
      Doses of Tramadol Hydrochloride in Healthy Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind,
      Placebo-Controlled Multiple-Ascending-Dose Study.
AB  - This randomized, double-blind, parallel-group multiple-ascending-dose study
      evaluated the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of tramadol
      hydrochloride in healthy adults to inform dosage and design for a subsequent
      QT/QTc study. Healthy men and women, 18 to 45 years old (inclusive), were
      sequentially assigned to the tramadol 200, 400, or 600 mg/day treatment cohort
      and within each cohort, randomized (4:1) to either tramadol or placebo every 6
      hours for 9 oral doses. Of the 24 participants randomized to tramadol (n =
      8/cohort), 22 (91.7%) completed the study. The AUCtau,ss of tramadol increased
      approximately 2.2- and 3.6-fold for the (+) enantiomer and 2.0- and 3.5-fold for
      the (-) enantiomer with increasing dose from 200 to 400  and 600 mg/day, whereas
      the Cmax,ss increased 2.1- and 3.3-fold for the (+) enantiomer and 2.0- and 3.2
      fold for the (-) enantiomer. Overall, 21 participants (87.5%) participants
      reported >=1 treatment-emergent adverse event; most frequent were nausea (17 of
      24, 70.8%) and vomiting (7 of 24, 29.2%). Vomiting (affected participants and
      events) increased with increasing dose from 200 to 600 mg/day but was mild (5 of
      24) or moderate (2 of 24) in severity. All tested dosage regimens of tramadol
      showed acceptable safety and tolerability profile for further investigation in a
      thorough QT/QTc study.

PMID- 28881494
TI  - Pituitary and skull-base lesions and the litigious patient.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this research was to evaluate litigation relating to
      the diagnosis and management of pituitary and ventral skull base lesions and
      delineate allegations involved in the decision to pursue medicolegal proceedings.
      METHODS: Publically available federal and court records were accessed via the
      Westlaw Next database. Jury verdict and settlement reports relevant to pituitary
      and anterior skull-base lesions were accessed, and litigation was reviewed for
      alleged injuries, defendant specialty, patient demographics, and other factors
      raised in proceedings. RESULTS: Of 75 cases included, 50.7% were resolved in the
      defendant's favor. The most frequent physician specialties cited as defendants
      included primary care (20%), neurosurgery (17%), and radiology (16%), while
      otolaryngologists were defendants in only 5% of cases. Fifty-two (69%) did not
      involve surgical intervention; the most common allegations in these proceedings
      were misdiagnosis, permanent injury (19%), requiring additional procedures as a
      result of misdiagnosis (17%), permanent endocrine dysfunction (14%), and visual
      sequelae (12%). Among surgical cases, the most common allegations raised included
      permanent injury (17%), postoperative complications (14%), intraoperative
      complications (13%), and death (10%). Among cases resolved with payment, there
      was no statistical difference in payment between surgical cases ($5.7M) and
      nonsurgical cases ($4.8M). CONCLUSION: Misdiagnosis of endocrinopathy, failure to
      appropriately workup patients presenting with neurologic complaints, and
      radiologic misdiagnosis play important roles in the pursuit of litigation in
      nonsurgical cases. Sustaining permanent sequelae including endocrine and visual
      injury play an important role in surgical cases. Postoperative management appears
      to play just as important a role in the decision to pursue litigation as
      intraoperative considerations.

PMID- 28881495
TI  - Anatase TiO2 as a Cheap and Sustainable Buffering Filler for Silicon
      Nanoparticles in Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes.
AB  - The design of effective supporting matrices to efficiently cycle Si nanoparticles
      is often difficult to achieve and requires complex preparation strategies. In
      this work, we present a simple synthesis of low-cost and environmentally benign
      aAnatase TiO2 nanoparticles as buffering filler for Si nanoparticles (Si@TiO2 ).
      The average anatase TiO2 crystallite size was approximately 5 nm. A complete
      structural, morphological, and electrochemical characterization was performed.
      Electrochemical test results show very good specific capacity values of up to
      1000 mAh g-1 and cycling at several specific currents, ranging from 500 to 2000
      mA g-1 , demonstrating a very good tolerance to high cycling rates. Postmortem
      morphological analysis shows very good electrode integrity after 100 cycles at
      500 mA g-1 specific current.

PMID- 28881496
TI  - Xk-related protein 8 regulates myoblast differentiation and survival.
AB  - Xk-related protein 8 (Xkr8) is a scramblase and responsible for
      phosphatidylserine (PS) exposure on the cell surface in a caspase-dependent
      manner. Although PS exposure is found to be important for myotube formation
      during myoblast differentiation, the role of Xkr8 during myogenesis has not been
      elucidated. Here we show that Xkr8 contributes to myoblast differentiation. Xkr8
      overexpression induced the formation of large myotubes during early
      differentiation, but this phenotype was not related to caspase-dependent cleavage
      of Xkr8. Furthermore, forced Xkr8 expression accelerated myoblast differentiation
      and conferred cell-death resistance after the induction of differentiation.
      Consistent with these results, Xkr8-knocked-down myoblasts exhibited impaired
      differentiation and more apoptotic cells during differentiation, implying the
      involvements of Xkr8 in the survival and proliferation of myoblasts. Taken
      together, the study shows Xkr8 influences myogenesis by acting as a positive
      regulator of terminal differentiation and myoblast survival.

PMID- 28881497
TI  - Therapies for advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma with macrovascular invasion
      or metastatic disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - : Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complex disease most commonly arising in
      the background of chronic liver disease. In the past two decades, there has been
      a significant increase in our understanding of both the clinical and molecular
      heterogeneity of HCC. There has been a robust increase in clinical trial activity
      in patients with poor prognostic factors, such as macrovascular invasion and
      extrahepatic spread (EHS). We aimed to synthesize the evidence for the treatment
      of patients with advanced HCC based on these baseline characteristics, including
      patients with both Child-Pugh (CP) scores of A and B. A comprehensive search of
      several databases from each database inception to February 15, 2016 any language
      was conducted. We included 14 studies (three randomized controlled studies [RCTs]
      and 11 observational studies). We included studies that compared sorafenib,
      transarterial bland embolization/transarterial chemoembolization, yttrium
      90/radiation therapy, ablation (or combination), and no therapy. Two RCTs
      comparing sorafenib to best supportive care demonstrated a consistent improvement
      in overall survival (OS) for patients with advanced HCC and metastatic vascular
      invasion (MVI) and/or EHS and CP A liver disease (hazard ratio, 0.66 [95%
      confidence interval, 0.51-0.87]; I2  = 0%). Several observational studies
      evaluated locoregional therapies alone or in combination with other treatments
      and were limited by very-low-quality of evidence. This was true for both patients
      with EHS and MVI. CONCLUSION: In patients with advanced HCC and CP A liver
      function, sorafenib is the only treatment that has been shown to improve OS in
      randomized studies. High-quality data supporting the use of other treatment
      modalities in this setting, or in the setting of patients with less compensated
      (CP B) liver disease, are lacking. (Hepatology 2018;67:422-435).

PMID- 28881499
TI  - Immortal Time Bias: Comment on the Article by Gwinnutt et al.

PMID- 28881498
TI  - Local environment rather than past climate determines community composition of
      mountain stream macroinvertebrates across Europe.
AB  - Community assembly is determined by a combination of historical events and
      contemporary processes that are difficult to disentangle, but eco-evolutionary
      mechanisms may be uncovered by the joint analysis of species and genetic
      diversity across multiple sites. Mountain streams across Europe harbour highly
      diverse macroinvertebrate communities whose composition and turnover (replacement
      of taxa) among sites and regions remain poorly known. We studied whole-community
      biodiversity within and among six mountain regions along a latitudinal transect
      from Morocco to Scandinavia at three levels of taxonomic hierarchy: genus,
      species and haplotypes. Using DNA barcoding of four insect families (>3100
      individuals, 118 species) across 62 streams, we found that measures of local and
      regional diversity and intraregional turnover generally declined slightly towards
      northern latitudes. However, at all hierarchical levels we found complete
      (haplotype) or high (species, genus) turnover among regions (and even among sites
      within regions), which counters the expectations of Pleistocene postglacial
      northward expansion from southern refugia. Species distributions were mostly
      correlated with environmental conditions, suggesting a strong role of lineage- or
      species-specific traits in determining local and latitudinal community
      composition, lineage diversification and phylogenetic community structure (e.g.,
      loss of Coleoptera, but not Ephemeroptera, at northern sites). High intraspecific
      genetic structure within regions, even in northernmost sites, reflects species
      specific dispersal and demographic histories and indicates postglacial migration
      from geographically scattered refugia, rather than from only southern areas.
      Overall, patterns were not strongly concordant across hierarchical levels, but
      consistent with the overriding influence of environmental factors determining
      community composition at the species and genus levels.

PMID- 28881500
TI  - The Different Resistance of Two Astragalus Plants to UV-B Stress is Tightly
      Associated with the Organ-specific Isoflavone Metabolism.
AB  - In this work, the changes in isoflavone levels and the expression of genes
      involved in their biosynthesis were studied in two Astragalus by UPLC-MS and real
      time PCR after 10 days of UV-B treatment (lambdamax  = 313 nm, 804 J m-2 ).
      Isoflavones were significantly induced by UV-B irradiation. The influence might
      be activated by the regulation of these target genes. Our results indicate that
      (1) the resistance of Astragalus membranaceus might not be as good as Astragalus
      mongholicus in the enhanced UV-B radiation environment; (2) the enhanced
      accumulation of calycosin and calycosin-7-glucoside with UV-B treatment in roots
      of A. mongholicus might be derived from formononetin which is synthesized in the
      leaves; (3) the glycosylation process could be stimulated and activated by the
      enhanced UV-B radiation in both A. mongholicus and A. membranaceus. In other
      words, glycosylation of isoflavones might play a crucial role for two Astragalus
      plants in response to UV-B stress. Overall, this study offered a feasible
      elicitation strategy to understand the accumulation pattern of isoflavone in A.
      mongholicus and A. membranaceus, and also provided a reference for the changes in
      isoflavone levels of Astragalus in UV-B enhanced environment in the future.

PMID- 28881502
TI  - Biochemical and aerosol characterization of ricin for use in non-clinical
      efficacy studies.
AB  - Ricin toxin may be used as a biological warfare agent and no medical
      countermeasures are currently available. Here, a well-characterized lot of ricin
      was aerosolized to determine the delivered dose for future pre-clinical efficacy
      studies.  Mouse intraperitoneal (IP) median lethal dose (LD50 ) bioassay measured
      potency at 5.62 and 7.35 MUg/kg on Days 0 and 365, respectively. Additional
      analyses included total protein, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel
      electrophoresis, Western blotting, and rabbit reticulocyte lysate activity assay.
      The nebulizer aerosol produced consistent concentrations (2.5 * 103 , 5.0 * 103 ,
      1.0 * 104 , and 1.5 * 104  MUg/mL) and spray factor values. The aerosol particle
      size distribution was of sufficient size to deposit in lung alveoli (1.12-1.43
      MUm). Ricinus communis Agglutinin II (RCA 60), prepared at 19 mg/mL in phosphate
      buffered saline, pH 7.8, and stored at -70 degrees C, maintained attributes for
      toxicity following 1-year storage and aerosolized consistently.

PMID- 28881501
TI  - Drug-drug interaction potential in men treated with enzalutamide: Mind the gap.
AB  - AIMS: Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients are
      generally older patients with several co-morbidities and are therefore at
      increased risk of complications due to drug-drug interactions (DDIs). We assessed
      the prevalence of potential DDIs in a cohort of mCRPC patients treated with
      enzalutamide. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of pharmacy records to
      retrieve individual drug histories of mCRPC patients who started enzalutamide
      therapy in a tertiary care setting. Potential DDIs were analysed using two
      international drug interaction compendia: Lexicomp(r) and Micromedex(r) , and the
      Dutch drug database. Two potential pharmacodynamic DDIs were analysed. RESULTS: A
      total of 105 records were evaluated for potential DDIs with enzalutamide. Of 205
      different co-medications, 56 were flagged by at least one of the three compendia:
      Lexicomp, Micromedex and the Dutch drug database flagged for potential DDIs in
      85%, 54% and 32%, respectively. Eighty-five per cent of DDIs were classified as
      major. The median number of co-medications per patient was 11 (range 1-26). The
      median (range) number of interactions per patient was 4 (0-10), 1 (0-5) and 0 (0
      2) for Lexicomp, Micromedex and the Dutch drug database, respectively. In 23% and
      45% of all patients, a potential DDI was found with PPIs and CNS depressants,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of potential DDIs was found. The
      inclusion and grading of potential DDIs was highly variable between the three
      drug interaction compendia. Physicians, nurses and pharmacists should be aware of
      this potential problem, which might require intensive monitoring or alternative
      treatment strategies to prevent suboptimal treatment of the co-morbidities in
      patients treated with enzalutamide.

PMID- 28881503
TI  - Identification of CEA-interacting proteins in colon cancer cells and their
      changes in expression after irradiation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level has been recognized as a
      prognostic factor in colorectal cancer, and associated with response of rectal
      cancer to radiotherapy. This study aimed to identify CEA-interacting proteins in
      colon cancer cells and observe post-irradiation changes in their expression.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: CEA expression in colon cancer cells was examined by
      Western blot analysis. Using an anti-CEA antibody or IgG as a negative control,
      immunoprecipitation was performed in colon cancer cell lysates. CEA and IgG
      immunoprecipitates were used for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      (LC-MS/MS) analysis. Proteins identified in the CEA immunoprecipitates but not in
      the IgG immunoprecipitates were selected as CEA-interacting proteins. After
      radiation treatment, changes in expression of CEA-interacting proteins were
      monitored by Western blot analysis. RESULTS: CEA expression was higher in SNU-81
      cells compared with LoVo cells. The membrane localization of CEA limited the
      immunoprecipitation results and thus the number of CEA-interacting proteins
      identified. Only the Ras-related protein Rab-6B and lysozyme C were identified as
      CEA-interacting proteins in LoVo and SNU-81 cells, respectively. Lysozyme C was
      detected only in SNU-81, and CEA expression was differently regulated in two cell
      lines; it was down-regulated in LoVo but up-regulated in SNU-81 in radiation
      dosage-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: CEA-mediated radiation response appears to
      vary, depending on the characteristics of individual cancer cells. The lysozyme C
      and Rab subfamily proteins may play a role in the link between CEA and tumor
      response to radiation, although further studies are needed to clarify functional
      roles of the identified proteins.

PMID- 28881504
TI  - Low-dose radiation therapy for massive chylous leakage after subtotal
      gastrectomy.
AB  - Massive chylous leakage is a rare postoperative complication that can prolong
      hospital stay and cause secondary morbidities. Conservative management strategies
      are the treatment of choice; however, radiation therapy (RT) can be used as an
      alternative for cases that are refractory to conservative treatment. Herein, we
      report a 69-year-old female patient who suffered from massive chylous leakage
      after subtotal gastrectomy. Due to persistent massive chylous leakage, she was
      scheduled to undergo low-dose RT. Radiation was delivered with a daily dose of 1
      Gy, using an anterior-posterior and posterior-anterior beam arrangement. The
      clinical target volume encompassed the entire lymph node area of the D2
      dissection. RT was completed at the total dose of 8 Gy because the amount of
      chylous leakage declined rapidly. Percutaneous drainage tube was removed after 3
      days of RT. The patient did not complain of any symptoms related to massive
      chylous leakage 2 years after the completion of RT.

PMID- 28881505
TI  - [Consideration on the revision of evidence based guidelines of childhood renal
      diseases].

PMID- 28881507
TI  - [Evidence-based guideline for diagnosis and treatment of Henoch-Schonlein purpura
      nephritis (2016)].

PMID- 28881506
TI  - [Evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of primary IgA nephropathy
      (2016)].

PMID- 28881508
TI  - [Interpretation of evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of
      primary IgA nephropathy (2016)].

PMID- 28881509
TI  - [Interpretation of evidence-based guideline for diagnosis and treatment of Henoch
      Schonlein prupura nephritis 2016].

PMID- 28881510
TI  - [Clinical phenotypes of hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 homeobox b-associated
      disease].
AB  - Objective: Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 homeobox b (HNF1B) -associated disease is
      an autosomal dominant inherited disorder with a variable, multi-systemic
      phenotype. In China, five adult probands and one child proband with HNF1B
      associated disease had been reported, whereas few fetuses are described. The aims
      of this retrospective study were to understand about the clinical manifestations
      of HNF1B-associated disease and to further improve the recognition of this
      disorder. Method: Four patients (3 males, 1 female) and three fetuses with HNF1B
      mutations were included in this study. They were admitted to our hospital from
      January 2013 to March 2017. HNF1B mutations were detected using targeted next
      generation sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR or Sanger sequencing. HNF1B
      heterozygous deletion of exons 1-9 was found in 4 patients and 2 fetuses, and
      HNF1B heterozygous missense mutation in 1 fetus. These two mutations had been
      reported. Two patients and 1 fetus had de novo mutations. Results of renal
      ultrasonography with or without magnetic resonance imaging, biochemical
      investigations, urine routine examination and other necessary investigations in 7
      cases were analyzed. Result: Three patients were Han Chinese ethnicity, and one
      patient was Mongolian. In patients 1 and 4, abnormal fetal kidneys were
      discovered by routine ultrasonography, and the age at first feature identified in
      Patients 2 and 3 were 13 years and 28 years. Patient 3 had normal renal function
      and the remainder had reduced glomerular filtration rate. In addition, patient 4
      presented with nephrotic syndrome and glycosuria, patient 2 with early onset
      hyperparathyroidism and renal osteodystrophy, and patient 3 with diabetes
      mellitus. All the 4 patients had renal structural abnormalities including
      bilateral multiple renal cysts, dysplasia and hyperechogenic kidneys. Only
      patient 3 had a positive family history of renal diseases, the remainder had a
      negative family history of renal diseases. In 3 fetuses, prenatal ultrasound
      anomalies were detected during the second trimester. These 3 fetuses had
      hyperechogenic kidneys with or without renal cysts. Polyhydramnios was detected
      in only one of the 3 fetuses. Two of the 3 fetuses had a positive family history
      of renal diseases. Conclusion: Clinical phenotypes of HNF1B-related disease are
      heterogeneous, renal malformations clearly appear to be the most common
      manifestation, multiple renal cysts are characteristic, and patients can progress
      to impaired kidney function during childhood; HNF1B mutation is a differential
      diagnosis of fetal hyperechogenic kidneys or multiple renal cysts.

PMID- 28881511
TI  - [Role of IgG antibody to galactose-deficient IgA1 in children with IgA
      nephropathy].
AB  - Objective: In order to learn the serum level of galactose-deficient IgA1
      (GdIgA1), IgG antibody to galactose-deficient IgA1(GdIgA1-IgG) and the clinical
      role of them in IgA nephropathy(IgAN) children. Method: We compared blood levels
      of GdIgA1, GdIgA1-IgG in 33 children with IgAN, 38 children with other renal
      disease (including focal segmental glomerular nephritis, minimal change disease,
      Alport syndrome and thin basement membrane nephropathy) as disease controls, 35
      healthy children as normal controls with enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay(ELISA). Twenty-four-hour urine protein content and Lee's pathological
      classification were collected in IgAN cases. The difference among the three
      groups were examined by analysis of variance. The specificity and sensitivity of
      GdIgA1, GdIgA1-IgG to IgA nephropathy were evaluated by ROC curve.The
      correlations were analyzed by correlation analysis among GdIgA1, GdIgA1-IgG and
      urine protein content and pathological classification . All statistical analyses
      were performed by SPSS 18.0. P value of <0.05 was considered statistically
      significant. Result: The levels of GdIgA1 and GdIgA1-IgG significantly elevated
      in children with IgAN compared to disease controls and normal controls.
      GdIgA1(mg/L): 1.728+/-0.456, 1.123+/-0.461, 1.410+/-0.905 (F=15.04, P<0.001);
      GdIgA1-IgG(g/L): 1.299+/-0.499, 1.111+/-0.549, 0.628+/-0.142 (F=76.96, P<0.001).
      Area under the curve of ROC of GdIgA1 between IgAN and normal controls was 0.765,
      with specificity 0.943 and sensitivity 0.697, while the area under the curve of
      GdIgA1-IgG was 0.969, with specificity 0.971 and sensitivity 0.939.The blood
      level of GdIgA1-IgG was mildly correlated with both 24-hour urine
      protein(r=0.364, ) and renal pathological grading(r=0.392) in children with IgAN.
      Conclusion: The levels of GdIgA1 and GdIgA1-IgG significantly elevated in
      children with IgAN compared to disease controls and normal controls. GdIgA1-IgG
      had higher sensitivity in distinguishing IgAN from normal controls, GdIgA1-IgG
      was mildly correlated with 24-hour urine protein volume and pathological grading
      in children with IgAN.

PMID- 28881512
TI  - [Multicenter investigation of the correlation between supraventricular
      tachycardia and tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy in children].
AB  - Objective: This study aimed to investigate the correlation between
      supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy(TIC) in
      children and assess the risk factors for the development of TIC. Method: One
      hundred and eighty-three patients were recruited in four hospitals of Beijing
      diagnosed as SVT were divided into two groups depending on whether or not
      complicated with TIC. The age, gender, tachycardia type, ventricular rate during
      tachycardia, frequency of tachycardia episodes and duration of tachycardia were
      compared between the two groups and risk factors associated with TIC were
      analyzed. Statistical analyses were performed using t test, Mann-Whitney U and
      chi(2) test. Result: Totally 183 patients were included in this study (paroxysmal
      supraventricular tachycardia, PSVT, n=149; atrial tachycardia, AT, n=34). The
      incidence of TIC was 13.1%. There was significant difference regarding the
      incidence of TIC between children with AT and children with PSVT (26.5% vs.
      10.1%, chi(2)=6.537, P=0.011). The percentage of AT in patients with TIC was
      significantly higher than patients without TIC (37.5% vs. 15.7%, chi(2)=6.537,
      P=0.011). Patients with TIC had a higher frequency of tachycardia
      episodes(2.5(1.0-4.8) beats/year vs 4.0(1.0-10.0) beats/year, Z=-2.223,
      P=0.026)and longer duration of tachycardia(11.0(1.1-36.0) h vs 2.5(1.0-12.0) h,
      Z=-2.154, P=0.031)compared with patients without TIC. Multivariate predictors of
      TIC was longer duration of tachycardia (OR=2.041, P=0.028). Conclusion: TIC
      occurs in 13.1% of children with SVT. The incidence of TIC in children with AT is
      higher than in children with PSVT. Risk factor for the development of TIC is
      longer duration of tachycardia.

PMID- 28881513
TI  - [Effect of docosahexenoic acid microalgae oil supplementation during pregnancy
      and lactation on levels of serum polyunsaturated fatty acid and tolerance to
      ovalbumin in suckling mice].
AB  - Objective: To study the tolerance to ovalbumin (OVA) in suckling mice whose
      mothers had different doses of docosahexenoic acid (DHA) microalgae oil (DMO)
      supplementation during pregnancy and lactation. Method: According to different
      doses of DMO fed to mother mice during pregnancy and lactation, 66 suckling mice
      were divided into four groups. Suckling mice whose mothers were fed with 0.7% DMO
      were designated as low dose group (group L) (n=16), 2.1% DMO as middle dose group
      (group M) (n=16), 3.5% DMO as high dose group (group H) (n=17) and no DMO as
      control group (n=17). Before exposing to OVA, 8 suckling mice were killed in each
      group at 21-day-old. Remaining suckling mice were killed at 59-day-old after
      repeated OVA exposure. The serum polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels of
      suckling mice were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) at
      the age of 21- and 59-day.Histological examinations of jejunum were performed by
      HE staining and the mast cells in jejunum were observed by toluidine blue
      staining. OVA-IgE in serum, total IgA and OVA-IgA in the feces and IL-4 and IFN
      gamma in the supernatants of splenic mononuclear cells (SMC) were measured by
      ELISA. Real time PCR was performed to identify the gene expression of IL-10, TGF
      beta1 mRNA in SMC. Differences among groups were compared by one-way AVOVA and
      that between each group were compared by LSD. Result: In group M and H, the serum
      levels of n-3DHA (108+/-29)MUg/ml; (102+/-34)MUg/ml vs.(40+/-19)MUg/ml (F=12.052,
      P=0.000)and n-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (6.7+/-2.3)MUg/ml; (7.7+/-2.0)MUg/ml vs.
      (3.9+/-1.1)MUg/ml(F=9.573, P=0.000) were significantly higher than that in
      control group at the age of 21-day. The serum levels of n-3DHA were higher in
      group H (17.1+/-2.9)MUg/ml than that in control group (5.9+/-3.3) MUg/ml after
      repeated OVA exposure at the age of 59-day (F=10.339, P<0.000). Compared with
      control group (53+/-12) pg/ml, the levels of IL-4 in SMC in group H (42+/-9)pg/ml
      were lower (F=2.484, P<0.05). Conclusion: The serum levels of DHA in baby mice,
      whose mothers was fed with DMO during pregnancy and lactation, were significantly
      increased till adulthood. However, the effect on tolerance to OVA was limited.

PMID- 28881514
TI  - [Phenotypic and genotypic features of twenty children with classic pantothenate
      kinase-associated neurodegeneration].
AB  - Objective: To explore the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics in Chinese
      children with classic pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN).
      Method: The clinical, radiographic and genetic data of all PKAN patients
      diagnosed at pediatric department of Peking University First Hospital from
      November 2006 to December 2016 were retrospectively collected and analyzed.
      Result: Twenty patients with classic PKAN were included in the study. The median
      age at onset was 3.5 years (ranging from 1.0 to 10.0 years), and the most common
      initial symptom was gait disturbance (16 cases). At the last evaluation, the
      clinical features were limbs dystonia (20 cases), dysarthria (16 cases),
      dysphagia (11 cases), pyramidal sign (7 cases), mental regression (3 cases) and
      pigmentary retinopathy (5 cases). For those classic PKAN patients, the median
      time from onset of disease to loss of independent ambulation was 6.9 years
      (ranging from 2.0 to 12.0 years). Imaging data showed, except "eye of tiger" in
      MRI (19 cases), globus pallidus calcification in CT was also found in four
      patients. In gene testing, 26 different mutations in PANK2 gene were identified,
      and 16 of 26 were novel mutations. Moreover, c. 1502T>C (p.Ile501Asn) was the
      most common mutation (4 cases). Conclusion: Dystonia is the major neurologic
      feature of classic PKAN. Disease progression is rapid, with loss of independent
      ambulation within 10 years after onset. Except "eye of tiger" in MRI, globus
      pallidus calcification in CT may be another imaging feature of PKAN.Sixteen novel
      mutations of PANK2 gene were identified in the study.

PMID- 28881515
TI  - [Characteristics of epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of gram-negative
      bacterial bloodstream infections in children].
AB  - Objective: To study the epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Gram
      negative bacterial bloodstream infections in children, and to guide the choice of
      antimicrobials and the control of nosocomial infection. Method: Clinical data,
      bacteriology and antimicrobial susceptibility test results were collected
      retrospectively in hospitalized children who were diagnosed with gram-negative
      bacterial bloodstream infections in Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical
      University from January, 2010 to December, 2015. Result: A total of 399 cases
      (253 male and 146 female) were identified. The age ranged from 16 hours to 16
      years (median age 10.1 months). The majority of cases were collected from
      division of neonatology (n=261, 65.4%), followed by 31 cases (7.8%) from
      pediatric intensive care unit and 29 cases (7.3%) from Gastroenterology
      Department; 275 cases (68.9%) had underlying diseases, mainly including preterm
      birth(n=172), neonatal respiratory distress syndrome(n=67) and newborn
      asphyxia(n=53). Eighty cases had received invasive procedures and 20 had surgical
      operation; 149 cases (37.3%) were community-acquired and 250 cases (62.7%) were
      hospital acquired. Fifty cases had complications, among those, 40 cases had
      septic shock, 32 cases had multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and 7 cases had
      disseminated intravascular coagulation; 288 cases were cured, 48 improved, 17
      gave up treatment and discharged, and 46 died; totally 408 strains were isolated
      from 399 children, including Enterobacteriaceae (346, 84.8%), non-fermentative
      Gram-negative bacteria (49, 12.0%) and other gram-negative bacteria (13, 3.2%).
      The resistance rates of Escherichia coli (n=175) and Klebsiella pneumoniae
      (n=106) to carbapenems, beta-lactams enzyme and its inhibitors, amikacin and
      cefoxitin were all lower than 10%. Totally 245 multi-drug resistant strains
      (60.1%) were isolated, including 225 strains of Enterobacteriaceae and 18 strains
      of non-fermentative Gram-negative bacteria (P<0.01) . Nine strains of Carbapenem
      resistant Enterobacteriaceae were isolated, which were all sensitive to amikacin
      and the sensitive rates to fluoroquinolone reached 88.9%. Five strains which were
      detected sensitive to tigecycline were all sensitive. The proportion of
      Klebsiella sp in Gram-negative bacteria between 2013-2015 and 2010-2012 were
      32.9% and 21.2%, respectively. The resistance rates of Escherichia coli and
      Klebsiella pneumoniae to beta-lactams and its enzyme inhibitors and carbapenems
      had no significant change. Conclusion: Gram-negative bacterial bloodstream
      infections occur more frequently in newborns. Most children had combined
      underlying diseases. Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae are the most
      common pathogens. beta-Lactams and its enzyme inhibitors and carbapenems are the
      empirical choice of antimicrobial therapy for severe Enterobacteriaceae
      bloodstream bacterial infections.

PMID- 28881516
TI  - [Effectiveness and safety of rituximab for children with autoimmune diseases of
      the nervous system].
AB  - Objective: To assess the effectiveness and safety of rituximab in Chinese
      children with autoimmune diseases of the nervous system. Method: An ambispective
      cohort study enrolled patients with refractory and(or) relapse autoimmune
      diseases of nervous system from June 2010 to June 2016 in Peking University First
      Hospital.These patients failed to respond to steroids and(or)intravenous
      immunoglobulin (IVIG) were treated with rituximab and seen for follow-up visits
      once every 3 months.The effectiveness was assessed by modified Rankin scale (mRs)
      and the annualized relapse rate.B cell was repeatedly counted after the
      treatment.Side effects attributed to rituximab were recorded.Paired rank test and
      chi-square test were used to compare the mRs score and the recurrence rate
      (time/year) before and after the treatment. Result: A total of 38 patients (15
      males and 23 females) with mean age of (6+/-4) years were treated with
      rituximab.Among those patients, 4 cases were in multiple sclerosis, 5 in
      neuromyelitis optica, 6 in opsoclonus myoclonus syndrome, 9 in myasthenia gravis,
      and 14 in autoimmune encephalitis and other nervous system autoimmune
      diseases.The course of the disease before rituximab treatment was from two months
      to 7.25 years, with the average of (21+/-19) months.The patients had been
      followed up for 2-52 months. The mRs score and recurrence rate of 38 patients
      before receiving rituximab was 3 points (3, 4) and 2.56 (1.80, 4.75) times per
      year, respectively, while patients after receiving rituximab were mRs score of 0
      (0, 2) and had a recurrence rate of 0 (0, 0.17) per year.There was statistical
      difference before and after treatment (Z=-4.51 and -4.71, P<0.01). Rituximab had
      a definite benefit in 23 patients, probable benefit in 2 patients, possible
      benefit in 3 patients, no benefit in one patient, and the disease worsened in 2
      patients.Therefore the total effective rate was 74%, except for 6 undetermined
      cases because of the short follow-up time, and one patient withdrew from the
      study due to allergic reaction.During the follow-up, only one patient with severe
      allergy gave up the rituximab treatment. And only one patient was found severe
      infection with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Conclusion: Rituximab is an
      effective and safe treatment strategy for patients with refractory and relapse
      autoimmune diseases of CNS, especially in neuromyelitis optica and myasthenia
      gravis.The adverse events including infection and allergy during infusion are not
      common.

PMID- 28881517
TI  - [Thoracoscopy in diagnosis and treatment of pleural diseases in children].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the value of thoracoscopy in diagnosis and treatment of
      pleural diseases in children. Method: Clinical manifestations and treatment
      outcomes of 19 patients who had refractory pleural diseases treated with
      thoracosocy during May 2011 to August 2016 in Hunan Provincial People's Hospital
      were retrospectively analyzed. In 19 cases, 15 were male and 4 were female, with
      an average age of (4.8+/-2.0) years. Thirteen patients had left pleural lesion,
      while 5 patients had right lesion, and 1 had bilateral lesions. Result: All cases
      were successfully treated with thoracoscopy without emergent thoracotomy. Pre-
      and post operative diagnosis was compatible in 10 cases, including 8 cases of
      empyema (Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in 6 cases, and Staphylococcus Aureus
      infection in 2 cases), and 2 cases of tuberculous pleuritis. Nine patients who
      had not been clearly diagnosed before surgery were diagnosed to be empyema (4
      case), tuberculous pleuritic (3 cases), mycoplasma infection (1 case), and
      foreign body with infection (1 case) by thoracoscopy. The average duration of
      post-op closed thoracic drainage was (4.7+/-2.3) days. The average time to get
      normal temperature was (2.4+/-2.6) days. And the average length of hospital stay
      was (6.7+/-1.8) days. No hemothorax, chylothorax, or need for analgesic occurred.
      Conclusion: Thoracoscopy can be recommended for diagnosis and treatment of
      refractory pleural lesions diseases in children, with minimal trauma and
      complications.

PMID- 28881518
TI  - [Refractory kaposiform hemangioendothelioma with Kasabach-Merritt syndrome:
      clinical analysis of 10 cases].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the clinical value of sirolimus plus prednisone for the
      treatment of the refractory kaposiform hemangioendothelioma(RKHE) and Kasabach
      Merritt syndrome(KMS). Method: Clinical retrospective analysis was carried out
      for 10 patients recruited in Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute
      of Paediatrics from January 2014 to January 2017 who were non responders to or
      relapsers after the treatment of propranolol, prednisone, pingyangmycin and
      lauromacrogol(5 cases RKHE, 5 cases RKHE plus KMS, age ranged from 6 days to 9
      years); patients were treated with sirolimus at the dosage of 0.035 ml/(kg.d),
      once a day, for 6-410 days; the diagnosis of 10 patients were confirmed by
      pathological biopsy and immunohistochemical examination(IHC); the difference of
      the coagulation parameters and the platelet counts, the size of tumor and
      ecchymosis at different stages of treatment were recorded and measured by scale
      and ultrasonography; the side effects of sirolimus were recorded as well. Result:
      Clinical characteristics of 10 cases (6 male and 4 female) RKHE with KMS were
      refractory dark red hard hemangioma or ecchymosis, the platelet counts were lower
      than 30.0*10(9)/L, (15+/-7)*10(9)/L, coagulation tests were obviously abnormal,
      fibrinogens were significantly decreased(0.8+/-0.5)g/L, the fibrin lysates and D
      dimer were significantly increased(100+/-23)mg/L, (10 000+/-2 200)ng/L, the
      prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time were prolonged(25.0+/
      2.1)s, (58.0+/-3.4)s. The pathologic characteristics of the tumors were similar:
      spindle tumor cells, mass distribution and deeply stained nuclei tumor cells. IHC
      revealed positive staining for D2-40, CD31 and CD34. Stainings for factor VIII
      and GLUT-1 were negative. In five cases RKHE plus KMS were treated with sirolimus
      and prednisone, after (6.5+/-0.7) days treatment, the platelet counts were
      obviously increased(72.0+/-0.6)*10(9)/L, coagulation parameters were obviously
      improved, fibrinogen significantly increased(1.5+/-0.2)g/L, the fibrinlysates and
      D-dimer significantly decreased(7+/-3)mg/L, (2 300+/-200)ng/L, the prothrombin
      time and activated partial thromboplastin time were prolonged(15+/-2.3)s, (42+/
      3.4) s, and the sizes of tumor and ecchymosis were slightly shrunken 18%+/-3%,
      38%+/-5%; after (30+/-5.7) days treatment, the platelet counts and coagulation
      parameters returned to normal(146+/-36)*10(9)/L, and the size of tumor and
      ecchymosis were obviously shrunken 73%+/-3%, 97%+/-3%; after (3+/-0.4) months
      treatment, the tumor was obviously shrunken by 93%+/-2% and no longer palpable.
      In five cases with RKHE without KMS manifested stubborn dark red hard
      hemangiomatous plaques, coagulation tests and platelet were obviously normal,
      these patients were treated with sirolimus, after (2.0+/-0.6) months treatment,
      the tumor became shrunken 8%+/-3%, with continuous treatment the tumor shrunk
      gradually, after (4.0+/-3.2)months(2-18 mouths) the tumor was not eliminated
      51%+/-7%. Conclusion: RKHE and KMS have typical clinical, laboratory and
      pathological characteristics, sirolimus plus prednisone have remarkable efficacy
      and minor side effects, it should be recommended for the treatment of KHE with
      KMS.

PMID- 28881520
TI  - [A new somatic mosaicism for a KIT D816F mutation results in congenital diffuse
      cutaneous mastocytosis: a rare monozygotic twins].

PMID- 28881519
TI  - [Splenic infarction in a child with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia].

PMID- 28881521
TI  - [Diagnostic analysis of glanzmann thrombasthenia caused by two novel ITGA2B gene
      mutations].

PMID- 28881522
TI  - [DMGDH gene-related dimethylglycine dehydrogenase deficiency in a case].

PMID- 28881524
TI  - [Warfarin therapy in children with cardiovascular diseases].

PMID- 28881523
TI  - [Further understanding of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis].

PMID- 28881525
TI  - [Progress in gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy].

PMID- 28881526
TI  - [Current and ongoing applications of Robotics-assisted spinal surgery].

PMID- 28881527
TI  - [Factors correlated with height gain after posterior spinal correction surgery in
      lenke 1 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the correlated factors of height gain (DeltaSH) after
      posterior spinal correction surgery in Lenke 1 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis
      (AIS), and to propose the predictive model of DeltaSH. Methods: From 2013 to
      2015, a total of 150 Lenke 1 AIS patients undergoing posterior spinal correction
      surgery were included in the study, with the age of (14.3+/-2.9) years. The Cobb
      angle of major curve, thoracic kyphosis (TK) and lumbar lordosis (LL) were
      measured on both pre-op and post-op standing whole spine x-rays. The change in
      Cobb angle, TK and LL were calculated. The difference between pre-operation and
      post-operation was compared and the linear regression analysis was used for the
      predictive model of DeltaSH. Results: The pre-op and post-op values were (41.6+/
      3.0)cm and (43.9+/-2.7)cm for spinal height (SH)[DeltaSH=(2.4+/-0.8)cm, P=0.000];
      (50.5+/-10.4) degrees  and (14.6+/-6.4) degrees  for Cobb angle (P=0.000). The
      Pearson correlation analysis showed that DeltaSH was significantly correlated
      with pre-op SH (P=0.000), pre-op Cobb angle (P=0.000), pre-op TK (P=0.000), post
      op SH (P=0.020), post-op Cobb angle (P=0.000), change in Cobb angle (P=0.000) and
      change in TK (P=0.000). The linear regression model 1 revealed that DeltaSH was
      linearly correlated with change in Cobb angle (P=0.000) as well as change in TK
      (P=0.000); the linear regression model 2 showed that the pre-op Cobb angle
      (P=0.000) and pre-op TK (P=0.020) could be used for the pre-op prediction of
      DeltaSH. Conclusions: The positively correlated factors of DeltaSH include pre-op
      and post-op Cobb angle, TK, change in Cobb angle and change in TK. High pre-op
      Cobb angle and TK indicates high height gain in Lenke 1 AIS patients.

PMID- 28881528
TI  - [Clinical research of minimally invasive spine surgery with Vesselplasty].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Vesselplasty in the treatment
      of osteoporotic vertebral fractures and vertebral metastases. Methods: From June
      2010 to December 2016, data of 81 patients with spinal diseases treated with
      Vesselplasty in Department of Spinal Surgery, Beijing Friendship hospital,
      Capital Medical University were retrospectively analyzed. There are 49 cases of
      vertebral fractures with age (70.2+/-8.2) years. Among them, 16 cases have
      posterior vertebral wall breakage, but no symptoms of nerve injury. Clinical
      result were evaluated with Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) , the kyphotic angle(Cobb's
      angle) and Oswestry disability index(ODI) was measured preoperatively,
      postoperatively and follow-up. At the same time, the operation time and cement
      leakage were recorded. There were 32 patients with vertebral metastases, with age
      of (69.6+/-11.1) years old. The posterior wall of the vertebral body was damaged
      in 22 cases. The VAS scores were recorded and compared preoperatively and
      postoperatively. The operation time was recorded also. Results: All patients were
      completed the operation safely and with no complications. Compared with
      preoperative VAS, postoperative VAS was significantly decreased in all
      subjects(P<0.05). The average operation time of each vertebral body was 16.2+/
      4.6 min, and the postoperative VAS score significantly decreased (P<0.05), Cobb
      's angle from preoperative (13.9+/-6.0)  degrees  to( 5.2+/-4.0)  degrees 
      (P<0.05) in 49 cases of vertebral fracture(58 vertebrae). The clinical results
      were still satisfied in follow-up . In 32 cases of vertebral metastases(38
      vertebrae), the average operation time was (17.6+/-5.4) min. The postoperative
      VAS score was obviously decreased also(P<0.05). A small amount of bone cement
      leakage occurred in 4 cases of 4 vertebrae. The rate of bone cement leakage was
      4.2%, but there were no clinical symptoms in these cases. Conclusion:
      Vesselplasty is a safe and effective treatment of osteoporotic vertebral
      fractures and vertebral metastases. It can lead to satisfactory clinical effect,
      partial recovery of vertebral height. Besides, the bone filling mesh can reduce
      the risk of bone cement leakage, which can provide a new choice for minimally
      invasive treatment of vertebral fracture and metastases.

PMID- 28881529
TI  - [Results for the treatment of fresh type thoracolumbar vertebral fracture
      according to the intraoperative CT scan].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the value of intraoperative CT scanning in the treatment
      of fresh thoracolumbar burst fractures. Methods: From January 2008 to January
      2015 , 161 patients with thoracolumbar fractures in Department of Orthopedics,
      Luohe City Central Hospital, were divided into two groups: 79 cases were
      treatment group which were treated with intraoperative CT scan and decompression
      mode was determined according to CT scan results during the period from October
      2012 to January 2015. 82 patients as the observation group were treated without
      intraoperative CT scan and direct laminectomy were performed during the period.
      In the treatment group, it is no further decompression of the spinal canal when
      the CT showed a reduction of the fracture block into the spinal canal, if the
      intraoperative CT showed that the fractures still occupied the spinal dura mater
      according to the three-dimensional CT information, the position and the size of
      the fracture of the spinal canal were determined, and the unilateral laminectomy
      was performed corresponding to the position of the lamina and intervertebral
      ligamentum flavum. The operative time, bleeding volume, neurological function,
      height of the anterior vertebral compression and Cobb angle were compared between
      the two groups. Results: In the treatment group, CT scan showed 48 cases (60.8%)
      entered the spinal canal fracture completely or basically reset.31 cases (39.2%)
      still occupied the spinal canal compression spinal dura mater. There were
      significant differences in the operation time and bleeding volume between the two
      groups. The treatment group was less than the control group. There was no
      infection, secondary spinal cord injury, loose fixation and other complications.
      There was no difference in the ASIA classification before and after
      operation(chi(2)=0.268 vs chi(2)=1.372, P>0.05). The anterior vertebral height
      and COBB angle of the two groups were significantly improved compared with those
      before operation. There was no significant difference between the two groups in
      the postoperative height and COBB angle[(40.3+/-11.8) degrees  vs(82.1+/-4.2)
      degrees , (-10.3+/-2.6) degrees  vs(6.9+/-3.3) degrees , P<0.05], but after 2
      years the difference was statistically significant between the two groups, to
      retain the rear ligament complex treatment group was significantly better than
      the control group. Conclusions: Patients of thoracolumbar vertebral fracture in
      hyperextension position combined with internal fixation can achieve good
      correction effect. Orthopedic postoperative CT scan and according to the results
      of the scan precision treatment can simplify the operation, there was no
      difference in clinical efficacy compared with total laminectomy, but some
      patients avoid the spinal canal decompression and part were treated by small
      fenestration laminectomy decompression, which is conducive to the protection of
      spinouts ligament complex integrity.

PMID- 28881530
TI  - [Analysis of factors of elder patients with lumbar vertebrae fractures caused by
      low-energy injury in plateau area].
AB  - Objective: To analyse the factors of elder patients with lumbar vertebrae
      fractures caused by low-energy injury in plateau area. Methods: From March 2013
      to September 2016, 124 elder patients with lumbar vertebrae fractures caused by
      low-energy injury in our hospital were selected as observation group, in the
      corresponding period, 98 elderly patients who had no fractures were considered as
      control group .The bone mineral density (BMD) was examined by whole body bone
      mineral density tester, and univariate analysis and multivariate Logistic
      regression analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of lumbar
      fractures caused by low-energy injury. Results: BMD and T value of lateral
      projection of lumbar vertebrae in observation group were significantly lower than
      those in control group (P<0.05). Single factor analysis showed that the age, body
      mass index, past history, bone mineral density and calcium supplementation had a
      significant effect on lumbar fractures caused by low-energy injury. Logistic
      regression analysis showed that age (OR=1.215), bone mineral density (OR=3.215)
      and calcium supplementation (OR=4.904) were independent risk factors for lumbar
      fractures caused by low-energy injury (P<0.05). Conclusion: Bone mineral density
      of elderly population in plateau area is lower. Age, bone mineral density and
      calcium supplementation are independent risk factors of lumbar fractures caused
      by low-energy injury, and individual medical intervention is needed.

PMID- 28881531
TI  - [Gene expression profiles of long non-coding RNAs in human degenerated
      intervertebral disc tissue].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the gene expression profiles of long non-coding RNAs
      (lncRNA)in human degenerated intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Methods: An
      lncRNA-mRNA microarray analysis of human nucleus pulposus (NP) was employed.
      Bioinformatics prediction was also applied to delineate the functional roles of
      the differentially expressed lncRNAs. Several lncRNAs and mRNAs were chosen for
      quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) validation. Results: A total of 1 570
      lncRNAs expressed in degenerate group compared with the nondegenerate group. Of
      these, the expression level of 428 lncRNAs was upregulated >2-fold compared with
      nondegenerate group while that of 584 was downregulated. Bioinformatics analysis
      (GO and pathway analyses) revealed that some classical pathways participating in
      extracellular matrix (ECM) and cell apoptosis were aberrantly expressed in the
      intervertebral disc (P<0.05). Enhancer-like lncRNAs and their nearby coding genes
      were analyzed. Three lncRNAs were identified as potential enhancers. Several
      lncRNAs were validated in the intervertebral disc using RT-qPCR. Conclusion: The
      lncRNAs express differentially in the intervertebral disc. LncRNAs may therefore
      be novel candidate biomarkers and potential targets for intervertebral disc
      degeneration therapy in the future.

PMID- 28881532
TI  - [Safety analysis of carotid endarterectomy without shunting in carotid artery
      stenosis patients with contralateral carotid occlusion].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the safety of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) without
      shunting in carotid artery stenosis (CAS) patients with contralateral carotid
      occlusion (CAO) under the protection of monitoring of cerebral blood oxygen
      saturation. Methods: A total of 71 patients with CAS was enrolled in our research
      during 2013 to 2016. They were divided into two groups which were group A: 20 CAS
      patients with contralateral CAO, and group B: 51 CAS patients without
      contralateral CAO. All patients were given CEA without shunting during
      operation.One and 6 months following up was carried to observe the incidence of
      newly hemorrhage and infarction on operation side and adverse cardiac events.
      Results: There was none adverse cardiac event and newly infarction. But there was
      1 (5.00%) newly hemorrhage in group A during the 1 month following up. None
      adverse event was found in group B. During the 3 months following up, none
      adverse event was found in group A and 3 (5.88%) newly infarction patients were
      found in group B. However, there was no significant difference between group A
      and group B. Conclusion: CEA without shunting in CAS patients with contralateral
      carotid occlusion under the protection of monitoring of cerebral blood oxygen
      saturation is an efficient and safe way to improve the patients, living quality.

PMID- 28881533
TI  - [Efficacy and safety of Rivaroxaban anticoagulant therapy in the treatment of
      atrial fibrillation cryoablation].
AB  - Objective: To observe the efficacy and safety of the novel oral anticoagulant
      Rivaroxaban for anticoagulation therapy in patients with nonvalvular atrial
      fibrillation (AF) during cryoablation. Methods: A total of 137 AF patients from
      October 2013 to December 2016 underwent cryoablation were divided into two groups
      according to the application of anticoagulant drugs: Rivaroxaban group (65 cases)
      and Heparin group (72 cases). Rivaroxaban group: oral administration of
      Rivaroxaban 20 mg, once a day, was started 3 days before the cryoablation, no
      anticoagulant was additionally added during cryoablation, the activated clotting
      time (ACT) was measured, and oral administration of Rivaroxaban was continued for
      3 months after cryoablation. Heparin group: oral administration of Rivaroxaban 20
      mg, once a day, was stopped 24 hours before the cryoablation, heparin (100 U/kg)
      anticoagulation was given during cryoablation, ACT was controlled between 250 and
      300 seconds, and oral administration of Rivaroxaban was continued for 3 months
      after cryoablation. The ACT results, the incidence of bleeding and thromboembolic
      events between the two groups were compared. Results: The ACT result between the
      two groups were with statistically significance[(110+/-16) vs (323+/-61) seconds,
      P=0.000)]. The bleeding events for Rivaroxaban group were two cases of local
      hematoma of the femoral vein puncture site, with the incidence rate of
      3.1%(2/65); Heparin group were two cases of local hematoma of the femoral vein
      puncture site, and one case of epistaxis, with the incidence rate of 4.2%(3/72),
      with no statistical significance(P=0.549) between the two groups. No
      thromboembolic event occurred in the Rivaroxaban group, one cerebellar
      thromboembolic event occurred in the Heparin group during anticoagulant bridging
      phase after cryoablation. Conclusion: Rivaroxaban is safe and effective for
      anticoagulation therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation cryoablation.

PMID- 28881534
TI  - [Tracheobronchial segmental resection and reconstruction applied to surgical
      treatment of esophageal cancer with airway involvement].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of tracheobronchial segmental resection and
      reconstruction applied to surgical treatment in the patients with esophageal
      cancer with airway invasion. Methods: From January 2004 to April 2014, 13
      patients in our center underwent radical esophagectomy combined with
      tracheobronchial segmental resection and reconstruction. Patient characteristics,
      operative procedures, postoperative complications and long-term survival were
      retrospectively reviewed. Results: All patients received complete resection (R0)
      with an average length of resected airway 2.77+/-0.73 cm. In addition, carinal
      resection plus lobar resection (including carinal pneumonectomy) was accomplished
      in 2 patients; 1 patient underwent aortic replacement. Complications were noted
      in 5 patients (39%) and 2 patients (15.38%) died within 30 days after operation.
      4 patients (30.76%) suffered from airway anastomosis stenosis and all 3 of them
      died within 2 years after operation due to refusing bronchoscopy interventions.
      The overall 1-, 2-, and 5-year survival rates were 72.7%, 45.5%, and 24.2%,
      respectively, with a median survival time of 2 years (0.5-10 years). Conclusion:
      Tracheobronchial segmental resection and reconstruction can provide an
      opportunity of complete resection and a survival benefit for patients with
      esophageal cancer invading airway with acceptable morbidity and mortality.
      Postoperative airway anastomosis stenosis needs active treatment.

PMID- 28881535
TI  - [Diagnostic value of combination of US and MRI in preoperative prediction for the
      extrathyroidal extension of papillary thyroid carcinoma].
AB  - Objective: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic
      performance of preoperative ultrasonography(US), magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)
      and US combined with MRI in the prediction of extrathyroidal extension(ETE) in
      patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC). Methods: Between January 2013 and
      December 2016, a total of 83 consecutive patients underwent surgery for
      pathologically confirmed PTCs with ETE. We analyzed all patients with PTC with
      ETE who received preoperative combination of US and MRI scan to evaluate ETE.
      Results: For minimal ETE, the accuracy was 92.2%(47/51) of US, 74.5%(38/51) of
      MRI, and their combination was 98.0%(50/51). The differences of the three methods
      for minimal ETE were statistically significantly different(P=0.000). For
      extensive ETE, the accuracy was 62.5%(20/32) of US, 87.5%(28/32) of MRI, and
      their combination was 93.8%(30/32). The different of the three methods for
      extensive ETE was statistically significantly different(P=0.000). For the total
      accuracy of ETE, US was 80.7%(67/83), MRI was 79.5% (66/83), and their
      combination was 96.4%(80/83). The difference of the three methods for ETE was
      statistically significantly different(P=0.001). Conclusion: The combination of US
      and MRI can improve the preoperative diagnostic accuracy of ETE for PTC.

PMID- 28881536
TI  - [MR imaging of flexor tendon and pulley system of the fingers: normal anatomy and
      injury].
AB  - Objective: To explore the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of the
      anatomy and injuries of flexor tendon and pulley system of the fingers. Methods:
      Clinical and imaging data of 20 healthy volunteers without injuries and 36
      patients from Beijing Jishuitan Hospital with flexor tendon and pulley system
      injuries in the fingers between March 2013 and March 2016 were retrospectively
      analyzed. All subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination.
      The MRI findings of patients were compared with healthy volunteers. In addition,
      imaging findings of patients were compared with the surgical results and
      confirmed by double-blinded method. Results: Twenty volunteers without flexor
      tendon and pulley system injures showed homogeneous hypointensity on both T1
      weighted and Proton Density-weighted images with fat saturation (PD-FS). There
      were 36 patients with finger injures, including 21 cases of flexor tendon injury,
      10 cases of pulley system injury, 5 cases of compound injury, which demonstrated
      unclear signal, discontinuity on T1-weighted images and heterogeneously increased
      signal intensity of the involved structures on PD-FS images. Edema was detected
      in the soft tissues surrounding the injured sites. Conclusions: MRI is an
      accurate method for evaluation of the anatomy and pathologic conditions of flexor
      tendon and pulley system of the fingers and a useful tool for diagnosis and
      treatment of flexor tendon and pulley system injuries.

PMID- 28881537
TI  - [The relationship between autoimmune thyroiditis and pregnancy outcomes of
      patients with PCOS following in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer IVF-ET].
AB  - Objective: To investigate the impact of autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) on pregnancy
      outcomes in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) following the in vitro
      fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) by analyzing their pregnancy outcomes.
      Methods: The patients undergoing IVF-ET treatment diagnosed with PCOS in Peking
      University Third Hospital from May 2010 to December 2014 were investigated.
      According to the anti-thyroid antibodies (TPOAb or TGAb), patients were divided
      into AIT group and non-AIT group. The pregnancy outcomes of two groups were
      analysed for investigate the effect of AIT on pregnancy outcomes. Results: Four
      hundred and ninety patients with PCOS were enrolled, 119 (24.3%) of AIT group and
      371 (75.7%) of non-AIT group. Patients with PCOS had a higher incidence (24.3%)
      of AIT. There was no correlation between AIT and the different pregnancy
      outcomes.TSH was negatively correlated with pregnancy as a risk factor.
      Hyperandrogenemia was negatively correlated with clinical pregnancy as a risk
      factor. Hyperprolactinemia was negatively correlated with delivery as a risk
      factor, while TSH was positively correlated with delivery. Conclusions: The
      incidence of AIT was higher in patients with PCOS. AIT was not the risk factor of
      adverse pregnancy outcomes for PCOS women undergoing IVF. The metabolic disorders
      (including hyperinsulinemia, hyperandrogenemia and hyperprolactinemia) were the
      risk factors of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Patients in AIT group had the high
      TSH level. They should be received more care and monitoring to make it conducive
      to delivery.

PMID- 28881538
TI  - [Co-culture with endometrial stromal cells promotes the differentiation of
      menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells into endometrial epithelial
      cells].
AB  - Objective: To study the potential of differentiation of menstrual blood-derived
      mesenchymal stem cells (MenSC) into endometrial epithelial cells (EEC) in vitro.
      Methods: Endometrial stromal cells (ESC) and MenSC were cultured and identified
      by certain methods.MenSC were co-cultured with ESC, added 10 ng/ml TGF-beta1, 10
      ng/ml EGF, 10 ng/ml PDGF-BB and 1*10(-7) mol/L 17-beta-estradiol.The expression
      of cytokeratin, which was marker of EEC, was tested by immunofluorescence in
      differentiated MenSC. Results: MenSC proliferated quickly in vitro, and showed
      fusiform shape and clear structure within 10 generations.The expression rate of
      superficial markers of MenSC, CD44, CD90, CD73, and CD29, were 98.4%, 90.77%,
      94.75% and 97.01% respectively.The expression of vimentin, which was stromal
      marker, was positive in cultured ESC (P3). After co-cultured with ESC for 3
      weeks, MenSC morphology changed from fibroblast-like cells into epithelial-like
      cells.Immunofluorescence assay showed that the differentiated MenSC expressed
      cytokeratin. Conclusion: Under the condition of co-culture with ESC, MenSC has
      the ability to differentiate into endometrial epithelial cells. Cell growth
      factor and estrogen play the important roles in this process.

PMID- 28881539
TI  - [Analysis of carotid atherosclerosis and related risk factors in a university
      physical examination population in Beijing].
AB  - Objective: To explore the incidence of carotid atherosclerosis in staffs of
      Tsinghua university according to the different age groups, the possible risk
      factors and conduct a follow-up survey. Methods: Detailed information about
      physical examination and carotid ultrasound from 832 staffs of Tsinghua
      University between 2014 to 2016 were reviewed to observe the occurrence and
      development of atherosclerosis according to different age groups; the correlation
      between conventional risk factors and carotid arteriosclerosis was studied by
      multivariate Logistic regression analysis.The process of different degrees of
      arteriosclerosis in the population was observed one year later. Results: In the
      past three years, there were 2 024 cases of carotid examination. Among them,
      there were 832 staffs who had been followed up for more than 6 months. There were
      517 cases of carotid atherosclerosis, with 289 males (55.9%) and 228 females
      (44.1%), and the incidence of atherosclerosis in male was higher than that in
      female (P<0.05). The 50 to 59 years old, 60 to 69 years old, 70 to79 years old
      were the age group with high incidence of pure carotid intima-media thickening,
      atherosclerosis plaque formation and stenosis or occlusion, respectively. After
      multivariate Logistic regression analysis, hypertension, diabetes and
      hyperlipidemia were found the independent risk factors for carotid intimal
      thickening. The follow-up of 832 staffs with ultrasound showed that there was no
      significant difference in intima-media thickening, plaque formation, stenosis or
      occlusion after one year (P>0.05). Conclusions: This research suggests that the
      incidence of atherosclerosis in male is higher than that in female, and
      hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia are important influencing factors of
      arteriosclerosis for staffs of Tsinghua University. Early screening,
      identification of high-risk patients and comprehensive treatment should be done
      to delay the process of atherosclerosis.In addition, long-term follow-up is
      necessary in the context of no significant changes within the short-term.

PMID- 28881540
TI  - [Health promoting in adolescents and youths across the life span].

PMID- 28881541
TI  - [Investigation of influencing factors associated with neck-shoulder symptoms
      among middle school students in three cities in China].
AB  - Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the distribution of neck
      shoulder symptoms among middle school students, and to explore its influence
      factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 24 middle schools in
      Shenyang, Zhengzhou and Shenzhen by purposive sampling method. In each middle
      school, 3 to 4 classes were selected from each grade all the students in the
      selected class would be recruited to the survey to investigate the demographic
      characteristics, neck-shoulder symptoms, physical exercise time, academic stress,
      screen behavior, sedentary behavior and other information by questionnaire. A
      total of 10 566 questionnaires were issued and 10 270 valid questionnaires were
      withdrawn. The prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms among students were compared
      by different characteristics. Logistic regression models were applied to examine
      influencing factors associated with neck-shoulder symptoms. Results: The
      prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms among middle school students was 19.2% (1
      968/10 270), while it was 22.6% (1 137/5 039) among girls and 15.9% (831/5 231)
      among boys; the difference showed statistical significance (P<0.001). The
      prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms was separately 13.3% (253/1 901) in seventh
      grade, 16.8% (326/1 942) in eighth grade, 18.5% (299/1 617) in ninth grade, 21.8%
      (417/1 915) in sophomore, 21.4% (345/1 611) in junior, 25.5% (328/1 284) in
      senior; the difference showed statistical significance (P<0.001). The
      multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that in the last 3 months,
      students who always playing mobile phone >=40 min continuously (OR=4.66, 95%CI:
      3.95-5.49), watching TV >=40 min continuously (OR=4.01, 95%CI: 3.39-4.73), using
      computer >=40 min continuously (OR=3.61, 95%CI: 3.09-4.23), doing homework >=60
      min continuously (OR=3.25, 95%CI: 2.79-3.79), the average daily sitting time >=10
      h (OR=4.95, 95%CI: 4.25-5.77), and always sitting >=90 min continuously (OR=5.18,
      95%CI: 4.42-6.06) were risk factors of neck-shoulder symptoms. Conclusion: The
      prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms was high among middle school students in
      China, especially girls in senior grades. Long time, high frequency video
      behaviors and sedentary behaviors were related to the occurrence of neck-shoulder
      symptoms among middle school students.

PMID- 28881542
TI  - [Study of association between adverse experiences in childhood, social support,
      and physical and psychological sub-health status among middle school students in
      3 cities in China].
AB  - Objective: To explore the relationship between adverse experience in childhood,
      social support, and physical and psychological sub-health status among middle
      school students in 3 cities in China. Methods: 15 278 adolescents were selected
      as subjects from 20 junior and senior middle schools located in 3 cities of China
      by stratified cluster sampling method. The survey collected the demographic
      information, ACEs, social support and physical-psychological status. A total of
      14 820 valid questionnaires were retained for analysis. We assessed ACE score
      (count of six categories of childhood adversity), social support (adolescent
      social support questionnaire), and the prevalence of two outcomes: physiological
      and psychological sub-health status. Logistic regression was used to analyze the
      relationship between adverse childhood experiences, social support, and
      physiological and psychological sub-health status. Results: The prevalence of
      physiological and psychological sub-health status were 26.4% (3 917/14 820) and
      24.1%(3 572/14 820), respectively. A total of 89.4% (13 247/14 820) reported at
      least 1 adverse childhood experiences. The rates of physiological and
      psychological sub-health status were higher among girls (28.1%(2 092/7 443),
      26.0%(1 932/7 443)) than boys (24.7%(1 825/7 377), 22.2%(1 640/7 377)). Among
      adolescents without ACEs, the rate of physiological and psychological sub-health
      status were 15.4%(243/1 573) and 10.4%(163/1 573), for those with 5-6 ACEs, the
      rate were 40.9%(636/1 556) and 43.6%(678/1 556). Among adolescents with higher
      social support, the rate of physiological and psychological sub-health status
      were 19.9%(724/3 635) and 13.0%(474/3 635) for those with lower social support,
      the rate of physiological and psychological sub-health status were 35.9%(1 403/3
      913) and 39.0%(1 528/3 913). The rates of physiological and psychological sub
      health status were higher with more ACE exposure or less social support. At each
      level of ACE exposure, physiological and psychological sub-health status were
      less in those with greater social support. For example, among adolescents
      reporting 5-6 ACEs, those in the lowest tertile of social support increased the
      risk of physiological sub-health status than those in the highest tertile
      (adjusted prevalence ratio (95%CI)=1.79 (1.23-2.56)); for those reporting no
      ACEs, the ratio was 3.04 (1.91-4.83). Among adolescents reporting 5-6 ACEs, those
      in the lowest tertile of social support increased the risk of psychological sub
      health status than those in the highest tertile (adjusted prevalence ratio
      (95%CI)=3.77 (2.57-5.52)); for those reporting no ACEs, the ratio was 3.97(2.33
      6.76). Conclusion: The findings suggest that ACEs should be considered as risk
      factors for physiological and psychological sub-health status among middle school
      students. Across a range of exposures to ACEs, less social support was associated
      with more physiological and psychological sub-health status. Identifying those
      with ACE exposure who also have lower social support could be used to improve the
      health of adolescents.

PMID- 28881543
TI  - [Associations between overweight-obesity and puberty timing in children with
      different genders in China].
AB  - Objective: To understand the associations between overweight-obesity and puberty
      timing in children with different genders. Methods: The girls in grade 2, 3, 7, 8
      and boys in grade 3, 4, 7, 8 were recruited from primary and middle schools in
      North new area of Shenyang, Yanqing district of Beijing, Erqi district of
      Zhengzhou and Jiulongpo district of Chongqing by purposive sampling method
      between October and December 2014, respectively. The information of demographic
      characteristics of the respondents were collected and the pubertal development
      status was evaluated by Pubertal Development Scale (PDS). A total of 6 701
      students were recruited; 6 137 out of which were valid with complete
      questionnaires. The associations between overweight-obesity and puberty timing
      were estimated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: The
      prevalence of overweight-obesity in primary schools were 34.8% (522/1 499) among
      boys and 24.2% (341/1 409) among girls, respectively. The prevalence of
      overweight-obesity in middle schools were 31.3% (591/1 658) among boys and 21.8%
      (342/1 571) among girls, respectively. The prevalence of premature puberty in
      primary schools were 15.0% (225/1 499) among boys and 14.2% (200/1 409) among
      girls, respectively. The prevalence of delayed puberty in middle schools were
      14.3% (237/1 658) among boys and 14.9% (234/1 571) among girls, respectively.
      After adjusting the effects of region, age, one-child, family income and the
      parents' educational levels, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed
      that overweight-obesity had significantly positive association with premature
      puberty (OR=2.16, 95%CI: 1.56-2.99) among girls in primary schools, and
      significantly negative association with delayed puberty (OR=0.54, 95%CI: 0.36
      0.80) among girls in middle schools when compared with students with normal
      weights, both P values were <0.05. There was no significant associations among
      boys in primary and middle schools between overweight-obesity and puberty timing,
      and the corresponding OR(95%CI) were 1.08(0.80-1.45) and 0.93(0.69-1.27)
      respectively, both P values >0.05. Conclusion: There was significantly positive
      association between overweight-obesity and premature puberty among girls, and
      significantly negative association with delayed puberty among girls in middle
      schools; but the association was not found among boys.

PMID- 28881544
TI  - [Prospective association between early adiposity rebound and adolescent
      development in girls].
AB  - Objective: To determine possible relations between early adiposity rebound and
      adolescent development. Methods: Prospective children cohort from 2 kindergartens
      selected through clustering convenience sampling method in Anhui Province was
      established since Sep. 2010. Participants were classified as Cohort 1 (2010),
      Cohort 2 (2011) and Cohort 3 (2012) according to the recruiting year. Till Sep.
      2015, a toal of 802 girls were included in this study, and received follow-up
      till primary school. During kindergarten period, physical examination was carried
      out every 3 months, 8 times in total. In primary school, physical examination was
      carried out annually; till Sep.2015, the cohort 1, 2, 3 took physical examination
      for 12, 11, 10 times, respectively. Information on household economic status and
      child physical activity was acquired through parents questionnaire survey, and
      breast development were assessed through visual inspection and palpation.
      Adiposity rebound was determined according to Rolland-Cachera's method for each
      girl. Differences between early adiposity rebound and normal adiposity rebound
      groups were compared by using t test and chi(2) test. Multivariate regression
      analysis was applied to explore the association between early adiposity rebound
      and breast development. Results: The average age of participants was (8.90+/
      0.87) years old and the BMI was (17.48+/-2.70) kg/m(2). The average age at
      adiposity rebound was (6.16+/-0.90) years old and the BMI was (15.33+/-1.82)
      kg/m(2). Premature breast development was found significantly higher in girls in
      early adiposity rebound group (27.8%, 54/802) than it in normal adiposity rebound
      group (13.7%) (P<0.001). After current adiposity, age, household economic status,
      childhood physical activity adjusted, the OR of premature beast development in
      early adiposity rebound group was 2.41(95%CI: 1.41-4.12). Conclusion: Early
      adiposity rebound increases the risk of premature puberty in girls.

PMID- 28881545
TI  - [Study on relationship between outdoor activities and self-reported myopia among
      middle school students].
AB  - Objective: To examine the relationship between the prevalence of self-reported
      myopia and outdoor activities among middle school students and to explore the
      influence factors of the self-reported myopia. Methods: A total of 12 979
      participants were recruited from junior and senior middle school students in in
      Shenzhen, Nanchang, Zhengzhou and Shenyang by random cluster sampling method
      between December 2015 and March 2016. All participants completed an anonymous
      questionnaire to collect the information of demographic characteristics, self
      reported myopia, outdoor activities, etc. 12 603 out of 12 979 copies of
      questionnaire were valid. The prevalence of self-reported myopia was compared
      among middle school students with different characteristics. Logistic regression
      models were used to analyze the relationship between myopia and outdoor
      activities. Results: The prevalence of self-reported myopia among middle school
      students was 69.6% (8 766/12 603); which was separately 52.1% (1 216/2 335) in
      seventh grader, 61.6% (1 459/2 369) in eighth grader, 69.0%(1 470/2 129) in ninth
      grader, 80.0% (1 812/2 265) in freshmen, 79.4% (1 622/2 042) in sophomore, and
      81.1%(1 187/1 463) in junior. The prevalence of self-reported myopia showed an
      increasing trend with the increase of grade (chi(2)=639.67, P<0.001). The
      prevalence of self-reported myopia was separately 63.5%(4 927/7 756) in non
      myopic parents group, 78.0%(2 664/3 415)in either myopic parent group, and
      82.1%(1 175/1 432) in both myopic parents group(chi(2)=328.28, P<0.001). Outdoor
      activities were associated with self-reported myopia. Binary logistic regression
      analysis showed that the risk of self-reported myopia was significantly increased
      by always staying at home in extracurricular time among the middle school
      students (OR=1.58, 95%CI: 1.36-1.82). The risk of self-reported myopia were
      significantly decreased by always physical exercise and recreational activities
      after school among middle school students: the ORs were separately 0.67 (95%CI:
      0.57-0.78) for physical exercise and 0.77 (95%CI: 0.64-0.92) for recreational
      activities. After stratified analysis by the parents' myopia status, in non
      myopic parents group, exercise and recreational activities after school among
      middle school students decreased the risk of myopia: the ORs were separately 0.68
      (95%CI: 0.55-0.82) for physical exercise and 0.76 (95%CI: 0.61-0.95) for
      recreational activities; in either myopic parent group, OR(95%CI) were separately
      0.65 (0.47-0.90) and 0.68 (0.47-0.98). Conclusion: Outdoor activities was
      negatively associated with self-reported myopia among middle school students.
      However, the parents' myopia status may affect the protective effect.

PMID- 28881546
TI  - [Effect of breastfeeding on the behavioral development of infants and children: a
      birth cohort study in Ma'anshan].
AB  - Objective: To discuss the relationship between breastfeeding and the behavioral
      development of infants and children. Methods: Based on the Ma'anshan Birth Cohort
      Study, there were 3 474 pregnant women recruited from Ma'anshan Maternal and
      Child Care Center between May 2013 and September 2014, including 3 273 singleton
      live births. Follow up the infants to the age of 18 months old. Excluded the
      infants with incomplete information of breastfeeding and who did not finish the
      ASQ-3 evaluation in 6 months old and 18 months old, 2 404 valid subjects were
      included in the study. The information of demographic characteristics, deliver,
      infants and breastfeeding was collected. The behavioral development were
      evaluated by the third edition of Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) at 6
      months old and 18 months old, and the effect of breastfeeding on behavioral
      development among infants and children were analyzed by multivariable logistic
      regression model. Results: The intensity of breastfeeding of infants within 6
      months old was (26.56+/-10.56). The rate of breastfeeding as pure or major intake
      for infants between 0-5 months old were separately 54.2% (1 303), 54.0% (1 298).
      54.0% (1 297), 50.5% (1 213), 34.4% (827) and 9.9% (237). After age, pre-pregnant
      BMI, intelligence, delivery mode, gender, gestational age, birth weight and
      family economic status adjusted, compared to never-breastfeeding, continuous
      breastfeeding for 1-3 months could protect children from severe developmental
      delay in fine motor domain aged 6 months old (RR=0.36, 95%CI: 0.17-0.79),
      communication domain aged 18 months old (RR=0.27, 95%CI: 0.08-0.88), and social
      domain aged 18 months old (RR=0.36, 95%CI: 0.21-0.63). Compared to never
      breastfeeding, continuous breastfeeding for more than 4 months could protect
      children from severe developmental delay in fine motor domain aged 6 months old
      (RR=0.58, 95%CI: 0.34-0.97), communication domain (RR=0.57, 95%CI: 0.39-0.83) and
      mild developmental delay (RR=0.65, 95%CI: 0.48-0.87) aged 18 months old and fine
      motor domain (RR=0.57, 95%CI: 0.39-0.83) aged 18 months old and social domain
      aged 18 months old (RR=0.57, 95%CI: 0.39-0.83). With the breastfeeding intensity
      rising, there were less children evaluated as severe development delay in
      communication domain aged 6 months old, communication, fine motor and problem
      solving domains aged 18 months old, with RR (95%CI) at 0.98 (0.96-1.00), 0.96
      (0.93-0.99), 0.98 (0.97-1.00) and 0.98 (0.96-1.00); and less children evaluated
      as mild development delay in communication domain aged 18 months old with RR
      (95%CI) at 0.99 (0.98-1.00). Conclusion: Breastfeeding with longer duration and
      increased intensity could promote better development in children.

PMID- 28881547
TI  - [Health economic evaluation of bivalent human papilloma virus vaccine in China:
      based on the dynamic model].
AB  - Objective: This study aims to evaluate the prevention effect and cost
      effectiveness of a prophylactic bivalent human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine.
      Methods: A multiple health status dynamic model was developed, including natural
      history of diseases and prevention strategies. We built 19 prevention strategies
      including visual inspection with acetic acid/lugol's iodine (VIA/VILI) and/or 3
      does prophylactic bivalent HPV vaccine administered to adolescent girls at the
      age of 15 years old every year under the assumption that vaccine coverage and
      screening coverage were 70%. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER),
      optimal price of 3 does vaccine and cost-effectiveness frontier of these
      strategies were analyzed compared with no-intervention. The ICER threshold is 152
      087 CNY. Results: Compared with no-intervention, Routine vaccination reduced the
      incidence of cervical cancer by 69.5%, superior to 5 strategies including
      VIA/VILI screening only. The range of effect was between 9.0% and 69.2%, and the
      effect of strategy increased significantly with the increase of screening
      frequency. Combination vaccination with screening at ages of 35 reduced the
      incidence of cervical cancer by 72.0%, and the effect increased with the increase
      of screening frequency. Combination vaccination with screening every 3 years
      between (35-64) years old reduced the incidence by 89.4%. Compared with no
      intervention, the ICER of combination vaccination with screening twice between 35
      years and 64 years was 121 292 CNY/life-year, which was cost-effective. The price
      of vaccine had a significant impact on the ICER of the strategy; when the vaccine
      price was less than 600 CNY, only routine vaccination or supplementary
      vaccination between 16-39 years old after routine vaccination was cost-effective;
      when the vaccine price was less than 1 200 CNY, supplementary vaccination between
      16-19 years old plus VIA/VILI was cost-effective. Conclusion: Ther prevention
      strategy was cost-effective, which could effectively reduce the incidence of
      cervical cancer by implementation of HPV vaccination combined with VIA/VILI in
      suitable aging females.

PMID- 28881548
TI  - [Quality of case report of Japanese Encephalitis after the establishment of
      surveillance on acute meningitis and encephalitis syndrome in Baoji].
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the quality of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) case reports
      based on the establishment of surveillance on acute meningitis and encephalitis
      syndrome (AMES) in Baoji. Methods: A surveillance network on AMES cases was set
      up in Baoji city of Shaanxi province between July 2013 and December 2016. All the
      cases met the surveillance definition of AMES cases were conducted a
      questionnaire, collected serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens to test
      JE immunoglobulin M antibodies by using enzyme-linkedimmunosorbent assay
      methods.The information of the incidence of JE in Shaanxi and Baoji from 2009 to
      2016 originated from the China information system for disease control and
      prevention. Chi square test was used to compare the difference in JE incidence in
      Baoji, Shaanxi before and after the implementation of AMES monitoring project.
      Results: 75 out of 855 collected cases were laboratory confirmed as JE, Including
      42 suspected JE cases and 33 other suspected cases diagnosed after
      hospitalization. Except 1 case occurring in December, all the other cases
      occurred between July and October, especially in August with a peak of 55 cases
      (73.3%), and 6 cases (8.0%) in July, 11 cases (14.7%) in September, 2 cases
      (2.7%) in October. The proportion of patients aging 0-6, 7-14 and >=15 years old
      were respectively 4.0% (3 cases), 8.0% (6 cases) and 88.0% (66 cases). The
      biochemical test showed the cerebrospinal fluid in 13 cases (17.3%) were slightly
      turbid, the white blood cell in 31 cases (41.3%) elevated, the glucose levels in
      24 cases (32.0%) were abnormal, and the chloride level in 23 cases (30.7%) were
      abnormal. A total of 103 cases of JE were diagnosed in Baoji from 2009 to 2016,
      with an average annual incidence rate at 0.34/100 000. The average incidence of
      JE in 2009-2012 and 2013-2016 was 0.21/100 000 and 0.48/100 000 respectively.
      From 2013 to 2016, the proportion of JE cases in Baoji, Shaanxi was 19.3%
      (71/369), and it was 8.9% (32/362) between 2009 and 2012 (chi(2)=4.15, P=0.040).
      Conclusion: The AMES surveillance project improved the quality of the JE case
      report in Baoji. Changes appeared in biochemistrical and epidemiological
      characteristics of cerebrospinal fluid. The incidence of JE was seriously
      underestimated in Shaanxi province and therefore the sensitivity of Japanese
      encephalitis surveillance cases should be further improved.

PMID- 28881549
TI  - [Study on the immunogenicity and safety of recombinant B-subunit/whole cell
      cholera vaccine infused with antacids in healthy population at ages of 2-6
      years].
AB  - Objective: To assess the immunogenicity and safety of recombinant B-subunit/whole
      cell cholera vaccine (rBS/WC) oral cholera vaccine (Ora Vacs) infused with
      antacids in healthy population at ages of 2-6 years. Methods: Between December
      2009 and January 2010, we recruited 900 volunteers aged 2-6 years od through
      giving out recruitment notice for the eligible children's parents from different
      vaccination clinics of Chongzuo city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. This
      study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, and subjects were
      randomly (2?1) assigned to receive Cholera vaccine infused with antacids or
      placebo, and observed for safety. Serum samples of 300 subjects in immunogenicity
      subgroups (200 for vaccine groups, 100 for control groups) before the 1st dose
      and 49 d (+/-3 d) after immunization were collected, and determined for antibody
      levels against the cholera toxin (anti-CT) and cholera vibriocidal (anti-Vab)
      with Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), based on which the GMT was
      calculated. There were 266 cases paired with the serum samples before and after
      immunization (177 for vaccine groups, 89 for control groups). The comparison of
      subjects' age at enrollment and the level of GMT before and after immunization
      between groups were analyzed by t test. The superiority test for the difference
      between seroconversion rates of vaccine groups and control groups were analyzed
      by chi(2) test. Results: Of 900 subjects enrolled, the number of males and
      females were 503 and 397 respectively (vaccine groups 335 vs. 265, control groups
      168 vs. 132), the average ages of vaccine groups and control groups at enrollment
      were (4.8+/-1.2) years and (4.9+/-1.2) years respectively. There were no
      significant differences between groups in terms of gender and age (chi(2)=0.00,
      P=1.000; t=0.55, P=0.585). The 2 times increase rates of anti-CT and anti-Vab in
      vaccine groups after inoculation were 90.96% and 57.63% respectively, which were
      superiority to those of control groups (15.73% and 29.21%), and significant
      differences were observed between groups (chi(2)=15.89, chi(2)=3.85, P<0.001).
      There were significant differences between vaccine groups and control groups
      after inoculation in terms of GMTs of anti-CT (1?647.56 vs. 1?99.49) and anti-Vab
      antibodies (1?16.19 vs. 1?11.27) (t values were 15.82 and 3.43, respetively; both
      P values were<0.05), significant differences were observed in the growth rates
      when compared the GMTs of anti-CT (6.63 vs. 1.11) and anti-Vab antibodies (1.64
      vs. 1.16) before inoculation between vaccine groups and control groups (t'=17.85
      and 4.96, P<0.001). In terms of safety, the adverse reaction rates in vaccine
      groups and control groups were 37.67% (226/600) and 36.67% (110/300),
      respectively,the common adverse reaction including fever, nausea, vomiting,
      abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, fatigue, allergies, rash, etc; and the
      severity degree were mainly for level 1. Conclusion: Ora Vacs infused with
      antacids could produce an positive effect on immune response and safety.

PMID- 28881550
TI  - [The epidemiological characteristics and drug resistance of mycoplasma pneumoniae
      in patients with community-acquired pneumonia during 2011-2015 in 5 sentinel
      hospitals in Beijing].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the prevalence and drug resistance of mycoplasma pneumoniae
      in patients with community-acquired pneumonia during 2011-2015 in Beijing.
      Methods: Totally 2 272 mycoplasma pneumoniae samples were collected from patients
      with community-acquired pneumonia in 5 sentinel hospitals during 2011-2015.
      Mycoplasma pneumoniae were detected by real-time PCR. 142 copies of positive
      samples with Ct value under 30 were cultured to get the strains so that the
      genotypes based on the P1 gene sequence and the drug resistance based on the in
      vitro drug resistance test could be conducted. chi(2) test was used to compare
      the detection rates of mycoplasma pneumoniae among different age groups and
      different onset-phase. Results: The positive rate of mycoplasma pneumoniae was
      13.6%(308 cases). The positive rate in groups aging (5-14), (15-24) and >=60
      years old were separately 24.4% (67/275), 24.4% (38/156) and 3.9% (28/727)
      (chi(2)=1.22, P<0.001). The annual detection rate of mycoplasma pneumoniae in
      2011-2015 were 14.6% (73/501), 10.2% (36/353), 26.4% (101/383), 10.3% (41/398),
      9.0% (57/637),respectively (chi(2)=72.65, P<0.001). Seasonally, the peak of
      positive rate was between October and December (17.5%, 122/699) and the lowest
      positive rate was between April and June (8.6%, 43/502). 36 strains were isolated
      from 142 swabs and 23 (63.9%) were P1-I and 13 (36.1%) were P1-II by genotyping.
      All isolates were susceptible to the fluoroquinolones (levofloxacin,
      ciprofloxacin, and gatifloxacin) and tetracycline. All P1-II strains were
      susceptible to macrolides while most of the P1-I strains (22 strains) were
      macrolide-resistant. Conclusion: People aging (5-14) and (15-24) years old were
      more susceptible to mycoplasma pneumoniae in patients with community-acquired
      pneumonia in Beijing between 2011 and 2015. The highest positive rate of
      mycoplasma pneumoniae was in 2013 and the case distributed in all seasons. The
      major popular genotype was P1-I, whose strains were mostly macrolide-resistant.

PMID- 28881551
TI  - [The prevalence and related factors of HBV infection among adults in Mianyang].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the prevalence and related factors of HBV infection among
      people aged 18 years old and above in Mianyang city. Methods: A total of 260 950
      residents, living in Mianyang city more than 6 months, aging 18 years old and
      above were employed by multi-stage random sampling method from November 2014 to
      September 2015. Questionnaire survey was conducted on participants using a self
      designed questionnaire, including general demographic characteristics, family
      history of Hepatitis B, history of Hepatitis B vaccination and history of present
      illness, etc. 5ml blood was collected from all participants, and the blood
      samples were detected for HBsAg by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The
      multivariate unconditional logistic regression was performed to identify the
      related factors of positive HBsAg. Results: Among the 260 950 subjects, 113 184
      were males (43.37%), 147 766 were females (56.63%), and the average age was
      (47.68+/-17.36) years old. The positive rate of HBsAg was 6.10%(15 822 cases).
      Subjects who were 25-34 years old (OR=1.23), 35-44 years old (OR=1.26), 45-54
      years old (OR=1.23), and 55-64 years old (OR=1.34) were more likely to be HBsAg
      positive,65 years and older (OR=0.88) were less likely to be, compared with
      subjects aging 18-24 years old; males were more likely to be HBsAg positive
      compared with females (OR=1.35); people living in Fucheng district were more
      likely to be HBsAg positive compared with who living in Jiangyou
      district(OR=1.91); married people were more likely to be HBsAg positive compared
      with unmarried ones (OR=1.36); medical staff were less likely to be HBsAg
      positive compared with non-medical staff (OR=0.61); subjects with a surgery
      history were more likely to HBsAg positive compared with who without (OR=1.13);
      subjects with trauma history were more likely to HBsAg positive compared with who
      without (OR=1.13); people with history of Hepatitis B were more likely to HBsAg
      positive compared with who without (OR=4.21); people with Hepatitis B vaccination
      history were less likely to be HBsAg positive compared with who without
      (OR=0.48); all the P values above were less than 0.05. Conclusion: The positive
      rate of HBsAg among adults in Mianyang city was very high, and we should pay more
      attention to people aging between 25 and 64 years old, male, medical staff, with
      surgery history, trauma history, and a family history of Hepatitis B and
      Hepatitis B vaccination history.

PMID- 28881552
TI  - [Analysis on the exposure level and geographic distribution trend of
      toxicological indicators in rural drinking water, Shandong Province, in 2015].
AB  - Objective: To analyze the exposure level and the geographical distribution trend
      of toxicological indicators of rural drinking water in Shandong Province.
      Methods: The drawing method was used to randomly select no less than 60% villages
      and towns from 137 counties (cities, districts) of 17 cities in Shandong Province
      in 2015, and then 1-3 rural centralized water supply units were selected
      according to the circumstance of rural centralized water supply units in each
      village and town. In total, 735 villages and towns, 1 473 rural centralized water
      supply units were selected, and 1 473 water samples were collected. The water
      treatment process, water supply population and other circumstances of the rural
      centralized water supply units were investigated, the water quality was
      monitored, the content of toxicological indicators of drinking water in different
      areas was compared, and the trend surface isogram of excessive toxicological
      indicators was drawn. Results: The qualified rate of toxicological indicators in
      1 473 water samples was 83.64% (n=1 232). The main toxicological indicators that
      affected the qualified rate of toxicological indicators of drinking water in
      rural areas in Shandong Province were nitrate and fluoride. The excessive rate of
      fluoride was 5.70% (n=84) and the exposed population was 1 736 709 (4.22%). The
      excessive rate of nitrate (as nitrogen) was 12.29% (n=181) and the exposed
      population was 1 393 612 (3.39%). The P(5)0 content of fluoride in the eastern,
      middle and western regions was 0.24, 0.29 and 0.59 mg/L, respective;which was
      higher in the western region than in the east and the middle regions (P<0.05).
      There was no significant difference between the eastern and the middle regions
      (P>0.05). The P(50) content of nitrate (as nitrogen) in the eastern, middle and
      western regions was 8.00, 7.48, and 2.00 mg/L, which was higher in the eastern
      and middle regions than in the west region (P<0.05), there was no significant
      difference between the eastern and the middle regions (P>0.05). The trend surface
      isogram of nitrate and fluoride content showed that the content of nitrate (as
      nitrogen) in rural drinking water in the eastern region was significantly higher
      than that in the western region, especially there was a high peak area in the
      northeastern region, and this high content distribution extended diagonally to
      the central region, while the other regions were in a relatively low range. The
      content of fluoride in rural drinking water in the western region was
      significantly higher than that in the eastern region, and there were high peaks
      in the southwest and northwest regions, and the other regions were in a
      relatively low range. Conclusion: The high exposed toxicological indicators in
      rural drinking water in Shandong Province were nitrate (as nitrogen) and
      fluoride, and their distribution showed obvious geographical distribution trend.

PMID- 28881554
TI  - [Study on quality of life and its related factors among patients with chronic
      hepatitis C in rural area].

PMID- 28881553
TI  - [Association between A-kinase anchor proteins 12 methylation and recurrence of
      hepatocellular carcinoma].
AB  - Objective: To study the association between the AKAP12 promoter methylation and
      recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: A total of 142 primary liver
      cancer patients underwent surgery in department of Hepatobiliary surgery in
      Peking University Cancer Hospital from 2003 to 2009 were selected as subjects in
      the survey; with the inclusion criteria as hepatocellular carcinoma, no cancer
      cells were observed in the surgical margin(SM) samples. All patients had neither
      lymph nor distant metastasis at the time of surgery, and receiving complete
      follow-up data for at least 3 years. By the end of May 2014, a total of 75
      patients had relapsed of whom 71 died and there were no lost. All samples were
      acquired from the frozen surgical tissues. Genomic DNA was extracted using
      phenol/chloroform method and performed bisulfite modification following with
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR). AKAP12 methylation in hepatoma and the
      corresponding SM samples from 142 patients was determined by denature high
      performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and bisulfite clone sequencing. Kaplan
      Meier and Cox proportion hazard regression model were used to identify the
      factors related to the survival time. Results: In 142 cases, 125 patients (88.0%)
      were male and 17 (12.0%) cases were female. The median age was 52.5 years,
      ranging from 34 years to 76 years. AKAP12 methylation-positive rate was
      significantly higher in hepatomas than SMs (54.9% vs. 10.2%, P<0.001). Patients
      with AKAP12 methylation-positive had less risk of the recurrence (HR=0.62, 95%CI:
      0.39-0.99); with tumor diameter more than 5 cm (HR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.00-2.50),portal
      vein invasion(HR=4.53, 95% CI:2.69-7.64) increased the recurrence risk. Moreover,
      portal vein invasion had a higher risk of death (HR=2.98, 95% CI: 1.73-4.98).
      Conclusion: There was significant association between AKAP12 DNA methylation and
      low risk of recurrence and long progression-free survival of hepatocellular
      carcinoma patients.

PMID- 28881555
TI  - [Molecular characteristics of the first imported case of dengue-2 virus at Yuxi
      city in Yunnan Province].

PMID- 28881556
TI  - [Epidemiological analysis of pertussis in Jinan, 2005-2015].

PMID- 28881557
TI  - [Early adiposity rebound: prevalence and the effect on metabolic risk in
      children].
AB  - The timing of the adiposity rebound (AR) gradually shifted to earlier ages
      throughout the world; early AR has a great effect on children's health,
      especially is possible associated with the development of metabolic disease for
      life, while the special mechanism isn't very clear. Metabolic diseases(MD) are
      common in adults, and the establishment of MD is the result of pathological
      chronic processes that can start in early life stages. If the metabolic risk
      factors and its predictive factors can be found in early childhood, it can bring
      forward the prevention and control of adult diseases. This paper is a review of
      the prevalence of early AR around the world, the factors that influence the
      timing of the AR, the significance of early detection and prevention of MD, the
      associations between timing of AR and metabolic risk in children and explored the
      possible mechanism. It aims to raise public awareness about the harm of early AR
      and provide new perspective to prevent and control of the metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28881558
TI  - [Developmental pattern of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during pubertal
      transition and implications for emotional disorders].
AB  - During an individual's life, puberty is not only a crucial phase for physical
      development, but a key period for neuroendocrine transformation. As a major
      neuroendocrine axis, the influence of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis's
      changes during puberty on mental and physical health, as well as emotional
      symptoms, is causing a growing attention. However, information of its developing
      pattern and circadian variation is limited. Recent research has demonstrated that
      certain developing pattern of HPA axis in puberty is closely related to the
      adolescent emotional disorders, which highlights the recognition of HPA functions
      developing paths under both resting and stress state and the evaluation of its
      prediction effect for the adolescent emotional disorders. Generally, cortisol
      awakening response is utilised to assess HPA functions. Elaborating the variation
      of HPA axis functions from the puberty to the later developing process provides
      much guiding significance for the early screening, intervention and treatment of
      adolescent emotional disorders.

PMID- 28881559
TI  - [Minutes of the 8(th) Forum on Basic Science & Applied Technology for Prevention
      and Control of infectious Diseases].

PMID- 28881561
TI  - Multi-story Parkin.

PMID- 28881560
TI  - Sequential Objective Structured Clinical Examination based on item response
      theory in Iran.
AB  - PURPOSE: In a sequential objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), all
      students initially take a short screening OSCE. Examinees who pass are excused
      from further testing, but an additional OSCE is administered to the remaining
      examinees. Previous investigations of sequential OSCE were based on classical
      test theory. We aimed to design and evaluate screening OSCEs based on item
      response theory (IRT). METHODS: We carried out a retrospective observational
      study. At each station of a 10-station OSCE, the students' performance was graded
      on a Likert-type scale. Since the data were polytomous, the difficulty
      parameters, discrimination parameters, and students' ability were calculated
      using a graded response model. To design several screening OSCEs, we identified
      the 5 most difficult stations and the 5 most discriminative ones. For each test,
      5, 4, or 3 stations were selected. Normal and stringent cut-scores were defined
      for each test. We compared the results of each of the 12 screening OSCEs to the
      main OSCE and calculated the positive and negative predictive values (PPV and
      NPV), as well as the exam cost. RESULTS: A total of 253 students (95.1%) passed
      the main OSCE, while 72.6% to 94.4% of examinees passed the screening tests. The
      PPV values ranged from 0.98 to 1.00, and the NPV values ranged from 0.18 to 0.59.
      Two tests effectively predicted the results of the main exam, resulting in
      financial savings of 34% to 40%. CONCLUSION: If stations with the highest IRT
      based discrimination values and stringent cut-scores are utilized in the
      screening test, sequential OSCE can be an efficient and convenient way to conduct
      an OSCE.

PMID- 28881562
TI  - NF-kappaB-mediated astrocyte dysfunction initiates neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28881563
TI  - Immunosuppression by viral N proteins.

PMID- 28881564
TI  - Targeting APP/AICD in Down syndrome.

PMID- 28881565
TI  - Reversibility of Abeta oligomer neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28881566
TI  - PPARs as determinants of the estrogen receptor lineage: use of synthetic
      lethality for the treatment of estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer.
AB  - THE DILEMMA: Estrogen receptora-negative (ER-) breast cancer lacks a specific
      critical target to control tumor progression. THE OBJECTIVE: To identify
      mechanisms that enable increased expression of the ER+ lineage in an otherwise ER
      breast cancer. PREFACE: The nuclear receptor superfamily members PPARgamma and
      PPARdelta regulate gene expression associated with a multitude of pathways,
      including intermediary metabolism, angiogenesis, proliferation and inflammation
      (see reviews [1-3]). Recent developments using transgenic and knockout mice, as
      well as pharmacologic intervention with PPARgamma and PPARdelta agonists, have
      revealed a previously unknown relationship between PPARgamma suppression and
      PPARdelta activation that leads to the appearance of ER+ tumors, enabling a
      synthetic lethality approach by anti-ER therapy. The ability to selectively
      affect the ER+ lineage by modulating PPARgamma and PPARdelta activity represents
      a new clinical paradigm and opportunity to treat ER- cancer with PPARgamma and
      PPARdelta modulating agents, ultimately rendering them more responsive to
      adjuvant therapy.

PMID- 28881567
TI  - Restoration of immune surface molecules in Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpes virus
      infected cells by lenalidomide and pomalidomide.
AB  - Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the cause of several tumors,
      including Kaposi sarcoma and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). Most viruses have
      evolved means of escaping immune recognition. KSHV downregulates MHC-I expression
      during lytic infection, and expression of ICAM-1 and B7-2 (CD86) during latent
      infection, allowing evasion of T cell and natural killer immunity respectively.
      These effects are largely mediated by two KSHV-encoded proteins, K3 and K5. We
      show here that lenalidomide (Len) and pomalidomide (Pom) prevent down-regulation
      of MHC-I during lytic activation, and restore ICAM-1 and B7-2 surface expression
      in latently infected PEL cells. Importantly, these changes occurred at clinically
      achievable concentrations and prior to any cytotoxic effects. Exploration of the
      mechanism revealed that Pom blocked lytic down-regulation of MHC-I induced by
      transfection with K3 but not K5. Although Pom alone did not significantly
      increase HLA mRNA expression in PEL cells, it did blunt the butyrate-induced
      decrease in MHC-I mRNA expression and decreased the upregulation of K3 mRNA in
      lytic cells. Virus-induced tumors express foreign antigens, but immunotherapy can
      be thwarted by viral strategies to evade immune recognition. The effects of Pom
      and Len described here can prevent these strategies and support the use of these
      drugs to treat KSHV-induced tumors.

PMID- 28881568
TI  - Modulation of estrogen related receptor alpha activity by the kinesin KIF17.
AB  - Estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERR1) is an orphan nuclear receptor that can
      bind transcriptional co-activators constitutively. ERR1 expression correlates
      with poor patient outcomes in breast cancer, heightening interest in this nuclear
      receptor as a therapeutic target. Because ERR1 has no known regulatory ligand, a
      major challenge in targeting its activity is to find cellular or synthetic
      modulators of its function. We identified an interaction between ERR1 and KIF17,
      a kinesin-2 family microtubule motor, in a yeast-2-hybrid screen. We confirmed
      the interaction using in vitro biochemical assays and determined that binding is
      mediated by the ERR1 ligand-binding/AF2 domain and the KIF17 C-terminal tail.
      Expression of KIF17 tail domain in either ER-negative or ER-positive breast
      cancer epithelial cells attenuated nuclear accumulation of newly synthesized ERR1
      and inhibited ERR1 transcriptional activity. Conversely, ERR1 transcriptional
      activity was elevated significantly in KIF17 knock-out cells. Sequence analysis
      of the KIF17 tail domain revealed it contains a nuclear receptor box with a
      conserved LXXLL motif found in transcriptional co-activators. Expression of a 12
      amino-acid peptide containing this motif was sufficient to inhibit ERR1
      transcriptional activity and cell invasion, while deletion of this region from
      the KIF17 tail resulted in increased ERR1 activity. Together, these data suggest
      KIF17 modifies ERR1 function by two possible, non-exclusive mechanisms: (i) by
      regulating nuclear-cytoplasmic distribution or (ii) by competing with
      transcriptional co-activators for binding to ERR1. Thus targeting the ERR1-KIF17
      interaction has potential as a novel strategy for treating breast cancer.

PMID- 28881569
TI  - Aurora A kinase regulates non-homologous end-joining and poly(ADP-ribose)
      polymerase function in ovarian carcinoma cells.
AB  - Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed at late stages when cancer has spread beyond
      the ovary and patients ultimately succumb to the development of drug-resistant
      disease. There is an urgent and unmet need to develop therapeutic strategies that
      effectively treat ovarian cancer and this requires a better understanding of
      signaling pathways important for ovarian cancer progression. Aurora A kinase
      (AURKA) plays an important role in ovarian cancer progression by mediating
      mitosis and chromosomal instability. In the current study, we investigated the
      role of AURKA in regulating the DNA damage response and DNA repair in ovarian
      carcinoma cells. We discovered that AURKA modulated the expression and activity
      of PARP, a crucial mediator of DNA repair that is a target of therapeutic
      interest for the treatment of ovarian and other cancers. Further, specific
      inhibition of AURKA activity with the small molecule inhibitor, alisertib,
      stimulated the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) repair pathway by elevating DNA
      PKcs activity, a catalytic subunit required for double-strand break (DSB) repair,
      as well as decreased the expression of PARP and BRCA1/2, which are required for
      high-fidelity homologous recombination-based DNA repair. Further, AURKA
      inhibition stimulates error-prone NHEJ repair of DNA double-strand breaks with
      incompatible ends. Consistent with in vitro findings, alisertib treatment
      increased phosphorylated DNA-PKcs(pDNA-PKcsT2609) and decreased PARP levels in
      vivo. Collectively, these results reveal new non-mitotic functions for AURKA in
      the regulation of DNA repair, which may inform of new therapeutic targets and
      strategies for treating ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28881570
TI  - Diagnostic performance of gait speed, G8 and G8 modified indices to screen for
      vulnerability in older cancer patients: the prospective PF-EC cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The diagnostic performance of tools used to screen vulnerability in
      older cancer patients varies widely. We assessed the diagnostic performance of
      gait speed (GS) for assessing vulnerability in such patients. METHODS: All
      consecutive outpatients 65 years and older were referred for geriatric oncology
      assessment (GA) before a therapeutic decision between November 2013 and April
      2016 in a bicentric observational and prospective cohort study. Vulnerability was
      defined as impaired score on at least one of the 6 domains of the GA. GS and the
      G8 index and G8 modified index were assessed at the first geriatric oncology
      visit during the GA. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive
      value and positive and negative likelihood ratio were estimated. The accuracy of
      the three tools was analysed by the area under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: Among 269 included patients (mean [SD] age,
      81.3 years [5.9]; 55% women, 94.4% solid tumors; 39.4% with metastasis), 252
      (93.7%) had impaired GA. With the GS threshold of 1 m/s, sensitivity was 79.4%
      (95% CI, 73.8-84.2), specificity 64.7% (38.3-85.8), and AUC 82.0 (74.0-90.0). The
      corresponding values for the G8 index were 90.1% (85.7-93.5), 35.3% (14.2-61.7),
      and 79.0 (70.0-88.0) and G8 modified index were 89.3% (84.8-92.8), 64.7% (38.3
      85.8), and 84.0 (74.0-92.0). CONCLUSIONS: GS < 1 m/s with a single measure could
      be used as a new screening tool for detecting vulnerability in older cancer
      outpatients. This first external validation of the G8 modified index was very
      good.

PMID- 28881571
TI  - Phospho-AXL is widely expressed in glioblastoma and associated with significant
      shorter overall survival.
AB  - Receptor tyrosine kinase AXL (RTK-AXL) is regarded as a suitable target in
      glioblastoma (GBM) therapy. Since AXL kinase inhibitors are about to get approval
      for clinical use, patients with a potential benefit from therapy targeting AXL
      need to be identified. We therefore assessed the expression pattern of Phospho
      AXL (P-AXL), the biologically active form of AXL, in 90 patients with newly
      diagnosed GBM, which was found to be detectable in 67 patients (corresponding to
      74%). We identified three main P-AXL expression patterns: i) exclusively in the
      tumor vasculature (13%), ii) in areas of hypercellularity (35%), or iii) both, in
      the tumor vasculature and in hypercellular areas of the tumor tissue (52%).
      Pattern iii) is associated with significant decrease in overall survival (Hazard
      ratio 2.349, 95% confidence interval 1.069 to 5.162, *p=0.03). Our data suggest
      that P-AXL may serve as a therapeutic target in the majority of GBM patients.

PMID- 28881572
TI  - A single nucleotide polymorphism in the interferon-gamma gene (IFNG +874 T/A) is
      associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis.
AB  - Interferon-gamma (Interferon gamma, IFNG) is an important cytokine involved in
      providing resistance to mycobacterial diseases. Common variants of IFNG, such as
      IFNG +874 T/A(rs2430561), may be related to tuberculosis susceptibility, but this
      association has not been consistently observed. We performed an updated meta
      analysis to evaluate the association between the IFNG +874 T/A (rs2430561)
      polymorphism and tuberculosis susceptibility. PubMed and SinoMed databases were
      searched up to October 2016, and odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals
      (CI) were used to assess the association strength. Based on search criteria for
      manuscripts reporting tuberculosis susceptibility and its relationship with the
      IFNG +874 T/A(rs2430561)polymorphism, 42 case-control studies from 39 different
      articles were retrieved. Significantly positive, decreased, and protective
      associations were found between the IFNG +874 T/A(rs2430561)polymorphism and
      tuberculosis risk in five genetic models. Moreover, in the stratified subgroup
      analysis, a protective relationship was detected in four different ethnicities
      and sources of the control groups. Furthermore, the IFNG +874
      T/A(rs2430561)polymorphism played an important role in protecting individuals
      from both pulmonary tuberculosis and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Our meta
      analysis suggests that the IFNG +874 T/A(rs2430561)polymorphism is potentially
      associated with tuberculosis susceptibility and may be used as a predictive
      biomarker. Further studies with larger sample sizes and consideration of gene
      environment interactions should be conducted to elucidate the role of IFNG +874
      T/A(rs2430561) polymorphism in tuberculosis susceptibility.

PMID- 28881573
TI  - Histopathological findings of renal tissue induced by oxidative stress due to
      different concentrations of fluoride.
AB  - It has been reported that excessive intake of fluoride can induce renal lesions.
      However, its pathogenesis is still less understood. Therefore, this study was
      conducted to investigate oxidative damage and the relationships between the
      oxidative damage and renal lesions in fluoride-treated mice by using the methods
      of histopathology, biochemistry, flow cytometry and quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). A total of 240 ICR mice were randomly
      divided into four equal groups (sodium fluoride was given orally at the dose of
      0, 12, 24 and 48 mg/kg body weight for 42 days, respectively). We found that
      fluoride in excess of 12 mg/kg induced renal oxidative damage, which was
      characterized by increasing the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      production and contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyls (PC), and
      decreasing the abilities of anti-superoxide anion (ASA) and anti-hydroxyl radical
      (AHR), glutathione (GSH) content, as well as activities and mRNA expression
      levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR)
      and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Concurrently, fluoride caused degeneration
      and necrosis of the tubular cells, renal tubular hyaline casts and glomeruli
      swelling, which were consistent with the alteration of renal function parameters
      including elevated contents of serum creatinine (Cr), serum uric acid (UA), blood
      urea nitrogen (BUN), and the activities of urinary N-acetyl-b-D-glucosaminidase
      (NAG), renal lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and reduced activities of sodium
      potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na+/K+-ATPase) and acid phosphatase (ACP) in
      the kidney. The above-mentioned results showed that fluoride in excess of 12
      mg/kg induced renal oxidative damage, which then caused renal lesions and
      dysfunctions. These findings also clearly demonstrated that oxidative damage is
      one of the mechanisms of fluoride-induced renal lesions and dysfunctions.

PMID- 28881574
TI  - Prevention of colitis-associated cancer by selective targeting of
      immunoproteasome subunit LMP7.
AB  - Chronic inflammation is a well-known risk factor in development of intestinal
      tumorigenesis, although the exact mechanisms underlying development of colitis
      associated cancer (CAC) still remain obscure. The activity and function of
      immunoproteasome has been extensively analyzed in the context of inflammation and
      infectious diseases. Here, we show that the proteasomal immunosubunit LMP7 plays
      an essential role in development of CAC. Mice devoid of LMP7 were resistant to
      chronic inflammation and formation of neoplasia, and developed virtually no
      tumors after AOM/DSS treatment. Our data reveal that LMP7 deficiency resulted in
      reduced expression of pro-tumorigenic chemokines CXCL1, CXCL2 and CXCL3 as well
      as adhesion molecule VCAM-1. As a consequence, an impaired recruitment and
      activity of tumor-infiltrating leukocytes resulting in decreased secretion of
      cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha was observed. Further, the deletion or
      pharmacological inhibition of LMP7 and consequent blockade of NF-kappaB abrogated
      the production of IL-17A, which possesses a strong carcinogenic activity in the
      gut. Moreover, in vivo administration of the selective LMP7 inhibitor ONX-0914
      led to a marked reduction of tumor numbers in wild-type (WT) mice. Collectively,
      we identified the immunoproteasome as a crucial mediator of inflammation-driven
      neoplasia highlighting a novel potential therapeutic approach to limit colonic
      tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28881575
TI  - Overexpression of C16orf74 is involved in aggressive pancreatic cancers.
AB  - Clinical outcome of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has not been improved
      in the last three decades due to the lack of effective molecular-targeted drugs.
      To identify a novel therapeutic target for PDAC, we have performed genome-wide
      anamysis and found that Homo sapienschromosome 16 open reading frame 74
      (C16orf74) was up-regulated in the vast majority of PDAC. Overexpression of
      C16orf74protein detected by immunohistochemical analysis was an independent
      prognostic factor for patients with PDAC. The knockdown of endogenous C16orf74
      expression in the PDAC cell lines KLM-1 and PK-59 by vector-based small hairpin
      RNA (shRNA) drastically attenuated the growth of those cells, whereas ectopic
      C16orf74 overexpression in HEK293T and NIH3T3 cells promoted cell growth and
      invasion, respectively. More importantly, the endogenous threonine 44 (T44)
      phosphorylated form of C16orf74 interacted with the protein phosphatase 3
      catalytic subunit alpha (PPP3CA) via the PDIIIT sequence in the PPP3CA-binding
      motif within the middle portion of C16orf74 in PDAC cells. The overexpression of
      mutants of C16orf74 lacking the PDIIIT sequence or T44 phosphorylation resulted
      in the suppression of invasive activity compared with wild-type C16orf74,
      indicating that their interaction should be indispensable for PDAC cell invasion.
      These results suggest that C16orf74 plays an important role for PDAC invasion and
      proliferation, and is a promising target for a specific treatment for patients
      with PDAC.

PMID- 28881576
TI  - Inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling in PI3KR2-overexpressing colon cancer stem
      cells reduces tumor growth due to apoptosis.
AB  - In sporadic colon cancer, colon cancer stem cells (CCSCs) initiate tumorigenesis
      and may contribute to late disease recurrences and metastases. We previously
      showed that aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity (as indicated by the
      ALDEFLUOR(r) assay) is an effective marker for highly enriching CCSCs for further
      evaluation. Here, we used comparative transcriptome and proteome approaches to
      identify signaling pathways overrepresented in the CCSC population. We found
      overexpression of several components of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase
      (PI3K)/Akt/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, including
      PI3KR2, a regulatory subunit of PI3K. LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, defined the
      contribution of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in CCSCs. LY294002-treated
      CCSCs showed decreases in proliferation, sphere formation and self-renewal, in
      phosphorylation-dependent activation of Akt, and in expression of cyclin D1.
      Inhibition of PI3K in vivo reduced tumorigenicity, increased detection of cleaved
      caspase 3, an indicator of apoptosis, and elevated expression of the inflammatory
      chemokine, CXCL8. Collectively, these results indicate that PI3K/Akt/mTOR
      signaling controls CCSC proliferation and CCSC survival, and suggests that it
      would be useful to develop therapeutic agents that target this signaling pathway.

PMID- 28881577
TI  - A comprehensively characterized cell line panel highly representative of clinical
      ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas.
AB  - Recent literature suggests that most widely used ovarian cancer (OVCA) cell
      models do not recapitulate the molecular features of clinical tumors. To address
      this limitation, we generated 18 cell lines and 3 corresponding patient-derived
      xenografts predominantly from high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSOC) peritoneal
      effusions. Comprehensive genomic characterization and comparison of each model to
      its parental tumor demonstrated a high degree of molecular similarity. Our
      characterization included whole exome-sequencing and copy number profiling for
      cell lines, xenografts, and matched non-malignant tissues, and DNA methylation,
      gene expression, and spectral karyotyping for a subset of specimens. Compared to
      the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), our models more closely resembled HGSOC than any
      other tumor type, justifying their validity as OVCA models. Our meticulously
      characterized models provide a crucial resource for the OVCA research community
      that will advance translational findings and ultimately lead to clinical
      applications.

PMID- 28881578
TI  - The establishment of a growth-controllable orthotopic bladder cancer model
      through the down-regulation of c-myc expression.
AB  - To properly evaluate the biological effects of immunotherapy, it is critical to
      utilize a model of cancer in immune-competent mice. Currently, MBT-2 is the most
      common murine bladder cancer cell line used in orthotopic bladder cancer models,
      even though this cell type often has an inappropriate genetic mutation landscape.
      In these models, after tumors are detected with in vivo imaging, the mouse
      usually dies within two to three weeks due to post-renal azotemia caused by the
      rapidly growing mass. This event prohibits the evaluation of tumor behavior upon
      intravesical drug treatment. We explored whether an shRNA-induced decrease in the
      expression of the c-myc oncogene in MBT-2 cells could slow down their in vitro
      proliferation and in vivo tumor growth. We transduced MBT-2 cells with shRNA
      lentiviruses that bound c-myc, established MBT2.cMYCshRNA and confirmed the
      retardation of the growth of tumors implanted in C3H/He mice. Accordingly, this
      study suggests that this novel orthotopic bladder cancer model in immune
      competent mice may be more appropriate for the analysis of the effects of the
      intravesical instillation of immunotherapeutic agents.

PMID- 28881579
TI  - Methylation of HPV and a tumor suppressor gene reveals anal cancer and precursor
      lesions.
AB  - We studied DNA methylation patterns of human papillomavirus (HPV) and tumor
      suppressor gene EPB41L3 in 148 anal and perianal biopsies to determine whether
      high levels of methylation would be associated with anal intraepithelial
      neoplasia (AIN). The most prevalent HPV type was HPV16, detected in 54% of the 30
      benign biopsies, 33% of the 43 low-grade AIN (lgAIN), 82% of the 59 high grade
      AIN (hgAIN) and 4 of the 5 anal cancers. A methylation score was developed
      (0.561*HPV16me+0.439*EPB41L3) which had increasing values with severity of
      disease: the mean was 8.1% in benign, 13.2% in lgAIN, 22.3% in hgAIN and 49.3% in
      cancers (p < 0.0001). The methylation score as a triage classifier at a cut-off
      of 8.8 gave a sensitivity of 90.6% (95% CI: 82.8, 96.9), specificity of 50.7%
      (95% CI: 39.7, 61.6) and area under the curve of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.75-0.89) for
      separating hgAIN and cancer from benign and lgAIN biopsies. We conclude that
      methylation of HPV16 and EPB41L3 show highly significant association with
      increasing severity of AIN and cancer and may be useful as biomarkers in anal
      disease.

PMID- 28881580
TI  - Selective compounds enhance osteoblastic activity by targeting HECT domain of
      ubiquitin ligase Smurf1.
AB  - The HECT-type ubiquitin ligase Smurf1 (Smad ubiquitination regulatory factor-1)
      plays the prominent role in regulation of bone formation, embryonic development,
      and tumorigenesis by directing the ubiquitin-proteasomal degradation of specific
      targets. In contrast with RING-type E3s, the catalytic HECT domain of Smurf1
      firstly binds to and then transfers ubiquitin (Ub) molecules onto the substrates.
      The Smurf1-Ub interaction is required for Smurf1 catalytic ligase activity to
      promote substrate degradation. However, so far specific regulators or compounds
      controlling Smurf1-Ub interaction and the ligase activity have not been
      identified. Here we report two small molecule compounds targeting Ub binding
      region of HECT domain interrupt Smurf1-Ub contact, inhibit Smurf1 ligase activity
      and stabilize BMP signal components Smad1/5 protein level. Furthermore, these
      compounds increase BMP signal responsiveness and enhance osteoblastic activity in
      cultured cells. These findings provide a novel strategy through targeting Smurf1
      ligase activity to potentially treat bone disorders such as osteoporosis.

PMID- 28881581
TI  - A molecular pathology method for sequential fluorescence in situ hybridization
      for multi-gene analysis at the single-cell level.
AB  - Multi-gene detection at the single-cell level is desirable to enable more precise
      genotyping of heterogeneous hematology and oncology samples. This study aimed to
      establish a single-cell multi-gene fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)
      method for use in molecular pathology analyses. Five fluorochromes were used to
      label different FISH gene probes, and 5 genes were detected using a five-color
      FISH protocol. After the first hybridization, the previous FISH probe set was
      stripped, and a second set of five-color FISH probes was used for
      rehybridization. After each hybridization, the fluorescence signals were recorded
      in 6 fluorescence filter channels that included DAPI, Spectrum GreenTM, Cy3TM v1,
      Texas Red, Cy5, and PF-415. A digital automatic relocation procedure was used to
      ensure that exactly the same microscopic field was studied in each stripping and
      hybridization cycle. By using this sequential stripping and rehybridization
      strategy, up to 20 genes can be detected within a single nucleus. In conclusion,
      a practical molecular pathology method was developed for analyzing multiple genes
      at the single-cell level.

PMID- 28881583
TI  - Troy is expressed in human stomach mucosa and a novel putative prognostic marker
      of intestinal type gastric cancer.
AB  - Epithelial stem cells of gastrointestinal tissues are characterized and
      controlled by an active Wnt signaling. Recently, the Wnt target gene Troy has
      been proposed as a neoplastic marker in the murine intestine. In this study, we
      explored the putative tumor biological significance of Troy in humans by using
      immunohistochemistry (104 cases), quantitative RT-PCR (50 cases) and cell culture
      experiments (MKN45, MKN74). In the non-neoplastic gastric mucosa, Troy was
      expressed by Muc5AC-positive foveolar epithelium, parietal cells, chief cells and
      cells of the intestinal metaplasia. In gastric cancer, Troy was found in the
      desmoplastic stroma and tumor cells. The overall staining intensity of the tumor
      cells was lower compared with the adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa, Troy was found
      significantly more commonly in intestinal compared with diffuse type gastric
      cancer (p=0.001) and correlated inversely with tumor grade (p<0.001) and nodal
      spread (p=0.025). In the intestinal type, loss of Troy-expression was associated
      with a significantly worse overall survival (p=0.006). Subsequent cell culture
      experiments showed a Wnt dependent expression of Troy and a reduced colony
      formation ability of Troy-overexpressing MKN45-cells. Our results lead to the
      conjecture that Troy is also a negative regulator of WNT signaling in gastric
      cancer, which affects patient outcome.

PMID- 28881582
TI  - Metformin requires 4E-BPs to induce apoptosis and repress translation of Mcl-1 in
      hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
AB  - Metformin inhibits the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling
      pathway, which is frequently upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      Metformin has also been shown to induce apoptosis in this cancer. Here, we
      investigate whether metformin-induced apoptosis in HCC is mediated by the
      downstream mTORC1 effectors eukaryotic initiation factor 4E and (eIF4E)-binding
      proteins (4E-BPs). Further, we ask whether changes in 4E-BPs activity during
      metformin treatment negatively regulate translation of the anti-apoptotic myeloid
      cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) mRNA. A genetic HCC mouse model was employed to assess
      the ability of metformin to reduce tumor formation, induce apoptosis, and control
      4E-BP1 activation and Mcl-1 protein expression. In parallel, the HCC cell line
      Huh7 was transduced with scrambled shRNA (control) or shRNAs targeting 4E-BP1 and
      4E-BP2 (4E-BP knock-down (KD)) to measure differences in mRNA translation,
      apoptosis, and Mcl-1 protein expression after metformin treatment. In addition,
      immunohistochemical staining of eIF4E and 4E-BP1 protein levels was addressed in
      a HCC patient tissue microarray. We found that metformin decreased HCC tumor
      burden, and tumor tissues showed elevated apoptosis with reduced Mcl-1 and
      phosphorylated 4E-BP1 protein levels. In control but not 4E-BP KD Huh7 cells,
      metformin induced apoptosis and repressed Mcl-1 mRNA translation and protein
      levels. Immunostaining of HCC patient tumor tissues revealed a varying ratio of
      eIF4E/4E-BP1 expression. Our results propose that metformin induces apoptosis in
      mouse and cellular models of HCC through activation of 4E-BPs, thus tumors with
      elevated expression of 4E-BPs may display improved clinical chemopreventive
      benefit of metformin.

PMID- 28881584
TI  - Dimerization of EGFR and HER2 induces breast cancer cell motility through STAT1
      dependent ACTA2 induction.
AB  - The dimerization of EGFR and HER2 is associated with poor prognosis such as
      induction of tumor growth and cell invasion compared to when EGFR remains as a
      homodimer. However, the mechanism for events after dimerization in breast cancer
      models is not clear. We found that expressions of alpha-smooth muscle actin
      (ACTA2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1)
      significantly increased with transient or stable overexpression of HER2 in EGFR
      positive breast cancer cells. ACTA2 and STAT1 expression was also increased in
      HER2-positive breast cancer patients. In contrast, ACTA2 expression was decreased
      by HER2 siRNA. Next, we investigated the co-relation between STAT1 and ACTA2
      expression. Basal ACTA2 expression was significantly decreased by treatment with
      the STAT1 inhibitor fludarabine or the JAK2 inhibitor AG490. In contrast, ACTA2
      expression was increased by STAT1 overexpression. Levels of ACTA2, STAT1, and
      HER2 were increased and relapse free survival was decreased in high-risk breast
      cancer patients. We also investigated the effect of ACTA2 on cell motility, which
      was suppressed by ACTA2 shRNA overexpression in MDA-MB231 HER2 and 4T1 mammary
      carcinoma cells. The number of lung metastatic nodules was significantly
      decreased in ACTA2 knockdown mice. Taken together, these results demonstrated
      that induction of ACTA2 by EGFR and HER2 dimerization was regulated through a
      JAK2/STAT1 signaling pathway, and aberrant ACTA2 expression accelerated the
      invasiveness and metastasis of breast cancer cells.

PMID- 28881585
TI  - C/EBP-delta positively regulates MDSC expansion and endothelial VEGFR2 expression
      in tumor development.
AB  - Vascular endothelial cells and Gr-1+CD11b+ myeloid derived suppressor cells
      (MDSCs) are two important components that constitute the tumor microenvironment.
      Targeting these cells offers the potential to halt tumor growth. In this study,
      we report a common mediator in C/EBP-delta that regulates both components and
      aids in tumor development. C/EBP-delta is elevated in tumor derived MDSCs.
      Interestingly, genetic deletion of C/EBP-delta in mice significantly impaired
      MDSC expansion in response to tumor progression, but it had no effect on Gr
      1+CD11b+ cell production in normal development. It suggests a specific role of
      C/EBP-delta in emergency myelopoiesis under tumor conditions. Consistent with the
      pro tumor functions of MDSCs, loss of C/EBP-delta resulted in reduced tumor
      angiogenesis and tumor growth. Moreover, we found expression of C/EBP-delta in
      vascular endothelial cells. C/EBP-delta regulated cell motility, endothelial
      network formation and vascular sprouting. Notably, inactivation of C/EBP-delta in
      endothelial cells specifically inhibited the expression of VEGFR2 but not VEGFR1.
      Ectopic expression of C/EBP-delta increased and knockdown of the gene decreased
      VEGFR2 expression. C/EBP-delta is recruited to the promoter region of VEGFR2,
      indicative of transcriptional regulation. Collectively, this study has identified
      a positive mediator in C/EBP-delta, which regulates tumor induced MDSC expansion
      and VEGFR2 expression in endothelium. Considering the importance of MDSCs and
      endothelial cells in tumor progression, targeting C/EBP-delta may provide an
      interesting means for cancer therapy, killing two birds with one stone.

PMID- 28881586
TI  - Identification of KANSARL as the first cancer predisposition fusion gene specific
      to the population of European ancestry origin.
AB  - Gene fusion is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Recent advances in RNA-seq of
      cancer transcriptomes have facilitated the discovery of fusion transcripts. In
      this study, we report identification of a surprisingly large number of fusion
      transcripts, including six KANSARL (KANSL1-ARL17A) transcripts that resulted from
      the fusion between the KANSL1 and ARL17A genes using a RNA splicingcode model.
      Five of these six KANSARL fusion transcripts are novel. By systematic analysis of
      RNA-seq data of glioblastoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and
      lymphoma from different regions of the World, we have found that KANSARL fusion
      transcripts were rarely detected in the tumors of individuals from Asia or
      Africa. In contrast, they exist in 30 - 52% of the tumors from North Americans
      cancer patients. Analysis of CEPH/Utah Pedigree 1463 has revealed that KANSARL is
      a familially-inherited fusion gene. Further analysis of RNA-seq datasets of the
      1000 Genome Project has indicated that KANSARL fusion gene is specific to 28.9%
      of the population of European ancestry origin. In summary, we demonstrated that
      KANSARL is the first cancer predisposition fusion gene associated with genetic
      backgrounds of European ancestry origin.

PMID- 28881587
TI  - MGMT and CALCA promoter methylation are associated with poor prognosis in
      testicular germ cell tumor patients.
AB  - Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) represent the second main cause of cancer
      related death in young men. Despite high cure rates, refractory disease results
      in poor prognosis. Epigenetic reprogramming occurs during the development of
      seminomas and non-seminomas. Understanding the molecular and genetic basis of
      these tumors would represent an important advance in the search for new TGCT
      molecular markers. Hence the frequency of methylation of a gene panel (VGF, MGMT,
      ADAMTS1, CALCA, HOXA9, CDKN2B, CDO1 and NANOG) was evaluated in 72 primary TGCT
      by quantitative methylation specific PCR. A high frequency of MGMT (90.9%, 20/22;
      p=0.019) and CALCA (90.5%, 19/21; p<0.026) methylation was associated with non
      seminomatous tumors while CALCA methylation was also associated with refractory
      disease (47.4%, 09/19; p=0.005). Moreover, promoter methylation of both genes
      predicts poor clinical outcome for TGCT patients (5-year EFS: 50.5% vs 77.1%;
      p=0.032 for MGMT and 51.3% vs 77.0%; p=0.029 for CALCA). The findings of this
      study indicate that methylation of MGMT and CALCA are frequent and could be used
      as new molecular markers of prognosis in TGCT.

PMID- 28881588
TI  - Experimental study of brachial plexus and vessel compression: evaluation of
      combined central and peripheral electrodiagnostic approach.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We sought to investigate the reliability of a new electrodiagnostic
      method for identifying Electrodiagnosis of Brachial Plexus & Vessel Compression
      Syndrome (BPVCS) in rats that involves the application of transcranial electrical
      stimulation motor evoked potentials (TES-MEPs) combined with peripheral nerve
      stimulation compound muscle action potentials (PNS-CMAPs). RESULTS: The latencies
      of the TES-MEP and PNS-CMAP were initially elongated in the 8-week group. The
      amplitudes of TES-MEP and PNS-CMAP were initially attenuated in the 16-week
      group. The isolateral amplitude ratio of the TES-MEP to the PNS-CMAP was
      apparently decreased, and spontaneous activities emerged at 16 weeks
      postoperatively. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Superior and inferior trunk models of
      BPVCS were created in 72 male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats that were divided into six
      experimental groups. The latencies, amplitudes and isolateral amplitude ratios of
      the TES-MEPs and PNS-CMAPs were recorded at different postoperative intervals.
      CONCLUSIONS: Electrophysiological and histological examinations of the rats'
      compressed brachial plexus nerves were utilized to establish preliminary
      electrodiagnostic criteria for BPVCS.

PMID- 28881589
TI  - Decreased calpain activity in chronic myeloid leukemia impairs apoptosis by
      increasing survivin in myeloid progenitors and xiap1 in differentiating
      granulocytes.
AB  - Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is characterized by translocations between
      chromosomes 9 and 22, resulting in expression of Bcr-abl oncogenes. Although the
      clinical course of CML was revolutionized by development of Bcr-abl-directed
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), CML is not cured by these agents.
      Specifically, the majority of subjects relapsed in clinical trials attempting TKI
      discontinuation, suggesting persistence of leukemia stem cells (LSCs) even in
      molecular remission. Identifying mechanisms of CML-LSC persistence may suggest
      rationale therapeutic targets to augment TKI efficacy and lead to cure. Apoptosis
      resistance is one proposed mechanism. In prior studies, we identified increased
      expression of Growth Arrest Specific 2 (Gas2; a Calpain inhibitor) in Bcr-abl+
      bone marrow progenitor cells. A number of previously described Calpain substrates
      might influence apoptosis in CML, including betacatenin and the X-linked
      Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein 1 (Xiap1). We previously found Gas2/Calpain
      dependent stabilization of betacatenin in CML, and increased expression of
      betacatenin target genes, including Survivin (also an IAP). In the current work,
      we investigate contributions of Survivin and Xiap1 to Fas-resistance in Bcr-abl+
      bone marrow cells. Inhibitors of these proteins are currently in clinical trials
      for other malignancies, but a role for either IAP in CML-LSC persistence is
      unknown.

PMID- 28881590
TI  - Upregulation of microRNA-125b by G-CSF promotes metastasis in colorectal cancer.
AB  - Although there are reports of miR-125b being dysregulated in colorectal cancer
      (CRC) and associated with CRC progression, little is known about its intrinsic
      regulatory mechanisms. Here we detected the expression of miR-125b in CRC
      tissues, subsequently investigated the effect of miR-125b on the proliferation,
      apoptosis, cell cycle and metastasis on CRC cells. Our results showed that the
      expression of miR-125b was significantly decreased in CRC tissues comparing to
      adjacent tissues. However, with the stimulation of Granulocyte colony-stimulating
      factor (G-CSF), which was highly expressed in CRC tissues, the expression of miR
      125b could be improved. Analysis of patient samples revealed that miR-125b
      presented a clear association with poor differentiation, positive lymph node
      metastasis, and advanced TNM stage. Overexpression of miR-125b inhibited cell
      proliferation, triggered G2/M cell cycle arrest, induced subsequent apoptosis,
      and promoted cell migration and invasion. Moreover, luciferase reporter assays
      and western blot clarified that the myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1) was a direct
      target of miR-125b. Thus overexpression of MCL1 attenuated the pro-metastasis
      function of miR-125b in CRC cell lines. In addition, the protein expression level
      of MCL1 was decreased in CRC tissues from patients with positive lymph node
      metastasis, which had high miR-125b expression. Collectively, our study suggested
      that miR-125b induced by G-CSF plays a promoting role in the metastasis of CRC by
      targeting MCL1, which may serve as a novel therapeutic target for CRC metastasis.

PMID- 28881591
TI  - Usp5 functions as an oncogene for stimulating tumorigenesis in hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - As deubiquitinases, several ubiquitin specific protease members have been
      reported to mediate tumorigenesis. Although ubiquitin specific protease 5 (Usp5)
      was previously demonstrated to suppress p53 transcriptional activity and DNA
      repair, its role in carcinogenesis remains elusive. In this study, we sought to
      define a novel role of Usp5 in tumorigenesis. It was found that Usp5 was
      significantly upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and most
      clinical specimens. Further functional investigation also showed that Usp5
      knockdown suppressed cell proliferation, migration, drug resistance and induced
      apoptosis; on the other hand, Usp5 overexpression promoted colony formation,
      migration, drug resistance and tumorigenesis. Additionally, the inactivated
      p14ARF-p53 signaling was observed in Usp5 overexpressed HCC cells, while this
      signaling was activated by Usp5 knockdown. Therefore, our data demonstrated that
      Usp5 contributed to hepatocarcinogenesis by acting as an oncogene, which provides
      new insights into the pathogenesis of HCC and explores a promising molecular
      target for HCC diagnosis and therapy.

PMID- 28881592
TI  - Associations between LMO1 gene polymorphisms and Wilms' tumor susceptibility.
AB  - Wilms' tumor is the most common childhood renal malignancy. A genome-wide
      association study identified LIM domain only 1 (LMO1) as having oncogenic
      potential. We examined the associations between LMO1 gene polymorphisms and
      susceptibility to Wilms' tumor. In this hospital-based, case-control study, we
      recruited 145 children with Wilms' tumor and 531 cancer-free children. Four
      polymorphisms (rs110419 A>G, rs4758051 G>A, rs10840002 A>G and rs204938 A>G) were
      genotyped using Taqman methodology. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were calculated to measure the associations between selected
      polymorphisms and Wilms' tumor susceptibility. Only rs110419 AG was found to be
      protective against Wilms' tumor (adjusted OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.41-0.94, P =
      0.024) when compared to rs110419 AA. Wilms' tumor risk was markedly greater in
      children with 1-4 risk genotypes (nucleotide alterations) than in those with no
      risk genotypes (adjusted OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.25-2.69, P = 0.002). In a
      stratified analysis, the protective effect of rs110419 AG/GG was predominant in
      males. The association of 1-4 risk genotypes with Wilms' tumor risk was limited
      to subgroups of children who were >18 months old, female, and in clinical stages
      III+IV. Thus, LMO1 gene polymorphisms may contribute to Wilms' tumor risk, but
      this conclusion should be validated in other populations and larger studies.

PMID- 28881593
TI  - Association of genetic polymorphisms in IL-1R1 and IL-1R2 genes with IgA
      nephropathy in the Han Chinese population.
AB  - AIM: IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the major cause of end-stage renal disease(ESRD)
      in Asia and its pathogenesis is influenced by both genetic and environmental
      factors. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL1R1 and IL-1R2 may be
      associated with susceptibility to IgAN. In this study, we study the association
      between genetic variants of IL-1R1 and IL-1R2 and IgA nephropathy risk in the
      Chinese Han population. RESULT: In the allelic model analysis, the rs10490571 and
      rs3917225 were associated with a 1.40-fold, and 1.31-fold increased risk of IgA
      nephropathy, respectively. In the genetic model analysis, the rs10490571 in IL1R1
      was associated with a 1.46-fold increased risk of IgAN in the dominant model and
      1.36-fold increased risk in the Log-additive model, respectively. However, the
      rs3218977 in IL1R2 was associated with a 0.71-fold decrease risk of IgAN in the
      dominant model and a 0.71-fold decrease risk in the over-dominant model,
      respectively. We found four SNPs (rs11674595, rs4851521, rs719250, and rs3218896)
      constructed four haplotypes in the IL1R2 gene and none of the haplotype was
      significantly associated with risk of IgAN. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A case-control
      study was conducted including 426 nephropathy patients and 463 healthy controls.
      Chi-squared tests and genetic model were used to evaluate associations.
      >CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that IL-1R1 and IL-1R2 polymorphisms may
      contribute to the development of IgAN.

PMID- 28881594
TI  - The miR-106a~363Xpcl1 miRNA cluster induces murine T cell lymphoma despite
      transcriptional activation of the p27Kip1 cell cycle inhibitor.
AB  - The miR-106a~363 cluster encodes 6 miRNAs on the X-chromosome which are abundant
      in blood cells and overexpressed in a variety of malignancies. The constituent
      miRNA of miR-106a~363 have functional activities in vitro that are predicted to
      be both oncogenic and tumor suppressive, yet little is known about their
      physiological functions in vivo. Mature miR-106a~363 (Mirc2) miRNAs are processed
      from an intragenic, non-protein encoding gene referred to as Xpcl1 (or Kis2),
      situated at an X-chromosomal locus frequently targeted by retroviruses in murine
      lymphomas. The oncogenic potential of miR-106a~363 Xpcl1 has not been proven, nor
      its potential role in T cell development. We show that miR106a~363 levels
      normally drop at the CD4+/CD8+ double positive (DP) stage of thymocyte
      development. Forced expression of Xpcl1 at this stage impairs thymocyte
      maturation and induces T-cell lymphomas. Surprisingly, miR-106a~363 Xpcl1 also
      induces p27 transcription via Foxo3/4 transcription factors. As a
      haploinsufficient tumor suppressor, elevated p27 is expected to inhibit
      lymphomagenesis. Consistent with this, concurrent p27 Kip1 deletion dramatically
      accelerated lymphomagenesis, indicating that p27 is rate limiting for tumor
      development by Xpcl1. Whereas down-regulation of miR-106a~363 is important for
      normal T cell differentiation and for the prevention of lymphomas, eliminating
      p27 reveals Xpcl1's full oncogenic potential.

PMID- 28881595
TI  - Effects of increased Kindlin-2 expression in bladder cancer stromal fibroblasts.
AB  - Kindlin-2 is a focal adhesion protein highly expressed in bladder cancer stromal
      fibroblasts. We investigated the prognostic significance of Kindlin-2 in bladder
      cancer stromal fibroblasts and evaluated the effects of Kindlin-2 on the
      malignant behaviors of tumor cells. Immunohistochemical staining of 203 paraffin
      embedded bladder cancer tissues showed that Kindlin-2 expression correlated with
      advanced stage, high grade, and relapse of bladder cancer. Kaplan-Meier survival
      analysis demonstrated that patients exhibiting high Kindlin-2 expression had
      shorter survival times than those with low Kindlin-2 expression (p < 0.01).
      Multivariate analysis revealed that high Kindlin-2 expression leads to poor
      prognosis in bladder cancer. Using cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) isolated
      from human bladder cancer tissue, we observed that Kindlin-2 knockdown decreased
      CAFs activation, resulting in decreased expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin
      (alpha-SMA) and the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin. Kindlin-2
      suppression also reduced CAF-induced bladder cancer cell migration and invasion.
      Moreover, we found that Kindlin-2 activates CAFs and promotes the invasiveness of
      bladder cancer cells by stimulating TGF-beta-induced epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition. These results support targeting Kindlin-2 and the corresponding
      activated CAFs in bladder cancer therapy.

PMID- 28881596
TI  - A prediction model for distinguishing lung squamous cell carcinoma from
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Accurate classification of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from adenocarcinoma (AC)
      of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can lead to personalized treatments of lung
      cancer. We aimed to develop a miRNA-based prediction model for differentiating
      SCC from AC in surgical resected tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL)
      samples. Expression levels of seven histological subtype-associated miRNAs were
      determined in 128 snap-frozen surgical lung tumor specimens by using reverse
      transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to develop an optimal panel of
      miRNAs for acutely distinguishing SCC from AC. The biomarkers were validated in
      an independent cohort of 112 FFPE lung tumor tissues, and a cohort of 127 BAL
      specimens by using droplet digital PCR for differentiating SCC from AC. A
      prediction model with two miRNAs (miRs-205-5p and 944) was developed that had
      0.988 area under the curve (AUC) with 96.55% sensitivity and 96.43% specificity
      for differentiating SCC from AC in frozen tissues, and 0.997 AUC with 96.43%
      sensitivity and 96.43% specificity in FFPE specimens. The diagnostic performance
      of the prediction model was reproducibly validated in BAL specimens for
      distinguishing SCC from AC with a higher accuracy compared with cytology (95.69
      vs. 68.10%; P < 0.05). The prediction model might have a clinical value for
      accurately discriminating SCC from AC in both surgical lung tumor tissues and
      liquid cytological specimens.

PMID- 28881597
TI  - TGFbeta and miRNA regulation in familial and sporadic breast cancer.
AB  - The term 'BRCAness' was introduced to identify sporadic malignant tumors sharing
      characteristics similar to those germline BRCA-related. Among all mechanisms
      attributable to BRCA1 expression silencing, a major role has been assigned to
      microRNAs. MicroRNAs role in familial and sporadic breast cancer has been
      explored but few data are available about microRNAs involvement in homologous
      recombination repair control in these breast cancer subgroups. Our aim was to
      seek microRNAs associated to pathways underlying DNA repair dysfunction in breast
      cancer according to a family history of the disease. Affymetrix GeneChip microRNA
      Arrays were used to perform microRNA expression analysis in familial and sporadic
      breast cancer. Pathway enrichment analysis and microRNA target prediction was
      carried out using DIANA miRPath v.3 web-based computational tool and miRWalk v.2
      database. We analyzed an external gene expression dataset (E-GEOD-49481),
      including both familial and sporadic breast cancers. For microRNA validation, an
      independent set of 19 familial and 10 sporadic breast cancers was used.
      Microarray analysis identified a signature of 28 deregulated miRNAs. For our
      validation analyses by real time PCR, we focused on miR-92a-1*, miR-1184 and miR
      943 because associated to TGF-beta signalling pathway, ATM and BRCA1 genes
      expression. Our results highlighted alterations in miR-92a-1*, miR-1184 and miR
      943 expression levels suggesting their involvement in repair of DNA double-strand
      breaks through TGF-beta pathway control.

PMID- 28881598
TI  - TRAIL-R1 as a novel surface marker for circulating giant cell tumor of bone.
AB  - Giant cell tumor of bone (GCT), which frequently occurs in the patients' spine,
      is relatively prevalent in Chinese population. A group of GCT invades into
      vessels and appears to be circulating tumor cells (CTCs) responsible for the
      distal metastasis of the primary tumor. So far the cell surface markers of GCT
      have not been determined. In the current study, we aimed to identify a novel CTC
      marker with higher specificity in GCT. TRAIL-R1+ cells were purified from GCT
      cell lines. The TRAIL-R1+ cells were compared with total GCT cells for tumor
      sphere formation, chemo-resistance, tumor formation in nude mice, and frequency
      of developing distal metastases. We found that TRAIL-R1+ GCT cells appeared to be
      highly enriched for CTCs in GCT. Compared to total GCT cells, TRAIL-R1+ GCT cells
      generated significantly more tumor spheres in culture, were higher chemo
      resistant, and had a higher frequency of being detected in the circulation after
      subcutaneous transplantation as well as development of distal metastases. Thus,
      we conclude that TRAIL-R1+ may be a novel CTC marker in GCT. Selective
      elimination of TRAIL-R1+ GCT cells may improve the current GCT therapy.

PMID- 28881599
TI  - Macrophages promote the progression of premalignant mammary lesions to invasive
      cancer.
AB  - Breast cancer initiation, progression and metastasis rely on a complex interplay
      between tumor cells and their surrounding microenvironment. Infiltrating immune
      cells, including macrophages, promote mammary tumor progression and metastasis;
      however, less is known about the role of macrophages in early stage lesions. In
      this study, we utilized a transplantable p53-null model of early progression to
      characterize the immune cell components of early stage lesions. We show that
      macrophages are recruited to ductal hyperplasias with a high tumor-forming
      potential where they are differentiated and polarized toward a tumor-promoting
      phenotype. These macrophages are a unique subset of macrophages, characterized by
      pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive factors. Macrophage
      ablation studies showed that macrophages are required for both early stage
      progression and primary tumor formation. These studies suggest that therapeutic
      targeting of tumor-promoting macrophages may not only be an effective strategy to
      block tumor progression and metastasis, but may also have critical implications
      for breast cancer prevention.

PMID- 28881600
TI  - Curcumin induces G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of head and neck squamous
      cell carcinoma in vitro and in vivo through ATM/Chk2/p53-dependent pathway.
AB  - Studies have demonstrated that curcumin (CUR) exerts its tumor suppressor
      function in a variety of human cancers including head and neck squamous cell
      carcinoma (HNSCC). However, the exact underlying molecular mechanisms remain
      obscure. Here, we aim to test whether CUR affects ATM/Chk2/p53 signaling pathway,
      leading to the induction of cell cycle arrest, inhibition of angiogenesis of
      HNSCC in vitro and in vivo. To this end, we conducted multiple methods such as
      MTT assay, Invasion assay, Flow cytometry, Western blotting, RT-PCR, and
      transfection to explore the functions and molecular insights of CUR in HNSCC. We
      observed that CUR significantly induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest,
      inhibited angiogenesis in HNSCC. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that CUR
      markedly up-regulated ATM expression and subsequently down-regulated HIF-1alpha
      expression. Blockage of ATM production totally reversed CUR induced cell cycle
      arrest as well as anti-angiogenesis in HNSCC. Moreover, our results demonstrated
      that CUR exerts its antitumor activity through targeting ATM/Chk2/p53 signal
      pathway. In addition, the results of xenograft experiments in mice were highly
      consistent with in vitro studies. Collectively, our findings suggest that
      targeting ATM/Chk2/p53 signal pathway by CUR could be a promising therapeutic
      approach for HNSCC prevention and therapy.

PMID- 28881601
TI  - Identification of a RNA-Seq based prognostic signature with five lncRNAs for lung
      squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) expression profile signature for survival
      assessment in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) are largely inconsistent due to
      distinct detecting approaches and small sample size. Systematic and integrative
      investigation of RNA-Seq based data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) herein
      was performed to determine candidate lncRNAs for prognosis evaluation of LUSC. A
      total of 60483 genes, including 7589 lncRNAs were assessed in a cohort including
      478 LUSC cases with follow-up data. Firstly, 4225 differentially expressed
      lncRNAs were obtained via R packages. Next, univariate and multivariate Cox
      proportional hazards regression revealed that 41 lncRNAs were closely related to
      the survival of LUSC. Finally, lncRNA based prognosis index (PI) could predict
      overall survival of LUSC with high accuracy (AUC = 0.652, CI: 0.598, 0.705), PI =
      expCYP4F26P*betaCYP4F26P+expRP11-108M12.3*betaRP11-108M12.3+expRP11
      38M8.1*betaRP11-38M8.1+expRP11-54H7.4*betaRP11-54H7.4+expZNF503-AS1*betaZNF503
      AS1. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the five-lncRNA signature could act as an
      independent prognostic indicator for LUSC (HR = 2.068, p < 0.001 with univariate
      analysis, HR = 1.928, p = 0.038 with multivariate). Besides, we constructed a
      weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of key lncRNA RP11-54H7.4
      according to the p-value of related genes' weight. This study provides a RNA-Seq
      based prognostic signature with five lncRNAs for further clinical application to
      LUSC patients.

PMID- 28881602
TI  - Correlation between hormone receptor status and depressive symptoms in patients
      with metastatic breast cancer.
AB  - Individual differences in depressive symptoms correlate with morbidity and
      outcomes in breast cancer patients. We evaluated the effect of hormone receptor
      (HR) status on depressive symptoms in 176 women with metastatic breast cancer at
      diagnosis. To assess depression, the women completed Self-Rating Depression Scale
      (SDS) questionnaires at baseline examination (T1), after 4 chemotherapy cycles
      (T2) and after 6 months (T3). At baseline examination, 45/176 (25.6%) patients
      were found to be at high or medium risk for depression (SDS score >=0.6). Among
      these, depression was both prevalent in HR-positive patients and in HR-negative
      patients (64.4% versus 51.4%, P = 0.001). In multivariate model, HR positivity
      and higher depression risk were associated with poorer overall survival (25.0
      months versus 32.0 months, P < 0.05). Patients at high/medium risk of depression
      were treated with the antidepressant agent fluoxetine (N = 23) or no drug (N =
      22). SDS scores in patients treated with fluoxetine were lower after 4
      chemotherapy cycles and after 6 months than in the control group (mean scores:
      T2, 0.61 versus 0.67, P = 0.001; T3, 0.56 versus 0.65, P < 0.001). No difference
      on SDS scores was found between patients with positive or negative HR status
      during fluoxetine treatment. These findings suggest hormone receptor status is
      associated with depressive symptoms in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
      Fluoxetine relieves depressive symptoms in these patients, regardless of hormone
      receptor status.

PMID- 28881603
TI  - PD-1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood cells and its modulation characteristics
      in cancer patients.
AB  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors that block the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway have
      been used to treat a wide variety of cancers. Although results have been
      promising, significant inter-individual and inter-tumor variability has been
      observed. It is believed that better clinical outcome could be achieved if the
      treatment was individually designed based on the functional status of the PD-1/PD
      L1 signaling and the cellular immunity. In this study, we analyzed the mRNA
      expression of PD-1 and other immunomodulatory genes in peripheral blood from
      cancer patients, and immunomodulatory gene expression during radiotherapy and
      immunomodulation therapy with cytokines. Our results show that the PD-1 mRNA
      expression is significantly increased in peripheral blood in cancer patients.
      Anti-cancer treatments can significantly modulate the PD-1 expression, but this
      is largely dependent on the initial immune status. Moreover, the PD-1 expression
      on peripheral lymphocytes can be immunoactivation-derived. These results suggest
      that the regulation and expression pattern of PD-1/PD-L1 signal is complicated
      which will influence the effect of blockade of the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway
      for cancer treatment. Through combined analysis of PD-1, CTLA-4, and other immune
      markers in peripheral blood, we may accurately evaluate the functional status of
      PD-1/PD-L1 signaling and cellular immunity, thereby providing clues for guiding
      anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 treatment.

PMID- 28881604
TI  - Impact of country of birth on genetic testing of metastatic lung adenocarcinomas
      in France: African women exhibit a mutational spectrum more similar to Asians
      than to Caucasians.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited data are available on the prevalence of oncogenic driver
      mutations in Caucasian populations, and especially in Europeans. AIM: To evaluate
      the targetable mutational spectra in unselected patients with lung adenocarcinoma
      in routine clinical practice from several French hospitals, using the same
      molecular platform. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Samples from 2,219 consecutive patients
      with histologically-proven advanced lung adenocarcinoma were centrally analysed
      at a referenced and certified diagnostic platform in order to test for activating
      and resistance mutations in EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, ERBB2 and PI3KCA. Demographic and
      clinical features were retrieved from the medical charts. Multivariate binary
      logistic regression was used to determine the independent predictive factors for
      the occurrence of specific mutations, in the whole study population or in
      selected subgroups. FINDINGS: The overall respective incidence of EGFR, KRAS,
      BRAF, ERBB2 and PI3KCA mutations was 10.5%, 0.9%, 25%, 1.5%, 2.1% and 1.4%, in
      our study sample including 87.4% white Caucasians, 10.8% Africans and 1.8%
      Asians; 60.6% men, 30.7% never smoker (median age: 68.3 years). Ethnicity was an
      independent predictor for EGFR, KRAS and ERBB2 gene abnormalities. In all cases,
      a significantly higher prevalence of targetable EGFR and ERBB2, and a lower
      prevalence of resistance KRAS mutations were observed in African women as
      compared to African men or Caucasians. CONCLUSIONS: In real life conditions of
      routine genetic testing, we have identified subsets of patients with specific
      targetable activating somatic mutations according to ethnicity, who could
      preferentially benefit from anti-EGFR and anti-ERBB2 targeted therapies.

PMID- 28881605
TI  - Low PCA3 expression is a marker of poor differentiation in localized prostate
      tumors: exploratory analysis from 12,076 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) is a prostate cancer diagnostic
      biomarker that has been clinically validated. The limitations of the diagnostic
      role of PCA3 in initial biopsy and the prognostic role are not well established.
      Here, we elucidate the limitations of tissue PCA3 to predict high grade tumors in
      initial biopsy. RESULTS: PCA3 has a bimodal distribution in both biopsy and
      radical prostatectomy (RP) tissues, where low PCA3 expression was significantly
      associated with high grade disease (p<0.001). PCA3 had a poor performance of
      predicting high grade disease in initial biopsy (GS>=8) with 55% sensitivity and
      high false negative rates; 42% of high Gleason (>=8) samples had low PCA3. In RP,
      low PCA3 is associated with adverse pathological features, clinical recurrence
      outcome and greater probability of metastatic progression (p<0.001). MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A total of 1,694 expression profiles from biopsy and 10,382 from RP
      patients with high risk tumors were obtained from the Decipher Genomic Resource
      Information Database (GRIDTM)prostate cancer database. The primary clinical
      endpoint was distant metastasis-free survival for RP and high Gleason grade for
      biopsy. Logistic regression analyses and Cox proportional hazards models were
      used to evaluate the association of PCA3 with clinical variables and risk of
      metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: There is high prevalence of high grade tumors with low
      PCA3 expression in the biopsy setting. Therefore, urologists should be warned
      that using PCA3 as stand-alone test may lead to high rate of under-diagnosis of
      high grade disease in initial biopsy setting.

PMID- 28881606
TI  - GSK1059615 kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells possibly via
      activating mitochondrial programmed necrosis pathway.
AB  - This study tested the anti-head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell
      activity by GSK1059615, a novel PI3K and mTOR dual inhibitor. GSK1059615
      inhibited survival and proliferation of established (SCC-9, SQ20B and A253 lines)
      and primary human HNSCC cells. GSK1059615 blocked PI3K-AKT-mTOR activation in
      HNSCC cells. Intriguingly, GSK1059615 treatment in HNSCC cells failed to provoke
      apoptosis, but induced programmed necrosis. The latter was tested by mitochondria
      depolarization, ANT-1-cyclophilin-D mitochondrial association and lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH) release. Reversely, mPTP blockers (sanglifehrin A,
      cyclosporin A and bongkrekic acid) or cyclophilin-D shRNA dramatically alleviated
      GSK1059615-induced SCC-9 cell death. Further studies demonstrated that GSK1059615
      i.p. injection suppressed SCC-9 tumor growth in nude mice, which was compromised
      with co-administration with cyclosporin A. Thus, targeting PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway
      by GSK1059615 possibly provokes programmed necrosis pathway to kill HNSCC cells.

PMID- 28881607
TI  - Lack of association between the pancreatitis risk allele CEL-HYB and pancreatic
      cancer.
AB  - CEL-HYB is a hybrid allele that arose from a crossover between the 3' end of the
      Carboxyl ester lipase (CEL) gene and the nearby CEL pseudogene (CELP) and was
      recently identified as a risk factor for chronic pancreatitis. Since chronic
      pancreatitis is a risk factor for the development of pancreatic cancer, we
      compared the prevalence of the CEL-HYB allele in patients with pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma to spousal controls and disease controls. The CEL-HYB allele was
      detected using Sanger and next generation sequencing. There was no significant
      difference in the prevalence of the CEL-HYB allele between cases with pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma compared to controls; 2.6% (22/850) vs. 1.8% (18/976)
      (p=0.35). CEL-HYB carriers were not more likely to report a history of
      pancreatitis. Patients with pancreatic cancer are not more likely than controls
      to be carriers of the CEL-HYB allele.

PMID- 28881608
TI  - Anti-tumor efficacy of theliatinib in esophageal cancer patient-derived
      xenografts models with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression and
      gene amplification.
AB  - Targeted therapy is not yet approved for esophageal cancer (EC). In this study,
      we first evaluated EGFR gene and protein expression in 70 Chinese EC patient
      tumor samples collected during surgery. We then established 23 patient-derived EC
      xenograft (PDECX) models and assessed the efficacy of theliatinib, a potent and
      highly selective EGFR inhibitor currently in Phase I clinical study, in 9 PDECX
      models exhibiting various EGFR expression levels. Immunohistochemical analysis
      showed that 50 patient tumor samples (71.4%) had high EGFR expression.
      Quantitative PCR showed that eight tumors (11.6%) had EGFR gene copy number gain,
      and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) revealed that four tumors had EGFR
      gene amplification. These results suggest that EGFR protein may be overexpressed
      in many EC tumors without gene amplification. Also detected were rare hot-spot
      mutations in EGFR and PIK3CA, whereas no mutations were found in K-Ras or B-Raf.
      Theliatinib exhibited strong antitumor activity in PDECX models with high EGFR
      expression, including remarkable tumor regression in two PDECX models with both
      EGFR gene amplification and protein overexpression. However, the efficacy of
      theliatinib was diminished in models with PI3KCA mutations or FGFR1
      overexpression in addition to high EGFR expression. This study demonstrates that
      theliatinib could potentially benefit EC patients with high EGFR protein
      expression without mutations or aberrant activities of associated factors, such
      as PI3KCA or FGFR1.

PMID- 28881609
TI  - Grape seed extracts modify the outcome of oxaliplatin in colon cancer cells by
      interfering with cellular mechanisms of drug cytotoxicity.
AB  - Grape seed extracts are commonly utilized as dietary supplements for their
      antioxidant properties, even from cancer patients. However, whether these natural
      extracts interfere with chemotherapeutics utilized in colon cancer treatment is
      still poorly investigated. The cytotoxicity of extracts from Italia and Palieri
      cultivars either alone or in combination with oxaliplatin was evaluated in colon
      cancer cells. Grape seed extracts displayed anti-proliferative activity depending
      on the concentration utilized through apoptosis induction. In combination, they
      affected the activation of Erk1/2 and counteracted the intrinsic and the
      extrinsic pathway of apoptosis, the DNA damage and the generation of ROS induced
      by oxaliplatin. Noteworthy grape seed extracts strongly enhanced the uptake of
      oxaliplatin into all cells, by affecting the cell transport system of platinum.
      The addition of these natural extracts to oxaliplatin strongly reduced the
      cellular response to oxaliplatin and allowed a huge accumulation of platinum into
      cells. Here, we shed light on the chemical biology underlying the combination of
      grape seed extracts and oxaliplatin, demonstrating that they might be detrimental
      to oxaliplatin effectiveness in colon cancer therapy.

PMID- 28881610
TI  - Association between rs2853669 in TERT gene and the risk and prognosis of human
      cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - The polymorphism rs2853669 within the promoter of telomerase reverse
      transcriptase gene (TERTp) has been debated about its role in cancer risk and
      prognosis. Additionally, several studies report inconsistent results concerning
      the modifying effect of rs2853669 on the prognostic value of TERTp mutations in
      cancer patients. Here, we performed this meta-analysis to comprehensively
      evaluate the role of rs2853669 in the risk and prognosis of human cancer, and
      further assess its modifying impact on TERTp mutations in the survival of cancer
      patients. We systematically searched literature via PubMed, Web of Science, and
      EMBASE through July 2016, and included 22 eligible studies. The overall analysis
      (64,119 cases and 78,988 controls) demonstrated that rs2853669 did not increase
      or decrease the overall cancer risk. Subsequent analyses also did not reveal any
      association between rs2853669 and overall cancer prognosis. However, we
      identified a modifying effect of rs2853669 on TERTp mutations in that, among
      cancer patients with TERTp mutations, only those carrying the TT genotype had a
      poor survival (Hazard ratio = 1.56, 95% confidence interval = 1.06-2.28);
      subgroup analyses by cancer type also supported these results. In conclusion, our
      findings suggest that rs2853669 could be important for assessing the prognostic
      value of TERTp mutations. Future large studies are required to further validate
      our results.

PMID- 28881611
TI  - Inhibition and deficiency of the immunoproteasome subunit LMP7 suppress the
      development and progression of colorectal carcinoma in mice.
AB  - New treatment options and drug targets for colorectal carcinoma are a pressing
      medical need. Inflammation and pro-inflammatory cytokines produced by Th1 and
      Th17 cells like IL-6, TNF, IL-17 and IL-23 promote the development and growth of
      colorectal cancer (CRC). The immunoproteasome is a proteasome subtype highly
      expressed in immune cells but also in the intestine. Since the immunoproteasome
      promotes Th1 and Th17 differentiation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production,
      we investigated here whether deficiency or inhibition of the immunoproteasome
      subunit LMP7 would interfere with CRC development and exacerbation in preventive
      and therapeutic mouse models. Treatment with the LMP7 inhibitor ONX 0914 blocked
      tumor initiation and progression in either chemically-induced (AOM/DSS) or
      transgenic mouse models (ApcMin/+) of colon carcinogenesis. ONX 0914 treatment
      strongly reduced tumor numbers and CRC-associated loss of body weight while the
      survival rates were significantly enhanced. Moreover, genetic LMP7 deficiency
      markedly reduced the tumor burden in AOM/DSS induced wild type and ApcMin/+ mice.
      In conclusion, we show that the immunoproteasome is involved in CRC development
      and progression and we identify LMP7 as a new potential drug target for the
      treatment of CRC.

PMID- 28881612
TI  - The B-box module of CYLD is responsible for its intermolecular interaction and
      cytoplasmic localization.
AB  - The tumor suppressor protein cylindromatosis (CYLD), as a microtubule-associated
      deubiquitinase, plays a pivotal role in a wide range of cellular activities,
      including innate immunity, cell division, and ciliogenesis. Structural
      characterization reveals a small zinc-binding B-box inserted within the ubiquitin
      specific protease (USP) domain of CYLD; however, the exact role for this module
      remains yet to be elucidated. Here we identify a critical role for the B-box in
      facilitating the intermolecular interaction and subcellular localization of CYLD.
      By co-immunoprecipitation assays we uncover that CYLD has the ability to form an
      intermolecular complex. Native gel electrophoresis analysis and pull down assays
      show that the USP domain of CYLD is essential for its intermolecular interaction.
      Further investigation reveals that deletion of the B-box from the USP domain
      disrupts the intermolecular interaction of CYLD. Importantly, although loss of
      the B-box has no obvious effect on the deubiquitinase activity of CYLD, it
      abolishes the USP domain-mediated retention of CYLD in the cytoplasm.
      Collectively, these data demonstrate an important role for the B-box module of
      CYLD in mediating its assembly and subcellular distribution, which might be
      related to the functions of CYLD in various biological processes.

PMID- 28881613
TI  - LGR5 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis through inducting epithelial
      mesenchymal transition.
AB  - The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prognostic value of
      Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) in
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its role in promoting HCC metastasis. The
      expression level of LGR5 in liver tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues
      were detected adopting immunohistochemistry (IHC), real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and
      western blot assays. Chi-square test was used to evaluate the correlation between
      LGR5 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. In addition, we assessed
      the relationship between LGR5 and two epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)
      markers (E-cadherin and N-cadherin) in HCC tissues and cell lines. Our results
      showed that the expression of LGR5 was significantly higher in liver tumor
      tissues than in adjacent non-tumor tissues. Moreover, up-regulated LGR5 was
      associated with larger tumor diameter (>5cm, P=0.001), higher TNM stage
      (P=0.021), increased recurrence (P=0.023) and growing metastasis (P=0.030).
      Besides, we found that the expression level of LGR5 was correlated with E
      cadherin and N-cadherin. In conclusion, up-regulated LGR5 in HCC patients is
      associated with malignant clinicopathological characteristics. LGR5 may promote
      HCC metastasis through inducting EMT process, and thus can be regarded as a
      candidate biomarker for prognosis and as a target in therapy.

PMID- 28881614
TI  - Autophagy deactivation is associated with severe prostatic inflammation in
      patients with lower urinary tract symptoms and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
AB  - Autophagy is a conserved evolutionary process that allows cells to maintain
      macromolecular synthesis and energy homeostasis during starvation and stressful
      conditions. We prospectively evaluated the relationship between autophagy and
      prostatic inflammation in a series of transurethral prostatic resection samples.
      Inflammatory infiltrates were defined according to the standardized
      classification of chronic prostatitis of the National Institute of Health. The
      inflammatory score (IS score) was calculated. High IS score was defined as >=7.
      Each sample was stained for anti-LC3B and for anti-P62/SQSTM1 and scored. High
      p62 or LC3B percentage was defined as >25%, whereas low was defined as <25% of
      cells with dots. We analyzed 94 specimens. Overall, 18/94 (19%) showed no sign of
      prostatic inflammation, whereas 76/94 (81%) presented inflammatory infiltrates.
      Inflammation was mild in 61/76 (80%), moderate/severe in 15/76 (20%). Patients
      with high p62 percentage were 62/94 (66%) while 32 (34%) showed low p62
      percentage. Patients with high LC3B percentage were 37/94 (39%) while 57(61%)
      showed low LC3B percentage. Overall 42/94 (44%) patients presented a high p62
      percentage and concomitant a low LC3B percentage. IS score was significantly
      higher in patients with a with high p62 percentage (median IS 7 (6/8) vs 5 (3/7);
      p= 0.04) and in patients with a low LC3B percentage (median IS 7 (6/8) vs 5
      (3/7); p= 0.004) when compared to patients with a low p62 percentage or a high
      LC3B percentage respectively. On multivariate analysis, p62 (OR: 10.1, 95%CI: 2.6
      38.6; p= 0,001) and LC3B expression (OR: 0.319; 95%CI: 0.112-0.907; p= 0.032)
      were independent predictors of a high IS. Here we present the first evidence of
      autophagy deregulation in prostatic inflammation. These results raise many
      questions about the mechanisms mediating the autophagy dysfunction and the links
      to prostatic inflammation that need to be addressed.

PMID- 28881615
TI  - Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) promotes gastric cell proliferation via sPLA2-IIA.
AB  - The association of perfluorodecanoicacid (PFDA) with tumor promotion and
      associated effects is not clear. Given that PDFA is mostly consumed with food and
      drinking water, we evaluated the effects of PFDA on a gastric cell line. When
      added to cell cultures, PFDA significantly increased growth rate and colony
      forming ability compared with control treatment. We found that suppression of
      cell senescence, but not apoptosis or autophagy was associated with PFDA-induced
      promotion of cell amount. To determine the molecular mechanism that was involved,
      DNA microarray assays was used to analyze changes in gene expression in response
      to PFDA treatment. Data analysis demonstrated that the vascular endothelial
      growth factor signaling pathway had the lowest p-value, with sPLA2-IIA (pla2g2a)
      exhibits the most altered expression pattern within the pathway. Moreover, sPLA2
      IIA and its transcription factor TCF4, known as a direct target and a binding
      partner of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in gastric cells respectively, were the
      third and second most varied genes globally. Cells transfected with expression
      plasmids pENTER-tcf4 and pENTER-pla2g2a show reduced cell proliferation by more
      than 60% and 30% respectively. Knockdown with sPLA2-IIA siRNA provided additional
      evidence that sPLA2-IIA was a mediator of PFDA-induced cell senescence
      suppression. The results suggest for the first time that PFDA induced suppression
      of cell senescence through inhibition of sPLA2-IIA protein expression and might
      increased the proliferative capacity of an existing tumor.

PMID- 28881616
TI  - Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment of lactacystin-induced
      Parkinsonian rat model.
AB  - The dysfunction of ubiquitin-proteasome system is an important pathogenesis in
      the neurodegenerative process of Parkinson's disease. Repetitive transcranial
      magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive and potential method in treating
      Parkinson's disease. To investigate whether rTMS has neuroprotective effects in
      parkinsonian rat model induced by ubiquitin-proteasome system impairment, we gave
      rTMS daily for 4 weeks to proteasome inhibitor, lactacystin-induced parkinsonian
      rat model. Rotational behavior test demonstrated that rTMS obviously reduced
      apomorphine-induced turning number in parkinsonian rats. rTMS could significantly
      alleviate the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive dopaminergic neurons in
      lactacystin-lesioned substantia nigra and prevent the loss of striatal dopamine
      levels. Furthermore, rTMS also reduced the levels of apoptotic protein (cleaved
      caspase-3) and inflammatory factors (cyclooxygenase-2 and tumor necrosis factor
      alpha) in lesioned substantia nigra. These results suggest that rTMS can protect
      nigral dopaminergic neurons against the ubiquitin-proteasome system impairment
      induced degeneration by anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory molecular mechanism.

PMID- 28881618
TI  - The prognostic role of pretreatment epidermal growth factor receptor T790M
      mutation in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with EGFR
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
AB  - PURPOSE: The outcome of pretreatment epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
      T790M mutation in EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated
      with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is controversial, this study aimed to
      evaluate the prognostic role of pretreatment T790M in advanced NSCLC patients
      treated with EGFR TKIs. RESULTS: A total of 7 eligible studies containing 179
      cases and 281 controls were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled hazard
      ratios (HRs) for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were
      2.21 (95% CI 1.49-3.29, P<0.001) and 1.24 (95% CI 0.90-1.71, P=0.186),
      respectively. We also did subgroup analyses on OS and PFS according to patients
      from various districts. METHODS: Identified literatures from various databases
      were reviewed. A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic role of
      pretreatment EGFR T790M in advanced EGFR mutant patients treated with EGFR TKIs.
      CONCLUSIONS: Pretreatment T790M may be a poor prognostic factor for PFS in
      advanced NSCLC patients treated with EGFR TKIs. However, no significant
      prognostic effect was found between pretreatment T790M mutation and OS. More
      studies are needed to demonstrate the prognostic role of pretreatment T790M
      mutation in advanced NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28881617
TI  - Germline whole exome sequencing and large-scale replication identifies FANCM as a
      likely high grade serous ovarian cancer susceptibility gene.
AB  - We analyzed whole exome sequencing data in germline DNA from 412 high grade
      serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas Project and
      identified 5,517 genes harboring a predicted deleterious germline coding mutation
      in at least one HGSOC case. Gene-set enrichment analysis showed enrichment for
      genes involved in DNA repair (p = 1.8*10-3). Twelve DNA repair genes - APEX1,
      APLF, ATX, EME1, FANCL, FANCM, MAD2L2, PARP2, PARP3, POLN, RAD54L and SMUG1 -
      were prioritized for targeted sequencing in up to 3,107 HGSOC cases, 1,491 cases
      of other epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) subtypes and 3,368 unaffected controls
      of European origin. We estimated mutation prevalence for each gene and tested for
      associations with disease risk. Mutations were identified in both cases and
      controls in all genes except MAD2L2, where we found no evidence of mutations in
      controls. In FANCM we observed a higher mutation frequency in HGSOC cases
      compared to controls (29/3,107 cases, 0.96 percent; 13/3,368 controls, 0.38
      percent; P=0.008) with little evidence for association with other subtypes
      (6/1,491, 0.40 percent; P=0.82). The relative risk of HGSOC associated with
      deleterious FANCM mutations was estimated to be 2.5 (95% CI 1.3 - 5.0; P=0.006).
      In summary, whole exome sequencing of EOC cases with large-scale replication in
      case-control studies has identified FANCM as a likely novel susceptibility gene
      for HGSOC, with mutations associated with a moderate increase in risk. These data
      may have clinical implications for risk prediction and prevention approaches for
      high-grade serous ovarian cancer in the future and a significant impact on
      reducing disease mortality.

PMID- 28881619
TI  - mRNA in exosomas as a liquid biopsy in non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: a multicentric study
      by the Spanish Lymphoma Oncology Group.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the feasibility of mRNAs (C-MYC, BCL-XL, BCL-6, NF
      kappabeta, PTEN and AKT) in exosomes of plasma as a liquid biopsy method for
      monitoring and prognostic evolution in B-cell lymphomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Exosomes were isolated from 98 patients with B-cell Lymphoma and 68 healthy
      controls. mRNAs were analyzed by quantitative PCR. An additional 31 post
      treatment samples were also studied. RESULTS: In the general and follicular
      lymphoma series, the presence of AKT mRNA was associated with poor response to
      rituximab-based treatment. Patients with first relapse or disease progression
      showed a lower percentage of PTEN and BCL-XL mRNA. The presence of BCL-6 mRNA was
      associated with a high death rate. The absence of PTEN mRNA in the general
      series, and presence of C-MYC mRNA in follicular lymphomas, were associated with
      short progression-free survival. BCL-6 and C-MYC mRNA were independent prognostic
      variables of overall survival. C-MYC mRNA may provide prognostic information with
      respect to overall survival. BCL-XL mRNA and increase of BCL-6 mRNA in post
      treatment samples could serve as molecular monitoring markers. CONCLUSIONS: This
      is the first large study to evaluate the prognostic and predictive values of
      pretreatment tumor-associated mRNA in exosomes. BCL-6 and C-MYC mRNA positivity
      in pretreatment samples were predictors of worse PFS compared to patients with
      mRNA negativity. C-MYC mRNA positivity was also a statistically significant
      predictor of inability to obtain complete response with first-line therapy.

PMID- 28881620
TI  - EETs reduces LPS-induced hyperpermeability by targeting GRP78 mediated Src
      activation and subsequent Rho/ROCK signaling pathway.
AB  - Integrity of endothelial barrier is a determinant of the prognosis in the acute
      lung injury caused by sepsis. The epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), metabolites
      of arachidonic acid, exhibit protective effects in various pathogenic states,
      however, whether EETs play a role in endothelial barrier enhancement and the
      involved mechanisms remain to be investigated. Here, we show that increased EETs
      level by endothelial specific cytochrome P450 epoxygenase 2J2 over-expression and
      soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitor TPPU reduced lipopolysaccharide-induced
      endothelial hyper-permeability in vivo, accompanied by improved survival of
      septic mice. In addition, sEH inhibitor AUDA and 11,12-EET also decreased
      endothelial hyper-permeability in the in-vitro study. Importantly, the relative
      mechanisms were associated with reduced GRP78-Src interaction and ROS production,
      and subsequently reduced RhoA/ROCK activation, and eventually decreased VE
      cadherin and myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation. Thus CYP2J2-EETs is
      crucial for RhoA-dependent regulation of cytoskeletal architecture leading to
      reversible changes in vascular permeability, which may contribute to the
      development of new therapeutic approaches for pulmonary edema and other diseases
      caused by abnormal vascular permeability.

PMID- 28881621
TI  - Connexin40 controls endothelial activation by dampening NFkappaB activation.
AB  - Connexins are proteins forming gap junction channels for intercellular
      communication. Connexin40 (Cx40) is highly expressed by endothelial cells (ECs)
      of healthy arteries but this expression is lost in ECs overlying atherosclerotic
      plaques. Low/oscillatory shear stress observed in bends and bifurcations of
      arteries is atherogenic partly through activation of the pro-inflammatory
      NFkappaB pathway in ECs. In this study, we investigated the relation between
      shear stress, Cx40 and NFkappaB. Shear stress-modifying casts were placed around
      carotid arteries of mice expressing eGFP under the Cx40 promoter (Cx40+/eGFP ).
      We found that Cx40 expression is decreased in carotid regions of oscillatory
      shear stress but conserved in high and low laminar shear stress regions. These
      results were confirmed in vitro. Using phage display, we retrieved a binding
      motif for the intracellular regulatory Cx40 C-terminus (Cx40CT), i.e. HS[I, L,
      V][K, R]. One of the retrieved peptides (HSLRPEWRMPGP) showed a 58.3% homology
      with amino acids 5-to-16 of IkappaBalpha, a member of the protein complex
      inhibiting NFkappaB activation. Binding of IkappaBalpha (peptide) and Cx40 was
      confirmed by crosslinking and en face proximity ligation assay on carotid
      arteries. TNFalpha-induced nuclear translocation of NFkappaB in ECs was enhanced
      after reducing Cx40 with siRNA. Transfection of HeLa cells with either full
      length Cx40 or Cx40CT demonstrated that Cx40CT was sufficient for inhibition of
      TNFalpha-induced NFkappaB phosphorylation. Finally, Tie2CreTgCx40fl/flApoe-/-
      mice showed exaggerated shear stress-induced atherosclerosis and enhanced
      NFkappaB nuclear translocation. Our data show a novel functional IkappaBalpha
      Cx40 interaction that may be relevant for the control of NFkappaB activation by
      shear stress in atherogenesis.

PMID- 28881622
TI  - Is FTO gene variant related to cancer risk independently of adiposity? An updated
      meta-analysis of 129,467 cases and 290,633 controls.
AB  - Previous studies have examined the association between the fat mass and obesity
      associated (FTO) gene variant and risk of cancer in diverse populations. However,
      the results have been inconsistent. PubMed and Embase databases were searched for
      the eligible publications in English language by July, 2016. The associations of
      FTO variants with cancer risk were estimated by calculating the pooled odds
      ratios and 95% confidence intervals by meta-analyses. A total of 27 publications
      (129,467 cancer cases and 290,633 normal controls) were included in our meta
      analysis. Overall, FTO rs9939609 variant (or its proxy) was not associated with
      cancer risk without adjustment for body mass index, as well as additional
      adjustment for body mss index. However, FTO rs9939609 variant was associated with
      some types of cancer in the subgroup analysis. In addition, overall, there was no
      significant association between FTO rs1477196 variant and cancer risk regardless
      of adjustment for body mass index. However, FTO rs11075995 variant risk allele
      was associated with breast cancer risk without adjustment for body mass index,
      but the association disappeared with further adjustment for body mass index. This
      study overall does not support that the FTO variant is associated with cancer
      risk independently of the adiposity.

PMID- 28881623
TI  - Peptide-based PET imaging of the tumor restricted IL13RA2 biomarker.
AB  - Peptides that target cancer cell surface receptors are promising platforms to
      deliver diagnostic and therapeutic payloads specifically to cancer but not normal
      tissue. IL13RA2 is a tumor-restricted receptor found to be present in several
      aggressive malignancies, including in the vast majority of high-grade gliomas and
      malignant melanoma. This receptor has been successfully targeted for diagnostic
      and therapeutic purposes using modified IL-13 ligand and more recently using a
      specific peptide, Pep-1L. In the current work, we establish the in vitro and in
      vivo tumor binding properties of radiolabeled Pep-1L, designed for tumor imaging.
      We radiolabeled Pep-1L with Copper-64 and demonstrated specific cell uptake in
      the IL13RA2-over expressing G48 glioblastoma cell line having abundant IL13RA2
      expression. [64Cu]Pep-1L binding was blocked by unlabeled ligand, demonstrating
      specificity. To demonstrate in vivo tumor uptake, we intravenously injected into
      tumor-bearing mice and demonstrated that [64Cu]Pep-1L specifically bound tumors
      at 24 hours, which was significantly blocked (3-fold) by pre-injecting unlabeled
      peptide. To further demonstrate specificity of Pep-1L towards IL13RA2 in vivo, we
      exploited an IL13RA2-inducible melanoma tumor model that does not express
      receptor at baseline but expresses abundant receptor after treatment with
      doxycycline. We injected [64Cu]Pep-1L into mice bearing IL13RA2-inducible
      melanoma tumors and performed in vivo PET/CT and post-necropsy biodistribution
      studies and found that tumors that were induced to express IL13RA2 receptor by
      doxycycline pretreatment bound radiolabeled Pep-1L 3-4 fold greater than
      uninduced tumors, demonstrating receptor specificity. This work demonstrates that
      [64Cu]Pep-1L selectively binds hIL13RA2-expressing tumors and validates Pep-1L as
      an effective platform to deliver diagnostics and therapeutics to IL13RA2
      expressing cancers.

PMID- 28881624
TI  - Ascites promotes cell migration through the repression of miR-125b in ovarian
      cancer.
AB  - Interactions between ovarian cancer cells and the surrounding tumor
      microenvironment are not well characterized. Here, we investigated the molecular
      mechanisms by which malignant ascites promote the metastasis of ovarian cancer.
      It was found that ovarian cancer ascites promoted ovarian cancer cell migration
      which was attenuated by either heat inactivation or antibody blockade of TGF
      beta. High level (at ng/ml level) of TGF-beta was detected in the ascites. In
      addition, ascites repressed the expression of miRNA-125b in a TGF-beta-dependent
      manner. Mimic of miR-125b blocked ascites-induced cell migration. Furthermore,
      Gab2 (a target gene of miR-125b) was elevated by ascites in a TGF-beta-dependent
      manner. And forced expression of Gab2 reversed the inhibition of migration
      induced by miR-125b mimic. Most importantly, the expression of miR-125b and Gab2
      mRNA was negatively correlated in ovarian cancer specimens. Taken together, our
      finding suggested that TGF-beta in ascites promoted cancer cell migration through
      repression of miR-125b in ovarian cancer. This might provide a novel therapeutic
      target for ovarian cancer in the future.

PMID- 28881625
TI  - The influence of marital status on the survival of patients with Hodgkin
      lymphoma.
AB  - Marital status is viewed as an independent prognostic factor for survival in
      various cancers. But, little is known about the relationship between marital
      status and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) outcomes. To investigate the impact of marital
      status on the survival of patients with HL, we identified 37884 cases from 1988
      to 2013 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The
      Kaplan-Meier method and multivariate Cox regression model were used for analyzing
      the influence of marital status on cause-specific survival (CSS). We found
      patients in widowed group had a higher proportion of women and a higher incidence
      of older (>60 years) patients; all of these parameters were found to be
      statistically significant in within-group comparisons. Marital status was
      demonstrated to be an independent prognostic factor. Widowed individuals were at
      greater risk of cancer specific mortality relative to other groups. Similar
      associations in subgroup analyses were observed according to SEER stage. In
      conclusion, widowed patients suffered survival disadvantages relative to other
      groups, and marital status had significant prognostic value in HL.

PMID- 28881626
TI  - Relevance of CCL3/CCR5 axis in oral carcinogenesis.
AB  - The chemokine CCL3 is a chemotactic cytokine crucial for inflammatory cell
      recruitment in homeostatic and pathological conditions. CCL3 might stimulate
      cancer progression by promoting leukocyte accumulation, angiogenesis and tumour
      growth. The expression of CCL3 and its receptors CCR1 and CCR5 was demonstrated
      in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but their role was not defined. Here, the
      functions of CCL3 were assessed using a model of chemically induced tongue
      carcinogenesis with 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO). Lineages of OSCC were used
      to analyse the effects of CCL3 in vitro. The 4NQO-induced lesions exhibited
      increased expression of CCL3, CCR1 and CCR5. CCL3-/- and CCR5-/- mice presented
      reduced incidence of tongue tumours compared to wild-type (WT) and CCR1-/- mice.
      Consistently, attenuated cytomorphological atypia and reduced cell proliferation
      were observed in lesions of CCL3-/- and CCR5-/- mice. OSCC from CCL3-/- mice
      exhibited lower infiltration of eosinophils and reduced expression of Egf, Fgf1,
      Tgf-beta1, Vegfa, Vegfb, Itga-4, Vtn, Mmp-1a, Mmp-2 and Mmp-9 than WT mice. In
      vitro, CCL3 induced invasion and production of CCL5, IL-6, MMP -2, -8, -9.
      Blockage of CCL3 in vitro using alpha-CCL3 or Evasin-1 (a CCL3-binding protein)
      impaired tumour cell invasion. In conclusion, CCL3/CCR5 axis has pro-tumourigenic
      effects in oral carcinogenesis. The induction of inflammatory and angiogenic
      pathways and eosinophils recruitment appear to be the underlying mechanism
      explaining these effects. These data reveal potential protective effects of CCL3
      blockade in oral cancer.

PMID- 28881627
TI  - Structural basis of a novel heterodimeric Fc for bispecific antibody production.
AB  - Bispecific antibodies provide an efficient tool for combinational clinical
      therapy. Here we have engineered a heterodimeric Fc for bispecific antibodies
      production by combining the knob-into-hole and electrostatic steering strategies
      where a bulky hydrophobic residue Phe405 of the IgG CH3 interface is mutated to a
      charged residue Lys and Lys409 of the corresponding CH3 domain is mutated to Ala.
      The crystal structure of this Fc heterodimer solved here at 2.7A resolution
      revealed how these two mutations resulted a complementary binding interface and
      explained why F405K mutation could effectively inhibit Fc homodimer formation
      during protein expression. An anti-HER2 bispecific antibody derived from
      trastuzumab and pertuzumab was generated by this heterodimeric Fc. It showed
      comparable or improved efficacy than the combination of trastuzumab and
      pertuzumab in inhibiting proliferation of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.
      Overall this study shows that the heterodimeric Fc engineered here provides an
      efficient platform for generating active bispecific antibody for cancer
      treatment.

PMID- 28881628
TI  - Establishment of a mouse xenograft model of metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma.
AB  - Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare neoplasm with a poor prognosis. Very important
      advances have been made in the identification of the genetic determinants of
      adrenocortical carcinoma pathogenesis but our understanding is still limited
      about the mechanisms that determine cancer spread and metastasis. One major
      problem hindering preclinical experimentation for new therapies for
      adrenocortical carcinoma is represented by the lack of suitable animal models for
      metastatic disease. With the aim to overcome these limitations, in this study we
      tested several protocols in order to establish a mouse xenograft model of
      metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma. The most efficient method, based upon
      intrasplenic injection followed by splenectomy, produced metastases with high
      efficiency, whose development could be followed over time by bioluminescence
      measurements. We expect that the availability of this model will greatly improve
      the possibilities for preclinical testing of new treatments for advanced-stage
      disease.

PMID- 28881629
TI  - Up-regulation of long non-coding RNA SPRY4-IT1 promotes tumor cell migration and
      invasion in lung adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important role in a variety of biological
      processes, and are tightly associated with tumorigenesis and cancer prognosis.
      However, the potential power of lncRNA signatures in predicting survival of
      patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been investigated. Here, we
      identified a four-lncRNA signature (SPRY4-IT1, LINC00941,GPR158-AS1 and KCNK15
      AS1) displaying prognostic values for LUAD using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)
      dataset. Based on the four-lncRNA signature, the LUAD patients can be classified
      into high-risk and low-risk groups with significantly different survival. We
      further validated the expression of SPRY4-IT1 in LUAD tissues and corresponding
      normal lung tissues using quantitative real-time PCR in Chinese LUAD patients.
      The results showed that SPRY4-IT1 was significantly up-regulated in LUAD tissues.
      Further analysis indicated that LUAD patients with high SPRY4-IT1 expression have
      significantly poorer overall survival in Chinese LUAD patients. Moreover, knock
      down of SPRY4-IT1 can inhibit the lung cancer cell migration and invasion. The
      present work indicated that SPRY4-IT1 may play a pivotal role in promoting tumor
      migration and invasion in LUAD. Our work implicates the promising effect of SPRY4
      IT1 on the prognosis of LUAD.

PMID- 28881630
TI  - Protective effect of madecassoside on H2O2-induced oxidative stress and autophagy
      activation in human melanocytes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. is a traditional Chinese medicine that
      has many medical applications, including wound healing and anti-oxidation. Some
      traditional Chinese Medicine doctors have found that it has therapeutic effects
      for external use in the repigmentation of vitiligo and post-inflammatory
      hypopigmentation. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of
      madecassoside, a major bioactive component of C. asiatica, on oxidative stress in
      human melanocytes and its possible mechanism of action. RESULTS: In H2O2-induced
      oxidative conditions, madecassoside inhibited melanocyte dendrite retraction,
      improved MMP and reduced the accumulation of [Ca2+]i in a concentration-dependent
      manner. Observations by TEM showed that madecassoside attenuated the damage of
      mitochondria in human melanocytes caused by oxidative stress. Furthermore,
      autophagy activation was demonstrated by AO staining and an increased LC3-II/LC3
      I ratio. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Normal human melanocytes were treated with 0.01
      mM H2O2 and varying concentrations of madecassoside (0, 10, 50, 100 MUg/mL).
      Subsequently, the retraction velocity of melanocyte dendrites was assessed.
      Determination of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP, DeltaPsim) was performed
      by flow cytometry and intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) level were measured.
      Alterations of mitochondrial ultrastructure were observed by transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM). Acridine orange (AO) staining was used to measure
      autophagy. The LC3-II/LC3-I ratio, an indicator of autophagosome formation, was
      analyzed by western blot. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the
      antioxidative effect of madecassoside on human melanocytes subjected to oxidative
      damage via the activation of autophagy. Moreover, madecassoside could be a
      promising treatment for vitiligo mainly caused by oxidative stress.

PMID- 28881631
TI  - Comparison of long-term outcome between hemicolectomy and partial colectomy in
      the elderly: a large population-based study.
AB  - Due to large progress has been achieved in surgical techniques, anesthesia and
      perioperative care, it is accepted that the very elderly colon cancer (CC)
      patient is not contraindication for surgery. However, it is a controversy that an
      extended or a less aggressive surgical approach should be performed for this
      population. Here, we identified 28110 CC patients aged >=80 from Surveillance,
      Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) database. The surgical approaches included
      extended hemicolectomy (HC) and partial colectomy (PC). 5-year cancer specific
      survival (CSS) was obtained. Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox regression models were
      used to assess the correlations between prognostic factors and long-term
      survival. The 5-year CSS for patients treated with HC were 45.6%, which were
      similar to patients who received PC (44.8%), the survival difference has no
      statistical significance (P=0.087). The result following propensity score
      matching further confirmed long-term survival were equal between HC and PC.
      However, patients in AJCC T3/T4 stage and with tumor size >=5cm could obtain
      survival benefit from the extended surgery. In conclusion, most of elderly CC
      patients could not obtain survival benefit from extended resection. Partial
      colectomy should also be considered as an alternative approach for this group of
      patients.

PMID- 28881632
TI  - Preliminary biological evaluation of 18F-AlF-NOTA-MAL-Cys-Annexin V as a novel
      apoptosis imaging agent.
AB  - A novel annexin V derivative (Cys-Annexin V) with a single cysteine residue at
      its C-terminal has been successfully labeled site-specifically with NOTA
      maleimide aluminum [18F]fluoride complexation and evaluated it as a novel
      apoptosis agent in vitro and in vivo. The total synthesis time of 18F-AlF-NOTA
      MAL-Cys-Annexin V from [18F]fluoride was about 65 min. The tracer was stable in
      vitro and it was excreted through renal in normal mice. The rate of the tracer
      bound to erythrocytes with exposed phosphatidylserine was 89.36+/-0.61% and this
      binding could be blocked by unlabeled Cys-Annexin V. In rats treated with
      cycloheximide, there were 6.23+/-0.23 times (n=4) increase in hepatic uptake of
      the tracer as compared to normal rats at 1h p.i. The uptake of the tracer in
      liver also could be blocked by co-injection of unlabeled Cys-Annexin V. These
      results indicated the favorable characterizations such as convenient synthesis
      and specific apoptotic cells targeting of18F-AlF-NOTA-MAL- Cys-Annexin V were
      suitable for its further investigation in clinical apoptosis imaging.

PMID- 28881633
TI  - Peroxiredoxin 6 overexpression attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced acute kidney
      injury.
AB  - Peroxiredoxin 6 (PRDX6) is a member of the PRDX family of antioxidant enzymes and
      correlated with inflammatory response. Therefore, we investigated the role of
      PRDX6 during lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute kidney injury. Both 3 months
      aged PRDX6-overexpressing transgenic mice (PRDX6 mice) and wild type (WT) mice
      had acute renal injury induced by intraperitoneal injection of LPS (10 mg/kg).,
      PRDX6 mice showed decreased mortality and renal injury following LPS challenge
      compared to WT mice. Furthermore, infiltration of macrophages, T-cells and
      neutrophils, and the number of apoptotic cells were more decreased by LPS
      treatment in PRDX6 mice than in WT mice. Because LPS induces reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) production which induces inflammation through c-Jun N-terminal
      Kinase (JNK) and p38 MAPK activation, we investigated ROS concentration and MAPK
      signaling pathway in the kidney of PRDX6 mice. As expected, LPS-induced oxidative
      stress was attenuated, and p38 MAPK and JNK activation was decreased in the
      kidney of PRDX6 mice. Inhibitory effect of PRDX6 on LPS-induced apoptosis and
      MAPK activation in the primary renal proximal tubular cells were overcome by
      treatment with PRDX6 inhibitor or hydrogen peroxide. These results suggest that
      PRDX6 overexpression inactivates p38 MAPK and JNK pathway through decrease LPS
      induced ROS concentration in the kidney, resulting in inhibition of renal
      apoptosis and leukocyte infiltration and led to attenuation of LPS-induced acute
      kidney injury.

PMID- 28881634
TI  - Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) L promotes DNA damage-induced
      cell apoptosis by enhancing the translation of p53.
AB  - The tumor suppressor p53 is an essential gene in the induction of cell cycle
      arrest, DNA repair, and apoptosis. p53 protein is induced under cellular stress,
      blocking cell cycle progression and inducing DNA repair. Under DNA damage
      conditions, it has been reported that post-transcriptional regulation of p53 mRNA
      contributes to the increase in p53 protein level. Here we demonstrate that
      heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) L enhances p53 mRNA translation.
      We found that hnRNP L is increased and binds to the 5'UTR of p53 mRNA in response
      to DNA damage. Increased hnRNP L caused enhancement of p53 mRNA translation.
      Conversely, p53 protein levels were decreased following hnRNP L knock-down,
      rendering them resistant to apoptosis and arrest in the G2/M phase after DNA
      damage. Thus, our findings suggest that hnRNP L functions as a positive regulator
      of p53 translation and promotes cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

PMID- 28881635
TI  - HTLV-1 Tax upregulates early growth response protein 1 through nuclear factor
      kappaB signaling.
AB  - Human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a complex retrovirus that causes
      adult T cell leukemia (ATL) in susceptible individuals. The HTLV-1-encoded
      oncoprotein Tax induces persistent activation of the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF
      kappaB) pathway. Early growth response protein 1 (EGR1) is overexpressed in HTLV
      1-infected T cell lines and ATL cells. Here, we showed that both Tax expression
      and HTLV-1 infection promoted EGR1 overexpression. Loss of the NF-kappaB binding
      site in the EGR1 promotor or inhibition of NF-kappaB activation reduced Tax
      induced EGR1 upregulation. Tax mutants unable to activate NF-kappaB induced only
      slight EGR1 upregulation as compared with wild-type Tax, confirming NF-kappaB
      pathway involvement in EGR1 regulation. Tax also directly interacted with the
      EGR1 protein and increased endogenous EGR1 stability. Elevated EGR1 in turn
      promoted p65 nuclear translocation and increased NF-kappaB activation. These
      results demonstrate a positive feedback loop between EGR1 expression and NF
      kappaB activation in HTLV-1-infected and Tax-expressing cells. Both NF-kappaB
      activation and Tax-induced EGR1 stability upregulated EGR1, which in turn
      enhanced constitutive NF-kappaB activation and facilitated ATL progression in
      HTLV-1-infected cells. These findings suggest EGR1 may be an effective anti-ATL
      therapeutic target.

PMID- 28881636
TI  - The landscape of DNA methylation-mediated regulation of long non-coding RNAs in
      breast cancer.
AB  - Although systematic studies have identified a host of long non-coding RNAs
      (lncRNAs) which are involved in breast cancer, the knowledge about the methyla
      tion-mediated dysregulation of those lncRNAs remains limited. Here, we integrated
      multi-omics data to analyze the methylated alteration of lncRNAs in breast
      invasive carcinoma (BRCA). We found that lncRNAs showed diverse methylation
      patterns on promoter regions in BRCA. LncRNAs were divided into two categories
      and four subcategories based on their promoter methylation patterns and
      expression levels be-tween tumor and normal samples. Through cis-regulatory
      analysis and gene ontology network, abnormally methylated lncRNAs were identified
      to be associated with can-cer regulation, proliferation or expression of
      transcription factors. Competing endog-enous RNA network and functional
      enrichment analysis of abnormally methylated lncRNAs showed that lncRNAs with
      different methylation patterns were involved in several hallmarks and KEGG
      pathways of cancers significantly. Finally, survival analysis based on mRNA
      modules in networks revealed that lncRNAs silenced by high methylation were
      associated with prognosis significantly in BRCA. This study enhances the
      understanding of aberrantly methylated patterns of lncRNAs and pro-vides a novel
      insight for identifying cancer biomarkers and potential therapeutic tar-gets in
      breast cancer.

PMID- 28881637
TI  - CD147 functions as the signaling receptor for extracellular divalent copper in
      hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
AB  - Elevated copper levels in tumor microenvironment are directly correlated to
      cancer progression in a variety of malignancies. Copper is required in
      angiogenesis, and promotes the proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells.
      However, the molecular mechanism of copper in promoting cancer progression
      remains elusive. Here we report that CD147 serves as a signaling receptor for
      extracellular Cu2+ in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Cu2+ binds to the
      extracellular membrane-proximal domain of CD147 and mediates its self
      association. Cu2+-mediated self-association of CD147 activates PI3K/Akt signaling
      pathway leading to the up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinase MMP-2 and MMP-14
      in HCC cells. Cu2+-induced CD147 self-association also enhances the ability of
      HCC cells to stimulate MMP-2 expression from neighboring fibroblasts, as well as
      increases the invasiveness of HCC cells which is abolished by the copper chelator
      tetrathiomolybdate. We have mapped the interfaces and identified the key residues
      of CD147 involved in the Cu2+ induced self-association. The Cu2+ binding
      deficient CD147 mutant abolishes the stimulating effects of Cu2+ on HCC cells.
      Our study reveals a novel extracellular signaling role of copper in promoting
      cancer cell metastasis, which implies that targeting the Cu2+-induced self
      association of CD147 is a new strategy for cancer treatment.

PMID- 28881638
TI  - The oxido-metabolic driver ATF4 enhances temozolamide chemo-resistance in human
      gliomas.
AB  - Malignant gliomas are devastating neoplasia with limited curative treatment
      options. Temozolomide (TMZ, Temcat(r), Temodal(r) or Temodar(r)) is a first-line
      treatment for malignant gliomas but the development of drug resistance remains a
      major concern. Activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) is a critical oxido
      metabolic regulator in gliomas, and its role in the pathogenesis of TMZ
      resistance remains elusive. We investigated the effect of TMZ on human glioma
      cells under conditions of enhanced ATF4 expression (ATF4OE) and ATF4 knock down
      (ATF4KD). We monitored cell survival, ATF4 mRNA expression of ATF4 and xCT
      (SLC7a11) regulation within human gliomas. TMZ treatment induces a
      transcriptional response with elevated expression of ATF4, xCT and Nrf2, as a
      sign of ER stress and toxic cell damage response. ATF4 overexpression (ATF4OE)
      fosters TMZ resistance in human gliomas and inhibits TMZ-induced autophagy.
      Conversely, ATF4 suppression by small interfering RNAs (ATF4KD) leads to
      increased TMZ susceptibility and autophagy in comparison to wild type gliomas.
      ATF4OE gliomas show reduced cell cycle shift and apoptotic cell death, whereas
      ATF4KD gliomas reveal higher susceptibility towards cell cycle rearrangements.
      Hence, the migration capacity of ATF4OE glioma cells is almost not affected by
      TMZ treatment. In contrast, ATF4KD gliomas show a migratory stop following TMZ
      application. Mechanistically, xCT elevation is a consequence of ATF4 activation
      and increased levels of xCT amplifies ATF4-induced TMZ resistance. Our data show
      that ATF4 operates as a chemo-resistance gene in gliomas, and the tumor promoting
      function of ATF4 is mainly determined by its transcriptional target xCT.
      Therefore, therapeutic inactivation of ATF4 can be a promising strategy to
      overcome chemo-resistance and promote drug efficacy in human gliomas.

PMID- 28881639
TI  - Netrin-1 promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation and invasion via the receptor
      neogenin through PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.
AB  - Netrin-1 is a laminin-related protein found to promote proliferation and invasion
      in multiple types of cancers. Recent studies have identified the function role of
      netrin-1 in several cancers; however, the influence of netrin-1 in human gastric
      cancer(GC) remains largely unknown. In this study, we found netrin-1 was
      upregulated in human GC tissues, where its expression correlated inversely with
      cancer stage and lymph node metastasis. We detected netrin-1 and its receptor
      knockdown significantly suppressed GC cells proliferation and invasion, while
      overexpression netrin-1 reversed these effects. Xenografted analyses using GC
      cells displayed significantly inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis by netrin
      1 depletion. Furthermore, we identified that netrin-1 as a regulator of PI3K/AKT
      pathway to modulate GC cells proliferation and invasion abilities via its
      receptor neogenin. Taken together, our findings argued that netrin-1 and its
      receptor neogenin might act synergistically in promoting GC cells proliferation
      and invasion through the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. It is conceivable that
      netrin-1 could be new therapeutic target to GC therapy.

PMID- 28881640
TI  - MicroRNA-200c as a prognostic and sensitivity marker for platinum chemotherapy in
      advanced gastric cancer.
AB  - We examined microRNA-200c (miR-200c) expression in tumor tissues and plasma of
      patients with advanced gastric cancer and correlated miR-200c expression with
      treatment efficacy of platinum chemotherapy and patient prognosis. Tumor tissues
      were collected from 51 patients with advanced gastric cancer who received
      platinum-containing chemotherapies. The plasma was collected from the same group
      of patients and 51 subjects with chronic superficial gastritis. Quantitative RT
      PCR was used to evaluate miR-200c expression, and its correlation with treatment
      efficacy and patient prognosis was analyzed. The results showed that the miR-200c
      expression in gastric cancer tissues and in plasma were significantly lower than
      tumor-adjacent tissues and in patients with chronic superficial gastritis (both p
      <0.05). No significant correlation was found between miR-200c expression in
      tumors or plasma and clinical characteristics. Patients with higher miR-200c
      expression had better treatment outcomes with platinum chemotherapy and longer
      progression-free survival and overall survival than patients with lower miR-200c
      expression. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that miR-200c
      expression in gastric cancer tissues and plasma distinguished patients' treatment
      outcomes. Multivariate analyses confirmed that over expression of miR-200c both
      in gastric cancer tissue and plasma is associated with longer progression-free
      survival and overall survival. Taken together, our study indicated that miR-200c
      expression in gastric cancer tissues and plasma of patients with advanced gastric
      cancer is associated with better treatment efficacy and prognosis with platinum
      chemotherapy, suggesting that expression of miR-200c may be predictive for
      chemotherapy and prognosis in advanced gastric cancer patients.

PMID- 28881641
TI  - Colorectal cancer at high risk of peritoneal metastases: long term outcomes of a
      pilot study on adjuvant laparoscopic HIPEC and future perspectives.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Early detection of peritoneal metastases (PM) of colorectal cancer
      (CRC) is difficult and treatment options at a clinically overt stage are limited.
      Potentially, adjuvant laparoscopic hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy
      (HIPEC) is of value. The aim of this study was to present long term oncological
      outcomes of a pilot study on adjuvant HIPEC to reduce development of PMCRC, with
      systematic review of literature. METHODS: Long term oncological outcomes of ten
      patients who underwent laparoscopic HIPEC within eight weeks after resection of
      primary CRC in the pilot study were retrospectively collected. A systematic
      search of literature was performed on studies describing the use of HIPEC in
      patients with CRC at high risk of developing PM. RESULTS: The median follow-up
      was 54 months (range 49-63). All patients were alive at the last follow-up moment
      and none of them had developed PM. Two patients had developed pulmonary
      metastases. Systematic review revealed five small cohort studies, including two
      matched comparisons. Peritoneal recurrences were found in 0% to 9% after adjuvant
      HIPEC, which was 28% and 43% in the two control groups, respectively. Disease
      free and overall survival were significantly higher in favour of HIPEC.
      CONCLUSION: Long term follow-up of ten patients included in a pilot study on
      adjuvant HIPEC revealed no peritoneal recurrences. This result is in line with
      other published pilot studies, a promising observation. However, the outcomes of
      the Dutch randomized COLOPEC trial and similar trials worldwide should be awaited
      for definitive conclusions on the effectiveness of adjuvant HIPEC.

PMID- 28881642
TI  - PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in 132 recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma: the
      correlation with anemia and outcomes.
AB  - The expression of Programmed death-1 (PD-1) / programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)
      has been reported to be reliable prognostic factors in various malignances
      including primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the exact role of PD
      1/PD-L1 in recurrent NPC remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate
      the relationship between the expression of PD-1 / PD-L1 and the clinical
      pathology as well the outcomes of recurrent NPC patients (n = 132). The
      expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 was measured by immunohistochemistry staining. The
      relationship between PD-1 / PD-L1 and factors involved in clinic-pathology and
      outcomes of patients with NPC was assessed by correlation analysis. To further
      explore the association between PD-L1 and anemia, immunofluorescence analysis was
      performed to investigate the correlation of PD-L1 with hypoxia inducible factor
      1alpha (HIF-1alpha). We observed that advanced rT classification and anemia
      status before salvage treatment was associated with high level of PD-L1 in
      recurrent NPC patients, and PD-L1 and was co-located with HIF-1alpha in recurrent
      tumors by immunofluorescence analysis. Moreover, our result suggested that PD-L1
      might be a negative indicator for recurrent NPC patients as well as age, rT
      classification, anemia and tumor necrosis at diagnose of recurrence. Taken
      together, our results revealed that PD-L1 might be a potential prognostic
      biomarker for recurrent NPC patients, and advanced re-stage, anemia might
      represent as candidate biomarkers for evaluating patients' response to anti-PD-1
      / PD-L1-treatment. However, further studies are needed to clarify the underlying
      mechanism of hypoxia in immunosuppression process induced by PD-1 / PD-L1 axis.

PMID- 28881643
TI  - Critical analysis of the major and ancillary imaging features of LI-RADS on 127
      proven HCCs evaluated with functional and morphological MRI: Lights and shadows.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a critical analysis of major and ancillary MR imaging features
      in assessment of HCC. METHODS: Retrospectively we evaluated 70 cirrhotic patients
      with 173 nodules, which were subjected to MR study at 0 time (MR0), after 3 (MR3)
      and 6 months (MR6) using two different contrast media. EOB-GD-DTPA was injected
      at MR0 and MR6, while Gd-BT-DO3A at MR3. Three expert hepatic radiologists
      reviewed all images, recording, according to LI-RADS, the size, the presence and
      quality of arterial-phase hyperenhancement, washout and capsule appearance,
      threshold growth. Additionally, we recorded signal intensity (SI) on T2-W images,
      on DWI, on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps and SI on T1-W images of EOB
      GD-BPTA hepatospecific phase. Median value of ADC and of Intravoxel incoherent
      motion related parameters were assessed. RESULTS: 127 HCCs and 24 dysplastic
      nodules were assessed. Hypervascular on arterial phase was found in 84 HCCs,
      washout appearance in 124, capsule appearance in 111, hypointensity on
      hepatospecific phase in 127, hyperintensity on T2-W sequences and restricted
      diffusion in 107. Hyper vascular on arterial phase was found in 17 dysplastic
      nodules, wash-out appearance in 2, hypointensity on hepatospecific phase in 7
      while no dysplastic nodules showed capsule appearance, hyperintensity on T2-W and
      restricted diffusion. Highest accuracy was obtained by washout appearance and
      hypointense signal on hepatospecific phase (97% and 95%). CONCLUSIONS:
      Hypointensity on hepatospecific phase and washout appearance are the most
      relevant diagnostic sign for differentiating low-risk from high-risk HCC nodules.
      The capsule appearance, T2-W hyperintensity and restricted diffusion have high
      positive predictive value.

PMID- 28881644
TI  - Engineering a high-affinity humanized anti-CD24 antibody to target hepatocellular
      carcinoma by a novel CDR grafting design.
AB  - Cluster of differentiation 24 (CD24) is a specific surface marker involved in the
      tumorigenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, all
      reported anti-CD24 antibodies are murine ones with inevitable immunogenicity. To
      address this, a method using both molecular structure and docking-based
      complementarity determining region (CDR) grafting was employed for humanization.
      After xenogeneic CDR grafting into a human antibody, three types of canonical
      residues (in the VL/VH interface core, in the loop foundation, and interaction
      with loop residues) that support loop conformation and residues involved in the
      antigen-binding interface were back-mutated. Four engineered antibodies were
      produced, among which hG7-BM3 has virtually identical 3-D structure and affinity
      parameters with the parental chimeric antibody cG7. In vitro, hG7-BM3
      demonstrated superior immunogenicity and serum stability to cG7. Antibody
      dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), tumor cell internalization and in vivo
      targeting assays indicate that hG7-BM3 has the potential for development as an
      antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). We therefore generated the hG7-BM3-VcMMAE
      conjugate, which was shown to induce tumor cell apoptosis and effectively
      suppress nude mice bearing HCC xenografts. In conclusion, our study provides new
      inspiration for antibody humanization and an ADC candidate for laboratory study
      and clinical applications.

PMID- 28881645
TI  - Spatial function of the oxidative DNA damage response in radiation induced
      bystander effects in intra- and inter-system of Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Though the signaling events involved in radiation induced bystander effects
      (RIBE) have been investigated both in vitro and in vivo, the spatial function of
      these communications, especially the related signaling pathways, is not fully
      elucidated. In the current study, significant increases of DNA damage were
      clearly observed in C. elegans germline upon irradiation to both intra-system of
      posterior pharynx and inter-system of vulva, in which more severe damage, even to
      F1 generation worms, was shown for vulva irradiation. Spatial function assay
      indicated the DDR key components of mrt-2/hus-1/cep-1/ced-4 were indispensable in
      germ cells for both sites irradiation, while those components in somatic cells
      were either not (cep-1/ced-4) or partially (mrt-2/hus-1) required to promote
      apoptosis. Moreover, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) indicated by the
      superoxide dismutase expression and the unfolded protein response of the
      mitochondria was found systemically involved in the initiation of these processes
      for both two site irradiation. These results will give a better understanding of
      the RIBE mechanisms in vivo, and invaluable to assess the clinical relevance to
      radiotherapy.

PMID- 28881646
TI  - Modeling African American prostate adenocarcinoma by inducing defined genetic
      alterations in organoids.
AB  - Genomic studies are rapidly identifying genetic alterations in human cancer, but
      functional validation of such alterations has been slow. Here, using human
      prostate cancer as a model, we have assessed the feasibility of engineering
      defined genetic alterations in well-known cancer driver genes to transform benign
      prostate epithelial organoids derived from African American men. Benign human
      prostate organoids were transduced with lentiviruses expressing MYC, shPTEN,
      shTP53 and AR, alone and in various combinations, to recapitulate prostate cancer
      development. Organoids expressing MYC, shPTEN, shTP53 and AR (denoted MPPA); MYC,
      shPTEN and shTP53 (MPP); or MYC (M) were significantly larger, had higher
      proliferation rates and demonstrated pathologically transformed morphology
      compared to organoids transduced with control lentivirus. Alterations in MYC,
      PTEN and TP53 also affected the rate of organoid basal-to-luminal differentiation
      in vitro. MPPA and MPP organoids expressed the clinical prostate cancer marker
      AMACR and developed prostate adenocarcinoma when grafted under the renal capsule
      in mice. These data indicate that genetic alterations commonly observed in human
      prostate cancer can be rapidly modeled in human organoid culture. Prostate cancer
      organoids provide a useful pre-clinical model for the evaluation of new candidate
      cancer genes, cancer disparities, and potentially for testing of novel
      therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28881647
TI  - Ocular Behcet's disease is associated with aberrant methylation of interferon
      regulatory factor 8 (IRF8) in monocyte-derived dendritic cells.
AB  - Aberrant methylation of interferon regulatory factor 8 (IRF8) has been noted in
      various tumors. IRF8 has also been reported to be involved in many autoimmune
      diseases, including Behcet's disease (BD). However, the methylation status of
      IRF8 in BD has not been reported. To address this issue, we investigated whether
      the degree of methylation of IRF8 in dendritic cells (DCs) plays a role in the
      development of BD. We found a lower mRNA expression and a higher methylation
      level of IRF8 in active ocular BD patients as compared to normal subjects and
      inactive patients. Treatment with a demethylation agent, 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine
      (DAC) resulted in an increase of mRNA expression and a reduction of the IRF8
      methylation level. It also down-regulated the expression of the co-stimulatory
      molecules CD86, CD80, CD40, and reduced the production of IL-6, IL-1beta, IL-23
      and IL-12. An inhibition of Th1/Th17 responses was observed as evidenced by a
      decreased production of IFN-gamma, IL-17, and a reduction of IFN-gamma/IL-17-
      producing CD4+ T cells following treatment with DAC. This study shows that active
      ocular BD patients have an aberrant IRF8 methylation status. These findings
      suggest that epigenetic control of IRF8 expression may offer a future target in
      the treatment of ocular BD.

PMID- 28881648
TI  - Correlation between microRNA-143 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and
      disease severity in patients with psoriasis vulgaris.
AB  - This study aims to explore the correlation between microRNA-143 (miR-143)
      expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and disease severity in
      patients with psoriasis vulgaris. From March 2014 to November 2015, 194 patients
      with psoriasis vulgaris (102 patients in progressive stage and 92 patients in
      stable stage) were selected as the case group and 175 healthy people as a control
      group were enrolled in this study. ELISA was used to detect the levels of IL-17
      and VEGF in serum. The qRT-PCR assay was performed to detect the relative
      expression of miR-143 in PBMCs. Disease severity in psoriasis vulgaris patients
      was graded with Psoriasis Lesions Area and Severity Index (PASI). The value of
      miR-143 expression in PBMCs for the diagnosis of psoriasis vulgaris was evaluated
      using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The correlation between miR
      143 expression in PBMCs and PASI scores was measured using Spearman rank
      correlation analysis. Compared with the control group, serum levels of IL-17 and
      VEGF were higher and miR-143 expression in PBMCs was lower in the case group.
      Furthermore, miR-143 expression in PBMCs was lower in patients in progressive
      stage than that in patients with stable stage. The relative expression of miR-143
      in PBMCs was negatively correlated with PASI scores of patients with psoriasis
      vulgaris. ROC curve showed that miR-143 was a reliable and accurate biomarker of
      psoriasis vulgaris. Our findings suggest that miR-143 expression in PBMCs is
      negatively correlated the disease severity in psoriasis vulgaris.

PMID- 28881650
TI  - APEX2-enhanced electron microscopy distinguishes sigma-1 receptor localization in
      the nucleoplasmic reticulum.
AB  - The sigma-1 receptor (Sig1R) is an endoplasmic reticulum chaperonin that is
      attracting tremendous interest as a potential anti-neurodegenerative target.
      While this membrane protein is known to reside in the inner nuclear envelope (NE)
      and influences transcription, apparent Sig1R presence in the nucleoplasm is often
      observed, seemingly contradicting its NE localization. We addressed this
      confounding issue by applying an antibody-free approach of electron microscopy
      (EM) to define Sig1R nuclear localization. We expressed APEX2 peroxidase fused to
      Sig1R-GFP in a Sig1R-null NSC34 neuronal cell line generated with CRISPR-Cas9.
      APEX2-catalyzed gold/silver precipitation markedly improved EM clarity and
      confirmed an apparent intra-nuclear presence of Sig1R. However, serial sectioning
      combined with APEX2-enhanced EM revealed that Sig1R actually resided in the
      nucleoplasmic reticulum (NR), a specialized nuclear compartment formed via NE
      invagination into the nucleoplasm. NR cross-sections also indicated Sig1R in ring
      shaped NR membranes. Thus, this study distinguishes Sig1R in the NR which could
      otherwise appear localized in the nucleoplasm if detected with low-resolution
      methods. Our finding is important for uncovering potential Sig1R regulations in
      the nucleus.

PMID- 28881649
TI  - Identification of deubiquitinase targets of isothiocyanates using SILAC-assisted
      quantitative mass spectrometry.
AB  - Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and kale have well documented
      chemopreventative and anticancer effects that are attributed to the presence of
      isothiocyanates (ITCs). ITCs modulate the levels of many oncogenic proteins, but
      the molecular mechanisms of ITC action are not understood. We previously reported
      that phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) inhibits two deubiquitinases (DUBs), USP9x
      and UCH37. DUBs regulate many cellular processes and DUB dysregulation is linked
      to the pathogenesis of human diseases including cancer, neurodegeneration, and
      inflammation. Using SILAC assisted quantitative mass spectrometry, here we
      identify 9 new PEITC-DUB targets: USP1, USP3, USP10, USP11, USP16, USP22, USP40,
      USP48 and VCPIP1. Seven of these PEITC-sensitive DUBs have well-recognized roles
      in DNA repair or chromatin remodeling. PEITC both inhibits USP1 and increases its
      ubiquitination and degradation, thus decreasing USP1 activity by two mechanisms.
      The loss of USP1 activity increases the level of mono-ubiquitinated DNA clamp
      PCNA, impairing DNA repair. Both the inhibition/degradation of USP1 and the
      increase in mono-ubiquitinated PCNA are new activities for PEITC that can explain
      the previously recognized ability of ITCs to enhance cancer cell sensitivity to
      cisplatin treatment. Our work also demonstrates that PEITC reduces the mono
      ubiquityl histones H2A and H2B. Understanding the mechanism of action of ITCs
      should facilitate their use as therapeutic agents.

PMID- 28881651
TI  - Expression and clinical significance of CD147 in renal cell carcinoma: a meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess clinical significance of CD147 in renal cell carcinoma.
      METHODS: Collect case-control studies which focus on CD147's expression in renal
      cell carcinoma. Trails were retrieved from CBM, CNKI, Wan-fang database, PubMed,
      Cochrane Library and Embase. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria,
      data extraction and quality assessment were done by two researchers
      independently, and outcomes were pooled with Revman5.3 and STATA14.0. RESULTS: A
      total of 11 studies were confirmed, among which renal cell carcinoma 887 cases,
      non-cancer 505cases. As for the positive rate of CD147, there are statistical
      differences among survival, renal cell carcinoma tissue vs. non-cancer tissues
      [OR= 8.19, P= 0.0002], with vs. without lymph node metastases [OR= 6.52, P=
      0.001], clinical stage III~IV vs. II~I [OR= 4.07, P< 0.00001], histopathological
      stage III~IV vs. II [OR= 3.01, P= 0.002], histopathological stage III~IV vs. I
      [OR= 7.50, P< 0.00001], tumor size [OR= 5.01, P= 0.0007]. No significant
      difference was tested among different age, gender, histological types and
      Position of cancer. CONCLUSION: As shown in our results, CD 147 may participate
      the whole course of carcinogenesis of renal cell carcinoma, which might be
      valuable for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.

PMID- 28881652
TI  - Predictors of acute kidney injury after paraquat intoxication.
AB  - Paraquat intoxication is characterized by multi-organ failure, causing
      substantial mortality and morbidity. Many paraquat patients experience acute
      kidney injury (AKI), sometimes requiring hemodialysis. We observed 222 paraquat
      intoxicated patients between 2000 and 2012, and divided them into AKI (n = 103)
      and non-AKI (n = 119) groups. The mortality rate was higher for AKI than non-AKI
      patients (70.1% vs. 40.0%, P < 0.001). Patients with AKI had a longer time to
      hospital arrival (P = 0.003), lower PaO2 (P = 0.006) and higher alveolar-arterial
      O2 difference (P < 0.001) 48 h after admission, higher sequential organ failure
      assessment 48-h score (P < 0.001), higher severity index of paraquat poisoning
      (SIPP) score (P = 0.016), lower PaCO2 at admission (P = 0.031), higher PaO2 at
      admission (P = 0.015), lower nadir PaCO2 (P = 0.001) and lower nadir HCO3 (P =
      0.004) than non-AKI patients. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that
      acute hepatitis (P < 0.001), a longer time to hospital arrival (P < 0.001),
      higher SIPP score (P = 0.026) and higher PaO2 at admission (P = 0.014) were
      predictors of AKI. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve
      confirmed that an Acute Kidney Injury Network 48-hour score >= 2 predicted AKI
      necessitating hemodialysis with a sensitivity of 0.6 and specificity of 0.832.
      AKI is common (46.4%) following paraquat ingestion, and acute hepatitis, the time
      to hospital arrival, SIPP score and PaO2 at admission were powerful predictors of
      AKI. Larger studies with longer follow-up durations are warranted.

PMID- 28881653
TI  - Identification of novel small molecule Beclin 1 mimetics activating autophagy.
AB  - Anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL could block autophagy by binding to
      Beclin 1 protein, an essential inducer of autophagy. Compounds mimicking Beclin 1
      might be able to disrupt Bcl-xL/2-Beclin 1 interaction, free out Beclin 1, and
      thus trigger autophagy. In order to identify small molecule Beclin 1 mimetics, a
      fluorescence polarization-based high-throughput screening of 50,316 compounds was
      carried out with a Z' score of 0.82 +/- 0.05, and an outcome of 58 hits. After
      the structure analysis, three acridine analogues were unveiled and confirmed
      using the fluorescence polarization assay and the surface plasmon resonance
      assay. Moreover, a set of 17 additional acridine analogues was prepared and
      tested. Compound 7 showed selectivity for Bcl-xL (KD = 6.5 MUM) over Bcl-2 (KD =
      160 MUM) protein, and potent cytotoxicity (nanomolar scale) in PC-3, PC-3a and
      DU145 prostate cancer cells. Furthermore, induction of autophagy was also
      demonstrated in PC-3 and PC-3a cells treated with some acridine compounds by LC3
      conversion immunoblotting and LC3 fluorescence microscopy. These Beclin 1
      mimetics will be invaluable tools for developing novel autophagy inducers, better
      understanding the roles of autophagy in cancer, and will contribute to cancer
      therapy.

PMID- 28881654
TI  - Fusion between M2-macrophages and cancer cells results in a subpopulation of
      radioresistant cells with enhanced DNA-repair capacity.
AB  - Cell fusion is a natural biological process in normal development and tissue
      regeneration. Fusion between cancer cells and macrophages results in hybrids that
      acquire genetic and phenotypic characteristics from both maternal cells. There is
      a growing body of in vitro and in vivo data indicating that this process also
      occurs in solid tumors and may play a significant role in tumor progression.
      However, investigations of the response of macrophage:cancer cell hybrids to
      radiotherapy have been lacking. In this study, macrophage:MCF-7 hybrids were
      generated by spontaneous in vitro cell fusion. After irradiation, both hybrids
      and their maternal MCF-7 cells were treated with 0 Gy, 2.5 Gy and 5 Gy gamma
      radiation and examined by clonogenic survival and comet assays at three time
      points (0 h, 24 h, and 48 h). Compared to maternal MCF-7 cells, the hybrids
      showed increased survival fraction and plating efficiency (colony formation
      ability) after radiation. The hybrids developed less DNA-damage, expressed
      significantly lower residual DNA-damage, and after higher radiation dose showed
      less heterogeneity in DNA-damage compared to their maternal MCF-7 cells. To our
      knowledge this is the first study that demonstrates that macrophage:cancer cell
      fusion generates a subpopulation of radioresistant cells with enhanced DNA-repair
      capacity. These findings provide new insight into how the cell fusion process may
      contribute to clonal expansion and tumor heterogeneity. Furthermore, our results
      provide support for cell fusion as a mechanism behind the development of
      radioresistance and tumor recurrence.

PMID- 28881655
TI  - DNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter induced by folate deficiency is a potential
      noninvasive circulating biomarker for colorectal adenocarcinomas.
AB  - Aberrant DNA methylation patterns, which induced by folate deficiency, play
      important roles in tumorigenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Some DNA methylation
      alterations can also be detected in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) of patients' plasma,
      making cfDNA an ideal noninvasive circulating biomarker. However, exact DNA
      methylation alterations induced by folate deficiency in tumorigenesis of CRC and
      exact potential circulating cfDNA methylation biomarker are still unclear.
      Therefore, DNA methylation patterns of the normal human colon mucosal epithelial
      cell line (NCM460), cultured with normal or low folate content, were screened and
      the DNA hypomethylation of cystathionine-beta-synthase (CBS) promoter was further
      validated in vitro and vivo. Then, the correlation analysis between folate level,
      DNA methylation alteration in promoter and expression of CBS was carried out in
      vitro and vivo. Further, the methylation patterns of CBS promoter in plasma cfDNA
      were detected and statistically correlated with pathological parameters and
      clinical outcome. Our study showed that DNA hypomethylation in CBS promoter,
      induced by folate deficiency, would lead to up-regulation of CBS both in vitro
      and vivo. Patients with cfDNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter in plasma were
      correlated with high tumor stage and poor clinical outcome. In addition, cfDNA
      hypomethylation of CBS promoter in plasma was shown to be an independent
      prognostic factor for recurrence and cancer-related death in CRC. Our results
      indicated that DNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter induced by folate deficiency
      could serve as a potential noninvasive circulating biomarker and may be helpful
      in developing more effective prognostic markers for CRC.

PMID- 28881656
TI  - BRD4 facilitates DNA damage response and represses CBX5/Heterochromatin protein 1
      (HP1).
AB  - Ovarian cancer (OC) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by defective DNA
      repair. Very few targets are universally expressed in the high grade serous (HGS)
      subtype. We previously identified that CHK1 was overexpressed in most of HGSOC.
      Here, we sought to understand the DNA damage response (DDR) to CHK1 inhibition
      and increase the anti-tumor activity of this pathway. We found BRD4 suppression
      either by siRNA or BRD4 inhibitor JQ1 enhanced the cytotoxicity of CHK1
      inhibition. Interestingly, BRD4 was amplified and/or upregulated in a subset of
      HGSOC with statistical correlation to overall survival. BRD4 inhibition increased
      CBX5 (HP1alpha) level. CHK1 inhibitor induced DDR marker, gamma-H2AX, but BRD4
      suppression did not. Furthermore, nuclear localization of CBX5 and gamma-H2AX was
      mutually exclusive in BRD4-and CHK1-inhibited cells, suggesting BRD4 facilitates
      DDR by repressing CBX5. Our results provide a strong rationale for clinical
      investigation of CHK1 and BRD4 co-inhibition, especially for HGSOC patients with
      BRD4 overexpression.

PMID- 28881658
TI  - Decitabine-Vorinostat combination treatment in acute myeloid leukemia activates
      pathways with potential for novel triple therapy.
AB  - Despite advancements in cancer therapeutics, acute myeloid leukemia patients over
      60 years old have a 5-year survival rate of less than 8%. In an attempt to
      improve this, epigenetic modifying agents have been combined as therapies in
      clinical studies. In particular combinations with Decitabine and Vorinostat have
      had varying degrees of efficacy. This study therefore aimed to understand the
      underlying molecular mechanisms of these agents to identify potential rational
      epi-sensitized combinations. Combined Decitabine-Vorinostat treatment
      synergistically decreased cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, enhanced
      acetylation of histones and further decreased DNMT1 protein with HL-60 cells
      showing a greater sensitivity to the combined treatment than OCI-AML3.
      Combination therapy led to reprogramming of unique target genes including AXL, a
      receptor tyrosine kinase associated with cell survival and a poor prognosis in
      AML, which was significantly upregulated following treatment. Therefore targeting
      AXL following epi-sensitization with Decitabine and Vorinostat may be a suitable
      triple combination. To test this, cells were treated with a novel triple
      combination therapy including BGB324, an AXL specific inhibitor. Triple
      combination increased the sensitivity of OCI-AML3 cells to Decitabine and
      Vorinostat as shown through viability assays and significantly extended the
      survival of mice transplanted with pretreated OCI-AML3 cells, while
      bioluminescence imaging showed the decrease in disease burden following triple
      combination treatment. Further investigation is required to optimize this triple
      combination, however, these results suggest that AXL is a potential marker of
      response to Decitabine-Vorinostat combination treatment and offers a new avenue
      of epigenetic combination therapies for acute myeloid leukemia.

PMID- 28881659
TI  - SIRT1 inhibition promotes atherosclerosis through impaired autophagy.
AB  - SIRT1, a highly conserved NAD+-dependent protein deacetylase, plays a pivotal
      role in the pathogenesis and therapy of atherosclerosis (AS). The aim of this
      study is to investigate the potential effects of SIRT1 on AS in ApoE-/- mice and
      the underlying mechanisms of autophagy in an ox-LDL-stimulated human monocyte
      cell line, THP-1. In vivo, the accelerated atherosclerotic progression of mice
      was established by carotid collar placement; then, mice were treated for 4 weeks
      with a SIRT1-specific inhibitor, EX-527. The atherosclerotic lesion size of EX
      527-treated mice was greatly increased compared to that of the mice in the
      control group. Immunostaining protocols confirmed that the inhibition of SIRT1
      during plaque initiation and progression enhanced the extent of intraplaque
      macrophage infiltration and impaired the autophagy process. In vitro cultured THP
      1 macrophages exposed to ox-LDL were utilized to study the link between the SIRT1
      function, autophagy flux, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, and foam cell
      formation using different methods. Our data showed that ox-LDL markedly
      suppressed SIRT1 protein expression and the autophagy level, while it elevated
      the MCP-1 production and lipid uptake. Additionally, the application of the SIRT1
      inhibitor EX-527 or SIRT1 siRNA further attenuated ox-LDL-induced autophagy
      inhibition. In conclusion, our results show that the inhibition of SIRT1 promoted
      atherosclerotic plaque development in ApoE-/- mice by increasing the MCP-1
      expression and macrophage accumulation. In particular, we demonstrate that
      blocking SIRT1 can exacerbate the acetylation of key autophagy machinery, the
      Atg5 protein, which further regulates the THP-1 macrophage-derived foam cell
      formation that is triggered by ox-LDL.

PMID- 28881657
TI  - Tumor biomarker conversion between primary and metastatic breast cancer: mRNA
      assessment and its concordance with immunohistochemistry.
AB  - Biomarker changes between primary (PT) and metastatic tumor (MT) site may be
      significant in individualizing treatment strategies and can result from actual
      clonal evolution, biomarker conversion, or technical limitations of diagnostic
      tests. This study explored biomarker conversion during breast cancer (BC)
      progression in 67 patients with different tumor subtypes and metastatic sites via
      mRNA quantification and subsequently analyzed the concordance between real-time
      qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Immunostaining for estrogen receptor (ER),
      progesterone receptor (PR), HER2, and Ki-67 was performed on formalin-fixed,
      paraffin-embedded PT and MT tissue sections. RT-qPCR was performed using a
      multiplex RT-qPCR kit for ESR1, PGR, ERBB2, and MKI67 and the reference genes B2M
      and CALM2. Subsequent measurement of tumor biomarker mRNA expression to detect
      conversion revealed significant decreases in ESR1 and PGR mRNA and MKI67
      upregulation (all p < 0.001) in MT compared to PT of all tumor subtypes and ERBB2
      upregulation in MT from triple-negative PT patients (p = 0.023). Furthermore,
      ERBB2 mRNA was upregulated in MT brain biopsies, particularly those from triple
      negative PTs (p = 0.023). High concordance between RT-qPCR and IHC was observed
      for ER/ESR1 (81%(kappa 0.51) in PT and 84%(kappa 0.34) in MT, PR/PGR (70%(kappa
      0.10) in PT and 78% (kappa -0.32) in MT), and for HER2/ERBB2 (100% in PT and 89%
      in MT). Discordance between mRNA biomarker assessments of PT and MT resulting
      from receptor conversion calls for dynamic monitoring of BC tumor biomarkers.
      Overall, RT-qPCR assessment of BC target genes and their mRNA expression is
      highly concordant with IHC protein analysis in both primary and metastatic tumor.

PMID- 28881660
TI  - Activation of PERK branch of ER stress mediates homocysteine-induced BKCa channel
      dysfunction in coronary artery via FoxO3a-dependent regulation of atrogin-1.
AB  - The molecular mechanism of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in vascular
      pathophysiology remains inadequately understood. We studied the role of ER stress
      in homocysteine-induced impairment of coronary dilator function, with uncovering
      the molecular basis of the effect of ER stress on smooth muscle large-conductance
      Ca2+-activated K+ (BKCa) channels. The vasodilatory function of BKCa channels was
      studied in a myograph using endothelium-denuded porcine small coronary arteries.
      Primary cultured porcine coronary artery smooth muscle cells were used for mRNA
      and protein measurements and current recording of BKCa channels. Homocysteine
      inhibited vasorelaxant response to the BKCachannel opener NS1619, lowered BKCa
      beta1 subunit protein level and suppressed BKCa current. Inhibition of ER stress
      restored BKCa beta1 protein level and NS1619-evoked vasorelaxation. Selective
      blockade of the PKR-like ER kinase (PERK) yielded similarly efficient restoration
      of BKCa beta1, preserving BKCa current and BKCa-mediated vasorelaxation. The
      restoration of BKCa beta1 by PERK inhibition was associated with reduced atrogin
      1 expression and decreased nuclear localization of forkhead box O transcription
      factor 3a (FoxO3a). Silencing of atrogin-1 prevented homocysteine-induced BKCa
      beta1 loss and silencing of FoxO3a prevented atrogin-1 upregulation induced by
      homocysteine, accompanied by preservation of BKCa beta1 protein level and BKCa
      current. ER stress mediates homocysteine-induced BKCa channel inhibition in
      coronary arteries. Activation of FoxO3a by PERK branch underlies the ER stress
      mediated BKCa inhibition through a mechanism involving ubiquitin ligase-enhanced
      degradation of the channel beta1 subunit.

PMID- 28881661
TI  - Combination of Fe/Cu -chelators and docosahexaenoic acid: an exploration for the
      treatment of colorectal cancer.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the major causes of cancer deaths in the world.
      5-fluorouracil (5-FU) -based chemotherapy is a common choice for patients with
      CRC; unfortunately, the benefit is rather limited due to the acquisition of drug
      resistance. Therefore, the alternative therapeutic strategies are required. The
      activation of autophagic mechanism was considered as the main cause of the
      acquisition of drug resistance in 5-FU treatment. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a
      fatty acid, has been regarded as an efficient anticancer agent and can improve
      the drug resistance in conventional cancer therapy by a low basal level of
      autophagy in colon cancer cells. Moreover, removal of iron or copper by metal
      chelators could cause ROS levels increase and mediate cancer cell cytotoxicity
      led by autophagy. In the present study, we constructed a combination of 5-FU, 1:1
      mixture of metal chelators di-2-pyridylketone 4-cyclohexyl-4-methyl-3
      thiosemicarbazone hydrochloride (DpC) and N, N, N', N'-tetrakis-[2-pyridylmethyl]
      ethylenediamine (TPEN) named DTN, and DHA to evaluate the anticancer effect of
      this combination, compared to the traditional 5-FU-based chemotherapy; further we
      investigated the underlying mechanism. Through inducing ROS-mediated degradation
      of Mcl-1 ubiquitination, the triple combination of 5-FU, DTN and DHA resulted in
      the elevated apoptosis in CRC cells, thus to reduce the tumor size and weight.
      Taken together, this study suggests the triple combination of 5-FU+DTN+DHA
      exhibits an effective anticancer activity of overcoming drug resistance in
      colorectal cancer, mechanism as the elevated apoptosis mediated by an increase of
      ROS and Mcl-1 ubiquitination, may be a novel strategy for clinical colon cancer
      treatment.

PMID- 28881662
TI  - Bevacizumab significantly increases the risks of hypertension and proteinuria in
      cancer patients: A systematic review and comprehensive meta-analysis.
AB  - Published data regarding the overall risks and incidence of hypertension and
      proteinuria associated with bevacizumab were still unclear. To quantify the
      precise risks and incidence, we performed this comprehensive meta-analysis of 72
      published clinical trials including 21902 cases and 20608 controls. The overall
      incidence, risk ratios (RRs), and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were
      calculated using a fixed or random-effect model based on the heterogeneity. The
      incidence of all-grade and high-grade hypertension were 25.3% (95% CI: 21.5%
      29.5%) and 8.2% (95% CI: 7%-9.8%) for patients treated with bevacizumab. And the
      incidence of all-grade and high-grade proteinuria were 18% (95% CI: 11.7%-26.6%)
      and 2.4% (95% CI: 1.8%-3.2%), respectively. Compared with controls, bevacizumab
      significantly increased the risks of all-grade (RR: 3.595, 95% CI: 2.952-4.378)
      and high-grade hypertension (RR: 5.173, 95% CI: 4.188-6.390). Obviously increased
      risks of all-grade (RR: 3.369, 95% CI: 2.492-4.556) and high-grade proteinuria
      (RR: 5.494, 95% CI: 3.991-7.564) were also observed. In the subgroup analysis,
      the risks of hypertension and proteinuria may significantly vary with bevacizumab
      dosage, cancer types and concomitant drugs. Whereas, no obvious difference were
      discovered when stratified based on phase of trials, age of patients, treatment
      line and duration. So, close monitor and effective management were highly
      recommended for the safe use of bevacizumab.

PMID- 28881663
TI  - Bisphenol A exposure promotes HTR-8/SVneo cell migration and impairs mouse
      placentation involving upregulation of integrin-beta1 and MMP-9 and stimulation
      of MAPK and PI3K signaling pathways.
AB  - In this study, we investigated the effect of Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine
      disrupting chemical, on the migration of human trophoblasts and mouse
      placentation by using the primary extravillous trophoblast (EVT) and its cell
      line HTR-8/SVneo, villous explant cultures, and pregnant mice. BPA increased EVT
      motility and the outgrowth of villous explants in a dose-dependent manner. BPA
      also increased the protein levels of integrin-beta1 and matrix metalloproteinase
      (MMP)-9 in human EVTs. Low-dose BPA (<=50 mg) increased the protein levels of MMP
      9 and MMP-2 as well as integrin-beta1 and integrin-alpha5 in mouse placenta and
      decreased the proportion of the labyrinth and spongiotrophoblast layers.
      Inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) U0126 and
      phosphatidylinositol-3-kinases (PI3K) LY294002 reversed the protein levels of
      integrin-beta1 and MMP-9 as well as the migratory ability induced by BPA. In
      conclusion, these results indicated that BPA can enhance trophoblast migration
      and impair placentation in mice by a mechanism involving upregulation of
      integrin(s) and MMP(s) as well as the stimulation of MAPK and PI3K/Akt (protein
      kinase B) signaling pathways.

PMID- 28881664
TI  - Prognostic microRNAs in upper tract urothelial carcinoma: multicenter and
      international validation study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To validate previously discovered miRNAs (miR-31-5p and miR-149-5p) as
      prognostic factors for UTUC in an independent cohort of UTUC patients. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: Multicenter, international and retrospective study of formalin-fixed
      paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 103 UTUC patients (45 progressing and 58
      non-progressing) who underwent radical nephroureterectomy. Total RNA was isolated
      and reverse transcribed. The expression of target miRNAs (miR-31-5p and miR-149
      5p) and the endogenous control miR-218-5p was evaluated in all samples by reverse
      transcription quantitative PCR. Normalized miRNA expression values were evaluated
      by multivariate forward stepwise Cox regression analysis. Kaplan Meier curves
      were used to discriminate between two groups of patients with a different
      probability of tumour progression. RESULTS: The mean age (range) of the series
      was 67 (33-94) years. Overall, 45 patients (43.7%) developed tumour progression
      and 32 patients (31.2%) died, 20 of these (62.5%) due to their UTUC, after a
      median follow-up of 36 months. The mean time for tumour progression and cancer
      specific survival were 15 and 20 months, respectively. Five year tumour
      progression free survival and cancer-specific survival were 58% for <= pT2, 36%
      for pT3 and 0% for pT4 and 67.8% for <= pT2, 50.6% for pT3 and 0% for pT4,
      respectively. In the multivariate analysis, expression of miR-31-5p was found to
      be an independent prognostic factor of tumour progression (HR 1.1; 95% CI 1.039
      1.273; p=0.02). Kaplan Meier curve shows that miR-31-5p expression values are
      able to discriminate between two groups of UTUC patients with a different
      probability of tumour progression (p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: We have been able to
      validate our previous results in an independent multicentre international cohort
      of UTUC patients, suggesting that miRNA-31-5p could be a useful prognostic marker
      of UTUC progression. The application of miRNA expression values to clinical
      practice could refine the currently used clinicopathological-based approach for
      predicting UTUC patients' outcome.

PMID- 28881665
TI  - HPV-associated differential regulation of tumor metabolism in oropharyngeal head
      and neck cancer.
AB  - HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer patients experience significantly lower
      locoregional recurrence and higher overall survival in comparison with HPV
      negative patients, especially among those who received radiation therapy. The
      goal of the present study is to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying
      the differential radiation sensitivity between HPV-negative and HPV-positive head
      and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Here, we show that HPV-negative HNSCC
      cells exhibit increased glucose metabolism as evidenced by increased production
      of lactate, while HPV-positive HNSCC cells effectively utilize mitochondrial
      respiration as evidenced by increased oxygen consumption. HPV-negative cells
      express HIF1alpha and its downstream mediators of glucose metabolism such as
      hexokinase II (HKII) and carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) at higher levels, while the
      expression level of cytochrome c oxidase (COX) was noticeably higher in HPV
      positive HNSCC. In addition, the expression levels of pyruvate dehydrogenase
      kinases (PDKs), which inhibit pyruvate dehydrogenase activity, thereby preventing
      entry of pyruvate into the mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, were
      much higher in HPV-negative HNSCC compared to those in HPV-positive cells.
      Importantly, a PDK inhibitor, dichloroacetate, effectively sensitized HPV
      negative cells to irradiation. Lastly, we found positive interactions between
      tonsil location and HPV positivity for COX intensity and COX/HKII index ratio as
      determined by immunohistochemical analysis. Overall survival of patients with
      HNSCC at the tonsil was significantly improved with an increased COX expression.
      Taken together, the present study provides molecular insights into the
      mechanistic basis for the differential responses to radiotherapy between HPV
      driven vs. spontaneous or chemically induced oropharyngeal cancer.

PMID- 28881666
TI  - More precise prediction in Chinese patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma:
      protein kinase CK2alpha catalytic subunit (CK2alpha) as a poor prognosticator.
AB  - PURPOSE: In this study, we assess the CK2alpha expression in human penile
      squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and its clinical significance. METHODS: A total of
      157 human penile SCC tissue samples were immunohistochemically analyzed. In
      addition, 12 human penile SCC and adjacent normal tissues were examined for
      CK2alpha protein and mRNA expression by Western blotting and real-time
      quantitative PCR, respectively. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier test
      and the log-rank test. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis
      was performed to determine the impacts of CK2alpha expression and the
      clinicopathological features on patient disease-specific survival (DSS).
      Likelihood ratios (LRs), Akaike information criterion (AIC) values, and
      concordance indexes (C-indexes) were investigated to evaluate the accuracies of
      the factors. Bootstrap-corrected C-indexes were used for internal validation
      (with sampling 1000 times). RESULTS: A significant difference in the distribution
      of CK2alpha was observed between the normal and penile carcinoma tissues
      (P<0.001). CK2alpha expression was associated with the pathological T and N
      stages in the penile cancer tissues (P<0.001). High CK2alpha expression was with
      significantly poorer DSS compared with low expression one (P<0.001). Western
      blotting and real-time quantitative PCR also confirmed that CK2alpha expression
      was increased in the penile cancer tissues. In multivariate Cox regression
      analysis, CK2alpha overexpression still was one of independent prognostic factors
      for penile SCC (P=0.005). The predictive accuracy of CK2alpha was verified by
      analysis of the C-indexes. CONCLUSION: High protein kinase CK2alpha expression is
      associated with several prognostic factors and is thus a significant indicator of
      poor prognosis for penile cancer.

PMID- 28881667
TI  - A high plasma D-dimer level predicts poor prognosis in gynecological tumors in
      East Asia area: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - High pre-treatment plasma D-dimer levels have been reported as a factor
      associated with a poor prognosis in different types of malignancies, including
      pancreatic, gastric, colorectal, lung, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Here, we
      performed a meta-analysis to determine the association of plasma D-dimer levels
      and long term survival in gynecological cancers, including ovarian, cervical and
      endometrial carcinoma. We searched all eligible publications in PubMed and Web of
      Science Databases up to August 2016. Primary outcomes, including overall survival
      (OS), disease-free survival and hazard ratios (HR) of were extracted and
      analyzed. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also assessed. A total of 7
      eligible studies with 1112 cases were included in this study and all included
      studies are conducted in East Asia area. We found that gynecological cancer
      patients with high D-dimer demonstrates a much lower 5-year survival rate than
      those with low D-dimer levels (OR 4.12, 95% CI 3.04-5.58, P<0.00001). No
      significant heterogeneity is found (I2 = 10 %; P = 0.35). Importantly, pooled
      analysis showed that high plasma D-dimer levels are predictive of a shorter OS in
      gynecological cancers (HR 2.09, 95% CI 1.59-2.74). No heterogeneity is observed
      (I2=5%, P=0.39). Additionally, a subgroup analysis of ovarian cancer is
      conducted. In conclusion, this meta-analysis showed that a high plasma D-dimer
      level predicts poor prognosis in gynecological tumors.

PMID- 28881668
TI  - The metastasis suppressor CD82/KAI1 regulates cell migration and invasion via
      inhibiting TGF-beta 1/Smad signaling in renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - The tetraspanin KAI1/CD82 was identified as a tumor metastasis suppressor that
      downregulated in various malignant cell types. However, the function of CD82 and
      its underlying anti-metastasis role in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is still
      unraveled. Here, we investigated the expression of CD82 in RCC and explored its
      regulatory mechanism in RCC cell lines. We found that CD82 was down-regulated in
      RCC tissues and cells and its expression was significantly associated with
      histological grade(p=0.041), tumour stage (p=0.036) and tumor size(p=0.020) by
      analyzing tissue microarrays. After upregulation of CD82 through lentivirus,
      reduced ability of migration and invasion in Caki-1 cells were detected. In
      contrast, gene silencing of CD82 by small interfering RNA promoted metastatic and
      invasive potential of 786-O cells. Furthermore, Western blot was performed to
      identify the influence of CD82 on MMP family and TGF-beta1/Smad pathway in RCC.
      Subsequently, upregulating protein level of TGF-beta1 with the overexpression of
      CD82 could rescue the malignant behaviors inhibited by CD82 which indicated that
      CD82 played its inhibitory role in RCC partially by attenuating the expression of
      TGF-beta1. Taken together, CD82 played a prominent role in migration and invasion
      of RCC cells and it might exhibit its inhibitory role in RCC metastasis via block
      TGF-beta1/Smad signaling pathway.

PMID- 28881669
TI  - Genetic evaluations of Chinese patients with odontohypophosphatasia resulting
      from heterozygosity for mutations in the tissue-non-specific alkaline phosphatase
      gene.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hypophosphatasia is a rare heritable metabolic disorder characterized
      by defective bone and tooth mineralization accompanied by a deficiency of tissue
      non-specific (liver/bone/kidney) isoenzyme of alkaline phosphatase activity,
      caused by a number of loss-of-function mutations in the alkaline phosphatase
      liver type gene. We seek to explore the clinical manifestations and identify the
      mutations associated with the disease in a Chinese odonto- hypophosphatasia
      family. RESULTS: The proband and his younger brother affected with premature loss
      of primary teeth at their 2-year-old. They have mild abnormal serum alkaline
      phosphatase and 25-hydroxy vitamin D values, but the serum alkaline phosphatase
      activity of their father, mother and grandmother, who showed no clinical symptoms
      of hypophosphatasia, was exhibited significant decreased. In addition to
      premature loss of primary teeth, the proband and his younger brother showed low
      bone mineral density, X-rays showed that they had slight metaphyseal osteoporosis
      changes, but no additional skeletal abnormalities. Deoxyribonucleic acid
      sequencing and analysis revealed a single nucleotide polymorphism c.787T>C
      (p.Y263H) in exon 7 and/or a novel mutation c.-92C>T located at 5'UTR were found
      in the affected individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined all individuals
      of an odonto- hypophosphatasia family by clinical and radiographic examinations
      as well as laboratory assays. Furthermore, all 12 exons and the exon-intron
      boundaries of the alkaline phosphatase liver type gene were amplified and
      directly sequenced for further analysis and screened for mutations. CONCLUSION:
      Our present findings suggest the single nucleotide polymorphism c.787T>C and c.
      92C>T should be responsible for the odonto- hypophosphatasia disorders in this
      family.

PMID- 28881670
TI  - G-CSF inhibits LFA-1-mediated CD4+ T cell functions by inhibiting Lck and ZAP-70.
AB  - In this study, we showed that G-CSF mobilization increased the frequency of T
      cells, specifically CD3+CD4+ T cells. G-CSF mobilization decreased the secretion
      of inflammatory cytokines of CD4+ T cells through the LFA-1/ICAM-1 signaling
      pathway, whereas it did not alter the TH1/TH2 ratio. We found that G-CSF
      mobilization inhibited LFA-1-mediated CD4+ T cell polarization and motility. In
      vitro, G-CSF stimulation also attenuated the polarization and adhesiveness of
      CD4+ T cells through the LFA-1/ICAM-1 interaction. Further investigation revealed
      that G-CSF mobilization suppressed LFA-1 signaling by down-regulating Lck and ZAP
      70 expression in CD4+ T cells, similar results was also confirmed by in-vitro
      studies. These findings suggested that G-CSF directly suppressed LFA-1-mediated
      CD4+ T cell functions through the down-regulation of Lck and ZAP-70. The
      immunosuppressive effect of G-CSF mobilization deepened our understanding about
      peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. LFA-1/ICMA-1 pathway
      may become a potential target for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis.

PMID- 28881671
TI  - Malignant pericytes expressing GT198 give rise to tumor cells through
      angiogenesis.
AB  - Angiogenesis promotes tumor development. Understanding the crucial factors
      regulating tumor angiogenesis may reveal new therapeutic targets. Human GT198
      (PSMC3IP or Hop2) is an oncoprotein encoded by a DNA repair gene that is
      overexpressed in tumor stromal vasculature to stimulate the expression of
      angiogenic factors. Here we show that pericytes expressing GT198 give rise to
      tumor cells through angiogenesis. GT198+ pericytes and perivascular cells are
      commonly present in the stromal compartment of various human solid tumors and
      rodent xenograft tumor models. In human oral cancer, GT198+ pericytes proliferate
      into GT198+ tumor cells, which migrate into lymph nodes. Increased GT198
      expression is associated with increased lymph node metastasis and decreased
      progression-free survival in oral cancer patients. In rat brain U-251
      glioblastoma xenografts, GT198+ pericytes of human tumor origin encase
      endothelial cells of rat origin to form mosaic angiogenic blood vessels, and
      differentiate into pericyte-derived tumor cells. The net effect is continued
      production of glioblastoma tumor cells from malignant pericytes via angiogenesis.
      In addition, activation of GT198 induces the expression of VEGF and promotes tube
      formation in cultured U251 cells. Furthermore, vaccination using GT198 protein as
      an antigen in mouse xenograft of GL261 glioma delayed tumor growth and prolonged
      mouse survival. Together, these findings suggest that GT198-expressing malignant
      pericytes can give rise to tumor cells through angiogenesis, and serve as a
      potential source of cells for distant metastasis. Hence, the oncoprotein GT198
      has the potential to be a new target in anti-angiogenic therapies in human
      cancer.

PMID- 28881672
TI  - MB4-2/MB4-3 transcripts of IGH-MMSET fusion gene in t(4;14)pos multiple myeloma
      indicate poor prognosis.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) patients with t(4;14) is a heterogeneous group. Prognostic
      tools capable of predicting the outcome of patients are currently lacking. The MM
      SET domain (MMSET) protein is universally overexpressed and has been suggested to
      have an important tumorigenic role. This study analyzed whether the
      overexpression of full-length (MB4-1) or truncated forms (MB4-2 and MB4-3) of
      MMSET influence the prognosis of t(4;14)pos MM patients. A total of 53
      symptomatic t(4;14)pos MM patients were retrospectively analyzed. RT-PCR was
      performed using cDNA from purified CD138+ bone marrow plasma cells to analyze
      expression and clinical significance of the IGH-MMSET fusion transcripts
      corresponding to MB4-1, MB4-2 and MB4-3 breakpoints. Among the patients, 25
      (47.2%), 12 (22.6%) and 16 (30.2%) had the MB4-1, MB4-2 and MB4-3 breakpoints,
      respectively. When adjusted to the established prognostic variables including
      del(17p), ISS stage, serum LDH and serum calcium levels, the pooled MB4-2/MB4-3
      subgroup remained a powerful independent adverse factor for PFS (P=0.013) and OS
      (P=0.029). Bortezomib-based therapy significantly improved the survival of the
      MB4-1 subgroup but could not overcome the negative effect of the MB4-2/MB4-3
      breakpoints. Our results indicate that MB4-2/MB4-3 breakpoints with truncated
      forms of MMSET define a subset of t(4;14)posMM with poor prognosis.

PMID- 28881673
TI  - Bromodomain inhibition shows antitumoral activity in mice and human luminal
      breast cancer.
AB  - BET bromodomain inhibitors, which have an antitumoral effect against various
      solid cancer tumor types, have not been studied in detail in luminal breast
      cancer, despite the prevalence of this subtype of mammary malignancy. Here we
      demonstrate that the BET bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 exerts growth-inhibitory
      activity in human luminal breast cancer cell lines associated with a depletion of
      the C-MYC oncogene, but does not alter the expression levels of the BRD4
      bromodomain protein. Interestingly, expression microarray analyses indicate that,
      upon JQ1 administration, the antitumoral phenotype also involves downregulation
      of relevant breast cancer oncogenes such as the Breast Carcinoma-Amplified
      Sequence 1 (BCAS1) and the PDZ Domain-Containing 1 (PDZK1). We have also applied
      these in vitro findings in an in vivo model by studying a transgenic mouse model
      representing the luminal B subtype of breast cancer, the MMTV-PyMT, in which the
      mouse mammary tumor virus promoter is used to drive the expression of the polyoma
      virus middle T-antigen to the mammary gland. We have observed that the use of the
      BET bromodomain inhibitor for the treatment of established breast neoplasms
      developed in the MMTV-PyMT model shows antitumor potential. Most importantly, if
      JQ1 is given before the expected time of tumor detection in the MMTV-PyMT mice,
      it retards the onset of the disease and increases the survival of these animals.
      Thus, our findings indicate that the use of bromodomain inhibitors is of great
      potential in the treatment of luminal breast cancer and merits further
      investigation.

PMID- 28881674
TI  - Prognostic significance of PD-L1 expression and 18F-FDG PET/CT in surgical
      pulmonary squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - Programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is commonly observed in non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The prognostic value of PD-L1 expression and the
      maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron
      emission tomography (18FDG-PET) in surgical pulmonary squamous cell
      carcinoma(SCC)remains unclear. Furthermore, the correlation between the SUVmax
      and PD-L1 expression has not been assessed. Thus, the purpose of this study was
      to investigate the correlation between PD-L1 expression and the SUVmax on 18FDG
      PET and to examine the prognostic significance of PD-L1 expression and the SUVmax
      in surgical pulmonary SCC. Expression of PD-L1 was examined in 84 patients with
      resected SCC using immunohistochemistry. Positive PD-L1 expression in tumour
      cells was observed in 58.3% (49/84) of patients with SCC. High PD-L1 expression
      levels were significantly correlated with histological differentiation (P=0.006),
      and a high SUVmax was associated with histological differentiation (P=0.037), and
      lymph node metastasis (P=0.025). Spearman's test showed that there was a
      significant correlation between PD-L1 expression levels and the SUVmax. High PD
      L1 expression levels and a high SUVmax were both independent risks factors for
      poor overall survival. Our results suggested that high PD-L1 expression levels
      and a high SUVmax was associated with poor prognosis in surgical pulmonary SCC.
      The existence of a statistically significant correlation between the SUVmax and
      PD-L1 expression levels justifies exploring the usefulness of the SUVmax as a
      predictor of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor activity.

PMID- 28881675
TI  - PD-L1 and intratumoral immune response in breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: PD-L1 is thought to play an important role in the antitumor immune
      response. In this study, we investigated the expression of PD-L1 within breast
      tumor subsets to better define its prognostic significance. METHODS:
      Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine PD-L1 tumor cell expression and
      to enumerate CD8, CD4 and CD68 tumor-infiltrating leucocytes (TIL) in a cohort of
      443 breast cancers categorized by molecular subtype. RESULTS: Across the entire
      cohort, PD-L1 tumor cell expression was observed in 73/443 (16.5%) cases and
      associated with known indicators of poor prognosis, including low patient age,
      high tumor grade, ER/PR negative status, but not with outcome. However, in the
      Triple Negative breast cancer subset PD-L1 was associated with better recurrence
      free survival (RFS) especially within the Basal-like subset (Hazard ratio = 0.39,
      95% CI = 0.22 - 0.86, p = 0.018). Combined PD-L1/epithelial CD8 positive status
      was also strongly associated with better RFS and OS (Hazard ratio = 0.12, 95% CI
      = 0.10 - 0.71, p = 0.010 and Hazard ratio = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.11 - 0.68, p = 0.006
      respectively) in the Basal-like subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: PD-L1 expression is
      associated with better patient survival in Basal-like breast cancer.

PMID- 28881676
TI  - Experimental study on the therapeutic effect and underlining mechanisms of
      positron in pancreatic cancer cells.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to assess the potential therapeutic effect of
      positrons emitted by 18F-2-Deoxy-2-Fluoro-D-Glucose (18F-FDG) on pancreatic
      cancer cells and elucidate its underlying mechanisms. Pancreatic cancer cells
      were incubated with different radioactive concentrations of 18F-FDG and evaluated
      for anti-cancer properties and underlining mechanisms. In addition, three groups
      of tumor-bearing mice were treated with different doses of 18F-FDG weekly, the
      tumor growth rate was calculated, and the mice were imaged by positron emission
      tomography (PET) with 18F-FDG before and after treatment. The presence of
      apoptosis was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end
      labeling (TUNEL) stain and immunohistochemistry analysis. All treated groups
      exhibited positron-inhibited proliferation and positron-induced apoptosis
      compared with the control group in vitro. Further, we noted that higher treatment
      dose correlated with a better treatment response. In vivo, the high dose
      administration of 18F-FDG reduced tumor growth and prolonged the survival of
      treated mice compared with the control group with no change in the behavior or
      normal tissues of the mice. Immunohistochemical analysis and TUNEL stain showed
      more apoptotic cells than that in control group. The results demonstrated that
      positron radiation inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis of
      pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, via an endogenous mitochondria
      mediated signaling pathway.

PMID- 28881677
TI  - Impact of insurance status on the survival of gallbladder cancer patients.
AB  - The prognostic significance of insurance status has been investigated in many
      types of malignancies, however, its impact on gallbladder cancer is yet not
      known. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between
      insurance status and gallbladder cancer survival. We searched the Surveillance,
      Epidemiology, and End Results dataset, and identified 1,729 gallbladder cancer
      cases. Kaplan-Meier methods and multivariable Cox regression models were used to
      analyze survival outcomes and risk factors. We found that individuals who had non
      Medicaid insurance were more likely to be male, older, from wealthier area, and
      better-educated. Insurance status was confirmed as an independent prognostic
      factor for gallbladder cancer patients. Stratified analysis revealed that the
      uninsured status independently predicted unfavorable survival outcome at
      localized tumor stage and in white individuals. To conclude, insurance status is
      an important predictive factor for gallbladder cancer, and uninsured individuals
      are at the highest risk of death.

PMID- 28881678
TI  - Autophagy is required for crizotinib-induced apoptosis in MET-amplified gastric
      cancer cells.
AB  - MET amplification has been clinically credentialed as a therapeutic target in
      gastric cancer, but the molecular mechanisms underlying sensitivity and
      resistance to MET inhibitors are still not well understood. Using whole-genome
      mRNA expression profiling, we identified autophagy as a top molecular pathway
      that was activated by the MET inhibitor crizotinib in drug-sensitive human
      gastric cancer cells, and functional studies confirmed that crizotinib increased
      autophagy levels in the drug-sensitive cells in a concentration-dependent manner.
      We then used chemical and molecular approaches to inhibit autophagy in order to
      define its role in cell death. The clinically available inhibitor of autophagy,
      chloroquine, or RNAi-mediated knockdown of two obligate components of the
      autophagy pathway (ATG5 and ATG7) blocked cell death induced by crizotinib or
      RNAi-mediated knockdown of MET, and mechanistic studies localized the effects of
      autophagy to cytochrome c release from the mitochondria. Overall, the data reveal
      a novel relationship between autophagy and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells
      exposed to MET inhibitors. The observations suggest that autophagy inhibitors
      should not be used to enhance the effects of MET inhibitors in gastric cancer
      patients.

PMID- 28881679
TI  - miR-487b mitigates chronic heart failure through inhibition of the IL-33/ST2
      signaling pathway.
AB  - We investigated the effects of microRNA-587b (miR-487b) in a rat model of chronic
      heart failure (CHF). Wistar rats were assigned to 10 groups (n=8 per group).
      Expression of interleukin-33 (IL-33), somatostatin 2 (ST2), IL-6, and TNF-alpha
      was higher in the CHF group than the control group. In the CHF, negative control
      (NC) for si-IL-33, NC for miR-487b mimic, NC for miR-487b inhibitor, and miR-487b
      inhibitor + si IL-33 groups, as compared to the blank and sham groups: steroid
      binding protein (SBP), D binding protein (DBP), left ventricular systolic
      pressure (LVSP), +/- dp/dtmax, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were all lower;
      myocardial fibrosis, MDA, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP),
      myocardial apoptosis rate, IL-6, and TNF-alpha were all higher; levels of IL-33
      and ST2 mRNA and protein were higher; and levels of miR-487b were lower. Levels
      of IL-33 and ST2 mRNA and protein were lower, and SBP, DBP, LVSP, +/- dp/dtmax,
      and SOD were higher in the miR-487b mimic and si-IL-33 groups than the CHF group.
      Expression of miR-487b was increased in the miR-487b mimic group, and expression
      of IL-33 and ST2 were increased and expression of miR-487b was decreased in the
      miR-487b inhibitor group. MiR-487b reduces apoptosis, inflammatory responses, and
      fibrosis in CHF by suppressing IL-33 through inhibition the IL-33/ST2 signaling
      pathway.

PMID- 28881680
TI  - Identification of dysregulated long non-coding RNAs/microRNAs/mRNAs in TNM I
      stage lung adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the primary subtype in lung cancer, which is the
      leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. This study aimed to investigate
      the aberrant expression profiling of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in TNM I stage
      (stage I) LUAD. The lncRNA/mRNA/miRNA expression profiling of stage I LUAD and
      adjacent non-tumor tissues from 4 patients were measured by RNA-sequencing. Total
      of 175 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs), 1321 differentially expressed
      mRNAs (DEMs) and 94 differentially expressed microRNAs (DEMIs) were identified in
      stage I LUAD. DEMI-DEM regulatory network consisted of 544 nodes and 1123 edge;
      miR-200 family members had high connectivity with DEMs. In DEL-DEM co-expression
      network, CDKN2B-AS1, FENDRR and LINC00312 had the high connectivity with DEMs,
      which co-expressed with 105, 63 and 61 DEMs, respectively. DEL-DEMI-DEM network
      depicted the links among DELs, DEMI and DEMs. Identified DEMs were significantly
      enriched in cell adhesion molecules, focal adhesion and tight junction of Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways; and enriched in cell adhesion,
      angiogenesis and regulation of cell proliferation of Gene Ontology biological
      processes. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction results were
      generally consistent with our bioinformatics analyses. LINC00312 and FENDRR had
      diagnostic value for LUAD patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Our study
      might lay the foundation for illumination of pathogenesis of LUAD and
      identification of potential therapeutic targets and novel diagnosis biomarkers
      for LUAD patients.

PMID- 28881681
TI  - Insulin-like growth factor-1 is a negative modulator of glucagon secretion.
AB  - Glucagon secretion involves a combination of paracrine, autocrine, hormonal, and
      autonomic neural mechanisms. Type 2 diabetes often presents impaired glucagon
      suppression by insulin and glucose. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-1) has
      elevated homology with insulin, and regulates pancreatic beta-cells insulin
      secretion. Insulin and IGF-1 receptors share considerable structure homology and
      function. We hypothesized the existence of a mechanism linking the inhibition of
      alpha-cells glucagon secretion to IGF-1. Herein, we evaluated the association
      between plasma IGF-1 and glucagon levels in 116 nondiabetic adults. After
      adjusting for age gender and BMI, fasting glucagon levels were positively
      correlated with 2-h post-load glycaemia, HOMA index and fasting insulin, and were
      negatively correlated with IGF-1 levels. In a multivariable regression, the
      variables independently associated to fasting glucagon were circulating IGF-1
      levels, HOMA index and BMI, explaining 20.7% variation. To unravel the molecular
      mechanisms beneath IGF-1 and glucagon association, we investigated whether IGF-1
      directly modulates glucagon expression and secretion in an in vitro model of
      alpha-cells. Our data showed that IGF-1 inhibits the ability of low glucose
      concentration to stimulate glucagon expression and secretion via activation of
      the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/Akt/FoxO1 pathway. Collectively, our results
      suggest a new regulatory role of IGF-1 on alpha-cells biological function.

PMID- 28881682
TI  - Inhibition of FAK kinase activity preferentially targets cancer stem cells.
AB  - Because cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been implicated in chemo-resistance,
      metastasis and tumor recurrence, therapeutic targeting of CSCs holds promise to
      address these clinical challenges to cancer treatment. VS-4718 and VS-6063 are
      potent inhibitors of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a non-receptor tyrosine kinase
      that mediates cell signals transmitted by integrins and growth factor receptors.
      We report here that inhibition of FAK kinase activity by VS-4718 or VS-6063
      preferentially targets CSCs, as demonstrated by a panel of orthogonal CSC assays
      in cell line models and surgically resected primary breast tumor specimens
      cultured ex vivo. Oral administration of VS-4718 or VS-6063 to mice bearing
      xenograft models of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) significantly reduced
      the proportion of CSCs in the tumors, as evidenced by a reduced tumor-initiating
      capability upon re-implantation in limiting dilutions of cells prepared from
      these tumors. In contrast, the cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents, paclitaxel and
      carboplatin, enriched for CSCs, consistent with previous reports that these
      cytotoxic agents preferentially target non-CSCs. Importantly, VS-4718 and VS-6063
      attenuated the chemotherapy-induced enrichment of CSCs in vitro and delayed tumor
      regrowth following cessation of chemotherapy. An intriguing crosstalk between FAK
      and the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway was revealed wherein FAK inhibition blocks beta
      catenin activation by reducing tyrosine 654 phosphorylation of beta-catenin.
      Furthermore, a constitutively active mutant form of beta-catenin reversed the
      preferential targeting of CSCs by FAK inhibition, suggesting that this targeting
      is mediated, at least in part, through attenuating beta-catenin activation. The
      preferential targeting of cancer stem cells by FAK inhibitors provides a
      rationale for the clinical development of FAK inhibitors aimed to increase
      durable responses for cancer patients.

PMID- 28881683
TI  - Inhibition of COX2 enhances the chemosensitivity of dichloroacetate in cervical
      cancer cells.
AB  - Dichloroacetate (DCA), a traditional mitochondria-targeting agent, has shown
      promising prospect as a sensitizer in fighting against malignancies including
      cervical cancer. But it is unclear about the effect of DCA alone on cervical
      tumor. Moreover, previous reports have demonstrated that the increased
      cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) expression is associated with chemoresistance and poor
      prognosis of cervical cancer. However, it is still unknown whether COX2 can
      affect the sensitivity of DCA in cervical cancer cells. In this study, we found
      that cervical cancer cells were insensitive to DCA. Furthermore, we for the first
      time revealed that DCA could upregulate COX2 which impeded the chemosensitivity
      of DCA in cervical cancer cells. Mechanistic study showed that DCA reduced the
      level of RNA binding protein quaking (QKI), leading to the decay suppression of
      COX2 mRNA and the subsequent elevation of COX2 protein. Inhibition of COX2 using
      celecoxib could sensitize DCA in repressing the growth of cervical cancer cells
      both in vitro and in vivo. These results indicate that COX2 is a novel resistance
      factor of DCA, and combination of celecoxib with DCA may be beneficial to the
      treatment of cervical cancer.

PMID- 28881684
TI  - Efficacy and safety of long-term therapy for high-grade glioma with temozolomide:
      A meta-analysis.
AB  - Further treatments are warranted in preventing recurrence or progression for high
      grade glioma (HGG) patients having achieved stable disease with tolerable
      toxicity after the Stupp regimen (6 cycles of temozolomide). This meta-analysis
      aims to extensively evaluate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of long-term
      therapy with temozolomide (>6 cycles) for these patients. We systematically
      searched the pubmed, Embase and Chinese Biomedical (CBM) databases using the
      strategy of combination of free-text words and MeSH terms. The efficacy
      indicators are hazard ratio (HR) for the pooled analysis of overall survival (OS)
      and progression free survival (PFS). The safety indicator is risk ratio (RR) for
      the pooled analysis of adverse effects. Six studies comprising a total number of
      396 patients met all inclusion and exclusion criteria were included. No
      heterogeneity and publication bias were observed across each study. It was found
      that patients could obtain benefits from long-term administration of temozolomide
      both in OS (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.82-3.14) and PFS (HR 2.12, 95% CI 1.56-2.89). In
      addition, the results showed that the patients receiving long-term administration
      of temozolomide did not experience additional toxicity over that of the Stupp
      regimen (6 cycles of temozolomide). It could be concluded that it's efficacious
      and safe for HGG patients to receive long-term therapy with temozolomide.
      Nevertheless, more randomized controlled trials (RCTs) should be carried out to
      verify this conclusion.

PMID- 28881686
TI  - Survival benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors according to the histology in
      non-small-cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis and review.
AB  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been approved for patients with advanced
      non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), regardless of histology. However, histologic
      subtypes of NSCLC may influence treatment outcomes of ICIs. We conducted this
      meta-analysis to investigate if there is difference in survival benefits of ICIs
      between squamous (SQ) and non-squamous (non-SQ) NSCLC. We searched PubMed,
      MEDLINE, EMBASE and ESMO databases. We included randomized controlled trials with
      the data of survival outcomes in advanced NSCLC patients treated with ICIs. From
      7 eligible studies, 998 patients with SQ NSCLC and 2,769 with non-SQ NSCLC were
      included in the meta-analysis. ICIs improved progression-free survival (PFS)
      significantly in patients with SQ NSCLC (HR = 0.68 [95% confidence interval (CI),
      0.51-0.91], P = 0.01), compared to chemotherapy. For patients with non-SQ NSCLC,
      however, ICIs were not associated with significant improvement of PFS (HR = 0.88
      [95% CI, 0.67-1.16], P = 0.37). In terms of overall survival (OS), ICIs prolonged
      OS significantly in both SQ (HR = 0.71 [95% CI, 0.60-0.83], P < 0.0001) and non
      SQ NSCLC (HR = 0.77 [95% CI, 0.63-0.94], P = 0.01). In conclusion, this meta
      analysis indicates that ICIs significantly prolong OS in both SQ and non-SQ
      NSCLC.

PMID- 28881685
TI  - Association between PSCA gene polymorphisms and the risk of cancer: an updated
      meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.
AB  - Previous studies have investigated the relationships between PSCA rs2294008 C>T
      and rs2976392 G>A polymorphisms and cancer susceptibility. However, the available
      findings remained inconsistent and even controversial. Thus, the aim of this meta
      analysis was performed to clarify such associations. The online databases PubMed,
      EMBASE and Web of Science searched for relevant studies, covering all the papers
      published until September 1st, 2016. Data were pooled by odds ratios (ORs) with
      95% confidence intervals (CIs) to evaluate the strength of such associations.
      Then, trial sequential analysis was performed to estimate whether the evidence of
      the results was firm. Overall, a significant increased risk of cancer was
      associated with PSCA rs2294008 C>T and rs2976392 G>A polymorphisms. For the PSCA
      rs2294008 polymorphism, when stratified by type of cancer, the results were
      significant especially in gastric cancer and bladder cancer. Moreover, in the
      subgroup analysis by ethnicity, significant results were detected in both Asian
      and Caucasian populations. Similarly, for the PSCA rs2976392 polymorphism, the
      stratification analyses by type of cancer showed that the results were
      significant only in gastric cancer. In addition, the stratification analyses by
      ethnicity detected that this polymorphism increased cancer risk only in Asian
      populations. Then, trial sequential analyses demonstrated that the results of the
      meta-analysis were based on sufficient evidence. Therefore, this meta-analysis
      suggested that the PSCA rs2294008 C>T and rs2976392 G>A polymorphisms might be
      associated with cancer susceptibility, which might act as a potential predicted
      biomarker for genetic susceptibility to cancer, especially in gastric cancer and
      bladd er cancer.

PMID- 28881687
TI  - OGTT 1h serum C-peptide to plasma glucose concentration ratio is more related to
      beta cell function and diabetes mellitus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To clarify the association between C-peptide index and pancreatic beta
      cell function and diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We carried out a retrospective
      analysis of 1021 patients aged 27 to 80 without diabetes from January 2012 to
      January 2016. All subjects underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test. Blood
      samples were drawn at 0, 30, 60, 120 and 180 min after the glucose load. Plasma
      glucose concentrations, serum insulin levels, C-peptide levels, hemoglobin A1c
      (HbA1c), and other biochemical indicators were determined. C-peptide index was
      calculated as the ratio of C-peptide to plasma glucose. Disposition index was
      calculated as the result of the insulin sensitivity * insulin secretion. Area
      under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to compare the
      diagnostic ability of C-peptide index for type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: C-peptide
      index 1h was the most related one to disposition index (r = 647, p<0.001) and C
      peptide release (r = 0.879, p<0.001). Both C-peptide index 1h (Exp(beta) = 0.28,
      p<0.001) and 2h (Exp(beta) = 0.42, p<0.001) were independently associated with
      disposition index, but the OR of C-peptide index 1h for diabetes was much lower.
      Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of both C-peptide index 1h
      and 2h were all above 0.9, but the area of C-peptide index 1h was the highest one
      (0.937 vs 0.917). C-peptide index 1h has the highest diagnostic value
      (sensitivity = 90%, specificy = 85.2% vs sensitivity = 83.5%, specificy = 87.9%).
      CONCLUSION: C-peptide index after oral glucose ingestion may reflect the maximal
      beta-cell function and is more related to diabetes. C-peptide index 1h is the
      most relevant one.

PMID- 28881688
TI  - The clinical utility and outcomes of microwave ablation for colorectal cancer
      liver metastases.
AB  - In recent years, the microwave ablation (MWA) has been reported to play an
      important role in the treatment of patients with colorectal liver metastases
      (CRLM). In this work, 62 cases of patients who received MWA for liver metastases
      from colon or rectal cancer between Jan 2012 and Jan 2014 were enrolled in this
      trial. 28 underwent MWA, and 34 were treated with liver resection as control.
      Perioperative and 60 months of follow-up data were collected to analyze potential
      adverse effects, concurrent conditions and survival status. Here, we found there
      were no significant differences between both groups in the baseline level,
      including gender, size, number and pathological type (all p>0.05). In those
      patients, the mean hospitalization duration of patients with MWA is 5.9+/-0.9d,
      which is significantly different from control (11.8+/-6.9 d) (p<0.001). Little
      severe complication was observed in MWA group, while 26.5% (9/34) of patients
      developed severe complications (p=0.003). Besides, the mean hospitalization cost
      of patients with MWA was significantly less than that of control (p<0.000).
      Additionally, we found no statistically significant differences in disease-free
      survival (DFS) (p=0.156) or overall survival (OS) (p=0.580). In conclusion, MWA
      may be a safe, economical and competent way to treat inoperable CRLM patients,
      which has more advantages than liver resection in some degree.

PMID- 28881689
TI  - Cause of death in patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer in Sweden: a
      population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Esophageal cancer carries a poor prognosis with an overall 5-year
      survival of less than 20%. However, the causes of death in patients with
      esophageal cancer have not been well described. METHODS: This nationwide,
      population-based cohort study included 18 229 esophageal cancer patients who were
      diagnosed between 1961 and 2014 in Sweden. We assessed the distribution of main
      causes of death in patients with esophageal cancer and used competing-risks
      regression to compare the cause-specific risks of death across sexes, ages at
      diagnosis, and calendar periods of diagnosis. RESULTS: A total of 16 938 (92.9%)
      patients died during follow-up. Esophageal cancer accounted for 79.5% of all
      reported deaths. Other major causes of death were non-esophageal cancers (9.8%),
      ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease (4.2%) and respiratory diseases
      (1.3%). Female patients had a lower risk of death from esophageal cancer (sub
      hazard ratio [SHR]=0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.94), which was
      more pronounced in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SHR=0.85, 95% CI: 0.81,
      0.89). Risks of death from esophageal cancer and other cancers in patients who
      were diagnosed in more recent calendar periods were lower than in those diagnosed
      in earlier periods. CONCLUSIONS: Patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer are
      more likely to die from this cancer than from other causes. However, these
      patients also face considerable risk of death from other cancers, ischemic heart
      disease, cerebrovascular disease, and respiratory diseases. These common causes
      of death should be taken into consideration in esophageal cancer management.

PMID- 28881690
TI  - Perioperative entecavir for patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma
      and low levels of viral DNA: analysis using propensity score matching.
AB  - The safety and efficacy of perioperative antiviral therapy for patients with
      hepatitis B virus related hepatocellular carcinoma and low serum levels of
      hepatitis B virus DNA are unknown. This retrospective study compared serum levels
      of hepatitis B virus DNA, liver function, morbidity, and length of hospital stay
      between patients who underwent hepatic resection alone and patients who received
      entecavir therapy before and after resection (n = 44 in each group). Propensity
      score matching was used to reduce confounding due to baseline differences between
      the groups. Hepatitis B virus reactivation during follow-up, which lasted a
      median of 6.1 months, occurred in one patient in the entecavir group (2.3%) and
      11 patients in the resection-only group (25%; P = 0.02). Liver function,
      especially alanine aminotransferase levels, recovered much faster in the
      entecavir group. This group also showed a slightly lower rate of morbidity (P =
      0.081) as well as significantly shorter overall hospital stay (20.1 +/- 4.9 vs
      24.9 +/- 13.2 days; P = 0.028) and postoperative hospital stay (11.4 +/- 1.9 vs
      16.8 +/- 13.1 days; P = 0.008). These results from this pilot study suggest that
      patients with hepatitis B virus related hepatocellular carcinoma and low levels
      of hepatitis B virus DNA are at risk of hepatitis B virus reactivation following
      resection, and that perioperative entecavir therapy can safely and effectively
      reduce this risk. Such therapy also appears to improve liver function and shorten
      hospitalization.

PMID- 28881691
TI  - Critical role of matrix metallopeptidase 9 in postoperative cognitive dysfunction
      and age-dependent cognitive decline.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a significant clinical
      syndrome. Neuroinflammation is an important pathological process for POCD.
      However, it is not clear how systemic inflammation induced by surgery on
      peripheral tissues or organs is transmitted into the brain. We determined whether
      matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9), a protein that can increase blood-brain barrier
      permeability, is critical in this transmission. The role of MMP9 in age-dependent
      cognitive decline was also determined. METHODS: Two-month old male C57BL/6J wild
      type mice and MMP9-/- mice were randomly assigned to control or surgery groups.
      The surgery was right carotid artery exposure under isoflurane anesthesia.
      Cognitive function was tested from one week after the surgery by Barnes maze and
      fear conditioning. Cognitive function of 2-month old C57BL/6J mice was compared
      with that of 18-month old mice. RESULTS: Surgery increased the expression of
      interleukin 1beta, interleukin 6 and ionized calcium binding adapter molecule 1,
      inflammation indicators, in the brain of the wild-type mice. Blood-brain barrier
      permeability was increased by surgery. Surgery also impaired the learning and
      memory of these mice. These surgical effects were absent in the MMP9-/- mice.
      Eighteen-month old wild-type mice had poorer performance in Barnes maze and fear
      conditioning tests and lower MMP9 protein expression and activity than did the 2
      month old mice. CONCLUSION: MMP9 is critical for transmission of systemic
      inflammation into the brain for POCD. MMP9 may also play a role in age-dependent
      cognitive decline.

PMID- 28881692
TI  - Cabazitaxel in recurrent/metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck:
      phase II UNICANCER trial ORL03.
AB  - Treatments are limited after platinum Cetuximab or anti-PD1 failure for patients
      with recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Cabazitaxel has
      increased overall survival in hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer after
      failure of Docetaxel. Our aim was to detect a signal of activity with Cabazitaxel
      in patients with head and neck cancer who had failed platinum-, Cetuximab- and
      taxanes-based chemotherapy. This multicenter phase II trial included progressive
      patients with an ECOG <=2. Cabazitaxel was given at 25 mg/m2/3 weeks (maximum of
      10 cycles), with growth factors support. Efficacy was centralized and assessed
      every 6 weeks. The primary endpoint was control rate at six-weeks. A Simon's two
      stage optimal design (P0=0.10; P1=0.30) required 29 evaluable patients. At the
      end of trial, at least 6 non-progressions were required to consider the drug
      worthy of further study. Out of the 31 enrolled patients, 29 were eligible; 42%
      had received at least three previous lines of chemotherapy. For the primary end
      point, 8 patients (27.6%; 95%CI 12.7%-47.2%) had a stable disease at six weeks.
      Median progression-free survival was 1.05 months (95%CI 0.69-2.07). All patients
      were analyzed for toxicity: 6 patients had febrile neutropenia. During the 81
      cycles administered, 49 grade 3-5 events were observed concerning 81% of the
      patients, including 35 severe adverse events of which 15 were related to
      Cabazitaxel. Although Cabazitaxel met its primary endpoint to deserve further
      investigations, its toxicity makes it difficult to use in frail patients and new
      schemes are needed (20 mg/m2 for example) if further investigations are launched.

PMID- 28881693
TI  - Predictive factors of para-aortic lymph nodes metastasis in cervical cancer
      patients: a retrospective analysis based on 723 para-aortic lymphadenectomy
      cases.
AB  - Para-aortic lymph node (PALN) dissection is optional and controversial in
      patients with stage IB1-IIA2 cervical cancer. This retrospective study
      investigated PALN involvement patterns and evaluated preoperative clinical
      factors. A total of 723 consecutive FIGO stage IB1-IIA2 cervical cancer patients
      were included in the study. All patients underwent radical hysterectomy/radical
      trachelectomy, pelvic lymph node dissection, and PALN dissection. PALN metastasis
      was found in 101 (14.0%) patients, and the positive PALN rates of stage IB1, IB2,
      IIA1, and IIA2 were 8.4%, 11.1%, 17.2% and 21.7%, respectively. A multivariate
      model suggested age > 46 years (OR: 1.67, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08
      2.58), tumor size > 3.5 cm (OR: 1.79, 95% CI: 1.12-2.87), and FIGO stage IIA (vs.
      IB) (OR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.25-3.11) all positively correlated with PALN metastasis.
      When squamous cervical cancer cases were categorically analyzed, a multivariate
      model indicated age > 46 years (OR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.00-2.80), FIGO stage IIA (vs.
      IB) (OR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.02-3.02), and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) >
      6.5 ng/ml (OR: 5.20, 95% CI: 3.07-8.81) all positively correlated with PALN
      metastasis. Age, tumor size, and FIGO stage correlated with PALN metastasis in
      cervical cancer, while age, FIGO stage, and SCCA level were predictive in
      squamous cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28881694
TI  - Individual isotoxic radiation dose escalation based on V20 and advanced
      technologies benefits unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients
      treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy: long term follow-up.
AB  - Under the assumption that the highest therapeutic ratio could be achieved by
      increasing the total tumor dose (TTD) to the limits of normal tissues, the phase
      I trial was conducted in patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung
      cancer treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy, to determine the feasibility
      and effects of individual isotoxic radiation dose escalation based on bilateral
      lung V20 and advanced technologies. Consecutive eligible patients were assigned
      to cohorts of eight. V20 of each cohort was increased from 27% to 30%, 33%, 35%,
      37%, and so on. The criterion for cessation of dose escalation was defined as >=
      2 patients in each cohort experienced dose limiting toxicity. Isotoxic dose
      escalation was based on V20, functional imaging was used to improve the accuracy
      of radiotherapy. To test the power of escalation dose, patients with TTD over 66
      Gy were assigned to the higher dose group (HD), while the others to the standard
      dose one (SD). In result, the recommended value of V20 was 35%. For all patients,
      follow-up ranged from 1 to 112 months, median overall and progression free
      survivals were 25.0 and 13.0 months, respectively. The 1-, 3-, 5- and 8-year
      overall survival (OS) rates were 72.5%, 22.5%, 17.5%, and 10.0%, respectively.
      Especially, the OS and local recurrence-free survival of patients in HD group
      were significantly longer than those in SD one (P=0.035, P=0.007, respectively)
      without increasing severe toxicity. Thus, individual isotoxic dose escalation
      based on V20 with advanced technologies was feasible and effective.

PMID- 28881695
TI  - Correlation of HAMP gene polymorphisms and expression with the susceptibility and
      length of hospital stays in Taiwanese children with Kawasaki disease.
AB  - Kawasaki disease (KD) is a form of systemic vasculitis. Regarding its
      pathogenesis, HAMP gene encoding hepcidin, which is significant for iron
      metabolism, has a vital function. In this study, we recruited a total of 381 KD
      patients for genotyping. Data from 997 subjects (500 subjects from cohort 1; 497
      subjects from cohort 2) were used for analysis. Using TaqMan allelic
      discrimination, we determined five tag SNPs (rs916145, rs10421768, rs3817623,
      rs7251432, and rs2293689). Treatment outcome data related to such clinical
      phenotypes as coronary artery lesions (CAL), coronary artery aneurysms (CAA), and
      intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) effects were also collected. Furthermore, we
      measured plasma hepcidin levels with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We
      found that HAMP gene polymorphism (rs7251432, and rs2293689) was significantly
      correlated with KD risk and that plasma hepcidin levels both before and after
      IVIG treatment had a significantly positive correlation with length of hospital
      stays (R = 0.217, p = 0.046 and R = 0.381, p < 0.0001, respectively). In
      contrast, plasma hepcidin levels has a negative correlation with KD patients'
      albumin levels (R = -0.27, p < 0.001) prior to IVIG treatment. This study's
      findings indicate that HAMP might have a role in the disease susceptibility, as
      well as its expressions correlated length of hospital stays, and albumin levels
      in Taiwanese children with KD.

PMID- 28881696
TI  - The effect of intraperitoneal chemotherapy on early pain hyperalgesia in patients
      following elective laparoscopic transabdominal resection of rectal cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy has been associated with hyperalgesia. This prospective
      study was designed to investigate the effect of intraperitoneal chemotherapy with
      lobaplatin on post-operative pain intensity and sufentanil requirements after
      laparoscopic transabdominal resection of rectal cancer. METHODS: Eighty subjects
      (40 subjects treated with intraperitoneal chemotherapy and 40 subjects without
      chemotherapy treatment) scheduled for laparoscopic transabdominal resection of
      rectal cancer were included in this study. All subjects received standardized
      anesthetic and patient-controlled analgesia using sufentanil for 72 h post
      surgery, as the only analgesics. Pain intensity scores, cumulative sufentanil
      requirements and side effects were recorded until 72 h post-surgery. RESULTS:
      Following intraperitoneal chemotherapy, patients had a significantly higher total
      post-operative sufentanil requirement (193 MUg vs. 142 MUg; P = 0.008),
      significantly higher verbal rating scale post-surgery pain intensity scores at
      rest and with coughing (P < 0.05), and a significantly worse functional activity
      score (P < 0.05) over 72 h, compared with those without intraperitoneal
      chemotherapy. There were no post-operative differences in the incidence of side
      effects (post-operative nausea [P = 0.189], vomiting [P = 0.311], pruritus [P =
      0.263], respiratory depression [P = 1.000], and dizziness [P = 0.712]) between
      the two groups. CONCLUSION: Intraperitoneal chemotherapy is associated with
      significantly increased post-operative sufentanil requirements and pain
      intensity, suggesting chemotherapy-associated hyperalgesia.

PMID- 28881697
TI  - Feasibility of laparoscopic gastrectomy for elderly gastric cancer patients: meta
      analysis of non-randomized controlled studies.
AB  - The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the feasibility of laparoscopic
      gastrectomy (LG) for elderly gastric cancer patients by comparing laparoscopic
      and conventional open gastrectomies (OG). Comprehensive search of the PubMed,
      EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases revealed nine non-randomized controlled
      studies that compared LG and OG in elderly gastric cancer patients We then
      analyzed dichotomous or continuous parameters using odds ratios (ORs) or weighted
      mean differences (WMDs). Overall survival was estimated using hazard ratios (HRs)
      with a fixed effects or random effects model. We observed that the age
      distribution was similar between the LG and OG patient groups (WMD -0.22 95% CI, 
      1.26-0.82). LG patients experienced less blood loss (WMD -119.14 95% CI, -204.17-
      34.11) and had shorter hospital stays (WMD -3.48 95% CI, -5.41--1.56), but
      endured longer operation times (WMD 10.87 95% CI, 2.50-19.24). Postoperatively,
      LG patients exhibited lower incidences of postoperative morbidities (OR 0.59 95%
      CI, 0.43-0.79), surgery related morbidities (OR 0.58 95% CI, 0.41-0.81) and
      systemic morbidities (OR 0.56 95% CI, 0.38-0.82). We observed no differences
      between the LG and OG patient groups regarding anastomotic leakage (OR 0.69 95%
      CI, 0.34-1.41), mental disease (OR 0.72 95% CI, 0.37-1.41) and long term effects
      (HR 0.98 95% CI, 0.74-1.32). We therefore conclude that laparoscopic gastrectomy
      might be technically feasible for elderly gastric cancer patients.

PMID- 28881698
TI  - Reduction-oxidation pathways involved in cancer development: a systematic review
      of literature reviews.
AB  - Oxidative stress results from an imbalance of the reactive oxygen
      species/reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) production and the oxidants defense
      system. Extensive research during the last decades has revealed that oxidative
      stress can mediate cancer initiation and development by leading not only to
      molecular damage but also to a disruption of reduction-oxidation (redox)
      signaling. In order to provide a global overview of the redox signaling pathways,
      which play a role in cancer formation, we conducted a systematic literature
      search in PubMed and ISI Web of Science and identified 185 relevant reviews
      published in the last 10 years. The 20 most frequently described pathways were
      selected to be presented in this systematic review and could be categorized into
      3 groups: Intracellular ROS/RNS generating organelles and enzymes, signal
      transduction cascades kinases/phosphatases and transcription factors.
      Intracellular ROS/RNS generation organelles are mitochondria, endoplasmic
      reticulum and peroxisomes. Enzymes, including NOX, COX, LOX and NOS, are the most
      prominent enzymes generating ROS/RNS. ROS/RNS act as redox messengers of
      transmembrane receptors and trigger the activation or inhibition of signal
      transduction kinases/phosphatases, such as the family members of protein tyrosine
      kinases and protein tyrosine phosphatases. Furthermore, these reactions activate
      downstream signaling pathways including protein kinase of the MAPK cascade, PI3K
      and PKC. The kinases and phosphatases regulate the phosphorylation status of
      transcription factors including APE1/Ref-1, HIF-1alpha, AP-1, Nrf2, NF-kappaB,
      p53, FOXO, STAT, and beta-catenin. Finally, we briefly discuss cancer prevention
      and treatment opportunities, which address redox pathways and further research
      needs.

PMID- 28881699
TI  - Thymoquinone, as an anticancer molecule: from basic research to clinical
      investigation.
AB  - Thymoquinone is an anticancer phytochemical commonly found in black cumin. In
      this review, we discuss the potential of thymoquinone as anticancer molecule, its
      mechanism of action and future usage in clinical applications. Thymoquinone
      exhibits anticancer activity via numerous mechanisms of action, specifically by
      showing selective antioxidant and oxidant activity, interfering with DNA
      structure, affecting carcinogenic signaling molecules/pathways and
      immunomodulation. In vitro activity of thymoquinone has been further implicated
      in animal models of cancer; however, no clinical application has been proven yet.
      This is the optimum time to focus on clinical trials for developing thymoquinone
      as a future drug in cancer therapeutics.

PMID- 28881700
TI  - SETBP1 dysregulation in congenital disorders and myeloid neoplasms.
AB  - Myeloid malignancies are characterized by an extreme molecular heterogeneity, and
      many efforts have been made in the past decades to clarify the mechanisms
      underlying their pathogenesis. In this scenario SET binding protein 1 (SETBP1)
      has attracted a lot of interest as a new oncogene and potential marker, in
      addition to its involvement in the Schinzel-Giedon syndrome (SGS). Our review
      starts with the analysis of the structural characteristics of SETBP1, and extends
      to its corresponding physiological and pathological functions. Next, we describe
      the prevalence of SETBP1 mutations in congenital diseases and in hematologic
      malignancies, exploring how its alterations might contribute to tumor development
      and provoke clinical effects. Finally, we consider to understand how SETBP1
      activation could be exploited in molecular medicine to enhance the cure rate.

PMID- 28881701
TI  - PD1 signal transduction pathways in T cells.
AB  - The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of cancer is
      revolutionizing oncology. Amongst these therapeutic agents, antibodies that block
      PD-L1/PD1 interactions between cancer cells and T cells are demonstrating high
      efficacies and low toxicities. Despite all the recent advances, very little is
      yet known on the molecular intracellular signaling pathways regulated by either
      PD-L1 or PD1. Here we review the current knowledge on PD1-dependent intracellular
      signaling pathways, and the consequences of disrupting PD1 signal transduction.

PMID- 28881703
TI  - Current status of lymph node micrometastasis in gastric cancer.
AB  - Lymph node metastasis is one of the most important prognostic factors in patients
      with gastric cancer. An inadequate number of dissected lymph nodes is an
      independent risk factor affecting recurrence, even in patients who are node
      negative. Oddly, certain early-stage patients still experience recurrence or
      metastasis within a short time, even if they have undergone standard radical
      mastectomy. Many researchers have attributed these adverse events to lymph node
      micrometastasis (LNM), which is defined as a microscopic deposit of malignant
      cells of less than 2 mm in diameter. With the development of diagnostic tools
      such as immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction,
      the rate of detection of LNM has been constantly increasing. Although there is no
      clear consensus about risk factors for or the definitive clinical significance of
      LNM, the clinical impact of LNM is remarkable in gastric cancer. For minimally
      invasive treatment in particular, such as endoscopic submucosal dissection and
      laparoscopic surgery, accurate diagnosis of LNM is regarded as the potential key
      to maintaining the balance between curability and safety. This review provides an
      overview of the definition, detection and significance of LNM in gastric cancer.
      We also summarize several attention-drawing controversies regarding the treatment
      of patients who may have LNM.

PMID- 28881702
TI  - The epigenetic integrator UHRF1: on the road to become a universal biomarker for
      cancer.
AB  - Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases in the world causing record number of
      mortalities in both developed and undeveloped countries. Despite a lot of
      advances and breakthroughs in the field of oncology still, it is very hard to
      diagnose and treat the cancers at early stages. Here in this review we analyze
      the potential of Ubiquitin-like containing PHD and Ring Finger domain 1 (UHRF1)
      as a universal biomarker for cancers. UHRF1 is an important epigenetic regulator
      maintaining DNA methylation and histone code in the cell. It is highly expressed
      in a variety of cancers and is a well-known oncogene that can disrupt the
      epigenetic code and override the senescence machinery. Many studies have
      validated UHRF1 as a powerful diagnostic and prognostic tool to differentially
      diagnose cancer, predict the therapeutic response and assess the risk of tumor
      progression and recurrence. Highly sensitive, non-invasive and cost effective
      approaches are therefore needed to assess the level of UHRF1 in patients, which
      can be deployed in diagnostic laboratories to detect cancer and monitor disease
      progression.

PMID- 28881705
TI  - A summary of relationships between alternative splicing and breast cancer.
AB  - Alternative splicing (AS) is the process of combinatorial rearrangement of parts
      of exons, and/or parts of introns into mature RNA to result in a multitude of
      transcripts. AS is a biological process through which organisms produce as many
      protein variants as possible by a limited genetic resource. It plays an important
      role in growth and development of the organisms. Over the past few years,
      alternative splicing has been discovered to be critical for genesis and
      development of malignant tumors, including breast cancer. If the relationships
      between AS and breast cancer can be discussed more deeply, it will be helpful for
      better diagnosis, judging prognosis and intervening with breast cancer. In this
      paper, the relationships between AS and breast cancer are elaborated from
      different angles, in hope that this summary is beneficial for readers to
      understand the roles of AS and breast cancer.

PMID- 28881706
TI  - Associations between two common single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2241766 and
      rs1501299) of ADIPOQ gene and coronary artery disease in type 2 diabetic
      patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - ADIPOQ gene polymorphisms were indicated to be associated with coronary artery
      disease (CAD) in diabetic patients, however, published studies reported
      inconsistent results. We performed this meta-analysis to reach a more accurate
      estimation of the relationship between two common ADIPOQ genetic polymorphisms
      (rs2241766 and rs1501299) and CAD risk in diabetic patients. Eligible studies
      were retrieved by searching PubMed, Embase, Wangfang, VIP database and China
      National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. Included and excluded criteria were
      formulated. The case group was diabetic patients with CAD, and the control group
      was diabetic subjects without CAD. Summary odds rations (ORs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate ADIPOQ polymorphisms associations with CAD
      risk in diabetic group. Heterogeneity was evaluated by Q statistic and I2
      statistic. A total of twelve published articles, involving 3996 cases and 8876
      controls were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results from rs1501299
      polymorphism showed decreased risk in homozygote model (TT VS GG: OR=0.67,
      95%CI=0.54-0.83). Heterogeneity was detected in our study. Sensitivity analysis
      and subgroup analysis were conducted in the meta-analysis. For rs2241766
      polymorphism, an increased risk was detected in Caucasian subgroup in
      heterozygote model (CT VS TT: OR=1.19, 95%CI=1.00-1.42). In genotyping method
      (PCR-RFLP) subgroup, an increased risk was found in recessive model (GG VS GT+TT:
      OR=2.05, 95%CI=1.23-3.39). In the sensitivity analysis of rs1501299, decreased
      risk was detected in allelic model (T VS G: OR=0.86, 95%CI=0.76-0.98) and
      recessive model (TT VS TG+GG: OR=0.47, 95%CI=0.33-0.67). Publication bias is not
      observed in our results. Our meta-analysis suggests that the rs1501299
      polymorphism may play a protective role in CAD in diabetic patients. The
      rs2241766 polymorphism is found to be associated with a significant increase in
      CAD risk in Caucasian and genotyping method (PCR-RFLP) subgroups. Further studies
      are needed to confirm the prediagnostic effect of the two gene polymorphisms in
      CAD risk in diabetic patients.

PMID- 28881704
TI  - Chaperone-mediated autophagy substrate proteins in cancer.
AB  - All intracellular proteins undergo continuous synthesis and degradation.
      Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is necessary to maintain cellular homeostasis
      through turnover of cytosolic proteins (substrate proteins). This degradation
      involves a series of substrate proteins including both cancer promoters and
      suppressors. Since activating or inhibiting CMA pathway to treat cancer is still
      debated, targeting to the CMA substrate proteins provides a novel direction. We
      summarize the cancer-associated substrate proteins which are degraded by CMA.
      Consequently, CMA substrate proteins catalyze the glycolysis which contributes to
      the Warburg effect in cancer cells. The fact that the degradation of substrate
      proteins based on the CMA can be altered by posttranslational modifications such
      as phosphorylation or acetylation. In conclusion, targeting to CMA substrate
      proteins develops into a new anticancer therapeutic approach.

PMID- 28881707
TI  - Intratumoral coagulation by radiofrequency ablation facilitated the laparoscopic
      resection of giant hepatic hemangioma: a surgical technique report of two cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Traditionally, open hepatic resection is the first choice of
      treatment for symptomatic enlarging hepatic hemangiomas, which requires a large
      abdominal incision and is associated with substantial recovery time and
      morbidity. Minimally invasive laparoscopic resection has been used recently in
      liver surgery for treating selected hepatic hemangiomas. However, laparoscopic
      liver surgery poses the significant technical challenges and high rate of
      conversion. Radiofrequency (RF) ablation has been proved feasible in the
      treatment of hepatic hemangiomas with a size range of 5.0-9.9 cm. It is
      controversial to treat giant hepatic hemangiomas (>=10.0 cm) by means of RF
      ablation, due to the low technique success rate and high incidence of ablation
      related complications. We aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of combined
      laparoscopic resection with intratumoral RF-induced coagulation for giant hepatic
      hemangiomas. METHODS: We treated 2 patients with giant subcapsular hepatic
      hemangioma (12.0 cm and 13.1 cm in diameters respectively) by laparoscopic
      resection following intratumoral coagulation of the tumor with RF ablation.
      RESULTS: Blood loss during resection was 100 ml (case 1) and 300ml (case 2)
      respectively. No blood transfusion and dialysis were needed during perioperative
      period. The two patients were discharged 6 days (case 1) and 12 days (case 2)
      after surgery without any complications, respectively. Postoperative contrast
      enhanced CT follow up showed there was no residual tumor. CONCLUSIONS: It is
      feasible to treat giant subcapsular hepatic hemangioma by laparoscopic tumor
      resection boosted by intratumoral coagulation using RF ablation, which may open a
      new avenue for treating giant hemangioma.

PMID- 28881708
TI  - Targeting TRIB3 and PML-RARalpha interaction against APL.

PMID- 28881709
TI  - Indole microbial metabolites: expanding and translating target(s).

PMID- 28881710
TI  - Experimental African trypanosome infection suppresses the development of multiple
      myeloma in mice by inducing intrinsic apoptosis of malignant plasma cells.
AB  - Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by the accumulation of malignant plasma
      cells in the bone marrow (BM). Recently, several studies have highlighted the
      role of pathogens in either promoting or dampening malignancies of unrelated
      origin. Trypanosoma brucei is an extracellular protozoan parasite which causes
      sleeping sickness. Our group has previously demonstrated that trypanosome
      infection affects effector plasma B cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that T.
      brucei infection could have an impact on MM development. Using the
      immunocompetent 5T33MM model, we demonstrated a significant reduction in BM
      plasmacytosis and M-protein levels in mice infected with T. brucei, resulting in
      an increased survival of these mice. Blocking IFNgamma could only partially
      abrogate these effects, suggesting that other mechanisms are involved in the
      destruction of malignant plasma cells. We found that T. brucei induces intrinsic
      apoptosis of 5T33MM cells in vivo, and that this was associated with reduced
      endogenous unfolded protein response (UPR) activation. Interestingly,
      pharmacological inhibition of IRE1alpha and PERK was sufficient to induce
      apoptosis in these cells. Together, these results demonstrate that trypanosome
      infections can interfere with MM development by suppressing endogenous UPR
      activation and promoting intrinsic apoptosis.

PMID- 28881711
TI  - Characterization of midostaurin as a dual inhibitor of FLT3 and SYK and
      potentiation of FLT3 inhibition against FLT3-ITD-driven leukemia harboring
      activated SYK kinase.
AB  - Oncogenic FLT3 kinase is a clinically validated target in acute myeloid leukemia
      (AML), and both multi-targeted and selective FLT3 inhibitors have been developed.
      Spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) has been shown to be activated and increased in FLT3
      ITD-positive AML patients, and has further been shown to be critical for
      transformation and maintenance of the leukemic clone in these patients. Further,
      over-expression of constitutively activated SYK causes resistance to highly
      selective FLT3 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). Up to now, the activity of the
      multi-targeted FLT3 inhibitor, midostaurin, against cells expressing activated
      SYK has not been explored in the context of leukemia, although SYK has been
      identified as a target of midostaurin in systemic mastocytosis. We compared the
      ability of midostaurin to inhibit activated SYK in mutant FLT3-positive AML cells
      with that of inhibitors displaying dual SYK/FLT3 inhibition, targeted SYK
      inhibition, and targeted FLT3 inhibition. Our findings suggest that dual FLT3/SYK
      inhibitors and FLT3-targeted drugs potently kill oncogenic FLT3-transformed
      cells, while SYK-targeted small molecule inhibition displays minimal activity.
      However, midostaurin and other dual FLT3/SYK inhibitors display superior anti
      proliferative activity when compared to targeted FLT3 inhibitors, such as
      crenolanib and quizartinib, against cells co-expressing FLT3-ITD and
      constitutively activated SYK-TEL. Interestingly, additional SYK suppression
      potentiated the effects of dual FLT3/SYK inhibitors and targeted FLT3 inhibitors
      against FLT3-ITD-driven leukemia, both in the absence and presence of activated
      SYK. Taken together, our findings have important implications for the design of
      drug combination studies in mutant FLT3-positive patients and for the design of
      future generations of FLT3 inhibitors.

PMID- 28881712
TI  - Tumor antigen CA125 suppresses antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC)
      via direct antibody binding and suppressed Fc-gamma receptor engagement.
AB  - Cancers employ a number of mechanisms to evade host immune responses. Here we
      report the effects of tumor-shed antigen CA125/MUC16 on suppressing IgG1-mediated
      antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). This evidence stems from
      prespecified subgroup analysis of a Phase 3 clinical trial testing farletuzumab,
      a monoclonal antibody to folate receptor alpha, plus standard-of-care carboplatin
      taxane chemotherapy in patients with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.
      Patients with low serum CA125 levels treated with farletuzumab demonstrated
      improvements in progression free survival (HR 0.49, p = 0.0028) and overall
      survival (HR 0.44, p = 0.0108) as compared to placebo. Farletuzumab's
      pharmacologic activity is mediated in part through ADCC. Here we show that CA125
      inhibits ADCC by directly binding to farletuzumab that in turn perturbs Fc-gamma
      receptor engagement on effector cells.

PMID- 28881713
TI  - Therapeutic vaccine to cure large mouse hepatocellular carcinomas.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide
      with limited therapeutic options. Here we report the development of a therapeutic
      vaccination regimen (shortened as 'TheraVac') consisting of intratumoral delivery
      of high-mobility group nucleosome-binding protein 1 (HMGN1), R848/resiquimod, and
      one of the checkpoint inhibitors (e.g. anti-CTLA4, anti-PD-L1, or low dose of
      Cytoxan). C57BL/6 mice harboring large (approximately 1 cm in diameter)
      established subcutaneous Hepa1-6 hepatomas were cured by intratumoral injections
      of TheraVac and became tumor-free long-term survivors. Importantly, the resultant
      tumor-free mice were resistant to re-challenge with Hepa1-6 hepatoma, not B16
      melanoma, demonstrating the acquisition of hepatoma-specific immunity in the
      absence of any administered tumor antigen. Mechanistic studies showed that upon
      treatment with TheraVac, Hepa1-6-bearing mice generated increased Hepa1-6
      specific CTLs in the draining lymph nodes and showed greatly upregulated
      expression of CXCL9, CXCL10, and IFN-gamma and elevated infiltration of T
      lymphocytes in tumor tissues. Treatment of large Hepa1-6 hepatomas on one mouse
      flank also eliminated smaller (approximately 0.5 cm in diameter) hepatomas
      implanted on the other flank. Thus, TheraVac has potential as a curative
      immunotherapeutic regimen for the treatment of human HCC.

PMID- 28881714
TI  - The "4 plus 2" rituximab protocol makes maintenance treatment unneeded in
      patients with refractory ANCA-associated vasculitis: A 10 years observation
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: ANCA associated vasculitides (AAV) often present with a chronic
      relapsing course. Relapse leads to increased immunosuppressive exposure and
      consequent toxicity. While two randomized controlled trials have shown rituximab
      (RTX) to be the most effective induction treatment in patients with relapsing
      disease, the optimal treatment duration and RTX dose remain debated. Whether to
      administer a maintenance dose to every patient, at a fixed time interval or on
      the basis of B cell count and ANCA titre or only when disease manifestations do
      occur is still debated as well. METHODS: 11 patients (5 with granulomatosis with
      polyangiitis, 4 with microscopic polyangiitis-MPA-, and 2 with eosinophilic
      granulomatosis with polyangiitis -EGPA-) intolerant or refractory to conventional
      therapies including cyclophosphamide were enrolled. All patients received the so
      called "improved 4+2" RTX scheme as a rescue therapy. Following RTX
      administration, immunosuppressive drugs were rapidly tapered and no
      immunosuppressive maintenance therapy had been given. RESULTS: After a mean
      follow-up of 85 months since the "4+2" RTX protocol: four out of 11 patients
      (37%, 1 EGPA and 3 MPA, all MPO-positive) remained in remission after one cycle
      of "4+2" RTX infusion protocol with no relapse for a median 66 months [60-108]).
      Seven relapsing patients were re-treated once with RTX (again as monotherapy with
      the same protocol) after a median of 54 months (24-96). Following re-treatment,
      they again showed complete remission over a median of 32 months (12-96) of
      observation. CONCLUSION: In one of the longest-term observation (85 months)
      studies, sustained clinical remission without immunosuppressive maintenance
      therapy (and a negligible dose of prednisone since the 5thmonth) was obtained by
      the "4 + 2" RTX infusion protocol in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis
      intolerant or refractory to conventional therapy.

PMID- 28881715
TI  - Activation of the Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway by probucol contributes to
      inhibiting inflammation and neuronal apoptosis after spinal cord injury.
AB  - The nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant response element
      (ARE) signaling pathway plays an essential role in the cellular antioxidant and
      anti-inflammatory responses. Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in a massive
      release of inflammatory factors and free radicals, which seriously compromise
      nerve recovery and axon regeneration. In this study, we examined the efficacy of
      probucol on anti-inflammatory responses and functional recovery after SCI by
      activating the Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway. We also investigated the mechanism by
      which inflammation is inhibited in this process. We found that treatment of
      injured rats with probucol significantly increased levels of Nrf2, heme oxygenase
      1 (HO-1) and NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1), while levels of
      inflammatory cytokines, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and
      tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were decreased. This was associated with
      a reduction in neural cell apoptosis and promotion of nerve function recovery.
      These results demonstrate that the neuroprotective effects of probucol after SCI
      are mediated by activation of the Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway. These findings
      indicate that the anti-inflammatory effects of probucol represent a viable
      treatment for improving functional recovery following SCI.

PMID- 28881716
TI  - Prognostic value of a systemic inflammatory response index in metastatic renal
      cell carcinoma and construction of a predictive model.
AB  - Inflammation act as a crucial role in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. In
      this study, we aim to investigate the prognostic significance of systemic
      inflammatory biomarkers in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and develop a
      survival predictive model. One hundred and sixty-one mRCC patients who had
      undergone cytoreductive nephrectomy were enrolled from January 2006 to December
      2013. We created a systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) basing on
      pretreatment hemoglobin and lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), and evaluated its
      associations with overall survival (OS) and clinicopathological features.
      Pretreatment hemoglobin and LMR both remained as independent factors adjusted for
      other markers of systemic inflammation responses and conventional
      clinicopathological parameters. A high SIRI seems to be an independent prognosis
      predictor of worse OS and was significantly correlated with aggressive tumor
      behaviors. Inclusion of the SIRI into a prognostic model including Fuhrman grade,
      histology, tumor necrosis and targeted therapy established a nomogram, which
      accurately predicted 1-year survival for mRCC patients. The SIRI seems to be a
      prognostic biomarker in mRCC patients. The proposed nomogram can be applied to
      predict OS of patients with mRCC after nephrectomy.

PMID- 28881717
TI  - 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC) treatment downregulates the HPV E6 and E7 oncogene
      expression and blocks neoplastic growth of HPV-associated cancer cells.
AB  - High-risk human papillomaviruses (hr HPVs) may cause various human cancers and
      associated premalignant lesions. Transformation of the host cells is triggered by
      overexpression of the viral oncogenes E6 and E7 that deregulate the cell cycle
      and induce chromosomal instability. This process is accompanied by
      hypermethylation of distinct CpG sites resulting in silencing of tumor suppressor
      genes, inhibition of the viral E2 mediated control of E6 and E7 transcription as
      well as deregulated expression of host cell microRNAs. Therefore, we hypothesized
      that treatment with demethylating agents might restore those regulatory
      mechanisms. Here we show that treatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC)
      strongly decreases the expression of E6 and E7 in a panel of HPV-transformed
      cervical cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Reduction
      of E6 and E7 further resulted in increased target protein levels including p53
      and p21 reducing the proliferation rates and colony formation abilities of the
      treated cell lines. Moreover, DAC treatment led to enhanced expression of tumor
      the suppressive miRNA-375 that targets and degrades E6 and E7 transcripts.
      Therefore, we suggest that DAC treatment of HPV-associated cancers and respective
      precursor lesions may constitute a targeted approach to subvert HPV oncogene
      functions that deserves testing in clinical trials.

PMID- 28881718
TI  - Quercetin inhibits Cr(VI)-induced malignant cell transformation by targeting miR
      21-PDCD4 signaling pathway.
AB  - Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is an important human carcinogen associated with
      pulmonary diseases and lung cancer. Inhibition of Cr(VI)-induced carcinogenesis
      by a dietary antioxidant is a novel approach. Quercetin is one of the most
      abundant dietary flavonoids widely present in many fruits and vegetables,
      possesses potent antioxidant and anticancer properties. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is a
      key oncomiR significantly elevated in the majority of human cancers that exerts
      its oncogenic activity by targeting the tumor suppressor gene programmed cell
      death 4 (PDCD4). The present study examined the effect of quercetin on the
      inhibition of Cr(VI)-induced malignant cell transformation and the role of miR-21
      PDCD4 signaling involved. Our results showed that quercetin decreased ROS
      generation induced by Cr(VI) exposure in BEAS-2B cells. Chronic Cr(VI) exposure
      induced malignant cell transformation, increased miR-21 expression and caused
      inhibition of PDCD4, which were significantly inhibited by the treatment of
      quercetin in a dose dependent manner. Nude mice injected with BEAS-2B cells
      chronically exposed to Cr(VI) in the presence of quercetin showed reduced tumor
      incidence compared to Cr(VI) alone treated group. Stable knockdown of miR-21 and
      overexpression of PDCD4 or catalase in BEAS-2B cells suppressed Cr(VI)-induced
      malignant transformation and tumorigenesis. Taken together, these results
      demonstrate that quercetin is able to protect BEAS-2B cells from Cr(VI)-induced
      carcinogenesis by targeting miR-21-PDCD4 signaling.

PMID- 28881719
TI  - Combined CT-guided radiofrequency ablation with systemic chemotherapy improves
      the survival for nasopharyngeal carcinoma with oligometastasis in liver:
      Propensity score matching analysis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to retrospectively compare the treatment efficacy of
      systemic chemotherapy combined with sequential CT-guided radiofrequency ablation
      (Chemo-RFA) to chemotherapy alone (Chemo-only) in the management of
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) with liver metastasis. Between 2003 and 2011, 328
      NPC patients diagnosed with liver metastasis at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer
      Center were enrolled. One-to-one matched pairs between Chemo-RFA group with the
      Chemo-only group were generated using propensity score matching. The associations
      of treatment modality with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival
      (PFS) were determined by Cox regression. Of the patients enrolled, 37 patients
      (11.8 %) received combined treatment, 291 (82.2) received chemotherapy alone. The
      patients in Chemo-RFA group were more frequently classified as lower number (<=3)
      of liver metastatic lesions (P<0.001), had lower rates of bi-lobar liver
      metastasis (P<0.001) and extra-hepatic metastasis (P<0.001) than patients in
      Chemo-only group. After propensity score matching, 37 pairs of well-matched liver
      metastatic NPC patients were selected from different treatment groups. The
      adjusted hazard ratio in OS and PFS of the choice for Chemo-RFA approach to Chemo
      only was 0.53 (95%CI, 0.30-0.93) and 0.60 (95%CI, 0.36-0.97), respectively. In
      conclusion, combined CT-guided RFA and chemotherapy approach offer the chance of
      improved survival for NPC patients with oligometastasis in liver, and should be
      considered if the ablation is technically feasible.

PMID- 28881720
TI  - Analysis of ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations in plasma cell-free DNA from ER-positive
      breast cancer patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The measurement of ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations in plasma cell-free DNA
      (cfDNA) has been studied as a non-invasive method to quickly assess and monitor
      endocrine therapy (ET) resistant metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients.
      METHODS: The subjects of this retrospective study were a total of 185 plasma
      samples from 86 estrogen receptor-positive BC patients, of which 151 plasma
      samples were from 69 MBC patients and 34 plasma samples were from 17 primary BC
      (PBC) patients. We developed multiplex droplet digital PCR assays to verify the
      clinical significance of ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations both in a snapshot and
      serially in these patients. RESULTS: cfDNA ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations were found
      in 28.9% and 24.6 % of MBC patients, respectively. The relation between ESR1 or
      PIK3CA mutations and clinical features showed that ESR1 mutations occurred mostly
      in patients previously treated by ET, which was not the case for PIK3CA
      mutations. The analysis of the clinical impact of those mutations on subsequent
      lines of treatment for the 69 MBC patients revealed that both ESR1 and PIK3CA
      mutations detection were related to a shorter duration of ET effectiveness in
      univariate analysis but only for ESR1 mutations in multivariate analysis. The
      monitoring of cfDNA in a subset of 52 patients showed that loss of ESR1 mutations
      was related to a longer duration of response, which was not the case for PIK3CA
      mutations. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated the clinical significance of on
      treatment ESR1 mutations both in a snapshot and serially in comparison with
      PIK3CA mutations.

PMID- 28881721
TI  - Lower Beclin 1 downregulates HER2 expression to enhance tamoxifen sensitivity and
      predicts a favorable outcome for ER positive breast cancer.
AB  - Tamoxifen(TAM) is one of the most effective endocrine treatment for estrogen
      receptor(ER)-positive breast cancer, however drug resistance greatly limits
      benefit of it. Our purpose is to uncover the role of Beclin 1 in tamoxifen
      resistance and prognosis of ER positive breast cancer. We established a tamoxifen
      resistant ER-positive breast cancer cell subline MCF-7R presenting with higher
      Beclin 1 and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2) levels than MCF-7.
      Silencing Beclin 1 decreased levels of HER2 and significantly promoted TAM
      sensitivity of MCF-7 and MCF-7R in vitro. Overexpression of HER2 could reverse
      TAM sensitivity, which was formerly increased in Beclin 1 downregulated cell.
      Beclin 1 level was not only positively correlated with level of HER2 but also
      negatively correlated with overall survival of ER-positive breast cancer
      patients. Using bioinformatic methods, Beclin 1 mRNA was found to be negatively
      correlated with overall survival in breast cancer patients receiving TAM
      treatment. This study indicated for the first time that lower HER2 expression by
      Beclin 1 downregulation contributes to alteration of tamoxifen sensitivity and
      low Beclin 1 predicts favorable outcome in ER-positive breast cancer.

PMID- 28881722
TI  - Hepatic NK cell-mediated hypersensitivity to ConA-induced liver injury in mouse
      liver expressing hepatitis C virus polyprotein.
AB  - The role of hepatic NK cells in the pathogenesis of HCV-associated hepatic
      failure is incompletely understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of
      HCV on ConA-induced immunological hepatic injury and the influence of HCV on
      hepatic NK cell activation in the liver after ConA administration. An
      immunocompetent HCV mouse model that encodes the entire viral polyprotein in a
      liver-specific manner based on hydrodynamic injection and phiC31o integrase was
      used to study the role of hepatic NK cells. Interestingly, the frequency of
      hepatic NK cells was reduced in HCV mice, whereas the levels of other
      intrahepatic lymphocytes remained unaltered. Next, we investigated whether the
      reduction in NK cells within HCV mouse livers might elicit an effect on immune
      mediated liver injury. HCV mice were subjected to acute liver injury models upon
      ConA administration. We observed that HCV mice developed more severe ConA-induced
      immune-mediated hepatitis, which was dependent on the accumulated intrahepatic NK
      cells. Our results indicated that after the administration of ConA, NK cells not
      only mediated liver injury through the production of immunoregulatory cytokines
      (IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and perforin) with direct antiviral activity, but they also
      killed target cells directly through the TRAIL/DR5 and NKG2D/NKG2D ligand
      signaling pathway in HCV mice. Our findings suggest a critical role for NK cells
      in oversensitive liver injury during chronic HCV infection.

PMID- 28881723
TI  - Association of high microvessel alphavbeta3 and low PTEN with poor outcome in
      stage 3 neuroblastoma: rationale for using first in class dual PI3K/BRD4
      inhibitor, SF1126.
AB  - Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid tumor in children. Our
      previous studies showed that the angiogenic integrin alphavbeta3 was increased in
      high-risk metastatic (stage 4) NB compared with localized neuroblastomas. Herein,
      we show that integrin alphavbeta3 was expressed on 68% of microvessels in MYCN
      amplified stage 3 neuroblastomas, but only on 34% (means) in MYCN-non-amplified
      tumors (p < 0.001; n = 54). PTEN, a tumor suppressor involved in alphavbeta3
      signaling, was expressed in neuroblastomas either diffusely, focally or not at
      all (immunohistochemistry). Integrin alphavbeta3 was expressed on 60% of tumor
      microvessels when PTEN was negative or focal, as compared to 32% of microvessels
      in tumors with diffuse PTEN expression (p < 0.001). In a MYCN transgenic mouse
      model, loss of one allele of PTEN promoted tumor growth, illustrating the
      potential role of PTEN in neuroblastoma pathogenesis. Interestingly, we report
      the novel dual PI-3K/BRD4 activity of SF1126 (originally developed as an RGD
      conjugated pan PI3K inhibitor). SF1126 inhibits BRD4 bromodomain binding to
      acetylated lysine residues with histone H3 as well as PI3K activity in the MYCN
      amplified neuroblastoma cell line IMR-32. Moreover, SF1126 suppressed MYCN
      expression and MYCN associated transcriptional activity in IMR-32 and CHLA136,
      resulting in overall decrease in neuroblastoma cell viability. Finally, treatment
      of neuroblastoma tumors with SF1126 inhibited neuroblastoma growth in vivo. These
      data suggest integrin alphavbeta3, MYCN/BRD4 and PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling as
      biomarkers and hence therapeutic targets in neuroblastoma and support testing of
      the RGD integrin alphavbeta3-targeted PI-3K/BRD4 inhibitor, SF1126 as a
      therapeutic strategy in this specific subgroup of high risk neuroblastoma.

PMID- 28881724
TI  - The pseudogene derived long noncoding RNA DUXAP8 promotes gastric cancer cell
      proliferation and migration via epigenetically silencing PLEKHO1 expression.
AB  - Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer death due to its poor
      prognosis and limited treatment options. Evidence indicates that pseudogene
      derived long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be important players in human cancer
      progression, including GC. In this paper, we report that a newly discovered
      pseudogene-derived lncRNA named DUXAP8, a 2107-bp RNA, was remarkably upregulated
      in GC. Additionally, a higher level of DUXAP8 expression in GC was significantly
      associated with greater tumor size, advanced clinical stage, and lymphatic
      metastasis. Patients with a higher level of DUXAP8 expression had a relatively
      poor prognosis. Further experiments revealed that knockdown of DUXAP8
      significantly inhibited cell proliferation and migration, as documented in the
      SGC7901 and BGC823 cell lines. Furthermore, RNA immunoprecipitation and chromatin
      immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that DUXAP8 could epigenetically suppress
      the expression of PLEKHO1 by binding to EZH2 and SUZ12 (two key components of
      PRC2), thus promoting GC development. Taken together, our findings suggest that
      the pseudogene-derived lncRNA DUXAP8 promotes the progression of GC and is a
      potential therapeutic target for GC intervention.

PMID- 28881725
TI  - Nurse-like cells promote CLL survival through LFA-3/CD2 interactions.
AB  - In the tumoral micro-environment (TME) of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL),
      nurse-like cells (NLC) are tumor-associated macrophages which play a critical
      role in the survival and chemoresistance of tumoral cells. This pro-survival
      activity is known to involve soluble factors, but few data are available on the
      relative role of cells cross-talk. Here, we used a transcriptome-based approach
      to systematically investigate the expression of various receptor/ligand pairs at
      the surface of NLC/CLL cells. Their relative contribution to CLL survival was
      assessed both by fluorescent microscopy to identify cellular interactions and by
      the use of functional tests to measure the impact of uncoupling these pairs with
      blocking monoclonal antibodies. We found for the first time that lymphocyte
      function-associated antigen 3 (LFA-3), expressed in CLL at significantly higher
      levels than in healthy donor B-cells, and CD2 expressed on NLC, were both key for
      the specific pro-survival signals delivered by NLC. Moreover, we found that
      NLC/CLL interactions induced the shedding of soluble LFA-3. Importantly, in an
      exploratory cohort of 60 CLL patients receiving frontline immunochemotherapy,
      increased levels of soluble LFA-3 were found to correlate with shorter overall
      survival. Altogether, these data suggest that LFA-3/CD2 interactions promote the
      survival of CLL cells in the tumor microenvironment.

PMID- 28881726
TI  - Modulation of paracrine signaling by CD9 positive small extracellular vesicles
      mediates cellular growth of androgen deprived prostate cancer.
AB  - Proliferation and maintenance of both normal and prostate cancer (PCa) cells is
      highly regulated by steroid hormones, particularly androgens, and the
      extracellular environment. Herein, we identify the secretion of CD9 positive
      extracellular vesicles (EV) by LNCaP and DUCaP PCa cells in response to
      dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and use nano-LC-MS/MS to identify the proteins present
      in these EV. Subsequent bioinformatic and pathway analyses of the mass
      spectrometry data identified pathologically relevant pathways that may be altered
      by EV contents. Western blot and CD9 EV TR-FIA assay confirmed a specific
      increase in the amount of CD9 positive EV in DHT-treated LNCaP and DUCaP cells
      and treatment of cells with EV enriched with CD9 after DHT exposure can induce
      proliferation in androgen-deprived conditions. siRNA knockdown of endogenous CD9
      in LNCaPs reduced cellular proliferation and expression of AR and prostate
      specific antigen (PSA) however knockdown of AR did not alter CD9 expression, also
      implicating CD9 as an upstream regulator of AR. Moreover CD9 positive EV were
      also found to be significantly higher in plasma from prostate cancer patients in
      comparison with benign prostatic hyperplasia patients. We conclude that CD9
      positive EV are involved in mediating paracrine signalling and contributing
      toward prostate cancer progression.

PMID- 28881727
TI  - Adult T cell leukemia aggressivenness correlates with loss of both 5
      hydroxymethylcytosine and TET2 expression.
AB  - Mutations in TET2, encoding one of the TET members responsible for the conversion
      of DNA cytosine methylation to hydroxymethylation (5-hmc), have been recently
      described in Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1-associated adult T-cell
      leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). However, neither the amount of genomic 5-hmc in ATLL
      tumor cells nor TET2 expression has been studied yet. In this study, we analyzed
      these two parameters as well as the mutational status of TET2 in ATLL patients.
      By employing a direct in situ approach, we documented that tumor T cells
      infiltrating lymph nodes exhibit low level of 5-hmc compared to residual normal T
      cells. Furthermore, this 5-hmc defect was more pronounced in tumor T cells from
      acute patients than from chronic ones and correlated with reduced expression of
      TET2 protein. TET2 variations were found in 14 patients (20%), including 13 with
      aggressive forms. Strikingly, 9 of the 14 patients showed the same variation (SNP
      rs72963007), whose frequency in ATLL patients was significantly higher than that
      of an ethnically matched control population (13% vs. 5%). However, no reduction
      of 5-hmc was found in PBMC from individuals possessing the variant rs72963007
      TET2 allele, as compared to wild-type individuals. In contrast, a robust
      correlation was observed between 5-hmc and the levels of TET2 mRNA. Finally, loss
      of 5-hmc and TET2 downregulation both correlated with poor survival. These
      findings demonstrate that ATLL progression coincides with loss of genomic 5-hmc
      and indicate that downregulation of TET2, rather than TET2 mutations, is the key
      mechanism involved in 5-hmc modulation during ATLL progression.

PMID- 28881728
TI  - The mTOR inhibitor everolimus in combination with azacitidine in patients with
      relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia: a phase Ib/II study.
AB  - Therapeutic options are limited in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia
      (AML). We evaluated the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and preliminary efficacy of
      mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor, everolimus (days 5-21) in
      combination with azacitidine 75 mg/m2 subcutaneously (days 1-5 and 8-9 every 28
      days) in 40 patients with relapsed (n = 27), primary refractory (n = 11) or
      elderly patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy (n = 2). MTD was not reached
      following everolimus dose escalation (2.5, 5 or 10 mg; n = 19) to the 10 mg dose
      level which was expanded (n = 21). Major adverse events (grade > 2) were mostly
      disease-related: neutropenia (73%), thrombocytopenia (67%), mucositis (24%) and
      febrile neutropenia (19%). Overall survival (OS) of the entire cohort was 8.5
      months, and overall response rate (ORR; including CR/CRi/PR/MLFS) was 22.5%.
      Furthermore, a landmark analysis beyond cycle 1 revealed superior OS and ORR in
      patients receiving 2.5 mg everolimus with azoles, compared to those without
      azoles (median OS 12.8 vs. 6.0 months, P = 0.049, and ORR 50% vs. 16%, P =
      0.056), potentially due to achievement of higher everolimus blood levels. This
      study demonstrates that everolimus in combination with azacitidine is tolerable,
      with promising clinical activity in advanced AML.

PMID- 28881729
TI  - The type I insulin-like growth factor regulates the liver stromal response to
      metastatic colon carcinoma cells.
AB  - Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) play a major role in initiating the liver fibrogenic
      (wounding) response of the liver and can also orchestrate a pro-metastatic
      microenvironment in the liver in response to invading cancer cells. Here we
      explored the role of the hepatic stellate cells in colon carcinoma liver
      metastasis with emphasis on the contribution of the insulin-like growth factor
      (IGF) axis to their activation and function. To this end, we used mice with a
      Tamoxifen inducible liver IGF-I deficiency. We found that in mice with a
      sustained IGF-I deficiency, recruitment and activation of HSC into tumor
      infiltrated areas of the liver were markedly diminished, resulting in decreased
      collagen deposition and reduced tumor expansion. In addition, IGF-I could rescue
      HSC from apoptosis induced by pro-inflammatory factors such as TNF-alpha known to
      be upregulated in the early stages of liver metastasis. Moreover, in surgical
      specimens, activated IGF-IR was observed on HSC-like stromal cells surrounding
      colorectal carcinoma liver metastases. Finally, IGF-targeting in vivo using an
      IGF-Trap caused a significant reduction in HSC activation in response to
      metastatic colon cancer cells. Therefore, our data identify IGF as a survival
      factor for HSC and thereby, a promoter of the pro-metastatic microenvironment in
      the liver. IGF-targeting could therefore provide a strategy for curtailing the
      pro-metastatic host response of the liver during the early stages of liver
      metastasis.

PMID- 28881730
TI  - Suppression of microRNA-205-5p in human mesenchymal stem cells improves their
      therapeutic potential in treating diabetic foot disease.
AB  - Diabetes is a prevalent disease endangering human health, while diabetic foot
      disease (DF) is one of the most severe complications of diabetes. Mesenchymal
      stem cells (MSCs) have been used in DF treatment, taking advantage of the
      differentiation potential of MSCs into endothelial cells and their production and
      secretion of trophic factors like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
      Molecular modification of MSCs to improve their therapeutic effects has been
      recently applied in treating other diseases, but not yet in DF. Here, we found
      that micoRNA-205-5p (miR-205-5p) is expressed in human MSCs, and miR-205-5p
      inhibits protein translation of VEGF through its interaction with 3'-UTR of the
      VEGF mRNA. Expression of antisense of miR-205-5p (as-miR-205-5p) significantly
      increased both cellular and secreted VEGF by MSCs, which significantly improved
      the therapeutic effects of MSCs on DF-associated wound healing in diabetic
      NOD/SCID mice. Together, our data suggest that miR-205-5p suppression in MSCs may
      improve their therapeutic effects on DF, seemingly through augmentation of VEGF
      mediated vascularization.

PMID- 28881731
TI  - Detection of BRAF, NRAS, KIT, GNAQ, GNA11 and MAP2K1/2 mutations in Russian
      melanoma patients using LNA PCR clamp and biochip analysis.
AB  - Target inhibitors are used for melanoma treatment, and their effectiveness
      depends on the tumor genotype. We developed a diagnostic biochip for the
      detection of 39 clinically relevant somatic mutations in the BRAF, NRAS, KIT,
      GNAQ, GNA11, MAP2K1 and MAP2K2 genes. We used multiplex locked nucleic acid (LNA)
      PCR clamp for the preferable amplification of mutated over wild type DNA. The
      amplified fragments were labeled via the incorporation of fluorescently labeled
      dUTP during PCR and were hybridized with specific oligonucleotides immobilized on
      a biochip. This approach could detect 0.5% of mutated DNA in the sample analyzed.
      The method was validated on 253 clinical samples and six melanoma cell lines.
      Among 253 melanomas, 129 (51.0%) BRAF, 45 (17.8%) NRAS, 6 (2.4%) KIT, 4 (1.6%)
      GNAQ, 2 (0.8%) GNA11, 2 (0.8%) MAP2K1 and no MAP2K2 gene mutations were detected
      by the biochip assay. The results were compared with Sanger sequencing, next
      generation sequencing and ARMS/Scorpion real-time PCR. The specimens with
      discordant results were subjected to LNA PCR clamp followed by sequencing. The
      results of this analysis were predominantly identical to the results obtained by
      the biochip assay. Infrequently, we identified rare somatic mutations. In the
      present study we demonstrate that the biochip-based assay can effectively detect
      somatic mutations in approximately 70% of melanoma patients, who may require
      specific targeted therapy.

PMID- 28881732
TI  - Oncogenic secretory clusterin in hepatocellular carcinoma: Expression at early
      staging and emerging molecular target.
AB  - Secretory clusterin (sCLU) is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
      progression by contributing to angiogenesis, chemoresistance, cell survival, and
      metastasis. However, the sCLU expression at early stage of HCC progression
      remains to be clarified. In this study, the alteration of sCLU oncogenicity was
      firstly evaluated in HCC- and their para-cancerous- tissues. The incidence of
      sCLU expression in HCC was significantly higher than that in their non-tumorous
      tissues at message RNA (mRNA) or protein level, gradually increasing with tumor
      node-metastasis (TNM) staging. Abnormal sCLU expression was associated with the
      poor differentiation, TNM stage, and considered as an independent prognostic
      factor for HCC patients. Furthermore, silencing sCLU gene transcription inhibited
      the colony formation and proliferation of HCC cells, with decreasing
      phosphorylation level of AKT and GSK-3beta in HCCLM3 cells in vitro and
      significantly suppressed the HCC xenograft growth in vivo, suggesting that sCLU
      with oncogenicity should be not only an early indicator but also novel potential
      molecular-targeted therapy for HCC.

PMID- 28881733
TI  - Positive regulation of TAZ expression by EBV-LMP1 contributes to cell
      proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - The Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) is an integral membrane
      protein. LMP1 has been reported to activate the NF-kappaB and mitogen-activated
      protein kinase pathways. However, these effects alone are unable to account for
      the profound oncogenic properties of LMP1. TAZ is one of the nuclear effectors of
      Hippo-related pathways and highly expressed in many human tumors. Here, we
      reported that TAZ was frequently expressed in LMP1-positive nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma. In NPC cell lines, we showed that LMP1 promoted TAZ expression.
      Gelsolin is an important inhibitor of TAZ activity. Our studies showed that LMP1
      interacted with gelsolin, resulting in inhibition of Lats1/2 phosphorylation and
      improvement of TAZ stability. Furthermore, we revealed that TAZ is important for
      LMP1-mediated cell proliferation, cancer stem cell-like properties and epithelial
      mesenchymal transition. These findings provide new insights into the carcinogenic
      roles of LMP1 and contribute to further understanding of its oncogenic mechanism.

PMID- 28881734
TI  - Targeting aldehyde dehydrogenase activity in head and neck squamous cell
      carcinoma with a novel small molecule inhibitor.
AB  - Chemoresistant cancer cells express high levels of aldehyde dehydrogenases
      (ALDHs), particularly in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The ALDH
      family of enzymes detoxify both exogenous and endogenous aldehydes. Since many
      chemotherapeutic agents, such as cisplatin, result in the generation of cytotoxic
      aldehydes and oxidative stress, we hypothesized that cells expressing high levels
      of ALDH may be more chemoresistant due to their increased detoxifying capacity
      and that inhibitors of ALDHs may sensitize them to these drugs. Here, we show
      that overall ALDH activity is increased with cisplatin treatment of HNSCC and
      that ALDH3A1 protein expression is particularly enriched in cells treated with
      cisplatin. Activation of ALDH3A1 by a small molecule activator (Alda-89)
      increased survival of HNSCC cells treated with cisplatin. Conversely, treatment
      with a novel small molecule ALDH inhibitor (Aldi-6) resulted in a marked decrease
      in cell viability, and the combination of Aldi-6 and cisplatin resulted in a more
      pronounced reduction of cell viability and a greater reduction in tumor burden in
      vivo than what was observed with cisplatin alone. These data indicate that
      ALDH3A1 contributes to cisplatin resistance in HNSCC and that the targeting of
      ALDH, specifically, ALDH3A1, appears to be a promising strategy in this disease.

PMID- 28881735
TI  - Prognostic and clinicopathologic significance of SIRT1 expression in
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - The clinical value of SIRT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains
      controversial. This meta-analysis was performed to investigate the prognostic and
      clinicopathological significance of the histone deacetylase SIRT1 in HCC. Pooled
      hazard ratios (HRs) for survival outcomes and pooled odds ratios (ORs) for
      clinical parameters associated with SIRT1 were calculated in nine studies using
      Review Manager. Meta-analysis showed that increased SIRT1 expression is
      associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR=1.82, 95% confidence interval
      (CI): 1.49-2.22, P<0.00001) and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR=1.44, 95%CI: 1.06
      1.96, P=0.02) in HCC. Increased expression of SIRT1 is more common in female than
      male HCC patients (OR=0.47, 95%CI: 0.32-0.70, P=0.0001). The increased SIRT1
      expression correlates with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (OR=1.63, 95%CI:
      1.04-2.57, P=0.03), large tumor size (OR=1.81, 95%CI: 1.05-3.13, P=0.03), high
      p53 expression (OR=2.71, 95%CI: 1.39-5.29, P=0.003), high levels of alpha
      fetoprotein (AFP; cutoff value: 400 ng/ml, OR=1.84, 95%CI: 1.26-2.69, P=0.002),
      and tumor stage (OR=1.72, 95%CI: 1.27-2.32, P=0.0004). Re-sampling statistics for
      5,000,000 samples revealed that increased SIRT1 expression is associated with
      higher TNM stage (OR=1.70, 95%CI: 1.69-1.70, P<0.00001). These results indicate
      that SIRT1 is a new biomarker off HCC as well as a potentially effective
      therapeutic target.

PMID- 28881736
TI  - Comparisons of short-term and survival outcomes of laparoscopy-assisted versus
      open total gastrectomy for gastric cancer patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The safety and surgical oncology of laparoscopy-assisted total
      gastrectomy (LATG) remain inconclusive and challenging. This study aimed to
      compare the short-term and long-term outcomes between LATG and open total
      gastrectomy (OTG) procedures. RESULTS: In the all-included analyses, there were
      69 patients in the LATG group and 268 in the OTG group. LATG was as safe as OTG
      without increasing postoperative morbidity and mortality. Stage imbalance might
      introduce differences in the numbers of harvested lymph nodes in LATG (34.4 +/-
      12.0) and OTG (40.9 +/- 16.9), whereas 95.7% of patients underwent D2/D2+
      dissection during the LATG procedure. After a median 31 months of follow-up, the
      overall survival outcomes were comparable between the LATG and OTG procedures (HR
      = 1.16, 95% CI 0.68-1.97). Sensitivity analysis found comparable node retrieval
      and stage-specific or treatment-specific overall survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A retrospective case-control study was conducted among gastric cancer patients
      who underwent either LATG or OTG with curative intention between June 2006 and
      December 2015. Data retrieval was based on the Surgical Gastric Cancer Patient
      Registry in the West China Hospital. The primary outcome was overall survival.
      The secondary outcomes were postoperative complication incidence and severity,
      operation duration, blood loss, number of harvested lymph nodes, and
      postoperative hospital stay. Matched pairwise case-control comparisons were
      performed as a sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSIONS: LATG by experienced surgeons
      possibly has comparable short-term surgical outcomes and long-term survival
      outcomes compared with OTG for gastric cancer patients. However, high-quality
      RCTs are necessary before confirmative judgment and recommendation as an optional
      treatment in general practice.

PMID- 28881737
TI  - Galeterone and its analogs inhibit Mnk-eIF4E axis, synergize with gemcitabine,
      impede pancreatic cancer cell migration, invasion and proliferation and inhibit
      tumor growth in mice.
AB  - Survival rate for pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, PDAC) is
      poor, with about 80% of patients presenting with the metastatic disease.
      Gemcitabine, the standard chemotherapeutic agent for locally advanced and
      metastatic PDAC has limited efficacy, attributed to innate/acquired resistance
      and activation of pro-survival pathways. The Mnk1/2-eIF4E and NF-kappaB signaling
      pathways are implicated in PDAC disease progression/metastasis and also
      associated with gemcitabine-induced resistance in PDAC. Galeterone (gal), a multi
      target, agent in phase III clinical development for prostate cancer has also
      shown effects on the aforementioned pathways. We show for the first time, that
      gal/analogs (VNPT55, VNPP414 and VNPP433-3beta) profoundly inhibited cell
      viability of gemcitabine-naive/resistance PDAC cell lines and strongly synergized
      with gemcitabine in gemcitabine-resistant PDAC cells. In addition, to inducing G1
      cell cycle arrest, gal/analogs induced caspase 3-mediated cell-death of PDAC
      cells. Gal/analogs caused profound downregulation of Mnk1/2, peIF4E and NF-kappaB
      (p-p65), metastatic inducing factors (N-cadherin, MMP-1/-2/-9, Slug, Snail and
      CXCR4) and putative stem cell factors, (beta-Catenin, Nanog, BMI-1 and Oct-4).
      Gal/analog also depleted EZH2 and upregulated E-Cadherin. These effects resulted
      in significant inhibition of PDAC cell migration, invasion and proliferation.
      Importantly, we also observed strong MiaPaca-2 tumor xenograft growth inhibition
      (61% to 92%). Collectively, these promising findings strongly support further
      development of gal/analogs as novel therapeutics for PDAC.

PMID- 28881738
TI  - Expression analysis of microRNA as prognostic biomarkers in colorectal cancer.
AB  - microRNA (miRNA) based biomarkers have unique advantages due to their critical
      regulatory function, superior stability, and relatively small number compared to
      mRNAs. A number of miRNAs play key roles in colon cancer stem cell
      chemoresistance and have clinical potential as prognostic biomarkers. The purpose
      of this study is to systematically validate the prognostic potential of miRNAs in
      colorectal cancer. In this study, we validated the prognostic potential of a
      panel of miRNAs using 205 stage II, III, and IV colorectal cancer specimens by
      qRT-PCR analysis. We cross validated our results using The Cancer Genome Atlas
      (TCGA) database. Many of the miRNAs we investigated have been functionally
      validated to be important in contributing to chemoresistance to 5-fluorouracil (5
      FU) based chemotherapy. We determined that miR-16 is the most consistent miRNA
      for expression normalization in colorectal cancer. We have validated several
      miRNAs (miR-15b, miR-215, miR-145, miR-192, let-7g) that are significantly
      associated with progression free survival (PFS) and/or overall survival (OS) of
      colorectal cancer patients independent of tumor stage and age at diagnosis. These
      5 miRNAs are significantly associated with OS of colorectal cancer even after
      tumor location (left side vs. right side) is adjusted for. Furthermore, the
      prognostic value of let-7g for overall survival was independently validated using
      the RNA-Seq results from TCGA colorectal cancer database. These results, taken
      together, establish a solid foundation towards miRNA based precision management
      of colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28881739
TI  - A phase I trial of azacitidine and nanoparticle albumin bound paclitaxel in
      patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), an albumin
      binding protein, is downregulated by hypermethylation in many cancers.
      Hypomethylating agents such as azacitidine can upregulate SPARC in tumors, which
      may enhance the accumulation of albumin-bound drugs at tumor site. The objectives
      of this phase I trial was to determine the safety and maximum tolerated dose and
      to assess any clinical activity of the combination of azacytidine and weekly
      nanoparticle-albumin-bound (nab(r)) paclitaxel. METHODS: Patients received
      escalating azacytidine doses daily for 5 days, followed by nab-paclitaxel at the
      standard 100mg/m2 weekly dose for 3 weeks in 4-week cycles. Dose-limiting
      toxicities (DLTs) were monitored during the first cycle. Serum was obtained at
      baseline, during and after treatment for correlative study. RESULTS: All sixteen
      total patients enrolled were evaluable for toxicity, while 13 patients were
      evaluable for response. Two of five patients treated with 100mg/m2 of azacytidine
      had DLT of prolonged grade 4 neutropenia. Therefore, the MTD of azacitidine in
      this regimen is 75 mg/m2. Three additional patients were treated with no grade 4
      toxicity in cycle 1. Clinical activity included 1 complete response (CR) in
      refractory DLBCL, 2 CR in ovarian cancer, 4 partial responses (PR) in ovarian and
      endometrial cancer, 4 stable diseases (SD) in lung, sarcoma and pancreatic
      cancer, 1 unconfirmed PR in breast cancer, and 1 progression of disease in
      CLL/SLL. CONCLUSIONS: Priming with azacitidine 75 mg/m2 daily for 5 days,
      followed by weekly nab-paclitaxel 100 mg/m2 weekly was well tolerated and results
      in dramatic responses pre-treated cancer patients.

PMID- 28881740
TI  - Unit resection of buccal squamous cell carcinoma: Description of a new surgical
      technique.
AB  - This study characterized the infiltration of primary tumors along the muscles,
      fascia and spaces of the maxillofacial region in buccal squamous cell carcinoma
      (BSCC) and suggested a new surgical strategy that is suitable for most stages.
      Based on the anatomic characteristics and infiltration of the primary tumor a new
      surgical approach - unit resection buccal surgery (URBS) - was developed. We
      evaluated this new surgical strategy, across a cohort of 127 BSCCs: 60 cases
      treated with URBS and 67 cases treated with conventional surgery. Notably there
      was no statistical difference in the clinicopathological variables between the
      two groups. After initial treatment with curative intent, the patients were
      regularly followed-up with clinical examination and imaging. URBS proved suitable
      for almost all stages of BSCC, and was particularly advantageous for advanced
      stages of BSCC. At 2 years post-treatment, the rates of overall survival were
      83.3% in the URBS group and 60.1% in the conventional surgery group, respectively
      (hazard ratio 0.38; 95% CI 0.20 to 0.75; P=0.005). Similarly, the rates of
      disease-free survival were 76.6% and 51.9% in the URBS group and the conventional
      surgery group, respectively (hazard ratio 0.42; 95% CI 0.23 to 0.75; P=0.003).
      The principles of URBS are suitable for almost all stages of BSCC, especially
      advanced stages. URBS may improve the prognosis of BSCC patients.

PMID- 28881741
TI  - CRABP-II enhances pancreatic cancer cell migration and invasion by stabilizing
      interleukin 8 expression.
AB  - Our previous study shows that cellular retinoic acid binding protein II (CRABP
      II) is overexpressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and pre-cancerous
      lesions, but not detected in normal pancreatic tissues. In this study, we show
      that deletion of CRABP-II in PDAC cells by CRISPR/Cas9 does not affect cancer
      cell proliferation, but decreases cell migration and invasion. Gene expression
      microarray analysis reveals that IL-8 is one of the top genes whose expression is
      down-regulated upon CRABP-II deletion, while expression of MMP-2 and MMP-14, two
      targets of IL-8 are also significantly down-regulated. Moreover, we found that
      CRABP-II is able to form a complex with HuR, which binds to the 3'UTR of IL-8
      messenger RNA (mRNA) and enhances IL-8 mRNA stability. Ectopic expression of flag
      CRABP-II in CRABP-II knockout cells is able to rescue the expression of IL-8, MMP
      2/MMP-14 and recovers cell migration. Using the orthotopic xenograft model, we
      further demonstrate that CRABP-II deletion impairs tumor metastasis to nearby
      lymph nodes. Taken together, our results reveal a novel pathway linking CRABP-II
      expression to enhanced PDAC metastasis, and hence we propose CRABP-II may serve
      as a new PDAC therapeutic target.

PMID- 28881742
TI  - Eribulin alone or in combination with the PLK1 inhibitor BI 6727 triggers
      intrinsic apoptosis in Ewing sarcoma cell lines.
AB  - In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of eribulin-induced cell
      death and its therapeutic potential in combination with the PLK1 inhibitor BI
      6727 in Ewing sarcoma (ES). Here, we show that eribulin triggers cell death in a
      dose-dependent manner in a panel of ES cell lines. In addition, eribulin at
      subtoxic, low nanomolar concentrations acts in concert with BI 6727 to induce
      cell death and to suppress long-term clonogenic survival. Mechanistic studies
      reveal that eribulin monotherapy at cytotoxic concentrations and co-treatment
      with eribulin at subtoxic concentrations together with BI 6727 arrest cells in
      the M phase of the cell cycle prior to the onset of cell death. This mitotic
      arrest is followed by increased phosphorylation of BCL-2 and BCL-xL as well as
      downregulation of MCL-1, suggesting inactivation of these antiapoptotic BCL-2
      family proteins. Consistently, eribulin monotherapy and eribulin/BI 6727 co
      treatment trigger activation of BAX, a key proapoptotic BCL-2 family protein, and
      increase proteolytic activation of caspase-9 and -3. Importantly, overexpression
      of BCL-2 or addition of the broad-range caspase inhibitor zVAD.fmk significantly
      rescue eribulin- as well as eribulin/BI 6727-induced cell death. Together, these
      findings demonstrate that eribulin induces cell death via the intrinsic pathway
      of apoptosis in ES cells, both alone at cytotoxic concentrations and in
      combination with BI 6727 at subtoxic concentrations. Thus, our study highlights
      the therapeutic potential of eribulin for the treatment of ES alone or in
      rational combination therapies.

PMID- 28881743
TI  - Prognostic role of podocalyxin-like protein expression in various cancers: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Several studies were conducted to explore the prognostic significance of
      podocalyxin-like protein (PODXL) expression in various cancers, with
      contradictory. This study aims to summarize the prognostic significance of PODXL
      expression in cancers. PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Embase were completely
      retrieved. The prospective or retrospective studies focusing on the prognostic
      role of PODXL expression in cancers were eligible. The endpoints were overall
      survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and disease-free survival (DFS).12
      studies involving a total of 5,309 patients were identified. The results
      indicated that high PODXL expression was significantly associated with worse OS
      when compared to the low PODXL expression (HR=1.76, 95%CI=1.53-2.04, p<0.00001;
      I2=41%, p=0.08). And similar results were detected in the subgroup analysis of
      analysis model, ethnicity, sample size, tumor type and antibody type. And the
      results also showed that high PODXL expression was obviously related to shorter
      DSS (HR=2.47, 95%CI=1.53-3.99, p=0.0002; I2=66%, p=0.03) and DFS (HR=2.12,
      95%CI=1.58-2.85, p<0.00001; I2=19%, p=0.29). In conclusion, it was revealed that
      high PODXL expression is an unfavorable predictor of OS, DSS and DFS in patients
      with cancers, and high PODXL expression is a promising prognostic biomarker for
      cancers, especially for patients in European.

PMID- 28881744
TI  - MiR-199a-3p suppresses proliferation and invasion of prostate cancer cells by
      targeting Smad1.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study was intended to analyze effects of miR-199a-3p and Smad1
      on proliferation, migration and invasion of prostate cancer (PCa) cells. RESULTS:
      MiR-199a-3p was significantly decreased in PCa tissues in comparison to that in
      adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.05). Over-expressed miR-199a-3p markedly
      suppressed proliferation and invasion of PCa cells (P < 0.05). MiR-199a-3p was
      negatively correlated with Smad1 expression, and overexpression of Smad1 could
      antagonize the effects of miR-199a-3p on PCa cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The
      PCa tissues and their adjacent normal tissues were collected from 54 PCa
      patients. Expressions of miR-199a-3p and Smad1 mRNA in tissues and cells were
      evaluated with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and
      immunohistochemistry assay was used to detect Smad1 protein expressions. The
      target relationship between miR-199a-3p and Smad1 was assessed by luciferase
      reporter assay. The PCa cell lines (i.e. PC-3 cells) were transfected with miR
      199a-3p mimics and Smad1-cDNA. MTT and Transwell assays were applied to detect
      proliferative, migratory and invasive abilities of PCa cells. CONCLUSIONS: MiR
      199a-3p suppressed proliferation and invasion of PCa cells by targeting Smad1.

PMID- 28881745
TI  - Whole tumor RNA-sequencing and deconvolution reveal a clinically-prognostic
      PTEN/PI3K-regulated glioma transcriptional signature.
AB  - The concept that solid tumors are maintained by a productive interplay between
      neoplastic and non-neoplastic elements has gained traction with the demonstration
      that stromal fibroblasts and immune system cells dictate cancer development and
      progression. While less studied, brain tumor (glioma) biology is likewise
      influenced by non-neoplastic immune system cells (macrophages and microglia)
      which interact with neoplastic glioma cells to create a unique physiological
      state (glioma ecosystem) distinct from that found in the normal tissue. To
      explore this neoplastic ground state, we leveraged several preclinical mouse
      models of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) optic glioma, a low-grade astrocytoma
      whose formation and maintenance requires productive interactions between non
      neoplastic and neoplastic cells, and employed whole tumor RNA-sequencing and
      mathematical deconvolution strategies to characterize this low-grade glioma
      ecosystem as an aggregate of cellular and acellular elements. Using this
      approach, we demonstrate that optic gliomas generated by altering the germline
      Nf1 gene mutation, the glioma cell of origin, or the presence of co-existing
      genetic alterations represent molecularly-distinct tumors. However, these optic
      glioma tumors share a 25-gene core signature, not found in normal optic nerve,
      that is normalized by microglia inhibition (minocycline), but not conventional
      (carboplatin) or molecularly-targeted (rapamycin) chemotherapy. Lastly, we
      identify a genetic signature conferred by Pten reduction and corrected by PI3K
      inhibition. This signature predicts progression-free survival in patients with
      either low-grade or high-grade glioma. Collectively, these findings support the
      concept that gliomas are composite ecological systems whose biology and response
      to therapy may be best defined by examining the tumor as a whole.

PMID- 28881746
TI  - Prostate-derived ETS factor improves prognosis and represses proliferation and
      invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Prostate-derived E-twenty-six (ETS) factor (PDEF), an epithelium-specific ETS
      transcription factor, regulates carcinogenesis and tumor progression. The
      prognostic importance and biologic functions in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
      have not been established. We investigated PDEF expression in 400 HCC patients
      using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, western blot and
      immunohistochemistry analysis. PDEF expression was significantly lower in tumors
      than in peritumoral tissues. Lower PDEF levels were associated with poorer
      prognosis in patients. PDEF was an independent predictor of overall survival in
      multivariate analysis. PDEF expression was suppressed in highly metastatic HCC
      cell lines, and shRNA-mediated down-regulation of PDEF in low-metastatic HCC cell
      lines (with high PDEF) significantly increased cellular proliferative and
      invasive capacity in vitro and in vivo. RNA sequencing analysis indicated that
      PDEF may mediate transcription of several genes involved in apoptosis and the
      cell cycle. PDEF modulated epithelial-mesenchymal transition by up-regulating E
      cadherin expression and down-regulating Slug and Vimentin expression, thereby
      lowering migration and invasion abilities of HCC cells. In conclusion, PDEF is
      associated with proliferation and invasiveness of HCC cells. It may serve as an
      independent predictor of prognosis in patients with HCC.

PMID- 28881747
TI  - Excessive matrix metalloprotease-mediated degradation of interstitial tissue
      (type I collagen) independently predicts short-term survival in an observational
      study of postmenopausal women diagnosed with cancer.
AB  - Extensive tissue remodeling mediated by matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) is an
      important part of cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum
      biomarkers reflecting MMP-mediated degradation of type I collagen (C1M), type IV
      collagen (C4M) and citrullinated vimentin (VICM) were predictive of cancer
      specific mortality. Between 1999 and 2001, 5855 Danish postmenopausal women
      participated in The Prospective Epidemiologic Risk Factor (PERF I) study.
      Demographics and serum samples were collected at enrolment. Cancer diagnosis, and
      cause and time of death were obtained from Danish registries. C1M, C4M and VICM
      were measured by ELISA. Hazard ratios (HR) and Kaplan-Meier curves were applied
      to assess mortality at 3 and 12 years of follow-up for women diagnosed with
      cancer within 3 years from blood sampling. Within 3 years from blood sampling,
      250 women had been diagnosed with cancer. C1M and VICM were associated with
      survival over time at 3 years of follow-up. Only C1M was predictive of mortality
      at 3 years follow-up: the adjusted HR was 2.65 [95% CI: 1.08-6.51]. In
      conclusion, C1M and VICM are associated with survival in postmenopausal women
      with cancer, and C1M is an independent risk factor for cancer-specific mortality.
      Thus, quantification of tissue remodeling is important in cancer.

PMID- 28881748
TI  - Api5 a new cofactor of estrogen receptor alpha involved in breast cancer outcome.
AB  - Api5 (Apoptosis inhibitor 5) is an anti-apoptotic factor that confers resistance
      to genotoxic stress in human cancer. Api5 is also expressed in endothelial cells
      and participates to the Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERalpha) signaling to promote
      cell migration. In this study, we found an over expression of Api5 in human
      breast cancer. Given that we show that high expression of Api5 in breast cancer
      patients is associated with shorter recurrence free survival, we investigated the
      relationship between ERalpha and Api5 at the molecular level. We found that Api5
      Nuclear Receptor box (NR box) drives a direct interaction with the C domain of
      ERalpha. Furthermore, Api5 participates to gene transcription activation of
      ERalpha target genes upon estrogen treatment. Besides, Api5 expression favors
      tumorigenicity and migration and is necessary for tumor growth in vivo in mice
      xenografted model of breast cancer cell line. These finding suggest that Api5 is
      a new cofactor of ERalpha that functionally participates to the tumorigenic
      phenotype of breast cancer cells. In ERalpha breast cancer patients, Api5
      overexpression is associated with poor survival, and may be used as a predictive
      marker of breast cancer recurrence free survival.

PMID- 28881749
TI  - Effects of microRNA-126 on cell proliferation, apoptosis and tumor angiogenesis
      via the down-regulating ERK signaling pathway by targeting EGFL7 in
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - This study intends to explore the effects of microRNA-126 (miR-126) on cell
      proliferation, apoptosis, and tumor angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) by regulating epidermal growth factor-like domain 7 (EGFL7) through
      extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling. HCC tissues and adjacent
      normal tissues were obtained from 184 HCC patients. HCC cells were separately
      transfected with recombinant plasmids. Western blotting and qRT-PCR were applied
      to detect miR-126 and EGFL7, ERK, Fas/FasL, Bcl-2, Caspase mRNA and protein
      levels. CCK8 and TUNEL were performed to determinate cell proliferation and
      apoptosis. Flow cytometry was used to analyze cell cycle distribution. Rats model
      of HCC was constructed, and tumor weight and the number of new blood vessels were
      recorded after 3 weeks of tumor transplantation. Compared with the adjacent
      normal tissues, HCC tissues exhibited lower miR-126 expression, and higher EGFL7,
      and ERK mRNA and protein levels. Overexpression of miR-126 in HCC cell lines
      suppressed EGFL7, ERK, Bcl-2, and P-ERK, and increased apoptotic-associated
      proteins Fas/FasL and Caspase-3, and it inhibited cell proliferation and induced
      cell apoptosis. Overexpression of miR-126 in nude mice resulted in reduced tumor
      weight and less new blood vessels in tumors. The inhibition of miR-126 decreased
      cell apoptosis, and enhanced cell proliferation and tumor angiogenesis. This
      study demonstrates that miR-126 might decrease cell proliferation, induce
      apoptosis, and inhibit tumor angiogenesis in HCC by inhibiting EGFL7 via down
      regulating the ERK signaling pathway.

PMID- 28881750
TI  - New in vivo avatars of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) from stereotactic
      biopsies performed at diagnosis.
AB  - Diffuse Instrinsic Pontine Glioma is the most aggressive form of High Grade
      Gliomas in children. The lack of biological material and the absence of relevant
      models have hampered the development of new therapeutics. Their extensive
      infiltration of the brainstem renders any surgical resection impossible and until
      recently biopsies were considered not informative enough and therefore not
      recommended. Thus, most models were derived from autopsy material. We aimed to
      develop relevant in vivo DIPG models that mimic this specific disease and its
      molecular diversity from tumor material obtained at diagnosis. Eight patient
      derived orthotopic xenograft models were obtained after direct stereotactic
      injection of a mixed cell suspension containing tumor cells and stromal cells in
      the brainstem or thalamus of nude mice and serially passaged thereafter. In
      parallel, we developed 6 cell-derived xenograft models after orthotopic injection
      of tumor-initiating cells cultured from stereotactic biopsies. Cells were
      modified to express luciferase to enable longitudinal tumor growth monitoring,
      and fluorescent reporter proteins to trace the tumor cells in the brain. These
      models do not form a tumor mass, they are invasive, show the H3K27 trimethylation
      loss in vivo and the tumor type diversity observed in patients in terms of
      histone H3 mutations and lineage markers. Histological and MRI features at 11.7
      Tesla show similarities with treatment naive human DIPG, and in this respect,
      both direct and indirect orthotopic xenograft looked alike. These DIPG models
      will therefore constitute valuable tools for evaluating new therapeutic
      approaches in this devastating disease.

PMID- 28881751
TI  - Hepatitis B virus surface proteins accelerate cholestatic injury and tumor
      progression in Abcb4-knockout mice.
AB  - : Understanding of the pathophysiology of cholestasis associated carcinogenesis
      could challenge the development of new personalized therapeutic approaches and
      thus improve prognosis. Simultaneous damage might aggravate hepatic injury,
      induce chronic liver disease and even promote carcinogenesis. We aimed to study
      the effect of Hepatitis B virus surface protein (HBsAg) on cholestatic liver
      disease and associated carcinogenesis in a mouse model combining both
      impairments. Hybrids of Abcb4-/- and HBsAg transgenic mice were bred on fibrosis
      susceptible background BALB/c. Liver injury, serum bile acid concentration,
      hepatic fibrosis, and carcinogenesis were enhanced by the combination of
      simultaneous damage in line with activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK),
      proto-oncogene c-Jun, and Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3
      (STAT3). Activation of Protein Kinase RNA-like Endoplasmic Reticulum Kinase
      (PERK) and Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2A (eIF2alpha) indicated
      unfolded protein response (UPR) in HBsAg-expressing mice and even in Abcb4-/-
      without HBsAg-expression. CONCLUSION: Cholestasis-induced STAT3- and JNK-pathways
      may predispose HBsAg-associated tumorigenesis. Since STAT3- and JNK-activation
      are well characterized critical regulators for tumor promotion, the potentiation
      of their activation in hybrids suggests an additive mechanism enhancing tumor
      incidence.

PMID- 28881752
TI  - Integrated expression profiles analysis reveals novel predictive biomarker in
      pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most lethal human malignant tumor,
      with a dismal 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. The lack of specific symptoms
      at early tumor stages and the paucity of biomarkers contribute to the poor
      diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. To improve prognosis, a screening
      biomarker for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is in urgent need. We searched
      the databases of expression profiling by array on GEO, aiming at comparing gene
      expression profile of matched pairs of pancreatic tumor and adjacent non-tumor
      tissues, and we screen out 4 suitable series of gene expression microarray data
      ("GSE15471", "GSE18670", "GSE28735" and "GSE58561"). After carefully analyzing,
      13 DEGs (MYOF, SLC6A6, S100P, HK2, IFI44L, OSBPL3, IGF2BP3, PDK4, IL1R2, ERO1A,
      EGLN3, PLAC8 and ACSL5) are significantly differentially expressed in four
      microarray databases in common. After analyzing mRNA expression data and clinical
      follow-up survey provided in the TCGA database and clinicopathological data of
      137 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients, we carefully demonstrated that
      three of these differentially expressed genes (ERO1A, OSBPL3 and IFI44L) are
      correlated with poor prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients. In
      addition, we revealed that cell-matrix adhesion and extracellular matrix were top
      significantly regulated pathways in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and depicted
      two protein-protein interactions networks of extracellular matrix related Genes
      which are dysregulated according to 4 gene expression microarray data mentioned
      above ("GSE15471", "GSE18670", "GSE28735" and "GSE58561"), hoping to shed light
      on the etiology of PDAC and mechanisms of drug resistance in PDAC in this study.

PMID- 28881753
TI  - siRNA-mediated inactivation of HER3 improves the antitumour activity and
      sensitivity of gefitinib in gastric cancer cells.
AB  - The human EGFR family consists of four type-1 transmembrane tyrosine kinase
      receptors: HER1 (EGFR, ErbB1), HER2 (Neu, ErbB2), HER3 (ErbB3), and HER4 (ErbB4).
      HER3 can dimerize with EGFR, HER2 and even c-Met and likely plays a central role
      in the response to EGFR-targeted therapy. Because HER3 lacks significant kinase
      activity and cannot be inhibited by tyrosine kinase inhibitors, neutralizing
      antibodies and alternative inhibitors of HER3 have been sought as cancer
      therapeutics. Here, we describe the stable suppression of HER3 mRNA and protein
      using siRNA. The inhibition of HER3 expression decreased cell proliferation,
      suppressed cell cycle progression, induced apoptosis and inhibited cell motility,
      migration, invasiveness, and soft agar growth. In addition, we found that
      gefitinib treatment increased the HER3 and HER2 mRNA levels. The administration
      of various concentrations of gefitinib to HER3-knockdown cells enhanced
      antitumour activity and sensitivity due to the downregulation of protein
      phosphorylation via PI3K/AKT and ERK signalling. Our results support the use of
      combined treatments targeting multiple EGFR receptors, particularly the use of
      HER3 inhibitors combined with EGFR inhibitors, such as gefitinib.

PMID- 28881754
TI  - Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 rs5498 polymorphism is associated with the risk
      of myocardial infarction.
AB  - Several studies addressed the association between Intercellular adhesion molecule
      1 (ICAM-1) rs5498 polymorphism and Myocardial Infarction (MI) risk. However, they
      addressed conflicting findings. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore
      whether ICAM-1 gene rs5498 polymorphism plays an important role in modifying the
      risk of MI. A meta-analysis was conducted on the association between ICAM-1
      rs5498 polymorphism and MI. 12 eligible studies involving 1,696 cases and 3,039
      controls were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis revealed that ICAM-1
      rs5498 polymorphism showed a strongly positive correlation with MI and could be
      viewed as a protective factor for MI. Furthermore, subgroup analysis according to
      ethnicity indicated that ICAM-1 rs5498 polymorphism decreased the risk of MI
      among Caucasian and Asian populations. In conclusion, ICAM-1 rs5498 polymorphism
      was associated with the decreased risk of MI. Larger sample size studies with
      more diverse ethnic populations are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28881755
TI  - Identification of long non-coding RNAs biomarkers associated with progression of
      endometrial carcinoma and patient outcomes.
AB  - Endometrial carcinoma is a complex disease characterized by both genetic,
      epigenetic and environmental factors. Increasing evidence has suggested that long
      non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the development and progression
      of cancers. In this study, we performed a comparison analysis for lncRNA
      expression between patients with early-stage (stage I/II) and those with advanced
      stage (stage III/IV) derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project and
      identified 17 differentially expressed lncRNAs using student t-test. Five of the
      17 differentially expressed lncRNAs were selected as optimal biomarkers that are
      significantly associated with progression of UCEC using random forest feature
      selection procedure. A risk classifier of five lncRNAs was developed to as a
      molecular signature that identifies patients at high risk for progression using
      support vector machine. Results of five-lncRNA risk classifier achieved high
      discriminatory performance in distinguishing advanced stage from early stage with
      78% prediction accuracy, 96.6% sensitivity and 76.6% specificity. Functional
      analysis suggested that these five lncRNA biomarkers may play critical roles in
      the progression of UCEC by participating in important cancer-related biological
      processes. Our study will help to improve our understanding of underlying
      mechanisms in the progression of UCEC and provide novel lncRNAs as candidate
      predictive biomarkers for the identification of patients with high risk for
      progression.

PMID- 28881756
TI  - MM-BMSCs induce naive CD4+ T lymphocytes dysfunction through fibroblast
      activation protein alpha.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The tumor microenvironment plays a major role in multiple myelomas
      (MM). MM-BMSCs (bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells) can support tumor growth
      and immune surveillance escape. On the other hand, fibroblast activation protein
      alpha, expressed by cancer stroma cells including BMSCs, has been shown to
      potentiate epithelial cancers growth and immune suppression. RESULTS: MM-BMSC
      inhibited proliferation of T cells (P = 0.0138), promoted senescence of T cells
      (P < 0.001), consistent with decreased CD28 and hTERT expression (P < 0.001),
      Treg/Th17 was down-regulated by MM-BMSC (P = 0.031). After treatment with
      FAPalpha inhibitor PT-100, senescent rate was decreased (P = 0.001), Treg/Th17
      was up-regulated (P = 0.024). FAPalpha was up-regulated by TCCM (P = 0.02). p-AKT
      was increased in MM-BMSC co-cultured T cells (P = 0.021) and decreased by PT-100
      (P = 0.017). Higher level of TGF-beta was observed in MM-BMSC co-cultured medium
      (P < 0.001), and down-regulated by PT-100 (P = 0.038). p-AKT was upregulated as
      compared to T-cells without MM-BMSCs (P = 0.021). The abnormal p-AKT level was
      distinctly decreased by PT-100 (P = 0.017). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expression
      of FAPalpha was analyzed by western blot and RT-PCR. The proliferation and
      senescence of CD4+ T cells was examined by cck-8 and beta-gal staining, and
      Treg/Th17, CD28 expression was analyzed by FCM. The FAPalpha and PI3K pathway was
      analyzed by western blot and their relationship with T cell function was detected
      by FCM and RT-PCR. The level of IL-10, IL-17 and TGF-beta was detected by ELISA.
      CONCLUSIONS: MM-BMSCs inhibit T-cell proliferation and drive Th17 differentiation
      through FAPalpha/TGF-beta axis, leading to the progression of myeloma. FAPalpha
      induced T-cell senescence is mediated by the PI3K signaling pathway.

PMID- 28881757
TI  - Antagonistic effects of selenium on cadmium-induced apoptosis by restoring the
      mitochondrial dynamic equilibrium and energy metabolism in chicken spleens.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of cadmium-induced
      apoptosis in chicken spleens and the antagonistic effects of selenium. We
      duplicated the selenium-cadmium interaction model and examined the expression of
      apoptosis-, immune-, mitochondrial dynamics- and energy metabolism-related genes.
      The results demonstrated that after treatment with cadmium, the frequency of
      apoptosis was significantly increased, and the morphological characteristics of
      apoptosis were observed. The expression of pro-apoptotic genes was increased, and
      that of anti-apoptotic genes was decreased. The mRNA levels of tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha and interlenkin-1beta were observably increased, but the interlenkin
      2 and interferon-gamma levels were markedly decreased. Furthermore, the mRNA and
      protein levels of dynamin-related protein 1 and mitochondrial fission factor were
      significantly enhanced, whereas mitofusin 1, mitofusin 2, and optic atrophy 1
      were markedly decreased. The expression of hexokinase 1, hexokinase 2, aconitase
      2, lactate dehydrogenase A, lactate dehydrogenase B, succinatedehydrogenase B,
      pyruvate kinase and phosphofructokinase were also reduced. Selenium supplements
      remarkably attenuated cadmium-induced effects (p < 0.05). Based on the above
      results, conclude that the cadmium treatment promoted a mitochondrial dynamic
      imbalance and reduced energy metabolism, leading to apoptosis and immune
      dysfunction in chicken spleens, and selenium had an antagonistic effect on Cd
      induced apoptosis.

PMID- 28881758
TI  - Suppression of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-2 re-sensitizes paclitaxel-resistant
      human lung cancer cells to paclitaxel.
AB  - Despite impressive initial clinical responses, the majority of lung cancer
      patients treated with paclitaxel eventually develop resistance to the drug.
      Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-2 (PDK2) is a key regulator of glycolysis and
      oxidative phosphorylation, and its expression is increased in a variety of
      tumors. In this study, the role of PDK2 in mediating paclitaxel resistance in
      lung cancer cells was investigated using biochemical and isotopic tracing
      methods. Increased expression of PDK2 was observed in paclitaxel-resistant cells
      ascompared totheir parental cells. Down-regulation of PDK2 usingsiRNA increased
      the sensitivity to paclitaxel of resistant lung cancer cells. Targeting
      paclitaxel-resistant cells throughPDK2 knockdown was associated with reduced
      glycolysis rather than increased oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Moreover,
      combining paclitaxel withthe specific PDK2 inhibitor dichloroacetate had a
      synergistic inhibitory effect on the viability of paclitaxel-resistant lung
      cancer cells. These results indicate that paclitaxel-induced expression of PDK2
      serves as an important mechanism for acquired paclitaxel resistance of lung
      cancer cells. They also highlight the importance of PDK2 for potential
      therapeutic interventions in patients who have developed a resistance to
      paclitaxel.

PMID- 28881759
TI  - Combination treatment with transarterial chemoembolization, radiotherapy, and
      hyperthermia (CERT) for hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor
      thrombosis: Final results of a prospective phase II trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of
      combination transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) followed by radiotherapy (RT)
      and hyperthermia (CERT) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor
      thrombosis (PVTT). METHODS: This single-institution, single-arm, prospective
      phase II study was performed from October 2013 to February 2016. The objective
      response rate (ORR) was evaluated at 3 months after CERT completion, and overall
      ORR was the primary end point. RESULTS: During the study period, 69 of 77
      patients who consented to participate underwent at least one session of
      hyperthermia and RT. More than half of the patients (39, 56.5%) complained of
      severe hyperthermia-related pain. The overall ORR was 43.5% (30/69), and the ORR
      of the RT target area was 69.6% (48/69). Liver function status was not
      significantly affected by CERT. Overall survival, local progression-free
      survival, and progression-free survival of all enrolled patients at 2 years was
      62.9%, 47.6%, and 14.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: An overall ORR of 43.5% was
      observed after CERT, but a promising ORR of 69.6% was achieved in the RT target
      area. Toxicities related to CERT were manageable, and pain intolerance to
      hyperthermia was the main obstacle to treatment maintenance.

PMID- 28881760
TI  - Prognostic value of Flotillin-1 expression in patients with solid tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In numerous studies, Flotillin-1 was reported to be involved in tumor
      progression, indicating prognosis in various types of cancer. However, the
      results were inconsistent. RESULTS: A total of 2473 patients from 13 articles
      were included. The results indicated that: (1) Patients detected with high
      expression level of Flotillin-1 protein had a significantly shorter OS (HR =1.64;
      95%CI: 1.39-1.88), statistical significance was also observed in subgroup meta
      analyses stratified by the cancer type, nationality, detecting method, cutoff
      value, analysis type, sample size and publication date. (2) Patients with high
      Flotillin-1 protein expression level had a poorer DFS (HR = 2.49; 95%CI: 1.64
      3.35), a worse RFS(HR = 3.26; 95%CI: 1.10-5.43) and a potential shorter PFS(HR =
      1.84; 95%CI: 0.81-2.87). (3) The pooled odds ratios (ORs) showed that increased
      Flotillin-1 level was also related to lymph node metastasis (OR =6.30; 95% CI:
      3.15-12.59), distant metastasis (OR =6.02; 95% CI: 1.50-24.06) and more advanced
      TNM stage (OR =4.69; 95% CI: 2.74-8.03). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive
      retrieval was performed in multiple databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of
      Science and CNKI. The relevant articles were screened for investigating the
      association between increased Flotillin-1 expression level and prognosis.
      Additionally, clinicopathological features data was also extracted from these
      studies. CONCLUSIONS: High expression level of Flotillin-1 protein was correlated
      with poorer clinical outcome. It might serve as a prognostic biomarker and a
      potential predictive factor of clinicopathology in various tumors. Further well
      designed clinical studies should be performed to verify the clinical utility of
      Flotillin-1 in human solid tumors.

PMID- 28881761
TI  - Transcription factor c-Rel is indispensable for generation of thymic but not of
      peripheral Foxp3+ regulatory T cells.
AB  - The transcription factor c-Rel has been shown to be crucial for development of
      regulatory T cells (Tregs). Recent studies have reported that the expression of
      transcription factor Helios in Foxp3+ Tregs correlates with thymic origin of
      these cells (tTregs). Notably, we found that only the Helios+Foxp3+ Treg cell
      population was substantially reduced in c-Rel deficient mice. In contrast to a
      defective tTreg development, we observed an expansion of mucosal Tregs during the
      induction of acute colitis in rel-/- mice. Furthermore, we found a preferential
      accumulation of Helios-Foxp3+ Tregs in aged c-Rel deficient mice. This unexpected
      finding, together with the observation that naive CD4+ T cells convert into Tregs
      in vitro in the absence of c-Rel and presence of IL-2, provide an evidence that
      extra-thymic generation of induced and peripheral Tregs (iTregs and pTregs) is
      independent of c-Rel. Moreover, the treatment with IL-2/anti-IL-2 mAb (JES6-1)
      resulted in a widespread increase of Helios+Foxp3+ Tregs in both wild-type (WT)
      and rel-/- mice. These data suggest that exogenous IL-2 administration
      compensates for defective IL-2 production and reduced tTreg numbers in c-Rel
      deficient mice. Our findings reveal that c-Rel is essential for the generation of
      tTregs but not for that of pTregs and iTregs.

PMID- 28881762
TI  - Erectile dysfunction and the risk of prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy and
      the third leading cause of cancer death among men in developed countries. Because
      some risk factors are common between erectile dysfunction (ED) and PCa, we
      investigated the association between ED and subsequent PCa. METHODS: This
      nationwide population-based cohort study used data from the Taiwan National
      Health Insurance Research Database for the period 2000-2010. We identified
      patients newly diagnosed with ED by using codes from the International
      Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification. RESULTS: In
      total, 5858 and 23432 patients were enrolled in the ED and non-ED cohorts,
      respectively. After adjustment for age, sex, and comorbidities, the overall
      incidence densities of PCa were significantly higher in the ED cohort than in the
      non-ED cohort, with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.19. The age-specific
      relative risk of PCa was significantly higher for all age groups in the ED cohort
      than in the non-ED cohort. Compared with patients without ED, those with organic
      ED had a 1.27-fold higher risk of PCa. CONCLUSION: ED is a harbinger of PCa in
      some men. Physicians should consider the possibility of occult PCa in patients
      with ED regardless of age and comorbidities.

PMID- 28881763
TI  - TBX2 over-expression promotes nasopharyngeal cancer cell proliferation and
      invasion.
AB  - TBX2 is a member of the T box transcription factor family. Its expression and
      potential biological functions in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) cells are studied
      here. We showed that TBX2 mRNA and protein expression was significantly elevated
      in multiple human NPC tissues, as compared with that in adjacent normal tissues.
      Knockdown of TBX2 by targeted-siRNA significantly inhibited proliferation and
      invasion of NPC cells (CNE-1 and HONE-1 lines). Meanwhile, TBX2 knockdown also
      induced G1-phase cell cycle arrest. At the molecular level, we discovered that
      expressions of several tumor suppressor genes, including p21, p27, phosphatase
      with tensin homology (PTEN) and E-Cadherin, were increased dramatically after
      TBX2 knockdown in above NPC cells. Collectively, our results imply that TBX2 over
      expression promotes NPC cell proliferation and invasion, possibly via silencing
      several key tumor suppressor genes.

PMID- 28881764
TI  - Detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma susceptibility with single nucleotide
      polymorphism analysis using next-generation sequencing technology.
AB  - Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a head and neck cancer with high incidence in
      South China and East Asia. To provide a theoretical basis for NPC risk screening
      and early prevention, we conducted a meta-analysis of relevant literature on the
      association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)s with NPC susceptibility.
      Further, expression of 15 candidate SNPs identified in the meta-analysis was
      evaluated in a cohort of NPC patients and healthy volunteers using next
      generation sequencing technology. Among the 15 SNPs detected in the meta
      analysis, miR-146a (rs2910164, C>G), HCG9 (rs3869062, A>G), HCG9 (rs16896923,
      T>C), MMP2 (rs243865, C>T), GABBR1 (rs2076483, T>C), and TP53 (rs1042522, C>G)
      were associated with decreased susceptibility to NPC, while GSTM1 (+/DEL), IL-10
      (rs1800896, A>G), MDM2 (rs2279744, T>G), MDS1-EVI1 (rs6774494, G>A), XPC
      (rs2228000, C>T), HLA-F (rs3129055, T>C), SPLUNC1 (rs2752903, T>C; and rs750064,
      A>G), and GABBR1 (rs29232, G>A) were associated with increased susceptibility to
      NPC. In our case-control study, an association with increased risk for NPC was
      found for the AG vs AA genotype in HCG9 (rs3869062, A>G). In addition,
      heterozygous deletion of the GSTM1 allele was associated with increased
      susceptibility to NPC, while an SNP in GABBR1 (rs29232, G>A) was associated with
      decreased risk, and might thus have a protective role on NPC carcinogenesis. This
      work provides the first comprehensive assessment of SNP expression and its
      relationship to NPC risk. It suggests the need for well-designed, larger
      confirmatory studies to validate its findings.

PMID- 28881765
TI  - Mitral isthmus ablation using a circular mapping catheter positioned in the left
      atrial appendage as a reference for conduction block.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For perimitral atrial flutter (PMFL) developing after catheter
      ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF), to create a complete conduction block at
      the mitral isthmus (MI) is mandatory to terminate it, however, it is still
      challenging. METHODS: This study consisted of 80 patients (74 male, 61 +/- 8.1
      years) undergoing MI ablation. After a circular mapping catheter was positioned
      at the neck of the left atrial appendage (LAA), the MI ablation was performed on
      the MI line just below the LAA neck targeting the earliest activation recording
      site of the LAA catheter during pacing from the coronary sinus (CS). When
      ablation during CS pacing was not successful, an RF delivery during LAA pacing
      was applied targeting the earliest activation site just below the MI line. If the
      endocardial approach failed, an RF application inside the CS was attempted.
      RESULTS: With the endocardial approach, acute success was achieved in 51/80
      patients (64%). Additional epicardial ablation from the CS was performed in 26/29
      (90%) endocardially unsuccessful patients and conduction block at the MI was
      achieved in 21/26 (81%). Overall, complete conduction block at the MI was
      achieved in 72/80 patients (90%). At a mean follow-up of 16 +/- 6 months, 20
      patients (25%) had recurrence of atrial arrhythmias (AT: 12, AF: 8), and 10 (AT:
      7, AF : 3) underwent a second procedure in which an LMI block line was completed
      in 3 (33%). PMFL was diagnosed in 6 out of 7 AT patients. No complications were
      observed. CONCLUSIONS: Creating linear lesions just beneath the neck of the LAA
      was highly successful under the guidance of a circular mapping catheter in the
      LAA using a steerable sheath. An RF application from the CS was needed in less
      than half of the cases.

PMID- 28881766
TI  - NFATc3 mediates the sensitivity of gastric cancer cells to arsenic sulfide.
AB  - Arsenic sulfide (As4S4) is the main component of Realgar which is widely used in
      traditional Chinese medicine. Previously we showed that As4S4 inhibited the
      proliferation of colon cancer cells through regulating nuclear factor of
      activated T cells (NFAT) pathway. Here we explore the role of NFAT in gastric
      cancer. We showed that As4S4 inhibited the expression of NFATc1, NFATc3, and
      NFATc4, and modulated the expression of NFATc2 accompanying with p53. The
      baseline expression of NFATc3 varied distinctly in gastric cancer cell lines
      (AGS, MGC803, MKN28, MKN45, and SGC7901) and the sensitivity of these cells to
      As4S4 was dissimilar, with AGS and MGC803 cells showing higher sensitivity while
      the SGC7901 cells relatively resistant. Interestingly, the sensitivity to As4S4
      was correlated with the level of expression of NFATc3, and the cells relatively
      sensitivity just showing higher expression of NFATc3. Furthermore, NFATc3
      expression was significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues compared with the
      adjacent normal tissues. Our data also showed that, NFATc3 promoted the
      proliferation of gastric cancer cells by regulating c-Myc. In conclusion, As4S4
      inhibited the proliferation of gastric cancer cells through NFATc3/c-Myc pathway
      and the diverse sensitivity among different cell lines correlated with the
      expression level of NFATc3 indicating that NFATc3 may be a potential therapeutic
      target in gastric cancer.

PMID- 28881767
TI  - Transgenic overexpression of NanogP8 in the mouse prostate is insufficient to
      initiate tumorigenesis but weakly promotes tumor development in the Hi-Myc mouse
      model.
AB  - This project was undertaken to address a critical cancer biology question: Is
      overexpression of the pluripotency molecule Nanog sufficient to initiate tumor
      development in a somatic tissue? Nanog1 is critical for the self-renewal and
      pluripotency of ES cells, and its retrotransposed homolog, NanogP8 is
      preferentially expressed in somatic cancer cells. Our work has shown that shRNA
      mediated knockdown of NanogP8 in prostate, breast, and colon cancer cells
      inhibits tumor regeneration whereas inducible overexpression of NanogP8 promotes
      cancer stem cell phenotypes and properties. To address the key unanswered
      question whether tissue-specific overexpression of NanogP8 is sufficient to
      promote tumor development in vivo, we generated a NanogP8 transgenic mouse model,
      in which the ARR2PB promoter was used to drive NanogP8 cDNA. Surprisingly, the
      ARR2PB-NanogP8 transgenic mice were viable, developed normally, and did not form
      spontaneous tumors in >2 years. Also, both wild type and ARR2PB-NanogP8
      transgenic mice responded similarly to castration and regeneration and castrated
      ARR2PB-NanogP8 transgenic mice also did not develop tumors. By crossing the
      ARR2PB-NanogP8 transgenic mice with ARR2PB-Myc (i.e., Hi-Myc) mice, we found that
      the double transgenic (i.e., ARR2PB-NanogP8; Hi-Myc) mice showed similar tumor
      incidence and histology to the Hi-Myc mice. Interestingly, however, we observed
      white dots in the ventral lobes of the double transgenic prostates, which were
      characterized as overgrown ductules/buds featured by crowded atypical Nanog
      expressing luminal cells. Taken together, our present work demonstrates that
      transgenic overexpression of NanogP8 in the mouse prostate is insufficient to
      initiate tumorigenesis but weakly promotes tumor development in the Hi-Myc mouse
      model.

PMID- 28881768
TI  - Downregulated long noncoding RNA ALDBGALG0000005049 induces inflammation in
      chicken muscle suffered from selenium deficiency by regulating stearoyl-CoA
      desaturase.
AB  - Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to play a pivotal role in
      proliferation and differentiation of muscles. However, the study on the roles of
      lncRNAs in Selenium (Se) deficiency induced muscle injury is still unclear. In
      this study, deep sequencing was performed to profile lncRNAs and mRNAs of the
      muscles from the Se deficiency (-Se group) and control (C group) chickens. The
      results revealed that 38 lncRNAs (23 up-regulated and 15 down-regulated) and 687
      mRNAs (285 up-regulated and 402 down-regulated) were significantly dysregulated
      expressed, and the significantly dysregulated pathway including Phagosome,
      Cardiac muscle contraction, and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR)
      in -Se group. The regulatory relationship between ALDBGALG0000005049 and stearoyl
      CoA desaturase (SCD), which involved in PPAR pathway was verified. The results
      also showed that the decreased expressions of SCD, PPARalpha, PPARbeta and
      PPARgamma, and the increased expressions of interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, IL-8,
      and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 4 (CCL4) along with silencing of
      ALDBGALG0000005049 in chicken myoblasts. Moreover, increased expressions of IL
      1beta, IL-6, IL-8, and CCL4 and inflammatory cell infiltration in microstructure
      of chicken muscles treated with Se deficiency were observed. This study displayed
      an overview of aberrantly expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs profiles and PPAR pathway,
      and revealed that downregulation of ALDBGALG0000005049 caused inflammation by
      regulating SCD in chicken muscle resulted from Se deficiency.

PMID- 28881769
TI  - Middle-distance running acutely influences the concentration and composition of
      serum bile acids: Potential implications for cancer risk?
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study was aimed to investigate the acute effect of medium
      distance running on bile acids concentration and composition, in order to verify
      whether the positive impact of physical exercise on cancer risk may also be
      mediated by variation of bile acids concentration and composition in serum.
      METHODS: The concentration and composition of serum bile acids was analyzed in 30
      middle-aged and healthy recreational athletes with a reference liquid
      chromatography-mass spectrometry technique, immediately before and shortly after
      the end of the running trial. The concentration of bile acids after the run was
      adjusted for plasma volume change. RESULTS: All athletes successfully completed
      the trial. After correction of values for the individual plasma volume change
      calculated after the run, the serum concentration of total bile acids was found
      to be significantly reduced by approximately 46%. A statistically significant
      decrease was observed for cholic, deoxycholic, chenodeoxycholic, ursodeoxycholic,
      glycoursodeoxycholic and hyodeoxycholic acids, whereas the concentration of the
      remaining compounds remained unvaried after the run. A considerable variation of
      bile acids profile was also observed. No significant association was found
      between running performance and variation of bile acids concentrations.
      CONCLUSION: These results show that middle distance running acutely decreases the
      concentration of total bile acids in serum, especially that of the more mutagenic
      and carcinogenic compounds, so providing an intriguing support to the favorable
      effects of physical exercise for lowering the risk of many gastrointestinal
      cancers.

PMID- 28881770
TI  - Toxicarioside O induces protective autophagy in a sirtuin-1-dependent manner in
      colorectal cancer cells.
AB  - Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer. It has high morbidity and mortality
      worldwide, and more effective treatment strategies need to be developed.
      Toxicarioside O (TCO), a natural product derived from Antiaris toxicaria, has
      been shown to be a potential anticancer agent. However, the molecular mechanisms
      involved remain poorly understood. In this study, our results demonstrated that
      TCO can induce both apoptosis and autophagy in colorectal cancer cells. Moreover,
      TCO-induced autophagy was due to the increase of the expression and activity of
      the enzyme sirtuin-1 (SIRT1), and subsequent inhibition of the Akt/mTOR pathway.
      Inhibition of SIRT1 activity by its inhibitor, EX-527, attenuated TCO-induced
      autophagy. Of interest, inhibition of autophagy by chloroguine, an autophagy
      inhibitor, enhanced TCO-induced apoptotic cell death, suggesting that autophagy
      plays a protective role in TCO-induced apoptosis. Together, these findings
      suggest that combination of TCO and autophagy inhibitor may be a novel strategy
      suitable for potentiating the anticancer activity of TCO for treatment of
      colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28881771
TI  - Prediction of EGFR and KRAS mutation in non-small cell lung cancer using
      quantitative 18F FDG-PET/CT metrics.
AB  - This study investigated the relationship between epidermal growth factor receptor
      (EGFR) and Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) mutations in non
      small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and quantitative FDG-PET/CT parameters including
      tumor heterogeneity. 131 patients with NSCLC underwent staging FDG-PET/CT
      followed by tumor resection and histopathological analysis that included testing
      for the EGFR and KRAS gene mutations. Patient and lesion characteristics,
      including smoking habits and FDG uptake parameters, were correlated to each gene
      mutation. Never-smoker (P < 0.001) or low pack-year smoking history (p = 0.002)
      and female gender (p = 0.047) were predictive factors for the presence of the
      EGFR mutations. Being a current or former smoker was a predictive factor for the
      KRAS mutations (p = 0.018). The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of FDG
      uptake in lung lesions was a predictive factor of the EGFR mutations (p = 0.029),
      while metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis were not predictive.
      Amongst several tumor heterogeneity metrics included in our analysis, inverse
      coefficient of variation (1/COV) was a predictive factor (p < 0.02) of EGFR
      mutations status, independent of metabolic tumor diameter. Multivariate analysis
      showed that being a never-smoker was the most significant factor (p < 0.001) for
      the EGFR mutations in lung cancer overall. The tumor heterogeneity metric 1/COV
      and SUVmax were both predictive for the EGFR mutations in NSCLC in a univariate
      analysis. Overall, smoking status was the most significant factor for the
      presence of the EGFR and KRAS mutations in lung cancer.

PMID- 28881772
TI  - High-resolution dynamic imaging and quantitative analysis of lung cancer
      xenografts in nude mice using clinical PET/CT.
AB  - Considering the general application of dedicated small-animal positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography is limited, an acceptable alternative in many
      situations might be clinical PET/CT. To estimate the feasibility of using
      clinical PET/CT with [F-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose for high-resolution dynamic
      imaging and quantitative analysis of cancer xenografts in nude mice. Dynamic
      clinical PET/CT scans were performed on xenografts for 60 min after injection
      with [F-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose. Scans were reconstructed with or without
      SharpIR method in two phases. And mice were sacrificed to extracting major organs
      and tumors, using ex vivo gamma-counting as a reference. Strikingly, we observed
      that the image quality and the correlation between the all quantitive data from
      clinical PET/CT and the ex vivo counting was better with the SharpIR
      reconstructions than without. Our data demonstrate that clinical PET/CT scanner
      with SharpIR reconstruction is a valuable tool for imaging small animals in
      preclinical cancer research, offering dynamic imaging parameters, good image
      quality and accurate data quatification.

PMID- 28881773
TI  - Apatinib inhibits VEGFR-2 and angiogenesis in an in vivo murine model of
      nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - Angiogenesis is initiated by the activation of the vascular epidermal growth
      factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) by the vascular epidermal growth factor (VEGF)
      ligand. Overexpression of VEGFR-2 increases the growth of nasopharyngeal
      carcinomas (NPC). Apatinib (YN968D1) is a highly-selective inhibitor of VEGFR-2,
      but its effects on NPC have not been hitherto investigated. In the present study,
      CNE-2 NPC cells were xenografted into 132 nude mice, which were treated with one
      of 6 drug regimens of apatinib administered alone or in combination with
      cisplatin (DDP). The impact of treatment regimens on the growth,
      microvascularization, apoptosis, and metabolic response of tumors, as well as
      mouse survival was determined by histopathology, immunohistochemistry (VEGFR-2
      and CD31), terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL),
      micro 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging and survival curves. Administration of apatinib
      alone inhibited tumor growth, reduced microvascular density, and facilitated the
      apoptosis of tumors. Tumors treated simultaneously with apatinib and cisplatin
      exhibited significantly-increased inhibition of tumor growth, prolonged survival
      time, decreased expression of VEGFR-2, reduced microvascular density, and
      frequency of apoptosis over standalone and sequential administration therapy.
      Tumors treated simultaneously with apatinib and cisplatin had the lowest uptake
      of FDG. Taken together, the simultaneous administration of apatinib and cisplatin
      improves the therapeutic efficacy over standalone treatments, which also led to
      improved efficacy over sequential administration regimens. VEGFR-2 is an
      important predictive marker for efficacy of apatinib treatment of NPC.

PMID- 28881774
TI  - Chromatin remodeling modulates radiosensitivity of the daughter cells derived
      from cell population exposed to low- and high-LET irradiation.
AB  - Radiation effects are dependent of linear energy transfer (LET), but it is still
      obscure whether the daughter cells (DCs) derived from irradiated population are
      radioresistance and much less the underlying mechanism. With the measurements of
      survival, proliferation and gammaH2AX foci, this study shows that the DCs from
      gamma-ray irradiated cells (DCs-gamma) became more radioresistant than its parent
      control without irradiation, but the radiosensitivity of DCs from alpha-particle
      irradiated cells (DCs-alpha) was not altered. After irradiation with equivalent
      doses of gamma-rays and alpha-particles, the foci number of histone H3 lysine 9
      dimethylation (H3K9me3) and the activity of histone deacetylase (HDAC) in DCs
      gamma was extensively higher than these in DCs-alpha and its parent control,
      indicating that a higher level of heterochromatin was formed in DCs-gamma but not
      in DCs-alpha. Treatment of cells with SAHA (an inhibitor of HDAC) decreased the
      level of heterochromatin domains by inhibiting the expressions of H3K9m3 and HP
      1a proteins and triggering the expression of acetylated core histone H3 (Ac-H3).
      When cells were treated with SAHA, the radioresistance phenotype of DCs-gamma was
      eliminated so that the radiosensitivities of DCs-gamma, DCs-alpha and their
      parent cells approached to same levels. Our current results reveal that gamma
      rays but not alpha-particles could induce chromatin remodeling and
      heterochromatinization which results in the occurrence of radioresistance of DCs,
      indicating that the combination treatment of irradiation and HDAC inhibitor could
      serve as a potential cancer therapy strategy, especially for the fraction
      radiotherapy of low-LET irradiation.

PMID- 28881775
TI  - Uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase 2B15 D85Y gene polymorphism is
      associated with lower prostate cancer risk: a systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - UGT2B15 (uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase 2B15) catalyzes the
      conversion of lipophilic C19 steroid androgens such as dihydrotestosterone (DHT)
      into water-soluble metabolites that can be excreted. Studies of the association
      between the UGT2B15 gene D85Y polymorphism and prostate cancer have yielded
      contradictory results. We therefore systematically searched in the PubMed,
      EMBASE, Science Direct/Elsevier, CNKI, and Cochrane Library databases, and
      identified six relevant studies with which to perform a meta-analysis of the
      relation between UGT2B15 D85Y polymorphism and prostate cancer risk. Our meta
      analysis revealed a significant association between UGT2B15 D85Y gene
      polymorphism and prostate cancer in all genetic models (P<0.05). The combined
      odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were as follows: additive model, 0.53
      and 0.32-0.88; dominant model, 0.51 and 0.33-0.79; recessive model, 0.76 and 0.60
      0.96; co-dominant model, 0.55 and 0.35-0.86; and allele model, 0.70 and 0.55
      0.89. These results are consistent with the idea that the UGT2B15 D85Y enzyme
      variant reduces the risk of prostate cancer by efficiently metabolizing
      dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is associated with prostate cancer progression.

PMID- 28881776
TI  - Changing trends in the prevalence of anencephaly in Liaoning province of
      Northeast China from 2006-2015: data from a population-based birth defects
      registry.
AB  - The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence and trends of anencephaly on
      the basis of a large population-based cases identified by the Liaoning Birth
      Defects Registry, which included 14 cities over a 10-year period. Anencephaly
      prevalence, percent change, average changeand the contribution rates of each city
      were calculated. Statistical analysis was undertaken on the basis of a Poisson
      regression model. A total of 1600 anencephaly cases were collected during the
      observational period (4.92/10,000 live births). On average, the prevalence
      decreased 10.15% each year; this overall time trend was statistically significant
      (P<0.01). The top three leading cities were Huludao (10.33 per 10,000 live
      births), Chaoyang (8.56 per 10,000 live births) and Fuxin (6.36 per 10,000 live
      births). In contrast, Anshan (2.64 per 10,000 live births), Dalian (2.79 per
      10,000 live births) and Yingkou (3.46 per 10,000 live births) were the cities
      with the lowest prevalence. Of note, significantly decreasing trends were
      observed in half of these cities (n=7). Additionally, Benxi, Yingkou and Dalian
      were the major cities contributing to over one third of the decreasing trend in
      Liaoning province. In conclusion, this study provided evidence of the decreasing
      prevalence of anencephaly from 2006 to 2015 in Liaoning province. In the future,
      prevention efforts should be strengthened to further reduce the risk of
      anencephaly in areas with high rates.

PMID- 28881777
TI  - OVA12 promotes tumor growth by regulating p53 expression in human cancer cells.
AB  - Ovarian cancer-associated antigen 12 (OVA12) was first identified in an ovarian
      carcinoma complementary DNA (cDNA) expression library and has been shown to play
      an important role in tumor growth. Here, we found that overexpression of OVA12
      accelerated tumor growth in different tumor cells, whereas OVA12 depletion was
      associated with the opposite effect. Moreover, knocking down OVA12 led to a
      significant increase in the protein levels of p53, and the overexpression of
      OVA12 significantly decreased endogenous p53 levels. In addition, OVA12
      stimulated p53 polyubiquitination and degradation by the proteasome and promoted
      tumor growth at least partially through the p53 pathway. Taken together, these
      results indicate that OVA12 is a negative regulator of p53 and that inhibition of
      OVA12 expression might serve as a therapeutic target to restore tumor
      suppression.

PMID- 28881778
TI  - Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma with a GPC3-targeted bispecific T cell
      engager.
AB  - There are limited strategies for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      In this study, we prepared a Bispecific T cell engager (BiTE) targeting Glypican
      3 (GPC3) and CD3. The GPC3/CD3 BiTE was prepared by fusing the single-chain
      variable fragment (scFv) of the humanized anti-GPC3 antibody (9F2) with the scFv
      of the anti-CD3 antibody (OKT3). The in vitro and in vivo cytotoxic activities of
      the GPC3/CD3 BiTE were evaluated against various HCC cell lines. The GPC3/CD3
      BiTE could efficiently mediate the T cell killing of GPC3-positive HCC in vitro,
      which was dependent on GPC3 expression on the surface of HCC cells. Moreover, our
      study indicates that, in the presence of the GPC3/CD3 BiTE, T cells could
      efficiently destroy GPC3-positive human HCC cells in vitro and in vivo.
      Additionally, our study further proved that GPC3 is not expressed in normal
      tissues. Thus, GPC3 may be a cancer-specific antigen. Collectively, these
      findings suggest that this anti-GPC3 BiTE might be a promising anti-tumor reagent
      for patients with GPC3-positive HCC.

PMID- 28881779
TI  - The anti-ErbB2 antibody H2-18 and the pan-PI3K inhibitor GDC-0941 effectively
      inhibit trastuzumab-resistant ErbB2-overexpressing breast cancer.
AB  - Trastuzumab, an anti-ErbB2 humanized antibody, brings benefit to patients with
      ErbB2-amplified metastatic breast cancers. However, the resistance to trastuzumab
      is common. Our previously reported H2-18, an anti-ErbB2 antibody, potently
      induced programmed cell death in trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer cells. Here,
      we aim to investigate the antitumor efficacy of H2-18 in combination with the pan
      PI3K inhibitor GDC-0941 in trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer cell lines. The
      results showed that H2-18 and GDC-0941 synergistically inhibited the in vitro
      proliferation of BT-474, SKBR-3, HCC-1954 and HCC-1419 breast cancer cells. H2-18
      plus GDC-0941 showed significantly enhanced programmed cell death-inducing
      activity compared with each drug used alone. The combination of H2-18 and GDC
      0941 did not increase the effect of single agent on ROS production, cell cycle
      and ErbB2 signaling. Importantly, the in vivo antitumor efficacy of H2-18 plus
      GDC-0941 was superior to that of single agent. Thus, the enhanced in vivo
      antitumor efficacy of H2-18 plus GDC-0941 may mainly be attributable to its
      increased programmed cell death-inducing activity. Collectively, H2-18 plus GDC
      0941 could effectively inhibit tumor growth, suggesting the potential to be
      translated into clinic as an efficient strategy for ErbB2-overexpressing breast
      cancers.

PMID- 28881780
TI  - PD-L1: a novel prognostic biomarker in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The PD-1 receptor and its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2 are known to be
      significantly involved in T-cell regulation. Recent studies suggest that PD-L1
      expression in malignant tumors contributes to an immunosuppressive
      microenvironment and disruption of antitumoral immune response. Drugs targeting
      this pathway are already tested in clinical trials against several tumor entities
      with promising results. However, until now comprehensive data with regard to PD
      L1 and PD-L2 expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is still
      lacking. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We assessed PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression via
      immunohistochemistry in two independent cohorts of 293 HNSCC patients. RESULTS: A
      significant subset of HNSCC showed high expression levels of PD-L1. Most
      remarkable, we detected a strong correlation between PD-L1 expression and overall
      survival time in both HNSCC cohorts. Further, in multivariate cox proportional
      hazard models, PD-L1 dominates as the strongest prognostic factor of patient's
      outcome in HNSCC, leaving even tumor stage and distant metastasis behind.
      Moreover, strong PD-L1 expression was associated with the presence of distant
      metastases in a subset of cases. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, while the significance
      of PD-L2 in HNSCC seems to minor, we show that PD-L1 expression is common in
      HNSCC and, more importantly, a both robust and strong prognostic biomarker. In
      this respect, our results provide hints on further application of therapies
      targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway in HNSCC. Investigation of response and outcome
      of patients receiving anti-PD-1/PD-L1 containing therapies in correlation with PD
      L1 expression analysis should be an important task for the future. STATEMENT OF
      TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: In spite of improved treatment options and increasing
      knowledge of molecular alterations in HNSCC, the survival rate has not been
      dramatically changed in the past decades. Pies are missing in HNSCC. One
      promising candidate in cancer immune therapy is PD-L1. Drugs targeting PD-L1 or
      its receptor PD-1 are subject of several clinical studies in different cancer
      entities. However, comprehensive data about PD-L1 expression in HNSCC and
      therefore a rational basis for anti PD-L1/PD-1 therapy in HNSCC is lacking. Here,
      we provide wide-ranging data about PD-L1 expression in HNSCC of all major
      localizations. We observed a strong correlation between expression of PD-L1 and
      reduced overall survival time. Furthermore, high PD-L1 expression was identified
      as a strong prognostic factor of patient's outcome when verified together with
      recognized prognostic factors.

PMID- 28881781
TI  - Twist1 confers multidrug resistance in colon cancer through upregulation of ATP
      binding cassette transporters.
AB  - Multidrug resistance is a major problem in colon cancer treatment. However, its
      molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Recently, the epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) in anticancer drug resistance has attracted increasing
      attention. This study investigated whether vincristine treatment induces EMT and
      promotes multidrug resistance in colon cancer. The result showed that vincristine
      treatment increases the expression of several ATP-binding cassette transporters
      in invasive human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (HCT-8). Vincristine-resistant
      HCT-8 cells (HCT-8/V) acquire a mesenchymal phenotype, and thus its migratory and
      invasive ability are increased both in vitro and in vivo. The master
      transcriptional factors of EMT, especially Twist1, were significantly increased
      in the HCT-8/V cell line. Moreover, the ectopic expression of Twist1 increased
      the chemoresistance of HCT-8 cells to vincristine and increased the expression
      levels and promoter activities of ABCB1 and ABCC1. Furthermore, Twist1 silencing
      reverses the EMT phenotype, enhances the chemosensitivity of HCT-8/ V cells to
      anticancer agents in vitro and in vivo, and downregulates the expression of ABCB1
      and ABCC1. Twist1-mediated promotion of ABCB1 and ABCC1 expression levels plays
      an important role in the drug resistance of colon cancer cells.

PMID- 28881782
TI  - miR-106b regulates the 5-fluorouracil resistance by targeting Zbtb7a in
      cholangiocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is highly resistant to chemo-therapy,
      including 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) treatment. MicroRNAs are endogenous and short non
      coding RNAs that can regulate multiple genes expression. Many microRNAs have
      shown functional roles in the chemo-resistance of tumors. Here, we examined the
      relationship between microRNAs expression and the sensitivity of CCA cells to 5
      FU. METHODS: Microarray analysis was used to determine the aberrantly expressed
      microRNAs in two 5-FU resistant CCA cell lines, KKU-M139 and KKU-M214 cells. To
      determine the effect of candidate microRNAs on 5-FU sensitivity, expression of
      candidate was modified via either transfection of a microRNA mimic or
      transfection of an antagonist. Ontology-based programs were also used to
      investigate the potential targets of microRNAs that were confirmed to affect the
      5-FU sensitivity of CCA cells. RESULTS: The microRNA-106b (miR-106b) was
      significantly down-regulated in 5-FU resistant CCA cells. Instead, over
      expression of miR-106b could re-sensitize resistant CCA cells to 5-FU through
      down-regulation of Zbtb7a. Moreover, decreased expression of miR-106b is related
      to poor prognosis in patients with CCA, suggesting its potential role as a new
      prognostic marker in CCA. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that miR-106b can
      reverse 5-FU resistance via Zbtb7a suppression, thus offer a novel and powerful
      strategy for CCA chemotherapy.

PMID- 28881783
TI  - Effect and mechanism of inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway on chronic
      neuropathic pain and spinal microglia in a rat model of chronic constriction
      injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway
      on chronic neuropathic pain (CNP) and spinal microglia in a rat model of chronic
      constriction injury (CCI). METHODS: Male SD rats were assigned into control,
      sham, CCI, wortmannin, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and wortmannin-positive control
      groups. Paw withdrawal mechanical threshold (PWMT) and thermal withdrawal latency
      (TWL) were recorded. qRT-PCR and Western blotting were used to detect PI3K, Akt
      and mTOR expressions and their phosphorylation. OX-4 expression was detected by
      immunohistochemistry and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and nerve growth
      factor (NGF) expressions by immunofluorescence. RESULTS: PWMT and TWL decreased
      in the CCI group than in the sham group on the 7th and 14th day after operation.
      Compared with the control and sham groups, the CCI group showed increased PI3K,
      Akt and mTOR mRNA expressions and elevated PI3K, p-Akt, p-mTOR and P70S6K protein
      expressions. More OX-42-positive cells and higher integrated optical density
      (IOD) of GFAP and NGF were found in the CCI group than the sham group at the 14th
      day after operation. Compared with the DMSO group, the wortmannin group had
      higher PWMT and TWL, decreased PI3K, Akt and mTOR mRNA expressions and reduced
      PI3K, p-Akt, p-mTOR and P70S6K protein expressions. Less OX-42-positive cells and
      lower IOD of GFAP and NGF were found in the wortmannin group than the DMSO group
      14th day after operation. CONCLUSION: Inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway
      may alleviate CNP and reduce microglia and GFAP and NGF expressions in marrow in
      a rat model of CCI.

PMID- 28881784
TI  - Selective Inhibitors of Nuclear Export (SINE) compounds block proliferation and
      migration of triple negative breast cancer cells by restoring expression of
      ARRDC3.
AB  - Arrestin-related domain-containing protein-3 (ARRDC3) is one of 6 mammalian
      arrestins, which suppresses metastasis by inducing degradation of phosphorylated
      beta2-adrenergic receptor (beta2 AR) and integrin beta4 (ITG beta4). Our previous
      studies demonstrated that expression of ARRDC3 is epigentically silenced in
      Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) cells, and the forced expression of ARRDC3
      significantly reduced the invasive potential of TNBC cells. In the current study,
      we found that Selective Inhibitors of Nuclear Export (SINE) compounds (KPT-185
      and selinexor (KPT-330)) restore ARRDC3 expression in TNBC cell lines (MDA-MB-231
      and MDA-MB-468) at both the mRNA and protein level in a dose and time course
      dependent manner. SINE compounds inhibit the proliferation, pro-invasive
      migration and anchorage independent growth of the TNBC cells by restoring ARRDC3
      expression. We found that ARRDC3 expression is lower in TNBC cell lines than
      those of luminal breast cancer cell lines, and inversely correlated with IC50s of
      selinexor. Analysis of tissue microarray confirmed that ARRDC3 expression in
      patient samples is significantly lower in the majority of TNBC tumors relative to
      normal tissue. In vivo, selinexor inhibited the tumor growth of MDA-MB-231
      xenografts by nearly 100% compared with vehicle treated animals. Furthermore,
      immunohistochemical analysis of TNBC tumors from selinexor treated mice revealed
      increased ARRDC3 expression versus vehicle treated animals. Our results suggest
      that restoration of ARRDC3 expression is an important antineoplastic mechanism of
      SINE compounds in TNBC, and therefore selinexor could be an effective treatment
      option for breast tumors with down-regulated ARRDC3.

PMID- 28881785
TI  - MiR-486-5p negatively regulates oncogenic NEK2 in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - NEK2 is a member of the NIMA-related family of serine/threonine centrosomal
      kinases. We analyzed the relationship between differential expression of NEK2 and
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient outcomes after liver transplants. We also
      studied the microRNAs that affect NEK2 expression. Analysis of multiple
      microarrays in the Oncomine database revealed that NEK2 expression was higher in
      HCC tissues than adjacent normal liver tissues. High NEK2 expression correlated
      with tumor size, pathological grade and macro- and microvascular invasion.
      Consequently, patients exhibiting high NEK2 expression had poorer prognosis. This
      was corroborated by our multivariate analysis that showed NEK2 to be an
      independent prognostic factor for HCC patient survival. Further, high NEK2
      expression promoted proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion of
      HCC cell lines. Tumor xenograft data from Balb/c nude mice demonstrated that HCC
      cells with high NEK2 expression formed larger tumors than those with low NEK2
      expression. Finally, we showed that miR-486-5p suppressed NEK2 by directly
      binding to its transcript 3'UTR. We also demonstrated an inverse relationship
      between miR-486-5p and NEK2 expression in HCC patients. These findings suggest
      miR-486-5p negatively regulates NEK2, which is a critical prognostic indicator of
      HCC patient survival after liver transplantation.

PMID- 28881786
TI  - TUSC3 induces autophagy in human non-small cell lung cancer cells through
      Wnt/beta-catenin signaling.
AB  - We investigated the effects of tumor suppressor candidate 3 (TUSC3) on autophagy
      in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. A total of 118 NSCLC patients
      (88 males and 30 females) who underwent surgery at our institute were enrolled in
      the study. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that TUSC3 protein expression
      was lower in NSCLC specimens than adjacent normal tissue. Correspondingly, there
      was greater methylation of TUSC3 in NSCLC than adjacent normal tissue. After
      transient transfection of A549 NSCLC cells with constructs designed to up
      regulate or down-regulate TUSC3 expression, we analyzed the effects of inhibiting
      the Wnt pathway (XAV939) and autophagy (chloroquine, CQ) on the behavior of NSCLC
      cells. We also performed TOP/FOP-Flash reporter assays, MTT assays, Annexin V
      FITC/propidium iodide staining, and acridine orange staining to evaluate Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy, respectively.
      Expression of Wnt/beta-catenin pathway components and autophagy-related proteins
      was analyzed using qRT-PCR and Western blotting. We found that TUSC3 inhibited
      cell proliferation and promoted both apoptosis and autophagy in A549 cells. In
      addition, TUSC3 increased expression of autophagy-related proteins. It also
      increased expression of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway components and
      promoted nuclear transfer of beta-catenin, resulting in activation of Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling. TUSC3 thus induces autophagy in human NSCLC cells through
      activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.

PMID- 28881787
TI  - Mitochondrial DNA sequencing and large-scale genotyping identifies MT-ND4 gene
      mutation m.11696G>A associated with idiopathic oligoasthenospermia.
AB  - Genetic variants of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were implicated to be associated
      with male infertility. Our previous whole mitochondrial genome sequencing and
      association study has identified two susceptibility mtDNA variants for
      oligoasthenospermia in Han Chinese men. In this study, we tested promising
      associations in an extended validation using 670 idiopathic oligoasthenospermia
      cases and 793 healthy controls to identify additional risk variants. We found
      that the genetic variant of m.11696G>A showed significantly higher frequency in
      the case group than that in the control group (odds ratio (OR) 2.21, 95% CI 1.21
      4.04) (P=7.90*10-3). To elucidate the exact role of the genetic variants in
      spermatogenesis, two main sperm parameters (sperm count and motility) were taken
      into account. We found that m.11696G>A was associated with low sperm motility,
      with the OR of 2.38 (95 % CI 1.27-4.46) (P =5.22*10-3). These results advance our
      understanding of the genetic susceptibility to oligoasthenospermia and more
      functional studies are needed to provide insights into its pathogenic mechanism.

PMID- 28881788
TI  - miR-133b down-regulates ABCC1 and enhances the sensitivity of CRC to anti-tumor
      drugs.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) is the main cause of failed chemotherapy treatments.
      Therefore, preventing MDR is pivotal in treating colorectal cancer (CRC). In a
      previous study miR-133b was shown to be a tumor suppressor. Additionally, in CRC
      cells transfected with miR-133b, ATP-binding cassette (ABC) subfamily C member
      1(ABCC1) was shown to be significantly down regulated. Whether miR-133b also
      enhances the chemosensitivity of drugs used to treat CRC by targeting ABCC1 is
      still unclear. Here, we utilized flow cytometry and high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) analysis to identify the ability of miR-133b to reserve MDR
      in CRC. We then used a dual-luciferase reporter assay to validate that miR-133b
      targets ABCC1. Further in vivo experiments were designed to validate the method
      in which miR-133b reversed MDR in CRC cells. The results demonstrated that the
      level of miR-133b was down-regulated and the expression of ABCC1 was up-regulated
      in drug-resistant CRC cells compared to non-drug-resistant CRC cells. The
      restoration of miR-133b expression in CRC drug-resistant cells in vitro resulted
      in reduced IC50s to chemotherapeutic drugs, significantly induced G1
      accumulation, inhibited growth and promoted necrosis in combination with either 5
      fluorouracil (5-FU) or vincristine (VCR), and decreased the expression of ABCC1.
      The dual-luciferase assay demonstrated that miR-133b directly targets ABCC1. The
      combination of agomiRNA-133b with chemotherapeutic drugs in vivo inhibited tumor
      growth induced by CRC drug-resistant cells. A xenograft from the in vivo model
      resulted in up-regulated levels of miR-133b and down-regulated levels of ABCC1.
      Therefore, miR-133b enhances the chemosensitivity of CRC cells to anti-tumor
      drugs by directly down-regulating ABCC1. This discovery provides a therapeutic
      strategy in which miR-133b is used as a potential sensitizer for drug-resistant
      CRC.

PMID- 28881790
TI  - MicroRNA profiles involved in trifluridine resistance.
AB  - Trifluridine (FTD) is a key component of the novel oral antitumor drug
      trifluridine/tipiracil, which is approved for the treatment of patients with
      metastatic colorectal cancer refractory to standard chemotherapies. A microRNA
      analysis of three colorectal cell lines was conducted to investigate causes of
      FTD resistance. Drug resistant sublines of DLD-1, HCT-116, and RKO cells were
      developed by continuous administration of increasing doses of FTD for 5 months.
      The let-7d-5p gene, which maps to chromosome 9q22.32, was downregulated in the
      FTD-resistant DLD-1 sublines. DLD-1 cells became more resistant to FTD when let
      7d-5p was knocked down and more sensitive when let-7d-5p was overexpressed. The
      FTD-resistant sublines were not cross-resistant to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU); 5-FU
      sensitivity was affected only slightly when let-7d-5p as overexpressed or knocked
      down. These data indicate that let-7d-5p increases sensitivity of FTD but not 5
      FU and that let-7d-5p is a potential clinical marker of treatment sensitivity.

PMID- 28881789
TI  - Pulmonary endothelial cell DNA methylation signature in pulmonary arterial
      hypertension.
AB  - Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a severe and incurable pulmonary
      vascular disease. One of the primary origins of PAH is pulmonary endothelial
      dysfunction leading to vasoconstriction, aberrant angiogenesis and smooth muscle
      cell proliferation, endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, thrombosis and
      inflammation. Our objective was to study the epigenetic variations in pulmonary
      endothelial cells (PEC) through a specific pattern of DNA methylation. DNA was
      extracted from cultured PEC from idiopathic PAH (n = 11), heritable PAH (n = 10)
      and controls (n = 18). DNA methylation was assessed using the Illumina
      HumanMethylation450 Assay. After normalization, samples and probes were clustered
      according to their methylation profile. Differential clusters were functionally
      analyzed using bioinformatics tools. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering allowed
      the identification of two clusters of probes that discriminates controls and PAH
      patients. Among 147 differential methylated promoters, 46 promoters coding for
      proteins or miRNAs were related to lipid metabolism. Top 10 up and down-regulated
      genes were involved in lipid transport including ABCA1, ABCB4, ADIPOQ, miR-26A,
      BCL2L11. NextBio meta-analysis suggested a contribution of ABCA1 in PAH. We
      confirmed ABCA1 mRNA and protein downregulation specifically in PAH PEC by qPCR
      and immunohistochemistry and made the proof-of-concept in an experimental model
      of the disease that its targeting may offer novel therapeutic options. In
      conclusion, DNA methylation analysis identifies a set of genes mainly involved in
      lipid transport pathway which could be relevant to PAH pathophysiology.

PMID- 28881791
TI  - Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor use is associated with a lower risk of incident
      acute kidney injury in patients with diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor (DPP4i) use potentially slows the
      progression of diabetic kidney disease, but its effects on the risk of acute
      kidney injury (AKI) are unclear. We aimed to assess the association between DPP4i
      use and incident AKI episodes from a nationally representative cohort in Taiwan.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients newly diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM)
      between 2008, when DPP4i use was first approved in Taiwan, and mid-2013 were
      enrolled. Propensity score-matched diabetic DPP4i users, who received DPP4i for
      at least 90 days, and nonusers were selected. The primary and secondary outcomes
      were incident AKI and dialysis-requiring AKI during follow-up. Cox proportional
      hazard analyses were performed to examine the effect of DPP4i on the risk of AKI.
      RESULTS: We enrolled 923,936 diabetic patients; of these, 83,638 DPP4i users
      (75.7% sitagliptin, 14.6% vildagliptin, and 9.7% saxagliptin) were propensity
      score-matched to 83,638 non-users. After an average 3.6-year follow-up, 1.56% and
      0.35% of DPP4i users and 2.53% and 0.56% of non-users developed incident AKI and
      dialysis-requiring AKI, respectively. DPP4i use was significantly associated with
      lower risk of incident AKI (hazard ratio [HR] 0.57, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      0.53-0.61) and risk of dialysis-requiring AKI (HR 0.57, 95% CI 0.49-0.66). The
      risk reduction was consistent regardless of DPP4i type, the presence of chronic
      kidney disease, the previous acute kidney injury, and age. CONCLUSIONS: DPP4i use
      is associated with reduced risk of mild and severe forms of AKI among patients
      with incident DM. DPP4i may be an important class of anti-glycaemic agent with
      reno-protective effects.

PMID- 28881792
TI  - Long working hours, job satisfaction, and depressive symptoms: a community-based
      cross-sectional study among Japanese employees in small- and medium-scale
      businesses.
AB  - Although long working hours have been suspected to be a risk factor for
      depressive symptoms (DS), it is not well understood the conditions under which
      long working hours are associated with it. This study investigated the moderating
      effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between working hours and DS. A
      total of 2,375 full-time non-shift day workers (73% men), aged 18-79 (mean 45)
      years, in 296 small- and medium-scale businesses were surveyed using a self
      administered questionnaire evaluating working hours, job satisfaction, DS and
      covariates. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) was
      used to assess DS. Risk of DS (CES-D >= 16) by working hours, job satisfaction,
      and both combined was estimated by multivariable logistic regression analysis.
      Compared to participants working 6-8 hrs/day, those working 12+ hrs/day had
      significantly higher odds of DS (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.49), while
      participants with low satisfaction, as opposed to high satisfaction, had
      increased odds of DS (aOR 1.81). Furthermore, compared to those working 6-8
      hrs/day with high satisfaction (reference group), participants working 6-8
      hrs/day, > 8 to 10 hrs/day, and > 10 hrs/day combined with low satisfaction had
      dose-response increase of DS (aOR 1.48, 2.21 and 2.31, respectively, p < 0.05),
      whereas those working > 8 to 10 hrs/day and > 10 hrs/day combined with high
      satisfaction had not (aOR 0.93 and 1.39, respectively, p > 0.10). The results
      suggest that long working hours are associated with increased risk of DS only
      under reduced job satisfaction condition, which highlights the importance of
      improving job satisfaction, particularly among those working excessive hours.

PMID- 28881793
TI  - Lenalidomide increases human dendritic cell maturation in multiple myeloma
      patients targeting monocyte differentiation and modulating mesenchymal stromal
      cell inhibitory properties.
AB  - The use of Lenalidomide (LEN), to reverse tumor-mediated immune suppression and
      amplify multiple myeloma-specific immunity is currently being explored.
      Particularly, LEN effects on dendritic cells (DCs) are still unclear. In this
      study, we investigated the potential effect of LEN on DC differentiation and
      activity. DCs were differentiated either from CD14+ cells obtained from patients
      with multiple myeloma or from a human monocytic cell line. LEN, at the
      concentration range reached in vivo, significantly increased the median intensity
      expression of HLA-DR, CD86 and CD209 by DCs derived from both bone marrow and
      peripheral myeloma monocytes and enhanced the production of Interleukin-8, C-C
      motif chemokine ligand (CCL) 2, CCL5 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha.
      Consistently, LEN pre-treated DCs showed an increased ability to stimulate
      autologous CD3+ cell proliferation. LEN effect on dendritic differentiation was
      associated with the degradation of the Cereblon-related factors Ikaros and
      Aiolos. Moreover, we showed that LEN also blunted mesenchymal stromal cell
      inhibitory effect on dendritic differentiation, inhibiting Casein Kinase-1alpha
      levels. Finally, in vitro data were confirmed in ex vivo cultures obtained from
      relapsed myeloma patients treated with LEN, showing a significant increase of DC
      differentiation from peripheral blood monocytes. In conclusion, LEN increased the
      expression of mature dendritic markers both directly and indirectly and enhanced
      DC ability to stimulate T cell proliferation and to release chemokines. This
      suggests a new possible mechanism by which LEN could exert its anti-myeloma
      activity.

PMID- 28881794
TI  - Enhanced efficacy of AKT and FAK kinase combined inhibition in squamous cell lung
      carcinomas with stable reduction in PTEN.
AB  - Squamous cell lung carcinoma (SCC) accounts for 30% of patients with NSCLC and to
      date, no molecular targeted agents are approved for this type of tumor. However,
      recent studies have revealed several oncogenic mutations in SCC patients,
      including an alteration of the PI3K/AKT pathway, i.e. PI3K point mutations and
      amplification, AKT mutations and loss or reduced PTEN expression. Prompted by our
      observation of a correlation between PTEN loss and FAK phosphorylation in a
      cohort of patients with stage IV SCC, we evaluated the relevance of PTEN loss in
      cancer progression as well as the efficacy of a new combined treatment with the
      pan PI3K inhibitor buparlisip and the FAK inhibitor defactinib. An increase in
      AKT and FAK phosphorylation, associated with increased proliferation and
      invasiveness, paralleled by the acquisition of mesenchymal markers, and
      overexpression of the oncomir miR-21 were observed in SKMES-1-derived cell clones
      with a stable reduction of PTEN. Notably, the combined treatment induced a
      synergistic inhibition of cell proliferation, and a significant reduction in cell
      migration and invasion only in cells with reduced PTEN. The molecular mechanisms
      underlying these findings were unraveled using a specific RTK array that showed a
      reduction in phosphorylation of key kinases such as JNK, GSK-3 alpha/beta, and
      AMPK-alpha2, due to the concomitant decrease in AKT and FAK activation. In
      conclusion, the combination of buparlisib and defactinib was effective against
      cells with reduced PTEN and warrants further studies as a novel therapeutic
      strategy for stage IV SCC patients with loss of PTEN expression.

PMID- 28881795
TI  - RNase alleviates neurological dysfunction in mice undergoing cardiac arrest and
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
AB  - Cardiac arrest (CA) is one of the leading lethal factors. Despite cardiopulmonary
      resuscitation (CPR) procedure has been consecutively improved and lots of new
      strategies have been developed, neurological outcome of the patients experienced
      CPR is still disappointing. Ribonuclease (RNase) has been demonstrated to have
      neuroprotective effects in acute stroke and postoperative cognitive impairment,
      possibly through acting against endogenous RNA that released from damaged tissue.
      However, the role of RNase in post-cardiac arrest cerebral injury is unknown. In
      the present study, we investigated the role of RNase in neurological outcome of
      mice undergoing 5 minutes of CA and followed by CPR. RNase or the same dosage of
      normal saline was administrated. We found that RNase administration could: 1)
      improve neurologic score on day 1 and day 3 after CA/CPR performance; 2) improve
      memory and learning ability on day 3 after training in contextual fear
      conditioning test; 3) reduce extracellular RNA (exRNA) level in plasma and
      hippocampus tissue, and hippocampal cytokines mRNA production on day 3 after
      CA/CPR procedure; 4) attenuate autophagy levels in hippocampus tissue on day 3
      after CA/CPR procedure. In conclusion, RNase could improve neurological function
      by reducing inflammation response and autophagy in mice undergoing CA/CPR.

PMID- 28881796
TI  - Discriminating patients with early-stage breast cancer from benign lesions by
      detection of oxidative DNA damage biomarker in urine.
AB  - Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed and death-related cancers in
      women worldwide. Mammography is routinely used for screening and invasive
      examinations such as painful tissue biopsies were recommended for patients with
      abnormal screening outcomes. However, a considerable proportion of these cases
      turn out to be benign lesions. Thus, novel non-invasive approach for
      discriminating breast cancer from benign lesions is desirable. Herein, we applied
      a high-throughput ultra performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization
      tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) analysis to determine the oxidative DNA
      damage biomarker, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) in urine samples
      from 60 patients with early-stage breast cancer (stage I, II), 51 patients with
      benign breast diseases and 73 healthy volunteers. We demonstrated that the
      concentration of urinary 8-oxodG in patients with early-stage breast cancer was
      significantly higher not only than that in healthy controls, but also than that
      in patients with benign breast diseases, whereas no significant difference of
      urinary 8-oxodG level was observed between benign breast diseases group and
      healthy control group. Moreover, there was significant difference between early
      stage breast cancer group and non-cancerous group which consisted of benign
      breast diseases patients and healthy controls. Besides, logistic regression
      analysis and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were also
      performed. Our findings indicate that the marked increase of 8-oxodG in urine may
      serve as a potential biomarker for the risk estimation, early screening and
      detection of breast cancer, particularly for discriminating early-stage breast
      cancer from benign lesions.

PMID- 28881797
TI  - Upregulation of long noncoding RNA HOXA-AS3 promotes tumor progression and
      predicts poor prognosis in glioma.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as new potentially promising
      therapeutic targets in many cancers. However, their prognostic value and
      biological functions associated with glioma remain to be elucidated. Here, High
      throughput RNAseq was performed to detect the expression profiles of lncRNAs in
      325 human glioma tissues. It was shown that a novel lncRNA HOXA-AS3 was one of
      the most significantly upregulated lncRNAs in glioma tissues. Quantitative PCR
      further verified the increased expression of HOXA-AS3 in patient samples and
      glioma cell lines. Uni and Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that
      HOXA-AS3 was an independent prognostic factor in glioma patients. Gene set
      enrichment analysis indicated that the gene sets correlated with HOXA-AS3
      expression were involved in cell cycle progression and E2F targets. Functionally,
      HOXA-AS3 silencing resulted in proliferation arrest by altering cell cycle
      progression and promoting cell apoptosis, and impaired cell migration in glioma
      cells. Furthermore, the growth-inhibiting effect of HOXA-AS3 knockdown was also
      demonstrated in Xenograft mouse model. Our results highlight the important role
      of HOXA-AS3 in glioma progression, and indicate that HOXA-AS3 may be served as a
      valuable prognostic biomarker for glioma.

PMID- 28881798
TI  - Role of A-Kinase anchor protein (AKAP4) in growth and survival of ovarian cancer
      cells.
AB  - Ovarian cancer represents one of the most common malignancies among women with
      very high mortality rate worldwide. A-kinase anchor protein 4 (AKAP4), a unique
      cancer testis (CT) antigen has been shown to be associated with various malignant
      properties of cancer cells. However, its involvement in various molecular
      pathways in ovarian cancer remains unknown. In present investigation, employing
      gene silencing approach, we examined the role of AKAP4 in cell cycle, apoptosis
      and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Further, we also investigated the
      effect of ablation of AKAP4 on tumor growth in SCID mice ovarian cancer xenograft
      mouse model. Our results showed that ablation of AKAP4 resulted in increased
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, DNA damage, cell cycle arrest and
      apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells. AKAP4 knockdown lead to degradation of protien
      kinase A (PKA) which was rescued by proteosome inhibitor MG-132. ROS quencher N
      acetyl cysteine (NAC) treatment rescued cell cycle arrest and resumed cell
      division. Subsequently, increased expression of pro-apoptotic molecules and
      decreased expression of pro-survival/anti-apoptotic factors was observed. As a
      result of AKAP4 depletion, DNA damage response proteins p-gammaH2AX, p-ATM and
      p21 were upregulated. Also, knockdown of CREB resulted in similar findings.
      Further, PKA inhibitor (H89) and oxidative stress resulted in similar phenotype
      of ovarian cancer cells as observed in AKAP4 ablated cells. Collectively, for the
      first time our data showed the involvement of AKAP4 in PKA degradation and
      perturbed signaling through PKA-CREB axis in AKAP4 ablated ovarian cancer cells.

PMID- 28881799
TI  - Prognostic values of tissue factor and its alternatively splice transcripts in
      human gastric cancer tissues.
AB  - We have previously reported that the higher expression of TF in human esophageal
      cancer tissues was significantly associated with tumor invasion, intratumoral
      microvessel density and patients' postoperative prognoses. Besides its trans
      membranous form, TF also has alternatively spliced transcripts. In the present
      study, the transcripts of the two TF isoforms, flTF and asTF, in human gastric
      cancer tissues were determined by real-time PCR, and the correlation between the
      expression of TF isoforms and patient's clinicopathological features was also
      analyzed. Our results showed that the relative mRNA expression levels of flTF and
      asTF in human gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than those in
      normal tissues (P=0.035 and P=0.006, respectively). The relative mRNA expression
      level of asTF was significantly associated with age (P=0.018), meanwhile, we
      could not find that flTF or asTF expression level was correlated with any other
      characteristics of the patients, including gender, TNM stage, pathological grade,
      tumor size, histological type, or chemotherapy sensitivity. Univariate analysis
      demonstrated that the overall survival rate of gastric cancer patients with lower
      flTF or asTF expression level was greater than those with higher expression level
      (P=0.018 and =0.038, respectively). Multivariate COX model analysis also
      demonstrated that flTF expression (P=0.048) or asTF expression (P=0.002) could be
      used as independent prognostic predictors in human gastric cancer. Thus, both
      flTF and asTF mRNA expression levels in cancer tissues could be used as useful
      risk factors for evaluating the prognoses of patients suffering from gastric
      cancer.

PMID- 28881800
TI  - Menstrual pattern after abdominal radical trachelectomy.
AB  - To assess changes of menstrual patterns, their causes, preventions and treatment
      methods after abdominal radical trachelectomy (ART), we recorded patients'
      menstrual patterns after surgery and compared them with the conditions before
      surgery. Patients were divided into 3 groups based on their menstrual status post
      trachelectomy:Group 1: menstrual patterns unchanged; Group 2: menstrual patterns
      changed without amenorrhea; and Group 3: amenorrhea. One hundred and twenty-nine
      patients were included: 39 (30.2%) women belonged to Group 1, 74 (57.4%) to Group
      2 and 16 (12.4%) to Group 3. For patients in Group 2, the most common presenting
      symptom was decrease of menstrual volume (59, 79.7%), followed by a prolonged
      (33, 44.6%) menstrual bleeding. All of the changes in Group 2 and 12 cases in
      Group 3 were due to narrow of the remaining cervical os. Additionally, 9 and 12
      patients, respectively, in Group 2 and 3, developed cervical stenosis. To
      maintain regular menstruation and prevent isthmic stenosis, 99 patients had
      tailed intrauterine devices (IUDs) placed in the uterine cavity. Incidence of
      cervical stenosis all happened in patients without IUDs placed in the uterine
      cavity. Menstrual condition improved in all patients except one after dilation of
      the new-cervix. Our results demonstrated that the majority of patients suffered
      from changes in menstrual patterns after ART. Narrowing of the remaining cervical
      canal was the main reason and could be treated by cervical dilation. The use of a
      tailed IUD was effective in the prevention of this complication.

PMID- 28881801
TI  - A screen for inducers of bHLH activity identifies pitavastatin as a regulator of
      p21, Rb phosphorylation and E2F target gene expression in pancreatic cancer.
AB  - The average survival for patients with Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA) is
      merely 6 months, underscoring the need for new therapeutic approaches. During PDA
      progression, pancreatic acinar cells lose activity of the ClassI/II bHLH factors
      that regulate quiescence. We previously found that promoting transcriptional
      activity of the Class I bHLH factor E47 in highly aggressive PDA cells induced
      stable growth arrest in vitro and in vivo. To translate these findings for
      clinical utility, we developed a high throughput screening platform to identify
      small molecule inducers of Class I/II bHLH activity. A screen of 4,375 known
      drugs identified 70 bHLH activators. Prominent among the hits were members of the
      statin class of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, cholesterol lowering drugs that are
      also being evaluated in cancer. Studies with pitavastatin in primary patient
      derived tumor cells and established PDA lines, revealed dose dependent growth
      inhibition. At the molecular level, pitavastatin induced expression of the cyclin
      dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p21 in a cholesterol independent manner, blocked
      repressive phosphorylation of the Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein at CDK
      targeted sites, and reduced expression of E2F target genes required for
      progression through the G1/S boundary. Together, the data provide new insight
      into mechanisms by which statins constrain proliferation in cancer and establish
      the effectiveness of a novel screening platform to identify small molecules of
      clinical relevance in pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28881802
TI  - MEK inhibition enhances efficacy of bacillus Calmette-Guerin on bladder cancer
      cells by reducing release of Toll-like receptor 2-activated antimicrobial
      peptides.
AB  - Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is one of the standard treatment options for non
      muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The details of the biological defense mechanisms
      against BCG remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether BCG-induced release of
      antimicrobial peptides (AMPs; e.g., human beta-defensin-2, -3, and cathelicidin)
      is involved with mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, and
      investigated the enhanced anticancer effect of BCG through the down-regulation of
      Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and MAPK pathways in bladder cancer cells. BCG
      infected bladder cancer cells produced AMPs as a defense mechanism against BCG,
      which were reduced by MEK inhibitors by blocking phosphorylation of extracellular
      signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2 or MEK) and c-Jun. MEK inhibitors enhanced
      inhibition of bladder cancer cell growth by decreased binding of c-Jun, p65 and
      Pol II to the activated protein-1 promoter. Knockdown of TLR2 and TLR4 reduced
      ERK phosphorylation. Knockdown of TLR 2 decreased release of AMPs, which was
      similar to the efficacy of MEK inhibitor on BCG-infected cells. BCG-infected
      bladder cancer cells were more prone to induction of AMP release following TLR2
      activation via ERK and c-Jun pathway mediators. In conclusion, our data suggest
      that the BCG-induced release of AMPs in bladder cancer cells is a promising
      molecular target for enhancing the immunotherapeutic efficacy of BCG in bladder
      cancer patients.

PMID- 28881803
TI  - Regulation of actin-binding protein ANLN by antitumor miR-217 inhibits cancer
      cell aggressiveness in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Analysis of our microRNA (miRNA) expression signature of pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinoma (PDAC) revealed that microRNA-217 (miR-217) was significantly
      reduced in cancer tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the antitumor
      roles of miR-217 in PDAC cells and to identify miR-217-mediated molecular
      pathways involved in PDAC aggressiveness. The expression levels of miR-217 were
      significantly reduced in PDAC clinical specimens. Ectopic expression of miR-217
      significantly suppressed cancer cell migration and invasion. Transcription of
      actin-binding protein Anillin (coded by ANLN) was detected by our in silico and
      gene expression analyses. Moreover, luciferase reporter assays showed that ANLN
      was a direct target of miR-217 in PDAC cells. Overexpression of ANLN was detected
      in PDAC clinical specimens by real-time PCR methods and immunohistochemistry.
      Interestingly, Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that high expression of ANLN
      predicted shorter survival in patients with PDAC by TCGA database analysis.
      Silencing ANLN expression markedly inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion
      capabilities of PDAC cell lines. We further investigated ANLN-mediated downstream
      pathways in PDAC cells. "Focal adhesion" and "Regulation of actin binding
      protein" were identified as ANLN-modulated downstream pathways in PDAC cells.
      Identification of antitumor miR-217/ANLN-mediated PDAC pathways will provide new
      insights into the potential mechanisms underlying the aggressive course of PDAC.

PMID- 28881804
TI  - Altered erythropoiesis and decreased number of erythrocytes in children with
      neuroblastoma.
AB  - Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric tumor presenting at diagnosis either as
      localized or metastatic disease, which mainly involves the bone marrow (BM). The
      physical occupancy of BM space by metastatic NB cells has been held responsible
      for impairment of BM function. Here, we investigated whether localized or
      metastatic NB may alter hematopoietic lineages' maturation and release of mature
      cells in the periphery, through gene expression profiling, analysis of BM smears,
      cell blood count and flow cytometry analysis. Gene ontology and disease
      associated analysis of the genes significantly under-expressed in BM resident
      cells from children with localized and metastatic NB, as compared to healthy
      children, indicated anemia, blood group antigens, and heme and porphyrin
      biosynthesis as major functional annotation clusters. Accordingly, in children
      with NB there was a selective impairment of erythrocyte maturation at the ortho
      chromic stage that resulted in reduced erythrocyte count in the periphery,
      regardless of the presence of metastatic cells in the BM. By considering all NB
      patients, low erythrocyte count at diagnosis associated with worse survival.
      Moreover, in the subset of metastatic patients, low erythrocyte count, hemoglobin
      and hematocrit and high red cell distribution width at follow-up also associated
      with worse outcome. These observations provide an alternative model to the tenet
      that infiltrating cells inhibit BM functions due to physical occupancy of space
      and may open a new area of research in NB to understand the mechanism(s)
      responsible for such selective impairment.

PMID- 28881805
TI  - Down regulation of human positive coactivator 4 suppress tumorigenesis and lung
      metastasis of osteosarcoma.
AB  - Osteosarcoma is a kind of primary malignant bone tumor with the highest incidence
      and an extraordinarily poor prognosis and early pulmonary metastasis formation as
      a frequent occurrence. Transcriptional positive coactivator 4 (PC4) has multiple
      functions in DNA replication, transcription, repair and chromatin organization,
      even in tumorigenesis. However, the precise function of PC4 in osteosarcoma is
      still unclear and controversial. In this paper we found PC4 was upregulated in
      patient-derived osteosarcoma tissues compared to normal. Moreover, higher
      expression of PC4 was correlated with poorer overall survival and advanced
      clinicopathological tumor staging. Down regulation of PC4 in the highly
      metastatic osteosarcoma cells reduced the malignant behaviors in vitro and in
      vivo. Analyzing the downstream genes affected obviously by shPC4 with RNA
      sequencing, we found knocking down PC4 will inhibit the propensity for lung
      metastasis through transcriptional suppression of MMPs pathways. Taken together,
      PC4 may be an attractive therapeutic strategy for osteosarcoma, especially in
      preventing lung metastasis formation.

PMID- 28881806
TI  - Increased p16 and p53 protein expression predicts poor prognosis in mucosal
      melanoma.
AB  - Primary mucosal melanoma (MM) is a rare, and aggressive, neoplasm with a poor
      prognosis. To date, few prognostic markers of MM have been well-defined. The aim
      of this study is to clarify the prognostic value of p53 and p16 proteins in
      predicting the clinical outcome of Chinese patients with MM. A total of 59 MM
      samples were contained from biopsy specimens, and, expressions of p53 and p16
      proteins were assessed by immunohistochemistry. Cox regression analysis was
      performed to investigate the association of these proteins with the overall
      survival of MM patients. Increased p16 expression was significantly associated
      with reduced survival at three years (P=0.039). Increased p53 expression
      correlates with reduced one-year (P=0.025), and, two-year survival (P=0.037).
      Increased p53 and p16 protein expression may be helpful prognostic indicators for
      the management of these patients.

PMID- 28881807
TI  - Associations of high altitude polycythemia with polymorphisms in EPHA2 and AGT in
      Chinese Han and Tibetan populations.
AB  - High altitude polycythemia (HAPC) refers to the long-term living in the plateau
      of the hypoxia environment is not accustomed to cause red blood cell hyperplasia.
      The pathological changes are mainly the various organs and tissue congestion,
      blood stasis and hypoxia damage. Although chronic hypoxia is the main cause of
      HAPC, the related molecular mechanisms remain largely unclear. This study aims to
      explore the genetic basis of HAPC in the Chinese Han and Tibetan populations. We
      enrolled 100 patients (70 Han, 30 Tibetan) with HAPC and 100 healthy control
      subjects (30 Han, 70 Tibetan). To explore the hereditary basis of HAPC and
      investigate the association between EPHA2 with AGT and HAPC in Chinese Han and
      Tibetan populations. Using the Chi-squared test and analyses of genetic models,
      rs2291804, rs2291805, rs3768294, rs3754334, rs6603856, rs6669624, rs11260742,
      rs13375644 and rs10907223 in EPHA2, and rs699, rs4762 and rs5051 in AGT showed
      associations with reduced HAPC susceptibility in Han populations. Additionally,
      in Tibetan populations, rs2478523 in AGT showed an increased the risk of HAPC.
      Our study suggest that polymorphisms in the EPHA2 and AGT correlate with
      susceptibility to HAPC in Chinese Han and Tibetan populations.

PMID- 28881808
TI  - CXCL13 is androgen-responsive and involved in androgen induced prostate cancer
      cell migration and invasion.
AB  - Androgen receptor (AR) is a key transcription factor playing a critical role in
      prostate cancer (PCa) initiation and progression. However, the molecular
      mechanisms of AR action in prostate cancer are not very clear. CXCL13, known as B
      cell attracting chemokine1 (BCA-1), is a member of CXC chemokine family and
      relevant to cancer metastasis. This study shows that CXCL13 is an androgen
      responsive gene and involved in AR-induced PCa cell migration and invasion. In
      clinical specimens, expression of CXCL13 in PCa tissues is markedly higher than
      that in adjacent normal tissues. In cultures, expression of CXCL13 is up
      regulated by androgen-AR axis at both mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, Chip
      Seq assay identifies canonical androgen responsive elements (ARE) at CXCL13
      enhancer and dual-luciferase reporter assays reveals that the ARE is highly
      responsive to androgen while mutations of the ARE abolish the reporter activity.
      Additional chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays also identify that the ARE
      presents androgen responsiveness. In addition, CXCL13 promotes G2/M phase
      transition by increasing Cyclin B1 levels in PCa cells. Functional studies
      demonstrate that reducing endogenous CXCL13 expression in LNCaP cells largely
      weakens androgen-AR axis induced cell migration and invasion. Taken together, our
      study implicates for the first time that CXCL13 is an AR target gene and involved
      in AR-mediated cell migration and invasion in primary PCa.

PMID- 28881809
TI  - Jagged-2 (JAG2) enhances tumorigenicity and chemoresistance of colorectal cancer
      cells.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality.
      Recent studies have stated that NOTCH signaling plays an important role in the
      development and progression of CRC. However, the role of Jagged-2 (JAG2), one of
      the NOTCH ligands, has not been delineated in colorectal tumorigenesis and drug
      resistance. In the present study, we have examined the impact of targeting JAG2
      on CRC cells. Among all the members of NOTCH ligands, only the expression of JAG2
      was found up-regulated in the intestinal tumors of Apc Min /+ mice as compared to
      the nearby normal mucosa. JAG2 expression was also observed in a panel of human
      CRC cell lines. Pharmacological inhibition or genetic knockdown of beta-catenin
      in CRC cell lines suppressed JAG2 expression, suggesting Wnt/beta-catenin
      regulation of JAG2 expression. In addition, deletion of Apc gene in the
      intestinal cells of Apc conditional knockout mice resulted in up-regulation of
      JAG2 expression. Modulation of JAG2 expression significantly affected in vivo
      tumorigenicity of CRC cell lines. Moreover, knockdown of JAG2 sensitized CRC
      cells to chemotherapeutic agents, while ectopic expression of JAG2 increased
      chemoresistance of the CRC cells. Significant down-regulation of p21 was observed
      in JAG2-knockdown cells. Forced expression of p21 rescued the sensitivity of JAG2
      knockdown cells to doxorubicin. In addition, the chemosensitivity of p21-null
      cells was not affected by JAG2 knockdown. These results suggest that JAG2
      modulates the sensitivity of CRC cells to chemotherapeutic agents through p21.
      Our study identifies JAG2 as a novel target for therapeutic intervention of CRC.

PMID- 28881810
TI  - Infiltrating macrophages in diabetic nephropathy promote podocytes apoptosis via
      TNF-alpha-ROS-p38MAPK pathway.
AB  - Macrophage infiltration has been linked to the pathogenesis of diabetic
      nephropathy (DN). However, how infiltrating macrophages affect the progression of
      DN is unknown. Although infiltrating macrophages produce pro-inflammatory
      mediators and induce apoptosis in a variety of target cells, there are no studies
      in podocytes. Therefore, we tested the contribution of macrophages to podocytes
      apoptosis in DN. in vivo experiments showed that apoptosis in podocytes was
      increased in streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats compared with control rats
      and that this apoptosis was accompanied by increased macrophages infiltration in
      the kidney. Then, we established a co-culture system to study the interaction
      between macrophages and podocytes in the absence or presence of high glucose.
      Macrophages did not trigger podocytes apoptosis when they were co-cultured in the
      absence of high glucose in a transwell co-culture system. Additionally, although
      podocyte apoptosis was increased after high glucose stimulation, there was a
      further enhancement of podocyte apoptosis when podocytes were co-cultured with
      macrophages in the presence of high glucose compared with podocytes cultured
      alone in high glucose. Mechanistically, we found that macrophages were activated
      when they were exposed to high glucose, displaying pro-inflammatory M1
      polarization. Furthermore, conditioned media (CM) from such high glucose
      activated M1 macrophages (HG-CM) trigged podocytes apoptosis in a reactive oxygen
      species (ROS)-p38mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38MAPK) dependent manner,
      which was abolished by either a ROS inhibitor (Tempo) or a p38MAPK inhibitor
      (SB203580). Finally, we identified tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) as a key
      mediator of high glucose-activated macrophages to induce podocytes apoptosis
      because an anti-TNF-alpha neutralizing antibody blunted the apoptotic response,
      excess ROS generation and p38MPAK activation in podocytes induced by HG-CM.
      Moreover, addition of recombinant TNF-alpha similarly resulted in podocytes
      apoptosis. In summary, the TNF-alpha that was released by high glucose-activated
      macrophages promoted podocytes apoptosis via ROS-p38MAPK pathway. Blockade of TNF
      alpha secretion from high glucose activated macrophages and ROS-p38MAPK pathway
      might be effective therapeutic options to limit podocytes apoptosis and delay the
      progression of diabetic nephropathy.

PMID- 28881811
TI  - AKT can modulate the in vitro response of HNSCC cells to irreversible EGFR
      inhibitors.
AB  - Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in up to 90% of head and
      neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumors. Cetuximab is the first targeted
      (anti-EGFR) therapy approved for the treatment of HNSCC patients. However, its
      efficacy is limited due to primary and secondary resistance, and there is no
      predict biomarkers of response. New generation of EGFR inhibitors with pan HER
      targeting and irreversible action, such as afatinib and allitinib, represents a
      significant therapeutic promise. In this study, we intend to compare the
      potential cytotoxicity of two anti-EGFR inhibitors (afatinib and allitinib) with
      cetuximab and to identify potential predictive biomarkers of response in a panel
      of HNSCC cell lines. The mutational analysis in the eight HNSCC cell lines
      revealed an EGFR mutation (p.H773Y) and gene amplification in the HN13 cells.
      According to the growth inhibition score (GI), allitinib was the most cytotoxic
      drug, followed by afatinib and finally cetuximab. The higher AKT phosphorylation
      level was associated with resistance to anti-EGFR agents. Therefore, we further
      performed drug combinations with anti-AKT agent (MK2206) and AKT1 gene editing,
      which demonstrated afatinib and allitinib sensitivity restored. Additionally, in
      silico analysis of TCGA database showed that AKT1 overexpression was present in
      14.7% (41/279) of HNSCC cases, and was associated with perineural invasion in
      advanced stage. In conclusion, allitinib presented a greater cytotoxic profile
      when compared to afatinib and cetuximab. AKT pathway constitutes a predictive
      marker of allitinib response and combination with AKT inhibitors could restore
      response and increase treatment success.

PMID- 28881812
TI  - A combination of valproic acid sodium salt, CHIR99021, E-616452, tranylcypromine,
      and 3-Deazaneplanocin A causes stem cell-like characteristics in cancer cells.
AB  - Many studies are based on the hypothesis that recurrence and drug resistance in
      lung carcinoma are due to a subpopulation of cancer stem-like cells (CSLCs) in
      solid tumors. Therefore it is crucial to screen for and recognize lung CSLCs. In
      this study, we stimulated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) A549 cells to
      display stem cell-like characteristics using a combination of five small molecule
      compounds. The putative A549 stem cells activated an important CSLC marker, CD133
      protein, as well multiple CSLC-related genes including ATP-binding cassette
      transporter G2 (ABCG2), C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), NESTIN, and
      BMI1. The A549 stem-like cells displayed resistance to the chemotherapeutic drugs
      etoposide and cisplatin, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition properties, and
      increased protein expression levels of NOTCH1 and Hes Family bHLH Transcription
      Factor 1 (HES1). When A549 cells were pretreated with a NOTCH signaling pathway
      inhibitor before compound induction, expression of the NOTCH1 target gene HES1
      was reduced. This demonstrated that the NOTCH signaling pathway in the putative
      A549 stem-like cells had been activated. Together, the results of our study
      showed that a combination of five small molecule agents could transform A549
      cells into putative stem-like cells, and that these compounds could also elevate
      CD133 and ABCG2 protein expression levels in H460 cells. This study provides a
      convenient method for obtaining lung CSLCs, which may be an effective strategy
      for developing lung carcinoma treatments.

PMID- 28881813
TI  - Differential metabonomic profiles of primary hepatocellular carcinoma tumors from
      alcoholic liver disease, HBV-infected, and HCV-infected cirrhotic patients.
AB  - Our objective was to comparatively profile the metabolite composition of primary
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumors from alcoholic liver disease (ALD),
      hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected, and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected cirrhotic
      patients. Primary HCC tumors were collected from ALD, HBV-infected, and HCV
      infected cirrhotic patients (n=20 each). High-resolution magic-angle spinning
      proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and metabonomic data analysis were
      performed to compare HCC tumors from the three groups. Sensitivity analyses were
      performed to determine the effects of diabetes, high body mass index, and smoking
      status. Metabonomic pathway analyses were conducted to identify dysregulated
      pathways. Three metabolites were significantly differentiated between ALD and HBV
      infected patients, which were distinguishable by changes in ketone body,
      glycerolipid, and phenylalanine metabolism. Five metabolites were significantly
      differentiated between ALD and HCV-infected patients, which were distinguishable
      by changes in ketone body, alanine/aspartate/glutamate, and phenylalanine
      metabolism. Six metabolites were significantly differentiated between HBV
      infected and HCV-infected patients, which were distinguishable by changes in
      ketone body, tyrosine, and alanine/aspartate/glutamate metabolism. In conclusion,
      this is the first study to demonstrate that the metabolic phenotypes of primary
      HCC tumors vary significantly across ALD, HBV-infected, and HCV-infected
      cirrhotic patients.

PMID- 28881814
TI  - Diagnostic and prognostic values of cerebrospinal fluid CYFRA 21-1 in patients
      with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the diagnostic and prognostic values of cerebrospinal
      fluid (CSF) CYFRA 21-1 in patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LMC).
      METHODS: Concentration of CSF CYFRA 21-1 was detected using electro
      chemiluminescent immunoassay. The difference in level of CYFRA 21-1 between 61
      patients with LMC and 200 patients with other neurological disease was evaluated,
      and diagnostic performance of CSF CYFRA 21-1 was investigated. In LMC patients
      treated with ventriculo-lumbar perfusion (VLP) chemotherapy, prognostic
      performance of CSF CYFRA 21-1 was evaluated. RESULTS: The CSF CYFRA 21-1 was
      significantly higher in LMC patients than that in patients with other
      neurological diseases (p<0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and
      positive and negative predictive values were 80.3%, 95.0%, 91.6%, 83.1%, and
      94.1% for CSF CYFRA 21-1, and 65.6%, 100%, 92.0%, 100%, and 90.5% for CSF
      cytology, respectively. The use of high CSF CYFRA 21-1 and/or positive CSF
      cytology findings resulted in an increased sensitivity of 85.3%, without
      compromising specificity. LMC patients with high CSF CYFRA 21-1 were more
      frequently accompanied by positive CSF cytology results than those with low CSF
      CYFRA 21-1. The median overall survival was longer in LMC patients with low CSF
      CYFRA 21-1 than in those with high CSF CYFRA 21-1 (p=0.031). During VLP
      chemotherapy, the clinical responses were found to be correlated with the
      biological responses, including the level of CSF CYFRA 21-1 and intracranial
      pressure. CONCLUSIONS: CSF CYFRA 21-1 might be regarded as an additional
      diagnostic tool for LMC and a potential significant prognostic biomarker in LMC
      patients treated with VLP chemotherapy.

PMID- 28881815
TI  - Clinicopathological characteristics of ROS1- and RET-rearranged NSCLC in
      caucasian patients: Data from a cohort of 713 non-squamous NSCLC lacking
      KRAS/EGFR/HER2/BRAF/PIK3CA/ALK alterations.
AB  - Targeted therapies have substantially changed the management of non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with driver oncogenes. Given the high frequency,
      EGFR and ALK aberrations were the first to be detected and paved the way for
      tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatments. Other kinases such as ROS1 and more
      recently RET have emerged as promising targets, and ROS1 and RET TKIs are already
      available for precision medicine. We screened a large cohort of 713 Caucasian non
      squamous NSCLC patients lacking EGFR/KRAS/BRAF/HER2/PI3KCA/ALK aberrations for
      ROS1 and RET rearrangements using fluorescence in situ hybridization to determine
      the frequency and clinicopathological characteristics of ROS1- and RET-positive
      patients. Frequencies of ROS1 and RET rearrangements were 2.1% and 2.52%,
      respectively. Contrary to common belief, both ROS1 and RET rearrangements were
      detected in patients with a history of smoking, and the RET-positive patients
      were not younger than the negative patients. Moreover, RET but not ROS1
      rearrangement was associated with the female gender. Nearly half of the ROS1
      rearranged patients were successfully treated with ROS1 TKIs. In contrast, only
      5/18 RET-positive patients received off-label RET TKIs. Two patients had stable
      disease, and three experienced disease progression. In addition to the 18 RET
      positive cases, 10 showed isolated 5' signals. The clinical relevance is unknown
      but if the frequency is confirmed by other groups, the question whether these
      patients are eligible to TKIs will arise. More potent RET TKIs are under
      development and may improve the response rate in RET-positive patients.
      Therefore, we recommend the routine implementation of RET testing in non-squamous
      NSCLC patients, including those with a history of smoking.

PMID- 28881816
TI  - Autophagy-related genes are induced by histone deacetylase inhibitor
      suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid via the activation of cathepsin B in human breast
      cancer cells.
AB  - Autophagy is involved in modulating tumor cell motility and invasion, resistance
      to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, anoikis, and escape from immune
      surveillance. We have previous shown that SAHA is capable to induce several
      apoptosis and autophagy-related gene expression in breast cancers. However, the
      exact mechanisms of autophagy activation in this context have not been fully
      identified. Our results showed that the expression and the activity of Cathepsin
      B (CTSB), one of the major lysosomal cysteine proteases, were significantly
      increased in MDA-MB- 231 and MCF-7 cells upon SAHA treatment. We confirmed that
      Cystatin C, a protease inhibitor, significantly inhibited the expression of CTSB
      induced by SAHA on breast cancer cells. We demonstrated that SAHA is able to
      promote the expression of LC3II, a key member in the maturation of the
      autophagosome, the central organelle of autophagy in breast cancer cells.
      However, SAHA induced LC3II expression is effectively suppressed after the
      addition of Cystatin C to the cell culture. In addition, we identified a number
      of genes, as well as the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling that
      is potentially involved in the action of SAHA and CTSB in the breast cancer
      cells. Overall, our results revealed that the autophagy-related genes are induced
      by SAHA via the activation of CTSB in breast cancer cells. An improved
      understanding of SAHA molecular mechanisms in breast cancer may facilitate SAHA
      clinical use and the selection of suitable combinations.

PMID- 28881817
TI  - Dectin-1 signaling inhibits osteoclastogenesis via IL-33-induced inhibition of
      NFATc1.
AB  - Abnormal osteoclast activation contributes to osteolytic bone diseases (OBDs). It
      was reported that curdlan, an agonist of dectin-1, inhibits osteoclastogenesis.
      However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully elucidated. In this study, we
      found that curdlan potently inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation
      and the resultant bone resorption. Curdlan inhibited the expression of nuclear
      factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1), the key transcriptional
      factor for osteoclastogenesis. Notably, dectin-1 activation increased the
      expression of MafB, an inhibitor of NFATc1, and IL-33 in osteoclast precursors.
      Mechanistic studies revealed that IL-33 enhanced the expression of MafB in
      osteoclast precursors and inhibited osteoclast precursors to differentiate into
      mature osteoclasts. Furthermore, blocking ST2, the IL-33 receptor, partially
      abrogated curdlan-induced inhibition of NFATc1 expression and osteoclast
      differentiation. Thus, our study has provided new insights into the mechanisms of
      dectin-1-induced inhibition of osteoclastogenesis and may provide new targets for
      the therapy of OBDs.

PMID- 28881818
TI  - 20(S)-Rg3 blocked epithelial-mesenchymal transition through DNMT3A/miR-145/FSCN1
      in ovarian cancer.
AB  - Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one of the key mechanisms mediating
      cancer progression. MicroRNAs (miRs) are essential regulators of gene expression
      by suppressing translation or causing degradation of target mRNA. Growing
      evidence illustrates the crucial roles of miRs dysregulation in cancer
      development and progression. Here, we have found for the first time that the
      ginsenoside 20(S)-Rg3, a pharmacologically active component of Panax ginseng,
      potently increases miR-145 expression by downregulating methyltransferase DNMT3A
      to attenuate the hypermethylation of the promoter region in the miR-145 precursor
      gene. Restoration of DNMT3A reverses the inhibitory effect of 20(S)-Rg3 on EMT.
      FSCN1 is verified as the target of miR-145 to suppress EMT in human ovarian
      cancer cells. The results from nude mouse xenograft models further demonstrate
      the suppressive effect of miR-145 on malignant progression of ovarian cancer.
      Taken together, our results show that 20(S)-Rg3 blocks EMT by targeting
      DNMT3A/miR-145/FSCN1 pathway in ovarian cancer cells, highlighting the
      potentiality of 20(S)-Rg3 to be used as a therapeutic agent for ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28881819
TI  - APIO-EE-9 is a novel Aurora A and B antagonist that suppresses esophageal cancer
      growth in a PDX mouse model.
AB  - Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies of the upper
      aerodigestive tract. Over the past three decades, with advances in surgical
      techniques and treatment, the prognosis of esophageal cancer has only slowly
      improved. Thus identifying novel molecular targets and developing therapeutic
      agents are critical. Aurora kinases play a crucial role in mitosis and selective
      inhibitors might provide an effective therapeutic treatment for cancer. However,
      the role of Aurora kinases in EC is still inadequately studied. Here, we
      identified a novel compound, referred to as APIO-EE-9, which inhibits growth and
      colony formation and induces apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells. Using computer
      modeling, we found that APIO-EE-9 interacted with both Aurora A and B in the ATP
      binding pocket. APIO-EE-9 inhibited both Aurora A and B kinase activities in a
      dose-dependent manner. Treatment with APIO-EE-9 substantially reduced the
      downstream Aurora kinase phosphorylation of histone H3 (Ser10), resulting in
      formation of multiple nuclei and centrosomes. Additionally, esophageal cancer
      cells expressing shAurora A or shAurora B kinase exhibited a dramatic reduction
      in proliferation and colony formation. Injection of these cells as xenografts in
      mice reduced tumor formation compared to wildtype cells. Importantly, APIO-EE-9
      significantly decreased the size of esophageal patient-derived xenograft (PDX)
      tumors implanted in SCID mice. These results demonstrated that APIO-EE-9 is a
      specific Aurora kinase inhibitor that could be developed as a therapeutic agent
      against esophageal cancer.

PMID- 28881820
TI  - Brain metastases in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: the role of mutated
      EGFRs with an exon 19 deletion or L858R point mutation in cancer cell
      dissemination.
AB  - Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients tend to develop brain metastases
      (BM), but the link between BM occurrence and driver mutations in NSCLC is not
      very clear. We explored whether activating mutations of epidermal growth factor
      receptors (EGFRs) in exon 19 deletion or L858R predict BM in NSCLC. A
      retrospective multivariable logistic regression analysis of 384 patients
      demonstrated that the presence of mutated-EGFRs was associated with overall BM
      (OR=2.24, P=0.001) compared to that of wild-type EGFR (WT-EGFR). Moreover, the
      time-to-event analysis model considering death as a competing risk revealed that,
      irrespective of survival, mutated-EGFRs predicted subsequent BM (SBM) in stage
      IIIB-IV patients (37.1% vs. 10.6%, HR=2.98, P=0.002) after adjusting for age
      (HR=2.00, P=0.012), gender, histological subtype, and smoking history. Notably,
      the younger mutated-EGFR subgroup was at a higher risk for SBM compared to the
      older WT-EGFR one (58.1% vs.10.9%, HR=6.57, P<0.001). Additionally, EGFR exon 19
      deletion, despite having a slightly longer overall survival (20.6 vs. 14.2
      months, P=0.368), was comparable to L858R mutation in predicting SBM (39.5% vs.
      34.5%, HR=0.91, P=0.770). In vitro, the overexpression of mutated-EGFRs induced
      morphological changes towards a mesenchymal-like phenotype and promoted mobility
      in lung cancer cells. Clinically, mutated-EGFR NSCLC displayed a higher
      proportion of vimentin-positive expression (75.3% vs. 51.2%; P=0.007) and a
      shorter median time to SBM (23.5 months vs. not reached, P=0.017) than WT-EGFR
      NSCLC. These results suggest that NSCLC patients carrying mutated-EGFRs may
      require a higher frequency of brain imaging assessments than those with WT-EGFR
      to facilitate earlier SBM detection during follow-up.

PMID- 28881821
TI  - Radial artery intima-media thickness regresses after secondary prevention
      interventions in patients' post-acute coronary syndrome and is associated with
      cardiac and kidney biomarkers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radial artery intima-media thickness (rIMT) measured by ultra-high
      resolution ultrasound is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and
      predicts outcomes. We performed non-invasive high-resolution ultrasound of the
      radial artery to investigate vascular changes in subjects presenting with acute
      coronary syndrome (ACS) and who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention
      (PCI). PURPOSE: In the present work, we aimed to follow rIMT change over time
      post-acute coronary syndrome as a tool to monitor potential response to
      intensified medical therapy. METHODS: We examined 256 subjects who underwent PCI
      due to ACS and healthy controls (n= 39) and we measured a number of biomarkers,
      which are known to be associated with cardiovascular disease. Images of radial
      artery were acquired bilaterally in the longitudinal view using a 50 MHz
      transducer (Vevo 2100 VisualSonics, Inc, Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Carotid IMT
      (cIMT) and rIMT were measured at <1 month after index PCI followed by a repeated
      measurement of rIMT at 4 months from the ACS in a sub-set (n=117). RESULTS: rIMT
      measured within 1 month post ACS was significantly higher than rIMT after 4
      months from ACS, (p < 0.0001), mean +/- SD (rIMT right 0.35 +/- 0.08; rIMT left
      0.37 +/- 0.08) vs. (rIMT right 0.29 +/- 0.08; rIMT left 0.31 +/- 0.09)
      respectively. There was no statistically significant change in cIMT. In healthy
      controls there were no changes in rIMT or cIMT overtime. High levels of CX3CL1
      and myeloperoxidase measured within one month post ACS are associated with
      increase of rIMT, r=0.38 (p< 0.0001) and r=0.41 (p< 0.0001) respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: rIMT seem to decrease systemically after ACS and is accompanied with
      corresponding biomarker change. The cause and clinical implications of the
      observed decrement in rIMT after ACS need further studies.

PMID- 28881822
TI  - An epigenetic signature of adhesion molecules predicts poor prognosis of ovarian
      cancer patients.
AB  - DNA methylation is a promising biomarker for cancer. The epigenetic effects of
      cell adhesion molecules may affect the therapeutic outcome and the present study
      examined their effects on survival in ovarian cancer. We integrated methylomics
      and genomics datasets in The Cancer Genome Atlas (n = 391) and identified 106
      highly methylated adhesion-related genes in ovarian cancer tissues. Univariate
      analysis revealed the methylation status of eight genes related to progression
      free survival. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, four highly methylated
      genes (CD97, CTNNA1, DLC1, HAPLN2) and three genes (LAMA4, LPP, MFAP4) with low
      methylation were significantly associated with poor progression-free survival.
      Low methylation of VTN was an independent poor prognostic factor for overall
      survival after adjustment for age and stage. Patients who carried any two of
      CTNNA1, DLC1 or MFAP4 were significantly associated with poor progression-free
      survival (hazard ratio: 1.59; 95% confidence interval: 1.23, 2.05). This
      prognostic methylation signature was validated in a methylomics dataset generated
      in our lab (n = 37, hazard ratio: 16.64; 95% confidence interval: 2.68, 103.14)
      and in another from the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study (n = 91, hazard ratio:
      2.43; 95% confidence interval: 1.11, 5.36). Epigenetics of cell adhesion
      molecules is related to ovarian cancer prognosis. A more comprehensive
      methylomics of cell adhesion molecules is needed and may advance personalized
      treatment with adhesion molecule-related drugs.

PMID- 28881823
TI  - Hypertriglyceridemia in female rats during pregnancy induces obesity in male
      offspring via altering hypothalamic leptin signaling.
AB  - Maternal obesity influence the child's long-term development and health. Though,
      the mechanism concerned in this process is still uncertain. In the present study,
      we explored whether overfeeding of a high-fat diet during pregnancy in female
      rats altered metabolic phenotypes in an F1 generation and authenticated the
      contribution of hypothalamic leptin signaling. Leptin responsiveness and the
      number of immunopositive neurons for phosphorylated signal transducer and
      activator transcription 3 (pSTAT3) were analyzed. Neuropeptide Y in the arcuate
      nucleus of the hypothalamus and in nucleus tractus solitaries was examined.
      Triglycerides and leptin levels were increased in the high-fat diet mother. The
      number of neuropeptide Y positive cell bodies and neurons was significantly
      increased in the high-fat diet-F1 offspring (HDF-F1) as compared to Chow-F1.
      Leptin administration significantly decreased the food intake and increased the
      pSTAT3 expression levels in neurons in the arcuate nucleus of Chow-F1. However,
      leptin did not show any effect on food intake and had a reduced effect on pSTAT3
      expression levels in neurons in the arcuate nucleus of HDF-F1. From the present
      domino effect, we conclude that mothers exposed to high-fat diet during pregnancy
      may pass the obese phenotype to the succeeding generation via altering
      hypothalamic leptin signaling.

PMID- 28881824
TI  - Differential gene and lncRNA expression in the lower thoracic spinal cord
      following ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute kidney injury in rats.
AB  - We used high-throughput RNA sequencing to analyze differential gene and lncRNA
      expression patterns in the lower thoracic spinal cord during ischemia/reperfusion
      (I/R)-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) in rats. We observed that of 32662 mRNAs,
      4296 out were differentially expressed in the T8-12 segments of the spinal cord
      upon I/R-induced AKI. Among these, 62 were upregulated and 34 were downregulated
      in response to I/R (FDR < 0.05, |log2FC| > 1). Further, 52 differentially
      expressed lncRNAs (35 upregulated and 17 downregulated) were identified among
      3849 lncRNA transcripts. The differentially expressed mRNAs were annotated as
      "biological process," "cellular components" and "molecular functions" through
      gene ontology enrichment analysis. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that
      cell cycle and renin-angiotensin pathways were upregulated in response to I/R,
      while protein digestion and absorption, hedgehog, neurotrophin, MAPK, and PI3K
      Akt signaling were downregulated. The RNA-seq data was validated by qRT-PCR and
      western blot analyses of select mRNAs and lncRNAs. We observed that Bax, Caspase
      3 and phospho-AKT were upregulated and Bcl-2 was downregulated in the spinal cord
      in response to renal injury. We also found negative correlations between three
      lncRNAs (TCONS_00042175, TCONS_00058568 and TCONS_00047728) and the degree of
      renal injury. These findings provide evidence for differential expression of
      lncRNAs and mRNAs in the lower thoracic spinal cord following I/R-induced AKI in
      rats and suggest potential clinical applicability.

PMID- 28881825
TI  - Development of hepatocellular cancer induced by long term low fat-high
      carbohydrate diet in a NAFLD/NASH mouse model.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common chronic liver disease. It
      can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and, in a percentage of
      cases, to hepatocarcinogenesis. The strong incidence in western countries of
      obesity and metabolic syndrome, whose NAFLD is the hepatic expression, is thought
      to be correlated to consumption of diets characterized by processed food and
      sweet beverages. Previous studies described high-fat diet-induced liver tumors.
      Conversely, the involvement of low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet in the progression
      of liver disease or cancer initiation has not been described yet. Here we show
      for the first time hepatic cancer formation in low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet fed
      NAFLD/NASH mouse model. Animals were long term high-fat, low-fat/high
      carbohydrate or standard diet fed. We observed progressive liver damage in low
      fat/high-carbohydrate and high-fat animals after 12 and, more, 18 months. Tumors
      were detected in 20% and 50% of high-fat diet fed mice after 12 and 18 months
      and, interestingly, in 30% of low-fat/high-carbohydrate fed animals after 18
      months. No tumors were detected in standard diet fed mice. Global increase of
      hepatic interleukin-1beta, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and
      hepatocyte growth factor was detected in low-fat/high-carbohydrate and high-fat
      with respect to standard diet fed mice as well as in tumor with respect to non
      tumor bearing mice. A panel of 15 microRNAs was analyzed: some of them revealed
      differential expression in low-fat/high-carbohydrate with respect to high-fat
      diet fed groups and in tumors. Data here shown provide the first evidence of the
      involvement of low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet in hepatic damage leading to
      tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28881827
TI  - Structural basis of mutant-selectivity and drug-resistance related to CO-1686.
AB  - Non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) caused by activating mutations in the kinase
      domain of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) initially respond to first
      generation reversible drugs gefitinib and erlotinib. However, clinical efficacy
      is limited due to the development of drug-resistance that in more than half of
      the cases are driven by the secondary T790M mutation. CO-1686 is one of the third
      generation irreversible inhibitors that inhibits EGFR activating mutants,
      including those with concurrent T790M, while avoiding the off-target toxicity
      owing to inhibition of wild-type EGFR in treating EGFR mutation-positive NSCLCs.
      Despite the remarkable success, the experimentally determined structure of this
      agent in complex with EGFR T790M remains unknown. In this study, we determined
      crystal structures of EGFR T790M or L858R mutants covalently bound by CO-1686.
      Based on these structural data, we can explain why CO-1686 irreversibly inhibits
      EGFR and selectively prefers T790M, which may help improving this or similar
      compounds, and explain why EGFR L718Q and L844V mutations incur resistance to
      this agent.

PMID- 28881826
TI  - TLR4 interaction with LPS in glioma CD133+ cancer stem cells induces cell
      proliferation, resistance to chemotherapy and evasion from cytotoxic T lymphocyte
      induced cytolysis.
AB  - Despite advances in treatment modalities, 5-year survival among glioma patients
      remains poor. Glioma cancer stem cells (CSCs) exhibit high tumorigenic activity
      and are associated with resistance to treatment and tumor recurrence. Because
      overexpression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) correlated with cancer development,
      we investigated LPS-induced TLR4 signaling in glioma CD133-positive (CD133+)
      CSCs. The proliferation of CD133+ CSCs isolated from CSCs derived from the U251
      and SF295 glioma cell lines and from human glioma samples was upregulated on a
      time- and concentration-dependent basis by LPS stimulation, with increases in
      CD133, NANOG, and NESTIN mRNA and protein levels. Also elevated was cytokine
      expression, which was coupled to phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein
      kinase, and activation of cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinase complexes. TLR4
      knockdown reduced LPS-induced CD133+ CSC proliferation, whereas Adriamycin
      induced CD133+ CSC apoptosis was moderately inhibited by treatment with LPS,
      implying a protective effect of LPS. The capacity of glioma CD133+ CSC-reactive
      cytotoxic T lymphocyte to selectively kill CD133+ CSCs was reduced by LPS, and
      this effect was not apparent after TLR4 knockdown in CD133+ CSCs. These data
      suggest TLR4 signaling is a factor in CD133+ CSC immune evasion, and thus
      disruption of TLR4 signaling is a potential therapeutic strategy in glioma.

PMID- 28881828
TI  - SHP2 negatively regulates HLA-ABC and PD-L1 expression via STAT1 phosphorylation
      in prostate cancer cells.
AB  - Src homology region 2-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2) is a
      ubiquitous protein tyrosine phosphatase that activates the signal transduction
      pathways of several growth factors and cytokines. In our study, SHP2 expression
      was very high in prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines, and the expression of phospho
      signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (p-STAT1) and STAT1 was very
      low. SHP2 knockdown upregulated the expression of p-STAT1 and downregulated
      phospho-extracellular signal regulated kinase (p-ERK). SHP2 depletion also
      increased the expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-ABC and programmed
      death ligand 1 (PD-L1). When tumor cells were pretreated with Janus kinase 2
      (JAK2) inhibitor, SHP2 depletion failed to induce HLA-ABC and PD-L1 expression.
      Furthermore, treating tumor cells with the mitogen-activated protein
      kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK) inhibitor PD0325901 did not
      upregulate HLA-ABC and PD-L1. SHP2 depletion was associated with increased T-cell
      activation (CD25 MFI of CD8+) by coculture of allogeneic healthy donor peripheral
      blood monocytes (PBMC) with SHP2 siRNA pretreated PCa cell lines. These results
      show that SHP2 targeting upregulates HLA-ABC and PD-L1 expression via STAT1
      phosphorylation in PCa cells and SHP2 depletion could increase T-cell activation.

PMID- 28881829
TI  - Compliance with the enhanced recovery after surgery protocol and prognosis after
      colorectal cancer surgery: A prospective cohort study.
AB  - We explored the effects of different levels of compliance with an enhanced
      recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol on the short-term prognosis of patients
      who underwent colorectal cancer surgery. We conducted a single-center prospective
      cohort study in which 254 patients who received surgical treatment in a teaching
      tertiary care hospital were enrolled from March 2016 to November 2016. The
      patients were divided into four groups (I, II, III, and IV) based on individual
      compliance rates; the corresponding range of compliance rates was 0-60%, 60-70%,
      70-80%, and 80-100%, and the number of patients in each group was 66, 63, 53, and
      72, respectively. In the four groups from low to high compliance with ERAS (group
      I, II, III, and IV), the incidence of surgical site infections was 24.2%, 20.6%,
      9.4%, and 6.9% (P < 0.05); the overall incidence of postoperative complications
      was 41.3%, 33.3%, 26.4%, and 16.7% (P < 0.05); the median length of postoperative
      hospital stay (in days) was 12.5, 10, 9, 8 (P < 0.05); and the median total
      hospital cost (Chinese Yuan) was 71,733, 73,632, 65,861, and 63,289 (P < 0.05),
      respectively. These results suggest that higher compliance with the ERAS protocol
      was associated with a lower incidence of surgical site infections, lower overall
      postoperative complication rate, shorter postoperative hospital stays, and lower
      total hospital costs.

PMID- 28881830
TI  - Value of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging T1-relaxometry in predicting
      contrast-enhancement in glioblastoma patients.
AB  - SUMMARIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY: The repetitive usage of gadolinium-based
      contrast agents (GBCA) is critical for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      evaluation of tumor burden in glioblastoma patients. It is also a crucial tool
      for determination of radiographical response to treatment. GBCA injection,
      however, comes with a 2.4% rate of adverse events including life-threatening
      conditions such as nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF). Moreover, GBCA have been
      shown to be deposited in brain tissue of patients even with an intact blood-brain
      barrier (BBB). The present study explores quantitative T1 relaxometry as an
      alternative non-invasive imaging technique detection of tumor burden and
      determination of radiographical response. This technique exploits specific
      properties of brain tissue with impaired BBB. With a sensitivity and specificity
      as high as 86% and 80%, respectively, quantitative T1-relaxometry allows for
      detecting contrast-enhancing areas without the use of GBCA. This method could
      make it unnecessary to subject patients to the risk of adverse events associated
      with the use of GBCA. Nonetheless, a large-scale analysis is needed to confirm
      our findings. BACKGROUND: Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA) are crucial for
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based evaluation of tumor burden in glioblastoma
      (GBM). Serious adverse events of GBCA, even though uncommon, and gadolinium
      deposition in brain tissue could be avoided by novel imaging techniques not
      requiring GBCA. Altered tissue composition in areas with impaired blood-brain
      barrier also alters the quantified T1 relaxation time (qT1), so that qT1 analysis
      could replace GBCA-based MRI for the analysis of tumor burden and response.
      METHODS: As a part of a prospective pilot MRI-relaxometry trial, patients with
      newly-diagnosed GBM who relapsed under standard radiochemotherapy were selected
      for this study. At recurrence, subtraction of qT1 maps pre and post-GBCA
      application (DeltaqT1 maps) was used to determine areas of contrast-enhancement.
      With the contrast-enhancement on DeltaqT1 maps as reference, ROC analysis served
      to detect an optimal qT1 cut-off on qT1 maps prior to GBCA to distinguish between
      contrast-enhancing tissue and its surroundings. RESULTS: Ten patients were
      included. A qT1 value >2051ms predicted contrast-enhancing tumor tissue with a
      sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 80% (AUC, 0.92; p<0.0001). Interestingly,
      qT1 prolongation >2051 ms that did not overlap with contrast-enhancing area
      transformed into contrast-enhancement later on (n=4). CONCLUSION: T1-relaxometry
      may be a useful technique to assess tissue properties equivalent to contrast
      enhancement without the need for GBCA application. It may also provide
      information on sites with future tumor progression. Nonetheless, large-scale
      studies are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28881831
TI  - A vitamin D receptor agonist converts CD4+ T cells to Foxp3+ regulatory T cells
      in patients with ulcerative colitis.
AB  - One of the pathological features of ulcerative colitis (UC) is the dysfunction of
      immune regulatory T cells (Treg cells); the pathogenesis is unclear and needs to
      be further investigated. Vitamin D has immune regulatory functions. This study
      tests a hypothesis that vitamin D receptor (VDR) regulates Treg cell
      differentiation. Peripheral blood samples were collected from UC patients and
      healthy subjects. The correlation between VDR expression and T helper (Th)2 cell
      differentiation in peripheral CD4+ T cells was analyzed. We observed that the
      expression of VDR was lower, the expression of interleukin (IL)-4 was higher, in
      peripheral CD4+ T cells of UC patients than that in healthy controls. Naive CD4+
      T cells from VDR deficient mice were prone to differentiating into Th2 cells,
      which could be adjusted by the presence of VDR agonists. The Th2 polarization
      status in the peripheral CD4+ T cells of UC patients could be converted to
      regulatory T cells in the culture in the presence of VDR agonists. In conclusion,
      the peripheral Th2 cells in UC patients can be converted to regulatory T cells by
      VDR agonists in the culture. The results suggest that administration of VDR
      agonists at proper dosages may improve the immunity of UC patients.

PMID- 28881832
TI  - The novel sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors antagonist AD2900 affects lymphocyte
      activation and inhibits T-cell entry into the lymph nodes.
AB  - Sphingolipid derivatives play key roles in immune cell migration and function.
      Synthetic sphingolipid analogues are used as therapeutics to intervene various
      inflammatory and malignant conditions. We hypothesize that different analogs have
      different effects on immune cells and therefore can be used as treatment for
      specific diseases. This study examines the properties of the novel synthetic
      sphingolipid analog, AD2900, and its effects on immune cell activation and
      lymphocyte localization in homeostasis. AD2900 is an antagonist for all
      sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptors. It demonstrates a significant inhibitory
      effect on the proliferation of activated human peripheral blood mononuclear
      cells, which is dependent on cAMP reduction and calcium signal transduction but
      not on phospholipase C activation. AD2900 causes a significant but reversible
      downregulation of S1P1 expression on the cell surface. AD2900 administration to
      C57BL/6J mice leads to the accumulation of T cells in the blood and spleen and in
      turn reduces T-cell number in the lymph nodes. Moreover, AD2900 treatment shows
      significant effects on the localization of T-cell subpopulations. These results
      demonstrate the key roles of S1P in T-cell trafficking in a steady state and
      suggest a potential clinical application for AD2900. Notably, this sphingolipid
      analog does not cause a severe lymphopenia. The clinical effect of AD2900 in
      hemato-oncologic diseases and immune-related diseases needs further
      investigation.

PMID- 28881834
TI  - Selective ATP hydrolysis inhibition in F1Fo ATP synthase enhances
      radiosensitivity in non-small-cell lung cancer cells (A549).
AB  - BACKGROUND: F1Fo-ATP synthase (F1Fo-ATPase) is a reversibly rotary molecular
      machine whose dual functions of synthesizing or hydrolyzing ATP switch upon the
      condition of cell physiology. The robust ATP-hydrolyzing activity occurs in
      ischemia for maintaining the transmembrane proton motive force of mitochondria
      inner membrane, but the effect of F1Fo-ATPase on X-ray response of non-small-cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) cells is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We studied whether
      ATP hydrolysis affected X-ray radiation induced cell death. NSCLC cells (A549)
      were pretreated with BTB06584 (BTB), an elective ATP hydrolysis inhibitor,
      followed by X-ray radiation. Cell viability and clonogenic survival were markedly
      decreased, clear indications of enhanced radiosensitivity through BTB incubation.
      Additionally, ATP5alpha1 was upregulated in parallel with elevated ATP hydrolytic
      activity after X-ray radiation, showing an increased mitochondrial membrane
      potential (DeltaPsim). ATP hydrolysis inhibition led to collapse of DeltaPsim
      suggesting ATP hydrolytic activity could enhance DeltaPsim after X-ray radiation.
      Furthermore, we also demonstrated that apoptosis was pronounced with the
      prolonged collapse of DeltaPsim due to hydrolysis inhibition by BTB incubation.
      CONCLUSION: Overall, these findings supported that ATP hydrolysis inhibition
      could enhance the radiosensitivity in NSCLC cells (A549) after X-ray radiation,
      which was due to the collapse of DeltaPsim.

PMID- 28881835
TI  - XPG gene rs751402 C>T polymorphism and cancer risk: Evidence from 22
      publications.
AB  - The Xeroderma pigmentosum group G (XPG) gene promotes recognition and excision of
      damaged DNA during the DNA repair process. We conducted a comprehensive search of
      the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Chinese Biomedical databases for publications evaluating
      the association XPG gene rs751402 C>T polymorphism and overall cancer risk.
      Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were adopted to
      assess the strength of the association. A total of 22 publications encompassing
      10538 cases and 10511 control subjects were included in the final meta-analysis.
      We found the polymorphism to be associated with increased cancer risk (TT vs. CC:
      OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.01-1.38, P = 0.040; CT vs. CC: OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.01
      1.24, P = 0.040; and CT/TT vs. CC: OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.002-1.26, P = 0.045).
      Stratification by cancer type indicated that this polymorphism may increase the
      risk of gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, which was further confirmed
      by a false-positive report probability analysis. Genotype-based mRNA expression
      provides further evidence that this polymorphism is associated with altered XPG
      mRNA expression. This meta-analysis suggests XPG gene rs751402 C>T polymorphism
      correlates with overall cancer risk, especially for gastric cancer and
      hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28881833
TI  - lncRNA H19 mediates BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem
      cells (MSCs) through Notch signaling.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent progenitor cells that can undergo
      self-renewal and differentiate into multiple lineages. Osteogenic differentiation
      from MSCs is a well-orchestrated process and regulated by multiple signaling
      pathways. We previously demonstrated that BMP9 is one of the most potent
      osteogenic factors. However, molecular mechanism through which BMP9 governs
      osteoblastic differentiation remains to be fully understood. Increasing evidence
      indicates noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) may play important regulatory roles in many
      physiological and/or pathologic processes. In this study, we investigate the role
      of lncRNA H19 in BMP9-regulated osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. We
      demonstrated that H19 was sharply upregulated at the early stage of BMP9
      stimulation of MSCs, followed by a rapid decease and gradual return to basal
      level. This process was correlated with BMP9-induced expression of osteogenic
      markers. Interestingly, either constitutive H19 expression or silencing H19
      expression in MSCs significantly impaired BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation
      in vitro and in vivo, which was effectively rescued by the activation of Notch
      signaling. Either constitutive H19 expression or silencing H19 expression led to
      the increased expression of a group of miRNAs that are predicted to target Notch
      ligands and receptors. Thus, these results indicate that lncRNA H19 functions as
      an important mediator of BMP9 signaling by modulating Notch signaling-targeting
      miRNAs. Our findings suggest that the well-coordinated biphasic expression of
      lncRNA H19 may be essential in BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation of MSCs,
      and that dysregulated H19 expression may impair normal osteogenesis, leading to
      pathogenic processes, such as bone tumor development.

PMID- 28881836
TI  - The prevalence of depression in rheumatoid arthritis in China: A systematic
      review.
AB  - This systematic review is to explore the prevalence of depression in patients
      with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in China. Articles of prevalence rates for
      depression in adult RA patients published before October 2015 were identified
      from PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, CBM, VIP, and Wanfang database
      and other internet databases. Relevant journals and the recommendations of expert
      panels were also searched manually. Two independent reviewers searched and
      assessed the literature. Therelevant data were applied with Meta-Analyst 3.13
      software, and the forest plot and funnel plot were performed. 21 studies with a
      total of 4447 patients were selected to be enrolled in this study. The prevalence
      of depression by analyzing the effect size was 48% [95% CI (41%, 56%)]. The
      prevalence of minor depression and dysthymic disorder was 30% [95%CI (23%, 38%)],
      and the moderate or major depression was 18% [95%CI (11%, 29%)], respectively.
      Subgroup analysis showed that the depression rate of female RA patients was
      higher than male. The depression rate in the central and western areas were
      higher than that of the eastern region of China, the prevalence level estimated
      by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was higher than estimated by other tools.
      Sensitivity analysis showed that the pooled effect size had good stability and
      reliability, To be conclusive, the prevalence rate of depression in RA patients
      is 48%, which suggesting that medical staff should pay more attention to
      depression in adult patients with RA.

PMID- 28881837
TI  - The impact of primary tumor location on efficacy of cetuximab in metastatic
      colorectal cancer patients with different Kras status: a systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the prognostic role of primary tumor location along with
      Kras status in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRCs) treated with cetuximab.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Databases of EMBASE, Pubmed, the Cochrane library, China
      National Knowledge Infrastructure and other databases from inception to July 2016
      were searched. Randomized controlled trial (RCT) and/or retrospective studies of
      influence of primary tumor location on efficacy of cetuximab in patients with
      mCRC were identified. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS),
      and the secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS), overall response rate
      (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). RESULTS: Ten studies including 2977 cases
      were finally included. The results of meta-analysis were in favor of cetuximab to
      patients with left-sided colorectal cancer in terms of OS (HR = 0.52, 95% CI:
      0.40-0.66; p < 0.01), PFS (HR = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.58-0.70; p < 0.01), and ORR (OR =
      2.17, 95% CI: 1.57-2.99; p < 0.01). Patients with right-sided CRC gained less
      benefit from cetuximab in terms of OS (HR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.43-2.50; p < 0.01),
      compared with left-sided CRC. Regarding Kras status, left-sided mCRC with wild
      type Kras had better PFS (HR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.51-0.74; p < 0.01) and OS (HR =
      0.49, 95% CI: 0.35-0.69; p < 0.01) than right-sided cases when treated with
      cetuximab. We also found that cetuximab was both significantly effective in
      different treatment lines and regions when comparing by primary tumor locations
      (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: mCRC Patients with left-sided, wild type Kras have a
      better prognosis than those with right-sided diseases when treated with
      cetuximab. The clinical application of cetuximab should be determined by the
      primary tumor location and molecular gene mutation status.

PMID- 28881838
TI  - Prognostic value of molecular events from negative surgical margin of non-small
      cell lung cancer.
AB  - It is hypothesized that the molecular status in negative surgical margin (NSM) is
      associated with prognosis of cancer patients. In this study, the prognostic
      relevance of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) molecular events in NSMs
      in patients with NSCLC was investigated. EMT model was developed, in which the
      mesenchymal transition of human immortalized bronchial epithelial cell line was
      induced by TGF-beta1. Gene expression of EMT-induced cells and NSMs from 60 lung
      squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) patients was profiled by microarray and validated
      by quantitative RT-PCR. Two independent cohorts (lung SCC, n = 50; NSCLC, n = 54)
      were employed to validate the prognostic value of candidate genes. A set of 1490
      genes were identified in EMT model in vitro. An EMT-like gene-expression pattern
      by 33 essential genes was optimized in NSMs, and was significantly associated
      with tumor progression. The 33 genes also exhibited a site-dependent field
      cancerization effect in the normal-appearing airways adjacent to NSCLCs. In the
      independent lung SCC cohort, the EMT-like active pattern indicated poor outcome
      of patients (n = 50, log-rank p = 0.009). Furthermore, in the NSCLC cohort,
      patients with EMT-like active pattern had shorter predictive survival time (n =
      54, log-rank p = 0.02). In conclusion, the existence of EMT-like gene expression
      in NSMs, may play critical role in tumor progression and be a potential biomarker
      for prognosis in patients with NSCLC.

PMID- 28881839
TI  - Decitabine-based chemotherapy followed by haploidentical lymphocyte infusion
      improves the effectiveness in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - In this study, we first initiated a multicenter, single-arm, phase-II clinical
      trial using decitabine (DAC) (20mg/m2 for five days) based chemotherapy, followed
      by haploidentical lymphocyte infusion (HLI) that was applied as induction therapy
      for elderly patients with AML. Furthermore, the role of HLI infusion was explored
      in a mouse model. The clinical trial included 29 elderly patients (median age:
      64, range 57-77) with AML. Sixteen cases achieved complete remission (CR) and 9
      cases achieved partial remission (PR) after the first treatment cycle. Of the
      patients with PR, 5 subjects achieved remission after the second induction, which
      brings the overall CR rate to 72.4%. The 2-year overall survival (OS) and disease
      free survival (DFS) was 59.6% and 36.9% respectively. The treatment regimen was
      well tolerated with only one patient died of severe pneumonia one month after the
      first treatment. In the mouse experiment, we found that DAC/HLI significantly
      enhanced the survival of leukemic mice. These results suggested that DAC-based
      chemotherapy combined with HLI is an alternative first line induction therapy for
      elderly patients with AML. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov
      (NCT01690507).

PMID- 28881840
TI  - Tumor heterogeneity assessed by texture analysis on contrast-enhanced CT in lung
      adenocarcinoma: association with pathologic grade.
AB  - Objectives To investigate whether texture features on contrast-enhanced computed
      tomography (CECT) images of lung adenocarcinoma have association with pathologic
      grade. Methods A cohort of 148 patients with surgically operated adenocarcinoma
      was retrospectively reviewed. Fifty-four CT features of the primary lung tumor
      were extracted from CECT images using open-source 3D Slicer software; meanwhile,
      enhancement homogeneity was evaluated by two radiologists using visual
      assessment. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine
      significant image indicator of pathologic grade. Results Tumors of intermediate
      grade were more likely to be never smokers (P=0.020). Enhancement heterogeneity
      by visual assessment showed no statistical difference between intermediate grade
      and high grade (P=0.671). Among those 54 features, 29 of them were significantly
      associated with pathologic grade. Multivariate logistic regression analyses
      identified F33 (Homogeneity 1) (P=0.005) and F38 (Inverse Variance) (P=0.032) as
      unique independent image indicators of pathologic grade, and the AUC calculated
      from this model (AUC=0.834) was higher than clinical model (AUC=0.615)
      (P=0.0001). Conclusions Our study revealed that texture analysis on CECT images
      could be helpful in predicting pathologic grade of lung adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28881841
TI  - Efficacy of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors
      (TKIs) in targeted therapy of lung squamous cell carcinoma patients with EGFR
      mutation: a pooled analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: This pooled analysis aims to evaluate the efficacy of epidermal growth
      factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in lung squamous cell
      carcinoma with EGFR mutation. METHODS: Advanced stage (IIIB/IV) lung squamous
      cell carcinoma patients with EGFR mutations treated with EGFR-TKIs were extracted
      from the publications searched from the databases of EMBASE, Medline (Ovid SP),
      Web of Science, Cochrane library, PubMed Publisher, ASCO meeting abstract and
      Google Scholar before August 2016, or identified from the database of Shanghai
      Chest Hospital from July 2014 to August 2016. Pooled objective response rate,
      disease control rate and median progression-free survival were accessed directly
      or by Kaplan-Meier method and combined in different studies by Comprehensive Meta
      Analysis software via one-group dichotomous or continuous analysis functions.
      RESULTS: The combined objective response rate, disease control rate and median
      progression-free survival were 31.6% (95%CI, 24.1%~40.2%), 72.0% (95% CI,
      63.5%~79.2%) and 3.08 months (95% CI, 2.31-3.84 months) in lung squamous cell
      carcinoma patients with EGFR mutation. CONCLUSION: The EGFR-TKIs had a modest
      response for EGFR mutated lung squamous cell carcinoma patients and might be a
      selective option for those patients.

PMID- 28881842
TI  - Effect of age on long-term outcomes after stroke with atrial fibrillation: a
      hospital-based follow-up study in China.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an established predictor of poor outcomes after
      stroke. We aimed to assess the effect of age on outcomes at 1 year and 3 years in
      stroke patients with AF. We recruited acute ischemic stroke patients with AF
      between January 2006 and September 2014 in Tianjin, China. Clinical features and
      outcomes at 1 year and 3 years after stroke were compared between younger group
      and elderly group. Overall, 951 consecutive stroke patients with AF were included
      in this study. There was a higher mortality and dependency rate in the elderly
      group than in the young group at both 1 and 3 years after stroke. Recurrence
      rates were significantly higher in the elderly group than in the young group at 3
      years after stroke. The higher risks of mortality and dependency in elderly
      patients remained unchanged, but disappeared in recurrence rates after adjusting
      for stroke subtype, severity, risk factors, and lifestyle. These findings suggest
      that it is crucial to highlight the treatment of elderly stroke patients with AF
      in order to reduce poor outcomes and to reduce the burden of AF in China.

PMID- 28881843
TI  - Dynamic changes in serum cytokine levels and their clinical significance in
      predicting acute GVHD.
AB  - To explore the clinical significance of cytokines and biochemical tests in acute
      graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), we detected the concentrations of 8 cytokines
      and 19 conventional biochemical markers in the sera of aGVHD and non-GVHD
      patients throughout the process of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation and the onset of aGVHD. Predictive models were then established
      using the 27 indices, and models were verified by a prospective trial. The 27
      indices showed significant differences between aGVHD patients and non-GVHD
      control subjects (two-tailed p<0.05) prior to transplantation and before the
      onset of aGVHD. Our models, established by binary logistic regression on days +7
      and +14, showed a significant absolute capacity of predicting grade 2~4 aGVHD
      with positive and negative predictive values of at least 70%. Our data showed
      that the progression of aGVHD could induce dynamic changes in the levels of serum
      cytokines and biochemical markers. Because most of these tests were less specific
      for aGVHD, these changes were easily neglected in clinical work. However, by
      combining cytokine and biochemical tests, the established prediction model can
      greatly improve the ability of these biomarkers to predict the development of
      aGVHD one or two weeks earlier.

PMID- 28881844
TI  - Methotrexate plus idarubicin improves outcome of patients with primary central
      nervous system lymphoma.
AB  - Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare form of non-Hodgkin
      lymphoma with poor long-term survival. This study assessed methotrexate (MTX)
      plus idarubicin (IDA) in treating patients of PCNSL comparing to MTX alone
      therapy. A total of 100 patients were retrospectively enrolled and subjected to
      MTX alone (n = 52) and MTX plus IDA (n = 48). The completed response (CR) rate in
      patients treated with MTX plus IDA was 62.50%, and overall response (OR) rate was
      79.17%, which in MTX alone cohort were 42.31% and 63.46% respectively. Median
      progression-free survival (PFS) of patients treated with MTX plus IDA was
      significantly better than those treated with MTX alone (18.35 months
      vs.8.45months, P = 0.000). The MTX plus IDA regimen exhibited a significantly
      better control of PCNSL. Further studies would be needed to confirm these
      results.

PMID- 28881845
TI  - Gender differences in fibrosis remodeling in patients with long-standing
      persistent atrial fibrillation.
AB  - The success rate of catheter ablation in atrial fibrillation (AF) is known to be
      lower in females than in males. However, while the exact mechanism for this
      phenomenon remains to be elucidated, tissue fibrosis may play an important role
      in this regard. It has been shown that fibrosis promotes AF and its recurrence,
      thereby substantially reducing the efficacy of catheter ablation in AF patients.
      Thus, we hypothesized that fibrosis may contribute to gender differences in the
      outcomes of AF catheter ablation. Here we systematically assessed pulmonary vein
      sleeves obtained from 166 patients with and without long-standing persistent-AF
      (LSP-AF) in order to identify gender-specific mechanistic differences in fibrosis
      remodeling of AF patients. Histological analysis revealed that the female LSP-AF
      group, rather than its male counterpart, had a higher degree of fibrosis when
      compared to the NON-AF group. Further analysis using microarray,
      immunohistochemistry and Western Blot displayed that gender differences in
      fibrosis remodeling of LSP-AF were mainly due to the inherent differential
      expression of fibrosis-related genes (n=32) and proteins (n=6). Especially, those
      related to the TGFbeta/Smad3 pathway appeared to be up-regulated in the female
      LSP-AF group thus promoting an aggravation of fibrosis remodeling. In summary,
      our data suggest that the aggravation of fibrosis remodeling in women may be an
      important reason for the low success rate of AF catheter ablation when compared
      to men. Therefore, inhibiting the TGFbeta/Smad3 pathway-mediated fibrosis could
      represent an interesting target for future therapeutic concepts to improve the
      success rate of AF catheter ablation in women.

PMID- 28881846
TI  - Safety and efficacy of p62 DNA vaccine ELENAGEN in a first-in-human trial in
      patients with advanced solid tumors.
AB  - Elenagen is a plasmid encoding p62/SQSTM1, the first DNA vaccine possessing two
      mutually complementing mechanisms of action: it elicits immune response against
      p62 and mitigates systemic chronic inflammation. Previously, Elenagen
      demonstrated anti-tumor efficacy and safety in rodent tumor models and
      spontaneous tumors in dogs. This multicenter I/IIa trial evaluated safety and
      clinical activity of Elenagen in patients with advanced solid tumors. Fifteen
      patients were treated with escalating doses of Elenagen (1- 5 mg per doses, 5
      times weekly) and additional 12 patients received 1 mg dose. Ten patients with
      breast and ovary cancers that progressed after Elenagen were then treated with
      conventional chemotherapy. Adverse events (AE) were of Grade 1; no severe AE were
      observed. Cumulatively twelve patients (44%) with breast, ovary, lung, renal
      cancer and melanoma achieved stable disease for at least 8 wks, with 4 of them
      (15%) had tumor control for more than 24 wks, with a maximum of 32 wks. The
      patients with breast and ovary cancers achieved additional tumor stabilization
      for 12-28 wks when treated with chemotherapy following Elenagen treatment.
      Therefore, Elenagen demonstrated good safety profile and antitumor activity in
      advanced solid tumors. Especially encouraging is its ability to restore tumor
      sensitivity to chemotherapy.

PMID- 28881847
TI  - To predict the radiosensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma using intravoxel
      incoherent motion MRI at 3.0 T.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI for evaluating
      the sensitivity of radiotherapy on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). RESULTS: The
      reproducibility between intra-observer and inter-observer was relatively good. D
      (0.72*10-3 mm2/s+/-0.14 vs. 0.54*10-3 mm2/s+/-0.23; P < 0.001) and D* (157.92*10
      3 mm2/s+/-15.21 vs. 120.36*10-3 mm2/s+/-10.22; P < 0.0001) were significantly
      higher in effective group than poor-effective group, whereas the difference of f
      (18.79%+/-2.51 vs. 16.47%+/-1.51) and ADC (1.21*10-3 mm2/s+/-0.11 vs. 1.33*10-3
      mm2/s+/-0.23) could not reach statistical significant between the 2 groups (P >
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: IVIM may be potentially useful in assessing the
      radiosensitivity of NPC. The higher D value combining with higher D* value might
      indicate the more radiosensitive of NPC, and increased D* might reflect increased
      blood vessel generation and parenchymal perfusion in NPC. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Sixty consecutive patients (20 female, range, 27-83 years, mean age, 52 years)
      newly diagnosed NPC in the stage of T3 or T4 were enrolled. Forty-two of them
      were divided into effective group clinically after a standard radiotherapy
      according to the RECIST criteria. IVIM with 13 b-values (range, 0-800 s/mm2) and
      general MRI were performed at 3.0T MR scanner before and after radiotherapy. The
      parameters of IVIM including perfusion fraction (f), perfusion-related diffusion
      (D*), pure molecular diffusion (D) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were
      calculated. Two radiologists major in MRI diagnose analyzed all images
      independently and placed regions of interest (ROIs). Intra-class correlation
      coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate intra-observer and inter-observer
      agreement. And Mann-Whitney test was used to assess the differences between the
      two groups.

PMID- 28881848
TI  - Biomarkers for early diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma: Do we need another
      moonshot?
AB  - Early diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a challenge for
      clinicians. The disease is usually detected in an advanced stage which precludes
      curative treatment. We assume that only new and non-invasive biomarkers allowing
      earlier detection will result in better patient management and outcome. Many
      efforts have already been made to find suitable biomarkers in blood and pleural
      effusions, but have not yet resulted in a valid and reproducible diagnostic one.
      In this review, we will highlight the strengths and shortcomings of blood and
      fluid based biomarkers and highlight the potential of breath analysis as a non
      invasive screening tool for MPM. This method seems very promising in the early
      detection of diverse malignancies, because exhaled breath contains valuable
      information on cell and tissue metabolism. Research that focuses on breath
      biomarkers in MPM is in its early days, but the few studies that have been
      performed show promising results. We believe a breathomics-based biomarker
      approach should be further explored to improve the follow-up and management of
      asbestos exposed individuals.

PMID- 28881849
TI  - Advances in single-cell RNA sequencing and its applications in cancer research.
AB  - : Unlike population-level approaches, single-cell RNA sequencing enables
      transcriptomic analysis of an individual cell. Through the combination of high
      throughput sequencing and bioinformatic tools, single-cell RNA-seq can detect
      more than 10,000 transcripts in one cell to distinguish cell subsets and dynamic
      cellular changes. After several years' development, single-cell RNA-seq can now
      achieve massively parallel, full-length mRNA sequencing as well as in situ
      sequencing and even has potential for multi-omic detection. One appealing area of
      single-cell RNA-seq is cancer research, and it is regarded as a promising way to
      enhance prognosis and provide more precise target therapy by identifying
      druggable subclones. Indeed, progresses have been made regarding solid tumor
      analysis to reveal intratumoral heterogeneity, correlations between signaling
      pathways, stemness, drug resistance, and tumor architecture shaping the
      microenvironment. Furthermore, through investigation into circulating tumor
      cells, many genes have been shown to promote a propensity toward stemness and the
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition, to enhance anchoring and adhesion, and to be
      involved in mechanisms of anoikis resistance and drug resistance. This review
      focuses on advances and progresses of single-cell RNA-seq with regard to the
      following aspects: 1. Methodologies of single-cell RNA-seq 2. Single-cell
      isolation techniques 3. Single-cell RNA-seq in solid tumor research 4. Single
      cell RNA-seq in circulating tumor cell research 5. PERSPECTIVES: 

PMID- 28881850
TI  - Transforming growth factor beta: A potential biomarker and therapeutic target of
      ventricular remodeling.
AB  - Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) is a multifunctional cytokine that is
      synthesized by many types of cells and regulates the cell cycle. Increasing
      evidence has led to TGF-beta receiving increased and deserved attention in recent
      years because it may play a potentially novel and critical role in the
      development and progression of myocardial fibrosis and the subsequent progress of
      ventricular remodeling (VR). Numerous studies have highlighted a crucial role of
      TGF-beta in VR and suggest potential therapeutic targets of the TGF-beta
      signaling pathways for VR. Changes in TGF-beta activity may elicit anti-VR
      activity and may serve as a novel therapeutic target for VR therapy. This review
      we discusses the smad-dependent signaling pathway, such as TGF-beta/Smads, TGF
      beta/Sirtuins, TGF-beta/BMP, TGF-beta/miRNAs, TGF-beta/MAPK, and Smad-independent
      signaling pathway of TGF-beta, such as TGF-beta/PI3K/Akt, TGF-beta/Rho/ROCK,TGF
      beta/Wnt/beta-catenin in the cardiac fibrosis and subsequent progression of VR.
      Furthermore, agonists and antagonists of TGF-beta as potential therapeutic
      targets in VR are also described.

PMID- 28881851
TI  - The involvement of DARPP-32 in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
AB  - Schizophrenia is one of the most devastating heterogeneous psychiatric disorders.
      The dopamine hypothesis is the longest standing pathoetiologic theory of
      schizophrenia based on neurochemical evidences of elevated brain striatal
      dopamine synthesis capacity and increased dopamine release in response to stress.
      Dopamine and cyclic AMP-regulated phosphoprotein of relative molecular mass
      32,000 (DARPP-32) is a cytosolic protein highly enriched in the medium spiny
      neurons of the neostriatum, considered as the most important integrator between
      the cortical input and the basal ganglia, and associated with motor control.
      Accumulating evidences has indicated the involvement of DARPP-32 in the
      development of schizophrenia; i. DARPP-32 phosphorylation is regulated by several
      neurotransmitters, including dopamine and glutamate, neurotransmitters implicated
      in schizophrenia pathogenesis; ii. decrease of both total and phosphorylated
      DARPP-32 in the prefrontal cortex are observed in schizophrenic animal models;
      iii. postmortem brain studies indicated decreased expression of DARPP-32 protein
      in the superior temporal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients
      with schizophrenia; iv. DARPP-32 phosphorylation is increased upon therapy with
      antipsychotic drugs, such as haloperidol and risperidone which improve behavioral
      performance in experimental animal models and patients; v. Genetic analysis of
      the gene coding for DARPP-32 propose an association with schizophrenia.
      Cumulatively, these findings implicate DARPP-32 protein in schizophrenia and
      propose it as a potential therapeutic target. Here, we summarize the possible
      roles of DARPP-32 during the development of schizophrenia and make some
      recommendations for future research. We propose that DARPP-32 and its interacting
      proteins may serve as potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of
      schizophrenia.

PMID- 28881852
TI  - Epigenetic dynamics and interplay during spermatogenesis and embryogenesis:
      implications for male fertility and offspring health.
AB  - Mapping epigenetic modifications and identifying their roles in the regulation of
      spermatogenesis and embryogenesis are essential for gaining fundamental medical
      understandings and for clinical applications. More and more evidence has shown
      that specific epigenetic modifications are established during spermatogenesis,
      which will be transferred into oocyte via fertilisation, and play an important
      role in the early embryo development. Defects in epigenetic patterns may increase
      the risk of abnormal spermatogenesis, fertilisation failure, early embryogenesis
      abnormality and several other complications during pregnancy. This review mainly
      discusses the relationship between altered epigenetic profiles and reproductive
      diseases, highlighting how epigenetic defects affect the quality of sperm and
      embryo.

PMID- 28881853
TI  - Succinate: An initiator in tumorigenesis and progression.
AB  - As an intermediate metabolite of the tricarboxylic acid cycle in mitochondria,
      succinate is widely investigated for its role in metabolism. In recent years, an
      increasing number of studies have concentrated on the unanticipated role of
      succinate outside metabolism, acting as, for instance, an inflammatory signal or
      a carcinogenic initiator. Actually, succinate dehydrogenase gene mutations and
      abnormal succinate accumulation have been observed in a battery of hereditary and
      sporadic malignancies. In this review, we discuss the unexpected role of
      succinate and possible mechanisms that may contribute to its accumulation.
      Additionally, we describe how the high concentration of succinate in the tumor
      microenvironment acts as an active participant in tumorigenesis, rather than a
      passive bystander or innocent victim. Focusing on mechanism-based research, we
      summarize some targeted therapies which have been applied to the clinic or are
      currently under development. Furthermore, we posit that investigational drugs
      with different molecular targets may expand our horizon in anticancer therapy.

PMID- 28881854
TI  - Microbiota-gut-brain axis and the central nervous system.
AB  - The gut and brain form the gut-brain axis through bidirectional nervous,
      endocrine, and immune communications. Changes in one of the organs will affect
      the other organs. Disorders in the composition and quantity of gut microorganisms
      can affect both the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system (CNS),
      thereby indicating the existence of a microbiota-gut-brain axis. Due to the
      intricate interactions between the gut and the brain, gut symbiotic
      microorganisms are closely associated with various CNS diseases, such as
      Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and multiple sclerosis.
      In this paper, we will review the latest advances of studies on the correlation
      between gut microorganisms and CNS functions & diseases.

PMID- 28881855
TI  - The role of Notch signaling in gastric carcinoma: molecular pathogenesis and
      novel therapeutic targets.
AB  - Notch signaling, an evolutionarily conserved signaling cascade system, is
      involved in promoting the progression of different types of cancers. Within the
      past decades, the Notch signaling pathway has increasingly been shown to have a
      primary role in deciding the fate of cancer cells and cancer stem cells in the
      stomach. Most components of Notch signaling are strongly expressed at different
      levels in gastric carcinoma tissue samples and are associated with a considerable
      number of clinical parameters. Moreover, crosstalk signaling between the Notch
      pathway and the Wnt, Ras, and NF-kappaB pathways promotes the process of gastric
      carcinogenesis. Consequently, this increases proliferation and prevents apoptosis
      in gastric cancer cells, and it contributes to the induction of angiogenesis and
      accelerates the progression of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Although
      the Notch signaling pathway presents novel therapeutic targets for cancer
      therapeutic intervention, there is still a dearth of in-depth understanding of
      the molecular mechanisms of Notch signaling in gastric carcinoma. In this review,
      we summarize the landscape of the Notch signaling pathway and recent findings on
      Notch signaling in gastric cancer. Furthermore, advanced studies and clinical
      treatments targeting the Notch signaling pathway arediscussed.

PMID- 28881856
TI  - Strategies targeting angiogenesis in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - Tumor angiogenesis is a frequent event in the development and progression of non
      small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has been identified as a promising therapeutic
      target. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family and other angiogenic
      factors, including fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor,
      promote the growth of newly formed vessels from preexisting vessels and change
      the tumor microenvironment. To date, two antiangiogenic monoclonal antibodies,
      bevacizumab and ramucirumab, which target VEGF-A and its receptor VEGF receptor
      2, respectively, have been approved for the treatment of locally advanced or
      metastatic NSCLC when added to first-line standard chemotherapy. Numerous oral
      multitargeting angiogenic small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have
      been widely evaluated in advanced NSCLC, but only nintedanib in combination with
      platinum-based doublet chemotherapy has demonstrated a survival benefit in the
      second-line setting. Additionally, small-molecule TKIs remain the standard of
      care for patients with mutated EGFR, ALK or ROS1. Moreover, immune checkpoint
      inhibitors that target the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed
      cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-L1) are changing the current strategy in the
      treatment of advanced NSCLC without driver gene mutations. The potential
      synergistic activity of antiangiogenic agents and TKIs or immunotherapy is an
      interesting topic of research. This review will summarize the novel
      antiangiogenic agents, antiangiogenic monotherapy, as well as potential
      combination therapeutic strategies for the clinical management of advanced NSCLC.

PMID- 28881857
TI  - Genetic association between TNF-alpha promoter polymorphism and susceptibility to
      squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma: A meta-analysis.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a multifunctional pro-inflammatory
      cytokine that plays an important role in cancer development. We performed a meta
      analysis to assess the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms in
      the TNF-alpha promoter region (rs1800629 and rs361525) and susceptibility to
      squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and melanoma. After
      database retrieval, article selection, data extraction, and quality assessment,
      20 articles comprising 4865 cases and 6329 controls were included in this study.
      rs1800629 was associated with an increased overall risk of SCC, lung SCC, and
      oral SCC in the AA vs G and AA vs GG+GA genetic models (all OR>1, Passociation
      <0.05). No increased risk of skin SCC, skin BCC or melanoma was observed (all
      Passociation >0.05). Rs361525 was not associated with overall SCC risk in the
      allele, heterozygote, dominant, recessive, or carrier model (all Passociation
      >0.05). Begg's and Egger's tests (PBegg>0.05; PEgger>0.05) demonstrated there was
      no significant publication bias. These data indicate that the AA genotype of TNF
      alpha rs1800629, but not rs361525, is associated with an increased risk of SCC,
      suggesting it could potentially serve as a prognostic marker for predicting SCC
      risk.

PMID- 28881858
TI  - Correction: Deciphering the role of nuclear and cytoplasmic IKKalpha in skin
      cancer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.8792.].

PMID- 28881859
TI  - Correction: IKKalpha regulates the stratification and differentiation of the
      epidermis: implications for skin cancer development
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.12527.]

PMID- 28881861
TI  - International travel and blood donation: risks and restrictions.

PMID- 28881862
TI  - Use of antimicrobial agents for treatment and prevention of travellers' diarrhoea
      in the face of enhanced risk of transient fecal carriage of multi-drug resistant
      enterobacteriaceae: setting the stage for consensus recommendations.
AB  - Background: The recommendation that antibiotics should be used for routine
      therapy of travellers' diarrhoea is being reconsidered in view of growing
      evidence that the therapy may lead to intestinal carriage of multi-drug resistant
      (MDR) colonic microbiota. This review attempts to put the issues of therapy and
      MDR acquisition in perspective to help in the establishment of therapeutic
      recommendations for travellers' diarrhoea. Methods: The existing literature
      showing the risk and consequences of acquisition of MDR microbiota in antibiotic
      treated travellers was reviewed. Issues important to the development of firm
      evidence-based recommendations for antibiotics use for treatment and prevention
      of travellers' diarrhoea were researched. Results: Six areas of research needed
      to allow the development of evidence-based recommendations for antibiotic
      treatment and -prevention of travellers' diarrhoea were identified. Conclusions:
      Increasing worldwide occurrence of antibiotic resistance should alert public
      health officials of the importance of encouraging local antibiotic stewardship
      guidelines. Six areas to research are identified in this review to allow the
      development of evidence-based recommendations for use of antibiotics for
      treatment and selective prevention of travellers' diarrhoea. An interdisciplinary
      ISTM Consensus group will consider the data available and develop current
      recommendations for therapy and chemoprevention of travellers' diarrhoea
      considering groups who would benefit the most from antimicrobials while
      recognizing the hazards associated with broad use of these drugs. With interim
      recommendations and ultimately evidence-based recommendations, guidelines can be
      developed for management of travellers' diarrhoea considering populations and
      destinations.

PMID- 28881863
TI  - Disrupting IGF Signaling in Adult Mice Conditions Leanness, Resilient Energy
      Metabolism, and High Growth Hormone Pulses.
AB  - Growth hormone (GH) and insulinlike growth factor (IGF) promote aging and age
      related pathologies. Inhibiting this pathway by targeting IGF receptor (IGF-1R)
      is a promising strategy to extend life span, alleviate age-related diseases, and
      reduce tumor growth. Although anti-IGF-1R agents are being developed, long-term
      effects of IGF-1R blockade remain unknown. In this study, we used ubiquitous
      inducible IGF-1R knockout (UBIKOR) to suppress signaling in all adult tissues and
      screened health extensively. Surprisingly, UBIKOR mice showed no overt defects
      and presented with rather inconspicuous health, including normal cognition.
      Endocrine GH and IGF-1 were strongly upregulated without causing acromegaly.
      UBIKOR mice were strikingly lean with coordinate changes in body composition and
      organ size. They were insulin resistant but preserved physiological energy
      expenditure and displayed enhanced fasting metabolic flexibility. Thus, long-term
      IGF-1R blockade generated beneficial effects on aging-relevant metabolism, but
      exposed to high GH. This needs to be considered when targeting IGF-1R to protect
      from neurodegeneration, retard aging, or fight cancer.

PMID- 28881864
TI  - Ghrelin: A Link Between Energy Homeostasis and the Immune System.

PMID- 28881865
TI  - Insulinotropic Actions of GLP-1: How Much in the Brain and How Much in the
      Periphery?

PMID- 28881866
TI  - CRISPR Fish Reel in Novel Roles for Estrogen Receptors in Reproduction.

PMID- 28881867
TI  - Estrogen Deficiency Plus Type 1 Diabetes: A Double-Dip for Bone Loss.

PMID- 28881868
TI  - PGC1alpha Promoter Methylation and Nucleosome Repositioning: Insights Into
      Exercise and Metabolic Regulation in Skeletal Muscle.

PMID- 28881869
TI  - Female Fertility: It Takes Two to Tango.

PMID- 28881870
TI  - Corrigendum for "Misfolding Ectodomain Mutations of the Lutropin Receptor
      Increase Efficacy of Hormone Stimulation".

PMID- 28881871
TI  - Secretory Granules Tell (Almost) All in Enteroendocrine Cells.

PMID- 28881873
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28881872
TI  - Hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias: a consensus document from the European
      Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) and ESC Council on Hypertension, endorsed by the
      Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS) and
      Sociedad Latinoamericana de Estimulacion Cardiaca y Electrofisiologia (SOLEACE).
AB  - Hypertension is a common cardiovascular risk factor leading to heart failure
      (HF), coronary artery disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease and chronic
      renal insufficiency. Hypertensive heart disease can manifest as many cardiac
      arrhythmias, most commonly being atrial fibrillation (AF). Both supraventricular
      and ventricular arrhythmias may occur in hypertensive patients, especially in
      those with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) or HF. Also, some of the
      antihypertensive drugs commonly used to reduce blood pressure, such as thiazide
      diuretics, may result in electrolyte abnormalities (e.g. hypokalaemia,
      hypomagnesemia), further contributing to arrhythmias, whereas effective control
      of blood pressure may prevent the development of the arrhythmias such as AF. In
      recognizing this close relationship between hypertension and arrhythmias, the
      European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) and the European Society of Cardiology
      (ESC) Council on Hypertension convened a Task Force, with representation from the
      Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS), and
      Sociedad Latinoamericana de Estimulacion Cardiaca y Electrofisiologia (SOLEACE),
      with the remit to comprehensively review the available evidence to publish a
      joint consensus document on hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias, and to provide
      up-to-date consensus recommendations for use in clinical practice. The ultimate
      judgment regarding care of a particular patient must be made by the healthcare
      provider and the patient in light of all of the circumstances presented by that
      patient.

PMID- 28881874
TI  - Oncopression: gene expression compendium for cancer with matched normal tissues.
AB  - Motivation: Expression profile of normal tissue is primary source to find genes
      showing aberrant expression pattern specific in matched cancer tissue, but sample
      number of normal control in public gene expression repositories is
      disproportionally small compared to cancer and scattered in several datasets.
      Results: We built oncopression by integrating several datasets into one large
      dataset for comprehensive analysis about 25 types of human cancers including 20
      640 cancer samples and 6801 normal control profiles. Expression profiles in
      cancers can be directly compared to normal tissue counterparts. Validity of the
      integration was tested using immunohistochemical staining results and principal
      component analysis. We have utilized the pre-release version of oncopression to
      identify cancer-specific genes in several studies. Availability and
      Implementation: Free access at http://www.oncopression.com and all expression
      data are available for download at the site. Contacts: cchoi@kaist.ac.kr or
      jungsullee@gmail.com. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available
      at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881877
TI  - Ten Years of the Journal of Crohn's and Colitis.

PMID- 28881875
TI  - Efficacy, Safety, and Long-term Outcome of Serial Endoscopic Balloon Dilation for
      Upper Gastrointestinal Crohn's Disease-associated Strictures-A Cohort Study.
AB  - Background : Gastric and duodenal Crohn's disease [CD]-associated strictures are
      rare. Evidence on endoscopic balloon dilation [EBD] of upper gastrointestinal
      [GI] CD strictures is limited, in particular in respect to serial dilations.
      Methods : Prospective short- and long-term outcome data as well as complication
      rates on a cohort of upper GI CD-associated stricture dilations [stomach and
      duodenum] were collected from 1999 to 2015. Factors linked with clinical and
      technical success, long-term efficacy and complication rates were investigated.
      Results : A total of 35 CD patients with symptomatic CD-associated upper GI
      strictures [20% gastric, 67% duodenal, 11% both; mean age at diagnosis 25 years;
      mean CD duration to stricture 79.9 months; median post-dilation follow-up 22.1
      months] underwent a total of 96 pneumatic dilations [33 gastric and 63 duodenal].
      The median maximal dilation diameter was 15 mm. Technical success was achieved in
      93% and clinical success in 87%, with a complication rate of 4% per procedure.
      The mean time to re-dilation was 2.2 months and mean time to stricture-related
      surgery after first dilation was 2.8 months. There was no difference in short
      term efficacy, safety, or long-term outcome between the first and any later
      dilation procedure in the same patient. Conclusions : Pneumatic dilation of upper
      GI CD-associated strictures has a high rate of short-term technical and clinical
      success, with moderate long-term efficacy and acceptable complication rates.
      Serial dilations do not change the efficacy and could be a feasible option to
      delay or prevent surgical intervention.

PMID- 28881876
TI  - Accuracy of Faecal Immunochemical Test to Predict Endoscopic and Histological
      Healing in Ulcerative Colitis: A Prospective Study Based on Validated
      Histological Scores.
AB  - Background and Aims: Endoscopic and histological healing are associated with
      improved clinical outcomes in ulcerative colitis [UC]. We aimed to investigate
      the predictive value of faecal immunochemical test [FIT] for endoscopic and
      histological healing in UC. Methods: We measured quantitative FIT and faecal
      calprotectin [FC] in 140 consecutive UC patients who underwent colonoscopy. We
      assessed the diagnostic accuracy of FIT for predicting endoscopic healing using
      the Mayo endoscopic subscore [MES 0/1] and for histological healing using the
      Geboes score [< 2.0] and Nancy index [grade <= 1]. The predictive abilities of
      FIT were compared with those of FC. Results: FIT had an area under the curve
      [AUC] of 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.67-0.86, p < 0.001) for endoscopic
      healing, an AUC of 0.77 [95% CI 0.67-0.86, p < 0.001] using the Geboes score, and
      0.77 [95% CI 0.66-0.85, p < 0.001] using the Nancy Index for histological
      healing. The AUC of FIT was comparable to that of FC for endoscopic healing [p =
      0.773] and histological healing [p = 0.767-0.960], and was comparable to
      colonoscopy for histological healing [p = 0.384-0.673]. FIT < 50 ng/ml predicted
      endoscopic healing with a sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value
      [PPV] of 72%, 68%, and 82%, respectively, and for histological healing with a
      sensitivity, specificity, and PPV of 73-75%, 67%, and 78-80%, respectively.
      Combining FIT with FC led to a higher specificity [90%] for histological healing.
      Over 85% of patients with FIT < 50 ng/ml and FC < 50 MUg/g achieved histological
      healing. Conclusions: FIT is highly sensitive and accurate to predict endoscopic
      and histological healing in UC. It represents a promising non-invasive tool for
      monitoring mucosal healing in UC.

PMID- 28881878
TI  - Management of esophageal gastrointestinal stromal tumor: review of one hundred
      seven patients.
AB  - Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common type of
      gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumor, but are rarely found in the thoracic
      esophagus. There is no clear consensus about the optimal treatment of this rare
      disease. A systematic search of the literature was performed for localized
      esophageal GIST that was resected between 2000 and 2015, and individual patients
      were included from two major academic institutions. We obtained information on
      demographics, tumor size and location, mitotic rate, treatment method, and time
      to recurrence or death. We performed univariate and multivariate Cox regression
      analyses to evaluate the factors associated with recurrence or death. A total of
      28 studies met our inclusion and exclusion criteria, and with two patients from
      two academic institutions, we had a total of 107 patients in the study. Due to
      lack of uniformity among studies, there were several missing data for different
      variables. The average patient age was 56 (n = 98) with mostly males (60%, n =
      91). The average tumor size on the CT scan was 7.9 +/- 5.4 cm (n = 91), located
      mostly in the distal esophagus (81%, n = 74). A similar number of patients
      underwent enucleation (n = 47) compared to esophagectomy (n = 42). Approximately
      half of the patients had a mitotic rate of 0-4 mitosis per 50 high-powered field
      (48%, n = 80). The median survival time was 73 months with a 5-year disease free
      survival of 57% (n = 97). Univariate Cox regression analyses showed that a large
      tumor, undergoing esophagectomy, and a high mitotic rate were associated with
      poor survival or recurrence control. We found that patients with a lesion smaller
      than or equal to 5 cm on the CT scan had a better disease-free survival rate than
      those with a size greater than 5 cm (HR = 12.41, p = 0.014) and had a 5-year
      survival rate of 92% with 90% of those patients undergoing enucleation (n = 29).
      Esophageal GIST is a very rare malignancy. The tumor size and mitotic rate of the
      tumor are associated with poor survival. However, patients with esophageal GIST
      measuring 5 cm or smaller may be safely treated with esophageal enucleation.

PMID- 28881879
TI  - Spectrum of esophageal dysmotility in systemic sclerosis on high-resolution
      esophageal manometry as defined by Chicago classification.
AB  - The classic manometric findings in systemic sclerosis are aperistalsis of the
      esophageal body with hypotensive lower esophageal sphincter. These changes
      contribute to gastroesophageal reflux disease in these patients. With widespread
      use of high-resolution esophageal manometry, diverse abnormalities are seen. The
      aim of this study is to characterize esophageal dysmotility in patients with
      systemic sclerosis undergoing high-resolution esophageal manometry and compare
      demographic features and diagnostic test results among patients with varying
      degrees of esophageal dysmotility. Patients with systemic sclerosis who underwent
      high-resolution esophageal manometry between January 2008 and October 2014 at our
      institution were identified. High-resolution esophageal manometry studies were
      reinterpreted using the Chicago Classification, v3.0 criteria. We also reviewed
      the patient charts for demographic data, indications for manometry,
      esophagogastroduodenoscopy findings, pH studies, medication use, and autoantibody
      panel. The cohort consisted of 122 patients with a mean age of 53.3 +/- 15.3
      years. High-resolution esophageal manometry was normal in 23, showed ineffective
      esophageal motility in 22, absent contractility in 73, and one case each of type
      II achalasia, esophagogastric junction outflow obstruction, hypercontractile
      esophagus, and distal esophageal spasm. Patients with absent contractility were
      younger and more likely to have erosive esophagitis, hiatal hernia, and
      esophageal strictures than patients with ineffective esophageal motility or
      normal manometry. There were no statistically significant differences in the
      groups based on autoantibodies or indications for manometry. Diverse esophageal
      motility abnormalities were noted in systemic sclerosis with ineffective
      esophageal motility or absent contractility observed in over three-fourth of the
      patients. Patients with absent contractility were younger and had more severe
      reflux. The severity of gastroesophageal reflux disease related endoscopic
      findings correlated with the degree of esophageal dysmotility on high-resolution
      esophageal manometry.

PMID- 28881880
TI  - Trends in diagnoses after implementation of the Chicago classification for
      esophageal motility disorders (V3.0) for high-resolution manometry studies.
AB  - To determine trends in the diagnostic distribution of esophageal motility
      disorders after implementation of the Chicago Classification Version 3.0 (CC
      V3.0) for interpretation of high-resolution manometry (HRM) studies compared to
      non-Chicago Classification criteria. Retrospective trends analysis of patients
      with an HRM study conducted at a single center from January 1, 2013 to September
      30, 2015. The implementation of the CC V3.0 for manometry interpretation occurred
      in September 2014. Patient charts were manually reviewed for data collection
      including demographics and HRM diagnoses. The prevalence and relative risks (RR)
      of CC V3.0 diagnostic categories (i.e. normal, indeterminate, achalasia, and EGJ
      outflow obstruction [EJGOO], and major and minor motility disorders) were
      calculated before and after CC V3.0 implementation. Four hundred sixty-five HRM
      studies were included in the study including 268 before and 179 after CC V3.0
      implementation. The mean +/- SD age was 54 +/- 15.4 years and 59.8% were female
      (n = 278). The percentage with indeterminate diagnosis decreased from 35.3%
      before CC V3.0 implementation to 16.8% after implementation (adjusted RR 0.5,
      95%CI 0.30-0.70, p < 0.001). The percentage with a major motility disorders
      decreased from 13.9% to 7.3% (adjusted RR 0.5, 95%CI 0.2-1.0, p < 0.001). The
      percentage with EJGOO and minor diagnoses increased from 1.4% to 14.5% and 11.9%
      to 22.9%, respectively. The percentage with achalasia and normal diagnosis did
      not change over the study period. Implementation of CCV3.0 was associated with
      changes in the distribution of esophageal motility diagnoses in clinical
      practice. The percentage of indeterminate and major diagnosis decreased and EGJOO
      and minor diagnoses increased. The decrease in the number of indeterminate
      studies suggests that the CC V3.0 may clarify the criteria for the interpreting
      physician. The increase in studies with a diagnosis of EGJ outflow obstruction
      may reflect the heterogeneity of disorders with clinically relevant outflow
      obstruction.

PMID- 28881881
TI  - Clinicopahological features of superficial basaloid squamous cell carcinoma of
      the esophagus.
AB  - Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma (BSC) of the esophagus is classified as an
      epithelial malignant tumor and is a rare variant of squamous cell carcinoma
      (SCC). Most previous reports have suggested that advanced BSC has a poorer
      prognosis than typical SCC because of its high biological malignancy, but the
      biological activity of superficial BSC remains unclear. Twenty cases of
      superficial BSC, which underwent surgical resection in Tokai University Hospital
      between January 2004 and December 2013, were analyzed retrospectively. Among
      these cases, 19 cases with a T1 depth of invasion (BSC group) were compared with
      180 cases of SCC that were resected during the same period and were
      pathologically diagnosed as T1 (SCC group). The frequency of lymph node
      metastasis in the T1 BSC group was significantly lower (2 patients, 11%) than
      that in the SCC group (84 patients, 47%) (P = 0.005). The frequency of lymphatic
      invasion in the BSC group was also lower (9 patients, 47%) than that in the SCC
      group (131 patients, 73%) (P = 0.021). The pathological type of the metastatic
      lymph node was BSC in all the superficial BSC cases with lymph node metastasis.
      This study demonstrated that lymph node metastasis was less likely to occur in
      cases with superficial BSC than in cases with superficial SCC.

PMID- 28881882
TI  - Long-term functional outcomes after replacement of the esophagus with gastric,
      colonic, or jejunal conduits: a systematic literature review.
AB  - It is generally recognized that in patients with an intact stomach diagnosed with
      esophageal cancer, gastric tubulization and pull-up shall always be the preferred
      technique for reconstruction after an esophageal resection. However, in cases
      with extensive gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer with aboral spread and
      after previous gastric surgery, alternative methods for reconstruction have to be
      pursued. Moreover, in benign cases as well as in those with early neoplastic
      lesions of the esophagus and the GEJ that are associated with long survival, it
      is basically unclear which conduit should be recommended. The aim of this study
      is to determine the long-term functional outcomes of different conduits used for
      esophageal replacement, based on a comprehensive literature review. Eligible were
      all clinical studies reporting outcomes after esophagectomy, which contained
      information on at least three years of follow-up after the operation in patients
      who were older than 18 years of age at the time of the operation. The review was
      conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews
      and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic web-based search using
      MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, and EMBASE databases was performed, reviewing
      medical literature published between January 2006 and December 2015. The
      scientific quality of the data was generally low, which allowed us to incorporate
      only 16 full text articles for the final analyses. After a gastric pull-up, the
      proportion of patients who suffered from dysphagia varied substantially but
      seemed to decrease over time with a mild dysphagia remaining during long-term
      follow-up. When reflux-related symptoms and complications were addressed, roughly
      two third of patients experienced mild to moderate reflux symptoms a long time
      after the resection. Following an isoperistaltic colonic graft, the functional
      long-term outcomes regarding swallowing difficulties were sparsely reported,
      while three studies reported reflux/regurgitation symptoms in the range of 5% to
      16%, one of which reported the symptom severity as being mild. Only one report
      was available after the use of a long jejunal segment, which contained only six
      patients, who scored the severity of dysphagia and reflux as mild. Very few if
      any data were available on a structured assessment of dumping and disturbed bowel
      functions. Few high-quality data are available on the long-term functional
      outcomes after esophageal replacement irrespective of the use of a gastric tube,
      the right or left colon or a long jejunal segment. No firm conclusions regarding
      the advantages of one graft over the other can presently be drawn.

PMID- 28881883
TI  - The clinical significance of hypercontractile peristalsis: comparison of high
      resolution manometric features, demographics, symptom presentation, and response
      to therapy in patients with Jackhammer esophagus versus Nutcracker esophagus.
AB  - The Chicago Classification version 3.0 (CC v 3.0) defines hypercontractile
      peristalsis as Jackhammer esophagus (JE); Nutcracker esophagus (NE) is no longer
      recognized. Data regarding patient characteristics and treatment response for JE
      versus NE are limited. We aimed to compare demographic characteristics, high
      resolution manometry (HRM) features, clinical presentation, management
      strategies, and treatment outcomes in patients with JE versus NE. We performed a
      retrospective analysis of adult patients diagnosed with NE (CC v 2.0) or JE (CC v
      3.0) by HRM from January 2012 to August 2015. Demographics, symptoms, treatments,
      and response to therapy (none or partial/complete) were ascertained by chart
      review, for statistical comparisons. In 45 patients with JE and 29 with NE, there
      was no significant difference in rate of dysphagia (73% and 59%) or chest pain
      (44% and 59%). Treatment data were available in 29 JE (smooth muscle relaxants in
      4, pain modulators in 3, botulinum toxin injection (BTX) in 10, endoscopic
      dilation in 5, multimodal treatment in 7), and 20 NE patients (smooth muscle
      relaxants in 2, pain modulators in 2, (BTX) in 6, endoscopic dilation in 3,
      multimodal treatment in 7). Follow-up data on 26/29 JE and 20/20 NE patients
      showed similar treatment response (96.4% vs. 82.1%, p= 0.08) after mean follow-up
      of 11.2 and 11 months, respectively. There were no major differences for JE
      versus NE in demographics, symptoms, or type of and response to therapy. Larger
      prospective, controlled trials are needed to clarify the clinical significance
      and response to treatment in JE and NE.

PMID- 28881884
TI  - Clinical outcomes and benefits for staging of surgical lymph node mapping after
      esophagectomy.
AB  - Dissection of lymph nodes (LN) immediately after esophagectomy is utilized by
      some surgeons to aid determination of LN stations involved in esophageal cancer.
      Some suggest that this increases LN yield and gives information regarding the
      pattern of lymphatic spread, others feel that this may compromise a
      circumferential resection margin (CRM) assessment. The aim of this study is to
      evaluate the effect of ex vivo dissection on the assessment of the CRM and the
      pattern of lymph node dissemination in patients with adenocarcinoma of the
      esophagus and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) undergoing radical surgery after
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy and their prognostic impact. Data from consecutive
      patients with potentially curable adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus and GEJ
      who received neoadjuvant treatment followed by surgery were analyzed. Clinical
      and pathological findings were reviewed and LN burden and location correlated
      with clinical outcome. Pathology specimens were dissected into individual LN
      groups 'ex-vivo' by the surgeon. A total of 301 patients were included: 295 had a
      radical proximal and distal resection margin however in 62(20.6%) CRM could not
      be assessed. A median of 33(10-77) nodes were recovered. A 117(38.9%) patients
      were ypN0 while 184(61.1%) were LN positive (ypN1-N3). LN stations close to the
      tumor were most frequently involved. Twenty-seven (14.7%) patients had only
      thoracic stations involved, 48(26.1%) only abdominal stations and 109 (59.2%) had
      both. Median survival for yN0 patients was 171 months compared to 24 months for
      those LN positive (P< 0.001). Multivariate analyses identified ypT-category, ypN
      category, male gender, and nonradical resection (proximal or distal) margin as
      significant prognostic factors. Surgical dissection of nodes after esophagectomy
      enables accurate LN assessment, but may compromise CRM assessment in up to 20% of
      cases. It also provides valuable information regarding the pattern of nodal
      spread.

PMID- 28881885
TI  - IgG4-related disease involving the esophagus: a clinicopathological study.
AB  - Immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related disease is a recently coined systemic disease
      characterized by specific histopathologic findings of an intense
      lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate, storiform fibrosis, and obliterative phlebitis in
      the presence of predominant IgG4-positive plasma cells. Although IgG4-related
      disease has been described in many organs, involvement of the esophagus is very
      rare. In this study, we describe the clinicopathologic characteristics of eight
      patients with IgG4-related esophagitis. We evaluated chronic esophagitis
      specimens with lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate obtained over the past 6 years (from
      January 2011 to February 2017) using a chart review, pathologic examination, and
      IgG4 immunohistochemical staining. The diagnoses of the specimens were either
      confirmed as IgG4-related esophagitis (IgG4-RE) or chronic esophagitis, not
      otherwise specified (CENOS), and the clinicopathologic data from each group were
      compared. Eight patients were diagnosed with IgG4-RE and 10 controls were
      identified and diagnosed with CENOS. In the IgG4-RE group, esophageal strictures
      were identified in three patients, two patients had postmyotomy treated
      achalasia, one patient had erosive esophagitis and another presented with an
      esophageal nodule. Only one patient had an unremarkable mucosa on endoscopy. In
      the CENOS group, four patients had esophageal strictures, six had erosive
      esophagitis, one patient had mild esophagitis. The IgG4-RE group had
      significantly higher numbers of IgG4-positive plasma cells (66.9 +/- 21.9 vs. 4.7
      +/- 2.4 per high power field; P< 0.001) and a greater IgG4: IgG ratio 0.76 +/-
      0.13 vs. 0.06 +/- 0.05; P< 0.001) when compared to CENOS patients. Two of the
      patients with recurrent esophageal strictures in the IgG4-RE group showed initial
      response to steroid therapy and are currently on immunosuppressive therapy which
      has significantly reduced the need for multiple esophageal dilatations. The
      presentation of IgG4-related esophageal disease can vary and the key to diagnosis
      is dependent on histopathology. These observations highlight the need for IgG4
      immunohistochemical staining of esophageal biopsies especially in patients with
      mucosal ulceration, chronic inflammation, and plasmacytosis on biopsy. This will
      prevent unwarranted esophagectomies and failed medical treatment due to lack of
      recognition of this entity.

PMID- 28881886
TI  - Monitoring sputum culture in resected esophageal cancer patients with
      preoperative treatment.
AB  - Pneumonia is a major cause of postesophagectomy mortality and worsens the long
      term survival in resected esophageal cancer patients. Moreover, preoperative
      treatments such as chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy (which have recently been
      applied worldwide) might affect the bacterial flora of the sputum. To investigate
      the association among preoperative treatments, the bacterial flora of sputum, and
      the clinical and pathological features in resected esophageal cancer patients,
      this study newly investigates the effect of preoperative treatments on the
      bacterial flora of sputum. We investigated the association among preoperative
      treatments, the bacterial flora of sputum, and clinical and pathological features
      in 163 resected esophageal cancer patients within a single institution.
      Pathogenic bacteria such as Candida (14.1%), Staphylococcus aureus (6.7%),
      Enterobacter cloacae (6.1%), Haemophilus parainfluenzae (4.9%), Klebisiella
      pneumoniae (3.7%), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (3.7%),
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.5%), Escherichia coli (1.8%), Streptococcus pneumoniae
      (1.8%), and Haemophilus influenzae (1.2%) were found in the sputum. The pathogen
      detection rate in the present study was 34.3% (56/163). In patients with
      preoperative chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy, the indigenous Neisseria and
      Streptococcus species were significantly decreased (P= 0.04 and P= 0.04).
      However, the detection rates of pathogenic bacteria were not associated with
      preoperative treatments (all P> 0.07). There was not a significant difference of
      hospital stay between the sputum-monitored patients and unmonitored patients
      (35.5 vs. 49.9 days; P= 0.08). Patients undergoing preoperative treatments
      exhibited a significant decrease of indigenous bacteria, indicating that the
      treatment altered the bacterial flora of their sputum. This finding needs to be
      confirmed in large-scale independent studies or well-designed multicenter
      studies.

PMID- 28881887
TI  - Learning curve for robotic esophagectomy and dissection of bilateral recurrent
      laryngeal nerve nodes for esophageal cancer.
AB  - Dissection of bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) nodes is a technically
      demanding procedure, but robotic systems have been useful for RLN node
      dissection. This retrospective study investigated the learning curve for
      bilateral RLN node dissection in esophageal-cancer patients using a robotic
      system for esophageal cancer. We retrospectively reviewed 33 consecutive patients
      who received a robotic esophagectomy and total lymphadenectomy by single surgeon.
      The patients were divided into either group 1 (initial 20 cases) or group 2
      (later 13 cases). The mean patient age was 61.88 +/- 9.03 years and 28 (84.8%)
      patients were male. Most cases were pathologically diagnosed as squamous cell
      carcinoma. The lesion locations included 3 (9.1%) in the upper esophagus, 12
      (63.6%) in the mid esophagus, and 9 (27.3%) in the lower esophagus. Eleven
      (33.3%) cases were stage I, 7 (21.2%) were stage II, and 15 (45.5%) were stage
      III. One case in group 2 (3%) suffered operative mortality. Operation time, robot
      console time, and blood loss were similar between the two groups. The timing of
      right and left RLN node dissection, the number of total dissected lymph nodes,
      and the percentage of dissected right and left RLN nodes were also comparable.
      However, the incidence of vocal cord palsy was significantly lower in group 2
      (55% vs. 0%, p= 0.02). The incidence of other operative complications did not
      vary between the two groups. Even though operative outcomes and incidence of
      other complications were comparable between the two groups, the incidence of
      vocal cord palsy decreased significantly after 20 cases. Thus, we conclude that a
      minimum of 20 cases is required before a surgeon is experienced enough to perform
      safe dissection of bilateral RLN nodes.

PMID- 28881888
TI  - High-resolution esophageal manometry findings in malignant pseudoachalasia.

PMID- 28881889
TI  - Fully robotic da Vinci Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy in four-arm technique-problems
      and solutions.
AB  - The aim of this technical note is a step-by-step description of a fully robotic
      abdominothoracic esophagectomy with an intrathoracic esophagogastrostomy. We
      report on our technique and short-term results of 75 patients undergoing an Ivor
      Lewis esophagectomy using a fully robotic 4-arm approach in the abdominal and
      thoracic phase with a hand-sewn intrathoracic anastomosis. There are several
      important steps and differences to consider compared to the conventional minimal
      invasive approach (patient's positioning, anaesthesiological set up, port
      placement, gastric conduit pull up, technique of esophagostrostomy). Mean
      operative time was 392 minutes (240-610) with a 94% R0 resection status.
      Conversion to open procedure occurred in 2 (2.6%) in the abdominal, and 14
      (18.2%) in the thoracic phase. Main reasons for conversion were problems during
      the lifting of the gastric conduit and difficulties in the construction of the
      esophagogastrostomy. The rate dropped during the last 20 patients (1/20 (10%).
      Our results suggest that the reported technique is safe and feasible. It
      satisfies the oncological principles and provides the advantages of robotic
      assisted minimal invasive surgery.

PMID- 28881890
TI  - Active surveillance in clinically complete responders after neoadjuvant
      chemoradiotherapy for esophageal or junctional cancer.
AB  - Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) followed by surgery is standard of care for
      locally advanced esophageal cancer in many countries. After nCRT up to one third
      of all patients have a pathologically complete response in the resection
      specimen, posing an ethical imperative to reconsider the necessity of standard
      surgery in all operable patients after nCRT. An active surveillance strategy
      following nCRT, in which patients are subjected to frequent clinical
      investigations after the completion of neoadjuvant therapy, has been evaluated in
      other types of cancer with promising results. In esophageal cancer, both patients
      who are cured by neoadjuvant therapy alone as well as patients with subclinical
      disseminated disease at the time of completion of neoadjuvant therapy may benefit
      from such an organ sparing approach. Active surveillance is currently applied in
      selected patients with esophageal cancer who refuse surgery or are medically
      unfit for major surgery after completion of nCRT, but this strategy is not (yet)
      adopted as an alternative to standard surgery or definitive chemoradiation. The
      available literature is scarce, but suggests that long-term oncological outcomes
      after active surveillance are noninferior compared to standard surgical
      resection, providing justification for comparison of both treatments in a phase
      III trial. This review gives an overview of the current knowledge regarding
      active surveillance after completion of nCRT in esophageal cancer and outlines
      future research perspectives.

PMID- 28881891
TI  - Induction therapy before surgery improves survival in patients with clinical T3N0
      esophageal cancer: a nationwide study in Taiwan.
AB  - The utility of induction therapy (IT) in patients with resectable esophageal
      cancer remains controversial, especially when clinical evidence of nodal
      metastases is lacking. We sought to compare the survival impact of IT versus
      upfront surgery (US) in patients with cT3N0 esophageal cancer. We searched the
      Taiwan Cancer Registry for patients with cT3N0 esophageal cancer who underwent US
      or IT between 2008 and 2013. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to
      analyze the potential benefits of IT in terms of overall survival (OS) and
      disease-free survival (DFS). Of the 11752 patients with esophageal cancer
      included in the nationwide database, 762 (6.5%) had cT3N0 disease. Most cases
      (720 [94.5%]) had a histological diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma. Of them,
      135 received IT (the IT group) and 237 received surgery first (the US group). In
      the US group, pretreatment clinical staging was accurate in 47.9% of patients.
      Twenty-one (8.97%) were clinically overstaged (pT1-2N0), whereas 101 (43.17%)
      were clinically understaged (pT4N0 or pTanyN1-3). The presence of unexpected
      nodal metastases was identified in 92.1% of clinically understaged patients. In
      the IT group, 28 (20.74%) patients did not proceed to surgery after IT. The use
      of IT was associated with higher R0 resection rates and fewer pathological nodal
      metastases, despite unexpected M1 disease being more common (all P< 0.05). The 5
      year OS rate was significantly higher (42%) in the IT group than in the US group
      (33%, P= 0.032). Similar findings were observed in terms of 5-year DFS (37% in
      the IT group versus 29% in the US group, P= 0.009). Multivariate analysis
      identified US (hazard ratio: 1.42, P= 0.03) and non-R0 resection (hazard ratio:
      1.58, P= 0.03) as independent adverse prognostic factors. We found that 43.17% of
      patients with cT3N0 disease undergoing primary surgery had their disease
      understaged. The use of IT before esophagectomy significantly improves OS and DFS
      in patients with clinical T3N0 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

PMID- 28881892
TI  - Influence of esophagectomy on the gastroesophageal reflux in patients with
      esophageal cancer.
AB  - This study aims to assess the influence of esophagectomy with gastric
      transposition on the gastroesophageal reflux (GER) and gastric acidity in
      patients with esophageal cancer. Data on 53 esophageal cancer patients who
      underwent 24-hour impedance-pH monitoring after esophagectomy were
      retrospectively analyzed. We used a solid-state esophageal pH probe in which the
      esophageal pH sensor is placed 1.5 cm distal to the upper esophageal sphincter
      and the gastric pH sensor is located 15 cm distal to the esophageal pH channel.
      24-hour impedance-pH monitoring data and other clinical data including
      anastomosis site stricture and incidence of pneumonia were collected. We defined
      pathologic reflux with reference to known normative data. Stricture was defined
      when an intervention such as bougienage or balloon dilatation was required to
      relieve dysphagia. The esophageal and gastric mean pH were 5.47 +/- 1.51 and 3.33
      +/- 1.64, respectively. The percent time of acidic pH (<4) was 6.66 +/- 12.49% in
      the esophagus and 70.53 +/- 32.19% in the stomach. Esophageal pathologic acid
      reflux was noticed in 32.1%, 20.8%, and 35.8% during total, upright, and
      recumbent time, respectively. Esophageal pathologic bolus reflux was noted in
      83.0%, 77.4%, and 64.2% during total, upright, and recumbent time, respectively.
      Gastric acidity increased with time after esophagectomy. Esophageal acid exposure
      time correlated with intragastric pH. However, esophageal pathologic acid reflux
      was not associated with anastomosis site stricture or pneumonia. In conclusion,
      GER frequently occurs after esophagectomy. Thus, strict lifestyle modifications
      and acid suppression would be necessary in patients following esophagectomy.

PMID- 28881893
TI  - C-reactive protein to albumin ratio is a prognostic factor for patients with
      cStage II/III esophageal squamous cell cancer.
AB  - C-reactive protein to albumin (CRP/Alb) ratio, a novel inflammation-based
      prognostic score, was first developed as a prognostic score for septic patients.
      Recent reports show that CRP/Alb ratio is also a prognostic score for cancer
      patients, including esophageal cancer. However, the role of CRP/Alb ratio for
      those with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and the changes of CRP/Alb ratio around
      NAC have never been discussed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the
      significance of CRP/Alb ratio around NAC for patients with cStage II/III
      esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC). A total of 149 patients who were
      diagnosed as cStage II/III ESCC were enrolled between February 2007 and December
      2014. We retrospectively investigated the relation between pre-NAC and post-NAC
      CRP/Alb ratio and short and long outcomes. The optimal cutoff level for pre-NAC
      and post-NAC CRP/Alb ratio was 0.030 and 0.048, respectively. There was no
      relation between CRP/Alb ratio level and postoperative outcomes. Post-NAC CRP/Alb
      ratio < 0.048 had a significantly higher overall survival rate than CRP/Alb ratio
      >=0.048 (P< 0.001). Univariate analysis showed that cT, cN, pre-NAC CRP/Alb ratio
      < 0.030 and post-NAC CRP/Alb ratio < 0.048 was prognostic factors (P= 0.003, P=
      0.022, P= 0.033, and P< 0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that
      cT and post-NAC CRP/Alb ratio < 0.048 was independent prognostic factors (P=
      0.030 and P< 0.001, respectively). Post-NAC CRP/Alb ratio is an independent
      prognostic factor in patients with cStage II/III ESCC.

PMID- 28881894
TI  - Outcomes following the main treatment options in patients with a leaking
      esophagus: a systematic literature review.
AB  - Leakage from the esophagus and gastroesophageal junction can be lethal due to
      uncontrolled contamination of the mediastinum. The most predominant risk factors
      for the subsequent clinical outcome are the patients' delay as well as the delay
      of diagnosis. Two major therapeutic concepts have been advocated: either prompt
      closure of the leakage by insertion of a self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) or
      more traditionally, surgical exploration. The objective of this review is to
      carefully scrutinize the recent literature and assess the outcomes of these two
      therapeutic alternatives in the management of iatrogenic perforation-spontaneous
      esophageal rupture as separated from those with anastomotic leak. A systematic
      web-based search using PubMed and the Cochrane Library was performed, reviewing
      literature published between January 2005 and December 2015. Eligible studies
      included all studies that presented data on the outcome of SEMS or surgical
      exploration in case of esophageal leak (including >3 patients). Only patients
      older than 15 years of age by the time of admission were included. Articles in
      other languages but English were excluded. Treatment failure was defined as a
      need for change in therapeutic strategy due to uncontrolled sepsis and
      mediastinitis, which usually meant rescue esophagectomy with end esophagostomy,
      death occurring as a consequence of the leakage or development of an
      esophagorespiratory fistula and/or other serious life threatening complications.
      Accordingly, the corresponding success rate is composed of cases where none of
      the failures above occurred. Regarding SEMS treatment, 201 articles were found,
      of which 48 were deemed relevant and of these, 17 articles were further analyzed.
      As for surgical management, 785 articles were retrieved, of which 82 were
      considered relevant, and 17 were included in the final analysis. It was not
      possible to specifically extract detailed clinical outcomes in sufficient
      numbers, when we tried to separately analyze the data in relation to the cause of
      the leakage: i.e. iatrogenic perforation-spontaneous esophageal rupture and
      anastomotic leak. As for SEMS treatment, originally 154 reports focused on
      iatrogenic perforation, 116 focused on spontaneous ruptures, and only four
      described the outcome following trauma and foreign body management. Only five
      studies used a prospective protocol to assess treatment efficacy. Regarding a
      leaking anastomosis, 80 reports contained information about the outcome after
      treatment of esophagogastrostomies and 35 reported the clinical course after an
      esophagojejunostomy. An overall success rate of 88% was reported among the 371
      SEMS-treated patients, where adequate data were available, with a reported in
      hospital mortality amounting to 7.5%. Regarding the surgical exploration
      strategy, the vast majority of patients had an attempt to repair the defect by
      direct or enforced suturing. This surgical approach also included procedures such
      as patching with pleura or with a diaphragmatic flap. The overall reported
      success rate was 83% (305/368) and the in-hospital mortality was 17% (61/368).
      The current literature suggests that a SEMS-based therapy can be successfully
      applied as an alternative therapeutic strategy in esophageal perforation rupture.

PMID- 28881895
TI  - Balloon-based esophageal cryoablation with a novel focal ablation device: dose
      finding and safety in porcine and human models.
AB  - The new Cryoballoon Focal Ablation System (CbFAS), a through-the-scope catheter
      with battery-powered handle that delivers cryogenic fluid into an inflated
      balloon, differs from current cryotherapy methods used for treatment of Barrett's
      epithelium. In this dose-finding study, short- and long-term histopathological
      effects and safety of the CbFAS were evaluated. Cryoablations with
      (supra)therapeutic durations (4-24 seconds) were performed in pigs that survived
      for 12 or 48 hours or 4 or 28 days. Next, cryoablations (durations based on
      animal data) were performed in normal mucosa of esophageal cancer patients
      scheduled to undergo esophagectomy. The outcome parameters, the occurrence of any
      bleeding or perforation, the histological presence of edema, inflammation, and
      necrosis throughout the esophageal wall layers, were evaluated. A total of 60
      cryoablations were performed in 11 pigs. 48 hour cryoablations with therapeutic
      durations (4-10 seconds) resulted in edema/inflammation as deep as the serosa and
      necrosis ranging from submucosa to serosa with a median depth of 3.2 mm. In 4 day
      cryoablations this was in the serosa, and muscularis tunica to serosa at a median
      depth of 4.5 mm, respectively. No necrosis or inflammation remained after 28
      days, not even after supratherapeutic cryoablation (12-24 seconds). No acute or
      delayed bleeding or perforation was observed. Next, eight 6-second cryoablations
      were performed in four patients. Direct postablation mucosal necrosis was
      observed; after 4 days necrosis and inflammation was limited to the submucosa.
      CbFAS cryoablation penetrates deeply into the esophageal wall layers resulting in
      severe early ablation. After 4 weeks, little injury and no fibrosis remain, even
      after supratherapeutic durations of administration, suggesting that CbFAS
      combines deep ablation with a potentially favorable safety profile.

PMID- 28881896
TI  - Development of a risk prediction model for Barrett's esophagus in an Australian
      population.
AB  - Esophageal adenocarcinoma has poor 5-year survival rates. Increased survival
      might be achieved with earlier treatment, but requires earlier identification of
      the precursor, Barrett's esophagus. Population screening is not cost effective,
      this may be improved by targeted screening directed at individuals more likely to
      have Barrett's esophagus. To develop a risk prediction tool for Barrett's
      esophagus, this study compared individuals with Barrett's esophagus against
      population controls. Participants completed a questionnaire comprising 35
      questions addressing medical history, symptom history, lifestyle factors,
      anthropomorphic measures, and demographic details. Statistical analysis addressed
      differences between cases and controls, and entailed initial variable selection,
      checking of model assumptions, and establishing calibration and discrimination.
      The area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess overall accuracy. One hundred
      and twenty individuals with Barrett's esophagus and 235 population controls
      completed the questionnaire. Significant differences were identified for age,
      gender, reflux history, family reflux history, history of hypertension, alcoholic
      drinks per week, and body mass index. These were used to develop a risk
      prediction model. The AUC was 0.82 (95% CI 0.78-0.87). Good calibration between
      predicted and observed risk was noted (Hosmer-Lemeshow test P = 0.67). At the
      point minimizing false positives and false negatives, the model achieved a
      sensitivity of 84.96% and a specificity of 66%. A well-calibrated risk prediction
      model with good discrimination has been developed to identify patients with
      Barrett's esophagus. The model needs to be externally validated before
      consideration for clinical practice.

PMID- 28881897
TI  - Comparative evaluation of new and conventional classifications of magnifying
      endoscopy with narrow band imaging for invasion depth of superficial esophageal
      squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - A new classification of magnifying endoscopy with narrow band imaging (ME-NBI)
      for diagnosing and staging superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SESCC)
      was proposed by the Japan Esophageal Society in 2011. This study aimed to compare
      the new classification with the conventional classifications (Inoue's
      classification and Arima's classification). This was a prospective analysis of
      data from a single cancer center involving 151 consecutive patients with 156
      SESCCs that were endoscopically or surgically resected. Initially, only ME-NBI
      images were selected and reviewed independently by three experienced
      endoscopists. White light imaging (WLI) was then evaluated separately after an
      interval. The diagnostic performance of each classification and interobserver
      agreement were assessed, and the WLI findings that affect the diagnosis by the
      new classification were identified. The specificity for classifying invasive
      depth as epithelium (EP)/lamina propria mucosae (LPM) confined was higher with
      the new classification than with Inoue's classification (0.512 vs. 0.349; P =
      0.02) and Arima's classification (0.512 vs. 0.279; P < 0.01). However, the
      sensitivity was lower (0.902 vs. 1.000; P < 0.01) compared with Arima's
      classification. The concordance rates of three evaluators (kappa values) were
      0.52 for the new classification, 0.50 for Inoue's classification, and 0.23 for
      Arima's classification. On multivariate analysis, thickness on WLI independently
      affected the accuracy of diagnosis with the new classification (OR 3.23; 95%CI,
      1.30-8.03). The new classification is superior to conventional classifications
      with respect to specificity for diagnosing SESCC with depth EP/LPM. Thickness on
      WLI was a factor negatively affecting the diagnostic performance of the new
      classification.

PMID- 28881898
TI  - Performance characteristics of optical coherence tomography in assessment of
      Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer: systematic review.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can generate high-resolution images of the
      esophagus that allows cross-sectional visualization of esophageal wall layers. We
      conducted a systematic review to assess the utility of OCT for diagnosing of
      esophageal intestinal metaplasia (IM; Barrett's esophagus BE)), dysplasia, cancer
      and staging of early esophageal cancer. English language human observational
      studies and clinical trials published in PubMed and Embase were included if they
      assessed any of the following: (i) in-vivo features and accuracy of OCT at
      diagnosing esophageal IM, sub-squamous intestinal metaplasia (SSIM), dysplasia,
      or cancer, and (ii) accuracy of OCT in staging esophageal cancer. Twenty-one of
      the 2,068 retrieved citations met inclusion criteria. In the two prospective
      studies that assessed accuracy of OCT at identifying IM, sensitivity was 81%-97%,
      and specificity was 57%-92%. In the two prospective studies that assessed
      accuracy of OCT at identifying dysplasia and early cancer, sensitivity was 68%
      83%, and specificity was 75%-82%. Observational studies described significant
      variability in the ability of OCT to accurately identify SSIM. Two prospective
      studies that compared the accuracy of OCT at staging early squamous cell
      carcinoma to histologic resection specimens reported accuracy of >90%. Risk of
      bias and applicability concerns was rated as low among the prospective studies
      using the QUADAS-2 questionnaire. OCT may identify intestinal metaplasia and
      dysplasia, but its accuracy may not meet recommended thresholds to replace 4
      quadrant biopsies in clinical practice. OCT may be more accurate than EUS at
      staging early esophageal cancer, but randomized trials and cost-effective
      analyses are lacking.

PMID- 28881899
TI  - Polyglycolic acid sheet and fibrin glue for preventing esophageal stricture after
      endoscopic submucosal dissection: a historical control study.
AB  - There have been several reports that steroid administration is effective at
      preventing strictures after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). However,
      adverse events after steroid use are of great concern. We have reported that
      shielding with a polyglycolic acid (PGA) sheet and fibrin glue can be useful for
      prevention of stricture after ESD. We conducted a retrospective analysis of
      efficiency of shielding with a PGA sheet and fibrin glue for prevention of
      esophageal stricture compared with intralesional steroid injection. ESD was
      performed on a total of 489 lesions in 400 patients for superficial esophageal
      cancer from January 2012 to July 2016. Of these, 39 lesions were enrolled in the
      study group (PGA sheet and fibrin glue) and 31 lesions were enrolled in the
      control group. The incidence of postoperative stricture at 6 weeks and the number
      of sessions of endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD) required to resolve any
      strictures were evaluated. The post-ESD stricture rate was 9.1% in the study
      group (3/33 patients), which was not significantly lower than the stricture rate
      of 10.3% in the historical control group (3/29 patients; p = 1.00). The mean
      number of EBD was 0.057 +/- 0.24 in the study group and 1.9 +/- 5.1 in the
      control group, which was not significant (P = 0.95). PGA sheet and fibrin glue
      appear to be a promising option for the prevention of esophageal stricture
      similar to the effect of intralesional steroid injection.

PMID- 28881900
TI  - Changes in esophageal motility after endoscopic submucosal dissection for
      superficial esophageal cancer: a high-resolution manometry study.
AB  - The effect of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) on esophageal motility
      remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study is to elucidate changes in
      esophageal motility after ESD along with the cause of dysphagia using high
      resolution manometry (HRM). This is a before-and-after trial of the effect of ESD
      on the esophageal motility. Twenty patients who underwent ESD for superficial
      esophageal carcinoma were enrolled in this study. Patients filled out a
      questionnaire about dysphagia and underwent HRM before and after ESD. Results
      before and after ESD were compared. Data were obtained from 19 patients. The
      number of patients who complained of dysphagia before and after ESD was 1/19
      (5.3%) and 6/19 (31.6%), respectively (P = 0.131). Scores from the five-point
      Likert scale before and after ESD were 0.1 +/- 0.5 and 1.0 +/- 1.6, respectively
      (P = 0.043). The distal contractile integral (DCI) before and after ESD and the
      number of failed, weak, or fragmented contractions were not significantly
      different. However, in five patients with circumferential ESD, DCI was remarkably
      decreased and the frequency of fail, weak, or fragmented contractions increased.
      Univariate regression analysis showed a relatively strong inverse correlation of
      DeltaDCI with the circumferential mucosal defect ratio {P < 0.01, standardized
      regression coefficient (r) = -0.65}, the number of stricture preventions (P <
      0.01, r = -0.601), and the number of stricture resolutions (P < 0.01, r = -0.77).
      This HRM study showed that impairment of esophageal motility could be caused by
      ESD. The impairment of esophageal motility was conspicuous, especially in
      patients with circumferential ESD and subsequent procedures such as endoscopic
      triamcinolone injection and endoscopic balloon dilatation. Impaired esophageal
      motility after ESD might explain dysphagia.

PMID- 28881901
TI  - Digital microscopy as valid alternative to conventional microscopy for
      histological evaluation of Barrett's esophagus biopsies.
AB  - Management of Barrett's esophagus (BE) relies heavily on histopathological
      assessment of biopsies, associated with significant intra- and interobserver
      variability. Guidelines recommend biopsy review by an expert in case of
      dysplasia. Conventional review of biopsies, however, is impractical and does not
      allow for teleconferencing or annotations. An expert digital review platform
      might overcome these limitations. We compared diagnostic agreement of digital and
      conventional microscopy for diagnosing BE +/- dysplasia. Sixty BE biopsy glass
      slides (non-dysplastic BE (NDBE); n = 25, low-grade dysplasia (LGD); n = 20; high
      grade dysplasia (HGD); n = 15) were scanned at *20 magnification. The slides were
      assessed four times by five expert BE pathologists, all practicing
      histopathologists (range: 5-30 years), in 2 alternating rounds of digital and
      conventional microscopy, each in randomized order and sequence of slides.
      Intraobserver and pairwise interobserver agreement were calculated, using custom
      weighted Cohen's kappa, adjusted for the maximum possible kappa scores. Split
      into three categories (NDBE, IND, LGD+HGD), the mean intraobserver agreement was
      0.75 and 0.84 for digital and conventional assessment, respectively (p = 0.35).
      Mean pairwise interobserver agreement was 0.80 for digital and 0.85 for
      conventional microscopy (p = 0.17). In 47/60 (78%) of digital microscopy reviews
      a majority vote of >=3 pathologists was reached before consensus meeting. After
      group discussion, a majority vote was achieved in all cases (60/60). Diagnostic
      agreement of digital microscopy is comparable to that of conventional microscopy.
      These outcomes justify the use of digital slides in a nationwide, web-based BE
      revision platform in the Netherlands. This will overcome the practical issues
      associated with conventional histologic review by multiple pathologists.

PMID- 28881902
TI  - Frequency of endoscopic surveillance for Barrett's esophagus is influenced by
      health insurance status: results from a population-based analysis.
AB  - Factors that influence the frequency of surveillance endoscopy for nondysplastic
      Barrett's esophagus are not well understood. The objective of this study is to
      assess factors which influence the frequency of endoscopic surveillance for
      Barrett's esophagus, including health insurance/third-party payer status. Cases
      of nondysplastic Barrett's esophagus undergoing esophagogastroduodenoscopy with
      biopsy were identified using longitudinal data from the Healthcare Utilization
      Project database in 2005-2006 and followed through 2011. The threshold for
      appropriate surveillance utilization was defined as two to four surveillance
      esophagogastroduodenoscopies over a standardized 5-year period. Patients'
      insurance status was designated as either Medicare, Medicaid, private, or
      noninsured. 36,676 cases of nondysplastic Barrett's esophagus were identified.
      Among these, 4,632 patients (12.6%) underwent between two and four surveillance
      esophagogastroduodenoscopies in 5 years of follow-up versus 31,975 patients
      (87.3%) who underwent fewer than two esophagogastroduodenoscopies during follow
      up. Multivariate analysis found that Barrett's patients insured through Medicaid
      (OR 1.273; 95% CI = 1.065-1.522) or without insurance (OR = 2.453; 95% CI = 1.67
      3.603) were at increased likelihood of being under-surveilled. This study
      identified a difference in frequency of surveillance esophagogastroduodenoscopy
      for Barrett's esophagus by payer status. Patients without health insurance and
      those whose primary insurance was Medicaid were at increased odds for under
      surveillance. These data suggest that a more robust system for tracking and
      ensuring longitudinal follow-up of patients with Barrett's esophagus, with
      attention to the uninsured and underinsured population, may be needed to ensure
      optimal surveillance.

PMID- 28881903
TI  - Safety and efficacy of endoscopic spray cryotherapy for esophageal cancer.
AB  - Although surgery is traditionally the standard of care for esophageal cancer,
      esophagectomy carries significant morbidity. Alternative endoscopic therapies are
      needed for patients who are not candidates for conventional treatment. The
      objective of this study is to assess the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of
      spray cryotherapy of esophageal adenocarcinoma. This study includes patients with
      esophageal adenocarcinoma who had failed or were not candidates for conventional
      therapy enrolled retrospectively and prospectively in an open-label registry and
      patients in a retrospective cohort from 11 academic and community practices.
      Endoscopic spray cryotherapy was performed until biopsy proven local tumor
      eradication or until treatment was halted due to progression of disease, patient
      withdrawal or comorbidities. Eighty-eight patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma
      (median age 76, 80.7% male, mean length 5.1 cm) underwent 359 treatments (mean
      4.4 per patient). Tumor stages included 39 with T1a, 25 with T1b, 9 with
      unspecified T1, and 15 with T2. Eighty-six patients completed treatment with
      complete response of intraluminal disease in 55.8%, including complete response
      in 76.3% for T1a, 45.8% for T1b, 66.2% for all T1, and 6.7% for T2. Mean follow
      up was 18.4 months. There were no deaths or perforations related to spray
      cryotherapy. Strictures developed in 12 of 88 patients (13.6%) but were present
      before spray cryotherapy in 3 of 12. This study suggests that endoscopic spray
      cryotherapy is a safe, well-tolerated, and effective treatment option for early
      esophageal adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28881904
TI  - Human papillomavirus does not play a role in the Barrett esophagus: a French
      cohort.
AB  - The role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in Barrett's esophagus (BE) has been
      examined but remains unclear. The purpose of the study is to dispute the
      connection between HPV and BE in a prospective case-control study. Biopsies were
      performed above and inside the Barrett's segment for BE patients and in the
      distal third of the esophagus for control patients for histological
      interpretation and for virological analysis. Biopsies for virological analysis
      were placed in a virus transport medium and immediately frozen in liquid
      nitrogen. Virological analysis involved real-time PCR using the SyBr(r) green
      protocol with modified SPF10 general primers. A total of 180 patients (119
      control and 61 BE, respectively) were included. In BE patients, 31, 18, and 12
      patients had, respectively, no dysplasia, low-grade dysplasia, and high grade
      dysplasia. Overall, nine were found to be HPV positive: five were control
      patients and four BE patients. HPV positive status was not associated with BE. No
      factors were associated with HPV, in particular the degree of BE dysplasia. HPV
      infection appears unlikely to be significant in the etiology of BE compared with
      control patients. (ClinicalTrials.gov, Number NCT02549053).

PMID- 28881905
TI  - Perforated esophageal intervention focus (PERF) study: a multi-center examination
      of contemporary treatment.
AB  - The treatment of esophageal perforation (EP) remains a significant clinical
      challenge. While a number of investigators have previously documented efficient
      approaches, these were mostly single-center experiences reported prior to the
      introduction of newer technologies: specifically endoluminal stents. This study
      was designed to document contemporary practice in the diagnosis and management of
      EP at multiple institutions around the world and includes early clinical
      outcomes. A five-year (2009-2013) multicenter retrospective review of management
      and outcomes for patients with thoracic or abdominal esophageal perforation was
      conducted. Demographics, etiology, diagnostic modalities, treatments, subsequent
      early outcomes as well as morbidity and mortality were captured and analyzed.
      During the study period, 199 patients from 10 centers in the United States,
      Canada, and Europe were identified. Mechanisms of perforation included Boerhaave
      syndrome (60, 30.1%), iatrogenic injury (65, 32.6%), and penetrating trauma (25,
      12.6%). Perforation was isolated to the thoracic segment alone in 124 (62.3%),
      with 62 (31.2%) involving the thoracoabdominal esophagus. Mean perforation length
      was 2.5 cm. Observation was selected as initial management in 65 (32.7%), with
      only two failures. Direct operative intervention was initial management in 65
      patients (32.6%), while 29 (14.6%) underwent esophageal stent coverage. Compared
      to operative intervention, esophageal stent patients were significantly more
      likely to be older (61.3 vs. 48.3 years old, P < 0.001) and have sustained
      iatrogenic mechanisms of esophageal perforation (48.3% vs.15.4%). Secondary
      intervention requirement for patients with perforation was 33.7% overall (66).
      Complications included sepsis (56, 28.1%), pneumonia (34, 17.1%) and multi-organ
      failure (23, 11.6%). Overall mortality was 15.1% (30). In contemporary practice,
      diagnostic and management approaches to esophageal perforation vary widely.
      Despite the introduction of endoluminal strategies, it continues to carry a high
      risk of mortality, morbidity, and need for secondary intervention. A concerted
      multi-institutional, prospectively collected database is ideal for further
      investigation.

PMID- 28881906
TI  - Comparison of short-term outcomes between 2- and 3-field lymph node dissection
      for esophageal cancer.
AB  - Although 3-field lymph node dissection (3-FLD) is often performed for thoracic
      esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), the clinical effects of cervical lymph
      node dissection in addition to mediastinal and abdominal dissections on
      postoperative complications remain unclear. A total of 367 ESCC patients who
      underwent curative esophagectomy for thoracic esophageal cancer in our hospital
      from 2010 to 2015 were included in the study: 157 patients who underwent 2-field
      lymph node dissection (2-FLD) and 210 patients who underwent 3-FLD.
      Clinicopathological parameters and postoperative complications based on the
      Clavien-Dindo classification were compared between the two groups. We performed
      propensity score matching (PSM) analyses to compare the groups with well-balanced
      backgrounds. In terms of patient background, clinical T (p < 0.001), N (p <
      0.001), and M (p = 0.002) stage of tumor was significantly more advanced;
      therefore, preoperative treatment was more frequently performed in the 3-FLD
      group than in the 2-FLD group (91.0% vs. 79.0%, P< 0.001). However, perioperative
      parameters including operation time, blood loss, and the number of dissected
      mediastinal and abdominal lymph nodes did not differ between the groups. In terms
      of postoperative complications, the occurrence rate of pneumonia increased
      significantly in patients with 3-FLD compared to 2-FLD (grade III or higher:
      10.5% vs. 3.2%, P= 0.025). Although the duration of systemic inflammatory
      response syndrome (SIRS) was longer in the 3-FLD group than in the 2-FLD group
      (median 3 days vs. 2 days, P= 0.025), other postoperative parameters (including
      the highest level of postoperative serum C-reactive protein, intensive care unit
      stay, re-operation rate, and postoperative hospital stay) were similar between
      the groups. After PSM, the differences in the background between the groups
      disappeared. PSM analysis showed that there was no significant difference in each
      complication between the groups. The duration of SIRS tended to be longer in the
      3-FLD group than in the 2-FLD group, but the difference was not significant. The
      field of lymphadenectomy negatively impacted the short-term outcome in ESCC
      patients in terms of pneumonia and inflammatory response. However, because the
      results of the PSM analyses indicate that the short-term outcome was similar
      between the two groups, 3-FLD could be as feasible as 2-FLD in ESCC patients.

PMID- 28881907
TI  - Pilot-study on the feasibility of sentinel node navigation surgery in combination
      with thoracolaparoscopic lymphadenectomy without esophagectomy in early
      esophageal adenocarcinoma patients.
AB  - High-risk submucosal esophageal adenocarcinoma's might be treated curatively by
      means of radical endoscopic resection, followed by thoracolaparoscopic
      lymphadenectomy without concomitant esophagectomy. A preclinical study has shown
      the feasibility and safety of this approach; however, no studies are performed in
      a clinical setting. In addition, sentinel node navigation surgery could be
      valuable in tailoring the extent of the lymphadenectomy. This study aimed to
      evaluate the feasibility and safety of thoracolaparoscopic lymphadenectomy
      without esophagectomy (phase I) and sentinel node navigation surgery (phase II)
      in patients with early esophageal adenocarcinoma. Patients with T1N0M0 early
      esophageal adenocarcinoma scheduled for esophagectomy without neoadjuvant therapy
      were included. Phase I: Two-field, esophagus preserving, thoracolaparoscopic
      lymphadenectomy was performed, followed by esophagectomy in the same session.
      Primary outcome parameters were the number of lymph nodes resected, and number of
      retained lymph nodes in the esophagectomy specimen. Phase II: A radioactive
      tracer was injected endoscopically the day before surgery. Static imaging was
      performed 15 and 120 minutes after injection. The day of surgery, sentinel node
      navigation surgery followed by esophagectomy was performed. Primary outcome
      parameters were the percentage of patients with a detectable sentinel node, and
      the concordance between static imaging and probe-based detection of sentinel
      node. Phase I: Five patients were included, and a median of 30 (IQR: 25-46) lymph
      nodes was resected. A median of 6 (IQR: 2-9) retained lymph nodes was found in
      the esophagectomy specimen. No acute adverse events occurred, but near the end of
      lymphadenectomy esophageal discoloration was observed, possibly indicating
      ischemia. Phase II: In all five included patients sentinel nodes could be
      visualized and resected, at a median of 3 (IQR: 2-5) locations. There was a high
      concordance between imaging and probe-based detection of sentinel nodes. In
      conclusion, sentinel node navigation surgery followed by lymphadenectomy without
      concomitant esophagectomy seems feasible in patients with high-risk submucosal
      early esophageal adenocarcinoma. More evidence is however needed before applying
      this technique in clinical practice.

PMID- 28881908
TI  - Does physical activity protect against the development of gastroesophageal reflux
      disease, Barrett's esophagus, and esophageal adenocarcinoma? A review of the
      literature with a meta-analysis.
AB  - Physical activity affects the functioning of the gastrointestinal system through
      both local and systemic effects and may play an important role in reducing the
      risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. This review assesses the biological mechanisms
      and epidemiological evidence for the relationship between physical activity and
      the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma and its precursor diseases:
      gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD) and Barrett's esophagus. A search of
      PubMed, Medline, Embase, and CINAHL was conducted from their inceptions to 25th
      March 2017 for analytical studies that examined associations between recreational
      and/or occupational levels of physical activity and the risk of GORD, Barrett's
      esophagus, and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Where appropriate, a meta-analysis of
      effects was undertaken. Seven studies were included (2 cohort, 5 case control).
      For GORD, there were three case-control studies with 10 200 cases among 78 034
      participants, with a pooled estimated OR of 0.67 (95% CI 0.57-0.78) for high
      versus low levels of recreational physical activity. In Barrett's esophagus,
      there was a single case-control study, which reported no association, OR 1.19
      (95% CI 0.82-1.73). For esophageal adenocarcinoma, there were three studies (two
      prospective cohort, one case control) with 666 cases among 910 376 participants.
      The largest cohort study reported an inverse association for high versus low
      levels of recreational physical activity, RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.48-0.96. The
      remaining two studies reported no associations with either occupational or
      combined recreational and occupational activity. Heterogeneity in the measurement
      of exposure (recreational, occupational, and both) made a pooled estimate for
      esophageal adenocarcinoma inappropriate. Although limited, there is some evidence
      that higher levels of recreational physical activity may reduce the risk of both
      GORD and esophageal adenocarcinoma, but further large cohort studies examining
      the type, intensity and duration of activities that may be beneficial are needed.

PMID- 28881909
TI  - Outcomes of nutritional interventions to treat dysphagia in esophageal cancer: a
      population-based study.
AB  - Esophageal cancer (EC) is increasing in prevalence due to rising incidence and
      improved treatment strategies. Dysphagia is a significant morbidity in patients
      with EC requiring nutritional intervention. We sought to evaluate outcomes of
      nutritional interventions for EC patients hospitalized with dysphagia at a
      population level. The National Inpatient Sample (2002-2012) was utilized to
      include all adult inpatients (>=18 years of age) with EC and presence of
      dysphagia and stricture that underwent nutritional interventions including
      feeding tube (FT) placement, esophageal stenting, or parenteral nutrition (PN).
      Temporal trends were examined with multivariate analysis performed for mortality,
      length of stay (LOS), and cost of hospitalization. A total of 509,593 EC patients
      had 12,205 hospitalizations related to dysphagia. The hospitalization rates
      doubled over the study period (1.52% vs. 3.28%, p < 0.001). The most common
      nutritional intervention was FT (27%), followed by esophageal stenting (13%), and
      PN (11%). PN was more frequently associated with a diagnosis of sepsis (6.1%, p =
      0.023) compared to FT (2.5%) or esophageal stenting (1.8%). Multivariate analysis
      demonstrated FT and esophageal stenting had comparable mortality (OR 1.06, 95%
      CI: 0.49, 2.32); however, PN was associated with higher mortality (OR 2.37, 95%
      CI: 1.22, 4.63), cost of hospitalization ($5,510, 95% CI: 2,262, 8,759), and LOS
      (2.13 days, 95% CI: 0.72, 3.54). This study shows that hospitalizations for EC
      with dysphagia and related nutritional interventions are increasing. As a single
      modality, parenteral nutrition should be avoided. Among our esophageal stent and
      FT population, further studies are necessary to determine adequate interventions
      based on disease stage.

PMID- 28881910
TI  - Effect of polaprezinc on experimental corrosive esophageal burns in rats.
AB  - Unconsciously caustic ingestion is one of the most common causes of serious
      esophageal strictures in children. The aim of this study is to determine the
      efficiency of polaprezinc in preventing stricture formation after corrosive
      esophageal burns (CEB); this was the first time it has been used to treat
      experimental CEB in rats. Twenty-four rats were divided into four groups, three
      of which received CEB by the instillation of 1 mL of 10% NaOH solution into their
      isolated esophageal segments for three minutes. Group C (control) was uninjured
      and untreated. Group B (esophageal burn) received CEB but were left untreated.
      Groups PT1 and PT2 had CEB and received 100 mg/kg/day and 200 mg/kg/day,
      respectively, of intraperitoneal polaprezinc treatment (PT) for the first two
      weeks, then oral PT for another two weeks. We assessed the treatment's efficiency
      of the treatment after the fourth week by evaluating the stenosis index (SI) and
      the histopathological damage score, determining tissue hydroxyproline content
      (HP), and measuring the weight of the rats before and after the experiment. Mean
      SI was statistically lower in the groups PT1 and PT2 when compared with Group B
      (p = 0.006, 0.004, respectively). HP levels were highest in Group B, but it was
      insignificant (P> 0.05). In terms of histopathological damage score, treatment
      groups demonstrated less collagen deposition, mucosal, and submucosal damage than
      both Group B (p = 0.01) and Group C (p = 0.02). Group PT1 and Group PT2 (P> 0.05)
      showed similar results, indicating the treatment's effectiveness was independent
      of dosage. Outside of Group C, weight gain was detected only in Group PT2, though
      it was statistically insignificant. In Group PT1, weight loss was lower than in
      Group B. Polaprezinc, with its antifibrotic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
      wound-healing and antiapoptotic effects, was efficient in reducing stricture
      formation by decreasing HP levels and histopathologic damage, preventing
      stenosis, and weight gain in higher dosages in the treatment group.

PMID- 28881911
TI  - Vascular density of superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma determined by
      direct observation of resected specimen using narrow band imaging with magnifying
      endoscopy.
AB  - Observation of the microvasculature using narrow band imaging (NBI) with
      magnifying endoscopy is useful for diagnosing superficial squamous cell
      carcinoma. Increased vascular density is indicative of cancer, but not many
      studies have reported differences between cancerous and noncancerous areas based
      on an objective comparison. We observed specimens of endoscopic submucosal
      dissection (ESD) using NBI magnification, and determined the vascular density of
      cancerous and noncancerous areas. A total of 25 lesions of esophageal squamous
      cell carcinoma that were dissected en bloc by ESD between July 2013 and December
      2013 were subjected to NBI magnification. We constructed a device that holds an
      endoscope and precisely controls the movement along the vertical axis in order to
      observe submerged specimens by NBI magnification. NBI image files of both
      cancerous (pathologically determined invasion depth, m1/2) and surrounding
      noncancerous areas were created and subjected to vascular density assessment by
      two endoscopists who were blinded to clinical information. The invasion depth was
      m1/2 in 20, m3/sm1 in four and sm2 in one esophageal cancer lesion. Mean vascular
      density was significantly increased in cancerous areas (37.6 +/- 16.3
      vessels/mm2) compared with noncancerous areas (17.6 +/- 10.0 vessels/mm2) (P <
      0.05). The correlation coefficients between vascular density determined by two
      endoscopists were 0.86 and 0.81 in cancerous and noncancerous areas,
      respectively. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis revealed that the area
      under the curve (AUC) of vascular density was 0.895 (95% CI, 0.804-0.986). For
      this ROC curve, sensitivity was 78.3% and specificity was 87.0% when the cutoff
      value of vascular density was 26 vessels/mm2. NBI magnification confirmed
      significant increases in vascular density in cancerous areas compared with
      noncancerous areas in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The rates of agreement
      between vascular density values determined by two independent operators were
      high.

PMID- 28881912
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Parameters, Characteristics, and Criteria for Defining the
      Term "FGF21 Resistance".

PMID- 28881913
TI  - Erratum for "Anti-Opioid Effects of RFRP-3 on Magnocellular Neuron Activity in
      Morphine-Naive and Morphine-Treated Female Rats?"

PMID- 28881914
TI  - Management of infusion reactions to systemic anticancer therapy: ESMO Clinical
      Practice Guidelines.

PMID- 28881915
TI  - Chronic myeloid leukaemia: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis,
      treatment and follow-up.

PMID- 28881916
TI  - Cervical cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and
      follow-up.

PMID- 28881918
TI  - Early and locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC): ESMO Clinical
      Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

PMID- 28881917
TI  - EANO-ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of
      patients with leptomeningeal metastasis from solid tumours.

PMID- 28881919
TI  - Newly diagnosed and relapsed mantle cell lymphoma: ESMO Clinical Practice
      Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

PMID- 28881920
TI  - Rectal cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and
      follow-up.

PMID- 28881921
TI  - Management of toxicities from immunotherapy: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines
      for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

PMID- 28881922
TI  - Appendix 1: Renal cell carcinoma: MCBS eUpdate published online 10 April
      2017(www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Genitourinary-Cancers).

PMID- 28881923
TI  - Appendix 2: Advanced breast cancer: MCBS eUpdate published online 25 April 2017
      (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Breast-Cancer).

PMID- 28881924
TI  - Appendix 3: Soft tissue sarcoma: MCBS eUpdate published online 5 May
      2017(www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Sarcoma-and-GIST).

PMID- 28881925
TI  - Appendix 4: Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: eUpdate published online 27 June 2017
      (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Haematological-Malignancies).

PMID- 28881926
TI  - Appendix 5: Endometrial cancer: eUpdate published online 8 June 2017
      (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Gynaecological-Cancers).

PMID- 28881927
TI  - Appendix 6: Cancer of the pancreas: MCBS eUpdate published online 20 June 2017
      (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Gastrointestinal-Cancers).

PMID- 28881928
TI  - Appendix 7: Metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (1): MCBS eUpdate published
      online 28 June 2017 (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Lung-and-Chest-Tumours).

PMID- 28881929
TI  - Appendix 8: Metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (2): eUpdate published online
      28 June 2017 (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Lung-and-Chest-Tumours).

PMID- 28881930
TI  - Appendix 9: Testicular seminoma and non-seminoma: eUpdate published online 29
      June 2017 (www.esmo.org/Guidelines/Genitourinary-Cancers).

PMID- 28881931
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28881933
TI  - Incorporating Context Dependency of Species Interactions in Species Distribution
      Models.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: Species distribution models typically use correlative approaches that
      characterize the species-environment relationship using occurrence or abundance
      data for a single species. However, species distributions are determined by both
      abiotic conditions and biotic interactions with other species in the community.
      Therefore, climate change is expected to impact species through direct effects on
      their physiology and indirect effects propagated through their resources,
      predators, competitors, or mutualists. Furthermore, the sign and strength of
      species interactions can change according to abiotic conditions, resulting in
      context-dependent species interactions that may change across space or with
      climate change. Here, we incorporated the context dependency of species
      interactions into a dynamic species distribution model. We developed a multi
      species model that uses a time-series of observational survey data to evaluate
      how abiotic conditions and species interactions affect the dynamics of three
      rocky intertidal species. The model further distinguishes between the direct
      effects of abiotic conditions on abundance and the indirect effects propagated
      through interactions with other species. We apply the model to keystone predation
      by the sea star Pisaster ochraceus on the mussel Mytilus californianus and the
      barnacle Balanus glandula in the rocky intertidal zone of the Pacific coast, USA.
      Our method indicated that biotic interactions between P. ochraceus and B.
      glandula affected B. glandula dynamics across >1000 km of coastline. Consistent
      with patterns from keystone predation, the growth rate of B. glandula varied
      according to the abundance of P. ochraceus in the previous year. The data and the
      model did not indicate that the strength of keystone predation by P. ochraceus
      varied with a mean annual upwelling index. Balanus glandula cover increased
      following years with high phytoplankton abundance measured as mean annual
      chlorophyll-a. M. californianus exhibited the same pattern to a lesser degree,
      although this pattern was not significant. This work bridges the disciplines of
      biogeography and community ecology to develop tools to better understand the
      direct and indirect effects of abiotic conditions on ecological communities.

PMID- 28881932
TI  - Health facility management and access: a qualitative analysis of challenges to
      seeking healthcare for children under five in Uganda.
AB  - While several studies have documented the various barriers that caretakers of
      children under five routinely confront when seeking healthcare in Uganda, few
      have sought to capture the ways in which caretakers themselves prioritize their
      own barriers to seeking services. To that end, we asked focus groups of
      caretakers to list their five greatest challenges to seeking care on behalf of
      children under five. Using qualitative content analysis, we grouped responses
      according to four categories: (1) geographical access barriers; (2) facility
      supplies, staffing, and infrastructural barriers; (3) facility management and
      administration barriers (e.g. health worker professionalism, absenteeism and
      customer care); and (4) household barriers related to financial circumstances,
      domestic conflicts with male partners and a stated lack of knowledge about health
      related issues. Among all focus groups, caretakers mentioned supplies, staffing
      and infrastructure barriers most often and facility management and administration
      barriers the least. Caretakers living furthest from public facilities (8-10 km)
      more commonly mentioned geographical barriers to care and barriers related to
      financial and other personal circumstances. Caretakers who lived closest to
      health facilities mentioned facility management and administration barriers twice
      as often as those who lived further away. While targeting managerial barriers is
      vitally important-and increasingly popular among national planners and donors-it
      should be done while recognizing that alleviating such barriers may have a more
      muted effect on caretakers who are geographically harder to reach - and by
      extension, those whose children have an increased risk of mortality. In light of
      calls for greater equity in child survival programming - and given the limited
      resource envelopes that policymakers often have at their disposal - attention to
      the barriers considered most vital among caretakers in different settings should
      be weighed.

PMID- 28881934
TI  - Broadening Participation in the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: The goal of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology's
      Broadening Participation Committee (SICB BPC) is to increase the number of
      underrepresented group (URG) members within the society and to expand their
      capabilities as future researchers and leaders within SICB. Our short-term 10
      year goal was to increase the recruitment and retention of URG members in the
      society by 10%. Our long-term 25-year goal is to increase the membership of URG
      in the society through recruitment and retention until the membership demographic
      mirrors that of the US Census. Our plans to accomplish this included
      establishment of a formal standing committee, establishment of a moderate budget
      to support BPC activities, hosting professional development workshops, hosting
      diversity and mentor socials, and obtaining grant funds to supplement our budget.
      This paper documents broadening participation activities in the society,
      discusses the effectiveness of these activities, and evaluates BPC goals after 5
      years of targeted funded activities. Over the past 5 years, the number of URG
      members rose by 5.2% to a total of 16.2%, members who report ethnicity and gender
      increased by 25.2% and 18%, respectively, and the number of members attending BPC
      activities has increased to 33% by 2016. SICB has made significant advances in
      broadening participation, not only through increased expenditures, but also with
      a commitment by its members and leadership to increase diversity. Most members
      realize that increasing diversity will both improve the Society's ability to
      develop different approaches to tackling problems within integrative biology, and
      help solve larger global issues that are evident throughout science and
      technology fields. In addition, having URG members as part of the executive
      committee would provide other URG members role models within the society, as well
      as have a voice in the leadership that represents diversity and inclusion for all
      scientists.

PMID- 28881936
TI  - Searching for Biotic Multipliers of Climate Change.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: As climates change, biologists need to prioritize which species to
      understand, predict, and protect. One way is to identify key species that are
      both sensitive to climate change and that disproportionately affect communities
      and ecosystems. These "biotic multipliers" provide efficient targets for research
      and conservation. Here, we propose eight mechanistic hypotheses related to impact
      and sensitivity that suggest that top consumers might often act as biotic
      multipliers of climate change. For impact, top consumers often affect communities
      and ecosystems through strong top-down effects. For sensitivity, metabolic theory
      and data suggest that photosynthesis and respiration differ in temperature
      responses, potentially increasing the sensitivity of consumers relative to
      plants. Larger-bodied organisms are typically more thermally sensitive than
      smaller ones, suggesting how large top consumers might be more sensitive than
      their smaller prey. In addition, traits related to predation are more sensitive
      than defensive traits to temperature. Top consumers might also be more sensitive
      because they often lag behind prey in phenological responses. The combination of
      low population sizes and demographic traits of top consumers could make them more
      sensitive to disturbances like climate change, which could slow their recovery.
      As top consumers are positioned at the top of the food chain, many small effects
      can accumulate from other trophic levels to affect top consumers. Finally, top
      consumers also often disperse more frequently and farther than prey, potentially
      leading to greater sensitivity to climate-induced changes in ranges and
      subsequent impacts on invaded communities. Overall, we expect that large,
      ectothermic top consumers and mobile predators might frequently be biotic
      multipliers of climate change. However, this prediction depends on the particular
      features of species, habitats, and ecosystems. In specific cases, herbivores,
      plants, or pathogens might be more sensitive than top consumers or have greater
      community impacts. To predict biotic multipliers, we need to compare
      sensitivities and impacts across trophic groups in a broader range of ecosystems
      as well as perform experiments that uncouple proposed mechanisms. Overall, the
      biotic multiplier concept offers an alternative prioritization scheme for
      research and conservation that includes impacts on communities and ecosystems.

PMID- 28881935
TI  - Species as Stressors: Heterospecific Interactions and the Cellular Stress
      Response under Global Change.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: Anthropogenic global change is predicted to increase the physiological
      stress of organisms through changes in abiotic conditions such as temperature,
      pH, and pollution. However, organisms can also experience physiological stress
      through interactions with other species, especially parasites, predators, and
      competitors. The stress of species interactions could be an important driver of
      species' responses to global change as the composition of biological communities
      change through factors such as distributional and phenological shifts.
      Interactions between biotic and abiotic stressors could also induce non-linear
      physiological stress responses under global change. One of the primary means by
      which organisms deal with physiological stress is through the cellular stress
      response (CSR), which is broadly the upregulation of a conserved set of genes
      that facilitate the removal and repair of damaged macromolecules. Here, we
      present data on behavioral interactions and CSR gene expression for two competing
      species of intertidal zone porcelain crab (Petrolisthes cinctipes and
      Petrolisthes manimaculis). We found that P. cinctipes and P. manimaculis engage
      in more agonistic behaviors when interacting with heterospecifics than
      conspecifics; however, we found no evidence that heterospecific interactions
      induced a CSR in these species. In addition to our new data, we review the
      literature with respect to CSR induction via species interactions, focusing on
      predator-prey systems and heterospecific competition. We find extensive evidence
      for predators to induce cellular stress and aspects of the CSR in prey, even in
      the absence of direct physical contact between species. Effects of heterospecific
      competition on the CSR have been studied far less, but we do find evidence that
      agonistic interactions with heterospecifics can induce components of the CSR.
      Across all published studies, there is clear evidence that species interactions
      can lead to cellular stress and induction of the CSR. Nonetheless, our
      understanding of species-induced cellular stress lags far behind our
      understanding of abiotic cellular stress.

PMID- 28881937
TI  - Using a Sound Field to Reduce the Risks of Bird-Strike: An Experimental Approach.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: Each year, billions of birds collide with large human-made structures,
      such as building, towers, and turbines, causing substantial mortality. Such bird
      strike, which is projected to increase, poses risks to populations of birds and
      causes significant economic costs to many industries. Mitigation technologies
      have been deployed in an attempt to reduce bird-strike, but have been met with
      limited success. One reason for bird-strike may be that birds fail to pay
      adequate attention to the space directly in front of them when in level, cruising
      flight. A warning signal projected in front of a potential strike surface might
      attract visual attention and reduce the risks of collision. We tested this idea
      in captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) that were trained to fly down a
      long corridor and through an open wooden frame. Once birds were trained, they
      each experienced three treatments at unpredictable times and in a randomized
      order: a loud sound field projected immediately in front of the open wooden
      frame; a mist net (i.e., a benign strike surface) placed inside the wooden frame;
      and both the loud sound and the mist net. We found that birds slowed their flight
      approximately 20% more when the sound field was projected in front of the mist
      net compared with when the mist net was presented alone. This reduction in
      velocity would equate to a substantial reduction in the force of any collision.
      In addition to slowing down, birds increased the angle of attack of their body
      and tail, potentially allowing for more maneuverable flight. Concomitantly, the
      only cases where birds avoided the mist net occurred in the sound-augmented
      treatment. Interestingly, the sound field by itself did not demonstrably alter
      flight. Although our study was conducted in a limited setting, the alterations of
      flight associated with our sound field has implications for reducing bird-strike
      in nature and we encourage researchers to test our ideas in field trials.

PMID- 28881938
TI  - Indirect Effects of Global Change: From Physiological and Behavioral Mechanisms
      to Ecological Consequences.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: A major focus of current ecological research is to understand how
      global change makes species vulnerable to extirpation. To date, mechanistic
      ecophysiological analyses of global change vulnerability have focused primarily
      on the direct effects of changing abiotic conditions on whole-organism
      physiological traits, such as metabolic rate, locomotor performance, cardiac
      function, and critical thermal limits. However, species do not live in isolation
      within their physical environments, and direct effects of climate change are
      likely to be compounded by indirect effects that result from altered interactions
      with other species, such as competitors and predators. The Society for
      Integrative and Comparative Biology 2017 Symposium "Indirect Effects of Global
      Change: From Physiological and Behavioral Mechanisms to Ecological Consequences"
      was designed to synthesize multiple approaches to investigating the indirect
      effects of global change by bringing together researchers that study the indirect
      effects of global change from multiple perspectives across habitat, type of
      anthropogenic change, and level of biological organization. Our goal in bringing
      together researchers from different backgrounds was to foster cross-disciplinary
      insights into the mechanistic bases and higher-order ecological consequences of
      indirect effects of global change, and to promote collaboration among fields.

PMID- 28881939
TI  - Data Management Rubric for Video Data in Organismal Biology.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: Standards-based data management facilitates data preservation,
      discoverability, and access for effective data reuse within research groups and
      across communities of researchers. Data sharing requires community consensus on
      standards for data management, such as storage and formats for digital data
      preservation, metadata (i.e., contextual data about the data) that should be
      recorded and stored, and data access. Video imaging is a valuable tool for
      measuring time-varying phenotypes in organismal biology, with particular
      application for research in functional morphology, comparative biomechanics, and
      animal behavior. The raw data are the videos, but videos alone are not sufficient
      for scientific analysis. Nearly endless videos of animals can be found on YouTube
      and elsewhere on the web, but these videos have little value for scientific
      analysis because essential metadata such as true frame rate, spatial calibration,
      genus and species, weight, age, etc. of organisms, are generally unknown. We have
      embarked on a project to build community consensus on video data management and
      metadata standards for organismal biology research. We collected input from
      colleagues at early stages, organized an open workshop, "Establishing Standards
      for Video Data Management," at the Society for Integrative and Comparative
      Biology meeting in January 2017, and then collected two more rounds of input on
      revised versions of the standards. The result we present here is a rubric
      consisting of nine standards for video data management, with three levels within
      each standard: good, better, and best practices. The nine standards are: (1) data
      storage; (2) video file formats; (3) metadata linkage; (4) video data and
      metadata access; (5) contact information and acceptable use; (6) camera settings;
      (7) organism(s); (8) recording conditions; and (9) subject matter/topic. The
      first four standards address data preservation and interoperability for sharing,
      whereas standards 5-9 establish minimum metadata standards for organismal biology
      video, and suggest additional metadata that may be useful for some studies. This
      rubric was developed with substantial input from researchers and students, but
      still should be viewed as a living document that should be further refined and
      updated as technology and research practices change. The audience for these
      standards includes researchers, journals, and granting agencies, and also the
      developers and curators of databases that may contribute to video data sharing
      efforts. We offer this project as an example of building community consensus for
      data management, preservation, and sharing standards, which may be useful for
      future efforts by the organismal biology research community.

PMID- 28881940
TI  - Predation in High CO2 Waters: Prey Fish from High-Risk Environments are Less
      Susceptible to Ocean Acidification.
AB  - SYNOPSIS: Most studies investigating the effects of anthropogenic environmental
      stressors do so in conditions that are often optimal for their test subjects,
      ignoring natural stressors such as competition or predation. As such, the
      quantitative results from such studies may often underestimate the lethality of
      certain toxic compounds. A well-known example of this concept is illustrated by
      the marked increase in the lethality of pesticides when larval amphibians are
      concurrently exposed to the odor of potential predators. Here, we investigated
      the interaction between background levels of environmental predation risk (high
      vs. low) and ocean acidification (ambient vs. elevated CO2) in 2 * 2 design. Wild
      caught juvenile damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis, were exposed in the
      laboratory to the different risk and CO2 conditions for 4 days and released onto
      coral reef patches. Using a well-established field assay, we monitored the in
      situ behavior and mortality of the damselfish for 2 days. We predicted that
      juvenile fish exposed to elevated CO2 and high-risk conditions would display more
      severe behavioral impairments and increased mortality compared to fish exposed to
      elevated CO2 maintained under low-risk conditions. As expected, elevated CO2
      exposure led to impaired antipredator responses and increased mortality in low
      risk fish compared to ambient CO2 controls. However, we failed to find an effect
      of elevated CO2 on the behavior and survival of the high-risk fish. We
      hypothesized that the results may stem from either a behavioral compensation or a
      physiological response to high risk. Our results provide insights into the
      interactive nature of environmental and natural stressors and advance our
      understanding of the predicted effect of ocean acidification on aquatic
      ecosystems.

PMID- 28881941
TI  - Awards, Scholarships, and Grants Awarded at the SICB Meeting in January 2017.

PMID- 28881942
TI  - eComment. Uniportal VATS: the great potential of the technique.

PMID- 28881943
TI  - eComment. Neoadjuvant treatment for advanced thymomas: Is downstaging realistic
      when opting for thoracoscopic surgery?

PMID- 28881944
TI  - eComment. The quest for elusive causative microbiological agents of infectious
      ascending aortitis.

PMID- 28881945
TI  - eComment. Management of deep sternal wound infections after cardiac surgery:
      Towards development of new substrates for sustained multiagent delivery release
      profiles.

PMID- 28881946
TI  - Soil and Foliar Arthropod Abundance and Diversity in Five Cropping Systems in the
      Coastal Plains of North Carolina.
AB  - Soil and foliar arthropod populations in agricultural settings respond to
      environmental disturbance and degradation, impacting functional biodiversity in
      agroecosystems. The objective of this study was to evaluate system level
      management effects on soil and foliar arthropod abundance and diversity in corn
      and soybean. Our field experiment was a completely randomized block design with
      three replicates for five farming systems which included: Conventional clean
      till, conventional long rotation, conventional no-till, organic clean till, and
      organic reduced till. Soil arthropod sampling was accomplished by pitfall
      trapping. Foliar arthropod sampling was accomplished by scouting corn and sweep
      netting soybean. Overall soil arthropod abundance was significantly impacted by
      cropping in corn and for foliar arthropods in soybeans. Conventional long
      rotation and organic clean till systems were highest in overall soil arthropod
      abundance for corn while organic reduced till systems exceeded all other systems
      for overall foliar arthropod abundance in soybeans. Foliar arthropod abundance
      over sampling weeks was significantly impacted by cropping system and is
      suspected to be the result of in-field weed and cover crop cultivation practices.
      This suggests that the sum of management practices within production systems
      impact soil and foliar arthropod abundance and diversity and that the effects of
      these systems are dynamic over the cropping season. Changes in diversity may be
      explained by weed management practices as sources of disturbance and reduced
      arthropod refuges via weed reduction. Furthermore, our results suggest
      agricultural systems lower in management intensity, whether due to organic
      practices or reduced levels of disturbance, foster greater arthropod diversity.

PMID- 28881947
TI  - Bacterial Inoculant Treatment of Bermudagrass Alters Ovipositional Behavior,
      Larval and Pupal Weights of the Fall Armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).
AB  - Nonpathogenic soil bacteria can colonize the rhizosphere and induce unique plant
      phenotypes that may influence plant-insect interactions. However, few studies
      have considered the influences of bacteria-plant interactions on insect feeding
      and oviposition. The objective of this study was to determine how rhizobacterial
      inoculation of bermudagrass affects larval development and ovipositional
      behaviors of the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith). Eight blends
      of rhizobacteria known to induce root or shoot growth in grasses were applied
      weekly to hybrid bermudagrass for 5 wk. Oviposition was evaluated in two no
      choice trials with bacteria-treated, fertilized, or nontreated grass. Grass
      blades from these treatments were extracted in polar and nonpolar solvents and
      assayed for oviposition responses. Another experiment compared the development of
      fall armyworm larvae on bermudagrass treated with each of the eight
      rhizobacterial blends for 5 wk to larvae fed nontreated bermudagrass. Females
      deposited more eggs on nontreated and fertilized grass and <=34% of eggs on grass
      treated with rhizobacterial blends. Moths exposed to polar and nonpolar extracts
      were unable to reproduce these results. Larval and pupal weights at days 10 and
      12 and the number of adults to eclose were lower for larvae fed some, but not
      all, bacteria-treated bermudagrass relative to controls. This is one of the few
      studies to investigate plant-microbe-insect interactions in an economically
      important system. Although the effects noted with fall armyworm are limited,
      induced changes in roots also reported for these bacteria may have greater
      utility than foliar changes for mediating interactions with biotic or abiotic
      stresses.

PMID- 28881948
TI  - Cohabiting With the Enemy: Comparative Population Ecology of Two Mantid Species
      in a Successional Old Field.
AB  - Two praying mantids, Tenodera aridifolia sinensis Saussure and Tenodera
      angustipennis Saussure, are commonly found in the same old-field habitats in the
      eastern United States and in much of temperate zone Asia. Naturally established
      populations of these two species were studied intensively over two consecutive
      years (2010 and 2011) in an old field in southeastern Virginia, to compare life
      history features relevant to how they coexist, or whether one or the other of
      them is likely to be more successful in the same habitat. Populations of both
      species declined about 50% from 2010 to 2011 (adults from 47 to 21 for T. a.
      sinensis; 37 to 20 for T. angustipennis), but T. a. sinensis oviposited 10
      oothecae and T. angustipennis only one in 2011. Tenodera a. sinensis was more
      abundant in the study site in both years, hatched earlier, and matured and
      oviposited earlier than T. angustipennis. Fewer females of both species survived
      to maturity in 2011 than in 2010, possibly indicating a reduction in prey or
      habitat suitability in 2011. We suggest that T. angustipennis will always be at a
      disadvantage as a result of its smaller body size, because of interspecific
      predation (and potentially competition) from its congener, lower clutch size, and
      susceptibility to egg parasitism. Further, environmental variability across field
      habitats and years profoundly affects populations of both species in successional
      old fields.

PMID- 28881949
TI  - Heat Tolerance Induction of the Indian Meal Moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Is
      Accompanied by Upregulation of Heat Shock Proteins and Polyols.
AB  - The Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, causes massive damage to stored
      grains and processed foods. Heat treatment has been widely used to control insect
      pests infesting stored grains. However, heat treatment may result in
      unsatisfactory control owing to heat tolerance of target insects. This study
      quantified the heat tolerance and analyzed its induction in P. interpunctella.
      Susceptibility of P. interpunctella to different high temperatures was assessed
      in all developmental stages. Heat treatment at 44  degrees C for 1 h caused
      significant mortalities to all developmental stages, with late-instar larvae
      exhibiting the highest tolerance. However, the survivorship to heat treatment was
      significantly increased by pre-exposure to 37  degrees C for 30 min. The
      induction of heat tolerance was accompanied by upregulation of two heat shock
      proteins of Hsc70 and Hsp90. Trehalose and glycerol concentrations in the
      hemolymph also increased after pre-exposure to 37  degrees C for 30 min. RNA
      interference (RNAi) by specific double-stranded RNAs effectively suppressed the
      inducible expressions of both Hsc70 and Hsp90 in response to 37  degrees C for 30
      min. Either RNAi of Hsc70 or Hsp90 significantly impaired the heat tolerance
      induction of P. interpunctella. These results suggest that the induction of heat
      tolerance in P. interpunctella involves the upregulation of these heat shock
      proteins and hemolymph polyol levels.

PMID- 28881951
TI  - Monitoring Temporal Variation to Assess Changes in the Structure of Subtropical
      Atlantic Forest Butterfly Communities.
AB  - The study of fauna through long-term surveys is important in unveiling how
      temporal patterns shape the structure of communities in tropical habitats. The
      butterfly assemblage of the subtropical Atlantic Forest may be considered highly
      diverse and shows changes in diversity and composition over time, highlighting
      the importance of long-term inventories. This work assessed temporal diversity
      patterns in the distribution and composition of butterfly assemblages in an
      Atlantic Forest site in southern Brazil using combined data from three years of
      standardized sampling with entomological nets, increasing the knowledge on this
      group in the Neotropics for monitoring and conservation. The butterfly fauna was
      analyzed in terms of richness, abundance, and composition. The inventories
      reached 401 species, with 14,442 butterfly individuals sampled. All the diversity
      parameters evaluated show significant differences between the first year of
      sampling compared to the second and third years. The latter had higher values of
      richness and abundance, followed by the first and second years. Hesperiidae was
      the richest family, followed by Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae, indicating a good
      representation of the assemblage as a whole. The results of this work are
      important for developing conservation programs in the Atlantic Forest and other
      forested environments in the neotropics, especially concerning reliable diversity
      assessments for the monitoring and management of protected areas. Decision making
      and public policy might also benefit from knowledge on temporal patterns of
      diversity regarding the maintenance of native habitats and integrity of biomes
      and their associated fauna.

PMID- 28881950
TI  - Susceptibility, Oviposition Preference, and Biology of Grapholita molesta
      (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Prunus Spp. Rootstock Genotypes.
AB  - Studying the susceptibility of peach trees to Grapholita molesta (Busck) is one
      of the major steps in the development of pest-resistant peach varieties. This
      work evaluated the susceptibility of 55 genotypes of the "Prunus Rootstock
      Collection" ("Colecao Porta-enxerto de Prunus") of Embrapa Temperate Climate
      (Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) to the natural infestation of G. molesta,
      assessed the oviposition preference of G. molesta in choice and no-choice
      bioassays, and estimated the biological parameters and the fertility life table
      on different Prunus spp. genotypes in the laboratory. Genotypes Prunus kansuensis
      (Rehder), I-67-52-9, and I-67-52-4 were the most susceptible to G. molesta
      infestation in the field (>60% of branches infested), while 'Sharpe' (Prunus
      angustifolia x Prunus spp.) and Prunus sellowii (Koehne) were the least infested
      (0% of branches infested). In choice and no-choice bioassays, G. molesta
      preferred to oviposit on P. kansuensis when compared with Sharpe. The Sharpe
      genotype also showed an antibiosis effect, resulting in negative effects on the
      fertility life table parameters when compared with the genotypes P. kansuensis
      and 'Capdeboscq.' The results found in the present study can provide information
      to initiate a long-term breeding program moving desired G. molesta resistance
      traits from the rootstock into the Prunus spp. cultivars.

PMID- 28881952
TI  - Effects of Temperature on Development of Lymantria dispar asiatica and Lymantria
      dispar japonica (Lepidoptera: Erebidae).
AB  - Periodic introductions of the Asian subspecies of gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar
      asiatica Vnukovskij and Lymantria dispar japonica Motschulsky, in North America
      are threatening forests and interrupting foreign trade. Although Asian gypsy moth
      has similar morphology to that of European and North American gypsy moth, it has
      several traits that make it a greater threat, the most important being the flight
      capability of females. Asian gypsy moth is not yet established in North America;
      however, infestations have been detected multiple times in Canada and the United
      States. To facilitate detection and eradication efforts, we evaluated the effect
      of a range of temperatures on development time, survivorship, and fertility of
      eight populations of Asian gypsy moth. There were significant impacts of
      temperature and population on these life history characteristics. The larval
      developmental rate increased with temperature until it reached an optimum at 29 
      degrees C. Larvae experienced significant molting problems at the highest and
      lowest temperatures tested (10  degrees C and 30  degrees C). At 30  degrees C,
      female fitness was markedly compromised, as evidenced by reduced fecundity and
      fertility. This suggests that development and survival of Asian gypsy moth may be
      limited by summer temperature extremes in the Southern United States. We also
      determined the degree-day requirements for two critical life stages and two
      populations of Asian gypsy moth, which represent the extremes in latitude, to
      predict the timing for biopesticide application and adult trap deployment. Our
      data will benefit pest managers in developing management strategies, pest risk
      assessments, and timing for implementation of management tactics.

PMID- 28881953
TI  - Wireworm in Quebec Field Crops: Specific Community Composition in North America.
AB  - Wireworms are important economic pests that attack the seeds and roots of
      numerous vegetable and field crops worldwide. A 5-yr study was conducted in the
      main agricultural regions of the province of Quebec (Canada), to identify and
      characterize the wireworm communities (Coleoptera: Elateridae) that occur in
      fields planted with economically important crops (maize, soybean, cereals,
      canola, and grasslands). Bait traps were used to collect wireworms each spring
      from 2011 to 2015. More than 600 sites were sampled in total, involving ca.
      14,000 traps. Wireworms were found in 69% of the sites and 73% of the traps. A
      total of 6,014 wireworms were collected and identified to genus, or to species
      when possible. The results show that nine genera occur in Quebec and that
      Hypnoidus abbreviatus (Say) is currently the most abundant species in arable land
      in Quebec, representing 72% of all collected wireworms. The other genera
      collected were Melanotus (8% of all wireworms collected), Ampedus (7%), Limonius
      (6%), and Agriotes (4%). Wireworms from the genera Aeolus, Dalopius,
      Hemicrepidius, and Oestodes constituted ca. 3% together. The predominance of H.
      abbreviatus appeared to be specific to Quebec compared with the other Canadian
      provinces and the rest of North America. We observed differences in the relative
      abundance of wireworm genera among the agricultural regions sampled. However, no
      effect of current and preceding crops was observed in this study. Our results
      suggest that integrated pest management strategies for managing wireworms in
      Quebec fields should take into consideration the species present in each
      agronomical region.

PMID- 28881954
TI  - Within-Plant Distribution and Susceptibility of Hazelnut Cultivars to Mikomya
      coryli (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae).
AB  - The Mikomya coryli (Kieffer) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) is widespread in Europe and
      the most important cecidomyiid pest of hazelnut. Within-plant distribution,
      susceptibility of 18 Turkish hazelnut cultivars ('Aci,' 'Allahverdi,' 'Cakildak,'
      'Cavcava,' 'Fosa,' 'Incekara,' 'Kalinkara,' 'Kan,' 'Karafindik,' 'Kargalak,'
      'Kus,' 'Mincane,' 'Palaz,' 'Sivri,' 'Tombul,' 'Uzunmusa,' 'Yassi Badem,' and
      'Yuvarlak Badem'), and the phenology of larvae of this pest in hazelnut leaves
      and involucres were assessed in 2014 and 2015 in Giresun (Turkey). Mikomya coryli
      distribution differed significantly within different parts of the hazelnut plant.
      The highest gall numbers of M. coryli were found in the middle part (0.70-1.40 m)
      of the plant in both years. Total gall numbers varied between years: 1,779 and
      2,588 galls were counted in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Susceptibility to M.
      coryli damage varied significantly among the cultivars. The highest leaf gall
      densities and total numbers of galls were found on leaves and involucres of
      Allahverdi, Yuvaklak Badem, and Yassi Badem cultivars in both years. Mikomya
      coryli larvae were detected between April and June in the leaf galls. The number
      of larvae in the involucres changed between April and mid-June. Results of the
      within-plant distribution, M. coryli larval phenology, and cultivar pest
      susceptibility analyses are presented to enable effective control of the pest as
      a part of hazelnut integrated pest management.

PMID- 28881955
TI  - Calling Behavior, Copulation Time, and Reproductive Compatibility of Corn-Strain
      Fall Armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) From Populations in Mexico.
AB  - The calling behavior, mating time, and the reproductive compatibility of virgin
      adults of fall armyworms, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), were studied in
      this work. Larvae were collected on maize (Zea mays L.) from six states located
      on the Pacific coast (Chiapas, Michoacan, and Sinaloa), on the Gulf of Mexico
      (Veracruz and Yucatan), and in central Mexico (Morelos). Before the experiments,
      insects were reared under laboratory conditions for one generation. We recorded
      the age at which females called for the first time, the onset time of calling,
      the duration of calling, the onset time of copulation, and the duration of
      copulation. The calling rhythms of the six populations were dissimilar. Females
      from all populations began to call in the second or third scotophase. The time
      for onset of calling and the duration of calling were significantly different
      among the S. frugiperda populations studied. Spodoptera frugiperda pairs from
      Sinaloa, Veracruz, Yucatan, and Morelos started to copulate earlier than the
      pairs from Chiapas and Michoacan. Pairs from Veracruz and Yucatan copulated
      longer than those from Michoacan, Morelos, Chiapas, and Sinaloa. Our crossing
      experiment using females and males from the six populations showed that
      individuals from different populations could copulate and produce fertile
      offspring. Thus, although the S. frugiperda populations showed variability in the
      timing of reproduction, the populations were not reproductively incompatible,
      which indicated that geographic distance has not led to reproductive isolation in
      corn-strain populations of S. frugiperda in Mexico.

PMID- 28881956
TI  - Geostatistical Characterization of Cereal Leaf Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)
      Distributions in Wheat.
AB  - A 3-yr study was conducted in wheat, Triticum aestivum L., in South Carolina to
      characterize the spatial distribution of Oulema melanopus (L.) adults, eggs, and
      larvae using semivariograms, which provides a measure of spatial dependence among
      sampling data. Moran's I coefficients for peak densities of each life stage
      indicated significant positive autocorrelation for seven (two for eggs, one for
      larvae, and four for adults) of the 16 datasets. Aggregation was detected in 13
      of these 16 datasets when analyzed by semivariogram modeling, with spherical,
      Gaussian, and exponential models best fitting for eight, four, and one dataset,
      respectively, and with models for two datasets having only one parameter (nugget)
      significantly different from zero. The nugget-to-sill ratios ranged from 0.043 to
      0.774, and indicated strong spatial dependence in six models (three for adults,
      two for eggs, and one for larvae), moderate spatial dependence in six models
      (three for adults and six for eggs), and weak spatial dependence in one model
      (adults). Range values varied from 39.1 m to 234.1 m, with an average of 120.1 +/
      14.0 m. Average range values were 104.9, 135.2, and 161.2 m for adults, eggs,
      and larvae, respectively. Because the majority of semivariogram models in our
      study indicated aggregated distributions, spatial sampling will provide more
      information than nonspatial random sampling. Developing our understanding of
      spatial dependence of crop pests is needed to optimize sampling plans and can
      provide a basis for exploring site-specific management tactics.

PMID- 28881957
TI  - Fermentation for Disinfesting Fruit Waste From Drosophila Species (Diptera:
      Drosophilidae).
AB  - Economic losses in a range of fruit crops due to the Drosophila suzukii
      (Matsumura) have become severe. Removal and treatment of fruit waste, which may
      harbor D. suzukii, is a key step in preventing reinfestation of fruit production.
      Natural fermentation for disinfesting fruit wastes from D. suzukii was examined
      at ambient air temperatures of 12-20  degrees C. Soft and stone fruit wastes
      infested with eggs, larvae, and pupae of Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen) or D.
      suzukii were placed in sealed vessels containing fruit wastes, and samples were
      retrieved at intervals and tested for the emergence of adults. Mean temperatures
      of the fruit waste in the sealed vessels during fermentation were 15-23  degrees
      C. Fermentation for 3 d was effective in disinfesting waste from different life
      stages of D. suzukii. Treatment for 4 d also ensured that the waste was free of
      viable life stages of D. melanogaster, which could be used as an indicator
      species for disinfestation of waste from D. suzukii owing to its greater
      tolerance of fermentation. The O2 concentration of the headspace air in the
      vessels became undetectable after 13-16 h, with a corresponding increase in CO2
      concentration, which exceeded 80% vol/vol. The resulting hypoxia and hypercapnia
      may explain the efficacy of the fermentation treatment in disinfesting the waste.
      Fermented fruit remained attractive to D. suzukii and retained its capacity to
      rear a life cycle. Covering or mixing fermented fruit with a sufficient depth
      (0.1 m) or volume (*9) of soil or coir prevented the reinfestation of treated
      waste.

PMID- 28881958
TI  - Influence of Host Quality and Temperature on the Biology of Diaeretiella rapae
      (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Aphidiinae).
AB  - Biological features of Diaeretiella rapae (McIntosh), an aphid parasitoid, are
      conditioned by temperature and host. However, studies of host quality changes due
      to temperature adaptability have not been performed previously. Therefore, this
      study evaluated the adaptability of Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Davis) and Myzus
      persicae (Sulzer) to high temperature, high temperature effect on their quality
      as hosts for D. rapae, and on parasitoid's thermal threshold. Aphid development,
      survivorship, fecundity, and longevity were compared at 19  degrees C and 28 
      degrees C. Host quality in different temperatures was determined through
      evaluation of parasitoid biology. Thermal threshold of D. rapae was determined
      using development time data. At 28  degrees C, development time, rate of immature
      survival, and total fecundity rates were greater in L. pseudobrassicae than in M.
      persicae. Development time of D. rapae in L. pseudobrassicae was shorter than
      that in M. persicae at 28  degrees C and 31  degrees C for females and at 31 
      degrees C for males. The thermal threshold of D. rapae was 6.38  degrees C and
      3.33  degrees C for females and 4.45  degrees C and 3.63  degrees C for males
      developed on L. pseudobrassicae and M. persicae, respectively. Diaeretiella rapae
      size gain was greater in L. pseudobrassicae than that in M. persicae at 25 
      degrees C and 28  degrees C. Lipaphis pseudobrassicae showed better adaptation
      than M. persicae to elevated temperatures, which resulted in a better quality
      host for D. rapae at temperatures of 28  degrees C and 31  degrees C and a higher
      lower thermal threshold when the parasitoid developed within L. pseudobrassicae.
      The host's adaptation to high temperatures is a determinant of host quality for
      the parasitoid at that same climatic condition.

PMID- 28881959
TI  - MaBoSS 2.0: an environment for stochastic Boolean modeling.
AB  - Motivation: Modeling of signaling pathways is an important step towards the
      understanding and the treatment of diseases such as cancers, HIV or auto-immune
      diseases. MaBoSS is a software that allows to simulate populations of cells and
      to model stochastically the intracellular mechanisms that are deregulated in
      diseases. MaBoSS provides an output of a Boolean model in the form of time
      dependent probabilities, for all biological entities (genes, proteins,
      phenotypes, etc.) of the model. Results: We present a new version of MaBoSS
      (2.0), including an updated version of the core software and an environment. With
      this environment, the needs for modeling signaling pathways are facilitated,
      including model construction, visualization, simulations of mutations, drug
      treatments and sensitivity analyses. It offers a framework for automated
      production of theoretical predictions. Availability and Implementation: MaBoSS
      software can be found at https://maboss.curie.fr , including tutorials on
      existing models and examples of models. Contact: gautier.stoll@upmc.fr or
      laurence.calzone@curie.fr. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881960
TI  - Message from the ISCB: 2017 ISCB Innovator Award Given to Aviv Regev.

PMID- 28881961
TI  - Rectified factor networks for biclustering of omics data.
AB  - Motivation: Biclustering has become a major tool for analyzing large datasets
      given as matrix of samples times features and has been successfully applied in
      life sciences and e-commerce for drug design and recommender systems,
      respectively. actor nalysis for cluster cquisition (FABIA), one of the most
      successful biclustering methods, is a generative model that represents each
      bicluster by two sparse membership vectors: one for the samples and one for the
      features. However, FABIA is restricted to about 20 code units because of the high
      computational complexity of computing the posterior. Furthermore, code units are
      sometimes insufficiently decorrelated and sample membership is difficult to
      determine. We propose to use the recently introduced unsupervised Deep Learning
      approach Rectified Factor Networks (RFNs) to overcome the drawbacks of existing
      biclustering methods. RFNs efficiently construct very sparse, non-linear, high
      dimensional representations of the input via their posterior means. RFN learning
      is a generalized alternating minimization algorithm based on the posterior
      regularization method which enforces non-negative and normalized posterior means.
      Each code unit represents a bicluster, where samples for which the code unit is
      active belong to the bicluster and features that have activating weights to the
      code unit belong to the bicluster. Results: On 400 benchmark datasets and on
      three gene expression datasets with known clusters, RFN outperformed 13 other
      biclustering methods including FABIA. On data of the 1000 Genomes Project, RFN
      could identify DNA segments which indicate, that interbreeding with other
      hominins starting already before ancestors of modern humans left Africa.
      Availability and implementation: https://github.com/bioinf-jku/librfn. Contact:
      djork-arne.clevert@bayer.com or hochreit@bioinf.jku.at.

PMID- 28881962
TI  - Applying meta-analysis to genotype-tissue expression data from multiple tissues
      to identify eQTLs and increase the number of eGenes.
AB  - Motivation: There is recent interest in using gene expression data to
      contextualize findings from traditional genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
      Conditioned on a tissue, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) are genetic
      variants associated with gene expression, and eGenes are genes whose expression
      levels are associated with genetic variants. eQTLs and eGenes provide great
      supporting evidence for GWAS hits and important insights into the regulatory
      pathways involved in many diseases. When a significant variant or a candidate
      gene identified by GWAS is also an eQTL or eGene, there is strong evidence to
      further study this variant or gene. Multi-tissue gene expression datasets like
      the Gene Tissue Expression (GTEx) data are used to find eQTLs and eGenes.
      Unfortunately, these datasets often have small sample sizes in some tissues. For
      this reason, there have been many meta-analysis methods designed to combine gene
      expression data across many tissues to increase power for finding eQTLs and
      eGenes. However, these existing techniques are not scalable to datasets
      containing many tissues, like the GTEx data. Furthermore, these methods ignore a
      biological insight that the same variant may be associated with the same gene
      across similar tissues. Results: We introduce a meta-analysis model that
      addresses these problems in existing methods. We focus on the problem of finding
      eGenes in gene expression data from many tissues, and show that our model is
      better than other types of meta-analyses. Availability and Implementation: Source
      code is at https://github.com/datduong/RECOV . Contact: eeskin@cs.ucla.edu or
      datdb@cs.ucla.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at
      Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881963
TI  - Deep learning with word embeddings improves biomedical named entity recognition.
AB  - Motivation: Text mining has become an important tool for biomedical research. The
      most fundamental text-mining task is the recognition of biomedical named entities
      (NER), such as genes, chemicals and diseases. Current NER methods rely on pre
      defined features which try to capture the specific surface properties of entity
      types, properties of the typical local context, background knowledge, and
      linguistic information. State-of-the-art tools are entity-specific, as
      dictionaries and empirically optimal feature sets differ between entity types,
      which makes their development costly. Furthermore, features are often optimized
      for a specific gold standard corpus, which makes extrapolation of quality
      measures difficult. Results: We show that a completely generic method based on
      deep learning and statistical word embeddings [called long short-term memory
      network-conditional random field (LSTM-CRF)] outperforms state-of-the-art entity
      specific NER tools, and often by a large margin. To this end, we compared the
      performance of LSTM-CRF on 33 data sets covering five different entity classes
      with that of best-of-class NER tools and an entity-agnostic CRF implementation.
      On average, F1-score of LSTM-CRF is 5% above that of the baselines, mostly due to
      a sharp increase in recall. Availability and implementation: The source code for
      LSTM-CRF is available at https://github.com/glample/tagger and the links to the
      corpora are available at https://corposaurus.github.io/corpora/ . Contact:
      habibima@informatik.hu-berlin.de.

PMID- 28881964
TI  - Orthologous Matrix (OMA) algorithm 2.0: more robust to asymmetric evolutionary
      rates and more scalable hierarchical orthologous group inference.
AB  - Motivation: Accurate orthology inference is a fundamental step in many
      phylogenetics and comparative analysis. Many methods have been proposed,
      including OMA (Orthologous MAtrix). Yet substantial challenges remain, in
      particular in coping with fragmented genes or genes evolving at different rates
      after duplication, and in scaling to large datasets. With more and more genomes
      available, it is necessary to improve the scalability and robustness of orthology
      inference methods. Results: We present improvements in the OMA algorithm: (i)
      refining the pairwise orthology inference step to account for same-species
      paralogs evolving at different rates, and (ii) minimizing errors in the pairwise
      orthology verification step by testing the consistency of pairwise distance
      estimates, which can be problematic in the presence of fragmentary sequences. In
      addition we introduce a more scalable procedure for hierarchical orthologous
      group (HOG) clustering, which are several orders of magnitude faster on large
      datasets. Using the Quest for Orthologs consortium orthology benchmark service,
      we show that these changes translate into substantial improvement on multiple
      empirical datasets. Availability and Implementation: This new OMA 2.0 algorithm
      is used in the OMA database ( http://omabrowser.org ) from the March 2017 release
      onwards, and can be run on custom genomes using OMA standalone version 2.0 and
      above ( http://omabrowser.org/standalone ). Contact: christophe.dessimoz@unil.ch
      or adrian.altenhoff@inf.ethz.ch.

PMID- 28881965
TI  - Deep learning-based subdivision approach for large scale macromolecules structure
      recovery from electron cryo tomograms.
AB  - Motivation: Cellular Electron CryoTomography (CECT) enables 3D visualization of
      cellular organization at near-native state and in sub-molecular resolution,
      making it a powerful tool for analyzing structures of macromolecular complexes
      and their spatial organizations inside single cells. However, high degree of
      structural complexity together with practical imaging limitations makes the
      systematic de novo discovery of structures within cells challenging. It would
      likely require averaging and classifying millions of subtomograms potentially
      containing hundreds of highly heterogeneous structural classes. Although it is no
      longer difficult to acquire CECT data containing such amount of subtomograms due
      to advances in data acquisition automation, existing computational approaches
      have very limited scalability or discrimination ability, making them incapable of
      processing such amount of data. Results: To complement existing approaches, in
      this article we propose a new approach for subdividing subtomograms into smaller
      but relatively homogeneous subsets. The structures in these subsets can then be
      separately recovered using existing computation intensive methods. Our approach
      is based on supervised structural feature extraction using deep learning, in
      combination with unsupervised clustering and reference-free classification. Our
      experiments show that, compared with existing unsupervised rotation invariant
      feature and pose-normalization based approaches, our new approach achieves
      significant improvements in both discrimination ability and scalability. More
      importantly, our new approach is able to discover new structural classes and
      recover structures that do not exist in training data. Availability and
      Implementation: Source code freely available at
      http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mxu1/software . Contact: mxu1@cs.cmu.edu. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881966
TI  - DextMP: deep dive into text for predicting moonlighting proteins.
AB  - Motivation: Moonlighting proteins (MPs) are an important class of proteins that
      perform more than one independent cellular function. MPs are gaining more
      attention in recent years as they are found to play important roles in various
      systems including disease developments. MPs also have a significant impact in
      computational function prediction and annotation in databases. Currently MPs are
      not labeled as such in biological databases even in cases where multiple distinct
      functions are known for the proteins. In this work, we propose a novel method
      named DextMP, which predicts whether a protein is a MP or not based on its
      textual features extracted from scientific literature and the UniProt database.
      Results: DextMP extracts three categories of textual information for a protein:
      titles, abstracts from literature, and function description in UniProt. Three
      language models were applied and compared: a state-of-the-art deep unsupervised
      learning algorithm along with two other language models of different types, Term
      Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency in the bag-of-words and Latent Dirichlet
      Allocation in the topic modeling category. Cross-validation results on a dataset
      of known MPs and non-MPs showed that DextMP successfully predicted MPs with over
      91% accuracy with significant improvement over existing MP prediction methods.
      Lastly, we ran DextMP with the best performing language models and text-based
      feature combinations on three genomes, human, yeast and Xenopus laevis , and
      found that about 2.5-35% of the proteomes are potential MPs. Availability and
      Implementation: Code available at http://kiharalab.org/DextMP . Contact:
      dkihara@purdue.edu.

PMID- 28881967
TI  - HopLand: single-cell pseudotime recovery using continuous Hopfield network-based
      modeling of Waddington's epigenetic landscape.
AB  - Motivation: The interpretation of transcriptional dynamics in single-cell data,
      especially pseudotime estimation, could help understand the transition of gene
      expression profiles. The recovery of pseudotime increases the temporal resolution
      of single-cell transcriptional data, but is challenging due to the high
      variability in gene expression between individual cells. Here, we introduce
      HopLand, a pseudotime recovery method using continuous Hopfield network to map
      cells to a Waddington's epigenetic landscape. It reveals from the single-cell
      data the combinatorial regulatory interactions among genes that control the
      dynamic progression through successive cell states. Results: We applied HopLand
      to different types of single-cell transcriptomic data. It achieved high
      accuracies of pseudotime prediction compared with existing methods. Moreover, a
      kinetic model can be extracted from each dataset. Through the analysis of such a
      model, we identified key genes and regulatory interactions driving the transition
      of cell states. Therefore, our method has the potential to generate fundamental
      insights into cell fate regulation. Availability and implementation: The MATLAB
      implementation of HopLand is available at https://github.com/NetLand-NTU/HopLand
      . Contact: zhengjie@ntu.edu.sg.

PMID- 28881968
TI  - SnapDock-template-based docking by Geometric Hashing.
AB  - Motivation: A highly efficient template-based protein-protein docking algorithm,
      nicknamed SnapDock, is presented. It employs a Geometric Hashing-based structural
      alignment scheme to align the target proteins to the interfaces of non-redundant
      protein-protein interface libraries. Docking of a pair of proteins utilizing the
      22 600 interface PIFACE library is performed in < 2 min on the average. A
      flexible version of the algorithm allowing hinge motion in one of the proteins is
      presented as well. Results: To evaluate the performance of the algorithm a blind
      re-modelling of 3547 PDB complexes, which have been uploaded after the PIFACE
      publication has been performed with success ratio of about 35%. Interestingly, a
      similar experiment with the template free PatchDock docking algorithm yielded a
      success rate of about 23% with roughly 1/3 of the solutions different from those
      of SnapDock. Consequently, the combination of the two methods gave a 42% success
      ratio. Availability and implementation: A web server of the application is under
      development. Contact: michaelestrin@gmail.com or wolfson@tau.ac.il.

PMID- 28881969
TI  - Chromatin accessibility prediction via convolutional long short-term memory
      networks with k-mer embedding.
AB  - Motivation: Experimental techniques for measuring chromatin accessibility are
      expensive and time consuming, appealing for the development of computational
      approaches to predict open chromatin regions from DNA sequences. Along this
      direction, existing methods fall into two classes: one based on handcrafted k 
      mer features and the other based on convolutional neural networks. Although both
      categories have shown good performance in specific applications thus far, there
      still lacks a comprehensive framework to integrate useful k -mer co-occurrence
      information with recent advances in deep learning. Results: We fill this gap by
      addressing the problem of chromatin accessibility prediction with a convolutional
      Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network with k -mer embedding. We first split DNA
      sequences into k -mers and pre-train k -mer embedding vectors based on the co
      occurrence matrix of k -mers by using an unsupervised representation learning
      approach. We then construct a supervised deep learning architecture comprised of
      an embedding layer, three convolutional layers and a Bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM)
      layer for feature learning and classification. We demonstrate that our method
      gains high-quality fixed-length features from variable-length sequences and
      consistently outperforms baseline methods. We show that k -mer embedding can
      effectively enhance model performance by exploring different embedding
      strategies. We also prove the efficacy of both the convolution and the BLSTM
      layers by comparing two variations of the network architecture. We confirm the
      robustness of our model to hyper-parameters by performing sensitivity analysis.
      We hope our method can eventually reinforce our understanding of employing deep
      learning in genomic studies and shed light on research regarding mechanisms of
      chromatin accessibility. Availability and implementation: The source code can be
      downloaded from https://github.com/minxueric/ismb2017_lstm . Contact:
      tingchen@tsinghua.edu.cn or ruijiang@tsinghua.edu.cn. Supplementary information:
      Supplementary materials are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881970
TI  - Improving the performance of minimizers and winnowing schemes.
AB  - Motivation: The minimizers scheme is a method for selecting k -mers from
      sequences. It is used in many bioinformatics software tools to bin comparable
      sequences or to sample a sequence in a deterministic fashion at approximately
      regular intervals, in order to reduce memory consumption and processing time.
      Although very useful, the minimizers selection procedure has undesirable
      behaviors (e.g. too many k -mers are selected when processing certain sequences).
      Some of these problems were already known to the authors of the minimizers
      technique, and the natural lexicographic ordering of k -mers used by minimizers
      was recognized as their origin. Many software tools using minimizers employ ad
      hoc variations of the lexicographic order to alleviate those issues. Results: We
      provide an in-depth analysis of the effect of k -mer ordering on the performance
      of the minimizers technique. By using small universal hitting sets (a recently
      defined concept), we show how to significantly improve the performance of
      minimizers and avoid some of its worse behaviors. Based on these results, we
      encourage bioinformatics software developers to use an ordering based on a
      universal hitting set or, if not possible, a randomized ordering, rather than the
      lexicographic order. This analysis also settles negatively a conjecture (by
      Schleimer et al. ) on the expected density of minimizers in a random sequence.
      Availability and Implementation: The software used for this analysis is available
      on GitHub: https://github.com/gmarcais/minimizers.git . Contact:
      gmarcais@cs.cmu.edu or carlk@cs.cmu.edu.

PMID- 28881971
TI  - Modelling haplotypes with respect to reference cohort variation graphs.
AB  - Motivation: Current statistical models of haplotypes are limited to panels of
      haplotypes whose genetic variation can be represented by arrays of values at
      linearly ordered bi- or multiallelic loci. These methods cannot model structural
      variants or variants that nest or overlap. Results: A variation graph is a
      mathematical structure that can encode arbitrarily complex genetic variation. We
      present the first haplotype model that operates on a variation graph-embedded
      population reference cohort. We describe an algorithm to calculate the likelihood
      that a haplotype arose from this cohort through recombinations and demonstrate
      time complexity linear in haplotype length and sublinear in population size. We
      furthermore demonstrate a method of rapidly calculating likelihoods for related
      haplotypes. We describe mathematical extensions to allow modelling of mutations.
      This work is an important incremental step for clinical genomics and genetic
      epidemiology since it is the first haplotype model which can represent all sorts
      of variation in the population. Availability and Implementation: Available on
      GitHub at https://github.com/yoheirosen/vg . Contact: benedict@soe.ucsc.edu.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28881972
TI  - Abundance estimation and differential testing on strain level in metagenomics
      data.
AB  - Motivation: Current metagenomics approaches allow analyzing the composition of
      microbial communities at high resolution. Important changes to the composition
      are known to even occur on strain level and to go hand in hand with changes in
      disease or ecological state. However, specific challenges arise for strain level
      analysis due to highly similar genome sequences present. Only a limited number of
      tools approach taxa abundance estimation beyond species level and there is a
      strong need for dedicated tools for strain resolution and differential abundance
      testing. Methods: We present DiTASiC ( fferential axa bundance including milarity
      orrection) as a novel approach for quantification and differential assessment of
      individual taxa in metagenomics samples. We introduce a generalized linear model
      for the resolution of shared read counts which cause a significant bias on strain
      level. Further, we capture abundance estimation uncertainties, which play a
      crucial role in differential abundance analysis. A novel statistical framework is
      built, which integrates the abundance variance and infers abundance distributions
      for differential testing sensitive to strain level. Results: As a result, we
      obtain highly accurate abundance estimates down to sub-strain level and enable
      fine-grained resolution of strain clusters. We demonstrate the relevance of read
      ambiguity resolution and integration of abundance uncertainties for differential
      analysis. Accurate detections of even small changes are achieved and false
      positives are significantly reduced. Superior performance is shown on latest
      benchmark sets of various complexities and in comparison to existing methods.
      Availability and Implementation: DiTASiC code is freely available from
      https://rki_bioinformatics.gitlab.io/ditasic . Contact: renardB@rki.de.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28881973
TI  - BIOSSES: a semantic sentence similarity estimation system for the biomedical
      domain.
AB  - Motivation: The amount of information available in textual format is rapidly
      increasing in the biomedical domain. Therefore, natural language processing (NLP)
      applications are becoming increasingly important to facilitate the retrieval and
      analysis of these data. Computing the semantic similarity between sentences is an
      important component in many NLP tasks including text retrieval and summarization.
      A number of approaches have been proposed for semantic sentence similarity
      estimation for generic English. However, our experiments showed that such
      approaches do not effectively cover biomedical knowledge and produce poor results
      for biomedical text. Methods: We propose several approaches for sentence-level
      semantic similarity computation in the biomedical domain, including string
      similarity measures and measures based on the distributed vector representations
      of sentences learned in an unsupervised manner from a large biomedical corpus. In
      addition, ontology-based approaches are presented that utilize general and domain
      specific ontologies. Finally, a supervised regression based model is developed
      that effectively combines the different similarity computation metrics. A
      benchmark data set consisting of 100 sentence pairs from the biomedical
      literature is manually annotated by five human experts and used for evaluating
      the proposed methods. Results: The experiments showed that the supervised
      semantic sentence similarity computation approach obtained the best performance
      (0.836 correlation with gold standard human annotations) and improved over the
      state-of-the-art domain-independent systems up to 42.6% in terms of the Pearson
      correlation metric. Availability and implementation: A web-based system for
      biomedical semantic sentence similarity computation, the source code, and the
      annotated benchmark data set are available at:
      http://tabilab.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/BIOSSES/ . Contact: gizemsogancioglu@gmail.com or
      arzucan.ozgur@boun.edu.tr.

PMID- 28881974
TI  - Large-scale structure prediction by improved contact predictions and model
      quality assessment.
AB  - Motivation: Accurate contact predictions can be used for predicting the structure
      of proteins. Until recently these methods were limited to very big protein
      families, decreasing their utility. However, recent progress by combining direct
      coupling analysis with machine learning methods has made it possible to predict
      accurate contact maps for smaller families. To what extent these predictions can
      be used to produce accurate models of the families is not known. Results: We
      present the PconsFold2 pipeline that uses contact predictions from PconsC3, the
      CONFOLD folding algorithm and model quality estimations to predict the structure
      of a protein. We show that the model quality estimation significantly increases
      the number of models that reliably can be identified. Finally, we apply
      PconsFold2 to 6379 Pfam families of unknown structure and find that PconsFold2
      can, with an estimated 90% specificity, predict the structure of up to 558 Pfam
      families of unknown structure. Out of these, 415 have not been reported before.
      Availability and Implementation: Datasets as well as models of all the 558 Pfam
      families are available at http://c3.pcons.net/ . All programs used here are
      freely available. Contact: arne@bioinfo.se.

PMID- 28881975
TI  - Molecular signatures that can be transferred across different omics platforms.
AB  - Motivation: Molecular signatures for treatment recommendations are well
      researched. Still it is challenging to apply them to data generated by different
      protocols or technical platforms. Results: We analyzed paired data for the same
      tumors (Burkitt lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) and features that had
      been generated by different experimental protocols and analytical platforms
      including the nanoString nCounter and Affymetrix Gene Chip transcriptomics as
      well as the SWATH and SRM proteomics platforms. A statistical model that assumes
      independent sample and feature effects accounted for 69-94% of technical
      variability. We analyzed how variability is propagated through linear signatures
      possibly affecting predictions and treatment recommendations. Linear signatures
      with feature weights adding to zero were substantially more robust than
      unbalanced signatures. They yielded consistent predictions across data from
      different platforms, both for transcriptomics and proteomics data. Similarly
      stable were their predictions across data from fresh frozen and matching formalin
      fixed paraffin-embedded human tumor tissue. Availability and Implementation: The
      R-package 'zeroSum' can be downloaded at https://github.com/rehbergT/zeroSum .
      Complete data and R codes necessary to reproduce all our results can be received
      from the authors upon request. Contact: rainer.spang@ur.de.

PMID- 28881976
TI  - Increasing the power of meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to
      detect heterogeneous effects.
AB  - Motivation : Meta-analysis is essential to combine the results of genome-wide
      association studies (GWASs). Recent large-scale meta-analyses have combined
      studies of different ethnicities, environments and even studies of different
      related phenotypes. These differences between studies can manifest as effect size
      heterogeneity. We previously developed a modified random effects model (RE2) that
      can achieve higher power to detect heterogeneous effects than the commonly used
      fixed effects model (FE). However, RE2 cannot perform meta-analysis of correlated
      statistics, which are found in recent research designs, and the identified
      variants often overlap with those found by FE. Results : Here, we propose RE2C,
      which increases the power of RE2 in two ways. First, we generalized the
      likelihood model to account for correlations of statistics to achieve optimal
      power, using an optimization technique based on spectral decomposition for
      efficient parameter estimation. Second, we designed a novel statistic to focus on
      the heterogeneous effects that FE cannot detect, thereby, increasing the power to
      identify new associations. We developed an efficient and accurate p -value
      approximation procedure using analytical decomposition of the statistic. In
      simulations, RE2C achieved a dramatic increase in power compared with the
      decoupling approach (71% vs. 21%) when the statistics were correlated. Even when
      the statistics are uncorrelated, RE2C achieves a modest increase in power.
      Applications to real genetic data supported the utility of RE2C. RE2C is highly
      efficient and can meta-analyze one hundred GWASs in one day. Availability and
      implementation: The software is freely available at
      http://software.buhmhan.com/RE2C . Contact: buhm.han@amc.seoul.kr. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881977
TI  - Denoising genome-wide histone ChIP-seq with convolutional neural networks.
AB  - Motivation: Chromatin immune-precipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) experiments are
      commonly used to obtain genome-wide profiles of histone modifications associated
      with different types of functional genomic elements. However, the quality of
      histone ChIP-seq data is affected by many experimental parameters such as the
      amount of input DNA, antibody specificity, ChIP enrichment and sequencing depth.
      Making accurate inferences from chromatin profiling experiments that involve
      diverse experimental parameters is challenging. Results: We introduce a
      convolutional denoising algorithm, Coda, that uses convolutional neural networks
      to learn a mapping from suboptimal to high-quality histone ChIP-seq data. This
      overcomes various sources of noise and variability, substantially enhancing and
      recovering signal when applied to low-quality chromatin profiling datasets across
      individuals, cell types and species. Our method has the potential to improve data
      quality at reduced costs. More broadly, this approach-using a high-dimensional
      discriminative model to encode a generative noise process-is generally applicable
      to other biological domains where it is easy to generate noisy data but difficult
      to analytically characterize the noise or underlying data distribution.
      Availability and implementation: https://github.com/kundajelab/coda . Contact:
      akundaje@stanford.edu.

PMID- 28881978
TI  - Incorporating interaction networks into the determination of functionally related
      hit genes in genomic experiments with Markov random fields.
AB  - Motivation: Incorporating gene interaction data into the identification of 'hit'
      genes in genomic experiments is a well-established approach leveraging the 'guilt
      by association' assumption to obtain a network based hit list of functionally
      related genes. We aim to develop a method to allow for multivariate gene scores
      and multiple hit labels in order to extend the analysis of genomic screening data
      within such an approach. Results: We propose a Markov random field-based method
      to achieve our aim and show that the particular advantages of our method compared
      with those currently used lead to new insights in previously analysed data as
      well as for our own motivating data. Our method additionally achieves the best
      performance in an independent simulation experiment. The real data applications
      we consider comprise of a survival analysis and differential expression
      experiment and a cell-based RNA interference functional screen. Availability and
      implementation: We provide all of the data and code related to the results in the
      paper. Contact: sean.j.robinson@utu.fi or laurent.guyon@cea.fr. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881979
TI  - Identification of associations between genotypes and longitudinal phenotypes via
      temporally-constrained group sparse canonical correlation analysis.
AB  - Motivation: Neuroimaging genetics identifies the relationships between genetic
      variants (i.e., the single nucleotide polymorphisms) and brain imaging data to
      reveal the associations from genotypes to phenotypes. So far, most existing
      machine-learning approaches are widely used to detect the effective associations
      between genetic variants and brain imaging data at one time-point. However, those
      associations are based on static phenotypes and ignore the temporal dynamics of
      the phenotypical changes. The phenotypes across multiple time-points may exhibit
      temporal patterns that can be used to facilitate the understanding of the
      degenerative process. In this article, we propose a novel temporally constrained
      group sparse canonical correlation analysis (TGSCCA) framework to identify
      genetic associations with longitudinal phenotypic markers. Results: The proposed
      TGSCCA method is able to capture the temporal changes in brain from longitudinal
      phenotypes by incorporating the fused penalty, which requires that the
      differences between two consecutive canonical weight vectors from adjacent time
      points should be small. A new efficient optimization algorithm is designed to
      solve the objective function. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of
      our algorithm on both synthetic and real data (i.e., the Alzheimer's Disease
      Neuroimaging Initiative cohort, including progressive mild cognitive impairment,
      stable MCI and Normal Control participants). In comparison with conventional
      SCCA, our proposed method can achieve strong associations and discover phenotypic
      biomarkers across multiple time-points to guide disease-progressive
      interpretation. Availability and implementation: The Matlab code is available at
      https://sourceforge.net/projects/ibrain-cn/files/ . Contact: dqzhang@nuaa.edu.cn
      or shenli@iu.edu.

PMID- 28881980
TI  - Alignment of dynamic networks.
AB  - Motivation: Network alignment (NA) aims to find a node mapping that conserves
      similar regions between compared networks. NA is applicable to many fields,
      including computational biology, where NA can guide the transfer of biological
      knowledge from well- to poorly-studied species across aligned network regions.
      Existing NA methods can only align static networks. However, most complex real
      world systems evolve over time and should thus be modeled as dynamic networks. We
      hypothesize that aligning dynamic network representations of evolving systems
      will produce superior alignments compared to aligning the systems' static network
      representations, as is currently done. Results: For this purpose, we introduce
      the first ever dynamic NA method, DynaMAGNA ++. This proof-of-concept dynamic NA
      method is an extension of a state-of-the-art static NA method, MAGNA++. Even
      though both MAGNA++ and DynaMAGNA++ optimize edge as well as node conservation
      across the aligned networks, MAGNA++ conserves static edges and similarity
      between static node neighborhoods, while DynaMAGNA++ conserves dynamic edges
      (events) and similarity between evolving node neighborhoods. For this purpose, we
      introduce the first ever measure of dynamic edge conservation and rely on our
      recent measure of dynamic node conservation. Importantly, the two dynamic
      conservation measures can be optimized with any state-of-the-art NA method and
      not just MAGNA++. We confirm our hypothesis that dynamic NA is superior to static
      NA, on synthetic and real-world networks, in computational biology and social
      domains. DynaMAGNA++ is parallelized and has a user-friendly graphical interface.
      Availability and implementation: http://nd.edu/~cone/DynaMAGNA++/ . Contact:
      tmilenko@nd.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at
      Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881981
TI  - TITER: predicting translation initiation sites by deep learning.
AB  - Motivation: Translation initiation is a key step in the regulation of gene
      expression. In addition to the annotated translation initiation sites (TISs), the
      translation process may also start at multiple alternative TISs (including both
      AUG and non-AUG codons), which makes it challenging to predict TISs and study the
      underlying regulatory mechanisms. Meanwhile, the advent of several high
      throughput sequencing techniques for profiling initiating ribosomes at single
      nucleotide resolution, e.g. GTI-seq and QTI-seq, provides abundant data for
      systematically studying the general principles of translation initiation and the
      development of computational method for TIS identification. Methods: We have
      developed a deep learning-based framework, named TITER, for accurately predicting
      TISs on a genome-wide scale based on QTI-seq data. TITER extracts the sequence
      features of translation initiation from the surrounding sequence contexts of TISs
      using a hybrid neural network and further integrates the prior preference of TIS
      codon composition into a unified prediction framework. Results: Extensive tests
      demonstrated that TITER can greatly outperform the state-of-the-art prediction
      methods in identifying TISs. In addition, TITER was able to identify important
      sequence signatures for individual types of TIS codons, including a Kozak
      sequence-like motif for AUG start codon. Furthermore, the TITER prediction score
      can be related to the strength of translation initiation in various biological
      scenarios, including the repressive effect of the upstream open reading frames on
      gene expression and the mutational effects influencing translation initiation
      efficiency. Availability and Implementation: TITER is available as an open-source
      software and can be downloaded from https://github.com/zhangsaithu/titer .
      Contact: lzhang20@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn or zengjy321@tsinghua.edu.cn.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28881982
TI  - Association testing of bisulfite-sequencing methylation data via a Laplace
      approximation.
AB  - Motivation: Epigenome-wide association studies can provide novel insights into
      the regulation of genes involved in traits and diseases. The rapid emergence of
      bisulfite-sequencing technologies enables performing such genome-wide studies at
      the resolution of single nucleotides. However, analysis of data produced by
      bisulfite-sequencing poses statistical challenges owing to low and uneven
      sequencing depth, as well as the presence of confounding factors. The recently
      introduced Mixed model Association for Count data via data AUgmentation (MACAU)
      can address these challenges via a generalized linear mixed model when
      confounding can be encoded via a single variance component. However, MACAU cannot
      be used in the presence of multiple variance components. Additionally, MACAU uses
      a computationally expensive Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedure, which
      cannot directly approximate the model likelihood. Results: We present a new
      method, Mixed model Association via a Laplace ApproXimation (MALAX), that is more
      computationally efficient than MACAU and allows to model multiple variance
      components. MALAX uses a Laplace approximation rather than MCMC based
      approximations, which enables to directly approximate the model likelihood.
      Through an extensive analysis of simulated and real data, we demonstrate that
      MALAX successfully addresses statistical challenges introduced by bisulfite
      sequencing while controlling for complex sources of confounding, and can be over
      50% faster than the state of the art. Availability and Implementation: The full
      source code of MALAX is available at https://github.com/omerwe/MALAX . Contact:
      omerw@cs.technion.ac.il or ehalperin@cs.ucla.edu. Supplementary information:
      Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881983
TI  - A scalable moment-closure approximation for large-scale biochemical reaction
      networks.
AB  - Motivation: Stochastic molecular processes are a leading cause of cell-to-cell
      variability. Their dynamics are often described by continuous-time discrete-state
      Markov chains and simulated using stochastic simulation algorithms. As these
      stochastic simulations are computationally demanding, ordinary differential
      equation models for the dynamics of the statistical moments have been developed.
      The number of state variables of these approximating models, however, grows at
      least quadratically with the number of biochemical species. This limits their
      application to small- and medium-sized processes. Results: In this article, we
      present a scalable moment-closure approximation (sMA) for the simulation of
      statistical moments of large-scale stochastic processes. The sMA exploits the
      structure of the biochemical reaction network to reduce the covariance matrix. We
      prove that sMA yields approximating models whose number of state variables
      depends predominantly on local properties, i.e. the average node degree of the
      reaction network, instead of the overall network size. The resulting complexity
      reduction is assessed by studying a range of medium- and large-scale biochemical
      reaction networks. To evaluate the approximation accuracy and the improvement in
      computational efficiency, we study models for JAK2/STAT5 signalling and NF kappa
      B signalling. Our method is applicable to generic biochemical reaction networks
      and we provide an implementation, including an SBML interface, which renders the
      sMA easily accessible. Availability and implementation: The sMA is implemented in
      the open-source MATLAB toolbox CERENA and is available from
      https://github.com/CERENADevelopers/CERENA . Contact: jan.hasenauer@helmholtz
      muenchen.de or atefeh.kazeroonian@tum.de. Supplementary information:
      Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881984
TI  - Estimation of time-varying growth, uptake and excretion rates from dynamic
      metabolomics data.
AB  - Motivation: Technological advances in metabolomics have made it possible to
      monitor the concentration of extracellular metabolites over time. From these
      data, it is possible to compute the rates of uptake and excretion of the
      metabolites by a growing cell population, providing precious information on the
      functioning of intracellular metabolism. The computation of the rate of these
      exchange reactions, however, is difficult to achieve in practice for a number of
      reasons, notably noisy measurements, correlations between the concentration
      profiles of the different extracellular metabolites, and discontinuties in the
      profiles due to sudden changes in metabolic regime. Results: We present a method
      for precisely estimating time-varying uptake and excretion rates from time-series
      measurements of extracellular metabolite concentrations, specifically addressing
      all of the above issues. The estimation problem is formulated in a regularized
      Bayesian framework and solved by a combination of extended Kalman filtering and
      smoothing. The method is shown to improve upon methods based on spline smoothing
      of the data. Moreover, when applied to two actual datasets, the method recovers
      known features of overflow metabolism in Escherichia coli and Lactococcus lactis
      , and provides evidence for acetate uptake by L. lactis after glucose exhaustion.
      The results raise interesting perspectives for further work on rate estimation
      from measurements of intracellular metabolites. Availability and implementation:
      The Matlab code for the estimation method is available for download at
      https://team.inria.fr/ibis/rate-estimation-software/ , together with the
      datasets. Contact: eugenio.cinquemani@inria.fr. Supplementary information:
      Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881985
TI  - popFBA: tackling intratumour heterogeneity with Flux Balance Analysis.
AB  - Motivation: Intratumour heterogeneity poses many challenges to the treatment of
      cancer. Unfortunately, the transcriptional and metabolic information retrieved by
      currently available computational and experimental techniques portrays the
      average behaviour of intermixed and heterogeneous cell subpopulations within a
      given tumour. Emerging single-cell genomic analyses are nonetheless unable to
      characterize the interactions among cancer subpopulations. In this study, we
      propose popFBA , an extension to classic Flux Balance Analysis, to explore how
      metabolic heterogeneity and cooperation phenomena affect the overall growth of
      cancer cell populations. Results: We show how clones of a metabolic network of
      human central carbon metabolism, sharing the same stoichiometry and capacity
      constraints, may follow several different metabolic paths and cooperate to
      maximize the growth of the total population. We also introduce a method to
      explore the space of possible interactions, given some constraints on plasma
      supply of nutrients. We illustrate how alternative nutrients in plasma supply
      and/or a dishomogeneous distribution of oxygen provision may affect the landscape
      of heterogeneous phenotypes. We finally provide a technique to identify the most
      proliferative cells within the heterogeneous population. Availability and
      implementation: the popFBA MATLAB function and the SBML model are available at
      https://github.com/BIMIB-DISCo/popFBA . Contact: chiara.damiani@unimib.it.

PMID- 28881987
TI  - Efficient simulation of intrinsic, extrinsic and external noise in biochemical
      systems.
AB  - Motivation: Biological cells operate in a noisy regime influenced by intrinsic,
      extrinsic and external noise, which leads to large differences of individual cell
      states. Stochastic effects must be taken into account to characterize biochemical
      kinetics accurately. Since the exact solution of the chemical master equation,
      which governs the underlying stochastic process, cannot be derived for most
      biochemical systems, approximate methods are used to obtain a solution. Results:
      In this study, a method to efficiently simulate the various sources of noise
      simultaneously is proposed and benchmarked on several examples. The method relies
      on the combination of the sigma point approach to describe extrinsic and external
      variability and the tau -leaping algorithm to account for the stochasticity due
      to probabilistic reactions. The comparison of our method to extensive Monte Carlo
      calculations demonstrates an immense computational advantage while losing an
      acceptable amount of accuracy. Additionally, the application to parameter
      optimization problems in stochastic biochemical reaction networks is shown, which
      is rarely applied due to its huge computational burden. To give further insight,
      a MATLAB script is provided including the proposed method applied to a simple toy
      example of gene expression. Availability and implementation: MATLAB code is
      available at Bioinformatics online. Contact: flassig@mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28881986
TI  - Predicting multicellular function through multi-layer tissue networks.
AB  - Motivation: Understanding functions of proteins in specific human tissues is
      essential for insights into disease diagnostics and therapeutics, yet prediction
      of tissue-specific cellular function remains a critical challenge for
      biomedicine. Results: Here, we present OhmNet , a hierarchy-aware unsupervised
      node feature learning approach for multi-layer networks. We build a multi-layer
      network, where each layer represents molecular interactions in a different human
      tissue. OhmNet then automatically learns a mapping of proteins, represented as
      nodes, to a neural embedding-based low-dimensional space of features. OhmNet
      encourages sharing of similar features among proteins with similar network
      neighborhoods and among proteins activated in similar tissues. The algorithm
      generalizes prior work, which generally ignores relationships between tissues, by
      modeling tissue organization with a rich multiscale tissue hierarchy. We use
      OhmNet to study multicellular function in a multi-layer protein interaction
      network of 107 human tissues. In 48 tissues with known tissue-specific cellular
      functions, OhmNet provides more accurate predictions of cellular function than
      alternative approaches, and also generates more accurate hypotheses about tissue
      specific protein actions. We show that taking into account the tissue hierarchy
      leads to improved predictive power. Remarkably, we also demonstrate that it is
      possible to leverage the tissue hierarchy in order to effectively transfer
      cellular functions to a functionally uncharacterized tissue. Overall, OhmNet
      moves from flat networks to multiscale models able to predict a range of
      phenotypes spanning cellular subsystems. Availability and implementation: Source
      code and datasets are available at http://snap.stanford.edu/ohmnet . Contact:
      jure@cs.stanford.edu.

PMID- 28881988
TI  - Discovery and genotyping of novel sequence insertions in many sequenced
      individuals.
AB  - Motivation: Despite recent advances in algorithms design to characterize
      structural variation using high-throughput short read sequencing (HTS) data,
      characterization of novel sequence insertions longer than the average read length
      remains a challenging task. This is mainly due to both computational difficulties
      and the complexities imposed by genomic repeats in generating reliable assemblies
      to accurately detect both the sequence content and the exact location of such
      insertions. Additionally, de novo genome assembly algorithms typically require a
      very high depth of coverage, which may be a limiting factor for most genome
      studies. Therefore, characterization of novel sequence insertions is not a
      routine part of most sequencing projects. Result: Here, we present Pamir, a new
      algorithm to efficiently and accurately discover and genotype novel sequence
      insertions using either single or multiple genome sequencing datasets. Pamir is
      able to detect breakpoint locations of the insertions and calculate their
      zygosity (i.e. heterozygous versus homozygous) by analyzing multiple sequence
      signatures, matching one-end-anchored sequences to small-scale de novo assemblies
      of unmapped reads, and conducting strand-aware local assembly. We test the
      efficacy of Pamir on both simulated and real data, and demonstrate its potential
      use in accurate and routine identification of novel sequence insertions in genome
      projects. Availability and implementation: Pamir is available at
      https://github.com/vpc-ccg/pamir . Contact: fhach@{sfu.ca, prostatecentre.com }
      or calkan@cs.bilkent.edu.tr. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881989
TI  - Direct AUC optimization of regulatory motifs.
AB  - Motivation: The discovery of transcription factor binding site (TFBS) motifs is
      essential for untangling the complex mechanism of genetic variation under
      different developmental and environmental conditions. Among the huge amount of
      computational approaches for de novo identification of TFBS motifs,
      discriminative motif learning (DML) methods have been proven to be promising for
      harnessing the discovery power of accumulated huge amount of high-throughput
      binding data. However, they have to sacrifice accuracy for speed and could fail
      to fully utilize the information of the input sequences. Results: We propose a
      novel algorithm called CDAUC for optimizing DML-learned motifs based on the area
      under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) criterion, which has been
      widely used in the literature to evaluate the significance of extracted motifs.
      We show that when the considered AUC loss function is optimized in a coordinate
      wise manner, the cost function of each resultant sub-problem is a piece-wise
      constant function, whose optimal value can be found exactly and efficiently.
      Further, a key step of each iteration of CDAUC can be efficiently solved as a
      computational geometry problem. Experimental results on real world high
      throughput datasets illustrate that CDAUC outperforms competing methods for
      refining DML motifs, while being one order of magnitude faster. Meanwhile,
      preliminary results also show that CDAUC may also be useful for improving the
      interpretability of convolutional kernels generated by the emerging deep learning
      approaches for predicting TF sequences specificities. Availability and
      Implementation: CDAUC is available at:
      https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxOW5MtIZbJjNFpCeHlBVWJHeW8 . Contact:
      dshuang@tongji.edu.cn. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881991
TI  - Exploiting sequence-based features for predicting enhancer-promoter interactions.
AB  - Motivation: A large number of distal enhancers and proximal promoters form
      enhancer-promoter interactions to regulate target genes in the human genome.
      Although recent high-throughput genome-wide mapping approaches have allowed us to
      more comprehensively recognize potential enhancer-promoter interactions, it is
      still largely unknown whether sequence-based features alone are sufficient to
      predict such interactions. Results: Here, we develop a new computational method
      (named PEP) to predict enhancer-promoter interactions based on sequence-based
      features only, when the locations of putative enhancers and promoters in a
      particular cell type are given. The two modules in PEP (PEP-Motif and PEP-Word)
      use different but complementary feature extraction strategies to exploit sequence
      based information. The results across six different cell types demonstrate that
      our method is effective in predicting enhancer-promoter interactions as compared
      to the state-of-the-art methods that use functional genomic signals. Our work
      demonstrates that sequence-based features alone can reliably predict enhancer
      promoter interactions genome-wide, which could potentially facilitate the
      discovery of important sequence determinants for long-range gene regulation.
      Availability and Implementation: The source code of PEP is available at:
      https://github.com/ma-compbio/PEP . Contact: jianma@cs.cmu.edu. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881990
TI  - A new method to study the change of miRNA-mRNA interactions due to environmental
      exposures.
AB  - Motivation: Integrative approaches characterizing the interactions among
      different types of biological molecules have been demonstrated to be useful for
      revealing informative biological mechanisms. One such example is the interaction
      between microRNA (miRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA), whose deregulation may be
      sensitive to environmental insult leading to altered phenotypes. The goal of this
      work is to develop an effective data integration method to characterize
      deregulation between miRNA and mRNA due to environmental toxicant exposures. We
      will use data from an animal experiment designed to investigate the effect of low
      dose environmental chemical exposure on normal mammary gland development in rats
      to motivate and evaluate the proposed method. Results: We propose a new network
      approach-integrative Joint Random Forest (iJRF), which characterizes the
      regulatory system between miRNAs and mRNAs using a network model. iJRF is
      designed to work under the high-dimension low-sample-size regime, and can borrow
      information across different treatment conditions to achieve more accurate
      network inference. It also effectively takes into account prior information of
      miRNA-mRNA regulatory relationships from existing databases. When iJRF is applied
      to the data from the environmental chemical exposure study, we detected a few
      important miRNAs that regulated a large number of mRNAs in the control group but
      not in the exposed groups, suggesting the disruption of miRNA activity due to
      chemical exposure. Effects of chemical exposure on two affected miRNAs were
      further validated using breast cancer human cell lines. Availability and
      implementation: R package iJRF is available at CRAN. Contacts: pei.wang@mssm.edu
      or susan.teitelbaum@mssm.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881992
TI  - Image-based spatiotemporal causality inference for protein signaling networks.
AB  - Motivation: Efforts to model how signaling and regulatory networks work in cells
      have largely either not considered spatial organization or have used
      compartmental models with minimal spatial resolution. Fluorescence microscopy
      provides the ability to monitor the spatiotemporal distribution of many molecules
      during signaling events, but as of yet no methods have been described for large
      scale image analysis to learn a complex protein regulatory network. Here we
      present and evaluate methods for identifying how changes in concentration in one
      cell region influence concentration of other proteins in other regions. Results:
      Using 3D confocal microscope movies of GFP-tagged T cells undergoing
      costimulation, we learned models containing putative causal relationships among
      12 proteins involved in T cell signaling. The models included both relationships
      consistent with current knowledge and novel predictions deserving further
      exploration. Further, when these models were applied to the initial frames of
      movies of T cells that had been only partially stimulated, they predicted the
      localization of proteins at later times with statistically significant accuracy.
      The methods, consisting of spatiotemporal alignment, automated region
      identification, and causal inference, are anticipated to be applicable to a
      number of biological systems. Availability and implementation: The source code
      and data are available as a Reproducible Research Archive at
      http://murphylab.cbd.cmu.edu/software/2017_TcellCausalModels/. Contact:
      murphy@cmu.edu.

PMID- 28881993
TI  - Genomes as documents of evolutionary history: a probabilistic macrosynteny model
      for the reconstruction of ancestral genomes.
AB  - Motivation: It has been argued that whole-genome duplication (WGD) exerted a
      profound influence on the course of evolution. For the purpose of fully
      understanding the impact of WGD, several formal algorithms have been developed
      for reconstructing pre-WGD gene order in yeast and plant. However, to the best of
      our knowledge, those algorithms have never been successfully applied to WGD
      events in teleost and vertebrate, impeded by extensive gene shuffling and gene
      losses. Results: Here, we present a probabilistic model of macrosynteny (i.e.
      conserved linkage or chromosome-scale distribution of orthologs), develop a
      variational Bayes algorithm for inferring the structure of pre-WGD genomes, and
      study estimation accuracy by simulation. Then, by applying the method to the
      teleost WGD, we demonstrate effectiveness of the algorithm in a situation where
      gene-order reconstruction algorithms perform relatively poorly due to a high rate
      of rearrangement and extensive gene losses. Our high-resolution reconstruction
      reveals previously overlooked small-scale rearrangements, necessitating a
      revision to previous views on genome structure evolution in teleost and
      vertebrate. Conclusions: We have reconstructed the structure of a pre-WGD genome
      by employing a variational Bayes approach that was originally developed for
      inferring topics from millions of text documents. Interestingly, comparison of
      the macrosynteny and topic model algorithms suggests that macrosynteny can be
      regarded as documents on ancestral genome structure. From this perspective, the
      present study would seem to provide a textbook example of the prevalent metaphor
      that genomes are documents of evolutionary history. Availability and
      implementation: The analysis data are available for download at
      http://www.gen.tcd.ie/molevol/supp_data/MacrosyntenyTGD.zip , and the software
      written in Java is available upon request. Contact: yoichiro.nakatani@tcd.ie or
      aoife.mclysaght@tcd.ie. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881995
TI  - deBGR: an efficient and near-exact representation of the weighted de Bruijn
      graph.
AB  - Motivation: Almost all de novo short-read genome and transcriptome assemblers
      start by building a representation of the de Bruijn Graph of the reads they are
      given as input. Even when other approaches are used for subsequent assembly (e.g.
      when one is using 'long read' technologies like those offered by PacBio or Oxford
      Nanopore), efficient k -mer processing is still crucial for accurate assembly,
      and state-of-the-art long-read error-correction methods use de Bruijn Graphs.
      Because of the centrality of de Bruijn Graphs, researchers have proposed numerous
      methods for representing de Bruijn Graphs compactly. Some of these proposals
      sacrifice accuracy to save space. Further, none of these methods store abundance
      information, i.e. the number of times that each k -mer occurs, which is key in
      transcriptome assemblers. Results: We present a method for compactly representing
      the weighted de Bruijn Graph (i.e. with abundance information) with essentially
      no errors. Our representation yields zero errors while increasing the space
      requirements by less than 18-28% compared to the approximate de Bruijn graph
      representation in Squeakr. Our technique is based on a simple invariant that all
      weighted de Bruijn Graphs must satisfy, and hence is likely to be of general
      interest and applicable in most weighted de Bruijn Graph-based systems.
      Availability and implementation: https://github.com/splatlab/debgr . Contact:
      rob.patro@cs.stonybrook.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881994
TI  - Multiple network-constrained regressions expand insights into influenza
      vaccination responses.
AB  - Motivation: Systems immunology leverages recent technological advancements that
      enable broad profiling of the immune system to better understand the response to
      infection and vaccination, as well as the dysregulation that occurs in disease.
      An increasingly common approach to gain insights from these large-scale profiling
      experiments involves the application of statistical learning methods to predict
      disease states or the immune response to perturbations. However, the goal of many
      systems studies is not to maximize accuracy, but rather to gain biological
      insights. The predictors identified using current approaches can be biologically
      uninterpretable or present only one of many equally predictive models, leading to
      a narrow understanding of the underlying biology. Results: Here we show that
      incorporating prior biological knowledge within a logistic modeling framework by
      using network-level constraints on transcriptional profiling data significantly
      improves interpretability. Moreover, incorporating different types of biological
      knowledge produces models that highlight distinct aspects of the underlying
      biology, while maintaining predictive accuracy. We propose a new framework,
      Logistic Multiple Network-constrained Regression (LogMiNeR), and apply it to
      understand the mechanisms underlying differential responses to influenza
      vaccination. Although standard logistic regression approaches were predictive,
      they were minimally interpretable. Incorporating prior knowledge using LogMiNeR
      led to models that were equally predictive yet highly interpretable. In this
      context, B cell-specific genes and mTOR signaling were associated with an
      effective vaccination response in young adults. Overall, our results demonstrate
      a new paradigm for analyzing high-dimensional immune profiling data in which
      multiple networks encoding prior knowledge are incorporated to improve model
      interpretability. Availability and implementation: The R source code described in
      this article is publicly available at https://bitbucket.org/kleinstein/logminer .
      Contact: steven.kleinstein@yale.edu or stefan.avey@yale.edu. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881996
TI  - Improved data-driven likelihood factorizations for transcript abundance
      estimation.
AB  - Motivation: Many methods for transcript-level abundance estimation reduce the
      computational burden associated with the iterative algorithms they use by
      adopting an approximate factorization of the likelihood function they optimize.
      This leads to considerably faster convergence of the optimization procedure,
      since each round of e.g. the EM algorithm, can execute much more quickly.
      However, these approximate factorizations of the likelihood function simplify
      calculations at the expense of discarding certain information that can be useful
      for accurate transcript abundance estimation. Results: We demonstrate that model
      simplifications (i.e. factorizations of the likelihood function) adopted by
      certain abundance estimation methods can lead to a diminished ability to
      accurately estimate the abundances of highly related transcripts. In particular,
      considering factorizations based on transcript-fragment compatibility alone can
      result in a loss of accuracy compared to the per-fragment, unsimplified model.
      However, we show that such shortcomings are not an inherent limitation of
      approximately factorizing the underlying likelihood function. By considering the
      appropriate conditional fragment probabilities, and adopting improved, data
      driven factorizations of this likelihood, we demonstrate that such approaches can
      achieve accuracy nearly indistinguishable from methods that consider the complete
      (i.e. per-fragment) likelihood, while retaining the computational efficiently of
      the compatibility-based factorizations. Availability and implementation: Our data
      driven factorizations are incorporated into a branch of the Salmon transcript
      quantification tool: https://github.com/COMBINE-lab/salmon/tree/factorizations .
      Contact: rob.patro@cs.stonybrook.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary
      data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881997
TI  - Predicting phenotypes from microarrays using amplified, initially marginal,
      eigenvector regression.
AB  - Motivation: The discovery of relationships between gene expression measurements
      and phenotypic responses is hampered by both computational and statistical
      impediments. Conventional statistical methods are less than ideal because they
      either fail to select relevant genes, predict poorly, ignore the unknown
      interaction structure between genes, or are computationally intractable. Thus,
      the creation of new methods which can handle many expression measurements on
      relatively small numbers of patients while also uncovering gene-gene
      relationships and predicting well is desirable. Results: We develop a new
      technique for using the marginal relationship between gene expression
      measurements and patient survival outcomes to identify a small subset of genes
      which appear highly relevant for predicting survival, produce a low-dimensional
      embedding based on this small subset, and amplify this embedding with information
      from the remaining genes. We motivate our methodology by using gene expression
      measurements to predict survival time for patients with diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma, illustrate the behavior of our methodology on carefully constructed
      synthetic examples, and test it on a number of other gene expression datasets.
      Our technique is computationally tractable, generally outperforms other methods,
      is extensible to other phenotypes, and also identifies different genes (relative
      to existing methods) for possible future study. Availability and Implementation:
      All of the code and data are available at
      http://mypage.iu.edu/~dajmcdon/research/ . Contact: dajmcdon@indiana.edu.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary material is available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28881998
TI  - Systematic identification of feature combinations for predicting drug response
      with Bayesian multi-view multi-task linear regression.
AB  - Motivation: A prime challenge in precision cancer medicine is to identify genomic
      and molecular features that are predictive of drug treatment responses in cancer
      cells. Although there are several computational models for accurate drug response
      prediction, these often lack the ability to infer which feature combinations are
      the most predictive, particularly for high-dimensional molecular datasets. As
      increasing amounts of diverse genome-wide data sources are becoming available,
      there is a need to build new computational models that can effectively combine
      these data sources and identify maximally predictive feature combinations.
      Results: We present a novel approach that leverages on systematic integration of
      data sources to identify response predictive features of multiple drugs. To solve
      the modeling task we implement a Bayesian linear regression method. To further
      improve the usefulness of the proposed model, we exploit the known human cancer
      kinome for identifying biologically relevant feature combinations. In case
      studies with a synthetic dataset and two publicly available cancer cell line
      datasets, we demonstrate the improved accuracy of our method compared to the
      widely used approaches in drug response analysis. As key examples, our model
      identifies meaningful combinations of features for the well known EGFR, ALK, PLK
      and PDGFR inhibitors. Availability and Implementation: The source code of the
      method is available at https://github.com/suleimank/mvlr . Contact:
      muhammad.ammad-ud-din@helsinki.fi or suleiman.khan@helsinki.fi. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28882000
TI  - Integrative deep models for alternative splicing.
AB  - Motivation: Advancements in sequencing technologies have highlighted the role of
      alternative splicing (AS) in increasing transcriptome complexity. This role of
      AS, combined with the relation of aberrant splicing to malignant states,
      motivated two streams of research, experimental and computational. The first
      involves a myriad of techniques such as RNA-Seq and CLIP-Seq to identify splicing
      regulators and their putative targets. The second involves probabilistic models,
      also known as splicing codes, which infer regulatory mechanisms and predict
      splicing outcome directly from genomic sequence. To date, these models have
      utilized only expression data. In this work, we address two related challenges:
      Can we improve on previous models for AS outcome prediction and can we integrate
      additional sources of data to improve predictions for AS regulatory factors.
      Results: We perform a detailed comparison of two previous modeling approaches,
      Bayesian and Deep Neural networks, dissecting the confounding effects of datasets
      and target functions. We then develop a new target function for AS prediction in
      exon skipping events and show it significantly improves model accuracy. Next, we
      develop a modeling framework that leverages transfer learning to incorporate CLIP
      Seq, knockdown and over expression experiments, which are inherently noisy and
      suffer from missing values. Using several datasets involving key splice factors
      in mouse brain, muscle and heart we demonstrate both the prediction improvements
      and biological insights offered by our new models. Overall, the framework we
      propose offers a scalable integrative solution to improve splicing code modeling
      as vast amounts of relevant genomic data become available. Availability and
      implementation: Code and data available at: majiq.biociphers.org/jha_et_al_2017/.
      Contact: yosephb@upenn.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28881999
TI  - DeepBound: accurate identification of transcript boundaries via deep
      convolutional neural fields.
AB  - Motivation: Reconstructing the full-length expressed transcripts ( a.k.a. the
      transcript assembly problem) from the short sequencing reads produced by RNA-seq
      protocol plays a central role in identifying novel genes and transcripts as well
      as in studying gene expressions and gene functions. A crucial step in transcript
      assembly is to accurately determine the splicing junctions and boundaries of the
      expressed transcripts from the reads alignment. In contrast to the splicing
      junctions that can be efficiently detected from spliced reads, the problem of
      identifying boundaries remains open and challenging, due to the fact that the
      signal related to boundaries is noisy and weak. Results: We present DeepBound, an
      effective approach to identify boundaries of expressed transcripts from RNA-seq
      reads alignment. In its core DeepBound employs deep convolutional neural fields
      to learn the hidden distributions and patterns of boundaries. To accurately model
      the transition probabilities and to solve the label-imbalance problem, we novelly
      incorporate the AUC (area under the curve) score into the optimizing objective
      function. To address the issue that deep probabilistic graphical models requires
      large number of labeled training samples, we propose to use simulated RNA-seq
      datasets to train our model. Through extensive experimental studies on both
      simulation datasets of two species and biological datasets, we show that
      DeepBound consistently and significantly outperforms the two existing methods.
      Availability and implementation: DeepBound is freely available at
      https://github.com/realbigws/DeepBound . Contact: mingfu.shao@cs.cmu.edu or
      realbigws@gmail.com.

PMID- 28882001
TI  - Efficient approximations of RNA kinetics landscape using non-redundant sampling.
AB  - Motivation: Kinetics is key to understand many phenomena involving RNAs, such as
      co-transcriptional folding and riboswitches. Exact out-of-equilibrium studies
      induce extreme computational demands, leading state-of-the-art methods to rely on
      approximated kinetics landscapes, obtained using sampling strategies that strive
      to generate the key landmarks of the landscape topology. However, such methods
      are impeded by a large level of redundancy within sampled sets. Such a redundancy
      is uninformative, and obfuscates important intermediate states, leading to an
      incomplete vision of RNA dynamics. Results: We introduce RNANR, a new set of
      algorithms for the exploration of RNA kinetics landscapes at the secondary
      structure level. RNANR considers locally optimal structures, a reduced set of RNA
      conformations, in order to focus its sampling on basins in the kinetic landscape.
      Along with an exhaustive enumeration, RNANR implements a novel non-redundant
      stochastic sampling, and offers a rich array of structural parameters. Our tests
      on both real and random RNAs reveal that RNANR allows to generate more unique
      structures in a given time than its competitors, and allows a deeper exploration
      of kinetics landscapes. Availability and implementation: RNANR is freely
      available at https://project.inria.fr/rnalands/rnanr . Contact:
      yann.ponty@lix.polytechnique.fr.

PMID- 28882002
TI  - Tumor phylogeny inference using tree-constrained importance sampling.
AB  - Motivation: A tumor arises from an evolutionary process that can be modeled as a
      phylogenetic tree. However, reconstructing this tree is challenging as most
      cancer sequencing uses bulk tumor tissue containing heterogeneous mixtures of
      cells. Results: We introduce P robabilistic A lgorithm for S omatic Tr ee I
      nference (PASTRI), a new algorithm for bulk-tumor sequencing data that clusters
      somatic mutations into clones and infers a phylogenetic tree that describes the
      evolutionary history of the tumor. PASTRI uses an importance sampling algorithm
      that combines a probabilistic model of DNA sequencing data with a enumeration
      algorithm based on the combinatorial constraints defined by the underlying
      phylogenetic tree. As a result, tree inference is fast, accurate and robust to
      noise. We demonstrate on simulated data that PASTRI outperforms other cancer
      phylogeny algorithms in terms of runtime and accuracy. On real data from a
      chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patient, we show that a simple linear
      phylogeny better explains the data the complex branching phylogeny that was
      previously reported. PASTRI provides a robust approach for phylogenetic tree
      inference from mixed samples. Availability and Implementation: Software is
      available at compbio.cs.brown.edu/software. Contact: braphael@princeton.edu.
      Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics
      online.

PMID- 28882003
TI  - miniMDS: 3D structural inference from high-resolution Hi-C data.
AB  - Motivation: Recent experiments have provided Hi-C data at resolution as high as 1
      kbp. However, 3D structural inference from high-resolution Hi-C datasets is often
      computationally unfeasible using existing methods. Results: We have developed
      miniMDS, an approximation of multidimensional scaling (MDS) that partitions a Hi
      C dataset, performs high-resolution MDS separately on each partition, and then
      reassembles the partitions using low-resolution MDS. miniMDS is faster, more
      accurate, and uses less memory than existing methods for inferring the human
      genome at high resolution (10 kbp). Availability and implementation: A Python
      implementation of miniMDS is available on GitHub:
      https://github.com/seqcode/miniMDS . Contact: mahony@psu.edu. Supplementary
      information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28882006
TI  - Update in Infectious Diseases 2017.
AB  - Antimicrobial resistance in complex models of continuous infection is a current
      issue. The update 2017 course addresses about microbiological, epidemiological
      and clinical aspects useful for a current approach to infectious disease. During
      the last year, nosocomial pneumonia approach guides, recommendations for
      management of yeast and filamentous fungal infections, review papers on the
      empirical approach to peritonitis and extensive guidelines on stewardship have
      been published. HIV infection is being treated before and more intensively. The
      implementation of molecular biology, spectrometry and inmunology to traditional
      techniques of staining and culture achieve a better and faster microbiological
      diagnosis. Finally, the infection is increasingly integrated, assessing non
      antibiotic aspects in the treatment.

PMID- 28882004
TI  - When loss-of-function is loss of function: assessing mutational signatures and
      impact of loss-of-function genetic variants.
AB  - Motivation: Loss-of-function genetic variants are frequently associated with
      severe clinical phenotypes, yet many are present in the genomes of healthy
      individuals. The available methods to assess the impact of these variants rely
      primarily upon evolutionary conservation with little to no consideration of the
      structural and functional implications for the protein. They further do not
      provide information to the user regarding specific molecular alterations
      potentially causative of disease. Results: To address this, we investigate
      protein features underlying loss-of-function genetic variation and develop a
      machine learning method, MutPred-LOF, for the discrimination of pathogenic and
      tolerated variants that can also generate hypotheses on specific molecular events
      disrupted by the variant. We investigate a large set of human variants derived
      from the Human Gene Mutation Database, ClinVar and the Exome Aggregation
      Consortium. Our prediction method shows an area under the Receiver Operating
      Characteristic curve of 0.85 for all loss-of-function variants and 0.75 for
      proteins in which both pathogenic and neutral variants have been observed. We
      applied MutPred-LOF to a set of 1142 de novo vari3ants from neurodevelopmental
      disorders and find enrichment of pathogenic variants in affected individuals.
      Overall, our results highlight the potential of computational tools to elucidate
      causal mechanisms underlying loss of protein function in loss-of-function
      variants. Availability and Implementation: http://mutpred.mutdb.org. Contact:
      predrag@indiana.edu.

PMID- 28882005
TI  - CATS (Coordinates of Atoms by Taylor Series): protein design with backbone
      flexibility in all locally feasible directions.
AB  - Motivation: When proteins mutate or bind to ligands, their backbones often move
      significantly, especially in loop regions. Computational protein design
      algorithms must model these motions in order to accurately optimize protein
      stability and binding affinity. However, methods for backbone conformational
      search in design have been much more limited than for sidechain conformational
      search. This is especially true for combinatorial protein design algorithms,
      which aim to search a large sequence space efficiently and thus cannot rely on
      temporal simulation of each candidate sequence. Results: We alleviate this
      difficulty with a new parameterization of backbone conformational space, which
      represents all degrees of freedom of a specified segment of protein chain that
      maintain valid bonding geometry (by maintaining the original bond lengths and
      angles and omega dihedrals). In order to search this space, we present an
      efficient algorithm, CATS, for computing atomic coordinates as a function of our
      new continuous backbone internal coordinates. CATS generalizes the iMinDEE and
      EPIC protein design algorithms, which model continuous flexibility in sidechain
      dihedrals, to model continuous, appropriately localized flexibility in the
      backbone dihedrals phi and psi as well. We show using 81 test cases based on 29
      different protein structures that CATS finds sequences and conformations that are
      significantly lower in energy than methods with less or no backbone flexibility
      do. In particular, we show that CATS can model the viability of an antibody
      mutation known experimentally to increase affinity, but that appears sterically
      infeasible when modeled with less or no backbone flexibility. Availability and
      implementation: Our code is available as free software at
      https://github.com/donaldlab/OSPREY_refactor . Contact: mhallen@ttic.edu or
      brd+ismb17@cs.duke.edu. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are
      available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID- 28882007
TI  - Epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Implications for
      empiric and definitive therapy.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the major pathogens causing hospital-acquired
      infections. It can easily develop antibiotic resistance through chromosomal
      mutations or by horizontal acquisition of resistant determinants. The increasing
      prevalence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) or extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) P.
      aeruginosa isolates is associated with the dissemination of the so-called high
      risk-clones, such as ST175. Infections caused by MDR/XDR are a cause of concern
      as they compromise the selection of appropriate empiric and definitive
      antimicrobial treatments. Introduction of new antibiotics with potent activity
      against MDR/XDR P. aeruginosa opens new horizons in the treatment of these
      infections.

PMID- 28882008
TI  - Highlights in HIV, 2016.
AB  - Research in HIV-infection continues to grow every year. Reports published in
      journals or presented at conferences in 2016-2017 have brought light to some
      issues that had been highly debated. We have selected three conceptual
      publications, which we find include important information for clinicians taking
      care of HIV-infected patients.

PMID- 28882009
TI  - Update on the diagnosis of invasive fungal infection.
AB  - The number of patients at risk of suffering invasive fungal infection (IFI) is
      increasing. Because of its high mortality, new rapid and accurate diagnostic
      tools are needed. Last advances in invasive candidiasis diagnosis comprise
      Peptide Nucleic Acid Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization (PNA-FISH), direct MALDI
      TOF or multiplex acid nucleic testing. While all of them rely in positive blood
      cultures, T2Candida uses PCR coupled with T2Magnetic resonance detection directly
      in whole blood, allowing detection of 1-3 UFC/mL of Candida in about four hours.
      Beyond galactomannan (GM), novelties in IFI caused by molds include the
      international standardization of PCR techniques, with several commercial kits
      available. A combination of GM and PCR appears to be a good diagnostic strategy
      for invasive aspergillosis. PCR coupled to electrospray ionization/mass
      spectrometry and detection of volatile organic compounds in exhaled air by gas
      chromatography/mass spectrometry are other promising approaches to IFI diagnostic
      that still need to be validated.

PMID- 28882010
TI  - Invasive candidiasis in the neutropenic patient.
AB  - There are major differences in the epidemiology and prognosis of invasive
      candidiasis and candidemia in the neutropenic patient; however, a recent study
      performed in Spanish hospitals (Candipop) confirmed that mortality at 1 month is
      30%, which is similar to that observed in the general population. Although
      Candida albicans is the most frequently isolated species, C. tropicalis, C.
      glabrata, and C. krusei are more prevalent than in non-neutropenic patients. The
      benefit of neutrophil transfusion is unclear, and catheter withdrawal must be
      tailored and based on confirmation of the diagnosis. Echinocandins are the first
      line option for therapy and have a better safety profile than other agents.

PMID- 28882011
TI  - Comments on practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of aspergillosis
      made by the IDSA in 2016.
AB  - We sought to review the most important updates in the treatment of aspergillosis
      after the publication of the clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and
      management of invasive aspergillosis (IA) by the Infectious Diseases Society of
      America. Our aim is to discuss some of the key aspects concerning the following
      topics: early initiation of antifungal therapy, antifungal agent of choice,
      follow-up of patients with IA, and breakthrough aspergillosis.

PMID- 28882012
TI  - Empirical treatment of adults with hospital-acquired pneumonia: lights and
      shadows of the 2016 Clinical Practice ATS/IDSA Guidelines.
AB  - Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) is a common cause of nosocomial infection
      associated with significant morbidity and mortality. New clinical practice
      guidelines for the management of adults with hospital-acquired pneumonia have
      been published in 2016 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and
      the American Thoracic Society (ATS). This review focuses on the recent
      recommendations and their limitations. We also focus on new therapeutic options
      that might improve the treatment and outcomes of these patients.

PMID- 28882013
TI  - Antimicrobial management in nosocomial peritonitis: microbiota, drug and time.
AB  - Complicated intra-abdominal infection requires surgical treatment and broad
      spectrum empiric antibiotic treatment used early. The rapid spread of multidrug
      resistant bacteria has become a serious threat, especially in critical care
      units. The excessive use of carbapenems has led to carbapenemase-producing
      Enterobacteriaceae, leaving tigecycline and colistin as therapeutical options.
      The new antimicrobials, ceftazidime-avibactam and ceftolozane-tazobactam open new
      horizons in the treatment of multi-drug resistant Enterobacteriaceae. Candida
      peritonitis causes a high mortality in the critical patient. Diagnosis and early
      treatment are associated with a better prognosis, the administration of an
      echinocandin being of choice in these patients.

PMID- 28882014
TI  - Urinary tract infections in inpatients: that challenge.
AB  - Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the major nosocomial infections. In more
      than 80% of cases it is related to the use of urological devices, especially
      linked to the misuse of urinary catheters. Empirical treatment should be based on
      local epidemiology, severity criteria and risk of multiresistant bacteria. This
      review shows the most important aspects of nosocomial UTI, as well as the
      recommendations for correct treatment adjustment; both empirical and definitive,
      that is the great challenge to avoid multiresistance, as well as to avoid
      unnecessary treatments.

PMID- 28882016
TI  - New sepsis criteria: do they replace or complement what is known in the approach
      to the infectious patient?
AB  - There have recently been profound changes in both the definitions of sepsis and
      septic shock and the diagnostic criteria established for daily clinical practice.
      In addition, a new screening tool known as qSOFA has been introduced to identify
      patients at risk of a poor short-term outcome. This score has been accompanied by
      some controversy due to presenting a lower sensitivity than the systemic
      inflammatory response criteria previously used to identify such patients. In this
      article, we shall summarise and analyse the most important recently published
      studies in relation to these new criteria.

PMID- 28882015
TI  - Non-valvular intravascular device and endovascular graft-related infection.
AB  - In the last few years there has been an increase of implantable cardiac
      electronic device and vascular graft related infections. This is due in part to a
      higher complexity of some of these procedures and an increase in patient's
      comorbidities. Despite wide diagnosis methods availability, early stage diagnosis
      usually constitutes a challenge as often patients only denote insidious symptoms.
      In most confirmed cases, removal of the infected device is required to resolve
      the infection. This is mostly explainable because of bacterial ability to grow as
      biofilms on biomaterial surfaces, conferring them antimicrobial resistance. If
      removal is not possible, chronic suppressive antimicrobial therapy could be an
      option.

PMID- 28882017
TI  - Utility of rapid microbiological techniques for the diagnosis of severe
      infections.
AB  - Rapid diagnostic microbiological techniques and antimicrobial susceptibility
      testing are necessary for early and adequate treatment. The utility of old (Gram
      stain, antigen detection, direct antimicrobial susceptibility testing,
      chromogenic media) and new techniques (molecular assays, MALDI-TOF) is summarized
      for the rapid diagnosis of bacteraemia and fungaemia, catheter-related
      bloodstream infections, pneumonia, meningitis, skin and soft-tissue infections,
      urinary tract infection, Clostridium difficile infection, viral infections, and
      tuberculosis.

PMID- 28882018
TI  - Optimizing antimicrobial prescribing: a practical decalogue.
AB  - Increasing antibiotic resistance is one of the leading problems in the Public
      Agenda worldwide. In the last 20 years, the pace of antimicrobial drug
      development has markedly slowed leading to a dramatic world situation. Infections
      with antibiotic-resistant microorganisms have been associated with increased
      length of stay, mortality and costs. Improving antimicrobial prescribing is one
      of the tools in our hands to optimize the outcomes of patients with moderate to
      severe infections and control the emerging of resistance. Several clues to
      improve antimicrobial prescribing are provided as a key-messages decalogue.

PMID- 28882019
TI  - Usefulness of Hospital at Home in nosocomial infections: advantages and
      limitations.
AB  - Hospital at Home units allows ambulatory treatment and monitoring of complex and
      serious infections. Nosocomial infections produce an extension of the stay in
      hospital often specifying long intravenous treatments without any effective oral
      alternatives. Daily dosing of antimicrobial are easier to administer at home. The
      use of portable programmable pump infusion and elastomeric devices allow
      efficient and safe infu-sions for most antimicrobials at home. Some antibiotics
      against multidrug-resistant organisms of recent introduction have a suitable
      profile for outpatient intravenous treatment.

PMID- 28882020
TI  - Non-antibiotic treatment for infectious diseases.
AB  - The abuse and uncontrolled use of antibiotics has resulted in the emergence and
      spread of resistant bacteria. The utility of conventional antibiotics for the
      treatment of bacterial infections has become increasingly strained due to
      increased rates of resistance coupled with reduced rates of development of new
      agents. As a result, multidrug-resistant, extensively drug-resistant, and pan
      drug-resistant bacterial strains are now frequently encountered. This has led to
      fears of a "post-antibiotic era" in which many bacterial infections could be
      untreatable. Alternative non-antibiotic treatment strategies need to be explored
      to ensure that a robust pipeline of effective therapies is available to
      clinicians. The new therapeutic approaches for bacterial infections (beyond
      antibiotics) may provide a way to extend the usefulness of current antibiotics in
      an era of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections.

PMID- 28882021
TI  - Sarcopenia Predicts Prognosis in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma, Independent of Tumor Stage and Liver Function.
AB  - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the prognostic significance
      of changes in body composition in patients with newly diagnosed hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods: Patients (n=178) newly diagnosed with HCC
      participated in the study between 2007 and 2012. Areas of skeletal muscle and
      abdominal fat were directly measured using a three-dimensional workstation. Cox
      proportional-hazards modes were used to estimate the effect of baseline variables
      on overall survival. The inverse probability of treatmentweighting (IPTW) method
      was used to minimize confounding bias. Results: Cutoff values for sarcopenia,
      obtained from receiver-operating characteristic curves, were defined as skeletal
      muscle index at the third lumbar vertebra of <= 45.8 cm/m2 for males and <= 43.0
      cm/m2 for females. Sarcopenia patients were older, more likely to be female, and
      had lower body mass index. Univariable analysis showed that the presence of
      sarcopenia and visceral to subcutaneous fat area ratio (VSR) were significantly
      associatedwith prognosis. The multivariable analyses revealed that VSR was
      predictive of overall survival. However, in the multivariable Cox model adjusted
      by IPTW, sarcopenia, not VSR, were associated with overall survival. Conclusion:
      The presence of sarcopenia at HCC diagnosis is independently associated with
      survival.

PMID- 28882022
TI  - Trend Analysis for the Choice and Cost of Lung Cancer Treatment in South Korea,
      2003-2013.
AB  - Purpose: Our study aimed to report the annual changes in lung cancer statistics
      and analyze trends in sociodemographic, medical, and financial factors from 2003
      to 2013 in the national database from the Korean National Health Insurance
      (KNHI). Materials and Methods: Among 7,489 patients with code C34 in KNHI
      database, only lung cancer patients newly diagnosed after 2003 were included in
      the study population, for a total of 4,582 patients. Descriptive statistics were
      used to characterize treatment patterns and medical costs according to
      sociodemographic factors. Results: Approximately 70% of subjects were male, and
      the mean age was 67 years. Around 46% of patients were over 70 years old, and 12%
      were over 80 years old. The medical costs were highest for patients younger than
      60 and lowest for those over 80 years old. Surgery was more common in younger
      patients, while "no treatment" increased greatly with age. In trend analysis, the
      proportions of aging (p for trend < 0.001), female (p for trend=0.003),
      metropolitan/urban (p for trend=0.041), and lowest or highest-income patients (p
      for trend=0.004) increased over time, along with the prevalence of surgery as the
      primary treatment (p for trend < 0.001). There was also a trend with regard to
      change in medical costs (p for trend < 0.001), in that those of surgery and
      radiotherapy increased. Conclusion: Surgery as a curative treatment has increased
      over the past decade. However, the elderly, suburban/rural residents, and low
      income patients were more likely to be untreated. Therefore, active measures are
      required for these increasingly vulnerable groups.

PMID- 28882024
TI  - Higher glucagon-to-insulin ratio is associated with elevated glycated hemoglobin
      levels in type 2 diabetes patients.
AB  - Background/Aims: The importance of alpha-cell dysfunction in the pathogenesis of
      type 2 diabetes has re-emerged recently. However, data on whether relative
      glucagon excess is present in clinical settings are scarce. We aimed to
      investigate associations between glucagon-to-insulin ratio and various metabolic
      parameters. Methods: A total of 451 patients with type 2 diabetes naive to
      insulin treatment were recruited. Using glucagon-to-insulin ratio, we divided
      subjects into quartiles according to both fasting and postprandial glucagon-to
      insulin ratios. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 58 years, with a mean
      body mass index of 25 kg/m2 . The patients in the highest quartile of glucagon-to
      insulin ratio had higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. HbA1c levels were
      positively correlated with both fasting and postprandial glucagon-to-insulin
      ratios. Subjects in the highest quartile of postprandial glucagon-to-insulin
      ratio were more likely to exhibit uncontrolled hyperglycemia, even after
      adjusting for confounding factors (odds ratio, 2.730; 95% confidence interval,
      1.236 to 6.028; p for trend < 0.01). Conclusions: Hyperglucagonemia relative to
      insulin could contribute to uncontrolled hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes
      patients.

PMID- 28882023
TI  - APEX1 Polymorphism and Mercaptopurine-Related Early Onset Neutropenia in
      Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - Purpose: Mercaptopurine (MP) is one of the main chemotherapeutics for acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To improve treatment outcomes, constant MP dose
      titration is essential to maintain steady drug exposure, while minimizing
      myelosuppression. We performed two-stage analyses to identify genetic
      determinants of MP-related neutropenia in Korean pediatric ALL patients.
      Materials and Methods: Targeted sequencing of 40 patients who exhibited definite
      MP intolerance was conducted using a novel panel of 211 pharmacogenetic-related
      genes, and subsequent analysis was performed with 185 patients. Results: Using
      bioinformatics tools and genetic data, four functionally interesting variants
      were selected (ABCC4, APEX1, CYP1A1, and CYP4F2). Including four variants, 23
      variants in 12 genes potentially linked to MP adverse reactions were selected as
      final candidates for subsequent analysis in 185 patients. Ultimately, a variant
      allele in APEX1 rs2307486was found to be strongly associated with MP-induced
      neutropenia that occurred within 28 days of initiating MP (odds ratio, 3.44;
      p=0.02). Moreover, the cumulative incidence of MP-related neutropenia was
      significantly higher in patients with APEX1 rs2307486 variants, as GG genotypes
      were associated with the highest cumulative incidence (p < 0.01). NUDT15
      rs116855232 variants were strongly associated with a higher cumulative incidence
      of neutropenia (p < 0.01), and a lower median dose of tolerated MP throughout
      maintenance treatment (p < 0.01). Conclusion: We have identified that APEX1
      rs2307486 variants conferred an increased risk of MP-related early onset
      neutropenia. APEX1 and NUDT15 both contribute to cell protection from DNA damage
      or misincorporation, so alleles that impair the function of either gene may
      affect MP sensitivities, thereby inducing MP-related neutropenia.

PMID- 28882025
TI  - Relationship between shipping amounts of olive flounder aquacultured from Jejudo
      and the reported events of acute food poisoning by Kudoa septempunctata in 2015,
      South Korea: an ecological study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Confirmation of Kudoa septempunctata (K. septempunctata) as the
      pathogenic agent causing acute food poisoning remains under debate owing to
      inconsistencies in the reproducibility of experimental evidence. Higher intake of
      olive flounder infected with K. septempunctata would result in increased
      diagnosis of food poisoning by K. septempunctata, if the latter was one of the
      causal agents of acute food poisoning. The aim was to evaluate the relationship
      between the shipping amount of olive flounder aquacultured from Jejudo and the
      incidence of K. septempunctata food poisoning in 2015, Korea. METHODS: Data of
      shipping amounts between March 2014 and February 2016 and of monthly reported
      events of Kudoa food poisoning were taken from Jejudo Fish-Culture Fisheries
      Cooperatives and Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, respectively.
      Non-parametric correlation analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Shipping amounts
      indicated the seasonal changes according to variation of consumption. Spearman's
      rho and Kendall's tau-a between the monthly shipping amounts and the reported
      events in 2015 were 0.39 (p=0.21) and 0.27 (p=0.20), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      An independent relationship was noted between the shipping amount and the
      reported events, which contrasted with the claim that the virulence of K.
      septempunctata caused acute food poisoning.

PMID- 28882027
TI  - Promoting physical activity for children: an audit among Italian family
      paediatricians.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This survey aimed to investigate the perception of Italian
      Paediatricians regarding the promotion of physical activity. METHODS: From
      January to May 2015, a survey was conducted among family paediatricians working
      in Puglia, interviewed by a standardised questionnaire, that investigated
      demographic information, participation in sporting activity by the paediatrician,
      opinion on obesity and the promotion of physical activity, and attitude towards
      enquiring about the physical activity of patients with and without chronic
      diseases. RESULTS: We collected 200 questionnaires (35.7% of target population).
      51.5% of enrolled paediatricians stated that they were participating in sporting
      activities at the time of the survey. The average opinion regarding the relevance
      of the obesity was 9+/-1.4/10 and about the promotion of physical activity 9.6+/
      .8. All enrolled paediatricians asked for their patients' physical activity and
      encouraged inactive children to begin an appropriate activity. Paediatricians who
      took part in sport had a high probability of encouraging physical activity, in
      particular among patients affected by chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Family
      Paediatricians declared a good attitude regarding the promotion of physical
      activity for their patients according to national and international
      recommendations. The main concern emerging from our results is the risk of an
      "inappropriate interdiction" of physical activity in children affected by chronic
      diseases, in particular physicians that have never participated in a sport.

PMID- 28882026
TI  - Epidemiology and risk factors of voluntary pesticide poisoning in Morocco (2008
      2014).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the epidemiological profile and risk factors of
      voluntary poisoning by pesticides. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was
      conducted of all cases of voluntary poisoning by pesticides registered at the
      AntiPoison and Pharmacovigilance Center of Morocco between January 2008 and
      December 2014. RESULTS: During the study period, 2,690 cases of acute pesticide
      poisoning were registered. The region of Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer accounted for
      the largest proportion, with 598 cases. The average age of the patients was
      24.63+/-10.29 years. The sex ratio (female-to-male) was 0.45. Adults and
      teenagers were most affected by this type of poisoning, with 1,667 cases (62.0%)
      and 806 cases (30.0%), respectively. Suicide attempts accounted for 98.4% of the
      cases (2,469 cases). Pesticide poisoning occurred more often in urban zones
      (64.8%). Insecticides were incriminated in 14.0% of cases, with a mortality rate
      of 4.2%. Among the 1,635 patients for whom the outcomes were known, 154 died,
      corresponding to a mortality rate of 5.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Voluntary intoxication by
      pesticides presents a real scourge that affects public health, and in this study,
      we developed an epidemiological profile of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, this
      study has limitations in that it did not evaluate the impact of the socioeconomic
      and psychological factors that are important contributors to this type of
      poisoning.

PMID- 28882028
TI  - Cochlear malformation and sensorineural hearing loss in the Silver-Russell
      syndrome.

PMID- 28882029
TI  - Clinical observation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for
      treating patients receiving peritoneal dialysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to observe the outcome and safety of umbilical cord
      mesenchymal stem cell (UC-MSC) treatment for continuous ambulatory peritoneal
      dialysis (CAPD) patients. METHODS: A total of 24 CAPD patients, who underwent UC
      MSC treatment from June 2011 to December 2012, were selected for this study.
      These patients were followed up until June 2015. RESULTS: Results revealed a
      significant increase in hemoglobin, erythropoietin and albumin levels, a decrease
      in C-reactive protein levels, and marked improvement in cystatin C and urine
      volume within three months after UC-MSC transplantation; and the difference was
      statistically significant (P<0.05). However, the difference in residual
      glomerular filtration rate, serum creatinine, peritoneal KT/V and remnant kidney
      KT/V was not statistically significant (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical indicators
      of patients with CAPD can be partially improved through UC-MSC treatment.

PMID- 28882030
TI  - Outcomes following robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy: Pentafecta and
      Trifecta achievements.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional and oncologic outcomes following radical prostatectomy
      play a major role in patient satisfaction after treatment. This study was
      designed to assess the functional and oncologic outcome after robotic assisted
      radical prostatectomy (RARP) in a single surgeon series of patients. METHODS: A
      prospectively maintained database of patients undergoing robotic radical
      prostatectomy in a referral academic center was queried for functional and
      oncologic outcome. Patients undergoing RARP between 2010 and 2013 were included.
      Analysis was performed with SPSS and SAS, chi2, Mann-Whitney and t-test were used
      when appropriate. RESULTS: Overall, 566 patients were included in the analysis.
      The Trifecta and Pentafecta was 73.9% and 64.1%, respectively. Patients achieving
      Pentafecta were younger (P<0.001), had lower PSA level (P=0.04), lower Biopsy
      Gleason (P<0.01), lower risk prostate cancer (P<0.01) and fewer comorbidities
      (P=0.03). The patients were followed up for a median of 27.4 months in Trifecta
      and 20.6 months in Pentafecta group. At 12-month follow-up the continence and
      potency rate was 90.6% and 84.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      preoperative counseling for RARP surgery using Pentafecta criteria offers more
      precise information and reasonable expectations than using the Trifecta, further
      research is required to prepare a standard reporting outline.

PMID- 28882032
TI  - Efficacy and safety of single-shot vs. continuous regional analgesia in
      ambulatory orthopedic surgery: when is a systematic review appropriate?

PMID- 28882031
TI  - A multiregional Italian cohort of 24-hour urine metabolic evaluation in renal
      stone formers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nephrolithiasis is a common condition with several studies
      documenting an increased prevalence over the past four decades. EAU and AUA
      guidelines recommend 24-hour urine metabolic evaluation in high-risk stone
      formers. Aim of this study is to retrospectively evaluate the first three years
      of experience with LithoTest(r) (Biohealth Italia Srl, Turin, Italy) through the
      analysis of demographic, clinical and biochemical data collected from a large
      cohort of patients with kidney stones. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data
      from the LithoCenter database, including data from outpatient consultations,
      between January 2007 and December 2009 from all over Italy. LithoTest(r) was
      performed through a 24-hour urine collection and included measurements of urine
      volume and pH, 24-hour excretion of creatinine as well as main cations and
      anions, including calcium, magnesium sodium potassium, ammonium, uric acid,
      oxalate, citrate, phosphate, inorganic sulphate and chloride. Urine state of
      saturation for calcium oxalate (betaCaOx), calcium hydrogen phosphate or brushite
      (betabsh) and uric acid (betaUA) were also calculated by means of the computer
      program LithoRisk. Brand's test for cystinuria was also carried out. Statistical
      analysis was performed using the S-PSS software v. 22.0. RESULTS: The number of
      patients with data available for analysis was 435, of whom 236 were male (54%)
      and 199 female (46%). Complete 24-hour urine measurements were available for all
      435 patients. Compared to men, women had significantly lower values for
      creatinine, urate, oxalate, phosphate, sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride
      excretion, whereas 24-hour pH and citrate excretion were higher. No significant
      differences were found for the other examined variables. betaCaOx and betaUA were
      significantly higher in men than women, whereas no significant difference was
      found for betabsh. There was a direct relationship between calcium and sodium
      urine excretion. Excessive sodium excretion was recorded in 191 patients (44%)
      and low urine volumes in 201 (46.2%). Hyperoxaluria was observed in 118 patients
      (27.3%), hypercalciuria in 115 (26.6%), hyperuricosuria in 153 (35.4%),
      hypomagnesuria in 96 (22.2%), and hypocitraturia in 134 patients (31%).
      Hyperexcretion of sodium, hypocitraturia and hyperoxaluria were most frequent in
      males. betaCaOx was significantly higher in the setting of hypercalciuria,
      hypocitraturia, hyperoxaluria and urine pH below 5.5. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      in a large cohort of high-risk stone-forming patients show significant
      differences in urinary metabolic profiles between men and women. Carrying on the
      collection and analysis of data by LithoTest(r) from 2009 to 2015 and matching
      urinary and dietary data could eventually improve our understanding on the
      metabolic profile of stone-formers in Italy.

PMID- 28882033
TI  - Visible Light-Induced Plasticity of Shape Memory Polymers.
AB  - Plasticity of thermoset polymers has been realized by introducing exchangeable
      bonds, and the plasticity is mostly triggered via heat or UV light. Visible light
      is a relatively mild trigger that has not been used to induce plasticity in
      polymer materials. Herein, thermoset polyurethanes (PUs) containing diselenide
      bonds are fabricated that possess visible light-induced plasticity along with
      shape memory behavior. A series of PUs with different diselenide bond contents
      were tested and their shape memory properties and plasticity varied. With a
      higher diselenide bond content, both shape memory and light-induced plasticity
      are achieved. By combining these two properties, reshaping the permanent shapes
      of the PUs is easier. Compared with heat or UV light, visible light has the
      advantage of spatial control. For instance, a pattern of visible light was
      introduced by a commercial projector to demonstrate facile reshaping of the
      materials. Because visible light can be introduced via various methods, PUs with
      visible light-induced plasticity have great potential applications.

PMID- 28882034
TI  - One-Step Fast Synthesis of Nanoparticles for MRI: Coating Chemistry as the Key
      Variable Determining Positive or Negative Contrast.
AB  - Iron oxide nanomaterial is a typical example of a magnetic resonance imaging
      probe for negative contrast. It has also been shown how this nanomaterial can be
      synthesized for positive contrast by modification of the composition and size of
      the core. However, the role of the organic coating in the relaxometric properties
      is largely unexplored. Here, maghemite nanoparticles with either excellent
      positive or very good negative contrast performance are obtained by modifying
      coating thickness while the core is kept unchanged. Different nanoparticles with
      tailored features as contrast agent according to the coating layer thickness have
      been obtained in a single-step microwave-driven synthesis by heating at different
      temperatures. A comprehensive analysis is conducted of how the composition and
      structure of the coating affects the final magnetic, relaxometric, and imaging
      performance. These results show how the organic coating plays a fundamental role
      in the intrinsic relaxometric parameters of iron oxide-based contrast media.

PMID- 28882035
TI  - Reactive Compatibilization: Formation of Double-Grafted Copolymers by In Situ
      Binary Grafting and Their Compatibilization Effect.
AB  - Reactive compatibilizers are usually used to enhance the compatibility of
      immiscible polymer blends. However, reactive linear compatibilizers containing
      reactive groups on the main chains form graft copolymers during reactive
      blending, and such graft copolymers with an asymmetric molecular structure are
      often "pulled in" or "pulled out" under mechanical shear. Double-grafted
      compatibilizers have a symmetric structure, and they usually exhibit higher
      compatibilizing efficiency. In this work, we propose a binary grafting strategy
      during melt blending to form compatibilizers located at the interface of an
      immiscible polymer blend. Specifically, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) oligomer
      with carboxylic end groups (PMMA-COOH) and poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate)
      (SG) copolymer were simultaneously incorporated into immiscible poly(vinylidene
      fluoride)/poly(l-lactic acid) (PVDF/PLLA) blends. The carboxylic acid groups of
      both the PMMA oligomer and PLLA can react with the epoxide groups on the SG main
      chains. Therefore, novel compatibilizing polymers with both PMMA and PLLA chains
      grafted onto the SG main chains form in situ. The grafted PMMA chains can
      entangle with PVDF, and the grafted PLLA chains are embedded in the PLLA phase,
      so the double-grafted copolymers act as effective compatibilizers for the
      PVDF/PLLA blends. Moreover, the effects of the PMMA molecular weight and PMMA
      loading (number of grafted PMMA side chains) on the compatibilization efficiency
      were investigated. The compatibilizing efficiency increases with increasing
      molecular weight and number of side chains in the ranges considered in this
      study. This one-pot synthesis of double-grafted compatibilizers by in situ
      grafting provides a new and simple method to prepare double-comb compatibilizers,
      and it offers the possibility of high-efficiency compatibilization.

PMID- 28882036
TI  - Micropatternable Double-Faced ZnO Nanoflowers for Flexible Gas Sensor.
AB  - Micropatternable double-faced (DF) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflowers (NFs) for
      flexible gas sensors have been successfully fabricated on a polyimide (PI)
      substrate with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as electrode. The
      fabricated sensor comprises ZnO nanoshells laid out on a PI substrate at regular
      intervals, on which ZnO nanorods (NRs) were grown in- and outside the shells to
      maximize the surface area and form a connected network. This three-dimensional
      network structure possesses multiple gas diffusion channels and the
      micropatterned island structure allows the stability of the flexible devices to
      be enhanced by dispersing the strain into the empty spaces of the substrate.
      Moreover, the micropatterning technique on a flexible substrate enables highly
      integrated nanodevices to be fabricated. The SWCNTs were chosen as the electrode
      for their flexibility and the Schottky barrier they form with ZnO, improving the
      sensing performance. The devices exhibited high selectivity toward NO2 as well as
      outstanding sensing characteristics with a stable response of 218.1, fast rising
      and decay times of 25.0 and 14.1 s, respectively, and percent recovery greater
      than 98% upon NO2 exposure. The superior sensing properties arose from a
      combination of high surface area, numerous active junction points, donor point
      defects in the ZnO NRs, and the use of the SWCNT electrode. Furthermore, the DF
      ZnO NF gas sensor showed sustainable mechanical stability. Despite the physical
      degradation observed, the devices still demonstrated outstanding sensing
      characteristics after 10 000 bending cycles at a curvature radius of 5 mm.

PMID- 28882037
TI  - Reusable Silicon-Based Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Ratiometric Aptasensor
      with High Sensitivity, Specificity, and Reproducibility.
AB  - Rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the
      primary energy molecule, is critical for the elucidation of its unique roles in
      cell signaling and many cellular reactions. Up to date, a major challenge is
      still remaining for fabricating surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) aptamer
      sensors (aptasensors) suitable for accurate and reliable quantification of ATP.
      Herein, we develop the ratiometric silicon SERS aptasensor for ATP detection,
      which is made of uniform silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs)-modified silicon wafer (Ag
      NPs@Si), followed by the functionalization with double-stranded DNA (dsDNA I).
      The dsDNA I is formed by the aptamer and its complementary DNA (cDNA), which
      contains two independent segments (e.g., 5'-Cy3-labeled DNA-C1, 3'-ROX-labeled
      DNA-C2). In the presence of ATP, ROX-DNA-C2 is dissociated from dsDNA I due to
      the formation of aptamer/ATP complex, leading to the attenuation of ROX signals,
      and meanwhile, Cy3 signals remain constant ascribed to the formation of dsDNA II
      caused by the supplementation of aptamer. As a result, ratiometric signals of the
      ratio of ROX intensity to Cy3 intensity (IROX/ICy3) can be achieved. Of
      particular significance, the developed ATP aptasensor features excellent
      reproducibility [e.g., the relative standard deviation (RSD) is less than ~4%,
      comparable or superior to that of previously reported aptasensors], ultrahigh
      sensitivity [e.g., the detection of limit (LOD) reaches 9.12 pM, lower than that
      of other reported ATP SERS aptasensors], as well as good recyclability (e.g.,
      ~9.3% of RSD values of ratiometric signals within three cycles).

PMID- 28882038
TI  - Ultradeep Lysine Crotonylome Reveals the Crotonylation Enhancement on Both
      Histones and Nonhistone Proteins by SAHA Treatment.
AB  - Lysine crotonylation is a newly discovered protein post-translational
      modification and was reported to share transferases and deacylases with lysine
      acetylation. The acetyltransferase p300 was reported to also contain
      crotonyltransferase activity, and class I histone deacetylases were demonstrated
      to be the major histone decrotonylases. However, the decrotonylases for
      nonhistone proteins are unclear. Moreover, because of the lack of high-quality
      pan-antibodies, large-scale analysis of crotonylome still remains a challenge. In
      this work, we comprehensively studied lysine crotonylome on both histones and
      nonhistone proteins upon SAHA treatment and dramatically identified 10 163 lysine
      crotonylation sites in A549 cells. This is the first identification of tens of
      thousands of lysine crotonylation sites and also the largest lysine crotonylome
      data set up to now. Moreover, a parallel-reaction-monitoring-based experiment was
      performed for validation, which presented highly consistent results with the
      SILAC experiments. By intensive bioinformatic analysis, it was found that lysine
      crotonylation participates in a wide range of biological functions and processes.
      More importantly, it was revealed that both the crotonylation and acetylation
      levels of most core histones sites and a number of nonhistone proteins as well as
      some known substrates of class IIa and IIb HDACs were up-regulated after SAHA
      treatment. These results suggest that SAHA may have decrotonylation inhibitory
      activities on both histones and nonhistone proteins by inhibiting HDACs.

PMID- 28882039
TI  - Metabolic Profiling on Alternaria Toxins and Components of Xinjiang Jujubes
      Incubated with Pathogenic Alternaria alternata and Alternaria tenuissima via
      Orbitrap High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - Xinjiang jujubes (Zizyphus rhamnaceae) are important agro-economical foods with
      the highest planting area and yields in China; however, black spot disease and
      contaminated Alternaria toxins have unfortunately caused a decline or loss of
      jujube nutritional quality in recent years. In this study, we used ultrahigh
      performance liquid chromatography coupled to Orbitrap high-resolution mass
      spectrometry to profile both Alternaria toxins and components in three
      representative Xinjiang jujubes, Hami Huang, Hetian Jun, and Ruoqiang Hui. Before
      liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, jujubes were inoculated with
      two main pathogens of Alternaria alternata (Aa) and Alternaria tenuissima (At).
      Different combinations of jujube varieties with pathogenic isolates display
      different metabolic profiles, as expected. Moreover, four major Alternaria
      toxins, alternariol, alternariol monomethyl ether, altenuene, and tenuazonic
      acid, were detected in all samples. The inoculation of both pathogens
      significantly decreased the levels of nutrients and metabolites in jujube,
      including four saponins, three organic acids, and three alkaloids, whereas it
      increased the level of several glycerol phosphates. The flavonoid profiles are
      diverse. Lastly, inoculation of Aa changes more metabolites in jujubes than At.
      Our data provide insights to better understand the detrimental contamination of
      Alternaria pathogens in Xinjiang jujubes and improve food safety of jujubes.

PMID- 28882040
TI  - Visualizing Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation and Invasion for Assessing Drug
      Efficacy with a Fluorescent Nanoprobe.
AB  - Hard-to-treat cancers are closely relative to uncontrolled cell proliferation,
      invasion, and metastasis. Assessing proliferation and invasion properties of
      tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo is especially important for acquiring
      reliable information for cancer pathogenesis, drug screening, and therapeutic
      effect evaluation. Herein, we developed a multicolor fluorescent nanoprobe for
      simultaneously monitoring breast cancer cells' proliferation marker Ki-67 and
      invasion marker urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). After treated with the
      anticancer drugs tamoxifen and curcumin, the changes in cancer cell proliferation
      and invasion properties were visually detected and therapeutic effects of
      corresponding drugs were further assessed in vitro and in vivo. The design of the
      fluorescent nanoprobe opens up an avenue for investigating unscheduled
      proliferation, invasion, and metastasis in living cells and in vivo and as such
      will be a promising tool to screen antitumor drugs and evaluate drug efficiency
      in an extremely efficient manner.

PMID- 28882041
TI  - Dynamics of Silver Nanoparticles in Aqueous Solution in the Presence of Metal
      Ions.
AB  - Using a combined UV-vis, DLS, and electrochemical approach, this work
      experimentally studies the physical origin of the observed colorimetric
      sensitivity of aqueous silver nanoparticles toward divalent metal ions. In the
      presence of Pb2+, AgNPs are slow to reversibly form agglomerates (the time scale
      of the reverse deagglomeration process is of the order of hours). This
      agglomeration is shown to be induced by complex formation between Pb2+ and
      citrate groups localized on the AgNPs, reducing surface charges (zeta-potential)
      and hence electrostatic repulsion between the AgNPs. Other divalent metal ions
      including Ca2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Co2+, and Sn2+ are also studied, and the
      resulting sizes of the AgNPs clusters and the extents of the UV-vis spectrum red
      shift in lambdamax have a strong positive correlation with the metal-ligand
      (citrate) complex formation constant (Kf). This work thus serves as a guide for
      the selection of capping agents on the basis of Kf and demonstrates the
      correlation between sizes and spectrophotometric as well as electrochemical
      responses of the AgNPs clusters. Importantly, we give further physical insights
      into the size-dependent properties of AgNPs and emphasize the difference between
      theoretical and experimental values of extinction coefficients, where the latter
      is affected by the angle-dependent scattering intensities and the measurement
      technique used.

PMID- 28882042
TI  - All-Aqueous Assemblies via Interfacial Complexation: Toward Artificial Cell and
      Microniche Development.
AB  - In nature, the environment surrounding biomolecules and living cells can dictate
      their structure, function, and properties. Confinement is a key means to define
      and regulate such environments. For example, the confinement of appropriate
      constituents in compartments facilitates the assembly, dynamics, and function of
      biochemical machineries as well as subcellular organelles. Membraneless
      organelles, in particular, are thought to form via thermodynamic cues defined
      within the interior space of cells. On larger length scales, the confinement of
      living cells dictates cellular function for both mammalian and bacterial cells.
      One promising class of artificial structures that can recapitulate these
      multiscale confinement effects is based on aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs).
      This feature article highlights recent developments in the production and
      stabilization of ATPS-droplet-based systems, with a focus on interfacial
      complexation. These systems enable structure formation, modulation, and triggered
      (dis)assembly, thereby allowing structures to be tailored to fit the desired
      function and designed for particular confinement studies. Open issues for both
      synthetic cells and niche studies are identified.

PMID- 28882043
TI  - Water Adsorption Isotherms on Fly Ash from Several Sources.
AB  - In this study, horizontal attenuated total reflection (HATR) Fourier-transform
      infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was combined with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)
      gravimetry to investigate the adsorption isotherms of water on fly ash, a
      byproduct of coal combustion in power plants. Because of composition variability
      with the source region, water uptake was studied at room temperature as a
      function of relative humidity (RH) on fly ash from several regions: United
      States, India, The Netherlands, and Germany. The FT-IR spectra show water
      features growth as a function of RH, with water absorbing on the particle surface
      in both an ordered (ice-like) and a disordered (liquid-like) structure. The QCM
      data was modeled using the Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) adsorption isotherm
      model. The BET model was found to describe the data well over the entire range of
      RH, showing that water uptake on fly ash takes place mostly on the surface of the
      particle, even for poorly combusted samples. In addition, the source region and
      power-plant efficiency play important roles in the water uptake and ice
      nucleation (IN) ability of fly ash. The difference in the observed water uptake
      and IN behavior between the four samples and mullite (3Al2O3.2SiO2), the
      aluminosilicate main component of fly ash, is attributed to differences in
      composition and the density of OH binding sites on the surface of each sample. A
      discussion is presented on the RH required to reach monolayer coverage on each
      sample as well as a comparison between surface sites of fly ash samples and
      enthalpies of adsorption of water between the samples and mullite.

PMID- 28882045
TI  - The transition to integrate palliation in cancer care.

PMID- 28882046
TI  - Do what I couldn't...and go save your life.

PMID- 28882044
TI  - Host-Guest Tethered DNA Transducer: ATP Fueled Release of a Protein Inhibitor
      from Cucurbit[7]uril.
AB  - Host-guest complexes are emerging as powerful components in functional systems
      with applications ranging from materials to biomedicine. In particular, CB7 based
      host-guest complexes have received much attention for the controlled release of
      drugs due to the remarkable ability of CB7 toward binding input molecules in
      water with high affinity leading to displacement of CB7 from included
      pharmacophores (or from drug loaded porous particles). However, the release of
      bound guests from CB7 in response to endogenous biological molecules remains
      limited since the input biomolecule needs to have the appropriate chemical
      structure to bind tightly into the CB7 cavity. Herein we describe a synthetic
      transducer based on self-assembling DNA-small molecule chimeras (DCs) that is
      capable of converting a chosen biological input, adenosine triphosphate (ATP;
      that does not directly bind to the CB7 host), into functional displacement of a
      protein inhibitor that is bound within the CB7 host. Our system-which features
      the first example of a covalent CB-DNA conjugate-is highly modular and can be
      adapted to enable responsiveness to other biologically/clinically relevant
      stimuli via its split DNA aptamer architecture.

PMID- 28882047
TI  - Transitions in cancer care-moving from crisis intervention to care planning and
      management.

PMID- 28882048
TI  - Project ECHO: an effective means of increasing palliative care capacity.

PMID- 28882049
TI  - The carrot or stick? integrating palliative care into oncology practice.

PMID- 28882050
TI  - Transitions of care in patients with cancer.

PMID- 28882051
TI  - Temperament, coping, and involuntary stress responses in preadolescent children:
      the moderating role of achievement goal orientation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Developmental theorists posit that temperament
      contributes to preadolescent's stress response styles. Findings from empirical
      studies, however, have yielded mixed results, thus indicating a need to consider
      moderators of this relation. Utilizing an analytic framework guided by resiliency
      theory [Zimmerman, M. A. (2013). Resiliency theory: A strengths-based approach to
      research and practice for adolescent health. Health Education & Behavior, 40, 381
      383], this study examined achievement goal orientation as a moderator of the
      relation between temperament and stress response styles. METHODS: 96
      preadolescent-parent dyads (Mage = 10.30 years, range = 9-12 years) participated
      in the study. Preadolescents reported on their achievement goal orientation,
      coping and involuntary stress responses (ISRs) styles and a parent reported on
      children's temperament. RESULTS: Multiple regressions revealed that effortful
      control positively predicted preadolescent's predominant use of engagement coping
      and negatively predicted predominance of ISRs, but only for children with a
      predominant mastery goal orientation. For preadolescents with a predominant
      performance goal orientation, effortful control negatively predicted the
      predominant use of engagement coping and positively predicted predominance of
      ISRs. Negative affectivity and its interaction with goal orientation did not
      predict coping or ISR styles. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that a predominant
      mastery goal orientation may function as a promotive factor by enhancing the
      contribution of effortful control to engagement coping styles and buffering
      against unmanaged reactivity.

PMID- 28882053
TI  - Naphthoquinone rich Onosma visianii Clem (Boraginaceae) root extracts induce
      apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in HCT-116 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines.
AB  - In the present study, five root extracts of Onosma visianii Clem were
      investigated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity. On the basis of HPLC-PDA
      analysis, these extracts have proved to be a rich source of naphthoquinones as
      natural colourants for food and cosmetic industry. All investigated root extracts
      contain acetylshikonin, isobutyrylshikonin and alpha-methylbutyrylshikonin as
      major compounds. As the most abundant source of active compounds for antitumour
      therapy, acetone, chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts showed strong cytotoxic
      activity towards HCT-116 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines. Also, these extracts
      induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in HCT-116 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell
      lines.

PMID- 28882052
TI  - An Optimized and Validated Method for Isolation and Characterization of
      Lymphocytes from HIV+ Human Gut Biopsies.
AB  - The gastrointestinal (GI) tract harbors most of the body's immune cells and is
      also a major HIV reservoir in ART-treated patients. To achieve a cure, most HIV
      infected cells must be identified and eliminated. While obtaining gut biopsies is
      a relatively noninvasive method of sampling relevant tissue for monitoring HIV
      activity, immune cell isolation from these limited tissue samples has proven to
      be challenging. Enzymatic tissue digestion is required for maximal immune cell
      isolation from gut biopsies. However, these enzymatic digestions can also be
      detrimental for preservation of cellular surface markers that are required for
      accurate identification of various subsets of leukocytes. In this study, we
      describe an optimized protocol for isolation of lymphocytes from human gut
      biopsies. We also discuss our validation results, which show that compared with
      several other collagenase preparations, the use of CSLPA maintains high
      lymphocyte recovery while preserving the integrity of most cellular surface
      antigens that we tested. Importantly, chemokine receptors that are used to
      characterize various subsets of T cells, which are notorious for being digested
      during a typical enzymatic tissue digestion, are highly preserved using this
      protocol.

PMID- 28882054
TI  - Determination of the Problems Experienced by Patients Post-Thyroidectomy.
AB  - This descriptive, cross-sectional study investigated problems experienced by
      patients after undergoing a thyroidectomy. The study included 60 first-time, post
      thyroidectomy patients diagnosed with benign thyroid disease from a university
      hospital's general surgery clinic in Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected in
      two stages: interviews with patients on the first day following surgery and
      postoperative follow-up telephone interviews in each of the first 4 weeks
      following surgery. The follow-ups revealed that patients principally experienced
      varying degrees of pain and difficulties in connection with work and recreation,
      communication, body image, and movement, for up to 4 weeks after surgery. These
      results showed that patients were particularly prone to problems on the first day
      and during the first week of the postoperative period; therefore, patients should
      be provided with follow-up telephone interviews to facilitate easier recovery and
      to help them overcome any problems experienced during the postoperative period.

PMID- 28882055
TI  - Comparison of neuroprotective effect of Forsythia suspensa leaf extract and
      forsythiaside, one of its metabolites.
AB  - As one of authentic Chinese medicinal materials in Shanxi Province, leaves of
      Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl (F. suspensa, Lianqiao in Chinese) have been
      used as alternative for the relief or treatment of inflammation. The study aimed
      to compare the neuroprotective effects of extract from F. suspensa leaves and
      forsythiaside against inflammation and apoptosis induced by lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS) on hippocampal slices. The cultured hippocampal slices were treated with
      extract (5 and 50 MUg/mL) and forsythiaside (5 and 50 MUg/mL), respectively,
      followed by LPS treatment for 24 h. The present study showed that 60% ethanol
      extract of F. suspensa leaves exhibited better neuroprotective effect than
      equivalent forsythiaside.

PMID- 28882056
TI  - Multiscale Imaging of HIV-1 Transmission in Humanized Mice.

PMID- 28882057
TI  - Interethnic DNA methylation difference and its implications in
      pharmacoepigenetics.
AB  - AIM: This is the first systematic study to examine the population differentiation
      effect of DNA methylation on the treatment response and drug absorption,
      distribution, metabolism and excretion in multiple tissue types and cancer types.
      MATERIALS & METHODS: We analyzed the whole methylome and transcriptome data of
      primary tumor tissues of four cancer types (breast, colon, head & neck and
      uterine corpus) and lymphoblastoid cell lines for African and European ancestry
      populations. RESULTS: Ethnicity-associated CpG sites exhibited similar
      methylation patterns in the two studied populations, but the patterns differed
      between tumor tissues and lymphoblastoid cell lines. Ethnicity-associated CpG
      sites may have triggered gene expression, influenced drug absorption,
      distribution, metabolism and excretion, and showed tumor-specific patterns of
      methylation and gene regulation. CONCLUSION: Ethnicity should be carefully
      accounted for in future pharmacoepigenetics research.

PMID- 28882058
TI  - Role of acoustic radiation force impulse and shear wave velocity in prediction of
      preterm birth: a prospective study.
AB  - Background Preterm birth is one of the important causes of neonatal morbidity
      where we rely on subjective criteria such as modified Bishop's scoring and
      contemporary sonographic measurement of cervical length. Acoustic radiation force
      impulse (ARFI) is a technological advancement in elastography that can be
      employed in prediction of cervical softening and preterm labor. Purpose To
      evaluate the role of ARFI technique and shear wave velocity (SWV) estimates as a
      predictor of preterm birth and its comparison with other clinical and sono
      elastographic measures. Material and Methods Thirty-four pregnant women
      (gestation age = 28-37 weeks age) showing features suggestive of preterm labor
      were included and evaluated with modified Bishop's score, cervical length by
      ultrasound (US), ARFI to derive Elastography index (EI), and SWV of the cervix.
      The patients were later divided into two groups, using the clinical outcome of
      preterm or term delivery. Results Twenty patients delivered at term (gestational
      age > 37 weeks) and 14 were preterm. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC)
      curves showed SWV with highest sensitivity and specificity (93% and 90%,
      respectively) for the prediction of preterm birth at a cutoff value of 2.83 m/s.
      EI and modified Bishop's score were comparable to each other, but were less
      sensitive techniques. Conclusion Elastographic assessment of antenatal cervix is
      a novel technique of virtual palpation of internal os and can be utilized as an
      objective criterion for preterm birth prediction.

PMID- 28882059
TI  - MRI evaluation of ligaments and tendons of foot arch in talar dome osteochondral
      lesions.
AB  - Background There are no publications in literature describing an association
      between disorders of the ligaments and tendons supporting the foot arch and
      osteochondral lesions of the talus (OCLT). We believe there may be a correlation
      between the damage of these structures. Purpose To investigate the pathologies of
      main ligaments and tendons that support the foot arch in sprained ankles, by
      reviewing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies and comparing the results in
      two groups of patients, with and without OCLT. Material and Methods MR images
      from 316 patients examined in the orthopedic clinic for ankle sprain were
      evaluated for pathologic findings of the plantar fascia, short and long plantar
      ligaments, spring ligament, sinus tarsi, and ankle tendons supporting the foot
      arch. Findings were compared between two groups of patients: 158 patients with
      OCLT and 158 patients without OCLT. Results Plantar fascia, short plantar
      ligament, and spring ligament abnormalities were seen in 50 (31.6%), 28 (17.7%),
      and 60 (38%) patients with OCLT, and in nine (5.6%), three (1.9%), and 18 (11.4%)
      patients without OCLT, respectively ( P < 0.05). Sinus tarsi and tendon
      abnormalities were seen in 11 (6.7%) and nine (5.7%) patients with OCLT, and in
      eight (5%) and eight (5%) patients without OCLT, respectively ( P > 0.05). Two or
      more associated abnormalities were present in 50 (31.6%) patients with OCLT and
      in 11 (6.7%) without OCLT ( P < 0.05). Conclusion Plantar fascia, short plantar
      ligament, and spring ligament abnormalities were commonly seen in patients with
      OCLT on MRI, while sinus tarsi and tendon abnormalities were not. Concomitant
      pathologies have an increased incidence in patients with OCLT.

PMID- 28882060
TI  - MRI assessment of pituitary iron accumulation by using pituitary-R2 in beta
      thalassemia patients.
AB  - Background Patients with thalassemia major (TM) require repeated blood
      transfusions, which leads to accumulation of iron in a wide variety of tissues.
      Accumulation of iron in the pituitary gland can lead to irreversible
      hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) in this group of patients. Purpose To
      investigate the reliability of pituitary-R2 as a marker to estimate the extent of
      pituitary iron load by comparing the pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      findings with hepatic iron load and serum ferritin levels. Material and Methods A
      total of 38 beta-TM patients were classified into HH (group A, n = 18) and non-HH
      (group B, n = 17) groups. A third group, group C, consisted of 17 healthy
      participants. Each participant underwent 1.5-T MRI examinations. Pituitary gland
      heights (PGH), pituitary-R2 values, and liver-R2 values were measured by using
      multi-echo spin-echo sequences. Results Pituitary-R2 values were significantly
      higher in group A compared with group B ( P < 0.05). A positive correlation was
      detected between the pituitary-R2 values and serum ferritin levels in TM patients
      ( P < 0.01). A threshold value of 14.1 Hz for pituitary-R2 was found to give a
      high specificity and sensitivity in distinguishing the TM patients with HH from
      those with normal pituitary functions. PGH measurements were significantly lower
      in group A compared with group B ( P < 0.05). Conclusion MRI-assessed pituitary
      R2 seems to be a reliable marker for differentiating the TM patients with normal
      pituitary function from those with secondary hypogonadism due to iron toxicity.

PMID- 28882061
TI  - Feasibility of a home-based exercise intervention with remote guidance for
      patients with stable grade II and III gliomas: a pilot randomized controlled
      trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this pilot study, we investigated the feasibility of a home-based,
      remotely guided exercise intervention for patients with gliomas. DESIGN: Pilot
      randomized controlled trial (RCT) with randomization (2:1) to exercise or control
      group. SUBJECTS: Patients with stable grade II and III gliomas. INTERVENTION: The
      six-month intervention included three home-based exercise sessions per week at
      60%-85% of maximum heart rate. Participants wore heart rate monitors connected to
      an online platform to record activities that were monitored weekly by the
      physiotherapist. MAIN MEASURES: Accrual, attrition, adherence, safety,
      satisfaction, patient-reported physical activity, VO2 peak (by maximal
      cardiopulmonary exercise testing) and body mass index (BMI) at baseline and at
      six-month follow-up. RESULTS: In all, 34 of 136 eligible patients (25%) were
      randomized to exercise training ( N = 23) or the control group ( N = 11), of whom
      19 and 9, respectively, underwent follow-up. Mean adherence to prescribed
      sessions was 79%. Patients' experiences were positive. There were no adverse
      events. Compared to the control group, the exercise group showed larger
      improvements in absolute VO2 peak (+158.9 mL/min; 95% CI: -44.8 to 362.5) and BMI
      (-0.3 kg/m2; 95% CI: -0.9 to 0.2). The median increase in physical activity was
      1489 metabolic equivalent of task (MET) minutes higher in the exercise group. The
      most reported reasons for non-participation were lack of motivation or time.
      CONCLUSION: This innovative and intensive home-based exercise intervention was
      feasible in a small subset of patients with stable gliomas who were interested in
      exercising. The observed effects suggest that the programme may improve
      cardiorespiratory fitness. These results support the need for large-scale trials
      of exercise interventions in brain tumour patients.

PMID- 28882063
TI  - Increased serum concentrations of NE-carboxymethyllysine are related to the
      presence and the severity of rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Background There are limited data regarding the contribution of advanced
      glycation end products in the presence of rheumatoid arthritis. We investigated
      whether serum NE-carboxymethyllysine and pentosidine were related to the presence
      and the severity of rheumatoid arthritis. Methods Eighty patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis and 30 control subjects were included in a cross-sectional study. The
      severity of rheumatoid arthritis was assessed using the disease activity score
      for 28 joints. Serum NE-carboxymethyllysine and pentosidine were measured by
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Serum NE-carboxymethyllysine and
      pentosidine concentrations were significantly higher in patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis vs. control subjects ( P < 0.001). Serum NE-carboxymethyllysine and
      pentosidine concentrations were significantly higher in rheumatoid arthritis
      patients with high disease activity vs. rheumatoid arthritis patients with
      moderate disease activity ( P < 0.001, P = 0.019, respectively). A multiple
      logistic regression analysis demonstrated that NE-carboxymethyllysine was
      independently associated with the presence of rheumatoid arthritis (OR = 1.21,
      95% CI: 1.05-1.39, P = 0.006). Furthermore, in a multivariate stepwise regression
      analysis, NE-carboxymethyllysine was independently correlated with disease
      activity score for 28 joints (standardized beta = 0.43, P = 0.001). Conclusion
      Serum NE-carboxymethyllysine and pentosidine were increased during rheumatoid
      arthritis, and NE-carboxymethyllysine was independently associated with the
      presence and the severity of rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID- 28882064
TI  - Development of a novel fluorescent activity assay for lecithin:cholesterol
      acyltransferase.
AB  - Background Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) is a plasma enzyme that
      esterifies cholesterol. Recombinant human LCAT (rhLCAT) is now being developed as
      an enzyme replacement therapy for familial LCAT deficiency and as a possible
      treatment for acute coronary syndrome. The current 'gold standard' assay for LCAT
      activity involves the use of radioisotopes, thus making it difficult for routine
      clinical use. Methods We have developed a novel and more convenient LCAT activity
      assay using fluorescence-labelled cholesterol (BODIPY-cholesterol), which is
      incorporated into proteoliposomes as a substrate instead of radiolabelled
      cholesterol. Results The apparent Km and Vmax were 31.5  umol/L and 55.8
      nmol/h/nmoL, rhLCAT, respectively, for the 3H-cholesterol method and 103.1 
      umol/L and 13.4 nmol/h/nmol rhLCAT, respectively, for the BODIPY-cholesterol
      method. Although the two assays differed in their absolute units of LCAT
      activity, there was a good correlation between the two test assays ( r = 0.849, P
      < 1.6 * 10-7, y = 0.1378x + 1.106). The BODIPY-cholesterol assay had an intra
      assay CV of 13.7%, which was superior to the intra-assay CV of 20.8% for the
      radioisotopic assay. The proteoliposome substrate made with BODIPY-cholesterol
      was stable to storage for at least 10 months. The reference range ( n = 20) for
      the fluorescent LCAT activity assay was 4.6-24.1 U/mL/h in healthy subjects.
      Conclusions In summary, a novel fluorescent LCAT activity assay that utilizes
      BODIPY-cholesterol as a substrate is described that yields comparable results to
      the radioisotopic method.

PMID- 28882065
TI  - Serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein is associated with dietary intakes in
      diabetic patients with and without hypertension: a cross-sectional study.
AB  - Background Serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentrations
      independently predict the development of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and
      cardiovascular disease. However, the impact of dietary factors on serum high
      sensitive C-reactive protein concentrations in diabetic patients has received
      limited attention. We aimed to investigate the association between dietary
      factors and high-sensitive C-reactive protein , among diabetic patients with and
      without hypertension and healthy subjects. Methods In this cross-sectional study,
      diabetics with ( n = 325) and without hypertension ( n = 599) and healthy
      individuals ( n = 1220) were recruited in Mashhad, Iran. Dietary intake was
      assessed by 24-h recall. Biochemical parameters including serum high-sensitive C
      reactive protein were measured using standard protocols. Stepwise multiple
      regression analysis was used to predict whether serum high-sensitive C-reactive
      protein concentration was associated with dietary constituents. Results High
      sensitive C-reactive protein was significantly higher among hypertensive and non
      hypertensive diabetic patients compared with healthy subjects ( P < 0.001). The
      dietary intake of zinc + 6.4% and calcium -3.4% and body mass index +3.9%
      explained approximately 13.7% of the variation in serum high-sensitive C-reactive
      protein among diabetic hypertensive patients. Approximately 9.7% of the variation
      in serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein in diabetic non-hypertensive patients
      could be explained by body mass index, and intake of sodium, iron and
      cholesterol. In the healthy subjects, approximately 4.4% of the total variation
      in serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein concentration could be explained by
      cholesterol consumption and waist circumference. Conclusion Serum high-sensitive
      C-reactive protein concentrations were found to be a significant predictor for
      hypertensive and non-hypertensive diabetic subjects. There was a significant
      association between dietary factors include zinc, iron, sodium and cholesterol
      and serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein, while there was an inverse
      association between dietary calcium and serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein
      in diabetic hypertensive individuals.

PMID- 28882062
TI  - Remodeling of Sensorimotor Brain Connectivity in Gpr88-Deficient Mice.
AB  - Recent studies have demonstrated that orchestrated gene activity and expression
      support synchronous activity of brain networks. However, there is a paucity of
      information on the consequences of single gene function on overall brain
      functional organization and connectivity and how this translates at the
      behavioral level. In this study, we combined mouse mutagenesis with functional
      and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine whether targeted
      inactivation of a single gene would modify whole-brain connectivity in live
      animals. The targeted gene encodes GPR88 (G protein-coupled receptor 88), an
      orphan G protein-coupled receptor enriched in the striatum and previously linked
      to behavioral traits relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders. Connectivity
      analysis of Gpr88-deficient mice revealed extensive remodeling of intracortical
      and cortico-subcortical networks. Most prominent modifications were observed at
      the level of retrosplenial cortex connectivity, central to the default mode
      network (DMN) whose alteration is considered a hallmark of many psychiatric
      conditions. Next, somatosensory and motor cortical networks were most affected.
      These modifications directly relate to sensorimotor gating deficiency reported in
      mutant animals and also likely underlie their hyperactivity phenotype. Finally,
      we identified alterations within hippocampal and dorsal striatum functional
      connectivity, most relevant to a specific learning deficit that we previously
      reported in Gpr88-/- animals. In addition, amygdala connectivity with cortex and
      striatum was weakened, perhaps underlying the risk-taking behavior of these
      animals. This is the first evidence demonstrating that GPR88 activity shapes the
      mouse brain functional and structural connectome. The concordance between
      connectivity alterations and behavior deficits observed in Gpr88-deficient mice
      suggests a role for GPR88 in brain communication.

PMID- 28882066
TI  - Programmatic Moderators of CBT Correctional Treatment for Whites and African
      Americans.
AB  - A recent experimental evaluation of a cognitive behavioral intervention (
      Reasoning and Rehabilitation) reported significantly greater reductions in
      recidivism for White male parolees than African American male parolees. These
      results prompted the present examination of whether specific program conditions
      may have differentially impacted program outcomes (returns to prison) for White (
      n = 141) and African American ( n = 318) participants. Study participants were
      tracked for up to 33 months on parole. Discrete-time event history analysis
      tested for race interactions with the following program attributes: facilitator
      gender, facilitator race, number of facilitators, class size, and the
      facilitators' evaluations of parolee participation on measures pertaining to
      level of participation, enjoyment, understanding, atmosphere and use of skills in
      the program. The gender of the facilitator, the number of facilitators, and sizes
      of the classes differentially affected success rates for African Americans
      compared with Whites. African American participants achieved more favorable
      outcomes with female facilitators than male facilitators, and when class sizes
      and the number of facilitators conformed to program guidelines. No statistically
      significant interaction effects were found for race of the facilitator, or
      facilitator evaluations of parolee participation.

PMID- 28882068
TI  - Self-esteem and hope mediate the relations between social support and post
      traumatic stress disorder and growth in adolescents following the Ya'an
      earthquake.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Although posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and
      posttraumatic growth (PTG) can co-exist, and several theories suggest that social
      support, self-esteem, and hope can predict both PTSD and PTG, no study to date
      has examined the combined role of social support, self-esteem, and hope in PTSD
      and PTG. The present study aimed to simultaneously examine the mediating roles of
      self-esteem and hope in the relations between social support and PTSD, and
      between social support and PTG. DESIGN: This study included 397 adolescents
      living in Lushan County, China, who were affected by the Ya'an earthquake.
      METHOD: The participants completed the self-report questionnaires at two and a
      half years after the earthquake. Structural equation models were built to examine
      the roles of social support, self-esteem, and hope in PTSD and PTG. RESULTS:
      Social support directly and negatively predicted PTSD and positively predicted
      PTG. Moreover, social support negatively predicted PTSD via self-esteem, and
      positively predicted PTG via hope. In addition, social support positively
      predicted PTG through multiple mediating paths from self-esteem to hope.
      CONCLUSIONS: PTSD and PTG had different predictive paths. Specifically, social
      support reduced PTSD through enhanced self-esteem and promoted PTG through hope,
      or through the path from self-esteem to hope.

PMID- 28882069
TI  - ORCID Identifiers: Personalized Authorship.

PMID- 28882070
TI  - Isolation of a larvicidal compound from Piper solmsianum C.DC. (Piperaceae).
AB  - The Aedes aegypti mosquito is one of the major vectors of arboviruses. These
      diseases have re-emerged and the insecticides used nowadays are toxic to mammals
      and environment and have only been effective in the short-term. In this context,
      natural products are an alternative. The genus Piper has many active compounds
      against arthropods, including neolignans. The present study evaluated the
      larvicidal potential of the n-hexanic extract of Piper solmsianum and
      eupomatenoid-6, identified by GC-MS and NMR techniques, from this extract against
      Ae. aegypti. The crude extract (100 MUg/mL) killed 80% and 98.3% of larvae in the
      first and third day, respectively. Eupomatenoid-6 exhibited LD50 of 19.33 MUM and
      LD90 of 28.68 MUM and was then assayed in human fibroblast cells (MRC5), showing
      an IC50 of 39.30 MUM with estimated LD50 of 42.26 mmol/kg. Our results indicate
      eupomatenoid-6 as a potent insecticide with relatively low toxicity for mammals.

PMID- 28882071
TI  - "Wearing My Spiritual Jacket": The Role of Spirituality as a Coping Mechanism
      Among African American Youth.
AB  - There is growing evidence in the theoretical literature regarding the importance
      of religion and religiosity in people's lives, particularly concerning their
      health and well-being. Spirituality, a related but different concept, has been
      less well studied, especially empirically, but shows promise as a mechanism for
      coping with deleterious social and health circumstances. This article details a
      qualitative exploration of the role of spiritual coping in the lives of urban
      African American youth. Data were gathered through in-depth, semistructured
      interviews with 20 African American youth, ages 12 to 20 years. The findings
      indicate that urban African American youth have multifaceted dimensions of their
      spirituality, including the role of prayer in their lives, an unwavering faith in
      a higher power, and the importance of giving back to their communities. Such
      findings offer counterstories, generated through ethnographic research, to the
      dominant discourses regarding urban African American youth. Ultimately, this
      study's findings have implications for research and practice related to the
      mechanisms of both ill-health and wellness among youth.

PMID- 28882072
TI  - Women's experiences of exercise as a treatment for their postnatal depression: A
      nested qualitative study.
AB  - Women with postnatal depression are often reluctant to take medication
      postnatally and access to psychological therapies is limited. Exercise offers a
      freely available treatment option but depressed mothers' experience of exercise
      has not been investigated. We conducted a qualitative study nested within a
      randomised trial of an exercise intervention for women with postnatal depression.
      Women described deterioration in their sense of identity postnatally and through
      experiencing depression and described the positive impact exercise had on their
      sense of self. Views of exercise as treatment for postnatal depression ranged
      from doubts about its practicality to positive comparisons with other traditional
      treatments and to improved recovery.

PMID- 28882073
TI  - Qualitative Research Methods to Advance Research on Health Inequities Among
      Previously Incarcerated Women Living With HIV in Alabama.
AB  - Justice-involved HIV-positive women have poor health outcomes that constitute
      health inequities. Researchers have yet to embrace the range of qualitative
      methods to elucidate how psychosocial histories are connected to pathways of
      vulnerability to HIV and incarceration for this key population. We used life
      course narratives and intersubjectivity-predicated on interview dialogue-to
      investigate how familial and social settings established their social patterning
      of HIV, incarceration risk, and poor health. Working with two Alabama community
      based organizations, we recruited and interviewed 24 HIV-positive cisgender women
      with cyclical incarceration. We analyzed the data by charting women's life
      histories and conducting iterative content analyses. Participants described
      chaotic home environments, marked by exposure to trauma in childhood. The
      majority experienced repeated sexual and physical abuse that went undiagnosed and
      untreated until adulthood. Adolescence and young adulthood were characterized by
      onset of substance use, violent intimate partnerships, and subsequent behavioral
      and mental health problems. In adulthood, risk behaviors persisted for decades
      and women lacked mental health treatment and social support. Life course
      narratives and intersubjectivity contributed to knowledge by affording agency to
      marginalized participants to reflect on and narrate their life stories;
      instilling needed trust for researchers to investigate the complex risk pathways
      and psychosocial histories with this population; illuminating the nature, timing,
      sequence, and frequency of events underlying women's vulnerability and exposure
      to HIV and incarceration; and clarifying that early shaping events in childhood
      are connected to later risk environments and behaviors in adolescence and
      adulthood, suggesting the need for earlier interventions than are typically
      proposed.

PMID- 28882074
TI  - Body appreciation, anxiety, and depression among a racially diverse sample of
      women.
AB  - This study aims to explore correlates between body appreciation and mental health
      among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of adult women using validated
      measures. The sample included racially and ethnically diverse women ( N = 497)
      from various socioeconomic levels. Linear regression results indicated that body
      appreciation was significantly and inversely associated with depression ( b = 
      3.68; p < 0.001). In this sample, as body appreciation increased, depression
      scores decreased. Similarly, body appreciation was significantly and inversely
      associated with anxiety among this sample ( b = -1.78; p < 0.001). This article
      concludes with a discussion of findings and implications.

PMID- 28882067
TI  - Differentiating Immune Cell Targets in Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue for HIV
      Cure.
AB  - The single greatest challenge to an HIV cure is the persistence of latently
      infected cells containing inducible, replication-competent proviral genomes,
      which constitute only a small fraction of total or infected cells in the body.
      Although resting CD4+ T cells in the blood are a well-known source of viral
      rebound, more than 90% of the body's lymphocytes reside elsewhere. Many are in
      gut tissue, where HIV DNA levels per million CD4+ T cells are considerably higher
      than in the blood. Despite the significant contribution of gut tissue to viral
      replication and persistence, little is known about the cell types that support
      persistence of HIV in the gut; importantly, T cells in the gut have phenotypic,
      functional, and survival properties that are distinct from T cells in other
      tissues. The mechanisms by which latency is established and maintained will
      likely depend on the location and cytokine milieu surrounding the latently
      infected cells in each compartment. Therefore, successful HIV cure strategies
      require identification and characterization of the exact cell types that support
      viral persistence, particularly in the gut. In this review, we describe the
      seeding of the latent HIV reservoir in the gut mucosa; highlight the evidence for
      compartmentalization and depletion of T cells; summarize the immunologic
      consequences of HIV infection within the gut milieu; propose how the damaged gut
      environment may promote the latent HIV reservoir; and explore several immune cell
      targets in the gut and their place on the path toward HIV cure.

PMID- 28882075
TI  - Comparative treatment-related adverse event cost burden in immune
      thrombocytopenic purpura.
AB  - AIMS: Real-world evidence on the safety profile and costs associated with immune
      thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) treatment in adults is lacking. This study
      quantifies and compares adverse event (AE) crude rates and costs associated with
      ITP treatments as found in claims data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective
      claims-based analysis was conducted using IMS Pharmetrics Plus database. Included
      patients were >=18 years old, with a diagnosis of ITP (2007-2012); an ITP-related
      claim for anti-D, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), rituximab, romiplostim, or
      eltrombopag; and 1-year continuous enrollment (3-years for rituximab) during
      follow-up. AEs and event costs were identified during active treatment, defined
      from the first claim of each drug to a pre-defined treatment gap or end of study
      period. Descriptive statistics were reported with Wilcoxon rank-sum significance
      tests. RESULTS: A total of 2,518 patients were identified (mean age = 50.8 (+/
      16.3 years); 55.8% male). Of all patients, 22.8% experienced any AE.
      Significantly fewer anti-D patients had any AE (13.8% vs IVIG: 21.1%, rituximab:
      29.4%, romiplostim: 28.1%, eltrombopag: 22.4%). Nausea/vomiting and
      arthralgia/musculoskeletal pain were most common across treatments, and hemolytic
      events did not differ significantly across treatments. Most costly AEs were
      urinary tract infection, aseptic meningitis, and fever ($5000+/case); headache,
      nasal congestion, and hemolytic event were $4,000-5,000/case. Cost per AE did not
      differ by treatment. LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: Although lower than trial-based
      AE rates, claims for ITP treatment-related AEs are common, with higher numbers
      for rituximab and lower numbers for anti-D. This disparity suggests a possible
      differential cost burden overall that future analysis should explore.

PMID- 28882076
TI  - Assessing Health Promotion Interventions: Limitations of Traditional Research
      Methods in Community-Based Studies.
AB  - Most low-income Americans fail to meet physical activity recommendations.
      Inactivity and poor diet contribute to obesity, a risk factor for multiple
      chronic diseases. Health promotion activities have the potential to improve
      health outcomes for low-income populations. Measuring the effectiveness of these
      activities, however, can be challenging in community settings. A "Biking for
      Health" study tested the impact of a bicycling intervention on overweight or
      obese low-income Latino and African American adults to reduce barriers to cycling
      and increase physical activity and fitness. A randomized controlled trial was
      conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in summer 2015. A 12-week bicycling
      intervention was implemented at two sites with low-income, overweight, or obese
      Latino and African American adults. We found that randomized controlled trial
      methodology was suboptimal for use in this small pilot study and that it
      negatively affected participation. More discussion is needed about the
      effectiveness of using traditional research methods in community settings to
      assess the effectiveness of health promotion interventions. Modifications or
      alternative methods may yield better results. The aim of this article is to
      discuss the effectiveness and feasibility of using traditional research methods
      to assess health promotion interventions in community-based settings.

PMID- 28882077
TI  - Review: the potential impact of surface crystalline states of titanium for
      biomedical applications.
AB  - In many biomedical applications, titanium forms an interface with tissues, which
      is crucial to ensure its long-term stability and safety. In order to exert
      control over this process, titanium implants have been treated with various
      methods that induce physicochemical changes at nano and microscales. In the past
      20 years, most of the studies have been conducted to see the effect of
      topographical and physicochemical changes of titanium surface after surface
      treatments on cells behavior and bacteria adhesion. In this review, we will first
      briefly present some of these surface treatments either chemical or physical and
      we explain the biological responses to titanium with a specific focus on adverse
      immune reactions. More recently, a new trend has emerged in titanium surface
      science with a focus on the crystalline phase of titanium dioxide and the
      associated biological responses. In these recent studies, rutile and anatase are
      the major two polymorphs used for biomedical applications. In the second part of
      this review, we consider this emerging topic of the control of the crystalline
      phase of titanium and discuss its potential biological impacts. More in-depth
      analysis of treatment-related surface crystalline changes can significantly
      improve the control over titanium/host tissue interface and can result in
      considerable decreases in implant-related complications, which is currently a big
      burden on the healthcare system.

PMID- 28882078
TI  - Detection of fetal duplication 16p11.2q12.1 by next-generation sequencing of
      maternal plasma and invasive diagnosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of study is to report the feasibility of non-invasive
      prenatal screening (NIPS) combined with invasive detection by chromosomal
      analysis in identifying fetal duplication, providing clinical performance of NIPS
      on copy number variations (CNVs) detection. MATERIAL AND METHODS: NIPS was
      offered to a 35-year-old pregnant woman. Amniocentesis was performed to confirm
      the positive screening result. Fetal sample was detected by karyotyping,
      fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and chromosomal microarray (CMA).
      Parental karyotyping was also conducted. RESULTS: NIPS result was positive for
      chromosome 16, indicating an extra copy of chromosome 16. FISH and chromosomal
      karyotyping revealed that the fetus had a marker chromosome derived from
      chromosome 16. CMA further demonstrated an approximately 19-Mb duplication in
      chromosome 16. The final fetal karyotype was 47,XY,+mar. ish der (16)(D16Z3+).arr
      16p11.2q12.1 (30 624 186-49 696 337 * 3). Ultrasound scan and MRI showed some
      structure malformations. CONCLUSIONS: A protocol for CNVs detection by combining
      a series of genetic methods was presented in this study and a novel marker
      duplication 16p11.2q12.1 was reported. With the ability to identify
      subchromosomal deletions and duplications in fetus, NIPS could reduce the
      possibility of invasive diagnosis. The followed confirmation test for positive
      sample is necessary and ensures the accuracy of the diagnosis.

PMID- 28882079
TI  - Using Qualitative Methods to Understand Perceptions of Risk and Condom Use in
      African American College Women: Implications for Sexual Health Promotion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Young African American women are disproportionately affected with
      sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintentional pregnancies. Despite
      adequate knowledge, assertiveness, and negotiation skills, consistent condom use
      remains low. AIMS: We sought to assess the role of pregnancy and STI risk
      perception in condom decision making among African American women. METHOD: We
      conducted a phenomenological qualitative study. Utilizing a purposive sampling
      strategy, 100 African American women (18-24 years) were recruited from a
      historically Black college and university for an open discussion of condom use.
      Thirteen focus groups were conducted via a semistructured interview guide and
      analyzed with an inductive thematic approach. RESULTS: Uniformly women perceived
      pregnancy as a greater threat than STIs which appears to be maintained by (a)
      their sense of fertility, (b) self-care concept, and (c) experiences with condom
      failure. Thus, women were skeptical about using condoms as a form of
      contraception. Women perceived casual sex as having the greatest HIV/STI risk and
      emphasized the importance of assertiveness and self-respect to negotiate condom
      use. However, condom use in monogamous relationships is less likely due to (a)
      testing/knowing partner's status, (b) relationship trust, and (c) the use of
      hormonal contraception for pregnancy prevention. Perceived threat of infidelity
      increases condom use. CONCLUSION: The implications of these findings suggest
      sexual health promotion programs may focus on improving women's estimate of the
      effectiveness of condoms to prevent pregnancy and addressing women's reliance on
      testing for STI prevention.

PMID- 28882080
TI  - Use of the Nellix Endovascular Aneurysm Sealing System in Combination With
      Parallel Grafts for the Treatment of a Symptomatic Type V Thoracoabdominal Aortic
      Aneurysm.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report endovascular treatment of a symptomatic type V
      thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) using the combined techniques of
      endovascular aneurysm sealing and parallel stent-grafts. CASE REPORT: A 70-year
      old man was referred with a symptomatic type V TAAA. The Nellix EndoVascular
      Aneurysm Sealing (EVAS) System was used in combination with 2 chimney grafts for
      the celiac artery (CA) and the superior mesenteric artery (SMA); one periscope
      graft perfused the right renal artery. Completion angiography showed exclusion of
      the aneurysm and patency of all 3 parallel grafts but occlusion of the left renal
      artery (LRA) due to unintentional coverage of its ostium by the Nellix endobags.
      Antegrade catheterization of the LRA failed, requiring implantation of an
      aortorenal vein bypass. The postoperative course was complicated by acute kidney
      injury. Imaging at 6 months showed sustained exclusion of the aneurysm, patency
      of the CA and SMA parallel grafts and left aortorenal bypass but occlusion of the
      right renal artery periscope graft. Serum creatinine at 6 months was 1.5 mg/dL.
      CONCLUSION: The combination of EVAS with parallel grafts for preservation of the
      visceral vessels may be a feasible technique to treat selected TAAAs in the acute
      setting when other options are not applicable.

PMID- 28882081
TI  - Assessment of time management skills: psychometric properties of the Swedish
      version.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Persons with impaired time management skills are often in need of
      occupational therapy. Valid and reliable instruments to assess time management
      and organizational skills are needed for the evaluation of intervention. The
      purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Swedish
      version of the Assessment of Time Management Skills (ATMS-S) for persons with and
      without impaired time management skills. METHOD: A total of 238 persons
      participated in the study, of whom 94 had self-reported impaired time management
      skills due to mental disorders such as schizophrenic spectrum or
      neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
      (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mild intellectual disabilities, and
      144 persons had no reported impaired time management skills. Rasch analysis was
      used to analyze data. RESULTS: Three subscales were detected: the time management
      subscale with 11 items, the organization & planning subscale with 11 items, and
      the subscale of regulation of emotions with 5 items, with excellent to acceptable
      psychometric properties. The conclusions were that: ATMS-S is a valid instrument
      for self-rating of time management, organization & planning and for the
      regulation of emotions. ATMS-S can be useful for persons with mental disorders
      including mild neurodevelopmental disorders.

PMID- 28882082
TI  - Changes in hepatic phase I and phase II biotransformation enzyme expression and
      glutathione levels following atrazine exposure in female rats.
AB  - 1. To determine the effects of repeated atrazine (ATR) treatment on hepatic phase
      I and II enzymes, adult female rats were treated with vehicle or 100 mg/kg of ATR
      for 1, 2, 3 or 4 days. Glutathione-s-transferases (GST) mRNA expression, protein
      levels (mu, pi, alpha, omega), and activity (cytosolic and microsomal), along
      with bioavailable glutathione (GSH) were assayed. 2. GST expression,
      concentrations and activity were increased, along with GSH levels, in animals
      treated with ATR for 3 and 4 days. 3. A subsequent study was performed with
      animals treated with vehicle, 6.5, 50 or 100 mg/kg/day for 4, 8 or 14 days.
      Expression of hepatic phase I CYP 450 enzymes was evaluated in conjugation with
      GST expression, protein and activity. Nineteen of the 45 CYP enzymes assayed
      displayed increased mRNA levels after eight days of treatment in animals treated
      with 50 or 100 mg/kg/day. After 14 days of treatment, all CYP expression levels
      returned to control levels except for CYP2B2, CYP2B3, CYP2C7, CYP2C23, CYP2E1,
      CYP3A9, CYP4A3 and CYP27A1, which remained elevated. 4. Results indicate that
      there may be a habituation or adaptation of liver phase I and phase II expression
      following repeated ATR treatment.

PMID- 28882083
TI  - Regulation of MAPK signaling and implications in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a heterogeneous B cell malignancy that
      still remains incurable. Recent studies have highlighted cellular and non
      cellular components of the tissue microenvironment in CLL that help nurture the
      growth of leukemic cells by providing the necessary stimuli for their
      proliferation and survival. The diverse stimuli in the specialized tissue
      microenvironment of CLL lead to constitutive activation of several signaling
      pathways that includes B cell receptor signaling and the associated mitogen
      activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. Recent findings have described
      aberrant activation of MAPK signaling and its interactions with other cellular
      signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of CLL. These studies have shed light on
      the deregulated molecular mechanisms contributing to hyperactivation of MAPK
      signaling and provided avenues for therapeutic options for aggressive CLL. In
      this review, we describe and discuss the current status of our understanding into
      the role of MAPK signaling in the pathogenesis of CLL.

PMID- 28882084
TI  - Genomic characterization of chromosome translocations in patients with T/myeloid
      mixed-phenotype acute leukemia.
AB  - Mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) is a progenitor type of leukemia with
      ambiguous expression of lineage markers. The diagnosis of MPAL is based on flow
      cytometric analysis of immunophenotype, which commonly identifies myeloid lineage
      markers as well as B- or T- lymphoid lineage markers on leukemic blasts. Due to
      the rare occurrence of this disease, few studies have delineated the molecular
      bases of MPAL. Combining conventional karyotyping with whole genomic sequencing
      (WGS) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we report here our identification and
      characterization of chromosome translocations, gene mutations and gene expression
      profile in four patients with T/Myeloid MPAL, including two t(6;14)(q25;q32) one
      t(8;14)(q24.2;q32) and one t(7;8)(p14;q24.2). Notably, seven of the eight
      translocation breakpoints reside in the non-coding regions and their locations
      appear to be shared by two or more patients. Gene expression analysis of matched
      diagnostic vs. remission samples provided evidence of transcriptomes alteration
      involving nucleosome organization and chromatin assembly.

PMID- 28882085
TI  - Psychotherapeutic and vocational interventions among young adults with work
      disability due to mental disorders in Finland.
AB  - : Backround: Little is known about treatment and rehabilitation received and
      planned among young adults with work disability due to a mental disorder. AIMS:
      To examine the implemented psychotherapeutic and vocational interventions and
      treatment plans among young adults with work disability due to a mental disorder.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were collected from medical records of young Finnish
      adults aged 18-34 with a long-term work disability history due to a mental
      disorder (N = 1163). The participant characteristics associated with four types
      of interventions were analyzed using log-binomial regression analysis. RESULTS:
      In total, 34% had participated in a psychotherapeutic intervention. Of the non
      students, 26% had participated in vocational intervention. For 46% of the non
      students, neither type of intervention was planned. Both implemented and planned
      psychotherapeutic interventions were associated with female sex, high education,
      attachment to employment, and absence of substance abuse. Low education and
      childhood adversity were associated with implemented vocational interventions and
      absence of substance abuse with planned vocational interventions. CONCLUSION AND
      SIGNIFICANCE: There is an unmet need for psychotherapeutic interventions among
      men, among those with lower socio-economic status, and among those with poor
      attachment to labor market. In addition, there is a lack of vocational
      interventions for those with high education. People with substance abuse are
      largely excluded from both types of interventions.

PMID- 28882087
TI  - Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Quality of Care for Cardiovascular Disease in
      Ambulatory Settings: A Review.
AB  - Racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes are widely
      reported, but research has largely focused on differences in quality of inpatient
      and urgent care to explain these disparate outcomes. The objective of this review
      is to synthesize recent evidence on racial and ethnic disparities in management
      of CVD in the ambulatory setting. Database searches yielded 550 articles of which
      25 studies met the inclusion criteria. Reviewed studies were categorized into non
      interventional studies examining the association between race and receipt of
      ambulatory CVD services with observational designs, and interventional studies
      evaluating specific clinical courses of action intended to ameliorate
      disparities. Based on the Donabedian framework, this review demonstrates that
      significant racial/ethnic disparities persist in process and outcome measures of
      quality of ambulatory CVD care. Multimodal interventions were most effective in
      reducing disparities in CVD outcomes.

PMID- 28882086
TI  - Improving gold nanorod delivery to the central nervous system by conjugation to
      the shuttle Angiopep-2.
AB  - AIM: To improve the in vivo delivery of gold nanorods (GNRs) to the central
      nervous system of rats, these gold nanoparticles were conjugated to Angiopep-2, a
      shuttle peptide that can cross the blood-brain barrier. MATERIALS & METHODS: GNRs
      were synthesized and modified using polyethylene glycol and Angiopep-2 (GNR-PEG
      Angiopep-2). The physicochemical properties, in vitro cytotoxicity and ex vivo
      biodistribution of the conjugate were examined. RESULTS: GNR-PEG-Angiopep-2 was
      stable over the following days, and the different concentrations that were tested
      did not affect the viability of microvascular endothelial cells. The conjugation
      of Angiopep-2 to GNRs enhanced the endocytosis of these particles (in vitro) and
      the accumulation in brains (in vivo), when compared with GNRs modified only with
      PEG. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that Angiopep-2 improves the
      delivery of GNRs to the brain parenchyma. This property is highly relevant for
      future applications of GNRs as platforms for photothermal and theranostic
      purposes.

PMID- 28882088
TI  - Slc7a11 (xCT) protein expression is not altered in the depressed brain and system
      xc- deficiency does not affect depression-associated behaviour in the
      corticosterone mouse model.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The cystine/glutamate antiporter (system xc-) is believed to
      contribute to nonvesicular glutamate release from glial cells in various brain
      areas. Although recent investigations implicate system xc- in mood disorders,
      unambiguous evidence has not yet been established. Therefore, we evaluated the
      possible role of system xc- in the depressive state. METHODS: We conducted a
      protein expression analysis of the specific subunit of system xc- (xCT) in brain
      regions of the corticosterone mouse model, Flinders Sensitive Line rat model and
      post-mortem tissue of depressed patients. We next subjected system xc- deficient
      mice to the corticosterone model and analysed their behaviour in several tests.
      Lastly, we subjected additional cohorts of xCT-deficient and wild-type mice to N
      acetylcysteine treatment to unveil whether the previously reported antidepressant
      like effects are dependent upon system xc-. RESULTS: We did not detect any
      changes in xCT expression levels in the animal models or patients compared to
      proper controls. Furthermore, loss of system xc- had no effect on depression- and
      anxiety-like behaviour. Finally, the antidepressant-like effects of N
      acetylcysteine are not mediated via system xc-. CONCLUSIONS: xCT protein
      expression is not altered in the depressed brain and system xc- deficiency does
      not affect depression-associated behaviour in the corticosterone mouse model.

PMID- 28882089
TI  - The Default Mode Network as a Biomarker of Persistent Complaints after Mild
      Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
      Study.
AB  - The objective of this study was to examine longitudinal functional connectivity
      of resting-state networks in patients with and without complaints after
      uncomplicated mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Second, we aimed to determine
      the value of network connectivity in predicting persistent complaints, anxiety,
      depression and long-term outcome. Thirty mTBI patients with three or more post
      traumatic complaints at 2 weeks post-injury, 19 without complaints, and 20
      matched healthy controls were selected for this study. Resting-state functional
      MRI (fMRI) was performed in patients at 1 month and 3 months post-injury, and
      once in healthy controls. Independent component analysis (ICA) was used to
      investigate the default mode, executive and salience networks. Persistent post
      traumatic complaints, anxiety, and depression were measured at 3 months post
      injury, and outcome was determined at 1 year post-injury. Within the group with
      complaints, higher functional connectivity between the anterior and posterior
      components of the default mode network at 1 month post-injury was associated with
      a greater number of complaints at 3 months post-injury (rho = 0.59, p = 0.001).
      Minor longitudinal changes in functional connectivity were found for patients
      with and without complaints after mTBI, which were limited to connectivity within
      the precuneus component of the default mode network. No significant results were
      found for the executive and salience networks. Current results suggest that the
      default mode network may serve as a biomarker of persistent complaints in
      patients with uncomplicated mTBI.

PMID- 28882090
TI  - Stenosis length of middle cerebral artery and branch atheromatous disease
      associated infarct.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We analyzed the relationship between the characteristics of branch
      atheromatous disease associated infarct (BAI) and stenosis length (SL) of
      relevant middle cerebral artery (MCA) M1 segment. METHODS: Ninety-five patients
      with BAI were recruited from 1024 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients.
      Among them, 59 patients (62.11%) had concurrent relative stenosis of MCA M1
      segment. The neurologic deficit severity at admission was assessed by National
      Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and the infarct size by infarct lesion
      thickness and maximum diameter. The SL and the distance from the carotid terminal
      segment to stenosis (DT) were measured on coronary projection on 3D TOF MRA. The
      correlations between SL and NIHSS, SL and infarct lesion maximum diameter were
      analyzed. RESULTS: There was no difference between BAI patients with or without
      M1 stenosis in image markers for infarct etiological subtype. SL was significant
      difference in patients with NIHSS >3 vs. <= 3 (p = 0.032) at admission. Further
      analysis showed that SL correlated with NIHSS at admission (rs = 0.613, p =
      0.000) and maximum diameter (rs = 0.621, p = 0.000) significantly. CONCLUSION: SL
      is a significant moderate predictor for infarct lesion diameter and neurologic
      deficit severity.

PMID- 28882091
TI  - Measles Lymphadenopathy in a Child With PFAPA Syndrome.
AB  - Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical adenitis (PFAPA)
      syndrome is a common cause of periodic fever in children. The pathogenesis of
      PFAPA is unknown but likely involves immune system dysregulation and may be
      initiated by an environmental trigger. Tonsillectomy resolves or improves
      symptoms in some patients, but the reason for this is unknown; moreover, specific
      abnormalities in tonsillectomy specimens from PFAPA patients have not been
      described. Here, we report measles virus in tonsil from a child with PFAPA.
      Measles-type viral cytopathic effect was discovered on histological examination
      of tonsillar tissue after therapeutic tonsillectomy for PFAPA. Molecular testing
      showed the left tonsil was positive for measles RNA by reverse transcription
      polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) while the right tonsil was inconclusive
      (weakly positive). Real-time RT-PCR specific for measles vaccine strain RNA
      (genotype A) was weakly reactive in the left tonsil tissue when tested in 3
      independent replicates, but this result could not be confirmed with conventional
      genotyping by sequencing. The relationship and clinical significance between
      measles virus and PFAPA in this case is unclear but may be related to PFAPA
      associated immune dysregulation. Additional investigation of measles virus in
      PFAPA patients would be helpful in further exploring this potential association.

PMID- 28882092
TI  - Bayesian sensitivity analysis for unmeasured confounding in causal mediation
      analysis.
AB  - Causal mediation analysis techniques enable investigators to examine whether the
      effect of the exposure on an outcome is mediated by some intermediate variable.
      Motivated by a data example from epidemiology, we consider estimation of natural
      direct and indirect effects on a survival outcome. An important concern is bias
      from confounders that may be unmeasured. Estimating natural direct and indirect
      effects requires an elaborate series of assumptions in order to identify the
      target quantities. The analyst must carefully measure and adjust for important
      predictors of the exposure, mediator and outcome. Omitting important confounders
      may bias the results in a way that is difficult to predict. In recent years,
      several methods have been proposed to explore sensitivity to unmeasured
      confounding in mediation analysis. However, many of these methods limit
      complexity by relying on a handful of sensitivity parameters that are difficult
      to interpret, or alternatively, by assuming that specific patterns of unmeasured
      confounding are absent. Instead, we propose a simple Bayesian sensitivity
      analysis technique that is indexed by four bias parameters. Our method has the
      unique advantage that it is able to simultaneously assess unmeasured confounding
      in the mediator-outcome, exposure-outcome and exposure-mediator relationships. It
      is a natural Bayesian extension of the sensitivity analysis methodologies of
      VanderWeele, which have been widely used in the epidemiology literature. We
      present simulation findings, and additionally, we illustrate the method in an
      epidemiological study of mortality rates in criminal offenders from British
      Columbia.

PMID- 28882093
TI  - Sample size considerations for n-of-1 trials.
AB  - N-of-1 trials are trials in which patients are treated with two or more
      treatments on multiple occasions. They can have many different purposes and can
      be analysed in different frameworks. In this note, five different criteria for
      planning sample sizes for n-of-1 trials are identified, and formulae and advice
      to address the associated tasks are provided. The basic design addressed is that
      of randomisation to treatment and control within cycles of pairs of episodes and
      the model assumed is that of a Normal-Normal mixture with variance components
      corresponding to within-cycle within-patient variation and treatment-by-patient
      interaction. The code to accomplish the tasks has been written in GenStat(r),
      SAS(r) and R(r) and the application of the approaches is illustrated.

PMID- 28882094
TI  - Competing risks modeling of cumulative effects of time-varying drug exposures.
AB  - An accurate assessment of drug safety or effectiveness in pharmaco-epidemiology
      requires defining an etiologically correct time-varying exposure model, which
      specifies how previous drug use affects the hazard of the event of interest. An
      additional challenge is to account for the multitude of mutually exclusive events
      that may be associated with the use of a given drug. To simultaneously address
      both challenges, we develop, and validate in simulations, a new approach that
      combines flexible modeling of the cumulative effects of time-varying exposures
      with competing risks methodology to separate the effects of the same drug
      exposure on different outcomes. To account for the dosage, duration and timing of
      past exposures, we rely on a spline-based weighted cumulative exposure modeling.
      We also propose likelihood ratio tests to test if the cumulative effects of past
      exposure on the hazards of the competing events are the same or different.
      Simulation results indicate that the estimated event-specific weight functions
      are reasonably accurate, and that the proposed tests have acceptable type I error
      rate and power. In real-life application, the proposed method indicated that
      recent use of antihypertensive drugs may reduce the risk of stroke but has no
      effect on the hazard of coronary heart disease events.

PMID- 28882095
TI  - Intra-demographic birth risk assessment scheme and infant mortality in Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infant mortality (IM) is high in Nigeria. High-risk birth can limit a
      newborn's survival chances to the first year of life. The approach used in
      investigating the relationship between high-risk birth and IM in this study is
      yet to be documented in Nigeria. OBJECTIVES: The Intra-Demographic Birth Risk
      Assessment Scheme (IDBRAS) was generated and its relationship with IM was
      examined. METHODS: 2013 Nigeria demographic and health survey data were used.
      Mothers who gave birth in the 5 years before the survey were investigated (n =
      31,155). IDBRAS was generated from information on maternal age at childbirth,
      parity and preceding birth interval and was disaggregated into low, medium and
      high. Data were analysed using the Cox proportional hazard and Brass 1-parameter
      models (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: Infant mortality rate was 88.4, 104.7 and 211.6
      per 1000 live births among women with low, medium and high level of IDBRAS
      respectively. The rate of increase of reported infant deaths between low and high
      IDBRAS was 0.1932 (R2 = 0.5326; p < 0.001). The prevalence of medium- and high
      risk birth was 24.6 and 4.2% respectively. The identified predictors of IM were
      place of residence, marital status and size of the child at birth. The hazard
      ratio of IM was higher among women with medium (HR = 1.35; 95% CI = 1.22-1.48, p
      < 0.001) and high IDBRAS (HR = 1.73; 95% CI = 1.48-2.02, p < 0.001) than among
      those with low IDBRAS. Controlling for other correlates barely changed this
      pattern. CONCLUSIONS: The risk and level of IM increased as the level of IDBRAS
      increases in Nigeria. IDBRAS was an important predictor of IM. Maintaining a low
      level of IDBRAS will facilitate a reduction in IM rate in Nigeria.

PMID- 28882096
TI  - Delivering perinatal depression care in a rural obstetric setting: a mixed
      methods study of feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Universal screening for depression during pregnancy and postpartum is
      recommended, yet mental health treatment and follow-up rates among screen
      positive women in rural settings are low. We studied the feasibility,
      acceptability and effectiveness of perinatal depression treatment integrated into
      a rural obstetric setting. METHODS: We conducted an open treatment study of a
      screening and intervention program modified from the Depression Attention for
      Women Now (DAWN) Collaborative Care model in a rural obstetric clinic. Depression
      screen-positive pregnant and postpartum women received problem-solving therapy
      (PST) with or without antidepressants. A care manager coordinated communication
      between patient, obstetrician and psychiatric consultant. We measured change in
      the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) score. We used surveys and focus
      groups to measure patient and provider satisfaction and analyzed focus groups
      using qualitative analysis. RESULTS: The intervention was well accepted by
      providers and patients, based on survey and focus group data. Feasibility was
      also evidenced by recruitment (87.1%) and retention (92.6%) rates and depression
      outcomes (64% with >50% improvement in PHQ 9) which were comparable to clinical
      trials in similar urban populations. Conclusions for practice: DAWN Collaborative
      Care modified for treatment of perinatal depression in a rural obstetric setting
      is feasible and acceptable. Behavioral health services integrated into rural
      obstetric settings could improve care for perinatal depression.

PMID- 28882097
TI  - Access and Utilization of Prenatal Health Care Services in Rural Communities: A
      Study of Isiekenesi in Imo State.
AB  - Pregnancy and childbirth complications are leading causes of death and disability
      among women of reproductive age, especially in developing countries, with Nigeria
      experiencing 576 deaths in every 100,000 births. This is particularly worrisome
      when most of these deaths could be prevented if pregnant women seek prenatal
      health care services. It is in the light of the foregoing that this research
      investigates the level of access and factors that influence use of prenatal
      health care services in Isiekenesi. Secondary and primary data were used for this
      study. The study adopted questionnaire, IDI, and FGD as data collection
      instruments. The data was analyzed at univariate and bivariate levels. The high
      cost of prenatal health care services was identified as a major factor that
      influences a woman's decision not to use prenatal health care services. Finally,
      while all stakeholders should intensify awareness of the importance of using
      prenatal health care services, concerted effort should be channeled toward
      reduction of cost or outright free services at least in government-owned health
      centers in rural areas.

PMID- 28882098
TI  - Angels of Courage: The Experiences of Mothers Who Have Been Bereaved by Suicide.
AB  - Despite the increasing number of people being bereaved by suicide, little is
      understood concerning the experiences of those bereaved by suicide as they
      struggle to make sense of a loved one's death. The current study explored the
      experiences of four mothers who had been bereaved by suicide and the role of
      support groups in the meaning-making process following bereavement by suicide.
      Participants were interviewed and transcribed interviews were then analysed from
      an interpretative phenomenological perspective. Four main themes were identified:
      Continuing role of the mother; A never-ending quest; Finding sanctuary; and
      Rising up from the ashes. These themes relate to a range of emotions following
      bereavement by suicide, the meaning-making process, the social context and the
      role of the support group. Clinical implications are discussed in relation to
      these findings.

PMID- 28882100
TI  - Low-dose cyclosporine in treatment of membranous nephropathy with nephrotic
      syndrome: effectiveness and renal safety.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To observe effectiveness and renal safety of long-term low-dose
      cyclosporine in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). METHODS: Sixty-eight
      patients were enrolled in this prospective cohort study. Renal endpoint was
      defined as a decrease in eGFR >=50% from baseline and a development of eGFR <=60
      ml/min/1.73m2. RESULTS: A cyclosporine dose of 2.0 +/- 0.5 mg/kg/d and a
      prednisone of 0.3 +/- 0.2 mg/kg/d were prescribed. The duration of cyclosporine
      treatment was 27 (3-80) months. The overall remission rate was 91% with a relapse
      rate of 42%. Fourteen patients had cyclosporine-related acute renal injury (CsA
      ARI) within the first three months, and 16 patients had cyclosporine related
      chronic renal injury (CsA-CRI) within the first year. At the end of follow-up (50
      +/- 18 months), 16 patients (24%) reached renal endpoint. Presence of intimal
      fibrosis of small artery and higher time-averaged proteinuria were identified as
      independent risk factors for renal endpoint. RAS inhibition treatment decreased
      the risk of poor renal outcome. Patients in CsA-ARI group had the highest
      proteinuria at the third month, the highest time-average proteinuria and the
      highest proportion of cases reaching renal endpoint. Patients with CsA-CRI were
      of the oldest age and with the lowest baseline eGFR. CONCLUSIONS: Low-dose
      cyclosporine is effective in treating IMN. CsA-ARI and no response in proteinuria
      during the first three months of cyclosporine treatment had the lowest
      benefit/risk ratio, and these patients should be switched to non-calcineurin
      inhibitor based regimen. Patients of older age, with lower baseline eGFR, or
      having intimal sclerosis of small artery, are more likely to develop progressive
      renal dysfunction.

PMID- 28882101
TI  - Perceptions about the cultural practices of male partners during postpartum care
      in rural Tanzania: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Men play an important role in maternal health. The postpartum period
      is a critical stage, yet there is a scarcity of research that explores men's
      involvement during this stage. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to explore
      male partners' perceptions of the cultural practices during postpartum care in
      rural Tanzania. METHODS: Fourteen focus group discussions were conducted with 93
      men, with an age range of 19-65 years, in August 2013. The study was conducted in
      the Kongwa District, located in the Dodoma region in central Tanzania.
      Qualitative data were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using
      content analysis. RESULTS: Four categories emerged, namely: 'Men as providers
      and, occasionally, care takers', 'Men as decision makers', 'Diverse perceptions
      of sexual abstinence' and 'Barriers for men in using/accompanying partners to use
      reproductive and child healthcare services'. The cross-category theme 'Men during
      postpartum: remaining powerful but excluded' refers to how men are in a powerful
      position above women in different aspects of life. Elderly women played an
      important role in caring for postpartum mothers and their newborns, but men were
      the ones making the final decision about where to seek care. Traditional
      practices isolated men from their partners for a certain period, and enforced
      sexual abstinence for the women during the postpartum period. However, cultural
      norms permitted men to engage in extramarital relations. Reproductive and child
      healthcare services were perceived by men as not welcoming the male partners, and
      local gender norms discouraged men from accompanying their partners to seek
      services. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that men perceived their role
      during the postpartum period as financial providers, decision makers and,
      occasionally, care givers. Men also held diverse perceptions with regard to
      sexual abstinence and felt excluded from participating in maternal healthcare
      services.

PMID- 28882102
TI  - Monte Carlo simulation-based estimation for the minimum mortality temperature in
      temperature-mortality association study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rich literature has reported that there exists a nonlinear
      association between temperature and mortality. One important feature in the
      temperature-mortality association is the minimum mortality temperature (MMT). The
      commonly used approach for estimating the MMT is to determine the MMT as the
      temperature at which mortality is minimized in the estimated temperature
      mortality association curve. Also, an approximate bootstrap approach was proposed
      to calculate the standard errors and the confidence interval for the MMT.
      However, the statistical properties of these methods were not fully studied.
      METHODS: Our research assessed the statistical properties of the previously
      proposed methods in various types of the temperature-mortality association. We
      also suggested an alternative approach to provide a point and an interval
      estimates for the MMT, which improve upon the previous approach if some prior
      knowledge is available on the MMT. We compare the previous and alternative
      methods through a simulation study and an application. In addition, as the MMT is
      often used as a reference temperature to calculate the cold- and heat-related
      relative risk (RR), we examined how the uncertainty in the MMT affects the
      estimation of the RRs. RESULTS: The previously proposed method of estimating the
      MMT as a point (indicated as Argmin2) may increase bias or mean squared error in
      some types of temperature-mortality association. The approximate bootstrap method
      to calculate the confidence interval (indicated as Empirical1) performs properly
      achieving near 95% coverage but the length can be unnecessarily extremely large
      in some types of the association. We showed that an alternative approach
      (indicated as Empirical2), which can be applied if some prior knowledge is
      available on the MMT, works better reducing the bias and the mean squared error
      in point estimation and achieving near 95% coverage while shortening the length
      of the interval estimates. CONCLUSIONS: The Monte Carlo simulation-based approach
      to estimate the MMT either as a point or as an interval was shown to perform well
      particularly when some prior knowledge is incorporated to reduce the uncertainty.
      The MMT uncertainty also can affect the estimation for the MMT-referenced RR and
      ignoring the MMT uncertainty in the RR estimation may lead to invalid results
      with respect to the bias in point estimation and the coverage in interval
      estimation.

PMID- 28882104
TI  - Dysphoric symptoms in relation to other behavioral and psychological symptoms of
      dementia, among elderly in nursing homes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are common
      and varied in the elderly. The aim of the current study was to explore
      associations between BPSD and dysphoric symptoms at different levels of cognitive
      impairment. METHODS: Assessments of 4397 elderly individuals living in nursing
      homes in Sweden were performed. Data on cognitive function and BPSD were
      collected using the Multi-Dimensional Dementia Assessment Scale (MDDAS). The
      relationships between dysphoria and eight BPSD factors were plotted against
      cognitive function to investigate how dysphoria affects BPSD throughout the
      dementia disease. RESULTS: Overall, dysphoric symptoms were most prevalent in
      persons with moderate cognitive impairment. However, moderate to severe dysphoric
      symptoms showed no clear variation with cognitive impairment. Furthermore,
      aggressive behavior, verbally disruptive/attention-seeking behavior,
      hallucinatory symptoms and wandering behavior were more common with concurrent
      dysphoria regardless of cognitive function. In contrast, passiveness was more
      common with concurrent dysphoria in mild cognitive impairment but not in moderate
      to severe cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: BPSD, including aggressive behavior
      and hallucinations, were more common with concurrent dysphoric symptoms,
      providing insight into behavioral and psychological symptoms among individuals
      with cognitive impairment. Apathy was more commonly associated with concurrent
      dysphoria at early stages of cognitive decline but not at later stages,
      indicating that apathy and dysphoria represent separate syndromes among elderly
      patients with moderate to severe cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28882103
TI  - Low serum vitamin D levels in type 2 diabetes patients are associated with
      decreased mycobacterial activity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Concurrent diabetes mellitus and tuberculosis represent a significant
      health problem worldwide. Patients with diabetes mellitus have a high risk of
      tuberculosis, which may be mediated by an abnormal innate immune response due to
      hyperglycaemia or low vitamin D levels. METHODS: In the present study, we
      evaluated inactive vitamin D serum levels and the monocyte response to infection
      with M. tuberculosis, including phagocytosis of M. tuberculosis,
      antimycobacterial activity, LL-37, human beta defensin-2 and IL-10 gene
      expression and nitric oxide production, between type 2 diabetes mellitus patients
      (n = 51) and healthy volunteers (n = 38). RESULTS: Twenty-seven type 2 diabetes
      mellitus patients had inadequate inactive vitamin D levels (<50 nM). The
      percentages of M. tuberculosis phagocytosis between monocytes were similar across
      groups according to microscopy. Intracellular mycobacterial growth was similar in
      infected monocytes from both groups. However, M. tuberculosis growth was
      significantly higher in monocytes obtained from type 2 diabetes mellitus patients
      and lower vitamin D levels after 1-h (D0) and 72-h (D3) post-infection (p <=
      0.05). LL-37, human beta defensin-2 and IL-10 mRNA expression were similar
      between monocytes across groups; vitamin D serum levels and LL-37, human beta
      defensin-2 and IL-10 expression were not correlated. Nitric oxide production was
      significantly higher in healthy volunteers than in type 2 diabetes mellitus
      patients with low vitamin D serum levels at D3 post-infection (p <= 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that monocytes from type 2 diabetes mellitus
      patients and low vitamin D serum levels show an impaired ability to control the
      intracellular growth of M. tuberculosis, which is not associated with significant
      decrease of LL-37 or human beta defensin-2 expression. Vitamin D could be the
      link between diabetes and tuberculosis susceptibility.

PMID- 28882105
TI  - Addressing data privacy in matched studies via virtual pooling.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Data confidentiality and shared use of research data are two
      desirable but sometimes conflicting goals in research with multi-center studies
      and distributed data. While ideal for straightforward analysis, confidentiality
      restrictions forbid creation of a single dataset that includes covariate
      information of all participants. Current approaches such as aggregate data
      sharing, distributed regression, meta-analysis and score-based methods can have
      important limitations. METHODS: We propose a novel application of an existing
      epidemiologic tool, specimen pooling, to enable confidentiality-preserving
      analysis of data arising from a matched case-control, multi-center design.
      Instead of pooling specimens prior to assay, we apply the methodology to
      virtually pool (aggregate) covariates within nodes. Such virtual pooling retains
      most of the information used in an analysis with individual data and since
      individual participant data is not shared externally, within-node virtual pooling
      preserves data confidentiality. We show that aggregated covariate levels can be
      used in a conditional logistic regression model to estimate individual-level odds
      ratios of interest. RESULTS: The parameter estimates from the standard
      conditional logistic regression are compared to the estimates based on a
      conditional logistic regression model with aggregated data. The parameter
      estimates are shown to be similar to those without pooling and to have comparable
      standard errors and confidence interval coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual data
      pooling can be used to maintain confidentiality of data from multi-center study
      and can be particularly useful in research with large-scale distributed data.

PMID- 28882106
TI  - Sumoylation in p27kip1 via RanBP2 promotes cancer cell growth in
      cholangiocarcinoma cell line QBC939.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cholangiocarcinoma is one of the deadly disease with poor 5-year
      survival and poor response to conventional therapies. Previously, we found that
      p27kip1 nuclear-cytoplasmic translocation confers proliferation potential to
      cholangiocarcinoma cell line QBC939 and this process is mediated by crm-1.
      However, no other post-transcriptional regulation was found in this process
      including sumoylation in cholangiocarcinoma. RESULTS: In this study, we explored
      the role of sumoylation in the nuclear-cytoplasmic translocation of p27kip1 and
      its involvement of QBC939 cells' proliferation. First, we identified K73 as the
      sumoylation site in p27kip1. By utilizing plasmid flag-p27kip1, HA-RanBP2, GST
      RanBP2 and His-p27kip1 and immunoprecipitation assay, we validated that p27kip1
      can serve as the sumoylation target of RanBP2 in QBC939. Furthermore, we
      confirmed crm-1's role in promoting nuclear-cytoplasmic translocation of p27kip1
      and found that RanBP2's function relies on crm-1. However, K73R mutated p27kip1
      can't be identified by crm-1 or RanBP2 in p27kip1 translocation process,
      suggesting sumoylation of p27kip1 via K73 site is necessary in this process by
      RanBP2 and crm-1. Phenotypically, the overexpression of either RanBP2 or crm-1
      can partially rescue the anti-proliferative effect brought by p27kip1
      overexpression in both the MTS and EdU assay. For the first time, we identified
      and validated the K73 sumoylation site in p27kip1, which is critical to RanBP2
      and crm-1 in p27kip1 nuclear-cytoplasmic translocation process. CONCLUSION: Taken
      together, targeted inhibition of sumoylation of p27kip1 may serve as a
      potentially potent therapeutic target in the eradication of cholangiocarcinoma
      development and relapses.

PMID- 28882107
TI  - Statistical classifiers for diagnosing disease from immune repertoires: a case
      study using multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Deep sequencing of lymphocyte receptor repertoires has made it
      possible to comprehensively profile the clonal composition of lymphocyte
      populations. This opens the door for novel approaches to diagnose and
      prognosticate diseases with a driving immune component by identifying repertoire
      sequence patterns associated with clinical phenotypes. Indeed, recent studies
      support the feasibility of this, demonstrating an association between repertoire
      level summary statistics (e.g., diversity) and patient outcomes for several
      diseases. In our own prior work, we have shown that six codons in VH4-containing
      genes in B cells from the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with relapsing
      remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) have higher replacement mutation frequencies
      than observed in healthy controls or patients with other neurological diseases.
      However, prior methods to date have been limited to focusing on repertoire-level
      summary statistics, ignoring the vast amounts of information in the millions of
      individual immune receptors comprising a repertoire. We have developed a novel
      method that addresses this limitation by using innovative approaches for
      accommodating the extraordinary sequence diversity of immune receptors and widely
      used machine learning approaches. We applied our method to RRMS, an autoimmune
      disease that is notoriously difficult to diagnose. RESULTS: We use the
      biochemical features encoded by the complementarity determining region 3 of each
      B cell receptor heavy chain in every patient repertoire as input to a detector
      function, which is fit to give the correct diagnosis for each patient using
      maximum likelihood optimization methods. The resulting statistical classifier
      assigns patients to one of two diagnosis categories, RRMS or other neurological
      disease, with 87% accuracy by leave-one-out cross-validation on training data (N
      = 23) and 72% accuracy on unused data from a separate study (N = 102).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our method is the first to apply statistical learning to immune
      repertoires to aid disease diagnosis, learning repertoire-level labels from the
      set of individual immune repertoire sequences. This method produced a repertoire
      based statistical classifier for diagnosing RRMS that provides a high degree of
      diagnostic capability, rivaling the accuracy of diagnosis by a clinical expert.
      Additionally, this method points to a diagnostic biochemical motif in the
      antibodies of RRMS patients, which may offer insight into the disease process.

PMID- 28882108
TI  - General practitioners' perspectives on a proposed new model of service delivery
      for primary care management of knee osteoarthritis: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Effective management of people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) requires
      development of new models of care, and successful implementation relies on
      engagement of general practitioners (GPs). This study used a qualitative
      methodology to identify potential factors influencing GPs' engagement with a
      proposed new model of service delivery to provide evidence-based care for
      patients with knee OA and achieve better patient outcomes. METHODS: Semi
      structured telephone interviews with 11 GPs were conducted. Based on a
      theoretical model of behaviour, interview questions were designed to elicit
      perspectives on a remotely-delivered (telephone-based) service to support
      behaviour change and self-management for patients with knee OA, with a focus on
      exercise and weight loss. Transcripts were analysed using an inductive thematic
      approach, and GPs' opinions were organised using the APEASE (affordability,
      practicability, effectiveness, acceptability, safety/side effects and equity)
      criteria as themes. RESULTS: GPs expressed concerns about potential for
      confusion, incongruence of information and advice, disconnect with other schemes
      and initiatives, loss of control of patient care, lack of belief in the need and
      benefits of proposed service, resistance to change because of lack of familiarity
      with the procedures and the service, and reluctance to trust in the skills and
      abilities of the health professionals providing the care support. GPs also
      recognised the potential benefits of the extra support for patients, and improved
      access for remote patients to clinicians with specialist knowledge. CONCLUSION:
      The findings can be used to optimise implementation and engagement with a
      remotely-delivered 'care support team' model by GPs.

PMID- 28882109
TI  - Obstetric care providers' knowledge, practice and associated factors towards
      active management of third stage of labor in Sidama Zone, South Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Active management of third stage of labor played a great role to
      prevent child birth related hemorrhage. However, maternal morbidity and mortality
      related to hemorrhage is high due to lack of knowledge and skill of obstetric
      care providers 'on active management of third stage of labor. Our study was aimed
      to assess knowledge, practice and associated factors of obstetric care providers
      (Midwives, Nurses and Health officers) on active management of third stage of
      labor in Sidama Zone, South Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution based cross
      sectional study design was conducted from December 1-30 /2015 among midwives,
      nurses and health officers. Simple random sampling technique was used to get the
      total of 528 participants. Data entry was done using EPI Info 3.5.1 and exported
      to SPSS version 20.0 software package for analysis. The presence of association
      between independent and dependent variables was assessed using odds ratio with
      97% confidence interval by applying logistic regression model. RESULTS: Of the
      528 obstetric care providers 37.7% and 32.8% were knowledgeable and skilled to
      manage third stage of labor respectively. After controlling for possible
      confounding factors, the result showed that pre/in service training, being
      midwife and graduation year were found to be the major predictors of proper
      active management of third stage of labor. CONCLUSION: The knowledge and practice
      of obstetric care providers towards active management of third stage of labor can
      be improved with appropriate interventions like in-service trainings. This study
      also clearly showed that the level of knowledge and practice of obstetric care
      providers to wards active management of third stage of labor needs immediate
      attention of Universities and health science colleges better to revise their
      obstetrics course contents, health institutions and zonal health bureau should
      arrange trainings for their obstetrics care providers to enhance skill.

PMID- 28882110
TI  - Serum osteoprotegerin in prevalent hemodialysis patients: associations with
      mortality, atherosclerosis and cardiac function.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To assess whether serum osteoprotegerin (OPG) and/or fetuin-A predict
      mortality and cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis
      patients. METHODS: Multicenter, observational, prospective study that included
      220 hemodialysis patients followed up for up to 6 years. Serum OPG and fetuin-A
      levels were measured at baseline and their possible association with clinical
      characteristics, CV risk biomarkers, carotid ultrasonographic findings, as well
      as their association with overall and CV mortality and CV events were assessed.
      RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 3.22 +/- 1.91 years, there were 74 deaths
      (33.6%) and 86 new cardiovascular events. In the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis,
      the highest tertile of OPG levels was associated with higher overall mortality (p
      = 0.005), as well as a higher, although non-significant, incidence of CV events
      and CV mortality. In contrast, fetuin-A levels did not predict any of these
      events. OPG levels were directly associated with age, the Charlson comorbidity
      index (CCI), prevalent cardiovascular disease, carotid intima-media thickness,
      adiponectin, troponin-I and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). OPG showed a
      negative correlation with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and phosphate
      levels. In the multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis, all-cause mortality
      was associated with the highest tertile of OPG (HR:1.957, p = 0.018), age
      (HR:1.031, p = 0.036), smoking history (HR:2.122, p = 0.005), the CCI (HR:1.254,
      p = 0.004), troponin-I (HR:3.894, p = 0.042), IL-18 (HR:1.061, p < 0.001) and
      albumin levels (HR:0.886, p < 0.001). In the bootstrapping Cox regression
      analysis, the best cut-off value of OPG associated with mortality was 17.69
      pmol/L (95%CI: 5.1-18.02). CONCLUSIONS: OPG, but not fetuin-A levels, are
      independently associated with overall mortality, as well as clinical and
      subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiac function, in prevalent hemodialysis
      patients.

PMID- 28882111
TI  - TSH cut off point based on depression in hypothyroid patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in hypothyroidism is high.
      Considering that hypothyroidism and depression share some clinical features, some
      researchers use the "brain hypothyroidism" hypothesis to explain the pathogenesis
      of depression. We aimed to detect a new TSH cut-off value in hypothyroidism based
      on depression symptoms. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on
      hypothyroid patients referred to endocrine clinics. Individuals who had developed
      euthyroid state under treatment with levothyroxine with TSH levels of 0.5-5 MIU/L
      with no need for dosage change were included in the study. After comprehensive
      history taking, laboratory tests including TSH, T4 and T3 were performed. Beck
      depression questionnaire was completed for all patients by trained interviewers.
      TSH cut-off values based on depression was determined by Roc Curve analysis.
      RESULTS: The participants were 174 hypothyroid patients (Female; 116: 66.7%,
      Male; 58: 33.3%) with mean age 45.5 +/- 11.7 (19-68) years old. Based on Beck
      depression test, scores less than 10 was considered healthy and more than 10 were
      considered depressed. According to Roc curve analysis, the optimal cut- off value
      of TSH was 2.5 MIU/L with 89.66% sensitivity. The optimal TSH cut- off based on
      severe depression was 4 MIU/L. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that a
      clinically helpful TSH cut-off value for hypothyroidism should be based on
      associated symptoms, not just in population studies. Based on the assessment of
      depression, our study concludes that a TSH cutofff value of 2.5 MIU/L is optimal.

PMID- 28882112
TI  - Identification of adenylyl cyclase isoforms mediating parathyroid hormone- and
      calcitonin-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation in distal tubule cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The distal convoluted tubule (DCT) is an important nephron site for
      parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin regulation of urinary divalent cation
      excretion. These hormones exert their effects on the DCT in substantial part
      through activation of adenylyl cyclase (AC); however, it is unknown which AC
      isoforms are involved. METHODS: To examine this, two mouse DCT cell lines were
      studied: 209 and D1 cells. AC isoform mRNA expression was analyzed by real-time
      PCR. Cyclic AMP was measured using enzyme immunoassay. RESULTS: Calcitonin, but
      not PTH, stimulated cAMP accumulation in 209 cells, while PTH, but not
      calcitonin, increased cAMP content in D1 cells. Both cell types expressed AC3,
      AC4, AC6, AC7, and AC9 mRNA; in both cell types, AC6 mRNA was most abundant,
      followed by AC9, then AC3 and AC7, with relatively very small amounts of AC4
      mRNA. Microdissected mouse DCT had a similar pattern of AC isoform mRNA
      expression although AC5 mRNA was detected. Individual siRNA knockdown of AC6 and
      AC9 reduced calcitonin-stimulated cAMP accumulation in 209 cells and PTH-induced
      cAMP levels in D1 cells. Knockdown of AC3 had no effect on hormonal augmentation
      of cAMP in either cell line. Surprisingly, knockdown of AC7 increased calcitonin
      induced cAMP accumulation in 209 cells as well as PTH-stimulated cAMP content in
      D1 cells. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these findings indicate that AC6 and AC9
      mediate calcitonin- and PTH-stimulated cAMP accumulation in DCT cells, while
      activation of AC7 may paradoxically reduce the stimulatory effects of PTH and
      calcitonin on cultured DCT cAMP levels.

PMID- 28882113
TI  - New use of low-dose aspirin and risk of colorectal cancer by stage at diagnosis:
      a nested case-control study in UK general practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence from clinical trial populations suggests low-dose aspirin
      reduces the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Part of this reduction in risk might
      be due to protection against metastatic disease. METHODS: We investigated the
      risk of CRC among new-users of low-dose aspirin (75-300 mg), including risk by
      stage at diagnosis. Using The Health Improvement Network, we conducted a cohort
      study with nested case-control analysis. Two cohorts (N = 170,336 each) aged 40
      89 years from 2000 to 2009 and free of cancer were identified: i) new-users of
      low-dose aspirin, ii) non-users of low-dose aspirin, at start of follow-up,
      matched by age, sex and previous primary care practitioner visits. Patients were
      followed for up to 12 years to identify incident CRC. 10,000 frequency-matched
      controls were selected by incidence density sampling where the odds ratio is an
      unbiased estimator of the incidence rate ratio (RR). RRs with 95% confidence
      intervals were calculated. Low-dose aspirin use was classified 'as-treated'
      independent from baseline exposure status to account for changes in exposure
      during follow-up. RESULTS: Current users of low-dose aspirin (use on the index
      date or in the previous 90 days) had a significantly reduced risk of CRC, RR 0.66
      (95% CI 0.60-0.74). The reduction in risk was apparent across all age groups, and
      was unrelated to dose, indication, gender, CRC location or case-fatality status.
      Reduced risks occurred throughout treatment duration and with all low-dose
      aspirin doses. RRs by aspirin indication were 0.71 (0.63-0.79) and 0.60 (0.53
      0.68) for primary and secondary cardiovascular protection, respectively. Among
      cases with staging information (n = 1421), RRs for current use of low-dose
      aspirin were 0.94 (0.66-1.33) for Dukes Stage A CRC, 0.54 (0.42-0.68) for Dukes
      B, 0.71 (0.56-0.91) for Dukes C, and 0.60 (0.48-0.74) for Dukes D. After 5 years'
      therapy, the RR for Dukes Stage A CRC was 0.53 (0.24-1.19). CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      starting low-dose aspirin therapy have a reduced risk of Stages B-D CRC,
      suggesting a role for low-dose aspirin in the progression of established CRC; a
      substantial reduction in the risk of Dukes A CRC may occur after 5 years'
      therapy.

PMID- 28882114
TI  - Associations of genetic variants of endothelin with cardiovascular complications
      in patients with renal failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular (CV) complications are the main cause of death in end
      stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The high CV risks are attributable to the
      additive effects of multiple factors. Endothelin (EDN) is a potent
      vasoconstrictor and plays a role in regulating vascular homeostasis. However,
      whether variants of the EDN gene are associated with risks of CV events is not
      known. We conducted a study to investigate associations of variants of the EDN
      gene with CV events in ESRD patients. METHODS: A cohort of 190 ESRD patients was
      recruited, and 19 tagged single-nucleotide polymorphisms within the EDN gene
      family were selected for genotyping through a TaqMan assay. Data on clinical
      characteristics and hospitalizations for CV events were collected. Associations
      of genetic variants of the EDN gene with CV events were analyzed. RESULTS: In
      this cohort, 62% (n = 118) of patients were hospitalized for a CV event. The EDN1
      rs4714384 (CC/TC vs. TT) polymorphism was associated with an increased risk of a
      CV event after multiple testing (p < 0.001). Further functional exploration
      showed that it was a quantitative trait locus which may significantly alter gene
      expression in the tibial artery. CONCLUSIONS: EDN1 rs4714384 is very likely an
      important biomarker of CV events in ESRD patients.

PMID- 28882115
TI  - Caught in a no-win situation: discussions about CCSVI between persons with
      multiple sclerosis and their neurologists - a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, shared decision making (SDM) has been promoted as a
      model to guide interactions between persons with MS and their neurologists to
      reach mutually satisfying decisions about disease management - generally about
      deciding treatment courses of prevailing disease modifying therapies. In 2009,
      Dr. Paolo Zamboni introduced the world to his hypothesis of Chronic Cerebrospinal
      Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) as a cause of MS and proposed venous angioplasty
      ('liberation therapy') as a potential therapy. This study explores the
      discussions that took place between persons with MS (PwMS) and their neurologists
      about CCSVI against the backdrop of the recent calls for the use of SDM to guide
      clinical conversations. METHODS: In 2012, study researchers conducted focus
      groups with PwMS (n = 69) in Winnipeg, Canada. Interviews with key informants
      were also carried out with 15 participants across Canada who were stakeholders in
      the MS community: advocacy organizations, MS clinicians (i.e. neurologists,
      nurses), clinical researchers, and government health policy makers. RESULTS: PwMS
      reported a variety of experiences when attempting to discuss CCSVI with their
      neurologist. Some found that there was little effort to engage in desired
      discussions or were dissatisfied with critical or cautious stances of their
      neurologist. This led to communication breakdowns, broken relationships, and
      decisions to autonomously access alternative opinions or liberation therapy.
      Other participants were appreciative when clinicians engaged them in discussions
      and were more receptive to more critical appraisals of the evidence. Key
      informants reported that they too had heard of neurologists who refused to
      discuss CCSVI with patients and that neurology as a whole had been particularly
      vilified for their response to the hypothesis. Clinicians indicated that they had
      shared information as best they could but recommended against seeking liberation
      therapy. They noted that being respectful of patient emotions, values, and hope
      were also key to maintaining good relationships. CONCLUSIONS: While CCSVI proved
      a challenging context to carry out patient-physician discussions and brought
      numerous tensions to the surface, following the approach of SDM can minimize the
      potential for unfortunate outcomes as much as possible because it is based on
      principles of respect and more two-way communication.

PMID- 28882116
TI  - THISTLE: trial of hands-on Interprofessional simulation training for local
      emergencies: a research protocol for a stepped-wedge clustered randomised
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many adverse pregnancy outcomes in the UK could be prevented with
      better intrapartum care. Training for intrapartum emergencies has been widely
      recommended but there are conflicting data about their effectiveness.
      Observational studies have shown sustained local improvements in perinatal
      outcomes associated with the use of the PRactical Obstetric Multi-Professional
      Training - (PROMPT) training package. However this effect needs to be
      investigated in the context of randomised study design in settings other than
      enthusiastic early adopter single-centres. The main aim of this study is to
      determine the effectiveness of PROMPT to reduce the rate of term infants born
      with low APGAR scores. METHODS: THISTLE (Trial of Hands-on Interprofessional
      Simulation Training for Local Emergencies) is a multi-centre stepped-wedge
      clustered randomised controlled superiority trial conducted across 12 large
      Maternity Units in Scotland. On the basis of prior observational findings all
      Units have been offered the intervention and have been randomly allocated in
      groups of four Units, to one of three intervention time periods, each six months
      apart. Teams of four multi-professional clinicians from each participating Unit
      attended a two-day PROMPT Train the Trainers (T3) programme prior to the start of
      their allocated intervention step. Following the T3 training, the teams commenced
      the implementation of local intrapartum emergency training in their own Units by
      the start of their allocated intervention period. Blinding has not been possible
      due to the nature of the intervention. The aim of the study is to follow up each
      Unit for at least 12-months after they have commenced their local courses. The
      primary outcome for the study is the proportion of Apgar scores <7 at 5 min for
      term vaginal or emergency caesarean section births (>=37 weeks) occurring in each
      of the study Units. These data will be extracted from the Information Services
      Division Scottish Morbidity Record 02, a national routine data collection on
      pregnancy and births. Mixed or marginal logistic regression will be employed for
      the main analysis. DISCUSSION: THISTLE is the first stepped wedge cluster
      randomised trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an intrapartum emergencies
      training programme. The results will inform training, trainers and policy going
      forward. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN11640515 (registered on 09/09/2013).

PMID- 28882117
TI  - Awareness and practices regarding eye diseases among patients with diabetes: a
      cross sectional analysis of the CoDiab-VD cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The increasing prevalence of diabetes is leading to a rise of eye
      diseases, augmenting the risk of sight-threatening complications. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate prevalence, awareness and practices regarding eye diseases
      among patients with diabetes in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. METHODS: A
      cohort of 323 patients with diabetes completed a self-administered questionnaire
      assessing prevalence, awareness and practices regarding eye diseases, besides
      health status and quality of care measures. Descriptive analyses followed by
      exploratory subgroup analyses and linear regressions were performed to
      investigate factors associated with awareness and practices. RESULTS: While
      diabetic retinopathy was reported by 40.9% of patients with type 1 diabetes and
      9.8% of patients with type 2 diabetes, 35.8% and 12.6% of all participants
      reported cataract and glaucoma, respectively. Awareness that diabetes could
      damage the eyes was reported by almost all participants; the majority was also
      aware of the importance of glycemic control and regular eye examination in
      preventing eye diseases. In contrast, only 70.5% of participants underwent an eye
      examination by an ophthalmologist during the past year. Eye examination was
      associated with better patients' awareness. Barriers mentioned by patients
      revealed a lack of knowledge about screening guidelines, in particular regarding
      the preventive nature of eye examinations. CONCLUSIONS: Despite high levels of
      awareness regarding diabetic eye diseases, a significant proportion of patients
      with diabetes did not report annual eye examination. Both healthcare strategic
      efforts targeting the promotion of regular eye examination and initiatives aiming
      at improving knowledge of screening guidelines should be encouraged. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov on 9th July 2013, identifier NCT01902043
      (retrospectively registered).

PMID- 28882118
TI  - Separating obsessive-compulsive disorder from the self. A qualitative study of
      family member perceptions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a condition which can have
      major effects on the life of both the sufferer and their family members. Previous
      research has shown that the impact of illness on family members is related to
      their conceptualisation of the illness. In the present study we used qualitative
      methods to explore illness perceptions in family members of people with OCD.
      METHOD: Fourteen family members of people meeting diagnostic criteria for OCD
      within the previous year took part in a semi-structured interview. Transcribed
      interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: OCD was viewed as
      originating from non-modifiable endogenous factors, particularly personal
      characteristics. Ambiguity about the boundary between OCD and the person was
      further heightened by a lack of distinction in family members' interpretations
      about which behaviours were a problematic symptom of a mental health problem and
      which were behaviours performed for enjoyment or the purposeful pursuit of a
      goal. The perceived close relationship between OCD and the person appeared to
      lead to pessimism regarding the likelihood of recovery. Some individuals viewed
      OCD as presenting on a continuum such that individuals with sub-clinical symptoms
      exist on the same spectrum as those with the mental health problem. For some
      however, labelling of sub-clinical symptoms as OCD by members of the public was a
      source of frustration for families, who felt that the severity of OCD was
      unrecognised. CONCLUSIONS: Family members' perceptions of the link between OCD
      and the person and of a spectrum of OCD presentation within the general
      population, may represent important dimensions of illness perception, which are
      not currently represented within existing models or assessment measures of
      illness perception. The perceptions that individuals hold about a health problem
      have been shown to be important in determining their coping responses to that
      condition. Further study using larger samples and quantitative methods are needed
      to understand whether these novel perceptions are associated with coping
      responses and outcomes in family members and people with OCD. If linked,
      clinicians may need to identify and challenge unhelpful family member perceptions
      as part of psychological therapy for families living with OCD.

PMID- 28882119
TI  - Aggregation-prone GFAP mutation in Alexander disease validated using a zebrafish
      model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alexander disease (AxD) is an astrogliopathy that predominantly
      affects the white matter of the central nervous system (CNS), and is caused by a
      mutation in the gene encoding the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an
      intermediate filament primarily expressed in astrocytes and ependymal cells. The
      main pathologic feature of AxD is the presence of Rosenthal fibers (RFs),
      homogeneous eosinophilic inclusions found in astrocytes. Because of difficulties
      in procuring patient' CNS tissues and the presence of RFs in other pathologic
      conditions, there is a need to develop an in vivo assay that can determine
      whether a mutation in the GFAP results in aggregation and is thus disease
      causing. METHODS: We found a GFAP mutation (c.382G > A, p.Asp128Asn) in a 68-year
      old man with slowly progressive gait disturbance with tendency to fall. The
      patient was tentatively diagnosed with AxD based on clinical and radiological
      findings. To develop a vertebrate model to assess the aggregation tendency of
      GFAP, we expressed several previously reported mutant GFAPs and p.Asp128Asn GFAP
      in zebrafish embryos. RESULTS: The most common GFAP mutations in AxD, p.Arg79Cys,
      p.Arg79His, p.Arg239Cys and p.Arg239His, and p.Asp128Asn induced a significantly
      higher number of GFAP aggregates in zebrafish embryos than wild-type GFAP.
      CONCLUSIONS: The p.Asp128Asn GFAP mutation is likely to be a disease-causing
      mutation. Although it needs to be tested more extensively in larger case series,
      the zebrafish assay system presented here would help clinicians determine whether
      GFAP mutations identified in putative AxD patients are disease-causing.

PMID- 28882120
TI  - Clinical and radiological characteristics of patients with late-onset severe
      restrictive lung defect after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Late-onset noninfectious pulmonary complications (LONIPCs), which
      occur more than 3 months after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
      (HSCT), are major causes of morbidity and mortality after transplantation. Among
      LONIPCs, we occasionally treat patients with late-onset severe restrictive lung
      defect after HSCT; however, its clinical features have not been fully elucidated.
      METHODS: A retrospective chart review of a single center on cases of late-onset
      severe restrictive lung defect after HSCT was performed. Among 453 patients who
      survived longer than 100 days after allogeneic HSCT with evaluable spirometry
      data, 12 patients (2.6%) developed late-onset severe restrictive lung defect
      (i.e., vital capacity percent of predicted less than 60%). RESULTS: Median
      duration from transplantation to diagnosis of late-onset severe restrictive lung
      defect cases was 44.5 months. Major computed tomography (CT) finding was
      pleuroparenchymal thickening with volume loss, an evidence of fibrosis,
      predominantly in upper lobes (n = 7), which was consistent with pleuroparenchymal
      fibroelastosis. The remaining patients showed unclassifiable interstitial
      pneumonia pattern (n = 2) and airway-predominant pattern (n = 3). The diffusing
      capacity for carbon oxide tended to decrease, while the residual volume/total
      lung capacity ratio tended to increase after HSCT. Of 12 patients, 8 patients
      died and the median month from diagnosis to death was 33.5 months. Seven patients
      died of pulmonary or systemic infection, and one patient died due to relapse of
      the primary disease. CONCLUSION: Severe restrictive lung defect could develop in
      selected cases in the late-phase after HSCT and could be a unique clinical entity
      with specific radiographical findings.

PMID- 28882121
TI  - Evaluation of a peer education program on student leaders' energy balance-related
      behaviors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have reported energy balance-related behavior (EBRB)
      change for peer leaders delivering health promotion programs to younger students
      in secondary schools. Our study assessed the impact of the Students As LifeStyle
      Activists (SALSA) program on SALSA peer leaders' EBRBs, and their intentions
      regarding these behaviors. METHODS: We used a pre-post study design to assess
      changes in EBRBs and intentions of Year 10 secondary school students (15-16 year
      olds) who volunteered to be peer leaders to deliver the SALSA program to Year 8
      students (13-14 year olds). This research is part of a larger study conducted
      during 2014 and 2015 in 23 secondary schools in Sydney, Australia. We used an
      online questionnaire before and after program participation to assess Year 10
      peer leaders' fruit and vegetable intake, daily breakfast eating, sugar sweetened
      beverage (SSB) intake, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)
      participation and school-day recreational screen time behaviors and intentions
      regarding these EBRBs. Generalized estimating equations with a robust variance
      structure and exchangeable correlation structure were used to estimate the
      individual-level summary statistics and their 95% CIs, adjusted for clustering.
      We further assessed the effect of covariates on EBRB changes. RESULTS: There were
      significant increases in the proportion of Year 10 peer leaders (n = 415) who
      reported eating >=2 serves fruit/day fruit from 54 to 63% (P < 0.01); eating >=5
      serves vegetables/day from 8 to 12% (P < 0.01); and drinking <1 cup/day of SSBs
      from 56 to 62% (P < 0.01). Change in >=60 min MVPA participation/day depended on
      gender (P < 0.01): Boys increased 14% while girls decreased -2%. Changes in
      eating breakfast daily also depended on gender (P < 0.004): Boys increased 13%
      while girls decreased -0.4%. The change in peer leaders recreational screen time
      differed by socio-economic status (P < 0.05): above average communities decreased
      by -2.9% while below average communities increased 6.0%. Significant shifts were
      seen in peer leaders' intentions, except MVPA which remained stable. CONCLUSIONS:
      The SALSA program had a positive impact on peer leaders' EBRBs, with gender and
      socio-economic status moderating some outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ACTRN12617000712303 retrospectively registered.

PMID- 28882122
TI  - Prevalence and predictors of early gestational weight gain associated with
      obesity risk in a diverse Australian antenatal population: a cross-sectional
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Excess gestational weight gain (GWG) leads to adverse short- and long
      term consequences for women and their offspring. Evidence suggests that excess
      GWG in early pregnancy may be particularly detrimental, contributing to the
      intergenerational cycle of obesity. The primary outcome was to investigate the
      prevalence and predictors of excess GWG in early pregnancy, and if women
      understand the risks to themselves and their offspring stratified by maternal
      body mass index (BMI). METHODS: This was a secondary analysis (n = 2131) of a
      cross-sectional study (n = 2338) conducted over 6 months in 2015 of pregnant
      women attending antenatal clinics at four maternity hospitals across Sydney,
      Australia before 22 completed weeks gestation An self-completed questionnaire was
      used to investigate knowledge of expected weight gain in pregnancy, understanding
      of risks associated with excess GWG, self-reported anthropometric measures and
      socio-demographic data. RESULTS: One third (34.2%) of women gained weight in
      excess of the recommendations by 22 completed weeks gestation. Women who were
      overweight (OR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.33-2.14) or obese (OR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.20-2.24)
      pre-pregnancy were more likely to gain excess weight in early pregnancy compared
      to normal weight women; as were women from lower socio-economic areas (OR: 1.89,
      95% CI: 1.49-2.41). Half (51%) the women were unsure about the effect of excess
      GWG on their baby; 11% did not believe that excess GWG would affect the weight of
      the baby and 14% did not believe that excess GWG would affect longer term
      outcomes for their baby. Women who gained weight above the recommendations were
      significantly more likely to believe that excessive GWG in pregnancy would not
      have any adverse future effect on health outcomes or weight of their baby.
      CONCLUSIONS: The women at particular risk of excess early GWG are those who are
      overweight and obese and/or residing in lower socio-economic areas. These women
      need to be targeted for appropriate counselling preconception or in early
      pregnancy. Given the significant adverse outcomes associated with excess GWG in
      early pregnancy, preconception or early pregnancy counselling with respect to GWG
      and intervention research regarding best approach remains a public health
      priority.

PMID- 28882123
TI  - Electronic cigarette use behaviors and motivations among smokers and non-smokers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of electronic cigarettes (EC) has risen exponentially over
      the past decade, including among never smokers, and ECs are now the most popular
      tobacco product among teenagers in the US. While, EC manufacturers utilize
      numerous marketing strategies to target both smokers and non-smokers, it is
      unclear how perceptions and behaviors differ between these two groups. METHODS:
      We conducted a survey of 320 adults either via online surveys or in Baltimore
      vape shops to determine demographics, behaviors, perceptions, and motivations
      underlying use of ECs. RESULTS: Our survey respondents were predominantly young,
      Caucasian males, 74% of whom identified themselves as former smokers, while 20%
      identified as current smokers and 6% were never smokers. Former smokers reported
      a longer history of EC use and higher nicotine concentrations than current
      smokers. For former and current smokers, the primary motivation for EC use was
      assistance to quit smoking, and nearly half indicated that they plan to reduce
      their nicotine concentration and eventually quit using ECs. Among former smokers,
      self-reports on use and measures of dependence were consistent with nicotine
      replacement as their primary motivation. The majority of former and current
      smokers also reported that their respiratory health had improved as a result of
      EC use, although this effect was stronger for former smokers. Never smokers
      reported less frequent EC use and dependence compared to former and current
      smokers. Their motivations for use were more commonly for enjoyment and
      popularity, and they displayed a reduced desire to eventually quit using ECs.
      CONCLUSIONS: These responses provide insight into the underlying thoughts and
      behaviors of smoking and non-smoking EC users and also suggest that never smoking
      EC users are an emerging demographic with different motivations and perceptions
      than those of current and former smokers.

PMID- 28882124
TI  - Phenotypic expressions of hereditary Transthyretin Ala97Ser related Amyloidosis
      (ATTR) in Taiwanese.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The disease course and early signs specific to ATTR Ala97Ser, the
      most common endemic mutation in Taiwan, have not been well described. Since new
      medications can slow down the rate of disease progression, the early diagnosis of
      this heterogeneous and fatal disease becomes critical. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed the characteristics of genetically confirmed ATTR
      Ala97Ser patients at a tertiary referral medical center. RESULTS: Eight patients
      from 7 different families were enrolled (61.7 +/- 5.5 years). Gastrointestinal
      symptoms, dyspnea or chest tightness, rather than sensory symptoms, were the
      initial symptoms in two patients (2/7 = 29%). Body weight loss (3/7 = 43%),
      muscle wasting (4/7 = 57%), or dysphagia (3/7 = 43%) were the consecutive
      symptoms. Orthostatic symptoms including orthostatic hypotension (7/7 = 100%),
      dizziness (6/7 = 86%) and syncope (5/7 = 71%) tended to develop in the late phase
      of the disease. Autonomic dysfunction was conspicuous. Cardiographic findings
      included a combination of ventricular wall thickening and pericardial effusion
      (7/7 = 100%), a granular sparkling appearance of the ventricular myocardium (4/7
      = 57%), or conduction abnormalities (5/7 = 71%). CONCLUSIONS: This study broadens
      the recognition of the initial signs and symptoms, including cardiographic
      findings and longitudinal manifestations in Taiwanese individuals with ATTR
      Ala97Ser mutation. These manifestations should prompt doctors to perform further
      studies and make an early diagnosis.

PMID- 28882125
TI  - Evidence mapping based on systematic reviews of therapeutic interventions for
      gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumours (GISTs) are the most common
      mesenchymal tumours. Currently, different pharmacological and surgical options
      are used to treat localised and metastatic GISTs, although this research field is
      broad and the body of evidence is scattered and expanding. Our objectives are to
      identify, describe and organise the current available evidence for GIST through
      an evidence mapping approach. METHODS: We followed the methodology of Global
      Evidence Mapping (GEM). We searched Pubmed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library and
      Epistemonikos in order to identify systematic reviews (SRs) with or without meta
      analyses published between 1990 and March 2016. Two authors assessed eligibility
      and extracted data. Methodological quality of the included systematic reviews was
      assessed using AMSTAR. We organised the results according to identified PICO
      questions and presented the evidence map in tables and a bubble plot. RESULTS: A
      total of 17 SRs met eligibility criteria. These reviews included 66 individual
      studies, of which three quarters were either observational or uncontrolled
      clinical trials. Overall, the quality of the included SRs was moderate or high.
      In total, we extracted 14 PICO questions from them and the corresponding results
      mostly favoured the intervention arm. CONCLUSIONS: The most common type of study
      used to evaluate therapeutic interventions in GIST sarcomas has been non
      experimental studies. However, the majority of the interventions are reported as
      beneficial or probably beneficial by the respective authors of SRs. The evidence
      mapping is a useful and reliable methodology to identify and present the existing
      evidence about therapeutic interventions.

PMID- 28882126
TI  - Predictors of Acute Renal Injury Study (PARIS) among HIV-positive individuals:
      design and methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI), which is common among HIV-positive
      individuals, may contribute to the excess burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD)
      in this patient population; however, conventional clinical methods to detect AKI
      do not capture kidney injury sufficiently early to prevent irreversible damage.
      Further, large observational and interventional studies of AKI generally exclude
      HIV-positive persons in spite of their disproportionate risk. METHODS: The
      Predictors of Acute Renal Injury Study (PARIS) is a prospective observational
      cohort study among HIV-positive individuals established to determine the ability
      of candidate kidney injury biomarkers to predict future hospitalized clinical
      AKI, to characterize hospitalized subclinical AKI, and to discern the risk of
      progressive kidney disease following subclinical and clinical AKI. Among the
      candidate kidney injury markers, we will select the most promising to translate
      into a clinically viable, multiplex panel of urinary biomarkers which we will
      integrate with clinical factors to develop a model prognostic of risks for AKI
      and subsequent kidney function decline. This study has a targeted enrollment of
      2000 participants. The overall follow-up of participants consists of two phases:
      1) a 5-year active follow-up phase which involves serial evaluations at
      enrollment, annual clinic visits, and among participants who are hospitalized
      during this period, an evaluation at index hospitalization and 3 and 12 months
      post-hospitalization; and 2) a subsequent passive follow-up phase for the
      duration that the participant receives medical care at The Johns Hopkins
      Hospital. DISCUSSIONS: This study will serve as an important resource for future
      studies of AKI by establishing a repository with both ambulatory and inpatient
      biospecimens, a resource that is currently lacking in existing HIV clinical
      cohorts and studies of AKI. Upon completion of this study, the resulting
      prognostic model which will incorporate results from the multiplex HIV-AKI Risk
      Pane could serve as a pharmacodynamic endpoint for early phase therapeutic
      candidates for AKI.

PMID- 28882127
TI  - Derivation of a frailty index from the resident assessment instrument - home care
      adapted for Switzerland: a study based on retrospective data analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The screening of frail individuals at risk for functional health
      decline and adverse health outcomes lies in the evolving agenda of home care
      providers. Such a screening can be based on a frailty index (FI) derived from
      data collected with interRAI instruments used in clinical routines to define care
      plans. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of deriving an
      FI from the Resident Assessment Instrument - Home Care adapted for Switzerland
      (Swiss RAI-HC). METHODS: Data were collected by the Geneva Institution for
      Homecare and Assistance in clinical routines. The sample consisted of 3714
      individuals aged 65 or older (67.7% females) who had each received a Swiss RAI-HC
      upon admission in the year of 2015. The FI was derived from 52 variables
      identified and scored according to published guidelines. Adverse health outcomes
      were either assessed during follow-up assessments (falls, hospitalizations) or
      documented from administrative records (mortality). RESULTS: The results showed
      that the FI was distributed normally, with a mean of 0.24 (+/- 0.13), an
      interquartile range of 0.16, and values of 0.04 at percentile 1 and 0.63 at
      percentile 99. The effect of Age was significant (R2 = 0.011) with a slope of
      beta = 0.002, 95% CI = [0.001-0.002]. Sex as well as the Age * Sex interaction
      were not significant. The FI predicted deaths (OR = 9.99, 95% CI = [3.20-29.99]),
      hospitalizations (OR = 3.40, 95% CI = [1.78-6.32]), and falls (OR = 5.00, 95% CI
      = [2.68-9.38]). CONCLUSIONS: The results support the feasibility of an FI
      derivation from the Swiss RAI-HC, hence replicating previous demonstrations based
      on interRAI instruments. The results also replicated findings showing that the FI
      is a good predictor of adverse health outcomes. Yet, the results suggest that
      home care recipients demonstrate a frailty pattern different from the one
      reported in community dwellers but comparable to clinical samples. Further work
      is needed to assess the characteristics of the proposed index in community
      dwelling, non-clinical samples for comparability with the existing literature and
      external validation TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03139162 .
      Retrospectively registered May 2, 2017.

PMID- 28882128
TI  - Institutional maternal and perinatal deaths: a review of 40 low and middle income
      countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding the magnitude and clinical causes of maternal and
      perinatal mortality are basic requirements for positive change. Facility-based
      information offers a contextualized resource for clinical and organizational
      quality improvement. We describe the magnitude of institutional maternal
      mortality, causes of death and cause-specific case fatality rates, as well as
      stillbirth and pre-discharge neonatal death rates. METHODS: This paper draws on
      secondary data from 40 low and middle income countries that conducted emergency
      obstetric and newborn care assessments over the last 10 years. We reviewed 6.5
      million deliveries, surveyed in 15,411 facilities. Most of the data were
      extracted from reports and aggregated with excel. RESULTS: Hemorrhage and
      hypertensive diseases contributed to about one third of institutional maternal
      deaths and indirect causes contributed another third (given the
      overrepresentation of sub-Saharan African countries with large proportions of
      indirect causes). The most lethal obstetric complication, across all regions, was
      ruptured uterus, followed by sepsis in Latin America and the Caribbean and sub
      Saharan Africa. Stillbirth rates exceeded pre-discharge neonatal death rates in
      nearly all countries, possibly because women and their newborns were discharged
      soon after birth. CONCLUSIONS: To a large extent, facility-based findings mirror
      what population-based systematic reviews have also documented. As coverage of a
      skilled attendant at birth increases, proportionally more deaths will occur in
      facilities, making improvements in record-keeping and health management
      information systems, especially for stillbirths and early neonatal deaths, all
      the more critical.

PMID- 28882129
TI  - IGF1R activation and the in vitro antiproliferative efficacy of IGF1R inhibitor
      are inversely correlated with IGFBP5 expression in bladder cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The insulin growth factor (IGF) pathway has been proposed as a
      potential therapeutic target in bladder cancer. We characterized the expression
      of components of the IGF pathway - insulin growth factor receptors (INSR, IGF1R,
      IGF2R), ligands (INS, IGF1, IGF2), and binding proteins (IGFBP1-7, IGF2BP1-3) -
      in bladder cancer and its correlation with IGF1R activation, and the anti
      proliferative efficacy of an IGF1R kinase inhibitor in this setting. METHODS: We
      analyzed transcriptomic data from two independent bladder cancer datasets,
      corresponding to 200 tumoral and five normal urothelium samples. We evaluated the
      activation status of the IGF pathway in bladder tumors, by assessing IGF1R
      phosphorylation and evaluating its correlation with mRNA levels for IGF pathway
      components. We finally evaluated the correlation between inhibition of
      proliferation by a selective inhibitor of the IGF1R kinase (AEW541), reported in
      13 bladder cancer derived cell lines by the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia
      Consortium and mRNA levels for IGF pathway components. RESULTS: IGF1R expression
      and activation were stronger in non-muscle-invasive than in muscle-invasive
      bladder tumors. There was a significant inverse correlation between IGF1R
      phosphorylation and IGFBP5 expression in tumors. Consistent with this finding,
      the inhibition of bladder cell line viability by IGF1R inhibitor was also
      inversely correlated with IGFBP5 expression. CONCLUSION: The IGF pathway is
      activated and therefore a potential therapeutic target for non muscle-invasive
      bladder tumors and IGFBP5 could be used as a surrogate marker for predicting
      tumor sensitivity to anti-IGF therapy.

PMID- 28882130
TI  - The hemorrhagic transformation index score: a prediction tool in middle cerebral
      artery ischemic stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to develop a tool, the hemorrhagic transformation (HT) index
      (HTI), to predict any HT within 14 days after middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke
      onset regardless of the intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (IV
      rtPA) use. That is especially important in the light of missing evidence-based
      data concerning the timing of anticoagulant resumption after stroke in patients
      with atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 783
      consecutive MCA stroke patients. Clinical and brain imaging data at admission
      were recorded. A follow-up period was 2 weeks after admission. The patients were
      divided into derivation (DC) and validation (VC) cohorts by generating Bernoulli
      variates with probability parameter 0.7. Univariate/multivariate logistic
      regression, and factor analysis were used to extract independent predictors.
      Validation was performed with internal consistency reliability and receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Bootstrapping was used to reduce bias.
      RESULTS: The HTI was composed of 4 items: Alberta Stroke Program Early CT score
      (ASPECTS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), hyperdense MCA
      (HMCA) sign, and AF on electrocardiogram (ECG) at admission. According to the
      predicted probability (PP) range, scores were allocated to ASPECTS as follows: 10
      7 = 0; 6-5 = 1; 4-3 = 2; 2-0 = 3; to NIHSS: 0-11 = 0; 12-17 = 1; 18-23 = 2; >23 =
      3; to HMCA sign: yes = 1; to AF on ECG: yes = 1. The HTI score varied from 0 to
      8. For each score, adjusted PP of any HT with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was
      as follows: 0 = 0.027 (0.011-0.042); 1 = 0.07 (0.043-0.098); 2 = 0.169 (0.125
      0.213); 3 = 0.346 (0.275-0.417); 4 = 0.571 (0.474-0.668); 5 = 0.768 (0.676
      0.861); 6 = 0.893 (0.829-0.957); 7 = 0.956 (0.92-0.992); 8 = 0.983 (0.965-1.0).
      The optimal cutpoint score to differentiate between HT-positive and negative
      groups was 2 (95% normal-based CI, 1-3) for the DC and VC alike. ROC
      area/sensitivity/specificity with 95% normal-based CI for the DC and VC were 0.85
      (0.82-0.89)/0.82 (0.73-0.9)/0.89 (0.8-0.97) and 0.83 (0.78-0.88)/0.8 (0.66
      0.94)/0.87 (0.73-1.0) respectively. McDonald's categorical omega with 95% bias
      corrected and accelerated CI for the DC and VC was 0.81 (0.77-0.84) and 0.82
      (0.76-0.86) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The HTI is a simple yet reliable tool to
      predict any HT within 2 weeks after MCA stroke onset regardless of the IV rtPA
      use.

PMID- 28882131
TI  - An evaluation of Interprofessional group antenatal care: a prospective
      comparative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal and neonatal outcomes are influenced by the nature of
      antenatal care. Standard pregnancy care is provided on an individual basis, with
      one-on-one appointments between a client and family doctor, midwife or
      obstetrician. A novel, group-based antenatal care delivery model was developed in
      the United States in the 1990s and is growing in popularity beyond the borders of
      the USA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes in clients receiving
      interprofessional group perinatal care versus interprofessional individual care
      in a Canadian setting. METHODS: Clients attending the South Community Birth
      Program (SCBP), an interprofessional, collaborative, primary care maternity
      program, offering both individual and group care, were invited to participate in
      the study. Pregnancy knowledge and satisfaction scores, and perinatal outcomes
      were compared between those receiving group versus individual care. Chi-square
      tests, general linear models and logistic regression were used to compare the
      questionnaire scores and perinatal outcomes between cohorts. RESULTS: Three
      hundred three clients participated in the study. Group care was comparable to
      individual care in terms of mode of birth, gestational age at birth, infant birth
      weight, breastfeeding rates, pregnancy knowledge, preparedness for labour and
      baby care, and client satisfaction. The rates of adverse perinatal outcomes were
      extremely low amongst SCBP clients, regardless of the type of care received
      (preterm birth rates ~5%). Breastfeeding rates were very high amongst all study
      participants (> 78% exclusive breastfeeding), as were measures of pregnancy
      knowledge and satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first Canadian study to
      compare outcomes in clients receiving interprofessional group care versus
      individual care. Our observation that interprofessional group care outcomes and
      satisfaction were as good as interprofessional individual care has important
      implications for the antenatal care of clients and for addressing the projected
      maternity provider crisis facing Canada, particularly in small and rural
      communities. Further study of group-based care including not only client
      satisfaction, but also provider satisfaction, is needed. In addition, research
      into the role of interprofessional care in meeting the needs and improving
      perinatal outcomes of different populations is necessary.

PMID- 28882132
TI  - Hospital volume and the risk of revision in Oxford unicompartmental knee
      arthroplasty in the Nordic countries -an observational study of 14,496 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High procedure volume and dedication to unicompartmental knee
      arthroplasty (UKA) has been suggested to improve revision rates. This study aimed
      to quantify the annual hospital volume effect on revision risk in Oxfordu  
      nicompartmental knee arthroplasty in the Nordic countries. METHODS: 14,496 cases
      of cemented medial Oxford III UKA were identified in 126 hospitals in the four
      countries included in the Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association (NARA)
      database from 2000 to 2012. Hospitals were divided by quartiles into 4 annual
      procedure volume groups (<=11, 12-23, 24-43 and >=44). The outcome was revision
      risk after 2 and 10 years calculated using Kaplan Meier method. Multivariate Cox
      regression analysis was used to assess the Hazard Ratio (HR) of any revision due
      to specific reasons with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: The implant
      survival was 80% at 10 years in the volume group <=11 procedures per year
      compared to 83% in other volume groups. The HR adjusted for age category, sex,
      year of surgery and nation was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.76-0.99, p = 0.036) for the group
      12-23 procedures per year, 0.78 (95% CI: 0.68-0.91, p = 0.002) for the group 24
      43 procedures per year and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.70-0.94, p = 0.006) for the group >=44
      procedures per year compared to the low volume group. Log-rank test was p =
      0.003. The risk of revision for unexplained pain was 40-50% higher in the low
      compared with other volume groups. CONCLUSION: Low volume hospitals performing
      <=11 Oxford III UKAs per year were associated with an increased risk of revision
      compared to higher volume hospitals, and unexplained pain as revision cause was
      more common in low volume hospitals.

PMID- 28882134
TI  - A conceptual framework for patient-centered fertility treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient-centered care is a pillar of quality health care and is
      important to patients experiencing infertility. In this study we used empirical,
      in-depth data on couples' experiences of infertility treatment decision making to
      inform and revise a conceptual framework for patient-centered fertility treatment
      that was developed based on health care professionals' conceptualizations of
      fertility treatment, covering effectiveness, burden, safety, and costs. METHODS:
      In this prospective, longitudinal mixed methods study, we collected data from
      both members (separately) of 37 couples who scheduled an initial consult with a
      reproductive specialist. Data collection occurred 1 week before the initial
      consultation, 1 week after the initial consultation, and then roughly 2, 4, 8,
      and 12 months later. Data collection included semi-structured qualitative
      interviews, self-reported questionnaires, and medical record review. Interviews
      were recorded, transcribed, and content analyzed in NVivo. A single coder
      analyzed all transcripts, with > 25% of transcripts coded by a second coder to
      ensure quality control and consistency. RESULTS: Content analysis of the
      interview transcripts revealed 6 treatment dimensions: effectiveness, physical
      and emotional burden, time, cost, potential risks, and genetic parentage. Thus,
      the revised framework for patient-centered fertility treatment retains much from
      the original framework, with modification to one dimension (from safety to
      potential risks) and the addition of two dimensions (time and genetic parentage).
      For patients and their partners making fertility treatment decisions, tradeoffs
      are explicitly considered across dimensions as opposed to each dimension being
      considered on its own. CONCLUSIONS: Patient-centered fertility treatment should
      account for the dimensions of treatment that patients and their partners weigh
      when making decisions about how to add a child to their family. Based on the
      lived experiences of couples seeking specialist medical care for infertility,
      this revised conceptual framework can be used to inform patient-centered
      treatment and research on infertility and to develop decision support tools for
      patients and providers.

PMID- 28882133
TI  - Is a motivational interviewing based lifestyle intervention for obese pregnant
      women across Europe implemented as planned? Process evaluation of the DALI study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Process evaluation is an essential part of designing and assessing
      complex interventions. The vitamin D and lifestyle intervention study (DALI)
      study is testing different strategies to prevent development of gestational
      diabetes mellitus among European obese pregnant women with a body mass index >=29
      kg/m2. The intervention includes guidance on physical activity and/or healthy
      eating by a lifestyle coach trained in motivational interviewing (MI). The aim of
      this study was to assess the process elements: reach, dose delivered, fidelity
      and satisfaction and to investigate whether these process elements were
      associated with changes in gestational weight gain (GWG). METHODS: Data on reach,
      dose delivered, fidelity, and satisfaction among 144 participants were collected.
      Weekly recruitment reports, notes from meetings, coach logs and evaluation
      questionnaires (n = 110) were consulted. Fidelity of eight (out of twelve)
      lifestyle coach practitioners was assessed by analysing audio recorded
      counselling sessions using the MI treatment integrity scale. Furthermore,
      associations between process elements and GWG were assessed with linear
      regression analyses. RESULTS: A total of 20% of the possible study population
      (reach) was included in this analysis. On average 4.0 (of the intended 5) face-to
      face sessions were delivered. Mean MI fidelity almost reached 'expert opinion'
      threshold for the global scores, but was below 'beginning proficiency' for the
      behavioural counts. High variability in quality of MI between practitioners was
      identified. Participants were highly satisfied with the intervention, the
      lifestyle coach and the intervention materials. No significant associations were
      found between process elements and GWG. CONCLUSION: Overall, the intervention was
      well delivered and received by the study population, but did not comply with all
      the principles of MI. Ensuring audio recording of lifestyle sessions throughout
      the study would facilitate provision of individualized feedback to improve MI
      skills. A larger sample size is needed to confirm the lack of association between
      process elements and GWG. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN70595832 ;
      Registered 12 December 2011.

PMID- 28882135
TI  - Wait time management strategies for total joint replacement surgery:
      sustainability and unintended consequences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Canada, long waiting times for core specialized services have
      consistently been identified as a key barrier to access. Governments and
      organizations have responded with strategies for better access  management,
      notably for total joint replacement (TJR) of the hip and knee. While wait time
      management strategies (WTMS)are promising, the factors which influence their
      sustainable implementation at the organizational level are understudied.
      Consequently, this study examined organizational and systemic factors that made
      it possible to sustain waiting times for TJR within federally established limits
      and for at least 18 months or more. METHODS: The research design is a multiple
      case study of WTMS implementation. Five cases were selected across five Canadian
      provinces. Three success levels were pre-defined: 1) the WTMS maintained
      compliance with requirements for more than 18 months; 2) the WTMS met
      requirements for 18 months but could not sustain the level thereafter; 3) the
      WTMS never met requirements. For each case, we collected documents and 
      interviewed key informants. We analyzed systemic and organizational factors, with
      particular attention to governance and leadership, culture, resources, methods,
      and tools. RESULTS: We found that successful organizations had specific
      characteristics: 1) management of the whole care continuum, 2) strong clinical
      leadership; 3) dedicated committees to coordinate and sustain strategy; 4) a 
      culture based on trust and innovation. All strategies led to relatively similar
      unintended consequences. The main  negative consequence was an initial increase
      in waiting times for TJR and the main positive consequence was  operational
      enhancement of other areas of specialization based on the TJR model. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study highlights important differences in factors which help to achieve and
      sustain waiting times. To be sustainable, a WTMS needs to generate greater
      synergies between contextual-level strategy (provincial  or regional) and
      organizational objectives and constraints. Managers at the organizational level
      should be vigilant with regard to unintended consequences that a WTMS in one area
      can have for other areas of care. A more systemic approach to sustainability can
      help avoid or mitigate undesirable unintended consequences.

PMID- 28882136
TI  - Lessons learned on recruitment and retention in hard-to-reach families in a phase
      III randomised controlled trial of preparatory information for children
      undergoing general anaesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recruitment and retention are documented as two of the most difficult
      elements of conducting clinical trials. These issues are even more challenging in
      paediatric trials, particularly when the families being recruited and retained
      are deemed 'hard to reach'. METHODS: Through the authors' own reflection on the
      conduct of the trial this paper examines recruitment and retention with hard to
      reach families from the perspective of a recently completed clinical trial on
      preparatory information for children undergoing general anaesthesia for tooth
      extractions in which approximately 83% of those approached and eligible agreed to
      participate. RESULTS: The lessons learned for recruitment include: the importance
      of children's assent; maximising limited resources when screening and approaching
      potential participants; valuing families' time; and developing effective
      professional relationships. The retention rate was 83-85.5% at follow up time
      points up to 3.5 weeks following recruitment, insights into how this was
      accomplished include: ensuring continuity of care; determination to connect via
      telephone; valuing families' time; and close monitoring of appointment date
      changes. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for future paediatric trials with hard to
      reach families are discussed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN18265148 ; NIHR Portfolio
      10,006. Date of Registration: 29 November 2013. The trial was registered after
      commencement but before completion of data collection.

PMID- 28882137
TI  - Methodology for the assessment of brucellosis management practices and its
      vaccination campaign: example in two Argentine districts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Argentina, vaccination with Brucella abortus Strain 19 vaccine is
      mandatory. The objective of the study was to develop and test a method for
      evaluating, in an innovative way, some farmers' and veterinarians' management
      practices in relation to brucellosis and to assess the vaccination campaign and
      coverage. The work took place in Brandsen and Navarro districts. Four
      questionnaires were designed (for officials from Local Sanitary Entities,
      vaccinators, vet practitioners and farmers). Responses were coded as "ideal" (0)
      and "not ideal" (1). To assess the relative weight of each question ("item"),
      experts ranked the items according to their impact on management practices and
      vaccination. A weighted score was then calculated. A higher weighted score was
      assigned to the worse practices. Farmers obtaining a global weighted score above
      the third quartile were classified as "inappropriately managed farms", to be
      compared per type of production system and district. To assess the immunization
      coverage, female calves were sampled 30 to 50 days post vaccination; they were
      expected to react positively to serological diagnostic tests (DT+). RESULTS:
      There were significantly more inappropriately managed farms and higher global
      scores among beef farmers and in Brandsen. Eighty three percent (83%) of female
      calves were DT+, significantly under the ideal immunization coverage (95%). Only
      48% of farms were considered well vaccinated. DT+ results were positively
      associated with the Brandsen district (OR = 25.94 [4.60-1146.21] and with the
      farms having more than 200 cow heads ((OR = 78.34 [4.09-1500.00]). On the
      contrary, DT+ were less associated with vaccinators being veterinary
      practitioners (OR = 0.07 [0.006-0.78]). Farmers are well advised by their
      veterinary practitioners but they should improve some management practices.
      CONCLUSIONS: The vaccination campaign is globally well implemented, but the
      immunization coverage and some vaccinators' practices should be improved. This
      study leads to a better understanding of the most common used management and
      control practices regarding brucellosis, which affect its epidemiology. Any
      vaccination campaign should be periodically assessed to highlight possible fails.
      The described methodology can be extrapolated to other countries and different
      contexts.

PMID- 28882138
TI  - A dual therapy of off-pump temporary left ventricular extracorporeal device and
      amniotic stem cell for cardiogenic shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temporary mechanical circulatory support device without sternotomy
      has been highly advocated for severe cardiogenic shock patient but little is
      known when coupled with amniotic stem cell therapy. CASE PRESENTATION: This case
      reports the first dual therapy of temporary left ventricular extracorporeal
      device CentriMag with distal banding technique and human amniotic stem cell
      injection for treating a severe refractory cardiogenic shock of an 68-year-old
      female patient. A minimally-invasive off-pump LVAD was established by draining
      from the left ventricle and returning to the right axillary artery with distal
      arterial banding to prevent right upper extremity hyperperfusion. Amniotic stem
      cells were injected intramyocardially at the left ventricular apex, lateral wall,
      inferior wall, and right subclavian vein. CONCLUSION: The concomitant use of the
      temporary minimally-invasive off-pump CentriMag placement and stem cell therapy
      not only provided an alternative to cardiopulmonary bypass and full-median
      sternotomy procedures but may have also synergistically enhanced myocardial
      reperfusion and regeneration.

PMID- 28882139
TI  - The influence of institutional discourses on the work of informal carers: an
      institutional ethnography from the perspective of informal carers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The growing numbers of seniors worldwide and the need for support and
      services that follow from a higher standard of living have led to an increased
      focus on scarce benefits and limited human resources. At the same time, many
      western countries have had to make welfare cuts to balance budgets. This has
      brought the contributions of informal carers to the fore. Thus far, the focus has
      generally been on the need for the informal carers to receive information and
      support; to enable them to contribute. METHODS: The study is designed as an
      institutional ethnography. The article describes the social processes of informal
      caregiving and how it interacts with formal caregiving, from the perspective of
      informal carers. The research question for the study is How do institutional
      discourses on the work of informal carers influence informal carework? Data for
      the article comes from qualitative semi-structured interviews with 26 informal
      carers caring for persons with dementia in Norway, and with 7 administrators
      working in the allocation divisions of five different municipalities. RESULTS:
      The results demonstrate how three institutional discourses of informal carers'
      work influence the allocation divisions' practices and the work of informal
      carers in caring for their next of kin. The three discourses are categorised as
      moral and family obligation, shared care and task specificity. The informal
      carers want to contribute, as they feel a family and moral obligation to their
      next of kin. In the interaction with the allocation division, they find that the
      expectation that they will share in the carework and perform specific tasks
      forces them to perform care within a framework set by the public services.
      CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that further research should challenge how
      services are distributed and allocated rather than focus on how to enable
      informal carers to fulfil their role better. Because of their moral and family
      obligation, the informal carers do not have to be forced to perform certain tasks
      or parts of the shared care. To maintain the informal carers' carework and to
      fully utilise their contributions, public services would benefit from
      collaborating with the informal carers to fulfil the total care need of the
      person with dementia.

PMID- 28882140
TI  - Role of mitochondrial dysfunction and dysregulation of Ca2+ homeostasis in the
      pathophysiology of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
AB  - Metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and insulin resistance
      have attracted great attention from biomedical researchers and clinicians because
      of the astonishing increase in its prevalence. Decrease in the capacity of
      oxidative metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction are a major contributor to the
      development of these metabolic disorders. Recent studies indicate that alteration
      of intracellular Ca2+ levels and downstream Ca2+-dependent signaling pathways
      appear to modulate gene transcription and the activities of many enzymes involved
      in cellular metabolism. Ca2+ uptake into mitochondria modulates a number of Ca2+
      dependent proteins and enzymes participating in fatty acids metabolism,
      tricarboxylic acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation and apoptosis in response to
      physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Mitochondrial calcium uniporter
      (MCU) complex has been identified as a major channel located on the inner
      membrane to regulate Ca2+ transport into mitochondria. Recent studies of MCU
      complex have increased our understanding of the modulation of mitochondrial
      function and retrograde signaling to the nucleus via regulation of the
      mitochondrial Ca2+ level. Mitochondria couple cellular metabolic state by
      regulating not only their own Ca2+ levels, but also influence the entire network
      of cellular Ca2+ signaling. The mitochondria-associated ER membranes (MAMs),
      which are specialized structures between ER and mitochondria, are responsible for
      efficient communication between these organelles. Defects in the function or
      structure of MAMs have been observed in affected tissue cells in metabolic
      disease or neurodegenerative disorders. We demonstrated that dysregulation of
      intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis due to mitochondrial dysfunction or defects in the
      function of MAMs are involved in the pathogenesis of insulin insensitivity and
      T2D. These observations suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction and disturbance of
      Ca2+ homeostasis warrant further studies to assist the development of
      therapeutics for prevention and medication of insulin resistance and T2D.

PMID- 28882141
TI  - 3-dimensional versus conventional laparoscopy for benign hysterectomy: protocol
      for a randomized clinical trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hysterectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures for women
      of reproductive age. Laparoscopy was introduced in the 1990es and is today one of
      the recommended routes of surgery. A recent observational study showed that
      operative time for hysterectomy was significantly lower for 3-dimensional
      compared to conventional laparoscopy. Complication rates were similar for the two
      groups. No other observational studies or randomized clinical trials have
      compared 3-dimensional to conventional laparoscopy in patients undergoing total
      hysterectomy for benign disease. The objective of the study is to determine if 3D
      laparoscopy gives better quality of life, less postoperative pain, less per- and
      postoperative complications, shorter operative time, or a shorter stay in
      hospital and a faster return to work or normal life, compared to conventional
      laparoscopy for benign hysterectomy. METHODS/DESIGN: The design is a randomised
      multicentre clinical trial. Participants will be 400 women referred for
      laparoscopic hysterectomy for benign indications. Patients will be randomized to
      3-dimensional or conventional laparoscopic hysterectomy. Operative procedures
      will follow the same principles and the same standard whether the surgeon's
      vision is 3-dimensional or conventional laparoscopy. Primary outcomes will be the
      impact of surgery on quality of life, assessed by the SF 36 questionnaire, and
      postoperative pain, assessed by a Visual Analogue scale for pain measurement.
      With a standard deviation of 12 points on SF 36 questionnaire, a risk of type I
      error of 3.3% and a risk of type II error of 10% a sample size of 190 patients in
      each arm of the trial is needed. Secondarily, we will investigate operative time,
      time to return to work, length of hospital stay, and - and postoperative
      complications. DISCUSSION: This trial will be the first randomized clinical trial
      investigating the potential clinical benefits and harms of 3-dimensional compared
      to conventional laparoscopy. The results may provide more evidence regarding the
      future place of 3-dimensional laparoscopy in the range of endoscopic approaches
      for benign hysterectomy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study is registered at
      ClinicalTrial.gov: NCT02610985 November 16th 2015. November 2015. The regional
      Ethical committee approved it on the 12. November 2015, approval number: SJ-498.
      Data handling was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency: REG-109-2015 on
      the 13. November 2015.

PMID- 28882142
TI  - Prospective associations of psychosocial adversity in childhood with risk factors
      for cardiovascular disease in adulthood: the MRC National Survey of Health and
      Development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies assessing associations of childhood psychosocial adversity
      (e.g. sexual abuse, physical neglect, parental death), as opposed to
      socioeconomic adversity, with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in
      adulthood are scarce. We aimed to assess associations of various forms of
      psychosocial adversity and cumulative adversity in childhood, with multiple CVD
      risk factors in mid-life. METHODS: Participants were from the MRC National Survey
      of Health and Development. Childhood psychosocial risk factors were reported
      prospectively by parents from 1950-1957, and retrospectively by participants at
      mean age 43 years in 1989. CVD risk factors were assessed at mean age 60-64 years
      in 2006-2011. Associations of a summary score of total psychosocial adversity and
      CVD risk in adulthood were assessed. RESULTS: There was no consistent evidence
      that cumulative psychosocial adversity, nor any specific form of psychosocial
      adversity in childhood, was associated with CVD risk factors in late adulthood.
      There was some evidence that parental death in the first 15 years was associated
      with higher SBP (Beta: 0.23, 95% confidence interval: 0.06 to 0.40, P=0.01) and
      DBP (Beta: 0.15, 95% confidence interval: -0.01 to 0.32, P=0.07). CONCLUSIONS: We
      found no evidence that exposure to greater psychosocial adversity, or specific
      forms of psychosocial adversity during childhood is associated with adult CVD
      risk factors. Further large population studies are needed to clarify whether
      parental death is associated with higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

PMID- 28882144
TI  - Sutureless aortic valve replacement in a calcified homograft combined with mitral
      valve replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aortic valve replacement in a patient with an aortic homograft can be
      very challenging, especially when concomitant mitral valve surgery needs to be
      performed. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of implantation of a sutureless
      aortic valve bioprosthesis combined with mitral valve replacement in a patient
      with a severely calcified aortic homograft where conventional valve replacement
      was technically unfeasible. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that sutureless AVR is a
      viable option especially for young patients with a high surgical risk where
      conventional valve replacement cannot be achieved.

PMID- 28882143
TI  - Characteristics of persons who inject drugs and who witness opioid overdoses in
      Vietnam: a cross-sectional analysis to inform future overdose prevention
      programs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Persons who use opioids have a high risk of overdose and associated
      mortality. In Vietnam, little is known about the characteristics of this
      population and the persons who are witness to those overdoses. One approach to
      combatting fatal overdose has been the use of peer interventions in which a
      friend or injecting partner administers overdose reversal medication, but
      availability in Vietnam of these medications is limited to pilot programs with
      aims to expand in the future (Le Minh and V.F. Go, Personal Communication, 2016).
      The primary objective of this paper is to explore the characteristics associated
      with witnessing three or more overdoses in a lifetime. METHODS: This cross
      sectional analysis used baseline data from a four-arm randomized control trial
      conducted in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam, known as the Prevention for Positives project.
      One thousand six hundred seventy-three PWID were included in the analysis. We
      conducted bivariable and multivariable logistic regression to identify
      characteristics associated with witnessing three or more overdoses in a lifetime.
      Characteristics explored included education, employment, marital status, risky
      drug use behaviors, locations for accessing syringes, recent overdose, history of
      incarceration, drug treatment, and having slept outside in the past 3 months.
      RESULTS: Seventy-two percent (n = 1203) of participants had witnessed at least
      one overdose in their lifetime, and 46% had witnessed three or more overdoses (n
      = 765). In the multivariable model, having less than secondary education (AOR
      0.70; 95% CI 0.57, 0.86), having slept outside in the past 3 months (AOR 1.77;
      95% CI 1.31, 2.40), having a history of incarceration (AOR 1.33; 95% CI 1.07,
      1.65), having a history of drug treatment (AOR 1.41; 95% CI 1.12, 1.77),
      experiencing a recent non-fatal overdose (AOR 3.84; 95% CI 2.36, 6.25), injecting
      drugs daily (AOR 1.79; 95% CI 1.45, 2.20), receptive needle sharing (AOR 1.30;
      95% CI 1.04, 1.63), and number of years injecting (AOR 1.04; 95% CI 1.02, 1.07)
      were significantly associated with witnessing three or more overdoses.
      CONCLUSIONS: Targeted interventions are needed to train persons witnessing an
      overdose to administer overdose-reversal medication. This includes targeting
      persons prior to release from prisons, drug treatment centers, and those
      accessing syringe exchange programs. Additional research should assess the burden
      of witnessing an overdose as well as locations for medication distribution.
      Assessments of the training capacity and needs for implementing these programs
      among drug using peers in Vietnam are of the utmost importance.

PMID- 28882145
TI  - Expanding the clinical and mutational spectrum of B4GALT7-spondylodysplastic
      Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spondylodysplastic EDS (spEDS) is a rare connective tissue disorder
      that groups the phenotypes caused by biallelic B4GALT7, B3GALT6, and SLC39A13
      mutations. In the 2017 EDS nosology, minimal criteria (general and gene-specific)
      for a clinical suspicion of spEDS have been proposed, but molecular analysis is
      required to reach a definite diagnosis. The majority of spEDS patients presented
      with short stature, skin hyperextensibility, facial dysmorphisms, peculiar
      radiological findings, muscle hypotonia and joint laxity and/or its
      complications. To date only 7 patients with beta4GALT7-deficiency (spEDS-B4GALT7)
      have been described and their clinical data suggested that, in addition to short
      stature and muscle hypotonia, radioulnar synostosis, hypermetropia, and delayed
      cognitive development might be a hallmark of this specific type of spEDS.
      Additional 22 patients affected with an overlapping phenotype, i.e., Larsen of
      Reunion Island syndrome, all carrying a homozygous B4GALT7 mutation, are also
      recognized. RESULTS: Herein, we report on a 30-year-old Moroccan woman who fitted
      the minimal criteria to suspect spEDS, but lacked radioulnar synostosis and
      intellectual disability and presented with neurosensorial hearing loss and limb
      edema of lymphatic origin. Sanger sequencing of B4GALT7 was performed since the
      evaluation of the spEDS gene-specific minor criteria suggested this specific
      subtype. Mutational screening revealed the homozygous c.829G>T, p.Glu277*
      pathogenetic variant leading to aberrant splicing. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      expand both the clinical and mutational spectrum of this ultrarare connective
      tissue disorder. The comparison of the patient's features with those of the other
      spEDS and Larsen of Reunion Island syndrome patients reported up to now offers
      future perspectives for spEDS nosology and clinical research in this field.

PMID- 28882147
TI  - Unexpected collateral impact after out of hospital resuscitation using LUCAS
      system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mechanical chest compression using a piston device during reanimation
      is often the only way to ensure stable chest compression at a constant rate and
      force. However, its use can be associated with severe fractures of the thoracic
      rib cage and endanger the clinical course of the patient. Thus, the usage of such
      a piston device during the reanimation has currently been classified as a mere
      Class IIB indication. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 66-year-old male
      who underwent emergent CABG surgery after receiving out-of-hospital resuscitation
      as a result of myocardial infarction using the LUCAS system. Due to severe
      bilateral rib fractures a concomitant emergency chest-wall stabilization surgery
      had to be performed to ensure uncompromised graft flow to obtain stable cardiac
      function and hemodynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Reanimation using LUCAS-System might
      enable stable resuscitation conditions. However, it is crucial not to
      underestimate potential collateral damage which can in turn aggravate patient's
      clinical condition.

PMID- 28882146
TI  - Does mosquito mass-rearing produce an inferior mosquito?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The success of the sterile insect technique depends, among other
      things, on continuous releases of sexually competitive sterile males within the
      target area. Several factors (including high rearing density and physical
      manipulation, such as larvae and pupae separation) can influence the quality of
      males produced in mass-rearing facilities. The different steps in mass production
      in the laboratory may modify the behaviour of mosquitoes, directly or through
      loss of natural characters as a result of adaptation to lab rearing, and lead to
      the competitiveness of sterile male being reduced. In the present study, the
      objective was to evaluate the effect of mass-rearing conditions on sterile male
      sexual competitiveness in semi-field cages compared to routine small scale
      laboratory rearing methods. METHODS: Anopheles arabiensis immature stages were
      reared both on a large scale using a rack and tray system developed by the
      FAO/IAEA (MRS), and on a small scale using standard laboratory rearing trays
      (SRS). Mosquito life history traits such as pupation rate, emergence rate, adult
      size as well as the effect of irradiation on adult longevity were evaluated.
      Moreover, 5-6 day old mosquitoes were released into field cages and left for two
      nights to mate and the mating competitiveness between sterile mass-reared males
      and fertile males reared on a small scale when competing for small scale reared
      virgin females was investigated. Resulting fertility in a treatment ratio of
      1:1:1 (100 irradiated males: 100 non-irradiated males: 100 virgin females) was
      compared to control cages with 0:100:100 (non-irradiated control) and 100:0:100
      (irradiated control). RESULTS: No significant differences in life history
      parameters were observed between rearing methods. The competitiveness index of
      mass reared males (0.58) was similar to males reared on a small scale (0.59). A
      residual fertility rate of 20% was observed in the irradiated control
      (100:0:100), measured as the percentage of eggs collected from the cages which
      developed to adulthood. No significant difference was observed (t = 0.2896, df =
      4, P = 0.7865) between the rearing treatments (MRS and SRS) in the fertility
      rate, a measure of mating competitiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that
      the FAO/IAEA mass-rearing process did not affect mosquito life history parameters
      or the mating competitiveness of males.

PMID- 28882148
TI  - Environmental radon exposure and breast cancer risk in the Nurses' Health Study
      II.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radon and its decay products, a source of ionizing radiation, are
      primarily inhaled and can deliver a radiation dose to breast tissue, where they
      may continue to decay and emit DNA damage-inducing particles. Few studies have
      examined the relationship between radon and breast cancer. METHODS: The Nurses'
      Health Study II (NHSII) includes U.S. female registered nurses who completed
      biennial questionnaires since 1989. Self-reported breast cancer was confirmed
      from medical records. County-level radon exposures were linked with geocoded
      residential addresses updated throughout follow-up. Time-varying Cox regression
      models adjusted for established breast cancer risk factors were used to calculate
      hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: From 1989 to
      2013, 3966 invasive breast cancer cases occurred among 112,639 participants.
      Increasing radon exposure was not associated with breast cancer risk overall
      (adjusted HR comparing highest to lowest quintile = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.94, 1.21, p
      for trend = 0.30). However, women in the highest quintile of exposure (>=74.9
      Bq/m3) had a suggested elevated risk of ER-/PR- breast cancer compared to women
      in the lowest quintile (<27.0 Bq/m3) (adjusted HR = 1.38, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.96, p
      for trend = 0.05). No association was observed for ER+/PR+ breast cancer.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although we did not find an association between radon exposure and
      risk of overall or ER+/PR+ breast cancer, we observed a suggestive association
      with risk of ER-/PR- breast cancer.

PMID- 28882149
TI  - Cost-effectiveness analysis of quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccines in
      England.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As part of the national seasonal influenza vaccination programme in
      England and Wales, children receive a quadrivalent vaccine offering protection
      against two influenza A strains and two influenza B strains. Healthy children
      receive a quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (QLAIV), whilst children
      with contraindications receive the quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine
      (QIIV). Individuals aged younger than 65 years in the clinical risk populations
      and elderly individuals aged 65+ years receive either a trivalent inactivated
      influenza vaccine (TIIV) offering protection from two A strains and one B strain
      or the QIIV at the choice of their general practitioner. The cost-effectiveness
      of quadrivalent vaccine programmes is an open question. The original analysis
      that supported the paediatric programme only considered a trivalent live
      attenuated vaccine (LAIV). The cost-effectiveness of the QIIV to other patients
      has not been established. We sought to estimate the cost-effectiveness of these
      programmes, establishing a maximum incremental total cost per dose of
      quadrivalent vaccines over trivalent vaccines. METHODS: We used the same
      mathematical model as the analysis that recommended the introduction of the
      paediatric influenza vaccination programme. The incremental cost of the
      quadrivalent vaccine is the additional cost over that of the existing trivalent
      vaccine currently in use. RESULTS: Introducing quadrivalent vaccines can be cost
      effective for all targeted groups. However, the cost-effectiveness of the
      programme is dependent on the choice of target cohort and the cost of the
      vaccines: the paediatric programme is cost-effective with an increased cost of
      L6.36 per dose, though an extension to clinical risk individuals younger than 65
      years old and further to all elderly individuals means the maximum incremental
      cost is L1.84 and L0.20 per dose respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Quadrivalent
      influenza vaccines will bring substantial health benefits, as they are cost
      effective in particular target groups.

PMID- 28882150
TI  - Care-managers' professional choices: ethical dilemmas and conflicting
      expectations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Care-managers are responsible for the public administration of
      individual healthcare decisions and decide on the volume and content of community
      healthcare services given to a population. The purpose of this study was to
      investigate the conflicting expectations and ethical dilemmas these professionals
      encounter in their daily work with patients and to discuss the clinical
      implications of this. METHODS: The study had a qualitative design. The data
      consisted of verbatim transcripts from 12 ethical reflection group meetings held
      in 2012 at a purchaser unit in a Norwegian city. The participants consist of
      healthcare professionals such as nurses, occupational therapists,
      physiotherapists and social workers. The analyses and interpretation were
      conducted according to a hermeneutic methodology. This study is part of a larger
      research project. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged through the analyses: 1.
      Professional autonomy and loyalty, and related subthemes: loyalty to whom/what,
      overruling of decisions, trust and obligation to report. 2. Boundaries of
      involvement and subthemes: private or professional, care-manager or provider and
      accessibility. CONCLUSIONS: Underlying values and a model illustrating the
      dimensions of professional responsibility in the care-manager role are suggested.
      The study implies that when allocating services, healthcare professionals need to
      find a balance between responsibility and accountability in their role as care
      managers.

PMID- 28882151
TI  - Retraction Note: Astragalus saponins affect proliferation, invasion and apoptosis
      of gastric cancer BGC-823 cells.

PMID- 28882152
TI  - Impact of the Supporting Physical Activity in the Childcare Environment (SPACE)
      intervention on preschoolers' physical activity levels and sedentary time: a
      single-blind cluster randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Physical activity levels among preschoolers in childcare are low and
      sedentary time high. The Supporting Physical Activity in the Childcare
      Environment (SPACE) intervention had three components: 1. portable play
      equipment; 2. staff training; and, 3. modified outdoor playtime (i.e., shorter,
      more frequent periods). This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the
      SPACE intervention on preschoolers' physical activity levels and sedentary time
      during childcare hours (compared to standard care). METHODS: Via a single-blind
      cluster randomized controlled trial, 338 preschoolers (39.86 +/- 7.33 months; 52%
      boys) from 22 centre-based childcare facilities (11 experimental, 11 control)
      were enrolled. Preschoolers wore an ActicalTM accelerometer for 5 days during
      childcare hours at baseline, post-intervention, and 6- and 12-month follow-up,
      and were included in the analyses if they had a minimum of two valid days (5 h
      each day) at baseline and one additional time point. Intervention effectiveness
      was tested using a linear mixed effects model for each of the four outcome
      variables (i.e., sedentary time, light physical activity [LPA], moderate-to
      vigorous physical activity [MVPA], and total physical activity [TPA]). Fixed
      effects were further evaluated with t-tests, for which degrees of freedom were
      estimated using a Satterthwaite approximation. RESULTS: One hundred and ninety
      five preschoolers were retained for analyses. The intervention did not
      significantly impact LPA. MVPA was significantly greater among children in the
      experimental group when comparing post-intervention to pre-intervention, t(318) =
      3.50, p = .0005, but no intervention effects were evident at 6- or 12-month
      follow-up. TPA was significantly greater for children in the intervention group
      at post-intervention when compared to pre-intervention, t(321) = 2.70, p = .007,
      with no intervention effects evident at later time periods. Finally, sedentary
      time was significantly lower among preschoolers in the experimental group when
      comparing post-intervention to pre-intervention, t(322) = 2.63, p = .009, with no
      significant effects at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The SPACE intervention was
      effective at increasing MVPA and TPA among preschoolers, while simultaneously
      decreasing sedentary time. The ability of the SPACE intervention to target higher
      intensity activity is promising, as MVPA levels have been documented to be low in
      centre-based childcare. The changes in physical activity were not sustained long
      term (6- or 12-month follow-up). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN70604107 (October 8,
      2014).

PMID- 28882153
TI  - Susceptibility of Moroccan sheep and goat breeds to peste des petits ruminants
      virus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease
      of small ruminants in Asia and Africa. In 2008, a PPR outbreak was reported for
      the first time in Morocco and a mass vaccination campaign allowed control of the
      disease. In this study, the susceptibility of four Moroccan local breeds of small
      ruminants to PPR virus was investigated by experimental infections. The objective
      was to make recommendations for improved epidemiological surveillance in Morocco
      by evaluating the susceptibility of the dominant Moroccan small ruminant breeds.
      Three parameters were studied: hyperthermia, clinical scoring and virus
      excretion. The outcome was compared to Alpine goats, which are considered one of
      the most sensitive breeds. RESULTS: The study showed that the local goat breed
      was the most sensitive breed with a susceptibility rate of 67%, followed by
      Timahdit, Beni Guil and Sardi sheep with 48, 29 and 26%, respectively.
      Serological testing including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and viral
      neutralization showed that the Timahdit breed developed a stronger antibody
      response compared to the other breeds. Although the clinical signs observed in
      the sheep were mild, evidence of viral excretion was detected by means of a
      polymerase chain reaction assay. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended that effective
      surveillance should focus on susceptible breeds complemented with serological
      surveillance of the sheep population.

PMID- 28882154
TI  - Evaluation of continuing education of family health strategy teams for the early
      identification of suspected cases of cancer in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the influence of continuing education of family
      health strategy teams by the Ronald McDonald Institute program on the early
      diagnosis of cancer in children and adolescents. METHODS: The study applied
      Habicht's model to evaluate the adequacy and plausibility of continuing education
      by using as outcome the number of children with suspected cancer who were
      referred to the hospital of references in the 1 year before and 1 year after
      intervention and the number of patients referred by intervention group and
      control group family health strategy teams. Medical records from each hospital of
      reference were used to collect information of suspect cases of cancer.
      Descriptive analyses were performed using frequencies and mean values. Chi-square
      tests were used to assess statistically significant differences between the
      groups and periods by using p-values < 0.05. RESULTS: The results showed a 30.6%
      increase in the number of children referred to the hospital of reference for
      suspected cancer in the post-intervention period; in addition, the family health
      strategy teams that underwent the intervention referred 3.6 times more number of
      children to hospital of references than did the control group. Only the
      intervention group showed an increase in the number of confirmed cases.
      CONCLUSIONS: This evaluation of a continuing education program for early
      identification of pediatric cancer showed that the program was adequate in
      achieving the established goals and that the results could be attributed to the
      program.

PMID- 28882155
TI  - Barriers to retention in methadone maintenance therapy among people who inject
      drugs in Bangkok, Thailand: a mixed-methods study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is a mainstay for treating opioid
      use disorder and preventing and managing HIV among people who inject drugs
      (PWID). While previous research suggested low dosing of methadone and high rates
      of discontinuation of MMT among PWID in Thailand, little is known about patients'
      lived experiences with MMT in this setting. Therefore, we conducted a mixed
      methods study to examine barriers to retention in MMT among PWID in Bangkok,
      Thailand, with particular attention to methadone dosing. METHODS: Bivariate
      statistics were used to analyze quantitative survey data collected from methadone
      treated PWID between July and October 2011. Qualitative data collected through
      semi-structured interviews with 16 methadone-treated PWID between July 2011 and
      June 2012 were analyzed thematically, with a focus on individual-level, social
      structural, and environmental barriers to accessing MMT. RESULTS: Among 158
      survey participants, a median dosage of methadone was 30 mg/day (interquartile
      range 20-50). Of these, 15.8% reported having acquired street methadone due to
      low prescribed dosages of methadone and 19.0% reported recent syringe sharing.
      Qualitative interview data indicated some methadone provider-related barriers,
      including discouraging patients from using methadone due to it being a Western
      medicine, difficulty negotiating higher doses of methadone, and abrupt dose
      reductions without patient consultation (involving the provision of non-medicated
      "syrup" in some cases). Social-structural and environmental barriers to optimal
      MMT access included intense police surveillance of methadone clinics; and
      frequent incarceration of PWID and a lack of access to methadone in prisons.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among our sample of methadone-treated PWID, methadone dosages were
      suboptimal according to the international guidelines. Poor adherence to
      international guidelines for opioid agonist therapies, aggressive law
      enforcement, and a lack of methadone in prisons need to be addressed to optimize
      MMT and reduce harms associated with untreated opioid use disorder in Thailand.

PMID- 28882156
TI  - Comparative safety and efficacy of pharmacological and non-pharmacological
      interventions for the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia: protocol
      for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are highly
      prevalent in patients with dementia. Both pharmacological and non-pharmacological
      strategies are commonly used to treat these symptoms, but their comparative
      safety and efficacy is unknown. METHODS: We will conduct a systematic review of
      the published and unpublished literature to retrieve all articles pertaining to
      outcomes of safety and efficacy associated with pharmacological and non
      pharmacological treatments of BPSD for patients living in the community and
      institutionalized care settings. Our primary outcome of efficacy is a change in
      aggression. Our primary outcome of safety will be risk of fracture. These primary
      outcomes were chosen by stakeholders involved in the care of patients
      experiencing BPSD. Possible secondary outcomes of efficacy will include a change
      in agitation, depressive symptoms, and night-time behaviors. Possible secondary
      outcomes of safety will include the risk of stroke, falls, and mortality. All
      article screening, data abstraction, and risk of bias appraisal will be completed
      independently by two reviewers. If the assumption of transitivity is valid and
      the evidence forms a connected network, Bayesian random-effects pairwise and
      network meta-analyses (NMAs) will be conducted. Relative treatment rankings will
      be reported with mean ranks and the surface under the cumulative ranking curve.
      DISCUSSION: We will identify the safest and most efficacious treatment strategies
      for patients with BPSD from among our most highly ranked treatments. The results
      of this study will be used to guide decision-making and improve patient care.
      SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registry number CRD42017050130.

PMID- 28882157
TI  - Symptom management in complex post-traumatic stress disorder (ICD-11), view and
      experience of patients and their relatives: a mixed methods approach (Research
      Proposal).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Using the framework of IDC-11, complex post-traumatic stress disorder
      will be diagnosed using the core criteria of a post-traumatic stress disorder and
      the presence of at least one symptom from the following three domains: symptoms
      of emotional dysregulation, negative self-concept, and problems in interpersonal
      relationships. In the literature, these symptoms are discussed as a common reason
      for seeking treatment. The symptoms can influence and impair the quality of life.
      This article describes a mixed methods study with a sequential exploratory
      design. The aim is to describe specific patient characteristics, levels of
      symptom burden and perspectives of adult inpatients and to describe the
      experiences, views and needs of patients' relatives. The study will also
      investigate facilitators of and barriers to symptom management. The research will
      be conducted in four phases. The first phase will assess patients' symptom
      burdens. The second phase will use semi-structured interviews to explore
      attitudes to symptom management and perceptions of patients and their relatives.
      The third phase will statistically explore hypotheses generated after the
      qualitative interviews. The fourth phase will mix the quantitative and
      qualitative results and interpret critically. RESULTS: The present study will add
      new results to the growing literature on complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
      These results could serve as the basis for further research into the development
      of interventions to improve symptom management. Trial registration Ethical
      approval has been obtained from the Swiss cantonal ethic commission (Nr.
      201500096). This research was also registered to the World Health Organization
      Clinical Trials Search Portal through the German Clinical Trial Register, Trial
      DRKS00012268 (21/04/2017).

PMID- 28882158
TI  - International tuberculosis research collaborations within Asia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Asia bears more than half the global tuberculosis (TB) burden.
      Economic development in the region has increased available funding for biomedical
      research and opportunity for collaboration. We explored the extent of
      international tuberculosis research collaborations between institutions within
      Asia. METHODS: We conducted a Pubmed search for all articles with tuberculosis in
      the title published during a 12 month period with at least one author affiliation
      listed in Asia, then identified international collaborations from institution
      websites and internet searches. RESULTS: We identified 99 international
      collaborations involving an institution within Asia, of which only 8 (8.1%) were
      collaborations between Asian institutions. The remainder were with institutions
      outside of Asia. CONCLUSIONS: The paucity of intra-Asian international research
      collaboration represents a lost opportunity to optimise regional research
      funding, capacity building and the development of an Asia-relevant TB research
      agenda.

PMID- 28882159
TI  - Estrogen attenuates the spondyloarthritis manifestations of the SKG arthritis
      model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a male-predominant disease, and
      radiographic evidence of damage is also more severe in males. Estrogen modulates
      immune-related processes such as T cell differentiation and cytokine production.
      This study aimed to evaluate the effect of estrogen on the disease activity of
      spondyloarthritis (SpA). METHODS: The effects of estrogen on the development of
      arthritis were evaluated by performing ovariectomy and 17beta-estradiol (E2)
      pellet implantation in zymosan-treated SKG mice. Clinical arthritis scores were
      measured, and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) small-animal positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography performed to quantify joint inflammation. The
      expression of inflammatory cytokines in joint tissue was measured. RESULTS: E2
      treated mice showed remarkable suppression of arthritis clinically and little
      infiltration of inflammatory cells in the Achilles tendon and intervertebral
      disc. 18F-FDG uptake was significantly lower in E2-treated mice than in sham
      operated (sham) and ovariectomized mice. Expression of TNF, interferon-gamma, and
      IL-17A was significantly reduced in E2-treated mice, whereas expression of
      sclerostin and Dickkopf-1 was increased in E2-treated mice compared with sham and
      ovariectomized mice. CONCLUSIONS: Estrogen suppressed arthritis development in
      SKG mice, a model of SpA. Results of this study suggest that estrogen has an anti
      inflammatory effect on the spondyloarthritis manifestations of the SKG arthritis
      model.

PMID- 28882161
TI  - General Anesthesia versus Local Anesthesia in StereotaXY (GALAXY) for Parkinson's
      disease: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the study is to investigate if deep brain stimulation
      (DBS) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) for Parkinson's disease (PD) under general
      anesthesia further improves outcome by lessening postoperative cognitive, mood,
      and behavioral adverse effects; shorten surgical time and hospital admittance;
      and produce comparable symptomatic and functional improvement to surgery under
      local anesthesia. METHODS/DESIGN: The study will be a single-center, prospective,
      randomized, open-label, blinded endpoint trial comparing DBS under general
      anesthesia with DBS under local anesthesia. The primary outcome measure is a
      composite score of the postoperative cognitive, mood, and behavioral adverse
      effects and will be measured 6 months after surgery. The secondary outcome
      measures consist of changes in motor symptoms, adverse effects of stimulation and
      surgical complications, surgical time, functional health, quality of life,
      patient satisfaction with the outcome of treatment, patient evaluation of the
      burden of therapy, and medication. A total of 110 patients with advanced PD who
      are candidates for DBS will be randomized during a 2.5-year period. DISCUSSION:
      The aim of this trial is to further enhance the effectiveness of DBS treatment in
      PD while reducing the burden of DBS surgery by studying if DBS surgery under
      general anesthesia results in less cognitive, mood, and behavioral adverse
      effects compared with surgery under local anesthesia. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      Netherlands Trial Register, NTR5809 . Registered on 23 April 2016.

PMID- 28882162
TI  - Factors influencing the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among nursing mothers
      in a peri-urban district of Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is one of the optimal infant and young
      child feeding practices. Globally, <40% of infants under 6 months of age are
      exclusively breastfed. In Ghana, 63% of children <6 months are exclusively
      breastfed which is far less than the 100% recommended by the United Nation
      Children Emergency Fund. This study was carried out to find out the factors that
      influence the practice of exclusive breastfeeding in the district. METHODS: A
      cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted using structured questionnaires.
      A convenience sampling technique was employed to select 380 nursing mothers who
      attended postnatal care at the postnatal clinic in all the 13 health facilities
      with child welfare clinics (both public and private) and were available on the
      day of data collection. Data were analysed using frequency and CHISQ tables.
      RESULTS: There was a significant association between socio-demographic
      characteristics of mothers such as age (p = 0.129), religion (p = 0.035) type of
      employment (p = 0.005) and the practice of exclusive breastfeeding. Again, there
      was significant relationship between mothers' knowledge on EBF in terms of
      sources of information about EBF (p = 0.000), steps taken by mothers who
      perceived not to have breast milk (p = 0.000), some medical conditions of nursing
      mothers (p = 0.000) and the practice of EBF. CONCLUSION: Most nursing mothers use
      infant formula feeds as either supplement or substitute for breast milk based on
      their perception that breast milk may not be sufficient for the babies despite
      the high cost of these artificial milk. This puts the babies at a higher risk of
      compromised health and malnutrition which has the potential of increasing infant
      mortality. Most mothers are not practicing exclusive breastfeeding because their
      spouses and family members do not allow them.

PMID- 28882160
TI  - Intrinsic fluorescence of the clinically approved multikinase inhibitor
      nintedanib reveals lysosomal sequestration as resistance mechanism in FGFR-driven
      lung cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studying the intracellular distribution of pharmacological agents,
      including anticancer compounds, is of central importance in biomedical research.
      It constitutes a prerequisite for a better understanding of the molecular
      mechanisms underlying drug action and resistance development. Hyperactivated
      fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) constitute a promising therapy target
      in several types of malignancies including lung cancer. The clinically approved
      small-molecule FGFR inhibitor nintedanib exerts strong cytotoxicity in FGFR
      driven lung cancer cells. However, subcellular pharmacokinetics of this compound
      and its impact on therapeutic efficacy remain obscure. METHODS: 3-dimensional
      fluorescence spectroscopy was conducted to asses cell-free nintedanib
      fluorescence properties. MTT assay was used to determine the impact of the
      lysosome-targeting agents bafilomycin A1 and chloroquine combined with nintedanib
      on lung cancer cell viability. Flow cytometry and live cell as well as confocal
      microscopy were performed to analyze uptake kinetics as well as subcellular
      distribution of nintedanib. Western blot was conducted to investigate protein
      expression. Cryosections of subcutaneous tumor allografts were generated to
      detect intratumoral nintedanib in mice after oral drug administration. RESULTS:
      Here, we report for the first time drug-intrinsic fluorescence properties of
      nintedanib in living and fixed cancer cells as well as in cryosections derived
      from allograft tumors of orally treated mice. Using this feature in conjunction
      with flow cytometry and confocal microscopy allowed to determine cellular drug
      accumulation levels, impact of the ABCB1 efflux pump and to uncover nintedanib
      trapping into lysosomes. Lysosomal sequestration - resulting in an organelle
      specific and pH-dependent nintedanib fluorescence - was identified as an
      intrinsic resistance mechanism in FGFR-driven lung cancer cells. Accordingly,
      combination of nintedanib with agents compromising lysosomal acidification
      (bafilomycin A1, chloroquine) exerted distinctly synergistic growth inhibitory
      effects. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide a powerful tool to dissect molecular
      factors impacting organismal and intracellular pharmacokinetics of nintedanib.
      Regarding clinical application, prevention of lysosomal trapping via lysosome
      alkalization might represent a promising strategy to circumvent cancer cell
      intrinsic nintedanib resistance.

PMID- 28882163
TI  - Prevalence and significance of Mycoplasma genitalium in women living with HIV in
      Denmark.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mycoplasma genitalium (M. genitalium) is a sexually transmitted
      pathogen associated with urethritis, cervicitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease.
      Previous studies have shown a strong association between M. genitalium and HIV
      infection, therefore screening and treatment for M. genitalium has been suggested
      as part of HIV prevention strategies. The objective of this study was to
      determine the prevalence of M. genitalium in women living with HIV (WLWH) in
      Denmark, and to compare the result with data on symptoms from the lower abdomen,
      sexual habits and immune status. 234 women, recruited from Danish HIV centres as
      part of a larger observational study on aspects of living with HIV as a woman
      (the SHADE study), were included. RESULTS: We tested cervical samples for M.
      genitalium by specific PCR. We found three samples positive (1.3%). The women
      were between 30 and 50 years old, all were of Asian origin, sexually active, and
      on antiretroviral treatment with supressed HIV RNA and CD4 count >350 cells/uL.
      None reported symptoms from the lower abdomen. The prevalence of M. genitalium
      infection in WLWH in Denmark is low, thus systematic screening for M. genitalium
      in this group does not seem relevant.

PMID- 28882164
TI  - The role of phospholipase C signaling in bovine herpesvirus 1 infection.
AB  - Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) infection enhanced the generation of inflammatory
      mediator reactive oxidative species (ROS) and stimulated MAPK signaling that are
      highly possibly related to virus induced inflammation. In this study, for the
      first time we show that BoHV-1 infection manipulated phospholipase C (PLC)
      signaling, as demonstrated by the activation of PLCgamma-1 at both early stages
      [at 0.5 h post-infection (hpi)] and late stages (4-12 hpi) during the virus
      infection of MDBK cells. Viral entry, and de novo protein expression and/or DNA
      replication were potentially responsible for the activation of PLCgamma-1
      signaling. PLC signaling inhibitors of both U73122 and edelfosine significantly
      inhibited BoHV-1 replication in both bovine kidney cells (MDBK) and rabbit skin
      cells (RS-1) in a dose-dependent manner by affecting the virus entry stage(s). In
      addition, the activation of Erk1/2 and p38MAPK signaling, and the enhanced
      generation of ROS by BoHV-1 infection were obviously ameliorated by chemical
      inhibition of PLC signaling, implying the requirement of PLC signaling in ROS
      production and these MAPK pathway activation. These results suggest that the
      activation of PLC signaling is a potential pathogenic mechanism for BoHV-1
      infection.

PMID- 28882165
TI  - Successful treatment of acute renal failure secondary to complicated infective
      endocarditis by peritoneal dialysis: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infective endocarditis is one of the most common infections among
      intravenous drug addicts. Its complications can affect many systems, and these
      can include acute renal failure. There is a scarcity of cases in the literature
      related to acute renal failure secondary to infective endocarditis treated with
      peritoneal dialysis. In this paper, the case of a 48-year-old Saudi male is
      reported, who presented with features suggestive of infective endocarditis and
      who developed acute kidney injury that was treated successfully with high tidal
      volume automated peritoneal dialysis. To our knowledge, this is the second report
      of such an association in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: A 48-year-old Saudi
      gentleman diagnosed to have a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and
      hepatitis C infection for the last 9 years, presented to the emergency department
      with a history of fever of 2 days' duration. On examination: his temperature = 41
      degrees C, there was clubbing of the fingers bilaterally and a pansystolic
      murmur in the left parasternal area. The results of the blood cultures and
      echocardiogram were supportive of the diagnosis of infective endocarditis, and
      the patient subsequently developed acute kidney injury, and his creatinine
      reached 5.2 mg/dl, a level for which dialysis is essential for the patient to
      survive. CONCLUSION: High tidal volume automated peritoneal dialysis is highly
      effective as a renal replacement therapy in acute renal failure secondary to
      infective endocarditis if no contraindication is present.

PMID- 28882166
TI  - Social determinants of common metabolic risk factors (high blood pressure, high
      blood sugar, high body mass index and high waist-hip ratio) of major non
      communicable diseases in South Asia region: a systematic review protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prevalence of non-communicable diseases has been increasing at a
      greater pace in developing countries and, in particular, the South Asia region.
      Various behavioral, social and environmental factors present in this region
      perpetuate common metabolic risk factors of non-communicable diseases. This study
      will identify social determinants of common metabolic risk factors of major non
      communicable diseases in the context of the South Asian region and map their
      causal pathway. METHODS: A systematic review of selected articles will be carried
      out following Cochrane guidelines. Review will be guided by Social Determinants
      of Health Framework developed by the World Health Organization to extract social
      determinants of metabolic risk factors of non-communicable diseases from studies.
      A distinct search strategy will be applied using key words to screen relevant
      studies from online databases. Primary and grey literature published from the
      year 2000 to 2016 and studies with discussion on proximal and distal determinants
      of non-communicable risk factors among adults of the South Asia region will be
      selected. They will be further checked for quality, and a matrix illustrating
      contents of selected articles will be developed. Thematic content analysis will
      be done to trace social determinants and their interaction with metabolic risk
      factors. Findings will be illustrated in causal loop diagrams with social
      determinants of risk factors along with their interaction (feedback mechanism).
      DISCUSSION: The review will describe the interplay of social determinants of
      common NCD metabolic risk factors in the form of causal loop diagram. Findings
      will be structured in two parts: the first part will explain the linkage between
      proximal determinants with the metabolic risk factors and the second part will
      describe the linkage among the risk factors, proximal determinants and distal
      determinants. Evidences across different regions will be discussed to compare and
      validate and/or contrast the findings. Possible bias and limitations of this
      study will also be discussed. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO
      CRD42017067212.

PMID- 28882167
TI  - Implementation and results of an integrated data quality assurance protocol in a
      randomized controlled trial in Uttar Pradesh, India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are few published standards or methodological guidelines for
      integrating Data Quality Assurance (DQA) protocols into large-scale health
      systems research trials, especially in resource-limited settings. The BetterBirth
      Trial is a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the
      BetterBirth Program, which seeks to improve quality of facility-based deliveries
      and reduce 7-day maternal and neonatal mortality and maternal morbidity in Uttar
      Pradesh, India. In the trial, over 6300 deliveries were observed and over 153,000
      mother-baby pairs across 120 study sites were followed to assess health outcomes.
      We designed and implemented a robust and integrated DQA system to sustain high
      quality data throughout the trial. METHODS: We designed the Data Quality
      Monitoring and Improvement System (DQMIS) to reinforce six dimensions of data
      quality: accuracy, reliability, timeliness, completeness, precision, and
      integrity. The DQMIS was comprised of five functional components: 1) a monitoring
      and evaluation team to support the system; 2) a DQA protocol, including data
      collection audits and targets, rapid data feedback, and supportive supervision;
      3) training; 4) standard operating procedures for data collection; and 5) an
      electronic data collection and reporting system. Routine audits by supervisors
      included double data entry, simultaneous delivery observations, and review of
      recorded calls to patients. Data feedback reports identified errors
      automatically, facilitating supportive supervision through a continuous quality
      improvement model. RESULTS: The five functional components of the DQMIS
      successfully reinforced data reliability, timeliness, completeness, precision,
      and integrity. The DQMIS also resulted in 98.33% accuracy across all data
      collection activities in the trial. All data collection activities demonstrated
      improvement in accuracy throughout implementation. Data collectors demonstrated a
      statistically significant (p = 0.0004) increase in accuracy throughout
      consecutive audits. The DQMIS was successful, despite an increase from 20 to 130
      data collectors. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of widely disseminated data quality
      methods and standards for large RCT interventions in limited-resource settings,
      we developed an integrated DQA system, combining auditing, rapid data feedback,
      and supportive supervision, which ensured high-quality data and could serve as a
      model for future health systems research trials. Future efforts should focus on
      standardization of DQA processes for health systems research. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02148952 . Registered on 13 February 2014.

PMID- 28882168
TI  - Detection of Cryptosporidium parvum and Cyclospora cayetanensis infections among
      people living in a slum area in Kathmandu valley, Nepal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of Cyclospora
      cayetanensis and Cryptosporidium parvum infections among people living a slum in
      Kathmandu valley, Nepal. RESULTS: Ten different parasites were detected in the
      stool samples; the prevalence of any parasite was in 27.1% (71/262). The
      prevalence of C. cayetanensis and C. parvum were 14.1% (10/71) and 5.6% (4/71),
      respectively. This study showed high prevalence of intestinal parasitic
      infections along with the coccidian parasites in the slum area of Kathmandu
      Valley.

PMID- 28882169
TI  - Targeted therapeutic mild hypercapnia after cardiac arrest: a part of the bundle
      of care for mitigating secondary injury after cardiac arrest.

PMID- 28882170
TI  - Prognostic value of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios among critically ill patients
      with acute kidney injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammation plays an important role in the initiation and
      progression of acute kidney injury (AKI). However, evidence regarding the
      prognostic effect of the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), a novel systemic
      inflammation marker, among patients with AKI is scarce. In this study, we
      investigated the value of the PLR in predicting the outcomes of critically ill
      patients with AKI. METHODS: Patient data were extracted from the Multiparameter
      Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care Database III version 1.3. PLR cutoff
      values were determined using smooth curve fitting or quintiles and were used to
      categorize the subjects into groups. The clinical outcomes were 30-day and 90-day
      mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU). Cox proportional hazards models were
      used to evaluate the association between the PLR and survival. RESULTS: A total
      of 10,859 ICU patients with AKI were enrolled. A total of 2277 thirty-day and
      3112 ninety-day deaths occurred. A U-shaped relationship was observed between the
      PLR and both 90-day and 30-day mortality, with the lowest risk being at values
      ranging from 90 to 311. The adjusted HR (95% CI) values for 90-day mortality
      given risk values < 90 and > 311 were 1.25 (1.12-1.39) and 1.19 (1.08-1.31),
      respectively. Similar trends were observed for 30-day mortality or when quintiles
      were used to group patients according to the PLR. Statistically significant
      interactions were found between the PLR and both age and heart rate. Younger
      patients (aged < 65 years) and those with more rapid heart rates (>=89.4 beats
      per minute) tended to have poorer prognoses only when the PLR was < 90, whereas
      older patients (aged >= 65 years) and those with slower heart rates (<89.4 beats
      per minute) had higher risk only when the PLR was > 311 (P < 0.001 for age and P
      < 0.001 for heart rate). CONCLUSIONS: The preoperative PLR was associated in a U
      shaped pattern with survival among patients with AKI. The PLR appears to be a
      novel, independent prognostic marker of outcomes in critically ill patients with
      AKI.

PMID- 28882171
TI  - Application of random survival forests in understanding the determinants of under
      five child mortality in Uganda in the presence of covariates that satisfy the
      proportional and non-proportional hazards assumption.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uganda just like any other Sub-Saharan African country, has a high
      under-five child mortality rate. To inform policy on intervention strategies,
      sound statistical methods are required to critically identify factors strongly
      associated with under-five child mortality rates. The Cox proportional hazards
      model has been a common choice in analysing data to understand factors strongly
      associated with high child mortality rates taking age as the time-to-event
      variable. However, due to its restrictive proportional hazards (PH) assumption,
      some covariates of interest which do not satisfy the assumption are often
      excluded in the analysis to avoid mis-specifying the model. Otherwise using
      covariates that clearly violate the assumption would mean invalid results.
      METHODS: Survival trees and random survival forests are increasingly becoming
      popular in analysing survival data particularly in the case of large survey data
      and could be attractive alternatives to models with the restrictive PH
      assumption. In this article, we adopt random survival forests which have never
      been used in understanding factors affecting under-five child mortality rates in
      Uganda using Demographic and Health Survey data. Thus the first part of the
      analysis is based on the use of the classical Cox PH model and the second part of
      the analysis is based on the use of random survival forests in the presence of
      covariates that do not necessarily satisfy the PH assumption. RESULTS: Random
      survival forests and the Cox proportional hazards model agree that the sex of the
      household head, sex of the child, number of births in the past 1 year are
      strongly associated to under-five child mortality in Uganda given all the three
      covariates satisfy the PH assumption. Random survival forests further
      demonstrated that covariates that were originally excluded from the earlier
      analysis due to violation of the PH assumption were important in explaining under
      five child mortality rates. These covariates include the number of children under
      the age of five in a household, number of births in the past 5 years, wealth
      index, total number of children ever born and the child's birth order. The
      results further indicated that the predictive performance for random survival
      forests built using covariates including those that violate the PH assumption was
      higher than that for random survival forests built using only covariates that
      satisfy the PH assumption. CONCLUSIONS: Random survival forests are appealing
      methods in analysing public health data to understand factors strongly associated
      with under-five child mortality rates especially in the presence of covariates
      that violate the proportional hazards assumption.

PMID- 28882172
TI  - Meta-analyses of the proportion of Japanese encephalitis virus infection in
      vectors and vertebrate hosts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a zoonosis in Southeast Asia vectored
      by mosquitoes infected with the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). Japanese
      encephalitis is considered an emerging exotic infectious disease with potential
      for introduction in currently JEV-free countries. Pigs and ardeid birds are
      reservoir hosts and play a major role on the transmission dynamics of the
      disease. The objective of the study was to quantitatively summarize the
      proportion of JEV infection in vectors and vertebrate hosts from data pertaining
      to observational studies obtained in a systematic review of the literature on
      vector and host competence for JEV, using meta-analyses. METHODS: Data gathered
      in this study pertained to three outcomes: proportion of JEV infection in
      vectors, proportion of JEV infection in vertebrate hosts, and minimum infection
      rate (MIR) in vectors. Random-effects subgroup meta-analysis models were fitted
      by species (mosquito or vertebrate host species) to estimate pooled summary
      measures, as well as to compute the variance between studies. Meta-regression
      models were fitted to assess the association between different predictors and the
      outcomes of interest and to identify sources of heterogeneity among studies.
      Predictors included in all models were mosquito/vertebrate host species,
      diagnostic methods, mosquito capture methods, season, country/region, age
      category, and number of mosquitos per pool. RESULTS: Mosquito species, diagnostic
      method, country, and capture method represented important sources of
      heterogeneity associated with the proportion of JEV infection; host species and
      region were considered sources of heterogeneity associated with the proportion of
      JEV infection in hosts; and diagnostic and mosquito capture methods were deemed
      important contributors of heterogeneity for the MIR outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings provide reference pooled summary estimates of vector competence for JEV
      for some mosquito species, as well as of sources of variability for these
      outcomes. Moreover, this work provides useful guidelines when interpreting vector
      and host infection proportions or prevalence from observational studies, and
      contributes to further our understanding of vector and vertebrate host competence
      for JEV, elucidating information on the relative importance of vectors and hosts
      on JEV introduction and transmission.

PMID- 28882173
TI  - Risk factors for chronic periodontitis in Sri Lankan adults: a population based
      case-control study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine risk factors for chronic periodontitis in 30-60 year olds
      in Sri Lanka. Cases and controls for this population based unmatched case-control
      study were identified from a broader cross-sectional study which was conducted to
      determine the prevalence of chronic periodontitis in 30-60 year old adults in
      Colombo district Sri Lanka. The study included 694 cases and 706 controls. Data
      were collected by means of a pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire to
      obtain information about socio-demographic and behavioural factors, a physical
      examination to record anthropometric measurements and an oral examination.
      RESULTS: Being a male, a Muslim, belonging to the 45-60 year old age group,
      having less than 12 years of education, using the finger to clean teeth, current
      smoking, current betel quid chewing, self-reported diabetes and hypertension
      emerged as risk factors for chronic periodontitis. CONCLUSIONS: Several socio
      demographic and behavioural factors as well as co-morbid conditions emerged as
      independent risk factors for chronic periodontits in this population. The
      findings could be used for planning programmes to reduce the burden of chronic
      periodontits in Colombo district Sri Lanka.

PMID- 28882174
TI  - Molecular phylogeny of Anopheles hyrcanus group members based on ITS2 rDNA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Anopheles hyrcanus group includes 25 species, and is widely
      distributed in the Oriental and Palaearctic regions. Several species within this
      group are vectors of malaria, lymphatic filariasis and Japanese encephalitis. It
      is difficult or impossible to identify cryptic species based on their
      morphological characteristics, with some closely related species of the Hyrcanus
      Group have similar adult morphological characteristics. Thus, their molecular
      identification has been an important complementary method to traditional
      morphological taxonomy. METHODS: We used 461 ribosomal DNA (rDNA) internal
      transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequences relating to 19 species to reconstruct the
      molecular phylogeny of the Hyrcanus Group across its range. In addition, we
      compared the performance of rDNA ITS2 to that of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
      cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) to assess the genetic divergence of
      Hyrcanus Group sibling species. RESULTS: Based on Kimura's 2-parameter (K2P)
      distance model, the average conspecific ITS2 divergence was 0.003, whereas
      sequence divergence between species averaged 0.480. Average ITS2 sequence
      divergences were almost 160 times higher among the Hyrcanus Group members than
      within each species. Two sets of sibling species, An. lesteri Baisas & Hu, 1936
      and An. paraliae Sandosham, 1959; and An. sinensis Wiedemann, 1828, An. belenrae
      Rueda, 2005, and An. kleini Rueda, 2005, were resolved by ITS2. Each of these
      species was represented as an independent lineage in the phylogenetic tree.
      Results suggest that An. pseudopictus Grassi, 1899 and An. hyrcanus (Pallas,
      1771) are most likely a single species. We uncovered two new ITS2 lineages that
      require further study before resolving their true taxonomic status, and designed
      a diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to distinguish five
      morphologically similar species. CONCLUSIONS: Nuclear and mitochondrial genes
      generally provided consistent results for subgroup division. Compared to cox1,
      ITS2 is a more reliable tool for studying phylogenetic relationships among
      closely related mosquito taxa. Based on species-specific differences in ITS2
      sequences, the multiplex PCR assay developed here can be used to improve the
      efficiency of vector identification. Thus, this research will promote the
      progress of malaria vector surveillance in both epidemic and non-epidemic areas
      of South and East Asia.

PMID- 28882175
TI  - Strategies to improve the quality of life of persons post-stroke: protocol of a
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While many outcomes post-stroke (e.g., depression) have been
      previously investigated, there is no complete data on the impact of a variety of
      quality improvement strategies on the quality of life and physical and
      psychological well-being of individuals post-stroke. The current paper outlines a
      systematic review protocol on the impact of quality improvement strategies on
      quality of life as well as physical and psychological well-being of individuals
      with stroke. METHODS: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases will be
      searched. Two independent reviewers will conduct all levels of screening, data
      abstraction, and quality appraisal. Only randomized controlled trials that report
      on the impact of quality improvement strategies on quality of life outcomes in
      people with stroke will be included. The secondary outcomes will be physical and
      psychological well-being. Quality improvement strategies include audit and
      feedback, case management, team changes, electronic patient registries, clinician
      education, clinical reminders, facilitated relay of clinical information to
      clinicians, patient education, (promotion of) self-management, patient reminder
      systems, and continuous quality improvement. Studies published since 2000 will be
      included to increase the relevancy of findings. Results will be grouped according
      to the target group of the varying quality improvement strategies (i.e., health
      system, health care professionals, or patients) and/or by any other noteworthy
      grouping variables, such as etiology of stroke or by sex. DISCUSSION: This
      systematic review will identify those quality improvement strategies aimed at the
      health system, health care professionals, and patients that impact the quality of
      life of individuals with stroke. Improving awareness and utilization of such
      strategies may enhance uptake of stroke best practices and reduce inappropriate
      health care utilization costs. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO,
      CRD42017064141.

PMID- 28882176
TI  - Use of the mice passive protection test to evaluate the humoral response in goats
      vaccinated with Sterne 34F2 live spore vaccine.
AB  - The Sterne live spore vaccine (34F2) is the most widely used veterinary vaccine
      against anthrax in animals. Antibody responses to several antigens of Bacillus
      anthracis have been described with a large focus on those against protective
      antigen (PA). The focus of this study was to evaluate the protective humoral
      immune response induced by the live spore anthrax vaccine in goats. Boer goats
      vaccinated twice (week 0 and week 12) with the Sterne live spore vaccine and
      naive goats were used to monitor the anti-PA and toxin neutralizing antibodies at
      week 4 and week 17 (after the second vaccine dose) post vaccination. A/J mice
      were passively immunized with different dilutions of sera from immune and naive
      goats and then challenged with spores of B. anthracis strain 34F2 to determine
      the protective capacity of the goat sera. The goat anti-PA ELISA titres indicated
      significant sero-conversion at week 17 after the second doses of vaccine (p =
      0.009). Mice receiving undiluted sera from goats given two doses of vaccine
      (twice immunized) showed the highest protection (86%) with only 20% of mice
      receiving 1:1000 diluted sera surviving lethal challenge. The in vitro toxin
      neutralization assay (TNA) titres correlated to protection of passively immunized
      A/J mice against lethal infection with the vaccine strain Sterne 34F2 spores
      using immune goat sera up to a 1:10 dilution (rs >= 0.522, p = 0.046). This study
      suggests that the passive mouse protection model could be potentially used to
      evaluate the protective immune response in livestock animals vaccinated with the
      current live vaccine and new vaccines.

PMID- 28882178
TI  - Differential lung ventilation via tracheostomy using two endotracheal tubes in an
      infant: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This case report presents differential lung ventilation in an infant.
      The aim is to define an alternative technique for performing differential lung
      ventilation in children. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report
      of this kind. CASE PRESENTATION: A 4.2-kg, 2.5-month-old Asian boy was referred
      to our facility with refractory hypoxemia and hypercarbia due to asymmetric lung
      disease with atelectasis of the left lung and hyperinflation of the right lung.
      He was unresponsive to conventional ventilator strategies; different ventilator
      settings were required. To perform differential lung ventilation, two separate
      single-lumen endotracheal tubes were inserted into the main bronchus of each lung
      by tracheotomy; the tracheal tubes were attached to discrete ventilators. The
      left lung was ventilated with a lung salvage strategy using high-frequency
      oscillatory ventilation, and the right lung was ventilated with a lung-protective
      strategy using pressure-regulated volume control mode. Differential lung
      ventilation was performed successfully with this technique without complications.
      CONCLUSIONS: Differential lung ventilation may be a lifesaving procedure in
      select patients who have asymmetric lung disease. Inserting two single-lumen
      endotracheal tubes via tracheotomy for differential lung ventilation can be an
      effective and safe alternative method.

PMID- 28882177
TI  - AmpC and extended spectrum beta-lactamases production among urinary isolates from
      a tertiary care hospital in Lalitpur, Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Production of AmpC and extended spectrum beta-lactamases among
      urinary isolates has created a serious problem to the successful management of
      the urinary tract infection. The main purpose of this study was to determine the
      rates of the extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production and AmpC beta
      lactamase (ABL) production among urinary isolates. RESULTS: Among total 564
      urinary isolates, 514 (91.1%) were gram negative bacilli and 50 (8.9%) were gram
      positive cocci. E. coli (76.1%) was the most common bacteria isolated.
      Staphylococcus aureus (6.7%) was the predominant gram positive bacteria isolated.
      35 (6.8%) of the 514 gram negative bacilli were ESBL producers. Similarly, 14
      (2.7%) of the gram negative bacilli were ABL producers. Only one isolate was ESBL
      and ABL co-producer. Highest rate of susceptibility of gram negative bacteria was
      seen toward amikacin (97.3%) followed by imipenem (94.4%). Similarly, highest
      rate of susceptibility among gram positive cocci was seen toward vancomycin
      (100%) followed by amikacin (93.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Low rates of AmpC and extended
      spectrum beta-lactamases production in comparison to other previous studies were
      reported. On the basis of the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the
      bacteria we reported in our study, amikacin, imipenem and nitrofurantoin can be
      used for the preliminary treatment of urinary tract infections caused by gram
      negative bacteria and vancomycin and amikacin for treatment of urinary tract
      infections caused by gram positive bacteria.

PMID- 28882179
TI  - Medical expenditure for esophageal cancer in China: a 10-year multicenter
      retrospective survey (2002-2011).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Esophageal cancer is associated with substantial disease burden in
      China, and data on the economic burden are fundamental for setting priorities in
      cancer interventions. The medical expenditure for the diagnosis and treatment of
      esophageal cancer in China has not been fully quantified. This study aimed to
      examine the medical expenditure of Chinese patients with esophageal cancer and
      the associated trends. METHODS: From 2012 to 2014, a hospital-based multicenter
      retrospective survey was conducted in 37 hospitals in 13 provinces/municipalities
      across China as a part of the Cancer Screening Program of Urban China. For each
      esophageal cancer patient diagnosed between 2002 and 2011, clinical information
      and expense data were extracted by using structured questionnaires. All expense
      data were reported in Chinese Yuan (CNY; 1 CNY = 0.155 USD) based on the 2011
      value and inflated using the year-specific health care consumer price index for
      China. RESULTS: A total of 14,967 esophageal cancer patients were included in the
      analysis. It was estimated that the overall average expenditure per patient was
      38,666 CNY, and an average annual increase of 6.27% was observed from 2002
      (25,111 CNY) to 2011 (46,124 CNY). The average expenditures were 34,460 CNY for
      stage I, 39,302 CNY for stage II, 40,353 CNY for stage III, and 37,432 CNY for
      stage IV diseases (P < 0.01). The expenditure also differed by the therapy type,
      which was 38,492 CNY for surgery, 27,933 CNY for radiotherapy, and 27,805 CNY for
      chemotherapy (P < 0.05). Drugs contributed to 45.02% of the overall expenditure.
      CONCLUSIONS: These conservative estimates suggested that medical expenditures for
      esophageal cancer in China substantially increased in the last 10 years,
      treatment for early-stage esophageal cancer costs less than that for advanced
      cases, and spending on drugs continued to account for a considerable proportion
      of the overall expenditure.

PMID- 28882180
TI  - High performance of targeted next generation sequencing on variance detection in
      clinical tumor specimens in comparison with current conventional methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Next generation sequencing (NGS) is being increasingly applied for
      assisting cancer molecular diagnosis. However, it is still needed to validate NGS
      accuracy on detection of DNA alternations based on a large number of clinical
      samples, especially for DNA rearrangements and copy number variations (CNVs).
      This study is to set up basic parameters of targeted NGS for clinical diagnosis
      and to understand advantage of targeted NGS in comparison with the conventional
      methods of molecular diagnosis. METHODS: Genomic DNA from 1000 Genomes Project
      and DNA from cancer cell lines have been used to establish the basic parameters
      for targeted NGS. The following confirmation was conducted by clinical samples.
      The multiple variants tested by amplification-refractory mutation system (ARMS),
      fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were
      evaluated by targeted NGS to determine the sensitivity. Furthermore, the multiple
      variants detected by targeted NGS were confirmed by current conventional methods
      to elucidate the specificity. RESULTS: At sequencing depth of 500*, the maximal
      sensitivities on detecting single nucletic variances (SNVs) and small
      insertions/deletions (Indels) can reach 99% and 98.7% respectively, and in 20% of
      cancer cells, CNV detection can reach to the maximal level. The following
      confirmation of the sensitivity and specificity was conducted by a large cohort
      of clinical samples. For SNV and indel detection in clinical samples, targeted
      NGS can identify all hotspot mutations with 100% sensitivity and specificity. On
      ALK fusion detection, about 86% IHC-identified cases could be identified by
      targeted NGS and all ALK fusion detected by targeted NGS were confirmed by IHC.
      For HER2-amplification, 14 HER2-amplification cases identified by target NGS were
      all confirmed by FISH and about 93.3% of Her-2 IHC (3+) cases were identified by
      targeted NGS. Finally, the targeted NGS platform developed here has accurately
      detected EGFR hotspot mutations in 215 NSCLC patients. CONCLUSIONS: DNA from
      cancer cell lines is better than standard DNA as a reference to establish basic
      parameters for targeted NGS. Comparison of the conventional methods using a large
      cohort of patient samples confirmed the high preformance of targeted NGS on
      detecting DNA alterations.

PMID- 28882181
TI  - Is cytotoxicity a determinant of the different in vitro and in vivo effects of
      bioactives?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Foodstuffs of both plant and animal origin contain a wide range of
      bioactive compounds. Although human intervention studies are mandatory to assess
      the health effects of bioactives, the in vitro approach is often used to select
      the most promising molecules to be studied in vivo. To avoid misleading results,
      concentration and chemical form, exposure time, and potential cytotoxicity of the
      tested bioactives should be carefully set prior to any other experiments.
      METHODS: In this study the possible cytotoxicity of different bioactives
      (docosahexaenoic acid, propionate, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, protocatechuic acid),
      was investigated in HepG2 cells using different methods. Bioactives were
      supplemented to cells at different concentrations within the physiological range
      in human blood, alone or in combination, considering two different exposure
      times. RESULTS: Reported data clearly evidence that in vitro cytotoxicity is
      tightly related to the exposure time, and it varies among bioactives, which could
      exert a cytotoxic effect even at a concentration within the in vivo physiological
      blood concentration range. Furthermore, co-supplementation of different
      bioactives can increase the cytotoxic effect. CONCLUSIONS: Our results underline
      the importance of in vitro cytotoxicity screening that should be considered
      mandatory before performing studies aimed to evaluate the effect of bioactives on
      other cellular parameters. Although this study is far from the demonstration of a
      toxic effect of the tested bioactives when administered to humans, it represents
      a starting point for future research aimed at verifying the existence of a
      potential hazard due to the wide use of high doses of multiple bioactives.

PMID- 28882182
TI  - (S)-crizotinib induces apoptosis in human non-small cell lung cancer cells by
      activating ROS independent of MTH1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 80-85%
      of all lung cancers and is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage with poor
      prognosis. Targeted therapy has produced unprecedented outcomes in patients with
      NSCLC as a number of oncogenic drivers have been found. Crizotinib, a selective
      small-molecule inhibitor, has been widely used for the treatment of NSCLC
      patients with ALK gene rearrangements. A recent study has also shown that (S)
      enantiomer of crizotinib exhibits anticancer activity by targeting the protein
      mutT homologue (MTH1). Since this discovery, contradictory studies have cast a
      doubt on MTH1 as a therapeutic target of (S)-crizotinib. METHODS: NCI-H460,
      H1975, and A549 cells and immunodeficient mice were chosen as a model to study
      the (S)-crizotinib treatment. The changes induced by (S)-crizotinib treatment in
      cell viability, apoptosis as well as ROS, and endoplasmic reticulum stress
      pathway in the cells were analyzed by MTT assay, FACSCalibur, Western blotting,
      ROS imaging and electron microscopy. RESULTS: Here, we report that MTH1 does not
      affect survival of NSCLC cells. We found that (S)-crizotinib induces lethal
      endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER) response in cultured NSCLC cells by increasing
      intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Blockage of ROS production
      markedly reversed (S)-crizotinib-induced ER stress and cell apoptosis,
      independent of MTH1. We confirmed these findings in NSCLC xenograft studies and
      showed that (S)-crizotinib-induced ER stress and cell apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results reveal a novel antitumor mechanism of (S)-crizotinib in NSCLC which
      involves activation of ROS-dependent ER stress apoptotic pathway and is
      independent of MTH1 inhibition.

PMID- 28882183
TI  - miR-22 suppresses tumorigenesis and improves radiosensitivity of breast cancer
      cells by targeting Sirt1.
AB  - BACKGROUND: miR-22 has been shown to be frequently downregulated and act as a
      tumor suppressor in multiple cancers including breast cancers. However, the role
      of miR-22 in regulating the radioresistance of breast cancer cells, as well as
      its underlying mechanism is still not well understood. METHODS: The expressions
      of miR-22 and sirt1 at mRNA and protein levels were examined by qRT-PCR and
      Western Blot. The effects of miR-22 overexpression and sirt1 knockdown on cell
      viability, apoptosis, radiosensitivity, gamma-H2AX foci formation were evaluated
      by CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry, colony formation assay, and gamma-H2AX foci
      formation assay, respectively. Luciferase reporter assay and qRT-PCR analysis
      were performed to confirm the interaction between miR-22 and sirt1. RESULTS: miR
      22 was downregulated and sirt1 was upregulated at both mRNA and protein levels in
      breast cancer cells. miR-22 overexpression or sirt1 knockdown significantly
      suppressed viability, induced apoptosis, reduced survival fraction, and increased
      the number of gamma-H2AX foci in breast cancer cells. Sirt1 was identified as a
      target of miR-22 and miR-22 negatively regulated sirt1 expression. Ectopic
      expression of sirt1 dramatically reversed the inhibitory effect of miR-22 on cell
      viability and promotive effect on apoptotic rates and radiosensitivity in breast
      cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: miR-22 suppresses tumorigenesis and improves
      radiosensitivity of breast cancer cells by targeting sirt1, providing a promising
      therapeutic target for breast cancer.

PMID- 28882184
TI  - Modified task-based learning program promotes problem-solving capacity among
      Chinese medical postgraduates: a mixed quantitative survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite great advances, China's postgraduate education faces many
      problems, for example traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) method provides
      fewer oppotunities to apply knowledge in a working situation. Task-based learning
      (TBL) is an efficient strategy for increasing the connections among skills,
      knowledge and competences. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a modified
      TBL model on problem-solving abilities among postgraduate medical students in
      China. METHODS: We allocated 228 first-year postgraduate students at Third
      Military Medical University into two groups: the TBL group and LBL group. The TBL
      group was taught using a TBL program for immunohistochemistry. The curriculum
      consisted of five phases: task design, self-learning, experimental operations,
      discussion and summary. The LBL group was taught using traditional LBL. After the
      course, learning performance was assessed using theoretical and practical tests.
      The students' preferences and satisfaction of TBL and LBL were also evaluated
      using questionnaires. RESULTS: There were notable differences in the mean score
      rates in the practical test (P < 0.05): the number of high scores (>80) in the
      TBL group was higher than that in the LBL group. We observed no substantial
      differences in the theoretical test between the two groups (P > 0.05). The
      questionnaire results indicated that the TBL students were satisfied with
      teaching content, teaching methods and experiment content. The TBL program was
      also beneficial for the postgraduates in completing their research projects.
      Furthermore, the TBL students reported positive effects in terms of innovative
      thinking, collaboration, and communication. CONCLUSIONS: TBL is a powerful
      educational strategy for postgraduate education in China. Our modified TBL
      imparted basic knowledge to the students and also engaged them more effectively
      in applying knowledge to solve real-world issues. In conclusion, our TBL
      established a good foundation for the students' future in both medical research
      and clinical work.

PMID- 28882185
TI  - Effect of housing arrangement on fecal-oral transmission of avian hepatitis E
      virus in chicken flocks.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Avian hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is common in chicken flocks
      in China, as currently no measures exist to prevent the spread of the disease. In
      this study, we analyzed the effect of caged versus cage-free housing arrangements
      on avian HEV transmission. First, 127 serum and 110 clinical fecal samples were
      collected from 4 chicken flocks including the two arrangements in Shaanxi
      Province, China and tested for HEV antibodies and/or virus. Concurrently, 36
      specific-pathogen-free chickens were divided equally into four experimental
      living arrangement groups, designated cage-free (Inoculated), caged (Inoculated),
      cage-free (Negative) and caged (Negative) groups. In caged groups, three cages
      contained 3 chickens each. Three chickens each from cage-free (Inoculated) and
      caged (Inoculated) groups (one chicken of each cage) were inoculated by cutaneous
      ulnar vein with the same dose of avian HEV, respectively. The cage-free
      (Negative) and caged (Negative) groups served as negative control. Serum and
      fecal samples were collected at 1 to 7 weeks post-inoculation (wpi) and liver
      lesions were scored at 7 wpi. RESULTS: The results of serology showed that the
      avian HEV infection rate (54.10%) of the cage-free chickens was significantly
      higher than the one (12.12%) for caged chickens (P < 0.05). Also, the rate of
      detection of avian HEV RNA in the clinical fecal samples was significantly higher
      in the cage-free (22.80%, 13/57) than caged birds (5.66%, 3/53). Moreover, under
      experimental conditions, the infected number of uninoculated cage-free chickens
      (6) was significantly higher than the one for the uninoculated caged birds (2),
      as evidenced by seroconversion, fecal virus shedding, viremia and gross and
      microscopic liver lesions. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that reduction of
      contact with feces as seen in the caged arrangement of housing chickens can
      reduce avian HEV transmission. This study provides insights for prevention and
      control of avian HEV infection in chicken flocks.

PMID- 28882186
TI  - More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and
      climate change as evidenced from local knowledge.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Monitoring of fur-bearing species populations is relatively rare due
      to their low densities. In addition to catch data, trappers' experience provides
      information on the ecology and status of the harvested species. Fisher (Pekania
      pennanti) and American marten (Martes americana) are mustelids that are sensitive
      to forest management and therefore considered to be ecological indicators of
      forest health. Fisher populations have increased in eastern North America since
      the early 2000s and this could have resulted in a northeastern extension of the
      species' range and increased overlap with marten's range. Moreover, habitats of
      both species are subject to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The objective
      of this study was to document the knowledge held by local trappers in the
      northern area of sympatry between fisher and marten to identify factors that
      could explain variation in populations of the two species and interactions
      between them. METHOD: Forty-one semi-directed interviews with Indigenous and non
      Indigenous trappers in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region of western Quebec
      (Canada), at the northern limit of the overlapping ranges of the two mustelid
      species. RESULTS: Trappers highlighted the lack of exclusivity of marten and
      fisher to coniferous forests, although marten is more closely associated with
      them than is fisher. Fisher apparently also takes advantage of open environments,
      including agroforestry systems. Moreover, climate change increases the frequency
      of freeze-thaw events that cause the formation of an ice crust on the snow
      surface, which favors fisher movements. CONCLUSION: The fisher was identified as
      a competitor and even a predator of the marten. Furthermore, the fisher is less
      affected than the marten by forest management, and it also seems to benefit from
      climate change to a greater extent.

PMID- 28882187
TI  - Nadir PSA is a strong predictor of treatment outcome in intermediate and high
      risk localized prostate cancer patients treated by definitive external beam
      radiotherapy and androgen deprivation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of tumor
      characteristics and parameters of treatment response in predicting biochemical
      disease-free survival (BFS) for patients with intermediate or high risk prostate
      cancer treated by combined definitive external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and
      androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). METHODS: Between June 1995 and January 2015,
      375 patients with localized prostate cancer and a National Comprehensive Cancer
      Network (NCCN) intermediate or high risk categories were treated by definitive
      EBRT and ADT. Median duration of androgen blockade was 10 months (range: 3-36
      months); Median radiation dose was 72 Gy (Range: 70-78 Gy). Median follow-up time
      was 5.8 years (range: 0.8-16.39 years). The main study endpoint was biochemical
      disease free survival (BFS). RESULTS: Forty seven patients (12.5%) developed
      biochemical recurrence (BCR) during the observation period. Monovariate analysis
      identified baseline PSA (bPSA) (p = 0.024), T-stage (p = 0.001), Gleason's score
      (GS) (p = 0.042), radiation dose (p = 0.045), PSA pre-radiation therapy (p =
      0.048), and nadir PSA (nPSA), (p < 0.001) as significant variables affecting BCR.
      The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve identified a nPSA of 0.06 ng/ml
      as optimal cut-off value significantly predicting the patients' risk of BCR (p <
      0.001). Multivariate cox regression analysis revealed T-stage, GS, and nPSA as
      independent variable affecting BFS, while bPSA, age, and radiation dose were not.
      CONCLUSION: Nadir PSA at 0.06 is a strong independent predictor of BFS in
      patients with intermediate or high risk prostate cancer treated by definitive
      EBRT and ADT.

PMID- 28882188
TI  - Unifying a fragmented effort: a qualitative framework for improving international
      surgical teaching collaborations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Access to adequate surgical care is limited globally, particularly in
      low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To address this issue, surgeons are
      becoming increasingly involved in international surgical teaching collaborations
      (ISTCs), which include educational partnerships between surgical teams in high
      income countries and those in LMICs. The purpose of this study is to determine a
      framework for unifying, systematizing, and improving the quality of ISTCs so that
      they can better address the global surgical need. METHODS: A convenience sample
      of 68 surgeons, anesthesiologists, physicians, residents, nurses, academics, and
      administrators from the U.S., Canada, and Norway was used for the study.
      Participants all had some involvement in ISTCs and came from multiple specialties
      and institutions. Qualitative methodology was used, and participants were
      interviewed using a pre-determined set of open-ended questions. Data was gathered
      over two months either in-person, over the phone, or on Skype. Data was evaluated
      using thematic content analysis. RESULTS: To organize and systematize ISTCs,
      participants reported a need for a centralized/systematized process with
      designated leaders, a universal data bank of current efforts/progress,
      communication amongst involved parties, full-time administrative staff, dedicated
      funds, a scholarly approach, increased use of technology, and more research on
      needs and outcomes. CONCLUSION: By taking steps towards unifying and
      systematizing ISTCs, the quality of ISTCs can be improved. This could lead to an
      advancement in efforts to increase access to surgical care worldwide.

PMID- 28882189
TI  - Competencies for first year residents - physicians' views from medical schools
      with different undergraduate curricula.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frameworks like the CanMEDS model depicting professional roles and
      specific professional activities provide guidelines for postgraduate education.
      When medical graduates start their residency, they should possess certain
      competencies related to communication, management and professionalism while other
      competencies will be refined during postgraduate training. Our study aimed to
      evaluate the relevance of different competencies for a first year resident
      required for entrustment decision from the perspective of physicians from medical
      faculties with different undergraduate medical curricula. METHODS: Nine hundred
      fifty-two surgeons and internists from three medical schools with different
      undergraduate medical curricula were invited to rank 25 competencies according to
      their relevance for first year residents. The rankings were compared between
      universities, specialties, physicians' positions, and gender. RESULTS: Two
      hundred two physicians participated, 76 from Hamburg University, 44 from
      Oldenburg University, and 82 from Technical University Munich. No significant
      differences were found regarding the top 10 competencies relevant for first year
      residents between the universities. 'Responsibility' was the competency with the
      highest rank overall. Internists ranked 'Structure, work planning and priorities'
      higher while surgeons ranked 'Verbal communication with colleagues and
      supervisors' higher. Consultants evaluated 'Active listening to patients' more
      important than department directors and residents. Female physicians ranked
      'Verbal communication with colleagues and supervisors' and 'Structure, work
      planning and priorities' significantly higher while male physicians ranked
      'Scientifically and empirically grounded method of working' significantly higher.
      CONCLUSIONS: Physicians from universities with different undergraduate curricula
      principally agreed on the competencies relevant for first year residents. Some
      differences between physicians from different positions, specialties, and gender
      were found. These differences should be taken into account when planning
      competence-based postgraduate education training programs.

PMID- 28882190
TI  - Traversing the valley of glycemic control despair.

PMID- 28882192
TI  - Satisfaction with quality of ICU care for patients and families: the euroQ2
      project.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Families' perspectives are of great importance in evaluating quality
      of care in the intensive care unit (ICU). This Danish-Dutch study tested a
      European adaptation of the "Family Satisfaction in the ICU" (euroFS-ICU). The aim
      of the study was to examine assessments of satisfaction with care in a large
      cohort of Danish and Dutch family members and to examine the measurement
      characteristics of the euroFS-ICU. METHODS: Data were from 11 Danish and 10 Dutch
      ICUs and included family members of patients admitted to the ICU for 48 hours or
      more. Surveys were mailed 3 weeks after patient discharge from the ICU. Selected
      patient characteristics were retrieved from hospital records. RESULTS: A total of
      1077 family members of 920 ICU patients participated. The response rate among
      family members who were approached was 72%. "Excellent" or "Very good" ratings on
      all items ranged from 58% to 96%. Items with the highest ratings were concern
      toward patients, ICU atmosphere, opportunities to be present at the bedside, and
      ease of getting information. Items with room for improvement were management of
      patient agitation, emotional support of the family, consistency of information,
      and inclusion in and support during decision-making processes. Exploratory factor
      analysis suggested four underlying factors, but confirmatory factor analysis
      failed to yield a multi-factor model with between-country measurement invariance.
      A hypothesis that this failure was due to misspecification of causal indicators
      as reflective indicators was supported by analysis of a factor representing
      satisfaction with communication, measured with a combination of causal and
      reflective indicators. CONCLUSIONS: Most family members were moderately or very
      satisfied with patient care, family care, information and decision-making, but
      areas with room for improvement were also identified. Psychometric assessments
      suggest that composite scores constructed from these items as representations of
      either overall satisfaction or satisfaction with specific sub-domains do not meet
      rigorous measurement standards. The euroFS-ICU and other similar instruments may
      benefit from adding reflective indicators.

PMID- 28882193
TI  - Fragile X mental retardation protein regulates skeletal muscle stem cell activity
      by regulating the stability of Myf5 mRNA.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regeneration of adult tissues relies on adult stem cells that are
      primed to enter a differentiation program, while typically remaining quiescent.
      In mouse skeletal muscle, these features are reconciled by multiple translational
      control mechanisms that ensure primed muscle stem cells (MuSCs) are not
      activated. In quiescent MuSCs, this concept is illustrated by reversible microRNA
      silencing of Myf5 translation, mediated by microRNA-31 and fragile X mental
      retardation protein (FMRP). METHODS: In this work, we take advantage of FMRP
      knockout (Fmr1 -/- ) mice to support the role for FMRP in maintaining stem cell
      properties of the MuSC. We compare the activity of MuSCs in vivo after acute
      injury and engraftment, as well as ex vivo during culture. We use RNA
      immunoprecipitation and 3'UTR poly-adenine (poly(A)) length assays to assess the
      impact of FMRP on the stability of transcripts for myogenic regulatory factors.
      RESULTS: We show that RNA-binding FMRP is required to maintain the MuSC pool.
      More specifically, FMRP is required for stem cell properties of muscle stem
      cells, which include MuSC capacity to prime the myogenic program, their self
      renewal, and their capacity to efficiently regenerate muscle. We provide evidence
      that FMRP regulation of MuSC activity occurs in part by the capacity of FMRP to
      directly bind Myf5 transcripts and impact rates of Myf5 deadenylation.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide further evidence supporting a role for post
      transcriptional silencing platforms by RNA-binding proteins in maintaining
      stemness properties of adult stem cells. In addition, deregulated MuSC activity
      in the absence of Fmr1 may have implications for fragile X syndrome, which is
      associated with muscle hypotonia during infancy.

PMID- 28882191
TI  - Effects of sustained i.c.v. infusion of lupus CSF and autoantibodies on
      behavioral phenotype and neuronal calcium signaling.
AB  - Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a potentially fatal autoimmune disease that
      is often accompanied by brain atrophy and diverse neuropsychiatric manifestations
      of unknown origin. More recently, it was observed that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
      from patients and lupus-prone mice can be neurotoxic and that acute
      administration of specific brain-reactive autoantibodies (BRAs) can induce
      deficits in isolated behavioral tasks. Given the chronic and complex nature of
      CNS SLE, the current study examines broad behavioral performance and neuronal
      Ca2+ signaling in mice receiving a sustained infusion of cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) from CNS SLE patients and putative BRAs (anti-NR2A, anti-ribosomal P, and
      anti-alpha-tubulin). A 2-week intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) infusion of CSF
      altered home-cage behavior and induced olfactory dysfunction, excessive
      immobility in the forced swim test, and perseveration in a learning task.
      Conversely, sustained administration of purified BRAs produced relatively mild,
      both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on olfaction, spatial learning/memory,
      and home-cage behavior. In vitro studies revealed that administration of some CSF
      samples induces a rapid influx of extracellular Ca2+ into murine neurons, an
      effect that could be partially mimicked with the commercial anti-NR2A antibody
      and blocked with selective N-methyl-D-aspartate  (NMDA) receptor antagonists. The
      current findings confirm that the CSF from CNS SLE patients can be neuroactive
      and support the hypothesis that intrathecal BRAs induce synergistically diverse
      effects on all domains of behavior. In addition, anti-NMDA receptor antibodies
      may alter Ca2+ homeostasis of central neurons, thus accounting for excitotoxicity
      and contributing to the heterogeneity of psychiatric manifestations in CNS SLE
      and other autoantibody-related brain disorders.

PMID- 28882194
TI  - GPs' and child and adolescent psychiatry specialists' experiences of joint
      consultations in the GP's office: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study is an exploration of a joint consultation model, a
      collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and specialists from child and
      adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Lillehammer, Norway. METHODS: A
      qualitative study based on two focus group interviews, one with participating GPs
      and one with participating specialists from the local CAMHS. Participants were
      five GPs, with work experience varying from 6 months to 20 years (four of them
      specialists in general medicine) and two CAMHS specialists-a psychiatrist and a
      psychologist-both with more than 20 years of experience. RESULTS: The focus group
      discussions revealed that both GPs and CAMHS specialists saw the joint
      consultations as a good teaching method for improving GPs' skills in child and
      adolescent psychiatry. Both groups believed that this low-threshold service
      benefits the patients and that the joint consultation is especially suited to
      sort problems and determine the level of help required. CONCLUSIONS: The GPs and
      CAMHS specialists shared the impression that the collaboration model is
      beneficial for both patients and health care providers. Close collaboration with
      primary health care is recommended in the guidelines for child and adolescent
      psychiatry outpatient clinics. We suggest that the joint consultation model could
      be a good way for GPs and CAMHS specialists to collaborate.

PMID- 28882196
TI  - Simultaneous Determination of Acetylsalicylic Acid, Hydrochlorothiazide,
      Enalapril, and Atorvastatin in a Polypill-Based Quaternary Mixture by TLC.
AB  - A new chromatographic-densitometric method has been developed for the qualitative
      and quantitative determination of the active ingredients in a simulated mixture
      corresponding to the PolyIran polypill, composed of acetylsalicylic acid,
      hydrochlorothiazide (HCT), enalapril (ENA), and atorvastatin (ATR), whose
      efficacy in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease has been
      documented in clinical trials. Chromatographic separation was performed using TLC
      silica gel 60 plates with fluorescent indicator F254 as the stationary phase and
      a mixture of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water-acetic acid (8.4 + 8 + 3 + 0.4
      + 0.2, v/v/v/v/v) as the mobile phase. Densitometric measurements were carried
      out at lambda = 210 nm when determining ENA and at lambda = 265 nm in the case of
      the other drugs. Peaks of examined substances were well separated in the recorded
      chromatograms, enabling the evaluation of the results in terms of both
      qualitative and quantitative analysis. The method was specific for the analyzed
      components and was characterized by high sensitivity. The LOD was between 0.043
      and 0.331 MUg/spot, and LOQ was between 0.100 and 0.942 MUg/spot. Recovery was in
      the range of 97.02-101.34%. The linearity range was broad and ranged from 0.600
      to 6.000 MUg/spot for acetylsalicylic acid, from 0.058 to 1.102 MUg/spot for HCT,
      from 0.505 to 6.560 MUg/spot for ENA, and from 0.100 to 1.000 MUg/spot for ATR.
      The method was characterized by good precision, with RSD values that ranged from
      0.10 to 2.26%.

PMID- 28882195
TI  - Treating vitamin D deficiency in children with type I diabetes could improve
      their glycaemic control.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The relationship between vitamin D deficiency and type I DM
      is an ongoing area of interest. The study aims to identify the prevalence of
      vitamin D deficiency in children and adolescents with T1DM and to assess the
      impact of treatment of vitamin D deficiency on their glycaemic control. METHODS:
      Retrospective data was collected from 271 children and adolescents with T1DM. The
      vitamin D deficient (25(OH)D <30 nmol/L) and insufficient (25(OH)D 30-50 nmol/L)
      patients were treated with 6000 units of cholecalciferol and 400 units of
      cholecalciferol, once daily for 3 months respectively. HbA1c and 25(OH)D
      concentrations were measured before and at the end of the vitamin D treatment.
      RESULTS: 14.8% from the whole cohort (n = 271) were vitamin D deficient and 31%
      were insufficient. Among the children included in the final analysis (n = 73),
      the mean age and plasma 25(OH)D concentration (+/-SD) were 7.7 years (+/-4.4) and
      32.2 nmol/l (+/-8.2) respectively. The mean 25(OH)D concentration post-treatment
      was 65.3 nmol/l (+/-9.3). The mean HbA1c (+/-SD) before and after cholecalciferol
      was 73.5 mmol/mol (+/-14.9) and 65 mmol/mol (+/-11.2) respectively (p < 0.001).
      Children with higher pre-treatment HbA1c had greater reduction in HbA1c (p <
      0.001) and those with lower 25(OH)D concentration showed higher reduction in
      HbA1c (p = 0.004) after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Low 25(OH)D concentrations are
      fairly prevalent in children and adolescents with T1DM, treatment of which, can
      potentially improve the glycaemic control.

PMID- 28882197
TI  - Kinetic Profiling of the Hydrolytic Reaction of Benazepril: Metabolic Pathway
      Simulation.
AB  - A simple, specific, and rapid kinetic study of benazepril (BNZ) hydrolysis was
      developed and validated using HPLC. BNZ was degraded using 0.1 N sodium hydroxide
      at room temperature to produce benazeprilat, which is an active metabolite of BNZ
      and acts as an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor. Analysis was carried out
      using an Athena C18 column (4.6 * 250 mm, 5 um particle size). The mobile phase
      consists of a mixture of phosphate buffer (pH 4.5) and acetonitrile (53 + 47,
      v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. UV detection was accomplished at 242 nm using
      moexipril as the internal standard. The method was validated according to
      International Conference on Harmonization guidelines, and the calibration curve
      was linear over the range 10-100 ug/mL, with acceptable accuracy and precision.
      Kinetic profiling of the hydrolysis was shown to follow pseudo-first-order
      kinetics. The method was applied to the assay of BNZ in combined dosage form with
      no interference from other ingredients. The obtained results were statistically
      compared with those of the official method, showing no significant difference.

PMID- 28882198
TI  - Genetic, Biochemical, and Biophysical Methods for Studying FeS Proteins and Their
      Assembly.
AB  - FeS clusters containing proteins are structurally and functionally diverse and
      present in most organisms. Our understanding of FeS cluster production and
      insertion into polypeptides has benefited from collaborative efforts between in
      vitro and in vivo studies. The former allows a detailed description of FeS
      containing protein and a deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms
      catalyzing FeS cluster assembly. The second allows to include metabolic and
      environmental constraints within the analysis of FeS homeostasis. The interplay
      and the cross talk between the two approaches have been a key strategy to reach a
      multileveled integrated understanding of FeS cluster homeostasis. In this
      chapter, we describe the genetic and biochemical/biophysical strategies that were
      used in the field of FeS cluster biogenesis, with the aim of providing the reader
      with a critical view of both approaches. In addition to the description of
      classic tricks and a series of recommendations, we will also discuss models as
      well as spectroscopic techniques useful to characterize FeS clusters such as UV
      visible, Mossbauer, electronic paramagnetic resonance, resonance Raman, circular
      dichroism, and nuclear magnetic resonance.

PMID- 28882199
TI  - Defining the Architecture of the Core Machinery for the Assembly of Fe-S Clusters
      in Human Mitochondria.
AB  - Although Fe-S clusters may assemble spontaneously from elemental iron and sulfur
      in protein-free systems, the potential toxicity of free Fe2+, Fe3+, and S2- ions
      in aerobic environments underscores the requirement for specialized proteins to
      oversee the safe assembly of Fe-S clusters in living cells. Prokaryotes first
      developed multiprotein systems for Fe-S cluster assembly, from which mitochondria
      later derived their own system and became the main Fe-S cluster suppliers for
      eukaryotic cells. Early studies in yeast and human mitochondria indicated that Fe
      S cluster assembly in eukaryotes is centered around highly conserved Fe-S
      proteins (human ISCU) that serve as scaffolds upon which new Fe-S clusters are
      assembled from (i) elemental sulfur, provided by a pyridoxal phosphate-dependent
      cysteine desulfurase (human NFS1) and its stabilizing-binding partner (human
      ISD11), and (ii) elemental iron, provided by an iron-binding protein of the
      frataxin family (human FXN). Further studies revealed that all of these proteins
      could form stable complexes that could reach molecular masses of megadaltons.
      However, the protein-protein interaction surfaces, catalytic mechanisms, and
      overall architecture of these macromolecular machines remained undefined for
      quite some time. The delay was due to difficulties inherent in reconstituting
      these very large multiprotein complexes in vitro or isolating them from cells in
      sufficient quantities to enable biochemical and structural studies. Here, we
      describe approaches we developed to reconstitute the human Fe-S cluster assembly
      machinery in Escherichia coli and to define its remarkable architecture.

PMID- 28882200
TI  - Fe-S Cluster Hsp70 Chaperones: The ATPase Cycle and Protein Interactions.
AB  - Hsp70 chaperones and their obligatory J-protein cochaperones function together in
      many cellular processes. Via cycles of binding to short stretches of exposed
      amino acids on substrate proteins, Hsp70/J-protein chaperones not only facilitate
      protein folding but also drive intracellular protein transport, biogenesis of
      cellular structures, and disassembly of protein complexes. The biogenesis of iron
      sulfur (Fe-S) clusters is one of the critical cellular processes that require
      Hsp70/J-protein action. Fe-S clusters are ubiquitous cofactors critical for
      activity of proteins performing diverse functions in, for example, metabolism,
      RNA/DNA transactions, and environmental sensing. This biogenesis process can be
      divided into two sequential steps: first, the assembly of an Fe-S cluster on a
      conserved scaffold protein, and second, the transfer of the cluster from the
      scaffold to a recipient protein. The second step involves Hsp70/J-protein
      chaperones. Via binding to the scaffold, chaperones enable cluster transfer to
      recipient proteins. In eukaryotic cells mitochondria have a key role in Fe-S
      cluster biogenesis. In this review, we focus on methods that enabled us to
      dissect protein interactions critical for the function of Hsp70/J-protein
      chaperones in the mitochondrial process of Fe-S cluster biogenesis in the yeast
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PMID- 28882201
TI  - B. subtilis as a Model for Studying the Assembly of Fe-S Clusters in Gram
      Positive Bacteria.
AB  - Complexes of iron and sulfur (Fe-S clusters) are widely distributed in nature and
      participate in essential biochemical reactions. The biological formation of Fe-S
      clusters involves dedicated pathways responsible for the mobilization of sulfur,
      the assembly of Fe-S clusters, and the transfer of these clusters to target
      proteins. Genomic analysis of Bacillus subtilis and other Gram-positive bacteria
      indicated the presence of only one Fe-S cluster biosynthesis pathway, which is
      distinct in number of components and organization from previously studied
      systems. B. subtilis has been used as a model system for the characterization of
      cysteine desulfurases responsible for sulfur mobilization reactions in the
      biogenesis of Fe-S clusters and other sulfur-containing cofactors. Cysteine
      desulfurases catalyze the cleavage of the C-S bond from the amino acid cysteine
      and subsequent transfer of sulfur to acceptor molecules. These reactions can be
      monitored by the rate of alanine formation, the first product in the reaction,
      and sulfide formation, a byproduct of reactions performed under reducing
      conditions. The assembly of Fe-S clusters on protein scaffolds and the transfer
      of these clusters to target acceptors are determined through a combination of
      spectroscopic methods probing the rate of cluster assembly and transfer. This
      chapter provides a description of reactions promoting the assembly of Fe-S
      clusters in bacteria as well as methods used to study functions of each
      biosynthetic component and identify mechanistic differences employed by these
      enzymes across different pathways.

PMID- 28882202
TI  - Structural Characterization of Poised States in the Oxygen Sensitive Hydrogenases
      and Nitrogenases.
AB  - The crystallization of FeS cluster-containing proteins has been challenging due
      to their oxygen sensitivity, and yet these enzymes are involved in many critical
      catalytic reactions. The last few years have seen a wealth of innovative
      experiments designed to elucidate not just structural but mechanistic insights
      into FeS cluster enzymes. Here, we focus on the crystallization of hydrogenases,
      which catalyze the reversible reduction of protons to hydrogen, and nitrogenases,
      which reduce dinitrogen to ammonia. A specific focus is given to the different
      experimental parameters and strategies that are used to trap distinct enzyme
      states, specifically, oxidants, reductants, and gas treatments. Other themes
      presented here include the recent use of Cryo-EM, and how coupling various
      spectroscopies to crystallization is opening up new approaches for structural and
      mechanistic analysis.

PMID- 28882203
TI  - Nitrogenase Assembly: Strategies and Procedures.
AB  - Nitrogenase is a metalloenzyme system that plays a critical role in biological
      nitrogen fixation, and the study of how its metallocenters are assembled into
      functional entities to facilitate the catalytic reduction of dinitrogen to
      ammonia is an active area of interest. The diazotroph Azotobacter vinelandii is
      especially amenable to culturing and genetic manipulation, and this organism has
      provided the basis for many insights into the assembly of nitrogenase proteins
      and their respective metallocofactors. This chapter will cover the basic
      procedures necessary for growing A. vinelandii cultures and subsequent
      recombinant transformation and protein expression techniques. Furthermore,
      protocols for nitrogenase protein purification and substrate reduction activity
      assays are described. These methods provide a solid framework for the assessment
      of nitrogenase assembly and catalysis.

PMID- 28882205
TI  - De Novo Design of Iron-Sulfur Proteins.
AB  - Iron-sulfur proteins are one of the most abundant and functionally pliable redox
      proteins found in all living organisms. Because of their crucial role in
      mediating electron transfer processes, minimalist model systems have been
      developed as a proxy to study natural Fe-S redox proteins and to dissect rules to
      enable tuning of their redox and electron transfer activities. This goal has been
      pursued through computational design, mutagenesis in the first and second
      coordination sphere, metal substitution, cofactor replacement, and the use of
      unnatural amino acids to stabilize a given cluster. In this chapter, we discuss
      the most recent design strategies to introduce various Fe-S clusters into natural
      and artificial protein scaffolds. Practical approaches for the cluster
      reconstitution, hydrogen production, and electrochemical characterization are
      mentioned.

PMID- 28882204
TI  - TsrM as a Model for Purifying and Characterizing Cobalamin-Dependent Radical S
      Adenosylmethionine Methylases.
AB  - Cobalamin-dependent radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) methylases play vital
      roles in the de novo biosynthesis of many antibiotics, cofactors, and other
      important natural products, yet remain an understudied subclass of radical SAM
      enzymes. In addition to a [4Fe-4S] cluster that is ligated by three cysteine
      residues, these enzymes also contain an N-terminal cobalamin-binding domain. In
      vitro studies of these enzymes have been severely limited because many are
      insoluble or sparingly soluble upon their overproduction in Escherichia coli.
      This solubility issue has led a number of groups either to purify the protein
      from inclusion bodies or to purify soluble protein that often lacks proper
      cofactor incorporation. Herein, we use TsrM as a model to describe methods that
      we have used to generate soluble protein that is purified in an active form with
      both cobalamin and [4Fe-4S] cluster cofactors bound. Additionally, we highlight
      the methods that we developed to characterize the enzyme following purification.

PMID- 28882206
TI  - Mechanism-Based Strategies for Structural Characterization of Radical SAM
      Reaction Intermediates.
AB  - X-ray crystallographic characterization of enzymes at different stages in their
      reaction cycles can provide unique insight into the reaction pathway, the number
      and type of intermediates formed, and their structural context. The known
      mechanistic diversity in the radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) superfamily of
      enzymes makes it an appealing target for such studies as more than 100,000
      sequences have been identified to date with wide-ranging reactivities that share
      a pattern of complex radical-mediated chemistry. Here, we review selected
      examples of radical SAM enzyme crystal structures representative of reactant,
      product, and intermediate state complexes with a particular emphasis on the
      strategies employed to capture these states. Broader application of structural
      characterization techniques to analyze mechanism and substrate specificity is
      certain to play an important role as more members of this family become tractable
      for biochemical study.

PMID- 28882207
TI  - A Polymerase With Potential: The Fe-S Cluster in Human DNA Primase.
AB  - Replication of DNA in eukaryotes is primarily executed by the combined action of
      processive DNA polymerases delta and E. These enzymes cannot initiate synthesis
      of new DNA without the presence of a primer on the template ssDNA. The primers on
      both the leading and lagging strands are generated by DNA polymerase alpha
      primase (pol-prim). DNA primase is a DNA-dependent RNA polymerase that
      synthesizes the first ~10 nucleotides and then transfers the substrate to
      polymerase alpha to complete primer synthesis. The mechanisms governing the
      coordination and handoff between primase and polymerase alpha are largely
      unknown. Isolated DNA primase contains a [4Fe-4S]2+ cluster that has been shown
      to serve as a redox switch modulating DNA binding affinity. This discovery
      suggests a mechanism for modulating the priming activity of primase and handoff
      to polymerase alpha. In this chapter, we briefly discuss the current state of
      knowledge of primase structure and function, including the role of its iron
      sulfur cluster. This is followed by providing the methods for expressing,
      purifying, and biophysically/structurally characterizing primase and its iron
      sulfur cluster-containing domain, p58C.

PMID- 28882208
TI  - In Vitro Studies of Cellular Iron-Sulfur Cluster Biosynthesis, Trafficking, and
      Transport.
AB  - Iron-sulfur clusters are metal cofactors that comprise the largest class of
      metalloproteins and are utilized for a wide variety of functions ranging from
      electron transport to DNA repair. These clusters and their respective cluster
      binding proteins are highly conserved and are produced in the mitochondria via an
      evolutionarily conserved process for export to the cytosol and delivery to other
      organelles, including the nucleus. Disruption of the biosynthetic pathway results
      in a number of disease conditions that reflect the essential requirements of
      cluster function and trafficking within the cell. In vivo studies are limited in
      their ability to examine the detailed molecular mechanisms of protein-protein
      interactions, since they often focus on the downstream effects of protein
      depletion or mutation. As such, in vitro analyses are essential for defining the
      roles of specific Fe-S proteins in trafficking events and supporting in vivo
      analyses of disease conditions arising from aberrant Fe-S assembly and
      trafficking. In this chapter, we describe a variety of methods for the analysis
      of structure-function relationships in holo Fe-S cluster proteins, as well as
      monitoring the kinetics and molecular mechanisms of Fe-S cluster transfer.

PMID- 28882210
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28882209
TI  - Combined Biochemical, Biophysical, and Cellular Methods to Study Fe-S Cluster
      Transfer and Cytosolic Aconitase Repair by MitoNEET.
AB  - MitoNEET is the first identified Fe-S protein anchored to mammalian outer
      mitochondrial membranes with the vast majority of the protein polypeptide located
      in the cytosol, including its [2Fe-2S] cluster-binding domain. The coordination
      of the cluster is unusual and involves three cysteines and one histidine.
      MitoNEET is capable of transferring its redox-active Fe-S cluster to a bacterial
      apo-ferredoxin in vitro even under aerobic conditions, unlike other Fe-S transfer
      proteins such as ISCU. This specificity suggests its possible involvement in Fe-S
      repair after oxidative and/or nitrosative stress. Recently, we identified
      cytosolic aconitase/iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) as the first physiological
      protein acceptor of the mitoNEET Fe-S cluster in an Fe-S repair process. This
      chapter describes methods to study in vitro mitoNEET Fe-S cluster transfer/repair
      to a bacterial ferredoxin used as a model aporeceptor and in a more comprehensive
      manner to cytosolic aconitase/IRP1 after a nitrosative stress using in vitro, in
      cellulo, and in vivo methods.

PMID- 28882211
TI  - Introduction to Northeast Pacific Shark Biology, Ecology, and Conservation.
AB  - Sharks are iconic, sometimes apex, predators found in every ocean and, as a
      result, they have featured prominently in the mythology, history, and fisheries
      of diverse human cultures around the world. Because of their regional
      significance to fisheries and ecological role as predators, and as a result of
      concern over long-term stability of their populations, there has been an
      increasing amount of work focused on shark conservation in recent decades. This
      volume highlights the biodiversity and biological attributes of, and conservation
      efforts targeted at, populations of sharks that reside in the Northeast Pacific
      Ocean bordering the west coast of the United States and Canada, one of the most
      economically and ecologically important oceanic regions in the world. A companion
      volume addresses details of fisheries and ecotourism in the same region, as well
      as delving into the relationship between captive husbandry of sharks and
      education/outreach efforts aimed at fostering a conservation mindset in the
      public at large. Together, these volumes provide readers a detailed backdrop
      against which to consider their own actions, and those of resource managers,
      academics, and educators, as they relate to the long-term conservation of sharks
      and their relatives.

PMID- 28882212
TI  - Diet Composition and Trophic Ecology of Northeast Pacific Ocean Sharks.
AB  - Although there is a general perception of sharks as large pelagic, apex
      predators, most sharks are smaller, meso- and upper-trophic level predators that
      are associated with the seafloor. Among 73 shark species documented in the
      eastern North Pacific (ENP), less than half reach maximum lengths >200cm, and 78%
      occur in demersal or benthic regions of the continental shelf or slope. Most
      small (<=200cm) species (e.g., houndsharks) and demersal, nearshore juveniles of
      larger species (e.g., requiem sharks) consume small teleosts and decapod
      crustaceans, whereas large species in pelagic coastal and oceanic environments
      feed on large teleosts and squids. Several large, pelagic apex predator species
      occur in the ENP, but the largest species (i.e., Basking Shark, Whale Shark)
      consume zooplankton or small nekton. Size-based dietary variability is
      substantial for many species, and segregation of juvenile and adult foraging
      habitats also is common (e.g., Horn Shark, Shortfin Mako). Temporal dietary
      differences are most pronounced for temperate, nearshore species with wide size
      ranges, and least pronounced for smaller species in extreme latitudes and deep
      water regions. Sympatric sharks often occupy various trophic positions, with
      resource overlap differing by space and time and some sharks serving as prey to
      other species. Most coastal species remain in the same general region over time
      and feed opportunistically on variable prey inputs (e.g., season migrations,
      spawning, or recruitment events), whereas pelagic, oceanic species actively seek
      hot spots of prey abundance that are spatiotemporally variable. The influence of
      sharks on ecosystem structure and regulation has been downplayed compared to that
      of large teleosts species with higher per capita consumption rates (e.g., tunas,
      billfishes). However, sharks also exert indirect influences on prey populations
      by causing behavioural changes that may result in restricted ranges and reduced
      fitness. Except for food web modelling efforts in Alaskan waters, the trophic
      impacts of sharks are poorly incorporated into current ecosystem approaches to
      fisheries management in the NEP.

PMID- 28882213
TI  - Stable Isotope Applications for Understanding Shark Ecology in the Northeast
      Pacific Ocean.
AB  - Stable isotopes are used to address a wide range of ecological questions and can
      help researchers and managers better understand the movement and trophic ecology
      of sharks. Here, we review how shark studies from the Northeast Pacific Ocean
      (NEP) have employed stable isotopes to estimate trophic level and diet
      composition and infer movement and habitat-use patterns. To date, the number of
      NEP shark studies that have used stable isotopes is limited, suggesting that the
      approach is underutilized. To aid shark researchers in understanding the
      strengths and limitations of the approach, we provide a brief overview of carbon
      and nitrogen stable isotope trophic discrimination properties (e.g., change in
      delta15N between predator and prey), tissue sample preparation methods specific
      to elasmobranchs, and methodological considerations for the estimation of trophic
      level and diet composition. We suggest that stable isotopes are a potentially
      powerful tool for addressing basic questions about shark ecology and are perhaps
      most valuable when combined and analysed with other data types (e.g., stomach
      contents, tagging data, or other intrinsic biogeochemical markers).

PMID- 28882214
TI  - Age and Growth of Elasmobranchs and Applications to Fisheries Management and
      Conservation in the Northeast Pacific Ocean.
AB  - In addition to being an academic endeavour, the practical purpose of conducting
      age and growth studies on fishes is to provide biological data to stock
      assessment scientists and fisheries managers so they may better understand
      population demographics and manage exploitation rates. Age and size data are used
      to build growth models, which are a critical component of stock assessments.
      Though age determination of elasmobranchs in the northeast Pacific Ocean (NEP)
      began in the 1930s, the field has evolved substantially in recent years, allowing
      scientists to incorporate age data into assessments for more species than ever
      before. Owing to the highly diverse biology of this group of fishes, each species
      has its own set of challenges with regard to age determination. Age determination
      methods typically rely on semicalcified hard structures that form regular growth
      patterns; however, the structure selected and preparation method used is often
      species specific. New staining techniques have improved the ability to assess age
      and improve ageing precision for some species, and advances in microchemical
      methods have allowed for independent means of estimating age and validating age
      determination accuracy. Here we describe current age determination methods for
      NEP elasmobranchs. While the library of available techniques is increasing, there
      are still some NEP species for which reliable ageing methods have yet to be
      defined; we discuss these challenges and potential avenues of future research.
      Finally, we conclude by describing how age estimates are used in growth models
      and subsequently in stock assessments of selected NEP elasmobranchs.

PMID- 28882215
TI  - Review of Current Conservation Genetic Analyses of Northeast Pacific Sharks.
AB  - Conservation genetics is an applied science that utilizes molecular tools to help
      solve problems in species conservation and management. It is an interdisciplinary
      specialty in which scientists apply the study of genetics in conjunction with
      traditional ecological fieldwork and other techniques to explore molecular
      variation, population boundaries, and evolutionary relationships with the goal of
      enabling resource managers to better protect biodiversity and identify unique
      populations. Several shark species in the northeast Pacific (NEP) have been
      studied using conservation genetics techniques, which are discussed here. The
      primary methods employed to study population genetics of sharks have historically
      been nuclear microsatellites and mitochondrial (mt) DNA. These markers have been
      used to assess genetic diversity, mating systems, parentage, relatedness, and
      genetically distinct populations to inform management decisions. Novel approaches
      in conservation genetics, including next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing,
      environmental DNA (eDNA), and epigenetics are just beginning to be applied to
      elasmobranch evolution, physiology, and ecology. Here, we review the methods and
      results of past studies, explore future directions for shark conservation
      genetics, and discuss the implications of molecular research and techniques for
      the long-term management of shark populations in the NEP.

PMID- 28882216
TI  - Biodiversity, Life History, and Conservation of Northeastern Pacific
      Chondrichthyans.
AB  - The sharks, batoids, and chimaeras, collectively the class Chondrichthyes, are
      one of the most successful groups of fishes, with over 1250 species globally.
      Recent taxonomic revisions have increased their diversity by about 20% over the
      past 17 years (2000-2016). The Northeast Pacific Ocean is one of the top 20 most
      diverse regions/countries on the globe with 77 chondrichthyan species, a number
      less than a quarter that of the most species-rich area (Australia) but that has
      increased by 10% since 2000 to include three new species (two skates and a
      chimaera). In this chapter we discuss the species richness of chondrichthyans
      occurring in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, characterize their life histories,
      briefly review several fisheries, and summarize the conservation status of those
      chondrichthyans occurring in the region. Detailed descriptions and evaluations of
      fisheries can be found in Chapter 7 of AMB Volume 78.

PMID- 28882217
TI  - Preface: Molecular Mechanisms, Novel Modes of Regulation, and Therapeutic
      Strategies.

PMID- 28882219
TI  - MicroRNAs and Cancer: A Long Story for Short RNAs.
AB  - More than six decades ago Watson and Crick published the chemical structure of
      DNA. This discovery revolutionized our approach to medical science and opened new
      perspectives for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases including cancer.
      Since then, progress in molecular biology, together with the rapid advance of
      technologies, allowed to clone hundreds of protein-coding genes that were found
      mutated in all types of cancer. Normal and aberrant gene functions, interactions,
      and mechanisms of mutations were studied to identify the intricate network of
      pathways leading to cancer. With the acknowledgment of the genetic nature of
      cancer, new diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic strategies have been
      attempted and developed, but very few have found their way in the clinical field.
      In an effort to identify new translational targets, another great discovery has
      changed our way to look at genes and their functions. MicroRNAs have been the
      first noncoding genes involved in cancer. This review is a brief chronological
      history of microRNAs and cancer. Through the work of few of the greatest
      scientists of our times, this chapter describes the discovery of microRNAs from
      C. elegans to their debut in cancer and in the medical field, the concurrent
      development of technologies, and their future translational applications. The
      purpose was to share the exciting path that lead to one of the most important
      discoveries in cancer genetics in the past 20 years.

PMID- 28882220
TI  - Cancer Hallmarks and MicroRNAs: The Therapeutic Connection.
AB  - Human cancers are characterized by a number of hallmarks, including sustained
      proliferative signaling, evasion of growth suppressors, activated invasion and
      metastasis, replicative immortality, angiogenesis, resistance to cell death, and
      evasion of immune destruction. As microRNAs (miRNAs) are deregulated in virtually
      all human cancers, they show involvement in each of the cancer hallmarks as well.
      In this chapter, we describe the involvement of miRNAs in cancer from a cancer
      hallmarks and targeted therapeutics point of view. As no miRNA-based cancer
      therapeutics are available to date, and the only clinical trial on miRNA-based
      cancer therapeutics (MRX34) was terminated prematurely due to serious adverse
      events, we are focusing on protein-coding miRNA targets for which targeted
      therapeutics in oncology are already approved by the FDA. For each of the cancer
      hallmarks, we selected major protein-coding players and describe the miRNAs that
      target them.

PMID- 28882221
TI  - microRNAs in Cancer Susceptibility.
AB  - microRNAs (miRNAs) are a small RNA species without protein-coding potential.
      However, they are key modulators of protein translation. Many studies have linked
      miRNAs with cancer initiation, progression, diagnosis, and prognosis, and recent
      studies have also linked them with cancer etiology and susceptibility, especially
      through single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This review discusses some of the
      recent advances in miRNA-SNP literature-including SNPs in miRNA genes, miRNA
      target sites, and the processing machinery. In addition, we highlight some
      emerging areas of interest, including isomiRs and non-3'UTR focused miRNA-binding
      mechanisms that could provide further novel insight into the relationship between
      miR-SNPs and cancer. Finally, we note that additional epidemiological and
      experimental research is needed to close the gap in our understanding of the
      genotype-phenotype relationship between miRNA-SNPs and cancer.

PMID- 28882222
TI  - Role of the tRNA-Derived Small RNAs in Cancer: New Potential Biomarkers and
      Target for Therapy.
AB  - Noncoding RNAs are untranslated RNA molecules that can be divided into two main
      types: infrastructural, including transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and ribosomal RNAs
      (rRNAs), and regulatory, including long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) and small ncRNAs (sRNA).
      Among small ncRNA, the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) and Piwi-interacting RNAs
      (piRNAs) in cancer is well documented. Recently, other small ncRNAs have been
      described. In particular, tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNA) have been found to be
      frequently dysregulated in cancer. Since tsRNAs can be considered unique
      sequences and are able to bind both Argonaute proteins (like miRNAs) and Piwi
      proteins (like piRNAs), their dysregulation could play a critical role in cancer
      by interfering with gene expression regulation at different levels. Like
      microRNAs, ts-53 (previously known as miR-3676) interacts with the 3'UTR of TCL1,
      therefore supporting a role for tsRNAs on the posttranscriptional regulation of
      gene expression. Like piRNAs, tsRNAs are produced as single-stranded molecules
      and can interact with DNA and histone methylation machinery, suggesting a role in
      the pretranscriptional regulation of gene expression. Herein, we describe the
      most recent findings about the role of tsRNAs in cancer.

PMID- 28882223
TI  - MicroRNAs and Epigenetics.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression mainly
      at the posttranscriptional level. Similar to protein-coding genes, their
      expression is also controlled by genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Disruption of
      these control processes leads to abnormal expression of miRNAs in cancer. In this
      chapter, we discuss the supportive links between miRNAs and epigenetics in the
      context of carcinogenesis. miRNAs can be epigenetically regulated by DNA
      methylation and/or specific histone modifications. However, they can themselves
      (epi-miRNAs) repress key enzymes that drive epigenetic remodeling and also bind
      to complementary sequences in gene promoters, recruiting specific protein
      complexes that modulate chromatin structure and gene expression. All these issues
      affect the transcriptional landscape of cells. Most important, in the cancer
      clinical scenario, knowledge about miRNAs epigenetic dysregulation can not only
      be beneficial as a prognostic biomarker, but can also help in the design of new
      therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28882224
TI  - The Enigma of miRNA Regulation in Cancer.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are small 19-22 nucleotide long, noncoding, single
      stranded, and multifunctional RNAs that regulate a diverse assortment of gene and
      protein functions that impact on a vast network of pathways. Lin-4, a noncoding
      transcript discovered in 1993 and named miRNA, initiated the exploration of
      research into these intriguing molecules identified in almost all organisms.
      miRNAs interfere with translation or posttranscriptional regulation of their
      target gene and regulate multiple biological actions exerted by these target
      genes. In cancer, they function as both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes
      displaying differential activity in various cellular contexts. Although the role
      of miRNAs on target gene functions has been extensively investigated, less is
      currently known about the upstream regulatory molecules that regulate miRNAs.
      This chapter focuses on the factors and processes involved in miRNA regulation.

PMID- 28882226
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28882228
TI  - Is Atrial Fibrillation a Necessary Component of the Thrombogenic Atrium?

PMID- 28882227
TI  - Left Atrial Fibrosis and Risk of Cerebrovascular and Cardiovascular Events in
      Patients With Atrial Fibrillation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severity of left atrial (LA) fibrosis is a strong predictor of atrial
      fibrillation (AF) ablation success and has been associated with a history of
      stroke, hypertension, and heart failure (HF). However, it is unclear whether more
      severe LA fibrosis independently increases the risk of major adverse
      cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) among those with AF.
      OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to evaluate the occurrence and frequency
      of MACCE by strata of LA fibrosis severity in patients with AF. METHODS: This was
      a retrospective cohort study of 1,228 patients with AF who underwent late
      gadolinium enhancement (LGE)-cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to quantify LA
      fibrosis severity between January 2007 and June 2015. Patients were stratified
      according to Utah stage of LA LGE criteria, and observed for the occurrence of
      MACCE, which included a composite of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA),
      myocardial infarction, acute decompensated HF, or cardiovascular death. Disease
      risk score (DRS) stratification was used to control for between-group differences
      in baseline characteristics and risk. RESULTS: During follow-up, 62 strokes or
      TIAs, 42 myocardial infarctions, 156 HF events, and 38 cardiovascular deaths
      occurred. In DRS stratified analysis, the hazard ratio comparing patients with
      stage IV versus stage I LA LGE was 1.67 (95% confidence interval: 1.01 to 2.76)
      for the composite MACCE outcome. The only individual component of the MACCE
      outcome to remain significantly associated with advanced LGE following DRS
      stratification was stroke or TIA (hazard ratio: 3.94; 95% confidence interval:
      1.72 to 8.98). CONCLUSIONS: This retrospective analysis demonstrated that more
      severe LA LGE is associated with increased MACCE risk, driven primarily by
      increased risk of stroke or TIA.

PMID- 28882229
TI  - Care Patterns and Outcomes in Atrial Fibrillation Patients With and Without
      Diabetes: ORBIT-AF Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetes is a well-established risk factor for thromboembolism in
      patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), but less is known about how diabetes
      influences outcomes among AF patients. OBJECTIVES: This study assessed whether
      symptoms, health status, care, and outcomes differ between AF patients with and
      without diabetes. METHODS: The cohort study included 9,749 patients from the
      ORBIT-AF (Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation)
      registry, a prospective, nationwide, outpatient registry of patients with
      incident and prevalent AF. Outcomes included symptoms, health status, and AF
      treatment, as well as 2-year risk of death, hospitalization, thromboembolic
      events, heart failure (HF), and AF progression. RESULTS: Patients with diabetes
      (29.5%) were younger, more likely to have hypertension, chronic kidney disease,
      HF, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Compared to patients without diabetes,
      patients with diabetes also had a lower Atrial Fibrillation Effects on Quality of
      Life score of 80 (interquartile range [IQR]: 62.5 to 92.6) versus 82.4 (IQR: 67.6
      to 93.5; p = 0.025) and were more likely to receive anticoagulation (p < 0.001).
      Diabetes was associated with higher mortality risk, including overall (adjusted
      hazard ratio [aHR]: 1.63; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04 to 2.56, for age <70
      years vs. aHR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.44, for age >=70 years) and cardiovascular
      (CV) mortality (aHR: 2.20; 95% CI: 1.22 to 3.98, for age <70 years vs. 1.24; 95%
      CI: 1.02 to 1.51 for age >=70 years). Diabetes conferred a higher risk of non-CV
      death, sudden cardiac death, hospitalization, CV hospitalization, and non-CV and
      nonbleeding-related hospitalization, but no increase in risks of thromboembolic
      events, bleeding-related hospitalization, new-onset HF, and AF progression.
      CONCLUSIONS: Among AF patients, diabetes was associated with worse AF symptoms
      and lower quality of life, and increased risk of death and hospitalizations, but
      not thromboembolic or bleeding events.

PMID- 28882230
TI  - Concomitant Diabetes and Atrial Fibrillation: No Sugarcoating the Bittersweet
      Reality.

PMID- 28882225
TI  - Animal Models to Study MicroRNA Function.
AB  - The discovery of the microRNAs, lin-4 and let-7 as critical mediators of normal
      development in Caenorhabditis elegans and their conservation throughout evolution
      has spearheaded research toward identifying novel roles of microRNAs in other
      cellular processes. To accurately elucidate these fundamental functions,
      especially in the context of an intact organism, various microRNA transgenic
      models have been generated and evaluated. Transgenic C. elegans (worms),
      Drosophila melanogaster (flies), Danio rerio (zebrafish), and Mus musculus
      (mouse) have contributed immensely toward uncovering the roles of multiple
      microRNAs in cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, and
      apoptosis, pathways that are severely altered in human diseases such as cancer.
      The simple model organisms, C. elegans, D. melanogaster, and D. rerio, do not
      develop cancers but have proved to be convenient systesm in microRNA research,
      especially in characterizing the microRNA biogenesis machinery which is often
      dysregulated during human tumorigenesis. The microRNA-dependent events delineated
      via these simple in vivo systems have been further verified in vitro, and in more
      complex models of cancers, such as M. musculus. The focus of this review is to
      provide an overview of the important contributions made in the microRNA field
      using model organisms. The simple model systems provided the basis for the
      importance of microRNAs in normal cellular physiology, while the more complex
      animal systems provided evidence for the role of microRNAs dysregulation in
      cancers. Highlights include an overview of the various strategies used to
      generate transgenic organisms and a review of the use of transgenic mice for
      evaluating preclinical efficacy of microRNA-based cancer therapeutics.

PMID- 28882231
TI  - Hemodynamic Response to Nitroprusside in Patients With Low-Gradient Severe Aortic
      Stenosis and Preserved Ejection Fraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low-gradient severe aortic stenosis (LGSAS) with preserved ejection
      fraction (EF) is incompletely understood. The influence of arterial afterload and
      diastolic dysfunction on the hemodynamic presentation of LGSAS remains unknown.
      OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to determine the acute hemodynamic response to
      sodium nitroprusside in LGSAS with preserved EF. METHODS: Symptomatic patients
      with LGSAS and preserved EF underwent cardiac catheterization with comparison of
      hemodynamic measurements before and after nitroprusside. RESULTS: Forty-one
      subjects (25 with low flow [LF], stroke volume index [SVI] <=35 ml/m2, 16 with
      normal flow [NF]) were included. At baseline, LF patients had lower total
      arterial compliance (0.36 +/- 0.12 ml/m2/mm Hg vs. 0.48 +/- 0.16 ml/m2/mm Hg; p =
      0.01) and greater effective arterial elastance (2.77 +/- 0.84 mm Hg . m2/ml vs.
      1.89 +/- 0.82 mm Hg . m2/ml; p = 0.002). In all patients, nitroprusside reduced
      elastance, left ventricular filling pressures, and pulmonary artery pressures and
      improved compliance (p < 0.05). Aortic valve area increased to >=1.0 cm2 in 6 LF
      (24%) and 4 NF (25%) subjects. Change in SVI with nitroprusside varied inversely
      to baseline SVI and demonstrated improvement in LF only (3 +/- 6 ml/m2; p =
      0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Nitroprusside reduces afterload and left ventricular filling
      pressures in patients with LGSAS and preserved EF, enabling reclassification to
      moderate stenosis in 25% of patients. An inverse relationship between baseline
      SVI and change in SVI with afterload reduction was observed, suggesting that
      heightened sensitivity to afterload is a significant contributor to LF-LGSAS
      pathophysiology. These data highlight the utility of afterload reduction in the
      diagnostic assessment of LGSAS.

PMID- 28882232
TI  - Evaluating Resistance in Our Assessing Patients With Aortic Stenosis: OHM Sweet
      OHM.

PMID- 28882233
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Central Apneas Throughout a 24-Hour Period in Patients
      With Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Large trials using noninvasive mechanical ventilation to treat
      central apnea (CA) occurring at night ("sleep apnea") in patients with systolic
      heart failure (HF) have failed to improve prognosis. The prevalence and
      prognostic value of CA during daytime and over an entire 24-h period are not well
      described. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the occurrence and prognostic
      significance of nighttime, daytime, and 24-h CA episodes in a large cohort of
      patients with systolic HF. METHODS: Consecutive patients receiving guideline
      recommended treatment for HF (n = 525; left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF]
      of 33 +/- 9%; 66 +/- 12 years of age; 77% males) underwent prospective
      evaluation, including 24-h respiratory recording, and were followed-up using
      cardiac mortality as an endpoint. RESULTS: The 24-h prevalence of predominant CAs
      (apnea/hypopnea index [AHI] >=5 events/h, with CA of >50%) was 64.8% (nighttime:
      69.1%; daytime: 57.0%), whereas the prevalence of predominant obstructive apneas
      (OA) was 12.8% (AHI >=5 events/h with OAs >50%; nighttime: 14.7%; daytime: 5.9%).
      Episodes of CA were associated with neurohormonal activation, ventricular
      arrhythmic burden, and systolic/diastolic dysfunction (all p < 0.05). During a
      median 34-month follow-up (interquartile range [IQR]: 17 to 36 months), 50
      cardiac deaths occurred. Nighttime, daytime, and 24-h moderate-to-severe CAs were
      associated with increased cardiac mortality (AHI of </>=15 events/h; log-rank:
      6.6, 8.7, and 5.3, respectively; all p < 0.05; central apnea index [CAI] of
      </>=10 events/h; log-rank 8.9, 11.2, and 10.9, respectively; all p < 0.001). Age,
      B-type natriuretic peptide level, renal dysfunction, 24-h AHI, CAI, and time with
      oxygen saturation of <90% were independent predictors of outcome. CONCLUSIONS: In
      systolic HF patients, CAs occurred throughout a 24-h period and were associated
      with a neurohormonal activation, ventricular arrhythmic burden, and worse
      prognosis.

PMID- 28882234
TI  - Ambulatory Apnea Monitoring in Heart Failure: Proceed With Caution.

PMID- 28882236
TI  - Using Absolute Event Rates to See What Works in Cardiovascular Medicine.

PMID- 28882235
TI  - Efficacy and Safety of Ticagrelor Over Time in Patients With Prior MI in PEGASUS
      TIMI 54.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ticagrelor reduces ischemic risk in patients with prior myocardial
      infarction (MI). It remains unclear whether ischemic risk and the benefits of
      prolonged P2Y12 inhibition in this population remain consistent over time.
      OBJECTIVES: The study sought to investigate the pattern of ischemic risk over
      time and whether the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor were similar early and
      late after randomization. METHODS: The PEGASUS-TIMI (Prevention of Cardiovascular
      Events in Patients with Prior Heart Attack Using Ticagrelor Compared to Placebo
      on a Background of Aspirin-Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction) 54 trial
      randomized patients with prior MI (median 1.7 years prior) to ticagrelor 90 mg,
      ticagrelor 60 mg, or placebo on a background of aspirin. The rates of
      cardiovascular (CV) death, MI, and stroke as well as TIMI major bleeding were
      analyzed at yearly landmarks (years 1, 2, and 3). RESULTS: A total of 21,162
      patients were randomized and followed for 33 months (median), with 28% of
      patients >=5 years from MI at trial conclusion. The risk of CV death, MI, or
      stroke in the placebo arm remained roughly constant over the trial at an ~3%
      annualized rate. The benefit of ticagrelor 60 mg was consistent at each
      subsequent landmark (year 1 hazard ratio [HR]: 0.82; 95% confidence interval
      [CI]: 0.67 to 0.99; year 2 HR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.74 to 1.11; and year 3 HR: 0.79;
      95% CI: 0.62 to 1.00). TIMI major bleeding was increased with ticagrelor 60 mg at
      each landmark, but with the greatest hazard in the first year (year 1 HR: 3.22;
      year 2 HR: 2.07; year 3 HR: 1.65). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with a history of MI
      remain at persistent high risk for CVD, MI, and stroke as late as 5 years after
      MI. The efficacy of low-dose ticagrelor is consistent over time with a trend
      toward less excess bleeding. (Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Patients
      with Prior Heart Attack Using Ticagrelor Compared to Placebo on a Background of
      Aspirin [PEGASUS]; NCT01225562).

PMID- 28882237
TI  - The Evolving Future of Instantaneous Wave-Free Ratio and Fractional Flow Reserve.
AB  - In this review, the authors reflect upon the role of coronary physiology in the
      modern management of coronary artery disease. They critically appraise the
      scientific background of the instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) and fractional
      flow reserve (FFR), from early experimental studies to validation studies against
      indexes of ischemia, to clinical trials assessing outcome. At this important
      juncture for the field, the authors make predictions for the future of
      physiological stenosis assessment, outlining developments for both iFR and FFR in
      new clinical domains beyond the confines of stable angina. With a focus on the
      evolving future of iFR and FFR, the authors describe how physiological assessment
      with iFR may advance its application from simply justifying to guiding
      revascularization.

PMID- 28882239
TI  - Bridge to Transplantation: Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology
      Training for Cardiovascular Disease Fellows.

PMID- 28882240
TI  - Father's Day.

PMID- 28882241
TI  - Sudden Cardiac Death in Professional Soccer Players.

PMID- 28882238
TI  - Unraveling Vascular Inflammation: From Immunology to Imaging.
AB  - Inflammation is a critical factor in early atherosclerosis and its progression to
      myocardial infarction. The search for valid surrogate markers of arterial
      vascular inflammation led to the increasing use of positron emission
      tomography/computed tomography. Indeed, vascular inflammation is associated with
      future risk for myocardial infarction and can be modulated with short-term
      therapies, such as statins, that mitigate cardiovascular risk. However, to better
      understand vascular inflammation and its mechanisms, a panel was recently
      convened of world experts in immunology, human translational research, and
      positron emission tomographic vascular imaging. This contemporary review first
      strives to understand the diverse roles of immune cells implicated in
      atherogenesis. Next, the authors describe human chronic inflammatory disease
      models that can help elucidate the pathophysiology of vascular inflammation.
      Finally, the authors review positron emission tomography-based imaging techniques
      to characterize the vessel wall in vivo.

PMID- 28882243
TI  - Early Revascularization in NSTE-ACS: Insights From the ICTUS Long-Term Follow-Up.

PMID- 28882242
TI  - A Collaborative Cardiologist-Intensivist Management Model Improves Cardiac
      Intensive Care Unit Outcomes.

PMID- 28882244
TI  - Reply: Early Revascularization in NSTE-ACS: Insights From the ICTUS Long-Term
      Follow-Up.

PMID- 28882245
TI  - Potent P2Y12 Inhibitor Therapy for All?: But What About Ethnicity?

PMID- 28882246
TI  - Reply: Potent P2Y12 Inhibitor Therapy for All? But What About Ethnicity?

PMID- 28882247
TI  - Vascular Disorders in the Athlete: A Call for Vascular Sports Medicine Clinics.

PMID- 28882248
TI  - Demonstrated value in the public health arena: Operation protect yourself.

PMID- 28882249
TI  - Demonstrated value in the public health arena: Pharmacist roles in addressing the
      current opioid crisis.

PMID- 28882250
TI  - Demonstrated value in the public health arena: Overcoming societal-level barriers
      to vaccination through patient relationships.

PMID- 28882251
TI  - Influenza vaccine formulation and effectiveness.

PMID- 28882252
TI  - Crisaborole, Dupilumab, and Sarilumab.

PMID- 28882253
TI  - EMERGE from reporting inconsistencies on pharmacy adherence intervention.

PMID- 28882254
TI  - Validation and models in computational biomedical sciences: Philosophy, science,
      engineering.

PMID- 28882255
TI  - Improvement of the performance of animal crossing warning signs.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) can result in serious injury and
      death to drivers, animals' death, and significant economic costs. However, the
      cost effectiveness of the majority of AVC mitigation measures is a significant
      issue. METHOD: A mobile-based data collection effort was deployed to measure
      signs under the Utah Department of Transportation's (UDOT) jurisdiction. The
      crash data were obtained from the UDOT risk management database. ArcGIS was
      employed to link these two data sets and extract animal-related crashes and
      signs. An algorithm was developed to process the data and identify AVCs that
      occurred within sign recognition distance. Kernel density estimation (KDE)
      technique was applied to identify potential crash hotspots. RESULTS: Only 2% of
      AVCs occurred within the recognition distance of animal crossing signs. Almost
      58% of animal-related crashes took place on the Interstate and U.S. highways,
      wherein only 30% of animal crossing signs were installed. State routes with a
      higher average number of signs experienced a lower number of AVCs per mile. The
      differences between AVCs that occurred within versus outside of sign recognition
      distance were not statistically significant regarding crash severity, time of
      crash, weather condition, driver age, vehicle speed, and type of animal. It is
      more likely that drivers become accustomed to deer crossing signs than cow signs.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on the historical crash data and landscape structure, with
      attention given to the low cost safety improvement methods, a combination of
      different types of AVC mitigation measures can be developed to reduce the number
      of animal-related crashes. After an in-depth analysis of AVC data, warning
      traffic signs, coupled with other low cost mitigation countermeasures can be
      successfully placed in areas with higher priority or in critical areas. Practical
      applications: The findings of this study assist transportation agencies in
      developing more efficient mitigation measures against AVCs.

PMID- 28882256
TI  - Workers' compensation loss prevention representative contact and risk of lost
      time injury in construction policyholders.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Insurance loss prevention (LP) representatives have access and
      contact with businesses and employees to provide targeted safety and health
      resources. Construction firms, especially those smaller in size, are a high-risk
      population. This research evaluated the association between LP rep contact and
      risk for lost-time injuries in construction policyholders. METHODS: Workers'
      compensation data were utilized to track LP rep contact with policyholders and
      incidence of lost-time injury over time. Survival analysis with repeated events
      modeling calculated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
      RESULTS: Compared no LP contact, one contact was associated with a 27% reduction
      of risk (HR=0.73, CI=0.65-0.82), two with a 41% (HR=0.59, CI=0.51-0.68), and
      three or more contacts with a 28% reduction of risk (HR=0.72, CI=0.65-0.81).
      CONCLUSIONS: LP reps appear to be a valuable partner in efforts to reduce injury
      burden. Their presence or contact with policyholders is consistent with reduction
      in overall incidence of lost-time injuries. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Reduction in
      lost-time injuries, resulting in reduced workers' compensation costs for
      policyholders and insurance companies, builds a business-case for safety and
      injury prevention. LP reps are often a low or no-cost benefit for insurance
      policyholders and may be an important injury prevention resource for small firms
      and/or those with lack of safety resources and staff.

PMID- 28882257
TI  - Safety climate and firefighting: Focus group results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Firefighting is a hazardous occupation and there have been numerous
      calls for fundamental changes in how fire service organizations approach safety
      and balance safety with other operational priorities. These calls, however, have
      yielded little systematic research. METHODS: As part of a larger project to
      develop and test a model of safety climate for the fire service, focus groups
      were used to identify potentially important dimensions of safety climate
      pertinent to firefighting. RESULTS: Analyses revealed nine overarching themes.
      Competency/professionalism, physical/psychological readiness, and that positive
      traits sometimes produce negative consequences were themes at the individual
      level; cohesion and supervisor leadership/support at the workgroup level; and
      politics/bureaucracy, resources, leadership, and hiring/promotion at the
      organizational level. A multi-level perspective seems appropriate for examining
      safety climate in firefighting. CONCLUSIONS: Safety climate in firefighting
      appears to be multi-dimensional and some dimensions prominent in the general
      safety climate literature also seem relevant to firefighting. These results also
      suggest that the fire service may be undergoing transitions encompassing mission,
      personnel, and its fundamental approach to safety and risk. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: These results help point the way to the development of safety
      climate measures specific to firefighting and to interventions for improving
      safety performance.

PMID- 28882258
TI  - Effects of red light running camera systems installation and then deactivation on
      intersection safety.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate the safety
      impacts of red-light running camera (RLC) system installation and then
      deactivation at 48 intersections in Houston, Texas. The second objective is to
      evaluate the spillover effect at nearby non-treated intersections in Houston
      after the deactivation. METHODS: To accomplish study objectives, an Empirical
      Bayes (EB) before-after analysis was used. RESULTS: The results indicate
      statistically significant collision reductions on all red-light running (RLR)
      crash types (37 percent) as well as right-angle RLR crashes (47 percent) at the
      treated intersections after RLC activation. By way of comparison, the RLC
      deactivation analysis indicated that crashes increased by 20 percent for all RLR
      crash types and by 23 percent in right-angle RLR crashes at the formerly treated
      intersections. After deactivation, all severity RLR crashes increased more than
      expected at nearby non-treated intersections, which indicates the possibility of
      an adverse spillover effect. However, fatal/injury crashes associated with rear
      end decreased after deactivation at both formerly treated and non-treated
      intersections, although those rear-end crashes account for smaller proportions
      when compared to all crash types/right-angle crashes. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS:
      Overall, removing RLC treatments results in a negative reaction to the safety
      benefits that the treatment provides when it is in place and actively working and
      to the nearby intersections where the treatment has not been implemented. This
      study helps define the effects that RLCs have on safety at signalized
      intersections after installation and deactivation.

PMID- 28882259
TI  - Determinants of safety outcomes and performance: A systematic literature review
      of research in four high-risk industries.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In spite of increasing governmental and organizational efforts,
      organizations still struggle to improve the safety of their employees as
      evidenced by the yearly 2.3 million work-related deaths worldwide. Occupational
      safety research is scattered and inaccessible, especially for practitioners.
      Through systematically reviewing the safety literature, this study aims to
      provide a comprehensive overview of behavioral and circumstantial factors that
      endanger or support employee safety. METHOD: A broad search on occupational
      safety literature using four online bibliographical databases yielded 27.527
      articles. Through a systematic reviewing process 176 online articles were
      identified that met the inclusion criteria (e.g., original peer-reviewed
      research; conducted in selected high-risk industries; published between 1980
      2016). Variables and the nature of their interrelationships (i.e., positive,
      negative, or nonsignificant) were extracted, and then grouped and classified
      through a process of bottom-up coding. RESULTS: The results indicate that safety
      outcomes and performance prevail as dependent research areas, dependent on
      variables related to management & colleagues, work(place) characteristics &
      circumstances, employee demographics, climate & culture, and external factors.
      Consensus was found for five variables related to safety outcomes and seven
      variables related to performance, while there is debate about 31 other
      relationships. Last, 21 variables related to safety outcomes and performance
      appear understudied. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of safety research has focused on
      addressing negative safety outcomes and performance through variables related to
      others within the organization, the work(place) itself, employee demographics,
      and-to a lesser extent-climate & culture and external factors. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: This systematic literature review provides both scientists and
      safety practitioners an overview of the (under)studied behavioral and
      circumstantial factors related to occupational safety behavior. Scientists could
      use this overview to study gaps, and validate or falsify relationships. Safety
      practitioners could use the insights to evaluate organizational safety policies,
      and to further development of safety interventions.

PMID- 28882260
TI  - Crash risk factors for interstate large trucks in North Carolina.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Provide an updated examination of risk factors for large truck
      involvements in crashes resulting in injury or death. METHODS: A matched case
      control study was conducted in North Carolina of large trucks operated by
      interstate carriers. Cases were defined as trucks involved in crashes resulting
      in fatal or non-fatal injury, and one control truck was matched on the basis of
      location, weekday, time of day, and truck type. The matched-pair odds ratio
      provided an estimate of the effect of various driver, vehicle, or carrier
      factors. RESULTS: Out-of-service (OOS) brake violations tripled the risk of
      crashing; any OOS vehicle defect increased crash risk by 362%. Higher historical
      crash rates (fatal, injury, or all crashes) of the carrier were associated with
      increased risk of crashing. Operating on a short-haul exemption increased crash
      risk by 383%. Antilock braking systems reduced crash risk by 65%. All of these
      results were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. Other safety
      technologies also showed estimated benefits, although not statistically
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: With the exception of the finding that short-haul
      exemption is associated with increased crash risk, results largely bolster what
      is currently known about large truck crash risk and reinforce current enforcement
      practices. Results also suggest vehicle safety technologies can be important in
      lowering crash risk. This means that as safety technology continues to penetrate
      the fleet, whether from voluntary usage or government mandates, reductions in
      large truck crashes may be achieved. Practical application: Results imply that
      increased enforcement and use of crash avoidance technologies can improve the
      large truck crash problem.

PMID- 28882261
TI  - Factors contributing to commercial vehicle rear-end conflicts in China: A study
      using on-board event data recorders.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In the last 30years, China has undergone a dramatic increase in
      vehicle ownership and a resulting escalation in the number of road crashes.
      Although crash figures are decreasing today, they remain high; it is therefore
      important to investigate crash causation mechanisms to further improve road
      safety in China. METHOD: To shed more light on the topic, naturalistic driving
      data was collected in Shanghai as part of the evaluation of a behavior-based
      safety service. The data collection included instrumenting 47 vehicles belonging
      to a commercial fleet with data acquisition systems. From the overall sample, 91
      rear-end crash or near-crash (CNC) events, triggered by 24 drivers, were used in
      the analysis. The CNC were annotated by three researchers, through an expert
      assessment methodology based on videos and kinematic variables. RESULTS: The
      results show that the main factor behind the rear-end CNC was the adoption of
      very small safety margins. In contrast to results from previous studies in the
      US, the following vehicles' drivers typically had their eyes on the road and
      reacted quickly in response to the evolving conflict in most events. When delayed
      reactions occurred, they were mainly due to driving-related visual scanning
      mismatches (e.g., mirror checks) rather than visual distraction. Finally, the
      study identified four main conflict scenarios that represent the typical
      development of rear-end conflicts in this data. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this
      study have several practical applications, such as informing the specifications
      of in-vehicle safety measures and automated driving and providing input into the
      design of coaching/training procedures to improve the driving habits of drivers.

PMID- 28882262
TI  - Application of Bayesian informative priors to enhance the transferability of
      safety performance functions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Safety performance functions (SPFs) are essential tools for highway
      agencies to predict crashes, identify hotspots and assess safety countermeasures.
      In the Highway Safety Manual (HSM), a variety of SPFs are provided for different
      types of roadway facilities, crash types and severity levels. Agencies, lacking
      the necessary resources to develop own localized SPFs, may opt to apply the HSM's
      SPFs for their jurisdictions. Yet, municipalities that want to develop and
      maintain their regional SPFs might encounter the issue of the small sample bias.
      Bayesian inference is being conducted to address this issue by combining the
      current data with prior information to achieve reliable results. It follows that
      the essence of Bayesian statistics is the application of informative priors,
      obtained from other SPFs or experts' experiences. METHOD: In this study, we
      investigate the applicability of informative priors for Bayesian negative
      binomial SPFs for rural divided multilane highway segments in Florida and
      California. An SPF with non-informative priors is developed for each state and
      its parameters' distributions are assigned to the other state's SPF as
      informative priors. The performances of SPFs are evaluated by applying each
      state's SPFs to the other state. The analysis is conducted for both total (KABCO)
      and severe (KAB) crashes. RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: As per
      the results, applying one state's SPF with informative priors, which are the
      other state's SPF independent variable estimates, to the latter state's
      conditions yields better goodness of fit (GOF) values than applying the former
      state's SPF with non-informative priors to the conditions of the latter state.
      This is for both total and severe crash SPFs. Hence, for localities where it is
      not preferred to develop own localized SPFs and adopt SPFs from elsewhere to cut
      down on resources, application of informative priors is shown to facilitate the
      process.

PMID- 28882263
TI  - Evaluating the stability of a freestanding Mast Climbing Work Platform.
AB  - Mast Climbing Work Platforms (MCWPs) are becoming more common at construction
      sites and are being used as an alternative to traditional scaffolding. Although
      their use is increasing, little to no published information exists on the
      potential safety hazards they could pose for workers. As a last line of defense,
      a personal fall-arrest system can be used to save a worker in a fall incident
      from the platform. There has been no published information on whether it is safe
      to use such a personal fall-arrest system with MCWPs. In this study, the issues
      of concern for occupational safety included: (a) the overall stability of the
      freestanding mast climber during a fall-arrest condition and (b) whether that
      fall-arrest system could potentially present safety hazards to other workers on
      the platform during a fall-arrest condition. This research project investigated
      those safety concerns with respect to the mast climber stability and the workers
      using it by creating fall-arrest impact forces that are transmitted to the
      equipment and by subsequently observing the movement of the mast climber and the
      working deck used by the workers. This study found that when the equipment was
      erected and used according to the manufacturer's recommendations during a fall
      arrest condition, destabilizing forces were very small and there were no signs of
      potential of MCWP collapse. However, potential fall hazards could be presented to
      other workers on the platform during a fall arrest. Workers near an open platform
      are advised to wear a personal fall-arrest system to reduce the risk of being
      ejected. Due to the increasing use of MCWPs at construction sites, there is a
      corresponding need for evidence and science-based safety guidelines or
      regulations and further research should be conducted to continue to fill the
      knowledge gap with MCWP equipment.

PMID- 28882264
TI  - Development of a multilevel health and safety climate survey tool within a mining
      setting.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to design, implement and evaluate the reliability
      and validity of a multifactorial and multilevel health and safety climate survey
      (HSCS) tool with utility in the Australian mining setting. METHODS: An 84-item
      questionnaire was developed and pilot tested on a sample of 302 Australian miners
      across two open cut sites. RESULTS: A 67-item, 10 factor solution was obtained
      via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) representing prioritization and attitudes
      to health and safety across multiple domains and organizational levels. Each
      factor demonstrated a high level of internal reliability, and a series of ANOVAs
      determined a high level of consistency in responses across the workforce, and
      generally irrespective of age, experience or job category. Participants tended to
      hold favorable views of occupational health and safety (OH&S) climate at the
      management, supervisor, workgroup and individual level. CONCLUSION: The survey
      tool demonstrated reliability and validity for use within an open cut Australian
      mining setting and supports a multilevel, industry specific approach to OH&S
      climate. Findings suggested a need for mining companies to maintain high OH&S
      standards to minimize risks to employee health and safety. Future research is
      required to determine the ability of this measure to predict OH&S outcomes and
      its utility within other mine settings. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: As this tool
      integrates health and safety, it may have benefits for assessment, monitoring and
      evaluation in the industry, and improving the understanding of how health and
      safety climate interact at multiple levels to influence OH&S outcomes.

PMID- 28882265
TI  - Trends in teen driver licensure, driving patterns and crash involvement in the
      United States, 2006-2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey provides nationally
      representative annual estimates of licensure and driving patterns among U.S.
      teens. A previous study using MTF data reported substantial declines in the
      proportion of high school seniors that were licensed to drive and increases in
      the proportion of nondrivers following the recent U.S. economic recession.
      METHOD: To explore whether licensure and driving patterns among U.S. high school
      seniors have rebounded in the post-recession years, we analyzed MTF licensure and
      driving data for the decade of 2006-2015. We also examined trends in teen driver
      involvement in fatal and nonfatal injury crashes for that decade using data from
      the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and National Automotive Sampling System
      General Estimates System, respectively. RESULTS: During 2006-2015, the proportion
      of high school seniors that reported having a driver's license declined by 9
      percentage points (11%) from 81% to 72% and the proportion that did not drive
      during an average week increased by 8 percentage points (44%) from 18% to 26%.
      The annual proportion of black seniors that did not drive was consistently
      greater than twice the proportion of nondriving white seniors. Overall during the
      decade, 17- and 18-year-old drivers experienced large declines in fatal and
      nonfatal injury crashes, although crashes increased in both 2014 and 2015.
      CONCLUSIONS: The MTF data indicate that licensure and driving patterns among U.S.
      high school seniors have not rebounded since the economic recession. The
      recession had marked negative effects on teen employment opportunities, which
      likely influenced teen driving patterns. Possible explanations for the apparent
      discrepancies between the MTF data and the 2014 and 2015 increases in crashes are
      explored. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: MTF will continue to be an important resource
      for clarifying teen driving trends in relation to crash trends and informing
      strategies to improve teen driver safety.

PMID- 28882266
TI  - Effects of organizational complexity and resources on construction site risk.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our research is aimed at studying the relationship between risk
      level and organizational complexity and resources on constructions sites. Our
      general hypothesis is that site complexity increases risk, whereas more resources
      of the structure decrease risk. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) approach was
      adopted to validate our theoretical model. METHOD: To develop our study, 957
      building sites in Spain were visited and assessed in 2003-2009. All needed data
      were obtained using a specific tool developed by the authors to assess site risk,
      structure and resources (Construction Sites Risk Assessment Tool, or CONSRAT).
      This tool operationalizes the variables to fit our model, specifically, via a
      site risk index (SRI) and 10 organizational variables. Our random sample is
      composed largely of small building sites with general high levels of risk,
      moderate complexity, and low resources on site. CONCLUSIONS: The model obtained
      adequate fit, and results showed empirical evidence that the factors of
      complexity and resources can be considered predictors of site risk level.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Consequently, these results can help companies, managers
      of construction and regulators to identify which organizational aspects should be
      improved to prevent risks on sites and consequently accidents.

PMID- 28882267
TI  - Work-related injuries among commercial janitors in Washington State, comparisons
      by gender.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We analyzed workers' compensation (WC) data to identify
      characteristics related to workers' compensation claim outcomes among janitorial
      service workers in Washington State. METHOD: We analyzed WC data from the
      Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) State Fund (SF) from
      January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2013, for janitorial service workers
      employed in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Services Sector. We
      constructed multivariable models to identify factors associated with higher
      medical costs and increased time lost from work. RESULTS: There were 2,390
      janitorial service compensable claims available for analysis. There were
      significant differences in injury type and other factors by gender, age, and
      language preference. Linguistic minority status was associated with longer time
      loss and higher median medical costs. Women were estimated to account for 35% of
      janitorial service workers but made up 55% of the compensable claims in this
      study. CONCLUSIONS: Janitorial service workers comprise a large vulnerable
      occupational group in the U.S. workforce. Identifying differences by injury type
      and potential inequitable outcomes by gender and language is important to
      ensuring equal treatment in the workers' compensation process. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: There were significant differences in injury and individual
      characteristics between men and women in this study. Women had twice the
      estimated rate of injury to men, and were more likely to require Spanish language
      materials. Improving communication for training and knowledge about the workers'
      compensation system appear to be high priorities in this population of injured
      janitorial service workers.

PMID- 28882268
TI  - Role of sensation seeking and attitudes as mediators between age of driver and
      risky driving of Powered Two Wheelers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study examines the effect of age of driver on risky driving of
      Powered Two-Wheelers (PTW) employing sensation seeking and safety attitudes as
      mediators. METHODS: A survey was conducted with 1299 PTW drivers (1089 males and
      210 females) within the age of 18 and 63years, living in the state of Kerala,
      India. The questionnaire consisted of 31 items to measure sensation seeking,
      safety attitude, and risky driving of the drivers. RESULTS: Mediation models were
      examined using sensation seeking as mediator and secondly safety attitudes as
      mediators. The relationship between the driver's age and risky driving was fully
      mediated by all the three variables. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Results of this
      study suggest that safety strategies should be employed to reduce risky driving
      tendencies that could be achieved by shaping or adapting the mediators (reducing
      sensation seeking and enhancing safety attitudes). This goal could be reached by
      starting to educate children about this at an early stage when they are at school
      as well as by social learning and safety awareness campaigns.

PMID- 28882269
TI  - The construction FACE database - Codifying the NIOSH FACE reports.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
      has published reports detailing the results of investigations on selected work
      related fatalities through the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE)
      program since 1982. METHOD: Information from construction-related FACE reports
      was coded into the Construction FACE Database (CFD). Use of the CFD was
      illustrated by analyzing major CFD variables. RESULTS: A total of 768
      construction fatalities were included in the CFD. Information on decedents,
      safety training, use of PPE, and FACE recommendations were coded. Analysis shows
      that one in five decedents in the CFD died within the first two months on the
      job; 75% and 43% of reports recommended having safety training or installing
      protection equipment, respectively. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive research using FACE
      reports may improve understanding of work-related fatalities and provide much
      needed information on injury prevention. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The CFD allows
      researchers to analyze the FACE reports quantitatively and efficiently.

PMID- 28882270
TI  - Pedestrian falls: A review of the literature and future research directions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pedestrian falls (PFs) - falls in public spaces without collisions
      with other road users - are a significant cause of serious transport-related
      injuries, amounting to three-quarters of all pedestrians admitted to hospital.
      METHODS: This scoping review examined peer-reviewed research on PFs published
      between 1995 and 2015. Electronic databases (Scopus, SafetyLit, and PubMed) were
      used to find studies identifying PFs or outdoor falls (the latter also including
      falls in gardens). RESULTS: We identified only 28 studies reporting relevant
      information on PFs (i.e., 15 prospective, 10 retrospective, and 3 intervention
      studies). The results show that more walking is related to a lower risk of PFs.
      Older people, especially older women, have a higher risk of (injurious) PFs.
      Outdoor fall victims have equally good or better health characteristics and
      scores on balance tests compared to those who have not experienced such falls.
      Road factors such as uneven surfaces, busy junctions, stairs, and slippery
      surfaces seem to play an important role in PFs, but much of the research on these
      factors is of a qualitative nature. CONCLUSIONS: PF victims are generally in good
      health (apart from normal age-related problems) but at risk due to road factors.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: We recommend to adopt a human factors approach. The road
      system should be adapted to human capabilities and limitations including those of
      pedestrians. Measures such as preventing uneven surfaces and good winter
      maintenance seem to be effective. However, we advise more quantitative research
      on road factors to inform design guidelines and standards for public space
      authorities given the qualitative nature of current research on road factors.

PMID- 28882271
TI  - Association between safety leading indicators and safety climate levels.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of leading
      indicators for occupational health and safety, particularly safety inspections
      and non-compliances, with safety climate levels. METHODS: Nordic Occupational
      Safety Climate Assessment Questionnaire was employed to evaluate safety climate
      in cross-sectional design. The geographically diverse population of the
      inspection body made it possible to conduct the survey across 10 provinces in
      Iran. 89 completed questionnaires were obtained with a response rate of 47%.
      Except for management safety justice, the internal consistency of other six
      dimensions was found to be acceptable (alpha>=0.7). RESULTS: Mean scores of
      dimensions ranged from 3.50 in trust in the efficacy of safety systems (SD=0.38)
      to 2.98 in workers' safety priority and risk non-acceptance (SD=0.47). Tukey HSD
      tests indicated a statistically significant difference of mean scores among
      groups undergoing different number of safety inspections and those receiving
      different number of non-compliances (p<0.05), with no significant differences
      based on safety training man-hours and sessions (p>0.05). Spearman's rank-order
      correlation showed no relationship between work experience and number of non
      compliances (correlation coefficient=-0.04, p>0.05) and between safety training
      man-hours and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient=-0.15, p>0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that safety climate levels are influenced by
      number of safety inspections and the resultant non-compliances. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that safety non-compliances detected as a result
      of conducting safety inspections could be used to monitor the safety climate
      state. Establishing plans to conduct scheduled safety inspections and recording
      findings in the form of safety non-compliance and monitoring their trend could be
      used to monitor levels of safety climate.

PMID- 28882272
TI  - Using interactive virtual presence to support accurate installation of child
      restraints: Efficacy and parental perceptions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Child restraint systems (car seats) reduce injury risk for young
      children involved in motor-vehicle crashes, but parents experience significant
      difficulty installing child restraints correctly. Installation by certified child
      passenger safety (CPS) technicians yields more accurate installation, but is
      impractical for broad distribution. A potential solution is use of interactive
      virtual presence via smartphone application (app), which permits "hands on"
      teaching through simultaneous and remote joint exposure to 3-dimensional images.
      METHOD: In two studies, we examined the efficacy of remote communication via
      interactive virtual presence to help parents install child restraints. Study 1
      was conducted at existing car seat checkpoints and Study 2 at preschools/daycare
      centers. In both cases, existing installations were assessed by certified CPS
      technicians using an objective coding scheme. Participants then communicated with
      remotely-located certified CPS technicians via a smartphone app offering
      interactive virtual presence. Technicians instructed participants to install
      child restraints and then the installation was inspected by on-site technicians.
      Both before and after the remote interaction, participants completed
      questionnaires concerning perception of child restraints and child restraint
      installation, self-efficacy to install child restraints, and perceived risk of
      injury to children if they were in a crash. RESULTS: In both studies, accuracy of
      child restraint installations improved following the remote interaction between
      participants and certified CPS technicians. Together, the two samples achieved a
      weighted average of 90% correct installations across a multi-point inspection.
      Both samples reported increased self-efficacy to install child restraints and
      altered perceptions about the accuracy of the child restraint installations in
      their vehicles. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support use of interactive virtual presence
      as a strategy to realize accurate installation of child restraints. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATIONS: Interactive virtual presence between certified CPS technicians and
      the public via smartphone app has potential to improve proper child restraint
      installations broadly, including to vulnerable and underserved rural populations.

PMID- 28882273
TI  - School transportation mode, by distance between home and school, United States,
      ConsumerStyles 2012.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Motor-vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among children
      in the United States, and almost one-fourth of all trips by school-aged children
      are trips to and from school. This study sought to determine how children (5
      18years) travel to and from school and, among those living <=1mile of school, to
      explore the role of school bus service eligibility on school travel mode.
      METHODS: We used national 2012 survey data to determine prevalence of usual
      school travel mode, stratified by distance from school. For those living <=1mile
      of school, multivariable regression was conducted to assess the association
      between bus service eligibility and walking or bicycling. RESULTS: Almost half
      (46.6%) of all children rode in passenger vehicles (PV) to school and 41.8% did
      so for the trip home. Results were similar among those living <=1mile (48.1%, PV
      to school; 41.3%, PV to home). Among those living <=1mile, 21.9% and 28.4% of
      children walked or bicycled to and from school, respectively. Ineligibility for
      school bus service was strongly associated with walking or bicycling to school
      [adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR: 5.36; p<0.001)] and from school (aPR: 5.36;
      p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of distance from school, passenger vehicles
      were a common mode of travel. For children who live close to school, the role
      that school bus service eligibility plays in walking or bicycling deserves
      further consideration. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Given the large proportion of
      children who use passenger vehicles for school travel, effective interventions
      can be adopted to increase proper child restraint and seat belt use and reduce
      crash risks among teen drivers. Better understanding of conditions under which
      bus service is offered to children who live close to school could inform efforts
      to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety for school travel.

PMID- 28882274
TI  - CDC's efforts to improve traumatic brain injury surveillance.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Youth sports concussion has become a prominent public health issue
      due to growing concern about the risk of long-term health effects. METHOD: A
      broad spectrum of stakeholders has convened to propose solutions, including a
      committee of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) who systematically examined
      the issue and, in a 2014 report, made a series of recommendations to better
      address this public health problem. RESULTS: Among these recommendations, the NAS
      committee called for CDC to develop a plan for a comprehensive surveillance
      system to better quantify the incidence and outcomes of youth sports concussion
      among children 5 to 21years of age. Since the release of the NAS report, CDC has
      taken action to address this recommendation and, in the process, develop
      strategies to improve traumatic brain injury (TBI) surveillance more broadly. The
      challenges outlined by the NAS committee with respect to producing comprehensive
      incidence estimates of youth sports concussion are not exclusive to youth sports
      concussion, but also apply to TBI surveillance overall. In this commentary, we
      will discuss these challenges, the process CDC has undertaken to address them and
      describe our plan for improving TBI and youth sports concussion surveillance.

PMID- 28882276
TI  - Economic and statistical perspectives on traffic safety in Louisiana, 2005-2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study examine and applies recent empirical evidence from
      Mississippi and Alabama on fatal crashes and its relationship with gasoline
      prices and alcohol consumptions using the Louisiana Crash Data Reports between
      January 2005 and December 2015. METHOD: The negative binomial models is the
      preferred specification for the Louisiana Crash Data. The marginal effects and
      related elasticities were calculated to facilitate the interpretation of the
      results. RESULTS: Findings suggest that higher gasoline prices reduce fatalities
      among young drivers. A fewer number of young drivers on the roads are believed to
      reduce the likelihood of fatal crashes. Underage drinking is still prominent in
      Louisiana. Extreme temperatures are positively associated with youth and other
      types of fatal crashes. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This study highlights a huge toll
      on society in terms of social and economic costs, wealth destruction, and
      unfulfilled potential of the deceased or incapacitated.

PMID- 28882275
TI  - Using SHRP 2 naturalistic driving data to assess drivers' speed choice while
      being engaged in different secondary tasks.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The engagement in secondary tasks while driving has been found to
      result in considerable impairments of driving performance. Texting has especially
      been suspected to be associated with an increased crash risk. At the same time,
      there is evidence that drivers use various self-regulating strategies to
      compensate for the increased demands caused by secondary task engagement. One of
      the findings reported from multiple studies is a reduction in driving speed.
      However, most of these studies are of experimental nature and do not let the
      drivers decide for themselves to (not) engage in the secondary task, and
      therefore, eliminate other strategies of self-regulation (e.g., postponing the
      task). The goal of the present analysis was to investigate if secondary task
      engagement results in speed adjustment also under naturalistic conditions.
      METHOD: Our analysis relied on data of the SHRP 2 naturalistic driving study. To
      minimize the influence of potentially confounding factors on drivers' speed
      choice, we focused on episodes of free flow driving on interstates/highways.
      Driving speed was analyzed before, during, and after texting, smoking, eating,
      and adjusting/monitoring radio or climate control; in a total of 403 episodes.
      RESULTS: Data show some indication for speed adjustment for texting, especially
      when driving with high speed. However, the effect sizes were small and behavioral
      patterns varied considerably between drivers. The engagement in the other tasks
      did not influence drivers' speed behavior significantly. CONCLUSIONS AND
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: While drivers might indeed reduce speed slightly to
      accommodate for secondary task engagement, other forms of adaptation (e.g.,
      strategic decisions) might play a more important role in a natural driving
      environment. The use of naturalistic driving data to study drivers' self
      regulatory behavior at an operational level has proven to be promising. Still, in
      order to obtain a comprehensive understanding about drivers' self-regulatory
      behavior, a mixed-method approach is required.

PMID- 28882277
TI  - The need for detailed gender-specific occupational safety analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The female work in population is growing in the United States,
      therefore the occupational health and safety entities must start to analyze
      gender-specific data related to every industry, especially to nontraditional
      occupations. Women working in nontraditional jobs are often exposed to extreme
      workplace hazards. These women have their safety and health threatened because
      there are no adequate policies to mitigate gender-specific risks such as
      discrimination and harassment. Employers tend to aggravate this situation because
      they often fail to provide proper reporting infrastructure and support. According
      to past studies, women suffered from workplace injuries and illnesses that were
      less prominent among men. Statistics also confirmed that men and women faced
      different levels of risks in distinct work environments. For example, the rates
      of workplace violence and murders by personal acquaintances were significantly
      higher among women. METHODS: In this paper, the authors analyze prior public data
      on fatal and nonfatal injuries to understand why we need to differentiate genders
      when analyzing occupational safety and health issues. RESULTS: The analyses
      confirmed that women dealt with unique workplace hazards compared to men.
      CONCLUSIONS: It is urgent that public agencies, such as the U.S. Department of
      Labor, record gender-specific data in details and by occupations and industries.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The reader will become aware of the current lack - and
      need - of data and knowledge about injuries and illnesses separated by gender and
      industry. Finally, safety and health researchers are encouraged to investigate
      the gender-specific data in all industries and occupations, as soon as they
      become available.

PMID- 28882278
TI  - Urban street structure and traffic safety.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This paper reports the influence of road type and junction density
      on road traffic fatality rates in U.S. cities. METHOD: The Fatality Analysis
      Reporting System (FARS) files were used to obtain fatality rates for all cities
      for the years 2005-2010. A stratified random sample of 16 U.S. cities was taken,
      and cities with high and low road traffic fatality rates were compared on their
      road layout details (TIGER maps were used). Statistical analysis was done to
      determine the effect of junction density and road type on road traffic fatality
      rates. RESULTS: The analysis of road network and road traffic crash fatality
      rates in these randomly selected U.S. cities shows that, (a) higher number of
      junctions per road length was significantly associated with a lower motor-
      vehicle crash and pedestrian mortality rates, and, (b) increased number of
      kilometers of roads of any kind was associated with higher fatality rates, but an
      additional kilometer of main arterial road was associated with a significantly
      higher increase in total fatalities. When compared to non-arterial roads, the
      higher the ratio of highways and main arterial roads, there was an association
      with higher fatality rates. CONCLUSIONS: These results have important
      implications for road safety professionals. They suggest that once the road and
      street structure is put in place, that will influence whether a city has low or
      high traffic fatality rates. A city with higher proportion of wider roads and
      large city blocks will tend to have higher traffic fatality rates, and therefore
      in turn require much more efforts in police enforcement and other road safety
      measures. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Urban planners need to know that smaller block
      size with relatively less wide roads will result in lower traffic fatality rates
      and this needs to be incorporated at the planning stage.

PMID- 28882279
TI  - Benefit-cost analysis of lane departure warning and roll stability control in
      commercial vehicles.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This paper presents the cost benefits of two different onboard
      safety systems (OSS) installed on trucks as they operated during normal revenue
      deliveries. Using a formal economic analysis approach, the study quantified the
      costs and benefits associated with lane departure warning (LDW) systems and roll
      stability control (RSC) systems. METHODS: The study used data collected from
      participating carriers (many of these crashes were not reported to state or
      Federal agencies), and the research team also reviewed each crash file to
      determine if the specific OSS would have mitigated or prevented the crash. The
      deployment of each OSS was anticipated to increase the safety of all road users,
      but impact different sectors of society in different ways. Benefits that were
      inherent in each group (e.g., industry, society) were considered, and different
      benefit-cost analyses (BCAs) were performed. RESULTS: This paper presents two
      BCAs: a BCA focused on the costs and benefits in the carrier industry by
      implementing each OSS, and a BCA that measured the societal benefits of each OSS.
      In addition, a BCA for a theoretical mandatory deployment option for each OSS is
      presented. CONCLUSIONS: BCA results for LDW and RSC clearly showed their benefits
      outweighed their costs for the carrier and society. Practical applications: Cost
      information is a crucial factor in purchasing decisions in carriers; similarly,
      regulators must consider the cost burden prior to mandating technologies. The
      results in this study provide carrier decision makers and regulators with
      information necessary to make an informed decision regarding RSC and LDW.

PMID- 28882280
TI  - Estimating the value of life and injury for pedestrians using a stated preference
      framework.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The incidence of pedestrian death over the period 2010 to 2014 per
      1000,000 in North Cyprus is about 2.5 times that of the EU, with 10.5 times more
      pedestrian road injuries than deaths. With the prospect of North Cyprus entering
      the EU, many investments need to be undertaken to improve road safety in order to
      reach EU benchmarks. METHOD: We conducted a stated choice experiment to identify
      the preferences and tradeoffs of pedestrians in North Cyprus for improved walking
      times, pedestrian costs, and safety. The choice of route was examined using mixed
      logit models to obtain the marginal utilities associated with each attribute of
      the routes that consumers chose. These were used to estimate the individuals'
      willingness to pay (WTP) to save walking time and to avoid pedestrian fatalities
      and injuries. We then used the results to obtain community-wide estimates of the
      value of a statistical life (VSL) saved, the value of an injury (VI) prevented,
      and the value per hour of walking time saved. RESULTS: The estimate of the VSL
      was ?699,434 and the estimate of VI was ?20,077. These values are consistent,
      after adjusting for differences in incomes, with the median results of similar
      studies done for EU countries. The estimated value of time to pedestrians is
      ?7.20 per person hour. CONCLUSIONS: The ratio of deaths to injuries is much
      higher for pedestrians than for road accidents, and this is completely consistent
      with the higher estimated WTP to avoid a pedestrian accident than to avoid a car
      accident. The value of time of ?7.20 is quite high relative to the wages earned.
      PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Findings provide a set of information on the VRR for
      fatalities and injuries and the value of pedestrian time that is critical for
      conducing ex ante appraisals of investments to improve pedestrian safety.

PMID- 28882281
TI  - The state of the residential fire fatality problem in Sweden: Epidemiology, risk
      factors, and event typologies.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Residential fires represent the largest category of fatal fires in
      Sweden. The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology of fatal
      residential fires in Sweden and to identify clusters of events. METHOD: Data was
      collected from a database that combines information on fatal fires with data from
      forensic examinations and the Swedish Cause of Death-register. Mortality rates
      were calculated for different strata using population statistics and rescue
      service turnout reports. Cluster analysis was performed using multiple
      correspondence analysis with agglomerative hierarchical clustering. RESULTS: Male
      sex, old age, smoking, and alcohol were identified as risk factors, and the most
      common primary injury diagnosis was exposure to toxic gases. Compared to non
      fatal fires, fatal residential fires more often originated in the bedroom, were
      more often caused by smoking, and were more likely to occur at night. Six
      clusters were identified. The first two clusters were both smoking-related, but
      were separated into (1) fatalities that often involved elderly people, usually
      female, whose clothes were ignited (17% of the sample), (2) middle-aged (45
      64years old), (often) intoxicated men, where the fire usually originated in
      furniture (30%). Other clusters that were identified in the analysis were related
      to (3) fires caused by technical fault, started in electrical installations in
      single houses (13%), (4) cooking appliances left on (8%), (5) events with unknown
      cause, room and object of origin (25%), and (6) deliberately set fires (7%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Fatal residential fires were unevenly distributed in the Swedish
      population. To further reduce the incidence of fire mortality, specialized
      prevention efforts that focus on the different needs of each cluster are
      required. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Cooperation between various societal functions,
      e.g. rescue services, elderly care, psychiatric clinics and other social
      services, with an application of both human and technological interventions,
      should reduce residential fire mortality in Sweden.

PMID- 28882283
TI  - The Impact of IMPACT-Contemporary Outcomes With Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty: Are
      We Doing the Right Thing?

PMID- 28882282
TI  - Acute Success of Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty in the Current Era: A National
      Cardiovascular Data Registry Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate practice patterns and outcomes
      of a contemporary group of patients undergoing balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV)
      for congenital aortic stenosis (AS). BACKGROUND: BAV is the most common treatment
      for isolated congenital AS. METHODS: Within the IMPACT (Improving Pediatric and
      Adult Congenital Treatments) Registry, all BAV procedures performed between
      January 2011 and March 2015 were identified. Procedures were separated into those
      performed for critical versus noncritical AS. Outcomes were stratified into
      optimal, adequate, and inadequate, with optimal and adequate outcomes defining
      "successful" procedures. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify
      patient and procedural characteristics associated with unsuccessful BAV.
      Mortality and adverse events rates were compared across patient cohorts. RESULTS:
      Of the 1,026 isolated BAV procedures captured in IMPACT, 718 (70%) were
      "successful." Success rates were 70.9% for noncritical AS (n = 916) and 62.7% for
      critical AS (n = 110). Multivariate analysis revealed that prior cardiac
      catheterization, mixed valve disease, baseline aortic valve gradient >60 mm Hg,
      baseline aortic insufficiency greater than mild, presence of a trainee, and
      multiple balloon inflations were associated with unsuccessful BAV in the
      noncritical AS cohort. There were no factors associated with unsuccessful
      procedures in the critical AS group. No procedural deaths occurred, but 2.4% of
      patients did not survive to hospital discharge. Adverse events occurred in 15.8%
      of all cases and were more frequent in procedures performed for critical AS
      (30.0% vs. 14.1%; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: BAV is an effective treatment for
      congenital AS with low rates of mortality and adverse events. Patients with
      critical AS have a higher risk for procedure-related adverse events.

PMID- 28882284
TI  - Harmony Feasibility Trial: Acute and Short-Term Outcomes With a Self-Expanding
      Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to obtain in vivo data to confirm assumptions on
      device loading conditions and assess procedural feasibility, safety, and valve
      performance. BACKGROUND: The Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve (Medtronic,
      Minneapolis, Minnesota) was designed for patients with severe pulmonary
      regurgitation who require pulmonary valve replacement. METHODS: Three sites
      participated in this first Food and Drug Administration-approved early
      feasibility study using an innovative device design to accommodate the complex
      anatomy of the right ventricular outflow tract. Potentially eligible patients
      underwent review by a screening committee to determine implant eligibility. Six
      month outcomes are reported. RESULTS: Between May 2013 and May 2015, 66 subjects
      were enrolled, and 21 were approved for implant and underwent catheterization; 20
      were implanted. Catheterized patients had a median age of 25 years, were
      predominantly diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot (95%), had severe pulmonary
      regurgitation (95%), and had trivial or mild stenosis. The device was delivered
      in the desired location in 19 of 20 (95%) patients. Proximal migration occurred
      in 1 patient during delivery system removal. Two devices were surgically
      explanted. Premature ventricular contractions related to the procedure were
      reported in 3 patients; 2 were resolved without treatment. One patient had
      ventricular arrhythmias that required treatment and later were resolved. At 1
      month, echocardiography revealed none or trivial pulmonary regurgitation in all
      and a mean right ventricular outflow tract gradient of 16 +/- 8 mm Hg (range 6 to
      31 mm Hg). CONCLUSIONS: In this feasibility study of the Harmony transcatheter
      pulmonary valve device, there was high procedural success and safety, and
      favorable acute device performance.

PMID- 28882286
TI  - When Opportunity Knocks on the Front Door.

PMID- 28882285
TI  - Stenting of the Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Promotes Better Pulmonary
      Arterial Growth Compared With Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt Palliation in
      Tetralogy of Fallot-Type Lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to compare pulmonary arterial (PA) growth during
      palliation after right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) stenting versus modified
      Blalock-Taussig shunt (mBTS) in patients coming forward for complete repair of
      tetralogy of Fallot-type lesions. BACKGROUND: RVOT stenting is a recent
      alternative to mBTS in the initial palliation of selected patients with Fallot
      type lesions. METHODS: This was a retrospective, single-center study of
      nonrandomized, consecutive palliated Fallot patients over a 10-year period.
      Differential left PA (LPA) and right PA (RPA) growth was assessed by serial
      echocardiograms in 67 patients after mBTS (n = 28) or RVOT stent (n = 39).
      Statistical data analysis was performed using mixed model analysis. RESULTS: RPA
      z-scores in the mBTS group improved from median -2.41 (interquartile range [IQR]:
      -2.97 to -1.32) to -1.13 (IQR: -1.68 to -0.59). LPA z-scores improved from -1.89
      (IQR: -2.33 to -1.12) to -0.32 (IQR: -0.88 to -0.05). In the RVOT stenting group
      RPA z-scores improved from -2.28 (IQR: -3.28 to -1.82) to -0.72 (IQR: -1.27 to
      +0.48), and LPA z-scores from -2.08 (IQR: -2.90 to -0.61) to -0.05 (IQR: -0.88 to
      +0.48). Mixed model analysis showed significantly better RPA and LPA growth after
      RVOT stenting. The benefit of RVOT stenting versus mBTS was 0.599 z-scores for
      the LPA and 0.749 z-scores for the RPA. Rise in oxygen saturations was greater
      with RVOT stenting (p = 0.012). Median time to complete repair was shorter in the
      RVOT stent group (227 [142 to 328] days) compared with the mBTS group (439 [300
      to 529] days; p < 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: RVOT stenting promotes better pulmonary
      arterial growth and oxygen saturations compared with mBTS in the initial
      palliation of Fallot-type lesions.

PMID- 28882287
TI  - The Effect of Strut Protrusion on Shear Stress Distribution: Hemodynamic Insights
      From a Prospective Clinical Trial.

PMID- 28882288
TI  - Early Initiation of Impella in Acute Myocardial Infarction Complicated by
      Cardiogenic Shock Improves Survival: A Meta-Analysis.

PMID- 28882289
TI  - Little Kids, Little Problems-Big Kids, Big Problems.

PMID- 28882291
TI  - Impact of End-Stage Renal Disease on Left and Right Ventricular Mechanics: Does
      Kidney Transplantation Reverse the Abnormalities?

PMID- 28882292
TI  - ROC Cutpoints May Help Clinicians Predict the Need for Pacemakers Prior to TAVR.

PMID- 28882290
TI  - The Potential of Clinical Phenotyping of Heart Failure With Imaging Biomarkers
      for Guiding Therapies: A Focused Update.
AB  - The need for noninvasive assessment of cardiac volumes and ejection fraction (EF)
      ushered in the use of cardiac imaging techniques in heart failure (HF) trials
      that investigated the roles of pharmacological and device-based therapies.
      However, in contrast to HF with reduced EF (HFrEF), modern HF pharmacotherapy has
      not improved outcomes in HF with preserved EF (HFpEF), largely attributed to
      patient heterogeneity and incomplete understanding of pathophysiological insights
      underlying the clinical presentations of HFpEF. Modern cardiac imaging methods
      offer insights into many sets of changes in cardiac tissue structure and function
      that can precisely link cause with cardiac remodeling at organ and tissue levels
      to clinical presentations in HF. This has inspired investigators to seek a more
      comprehensive understanding of HF presentations using imaging techniques. This
      article summarizes the available evidence regarding the role of cardiac imaging
      in HF. Furthermore, we discuss the value of cardiac imaging techniques in
      identifying HF patient subtypes who share similar causes and mechanistic pathways
      that can be targeted using specific HF therapies.

PMID- 28882293
TI  - The Authors' Reply.

PMID- 28882294
TI  - Distinguishing Active Vasculitis From Sterile Inflammation and Graft Infection: A
      Call for a More Specific Imaging Target.

PMID- 28882296
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28882295
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28882297
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28882298
TI  - Measuring Tau-microtubule affinity through cosedimentation assays.
AB  - Microtubule cosedimentation assays have long been used to study the affinity of
      interactions between Tau protein and microtubules. While these assays are very
      useful for characterizing and comparing the effects of alterations to either Tau
      or the microtubule filaments, they can also be problematic. We provide a set of
      straightforward instructions for performing these assays and point out a number
      of challenges and pitfalls that can complicate their interpretation.

PMID- 28882299
TI  - Single-molecule imaging of Tau dynamics on the microtubule surface.
AB  - The microtubule-associated protein Tau is primarily expressed in neurons and
      plays an integral role in the regulation of multiple functions within the axon.
      In the adult brain, the six Tau isoforms are expressed allowing for a complex
      system of control. Despite Tau's central role, the mechanisms by which Tau acts
      are not fully understood. We have used single-molecule total internal reflection
      fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and the methods described in this chapter to
      further our knowledge of Tau's behavior and function. We have demonstrated that
      Tau's dynamic binding behavior allows for regulation of motor protein motility
      and microtubule dynamics in an isoform-specific manner. The continued use and
      refinement of the single-molecule techniques detailed here can only further our
      knowledge of Tau and other proteins integral to the maintenance of axonal
      transport.

PMID- 28882300
TI  - Synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering and electron microscopy characterization
      of structures and forces in microtubule/Tau mixtures.
AB  - Tau, a neuronal protein known to bind to microtubules and thereby regulate
      microtubule dynamic instability, has been shown recently to not only undergo
      conformational transitions on the microtubule surface as a function of increasing
      microtubule coverage density (i.e., with increasing molar ratio of Tau to tubulin
      dimers) but also to mediate higher-order microtubule architectures, mimicking
      fascicles of microtubules found in the axon initial segment. These discoveries
      would not have been possible without fine structure characterization of
      microtubules, with and without applied osmotic pressure through the use of
      depletants. Herein, we discuss the two primary techniques used to elucidate the
      structure, phase behavior, and interactions in microtubule/Tau mixtures:
      transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering.
      While the former is able to provide striking qualitative images of bundle
      morphologies and vacancies, the latter provides angstrom-level resolution of
      bundle structures and allows measurements in the presence of in situ probes, such
      as osmotic depletants. The presented structural characterization methods have
      been applied both to equilibrium mixtures, where paclitaxel is used to stabilize
      microtubules, and also to dissipative nonequilibrium mixtures at 37 degrees C in
      the presence of GTP and lacking paclitaxel.

PMID- 28882301
TI  - A TIRF microscopy assay to decode how tau regulates EB's tracking at microtubule
      ends.
AB  - Tau is a major microtubule-associated protein (MAP) mainly expressed in the
      brain. Tau binds the lattice of microtubules and favors their elongation and
      bundling. Recent studies have shown that tau is also a partner of end-binding
      proteins (EBs) in neurons. EBs belong to the protein family of the plus-end
      tracking proteins that preferentially associate with the growing plus-ends of
      microtubules and control microtubule end behavior and anchorage to intracellular
      organelles. Reconstituted cell-free systems using purified proteins are required
      to understand the precise mechanisms by which tau influences EB localization on
      microtubules and how the concerted activity of these two MAPs modulates
      microtubule dynamics. We developed an in vitro assay combining TIRF microscopy
      and site-directed mutagenesis to dissect the interaction of tau with EBs and to
      study how this interaction affects microtubule dynamics. Here, we describe the
      detailed procedures to purify proteins (tubulin, tau, and EBs), prepare the
      samples for TIRF microscopy, and analyze microtubule dynamics, and EB binding at
      microtubule ends in the presence of tau.

PMID- 28882302
TI  - TIRF assays for real-time observation of microtubules and actin coassembly:
      Deciphering tau effects on microtubule/actin interplay.
AB  - Microtubule and actin cytoskeletons are key players in vital processes in cells.
      Although the importance of microtubule-actin interaction for cell development and
      function has been highlighted for years, the properties of these two
      cytoskeletons have been mostly studied separately. Thus we now need procedures to
      simultaneously assess actin and microtubule properties to decipher the basic
      mechanisms underlying microtubule-actin crosstalk. Here we describe an in vitro
      assay that allows the coassembly of both filaments and the real-time observation
      of their interaction by TIRF microscopy. We show how this assay can be used to
      demonstrate that tau, a neuronal microtubule-associated protein, is a bona fide
      actin-microtubule cross-linker. The procedure relies on the use of highly
      purified proteins and chemically passivated perfusion chambers. We present a step
      by-step protocol to obtain actin and microtubule coassembly and discuss the major
      pitfalls. An ImageJ macro to quantify actin and microtubule interaction is also
      provided.

PMID- 28882303
TI  - Digital quantification of neurite outgrowth and retraction by phase-contrast
      microscopy: A tau perspective.
AB  - The proper organization and function of the mammalian nervous system relies on
      neuronal processes or "neurites," extended morphological projections that include
      axons and dendrites. Tau is a structural microtubule-associated protein that is
      widely expressed in the nervous system that mediates the establishment of cell
      polarity, neurite outgrowth, and axonal transport. A useful model for studying
      the establishment and maintenance of these neuronal structures are rat neuronal
      PC12 cells, which can be induced to express tau and project neurites by treating
      the cells with nerve growth factor. Here, we present a simple method for
      continuously measuring the rate of neurite outgrowth and retraction over time by
      neurite length and neurite area analyses. This method uses freely available
      ImageJ software and widely available phase-contrast imaging.

PMID- 28882304
TI  - Assessing the degradation of tau in primary neurons: The role of autophagy.
AB  - Tau is a neuronal cytosolic, highly regulated protein. Although first identified
      as a protein that binds and stabilizes microtubules, it is now clear that tau
      plays numerous other roles in neurons. In addition to its key physiological roles
      in neuronal structure and function, tau is also involved in the pathogenesis of
      Alzheimer's disease and numerous other neurodegenerative disorders. In all
      tauopathies, there are pathogenic accumulations of tau. Given that tau
      homeostasis requires a balance of synthesis and degradation, understanding the
      pathways that mediate tau clearance and regulate this process in the disease
      state is of fundamental importance. In neurons, macroautophagy (referred to as
      autophagy in this chapter) plays a pivotal role in clearing damaged or misfolded
      proteins under normal conditions. However, in the disease state autophagy is
      impaired and tau may not be efficiently targeted for degradation which
      contributes to the increases in pathological tau species. Therefore, establishing
      model systems that allow for the analysis of tau clearance by autophagy and
      quantitative assessment of interventions that increase autophagy and tau
      clearance are needed. Of particular importance is the use of primary neurons as a
      model system, as they are more reflective of the relevant in vivo autophagy
      pathway than clonal or immortalized cell models. In this chapter we present
      detailed methods for the preparation of neurons, immunoblotting and imaging
      analyses, genetic and pharmacological manipulation of autophagy with analyses,
      and methods to quantitatively measure changes in tau and phospho-tau levels.

PMID- 28882305
TI  - Methods related to studying tau fragmentation.
AB  - Several tau posttranslational modifications have been implicated in neuronal
      degeneration. Among them, tau fragmentation has been identified not only in brain
      samples obtained from Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorder subjects but
      also in AD culture and animal models. Some of these tau fragments have not been
      extensively studied. In contrast, data obtained recently showed that tau
      fragmentation mediated by enhanced or abnormal calpain, caspase 2, caspase 3, and
      asparagine endopeptidase activity results in the formation of toxic fragments.
      These cleaved tau forms induce neuronal death, synapse loss, and/or behavioral
      deficits. Here, we described protease activity assays and methods to study the
      effects of tau fragments on neuronal viability.

PMID- 28882306
TI  - The Drosophila model system to study tau action.
AB  - The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a powerful model system for applying
      molecular, cellular, and genetic approaches to understanding human tauopathies,
      including Alzheimer's disease. Here, we provide an introduction to using
      Drosophila as a tauopathy model system and describe several protocols that we use
      to analyze human tau protein expressed in flies. Methods to detect tau expression
      include light and scanning electron microscopy in the fly eye, confocal
      microscopy of primary neuronal cultures, and preparation of tissue homogenates
      for separation by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with
      analysis by Western blotting.

PMID- 28882307
TI  - Insights into tau function and dysfunction through single-molecule fluorescence.
AB  - Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and single-molecule Forster resonance
      energy transfer are powerful and versatile techniques to quantify and describe
      molecular interactions. They are particularly well suited to the study of dynamic
      proteins and assemblies, as they can overcome some of the challenges that stymie
      more conventional ensemble approaches. In this chapter, we describe the
      application of these methods to study the interaction of tau with the molecular
      aggregation inducer, heparin, and the functional binding partner, soluble
      tubulin. Specifically, we outline the practical aspects of both techniques to
      characterize the critical first steps of tau aggregation and tau-mediated
      microtubule polymerization. The information gained from these measurements
      provides unique insight into tau function and its role in disease.

PMID- 28882308
TI  - The use of mouse models to study cell-to-cell transmission of pathological tau.
AB  - Tau protein aggregates are found in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases known
      as tauopathies. Emerging evidence shows tau can propagate from cell-to-cell by
      seeding endogenous tau to aggregate. Studies in tau transgenic mice showed
      intracerebrally injecting misfolded tau seeds initiates and transmits tau
      pathology across the mouse brain. However, transgenic mice that overexpress human
      tau with disease-associated mutations do not fully recapitulate sporadic
      tauopathies. Here, we present our method for developing a sporadic tauopathy
      model using pathological tau extracted from human Alzheimer's disease (AD)
      brains. We describe a novel method for sequentially extracting tau pathologies
      from human AD brain in high yield and purity. We then describe how to
      intracerebrally inject this extract into a nontransgenic mouse brain and analyze
      the transmission of tau pathology. This novel sporadic tauopathy model can be
      used to study the transmission of tau aggregates and test new tau-directed
      therapies.

PMID- 28882309
TI  - Expression and isolation of recombinant tau.
AB  - In this chapter, we describe methods for the purification of both untagged and
      polyhistidine-tagged tau protein. These protocols utilize a bacterial expression
      system to produce the tau isoform of interest, followed by heat treatment and
      column chromatography to separate tau from impurities. These techniques yield a
      biochemically pure protein with which to pursue any number of questions regarding
      the mechanisms of tau action.

PMID- 28882310
TI  - Studying tau protein propagation and pathology in the mouse brain using adeno
      associated viruses.
AB  - The progressive spread of pathological brain lesions containing aggregated tau
      protein is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative
      diseases. In AD, this process follows a distinct pattern along neuronal
      connections from the entorhinal cortex to hippocampal areas and further on
      through the limbic system. In other tauopathies, the spread of tau appears less
      hierarchical throughout the brain, and also nonpathological tau is reported to
      cross-synaptic connections in the brain. To be able to study the process of cell
      to-cell transport of tau and the associated neurotoxicity in the brain in vivo,
      adeno-associated virus-mediated expression of tau can be used to express
      different forms of tau in distinct brain areas in rodent models. As an example,
      we describe how the expression of FTD-mutant human tauP301L in the entorhinal
      cortex of wild-type mice can be used to study the propagation of tau to connected
      neurons and to determine pathological consequences such as tau
      hyperphosphorylation, misfolding, and gliosis. The approach described can easily
      be translated to study other aggregating and/or propagating proteins in the brain
      such as synuclein, Abeta, or SOD1.

PMID- 28882311
TI  - Production of recombinant tau oligomers in vitro.
AB  - The pathological aggregation of the tau protein is a common characteristic of
      many neurodegenerative diseases. There is strong interest in characterizing the
      potentially toxic nature of tau oligomers. These nonfibrillar, soluble multimers
      appear to be more toxic than neurofibrillary tangles made up of filamentous tau.
      However, reliable production, purification, and verification of tau oligomers can
      provide certain challenges. Here, we provide a series of methods that address
      these issues. First, recombinant tau is produced using Escherichia coli, purified
      through affinity, size-exclusion, and anion-exchange chromatography steps and
      quantified using an SDS Lowry protein quantitation assay. Aggregation of tau is
      induced using arachidonic acid, and oligomers are purified by centrifugation over
      a sucrose step gradient. Finally, we describe a sandwich enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay that utilizes the tau oligomer-specific TOC1 antibody to
      confirm the presence of oligomeric tau. Together, these steps provide a very
      simple and reliable method for producing tau oligomers that can be used in
      downstream applications.

PMID- 28882313
TI  - Conformation-based assay of tau protein aggregation.
AB  - Amyloid fiber-forming proteins are predominantly intrinsically disordered
      proteins (IDPs). The protein tau, present mostly in neurons, is no exception.
      There is a significant interest in the study of tau protein aggregation
      mechanisms, given the direct correlation between the deposit of beta-sheet
      structured neurofibrillary tangles made of tau and pathology in several
      neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Among the core
      unresolved questions is the nature of the initial step triggering aggregation,
      with increasing attention placed on the question whether a conformational change
      of the IDPs plays a key role in the early stages of aggregation. Specifically,
      there is growing evidence that a shift in the conformation ensemble of tau is
      involved in its aggregation pathway, and might even dictate structural and
      pathological properties of mature fibers. Yet, because IDPs lack a well-defined
      3D structure and continuously exchange between different conformers, it has been
      technically challenging to characterize their structural changes on-pathway to
      aggregation. Here, we make a case that double spin labeling of the beta-sheet
      stacking region of tau combined with pulsed double electron-electron resonance
      spectroscopy is a powerful method to assay conformational changes occurring
      during the course of tau aggregation, by probing intramolecular distances around
      aggregation-prone domains. We specifically demonstrate the potential of this
      approach by presenting recent results on conformation rearrangement of the beta
      sheet stacking segment VQIINK (known as PHF6*) of tau. We highlight a canonical
      shift of the conformation ensemble, on-pathway and occurring at the earliest
      stage of aggregation, toward an opening of PHF6*. We expect this method to be
      applicable to other critical segments of tau and other IDPs.

PMID- 28882312
TI  - Optimization of in vitro conditions to study the arachidonic acid induction of 4R
      isoforms of the microtubule-associated protein tau.
AB  - The microtubule-associated protein tau exists in six different isoforms that
      accumulate as filamentous aggregates in a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative
      diseases classified as tauopathies. One potential source of heterogeneity between
      these diseases could arise from differential tau isoform aggregation. in vitro
      assays employing arachidonic acid as an inducer of aggregation have been pivotal
      in gaining an understanding of the longest four repeat tau isoform (2N4R). These
      approaches have been less successful for modeling the shorter 1N4R and 0N4R tau
      isoforms in vitro. Through a careful analysis of in vitro conditions for
      aggregation, we found that the differences in the acidity of tau isoform N
      terminal projection domains determine whether tau filaments cluster into larger
      assemblies in solution. Beyond the potential biological implications of filament
      clustering, we provide optimized conditions for the arachidonic acid induction of
      shorter 4R tau isoforms aggregation in vitro that greatly reduce filament
      clustering and improved modeling results.

PMID- 28882314
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28882315
TI  - Is atherosclerosis imaging the most sensitive way to assess patients' risk and
      the best way to conduct future drug trials? A pros-and-cons debate.
AB  - Atherosclerosis imaging has been the focus of intense debate and research for
      several decades. Among its primary applications are risk stratification of
      asymptomatic individuals and follow-up of atherosclerosis progression under a
      variety of treatments designed to retard or regress the development of arterial
      disease. Although endorsed and supported by many, this approach has been fiercely
      opposed by several key opinion leaders over the years. Similarly, regulatory
      agencies have raised a number of objections to resist the approval of new drugs
      and devices based on surrogate imaging markers. However, there is a large body of
      evidence in the medical literature that shows that risk stratification is
      improved with implementation of atherosclerosis imaging. Additionally, numerous
      lipid-modifying agents have been tested as far as their ability to affect
      progression of atherosclerosis, and in many cases the information obtained with
      imaging was in line with the outcome of subsequent clinical trials. This pros-and
      cons debate was staged to bring up in a fun and provoking way the main arguments
      in favour or against the application of atherosclerosis imaging in the main
      settings described above.

PMID- 28882316
TI  - Death From Opioid Overdose After Deep Brain Stimulation: A Case Report.

PMID- 28882318
TI  - Adaptive-gain fast super-twisting sliding mode fault tolerant control for a
      reusable launch vehicle in reentry phase.
AB  - In this paper, a novel adaptive-gain fast super-twisting (AGFST) sliding mode
      attitude control synthesis is carried out for a reusable launch vehicle subject
      to actuator faults and unknown disturbances. According to the fast nonsingular
      terminal sliding mode surface (FNTSMS) and adaptive-gain fast super-twisting
      algorithm, an adaptive fault tolerant control law for the attitude stabilization
      is derived to protect against the actuator faults and unknown uncertainties.
      Firstly, a second-order nonlinear control-oriented model for the RLV is
      established by feedback linearization method. And on the basis a fast nonsingular
      terminal sliding mode (FNTSM) manifold is designed, which provides fast finite
      time global convergence and avoids singularity problem as well as chattering
      phenomenon. Based on the merits of the standard super-twisting (ST) algorithm and
      fast reaching law with adaption, a novel adaptive-gain fast super-twisting
      (AGFST) algorithm is proposed for the finite-time fault tolerant attitude control
      problem of the RLV without any knowledge of the bounds of uncertainties and
      actuator faults. The important feature of the AGFST algorithm includes non
      overestimating the values of the control gains and faster convergence speed than
      the standard ST algorithm. A formal proof of the finite-time stability of the
      closed-loop system is derived using the Lyapunov function technique. An
      estimation of the convergence time and accurate expression of convergence region
      are also provided. Finally, simulations are presented to illustrate the
      effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme.

PMID- 28882317
TI  - Persistent Increase in Microglial RAGE Contributes to Chronic Stress-Induced
      Priming of Depressive-like Behavior.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic stress-induced inflammatory responses occur in part via
      danger-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) molecules, such as high mobility group
      box 1 protein (HMGB1), but the receptor(s) underlying DAMP signaling have not
      been identified. METHODS: Microglia morphology and DAMP signaling in enriched rat
      hippocampal microglia were examined during the development and expression of
      chronic unpredictable stress (CUS)-induced behavioral deficits, including long
      term, persistent changes after CUS. RESULTS: The results show that CUS promotes
      significant morphological changes and causes robust upregulation of HMGB1
      messenger RNA in enriched hippocampal microglia, an effect that persists for up
      to 6 weeks after CUS exposure. This coincides with robust and persistent
      upregulation of receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) messenger
      RNA, but not toll-like receptor 4 in hippocampal microglia. CUS also increased
      surface expression of RAGE protein on hippocampal microglia as determined by flow
      cytometry and returned to basal levels 5 weeks after CUS. Importantly, exposure
      to short-term stress was sufficient to increase RAGE surface expression as well
      as anhedonic behavior, reflecting a primed state that results from a persistent
      increase in RAGE messenger RNA expression. Further evidence for DAMP signaling in
      behavioral responses is provided by evidence that HMGB1 infusion into the
      hippocampus was sufficient to cause anhedonic behavior and by evidence that RAGE
      knockout mice were resilient to stress-induced anhedonia. CONCLUSIONS: Together,
      the results provide evidence of persistent microglial HMGB1-RAGE expression that
      increases vulnerability to depressive-like behaviors long after chronic stress
      exposure.

PMID- 28882319
TI  - Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia: At the interface of interoception,
      emotion and social cognition?

PMID- 28882320
TI  - Judges' delivery of ground rules to child witnesses in Australian courts.
AB  - Ground rules directions are given to children in forensic interviews to explain
      what is expected of them, and to reduce their tendency to acquiesce to erroneous
      or incomprehensible questions. Ground rules may also be necessary when children
      provide testimony in court. Drawing on research conducted for the Australian
      Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the present
      study examined the use of ground rules directions delivered in court in 52 trials
      by 24 presiding judges in three jurisdictions to 57 child complainants (aged 7
      17.5 years). Eleven categories of rules were identified. The number of words
      spoken to deliver each rule was counted, and grade-level readability scores were
      calculated as a proxy for the complexity of the ground rules. When judges asked
      comprehension or practice questions, the question types were coded. More than one
      third of the children (35%) received no ground rules directions from the judge;
      the remaining 65% received directions on an average of 3.5 types of ground rules
      out of a maximum of 11 types. While comprehension questions were common, practice
      questions were rare. Comprehension questions were most often presented in a
      yes/no format that implied the expected response, although this form of question
      is unlikely to provide an effective assessment of a child's comprehension.
      Neither the number of rules delivered nor the number of words used was related to
      children's age. Implications for children's court testimony are discussed.

PMID- 28882321
TI  - Pyrimidinylacetamide-based 2-pyridylureas as Angiogenesis Inhibitors: Design,
      Synthesis and Biological Evaluation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: VEGFR-2 inhibitors have been widely used in the treatment of cancer.
      In our continued efforts to search for potent and novel VEGFR-2 inhibitors as
      antitumor agents, we have identified a series of ureas and amides bearing a
      oxazolopyrimidine scaffold. AIM OF THE STUDY: To discover more potent VEGFR-2
      inhibitors with stronger binding affinity and better physical and chemical
      properties. METHODS: 23 pyrimidinylacetamide-based ureas were designed and
      synthesized. Replacement of oxazolopyrimidine with a pyrimidinylacetamide
      generated a series of novel VEGFR-2 inhibitors. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In HUVEC
      inhibition assay, the most potent compound (compound 16) possessed an IC50 value
      of 0.43 MUM. Compound 16 also inhibited the migration and capillary like tube
      formation of HUVECs with inhibition rate at 22% (1 MUM) and 17.5% (0.8 MUM)
      respectively. These results support the further investigation of compound 16 as a
      potential anti-cancer agent.

PMID- 28882322
TI  - Who Can Diagnose Parkinson's Disease First? Role of Pre-motor Symptoms.
AB  - In 1817, James Parkinson described the disease which bears his name. The disease
      was defined as a neurological syndrome characterized by tremor, rigidity, and
      slowness of movements. Almost one hundred years later, degeneration of neurons in
      the substantia nigra and low levels of dopamine were identified as the putative
      cause of the disease, thus the disease remained as a pure neurological disorder.
      In the late 1990s, non-motor symptoms of the disease began to gain interest
      because of their clinical relevance, as well as for their potential role in
      broadening the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved. In
      the last decade, focus has shifted to the pre-motor symptoms, those non-motor
      symptoms that present years before the motor onset of the disease. The main
      premotor symptoms include rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, hyposmia,
      constipation and depression. Subjects with these symptoms usually are not
      initially seen by a neurologist, and by the time they are consulted neuronal loss
      in the substantia nigra is over 50%. This review summarizes the overall relevance
      of non-motor symptoms, their frequency and their pathophysiological implications.
      Also, the importance of pre-motor symptoms, and the role of specialists other
      than neurologists in diagnosing subjects with Parkinson's disease is discussed.
      Two hundred years after the first description of the disease, it is now evident
      that Parkinson's disease is a systemic disease and a multispecialty team approach
      is mandatory.

PMID- 28882323
TI  - Left atrial appendage closure for prevention of death, stroke, and bleeding in
      patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.
AB  - Nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most frequent arrhythmia with a
      prevalence of 1%-2% in the general population. Its prevalence increases with age
      and its diagnosis benefits of improvement and simplification of technologies for
      its detection. Today, AF affects approximately 7% of individuals age>65years and
      15%-20% of octogenarians. Due to stasis and activation of coagulation in a
      fibrillating atrium, patients are at increased risk of thromboembolism, in
      particular ischemic stroke, with an overall stroke risk of 5% per year. Since the
      left atrium itself is round and smooth-walled, thrombi typically do not form
      there, but almost exclusively in the left atrial appendage (LAA), a blind sac
      like heterogeneous structure trabeculated by pectinate muscles. In the past five
      decades, oral anticoagulation (OAC) with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) has been the
      state-of-the art treatment to prevent stroke and systemic embolism from thrombi
      in AF. In the last decade, nonvitamin K dependant oral anticoagulants (NOAC) have
      been shown to be overall superior to VKA with respect to efficacy and safety in
      large trials and registries. Given the safety issues of indefinite OAC with
      either VKA or NOAC, it is plausible to consider left atrial appendage closure
      (LAAC) as an alternative strategy for prevention of all three catastrophes for
      patients with AF on anticoagulation: death, stroke or other systemic
      embolization, and bleeding. In the past years, LAAC has been compared to VKA in
      prospective randomized trials, yielding superior results regarding efficacy and
      non-inferiority regarding safety in the mid-term. Today, the decision to provide
      the most appropriate treatment for a patient with AF (OAC, NOAC, or LAAC) is
      complex and needs to be individualized. This review provides a comprehensive
      update on the current state of LAAC in the field of prevention of death, stroke
      and bleedings in patients suffering from nonvalvular AF. We describe the
      pathophysiology of the LAA with regard to stroke, elucidate the evidence and
      limitations of anticoagulation as the classical treatment paradigm, and review
      devices and techniques for LAAC. Most importantly, the current clinical evidence
      on efficacy and safety is outlined and finally, contemporary recommendations for
      patient selection are provided.

PMID- 28882324
TI  - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to resuscitate a 14-year-old boy after 43min
      drowning.

PMID- 28882325
TI  - Antimicrobial stewardship programme in critical care medicine: A prospective
      interventional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Hospital antimicrobial stewardship programmes have achieved savings
      and a more rational use of antimicrobial treatments in general wards. The purpose
      of this report is to evaluate the experience of an antimicrobial stewardship
      programme in an intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN: Prospective interventional,
      before-and-after study. SCOPE: 24-bed medical ICU in a tertiary hospital.
      INTERVENTION: Prospective audit and feedback antimicrobial stewardship programme.
      ENDPOINTS: Antimicrobial consumption, antimicrobial related costs, multi-drug
      resistant microorganisms (MDRM) prevalence, nosocomial infections incidence, ICU
      length of stay, and ICU mortality rates were compared before and after one-year
      intervention. RESULTS: A total of 218 antimicrobial episodes of 182 patients were
      evaluated in 61 team meetings. Antimicrobial stewardship suggestions were
      accepted in 91.5% of the cases. Total antimicrobial DDD/100 patient-days
      consumption was reduced from 380.6 to 295.2 (-22.4%; p=0.037). Antimicrobial
      stewardship programme was associated with a significant decrease in the
      prescription of penicillins plus b-lactamase inhibitors, linezolid,
      cephalosporins, and aminoglycosides. Overall antimicrobial spending was reduced
      by ?119,636. MDRM isolation and nosocomial infections per 100 patient-days did
      not change after the intervention period. No changes in length of stay or
      mortality rate were observed. CONCLUSIONS: An ICU antimicrobial stewardship
      programme significantly reduced antimicrobial use without affecting inpatient
      mortality and length of stay. Our results further support the implementation of
      an antimicrobial stewardship programme in critical care units.

PMID- 28882326
TI  - Avoid mitochondrion-toxic antiepileptic drugs in glycine encephalopathy.

PMID- 28882327
TI  - Erectile Function and Oncologic Outcomes Following Open Retropubic and Robot
      assisted Radical Prostatectomy: Results from the LAParoscopic Prostatectomy Robot
      Open Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether surgeons perform better utilising a robot-assisted
      laparoscopic technique compared with an open approach during prostate cancer
      surgery is debatable. OBJECTIVE: To report erectile function and early oncologic
      outcomes for both surgical modalities, stratified by prostate cancer risk
      grouping. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In a prospective nonrandomised
      trial, we recruited 2545 men with prostate cancer from seven open (n=753) and
      seven robot-assisted (n=1792) Swedish centres (2008-2011). OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS
      AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Clinometrically-validated questionnaire-based patient
      reported erectile function was collected before, 3 mo, 12 mo, and 24 mo after
      surgery. Surgeon-reported degree of neurovascular-bundle preservation,
      pathologist-reported positive surgical margin (PSM) rates, and 2-yr prostate
      specific antigen-relapse rates were measured. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: Among 1702
      preoperatively potent men, we found enhanced erectile function recovery for
      low/intermediate-risk patients in the robot-assisted group at 3 mo. For patients
      with high-risk tumours, point estimates for erectile function recovery at 24 mo
      favoured the open surgery group. The degree of neurovascular bundle preservation
      and erectile function recovery were greater correlated for robot-assisted
      surgery. In pT2 tumours, 10% versus 17% PSM rates were observed for open and
      robot-assisted surgery, respectively; corresponding rates for pT3 tumours were
      48% and 33%. These differences were associated with biochemical recurrence in pT3
      but not pT2 disease. The study is limited by its nonrandomised design and
      relatively short follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Earlier recovery of erectile function in
      the robot-assisted surgery group in lower-risk patients is counterbalanced by
      lower PSM rates for open surgeons in organ-confined disease; thus, both open and
      robotic surgeons need to consider this trade-off when determining the plane of
      surgical dissection. Robot-assisted surgery also facilitates easier
      identification of nerve preservation planes during radical prostatectomy as well
      as wider dissection for pT3 cases. PATIENT SUMMARY: For prostate cancer surgery,
      an open operation reduces erection problems in high-risk cancers but has higher
      relapse rates than robotic surgery. Relapse rates appear similar in
      low/intermediate-risk cancers and the robot appears better at preserving
      erections in these cases.

PMID- 28882328
TI  - Refining insulin concentrations in culture medium containing growth factors BMP15
      and GDF9: An in vitro study of the effects on follicle development of goats.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of two insulin
      concentrations (10ng/mL and 10MUg/mL) combined or in the absence of BMP15 and/or
      GDF9, on the in vitro survival and development of preantral follicles of goat
      ovarian tissue. Ovarian slices from the same goat ovary pair were randomly
      assigned to a non-cultured control treatment or to be in vitro cultured for 1 or
      7days in alpha-MEM containing 10ng/mL (Low) or 10MUg/mL (High) of insulin in the
      absence or presence of BMP15 and/or GDF9. With the low insulin treatment, there
      was a greater percentage of normal follicles than with the high insulin
      treatment. The addition of BMP15 alone or in association with GDF9 to the medium
      containing low insulin resulted in a lesser percentage of normal follicles
      (P<0.05). The addition of BMP15 and GDF9 separately or in combination with the
      high insulin concentration enhanced the percentage of normal follicles. On day 7
      of culture, the use of medium containing low insulin alone or high insulin
      supplemented with BMP15 and BMP15+GDF9 resulted in a greater percentage of
      secondary follicles than the non-cultured control, although follicles cultured
      with low insulin were smaller than those from the control group and had greater
      rates of oxidative stress. In conclusion, in the presence of physiological
      concentrations of insulin (10ng/mL), medium supplementation with GDF9 and BMP15
      alone or in combination is unnecessary for normal follicle development in vitro.

PMID- 28882329
TI  - Targeted temperature management in Kounis syndrome following cardiac arrest with
      anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28882330
TI  - Combining muscle synergies and biomechanical analysis to assess gait in stroke
      patients.
AB  - The understanding of biomechanical deficits and impaired neural control of gait
      after stroke is crucial to prescribe effective customized treatments aimed at
      improving walking function. Instrumented gait analysis has been increasingly
      integrated into the clinical practice to enhance precision and inter-rater
      reliability for the assessment of pathological gait. On the other hand, the
      analysis of muscle synergies has gained relevance as a novel tool to describe the
      neural control of walking. Since muscle synergies and gait analysis capture
      different but equally important aspects of walking, we hypothesized that their
      combination can improve the current clinical tools for the assessment of walking
      performance. To test this hypothesis, we performed a complete bilateral, lower
      limb biomechanical and muscle synergies analysis on nine poststroke hemiparetic
      patients during overground walking. Using stepwise multiple regression, we
      identified a number of kinematic, kinetic, spatiotemporal and synergy-related
      features from the paretic and non-paretic side that, combined together, allow to
      predict impaired walking function better than the Fugl-Meyer Assessment score.
      These variables were time of peak knee flexion, VAFtotal values, duration of
      stance phase, peak of paretic propulsion and range of hip flexion. Since these
      five variables describe important biomechanical and neural control features
      underlying walking deficits poststroke, they may be feasible to drive customized
      rehabilitation therapies aimed to improve walking function. This paper
      demonstrates the feasibility of combining biomechanical and neural-related
      measures to assess locomotion performance in neurologically injured individuals.

PMID- 28882331
TI  - Demonstration of extended field-of-view ultrasound's potential to increase the
      pool of muscles for which in vivo fascicle length is measurable.
AB  - Static, B-mode ultrasound is the most common method of measuring fascicle length
      in vivo. However, most forearm muscles have fascicles that are longer than the
      field-of-view of traditional ultrasound (T-US). As such, little work has been
      done to quantify in vivo forearm muscle architecture. The extended field-of-view
      ultrasound (EFOV-US) method, which fits together a sequence of B-mode images
      taken from a continuous ultrasound scan, facilitates direct measurements of
      longer, curved fascicles. Here, we test the validity and reliability of the EFOV
      US method for obtaining fascicle lengths in the extensor carpi ulnaris (ECU).
      Fascicle lengths from images of the ECU captured in vivo with EFOV-US were
      compared to lengths from a well-established method, T-US. Images were collected
      in a joint posture that shortens the ECU such that entire fascicle lengths were
      captured within a single T-US image. Resulting measurements were not
      significantly different (p=0.18); a Bland-Altman test demonstrated their
      agreement. A novice sonographer implemented EFOV-US in a phantom and in vivo on
      the ECU. The novice sonographer's measurements from the ultrasound phantom
      indicate that the combined imaging and analysis method is valid (average
      error=2.2+/-1.3mm) and the in vivo fascicle length measurements demonstrate
      excellent reliability (ICC=0.97). To our knowledge, this is the first study to
      quantify in vivo fascicle lengths of the ECU using any method. The ability to
      define a muscle's architecture in vivo using EFOV-US could lead to improvements
      in diagnosis, model development, surgery guidance, and rehabilitation techniques.

PMID- 28882332
TI  - Improving stress shielding following total hip arthroplasty by using a femoral
      stem made of beta type Ti-33.6Nb-4Sn with a Young's modulus gradation.
AB  - Stress shielding-related bone loss occurs after total hip arthroplasty because
      the stiffness of metallic implants differs from that of the host femur. Although
      reducing stem stiffness can ameliorate the bone resorption, it increases stress
      at the bone-implant interface and can inhibit fixation. To overcome this
      complication, a novel cementless stem with a gradient in Young's modulus was
      developed using Ti-33.6Nb-4Sn (TNS) alloy. Local heat treatment applied at the
      neck region for increasing its strength resulted in a gradual decrease in Young's
      modulus from the proximal to the distal end, from 82.1 to 51.0GPa as calculated
      by a heat transfer simulation. The Young's modulus gradient did not induce the
      excessive interface stress which may cause the surface debonding. The main
      purpose of this study was to evaluate bone remodeling with the TNS stem using a
      strain-adaptive bone remodeling simulation based on finite element analysis. Our
      predictions showed that, for the TNS stem, bone reduction in the calcar region
      (Gruen zone 7) would be 13.6% at 2years, 29.0% at 5years, and 45.8% at 10years
      postoperatively. At 10 years, the bone mineral density for the TNS stem would be
      42.6% higher than that for the similar Ti-6Al-4V alloy stem. The stress-strength
      ratio would be lower for the TNS stem than for the Ti-6Al-4V stem. These results
      suggest that although proximal bone loss cannot be eliminated completely, the TNS
      stem with a Young's modulus gradient may have bone-preserving effects and
      sufficient stem strength, without the excessive interface stress.

PMID- 28882333
TI  - Trends and Outcomes of Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients With End-Stage Renal
      Disease on Hemodialysis.
AB  - Hemodialysis (HD) patients with aortic stenosis are less likely to undergo aortic
      valve replacement (AVR) due to their excess perioperative mortality. We aimed to
      evaluate contemporary utilization and outcomes of combined and isolated AVR in HD
      patients. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was used to identify 142,046 patients
      who underwent AVR in 2005 to 2014, of whom 2,264 (1.6%) were on HD. Crude and
      adjusted in-hospital outcomes and costs were assessed in unmatched and propensity
      matched cohorts of HD and non-HD patients, respectively. The utilization of AVR
      in HD patients increased significantly (p = 0.047), with a significant decrease
      in mortality (p = 0.013). Compared with patients not on HD, crude in-hospital
      mortality in HD patients was twice higher (11.8% vs 6.2%, p <0.0001). HD patients
      had more blood transfusion and a trend toward more strokes. Lengths of stay and
      hospital charges, and rates of nonhome discharges were also higher in the HD
      group. In the propensity-matched cohorts of HD versus non-HD patients, in
      hospital mortality rates after AVR remained twofold higher in the HD group (8.1%
      vs 3.9%, p <0.001). Rates of blood transfusion, cardiac tamponade, length of
      stay, hospital charges, and nonhome discharges were also higher in HD patients.
      In conclusion, AVR utilization in HD patients increased and its associated
      mortality decreased over the last decade. However, AVR mortality in HD patients
      remained twofold higher compared with non-HD patients. Also, AVR in HD patients
      was associated with higher cost, longer hospitalizations, and more frequent
      nonhome discharges.

PMID- 28882334
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Safety and Efficacy of Uninterrupted Non-Vitamin K Antagonist
      Oral Anticoagulants Versus Vitamin K Antagonists for Catheter Ablation of Atrial
      Fibrillation.
AB  - This meta-analysis sought to assess the safety and efficacy of uninterrupted non
      vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) versus uninterrupted vitamin K
      antagonists in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients undergoing catheter ablation.
      Electronic databases were searched for randomized trials (RCTs) and observational
      studies that compared uninterrupted NOACs versus uninterrupted vitamin K
      antagonists in the catheter ablation of AF. Safety outcomes included major
      bleeding, total bleeding, minor bleeding, and cardiac tamponade. Efficacy
      outcomes were symptomatic thromboembolism and symptomatic stroke/transient
      ischemic attack. Summary estimate risk ratios (RRs) were constructed primarily
      with a DerSimonian-Laird model. Thirteen studies (3 RCTs and 10 observational
      studies) with 4,878 patients were included. The risk of major bleeding (RR 0.83,
      95% confidence interval [CI] 0.46 to 1.50, p = 0.53), total bleeding (RR 0.90,
      95% CI 0.71 to 1.15, p = 0.41), minor bleeding (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.21, p =
      0.85), cardiac tamponade (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.43 to 1.69, p = 0.65), symptomatic
      thromboembolism (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.26 to 3.31, p = 0.90), and symptomatic
      stroke/transient ischemic attack (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.29 to 3.65, p = 0.97) was
      similar in both groups. The quality of evidence for both major bleeding and
      symptomatic thromboembolism was moderate for RCTs and very low for observational
      studies. In conclusion, the use of uninterrupted NOACs in AF catheter ablation
      appears to be safe and efficacious. The evidence is not of high quality; thus,
      further high-quality RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID- 28882335
TI  - Usefulness of Speckle Tracking Strain Echocardiography for Assessment of Risk of
      Ventricular Arrhythmias After Placement of a Left Ventricular Assist Device.
AB  - Patients with continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are at
      elevated risk of developing ventricular arrhythmias (VA), which can result in
      right ventricular dysfunction and abnormal LVAD function. Predictors of
      postoperative VA after LVAD placement are unclear. We hypothesized that global
      left ventricular circumferential strain (LVCS), a marker of transmural impairment
      in myocardial function, would independently predict postoperative VA in patients
      who underwent LVAD implantation. We studied 98 consecutive patients (57 +/- 11
      years, 83% men) who underwent HeartMate II axial flow LVAD placement. Speckle
      tracking-derived global circumferential strain was assessed from mid-left
      ventricular short-axis images. The primary composite end point was defined as any
      ventricular tachycardia that required intervention (anti-arrhythmic medication,
      cardioversion, implantable cardioverter defibrillator placement, implantable
      cardioverter defibrillator shock) or any ventricular fibrillation. A total of 33
      patients (34%) experienced the primary end point (median follow-up: 7 months).
      Reduced LVCS was statistically significantly related to the primary end point
      (hazard ratio 1.77, 95% confidence interval 1.09 to 2.87 per 1 standard deviation
      reduction in LVCS, p = 0.02). LVCS above a cut-off value of -9.7% was associated
      with significantly reduced arrhythmia-free survival (log-rank p = 0.001). In
      conclusion, global LVCS is an independent predictor of ventricular arrhythmias
      after LVAD placement.

PMID- 28882336
TI  - Comparison of In-Hospital Outcomes and Readmission Rates in Acute Pulmonary
      Embolism Between Systemic and Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis (from the National
      Readmission Database).
AB  - There are sparse comparative data on in-hospital outcomes and readmission rates
      in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) who receive systemic thrombolytics
      versus catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT). The study cohort was derived from
      the National Readmission Database 2013 to 2014, subset of the Healthcare Cost and
      Utilization Project sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
      Systemic and CDT were identified using appropriate International Classification
      of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification codes. The co-primary outcomes
      were in-hospital mortality and 30-day readmissions and secondary outcome was
      combined in-hospital mortality + gastrointestinal bleed + intracranial
      hemorrhage. We used propensity score match analysis without replacement using
      Greedy's algorithm to adjust for possible confounders. We identified a total of
      4,426 patients (3,107: systemic thrombolysis and 1,319: CDT) with acute PE who
      were treated with thrombolysis. In our 2:1 propensity score algorithm, in
      hospital mortality was lower in the CDT group (6.12%) versus systemic
      thrombolytics (14.94%) (odds ratio 0.37, 95% confidence interval 0.28 to 0.49, p
      <0.001). There was also a lower composite secondary outcome (in-hospital
      mortality + gastrointestinal bleed + intracranial hemorrhage) in patients who
      received CDT (8.42%) versus those who received systemic thrombolytics (18.13%)
      (odds ratio 0.41, 95% confidence interval 0.33 to 0.53, p <0.001). Thirty-day
      readmission was lower in patients with CDT group (7.65%) compared with systemic
      thrombolytics (10.58%, p = 0.009). In conclusion, in-hospital mortality, as well
      as bleeding during primary admission was significantly lower with CDT compared
      with systemic thrombolytics for patients with acute PE. There was also
      significant decrease in rate of readmissions among patients receiving CDT
      compared with systemic thrombolytics.

PMID- 28882337
TI  - Meta-Analysis Comparing Metoprolol and Carvedilol on Mortality Benefits in
      Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - Although carvedilol, a nonselective beta-blocker with alpha-adrenergic blocking
      and multiple ancillary activities, has been demonstrated to be superior to
      metoprolol in chronic heart failure, it remains unclear whether the superiority
      of carvedilol still exists in myocardial infarction (MI). Therefore, we performed
      a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare the 2
      drugs in patients with MI. All RCTs that compared either 2 of the following
      interventions, carvedilol, metoprolol, and placebo, for the treatment of MI were
      included. The Cochrane Collaboration Central Register of Controlled Trials,
      Embase, and PubMed were searched thoroughly for potential eligible studies.
      Finally, 12 RCTs involving 61,081 patients were included. Pooled results showed
      that compared with placebo, carvedilol and metoprolol significantly reduced
      composite cardiovascular events (risk ratio [RR] 0.63; 95% credible interval
      [CrI] 0.41, 0.85 for carvedilol; RR 0.78; 95% CrI 0.65, 0.93 for metoprolol) and
      re-infarction (RR 0.57; 95% CrI 0.37, 0.84 for carvedilol; RR 0.77; 95% CrI 0.62,
      0.91 for metoprolol) in patients with MI. However, neither carvedilol nor
      metoprolol showed significant benefits on all-cause death, cardiovascular death,
      revascularization, and rehospitalization. Also, no obvious difference was found
      when comparing carvedilol and metoprolol on primary or secondary outcomes. In
      conclusion, there is insufficient evidence supporting the superiority of
      carvedilol over metoprolol for the treatment of MI. Further studies are needed to
      confirm our findings.

PMID- 28882338
TI  - Relationship of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Adiposity With Left Ventricular
      Strain in Middle-Age Adults (from the Dallas Heart Study).
AB  - Low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and obesity are significant risk factors for
      heart failure (HF). However, given the inverse association between CRF and
      obesity, the independent contributions of low CRF and adiposity toward HF risk
      are not well established. We evaluated the association of CRF and measures of
      adiposity with left ventricular (LV) peak systolic strain-a subclinical measure
      of LV dysfunction-among the Dallas Heart Study phase II participants without
      cardiovascular disease who had CRF estimated using a submaximal treadmill test
      and LV systolic circumferential strain assessment by tissue-tagged cardiac
      magnetic resonance imaging. Peak midwall systolic circumferential strain (Ecc)
      was determined by harmonic phase imaging. Associations of CRF and adiposity
      measures with Ecc were determined using adjusted linear regression analysis. A
      total of 1,617 participants were included in the analysis. After adjustment for
      baseline risk factors, higher waist circumference (WC) and lower CRF were
      associated with higher Ecc (WC: beta = 0.07; p = 0.01; CRF: beta = -0.17; p = <
      0.0001), whereas % body fat and body mass index were not associated with Ecc. The
      relationship between WC and Ecc was attenuated completely after additional
      adjustment for CRF. In contrast, the association between CRF and Ecc did not
      attenuate after additional adjustment for WC and other measures of LV structure
      and function (beta = -0.18; p = < 0.0001). Taken together, our study findings
      suggest that lower CRF, but not measures of adiposity, is associated with greater
      impairment in LV strain independent of LV mass and ejection fraction.

PMID- 28882339
TI  - Generic gas chromatography-flame ionization detection method for quantitation of
      volatile amines in pharmaceutical drugs and synthetic intermediates.
AB  - Volatile amines are among the most frequently used chemicals in organic and
      pharmaceutical chemistry. Synthetic route optimization often involves the
      evaluation of several different amines requiring the development and validation
      of analytical methods for quantitation of residual amine levels. Herein, a simple
      and fast generic GC-FID method on an Agilent J&W CP-Volamine capillary column
      (using either He or H2 as the carrier gas) capable of separating over 25 volatile
      amines and other basic polar species commonly used in pharmaceutical chemistry
      workflows is described. This 16min method is successfully applied to the analysis
      and quantitation of volatile amines in a variety of pharmaceutically-related
      drugs and synthetic intermediates. Method validation experiments showed excellent
      analytical performance in linearity, recovery, repeatability, and limit of
      quantitation and detection. In addition, diverse examples for the application of
      this method to the simultaneous determination of other amine-related chemicals in
      reaction mixtures are illustrated, thereby indicating that these GC-FID method
      conditions can be effectively used as starting point during method development
      for the analysis of other basic polar species beyond the validated list of amines
      described in this study.

PMID- 28882340
TI  - An automated and self-cleaning nano liquid chromatography mass spectrometry
      platform featuring an open tubular multi-hole crystal fiber solid phase
      extraction column and an open tubular separation column.
AB  - An open tubular (OT) sample preparation/separation platform was developed. A
      multi-channel polymer layer open tubular (mPLOT) solid phase extraction (SPE)
      column was prepared by wall-coating the 126 channels (8MUm inner diameter (ID)
      each) of a crystal fiber capillary with an organic polymer, namely poly(styrene
      co-octadecene-co-divinylbenzene) (PS-OD-DVB). The mPLOT SPE was coupled on-line
      with a 10MUm*2m poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) (PS-DVB) OT liquid chromatography
      column with nanospray mass spectrometry (OTLC-MS). Compared to using
      monolithic/particle-packed SPEs, mPLOT-SPE-OTLC allowed both fast loading and
      sufficient refocusing on the OT analytical column of small model compounds
      (sulfonamides~300Da). Using automatic filtration/filter back-flushing (AFFL)
      plumbing, the mPLOT SPE column gave a constant and low back-pressure ~35bar at
      0.5MUL/min. Surprisingly large sample volumes (10MUL) were possible to be
      injected using a 12cm mPLOT.

PMID- 28882341
TI  - Comparison of micellar extraction combined with ionic liquid based vortex
      assisted liquid-liquid microextraction and modified quick, easy, cheap,
      effective, rugged, and safe method for the determination of difenoconazole in
      cowpea.
AB  - Two simple sample pretreatment for the determination of difenoconazole in cowpea
      was developed including micellar extraction combined with ionic liquid based
      vortex-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction (ME-IL-VALLME) prior to high
      performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and modified quick, easy, cheap,
      effective, rugged, and safe method (QuEChERS) coupled with HPLC-MS/MS. In ME-IL
      VALLME method, the target analyte was extracted by surfactant Tween 20 micellar
      solution, then the supernatant was diluted with 3mL water to decrease the
      solubility of micellar solution. Subsequently, the vortex-assisted liquid-liquid
      microextraction (VALLME) procedure was performed in the diluted extraction
      solution by using the ionic liquid of 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium
      hexafluorophosphate ([HMIM]PF6) as the extraction solvent and Tween 20 as an
      emulsifier to enhance the dispersion of the water-immiscible ionic liquid into
      the aqueous phase. Parameters that affect the extraction have been investigated
      in both methods Under the optimum conditions, the limits of quantitation were
      0.10 and 0.05mgkg-1, respectively. And good linearity was achieved with the
      correlation coefficient higher than 0.9941. The relative recoveries ranged from
      78.6 to 94.8% and 92.0 to 118.0% with the relative standard deviations (RSD) of
      7.9-9.6% and 1.2-3.2%, respectively. Both methods were quick, simple and
      inexpensive. However, the ME-IL-VALLME method provides higher enrichment factor
      compared with conventional QuEChERS method. The ME-IL-VALLME method has a strong
      potential for the determination of difenoconazole in complex vegetable matrices
      with HPLC.

PMID- 28882342
TI  - The analysis of aroma/flavor compounds in green tea using ice concentration
      linked with extractive stirrer.
AB  - Worldwide, green tea is one of the most popular beverages. It promotes blood
      circulation, liver function, and lowers the risk of cancer and cardiovascular
      diseases. This drink is characterized by the distinctive odors and flavors
      produced by its constituent compounds, with its value predicated on the amount
      and type of constituents extracted from the tea leaves during brewing. Ice
      concentration linked with extractive stirrer (ICECLES) is a novel sample
      preparation technique, especially applicable for the extraction of relatively
      polar compounds while retaining excellent extraction efficiencies for non-polar
      compounds. In this study, ICECLES was used to prepare green tea for analysis of
      aroma/flavor compounds by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). ICECLES
      performed very well, revealing 301 constituents as compared to 245 for SBSE
      (i.e., 56 more constituents were detected via ICECLES). Moreover, ICECLES
      produced stronger signal to noise ratios for all except 4 of 301 constituents,
      with a maximum signal enhancement of 19. Of the constituents which were only
      detectable using ICECLES, some very important aroma/flavor and/or medicinal
      compounds were easily identified, including furfural, furfural alcohol, maltol,
      eugenol, 2-methylpyrazine, phenethyl alcohol, 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, and alpha
      terpineol. Overall, we confirmed that ICECLES sample preparation followed by GC
      MS consistently allowed more complete green tea aroma/flavor analysis, especially
      for relatively polar compounds, some of which are critical for flavor quality.

PMID- 28882343
TI  - A retention index system for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography
      using polyethylene glycols.
AB  - The characterization and identification of compounds in complex real-world
      samples is quite difficult and new concepts and workflows are highly desirable.
      Retention indices (RIs) are widely used in gas chromatography (GC) to support the
      identification of unknown compounds. Several attempts have been made to introduce
      a similar concept for the second dimension in comprehensive two-dimensional (2D)
      GC (GC * GC) but, an easily applicable and robust system remains elusive. In the
      present study, a new RI system for GC * GC was developed. Polyethylene glycols
      (PEGs) were used in combination with a simple linear regression, with n-alkanes
      as reference points for virtually unretained compounds and PEG homologs as
      reference compounds for second-dimension RIs (PEG-2I). The n-alkanes were
      assigned a PEG-2I of zero and the distance between consecutive PEG homologs from
      PEG-2 (diethylene glycol) and higher were assigned a PEG-2I value of 10. We used
      ethylene glycol and PEG-2 through PEG-10 as reference compounds, thereby covering
      a PEG-2I range from 20.0 for ethylene glycol, over 50.0 for diethylene glycol
      (PEG-2) to 130.0 for decaethylene glycol (PEG-10); additional PEGs can be added
      to cover a wider polarity range. The PEG-2I system was initially evaluated using
      a 30 m * 0.25 mm non-polar (5% phenyl, 0.25 MUm film thickness) first-dimension
      column and a 1.6 m * 0.18 mm polar (50% phenyl, 0.18 MUm film thickness) second
      dimension column. This system was validated for use with non-polar first
      dimension columns and a semi-polar (50% phenyl) second-dimension column, and
      exhibited robustness to changes in the carrier gas flow velocity, oven
      temperature ramping rate, and secondary oven temperature offset. An average
      relative standard deviation of 2.7%, equal to a 95% confidence interval of 1.27
      PEG-2I units, was obtained for the PEG-2I values of 72 environmental pollutants.
      Additionally, the system was found to be applicable over a wide range of boiling
      points (in the current case, from n-heptane to n-dotriacontane (C7-C32)) and can
      be used with various column dimensions. Changing the second-dimension column to
      either a narrower 0.1 mm column or a wider 0.25 mm column, yielded similar 95%
      percentiles to that of the 0.18 mm column, differing by only 3.20 and 2.80 PEG-2I
      units, respectively. Moreover, methods for improving the system were suggested.

PMID- 28882344
TI  - A multiple-dimension liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry data
      strategy for the rapid discovery and identification of unknown compounds from a
      Chinese herbal formula (Er-xian decoction).
AB  - It is very important to rapidly discover and identify the multiple components of
      traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula. High performance liquid
      chromatography with high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS/MS) has
      been widely used to analyze TCM formula and contains multiple-dimension data
      including retention time (RT), high resolution mass (HRMS), multiple-stage mass
      spectrometric (MSn), and isotope intensity distribution (IID) data. So it is very
      necessary to exploit a useful strategy to utilize multiple-dimension data to
      rapidly probe structural information and identify chemical compounds. In this
      study, a new strategy to initiatively use the multiple-dimension LC-MS data has
      been developed to discover and identify unknown compounds of TCM in many styles.
      The strategy guarantees the fast discovery of candidate structural information
      and provides efficient structure clues for identification. The strategy contains
      four steps in sequence: (1) to discover potential compounds and obtain sub
      structure information by the mass spectral tree similarity filter (MTSF)
      technique, based on HRMS and MSn data; (2) to classify potential compounds into
      known chemical classes by discriminant analysis (DA) on the basis of RT and HRMS
      data; (3) to hit the candidate structural information of compounds by
      intersection sub-structure between MTSF and DA (M,D-INSS); (4) to annotate and
      confirm candidate structures by IID data. This strategy allowed for the high
      exclusion efficiency (greater than 41%) of irrelevant ions in er-xian decoction
      (EXD) while providing accurate structural information of 553 potential compounds
      and identifying 66 candidates, therefore accelerating and simplifying the
      discovery and identification of unknown compounds in TCM formula.

PMID- 28882345
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28882346
TI  - Current Evidence Regarding the Treatment of Pediatric Lumbar Spondylolisthesis: A
      Report From the Scoliosis Research Society Evidence Based Medicine Committee.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Structured literature review. OBJECTIVES: The Scoliosis Research
      Society requested an assessment of the current state of peer-reviewed evidence
      regarding pediatric lumbar spondylolisthesis to identify what is known and what
      research remains essential to further understanding. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA:
      Pediatric lumbar spondylolisthesis is common, yet no formal synthesis of the
      published literature regarding treatment has been previously performed. METHODS:
      A comprehensive literature search was performed. From 6600 initial citations with
      abstract, 663 articles underwent full-text review. The best available evidence
      regarding surgical and medical/interventional treatment was provided by 51
      studies. None of the studies were graded Level I or II evidence. Eighteen of the
      studies were Level III, representing the current best available evidence. Thirty
      three of the studies were Level IV. RESULTS: Although studies suggest a benign
      course for "low grade" (<50% slip) isthmic spondylolisthesis, extensive
      literature suggests that a substantial number of patients present for treatment
      with pain and activity limitations. Pain resolution and return to activity is
      common with both medical/interventional and operative treatment. The role of
      medical/interventional bracing is not well established. Uninstrumented
      posterolateral fusion has been reported to produce good clinical results, but
      concerns regarding nonunion exist. Risk of slip progression is a specific concern
      in the "high grade" or dysplastic type. Although medical/interventional
      observation has been reported to be reasonable in a small series of asymptomatic
      high-grade slip patients, surgical treatment is commonly recommended to prevent
      progression. There is Level III evidence that instrumentation and reduction
      lowers the risk of nonunion, and that circumferential fusion is superior to
      posterior-only or anterior-only fusion. There is Level III evidence that patients
      with a higher slip angle are more likely to fail medical/interventional treatment
      of high-grade spondylolisthesis. CONCLUSIONS: The current "best available"
      evidence to guide the treatment of pediatric spondylolisthesis is presented.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III; review of Level III studies.

PMID- 28882347
TI  - Systematic Review of School Scoliosis Screening.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to review the literature on school
      screening and its reported effectiveness. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: There is no
      worldwide consensus concerning the mandating of school screening for scoliosis.
      This remains a controversial issue. METHODS: The following databases were
      employed: Medline, Premedline, CINAHL, CENTRAL, AMED, Embase, SCOPUS, Ovid
      nursing, and Web of Science. These data were generated from the Forward Bend
      Test, the angle of trunk rotation and Moire topography. The first and second
      authors each independently screened titles and abstracts for potential studies.
      Fulltext papers of potential studies were also independently read by the first
      two authors to identify studies to be included based on strict
      inclusion/exclusion criteria. A heterogeneity test was performed by testing for
      the significance of the between-study variance. Publication bias was examined by
      a funnel plot. RESULTS: We found 20 studies that met our inclusion criteria. The
      pooled estimate of prevalence of scoliosis curves in the population was 1.1% for
      curves greater than 10 degrees , and 0.2% for curves greater than 20 degrees .
      The pooled referral rate to radiography during the screening process was 6.6%.
      The pooled positive predictive values for detecting curves >10 degrees  and >20
      degrees  were 32.3% and 6.5% respectively. Analysis of data demonstrated
      significant heterogeneity between studies but was not suggestive of the presence
      of publication bias. CONCLUSIONS: We support the implementation of scoliosis
      screening as a means of detecting curves at an early treatable stage. The current
      available evidence in the literature for routine scoliosis screening is low to
      moderate. Challenges exist to the school scoliosis screening including a high
      referral rate to radiology.

PMID- 28882348
TI  - Hemostasis and Safety of a Novel Fibrin Dressing Versus Standard Gauze in
      Bleeding Cancellous Bone in a Caprine Spine Surgery Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Decorticated bone is a significant source of blood loss in scoliosis
      surgery. Current hemostatic methods include packed gauze (GS), physical barriers
      such as bone wax, and xenograft collagen-based materials. We assessed the safety
      and efficacy of a novel fibrin dressing (dextran-thrombin-fibrinogen [DTF])
      compared to GS. This dressing comprises lyophilized thrombin and fibrinogen
      embedded in an elastic electrospun nanofiber dextran matrix. PURPOSE: The study
      tests the hypothesis that DTF is more efficacious than GS in control of bleeding
      from cancellous bone. STUDY DESIGN: A preclinical Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)
      study. METHODS: We enrolled 10 goats that were followed for 28 +/- 1 days. Each
      animal was randomly assigned to the test or control group. Both test and control
      animals had 4 cancellous bone injuries. Test animal injuries were treated with
      DTF, whereas standard GS was used to control bleeding in the control animals.
      Bleeding at the bone injury site was characterized as either none, oozing,
      flowing, or pulsatile and was assessed at 4 and 8 minutes after dressing
      application. Goats were survived 28 +/- 1 days and then necropsied. RESULTS:
      Application of the fibrin dressing to bleeding cancellous bone, both posterior
      spinal lamina, and iliac crest graft sites, resulted in control of bleeding
      within 4 minutes at all injury sites. Eighty percent of control injury sites
      continued to bleed after 8 minutes and required application of bone wax to
      control bleeding. There were no differences in prothrombin time, partial
      thromboplastin time, or fibrinogen levels between test and control animals at 1
      or 28 days. We observed no adverse histologic reactions at 28 days. CONCLUSION:
      The fibrin dressing is an efficacious and safe method of controlling blood loss
      from cancellous bone in a spine surgery model.

PMID- 28882349
TI  - Spine Growth Modulation in Early Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Two-Year
      Results of Prospective US FDA IDE Pilot Clinical Safety Study of Titanium Clip
      Screw Implant.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Prospective pilot clinical safety study of novel treatment,
      consecutive case series from first human use in patients with early adolescent
      idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose was to determine the
      initial safety of a titanium clip-screw implant system for spine growth
      modulation. The secondary aim was to document curvatures to 2 years
      postoperatively. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Spinal growth modulation was
      documented in preclinical studies. A prospective pilot clinical safety study was
      then performed under a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational Device
      Exemption (IDE) (www.clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01465295). METHODS: Six
      subjects with early AIS underwent thoracoscopic placement of titanium clip-screw
      devices. Eligibility criteria included only patients at high risk for progression
      to 50 degrees : single major thoracic curve 25 degrees -40 degrees , age >=10
      years, skeletally immature (Risser 0 plus open triradiate cartilages), and if
      female, premenarchal. Adverse events (AEs), clinical outcomes, and radiographic
      measures were documented using Good Clinical Practices. RESULTS: Six consecutive
      subjects were enrolled, three females and three males aged 12.1 years (+/-1.7).
      AEs included one that was device related-mild device migration at 18 months in
      the most rapidly progressive curve. Procedure-related AEs were mostly pulmonary.
      A chylous effusion that met the clinical protocol definition of a serious AE
      resolved after minimally invasive interventions. Major thoracic curves were 34
      degrees  (+/-3 degrees ) preoperatively and 38 degrees  (+/-18 degrees ) at two
      years (intrasubject change, 4 degrees  +/- 18 degrees ). At 24 months, curves in
      3 patients were >45 degrees  and 3 were <40 degrees . CONCLUSIONS: A spine growth
      modulation system undergoing study under an FDA IDE was determined to be safe.
      Variability in curve response to the implant was high, ranging from progression
      to correction. Investigational approval was granted by the US FDA for the next
      cohort of 30 subjects.

PMID- 28882350
TI  - Preoperative Norepinephrine Levels in Cerebrospinal Fluid and Plasma Correlate
      With Pain Intensity After Pediatric Spine Surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: Catecholamines were found to be involved in descending pain modulation
      and associated with perioperative pain. The purpose of the present study was to
      investigate the relationship between preoperative concentrations of
      catecholamines and postoperative pain intensity of pediatric patients. METHODS:
      Fifty adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis scheduled for elective spinal fusion
      surgery were enrolled in this prospective cohort study. Preoperative plasma and
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were collected and analyzed by mass
      spectrometry. Pain intensity was assessed during the acute postoperative period
      and in the intermediate period. RESULTS: Preoperative plasma concentrations of
      norepinephrine (NE) and normetanephrine (NME), as well as the CSF concentration
      of NE, were significantly correlated with the presence of pain six weeks after
      surgery (r = 0.48, 0.50, and 0.50, respectively; p < .002). We also found that
      preoperative NE levels in CSF were significantly higher in patients reporting
      moderate to severe pain intensity than in patients with mild pain during the
      first day following surgery (0.268 +/- 0.29 ng/mL vs. 0.121 +/- 0.074 ng/mL, p =
      .01), as well as between patients reporting pain and painless patients at 6 weeks
      postsurgery (0.274 +/- 0.282 ng/mL vs. 0.103 +/- 0.046 ng/mL respectively, U =
      69.5, p = .002). CONCLUSIONS: These results support the potential role of
      catecholamine levels in predicting postoperative pain intensity.

PMID- 28882351
TI  - Psychological Profile of Children Who Require Repetitive Surgical Procedures for
      Early Onset Scoliosis: Is a Poorer Quality of Life the Cost of a Straighter
      Spine?
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVE: Assess the psychosocial status of
      children with early-onset scoliosis (EOS) undergoing multiple procedures and
      evaluate associations with other variables. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: EOS may
      require repetitive surgical procedures to control deformity and preserve growth.
      These procedures impact patients' psychosocial status because of the repetitive
      surgeries. METHODS: EOS patients 6-18 years, undergoing traditional growing rod
      treatment with more than 5 surgical procedures, and neurologically/mentally
      intact were included. Patients were screened for psychiatric disorders before
      inclusion. The Quality of Life Scale for Children (PedsQL), Strengths and
      Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) self-report form, Beck Depression Inventory,
      Children Depression Inventory (CDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Self
      Report for Childhood Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED) were completed by the
      children. PedsQL Parental Form and SDQ Parent Form were completed by their
      parents. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients (9 male, 12 female) met the inclusion
      criteria. Average age was 6.4 years (4-10.5) at index surgery, and 13.5 years (8
      17) at final follow-up. The mean number of procedures was 13 (6-18). Mean follow
      up was 83.9 months (36-122). Depression was observed in 23.8% of patients, and
      generalized anxiety disorder in 42.8%. Patients in the study group were more
      likely than the general population to have a psychiatric diagnosis. Number of
      procedures undergone was found to correlate negatively with BAI, SCARED, and the
      behavioral difficulties domain of SDQ parent form score and positively with
      emotional functioning, psychosocial health summary score, PedsQL total score, and
      increased social and physical functioning. Nonidiopathic etiology was found to be
      related to increased behavioral difficulties and lower functioning. CONCLUSION: A
      higher prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms was observed in patients
      with EOS along with dysfunctional areas of daily life. Other comorbidities may
      also contribute to dysfunction and difficulties. Determination of the aspects of
      EOS treatment that have a negative impact on psychosocial functioning may allow
      for more competent help for these patients.

PMID- 28882352
TI  - Adult Spinal Deformity: National Trends in the Presentation, Treatment, and
      Perioperative Outcomes From 2003 to 2010.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review of a prospective database. OBJECTIVES: To
      investigate adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery outcome trends on a nationwide
      scale using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2003 to 2010. METHODS: ASD
      patients >=25 years from 2003 to 2010 in the NIS undergoing anterior, posterior,
      or combined surgical approaches were included. Fractures, 9+ levels fused, or any
      cancer were excluded. Patient demographics, hospital data, and procedure-related
      complications were evaluated. Yearly trends were analyzed using univariate
      analysis and linear regression modeling. RESULTS: Of 10,966 discharges, 1,952
      were anterior, 6,524 were posterior, and 1,106 were combined. The total surgical
      ASD volume increased by 112.5% (p = .029), and both the average patient age (p <
      .001) and number of patients >65 years old significantly increased from 2003 to
      2010 (p = .009). Anterior approach case volume decreased by 13.7% (p = .019),
      whereas that of combined increased by 22.7% (p = .047). Posterior case volume
      increased by 38.9% from 2003 to 2010, though insignificantly (p = .084). Total
      hospital charges for all approaches increased over the interval (p < .001). Total
      length of stay for all approaches decreased over the time interval (p < .005).
      Although the overall morbidity for all approaches increased by 22.7% (p < .001),
      mortality did not change (p = .817). The most common morbidities in 2003 were
      hemorrhagic anemia, accidental cut, puncture, perforation, or laceration during a
      procedure, and device-related complications, which persisted in 2010 with the
      exception of increased acute respiratory distress syndrome and pulmonary-related
      complications. CONCLUSIONS: For ASD surgery from 2003 to 2010, the volume of
      anterior approaches decreased, whereas posterior procedures did not change, and
      combined approaches increased. Total hospital charges increased for all
      considered procedures, length of hospital stay decreased, whereas operative
      patients were increasingly elderly, and more procedures were observed for
      patients >65 years old. For all approaches, morbidity increased whereas mortality
      did not change. Future study is required to develop methods to reduce morbidity
      and costs, thereby optimizing patient outcomes.

PMID- 28882353
TI  - Neurophysiological Monitoring in Radiofrequency Ablation of Spinal Osteoid
      Osteoma With a Progressive Time and Temperature Protocol in Children.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective. Level IV Evidence. OBJECTIVE: To assess the utility
      of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) to detect and eventually
      prevent impending neurovascular damage during computed tomography (CT)-guided
      radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of spinal osteoid osteoma (OO) in children. SUMMARY
      AND BACKGROUND DATA: To our knowledge, this is the first case series of spinal OO
      in pediatric patients treated at a single center employing IONM during RFA.
      METHODS: This is a retrospective study of seven consecutive patients (3 girls and
      4 boys, mean age: 9 years 4 months) with imaging and clinical signs compatible
      with spinal OO who underwent CT-guided RFA, under general anesthesia, and IONM in
      a single center between 2011 and 2015. Before the RFA procedure, a CT-guided
      percutaneous biopsy of the nidus was performed in the same setting. RFA was
      divided into four cycles of increasing time and temperature and performed under
      IONM in every patient. RESULTS: Two patients had lesions located in the thoracic
      spine and five patients had lumbar involvement. The RFA technical and clinical
      success was 85.7%. Six patients presented with reversible neurophysiological
      changes either during biopsy needle positioning or RFA cycles. In the remaining
      case, as IONM changes did not improve after several minutes of neuroprotective
      hypertension, the procedure was interrupted. Neither neurologic nor vascular
      complications were observed after RFA treatment. In only one biopsy sample, OO
      was confirmed by histopathologic studies. CONCLUSION: CT-guided RFA is an
      accepted minimally invasive technique for the treatment of spinal OO in children.
      IONM may be a helpful tool that requires minimal additional time and provides
      feedback on the state of the spinal cord and nerves at risk during the procedure.
      We promote the use of IONM during these procedures to detect and possibly prevent
      impending neurologic damage. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV.

PMID- 28882354
TI  - Surgical Treatment With Pedicle Screws of Scoliosis Associated With Osteogenesis
      Imperfecta in Children.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. OBJECTIVE: To assess results of posterior
      instrumented fusion using pedicle screws in 12 children with osteogenesis
      imperfecta (OI) with spinal deformity at a single institution from 2001 to 2012.
      SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: This is the first case series of OI patients who
      underwent non-cement augmented screw-rod instrumented fusion published in the
      literature. METHODS: Of a total of 54 children with spinal deformity associated
      with OI, 12 (22.2%) were submitted to posterior spinal fusion with pedicle screws
      (80% density) because of severe spinal deformity. Here we reported the results in
      seven females and five males. RESULTS: Five thoracic (41.7%), five double
      (thoracic and lumbar 41.7%), and two lumbar (16.7%) curves were considered. The
      mean number of fused levels was 11.8 (range: 5 to 16). Mean age at surgery was 13
      years 8 months. Mean follow-up was 7 years 11 months (range: 3 years 7 months to
      16 years 1 month). The mean preoperative scoliosis angle was 75.6 degrees ,
      whereas the postoperative angle was 31.4 degrees  (58.5% correction rate). The
      mean preoperative kyphosis angle was 57.4 degrees  and the postoperative angle
      was 42.3 degrees . We observed one superficial infection, one dural tear, and
      three cases of proximal junctional kyphosis; two patients required one revision
      surgery each (2 years and 4 months postoperatively on average). CONCLUSIONS: To
      our knowledge, this is the first case series published in the literature
      regarding OI with instrumented fusion with non-cement augmented pedicle screws
      exclusively in children with spinal deformity. We found that posterior spinal
      fusion with the screw-rod system in OI deformity in children is feasible and
      reliable, and has acceptable clinical and imaging results in the long-term follow
      up. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV.

PMID- 28882355
TI  - Letter to the Editor Concerning: Parvaresh, K.C., Osbom, E.J., Reighard, F.G.,
      Doan, J., Bastrom, T.P., Newton, P.O. Spine Deformity 5(2017):159-165.

PMID- 28882356
TI  - Response to Schlosser et al.

PMID- 28882357
TI  - Evaluation of negative pressure wound therapy to closed laparotomy incisions in
      acute care surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Surgical site complications in the form of wound infections are a
      major burden to the healthcare system. Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) as
      delivered by a surgical incision management system (SIMS) is a novel approach to
      improve wound healing when applied to closed incisions. However, data is limited
      in its application to laparotomy incisions in the acute care surgery setting.
      METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was performed to evaluate the
      outcomes of SIMS with regard to surgical site infections in a series of 48
      consecutive patients in which SIMS was applied to closed laparotomy incisions in
      the acute care surgery setting. RESULTS: 48 cases were matched with equivalent
      controls without significant differences between groups. Patients who received
      the SIMS had significantly lower rates of surgical site infection and readmission
      rates. CONCLUSIONS: Negative pressure surgical incision management systems may be
      a novel approach to reduce surgical site infections in acute care surgery.

PMID- 28882358
TI  - Impact of screening for metabolic syndrome on the evaluation of obese living
      kidney donors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We report our experience with metabolic syndrome screening for obese
      living kidney donor candidates to mitigate the long-term risk of CKD. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed 814 obese (BMI>=30) and 993 nonobese living kidney donor
      evaluations over 12 years. Using logistic regression, we explored interactions
      between social/clinical variables and candidate acceptance before and after
      policy implementation. RESULTS: Obese donor candidate acceptance decreased after
      metabolic syndrome screening began (56.3%, 46.3%, p < 0.01), while nonobese
      candidate acceptance remained similar (59.6%, 59.2%, p = 0.59). Adjusting for
      age, gender, race, BMI, and number of prior evaluations, acceptance of obese
      candidates decreased significantly more than nonobese (p = 0.025). In candidates
      without metabolic syndrome, there was no significant change in how age, sex,
      race, or BMI affected a donor candidate's probability of acceptance. CONCLUSION:
      Metabolic syndrome screening is a simple stratification tool for centers with
      liberal absolute BMI cut-offs to exclude potentially higher-risk obese
      candidates.

PMID- 28882359
TI  - Integrating technical and non-technical skills coaching in an acute trauma
      surgery team training: Is it too much?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Research on effective integration of technical and non-technical
      skills in surgery team training is sparse. In a previous study we found that
      surgical teachers predominantly coached on technical and hardly on non-technical
      skills during the Definitive Surgical and Anesthetic Trauma Care (DSATC)
      integrated acute trauma surgery team training. This study aims to investigate
      whether the priming of teachers could increase the amount of non-technical skills
      coaching during such a training. DESIGN: Coaching activities of 12 surgical
      teachers were recorded on audio and video. Six teachers were primed on non
      technical skills coaching prior to the training. Six others received no priming
      and served as controls. Blind observers reviewed the recordings of 2 training
      scenario's and scored whether the observed behaviors were directed on technical
      or non-technical skills. We compared the frequency of the non-technical skills
      coaching between the primed and the non-primed teachers and analyzed for
      differences according to the trainees' level of experience. SETTING: Surgical
      teachers coached trainees during the highly realistic DSATC integrated acute
      trauma surgery team training. Trainees performed damage control surgery in
      operating teams on anesthetized porcine models during 6 training scenario's.
      PARTICIPANTS: Twelve experienced surgical teachers participated in this study.
      RESULTS: Coaching on non-technical skills was limited to about 5%. The primed
      teachers did not coach more often on non-technical skills than the non-primed
      teachers. We found no differences in the frequency of non-technical skills
      coaching based on the trainees' level of experience. CONCLUSION: Priming
      experienced surgical teachers does not increase the coaching on non-technical
      skills. The current DSATC acute trauma surgery team training seems too complex
      for integrating training on technical and non-technical skills. COMPETENCIES:
      Patient care, Practice based learning and improvement.

PMID- 28882360
TI  - Local parastomal hernia repair with biological mesh is safe and effective.
AB  - PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, morbidity and
      safety of local parastomal hernia repair using biological mesh. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: A retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database was
      performed for parastomal hernia repairs. All patients who underwent local
      parastomal hernia repair with biological mesh between July 2006 and July 2015
      were included in the study. Non-local (laparoscopic or midline incision)
      procedures were excluded. The type of repair, incision used, mesh placement and
      morbidity were analyzed. Time to recurrence was measured as an independent
      variable. RESULTS: 58 procedures with a median follow up of 3.8 years were
      analyzed. The majority (91%) of repairs were performed on an elective basis.
      Underlay technique was used in 24 patients (39%), overlay in 4 (7%) and both
      overlay and underlay (sandwich technique) in 33 (54%) of the cases. Overall, 11
      patients (18.1%) experienced recurrence. Recurrence occurred in 8 patients in the
      underlay group (33%), 1 in the overlay group (25%), with 2 recurrences identified
      in the sandwich technique group (6%; p = 0.02). There was one occurrence of 30
      day morbidity in our study population (0.016%). No difference was observed for
      recurrence or morbidity according to the type of biologic mesh used (human,
      bovine, or porcine). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that local parastomal
      hernia repairs are associated with moderate recurrence rates, very low morbidity
      and consistent with the current literature. The sandwich technique was found to
      have a significantly lower recurrence rate compared to underlay or overlay
      techniques. Keyhole incisions were associated with less recurrence than
      traditional circular incisions. Our findings further reveal biologic mesh type
      was not associated with any difference in outcomes. Local parastomal hernia
      repair with biologic mesh is a safe procedure with very low morbidity and
      acceptable recurrence rate, especially using the sandwich repair technique.

PMID- 28882361
TI  - Relation between parental psychopathology and posttraumatic growth after a
      child's admission to intensive care: Two faces of the same coin?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Confronted with the potentially traumatic experience of a child's
      admission to a paediatric intensive care unit, parents may experience
      psychopathological post-trauma symptoms as well as posttraumatic growth. The aim
      of this cross-sectional study was to explore the relation between psychopathology
      symptoms, namely, posttraumatic stress disorder), anxiety and depression, as well
      as post traumatic growth in parents following their child's hospitalisation in a
      paediatric intensive care unit. METHODS: Six months after their child's
      discharge, 143 parents completed the questionnaire, which assessed post traumatic
      growth (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory), post traumatic stress disorder (Davidson
      Trauma Scale), depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).
      RESULTS: Of the 143 parents, 23.1% reported symptoms of post traumatic stress
      disorder, 21% reported symptoms of moderate to severe anxiety, 9.1% reported
      symptoms of moderate to severe depression and 37.1% reported at least a medium
      degree of post traumatic growth. There was a moderate, direct association between
      post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety with post traumatic
      growth. Higher scores in anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder
      were associated with higher levels of post traumatic growth, contradicting the
      notion of an inverted U-shaped relationship between psychopathology symptoms and
      post traumatic growth. CONCLUSIONS: Given that positive and negative outcomes
      after a child's critical admission tend to co-occur, it is surmised that parents
      who indicate post traumatic growth do not deny the difficulties. While not
      negating the negative impact on the mental health of a parent with a child
      admitted to intensive care, including the assessment of post traumatic growth as
      an outcome following this event has important implications for research and
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28882362
TI  - Independent association of joint space narrowing, cyst formation and health
      related quality of life of patients with hip osteoarthritis in Japan.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study clarified individual associations of joint space
      narrowing (JSN) and radiographic features (RF) of hip osteoarthritis (HOA), i.e.,
      cyst and osteophyte formation and subchondral sclerosis, with quality of life
      (QOL) in Japanese HOA patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional study comprised 117
      Japanese HOA patients (98 women, 17 men; mean age, 61.2 years). We recorded
      locations and the size of each RF and measured JSN on the acetabular side (Ace)
      or femoral head (FH). We evaluated pain with the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and
      assessed QOL with the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component
      summary (MCS) of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36. We compared QOL
      with/without the RF on the Ace, FH or both and analyzed relationships between
      each RF and VAS, PCS and MCS with linear regression analysis. We assessed
      independent associations of each RF with PCS and MCS with multiple regression
      analysis using various independent variables. RESULTS: VAS values with the cyst
      on the Ace only were significantly lower than those with the cyst at both
      locations. PCS values with the cyst on the Ace only were significantly higher
      than those for both locations. Independent associations existed for maximum cyst
      length on the Ace and FH with VAS and for JSN with PCS, but none existed for MCS.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that the location and the size of the cyst
      formation were associated with both VAS and QOL in Japanese HOA patients. The JSN
      was independently associated with the PCS.

PMID- 28882363
TI  - Editorial commentary: Leadless pacemaker: A pacemaker revolution or a simply new
      alternative solution?

PMID- 28882364
TI  - Editorial commentary: QTdrugs: From electrocardiographic intervals to prevention
      of sudden cardiac death.

PMID- 28882365
TI  - Editorial commentary: TAVR-Is there a path to an all-surgical-risk indication?

PMID- 28882366
TI  - Editorial commentary: Let it snow-Emerging roles for snoRNAs in cardiovascular
      disease.

PMID- 28882367
TI  - Defining the phenotype of antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplantation:
      Advances in diagnosis of antibody injury.
AB  - The diagnostic criteria for antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) are constantly
      evolving in light of the evidence. Inclusion of C4d-negative ABMR has been one of
      the major advances in the Banff Classification in recent years. Currently Banff
      2015 classification requires evidence of donor specific antibodies (DSA),
      interaction between DSA and the endothelium, and acute tissue injury (in the form
      of microvasculature injury (MVI); acute thrombotic microangiopathy; or acute
      tubular injury in the absence of other apparent cause). In this article we review
      not only the ABMR phenotypes acknowledged in the most recent Banff
      classification, but also the phenotypes related to novel pathogenic antibodies
      (non-HLA DSA, antibody isoforms and subclasses, complement-binding functionality)
      and molecular diagnostic tools (gene transcripts, metabolites, small proteins,
      cytokines, and donor-derived cell-free DNA). These novel tools are also being
      considered for the prognosis and monitoring of treatment response. We propose
      that improved classification of ABMR based on underlying pathogenic mechanisms
      and outcomes will be an important step in identifying patient-centered therapies
      to extend graft survival.

PMID- 28882368
TI  - The epigenetic promise to improve prognosis of heart failure and heart
      transplantation.
AB  - Heart transplantation is still the only possible life-saving treatment for end
      stage heart failure, the critical epilogue of several cardiac diseases.
      Epigenetic mechanisms are being intensively investigated because they could
      contribute to establishing innovative diagnostic and predictive biomarkers, as
      well as ground-breaking therapies both for heart failure and heart
      transplantation rejection. DNA methylation and histone modifications can modulate
      the innate and adaptive immune response by acting on the expression of immune
      related genes that, in turn, are crucial determinants of transplantation outcome.
      Epigenetic drugs acting on methylation and histone-modification pathways may
      modulate Treg activity by acting as immunosuppressive agents. Moreover, the
      identification of non-invasive and reliable epigenetic biomarkers for the
      prediction of allograft rejection and for monitoring immunosuppressive therapies
      represents an attractive perspective in the management of transplanted patients.
      MiRNAs seem to fit particularly well to this purpose because they are differently
      expressed in patients at high and low risk of rejection and are detectable in
      biological fluids besides biopsies. Although increasing evidence supports the
      involvement of epigenetic tags in heart failure and transplantation, further
      short and long-term clinical studies are needed to translate the possible
      available findings into clinical setting.

PMID- 28882370
TI  - Caudal epidural anesthesia in mares after bicarbonate addition to a lidocaine
      epinephrine combination.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the nociceptive and clinical effects of buffering a
      lidocaine-epinephrine solution with sodium bicarbonate in caudal epidural block
      in mares. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective randomized controlled trial. ANIMALS: Six
      mixed-breed mares weighing 350-440 kg. METHODS: Each animal was administered two
      caudal epidural injections, 72 hours apart, using different solutions prepared
      immediately before injection. The control solution was 7 mL 2% lidocaine
      hydrochloride with epinephrine hemitartrate (1:200,000) added to 3 mL sterile
      water for injection (pH 2.9). The alkalinized solution was 7 mL of lidocaine
      epinephrine solution added to 2.3 mL sterile water for injection and 0.7 mL 8.4%
      sodium bicarbonate (pH 7.4). Nociception was evaluated by response to skin
      pinching at 31 sites in the sacral region and around the perimeter of the
      anogenital area (distances of 10, 15 and 20 cm) before, and 5, 10 and 15 minutes
      after epidural injection, then every 15 minutes until the return of nociception
      in all evaluated sites. The onset and duration times, and intensity of ataxia
      (grades 0 to 3) were recorded. The paired t test was used to compare the onset
      and duration of anesthesia and ataxia (p<0.05). RESULTS: Alkalization of the
      solution resulted in significant decreases in the average time of onset of loss
      of nociception in the sacral region (40%) and around the perimeter of the
      anogenital area extending up to 5 cm (36%) and from 5 to 10 cm (32%) from the
      anus and vulva. Alkalization also decreased the average duration of ataxia (33%),
      without affecting the duration and extent of anesthesia or the degree of ataxia.
      CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Alkalization of lidocaine-epinephrine
      solution is advantageous in shortening the duration of ataxia and hastening the
      onset of anesthesia in areas adjacent to the anogenital area, without reducing
      the duration of epidural anesthesia, in mares.

PMID- 28882369
TI  - 3D printed TCP-based scaffold incorporating VEGF-loaded PLGA microspheres for
      craniofacial tissue engineering.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Vascularization is a critical process during bone regeneration/repair
      and the lack of tissue vascularization is recognized as a major challenge in
      applying bone tissue engineering methods for cranial and maxillofacial surgeries.
      The aim of our study is to fabricate a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      loaded gelatin/alginate/beta-TCP composite scaffold by 3D printing method using a
      computer-assisted design (CAD) model. METHODS: The paste, composed of (VEGF
      loaded PLGA)-containing gelatin/alginate/beta-TCP in water, was loaded into
      standard Nordson cartridges and promptly employed for printing the scaffolds.
      Rheological characterization of various gelatin/alginate/beta-TCP formulations
      led to an optimized paste as a printable bioink at room temperature. RESULTS: The
      in vitro release kinetics of the loaded VEGF revealed that the designed scaffolds
      fulfill the bioavailability of VEGF required for vascularization in the early
      stages of tissue regeneration. The results were confirmed by two times increment
      of proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) seeded on the
      scaffolds after 10 days. The compressive modulus of the scaffolds, 98+/-11MPa,
      was found to be in the range of cancellous bone suggesting their potential
      application for craniofacial tissue engineering. Osteoblast culture on the
      scaffolds showed that the construct supports cell viability, adhesion and
      proliferation. It was found that the ALP activity increased over 50% using VEGF
      loaded scaffolds after 2 weeks of culture. SIGNIFICANCE: The 3D printed
      gelatin/alginate/beta-TCP scaffold with slow releasing of VEGF can be considered
      as a potential candidate for regeneration of craniofacial defects.

PMID- 28882371
TI  - Comparison of subcutaneous dexmedetomidine-midazolam versus alfaxalone-midazolam
      sedation in leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare dexmedetomidine-midazolam with alfaxalone-midazolam for
      sedation in leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius). STUDY DESIGN: Prospective,
      randomized, blinded, complete crossover study. ANIMALS: Nine healthy adult
      leopard geckos. METHODS: Geckos were administered a combination of
      dexmedetomidine (0.1 mg kg-1) and midazolam (1.0 mg kg-1; treatment D-M) or
      alfaxalone (15 mg kg-1) and midazolam (1.0 mg kg-1; treatment A-M) subcutaneously
      craniodorsal to a thoracic limb. Heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (fR), righting
      reflex, palpebral reflex, superficial and deep pain reflexes, jaw tone and escape
      response were assessed every 5 minutes until reversal. Conditions for intubation
      and response to needle prick were evaluated. Antagonist drugs [flumazenil (0.05
      mg kg-1) +/- atipamezole (1.0 mg kg-1)] were administered subcutaneously,
      craniodorsal to the contralateral thoracic limb, 45 minutes after initial
      injection, and animals were monitored until recovery. RESULTS: HR, but not fR,
      decreased significantly over time in both treatments. HR was significantly lower
      than baseline at all time points in D-M and for all but the 5 and 10 minute time
      points in A-M. HR was significantly higher in A-M at all time points after drug
      administration when compared with D-M. Sedation scores between protocols were
      similar for most time points. All animals in A-M lost righting reflex compared
      with seven out of nine (78%) geckos in D-M. Geckos in A-M lost righting reflex
      for significantly longer time. Mean +/- standard deviation time to recovery after
      antagonist administration was 6.1 +/- 2.2 minutes for D-M and 56 +/- 29 minutes
      for A-M, and these times were significantly different. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE: Combination D-M or A-M provided sedation of a level expected to allow
      physical examinations and venipuncture in leopard geckos. A-M provided a faster
      onset of sedation compared with D-M. Recovery was significantly faster following
      antagonist reversal of D-M, compared with A-M.

PMID- 28882372
TI  - Reduced survival for uncemented compared to cemented total hip arthroplasty after
      operatively treated acetabular fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post traumatic arthritis and avascular necrosis of the femoral head
      are common complications after operatively treated acetabular fractures. This may
      cause severe disabilities for the patient, necessitating a total hip
      arthroplasty. Even though an arthroplasty may provide good symptomatic relief,
      the long-term results are more uncertain and no consensus exists according to
      preferred prosthetic designs. With this cohort study, we aimed to investigate the
      medium to long term arthroplasty survival and clinical results of total hip
      arthroplasty after operatively treated acetabular fractures. METHODS: We included
      52 patients treated with a secondary total hip arthroplasty at a median of 2.4
      (0.1-14.1) years after an operatively treated acetabular fracture. The median age
      was 54 (11-82) years. Cemented arthroplasty was used for 33 patients, 10 patients
      had an uncemented arthroplasty and 9 patients received a hybrid arthroplasty.
      Average follow up was 8.0 (SD 5.0) years. RESULTS: Ten-year revision free
      arthroplasty survival was 79%. Uncemented arthroplasties had a significantly
      worse 10-year survival of 57%. Arthroplasties performed at a centre without a
      pelvic fracture service also had a significantly worse 10-years survival of 51%.
      Cox regression showed similar results with an 8-fold increase in risk of revision
      for both uncemented arthroplasties and operations performed at a non-pelvic
      trauma centre. CONCLUSION: Total hip arthroplasty secondary to an operatively
      treated acetabular fracture provides good symptomatic relief. These patients are,
      however, complex cases and are probably best treated at specialist centres with
      both pelvic trauma surgeons and arthroplasty surgeons proficient in complex
      revisions present.

PMID- 28882373
TI  - A paradigm shift in surgical planning and simulation using 3Dgraphy: Experience
      of first 50 surgeries done using 3D-printed biomodels.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Preoperative planning is an important aspect of any orthopedic
      surgery. Traditionally, surgeons mentally rehearse the operation and anticipate
      problems based on data available from "radiography" like MRI and CT. 3D printed
      bio-models and tools, or "3Dgraphy" can simplify this mental exercise and provide
      a realistic and user-friendly portrayal of this radiographic data. METHODS: Five
      surgeons participated in this multicenter study. 3D printed biomodels were
      obtained for 50 surgical cases that included periarticular trauma (24), pelvic
      trauma (11), complex primary (7), and revision arthroplasty (8). CT scan data was
      used to generate computer models which were then 3D printed in real size. These
      models were used to understand pathoanatomy and conduct simulated surgery as a
      part of preoperative planning. The models were sterilized and were used for
      intraoperative referencing. Following each case, the operating surgeon was asked
      to fill out a structured questionnaire to report on the perceived benefits of
      these tools. RESULTS: All surgeons reported that the biomodels provided
      additional information to conventional imaging that enhanced their knowledge of
      the complex pathoanatomy. It was useful in preoperative planning, rehearsing the
      operation, surgical simulation, intraoperative referencing, surgical navigation,
      preoperative implant selection, and inventory management. This probably reduced
      surgical time and improved accuracy of the surgery. All surgeons reported that
      they would not only use it themselves but also recommend it to other surgeons.
      CONCLUSION: 3Dgraphy was found to be a valuable tool in orthopedic surgeries that
      involve complex pathoanatomy like pelvic trauma, revision arthroplasty, and
      periarticular fracture. As the technology evolves and improves, they are likely
      to become a standard component of many orthopedic procedures.

PMID- 28882374
TI  - Does concomitant ulnar styloid fracture and distal radius fracture portend poorer
      outcomes? A meta-analysis of comparative studies.
AB  - PURPOSE: An ulnar styloid fracture often occur in association with a distal
      radial fracture. Whether an ulnar styloid fracture interfere with the results of
      a distal radial fracture still remains controversial. The aim of this study was
      to analyse the effects of an accompanying ulnar styloid fracture on clinical
      outcomes in patients with distal radial fractures. METHODS: A meta-analysis of
      published studies comparing outcomes of distal radial fractures with an ulnar
      styloid fracture versus isolated distal radial fractures was performed. Outcomes
      of function results, radiological evaluation, and patient reported scores were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Ten studies including 1403 distal radius fractures were
      identified fitting inclusion criteria. There was no significant difference in
      wrist motion, grip strength, radial height, volar angle, ulnar variance, pain
      score, PRWE score, or SF-36 score for distal radial fractures associated with an
      ulnar styloid fracture versus isolated distal radial fractures. In final follow
      up, patients with associated an ulnar styloid fracture had lower radial
      inclination and higher DASH scores. But there was no significant clinical
      difference. In addition, we found there was no significant difference of outcomes
      between union and non-union ulnar styloid fractures. CONCLUSIONS: Based on this
      meta-analysis, we suggest that an associated ulnar styloid fracture does not
      affect the outcomes of a distal radial fracture and clinicians should be caution
      in electing operative treatment for patients with an ulnar styloid fracture.

PMID- 28882375
TI  - Surgical treatment of osteoporotic fractures: An update on the principles of
      management.
AB  - The treatment of osteoporotic fractures continues to challenge orthopedic
      surgeon. The fragility of the underlying bone in conjunction with the need for
      specific implants led to the development of explicit surgical techniques in order
      to minimize implant failure related complications, morbidity and mortality. From
      the patient's perspective, the existence of frailty, dementia and other medical
      related co-morbidities induce a complex situation necessitating high vigilance
      during the perioperative and post-operative period. This update reviews current
      principles and techniques essential to successful surgical treatment of these
      injuries.

PMID- 28882376
TI  - A novel approach to improving the interpretation of CT brain in trauma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Computed tomography of the brain (CTB) has a fundamental role in the
      diagnosis and management of traumatic brain injury (TBI). There may be
      substantial discordance between initial CTB interpretation by emergency
      clinicians and the final radiology report. This study aimed to assess the utility
      of a structured reporting template in improving the accuracy of CTB
      interpretation by emergency clinicians. METHOD: A prospective pre- and post
      intervention cohort study was undertaken using a study population of emergency
      medicine trainees. The CTB reporting template was created with consultation from
      radiology, emergency medicine and trauma specialists. Participants reported on a
      set of randomly selected trauma CTBs first without, and then with, the reporting
      template. Each case was independently assessed for concordance with the radiology
      report by two blinded assessors (including a radiologist) and the proportion of
      concordant reports in each phase calculated. RESULTS: There were 26 participants
      recruited to the study who reported on a total of 320 CTBs. In the pre
      intervention phase, 121 (76%) cases were concordant with the radiology report
      compared to 147 (92%) post-intervention (p<0.01). The AUROC was 0.84 (95% CI:
      0.78-0.89) pre-intervention and improved to 0.94 (95% CI: 0.88-0.99) with the
      intervention (p=0.01). A higher level of baseline accuracy was observed in
      advanced trainees (78%) compared to basic trainees (72%), but both improved to a
      similar level of 92% with the use of the CTB reporting template. There was a
      marked reduction in false negative errors, with increased identification of
      critical diagnoses such as cerebral herniation and diffuse axonal injury.
      CONCLUSION: The use of the CTB reporting template significantly increased the
      accuracy of emergency medicine trainees and reduced the number of missed critical
      diagnoses. Reporting templates may represent an effective strategy to improve CTB
      interpretation and enhance the initial care of head injured patients.

PMID- 28882378
TI  - Changes in cortical microarchitecture are independent of areal bone mineral
      density in patients with fragility fractures.
AB  - Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and high-resolution peripheral
      quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) are commonly used to assess the areal
      bone mineral density (aBMD) and peripheral microstructure, respectively. While
      DXA is the standard to diagnose osteoporosis, HR-pQCT provides information about
      the cortical and trabecular architecture. Many fragility fractures occur in
      patients who do not meet the osteoporosis criterion (i.e., T-score<=-2.5). We
      hypothesize that patients with T-score above -2.5 and fragility fracture may have
      abnormal bone microarchitecture. Therefore, in this retrospective clinical study,
      HR-pQCT data obtained from patients with fragility fractures and T-scores>=-2.5
      (n=71) were compared to corresponding data from patients with fragility fractures
      and T-scores<=-3.5 (n=56). Types of secondary osteoporosis were excluded from the
      study. To verify the dependency of alterations in bone microarchitecture and T
      score, the association between HR-pQCT values and aBMD as reflected by the T
      score at both proximal femora, was assessed. At the distal tibia, cortical
      thickness was lower (p<0.001), cortical porosity was similar (p=0.61), trabecular
      number was higher (p<0.001), and bone volume fraction (BV/TV) was higher
      (p<0.001) in patients with T-scores>=-2.5 than in patients with T-scores<=-3.5.
      Trabecular number and BV/TV correlated with T-score (r=0.68, p<0.001; r=0.61,
      p<0.001), whereas the cortical values did not. Our results thus demonstrate the
      importance of bone structure, as assessed by HR-pQCT, in addition to the standard
      DXA T-score in the diagnosis of osteoporosis.

PMID- 28882379
TI  - Reliable anatomical landmarks for minimizing leg-length discrepancy during hip
      arthroplasty using the lateral transgluteal approach for femoral neck fracture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to describe our experience of a
      preoperative templating technique, and to investigate the most reliable
      anatomical reference to minimize leg length discrepancy (LLD) during hip
      arthroplasty using the lateral transgluteal approach for femoral neck fractures.
      We hypothesized that the medial fracture tip and greater trochanter would be
      viable alternative anatomical References METHODS: A total of 156 hip arthroplasty
      cases were enrolled in the present study (103 women, 114 hemiarthroplasties, 42
      total hip arthroplasties). Preoperative acetate overlay templating was conducted
      based on pelvic anteroposterior radiographs. Three different anatomical
      references were used to determine the bony resection level, including the
      uppermost point of the lesser trochanter, uppermost point of the greater
      trochanter, and medial fracture tip. The accuracy of preoperative templating and
      the reliability of each anatomical reference for minimizing LLD were assessed.
      RESULTS: Significant differences in postoperative LLD after hip arthroplasty
      between the three groups were identified. Post-hoc analysis showed that
      postoperative LLD in group A was significantly larger than that in groups B or C
      in hip arthroplasty. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that the use
      of the lesser trochanter as an anatomical reference to determine the level of
      femoral neck osteotomy should be discouraged, and that the medial fracture tip
      and greater trochanter may be better alternatives when using the lateral
      transgluteal approach.

PMID- 28882377
TI  - Lasting impression of violence: Retained bullets and depressive symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over 70,000 nonfatal firearm injuries occur in the US annually,
      frequently leaving victims injured with retained bullets. The long-term
      psychological risks associated with retained bullets remains unstudied. By
      serving as a constant reminder of injury, we hypothesized that the presence of
      retained bullets after firearm injury is associated with increased PTSD and
      depression symptom severity. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study
      (2013-2015) of Black male survivors of firearm injury at an urban Level I trauma
      center. Interviews, questionnaires and validated survey tools for PTSD (PCL-5)
      and depression (QIDS-SR16) to assess severity of symptoms were administered 3
      months post-injury. Clinical characteristics and symptom severity scores were
      compared with respect to retained bullets using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests and
      linear regression. RESULTS: Of 139 participants, 101(73%) had retained bullets.
      The cohort was young (mean age 26 years), educated (82% high school or greater)
      yet unemployed (53%) and with multiple injuries (median [IQR] no. of GSWs 2 [1
      3]). There was no difference in age, education, employment status, number of
      gunshot wounds, operative procedures, pain, hospital or ICU LOS between groups
      (p>0.05). Patients with retained bullets less often rated their health as "very
      good" or "excellent" (10% vs 29%, p=0.046). Of those working prior to injury
      (n=47), 61% with retained bullets had not returned to work compared to 33%
      without retained bullets (p=0.027). No difference in PCL-5 scores [30.9 (SD 18.9)
      vs 27.9 (SD 18.6), p=0.470] was observed, but patients with retained bullets had
      greater mean QIDS-SR16 scores [10.7 (SD 6.2) vs 7.8 (SD 6.1), p=0.038] than those
      without. After controlling for injury severity, number of wounds, marital status
      and education level, multiple linear regression analysis determined that retained
      bullets (beta=3.52; p=0.017) were associated with more severe depressive
      symptoms. CONCLUSION: Retained bullets are associated with adverse psychological
      consequences after firearm injury. To improve recovery and to aid in clinical
      management decisions, clinicians should consider both the psychological and
      physical effects of retained bullets in survivors of firearm injury.

PMID- 28882380
TI  - Differences between orthopaedic evaluation and radiological reports of
      conventional radiographs in patients with minor trauma admitted to the emergency
      department.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: During night and on weekends, in our emergency department there is
      no radiologist on duty or on call: thus, X-ray examinations (XR) are evaluated by
      the orthopaedic surgeon on duty and reported the following morning/monday by
      radiologists. The aim of our study was to examine the discrepancy rate between
      orthopaedists and radiologists in the interpretation of imaging examinations
      performed on patients in our tertiary level orthopaedic institution and the
      consequences of delayed diagnosis in terms of patient management and therapeutic
      strategy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all cases of
      discrepancy between orthopaedists and radiologists, which were categorized
      according to anatomical location of injury, initial diagnosis and treatment,
      change in diagnosis and treatment. We used the Chi square test to compare the
      frequencies of discrepancies between patients <=14 and >14years of age. RESULTS:
      From January to December 2016, 19,512 patients admitted to our emergency
      department performed at least an imaging examination; among these patients,
      13,561 underwent XR in absence of an attending radiologist. A discrepant
      diagnosis was found in 337/13,561 (2.5%; 184 males; mean age: 36.7+/-23.7, range
      2-95); 151/337 (45%) discrepancies were encountered in the lower limbs, with
      ankle being the most common site of misdiagnosis (64/151), and 103/337 (30%) in
      the upper limbs, with the elbow being the most frequent site in this district
      (35/103). We found 293/337 false negatives (87%) and 44/337 false positives
      (13%), with 134 and 13 patients needing treatment change, respectively. We found
      85/337 discrepancies (25%) in patients <=14 years of age, and 252/337 (75%) in
      those >14years. The distribution of discrepancies per anatomic district was
      significantly different (P<0.001) in these two groups of patients. CONCLUSIONS: A
      low rate of discrepancy between orthopaedists and radiologists in evaluating
      images of patients admitted to our emergency department was found, although
      treatment change occurred in about half of cases. A thorough and accurate
      clinical evaluation is crucial to provide a correct treatment and prognosis.

PMID- 28882381
TI  - Trunk muscle activation pattern in parkinsonian camptocormia as revealed with
      surface electromyography.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Camptocormia is frequently seen in Parkinson's disease (PD) and
      multiple system atrophy. It is characterized by a pathological forward bending of
      the trunk during standing, often combined with a lateral trunk deviation. The
      etiology of camptocormia in PD is still unknown. Muscle MRI studies show
      abnormalities mainly of the erector spinae confirmed by muscle biopsies.
      Quantitative electromyographic examination of trunk muscle activity is missing.
      METHODS: Ventral (rectus and obliquus externus abdominis) and dorsal
      (iliocostalis lumborum, longissimus, multifidus) trunk muscles and the rectus
      femoris were recorded bilaterally with surface electromyography in standing PD
      patients with camptocormia (n = 10) and matched healthy controls (n = 10) who
      mimicked the patients' posture. EMG amplitudes were compared quantitatively. In
      controls, the relation between varying degrees of trunk flexion and EMG was
      established systematically. RESULTS: Increasing forward trunk flexion was
      associated with increasing back muscle activity in controls, while abdominal
      muscle activity was negligible. During anterolateral trunk flexion, back muscle
      activity increased particularly on the contralateral side. The patients showed a
      similar pattern. However, normalized EMG activity of their trunk extensors was
      significantly higher than in controls, often reaching half-maximal amplitudes.
      Their rectus femoris and oblique abdominal muscles were overactive, but to a
      lesser extent. CONCLUSIONS: PD patients with camptocormia must use the functional
      reserve of their lumbar trunk muscles to counteract gravity. We interpret this as
      a weakness of the paravertebral muscles. Compared to the other examined muscles
      the paravertebral muscles are most affected. The increased EMG activity of the
      rectus femoris warrants further research.

PMID- 28882382
TI  - Soil-transmitted helminth infections.
AB  - More than a quarter of the world's population is at risk of infection with the
      soil-transmitted helminths Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale
      and Necator americanus), Trichuris trichiura, and Strongyloides stercoralis.
      Infected children and adults present with a range of medical and surgical
      conditions, and clinicians should consider the possibility of infection in
      individuals living in, or returning from, endemic regions. Although safe and
      effective drugs are donated free to endemic countries, only half of at-risk
      children received treatment in 2016. This Seminar describes the epidemiology,
      lifecycles, pathophysiology, clinical diagnosis, management, and public health
      control of soil-transmitted helminths. Previous work has questioned the effect of
      population-level deworming; however, it remains beyond doubt that treatment
      reduces the severe consequences of soil-transmitted helminthiasis. We highlight
      the need for refined diagnostic tools and effective control options to scale up
      public health interventions and improve clinical detection and management of
      these infections.

PMID- 28882383
TI  - Serial Dependence in Audition: Free, Fast, and Featureless?

PMID- 28882384
TI  - Two-ion theory of energy coupling in ATP synthesis rectifies a fundamental flaw
      in the governing equations of the chemiosmotic theory.
AB  - The vital coupled processes of oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthetic
      phosphorylation synthesize molecules of adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP), the
      universal biological energy currency, and sustain all life on our planet. The
      chemiosmotic theory of energy coupling in oxidative and photophosphorylation was
      proposed by Mitchell >50years ago. It has had a contentious history, with part of
      the accumulated body of experimental evidence supporting it, and part of it in
      conflict with the theory. Although the theory was strongly criticized by many
      prominent scientists, the controversy has never been resolved. Here, the
      mathematical steps of Mitchell's original derivation leading to the principal
      equation of the chemiosmotic theory are scrutinized, and a fundamental flaw in
      them has been identified. Surprisingly, this flaw had not been detected earlier.
      Discovery of such a defect negates, or at least considerably weakens, the
      theoretical foundations on which the chemiosmotic theory is based. Ad hoc or
      simplistic ways to remedy this defect are shown to be scientifically unproductive
      and sterile. A novel two-ion theory of biological energy coupling salvages the
      situation by rectifying the fundamental flaw in the chemiosmotic theory, and the
      governing equations of the new theory have been shown to accurately quantify and
      predict extensive recent experimental data on ATP synthesis by F1FO-ATP synthase
      without using adjustable parameters. Some major biological implications arising
      from the new thinking are discussed. The principles of energy transduction and
      coupling proposed in the new paradigm are shown to be of a very general and
      universal nature. It is concluded that the timely availability after a 25-year
      research struggle of Nath's torsional mechanism of energy transduction and ATP
      synthesis is a rational alternative that has the power to solve the problems
      arising from the past, and also meet present and future challenges in this
      important interdisciplinary field of research.

PMID- 28882385
TI  - Lung deposition and systemic bioavailability of different aerosol devices with
      and without humidification in mechanically ventilated patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During mechanical ventilation medical aerosol delivery has been
      reported to be upto two fold greater with dry inhaled gas than with heated
      humidity. Urine levels at 0.5 h post dose (URSAL0.5%) has been confirmed as an
      index of lung deposition and 24 h (URSAL24%) as index of systemic absorption. Our
      aim was to determine the effect of humidification and aerosol device type on drug
      delivery to ventilated patients using urine levels. METHODS: In a randomized
      crossover design, 36 (18female) mechanically ventilated patients were assigned to
      one of three groups. Groups 1 and 2 received 5000 MUg salbutamol using vibrating
      mesh (VM) and jet nebulizers (JN), respectively, while group 3 received 1600 MUg
      (16 puffs) of salbutamol via metered dose inhaler with AeroChamber Vent (MDI-AV).
      All devices were placed in the inspiratory limb of ventilator downstream from the
      humidifier. Each subject received aerosol with and without humidity at >24 h
      intervals with >12 h washout periods between salbutamol doses. Patients voided
      urine 15 min before each study dose and urine samples were collected at 0.5 h
      post dosing and pooled for the next 24 h. RESULTS: The MDI-AV and VM resulted in
      a higher percentage of urinary salbutamol levels compared to the JN (p < 0.05).
      Urine levels were similar between humidity and dry conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      findings suggest that in-vitro reports overestimate the impact of dry vs. heated
      humidified conditions on the delivery of aerosol during invasive mechanical
      ventilation.

PMID- 28882386
TI  - Knowledge of medical students on National Health Care System: A French
      multicentric survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Education on national health care policy and costs is part of our
      medical curriculum explaining how our health care system works. Our aim was to
      measure French medical students' knowledge about national health care funding,
      costs and access and explore association with their educational and personal
      background. METHODS: We developed a web-based survey exploring knowledge on
      national health care funding, access and costs through 19 items and measured
      success score as the number of correct answers. We also collected students'
      characteristics and public health training. The survey was sent to undergraduate
      medical students and residents from five medical universities between July and
      November 2015. RESULTS: A total of 1195 students from 5 medical universities
      responded to the survey. Most students underestimated the total amount of annual
      medical expenses, hospitalization costs and the proportion of the general
      population not benefiting from a complementary insurance. The knowledge score was
      not associated with medical education level. Three students' characteristics were
      significantly associated with a better knowledge score: male gender, older age,
      and underprivileged status. CONCLUSION: Medical students have important gaps in
      knowledge regarding national health care funding, coverage and costs. This
      knowledge was not associated with medical education level but with some of the
      students' personal characteristics. All these results are of great concern and
      should lead us to discussion and reflection about medical and public health
      training.

PMID- 28882387
TI  - Reducing the data-deficiency of threatened European habitats: Spatial variation
      of sabellariid worm reefs and associated fauna in the Sicily Channel,
      Mediterranean Sea.
AB  - Biogenic reefs, such as those produced by tube-dwelling polychaetes of the genus
      Sabellaria, are valuable marine habitats which are a focus of protection
      according to European legislation. The achievement of this goal is potentially
      hindered by the lack of essential empirical data, especially in the Mediterranean
      Sea. This study addresses some of the current knowledge gaps by quantifying and
      comparing multi-scale patterns of abundance and distribution of two habitat
      forming species (Sabellaria alveolata and S. spinulosa) and their associated
      fauna along 190 km of coast on the Italian side of the Sicily Channel. While the
      abundance of the two sabellariids and the total number of associated taxa did not
      differ at any of the examined scales (from tens of centimetres to tens-100 of
      kilometres), the structure (composition in terms of both the identity and the
      relative abundance of constituting taxa) of the associated fauna and the
      abundance of several taxa (the polychaetes Eulalia ornata, Syllis pulvinata, S.
      garciai, Nereis splendida and Arabella iricolor, and the amphipods Apolochus
      neapolitanus, Tethylembos viguieri and Caprella acanthifera) varied among
      locations established ~50-100 km apart. Syllis pulvinata also showed significant
      variation between sites (hundreds of metres apart), analogously to the other
      syllid polychaetes S. armillaris and S. gracilis, the nereidid polychaete Nereis
      rava, and the amphipod Gammaropsis ulrici. The largest variance of S. spinulosa,
      of the structure of the whole associated fauna and of 56% of taxa analysed
      individually occurred at the scale of replicates (metres apart), while that of
      the dominant bio-constructor S. alveolata and of 25% of taxa occurred at the
      scale of sites. The remaining 19% and the total richness of taxa showed the
      largest variance at the scale of locations. Present findings contribute to meet a
      crucial requirement of any future effective protection strategy, i.e.,
      identifying relevant scales of variation to be included in protection schemes
      aiming at preserving representative samples not only of target habitats and
      organisms, but also of the processes driving such variability.

PMID- 28882388
TI  - Laparoscopic liver resection using the silicone band uplift technique for tumors
      in segments 8 and 7 (with video).

PMID- 28882389
TI  - Pore-scale simulations of concentration tails in heterogeneous porous media.
AB  - The retention of contaminants in the finest and less-conductive regions of
      natural aquifer is known to strongly affect the decontamination of polluted
      aquifers. In fact, contaminant transfer from low to high mobility regions at the
      back end of a contaminant plume (i.e. back diffusion) is responsible for the long
      term release of contaminants during remediation operation. In this paper, we
      perform pore-scale calculations for the transport of contaminant through
      heterogeneous porous media composed of low and high mobility regions with two
      objectives: (i) study the effect of permeability contrast and solute transport
      conditions on the exchange of solutes between mobile and immobile regions and
      (ii) estimate the mass of contaminants sequestered in low mobility regions based
      on concentration breakthrough curves.

PMID- 28882390
TI  - [Patients' quality of life after cataract surgery].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our goal is to assess the Quality of Life (QL) of our patients
      after cataract surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a multicenter
      prospective study from July 2012 to December 2013 including patients undergoing
      cataract surgery, aged 18 and older. A survey sheet with sociodemographic data,
      clinical data and QL survey (VF-14) was given to each patient after surgery at
      day 7 (D7), one month (M1) and two months (M2) postoperatively. The final score
      was obtained by the following formula: QL=V (%)=(F __/__ C)*25. The data analysis
      was performed using SPSS software. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients were
      included, 56 men, and 61 years was the mean age. The mean QL score was 29.86% at
      D7, 73.97% at M1 and 81.21% at M2. Subjects between 18 and 30 years of age had a
      score of 90.15% vs. 82.52% at M2 for older patients. After optical correction,
      the quality of life scores increased from 83.22% at D7 to 93.18% at M2. Patients
      who did not have functional signs had a QL score of 83.94%. Anxious patients had
      a QL score of 44% at D7, 61.23% at M1 and 52.67% at M2. CONCLUSION: Good surgical
      outcomes require, in addition to clinical success, good quality of life. Several
      factors may influence this quality of life.

PMID- 28882391
TI  - [Evaluation of surgical simulation sessions of the French society of
      ophthalmology. A new surgical instruction method].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Since 2013, at the French society of ophthalmology (FSO) meetings,
      two simulators for intraocular surgeries have been available. The goal of this
      study was to assess the satisfaction of the participants in these organized
      training sessions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to
      participants in the FSO sessions as well as those carried out during the annual
      congress. This questionnaire collected data on the participants and the practical
      modalities of the sessions, and assessed participants' feelings and satisfaction
      with these sessions. RESULTS: The participants in the SFO sessions were young
      members of the SFO (31.8+/-12.3 years). 53.8 % were in training, looking to
      improve a problematic surgical step (capsulorhexis in 51.5 %). They spent nearly
      5hours on simulators (4.8hours) and were alone on a simulator 50 % of the time.
      The sessions held during the annual congress were used by older physicians
      (41.9+/-26.4 years) already in practice (66.6 %). The goal of such training was
      curiosity in a third of the cases (to try the simulators). The majority spent
      less than an hour on the devices and were at least two participants per machine.
      Despite these differences, participants cited a role for their surgical learning
      curve and recommended such training to their colleagues. CONCLUSIONS: The
      participants' enthusiasm for this new training technique is highlighted by the
      results of this study.

PMID- 28882392
TI  - Fundus autofluorescence in retinal artery occlusion: A more precise diagnosis.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Retinal artery occlusion (RAO) is a medical emergency associated with
      a high risk of cerebral vascular accident and other cardiovascular events. Among
      patients with non-arteritic RAO, a retinal embolus is observed in approximately
      40% of cases. Fundus examination and retinography are not reliable to predict the
      nature of the emboli. OBSERVATIONS: We report three consecutive cases of central
      and branch RAO that were investigated with fundus autofluorescence, fluorescein
      angiography and color retinal photographs. All patients underwent complete
      neurological and cardiovascular workups, with brain imaging, cardiac Doppler
      ultrasound, carotid Dopplers and Holter ECG's, to determine the underlying
      mechanism of retinal embolism. In the three cases, aged 77.7+/-4 years (2 women
      and 1 man), fundus autofluorescence demonstrated hyperautofluorescent emboli. In
      two cases, it allowed visualization of emboli that were not detected with fundus
      examination or retinography. The cardiovascular work-up demonstrated atheromatous
      carotid or aortic plaques in all patients. In one case, it permitted the
      diagnosis of RAO. Two of the three cases were considered to be of atherosclerotic
      origin and one of undefined origin. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: Fundus
      autofluorescence may help to detect and characterize retinal emboli. Since
      lipofuscin, which is present in large quantity in atherosclerotic plaques, is the
      main fluorophore detected with fundus autofluorescence, this non-invasive and
      simple examination may give information about the underlying mechanism of retinal
      embolism, and thus impact the etiologic assessment of RAO. Additional studies are
      necessary to confirm this potential role of autofluorescence.

PMID- 28882393
TI  - [Prognostic factors in uveitis].
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate prognostic factors of vision loss among patients with
      uveitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This descriptive and retrospective study included
      all patients diagnosed with uveitis who were seen at the teaching hospital of
      Rabat, Morocco, over a 5-year period. Information regarding demographic data,
      uveitis type, bilaterality of the disease, etiology and complications were
      gathered from patients' records. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS
      software. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-nine eyes of 89 patients were included.
      There were 60.7 % men and 39.3 % women. The mean age (years) was 31.1+/-16.8.
      Median follow-up was 11 months. Median visual acuity (logMAR) on admission was
      1.7 [0.7-2] and 1 [0.4-1.7] on the last visit (P<0.001). Fifty-nine percent of
      eyes had final visual acuity (VA) equal to or less than 1/10. Panuveitis (85.4 %)
      and posterior uveitis (72.7 %) were responsible for final VA equal to or less
      than 1/10 (P<0.001). Cataract, posterior synechiae, vitreous opacities,
      epimacular membrane (ERM) and cystoid macular edema (CME) were the most frequent
      complications. Using multivariate logistic regression, the prognostic factors
      associated with severe vision loss were the type of uveitis (posterior and
      panuveitis), CME, ERM, macular scarring and optic atrophy (P<0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Although this study included a limited number of subjects, the results showed
      that final VA was equal or less than 1/10 in 59 % of eyes diagnosed with uveitis
      and was associated with risk factors including posterior segment involvement
      (panuveitis and posterior uveitis), CME and ERM.

PMID- 28882394
TI  - The Thesaurus Medicinae practicae by Thomas Burnet.

PMID- 28882395
TI  - Genetic variant of Stickler's syndrome.
AB  - CASES REPORTS: Three myopic components of a same family came for study because
      presented severely degraded vitreous, equatorial membranes, retinal pigment
      epithelium hyperplasia, vascular sheathed and sclerosis of peripheral
      predominance. A genetic study confirmed the diagnosis of Stickler syndrome with a
      variant in the mutation of the COL2A1 gene. DISCUSSION: Stickler's syndrome
      should be suspected in families with a characteristic phenotype with vitreous
      syneresis and alterations in the retina, but there may be genetic variants that
      do not express the classic phenotype.

PMID- 28882396
TI  - 7-Year follow-up of a lifestyle intervention in overweight children: Comparison
      to an untreated control group.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: We present the 7-year follow-up analysis in overweight
      children and adolescents, who had participated originally in a randomized control
      trial of a lifestyle intervention. We compared them to an untreated population
      based control group to demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention.
      METHODS: Degree of overweight (BMI-SDS) was determined in 32 overweight children
      (mean age 11.5 +/- 1.5yrs, 65.6% females, mean BMI 23.7 +/- 1.5 kg/m2) at onset
      of intervention (T0), end of 6-month intervention (T1), 12 months (T2) and 7
      years after end of intervention (T3). A total of 76 overweight children derived
      from a representative national population survey served as control group.
      RESULTS: The participants in the intervention group reduced significantly their
      BMI-SDS between T0-T1 (mean +/- standard deviation -0.28 +/- 0.28, p < 0.001) and
      demonstrated no significant changes between T1-T2 (mean +/- standard deviation 
      0.10 +/- 0.34) and between T2-T3 (median +0.07; interquartile range: -0.54-0.62).
      BMI-SDS at T3 was significantly (p = 0.015) lower compared to T0. At T3, 46.8% of
      the participants in the intervention were normal-weight. The reduction in BMI-SDS
      between T0-T3 was significantly (p = 0.043) greater in the intervention group
      (median -0.26; interquartile range -0.87-0.23 BMI-SDS) compared to the control
      group (mean +/- standard deviation -0.05 +/- 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: The lifestyle
      intervention led to a significant reduction of overweight in the 7-year follow-up
      period. This decrease in BMI-SDS was significantly greater than the changes in
      BMI-SDS in a control group. This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov
      (NCT00422916).

PMID- 28882397
TI  - Sex difference in the effect of the fasting serum glucose level on the risk of
      coronary heart disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Diabetic women have a greater relative risk of coronary heart disease
      than diabetic men. However, the sex difference in the effect of fasting serum
      glucose levels below the diabetic range on the risk of coronary heart disease is
      unclear. We investigated whether the association between nondiabetic blood
      glucose levels and the incident risk of coronary heart disease is different
      between men and women. METHODS: The fasting serum glucose levels and other
      cardiovascular risk factors at baseline were measured in 159,702 subjects
      (100,144 men and 59,558 women). Primary outcomes were hospital admission and
      death due to coronary heart disease during the 11-year follow-up. RESULTS: The
      risk for coronary heart disease in women significantly increased with impaired
      fasting glucose levels (>=110mg/dL) compared to normal glucose levels
      (<100mg/dL), whereas the risk for coronary heart disease in men was significantly
      increased at a diabetic glucose range (>=126mg/dL). Women had a higher hazard
      ratio of coronary heart disease associated with the fasting serum glucose level
      than men (p for interaction with sex=0.021). CONCLUSIONS: The stronger effect of
      the fasting serum glucose levels on the risk of coronary heart disease in women
      than in men was significant from a prediabetic range (>=110mg/dL).

PMID- 28882398
TI  - Cystic fibrosis complicated by cor pulmonale: The first case report in Taiwan.

PMID- 28882399
TI  - Risky pleasures and drugged assemblages: Young people's consumption practices of
      AOD in Madrid.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drawing on a research project that we carried out on the
      functionality of "excessive" consumption practices in the lifestyles of young
      people in Madrid, this article aims to understand how (dis)pleasurable states
      emerge during young people's consumption of alcohol and other drugs. METHODS:
      This article claims that these states derive from "drugged assemblages," that is,
      a set of (human and non-human) actants that intra-act to produce different
      effects. Although pleasure can be one of these effects, it is not always
      guaranteed: consumption practices are assemblages that fluctuate between pleasure
      and displeasure, and the former can be reached or not depending on the
      characteristics acquired by the assemblage. It is this fluctuation that makes
      pleasures "risky." Drugged assemblages also configure and are configured by
      specific spatial-temporal and material apparatuses or dispositifs. We will
      analyse botellones, night-clubs and raves as examples of this kind of dispositif,
      focusing on how they work as a holistic frame where drugged assemblages emerge.
      RESULTS: Finally, we will focus on the different strategies and practices that
      young people, in constant intra-action with other agencies, develop in order to
      achieve and keep a "controlled loss of control" within the limits and potentials
      offered by these contexts, in a constant effort to avoid the risks that may
      result from the blurred line that divides pleasure and displeasure. CONCLUSION:
      In this sense, we will argue that, despite the criticisms it has received, it is
      possible to make Measham's concept of "controlled loss of control" compatible
      with a post-humanist theoretical framework.

PMID- 28882400
TI  - Histone modifications: A review about the presence of this epigenetic phenomenon
      in carcinogenesis.
AB  - Among the epigenetic changes, histone acetylation has been recognized as a
      fundamental process that strongly affects gene expression regulation. Disrupt of
      this phenomenon has been linked to carcinogenesis. In this review, we analysed
      studies reporting the process of histone modification, the enzymes associated and
      affected genes concerning human malignancies and histone enzyme inhibitor drugs
      used in cancer treatment. Variable degrees of expression of HDACs (histone
      deacetylases) and HATs (histone acetyltransferases) are found in many human
      malignant tissues and the histones acetylation seems to influence different
      processes including the progression of cell cycle, the dynamics of chromosomes,
      DNA recombination, DNA repair and apoptosis. Thus, the control of aberrant
      activity and/or expression of these proteins have been favorable in treatment of
      diseases as cancer. HDACi have shown efficacy in clinical trials in solid and
      hematological malignancies. Therefore, the development and use of HDACs
      inhibitors are increasing, leading to continue studying these enzyme expressions
      and behavior, aiming to determine tumors that will respond better to this type of
      treatment.

PMID- 28882401
TI  - Loss and gain of cone types in vertebrate ciliary photoreceptor evolution.
AB  - Ciliary photoreceptors are a diverse cell type family that comprises the rods and
      cones of the retina and other related cell types such as pineal photoreceptors.
      Ciliary photoreceptor evolution has been dynamic during vertebrate evolution with
      numerous gains and losses of opsin and phototransduction genes, and changes in
      their expression. For example, early mammals lost all but two cone opsins,
      indicating loss of cone receptor types in response to nocturnal lifestyle. Our
      review focuses on the comparison of specifying transcription factors and cell
      type-specific transcriptome data in vertebrate retinae to build and test
      hypotheses on ciliary photoreceptor evolution. Regarding cones, recent data
      reveal that a combination of factors specific for long-wavelength sensitive opsin
      (Lws)- cones in non-mammalian vertebrates (Thrb and Rxrg) is found across all
      differentiating cone photoreceptors in mice. This suggests that mammalian
      ancestors lost all but one ancestral cone type, the Lws-cone. We test this
      hypothesis by a correlation analysis of cone transcriptomes in mouse and chick,
      and find that, indeed, transcriptomes of all mouse cones are most highly
      correlated to avian Lws-cones. These findings underscore the importance of
      specifying transcription factors in tracking cell type evolution, and shed new
      light on the mechanisms of cell type loss and gain in retina evolution.

PMID- 28882403
TI  - Biochemical comparison of four commercially available human alpha1-proteinase
      inhibitors for treatment of alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency.
AB  - Intravenous therapy with purified plasma-derived alpha1-proteinase inhibitor
      (alpha1-PI) concentrates is the only specific treatment for alpha1-PI deficiency.
      For the therapy to be safe and efficacious, alpha1-PI concentrates should be
      highly pure and contain high amounts of functional protein. This study compared
      the four plasma-derived alpha1-PI products commercially available in Europe
      (Respreeza, Prolastin, Alfalastin, Trypsone) by biochemical methods with respect
      to function, purity, structure, and chemical modifications. Respreeza had the
      highest level of functional protein (48.8 mg/mL) and the highest specific
      activity (0.862 mg active alpha1-PI per mg total protein). By size exclusion
      chromatography, Respreeza was 97.4% pure, followed by Alfalastin 88.1%, Prolastin
      76.9%, and Trypsone 70.8%. By reversed phase chromatography, Respreeza had an
      alpha1-PI purity of 97.7%, followed by Trypsone 88.0%, Prolastin 78.0%, and
      Alfalastin 69.5%. The main protein band by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide
      gel electrophoresis was found for all products at approximately 50 kDa.
      Additional protein bands were found for Prolastin, Alfalastin, and Trypsone. The
      alpha1-PI products differed in cysteine oxidation state and C-terminal lysine
      status. alpha1-PI products tested differ in purity, concentration, and chemical
      variation. Respreeza has the highest level of purity. The impact of the non
      therapeutic proteins identified has not been evaluated.

PMID- 28882404
TI  - Health Related Quality of Life Following Radical Cystectomy: Comparative Analysis
      from the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: Health related quality of life after radical cystectomy and ileal
      conduit is not well quantified at the population level. We evaluated health
      related quality of life in patients with bladder cancer compared with noncancer
      controls and patients with colorectal cancer using data from SEER (Surveillance,
      Epidemiology and End Results)-MHOS (Medicare Health Outcomes Survey). MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: SEER-MHOS data from 1998 to 2013 were used to identify patients with
      bladder cancer and those with colorectal cancer who underwent extirpative surgery
      with ileal conduit or colostomy creation, respectively. A total of 166 patients
      with bladder cancer treated with radical cystectomy were propensity matched 1:5
      to 830 noncancer controls and compared with 154 patients with colorectal cancer.
      Differences in Mental and Physical Component Summary scores as well as component
      subscores were determined between patients with bladder cancer, patients with
      colorectal cancer and noncancer controls. RESULTS: SEER-MHOS patients were more
      commonly male and white with a mean +/- SD age of 77 +/- 6 years. Patients
      treated with radical cystectomy had significantly lower Physical Component
      Summary scores, select physical subscale scores and all mental subscale scores
      compared with noncancer controls. These findings were similar in the subset of 40
      patients treated with radical cystectomy who had available preoperative and
      postoperative survey data. Global Mental Component Summary scores did not differ
      significantly between the groups. No significant differences were observed in
      global Mental Component Summary, Physical Component Summary or subscale scores
      between patients with bladder cancer and patients with colorectal cancer.
      CONCLUSIONS: Patients with bladder cancer who undergo radical cystectomy have
      significant declines in multiple components of physical and mental health related
      quality of life vs noncancer controls, which mirror those of patients with
      colorectal cancer. Further longitudinal study is required to better codify the
      effectors of poor health related quality of life after radical cystectomy to
      improve patient expectations and outcomes.

PMID- 28882402
TI  - Visceral endoderm and the primitive streak interact to build the fetal-placental
      interface of the mouse gastrula.
AB  - Hypoblast/visceral endoderm assists in amniote nutrition, axial positioning and
      formation of the gut. Here, we provide evidence, currently limited to humans and
      non-human primates, that hypoblast is a purveyor of extraembryonic mesoderm in
      the mouse gastrula. Fate mapping a unique segment of axial extraembryonic
      visceral endoderm associated with the allantoic component of the primitive
      streak, and referred to as the "AX", revealed that visceral endoderm supplies the
      placentae with extraembryonic mesoderm. Exfoliation of the AX was dependent upon
      contact with the primitive streak, which modulated Hedgehog signaling. Resolution
      of the AX's epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by Hedgehog shaped the
      allantois into its characteristic projectile and individualized placental
      arterial vessels. A unique border cell separated the delaminating AX from the
      yolk sac blood islands which, situated beyond the limit of the streak, were not
      formed by an EMT. Over time, the AX became the hindgut lip, which contributed
      extensively to the posterior interface, including both embryonic and
      extraembryonic tissues. The AX, in turn, imparted antero-posterior (A-P) polarity
      on the primitive streak and promoted its elongation and differentiation into
      definitive endoderm. Results of heterotopic grafting supported mutually
      interactive functions of the AX and primitive streak, showing that together, they
      self-organized into a complete version of the fetal-placental interface, forming
      an elongated structure that exhibited A-P polarity and was composed of the
      allantois, an AX-derived rod-like axial extension reminiscent of the embryonic
      notochord, the placental arterial vasculature and visceral endoderm/hindgut.

PMID- 28882405
TI  - Efficacy of quetiapine XR vs. placebo as concomitant treatment to mood
      stabilizers in the control of subthreshold symptoms of bipolar disorder: Results
      from a pilot, randomized controlled trial.
AB  - Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) do not always achieve full remission between
      episodes. Subthreshold symptoms (depressive, manic or mixed) represent a major
      cause of relapse and disability in these patients. Immediate release (IR) and
      extended release (XR) formulations of quetiapine are both indicated for short and
      long-term treatment of BD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of
      quetiapine XR vs placebo in subthreshold symptomatology when added to previous
      mood stabilizer treatment. A pilot phase IIIB, multicentre, prospective, placebo
      controlled, randomized, double blinded study of 12 weeks follow-up was performed
      (NCT01197846). Patients were randomized to quetiapine XR 300mg or placebo once
      daily. The primary outcome was the mean change between quetiapine XR and placebo
      from baseline to study endpoint (week 6) in the Montgomery-Asberg Depression
      Rating Scale (MADRS). Quetiapine XR 300mg (n=16) significantly improved
      depressive subthreshold symptoms compared with placebo (n=16) after 6 weeks
      (P=0.021). Early response (reduction of at least the 20% of the MADRS total
      score) and remission rate (reduction in MADRS total score <8 and YMRS<8) did not
      show differences between groups. Quetiapine XR did not show superiority vs
      placebo when evaluating subthreshold manic symptoms, instead it was superior when
      evaluating functioning (GAF score) in BD type I patients (P=0.005). The most
      common adverse events were somnolence (9.1%), increased appetite, dry mouth and
      dizziness (6.8%). Quetiapine XR 300mg once daily was significantly more effective
      than placebo in depressive subthreshold symptoms. Adverse events were consistent
      with the known side effects of quetiapine.

PMID- 28882406
TI  - Process model economics of xanthan production from confectionery industry
      wastewaters.
AB  - In this research a process and cost model for a xanthan production facility was
      developed using process simulation software (SuperPro Designer(r)). This work
      represents a novelty in the field for two reasons. One is that xanthan gum has
      been produced from several wastes but never from wastewaters from confectionery
      industries. The other more important is that the aforementioned software, which
      in intended exclusively for bioprocesses, is used for generating a base case,
      i.e. starting point for transferring the technology to industrial scales.
      Previously acquired experimental knowledge about using confectionery wastewaters
      from five different factories as substitutes for commercially used cultivation
      medium have been incorporated into the process model in order to obtain an
      economic viability of implementing such substrates. A lower initial sugar content
      in the medium based on wastewater (28.41 g/L) compared to the synthetic medium
      (30.00 g/L) gave a lower xanthan content at the end of cultivation (23.98 and
      26.27 g/L, respectively). Although this resulted in somewhat poorer economic
      parameters, they were still in the range of being an investment of interest. Also
      the possibility of utilizing a cheap resource (waste) and reducing pollution that
      would result from its disposal has a positive effect on the environment.

PMID- 28882407
TI  - Isolated Palmaris Brevis Spasm in a 16-Year-Old.

PMID- 28882408
TI  - Dental and oropharyngeal lesions in rats with chronic acid reflux esophagitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, we evaluated pathological changes in the tooth and
      pharynx of GERD rats to elucidate the association between gastric acid reflux and
      oral and pharyngeal diseases. METHODS: An experimental rat model of chronic acid
      reflux esophagitis was surgically created. The oral cavities were observed
      histologically every 2 weeks until 20 weeks after surgery. RESULTS: At 10 weeks
      after surgery, molar crown heights in GERD rats were shorter than that in control
      rats, and inflammatory cell infiltration by gastric acid reflux was found in the
      periodontal mucosa of GERD rats. Furthermore, dental erosion progressed in GERD
      rats at 20 weeks after surgery, and enamel erosion and dentin exposure were
      observed. During the same period, inflammatory cell infiltration was observed in
      the mucosa of the posterior part of the tongue. These findings suggest that
      gastric acid reflux may be one of the exacerbating factors of dental erosion,
      periodontitis and glossitis. CONCLUSION: We investigated oral changes in an
      experimental rat model of GERD and observed development of dental erosion,
      periodontitis and glossitis. Our findings suggested chronic gastric acid reflux
      may be involved in the pathogenesis of oral disease.

PMID- 28882409
TI  - Assessment of growth of Aspergillus spp. from agricultural soils in the presence
      of glyphosate.
AB  - Agriculture is one of the bases of the Argentine economy. Glyphosate is
      undoubtedly one of the most important herbicides used. The increasing consumption
      and the efficiency of glyphosate-based herbicides have encouraged several studies
      on their persistence in soils, their effects on soil microbiota and their
      degradation processes. Fungi have been reported as being the main herbicide
      degrading microorganisms as well as the most tolerant to environmental stress
      conditions. This study evaluated the growth performance of Aspergillus section
      Flavi and Aspergillus niger aggregate strains on Czapek Dox media supplied with a
      commercial glyphosate formulation as sole source of carbon (CZC), phosphorus
      (CZP) or nitrogen (CZN). Six Aspergillus spp. strains were evaluated. Each medium
      was stab-inoculated with fungal spores from 7-day old cultures. Two measures of
      colony radii were taken daily. All of the Aspergillus section Flavi strains
      showed a significant increase (from 24 to 44%) in growth rate on the CZN medium,
      as compared to controls. The A. niger aggregate strains exhibited the same
      behavioral pattern under all the conditions tested, except on the CZN medium.
      Velutinous or slightly floccose colonies with abundant sporulation were observed
      on CZP. Moreover, the colonies produced sparse sporulation on CZC or CZN media,
      being their appearances completely different from those on the CZP medium. This
      study establishes that A. section Flavi and A. niger aggregate strains can grow
      in vitro in the presence of glyphosate, especially when it is used as a sole
      source of phosphorus or nitrogen.

PMID- 28882410
TI  - Radiological protection of foetuses and breast-fed children of occupationally
      exposed women in nuclear medicine - Challenges for hospitals.
AB  - This paper describes issues of concern for protecting foetuses and breast-fed
      children of occupationally exposed women in nuclear medicine from unnecessary
      exposure of ionising radiation. The protection principle is to ensure the same
      level of protection for the foetus and child as for the general public. Therefore
      international radiation protection standards recommend a dose constraint of 1mSv
      to a foetus during the remaining time of pregnancy after it is known/declared and
      a yearly dose constraint of 1mSv to a breast-fed child. It is not self-evident
      how to guarantee this level of radiation protection. The exposure situation in
      nuclear medicine is complex. Exploring existing reported occupational exposure
      levels suggests great variability between work tasks and facilities. The
      standards and guidelines found give no detailed advice. Therefore each facility
      needs to systematically review external and internal exposure levels in order to
      plan appropriate protection measures and issue their own guidelines and rules.
      One strategy might be that each facility defines tasks that do not require any
      restrictions and lists such duties that are not suitable to do when pregnant or
      breastfeeding, taking also potential exposure levels into consideration. This
      paper gives examples of such types of work. Information to the staff about the
      necessity of declaring pregnancy or breastfeeding is of fundamental importance.
      The internal policies issued by the hospital management should make clear the
      basis for taking care of pregnant and breastfeeding employees.

PMID- 28882411
TI  - Prenatal stress-induced impairments of cognitive flexibility and bidirectional
      synaptic plasticity are possibly associated with autophagy in adolescent male
      offspring.
AB  - Prenatal stress (PS) brings numerous outcomes on offspring, including anxiety,
      depression-like behavior and other cognitive disorder. In this study, a rat model
      of PS was established by using restraint stress for 45min three times per day
      from the 15th to 21st day of pregnancy. Behavioral tests, including open field
      test (OPT), elevated plus-maze (EPM) and Morris water-maze (MWM), were performed
      in adolescent male-offspring. The bidirectional synaptic plasticity, including
      long-term potential (LTP) and depotentiation (DEP), from the hippocampal Schaffer
      collaterals to CA1 region was subsequently measured. Furthermore, Western blot
      assay, immunofluorescence staining and hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining were
      employed. The MWM test showed that the cognitive flexibility was remarkably
      damaged in PS offspring. Meanwhile, PS considerably aggravated the anxiety and
      depression-like behavior in OPT and EPM. Both LTP and DEP were significantly
      inhibited by PS. Furthermore, PS considerably altered the expression of synaptic
      related proteins NR2A, NR2B and PSD-95 in adolescent male-offspring.
      Interestingly, PS significantly elevated the autophagy level in the hippocampus
      of male-offspring. In order to investigate the role of autophagy on the negative
      impacts of PS in adolescent male-offspring, both in vitro and in vivo studies
      were performed. It was found that autophagy inhibitors significantly eliminated
      the alterations in gene expression induced by corticosterone. The results suggest
      that regulating autophagy may become a new targeted therapy to relieve the damage
      induced by PS in adolescent male-offspring.

PMID- 28882412
TI  - A flavonoid agonist of the TrkB receptor for BDNF improves hippocampal
      neurogenesis and hippocampus-dependent memory in the Ts65Dn mouse model of DS.
AB  - Intellectual disability is the unavoidable hallmark of Down syndrome (DS), with a
      heavy impact on public health. Reduced neurogenesis and impaired neuron
      maturation are considered major determinants of altered brain function in DS.
      Since the DS brain starts at a disadvantage, attempts to rescue neurogenesis and
      neuron maturation should take place as soon as possible. The brain-derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin that plays a key role in brain
      development by specifically binding to tropomyosin-related kinase receptor B
      (TrkB). Systemic BDNF administration is impracticable because BDNF has a poor
      blood-brain barrier penetration. Recent screening of a chemical library has
      identified a flavone derivative, 7,8-dihydroxyflavone (7,8-DHF), a small-molecule
      that crosses the blood-brain barrier and binds with high affinity and specificity
      to the TrkB receptor. The therapeutic potential of TrkB agonists for neurogenesis
      improvement in DS has never been examined. The goal of our study was to establish
      whether it is possible to restore brain development in the Ts65Dn mouse model of
      DS by targeting the TrkB receptor with 7,8-DHF. Ts65Dn mice subcutaneously
      injected with 7,8-DHF in the neonatal period P3-P15 exhibited a large increase in
      the number of neural precursor cells in the dentate gyrus and restoration of
      granule cell number, density of dendritic spines and levels of the presynaptic
      protein synaptophysin. In order to establish the functional outcome of treatment,
      mice were treated with 7,8-DHF from P3 to adolescence (P45-50) and were tested
      with the Morris Water Maze. Treated Ts65Dn mice exhibited improvement of learning
      and memory, indicating that the recovery of the hippocampal anatomy translated
      into a functional rescue. Our study in a mouse model of DS provides novel
      evidence that treatment with 7,8-DHF during the early postnatal period restores
      the major trisomy-linked neurodevelopmental defects, suggesting that therapy with
      7,8-DHF may represent a possible breakthrough for Down syndrome.

PMID- 28882413
TI  - cGAS Conducts Micronuclei DNA Surveillance.
AB  - DNA damage elicits a potent proinflammatory immune response. A collection of four
      papers now reveals that micronuclear DNA is a new cell intrinsic
      immunostimulatory molecule, and that accumulation of the immune sensor cyclic GMP
      AMP synthase (cGAS) in micronuclei leads to a cell-cycle-dependent
      proinflammatory response following DNA damage.

PMID- 28882414
TI  - Proinflammatory Signals as Fuel for the Fire of Hematopoietic Stem Cell
      Emergence.
AB  - Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have the extraordinary ability to both self-renew
      and generate all mature blood cell lineages. The ability to produce or expand
      patient-derived HSCs in vitro would greatly improve the outcome for patients with
      blood disorders that are currently treated with allogeneic HSC transplantation.
      Many laboratories have been working to identify the signals required for HSC
      emergence in their native environments to apply this knowledge in vitro.
      Recently, several signals traditionally known to underlie classical inflammation
      have emerged as essential regulators of HSC development. In this review we
      synthesize the findings that have established inflammatory cues as key regulators
      of HSC development.

PMID- 28882415
TI  - Anaesthesia for abnormally invasive placenta: a single-institution case series.

PMID- 28882416
TI  - Determining Cellular Responses: Phytoglobins May Direct the Traffic.
AB  - How stem cells retain their undifferentiated state or how differentiated cells
      are capable of having dissimilar responses to perturbations are major open
      questions in plant biology. Cell-specific phytoglobin expression may be one
      mechanism determining cell fate by the modulation of nitric oxide (NO), affecting
      cellular hormonal responses and processes such as cell differentiation.

PMID- 28882417
TI  - Derivation and validation model for hospital hypoglycemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An objective and simple prognostic model for hospitalized patients
      with hypoglycemia could be helpful in guiding initial intensity of treatment.
      METHODS: We carried out a derivation rule for hypoglycemia using data from a
      nationwide retrospective cohort study of patients with diabetes or hyperglycemia
      carried out in 2014 (n=839 patients). The rule for hypoglycemia was validated
      using a second data set from a nationwide retrospective cohort study carried out
      in 2016 (n=561 patients). We derived our prediction rule using logistic
      regression with hypoglycemia (glucose less than 70mg/dL) as the primary outcome.
      RESULTS: The incidence of hypoglycemia in the derivation cohort was 10.3%.
      Patient's characteristics independently associated with hypoglycemia included
      episodes of hypoglycemia during the previous three months (odds ratio [OR]: 6.29,
      95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 3.37-11.79, p<0.001) estimated glomerular
      filtration rate lower than 30mL/min/1.73m2 (OR: 2.32, 95%CI: 1.23-4.35, p=0.009),
      daily insulin dose greater than 0.3units per Kg (OR: 1.74, 95%CI: 1.06-2.85,
      p=0.028), and days of hospitalization (OR: 1.03, 95%CI: 1.01-1.04, p=0.001). The
      model showed an area under the curve (AUC): 0.72 (95%CI: 0.66-0.78, p<0.001). The
      AUC in the validation cohort was: 0.71 (95%CI: 0.63-0.79, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      The rule showed fair accuracy to predict hypoglycemia. Implementation of the rule
      into computer systems could be used in guiding initial insulin therapy.

PMID- 28882418
TI  - Epidemiological trends of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Split-Dalmatia
      County, Croatia from 2006 to 2014.

PMID- 28882419
TI  - Carcinoma in situ of the breast in New South Wales, Australia: Current status and
      trends over the last 40 year.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence of non-invasive breast cancer has increased
      substantially over time. We aim to describe temporal trends in the incidence of
      carcinoma in situ of the breast in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. METHODS:
      Descriptive study of trends in the incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)
      and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) in women who received a diagnosis from 1972
      to 2012, recorded in the NSW Cancer Registry. RESULTS: Carcinoma in situ as a
      proportion of all breast cancer was 0.4% during the prescreening period 1972 to
      1987 and is currently 14.1% (2006 to 2012). Among 10,810 women diagnosed with
      DCIS, incidence across all ages rose from 0.15 per 100,000 during 1972 to 1983 to
      16.81 per 100,000 over 2006 to 2012, representing a 100-fold increase (IRR
      113.10; 95% CI 81.94 to 156.08). Among women in the target age group for
      screening (50-69 years) incidence rose from 0.27 per 100,000 to 51.96 over the
      same period (IRR 195.50; 95% CI 117.26 to 325.89). DCIS incidence peaks in women
      aged 60-69 years. DCIS incidence has not stabilized despite screening being well
      established for over 20 years, and participation rates in the target age range
      remaining stable. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings raise questions about the value of
      the increasing detection of DCIS and aggressive treatment of these lesions,
      especially among older women, and support trials of de-escalated treatment.

PMID- 28882420
TI  - Age-related differences in the topological efficiency of the brain structural
      connectome in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.
AB  - Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is accompanied by the accelerated
      cognitive decline and rapid brain degeneration with aging. However, the age
      related alterations of the topological organization of the brain connectome in
      aMCI patients remained largely unknown. In this study, we constructed the brain
      structural connectome in 51 aMCI patients and 51 healthy controls by diffusion
      magnetic resonance imaging and deterministic tractography. The different age
      related alteration patterns of the global and regional network metrics between
      aMCI patients and healthy controls were assessed by a linear regression model.
      Compared with healthy controls, significantly decreased global and local network
      efficiency in aMCI patients were found. When correlating network efficiency with
      age, we observed a significant decline in network efficiency with aging in the
      aMCI patients, while not in the healthy controls. The age-related decreases of
      nodal efficiency in aMCI patients were mainly distributed in the key regions of
      the default-mode network, such as precuneus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and
      parahippocampal gyrus. In addition, age-related decreases in the connection
      strength of the edges between peripheral nodes were observed in aMCI patients.
      Moreover, the decreased regional efficiency of the parahippocampal gyrus was
      correlated with impaired memory performances in patients. The present study
      suggests an age-related disruption of the topological organization of the brain
      structural connectome in aMCI patients, which may provide evidence for different
      neural mechanisms underlying aging in aMCI and may serve as a potential imaging
      marker for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28882421
TI  - 18F-FDG PET hypometabolism patterns reflect clinical heterogeneity in sporadic
      forms of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Until now, hypometabolic patterns and their correlations with neuropsychological
      performance have not been assessed as a function of the various presentations of
      sporadic early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD). Here, we processed and analyzed
      the patients' metabolic maps at the vertex and voxel levels by using a
      nonparametric, permutation method that also regressed out the effects of cortical
      thickness and gray matter volume, respectively. The hypometabolism patterns in
      several areas of the brain were significantly correlated with the clinical
      manifestations. These areas included the paralimbic regions for typical
      presentations of sporadic EOAD. For atypical presentations, the hypometabolic
      regions included Broca's and Wernicke's areas and the pulvinar in language forms,
      bilateral primary and higher processing visual regions (with right predominance)
      in visuospatial forms, and the bilateral prefrontal cortex in executive forms.
      Similar hypometabolism patterns were also observed in a correlation analysis of
      the 18F-FDG PET data versus domain-specific, neuropsychological test scores.
      These heterogeneities might reflect different underlying pathophysiological
      processes in particular clinical presentations of sporadic EOAD and should be
      taken into account in future longitudinal and therapeutic studies.

PMID- 28882422
TI  - Associations between dynamic functional connectivity and age, metabolic risk, and
      cognitive performance.
AB  - Advanced age is associated with reduced within-network functional connectivity,
      particularly within the default mode network. Most studies to date have examined
      age differences in functional connectivity via static indices that are computed
      over the entire blood-oxygen-level dependent time series. Little is known about
      the effects of age on short-term temporal dynamics of functional connectivity.
      Here, we examined age differences in dynamic connectivity as well as associations
      between connectivity, metabolic risk, and cognitive performance in healthy adults
      (N = 168; age, 18-83 years). A sliding-window k-means clustering approach was
      used to assess dynamic connectivity from resting-state functional magnetic
      resonance imaging data. Three out of 8 dynamic connectivity profiles were
      associated with age. Furthermore, metabolic risk was associated with the relative
      amount of time allocated to 2 of these profiles. Finally, the relative amount of
      time allocated to a dynamic connectivity profile marked by heightened
      connectivity between default mode and medial temporal regions was positively
      associated with executive functions. Thus, dynamic connectivity analyses can
      enrich understanding of age-related differences beyond what is revealed by static
      analyses.

PMID- 28882423
TI  - Hepatitis B virus-related mortality in rheumatoid arthritis patients undergoing
      long-term low-dose glucocorticoid treatment: A population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Glucocorticoids (GC) are commonly used in rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) patients which bears a risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV)
      reactivation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk of HBV
      related mortality under long-term low-dose GCs in Taiwanese RA patients. METHODS:
      We retrospectively analyzed 45,423 RA patients using National Health Insurance
      Research Database from January 1999 to December 2011. Of them, 2204 patients had
      the diagnosis of HBV and were classified into four groups according to GCs
      regimens. Outcome comparison by Cox model analysis for liver-related mortality
      was performed. RESULTS: In this cohort, 90.5% were older than 40. One hundred and
      five patients had been treated with short-term large-dose GCs (Group A); 862
      patients received GCs >=20 mg/day for >=3 days or a variable dose but did not
      meet Group C criteria (Group B); 689 patients were continuously treated with low
      dose (<20 mg/day) GCs for >=3 months for at least one session (Group C); and 548
      patients had never been exposed to GCs (Group D). Two hundred and sixty-one
      patients had been exposed to antiviral agents, which was significantly higher in
      Group C. Fifty-eight patients (2.63%) died of acute hepatic failure, while no
      statistically significant difference between each groups (p = 0.074). Groups C
      and D comparison by two-sample test showed that long-term low-dose GC treatment
      was not associated with liver-related death after adjusting for malignancy.
      CONCLUSION: Long-term low-dose GC treatment was not associated with liver-related
      mortality in RA with concomitant HBV patients probably due to commonly applied
      antiviral therapy by rheumatologists.

PMID- 28882424
TI  - Too sweet to eat: Exploring the effects of cuteness on meat consumption.
AB  - Although daily meat consumption is a widespread habit, many individuals at the
      same time put a high value on the welfare of animals. While different
      psychological mechanisms have been identified to resolve this cognitive tension,
      such as dissociating the animal from the consumed meat or denying the animal's
      moral status, few studies have investigated the effects of the animal's
      appearance on the willingness to consume its meat. The present article explored
      how the perception of cuteness influences hypothetical meat consumption. We
      hypothesized that cuter animals would reduce the willingness to consume meat, and
      that this relationship would be mediated by empathy felt towards the animal.
      Across four pre-registered studies sampling 1074 US and Norwegian participants,
      we obtained some support for this prediction in the US but to a lesser degree in
      Norway. However, in all studies an indirect mediation effect of cuteness on meat
      consumption going through empathy towards the animal was observed. We also
      explored possible moderating and additional mediating mechanisms of trait pro
      social orientation, caretaking intentions and sex effects for which we found
      mixed evidence. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are
      discussed.

PMID- 28882425
TI  - Presence of pups suppresses hunger-induced feeding in virgin adult mice of both
      sexes.
AB  - Despite recent progress on neural pathways underlying individual behaviors, how
      an animal balances and prioritizes behavioral outputs remains poorly understood.
      While studying the relationship between hunger-induced feeding and pup-induced
      maternal behaviors in virgin female mice, we made the unexpected discovery that
      presence of pups strongly delayed and decreased food consumption. Strikingly,
      presence of pups also suppressed feeding induced by optogenetic activation of
      Agrp neurons. Such a suppressive effect inversely correlated with the extents of
      maternal behaviors, but did not rely on the display of these behaviors, and was
      also present in virgin males. Furthermore, chemogenetic activation of Vglut2+
      neurons in the medial preoptic area (mPOA), a region critical for maternal
      behaviors and motivation, was sufficient to suppress hunger-induced feeding.
      However, muscimol inhibition of the mPOA, while disrupting maternal behaviors,
      did not prevent pup suppression of feeding, indicating that neural pathways in
      other brain regions may also mediate such an effect. Together, these results
      provide novel insights into neural coordination of pup care and feeding in mice
      and organizations of animal behaviors in general.

PMID- 28882426
TI  - Statistical analysis of solid waste composition data: Arithmetic mean, standard
      deviation and correlation coefficients.
AB  - Data for fractional solid waste composition provide relative magnitudes of
      individual waste fractions, the percentages of which always sum to 100, thereby
      connecting them intrinsically. Due to this sum constraint, waste composition data
      represent closed data, and their interpretation and analysis require statistical
      methods, other than classical statistics that are suitable only for non
      constrained data such as absolute values. However, the closed characteristics of
      waste composition data are often ignored when analysed. The results of this study
      showed, for example, that unavoidable animal-derived food waste amounted to
      2.21+/-3.12% with a confidence interval of (-4.03; 8.45), which highlights the
      problem of the biased negative proportions. A Pearson's correlation test, applied
      to waste fraction generation (kg mass), indicated a positive correlation between
      avoidable vegetable food waste and plastic packaging. However, correlation tests
      applied to waste fraction compositions (percentage values) showed a negative
      association in this regard, thus demonstrating that statistical analyses applied
      to compositional waste fraction data, without addressing the closed
      characteristics of these data, have the potential to generate spurious or
      misleading results. Therefore, compositional data should be transformed
      adequately prior to any statistical analysis, such as computing mean, standard
      deviation and correlation coefficients.

PMID- 28882427
TI  - Plastic waste to liquid oil through catalytic pyrolysis using natural and
      synthetic zeolite catalysts.
AB  - This study aims to examine the catalytic pyrolysis of various plastic wastes in
      the presence of natural and synthetic zeolite catalysts. A small pilot scale
      reactor was commissioned to carry out the catalytic pyrolysis of polystyrene
      (PS), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and their mixtures in different
      ratios at 450 degrees C and 75min. PS plastic waste resulted in the highest
      liquid oil yield of 54% using natural zeolite and 50% using synthetic zeolite
      catalysts. Mixing of PS with other plastic wastes lowered the liquid oil yield
      whereas all mixtures of PP and PE resulted in higher liquid oil yield than the
      individual plastic feedstocks using both catalysts. The GC-MS analysis revealed
      that the pyrolysis liquid oils from all samples mainly consisted of aromatic
      hydrocarbons with a few aliphatic hydrocarbon compounds. The types and amounts of
      different compounds present in liquid oils vary with some common compounds such
      as styrene, ethylbenzene, benzene, azulene, naphthalene, and toluene. The FT-IR
      data also confirmed that liquid oil contained mostly aromatic compounds with some
      alkanes, alkenes and small amounts of phenol group. The produced liquid oils have
      high heating values (HHV) of 40.2-45MJ/kg, which are similar to conventional
      diesel. The liquid oil has potential to be used as an alternative source of
      energy or fuel production.

PMID- 28882428
TI  - The effect of mianserin on the severity of psychosis and dyskinesia in the
      parkinsonian marmoset.

PMID- 28882430
TI  - Reproductive outcomes in recipients are not associated with oocyte donor body
      mass index up to 28 kg/m2: a cohort study of 2722 cycles.
AB  - The effect of increasing donor body mass index (BMI) on clinical pregnancies was
      retrospectively analysed in a cohort of consecutive 2722 donor oocyte IVF cycles.
      The relationship between donor BMI and clinical pregnancies was assessed after
      adjusting for recipient BMI. Clinical pregnancy rates and live birth rates (LBR)
      were no different with increasing donor BMI (up to donor BMI <=28 kg/m2). The
      odds of pregnancy did not vary with donor BMI. Compared with donor BMI quartile
      1, OR 95% CI of clinical pregnancy was 1.01 (0.82 to 1.25), 1.01 (0.82 to 1.25)
      and 0.90 (0.73 to 1.12) for quartiles 2, 3 and 4 respectively. A statistically
      significant reduction of cumulative LBR (P = 0.036) and LBR (P = 0.011) was
      observed in the results of donation cycles according to recipient BMI quartiles.
      A reduced odds of clinical pregnancy was observed with increasing recipient BMI.
      Compared with recipient BMI quartile 1, OR 95% CI of clinical pregnancy was 0.84
      (0.68 to 1.03), 0.79 (0.63 to 00.97) and 0.78 (0.63 to 0.971) for quartiles 2, 3
      and 4, respectively. A negative effect on oocyte donation cycle outcomes with
      increased donor BMI was not found after adjusting oocyte donor and recipient BMI.

PMID- 28882431
TI  - Abnormal retention of nuclear lamina and disorganization of chromatin-related
      proteins in spermatozoa from DPY19L2-deleted globozoospermic patients.
AB  - The aim of this study was to characterize the nuclear lamina (NL) and lamin
      chromatin-partners in spermatozoa from four DPY19L2-deleted globozoospermic
      patients. We tested for spermatid transcripts encoding lamins and their chromatin
      partners emerin, LAP2alpha, BAF and BAF-L, by reverse transcriptase-PCR using
      spermatozoa RNA. We also determined the localization of lamin B1, BAF and BAF-L
      by immunofluorescent analysis of spermatozoa from all patients. In RNA from
      globozoospermic and control spermatozoa we detected transcripts encoding lamin
      B1, lamin B3, emerin, LAP2alpha and BAF-L, but not A-type lamins. In contrast,
      BAF transcripts were detected in globozoospermic but not control spermatozoa. The
      NL was immature in human globozoospermic spermatozoa: lamin B1 signal was
      detected in the nuclei of globozoospermic spermatozoa in significantly higher
      proportions than the control (P < 0.05; 56-91% versus 40%) and was predominantly
      observed at the whole nuclear periphery, not polarized as in control spermatozoa.
      Conversely, BAF and BAF-L were detected in control, but not globozoospermic
      spermatozoa. Our results strongly emphasize the importance of the NL and
      associated proteins during human spermiogenesis. In globozoospermia, the lack of
      maturation of the NL, and the modifications in expression and location of
      chromatin-partners, could explain the chromatin defects observed in this rare
      phenotype.

PMID- 28882432
TI  - Analysis of ambient pH stress response mediated by iron and copper intake in
      Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
AB  - The molecular mechanism of tolerance to alkaline pH is well studied in model
      fungi Aspergillus nidulans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, how fission
      yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe survives under alkaline stress remains largely
      unknown, as the genes involved in the alkaline stress response pathways of A.
      nidulans and S. cerevisiae were not found in the genome of this organism. Since
      uptake of iron and copper into cells is important for alkaline tolerance in S.
      cerevisiae, here we examined whether iron and copper uptake processes were
      involved in conferring tolerance to alkaline stress in S. pombe. We first
      revealed that S. pombe wild-type strain could not grow at a pH higher than 6.7.
      We further found that the growths of mutants harboring disruption in the iron
      uptake-related gene frp1+, fio1+ or fip1+ were severely inhibited under ambient
      pH stress condition. In contrast, derepression of these genes, by deletion of
      their repressor gene fep1+, caused cells to acquire resistance to pH stress.
      Together, these results suggested that uptake of iron is essential for ambient pH
      tolerance in S. pombe. We also found that copper is required for the pH stress
      response because disruptants of ctr4+, ctr5+, ccc2+ and cuf1+ genes, all of which
      are needed for regulating intracellular Cu+, displayed ambient pH sensitivity.
      Furthermore, supplementing Fe2+ and Cu2+ ions to the culture media improved
      growth under ambient pH stress. Taken together, our results suggested that uptake
      of iron and copper is the crucial factor needed for the adaptation of S. pombe to
      ambient pH stress.

PMID- 28882433
TI  - Reporting of three-dimensional echocardiography-derived left ventricular volumes
      comes of age.

PMID- 28882429
TI  - Natural killer cells unleashed: Checkpoint receptor blockade and BiKE/TriKE
      utilization in NK-mediated anti-tumor immunotherapy.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells have long been known to mediate anti-tumor responses
      without prior sensitization or recognition of specific tumor antigens. However,
      the tumor microenvironment can suppress NK cell function resulting in tumor
      escape and disease progression. Despite recent advances in cytokine therapy and
      NK cell adoptive transfer, tumor expression of ligands to NK - expressed
      checkpoint receptors can still suppress NK mediated tumor lysis. This review will
      explore many of the checkpoint receptors tumors utilize to manipulate the NK cell
      response as well as some of the current and upcoming pharmacological solutions to
      limit tumor suppression of NK cell function. Furthermore, we will discuss the
      potential to use these drugs in combinational therapies with novel antibody
      reagents such as bi- and tri-specific killer engagers (BiKEs and TriKEs) against
      tumor-specific antigens to enhance NK cell-mediated tumor rejection.

PMID- 28882434
TI  - Associations of age, aerobic fitness, and body mass index with injury in an
      operational Army brigade.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of age, aerobic fitness, and body mass
      index (BMI) on injury risk in operational Army soldiers. DESIGN: Retrospective
      cohort study. METHODS: Male soldiers from an operational Army brigade were
      administered electronic surveys regarding personal characteristics, physical
      fitness, and injuries occurring over the last 12 months. Injury risks were
      stratified by age, 2-mile run time, and BMI. Analyses included descriptive
      incidence, a Mantel-Haenszel chi2 test to determine trends, a multivariable
      logistic regression to determine factors associated with injury, and a one-way
      analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: Forty-seventy percent of 1099 respondents
      reported at least one injury. A linear trend showed that as age, 2-mile run time,
      and BMI increased, so did injury risk (p<0.01). When controlling for BMI, the
      most significant independent injury risk factors were older age (odd ratio (OR)
      30years-35years/<=24years=1.25, 95%CI: 1.08-2.32), (OR>=36years/<=24years=2.05,
      95%CI: 1.36-3.10), and slow run times (OR>=15.9min/<=13.9min=1.91, 95%CI: 1.28
      2.85). An ANOVA showed that both run times and BMI increased with age.
      CONCLUSIONS: The stratified analysis and the multivariable logistic regression
      suggested that older age and poor aerobic fitness are stronger predictors of
      injury than BMI.

PMID- 28882435
TI  - Validation of HeadCount-2w for estimation of two-week heading: Comparison to
      daily reporting in adult amateur player.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To validate the HeadCount-2w questionnaire for estimation of 2-week
      soccer heading by comparison to daily electronic diary reporting over the same
      two-week period. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. METHODS: Adult amateur
      soccer players completed HeadCount-daily, comprising 14 daily at-home assessments
      of soccer play and heading via a tablet PC. Following the 14day period, players
      completed HeadCount-2w, a web-based two-week-recall questionnaire on soccer and
      heading. intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was estimated between HeadCount
      daily, the reference standard, and HeadCount-2w estimates of heading during the
      same 2-week period. RESULTS: 53 participants (38 men) reported a mean of 24.36
      (median=11.76) headers during 2 weeks via HeadCount-daily and a mean of 38.34
      (median=15.0) headers for the same 2 weeks via HeadCount-2w. The ICC comparing 2
      week heading from HeadCount-daily and HeadCount-2w was 0.85. Linear regression of
      the log-transformed Headcount-daily on HeadCount-2w data yielded a slope of 0.71
      (p<0.001; 95% CI 0.54-0.82), suggesting that heading tends to be over-estimated
      by HeadCount-2w relative to HeadCount-daily. Slope estimates for men (0.65) and
      women (0.71) were similar. CONCLUSIONS: HeadCount, a self-administered web-based
      survey, is valid for self-reporting 2-week heading in adult amateur players,
      supporting its use in future research and as a simple and low-cost technique for
      exposure monitoring.

PMID- 28882436
TI  - Antitumor activity and safety of the PARP inhibitor rucaparib in patients with
      high-grade ovarian carcinoma and a germline or somatic BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation:
      Integrated analysis of data from Study 10 and ARIEL2.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: An integrated analysis was undertaken to characterize the antitumor
      activity and safety profile of the oral poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor
      rucaparib in patients with relapsed high-grade ovarian carcinoma (HGOC). METHODS:
      Eligible patients from Study 10 (NCT01482715) and ARIEL2 (NCT01891344) who
      received a starting dose of oral rucaparib 600mg twice daily (BID) with or
      without food were included in these analyses. The integrated efficacy population
      included patients with HGOC and a deleterious germline or somatic BRCA1 or BRCA2
      (BRCA1/2) mutation who received at least two prior chemotherapies and were
      sensitive, resistant, or refractory to platinum-based chemotherapy. The primary
      endpoint was investigator-assessed confirmed objective response rate (ORR).
      Secondary endpoints included duration of response (DOR) and progression-free
      survival (PFS). The integrated safety population included patients with HGOC who
      received at least one dose of rucaparib 600mg BID, irrespective of BRCA1/2
      mutation status and prior treatments. RESULTS: In the efficacy population
      (n=106), ORR was 53.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43.8-63.5); 8.5% and 45.3%
      of patients achieved complete and partial responses, respectively. Median DOR was
      9.2months (95% CI, 6.6-11.6). In the safety population (n=377), the most frequent
      treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) were nausea, asthenia/fatigue, vomiting,
      and anemia/hemoglobin decreased. The most common grade >=3 treatment-emergent AE
      was anemia/hemoglobin decreased. Treatment-emergent AEs led to treatment
      interruption, dose reduction, and treatment discontinuation in 58.6%, 45.9%, and
      9.8% of patients, respectively. No treatment-related deaths occurred.
      CONCLUSIONS: Rucaparib has antitumor activity in advanced BRCA1/2-mutated HGOC
      and a manageable safety profile.

PMID- 28882437
TI  - DNA vaccines against leptospirosis: A literature review.
AB  - Leptospirosis is an infectious disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira species.
      The vaccines that are currently available for leptospirosis are composed of whole
      cell preparations and suffer from limitations such as low efficacy, multiple side
      effects, poor immunological memory and lack of cross-protection against different
      serovars of Leptospira spp. In light of the global prevalence of this disease,
      the development of a more effective vaccine against leptospirosis is of paramount
      importance. Genetic immunization is a promising alternative to conventional
      vaccine development. In the last 25years, several novel strategies have been
      developed for increasing the efficacy of DNA vaccines. Examples of such
      strategies include the introduction of novel plasmid vectors, adjuvants,
      alternate delivery routes, and prime-boost regimens. Herein we discuss the latest
      and most promising advances that have been made in developing DNA vaccines
      against leptospirosis. We also deliberate over the future directions that must be
      undertaken in order to improve results in this field.

PMID- 28882438
TI  - Biodistribution and safety of a live attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine in the
      cynomolgus monkey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The first licensed dengue vaccine is a recombinant, live, attenuated,
      tetravalent dengue virus vaccine (CYD-TDV; Sanofi Pasteur). This study assessed
      the biodistribution, shedding, and toxicity of CYD-TDV in a non-human primate
      model as part of the nonclinical safety assessment program for the vaccine.
      METHODS: Cynomolgus monkeys were given one subcutaneous injection of either one
      human dose (5log10 CCID50/serotype) of CYD-TDV or saline control. Study endpoints
      included clinical observations, body temperature, body weight, food consumption,
      clinical pathology, immunogenicity, and post-mortem examinations including
      histopathology. Viral load, distribution, persistence, and shedding in tissues
      and body fluids were evaluated by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase
      chain reaction. RESULTS: The subcutaneous administration of CYD-TDV was well
      tolerated. There were no toxicological findings other than expected minor local
      reactions at the injection site. A transient low level of CYD-TDV viral RNA was
      detected in blood and the viral genome was identified primarily at the injection
      site and in the draining lymph nodes following immunization. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results, together with other data from repeat-dose toxicity and neurovirulence
      studies, confirm the absence of toxicological concern with CYD-TDV and
      corroborate clinical study observations.

PMID- 28882439
TI  - Erratum to "Phase I, randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled studies to
      evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of an investigational non
      typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) protein vaccine in adults" [Vaccine 34
      (2016) 3156-3163].

PMID- 28882440
TI  - Determinants of under-immunization and cumulative time spent under-immunized in a
      Quebec cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Under-immunization refers to a state of sub-optimal protection
      against vaccine preventable diseases. Vaccine coverage for age may not capture
      intentional or non-intentional spacing of vaccines in the recommended provincial
      immunization guidelines. We aimed to identify factors associated with coverage
      and under-immunization and to determine the number of days during which children
      were under-immunized during their first 24months of life. METHODS: Secondary
      analysis of children <=3years recruited through active surveillance for
      gastroenteritis from three Quebec pediatric emergency departments from 2012 to
      2014. Vaccination status for children at least 24months of age was determined
      using provincial immunization guidelines. Cumulative days under-immunized were
      calculated for DTaP-VPI-Hib, PCV, MMR, and Men-C-C. Factors associated with up-to
      date (UTD) status at 24months of life and for under-immunization >=6months were
      analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: Of 246 eligible children, 180 (73%)
      were UTD by 24months of life. The mean cumulative days under-immunized for MMR
      was 107days, for PCV 209days, for Men-C-C 145days, and for DTaP-VPI-Hib 227days.
      Overall, 149 children (60%) experienced delay for at least 1 vaccine. Factors
      associated with both an UTD status at 24months and concurrently associated with
      being under-immunization >=6months, included timely initiation of immunization
      (OR=5.85; 95% CI: 2.80-12.22) and (OR=0.13; 95% CI: 0.07-0.24), failure to co
      administer 18-month vaccines (OR=0.15; 95% CI: 0.10-0.21) and (OR=3.29; 95% CI:
      2.47-4.39), and having a household with >=3 children under 18years ((OR=0.50;
      0.28-0.86) and (OR=2.99; 1.45-6.22), respectively. CONCLUSION: Paired with an
      unexpected low level of coverage at 24months of life, the majority of our cohort
      also experienced a state of under-immunization for a least one vaccine. Estimates
      of coverage do not capture intentional or non-intentional gaps in protection from
      vaccine preventable illnesses. Timely preventive care should be prioritized.

PMID- 28882441
TI  - Generation of a novel live rabies vaccine strain with a high level of safety by
      introducing attenuating mutations in the nucleoprotein and glycoprotein.
AB  - The current live rabies vaccine SAG2 is attenuated by only one mutation (Arg-to
      Glu) at position 333 in the glycoprotein (G333). This fact generates a potential
      risk of the emergence of a pathogenic revertant by a back mutation at this
      position during viral propagation in the body. To circumvent this risk, it is
      desirable to generate a live vaccine strain highly and stably attenuated by
      multiple mutations. However, the information on attenuating mutations other than
      that at G333 is very limited. We previously reported that amino acids at
      positions 273 and 394 in the nucleoprotein (N273/394) (Leu and His, respectively)
      of fixed rabies virus Ni-CE are responsible for the attenuated phenotype by
      enhancing interferon (IFN)/chemokine gene expressions in infected neural cells.
      In this study, we found that amino acid substitutions at N273/394 (Phe-to-Leu and
      Tyr-to-His, respectively) attenuated the pathogenicity of the oral live vaccine
      ERA, which has a virulent-type Arg at G333. Then we generated ERA-N273/394-G333
      attenuated by the combination of the above attenuating mutations at G333 and
      N273/394, and checked its safety. Similar to the ERA-G333, which is attenuated by
      only the mutation at G333, ERA-N273/394-G333 did not cause any symptoms in adult
      mice after intracerebral inoculation, indicating a low level of residual
      pathogenicity of ERA-N273/394-G333. Further examination revealed that infection
      with ERA-N273/394-G333 induces IFN-beta and CXCL10 mRNA expressions more strongly
      than ERA-G333 infection in a neuroblastoma cell line. Importantly, we found that
      the ERA-N273/394-G333 stain has a lower risk for emergence of a pathogenic
      revertant than does the ERA-G333. These results indicate that ERA-N273/394-G333
      has a potential to be a promising candidate for a live rabies vaccine strain with
      a high level of safety.

PMID- 28882442
TI  - Polio immunity and the impact of mass immunization campaigns in the Democratic
      Republic of the Congo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In order to prevent outbreaks from wild and vaccine-derived
      poliovirus, maintenance of population immunity in non-endemic countries is
      critical. METHODS: We estimated population seroprevalence using dried blood spots
      collected from 4893 children 6-59months olds in the 2013-2014 Demographic and
      Health Survey in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). RESULTS: Population
      immunity was 81%, 90%, and 70% for poliovirus types 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
      Among 6-59-month-old children, 78% reported at least one dose of polio in routine
      immunization, while only 15% had three doses documented on vaccination cards. All
      children in the study had been eligible for at least two trivalent oral polio
      vaccine campaigns at the time of enrollment; additional immunization campaigns
      seroconverted 5.0%, 14%, and 5.5% of non-immune children per-campaign for types
      1, 2, and 3, respectively, averaged over relevant campaigns for each serotype.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overall polio immunity was high at the time of the study, though
      pockets of low immunity cannot be ruled out. The DRC still relies on
      supplementary immunization campaigns, and this report stresses the importance of
      the quality and coverage of those campaigns over their quantity, as well as the
      importance of routine immunization.

PMID- 28882443
TI  - Debate on vaccines and autoimmunity: Do not attack the author, yet discuss it
      methodologically.
AB  - Since Jenner, vaccines and vaccinations have stirred a hot, highly polarized
      debate, leading to contrasting positions and feelings, ranging from acritical
      enthusiasm to blind denial. On the one hand, we find anti-vaccination movements
      which divulge and disseminate misleading information, myths, prejudices, and even
      frauds, with the main aim of denying that vaccination practices represent a major
      public health measure, being effective in controlling infectious diseases and
      safeguarding the wellbeing of entire communities. Recently, the authors of many
      vaccine safety investigations are being personally criticized rather than the
      actual science being methodologically assessed and critiqued. Unfortunately, this
      could result in making vaccine safety science a "hazardous occupation". Critiques
      should focus on the science and not on the authors and on the scientists that
      publish reasonably high-quality science suggesting a problem with a given
      vaccine. These scientists require adequate professional protection so there are
      not disincentives to publish and to carry out researches in the field. The issues
      for vaccine safety are not dissimilar to other areas such as medical errors and
      drug safety.

PMID- 28882444
TI  - Tetanus Toxoid carrier protein induced T-helper cell responses upon vaccination
      of middle-aged adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Vaccines frequently induce suboptimal immune responses in the
      elderly, due to immunological ageing. Timely vaccination may be a strategy to
      overcome this problem, which classifies middle-aged adults asan interesting
      target group for future vaccine interventions. However, the immunological fitness
      of the middle-aged population is ill-defined. It is currently unknown whether
      effective T-cell help towards B-cells is initiated by conjugate-carrier vaccines
      at middle-age. AIM: We characterized systemic Tetanus Toxoid (TT) specific T
      helper cell responses in the circulation of middle-aged adults (50-65years of
      age, n=31) having received the MenACWY-TT vaccination. METHODS: Blood samples
      were taken pre- as well as 7days, 28days, and 1year post-vaccination. TT-specific
      T-cell responses were determined by IFNgamma Elispot and by the secretion of
      IFNgamma, IL13, IL10, IL17, and IL21 in cell culture supernatants. Circulating
      CD4+CXCR5+ICOS+IL21+ cells were analyzed by flow cytometry, and meningococcal and
      TT-specific IgG responses by bead-based immunoassays. The correlation between the
      T-cell help and humoral responses was evaluated. RESULTS: Vaccination with a TT
      carrier protein induced a mixed TT-specific Th1 (IFNgamma), Th2 (IL13, IL10), and
      Th17 (IL17) response in most participants. Additionally, circulating
      CD4+CXCR5+ICOS+IL21+ cells were significantly increased 7days post-vaccination.
      Pre-vaccination TT-specific cytokine production and post-vaccination Th2
      responses correlated positively with the increase of CD4+CXCR5+ICOS+IL21+ cells.
      No correlation between T-cell help and antibody responses was found. CONCLUSION:
      The characteristics of the T-cell response upon a TT-carrier vaccination suggests
      effective T-cell help towards B-cells in response to meningococcal
      polysaccharides, although the absence of a correlation with the antibody
      responses warrants further clarification. However, the robust T-helper cell
      response in middle-aged adults, decades after previous TT vaccinations,
      strengthens the classification of this age group for future vaccine interventions
      in the context of population ageing.

PMID- 28882445
TI  - Strong influence of human leukocyte antigen-DP variants on response to hepatitis
      B vaccine in a Japanese population.
AB  - Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have reported that human leukocyte
      antigen (HLA) variants are associated with chronic hepatitis B, spontaneous
      hepatitis B virus (HBV) clearance, and response to hepatitis B vaccine. Single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HLA-DP (rs9277535 and rs3077) and HLA-DQ
      (rs2856718 and rs7453920) have been repeatedly associated with chronic hepatitis
      B and spontaneous HBV clearance. However, the data on the SNPs associated with
      response to hepatitis B vaccine are inconclusive. The objective of this study was
      to determine whether these four HLA SNPs that have been identified as risk loci
      for chronic HBV infection are associated with response to hepatitis B vaccine in
      a Japanese population. We enrolled 278 medical students who received hepatitis B
      vaccination and measured anti-hepatitis B surface (HBs) antibody titers 1month
      after a three-dose vaccination series. We found that rs9277535 and rs3077 in HLA
      DP were strongly associated with response to hepatitis B vaccine (odds ratio
      [OR]=0.31 and 0.32, P=0.004 and 0.010, respectively). These two SNPs were
      significantly associated with anti-HBs titers in an allele-dependent manner. On
      the other hand, rs2856718 and rs7453920 in HLA-DQ were not associated with
      response to hepatitis B vaccine. These results indicate that rs9277535 and rs3077
      in HLA-DP are the major determinants of response to hepatitis B vaccine, whereas
      rs2856718 and rs7453920 in HLA-DQ have little effect on the immune response to
      hepatitis B vaccine.

PMID- 28882446
TI  - Relationship between Mixed Donor-Recipient Chimerism and Disease Recurrence after
      Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease.
AB  - Mixed donor chimerism after hematopoietic cell transplantation for sickle cell
      disease (SCD) can result in resolution of disease symptoms, but symptoms recur
      when donor chimerism is critically low. The relationship between chimerism,
      hemoglobin S (HbS) level, and symptomatic disease was correlated retrospectively
      in 95 patients who had chimerism reports available at day 100 and at 1 and 2
      years after transplantation. Recurrent disease was defined as recurrence of vaso
      occlusive crises, acute chest syndrome, stroke, and/or HbS levels > 50%. Thirty
      five patients maintained full donor chimerism (myeloid or whole blood) through 2
      years. Donor chimerism was less than 10% (defined as graft failure) in 13
      patients during this period. Mixed chimerism was reported in the remaining 47
      patients (range, 10% to 94%). The lowest documented donor chimerism without
      symptomatic disease was 26%. Of 12 surviving patients with recurrent disease, 2
      had recurrence of symptoms before documented graft failure (donor chimerism of
      11% and 17%, respectively). Three patients underwent second transplantation for
      graft failure. None received donor leukocyte infusion to maintain mixed chimerism
      or prevent graft failure. We conclude stable donor chimerism greater than 25% is
      associated with resolution of SCD-related symptoms, and HbS levels in transplant
      recipients should be interpreted in context of the sickle trait status of the
      donors.

PMID- 28882447
TI  - Improving the Informed Consent Process in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation:
      Patient, Caregiver, and Provider Perspectives.
AB  - One of the significant modifications to the Common Rule is the requirement that
      prospective participants be given information sufficient for a "reasonable
      person." However, research is limited on what types of information patients,
      caregivers, and providers consider "key information." Although certain aspects of
      informed consent (IC) may be considered standard, considering the individualized
      needs and preferences of patients is necessary for patient-centered consent. In
      this study, we qualitatively examined the specific types of information that
      patients and caregivers involved in hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), as
      well as their providers, believe to be important and necessary as part of the IC
      process to make a decision about participating in clinical research; and further,
      how these perspectives are aligned. Our findings suggest opportunities for
      improving the IC document and process by emphasizing information of importance to
      patients, such as the benefits to others and contributions to science that are
      associated with participation in clinical research. Furthermore, increasing
      patient engagement during the IC process may allow providers to streamline
      information that is aligned with patient information needs and preferences.

PMID- 28882448
TI  - Paenibacillus ihbetae sp. nov., a cold-adapted antimicrobial producing bacterium
      isolated from high altitude Suraj Tal Lake in the Indian trans-Himalayas.
AB  - The assessment of bacterial diversity and bioprospection of the high-altitude
      lake Suraj Tal microorganisms for potent antimicrobial activities revealed the
      presence of two Gram-stain-variable, endospore-forming, rod-shaped, aerobic
      bacteria, namely IHBB 9852T and IHBB 9951. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S
      rRNA gene sequence showed the affiliation of strains IHBB 9852T and IHBB 9951
      within the genus Paenibacillus, exhibiting the highest sequence similarity to
      Paenibacillus lactis DSM 15596T (97.8% and 97.7%) and less than 95.9% similarity
      to other species of the genus Paenibacillus. DNA-DNA relatedness among strains
      IHBB 9852T and IHBB 9951 was 90.2%, and with P. lactis DSM 15596T, was 52.7% and
      52.4%, respectively. The novel strains contain anteiso-C15:0, iso-C15:0, C16:0
      and iso-C16:0 as major fatty acids, and phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylethanolamine and diphosphatidylglycerol were predominant polar
      lipids. The DNA G+C content for IHBB 9852T and IHBB 9951 was 52.1 and 52.2mol%.
      Based on the results of phenotypic and genomic characterisations, we concluded
      that strains IHBB 9852T and IHBB 9951 belong to a novel Paenibacillus species,
      for which the name Paenibacillus ihbetae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is
      IHBB 9852T (=MTCC 12459T=MCC 2795T=JCM 31131T=KACC 19072T; DPD TaxonNumber
      TA00046) and IHBB 9951 (=MTCC 12458=MCC 2794=JCM 31132=KACC 19073) is a reference
      strain.

PMID- 28882449
TI  - Contribution of backward and forward wave pressures to age-related increases in
      aortic pressure in a community sample not receiving antihypertensive therapy.
AB  - Reports on the contribution of aortic forward (Pf) and backward (Pb) wave
      pressures to age-related increases in central aortic pulse pressure (PPc) have
      been confounded by the use of participants receiving antihypertensive therapy. We
      assessed the relative contribution of Pf and Pb to age-related increases in PPc
      (radial applanation tonometry and SphygmoCor software using an assumed triangular
      wave for wave separation analysis) in 892 community participants not receiving
      antihypertensive therapy. We validated our results using aortic flow waves
      (echocardiography) for wave separation analysis in 254 of these participants. In
      multivariate regression models in those aged <50 years, adjustments for both Pb
      and a Pf-independent measure of reflected wave function (RM = Pb/Pf), but not Pf
      abolished the impact of age on PPc. However, in those aged >50 years, adjustments
      for Pf (beta-coefficient: 0.25 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.74 +/- 0.08; P < .0001) and Pb
      (0.04 +/- 0.04 vs. 0.74 +/- 0.08; P < .0001), but not RM markedly decreased the
      relationship between age and PPc. On product of coefficient mediation analysis,
      whether assessed in men or in women, in those participants aged <50 years,
      independent of several confounders and mean arterial pressure, Pb (P < .005), but
      not Pf contributed to age-related increases in PPc. In contrast, in those
      participants aged >=50 years, independent of several confounders and mean
      arterial pressure, Pb (P < .005) and Pf (P < .01) contributed to age-related
      increases in PPc, and Pb effects were markedly diminished by adjustments for Pf
      (0.26 +/- 0.002 vs. 0.52 +/- 0.003 mm Hg per year, P < .0001 for comparison). In
      conclusion, independent of the effects of antihypertensive therapy, aortic
      backward waves contribute to age-related increases in aortic PPc across the adult
      lifespan, but at an older age, this effect may be attributed in part to the
      impact of forward on backward wave pressures.

PMID- 28882450
TI  - The 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine glycosylase increases its migration to mitochondria in
      compensated cardiac hypertrophy.
AB  - Cardiac hypertrophy is a compensatory mechanism maladapted because it presents an
      increase in the oxidative stress which could be associated with the development
      of the heart failure. A mechanism proposed is by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
      oxidation, which evolved to a vicious cycle because of the synthesis of proteins
      encoded in the genome is committed. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to
      evaluate the mtDNA damage and enzyme repairing the 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine
      glycosylase mitochondrial isoform 1-2a (OGG1-2a) in the early stage of
      compensated cardiac hypertrophy induced by abdominal aortic constriction (AAC).
      Results showed that after 6 weeks of AAC, hearts presented a compensated
      hypertrophy (22%), with an increase in the cell volume (35%), mitochondrial mass
      (12%), and mitochondrial membrane potential (94%). However, the increase of
      oxidative stress did not affect mtDNA most probably because OGG1-2a was found to
      increase 3.2 times in the mitochondrial fraction. Besides, mitochondrial function
      was not altered by the cardiac hypertrophy condition but in vitro mitochondria
      from AAC heart showed an increased sensibility to stress induced by the high Ca2+
      concentration. The increase in the oxidative stress in compensated cardiac
      hypertrophy induced the OGG1-2a migration to mitochondria to repair mtDNA
      oxidation, as a mechanism that allows maintaining the cardiac function in the
      compensatory stage.

PMID- 28882451
TI  - Development and Mechanism of Small Activating RNA Targeting CEBPA, a Novel
      Therapeutic in Clinical Trials for Liver Cancer.
AB  - Small activating RNAs (saRNAs) are short double-stranded oligonucleotides that
      selectively increase gene transcription. Here, we describe the development of an
      saRNA that upregulates the transcription factor CCATT/enhancer binding protein
      alpha (CEBPA), investigate its mode of action, and describe its development into
      a clinical candidate. A bioinformatically directed nucleotide walk around the
      CEBPA gene identified an saRNA sequence that upregulates CEBPA mRNA 2.5-fold in
      human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. A nuclear run-on assay confirmed that this
      upregulation is a transcriptionally driven process. Mechanistic experiments
      demonstrate that Argonaute-2 (Ago2) is required for saRNA activity, with the
      guide strand of the saRNA shown to be associated with Ago2 and localized at the
      CEBPA genomic locus using RNA chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays. The
      data support a sequence-specific on-target saRNA activity that leads to enhanced
      CEBPA mRNA transcription. Chemical modifications were introduced in the saRNA
      duplex to prevent activation of the innate immunity. This modified saRNA retains
      activation of CEBPA mRNA and downstream targets and inhibits growth of liver
      cancer cell lines in vitro. This novel drug has been encapsulated in a liposomal
      formulation for liver delivery, is currently in a phase I clinical trial for
      patients with liver cancer, and represents the first human study of an saRNA
      therapeutic.

PMID- 28882452
TI  - AAV-PHP.B-Mediated Global-Scale Expression in the Mouse Nervous System Enables
      GBA1 Gene Therapy for Wide Protection from Synucleinopathy.
AB  - The lack of technology for direct global-scale targeting of the adult mouse
      nervous system has hindered research on brain processing and dysfunctions.
      Currently, gene transfer is normally achieved by intraparenchymal viral
      injections, but these injections target a restricted brain area. Herein, we
      demonstrated that intravenous delivery of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-PHP.B
      viral particles permeated and diffused throughout the neural parenchyma,
      targeting both the central and the peripheral nervous system in a global pattern.
      We then established multiple procedures of viral transduction to control gene
      expression or inactivate gene function exclusively in the adult nervous system
      and assessed the underlying behavioral effects. Building on these results, we
      established an effective gene therapy strategy to counteract the widespread
      accumulation of alpha-synuclein deposits throughout the forebrain in a mouse
      model of synucleinopathy. Transduction of A53T-SCNA transgenic mice with AAV
      PHP.B-GBA1 restored physiological levels of the enzyme, reduced alpha-synuclein
      pathology, and produced significant behavioral recovery. Finally, we provided
      evidence that AAV-PHP.B brain penetration does not lead to evident dysfunctions
      in blood-brain barrier integrity or permeability. Altogether, the AAV-PHP.B viral
      platform enables non-invasive, widespread, and long-lasting global neural
      expression of therapeutic genes, such as GBA1, providing an invaluable approach
      to treat neurodegenerative diseases with diffuse brain pathology such as
      synucleinopathies.

PMID- 28882453
TI  - Molecular cloning, biochemical characterization, and expression analysis of two
      glutathione S-transferase paralogs from the big-belly seahorse (Hippocampus
      abdominalis).
AB  - Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs, EC 2.5.1.18) are important Phase II detoxifying
      enzymes that catalyze hydrophobic, electrophilic xenobiotic substance with the
      conjugation of reduced glutathione (GSH). In this study, GSTMU and GSTrho
      paralogs of GST in the big belly seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis; HaGSTrho,
      HaGSTMU) were biochemically, molecularly, functionally characterized to determine
      their detoxification range and protective capacities upon different pathogenic
      stresses. HaGSTrho and HaGSTMU are composed of coding sequences of 681bp and
      654bp, which encode proteins 225 and 217 amino acids, with predicted molecular
      masses of 26.06kDa and 25.74kDa respectively. Sequence analysis revealed that
      both HaGSTs comprise the characteristic GSH-binding site in the thioredoxin-like
      N-terminal domain and substrate binding site in the C-terminal domain. The
      recombinant HaGSTrho and HaGSTMU proteins catalyzed the model GST substrate 1
      chloro-2, 4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB). Enzyme kinetic analysis revealed different Km
      and Vmax values for each rHaGST, suggesting that they have different conjugation
      rates. The optimum conditions (pH, temperature) and inhibitory assays of each
      protein demonstrated different optimal ranges. However, HaGSTMU was highly
      expressed in the ovary and gill, whereas HaGSTrho was highly expressed in the
      gill and pouch. mRNA expression of HaGSTrho and HaGSTMU was significantly
      elevated upon lipopolysaccharide, Poly (I:C), and Edwardsiella tarda challenges
      in liver and in blood cells as well as with Streptococcus iniae challenge in
      blood cells. From these collective experimental results, we propose that HaGSTrho
      and HaGSTMU are effective in detoxifying xenobiotic toxic agents, and
      importantly, their mRNA expression could be stimulated by immunological stress
      signals in the aquatic environment.

PMID- 28882455
TI  - Assessment of the discriminating value of the 8th AJCC stage grouping for
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study seeks to validate the discriminating value of the 8th
      edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for
      Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) amongst patients registered within the
      surveillance, epidemiology and end results (SEER) database. METHODS: Through
      SEER*Stat program, SEER database (2010-2013) was queried and 8th AJCC stage
      groups were reconstructed. Overall and cancer-specific survival analyses
      according to both 7th and 8th editions were conducted through Kaplan-Meier
      analysis/log-rank testing and multivariate analysis was conducted through a Cox
      proportional model. RESULTS: For overall and cancer-specific survival assessment
      according to the 8th edition, P values for pair wise comparisons among different
      stages were significant (<0.001) in all comparisons except for stage IB vs.
      II/stage IIIB vs. stage IVA. A modified AJCC 8th staging system was suggested
      through collapsing stages IB/II into one stage and stages IIIB/IVA into one
      stage. Overall and cancer-specific survivals were compared according to this
      modified system and pair wise P value was significant in all comparisons (P <
      0.001). CONCLUSION: There is a minimal improvement in discriminating value for
      the 8th edition compared to the 7th edition; however, notable overlap in outcomes
      is still observed between stages IB/II and IIIB/IVA. A modified AJCC 8th system
      collapsing these overlapping stages may be more clinically relevant.

PMID- 28882454
TI  - Understanding Immunity through the Lens of Disease Ecology.
AB  - As we describe the immune system in ever more exquisite detail, we might find
      that no matter how successful, this approach will not be sufficient to understand
      the spread of infectious agents, their susceptibility to vaccine therapy, and
      human disease resistance. Compared with the strict reductionism practiced as a
      means of characterizing most biological processes, I propose that the progression
      and outcome of disease-causing host-parasite interactions will be more clearly
      understood through a focus on disease ecology.

PMID- 28882456
TI  - Predicting adverse events in patients undergoing hepatectomy-validation of
      preoperative nomogram and risk score.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Much research exists on preoperative measures of
      postoperative mortality in the surgical treatment of liver malignancies, but
      little on morbidity, a more common outcome. This study aims (i) to validate the
      published calculations as acceptable measures of postoperative mortality and (ii)
      to assess the value of these published measures in predicting postoperative
      morbidity. METHODS: Data were collected from a prospectively managed dataset of
      1059 hepatectomies performed in Louisville, Kentucky from December 1990 to April
      2014. Preoperative data were used to assign scores for each of two published
      measures and the scores were sorted into clinically relevant groups with
      corresponding ordinal scores, according to the previously published literature
      (Dhir nomogram and Simons risk score). RESULTS: After selection, 851
      hepatectomies were analyzed. Both the Dhir nomogram (p = 0.0004) and Simons risk
      score (p = 0.0017) were acceptable predictors of postoperative mortality. In the
      analysis of morbidity, Dhir scores were a poor predictor of morbidity. The Simons
      ordinal risk score was predictive of complications (p = 0.0029), the number of
      complications (p = 0.0028), complication grade (p = 0.0033), and hepatic-specific
      complications (p = 0.0003). CONCLUSION: The Simons ordinal risk score can be
      useful in assessing postoperative morbidity among hepatectomy patients.

PMID- 28882457
TI  - Characterization of dermal myofibroblast differentiation in pseudoxanthoma
      elasticum.
AB  - Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a rare hereditary disorder which is caused by
      ABCC6 (ATP-binding cassette subfamily C member 6) gene mutations. Characteristic
      hallmarks of PXE are progressive calcification and degradation of the elastic
      fibers in skin, cardiovascular system and ocular fundus. Since the underlying
      pathomechanisms of PXE remain unidentified, the aim of this study was to get new
      insights into PXE pathophysiology by characterizing dermal myofibroblast
      differentiation. Fibroblasts are the key cells of extracellular matrix (ECM)
      remodeling and, therefore, participate not only in physiological processes, such
      as calcification or wound healing, but also in pathologic events, such as
      fibrotization. We revealed that human dermal PXE fibroblasts possess exaggerated
      migration capability in wound healing and attenuated myofibroblast contractility
      in comparison to controls. Subsequent analyses reinforced these observations and
      indicated a diminished induction of the myofibroblast differentiation markers
      alpha-smooth muscle actin and xylosyltransferase-I as well as poor transforming
      growth factor-beta1 responsiveness in PXE fibroblasts. In summary, we describe
      pathological deviations of dermal myofibroblast differentiation in PXE which
      might be mediated by aberrant supramolecular ECM organization. These results not
      only improve our insights into cellular PXE pathophysiology, but might also
      qualify us to interfere with ECM remodeling in the future.

PMID- 28882458
TI  - Opioid Prescribing Education in Surgical Residencies: A Program Director Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid abuse and misuse is a public health crisis. A national effort
      to reduce this phenomenon is ongoing. Residents represent a large pool of opioid
      prescribers but, are often not the target for opioid prescribing education (OPE).
      We developed a survey to assess current opioid prescribing practices and
      education among surgical residents. STUDY DESIGN: An Institutional Review Board
      and Association of Program Directors in Surgery approved survey was
      electronically mailed to surgical program directors (PDs). The survey included
      questions regarding residency type, location, number of graduates per year,
      perceived value of OPE, residency policy on prescribing outpatients controlled
      substances, presence of OPE, and preferred method of OPE. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A total of 248 PDs were e-mailed the survey with 110 complete responses (44.4%).
      Of all 104 (94.5%) allow residents to prescribe outpatient opioids with 24
      (23.1%) limiting the opioid class prescribed. A total of 29 (27.9%) programs
      require residents to obtain their own Drug Enforcement Administration
      registration. Only 22 (20.0%) programs had in place mandatory OPE, 7 (6.4%) PDs
      were unsure if OPE was a mandatory educational requirement. Furthermore, 70
      (79.5%) of programs currently without OPE are considering adding it. Didactic
      lecture (18, 81.8%) is the most common modality for OPE. The mode time dedicated
      to OPE was 1 hour. When PDs were asked about which method would be best to
      deliver OPE, the most common response was case-based scenarios (39, 35.5%).
      Bivariate statistics were performed and no association was found between OPE and
      program characteristics'. CONCLUSIONS: Most surgical residency programs allow
      residents to prescribe outpatient opioids, very few require OPE. The most common
      method of OPE was didactic lectures. To enhance a resident's knowledge in
      prescribing opioids, programs should incorporate OPE into their curriculum.

PMID- 28882459
TI  - Compliance of secondary production and eco-exergy as indicators of benthic
      macroinvertebrates assemblages' response to canopy cover conditions in
      Neotropical headwater streams.
AB  - Riparian vegetation cover influences benthic assemblages structure and
      functioning in headwater streams, as it regulates light availability and
      autochthonous primary production in these ecosystems.Secondary production,
      diversity, and exergy-based indicators were applied in capturing how riparian
      cover influences the structure and functioning of benthic macroinvertebrate
      assemblages in tropical headwater streams. Four hypotheses were tested: (1) open
      canopy will determine the occurrence of higher diversity in benthic
      macroinvertebrate assemblages; (2) streams with open canopy will exhibit more
      complex benthic macroinvertebrate communities (in terms of information embedded
      in the organisms' biomass); (3) in streams with open canopy benthic
      macroinvertebrate assemblages will be more efficient in using the available
      resources to build structure, which will be reflected by higher eco-exergy
      values; (4) benthic assemblages in streams with open canopy will exhibit more
      secondary productivity. We selected eight non-impacted headwater streams, four
      shaded and four with open canopy, all located in the Neotropical savannah
      (Cerrado) of southeastern Brazil. Open canopy streams consistently exhibited
      significantly higher eco-exergy and instant secondary production values,
      exemplifying that these streams may support more complex and productive benthic
      macroinvertebrate assemblages. Nevertheless, diversity indices and specific eco
      exergy were not significantly different in shaded and open canopy streams. Since
      all the studied streams were selected for being considered as non-impacted, this
      suggests that the potential represented by more available food resources was not
      used to build a more complex dissipative structure. These results illustrate the
      role and importance of the canopy cover characteristics on the structure and
      functioning of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in tropical headwater
      streams, while autochthonous production appears to play a crucial role as food
      source for benthic macroinvertebrates. This study also highlights the possible
      application of thermodynamic based indicators as tools to guide environmental
      managers in developing and implementing policies in the neotropical savannah.

PMID- 28882460
TI  - Elemental and radiological characterization of commercial Cetraria islandica (L.)
      Acharius pharmaceutical and food supplementation products.
AB  - An elemental and radiological characterization was performed on Cetraria
      islandica (L.) Ach. pharmaceutical and food supplementation products purchased in
      local specialty shops in Italy. Essential elements (K, Ca, P, S, Cl, Mn, Fe, Cu,
      Zn, Ni, Br, I) and nonessential or toxic elements (Al, Ti, Si, Rb, Sr, As, Cd,
      Sn, and Pb) were determined by Energy Dispersive Polarized X-Ray Fluorescence
      Spectrometry; natural radionuclides (238U, 234U, 230Th, 210Po, 232Th, and 228Th)
      were determined by alpha spectrometry. The results show that C. islandica, whose
      nutritional value was assessed referring to recommended nutrient intakes, could
      serve as an important source of essential elements. Moreover, as expected,
      lichens concentrate airborne 210Po, whose activity ranged from 132 to 489Bqkg
      1dw. This value was much higher than those reported by UNSCEAR for leafy
      vegetables in the world. In addition, total As and Cd were <1mgkg-1dw and Pb mean
      concentration was 9.25mgkg-1dw. Health risks associated with the toxic elements
      contained in C. islandica (L.) products were calculated using risk estimators.
      Their contribution to total elemental intake does not appear to pose a threat,
      but the concentrations of these elements should be continuously monitored to
      protect consumers against potential adverse health effects.

PMID- 28882461
TI  - A rare giant chronic polypoidal endocervicits in a premenopausal woman; case
      report.

PMID- 28882462
TI  - Successful management of a severe anti-M alloimmunization during pregnancy.
AB  - We report the successful outcome of a patient with anti-M antibodies with a
      previous history of severe hemolysis of erythrocytes. Serial plasma exchange from
      the first trimester combined with ultrasound monitoring of the fetal middle
      cerebral artery blood velocity was implemented. This management allowed a
      favorable pregnancy outcome of an infant born by an elective caesarean section at
      32 weeks 6/7 with a normal Apgar score at 8/9/10. The other therapeutic
      alternatives such as intravenous immunoglobulin and in utero fetal blood
      transfusions are discussed.

PMID- 28882463
TI  - Neonatal outcomes after failed tracheal intubation during obstetric general
      anaesthesia for caesarean section: Secondary analysis of a UKOSS case-control
      study.

PMID- 28882464
TI  - Metacarpophalangeal joint of the thumb arthrodesis using intramedullary
      interlocking screws XMCPTM.
AB  - The study objective was to assess the results of a thumb metacarpophalangeal
      joint (MCPJ) arthrodesis using intramedullary interlocking screws at 25 degrees ,
      XMCP TM (Extremity Medical, Parsippany, NJ). Radiographs evaluated the angle of
      arthrodesis, time of fusion and fixation of the implant. Clinical and functional
      outcomes were assessed using the DASH questionnaire and the VAS scale. Any
      complications found during surgery or the follow-up period were noted. We studied
      9 patients. The mean follow-up was 27.6 months. Patients showed clinical and
      radiological evidence of fusion in an average of 8 weeks, the angle of fusion was
      25 degrees . There were no complications and no implant had to be removed. The
      XMCPTM system provides a reliable method for MCPJ arthrodesis for several
      indications and can be used with other procedures in the complex hand.

PMID- 28882465
TI  - Remote cerebellar hemorrhage caused by undetected dural tear after lumbar spinal
      surgery.
AB  - Remote cerebellar haemorrhage is a rare but serious complication after spinal
      surgery. Although the mechanism is not well known, it always occurs after loss of
      cerebrospinal fluid due to dural tear, not always identified, which produces
      remote venous bleeding. Prognosis depends largely on the severity of this
      bleeding. We report a case of 67-year-old female who suffered a cerebellar and
      subarachnoid haemorrhage and subdural haematoma after elective lumbar fusion
      surgery and eventually required decompressive craniectomy.

PMID- 28882466
TI  - A low degree of high ambient temperature decreased food intake and activated
      median preoptic and arcuate nuclei.
AB  - High ambient temperature (HTa) activates both behavioral and autonomic responses.
      Decreased food intake (FI) is a well-known behavioral response under HTa. In
      general, this behavioral response seems to be mediated under the activation of
      the stress axis. The present study, however, revealed that decreased FI after a
      low degree of HTa appeared to be activated earlier than stress axis activation.
      By comparing low and high levels of HTa exposure in rats, the present experiment
      demonstrated that the HTa-induced decrease in FI was clear in both conditions.
      However, only the high degree HTa rats showed prominent physiological responses
      to HTa. The results indicated that low degree HTa exposure decreased FI earlier
      than activated physiological responses. Using the low degree HTa condition, the
      next experiment revealed that only the median preoptic nucleus (MnPO) and arcuate
      nucleus (Arc) were activated. These results suggested that the MnPO and Arc (MnPO
      Arc) are apparently involved in the low degree HTa effect on FI and that the
      paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus, which is the upper part of the stress axis,
      was not associated with this effect. A separate experiment also showed no
      differences in the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) concentrations from many
      selected nuclei. This result suggested that the effect of HTa to decrease FI via
      the MnPO-Arc was not associated with CRF. The current findings introduce a new
      behavioral aspect of the HTa effect on FI, representing important information to
      explain the mechanism of obesity relative to environmental conditions.

PMID- 28882467
TI  - Muscle activation behavior in a swimming exergame: Differences by experience and
      gaming velocity.
AB  - The effects of playing intensity and prior exergame and sport experience on the
      activation patterns of upper limb muscles during a swimming exergame were
      investigated. Surface electromyography of Biceps Brachii, Triceps Brachii,
      Latissimus Dorsi, Upper Trapezius, and Erector Spinae of twenty participants was
      recorded, and the game play was divided into normal and fast. Mean muscle
      activation, normalized to maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), ranged
      from 4.9 to 95.2%MVIC and differed between normal and fast swimming for all
      techniques (p<0.05), except for Latissimus Dorsi during backstroke. After
      normalizing the %MVIC to playing velocity, selective behaviors were observed
      between muscles which were sufficient for pragmatic game play. Moreover, prior
      exergame and real sport experience did not have any effect on the muscle
      activation changes between normal and fast swimming. These behaviors are likely
      to happen when players understand the game mechanics, even after a short
      exposure. Such evaluation might help in adjusting the physical demands of sport
      exergames, for safe and meaningful experiences.

PMID- 28882468
TI  - Inclusive design in architectural practice: Experiential learning of disability
      in architectural education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The built environment can facilitate or impede an individual's
      ability to participate in society. This is particularly so for people with
      disability. Architects are well placed to be advocates for design that enhances
      societal equality. OBJECTIVE: This qualitative study explored architectural
      design students' perceptions of inclusive design, their reflections resulting
      from an experiential learning module and the subsequent influence of these on
      their design practice. METHODS: Twenty four architectural design students
      participated in focus groups or individual interviews. Data were analyzed
      thematically. RESULTS: Three themes were evident: 1) Inclusive design was
      perceived as challenging, 2) Appreciation for the opportunity to learn about the
      perspectives of people with disabilities, and 3) Change of attitude toward
      inclusive design. Experiential learning had fostered reflection, changes in
      attitude and the realization that inclusive design, should begin at the start of
      the design process. CONCLUSIONS: For equitable access for all people to become
      reality, experiential learning, coupled with positive examples of inclusive
      design should be embedded in architectural education.

PMID- 28882469
TI  - Inverse association between excessive alcohol drinking and cardiometabolically
      healthy status in middle-aged men with and without overweight and obesity.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between drinking and
      metabolically healthy status in men with normal weight, overweight and obesity.
      METHODS: The subjects were Japanese men aged from 35 to 60 years (n=31781) and
      they were divided by daily amount of drinking (g ethanol) into light (< 22),
      moderate (>=22 and <44), heavy (>=44 and <66) and very heavy (>=66) drinkers.
      Metabolically healthy subjects were defined as those without hypertension,
      dyslipidemia and diabetes. RESULTS: The percentage of metabolically healthy
      subjects was much lower in the overweight (BMI>=25 and <30) and obese (BMI>=30)
      groups than in the normal weight group (BMI>=18.5 and <25) and was much lower in
      the obese group than in the overweight group. In each of the normal weight and
      overweight groups, percentages of metabolically healthy subjects were
      significantly lower in heavy and very heavy drinkers than in nondrinkers and were
      marginally significantly higher in light drinkers than in nondrinkers. The above
      associations between drinking and metabolically healthy status were confirmed by
      logistic regression analysis. In the obese group, the percentage of metabolically
      healthy subjects was significantly lower in regular drinkers (including all
      drinker categories) than in nondrinkers, and metabolically healthy subjects were
      rare (0.56%) among regular drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of absence and
      presence of overweight or obesity, excessive alcohol drinking is inversely
      associated with metabolically healthy status and should be avoided for prevention
      of cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28882470
TI  - An observational study of vitamin b12 levels and peripheral neuropathy profile in
      patients of diabetes mellitus on metformin therapy.
AB  - METHODS: A descriptive, observational study was completed in a tertiary care
      hospital between November 2014 and March 2016. Fifty consecutive patients of Type
      2-Diabetes Mellitus who had been on metformin therapy for at least three months
      were included in our study. Several Parameters were compared with vitamin B12
      levels and severity of peripheral neuropathy (using Toronto Clinical Scoring
      System (TCSS) and Nerve Conduction Velocity). These included the duration of
      diabetes, duration of metformin usage, dietary history, and HbA1c levels.
      Definite B12 deficiency was defined as B12<150pg/ml and possible B12 deficiency
      as <220pg/ml. RESULTS: In our study, we found a negative correlation between
      duration of metformin use and Vitamin B12 levels(r=-0.40). The mean Vitamin B12
      levels seen in our study was 212.3pg/mL. There is a positive correlation between
      the duration of metformin therapy and peripheral neuropathy (r=0.40). The mean
      TCSS score was 6.8. The percentage of patients with mild neuropathy was 28%, with
      moderate neuropathy was 20% and severe neuropathy in 12% of the patients. The
      average duration of metformin use in patients without peripheral neuropathy was
      5.5yrs whereas the average length of metformin use in patients with peripheral
      neuropathy was 10.4 yrs. CONCLUSION: Patients on long-term metformin therapy are
      at a high risk for Vitamin B12 deficiency and peripheral neuropathy. Interval
      Screening for peripheral neuropathy is recommended for patients on metformin even
      if Vitamin B12 levels appear to be normal.

PMID- 28882471
TI  - Arginine vasopressin improves the memory deficits in Han Chinese patients with
      first-episode schizophrenia.
AB  - The memory impairment is a core deficit in the first-episode schizophrenia
      patients. Arginine vasopressin (AVP) in the brain can improve learning and
      memory. We performed multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled,
      parallel-group clinical trial to study the cognitive functioning in Han Chinese
      first-episode schizophrenic patients in a 12-week treatment regime with the
      intranasal administration of AVP (128 cases) or placebo (131 cases) in addition
      to the conventional treatment. The methods of positive and negative syndrome
      scale (PANSS), Wechsler memory scale-4th edition (WMS-IV) and event-related
      potential (ERP) were used to study the effects of AVP on the cognitive function.
      The results showed that (1) AVP concentration decreased in cerebrospinal fluid
      (CSF) of the right-handed Han Chinese first-episode schizophrenic patients
      comparing with that of the health volunteers (7.1+/-1.5pg/ml vs 13.3+/-1.9pg/ml,
      p<0.01), and did not change in plasma; (2) AVP significantly improved PANSS
      scores including total scores, positive symptoms, negative symptoms and general
      psychopathology comparing with those of the placebo group; (3) AVP elevated WMS
      IV scores including the long-term memory (accumulation), short-term memory
      (recognition, comprehension), immediate memory (number recitation) and memory
      quotient 4, 8 and 12 weeks after treatment; and (4) AVP did not influence the
      latency and wave amplitude of target stimulus of P300 of right-handed Han Chinese
      first-episode schizophrenic patients. The data suggested that AVP might improve
      cognitive process, such as memorizing and extraction of the information although
      there were many changes of cognitive functions in the right-handed Han Chinese
      first-episode schizophrenic patients.

PMID- 28882472
TI  - Overwhelming Streptococcus pyogenes sepsis in an elderly patient with septic
      arthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The signs of Streptococcus pyogenes, group A streptococci (GAS)
      bacteremia are non-specific and patients can have wide presentations ranging from
      flu-like symptoms to life-threatening toxic-shock syndrome in just a few hours.
      CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of fulminant S. pyogenes sepsis in an elderly
      woman with septic arthritis and remarkable past medical history/risk factors. She
      was febrile, hypotensive and had a swollen and tender right knee. Multiple blood
      cultures and the synovial fluid culture yielded S. pyogenes. Despite adequate
      antimicrobial therapy with penicillin and clindamycin the patient succumbed to
      her infection within 4days of presentation in our hospital. CONCLUSION: GAS
      remains penicillin sensitive most of the time but prompt appropriate antibiotic
      therapy is very crucial to survival.

PMID- 28882474
TI  - Postpartum inhibition of ovarian steroid action increases aspects of maternal
      caregiving and reduces medial preoptic area progesterone receptor expression in
      female rats.
AB  - The rapid peripartum onset of maternal caregiving involves progesterone
      synergizing with estradiol, but prolonging progesterone exposure past this time
      can prevent the emergence of mothering. Interestingly, there is a 7-10day-long
      rise in progesterone during mid-lactation, but its effects on mothering are
      unknown. Given progesterone's potential to inhibit mothering onset, this mid
      lactational rise may contribute to the normal attenuation of caregiving behaviors
      across lactation. To evaluate this, recently-parturient rats were ovariectomized
      and caregiving observed from postpartum days (PPD) 7-18. Ovariectomized dams were
      found to lick, hover over, and nurse in kyphosis more frequently than controls.
      Ovariectomy also decreased medial preoptic area (mPOA) progesterone receptor (PR)
      mRNA, which was negatively correlated with pup licking and kyphosis, but it did
      not affect mPOA levels of oxytocin receptor or vasopressin V1a receptor mRNAs. In
      a second study, gonadally intact dams were given the PR antagonist, RU 486, and
      were found to display more kyphosis and less supine nursing compared to controls.
      Finally, progesterone sensitivity across lactation was examined by measuring
      numbers of PR immunoreactive (PR-ir) cells in the mPOA, ventral bed nucleus of
      the stria terminalis (BSTv) and periaqueductal gray (PAG). PR-ir was higher in
      the mPOA at parturition compared to virgins, while PR-ir in the mPOA and BSTv
      dropped from parturition to PPD 7 and remained low through PPD 18. The number of
      PR-ir cells in the PAG was constant. Thus, in addition to their well-known
      prepartum effects, ovarian hormones limit the display of some maternal behaviors
      during mid-to-late lactation and contribute to their decline as weaning
      approaches.

PMID- 28882473
TI  - Age-related changes in sexual function and steroid-hormone receptors in the
      medial preoptic area of male rats.
AB  - Testosterone is the main circulating steroid hormone in males, and acts to
      facilitate sexual behavior via both reduction to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and
      aromatization to estradiol. The mPOA is a key site involved in mediating actions
      of androgens and estrogens in the control of masculine sexual behavior, but the
      respective roles of these hormones is not fully understood. As males age they
      show impairments in sexual function, and a decreased facilitation of behavior by
      steroid hormones compared to younger animals. We hypothesized that an anatomical
      substrate for these behavioral changes is a decline in expression and/or
      activation of hormone receptor-sensitive cells in the mPOA. We tested this by
      quantifying and comparing numbers of AR- and ERalpha-containing cells, and Fos as
      a marker of activated neurons, in the mPOA of mature (4-5months) and aged (12
      13months) male rats, assessed one hour after copulation to one ejaculation.
      Numbers of AR- and ERalpha cells did not change with age or after sex, but the
      percentage of AR- and ERalpha-cells that co-expressed Fos were significantly up
      regulated by sex, independent of age. Age effects were found for the percentage
      of Fos cells that co-expressed ERalpha (up-regulated in the central mPOA) and the
      percentage of Fos cells co-expressing AR in the posterior mPOA. Interestingly,
      serum estradiol concentrations positively correlated with intromission latency in
      aged but not mature animals. These data show that the aging male brain continues
      to have high expression and activation of both AR and ERalpha in the mPOA with
      copulation, raising the possibility that differences in relationships between
      hormones, behavior, and neural activation may underlie some age-related
      impairments.

PMID- 28882476
TI  - [Upper lip lift].
AB  - The author revisits an old technique of shortening of the upper lip. He shows the
      interest of systematically analyzing the length of the upper lip in any
      consultation of face and especially of rejuvenation. He develops indications
      based on the visibility of the upper incisors at the half-open mouth rest. He
      details the technique and shows results.

PMID- 28882475
TI  - [Use of Harmonic blade in face lifting].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rapid recovery and return to social activities are what every
      patient wishes when considering to undergo a face lifting procedure. In our
      practice, the use of the Harmonic scalpel in order to achieve this goal has
      greatly improved the postoperative period. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We have
      performed 920 face lifting procedures exclusively using the Harmonic scalpel from
      2001 to May 2017. RESULTS: A retrospective chart review was performed. Mean
      operative time was 110minutes for facelift involving SMAS plication only, and
      180minutes for facelift involving SMAS plication with the addition of submental
      approach for anterior platysma plasty. Return to normal social life was achieved
      on the 8th postoperative day for the majority of cases. CONCLUSION: The use of
      the Harmonic scalpel, once properly integrated in the face lifting procedure,
      significantly reduces postoperative ecchymosis and oedema and allows a prompt
      return to normal social life.

PMID- 28882477
TI  - Possible role of tropomyosin-receptor kinase fused gene on skin collagen
      remodeling.

PMID- 28882478
TI  - Corrigendum to "The expression of Death Inducer-Obliterator (DIDO) variants in
      Myeloproliferative Neoplasms" [Blood Cells Mol. Dis. 59 (2016) 25-30].

PMID- 28882479
TI  - Improved accuracy of lesion to symptom mapping with multivariate sparse canonical
      correlations.
AB  - Lesion to symptom mapping (LSM) is a crucial tool for understanding the causality
      of brain-behavior relationships. The analyses are typically performed by applying
      statistical methods on individual brain voxels (VLSM), a method called the mass
      univariate approach. Several authors have shown that VLSM suffers from
      limitations that may decrease the accuracy and reliability of the findings, and
      have proposed the use of multivariate methods to overcome these limitations. In
      this study, we propose a multivariate optimization technique known as sparse
      canonical correlation analysis for neuroimaging (SCCAN) for lesion to symptom
      mapping. To validate the method and compare it with mass-univariate results, we
      used data from 131 patients with chronic stroke lesions in the territory of the
      middle cerebral artery, and created synthetic behavioral scores based on the
      lesion load of 93 brain regions (putative functional units). LSM analyses were
      performed with univariate VLSM or SCCAN, and the accuracy of the two methods was
      compared in terms of both overlap and displacement from the simulated functional
      areas. Overall, SCCAN produced more accurate results - higher dice overlap and
      smaller average displacement - compared to VLSM. This advantage persisted at
      different sample sizes (N = 20-131) and different multiple comparison corrections
      (false discovery rate, FDR; Bonferroni; permutation-based family wise error rate,
      FWER). These findings were replicated with a fully automated SCCAN routine that
      relied on cross-validated predictive accuracy to find the optimal sparseness
      value. Simulations of one, two, and three brain regions showed a systematic
      advantage of SCCAN over VLSM; under no circumstance could VLSM exceed the
      accuracy obtained with SCCAN. When considering functional units composed of
      multiple brain areas VLSM identified fewer areas than SCCAN. The investigation of
      real scores of aphasia severity (aphasia quotient and picture naming) showed that
      SCCAN could accurately identify known language-critical areas, while VLSM either
      produced diffuse maps (FDR correction) or few scattered voxels (FWER correction).
      Overall, this study shows that a multivariate method, such as, SCCAN, outperforms
      VLSM in a number of scenarios, including functional dependency on single or
      multiple areas, different sample sizes, different multi-area combinations, and
      different thresholding mechanisms (FWER, Bonferroni, FDR). These results support
      previous claims that multivariate methods are in general more accurate than mass
      univariate approaches, and should be preferred over traditional VLSM approaches.
      All the methods described in this study are available in the newly developed
      LESYMAP package for R.

PMID- 28882481
TI  - Synergistic antiproliferative effect of chemo-phototherapy: Synthesis and
      photodynamic activity evaluation of novel Chlorin e6-artesunate conjugates as
      antiproliferative agents.
AB  - In order to increase the photodynamic effect of Chlorin e6, four Chlorin e6
      artesunate conjugates were designed and synthesized. Among them, three conjugates
      (3, 6, 9) contained single artesunate side chain at 152, 173 and 131 of Chlorin
      e6, respectively, and one conjugate (11) contained three artesunate side chains.
      In the in vitro evaluation of photodynamic effect, the four conjugates showed
      more potent phototoxicity against HepG2 cells than Chlorin e6. The introduction
      of artesunate side chain significantly increased the intracellular ROS
      production, although the production of singlet oxygen was not improved. Compound
      11 exhibited much more potent phototoxicity than the other conjugates because the
      three artesunate side chains greatly enhanced the ROS production and cellular
      uptake. The results demonstrated that the conjugation of Chlorin e6 and
      artesunate could accomplish synergistic effects of chemo-phototherapy, and
      finally enhanced their antiproliferative effects.

PMID- 28882480
TI  - Short-term administration of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide preserves cardiac
      mitochondrial homeostasis and prevents heart failure.
AB  - Heart failure is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction so that restoring or
      improving mitochondrial health is of therapeutic importance. Recently, reduction
      in NAD+ levels and NAD+-mediated deacetylase activity has been recognized as
      negative regulators of mitochondrial function. Using a cardiac specific KLF4
      deficient mouse line that is sensitive to stress, we found mitochondrial protein
      hyperacetylation coupled with reduced Sirt3 and NAD+ levels in the heart before
      stress, suggesting that the KLF4-deficient heart is predisposed to NAD+
      associated defects. Further, we demonstrated that short-term administration of
      Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) successfully protected the mutant mice from
      pressure overload-induced heart failure. Mechanically, we showed that NMN
      preserved mitochondrial ultrastructure, reduced ROS and prevented cell death in
      the heart. In cultured cardiomyocytes, NMN treatment significantly increased long
      chain fatty acid oxidation despite no direct effect on pyruvate oxidation.
      Collectively, these results provide cogent evidence that hyperacetylation of
      mitochondrial proteins is critical in the pathogenesis of cardiac disease and
      that administration of NMN may serve as a promising therapy.

PMID- 28882483
TI  - Profiling of in vitro activities of urea-based inhibitors against cysteine
      synthases from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - CysK1 and CysK2 are two members of the cysteine/S-sulfocysteine synthase family
      in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, responsible for the de novo biosynthesis of l
      cysteine, which is subsequently used as a building block for mycothiol. This
      metabolite is the first line defense of this pathogen against reactive oxygen and
      nitrogen species released by host macrophages after phagocytosis. In a previous
      medicinal chemistry campaign we had developed urea-based inhibitors of the
      cysteine synthase CysM with bactericidal activity against dormant M.
      tuberculosis. In this study we extended these efforts by examination of the in
      vitro activities of a library consisting of 71 urea compounds against CysK1 and
      CysK2. Binding was established by fluorescence spectroscopy and inhibition by
      enzyme assays. Several of the compounds inhibited these two cysteine synthases,
      with the most potent inhibitor displaying an IC50 value of 2.5uM for CysK1 and
      6.6uM for CysK2, respectively. Four of the identified molecules targeting CysK1
      and CysK2 were also among the top ten inhibitors of CysM, suggesting that potent
      compounds could be developed with activity against all three enzymes.

PMID- 28882482
TI  - Ester-prodrugs of ethambutol control its antibacterial activity and provide rapid
      screening for mycobacterial hydrolase activity.
AB  - M. tuberculosis contains an unusually high number of serine hydrolases by
      proteome percentage compared to other common bacteria or humans. This letter
      describes a method to probe the global substrate specificity of mycobacterial
      serine hydrolases with ester-protected prodrugs of ethambutol, a first-line
      antibiotic treatment for TB. These compounds were synthesized directly from
      ethambutol using a selective o-acylation to yield products in high yield and
      purity with minimal workup. A library of derivatives was screened against M.
      smegmatis, a non-infectious model for M. tuberculosis, which displayed
      significantly lowered biological activity compared to ethambutol. Incubation with
      a general serine hydrolase reactivated each derivative to near-ethambutol levels,
      demonstrating that esterification of ethambutol should provide a simple screen
      for mycobacterial hydrolase activity.

PMID- 28882486
TI  - Polymeric micelles: Basic research to clinical practice.
AB  - Rapidly developing polymeric micelles as potential targeting carriers has
      intensified the need for better understanding of the underlying principles
      related to the selection of suitable delivery materials for designing,
      characterizing, drug loading, improving stability, targetability, biosafety and
      efficacy. The emergence of advanced analytical tools such as fluorescence
      resonance energy transfer and dissipative particle dynamics has identified new
      dimensions of these nanostructures and their behavior in much greater details.
      This review summarizes recent efforts in the development of polymeric micelles
      with respect to their architecture, formulation strategy and targeting
      possibilities along with their preclinical and clinical aspects. Literature of
      the past decade is discussed critically with special reference to the chemistry
      involved in the formation and clinical applications of these versatile materials.
      Thus, our main objective is to provide a timely update on the current status of
      polymeric micelles highlighting their applications and the important parameters
      that have led to successful delivery of drugs to the site of action.

PMID- 28882484
TI  - Synthesis and biological evaluation of the natural product komaroviquinone and
      related compounds aiming at a potential therapeutic lead compound for high-risk
      multiple myeloma.
AB  - Alternatives of treatments for multiple myeloma (MM) have become increasingly
      available with the advent of new drugs such as proteasome inhibitors, thalidomide
      derivatives, histone deacetylase inhibitors, and antibody drugs. However, high
      risk MM cases that are refractory to novel drugs remain, and further optimization
      of chemotherapeutics is urgently needed. We had achieved asymmetric total
      synthesis of komaroviquinone, which is a natural product from the plant
      Dracocephalum komarovi. Similar to several leading antitumor agents that have
      been developed from natural compounds, we describe the antitumor activity and
      cytotoxicity of komaroviquinone and related compounds in bone marrow cells. Our
      data suggested that komaroviquinone-related agents have potential as starting
      compounds for anticancer drug development.

PMID- 28882485
TI  - Zinc chloride rapidly stimulates efflux transporters in renal proximal tubules of
      killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus).
AB  - Multidrug resistance-related protein 2 (Mrp2) is an ATP-driven efflux pump at the
      luminal membrane in renal proximal tubules. It acts as detoxification mechanism
      by transporting xenobiotics and metabolic products into urine. The trace element
      zinc is essential for cellular growth, differentiation and survival. It modulates
      immune response and is used as dietary supplement. Here, we found that 0.1-10MUM
      ZnCl2 rapidly stimulated transport of the Mrp2 probe substrate Texas Red (TR) in
      isolated killifish renal proximal tubules, which provide an established model
      system to measure efflux transporter activity by using fluorescent probe
      substrates, confocal microscopy and image analysis. This stimulation was
      insensitive to the translation inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX), but it was quickly
      reversed by removing ZnCl2 from the incubation medium. ZnCl2-induced transport
      stimulation was abolished by inhibitors and antagonists of the endothelin
      receptor type B (ETB)/nitric oxide synthase (NOS)/protein kinase C (PKC) pathway.
      Moreover, ZnCl2-induced effects were blocked by inhibition of PKCalpha using
      Go6976 and PKCalpha inhibitor peptide C2-4. Both the phosphatidylinositol 3
      kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY 294002 and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)
      inhibitor rapamycin abolished ZnCl2-induced transport stimulation. Furthermore,
      the stimulating effects of ZnCl2 were blocked by GSK650394, an inhibitor of the
      downstream target serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase 1 (SGK1). ZnCl2 also
      stimulated transport mediated by P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and Breast cancer
      resistance protein (Bcrp). This is the first report about zinc affecting efflux
      transporter activity and demonstrates that ZnCl2 triggers a suite of signaling
      events to evoke a rapid stimulation of ABC transporter-mediated efflux in
      killifish proximal tubules.

PMID- 28882487
TI  - Modeling drug release through stimuli responsive polymer hydrogels.
AB  - There is a rising interest in stimuli-responsive hydrogels to achieve controlled
      and self-regulated drug delivery. Stimuli responsive polymer hydrogels with their
      ability to swell/de-swell under varying pH conditions present themselves as a
      potential candidate for controlled drug delivery. It is important to develop a
      mechanistic understanding of the underlying phenomena that will help suggest ways
      to control the drug release from a polymer hydrogel. We present a mathematical
      model that couples Nernst-Planck, Poisson and force balance equations to
      incorporate diffusion of ionic species and drug along with deformation of
      hydrogel under osmotic pressure. The model can be used to simulate swelling
      behaviour of the hydrogel along with the kinetics of drug release. It has been
      validated with published experimental data for swelling of polyhydroxyl
      methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid (pHEMA-co-MA) gels and release kinetics of
      Phenylpropanolamine from these gels. Effect of formulation parameters such as
      polymer concentration and cross-linker concentration has also been evaluated. The
      model can be used to reduce the number of exploratory experiments required during
      design of a drug delivery system.

PMID- 28882488
TI  - Association between serum periostin concentrations and outcome after acute
      spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Higher serum periostin concentrations are associated with mortality
      after head trauma. We further determined the relationship between periostin
      concentrations, severity, and clinical outcome in patients with intracerebral
      hemorrhage (ICH). METHODS: We prospectively included 128 controls and 128
      consecutive patients with acute ICH within the first 24h after onset. At
      admission, we measured serum periostin concentrations. RESULTS: Serum periostin
      concentrations were significantly higher in the patients than in the controls.
      Serum periostin concentrations were positively related to National Institutes of
      Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score (r=0.526) and hematoma volume (r=0.586). An
      unfavorable outcome (defined as modified Rankin scale >2) was observed in 65
      (50.8%) patients. Serum periostin [odds ratio (OR), 1.008; 95% confidence
      interval (CI), 1.002-1.013], NIHSS score (OR, 1.462; 95% CI, 1.209-1.767),
      hematoma volume (OR, 1.134; 95% CI, 1.047-1.227) and age (OR, 1.060; 95% CI,
      1.015-1.108) emerged as independent predictors for 6-month unfavorable outcome.
      In terms of ROC AUC, serum periostin concentrations had significantly higher
      predictive value compared with age and showed similar predictive value compared
      with NIHSS score and hematoma volume. CONCLUSIONS: High concentrations of serum
      periostin in acute ICH patients are associated with increasing severity and a
      poor functional prognosis.

PMID- 28882489
TI  - Folate and microRNA: Bidirectional interactions.
AB  - Low folate status is linked to increased risk of a number of conditions,
      including developmental disorders, some cancers, neurodegenerative and
      cardiovascular diseases. Some of the mechanisms of these associations are known,
      but much remains to be elucidated. Aberrant microRNA (miRNA) profiles are also
      signatures of these conditions, and as such, the association between folate
      status and miRNA are now being investigated. Potential associations are
      bidirectional, with miRNA linked to regulation of folate-mediated pathways, and
      folate linked to modulation of miRNA expression. miRNA are short non-coding RNA,
      involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression via complementary
      binding to mRNA. Evidence is emerging that links folate levels to the regulation
      of miRNA levels, and miRNA to the regulation of the expression of enzymes
      involved in folate mediated one carbon metabolism. One carbon metabolism is the
      source of methyl groups for methylation reactions, including DNA methylation and
      is important in DNA synthesis and repair. miRNA may be modulated by DNA
      methylation and other epigenetic mechanisms directly, or indirectly via
      modulation of upstream signalling pathways. As such, there may be bi-directional
      associations between folate status and miRNA profiles. miRNA may also act as
      biomarkers for diagnosis or prognosis of conditions associated with folate
      status.

PMID- 28882490
TI  - Patient-rated long-term results after complete denervation of the wrist.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the long-term results after the denervation
      of the wrist. Between 1977 and 2001, we treated 375 patients in our clinic. The
      mean age was 43.5 years; 81% were male and 19% female. The long-term results were
      assessed by a questionnaire assessing pain on a visual analog scale and patient
      satisfaction and by the DASH questionnaire. After a mean follow-up of 12.23
      years, we found an overall pain reduction of 52.1%. In 67.7% of the patients, we
      found a relief of pain: of these, 44% are free of pain until today and 56% were
      temporarily asymptomatic. Patients with a painful osteoarthritic condition
      without dynamic instability and good range of motion are ideal candidates to
      benefit from the denervation. The complete denervation of the wrist is an
      effective treatment option in patients with painful wrist conditions to reduce
      pain and improve the overall function.

PMID- 28882491
TI  - Anatomic and high-resolution computed tomographic angiography study of the
      lateral femoral condyle flap: Implications for surgical dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The lateral femoral condyle (LFC) flap is a vascularized bone flap
      based on the superior lateral genicular artery (SLGA). Harvest technique for this
      flap has not yet been demonstrated. The purpose of this study was to better
      delineate the blood supply to the bone and skin of this flap to allow for a safe
      and effective harvest. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-three lower extremities were
      injected with latex or a mixture of latex and barium sulfate. The SLGA was
      identified and dissected, documenting the course, diameter, anatomical relations,
      length, and branches. In the mixture group, high-resolution CT scanning was
      performed prior to dissection. Two additional specimens were dissected to
      illustrate the harvest technique. RESULTS: The SLGA originated from the popliteal
      artery at an average of 44.3 mm proximal to the knee joint line. The SLGA had an
      average diameter of 1.9 mm at origin and length of 56 mm. It coursed posterior to
      the femur, reaching the lateral intermuscular septum (IMS), dividing into
      superficial (patellar) and deep (condylar) branches, which coursed toward and
      gave branches to the patella and the LFC, respectively. At least one (average
      1.4) septocutaneous skin perforator >5 mm emerged and ran posterior to the IMS.
      3D reconstructions of the CT scans were used to confirm anatomic findings and
      describe a standard harvest technique. CONCLUSIONS: The SLGA has consistent
      anatomy, adequate length, suitable diameter at origin for microvascular
      anastomosis, and constant perforators to bone and skin. The LFC flap provides a
      useful alternative to flaps from the medial knee or iliac crest.

PMID- 28882492
TI  - Assessing the effort associated with teaching residents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intraoperative resident education is an integral mission of academic
      medical centers and serves as the basis for training the next generation of
      surgeons. The actual effort associated with teaching residents is unknown as it
      pertains to additional operative time. Using a large validated multi
      institutional dataset, this study aims to quantify the effect of having a
      resident present in common plastic surgery procedures on operative time. Future
      directions for developing standardized methods to record and report teaching time
      are proposed, which can help inform prospective studies. STUDY DESIGN: The 2006
      2012 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
      (ACS-NSQIP) database was queried to identify seven isolated plastic surgical
      procedures that were categorized based on resident involvement and supervision.
      Linear regression models were used to calculate the difference in operative time
      with respect to resident participation while controlling for patient and
      operative factors. RESULTS: Resident involvement was associated with longer
      operative times for muscle flap trunk procedures (53 min, 95% CI = [25, 80], p
      value = 0.0002) and breast reconstruction procedures with a latissimus dorsi flap
      (55 min, 95% CI = [22, 88], p-value = 0.001). For six of the seven surgeries
      evaluated, resident involvement was associated with longer operative times, as
      compared to no resident involvement. CONCLUSION: Resident involvement is
      associated with an increase in operative time for certain plastic surgery
      procedures. This finding underscores the need for a mechanism to quantify the
      time and effort that the attending surgeons allocate toward intraoperative
      resident education. Further study is also necessary to determine the causal
      impact on patient care.

PMID- 28882493
TI  - Delaying implant-based mammary reconstruction after radiotherapy does not
      decrease capsular contracture: An in vitro study.

PMID- 28882494
TI  - The merits of decision modelling in the earliest stages of the IDEAL framework:
      An innovative case in DIEP flap breast reconstructions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The IDEAL framework aims at improving the evidence base of available
      surgical innovations. However, the development of such innovations and collection
      of evidence is costly. Surgical innovation can provide more value for money if
      innovations are evaluated at an early stage, where evaluations can inform the
      decision whether to stop or to further develop an innovation. We illustrate how
      decision modelling can be readily adopted at the earliest stages (0-1) of the
      IDEAL framework, using an innovation in bilateral DIEP flap breast reconstruction
      as an example. METHODS: We quantified expected costs and quality-adjusted life
      years (QALYs) of the current treatment and compared them with an innovation aimed
      at reducing complications and surgery time. The maximum effect of eliminating all
      complications (headroom analysis) was explored. Moreover, three scenarios with
      varying complications and surgery time reductions were modelled. Furthermore, the
      maximum price of the innovation was estimated in a threshold analysis according
      to its impact and societal willingness to pay. RESULTS: The headroom analysis
      showed that when all complications associated with the current treatment are
      prevented, up to ?889 per patient is saved. Scenario analysis showed cost savings
      between ?256 and ?828 per patient. When surgery time is reduced by 15 min and
      complications by 50%, the innovation will remain cost-effective at ?671 per
      patient. CONCLUSION: In a field struggling with cost containment, decision
      modelling can help to separate promising innovations from costly failures at an
      early stage. In this example, decision modelling showed that it seems worthwhile
      to further develop the innovation.

PMID- 28882495
TI  - Prevalence of Zinc Deficiency in Cardiac Surgery Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to define the status of preoperative zinc
      levels in patients with heart disease presenting for cardiac surgery and to
      identify any predictors for and any clinical consequences of low zinc levels.
      METHODS: Adult patients presenting for elective surgery, either coronary artery
      bypass graft surgery and/or valve replacement, provided a fasting blood sample on
      the day of admission for surgery. Plasma and erythrocyte zinc levels were
      analysed and the levels correlated with the patient's characteristics and
      clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Of 56 patients 53% (n=30) had abnormally low plasma
      zinc levels (<12MUmol/L) and 5.5% (n=3) had abnormally low erythrocyte zinc
      levels (<160MUmol/L), indicative of deficiency. There were significant
      associations between lower plasma zinc levels and the presence of hypertension
      (p=0.02), hypercholesteraemia (p=0.02) and higher body mass index (BMI) (p=0.034)
      but no effect on major postoperative clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This small
      study shows that zinc deficiency is common in cardiac surgery patients,
      especially in the presence of hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia or obesity. The
      effects of zinc deficiency in cardiac surgery need to be further investigated.

PMID- 28882496
TI  - The Echocardiographic Characteristics and Prognostic Significance of Pericardial
      Effusions in Eisenmenger Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pericardial effusion (PE) confers a poor prognosis in
      non-congenital pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The clinical significance
      and prognostic implications of PE in Eisenmenger syndrome (ES) is much less well
      characterised. Accordingly, we aimed to define the frequency, echocardiographic
      characteristics, natural history and clinical sequelae of PE in those with ES.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied 55 consecutive individuals
      presenting since 2000, age >18 years, with ES. Analysis of clinical notes,
      transthoracic echocardiograms and vital status was undertaken via local records
      and the National Death Index. RESULTS: Mean age was 38 years (11.4SD), 22% had
      Down syndrome and the mean follow-up time was 14.7 years (13.4SD). Nine patients
      (16%) had a PE during their follow-up period with the majority being small (56%).
      No PE exhibited clinical or echocardiographic signs of tamponade and none
      required pericardiocentesis. At the time of last review, 42% of individuals had
      died. The presence of PE was not associated with mortality (p=0.83). CONCLUSIONS:
      Pericardial effusion occurs relatively frequently in ES but is usually small and
      with no evidence of haemodynamic compromise. Pericardial effusion in this setting
      is not related to mortality.

PMID- 28882497
TI  - Pulmonary Vein Isolation for Atrial Fibrillation Can Be Achieved With Low
      Radiation Exposure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation is common and management by pharmacotherapy is
      limited by modest efficacy and significant toxicities. Pulmonary vein isolation
      (PVI) is a safe and effective alternative in select patients with atrial
      fibrillation. However, prolonged procedure time raises concerns of health risks
      from radiation exposure. This study aims to determine the significance of
      radiation exposure from PVI. METHODS: In this study, we retrospectively reviewed
      patient demographics, fluoroscopy time, entrance skin dose and dose area product
      in 80 cases of PVI, radiofrequency ablation for atrial flutter and diagnostic
      coronary angiogram performed in our institution. RESULTS: Compared to other
      procedures, patients who underwent PVI were younger (age, mean+/-standard error
      of mean, 59.4+/-1.1 years old, p<0.0001) and were more likely to be male (82%,
      p<0.001). Body mass index was similar between the three groups. The median (and
      interquartile range) fluoroscopy time was similar between PVI (20.8 and 13.1
      30.7mins) and flutter ablation (17.6 and 11.1-26.1mins) but longer than
      diagnostic angiography (4.2 and 2.3-6.7mins, p<0.0001). Entrance skin dose was
      similar between PVI and flutter ablation groups but significantly higher in the
      diagnostic angiography group, with median and IQR for PVI vs. flutter ablation
      vs. diagnostic angiography, 100.4 (52.8-179.9) vs. 73.2 (37.0-142.1) vs. 393.5
      (276.1-555.6) mGy (p<0.0001). Dose area product in PVI (1831.2 and 887.7
      3460.8cGycm2) was higher than flutter ablation (1077.8 and 452.9-2410.2cGycm2,
      p<0.05) but lower than the diagnostic angiography group (3446.8 and 2341.9
      5283.1cGycm2, p<0.0001). The fluoroscopy time and entrance skin dose for PVI
      decreased over time, likely due to increased operator experience. CONCLUSIONS:
      Despite prolonged procedure time, radiation exposure from PVI was comparable to,
      or lower than, other fluoroscopy-guided cardiac procedures.

PMID- 28882498
TI  - Reproducibility of the dynamics of facial expressions in unilateral facial palsy.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the reproducibility of non-verbal facial
      expressions in unilateral facial paralysis using dynamic four-dimensional (4D)
      imaging. The Di4D system was used to record five facial expressions of 20 adult
      patients. The system captured 60 three-dimensional (3D) images per second; each
      facial expression took 3-4seconds which was recorded in real time. Thus a set of
      180 3D facial images was generated for each expression. The procedure was
      repeated after 30min to assess the reproducibility of the expressions. A
      mathematical facial mesh consisting of thousands of quasi-point 'vertices' was
      conformed to the face in order to determine the morphological characteristics in
      a comprehensive manner. The vertices were tracked throughout the sequence of the
      180 images. Five key 3D facial frames from each sequence of images were analyzed.
      Comparisons were made between the first and second capture of each facial
      expression to assess the reproducibility of facial movements. Corresponding
      images were aligned using partial Procrustes analysis, and the root mean square
      distance between them was calculated and analyzed statistically (paired Student t
      test, P<0.05). Facial expressions of lip purse, cheek puff, and raising of
      eyebrows were reproducible. Facial expressions of maximum smile and forceful eye
      closure were not reproducible. The limited coordination of various groups of
      facial muscles contributed to the lack of reproducibility of these facial
      expressions. 4D imaging is a useful clinical tool for the assessment of facial
      expressions.

PMID- 28882499
TI  - Secondary surgical management of osteoradionecrosis using three-dimensional
      isodose curve visualization: a report of three cases.
AB  - Osteoradionecrosis is defined as bone death secondary to radiotherapy. There is a
      relationship between the radiation dose received and the occurrence of
      osteoradionecrosis of the jaws, with the risk increasing above a dose of 60Gy. In
      cases of class III mandibular osteoradionecrosis, a segmental resection can be
      indicated. Current practice is to completely remove the affected bone up to the
      point where the bone looks healthy and is bleeding. Exact resection planning and
      the use of guided surgery based on imaging of the bone changes have not been
      reported so far. This article describes a method whereby the radiotherapy dose
      information is incorporated into the imaging of the affected bone in order to
      plan a three-dimensional (3D) virtual guided resection and reconstruction of the
      mandible in osteoradionecrosis. The method enables 3D visualization of each
      desired dose field in relation to the 3D model of the affected bone. Two types of
      application - for resection and reconstruction - are described.

PMID- 28882500
TI  - Pediatric ophthalmology and childhood reading difficulties: Convergence
      insufficiency: relationship to reading and academic performance.
AB  - Patients with convergence insufficiency (CI) are often symptomatic during
      activities that require near fixation, such as reading. Indeed, CI has been
      associated with reading impairment and poor academic performance. However, these
      associations do not prove a causal relationship between these conditions. The
      current evidence regarding the relationship between CI and its treatment, reading
      ability, and academic performance is discussed.

PMID- 28882501
TI  - Pediatric ophthalmology and childhood reading difficulties: Overview of reading
      development and assessments for the pediatric ophthalmologist.
AB  - Reading difficulties are common in the pediatric population, and large
      socioeconomic disparities exist. In the United States 46% of white children
      achieved expected reading proficiency by the end of fourth grade, while only 21%
      of Hispanic and 18% of African American children were reading at the expected
      level. Reading is an involved cognitive process with many subskills; likewise,
      development of reading proficiency is a complex and continuous process. Failure
      to achieve reading proficiency or even early difficulty with reading can affect a
      child's academic performance for years to come. Some studies suggest reading
      proficiency may be related to later success in life. Although many problems with
      reading are not related to vision, a vision assessment is recommended for
      children with reading difficulties and a suspected vision problem. The process of
      reading development as well as the varied educational assessments of reading are
      presented here for pediatric ophthalmologists.

PMID- 28882502
TI  - Design and synthesis of benzoacridines as estrogenic and anti-estrogenic agents.
AB  - Estrogens play undisputedly important physiological roles, but lifetime exposure
      to estrogens has also been linked to the development of breast cancer. Moreover,
      imbalanced estrogen levels have been associated with various symptoms such as
      osteoporosis and menopausal disorders. For the improvement of such estrogen
      imbalances, estrogenic reagents with regulatory properties have shown promising
      potential. Herein, we report the construction of a 12-arylbenzoacridine library
      via a diversity-oriented strategy that furnished non-toxic estrogenic and anti
      estrogenic agents. Derivatives with a hydroxy group at the molecular edge exhibit
      potent binding affinity to the estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and ERbeta (IC50
      < MUM), while binding to the estrogen-related receptor gamma (ERRgamma), i.e., an
      orphan nuclear receptor on which estrogens often trigger unfavorable events, was
      not observed. These findings offer valuable insights into 12-arylbenzoacridines
      as a novel platform for the development of selective estrogen-receptor modulators
      (SERMs).

PMID- 28882503
TI  - Synthesis and beta-sheet propensity of constrained N-amino peptides.
AB  - The stabilization of beta-sheet secondary structure through peptide backbone
      modification represents an attractive approach to protein mimicry. Here, we
      present strategies toward stable beta-hairpin folds based on peptide strand N
      amination. Novel pyrazolidinone and tetrahydropyridazinone dipeptide constraints
      were introduced via on-resin Mitsunobu cyclization between alpha-hydrazino acid
      residues and a serine or homoserine side chain. Acyclic and cyclic N-amino
      peptide building blocks were then evaluated for their effect on beta-hairpin
      stability in water using a GB1-derived model system. Our results demonstrate the
      strong beta-sheet stabilizing effect of the peptide N-amino substituent, and
      provide useful insights into the impact of covalent dipeptide constraint on beta
      sheet folding.

PMID- 28882504
TI  - Peroral peptide delivery: Peptidase inhibition as a key concept for commercial
      drug products.

PMID- 28882505
TI  - [Ablative therapy: Urology is underway!]

PMID- 28882506
TI  - Association of skin autofluorescence with arterial properties: A closer look at
      AGE Reader and EndoPAT 2000 commercial devices.

PMID- 28882507
TI  - Stochastic noncooperative and cooperative evolutionary game strategies of a
      population of biological networks under natural selection.
AB  - We review current static and dynamic evolutionary game strategies of biological
      networks and discuss the lack of random genetic variations and stochastic
      environmental disturbances in these models. To include these factors, a
      population of evolving biological networks is modeled as a nonlinear stochastic
      biological system with Poisson-driven genetic variations and random environmental
      fluctuations (stimuli). To gain insight into the evolutionary game theory of
      stochastic biological networks under natural selection, the phenotypic robustness
      and network evolvability of noncooperative and cooperative evolutionary game
      strategies are discussed from a stochastic Nash game perspective. The
      noncooperative strategy can be transformed into an equivalent multi-objective
      optimization problem and is shown to display significantly improved network
      robustness to tolerate genetic variations and buffer environmental disturbances,
      maintaining phenotypic traits for longer than the cooperative strategy. However,
      the noncooperative case requires greater effort and more compromises between
      partly conflicting players. Global linearization is used to simplify the problem
      of solving nonlinear stochastic evolutionary games. Finally, a simple stochastic
      evolutionary model of a metabolic pathway is simulated to illustrate the
      procedure of solving for two evolutionary game strategies and to confirm and
      compare their respective characteristics in the evolutionary process.

PMID- 28882509
TI  - Clinical Benefits of Joint Mobilization on Ankle Sprains: A Systematic Review and
      Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical benefits of joint mobilization for ankle
      sprains. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process, Embase, AMED, PsycINFO,
      CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PEDro, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Dissertations and
      Theses were searched from inception to June 2017. STUDY SELECTION: Studies
      investigating humans with grade I or II lateral or medial sprains of the ankle in
      any pathologic state from acute to chronic, who had been treated with joint
      mobilization were considered for inclusion. Any conservative intervention was
      considered as a comparator. Commonly reported clinical outcomes were considered
      such as ankle range of movement, pain, and function. After screening of 1530
      abstracts, 56 studies were selected for full-text screening, and 23 were eligible
      for inclusion. Eleven studies on chronic sprains reported sufficient data for
      meta-analysis. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were extracted using the participants,
      interventions, comparison, outcomes, and study design approach. Clinically
      relevant outcomes (dorsiflexion range, proprioception, balance, function, pain
      threshold, pain intensity) were assessed at immediate, short-term, and long-term
      follow-up points. DATA SYNTHESIS: Methodological quality was assessed
      independently by 2 reviewers, and most studies were found to be of moderate
      quality, with no studies rated as poor. Meta-analysis revealed significant
      immediate benefits of joint mobilization compared with comparators on improving
      posteromedial dynamic balance (P=.0004), but not for improving dorsiflexion range
      (P=.16), static balance (P=.96), or pain intensity (P=.45). Joint mobilization
      was beneficial in the short-term for improving weight-bearing dorsiflexion range
      (P=.003) compared with a control. CONCLUSIONS: Joint mobilization appears to be
      beneficial for improving dynamic balance immediately after application, and
      dorsiflexion range in the short-term. Long-term benefits have not been adequately
      investigated.

PMID- 28882508
TI  - Recovery of marine Conus (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda) from imposex at Rottnest
      Island, Western Australia, over a quarter of a century.
AB  - Imposex is a reproductive abnormality in which female snails begin to transform
      to males, but do not become functional. It was caused by tributyltin (TBT) used
      as an antifoulant in boat paints. Imposex was first recorded marine snails
      (Conus) (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda) at Rottnest Island, Western Australia, in
      January 1991, where 88% of individuals at the west end were affected. Most were
      at moderate Stages 3 and 4 on a scale of 0 (no affect) to 6 (death). TBT was
      banned on boats <25m long in late 1991 in WA. In 1996, imposex had declined to
      69% of females with Stages 3 and 4 still the most common. By 2007 only 35% of
      females exhibited imposex; Stage 3 was the highest level recorded. TBT was below
      detection limits. TBT was banned on vessels >25m in September 2013. In February
      2017 only 4% of Conus had imposex, at Stage 1.

PMID- 28882510
TI  - Interdisciplinary Approach to the Development of Accessible Computer-Administered
      Measurement Instruments.
AB  - Principles of fairness in testing require that all test takers, including people
      with disabilities, have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their capacity on the
      construct being measured. Measurement design features and assessment protocols
      can pose barriers for people with disabilities. Fairness in testing is a
      fundamental validity issue at all phases in the design, administration, and
      interpretation of measurement instruments in clinical practice and research.
      There is limited guidance for instrument developers on how to develop and
      evaluate the accessibility and usability of measurement instruments. This article
      describes a 6-stage iterative process for developing accessible computer
      administered measurement instruments grounded in the procedures implemented
      across several major measurement initiatives. A key component of this process is
      interdisciplinary teams of accessibility experts, content and measurement
      experts, information technology experts, and people with disabilities working
      together to ensure that measurement instruments are accessible and usable by a
      wide range of users. The development of accessible measurement instruments is not
      only an ethical requirement, it also ensures better science by minimizing
      measurement bias, missing data, and attrition due to mismatches between the
      target population and test administration platform and protocols.

PMID- 28882511
TI  - [Doses to organs at risk for conformational and stereotactic radiotherapy:
      Bladder].
AB  - Bladder dose constraints in case of conformational radiotherapy/intensity
      modulated radiotherapy and stereotactic radiotherapy are reported from the
      literature, in particular from the French radiotherapy society RECORAD
      recommendations, according to the treated pelvic tumor sites. The dose-volume
      effect on urinary toxicity is not clearly demonstrated, making difficult to
      establish absolute dose constraints for the bladder. In case of high-dose
      prostate cancer radiotherapy, the bladder dose constraints are: V60Gy<50% and
      maximum dose<80Gy for standard fractionation and V60Gy<5%, V48Gy<25% and
      V41Gy<50% for moderate hypofractionation (20 fractions of 3Gy). In case of
      prostate stereotactic radiotherapy (five fractions of 7.25Gy), the most frequent
      dose constraints in the literature are V37Gy<10cm3 and V18Gy<40%. In case of
      conformational radiotherapy of cervix cancer, postoperative endometrium, anal
      canal and rectum, the recommendations are V40Gy<40% and D2% lower than the
      prescribed dose.

PMID- 28882512
TI  - Epidemiology of Babesia, Anaplasma and Trypanosoma species using a new expanded
      reverse line blot hybridization assay.
AB  - Vector-borne hemoparasitic infections are a major problem that affects livestock
      industries worldwide, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. In this
      work, a reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization assay was developed for the
      simultaneous detection and identification of Anaplasma, Babesia and bovine
      trypanosomes, encompassing in this way the most relevant hemoparasites that
      affect cattle. A total of 186 bovine blood samples collected from two different
      ecoepidemiological regions of northeast Argentina, with and without tick control,
      were analyzed with this new RLB. High diversity of parasites, such as Babesia
      bovis, B. bigemina, Anaplasma marginale and three different Trypanosoma species,
      was found. High rates of coinfections were also detected, and significant
      differences were observed not only in the prevalence of parasites but also in the
      level of coinfections between the two analyzed areas. Regarding the Trypanosoma
      genus, we provide molecular evidence of the presence of T. vivax and T. theileri
      for the first time in Argentina. Besides, since the RLB is a prospective tool, it
      allowed the identification of a yet unknown bovine trypanosome which could not be
      assigned to any of the bovine species known so far. In the present study we
      provide new insights on the prevalence of several pathogens that directly impact
      on livestock production in Argentina. The RLB assay developed here allows to
      identify simultaneously numerous pathogenic species which can also be easily
      expanded to detect other blood borne pathogens. These characteristics make the
      RLB hybridization assay an essential tool for epidemiological survey of all
      vector-borne pathogens.

PMID- 28882513
TI  - Enhanced detection of Rickettsia species in Ixodes pacificus using highly
      sensitive fluorescence in situ hybridization coupled with Tyramide Signal
      Amplification.
AB  - Ixodes pacificus is a host of many bacteria including Rickettsia species
      phylotypes G021 and G022. As part of the overall goal of understanding
      interactions of phylotypes with their tick host, this study focused on molecular
      detection of rickettsiae in ovarian and midgut tissue of I. pacificus by
      fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), PCR, and ultrastructural analysis. Of
      three embedding media (Technovit 8100, Unicryl, and paraffin) tested for
      generating thin sections, tissues embedded in paraffin resulted in the
      visualization of bacteria with low autofluorescence in FISH. Digoxigenin-labeled
      probes were used in FISH to intensify bacterial hybridization signals using
      Tyramide Signal Amplification reaction. Using this technique, rickettsiae were
      detected in the cytoplasm of oocytes of I. pacificus. The presence of rickettsiae
      in the ovary and midgut was further confirmed by PCR and transmission electron
      microscopic analysis. Overall, the methods in this study can be used to identify
      locations of tick-borne bacteria in tick tissues and understand transmission
      routes of bacterial species in ticks.

PMID- 28882514
TI  - Re: "Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Association between C-reactive
      Protein and Major Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Peripheral Artery
      Disease: Do Not Ignore Patients with Critical Limb Ischaemia".

PMID- 28882515
TI  - How Quickly Do Asymptomatic Infrarenal Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Grow and What
      Factors Affect Aneurysm Growth Rates? Analysis of a Single Centre Surveillance
      Cohort Database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) maximum antero-posterior
      diameter (MAPD) is the parameter most commonly used to inform the timing of
      surgical intervention. However, other factors, such as growth rates and patient
      comorbidities are likely to be important considerations as they may influence AAA
      related complications including rupture, operative outcomes, and the clinical and
      cost effectiveness of continued surveillance. METHODS: This was a retrospective
      analysis of a 20 year period of a single centre AAA surveillance database. In
      total, 5363 AAA measurements in 692 patients were analysed for patient
      demographics, including comorbidity and drug history, growth and rupture rates,
      and cause of death. RESULTS: A significant proportion of patients (n = 73; 11%)
      were kept under surveillance despite having a MAPD < 30 mm. Overall, mean
      aneurysm growth rate was 2.3 mm/year. Elective repair was undertaken in 20.1% and
      those who required surgical intervention had significantly faster growth rates.
      Only 3.9% of patients in surveillance ruptured, 40.7% of whom had a MAPD <55 mm
      at their last scan. Of the 214 deaths recorded, only 11.7% were related to AAA.
      The majority of patients who died in surveillance did so from malignancy.
      Patients with larger AAA (MAPD > 40 mm) on entry into surveillance were
      significantly more likely to receive surgical intervention, as were those whose
      AAA expanded >4 mm/year. Females had significantly higher growth rates, and those
      with diabetes had significantly smaller growth rates. Other comorbidities and
      drug history were not associated with AAA growth, or 5 and 10 year surgery free
      survival. CONCLUSION: The results highlight several areas for service
      improvement. Specifically, it is important not to maintain surveillance in
      patients who are very unlikely to ever grow to a point where AAA surgery would be
      contemplated on grounds or age and/or comorbidity. Similarly, patients should be
      discharged from surveillance when this likelihood becomes apparent.

PMID- 28882516
TI  - Genetic characterization of the glycoprotein G of Chandipura viruses in India
      with emphasis on an outbreak of 2015.
AB  - Chandipura virus (CHPV) is found to be associated with sporadic encephalitis
      outbreaks in humans in India since 1965. We report here, the investigation of
      CHPV activity during the period of June-August 2015 in the state of Gujarat,
      which revealed 24.44% positivity among 45 referred encephalitis cases.
      Phylogenetic study of the G gene sequences of strains from Gujarat 2015 along
      with available sequences of additional strains from different geographical
      locations and isolation years (1965-2015), indicated the relatedness of the 2015
      strain to a group of the CHPV prototype strain of 1965 and the earliest outbreak
      strains of 2003. Analyses of selection pressure in the G gene revealed positively
      selected sites within the signal peptide region and a putative CHPV epitope.
      These results indicate a probable role of G protein-based immune selection and
      underline the need for continued surveillance to monitor genetic and antigenic
      variations in the CHPV.

PMID- 28882517
TI  - Diagnosis and genetic analysis of the worldwide distributed Rattus-borne
      Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) lewisi and its allied species in blood and fleas of
      rodents.
AB  - Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) lewisi is a cosmopolitan parasite of rodents strongly
      linked to the human dispersal of Rattus spp. from Asia to the rest of the world.
      This species is highly phylogenetically related to trypanosomes from other
      rodents (T. lewisi-like), and sporadically infects other mammals. T. lewisi may
      opportunistically infect humans, and has been considered an emergent rat-borne
      zoonosis associated to poverty. We developed the THeCATL-PCR based on Cathepsin L
      (CATL) sequences to specifically detect T. (Herpetosoma) spp., and assess their
      genetic diversity. This method exhibited high sensitivity using blood samples,
      and is the first molecular method employed to search for T. lewisi in its flea
      vectors. THeCATL-PCR surveys using simple DNA preparation from blood preserved in
      ethanol or filter paper detected T. lewisi in Rattus spp. from human dwellings in
      South America (Brazil and Venezuela), East Africa (Mozambique), and Southeast
      Asia (Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR). In addition, native rodents captured in
      anthropogenic and nearby human settlements in natural habitats harbored T.
      (Herpetosoma) spp. PCR-amplified CATL gene fragments (253bp) distinguish T.
      lewisi and T. lewisi-like from other trypanosomes, and allow for assessment of
      genetic diversity and relationships among T. (Herpetosoma) spp. Our molecular
      surveys corroborated worldwide high prevalence of T. lewisi, incriminating
      Mastomys natalensis as an important carrier of this species in Africa, and
      supported its spillover from invader Rattus spp. to native rodents in Brazil and
      Mozambique. THeCATL-PCR provided new insights on the accurate diagnosis and
      genetic repertoire of T. (Herpetosoma) spp. in rodent and non-rodent hosts,
      revealing a novel species of this subgenus in an African gerbil. Phylogenetic
      analysis based on CATL sequences from T. (Herpetosoma) spp. and other
      trypanosomes (amplified using pan-trypanosome primers) uncovered rodents
      harboring, beyond mammal trypanosomes of different subgenera, some species that
      clustered in the lizard-snake clade of trypanosomes.

PMID- 28882518
TI  - Viability qPCR, a new tool for Legionella risk management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Viability quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (v-qPCR) is a recent
      analytical approach for only detecting live microorganisms by DNA amplification
      based methods This approach is based on the use of a reagent that irreversibly
      fixes dead cells DNA. In this study, we evaluate the utility of v-qPCR versus
      culture method for Legionellosis risk management. METHODS: The present study was
      performed using 116 real samples. Water samples were simultaneously analysed by
      culture, v-qPCR and qPCR methods. Results were compared by means of a non
      parametric test. RESULTS: In 11.6% of samples using both methods (culture method
      and v-qPCR) results were positive, in 50.0% of samples both methods gave rise to
      negative results. As expected, equivalence between methods was not observed in
      all cases, as in 32.1% of samples positive results were obtained by v-qPCR and
      all of them gave rise to negative results by culture. Only in 6.3% of samples,
      with very low Legionella levels, was culture positive and v-qPCR negative. In
      3.5% of samples, overgrowth of other bacteria did not allow performing the
      culture. When comparing both methods, significant differences between culture and
      v-qPCR were in the samples belonging to the cooling towers-evaporative condensers
      group. The v-qPCR method detected greater presence and obtained higher
      concentrations of Legionella spp. (p<0.001). Otherwise, no significant
      differences between methods were found in the rest of the groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      The v-qPCR method can be used as a quick tool to evaluate Legionellosis risk,
      especially in cooling towers-evaporative condensers, where this technique can
      detect higher levels than culture. The combined interpretation of PCR results
      along with the ratio of live cells is proposed as a tool for understanding the
      sample context and estimating the Legionellosis risk potential according to 4
      levels of hierarchy.

PMID- 28882519
TI  - Re: "Ultrasound Findings on Hands and Wrists of Patients with Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus: Relationship with Physical Examination".

PMID- 28882520
TI  - Dynamic foraminal dimensions during neck extension and rotation in fusion and
      artificial disc replacement: an observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Changes in the dimensions of the cervical neural foramina (CNF) are
      considered to be a key factor in nerve root compression and development of
      cervical radiculopathy. However, to what extent foraminal geometry differs
      between patients who underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and
      those who underwent total disc arthroplasty with an artificial disc (AD) during
      physiological motion is largely unknown. PURPOSE: The objective of this study is
      to compare CNF dimensions during physiological neck motion between ACDF and AD.
      STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This is a retrospective comparative analysis of
      prospectively collected, consecutive, non-randomized series of patients at a
      single institution. PATIENT SAMPLE: A total of 16 single-level C5-C6 ACDF (4
      males, 12 females; 28-71 years) and 7 single-level C5-C6 cervical arthroplasty
      patients (3 males, 4 females; 38-57 years), at least 12 months after surgery
      (23.6+/-6.8 months) were included. OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient demographics,
      preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based measurements of cervical
      spine degeneration, and 2-year postoperative measurements of dynamic foraminal
      geometry were the outcome measures. METHODS: Biplane X-ray images were acquired
      during axial neck rotation and neck extension. A computed tomography scan was
      also acquired from C3 to the first thoracic vertebrae. The subaxial cervical
      vertebrae (C3-C7) were reconstructed into three-dimensional (3D) bone models for
      use with model-based tracking. Foraminal height (FH) was calculated as the 3D
      distance between the superior point of the inferior pedicle and the inferior
      point of the superior pedicle using custom software. Foraminal width (FW) was
      similarly calculated as the 3D distance between the anterolateral aspect of the
      superior vertebral body inferior notch and the posterolateral aspect of the
      inferior vertebral body superior notch. Dynamic foraminal dimensions were
      quantified as the minimum (FH.Min, FW.Min), the range (FH.Range, FW.Range), and
      the median (FH.Med, FW.Med) of each trial and then averaged over trials. Mixed
      model analysis of variance framework was used to examine the differences between
      ACDF and AD groups. The initial severity of disc degeneration as determined from
      preoperative MRI images was introduced as covariates in the models. RESULTS: At
      the operated level (C5-C6), FH.Med and FH.Range were smaller in ACDF than in AD
      during axial rotation and neck extension (p<.003 to p<.05). At the superior
      adjacent level (C4-C5), no significant difference was found. At the inferior
      adjacent level (C6-C7), FW.Range was greater in ACDF than in AD during axial
      rotation and extension (p<.05). At the non-adjacent level (C3-C4), FW.Range was
      greater in ACDF than in AD during extension (p<.008). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrated decreases in foraminal dimensions and their range for ACDF compared
      with AD at the operated level. In contrast, it demonstrated increases in the
      range of foraminal dimensions during motion for ACDF compared with AD at the non
      operated segments. Together, these data support the notion that increased
      mobility at the non-operated segments after ACDF may contribute to a greater risk
      for adjacent segment degeneration. Because of the significant presence of range
      variables in the findings, the current data also indicate that a dynamic
      evaluation is likely more appropriate for evaluation of the differences in
      foramina between ACDF and AD than a static evaluation.

PMID- 28882521
TI  - Reliability of physical functioning tests in patients with low back pain: a
      systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive overview of
      physical functioning tests in patients with low back pain (LBP) and to
      investigate their reliability. DATA SOURCES: A systematic computerized search was
      finalized in four different databases on June 24, 2017: PubMed, Web of Science,
      Embase, and MEDLINE. STUDY SELECTION: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
      Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed during all stages of
      this review. Clinical studies that investigate the reliability of physical
      functioning tests in patients with LBP were eligible. The methodological quality
      of the included studies was assessed with the use of the Consensus-based
      Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) checklist.
      To come to final conclusions on the reliability of the identified clinical tests,
      the current review assessed three factors, namely, outcome assessment,
      methodological quality, and consistency of description. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total
      of 20 studies were found eligible and 38 clinical tests were identified. Good
      overall test-retest reliability was concluded for the extensor endurance test
      (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=0.93-0.97), the flexor endurance test
      (ICC=0.90-0.97), the 5-minute walking test (ICC=0.89-0.99), the 50-ft walking
      test (ICC=0.76-0.96), the shuttle walk test (ICC=0.92-0.99), the sit-to-stand
      test (ICC=0.91-0.99), and the loaded forward reach test (ICC=0.74-0.98). For
      inter-rater reliability, only one test, namely, the Biering-Sorensen test
      (ICC=0.88-0.99), could be concluded to have an overall good inter-rater
      reliability. None of the identified clinical tests could be concluded to have a
      good intrarater reliability. CONCLUSIONS: Further investigation should focus on a
      better overall study methodology and the use of identical protocols for the
      description of clinical tests. The assessment of reliability is only a first step
      in the recommendation process for the use of clinical tests. In future research,
      the identified clinical tests in the current review should be further
      investigated for validity. Only when these clinimetric properties of a clinical
      test have been thoroughly investigated can a final conclusion regarding the
      clinical and scientific use of the identified tests be made.

PMID- 28882522
TI  - Hospital competitive intensity and perioperative outcomes following lumbar spinal
      fusion.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Interhospital competition has been shown to influence the
      adoption of surgical techniques and approaches, clinical patient outcomes, and
      health care resource use for select surgical procedures. However, little is known
      regarding these dynamics as they relate to spine surgery. PURPOSE: This
      investigation sought to examine the relationship between interhospital
      competitive intensity and perioperative outcomes following lumbar spinal fusion.
      STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This study used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample dataset,
      years 2003, 2006, and 2009. PATIENT SAMPLE: Patients were included based on the
      presence of the International Classification of Disease, Ninth Edition, Clinical
      Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes corresponding to lumbar spinal fusion, as well as
      on the presence of data on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). OUTCOME
      MEASURES: The outcome measures are perioperative complications, defined using an
      ICD-9-CM coding algorithm. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The HHI, a validated measure of
      competition within a market, was used to assess hospital market competitiveness.
      The HHI was calculated based on the hospital cachement area. Multiple regression
      was performed to adjust for confounding variables including patient age, gender,
      primary payer, severity of illness score, primary versus revision fusion,
      anterior versus posterior approach, national region, hospital bed size, location
      or teaching status, ownership, and year. Perioperative clinical outcomes were
      assessed based on ICD-9-CM codes with modifications. RESULTS: In total, 417,520
      weighted patients (87,999 unweighted records) were analyzed. The mean cachement
      area HHI was 0.31 (range 0.099-0.724). The average patient age was 55.4 years
      (standard error=0.194), and the majority of patients were female (55.8%,
      n=232,727). The majority of procedures were primary spinal fusions (92.7%,
      n=386,998) and fusions with a posterior-only technique (81.5%, n=340,271). Most
      procedures occurred in the South (42.5%, n=177,509) or the Midwest (27.0%,
      n=112,758) regions. In the multiple regression analysis, increased hospital
      competitive intensity was associated with an increased total complication rate
      (odds ratio [OR] 1.52, p<.0001), device-related complications (OR 1.46, p=.0294),
      genitourinary complications (OR 2.15, p=.0091), infection (OR 3.48, p<.0001),
      neurologic complications (OR 1.69, p=.0422), total charges (+29%, p=.0034), and
      inpatient hospital length of stay (LOS) (+16%, p=.0012). The likelihood of
      complications at state-owned hospitals (OR 2.81, p=.0001) was more highly
      associated with HHI than at private, non-profit hospitals (OR 1.39, p=.0050). The
      occurrence of complications at urban teaching hospitals (OR 2.14, p<.0001) was
      generally more associated with HHI than at urban non-teaching hospitals (OR 1.19,
      p=.2457). CONCLUSIONS: Increased interhospital competitive intensity is
      associated with increased odds of complications, increased total charges, and
      prolonged LOS following lumbar spine fusion. These differences are generally
      highest among state-owned and urban teaching hospitals. Differences in outcome
      related to hospital competition may be due to suboptimal resource allocation.
      Identifying differences in perioperative outcomes associated with hospital market
      competition is important in the contemporary environment of health care
      reimbursement reform and hospital consolidation. Perioperative outcome
      disparities between highly competitive and minimally competitive areas should be
      monitored and further studied.

PMID- 28882523
TI  - Role of intraoperative radiotherapy in the treatment of sacral chordoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Sacral chordoma is a rare entity with high local recurrence
      rates when complete resection is not achieved. To date, there are no series
      available in literature combining surgery and intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT).
      PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to report the experience of our center
      in the management of sacral chordoma combining radical resection with both
      external radiotherapy and IORT. STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective case
      series. PATIENT SAMPLE: The patient sample included 15 patients with sacral
      chordoma resected in our center from 1998 to 2015. OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome
      measures were overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and rates of
      local and distant recurrences. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records
      of all the patients with sacral chordoma resected in our center from 1998 to
      December 2015. Overall survival, DFS, and rates of local and distant recurrences
      were calculated. Results between patients treated with or without IORT were
      compared. RESULTS: A total of 15 patients were identified: 8 men and 7 women. The
      median age was 59 years (range 28-77). Intraoperative radiotherapy was applied in
      nine patients and six were treated with surgical resection without IORT. In 13
      patients, we performed the treatment of the primary tumor, and in two patients,
      we performed the treatment of recurrence disease. A posterior approach was used
      in four patients. Wide surgical margins (zero residue) were achieved in six
      patients, marginal margins (microscopic residue) were achieved in seven patients,
      and there were no patients with intralesional (R2) margins. At a median follow-up
      of 38 months (range 11-209 months), the 5-year OS in the IORT group was 100%
      versus 53% in the group of non-IORT (p=.05). The median DFS in the IORT group was
      85 months, and that in the non-IORT group was 41 months. In the group without
      IORT, two patients died and nobody died during the follow-up in the group treated
      with IORT. High-sacrectomy treated patients had a median survival of 41 months,
      and low-sacrectomy treated patients had a median survival of 90 months. Disease
      free survival in patients without gluteal involvement was 100% at 5 years, and
      that in patients with gluteal involvement was 40%. All patients with a recurrence
      in our study had gluteal involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Multidisciplinary management
      of sacral chordoma seems to improve local control. The use of IORT, in our
      experience, is associated with an increase in OS and DFS. The level of resection
      and gluteal involvement seems to affect survival. The posterior approach is
      useful in selected cases. Multicenter studies should be performed to confirm the
      utility of IORT.

PMID- 28882524
TI  - Activities performed and treatments conducted before consultation with a spine
      surgeon: are patients and clinicians following evidence-based clinical practice
      guidelines?
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are designed to ensure
      that evidence-based treatment is easily put into action. Whether patients and
      clinicians follow these guidelines is equivocal. PURPOSE: The objectives of this
      study were to examine how many patients complaining of low back pain (LBP)
      underwent evidence-based medical interventional treatment in line with CPG
      recommendations before consultation with a spine surgeon, and to evaluate any
      associations between adherence to CPG recommendations and baseline factors. STUDY
      DESIGN/SETTING: This is a cross-sectional cohort analysis at a tertiary care
      center. PATIENT SAMPLE: A total of 229 patients were referred for surgical
      consultation for an elective lumbar spinal condition. OUTCOME MEASURES: The
      outcome measures include the number of CPG-recommended treatments undertaken by
      patients at or before the time of referral, the validated pain score, the EuroQol
      5D (EQ-5D) health status, and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score. METHODS:
      Questionnaires assessing demographic and functional characteristics as well as
      overall health care use were sent to patients immediately after their referral
      was received by the surgeon's office. RESULTS: Medications were the most common
      modality before consultation (74.2% of patients), of which 46.3% received
      opioids. The number of medications taken was significantly related to a higher
      ODI score (R=0.23, p=.0004), a higher pain score (R=0.15, p=.026), and a lower EQ
      5D health status (R=-0.15, p=.024). In contrast, a lower pain score (7.2 vs. 7.7,
      p=.037) and a lower ODI score (26.6 vs. 29.9, p=.0023) were associated with
      performing adequate amounts of exercise. There was a significant association
      between lower numbers of treatments received and higher numerical pain rating
      scores (R=-0.14, p=.035). The majority (61.1%) of patients received two or less
      forms of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence-based medical interventional treatments
      for patients with LBP are not being taken advantage of before spine surgery
      consultation. If more patients were to undertake CPG-endorsed conservative
      modalities, it may result in fewer unnecessary referrals from primary care
      physicians, and patients might not deteriorate as much while lingering on long
      wait lists. Further studies incorporating knowledge translation or health system
      pathway changes are necessary.

PMID- 28882525
TI  - Multilevel posterior foraminotomy with laminoplasty versus laminoplasty alone for
      cervical spondylotic myelopathy with radiculopathy: a comparative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Conventional laminoplasty is useful for expanding a stenotic
      spinal canal. However, it has limited use for the decompression of accompanying
      neural foraminal stenosis. As such, an additional posterior foraminotomy could be
      simultaneously applied, although this procedure carries a risk of segmental
      kyphosis and instability. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to elucidate the
      long-term surgical outcomes of additional posterior foraminotomy with
      laminoplasty (LF) for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) with radiculopathy.
      STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: A retrospective comparative study was carried out. PATIENT
      SAMPLE: Ninety-eight consecutive patients who underwent laminoplasty for CSM with
      radiculopathy between January 2006 and December 2012 were screened for
      eligibility. This study included 66 patients, who were treated with a
      laminoplasty of two or more levels and followed up for more than 2 years after
      surgery. OUTCOME MEASURES: The Neck Disability Index (NDI), Japanese Orthopedic
      Association (JOA) scores, JOA recovery rates, and visual analog scale (VAS) were
      used to evaluate clinical outcomes. The C2-C7 sagittal vertical axis distance,
      cervical lordosis, range of motion (ROM), and angulation and vertebral slippage
      at the foraminotomy level were used to measure radiological outcomes using the
      whole spine anterioposterior or lateral and dynamic lateral radiographs. METHODS:
      Sixty-six patients with CSM with radiculopathy involving two or more levels were
      consecutively treated with laminoplasty and followed up for more than 2 years
      after surgery. The first 26 patients underwent laminoplasty alone (LA group),
      whereas the next 40 patients underwent an additional posterior foraminotomy at
      stenotic neural foramens with radiating symptoms in addition to laminoplasty (LF
      group). In the LF group, the foraminotomy with less resection than 50% of facet
      joint to avoid segmental kyphosis and instability was performed at 78 segments
      (unilateral-to-bilateral ratio=57:21) and 99 sites. Clinical and radiographic
      data were assessed preoperatively and at 2-year follow-up and compared between
      the groups. RESULTS: The NDI, JOA scores, JOA recovery rates, and VAS for neck
      and arm pain were improved significantly in both groups after surgery. The
      improvement in the VAS for arm pain was significantly greater in the LF group
      (from 5.55+/-2.52 to 1.85+/-2.39) than the LA group (from 5.48+/-2.42 to 3.40+/
      2.68) (p<.001). Although cervical lordosis and ROM decreased postoperatively in
      both groups, there were no significant differences in the degree of reduction
      between the LF and LA groups. Although the postoperative focal angulation and
      slippage were slightly increased in the LF group, this was not to a significant
      degree. Furthermore, segmental kyphosis and instability were not observed in the
      LF group, regardless of whether the patient underwent a unilateral or bilateral
      foraminotomy. CONCLUSIONS: Additional posterior foraminotomy with laminoplasty is
      likely to improve arm pain more significantly than laminoplasty alone by
      decompressing nerve roots. Also, performing posterior foraminotomy via multiple
      levels or bilaterally did not significantly affect segmental malalignment and
      instability. Therefore, when a laminoplasty is performed for CSM with
      radiculopathy, an additional posterior foraminotomy could be an efficient and
      safe treatment that improves both myelopathy symptoms and radicular arm pain.

PMID- 28882526
TI  - Extraforaminal microscopic assisted percutaneous nucleotomy for foraminal and
      extraforaminal lumbar disc herniations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Foraminal and extraforaminal lumbar disc herniations are uncommon.
      The main presentation is radicular pain related to the exiting nerve root at the
      affected level. Different approaches for surgical intervention have been
      described. PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical outcome,
      complications recurrence, and reoperation rate of extraforaminal microscopic
      assisted percutaneous nucleotomy, with literature review focusing on
      complications and recurrence rate. STUDY DESIGN: This is a prospective cohort
      study done in a high-flow spine center in Germany. PATIENT SAMPLE: Between
      October 2012 and October 2015, 76 patients (35 women and 41 men) with foraminal
      or extraforaminal lumbar disc prolapse were operated on. OUTCOME MEASURES: The
      following were the outcome measures: (1) self-report measures: Visual Analogue
      Scale (VAS) for leg pain and back pain; (2) physiological measures: standing
      plain X-rays (anterioposterior, lateral, and dynamic views); and (3) functional
      measures: Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) (validated German version) and Odom's
      criteria. METHODS: All patients were operated upon with trans-tubular
      extraforaminal microscopic-assisted percutaneous nucleotomy (EF-MAPN) technique.
      Preoperative clinical and neurologic evaluations were done. The mean follow-up
      period was 38 months (range 12-54). The study has not received funding for
      research from any organization. All authors do not have any conflict of interest.
      RESULTS: The mean age was 54 years. The most commonly affected level was L4/L5
      (34 patients). The mean preoperative VAS for leg pain was 7.6 (3-10), which
      improved to 1.4 (0-4) postoperatively. The average operative time was 57.5
      minutes. There were no intraoperative complications. One patient had temporary
      postoperative quadriceps weakness (L4 radiculopathy) that was completely improved
      at 3 months' follow-up. Another patient had deep venous thrombosis after
      discharge. Two patients had recurrences that necessitated another operation
      within the first 6 months postoperatively. Both were followed up for 1 year
      without a second recurrence. CONCLUSION: Trans-tubular percutaneous
      extraforaminal microscopic-assisted nucleotomy is effective for foraminal and
      extraforaminal disc herniations. It is a muscle-splitting minimally invasive
      approach with minimal morbidity. Complications, recurrence, and reoperation rate
      are not different compared with microsurgical open or endoscopic techniques.

PMID- 28882527
TI  - Successful lumbar surgery results in improved psychological well-being: a
      longitudinal assessment of depressive and anxiety symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Preoperative psychological symptoms predict surgical
      outcomes. The impact of surgical outcomes on psychological well-being, however,
      has not been delineated. PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare pre- with
      postoperative depressive and anxiety symptoms based on success of surgery,
      defined as fulfilled expectations and improvement in disability and pain. STUDY
      DESIGN/SETTING: A prospective 2-year longitudinal study in a tertiary care center
      was carried out. PATIENT SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 276 patients who
      underwent lumbar surgery. OUTCOME MEASURES: The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)
      and the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were the outcome
      measures. METHODS: Patients completed the following validated surveys several
      days before and again 2 years after surgery: the GDS with a set threshold for a
      positive screen for depression; the STAI with population norms used as threshold
      values; the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI); a numerical pain rating; and the
      Expectations Survey measuring amount of improvement expected. Dependent variables
      were pre- to postoperative within-patient change in GDS and STAI scores.
      Independent variables were three outcomes of surgery: proportion of expectations
      fulfilled, and changes in ODI scores and pain ratings. Analyses were conducted
      with GDS and STAI scores as continuous variables and according to threshold
      values, and for expectations, ODI and pain according to minimum clinically
      important differences (MCIDs). RESULTS: Mean age was 55, 56% were men, and 78%
      had degenerative diagnoses. For depressive symptoms, 41% screened positive
      preoperatively and 16% screened positive postoperatively; 72% had some
      improvement. In multivariable analysis adjusted for age, gender, comorbidity,
      diagnosis, and surgical invasiveness, depressive symptoms improved more for more
      expectations fulfilled (p<.0001), more ODI improvement (p<.0001), and more pain
      improvement (p=.001). For anxiety symptoms: 59% were worse than population norms
      preoperatively and 26% were worse postoperatively; 73% had some improvement. In
      adjusted multivariable analyses, anxiety symptoms improved more for more
      expectations fulfilled (p=.0002), more ODI improvement (p<.0001), and more pain
      improvement (p=.03). Similar results were obtained according to threshold values
      and MCIDs. CONCLUSION: Substantial improvements in psychological well-being
      resulted after surgery among patients with favorable spine-specific outcomes.

PMID- 28882528
TI  - Impaired glycogen breakdown and synthesis in phosphoglucomutase 1 deficiency.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated metabolism and physiological responses to exercise in
      an 18-year-old woman with multiple congenital abnormalities and exertional muscle
      fatigue, tightness, and rhabdomyolysis. METHODS: We studied biochemistry in
      muscle and fibroblasts, performed mutation analysis, assessed physiological
      responses to forearm and cycle-ergometer exercise combined with stable-isotope
      techniques and indirect calorimetry, and evaluated the effect of IV glucose
      infusion and oral sucrose ingestion on the exercise response. RESULTS:
      Phosphoglucomutase type 1 (PGM1) activity in muscle and fibroblasts was severely
      deficient and PGM1 in muscle was undetectable by Western blot. The patient was
      compound heterozygous for missense (R422W) and nonsense (Q530X) mutations in
      PGM1. Forearm exercise elicited no increase in lactate, but an exaggerated
      increase in ammonia, and provoked a forearm contracture. Comparable to patients
      with McArdle disease, the patient developed a 'second wind' with a spontaneous
      fall in exercise heart rate and perceived exertion. Like in McArdle disease, this
      was attributable to an increase in muscle oxidative capacity. Carbohydrate
      oxidation was blocked during exercise, and the patient had exaggerated oxidation
      of fat to fuel exercise. Exercise heart rate and perceived exertion were lower
      after IV glucose and oral sucrose. Muscle glycogen level was low normal.
      CONCLUSIONS: The second wind phenomenon has been considered to be pathognomonic
      for McArdle disease, but we demonstrate that it can also be present in PGM1
      deficiency. We show that severe loss of PGM1 activity causes blocked muscle
      glycogenolysis that mimics McArdle disease, but may also limit glycogen
      synthesis, which broadens the phenotypic spectrum of this disorder.

PMID- 28882530
TI  - [Confusional state in an octogenarian patient with a recent implantation of
      pacemaker].

PMID- 28882529
TI  - Proteomic features of delayed ocular symptoms caused by exposure to sulfur
      mustard: As studied by protein profiling of corneal epithelium.
AB  - Exposure to mustard gas can lead to variations in the proteome of corneal
      epithelium cells and after a latency period produces delayed symptoms in the eyes
      of chemical victims. Hence, a comparative proteome analysis was conducted between
      the corneal epithelial cells of chemical victims from Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988)
      and healthy donors. To this end, corneal epithelium samples from victims and
      healthy individuals were collected, and the proteome of these samples were
      prepared for two-dimensional electrophoresis and the analysis of spots by
      statistical software. Selected spots were further analyzed by matrix-assisted
      laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight/time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
      Twenty four proteins were identified of which eighteen proteins showed
      downregulation while six proteins were upregulated in the victims in comparison
      to the normal individuals. Also, six protein spots were confirmed by western-blot
      analysis. In conclusion, all the twenty-four identified proteins are involved in
      pathways which their up- or down-regulation leads to the accumulation of
      undesired substrates, cell death and apoptosis. Bioinformatics' tools indicated
      that these identified proteins were involved in various metabolic processes, DNA
      damage response, immune response and etc. The present study provides a suitable
      platform for further clinical studies.

PMID- 28882531
TI  - Primary cardiac tumor presenting as left ventricular outflow tract obstruction
      and complex arrhythmia.
AB  - An adult female mixed breed dog presented for recurrent collapsing episodes over
      several weeks. Holter evaluation revealed periods of sinus arrest and
      echocardiography identified a soft tissue mass with subsequent severe dynamic
      obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract. The patient was euthanized
      five days after presentation for severe dyspnea. Necropsy revealed an irregular
      mass circumferentially lining the left ventricular outflow tract as well as
      multiple myocardial metastases. The final diagnosis was an undifferentiated
      pleomorphic endocardial sarcoma.

PMID- 28882532
TI  - Helminthic infections in returning travelers and migrants with eosinophilia:
      Diagnostic value of medical history, eosinophil count and IgE.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Eosinophilia in travelers and migrants returning from the tropics is
      often associated with invasive helminthic infections. Total IgE is considered a
      useful additional diagnostic parameter; however, both parameters are also
      increased in various other non-helminthic diseases. METHODS: We retrospectively
      evaluated travelers and migrants seen at our department between September 2007
      and May 2014. Patients with an absolute eosinophil count >=500 cells/MUl were
      considered for further analyses. RESULTS: Among 6618 returned travelers and
      migrants, 154 (2.3%) had a total eosinophil count >=500 cells/MUL. Of these, 71
      patients (46%) were diagnosed with helminthic infection. In an additional 62
      patients (40%) with eosinophilia a final diagnosis was found, including non
      helminthic infections in 34 patients and non-infectious causes in 28 patients,
      while in 21 patients (14%) no diagnosis was made. Patients with helminthic
      infections had higher eosinophil counts than travelers and migrants with other
      diagnoses (median 981 vs. 710 cells/MUl; p = 0.001), while total IgE levels (n =
      70; 172 vs. 152 kU/l; p = 0.731) were similar in both groups. CONCLUSION:
      Eosinophil count but not total IgE levels are associated with helminthic
      infections in returning travelers and migrants with eosinophilia. Our results do
      not support the use of total IgE to differentiate helminthic infections from
      other causes of eosinophilia in this population.

PMID- 28882533
TI  - Swelling of the right cheek in an Israeli traveler returning from Columbia: A
      diagnostic challenge.

PMID- 28882534
TI  - Corrigendum to "The SAH Score: A Comprehensive Communication Tool" Journal of
      Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases 23 (2014) 902-909.

PMID- 28882535
TI  - GeDDiS: insight into frontline therapy in soft tissue sarcoma.

PMID- 28882536
TI  - Gemcitabine and docetaxel versus doxorubicin as first-line treatment in
      previously untreated advanced unresectable or metastatic soft-tissue sarcomas
      (GeDDiS): a randomised controlled phase 3 trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For many years, first-line treatment for locally advanced or
      metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma has been doxorubicin. This study compared
      gemcitabine and docetaxel versus doxorubicin as first-line treatment for advanced
      or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. METHODS: The GeDDiS trial was a randomised
      controlled phase 3 trial done in 24 UK hospitals and one Swiss Group for Clinical
      Cancer Research (SAKK) hospital. Eligible patients had histologically confirmed
      locally advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma of Trojani grade 2 or 3,
      disease progression before enrolment, and no previous chemotherapy for sarcoma or
      previous doxorubicin for any cancer. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to
      receive six cycles of intravenous doxorubicin 75 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks, or
      intravenous gemcitabine 675 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 and intravenous docetaxel 75
      mg/m2 on day 8 every 3 weeks. Treatment was assigned using a minimisation
      algorithm incorporating a random element. Randomisation was stratified by age
      (<=18 years vs >18 years) and histological subtype. The primary endpoint was the
      proportion of patients alive and progression free at 24 weeks in the intention-to
      treat population. Adherence to treatment and toxicity were analysed in the safety
      population, consisting of all patients who received at least one dose of their
      randomised treatment. The trial was registered with the European Clinical Trials
      (EudraCT) database (no 2009-014907-29) and with the International Standard
      Randomised Controlled Trial registry (ISRCTN07742377), and is now closed to
      patient entry. FINDINGS: Between Dec 3, 2010, and Jan 20, 2014, 257 patients were
      enrolled and randomly assigned to the two treatment groups (129 to doxorubicin
      and 128 to gemcitabine and docetaxel). Median follow-up was 22 months (IQR 15.7
      29.3). The proportion of patients alive and progression free at 24 weeks did not
      differ between those who received doxorubicin versus those who received
      gemcitabine and docetaxel (46.3% [95% CI 37.5-54.6] vs 46.4% [37.5-54.8]); median
      progression-free survival (23.3 weeks [95% CI 19.6-30.4] vs 23.7 weeks [18.1
      20.0]; hazard ratio [HR] for progression-free survival 1.28, 95% CI 0.99-1.65,
      p=0.06). The most common grade 3 and 4 adverse events were neutropenia (32 [25%]
      of 128 patients who received doxorubicin and 25 [20%] of 126 patients who
      received gemcitabine and docetaxel), febrile neutropenia (26 [20%] and 15 [12%]),
      fatigue (eight [6%] and 17 [14%]), oral mucositis (18 [14%] and two [2%]), and
      pain (ten [8%] and 13 [10%]). The three most common serious adverse events,
      representing 111 (39%) of all 285 serious adverse events recorded, were febrile
      neutropenia (27 [17%] of 155 serious adverse events in patients who received
      doxorubicin and 15 [12%] of 130 serious adverse events in patients who received
      gemcitabine and docetaxel, fever (18 [12%] and 19 [15%]), and neutropenia (22
      [14%] and ten [8%]). 154 (60%) of 257 patients died in the intention-to-treat
      population: 74 (57%) of 129 patients in the doxorubicin group and 80 (63%) of 128
      in the gemcitabine and docetaxel group. No deaths were related to the treatment,
      but two deaths were due to a combination of disease progression and treatment.
      INTERPRETATION: Doxorubicin should remain the standard first-line treatment for
      most patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcoma. These results provide evidence
      for clinicians to consider with their patients when selecting first-line
      treatment for locally advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. FUNDING: Cancer
      Research UK, Sarcoma UK, and Clinical Trial Unit Kantonsspital St Gallen.

PMID- 28882538
TI  - Clinicopathologic factors associated with recurrence in parotid carcinoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Parotid carcinomas have varying histological types and diverse
      biologic behaviors. Establishing an adequate treatment plan and predicting
      recurrence is important. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the risk factors associated with
      recurrence in our 5 year experience with 30 cases of primary parotid carcinoma
      undergoing surgery at a single institute. METHODS: From January 2009 to December
      2013, 30 patients with surgical treatment of parotid carcinoma were identified
      based on their medical records. RESULTS: The 30 patients were comprised of 17
      males and 13 females. Among 11 patients with T4 tumors, seven patients had
      recurrence. Among seven patients with cervical nodal metastasis, all patient
      except one had recurrence. Clinically late stages (stage III and IV) showed more
      common recurrence than early stage (stage I and II) lesions. Lymphovascular
      invasion was seen in 5 patients, and all patients had recurrence. Among 11
      patients with extracapsular spread, 7 patients had recurrence. In 17 patients
      with high grade carcinomas, ten patients had recurrence. In 13 patients with low
      grade carcinomas, no patients experienced recurrence. CONCLUSION: T- and N-stage,
      clinical stage, lymphovascular invasion, extracapsular spread, and
      histopathologic grade correlate significantly with recurrence in parotid
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28882539
TI  - Multidimensional effects of voice therapy in patients affected by unilateral
      vocal fold paralysis due to cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis may demonstrate
      different degrees of voice perturbation depending on the position of the
      paralyzed vocal fold. Understanding the effectiveness of voice therapy in this
      population may be an important coefficient to define the therapeutic approach.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the voice therapy effectiveness in the short, medium and
      long-term in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis and determine the risk
      factors for voice rehabilitation failure. METHODS: Prospective study with 61
      patients affected by unilateral vocal fold paralysis enrolled. Each subject had
      voice therapy with an experienced speech pathologist twice a week. A
      multidimensional assessment protocol was used pre-treatment and in three
      different times after voice treatment initiation: short-term (1-3 months), medium
      term (4-6 months) and long-term (12 months); it included videoendoscopy, maximum
      phonation time, GRBASI scale, acoustic voice analysis and the portuguese version
      of the voice handicap index. RESULTS: Multiple comparisons for GRBASI scale and
      VHI revealed statistically significant differences, except between medium and
      long term (p<0.005). The data suggest that there is vocal improvement over time
      with stabilization results after 6 months (medium term). From the 28 patients
      with permanent unilateral vocal fold paralysis, 18 (69.2%) reached complete
      glottal closure following vocal therapy (p=0.001). The logistic regression method
      indicated that the Jitter entered the final model as a risk factor for partial
      improvement. For every unit of increased Jitter, there was an increase of 0.1%
      (1.001) of the chance for partial improvement, which means an increase on no full
      improvement chance during rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Vocal rehabilitation
      improves perceptual and acoustic voice parameters and voice handicap index,
      besides favor glottal closure in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis.
      The results were also permanent during the period of 1 year. The Jitter value,
      when elevated, is a risk factor for the voice therapy success.

PMID- 28882537
TI  - Bevacizumab-induced hypertension: Clinical presentation and molecular
      understanding.
AB  - Bevacizumab is a vascular endothelial growth factor-A-specific angiogenesis
      inhibitor indicated as an adjunct to chemotherapy for the treatment of several
      types of cancer. Hypertension is commonly observed during bevacizumab treatment,
      and high-grade toxicity can limit therapy and lead to other cardiovascular
      complications. The factors that contribute to interindividual variability in
      blood pressure response to bevacizumab treatment are not well understood. In this
      review, we outline research efforts to understand the mechanisms and
      pathophysiology of hypertension resulting from bevacizumab treatment. Moreover,
      we highlight current knowledge of the pharmacogenetics of bevacizumab-induced
      hypertension, which may be used to develop strategies to prevent or minimize this
      toxicity.

PMID- 28882540
TI  - Symptoms of anxiety and depression are independently associated with inflammatory
      bowel disease-related disability.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) frequently results in disability.
      The relevance of psychological effects in causing disability, and whether
      disability occurs similarly in non-Western cohorts is as yet unknown. AIM: We
      assessed the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression, quality of
      life and disability in a Singaporean IBD cohort and their predictors. METHODS:
      Cross-sectional study. We assessed consecutive IBD subjects' IBD-Disability Index
      (IBD-DI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and IBD questionnaire
      (IBDQ). Clinical and demographic variables were collected. Non-parametric
      statistical analyses were performed. Independent predictors of disability were
      identified through multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: 200 consecutive
      subjects were recruited (males: 69%; median age: 43.8 (+/-15.4) years; 95 had
      Crohn's disease (CD), 105 had ulcerative colitis (UC); median IBD duration: 10.8
      (+/-9.0) years.) 27% of the cohort had anxiety and/or depression, which worsened
      disability (IBD-DI: -9 (+/-14) with anxiety vs 6 (+/-13) without anxiety,
      P<0.001; -12 (+/-16) with depression vs 5 (+/-13) without depression, P<0.001).
      Age at diagnosis, use of prednisolone, stricturing CD and active IBD were
      significant predictors of disability. IBDQ strongly correlated with IBD
      DI(rs=0.82, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Symptoms of anxiety and depression were common
      in this Asian cohort of IBD and were strongly associated with IBD-related
      disability. Recognizing psychological issues contributing to disability in IBD is
      important to ensure holistic care and appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28882542
TI  - Applications of Optobiology in Intact Cells and Multicellular Organisms.
AB  - Temporal kinetics and spatial coordination of signal transduction in cells are
      vital for cell fate determination. Tools that allow for precise modulation of
      spatiotemporal regulation of intracellular signaling in intact cells and
      multicellular organisms remain limited. The emerging optobiological approaches
      use light to control protein-protein interaction in live cells and multicellular
      organisms. Optobiology empowers light-mediated control of diverse cellular and
      organismal functions such as neuronal activity, intracellular signaling, gene
      expression, cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and apoptosis. In
      this review, we highlight recent developments in optobiology, focusing on new
      features of second-generation optobiological tools. We cover applications of
      optobiological approaches in the study of cellular and organismal functions,
      discuss current challenges, and present our outlook. Taking advantage of the high
      spatial and temporal resolution of light control, optobiology promises to provide
      new insights into the coordination of signaling circuits in intact cells and
      multicellular organisms.

PMID- 28882543
TI  - Longitudinal study of a NoGo-P3 event-related potential component following mild
      traumatic brain injury in adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Event-related potentials have repeatedly revealed
      electrophysiological markers of cognitive dysfunction associated with Mild
      Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) and may represent a sensitive tool to guide
      cognitive rehabilitative interventions. We previously found patients with
      symptomatic MTBI characterized by smaller P300 (or P3) wave amplitudes in a NoGo
      P3 subcomponent in the acute phase of the injury. The goal of this longitudinal
      study was to investigate whether this early NoGo-P3 subcomponent differs over
      time in symptomatic MTBI patients and healthy controls. METHODS: We included
      adults with a diagnosis of MTBI and individually matched healthy controls tested
      at 1 week, 3 months, and 1 year after the MTBI. Symptoms were assessed by the
      Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire. NoGo-P3 was collected by using
      a cued Go/NoGo task and the relevant subcomponent was extracted by independent
      component analysis. RESULTS: Among 53 adults with a diagnosis of MTBI and 53
      controls, we included 35 with symptomatic MTBI and 35 matched healthy controls
      (18 females each group; mean age 34.06+/-13.15 and 34.26+/-12.98 years).
      Amplitudes for the early NoGo-P3 subcomponent were lower for symptomatic MTBI
      patients than controls (P<0.05) at 1 week post-injury. Furthermore, mixed ANOVA
      revealed a significant time by group interaction (P<0.05), so the effect of time
      differed for symptomatic MTBI patients and healthy controls. The amplitudes for
      MTBI patients normalized from 1 week to 3 months post-injury and were comparable
      to those of controls from 3 months to 1 year post-injury. However, amplitudes for
      3 MTBI patients with particularly severe complaints 1 year post-injury did not
      normalize and were lower than those for the remaining MTBI sample (P<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Selected event-related potentials can be used as a sensitive and
      objective tool to illustrate the cognitive consequences of and recovery after
      MTBI.

PMID- 28882541
TI  - Structures of Leishmania Fructose-1,6-Bisphosphatase Reveal Species-Specific
      Differences in the Mechanism of Allosteric Inhibition.
AB  - The gluconeogenic enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase has been proposed as a
      potential drug target against Leishmania parasites that cause up to 20,000-30,000
      deaths annually. A comparison of three crystal structures of Leishmania major
      fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (LmFBPase) along with enzyme kinetic data show how
      AMP acts as an allosteric inhibitor and provides insight into its metal-dependent
      reaction mechanism. The crystal structure of the apoenzyme form of LmFBPase is a
      homotetramer in which the dimer of dimers adopts a planar conformation with
      disordered "dynamic loops". The structure of LmFBPase, complexed with manganese
      and its catalytic product phosphate, shows the dynamic loops locked into the
      active sites. A third crystal structure of LmFBPase complexed with its allosteric
      inhibitor AMP shows an inactive form of the tetramer, in which the dimer pairs
      are rotated by 18 degrees  relative to each other. The three structures suggest
      an allosteric mechanism in which AMP binding triggers a rearrangement of hydrogen
      bonds across the large and small interfaces. Retraction of the "effector loop"
      required for AMP binding releases the side chain of His23 from the dimer-dimer
      interface. This is coupled with a flip of the side chain of Arg48 which ties down
      the key catalytic dynamic loop in a disengaged conformation and also locks the
      tetramer in an inactive rotated T-state. The structure of the effector site of
      LmFBPase shows different structural features compared with human FBPases, thereby
      offering a potential and species-specific drug target.

PMID- 28882544
TI  - Gene2DisCo: Gene to disease using disease commonalities.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Finding the human genes co-causing complex diseases, also known as
      "disease-genes", is one of the emerging and challenging tasks in biomedicine.
      This process, termed gene prioritization (GP), is characterized by a scarcity of
      known disease-genes for most diseases, and by a vast amount of heterogeneous
      data, usually encoded into networks describing different types of functional
      relationships between genes. In addition, different diseases may share common
      profiles (e.g. genetic or therapeutic profiles), and exploiting disease
      commonalities may significantly enhance the performance of GP methods. This work
      aims to provide a systematic comparison of several disease similarity measures,
      and to embed disease similarities and heterogeneous data into a flexible
      framework for gene prioritization which specifically handles the lack of known
      disease-genes. METHODS: We present a novel network-based method, Gene2DisCo,
      based on generalized linear models (GLMs) to effectively prioritize genes by
      exploiting data regarding disease-genes, gene interaction networks and disease
      similarities. The scarcity of disease-genes is addressed by applying an efficient
      negative selection procedure, together with imbalance-aware GLMs. Gene2DisCo is a
      flexible framework, in the sense it is not dependent upon specific types of data,
      and/or upon specific disease ontologies. RESULTS: On a benchmark dataset composed
      of nine human networks and 708 medical subject headings (MeSH) diseases,
      Gene2DisCo largely outperformed the best benchmark algorithm, kernelized score
      functions, in terms of both area under the ROC curve (0.94 against 0.86) and
      precision at given recall levels (for recall levels from 0.1 to 1 with steps
      0.1). Furthermore, we enriched and extended the benchmark data to the whole human
      genome and provided the top-ranked unannotated candidate genes even for MeSH
      disease terms without known annotations.

PMID- 28882545
TI  - How patients' use of social media impacts their interactions with healthcare
      professionals.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Patients are increasingly accessing online health information and
      have become more participatory in their engagement with the advent of social
      media (SM). This study explored how patients' use of SM impacted their
      interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs). METHODS: Focus groups (n=5)
      were conducted with 36 patients with chronic conditions and on medication who
      used SM for health-related purposes. The discussions lasted 60-90min, were audio
      recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed. RESULTS: Participants
      did not interact with HCPs on SM and were not expecting to do so as they used SM
      exclusively for peer interactions. Most reported improvement in the patient-HCP
      relationship due to increased knowledge, better communication, and empowerment.
      Participants supplemented HCP-provided information with peer interactions on SM,
      and prepared themselves for consultations. They shared online health information
      with HCPs, during consultations, to validate it and to actively participate in
      the decision-making. Although some participants reported HCP support for their
      online activities, most perceived overt or tacit opposition. CONCLUSION:
      Participants perceived that their SM use positively impacted relationships with
      HCPs. They felt empowered and were more assertive in participating in decision
      making. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: HCPs should be aware of patients' activities and
      expectations, and support them in their online activities.

PMID- 28882546
TI  - Patient-centered communication between adolescent and young adult cancer
      survivors and their healthcare providers: Identifying research gaps with a
      scoping review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To conduct a scoping literature review to identify practices or
      programs that promote AYA patient-centered communication. METHODS: Between
      January and May of 2016, we applied standard scoping review methodology to
      systematically review articles. We considered peer-reviewed, English language
      articles written at any phase of intervention research. Both qualitative and
      quantitative studies were eligible, and no additional search restrictions were
      applied. We retained articles that included explicit or implicit outcomes for one
      of the six functions of patient-centered communication in cancer care. At least
      two independent reviewers assessed the articles. RESULTS: We screened a total of
      4072 titles and abstracts, retaining 27 for full-text review. Ultimately, eight
      titles met the review's inclusion criteria. We categorized each publication by
      the action or setting used to improve patient-centered communication, resulting
      in five categories. Most studies were not included because they did not include a
      patient-centered communication outcome. CONCLUSION: This area of research is
      still emerging, as indicated by the small number of eligible studies and
      predominance of qualitative, descriptive, pilot, and feasibility studies with
      small sample sizes. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Our results suggest a clear need to
      develop and evaluate interventions focused on improving patient-centered
      communication between AYA survivors and their healthcare providers.

PMID- 28882548
TI  - Pleistocene fossil woods from the Okote Member, site FwJj 14 in the Ileret
      region, Koobi Fora Formation, northern Kenya.
AB  - On the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya are extensive Plio
      Pleistocene deposits containing a rich diversity of fossil mammals, hominins and
      flora within the radiometrically dated tuffaceous, lacustrine and fluvial
      sequence. Reconstruction of this landscape and paleoenvironment are part of an
      ongoing multinational and multidisciplinary human evolution project in the
      eastern Turkana Basin. Today there is a huge lake in the Rift Valley but it has
      fluctuated since the early Pliocene. Silicified wood is fairly common in some
      areas of the Koobi Fora Formation. One such site is FwJj 14E, alongside one of
      the tributaries of the Ileret River. Hominin hand and arm bones have been
      excavated from here in the Okote Member and dated at 1.56-1.36 Ma. The fossils
      are associated with hominin and bovid footprints. Sixty of the over 100 wood
      specimens collected have been sectioned and studied. In general the woods have
      large vessels and an average vulnerability index of 40, which implies a mesic
      megathermal environment with no water stress. Taxonomically the woods belong to
      large African families: Caesalpiniaceae (Didelotia idae), Combretaceae
      (Anogeissus sp.), Putranjivaceae (Euphorbiaceae; Drypetes sp.), Lamiaceae (cf
      Premna sp.), Malvaceae (Heritiera sp.) and Sapindaceae (Sapindoxylon sp.). Most
      of these taxa do not occur in the area today because now it is much drier and the
      local vegetation is predominantly Acacia-Commiphora-Salvadora shrubland. The
      reconstruction of the paleovegetation supports the interpretation from the fauna,
      namely, a tall riverine forest with shady refuge trees, possibly some edible
      fruits, and wooded grassland and more open bushland in the vicinity.

PMID- 28882547
TI  - Molecular dynamics simulations of ether- and ester-linked phospholipids.
AB  - Dissimilarities in the bulk structure of bilayers composed of ether- vs ester
      linked lipids are well-established; however, the atomistic interactions
      responsible for these differences are not well known. These differences are
      important in understanding of why archaea have a different bilayer composition
      than the other domains of life and why humans have larger concentrations of
      plasmalogens in specialized membranes? In this paper, we simulate two lipid
      bilayers, the ester linked dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and the ether
      lined dihexadecylphosphatidylcholine (DHPC), to study these variations. The
      structural analysis of the bilayers reveals that DPPC is more compressible than
      DHPC. A closer examination of dipole potential shows DHPC, despite having a
      smaller dipole potential of the bilayer, has a higher potential barrier than DPPC
      at the surface. Analysis of water order and dynamics suggests DHPC has a more
      ordered, less mobile layer of water in the headgroup. These results seem to
      resolve the issue as to whether the decrease in permeability of DHPC is due to of
      differences in minimum area per lipid (A0) or diffusion coefficient of water in
      the headgroup region (Dhead) (Guler et al., 2009) since we have shown significant
      changes in the order and mobility of water in that region.

PMID- 28882549
TI  - Effect of Knowledge of Self-removability of Intrauterine Contraceptives on
      Uptake, Continuation, and Satisfaction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Preference for control over use is a consideration in choosing a
      contraceptive method. Counseling women on the possibility of intrauterine device
      (IUD) self-removal may increase interest in the method. This study tests whether
      counseling on self-removability as a stated feature of IUDs affects uptake,
      satisfaction, and continuation. STUDY DESIGN: We monitored clinic-level data on
      IUD uptake at clinics in Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Utah over 6 months.
      During the first 3 months, counselors provided standard contraceptive counseling.
      During the second 3 months, they added information about IUD self-removal. Women
      who initiated IUD use in both periods were recruited and asked to complete
      baseline and follow up surveys at 3 and 6 months after insertion. Among 361 women
      who had IUDs inserted during the study, we compared outcomes for women who did
      and did not receive information about self-removability during contraceptive
      counseling. We conducted descriptive analyses to test for differences by group
      and used logistic regression and survival analysis to assess discontinuation.
      RESULTS: There were no differences in IUD uptake, satisfaction, or
      discontinuation by receipt of self-removal information. Those who did not receive
      information about self-removal were more likely to report considering
      discontinuing use of the IUD. One-third of participants who considered
      discontinuation faced barriers to IUD removal. Knowledge of self-removability
      before the study was high in both groups, reducing our ability to find group
      differences. CONCLUSIONS: Counseling women on the possibility of self-removal may
      empower women when they face barriers to removal at facilities. More research is
      needed to understand whether knowledge of self-removal increases uptake and
      continuation.

PMID- 28882552
TI  - Prognostic and predictive biomarkers in breast cancer: Past, present and future.
AB  - Following a diagnosis of breast cancer, the most immediate challenges in patient
      management are the determination of prognosis and identification of the most
      appropriate adjuvant systemic therapy. Determining prognosis can best be
      addressed with a combination of traditional clinicopathological prognostic
      factors, biomarkers such as HER2/neu and specific multigene genes tests. Amongst
      the best validated prognostic multigene tests are uPA/PAI1, Oncotype DX and
      MammaPrint. Oncotype DX and MammaPrint, may be used for predicting outcome and
      aiding adjunct therapy decision making in patients with ER-positive, HER2
      negative breast cancers that are either lymph node-negative or node positive (1-3
      metastatic nodes), while uPA/PAI-1 may be similarly used in ER-positive, lymph
      node-negative patients. For selecting likely response to endocrine therapy, both
      estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) should be measured. On
      the other hand, for identifying likely response to anti-HER2 therapy,
      determination of HER2 gene amplification or overexpression is necessary. To
      identify new prognostic and predictive biomarkers for breast cancer, current
      research is focusing on tumor and circulating DNA (ctDNA) and RNA (e.g., micro
      RNAs) and circulating tumor cells. A promising ctDNA biomarker is the mutational
      status of ER (ESR1) for predicting the emergence of resistance to aromatase
      inhibitors. Challenges for future research include the identification of
      biomarkers for predicting response to radiotherapy and specific forms of
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28882550
TI  - Partner Relationships and Injection Sharing Practices among Rural Appalachian
      Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of relationships in initiating and maintaining women's risk
      behaviors has been established. However, understanding factors that may underlie
      partner relationships and women's risky drug use, particularly in rural contexts,
      is limited. This study is the first to examine the association between injecting
      partners and women's risky injection practices as a function of relationship
      power perception. METHODS: Female participants were recruited from three rural
      jails in the Appalachian region. Women were selected randomly, provided informed
      consent, and screened for study eligibility criteria. This cross-sectional
      analysis focuses on women who inject drugs during the year before entering jail
      (n = 199). MAIN FINDINGS: Approximately three-quarters (76%) reported having a
      recent main male sexual partner with a history of injection drug use. Although
      having a risky partner independently increased the likelihood of women reporting
      shared injection practices, perceptions of relationship power significantly
      moderated the effect on shared needle (adjusted odds ratio, 0.02; 95% CI, 0.003
      0.23; p = .001) and shared works (adjusted odds ratio, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.03-0.95; p
      = .04) use. CONCLUSIONS: This interaction indicated that, for women who inject
      drugs with a recent injecting male partner, greater perception of relationship
      power was associated with a decreased likelihood of shared injection practices.
      Implications for clinical assessment and intervention are discussed.

PMID- 28882551
TI  - What Women Want from Their Health Care Providers about Pregnancy Options
      Counseling: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Unintended pregnancy is common in the United States, yet scant
      research has evaluated women's preferences on pregnancy options counseling. This
      study explores pregnant women's preferences for pregnancy options counseling from
      health care providers. METHODS: We conducted semistructured interviews with
      pregnant women at a prenatal clinic and an abortion clinic. We asked women about
      recent discussions-or lack thereof-about pregnancy options (parenting, adoption,
      and abortion) with a clinician, and what they would want their provider to
      discuss about pregnancy options. We analyzed transcripts using modified grounded
      theory. FINDINGS: We interviewed 10 women in prenatal care and 18 women seeking
      abortion. In both settings, most said clinicians should discuss pregnancy options
      with pregnant women and 1) respect patient autonomy, 2) avoid assumptions about a
      woman's desired pregnancy outcome, and 3) consider the patient-including her
      health and fertility intentions-beyond her pregnancy. Participants wanted their
      doctors to assess a pregnancy's individual circumstances to determine the
      appropriateness of options counseling. A few participants, including women who
      did and did not receive options counseling, reported they personally preferred
      not to receive such counseling. Explaining this preference, they cited
      preservation of privacy, having already made a decision for the pregnancy, or
      just not wanting to discuss abortion. Regarding best practices for providing
      options counseling, participants said it should be done in a routine manner, with
      discretion, and early in pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women seeking both
      prenatal and abortion care broadly support options counseling. IMPLICATIONS:
      Discussion of pregnancy options, including abortion, provides patient-centered
      care and supports women's preferences.

PMID- 28882553
TI  - Non-parametric estimation of low-concentration benzene metabolism.
AB  - Two apparently contradictory findings in the literature on low-dose human
      metabolism of benzene are as follows. First, metabolism is approximately linear
      at low concentrations, e.g., below 10 ppm. This is consistent with decades of
      quantitative modeling of benzene pharmacokinetics and dose-dependent metabolism.
      Second, measured benzene exposure and metabolite concentrations for
      occupationally exposed benzene workers in Tianjin, China show that dose-specific
      metabolism (DSM) ratios of metabolite concentrations per ppm of benzene in air
      decrease steadily with benzene concentration, with the steepest decreases below 3
      ppm. This has been interpreted as indicating that metabolism at low
      concentrations of benzene is highly nonlinear. We reexamine the data using non
      parametric methods. Our main conclusion is that both findings are correct; they
      are not contradictory. Low-concentration metabolism can be linear, with
      metabolite concentrations proportional to benzene concentrations in air, and yet
      DSM ratios can still decrease with benzene concentrations. This is because a
      ratio of random variables can be negatively correlated with its own denominator
      even if the mean of the numerator is proportional to the denominator.
      Interpreting DSM ratios that decrease with air benzene concentrations as evidence
      of nonlinear metabolism is therefore unwarranted when plots of metabolite
      concentrations against benzene ppm in air show approximately straight-line
      relationships between them, as in the Tianjin data. Thus, an apparent
      contradiction that has fueled heated discussions in the recent literature can be
      resolved by recognizing that highly nonlinear, decreasing DSM ratios are
      consistent with linear metabolism.

PMID- 28882555
TI  - Treatment-induced changes in the androgen receptor axis: Liquid biopsies as
      diagnostic/prognostic tools for prostate cancer.
AB  - Prostate cancer progression and treatment relapse is associated with changes in
      the androgen receptor axis, and analysis of alternations of androgen receptor
      signaling is valuable for prognostics and treatment optimization. The profile of
      androgen receptor axis is currently obtained from biopsy specimens, which are not
      always easy to obtain. Moreover, the information acquired only provides a
      snapshot of the tumor biology, with strict spatial and temporal limitations. On
      the other hand, circulation is easily accessible source of both circulating tumor
      cells and circulating tumor DNA, which can be sampled at numerous time points.
      This Review will explore the potential use of androgen receptor axis alternations
      detectable in the blood in therapeutic decision-making and precision medicine for
      advancing metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

PMID- 28882556
TI  - Role of the microbiota in skin immunity and atopic dermatitis.
AB  - Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects 15-20%
      of children and 2-5% of adults in industrialized countries. The pathogen
      Staphylococcus aureus selectively colonizes the lesional skin of AD patients
      while this bacterium is absent in the skin of the majority of healthy
      individuals. However, the role of S. aureus in the pathogenesis of AD remains
      poorly understood. In addition to S. aureus, recent studies show a contribution
      of the skin microbiota to the regulation of immune responses in the skin as well
      as to the development of inflammatory skin disease. This review summarizes
      current knowledge about the role of the microbiota in skin immune responses and
      the role of S. aureus virulent factors in the pathogenesis of AD.

PMID- 28882554
TI  - The impact of androgen actions in neurons on metabolic health and disease.
AB  - The male hormone testosterone exerts different effects on glucose and energy
      homeostasis in males and females. Testosterone deficiency predisposes males to
      visceral obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. However, testosterone
      excess predisposes females to similar metabolic dysfunction. Here, we review the
      effects of testosterone actions in the central nervous system on metabolic
      function in males and females. In particular, we highlight changes within the
      hypothalamus that control glucose and energy homeostasis. We distinguish the
      organizational effects of testosterone in the programming of neural circuitry
      during development from the activational effects of testosterone during
      adulthood. Finally, we explore potential sites where androgen might be acting to
      impact metabolism within the central nervous system.

PMID- 28882557
TI  - Exposure amount and timing of solar irradiation during pregnancy and the risk of
      sensitization in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Solar irradiation affects sensitization to aeroallergens and the
      prevalence of allergic diseases. Little is known, however, about how the time and
      amount of solar irradiation during pregnancy affects such risks in children. We
      aimed to find out how solar irradiation during pregnancy affects sensitization to
      aero-allergens and the prevalence of allergic diseases in children. METHODS: This
      population-based cross-sectional study involved 7301 aged 6 years and aged 12
      years children. Maternal exposure to solar irradiation during pregnancy was
      evaluated using data from weather stations closest to each child's birthplace.
      Monthly average solar irradiation during the second and third trimesters was
      calculated with rank by quartiles. Risks of allergic sensitization and allergic
      disease were estimated. RESULTS: Relative to the first (lowest) quartile, the
      adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for allergic sensitization in the fourth (highest)
      quartile was lowest within solar irradiation during pregnancy months 5-6 (aOR =
      0.823, 95% CI 0.720-0.942, p < 0.05). During months 9-10, the aOR for allergic
      sensitization for the fourth was higher than the first quartile of solar
      irradiation (aOR = 1.167, 95% CI 1.022-1.333, p < 0.05). Similar results were
      observed when solar irradiation was analyzed as a continuous variable during
      months 5 (aOR = 0.975, 95% CI 0.962-0.989, p < 0.001) and month 9 (aOR = 1.018,
      95% CI 1.004-1.031, p = 0.003). Increased solar irradiation during months 7-8
      increased the risk of asthma (aOR = 1.309, 95% CI 1.024-1.674, p = 0.032).
      CONCLUSIONS: Maternal exposure to solar irradiation during the second trimester
      of pregnancy associated with reduced aeroallergen sensitization, whereas solar
      irradiation during the third trimester was related to increased sensitization to
      aeroallergens.

PMID- 28882558
TI  - Cinnamaldehyde protects human dental pulp cells against oxidative stress through
      the Nrf2/HO-1-dependent antioxidant response.
AB  - Cinnamaldehyde (CA) has various functional properties, such as anti-cancer, anti
      microbial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant activities. This study examined
      the intracellular signaling mechanisms of CA on the oxidative stress response in
      human dental pulp cells (hDPCs). The results showed that CA did not have any cell
      cytotoxicity or cause morphological changes at concentrations up to 50uM. A CA
      treatment strongly up-regulated the cellular protein level of heme oxygenase-1
      (HO-1) and promoted Nrf2 translocation to the nucleus. CA-mediated Nrf2/HO-1
      activation reduced the level of reactive oxygen species and protected the hDPCs
      from H2O2-induced oxidative stress, which induces apoptosis. Moreover, HO-1
      depletion by siRNA attenuated the CA-mediated cell protection against oxidative
      stress. These results indicate that CA protects hDPCs dysfunction under oxidative
      stress conditions, and this effect is mediated by Nrf2 activation and the up
      regulation of HO-1. Overall, these observations suggest that CA is a potential
      therapeutic agent for cell protection against oxidative stress.

PMID- 28882559
TI  - Enhancement of S1P-induced contractile response in detrusor smooth muscle of rats
      having cystitis.
AB  - Interstitial cystitis is a chronic disease characterized by lower abdominal pain
      and some nonspecific symptoms including an increase in urinary frequency and
      urgency. Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) is a bioactive sphingolipid that controls
      smooth muscle tone via G-protein coupled receptors (S1P1-3 receptors). S1P
      production is known to take place both in physiological states and some
      pathological situations, such as in overactive bladder syndrome. The
      intracellular mechanism of S1P-induced contractile response was investigated in
      beta-escin permeabilized detrusor smooth muscle of rats having cyclophosphamide
      induced cystitis. The bladder was isolated from rats and detrusor smooth muscle
      strips were permeabilized with beta-escin. S1P (50uM)-induced contraction and
      calcium sensitization response were significantly increased in cystitis. S1P
      induced augmented contractile response was inhibited by S1P2 receptor antagonist
      JTE-013 and S1P3 receptor antagonist suramin. S1P2 receptor protein expressions
      were increased in cystitis, where no change was observed in S1P3 expressions
      between control and cystitis groups. S1P-induced contraction was reduced by Rho
      kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Y-27632 and protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor GF-109203X
      in both control and cystitis group. S1P-induced increased calcium sensitization
      response was decreased by ROCK inhibitor and PKC inhibitor in cystitis. Our
      findings provide the first evidence that interstitial cystitis triggers S1P
      induced increase in intracellular calcium in permeabilized detrusor smooth muscle
      of female rats. Both S1P2 and S1P3 receptors are involved in S1P mediated
      enhanced contractile response. The augmentation in S1P-induced contraction in
      interstitial cystitis involves both PKC and ROCK pathways of calcium
      sensitization.

PMID- 28882560
TI  - Plan B (-cell) in atherosclerosis.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is a complex chronic
      inflammatory disease involving interactions between vascular, circulating and
      immune cells. B cells play an important role in chronic inflammation producing
      antibodies and regulating T and natural killer (NKT) cell activation. The role of
      B cells in atherosclerosis is complex, with atherogenic and protective roles
      assigned for distinct B cell subsets. Drugs that deplete B cells or modulate
      their functions are now used in the treatment of various autoimmune diseases in
      humans. Here, we briefly review the roles of B cell subsets in atherogenesis, and
      emphasize the potential impact of B cell targeted therapies on the cardiovascular
      risk of treated patients. Developing more B cell subset-specific therapies would
      lead to more effective treatments with enhanced safety profile.

PMID- 28882561
TI  - Locomotor and reinforcing effects of pentedrone, pentylone and methylone in rats.
AB  - The broad diversity of synthetic cathinone psychostimulant drugs that are
      available to users complicates research efforts to provide understanding of
      health risks. Second generation cathinones pentedrone and pentylone are
      distinguished from each other by the 3,4-methylenedioxy structural motif (which
      distinguishes methamphetamine from 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and each
      incorporates the alpha-alkyl chain motif contained in the transporter-inhibitor
      cathinones (3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone
      (alpha-PVP)) but not in the monoamine releasers (mephedrone, methylone). Studies
      were conducted in male and female Wistar rats to compare locomotor and
      thermoregulatory effects of pentedrone, pentylone and methylone using an
      implanted radiotelemetry system. Reinforcing effects were assessed in female
      Wistar rats trained in the intravenous self-administration (IVSA) procedure and
      subjected to dose-substitution (0.025-0.3 m/gkg/inf) under a fixed-ratio 1
      response contingency. Pentedrone, pentylone and methylone dose-effect curves were
      contrasted with those for alpha-PVP and alpha-pyrrolidinohexiophenone (alpha
      PHP). Dose dependent increases in locomotion were observed after intraperitoneal
      injection of pentylone (0.5-10.0 mg/kg), pentedrone (0.5-10.0 mg/kg) or
      mephedrone (0.5-10.0 mg/kg) in male and female rats. The maximum locomotor effect
      was similar across drugs but lasted longest after pentedrone. Mean body
      temperature did not vary systematically more than 0.5  degrees C after pentedrone
      or pentylone in either sex. A sustained hyperthermia (0.4-0.8  degrees C) was
      observed for four hours after 10.0 mg/kg methylone in male rats. More infusions
      of pentedrone or pentylone were self-administered compared with methylone, but
      all three were less potent than alpha-PVP or alpha-PHP. These studies support the
      inference that second generation cathinones pentylone and pentedrone have abuse
      liability greater than that of methylone. This article is part of the Special
      Issue entitled 'Designer Drugs and Legal Highs.'

PMID- 28882562
TI  - Candesartan prevents resiniferatoxin-induced sensory small-fiber neuropathy in
      mice by promoting angiotensin II-mediated AT2 receptor stimulation.
AB  - Sensory defects associated with small-fiber neuropathy (SFN) can lead to profound
      disabilities. The relationship between the sensory nervous system and modulation
      of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been described and focused on pain and
      neurodegeneration in several animal models. We have recently developed an
      experimental model of functional sensory neuropathy showing thermal hypoalgesia
      and neuropeptide depletion without nerve fiber degeneration. Here, we aimed to
      determine whether the modulation of angiotensin II (Ang II) activity could
      prevent sensory neuropathy induced by RTX. Control and RTX mice received
      ramipril, an Ang II converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, (0.5 mg/kg/day) or
      candesartan, an Ang II type 1 receptor (AT1R) blocker (0.5 mg/kg/day), one day
      before vehicle or RTX administration, and each day for the next seven days.
      Ramipril did not have a beneficial effect in RTX mice, whereas candesartan
      prevented thermal hypoalgesia and reduced neuropeptide depletion in
      intraepidermal nerve fibers and dorsal root ganglion neurons. The preventive
      effect of candesartan was not observed in mice deficient for the Ang II type 2
      receptor (AT2R) and was counteracted in wild type mice by EMA200, an AT2R
      antagonist (3 mg/kg/day). Thus, candesartan may promote AT2R activation by
      blocking AT1R and increasing Ang II production and enhance its mechanisms of
      neuroprotection in our RTX model. Our finding that candesartan prevents
      nociception deficits and neuropeptide depletion encourages the evaluation of its
      therapeutic potential in patients presenting SFN, particularly those who
      experience chemotherapy-induced SFN.

PMID- 28882563
TI  - Adenosine A1 receptor potentiated glycinergic transmission in spinal cord dorsal
      horn of rats after peripheral inflammation.
AB  - Adenosine is present at the extracellular space within spinal cord dorsal horn
      and engaged in the processing of nociceptive sensory signals. Systemic or spinal
      administration of exogenous adenosine produces a potent analgesia against
      pathological pain. Here we found that inhibitory glycinergic neurotransmission
      was an important target for adenosine regulation. In spinal cord slices from
      intact rats, adenosine increased the inhibitory postsynaptic currents mediated by
      glycine receptors (GlyRs). In spinal slices from Complete Freund's Adjuvant
      injected rats, adenosine potentiated glycinergic transmission to a more degree
      than in control rats. This synaptic potentiation was dependent on the activation
      of adenosine A1 receptor (A1R), and attributed to the modification of
      postsynaptic GlyRs function. The Gi protein-coupled A1R typically signals through
      Galphai/cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and Gbetagamma pathways. We found
      that blockade of either Galphai/PKA or Gbetagamma signaling attenuated the
      ability of adenosine to increase glycinergic synaptic responses in inflamed rats.
      To identify which GlyRs subunit was subjected to A1R regulation, we recorded
      glycine-evoked whole-cell currents in HEK293T cells co-transfected with A1R and
      distinct GlyRs subunit. We found that alpha1, the most abundant functional GlyRs
      subunit in adult spinal cord, was insensitive to A1R activation. However, when
      GlyRs alpha3 subunit or alpha1ins subunit, a longer alpha1 isoform, was co
      expressed with A1R, adenosine caused a significant increase of glycinergic
      currents. Inhibition of PKA and Gbetagamma abolished the stimulatory effects of
      A1R on alpha3 and alpha1ins, respectively. These data suggested that A1R might
      potentiate glycinergic transmission through Galphai/PKA/alpha3 and
      Gbetagamma/alpha1ins pathways in inflamed rat.

PMID- 28882564
TI  - Searching for synergy: Identifying optimal antiviral combination therapy using
      Hepatitis C virus (HCV) agents in a replicon system.
AB  - Direct acting antiviral agents (DAAs) are potent inhibitors of Hepatitis C virus
      (HCV) that have revolutionized the treatment landscape for this important viral
      disease. There are currently four classes of DAAs that inhibit HCV replication
      via distinct mechanisms of action: nonstructural protein (NS) 3/4a protease
      inhibitors, NS5A inhibitors, NS5B nucleoside polymerase inhibitors, and NS5B non
      nucleoside polymerase inhibitors. Combination therapy with two or more DAAs has
      great potential to further enhance antiviral potency. The purpose of this study
      was to identify optimal combinations of DAAs against genotype 1 HCV replicons
      that maximized the inhibition of replicon replication. All possible two-drug
      combinations were evaluated against genotype 1a and 1b HCV replicons using a 96
      well plate luciferase-based assay in triplicate. The Greco Universal Response
      Surface Area mathematical model was fit to the luciferase data to identify drug
      drug interactions (i.e.: synergy, additivity, and antagonism) for antiviral
      effect against both genotypes. This information was used to rank-order
      combinations of DAAs based on their ability to inhibit replicon replication
      against genotype 1a and 1b HCV. These preclinical findings can provide
      information as to which antiviral regimens should move on in the development
      process.

PMID- 28882566
TI  - Genetic variations in UGT2B28, UGT2B17, UGT2B15 genes and the risk of prostate
      cancer: A case-control study.
AB  - Glucuronidation is a major pathway for elimination of exogenous and endogenous
      compounds such as environmental carcinogens and androgens from the body. This
      biochemical pathway is mediated by enzymes called uridine
      diphosphoglucuronosyltransferases (UGTs). Null (del/del) genes polymorphisms in
      UGT2B17, and UGT2B28 and D85Y single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of UGT2B15
      have been reported to increase the risk of prostate cancer. The goal of this
      study was to determine the association of mentioned genetic variants with the
      risk of prostate cancer. We investigated the copy number variations (CNVs) of
      UGT2B17 and UGT2B28 loci and the association between rs1902023 polymorphism of
      UGT2B15 gene in 360 subjects consisted of 120 healthy controls, 120 prostate
      cancer (PC) patients and 120 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients. No
      association was detected for the mentioned polymorphisms and the risk of PC.
      However, a significant association was detected between UGT2B17 copy number
      variation and BPH risk (OR=2.189; 95% CI, 1.303-3.675; p=0.003). Furthermore, we
      observed that the D85Y polymorphism increases the risk of BPH when analyzed in
      combination with the copy number variation of UGT2B17 gene (OR=0.135; 95% CI,
      0.036-0.512; p=0.003). Our findings suggest that the D85Y polymorphism of UGT2B15
      and CNVs in UGT2B28 and UGT2B17 genes is not associated with prostate cancer risk
      in Iranian patients. To our knowledge, this is the first report that implicates
      the role of CNV of UGT2B17 gene in BPH.

PMID- 28882565
TI  - Evidence of disordered calcium metabolism in adolescent girls with type 1
      diabetes: An observational study using a dual-stable calcium isotope technique.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is associated with skeletal abnormalities including low
      bone density and increased fracture risk. The pathophysiology underlying T1D
      related skeletal fragility remains unknown. The objective of this study was to
      use a dual-stable calcium isotope method to investigate the effects of T1D on
      calcium absorption and estimated calcium retention in adolescent females. Twenty
      adolescent females with T1D were admitted for a 24-h calcium absorption study
      using oral (44Ca) and intravenous (42Ca) stable isotopes for determination of
      percent gastrointestinal calcium absorption and estimated calcium retention. Five
      out of twenty participants were found to have negative estimated calcium
      retention. Participants with negative calcium retention had greater urinary
      calcium excretion [202mg/d (IQR: 178-213)] compared to those with positive
      calcium retention [101.5mg/d (IQR: 82-122)], p=0.01, but similar calcium intake
      and percent calcium absorption. With the exception of one outlier, 24-h urine
      calcium was significantly associated with hemoglobin A1c (Pearson's r=0.55,
      p=0.02). 50% of participants consumed less than the RDA for calcium; fractional
      calcium absorption was inversely correlated with calcium intake in participants
      not meeting the RDA (Spearman's rho -0.65, p=0.04). In conclusion, one-quarter of
      adolescent girls with T1D were found to have negative estimated calcium retention
      at a time when bone mineral accrual should be ongoing. This appeared to be the
      result of excess urinary calcium excretion as opposed to diminished
      gastrointestinal calcium absorption. Insufficient calcium availability for bone
      deposition during adolescence could impair bone mineral accrual and contribute to
      skeletal fragility. Trial registered: ClinicalTrials.gov Reg No. NCT03156179.

PMID- 28882567
TI  - Anaerobic sulfatase maturase AslB from Escherichia coli activates human
      recombinant iduronate-2-sulfate sulfatase (IDS) and N-acetylgalactosamine-6
      sulfate sulfatase (GALNS).
AB  - Maturation of type I sulfatases requires the conversion of the cysteine (Cys) or
      serine (Ser) present in the active site to formylglycine (FGly). This activation
      represents a limiting step during the production of recombinant sulfatases in
      bacteria and eukaryotic hosts. AslB, YdeM and YidF have been proposed to
      participate in the activation of sulfatases in Escherichia coli. In this study,
      we combined in-silico and experimental approaches to study the interaction
      between Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) AslB and human sulfatases, more specifically
      iduronate-2-sulfate sulfatase (IDS) and N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase
      (GALNS). In-silico results show that AslB has a higher affinity for the residual
      motif of GALNS (-9.4kcalmol-1), Cys- and Ser-type, than for the one of IDS (
      8.0kcalmol-1). However, the distance between the AslB active residue and the
      target motif favors the interaction with IDS (4.4A) more than with GALNS (5.5A).
      Experimental observations supported in-silico results where the co-expression of
      AslB with GALNS Cys- and Ser-type presented an activity increment of 2.0- and 1.5
      fold compared to the control cultures, lacking overexpressed AslB. Similarly, IDS
      activity was increased in 4.6-fold when co-expressed with AslB. The higher
      sulfatase activity of AslB-IDS suggests that the distance between the AslB active
      residue and the motif target is a key parameter for the in-silico search of
      potential sulfatase activators. In conclusion, our results suggest that AslB is
      involve in the maturation of heterologous human sulfatases in E. coli BL21(DE3),
      and that it can have important implications in the production of recombinant
      sulfatases for therapeutic purposes and research.

PMID- 28882568
TI  - Identification of pathogenic genes related to rheumatoid arthritis through
      integrated analysis of DNA methylation and gene expression profiling.
AB  - The purpose of our study was to identify new pathogenic genes used for exploring
      the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To screen pathogenic genes of RA,
      an integrated analysis was performed by using the microarray datasets in RA
      derived from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The functional
      annotation and potential pathways of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were
      further discovered by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and
      Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis. Afterwards, the integrated analysis of DNA
      methylation and gene expression profiling was used to screen crucial genes. In
      addition, we used RT-PCR and MSP to verify the expression levels and methylation
      status of these crucial genes in 20 synovial biopsy samples obtained from 10 RA
      model mice and 10 normal mice. BCL11B, CCDC88C, FCRLA and APOL6 were both up
      regulated and hypomethylated in RA according to integrated analysis, RT-PCR and
      MSP verification. Four crucial genes (BCL11B, CCDC88C, FCRLA and APOL6)
      identified and analyzed in this study might be closely connected with the
      pathogenesis of RA.

PMID- 28882569
TI  - miR-130a regulates differential lipid accumulation between intramuscular and
      subcutaneous adipose tissues of pigs via suppressing PPARG expression.
AB  - To investigate the molecular mechanism underlying differential lipid deposition
      between intramuscular (IM) and subcutaneous (SC) fat tissues of pigs, peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) expression levels were compared in
      these two types of adipose tissues. The results showed that both mRNA and protein
      levels of PPARG were significantly higher in SC fat than in IM fat.
      Correspondingly, the expression levels of miR-128 and miR-130a, which potentially
      targeting PPARG 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR), in IM fat were 8.37 and 2.30
      fold of those in SC fat respectively. Further dual luciferase activity assay
      showed that only miR-130a directly targeting PPARG. Moreover, over-expression of
      miR-130a in preadipocytes significantly inhibited its differentiation by
      suppressing PPARG expression. In conclusion, tissue variance of miR-130a levels
      results in the diverse of PPARG, and might be the reason for differential fat
      deposition between IM and SC fat tissues in pigs. Our study would provide the
      molecular foundation for IM fat deposition increase and therefore contribute to
      pork quality improvement.

PMID- 28882570
TI  - Taurine restores the exploratory behavior following alcohol withdrawal and
      decreases BDNF mRNA expression in the frontal cortex of chronic alcohol-treated
      rats.
AB  - Alcohol use disorder is an alarming health problem, and the withdrawal symptoms
      increase the risk of relapse. We have hypothesized that taurine, a multitarget
      substance acting as a gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor (GABAAR) positive
      modulator and a partial inhibitor of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate
      receptors, may reduce the withdrawal symptoms or modify behaviors when combined
      with alcohol. Therefore, we investigated the effects of taurine on behavior in
      the open field test (OFT), the GABAAR alpha2 subunit and BDNF mRNA expression in
      the frontal cortex of rats after chronic alcohol treatment or upon withdrawal.
      Rats received alcohol 2g/kg (alcohol and withdrawal groups) or water (control
      group) twice daily by oral gavage for 28days. On day 29, the withdrawal rats
      received water instead of alcohol, and all groups were reallocated to receive
      100mg/kg taurine or vehicle intraperitoneally, once a day for 5days. On day 33,
      the rats were exposed to OFT; 18h later, they were euthanized, and the frontal
      cortex was dissected for GABAAR alpha2 subunit detection and BDNF mRNA expression
      determination by real-time quantitative PCR. Taurine administration restored
      rearing behavior to the control levels in the withdrawal rats. Taurine also
      showed anxiolytic-like effects in control rats and did not change the behaviors
      in the chronic alcohol group. Chronic alcohol treatment or withdrawal did not
      change the GABAAR alpha2 subunit or BDNF mRNA expression in the frontal cortex,
      but taurine decreased the alpha2 subunit level in control rats and to the BDNF
      levels in the alcohol rat group. We conclude that taurine restored exploratory
      behavior after alcohol withdrawal but that this effect was not related to the
      GABAAR alpha2 subunit or BDNF mRNA expression in the frontal cortex of the rats.

PMID- 28882571
TI  - Genome shuffling improved the nucleosides production in Cordyceps kyushuensis.
AB  - Genome shuffling was first applied to improve the production of nucleosides in
      Cordyceps kyushuensis. Six improved strains were selected for genome shuffling by
      UV and HNO2 mutagenesis. Ten improved genome shuffling strains with good genetic
      stability were obtained, among which, the production of cordycepin in R6 was
      9.624 times higher than that of the ancestor. While in R18 and R19, the yield of
      cordycepin, adenosine, guanosine and uridine were all increased greatly compared
      with the ancestor. Based on the four phenotypes of the content of cordycepin,
      adenosine, guanosine and uridine, hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and
      principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to infer the relationships
      between genome shuffling strains and mutants.

PMID- 28882572
TI  - Identification of essential transcription factors for adequate DNA damage
      response after benzo(a)pyrene and aflatoxin B1 exposure by combining
      transcriptomics with functional genomics.
AB  - DNA damage mediates widespread changes in transcription through activation or
      repression of transcription factors (TFs). However, the consequences of
      regulating specific TFs for the outcome of the DNA repair process remain
      incompletely understood. Here, we combined transcriptomics and TF binding
      prediction with functional genomics to identify TFs essential for adequate DNA
      repair in HepG2 liver cells after a non-cytotoxic dose of carcinogens
      benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) (2MUM) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) (5MUM). BaP and AFB1 induced
      a largely common transcriptional response, mediated by similar TFs. A lentiviral
      shRNA screen knocking down the top31 identified TFs, was performed to determine
      their effect on DNA repair by assessing phosphorylation of H2AX (gamma-H2AX). In
      addition to the top candidate p53, we identified several other interesting TFs
      that modulated gamma-H2AX after BaP and AFB1 treatment. Validation studies
      confirmed the role of p53 in reducing gamma-H2AX formation and DNA breaks
      measured by COMET assay after BaP and AFB1 exposure. Expression of the cell cycle
      inhibitor p21 was profoundly impaired upon p53 knock-down. In addition, the
      expression of 2 genes involved in nucleotide exchange repair, DDB2 and XPC was
      significantly reduced in p53 knock-down cells. Although p63 knock-down affected
      DNA damage upon BaP treatment this was not associated with altered expression of
      DDB2 or XPC. Finally, knock-down of ARNT reduced gamma-H2AX in response to BaP,
      which was associated with reduced CYP1A1 expression. Importantly, our results
      suggest a new role for ARNT and its dimerization partner AHR in the occurrence of
      H2AX phosphorylation after AFB1 treatment. These data show that modulation of TF
      activity impacts on the repair of BaP- and AFB1-induced DNA damage. Our study
      also demonstrates the potential of combining functional genomics with genome-wide
      expression analysis to identify yet unknown causal relationships, thereby aiding
      in the interpretation of complex biological systems.

PMID- 28882573
TI  - Scientific and ethical obligations to publish tobacco industry-funded research on
      nicotine delivery systems of reduced risk.

PMID- 28882574
TI  - Kupffer cells activation promoted binge drinking-induced fatty liver by
      activating lipolysis in white adipose tissues.
AB  - Kupffer cells (KCs) have been suggested to play critical roles in chronic ethanol
      induced early liver injury, but the role of KCs in binge drinking-induced hepatic
      steatosis remains unclear. This study was designed to investigate the roles of
      KCs inhibitor (GdCl3) and TNF-alpha antagonist (etanercept) on binge drinking
      induced liver steatosis and to explore the underlying mechanisms. C57BL/6 mice
      were exposed to three doses of ethanol (6g/kg body weight) to mimic binge
      drinking-induced fatty liver. The results showed that both GdCl3 and etanercept
      partially but significantly alleviated binge drinking-induced increase of hepatic
      triglyceride (TG) level, and reduced fat droplets accumulation in mice liver.
      GdCl3 but not etanercept significantly blocked binge drinking-induced activation
      of KCs. However, neither GdCl3 nor etanercept could affect binge drinking-induced
      decrease of PPAR-alpha, ACOX, FAS, ACC and SCD protein levels, or increase of the
      LC3 II/LC3 I ratio and p62 protein level. Interestingly, both GdCl3 and
      etanercept significantly suppressed binge drinking-induced phosphorylation of HSL
      in epididymal adipose tissues. Results of in vitro studies with cultured
      epididymal adipose tissues showed that TNF-alpha could increase the
      phosphorylation of HSL in adipose tissues and upgrade the secretion of free fatty
      acid (FFA) in the culture medium. Taken together, KCs inhibitor and TNF-alpha
      antagonist could partially attenuate binge drinking-induced liver steatosis,
      which might be attributed to the suppression of mobilization of white adipose
      tissues. These results suggest that KCs activation may promote binge drinking
      induced fatty liver by TNF-alpha mediated activation of lipolysis in white
      adipose tissues.

PMID- 28882575
TI  - Cohort study comparing the diagnostic yields of 2 different EUS fine-needle
      biopsy needles.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Two second-generation, flexible EUS fine-needle biopsy (FNB)
      needles have been marketed recently in the United States. Thus far, there have
      been no comparative studies of the diagnostic yield of these needles. The aim of
      this study was to compare the diagnostic yield achieved with FNB by using 1
      needle during 1 time period and the other needle during a second time period.
      METHODS: Consecutive patients with solid lesions undergoing EUS-FNB by using 1 of
      two 22-gauge FNB needles (Franseen needle or fork-tip) at 2 different time
      intervals were included. The final diagnosis was based on positive pathology
      results. In cases of a negative pathology result, the final diagnosis was based
      on clinical and imaging follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 194 lesions (97 in each
      group) were sampled in 179 patients. Rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) was used in
      12% of cases. The overall diagnostic yield was lower in the Franseen needle group
      compared with the fork-tip needle group (61/97 [63%] vs 75/97 [77%], odds ratio
      (OR) 2.01, 1.07-3.8; P = .027). Similarly, subanalysis of the yield for solid
      pancreatic masses demonstrated a lower yield with the Franseen needle (34/53
      [64%] vs 40/47 [85%], OR 3.4, 9.1-8.9; P = .017). Multivariate analysis
      controlling for the number of passes, site, and lesion size did not have any
      effect on diagnostic yield. There were no adverse events in either group.
      CONCLUSION: In this first, large, single-center comparative cohort study of 2
      new, second-generation EUS-FNB needles of different design, the diagnostic yield
      when used primarily without ROSE was high in both groups but was significantly
      higher when a fork-tip needle was used.

PMID- 28882576
TI  - Endoscopic features and clinical outcomes of colorectal mucosa-associated
      lymphoid tissue lymphoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Colorectal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma
      is a rare disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and
      endoscopic features of colorectal MALT lymphoma. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with
      colorectal MALT lymphoma at Asan Medical Center from 2002 to 2016 were eligible.
      Medical records were reviewed to investigate clinical features and treatment
      outcomes. Endoscopic pictures were assessed to characterize the endoscopic
      features of colorectal MALT lymphoma. RESULTS: A total of 51 patients were
      enrolled. The median age was 60 years (interquartile range, 55-71), and 21 (41%)
      were men. Twenty-six patients (51%) were asymptomatic. Forty-four patients (86%)
      were in early disease stages, namely Lugano stages I, II, and IIE. Endoscopic
      appearances were classified as 4 distinct types: subepithelial tumor type (26
      patients, 51%), polyposis type (10 patients, 20%), epithelial mass type (7
      patients, 14%), and ileitis type (8 patients, 16%). The rectum (20 patients, 39%)
      was the most common location, followed by the ileocecal area (15 patients, 30%).
      An initial endoscopic impression of lymphoma was made in only 7 patients. Forceps
      biopsy sampling as the initial tissue acquisition method could histologically
      diagnose MALT lymphoma in 28 of 35 patients (80%). Polypectomy as the initial
      histologic diagnosis could diagnose MALT lymphoma in 16 of 16 patients.
      Progression-free and overall survival rates at 5 years were 92% and 94%,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Colorectal MALT lymphomas show various endoscopic
      appearances, complicating the endoscopic suspicion of colorectal MALT lymphoma.
      The prognosis of colorectal MALT lymphoma was excellent.

PMID- 28882577
TI  - Assessing colon polypectomy competency and its association with established
      quality metrics.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Inadequate polypectomy leads to incomplete resection,
      interval colorectal cancer, and adverse events. However, polypectomy competency
      is rarely reported, and quality metrics are lacking. The primary aims of this
      study were to assess polypectomy competency among a cohort of gastroenterologists
      and to measure the correlation between polypectomy competency and established
      colonoscopy quality metrics (adenoma detection rate and withdrawal time).
      METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study to assess polypectomy
      competency among 13 high-volume screening colonoscopists at an academic medical
      center. Over 6 weeks, we made video recordings of >=28 colonoscopies per
      colonoscopist and randomly selected 10 polypectomies per colonoscopist for
      evaluation. Two raters graded the polypectomies by using the Direct Observation
      of Polypectomy Skills, a polypectomy competency assessment tool, which assesses
      individual polypectomy skills and overall competency. RESULTS: We evaluated 130
      polypectomies. A total of 83 polypectomies (64%) were rated as competent, which
      was more likely for diminutive (70%) than small and/or large polyps (50%, P =
      .03). Overall Direct Observation of Polypectomy Skills competency scores varied
      significantly among colonoscopists (P = .001), with overall polypectomy
      competency rates ranging between 30% and 90%. Individual skills scores, such as
      accurately directing the snare over the lesion (P = .02) and trapping an
      appropriate amount of tissue within the snare (P = .001) varied significantly
      between colonoscopists. Polypectomy competency rates did not significantly
      correlate with the adenoma detection rate (r = 0.4; P = .2) or withdrawal time (r
      = 0.2; P = .5). CONCLUSIONS: Polypectomy competency varies significantly among
      colonoscopists and does not sufficiently correlate with established quality
      metrics. Given the clinical implications of suboptimal polypectomy, efforts to
      educate colonoscopists in polypectomy techniques and develop a metric of
      polypectomy quality are needed.

PMID- 28882578
TI  - Surgery versus surveillance in ulcerative colitis patients with endoscopically
      invisible low-grade dysplasia: a cost-effectiveness analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is uncertainty regarding the optimal management of
      endoscopically invisible (flat) low-grade dysplasia in ulcerative colitis. Such a
      finding does not currently provide an automatic indication for colectomy;
      however, a recommendation of surveillance instead of surgery is controversial.
      The aim of this study was to determine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of
      colonoscopic surveillance versus colectomy for endoscopically invisible low-grade
      dysplasia of the colon in ulcerative colitis. METHODS: A Markov model was used to
      evaluate the costs and health outcomes of surveillance and surgery over a 20-year
      timeframe. Outcomes evaluated were life years gained and quality-adjusted life
      years (QALYs). Cohorts of patients aged 25 to 75 were modeled, including
      estimates from a validated surgical risk calculator and considering none, 1, or
      both of 2 key comorbidities: heart failure and obstructive airway disease.
      RESULTS: Surveillance is associated with more life years and QALYs compared with
      surgery from age 61 for those with no comorbidities, age 51 for those with 1
      comorbidity and age 25 for those with 2 comorbidities. At the current United
      Kingdom National Institute for Health and Care Excellence threshold of $25,800
      per QALY, ongoing surveillance was cost-effective at age 65 in those without
      comorbidities and at age 60 in those with either 1 or more comorbidities.
      CONCLUSIONS: Surveillance can be recommended from age 65 for those with no
      comorbidities; however, in younger patients with typical postsurgical quality of
      life, colectomy may be more effective clinically and more cost-effective. The
      results were sensitive to the colorectal cancer incidence rate in patients under
      surveillance and to quality of life after surgery.

PMID- 28882579
TI  - Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) in Radioecology.
AB  - Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) provides with an excellent sensitivity for
      the determination of radionuclides in the environment. In fact, conventional
      radiometric techniques can hardly compete with AMS in the solution of many
      problems involving the measurement of very low levels of radioactivity in Nature.
      For that reason, during the last years AMS has become a powerful tool for
      Radioecology studies. In this paper a review is done on the evolution of AMS
      applications to the measurement of environmental radioactivity and, therefore,
      its contribution to the understanding of radionuclide behavior in Nature. For
      that, the advantages of using AMS to determine key nuclides as 129I, 14C, Pu
      isotopes and others in different natural compartments will be discussed. The
      content of the paper is illustrated with the contributions to these studies of
      the Spanish National Center for Accelerators (CNA) AMS systems.

PMID- 28882580
TI  - Lotus birth, a holistic approach on physiological cord clamping.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The positive effects of delayed cord clamping (DCC) has been
      extensively researched. DCC means: waiting at least one minute after birth before
      clamping and cutting the cord or till the pulsation has stopped. With
      physiological clamping and cutting (PCC) the clamping and cutting can happen at
      the earliest after the pulsation has stopped. With a Lotus birth, no clamping and
      cutting of the cord is done. A woman called Clair Lotus Day imitated the holistic
      approach of PCC from an anthropoid ape in 1974. The chimpanzee did not separate
      the placenta from the newborn. AIM: The aim of this case report is to discuss and
      learn a different approach in the third stage of labour. METHOD: Three cases of
      Lotus birth by human beings were observed. All three women gave birth in an out
      of-hospital setting and had ambulant postnatal care. FINDINGS: The placenta was
      washed, salted and herbs were put on 2-3h post partum. The placenta was wrapped
      in something that absorbs the moisture. The salting was repeated with a
      degreasing frequency depending on moistness of the placenta. On life day six all
      three Lotus babies experiences a natural separation of the cord. All three Lotus
      birth cases were unproblematic, no special incidence occurred. CONCLUSIONS: One
      should differentiate between early cord clamping (ECC), delayed cord clamping
      (DCC) and physiological cord clamping (PCC). Lotus birth might lead to an
      optimisation of the bonding and attachment. Research is needed in the areas of
      both PCC and Lotus birth.

PMID- 28882582
TI  - Group B Streptococcal infection in neonates and colonization in pregnant women:
      An epidemiological retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection is one of the major causes of
      neonatal morbidity and mortality. Universal GBS screening with intrapartum
      antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) in pregnant women were initiated in 2012 in Taiwan.
      This study aimed to analyze the most recent maternal GBS colonization rate and
      the changes in neonatal GBS infection rate from 2011 to 2016. METHODS: All
      pregnant women and their live born neonates between January 2011 and June 2016
      were retrospectively reviewed. Whether GBS screening was done, screening results,
      presence of risk factors, the use of antibiotics, and neonatal outcome were
      analyzed. In addition, hospitalized neonates diagnosed with GBS infections were
      retrieved for comparison of early onset disease (EOD) (<7 days) and late onset
      disease (LOD) (>=7 days). RESULTS: A total of 9535 women delivered babies during
      the study period. The maternal GBS screening rate was 71.0% and the colonization
      rate was 22.6%. The overall neonatal invasive GBS infection rate was 0.81 per
      1000 live births and the vertical transmission rate was 1.2%. After 2012, the
      invasive neonatal GBS infection rate declined from 1.1-1.60/00 to 0.6-0.70/00 in
      2014 and thereafter, the GBS EOD incidence rate declined from 2.80/00 to 0.0
      0.60/00, but the LOD incidence rate remained approximately 0.70/00. Infants with
      EOD had strong association with obstetric risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Taiwan's
      universal GBS screening with IAP program reduced the incidence rate of neonatal
      GBS EOD to be lower than 10/00 after 2012. Pediatricians still should pay
      attention to infants with GBS LOD since its incidence rate remained unchanged.

PMID- 28882581
TI  - Premature ovarian senescence and a high miscarriage rate impair fertility in
      women with HCV.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Premenopausal women who are HCV positive (HCV+) have failing
      ovarian function, which is likely to impact their fertility. Thus, we
      investigated the reproductive history, risk of infertility, and pregnancy
      outcomes in women of childbearing age who were HCV+. METHODS: Three different
      groups were studied: (1) Clinical cohort: 100 women who were HCV+ and also had
      chronic liver disease (CLD), age matched with 50 women who were HBV+ with CLD and
      with 100 healthy women; all women were consecutively observed in three
      gastroenterology units in hospitals in Italy; (2) 1,998 women who were HCV+ and
      enrolled in the Italian Platform for the Study of Viral Hepatitis Therapies
      (PITER); (3) 6,085 women, who were mono-infected with HCV, and 20,415 women, who
      were HCV-, from a large de-identified insurance database from the USA.
      MEASUREMENTS: total fertility rate (TFR) defined as the average number of
      children that a woman would bear during her lifetime. To define the reproductive
      stage of each participant, levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and 17beta
      estradiol were measured. RESULTS: Clinical cohort: women who were either HCV+ or
      HBV+ had similar CLD severity and age at first pregnancy. Based on a multivariate
      analysis, women who were HCV+ had a higher risk of miscarriage than those who
      were HBV+ (odds ratio [OR] 6,905; 95% CI 1.771-26.926). Among women who were
      HCV+, incidence of miscarriage was correlated with median AMH level (1.0 ng/ml).
      Achieving a sustained virologic response (SVR) after antiviral treatment reduced
      the risk of miscarriage (OR 0.255; 95% CI 0.090-0.723). In the PITER-HCV cohort,
      miscarriage occurred in 42.0% of women (44.6% had multiple miscarriages). TFR for
      women who were HCV+ and between 15 and 49 years of age was 0.7 vs. 1.37 of
      Italian population of the same age range. In the US cohort: compared with women
      who were HCV-, women who were HCV+ positive were significantly more likely to
      have infertility (OR 2.439; 95% CI 2.130-2.794), premature birth (OR 1.34; 95% CI
      1.060-1.690), gestational diabetes (OR 1.24; 95% CI 1.020-1.510), and pre
      eclampsia (OR 1.206; 95% CI 0.935-1.556), and were less likely to have a live
      birth (OR 0.754; 95% CI 0.622-0.913). CONCLUSIONS: Ovarian senescence in women of
      childbearing age who are HCV+ is associated with a lower chance of live birth,
      greater risk of infertility, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and miscarriage.
      Such risks could be positively influenced by successful HCV cure. LAY SUMMARY:
      Most new cases of HCV infection are among people who inject drugs, many of whom
      are young women in their childbearing years. Women of reproductive age who are
      HCV+ display markers of ovarian senescence. This is associated with an increased
      burden in terms of infertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including
      stillbirth, miscarriage, fewer live births, and gestational diabetes. Early viral
      suppression with therapy is likely to mitigate these risks.

PMID- 28882583
TI  - Clinical and epidemiological characteristics in hospitalized young children with
      acute gastroenteritis in southern Taiwan: According to major pathogens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) can be caused by a wide array of
      pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites. A prospective study to
      investigate the epidemiology and clinical presentation in young children
      hospitalized with AGE was conducted in a medical center in southern Taiwan.
      METHODS: Patients aged less than 5 years who was hospitalized due to AGE in
      National Cheng Kung University Hospital were enrolled from July 2014 to June
      2016. The demographic information, clinical features and laboratory data were
      collected by chart reviews, and stool samples were sent to Centers of Disease
      Control, Taiwan (Taiwan CDC) for a panel of pathogen identification consisting of
      two viruses, nine bacteria, and five parasites. RESULTS: Totally 441 patients
      were enrolled in this study. Salmonella spp. was the leading cause of disease
      (21.8%), followed by norovirus (17.0%), Clostridium difficile (9.5%), and
      rotavirus (9.3%). Norovirus identification rate was the highest among patients
      less than 6 months of age, while Salmonella was highest among patients between 2
      and 3 years old. Patients with Salmonella infection frequently presented with
      fever, lethargy, bloody stool, and elevated serum level of C-reactive protein
      (CRP); norovirus and rotavirus infection frequently presented with vomiting.
      Salmonella gastroenteritis also resulted in longer hospitalization and more
      frequent antibiotics administration. C. difficile could be isolated from both
      gastroenteritis patients and control children. CONCLUSION: Salmonella spp. was
      the most common pathogen of AGE in hospitalized children in southern Taiwan
      during 2014-2016, followed by norovirus and rotavirus. Further monitoring of
      epidemiology characteristics among cardinal pathogens of pediatric
      gastroenteritis is necessary.

PMID- 28882584
TI  - Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation (PCI) versus Active MRI Surveillance for Small
      Cell Lung Cancer: The Case for Equipoise.
AB  - Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) for SCLC offers a consistent reduction in
      the incidence of brain metastases at the cost of measurable toxicity to
      neurocognitive function and quality of life, in the setting of characteristic
      pathologic changes to the brain. The sequelae of PCI have historically been
      justified by the perception of an overall survival advantage specific to SCLC.
      This rationale has now been challenged by a randomized trial in extensive-stage
      SCLC demonstrating equivalent progression-free survival and a trend toward
      improved overall survival with PCI omission in the context of modern magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) staging and surveillance. In this article, we critically
      examine the randomized trials of PCI in extensive-stage SCLC and discuss their
      implications on the historical data supporting PCI for limited-stage SCLC from
      the pre-MRI era. Further, we review the toxicity of moderate doses of radiation
      to the entire brain that underlie the growing interest in active MRI surveillance
      and PCI omission. Finally, the evidence supporting prospective investigation of
      radiosurgery for limited brain metastases in SCLC is reviewed. Overall, our aim
      is to provide an evidence-based assessment of the debate over PCI versus active
      MRI surveillance and to highlight the need for contemporary trials evaluating
      optimal central nervous system management in SCLC.

PMID- 28882585
TI  - Prognostic Impact of Margin Distance and Tumor Spread Through Air Spaces in
      Limited Resection for Primary Lung Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between
      clinicopathological prognostic factors, including surgical margin distance and
      tumor spread through air spaces (STAS), and recurrence after limited resection
      for primary lung cancer. METHODS: We identified 508 cases of limited resection
      (12.8%) and examined their clinicopathological features. Using Cox regression
      analysis, we examined the significant prognostic factors for recurrence of
      limited resection. Finally, we conducted a histopathological evaluation of tumor
      STAS. RESULTS: Multivariate Cox analysis showed that the risk for local
      recurrence was significantly associated with STAS (hazard ratio = 12.24, p =
      0.001) and a tumor margin less than 1.0 cm (hazard ratio = 6.36, p = 0.02).
      However, the presence of tumor STAS was not significantly associated with distant
      recurrence (p = 0.98). This lack of association of STAS with distant recurrence
      may be due to the small number of distant recurrences. In all, 76 cases (15.0%)
      (60 adenocarcinomas, nine squamous cell carcinomas, and seven others) were
      positive for STAS. The morphological STAS patterns were 12 single cells, 45 small
      cell clusters, and 19 large nests. There was no significant relationship between
      the recurrence rate and morphological STAS pattern. The STAS-positive group was
      associated with the presence of micropapillary (p = 0.002) and/or solid
      components (p = 0.008) in patients with adenocarcinoma and with lymphovascular
      and pleural invasion (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of STAS and tumor
      margins less than 1.0 cm are significant risk factors for local recurrence in
      early-stage lung cancer after limited resection. Thus, the presence of tumor STAS
      might be a pathological prognostic factor for patients with lung cancer who have
      undergone limited resection. However, the pathological and molecular significance
      of STAS remain to be clarified.

PMID- 28882586
TI  - PCBs and measures of attention and impulsivity on a continuous performance task
      of young adults.
AB  - The present study examines the relationship between current body burden of
      persistent PCBs and attention and impulsivity in 140 Akwesasne Mohawk young
      adults aged 17 to 21 whose environment has been contaminated by industrial
      effluent. Attention and impulsivity were measured by errors of omission, errors
      of commission, and patterns of reaction time responses on the Conners Continuous
      Performance Test. The PCB measure was the sum of those persistent PCB congeners
      detected in 50% of the participants. After adjusting for multiple covariates,
      regression analyses showed a significant positive relationship between PCB levels
      and omission scores, but only for males.

PMID- 28882587
TI  - Low levels of apolipoprotein-CII in normotriglyceridemic patients with very
      premature coronary artery disease: Observations from the MISSION! Intervention
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While the overall acute myocardial infarction rates declined in women
      and men, premature acute myocardial infarction rates remained stable in men and
      increased in women. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess whether
      baseline apolipoprotein (apo) levels, clinical characteristics, and follow-up of
      patients with very premature coronary artery disease (CAD) could provide novel
      clues for the identification of high-risk individuals. METHODS: Apos were
      measured with a validated quantification liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
      method in a well-defined cohort of 38 patients aged <=45 years admitted with
      acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. RESULTS: Mean age was 39.8 +/-
      4.6 years and 24% was female. Four of these patients (11%) had apoCII levels
      <=5.0 mg/L. Compared with the very premature CAD group with apoCII > 5 mg/L, the
      patients with apoCII levels <=5.0 mg/L were all females, tended to be younger
      (35.8 +/- 8.4 years vs 40.3 +/- 3.9 years, P = .063), had more often a family
      history of cardiovascular disease <=65 years (P = .034) and a significantly lower
      Framingham risk score (P = .001). They presented with normal triglyceride levels,
      and had lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apoB100, and apoE levels.
      Corrected for differences in risk profile, apoCII <= 5 mg/L was associated with
      increased risk of 10-years reinfarction or revascularization (hazard ratio 7.9
      [95% confidence interval 1.5-41.6], P = .015). CONCLUSIONS: In 38 patients with
      very premature CAD, 11% were found to have low apoCII levels (<=5.0 mg/L) with
      normal triglyceride levels. Despite their low a priori risk for CAD, these
      patients presented with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and had a high
      relative risk of 10-year reinfarction or revascularization. This particular
      phenotype of relatively young female patients with CAD is not recognized earlier
      and deserves further study.

PMID- 28882588
TI  - ASK1 in neurodegeneration.
AB  - Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) such as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis (MS),
      Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
      (ALS), and Huntington's disease (HD) are characterized by the progressive loss of
      neurons, causing irreversible damage to patients. Longer lifespans may be leading
      to an increase in the number of people affected by NDDs worldwide. Among the
      pathways strongly impacting the pathogenesis of NDDs, oxidative stress, a
      condition that occurs because of an imbalance in oxidant and antioxidant levels,
      has been known to play a vital role in the pathophysiology of NDDs. One of the
      molecules activated by oxidative stress is apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1
      (ASK1), which has been shown to play a role in NDDs. ASK1 activation is regulated
      by multiple steps, including oligomerization, phosphorylation, and protein
      protein interactions. In the oxidative stress state, reactive oxygen species
      (ROS) induce the dissociation of thioredoxin, a protein regulating cellular
      reduction and oxidation (redox), from the N-terminal region of ASK1, and ASK1 is
      subsequently activated by the oligomerization and phosphorylation of a critical
      threonine residue, leading to cell death. Here, we review experimental evidence
      that links ASK1 signaling with the pathogenesis of several NDDs. We propose that
      ASK1 may be a new point of therapeutic intervention to prevent or treat NDDs.

PMID- 28882589
TI  - Leucine-induced localization of Leucyl-tRNA synthetase in lysosome membrane.
AB  - Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LRS) plays major roles in providing leucine-tRNA and
      activating mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) through
      intracellular leucine sensing. mTORC1 activated by amino acids affects the
      influence on physiology functions including cell proliferation, protein synthesis
      and autophagy in various organisms. Biochemical results demonstrating leucine
      sensing have been published, but visual results are lacking. Therefore, we
      observed the location of LRS with and without leucine using stimulated emission
      depletion (STED) microscopy one of the super-resolution microscopy and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This revealed that LRS was translocated
      to the lysosome on addition of leucine. The translocation was inhibited by
      treatment with compound BC-LI-0186, disrupting the interaction between RagD and
      LRS. Immuno-TEM revealed a clear decrease in LRS translocation to the lysosome on
      addition of the inhibitor. This direct visualization of leucine sensing and LRS
      translocation to the lysosome was related to mTORC1 activation. To study the
      relationship between mTORC1 activation and LRS translocation, we monitored the
      change in autophagy for each condition using TEM and CLSM. The results showed a
      decrease in autophagy on addition of leucine, demonstrating crosstalk between
      leucine sensing, LRS translocation, RagD interaction, and mTORC1 activation.

PMID- 28882590
TI  - Targeted deletion of RANKL in M cell inducer cells by the Col6a1-Cre driver.
AB  - The gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALTs), including Peyer's patches (PPs),
      cryptopatches (CPs) and isolated lymphoid follicles (ILFs), establish a host
      microbe symbiosis by the promotion of immune reactions against gut microbes.
      Microfold cell inducer (MCi) cells in GALTs are the recently identified
      mesenchymal cells that express the cytokine RANKL and initiate bacteria-specific
      immunoglobulin A (IgA) production via induction of microfold (M) cell
      differentiation. In the previous study, the Twist2-Cre driver was utilized for
      gene deletion in mesenchymal cells including MCi cells. In order to investigate
      MCi cells more extensively, it will be necessary to develop experimental tools in
      addition to the Twist2-Cre driver mice and characterize such drivers in
      specificity and efficiency. Here we show that M cell differentiation and IgA
      production are impaired in the targeted deletion of RANKL by the Col6a1-Cre
      driver. We compared Col6a1-Cre with Twist2-Cre in terms of the specificity for
      mesenchymal cells in GALTs. Col6a1-Cre CAG-CAT-EGFP mice exhibited EGFP
      expression in podoplanin+CD31- cells including MCi cells, while Twist2-Cre mice
      were shown to target endothelial cells and podoplanin+CD31- cells.
      Tnfsf11fl/DeltaCol6a1-Cre mice exhibited the absence of M cells and severe IgA
      reduction together with an alteration in gut microbial composition. Moreover, we
      analyzed germ free mice to test whether changes in the microbiota are the cause
      of M cell deficiency. M cell differentiation was normal in the CPs/ILFs of germ
      free mice, indicating that MCi cells induce M cells independently of microbial
      colonization. This study demonstrates that Col6a1-Cre driver mice are as useful
      as Twist2-Cre driver mice for functional analyses of GALT-resident mesenchymal
      cells, including MCi cells.

PMID- 28882591
TI  - The POZ-ZF transcription factor Znf131 is implicated as a regulator of Kaiso
      mediated biological processes.
AB  - Znf131 belongs to the family of POZ-ZF transcription factors, but, in contrast to
      most other characterized POZ-ZF proteins that function as transcriptional
      repressors, Znf131 acts as a transcriptional activator. Znf131 heterodimerizes
      with the POZ-ZF protein Kaiso, which itself represses a subset of canonical Wnt
      target genes, including the cell cycle regulator Cyclin D1. Herein, we report a
      possible role for Znf131 in Kaiso-mediated processes. Notably, we found that
      Znf131 associates with several Kaiso target gene promoters, including that of
      CCND1. ChIP analysis revealed that Znf131 indirectly associates with the CCND1
      promoter in HCT116 and MCF7 cells via a region that encompasses the previously
      characterized +69 Kaiso Binding Site, hinting that the Znf131/Kaiso heterodimer
      may co-regulate Cyclin D1 expression. We also demonstrate that Kaiso inhibits
      Znf131 expression, raising the possibility that Kaiso and Znf131 act to fine-tune
      target gene expression. Together, our findings implicate Znf131 as a co-regulator
      of Kaiso-mediated biological processes.

PMID- 28882592
TI  - Polyunsaturated fatty acids induce ovarian cancer cell death through ROS
      dependent MAP kinase activation.
AB  - Free fatty acids not only play a role in cell membrane construction and energy
      production but also exert diverse cellular effects through receptor and non
      receptor mechanisms. Moreover, epidemiological and clinical studies have so far
      suggested that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) could have health benefits and
      the advantage as therapeutic use in cancer treatment. However, the underlying
      mechanisms of PUFA-induced cellular effects remained to be cleared. Here, we
      examined the effects of omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs on cell death in ovarian cancer
      cell lines. omega-3 PUFA, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and omega-6 PUFA, gamma
      linolenic acid (gamma-LNA) induced cell death in KF28 cells at the levels of
      physiological concentrations, but not HAC2 cells. Pharmacological and biochemical
      analyses demonstrated that cell death induced by DHA and gamma-LNA was correlated
      with activation of JNK and p38 MAP kinases, and further an upstream MAP kinase
      kinase, apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1, which is stimulated by reactive
      oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, an antioxidant vitamin E attenuated PUFA
      induced cell death and MAP kinase activation. These findings indicate that PUFA
      induced cell death involves ROS-dependent MAP kinase activation and is a cell
      type-specific action. A further study of the underlying mechanisms for ROS
      dependent cell death induced by PUFAs will lead to the discovery of a new target
      for cancer therapy or diagnosis.

PMID- 28882593
TI  - Real-time subpixel-accuracy tracking of single mitochondria in neurons reveals
      heterogeneous mitochondrial motion.
AB  - Mitochondria are essential for cellular survival and function. In neurons,
      mitochondria are transported to various subcellular regions as needed. Thus,
      defects in the axonal transport of mitochondria are related to the pathogenesis
      of neurodegenerative diseases, and the movement of mitochondria has been the
      subject of intense research. However, the inability to accurately track
      mitochondria with subpixel accuracy has hindered this research. Here, we report
      an automated method for tracking mitochondria based on the center of
      fluorescence. This tracking method, which is accurate to approximately one-tenth
      of a pixel, uses the centroid of an individual mitochondrion and provides
      information regarding the distance traveled between consecutive imaging frames,
      instantaneous speed, net distance traveled, and average speed. Importantly, this
      new tracking method enables researchers to observe both directed motion and
      undirected movement (i.e., in which the mitochondrion moves randomly within a
      small region, following a sub-diffusive motion). This method significantly
      improves our ability to analyze the movement of mitochondria and sheds light on
      the dynamic features of mitochondrial movement.

PMID- 28882594
TI  - Terbinafine is a novel and selective activator of the two-pore domain potassium
      channel TASK3.
AB  - Two-pore domain potassium channels (K2Ps) are characterized by their four
      transmembrane domain and two-pore topology. They carry background (or leak)
      potassium current in a variety of cell types. Despite a number of important roles
      there is currently a lack of pharmacological tools with which to further probe
      K2P function. We have developed a cell-based thallium flux assay, using
      baculovirus delivered TASK3 (TWIK-related acid-sensitive K+ channel 3, KCNK9,
      K2P9.1) with the aim of identifying novel, selective TASK3 activators. After
      screening a library of 1000 compounds, including drug-like and FDA approved
      molecules, we identified Terbinafine as an activator of TASK3. In a thallium flux
      assay a pEC50 of 6.2 ( +/-0.12) was observed. When Terbinafine was screened
      against TASK2, TREK2, THIK1, TWIK1 and TRESK no activation was observed in
      thallium flux assays. Several analogues of Terbinafine were also purchased and
      structure activity relationships examined. To confirm Terbinafine's activation of
      TASK3 whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology was carried out and clear
      potentiation observed in both the wild type channel and the pathophysiological,
      Birk-Barel syndrome associated, G236R TASK3 mutant. No activity at TASK1 was
      observed in electrophysiology studies. In conclusion, we have identified the
      first selective activator of the two-pore domain potassium channel TASK3.

PMID- 28882595
TI  - Upregulation of SOX2 activated LncRNA PVT1 expression promotes breast cancer cell
      growth and invasion.
AB  - Increasing evidences indicated that Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) played pivotal
      roles during tumorigenesis in multiple types of cancers, including breast cancer.
      This study aimed to investigate the role and function of long noncoding RNA PVT1
      in the progression of breast cancer and explore the transcription factor which
      contributes to the regulation of PVT1 in breast cancer. Our results indicated
      that the expression of PVT1 was significantly upregulated in breast cancer
      tissues, compared with adjacent normal tissues (ANTs). And the increasing
      expression of PVT1 was associated with clinical stage, lymph nodes metastasis,
      and overall survival in breast cancer patients. Using computational screening, a
      transcriptional factor binding site was found between SOX2 and PVT1 promoter and
      the interaction between each other was further verified by chromatin
      immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis. In addition, ectopically overexpression of
      SOX2 can enhance breast cancer cell proliferation and invasion, while knockdown
      of SOX2 or PVT1 can severely attenuate this effect both in epithelial and
      mesenchymal types of breast cancer cells. Further evidences confirmed that
      overexpression of SOX2 can promote breast cancer cell EMT process; while
      silencing SOX2 or PVT1 expression can undermine this effect. These data suggest
      that elevated expression of SOX2 can activate lncRNA PVT1 expression promoted
      breast cancer tumorigenesis and progression. PVT1 may be a prognostic predictive
      biomarker for breast cancer, and the interaction of PVT1-SOX2 could be a
      therapeutic target in breast cancer.

PMID- 28882596
TI  - Insulin treatment augments KCNQ1/KCNE1 currents but not KCNQ1 currents, which is
      associated with an increase in KCNE1 expression.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus affects ion channel physiology. We have previously reported
      that acute application of insulin suppresses the KCNQ1/KCNE1 currents that play
      an important role in terminating ventricular action potential. In this study, we
      investigated the effect of long-term insulin treatment on KCNQ1/KCNE1 currents
      using the Xenopus oocyte expression system. Insulin treatment with a duration
      longer than 6 h had an opposite effect to acute insulin application, that is, it
      augmented the KCNQ1/KCNE1 currents. Inhibitors of PI3K, wortmannin and LY294002,
      and a MEK inhibitor, U0126, abolished the potentiating effect of long-term
      insulin treatment. The long-term treatment with insulin had no effect on KCNQ1
      currents indicating an essential role of KCNE1 in the insulin effect, which is
      similar to the acute insulin effect. Cycloheximide, an inhibitor of protein
      synthesis, and brefeldin A, an inhibitor of protein transport from endoplasmic
      reticulum, suppressed the long-term insulin effect. Western blotting analysis
      combined with these pharmacological data suggest that long-term insulin treatment
      augments KCNQ1/KCNE1 currents by increasing KCNE1 protein expression.

PMID- 28882597
TI  - The acute and chronic effects of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth
      factor injections on intraocular pressure: A review.
AB  - The acute and chronic effects of repeated intravitreal antivascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF) injections on intraocular pressure have not been fully
      characterized, and the development of sustained ocular hypertension could
      adversely affect patients who are at risk of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. As
      expected, volume-driven, acute ocular hypertension immediately follows
      intravitreal injection, but this pressure elevation is generally transient and
      well tolerated. Several medications have been investigated to limit acute ocular
      hypertension following anti-VEGF therapy, but the benefits of pretreatment are
      not conclusive. Chronic, sustained ocular hypertension, distinct from the short
      term acute ocular hypertension after each injection, has also been associated
      with repeated intravitreal anti-VEGF injections. Risk factors for chronic ocular
      hypertension include the total number of injections, a greater frequency of
      injection, and preexisting glaucoma. Proposed mechanisms for chronic ocular
      hypertension include microparticle obstruction, toxic or inflammatory effects on
      trabecular meshwork, as well as alterations in outflow facility by anti-VEGF
      agents. Although limiting anti-VEGF therapy could minimize the risk of both acute
      and chronic ocular hypertension, foregoing anti-VEGF therapy risks progression of
      various macular diseases with resulting permanent central vision loss. While
      definitive evidence of damage to the retinal nerve fiber layer is lacking,
      patients receiving repeated injections should be monitored for ocular
      hypertension and patients in whom sustained ocular hypertension subsequently
      developed should be periodically monitored for glaucomatous changes with optic
      nerve optical coherence tomography and static visual fields.

PMID- 28882598
TI  - Iris cysts: A comprehensive review on diagnosis and treatment.
AB  - Iris cysts, both primary and secondary, are a diagnostic and treatment challenge.
      Primary cysts arise either from the iris pigment epithelium or the iris stroma.
      Posterior pigment epithelial cysts are subdivided according to their location as
      central, midzonal, and peripheral. Iris stromal cysts are classified either as
      congenital or acquired. Free-floating cysts are usually dislodged pigment
      epithelial cysts. Secondary cysts are classified according to the underlying
      cause as implantation cysts, drug-induced, uveitic, tumor-induced, parasitic, or
      as cysts associated with systemic disorders. Differential diagnosis is based on
      the clinical presentation and imaging. Ultrasound biomicroscopy is the gold
      standard for the imaging of iris cysts, combining excellent resolution with
      sufficient tissue penetration. Treatment of iris cysts depends largely on whether
      they become symptomatic or not. Symptoms include obstruction of the visual axis,
      corneal decompensation, secondary uveitis, and secondary glaucoma. Treatment
      options cover a range from simple observation to fine-needle aspiration (with or
      without intracystic injection of absolute alcohol or antimitotic agents), laser
      (argon, Nd:YAG), or surgical excision. In the past, the prevailing notion was
      that of a radical surgical intervention in the form of iridectomy or
      iridocyclectomy. Given the high rate of recurrence, a stepwise conservative
      approach is currently favored by most clinicians.

PMID- 28882599
TI  - A network-level approach of cognitive flexibility impairment after surgery of a
      right temporo-parietal glioma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The right "non-dominant" temporo-parietal junction is usually not
      considered as a highly eloquent area. This contrasts with its mirrored left
      "dominant" counterpart, which is known as highly eloquent regarding language
      function. The question arises about which functions should be monitored when
      operating lesions of the right temporo-parietal junction under awake conditions.
      METHODS: We report the case of a patient who underwent a surgical resection of a
      glioma located in the right temporo-parietal junction. Cognitive evaluations were
      performed preoperatively and 4 months after surgery, as well as resting state
      fMRI and diffusion-based tractography. RESULTS: Long-term postoperative cognitive
      examination revealed an important deterioration of cognitive control abilities,
      especially regarding set-shifting abilities as measured by Trail making test part
      B. Based on pre- and postoperative resting state fMRI and diffusion-based
      tractography, we demonstrate that surgical resection massively impacted
      structural and functional connectivity of the right fronto-parieto-temporal
      network, a network that is classically involved in cognitive control, reasoning
      and working memory. CONCLUSION: This case clearly illustrates how a white matter
      focal lesion can generate a neuropsychological deficit by remotely disconnecting
      distant cortical areas belonging to a functional network. Furthermore, our
      observation strongly supports the use of intraoperative cognitive control tests
      during surgery of the right temporo-parietal junction and promote the interest of
      pre and postoperative resting state functional connectivity to explore the
      potential mechanisms causing cognitive deficits.

PMID- 28882600
TI  - Lesson to be remembered from a skull base tumor.
AB  - The natural history of giant prolactinomas is not known. While it is commonly
      accepted that the enlargement of microadenoma is rare and more limited than
      macroadenoma, it is so far uncommon that macroadenoma progress to giant adenoma.
      Thus, spontaneous enlargement of adenomas is poorly documented. We report the
      unusual history of undiagnosed microprolactinoma, revealed 12years later at the
      stage of a giant adenoma presenting as a skull base tumor. This unique
      observation provides information on the natural history of giant adenomas and
      arguments for particular attention to microadenomas with signs of invasion.
      Moreover, this clinical case highlights the need for a prolactin dosage for all
      midline skull base tumors.

PMID- 28882601
TI  - Extradural resection of the anterior clinoid process: How I do it.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The anterior clinoid process shares a close relationship with the
      optic canal, the internal carotid artery, the superior orbital fissure and the
      cavernous sinus. These structures may be involved in diseases whose surgical
      exposure requires prior clinoid process resection. METHOD: Based on operative
      cases we describe the different steps of this surgical technique and illustrate
      our surgical procedure with a video. Dividing the orbito-temporal periosteal fold
      is a key-step in order to optimize the elevation of the periosteal dural layer at
      the level of the superior orbital fissure to expose the contours of the anterior
      clinoid process. The clinoid tip is removed after "debulking" the bony content
      inside the anterior clinoid process in order to leave only a thin shell of bony
      contour. The bony shell is then detached from the dura, twisted and pulled out.
      The indications and limitations of the technique are presented. CONCLUSION: The
      extradural approach of the anterior clinoid process totally provides a full
      resection of the anterior clinoid process and safety for the paraclinoid space
      structures. Meticulous stepwise bony resection and optimized dura opening
      contribute to reduce the risk inherent to this technique.

PMID- 28882602
TI  - Neurosurgical aspects of dialysis-related spinal amyloidosis: Report of three
      cases and a review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Osteoarticular manifestations of beta-2 microglobulin
      amyloidosis are often diagnosed in long-term dialyzed patients. However, spinal
      involvement is rare (10-25% of patients), and generally not associated with
      neurological deterioration. Compression of the spinal cord or roots is extremely
      rare, and probably under-recognized. METHODS: The authors describe three cases of
      spinal stenosis presenting with neurological signs in long-term dialyzed
      patients, prospectively collected over 2 years in two different institutions and
      treated by surgical decompression. In all three cases, the main cause of neural
      compression was amyloid deposition in the spine, either extradurally in the
      ligamentum flavum or intradurally. RESULTS: All patients improved after surgery
      and did not present any postoperative complications. However, two out of three
      patients with amyloid in the cervical spine required surgical revision to obtain
      a satisfactory decompression of the spinal cord. DISCUSSION: The authors discuss
      spinal amyloidosis which is a well-known complication of long-term dialysis.
      However, neurological complications such as spinal cord or radicular symptoms
      have been rarely reported and, when present in dialyzed patients, are symptoms
      that are often attributed to other causes. To our knowledge, this is the first
      case series that demonstrates the relationship between neurological deterioration
      and amyloid depositions in the spinal canal that occur in long-term dialyzed
      patients. The prevalence of spinal stenosis related to the presence of amyloid in
      this specific subgroup of patients is probably underestimated.

PMID- 28882603
TI  - Gamma Knife surgery for a hemangioma of the cavernous sinus in an adult: Case
      report and short review of the literature.
AB  - Cavernous sinus hemangiomas (CSH) are rare benign extra-axial vascular lesions.
      Both radiological and clinical aspects are important, for deciding a therapeutic
      modality, including medical treatment, radiation therapy or microsurgery. In the
      particular case of CSH, a radical removal of the tumor often cannot be achieved
      and is associated with a considerable risk for intraoperative uncontrollable
      bleeding. An alternative treatment modality is radiosurgery. Here we report the
      case of a 45-year-old patient, who presented with diplopia due to left abducens
      nerve palsy. A left-sided cavernous sinus lesion was found, initially considered
      to be a meningioma. However, after serial MR acquisitions, a progressive and
      heterogeneous enhancement was observed. In order to clarify the diagnosis between
      meningioma and hemangioma, a diagnostic Tc-99m labeled red blood cells (RBC)
      scintigraphy (Tc-99m RBC scintigraphy) was performed and showed a typical
      perfusion blood pool mismatch, with accumulation of the RBC at the level of the
      left CS, which is typical for a hemangioma. The patient underwent Gamma Knife
      surgery. The CSH showed a significant reduction in size starting 6 months after
      treatment and a full regression of the left abducens nerve palsy was observed
      within 1 year. These clinical and radiological results persisted over the next 3
      years.

PMID- 28882604
TI  - [Contribution of temozolomide chemotherapy for intramedullary grade II spinal
      cord astrocytomas in adults: Our experience].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Grade II intramedullary astrocytomas are rare tumors. Despite a
      well-defined role of adjuvant temozolomide chemotherapy for brain gliomas, the
      contribution of this therapy for intramedullary gliomas is not yet clearly
      defined. METHOD: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 5 adult patients treated
      with temozolomide between 2008 and 2015 for a grade II intramedullary astrocytoma
      with progression after surgery. RESULTS: Five patients from 19 to 70 years of age
      (median, 37years) underwent a second surgery for the progression of a grade II
      intramedullary astrocytoma (median progression-free survival 26months [8-90]).
      All tumors remained grade II. Due to a second clinical or/and radiological tumor
      progression, the patients were treated with temozolomide after a 37months median
      progression-free survival (5-66). All patients received at minimum 12 cycles
      (mean 14 +/- 5; range 12-24) of temozolomide (150-200mg/m2/day, 5days/28days).
      All patients were alive after a 10-year median follow-up after diagnosis (6-13).
      All patients were able to walk except one, who was previously in McCormick
      autonomy grade IV before chemotherapy. The McCormick autonomy rating after
      temozolomide was stable for 4 patients and improved for 1 patient. The treatment
      was delayed once for hematological toxicity. CONCLUSION: Temozolomide stabilized
      all 5 patients without any major toxicity. Based on this experience that needs to
      be confirmed, we consider that temozolomide should be envisaged within the
      therapeutic arsenal for progressive intramedullary grade II astrocytomas.

PMID- 28882605
TI  - Cervical pedicular agenesis: Case report and a review of the literature.
AB  - Cervical pedicular agenesis, an unusual disorder, is a rare clinical and
      radiological finding, which can lead to misdiagnosis, moreover in a traumatic
      situation. The authors report the case of a young woman with a C3 right
      congenital absence of the cervical pedicle. A systematic review of literature
      found more than 70 reported cases. In patients with congenital agenesis of the
      cervical pedicle, the two most common levels of this congenital absence are C6
      and C5. The three radiological findings were: the false appearance of an enlarged
      ipsilateral neural foramen due to the absent pedicle; a dysplastic, dorsally
      displaced ipsilateral articular pillar and lamina; and a dysplastic ipsilateral
      transverse process. These pedicle ageneses are a stable congenital anomaly.

PMID- 28882606
TI  - Managing spine surgery referrals: The consultation of neurosurgery and its
      nuances.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Spinal disorders, particularly low back pain, are among the most
      common reasons for general practitioner (GP) consultation and can sometimes be a
      source of professional friction. Despite their frequency and published
      guidelines, many patients are still mistakenly referred by their GP to
      specialists for spinal surgery consultation which can create colleague
      relationship problems, suboptimal or unnessary delayed care, as well as the
      financial implications for patients. PURPOSE: To assess the management of GP
      lumbar spine referrals made to 4 neurosurgeons from 3 neurosurgical teams
      specialized in spinal surgery. METHODS: All patient's medical records relating to
      672 primary consultants over a period of two months (January and February 2015)
      at three institutions were retrospectively reviewed. Medical referral letters,
      clinical evidence and imaging data were analyzed and the patients were classified
      according the accuracy of surgical assessment. The final decisions of the
      surgeons were also considered. RESULTS: Of the 672 patients analyzed, 198 (29.5%)
      were considered unsuitable for surgical assessment: no spinal pathology=10.6%, no
      surgical conditions=35.4%, suboptimal medical treatment=31.3%, suboptimal
      radiology=18.2% and asymptomatic patients=4.5%. CONCLUSION: Unnecessary referrals
      to our consultation centers highlight the gap between the reason for the
      consultation and the indications for spinal surgery. Compliance with the
      guidelines, the creation of effective multidisciplinary teams, as well as the
      "hands on" involvement of surgeons in primary and continuing education of
      physicians are the best basis for a reduction in inappropriate referrals and
      effective patient care management.

PMID- 28882607
TI  - Efficacy and safety in frameless robot-assisted stereo-electroencephalography
      (SEEG) for drug-resistant epilepsy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) is an invasive procedure, used
      to identify the epileptogenic zone that can be surgically removed in order to
      treat drug-resistant epilepsy. Frameless robot-assisted positioning of depth
      electrodes permits a 3D approach with different obliquities and trajectories. The
      objective of the present study was to evaluate the morbidity and the accuracy
      related to this frameless procedure. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-six patients
      were managed wherein 901 electrodes were implanted during a 6-year-period. All
      patients had a postoperative CT-scan that was fused with preoperative MRI
      planning. In order to assess the accuracy of the procedure, the Euclidian
      distance was calculated between the coordinates of the planned trajectory and the
      actual position of the electrode at the entry point and at the target point for
      857 electrodes. RESULTS: Among the 66 patients, one (1.5%) experienced a
      symptomatic brain haematoma and one (1.5%) a stroke-like migraine after radiation
      therapy (SMART) syndrome. There was no permanent morbidity or mortality. Compared
      to the classical SEEG approach, a higher rate of asymptomatic postoperative
      bleeding was found on the CT-scan in 8 patients (12.1%). Any infectious events
      were recorded. The median accuracy of frameless robotic SEEG procedure was
      equivalent to a 1.1mm error deviation (0.15-2.48) at the entry point and 2.09mm
      (1.06-3.72) at the target point respectively, with no differences for double
      obliquity trajectories. CONCLUSION: Frameless robot-assisted SEEG appears to be a
      safe procedure, providing sufficient accuracy in order to delineate the
      epileptogenic zone and represents a helpful tool in the pre-surgical management
      of refractory epilepsy.

PMID- 28882608
TI  - [Intracranial hemorrhage and oral anticoagulants of patients treated between 2011
      and 2013 at the Nancy Regional University Hospital].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To perform a descriptive analysis of intracranial hemorrhages of
      patients treated with an antivitamin K (fluindione, acenocoumarol or warfarin) or
      a direct oral anticoagulant (dabigatran, rivaroxaban or apixaban) at the Nancy
      Regional University Hospital. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study period was from
      January 2011 to December 2013 and the computerized data (Programme de
      Medicalisation des Systemes d'Information) of our hospital was accessed to
      identify the patients. Clinical data were obtained from the patients' files.
      Regional healthcare system was queried for reimbursement data. RESULTS: Among the
      157 identified cases of intracranial hemorrhage, 153 were related to antivitamin
      K, primarily fluindione (n=127), and only 4 to a direct oral anticoagulant (3
      dabigatran and 1 rivaroxaban). During the same period, regional data indicated
      that 65,345 patients had had at least one reimbursement of antivitamin K and
      20,983 patients one reimbursement of an oral direct anticoagulant. In our series,
      the most frequent intracranial hemorrhages were subdural hematoma (chronic in 65
      cases, acute in 50 cases) and intraparenchymal hemorrhage (20 cases). The global
      mortality rate was 20.2% but varied with the site of hemorrhage. In multivariate
      analysis, the two risk factors of fatal outcome were coma on admission (OR 6.2;
      95%CI: 2.6-15.0) and a history of previous intracranial hemorrhage (OR 13,4; 95%
      CI: 1,6-114,9). CONCLUSION: During the 2011-2013 period, antivitamin K,
      especially fluindione, was the most frequently involved anticoagulants in
      intracranial hemorrhages with hospitalization at our Regional University
      Hospital. Coma on admission and a history of previous intracranial hemorrhage
      were the two main risk factors for fatal outcome.

PMID- 28882609
TI  - Atypical meningioma. A study on recurrence and disease-specific survival.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To analyse the outcome of patients with WHO grade II meningioma and
      identify factors that may influence recurrence and survival. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Between January 2000 and October 2016, a retrospective search identified
      215 WHO grade II meningiomas operated on at our institution. A survival analysis
      was conducted on clinical and histological criteria. RESULTS: Eighteen patients
      (8.4%) had a previous history of grade I meningioma. The cohort underwent a total
      of 302 surgical resections and 29.7% received radiotherapy. Forty-one patients
      (19.1%) had been re-operated on for a WHO grade II meningioma relapse. Median
      follow-up was 4.5 years. At the end of the study, 105 patients (53.6%) had no
      residual tumour on the last scan. Surgical recurrence-free survival at 5 years
      was 82%, 95% CI [75.9-88.5]. Secondary grade II meningioma (HR=4.27, P=0.001),
      Simpson resection grade 1 and 2 vs. 3, 4 and 5 (HR=0.25, P=0.001) and, Ki-67
      index (HR=0.22, P<0.001) were independently associated with the surgical
      recurrence-free survival. Forty-four patients died from their tumours (20.5%).
      Cause-specific survival probability at 5 years was 83.2%, 95% CI [77.6-89.1]. Age
      at diagnosis (HR=0.31, P<0.001), Simpson resection grade 1 and 2 vs. 3, 4 and 5
      (HR=0.32, P<0.001) and, redo surgery for recurrence (HR=2.39, P=0.010) were
      independently associated with the cause-specific survival. Patients who received
      radiotherapy did not demonstrate either a reduced risk of recurrence or a longer
      survival (P=0.280). CONCLUSION: In this large series, atypical meningioma
      recurrence correlated with progression from grade I to II, incomplete resection
      and high Ki-67 index; shorter survival with an older age, incomplete resection,
      and redo surgery for recurrence. We did not observe a significant improvement in
      any of the clinical outcomes after radiotherapy.

PMID- 28882610
TI  - Aspergillus fumigatus alkaline protease 1 (Alp1/Asp f13) in the airways
      correlates with asthma severity.

PMID- 28882611
TI  - Generation and CRISPR/Cas9 editing of transformed progenitor B cells as a pseudo
      physiological system to study DNA repair gene function in V(D)J recombination.
AB  - Antigen receptor gene assembly is accomplished in developing lymphocytes by the
      V(D)J recombination reaction, which can be separated into two steps: DNA cleavage
      by the recombination-activating gene (RAG) nuclease and joining of DNA double
      strand breaks (DSBs) by components of the nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ)
      pathway. Deficiencies for NHEJ factors can result in immunodeficiency and a
      propensity to accumulate genomic instability, thus highlighting the importance of
      identifying all players in this process and deciphering their functions. Bcl2
      transgenic v-Abl kinase-transformed pro-B cells provide a pseudo-physiological
      cellular system to study V(D)J recombination. Treatment of v-Abl/Bcl2 pro-B cells
      with the Abl kinase inhibitor Imatinib leads to G1 cell cycle arrest, the rapid
      induction of Rag1/2 gene expression and V(D)J recombination. In this system, the
      Bcl2 transgene alleviates Imatinib-induced apoptosis enabling the analysis of
      induced V(D)J recombination. Although powerful, the use of mouse models carrying
      the Bcl2 transgene for the generation of v-Abl pro-B cell lines is time and money
      consuming. Here, we describe a method for generating v-Abl/Bcl2 pro-B cell lines
      from wild type mice and for performing gene knock-out using episomal CRISPR/Cas9
      targeting vectors. Using this approach, we generated distinct NHEJ-deficient pro
      B cell lines and quantified V(D)J recombination levels in these cells.
      Furthermore, this methodology can be adapted to generate pro-B cell lines
      deficient for any gene suspected to play a role in V(D)J recombination, and more
      generally DSB repair.

PMID- 28882612
TI  - Proposed panel of diagnostic tools for accurate temporal classification of
      symptomatic T. gondii infection.
AB  - Serological tests available for the diagnosis of acute Toxoplasma gondii
      infection have limitations in establishing the temporal diagnosis of acute
      toxoplasmosis. The present analytical-descriptive investigation comprises of a
      prospective longitudinal cohort study to search for accurate biomarkers to
      distinguish acute, early and late convalescent T. gondii infection. Classic
      methods (immunofluorescence-IFA along with Enzyme-linked immunosorbent-ELISA and
      fluorescent-ELFA assays) for IgM, IgA, IgG and IgG avidity were employed in
      parallel with flow cytometry-based anti-fixed T. gondii tachyzoites serology (FC
      AFTA-IgM, IgG, IgG avidity and IgG subclasses). The results reemphasized the
      limitations of IgM & IgG IFA, IgG ELFA, IgG & IgG subclasses FC as well as IgA
      ELISA biomarkers for the temporal diagnosis of acute toxoplasmosis. Receiver
      Operating-characteristics features (ROC-curves) were employed to adjust
      conventional cut-offs aiming at establishing a novel protocol to discriminate
      more accurately the different phases of toxoplasmosis. Conversely, IgM presented
      high diagnostic co-positivity for acute toxoplasmosis (97% for ELISA, 96% for
      ELFA and 95% for FC-AFTA) along with moderate co-negativity for detection of late
      convalescent toxoplasmosis (82%, 76% and 79%, respectively). IgG avidity (ELFA
      and FC-AFTA) outstand with the highest performance indices with 91% and 96% co
      negativity for assessing acute toxoplasmosis and 91% and 98% co-positivity for
      late convalescent toxoplasmosis, respectively. Multivariate analysis generated a
      three-step algorithm comprising IgM ELFA screening followed by ELFA and FC-AFTA
      IgG avidity with high accuracy in discriminating acute from late convalescent
      infection. Together, these findings demonstrate the applicability of the proposed
      panel of diagnostic tools for accurate temporal classification of T. gondii
      infection.

PMID- 28882613
TI  - Average Overlap Frequency: A simple metric to evaluate staining quality and
      community identification in high dimensional mass cytometry experiments.
AB  - High dimensional cytometry now allows measurement of over 50 parameters in a
      single sample, and is typically visualized using sophisticated dimensionality
      reducing methods and analyzed with automated clustering algorithms. While these
      tools facilitate the identification and presentation of key findings, it remains
      challenging to effectively monitor and report the staining quality of individual
      markers. We present the Average Overlap Frequency (AOF), a simple and efficient
      metric to evaluate and quantify the robustness of staining and clustering quality
      in high-dimensional data. We leverage the AOF to compare and determine the
      optimal storage conditions for stained whole blood samples prior to mass
      cytometry analysis. We also show that the AOF can be easily incorporated as part
      of automated analysis pipelines in large scale immune monitoring studies and used
      to flag and exclude samples with poor staining quality. We propose that the AOF
      may be incorporated as an essential quality control metric to better identify and
      report the underlying sample quality in all CyTOF and other high-dimensional
      cytometry experiments.

PMID- 28882614
TI  - Triple pancreatic lesion in a patient with Von Hippel-Lindau disease.

PMID- 28882615
TI  - Fluoroscopy-assisted vs fluoroless endoscopic ultrasound-guided transmural
      drainage of pancreatic fluid collections: A comparative study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The need for fluoroscopy guidance in patients undergoing endoscopic
      ultrasound-guided transmural drainage (EUS-TMD) of peripancreatic fluid
      collections (PFCs) remains unclear. AIMS: The aim of this study was to compare
      general outcomes of EUS-TMD of PFCs under fluoroscopy (F) vs fluoroless (FL).
      METHODS: This is a comparative study with a retrospective analysis of a
      prospective and consecutive inclusion database at a tertiary centre, from 2009 to
      2015. All patients were symptomatic pseudocyst (PSC) and walled-off pancreatic
      necrosis (WON). Two groups were assigned depending on availability of
      fluoroscopy. The groups were heterogeneous in terms of their demographic
      characteristics, PFCs and procedure. The main outcome measures included technical
      and clinical success, incidences, adverse events (AEs), and follow-up. RESULTS:
      Fifty EUS-TMD of PFCs from 86 EUS-guided drainages were included during the study
      period. Group F included 26 procedures, PSC 69.2%, WON 30.8%, metal stents 61.5%
      (46.1% lumen-apposing stent) and plastic stents 38.5%. Group FL included 24
      procedures, PSC 37.5%, WON 62.5%, and metal stents 95.8% (lumen-apposing stents).
      Technical success was 100% in both groups, and clinical success was similar (F
      88.5%, FL 87.5%). Technical incidences and intra-procedure AEs were only
      described in group F (7.6% and 11.5%, respectively) and none in group FL.
      Procedure time was less in group FL (8min, p=0.0341). CONCLUSIONS: Fluoroless in
      the EUS-TMD of PFCs does not involve more technical incidences or intra-procedure
      AEs. Technical and clinical success was similar in the two groups.

PMID- 28882617
TI  - Trends in Skin and Soft Tissue-Related Injuries in NOLS Wilderness Expeditions
      from 1984 to 2012.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Wilderness expeditions inevitably involve risk to participants.
      Understanding of expedition-related illnesses and injuries allows institutions
      and individuals to develop strategies to mitigate risk. We describe findings and
      trends in soft tissue injuries, the second-most common type of injury, among
      participants in the National Outdoor Leadership School expeditions from 1984 to
      2012. METHODS: Injuries and illnesses sustained by students and staff have been
      recorded continuously since 1984 in the extensive National Outdoor Leadership
      School database. We performed a retrospective analysis of incidence of soft
      tissue injuries in this population. Data before 1996 were standardized in order
      to make use of the entire dataset. RESULTS: Of 9734 total reported incidents,
      2151 (22%) were soft tissue related, 707 (33%) of which required evacuation. The
      sex distribution of incidents was similar to the sex distribution of
      participants. The largest incidence of soft tissue injuries occurred independent
      of activity (711 incidents, 33%). The most commonly associated activities were
      hiking (528 incidents, 25%), camping (301 incidents, 14%), and cooking (205
      incidents, 10%). Over the study period, rates of injury declined overall and in
      every individual category except cooking. CONCLUSIONS: Over this 28-year period,
      the incidence of soft tissue injuries associated with the most common activities
      decreased. Incidence of activity-independent injuries did not change
      significantly, but reported severity decreased. These data provide unique
      insights to help improve wilderness risk management for institutions and
      individuals and suggest areas in which educational efforts may further reduce
      risk.

PMID- 28882616
TI  - Screening of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Spondyloarthritis for Referring
      Patients Between Rheumatology and Gastroenterology.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To define clinical screening criteria for spondyloarthritis (SpA) in
      patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and vice versa, which can be used
      as a reference for referring them to the rheumatology or gastroenterology
      service. METHOD: Systematic literature review and a two-round Delphi method. The
      scientific committee and the expert panel were comprised of 2 rheumatologists and
      2 gastroenterologists, and 7 rheumatologists and 7 gastroenterologists,
      respectively. The scientific committee defined the initial version of the
      criteria, taking into account sensitivity, specificity, standardization and ease
      of application. Afterwards, members of the expert panel assessed each item in a
      two-round Delphi survey. Items that met agreement in the first or second round
      were included in the final version of the criteria. RESULTS: Positive screening
      for SpA if at least one of the following is present: onset of chronic low back
      pain before 45 years of age; inflammatory low back pain or alternating buttock
      pain; HLA-B27 positivity; sacroiliitis on imaging; arthritis; heel enthesitis;
      dactylitis. Positive screening for IBD in the presence of one of the major
      criteria or at least two minor criteria. Major: rectal bleeding; chronic diarrhea
      with organic characteristics; perianal disease. Minor: chronic abdominal pain;
      iron deficiency anemia or iron deficiency; extraintestinal manifestations; fever
      or low grade fever, of unknown origin and duration >1week; unexplained weight
      loss; family history of IBD. CONCLUSION: Screening criteria for IBD in patients
      with SpA, and vice versa, have been developed. These criteria will be useful for
      early detection of both diseases.

PMID- 28882618
TI  - DOCK8 and STAT3 dependent inhibition of IgE isotype switching by TLR9 ligation in
      human B cells.

PMID- 28882619
TI  - Variable domain glycosylation of ACPA-IgG: A missing link in the maturation of
      the ACPA response?
AB  - Anti-citrullinated Protein Antibodies (ACPA) are excellent markers for Rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA) and are postulated to have a pathogenic role in the disease
      process. A multistep model for the evolution of the ACPA response in RA was
      proposed in which an initial break of tolerance causes, as "first hit", "silent"
      production of ACPA without any clinical symptoms. The model further proposes that
      the ACPA immune response matures upon a certain (unknown) trigger, a "second
      hit", which leads to epitope spreading, an increase in ACPA titres and extended
      isotype usage before clinical RA manifestations. These occurrences are indicative
      of an expansion of the citrulline-specific B cell response, though ACPA remain of
      low avidity even in established disease. This persistence of low avidity is
      puzzling, as the typical signs of maturation of the immune response seem to be
      uncoupled from the classical process of affinity maturation. In fact, it suggests
      that B cells expressing ACPA could bypass selection mechanisms that otherwise
      control the expansion of auto-reactive B cells. In the established, chronic
      phase, we recently found that ACPA-IgG are extensively glycosylated in the
      variable (Fab) domain. More than 90% of ACPA-IgG molecules carry Fab glycans that
      are highly sialylated. This molecular feature is striking and may provide a
      missing link in our understanding of the maturation of the ACPA immune response.
      This review, therefore, describes the current knowledge about ACPA Fab
      glycosylation in the pathogenesis of RA.

PMID- 28882620
TI  - HLA class Ia and Ib molecules and FOXP3+ TILs in relation to the prognosis of
      malignant melanoma patients.
AB  - HLA class Ia (HLA-ABC) and HLA class Ib (HLA-E, -F and -G) molecules and FOXP3+
      tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are often reported as relevant factors of
      tumor immune regulation. We investigated their expression as prognostic factors
      in 200 patients with primary cutaneous melanoma (PCM). In our cohort, patients
      with tumors showing upregulation of HLA-ABC molecules had significantly thicker
      tumors (32% vs 7%, P<0.001), frequent ulceration (20% vs 6%, P=0.007) and
      frequent nodular melanomas (20% vs 4%, P=0.001). Additionally, high expression of
      HLA-G in the tumor was a sign of bad prognosis for the patients, being associated
      with thick tumors (30% vs 12%, P=0.017), ulceration (24% vs 5%, P<0.001) and
      positive sentinel node (13% vs 6%, P=0.015). HLA-E, HLA-F and FOXP3+ TILs were
      not indicative of the prognosis in PCM. High HLA-ABC and HLA-G were associated
      with tumor aggressiveness and could be relevant predictive markers for effective
      immunotherapy of melanoma tumors.

PMID- 28882622
TI  - [Weight loss and fever].

PMID- 28882621
TI  - Antibodies targeting BTLA or TIM-3 enhance HIV-1 specific T cell responses in
      combination with PD-1 blockade.
AB  - Persistent stimulation with antigens derived from viruses that establish chronic
      infections or tumour antigens results in the exhaustion of T cells. Coinhibitory
      receptors like PD-1 and CTLA-4 function as immune checkpoints on exhausted T
      cells. Blocking these molecules with antibodies improve immunity to cancer cells.
      Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting other coinhibitory receptors might have a
      similar role in improving T cell function and thus also utility in cancer
      therapy. Using HIV-specific T cells as a model for exhaustion we have evaluated
      the capacity of antibodies targeting TIM-3, BTLA, CD160, LAG-3 and CTLA-4 alone
      or in combination with a PD-1 antibody to enhance proliferation and cytokine
      production in response to Gag and Nef peptides. Antibodies targeting BTLA and TIM
      3 enhanced CD8 T cell proliferation. Moreover, our results indicate that blocking
      BTLA and TIM-3 in combination with PD-1 might be especially effective in
      enhancing responses of exhausted human T cells.

PMID- 28882623
TI  - [Patients' assessment of their chronic illness care].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to assess the care received by chronic
      patients from their point of view and objectify the factors related with a better
      assessment of care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study realized between
      September 2014 and April 2015. LOCATION: Nine Health Centers of Navarra (6 urban
      and 3 rural), Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Sampling opportunity of 196 patients aged over
      65years presenting at least one chronic disease. MAIN MEASURES: Outcome variable:
      Evaluation of the care received through the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness
      Care (PACIC) test (score 1 to 5, higher values indicate better perception about
      quality of care). Explanatory variables: quality of life employing the EQ5D
      instrument, Katz index and Gijon's socio-family evaluation scale. Other variables
      studied were: sex, age, education, Charlson index and number of chronic diseases.
      The association between the PACIC numerical value with the rest of the variables
      was calculated. RESULTS: The assessment of the care received according to the
      PACIC was higher with more chronic diseases (rho: 0.196; p=0.006), with less
      autonomy (mild or no disability: mean 2.9; SD: 0.6 vs. moderate or severe
      disability: mean 3.3; SD: 0.2; P=.003), in those with worse quality of life
      (EQ5D5L Index value rho: -0.227; P=.001. EQ VAS rho: -0.145; P=.043), and in
      those with a more favorable social situation (rho: -0.167; P=.022). CONCLUSIONS:
      The perception of chronic patients about the received care is better with an
      increased number of chronic diseases and with less autonomy and quality of life.
      The social environment influences the care perception of the patient, being this
      worse in environments with higher social risk.

PMID- 28882624
TI  - Network pharmacology analysis of the anti-cancer pharmacological mechanisms of
      Ganoderma lucidum extract with experimental support using Hepa1-6-bearing C57
      BL/6 mice.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ganoderma lucidum (GL) is an oriental medical
      fungus, which was used to prevent and treat many diseases. Previously, the
      effective compounds of Ganoderma lucidum extract (GLE) were extracted from two
      kinds of GL, [Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss. Ex Fr.) Karst.] and [Ganoderma sinense
      Zhao, Xu et Zhang], which have been used for adjuvant anti-cancer clinical
      therapy for more than 20 years. However, its concrete active compounds and its
      regulation mechanisms on tumor are unclear. AIM OF THE STUDY: In this study, we
      aimed to identify the main active compounds from GLE and to investigate its anti
      cancer mechanisms via drug-target biological network construction and prediction.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The main active compounds of GLE were identified by HPLC,
      EI-MS and NMR, and the compounds related targets were predicted using docking
      program. To investigate the functions of GL holistically, the active compounds of
      GL and related targets were predicted based on four public databases.
      Subsequently, the Identified-Compound-Target network and Predicted-Compound
      Target network were constructed respectively, and they were overlapped to detect
      the hub potential targets in both networks. Furthermore, the qRT-PCR and western
      blot assays were used to validate the expression levels of target genes in GLE
      treated Hepa1-6-bearing C57 BL/6 mice. RESULTS: In our work, 12 active compounds
      of GLE were identified, including Ganoderic acid A, Ganoderenic acid A, Ganoderic
      acid B, Ganoderic acid H, Ganoderic acid C2, Ganoderenic acid D, Ganoderic acid
      D, Ganoderenic acid G, Ganoderic acid Y, Kaemferol, Genistein and Ergosterol.
      Using the docking program, 20 targets were mapped to 12 compounds of GLE.
      Furthermore, 122 effective active compounds of GL and 116 targets were
      holistically predicted using public databases. Compare with the Identified
      Compound-Target network and Predicted-Compound-Target network, 6 hub targets were
      screened, including AR, CHRM2, ESR1, NR3C1, NR3C2 and PGR, which was considered
      as potential markers and might play important roles in the process of GLE
      treatment. GLE effectively inhibited tumor growth in Hepa1-6-bearing C57 BL/6
      mice. Finally, consistent with the results of qRT-PCR data, the results of
      western-blot assay demonstrated the expression levels of PGR and ESR1 were up
      regulated, as well as the expression levels of NR3C2 and AR were down-regulated,
      while the change of NR3C1 and CHRM2 had no statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS:
      The results indicated that these 4 hub target genes, including NR3C2, AR, ESR1
      and PGR, might act as potential markers to evaluate the curative effect of GLE
      treatment in tumor. And, the combined data provide preliminary study of the
      pharmacological mechanisms of GLE, which may be a promising potential therapeutic
      and chemopreventative candidate for anti-cancer.

PMID- 28882625
TI  - Drug-induced bile duct injury.
AB  - Drug-induced liver injury includes a spectrum of pathologies, some related to the
      mode of injury, some to the cell type primarily damaged. Among these, drug
      induced bile duct injury is characterized by the destruction of the biliary
      epithelium following exposure to a drug. Most of the drugs associated with bile
      duct injury cause immune-mediated lesions to the epithelium of interlobular
      ducts. These share common histopathological features with primary biliary
      cholangitis, such as inflammation and necrosis at the expense of cholangiocytes
      and, if the insult persists, bile duct loss and biliary cirrhosis. Some drugs
      selectively target larger ducts. Such injury is often dose-dependent and thought
      to be the result of intrinsic drug toxicity. The histological changes resemble
      those seen in primary sclerosing cholangitis. This overview focuses on the
      clinical and pathological features of bile duct injury associated with drug
      treatment and on the immunological and biochemical effects that drugs exert on
      the biliary epithelium. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled:
      Cholangiocytes in Health and Disease edited by Jesus Banales, Marco Marzioni,
      Nicholas LaRusso and Peter Jansen.

PMID- 28882626
TI  - Epinecidin-1 protects mice from LPS-induced endotoxemia and cecal ligation and
      puncture-induced polymicrobial sepsis.
AB  - The antimicrobial peptide, epinecidin-1 (Epi), was identified from Epinephelus
      coioides and may have clinical application for treating sepsis. Epi has been
      shown to ameliorate antibiotic-resistant bacteria-induced sepsis in mice, but
      further evaluation in mixed-flora models and a description of the protective
      mechanisms are essential to establish this peptide as a potential therapeutic.
      Therefore, we first tested the protective effects of Epi against polymicrobial
      sepsis-induced bactericidal infection, inflammation and lung injury that result
      from cecal ligation and puncture in mice. Furthermore, since lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS) is a key inducer of inflammation during bacterial infection and sepsis, we
      also tested the LPS-antagonizing activity and related mechanisms of Epi-mediated
      protection in mice with LPS-induced endotoxemia and LPS-treated Raw264.7 mouse
      macrophage cells. Epi rescued mice from both polymicrobial sepsis and endotoxemia
      after delayed administration and suppressed both lung and systemic inflammatory
      responses, while attenuating lung injury and diminishing bacterial load. In vitro
      studies revealed that Epi suppressed LPS-induced inflammatory cytokine
      production. Mechanistically, Epi disrupted the interaction between LPS and LPS
      binding protein, competed with LPS for binding on the cell surface, and inhibited
      Toll-like receptor 4 endocytosis, resulting in inhibition of LPS-induced reactive
      oxygen species/p38/Akt/NF-kappaB signaling and subsequent cytokine production.
      Overall, our results demonstrate that Epi is a promising therapeutic agent for
      endotoxemia and polymicrobial sepsis.

PMID- 28882627
TI  - Selection and characterization of DNA aptamers for detection of glutamate
      dehydrogenase from Clostridium difficile.
AB  - Rapid and accurate diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) is crucial
      for patient treatment, infection control and epidemiological monitoring. As an
      important antigen, glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) has been proposed as a
      preliminary screening test target for CDI. However, current assays based on GDH
      activity or GDH immunoassays have suboptimal sensitivity and specificity. Herein,
      we describe the selection and characterization of single-stranded DNA aptamers
      that specifically target GDH. After 10 rounds of selection, high-throughput
      sequencing was used to identify enriched aptamer candidates. Of 10 candidates,
      three aptamers for GDH were identified. Gel shift assays showed that these
      aptamers exhibited low nanomolar affinities. One aptamer was optimized based on
      structural analysis and further engineered into a structure-switching
      fluorescence signaling aptamer, wherein desorption from reduced graphene oxide
      (RGO) upon binding of GDH led to an increase in fluorescence emission. This
      method allowed for quantitative detection of GDH with a detection limit of 1 nM,
      providing great potential for its further application in CDI diagnosis.

PMID- 28882628
TI  - An exemplar-based approach to individualized parcellation reveals the need for
      sex specific functional networks.
AB  - Recent work with functional connectivity data has led to significant progress in
      understanding the functional organization of the brain. While the majority of the
      literature has focused on group-level parcellation approaches, there is ample
      evidence that the brain varies in both structure and function across individuals.
      In this work, we introduce a parcellation technique that incorporates delineation
      of functional networks both at the individual- and group-level. The proposed
      technique deploys the notion of "submodularity" to jointly parcellate the
      cerebral cortex while establishing an inclusive correspondence between the
      individualized functional networks. Using this parcellation technique, we
      successfully established a cross-validated predictive model that predicts
      individuals' sex, solely based on the parcellation schemes (i.e. the node-to
      network assignment vectors). The sex prediction finding illustrates that
      individualized parcellation of functional networks can reveal subgroups in a
      population and suggests that the use of a global network parcellation may
      overlook fundamental differences in network organization. This is a particularly
      important point to consider in studies comparing patients versus controls or even
      patient subgroups. Network organization may differ between individuals and global
      configurations should not be assumed. This approach to the individualized study
      of functional organization in the brain has many implications for both
      neuroscience and clinical applications.

PMID- 28882630
TI  - Spatial gene expression analysis of neuroanatomical differences in mouse models.
AB  - MRI is a powerful modality to detect neuroanatomical differences that result from
      mutations and treatments. Knowing which genes drive these differences is
      important in understanding etiology, but candidate genes are often difficult to
      identify. We tested whether spatial gene expression data from the Allen Brain
      Institute can be used to inform us about genes that cause neuroanatomical
      differences. For many single-gene-mutation mouse models, we found that affected
      neuroanatomy was not strongly associated with the spatial expression of the
      altered gene and there are specific caveats for each model. However, among models
      with significant neuroanatomical differences from their wildtype controls, the
      mutated genes had preferential spatial expression in affected neuroanatomy. In
      mice exposed to environmental enrichment, candidate genes could be identified by
      a genome-wide search for genes with preferential spatial expression in the
      altered neuroanatomical regions. These candidates have functions related to
      learning and plasticity. We demonstrate that spatial gene expression of single
      genes is a poor predictor of altered neuroanatomy, but altered neuroanatomy can
      identify candidate genes responsible for neuroanatomical phenotypes.

PMID- 28882631
TI  - Neurochemical dynamics of acute orofacial pain in the human trigeminal brainstem
      nuclear complex.
AB  - The trigeminal brainstem sensory nuclear complex is the first central relay
      structure mediating orofacial somatosensory and nociceptive perception. Animal
      studies suggest a substantial involvement of neurochemical alterations at such
      basal CNS levels in acute and chronic pain processing. Translating this animal
      based knowledge to humans is challenging. Human related examining of brainstem
      functions are challenged by MR related peculiarities as well as applicability
      aspects of experimentally standardized paradigms. Based on our experience with an
      MR compatible human orofacial pain model, the aims of the present study were
      twofold: 1) from a technical perspective, the evaluation of proton magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy at 3 T regarding measurement accuracy of neurochemical
      profiles in this small brainstem nuclear complex and 2) the examination of
      possible neurochemical alterations induced by an experimental orofacial pain
      model. Data from 13 healthy volunteers aged 19-46 years were analyzed and
      revealed high quality spectra with significant reductions in total N
      acetylaspartate (N-acetylaspartate + N-acetylaspartylglutamate) (-3.7%, p =
      0.009) and GABA (-10.88%, p = 0.041) during the pain condition. These results
      might reflect contributions of N-acetylaspartate and N-acetylaspartylglutamate in
      neuronal activity-dependent physiologic processes and/or excitatory
      neurotransmission, whereas changes in GABA might indicate towards a reduction in
      tonic GABAergic functioning during nociceptive signaling. Summarized, the present
      study indicates the applicability of 1H-MRS to obtain neurochemical dynamics
      within the human trigeminal brainstem sensory nuclear complex. Further
      developments are needed to pave the way towards bridging important animal based
      knowledge with human research to understand the neurochemistry of orofacial
      nociception and pain.

PMID- 28882632
TI  - Spatial specificity of the functional MRI blood oxygenation response relative to
      neuronal activity.
AB  - Previous attempts at characterizing the spatial specificity of the blood
      oxygenation level dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) response by estimating its
      point-spread function (PSF) have conventionally relied on retinotopic spatial
      representations of visual stimuli in area V1. Consequently, their estimates were
      confounded by the width and scatter of receptive fields of V1 neurons. Here, we
      circumvent these limits by instead using the inherent cortical spatial
      organization of ocular dominance columns (ODCs) to determine the PSF for both
      Gradient Echo (GE) and Spin Echo (SE) BOLD imaging at 7 Tesla. By applying Markov
      chain Monte Carlo sampling on a probabilistic generative model of imaging ODCs,
      we quantified the PSFs that best predict the spatial structure and magnitude of
      differential ODCs' responses. Prior distributions for the ODC model parameters
      were determined by analyzing published data of cytochrome oxidase patterns from
      post-mortem histology of human V1 and of neurophysiological ocular dominance
      indices. The average PSF full-widths at half-maximum obtained from differential
      ODCs' responses following the removal of voxels influenced by contributions from
      macroscopic blood vessels were 0.86 mm (SE) and 0.99 mm (GE). Our results provide
      a quantitative basis for the spatial specificity of BOLD fMRI at ultra-high
      fields, which can be used for planning and interpretation of high-resolution
      differential fMRI of fine-scale cortical organizations.

PMID- 28882633
TI  - Probabilistic inference under time pressure leads to a cortical-to-subcortical
      shift in decision evidence integration.
AB  - Real-life decision-making often involves combining multiple probabilistic sources
      of information under finite time and cognitive resources. To mitigate these
      pressures, people "satisfice", foregoing a full evaluation of all available
      evidence to focus on a subset of cues that allow for fast and "good-enough"
      decisions. Although this form of decision-making likely mediates many of our
      everyday choices, very little is known about the way in which the neural encoding
      of cue information changes when we satisfice under time pressure. Here, we
      combined human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a probabilistic
      classification task to characterize neural substrates of multi-cue decision
      making under low (1500 ms) and high (500 ms) time pressure. Using variational
      Bayesian inference, we analyzed participants' choices to track and quantify cue
      usage under each experimental condition, which was then applied to model the fMRI
      data. Under low time pressure, participants performed near-optimally,
      appropriately integrating all available cues to guide choices. Both cortical
      (prefrontal and parietal cortex) and subcortical (hippocampal and striatal)
      regions encoded individual cue weights, and activity linearly tracked trial-by
      trial variations in the amount of evidence and decision uncertainty. Under
      increased time pressure, participants adaptively shifted to using a satisficing
      strategy by discounting the least informative cue in their decision process. This
      strategic change in decision-making was associated with an increased involvement
      of the dopaminergic midbrain, striatum, thalamus, and cerebellum in representing
      and integrating cue values. We conclude that satisficing the probabilistic
      inference process under time pressure leads to a cortical-to-subcortical shift in
      the neural drivers of decisions.

PMID- 28882634
TI  - Learning stage-dependent effect of M1 disruption on value-based motor decisions.
AB  - The present study aimed at characterizing the impact of M1 disruption on the
      implementation of implicit value information in motor decisions, at both early
      stages (during reinforcement learning) and late stages (after consolidation) of
      action value encoding. Fifty subjects performed, over three consecutive days, a
      task that required them to select between two finger responses according to the
      color (instruction) and to the shape (implicit, undisclosed rule) of an
      imperative signal: considering the implicit rule in addition to the instruction
      allowed subjects to earn more money. We investigated the functional contribution
      of M1 to the implementation of the implicit rule in subjects' motor decisions.
      Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) was applied over M1 either on Day 1 or
      on Day 3, producing a temporary lesion either during reinforcement learning
      (cTBSLearning group) or after consolidation of the implicit rule, during decision
      making (cTBSDecision group), respectively. Interestingly, disrupting M1 activity
      on Day 1 improved the reliance on the implicit rule, plausibly because M1 cTBS
      increased dopamine release in the putamen in an indirect way. This finding
      corroborates the view that cTBS may affect activity in unstimulated areas, such
      as the basal ganglia. Notably, this effect was short-lasting; it did not persist
      overnight, suggesting that the functional integrity of M1 during learning is a
      prerequisite for the consolidation of implicit value information to occur.
      Besides, cTBS over M1 did not impact the use of the implicit rule when applied on
      Day 3, although it did so when applied on Day 2 in a recent study where the
      reliance on the implicit rule declined following cTBS (Derosiere et al., 2017).
      Overall, these findings indicate that the human M1 is functionally involved in
      the consolidation and implementation of implicit value information underlying
      motor decisions. However, M1 contribution seems to vanish as subjects become more
      experienced in using the implicit value information to make their motor
      decisions.

PMID- 28882629
TI  - Intracranial markers of conscious face perception in humans.
AB  - Investigations of the neural basis of consciousness have greatly benefited from
      protocols that involve the presentation of stimuli at perceptual threshold,
      enabling the assessment of the patterns of brain activity that correlate with
      conscious perception, independently of any changes in sensory input. However, the
      comparison between perceived and unperceived trials would be expected to reveal
      not only the core neural substrate of a particular conscious perception, but also
      aspects of brain activity that facilitate, hinder or tend to follow conscious
      perception. We take a step towards the resolution of these confounds by combining
      an analysis of neural responses observed during the presentation of faces
      partially masked by Continuous Flash Suppression, and those responses observed
      during the unmasked presentation of faces and other images in the same subjects.
      We employed multidimensional classifiers to decode physical properties of stimuli
      or perceptual states from spectrotemporal representations of
      electrocorticographic signals (1071 channels in 5 subjects). Neural activity in
      certain face responsive areas located in both the fusiform gyrus and in the
      lateral-temporal/inferior-parietal cortex discriminated seen vs. unseen faces in
      the masked paradigm and upright faces vs. other categories in the unmasked
      paradigm. However, only the former discriminated upright vs. inverted faces in
      the unmasked paradigm. Our results suggest a prominent role for the fusiform
      gyrus in the configural perception of faces, and possibly other objects that are
      holistically processed. More generally, we advocate comparative analysis of
      neural recordings obtained during different, but related, experimental protocols
      as a promising direction towards elucidating the functional specificities of the
      patterns of neural activation that accompany our conscious experiences.

PMID- 28882635
TI  - Impact of tissue correction strategy on GABA-edited MRS findings.
AB  - Tissue composition impacts the interpretation of magnetic resonance spectroscopy
      metabolite quantification. The goal of applying tissue correction is to decrease
      the dependency of metabolite concentrations on the underlying voxel tissue
      composition. Tissue correction strategies have different underlying assumptions
      to account for different aspects of the voxel tissue fraction. The most common
      tissue correction is the CSF-correction that aims to account for the
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fraction in the voxel, in which it is assumed there are
      no metabolites. More recently, the alpha-correction was introduced to account for
      the different concentrations of GABA+in gray matter and white matter. In this
      paper, we show that the selected tissue correction strategy can alter the
      interpretation of results using data from a healthy aging cohort with GABA+
      measurements in a frontal and posterior voxel. In a frontal voxel, we show an age
      related decline in GABA+ when either no tissue correction (R2 = 0.25, p < 0.001)
      or the CSF-correction is applied (R2 = 0.08, p < 0.01). When applying the alpha
      correction to the frontal voxel data, we find no relationship between age and
      GABA+ (R2 = 0.02, p = 0.15). However, with the alpha-correction we still find
      that cognitive performance is correlated with GABA+ (R2 = 0.11, p < 0.01). These
      data suggest that in healthy aging, while there is normal atrophy in the frontal
      voxel, GABA+ in the remaining tissue is not decreasing on average. This indicates
      that the selection of tissue correction can significantly impact the
      interpretation of MRS results.

PMID- 28882637
TI  - Successful Retrograde Intubation After Failed Fiberoptic Intubation and
      Percutaneous Cricothyrotomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An obstructive neck lesion presents an airway challenge for any
      emergency physician. Retrograde intubation is an infrequently used airway
      alternative that can be employed in the difficult airway algorithm that requires
      little training and is less invasive than surgical cricothyrotomy. CASE REPORT:
      We report a case of a 31-year-old male patient who presented with respiratory
      distress progressing to respiratory failure from upper airway obstruction. The
      patient had significant tracheal thickening at the level of the thyroid gland
      based on a computed tomography report from 3 weeks prior to his presentation.
      Awake upright fiberoptic intubation and subsequent percutaneous cricothyrotomy
      were unsuccessful secondary to obstructive neck mass. We performed a retrograde
      intubation via tracheal approach and secured the airway via manipulation of a
      small-diameter endotracheal tube over the guidewire using visualization with
      video laryngoscopy. This case describes a combination of difficult airway
      techniques utilizing retrograde intubation with a Glidescope (Verathon Inc.,
      Bothell, WA) as a rescue maneuver for a difficult airway secondary to a tracheal
      obstruction and supraglottic and subglottic stenosis. Follow-up confirmed the
      patient's diagnosis as granulomatosis with polyangiitis. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY
      PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: In cases of supraglottic and subglottic narrowing or
      mass lesions, retrograde intubation can be a life-saving technique that is an
      important consideration in the difficult airway algorithm. This technique may be
      combined with other difficult airway techniques and is especially relevant and
      potentially life-saving for patients in whom an open cricothyrotomy is
      undesirable, such as patients with a potentially vascular neck mass, subglottic
      stenosis, localized neck trauma, or morbid obesity.

PMID- 28882636
TI  - Bisphenol A and estrogen induce proliferation of human thyroid tumor cells via an
      estrogen-receptor-dependent pathway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between papillary thyroid carcinoma and
      environmental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) or 17-beta estrogen (E2) by assessing
      the effects of these compounds on estrogen receptor expression and AKT/mTOR
      signaling. METHODS: The effects of low levels of BPA (1mM-10nM) and 17beta
      estradiol (E2, 0.1mM-1nM) on ER expression and cellular proliferation were
      determined in human thyroid papillary cancer BHP10-3 cells. Protein and mRNA
      levels of estrogen nuclear receptors (ERalpha/ERbeta) and membrane receptors
      (GPR30) were determined by immunofluorescence assay, Western blotting, and RT
      PCR, respectively, and proliferation was assessed by CCK-8 assay. RESULTS: The
      proliferative effects of BPA and E2 were both concentration- and time-dependent.
      Expression of ERalpha/ERbeta and GPR30 were enhanced by BPA and E2. BPA and E2
      could quickly phosphorylate AKT/mTOR. Moreover, ICI suppressed ERalpha expression
      and activated GPR30 as did G-1. G-15 reversed the effects of E2 on GPR30 and
      AKT/mTOR, but did not alter the effect of BPA. CONCLUSIONS: BPA influences
      thyroid cancer proliferation by regulating expression of ERs and GPR30, a
      mechanism that differs from E2. In addition, ICI and G-15 may have the potential
      to be used as anti-thyroid cancer agents.

PMID- 28882638
TI  - Delayed Onset of Atrial Fibrillation and Ventricular Tachycardia after an
      Automobile Lightning Strike.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lightning strike is a rare medical emergency. The primary cause of
      death in lightning strike victims is immediate cardiac arrest. The mortality rate
      from lightning exposure can be as high as 30%, with up to 70% of patients left
      with significant morbidity. CASE REPORT: An 86-year-old male was struck by
      lightning while driving his vehicle and crashed. On initial emergency medical
      services evaluation, he was asymptomatic with normal vital signs. During his
      transport, he lost consciousness several times and was found to be in atrial
      fibrillation with intermittent runs of ventricular tachycardia during the
      unconscious periods. In the emergency department, atrial fibrillation persisted
      and he experienced additional episodes of ventricular tachycardia. He was treated
      with i.v. amiodarone and admitted to cardiovascular intensive care unit, where he
      converted to a normal sinus rhythm on the amiodarone drip. He was discharged home
      without rhythm-control medications and did not have further episodes of
      dysrhythmias on follow-up visits. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF
      THIS?: Lightning strikes are one of the most common injuries suffered from
      natural phenomenon, and short-term mortality ordinarily depends on the cardiac
      effects. This case demonstrates that the cardiac effects can be multiple,
      delayed, and recurrent, which compels the emergency physician to be vigilant in
      the initial evaluation and ongoing observation of patients with lightning
      injuries.

PMID- 28882639
TI  - Effects of residual levels of tetracycline on the barrier functions of human
      intestinal epithelial cells.
AB  - Tetracyclines are frequently used in food-producing animals to treat, control,
      and prevent microbial diseases. Concerns are raised regarding the effects of
      residual levels of tetracycline, which may be present in the food supply, for
      emergence of drug-resistance and transfer of antibiotic-resistance gene in
      intestinal microbiota. In contrast, no information is available regarding the
      possible effects of residual tetracycline on the gastrointestinal epithelial
      layer barrier-disruption. This study investigates the outcome of tetracycline
      treatment on intestinal epithelial cells integrity. Intestinal epithelial cells
      (T84) were treated at concentrations of 0.015, 0.15, 1.5, 15 and 150 MUg/ml for
      48 h in an in vitro cell culture model. The permeability study revealed that 15
      and 150 MUg/ml of tetracycline causes barrier disruption. Whereas the altered
      mRNA expression of notch-3, notch-4, claudin-2, claudin-8, claudin-10, claudin
      15, gap junction alpha 8 and delta 2 and integrin, alpha 3 and alpha L, which are
      cell-integrity-related genes starts at 1.5 MUg/ml tetracycline after 48 h
      treatment. Translocation of GFP-labeled bacteria from apical to basal comportment
      provides proof of concept to intestinal barrier disruption. This study is the
      first to evaluate whether residual concentrations of tetracycline impact
      epithelial cell integrity.

PMID- 28882640
TI  - Toxicity of the main electronic cigarette components, propylene glycol, glycerin,
      and nicotine, in Sprague-Dawley rats in a 90-day OECD inhalation study
      complemented by molecular endpoints.
AB  - While the toxicity of the main constituents of electronic cigarette (ECIG)
      liquids, nicotine, propylene glycol (PG), and vegetable glycerin (VG), has been
      assessed individually in separate studies, limited data on the inhalation
      toxicity of them is available when in mixtures. In this 90-day subchronic
      inhalation study, Sprague-Dawley rats were nose-only exposed to filtered air,
      nebulized vehicle (saline), or three concentrations of PG/VG mixtures, with and
      without nicotine. Standard toxicological endpoints were complemented by molecular
      analyses using transcriptomics, proteomics, and lipidomics. Compared with vehicle
      exposure, the PG/VG aerosols showed only very limited biological effects with no
      signs of toxicity. Addition of nicotine to the PG/VG aerosols resulted in effects
      in line with nicotine effects observed in previous studies, including up
      regulation of xenobiotic enzymes (Cyp1a1/Fmo3) in the lung and metabolic effects,
      such as reduced serum lipid concentrations and expression changes of hepatic
      metabolic enzymes. No toxicologically relevant effects of PG/VG aerosols (up to
      1.520  mg PG/L + 1.890 mg VG/L) were observed, and no adverse effects for
      PG/VG/nicotine were observed up to 438/544/6.6 mg/kg/day. This study demonstrates
      how complementary systems toxicology analyses can reveal, even in the absence of
      observable adverse effects, subtoxic and adaptive responses to pharmacologically
      active compounds such as nicotine.

PMID- 28882641
TI  - Clinical factors influencing mortality risk in hospital-acquired sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identification of factors that confer an increased risk of mortality
      in hospital-acquired sepsis (HAS) is necessary to help prevent, and improve the
      outcome of, this condition. AIM: To evaluate the clinical characteristics and
      factors associated with mortality in patients with HAS. METHODS: Retrospective
      study of patients with HAS in a major Spanish Hospital from 2011 to 2015. Data
      from adults receiving any of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth
      Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes associated with sepsis were
      collected. Those fulfilling the SEPSIS-2 definition with no evidence of infection
      during the first 48 h following hospitalization were included (N = 196).
      Multivariate analysis was employed to identify the risk factors of mortality.
      FINDINGS: HAS patients were found to have many of the risk factors associated
      with cardiovascular disease (male sex, ageing, antecedent of cardiac disease,
      arterial hypertension, dyslipidaemia, smoking habit) and cancer. Vascular disease
      or chronic kidney disease were associated with 28-day mortality. Time from
      hospital admission to sepsis diagnosis, and the presence of organ failure were
      risk factors for 28-day and hospital mortality. Experiencing more than one
      episode of sepsis increased the risk of hospital mortality. 'Sepsis code' for the
      early identification of sepsis was protective against hospital mortality.
      CONCLUSION: This study identifies several major factors associated with mortality
      in patients suffering from HAS. Implementation of surveillance programmes for the
      early identification and treatment of sepsis translate into a clear benefit.

PMID- 28882642
TI  - Risk factors for acquisition of OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumonia among
      contact patients: a multicentre study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cohorting carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) carriers
      during hospitalization limits in-hospital spreading. AIM: To identify risk
      factors for CPE acquisition among contacts of an index patient in non-cohorted
      populations. METHODS: A multicentre retrospective matched case-control study was
      conducted in five hospitals. Each contact patient (case) who acquired Klebsiella
      pneumoniae (KP)-OXA-48 from an index patient was compared to three contact
      (controls) with the same index patients matched with hospitalization in the same
      unit and similar exposure times. FINDINGS: Fifty-one secondary cases and 131
      controls were included. By univariate analysis, exposure time (odds ratio: 1.06;
      95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.1; P = 0.006), concomitant infection at admission
      (3.23; 1.42-7.35; P = 0.005), antimicrobial therapy within the last month before
      hospitalization (2.88; 1.34-6.2; P = 0.007), antimicrobial therapy during the
      exposure time (5.36; 2.28-12.6; P < 0.001), use of at least one invasive
      procedure (2.99; 1.25-7.15; P = 0.014), number of invasive procedures (1.52; 1.05
      2.19; P = 0.025), and geographical proximity (2.84; 1.15-7.00; P = 0.023) were
      associated with CPE acquisition. By multivariate analysis, antimicrobial therapy
      during the exposure time (odds ratio: 6.36; 95% confidence interval: 2.46-16.44;
      P < 0.001), at least one invasive procedure (2.92; 1.04-8.17; P = 0.041), and
      geographical proximity (3.69; 1.15-11.86; P = 0.028) were associated with
      acquisition. CONCLUSION: In this study, geographical proximity, invasive
      procedure, and antimicrobial therapy during exposure time were significantly
      associated with KP-OXA-48 acquisition.

PMID- 28882643
TI  - Efficacy of ethanol against viruses in hand disinfection.
AB  - Ethanol is used worldwide in healthcare facilities for hand rubbing. It has been
      reported to have a stronger and broader virucidal activity compared with
      propanols. The aim of this review was to describe the spectrum of virucidal
      activity of ethanol in solution or as commercially available products. A
      systematic search was conducted. Studies were selected when they contained
      original data on reduction of viral infectivity from suspension tests (49
      studies) and contaminated hands (17 studies). Ethanol at 80% was highly effective
      against all 21 tested, enveloped viruses within 30 s. Murine norovirus and
      adenovirus type 5 are usually inactivated by ethanol between 70% and 90% in 30 s
      whereas poliovirus type 1 was often found to be too resistant except for ethanol
      at 95% (all test viruses of EN 14476). Ethanol at 80% is unlikely to be
      sufficiently effective against poliovirus, calicivirus (FCV), polyomavirus,
      hepatitis A virus (HAV) and foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The spectrum of
      virucidal activity of ethanol at 95%, however, covers the majority of clinically
      relevant viruses. Additional acids can substantially improve the virucidal
      activity of ethanol at lower concentrations against, e.g. poliovirus, FCV,
      polyomavirus and FMDV although selected viruses such as HAV may still be too
      resistant. The selection of a suitable virucidal hand rub should be based on the
      viruses most prevalent in a unit and on the user acceptability of the product
      under frequent-use conditions.

PMID- 28882644
TI  - Postsynaptic N-type or P/Q-type calcium channels mediate long-term potentiation
      by group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in the trigeminal oralis.
AB  - AIMS: Both N-type and P/Q-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs) are involved
      in the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP), the long-lasting increase of
      synaptic strength, in the central nervous system. To provide further information
      on the roles of N-type and P/Q-type VGCCs in the induction of LTP at excitatory
      synapses of trigeminal primary afferents in the spinal trigeminal subnucleus
      oralis (Vo), we investigated whether they contribute to the induction of LTP by
      activation of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). MAIN METHODS:
      (S)-3,5-Dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG; 10MUM for 5min), the group I mGluR agonist,
      was used to induce LTP of excitatory postsynaptic currents that were evoked in
      the Vo neurons by stimulating the trigeminal track. KEY FINDINGS: Weak blockade
      of the N-type or P/Q-type VGCCs by omega-conotoxin GVIA or omega-agatoxin IVA,
      respectively, which inhibited only 20-40% of Ca2+ currents recorded in isolated
      trigeminal ganglion neurons but had no effect on the basal excitatory synaptic
      transmission, completely blocked the induction of LTP. In contrast, stronger
      blockade of the channels, which inhibited >50% of Ca2+ currents and about 30% of
      basal synaptic transmission, resulted in the development of long-term depression
      (LTD), the long-lasting decrease of synaptic strength. Interestingly, the
      postsynaptic mechanism of DHPG-induced LTP, which was determined by paired-pulse
      ratio, disappeared when LTP was blocked, or LTD occurred, while a presynaptic
      mechanism still remained. SIGNIFICANCE: Our data suggest that postsynaptic N-type
      and P/Q-type VGCCs mediate the DHPG-induced LTP at the trigeminal afferent
      synapses in the Vo.

PMID- 28882645
TI  - MiR-770 inhibits tumorigenesis and EMT by targeting JMJD6 and regulating WNT/beta
      catenin pathway in non-small cell lung cancer.
AB  - AIMS: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) plays important role in development and disease,
      especially in cancer including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the
      role of miR-770 in NSCLC remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to study the
      function and mechanism of miR-770 in tumorigenesis of NSCLC. MAIN METHODS: RT
      qPCR was used to measure the expression levels of miR-770 in NSCLC tissues and
      cells. MTT assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometric analysis and transwell
      migration and invasion assays were performed to investigate the role of miR-770
      in NSCLC cells. Bioinformatics and luciferase reporter analyses were used to
      demonstrate that whether the Jumonji domain-containing 6 (JMJD6) as a direct
      target of miR-770. The function of JMJD6 in NSCLC was also investigated. Finally,
      in vivo animal experiment was used to study whether miR-770 was capable of
      inhibiting tumor growth by inhibiting JMJD6. KEY FINDINGS: We first showed that
      miR-770 was downregulated in NSCLC tissues and cell lines, and the low expression
      of miR-770 was correlated with poor patient survival in NSCLC patients. miR-770
      acted on a tumor suppressor by binding to the 3'UTR of JMJD6 and downregulated
      its expression in NSCLC cells. This study also demonstrated that JMJD6 played as
      an oncogene in NSCLC cells. miR-770 overexpression was capable of inhibiting
      NSCLC tumor growth by inhibiting JMJD6 and its downstream WNT/beta-catenin
      pathway both in vitro and in vivo. SIGNIFICANCE: The present study indicated that
      miR-770 functioned as a tumor suppressor and it might be a potential biomarker
      and therapeutic target in NSCLC.

PMID- 28882646
TI  - Protective effect of miR-200b/c by inhibiting vasohibin-2 in human retinal
      microvascular endothelial cells.
AB  - AIMS: Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), characterized by angiogenesis,
      can cause serve vision loss and even blindness. Recent studies have suggested a
      pivotal role of vasohibin-2 (VASH2) in the promotion of angiogenesis in tumor
      tissues. Here we further investigated the role of VASH2 in the proliferation and
      migration of retinal endothelial cells. MAIN METHODS: The expression of VASH2 in
      vascular endothelial cells of epiretinal fibrovascular membranes (FVMs) from PDR
      patients were detected by immunofluorescence. VASH2 gene interfering lentiviral
      vectors (VASH2-shRNA) and miR-200b/c were constructed for the evaluation of the
      VASH2 effect on high glucose induced human retinal microvascular endothelial cell
      line (HRMECs). Cell proliferation, cell cycle and cell migration were carried out
      subsequently. The relationship between VASH2 and miR-200b/c was determined by
      luciferase reporter gene assays. KEY FINDINGS: A positive expression of VASH2 was
      identified in vascular endothelial cells of FVMs from PDR patients. In HRMECs,
      cells transfected with shRNA or miR-200b/c mimics showed a significantly reduced
      VASH2 expression compared with negative control group by real time-polymerase
      chain reaction and western-blot analysis. Inhibition of VASH2 was demonstrated to
      suppress cell proliferation and migration from Day 2 to Day 4. The luciferase
      reporter gene assays confirmed the post-transcriptional regulation of VASH2 by
      miR-200b/c in HRMECs. SIGNIFICANCE: The present study suggests a protective
      effect of miR-200b/c on high glucose induced HRMECs dysfunction by inhibiting
      VASH2. It could be a potential therapeutic strategy to inhibit angiogenesis for
      the treatment of retinal vascular disease.

PMID- 28882647
TI  - Acute and chronic exposure to high levels of glucose modulates tight junction
      associated epithelial barrier function in a renal tubular cell line.
AB  - AIMS: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most prevalent diseases
      worldwide. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a complication of diabetes and the
      mechanisms underlying onset and progression of this disease are not fully
      understood. It has been shown that hyperglycemia is an independent factor to
      predict the development of DN in individuals with T2DM, however, a link between
      high plasma glucose levels and renal tubular injuries in DN remains unknown. In
      this study, we investigated the effect of high levels of glucose (i.e. 180 or
      360mg/dL) for up to 24h (acute) or over 72h (chronic) upon tight junction (TJ)
      mediated epithelial barrier integrity of the kidney tubular cell line, MDCK.
      METHODS/KEY FINDINGS: High levels of glucose (180 and 360mg/dL) induced a
      decrease in transepithelial electrical resistance associated with an increase in
      TJ cation selectivity at 24h or in TJ permeability to a paracellular marker,
      Lucifer Yellow, at 72h-exposure when compared to control group (exposed to
      100mg/dL glucose). Immunofluorescence analyses showed that glucose treatment
      induced a significant decrease in the tight junctional content of claudins-1 and 
      3 as well as a significant increase in claudin-2 (particularly at 24h-exposure)
      and a time-dependent change in occludin/ZO-1 junctional content. The analyses of
      total cell content of these junctional proteins by Western blot did not reveal
      significant changes, except in claudin-2 expression. SIGNIFICANCE: Our data
      suggest that high levels of glucose induce time-dependence changes in TJ
      structure in MDCK monolayers, suggesting a possible link between hyperglycemia
      induced tubular epithelial barrier disruption and diabetic nephropathy.

PMID- 28882648
TI  - MiR-598: A tumor suppressor with biomarker significance in osteosarcoma.
AB  - AIMS: Osteosarcoma is the most frequent primary malignant bone tumor in children
      and adolescents. Identifying specific and sensitive biomarkers is beneficial to
      early detection and improvement of life qualities and overall survival rates of
      osteosarcoma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Realtime PCR was used to detect the
      expression of miR-598. CCK-8 assay was employed to detect the proliferation of
      osteosarcoma cells, while transwell assays were used to examine the migration and
      invasion. Tumor xenograft experiments were performed to test the in vivo
      malignancy of osteosarcoma cells. Co-culture experiment was used to study the
      relationship between osteosarcoma cells and osteoblast. Realtime PCR, Western
      Blotting and luciferase report assays were conducted for the target genes
      analysis. KEY FINDINGS: Using a cohort of 20 cases of osteosarcoma and paired
      adjacent tissue samples, we found that miR-598 expression was decreased in
      osteosarcoma tissues and serum, as well as the osteosarcoma cell lines. Over
      expression of miR-598 suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of
      osteosarcoma cells, while inhibition of miR-598 expression stimulated the
      proliferation, migration, and invasion. However, MiR-598 had no effect on
      osteosarcoma cell apoptosis. Data from nude mice further demonstrated the
      inhibitory role of miR-598 in osteosarcoma progression in vivo. Mechanically, miR
      598 played its role by modulating osteoblastic differentiation in the
      microenvironment and targeting PDGFB and MET. SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings enrich
      the knowledge of miR-598 in osteosarcoma progression, and reveal miR-598 as a
      promising diagnostic, prognostic, therapeutic biomarker for osteosarcoma.

PMID- 28882649
TI  - Carpal tunnel syndrome due to a tophus: Low-field magnetic resonance image.

PMID- 28882650
TI  - Does Access to Green Space Impact the Mental Well-being of Children: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - PROBLEM: An increasing body of research is showing associations between green
      space and overall health. Children are spending more time indoors while pediatric
      mental and behavioral health problems are increasing. A systematic review of the
      literature was done to examine the association between access to green space and
      the mental well-being of children. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Articles were limited to
      English language, ages 0-18 years, and publish date 2012-2017. SAMPLE: The search
      yielded 341 articles in Ovid, 81 in Pub Med and 123 in Scopus. Articles that were
      not original research and that were not a pediatric population were excluded.
      Twelve articles fit the selection criteria. RESULTS: Twelve articles relating to
      green space and the mental well-being of children were reviewed. Three articles
      outside the date criteria were included as they are cited often in the literature
      as important early research on this topic. CONCLUSIONS: Access to green space was
      associated with improved mental well-being, overall health and cognitive
      development of children. It promotes attention restoration, memory, competence,
      supportive social groups, self-discipline, moderates stress, improves behaviors
      and symptoms of ADHD and was even associated with higher standardized test
      scores. IMPLICATIONS: Scientific evidence demonstrating the mental health
      benefits of access to nature for children can guide policy and urban planning,
      while nursing interventions and initiatives can enhance health by promoting
      outdoor play, educating patients and families, advocating for recess times and
      green environments at school as well as healing gardens in hospital settings.

PMID- 28882651
TI  - In cystic fibrosis, lung clearance index is sensitive to detecting abnormalities
      appearing at exercise in children with normal spirometry.
AB  - Symptom-limited incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test was performed in school
      age children with clinically stable cystic fibrosis (CF), all with normal
      spirometry. Physiological parameters were compared between patients with normal
      lung clearance index (LCI; n=6) and patients with elevated LCI (n=6). Dyspnoea
      ratings during exercise were similar in both groups. Although no patient had
      significant dynamic hyperinflation, end-expiratory lung volumes were higher
      throughout exercise in patients with elevated LCI. In addition, alveolar-arterial
      oxygen gradient at peak exercise was higher, and SpO2 was lower in patients with
      elevated LCI. LCI can thus be regarded as a test performed at rest that predicts
      some abnormalities appearing at exercise in CF children with normal spirometry.

PMID- 28882652
TI  - Measuring Olfactory Processes in Mus musculus.
AB  - This paper briefly reviews the literature that describes olfactory acuity and
      odour discrimination learning. The results of current studies that examined the
      role of the neurotransmitters noradrenalin and acetylcholine in odour
      discrimination learning are discussed as are those that investigated pattern
      recognition and models of human disease. The methodology associated with such
      work is also described and its role in creating disparate results assessed.
      Recommendations for increasing the reliability and validity of experiments so as
      to further our understanding of olfactory processes in both healthy mice and
      those modelling human disease are made throughout the paper.

PMID- 28882653
TI  - Behavioural responses of two-spotted spider mites induced by predator-borne and
      prey-borne cues.
AB  - Applying predatory mites as biological control agents is a well established
      method against spider mites which are major pests worldwide. Although
      antipredator responses can influence the outcome of predator-prey interactions,
      we have limited information about what cues spider mites use to adjust their
      behavioural antipredator responses. We experimentally exposed two-spotted spider
      mites (Tetranychus urticae) to different predator-borne cues (using a specialist
      predator, Phytoseiulus persimilis, or a generalist predator, Amblyseius
      swirskii), conspecific prey-borne cues, or both, and measured locomotion and egg
      laying activity. The reactions to predator species compared to each other
      manifested in reversed tendencies: spider mites increased their locomotion
      activity in the presence of P. persimilis, whereas they decreased it when exposed
      to A. swirskii. The strongest response was triggered by the presence of a killed
      conspecific: focal spider mites decreased their locomotion activity compared to
      the control group. Oviposition activity was not affected by either treatment. Our
      results point out that spider mites may change their behaviour in response to
      predators, and also to the presence of killed conspecifics, but these effects
      were not enhanced when both types of cues were present. The effect of social
      contacts among prey conspecifics on predator-induced behavioural defences is
      discussed.

PMID- 28882654
TI  - Larviculture of a carnivorous freshwater catfish, Lophiosilurus alexandri,
      screened by personality type.
AB  - Considering that each personality type in animals presents distinct physiological
      and behavioural responses, this study evaluated the efficiency of the Novel
      Environment test to classify larvae of Lophiosilurus alexandri into bold and shy
      individuals, which were then investigated for growth, cannibalism and mortality
      in larviculture of pure and mixed groups. Larvae with an average weight of 24.0+/
      1.7mg and length of 14.1+/-0.4mm, were subjected to a Novel Environment test to
      classify their personality type (bold and shy larvae). After the larvae were
      classified according to personality type, they were subjected to larviculture for
      15days. Three treatments were tested: only bold larvae, only shy larvae, and a
      mixed treatment (bold larvae+shy larvae) at a density for 16 larvae/L, which were
      fed 3 times a day with Artemia nauplii. After larviculture, there were no
      differences in the final lengths of larvae of the bold, shy, and mixed treatments
      (26.9+/-0.76mm, 26.7+/-1.00mm, and 26.8+/-1.24mm, respectively); however, shy
      larvae possessed weighed less (0.22+/-0.01g) than the bold and mixed treatments,
      which did not differ significantly (0.25+/-0.02g and 0.27+/-0.02g, respectively).
      The bold and mixed treatments had the highest cannibalism rate (11.2+/-5.1% and
      23.1+/-12.3%, respectively). Overall survival was lowest in the mixed treatment
      (62.5+/-13.0%), while that of the bold and shy treatments were similar (82.5+/
      9.2% and 86.2+/-9.2%, respectively). The separation of L. alexandri larvae by
      traits can ensure a decrease in cannibalism and hence, more productive
      larviculture.

PMID- 28882655
TI  - Brief psychological intervention in phase I of cardiac rehabilitation after acute
      coronary syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is an important cause of mortality
      and significant personal and financial costs. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR)
      programs have shown positive effects in reducing cardiovascular mortality and
      improving functional capacity. However, adherence is low and appears to be
      influenced by psychosocial factors, such as patients' cognitions and emotional
      state. The objective was to evaluate the efficacy of a brief in-hospital
      psychological intervention to promote cognitive and emotional adaptation after
      ACS. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-one patients with ACS, admitted to a
      coronary care unit in a central hospital, were randomized to an experimental
      group (EG, n=65) and a control group (CG, n=56). Portuguese versions of the HADS
      and BIPQ were used to measure emotional well-being and illness cognitions. Two 1
      h 15 min sessions were conducted 2-3 days after hospital admission, and a 20
      minute follow-up session took place one month after discharge. Patients were
      assessed at four different time points: pre-test, post-test, and at 1- and 2
      month follow-up. RESULTS: The intervention had significant effects on anxiety,
      depression and illness cognitions. Anxiety and depression were significantly
      reduced and illness cognitions improved significantly in the EG compared to the
      control group. For the EG, these changes were maintained or enhanced at 1- and 2
      month follow-up, whereas for the CG there was a deterioration in psychosocial
      adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that a brief psychological
      intervention program delivered during hospitalization for ACS and combined with
      standard medical care can have positive effects in terms of psychosocial outcomes
      that have proven impact on cardiac rehabilitation and prognosis.

PMID- 28882656
TI  - Fetal giant cardiac tumor.

PMID- 28882657
TI  - The diagnostic accuracy of DetermineTM TB LAM antigen in detection of extra
      pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB).

PMID- 28882658
TI  - Increased Risk for Unfavorable Outcome in Patients with Pre-Existing Disability
      Undergoing Endovascular Therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Most studies evaluating endovascular therapy (EVT) for stroke only
      included patients without pre-existing disabilities. However, in real life many
      patients have pre-existing disabilities, and whether they can benefit from EVT
      remains unknown. METHODS: Patients with emergent large vessel occlusions
      undergoing EVT were prospectively enrolled. Patients with no or mild pre-existing
      disabilities (modified Rankin Scale [mRS], 0-2) were compared with patients
      presenting with pre-existing moderate disability (mRS >= 3). Baseline
      demographics and risk factors, stroke severity (studied with the National
      Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS]), imaging data including pretreatment
      Alberta Stroke Program Early Computerized Tomography Score (ASPECTS) and ASPECTS
      collateral scores, as well as procedure-related variables were accrued.
      Unfavorable outcome was defined as mRS >= 4 at day 90. RESULTS: Of 131 enrolled
      patients, 108 had a baseline mRS of 2 or lower, and 23 had a prestroke mRS score
      of 3 or higher. Patients with pre-existing mRS scores of 3 or higher were
      significantly older (80.3 +/- 10 versus 66.9 +/- 13.7; P = .001) and more often
      had previous strokes (39% versus 16%; P = .02). Patients with mRS scores of 3 or
      higher were more likely to have poor outcomes or death (odds ratio [OR], 4.4; 95%
      confidence interval [CI], 1.3-15.0). Of the 23 patients with pre-existing
      moderate disability, 8 (35%) maintained their previous degree of disability. On
      multivariate analysis, age (OR, .92; 95% CI, .88-.97; P = .001), admission NIHSS
      (OR, .92; 95% CI, .85-.99; P = .042) and pretreatment ASPECTS (OR, 6.4; 95% CI,
      1.4-29.5; P = .017) remained significant modifiers of favorable outcome.
      DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Patients with pre-existing moderate disabilities have
      higher chances of sustaining unfavorable outcomes despite EVT. Nevertheless, some
      patients maintain the same level of moderate disabilities, and therefore,
      patients with pre-existing moderate disabilities should not be excluded from EVT.

PMID- 28882659
TI  - Review of Protocols Used in Ultrasound Thrombolysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This paper focuses on the review of protocols used in thrombolysis
      studies with ultrasound. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from peer-review articles
      were acquired. RESULTS: The protocols of several published reports are summarized
      in 3 tables (in vitro, in vivo, and clinical), providing detailed information
      concerning clot model, thrombolytic drug, treatment mode, sonication parameters,
      evaluation method, thrombolysis outcome, side effects, and conclusions.
      CONCLUSIONS: The aim of this review was to give an overview of the different
      protocols used so far in the field of sonothrombolysis and investigate the impact
      of several aspects involved on sonothrombolysis outcome.

PMID- 28882660
TI  - A Masked Marauder: Hepatitis C Neuropathy.

PMID- 28882661
TI  - IgG4 Isolated Retroperitoneal Fibrosis and Aneurysmal Periaortitis.

PMID- 28882662
TI  - The Hyperlipidemia Effect: Pseudohyponatremia in Pancreatic Cancer.

PMID- 28882663
TI  - Dangerous Waters? Chronic Arsenic Exposure.

PMID- 28882664
TI  - Spatial distribution of West Nile virus in humans and mosquitoes in Israel, 2000
      2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Israel has a long history of West Nile virus (WNV) morbidity, and the
      rate of detection of WNV in mosquitoes has been high since 2000. The aim of this
      study was to integrate several WNV datasets in order to gain an insight into the
      geographical distribution of WNV in Israel. METHODS: Three choropleth maps were
      generated showing WNV human morbidity, WNV prevalence in mosquitoes, and the
      results of a nationwide serological survey, based on the division of Israel into
      15 sub-districts. RESULTS: The maps show a high endemicity of WNV in Israel. In
      respect to the morbidity map, the population residing in the central part of the
      country and in Arava Region is at higher risk of developing the disease than the
      population of the rest of Israel. Interestingly, high prevalence rates of both
      WNV serology and WNV-infected mosquitoes were detected in Arava Region, but lower
      prevalence rates were detected in most areas of the coastal region, suggesting
      that other factors might also be important in the development of symptomatic WNV
      infections. CONCLUSIONS: These results underline the high prevalence of WNV in
      Israel and point to specific risk areas for WNV infections across the country.

PMID- 28882665
TI  - Human gastric hyperinfection by Anisakis simplex: A severe and unusual
      presentation and a brief review.
AB  - Anisakiasis is an emerging marine food-borne zoonosis resulting from the
      accidental ingestion of Anisakis larvae, through the consumption of raw or
      undercooked infected seafood products. The first case of human gastric
      hyperinfection by Anisakis simplex with an unusual and severe presentation,
      occurring in a Portuguese woman, is described in this article. Over 140 anisakid
      larvae were removed by gastroscopy. Massive infection is uncommon in areas where
      the consumption of raw fish is not part of the traditional diet, as is the case
      in Portugal. The increased consumption of raw seafood products is considered a
      health determinant in the rise in cases of anisakiasis. However, clinicians
      should be aware of the emergence of these infections, not only because of the new
      dietary habits of the population, but also because of the high prevalence of
      Anisakis larvae in the different fish species usually consumed by the population,
      collected on the Portuguese coast.

PMID- 28882666
TI  - Clinical features for 89 deaths of hand, foot and mouth disease in Guangxi,
      China, 2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to summarize the risk factors of severe
      Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and explore the clinical characteristics of
      pulmonary edema (PE) and non-PE in the deceased patients with HFMD. METHODS: We
      identified 89 HFMD deaths which were separated into the PE group or non-PE group.
      Next, patients were divided based on their initial admission to hospitals as
      stage 1, 2, 3, or 4; at this point, their clinical manifestations were compared.
      RESULTS: There were 87 cases in the PE group, and 2 cases in the non-PE group. In
      the PE group, the difference in median time for patients at different stages from
      onset to symptoms, showed no significant difference (p>0.05). The etiology was
      detected as a positive rate for enterovirus 71 (EV71) of 89.19%, which showed a
      more severe course than other etiologies. The white blood cell (WBC) counts,
      lymphocyte (LYM) counts and creatine kinase MB (CK-MB) counts of patients
      admitted in different stages increased significantly with severity (p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: There may be two clinical subtypes, mostly PE and rarely non-PE, in
      the deceased patients with HMFD. EV71 and risk factors such as an increased WBC
      count are associated with a severe course of HMFD.

PMID- 28882667
TI  - Clinical evaluation of early acquisition of Staphylococcus aureus carriage by
      newborns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about neonatal Staphylococcus aureus carriage. Sites
      and clinical outcomes of S. aureus colonization during the first month of life
      were evaluated in this study. METHODS: A cohort of 279 infants born at term to
      277 mothers was included. Maternal S. aureus colonization status was examined
      before labor. Newborns were screened for nasal, auricular, umbilical, and rectal
      colonization, one to three times within 100h after birth, and infants of carrier
      mothers were re-screened at 1 month. Medical data were recorded from the medical
      charts at discharge and at the 1-month follow-up interview. RESULTS: Overall 43
      out of 279 (15.4%) infants acquired S. aureus within the first days of life. The
      only two predictors of S. aureus carriage in the postnatal period were maternal
      S. aureus carriage (odds ratio 7.905, 95% confidence interval 3.182-19.638) and
      maternal antibiotic treatment during labor (odds ratio 0.121, 95% confidence
      interval 0.016-0.949). Among colonized children, the nose (56%) and rectum (40%)
      were more frequently colonized, while ear (26%) and umbilicus (16%) colonization
      were less common. Co-colonization at two sites was rare (4%), but always
      predicted carriage at 1 month of age. Maternal and neonatal characteristics,
      including neonatal outcomes, were similar between S. aureus carrier and non
      carrier infants during the first month of life. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal carriage is
      the major predictor of neonatal S. aureus carriage. The nose and rectum are the
      main sites of neonatal carriage. S. aureus carriage was not associated with
      neonatal complications throughout the first month of life. The long-term
      significance of early S. aureus carriage is yet to be determined.

PMID- 28882668
TI  - Performance evaluation of the Cobas TaqMan MTB assay on respiratory specimens
      according to clinical application.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of the Cobas TaqMan MTB assay (Cobas
      assay) with respect to its clinical application. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective analysis of 1154 results from 1034 patients for whom mycobacterial
      cultures and the Cobas assay were performed simultaneously. Based on the patient
      medical records, two categories of clinical application were defined: (1) the
      diagnosis of patients with a high probability of pulmonary tuberculosis according
      to clinical and radiological features (n=128), and (2) the exclusion of
      tuberculosis in clinically indeterminate patients (n=1026). Standard culture was
      used as the reference method. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the Cobas assay for the
      detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was 70.4% (95% confidence interval (CI)
      49.7-85.5%) for category 1, but only 25.0% (95% CI 4.5-64.4%) for category 2. The
      specificity was >=95.0% for both categories. The positive predictive value was
      79.2% (95% CI 57.3-92.1%) for category 1 and 33.3% (95% CI 6.0-75.9%) for
      category 2, while the negative predictive value was 92.3% (95% CI 85.0-96.4%) for
      category 1 and 99.4% (95% CI 98.7-99.8%) for category 2. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      of this study indicate that Cobas assay results must be interpreted carefully
      according to the clinical purpose of the assay.

PMID- 28882669
TI  - Real-time visualization of distinct nitric oxide generation of nitric oxide
      synthase isoforms in single cells.
AB  - The members of the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) family, eNOS, nNOS and iNOS, are
      well-characterized enzymes. However, due to the lack of suitable direct NO
      sensors, little is known about the kinetic properties of cellular NO generation
      by the different nitric oxide synthase isoenzymes. Very recently, we developed a
      novel class of fluorescent protein-based NO-probes, the geNOps, which allow real
      time measurement of cellular NO generation and fluctuation. By applying these
      genetic NO biosensors to nNOS-, eNOS- and iNOS-expressing HEK293 cells we were
      able to characterize the respective NO dynamics in single cells that exhibited
      identical Ca2+ signaling as comparable activator of nNOS and eNOS. Our data
      demonstrate that upon Ca2+ mobilization nNOS-derived NO signals occur instantly
      and strictly follow the Ca2+ elevation while NO release by eNOS occurs gradually
      and sustained. To detect high NO levels in cells expressing iNOS, a new
      ratiometric probe based on two fluorescent proteins was developed. This novel
      geNOp variant allows the measurement of the high NO levels in cells expressing
      iNOS. Moreover, we used this probe to study the L-arginine-dependency of NO
      generation by iNOS on the level of single cells. Our experiments highlight that
      the geNOps technology is suitable to detect obvious differences in the kinetics,
      amplitude and substrate-dependence of cellular NO signals-derived from all three
      nitric oxide synthase isoforms.

PMID- 28882671
TI  - Five new chromone glycosides from Scindapsus officinalis (Roxb.) Schott.
AB  - Five new chromone glycosides, officinalisides A (1), B (2), C (3), D (4) and E
      (5) were isolated from Scindapsus officinalis (Roxb.) Schott., along with six
      known chromone derivatives, 7-O-alpha-l-rhamnosyl-nereugenin (6), undulatoside A
      (7), drynachromoside A (8), drynachromoside B (9), 5,7-dihydroxy-2-methyl
      chromone(10), 5,7-dihydroxy-2-hydroxymethyl chromone (11). Structural elucidation
      of the isolated compounds was established by spectroscopic analysis, especially
      2D NMR techniques and comparison with literatures. The isolates were evaluated
      for anti-inflammatory activities in a LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 model using
      inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production as an indicator. Compounds 2, 4 and 10
      demonstrated potential anti-inflammatory activity with IC50 values of 16.1, 19.1,
      and 13.4MUM, respectively, compared to the positive control dexamethasone.

PMID- 28882670
TI  - Bi- and bisbibenzyls from the roots of Dichapetalum heudelotii and their
      antiproliferative activities.
AB  - Two new bisbibenzyls, heudelotol A (1) and B (2), along with the known bibenzyls,
      (E)-combretastatin A-1 (3) and combretastatin B-1 (4) have been isolated from the
      ethyl acetate extract of the roots of Dichapetalum heudelotii. Structure
      elucidation of all four isolated compounds was achieved using UV, IR, 1D and 2D
      NMR spectroscopy and HR-Mass Spectrometry. The compounds exhibited varying
      antiproliferative activity against six cancer cell lines using the CellTiter
      Glo(r) Luminiscent Cell Viability Assay. Compound 3 was found to be the most
      active with sub-micromolar growth inhibition concentrations against all the cell
      lines (GI50 0.03-0.72MUM). However, it was about ten-fold less active than the
      positive control, taxol. The new bisbibenzyls heudelotol A and B exhibited good
      activity against human pancreatic adenocarcinoma (GI50 9.04MUM) and Burkitt's
      lymphoma (GI50 4.67MUM) respectively, and average activity against the other
      cancer cell lines.

PMID- 28882672
TI  - Contemporary survival trends in penile cancer: Results from the National Cancer
      Database.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate contemporary survival trends in penile cancer. METHODS:
      The National Cancer Database was queried for men with penile cancer diagnosed
      between 1998 and 2009. Patient, tumor, treatment, and facility characteristics
      were obtained. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method
      and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model for all cases and
      stratified by stage. RESULTS: A total of 8,122 cases of penile cancer were
      reported from 1998 to 2009 in the National Cancer Database. Complete staging,
      survival, and covariate data were available for 5,043 cases. The estimated crude
      5-year OS for the entire cohort was 61.0%. For all patients, no significant
      differences in crude 5-year OS were detected between 2006 to 2009 and 2002 to
      2005 compared to 1998 to 2001. On multivariable analysis, OS did not
      significantly differ across all eras. Regional lymph node dissection was
      associated with improved OS (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.777, P <= 0.0001). In patients
      who underwent lymph node dissection, dissection of >=8 nodes significantly
      improved survival (HR = 0.672; P = 0.0011). Additional modeling stratified by
      stage revealed that OS for stage II cancers increased significantly in 2006 to
      2009 compared to 1998 to 2001 (HR = 0.714; P = 0.0034). CONCLUSIONS: Survival in
      penile cancer has remained unchanged as a whole and for each stage, except for
      stage II disease. An improved survival trend was detected in stage II penile
      cancer. Performing a lymph node dissection, especially extensive dissections, may
      benefit long-term survival.

PMID- 28882674
TI  - Liposome accumulation in irradiated tumors display important tumor and dose
      dependent differences.
AB  - Radiation therapy may affect several important parameters in the tumor
      microenvironment and thereby influence the accumulation of liposomes by the
      enhanced permeability and retention (EPR)-effect. Here we investigate the effect
      of single dose radiation therapy on liposome tumor accumulation by PET/CT imaging
      using radiolabeled liposomes. Head and neck cancer xenografts (FaDu) and syngenic
      colorectal (CT26) cancer models were investigated. Radiotherapy displayed
      opposite effects in the two models. FaDu tumors displayed increased mean
      accumulation of liposomes for radiation doses up to 10 Gy, whereas CT26 tumors
      displayed a tendency for decreased accumulation. Tumor hypoxia was found
      negatively correlated to microregional distribution of liposomes. However,
      liposome distribution in relation to hypoxia was improved at lower radiation
      doses. The study reveals that the heterogeneity in liposome tumor accumulation
      between tumors and different radiation protocols are important factors that need
      to be taken into consideration to achieve optimal effect of liposome based radio
      sensitizer therapy.

PMID- 28882675
TI  - Gold nanoparticles: Distribution, bioaccumulation and toxicity. In vitro and in
      vivo studies.
AB  - Concerns about the bioaccumulation and toxicity of gold nanoparticles inside
      humans have recently risen. HT-29 and HepG2 cell lines and Wistar rats were
      exposed to 10, 30 or 60 nm gold nanoparticles to determine their tissue
      distribution, subcellular location and deleterious effects. Cell viability, ROS
      production and DNA damage were evaluated in vitro. Lipid peroxidation and protein
      carbonylation were determined in liver. ICP-MS measurements showed the presence
      of gold in intestine, kidney, liver, spleen, feces and urine. Subcellular
      locations of gold nanoparticles were observed in colon cells and liver samples by
      transmission electron microscopy. Inflammatory markers in liver and biochemical
      parameters in plasma were measured to assess the inflammatory status and presence
      of tissue damage. The size of the nanoparticles determined differences in the
      biodistribution and the excretion route. The smallest nanoparticles showed more
      deleterious effects, confirmed by their location inside the cell nucleus and the
      higher DNA damage.

PMID- 28882673
TI  - Predictive factors for local recurrence after glansectomy and neoglans
      reconstruction for penile squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate predictive pathological factors for local recurrence
      (LR) after glansectomy for penile squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and to develop a
      risk score for prediction of LR after glansectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this
      retrospective study, we analyzed 117 patients operated between February 2005 and
      January 2016 in a supraregional penile cancer center in the UK for LR after
      glansectomy and glans reconstruction. Univariate and multivariate Cox
      proportional hazards regression was used to identify 4 prognostic indicators for
      LR. The hazard ratio (HR) of LR was estimated in Kaplan-Meier analysis, and based
      on these data, we designed a postoperative model for prediction of LR based on 3
      risk groups. RESULTS: Median follow-up period was 33.7 (95% CI: 26.8-40.3)
      months; 12.8% of the patients experienced LR. Univariate Cox proportional hazards
      regression revealed that the risk factors for recurrence were the presence of
      perineural invasion, carcinoma in situ, positive margin on definitive pathology,
      and high-grade disease. Based on Kaplan-Meier analysis stratified by number of
      factors present, we defined 3 risk groups for LR: low (0,1 risk factors) as
      reference, intermediate (2,3 risk factors) with HR of 13.9 (95% CI: 1.81-107.04,
      P = 0.0115), or high risk (all 4 risk factors present) with a HR of 34.2 (95% CI:
      3.07-381.81, P = 0,0041). Limitations include the retrospective design and low
      number of events inherent to the rare nature of penile SCC. CONCLUSIONS:
      Perineural invasion, carcinoma in situ, positive definitive margins, and the
      presence of high-grade SCC predict LR following glansectomy. These factors can be
      used to stratify patients into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups for
      recurrence which may be used to tailor follow-up.

PMID- 28882676
TI  - Malonylome analysis in developing rice (Oryza sativa) seeds suggesting that
      protein lysine malonylation is well-conserved and overlaps with acetylation and
      succinylation substantially.
AB  - : In recent years, lysine malonylation has garnered wide spread interest due to
      its potential regulatory roles. While studies have been performed in bacteria,
      mouse, and human, the involvement and the biological function of this
      modification in plant are still largely unknown. We examined the global proteome
      profile of lysine malonylation in developing rice seeds using affinity enrichment
      followed by LC-MS/MS analysis. We identified 421 malonylated lysine sites across
      247 proteins. Functional analyses showed predominant presence of malonylated
      proteins in metabolic processes, including carbon metabolism,
      glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, TCA cycle, as well as photosynthesis. Malonylation
      was also detected on enzymes in starch biosynthesis pathway in developing rice
      seeds. In addition, we found a remarkable overlap among the malonylated,
      succinylated and acetylated sites identified in rice. Furthermore, malonylation
      at conserved sites of homologous proteins was observed across organisms of
      different kingdoms, including mouse, human, and bacteria. Finally, distinct
      motifs were identified when the rice malonylation sites were analyzed and
      conserved motifs were observed from bacterium to human and rice. Our results
      provide an initial understanding of the lysine malonylome in plants. The study
      has critical reference value for future understanding of the biological function
      of protein lysine malonylation in plants. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Lysine
      malonylation is a newly discovered acylation with functional potential in
      regulating cellular metabolisms and activities. However, the malonylation status
      has not been reported in plants. Grain yield and quality, mainly determined
      during cereal seed development, are closely related to food security, human
      health and economic value. To evaluate malonylation level in plants and the
      possible regulatory functions of malonylation in seed development, we conducted
      comprehensive analyses of malonylome in developing rice seeds. A total of 421
      malonylated lysine sites from 247 proteins were identified, which involved in
      multiple critical metabolic processes, including central carbon metabolism, lipid
      metabolism, photosynthesis, and starch biosynthesis. We found that charged amino
      acids, lysine and arginine, were the preferred residues in positions flanking the
      modified lysines. Highly conserved modification sites on both histone and non
      histone proteins were observed among different organisms through sequence
      alignment analysis. More interestingly, a large number of modification sites
      shared by malonylation, acetylation and succinylation were identified in rice.
      The study presents a comprehensive understanding of malonylome in plants, which
      will serve as an initial platform for further investigation of the functions of
      lysine malonylation, especially in cereal seeds development.

PMID- 28882677
TI  - Protein biomarkers for early detection of diseases: The decisive contribution of
      combinatorial peptide ligand libraries.
AB  - : The present review deals with biomarker discovery, especially in regard to
      sample treatment via combinatorial peptide ligand libraries, perhaps the only
      technique at present allowing deep exploration of biological fluids and tissue
      extracts in search for low- to very-low-abundance proteins, which could possibly
      mark the onset of most pathologies. Early-stage biomarkers, in fact, might be the
      only way to detect the beginning of most diseases thus permitting proper
      intervention and care. The following cancers are reviewed, with lists of
      potential biomarkers suggested in various reports: hepatocellular carcinoma,
      ovarian cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer, together with some other
      interesting applications. Although panels of proteins have been presented, with
      robust evidence, as potential early-stage biomarkers in these different
      pathologies, their approval by FDA as novel biomarkers in routine clinical
      chemistry settings would require plenty of additional work and efforts from the
      pharma industry. The science environment in universities could simply not afford
      such heavy monetary investments. SIGNIFICANCE: After more than 16years of search
      for novel biomarkers, to be used in a clinical chemistry set-up, via proteomic
      analysis (mostly in biological fluids) it was felt a critical review was due. In
      the present report, though, only papers reporting biomarker discovery via
      combinatorial peptide ligand libraries are listed and assessed, since this
      methodology seems to be the most advanced one for digging in depth into low-to
      very-low-abundance proteins, which might represent important biomarkers for the
      onset of pathologies. In particular, a large survey has been made for the
      following diseases, since they appear to have a large incidence on human
      population and/or represent fatal diseases: ovarian cancer, breast cancer,
      pancreatic cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28882679
TI  - Measuring oral contraceptive adherence using self-report versus pharmacy claims
      data.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) is a measure of medication adherence
      that uses prescription claims data to describe the proportion of days that the
      patient possessed medication. The objective of this study is to compare PDC and
      self-report as measures of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) adherence and to
      identify individual-level predictors of adherence. STUDY DESIGN: In a sample of
      384 OCP users, self-report was compared with PDC as measures of adherence over
      the past 3 months. Patient-level variables were examined for associations with
      adherence using multivariable logistic regression models. RESULTS: High
      adherence, defined as missing <=1 pill per month, was 76%, 68% and 54% as
      measured by self-report, PDC and both measures, respectively. Younger women (ages
      18-25 and 26-33 years) were significantly less likely to have high adherence on
      both measures than women in the 34-40 age group [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.20,
      95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08-0.51 and adjusted OR 0.26, 95% CI 0.11-0.62,
      respectively). Other predictors of high adherence on both self-report and PDC
      measures included being in a relationship (adjusted OR 2.30, 95% CI 1.14-4.64,
      compared with unpartnered women), Protestant religion (adjusted OR 2.08, 95% CI
      1.07-4.06, compared with women with no religious affiliation) and higher
      contraceptive self-efficacy (adjusted OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.03-2.58). CONCLUSION: PDC
      derived from pharmacy claims, or a combination of PDC and self-report measures,
      may be an alternative to self-report alone for measuring OCP adherence.
      IMPLICATIONS: PDC may be a potential tool for measuring women's adherence to OCPs
      and should be validated in future studies.

PMID- 28882678
TI  - RNA interference-mediated knockdown of SIRT1 and/or SIRT2 in melanoma:
      Identification of downstream targets by large-scale proteomics analysis.
AB  - : Melanoma is the most notorious and fatal of all skin cancers and the existing
      treatment options have not been proven to effectively manage this neoplasm,
      especially the metastatic disease. Sirtuin (SIRT) proteins have been shown to be
      differentially expressed in melanoma. We have shown that SIRTs 1 and 2 were
      overexpressed in melanoma and inhibition of SIRT1 imparts anti-proliferative
      responses in human melanoma cells. To elucidate the impact of SIRT 1 and/or 2 in
      melanoma, we created stable knockdowns of SIRTs 1, 2, and their combination using
      shRNA mediated RNA interference in A375 human melanoma cells. We found that SIRT1
      and SIRT1&2 combination knockdown caused a decreased cellular proliferation in
      melanoma cells. Further, the knockdown of SIRT 1 and/or 2 resulted in a decreased
      colony formation in melanoma cells. To explore the downstream targets of SIRTs 1
      and/or 2, we employed a label-free quantitative nano-LC-MS/MS proteomics analysis
      using the stable lines. We found aberrant levels of proteins involved in many
      vital cellular processes, including cytoskeletal organization, ribosomal
      activity, oxidative stress response, and angiogenesis. These findings provide
      clear evidence of cellular systems undergoing alterations in response to sirtuin
      inhibition, and have unveiled several excellent candidates for future study.
      SIGNIFICANCE: Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, due to its
      aggressive nature, metastatic potential, and a lack of sufficient treatment
      options for advanced disease. Therefore, detailed investigations into the
      molecular mechanisms of melanoma growth and progression are needed. In the search
      for candidate genes to serve as therapeutic targets, the sirtuins show promise as
      they have been found to be upregulated in melanoma and they regulate a large
      number of proteins involved in cellular processes known to affect tumor growth,
      such as DNA damage repair, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis. In this study, we
      used a large-scale label-free comparative proteomics system to identify novel
      protein targets that are affected following knockdown of SIRT1 and/or 2 in A375
      metastatic melanoma cell line. Our study offers important insight into the
      potential downstream targets of SIRTs 1 and/or 2. This may unravel new potential
      areas of exploration in melanoma research.

PMID- 28882680
TI  - Perfect-use and typical-use Pearl Index of a contraceptive mobile app.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Natural Cycles application is a fertility awareness-based
      contraceptive method that uses dates of menstruation and basal body temperature
      to inform couples whether protected intercourse is needed to prevent pregnancies.
      Our purpose with this study is to investigate the contraceptive efficacy of the
      mobile application by evaluating the perfect- and typical-use Pearl Index. STUDY
      DESIGN: In this prospective observational study, 22,785 users of the application
      logged a total of 18,548 woman-years of data into the application. We used these
      data to calculate typical- and perfect-use Pearl Indexes, as well as 13-cycle
      pregnancy rates using life-table analysis. RESULTS: We found a typical-use Pearl
      Index of 6.9 pregnancies per 100 woman-years [95% confidence interval (CI): 6.5
      7.2], corrected to 6.8 (95% CI: 6.4-7.2) when truncating users after 12months. We
      estimated a 13-cycle typical-use failure rate of 8.3% (95% CI: 7.8-8.9). We found
      that the perfect-use Pearl Index was 1.0 pregnancy per 100 woman-years (95% CI:
      0.5-1.5). Finally, we estimated that the rate of pregnancies from cycles where
      the application erroneously flagged a fertile day as infertile was 0.5 (95% CI:
      0.4-0.7) per 100 woman-years. We estimated a discontinuation rate over 12months
      of 54%. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the efficacy of a contraceptive mobile
      application is higher than usually reported for traditional fertility awareness
      based methods. The application may contribute to reducing the unmet need for
      contraception. IMPLICATIONS: The measured typical- and perfect-use efficacies of
      the mobile application Natural Cycles are important parameters for women
      considering their contraceptive options as well as for the clinicians advising
      them. The large available data set in this paper allows for future studies on
      acceptability, for example, by studying the efficacy for different cohorts and
      geographic regions.

PMID- 28882681
TI  - Provider communication with adolescent and young females during sexual and
      reproductive health visits: findings from the 2011-2015 National Survey of Family
      Growth.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study assesses provider communication with adolescent and young
      women about birth control, emergency contraception and condoms during sexual and
      reproductive health visits. STUDY DESIGN: Using data from sexually active 15-24
      year-old women in the 2011-2015 National Survey of Family Growth, we examined
      provider communication about contraception and condoms at sexual and reproductive
      health services in the past year and assessed differences by demographics, sexual
      behavior and source of care. RESULTS: Approximately two thirds of women received
      provider communication about condoms (65.0%) and birth control (64.0%-66.8%).
      Communication was higher among Title-X-funded clinic vs. private providers.
      Differences by age, race/ethnicity, mother's education, number of partners and
      condom use were also found. CONCLUSION: Most sexually active young women
      attending sexual and reproductive health visits received provider communication
      about condoms and birth control, but communication is not universal and varies by
      source of care, demographics and sexual behavior.

PMID- 28882682
TI  - Management of the Pressure Injury Patient with Osteomyelitis: An Algorithm.

PMID- 28882683
TI  - Structured Operative Autonomy: An Institutional Approach to Enhancing Surgical
      Resident Education Without Impacting Patient Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although barriers to granting surgical residents autonomy in the
      operating room are well described, few have proposed practical strategies to
      overcome these barriers. Our department adopted a multidisciplinary approach to
      develop a rotation that aimed to grant chief residents structured operative
      autonomy. In this study, we assess the feasibility of implementation, impact on
      patient safety, and educational benefit to residents after the program's pilot
      year. STUDY DESIGN: During a 1-month rotation, chief residents began cases alone
      using their own operative block time. The attending surgeon was notified when the
      critical portion of the operation was reached and supervised its completion.
      Postoperative complications, intraoperative adverse events, readmissions,
      operation duration, and length of stay in a subset of patients that underwent a
      cholecystectomy or appendectomy were compared with patients operated on by
      standard resident services. Follow-up surveys were administered to residents 1
      year after graduation. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-four operations, which
      ranged in complexity, were performed by chief residents. Unadjusted subset
      analysis comparing the structured operative autonomy (n = 54) and standard
      resident (n = 718) services outcomes for appendectomies and cholecystectomies
      revealed no significant differences in 30-day postoperative complications (5.6%
      vs 4.0%; p = 0.59), major intraoperative adverse events, or readmissions (3.7% vs
      3.8%; p = 1.00), respectively. Multivariate analysis performed for 30-day
      complications (odds ratio 0.8; 95% CI 0.2 to 3.2; p = 0.76) and readmissions
      (odds ratio 0.4; 95% CI 0.1 to 2.1; p = 0.3) corroborated unadjusted findings.
      All participants (n = 8) strongly agreed that the rotation eased their transition
      to fellowship or independent practice. CONCLUSIONS: Structured operative autonomy
      overcomes known barriers to granting chief residents autonomy in the operating
      room. When used for select general surgery cases, resident education is enhanced
      without impacting patient outcomes. This training model has the potential to
      improve the surgical independence of graduating residents.

PMID- 28882684
TI  - Concerns of Quality and Safety in Public Domain Surgical Education Videos: An
      Assessment of the Critical View of Safety in Frequently Used Laparoscopic
      Cholecystectomy Videos.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Online videos are among the most common resources for case
      preparation. Using crowd sourcing, we evaluated the relationship between
      operative quality and viewing characteristics of online laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy videos. STUDY DESIGN: We edited 160 online videos of laparoscopic
      cholecystectomy to 60 seconds or less. Crowd workers (CW) rated videos using
      Global Objective Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills (GOALS), the critical view of
      safety (CVS) criteria, and assigned overall pass/fail ratings if CVS was
      achieved; linear mixed effects models derived average ratings. Views, likes,
      dislikes, subscribers, and country were recorded for subset analysis of YouTube
      videos. Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC) assessed correlation between
      performance measures. RESULTS: One video (0.06%) achieved a passing CVS score of
      >=5; 23%, >=4; 44%, >=3; 79%, >=2; and 100% >=1. Pass/fail ratings correlated to
      CVS, SCC 0.95 (p < 0.001) and to GOALS, SCC 0.79 (p < 0.001). YouTube videos (n =
      139) with higher views, likes, or subscribers did not correlate with better
      quality. The average CVS and GOALS scores were no different for videos with
      >20,000 views (22%) compared with those with <20,000 (78%). CONCLUSIONS: There is
      an incredibly low frequency of CVS and average GOALS technical performance in
      frequently used online surgical videos of LC. Favorable characteristics, such as
      number of views or likes, do not translate to higher quality.

PMID- 28882685
TI  - Hemoencephalography self-regulation training and its impact on cognition: A study
      with schizophrenia and healthy participants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairments in schizophrenia are strongly correlated to
      functional outcome and recovery rates, with no pharmacological agent approved for
      its treatment. Neurofeedback has emerged as a non-pharmacological approach to
      enhance neuroplasticity, which consists in inducing voluntary control of brain
      responses through operant conditioning. METHOD: The effects of
      hemoencephalography neurofeedback (HEG-NFBK) in 4 brain sites (F7, Fp1, Fp2 and
      F8) was studied in 8 patients with schizophrenia (SCH, mean age 36.5+/-9.98) and
      12 health controls (mean age 32.17+/-5.6). We analyzed groups' performance (10
      sessions) and cognitive differences in 3 time points (baseline, after training
      and follow-up) with generalized estimated equations. For SCH we also evaluate the
      impact on psychopathology. RESULTS: We found a group*time interaction for HEG
      NFBK performance in the left hemisphere sites (F7 an Fp1) and a near-to
      significant in the right frontotemporal region (F8), with no group differences
      and a significant time effect. Most of cognitive domains improved after
      intervention, including information processing speed, attention processing,
      working memory, executive functioning, verbal and visual learning. No group*time
      interaction was found. Results suggest that both groups benefit from HEG-NFBK
      training regardless of cognitive differences at baseline. No significant time
      effects were found for Calgary and PANSS total scale and subscales (positive,
      negative neither general). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first
      controlled trial showing effects of NFBK on cognitive performance improvement in
      schizophrenia. Further research investigating the effects of HEG-NFBK training in
      schizophrenia should be performed.

PMID- 28882686
TI  - Effects of peer social interaction on performance during computerized cognitive
      remediation therapy in patients with early course schizophrenia: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies show that computer-based training enhances cognition
      in schizophrenia; furthermore, socialization has also been found to improve
      cognitive functions. It is generally believed that non-social cognitive
      remediation using computer exercises would be a pre-requisite for therapeutic
      benefits from social cognitive training. However, it is also possible that social
      interaction by itself enhances non-social cognitive functions; this possibility
      has scarcely been explored in schizophrenia patients. This pilot study examined
      the effects of computer-based neurocognitive training, along with social
      interaction either with a peer (PSI) or without one (N-PSI). We hypothesized that
      PSI will enhance cognitive performance during computerized exercises in
      schizophrenia, as compared with N-PSI. METHODS: Sixteen adult participants
      diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder participating in an
      ongoing trial of Cognitive Enhancement Therapy completed several computerized
      neurocognitive remediation training sessions (the Orientation Remedial Module(c),
      or ORM), either with a peer or without a peer. RESULTS: We observed a significant
      interaction between the effect of PSI and performance on the different cognitive
      exercises (p<0.05). More precisely, when patients performed the session with PSI,
      they demonstrated better cognitive performances than with N-PSI in the ORM
      exercise that provides training in processing speed, alertness, and reaction time
      (the standard Attention Reaction Conditioner, or ARC) (p<0.01, corrected). PSI
      did not significantly affect other cognitive domains such as target detection and
      spatial attention. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that PSI could improve
      cognitive performance, such as processing speed, during computerized cognitive
      training in schizophrenia. Additional studies investigating the effect of PSI
      during cognitive remediation are needed to further evaluate this hypothesis.

PMID- 28882687
TI  - Sodium valproate and clozapine induced neutropenia: A case control study using
      register data.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of clozapine is limited due to the occurrence of neutropenia,
      and the rare but life threatening adverse event of agranulocytosis. There is
      little epidemiological research into clinical factors that may impact on this
      risk. We conducted a case control study examining the clinical risk factors for
      neutropenia patients treated with clozapine. METHOD: A case-control study was
      conducted within a database of anonymised electronic clinical records. All
      patients who discontinued clozapine due to a neutropenic event were included as
      cases. Matched controls were selected from patients with a documented clozapine
      exposure at the time of the clozapine neutropenic event of the case patient,
      matched by duration of clozapine treatment. RESULTS: 136 cases and 136 controls
      were included. In multivariable analysis, the concurrent use of sodium valproate
      was associated with neutropenia (Odds Raito (OR) 2.28, 95%CI: 1.27-4.11,
      p=0.006). There was a dose-response effect, with greater associations for higher
      doses. Patients who discontinued clozapine due to neutropenia were more likely to
      be of black ethnicity (OR 2.99, p<0.001), were younger (t=5.86, df=267, p<0.001),
      and received lower doses of clozapine (t=-2.587, p=0.01) than those who did not
      develop neutropenia. CONCLUSION: We identified an association between the
      concurrent use of sodium valproate and an increased risk of clozapine associated
      neutropenia. These results, taken in combination with the results from previous
      case series, suggest that the risk of clozapine associated neutropenia could be
      reduced by avoiding concurrent valproate treatment.

PMID- 28882688
TI  - Short Sleep Duration Is Associated With Abnormal Serum Aminotransferase
      Activities and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

PMID- 28882689
TI  - Timing of Endoscopy in Acute Nonvariceal Gastrointestinal Bleeding: Still Looking
      for the Answer.

PMID- 28882690
TI  - Toxicogenomic and bioinformatics platforms to identify key molecular mechanisms
      of a curcumin-analogue DM-1 toxicity in melanoma cells.
AB  - Melanoma is a highly invasive and metastatic cancer with high mortality rates and
      chemoresistance. Around 50% of melanomas are driven by activating mutations in
      BRAF that has led to the development of potent anti-BRAF inhibitors. However
      resistance to anti-BRAF therapy usually develops within a few months and
      consequently there is a need to identify alternative therapies that will bypass
      BRAF inhibitor resistance. The curcumin analogue DM-1 (sodium 4-[5-(4-hydroxy-3
      methoxy-phenyl)-3-oxo-penta-1,4-dienyl]-2-methoxy-phenolate) has substantial anti
      tumor activity in melanoma, but its mechanism of action remains unclear. Here we
      use a synthetic lethal genetic screen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to identify 211
      genes implicated in sensitivity to DM-1 toxicity. From these 211 genes, 74 had
      close human orthologues implicated in oxidative phosphorylation, insulin
      signaling and iron and RNA metabolism. Further analysis identified 7 target genes
      (ADK, ATP6V0B, PEMT, TOP1, ZFP36, ZFP36L1, ZFP36L2) with differential expression
      during melanoma progression implicated in regulation of tumor progression, cell
      differentiation, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Of these TOP1 and ADK
      were regulated by DM-1 in treatment-naive and vemurafenib-resistant melanoma
      cells respectively. These data reveal that the anticancer effect of curcumin
      analogues is likely to be mediated via multiple targets and identify several
      genes that represent candidates for combinatorial targeting in melanoma.

PMID- 28882691
TI  - Is that disgust I see? Political ideology and biased visual attention.
AB  - Considerable evidence suggests that political liberals and conservatives vary in
      the way they process and respond to valenced (i.e., negative versus positive)
      information, with conservatives generally displaying greater negativity biases
      than liberals. Less is known about whether liberals and conservatives
      differentially prioritize certain forms of negative information over others.
      Across two studies using eye-tracking methodology, we examined differences in
      visual attention to negative scenes and facial expressions based on self-reported
      political ideology. In Study 1, scenes rated high in fear, disgust, sadness, and
      neutrality were presented simultaneously. Greater endorsement of socially
      conservative political attitudes was associated with less attentional engagement
      (i.e., lower dwell time) of disgust scenes and more attentional engagement toward
      neutral scenes. Socially conservative political attitudes were not significantly
      associated with visual attention to fear or sad scenes. In Study 2, images
      depicting facial expressions of fear, disgust, sadness, and neutrality were
      presented simultaneously. Greater endorsement of socially conservative political
      attitudes was associated with greater attentional engagement with facial
      expressions depicting disgust and less attentional engagement toward neutral
      faces. Visual attention to fearful or sad faces was not related to social
      conservatism. Endorsement of economically conservative political attitudes was
      not consistently associated with biases in visual attention across both studies.
      These findings support disease-avoidance models and suggest that social
      conservatism may be rooted within a greater sensitivity to disgust-related
      information.

PMID- 28882692
TI  - Hippocampal theta phase-contingent memory retrieval in delay and trace eyeblink
      conditioning.
AB  - Hippocampal theta oscillations (3-12Hz) play a prominent role in learning. It has
      been suggested that encoding and retrieval of memories are supported by different
      phases of the theta cycle. Our previous study on trace eyeblink conditioning in
      rabbits suggests that the timing of the conditioned stimulus (CS) in relation to
      theta phase affects encoding but not retrieval of the memory trace. Here, we
      directly tested the effects of hippocampal theta phase on memory retrieval in two
      experiments conducted on adult female New Zealand White rabbits. In Experiment 1,
      animals were trained in trace eyeblink conditioning followed by extinction, and
      memory retrieval was tested by presenting the CS at troughs and peaks of the
      theta cycle during different stages of learning. In Experiment 2, animals were
      trained in delay conditioning either contingent on a high level of theta or at a
      random neural state. Conditioning was then followed by extinction conducted
      either at a random state, contingent on theta trough or contingent on theta peak.
      Our current results indicate that the phase of theta at CS onset has no effect on
      the performance of the behavioral learned response at any stage of classical
      eyeblink conditioning or extinction. In addition, theta-contingent trial
      presentation does not improve learning during delay eyeblink conditioning. The
      results are consistent with our earlier findings and suggest that the theta phase
      alone is not sufficient to affect learning at the behavioral level. It seems that
      the retrieval of recently acquired memories and consequently performing a learned
      response is moderated by neural mechanisms other than hippocampal theta.

PMID- 28882693
TI  - Different effects of running wheel exercise and skilled reaching training on
      corticofugal tract plasticity in hypertensive rats with cortical infarctions.
AB  - The approaches that facilitate white matter plasticity may prompt functional
      recovery after a stroke. The effects of different exercise methods on motor
      recovery in stroke rats have been investigated. However, it is not clear whether
      their effects on axonal plasticity different. The aim of this study was to
      compare the effects of the forced running wheel exercise (RWE) and skilled
      reaching training (SRT) on axonal plasticity and motor recovery. Cortical
      infarctions were generated in stroke-prone renovascular hypertensive rats. The
      rats were randomly divided into the following three groups: the control (Con)
      group, the RWE group, and the SRT group. A sham group was also included. The mNSS
      and forelimb grip strength tests were performed on days 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and
      42 after ischemia. The anterograde tract tracer biotinylated dextran amine (BDA)
      was injected into the rats to trace the axonal plasticity of the contralesional
      corticofugal tracts. Compared with the Con group, the mNSS scores in the SRT and
      RWE groups decreased on day 28 (P<0.05) and on days 35 and 42 (P<0.01). The grip
      strength in the SRT group increased relative to that in the RWE group at 42day
      post-ischemia (P<0.01). Both the RWE and SRT groups exhibited enhanced plasticity
      of the contralesional corticofugal tract axons at the level of the red nucleus
      (P<0.01) and the cervical enlargement (P<0.01). More contralateral corticorubral
      tract remodeling was observed at the red nucleus level in the SRT group than in
      the RWE group (P<0.001). Taken together, these results suggest that SRT may
      enhance axon plasticity in the corticorubral tract more effectively than the
      forced RWE and is associated with better motor recovery after cerebral ischemia.

PMID- 28882694
TI  - Embryonic alcohol exposure leading to social avoidance and altered anxiety
      responses in adult zebrafish.
AB  - Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is a syndrome characterized by
      neurological and behavioral impairments. A recently discovered hallmark of FASD
      is impaired social behavior. Avoidance of social interaction typical of FASD may
      be the result of increased anxiety. Previously, the zebrafish was successfully
      used to model embryonic alcohol induced social abnormalities. Here, we analyzed
      both anxiety and social responses using a zebrafish FASD model, in adult fish. We
      exposed zebrafish embryos to low concentrations of ethanol (0.1%; 0.25%; 0.5% and
      1% v/v) for 2h at, 24h post-fertilization, to mimic the most prevalent milder
      FASD cases, and investigated the ensuing alterations in adult, 4-month-old,
      zebrafish. We studied social interaction in the social preference task and
      anxiety in the novel tank task. We observed an ethanol dose dependent reduction
      of time spend in the conspecific zone compared to control, corroborating prior
      findings. We also found significant changes in the novel tank (e.g. increased
      bottom dwell time, increased distance to top) suggesting elevated anxiety to
      control, but we also found, using an anxiolytic drug buspirone, that reduction of
      anxiety is associated with reduced shoaling. Our results confirm that embryonic
      alcohol exposure disrupts social behavior, and also show that its effects on
      anxiety related phenotypes may be genotype, alcohol administration method,
      experimental procedure and test-context dependent.

PMID- 28882695
TI  - Effects of an acute therapeutic or rewarding dose of amphetamine on acquisition
      of Pavlovian autoshaping and ventral striatal dopamine signaling.
AB  - Rewarding doses of amphetamine increase the amplitude, duration, and frequency of
      dopamine transients in the ventral striatum. Debate continues at the behavioral
      level about which component of reward, learning or incentive salience, is
      signaled by these dopamine transients and thus altered in addiction. The learning
      hypothesis proposes that rewarding drugs result in pathological overlearning of
      drug-predictive cues, while the incentive sensitization hypothesis suggests that
      rewarding drugs result in sensitized attribution of incentive salience to drug
      predictive cues. Therapeutic doses of amphetamine, such as those used to treat
      attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, are hypothesized to enhance the ventral
      striatal dopamine transients that are critical for reward-related learning and to
      enhance Pavlovian learning. However, the effects of therapeutic doses of
      amphetamine on Pavlovian learning are poorly understood, and the effects on
      dopamine transients are completely unknown. We determined the effects of an acute
      pre-training therapeutic or rewarding amphetamine injection on the acquisition of
      Pavlovian autoshaping in the intact rat. We also determined the effects of these
      doses on electrically evoked transient-like dopamine signals using fast-scan
      cyclic voltammetry in the anesthetized rat. The rewarding dose enhanced the
      amplitude and duration of DA signals, caused acute task disengagement, impaired
      learning for several days, and triggered incentive sensitization. The therapeutic
      dose produced smaller enhancements in DA signals but did not have similar
      behavioral effects. These results underscore the necessity of more studies using
      therapeutic doses, and suggest a hybrid learning/incentive sensitization model
      may be required to explain the development of addiction.

PMID- 28882696
TI  - Histone deacetylases inhibition: a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target
      for cancers.

PMID- 28882697
TI  - Clinicopathologic and gene expression analysis of initial biopsies from patients
      with eosinophilic esophagitis refractory to therapy.
AB  - Some patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) do not respond to therapy. The
      clinicopathologic characteristics and gene expression profile at time of
      presentation could help predict response to therapy. Refractory EoE was defined
      as persistence of symptoms and biopsies with histologic features of EoE after 6
      months of therapy with proton pump inhibitors and topical corticosteroids.
      Initial biopsies from refractory EoE patients (n=21), responder to therapy (n=8),
      patients who relapsed (n=6), and reflux controls (n=24) were studied. RNA was
      isolated from a subset of cases, and gene expression analysis of 285 genes
      involved in inflammation was performed using NanoString technology. There was no
      difference in the presenting symptoms among groups. The number of
      eosinophils/high-power field among nonresponders was higher (66+/-15) than
      responders (39+/-8; P<.0001) and similar to patients who relapsed (62+/-11). Six
      genes were expressed by at least 4-fold compared with reflux at a false discovery
      rate < 0.05, including overexpression of ALOX15, CCL26, FCER2, RTNLB, and RNASE2,
      and underexpression of DSG1. EoE patients refractory to therapy or who relapsed
      showed a trend toward higher ALOX15 expression compared with patients with good
      response to therapy (364.4- and 425-fold change, P=.097 and P=.07). RTNLB was
      significantly overexpressed in patients who were refractory to therapy versus
      those who responded favorably (10-fold versus 3-fold; P<.01). In conclusion, the
      number of eosinophils/high-power field in the initial biopsy inversely correlates
      with therapy response. Overexpression of RTNLB in refractory-to-therapy patients
      and overexpression of ALOX15 and CCL26 suggest that they are critical in the EoE
      pathogenesis.

PMID- 28882698
TI  - Prognostic value of microRNA-9 and microRNA-155 expression in triple-negative
      breast cancer.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) during breast cancer progression. The purpose of this study was
      to analyze the clinicopathologic significance of expression of EMT-related
      miRNAs, miR-9 and miR-155, in triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs). We analyzed
      relative expression levels of miR-9 and miR-155 in 190 surgically resected TNBC
      specimens using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Then we
      analyzed the relationship between these miRNA expression levels and EMT marker
      expression (vimentin, smooth muscle actin [SMA], osteonectin, N-cadherin, E
      cadherin, CD146, and ZEB1) assessed by immunohistochemistry. We also evaluated
      the prognostic significance of these miRNA expression levels. While miR-9
      expression level showed a positive correlation with pT category, miR-155
      expression level did not correlate with any clinicopathologic features of TNBCs.
      In relation to EMT phenotype, miR-9 expression was not associated with EMT marker
      expression except for SMA. However, miR-155 expression level correlated inversely
      with the expression of several EMT markers including SMA, osteonectin, and CD146.
      We observed that both miR-9 and miR-155 could be prognostic markers in TNBC in
      opposite ways; high level of miR-9 expression showed significant association with
      poor disease-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in TNBC,
      while high level of miR-155 expression was associated with better DMFS. Our study
      suggests that expression levels of both miR-9 and miR-155 can serve as candidates
      for prognostic biomarkers in TNBCs.

PMID- 28882700
TI  - Net1, a therapeutic potential target for cancer.

PMID- 28882699
TI  - Neutrophil infiltration is a favorable prognostic factor in early stages of colon
      cancer.
AB  - The tumor immune response has been proven critical to prognosis in colorectal
      cancer (CRC), but studies on the prognostic role of neutrophil infiltration have
      shown contradictory results. The aim of this study was to elucidate the
      prognostic role of infiltrating neutrophils at different intratumoral subsites
      and in different molecular subgroups of CRC. The relations between neutrophil
      infiltration and infiltration of other immune cells (T-cell and macrophage
      subsets) were also addressed. Expression of the neutrophil marker CD66b was
      assessed by immunohistochemistry in 448 archival human tumor tissue samples from
      patients surgically resected for CRC. The infiltration of CD66b-positive cells
      was semi-quantitatively evaluated along the tumor invasive front, in the tumor
      center, and within the tumor epithelium (intraepithelial expression). We found
      that poor infiltration of CD66b-positive cells in the tumor front indicated a
      worse patient prognosis. The prognostic significance of CD66b infiltration was
      found to be mainly independent of tumor molecular characteristics and maintained
      significance in multivariable analysis of stage I-II colon cancers. We further
      analyzed the prognostic impact of CD66b-positive cells in relation to other
      immune markers (NOS2, CD163, Tbet, FOXP3, and CD8) and found that neutrophil
      infiltration, even though strongly correlated to infiltration of other immune
      cell subsets, had additional prognostic value. In conclusion, we find that low
      infiltration of neutrophils in the tumor front is an independent prognostic
      factor for a poorer patient prognosis in early stages of colon cancers. Further
      studies are needed to elucidate the biological role of neutrophils in colorectal
      carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28882701
TI  - Diagnostic value of histone 3 mutations in osteoclast-rich bone tumors.
AB  - Differentiating osteoclast-rich lesions of bone (giant cell tumor of bone [GCTB],
      chondroblastoma [CBA], and aneurysmal bone cyst [ABC]) can be challenging,
      especially in small biopsies or fine-needle aspirations. Mutations affecting
      codons 34 and 36 of either H3 Histone Family Member 3A (H3F3A) and/or 3B (H3F3B)
      are characteristically seen in GCTB and CBAs. We devised a simple assay to
      identify these mutations and evaluated its applicability for routine clinical
      diagnosis. One hundred twenty-four tissue specimens from 108 patients (43 GCTBs,
      38 CBAs and 27 ABCs) were collected from the archives of the Calgary Laboratory
      Services/University of Calgary and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
      Histology was reviewed by an expert orthopedic pathologist. A single base
      extension assay (SNaPshot) is used to interrogate each nucleotide in codons 34
      and 36 of H3F3A and codon 36 of H3F3B. Final diagnoses were generated after re
      reviewing cases and incorporating molecular findings. Of 43 GCTBs, 38 (88%) had
      an H3F3A G34W mutation; 35 of 38 CBAs (92%) had a K36M mutation in either H3F3B
      (N = 31; 82%) or H3F3A (N = 4; 11%); none of 27 ABCs had a tested mutation.
      Molecular findings changed the histomorphologic diagnosis in 5 cases (3 GCTB
      changed to ABC, and 2 ABC changed to GCTB). These findings support the diagnostic
      utility of mutational analysis for this differential diagnosis in certain
      challenging cases when clinicoradiologic and histomorphologic features are not
      definitive, particularly for distinguishing cellular ABC versus GCTB with
      secondary ABC.

PMID- 28882702
TI  - Tumoral FOXP3 expression is associated with favorable clinicopathological
      variables and good prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma: the tumor suppressor
      function of tumoral FOXP3 is related with the P21 expression in gastric
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - The function and contribution of tumoral FOXP3 in gastric cancer development
      remain poorly understood. Thus, we studied the expression of tumoral FOXP3 and
      its relationship with the well-known tumor suppressor proteins P21 and P53 in
      gastric adenocarcinoma. The tissue microarray was constructed from 182 cases of
      gastric adenocarcinoma. The immunohistochemistry was performed on 4-MUm tissue
      sections from each tissue microarray block. We found that positive tumoral FOXP3
      expression was significantly correlated with a lower T category, a lower N
      category, a lower recurrence rate, and less lymphatic invasion. Furthermore, the
      survival analysis revealed that the tumoral FOXP3-positive group had
      significantly increased overall survival and disease-free survival rates compared
      with the tumoral FOXP3-negative group. Additionally, P21 expression showed a
      significant positive correlation with tumoral FOXP3 expression in gastric
      adenocarcinoma cells. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that tumoral
      FOXP3 expression is associated with favorable clinicopathological variables and
      good prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma through increased expression of the
      tumor suppression protein P21.

PMID- 28882703
TI  - PEGylation for enhancing nanoparticle diffusion in mucus.
AB  - The viscoelastic mucus secretions coating exposed organs such as the lung airways
      and the female reproductive tract can trap and quickly eliminate not only foreign
      pathogens and ultrafine particles but also particle-based drug delivery systems,
      thus limiting sustained and targeted drug delivery at mucosal surfaces. To
      improve particle distribution across the mucosa and enhance delivery to the
      underlying epithelium, many investigators have sought to develop nanoparticles
      capable of readily traversing mucus. The first synthetic nanoparticles shown
      capable of rapidly penetrating physiological mucus secretions utilized a dense
      coating of polyethylene glycol (PEG) covalently grafted onto the surface of
      preformed polymeric nanoparticles. In the decade since, PEG has become the gold
      standard in engineering mucus-penetrating drug carriers for sustained and
      targeted drug delivery to the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, eyes, and female
      reproductive tract. This review summarizes the history of the development of
      various PEG-based mucus-penetrating particles, and highlights the key
      physicochemical properties of PEG coatings and PEGylation strategies to achieve
      muco-inert PEG coatings on nanoparticle drug carriers for improved drug and gene
      delivery at mucosal surfaces.

PMID- 28882704
TI  - Bioluminescent enzyme inhibition-based assay to predict the potential toxicity of
      carbon nanomaterials.
AB  - A bioluminescent enzyme inhibition-based assay was applied to predict the
      potential toxicity of carbon nanomaterials (CNM) presented by single- and multi
      walled nanotubes (SWCNT and MWCNT) and aqueous solutions of hydrated fullerene
      S60 (C60HyFn). This assay specifically detects the influence of substances on
      parameters of the soluble or immobilised coupled enzyme system of luminescent
      bacteria: NAD(P)N:FMN-oxidoreductase+luciferase (Red+Luc). A protocol based on
      the optical properties of CNM for correcting the results of the bioluminescent
      assay was also developed. It was shown that the inhibitory activity of CNM on
      Red+Luc decreased in the following order: MWCNT>SWCNT>C60HyFn. The soluble enzyme
      system Red+Luc had high sensitivity to MWCNT and SWCNT, with values of the
      inhibition parameter IC50 equal to 0.012 and 0.16mg/L, respectively. The
      immobilised enzyme system was more vulnerable to C60HyFn than its soluble form,
      with an IC50 equal to 1.4mg/L. Due to its technical simplicity, rapid response
      time and high sensitivity, this bioluminescent method has the potential to be
      developed as a general enzyme inhibition-based assay for a wide variety of
      nanomaterials.

PMID- 28882705
TI  - Prediction of skin sensitization potency sub-categories using peptide reactivity
      data.
AB  - While the skin sensitization hazard of substances can already be identified using
      non-animal methods, the classification of potency sub-categories GHS-1A and 1B is
      still challenging. Potency can be measured by the dose at which an effect is
      observed; since the protein-adduct formation is determining the dose of the
      allergen in the skin, peptide reactivity was used to assess the potency. The
      Direct Peptide Reactivity Assay (DPRA; one concentration and reaction-time) did
      not sufficiently discriminate between sub-categories 1A and 1B (56% accuracy
      compared to LLNA data, n=124). An extended protocol termed 'quantitative DPRA'
      (three concentrations and one reaction-time), discriminated sub-categories GHS 1A
      and 1B with an accuracy of 81% or 57% compared to LLNA (n=36) or human (n=14)
      data, respectively. The analysis of the Cys-adducts was already sufficient;
      additional analysis of Lys-adducts did not improve the predictivity. An
      additional modification, the 'kinetic DPRA' (several concentrations and reaction
      times) was used to approximate the rate constant of Cys-peptide-adduct formation.
      35 of 38 substances were correctly assigned to the potency sub-categories (LLNA
      data), and the predictivity for 14 human data was equally high. These results
      warrant the kinetic DPRA for further validation in order to fully replace in vivo
      testing for assessing skin sensitization including potency sub-classification.

PMID- 28882706
TI  - Can functional connectivity diagnose autoantibody-associated encephalitides?

PMID- 28882707
TI  - Functional connectivity of large-scale brain networks in patients with anti-NMDA
      receptor encephalitis: an observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In anti-NMDA receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis, antibody-mediated
      dysfunction of NMDARs causes severe neuropsychiatric symptoms, including
      psychosis, memory deficits, and movement disorders. However, it remains elusive
      how antibody-mediated NMDAR dysfunction leads to these symptoms, and whether the
      symptoms arise from impairment in specific brain regions and the interactions
      between impaired regions. METHODS: In this observational study, we recruited 43
      patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis from a tertiary university hospital and 43
      age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls without a history of neurological or
      psychiatric disorders, who were recruited from the general population of Berlin.
      We used structural and resting-state functional MRI to investigate alterations in
      connectivity in all participants. We did functional connectivity analyses,
      including large-scale network analysis, whole-brain pair-wise connectivity, and
      machine-learning classification, and compared the results with patients'
      functional impairment. FINDINGS: Although structural MRI was normal in 31 (72%)
      of the 43 patients, we observed widespread alterations of functional connectivity
      that correlated with clinical measures. These alterations included impaired
      hippocampal functional connectivity, decoupling of the medial temporal and the
      default-mode networks, and an overall impairment of frontotemporal connections.
      Furthermore, functional connectivity was impaired within distributed large-scale
      networks, including sensorimotor, frontoparietal, lateral-temporal, and visual
      networks. Memory impairment correlated with hippocampal and medial-temporal-lobe
      network connectivity, whereas schizophrenia-like symptoms were associated with
      functional connectivity changes in frontoparietal networks. Machine-learning
      analyses corroborated these findings and identified frontoparietal and
      frontotemporal connections as reliably discriminating features between patients
      and controls, yielding an overall accuracy of 81%. INTERPRETATION: This study
      reveals a characteristic pattern of whole-brain functional connectivity
      alterations in anti-NMDAR encephalitis that is well suited to explain the major
      clinical symptoms of the disorder. These observations advance the
      pathophysiological understanding of NMDAR dysfunction in the human brain and
      could be similarly relevant for other neuropsychiatric disorders, such as
      schizophrenia. FUNDING: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Israeli National Science
      Foundation, Ministry of Science and Technology of Israel, Orion Foundation, and
      the Agnes Ginges Center for Neurologenetics.

PMID- 28882708
TI  - Fermentation properties of isomaltooligosaccharides are affected by human fecal
      enterotypes.
AB  - Isomaltooligosaccharides (IMOs) are enzymatically synthesized oligosaccharides
      that have potential prebiotic effects. Five IMO substrates with 2-16 degrees  of
      polymerization (DP) were studied for their fermentation capacities using human
      microbiomes in an in vitro batch fermentation model. Eleven fecal slurries
      belonging to three enterotypes, including the Bacteroides-, Prevotella- and Mixed
      type, exhibited different degradation rates for long chain IMOs (DP 7 to 16). In
      contrast, the degradation rates for short chain IMOs (DP 2 to 6) were not
      affected by enterotypes. Both 16S rRNA gene sequencing and quantitative PCR
      demonstrated that, after fermentation, the Bifidobacterium growth with IMOs was
      primarily detected in the Bacteroides- and Mixed-type (non-Prevotella-type), and
      to a lesser degree in the Prevotella-type. Interestingly, the Prevotella-type
      microbiome had higher levels of propionic acid and butyric acid production than
      non-Prevotella-type microbiome after IMOs fermentation. Moreover, principal
      coordinate analysis (PCoA) of both denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)
      profiling and 16S rRNA sequencing data demonstrated that the microbiome community
      compositions were separately clustered based on IMO chain length, suggesting
      significant impact of DP on the bacterial community structure. The current
      results clearly demonstrated that the IMO chain length could modulate the
      structure and composition of the human colonic microbiome. Different responses to
      short and long chain IMOs were observed from three human enterotypes, indicating
      that IMOs may be used as therapeutic substrates for directly altering human
      colonic bacteria.

PMID- 28882709
TI  - Short-Term Outcome Comparison Between Full-Endoscopic Interlaminar Approach and
      Open Minimally Invasive Microsurgical Technique for Treatment of Lumbar Disc
      Herniation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare postoperative pain control and functional outcome between
      full-endoscopic interlaminar approach (FEIA) and open minimally invasive
      microsurgical technique (MMST) for lumbar discectomy. METHODS: All consecutive
      patients treated with FEIA were prospectively followed. Clinical outcome
      parameters (low back and leg numeric rating scale and Quebec Back Pain Disability
      Scale) were measured. Analgesics use after surgery was quantified. Results were
      compared with a cohort of patients treated in the same period with MMST. The
      decision regarding which surgical technique to use was based on endoscope
      availability only. RESULTS: There were 26 patients treated with FEIA and 18
      treated with MMST. Baseline patient characteristics were comparable. Sciatic pain
      was treated in both groups. Postoperative back pain was significantly lower in
      the FEIA group (numeric rating scale scores 1.5, 0.3, and 0.2 at 1, 2, and 4
      weeks after FEIA vs. 3.6, 2.4, and 1.6 after MMST). In the FEIA group, 61.5% of
      patients did not take any pain medication. The average number of analgesics taken
      within 30 days was 4.0 in the FEIA group and 27.2 in the MMST group. The average
      Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale score decreased from 57.7 to 25.0, 18.0, and
      14.2 at 1, 2, and 4 weeks after FEIA compared with a decrease from 58.8 to 41.1,
      34.7, and 23.0 in the MMST group. No approach-related complications were
      reported. CONCLUSIONS: With less analgesic use, back and leg pain relief after 1
      week in the FEIA group was comparable to that achieved in the MMST group after 1
      month. This was also true for overall ability of patients to perform daily
      activities.

PMID- 28882710
TI  - Quantitative Analysis of Intracranial Vertebrobasilar Dissecting Aneurysm with
      Intramural Hematoma After Endovascular Treatment Using 3-T High-Resolution
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Quantitative measurements of intracranial vessel walls are reliable in
      3-T high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI). However, few reports
      have assessed the arterial wall after endovascular treatment (EVT) by 3-T HR-MRI.
      This study aimed to quantitatively analyze vessel walls in vertebrobasilar artery
      dissecting aneurysms after EVT. METHODS: From May 2012 to December 2015, a total
      of 21 patients with 21 intracranial vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms (VBDAs)
      were enrolled in this consecutive study. All the VBDAs were characterized by
      intramural hematomas (IMHs >=5 mm) and treated with reconstructive EVT. Images of
      preoperative and follow-up 3-T HR-MRI were used to evaluate the arterial wall.
      The relative signal intensity (RSI) of IMHs was quantified on T1-weighted imaging
      (T1WI) and magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo (MPRAGE).
      RESULTS: Angiographic follow-up was performed for a mean of 9.19 +/- 3.22 months.
      According to angiographic results at follow-up, 21 patients were divided into 2
      groups (progressive group, n = 6; stable group, n = 15). In the progressive
      group, RSI of IMHs was significantly increased on MPRAGE of follow-up 3-T HR-MRI
      compared with that before treatment (P < 0.05), and the difference was not
      significant on T1WI. However, in the stable group, RSI of IMHs was significantly
      reduced after treatment (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Persistent high signal intensity
      of IMHs in VBDAs after reconstructive EVT may be associated with the progression
      of VBDAs. It may also indicate an unsteady state of the aneurysm, which suggests
      that reconstruction of the parent artery is not satisfactory.

PMID- 28882711
TI  - Stereotactic Radiosurgery of Central Skull Base Meningiomas-Volumetric Evaluation
      and Long-Term Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Complete resection of a central skull base meningioma
      (CSM) is possible, but it is often associated with high morbidity. Stereotactic
      radiosurgery (SRS) plays an appreciable role in the management of skull base
      meningiomas. This study aims to apply volumetric methods to assess the CSM
      response after SRS and correlate it with clinical outcomes. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The cohort consisted of 219 patients, of whom 73.9% were female (n =
      162), with a median age of 55 years (19-88). SRS was the primary treatment for
      45.7% (n = 100), while 37.9% (n = 83) underwent treatment for residual tumors,
      14.2% (n = 31) for recurrence, and in 5 with others reasons. The median tumor
      volume was 4.9 cm3 (0.3-105 cm3) to a median margin dose of 14 Gy (5-35 Gy).
      Volumetric analysis of CSM was performed on the SRS scan and each available
      magnetic resonance image thereafter. RESULTS: The median clinical and imaging
      follow-ups of the cohort were 72 (24-298) and 66 (18-298) months, respectively.
      The overall tumor control rate was 83.4% (n = 183) at last follow-up with tumor
      regression 72.1% (n = 158). Neurologic symptoms were improved after SRS in 6.8%
      (n = 15), stable in 72.6% (n = 159), and worsened in 20.5% (n = 45). The clinical
      deterioration usually occurred in the patients with tumor progression (P <
      0.001). Following SRS, the volumetric analysis confirmed that tumor response at 3
      years reliably projected volumetric change and tumor control at 5 years (R2 =
      0.694) with P < 0.001 and 10 years (R2 = 0.571) with P = 0.001. CONCLUSION: SRS
      affords effective tumor volumetric control and neurologic stability or
      improvement in the majority of patients with CSMs. The radiologic response of CSM
      as determined by volumetry at 3 years post-SRS is predictive of long-term tumor
      response at 5 and 10 years following SRS.

PMID- 28882712
TI  - Joint Capsule-Like Intracranial Osteochondroma Mimicking Cystic Meningioma.
AB  - This report provides the first representative images of an intracranial
      osteochondroma with a cystic component mimicking cystic meningioma. A 40-year-old
      male presented at our outpatient clinic with decreased sensation in his right
      upper extremity. Preoperative computed tomography showed a tumor with a cystic
      meningioma-like appearance and prominent calcifications. On magnetic resonance
      imaging, calcification of the lesion was suggested by the T2-weighted image; weak
      enhancement was seen on the T1-weighted image. Following surgical removal of the
      tumor, the pathologic examination showed findings consistent with osteochondroma.
      Cystic meningioma is a rare tumor with a cystic component. Intracranial
      osteochondroma is also a rare, benign tumor that can mimic meningioma when
      presenting in the dural convexity. Our report describes the joint capsule-like
      appearance of a convex cystic osteochondroma including a calcified cap, bonelike
      structure, and fluid-containing intracapsular space. The tumor was evaluated by
      imaging and pathologic studies.

PMID- 28882713
TI  - A Systematic Review of Radiosurgery Versus Surgery for Neurofibromatosis Type 2
      Vestibular Schwannomas.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is an autosomal dominant disease
      characterized by bilateral vestibular schwannomas (VSs). NF2-associated VSs (NF2
      VSs) are routinely treated with microsurgery; however, stereotactic radiosurgery
      (SRS) has emerged as an effective alternative in recent decades. To elucidate the
      role of SRS in NF2-VSs, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to
      compare outcomes of SRS versus surgery. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus,
      Embase, and Cochrane databases were queried using relevant search terms.
      Retrospective studies investigating outcomes of NF2-VS patients treated with
      either SRS or surgery were included. Single-patient case reports were excluded.
      Outcome measures between the SRS and surgery groups were compared using chi2 2
      sample tests for equality of proportions on the pooled patient data. RESULTS: A
      total of 974 patients (485 SRS, 489 surgery) were identified. The mean 5-year
      local control rate for SRS was 75.1%, and the mean recurrence rate for surgery
      was 8.1%. The mean hearing and facial nerve preservation rates were 40.1% and
      92.3%, respectively, for SRS and 52.0% and 75.7%, respectively, for surgery.
      Rates of hearing preservation were higher after surgery than after SRS (P =
      0.006), whereas rates of facial nerve preservation were higher after SRS than
      after surgery (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: SRS appears to be a safe and effective
      alternative to surgery for NF2-VS. Although rates of hearing preservation were
      higher in the surgery cohorts, SRS demonstrated high rates of local control and
      significantly lower facial nerve complications. Certain patients may therefore
      benefit more from SRS than surgery.

PMID- 28882714
TI  - Combined Minimally Invasive Supraciliary and Transfacial Approach for Large
      Tumors with Skull Base and Sinonasal Involvement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumors invading both the anterior skull base and the sinonasal area
      have traditionally been accessed via largely invasive open craniofacial
      approaches. Minimally invasive extended endoscopic endonasal approaches have
      recently become increasingly available but have anatomical limitations and
      require incremental experience and thus high patient volume. Our objective was to
      assess the applicability of a novel combination of the minimally invasive
      supraciliary incision and the limited maxillofacial osteotomy as a combined
      surgical approach for large tumors invading both the anterior skull base and the
      sinonasal area. METHODS: The well-established technique of supraciliary incision
      with a 2.5 * 3.0-cm craniotomy was combined for the first time with limited
      facial translocation approach. RESULTS: This series involves 11 cases
      (female/male ratio 4:7; ranging in age from 6 to 61 years). Intracranial tumor
      propagation with intranasal and ethmoidal extension was detected in all patients.
      The pathologic diagnoses included adenocarcinomas, esthesioneuroblastoma,
      rhabdomyosarcoma, sinonasal papilloma, meningioma, and neurofibroma. The
      postoperative approach-related mortality rate was zero. No case of cerebrospinal
      fluid leak was detected. The 3-year survival rate was 70%. CONCLUSIONS: The
      limited transfacial approach in combination with a supraciliary extension is
      associated with minimal mortality and morbidity and facilitates gross total tumor
      removal. We highly recommend this approach for the surgical treatment of large
      tumors invading both the anterior skull base and the sinonasal area, especially
      for those being out of indication for extended endoscopic endonasal surgery.

PMID- 28882715
TI  - Motor Cortex Stimulation in Patients Suffering from Chronic Neuropathic Pain:
      Summary of Expert Meeting and Premeeting Questionnaire, Combined with Literature
      Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Motor cortex stimulation (MCS) was introduced in the early 1990s by
      Tsubokawa and his group for patients diagnosed with drug-resistant, central
      neuropathic pain. Inconsistencies concerning the details of this therapy and its
      outcomes and poor methodology of most clinical essays divide the neuromodulation
      society worldwide into "believers" and "nonbelievers." A European expert meeting
      was organized in Brussels, Belgium by the Benelux Neuromodulation Society in
      order to develop uniform MCS protocols in the preoperative, intraoperative, and
      postoperative courses. METHODS: An expert meeting was organized, and a
      questionnaire was sent out to all the invited participants before this expert
      meeting. An extensive literature research was conducted in order to enrich the
      results. RESULTS: Topics that were addressed during the expert meeting were 1)
      inclusion and exclusion criteria, 2) targeting and methods of stimulation, 3)
      effects of MCS, and 4) results from the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial
      commonalities but also important methodologic divergencies emerged from the
      discussion of MCS experts from 7 European Centers. From this meeting and
      questionnaire, all participants concluded that there is a need for more
      homogenous standardized protocols for MCS regarding patient selection,
      implantation procedure, stimulation parameters, and follow-up-course.

PMID- 28882716
TI  - Remote Thoracic Myelopathy From a Spinal Dural Arteriovenous Fistula at the
      Craniocervical Junction: Case Report and Review of Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The craniocervical junction is a rare location for spinal dural
      arteriovenous fistulas (dAVFs). Typically, fistulas at this location present with
      findings related to intracranial cortical venous reflux or cervical myelopathy.
      We present a case of craniocervical junction dAVF with isolated clinical and
      radiographic findings of thoracolumbar myelopathy. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 54-year
      old man presented with subacute onset of lower extremity weakness, paresthesias,
      and gait dysfunction. Routine spine magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated edema
      of the conus medullaris and distal thoracic spinal cord and prominent dorsal
      venous flow voids, suggestive of a thoracolumbar dAVF. Spinal angiography
      performed at an outside institution failed to demonstrate a fistula. Noninvasive
      spinal angiographic imaging with time-resolved magnetic resonance angiography (TR
      MRA) performed at our institution was able to demonstrate presence of the fistula
      at the craniocervical junction. Subsequent cerebral angiography identified
      feeding vessels arising from the posterior meningeal artery and ascending
      pharyngeal artery on the right side. The fistula was successfully embolized with
      onyx embolic material, with rapid resolution of his clinical symptoms.
      CONCLUSIONS: Isolated lower extremity myelopathic symptoms are a rarely reported
      finding in patients harboring craniocervical junction dAVFs. At our institution,
      noninvasive imaging with TR-MRA is routinely used to aid localization of dAVFs.
      This results in decreased contrast dose and radiation exposure, and inclusion of
      the cervical spine should be performed when thoracolumbar imaging fails to
      identify a dAVF prior to proceeding to invasive angiography.

PMID- 28882717
TI  - The Effects of Combined Intraoperative Monitoring of Abnormal Muscle Response and
      Z-L Response for Hemifacial Spasm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microvascular decompression (MVD) is the most effective treatment for
      hemifacial spasm (HFS). During MVD surgery, abnormal muscle response (AMR) is
      widely used. Z-L response (ZLR) is a new monitoring method for HFS. We compared
      the effectiveness of AMR plus ZLR and simple AMR. METHODS: In a retrospective
      study of 1868 cases of HFS treated using intraoperative monitoring between
      January 2013 and December 2015, 896 patients underwent simple AMR monitoring and
      972 underwent combined intraoperative monitoring of AMR and ZLR. RESULTS: AMR
      waveforms were observed in 837 (93.42%) patients in the AMR group and in 898
      (92.39%) patients in the AMR plus ZLR group (P > 0.05). During MVD, AMR waveforms
      disappeared in 772 patients in the AMR group and 854 patients in the AMR plus ZLR
      group (P < 0.05). The efficacy rate of MVD in the AMR plus ZLR group was higher
      compared with the AMR group when AMR was not detected or disappeared during the
      operation (P < 0.05). When AMR persisted during the operation, there was no
      significant difference between the 2 groups in efficacy of the operation (P >
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of whether the compression vessels of the facial
      nerve are simple or complicated, combined intraoperative monitoring of AMR plus
      ZLR monitoring provides more valuable neurosurgical guidance than simple AMR
      during MVD for HFS.

PMID- 28882718
TI  - Nontraumatic Multiple Vertebral Compression Fractures Induced by Primary
      Hyperparathyroidism: A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is one of the causes of
      osteoporosis and is known to increase the fracture risk of bone. However,
      multiple vertebral compression fracture because of PHPT is extremely rare. CASE
      DESCRIPTION: A case of acute multiple vertebral compression fracture in a patient
      with PHPT is described. The fracture occurred suddenly without trauma. The
      patient had a low T score (-4.4), and serum hypercalcemia and phosphatemia were
      evident. On examination, serum parathyroid hormone was found to be elevated, and
      PHPT was diagnosed by neck sonography and technetium-99m
      methoxyisobutylisonitrile scan. Once the patient was diagnosed with PHPT, we
      performed subtotal parathyroidectomy and corrective spinal surgery for multiple
      compression fractures. CONCLUSIONS: When a patient has multiple compression
      fractures without any trauma history and a very low T score, the presence of
      other underlying diseases should be investigated.

PMID- 28882719
TI  - Lessons from culturally contrasted alternative methods of inquiry and styles of
      comprehension for the new foundations in the study of life.
AB  - Contemporary scientific approaches to Biology are the result of some cultural
      ideas considered as universal by Western reductionist traditions. The study of
      the cultural, symbolic and historical approaches to reality and Life provides us
      important lessons about the necessity of integrating Eastern holistic views into
      the study of Life. This is both an epistemological and ontological enhancement
      which provides more powerful and insightful ways to deal with Life and its
      understanding.

PMID- 28882720
TI  - The European Association of Epilepsy Centers (EAEC): Just Old Europe or a modern
      model?

PMID- 28882721
TI  - Clinical presentation of neurocysticercosis-related epilepsy.
AB  - Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common parasitic infection of the central
      nervous system and a major risk factor for seizures and epilepsy. Seizure types
      in NCC vary largely across studies and seizure semiology is poorly understood. We
      discuss here the studies regarding seizure types and seizure semiology in NCC,
      and examine the clinical presentation in patients with NCC and drug-resistant
      epilepsy. We also provide evidence of the role of MRI and EEG in the diagnosis of
      NCC-related epilepsy. Focal seizures are reported in 60-90% of patients with NCC
      related epilepsy, and around 90% of all seizures registered prospectively are
      focal not evolving to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures. A great number of cases
      suggest that seizure semiology is topographically related to NCC lesions.
      Patients with hippocampal sclerosis and NCC have different clinical and
      neurophysiological characteristics than those with hippocampal sclerosis alone.
      Different MRI protocols have allowed to better differentiate NCC from other
      etiologies. Lesions' stages might account on the chances of finding an interictal
      epileptiform discharge. Studies pursuing the seizure onset in patients with NCC
      are lacking and they are specially needed to determine both whether the reported
      events of individual cases are seizures, and whether they are related to the NCC
      lesion or lesions. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled
      "Neurocysticercosis and Epilepsy".

PMID- 28882722
TI  - Cognition in patients with benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes: A study
      with long-term VEEG and RS-fMRI.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between
      alterations of functional brain network and cognition in patients with benign
      epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) as a function of spike-wave index
      (SWI) during slow wave sleep. METHODS: Resting-state functional magnetic
      resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) data and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) were collected
      from two groups of patients with BECTS, including a SWI<50% group (5 cases) and a
      SWI>=50% group (7 cases). The SWI was calculated from the long-term video
      electroencephalogram monitoring (one sleep cycle was included at least). The RS
      fMRI data were analyzed by regional homogeneity (ReHo) method. RESULTS: There
      were three main findings. Firstly, Full Intelligence Quotient (FIQ), Verbal
      Intelligence Quotient (VIQ), and Performance Intelligence Quotient (PIQ) of the
      SWI>=50% group were significantly lower than SWI<50% group (p<0.05). Secondly,
      there was a negative correlation between the FIQ, VIQ, PIQ, and SWI (p<0.05), and
      the FIQ, VIQ, and PIQ were not dependent on age, age of onset, disease course,
      years of education, and total number of seizures (p>0.05). Finally, compared with
      the SWI<50% group, the SWI>=50% group showed increased ReHo in the bilateral
      precentral gyrus, bilateral premotor area, bilateral subcortical structure, right
      temporal lobe, and bilateral insular lobe, while they showed decreased ReHo in
      the posterior cingulate cortex and posterior of right inferior temporal lobe.
      CONCLUSIONS: The alterations of functional brain network caused by the frequent
      discharges during slow wave sleep could affect cognition in patients with BECTS.

PMID- 28882723
TI  - Antibiotic stewardship: update and perspectives.

PMID- 28882724
TI  - Evaluation of the scientific impact of the Ebola epidemic: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Ebola outbreak prompted an extensive number of scientific
      publications, but little attention has been paid to the involvement of local
      scientists, distribution of research funding and related publications. We sought
      to systematically review publicly available information on the scientific impact
      of the Ebola epidemic. METHODS: A systematic review of literature on the Ebola
      outbreak was performed. Extracted information included origins of the authors,
      type and distribution of funding, and impact factors (IF) of related publications
      between 6 December 2013, and 22 December 2015. RESULTS: We identified 460
      relevant articles out of 3281 references, which were mostly authored by American
      (46.6%) and European (28.4%) institutions; only 13.4% of authors were affiliated
      with African institutions. Most IF can be attributed to the Americas and Europe,
      with 43% (25 030.8 IF) and 34.5% (20 074.2 IF), respectively, compared with 17.9%
      (10 436.5 IF) in Africa. Funds were provided mainly by the Americas (31.8% of all
      funded studies) and Europe (17%). American and European funds were also
      distributed back, mainly to American (77.8%) and European (85.2%) institutions,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The Ebola outbreak had a significant scientific impact
      and resulted in numerous publications in high IF journals. The main impact could
      be measured in the Americas and Europe, and was directly related to funding.
      African researchers were only marginally involved in the scientific processing
      (86.6% of all researchers were not African), probably because major research
      centres are located in America and Europe. Our results suggest the importance of
      promoting closer cooperation between regions.

PMID- 28882725
TI  - What is antimicrobial stewardship?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of the term 'antimicrobial stewardship' has grown
      exponentially in recent years, typically referring to programmes and
      interventions that aim to optimize antimicrobial use. Although antimicrobial
      stewardship originated within human healthcare, it is increasingly applied in
      broader contexts including animal health and One Health. As the use of the term
      'antimicrobial stewardship' becomes more common, it is important to consider what
      antimicrobial stewardship is, as well as what it is not. AIMS: To review the
      emergence and evolution of the term 'antimicrobial stewardship'. SOURCES: We
      searched and reviewed existing literature and official documents, which mostly
      focused on antibiotics. We contacted the authors of the first publications that
      mentioned antimicrobial stewardship. CONTENT: We describe the historical
      background behind how antimicrobial stewardship came into use in clinical
      settings. We discuss challenges emerging from the varied descriptions of
      antimicrobial stewardship in the literature, including an over-emphasis on
      individual prescriptions, an under-emphasis on the societal implications of
      antimicrobial use, and language translation problems. IMPLICATIONS: To help
      address these challenges, we suggest viewing antimicrobial stewardship as a
      strategy, a coherent set of actions which promote using antimicrobials
      responsibly. We stress the continuous need for 'responsible use' to be defined
      and translated into context-specific and time-specific actions. Furthermore, we
      present examples of actions that can be undertaken within antimicrobial
      stewardship across human and animal health.

PMID- 28882726
TI  - Methanobrevibacter oralis detected along with Aggregatibacter
      actinomycetemcomitans in a series of community-acquired brain abscesses.

PMID- 28882727
TI  - Newer glycopeptide antibiotics for treatment of complicated skin and soft tissue
      infections: systematic review, network meta-analysis and cost analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) carry significant economic
      burden, as well as morbidity and mortality, especially when caused by methicillin
      resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Several new MRSA-active antibiotics have
      been developed, including semisynthetic glycopeptides (telavancin, dalbavancin
      and oritavancin). Of these, dalbavancin and oritavancin offer extended dosing
      intervals. METHODS: We performed a systematic review, network meta-analysis and
      cost analysis to compare the newer glycopeptides to standard care and to each
      other for the treatment of complicated SSTIs (cSSTI). A search for randomized
      controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted in Medline, Embase and the Cochrane
      Central Register of Controlled Trials. We also developed a model to evaluate the
      costs associated with dalbavancin and oritavancin from the third-party payer
      perspective. RESULTS: Seven RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Network meta
      analyses suggested that the clinical response to telavancin, dalbavancin and
      oritavancin was similar to standard care (odds ratio (OR) 1.09, 95% confidence
      interval (CI) 0.90-1.33; OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.52-1.18; and OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.85
      1.33, respectively). Head-to-head comparisons showed no difference in clinical
      response between oritavancin and dalbavancin (OR 1.36; 95% CI 0.85-2.18),
      oritavancin and telavancin (OR 0.98; 95% CI 0.72-1.31) or dalbavancin and
      telavancin (OR 0.72; 95% CI 0.45-1.13). Telavancin had a higher incidence of
      overall adverse events compared to standard care (OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.10-1.61).
      Compared to telavancin, there were fewer overall adverse events with dalbavancin
      (OR 0.58; 95% CI 0.45-0.76) and oritavancin (OR 0.71; 95% CI 0.55-0.92). Studies
      were of high quality overall. Our cost analyses demonstrated that dalbavancin and
      oritavancin were less costly compared to standard care under baseline assumptions
      and many scenarios evaluated. The use of dalbavancin could save third-party
      payers $1442 to $4803 per cSSTI, while the use of oritavancin could save $3571 to
      $6932 per cSSTI. CONCLUSIONS: Dalbavancin and oritavancin demonstrate efficacy
      and safety comparable to standard care in well-designed RCTs and result in cost
      savings when standard care is treatment that covers MRSA.

PMID- 28882729
TI  - Tumor markers and mature cystic teratoma of the ovary.

PMID- 28882728
TI  - Enhanced efficacy of the engineered antimicrobial peptide WLBU2 via direct airway
      delivery in a murine model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common cause of pneumonia in patients
      with cystic fibrosis with the property to generate multidrug resistance against
      clinically used antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a diverse group of
      effector molecules of the innate immune system that protect the host against
      pathogens. However, the lack of activity in common biological matrices has
      hampered efforts towards clinical development. In this study, we evaluated the
      therapeutic potential of the engineered AMP WLBU2 via direct airway delivery in a
      murine model of P. aeruginosa infection. METHODS: The human AMPs LL37 and WLBU2
      were compared for (i) antibiofilm activity using P. aeruginosa on polarized human
      bronchial epithelial cells, and (ii) efficacy in P. aeruginosa pneumonia in mice
      using intratracheal instillation of bacteria and AMPs. RESULTS: WLBU2 (16 MUM)
      prevents biofilm formation by up to 3-log compared with 1-log reduction by LL37.
      With a single dose of 1 MUg (0.05 mg/kg) delivered intratracheally, the initial
      effect of LL37 was moderate and transitory, as bacterial load and inflammatory
      cytokines increased at 24 h with observed signs of disease such as lethargy and
      hypothermia, consistent with moribund state requiring euthanasia. In sharp
      contrast, WLBU2 reduced bacterial burden (by 2 logs) and bacteria-induced
      inflammation (leucocytic infiltrates, cytokine and chemokine gene expression) at
      6 h and 24 h post-exposure, with no observed signs of disease or host toxicity.
      CONCLUSION: These promising results now establish a much lower minimum
      therapeutic dose of WLBU2 (a net gain of 80-fold) compared with the previously
      reported 4 mg/kg systemic minimum therapeutic dose, with significant implications
      for clinical development.

PMID- 28882730
TI  - Complete genome sequence of the first human parechovirus type 3 isolated in
      Taiwan.
AB  - The first human parechovirus 3 (HPeV3 VGHKS-2007) in Taiwan was identified from a
      clinical specimen from a male infant. The entire genome of the HPeV3 isolate was
      sequenced and compared to known HPeV3 sequences. Genome alignment data showed
      that HPeV3 VGHKS-2007 shares the highest nucleotide identity, 99%, with the
      Japanese strain of HPeV3 1361K-162589-Yamagata-2008. All HPeV3 isolates possess
      at least 97% amino acid identity. The analysis of the genome sequence of HPeV3
      VGHKS-2007 will facilitate future investigations of the epidemiology and
      pathogenicity of HPeV3 infection.

PMID- 28882731
TI  - Danggui Buxue decoction promotes angiogenesis by up-regulation of VEGFR1/2
      expressions and down-regulation of sVEGFR1/2 expression in myocardial infarction
      rat.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The traditional herbal compound Danggui Buxue decoction (DBD), has
      long been used for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases,
      however, the underlying molecular mechanism for its effect remains still unknown.
      So this study would to investigate the effect of DBD on cardiac damage induced by
      myocardial infarction (MI) challenge. METHODS: SD Rats with ligation of left
      anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery were randomly divided into MI, MI plus
      Betaloc Zok, MI plus DBD high dose, and MI plus DBD low dose group, together with
      sham-operated group. After corresponding treatment for consecutive 4 weeks,
      cardiac function was evaluated by hemodynamics with the method of pressure-volume
      conduit system. Cardiac histological morphology, microvascular density and the
      expressions of VEGF and VEGFR1/2 mRNA and their relative protein including VEGF,
      membranous VEGFR1 (VEGFR1), soluble VEGFR1 (sVEGFR1), VEGFR2, and sVEGFR2 were
      examined by hematoxylin & eosin staining, immunohistochemical staining and
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot assay, respectively.
      RESULTS: It showed that a significant impaired cardiac function and a remarkably
      inducible increase in fibrotic scar formation, microvascular density and VEGF
      mRNA expressions in MI rats. While DBD treatment could markedly boost cardiac
      angiogenesis further, hinder fibrotic scar formation, and improve declined
      cardiac function. Apart from the up-regulation of VEGF mRNA and VEGF and the down
      regulation of sVEGFR1/2, high dose of DBD dedicated to increasing VEGFR1 mRNA and
      VEGFR1 expression, while low dose to elevating VEGFR2 mRNA and VEGFR2 expression.
      CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that DBD could accelerate cardiac
      angiogenesis, restrain fibrous scar formation and thus ameliorate cardiac
      function in post-MI, via the active regulation of VEGF/VEGFRs signaling pathway.

PMID- 28882733
TI  - [Risk of fatal/non-fatal events in patients with previous coronary heart
      disease/acute myocardial infarction and treatment with non-steroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary Care is the fundamental axis of our health system and obliges
      us to be consistent with our prescriptions. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
      drugs (NSAIDs) have been associated with increased cardiovascular risk and
      increased risk of all causes of death, as well as acute myocardial infarction
      (AMI) in patients with a previous myocardial infarction. Pain and cardiac patient
      management are 2 basic pillars in our daily activity, and we must know the
      limitations of NSAIDs in patients with established cardiovascular risk.
      OBJECTIVES: We present a review of the scientific literature with primary
      interest in the role of NSAIDs and cardiovascular risk. The objective is to
      determine the relationship between the consumption of different NSAIDs and the
      fatal and non-fatal events among patients with known coronary disease. METHOD:
      This is a review of the scientific literature with primary interest in the role
      of NSAIDs and cardiovascular risk. The literature review was conducted in PubMed
      search engines like Tripdatabase and with certain keywords. Of the 15 original
      papers found, 9 did not correspond completely to the central focus, so the
      approach was decided from 6 original articles from the past 5 years, which
      address the central focus of increased cardiovascular risk found (fatal and non
      fatal events) in patients with prior cardiovascular disease or AMI being
      prescribed NSAIDs for any reason. The risk of fatal/non-fatal events in each of
      the studies is expressed by the odds ratio (OR)/hazard ratio (HR), defined as the
      probability of an event occurring. RESULTS: A moderate risk was observed for
      ibuprofen. It increases the risk of acute coronary syndrome after 5 years of
      cardiovascular event, especially in the 2nd year (OR 1.63; 95% CI 1.42-1.87). It
      also increases the risk of stroke (HR 1.23; 95% IC 1.10-1.38). Cyclo-oxygenase-2
      inhibitors were the third risk group, after nabumetone and diclofenac. Celecoxib
      increases risk from the 14th day of treatment (HR 2.3; 95% CI 1.79-3.02), having
      an OR of 1.47 (95% CI 1.05-2.07) for new AMI. Rofecoxib shows a risk of fatal
      cardiovascular events, even at low doses, and after 7 days of treatment (HR 2.5;
      95% CI 1.91-3.46), with an OR of 2.30 (95% CI 1.76-2.99) for new AMI. Naproxen
      had a lower risk of cardiovascular death and new cardiovascular events, but no
      significant results except for treatment longer than 90 days (HR 1.55; 95% CI
      1.10-2.17), with increased gastrointestinal bleeding and associated comorbidity
      during the first year of treatment (HR 1.44; 95% CI 1.07-1.94). Ketorolac is seen
      as the drug of greatest risk for new AMI: Oral treatment (OR 3.91; 95% CI 2.02
      7.58). The review highlights the cardio-protective factor of certain drugs, such
      as antiplatelet agents and statins in patients, with NSAIDs use. For example, in
      patients with greater comorbidity, differences were observed in the OR, with
      antiplatelet agents consumption giving an OR of 1.37 (95% CI 0.68-2.74), compared
      to the non-consumption, OR 1.79 (95% CI 1.16-2.78). CONCLUSIONS: The consumption
      of various NSAIDs and their relationship to increased risk of fatal and non-fatal
      acute coronary syndrome is classified by years. Consumption increases the risk
      regardless of the time elapsed in relation to those that did not take them, with
      the figures remaining virtually stable for five years. Diclofenac and
      cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (especially Rofecoxib) showed an increased risk,
      unlike naproxen, which had a lower risk. However, naproxen, and because of its
      greater capacity to generate gastrointestinal bleeding, increased for this
      reason, fatal events and comorbidity in these patients. Despite this, it still
      has the best cardiovascular safety profile.

PMID- 28882732
TI  - Mesenchymal stem cells and their conditioned medium can enhance the repair of
      uterine defects in a rat model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our aim was to examine the roles of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)
      transplantation in the repair of large uterine defects. METHODS: Uterine defects
      were created in both uterine horns of female rats by a punch instrument, and bone
      marrow-derived MSCs, MSC-conditioned medium (MSC-CM) or vehicle were injected
      into the myometrium around the defect. The rate of uterine defect repair was
      monitored on day 2 and 4 after operation. Cytokine array of MSC-CM was performed,
      followed by neutralizing antibody experiments to clarify the exact cytokine
      participating in the MSC-CM-enhanced wound repair. RESULTS: Transplantation of
      MSCs, but not myometrial cells, significantly enhanced uterine defect repair. The
      transplanted MSCs were detected in the uterine horn with no signs of rejection on
      day 4 after transplantation, when the MSC-transplanted uterine wound was nearly
      healed. Moreover, uterine defect repair was also accelerated by injection of MSC
      CM, indicating the paracrine effects of MSCs on uterine wound healing. Cytokine
      array analysis further revealed that MSC-CM contained abundant cytokines and
      chemokines, among which high levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) were found.
      Additionally, antibodies against IL-6 were shown to block MSC-CM-enhanced uterine
      defect repair. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that transplantation of MSCs
      could enhance uterine defect repair by paracrine effects involving IL-6, which
      are findings that may be applied to facilitate uterine wound healing in the
      removal of huge intramural masses.

PMID- 28882734
TI  - [Control of blood pressure by using an intelligent telephone application with
      feedback and competitiveness strategy. HTApp Control project].
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Arterial hypertension is a highly important
      cardiovascular risk factor, with low control percentages. New technologies can
      help to obtain a better control of this disease. The intention is to know if a
      mobile application can help achieve this goal. METHOD: A mobile phone application
      is used to give feedback to physicians with the aim of generate competitiveness
      in achieving objectives. The application could, at any time, determine the rate
      of controlled patients (<140/90mmHg) by each physician, and compare them with the
      mean number of the patients controlled by the group. The possible changes in the
      therapeutic attitude of physicians are also analysed and the differences in
      achieving objectives are compared based on specific characteristics of patients.
      RESULTS: The study included 220 patients aged 18-80 years, with mean blood
      pressure>140/90mmHg, despite medical treatment, tracked for 4 visits. At the end
      of the follow-up, 69.03% achieved good control, compared to 12.8% in the baseline
      study (P<.001), with no differences between gender (control of 68.6 and 69.29% of
      women and men, respectively), nor among the different levels of cardiovascular
      risk. CONCLUSIONS: The use of interactive tools that allow the dynamic process of
      feedback on the results fosters the motivation and improves the therapeutic
      inertia in the control of blood pressure.

PMID- 28882735
TI  - Integrative factor analysis - An unsupervised method for quantifying cross-study
      consistency of gene expression data.
AB  - Integrative analyses of multiple gene expression studies are frequently
      performed. In the setting of two studies, integrative correlation (IGC) can be
      used to assess the consistency of co-expression of a given gene. For three or
      more studies, an extension of IGC gives a global score per gene. We propose to
      extend IGC and use factor analysis to assess the study-specific consistency of co
      expression of genes when there are three or more studies, possibly on different
      platforms. Our method is able to identify studies whose expression patterns are
      different from others. Filtering genes based on our score is shown to improve the
      concordance of association with phenotype across studies.

PMID- 28882736
TI  - Gene-centric metegenome analysis reveals diversity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      biofilm gene orthologs in fresh water ecosystem.
AB  - Metagenomic analysis of biofilm forming bacteria in environmental samples remains
      challenging due to the non-availability of gene sequences of most of the
      uncultivable bacteria. Sequences of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1-UW genes involved
      either directly or indirectly in biofilm formation were analyzed using BLASTn to
      obtain matching sequences from different strain, species and genus. Conserved
      regions in the functional domain of the amino acid sequences were used to design
      common primers for direct PCR analysis of freshwater metagenomes. Seven key genes
      such as aceA, clpP, typA, cbrA, phoR, rpoS and gacA involved in biofilm formation
      were validated. The ortholog genes belonged to wide range of Pseudomonas sp.
      indicating the diversity of biofilm genes and the conservation of protein
      functional domains. The approach would also help in analyzing the expression of
      biofilm genes in different bacteria of freshwater systems for monitoring toxic
      contaminations such as organic or inorganic pollutants.

PMID- 28882737
TI  - Five-year Survival of Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma in the
      Russian Federation: Results From the RENSUR5 Registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 5-year overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic renal
      cell carcinoma (mRCC) has been rarely reported. The aim of the RENSUR5 registry
      study was to obtain real-world data on the use of therapy for mRCC and assess the
      5-year OS in the Russian population. PATIENT AND METHODS: Patients were
      retrospectively identified at 11 cancer centers in different regions of Russia
      (Astrakhan, Barnaul, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Obninsk, Omsk, Rostov-on
      Don, Samara, St. Petersburg, and Ufa). Patients were included if mRCC had been
      diagnosed from January 2010 to January 2011. Anonymized data were collected
      through an online registry covering the demographic data, treatments, and
      outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 439 adult mRCC patients were included in the
      present study for analysis. The mean age at diagnosis of mRCC was 60.9 years
      (range, 33-90 years; with 9% of patients aged >= 75 years). The patients were
      predominantly men (70.2%) and 67.7% had nephrectomy. Clear cell and non-clear
      cell tumors were detected in 61.1% and 7.7% of patients, respectively. A total of
      271 patients (62%) received systemic therapy. The median duration of therapy was
      11 months (95% confidence interval, 9.5-12.5 months). Most treatment was with
      interferon only (n = 145); 105 patients (23.9%) received targeted therapy, and 69
      patients (15.7%) received >= 2 treatment lines. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rate
      was 49.4%, 18.9%, and 8.2%, respectively. The median OS from the start of
      treatment was 12 months (95% confidence interval, 9.7-14.4 months). CONCLUSION:
      RENSUR5 is a large real-world database assessing the mRCC treatment patterns and
      5-year OS in Russia. According to the first results of the present study, we
      believe that 5-year OS should improve with novel therapies. The limited
      administration of targeted therapies was reflected by the results of the 5-year
      survival rate. The treatment of mRCC has changed in the past years with new
      treatment options significantly improving OS. The 5-year OS of patients treated
      with immunotherapy and targeted therapy should be analyzed in the real world.

PMID- 28882738
TI  - Testosterone Reduction of >= 480 ng/dL Predicts Favorable Prognosis of Japanese
      Men With Advanced Prostate Cancer Treated With Androgen-Deprivation Therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Reductions in testosterone concentration play a significant role in
      the treatment of prostate cancer. We studied the role of testosterone as a
      prognostic marker for advanced prostate cancer (stage C or higher) treated with
      primary androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 348
      patients were treated using ADT as first-line therapy for prostate cancer at
      Chiba University Hospital between 1999 and 2016. Of these, 222 patients with
      advanced prostate cancer (stage C or higher) were enrolled onto this study. The
      prognostic values of serum testosterone level and other clinical factors were
      evaluated in association with prostate-specific antigen (PSA), progression-free
      survival during first-line therapy, and overall survival. RESULTS: Median age was
      73 years. PSA at baseline was 86 ng/mL. Gleason scores of <= 6, 7, 8, and >= 9
      were seen in 2.3%, 19.4%, 21.2%, and 41.9%, respectively. Mean follow-up was 60.5
      months. Median testosterone at baseline was 482 ng/dL and nadir testosterone was
      13 ng/dL. No variable associated with testosterone predicted progression-free
      survival. With regard to overall survival, multivariate analysis identified nadir
      testosterone <= 20 ng/dL (hazard ratio = 0.44, P = .026) and testosterone
      reduction >= 480 ng/dL (hazard ratio = 0.35, P = .030) as independent prognostic
      factors. With regard to progression-free survival, multivariate analysis
      identified nadir PSA <= 0.1 ng/mL (hazard ratio = 3.07, P < .001), presence of
      lymph node metastasis (hazard ratio = 1.67, P = .017), and time to nadir PSA
      (hazard ratio = 0.30, P < .001) as independent prognostic factors. CONCLUSION:
      Our data suggested both nadir testosterone (< 20 ng/dL; P = .026) and
      testosterone reduction (>= 480 ng/dL; P = .030) to be key prognostic factors for
      primary ADT in advanced prostate cancer in Japanese men.

PMID- 28882739
TI  - Autoimmune hepatitis - update on clinical management in 2017.
AB  - Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a progressive immune mediated liver disease of
      unknown origin. Key diagnostic features include hypergammaglobulinemia/elevated
      serum-IgG, characteristic circulating autoantibodies, periportal hepatitis with
      interface activity on liver biopsy and the exclusion of hepatotropic viruses.
      However, the diagnosis is challenging in cholestatic and severe presentations. It
      can be difficult to differentiate AIH from drug-induced liver injury. Although
      many patients initially respond to standard immunosuppressive therapy, a
      significant proportion experiences intolerable side effects or insufficient
      treatment response. This underlines the need for effective alternative treatment
      options, which are still very limited and based on rather poor evidence. This
      review summarises core aspects of the clinical management of AIH with focus on
      recent achievements and unmet needs.

PMID- 28882740
TI  - Effect of sleep deprivation after a night shift duty on simulated crisis
      management by residents in anaesthesia. A randomised crossover study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleep deprivation has been associated with an increased incidence of
      medical errors and can jeopardise patients' safety during medical crisis
      management. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of sleep deprivation on
      the management of simulated anaesthesia crisis by residents in anaesthesiology.
      METHODS: A randomised, comparative, monocentric crossover study involving 48
      residents in anaesthesia was performed on a high fidelity patient simulator. Each
      resident was evaluated in a sleep-deprived state (deprived group, after a night
      shift duty) and control state (control group, after a night of sleep).
      Performance was assessed through points obtained during crisis scenario 1
      (oesophageal intubation followed by anaphylactic shock) and scenario 2
      (anaesthesia-related bronchospasm followed by ventricular tachycardia). Sleep
      periods were recorded by actigraphy. Two independent observers assessed the
      performances. The primary endpoint of the study was the score obtained for each
      scenario. RESULTS: Resident's crisis management performance is associated with
      sleep deprivation (scenario 1: control=39 [33-42] points vs. deprived=26 [19-40]
      points, P=0.02; scenario 2: control=21 [17-24] vs. deprived=14 [12-19], P=0.01).
      The main errors observed were: error in drug administration and dose, delay in
      identification of hypotension, and missing communication with the surgical team
      about situation. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that sleep deprivation is
      associated with impairment of performance to manage crisis situations by
      residents in anaesthesia.

PMID- 28882741
TI  - Tracheal extubation with suction vs. positive pressure during emergence from
      general anaesthesia in adults: A randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: After general anaesthesia (GA) in adults, the optimal tracheal
      extubation technique (positive pressure or suctioning) remains debated. The
      primary endpoint of this study was to assess the effects of these techniques on
      onset time of desaturation (SpO2<92%). METHODS: Sixty-nine patients with a body
      mass index<30 scheduled for elective orthopaedic surgery were allocated to
      positive pressure (PP) or suctioning (SUC) group. GA was standardised with
      propofol and remifentanil via target-controlled infusion. A morphine bolus of
      0.15mg/kg was administered 20-30mins before the end of surgery. The effect of
      extubation technique on onset time of desaturation (T92) was assessed during the
      first 10mins after extubation during the spontaneous air breathing. Secondary
      endpoints included: frequency of desaturation, respiratory complications, need to
      use oxygen therapy and SpO2 at the end of the first hour while breathing in air
      (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01323049). RESULTS: Baseline patient
      characteristics and intraoperative management data for the 68 patients included
      had no relevant clinical difference between groups. T92 (sec) after tracheal
      extubation was 214 (168) vs. 248 (148) in the PP and SUC groups, respectively
      (P=0.44). In the PP and SUC groups, 50 and 43% reached a SpO2<92% within the
      first 10mins after extubation respectively (P=0.73). There were no statistically
      significant differences between groups for any secondary endpoints. CONCLUSIONS:
      Positive pressure extubation as compared with suctioning extubation did not seem
      to delay onset time of desaturation after GA in standard weight adult patients.

PMID- 28882742
TI  - To vape or not to vape? Effects of exposure to conflicting news headlines on
      beliefs about harms and benefits of electronic cigarette use: Results from a
      randomized controlled experiment.
AB  - News coverage of novel tobacco products including e-cigarettes has framed the use
      of these products with both positive and negative slants. Conflicting information
      may shape public knowledge, perceptions of e-cigarettes, and their harms. The
      objective of this study is to assess effects of exposure to conflicting news
      coverage on US adults' beliefs about harms and benefits of e-cigarette use. We
      conducted a one-way between-subjects randomized controlled experiment in 2016 to
      compare the effects of viewing either 1) positive, 2) negative, 3) both positive
      and negative (conflicting) news headlines about the safety of using e-cigarettes,
      or 4) no-message. Participants were 2056 adults aged 18 and older from an online
      survey panel. Outcomes were beliefs about harms (3-item scale, alpha=0.76) and
      benefits (3-item scale, alpha=0.82) of using e-cigarettes. Participants who
      viewed negative headlines reported increased beliefs about harms (B=0.164,
      p=0.039) and lower beliefs about benefits of e-cigarette use (B=-0.216, p=0.009),
      compared with those in the positive headlines condition. These differences were
      replicated in subgroup analyses among never e-cigarette users. In addition, never
      e-cigarette users who viewed conflicting headlines reported lower beliefs about
      benefits of e-cigarette use (B=-0.221, p=0.030) than the positive headlines
      condition. Valence of news coverage about e-cigarettes (positive, negative, or
      conflicting) could influence people's beliefs about harms and benefits of e
      cigarette use.

PMID- 28882743
TI  - Effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth) interventions for promoting healthy
      eating in adults: A systematic review.
AB  - Unhealthy eating is a major risk factor for chronic disease. However, many
      current strategies to promote healthy eating are not sustainable over the longer
      term. More cost-effective wide-reaching initiatives are urgently needed. Mobile
      health (mHealth) interventions, delivered via mobile devices, could provide a
      solution. This systematic review summarized the evidence on the effect of mHealth
      interventions for promoting healthy eating in adults. A comprehensive systematic
      search of five scientific databases was conducted using methods adapted from the
      Cochrane Handbook. Eligible studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs),
      published up to 1 July 2016, which examined healthy eating interventions
      delivered via mobile device. Of 879 articles identified, 84 full text articles
      were potentially eligible and further assessed, and 23 included. Narrative review
      results indicated small positive effects of mHealth interventions on healthy
      eating (5/8 trials) and weight loss (5/13 trials). However, the current evidence
      base is insufficient (studies are of poor quality) to determine conclusive
      positive effects. More rigorous RCTs with longer-term (>6months) follow-up are
      warranted to determine if effects are maintained.

PMID- 28882744
TI  - Local health and social services expenditures: An empirical typology of local
      government spending.
AB  - The conceptual importance of social services to health outcomes is well known and
      recent empirical evidence has linked social services spending to better
      population health outcomes. Yet little research has been devoted to what social
      services spending actually entails as it relates to population health and whether
      broadly similar spending patterns may exist across communities. The purpose of
      this study was to identify empirical patterns in spending, and explore health
      status and outcome correlates with social services spending. Spending data come
      from the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau's Census of Governments, which includes spending
      data for 14 social services within 3129 U.S. counties. Additional 2012
      demographic, socioeconomic, and population health data were obtained and analyzed
      at the county-level in 2017. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed 5 clusters of
      counties according to local government spending. One group had significantly
      lower income, social services spending, health indicators, and health outcomes
      than other counties. Two other groups had relatively high income, high social
      services spending, and strong health outcomes and indicators. Yet these latter
      two groups invested differently, with one spreading spending across a larger
      number of social services and the other concentrating spending in a smaller
      number of services such as education. Determining the extent to which spending
      approaches contribute to population health may offer communities guidance for
      maximizing population health. While it cannot establish causality, this study
      adds to the literature regarding the ways in which communities invest in both
      health care and social services to prevent disease and promote population health.

PMID- 28882746
TI  - Contributing to helping to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Truly
      shifting from niche to norm.

PMID- 28882747
TI  - A novel method of multiple nucleic acid detection: Real-time RT-PCR coupled with
      probe-melting curve analysis.
AB  - A novel method, real-time reverse transcription PCR (real-time RT-PCR) coupled
      with probe-melting curve analysis, has been established to detect two kinds of
      samples within one fluorescence channel. Besides a conventional TaqMan probe,
      this method employs another specially designed melting-probe with a 5' terminus
      modification which meets the same label with the same fluorescent group. By using
      an asymmetric PCR method, the melting-probe is able to detect an extra sample in
      the melting stage effectively while it almost has little influence on the
      amplification detection. Thus, this method allows the availability of united
      employment of both amplification stage and melting stage for detecting samples in
      one reaction. The further demonstration by simultaneous detection of human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in one channel as a
      model system is presented in this essay. The sensitivity of detection by real
      time RT-PCR coupled with probe-melting analysis was proved to be equal to that
      detected by conventional real-time RT-PCR. Because real-time RT-PCR coupled with
      probe-melting analysis can double the detection throughputs within one
      fluorescence channel, it is expected to be a good solution for the problem of low
      throughput in current real-time PCR.

PMID- 28882748
TI  - Method to minimize ozone effect on Cy5 fluorescent intensity in DNA microarrays.
AB  - Cyanine 5 (Cy5) is an established fluorescent dye in microarray analysis. It is
      degraded rapidly when exposed to atmospheric ozone during post-hybridization
      washes, which leads to loss of fluorescent intensity. To minimize this
      undesirable effect, we coated microarray slides with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)
      solution at post-hybridization washes. The fluorescent intensities on coated
      slides were more stable than those on uncoated slide. We also performed the
      microarrays with SDS solution for a year to check the solution's effectiveness
      along with seasonal changes of atmospheric ozone level. Consistent results in
      microarray analysis were obtained using Cy5 dye under atmospheric ozone.

PMID- 28882749
TI  - The consequences of violence against nurses working in the emergency department:
      A qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Workplace violence (WPV) in healthcare organizations can lead to
      serious consequences that negatively affect nurses' lives and patient care. There
      is limited research on the deeper, underlying consequences of WPV for emergency
      nurses, particularly among emergency nurses in Iran. METHODS: A qualitative
      exploratory design was utilized. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with
      sixteen nurses working in emergency departments in five hospitals in west and
      east Azerbaijan of Iran. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.
      RESULTS: "Suffering nurses" emerged as a primary theme of underlying consequences
      of WPV for emergency nurses. Four sub-themes of suffering were revealed: "mental
      health risks"; "physical health risks"; "threats to professional integrity"; and
      "threats to social integrity." CONCLUSION: Emergency nurses suffer from
      consequences following WPV. These consequences may not be addressed by staff
      health and safety programs, putting nurses at further risk. The findings of this
      study can help policy makers, healthcare leadership, and managers better
      understand the consequences of WPV so they can advocate for and establish WPV
      prevention programs and support for nurses who have experienced WPV. Preventing
      violence and providing support for nurses will ensure a safe workplace and safer
      patient care.

PMID- 28882745
TI  - The effects of yoga among adults with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effects of yoga for glycemic
      control among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Comprehensive electronic
      databases searches located 2559 unique studies with relevant key terms. Studies
      were included if they (1) evaluated a yoga intervention to promote T2DM
      management, (2) used a comparison group, (3) reported an objective measure of
      glycemic control at post-intervention, and (4) had follow-up length or post-test
      of at least 8weeks from baseline. Independent raters coded participant, design
      and methodological characteristics and intervention content. Summary effect sizes
      and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Twenty-three studies with 2473
      participants (mean age=53years; 43% women) met eligibility criteria. Compared
      with controls, yoga participants were successful in improving their HbA1c
      (d+=0.36, 95% CI=0.16, 0.56; k=16), FBG (d+=0.58, 95% CI=0.40, 0.76; k=20), and
      PPBG (d+=0.40, 95% CI=0.23, 0.56; k=14). Yoga was also associated with
      significant improvements in lipid profile, blood pressure, body mass index,
      waist/hip ratio and cortisol levels. Overall, studies satisfied an average of 41%
      of the methodological quality (MQ) criteria; MQ score was not associated with any
      outcome (Ps >0.05). Yoga improved glycemic outcomes and other risk factors for
      complications in adults with T2DM relative to a control condition. Additional
      studies with longer follow-ups are needed to determine the long-term efficacy of
      yoga for adults with T2DM.

PMID- 28882750
TI  - Grey areas: New Zealand ambulance personnel's experiences of challenging
      resuscitation decision-making.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: When faced with a patient in cardiac arrest, ambulance personnel
      must rapidly make complex decisions with limited information. Much of the
      research examining decisions to commence, continue, withhold or terminate
      resuscitation has used retrospective audits of registry data and clinical
      documentation. This study offers a provider-perspective which characterises
      uncertainty and highlights clinical, cognitive, emotional and physical demands
      associated with decision-making in the cardiac arrest context. METHOD: Semi
      structured interviews with a purposive sample of sixteen demographically diverse
      ambulance personnel, currently employed in a variety of emergency ambulance
      response roles across New Zealand. RESULTS: All participants readily identified
      clinical, cognitive, emotional and ethical challenges associated with
      resuscitation decision-making. Four main themes were identified: grey areas;
      exceptional cases; scene challenges; and personal responses. A lack of
      information or a mix of favourable and unfavourable prognostic factors created
      decision-making uncertainty or "grey areas". Exceptional cases such as first
      encounters also increased uncertainty and presented emotional, ethical and
      clinical challenges. Cardiac arrest scenes were often challenging, and
      participants described managing bystander expectations and responses and
      logistical limitations including adverse environmental conditions, fatigue and
      task-overload, and crew resource management. CONCLUSION: This unique research
      presents a provider-perspective on the challenges faced by ambulance personnel
      deciding to commence, continue, withhold or terminate resuscitation efforts.
      Knowledge of personal values and strategies for managing personal responses
      appear to be central to certainty and coping. Simulated training should move
      beyond resuscitation task performance, to incorporate challenging elements and
      encourage ambulance personnel to explore their personal values, stressors and
      coping strategies.

PMID- 28882751
TI  - C2K77 ELISA detects cleavage of type II collagen by cathepsin K in equine
      articular cartilage.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Develop a species-specific ELISA for a neo-epitope generated by
      cathepsin K cleavage of equine type II collagen to: (1) measure cartilage type II
      collagen degradation by cathepsin K in vitro, (2) identify cytokines that
      upregulate cathepsin K expression and (3) compare cathepsin K with matrix
      metalloproteinase (MMP) collagenase activity in stimulated cartilage explants and
      freshly isolated normal and osteoarthritic (OA) articular cartilages. DESIGN: A
      new ELISA (C2K77) was developed and tested by measuring the activity of exogenous
      cathepsin K on equine articular cartilage explants. The ELISA was then employed
      to measure endogenous cathepsin K activity in cultured cartilage explants with or
      without stimulation by interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta), tumour necrosis-alpha (TNF
      alpha), oncostatin M (OSM) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Cathepsin K activity in
      cartilage explants (control and osteoarthritic-OA) and freshly harvested
      cartilage (control and OA) was compared to that of MMPs employing C2K77 and C1,2C
      immunoassays. RESULTS: The addition of Cathepsin K to normal cartilage caused a
      significant increase (P < 0.01) in the C2K77 epitope release. Whereas the content
      of C1,2C, that reflects MMP collagenase activity, was increased in media by the
      addition to cartilage explants of TNF-alpha and OSM (P < 0.0001) or IL-1beta and
      OSM (P = 0.002), no change was observed in C2K77 which also unchanged in OA
      cartilages compared to normal. CONCLUSIONS: The ELISA C2K77 measured the activity
      of cathepsin K in equine cartilage which was unchanged in OA cartilage. Cytokines
      that upregulate MMP collagenase activity had no effect on endogenous cathepsin K
      activity, suggesting a different activation mechanism that requires further
      study.

PMID- 28882752
TI  - Mechanosensitive ion channels in articular nociceptors drive mechanical allodynia
      in osteoarthritis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disabling and highly prevalent condition
      affecting millions worldwide. Pain is the major complaint of OA patients and is
      presently inadequately managed. It manifests as mechanical allodynia, a painful
      response to innocuous stimuli such as joint movement. Allodynia is due in part to
      the sensitization of articular nociceptors to mechanical stimuli. These
      nociceptors respond to noxious mechanical stimuli applied to their terminals via
      the expression of depolarizing high-threshold mechanosensitive ion channels
      (MSICs) that convert painful mechanical forces into electrical signals. In this
      study, we examined the contribution of MSICs to mechanical allodynia in a mouse
      model of OA. METHOD: Sodium mono-iodoacetate (MIA) was injected in the left knee
      of adult male Trpv1:Cre; GFP mice. Primary mechanical allodynia was monitored
      using the knee-bend test. Single-channel patch clamp electrophysiology was
      performed on visually-identified knee-innervating nociceptors. Dorsal horn
      neuronal activation was assessed by Fos immunoreactivity. RESULTS: In examining
      the gating properties of MSICs of naive and OA mice, we discovered that their
      activation threshold is greatly reduced, causing their opening at significantly
      lower stimuli intensities. Consequently, nociceptors are activated by mild
      mechanical stimuli. These channels are reversibly inhibited by the selective MSIC
      inhibitor GsMTx4, and the intra-articular injection of this peptide significantly
      reduced the activation of dorsal horn nociceptive circuits and primary mechanical
      allodynia in OA mice. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that MSICs are
      sensitized during OA and directly contribute to mechanical allodynia. They
      therefore represent potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of OA pain.

PMID- 28882753
TI  - Knee internal contact force in a varus malaligned phenotype in knee
      osteoarthritis (KOA).
AB  - PURPOSE: Multiple phenotypes characterized by different disease mechanisms have
      been hypothesized to explain the large variability in the knee osteoarthritis
      (KOA) population. The purpose of this study was: to estimate and compare the
      medial and lateral knee compression forces (CF) during gait of three subgroups of
      KOA subjects characterized by different alignment and cartilage disruption
      patterns. METHODS: A secondary data analysis was conducted on a sample of 39 KOA
      subjects and 18 controls (C). The patients were classified in the different
      groups according to the following criteria: Varus medial disease (VMD) (12):
      varus alignment and predominant medial cartilage degeneration Varus generalized
      disease (VGD) (17): varus alignment and cartilage degeneration that extends to
      the lateral compartment. Neutral alignment (NA) (10): neutral alignment. The
      total, medial and lateral CF corrected for body weight were estimated using an
      inverse dynamics model (AnyBody Modeling System, AnyBody Technology) during
      stance. RESULTS: The impulse of the medial compressive force (MCF) (overall
      effect of the CF over the stance) was significantly higher (P < 0.01) in the VMD
      compared to all the other groups. Peak MCF was higher in the VMD compared to all
      the other groups, but the difference reached significance only when compared to
      the VGD group (P < 0.05). The results of the regression analysis showed a
      significant relationship in the VMD group between alignment and impulse of the
      MCF (R2 = 0.62; P < 0.01). This relationship disappears in the other groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the existence of a phenotype characterized by
      increased MCF.

PMID- 28882754
TI  - Mini-review: Far peripheral vision.
AB  - The region of far peripheral vision, beyond 60 degrees of visual angle, is
      important to the evaluation of peripheral dark shadows (negative dysphotopsia)
      seen by some intraocular lens (IOL) patients. Theoretical calculations show that
      the limited diameter of an IOL affects ray paths at large angles, leading to a
      dimming of the main image for small pupils, and to peripheral illumination by
      light bypassing the IOL for larger pupils. These effects are rarely bothersome,
      and cataract surgery is highly successful, but there is a need to improve the
      characterization of far peripheral vision, for both pseudophakic and phakic eyes.
      Perimetry is the main quantitative test, but the purpose is to evaluate
      pathologies rather than characterize vision (and object and image regions are no
      longer uniquely related in the pseudophakic eye). The maximum visual angle is
      approximately 1050, but there is limited information about variations with age,
      race, or refractive error (in case there is an unexpected link with the
      development of myopia), or about how clear cornea, iris location, and the
      limiting retina are related. Also, the detection of peripheral motion is widely
      recognized to be important, yet rarely evaluated. Overall, people rarely complain
      specifically about this visual region, but with "normal" vision including an IOL
      for >5% of people, and increasing interest in virtual reality and augmented
      reality, there are new reasons to characterize peripheral vision more completely.

PMID- 28882755
TI  - Binocular contrast, stereopsis, and rivalry: Toward a dynamical synthesis.
AB  - It is well known that small orientation differences between two monocular
      gratings fuse to generate a stereoscopic perception of tilt, while large
      differences trigger binocular rivalry. In addition, unequal monocular contrasts
      combine nonlinearly to generate binocular contrast. A nonlinear neural model is
      developed here to account for binocular contrast, fusion at small orientation
      differences, and rivalry at large differences. The model also accounts for
      hysteresis in the transition between fusion and rivalry. Finally, the model
      predicts that interocular contrast differences between fusible gratings will
      produce a reduced tilt percept, and experiments reported here support this. Key
      to the model is the presence of two classes of inhibitory interneurons: one
      operating on similar orientations to normalize interocular contrast (IN), and one
      operating across large orientation differences to generate rivalry (IR).
      Critically, the IN neurons switch off the IR neurons driven by the other eye,
      thus permitting fusion of binocular plaids.

PMID- 28882756
TI  - Opening a Can of Worms: Leprosy Reactions and Complicit Soil-Transmitted
      Helminths.
AB  - BACKGROUND: >94% of new annual leprosy cases are diagnosed in populations co
      endemic for soil-transmitted helminths (STH). STH can profoundly dysregulate host
      immune responses towards Th2 bias, which can be restored over time after
      deworming. We hypothesize that STH co-infection is associated with leprosy
      reaction (denoted as simply "reaction" herein) occurrence within a co-endemic
      population. METHODS: A cohort study was performed on a cohort of Nepalese leprosy
      patients across treatment and diagnostic classifications who were screened by
      routine fecal smear microscopy and multiplex quantitative PCR (qPCR) for Ascaris
      lumbricoides (Al), Strongyloides stercoralis (Ss), Ancyclostoma duodenale (Ad)
      and Necator americanus (Na). RESULTS: Among 145 patients, 55% were positive for
      >=1 STH (STH+): 34% Al+, 18% Ss+, 17% Ad+and 5% Na+. Significant inverse STH and
      reaction relationships were evidenced by the bulk of cases: 63% reaction-negative
      were STH+ of total cases (p=0.030) while 65% reaction-positive were STH- in new
      cases (96; p=0.023). Strikingly, the majority of STH+ were reaction-negative,
      even when considering each species: 59% Al+, 60% Ss+, 62% Ad+and 67% Na+of new
      leprosy cases. CONCLUSIONS: Absence of STH co-infection is associated with
      leprosy reaction at diagnosis within a co-endemic population. This is likely due
      to immune reconstitution effects after deworming or interruption of chronic STH
      mediated immune dysregulation.

PMID- 28882757
TI  - Ion channel functional protein kinase TRPM7 regulates Mg ions to promote the
      osteoinduction of human osteoblast via PI3K pathway: In vitro simulation of the
      bone-repairing effect of Mg-based alloy implant.
AB  - : Mg-based alloys, as the potential orthopaedic implant, can self-degrade to
      avoid second operation for its remove, and enable to promote bone repair;
      however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present
      study, we examined the effect of Mg ions on osteogenesis, chemotaxis and anti
      alkaline stress in hFOB1.19 human osteoblast cells to simulate bone-repairing
      effect of a biodegradable Mg-based alloy implant in vitro, and explored the
      regulatory role of the transient receptor potential melastatin 7
      (TRPM7)/phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway in the process of Mg
      ion-induced bone repair by knockdown of TRPM7 and antagonizing PI3K activity.
      Results indicate that Mg ions up-regulated the expression of Runx2 and alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP) through TRPM7/PI3K signalling pathway, which could
      significantly enhance the osteogenic activity of human osteoblasts. Furthermore,
      the expression levels of MMP2, MMP9 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
      were increased by TRPM7/PI3K signalling pathway, which recruits osteoblasts from
      low- to high-Mg ion environments by inducing cell migration. Although an alkaline
      environment has antibacterial effects, alkaline stress can cause cytotoxicity and
      induce cell death. Finally, we found that Mg ions could activate PI3K
      phosphorylation to promote cell growth and survival, protecting cells against the
      alkaline-stress-induced cytotoxicity caused by the degradation of Mg-based alloy
      implants. Our study not only revealed the molecular mechanism of Mg in promoting
      bone repair but also explained the protective effects of Mg ions on osteoblasts
      in an alkaline environment, which provides a theoretical basis and new directions
      for the application of Mg-based alloy implant material in orthopaedics fixations
      and osteosarcoma treatment. STATEMENTS OF SIGNIFICANCE: As a potential
      biomaterial for orthopaedic implant, biodegradable magnesium has several
      advantages including self-degradation and bone repair promotion; however, the
      underlying mechanisms and effective concentration by which molecular regulates
      the bone repair remain unclear. The present study revealed that Mg ion and its
      effective concentration for activating PI3K phosphorylation via TRPM7, which
      causes three processes affecting bone repair, namely, osteoblast recruitment,
      osteogenesis and resistance to alkaline stress in human osteoblast. Therefore,
      our results have provided insight into the underlying molecular biological basis,
      and guidance for manipulating degradation rate, such as surface modification, of
      orthopaedic Mg-based implants.

PMID- 28882758
TI  - Formation and characterization of polyelectrolyte complex synthesized by chitosan
      and carboxylic curdlan for 5-fluorouracil delivery.
AB  - In this study, negatively charged carboxylic curdlan (Cc) bearing a beta-1,3
      polyglucuronic acid structure was employed to fabricate nanosized polyelectrolyte
      complexes (PECs) with positively charged chitosan (CS) in aqueous solution as
      potential carriers for 5-fluorouracil (5Fu) delivery. Nanosized CS/Cc PECs were
      formed by the addition of 0.5mg/mL solutions of CS and Cc with a mixing ratio of
      1:1 (w/w) at pH 3.0. Under optimized conditions, the prepared CS/Cc PECs showed
      spherical morphology with an average size of about 180nm and a zeta potential of
      around 41mV. The 5Fu drug was incorporated into the nanosized CS/Cc PECs and
      showed excellent encapsulation efficiency (86.47%) and loading content (10.81%).
      The drug release data in vitro indicated that the nanosized CS/Cc PECs are
      promising carriers for the sustained release of 5Fu with an anomalous transport
      mechanism following the Ritger-Peppas model. Besides, the CS/Cc PECs exhibited
      low cytotoxic activity against SPCA-1 and HeLa cell lines in vitro. This finding
      suggested that the development of the nanosized CS/Cc PECs offered great promise
      as an antitumor drug platform.

PMID- 28882759
TI  - The preparation and study of regenerated cellulose fibers by cellulose carbamate
      pathway.
AB  - In this work, using cotton pulps and urea as raw materials, cellulose carbamates
      (CCs) were successfully prepared by liquid-solid phase in the high-boiling
      aprotic and polar solvent (DMAc). Regenerated cellulose (RC) fibers were
      successfully spun from cellulose carbamate in a NaOH aqueous solution by wet
      spinning on a conventional viscose filament device. And the structures and
      properties of products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Thermal gravimetric analysis
      (TG) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), rheology measurement and dye
      testing. The results showed that the CC can be quickly dissolved in 9%NaOH
      solution. RC fibers exhibited a bright surface and an approximately circular
      cross section. There was no lobulate shape and contained obvious pores and voids
      in the internal sections. RC fibers demonstrated a typical cellulose II crystal
      structure and a good thermal stability. And tensile strength of the RC fibers was
      1.4 cN/dtex, and their elongation at break was 6.8%. Furthermore, the RC fibers
      showed excellent dyeing properties compared with viscose rayon and Yingli
      Lyocell. So, the described carbamate pathway provided a simple and
      environmentally friendly method to overcome the environmental drawbacks of the
      traditional viscose process.

PMID- 28882760
TI  - Biochemical and spectroscopic characterization of dinuclear Mn-sites in
      artificial four-helix bundle proteins.
AB  - To better understand metalloproteins with Mn-clusters, we have designed
      artificial four-helix bundles to have one, two, or three dinuclear metal centers
      able to bind Mn(II). Circular dichroism measurements showed that the Mn-proteins
      have substantial alpha-helix content, and analysis of electron paramagnetic
      resonance spectra is consistent with the designed number of bound Mn-clusters.
      The Mn-proteins were shown to catalyze the conversion of hydrogen peroxide into
      molecular oxygen. The loss of hydrogen peroxide was dependent upon the
      concentration of protein with bound Mn, with the proteins containing multiple Mn
      clusters showing greater activity. Using an oxygen sensor, the oxygen
      concentration was found to increase with a rate up to 0.4MUM/min, which was
      dependent upon the concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and the Mn-protein. In
      addition, the Mn-proteins were shown to serve as electron donors to bacterial
      reaction centers using optical spectroscopy. Similar binding of the Mn-proteins
      to reaction centers was observed with an average dissociation constant of 2.3MUM.
      The Mn-proteins with three metal centers were more effective at this electron
      transfer reaction than the Mn-proteins with one or two metal centers. Thus,
      multiple Mn-clusters can be incorporated into four-helix bundles with the
      capability of performing catalysis and electron transfer to a natural protein.

PMID- 28882762
TI  - Estimation of the diagnostic performance of two ELISAs to detect PCV2 antibodies
      in pig sera using a Bayesian method.
AB  - This study was designed to assess the diagnostic characteristics of two PCV2
      ELISAs without a gold standard. Four hundred and sixty-five serum samples from
      finishing pigs (25 herds) not vaccinated against PCV2 were used. Samples were
      tested by two ELISAs: an in-house ELISA (I-ELISA) and the commercial
      SERELISA(r)PCV2 Ab Mono Blocking kit (S-ELISA). A ROC curve was used to assess
      the S-ELISA's optimal threshold by taking the I-ELISA as a reference and using
      the cut-off previously determined by comparison to an cccmonolayer assay (IPMA).
      This led to an S-ELISA result >=170 being considered as positive. The sensitivity
      (Se) and specificity (Sp) of each ELISA were then estimated without a gold
      standard using a Bayesian approach. The mean Se and Sp values of the I-ELISA were
      slightly higher than those of the S-ELISA (mean Se I-ELISA=0.90 vs. mean Se S
      ELISA=0.86; mean Sp I-ELISA=0.92 vs. mean Sp S-ELISA=0.85). However, the 95%
      credibility intervals (CI95%) overlapped (Se I-ELISA CI95%=0.85-0.95 vs. Se S
      ELISA CI95%=0.82-0.90; Sp I-ELISA CI95%=0.82-0.98 vs. Sp S-ELISA CI95%=0.75
      0.94). Both ELISAs appeared to be valuable tools for detecting PCV2 antibodies.

PMID- 28882761
TI  - Decorin and biglycan are necessary for maintaining collagen fibril structure,
      fiber realignment, and mechanical properties of mature tendons.
AB  - The small leucine-rich proteoglycans (SLRPs), decorin and biglycan, are key
      regulators of collagen fibril and matrix assembly. The goal of this work was to
      elucidate the roles of decorin and biglycan in tendon homeostasis. Our central
      hypothesis is that decorin and biglycan expression in the mature tendon would be
      critical for the maintenance of the structural and mechanical properties of
      healthy tendons. Defining the function(s) of these SLRPs in tendon homeostasis
      requires that effects in the mature tendon be isolated from their influence on
      development. Thus, we generated an inducible knockout mouse model that permits
      genetic ablation of decorin and biglycan expression in the mature tendon, while
      maintaining normal expression during development. Decorin and biglycan expression
      were knocked out in the mature patellar tendon with the subsequent turnover of
      endogenous SLRPs deposited prior to induction. The acute absence of SLRP
      expression was associated with changes in fibril structure with a general shift
      to larger diameter fibrils in the compound knockout tendons, together with fibril
      diameter heterogeneity. In addition, tendon mechanical properties were altered.
      Compared to wild-type controls, acute ablation of both genes resulted in failure
      of the tendon at lower loads, decreased stiffness, a trend towards decreased
      dynamic modulus, as well as a significant increase in percent relaxation and
      tissue viscosity. Collagen fiber realignment was also increased with a delayed
      and slower in response to load in the absence of expression. These structural and
      functional changes in response to an acute loss of decorin and biglycan
      expression in the mature tendon demonstrate a significant role for these SLRPs in
      adult tendon homeostasis.

PMID- 28882763
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance of Enterococcus isolates in Turkey: A meta-analysis of
      current studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In this study, a meta-analysis of Enterococcus isolates collected in
      2000-2015 in Turkey and their susceptibility/resistance to antibiotics, clinical
      indications for initial drug treatment, and identification of alternative
      treatments was conducted. METHODS: The meta-analysis examined antibiotic
      susceptibility/resistance in Enterococcus spp. isolates. The study was planned
      and conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
      Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Statements on antimicrobial resistance were
      grouped according to the antimicrobial stewardship programme (ASP). RESULTS: The
      mean resistance rates of Enterococcus faecalis to vancomycin (VAN) and linezolid
      (LNZ) were 1.0+/-2.2% and 1.9+/-2.6%, respectively, whereas the mean resistance
      rates of Enterococcus faecium to VAN and LNZ were 10.3+/-11.3% and 2.4+/-0%,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first meta-analysis of the
      resistance of clinical Enterococcus isolates in Turkey to antimicrobial agents,
      which is a major problem stemming from the excessive usage of antibiotics. The
      development of antibiotic resistance in Turkey has changed over time. To support
      the practice of evidence-based medicine, more notifications about Enterococcus
      resistance status are needed, especially notifications following ASP rules.

PMID- 28882764
TI  - Clarithromycin-based therapy of Helicobacter pylori in Iran.

PMID- 28882765
TI  - Multivariate pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PKPD) analysis with metabolomics
      shows multiple effects of remoxipride in rats.
AB  - The study of central nervous system (CNS) pharmacology is limited by a lack of
      drug effect biomarkers. Pharmacometabolomics is a promising new tool to identify
      multiple molecular responses upon drug treatment. However, the pharmacodynamics
      is typically not evaluated in metabolomics studies, although being important
      properties of biomarkers. In this study we integrated pharmacometabolomics with
      pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modeling to identify and quantify the
      multiple endogenous metabolite dose-response relations for the dopamine D2
      antagonist remoxipride. Remoxipride (vehicle, 0.7 or 3.5mg/kg) was administered
      to rats. Endogenous metabolites were analyzed in plasma using a biogenic amine
      platform and PKPD models were derived for each single metabolite. These models
      were clustered on basis of proximity between their PKPD parameter estimates, and
      PKPD models were subsequently fitted for the individual clusters. Finally, the
      metabolites were evaluated for being significantly affected by remoxipride. In
      total 44 metabolites were detected in plasma, many of them showing a dose
      dependent decrease from baseline. We identified 6 different clusters with
      different time and dose dependent responses and 18 metabolites were revealed as
      potential biomarker. The glycine, serine and threonine pathway was associated
      with remoxipride pharmacology, as well as the brain uptake of the dopamine and
      serotonin precursors. This is the first time that pharmacometabolomics and PKPD
      modeling were integrated. The resulting PKPD cluster model described diverse
      pharmacometabolomics responses and provided a further understanding of
      remoxipride pharmacodynamics. Future research should focus on the simultaneous
      pharmacometabolomics analysis in brain and plasma to increase the
      interpretability of these responses.

PMID- 28882766
TI  - Pharmacologic studies on ET-26 hydrochloride in a rat model of lipopolysaccharide
      induced sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: ET-26 hydrochloride (ET-26 HCl) is a promising sedation-hypnotic
      compound with stable hemodynamic features that elicits virtually no
      adrenocortical suppression. However, whether it preserves better pharmacologic
      characteristics in a rat model of sepsis is not known. This study compared the
      survival rate, levels of corticosterone and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and
      histologic injury in the lungs and kidneys of rats suffering from sepsis treated
      with ET-26 HCl, etomidate, or normal saline (NS). METHODS: Rats were given
      lipopolysaccharide (1mg/kg body weight, i.v.) to establish a sepsis model. Thirty
      minutes after lipopolysaccharide administration, ET-26 HCl, etomidate or NS were
      given as a bolus injection at equivalent doses. Plasma levels of corticosterone,
      interleukin-1beta, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      were measured 1, 2, 4, 6 and 24h after administration. Histologic injury was
      observed at the time of death or 24h after drug administration. RESULTS: The
      survival rate for rats in the etomidate, ET-26 HCl and NS groups was 40%, 90% and
      90%, respectively. Corticosterone concentrations in the etomidate group were
      lower than those in the other groups 1h after administration of hypnotic
      compounds. Concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the ET-26 HCl group
      and NS group were not significantly different, but were significantly lower than
      those in the etomidate group. The injury scores of kidneys and lungs in the
      etomidate group were higher than those in ET-26 HCl and NS groups. CONCLUSIONS:
      ET-26 HCl showed virtually no suppression of corticosterone synthesis, lower
      concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines, higher survival rate, and less
      organ injury in rats suffering from sepsis compared with the etomidate group. It
      may be safer to induce anesthesia using ET-26 HCl, rather than etomidate, in
      patients suffering from sepsis.

PMID- 28882767
TI  - Optimization of alginate microcapsules containing cells overexpressing alpha-l
      iduronidase using Box-Behnken design.
AB  - Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by
      deficiency of alpha-l-iduronidase (IDUA), which results in the lysosomal
      accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) leading to widespread clinical
      manifestations. The microencapsulation of IDUA overexpressing recombinant cells
      has been considered as a promising strategy for the treatment of MPS I. This
      study aimed at the optimization of alginate microcapsules containing recombinant
      BHK (Baby Hamster Kidney) cells (rBHK) overexpressing IDUA produced by
      electrostatic extrusion technique. The alginate microcapsule (MC-A) optimization
      study was carried out by means of an experimental Box-Behnken Design that allowed
      the simultaneous evaluation of the influence of voltage (kV), alginate/cell
      suspension flow (mL/h), and alginate concentration (%) on size and IDUA activity.
      The optimal conditions of voltage (10kV), flow (25mL/h), and alginate
      concentration (1.3%) made possible to obtain the smallest microcapsules showing
      the highest IDUA activity. After optimization, the microcapsules were
      sequentially coated with PLL and alginate (MC-APA) to increase their stability.
      MC-A and MC-APA presented monodisperse populations (span<1.22) with an average
      diameter of less than 350MUm. The coating increased the mechanical stability of
      MC-APA by about 6-fold and modulated the permeability to the enzyme. Surface
      analyzes of MC-APA showed the presence of PLL bands, suggesting that the last
      alginate layer appears to have only partially coated the PLL. After 30days of
      subcutaneous implantation of the MC-APA microcapsules containing rBHK cells in a
      MPS I murine model, a significant increase in IDUA activity was observed in the
      skin near the implant. Histological analysis revealed an inflammatory infiltrate
      at the application site, which did not prevent the release of the enzyme under
      the conditions evaluated. Taken together, the overall results demonstrate the
      feasibility of MC-APA as a potential alternative for local treatment of MPS I.

PMID- 28882768
TI  - Long-term outcome of laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication in a regional hospital
      setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication is considered to be the standard
      approach for the surgical treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Various
      trials have assessed the outcome of the operation performed in high-volume
      centers, but the existing evidence regarding peripheral, low-volume hospitals is
      scarce. The purpose of this study is to investigate the late outcome of
      laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication with regard to symptom control and
      postoperative quality of life in a community-hospital setting. METHODS: 376
      patients underwent laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication in our hospital during the
      period of 1997-2012. Patients were asked to subjectively; assess the pre- and
      postoperative severity of their symptoms and quality of life. Follow-up was
      conducted by means of a mailed questionnaire. RESULTS: Respondents had a median
      follow-up of 8.8 years (range: 1.4-17). 60.8% (101/166) patients reported
      complete control of heartburn. Ten patients (6%) had undergone revisional
      surgery. 31 respondents (18.6%) reported a new-onset dysphagia postoperatively.
      85% (138/166) of the respondents would have; the operation again, if necessary.
      73.6% (120/166) reported a lasting improvement of their overall quality of life.
      CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication is a safe method with significant
      long-term efficacy in terms of symptom control and quality of life, even when;
      performed in a low-volume, community-hospital setting.

PMID- 28882769
TI  - Adjuvant hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy after hemihepatectomy for gastric
      cancer liver metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most frequent pattern of recurrence is remnant liver after
      hepatectomy for gastric cancer liver metastases (GLM). The evidence of adjuvant
      hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) after hepatectomy for GLM is lacking.
      The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant HAIC after
      hemihepatectomy for GLM. METHODS: Between 2001 and 2012, 14 patients who
      underwent hemihepatectomy for GLM were included in this study. Adjuvant HAIC to
      the remnant hemiliver was the FEM regimen (333 mg/m2 5-fluorouracil each week, 30
      mg/m2 epirubicin once every 4 weeks, and 2.7 mg/m2 mitomycin-C once every 2
      weeks) and was administered for 6 months after hemihepatectomy.
      Clinicopathological prognostic factors for survival were analyzed using a
      prospectively collected database. RESULTS: Nine patients had solitary GLM, and 5
      patients had multiple GLM before surgery. The median period from hemihepatectomy
      to HAIC was 30 days. The 6-month HAIC completion rate was 79% (n = 11/14).
      Reasons of HAIC failure included liver dysfunction (n = 1), catheter infection (n
      = 1), and development of multiple recurrence (n = 1). The median follow-up was 29
      (range 8-166) months. Recurrences were detected in 8 patients (57%). The site of
      recurrences included lung (n = 1), lymph nodes (n = 1), peritoneal dissemination
      (n = 1), brain (n = 1), pleural (n = 1), and multiple sites (n = 3). The overall
      5-year survival rate was 43%. The pathological T4 classification and the
      preoperative CEA >=5 ng/mL were significant prognostic factors for overall
      survival. CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant HAIC after hemihepatectomy for GLM prevents
      remnant liver recurrence and may contribute to long-term survival.

PMID- 28882770
TI  - Video-Assisted Anal Fistula Treatment (VAAFT) in Cryptoglandular fistula-in-ano:
      A systematic review and proportional meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Video-Assisted Anal Fistula Treatment (VAAFT) is a relatively new
      minimally invasive videoendoscopic procedure for treating fistula-in-ano. We
      reviewed and performed metaanalysis to evaluate the efficacy of this procedure.
      METHODS: Studies from the period 2010 to 2016 were searched in PubMed, Medline,
      Scopus, Embase, Ovid, SCI database, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled
      Trials (CENTRAL) & Google Scholar database. All studies which utilized VAAFT to
      treat fistula-in-ano were extracted. The studies in which the Cryptoglandular
      fistula were treated were included. Procedure's done in patients with Crohn's
      disease, pediatric patients and associated malignancy were excluded from the
      study. The primary outcome parameter was success rate in fistula healing and the
      secondary outcome parameters were operating time, hospital stay, return to work,
      incontinence rate and complication rate. RESULTS: A total of 1378 studies were
      screened. Out of these, eight studies were finally included for meta-analysis.
      The analysis (n = 786) demonstrated a net Proportion Meta-analysis pooled rate of
      76.01% (95% CI = 68.1 to 83.9) for success rate, 16.2% (95% CI = 12.1 to 20.2)
      for complications, 44.7 min (95% CI = 38.3 to 51.2) for operating time, 1-4.1
      days for mean hospital stay and 1-11 days for return to work. None of the studies
      reported worsening of continence levels. CONCLUSIONS: VAAFT is a safe
      videoendoscopic method to treat fistula-in-ano with an overall success rate of
      76% (net Proportion Meta-analysis pooled rate). The main benefit of the procedure
      is minimal risk to incontinence, minimal hospital stay and early return to work.

PMID- 28882772
TI  - Early elective versus delayed elective surgery in acute recurrent diverticulitis:
      A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate outcomes of early versus delayed surgery in patients
      with acute recurrent diverticulitis. METHODS: We performed a systematic review in
      accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta
      Analyses statement standards. We conducted a search of electronic information
      sources, including MEDLINE; EMBASE; CINAHL; the Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); the World Health Organization International Clinical
      Trials Registry; ClinicalTrials.gov; and ISRCTN Register, and bibliographic
      reference lists to identify all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and
      observational studies investigating outcomes of early versus delayed surgery in
      patients with acute recurrent diverticulitis. We used the Newcastle-Ottawa scale
      to assess the risk of bias of included studies. Random-effects models were
      applied to calculate pooled outcome data. RESULTS: We identified three
      retrospective and one prospective cohort studies enrolling a total of 1046
      patients. The included patients were comparable in terms of age, ASA score and
      Hinchey classifications (Hinchey I and II). The results of our analyses suggested
      that there was no difference between two groups in surgical site infection [Odds
      ratio (OR) 1.61, 95% CI 0.79-3.27, P = 0.19], intra-abdominal abscess (OR 0.92,
      95% CI 0.21-4.00, P = 0.91), anastomotic leak (OR1.27, 95% CI 0.50-3.25, P =
      0.61), 30-day mortality [Risk difference (RD) 0.00 95% CI -0.01-0.01, P = 0.80],
      postoperative ileus (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.50-3.66, P = 0.55), postoperative bleeding
      (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.32-2.69, P = 0.89), ureteric injury (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.08
      5.07, P = 0.65), and overall morbidity (OR 1.42 95% CI 0.76-2.66, P = 0.27). The
      early surgery was associated with longer operative time [Mean Difference (MD)
      12.8, 95% CI 5.08-20.53, P = 0.001] and length of stay (MD 4.41, 95% CI -0.34
      8.53, P = 0.03). Among those undergoing laparoscopic surgery, conversion to open
      surgery was higher in the early surgery group (OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.36-5.40, P =
      0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The best available evidence suggests that there is no
      difference between early elective and delayed elective surgery for acute
      recurrent diverticulitis in terms of clinical outcomes. However, longer operative
      time and length of stay and higher conversion rate to open surgery associated
      with early elective surgery may make the delayed elective surgery more cost
      effective. The best available evidence is derived from non-randomised studies;
      therefore, high quality randomised controlled trials are required to provide more
      robust basis for definite conclusions.

PMID- 28882773
TI  - Shockwave treatment for medial tibial stress syndrome in military cadets: A
      single-blind randomized controlled trial.
AB  - : Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) is a common injury in athletes and
      soldiers. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of extracorporeal
      shockwave treatment (ESWT) in athletes with MTSS. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether
      one session of focused ESWT is effective in the treatment of military cadets with
      MTSS. DESIGN: A randomized, prospective, controlled, single-blind, parallel-group
      clinical study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Ib. SETTING: Military School of Cadets of the
      Colombian Army. METHODS: Forty-two military cadets with unilateral chronic MTSS
      were randomly assigned to either one session of focused electromagnetic ESWT
      (1500 pulses at 0.20 mJ/mm2) plus a specific exercise programme (muscle
      stretching and strengthening exercises) or the exercise programme alone. The
      primary endpoint was change in asymptomatic running test (RT) duration at four
      weeks from baseline. Secondary endpoints were changes in the visual analogue
      scale (VAS) after running and modified Roles and Maudsley (RM) score also at four
      weeks from baseline. RESULTS: ESWT patients were able to run longer. Mean RT
      after four weeks was 17 min 33 s (SE: 2.36) compared to 4 min 48 s (SE: 1.03) in
      the exercise-only group (p = 0.000). Mean VAS after running was 2.17 (SE: 0.44)
      in the ESWT group versus 4.26 (SE: 0.36) in the exercise-only group (p = 0.001).
      The ESWT group had a significantly higher RM score, with excellent or good
      results for 82.6% of patients vs. 36.8% in the exercise-only group (p = 0.002).
      No significant adverse effects of ESWT were observed. CONCLUSION: A single
      application of focused shockwave treatment in combination with a specific
      exercise programme accelerates clinical and functional recovery in military
      cadets with MTSS.

PMID- 28882771
TI  - Eccentric technique for foraminoplasty in percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal
      procedure: A technical note.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe a modified technique usied for foraminoplasty in
      percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal procedure. METHODS: 58 patients (20 males
      and 38 females, average age 52.5 years) underwent percutaneous endoscopic
      transforaminal procedure by using our modified technique. Under the guidance of C
      arm fluoroscopy, a kirschner wire was inserted into targeted superior articular
      process. After expanding the soft tissues, a trepan with the largest diameter was
      located through the kirschner wire and the angle of trepan was flexible enough to
      adjust to different operative conditions. This technique could help to avoided
      using step-by-step larger diameters of trepans without slippage during
      foraminoplasty. RESULTS: With our modified technique, the mean operation time was
      65 min (range 50-80 min) and mean estimated blood loss was 12 ml (range 10-30
      ml). Fluoroscopy was less (the mean duration of fluoroscopy was 20.4 +/- 9.2 s
      and the mean radiation dose was 0.9 +/- 0.2 mSv) and no complications occurred.
      All foraminoplasties were excellent via CT scans after surgery and all patients
      were discharged on 2nd day after operation. The results of 58 patients with an
      average follow-up of 18 (6-36) months demonstrated our eccentric technique to be
      effective. CONCLUSION: Our eccentric technique could help to avoid step-by-step
      larger diameters of trepans during foraminoplasty to shorten operation time and
      reduced the number of fluoroscopy intraoperative.

PMID- 28882774
TI  - How Prospective Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Trainees Rank Residency
      Training Programs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since the inception of the National Resident Matching Program,
      multiple studies have investigated the factors applicants consider important to
      ranking prospective residency programs. However, only 2 previous studies focused
      on prospective physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) trainees, and the most
      recent of these studies was published in 1993. It is unknown whether these
      previous studies are reflective of current prospective PM&R residents. OBJECTIVE:
      To assess various factors that contribute to prospective PM&R residents' decision
      making in choosing a residency program and compare these findings with previous
      studies. DESIGN: An anonymous, voluntary questionnaire. SETTING: A single PM&R
      residency program. PARTICIPANTS: All applicants to a single PM&R residency
      program. METHODS: All applicants to our PM&R residency program were invited to
      participate in a 44-item, 5-point Likert-based questionnaire. Applicants were
      asked to rate the importance of various factors as they related to constructing
      their residency rank list. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Means and standard
      deviations were calculated for items included in the survey. RESULTS: A response
      rate of 26% was obtained, with the responses of 98 applicants (20%) ultimately
      analyzed. The highest rated factors included "perceived happiness of current
      residents," "opportunities for hands-on procedure training," "perceived
      camaraderie among current residents," "perceived camaraderie among faculty and
      current residents," "perceived quality of current residents," and "perceived
      work/life balance among current residents." Although male and female respondents
      demonstrated similar ranking preferences, an apparent difference was detected
      between how genders rated the importance of "whether the program projects a
      favorable environment for women" and "whether the program projects a favorable
      environment for minorities." As compared with previous PM&R applicants, current
      prospective trainees seem to place greater importance on skill acquisition over
      didactic teaching. CONCLUSION: Prospective PM&R residents highly value subjective
      perceptions of prospective PM&R training programs and the ability to obtain hands
      on procedural experience. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Not applicable.

PMID- 28882775
TI  - Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in a Patient With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Case
      Presentation.
AB  - : We present a case of a 17-year-old girl who developed premenstrual dysphoric
      disorder (PMDD) after sustaining a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), and we
      review the diagnosis of PMDD. The patient developed symptoms of severe depression
      surrounding her menses months after sustaining severe TBI and was diagnosed with
      PMDD by a psychiatrist. She ultimately required antipsychotics for optimal
      symptom resolution. PMDD is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome with symptoms
      including irritability, anxiety, and nonfatal suicidal behavior. We discuss other
      potential causes of mood disturbance that are important to screen for after TBI,
      including depression, anxiety, and hypothalamic-pituitary axis disorders.
      Rehabilitation medicine providers need to be aware of PMDD in postpubertal female
      patients with TBI because it can lead to nonfatal suicidal behaviors. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: V.

PMID- 28882776
TI  - Immunosuppressant Medication-Induced Lower Extremity Pain After Combined Liver
      and Kidney Transplant: A Case Report.
AB  - : Calcineurin inhibitors are imperative in the success of a transplanted organ.
      However, these immunosuppressants can lead to a rare complication known as
      calcineurin inhibitor-induced pain syndrome, which may not be recognized early
      and managed appropriately. We present a case of a 35-year-old woman who underwent
      a combined liver/kidney transplant and developed lower extremity pain while being
      maintained on tacrolimus. This case illustrates a patient with previously
      reported characteristic clinical features of calcineurin inhibitor-induced pain
      syndrome in addition to uncharacteristic neuropathic symptoms and imaging
      findings. The patient was treated successfully with gabapentin, calcitonin nasal
      spray, and acupuncture. Early recognition of this syndrome can help improve a
      patient's quality of life. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V.

PMID- 28882777
TI  - Secondary Urethral Malignancies Following Prostate Brachytherapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand urethral secondary malignancies among patients treated
      with brachytherapy (BRT) for primary prostate cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Institutional retrospective review identified 13 patients evaluated from 2003 to
      2014 with urethral cancer and history of BRT monotherapy for prostate cancer. All
      patients were biochemically free of their primary disease and radiation
      associated secondary malignancies (RASMs) were confirmed pathologically to be
      histologically distinct from primary tumor. BRT characteristics, patient age,
      presentation, staging workup, and clinical course were evaluated. RESULTS: The
      mean time from BRT to presenting symptoms of hematuria, urinary retention, and/or
      renal failure was 71 months. Symptom onset to RASM diagnosis interval was 24
      months. Mean time from BRT to RASM diagnosis was 95 months. Eighty-five percent
      of patients had an undetectable prostate-specific antigen level (<0.2 ng/mL) at
      last follow-up. Types of RASM included sarcomatoid carcinoma (6), small cell
      carcinoma (2), urothelial carcinoma with squamous differentiation (2), squamous
      cell carcinoma (1), rhabdomyosarcoma (1), and urothelial carcinoma (1). A
      majority of patients were diagnosed with advanced disease with either distant
      metastases (54%) or local progression (23%). Ten patients died during this study
      period with median time to death after RASM diagnosis of 6 months. CONCLUSION:
      RASMs localized to the posterior urethra displayed advanced disease and high
      mortality rates. Refractory lower urinary tract symptoms, hematuria, and history
      of prostate BRT should raise suspicion for urethral RASMs. Further studies are
      warranted to determine patient and disease characteristics that correlate with
      disease-specific mortality of secondary urethral malignancies.

PMID- 28882778
TI  - The Efficacy of Tadalafil Daily vs on Demand in the Treatment of Erectile
      Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - We present a review comparing the use of tadalafil daily vs on-demand for
      erectile dysfunction. We examined randomized controlled trials and observational
      studies that examined the use of tadalafil for at least 8 weeks of follow-up with
      the primary outcome of International Index for Erectile Dysfunction-Erectile
      Function domain. Eight studies that examined the desired dosing regimens were
      identified. Of these, 6 studies included the primary end point of 12 weeks. Those
      patients taking tadalafil daily for 12 weeks scored on average 1.82 points higher
      in International Index for Erectile Dysfunction-Erectile Function domain scores,
      although the difference may not be clinically significant (Fig. 1).

PMID- 28882779
TI  - Safety and Effectiveness of Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate Using a Low
      power Laser.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and effectiveness of holmium laser enucleation of
      the prostate (HoLEP) using a low-power 30-W holmium laser with an en bloc
      enucleation technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 74
      patients with a diagnosis of benign prostatic hyperplasia treated with HoLEP
      using a 30-W laser set at 1.5 J with a frequency of 20 Hz, as a low-power
      setting. The enucleation process was performed using the en bloc technique. Forty
      four patients were operated on by an experienced surgeon, whereas 30 patients
      were operated on by 2 less experienced surgeons. We evaluated the surgical
      parameters and practicality of the low-power laser. RESULTS: All patients
      underwent successful HoLEP with the low-power setting; it was not necessary to
      increase the output of the laser in any case. Mean preoperative estimated
      prostate volume was 94.5 mL (range 22-489 mL). Mean total operating time and
      enucleation time were 91.9 minutes (range 30-232 minutes) and 45.4 minutes (range
      13-101 minutes), respectively. No patient required blood transfusion
      postoperatively. Other intraoperative complications, including capsular
      perforation and ureteral orifice injury, did not occur. In 55 patients without
      preoperative stress urinary incontinence (SUI), postoperative SUI was observed in
      7 patients (12.7%) at 1 month postoperatively, and in 3 patients (5.5%) at 3
      months postoperatively. CONCLUSION: HoLEP using a low-power 30-W holmium laser
      can be performed safely and without any technical problems; this low-power
      setting is thought to be sufficient for performing HoLEP. As the introduction
      costs can be reduced by using a low-power laser, HoLEP could become widespread.

PMID- 28882780
TI  - Reply by the Authors.

PMID- 28882782
TI  - Prostate Cancer in Transgender Women: Incidence, Etiopathogenesis, and Management
      Challenges.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To critically analyze the available evidence regarding the incidence,
      etiopathogenesis, and management of prostate cancer (CaP) in transgender women.
      In addition, this article aims to present a recent case report of a transgender
      woman with a unique presentation at the author's institution. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: An electronic nonsystematic literature search was performed to identify
      pertinent studies. PubMed search engine was queried by using the following search
      terms: "prostate cancer," "male to female transsexual," "transgender patient,"
      "androgen + prostate cancer," "estrogen therapy + prostate cancer," and "health
      care barrier." In addition, a clinical case managed at our institution was
      reviewed and critically discussed. RESULTS: Including our case, there have been
      only 10 documented cases of CaP in transgender women. Additionally, an emerging
      body of literature has questioned the role of androgens in the development of CaP
      and suggested that estrogen therapy may not be as protective as initially
      thought. Therefore, the current evidence suggests that the transgender woman
      should be screened for CaP the same as a nontransgender men. Barriers to care in
      the transgender female population include accessing resources, medical knowledge
      deficits, ethics of transition-related medical care, diagnosing vs pathologizing
      transgender patients, financial restrictions of the patient, and health system
      determinants. CONCLUSION: Although rare, CaP in transgender women has been
      documented. Both the mechanism and the impact of receiving a bilateral
      orchiectomy on disease development are unclear. Future study is needed to examine
      these factors, and to further shape the treatment and screening regimen for these
      patients.

PMID- 28882781
TI  - Ureteroscopic Urinary Stone Treatment Among Patients With Renal Anomalies:
      Patient Characteristics and Treatment Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patients' characteristics, surgical procedure data, and
      outcomes of ureterorenoscopy (URS) stone treatment in patients with a horseshoe
      kidney (HSK), ectopic kidney (EK), and malrotated kidney (MK). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This study is a subanalysis of the Clinical Research Office of the
      Endourological Society URS Global Study, which was a prospective multicenter
      observational study, collecting data on URS stone treatment from consecutive
      patients over a 1-year period. A total of 114 centers in 32 countries
      participated. This analysis acuminated on URS stone treatment in the specified
      renal anomalies: HSK, EK, and MK. For each group, patient characteristics,
      operation data, and treatment outcomes were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 11,885
      patients included in the Clinical Research Office of the Endourological Society
      URS study, 43 patients had HSK, 27 EK, and 16 MK. The stone-free rate (SFR) in
      the HSK group was 77% for renal stones and 85% for ureteral stones. In the HSK
      group, the intraoperative complication rate was 11.6% and the postoperative
      complication rate was 7%, including 1 Clavien grade IIIa and 1 IIIb complication.
      In the EK group, the SFR was 20% for renal stones and 94% for ureteral stones,
      with an intraoperative complication rate of 14.8% and a postoperative
      complication rate of 7.4%. One Clavien IVa complication was reported. In the MK
      group, the SFR was 71% for renal stones and 88% for ureteral stones, with an
      intraoperative complication rate of 6.3%. No postoperative complications occurred
      in this group. CONCLUSION: URS is an effective and safe treatment modality to
      remove ureteral and renal stones in patients with HSK and MK. The effectiveness
      of URS for renal stones in EK was low.

PMID- 28882783
TI  - ramR is not involved in the regulation of ramA associated antibiotic resistance
      in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi.
AB  - RamA, a global transcriptional activator, belongs to the AraC/XylS family of
      regulatory proteins and can regulate multidrug resistance through activating the
      expression of AcrAB. In Salmonella spp., Klebsiella pneumonia, Enterobacter
      cloacae and Enterobacter aerogenes, RamR represses the transcription of gene ramA
      through binding to the upstream sequences of ramA. In this study, we found that
      the locus and transcription directions of ramA-ramR in S. Typhi GIFU10007 are
      different from that in S. Typhimurium (SL1344). To study the role of RamR
      involved in regulation of ramA in S. Typhi, we constructed ramA over-expression
      strain and ramR deletion mutant, and detected the expression level of ramA, and
      measured the growth curve of these strain in the presence of ampicillin. The
      results showed that RamR in S. Typhi neither repressed the expression of ramA,
      nor affected the bacterial resistance to ampicillin. In summary, RamR is not the
      repressor of RamA in S. Typhi, which is different from its role in other
      bacteria, such as S. Typhimurium and K. pneumoniae.

PMID- 28882784
TI  - High prevalence of diverse vancomycin resistance Enterococcus faecium isolates in
      clinical and environmental sources in ICU wards in southwest of Iran.
AB  - This study aimed at determining the prevalence, antibiotic resistance patterns,
      and genetic linkage of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) from
      different sources in the southwest of Iran. A total of 51 VREfm isolates were
      obtained and subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing, carriage of
      virulence genes, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method. All the VRE
      isolates exhibited a high level of resistance to teicoplanin, ampicillin,
      erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, and gentamicin, also carried the vanA gene. A total
      of 59% and 34% of the VREfm strains harbored esp and hyl genes, respectively. The
      results from PFGE showed 31 PFGE patterns including 10 common types (CT) and 21
      single types (ST) among the VRE isolates. Furthermore, isolates from different
      sources in each common type revealed cross transmission between clinical and
      environmental sources. Overall, the study showed a high prevalence of diverse VRE
      faecium strains with threatening resistance phenotypes in the environment and
      clinical sections among different ICU wards of Ahvaz hospitals.

PMID- 28882785
TI  - Orlistat treatment induces apoptosis and arrests cell cycle in HSC-3 oral cancer
      cells.
AB  - The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of orlistat on an oral
      squamous cancer line HSC-3 as well as the underlying mechanism. Cell Counting Kit
      8 (CCK-8) (Dojindo, Shanghai, China) was used for the analysis of proliferation,
      Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide staining for apoptosis and flow cytometry for
      cell cycle distribution. Western blot assay was used to determine the alteration
      in the expression of cyclin D1, B1, E and CDK1. The results revealed a
      concentration and time-dependent decrease in the proliferation of HSC-3 cells by
      orlistat. The viability of HSC-3 cells was reduced to 23.4 +/- 2.5 and 15.7 +/-
      1.6% at 40 and 50 MUM concentration of orlistat after 48 h. Treatment of HSC-3
      cells with orlistat resulted induction of apoptosis significantly (p < 0.05).
      Orlistat treatment led to the increase in proportion of apoptotic cells to 38.6
      +/- 2.5% after 48 h compared to 0.85 +/- 0.34% in the control. Analysis of cell
      cycle showed that population of cells in G2/M phase in the cultures treated with
      orlistat for 48 h increased to 59.7 +/- 5% compared to 10.2 +/- 1.2% in the
      control. However, the population of cells in the G0/G1 and S phases was
      subsequently decreased. The expression of cyclin D1 and E was decreased and
      phosphorylation of CDK1 was increased by orlistat treatment in HSC-3 cells. Thus,
      orlistat induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase in HSC-3 cells
      through decrease in expression of cyclin D1 and E and increase in phosphorylation
      of CDK1. Therefore, orlistat can be used for the treatment of oral squamous
      cancer.

PMID- 28882788
TI  - Efficient detection of chromosome imbalances and single nucleotide variants using
      targeted sequencing in the clinical setting.
AB  - We evaluated an approach to detect copy number variants (CNVs) and single
      nucleotide changes (SNVs), using a clinically focused exome panel complemented
      with a backbone and SNP probes that allows for genome-wide copy number changes
      and copy-neutral absence of heterozygosity (AOH) calls; this approach potentially
      substitutes the use of chromosomal microarray testing and sequencing into a
      single test. A panel of 16 DNA samples with known alterations ranging from
      megabase-scale CNVs to single base modifications were used as positive controls
      for sequencing data analysis. The DNA panel included CNVs (n = 13) of variable
      sizes (23 Kb to 27 Mb), uniparental disomy (UPD; n = 1), and single point
      mutations (n = 2). All DNA sequence changes were identified by the current
      platform, showing that CNVs of at least 23 Kb can be properly detected. The
      estimated size of genomic imbalances detected by microarrays and next generation
      sequencing are virtually the same, indicating that the resolution and sensitivity
      of this approach are at least similar to those provided by DNA microarrays.
      Accordingly, our data show that the combination of a sequencing platform
      comprising focused exome and whole genome backbone, with appropriate algorithms,
      enables a cost-effective and efficient solution for the simultaneous detection of
      CNVs and SNVs.

PMID- 28882787
TI  - Steering Against Wind: A New Network of NamiRNAs and Enhancers.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous non-coding RNAs with regulatory
      functions. Traditionally, miRNAs are thought to play a negative regulatory role
      in the cytoplasm by binding to the 3'UTR of target genes to degrade mRNA or
      inhibit translation. However, it remains a challenge to interpret the potential
      function of many miRNAs located in the nucleus. Recently, we reported a new type
      of miRNAs present in the nucleus, which can activate gene expression by binding
      to the enhancer, and named them nuclear activating miRNAs (NamiRNAs). The
      discovery of NamiRNAs showcases a complementary regulatory mechanism of miRNA,
      demonstrating their differential roles in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Here, we
      reviewed miRNAs in nucleus to better understand the function of NamiRNAs in their
      interactions with the enhancers. Accordingly, we propose a NamiRNA-enhancer
      target gene activation network model to better understand the crosstalk between
      NamiRNAs and enhancers in regulating gene transcription. Moreover, we hypothesize
      that NamiRNAs may be involved in cell identity or cell fate determination during
      development, although further study is needed to elucidate the underlying
      mechanisms in detail.

PMID- 28882786
TI  - Exosomal biomarkers in Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Every person with Down syndrome (DS) has the characteristic features of
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology in their brain by the age of forty, and
      most go on to develop AD dementia. Since people with DS show highly variable
      levels of baseline function, it is often difficult to identify early signs of
      dementia in this population. The discovery of blood biomarkers predictive of
      dementia onset and/or progression in DS is critical for developing effective
      clinical diagnostics. Our recent studies show that neuron-derived exosomes, which
      are small extracellular vesicles secreted by most cells in the body, contain
      elevated levels of amyloid-beta peptides and phosphorylated-Tau that could
      indicate a preclinical AD phase in people with DS starting in childhood. We also
      found that the relative levels of these biomarkers were altered following
      dementia onset. Exosome release and signaling are dependent on cellular redox
      homeostasis as well as on inflammatory processes, and exosomes may be involved in
      the immune response, suggesting a dual role as both triggers of inflammation in
      the brain and propagators of inflammatory signals between brain regions. Based on
      recently reported connections between inflammatory processes and exosome release,
      the elevated neuroinflammatory state observed in people with DS may affect
      exosomal AD biomarkers. Herein, we discuss findings from studies of people with
      DS, people with DS and AD (DS-AD), and mouse models of DS showing new connections
      between neuroinflammatory pathways, oxidative stress, exosomes, and exosome
      mediated signaling, which may inform future AD diagnostics, preventions, and
      treatments in the DS population as well as in the general population.

PMID- 28882789
TI  - Litopenaeus vannamei activating transcription factor 6 alpha gene involvement in
      ER-stress response and white spot symptom virus infection.
AB  - A previous study found that inositol-requiring enzyme-1-X-box binding protein 1
      (IRE1-XBP1) pathway and the protein kinase RNA (PKR)-like ER kinase-eIF2alpha
      (PERK-eIF2alpha) pathway of shrimp play roles in the unfolded protein response
      (UPR). And they also be proved that was involved in white spot symptom virus
      (WSSV) infection. Yet the functions of the third branch in shrimp UPR are still
      unclear. In this study, we showed that upon UPR activation, activating
      transcription factor 6 alpha (LvATF6alpha) of Litopenaeus vannamei was cleaved
      and transferred from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in 293T cells, indicating that
      the ATF6 pathway in shrimp is also a branch of UPR. Furthermore, LvATF6alpha
      could reduce the apoptosis rate of Drosophila Schneider 2 (S2) cells treated with
      actinomycin, and knock-down expression of LvATF6alpha increased the apoptosis
      rate of shrimp hemocytes. In vivo testing revealed that the short from
      LvATF6alpha (LvATF6alpha-s) was obviously increased after UPR activation or WSSV
      infection, indicating that the ATF6 pathway was activated in L. vannamei gills
      under such circumstances. Moreover, knock-down expression of LvATF6alpha could
      reduce the cumulative mortality and WSSV copy number in WSSV-infected shrimp.
      Further study revealed that WSSV may profit from shrimp ATF6 pathway activation
      in two aspects. First, LvATF6alpha-s significantly upregulated the expression of
      the WSSV genes (wsv023, wsv045, wsv083, wsv129, wsv222, wsv249, and wsv343).
      Second, LvATF6alpha-s inhibited apoptosis by negatively regulating the apoptosis
      signal-regulating kinase 1 - (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) pathway. All of these
      evidences suggested that the ATF6 pathway is a member of the L. vannamei UPR, and
      it is also engaged in WSSV infection.

PMID- 28882790
TI  - Molecular characterization, expression and functional analysis of two Kazal-type
      serine protease inhibitors from Venerupis philippinarum.
AB  - Kazal-type serine protease inhibitors (KSPIs) act as negative regulators in
      immune signaling pathway by controlling the extent of serine protease (SP)
      activities. In this study, the full-length cDNA of two KSPIs (designed as VpKSPI
      1 and VpKSPI-2) were identified from Venerupis philippinarum by rapid
      amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) approaches. The open reading frame (ORF) of
      VpKSPI-1 and VpKSPI-2 was of 552 bp and 402 bp, encoding a polypeptide of 183 and
      133 amino acids, respectively. The transcripts of VpKSPI-1 and VpKSPI-2 were
      ubiquitously expressed in all tissues tested with the highest expression level in
      hepatopancreas. After Vibrio anguillarum challenge, the relative mRNA expression
      of VpKSPI-1 and VpKSPI-2 in hepatopancreas was both up-regulated within 96 h. The
      recombinant VpKSPI-1 (rVpKSPI-1) displayed weak activities towards chymotrypsin,
      moderate inhibitory activity to trypsin, while rVpKSPI-2 showed significant
      inhibitory activities against chymotrypsin and trypsin. When the molar ratio of
      rVpKSPI-2 to chymotrypsin and trypsin reached 1:4 and 1:2, the protease
      activities could be almost entirely inhibited. All these results suggested that
      both VpKSPI-1 and VpKSPI-2 perhaps play a vital role in the innate immunity of V.
      philippinarum.

PMID- 28882791
TI  - Effects of organic acids and essential oils blend on growth, gut microbiota,
      immune response and disease resistance of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus
      vannamei) against Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
AB  - An 8-week feeding trial was undertaken to evaluate supplemental effects of
      AviPlus(r) (AP), a blend of organic acids [citric acid, 25%; sorbic acid, 16.7%]
      and essential oils [thymol, 1.7%; vanillin, 1.0%], on growth, gut microbiota,
      innate immunity and disease resistance of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus
      vannamei) against Vibrio parahaemolyticus. A basal experimental diet was
      formulated and supplemented with 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 g kg-1 AP to produce
      five test diets (Con, AP0.3, AP0.6, AP0.9 and AP1.2). Each diet was fed to
      triplicate groups of shrimp (0.2 +/- 0.01 g, mean +/- SE) to apparent satiation
      three times daily. Growth performance and survival rate were not significantly
      influenced by AP supplementation (P > 0.05). Significantly (P < 0.05) higher
      serum total protein was found in groups fed >= 0.6 g kg-1 AP compared to control.
      Serum alkaline phosphatase and phenoloxidase activities were significantly
      increased in AP0.9 and AP1.2 groups. Also, the group received AP0.6 diet showed
      significantly higher glutathione peroxidase activity than control. Expression of
      gut pro-inflammatory genes including TNF-alpha, LITAF and RAB6A were down
      regulated by AP administration. Gut microbiota analysis showed the significant
      enhancement of the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) diversity and richness
      indices by AP application. AP supplementation led to increased abundance of
      Firmicutes and a reduction in abundance of Proteobacteria. Also, dietary
      inclusion of 1.2 g kg-1 AP led to a significant increase in the abundance of
      Lactobacillus in shrimp gut. The group offered AP0.3 diet showed significantly
      higher disease resistance than control group. Furthermore, AP application
      significantly enhanced relative expression of immune related genes including
      lysozyme, penaeidin and catalase at 48 h post challenge. In conclusion, these
      findings show that the tested organic acids and essential oils mixture
      beneficially affects intestinal microflora and improves immune response and
      disease resistance of L. vannamei.

PMID- 28882792
TI  - Hypothermal stress induced differential expression profiles of the immune
      response gene, warm-temperature-acclimation associated 65-kDa protein (Wap65), in
      the liver of fresh water and seawater milkfish, Chanos chanos.
AB  - The milkfish (Chanos chanos), an important aquaculture species, is intolerant to
      cold environments. Temperature fluctuations in the environment affect the
      physiological response, behavior, and survival rate of the fish. The warm
      temperature-acclimation associated 65-kDa protein (Wap65) of teleosts was
      identified after heat shock treatment and has two isoforms. Both the isoforms
      were involved in the induction of immune responses in fish. They showed high
      degree of sequence conservation with the mammalian hemopexin and had high
      affinity for heme, which helped in the neutralization of free-heme and its
      transport to the liver. In this study, we isolated and characterized the two
      isoforms of wap65 genes (Ccwap65-1 and Ccwap65-2) from the liver of milkfish. The
      Ccwap65-1 and Ccwap65-2 are mainly expressed in livers of milkfish. In
      hypothermal treatment, the expression levels of Ccwap65-2 in the livers of SW and
      FW milkfish were up-regulated after exposure to low temperature (18  degrees C)
      for 12 h and 96 h compared to those in the normal temperature (28  degrees C)
      group, respectively. After intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS),
      the expression of Ccwap65-2 was elevated in both SW and FW milkfish, whereas that
      of Ccwap65-1 was not affected in both the groups. Thus, Ccwap65-2 expressed in
      the milkfish liver under hypothermal stress was identified as a novel immune
      biomarker. In addition, according to the transcriptome database, up-regulation of
      the other immune-response genes indicated increased pathogen infection status
      under hypothermal stress. Acute increase in the expression of hepatic Ccwap65-2
      in response to pathogen infection might lead to better cold tolerance of SW
      milkfish compared to that of the FW individuals upon cold challenge.

PMID- 28882793
TI  - Regulation mechanism of oxidative stress induced by high glucose through
      PI3K/Akt/Nrf2 pathway in juvenile blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala).
AB  - This study was conducted to investigate the effects of oral administration of a
      high concentration of glucose on the respiratory burst, antioxidant status, and
      hepatic gene expression of heme oxygenase-1 (ho1) and PI3K/Akt/Nrf2-related
      signaling molecules in juvenile blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala).
      Blunt snout bream juveniles with an initial body weight of 19.94 +/- 0.58 g were
      orally fed with a high concentration of glucose (3 g/kg body weight). The results
      indicated that plasma glucose exhibited a biphasic response. Acute and persistent
      hyperglycemia due to the oral glucose administration significantly reduced (P <
      0.05) the white blood cell count, red blood cell count, and hemoglobin content
      and caused oxidative stress (significantly increased alanine aminotransferase,
      aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, and glucose levels) and early
      apoptosis of hepatocytes in the fish. Hepatic superoxide dismutase, catalase,
      glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase activities increased rapidly (P
      < 0.05) as protection from oxidative stress and were downregulated (P < 0.05)
      because of persistent hyperglycemia. Blood respiratory burst was significantly
      reduced (P < 0.05) because of hyperglycemia and showed a trend that was opposite
      to that of plasma glucose. Slight upregulation of nrf2 mRNA and antioxidants acts
      as a compensative protection mechanism, and the downregulated PI3K/Akt pathway
      blocked this function of Nrf2. In conclusion, the PI3K/Akt pathway and Nrf2
      mediated the antioxidative mechanism independently in the blunt snout bream
      juveniles subjected to the oral administration of a high glucose concentration.

PMID- 28882794
TI  - Local immune response of two mucosal surfaces of the European seabass,
      Dicentrarchus labrax, fed tryptophan- or methionine-supplemented diets.
AB  - Immune responses relies on an adequate provision of multiple nutrients that
      sustain the synthesis of key effector molecules. These needs are depicted in the
      already reported increase of circulating free amino acids in fish under stressful
      conditions. Since aquaculture and the inherent fish welfare are an emergent call,
      the immunomodulatory effects of amino acids on gut- and skin-associated lymphoid
      tissues of the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) were studied under
      unstressed conditions and after an inflammatory insult. To achieve this goal,
      fish were distributed in duplicate tanks (fifteen fish per tank) and were fed for
      14 days with methionine or tryptophan-supplemented diets at 2* dietary
      requirement level (MET and TRP, respectively) or a control diet meeting the amino
      acids requirement levels (CTRL). Afterwards, samples of skin and posterior gut
      were collected from 6 fish per dietary treatment for the assessment of the immune
      status while the remaining animals were intraperitoneally-injected with
      inactivated Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida and subsequently sampled
      either 4 or 24 h post-injection. The immune status of both mucosal surfaces was
      poorly affected, although a tryptophan effect was denoted after bacterial
      inoculation, with several immune-related genes up-regulated in the gut at 4 h
      post-injection, which seems to suggest a neuroendocrine-immune systems
      interaction. In contrast, skin mucosal immunity was inhibited by tryptophan
      dietary supplementation. Regarding methionine, results were often statistically
      non-significant, though increasing trends were denoted in a few parameters.
      Overall, dietary methionine did not significantly affect neither gut nor skin
      immunity, whereas tryptophan supplementation seems to induce modulatory
      mechanisms that might be tissue-specific.

PMID- 28882795
TI  - Effects of Cordyceps militaris spent mushroom substrate and Lactobacillus
      plantarum on mucosal, serum immunology and growth performance of Nile tilapia
      (Oreochromis niloticus).
AB  - An 8-weeks feeding trial was performed to investigate the possible effects of
      supplementation of Nile tilapia diet with Cordyceps militaris spent mushroom
      substrate (SMS) single or combined with Lactobacillus plantarum on immune
      parameters and growth performance. For this aim, Nile tilapia fingerlings were
      fed with four experimental diets namely: Diet 1 (0 - control), Diet 2 (10 g kg-1
      SMS), Diet 3 (108 CFU g-1L. plantarum), and Diet 4 (10 g kg-1 SMS + 108 CFU g-1L.
      plantarum). At the end of feeding trial, skin mucus parameters, serum immune
      parameters, and growth performance were measured. The results indicated that
      supplementations SMS + L. plantarum or/and resulted in a significant increase in
      skin mucus lysozyme and peroxidase activities compared with the control group
      after 8 weeks of feeding trial (P < 0.05). The highest values of these parameters
      were recorded for fish fed both SMS + L. plantarum supplementations. Nonetheless,
      no significant difference was recorded between other supplemented groups (P <
      0.05). For serum immunology, the results showed that serum lysozyme activity,
      alternative complement, phagocytosis, serum peroxidase, and respiratory burst
      activities were significantly higher in supplemented groups compared to the
      control (P < 0.05). The highest values were recorded in fish fed both SMS and L.
      plantarum with respect to the individual application. No significant differences
      were observed between fish fed SMS and L. plantarum (P < 0.05). Results on growth
      performance indicated that fish fed supplemented diets showed a statistically
      significant increase in the specific growth rate (SGR), weight gain (WG), final
      weight (FW) compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The highest SGR and WG
      values were observed in fish fed both dietary SMS and L. plantarum. However, no
      significant differences in these parameters were observed in fish fed SMS or L.
      plantarum alone (P > 0.05). The FCR was significantly lower in fish fed 10 g kg-1
      SMS + 108 CFU g-1L. plantarum than in other groups, while control group presented
      the highest values (P < 0.05). The present results suggested that the combination
      of these natural substances could be considered as potential feed-additives for
      aquaculture farmed fish.

PMID- 28882796
TI  - Protective effect of glutamine and arginine against soybean meal-induced
      enteritis in the juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus).
AB  - Soybean meal can induce enteritis in the distal intestine (DI) and decrease the
      immunity of several cultured fish species, including turbot Scophthalmus maximus.
      Glutamine and arginine supplementation have been used to improve immunity and
      intestinal morphology in fish. This study was conducted to investigate the
      effects of these two amino acids on the immunity and intestinal health of turbot
      suffering from soybean meal-induced enteritis. Turbots (initial weight 7.6 g)
      were fed one of three isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets for 8 weeks: SBM
      (control diet), with 40% soybean meal; GLN, SBM diet plus 1.5% glutamine; ARG,
      the SBM diet plus 1.5% arginine. Symptoms that are typical of soybean meal
      induced enteritis, including swelling of the lamina propria and subepithelial
      mucosa and a strong infiltration of various inflammatory cells was observed in
      fish that fed the SBM diet. Glutamine and arginine supplementation significantly
      increased (1) the weight gain and feed efficiency ratio; (2) the height and
      vacuolization of villi and the integrity of microvilli in DI; (3) serum lysozyme
      activity, and the concentrations of C3, C4, and IgM. These two amino acids also
      significantly decreased the infiltration of leucocytes in the lamina propria and
      submucosa and the expression of inflammatory cytokines including il-8, tnf-alpha,
      and tgf-beta. For the mucosal microbiota, arginine supplementation significantly
      increased microbiota community richness and diversity, and glutamine
      supplementation significantly increased the relative abundance of Lactobacillus
      and Bacillus. These results indicate that dietary glutamine and arginine improved
      the growth performance, feed utilization, and distal intestinal morphology,
      activated the innate and adaptive immune systems, changed the intestinal mucosal
      microbiota community, and relieved SBMIE possibly by suppression of the
      inflammation response.

PMID- 28882797
TI  - Modification of the plasma complement protein profile by exogenous estrogens is
      indicative of a compromised immune competence in marine medaka (Oryzias
      melastigma).
AB  - Growing evidence suggests that the immune system of teleost is vulnerable to
      xenoestrogens, which are ubiquitous in the marine environment. This study
      detected and identified the major circulatory immune proteins deregulated by
      17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2), which may be linked to fish susceptibility to
      pathogens in the marine medaka, Oryzias melastigma. Fish immune competence was
      determined using a host resistance assay to pathogenic bacteria Edwardsiella
      tarda. Females were consistently more susceptible to infection-induced mortality
      than males. Exposure to EE2 could narrow the sex gap of mortality by increasing
      infection-induced death in male fish. Proteomic analysis revealed that the major
      plasma immune proteins of adult fish were highly sexually dimorphic. EE2 induced
      pronounced sex-specific changes in the plasma proteome, with the male plasma
      composition clearly becoming "feminised". Male plasma was found to contain a
      higher level of fibrinogens, WAP63 and ependymin-2-like protein, which are
      involved in coagulation, inflammation and regeneration. For the first time, we
      demonstrated that expression of C1q subunit B (C1Q), an initiating factor of the
      classical complement pathway, was higher in males and was suppressed in both
      sexes in response to EE2 and bacterial challenge. Moreover, cleavage and post
      translational modification of C3, the central component of the complement system,
      could be altered by EE2 treatment in males (C3dg down; C3g up). Multiple
      regression analysis indicated that C1Q is possibly an indicator of fish survival,
      which warrants further confirmation. The findings support the potential
      application of plasma immune proteins for prognosis/diagnosis of fish immune
      competence. Moreover, this study provides the first biochemical basis of the sex
      differences in fish immunity and how these differences might be modified by
      xenoestrogens.

PMID- 28882798
TI  - Modulatory in vitro effect of stress hormones on the cytokine response of rainbow
      trout and gilthead sea bream head kidney stimulated with Vibrio anguillarum
      bacterin.
AB  - In fish, the stress response and their consequences in the immune system have
      been widely described. Recently, a differential cytokine regulation between
      rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) was
      reported after treatment with stress hormones together with their receptor
      antagonists. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of whether antagonists for stress
      hormone receptors may influence the interaction between hormones and cytokines
      after bacterial administration. Thus, the aim of our study was to evaluate the
      cytokine expression in the presence of stress hormones (cortisol, ACTH,
      adrenaline), hormone receptor antagonists and inactivated Vibrio anguillarum
      bacterin in rainbow trout and gilthead sea bream head kidney primary cell culture
      (HKPCC). Mifepristone, spironolactone, propranolol and phentolamine were used to
      block GR, MR, MC2R, and beta-/alpha-adrenoreceptors. Our results showed an
      expected increase of the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory response after
      inactivated V. anguillarum bacterin treatment in both species. Cortisol, ACTH and
      adrenaline did not modulate the expression of immune-related genes in rainbow
      trout, while in sea bream cortisol was able to reduce the stimulated gene
      expression of all cytokines. This effect was only restored to basal expression
      level in IL-1beta and TNF-alpha by mifepristone. ACTH reduced both pro
      inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine expression, excluding IL-1beta, only
      in sea bream. Adrenaline enhanced the expression of IL-1beta and TGF-beta1
      stimulated by inactivated V. anguillarum in sea bream, and the effect was
      diminished by propranolol. In sum, our results confirm that the immunoendocrine
      differences reported at gene expression profile between two teleost species are
      also observed after exposure to inactivated V. anguillarum bacterin, suggesting
      that stress hormones would differentially modulate the immune response against
      pathogens in teleost species.

PMID- 28882799
TI  - Transcriptomic profiling of Tibetan highland fish (Gymnocypris przewalskii) in
      response to the infection of parasite ciliate Ichthyophthirius multifiliis.
AB  - Gymnocypris przewalskii is a native cyprinid in the Lake Qinghai of the Qinghai
      Tibetan Plateau. G. przewalskii is highly susceptible to the infection of a
      parasite, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, in the artificial propagation and
      breeding. To better understand the host immune reaction to I. multifiliis
      infection, we characterize the gene expression profiles in the spleen of healthy
      and I. multifiliis infected G. przewalskii by RNA-seq. Totally, the
      transcriptomic analysis produces 463,031,110 high quality reads, which are
      assembled to 213,538 genes with N50 of 1918 bp and the average length of 1205 bp.
      Of assembled genes, 90.52% are annotated by public databases. The expression
      analysis shows 744 genes are significantly changed by the infection of I.
      multifiliis, which are validated by qRT-PCR with the correlation coefficient of
      0.896. The differentially expressed genes are classified into 689 GO terms and
      230 KEGG pathways, highlighting the promoted innate immunity in I. multifiliis
      infected G. przewalskii at 2 days post infection. Our results pinpoint that the
      up-regulated genes are enriched in TLR signaling pathway, inflammatory response
      and activation of immune cell migration. On the contrary, complement genes are
      down-regulated, indicating the evasion of host complement cascades by I.
      multifiliis. The repressed genes are also enriched in the pathways related to
      metabolism and endocrine, suggesting the metabolic disturbance in I. multifiliis
      treated G. przewalskii. In summary, the present study profiles the gene
      expression signature of G. przewalskii in the responses to I. multifiliis
      infection, and improves our understanding on molecular mechanisms of host
      parasite interaction in G. przewalskii, which focuses the crucial function of
      TLRs, cytokines and complement components in the host defense against I.
      multifiliis.

PMID- 28882800
TI  - C1r and C1s from Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus): Molecular
      characterization, transcriptional profiling upon bacterial and IFN-gamma
      inductions and potential role in response to bacterial infection.
AB  - The complement components C1r and C1s play a vital role in immunity with the
      activation of C1 complex in the classical complement pathway against pathogen
      infection. In this study, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) C1r and C1s
      orthologs (OnC1r and OnC1s) were identified and characterized. The cDNA of OnC1r
      and OnC1s ORFs consisted of 1902 bp and 2100 bp of nucleotide sequence encoding
      polypeptides of 633 and 699 amino acids, respectively. The deduced OnC1r and
      OnC1s proteins both possessed CUB, EGF, CCP and SP domains, which were
      significantly homology to teleost. Spatial mRNA expression analysis revealed that
      the OnC1r and OnC1s were highly expressed in liver. After the in vivo challenges
      of Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the
      mRNA expressions of OnC1r and OnC1s were significantly up-regulated in liver and
      spleen, which were consistent with immunohistochemical detection at the protein
      level. The up-regulation of OnC1r and OnC1s expressions were also demonstrated in
      head kidney monocytes/macrophages in vitro stimulated with LPS, S. agalactiae,
      and recombinant OnIFN-gamma. Taken together, the results of this study indicated
      that OnC1r and OnC1s were likely to get involved in the immune response of Nile
      tilapia against bacterial infection.

PMID- 28882801
TI  - Effect of immune gene silencing in WSSV infected tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon.
AB  - White spot syndrome virus, continues to cause huge economic loss to aquaculture
      industry. In the absence of effective therapeutics to control WSSV, it is
      important to understand the host pathogen interaction at the molecular level.
      Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) cDNA library was constructed which
      led to identification of several differentially expressed genes in response to
      WSSV infection in Penaeus monodon. The genes expressed in SSH cDNA library of
      shrimp gill and gut tissues belonged to a wide range of biological functions. The
      three differentially expressed genes, Single von Willebrand factor type C domain
      protein (pmSVC), P53 protein gene (pmP53) and ADP ribosylation factor (pmArf)
      were up-regulated against WSSV infection and were further characterized by gene
      silencing to study the role of these shrimp immune genes on WSSV multiplication.
      The sequence-specific knock down of pmSVC, pmP53 and pmArf using the dsRNA
      revealed that in pmSVC-dsRNA inoculated shrimps WSSV replication was more with
      increased viral copy numbers when compared with pmP53-dsRNA and pmArf -dsRNA
      inoculated shrimps. The varied response of immune genes to WSSV infection,
      indicated that host genes may either inhibit virus replication to some extent or
      might act as a target to facilitate viral pathogenesis.

PMID- 28882802
TI  - Identification of the functional regions of the viral haemorrhagic septicaemia
      virus (VHSV) NV protein: Variants that improve function.
AB  - Non-virion (NV) protein is essential for an efficient replication increasing the
      pathogenicity of the Salmonid novirhabdovirus (formerly IHNV), Piscine
      novirhabdovirus (formerly VHSV), and Hirame novirhabdovirus (HIRV). The
      interferon system, apoptosis, and other immune-related genes are modulated by NV
      to finally induce a deficient antiviral state in the cell. However, little is
      known about the VHSV NV regions involved in function and location. Here, eight
      different NV 07.71 fragments and eleven NV 07.71 mutants derived from the region
      between the two first alpha-helices have been studied in order to establish the
      mx and il8 transcript levels in ZF4 cells and the subcellular location. As a
      result, we determined that the N-terminal part of NV preserves the same ability
      as the wild-type (wt) NV in mx/il8 modulation and it also shares the subcellular
      location. Among NV mutants, some induced mx upregulation (N34A, C35A, D38A, and
      S40A) but maintained the il8 levels stable when compared to wt-NV in ZF4. Four NV
      mutants (D28A, N31A, L33A, and F37A) were not affected by the mutation and showed
      mx and il8 transcript levels similar to wt-NV. Surprisingly, mutants D36A, R39A,
      and D41A induced a stronger downregulation of both mx and il8 transcript levels
      than wt-NV, suggesting that a more stable structure and an improved interaction
      with ligands could be achieved through these mutations. Amino acids at positions
      36 and 39 are conserved among known VHSV NV proteins whereas at position 41 two
      different amino acids have been described. To date, no natural NV proteins with
      alanine at positions 36, 39, and 41 have been found. In addition, wt-NV, all NV
      mutants, and one N-terminal NV fragment were located at cytoplasm with a
      characteristic pattern, which might support that cytoplasm is the site for
      interaction with candidate ligands such as PPM1Bb. Taken together, the data
      presented in this work indicated that NV function relies on the first part of the
      molecule and is dependent on tertiary structure rather than on the linear one.
      This study could lead to a better knowledge of VHSV escape from fish antiviral
      mechanisms as well as to future studies on immune targets.

PMID- 28882803
TI  - Involvement of the Macrobrachium nipponense rhodanese homologue 2, MnRDH2 in
      innate immunity and antioxidant defense.
AB  - In Macrobrachium nipponense, the rhodanese homologue 2 (MnRDH2) gene codes for a
      single rhodanese domain protein. Considering the lack of information on the
      biological role of the ubiquitous rhodaneses in invertebrate, we examined the
      functions of MnRDH2 using both in silico and in vitro approaches. Quantitative
      PCR analysis of different tissues indicated that expression of MnRDH2 was
      enriched in hepatopancreas, in which bacterial challenge by Aeromonas hydrophila
      induced MnRDH2 expression. Knocking down MnRDH2 by RNA interference caused
      significant accumulations of reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde (MDA).
      Using Escherichia coli (DE3), we expressed MnRDH2 and the mutant MnRDH2C78A, in
      which the predicted catalytic cysteine was mutated to alanine, and found
      significant rodanese activity of the recombinant MnRDH2 in vitro, but not for the
      mutant rMnRDH2C78A. We observed that rMnRDH2 was able to significantly increase
      tolerance of the host bacteria to oxidative stressor phenazine methosulfate.
      These results suggest that MnRDH2 might have the potential to buffer general
      levels of oxidants via regulation of redox reactions. In conclusion, our study
      begins to hint a possible biological functionality of MnRDH2 as a redox switch to
      activate defensive activities against oxidative damage, which helps host in
      maintaining the cellular redox balance. These characteristics will facilitate
      future investigations into the physiological functions for invertebrate rhodanese
      family genes.

PMID- 28882804
TI  - ABCB1 and ABCC1-like transporters in immune system cells from sea urchins
      Echinometra lucunter and Echinus esculentus and oysters Crassostrea gasar and
      Crassostrea gigas.
AB  - ABC transporters activity and expression have been associated with the
      multixenobiotic resistance phenotype (MXR). The activity of these proteins leads
      to a reduction in the intracellular concentration of several xenobiotics, thus
      reducing their toxicity. However, little attention has been given to the
      expression of ABC transporters in marine invertebrates and few studies have
      investigated their role in immune system cells of sea urchins and shellfish
      bivalves. The aim of the present study was to investigate the activity of the ABC
      transporters ABCB1 and ABCC1 in immune system cells of sea urchins (coelomocytes)
      and oysters (hemocytes) from different climatic regions (Brazil and France). Sea
      urchins and oysters were collected at Paraiba coast; Brazil (Echinometra lucunter
      and Crassostrea gasar) and Rade of Brest; France (Echinus esculentus and
      Crassostrea gigas). Coelomocytes and hemocytes were stained with the ABC
      transporter substrate calcein-AM and dye accumulation analyzed under flow
      cytometry. Reversin 205 (ABCB1 transporter blocker) and MK571 (ABCC1 transporter
      blocker) were used as pharmacological tools to investigate ABC transporter
      activity. A different pattern of calcein accumulation was observed in
      coelomocytes: phagocytes > colorless spherulocytes > vibrate cells > red
      spherulocytes. The treatment with MK571 increased calcein fluorescence levels in
      coelomocytes from both species. However, reversin 205 treatment was not able to
      increase calcein fluorescence in E. esculentus coelomocytes. These data suggest
      that ABCC1-like transporter activity is present in both sea urchin species, but
      ABCB1-like transporter activity might only be present in E. lucunter
      coelomocytes. The activity of ABCC1-like transporter was observed in all cell
      types from both bivalve species. However, reversin 205 only increased calcein
      accumulation in hyalinocytes of the oyster C. gasar, suggesting the absence of
      ABCB1-like transporter activity in all other cell types, including hyalinocytes
      from the oyster C. gigas. Additionally, our results showed that C. gigas
      exhibited higher activity of ABCC1-like transporter in all hemocyte types than C.
      gasar. The present work is the first to characterize ABCB1 and ABCC1-like
      transporter activity in the immune system cells of sea urchins E. lucunter and E.
      esculentus and oysters. Our findings encourage the performing studies regarding
      ABC transporters activity/expression in immune system cells form marine
      invertebrates under stress conditions and the possible use of ABC transporters as
      biomarkers.

PMID- 28882805
TI  - Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is related to pro-inflammatory
      cytokine production and triglyceride deposition in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus).
AB  - Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) is an economically important fish that is farmed by
      aquaculture for human consumption. Aquacultured turbot are commonly fed a high
      lipid diet; however, this diet causes excessive lipid deposition and the
      overexpression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Studies in mammals have indicated
      that a relationship exists between pro-inflammatory cytokine overexpression and
      altered lipid metabolism through the activation of suppressor of cytokine
      signaling 3 (SOCS3). In this study, we investigated the relationship between
      SOCS3 and triglyceride (TG) deposition and mechanism of SOCS3 activation in
      farmed turbot fed high-lipid diet (HLD). TG content increased with SOCS3
      production, mediated by toll-like receptor-nuclear transcription factor kappa-B
      (TLR-NFkappaB) signaling in the liver of turbot fed a HLD and in turbot primary
      liver cells incubated with oleic acid (OA). Overexpression of SOCS3 increased TG
      deposition via the increased production of mature sterol regulatory element
      binding protein 1 (m-SREBP-1). Knockdown of SOCS3 in turbot primary liver cells
      resulted in normalized TG deposition and decreased m-SREBP-1 production. These
      results suggest that the HLD and OA can induce cytokine expression by activating
      the TLR-NFkappaB signaling pathways, resulting in increased SOCS3 expression. It
      is proposed that SOCS3 enhances m-SREBP-1 production, leading to TG deposition.
      These findings provide important new insights into the relationship between
      cytokine expression and TG deposition and mechanism of HLD-induced pro
      inflammatory response, which could help to improve the health of farmed turbot
      and a better understanding of fish immunity.

PMID- 28882806
TI  - Modulatory effect of different doses of beta-1,3/1,6-glucan on the expression of
      antioxidant, inflammatory, stress and immune-related genes of Oreochromis
      niloticus challenged with Streptococcus iniae.
AB  - beta-glucans are widely-known immunostimulants that are profusely used in
      aquaculture industry. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of
      different in-feed doses of beta-1,3/1,6-glucans on the expression of antioxidant
      and stress-related genes (GST, HSP-70, Vtg), inflammation related genes (Il-8,
      TNFalpha, CXC-chemokine and CAS) and adaptive immune-related genes (MHC-IIbeta,
      TLR-7, IgM-H, and Mx) of Oreochromis niloticus challenged and non-challenged with
      Streptococcus iniae. Six experimental groups were established: non-challenged
      control (non-supplemented diet), challenged control (non-supplemented diet), non
      challenged supplemented with 0.1% beta-glucan, challenged supplemented with 0.1%
      beta-glucan, non-challenged supplemented with 0.2% beta-glucan and challenged
      supplemented with 0.2% beta-glucan. Fish were fed with beta-glucan for 21 days
      prior challenge and then sampled after 1, 3 and 7 days post-challenge. In non
      challenged group, variable effects of the two doses of beta-Glucans on the
      expression of the studied genes were observed; 0.1% induced higher expression of
      HSP70, CXC chemokine, MHC-IIbeta and MX genes. Meanwhile, 0.2% induced better
      effect on the expression of Vtg, TNF-alpha, CAS and IgM-H, and almost equal
      effects of both doses on GST and IL8. However, with the challenged group, 0.2%
      beta-Glucans showed better effect than 0.1% at day one post challenge through
      significant up-regulation of GST, HSP, IL8, TNF-alpha, CXC, and MHC-IIbeta,
      meanwhile, the effect of 0.1% was only on the expression of HSP70, MHC-IIbeta,
      and TLR7 at day 3 post challenge. No stimulatory role for both doses of beta
      Glucans on the expression of almost all genes at day 7 post-challenge. We
      conclude that both doses of beta-glucan can modulate the antioxidant,
      inflammation, stress and immune-related genes in Nile tilapia, moreover, 0.2%
      beta-Glucans showed better protective effect with Streptococcus iniae challange.

PMID- 28882807
TI  - Atlantic salmon endothelial cells from the heart were more susceptible than
      fibroblasts from the bulbus arteriosus to four RNA viruses but protected from two
      viruses by dsRNA pretreatment.
AB  - Heart diseases caused by viruses are major causes of Atlantic salmon aquaculture
      loss. Two Atlantic salmon cardiovascular cell lines, an endothelial cell line
      (ASHe) from the heart and a fibroblast cell line (BAASf) from the bulbus
      arteriosus, were evaluated for their response to four fish viruses, CSV, IPNV,
      VHSV IVa and VHSV IVb, and the innate immune agonist, double-stranded RNA mimic
      poly IC. All four viruses caused cytopathic effects in ASHe and BAASf. However,
      ASHe was more susceptible to all four viruses than BAASf. When comparing between
      the viruses, ASHe cells were found to be moderately susceptible to CSV and VHSV
      IVb, but highly susceptible to IPNV and VHSV IVa induced cell death. All four
      viruses were capable of propagating in the ASHe cell line, leading to increases
      in virus titre over time. In BAASf, CSV and IPNV produced more than one log
      increase in titre from initial infection, but VHSV IVb and IVa did not. When
      looking at the antiviral response of both cell lines, Mx proteins were induced in
      ASHe and BAASf by poly IC. All four viruses induced Mx proteins in BAASf, while
      only CSV and VHSV IVb induced Mx proteins in ASHe. IPNV and VHSV IVa suppressed
      Mx proteins expression in ASHe. Pretreatment of ASHe with poly IC to allow for Mx
      proteins accumulation protected the culture from subsequent infections with IPNV
      and VHSV IVa, resulting in delayed cell death, reduced virus titres and reduced
      viral proteins expression. These data suggest that endothelial cells potentially
      can serve as points of infections for viruses in the heart and that two of the
      four viruses, IPNV and VHSV IVa, have mechanisms to avoid or downregulate
      antiviral responses in ASHe cells. Furthermore, the high susceptibility of the
      ASHe cell line to IPNV and VHSV IVa can make it a useful tool for studying
      antiviral compounds against these viruses and for general detection of fish
      viruses.

PMID- 28882808
TI  - Mobile Phone Interventions for Sleep Disorders and Sleep Quality: Systematic
      Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although mobile health technologies have been developed for
      interventions to improve sleep disorders and sleep quality, evidence of their
      effectiveness remains limited. OBJECTIVE: A systematic literature review was
      performed to determine the effectiveness of mobile technology interventions for
      improving sleep disorders and sleep quality. METHODS: Four electronic databases
      (EBSCOhost, PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched for
      articles on mobile technology and sleep interventions published between January
      1983 and December 2016. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they met the
      following criteria: (1) written in English, (2) adequate details on study design,
      (3) focus on sleep intervention research, (4) sleep index measurement outcome
      provided, and (5) publication in peer-reviewed journals. RESULTS: An initial
      sample of 2679 English-language papers were retrieved from five electronic
      databases. After screening and review, 16 eligible studies were evaluated to
      examine the impact of mobile phone interventions on sleep disorders and sleep
      quality. These included one case study, three pre-post studies, and 12 randomized
      controlled trials. The studies were categorized as (1) conventional mobile phone
      support and (2) utilizing mobile phone apps. Based on the results of sleep
      outcome measurements, 88% (14/16) studies showed that mobile phone interventions
      have the capability to attenuate sleep disorders and to enhance sleep quality,
      regardless of intervention type. In addition, mobile phone intervention methods
      (either alternatively or as an auxiliary) provide better sleep solutions in
      comparison with other recognized treatments (eg, cognitive behavioral therapy for
      insomnia). CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence to support the use of mobile phone
      interventions to address sleep disorders and to improve sleep quality. Our
      findings suggest that mobile phone technologies can be effective for future sleep
      intervention research.

PMID- 28882809
TI  - The User Knows What to Call It: Incorporating Patient Voice Through User
      Contributed Tags on a Participatory Platform About Health Management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Body listening, described as the act of paying attention to the
      body's signals and cues, can be an important component of long-term health
      management. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to introduce and evaluate the
      Body Listening Project, an innovative effort to engage the public in the creation
      of a public resource-to leverage collective wisdom in the health domain. This
      project involved a website where people could contribute their experiences of and
      dialogue with others concerning body listening and self-management. This article
      presents an analysis of the tags contributed, with a focus on the value of these
      tags for knowledge organization and incorporation into consumer-friendly health
      information retrieval systems. METHODS: First, we performed content analysis of
      the tags contributed, identifying a set of categories and refining the relational
      structure of the categories to develop a preliminary classification scheme, the
      Body Listening and Self-Management Taxonomy. Second, we compared the concepts in
      the Body Listening and Self-Management Taxonomy with concepts that were
      automatically identified from an extant health knowledge resource, the Unified
      Medical Language System (UMLS), to better characterize the information that
      participants contributed. Third, we employed visualization techniques to explore
      the concept space of the tags. A correlation matrix, based on the extent to which
      categories tended to be assigned to the same tags, was used to study the
      interrelatedness of the taxonomy categories. Then a network visualization was
      used to investigate structural relationships among the categories in the
      taxonomy. RESULTS: First, we proposed a taxonomy called the Body Listening and
      Self-Management Taxonomy, with four meta-level categories: (1) health management
      strategies, (2) concepts and states, (3) influencers, and (4) health-related
      information behavior. This taxonomy could inform future efforts to organize
      knowledge and content of this subject matter. Second, we compared the categories
      from this taxonomy with the UMLS concepts that were identified. Though the UMLS
      offers benefits such as speed and breadth of coverage, the Body Listening and
      Self-Management Taxonomy is more consumer-centric. Third, the correlation matrix
      and network visualization demonstrated that there are natural areas of ambiguity
      and semantic relatedness in the meanings of the concepts in the Body Listening
      and Self-Management Taxonomy. Use of these visualizations can be helpful in
      practice settings, to help library and information science practitioners
      understand and resolve potential challenges in classification; in research, to
      characterize the structure of the conceptual space of health management; and in
      the development of consumer-centric health information retrieval systems.
      CONCLUSIONS: A participatory platform can be employed to collect data concerning
      patient experiences of health management, which can in turn be used to develop
      new health knowledge resources or augment existing ones, as well as be
      incorporated into consumer-centric health information systems.

PMID- 28882810
TI  - Study of Methods for Assessing Research Topic Elicitation and pRioritization
      (SMARTER): Study Protocol to Compare Qualitative Research Methods and Advance
      Patient Engagement in Research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Involving patients as partners in research is a defining
      characteristic of patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). While patients'
      experiential knowledge of a health condition or treatment may yield research
      priorities not reflected by researchers and policy makers, the methods for
      identifying and effectively collaborating with patients are still evolving.
      Patient registries and crowdsourcing may offer ease of access and convenience to
      both researchers and patients. Surveys and focus groups, including online
      modalities, have been described for prioritizing research topics. However, little
      is known about how these different methods compare in producing consistent
      priorities and similar perceptions of engagement quality among participants.
      OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are (1) to compare how different engagement
      methods used to elicit patient priorities for research perform as measured by
      rankings for priorities generated and participant satisfaction; and (2) to
      determine characteristics of individuals choosing to participate in research
      prioritization activities. METHODS: Participants in the Back pain Outcomes using
      Longitudinal Data (BOLD) patient registry, established to evaluate the natural
      history of back pain among individuals 65 years and older, and participants on
      the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing platform, to provide input on
      priorities for research via a questionnaire, are invited. For BOLD participants,
      we subsequently randomize interested respondents to 1 of 3 interactive
      prioritization activities to further develop priorities: a Delphi panel, an
      online crowd voting activity, or an in-person facilitated prioritization activity
      using nominal group technique (NGT). Participants involved in each activity
      complete a survey to evaluate the quality of the experience and a subset of these
      participants discuss their experience further in an interview. Descriptive
      statistics are used to characterize the rankings produced by each method and
      compare the top 5 rated topics resulting from each prioritization activity. We
      use rank-ordered logistic regression models to identify associations of the
      ranked priority topics with baseline patient characteristics. We analyze
      responses to the evaluation using a mixed-methods approach wherein we tabulate
      responses to Likert-scale questions and use content analysis to enumerate themes
      emerging from interviews for the 3 activities. RESULTS: In Phase I, we invite
      approximately 3000 BOLD participants and 500 Amazon MTurk workers to complete a
      research topic prioritization survey. Based on these results, we include
      additional topics into a subsequent prioritization survey. In Phase II, we invite
      BOLD participants to join 1 of 3 activities: 90 participants for Delphi panel,
      100 participants for crowd voting, and 60 participants for focus groups. Of the
      Phase II participants, 30 will be interviewed to evaluate the activities.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study informs decisions about how to conduct outreach to
      patient registry participants for providing input on research priorities, how
      individuals 65 years and older wish to participate in engagement activities, and
      how different research prioritization methods compare in terms of rankings
      generated and participant satisfaction.

PMID- 28882811
TI  - Effect of Caffeine on Attention and Alertness Measured in a Home-Setting, Using
      Web-Based Cognition Tests.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is an increasing interest among nutritional researchers to
      perform lifestyle and nutritional intervention studies in a home setting instead
      of testing subjects in a clinical unit. The term used in other disciplines is
      'ecological validity' stressing a realistic situation. This becomes more and more
      feasible because devices and self-tests that enable such studies are more
      commonly available. Here, we present such a study in which we reproduced the
      effect of caffeine on attention and alertness in an at-home setting. OBJECTIVE:
      The study was aimed to reproduce the effect of caffeine on attention and
      alertness using a Web-based study environment of subjects, at home, performing
      different Web-based cognition tests. METHODS: The study was designed as a
      randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study. Subjects were
      provided with coffee sachets (2 with and 2 without caffeine). They were also
      provided with a written instruction of the test days. Healthy volunteers consumed
      a cup of coffee after an overnight fast. Each intervention was repeated once.
      Before and 1 hour after coffee consumption subjects performed Web-based cognitive
      performance tests at home, which measured alertness and attention, established by
      3 computerized tests provided by QuantifiedMind. Each test was performed for 5
      minutes. RESULTS: Web-based recruitment was fast and efficient. Within 2 weeks,
      102 subjects applied, of whom 70 were eligible. Of the 66 subjects who started
      the study, 53 completed all 4 test sessions (80%), indicating that they were able
      to perform the do it yourself tests, at home, correctly. The Go-No Go cognition
      test performed at home showed the same significant improvement in reaction time
      with caffeine as found in controlled studies in a metabolic ward (P=.02). For
      coding and N-back the second block was performed approximately 10% faster. No
      effect was seen on correctness. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that the effects of
      caffeine consumption on a cognition test in an at-home setting revealed similar
      results as in a controlled setting. The Go-No Go test applied showed improved
      results after caffeine intake, similar as seen in clinical trials. This type of
      study is a fast, reliable, economical, and easy way to demonstrate effectiveness
      of a supplement and is rapidly becoming a viable alternative for the classical
      randomized control trial to evaluate life style and nutritional interventions.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02061982;
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02061982 (Archived by WebCite at
      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02061982).

PMID- 28882812
TI  - Health Information Technology (HIT) Adaptation: Refocusing on the Journey to
      Successful HIT Implementation.
AB  - In past years, policies and regulations required hospitals to implement advanced
      capabilities of certified electronic health records (EHRs) in order to receive
      financial incentives. This has led to accelerated implementation of health
      information technologies (HIT) in health care settings. However, measures
      commonly used to evaluate the success of HIT implementation, such as HIT
      adoption, technology acceptance, and clinical quality, fail to account for
      complex sociotechnical variability across contexts and the different trajectories
      within organizations because of different implementation plans and timelines. We
      propose a new focus, HIT adaptation, to illuminate factors that facilitate or
      hinder the connection between use of the EHR and improved quality of care as well
      as to explore the trajectory of changes in the HIT implementation journey as it
      is impacted by frequent system upgrades and optimizations. Future research should
      develop instruments to evaluate the progress of HIT adaptation in both its
      longitudinal design and its focus on adaptation progress rather than on one cross
      sectional outcome, allowing for more generalizability and knowledge transfer.

PMID- 28882813
TI  - Perceptions of Health-Related Information on Facebook: Cross-Sectional Study
      Among Vietnamese Youths.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While health information websites may have previously been the core
      source of information about health-related conditions on the Internet, social
      networking sites are increasingly replacing those websites as a source of health
      related information. The increasingly popularity of social networking sites among
      the general population has consequential impact on health policies as well as
      health-related interventions. To date, there remains a paucity of research
      conducted in developing countries like Vietnam looking at the influence of social
      networking sites. OBJECTIVE: Our goal is to establish the baseline use of
      Facebook among Vietnamese youths and establish their perception of the
      reliability and usefulness of health-related information that they previously
      encountered while using the social networking site. METHODS: An online cross
      sectional study was conducted from August 2015 to October 2015. Respondent-driven
      sampling (RDS) technique was used in the recruitment of participants.
      Sociodemographic, health status, behaviors, Facebook use and belief of
      information on Facebook, and interpersonal influence of social network sites were
      collected via an online structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Among 1080
      participants, 72.87% (787/1080) reported being interested in health information
      on Facebook, and 50.74% (548/1080) and 17.50% (189/1080) perceived the
      information to be reliable and useful, respectively. A total of 10.93% (118/1080)
      of the participants also reported that they would follow the health advice they
      obtained from Facebook. Of significance, 7.13% (77/1080) of the participants also
      reported peer influences on their behavior. Factors that mediate Vietnamese
      perceptions of the information online include gender, level of perceived stress,
      age, educational level, and interpersonal influences from Facebook. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our study is perhaps one of the first conducted in Vietnam that looks at the
      relationship between health information on Facebook and factors that might
      influence young Vietnamese perceptions of the information and the consequential
      use of that information.

PMID- 28882814
TI  - Opsin 3 and 4 mediate light-induced pulmonary vasorelaxation that is potentiated
      by G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 inhibition.
AB  - We recently demonstrated that blue light induces vasorelaxation in the systemic
      mouse circulation, a phenomenon mediated by the nonvisual G protein-coupled
      receptor melanopsin (Opsin 4; Opn4). Here we tested the hypothesis that nonvisual
      opsins mediate photorelaxation in the pulmonary circulation. We discovered Opsin
      3 (Opn3), Opn4, and G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) in rat pulmonary
      arteries (PAs) and in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs), where the
      opsins interact directly with GRK2, as demonstrated with a proximity ligation
      assay. Light elicited an intensity-dependent relaxation of PAs preconstricted
      with phenylephrine (PE), with a maximum response between 400 and 460 nm (blue
      light). Wavelength-specific photorelaxation was attenuated in PAs from Opn4-/-
      mice and further reduced following shRNA-mediated knockdown of Opn3. Inhibition
      of GRK2 amplified the response and prevented physiological desensitization to
      repeated light exposure. Blue light also prevented PE-induced constriction in
      isolated PAs, decreased basal tone, ablated PE-induced single-cell contraction of
      PASMCs, and reversed PE-induced depolarization in PASMCs when GRK2 was inhibited.
      The photorelaxation response was modulated by soluble guanylyl cyclase but not by
      protein kinase G or nitric oxide. Most importantly, blue light induced
      significant vasorelaxation of PAs from rats with chronic pulmonary hypertension
      and effectively lowered pulmonary arterial pressure in isolated intact perfused
      rat lungs subjected to acute hypoxia. These findings show that functional Opn3
      and Opn4 in PAs represent an endogenous "optogenetic system" that mediates
      photorelaxation in the pulmonary vasculature. Phototherapy in conjunction with
      GRK2 inhibition could therefore provide an alternative treatment strategy for
      pulmonary vasoconstrictive disorders.

PMID- 28882816
TI  - Do patients at risk of infective endocarditis need antibiotics before dental
      procedures?

PMID- 28882815
TI  - Childhood tolerance of severe influenza: a mortality analysis in mice.
AB  - During the 1918 influenza pandemic, children experienced substantially lower
      mortality than adults, a striking but unexplained finding. Whether this was due
      to enhanced resistance (reduced virus load) or better tolerance (reduced impact
      of infection) has not been defined. We found that prepubertal mice infected with
      H1N1 influenza virus also showed greater survival than infected pubertal mice,
      despite similar virus loads. Transcriptome profiling of infected lungs identified
      estrogen as a regulator of susceptibility in both sexes and also linked better
      survival to late expression of IL-1beta. Blocking puberty with gonadectomy or a
      gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist improved survival. Estrogen or
      testosterone (which can be converted to estrogen) restored susceptibility of
      gonadectomized pubertal mice to influenza mortality, but dihydrotestosterone
      (which cannot be converted to estrogen) did not. Estrogen receptor blockade with
      fulvestrant in both male and female pubertal mice resulted in improved survival,
      even when given 3 days after infection. Moreover, late, but not early, IL-1beta
      neutralization after infection was also protective. These findings indicate that
      pubertal increases in estrogen in both sexes are associated with increased
      mortality during influenza. This helps explain the reduced mortality of children
      seen with influenza in 1918 and might also be relevant to childhood tolerance to
      many other infectious diseases.

PMID- 28882817
TI  - Dental procedures, antibiotic prophylaxis, and endocarditis among people with
      prosthetic heart valves: nationwide population based cohort and a case crossover
      study.
AB  - Objective To assess the relation between invasive dental procedures and infective
      endocarditis associated with oral streptococci among people with prosthetic heart
      valves.Design Nationwide population based cohort and a case crossover
      study.Setting French national health insurance administrative data linked with
      the national hospital discharge database.Participants All adults aged more than
      18 years, living in France, with medical procedure codes for positioning or
      replacement of prosthetic heart valves between July 2008 and July 2014.Main
      outcome measures Oral streptococcal infective endocarditis was identified using
      primary discharge diagnosis codes. In the cohort study, Poisson regression models
      were performed to estimate the rate of oral streptococcal infective endocarditis
      during the three month period after invasive dental procedures compared with non
      exposure periods. In the case crossover study, conditional logistic regression
      models calculated the odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals comparing exposure
      to invasive dental procedures during the three month period preceding oral
      streptococcal infective endocarditis (case period) with three earlier control
      periods.Results The cohort included 138 876 adults with prosthetic heart valves
      (285 034 person years); 69 303 (49.9%) underwent at least one dental procedure.
      Among the 396 615 dental procedures performed, 103 463 (26.0%) were invasive and
      therefore presented an indication for antibiotic prophylaxis, which was performed
      in 52 280 (50.1%). With a median follow-up of 1.7 years, 267 people developed
      infective endocarditis associated with oral streptococci (incidence rate 93.7 per
      100 000 person years, 95% confidence interval 82.4 to 104.9). Compared with non
      exposure periods, no statistically significant increased rate of oral
      streptococcal infective endocarditis was observed during the three months after
      an invasive dental procedure (relative rate 1.25, 95% confidence interval 0.82 to
      1.82; P=0.26) and after an invasive dental procedure without antibiotic
      prophylaxis (1.57, 0.90 to 2.53; P=0.08). In the case crossover analysis,
      exposure to invasive dental procedures was more frequent during case periods than
      during matched control periods (5.1% v 3.2%; odds ratio 1.66, 95% confidence
      interval 1.05 to 2.63; P=0.03).Conclusion Invasive dental procedures may
      contribute to the development of infective endocarditis in adults with prosthetic
      heart valves.

PMID- 28882818
TI  - Prospective Association of Physical Activity and Heart Failure Hospitalizations
      Among Black Adults With Normal Ejection Fraction: The Jackson Heart Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given high rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus,
      black persons are at risk to develop heart failure. The association of moderate
      to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and heart failure in black adults is
      underresearched. The purpose of this study was to explore whether greater MVPA
      was associated with lower risk of heart failure hospitalizations (HFHs) among
      black adults with normal ejection fractions. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a
      prospective analysis of 4066 black adults who participated in the Jackson Heart
      Study and who had physical activity measured, had normal ejection fraction on 2
      dimensional echocardiograms, and were followed for 7 years for incident HFH. We
      used Cox proportional regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, body mass index,
      smoking status, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, and chronic kidney disease
      and examined effect modification by sex and body mass index. Of the eligible
      population, 1925 participants, according to the duration of MVPA, had poor health
      (0 minutes/week), 1332 had intermediate health (1-149 minutes/week), and 809 had
      ideal health (>=150 minutes/week). There were 168 incident HFHs. MVPA for
      intermediate and ideal health was associated with decreasing risk of incident HFH
      (hazard ratio: 0.70 [95% confidence interval, 49-1.00] and 0.35 [95% confidence
      interval, 0.19-0.64], respectively; Ptrend=0.003). The full model revealed hazard
      ratios of 0.74 [95% confidence interval, 0.52-1.07] and 0.41 [95% confidence
      interval, 0.22-0.74], respectively. There was no effect modification between MVPA
      and body mass index or sex on incident HFH. CONCLUSIONS: A dose-response
      relationship between increasing levels of MVPA and protection from incident HFH
      was found in black men and women with normal ejection fractions.

PMID- 28882819
TI  - Cardiomyocyte-Specific Telomere Shortening is a Distinct Signature of Heart
      Failure in Humans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Telomere defects are thought to play a role in cardiomyopathies, but
      the specific cell type affected by the disease in human hearts is not yet
      identified. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the cell type
      specificity of telomere shortening in patients with heart failure in relation to
      their cardiac disease, age, and sex. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied cardiac
      tissues from patients with heart failure by utilizing telomere quantitative
      fluorescence in situ hybridization, a highly sensitive method with single-cell
      resolution. In this study, total of 63 human left ventricular samples, including
      37 diseased and 26 nonfailing donor hearts, were stained for telomeres in
      combination with cardiomyocyte- or alpha-smooth muscle cell-specific markers,
      cardiac troponin T, and smooth muscle actin, respectively, and assessed for
      telomere length. Patients with heart failure demonstrate shorter cardiomyocyte
      telomeres compared with nonfailing donors, which is specific only to
      cardiomyocytes within diseased human hearts and is associated with cardiomyocyte
      DNA damage. Our data further reveal that hypertrophic hearts with reduced
      ejection fraction exhibit the shortest telomeres. In contrast to other reported
      cell types, no difference in cardiomyocyte telomere length is evident with age.
      However, under the disease state, telomere attrition manifests in both young and
      older patients with cardiac hypertrophy. Finally, we demonstrate that
      cardiomyocyte-telomere length is better sustained in women than men under
      diseased conditions. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence of
      cardiomyocyte-specific telomere shortening in heart failure.

PMID- 28882821
TI  - Government needs coherent policy to tackle rising clinical negligence costs, says
      financial watchdog.

PMID- 28882820
TI  - High Levels of (Un)Switched Memory B Cells Are Associated With Better Outcome in
      Patients With Advanced Atherosclerotic Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory lipid disorder and the main
      underlying pathology of acute ischemic events. Despite a vast amount of data from
      murine atherosclerosis models, evidence of B-cell involvement in human
      atherosclerotic disease is limited. We therefore investigated the association of
      circulating B-cell subtypes with the occurrence of secondary cardiovascular
      events in advanced atherosclerotic disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: This cohort
      study consists of 168 patients who were included in the Athero-Express biobank
      between 2009 and 2011. Before surgery, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were
      isolated and stored in liquid nitrogen. After gentle thawing of the peripheral
      blood mononuclear cells, different B-cell subtypes including naive, (un)switched
      memory, and CD27+CD43+ B1-like B cells, were analyzed by flow cytometry.
      Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze
      associations between B-cell subtypes, circulating antibodies and secondary
      cardiovascular manifestations during the 3-year follow-up period. Mean age was
      70.1+/-9.6 years, males represented 62.8% of the population, and 54 patients had
      secondary manifestations during follow-up. High numbers of unswitched memory
      cells were protective against secondary outcome (hazard ratio, 0.30 [95% CI, 0.13
      0.69]; P<0.01). Similar results were obtained for the switched memory cells that
      also showed to be protective against secondary outcome (hazard ratio, 0.33 [95%
      CI, 0.14-0.77]; P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: A high number of (un)switched memory B
      cells is associated with better outcome following carotid artery endarterectomy.
      These findings suggest a potential role for B-cell subsets in prediction and
      prevention of secondary cardiovascular events in patients with atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28882822
TI  - Both NHERF3 and NHERF2 are necessary for multiple aspects of acute regulation of
      NHE3 by elevated Ca2+, cGMP, and lysophosphatidic acid.
AB  - The intestinal epithelial brush border Na+/H+ exchanger NHE3 accounts for a large
      component of intestinal Na absorption. NHE3 is regulated during digestion by
      signaling complexes on its COOH terminus that include the four multi-PDZ domain
      containing NHERF family proteins. All bind to NHE3 and take part in different
      aspects of NHE3 regulation. Because the roles of each NHERF appear to vary on the
      basis of the cell model or intestinal segment studied and because of our recent
      finding that a NHERF3-NHERF2 heterodimer appears important for NHE3 regulation in
      Caco-2 cells, we examined the role of NHERF3 and NHERF2 in C57BL/6 mouse jejunum
      using homozygous NHERF2 and NHERF3 knockout mice. NHE3 activity was determined
      with two-photon microscopy and the dual-emission pH-sensitive dye SNARF-4F. The
      jejunal apical membrane of NHERF3-null mice appeared similar to wild-type (WT)
      mice in surface area, microvillus number, and height, which is similar to results
      previously reported for jejunum of NHERF2-null mice. NHE3 basal activity was not
      different from WT in either NHERF2- or NHERF3-null jejunum, while d-glucose
      stimulated NHE3 activity was reduced in NHERF2, but similar to WT in NHERF3 KO.
      LPA stimulation and UTP (elevated Ca2+) and cGMP inhibition of NHE3 were markedly
      reduced in both NHERF2- and NHERF3-null jejunum. Forskolin inhibited NHE3 in
      NHERF3-null jejunum, but the extent of inhibition was reduced compared with WT.
      The forskolin inhibition of NHE3 in NHERF2-null mice was too inconsistent to
      determine whether there was an effect and whether it was altered compared with
      the WT response. These results demonstrate similar requirement for NHERF2 and
      NHERF3 in mouse jejunal NHE3 regulation by LPA, Ca2+, and cGMP. The explanation
      for the similarity is not known but is consistent with involvement of a brush
      border NHERF3-NHERF2 heterodimer or sequential NHERF-dependent effects in these
      aspects of NHE3 regulation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY NHERF2 and NHERF3 are apical
      membrane multi-PDZ domain-containing proteins that are involved in regulation of
      intestinal NHE3. This study demonstrates that NHERF2 and NHERF3 have overlapping
      roles in NHE3 stimulation by LPA and inhibition by elevated Ca2+ and cGMP. These
      results are consistent with their role being as a NHERF3-NHERF2 heterodimer or
      via sequential NHERF-dependent signaling steps, and they begin to clarify a role
      for multiple NHERF proteins in NHE3 regulation.

PMID- 28882823
TI  - The antioxidant glutathione protects against enteric neuron death in situ, but
      its depletion is protective during colitis.
AB  - Enteric glia play an important neuroprotective role in the enteric nervous system
      (ENS) by producing neuroprotective compounds such as the antioxidant reduced
      glutathione (GSH). The specific cellular pathways that regulate glial production
      of GSH and how these pathways are altered during, or contribute to,
      neuroinflammation in situ and in vivo are not fully understood. We investigated
      this issue using immunohistochemistry to localize GSH synthesis enzymes within
      the myenteric plexus and tested how the inhibition of GSH synthesis with the
      selective inhibitor l-buthionine sulfoximine impacts neuronal survival and
      inflammation. Both enteric glia and neurons express the cellular machinery
      necessary for GSH synthesis. Furthermore, glial GSH synthesis is necessary for
      neuronal survival in isolated preparations of myenteric plexus. In vivo depletion
      of GSH does not induce colitis but alters myenteric plexus neuronal phenotype and
      survival. Importantly, global depletion of glutathione is protective against some
      macroscopic and microscopic measures of colonic inflammation. Together, our data
      highlight the heterogeneous roles of GSH in the myenteric plexus of the ENS and
      during gastrointestinal inflammation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our results show that both
      enteric glia and neurons express the cellular machinery necessary for glutathione
      (GSH) synthesis and that glial GSH synthesis is necessary for neuronal survival
      in isolated enteric nervous system (ENS) preparations. In vivo depletion of GSH
      with the selective inhibitor l-buthionine sulfoximine is not sufficient to induce
      inflammation but does alter neuronal neurochemical composition and survival.
      Together, our data highlight novel heterogeneous roles for GSH in the ENS and
      during gastrointestinal inflammation.

PMID- 28882824
TI  - A physics-based model for maintenance of the pH gradient in the gastric mucus
      layer.
AB  - It is generally accepted that the gastric mucus layer provides a protective
      barrier between the lumen and the mucosa, shielding the mucosa from acid and
      digestive enzymes and preventing autodigestion of the stomach epithelium.
      However, the precise mechanisms that contribute to this protective function are
      still up for debate. In particular, it is not clear what physical processes are
      responsible for transporting hydrogen protons, secreted within the gastric pits,
      across the mucus layer to the lumen without acidifying the environment adjacent
      to the epithelium. One hypothesis is that hydrogen may be bound to the mucin
      polymers themselves as they are convected away from the mucosal surface and
      eventually degraded in the stomach lumen. It is also not clear what mechanisms
      prevent hydrogen from diffusing back toward the mucosal surface, thereby lowering
      the local pH. In this work we investigate a physics-based model of ion transport
      within the mucosal layer based on a Nernst-Planck-like equation. Analysis of this
      model shows that the mechanism of transporting protons bound to the mucus gel is
      capable of reproducing the trans-mucus pH gradients reported in the literature.
      Furthermore, when coupled with ion exchange at the epithelial surface, our
      analysis shows that bicarbonate secretion alone is capable of neutralizing the
      epithelial pH, even in the face of enormous diffusive gradients of hydrogen.
      Maintenance of the pH gradient is found to be robust to a wide array of
      perturbations in both physiological and phenomenological model parameters,
      suggesting a robust physiological control mechanism.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This work
      combines modeling techniques based on physical principles, as well as novel
      numerical simulations to test the plausibility of one hypothesized mechanism for
      proton transport across the gastric mucus layer. Results show that this mechanism
      is able to maintain the extreme pH gradient seen in in vivo experiments and
      suggests a highly robust regulation mechanism to maintain this gradient in the
      face of dynamic lumen composition.

PMID- 28882825
TI  - Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha regulates the expression of intestinal
      epithelial Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 3.
AB  - Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 3 (NHE3) plays a key role in coupled electroneutral NaCl
      absorption in the mammalian intestine. Reduced NHE3 expression or function has
      been implicated in the pathogenesis of diarrhea associated with inflammatory
      bowel disease (IBD) or enteric infections. Our previous studies revealed
      transcriptional regulation of NHE3 by various agents such as TNF-alpha, IFN
      gamma, and butyrate involving transcription factors Sp1 and Sp3. In silico
      analysis revealed that the NHE3 core promoter also contains a hepatocyte nuclear
      factor 4alpha (HNF-4alpha) binding site that is evolutionarily conserved in
      several species suggesting that HNF-4alpha has a role in NHE3 regulation. Nhe3
      mRNA levels were reduced in intestine-specific Hnf4alpha-null mice. However,
      detailed mechanisms of NHE3 regulation by HNF-4alpha are not known. We
      investigated the regulation of NHE3 gene expression by HNF-4alpha in vitro in the
      human intestinal epithelial cell line C2BBe1 and in vivo in intestine-specific
      Hnf4alpha-null ( Hnf4alphaDeltaIEpC) and control ( Hnf4alphafl/fl) mice. HNF
      4alpha knockdown by short interfering RNA in C2BBe1 cells significantly decreased
      NHE3 mRNA and NHE3 protein levels. Gel mobility shift and chromatin
      immunoprecipitation assays revealed that HNF-4alpha directly interacts with the
      HNF-4alpha motif in the NHE3 core promoter. Site-specific mutagenesis on the HNF
      4alpha motif decreased, whereas ectopic overexpression of HNF-4alpha increased,
      NHE3 promoter activity. Furthermore, loss of HNF-4alpha in Hnf4alphaDeltaIEpC
      mice decreased colonic Nhe3 mRNA and NHE3 protein levels. Our results demonstrate
      a novel role for HNF-4alpha in basal regulation of NHE3 expression. These studies
      represent an important and novel target for therapeutic intervention in IBD
      associated diarrhea. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our studies for the first time show that
      hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha directly regulates NHE3 promoter activity and
      its basal expression in the intestine.

PMID- 28882827
TI  - Treatment of depression in schizophrenia: systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BackgroundDepression in schizophrenia predicts poor outcomes, including suicide,
      yet the effectiveness of antidepressants for its treatment remains
      uncertain.AimsTo synthesise the evidence of the effectiveness of antidepressants
      for the treatment of depression in schizophrenia.MethodMultiple databases were
      searched and inclusion criteria included participants aged over 18 years with
      schizophrenia or related psychosis with a depressive episode. Papers were quality
      assessed used the Cochrane risk bias tool. Meta-analyses were performed for risk
      difference and standardised mean difference of all antidepressants,
      antidepressant class and individual antidepressant where sufficient studies
      allowed.ResultsA total of 26 moderate- to low-quality trials met inclusion
      criteria. In meta-analysis a significant risk difference was found in favour of
      antidepressant treatment, with a number needed to treat of 5 (95% CI 4-9).
      Studies using tools specifically designed to assess depression in schizophrenia
      showed a larger effect size. However, after sensitivity analysis standardised
      mean difference of all antidepressants did not show a statistically significant
      improvement in depression score at end-point, neither did any individual
      antidepressant class.ConclusionsAntidepressants may be effective for the
      treatment of depression in schizophrenia, however, the evidence is mixed and
      conclusions must be qualified by the small number of low- or moderate-quality
      studies. Further sufficiently powered, high-quality studies are needed.

PMID- 28882826
TI  - Improving life expectancy in people with serious mental illness: should we place
      more emphasis on primary prevention?
AB  - People with serious mental illness have a reduced life expectancy that is partly
      attributable to increased cardiovascular disease. One approach to address this is
      regular physical health monitoring. However, physical health monitoring is poorly
      implemented in everyday clinical practice and there is little evidence to suggest
      that it improves physical health. We argue that greater emphasis should be placed
      on primary prevention strategies such as assertive smoking cessation, dietary and
      exercise interventions and more judicious psychotropic prescribing.

PMID- 28882828
TI  - Systematic review and meta-analysis of factors that help or hinder treatment
      decision-making capacity in psychosis.
AB  - BackgroundThe evidence on factors that may influence treatment decisional
      capacity ('capacity') in psychosis has yet to be comprehensively synthesised,
      which limits the development of effective strategies to improve or support
      it.AimsTo determine the direction, magnitude and reliability of the relationship
      between capacity in psychosis and a range of clinical, demographic and treatment
      related factors, thus providing a thorough synthesis of current
      knowledge.MethodWe conducted a systematic review, meta-analytical and narrative
      synthesis of factors that help or hinder treatment decision-making capacity in
      psychosis, assessing the direction, magnitude, significance and reliability of
      reported associations.ResultsWe identified 23 relevant studies (n = l823).
      Psychotic symptoms had small, moderate and strong associations with appreciation,
      understanding and reasoning respectively. Both verbal cognitive functioning and
      duration of education had small to moderate correlations with understanding and
      reasoning. Better capacity was also associated with better insight, better
      metacognitive ability, higher anxiety and lower perceived coercion. No linear
      relationship with depression was observed. Interventions linked to improved
      capacity over time were in-patient care, information simplification, shared
      decision-making and metacognitive training.ConclusionsAlthough much is known
      about the role of symptoms and other clinical variables, effective and acceptable
      psychological interventions to support capacity in this group are lacking.

PMID- 28882829
TI  - Childhood cognitive development in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: case-control study.
AB  - Background22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is associated with a high risk of
      childhood as well as adult psychiatric disorders, in particular schizophrenia.
      Childhood cognitive deterioration in 22q11.2DS has previously been reported, but
      only in studies lacking a control sample.AimsTo compare cognitive trajectories in
      children with 22q11.2DS and unaffected control siblings.MethodA longitudinal
      study of neurocognitive functioning (IQ, executive function, processing speed and
      attention) was conducted in children with 22q11.2DS (n = 75, mean age time 1 (T1)
      9.9, time 2 (T2) 12.5) and control siblings (n = 33, mean age T1 10.6, T2
      13.4).ResultsChildren with 22q11.2DS exhibited deficits in all cognitive domains.
      However, mean scores did not indicate deterioration. When individual trajectories
      were examined, some participants showed significant decline over time, but the
      prevalence was similar for 22q11.2DS and control siblings. Findings are more
      likely to reflect normal developmental fluctuation than a 22q11.2DS-specific
      abnormality.ConclusionsChildhood cognitive deterioration is not associated with
      22q11.2DS. Contrary to previous suggestions, we believe it is premature to
      recommend repeated monitoring of cognitive function for identifying individual
      children with 22q11.2DS at high risk of developing schizophrenia.

PMID- 28882830
TI  - Autobiographical memory: a candidate latent vulnerability mechanism for
      psychiatric disorder following childhood maltreatment.
AB  - BackgroundAltered autobiographical memory (ABM) functioning has been implicated
      in the pathogenesis of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and may
      represent one mechanism by which childhood maltreatment elevates psychiatric
      risk.AimsTo investigate the impact of childhood maltreatment on ABM
      functioning.MethodThirty-four children with documented maltreatment and 33
      matched controls recalled specific ABMs in response to emotionally valenced cue
      words during functional magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsChildren with
      maltreatment experience showed reduced hippocampal and increased middle temporal
      and parahippocampal activation during positive ABM recall compared with peers.
      During negative ABM recall they exhibited increased amygdala activation, and
      greater amygdala connectivity with the salience network.ConclusionsChildhood
      maltreatment is associated with altered ABM functioning, specifically reduced
      activation in areas encoding specification of positive memories, and greater
      activation of the salience network for negative memories. This pattern may confer
      latent vulnerability to future depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

PMID- 28882831
TI  - Safety related label changes for new drugs after approval in the US through
      expedited regulatory pathways: retrospective cohort study.
AB  - Objective To determine if drugs approved through the Food and Drug
      Administration's expedited development and review pathways have different rates
      of safety related label changes after approval compared with drugs approved
      through standard non-expedited pathways.Design Retrospective cohort study.Setting
      FDA public records, January 1997 to April 2016.Participants 382 FDA approved
      drugs.Main outcome measures The number of times a particular safety section of a
      label (boxed warning, contraindication, warning, precaution, or adverse reaction)
      was changed during a drug's time on the market. The relative rate of safety
      related label changes per year for expedited pathway and non-expedited pathway
      drugs was compared by forming matched pairs of drugs in the same therapeutic
      class that were approved within three years of each other.Results Among the 382
      eligible new drugs, 135 (35%) were associated with an expedited development or
      review pathway, and matches were available for 96 (71%). The matched pairs were
      associated with a total of 1710 safety related label changes during the study
      period. Expedited pathway drugs were characterized by a rate of 0.94 safety
      related label changes for each drug per year, compared with 0.68 safety related
      label changes per year for non-expedited pathway drugs (rate ratio 1.38, 95%
      confidence interval 1.25 to 1.52). Compared with non-expedited pathway drugs,
      expedited pathway drugs had a 48% higher rate of changes to boxed warnings and
      contraindications, the two most clinically important categories of safety
      warnings (1.48, 95% confidence interval 1.07 to 2.06). A qualitative review of
      changes to the boxed warning sections revealed that less than 5% (3/67) were
      changed to describe reduced risks for patients.Conclusions Expedited development
      and regulatory review pathways can accelerate the availability of new drugs, but
      drugs approved through these pathways are associated with increased safety
      related label changes after approval, particularly for the types of changes
      representing the highest risk warnings. To inform appropriate policy
      interventions, additional research should explore the causal factors contributing
      to these different rates.

PMID- 28882832
TI  - Checking in: T cells against multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28882833
TI  - Ticagrelor breaks up the tumor-platelet party.

PMID- 28882834
TI  - Anemia and bleeding in thrombocytopenic patients.

PMID- 28882835
TI  - Haplo, we have a problem.

PMID- 28882836
TI  - The beauty and the beast: lymphoma-like morphology of myeloid blast phase in CML.

PMID- 28882837
TI  - Sickle cell trait with beta-thalassemia, elliptocytosis, and thrombocytosis.

PMID- 28882838
TI  - New settlement procedures: changing the way the NHS resolves negligence claims.

PMID- 28882839
TI  - Preparing for what the reporting checklists will not tell you: the PREPARE Trial
      guide for planning clinical research to avoid research waste.

PMID- 28882840
TI  - Influence of a GSK3beta phosphorylation site within the proximal C-terminus of
      Neurofilament-H on neurofilament dynamics.
AB  - Phosphorylation of the C-terminal tail of the heavy neurofilament subunit (NF-H)
      impacts neurofilament (NF) axonal transport and residence within axons by
      fostering NF-NF associations that compete with transport. We tested the role of
      phosphorylation of a GSK-3beta consensus site (S493) located in the proximal
      portion of the NF-H tail in NF dynamics by transfection of NB2a/d1 cells with NF
      H, where S493 was mutated to aspartic acid (S493D) or to alanine (S493A) to mimic
      constitutive phosphorylation and non-phosphorylation. S493D underwent increased
      transport into axonal neurites, while S493A displayed increased perikaryal NF
      aggregates that were decorated by anti-kinesin. Increased levels of S493A co
      precipitated with anti-kinesin indicating that reduced transport of S493A was not
      due to reduced kinesin association but due to premature NF-NF interactions within
      perikarya. S493D displayed increased phospho-immunoreactivity within axonal
      neurites at downstream C-terminal sites attributable to mitogen-activated protein
      kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase 5. However, S493D was more prone to
      proteolysis following kinase inhibition, suggesting that S493 phosphorylation is
      an early event that alters sidearm configuration in a manner that promotes
      appropriate NF distribution. We propose a novel model for sidearm configuration.

PMID- 28882841
TI  - Quantitative analysis of mechanical force required for cell extrusion in
      zebrafish embryonic epithelia.
AB  - When cells in epithelial sheets are damaged by intrinsic or extrinsic causes,
      they are eliminated by extrusion from the sheet. Cell extrusion, which is
      required for maintenance of tissue integrity, is the consequence of contraction
      of actomyosin rings, as demonstrated by both molecular/cellular biological
      experimentation and numerical simulation. However, quantitative evaluation of
      actomyosin contraction has not been performed because of the lack of a suitable
      direct measurement system. In this study, we developed a new method using a
      femtosecond laser to quantify the contraction force of the actomyosin ring during
      cell extrusion in zebrafish embryonic epithelia. In this system, an epithelial
      cell in zebrafish embryo is first damaged by direct femtosecond laser
      irradiation. Next, a femtosecond laser-induced impulsive force is loaded onto the
      actomyosin ring, and the contraction force is quantified to be on the order of
      kPa as a unit of pressure. We found that cell extrusion was delayed when the
      contraction force was slightly attenuated, suggesting that a relatively small
      force is sufficient to drive cell extrusion. Thus, our method is suitable for the
      relative quantitative evaluation of mechanical dynamics in the process of cell
      extrusion, and in principle the method is applicable to similar phenomena in
      different tissues and organs of various species.

PMID- 28882843
TI  - Stop bombarding public with offers of bigger portions, say campaigners.

PMID- 28882845
TI  - Abnormalities on computed tomography of the pancreas.

PMID- 28882846
TI  - People who face the bereavement of a partner with dementia have poorer mental
      health than those whose partners are dying from other diseases.

PMID- 28882847
TI  - Epigenetic regulation of left-right asymmetry by DNA methylation.
AB  - DNA methylation is a major epigenetic modification; however, the precise role of
      DNA methylation in vertebrate development is still not fully understood. Here, we
      show that DNA methylation is essential for the establishment of the left-right
      (LR) asymmetric body plan during vertebrate embryogenesis. Perturbation of DNA
      methylation by depletion of DNA methyltransferase 1 (dnmt1) or dnmt3bb.1 in
      zebrafish embryos leads to defects in dorsal forerunner cell (DFC) specification
      or collective migration, laterality organ malformation, and disruption of LR
      patterning. Knockdown of dnmt1 in Xenopus embryos also causes similar defects.
      Mechanistically, loss of dnmt1 function induces hypomethylation of the lefty2
      gene enhancer and promotes lefty2 expression, which consequently represses Nodal
      signaling in zebrafish embryos. We also show that Dnmt3bb.1 regulates collective
      DFC migration through cadherin 1 (Cdh1). Taken together, our data uncover dynamic
      DNA methylation as an epigenetic mechanism to control LR determination during
      early embryogenesis in vertebrates.

PMID- 28882849
TI  - Pediatric Hospitalist Comanagement Survey of Clinical and Billing Practices.
AB  - Surgical comanagement is an increasingly common practice in pediatric hospital
      medicine. Information about the structure and financing of such care is limited.
      The aim of the researchers for this study was to investigate pediatric
      hospitalist surgical comanagement models and to assess pediatric hospitalist
      familiarity with and patterns of billing for surgical patients. We conducted a
      cross-sectional cohort web-based survey of pediatric hospitalists using the
      American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Hospital Medicine listserv. In our
      study (N = 133), we found wide variation in our cohort in surgical patient
      practice management, including program structure, individual billing practices,
      and knowledge regarding billing practices. Even for pediatric hospitalists with
      comanagement service agreements between surgeons and pediatric hospitalists,
      there was no increased awareness or knowledge about reimbursement or billing for
      surgical patients. This global lack of knowledge in our small but diverse sample
      suggests that billing resources and training for pediatric hospitalists
      practicing comanagement of surgical patients are needed.

PMID- 28882848
TI  - Orbital recurrence of iris melanoma 21 years after enucleation.
AB  - We present the case of a 56-year-old man who developed a neoplasm of epithelioid
      histology in his anophthalmic left orbit 21 years after he underwent enucleation
      for a spindle cell iris melanoma. The recurrent tumour was managed by orbital
      exenteration. Neither further recurrence nor metastasis was diagnosed over a 5
      year follow-up period. This case, along with five other similar cases in the
      literature,1-3 emphasises the importance of long-term follow-up after treatment
      of iris melanoma.

PMID- 28882850
TI  - Two new drugs for rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, progressive autoimmune disease that
      causes inflammation and destruction of the joints.1-3 It can also affect the
      eyes, the heart and the lungs and is associated with significant disability and
      increased mortality. RA is estimated to affect just under 1% of the population
      aged over 16 years, equating to more than 400,000 people in the UK.4 ?Baricitinib
      (Olumiant) and ?tofacitinib (Xeljanz) were launched in the UK in April 2017 and
      represent a new therapeutic class of medicines known as targeted synthetic
      disease modifying antirheumatic drugs.5,6 Here, we review the evidence for the
      safety and effectiveness of these new oral agents.

PMID- 28882851
TI  - Managing scarlet fever.
AB  - Scarlet fever, an infection caused by toxin-producing strains of Streptococcus
      pyogenes, was associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality when
      epidemics were common in the 18th and 19th centuries throughout Europe and the
      USA.1 Although this disease nearly disappeared during the 20th century, several
      countries, including the UK, have recently experienced a re-emergence of scarlet
      fever.1-3 However, the reason for these new outbreaks remains unclear.1,4 Despite
      a general move to reduce the use of antibiotics for many mild self-limiting
      infections (e.g. tonsillitis, sinusitis), national guidance recommends treating
      people with scarlet fever with antibiotics regardless of severity of illness to
      speed recovery, to reduce the length of time the infection is contagious and to
      reduce the risk of complications.5,6 Here, we discuss the management of scarlet
      fever in the UK.

PMID- 28882852
TI  - Human seroprevalence of Borrelia miyamotoi in Manitoba, Canada, in 2011-2014: a
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hard tick-borne relapsing fever caused by Borrelia miyamotoi has been
      reported in Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan and the northeastern and
      upper midwestern United States. We sought to investigate the presence of B.
      miyamotoi infection in humans in Manitoba, Canada. METHODS: Two hundred fifty
      sera collected from residents of Manitoba with suspected Lyme disease between
      2011 and 2014 were tested for Borrelia burgdorferi antibody using a C6 peptide
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) followed by Western blot. Residual sera
      were then anonymized, stored at -80 degrees C and subsequently thawed and tested
      for B. miyamotoi antibody using a 2-step glycerosphosphodiester phosphodiesterase
      based ELISA and Western blot assay. RESULTS: Twenty-four of the 250 (9.6%) sera
      tested positive for B. miyamotoi immunoglobulin G. Participants who were B.
      miyamotoi seropositive were predominantly male (54%) and younger on average than
      those who were seronegative (32 and 44 yr of age, respectively). Participants who
      were seropositive for B. burgdorferi were significantly more likely to be B.
      miyamotoi seropositive than those who were B. burgdorferi seronegative (20.3% v.
      6.6%, respectively, odds ratio 3.6, 95% confidence interval 1.5-8.5).
      INTERPRETATION: This initial report of human B. miyamotoi infection in Canada
      should raise awareness of hard tick-borne relapsing fever among clinicians and
      residents of areas in Canada and western North America where Lyme disease is
      endemic.

PMID- 28882853
TI  - Neuronal inhibition of the autophagy nucleation complex extends life span in post
      reproductive C. elegans.
AB  - Autophagy is a ubiquitous catabolic process that causes cellular bulk degradation
      of cytoplasmic components and is generally associated with positive effects on
      health and longevity. Inactivation of autophagy has been linked with detrimental
      effects on cells and organisms. The antagonistic pleiotropy theory postulates
      that some fitness-promoting genes during youth are harmful during aging. On this
      basis, we examined genes mediating post-reproductive longevity using an RNAi
      screen. From this screen, we identified 30 novel regulators of post-reproductive
      longevity, including pha-4 Through downstream analysis of pha-4, we identified
      that the inactivation of genes governing the early stages of autophagy up until
      the stage of vesicle nucleation, such as bec-1, strongly extend both life span
      and health span. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that the improvements in
      health and longevity are mediated through the neurons, resulting in reduced
      neurodegeneration and sarcopenia. We propose that autophagy switches from
      advantageous to harmful in the context of an age-associated dysfunction.

PMID- 28882855
TI  - Over half of GPs are prepared to close their lists to new patients, says BMA.

PMID- 28882854
TI  - Mutation of Arabidopsis SMC4 identifies condensin as a corepressor of
      pericentromeric transposons and conditionally expressed genes.
AB  - In eukaryotes, transcriptionally inactive loci are enriched within highly
      condensed heterochromatin. In plants, as in mammals, the DNA of heterochromatin
      is densely methylated and wrapped by histones displaying a characteristic subset
      of post-translational modifications. Growing evidence indicates that these
      chromatin modifications are not sufficient for silencing. Instead, they are
      prerequisites for further assembly of higher-order chromatin structures that are
      refractory to transcription but not fully understood. We show that silencing of
      transposons in the pericentromeric heterochromatin of Arabidopsis thaliana
      requires SMC4, a core subunit of condensins I and II, acting in conjunction with
      CG methylation by MET1 (DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE 1), CHG methylation by CMT3
      (CHROMOMETHYLASE 3), the chromatin remodeler DDM1 (DECREASE IN DNA METHYLATION
      1), and histone modifications, including histone H3 Lys 27 monomethylation
      (H3K27me1), imparted by ATXR5 and ATXR6. SMC4/condensin also acts within the
      mostly euchromatic chromosome arms to suppress conditionally expressed genes
      involved in flowering or DNA repair, including the DNA glycosylase ROS1, which
      facilitates DNA demethylation. Collectively, our genome-wide analyses implicate
      condensin in the suppression of hundreds of loci, acting in both DNA methylation
      dependent and methylation-independent pathways.

PMID- 28882856
TI  - Contemporary Management of Hepatitis C in Patients with CKD.

PMID- 28882858
TI  - WEB Treatment of Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms: A Single-Center Cohort of 100
      Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Woven EndoBridge device was recently introduced for
      the intrasaccular treatment of wide-neck aneurysms without the need for
      adjunctive devices. We present our results of the primary treatment of ruptured
      aneurysms with the Woven EndoBridge regardless of location or neck size.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 2015 and April 2017, 100 ruptured
      aneurysms were selectively treated with the Woven EndoBridge. No supporting
      stents or balloons were used. There were 71 women treated (mean patient age, 59
      years; median age, 60 years; range, 23-82 years). RESULTS: The mean aneurysm size
      was 5.6 mm (range, 3-13 mm), and 42 aneurysms were <=4 mm. Sixty-six aneurysms
      (66%) had a wide neck, defined as >=4 mm or a dome-neck ratio <=1.5. There was 1
      procedural rupture without sequelae. In 9 patients (9%), thromboembolic
      complications occurred. One poor grade patient died; neurologic deficits remained
      in 3. Overall treatment-related morbidity-mortality was 4% (4 of 100; 95% CI,
      1.2%-10.2%).Two of 100 aneurysms were initially incompletely occluded and were
      additionally treated early after initial intervention. Of 80 eligible patients,
      74 (93%) had 3-month angiographic follow-up. Fifty-four aneurysms (73%) were
      completely occluded, 17 (23%) had a small neck remnant, and 3 (4%) were
      incompletely occluded. One patient was additionally treated with a second Woven
      EndoBridge, and in 2 patients, additional treatment is scheduled. The overall
      reopening/retreatment rate was 6.8% (5 of 74; 95% CI, 2.6%-15.2%). There were no
      rebleeds during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of small ruptured aneurysms
      with the Woven EndoBridge was safe and effective. The Woven EndoBridge proved to
      be a valuable alternative to coils without the need for stents or balloons.

PMID- 28882857
TI  - Effect of Sofosbuvir-Based Hepatitis C Virus Therapy on Kidney Function in
      Patients with CKD.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hepatitis C virus infection is common in patients with
      CKD and leads to accelerated progression to ESRD. Sofosbuvir is a potent direct
      acting antiviral therapy against hepatitis C virus; however, there are concerns
      about its safety in patients with CKD. The objective of our study was to
      determine the safety and efficacy of sofosbuvir in patients with CKD. DESIGN,
      SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We studied a retrospective observational
      cohort of patients with CKD defined by eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m2, >=30 mg
      albuminuria per 1 g creatinine, or >=200 mg proteinuria per 1 g creatinine who
      received sofosbuvir-based therapy in a large health care system. Regression
      models were constructed to predict likelihood of sustained virologic response,
      detect adverse events, and examine changes in eGFR from baseline to follow-up.
      RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients with CKD (42% stage 1 or 2 CKD and 58% stage 3
      CKD) were included. Mean age was 62 years old, 78% were men, and 65% were white.
      Additionally, 49% of patients had diabetes, 38% of patients had cirrhosis, and
      33% of patients had prior solid organ transplant. Overall sustained virologic
      response was 81% and varied by regimen used and viral genotype. Average baseline
      eGFR was equivalent to average on-treatment eGFR, but seven patients experienced
      a rise in creatinine >=1.5 times baseline while taking sofosbuvir; all but one
      recovered. In patients with eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 at baseline (stage 3 CKD),
      regression models showed that hepatitis C cure was associated with a 9.3 (95%
      confidence interval, 0.44 to 18) ml/min per 1.73 m2 improvement in eGFR during
      the 6-month post-treatment follow-up period. Adverse events were common (81%),
      but serious adverse events (17%) and treatment discontinuations (8%) were
      uncommon. CONCLUSIONS: Sofosbuvir-based direct-acting antiviral therapy is safe
      and effective in a cohort of patients with CKD infected with hepatitis C.

PMID- 28882860
TI  - WEB Device: Ready for Ruptured Aneurysms?

PMID- 28882859
TI  - Flow Diversion with Low-Profile Braided Stents for the Treatment of Very Small or
      Uncoilable Intracranial Aneurysms at or Distal to the Circle of Willis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The endovascular treatment of aneurysms located at or
      distal to the circle of Willis and not amenable to coiling remains a challenge.
      We report our experience with flow-diversion treatment using low-profile braided
      stents as a stent monotherapy procedure for treating distally located very small
      or uncoilable aneurysms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed our
      data bases to identify patients with aneurysms located at or distal to the circle
      of Willis who were treated with stent monotherapy using low-profile braided
      stents. The immediate and follow-up angiographic findings and clinical status of
      the patients were assessed. RESULTS: Twenty aneurysms in 19 patients were
      included in the study. The mean size of the aneurysms was 4.7 +/- 2.4 mm.
      Patients were treated via telescopic implantation of 2 stents for 11 aneurysms;
      single-stent placement was used for the remaining aneurysms. The technical
      success rate was 95%. We observed a technical complication in 1 case (5.3%) and a
      late ischemic event in another (5.3%). The final angiographies during a mean
      follow-up of 14.7 months showed complete aneurysm occlusion in 73.7%. The
      complete occlusion rate of the aneurysms treated with telescopic stent placement
      was 81.8%. The modified Rankin scale scores of all patients at the last follow-up
      were between 0 and 2. CONCLUSIONS: Flow diversion with low-profile braided stents
      as a stent monotherapy procedure for very small or uncoilable intracranial
      aneurysms located at or beyond the circle of Willis is a promising, relatively
      safe, and durable endovascular procedure.

PMID- 28882861
TI  - Real-Time Motor Cortex Mapping for the Safe Resection of Glioma: An
      Intraoperative Resting-State fMRI Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Resting-state functional MR imaging has been used for
      motor mapping in presurgical planning but never used intraoperatively. This study
      aimed to investigate the feasibility of applying intraoperative resting-state
      functional MR imaging for the safe resection of gliomas using real-time motor
      cortex mapping during an operation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using interventional
      MR imaging, we conducted preoperative and intraoperative resting-state intrinsic
      functional connectivity analyses of the motor cortex in 30 patients with brain
      tumors. Factors that may influence intraoperative imaging quality, including
      anesthesia type (general or awake anesthesia) and tumor cavity (filled with
      normal saline or not), were studied to investigate image quality. Additionally,
      direct cortical stimulation was used to validate the accuracy of intraoperative
      resting-state fMRI in mapping the motor cortex. RESULTS: Preoperative and
      intraoperative resting-state fMRI scans were acquired for all patients. Fourteen
      patients who successfully completed both sufficient intraoperative resting-state
      fMRI and direct cortical stimulation were used for further analysis of
      sensitivity and specificity. Compared with those subjected to direct cortical
      stimulation, the sensitivity and specificity of intraoperative resting-state fMRI
      in localizing the motor area were 61.7% and 93.7%, respectively. The image
      quality of intraoperative resting-state fMRI was better when the tumor cavity was
      filled with normal saline (P = .049). However, no significant difference between
      the anesthesia types was observed (P = .102). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrates the feasibility of using intraoperative resting-state fMRI for real
      time localization of functional areas during a neurologic operation. The findings
      suggest that using intraoperative resting-state fMRI can avoid the risk of
      intraoperative seizures due to direct cortical stimulation and may provide
      neurosurgeons with valuable information to facilitate the safe resection of
      gliomas.

PMID- 28882862
TI  - Detection of Volume-Changing Metastatic Brain Tumors on Longitudinal MRI Using a
      Semiautomated Algorithm Based on the Jacobian Operator Field.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Accurate follow-up of metastatic brain tumors has
      important implications for patient prognosis and management. The aim of this
      study was to develop and evaluate the accuracy of a semiautomated algorithm in
      detecting growing or shrinking metastatic brain tumors on longitudinal brain
      MRIs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used 50 pairs of successive MR imaging datasets,
      30 on 1.5T and 20 on 3T, containing contrast-enhanced 3D T1-weighted sequences.
      These yielded 150 growing or shrinking metastatic brain tumors. To detect them,
      we completed 2 major steps: 1) spatial normalization and calculation of the
      Jacobian operator field to quantify changes between scans, and 2) metastatic
      brain tumor candidate segmentation and detection of volume-changing metastatic
      brain tumors with the Jacobian operator field. Receiver operating characteristic
      analysis was used to assess the detection accuracy of the algorithm, and it was
      verified with jackknife resampling. The reference standard was based on
      detections by a neuroradiologist. RESULTS: The areas under the receiver operating
      characteristic curves were 0.925 for 1.5T and 0.965 for 3T. Furthermore, at its
      optimal performance, the algorithm achieved a sensitivity of 85.1% and 92.1% and
      specificity of 86.7% and 91.3% for 1.5T and 3T, respectively. Vessels were
      responsible for most false-positives. Newly developed or resolved metastatic
      brain tumors were a major source of false-negatives. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed
      algorithm could detect volume-changing metastatic brain tumors on longitudinal
      brain MRIs with statistically high accuracy, demonstrating its potential as a
      computer-aided change-detection tool for complementing the performance of
      radiologists, decreasing inter- and intraobserver variability, and improving
      efficacy.

PMID- 28882863
TI  - Patient Outcomes and Cerebral Infarction after Ruptured Anterior Communicating
      Artery Aneurysm Treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Anterior communicating artery aneurysm rupture and
      treatment is associated with high rates of dependency, which are more severe
      after clipping compared with coiling. To determine whether ischemic injury might
      account for these differences, we characterized cerebral infarction burden,
      infarction patterns, and patient outcomes after surgical or endovascular
      treatment of ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients with
      ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms. Patient data and neuroimaging
      studies were reviewed. A propensity score for outcome measures was calculated to
      account for the nonrandom assignment to treatment. Primary outcome was the
      frequency of frontal lobe and striatum ischemic injury. Secondary outcomes were
      patient mortality and clinical outcome at discharge and at 3 months. RESULTS:
      Coiled patients were older (median, 55 versus 50 years; P = .03), presented with
      a worse clinical status (60% with Hunt and Hess Score >2 versus 34% in clipped
      patients; P = .02), had a higher modified Fisher grade (P = .01), and were more
      likely to present with intraventricular hemorrhage (78% versus 56%; P = .03).
      Ischemic frontal lobe infarction (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.1-8.4; P = .03) and
      recurrent artery of Heubner infarction (OR, 20.9; 95% CI, 3.5-403.7; P < .001)
      were more common in clipped patients. Clipped patients were more likely to be
      functionally dependent at discharge (OR, 3.2; P = .05) compared with coiled
      patients. Mortality and clinical outcome at 3 months were similar between coiled
      and clipped patients. CONCLUSIONS: Frontal lobe and recurrent artery of Heubner
      infarctions are more common after surgical clipping of ruptured anterior
      communicating artery aneurysms, and are associated with poorer clinical outcomes
      at discharge.

PMID- 28882864
TI  - MR Neurography of Greater Occipital Nerve Neuropathy: Initial Experience in
      Patients with Migraine.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: MR imaging of peripheral nerves (MR neurography) allows
      improved assessment of nerve anatomy and pathology. The objective of this study
      was to evaluate patients with unilateral occipital neuralgia using MR neurography
      and to assess the differences in greater occipital nerve signal and size between
      the symptomatic and asymptomatic sides. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case
      control evaluation using MR neurography, bilateral greater occipital nerve
      caliber, signal intensity, signal-to-noise ratios, and contrast-to-noise ratios
      were determined by 2 observers. RESULTS: Among 18 subjects with unilateral
      occipital migraines, the average greater occipital nerve diameter for the
      symptomatic side was significantly greater at 1.77 +/- 0.4 mm than for the
      asymptomatic side at 1.29 +/- 0.25 mm (P = .001). The difference in nerve signal
      intensity between the symptomatic and asymptomatic sides was statistically
      significant at 269.06 +/- 170.93 and 222.44 +/- 170.46, respectively (P = .043).
      The signal-to-noise ratios on the symptomatic side were higher at 15.79 +/- 4.59
      compared with the asymptomatic nerve at 14.02 +/- 5.23 (P = .009). Contrast-to
      noise ratios were significantly higher on the symptomatic side than on the
      asymptomatic side at 2.57 +/- 4.89 and -1.26 +/- 5.02, respectively (P = .004).
      Intraobserver performance was good to excellent (intraclass coefficient
      correlation, 0.68-0.93), and interobserver performance was fair to excellent
      (intraclass coefficient correlation, 0.54-0.81). CONCLUSIONS: MR neurography can
      be reliably used for the diagnosis of greater occipital nerve neuropathy in
      patients with unilateral occipital migraines with a good correlation of imaging
      findings to the clinical presentation.

PMID- 28882865
TI  - Prevalence of Intracranial Aneurysms in Patients with Aortic Dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is an uncertainty about the association between
      intracranial aneurysms and aortic dissection. We aimed to determine the
      prevalence of intracranial aneurysms in patients with aortic dissection and
      evaluate the independent risk factors for the presence of intracranial aneurysms
      in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-one patients with a confirmed
      aortic dissection who underwent additional brain imaging were enrolled as the
      aortic dissection group, and 2118 healthy individuals with brain imaging, as
      controls. Demographic data were obtained from their medical records, including
      age, sex, comorbidities, and arch vessel involvement of aortic dissection. Two
      readers reviewed all brain images independently regarding the presence,
      morphology, size, and location of intracranial aneurysms. Baseline
      characteristics were compared between the aortic dissection group and controls by
      propensity score matching, and logistic regression analysis was performed for
      independent risk factors for the presence of intracranial aneurysms. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of intracranial aneurysms was 12.96% in the aortic dissection group
      and 1.85% in controls (P = .022). The mean diameter of intracranial aneurysms was
      significantly larger in the aortic dissection group (5.79 +/- 3.26 mm in aortic
      dissection versus 3.04 +/- 1.57 mm in controls; P = .008), and intracranial
      aneurysms of >7 mm were also more common in the aortic dissection group (28.6% in
      aortic dissection versus 5.3% in controls, P = .003). On multivariate analysis,
      arch vessel involvement of aortic dissection was an independent risk factor for
      the presence of intracranial aneurysms (odds ratio, 6.246; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.472-26.50; P = .013). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with aortic dissection
      have a high prevalence of intracranial aneurysms, and selective screening for
      brain vessels could be considered in these patients with arch vessel involvement.
      A further prospective study is needed to demonstrate a substantial prevalence of
      intracranial aneurysms.

PMID- 28882866
TI  - Yield of Image-Guided Needle Biopsy for Infectious Discitis: A Systematic Review
      and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Image-guided biopsy is routinely conducted in patients with suspected
      discitis, though the sensitivity reported in the literature ranges widely.
      PURPOSE: We applied a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the yield
      of image-guided biopsy for infectious discitis. DATA SOURCES: We performed a
      literature search of 4 data bases: PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL Register of
      Controlled Trials, Embase.com, and Scopus from data base inception to March 2016.
      STUDY SELECTION: A screen of 1814 articles identified 88 potentially relevant
      articles. Data were extracted for 33 articles, which were eligible if they were
      peer-reviewed publications of patients with clinical suspicion of discitis who
      underwent image-guided biopsy. DATA ANALYSIS: Patients with positive cultures out
      of total image-guided biopsy procedures were pooled to estimate yield with 95%
      confidence intervals. Hypothesis testing was performed with an inverse variance
      method after logit transformation. DATA SYNTHESIS: Image-guided biopsy has a
      yield of approximately 48% (793/1763), which is significantly lower than the open
      surgical biopsy yield of 76% (152/201; P < .01). Biopsy in patients with prior
      antibiotic exposure had a yield of 32% (106/346), which was not significantly
      different from the yield of 43% (336/813; P = .08) in patients without prior
      antibiotic exposure. LIMITATIONS: The conclusions of this meta-analysis are
      primarily limited by the heterogeneity of the included studies. CONCLUSIONS:
      Image-guided biopsy has a moderate yield for the diagnosis of infectious
      discitis, which is significantly lower than the yield of open surgical biopsy.
      This yield is not significantly affected by prior antibiotic use.

PMID- 28882867
TI  - Diagnostic Accuracy of Neuroimaging to Delineate Diffuse Gliomas within the
      Brain: A Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Brain imaging in diffuse glioma is used for diagnosis, treatment
      planning, and follow-up. PURPOSE: In this meta-analysis, we address the
      diagnostic accuracy of imaging to delineate diffuse glioma. DATA SOURCES: We
      systematically searched studies of adults with diffuse gliomas and correlation of
      imaging with histopathology. STUDY SELECTION: Study inclusion was based on
      quality criteria. Individual patient data were used, if available. DATA ANALYSIS:
      A hierarchic summary receiver operating characteristic method was applied. Low-
      and high-grade gliomas were analyzed in subgroups. DATA SYNTHESIS: Sixty-one
      studies described 3532 samples in 1309 patients. The mean Standard for Reporting
      of Diagnostic Accuracy score (13/25) indicated suboptimal reporting quality. For
      diffuse gliomas as a whole, the diagnostic accuracy was best with T2-weighted
      imaging, measured as area under the curve, false-positive rate, true-positive
      rate, and diagnostic odds ratio of 95.6%, 3.3%, 82%, and 152. For low-grade
      gliomas, the diagnostic accuracy of T2-weighted imaging as a reference was 89.0%,
      0.4%, 44.7%, and 205; and for high-grade gliomas, with T1-weighted gadolinium
      enhanced MR imaging as a reference, it was 80.7%, 16.8%, 73.3%, and 14.8. In high
      grade gliomas, MR spectroscopy (85.7%, 35.0%, 85.7%, and 12.4) and 11C methionine
      PET (85.1%, 38.7%, 93.7%, and 26.6) performed better than the reference imaging.
      LIMITATIONS: True-negative samples were underrepresented in these data, so false
      positive rates are probably less reliable than true-positive rates. Multimodality
      imaging data were unavailable. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic accuracy of commonly
      used imaging is better for delineation of low-grade gliomas than high-grade
      gliomas on the basis of limited evidence. Improvement is indicated from advanced
      techniques, such as MR spectroscopy and PET.

PMID- 28882868
TI  - Genetic Ablation of MicroRNA-33 Attenuates Inflammation and Abdominal Aortic
      Aneurysm Formation via Several Anti-Inflammatory Pathways.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an increasingly prevalent and
      ultimately fatal disease with no effective pharmacological treatment. Because
      matrix degradation induced by vascular inflammation is the major pathophysiology
      of AAA, attenuation of this inflammation may improve its outcome. Previous
      studies suggested that miR-33 (microRNA-33) inhibition and genetic ablation of
      miR-33 increased serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and attenuated
      atherosclerosis. APPROACH AND RESULTS: MiR-33a-5p expression in central zone of
      human AAA was higher than marginal zone. MiR-33 deletion attenuated AAA formation
      in both mouse models of angiotensin II- and calcium chloride-induced AAA. Reduced
      macrophage accumulation and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 expression were
      observed in calcium chloride-induced AAA walls in miR-33-/- mice. In vitro
      experiments revealed that peritoneal macrophages from miR-33-/- mice showed
      reduced matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression levels via c-Jun N-terminal kinase
      inactivation. Primary aortic vascular smooth muscle cells from miR-33-/- mice
      showed reduced monocyte chemotactic protein-1 expression by p38 mitogen-activated
      protein kinase attenuation. Both of the inactivation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase
      and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase were possibly because of the increase of
      ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 that is a well-known target of miR-33.
      Moreover, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol derived from miR-33-/- mice
      reduced expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 in macrophages and monocyte
      chemotactic protein-1 in vascular smooth muscle cells. Bone marrow
      transplantation experiments indicated that miR-33-deficient bone marrow cells
      ameliorated AAA formation in wild-type recipients. MiR-33 deficiency in recipient
      mice was also shown to contribute the inhibition of AAA formation. CONCLUSIONS:
      These data strongly suggest that inhibition of miR-33 will be effective as a
      novel strategy for treating AAA.

PMID- 28882869
TI  - Extracellular Vesicles Secreted by Atherogenic Macrophages Transfer MicroRNA to
      Inhibit Cell Migration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: During inflammation, macrophages secrete vesicles carrying RNA,
      protein, and lipids as a form of extracellular communication. In the vessel wall,
      extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been shown to be transferred between vascular
      cells during atherosclerosis; however, the role of macrophage-derived EVs in
      atherogenesis is not known. Here, we hypothesize that atherogenic macrophages
      secrete microRNAs (miRNAs) in EVs to mediate cell-cell communication and promote
      proinflammatory and proatherogenic phenotypes in recipient cells. APPROACH AND
      RESULTS: We isolated EVs from mouse and human macrophages treated with an
      atherogenic stimulus (oxidized low-density lipoprotein) and characterized the EV
      miRNA expression profile. We confirmed the enrichment of miR-146a, miR-128, miR
      185, miR-365, and miR-503 in atherogenic EVs compared with controls and
      demonstrate that these EVs are taken up and transfer exogenous miRNA to naive
      recipient macrophages. Bioinformatic pathway analysis suggests that atherogenic
      EV miRNAs are predicted to target genes involved in cell migration and adhesion
      pathways, and indeed delivery of EVs to naive macrophages reduced macrophage
      migration both in vitro and in vivo. Inhibition of miR-146a, the most enriched
      miRNA in atherogenic EVs, reduced the inhibitory effect of EVs on macrophage
      migratory capacity. EV-mediated delivery of miR-146a repressed the expression of
      target genes IGF2BP1 (insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 1) and
      HuR (human antigen R or ELAV-like RNA-binding protein 1) in recipient cells, and
      knockdown of IGF2BP1 and HuR using short interfering RNA greatly reduced
      macrophage migration, highlighting the importance of these EV-miRNA targets in
      regulating macrophage motility. CONCLUSIONS: EV-derived miRNAs from atherogenic
      macrophages, in particular miR-146a, may accelerate the development of
      atherosclerosis by decreasing cell migration and promoting macrophage entrapment
      in the vessel wall.

PMID- 28882870
TI  - CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing in Human iPSC-Derived Macrophage Reveals
      Lysosomal Acid Lipase Function in Human Macrophages-Brief Report.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To gain mechanistic insights into the role of LIPA (lipase A), the
      gene encoding LAL (lysosomal acid lipase) protein, in human macrophages. APPROACH
      AND RESULTS: We used CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic
      repeats)/Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) technology to knock out LIPA in human
      induced pluripotent stem cells and then differentiate to macrophage (human
      induced pluripotent stem cells-derived macrophage [IPSDM]) to explore the human
      macrophage LIPA loss-of-function phenotypes. LIPA was abundantly expressed in
      monocyte-derived macrophages and was markedly induced on IPSDM differentiation to
      comparable levels as in human monocyte-derived macrophage. IPSDM with knockout of
      LIPA (LIPA-/-) had barely detectable LAL enzymatic activity. Control and LIPA-/-
      IPSDM were loaded with [3H]-cholesteryl oleate-labeled AcLDL (acetylated low
      density lipoprotein) followed by efflux to apolipoprotein A-I. Efflux of
      liberated [3H]-cholesterol to apolipoprotein A-I was abolished in LIPA-/- IPSDM,
      indicating deficiency in LAL-mediated lysosomal cholesteryl ester hydrolysis. In
      cells loaded with [3H]-cholesterol-labeled AcLDL, [3H]-cholesterol efflux was,
      however, not different between control and LIPA-/- IPSDM. ABCA1 (ATP-binding
      cassette, subfamily A, member 1) expression was upregulated by AcLDL loading but
      to a similar extent between control and LIPA-/- IPSDM. In nonlipid loaded state,
      LIPA-/- IPSDM had high levels of cholesteryl ester mass compared with minute
      amounts in control IPSDM. Yet, with AcLDL loading, overall cholesteryl ester mass
      was increased to similar levels in both control and LIPA-/- IPSDM. LIPA-/- did
      not impact lysosomal apolipoprotein-B degradation or expression of IL1B, IL6, and
      CCL5. CONCLUSIONS: LIPA-/- IPSDM reveals macrophage-specific hallmarks of LIPA
      deficiency. CRISPR/Cas9 and IPSDM provide important tools to study human
      macrophage biology and more broadly for future studies of disease-associated LIPA
      genetic variation in human macrophages.

PMID- 28882871
TI  - Independent and Synergistic Associations of Biomarkers of Vitamin D Status With
      Risk of Coronary Heart Disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively evaluate the independent associations and potential
      interactions of vitamin D-related biomarkers including total and bioavailable 25
      hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), VDBP (vitamin D binding protein), and parathyroid
      hormone (PTH) with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). APPROACH AND RESULTS: We
      prospectively identified incident cases of nonfatal myocardial infarction and
      fatal CHD among women in the Nurses' Health Study during 20 years of follow-up
      (1990-2010). Using risk-set sampling, 1 to 2 matched controls were selected for
      each case. The analysis of 25OHD and PTH included 382 cases and 575 controls; the
      analysis of VDBP included 396 cases and 398 controls. After multivariate
      adjustment, plasma levels of total 25OHD, bioavailable 25OHD, and PTH were not
      significantly associated with CHD risk. VDBP was associated with a lower CHD risk
      with an extreme-quartile odds ratio of 0.60 (95% confidence interval, 0.39-0.92;
      P trend=0.02). When examining the biomarkers jointly, a significant, inverse
      association between 25OHD and CHD was observed among participants with higher PTH
      levels (P for interaction=0.02). The odds ratio (95% confidence interval)
      comparing the highest quartile of 25OHD to lowest was 0.43 (0.23-0.82; P
      trend=0.003) when PTH levels were above population median (35.3 pg/mL), whereas
      among the rest of participants the corresponding odds ratio (95% confidence
      interval) was 1.28 (0.70-2.36; P trend=0.43). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that
      higher 25OHD levels were associated with a lower CHD risk when PTH levels were
      high, whereas no association was observed for participants with low PTH levels.
      VDBP but not bioavailable 25OHD was independently associated with lower CHD risk.

PMID- 28882872
TI  - Mechanical Activation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1alpha Drives Endothelial
      Dysfunction at Atheroprone Sites.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Atherosclerosis develops near branches and bends of arteries that are
      exposed to low shear stress (mechanical drag). These sites are characterized by
      excessive endothelial cell (EC) proliferation and inflammation that promote
      lesion initiation. The transcription factor HIF1alpha (hypoxia-inducible factor
      1alpha) is canonically activated by hypoxia and has a role in plaque
      neovascularization. We studied the influence of shear stress on HIF1alpha
      activation and the contribution of this noncanonical pathway to lesion
      initiation. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and en
      face staining revealed that HIF1alpha was expressed preferentially at low shear
      stress regions of porcine and murine arteries. Low shear stress induced HIF1alpha
      in cultured EC in the presence of atmospheric oxygen. The mechanism involves the
      transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB that induced HIF1alpha transcripts and
      induction of the deubiquitinating enzyme Cezanne that stabilized HIF1alpha
      protein. Gene silencing revealed that HIF1alpha enhanced proliferation and
      inflammatory activation in EC exposed to low shear stress via induction of
      glycolysis enzymes. We validated this observation by imposing low shear stress in
      murine carotid arteries (partial ligation) that upregulated the expression of
      HIF1alpha, glycolysis enzymes, and inflammatory genes and enhanced EC
      proliferation. EC-specific genetic deletion of HIF1alpha in hypercholesterolemic
      apolipoprotein E-defecient mice reduced inflammation and endothelial
      proliferation in partially ligated arteries, indicating that HIF1alpha drives
      inflammation and vascular dysfunction at low shear stress regions. CONCLUSIONS:
      Mechanical low shear stress activates HIF1alpha at atheroprone regions of
      arteries via nuclear factor-kappaB and Cezanne. HIF1alpha promotes
      atherosclerosis initiation at these sites by inducing excessive EC proliferation
      and inflammation via the induction of glycolysis enzymes.

PMID- 28882873
TI  - ABCA8 Regulates Cholesterol Efflux and High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol
      Levels.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are considered to protect against
      atherosclerosis in part by facilitating the removal of cholesterol from
      peripheral tissues. However, factors regulating lipid efflux are incompletely
      understood. We previously identified a variant in adenosine triphosphate-binding
      cassette transporter A8 (ABCA8) in an individual with low HDL cholesterol (HDLc).
      Here, we investigate the role of ABCA8 in cholesterol efflux and in regulating
      HDLc levels. APPROACH AND RESULTS: We sequenced ABCA8 in individuals with low and
      high HDLc and identified, exclusively in low HDLc probands, 3 predicted
      deleterious heterozygous ABCA8 mutations (p.Pro609Arg [P609R], IVS17-2 A>G and
      p.Thr741Stop [T741X]). HDLc levels were lower in heterozygous mutation carriers
      compared with first-degree family controls (0.86+/-0.34 versus 1.17+/-0.26
      mmol/L; P=0.005). HDLc levels were significantly decreased by 29% (P=0.01) in
      Abca8b-/- mice on a high-cholesterol diet compared with wild-type mice, whereas
      hepatic overexpression of human ABCA8 in mice resulted in significant increases
      in plasma HDLc and the first steps of macrophage-to-feces reverse cholesterol
      transport. Overexpression of wild-type but not mutant ABCA8 resulted in a
      significant increase (1.8-fold; P=0.01) of cholesterol efflux to apolipoprotein
      AI in vitro. ABCA8 colocalizes and interacts with adenosine triphosphate-binding
      cassette transporter A1 and further potentiates adenosine triphosphate-binding
      cassette transporter A1-mediated cholesterol efflux. CONCLUSIONS: ABCA8
      facilitates cholesterol efflux and modulates HDLc levels in humans and mice.

PMID- 28882875
TI  - Class III PI3K Positively Regulates Platelet Activation and Thrombosis via PI(3)P
      Directed Function of NADPH Oxidase.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Class III phosphoinositide 3-kinase, also known as VPS34 (vacuolar
      protein sorting 34), is a highly conserved enzyme regulating important cellular
      functions such as NADPH oxidase (NOX) assembly, membrane trafficking, and
      autophagy. Although VPS34 is expressed in platelets, its involvement in platelet
      activation remains unclear. Herein, we investigated the role of VPS34 in platelet
      activation and thrombus formation using VPS34 knockout mice. APPROACH AND
      RESULTS: Platelet-specific VPS34-deficient mice were generated and characterized.
      VPS34 deficiency in platelets did not influence tail bleeding time. In a ferric
      chloride-induced mesenteric arteriolar thrombosis model, VPS34-/- mice exhibited
      a prolonged vessel occlusion time compared with wild-type mice (42.05+/-4.09
      versus 18.30+/-2.47 minutes). In an in vitro microfluidic whole-blood perfusion
      assay, thrombus formation on collagen under arterial shear was significantly
      reduced for VPS34-/- platelets. VPS34-/- platelets displayed an impaired
      aggregation and dense granule secretion in response to low doses of collagen or
      thrombin. VPS34 deficiency delayed clot retraction but did not influence platelet
      spreading on fibrinogen. We also demonstrated that VPS34 deficiency altered the
      basal level of autophagy in resting platelets and hampered NOX assembly and mTOR
      (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling during platelet activation.
      Importantly, we identified the NOX-dependent reactive oxygen species generation
      as the major downstream effector of VPS34, which in turn can mediate platelet
      activation. In addition, by using a specific inhibitor 3-methyladenine, VPS34 was
      found to operate through a similar NOX-dependent mechanism to promote human
      platelet activation. CONCLUSIONS: Platelet VPS34 is critical for thrombosis but
      dispensable for hemostasis. VPS34 regulates platelet activation by influencing
      NOX assembly.

PMID- 28882874
TI  - Haploid Mammalian Genetic Screen Identifies UBXD8 as a Key Determinant of HMGCR
      Degradation and Cholesterol Biosynthesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The cellular demand for cholesterol requires control of its
      biosynthesis by the mevalonate pathway. Regulation of HMGCR (3-hydroxy-3
      methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase), a rate-limiting enzyme in this pathway and
      the target of statins, is a key control point herein. Accordingly, HMGCR is
      subject to negative and positive regulation. In particular, the ability of
      oxysterols and intermediates of the mevalonate pathway to stimulate its
      proteasomal degradation is an exquisite example of metabolically controlled
      feedback regulation. To define the genetic determinants that govern this process,
      we conducted an unbiased haploid mammalian genetic screen. APPROACH AND RESULTS:
      We generated human haploid cells with mNeon fused to endogenous HMGCR using
      CRISPR/Cas9 and used these cells to interrogate regulation of HMGCR abundance in
      live cells. This resulted in identification of known and new regulators of HMGCR,
      and among the latter, UBXD8 (ubiquitin regulatory X domain-containing protein 8),
      a gene that has not been previously implicated in this process. We demonstrate
      that UBXD8 is an essential determinant of metabolically stimulated degradation of
      HMGCR and of cholesterol biosynthesis in multiple cell types. Accordingly, UBXD8
      ablation leads to aberrant cholesterol synthesis due to loss of feedback control.
      Mechanistically, we show that UBXD8 is necessary for sterol-stimulated
      dislocation of ubiquitylated HMGCR from the endoplasmic reticulum membrane en
      route to proteasomal degradation, a function dependent on its UBX domain.
      CONCLUSIONS: We establish UBXD8 as a previously unrecognized determinant that
      couples flux across the mevalonate pathway to control of cholesterol synthesis
      and demonstrate the feasibility of applying mammalian haploid genetics to study
      metabolic traits.

PMID- 28882876
TI  - Post-Up Study: Postpartum Depression Screening in Well-Child Care and Maternal
      Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Postpartum depression often remains unaddressed. Screening in well
      child care (WCC) may improve early detection, promote maternal recovery, and
      reduce effects on child development. We assessed the effectiveness of screening
      for postpartum depression in WCC compared with care as usual (CAU) on outcomes at
      mother and child levels. METHODS: In a prospective, quasiexperimental,
      comparative design, mothers visiting Dutch WCC centers were exposed either to
      screening at 1, 3, and 6 months postpartum (n = 1843) or to CAU (n = 1246).
      Assessments were at 3 weeks (baseline), 9 months (the Mini International
      Neuropsychiatric Interview), and 12 months (the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety
      Inventory, the Short-Form 12-Item Health Survey, the Maternal Self-Efficacy in
      the Nurturing Role questionnaire, and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Social
      Emotional) postpartum. RESULTS: Significantly fewer mothers in the intervention
      group were depressed at 9 months postpartum compared with the CAU group (0.6% vs
      2.5% for major depression). The adjusted odds ratio was 0.28 (95% confidence
      interval, 0.12 to 0.63; Cohen's d, 0.70). For minor and major depression, figures
      were 3.0% vs 8.4%, and the adjusted odds ratio was 0.40 (95% confidence interval,
      0.27 to 0.58; Cohen's d, 0.51). For parenting, anxiety symptoms, and mental
      health functioning, the intervention resulted in effect sizes ranging from 0.23
      to 0.27. The effect on the child's socioemotional development was negligible.
      CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of screening for postpartum depression in WCC should
      be seriously considered given its positive effects on maternal mental health. The
      benefits of optimizing the trajectory after screening on maternal and child
      outcomes need further attention.

PMID- 28882877
TI  - Clinical Pathway Produces Sustained Improvement in Acute Gastroenteritis Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite widespread use of the rotavirus vaccine in the
      last decade, dehydrating illnesses impact almost 2 billion children worldwide
      annually. Evidence supports oral rehydration therapy as a first-line treatment of
      mild to moderate dehydration. Ondansetron has proven to be a safe and effective
      adjunct in children with vomiting. We implemented a clinical pathway in our
      pediatric emergency department (ED) in January 2005 to improve care for this
      common condition. Our objective in this study was to determine the long-term
      impact of the pathway for acute gastroenteritis (AGE) on the proportion of
      patients receiving intravenous (IV) fluids and ED length of stay (LOS) for
      discharged patients. METHODS: Cases were identified by using International
      Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis
      codes. We used statistical process control to analyze process and outcome
      measures for 2 years before and 10 years after pathway implementation. RESULTS:
      We included 30 519 patients. We found special cause variation with a downward
      shift in patients receiving IV fluids after initiation of the pathway and later
      with addition of ondansetron to the pathway from 48% to 26%. Mean ED LOS for
      discharged patients with AGE decreased from 247 to 172 minutes. These
      improvements were sustained over time. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a clinical
      pathway emphasizing oral rehydration therapy and ondansetron for children with
      AGE led to decreased IV fluid use and LOS in a pediatric ED. Improvements were
      sustained over a 10-year period. Our results suggest that quality-improvement
      interventions for AGE can have long-term impacts on care delivery.

PMID- 28882878
TI  - Autoimmune disease variants regulate GSDMB gene expression in human immune cells
      and whole blood.

PMID- 28882879
TI  - Acalabrutinib (ACP-196): A Covalent Bruton Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor with a
      Differentiated Selectivity and In Vivo Potency Profile.
AB  - Several small-molecule Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors are in development
      for B cell malignancies and autoimmune disorders, each characterized by distinct
      potency and selectivity patterns. Herein we describe the pharmacologic
      characterization of BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib [compound 1, ACP-196 (4-[8-amino
      3-[(2S)-1-but-2-ynoylpyrrolidin-2-yl]imidazo[1,5-a]pyrazin-1-yl]-N-(2
      pyridyl)benzamide)]. Acalabrutinib possesses a reactive butynamide group that
      binds covalently to Cys481 in BTK. Relative to the other BTK inhibitors described
      here, the reduced intrinsic reactivity of acalabrutinib helps to limit inhibition
      of off-target kinases having cysteine-mediated covalent binding potential.
      Acalabrutinib demonstrated higher biochemical and cellular selectivity than
      ibrutinib and spebrutinib (compounds 2 and 3, respectively). Importantly, off
      target kinases, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and interleukin 2
      inducible T cell kinase (ITK), were not inhibited. Determination of the
      inhibitory potential of anti-immunoglobulin M-induced CD69 expression in human
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells and whole blood demonstrated that
      acalabrutinib is a potent functional BTK inhibitor. In vivo evaluation in mice
      revealed that acalabrutinib is more potent than ibrutinib and spebrutinib.
      Preclinical and clinical studies showed that the level and duration of BTK
      occupancy correlates with in vivo efficacy. Evaluation of the pharmacokinetic
      properties of acalabrutinib in healthy adult volunteers demonstrated rapid
      absorption and fast elimination. In these healthy individuals, a single oral dose
      of 100 mg showed approximately 99% median target coverage at 3 and 12 hours and
      around 90% at 24 hours in peripheral B cells. In conclusion, acalabrutinib is a
      BTK inhibitor with key pharmacologic differentiators versus ibrutinib and
      spebrutinib and is currently being evaluated in clinical trials.

PMID- 28882880
TI  - Slow fusion pore expansion creates a unique reaction chamber for co-packaged
      cargo.
AB  - A lumenal secretory granule protein, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), greatly
      slows fusion pore dilation and thereby slows its own discharge. We investigated
      another outcome of the long-lived narrow fusion pore: the creation of a nanoscale
      chemical reaction chamber for granule contents in which the pH is suddenly
      neutralized upon fusion. Bovine adrenal chromaffin cells endogenously express
      both tPA and its primary protein inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1
      (PAI). We found by immunocytochemistry that tPA and PAI are co-packaged in the
      same secretory granule. It is known that PAI irreversibly and covalently
      inactivates tPA at neutral pH. We demonstrate with zymography that the acidic
      granule lumen protects tPA from inactivation by PAI. Immunocytochemistry, total
      internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, and polarized TIRF microscopy
      demonstrated that co-packaged PAI and tPA remain together in granules for many
      seconds in the nanoscale reaction chamber, more than enough time to inhibit tPA
      and create a new secreted protein species.

PMID- 28882881
TI  - Respiratory manifestations of gastro-oesophageal reflux in children.
AB  - Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is a complex problem in children.
      Suspected respiratory manifestations of GORD, such as asthma, chronic cough and
      laryngitis, are commonly encountered in the paediatric practice, but continue to
      be entities with more questions than answers. The accuracy of diagnostic tests
      (ie, pH or pH-impedance monitoring, laryngoscopy, endoscopy) for patients with
      suspected extraoesophageal manifestations of GORD is suboptimal and therefore
      whether there is a causal relationship between these conditions remains largely
      undetermined. An empiric trial of proton pump inhibitors can help individual
      children with undiagnosed respiratory symptoms and suspicion of GORD, but the
      response to therapy is unpredictable, and in any case what may be being observed
      is spontaneous improvement. Furthermore, the safety of these agents has been
      called into question. Poor response to antireflux therapy is an important trigger
      to search for non-gastro-oesophageal reflux causes for patients' symptoms.
      Evidence for the assessment of children with suspected extraoesophageal
      manifestations of GORD is scanty and longitudinal studies with long-term follow
      up are urgently required.

PMID- 28882882
TI  - How I treat patients with HIV-related hematological malignancies using
      hematopoietic cell transplantation.
AB  - Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has now been shown to be safe and
      effective for selected HIV-infected patients with hematological malignancies.
      Autologous HCT is now the standard of care for patients with HIV-related
      lymphomas who otherwise meet standard transplant criteria. Limited data also
      support use of allogeneic HCT (alloHCT) in selected HIV-infected patients who
      meet standard transplant criteria. We recommend enrolling patients in clinical
      trials that offer access to CCR5Delta32 homozygous donors, if available. HIV
      infected patients requiring HCT may also be considered for participation in
      trials evaluating the activity of gene-modified hematopoietic stem cells in
      conferring resistance to HIV infection. To be considered for HCT, patients must
      have HIV infection that is responsive to combination antiretroviral therapy
      (cART). Careful planning for the peri-HCT management of the cART can avoid risk
      of significant drug interactions and development of cART-resistant HIV. In
      general, we recommend against the use of boosted proteasome inhibitors and
      nonnucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors in the cART regimen, in favor of
      nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and integrase inhibitors (without
      cobicistat). After HCT, patients must be closely monitored for development of
      opportunistic infections (OI), such as cytomegalovirus. Prevention of OI should
      include prophylactic and pre-emptive antimicrobials.

PMID- 28882884
TI  - Government pledges strong research links with EU after Brexit.

PMID- 28882883
TI  - Cytoprotective activated protein C averts Nlrp3 inflammasome-induced ischemia
      reperfusion injury via mTORC1 inhibition.
AB  - Cytoprotection by activated protein C (aPC) after ischemia-reperfusion injury
      (IRI) is associated with apoptosis inhibition. However, IRI is hallmarked by
      inflammation, and hence, cell-death forms disjunct from immunologically silent
      apoptosis are, in theory, more likely to be relevant. Because pyroptosis (ie,
      cell death resulting from inflammasome activation) is typically observed in IRI,
      we speculated that aPC ameliorates IRI by inhibiting inflammasome activation.
      Here we analyzed the impact of aPC on inflammasome activity in myocardial and
      renal IRIs. aPC treatment before or after myocardial IRI reduced infarct size and
      Nlrp3 inflammasome activation in mice. Kinetic in vivo analyses revealed that
      Nlrp3 inflammasome activation preceded myocardial injury and apoptosis,
      corroborating a pathogenic role of the Nlrp3 inflammasome. The constitutively
      active Nlrp3A350V mutation abolished the protective effect of aPC, demonstrating
      that Nlrp3 suppression is required for aPC-mediated protection from IRI. In vitro
      aPC inhibited inflammasome activation in macrophages, cardiomyocytes, and cardiac
      fibroblasts via proteinase-activated receptor 1 (PAR-1) and mammalian target of
      rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling. Accordingly, inhibiting PAR-1 signaling,
      but not the anticoagulant properties of aPC, abolished the ability of aPC to
      restrict Nlrp3 inflammasome activity and tissue damage in myocardial IRI.
      Targeting biased PAR-1 signaling via parmodulin-2 restricted mTORC1 and Nlrp3
      inflammasome activation and limited myocardial IRI as efficiently as aPC. The
      relevance of aPC-mediated Nlrp3 inflammasome suppression after IRI was
      corroborated in renal IRI, where the tissue protective effect of aPC was likewise
      dependent on Nlrp3 inflammasome suppression. These studies reveal that aPC
      protects from IRI by restricting mTORC1-dependent inflammasome activation and
      that mimicking biased aPC PAR-1 signaling using parmodulins may be a feasible
      therapeutic approach to combat IRI.

PMID- 28882885
TI  - Modeling Major Adverse Outcomes of Pediatric and Adult Patients With Congenital
      Heart Disease Undergoing Cardiac Catheterization: Observations From the NCDR
      IMPACT Registry (National Cardiovascular Data Registry Improving Pediatric and
      Adult Congenital Treatment).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Risk standardization for adverse events after congenital cardiac
      catheterization is needed to equitably compare patient outcomes among different
      hospitals as a foundation for quality improvement. The goal of this project was
      to develop a risk-standardization methodology to adjust for patient
      characteristics when comparing major adverse outcomes in the NCDR's (National
      Cardiovascular Data Registry) IMPACT Registry (Improving Pediatric and Adult
      Congenital Treatment). METHODS: Between January 2011 and March 2014, 39 725
      consecutive patients within IMPACT undergoing cardiac catheterization were
      identified. Given the heterogeneity of interventional procedures for congenital
      heart disease, new procedure-type risk categories were derived with empirical
      data and expert opinion, as were markers of hemodynamic vulnerability. A
      multivariable hierarchical logistic regression model to identify patient and
      procedural characteristics predictive of a major adverse event or death after
      cardiac catheterization was derived in 70% of the cohort and validated in the
      remaining 30%. RESULTS: The rate of major adverse event or death was 7.1% and
      7.2% in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. Six procedure-type
      risk categories and 6 independent indicators of hemodynamic vulnerability were
      identified. The final risk adjustment model included procedure-type risk
      category, number of hemodynamic vulnerability indicators, renal insufficiency,
      single-ventricle physiology, and coagulation disorder. The model had good
      discrimination, with a C-statistic of 0.76 and 0.75 in the derivation and
      validation cohorts, respectively. Model calibration in the validation cohort was
      excellent, with a slope of 0.97 (standard error, 0.04; P value [for difference
      from 1] =0.53) and an intercept of 0.007 (standard error, 0.12; P value [for
      difference from 0] =0.95). CONCLUSIONS: The creation of a validated risk
      standardization model for adverse outcomes after congenital cardiac
      catheterization can support reporting of risk-adjusted outcomes in the IMPACT
      Registry as a foundation for quality improvement.

PMID- 28882886
TI  - Potential Cardiovascular and Total Mortality Benefits of Air Pollution Control in
      Urban China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Outdoor air pollution ranks fourth among preventable causes of
      China's burden of disease. We hypothesized that the magnitude of health gains
      from air quality improvement in urban China could compare with achieving
      recommended blood pressure or smoking control goals. METHODS: The Cardiovascular
      Disease Policy Model-China projected coronary heart disease, stroke, and all
      cause deaths in urban Chinese adults 35 to 84 years of age from 2017 to 2030 if
      recent air quality (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <=2.5 um, PM2.5)
      and traditional cardiovascular risk factor trends continue. We projected life
      years gained if urban China were to reach 1 of 3 air quality goals: Beijing
      Olympic Games level (mean PM2.5, 55 MUg/m3), China Class II standard (35 MUg/m3),
      or World Health Organization standard (10 MUg/m3). We compared projected air
      pollution reduction control benefits with potential benefits of reaching World
      Health Organization hypertension and tobacco control goals. RESULTS: Mean PM2.5
      reduction to Beijing Olympic levels by 2030 would gain ~241,000 (95% uncertainty
      interval, 189 000-293 000) life-years annually. Achieving either the China Class
      II or World Health Organization PM2.5 standard would yield greater health
      benefits (992 000 [95% uncertainty interval, 790 000-1 180 000] or 1 827 000 [95%
      uncertainty interval, 1 481 00-2 129 000] annual life-years gained, respectively)
      than World Health Organization-recommended goals of 25% improvement in systolic
      hypertension control and 30% reduction in smoking combined (928 000 [95%
      uncertainty interval, 830 000-1 033 000] life-years). CONCLUSIONS: Air quality
      improvement in different scenarios could lead to graded health benefits ranging
      from 241 000 life-years gained to much greater benefits equal to or greater than
      the combined benefits of 25% improvement in systolic hypertension control and 30%
      smoking reduction.

PMID- 28882887
TI  - Cut Points for Identifying Clinically Significant Diabetes Distress in
      Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes Using the PAID-T: Results From Diabetes MILES
      Youth-Australia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To establish cut point(s) for the Problem Areas in Diabetes-teen
      version (PAID-T) scale to identify adolescents with clinically meaningful,
      elevated diabetes distress. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were available from
      the Diabetes Management and Impact for Long-term Empowerment and Success (MILES)
      Youth-Australia Study, a national survey assessing various psychosocial
      indicators among self-selected National Diabetes Services Scheme registrants.
      Participants in the current study (n = 537) were (mean +/- SD) 16 +/- 2 years
      old, had type 1 diabetes for 6 +/- 4 years, and 62% (n = 334) were girls. They
      completed measures of diabetes distress (PAID-T) and depressive symptoms (Patient
      Health Questionnaire for Adolescents) and self-reported their most recent HbA1c
      and frequency of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). Relationships between
      the PAID-T and the psychological and clinical variables were examined to identify
      a clinically meaningful threshold for elevated diabetes distress. ANOVA was used
      to test whether these variables differed by levels of distress. RESULTS: Two cut
      points distinguished none-to-mild (<70), moderate (70-90), and high (>90)
      diabetes distress. Moderate distress was experienced by 18% of adolescents and
      high distress by 36%. Mean depressive symptoms, self-reported HbA1c, and SMBG
      differed significantly across the three levels of diabetes distress (all P <
      0.001), with moderate-to-large effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS: Using the PAID-T, this
      study defined two clinically meaningful cut points to distinguish none-to-mild,
      moderate, and high diabetes distress in adolescents (aged 13-19). Based on these
      cut points, most respondents experienced at least moderate diabetes distress,
      which was clinically significant. Establishing thresholds for elevated diabetes
      distress will aid clinicians and researchers to interpret PAID-T scores, prompt
      discussion and intervention for those with unmet needs, and enable the
      effectiveness of interventions to be evaluated.

PMID- 28882888
TI  - Microbiome-Based Diagnostics: Ready for Applications in Laboratory Medicine?

PMID- 28882889
TI  - The Rho ADP-ribosylating C3 exoenzyme binds cells via an Arg-Gly-Asp motif.
AB  - The Rho ADP-ribosylating C3 exoenzyme (C3bot) is a bacterial protein toxin devoid
      of a cell-binding or -translocation domain. Nevertheless, C3 can efficiently
      enter intact cells, including neurons, but the mechanism of C3 binding and uptake
      is not yet understood. Previously, we identified the intermediate filament
      vimentin as an extracellular membranous interaction partner of C3. However,
      uptake of C3 into cells still occurs (although reduced) in the absence of
      vimentin, indicating involvement of an additional host cell receptor. C3 harbors
      an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif, which is the major integrin-binding site, present in
      a variety of integrin ligands. To check whether the RGD motif of C3 is involved
      in binding to cells, we performed a competition assay with C3 and RGD peptide or
      with a monoclonal antibody binding to beta1-integrin subunit and binding assays
      in different cell lines, primary neurons, and synaptosomes with C3-RGD mutants.
      Here, we report that preincubation of cells with the GRGDNP peptide strongly
      reduced C3 binding to cells. Moreover, mutation of the RGD motif reduced C3
      binding to intact cells and also to recombinant vimentin. Anti-integrin
      antibodies also lowered the C3 binding to cells. Our results indicate that the
      RGD motif of C3 is at least one essential C3 motif for binding to host cells and
      that integrin is an additional receptor for C3 besides vimentin.

PMID- 28882890
TI  - C-terminal phosphorylation of NaV1.5 impairs FGF13-dependent regulation of
      channel inactivation.
AB  - Voltage-gated Na+ (NaV) channels are key regulators of myocardial excitability,
      and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII)-dependent alterations in
      NaV1.5 channel inactivation are emerging as a critical determinant of arrhythmias
      in heart failure. However, the global native phosphorylation pattern of NaV1.5
      subunits associated with these arrhythmogenic disorders and the associated
      channel regulatory defects remain unknown. Here, we undertook phosphoproteomic
      analyses to identify and quantify in situ the phosphorylation sites in the NaV1.5
      proteins purified from adult WT and failing CaMKIIdeltac-overexpressing
      (CaMKIIdeltac-Tg) mouse ventricles. Of 19 native NaV1.5 phosphorylation sites
      identified, two C-terminal phosphoserines at positions 1938 and 1989 showed
      increased phosphorylation in the CaMKIIdeltac-Tg compared with the WT ventricles.
      We then tested the hypothesis that phosphorylation at these two sites impairs
      fibroblast growth factor 13 (FGF13)-dependent regulation of NaV1.5 channel
      inactivation. Whole-cell voltage-clamp analyses in HEK293 cells demonstrated that
      FGF13 increases NaV1.5 channel availability and decreases late Na+ current, two
      effects that were abrogated with NaV1.5 mutants mimicking phosphorylation at both
      sites. Additional co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that FGF13
      potentiates the binding of calmodulin to NaV1.5 and that phosphomimetic mutations
      at both sites decrease the interaction of FGF13 and, consequently, of calmodulin
      with NaV1.5. Together, we have identified two novel native phosphorylation sites
      in the C terminus of NaV1.5 that impair FGF13-dependent regulation of channel
      inactivation and may contribute to CaMKIIdeltac-dependent arrhythmogenic
      disorders in failing hearts.

PMID- 28882891
TI  - Identification of optineurin as an interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 1
      binding protein and its role in regulation of MyD88-dependent signaling.
AB  - Upon stimulation of toll-like receptors with various microbial ligands, induction
      of a variety of inflammatory genes is elicited by activation of a myeloid
      differentiation primary-response protein 88 (MyD88)-dependent signaling pathway.
      Interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1) plays an essential role
      in this pathway by activating nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) and mitogen
      activated kinases (MAPKs). Here, we identified optineurin (OPTN) as an IRAK1
      binding protein by yeast two-hybrid screening using IRAK1 as bait. A C-terminal
      fragment of OPTN harboring a ubiquitin-binding domain was co-immunoprecipitated
      with IRAK1. In reporter analyses, overexpression of OPTN inhibited IL-1beta-,
      IRAK1-, and LPS-induced NF-kappaB activation. Consistently, OPTN deficiency
      resulted in increased NF-kappaB activation in response to IL-1beta/LPS
      stimulation. To address the mechanisms underlying the inhibitory effect of OPTN
      on NF-kappaB signaling, we focused on tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor
      associated factor 6 (TRAF6), which is an adaptor protein of IRAK1 and upon
      polyubiquitination plays a crucial role during NF-kappaB activation.
      Overexpression of OPTN prevented TRAF6 polyubiquitination. Furthermore, OPTN
      H486R mutant, which is unable to recruit the deubiquitinase CYLD, failed to
      inhibit IRAK1-induced NF-kappaB activation. These results suggest that the IRAK1
      binding protein OPTN negatively regulates IL-1beta/LPS-induced NF-kappaB
      activation by preventing polyubiquitination of TRAF6.

PMID- 28882892
TI  - Structural features of human inositol phosphate multikinase rationalize its
      inositol phosphate kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase activities.
AB  - Human inositol phosphate multikinase (HsIPMK) critically contributes to
      intracellular signaling through its inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (Ins(1,4,5)P3) 3
      kinase and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) 3-kinase
      activities. This catalytic profile is not conserved; orthologs from Arabidopsis
      thaliana and Saccharomyces cerevisiae are predominantly Ins(1,4,5)P3 6-kinases,
      and the plant enzyme cannot phosphorylate PtdIns(4,5)P2 Therefore,
      crystallographic analysis of the yeast and plant enzymes, without bound inositol
      phosphates, do not structurally rationalize HsIPMK activities. Here, we present
      1.6-A resolution crystal structures of HsIPMK in complex with either Ins(1,4,5)P3
      or PtdIns(4,5)P2 The Ins(1,4,5)P3 headgroup of PtdIns(4,5)P2 binds in precisely
      the same orientation as free Ins(1,4,5)P3 itself, indicative of evolutionary
      optimization of 3-kinase activities against both substrates. We report on
      nucleotide binding between the separate N- and C-lobes of HsIPMK. The N-lobe
      exhibits a remarkable degree of conservation with protein kinase A (root mean
      square deviation = 1.8 A), indicating common ancestry. We also describe
      structural features unique to HsIPMK. First, we observed a constrained, horseshoe
      shaped substrate pocket, formed from an alpha-helix, a 310 helix, and a recently
      evolved tri-proline loop. We further found HsIPMK activities rely on a
      preponderance of Gln residues, in contrast to the larger Lys and Arg residues in
      yeast and plant orthologs. These conclusions are supported by analyzing 14 single
      site HsIPMK mutants, some of which differentially affect 3-kinase and 6-kinase
      activities. Overall, we structurally rationalize phosphorylation of Ins(1,4,5)P3
      and PtdIns(4,5)P2 by HsIPMK.

PMID- 28882894
TI  - Zinc oxide nanoparticles provide anti-cholera activity by disrupting the
      interaction of cholera toxin with the human GM1 receptor.
AB  - Vibrio cholerae causes cholera and is the leading cause of diarrhea in developing
      countries, highlighting the need for the development of new treatment strategies
      to combat this disease agent. While exploring the possibility of using zinc oxide
      (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) in cholera treatment, we previously found that ZnO NPs
      reduce fluid accumulation in mouse ileum induced by the cholera toxin (CT)
      protein. To uncover the mechanism of action of ZnO NPs on CT activity, here we
      used classical (O395) and El Tor (C6706) V. cholerae biotypes in growth and
      biochemical assays. We found that a ZnO NP concentration of 10 MUg/ml did not
      affect the growth rates of these two strains, nor did we observe that ZnO NPs
      reduce the expression levels of CT mRNA and protein. It was observed that ZnO NPs
      form a complex with CT, appear to disrupt the CT secondary structure, and block
      its interaction with the GM1 ganglioside receptor in the outer leaflet of the
      plasma membrane in intestinal (HT-29) cells and thereby reduce CT uptake into the
      cells. In the range of 2.5-10 MUg/ml, ZnO NPs exhibited no cytotoxicity on kidney
      (HEK293) and HT-29 cells. We conclude that ZnO NPs prevent the first step in the
      translocation of cholera toxin into intestinal epithelial cells without exerting
      measurable toxic effects on HEK293 and HT-29 cells.

PMID- 28882893
TI  - Kinetic signatures of myosin-5B, the motor involved in microvillus inclusion
      disease.
AB  - Myosin-5B is a ubiquitous molecular motor that transports cargo vesicles of the
      endomembrane system in intracellular recycling pathways. Myosin-5B malfunction
      causes the congenital enteropathy microvillus inclusion disease, underlining its
      importance in cellular homeostasis. Here we describe the interaction of myosin-5B
      with F-actin, nucleotides, and the pyrazolopyrimidine compound myoVin-1. We show
      that single-headed myosin-5B is an intermediate duty ratio motor with a kinetic
      ATPase cycle that is rate-limited by the release of phosphate. The presence of a
      second head generates strain and gating in the myosin-5B dimer that alters the
      kinetic signature by reducing the actin-activated ADP release rate to become rate
      limiting. This kinetic transition into a high-duty ratio motor is a prerequisite
      for the proposed transport function of myosin-5B in cellular recycling pathways.
      Moreover, we show that the small molecule compound myoVin-1 inhibits the
      enzymatic and functional activity of myosin-5B in vitro Partial inhibition of the
      actin-activated steady-state ATPase activity and sliding velocity suggests that
      caution should be used when probing the effect of myoVin-1 on myosin-5-dependent
      transport processes in cells.

PMID- 28882895
TI  - Peptide array-based screening reveals a large number of proteins interacting with
      the ankyrin-repeat domain of the zDHHC17 S-acyltransferase.
AB  - zDHHC S-acyltransferases are enzymes catalyzing protein S-acylation, a common
      post-translational modification on proteins frequently affecting their membrane
      targeting and trafficking. The ankyrin repeat (AR) domain of zDHHC17 (HIP14) and
      zDHHC13 (HIP14L) S-acyltransferases, which is involved in both substrate
      recruitment and S-acylation-independent functions, was recently shown to bind at
      least six proteins, by specific recognition of a consensus sequence in them. To
      further refine the rules governing binding to the AR of zDHHC17, we employed
      peptide arrays based on zDHHC AR-binding motif (zDABM) sequences of synaptosomal
      associated protein 25 (SNAP25) and cysteine string protein alpha (CSPalpha).
      Quantitative comparisons of the binding preferences of 400 peptides allowed us to
      construct a position-specific scoring matrix (PSSM) for zDHHC17 AR binding, with
      which we predicted and subsequently validated many putative zDHHC17 interactors.
      We identified 95 human zDABM sequences with unexpected versatility in amino acid
      usage; these sequences were distributed among 90 proteins, of which 62 have not
      been previously implicated in zDHHC17/13 binding. These zDABM-containing proteins
      included all family members of the SNAP25, sprouty, cornifelin, ankyrin, and
      SLAIN-motif containing families; seven endogenous Gag polyproteins sharing the
      same binding sequence; and several proteins involved in cytoskeletal
      organization, cell communication, and regulation of signaling. A dozen of the
      zDABM-containing proteins had more than one zDABM sequence, whereas isoform
      specific binding to the AR of zDHHC17 was identified for the Ena/VASP-like
      protein. The large number of zDABM sequences within the human proteome suggests
      that zDHHC17 may be an interaction hub regulating many cellular processes.

PMID- 28882896
TI  - Transcriptional fidelities of human mitochondrial POLRMT, yeast mitochondrial
      Rpo41, and phage T7 single-subunit RNA polymerases.
AB  - Single-subunit RNA polymerases (RNAPs) are present in phage T7 and in
      mitochondria of all eukaryotes. This RNAP class plays important roles in
      biotechnology and cellular energy production, but we know little about its
      fidelity and error rates. Herein, we report the error rates of three single
      subunit RNAPs measured from the catalytic efficiencies of correct and all
      possible incorrect nucleotides. The average error rates of T7 RNAP (2 * 10-6),
      yeast mitochondrial Rpo41 (6 * 10-6), and human mitochondrial POLRMT (RNA
      polymerase mitochondrial) (2 * 10-5) indicate high accuracy/fidelity of RNA
      synthesis resembling those of replicative DNA polymerases. All three RNAPs
      exhibit a distinctly high propensity for GTP misincorporation opposite dT,
      predicting frequent A->G errors in RNA with rates of ~10-4 The A->C, G->A, A->U,
      C->U, G->U, U->C, and U->G errors mostly due to pyrimidine-purine mismatches were
      relatively frequent (10-5-10-6), whereas C->G, U->A, G->C, and C->A errors from
      purine-purine and pyrimidine-pyrimidine mismatches were rare (10-7-10-10). POLRMT
      also shows a high C->A error rate on 8-oxo-dG templates (~10-4). Strikingly,
      POLRMT shows a high mutagenic bypass rate, which is exacerbated by TEFM
      (transcription elongation factor mitochondrial). The lifetime of POLRMT on
      terminally mismatched elongation substrate is increased in the presence of TEFM,
      which allows POLRMT to efficiently bypass the error and continue with
      transcription. This investigation of nucleotide selectivity on normal and
      oxidatively damaged DNA by three single-subunit RNAPs provides the basic
      information to understand the error rates in mitochondria and, in the case of T7
      RNAP, to assess the quality of in vitro transcribed RNAs.

PMID- 28882899
TI  - Glucose-Induced Changes in Gene Expression in Human Pancreatic Islets: Causes or
      Consequences of Chronic Hyperglycemia.
AB  - Dysregulation of gene expression in islets from patients with type 2 diabetes
      (T2D) might be causally involved in the development of hyperglycemia, or it could
      develop as a consequence of hyperglycemia (i.e., glucotoxicity). To separate the
      genes that could be causally involved in pathogenesis from those likely to be
      secondary to hyperglycemia, we exposed islets from human donors to normal or high
      glucose concentrations for 24 h and analyzed gene expression. We compared these
      findings with gene expression in islets from donors with normal glucose tolerance
      and hyperglycemia (including T2D). The genes whose expression changed in the same
      direction after short-term glucose exposure, as in T2D, were considered most
      likely to be a consequence of hyperglycemia. Genes whose expression changed in
      hyperglycemia but not after short-term glucose exposure, particularly those that
      also correlated with insulin secretion, were considered the strongest candidates
      for causal involvement in T2D. For example, ERO1LB, DOCK10, IGSF11, and PRR14L
      were downregulated in donors with hyperglycemia and correlated positively with
      insulin secretion, suggesting a protective role, whereas TMEM132C was upregulated
      in hyperglycemia and correlated negatively with insulin secretion, suggesting a
      potential pathogenic role. This study provides a catalog of gene expression
      changes in human pancreatic islets after exposure to glucose.

PMID- 28882897
TI  - The Tiam1 guanine nucleotide exchange factor is auto-inhibited by its pleckstrin
      homology coiled-coil extension domain.
AB  - T-cell lymphoma invasion and metastasis 1 (Tiam1) is a Dbl-family guanine
      nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) that specifically activates the Rho-family
      GTPase Rac1 in response to upstream signals, thereby regulating cellular
      processes including cell adhesion and migration. Tiam1 contains multiple domains,
      including an N-terminal pleckstrin homology coiled-coiled extension (PHn-CC-Ex)
      and catalytic Dbl homology and C-terminal pleckstrin homology (DH-PHc) domain.
      Previous studies indicate that larger fragments of Tiam1, such as the region
      encompassing the N-terminal to C-terminal pleckstrin homology domains (PHn-PHc),
      are auto-inhibited. However, the domains in this region responsible for
      inhibition remain unknown. Here, we show that the PHn-CC-Ex domain inhibits Tiam1
      GEF activity by directly interacting with the catalytic DH-PHc domain, preventing
      Rac1 binding and activation. Enzyme kinetics experiments suggested that Tiam1 is
      auto-inhibited through occlusion of the catalytic site rather than by allostery.
      Small angle X-ray scattering and ensemble modeling yielded models of the PHn-PHc
      fragment that indicate it is in equilibrium between "open" and "closed"
      conformational states. Finally, single-molecule experiments support a model in
      which conformational sampling between the open and closed states of Tiam1
      contributes to Rac1 dissociation. Our results highlight the role of the PHn-CC-Ex
      domain in Tiam1 GEF regulation and suggest a combinatorial model for GEF
      inhibition and activation of the Rac1 signaling pathway.

PMID- 28882898
TI  - Switch I-dependent allosteric signaling in a G-protein chaperone-B12 enzyme
      complex.
AB  - G-proteins regulate various processes ranging from DNA replication and protein
      synthesis to cytoskeletal dynamics and cofactor assimilation and serve as models
      for uncovering strategies deployed for allosteric signal transduction. MeaB is a
      multifunctional G-protein chaperone, which gates loading of the active 5'
      deoxyadenosylcobalamin cofactor onto methylmalonyl-CoA mutase (MCM) and precludes
      loading of inactive cofactor forms. MeaB also safeguards MCM, which uses radical
      chemistry, against inactivation and rescues MCM inactivated during catalytic
      turnover by using the GTP-binding energy to offload inactive cofactor. The
      conserved switch I and II signaling motifs used by G-proteins are predicted to
      mediate allosteric regulation in response to nucleotide binding and hydrolysis in
      MeaB. Herein, we targeted conserved residues in the MeaB switch I motif to
      interrogate the function of this loop. Unexpectedly, the switch I mutations had
      only modest effects on GTP binding and on GTPase activity and did not perturb
      stability of the MCM-MeaB complex. However, these mutations disrupted multiple
      MeaB chaperone functions, including cofactor editing, loading, and offloading.
      Hence, although residues in the switch I motif are not essential for catalysis,
      they are important for allosteric regulation. Furthermore, single-particle EM
      analysis revealed, for the first time, the overall architecture of the MCM-MeaB
      complex, which exhibits a 2:1 stoichiometry. These EM studies also demonstrate
      that the complex exhibits considerable conformational flexibility. In conclusion,
      the switch I element does not significantly stabilize the MCM-MeaB complex or
      influence the affinity of MeaB for GTP but is required for transducing signals
      between MeaB and MCM.

PMID- 28882901
TI  - Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia Impairs Insulin Sensitivity but Improves Whole-Body
      Glucose Tolerance by Activating Skeletal Muscle AMPK.
AB  - Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a highly prevalent disease resulting in
      transient respiratory arrest and chronic intermittent hypoxia (cIH). cIH is
      associated with insulin resistance and impaired metabolic homeostasis in rodents
      and humans, but the exact underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In the current
      study, we investigated the effects of 2 weeks of cIH (1-min cycle, fraction of
      inspired oxygen 21-5%, 8 h/day) on whole-body insulin sensitivity and glucose
      tolerance in lean mice. Although food intake and body weight were reduced
      compared with normoxia, cIH induced systemic insulin resistance in a hypoxia
      inducible factor 1-independent manner and impaired insulin signaling in liver,
      white adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle. Unexpectedly, cIH improved whole-body
      glucose tolerance independently of changes in body weight and glucose-induced
      insulin response. This effect was associated with elevated phosphorylation of
      Thr172-AMPK and Ser237-TBC1 domain family member 1 (TBC1D1) in skeletal muscle,
      suggesting a tissue-specific AMPK-dependent increase in TBC1D1-driven glucose
      uptake. Remarkably, although food intake, body weight, and systemic insulin
      sensitivity were still affected, the improvement in glucose tolerance by cIH was
      abolished in muscle-specific AMPKalpha1alpha2-deficient mice. We conclude that
      cIH impairs insulin sensitivity while improving whole-body glucose tolerance by
      promoting specific activation of the skeletal muscle AMPK pathway.

PMID- 28882900
TI  - Adipocyte Liver Kinase b1 Suppresses Beige Adipocyte Renaissance Through Class
      IIa Histone Deacetylase 4.
AB  - Uncoupling protein 1+ beige adipocytes are dynamically regulated by environment
      in rodents and humans; cold induces formation of beige adipocytes, whereas warm
      temperature and nutrient excess lead to their disappearance. Beige adipocytes can
      form through de novo adipogenesis; however, how "beiging" characteristics are
      maintained afterward is largely unknown. In this study, we show that beige
      adipocytes formed postnatally in subcutaneous inguinal white adipose tissue lost
      thermogenic gene expression and multilocular morphology at the adult stage, but
      cold restored their beiging characteristics, a phenomenon termed beige adipocyte
      renaissance. Ablation of these postnatal beige adipocytes inhibited cold-induced
      beige adipocyte formation in adult mice. Furthermore, we demonstrated that beige
      adipocyte renaissance was governed by liver kinase b1 and histone deacetylase 4
      in white adipocytes. Although neither presence nor thermogenic function of
      uncoupling protein 1+ beige adipocytes contributed to metabolic fitness in
      adipocyte liver kinase b1-deficient mice, our results reveal an unexpected role
      of white adipocytes in maintaining properties of preexisting beige adipocytes.

PMID- 28882902
TI  - Increasing organ donation rates by revealing recipient details to families of
      potential donors.
AB  - Many families refuse to consent to donation from their deceased relatives or over
      rule the consent given before death by the patient, but giving families more
      information about the potential recipients of organs could reduce refusal rates.
      In this paper, we analyse arguments for and against doing so, and conclude that
      this strategy should be attempted. While it would be impractical and possibly
      unethical to give details of actual potential recipients, generic, realistic
      information about the people who could benefit from organs should be provided to
      families before they make a decision about donation or attempt to over-rule it.

PMID- 28882903
TI  - The structure of ethics review: expert ethics committees and the challenge of
      voluntary research euthanasia.

PMID- 28882904
TI  - Frontline Science: Proliferation of Ly6C+ monocytes during urinary tract
      infections is regulated by IL-6 trans-signaling.
AB  - Ly6C+ monocytes are important components of the innate immune defense against
      infections. These cells have been shown to proliferate in the bone marrow of mice
      with systemic infections. However, the proliferative capacity of Ly6C+ monocytes
      in infected peripheral tissues as well as the associated regulatory mechanisms
      remain unclear. In this study, we analyzed the proliferative capacity of Ly6C+
      monocytes in the urinary bladder after infection with uropathogenic E. coli, one
      of the most prevalent pathogen worldwide, and in LPS-induced peritonitis. We show
      that Ly6C+ monocytes proliferated in the bladder after infection with
      uropathogenic E. coli and in the peritoneum after intraperitoneal injection of
      LPS. We identified IL-6, a molecule that is highly expressed in infections, as a
      crucial regulator of Ly6C+ monocyte proliferation. Inhibition of IL-6 via
      administration of antibodies against IL-6 or gp130 impeded Ly6C+ monocyte
      proliferation. Furthermore, repression of IL-6 trans-signaling via administration
      of soluble gp130 markedly reduced the proliferation of Ly6C+ monocytes. Overall,
      this study describes the proliferation of Ly6C+ monocytes using models of urinary
      tract infection and LPS-induced peritonitis. IL-6 trans-signaling was identified
      as the regulator of Ly6C+ monocyte proliferation.

PMID- 28882905
TI  - Cost comparison of orthopaedic fracture pathways using discrete event simulation
      in a Glasgow hospital.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Healthcare faces the continual challenge of improving outcome while
      aiming to reduce cost. The aim of this study was to determine the micro cost
      differences of the Glasgow non-operative trauma virtual pathway in comparison to
      a traditional pathway. DESIGN: Discrete event simulation was used to model and
      analyse cost and resource utilisation with an activity-based costing approach.
      Data for a full comparison before the process change was unavailable so we used a
      modelling approach, comparing a virtual fracture clinic (VFC) with a simulated
      traditional fracture clinic (TFC). SETTING: The orthopaedic unit VFC pathway
      pioneered at Glasgow Royal Infirmary has attracted significant attention and
      interest and is the focus of this cost study. OUTCOME MEASURES: Our study focused
      exclusively on patients with non-operative trauma attending emergency department
      or the minor injuries unit and the subsequent step in the patient pathway.
      Retrospective studies of patient outcomes as a result of the protocol
      introductions for specific injuries are presented in association with activity
      costs from the models. RESULTS: Patients are satisfied with the new pathway, the
      information provided and the outcome of their injuries (Evidence Level IV). There
      was a 65% reduction in the number of first outpatient face-to-face (f2f)
      attendances in orthopaedics. In the VFC pathway, the resources required per day
      were significantly lower for all staff groups (p<=0.001). The overall cost per
      patient of the VFC pathway was L22.84 (95% CI 21.74 to 23.92) per patient
      compared with L36.81 (95% CI 35.65 to 37.97) for the TFC pathway. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our results give a clearer picture of the cost comparison of the virtual pathway
      over a wholly traditional f2f clinic system. The use of simulation-based
      stochastic costings in healthcare economic analysis has been limited to date, but
      this study provides evidence for adoption of this method as a basis for its
      application in other healthcare settings.

PMID- 28882906
TI  - Hospital comparison of stroke care in Sweden: a register-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to estimate the level of
      health outcomes and resource use at a hospital level during the first year after
      a stroke, and to identify any potential differences between hospitals after
      adjusting for patient characteristics (case mix). METHOD: Data from several
      registries were linked on individual level: seven regional patient administrative
      systems, Swedish Stroke Register, Statistics Sweden, National Board of Health and
      Welfare and Swedish Social Insurance Agency. The study population consisted of 14
      125 patients presenting with a stroke during 2010. Case-mix adjusted analysis of
      hospital differences was made on five aspects of health outcomes and resource
      use, 1 year post-stroke. RESULTS: The results indicated that 26% of patients had
      died within a year of their stroke. Among those who survived, almost 5% had a
      recurrent stroke and 40% were left with a disability. On average, the patients
      had 22 inpatient days and 23 outpatient visits, and 13% had moved into special
      housing. There were significant variations between hospitals in levels of health
      outcomes achieved and resources used after adjusting for case mix. CONCLUSION:
      Differences in health outcomes and resource use between hospitals were
      substantial and not entirely explained by differences in patient mix, indicating
      tendencies of unequal stroke care in Sweden. Healthcare organisation of regions
      and other structural features could potentially explain parts of the differences
      identified.

PMID- 28882907
TI  - Protocol for a systematic review of psychological treatment for methamphetamine
      use: an analysis of methamphetamine use and mental health symptom outcomes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: People who use methamphetamine (MA) regularly, often experience
      symptoms of mental ill health associated with the use of the drug. These include
      symptoms of psychosis, depression, anxiety and also cognitive deficits.
      Accordingly, psychological treatments aim to reduce MA use and related problems,
      including symptoms of mental ill health. Although there has been a substantial
      body of research reporting on the evidence of effectiveness of psychological
      treatments for MA use, there is a paucity of research addressing the
      effectiveness of these treatments for coexisting symptoms of mental ill health.
      We aim to address this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of the evidence
      for psychological treatments for MA use and associated symptoms of mental ill
      health in experimental/controlled clinical studies. In addition, a critical
      evaluation of study methods and the outcomes of psychological interventions on MA
      use and symptoms of mental ill health will be conducted. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:
      The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and the Preferred
      Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis statement will be used
      to inform the methods of this review. Eight electronic peer-reviewed databases
      will be searched. Pilot searches have been conducted for MA literature
      considering controlled clinical trials only. Eligible articles will be
      independently assessed against inclusion criteria. Before final analyses are
      completed, searches will be rerun and if eligible, additional studies will be
      retrieved for inclusion. A quantitative synthesis of the findings will be
      reported where possible, and 'summary of findings' tables will be generated for
      each comparison. Risk ratios and 95% CI (dichotomous outcomes) will be calculated
      and/or effect size according to Cohen's formula (continuous outcomes) for the
      primary outcome of each trial. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethical issues are
      foreseen. Findings will be disseminated widely to clinicians and researchers via
      journal publication and conference presentation(s). TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      CRD42016043657.

PMID- 28882908
TI  - What are the key contextual factors when preparing for successful implementation
      of assistive living technology in primary elderly care? A case study from Norway.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify contextual factors at different organisational levels to
      guide the implementation of an assistive living technology intervention in
      Norwegian primary home care. DESIGN: A single embedded case study design was
      carried out in an urban municipality in Western Norway to get an overview of key
      contextual factors from the municipality's perspective. DATA COLLECTION AND
      ANALYSIS: The data collection was based on a triangulation of methods involving
      document analysis, semi-structured individual interviews and focus group
      interviews to get a broad insight when preparing for an intervention. Data were
      collected on three levels of the healthcare system: (1) national policy documents
      and regulations (macro), (2) five individual interviews with senior managers and
      municipal strategy documents (meso) and (3) two focus group interviews with
      nurses and nurse managers in direct patient care (micro). The Model for
      Understanding Success in Quality framework was used as a guide in the data
      analysis. RESULTS: The main contextual factors identified were external
      motivators and project sponsorship (macro level); leadership, workforce focus and
      maturity (meso level);and motivation to change and maturity (micro level).
      Strategies developed in policy documents affected upper management in the
      municipality, but healthcare personnel at the micro level were not so familiar
      with strategies and emphasis on assistive living technologies. Healthcare
      personnel in our study were motivated to use technological solutions, but lack of
      data infrastructure and resource availability hindered this. CONCLUSIONS:
      Aligning interests across multiple stakeholders remain a challenge when planning
      for an assistive living technology intervention in primary care. In the studied
      municipality, integration of technological solutions into healthcare services was
      more a vision than a reality because of a low level of organisational readiness.

PMID- 28882909
TI  - Effect of time and day of admission on hospital care quality for patients with
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation in England and Wales: single
      cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if observed increased weekend mortality was associated
      with poorer quality of care for patients admitted to hospital with chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation. DESIGN: Prospective case
      ascertainment cohort study. SETTING: 199 acute hospitals in England and Wales,
      UK. PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive COPD admissions, excluding subsequent readmissions,
      from 1 February to 30 April 2014 of whom 13 414 cases were entered into the
      study. MAIN OUTCOMES: Process of care mapped to the National Institute for Health
      and Care Excellence clinical quality standards, access to specialist respiratory
      teams and facilities, mortality and length of stay, related to time and day of
      the week of admission. RESULTS: Mortality was higher for weekend admissions
      (unadjusted OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.43), and for case-mix adjusted weekend
      mortality when calculated for admissions Friday morning through to Monday night
      (adjusted OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.43). Median time to death was 6 days. Some
      clinical processes were poorer on Mondays and during normal working hours but not
      weekends or out of hours. Specialist respiratory care was less available and less
      prompt for Friday and Saturday admissions. Admission to a specialist ward or high
      dependency unit was less likely on a Saturday or Sunday. CONCLUSIONS: Increased
      mortality observed in weekend admissions is not easily explained by deficiencies
      in early clinical guideline care. Further study of out-of-hospital factors,
      specialty care and deaths later in the admission are required if effective
      interventions are to be made to reduce variation by day of the week of admission.

PMID- 28882910
TI  - Crossover trial to test the acceptability of a locally produced lipid-based
      nutrient supplement (LNS) for children under 2 years in Cambodia: a study
      protocol.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The acceptability and efficacy of existing ready-to-use
      supplementary and therapeutic foods has been low in Cambodia, thus limiting
      success in preventing and treating malnutrition among Cambodian children. In that
      context, UNICEF and IRD have developed a locally produced, multiple micronutrient
      fortified lipid-based nutrient supplement. This food is innovative, in that it
      uses fish instead of milk as the animal source food. Very few supplementary foods
      have non-milk animal source foods, and in addition they have not been widely
      tested. This trial will assess the novel food's acceptability to children and
      caregivers. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a cluster-randomised, incomplete block,
      4*4 crossover design with no blinding. It will take place in four sites in a
      community setting in periurban Phnom Penh. Healthy children aged 9-23 months
      (n=100) will eat each of four foods for 3 days at a time. The amount they consume
      will be measured, and at the end of each 3-day set, caregivers will assess how
      well their child liked the food. After 12 days, caregivers themselves will do a
      sensory test of the 4 foods and will rank them in terms of preference. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: Ethical clearance was received from the University of Queensland
      Medical Research Ethics Committee (2014001070) and from Cambodia's National
      Ethics Committee for Health Research (03/8 NECHR). REGISTRATION:
      ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: LNS-CAMB-INFANTS; NCT02257437. Pre-results.

PMID- 28882911
TI  - Predictors of HIV virological failure and drug resistance in Chinese patients
      after 48 months of antiretroviral treatment, 2008-2012: a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore factors associated with HIV virological failure (VF) and
      HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) among HIV-positive Chinese individuals 4 years after
      initiating first-line lamivudine-based antiretroviral treatment (ART) in 2008 at
      five sentinel sites. DESIGN: First-line ART initiators who were previously
      treatment naive were selected using consecutive ID numbers from the 2008 National
      Surveillance Database into a prospective cohort study. Questionnaires and blood
      samples were collected in 2011 and 2012 to assess the outcomes of interest: VF
      (defined as viral load >=1000 copies/mL) and HIVDR (defined as VF with genetic
      drug-resistant mutations). Questionnaires and data from National Surveillance
      Database assessed demographics and drug adherence data. RESULTS: 536 individuals
      with HIV were analysed; the 4-year risk of VF was 63 (11.8%) and HIVDR was 27
      (5.0%). Female participants initiating stavudine (D4T)-based regimens were more
      susceptible to both VF (adjusted OR (aOR)=2.5, 95% CI 1 to 6.1, p=0.04) and HIVDR
      (aOR=3.6, 95% CI 1 to 12.6, p=0.05) versus zidovudine-based regimens. Male
      participants missing doses in past month were more susceptible to both VF
      (aOR=2.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 7, p=0.03) and HIVDR (aOR=9.7, 95% CI 2.1 to 44.1,
      p<0.01). Participants of non-Han nationality were of increased risk for HIVDR
      (aOR from 4.8 to 12.2, p<0.05) and non-Han men were at increased risk for VF
      (aOR=2.9, 95% CI 1.1 to 7.3, p=0.02). All 27 participants detected with HIVDR had
      non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor mutations, 21 (77.8%) also had
      nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor mutations, and no protease inhibitor
      mutations were detected. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest successful treatment
      outcomes at 4 years for roughly 90% of patients. We suggest conducting further
      study on whether and when to change ART regimen for women initiated with D4T
      based regimen, and reinforcing adherence counselling for men. Increased VF and
      HIVDR risk among non-Han minorities warrants further exploration, and ethnic
      minorities may be an important group to tailor adherence-focused interventions.

PMID- 28882912
TI  - What is the test-retest reliability of the Malay version of the Hypertension Self
      Care Profile self efficacy assessment tool? A validation study in primary care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Self-efficacy and self-care measures are key attributes to optimal
      control of essential hypertension. Self-efficacy can be measured by the
      Hypertension Self-Care Profile (HTN-SCP) tool but its utility is dependent on the
      literacy and understanding of the subjects. A Malay version of the HTN-SCP Tool
      was developed to assess self-efficacy of Malay-literate patients with
      hypertension in the multi-ethnic Asian population in Singapore. The study aimed
      to determine the test-retest reliability of this tool which has been translated
      in Malay language. METHODS AND MATERIAL: 145 Malay-literate patients, aged 41-70
      years, with essential hypertension were recruited in a polyclinic (primary care
      clinic) in Singapore. Forty-three percent of them completed both the first and
      second HTN SCP tool online, with a period of two weeks in between. The Cronbach's
      alpha and Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were computed to assess its
      test-retest reliability and internal consistency. RESULTS: The Cronbach's
      alpha/ICC for "Behavior" (0.851/0.664)), "Motivation" (0.928/0.655) and "Self
      efficacy" (0.945/0.682) domains showed high internal consistency, fair to good
      reliability and stability. No floor or ceiling effect was found for the
      "behavior" and "motivation" domains. However, the borderline ceiling effect
      (15.2) for "self-efficacy" suggested limited discriminating power of the tool for
      patients with high self-efficacy. Positive association was shown between the HTN
      SCP score and reported self-care measures but it was not statistically
      significant. CONCLUSION: Overall, the translated HTN-SCP tool showed satisfactory
      test-retest reliability and internal consistency amongst the Malay-literate study
      population. Further research is needed for its application in general practice to
      identify patients with low self-efficacy for possible intervention.

PMID- 28882913
TI  - Hospital volume and mortality for 25 types of inpatient treatment in German
      hospitals: observational study using complete national data from 2009 to 2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the existence and strength of a relationship between
      hospital volume and mortality, to estimate minimum volume thresholds and to
      assess the potential benefit of centralisation of services. DESIGN: Observational
      population-based study using complete German hospital discharge data (Diagnosis
      Related Group Statistics (DRG Statistics)). SETTING: All acute care hospitals in
      Germany. PARTICIPANTS: All adult patients hospitalised for 1 out of 25 common or
      medically important types of inpatient treatment from 2009 to 2014. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE: Risk-adjusted inhospital mortality. RESULTS: Lower inhospital mortality
      in association with higher hospital volume was observed in 20 out of the 25
      studied types of treatment when volume was categorised in quintiles and persisted
      in 17 types of treatment when volume was analysed as a continuous variable. Such
      a relationship was found in some of the studied emergency conditions and low-risk
      procedures. It was more consistently present regarding complex surgical
      procedures. For example, about 22 000 patients receiving open repair of abdominal
      aortic aneurysm were analysed. In very high-volume hospitals, risk-adjusted
      mortality was 4.7% (95% CI 4.1 to 5.4) compared with 7.8% (7.1 to 8.7) in very
      low volume hospitals. Theminimum volume above which risk of death would fall
      below the average mortality was estimated as 18 cases per year. If all hospitals
      providing this service would perform at least 18 cases per year, one death among
      104 (76 to 166) patients could potentially be prevented. CONCLUSIONS: Based on
      complete national hospital discharge data, the results confirmed volume-outcome
      relationships for many complex surgical procedures, as well as for some emergency
      conditions and low-risk procedures. Following these findings, the study
      identified areas where centralisation would provide a benefit for patients
      undergoing the specific type of treatment in German hospitals and quantified the
      possible impact of centralisation efforts.

PMID- 28882914
TI  - Procedural Pain Scale Evaluation (PROPoSE) study: protocol for an evaluation of
      the psychometric properties of behavioural pain scales for the assessment of
      procedural pain in infants and children aged 6-42 months.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Infants and children are frequently exposed to painful medical
      procedures such as immunisation, blood sampling and intravenous access. Over 40
      scales for pain assessment are available, many designed for neonatal or
      postoperative pain. What is not well understood is how well these scales perform
      when used to assess procedural pain in infants and children. AIM: The aim of this
      study was to test the psychometric and practical properties of the Face, Legs,
      Activity, Cry and Consolability (FLACC) scale, the Modified Behavioural Pain
      Scale (MBPS) and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) observer pain scale to quantify
      procedural pain intensity in infants and children aged from 6-42 months to
      determine their suitability for clinical and research purposes. METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: A prospective observational non-interventional study conducted at a
      single centre. The psychometric and practical performance of the FLACC scale,
      MBPS and the VAS observer pain scale and VAS observer distress scale used to
      assess children experiencing procedural pain will be assessed. Infants and young
      children aged 6-42 months undergoing one of four painful and/or distressing
      procedures were recruited and the procedure digitally video recorded. Clinicians
      and psychologists will be recruited to independently apply the scales to these
      video recordings to establish intrarater and inter-rater reliability, convergent
      validity responsiveness and specificity. Pain score distributions will be
      presented descriptively; reliability will be assessed using the intraclass
      correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plots. Spearman correlations will be
      used to assess convergence and linear mixed modelling to explore the
      responsiveness of the scales to pain and their capacity to distinguish between
      pain and distress. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was provided by the
      Royal Children's Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number
      35220B. The findings of this study will be disseminated via peer-reviewed
      journals and presented at international conferences.

PMID- 28882915
TI  - Patient experience and perceived acceptability of whole-body magnetic resonance
      imaging for staging colorectal and lung cancer compared with current staging
      scans: a qualitative study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the experience and acceptability of whole-body magnetic
      resonance imaging (WB-MRI) staging compared with standard scans among patients
      with highly suspected or known colorectal or lung cancer. DESIGN: Qualitative
      study using one-to-one interviews with thematic analysis. SETTING: Patients
      recruited from 10 hospitals in London, East and South East England between March
      2013 and July 2014. PARTICIPANTS: 51 patients (31 male, age range 40-89 years),
      with varying levels of social deprivation, were recruited consecutively from two
      parallel clinical trials comparing the diagnostic accuracy and cost-effectiveness
      of WB-MRI with standard scans for staging colorectal and lung cancer ('Streamline
      C' and 'Streamline-L'). WB-MRI was offered as an additional scan as part of the
      trials. RESULTS: In general WB-MRI presented a greater challenge than standard
      scans, although all but four patients completed the WB-MRI. Key challenges were
      enclosed space, noise and scan duration; reduced patient tolerance was associated
      with claustrophobia, pulmonary symptoms and existing comorbidities. Coping
      strategies facilitated scan tolerance and were grouped into (1) those intended to
      help with physical and emotional challenges, and (2) those focused on motivation
      to complete the scan, for example focusing on health benefit. Our study suggests
      that good staff communication could reduce anxiety and boost coping strategies.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although WB-MRI was perceived as more challenging than standard
      scans, it was sufficiently acceptable and tolerated by most patients to
      potentially replace them if appropriate. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
      ISRCTN43958015 and ISRCTN50436483.

PMID- 28882916
TI  - Incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza disease among infants under 6 months
      of age: a systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this systematic review was to assess incidence rates of
      laboratory-confirmed influenza (LCI) outcomes among infants under 6 months of
      age. DESIGN: Systematic literature search and review of indexed studies in
      PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and CINAHL Plus from inception to 19 April
      2017. SETTING: Population-based estimates from community or hospital settings.
      PARTICIPANTS: Infants under 6 months of age. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME
      MEASURES: LCI illness in ambulatory care settings, LCI hospitalisation, LCI
      intensive care unit admission and LCI death. Only studies with population-based
      incidence data were included. RESULTS: We identified 27 primary studies, 11 of
      which were from the USA, four were from other non-US high-income settings and the
      remaining were from lower-middle-income or upper-middle-income countries. Most
      studies (n=23) assessed incidence of LCI hospitalisation, but meta-analysis to
      pool study-specific rates was not possible due to high statistical and
      methodological heterogeneity. Among US studies, the reported incidence of LCI
      hospitalisation ranged from 9.3 to 91.2 per 10 000 infants under 6 months for
      seasonal influenza, while the only US-based estimate for pandemic H1N1 influenza
      was 20.2 per 10 000 infants. Reported rates for LCI hospitalisation for seasonal
      influenza from other countries ranged from 6.2 to 73.0 per 10 000 infants under 6
      months, with the exception of one study with an estimated rate of 250 per 10 000
      infants. No events were reported in five of the nine studies that evaluated LCI
      death among infants under 6 months. CONCLUSION: Our review of published studies
      found limited data on LCI outcomes for infants under 6 months, particularly from
      non-US settings. Globally representative and reliable incidence data are
      necessary to fully evaluate influenza disease burden and the potential impact of
      maternal influenza immunisation programme on morbidity and mortality in young
      infants.

PMID- 28882917
TI  - Effects of cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy on the outcome of patients
      undergoing cardiac surgery: a systematic review of randomised trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Goal-directed optimisation of cerebral oxygenation using near
      infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) during cardiopulmonary bypass is widely used. We
      tested the hypotheses that the use of NIRS cerebral oximetry results in
      reductions in cerebral injury (neurocognitive function, serum biomarkers), injury
      to other organs including the heart and brain, transfusion rates, mortality and
      resource use. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING: Tertiary
      cardiac surgery centres in North America, Europe and Asia. PARTICIPANTS: A search
      of Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, Medline,
      Embase, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Plus
      from inception to November 2016 identified 10 randomised trials, enrolling a
      total of 1466 patients, all in adult cardiac surgery. INTERVENTIONS: NIRS-based
      algorithms designed to optimise cerebral oxygenation versus standard care (non
      NIRS-based) protocols in cardiac surgery patients during cardiopulmonary bypass.
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Mortality, organ injury affecting the brain, heart and kidneys,
      red cell transfusion and resource use. RESULTS: Two of the 10 trials identified
      in the literature search were considered at low risk of bias. Random-effects meta
      analysis demonstrated similar mortality (risk ratio (RR) 0.76, 95% CI 0.30 to
      1.96), major morbidity including stroke (RR 1. 08, 95% CI 0.40 to 2.91), red cell
      transfusion and resource use in NIRS-treated patients and controls, with little
      or no heterogeneity. Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and
      Evaluation of the quality of the evidence was low or very low for all of the
      outcomes assessed. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this systematic review did not
      support the hypotheses that cerebral NIRS-based algorithms have clinical benefits
      in cardiac surgery. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42015027696.

PMID- 28882918
TI  - Prevalence and clinical characteristics of apparent therapy-resistant
      hypertension in patients with cardiovascular disease: a cross-sectional cohort
      study in secondary care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of apparent therapy
      resistant hypertension (aTRH) in patients with clinical manifest cardiovascular
      disease (CVD), and to study clinical characteristics related to aTRH in this
      population. SETTING: The SMART (Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease) study
      is a large, single-centre cohort study in secondary care. PARTICIPANTS: Office
      blood pressure (BP) at inclusion was used to evaluate BP control in 6191
      hypertensive patients with clinical manifest (cardio)vascular disease. Therapy
      resistant hypertension was defined as BP >=140/90 mm Hg despite use of
      antihypertensive drugs from >=3 drug classes including a diuretic or use of >=4
      antihypertensive drugs irrespective of BP. Logistic regression analysis was used
      to explore the relationship between clinical characteristics measured at baseline
      and presence of aTRH. RESULTS: The prevalence of aTRH was 9.1% (95% CI 8.4 to
      9.8). Prevalence increased with age and when albuminuria was present and was
      higher in patients with lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).
      Presence of aTRH was related to diabetes, female sex, duration and multiple
      locations of vascular disease, body mass index and waist circumference. Carotid
      intima-media thickness was higher (0.99+/-0.28 vs 0.93+/-0.28 mm) and ankle
      brachial index lower (1.07+/-0.20 vs 1.10+/-0.19) in patients with aTRH compared
      with patients without aTRH. CONCLUSION: aTRH is prevalent in patients with
      clinical manifest CVD and is related to clinical factors known to be related with
      increased vascular risk, and with lower eGFR.

PMID- 28882919
TI  - A randomised controlled cross-over double-blind pilot study protocol on THC:CBD
      oromucosal spray efficacy as an add-on therapy for post-stroke spasticity.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stroke is the most disabling neurological disorder and often causes
      spasticity. Transmucosal cannabinoids (tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol
      (THC:CBD), Sativex) is currently available to treat spasticity-associated
      symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis. Cannabinoids are being considered
      useful also in the treatment of pain, nausea and epilepsy, but may bear and
      increased risk for cardiovascular events. Spasticity is often assessed with
      subjective and clinical rating scales, which are unable to measure the increased
      excitability of the monosynaptic reflex, considered the hallmark of spasticity.
      The neurophysiological assessment of the stretch reflex provides a precise and
      objective method to measure spasticity. We propose a novel study to understand if
      Sativex could be useful in reducing spasticity in stroke survivors and
      investigating tolerability and safety by accurate cardiovascular monitoring.
      METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will recruit 50 patients with spasticity following
      stroke to take THC:CBD in a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study.
      Spasticity will be assessed with a numeric rating scale for spasticity, the
      modified Ashworth scale and with the electromyographical recording of the stretch
      reflex. The cardiovascular risk will be assessed prior to inclusion. Blood
      pressure, heart rate, number of daily spasms, bladder function, sleep disruption
      and adverse events will be monitored throughout the study. A mixed-model analysis
      of variance will be used to compare the stretch reflex amplitude between the time
      points; semiquantitative measures will be compared using the Mann-Whitney test
      (THC:CBD vs placebo) and Wilcoxon test (baseline vs treatment). ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: The study was registered on the EudraCT database with number 2016
      001034-10 and approved by both the Italian Medicines Agency (Agenzia Italiana del
      Farmaco) and local Ethics Committee 'Comitato Etico Regionale della Liguria'.
      Data will be made anonymous and uploaded to a open access repository. Results
      will be disseminated by presentations at national and international conferences
      and by publication in journals of clinical neuroscience and neurology.

PMID- 28882920
TI  - The HAT TRICK programme for improving physical activity, healthy eating and
      connectedness among overweight, inactive men: study protocol of a pragmatic
      feasibility trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Physical activity, healthy eating and maintaining a healthy weight
      are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and
      cancer and with improved mental health. Despite these benefits, many men do not
      meet recommended physical activity guidelines and have poor eating behaviours.
      Many health promotion programmes hold little appeal to men and consequently fail
      to influence men's health practices. HAT TRICK was designed as a 12-week face-to
      face, gender-sensitised intervention for overweight and inactive men focusing on
      physical activity, healthy eating and social connectedness and was delivered in
      collaboration with a major junior Canadian ice hockey team (age range 16-20
      years). The programme was implemented and evaluated to assess its feasibility.
      This article describes the intervention design and study protocol of HAT TRICK.
      METHODS AND ANALYSIS: HAT TRICK participants (n=60) were men age 35 years,
      residing in the Okanagan Region of British Columbia, who accumulate 150 min of
      moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, with a body mass index of >25
      kg/m2 and a pant waist size of >38'. Each 90 min weekly session included targeted
      health education and theory-guided behavioural change techniques, as well as a
      progressive (ie, an increase in duration and intensity) group physical activity
      component. Outcome measures were collected at baseline, 12 weeks and 9 months and
      included the following: objectively measured anthropometrics, blood pressure,
      heart rate, physical activity and sedentary behaviour, as well as self-reported
      physical activity, sedentary behaviour, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, sleep
      habits, risk of depression, health-related quality of life and social
      connectedness. Programme feasibility data (eg, recruitment, satisfaction,
      adherence, content delivery) were assessed at 12 weeks via interviews and self
      report. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was obtained from the
      University of British Columbia Okanagan Behavioural Research Ethics Board
      (reference no H1600736). Study findings will be disseminated through academic
      meetings, peer-reviewed publication, web-based podcasts, social media, plain
      language summaries and co-delivered community presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION
      NUMBER: ISRCTN43361357,Pre results.

PMID- 28882921
TI  - Women's decision-making autonomy and utilisation of maternal healthcare services:
      results from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the association between
      women's decision-making power and utilisation of maternal healthcare services
      (MHS) among Bangladeshi women. SETTINGS: This is a nationally representative
      survey that encompassed Dhaka, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal and
      Sylhet in Bangladesh. Sample households were selected by a two-stage
      stratification technique. First, 207 clusters in urban areas and 393 in rural
      areas were selected for 600 enumeration areas with proportional probability. In
      the second stage, on average 30 households were selected systematically from the
      enumeration areas. Finally, 17 989 households were selected for the survey of
      which 96% were interviewed successfully. PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional data on
      4309 non-pregnant women were collected from Bangladesh demographic and health
      survey 2014. Decision-making status on respondent's own healthcare, large
      household purchases, having a say on child's healthcare and visiting to family or
      relatives were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Prevalence of at least four
      antenatal attendance, facility delivery and postnatal check-up were respectively
      32.6% (95% CI 31.2 to 34), 40.6% (95% CI 39.13 to 42.07) and 66.3% (95% CI 64.89
      to 67.71). Compared with women who could make decisions alone, women in the urban
      areas who had to decide on their healthcare with husband/partner had 20% (95% CI
      0.794 to 1.799) higher odds of attending at least four antenatal visits and those
      in rural areas had 35% (95% CI 0.464 to 0.897) lower odds of attending at least
      four antenatal visits. Women in urban and rural areas had respectively 43% (95%
      CI 0.941 to 2.169) and 28% (95% CI 0.928 to 1.751) higher odds of receiving
      postnatal check-up when their health decisions were made jointly with their
      husband/partner. CONCLUSION: Neither making decisions alone, nor deciding jointly
      with husband/partner was always positively associated with the utilisation of all
      three types of MHS. This study concludes that better spousal cooperation on
      household and health issues could lead to higher utilisation of MHS services.

PMID- 28882922
TI  - Rectal water contrast transvaginal ultrasound versus double-contrast barium enema
      in the diagnosis of bowel endometriosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of study was to compare the accuracy between rectal water
      contrast transvaginal ultrasound (RWC-TVS) and double-contrast barium enema
      (DCBE) in evaluating the bowel endometriosis presence as well as its extent.
      DESIGN AND SETTING: 198 patients at reproductive age with suspicious bowel
      endometriosis were included. Physicians in two groups specialised at
      endometriosis performed RWC-TVS as well as DCBE before laparoscopy and both
      groups were blinded to other groups' results. Findings from RWC-TVS or DCBE were
      compared with histological results. The severity of experienced pain severity
      through RWC-TVS or DCBE was assessed by an analogue scale of 10 cm. RESULTS: In
      total, 110 in 198 women were confirmed to have endometriosis nodules in the bowel
      by laparoscopy as well as histopathology. For bowel endometriosis diagnosis, DCBE
      and RWC-TVS demonstrated sensitivities of 96.4% and 88.2%, specificities of 100%
      and 97.3%, positive prediction values of 100% and 98.0%, negative prediction
      values of 98.0% and 88.0%, accuracies of 98.0% and 92.4%, respectively. DCBE was
      related to more tolerance than RWC-TVS. CONCLUSIONS: RWC-TVS and DCBE
      demonstrated similar accuracies in the bowel endometriosis diagnosis; however,
      patients showed more tolerance for RWC-TVS than those with DCBE.

PMID- 28882923
TI  - 'Reframing Healthcare Services through the Lens of Co-Production' (RheLaunCh): a
      study protocol for a mixed methods evaluation of mechanisms by which healthcare
      and social services impact the health and well-being of patients with COPD and
      CHF in the USA and The Netherlands.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The USA lags behind other high-income countries in many health
      indicators. Outcome differences are associated with differences in the relative
      spending between healthcare and social services at the national level. The impact
      of the ratio and delivery of social and healthcare services on the individual
      patient's health is however unknown. 'Reframing Healthcare Services through the
      Lens of Co-Production' (RheLaunCh) will be a cross-Atlantic comparative study of
      the mechanisms by which healthcare and social service delivery may impact patient
      health with chronic conditions. Insight into these mechanisms is needed to better
      and cost-effectively organise healthcare and social services. METHODS: We
      designed a mixed methods study to compare the socioeconomic background, needs of
      and service delivery to patients with congestive heart failure and chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease in the USA and the Netherlands. We will conduct:
      (1) a literature scan to compare national and regional healthcare and social
      service systems; (2) a retrospective database study to compare patient's
      socioeconomic and clinical characteristics and the service use and spending at
      the national, regional and hospital level; (3) a survey to compare patient
      perceived quality of life, receipt and experience of service delivery and ability
      of these services to meet patient needs; and (4) multiple case studies to
      understand what patients need to better govern their quality of life and how
      needs are met by services. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval was granted
      by the ethics committee of the Radboud University Medical Center (2016-2423) in
      the Netherlands and by the Human Subjects Research Committee of the Hennepin
      Health Care System, Inc. (HSR #16-4230) in the USA. Multiple approaches will be
      used for dissemination of results, including (inter)national research
      presentations and peer-reviewed publications. A website will be established to
      support the development of a community of practice.

PMID- 28882924
TI  - Factors associated with mortality due to neonatal pneumonia in India: a protocol
      for systematic review and planned meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: India contributes to the highest number of neonatal deaths
      globally. It also has the greatest number of pneumonia-related neonatal deaths in
      the developing world. We aim to systematically review the evidence for the
      factors associated with mortality due to neonatal pneumonia in the Indian
      context, to address the lack of consolidated evidence on this important issue.
      METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This protocol is part of a series of three reviews on
      neonatal pneumonia in India. Observational studies reporting on outcome of
      neonatal pneumonia in the Indian context, and published in English in peer
      reviewed and indexed journals will be eligible for inclusion. Outcomes of this
      review will be the factors determining mortality due to neonatal pneumonia. A
      total of nine databases will be searched. Electronic and hand searching of
      published and grey literature will be performed. Selection of studies will be
      done in title, abstract and full text screening stages. Risk of bias,
      independently assessed by two authors, will be evaluated. Meta-analysis will be
      performed and heterogeneity assessed. Pooled effect estimates will be stated with
      95% confidence intervals. Narrative synthesis will be done where meta-analysis
      cannot be performed. Publication bias will be evaluated and sensitivity analysis
      performed according to study quality. Quality of this review will be evaluated
      using AMSTAR (Assessing the Methodological quality of Systematic Reviews) and
      GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development & Evaluation). A summary
      of findings table will be reported using GRADEPro. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:
      Since this is a review involving analysis of secondary data which is available in
      the public domain, and does not involve human participants, ethical approval was
      not required. The findings of the study will be shared with all stakeholders of
      this research. Knowledge dissemination workshops will be conducted with relevant
      stakeholders to transfer the evidence, tailored to the stakeholder (eg, policy
      briefs, publications, information booklets, etc).

PMID- 28882925
TI  - SNAP-2 EPICCS: the second Sprint National Anaesthesia Project-EPIdemiology of
      Critical Care after Surgery: protocol for an international observational cohort
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The admission of high-risk patients to critical care after surgery
      is a recommended standard of care. Nevertheless, poor compliance against this
      recommendation has been repeatedly demonstrated in large epidemiological studies.
      It is unclear whether this is due to reasons of capacity, equipoise, poor quality
      clinical care or because hospitals are working creatively to create capacity for
      augmented care on normal surgical wards. The EPIdemiology of Critical Care after
      Surgery study aims to address these uncertainties. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: One-week
      observational cohort study in the UK and Australasia. All patients undergoing
      inpatient (overnight stay) surgery will be included. All will have prospective
      data collection on risk factors, surgical procedure and postoperative outcomes
      including the primary outcome of morbidity (measured using the Postoperative
      Morbidity Survey on day 7 after surgery) and secondary outcomes including length
      of stay and mortality. Data will also be collected on critical care referral and
      admission, surgical cancellations and critical care occupancy. The epidemiology
      of patient characteristics, processes and outcomes will be described. Inferential
      techniques (multilevel multivariable regression, propensity score matching and
      instrumental variable analysis) will be used to evaluate the relationship between
      critical care admission and postoperative outcome. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The
      study has received ethical approval from the National Research Ethics Service in
      the UK and equivalent in Australasia. The collection of patient identifiable data
      without prior consent has been approved by the Confidentiality Advisory Group
      (England and Wales) and the Public Privacy and Patient Benefit Panel (Scotland).
      In these countries, patient identifiable data will be used to link prospectively
      collected data with national registers of death and inpatient administrative
      data. The study findings will be disseminated using a multimedia approach with
      the support of our lay collaborators, to patients, public, policy-makers,
      clinical and academic audiences.

PMID- 28882926
TI  - Digital technology to facilitate Proactive Assessment of Obesity Risk during
      Infancy (ProAsk): a feasibility study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of using digital
      technology for Proactive Assessment of Obesity Risk during Infancy (ProAsk) with
      the UK health visitors (HVs) and parents. DESIGN: Multicentre, pre- and post
      intervention feasibility study with process evaluation. SETTING: Rural and urban
      deprived settings, UK community care. PARTICIPANTS: 66 parents of infants and 22
      HVs. INTERVENTION: ProAsk was delivered on a tablet device. It comprises a
      validated risk prediction tool to quantify overweight risk status and a
      therapeutic wheel detailing motivational strategies for preventive parental
      behaviour. Parents were encouraged to agree goals for behaviour change with HVs
      who received motivational interviewing training. OUTCOME MEASURES: We assessed
      recruitment, response and attrition rates. Demographic details were collected,
      and overweight risk status. The proposed primary outcome measure was weight-for
      age z-score. The proposed secondary outcomes were parenting self-efficacy,
      maternal feeding style, infant diet and exposure to physical activity/sedentary
      behaviour. Qualitative interviews ascertained the acceptability of study
      processes and intervention fidelity. RESULTS: HVs screened 324/589 infants for
      inclusion in the study and 66/226 (29%) eligible infants were recruited.
      Assessment of overweight risk was completed on 53 infants and 40% of these were
      identified as above population risk. Weight-for-age z-score (SD) between the
      infants at population risk and those above population risk differed significantly
      at baseline (-0.67 SD vs 0.32 SD). HVs were able to collect data and calculate
      overweight risk for the infants. Protocol adherence and intervention fidelity was
      a challenge. HVs and parents found the information provided in the therapeutic
      wheel appropriate and acceptable. CONCLUSION: Study recruitment and protocol
      adherence were problematic. ProAsk was acceptable to most parents and HVs, but
      intervention fidelity was low. There was limited evidence to support the
      feasibility of implementing ProAsk without significant additional resources. A
      future study could evaluate ProAsk as a HV-supported, parent-led intervention.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02314494 (Feasibility Study Results).

PMID- 28882927
TI  - Sharp instrument injuries among hospital healthcare workers in mainland China: a
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of sharp instrument injuries in hospital
      based healthcare workers (HCWs) in mainland China and the contributing factors.
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: The data were derived from public
      hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 360 hospitals were recruited in the study,
      including 289 general hospitals and 71 specialised hospitals. Among them, 194 are
      tertiary-level hospitals and 166 are secondary level. The study population
      finally consisted of 223 149 hospital HCWs. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: A
      questionnaire was designed based on the aim of the study. Profession of HCWs,
      workplace, circumstance and medical apparatus and instrument were covered in the
      survey. HCWs completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding details of
      sharp instrument injuries within the previous month. Prevalence estimates for the
      injuries were calculated for the overall HCWs and for subgroups according to
      profession, workplace, circumstance or instrument. RESULTS: Within the included
      HCWs, the prevalence of sharp instrument injuries was 0.08 per person-month. Only
      4.6% of the HCWs reported to their hospitals after injury. The highest number of
      injuries occurred in nursing staff (10.3%). Injuries took place most frequently
      on general wards (44.5%). The circumstances that involved most frequent injuries
      include surgical needle insertion, removing an arteriovenous needle from a
      patient and recapping the needle. Single-use syringe caused more injuries
      incidents than other instruments. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that sharp
      instrument injuries have become a major occupational problem of HCWs in mainland
      China. Attentions need to be paid to the issue and strategies for preventing such
      injuries are needed.

PMID- 28882928
TI  - Psychological and support interventions to reduce levels of stress, anxiety or
      depression on women's subsequent pregnancy with a history of miscarriage: an
      empty systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effect of
      interventions to reduce stress in pregnant women with a history of miscarriage.
      DESIGN: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). DATA SOURCE:
      A total of 13 medical, psychological and social electronic databases were
      searched from January 1995 to April 2016 including PUBMED, CENTRAL, Web of
      Science and EMBASE. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: This review focused on women in their
      subsequent pregnancy following miscarriage. All published RCTs which assessed the
      effect of non-medical interventions such as counselling or support interventions
      on psychological and mental health outcomes such as stress, anxiety or depression
      when compared with a control group were included. Stress, anxiety or depression
      had to be measured at least preintervention and postintervention. RESULTS: This
      systematic review found no RCT which met our initial inclusion criteria. Of the
      4140 titles screened, 17 RCTs were identified. All of them were excluded. One
      RCT, which implemented a caring-based intervention, included pregnant women in
      their subsequent pregnancy; however, miscarriage was analysed as a composite
      variable among other pregnancy losses such as stillbirth and neonatal death.
      Levels of perceived stress were measured by four RCTs. Different types of non
      medical interventions, time of follow-up and small sample sizes were found.
      CONCLUSION: Cohort studies and RCTs in non-pregnant women suggest that support
      and psychological interventions may improve pregnant women's psychological well
      being after miscarriage. This improvement may reduce adverse pregnancy-related
      outcomes in subsequent pregnancies. However, this review found no RCTs which met
      our criteria. There is a need for targeted RCTs that can provide reliable and
      conclusive results to determine effective interventions for this vulnerable
      group.

PMID- 28882931
TI  - Livedoid eruption in a patient affected by T-gammadelta large granular lymphocyte
      leukaemia.
AB  - Livedo is an ischaemic dermopathy characterised by a reddish-blue to violaceous
      mottling of the skin with a net-like reticular appearance. Livedo has been
      described in association with several medical conditions including
      lymphoproliferative disorders. Here, we describe the case of a 60-year-old woman
      who was presented with asymptomatic and persistent livedoid eruption on her
      trunk, lower and upper extremities as manifestation of an indolent form of T
      gammadelta large granular lymphocyte leukaemia. To the best of our knowledge,
      this is the first report describing the association between livedo reticularis
      and T-gammadelta large granular lymphocyte leukaemia. It is plausible that a
      pathogenetic role of the neoplastic process is based on a cytotoxic
      antiendothelial activity.

PMID- 28882929
TI  - RhoB blockade selectively inhibits autoantibody production in autoimmune models
      of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
AB  - During the development of autoimmune disease, a switch occurs in the antibody
      repertoire of B cells so that the production of pathogenic rather than non
      pathogenic autoantibodies is enabled. However, there is limited knowledge
      concerning how this pivotal step occurs. Here, we present genetic and
      pharmacological evidence of a positive modifier function for the vesicular small
      GTPase RhoB in specifically mediating the generation of pathogenic autoantibodies
      and disease progression in the K/BxN preclinical mouse model of inflammatory
      arthritis. Genetic deletion of RhoB abolished the production of pathogenic
      autoantibodies and ablated joint inflammation in the model. Similarly,
      administration of a novel RhoB-targeted monoclonal antibody was sufficient to
      ablate autoantibody production and joint inflammation. In the MRL/lpr mouse model
      of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), another established preclinical model of
      autoimmune disease associated with autoantibody production, administration of the
      anti-RhoB antibody also reduced serum levels of anti-dsDNA antibodies. Notably,
      the therapeutic effects of RhoB blockade reflected a selective deficiency in
      response to self-antigens, insofar as RhoB-deficient mice and mice treated with
      anti-RhoB immunoglobulin (Ig) both mounted comparable productive antibody
      responses after immunization with a model foreign antigen. Overall, our results
      highlight a newly identified function for RhoB in supporting the specific
      production of pathogenic autoantibodies, and offer a preclinical proof of concept
      for use of anti-RhoB Ig as a disease-selective therapy to treat autoimmune
      disorders driven by pathogenic autoantibodies.

PMID- 28882932
TI  - Hickam's dictum: Myasthenia Gravis presenting concurrently with Graves' disease.
AB  - We present two patients with Graves' disease and concurrent myasthenia gravis.
      The impact of the dual diagnosis on the clinical course and the potential for a
      delayed diagnosis of myasthenia gravis is discussed. Patient 1, a 28-year-old man
      was diagnosed with Graves' disease following his second respiratory arrest. His
      history was strongly suggestive of a second pathology. Patient 2, a 66-year-old
      Cantonese woman with established Graves' disease presented with thionamide
      related neutropaenia. Examination revealed bilateral ptosis and right lateral
      rectus palsy. Both patients had thyrotoxicosis secondary to Graves' disease with
      concurrent myasthenia gravis. Although neuromuscular weakness is common in
      Graves' disease, coexisting myasthenia gravis (MG) is rare and can cause profound
      morbidity. Ocular signs in both diseases may cause diagnostic confusion although
      ptosis suggests coexisting MG. In both cases, the thyrotoxicosis delayed the
      diagnosis of MG.

PMID- 28882930
TI  - Renal scar formation and kidney function following antibiotic-treated murine
      pyelonephritis.
AB  - We present a new preclinical model to study treatment, resolution and sequelae of
      severe ascending pyelonephritis. Urinary tract infection (UTI), primarily caused
      by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), is a common disease in children. Severe
      pyelonephritis is the primary cause of acquired renal scarring in childhood,
      which may eventually lead to hypertension and chronic kidney disease in a small
      but important fraction of patients. Preclinical modeling of UTI utilizes almost
      exclusively females, which (in most mouse strains) exhibit inherent resistance to
      severe ascending kidney infection; consequently, no existing preclinical model
      has assessed the consequences of recovery from pyelonephritis following
      antibiotic treatment. We recently published a novel mini-surgical bladder
      inoculation technique, with which male C3H/HeN mice develop robust ascending
      pyelonephritis, highly prevalent renal abscesses and evidence of fibrosis. Here,
      we devised and optimized an antibiotic treatment strategy within this male model
      to more closely reflect the clinical course of pyelonephritis. A 5-day
      ceftriaxone regimen initiated at the onset of abscess development achieved
      resolution of bladder and kidney infection. A minority of treated mice displayed
      persistent histological abscess at the end of treatment, despite microbiological
      cure of pyelonephritis; a matching fraction of mice 1 month later exhibited renal
      scars featuring fibrosis and ongoing inflammatory infiltrates. Successful
      antibiotic treatment preserved renal function in almost all infected mice, as
      assessed by biochemical markers 1 and 5 months post-treatment; hydronephrosis was
      observed as a late effect of treated pyelonephritis. An occasional mouse
      developed chronic kidney disease, generally reflecting the incidence of this late
      sequela in humans. In total, this model offers a platform to study the molecular
      pathogenesis of pyelonephritis, response to antibiotic therapy and emergence of
      sequelae, including fibrosis and renal scarring. Future studies in this system
      may inform adjunctive therapies that may reduce the long-term complications of
      this very common bacterial infection.

PMID- 28882933
TI  - Caecal cancer presenting as leg erythema and a lung opacity.
AB  - Necrotising infection of the lower limb is a rare presentation for colorectal
      malignancy. We report a case of a perforated caecal adenocarcinoma presenting
      with right leg erythema, pain and swelling in the presence of a right lower lobe
      lung opacity. Following initial debridement and washout, CT imaging demonstrated
      a thickened terminal ileum, caecum and appendix, in keeping with primary
      malignancy. This fed the right-sided lower limb sepsis tracking down from the
      medial aspect of the psoas muscle to give rise to the multiloculated collection
      seen in the adductor compartment. The lung lesion measured 16 mm and was
      metastatic. The patient was successfully managed with a subtotal colectomy and an
      end ileostomy. The biopsy confirmed an adenocarcinoma (T4N1M1). We highlight the
      importance of perforated colonic carcinoma as a leading differential for lower
      limb abscesses. Suspicions should be raised further if accompanied by rounded
      opacifications on plain film radiography of the lungs.

PMID- 28882934
TI  - Bowel perforation presenting three months after suprapubic catheter insertion.
AB  - An 82-year-old male with multiple comorbidities, including previous laparotomies,
      had a suprapubic catheter (SPC) inserted under guidance with ultrasound and a
      flexible cystoscope. Three months following the procedure, having returned for a
      flexible cystoscopy for ongoing bladder pain syndrome, he became peritonitic
      postoperatively.A CT scan and subsequent laparotomy confirmed the SPC to be
      passing through a section of terminal ileum. The bowel was resected and he
      recovered well after a long hospital admission. A literature search found this
      delayed presentation of bowel perforation following SPC insertion to be rare,
      with only a few other cases reported. In particular, previous abdominal surgery
      increases the risk of this complication. This case serves as a reminder of the
      rare but potentially significant risk of SPC insertion and unusually highlights
      that this may not present immediately.

PMID- 28882935
TI  - A case of De Garengeot hernia and literature review.
AB  - Femoral hernia accounts for only 3% of all the hernias and in only 0.5%-5% of the
      events, the appendix can travel through the femoral hernia which is called De
      Garengeot hernia, and the incidence of appendicitis in this type of hernia is as
      low as 0.08%-0.13%. We present a case of a 69-year-old healthy woman who was
      referred to the emergency department by her general practitioner for CT-proven
      appendicitis in the femoral canal. On initial assessment, she was found to have a
      hard, tender lump in her right groin below the inguinal ligament, and open
      appendectomy and herniorrhaphy were performed. Surgery is the mainstay of
      treatment of this type of hernia but due to the rarity of this condition, there
      is no specific guideline as for the surgical procedure. This article demonstrated
      a case of De Garengeot hernia which was diagnosed preoperatively and managed
      surgically.

PMID- 28882936
TI  - Ganglioneuroma of the retropharyngeal space in a patient with glottic cancer.
AB  - We describe the case of a 71-year-old man with a ganglioneuroma of the
      retropharyngeal space. The patient presented with a submucosal bulge of the left
      oropharyngeal wall during follow-up examination of a treated vocal cord
      carcinoma. CT and MRI revealed a non-specific, well-defined retropharyngeal soft
      tissue lesion. Positron emission tomography-CT did not show relevant metabolic
      activity, excluding the hypothesis of metastatic nodal disease. Surgical biopsy
      of the lesion was compatible with ganglioneuroma. Ganglioneuromas are well
      differentiated tumours composed of mature sympathetic ganglion cells that account
      for approximately 1% of spinal and paraspinal tumours. Peripherally,
      ganglioneuromas are predominantly found in the posterior mediastinum and
      retroperitoneal space. Only nine ganglioneuromas of the retropharyngeal space
      have been reported in the English literature since the early 1980s.

PMID- 28882937
TI  - Granulomatous hepatitis in a patient with Crohn's disease and cholestasis.
AB  - We describe a case of a 23-year-old woman with a history of Crohn's disease (CD),
      who initially presented with sepsis-like symptoms, subsequently developed severe
      cholestasis and following extensive inpatient workup was found to have non
      caseating granulomas on her liver biopsy. Infectious aetiologies were excluded
      and the patient was treated with oral corticosteroids, which ameliorated but did
      not completely reverse the cholestasis. We review the differential diagnosis of
      hepatic granulomas and discuss the potential difficulties in establishing their
      exact aetiology in patients with CD.

PMID- 28882938
TI  - Imatinib dramatically alleviates pulmonary tumour thrombotic microangiopathy
      induced by gastric cancer.
AB  - Pulmonary tumour thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM) is a rare complication of
      cancer, which can be lethal due to progressive pulmonary hypertension (PH).
      Several case reports have demonstrated that imatinib, a platelet-derived growth
      factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, can improve severe PH in patients with
      PTTM.We describe the case of a 56-year-old woman. Her mean pulmonary arterial
      pressure (mPAP) was 47 mm Hg, and her dyspnoea worsened rapidly over several
      days. Although pulmonary embolism was not observed on CT, enlargement of the para
      aortic lymph nodes was detected. Gastro-oesophageal endoscopy revealed signet
      ring cell carcinoma. We diagnosed her as having PTTM based on her clinical
      course, and started treatment with imatinib. Five days after its administration,
      her mPAP decreased dramatically. She was discharged and lived without symptoms of
      PH until her death due to systemic metastasis of carcinoma. In some cases of
      PTTM, imatinib may be an effective therapeutic option for PH.

PMID- 28882940
TI  - Varicella complicated by cellulitis and deep vein thrombosis.
AB  - We report a 16-month-old girl with varicella complicated by cellulitis, invasive
      Group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection and deep vein thrombosis. She presented
      with varicella lesions, fever and a painful firm tumefaction on the right lower
      leg (RLL). Ultrasound showed a local subcutaneous tissue thickening suggestive of
      cellulitis and antibiotics were initiated. Further swelling of the RLL motivated
      a second ultrasound that showed an obstructive thrombus for which she was started
      on enoxaparin. The blood culture confirmed GAS infection leading to directed
      antibiotherapy. Additional studies showed positive lupus anticoagulant, decreased
      protein S and antithrombin. She completed a 2-week course of intravenous
      antibiotics and anticoagulation therapy with clinical and laboratory markers
      improvement. However, 3 days later, a recrudescence of symptoms occurred and the
      ultrasound revealed a local abscess. Further amoxicillin treatment resulted on a
      complete resolution of symptoms. Doppler ultrasound after 1 month showed markedly
      increased vein patency.

PMID- 28882939
TI  - Wasp sting induced STEMI with complete coronary artery occlusion: a case of
      Kounis syndrome.
AB  - A 45-year-old previously healthy man with minimal coronary artery disease on
      imaging presented with an acute MI after sustaining a wasp sting following
      previous non-eventful exposures throughout his life. This is the first case of
      Kounis syndrome with optical coherence tomography imaging and proven IgE wasp
      venom hypersensitivity. The Hymenoptera venom is composed of allergenic proteins
      and vasoactive amines which are responsible for venom toxicity. This patient also
      has a history of atopy giving a predisposition for developing IgE-mediated
      allergic reactions. Hymenoptera stings can be severe in atopic individuals and
      anaphylaxis may ensue. However, it is a rare cause of myocardial infarction (MI)
      (Kounis syndrome). Multiple wasp stings in the past may have contributed to
      sensitisation. Kounis syndrome is a rare clinical manifestation which should
      remain in the minds of physicians, especially with younger patients with no
      history of ischaemic heart disease or few risk factors.

PMID- 28882941
TI  - Anomalous left anterior descending artery arising from the pulmonary trunk: a
      rare cause of angina.
AB  - A 60-year-old man with a medical history of hypertension and dyslipidaemia
      presented to our rapid access chest pain clinic with a 2-month history of chest
      pain on exertion. An exercise stress test was arranged, which showed electrical
      evidence of inducible ischaemia. Subsequently, a coronary angiogram revealed an
      anomalous left anterior descending artery arising from the main pulmonary artery
      that received grade 3 collaterals from a large right coronary artery arising from
      the aorta. The circumflex arises from the right coronary sinus with a retroaortic
      course and provided collaterals to the anomalous left anterior descending artery.
      The patient was managed medically with the recommended pharmacological measures
      for stable angina and responded well with complete resolution of his symptoms,
      and he is currently under regular follow-up in the cardiology outpatient
      department.

PMID- 28882942
TI  - Tamoxifen maculopathy in a male patient.

PMID- 28882943
TI  - Tissue-directed Implantation Using Ultrasound Visualization for Development of
      Biologically Relevant Metastatic Tumor Xenografts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advances in cancer therapeutics depend on reliable in vivo model
      systems. To develop biologically relevant xenografts, ultrasound was utilized for
      tissue-directed implantation of neuroblastoma (NB) cell line and patient-derived
      tumors in the adrenal gland, and for renal subcapsular engraftment of Ewing's
      sarcoma (ES). MATERIALS AND METHODS: NB xenografts were established by direct
      adrenal injection of luciferase-transfected NB cell lines (IMR32, SH-SY5Y, SK-N
      BE2) or NB patient-derived tumor cells (UMNBL001, UMNBL002). ES xenografts were
      established by renal subcapsular injection of TC32, A673, CHLA-25, or A4573
      cells. Progression was monitored by in vivo imaging. RESULTS: Tumors progressed
      to local disease with metastasis evident by 5 weeks. Metastatic sites included
      cortical bone, lung, liver, and lymph nodes. Xenografted tumors retained
      immunochemical features of the original cancer. CONCLUSION: Human NB adrenal
      xenografts, including two patient-derived orthotopic, and ES renal subcapsular
      xenografts were established by ultrasound without open surgery. Tissue-directed
      implantation is an effective technique for developing metastatic preclinical
      models.

PMID- 28882944
TI  - Netrin-4 Promotes Differentiation and Migration of Osteoblasts.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: While netrin-4 plays a vital role in the vascular system, the
      role of netrin-1 in osteoblast differentiation is not well understood. In this
      study we explored whether netrin-4 has functional roles in osteoblasts. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR),
      RNA interference, the generation of plasmids, transfections, measurement of
      alkaline phosphatase activity, a mineralization assay, a migration assay and a
      cell proliferation assay were performed. RESULTS: Netrin-4 expression was up
      regulated during osteoblast differentiation and an RNA interference experiment
      showed that small interfering RNA used to silence netrin-4 inhibited osteoblast
      differentiation. Recombinant mouse netrin-4 promoted alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
      activity of osteoblasts and enhancement of calcium deposits. Moreover, we
      constructed a vector containing the netrin-4 gene on the basis of the plasmid
      pcDNA3.1/V5-His. Overexpression of netrin-4 enhanced differentiation of
      osteoblasts. Finally, recombinant mouse netrin-4 promoted cell migration of
      osteoblasts. CONCLUSION: Netrin-4 promotes differentiation and migration of
      osteoblasts.

PMID- 28882946
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of Morphine in Rats with Adjuvant-induced Arthritis.
AB  - We investigated the in vivo dynamics and analgesic effect of morphine using an
      adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) rat as a model of chronic inflammation. Morphine
      generally binds to MU-opioid receptors in the brain to exert its effects. After
      several minutes, it is metabolized by glucuronidation via a UDP
      glucuronosyltransferase (UGT). Here, we showed that in AA rats, UGT activity in
      liver microsomes was reduced. Morphine-free serum fractions in AA rats were also
      decreased (control, 84.9%; AA, 63.9%) and the expression of ATP-binding cassette,
      sub-family B (MDR/TAP), member 1 (ABCB1), which plays a crucial role in morphine
      bile excretion, decreased to 23.0% that of the control group. However, we
      observed no significant difference between the AA and control groups regarding
      blood concentrations of morphine and morphine-3-glucuronide. In contrast, the
      analgesic effect of morphine increased 4-fold in AA rats. Our results showed that
      the pharmacokinetics of morphine is not changed, but the pharmacodynamics of
      morphine is enhanced in chronic inflammation.

PMID- 28882945
TI  - Melatonin Synergizes the Chemotherapeutic Effect of Cisplatin in Ovarian Cancer
      Cells Independently of MT1 Melatonin Receptors.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Melatonin (MLT), through the interaction with membrane melatonin
      receptors MT1, can improve the effectiveness of cytostatic agents, including
      cisplatin (CP). The aim of this study was to examine the synergistic effect of
      MLT and CP in three cell lines: IOSE 364, SK-OV-3 and OVCAR-3, as well as to
      assess the role of MT1 receptors in this mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using
      the SRB assay we investigated the effect of different concentrations of CP and
      MLT on cell viability. Tests, using luzindole - MT1 inhibitor, allowed us to
      assess the potential involvement of MT1 in the mechanism of MLT action. RESULTS:
      MLT at certain concentrations demonstrated a synergistic effect in combination
      with CP. The addition of luzindole did not affect the action of MLT in
      combination with CP. CONCLUSION: In summary, the synergistic effect of MLT with
      CP seems to be independent of membrane MT1 receptors.

PMID- 28882947
TI  - Expression of Cyclooxygenase-2, Nitric Oxide Synthase 2 and Heme Oxygenase-1 mRNA
      Induced by Bis-Eugenol in RAW264.7 Cells and their Antioxidant Activity
      Determined Using the Induction Period Method.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: To clarify the mechanisms responsible for the anti
      inflammatory/proinflammatory activities of eugenol-related compounds, we
      investigated the cytotoxicity and up-regulatory/down-refgulatory effects of the
      biphenols curcumin, bis-eugenol, magnolol and honokiol, and the monophenols
      eugenol and isoeugenol, on major regulators of cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), nitric
      oxide synthase 2 (Nos2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) mRNA in RAW264.7 cells.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: mRNA expression was investigated using real-time reverse
      transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the theoretical parameters
      were calculated using the DFT/B3LYP/6-31* method. Also, the antioxidant activity
      of eugenol-related compounds in combination with 2-mercapto-1-methylimidazole
      (MMI, as a model for glutathione (GSH)) was investigated using the induction
      period method for polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by benzoyl
      peroxide (BPO). RESULTS: The cytotoxicity of eugenol-related compounds showed a
      linear relationship with their softness (sigma) and electrophilicity (omega). At
      a concentration of 50 MUM, biphenols except for bis-eugenol elicited the
      expression of mRNA for both Cox-2 and Nos2, but monophenols did not. In contrast,
      bis-eugenol elicited Cox-2 gene expression, but down-regulated Nos2 gene
      expression. bis-Eugenol alone induced the expression of HO-1 mRNA, and when
      combined with MMI it showed a potent antagonistic effect on BPO-induced
      antioxidant activity. The ability of methoxyphenols to inhibit LPS-stimulated Cox
      2 gene expression declined in the order curcumin >> isoeugenol > bis-eugenol >>
      eugenol, and the rank of ability was related to their omega value. CONCLUSION:
      Most eugenol-related compounds had proinflammatory activity at high
      concentrations. However, they had also anti-inflammatory activity at lower
      concentrations. Eugenol-related compounds may exert antioxidant and anti
      inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells possibly by inhibiting the
      activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (Nf-KB), whereas bis-eugenol requires
      induction of HO-1 expression. bis-Eugenol as well as curcumin, may have anti
      inflammatory and anticancer therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28882948
TI  - RUNX3 as a Potential Predictor of Metastasis in Human Pancreatic Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: In genetically engineered murine models of pancreatic ductal
      adenocarcinomas (PDAC), high levels of Runx3 increase the metastatic potential of
      cancer cells. In this study we evaluated the role of Runx3 in human pancreatic
      cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Runx3 was retrospectively assessed by
      immunohistochemistry in seventy-eight tumor samples of patients who underwent
      surgical resection for PDCA and were followed at least for 24 months. RESULTS:
      Thirty-two cases resulted completely negative for Runx3; forty-six showed highly
      variable expression. We established an optimal cut-off value of Runx3 in
      predicting distant metastasis equal to 0.04. The odds ratio (ORs) for development
      of distant metastases at multivariate analysis for patients having Runx3 >=0.04
      was 4.26 (p=0.043) and 4.68 (p=0.032) after adjusting for residual tumor and
      treatment, respectively; OR for development of metastases in multiple sites was
      4.28 (p=0.025) for Runx3 >=0.04. CONCLUSION: Our results support the ability of
      Runx3 to contribute to the dissemination of human PDAC thus confirming the
      observations from murine models.

PMID- 28882949
TI  - Phe354Leu Polymorphism of LKB1 Is a Potential Prognostic Factor for
      Cytogenetically Normal Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Liver kinase B1 (LKB1) is a major activator of the AMP-dependent
      kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway. The prevalence and the specificity
      of LKB1 gene mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have not been well
      established. This study aimed to examine mutation of LKB1 in AML and its clinical
      and pathological implications. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighty-five patients newly
      diagnosed with cytogenetically normal AML were analyzed using polymerase chain
      reaction followed by direct sequencing. RESULTS: A silent mutation (837C>T) of
      LKB1 was detected in one patient and a pathogenic polymorphism Phe354Leu which
      diminishes LKB1 ability to maintain cell polarity was detected in six (7%)
      patients. The Phe354Leu polymorphism occurred concurrently with mutations of
      nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1), fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) and CCAAT/enhancer
      binding protein alpha (CEBPA), but not with metabolism-related genes, isocitrate
      dehydrogenase [nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (+)]1 (IDH1) and IDH2.
      Patients with Phe354Leu polymorphism diagnosed at younger ages had a worse
      overall survival. CONCLUSION: LKB1 may be involved in the leukemogenesis and
      progression of cytogenetically normal AML.

PMID- 28882950
TI  - Cytocompatibility of Direct Laser Interference-patterned Titanium Surfaces for
      Implants.
AB  - In an effort to generate titanium surfaces for implants with improved
      osseointegration, we used direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) to modify
      the surface of pure titanium grade 4 of four different structures. We assessed in
      vitro cytoxicity and cell attachment, as well as the viability and proliferation
      of cells cultured directly on the surfaces. Attachment of the cells to the
      modified surfaces was comparably good compared to that of cells on grit-blasted
      and acid-etched reference titanium surfaces. In concordance with this, viability
      and proliferation of the cells directly cultured on the specimens were similar on
      all the titanium surfaces, regardless of the laser modification, indicating good
      cytocompatibility.

PMID- 28882951
TI  - The Immunoreactivity of PI3K/AKT Pathway After Prenatal Hypoxic Damage.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: There is no consensus on the effect of hypoxia on neurogenesis.
      In this study, we investigated the immunoreactivity of BDNF and PI3K/Akt
      signaling after uterine artery ligation in pregnant rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Unilateral uterine artery ligation was performed at 16 days of gestation (dg).
      Fetuses from one horn with ligated artery were allocated to the hypoxic group.
      Immunohistochemistry was performed with primary antibodies; NeuN, BDNF, PI3K, Akt
      and phospho-Akt (pAkt). RESULTS: The densities of NeuN- and BDNF-immunoreactive
      (IR) cells in the cerebral cortex were lower in the hypoxic fetuses than in the
      controls at 21 dg. The density of PI3K and pAkt-IR cells in the cortex of the
      hypoxic group significantly decreased. The results in dentate gyrus were similar
      to the results in the cerebral cortex. CONCLUSION: Prenatal hypoxia reduced Akt
      phosphorylation, which affected neuronal survival in the cortex and dentate
      gyrus.

PMID- 28882952
TI  - Comparing the Organs and Vasculature of the Head and Neck in Five Murine Species.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The purpose of the present study was to delineate the cervical
      and facial vascular and associated anatomy in five murine species, and compare
      them for optimal use in research studies focused on understanding the pathology
      and treatment of diseases in humans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The specific adult
      male animals examined were mice (C57BL/6J), rats (F344), mongolian gerbils
      (Merionesunguiculatus), hamsters (Syrian), and guinea pigs (Hartley). To stain
      the vasculature and organs, of the face and neck, each animal was systemically
      perfused using the vital stain, Trypan Blue. Following this step, the detailed
      anatomy of the head and neck could be easily visualized in all species. RESULTS:
      Unique morphological characteristics were demonstrated by comparing the five
      species, including symmetry of the common carotid origin bilaterally in the
      Mongolian Gerbil, a large submandibular gland in the hamster and an enlarged
      buccal branch in the Guinea Pig. In reviewing the anatomical details, this
      staining technique proves superior for direct surgical visualization and
      identification. CONCLUSION: The anatomical details provided through these five
      species atlas will help experimental researchers in the future to select the most
      appropriate animal model for specific laboratory studies aimed to improve our
      understanding and treatment of diseases in patients.

PMID- 28882953
TI  - SCARB1 Gene Polymorphisms and HDL Subfractions in Coronary Artery Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of mortality and
      morbidity worldwide. Polymorphisms in the SCARB1 gene are known to be related to
      plasma lipids. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
      was used for identification of SCARB1 polymorphisms and the Lipoprint
      Quantimetrix System was employed in identification of HDL subfractions. RESULTS:
      According to allelic distribution, in both groups SCARB1 AA genotype led to a two
      fold decrease in the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (p=0.04), while
      the GA genotype increased the risk two-fold (p=0.03). According to the HDL
      subfraction analysis results, the AA genotype had higher levels of big-sized HDL
      subfraction (p=0.02). CONCLUSION: The SCARB1AA genotype decreased cardiovascular
      risk and carrying GA genotype and G allele increased the risk of CAD. AA genotype
      carriers had higher levels of big-sized HDL subfraction.

PMID- 28882954
TI  - Antrodia Cinnamomea Reduces Carbon Tetrachloride-induced Hepatotoxicity In Male
      Wister Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Antrodia cinnamomea is found with polysaccharides, lipids,
      vitamins, fibers and ash (minerals) and is well known in Taiwan as a traditional
      Chinese medicine. Its biological activities have been reported to have anti
      inflammatory, anti-fatigue, anti-tumor and immunomodulatory effects, but its
      protective effects on liver function are still unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      determined if Antrodia cinnamomea was hepatoprotective against carbon
      tetrachloride (CCl4) toxicity in Wistar rats. Six groups were used in the study:
      1) control (no induction by CCl4); 2) negative control (CCl4-induction and no
      treatment); 3) positive control (silymarin treatment); 4) groups 4-6 were treated
      with CC14 and different concentrations (350 mg/kg, 1,400 mg/kg, 3,150 mg/kg) of
      Antrodia cinnamomea. Blood and liver samples of rats were harvested and then
      detected by biochemical and tissue histochemical analysis. Activity of the
      antioxidative enzymes glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase
      in the liver were also monitored. RESULTS: Only the high-dose treatment was able
      to decrease serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic-pyruvic
      transaminase (GPT) levels and improve liver function. High and medium doses
      increased total liver protein and reduced hydroxyproline. It was also observed
      that the high dose treatment reduced lipid peroxidation. Liver sections of CC14
      treated animals receiving Antrodia cinnamomea showed less fibrosis compared to
      the CCl4 control group. CONCLUSION: This finding suggested that Antrodia
      cinnamomea can either enhance liver recovering from CCl4 damage or attenuate CCl4
      toxicity in rats.

PMID- 28882955
TI  - Differential Expression of Aquaporins in Experimental Models of Acute Lung
      Injury.
AB  - AIM: The mammalian lung expresses at least three aquaporin (AQP) water channels
      whose precise role in lung injury or inflammation is still controversial.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three murine models of lung inflammation and corresponding
      controls were used to evaluate the expression of Aqp1, Aqp4, Aqp5 and Aqp9:
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung injury; HCl-induced lung injury; and
      ventilation-induced lung injury (VILI). RESULTS: All models yielded increased
      lung vascular permeability, and inflammatory cell infiltration in the broncho
      alveolar lavage fluid; VILI additionally produced altered lung mechanics. Lung
      expression of Aqp4 decreased in the models that targeted primarily the alveolar
      epithelium, i.e. acid aspiration and mechanical ventilation, while Aqp5
      expression decreased in the model that appeared to target both the capillary
      endothelium and alveolar epithelium, i.e. LPS. CONCLUSION: Participation of
      aquaporins in the acute inflammatory process depends on localization and the type
      of lung injury.

PMID- 28882956
TI  - Osteochondral Repair Using Porous Three-dimensional Nanocomposite Scaffolds in a
      Rabbit Model.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the utility of a novel nanocomposite biomaterial consisting of
      poly-L/D-lactide, and hydroxyapatite bioceramics, enriched with sodium alginate
      in articular cartilage defect treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The biomaterial
      was prepared using the method of solvent casting and particle leaching. The study
      was conducted on 20 New Zealand White rabbits. Experimental osteochondral defects
      were created in the femoral trochlear grooves and filled with biomaterials. In
      control groups, the defects were left to spontaneously heal. The quality of newly
      formed tissue was evaluated on the basis of macroscopic and histological
      assessment. Additionally the level of osteogenic and cartilage degradation
      markers were measured. RESULTS: The majority of the defects from the treatment
      group were covered with tissue similar in structure and colour to healthy
      cartilage, whereas in the control group, tissue was uneven, and not integrated
      into the surrounding cartilage. CONCLUSION: The results obtained validate the
      choice of biomaterial used in this study as well as the method of its
      application.

PMID- 28882957
TI  - 5-Aminolevulinic-acid-mediated Photodynamic Diagnosis Enhances the Detection of
      Peritoneal Metastases in Biliary Tract Cancer in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Previous studies on the accuracy of 5-aminolevulinic-acid
      mediated photodynamic diagnosis (5-ALA PDD) have been reported for various
      cancers and brain surgery. However, biliary tract cancer is rare. Therefore, 5
      ALA PDD has not been fully evaluated in biliary tract cancers. Small biliary
      tract cancer lesions such as peritoneal dissemination, liver metastases, and
      lymph node metastases are negative prognosticators in patients with biliary
      cancer. The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine if 5-ALA PDD could
      detect small biliary tract cancer lesions in murine models of biliary cancers.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Biliary cancer cell lines (TFK-1, HuCCT-1, G415, HuH28,
      SSP25, RBE, KKU055 and KKU100) and Normal human dermal fibroblast cells were used
      to evaluate protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) accumulation in vitro. Subcutaneous tumor
      mice were established using two cell lines (TFK-1 and HuCCT-1). 5-ALA (250 mg/kg)
      was administered intraperitoneally, and fluorescent 5ALA-PDD was performed 3 h
      later to evaluate tumoral PpIX accumulation. A murine peritoneal disseminated
      nodule model was established by intraperitoneal injection of TFK-1 cells. Four
      weeks later, 5-ALA was administered intraperitoneally, and 5-ALA-PDD was
      performed 3 h post administration to evaluate PpIX accumulation in the
      disseminated nodules. The presence of tumor cells in tumors and nodules was
      confirmed by haematoxylin and eosin staining. RESULTS: Compared TO non-cancerous
      cell lines, PpIX accumulation was increased in biliary tract cancer cell lines.
      PpIX accumulation led to a strong fluorescent signal in all subcutaneous tumors.
      In the murine model of peritoneal dissemination, microdisseminated nodules (<1
      mm) that could not be detected under white light were clearly visible using 5-ALA
      PDD. CONCLUSION: 5-ALA PDD was useful for diagnosis of biliary tract cancer and
      detection of small peritoneal metastatic lesions in murine models of biliary
      cancers. Clinical studies and applications of 5-ALA PDD for biliary tract cancer
      are expected in the future.

PMID- 28882958
TI  - Treatment of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Esophagus Synchronously Associated
      with Head and Neck Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of this study was to clarify the treatment strategy for
      synchronous squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus (ESCC) and head and neck
      cancer (HNC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Treatment outcomes of 91 patients with
      synchronous ESCC and HNC were evaluated. Thirty-eight patients received
      simultaneous definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and 15 patients underwent
      simultaneous resection. RESULTS: Among the patients who received simultaneous
      CRT, adverse events (grade 3-5) were recognized in 14 patients (40%), including
      one case of death due to aspiration pneumonia. Complete response was observed in
      22 patients with ESCC (58%) and 19 patients with HNC (50%). The five-year
      survival rate was 44%. There were no in-hospital deaths after simultaneous
      resection; however, postoperative complications were recognized in 4 patients.
      The five-year OS was 70%. CONCLUSION: The treatment of synchronous ESCC and HNC
      must be decided by adopting a strategy that is appropriate for each case. Both
      simultaneous CRT and simultaneous resection are feasible and effective treatment
      options.

PMID- 28882959
TI  - Comparison of the Grip Strength Using the Martin-Vigorimeter and the JAMAR
      Dynamometer: Establishment of Normal Values.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The JAMAR-Dynamometer and the Martin-Vigorimeter are frequently
      used tools in a hand surgeon's daily routine. This survey is primarily concerned
      with the establishment of valid conversion factors for measured values of both
      instruments, as well as the investigation of influence of anatomical
      characteristics and age and sex on maximal measured grip strength. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We registered anamnestic data and specific anatomical conditions in 339
      patients, maximal grip strength was measured using all notches of both
      instruments. RESULTS: We found moderate to very high correlation comparing all 28
      settings in both instruments. The influence of the hand's anatomy on the grip
      strength was greater using the JAMAR-Dynamometer than it was using the Martin
      Vigorimeter. CONCLUSION: The high reproducibility allowed us to calculate
      multiplying factors for the conversion of measured data for all settings of both
      tools. Therefore, the amount of data for meta-analyses relating to hand surgical
      issues can be significantly increased.

PMID- 28882961
TI  - Efficacy of N-acetylcysteine, D-mannose and Morinda citrifolia to Treat Recurrent
      Cystitis in Breast Cancer Survivals.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Breast cancer survivors in adjuvant therapy, frequently
      experience the estrogen deficiency with genitourinary symptoms mostly represented
      by recurrent bacterial cystitis. The objective of the present study was to
      evaluate the effectiveness of N-acetylcysteine, D-mannose and Morinda citrifolia
      fruit extract (NDM), when associated to antibiotic therapy, in reducing the
      persistence of recurrent cystitis in this risk population. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Sixty breast cancer survived women with recurrent cystitis were retrospectively
      examined. Group 1, comprised of 40 patients treated with antibiotic therapy
      associated with NDM lasting for six months, Group 2 comprised of 20 patients
      treated with antibiotics alone. RESULTS: The use of NDM in combination with
      antibiotic therapy showed a significant reduction in positive urine cultures,
      compared to antibiotics alone. Subjects of Group 1 rather than those of Group 2,
      showed improvement in symptoms score of urgency, frequency, urge incontinence,
      recurrent cystitis, bladder and urethral pain. CONCLUSION: In breast cancer
      survived women affected by genitourinary discomfort, the combination of NDM and
      antibiotic therapy showed a greater efficacy in reducing urinary tract infections
      and urinary discomfort with respect to antibiotic use only.

PMID- 28882960
TI  - Parathyroid Carcinoma in Patients that Have Undergone Surgery for Primary
      Hyperparathyroidism.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Parathyroid carcinoma is a rare clinical entity, which represents
      one of the main reasons, why surgery should be performed in specialized centres.
      Preoperatively, it is very difficult to distinguish between benign and malignant
      hyperparathyroidism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: During the years 1996-2016, we
      performed 2,220 operations in 2,075 patients with a diagnosis of primary
      hyperparathyroidism. RESULTS: Among these 2,220 operations, there were 16
      operations for parathyroid carcinoma. These 16 operations, including
      reoperations, were performed in four patients. Two patients had no reoperation,
      but another 2 patients required 14 reoperations in total. Parathyroid carcinoma
      was described in 0.2% of all patients with a diagnosis of primary
      hyperparathyroidism. The number of operations was 0.73% of all operations of
      primary hyperparathyroidism in years 1996-2016. CONCLUSION: Prognosis of
      parathyroid carcinoma is quite favourable, patients evidence a long-term survival
      rate after the primary operation. However, every reoperation increases the number
      of possible complications, including recurrent laryngeal nerve injury.

PMID- 28882962
TI  - Prospective Analysis of a Sterile, Semi-automated Tissue Biopsy Homogenization
      Method in the Diagnosis of Prosthetic Joint Infections.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) remains a serious complication
      of total joint arthroplasty. To effectively treat PJI, it is essential to
      identify the microorganism causing it and be able to combine correct surgical and
      anti-infective treatments. This cannot always be achieved with the currently
      employed diagnostic methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate a semi
      automated tissue biopsy bead milling method (Ultra-TurrAX, Axonlab AG;
      Reichenbach, Germany) based on the hypothesis that the results are more sensitive
      for microbe detection and less prone to contamination. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      included 35 consecutive patients undergoing 38 hip or knee arthroplasty revisions
      in this study. In addition to manually processed biopsies, we processed tissue
      specimens harvested intraoperatively using a semi-automated method. The
      sensitivity and specificity of both methods were calculated using MSIS criteria
      and sonication results as gold standards. RESULTS: For total hip arthroplasty
      samples were evaluated separately based on MSIS criteria as the reference
      standard, Ultra-TurrAX processing yielded 81% (62-100%) sensitivity and 100%
      specificity. Using sonication as the gold standard, a sensitivity of 80% (60
      100%) and specificity of 80% (45-100%) were calculated. In total knee
      arthroplasty, Ultra-TurrAX processing yielded 27% (1-54%) sensitivity and 57% (20
      94%) specificity when using MSIS criteria as the gold standard. Using sonication
      as the gold standard, a sensitivity of 60% (17-100%) and specificity of 77% (54
      100%) were calculated. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to analyze bead mill
      processing in total hip and knee arthroplasty revisions in a consecutive patient
      series. The method's sensitivity was comparable to and its specificity superior
      to regular sample processing results reported in the literature with respect to
      hip arthroplasties and to both hip and knee arthroplasties collectively. With
      respect to total knee arthroplasties, the method fared worse in our collective,
      most likely due to the small number of patients in the sample. Integrating the
      method into the clinical workflow allowed for speedier and more efficient sample
      handling and processing. The theoretical advantage of a lower risk of
      contamination because of fewer manual processing steps is, in our opinion, valid.

PMID- 28882963
TI  - Risk Factors for Transumbilical Wound Complications in Laparoscopic Gastric and
      Colorectal Surgery.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the risk factors of transumbilical incision for organ removal
      in laparoscopic surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We enrolled 643 consecutive
      patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery from 2010 to 2013. Superficial surgical
      site infection (SSI) and transumbilical port site hernia were recorded. RESULTS:
      The participants underwent gastric (n=253) and colorectal (n=390) resections. SSI
      was observed in 17 cases (colorectal in 15; gastric in two) (2.64%) with
      colorectal resection having a high rate of SSI [odds ratio (OR)=5.020; p=0.022].
      Hernia occurred in 23 cases (colorectal in 22; gastric in one) (3.53%), with a
      significantly higher rate for colorectal resection (OR=13.052; p<0.001). Female
      (OR=5.410; p=0.021) and history of diabetes mellitus (OR=4.437; p=0.009)
      contributed to the risk for developing a hernia. CONCLUSION: Especially in
      relation to hernia, being female and having diabetes mellitus were considered
      independent risk factors.

PMID- 28882964
TI  - Impact of Time Factors on Outcome in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Treated
      with Definitive Radio(Chemo)Therapy.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate treatment-related factors such as overall treatment time (OTT)
      and radiation treatment time (RTT) in head-and-neck cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      A total of 216 patients with locoregionally advanced inoperable head and neck
      cancer were treated with definitive radio(chemo)therapy. Mean follow-up was 37
      months. RESULTS: Median time from diagnosis to start of radiotherapy (total
      waiting time) was 34 days, and comprised of referral waiting time and time for
      preparatory work. Median RTT was 40 days, and median OTT was 91 days. At 6, 12
      and 24 months local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) was 75%, 65% and 60%;
      metastasis-free survival (MFS) was 84%, 77% and 70%; overall survival (OS) was
      72%, 58% and 40%. Tumor stage, boost and chemotherapy were significant for OS,
      waiting time for preparatory work and RTT were significant for MFS, and referral
      waiting time and total radiotherapy dose for LRFS. CONCLUSION: RTT <=40 days was
      a prognostic factor for better MFS. Prolonged waiting time had a converse effect
      for radiotherapy with better outcome on MFS and LRFS.

PMID- 28882965
TI  - Rotating Gamma System Irradiation: A Promising Treatment for Low-grade Brainstem
      Gliomas.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the role of rotating gamma system (RGS) radiosurgery for low
      grade brainstem gliomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty-seven patients undergoing
      RGS radiosurgery at the Bach Mai Hospital Hanoi for low-grade brainstem glioma
      were included in this prospective interventional study. The median RGS dose was
      12 Gy (range=8-16 Gy). Endpoints included response to RGS radiosurgery given as
      change in glioma size (maximum diameter), survival and adverse events. Follow-up
      was performed for 36 months. Three dose-groups (<13, 13-14 and >14 Gy) were
      compared for survival. RESULTS: Mean glioma size decreased from 1.87 cm before
      RGS irradiation to 1.15 cm at 36 months. Mean survival was 39.5 months. Mean
      survival after <13, 13-14 and >14 Gy were 22.7, 66.7 and 49 months, respectively
      (p<0.05). Adverse events, mainly reduced appetite, sleep disturbances, headache
      and edema, were not associated with RGS dose and were easily managed. CONCLUSION:
      RGS radiosurgery led to promising results with acceptable toxicity in patients
      with low-grade brainstem gliomas.

PMID- 28882966
TI  - Predictive Factors of Late-onset Rectal Mucosal Changes After Radiotherapy of
      Prostate Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The Vienna Rectoscopy Score (VRS; from 0, absence of rectal
      mucosal changes, to 5) assessed 1 year after radiotherapy is a surrogate end
      point of late rectal toxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      association between treatment-related factors and 1-year VRS. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data.
      Patients with prostate adenocarcinoma treated with definitive or postoperative
      radiotherapy (RT) underwent endoscopy 1 year after RT. Relationships between VRS
      of 2 or more and treatment parameters were investigated by univariate and
      multivariate logistic analyses. RESULTS: One hundred and ninety-five patients
      (mean age=69 years; range=43-81 years) were considered eligible for the study. At
      univariate analysis, patients treated with hypofractionation plus radiosurgery
      boost (p<0.001) and an equivalent dose in 2 Gy per fraction (EQD2) (alpha/beta=3)
      >=75 Gy (p<0.001) was associated with a significantly higher incidence of VRS >=2
      after 1 year of follow-up. At multivariate analysis, radiosurgery boost was an
      independent risk factor for developing rectal mucosal lesions (VRS >=2), yielding
      an odds ratio (OR) of 4.14 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.2-13.8), while pelvic
      surgery was inversely associated with VRS >=2 (OR=0.39; 95% CI=0.17-0.94).
      CONCLUSION: Hypofractionation followed by radiosurgery boost significantly
      increased the risk of developing late-onset rectal mucosal changes. Therefore,
      special care and preventative treatment strategies are needed when using
      radiosurgery boost after hypofractionated RT.

PMID- 28882967
TI  - Influenza Among Breast Cancer Survivors in South Korea: A Nationwide Population
      Based Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: In this study, we analyzed the prevalence of influenza disease in
      breast cancer survivors using claims data from the Health Insurance Review and
      Assessment Service (HIRA) in South Korea. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We defined
      influenza among a nationwide cohort of 87,843 patients who were diagnosed with
      breast cancer and underwent surgery from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2014,
      based on HIRA claim data. Descriptive statistics were calculated to estimate the
      frequency of influenza disease using diagnostic code and utilization pattern at
      medical institutions. RESULTS: Two thousand four hundred breast cancer survivors
      (2.7%) were diagnosed with influenza. The overall frequency of influenza
      increased from November (n=98) and peaked in February (n=1,745). Over 60% (2,693)
      of claims for influenza disease treatment were in the clinic, whereas general
      hospitals accounted for 22.0% (873). Among 3,967 claims, admission rate was 7.6%
      (n=301) and the average length of hospitalization was 4.7 days. Elderly breast
      cancer survivors over 70 years old had the longest length of hospitalization at
      5.9 days. CONCLUSION: Breast cancer survivors are more susceptible to influenza
      than non-cancer survivors. It is important not only to raise the vaccination rate
      among young cancer survivors, but also to quickly identify symptoms and begin
      treatment for flu in elderly cancer survivors.

PMID- 28882968
TI  - Rectosigmoidian Involvement in Advanced-stage Ovarian Cancer - Intraoperative
      Decisions.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Ovarian cancer remains one of the most commonly encountered
      malignancies affecting women worldwide, that is unfortunately commonly diagnosed
      in advanced stages of the disease. In these stages, the tumoral process usually
      involves the surrounding viscera throughout contiguity or induces the apparition
      of distant metastases via peritoneal, lymphatic or hematogenous spread, multiple
      resections being needed in order to achieve a good control of the disease.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the present study, we present a case series of 12
      patients in whom various surgical procedures on the rectosigmoidian loop were
      performed in order to achieve debulking surgery to no residual disease. RESULTS:
      Digestive tract resections consisted of rectosigmoidian resection with left
      colostomy in three cases, low rectosigmoidian resections with anastomosis in
      eight cases and a stripping procedure of the peritoneal layer in one case.
      CONCLUSION: Due to the close proximity of the digestive and gynecological tract,
      advanced-stage ovarian tumors frequently involve the rectosigmoidian loop,
      imposing association of digestive tract surgical procedures.

PMID- 28882969
TI  - Successful Resection and Vascular Ligation of a Large Hepatic Artery Aneurysm - A
      Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - The occurrence of hepatic artery aneurysms is rare and might be incidentally
      diagnosed, as the patient remains asymptomatic for a long period of time.
      However, due to the fact that these lesions are associated with a high risk of
      developing life threatening complications, such as intraperitoneal rupture, it
      has been stated that all cases should be submitted to treatment by endovascular
      or surgical approach. We present the case of a 68-year-old patient, who presented
      with recurrent upper digestive tract bleedings and was diagnosed with a large
      aneurysm of the common and the proper hepatic artery, and the gastroduodenal
      artery. The preoperative angiography revealed an anatomic variation consisting of
      the common hepatic artery originating from the celiac trunk, and the left hepatic
      artery originating from the left gastric artery. A percutaneous right portal vein
      embolization was performed in order to induce hypertrophy of the left lobe and
      prepare the patient for a right hepatectomy and aneurysmal resection. However, at
      the time of surgery, after performing the aneurysmal resection and arterial
      ligation, the vascular supply of the entire liver was efficiently provided by the
      left hepatic artery and its collaterals. Concluding, hepatic resection was no
      longer necessary.

PMID- 28882970
TI  - Management of a Fulminant Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding Exteriorized Through
      Hemobilia Due to Arteriobiliary Fistula Between the Common Bile Duct and a Right
      Hepatic Artery Aneurysm - A Case Report.
AB  - Right hepatic artery aneurysms are rare events that might remain asymptomatic for
      a long period of time. However, in cases presenting large lesions, symptoms might
      develop especially due to the association of compression of the surrounding
      elements. Most often these symptoms and signs include diffuse abdominal pain,
      jaundice or portal vein compression signs. In rare cases life-threatening
      complications might develop due to the aneurysmal erosion of the biliary duct,
      portal vein or due to the aneurysmal rupture in the peritoneal cavity. In all
      these cases emergency surgery is imposed. We present the case of a 66-year-old
      patient diagnosed with a partially thrombosed right hepatic artery aneurysm
      compressing the common bile duct who was initially submitted to a percutaneous
      arterial embolization of the aneurysm in association with an external biliary
      drainage; three weeks later the patient presented a fulminant upper
      gastrointestinal bleeding exteriorized through the external biliary drainage,
      hematemesis and hematochezia. The patient was successfully submitted to surgery,
      intraoperatively a synchronous rupture of the portal vein being revealed. The
      right hepatic artery aneurysm was resected en bloc with common bile duct
      resection and segmental portal vein resection. The continuity of the portal vein
      was re-established through the interposition of a cadaveric allograft, the common
      bile duct was anastomosed with en Roux en Y limb while the right hepatic artery
      aneurysm was ligated and resected, the arterial vascularization of the liver
      being provided by the left hepatic artery.

PMID- 28882971
TI  - Mouse Hemokinin-1 Decapeptide Subjected to a Brain-specific Post-translational
      Modification.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: The tachykinin mouse hemokinin-1, expressed by the mouse Tac4
      gene, produces either analgesia or nociception, interacting with the neurokinin 1
      receptor. TAC4 precursor processing is not identical to the processing of the
      TAC1 precursor, for the release of substance P (amidated undecapeptide). The
      characterization of the mouse hemokinin-1 sequence was required. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We developed anti-tachykinin-specific antibodies for the immunoaffinity
      purification of tachykinins. RESULTS: Using MALDI-ToF, we identified mouse
      hemokinin-1 as an amidated decapeptide expressed in murine brain and periphery.
      Furthermore, we interestingly observed an additional mass peak corresponding to
      acetylated mouse hemokinin-1 and this post-translational modification is brain
      specific, not detected in the periphery. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the N
      terminal acetylation of the peptide provides greater potency for ligand-receptor
      interactions during neural cell signaling.

PMID- 28882972
TI  - Ileocecal Obstruction Due to Endometriosis - A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Endometriosis is a common finding in premenopausal women and a significant number
      of cases presenting digestive tract involvement at the time of diagnosis.
      However, most of these patients present pelvic nodules involving the
      rectosigmoidian junction, other digestive tract segments being less commonly
      affected. We present the case of a 37-year-old nulliparous woman who presented
      for diffuse abdominal pain and vomiting; she was diagnosed with complete
      ileocecal obstruction due to an endometriosis nodule in association with
      bilateral ovarian endometriosis lesions invading the rectosigmodian wall. A right
      colectomy with ileocolic anastomosis in association with bilateral cystectomy and
      rectosigmodian resection was successfully performed. The histopathological
      examination confirmed the endometriosic origin of the nodules invading the
      rectosigmodian and ileocecal wall, that was similar to the one described at the
      level of the ovarian cysts.

PMID- 28882973
TI  - Elevated Serum AA/EPA Ratio as a Predictor of Skeletal Muscle Depletion in
      Cachexic Patients with Advanced Gastro-intestinal Cancers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, the number of cancer patients has increased. Cancer
      patients are prone to sarcopenia as a result of the decrease in muscle mass and
      muscle weakness which occurs in cancer cachexia. Attention has been given on the
      effects of fatty acid administration on cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We conducted a retrospective chart-review study of consecutive patients with
      unresectable advanced GI cancer (stage IV) (n=46) receiving chemotherapy
      treatment in an outpatient or in-hospital setting between December 2012 and
      September 2015 at our Institution. The collected data were characteristics, psoas
      muscle area as measured by computed tomography (CT), and biochemical blood test
      and serum fatty acid profiles. Three methods of analysis were evaluated: (i)
      Comparison of biomarkers between two groups: psoas muscle index change rate
      (DeltaPMI) decrease group vs. DeltaPMI increase group. (ii) Correlation between
      DeltaPMI and biomarkers. (iii) Multiple regression of DeltaPMI and biomarkers
      Results: In the DeltaPMI decrease group, n-6/n-3 ratio and AA/EPA ratio in the
      decrease group were significantly higher than those in the increase group. Among
      all parameters, serum EPA was positively and significantly related to DeltaPMI
      (CC=0.443, p=0.039). In contrast, serum CRP, AA/EPA ratio and n-6/n-3 ratio were
      negatively related to DeltaPMI (CC=-0.566, CC=-0.501, CC=-0.476, p=0.006,
      p=0.018, p=0.025, respectively). On multiple regression analysis, serum CRP value
      was strongly related to DeltaPMI (r2=0.421, beta=-0.670, p=0.001). CONCLUSION:
      Higher n-6/n-3 and AA/EPA ratios were associated with a decrease in psoas muscle
      area, that lead to diagnosis of sarcopenia. Higher CRP was also associated with a
      decrease in psoas muscle area, suggesting that this might be an indicator of
      cachexic skeletal muscle depletion in cachexic patients with advanced gastro
      intestinal cancers.

PMID- 28882974
TI  - Lymph Node Size on Computed Tomography Images Is a Predictive Indicator for Lymph
      Node Metastasis in Patients with Colorectal Neuroendocrine Tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are a rare manifestation of
      colorectal neoplasia, requiring for radical dissection of the regional lymph
      nodes along with colorectal resection similar to that required for colorectal
      cancer. However, thus far, no reports have described the ability of computed
      tomography (CT) to predict lymph node involvement. In this study, we revealed the
      prediction rate of lymph node metastasis using contrast-enhanced CT. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: A total of 21 patients with colorectal NET undergoing colorectal
      resection were recruited from January 2010 to June 2016. We compared the CT
      findings between samples with or without pathologically proven lymph node
      metastasis, in each field (pericolic/perirectal and intermediate nodes). RESULTS:
      Within the pericolic/perirectal field, any lymph node larger than 5 mm in the CT
      images was a predictive indicator of lymph node metastasis with a sensitivity,
      specificity, and area under ROC curve (AUC) of 66.7%, 87.5%, and 0.844,
      respectively. Within the intermediate field, any visible lymph node on the CT was
      a predictive indicator of lymph node metastasis with a sensitivity, specificity,
      and AUC of 100%, 76.4%, and 0.890, respectively. In addition, when we observed
      lymph nodes larger than 3 mm on the CT images, the sensitivity and specificity
      were 100% and 82.4%, respectively, with an AUC of 0.8971. CONCLUSION: CT images
      provide predictive information for lymph node metastasis with a high rate of
      accuracy.

PMID- 28882975
TI  - Gastric Tube Reconstruction with Superdrainage Using Indocyanine Green
      Fluorescence During Esophagectomy.
AB  - We report a case of gastric tube reconstruction with superdrainage using
      indocyanine green fluorescence during esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. A 53
      year-old man with a history of early esophageal cancer treated with endoscopic
      mucosal dissection experienced esophageal cancer recurrence. There was no
      evidence of lymph node involvement or distant metastasis on computed tomography;
      therefore, we performed thoracoscopic esophagectomy. After thoracoscopic
      esophagectomy, we created a gastric tube. When pulling up the gastric tube
      through the post-mediastinum route, a root of the right gastroepiploic vein was
      injured. We subsequently performed superdrainage to avoid congestion of the
      gastric tube with omental vein and pre-tracheal vein anastomosis at the neck, and
      confirmed venous flow using the indocyanine green fluorescence method. No
      postoperative anastomotic leakage was observed, and the patient was discharged 22
      days after surgery. Thus, we recommend the indocyanine green fluorescence method
      in cases involving superdrainage during esophagectomy.

PMID- 28882976
TI  - Endobronchial Carcinoid Tumor Totally Occluding the Left Main Bronchus Without
      Producing Symptoms of Bronchial Obstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bronchial carcinoid tumors (BCTs) are rare neuroendocrine neoplasms
      of the lung that mainly have a central distribution. They are classified as
      typical and atypical, with the former variant generally conferring a more
      favorable survival. Central tumors are usually symptomatic with features of
      bronchial obstruction, whereas peripheral tumors may remain silent. CASE REPORT:
      A 36-year-old woman presented to our hospital due to an episode of massive
      hemoptysis 5 days prior to admission. She had experienced another episode of
      hemoptysis 4 years before, for which a chest x-ray had shown no pathological
      findings. A new chest x-ray showed complete collapse of the left lung, with
      remarkable tracheal deviation. Computed tomography revealed a large endobronchial
      lesion causing occlusion of the left main bronchus and significant mediastinal
      shift to the left. Despite the collapse of the left lung, no symptoms of
      bronchial obstruction were evident. The patient underwent a successful left
      pneumonectomy and pathology of the resected specimen revealed a typical stage
      pT2b N1 Mx endobronchial carcinoid tumor. CONCLUSION: Central tumors are usually
      symptomatic with features of bronchial obstruction, whereas peripheral tumors may
      remain silent. Although a significant amount of bronchial occlusion may be
      present, symptoms of obstruction might not be apparent. Hemoptysis should always
      be thoroughly investigated, as it may be the only sign of a severe underlying
      disease.

PMID- 28882977
TI  - Influence of Diabetes on Circulating Apoptotic Microparticles in Patients with
      Chronic Hepatitis C.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) frequently occurs in patients with
      chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and is associated with atherosclerosis, in which
      circulating microparticles (MPs) play an important role. We asked whether the
      presence of DM affects endothelial-derived (EMPs) and platelet-derived
      microparticles (PMPs) levels; and whether MPs levels associate with biomarkers of
      inflammation and oxidative stress in patients with CHC. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Overall, 136 patients were enrolled in the study, 86 CHC patients (41 with DM
      with moderate glycemic control), 20 outpatients with DM and 30 controls.
      Circulating MPs were phenotyped by flow cytometry. RESULTS: When the MPs levels
      were analyzed individually in CHC patients, there was a positive association of
      plasma apoptotic MPs with oxidative stress markers. We report a hitherto
      undescribed relationship between diabetes prevalence and apoptotic MPs-associated
      inflammation in patients with CHC. CONCLUSION: The presence of apoptotic MPs in
      the plasma of CHC patients, with increased levels being found in patients with DM
      and moderate glycemic control was herein demonstrated. The simultaneous
      monitoring of plasma apoptotic MPs, oxidative stress markers and inflammatory
      biomarkers can be helpful for the cardiovascular disease control in diabetic
      patients with CHC.

PMID- 28882979
TI  - Multiple Sclerosis and Subsequent Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection: A Case
      with the Rare Comorbidity, Focus on Novel Treatment Issues and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The comorbidity between Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is particularly rare. Only a few cases of
      comorbidity of Clinically Definite(CD)-MS and HIV have been documented worldwide,
      while the potential beneficial role of antiretroviral therapy regarding MS
      activity has long been an area of debate. CASE REPORT: We present a 36-year old
      male, bearing a diagnosis of CD-MS for twelve years. He had been treated for ten
      years with interferon-beta-1b, when he voluntarily discontinued therapy, claiming
      clinical stability. One year later he was diagnosed positive for HIV and he
      started and continued only on efavirenz/emricitabine/tenofovir-disoproxil
      fumarate (ATRIPLA(r)), remaining relapse-free until today. CONCLUSION: This fact,
      in combination with the unique pharmaceutical composition of the drug, which
      contains a component similar to a newly-approved agent for MS, dimethyl fumarate,
      prompted us to review the literature regarding this rare comorbidity and to
      suggest that the role of the antiretroviral therapy should be further explored in
      MS.

PMID- 28882978
TI  - Predictive Factors of Nivolumab-induced Hypothyroidism in Patients with Non-small
      Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors play an important role in
      the therapy of lung cancer, they are associated with various immune-related
      adverse events and predictive factors of them are unclear. In this study, we
      investigated predictive factors of nivolumab-induced hypothyroidism which is one
      of the adverse events in patients with lung cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who were administered nivolumab at our
      hospital between December 2015 and May 2016 were retrospectively enrolled. The
      thyroid-stimulating hormone, free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, thyroid
      peroxidase (TPO) antibody, and thyroglobulin antibody levels of each patient were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 64 patients enrolled, 5 (7.8%) developed hypothyroidism
      after treatment with nivolumab. The TPO and thyroglobulin antibodies were
      significantly positive in patients who developed primary hypothyroidism.
      CONCLUSION: TPO and thyroglobulin antibody levels at baseline may be predictive
      of hypothyroidism.

PMID- 28882980
TI  - The metabolic syndrome and its components in 178 patients treated for
      craniopharyngioma after 16 years of follow-up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with craniopharyngioma are at an increased risk for cardio-
      and cerebrovascular mortality. The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is an important
      cardiometabolic risk factor, but barely studied in patients with
      craniopharyngioma. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of and risk factors for
      the MetS and its components in patients with craniopharyngioma. DESIGN: Cross
      sectional study with retrospective data. METHODS: We studied the prevalence of
      and risk factors for the MetS and its components in 110 Dutch (median age 47
      years, range 18-92) and 68 Swedish (median age 50 years, range 20-81) patients
      with craniopharyngioma with >=3 years of follow-up (90 females (51%); 83 patients
      with childhood-onset craniopharyngioma (47%); median follow-up after
      craniopharyngioma diagnosis 16 years (range 3-62)). In Dutch patients aged 30-70
      years and Swedish patients aged 45-69 years, we examined the prevalence of the
      MetS and its components relative to the general population. RESULTS: Sixty-nine
      (46%) of 149 patients with complete data demonstrated the MetS. Prevalence of the
      MetS was significantly higher in patients with craniopharyngioma compared with
      the general population (40% vs 26% (P < 0.05) for Dutch patients; 52% vs 15% (P <
      0.05) for Swedish patients). Multivariable logistic regression analysis
      identified visual impairment as a borderline significant predictor of the MetS
      (OR 2.54, 95% CI 0.95-6.81; P = 0.06) after adjustment for glucocorticoid
      replacement therapy and follow-up duration. Age, female sex, tumor location,
      radiological hypothalamic damage, 90Yttrium brachytherapy, glucocorticoid
      replacement therapy and follow-up duration significantly predicted components of
      the MetS. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with craniopharyngioma are at an increased risk
      for the MetS, especially patients with visual impairment.

PMID- 28882982
TI  - Peri-orificial rash in an infant.

PMID- 28882983
TI  - The practice of radiology needs to change.

PMID- 28882981
TI  - Characteristics of a nationwide cohort of patients presenting with isolated
      hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH) is a rare disorder with
      pubertal delay, normal (normoosmic-IHH, nIHH) or defective sense of smell
      (Kallmann syndrome, KS). Other reproductive and non-reproductive anomalies might
      be present although information on their frequency are scanty, particularly
      according to the age of presentation. DESIGN: Observational cohort study carried
      out between January 2008 and June 2016 within a national network of academic or
      general hospitals. METHODS: We performed a detailed phenotyping of 503 IHH
      patients with: (1) manifestations of hypogonadism with low sex steroid hormone
      and low/normal gonadotropins; (2) absence of expansive hypothalamic/pituitary
      lesions or multiple pituitary hormone defects. Cohort was divided on IHH onset
      (PPO, pre-pubertal onset or AO, adult onset) and olfactory function: PPO-nIHH (n
      = 275), KS (n = 184), AO-nIHH (n = 36) and AO-doIHH (AO-IHH with defective
      olfaction, n = 8). RESULTS: 90% of patients were classified as PPO and 10% as AO.
      Typical midline and olfactory defects, bimanual synkinesis and familiarity for
      pubertal delay were also found among the AO-IHH. Mean age at diagnosis was
      significantly earlier and more frequently associated with congenital hypogonadism
      stigmata in patients with Kallmann's syndrome (KS). Synkinesis, renal and male
      genital tract anomalies were enriched in KS. Overweight/obesity are significantly
      associated with AO-IHH rather than PPO-IHH. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with KS are
      more prone to develop a severe and complex phenotype than nIHH. The presence of
      typical extra-gonadal defects and familiarity for PPO-IHH among the AO-IHH
      patients indicates a common predisposition with variable clinical expression.
      Overall, these findings improve the understanding of IHH and may have a positive
      impact on the management of patients and their families.

PMID- 28882985
TI  - Reply to Newland et al.: The dominant phenolic pathway for atmospheric toluene
      oxidation.

PMID- 28882984
TI  - Transient apoptosis inhibition in donor stem cells improves hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation.
AB  - During hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, a substantial number of donor
      cells are lost because of apoptotic cell death. Transplantation-associated
      apoptosis is mediated mainly by the proapoptotic BCL-2 family proteins BIM and
      BMF, and their proapoptotic function is conserved between mouse and human stem
      and progenitor cells. Permanent inhibition of apoptosis in donor cells caused by
      the loss of these BH3-only proteins improves transplantation outcome, but
      recipients might be exposed to increased risk of lymphomagenesis or autoimmunity.
      Here, we address whether transient inhibition of apoptosis can serve as a safe
      but efficient alternative to improve the outcome of stem cell transplantation. We
      show that transient apoptosis inhibition by short-term overexpression of
      prosurvival BCL-XL, known to block BIM and BMF, is not only sufficient to
      increase the viability of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells during
      engraftment but also improves transplantation outcome without signs of adverse
      pathologies. Hence, this strategy represents a promising and novel therapeutic
      approach, particularly under conditions of limited donor stem cell availability.

PMID- 28882986
TI  - Elucidating the fate of the OH-adduct in toluene oxidation under tropospheric
      boundary layer conditions.

PMID- 28882987
TI  - Reply to HU et al.: On the interpretation of gasdermin-B expression quantitative
      trait loci data.

PMID- 28882988
TI  - Autosomal Trisomy and Triploidy Are Corrected During Female Meiosis in
      Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Trisomy and triploidy, defined as the presence of a third copy of one or all
      chromosomes, respectively, are deleterious in many species including humans.
      Previous studies have demonstrated that Caenorhabditis elegans with a third copy
      of the X chromosome are viable and fertile. However, the extra X chromosome was
      shown to preferentially segregate into the first polar body during oocyte meiosis
      to produce a higher frequency of euploid offspring than would be generated by
      random segregation. Here, we demonstrate that extra autosomes are preferentially
      eliminated by triploid C. elegans and trisomy IV C. elegans Live imaging of
      anaphase-lagging chromosomes and analysis of REC-8 staining of metaphase II
      spindles revealed that, in triploids, some univalent chromosomes do not lose
      cohesion and preferentially segregate intact into the first polar body during
      anaphase I, whereas other autosomes segregate chromatids equationally at anaphase
      I and eliminate some of the resulting single chromatids during anaphase II. We
      also demonstrate asymmetry in the anaphase spindle, which may contribute to the
      asymmetric segregation. This study reveals a pathway that allows aneuploid
      parents to produce euploid offspring at higher than random frequency.

PMID- 28882989
TI  - Apico-basal Polarity Determinants Encoded by crumbs Genes Affect Ciliary Shaft
      Protein Composition, IFT Movement Dynamics, and Cilia Length.
AB  - One of the most obvious manifestations of polarity in epithelia is the
      subdivision of the cell surface by cell junctions into apical and basolateral
      domains. crumbs genes are among key regulators of this form of polarity. Loss of
      crumbs function disrupts the apical cell junction belt and crumbs overexpression
      expands the apical membrane size. Crumbs proteins contain a single transmembrane
      domain and localize to cell junction area at the apical surface of epithelia. In
      some tissues, they are also found in cilia. To test their role in ciliogenesis,
      we investigated mutant phenotypes of zebrafish crumbs genes. In zebrafish,
      mutations of three crumbs genes, oko meduzy/crb2a, crb3a, and crb2b, affect cilia
      length in a subset of tissues. In oko meduzy (ome), this is accompanied by
      accumulation of other Crumbs proteins in the ciliary compartment. Moreover,
      intraflagellar transport (IFT) particle components accumulate in the ciliary
      shaft of ome;crb3a double mutants. Consistent with the above, Crb3 knockdown in
      mammalian cells affects the dynamics of IFT particle movement. These findings
      reveal crumbs-dependent mechanisms that regulate the localization of ciliary
      proteins, including Crumbs proteins themselves, and show that crumbs genes
      modulate intraflagellar transport and cilia elongation.

PMID- 28882991
TI  - Artificial stone-associated silicosis: a rapidly emerging occupational lung
      disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Artificial stone is an increasingly popular material used to
      fabricate kitchen and bathroom benchtops. Cutting and grinding artificial stone
      is associated with generation of very high levels of respirable crystalline
      silica, and the frequency of cases of severe silicosis associated with this
      exposure is rapidly increasing. AIM: To report the characteristics of a clinical
      series of Australian workers with artificial stone-associated silicosis. METHODS:
      Respiratory physicians voluntarily reported cases of artificial stone-associated
      silicosis identified in their clinical practices. Physicians provided information
      including occupational histories, respiratory function tests, chest radiology and
      histopathology reports, when available. RESULTS: Seven male patients were
      identified with a median age of 44 years (range 26-61). All were employed in
      small kitchen and bathroom benchtop fabrication businesses with an average of
      eight employees (range 2-20). All workplaces primarily used artificial stone, and
      dust control measures were poor. All patients were involved in dry cutting
      artificial stone. The median duration of exposure prior to symptoms was 7 years
      (range 4-10). Six patients demonstrated radiological features of progressive
      massive fibrosis. These individuals followed up over a median follow-up period of
      16 months (IQR 21 months) demonstrated rapid decline in prebronchodilator forced
      expiratory volume in 1 s of 386 mL/year (SD 204 mL) and forced vital capacity of
      448 mL/year (SD 312 mL). CONCLUSIONS: This series of silicosis in Australian
      workers further demonstrates the risk-associated high-silica content artificial
      stone. Effective dust control and health surveillance measures need to be
      stringently implemented and enforced in this industry.

PMID- 28882990
TI  - Extended Synaptotagmin Localizes to Presynaptic ER and Promotes Neurotransmission
      and Synaptic Growth in Drosophila.
AB  - The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an extensive organelle in neurons with
      important roles at synapses including the regulation of cytosolic Ca2+,
      neurotransmission, lipid metabolism, and membrane trafficking. Despite intriguing
      evidence for these crucial functions, how the presynaptic ER influences synaptic
      physiology remains enigmatic. To gain insight into this question, we have
      generated and characterized mutations in the single extended synaptotagmin (Esyt)
      ortholog in Drosophila melanogaster Esyts are evolutionarily conserved ER
      proteins with Ca2+-sensing domains that have recently been shown to orchestrate
      membrane tethering and lipid exchange between the ER and plasma membrane. We
      first demonstrate that Esyt localizes to presynaptic ER structures at the
      neuromuscular junction. Next, we show that synaptic growth, structure, and
      homeostatic plasticity are surprisingly unperturbed at synapses lacking Esyt
      expression. However, neurotransmission is reduced in Esyt mutants, consistent
      with a presynaptic role in promoting neurotransmitter release. Finally, neuronal
      overexpression of Esyt enhances synaptic growth and the sustainment of the
      vesicle pool during intense activity, suggesting that increased Esyt levels may
      modulate the membrane trafficking and/or resting Ca2+ pathways that control
      synapse extension. Thus, we identify Esyt as a presynaptic ER protein that can
      promote neurotransmission and synaptic growth, revealing the first in vivo
      neuronal functions of this conserved gene family.

PMID- 28882992
TI  - Novel Pathways of Ponatinib Disposition Catalyzed By CYP1A1 Involving Generation
      of Potentially Toxic Metabolites.
AB  - Ponatinib, a pan-BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of chronic
      myeloid leukemia (CML), causes severe side effects including vascular occlusions,
      pancreatitis, and liver toxicity, although the underlying mechanisms remain
      unclear. Modifications of critical proteins through reactive metabolites are
      thought to be responsible for a number of adverse drug reactions. In vitro
      metabolite screening of ponatinib with human liver microsomes and glutathione
      revealed unambiguous signals of ponatinib-glutathione (P-GSH) adducts. Further
      profiling of human cytochrome P450 (P450) indicated that CYP1A1 was the
      predominant P450 enzyme driving this reaction. P-GSH conjugate formation
      paralleled the disappearance of hydroxylated ponatinib metabolites, suggesting
      the initial reaction was epoxide generation. Mouse glutathione S-transferase p1
      (mGstp1) further enhanced P-GSH adduct formation in vitro. Ponatinib
      pharmacokinetics were determined in vivo in wild-type (WT) mice and mice
      humanized for CYP1A1/2 and treated with the CYP1A1 inducers 2,3,7,8
      tetrachlorodibenzodioxin or 3-methylcholanthrene. Ponatinib exposure was
      significantly decreased in treated mice compared with controls (7.7- and 2.2-fold
      for WT and humanized CYP1A1/2, respectively). Interestingly, the P-GSH conjugate
      was only found in the feces of CYP1A1-induced mice, but not in control animals.
      Protein adducts were also identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry analysis of mGstp1 tryptic digests. These results indicate that not
      only could CYP1A1 be involved in ponatinib disposition, which has not been
      previously reported, but also that electrophilic intermediates resulting from
      CYP1A1 metabolism in normal tissues may contribute to ponatinib toxicity. These
      data are consistent with a recent report that CML patients who smoke are at
      greater risk of disease progression and premature death.

PMID- 28882994
TI  - Synthesis of mixed hypermetallic oxide BaOCa+ from laser-cooled reagents in an
      atom-ion hybrid trap.
AB  - Hypermetallic alkaline earth (M) oxides of formula MOM have been studied under
      plasma conditions that preclude insight into their formation mechanism. We
      present here the application of emerging techniques in ultracold physics to the
      synthesis of a mixed hypermetallic oxide, BaOCa+ These methods, augmented by high
      level electronic structure calculations, permit detailed investigation of the
      bonding and structure as well as the mechanism of its formation via the
      barrierless reaction of Ca (3PJ) with BaOCH3+ Further investigations of the
      reaction kinetics as a function of collision energy over the range 0.005 kelvin
      (K) to 30 K and of individual Ca fine-structure levels compare favorably with
      calculations based on long-range capture theory.

PMID- 28882993
TI  - The condensin complex is a mechanochemical motor that translocates along DNA.
AB  - Condensin plays crucial roles in chromosome organization and compaction, but the
      mechanistic basis for its functions remains obscure. We used single-molecule
      imaging to demonstrate that Saccharomyces cerevisiae condensin is a molecular
      motor capable of adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis-dependent translocation along
      double-stranded DNA. Condensin's translocation activity is rapid and highly
      processive, with individual complexes traveling an average distance of >=10
      kilobases at a velocity of ~60 base pairs per second. Our results suggest that
      condensin may take steps comparable in length to its ~50-nanometer coiled-coil
      subunits, indicative of a translocation mechanism that is distinct from any
      reported for a DNA motor protein. The finding that condensin is a mechanochemical
      motor has important implications for understanding the mechanisms of chromosome
      organization and condensation.

PMID- 28882995
TI  - Aqueous Au-Pd colloids catalyze selective CH4 oxidation to CH3OH with O2 under
      mild conditions.
AB  - The selective oxidation of methane, the primary component of natural gas, remains
      an important challenge in catalysis. We used colloidal gold-palladium
      nanoparticles, rather than the same nanoparticles supported on titanium oxide, to
      oxidize methane to methanol with high selectivity (92%) in aqueous solution at
      mild temperatures. Then, using isotopically labeled oxygen (O2) as an oxidant in
      the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), we demonstrated that the resulting
      methanol incorporated a substantial fraction (70%) of gas-phase O2 More
      oxygenated products were formed than the amount of H2O2 consumed, suggesting that
      the controlled breakdown of H2O2 activates methane, which subsequently
      incorporates molecular oxygen through a radical process. If a source of methyl
      radicals can be established, then the selective oxidation of methane to methanol
      using molecular oxygen is possible.

PMID- 28882996
TI  - Fibril structure of amyloid-beta(1-42) by cryo-electron microscopy.
AB  - Amyloids are implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. Fibrillar aggregates of
      the amyloid-beta protein (Abeta) are the main component of the senile plaques
      found in brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. We present the structure of an
      Abeta(1-42) fibril composed of two intertwined protofilaments determined by cryo
      electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to 4.0-angstrom resolution, complemented by solid
      state nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. The backbone of all 42 residues and
      nearly all side chains are well resolved in the EM density map, including the
      entire N terminus, which is part of the cross-beta structure resulting in an
      overall "LS"-shaped topology of individual subunits. The dimer interface protects
      the hydrophobic C termini from the solvent. The characteristic staggering of the
      nonplanar subunits results in markedly different fibril ends, termed "groove" and
      "ridge," leading to different binding pathways on both fibril ends, which has
      implications for fibril growth.

PMID- 28882998
TI  - Transplantation of iPS-Derived Tumor Cells with a Homozygous MHC Haplotype
      Induces GRP94 Antibody Production in MHC-Matched Macaques.
AB  - Immune surveillance is a critical component of the antitumor response in vivo,
      yet the specific components of the immune system involved in this regulatory
      response remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that autoantibodies can
      mitigate tumor growth in vitro and in vivo We generated two cancer cell lines,
      embryonal carcinoma and glioblastoma cell lines, from monkey-induced pluripotent
      stem cells (iPSC) carrying a homozygous haplotype of major histocompatibility
      complex (MHC, Mafa in Macaca fascicularis). To establish a monkey cancer model,
      we transplanted these cells into monkeys carrying the matched Mafa haplotype in
      one of the chromosomes. Neither Mafa-homozygous cancer cell line grew in monkeys
      carrying the matched Mafa haplotype heterozygously. We detected in the plasma of
      these monkeys an IgG autoantibody against GRP94, a heat shock protein. Injection
      of the plasma prevented growth of the tumor cells in immunodeficient mice,
      whereas plasma IgG depleted of GRP94 IgG exhibited reduced killing activity
      against cancer cells in vitro These results indicate that humoral immunity,
      including autoantibodies against GRP94, plays a role in cancer immune
      surveillance. Cancer Res; 77(21); 6001-10. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28882997
TI  - Dopamine oxidation mediates mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in
      Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction have been implicated in substantia nigra
      dopaminergic neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD), but how these
      pathways are linked in human neurons remains unclear. Here we studied
      dopaminergic neurons derived from patients with idiopathic and familial PD. We
      identified a time-dependent pathological cascade beginning with mitochondrial
      oxidant stress leading to oxidized dopamine accumulation and ultimately resulting
      in reduced glucocerebrosidase enzymatic activity, lysosomal dysfunction, and
      alpha-synuclein accumulation. This toxic cascade was observed in human, but not
      in mouse, PD neurons at least in part because of species-specific differences in
      dopamine metabolism. Increasing dopamine synthesis or alpha-synuclein amounts in
      mouse midbrain neurons recapitulated pathological phenotypes observed in human
      neurons. Thus, dopamine oxidation represents an important link between
      mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in PD pathogenesis.

PMID- 28882999
TI  - miR-193b-Regulated Signaling Networks Serve as Tumor Suppressors in Liposarcoma
      and Promote Adipogenesis in Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.
AB  - Well-differentiated and dedifferentiated liposarcomas (WDLS/DDLS) account for
      approximately 13% of all soft tissue sarcoma in adults and cause substantial
      morbidity or mortality in the majority of patients. In this study, we evaluated
      the functions of miRNA (miR-193b) in liposarcoma in vitro and in vivo Deep RNA
      sequencing on 93 WDLS, 145 DDLS, and 12 normal fat samples demonstrated that miR
      193b was significantly underexpressed in DDLS compared with normal fat.
      Reintroduction of miR-193b induced apoptosis in liposarcoma cells and promoted
      adipogenesis in human adipose-derived stem cells (ASC). Integrative
      transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of miR-193b-target networks identified
      novel direct targets, including CRK-like proto-oncogene (CRKL) and focal adhesion
      kinase (FAK). miR-193b was found to regulate FAK-SRC-CRKL signaling through CRKL
      and FAK. miR-193b also stimulated reactive oxygen species signaling by targeting
      the antioxidant methionine sulfoxide reductase A to modulate liposarcoma cell
      survival and ASC differentiation state. Expression of miR-193b in liposarcoma
      cells was downregulated by promoter methylation, resulting at least in part from
      increased expression of the DNA methyltransferase DNMT1 in WDLS/DDLS. In vivo,
      miR-193b mimetics and FAK inhibitor (PF-562271) each inhibited liposarcoma
      xenograft growth. In summary, miR-193b not only functions as a tumor suppressor
      in liposarcoma but also promotes adipogenesis in ASC. Furthermore, this study
      reveals key tyrosine kinase and DNA methylation pathways in liposarcoma, some
      with immediate implications for therapeutic exploration. Cancer Res; 77(21); 5728
      40. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28883000
TI  - Enhanced Acid Sphingomyelinase Activity Drives Immune Evasion and Tumor Growth in
      Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma.
AB  - The lipid hydrolase enzyme acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) is required for the
      conversion of the lipid cell membrane component sphingomyelin into ceramide. In
      cancer cells, ASM-mediated ceramide production is important for apoptosis, cell
      proliferation, and immune modulation, highlighting ASM as a potential multimodal
      therapeutic target. In this study, we demonstrate elevated ASM activity in the
      lung tumor environment and blood serum of patients with non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC). RNAi-mediated attenuation of SMPD1 in human NSCLC cells rendered
      them resistant to serum starvation-induced apoptosis. In a murine model of lung
      adenocarcinoma, ASM deficiency reduced tumor development in a manner associated
      with significant enhancement of Th1-mediated and cytotoxic T-cell-mediated
      antitumor immunity. Our findings indicate that targeting ASM in NSCLC can act by
      tumor cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic mechanisms to suppress tumor cell growth,
      most notably by enabling an effective antitumor immune response by the host.
      Cancer Res; 77(21); 5963-76. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28883001
TI  - KDM4 Inhibition Targets Breast Cancer Stem-like Cells.
AB  - Traditional treatments for breast cancer fail to address therapy-resistant cancer
      stem-like cells that have been characterized by changes in epigenetic regulators
      such as the lysine demethylase KDM4. Here, we describe an orally available,
      selective and potent KDM4 inhibitor (QC6352) with unique preclinical
      characteristics. To assess the antitumor properties of QC6352, we established a
      method to isolate and propagate breast cancer stem-like cells (BCSC) from
      individual triple-negative tumors resected from patients after neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy. Limiting-dilution orthotopic xenografts of these BCSCs regenerated
      original patient tumor histology and gene expression. QC6352 blocked BCSC
      proliferation, sphere formation, and xenograft tumor formation. QC6352 also
      abrogated expression of EGFR, which drives the growth of therapy-resistant triple
      negative breast cancer cells. Our findings validate a unique BCSC culture system
      for drug screening and offer preclinical proof of concept for KDM4 inhibition as
      a new strategy to treat triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer Res; 77(21); 5900
      12. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28883002
TI  - Genetic Dissociation of Glycolysis and the TCA Cycle Affects Neither Normal nor
      Neoplastic Proliferation.
AB  - Rapidly proliferating cells increase glycolysis at the expense of oxidative
      phosphorylation (oxphos) to generate sufficient levels of glycolytic
      intermediates for use as anabolic substrates. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex
      (PDC) is a critical mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes pyruvate's conversion to
      acetyl coenzyme A (AcCoA), thereby connecting these two pathways in response to
      complex energetic, enzymatic, and metabolic cues. Here we utilized a mouse model
      of hepatocyte-specific PDC inactivation to determine the need for this metabolic
      link during normal hepatocyte regeneration and malignant transformation. In PDC
      "knockout" (KO) animals, the long-term regenerative potential of hepatocytes was
      unimpaired, and growth of aggressive experimental hepatoblastomas was only
      modestly slowed in the face of 80%-90% reductions in AcCoA and significant
      alterations in the levels of key tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates and
      amino acids. Overall, oxphos activity in KO livers and hepatoblastoma was
      comparable with that of control counterparts, with evidence that metabolic
      substrate abnormalities were compensated for by increased mitochondrial mass.
      These findings demonstrate that the biochemical link between glycolysis and the
      TCA cycle can be completely severed without affecting normal or neoplastic
      proliferation, even under the most demanding circumstances. Cancer Res; 77(21);
      5795-807. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28883003
TI  - Discovery of Human-Similar Gene Fusions in Canine Cancers.
AB  - Canine cancers represent a tremendous natural resource due to their incidence and
      striking similarities to human cancers, sharing similar clinical and pathologic
      features as well as oncogenic events, including identical somatic mutations.
      Considering the importance of gene fusions as driver alterations, we explored
      their relevance in canine cancers. We focused on three distinct human-comparable
      canine cancers representing different tissues and embryonic origins. Through RNA
      Seq, we discovered similar gene fusions as those found in their human
      counterparts: IGK-CCND3 in B-cell lymphoma, MPB-BRAF in glioma, and COL3A1-PDGFB
      in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans-like. We showed not only similar partner genes
      but also identical breakpoints leading to oncogene overexpression. This study
      demonstrates similar gene fusion partners and mechanisms in human-dog
      corresponding tumors and allows for selection of targeted therapies in
      preclinical and clinical trials with pet dogs prior to human trials, within the
      framework of personalized medicine. Cancer Res; 77(21); 5721-7. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28883005
TI  - FSTL1 Promotes Metastasis and Chemoresistance in Esophageal Squamous Cell
      Carcinoma through NFkappaB-BMP Signaling Cross-talk.
AB  - Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has a generally poor prognosis, and
      molecular markers to improve early detection and predict outcomes are greatly
      needed. Here, we report that the BMP-binding follistatin-like protein FSTL1 is
      overexpressed in ESCCs, where it correlates with poor overall survival. Genetic
      amplification of FSTL1 or chromosome 3q, where it is located, occurred frequently
      in ESCC, where FSTL1 copy number correlated positively with higher FSTL1 protein
      expression. Elevating FSTL1 levels by various means was sufficient to drive ESCC
      cell proliferation, clonogenicity, migration, invasion, self-renewal, and
      cisplatin resistance in vitro and tumorigenicity and distant metastasis in vivo
      Conversely, FSTL1 attenuation by shRNA or neutralizing antibody elicited the
      opposite effects in ESCC cells. mRNA profiling analyses suggested that FSTL1
      drives ESCC oncogenesis and metastasis through various pathways, with
      deregulation of NFkappaB and BMP signaling figuring prominently. Cross-talk
      between the NFkappaB and BMP pathways was evidenced by functional rescue
      experiments using inhibitors of NFkappaB and TLR4. Our results establish the
      significance of FSTL1 in driving oncogenesis and metastasis in ESCC by
      coordinating NFkappaB and BMP pathway control, with implications for its
      potential use as a diagnostic or prognostic biomarker and as a candidate
      therapeutic target in this disease setting. Cancer Res; 77(21); 5886-99. (c)2017
      AACR.

PMID- 28883004
TI  - CD155T/TIGIT Signaling Regulates CD8+ T-cell Metabolism and Promotes Tumor
      Progression in Human Gastric Cancer.
AB  - The T-cell surface molecule TIGIT is an immune checkpoint molecule that inhibits
      T-cell responses, but its roles in cancer are little understood. In this study,
      we evaluated the role TIGIT checkpoint plays in the development and progression
      of gastric cancer. We show that the percentage of CD8 T cells that are TIGIT+ was
      increased in gastric cancer patients compared with healthy individuals. These
      cells showed functional exhaustion with impaired activation, proliferation,
      cytokine production, and metabolism, all of which were rescued by glucose. In
      addition, gastric cancer tissue and cell lines expressed CD155, which bound TIGIT
      receptors and inactivated CD8 T cells. In a T cell-gastric cancer cell coculture
      system, gastric cancer cells deprived CD8 T cells of glucose and impaired CD8 T
      cell effector functions; these effects were neutralized by the additional glucose
      or by TIGIT blockade. In gastric cancer tumor cells, CD155 silencing increased T
      cell metabolism and IFNgamma production, whereas CD155 overexpression inhibited T
      cell metabolism and IFNgamma production; this inhibition was neutralized by TIGIT
      blockade. Targeting CD155/TIGIT enhanced CD8 T-cell reaction and improved
      survival in tumor-bearing mice. Combined targeting of TIGIT and PD-1 further
      enhanced CD8 T-cell activation and improved survival in tumor-bearing mice. Our
      results suggest that gastric cancer cells inhibit CD8 T-cell metabolism through
      CD155/TIGIT signaling, which inhibits CD8 T-cell effector functions, resulting in
      hyporesponsive antitumor immunity. These findings support the candidacy of
      CD155/TIGIT as a potential therapeutic target in gastric cancer. Cancer Res;
      77(22); 6375-88. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28883006
TI  - Acute fibrinous and organising pneumonia.
AB  - Acute fibrinous and organising pneumonia (AFOP) is a rare histological pattern of
      interstitial lung disease. The authors describe a 60-year-old woman admitted to
      the hospital for sustained fever, presenting with an alveolar opacity on chest X
      ray, with the presumed diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia and the onset of
      antibiotics. Since serological results suggested that Legionella pneumophila was
      the infectious agent, she was discharged on levofloxacin. A week later, she was
      again admitted with fever. CT scan showed opacities with crescentic morphology
      and a central ground-glass area suggestive of cryptogenic organising pneumonia.
      Microbiological, serological and autoimmunity tests were negative. She underwent
      surgical lung biopsy that revealed inflammatory infiltrate, macrophage
      desquamation, fibroblasts proliferation and fibrin deposition in the alveolar
      spaces, consistent with AFOP. She started corticotherapy with good response.
      Disease relapsed after prednisolone discontinuation, 10 months later. Currently,
      the patient is on prednisolone 5 mg/day without clinical and radiological
      recurrence.

PMID- 28883007
TI  - Bilateral tarsal tunnel syndrome attributed to bilateral fibrous tarsal coalition
      and symmetrical hypertrophy of the sustentaculum tali.
AB  - Tarsal tunnel syndrome (TTS) is one of the frequently encountered entrapment
      neuropathies of the lower limb. Most often the aetiology is considered to be
      idiopathic. However, it has to be thoroughly investigated to rule out diverse
      extrinsic and intrinsic causes. The sustentaculum tali (ST) forms the superior
      part of the distal tarsal tunnel, and any increase in its size may result in
      irritation of the tibial nerve or its branches, the medial and lateral plantar
      nerves or decrease the overall volume of the tarsal tunnel culminating to
      clinical features of TTS. A hypertrophied ST is an extremely rare cause for TTS,
      and we report perhaps a first case of bilateral TTS in a young adult due to
      bilateral symmetrical hypertrophied ST which in turn was a result of bilateral
      fibrous tarsal coalition. Staged bilateral surgical excision of the hypertrophied
      part of ST and the underlying fibrous tarsal coalition ensured prompt symptomatic
      relief.

PMID- 28883008
TI  - Nasogastric tube knotting: a rare and potentially overlooked complication among
      healthcare professionals.
AB  - Nasogastric tube placement is a common procedure performed in surgical and
      medical specialities. The occurrence of knot formation is perhaps one of the
      least well-recognised complications associated with its usage. We present a case
      of nasogastric tube knotting to remind colleagues of this rare but important
      complication. A 75-year-old woman with adhesional bowel obstruction was admitted
      under the general surgery team. A wide bore nasogastric tube was inserted for
      drainage and decompression. Although placement of the tube was deemed to be
      successful, there was no drainage of gastric content evident. On removal of the
      'non-functioning' tube a simple knot was seen at its proximal end. A further
      nasogastric tube was placed and the patient's symptoms resolved with conservative
      management. Nasogastric tube knotting is a rare and often overlooked complication
      with the potential to cause significant trauma on tube removal if unrecognised.

PMID- 28883009
TI  - Total knee prosthesis infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection of a prosthetic joint is rarely
      reported in developed countries.1 Typically, MTB infection involves the hips or
      knees, and the infection can occur secondary to crushing and degradation of the
      granuloma during surgery or, less commonly, from distant foci spreading through
      the blood. In the present case, MTB infection likely resulted from haematogenous
      spread since multiple hot spots suggestive of MTB infection were noted in other
      sites. Early diagnosis allows for antitubercular therapy with retention of the
      prosthesis, while late diagnosis frequently results in removal and reimplantation
      of the joint. To avoid major surgery, a high index of suspicion is required to
      diagnose prosthetic joint tuberculosis.

PMID- 28883010
TI  - Laparoscopic adrenalectomy as an effective approach to massive bilateral
      pheochromocytomas.
AB  - Pheochromocytomas are catecholamine-secreting neoplasms, arising from
      adrenomedullary chromaffin cells. In type 2 multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN2)
      syndrome, pheochromocytomas are usually benign but with predisposition to be
      bilateral (50%-80% of cases).The authors present the case of a young patient
      diagnosed with uncommonly large bilateral cystic pheochromocytomas and
      simultaneous detection of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Molecular testing
      confirmed germline RET codon C634 mutation, consistent with MEN2A syndrome. The
      patient underwent bilateral laparoscopic adrenalectomy plus total thyroidectomy
      with central lymph node dissection without associated complications. The
      histopathological study of the surgical specimens revealed bilateral benign
      pheochromocytomas (Ki67 of 2%) and a medullary carcinoma of the thyroid T1bN0M0;
      R0, respectively. One year after surgery, the patient was considered free of
      disease.This case demonstrates that bilateral laparoscopic adrenalectomy can be a
      safe and feasible approach for phechromocytomas in MEN2 syndrome, even in lesions
      with large diameter. However, due to elevated possibility of recurrence, patients
      should maintain lifelong follow-up.

PMID- 28883011
TI  - Rare case of massive bilateral chylothorax.
AB  - We present a case of a 48-year-old woman who was referred from an outside
      hospital. There, she had initially underwent hysterectomy and left salpingo
      oophorectomy for tubo-ovarian abscess. She later developed a colovaginal fistula
      and perforation of sigmoid colon and underwent Hartmann's procedure along with
      drainage of a left subphrenic abscess. Subsequently, she had to be intubated for
      acute respiratory failure and was transferred to our hospital. At our hospital,
      she was found to have massive bilateral pleural effusions. Bilateral small-bore
      chest tubes were inserted that drained milky fluid. Pleural fluid analysis was
      consistent with bilateral chylothorax. Thereafter, patient's respiratory status
      improved and she was extubated. The mechanism of chylothorax was thought be
      either secondary to the multiple abdominal procedures or alternatively as a
      complication of the right subclavian catheter that was placed at the outside
      hospital. Her chest tubes were removed eventually, and she had a slow but
      definite recovery.

PMID- 28883012
TI  - Fibular insufficiency fracture: an under-reported complication of advanced
      tibialis posterior dysfunction.
AB  - We present a case of fibular insufficiency (stress) fracture in a patient with
      pre-existing asymptomatic advanced tibialis posterior dysfunction. The patient
      had severe planovalgus (flat foot) deformity but no pain before the injury; hence
      had never sought any treatment. She was first treated conservatively for the
      fracture which failed to control the deformity and had ongoing symptoms. She
      eventually required tibio-talo-calcaneal fusion. To the best of our knowledge,
      this is the first case report of this condition in the English literature. In
      patients with severe tibialis posterior dysfunction, weight-bearing axis passes
      directly from calcaneum to fibula making it vulnerable to fracture. Patients
      should be made aware of this risk even if they are asymptomatic and encouraged to
      use orthotic support for protection against insufficiency fractures.

PMID- 28883013
TI  - Abbott Laboratories offers fix for 745 000 pacemakers vulnerable to hacking.

PMID- 28883014
TI  - Human pluripotent stem cell models of cardiac disease: from mechanisms to
      therapies.
AB  - It is now a decade since human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were first
      described. The reprogramming of adult somatic cells to a pluripotent state has
      become a robust technology that has revolutionised our ability to study human
      diseases. Crucially, these cells capture all the genetic aspects of the patient
      from which they were derived. Combined with advances in generating the different
      cell types present in the human heart, this has opened up new avenues to study
      cardiac disease in humans and investigate novel therapeutic approaches to treat
      these pathologies. Here, we provide an overview of the current state of the field
      regarding the generation of cardiomyocytes from human pluripotent stem cells and
      methods to assess them functionally, an essential requirement when investigating
      disease and therapeutic outcomes. We critically evaluate whether treatments
      suggested by these in vitro models could be translated to clinical practice.
      Finally, we consider current shortcomings of these models and propose methods by
      which they could be further improved.

PMID- 28883015
TI  - Mouse models of metastasis: progress and prospects.
AB  - Metastasis is the spread of cancer cells from a primary tumor to distant sites
      within the body to establish secondary tumors. Although this is an inefficient
      process, the consequences are devastating as metastatic disease accounts for >90%
      of cancer-related deaths. The formation of metastases is the result of a series
      of events that allow cancer cells to escape from the primary site, survive in the
      lymphatic system or blood vessels, extravasate and grow at distant sites. The
      metastatic capacity of a tumor is determined by genetic and epigenetic changes
      within the cancer cells as well as contributions from cells in the tumor
      microenvironment. Mouse models have proven to be an important tool for unraveling
      the complex interactions involved in the metastatic cascade and delineating its
      many stages. Here, we critically appraise the strengths and weaknesses of the
      current mouse models and highlight the recent advances that have been made using
      these models in our understanding of metastasis. We also discuss the use of these
      models for testing potential therapies and the challenges associated with the
      translation of these findings into the provision of new and effective treatments
      for cancer patients.

PMID- 28883018
TI  - NICE urges GPs to diagnoses endometriosis more quickly.

PMID- 28883017
TI  - NFkappaB signaling in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.
AB  - Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (aRMS) is a pediatric soft tissue cancer commonly
      associated with a chromosomal translocation that leads to the expression of a
      Pax3:Foxo1 or Pax7:Foxo1 fusion protein, the developmental underpinnings of which
      may give clues to its therapeutic approaches. In aRMS, the NFkappaB-YY1-miR-29
      regulatory circuit is dysregulated, resulting in repression of miR-29 and loss of
      the associated tumor suppressor activity. To further elucidate the role of
      NFkappaB in aRMS, we first tested 55 unique sarcoma cell lines and primary cell
      cultures in a large-scale chemical screen targeting diverse molecular pathways.
      We found that pharmacological inhibition of NFkappaB activity resulted in
      decreased cell proliferation of many of the aRMS tumor cultures. Surprisingly,
      mice that were orthotopically allografted with aRMS tumor cells exhibited no
      difference in tumor growth when administered an NFkappaB inhibitor, compared to
      control. Furthermore, inhibition of NFkappaB by genetically ablating its
      activating kinase inhibitor, IKKbeta, by conditional deletion in a mouse model
      harboring the Pax3:Foxo1 chimeric oncogene failed to abrogate spontaneous tumor
      growth. Genetically engineered mice with conditionally deleted IKKbeta exhibited
      a paradoxical decrease in tumor latency compared with those with active NFkappaB.
      However, using a synthetic-lethal approach, primary cell cultures derived from
      tumors with inactivated NFkappaB showed sensitivity to the BCL-2 inhibitor
      navitoclax. When used in combination with an NFkappaB inhibitor, navitoclax was
      synergistic in decreasing the growth of both human and IKKbeta wild-type mouse
      aRMS cells, indicating that inactivation of NFkappaB alone may not be sufficient
      for reducing tumor growth, but, when combined with another targeted therapeutic,
      may be clinically beneficial.

PMID- 28883016
TI  - Mitochondrial dynamics in Parkinson's disease: a role for alpha-synuclein?
AB  - The distinctive pathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease are the progressive
      death of dopaminergic neurons and the intracellular accumulation of Lewy bodies
      enriched in alpha-synuclein protein. Several lines of evidence from the study of
      sporadic, familial and pharmacologically induced forms of human Parkinson's
      disease also suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction plays an important role in
      disease progression. Although many functions have been proposed for alpha
      synuclein, emerging data from human and animal models of Parkinson's disease
      highlight a role for alpha-synuclein in the control of neuronal mitochondrial
      dynamics. Here, we review the alpha-synuclein structural, biophysical and
      biochemical properties that influence relevant mitochondrial dynamic processes
      such as fusion-fission, transport and clearance. Drawing on current evidence, we
      propose that alpha-synuclein contributes to the mitochondrial defects that are
      associated with the pathology of this common and progressive neurodegenerative
      disease.

PMID- 28883019
TI  - Suppression of Striatal Prediction Errors by the Prefrontal Cortex in Placebo
      Hypoalgesia.
AB  - Classical learning theories predict extinction after the discontinuation of
      reinforcement through prediction errors. However, placebo hypoalgesia, although
      mediated by associative learning, has been shown to be resistant to extinction.
      We tested the hypothesis that this is mediated by the suppression of prediction
      error processing through the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We compared pain modulation
      through treatment cues (placebo hypoalgesia, treatment context) with pain
      modulation through stimulus intensity cues (stimulus context) during functional
      magnetic resonance imaging in 48 male and female healthy volunteers. During
      acquisition, our data show that expectations are correctly learned and that this
      is associated with prediction error signals in the ventral striatum (VS) in both
      contexts. However, in the nonreinforced test phase, pain modulation and
      expectations of pain relief persisted to a larger degree in the treatment
      context, indicating that the expectations were not correctly updated in the
      treatment context. Consistently, we observed significantly stronger neural
      prediction error signals in the VS in the stimulus context compared with the
      treatment context. A connectivity analysis revealed negative coupling between the
      anterior PFC and the VS in the treatment context, suggesting that the PFC can
      suppress the expression of prediction errors in the VS. Consistent with this, a
      participant's conceptual views and beliefs about treatments influenced the pain
      modulation only in the treatment context. Our results indicate that in placebo
      hypoalgesia contextual treatment information engages prefrontal conceptual
      processes, which can suppress prediction error processing in the VS and lead to
      reduced updating of treatment expectancies, resulting in less extinction of
      placebo hypoalgesia.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In aversive and appetitive
      reinforcement learning, learned effects show extinction when reinforcement is
      discontinued. This is thought to be mediated by prediction errors (i.e., the
      difference between expectations and outcome). Although reinforcement learning has
      been central in explaining placebo hypoalgesia, placebo hypoalgesic effects show
      little extinction and persist after the discontinuation of reinforcement. Our
      results support the idea that conceptual treatment beliefs bias the neural
      processing of expectations in a treatment context compared with a more stimulus
      driven processing of expectations with stimulus intensity cues. We provide
      evidence that this is associated with the suppression of prediction error
      processing in the ventral striatum by the prefrontal cortex. This provides a
      neural basis for persisting effects in reinforcement learning and placebo
      hypoalgesia.

PMID- 28883022
TI  - A visit to Brookwood Aslyum in the 19th century.

PMID- 28883020
TI  - Increased GSNOR Expression during Aging Impairs Cognitive Function and Decreases
      S-Nitrosation of CaMKIIalpha.
AB  - As the population ages, an increasing number of people suffer from age-related
      cognitive impairment. However, the mechanisms underlying this process remain
      unclear. Here, we found that S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR), the key
      enzyme that metabolizes intracellular nitric oxide (NO) and regulates S
      nitrosation, was significantly increased in the hippocampus of both aging humans
      and mice. Transgenic mice overexpressing GSNOR exclusively in neurons showed
      cognitive impairment in behavioral tests, including the Morris water maze, fear
      conditioning, and the Y-maze test. We also found that GSNOR transgenic mice have
      LTP defects and lower dendrite spine density, whereas GSNOR knock-out mice
      rescued the age-related cognitive impairment. Analysis of S-nitrosation showed
      significantly decreased hippocampal CaMKIIalpha S-nitrosation in naturally aged
      mice and GSNOR transgenic mice. Consistent with the change in CaMKIIalpha S
      nitrosation, the accumulation of CaMKIIalpha in the hippocampal synaptosomal
      fraction, as well as its downstream signaling targets p(S831)-GLUR1, was also
      significantly decreased. All these effects could be rescued in the GSNOR knock
      out mice. We further verified that the S-nitrosation of CaMKIIalpha was
      responsible for the CaMKIIalpha synaptosomal accumulation by mutating CaMKIIalpha
      S-nitrosated sites (C280/C289). Upregulation of the NO signaling pathway rescued
      the cognitive impairment in GSNOR transgenic mice. In summary, our research
      demonstrates that GSNOR impairs cognitive function in aging and it could serve as
      a new potential target for the treatment of age-related cognitive impairment. In
      contrast to the free radical theory of aging, NO signaling deficiency may be the
      main mediator of age-related cognitive impairment.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This
      study indicated that S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR), a key protein S
      nitrosation metabolic enzyme, is a new potential target in age-related cognitive
      impairment; and in contrast to the free radical theory of aging, NO signaling
      deficiency may be the main cause of this process. In addition, increased GSNOR
      expression during aging decreases S-nitrosation of CaMKIIalpha and reduces
      CaMKIIalpha synaptosomal accumulation. To our knowledge, it is for the first time
      to show the cellular function regulation of CaMKIIalpha by GSNOR-dependent S
      nitrosation as a new post-translational modification after its phosphorylation
      was explored. These findings elucidate a novel mechanism of age-related cognitive
      impairment and may provide a new potential target and strategy for slowing down
      this process.

PMID- 28883023
TI  - Time to consider a targeted HPV vaccination programme for male military recruits.
AB  - Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the most common type of sexually transmitted
      infection in men but also related to high-risk cancers. This article considers
      the epidemiology of HPV in the male military population, the UK vaccination
      programme and the current UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation
      recommendations. Military men may not benefit from HPV herd immunity and may have
      a different risk profile; vaccination may in turn reduce the operational burden
      of HPV-related disease within this population. Military men may benefit from a
      targeted vaccination programme, and the paper calls for urgent consideration of
      approaches that could protect them from acquiring HPV.

PMID- 28883024
TI  - Hearing threshold shifts among military pilots of the Israeli Air Force.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Military aviators are potentially at risk for developing noise
      induced hearing loss. Whether ambient aircraft noise exposure causes hearing
      deficit beyond the changes attributed to natural ageing is debated. The aim of
      this research was to assess changes in hearing thresholds of Israeli Air Force
      (IAF) pilots over 20 years of military service and identify potential risk
      factors for hearing loss. METHODS: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted
      of pure-tone air conduction audiograms of pilots, from their recruitment at 18
      years of age until the last documented medical check-up. Mean hearing thresholds
      were analysed in relation to age, total flight hours and aircraft platform.
      Comparisons were made to the hearing thresholds of air traffic controllers (ATCs)
      who were not exposed to the noise generated by aircraft while on duty. RESULTS:
      One hundred and sixty-three pilots were included, with flying platforms ranging
      from fighter jets (n=54), combat helicopters (n=27), transport helicopters (n=52)
      and transport aircraft (n=30). These were compared with the results from 17 ATCs.
      A marked notch in the frequency range of 4-6 kHz was demonstrated in the mean
      audiograms of all platforms pilots, progressing with ageing. Hearing threshold
      shifts in relation to measurements at recruitment were first noted at the age of
      30 years, particularly at 4 kHz (mean shift of 2.97 dB, p=0.001). There was no
      statistical association between flying variables and hearing thresholds adjusted
      for age by logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The audiometric profile of
      IAF pilots has a pattern compatible with noise exposure, as reflected by
      characteristic noise notch. However, no flight variable was associated with
      deterioration of hearing thresholds, and no significant difference from non
      flying controls (ATCs) was seen.

PMID- 28883025
TI  - Do air-gaps behind soft body armour affect protection?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Body armour typically comprises a fabric garment covering the torso
      combined with hard armour (ceramic/composite). Some users wear only soft armour
      which provides protection from sharp weapons and pistol ammunition. It is usually
      recommended that body armour is worn against the body with no air-gaps being
      present between the wearer and the armour. However, air-gaps can occur in certain
      situations such as females around the breasts, in badly fitting armour and where
      manufacturers have incorporated an air-gap claiming improvements in
      thermophysiological burden. The effect of an air-gap on the ballistic protection
      and the back face signature (BFS) as a result of a non-perforating ballistic
      impact was determined. METHODS: Armour panels representative of typical police
      armour (400x400 mm) were mounted on calibrated Roma Plastilina No 1 and impacted
      with 9 mm Luger FMJ (9*19 mm; full metal jacket; Dynamit Nobel DM11A1B2)
      ammunition at 365+/-10 m/s with a range of air-gaps (0-15 mm). Whether or not the
      ammunition perforated the armour was noted, the BFS was measured and the
      incidence of pencilling (a severe, deep and narrow BFS) was identified. RESULTS:
      For 0 degrees  impacts, a critical air-gap size of 10 mm is detrimental to armour
      performance for the armour/ammunition combination assessed in this work.
      Specifically, the incidences of pencilling were more common with a 10 mm air-gap
      and resulted in BFS depth:volume ratios >=1.0. For impacts at 30 degrees  the
      armour was susceptible to perforation irrespective of air-gap. CONCLUSIONS: This
      work suggested that an air-gap behind police body armour might result in an
      increased likelihood of injury. It is recommended that body armour is worn with
      no air-gap underneath.

PMID- 28883026
TI  - Group O low titre only emergency donor panels for small combat teams.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Military elements increasingly operate in small teams in remote
      areas with no immediate blood product support. Planners and operators may endorse
      collection of fresh whole blood from pretested donors in emergency situations.
      The biggest risk of transfusion is the accidental use of ABO incompatible blood
      which can be fatal. The risk may be mitigated by using only group O LOw (OLO)
      titre donors with plasma containing low levels of the naturally occurring
      antibody to group A and B red cells. This paper reviews the ABO blood group
      distribution in potential blood donors from a high readiness UK medical regiment
      and explores the feasibility of using only group OLO donors in small teams.
      METHODS: A retrospective review of routine volunteer blood donor samples was
      undertaken at 6 monthly intervals during a 2-year period. Personnel were tested
      in groups when available during training to create multiple donor panels to
      simulate small teams. RESULTS: 206 donation samples were collected from 157
      potential donors. All donors were acceptable based on the lifestyle
      questionnaire, serology and microbiology screen. Of the 206 samples reviewed, 85
      (41%) were group O (D pos and D neg). 14 group O (16.5%) were shown to have high
      titre of anti-A or B. Therefore, 71, that is, 34% overall were suitable as OLO
      donors. The donor panel size varied from 15 to 44. The absolute number of OLO
      donors in each panel ranged from 4 to 17 and the number of O neg donors was 0-3.
      CONCLUSION: A third of samples were suitable as OLO donors; however, there were
      insufficient 'universal' donors within smaller subgroups (<10). In this
      situation, we recommend the careful use of both group O and group A donors or the
      use of a buddy-buddy blood group matrix.

PMID- 28883027
TI  - Addressing the knowledge gap: sexual violence and harassment in the UK Armed
      Forces.
AB  - Despite media interest in alleged sexual violence and harassment in the UK
      military, there remains a paucity of UK-based peer-reviewed research in this
      area. Ministry of Defence and service-specific reports support the suggestion
      that UK service personnel may be at risk of experiencing sexual harassment. These
      reports however highlight a reluctance by service personnel to report sexual
      harassment through official channels. In this article, we discuss the paucity of
      UK-based research pertaining to the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment in
      the military, explore potential reasons for this gap in knowledge and outline
      future directions and priorities for academic research.

PMID- 28883028
TI  - Exploring the health risks of help-seeking military veterans living in different
      parts of the UK.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the mental and physical health differences of
      treatment-seeking military veterans across the different nations that make up the
      UK. The aim of this research was to explore potential health differences in order
      to support better service planning. METHODS: A random cross-sectional sample of
      treatment-seeking veterans residing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
      Ireland was identified from a national mental health charity. 403 veterans
      completed a questionnaire highlighting their demographics, mental health and
      physical health difficulties. The data were analysed using a multinomial logistic
      regression with England as the baseline comparison. RESULTS: Help-seeking
      veterans residing in Northern Ireland tended to be older, have experienced less
      childhood adversity, joined the military after the age of 18 and took longer to
      seek help. Additionally, veterans from Northern Ireland had higher levels of
      obesity, sensory, mobility and systemic problems and a greater number of physical
      health conditions. Scottish and Welsh veterans had a higher risk of smoking and
      alcohol misuse. No differences were found in mental health presentations.
      CONCLUSION: The findings from this paper suggest that a greater focus needs to be
      placed on treating physical problems in Northern Irish veterans. Alcohol misuse
      should be addressed in more detail in treatment programmes, particularly in
      Scotland and Wales. As few differences were found in the mental health
      presentations, this suggests that standardised services are adequate.

PMID- 28883029
TI  - The Centre for Defence Healthcare Engagement: a focus for Defence Engagement by
      the Defence Medical Services.
AB  - The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review committed the government to an
      ambitious programme of Defence Engagement. This paper provides a short summary of
      the medical contribution to UK Defence Engagement. It then describes the
      intentions behind the creation of the Centre for Defence Health Engagement.

PMID- 28883030
TI  - An exertional heat illness triage tool for a jungle training environment.
AB  - This article introduces a practical triage tool designed to assist commanders,
      jungle training instructors (JTIs) and medical personnel to identify Defence
      Personnel (DP) with suspected exertional heat illness (EHI). The challenges of
      managing suspected EHI in a jungle training environment and the potential
      advantages to stratifying the urgency of evacuation are discussed. This tool has
      been designed to be an adjunct to the existing MOD mandated heat illness
      recognition and first aid training.

PMID- 28883031
TI  - Neuropathic pain treatment and research: experiences from the United Kingdom
      mission to Afghanistan and future prospects.
AB  - The Defence Medical Services (DMS) of the United Kingdom (UK) assumed command of
      the Role 3 Medical Treatment Facility field hospital during Operation HERRICK in
      Afghanistan from April 2006 until the final drawdown in November 2014. The
      signature injury sustained by coalition personnel during this period was
      traumatic amputation from improvised explosive devices. Many patients who had
      suffered extensive tissue damage experienced both nociceptive and neuropathic
      pain (NeuP). This presented as a heterogeneous collection of symptoms that are
      resistant to treatment. This paper discusses the relationship of NeuP in the
      context of ballistic injury, drawing in particular on clinical experience from
      the UK mission to Afghanistan, Operation HERRICK. The role of this paper is to
      describe the difficulties of assessment, treatment and research of NeuP and make
      recommendations for future progress within the DMS.

PMID- 28883032
TI  - Screening for atrial fibrillation in hospitalised geriatric patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess whether daily short-term rhythm strip recordings on top of
      routine clinical care could increase the atrial fibrillation (AF) detection rate
      in the hospitalised elderly. METHODS: A hand-held device storing a bipolar ECG
      during 1 min was used for daily rhythm recording in hospitalised elderly
      patients. RESULTS: During 2 months, all patients admitted to the Department of
      Geriatric Medicine were screened (n=327). Five patients refused to participate in
      the study and 70 patients were unable to hold the device due to severe mental
      (n=46) or motor impairment (n=24). In the remaining 252 patients, 1582 recordings
      were successfully obtained after 1624 attempts with a median acquisition time of
      1 min (min 1, max 9, IQR 1-2 min). The rhythm strips were not reliable
      interpretable due to artefacts in three patients or an implantable cardiac pulse
      generator in another 28 patients. Detailed clinical information was available in
      214/221 patients. Mean age was 84+/-6 years. On top of 71 (33%) patients with AF
      identified by routine clinical care (history, n=64 or de novo detected during
      current hospitalisation, n=7), review of all rhythm strips identified another 28
      patients (13%) with AF. All these patients had a CHA2DS2VASc score >=2. A
      contraindication for anticoagulation was present in only 8/28 (25%) of identified
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: On top of routine clinical care, daily short-term rhythm
      strip recordings identified another 13% of elderly hospitalised patients with AF,
      leading to an overall prevalence of 46% in hospitalised patients. This can have
      significant therapeutic implications with respect to initiation of
      anticoagulation.

PMID- 28883033
TI  - Transseptal puncture for structural heart intervention: an old technique with new
      indications.

PMID- 28883034
TI  - Aortic stenosis: treat the patient not the numbers.

PMID- 28883035
TI  - Non-surgical septal reduction therapy in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28883036
TI  - How to interpret an echocardiography report (for the non-imager)?

PMID- 28883037
TI  - Ischaemic heart disease in the former Soviet Union 1990-2015 according to the
      Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare ischaemic heart disease
      (IHD) mortality and risk factor burden across former Soviet Union (fSU) and
      satellite countries and regions in 1990 and 2015. METHODS: The fSU and satellite
      countries were grouped into Central Asian, Central European and Eastern European
      regions. IHD mortality data for men and women of any age were gathered from
      national vital registration, and age, sex, country, year-specific IHD mortality
      rates were estimated in an ensemble model. IHD morbidity and mortality burden
      attributable to risk factors was estimated by comparative risk assessment using
      population attributable fractions. RESULTS: In 2015, age-standardised IHD death
      rates in Eastern European and Central Asian fSU countries were almost two times
      that of satellite states of Central Europe. Between 1990 and 2015, rates
      decreased substantially in Central Europe (men -43.5% (95% uncertainty interval 
      45.0%, -42.0%); women -42.9% (-44.0%, -41.0%)) but less in Eastern Europe (men 
      5.6% (-9.0, -3.0); women -12.2% (-15.5%, -9.0%)). Age-standardised IHD death
      rates also varied within regions: within Eastern Europe, rates decreased -51.7%
      in Estonian men (-54.0, -47.0) but increased +19.4% in Belarusian men (+12.0,
      +27.0). High blood pressure and cholesterol were leading risk factors for IHD
      burden, with smoking, body mass index, dietary factors and ambient air pollution
      also ranking high. CONCLUSIONS: Some fSU countries continue to experience a high
      IHD burden, while others have achieved remarkable reductions in IHD mortality.
      Control of blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking are IHD prevention priorities.

PMID- 28883038
TI  - Yeast silencing factor Sir4 and a subset of nucleoporins form a complex distinct
      from nuclear pore complexes.
AB  - Interactions occurring at the nuclear envelope (NE)-chromatin interface influence
      both NE structure and chromatin organization. Insights into the functions of NE
      chromatin interactions have come from the study of yeast subtelomeric chromatin
      and its association with the NE, including the identification of various proteins
      necessary for tethering subtelomeric chromatin to the NE and the silencing of
      resident genes. Here we show that four of these proteins-the silencing factor
      Sir4, NE-associated Esc1, the SUMO E3 ligase Siz2, and the nuclear pore complex
      (NPC) protein Nup170-physically and functionally interact with one another and a
      subset of NPC components (nucleoporins or Nups). Importantly, this group of Nups
      is largely restricted to members of the inner and outer NPC rings, but it lacks
      numerous others including cytoplasmically and nucleoplasmically positioned Nups.
      We propose that this Sir4-associated Nup complex is distinct from holo-NPCs and
      that it plays a role in subtelomeric chromatin organization and NE tethering.

PMID- 28883039
TI  - Disease-associated mutations in human BICD2 hyperactivate motility of dynein
      dynactin.
AB  - Bicaudal D2 (BICD2) joins dynein with dynactin into a ternary complex (termed
      DDB) capable of processive movement. Point mutations in the BICD2 gene have been
      identified in patients with a dominant form of spinal muscular atrophy, but how
      these mutations cause disease is unknown. To investigate this question, we have
      developed in vitro motility assays with purified DDB and BICD2's membrane vesicle
      partner, the GTPase Rab6a. Rab6a-GTP, either in solution or bound to artificial
      liposomes, released BICD2 from an autoinhibited state and promoted robust dynein
      dynactin transport. In these assays, BICD2 mutants showed an enhanced ability to
      form motile DDB complexes. Increased retrograde transport by BICD2 mutants also
      was observed in cells using an inducible organelle transport assay. When
      overexpressed in rat hippocampal neurons, the hyperactive BICD2 mutants decreased
      neurite growth. Our results reveal that dominant mutations in BICD2 hyperactivate
      DDB motility and suggest that an imbalance of minus versus plus end-directed
      microtubule motility in neurons may underlie spinal muscular atrophy.

PMID- 28883040
TI  - Genome-wide siRNA screen identifies UNC50 as a regulator of Shiga toxin 2
      trafficking.
AB  - Shiga toxins 1 and 2 (STx1 and STx2) undergo retrograde trafficking to reach the
      cytosol. Early endosome-to-Golgi transport allows the toxins to evade degradation
      in lysosomes. Targeting this trafficking step has therapeutic promise, but the
      mechanism of trafficking for the more potent toxin STx2 is unclear. To identify
      host factors required for early endosome-to-Golgi trafficking of STx2, we
      performed a viability-based genome-wide siRNA screen in HeLa cells. 564, 535, and
      196 genes were found to be required for toxicity induced by STx1 only, STx2 only,
      and both toxins, respectively. We focused on validating endosome/Golgi-localized
      hits specific for STx2 and found that depletion of UNC50 blocked early endosome
      to-Golgi trafficking and induced lysosomal degradation of STx2. UNC50 acted by
      recruiting GBF1, an ADP ribosylation factor-guanine nucleotide exchange factor
      (ARF-GEF), to the Golgi. These results provide new information about STx2
      trafficking mechanisms and may advance efforts to generate therapeutically viable
      toxin-trafficking inhibitors.

PMID- 28883041
TI  - Normoxic cells remotely regulate the acid-base balance of cells at the hypoxic
      core of connexin-coupled tumor growths.
AB  - ATP fuels the removal of metabolic end-products, including H+ ions that
      profoundly modulate biological activities. Energetic resources in hypoxic tumor
      regions are constrained by low-yielding glycolysis, and any means of reducing the
      cost of acid extrusion, without compromising pH homeostasis, would therefore be
      advantageous for cancer cells. Some cancers express connexin channels that allow
      solute exchange between cells, and we propose that, via this route, normoxic
      cells supply hypoxic neighbors with acid-neutralizing HCO3- ions. This hypothesis
      was tested by imaging cytoplasmic pH in spheroidal tissue growths of connexin43
      positive pancreatic cancer Colo357 cells during light-controlled H+ uncaging at
      the hypoxic core. Cytoplasmic acid retention at the core was halved in the
      presence of CO2/HCO3-, but this process requires a restorative HCO3- flux. The
      effect of CO2/HCO3- was ablated by connexin43 inhibition or knockdown. In
      connexin-decoupled spheroids, 4,4'-diisothiocyano-2,2'-stilbenedisulfonic acid
      (DIDS), an inhibitor of HCO3- uptake, had no effect on cytoplasmic [H+] in the H+
      uncaging region, indicating that DIDS-sensitive transport is not an adequate pH
      regulatory strategy therein. With intact connexin-coupling, acid retention at the
      core increased upon DIDS treatment, indicating that HCO3- ions are taken up
      actively by peripheral cells and then transmitted passively to cells at the
      hypoxic core. Thus, the energetic burden of pH regulation is offloaded from
      hypoxic cells onto metabolically altruistic normoxic neighbors.-Dovmark, T. H.,
      Hulikova, A., Niederer, S. A., Vaughan-Jones, R. D., Swietach, P. Normoxic cells
      remotely regulate the acid-base balance of cells at the hypoxic core of connexin
      coupled tumor growths.

PMID- 28883042
TI  - Real-time acquisition of transendothelial electrical resistance in an all-human,
      in vitro, 3-dimensional, blood-brain barrier model exemplifies tight-junction
      integrity.
AB  - The blood-brain barrier (BBB) consists of endothelial cells, astrocytes, and
      pericytes embedded in basal lamina (BL). Most in vitro models use nonhuman,
      monolayer cultures for therapeutic-delivery studies, relying on transendothelial
      electrical resistance (TEER) measurements without other tight-junction (TJ)
      formation parameters. We aimed to develop reliable, reproducible, in vitro 3
      dimensional (3D) models incorporating relevant human, in vivo cell types and BL
      proteins. The 3D BBB models were constructed with human brain endothelial cells,
      human astrocytes, and human brain pericytes in mono-, co-, and tricultures. TEER
      was measured in 3D models using a volt/ohmmeter and cellZscope. Influence of BL
      proteins-laminin, fibronectin, collagen type IV, agrin, and perlecan-on adhesion
      and TEER was assessed using an electric cell-substrate impedance-sensing system.
      TJ protein expression was assessed by Western blotting (WB) and
      immunocytochemistry (ICC). Perlecan (10 ug/ml) evoked unreportedly high, in vitro
      TEER values (1200 Omega) and the strongest adhesion. Coculturing endothelial
      cells with astrocytes yielded the greatest resistance over time. ICC and WB
      results correlated with resistance levels, with evidence of prominent occludin
      expression in cocultures. BL proteins exerted differential effects on TEER,
      whereas astrocytes in contact yielded higher TEER values and TJ expression.
      Maherally, Z., Fillmore, H. L., Tan, S. L., Tan, S. F., Jassam, S. A., Quack, F.
      I., Hatherell, K. E., Pilkington, G. J. Real-time acquisition of transendothelial
      electrical resistance in an all-human, in vitro, 3-dimensional, blood-brain
      barrier model exemplifies tight-junction integrity.

PMID- 28883044
TI  - Beneficial effects of exercise training in heart failure are lost in male
      diabetic rats.
AB  - Exercise training has been demonstrated to have beneficial effects in patients
      with heart failure (HF) or diabetes. However, it is unknown whether diabetic
      patients with HF will benefit from exercise training. Male Wistar rats were fed
      either a standard (Sham, n = 53) or high-fat, high-sucrose diet ( n = 66) for 6
      mo. After 2 mo of diet, the rats were already diabetic. Rats were then randomly
      subjected to either myocardial infarction by coronary artery ligation (MI) or
      sham operation. Two months later, heart failure was documented by
      echocardiography and animals were randomly subjected to exercise training with
      treadmill for an additional 8 wk or remained sedentary. At the end, rats were
      euthanized and tissues were assayed by RT-PCR, immunoblotting, spectrophotometry,
      and immunohistology. MI induced a similar decrease in ejection fraction in
      diabetic and lean animals but a higher premature mortality in the diabetic group.
      Exercise for 8 wk resulted in a higher working power developed by MI animals with
      diabetes and improved glycaemia but not ejection fraction or pathological
      phenotype. In contrast, exercise improved the ejection fraction and increased
      adaptive hypertrophy after MI in the lean group. Trained diabetic rats with MI
      were nevertheless able to develop cardiomyocyte hypertrophy but without
      angiogenic responses. Exercise improved stress markers and cardiac energy
      metabolism in lean but not diabetic-MI rats. Hence, following HF, the benefits of
      exercise training on cardiac function are blunted in diabetic animals. In
      conclusion, exercise training only improved the myocardial profile of infarcted
      lean rats fed the standard diet. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Exercise training is beneficial
      in patients with heart failure (HF) or diabetes. However, less is known of the
      possible benefit of exercise training for HF patients with diabetes. Using a rat
      model where both diabetes and MI had been induced, we showed that 2 mo after MI,
      8 wk of exercise training failed to improve cardiac function and metabolism in
      diabetic animals in contrast to lean animals.

PMID- 28883043
TI  - FFAR2-FFAR3 receptor heteromerization modulates short-chain fatty acid sensing.
AB  - Free fatty acid receptors 2 and 3 (FFAR2/FFA2/GPR43 and FFAR3/FFA3/GPR41) are
      mammalian receptors for gut microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
      These receptors are promising drug targets for obesity, colitis, colon cancer,
      asthma, and arthritis. Here, we demonstrate that FFAR2 and FFAR3 interact to form
      a heteromer in primary human monocytes and macrophages via proximity ligation
      assay, and during heterologous expression in HEK293 cells via bimolecular
      fluorescence complementation and fluorescence resonance energy transfer. The
      FFAR2-FFAR3 heteromer displayed enhanced cytosolic Ca2+ signaling (1.5-fold
      increase relative to homomeric FFAR2) and beta-arrestin-2 recruitment (30-fold
      increase relative to homomeric FFAR3). The enhanced heteromer signaling was
      attenuated by FFAR2 antagonism (CATPB), Galphaq inhibition (YM254890), or Galphai
      inhibition (pertussis toxin). Unlike homomeric FFAR2/3, the heteromer lacked the
      ability to inhibit cAMP production but gained the ability to induce p38
      phosphorylation in HEK293 and inflammatory monocytes via a CATPB- and YM254890
      sensitive mechanism. Our data, taken together, reveal that FFAR2 and FFAR3 may
      interact to form a receptor heteromer with signaling that is distinct from the
      parent homomers-a novel pathway for drug targeting.-Ang, Z., Xiong, D., Wu, M.,
      Ding, J. L. FFAR2-FFAR3 receptor heteromerization modulates short-chain fatty
      acid sensing.

PMID- 28883045
TI  - Breath-to-breath variability of exhaled CO2 as a marker of lung dysmaturity in
      infancy.
AB  - The concept of diffusional screening implies that breath-to-breath variations in
      CO2 clearance, when related to the variability of breathing, may contain
      information on the quality and utilization of the available alveolar surface. We
      explored the validity of the above hypothesis in a cohort of young infants of
      comparable postmenstrual age but born at different stages of lung maturity,
      namely, in term-born infants ( n = 128), preterm-born infants without chronic
      lung disease of infancy (CLDI; n = 53), and preterm infants with moderate/severe
      CLDI ( n = 87). Exhaled CO2 volume (VE,CO2) and concentration (FE,CO2) were
      determined by volumetric capnography, whereas their variance was assessed by
      linear and nonlinear variability metrics. The relationship between relative
      breath-to-breath change of VE,CO2 (DeltaVE,CO2) and the corresponding change of
      tidal volume (DeltaVT) was also analyzed. Nonlinear FE,CO2 variability was lower
      in CLDI compared with term and non-CLDI preterm group ( P < 0.001 for both
      comparisons). In CLDI infants, most of the VE,CO2 variability was attributed to
      the variability of VT ( r2 = 0.749), whereas in term and healthy preterm infants
      this relationship was weaker ( r2 = 0.507 and 0.630, respectively). The
      DeltaVE,CO2 - DeltaVT slope was less steep in the CLDI group (1.06 +/- 0.07)
      compared with non-CLDI preterm (1.16 +/- 0.07; P < 0.001) and term infants (1.20
      +/- 0.10; P < 0.001), suggesting that the more dysmature the infant lung, the
      less efficiently it eliminates CO2 under tidal breathing conditions. We conclude
      that the temporal variation of CO2 clearance may be related to the degree of lung
      dysmaturity in early infancy. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Young infants exhibit appreciable
      breath-to-breath CO2 variability that can be quantified by nonlinear variability
      metrics and may reflect the degree of lung dysmaturity. In infants with
      moderate/severe chronic lung disease of infancy (CLDI), the variability of the
      exhaled CO2 is mainly driven by the variability of breathing, whereas in term
      born and healthy preterm infants this relationship is less strong. The slope of
      the relative CO2-to-volume change is less steep in CLDI infants, suggesting that
      dysmature lungs are less efficient in eliminating CO2 under tidal breathing
      conditions.

PMID- 28883046
TI  - Skeletal muscle mitochondrial protein synthesis and respiration in response to
      the energetic stress of an ultra-endurance race.
AB  - The 2016 Colorado Trail Race (CTR) was an ultra-endurance mountain bike race in
      which competitors cycled for up to 24 h/day between altitudes of 1,675 and 4,025
      m to complete 800 km and 21,000 m of elevation gain. In one athlete, we had the
      unique opportunity to characterize skeletal muscle protein synthesis and
      mitochondrial respiration in response to a normal activity control period (CON)
      and the CTR. We hypothesized that mitochondrial protein synthesis would be
      elevated and mitochondrial respiration would be maintained during the extreme
      stresses of the CTR. Titrated and bolus doses of ADP were provided to determine
      substrate-specific oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and electron transport
      system (ETS) capacities in permeabilized muscle fibers via high-resolution
      respirometry. Protein synthetic rates were determined by daily oral consumption
      of deuterium oxide (2H2O). The endurance athlete had OXPHOS (226 pmol.s-1.mg
      tissue-1) and ETS (231 pmol.s-1.mg tissue-1) capacities that rank among the
      highest published to date in humans. Mitochondrial (3.2-fold), cytoplasmic (2.3
      fold), and myofibrillar (1.5-fold) protein synthesis rates were greater during
      CTR compared with CON. With titrated ADP doses, the apparent Km of ADP, OXPHOS,
      and ETS increased after the CTR. With provision of ADP boluses after the CTR, the
      addition of fatty acids (-12 and -14%) mitigated the decline in OXPHOS and ETS
      capacity during carbohydrate-supported respiration (-26 and -31%). In the face of
      extreme stresses during the CTR, elevated rates of mitochondrial protein
      synthesis may contribute to rapid adaptations in mitochondrial bioenergetics. NEW
      & NOTEWORTHY The mechanisms that maintain skeletal muscle function during extreme
      stresses remain incompletely understood. In the current study, greater rates of
      mitochondrial protein synthesis during the energetic demands of ultra-endurance
      exercise may contribute to rapid adaptations in mitochondrial bioenergetics. The
      endurance athlete herein achieved mitochondrial respiratory capacities among the
      highest published for humans. Greater mitochondrial protein synthesis during
      ultra-endurance exercise may contribute to improved mitochondrial respiration and
      serve as a mechanism to resist cellular energetic stresses.

PMID- 28883047
TI  - Intrinsic exercise capacity in rats influences dopamine neuroplasticity induced
      by physical training.
AB  - The study evaluates whether the intrinsic capacity for physical exercise
      influences dopamine neuroplasticity induced by physical training. Male rats were
      submitted to three progressive tests until fatigue. Based on the maximal time of
      exercise (TE), rats were considered as low performance (LP), standard performance
      (SP) or high performance (HP) to exercise. Eight animals from each group (LP, SP,
      and HP) were randomly subdivided in sedentary (SED) or trained (TR). Physical
      training was performed for 6 wk. After that, concentrations of dopamine (DA),
      serotonin (5-HT), and their metabolites and mRNA levels of D1 receptor ( Drd1),
      D2 receptor ( Drd2), dopamine transporter ( Dat), tyrosine hydroxylase ( Th),
      glia cell line neurotrophic factor ( Gdnf), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor
      ( Bdnf) were determined in the caudate-putamen (CPu). TE was increased with
      training in all performance groups. However, the relative increase was markedly
      higher in LP rats, and this was associated with a training-induced increase in
      dopaminergic activity in the CPu, which was determined by the 3,4
      dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC)/DA ratio. An opposite monoamine response was
      found in HP-TR rats, in which physical training decreased the DOPAC/DA ratio in
      the CPu. Moreover, LP-SED rats displayed higher levels of Drd2 in the CPu
      compared with the other SED groups, and this higher expression was decreased by
      physical training. Physical training also decreased Dat and increased Gdnf in the
      CPu of LP rats. Physical training decreased Bdnf in the CPu only in HP rats.
      Thus, we provide evidence that the intrinsic capacity to exercise affects the
      neuroplasticity of the dopaminergic system in response to physical training. NEW
      & NOTEWORTHY The findings reported reveal that dopaminergic neuroplasticity in
      caudate-putamen induced by physical training is influenced by the intrinsic
      capacity to exercise in rats. To evaluate the dopaminergic neuroplasticity, we
      analyzed mRNA levels of D1 receptor, D2 receptor, dopamine transporter, tyrosine
      hydroxylase, glia cell line neurotrophic factor, and brain-derived neurotrophic
      factor as well as concentrations of dopamine, serotonin, and their metabolites.
      These results expand our knowledge about the interrelationship between genetic
      background, physical training, and dopaminergic neuroplasticity.

PMID- 28883049
TI  - Postdocs power research.

PMID- 28883051
TI  - Record storm puts gulf resilience to the test.

PMID- 28883052
TI  - NIH's massive health study is off to a slow start.

PMID- 28883048
TI  - CORP: Ultrasound assessment of vascular function with the passive leg movement
      technique.
AB  - As dysfunction of the vascular system is an early, modifiable step in the
      progression of many cardiovascular diseases, there is demand for methods to
      monitor the health of the vascular system noninvasively in clinical and research
      settings. Validated by very good agreement with more technical assessments of
      vascular function, like intra-arterial drug infusions and flow-mediated dilation,
      the passive leg movement (PLM) technique has emerged as a powerful, yet
      relatively simple, test of peripheral vascular function. In the PLM technique,
      the change in leg blood flow elicited by the passive movement of the leg through
      a 90 degrees  range of motion is quantified with Doppler ultrasound. This
      relatively easy-to-learn test has proven to be <=80% dependent on nitric oxide
      bioavailability and is especially adept at determining peripheral vascular
      function across the spectrum of cardiovascular health. Indeed, multiple reports
      have documented that individuals with decreased cardiovascular health such as the
      elderly and those with heart failure tend to exhibit a substantially blunted PLM
      induced hyperemic response (~50 and ~85% reduction, respectively) compared with
      populations with good cardiovascular health such as young individuals. As
      specific guidelines have not yet been put forth, the purpose of this Cores of
      Reproducibility in Physiology (CORP) article is to provide a comprehensive
      reference for the assessment and interpretation of vascular function with PLM
      with the aim to increase reproducibility and consistency among studies and
      facilitate the use of PLM as a research tool with clinical relevance.

PMID- 28883053
TI  - Billionaire's gift pushes ocean sensors deeper.

PMID- 28883054
TI  - Oklahoma politician picked to lead NASA back to the moon.

PMID- 28883055
TI  - In Colombia, peace dividend for science proves elusive.

PMID- 28883056
TI  - Panel urges steps to boost evidence-based policy.

PMID- 28883057
TI  - Zapping cocaine addiction.

PMID- 28883058
TI  - A looming tragedy of the sand commons.

PMID- 28883059
TI  - Meet the primordial asteroid family.

PMID- 28883060
TI  - The balance between immunity and inflammation.

PMID- 28883061
TI  - Wire together, fire apart.

PMID- 28883062
TI  - The road to Crohn's disease.

PMID- 28883063
TI  - How glass fronts deceive bats.

PMID- 28883064
TI  - Science in litigation, the third branch of U.S. climate policy.

PMID- 28883065
TI  - Mitigating coastal landslide damage.

PMID- 28883066
TI  - The EU's ecological risk assessments.

PMID- 28883067
TI  - Manipulating ultracold matter.

PMID- 28883068
TI  - Trapped in orbit.

PMID- 28883069
TI  - Probing the frontiers of particle physics with tabletop-scale experiments.
AB  - The field of particle physics is in a peculiar state. The standard model of
      particle theory successfully describes every fundamental particle and force
      observed in laboratories, yet fails to explain properties of the universe such as
      the existence of dark matter, the amount of dark energy, and the preponderance of
      matter over antimatter. Huge experiments, of increasing scale and cost, continue
      to search for new particles and forces that might explain these phenomena.
      However, these frontiers also are explored in certain smaller, laboratory-scale
      "tabletop" experiments. This approach uses precision measurement techniques and
      devices from atomic, quantum, and condensed-matter physics to detect tiny signals
      due to new particles or forces. Discoveries in fundamental physics may well come
      first from small-scale experiments of this type.

PMID- 28883070
TI  - Quantum simulations with ultracold atoms in optical lattices.
AB  - Quantum simulation, a subdiscipline of quantum computation, can provide valuable
      insight into difficult quantum problems in physics or chemistry. Ultracold atoms
      in optical lattices represent an ideal platform for simulations of quantum many
      body problems. Within this setting, quantum gas microscopes enable single atom
      observation and manipulation in large samples. Ultracold atom-based quantum
      simulators have already been used to probe quantum magnetism, to realize and
      detect topological quantum matter, and to study quantum systems with controlled
      long-range interactions. Experiments on many-body systems out of equilibrium have
      also provided results in regimes unavailable to the most advanced supercomputers.
      We review recent experimental progress in this field and comment on future
      directions.

PMID- 28883071
TI  - Cold molecules: Progress in quantum engineering of chemistry and quantum matter.
AB  - Cooling atoms to ultralow temperatures has produced a wealth of opportunities in
      fundamental physics, precision metrology, and quantum science. The more recent
      application of sophisticated cooling techniques to molecules, which has been more
      challenging to implement owing to the complexity of molecular structures, has now
      opened the door to the longstanding goal of precisely controlling molecular
      internal and external degrees of freedom and the resulting interaction processes.
      This line of research can leverage fundamental insights into how molecules
      interact and evolve to enable the control of reaction chemistry and the design
      and realization of a range of advanced quantum materials.

PMID- 28883072
TI  - Behavioral time scale synaptic plasticity underlies CA1 place fields.
AB  - Learning is primarily mediated by activity-dependent modifications of synaptic
      strength within neuronal circuits. We discovered that place fields in hippocampal
      area CA1 are produced by a synaptic potentiation notably different from Hebbian
      plasticity. Place fields could be produced in vivo in a single trial by
      potentiation of input that arrived seconds before and after complex spiking. The
      potentiated synaptic input was not initially coincident with action potentials or
      depolarization. This rule, named behavioral time scale synaptic plasticity,
      abruptly modifies inputs that were neither causal nor close in time to
      postsynaptic activation. In slices, five pairings of subthreshold presynaptic
      activity and calcium (Ca2+) plateau potentials produced a large potentiation with
      an asymmetric seconds-long time course. This plasticity efficiently stores entire
      behavioral sequences within synaptic weights to produce predictive place cell
      activity.

PMID- 28883073
TI  - Sterilizing immunity in the lung relies on targeting fungal apoptosis-like
      programmed cell death.
AB  - Humans inhale mold conidia daily and typically experience lifelong asymptomatic
      clearance. Conidial germination into tissue-invasive hyphae can occur in
      individuals with defects in myeloid function, although the mechanism of myeloid
      cell-mediated immune surveillance remains unclear. By monitoring fungal
      physiology in vivo, we demonstrate that lung neutrophils trigger programmed cell
      death with apoptosis-like features in Aspergillus fumigatus conidia, the most
      prevalent human mold pathogen. An antiapoptotic protein, AfBIR1, opposes this
      process by inhibiting fungal caspase activation and DNA fragmentation in the
      murine lung. Genetic and pharmacologic studies indicate that AfBIR1 expression
      and activity underlie conidial susceptibility to NADPH (reduced form of
      nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) oxidase-dependent killing and, in
      turn, host susceptibility to invasive aspergillosis. Immune surveillance exploits
      a fungal apoptosis-like programmed cell death pathway to maintain sterilizing
      immunity in the lung.

PMID- 28883075
TI  - Choose a program, have a life.

PMID- 28883074
TI  - Acoustic mirrors as sensory traps for bats.
AB  - Sensory traps pose a considerable and often fatal risk for animals, leading them
      to misinterpret their environment. Bats predominantly rely on their echolocation
      system to forage, orientate, and navigate. We found that bats can mistake smooth,
      vertical surfaces as clear flight paths, repeatedly colliding with them, likely
      as a result of their acoustic mirror properties. The probability of collision is
      influenced by the number of echolocation calls and by the amount of time spent in
      front of the surface. The echolocation call analysis corroborates that bats
      perceive smooth, vertical surfaces as open flyways. Reporting on occurrences with
      different species in the wild, we argue that it is necessary to more closely
      monitor potentially dangerous locations with acoustic mirror properties (such as
      glass fronts) to assess the true frequency of fatalities around these sensory
      traps.

PMID- 28883079
TI  - Folate dietary insufficiency and folic acid supplementation similarly impair
      metabolism and compromise hematopoiesis.
AB  - While dietary folate deficiency is associated with increased risk for birth
      defects and other diseases, evidence suggests that supplementation with folic
      acid can contribute to predisposition to some diseases, including immune
      dysfunction and cancer. Herein, we show that diets supplemented with folic acid
      both below and above the recommended levels led to significantly altered
      metabolism in multiple tissues in mice. Surprisingly, both low and excessive
      dietary folate induced similar metabolic changes, which were particularly evident
      for nucleotide biosynthetic pathways in B-progenitor cells. Diet-induced
      metabolic changes in these cells partially phenocopied those observed in mice
      treated with anti-folate drugs, suggesting that both deficiency and excessive
      levels of dietary folic acid compromise folate-dependent biosynthetic pathways.
      Both folate deficiency and excessive dietary folate levels compromise
      hematopoiesis, resulting in defective cell cycle progression, persistent DNA
      damage, and impaired production of lymphocytes. These defects reduce the
      reconstitution potential in transplantation settings and increase radiation
      induced mortality. We conclude that excessive folic acid supplementation can
      metabolically mimic dietary folate insufficiency, leading to similar functional
      impairment of hematopoiesis.

PMID- 28883078
TI  - Human leukocyte antigen-E mismatch is associated with better hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation outcome in acute leukemia patients.
AB  - The immunomodulatory role of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E in hematopoietic
      stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has not been extensively investigated. To this
      end, we genotyped 509 10/10 HLA unrelated transplant pairs for HLA-E, in order to
      study the effect of HLA-E as a natural killer (NK)-alloreactivity mediator on
      HSCT outcome in an acute leukemia (AL) setting. Overall survival (OS), disease
      free survival (DFS), relapse incidence (RI) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) were
      set as endpoints. Analysis of our data revealed a significant correlation between
      HLA-E mismatch and improved HSCT outcome, as shown by both univariate (53% vs
      38%, P=0.002, 5-year OS) and multivariate (hazard ratio (HR)=0.63, confidence
      interval (CI) 95%=0.48-0.83, P=0.001) analyses. Further subgroup analysis
      demonstrated that the positive effect of HLA-E mismatch was significant and
      pronounced in advanced disease patients (n=120) (5-year OS: 50% vs 18%, P=0.005;
      HR=0.40, CI 95%=0.22-0.72, P=0.002; results from univariate and multivariate
      analyses, respectively). The study herein is the first to report an association
      between HLA-E incompatibility and improved post-transplant prognosis in AL
      patients who have undergone matched unrelated HSCT. Combined NK and T cell HLA-E
      mediated mechanisms may account for the better outcomes observed. Notwithstanding
      the necessity for in vitro and confirmational studies, our findings highlight the
      clinical relevance of HLA-E matching and strongly support prospective HLA-E
      screening upon donor selection for matched AL unrelated HSCTs.

PMID- 28883080
TI  - Phenotype in combination with genotype improves outcome prediction in acute
      myeloid leukemia: a report from Children's Oncology Group protocol AAML0531.
AB  - Diagnostic biomarkers can be used to determine relapse risk in acute myeloid
      leukemia, and certain genetic aberrancies have prognostic relevance. A diagnostic
      immunophenotypic expression profile, which quantifies the amounts of distinct
      gene products, not just their presence or absence, was established in order to
      improve outcome prediction for patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The
      immunophenotypic expression profile, which defines each patient's leukemia as a
      location in 15-dimensional space, was generated for 769 patients enrolled in the
      Children's Oncology Group AAML0531 protocol. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering
      grouped patients with similar immunophenotypic expression profiles into eleven
      patient cohorts, demonstrating high associations among phenotype, genotype,
      morphology, and outcome. Of 95 patients with inv(16), 79% segregated in Cluster
      A. Of 109 patients with t(8;21), 92% segregated in Clusters A and B. Of 152
      patients with 11q23 alterations, 78% segregated in Clusters D, E, F, G, or H. For
      both inv(16) and 11q23 abnormalities, differential phenotypic expression
      identified patient groups with different survival characteristics (P<0.05).
      Clinical outcome analysis revealed that Cluster B (predominantly t(8;21)) was
      associated with favorable outcome (P<0.001) and Clusters E, G, H, and K were
      associated with adverse outcomes (P<0.05). Multivariable regression analysis
      revealed that Clusters E, G, H, and K were independently associated with worse
      survival (P range <0.001 to 0.008). The Children's Oncology Group AAML0531 trial:
      clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: 00372593.

PMID- 28883082
TI  - The clinical and prognostic value of CXCL8 in cervical carcinoma patients:
      immunohistochemical analysis.
AB  - Cysteine-X-cysteine ligand 8 (CXCL8) was originally discovered as a
      proinflammatory chemokine. Recently, CXCL8 has been shown to act as an oncogene
      in several types of human cancers. However, the clinical and prognostic
      significance of CXCL8 in cervical cancer is poorly understood. In our study, we
      found that CXCL8 was highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues compared with
      normal cervical tissues in microarray datasets (GSE9750 and GSE7803). CXCL8 mRNA
      and protein expressions were increased in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines
      compared with normal cervical tissues and cervical epithelial cell lines. CXCL8
      protein expression was significantly correlated with clinical stage, distant
      metastasis, histological type, and histological grade. CXCL8 high expression was
      a poor independent prognostic parameter for cervical cancer patients. In
      conclusion, CXCL8 is highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines,
      and correlated with malignant status and prognosis in cervical cancer patients.

PMID- 28883081
TI  - Haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation for adult acute myeloid
      leukemia: a position statement from the Acute Leukemia Working Party of the
      European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
AB  - Allogeneic blood or marrow hematopoietic cell transplantation continues to be the
      most potent anti-leukemic treatment for adult patients with standard, high-risk,
      or chemo-refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Until recently, this procedure was
      generally limited to those recipients who had an available matched-sibling donor
      or matched-unrelated donor. Technical advances in graft cell processing and
      manipulation, control of bidirectional T cell alloreactivity, graft-versus-host
      disease prophylaxis, and other supportive measures in haploidentical
      transplantation now enable nearly all patients with acute myeloid leukemia to
      benefit from the graft-versus-leukemia effect with substantial reduction in
      procedure-related mortality. Over recent years, haploidentical donors have been
      increasingly adopted as a valid donor source in allogeneic hematopoietic cell
      transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia in the absence of an HLA-matched
      donor. Among centers of the European Society for Blood and Marrow
      Transplantation, the use of haploidentical related donor transplantation has
      increased by 250% since 2010, and 291% since 2005. On behalf of the Acute
      Leukemia Working Party of the European Society for Blood and Marrow
      Transplantation, we summarize recent utilization trends in haploidentical
      transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia and describe the transformative
      changes in haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation techniques over the
      past decade, which have led to the current widespread use of this procedure.
      Furthermore, we review the efficacy of haploidentical hematopoietic cell
      transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia from available studies, including
      preliminary comparative studies, and bring attention to remaining unanswered
      questions and directions for future research. We conclude this report with our
      recommendations for the role of haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation
      in acute myeloid leukemia.

PMID- 28883084
TI  - Advances in risk-oriented surgery for multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2.
AB  - Genetic association studies hinge on definite clinical case definitions of the
      disease of interest. This is why more penetrant mutations were overrepresented in
      early multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) studies, whereas less penetrant
      mutations went underrepresented. Enrichment of genetic association studies with
      advanced disease may produce a flawed understanding of disease evolution,
      precipitating far-reaching surgical strategies like bilateral total adrenalectomy
      and 4-gland parathyroidectomy in MEN2. The insight into the natural course of the
      disease gleaned over the past 25 years caused a paradigm shift in MEN2: from the
      removal of target organs at the expense of greater operative morbidity to close
      biochemical surveillance and targeted resection of adrenal tumors and
      hyperplastic parathyroid glands. The lead time provided by early identification
      of asymptomatic MEN2 carriers under biochemical surveillance delimits a 'window
      of opportunity', within which (i) pre-emptive total thyroidectomy alone is
      adequate, circumventing morbidity attendant to central node dissection; (ii)
      subtotal 'tissue-sparing' adrenalectomy is sufficient, trading the risk of
      steroid dependency for the risk of a second pheochromocytoma in the adrenal
      remnant and (iii) parathyroidectomy is limited to enlarged glands, trading the
      risk of postoperative hypoparathyroidism for the risk of leaving behind
      hyperactive parathyroid glands. Future research should delineate further the
      mutation-specific, age-dependent penetrance of pheochromocytoma and primary
      hyperparathyroidism to refine the risk-oriented approach to MEN2. The sweeping
      changes in the management of MEN2 since the new millenium hold the hope that
      death and major morbidity from this uncommon disease can be eliminated in our
      lifetime.

PMID- 28883083
TI  - Neupogen and mesenchymal stem cells are the novel therapeutic agents in
      regeneration of induced endometrial fibrosis in experimental rats.
AB  - Endometrial fibrosis is the presence of intrauterine adhesions (IUAs) after any
      uterine surgery or curettage and it results in infertility and recurrent
      pregnancy loss. We evaluated the role of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) as
      a therapeutic agent of endometrial fibrosis. We also compared the effect of MSCs
      with the effect of estrogen and neupogen either each alone or as a combined
      therapy with MSCs. This experimental study was performed on 84 albino rats which
      were divided into seven groups (n=12 rats/group) as follows, group1: normal
      control rats, group 2: induced fibrosis, group 3: induced fibrosis that received
      oral estrogen, group 4: induced fibrosis that received hMSCs, group 5: induced
      fibrosis that received hMSCs and estrogen, group 6: induced fibrosis that
      received neupogen, and group 7: induced fibrosis that received hMSCs and
      neupogen. The extent of fibrosis, vascularization, and inflammation were
      evaluated by; qRT-PCR for interleukin 1 (IL-1), interleukin 6 (IL-6), TNF,
      vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF
      beta), and RUNX; ELISA for connective tissue growth factor (CTGF); Western
      blotting for collagen-I; immunohistochemistry examination for VEGF and RUNX-2;
      and histopathological assessment. In therapeutic groups either by hMSCs alone or
      combined with estrogen or neupogen; fibrosis and inflammation (IL-1, IL-6, TNF,
      TGF-beta, RUNX, CTGF, and collagen-I) were significantly decreased but
      vascularization (VEGF) was significantly increased (P<0.05) compared with induced
      fibrosis group. The most significant result was obtained in fibrosis that
      received combined therapy of hMSCs and neupogen (P=0.000). Stem cells and
      neupogen are a highly effective alternative regenerative agents in endometrial
      fibrosis.

PMID- 28883085
TI  - Hydrodynamic function of dorsal fins in spiny dogfish and bamboo sharks during
      steady swimming.
AB  - A key feature of fish functional design is the presence of multiple fins that
      allow thrust vectoring and redirection of fluid momentum to contribute to both
      steady swimming and maneuvering. A number of previous studies have analyzed the
      function of dorsal fins in teleost fishes in this context, but the hydrodynamic
      function of dorsal fins in freely swimming sharks has not been analyzed, despite
      the potential for differential functional roles between the anterior and
      posterior dorsal fins. Previous anatomical research has suggested a primarily
      stabilizing role for shark dorsal fins. We evaluated the generality of this
      hypothesis by using time-resolved particle image velocimetry to record water flow
      patterns in the wake of both the anterior and posterior dorsal fins in two
      species of freely swimming sharks: bamboo sharks (Chiloscyllium plagiosum) and
      spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Cross-correlation analysis of consecutive
      images was used to calculate stroke-averaged mean longitudinal and lateral
      velocity components, and vorticity. In spiny dogfish, we observed a velocity
      deficit in the wake of the first dorsal fin and flow acceleration behind the
      second dorsal fin, indicating that the first dorsal fin experiences net drag
      while the second dorsal fin can aid in propulsion. In contrast, the wake of both
      dorsal fins in bamboo sharks displayed increased net flow velocity in the
      majority of trials, reflecting a thrust contribution to steady swimming. In
      bamboo sharks, fluid flow in the wake of the second dorsal fin had higher
      absolute average velocity than that for first dorsal fin, and this may result
      from a positive vortex interaction between the first and second dorsal fins.
      These data suggest that the first dorsal fin in spiny dogfish has primarily a
      stabilizing function, while the second dorsal fin has a propulsive function. In
      bamboo sharks, both dorsal fins can contribute thrust and should be considered as
      propulsive adjuncts to the body during steady swimming. The function of shark
      dorsal fins can thus differ considerably among fins and species, and is not
      limited to a stabilizing role.

PMID- 28883086
TI  - Characterizing Chilean blue whale vocalizations with DTAGs: a test of using tag
      accelerometers for caller identification.
AB  - Vocal behavior of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Gulf of Corcovado,
      Chile, was analysed using both audio and accelerometer data from digital acoustic
      recording tags (DTAGs). Over the course of three austral summers (2014, 2015 and
      2016), seventeen tags were deployed, yielding 124 h of data. We report the
      occurrence of Southeast Pacific type 2 (SEP2) calls, which exhibit peak
      frequencies, durations and timing consistent with previous recordings made using
      towed and moored hydrophones. We also describe tonal downswept (D) calls, which
      have not been previously described for this population. As being able to
      accurately assign vocalizations to individual whales is fundamental for studying
      communication and for estimating population densities from call rates, we further
      examine the feasibility of using high-resolution DTAG accelerometers to identify
      low-frequency calls produced by tagged blue whales. We cross-correlated acoustic
      signals with simultaneous tri-axial accelerometer readings in order to analyse
      the phase match as well as the amplitude of accelerometer signals associated with
      low-frequency calls, which provides a quantitative method of determining if a
      call is associated with a detectable acceleration signal. Our results suggest
      that vocalizations from nearby individuals are also capable of registering
      accelerometer signals in the tagged whale's DTAG record. We cross-correlate
      acceleration vectors between calls to explore the possibility of using signature
      acceleration patterns associated with sounds produced within the tagged whale as
      a new method of identifying which accelerometer-detectable calls originate from
      the tagged animal.

PMID- 28883087
TI  - Modulation of muscle-tendon interaction in the human triceps surae during an
      energy dissipation task.
AB  - The compliance of elastic elements allows muscles to dissipate energy safely
      during eccentric contractions. This buffering function is well documented in
      animal models but our understanding of its mechanism in humans is confined to non
      specific tasks, requiring a subsequent acceleration of the body. The present
      study aimed to examine the behaviour of the human triceps surae muscle-tendon
      unit (MTU) during a pure energy dissipation task, under two loading conditions.
      Thirty-nine subjects performed a single-leg landing task, with and without added
      mass. Ultrasound measurements were combined with three-dimensional kinematics and
      kinetics to determine instantaneous length changes of MTUs, muscle fascicles,
      Achilles tendon and combined elastic elements. Gastrocnemius and soleus MTUs
      lengthened during landing. After a small concentric action, fascicles contracted
      eccentrically during most of the task, whereas plantar flexor muscles were
      activated. Combined elastic elements lengthened until peak ankle moment and
      recoiled thereafter, whereas no recoil was observed for the Achilles tendon.
      Adding mass resulted in greater negative work and MTU lengthening, which were
      accompanied by a greater stretch of tendon and elastic elements and a greater
      recruitment of the soleus muscle, without any further fascicle strain. Hence, the
      buffering action of elastic elements delimits the maximal strain and lengthening
      velocity of active muscle fascicles and is commensurate with loading constraints.
      In the present task, energy dissipation was modulated via greater MTU excursion
      and more forceful eccentric contractions. The distinct strain pattern of the
      Achilles tendon supports the notion that different elastic elements may not
      systematically fulfil the same function.

PMID- 28883088
TI  - Humeral loads during swimming and walking in turtles: implications for
      morphological change during aquatic reinvasions.
AB  - During evolutionary reinvasions of water by terrestrial vertebrates, ancestrally
      tubular limb bones often flatten to form flippers. Differences in skeletal
      loading between land and water might have facilitated such changes. In turtles,
      femoral shear strains are significantly lower during swimming than during
      walking, potentially allowing a release from loads favoring tubular shafts.
      However, flipper-like morphology in specialized tetrapod swimmers is most
      accentuated in the forelimbs. To test whether the forelimbs of turtles also
      experience reduced torsional loading in water, we compared strains on the humerus
      of river cooters (Pseudemys concinna) between swimming and terrestrial walking.
      We found that humeral shear strains are also lower during swimming than during
      terrestrial walking; however, this appears to relate to a reduction in overall
      strain magnitude, rather than a specific reduction in twisting. These results
      indicate that shear strains show similar reductions between swimming and walking
      for forelimb and hindlimb, but these reductions are produced through different
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28883089
TI  - CCL2 and T cells in pulmonary fibrosis: an old player gets a new role.

PMID- 28883090
TI  - Validity, responsiveness and minimum clinically important difference of the
      incremental shuttle walk in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a prospective study.
AB  - : The incremental shuttle walk (ISW) is well validated in COPD but limited
      psychometric data restrict its use in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Study
      1: 50 patients performed the ISW and 6 min walk test (6MWT). Study 2: 72 patients
      completed the ISW before and after pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). The ISW
      correlated strongly with 6MWT distance (r=0.81,p<0.0001). Mean (95% confidence
      interval) improvement in ISW with PR was 54 (38 to 70) m with an effect size of
      0.29. Distribution-based and anchor-based minimum clinically important difference
      (MCID) estimates ranged from 31 to 46 m. The ISW is valid and responsive in IPF,
      with an anchor-based MCID estimate similar to that observed in chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Pre-results;
      NCT02530736, NCT02436278.

PMID- 28883091
TI  - Change in FVC and survival in chronic fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
AB  - The predictive value of the decline in FVC by >=10% on survival in patients with
      fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis is unknown. Of 112 patients included, 66
      (59%) had surgical lung biopsies. Patients with >=10% decline in predicted FVC
      after 6-12 months had a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality
      (median survival 53 months, 95% CI 37 to 69 vs 139 months, 95% CI 66 to 212
      months, p=0.007). On multivariate analysis remained associated with increasing
      mortality: decline in FVC by >=10% (HR 4.13, 95% CI 1.96 to 8.70, p=0.005), lower
      FVC% (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.05, p=0.003) and with decreasing mortality
      improvement with antigen avoidance (HR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.77, p=0.021).

PMID- 28883092
TI  - Human microcephaly ASPM protein is a spindle pole-focusing factor that functions
      redundantly with CDK5RAP2.
AB  - Nonsense mutations in the ASPM gene have been most frequently identified among
      familial microcephaly patients. Depletion of the Drosophila orthologue (asp)
      causes spindle pole unfocusing during mitosis in multiple cell types. However, it
      remains unknown whether human ASPM has a similar function. Here, by performing
      CRISPR-based gene knockout (KO) and RNA interference combined with auxin
      inducible degron, we show that ASPM functions in spindle pole organisation during
      mitotic metaphase redundantly with another microcephaly protein, CDK5RAP2 (also
      called CEP215), in human tissue culture cells. Deletion of the ASPM gene alone
      did not affect spindle morphology or mitotic progression. However, when the
      pericentriolar material protein CDK5RAP2 was depleted in ASPM KO cells, spindle
      poles were unfocused during prometaphase, and anaphase onset was significantly
      delayed. The phenotypic analysis of CDK5RAP2-depleted cells suggested that the
      pole-focusing function of CDK5RAP2 is independent of its known function to
      localise the kinesin-14 motor HSET (also known as KIFC1) or activate the gamma
      tubulin complex. Finally, a hypomorphic mutation identified in ASPM microcephaly
      patients similarly caused spindle pole unfocusing in the absence of CDK5RAP2,
      suggesting a possible link between spindle pole disorganisation and microcephaly.

PMID- 28883093
TI  - Role of the ECM in notochord formation, function and disease.
AB  - The notochord is a midline structure common to all chordate animals; it provides
      mechanical and signaling cues for the developing embryo. In vertebrates, the
      notochord plays key functions during embryogenesis, being a source of
      developmental signals that pattern the surrounding tissues. It is composed of a
      core of vacuolated cells surrounded by an epithelial-like sheath of cells that
      secrete a thick peri-notochordal basement membrane made of different
      extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. The correct deposition and organization of
      the ECM is essential for proper notochord morphogenesis and function. Work
      carried out in the past two decades has allowed researchers to dissect the
      contribution of different ECM components to this embryonic tissue. Here, we will
      provide an overview of these genetic and mechanistic studies. In particular, we
      highlight the specific functions of distinct matrix molecules in regulating
      notochord development and notochord-derived signals. Moreover, we also discuss
      the involvement of ECM synthesis and its remodeling in the pathogenesis of
      chordoma, a malignant bone cancer that originates from remnants of notochord
      remaining after embryogenesis.

PMID- 28883094
TI  - Integrin alpha8 and Pcdh15 act as a complex to regulate cilia biogenesis in
      sensory cells.
AB  - The way an organism perceives its surroundings depends on sensory systems and the
      highly specialized cilia present in the neurosensory cells. Here, we describe the
      existence of an integrin alpha8 (Itga8) and protocadherin-15a (Pcdh15a) ciliary
      complex in neuromast hair cells in a zebrafish model. Depletion of the complex
      via downregulation or loss-of-function mutation leads to a dysregulation of cilia
      biogenesis and endocytosis. At the molecular level, removal of the complex blocks
      the access of Rab8a into the cilia as well as normal recruitment of ciliary cargo
      by centriolar satellites. These defects can be reversed by the introduction of a
      constitutively active form of Rhoa, suggesting that Itga8-Pcdh15a complex
      mediates its effect through the activation of this small GTPase and probably by
      the regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics. Our data points to a novel
      mechanism involved in the regulation of sensory cilia development, with the
      corresponding implications for normal sensory function.

PMID- 28883095
TI  - Lipopolysaccharide modulates p300 and Sirt1 to promote PRMT1 stability via an
      SCFFbxl17-recognized acetyldegron.
AB  - E3 ubiquitin ligase recognizes its protein substrates via specific molecular
      signatures for ubiquitin proteasomal degradation. However, the role of
      acetylation/deacetylation in the process of E3 ubiquitin ligase recognizing its
      protein substrates is not fully studied. Here, we report that a tandem IK motif
      in protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) forms an acetyldegron to recruit
      the F-box/LRR-repeat protein 17 (FBXL17), a component of the SKP1-CUL1-F-box
      protein (SCF)-type E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. PRMT1 is polyubiquitylated for
      proteasome degradation with a half-life of approximately 4 h in lung epithelial
      cells. SCFFbxl17 mediates PRMT1 polyubiquitylation at K117. SCFFbxl17
      specifically binds PRMT1 via a unique motif IKxxxIK. Strikingly, the
      acetylation/deacetylation status of the lysine residues within the motif
      determines Fbxl17 binding. Deacetylation on both K200 and K205 by Sirtuin 1
      (Sirt1) and acetylation of p300 (EP300) on K205 collaboratively prepare the motif
      for SCFFbxl17 binding thereby triggering PRMT1 protein degradation. Pathogen
      derived lipopolysaccharide (LPS) downregulates Sirt1 and p300 to protect PRMT1
      from degradation. This study demonstrates that LPS promotes PRMT1 stability by
      blockade of PRMT1 and SCFFbxl17 binding via an acetylation/deacetylation-modified
      acetyldegron; and LPS-elevated levels of PRMT1 lead to bronchial epithelial cell
      overgrowth in pulmonary inflammatory diseases.

PMID- 28883097
TI  - Survival of very preterm infants admitted to neonatal care in England 2008-2014:
      time trends and regional variation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse survival trends and regional variation for very preterm
      infants admitted to neonatal care. SETTING: All neonatal units in England.
      PATIENTS: Infants born at 22+0-31+6 weeks+daysgestational age (GA) over 2008-2014
      and admitted to neonatal care; published data for admitted infants 22+0-25+6
      weeks+days GA in 1995 and 2006, and for live births at 22+0-31+6 weeks+days GA in
      2013. METHODS: We obtained data from the National Neonatal Research Database. We
      used logistic regression to model survival probability with birth weight, GA,
      sex, antenatal steroid exposure and multiple birth included in the risk
      adjustment model and calculated annualpercentage change (APC) for trends using
      joinpoint regression. We evaluated survival over a 20-year period for infants <26
      weeks' GA using additional published data from the EPICure studies. RESULTS: We
      identified 50 112 eligible infants. There was an increase in survival over 2008
      2014 (2008: 88.0%; 2014: 91.3%; adjusted APC 0.46% (95% CI 0.30 to 0.62)
      p<0.001). The greatest improvement was at 22+0-23+6 weeks (APC 6.03% (95% CI 2.47
      to 3.53) p=0.002). Improvement largely occurred in London and South of England
      (APC: London 1.26% (95% CI 0.60 to 1.96); South of England 1.09% (95% CI 0.36 to
      1.82); Midlands and East of England 0.15% (95% CI -0.56 to 0.86); and North of
      England 0.26% (95% CI -0.54 to 1.07)). Survival at the earliest gestations
      improved at a similar rate over 1995-2014 (22+0-25+6 weeks, APC 2.73% (95% CI
      2.35 to 3.12), p value for change=0.25). CONCLUSIONS: Continued national
      improvement in the survival of very preterm admissions masks important regional
      variation. Timely assessment of preterm survival is feasible using electronic
      records.

PMID- 28883099
TI  - Criticism remains for RSA's referral network despite cost of claims falling.

PMID- 28883096
TI  - COG7 deficiency in Drosophila generates multifaceted developmental, behavioral
      and protein glycosylation phenotypes.
AB  - Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) comprise a family of human
      multisystemic diseases caused by recessive mutations in genes required for
      protein N-glycosylation. More than 100 distinct forms of CDGs have been
      identified and most of them cause severe neurological impairment. The Conserved
      Oligomeric Golgi (COG) complex mediates tethering of vesicles carrying
      glycosylation enzymes across the Golgi cisternae. Mutations affecting human COG1,
      COG2 and COG4-COG8 cause monogenic forms of inherited, autosomal recessive CDGs.
      We have generated a Drosophila COG7-CDG model that closely parallels the
      pathological characteristics of COG7-CDG patients, including pronounced
      neuromotor defects associated with altered N-glycome profiles. Consistent with
      these alterations, larval neuromuscular junctions of Cog7 mutants exhibit a
      significant reduction in bouton numbers. We demonstrate that the COG complex
      cooperates with Rab1 and Golgi phosphoprotein 3 to regulate Golgi trafficking and
      that overexpression of Rab1 can rescue the cytokinesis and locomotor defects
      associated with loss of Cog7. Our results suggest that the Drosophila COG7-CDG
      model can be used to test novel potential therapeutic strategies by modulating
      trafficking pathways.

PMID- 28883101
TI  - Wales launches voluntary BVD screening programme in bid to eradicate disease.

PMID- 28883098
TI  - Randomised trial of estimating oral endotracheal tube insertion depth in newborns
      using weight or vocal cord guide.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When intubating newborns, clinicians aim to position the endotracheal
      tube (ETT) tip in the midtrachea. The depth to which ETTs should be inserted is
      often estimated using the infant's weight. ETTs are frequently incorrectly
      positioned in newborns, most often inserted too far. Using the vocal cord guide
      (a mark at the distal end of the ETT) to guide insertion depth has been
      recommended. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether estimating ETT insertion depth using
      the vocal cord guide rather than weight results in more correctly positioned ETT
      tips. DESIGN: Single-centre randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Level III
      neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at a university maternity hospital (National
      Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland). PATIENTS: Newborn infants without
      congenital anomalies intubated in the NICU. INTERVENTIONS: Participants were
      randomised to have ETT insertion depth estimated using weight [insertion depth
      (cm) = weight (kg) +6] or vocal cord guide. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Correct ETT
      position, that is, tip between the upper border of the first thoracic vertebra
      (T1) and the lower border of the second thoracic vertebra (T2) on a chest X-ray
      as determined by one paediatric radiologist masked to group assignment. RESULTS:
      136 participants were randomised. The proportion of correctly positioned ETTs was
      similar in both groups (weight 30/69 (44%) vs vocal cord guide 27/67 (40%),
      p=0.731). Most incorrectly positioned ETT (69/79, 87%) were too low. CONCLUSION:
      Estimating ETT insertion depth using the vocal cord guide did not result in more
      correctly positioned ETT tips. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN39654846.

PMID- 28883102
TI  - Tackling Nipah virus: L2.36 million grant awarded to Pirbright to create vaccine.

PMID- 28883103
TI  - Helping animals affected by Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

PMID- 28883105
TI  - Disease surveillance in England and Wales, August 2017.
AB  - Current and emerging issues: psoroptic mange in cattleHighlights from the
      scanning surveillance networkUpdate on international disease threatsAfrican swine
      fever in eastern Europe and the risk to the UKThese are among matters discussed
      in the Animal and Plant Health Agency's (APHA's) disease surveillance report for
      August 2017.

PMID- 28883106
TI  - African swine fever in eastern Europe: the risk to the UK.
AB  - This article has been prepared by Helen Roberts of the Defra/APHA International
      Disease Monitoring team.

PMID- 28883107
TI  - Anaemia and oxidative stress in calves: an ironclad problem?

PMID- 28883108
TI  - Foot bathing dairy cows with antibiotics.

PMID- 28883109
TI  - Ducks and the control of liver fluke in sheep.

PMID- 28883110
TI  - Reviewing the Practice Standards Scheme.

PMID- 28883111
TI  - Veterinary research in clinical practice.

PMID- 28883112
TI  - Death notice.

PMID- 28883113
TI  - Spencer Norman Bayer.
AB  - Spencer Bayer cared about people; his legacy is one of hard work and high moral
      and ethical standards.

PMID- 28883114
TI  - Elizabeth Adam Blyth.
AB  - Elizabeth Blyth worked as a small animal vet and was married to a vet.

PMID- 28883121
TI  - A life with horses.
AB  - Ben Jacklin is equine director and consultant veterinary surgeon at CVS UK. He is
      a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons and an RCVS and ECVS
      Specialist in equine surgery.

PMID- 28883122
TI  - On course.
AB  - Harry Carslake, equine medicine specialist at the Philip Leverhulme Equine
      Hospital, Liverpool, reviews a fiveday course on advanced cardiac ultrasound
      scanning that he completed recently.

PMID- 28883124
TI  - Debating the future of mandatory vaccination.

PMID- 28883123
TI  - Post-translational modification of the interferon-gamma receptor alters its
      stability and signaling.
AB  - The IFN gamma receptor 1 (IFNGR1) binds IFN-gamma and activates gene
      transcription pathways crucial for controlling bacterial and viral infections.
      Although decreases in IFNGR1 surface levels have been demonstrated to inhibit IFN
      gamma signaling, little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms controlling
      receptor stability. Here, we show in epithelial and monocytic cell lines that
      IFNGR1 displays K48 polyubiquitination, is proteasomally degraded, and harbors
      three ubiquitin acceptor sites at K277, K279, and K285. Inhibition of glycogen
      synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3beta) destabilized IFNGR1 while overexpression of
      GSK3beta increased receptor stability. We identified critical serine and
      threonine residues juxtaposed to ubiquitin acceptor sites that impacted IFNGR1
      stability. In CRISPR-Cas9 IFNGR1 generated knockout cell lines, cellular
      expression of IFNGR1 plasmids encoding ubiquitin acceptor site mutations
      demonstrated significantly impaired STAT1 phosphorylation and decreased STAT1
      dependent gene induction. Thus, IFNGR1 undergoes rapid site-specific
      polyubiquitination, a process modulated by GSK3beta. Ubiquitination appears to be
      necessary for efficient IFNGR1-dependent gamma gene induction and represents a
      relatively uncharacterized regulatory mechanism for this receptor.

PMID- 28883126
TI  - Genome Sequences of a Novel Picorna-Like Virus from Pacific Abalone (Haliotis
      discus hannai) in South Korea.
AB  - We report the draft genome sequences of a novel member of the Picornavirales
      isolated from Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai). The full length of the
      assembled draft genome sequences, obtained by use of a next-generation sequencing
      technique, were 8,019 nucleotides, including an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene
      (5,088 nucleotides) and a capsid protein gene (2,553 nucleotides). This genome
      sequence will be useful for understanding viral disease of Pacific abalone.

PMID- 28883127
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus brevis Strain 3M004, a Probiotic with
      Potential Quorum-Sensing Regulation.
AB  - We present here the draft genome sequence of Lactobacillus brevis strain 3M004, a
      probiotic that has potential for regulating quorum sensing. The strain was
      obtained from a type of aquafeed. The assembly consists of 2,459,326 bp and
      contains 33 contigs, with a G+C content of 45.10%.

PMID- 28883128
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Cercospora cf. sigesbeckiae, a Causal Agent of
      Cercospora Leaf Blight on Soybean.
AB  - Cercospora cf. sigesbeckiae is an ascomycete fungal pathogen that infects various
      plants, including important agricultural commodities, such as soybean. Here, we
      report the first draft genome sequence and assembly of this pathogen.

PMID- 28883129
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Zobellia sp. Strain OII3, Isolated from the Coastal Zone
      of the Baltic Sea.
AB  - Zobellia sp. strain OII3 was isolated from a marine environmental sample due to
      its heterotrophic lifestyle, i.e., using Escherichia coli cells as prey. It shows
      strong agar-lytic activity. The genome was assembled into 41 contigs with a total
      size of 5.4 Mb, revealing the genetic basis for natural product biosynthesis.

PMID- 28883125
TI  - Defining Optimal Brain Health in Adults: A Presidential Advisory From the
      American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
AB  - Cognitive function is an important component of aging and predicts quality of
      life, functional independence, and risk of institutionalization. Advances in our
      understanding of the role of cardiovascular risks have shown them to be closely
      associated with cognitive impairment and dementia. Because many cardiovascular
      risks are modifiable, it may be possible to maintain brain health and to prevent
      dementia in later life. The purpose of this American Heart Association
      (AHA)/American Stroke Association presidential advisory is to provide an initial
      definition of optimal brain health in adults and guidance on how to maintain
      brain health. We identify metrics to define optimal brain health in adults based
      on inclusion of factors that could be measured, monitored, and modified. From
      these practical considerations, we identified 7 metrics to define optimal brain
      health in adults that originated from AHA's Life's Simple 7: 4 ideal health
      behaviors (nonsmoking, physical activity at goal levels, healthy diet consistent
      with current guideline levels, and body mass index <25 kg/m2) and 3 ideal health
      factors (untreated blood pressure <120/<80 mm Hg, untreated total cholesterol
      <200 mg/dL, and fasting blood glucose <100 mg/dL). In addition, in relation to
      maintenance of cognitive health, we recommend following previously published
      guidance from the AHA/American Stroke Association, Institute of Medicine, and
      Alzheimer's Association that incorporates control of cardiovascular risks and
      suggest social engagement and other related strategies. We define optimal brain
      health but recognize that the truly ideal circumstance may be uncommon because
      there is a continuum of brain health as demonstrated by AHA's Life's Simple 7.
      Therefore, there is opportunity to improve brain health through primordial
      prevention and other interventions. Furthermore, although cardiovascular risks
      align well with brain health, we acknowledge that other factors differing from
      those related to cardiovascular health may drive cognitive health. Defining
      optimal brain health in adults and its maintenance is consistent with the AHA's
      Strategic Impact Goal to improve cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20%
      and to reduce deaths resulting from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20% by
      the year 2020. This work in defining optimal brain health in adults serves to
      provide the AHA/American Stroke Association with a foundation for a new strategic
      direction going forward in cardiovascular health promotion and disease
      prevention.

PMID- 28883130
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa NA04 Bacterium Isolated from an
      Entomopathogenic Nematode.
AB  - We report the draft genome sequence of Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa NA04, isolated from the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis
      indica MOR03. The draft genome consists of 54 contigs, a length of 6.37 Mb, and a
      G+C content 66.49%.

PMID- 28883131
TI  - Genome Sequence of an Unusual Reassortant H1N1 Swine Influenza Virus Isolated
      from a Pig in Russia, 2016.
AB  - We report here the genome sequence of the influenza A virus strain
      A/swine/Siberia/1sw/2016, isolated from a swine in Russia. On the basis of
      sequence analysis, A/swine/Siberia/1sw/2016 is characterized by unusual surface
      glycoproteins phylogenetically distinct from those of swine A(H1N1)pdm09
      influenza virus.

PMID- 28883132
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Natranaerobius trueperi DSM 18760T, an Anaerobic,
      Halophilic, Alkaliphilic, Thermotolerant Bacterium Isolated from a Soda Lake.
AB  - The anaerobic, halophilic, alkaliphilic, thermotolerant bacterium Natranaerobius
      trueperi was isolated from a soda lake in Wadi An Natrun, Egypt. It grows
      optimally at 3.7 M Na+, pH 9.5, and 43 degrees C. The draft genome consists of
      2.63 Mb and is composed of 2,681 predicted genes. Genomic analysis showed that
      various genes are potentially involved in the adaptation mechanisms for osmotic
      stress, pH homeostasis, and high temperatures.

PMID- 28883133
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Iridescent Marine Bacterium Cellulophaga lytica CECT
      8139.
AB  - Some species of the genus Cellulophaga have been reported as having
      biotechnological interests and noteworthy physiological properties. We report
      here the draft genome sequence of Cellulophaga lytica CECT 8139, a bacterium that
      produces an intensely iridescent colony biofilm on agar surfaces.

PMID- 28883134
TI  - First Complete Genome Sequences of Xanthomonas citri pv. vignicola Strains
      CFBP7111, CFBP7112, and CFBP7113 Obtained Using Long-Read Technology.
AB  - Xanthomonas citri pv. vignicola strains cause bacterial blight of the legume crop
      cowpea. We report whole-genome sequences of three X. citri pv. vignicola strains
      obtained using PacBio single-molecule real-time sequencing. Such genomic data
      provide new information on pathogenicity factors, such as transcription activator
      like effectors.

PMID- 28883135
TI  - Insights into the Draft Genome Sequence of a Haitian Variant Vibrio cholerae
      Strain Isolated from a Clinical Setting in Kerala, South India.
AB  - We report here the draft genome sequence of a Haitian variant Vibrio cholerae
      strain, W4-13, isolated from Kerala, South India, possessing cholera toxin gene
      in chromosomes I and II. The sequence will be useful to achieve a profound
      understanding on its evolution, with emphasis on its pathogenesis and antibiotic
      resistance.

PMID- 28883136
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Comamonas testosteroni R2, Consisting of Aromatic
      Compound Degradation Genes for Phenol Hydroxylase.
AB  - Comamonas testosteroni strain R2 was isolated from a continuous culture enriched
      by a low concentration of phenol-oxygenating activities with low Ks values (below
      1 MUM). The draft genome sequence of C. testosteroni strain R2 reported here may
      contribute to determining the phenol degradation gene cluster.

PMID- 28883137
TI  - Draft Genome Sequences of Three Sub-Antarctic Rhodococcus spp., Including Two
      Novel Psychrophilic Genomospecies.
AB  - The draft genome sequences of three sub-Antarctic Rhodococcus sp. strains-1159,
      1163, and 1168-are reported here. The estimated genome sizes were 7.09 Mb with a
      62.3% GC content for strain 1159, 4.45 Mb with a 62.3% GC content for strain
      1163, and 5.06 Mb with a 62.10% GC content for strain 1168.

PMID- 28883138
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Type Strain Sphingopyxis witflariensis DSM 14551.
AB  - Here, we present the draft genome sequence of Sphingopyxis witflariensis strain
      DSM 14551. The assembly consists of 38 contigs and contains 4,306,761 bp, with a
      GC content of 63.3%.

PMID- 28883139
TI  - Complete Genome Sequences of Four Extensively Drug-Resistant Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa Strains, Isolated from Adults with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia at
      a Tertiary Referral Hospital in Mexico City.
AB  - Four extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, isolated from
      patients with pneumonia, were sequenced using PacBio RS-II single-molecule real
      time (SMRT) technology. Genome sequence analysis identified great variability
      among mobile genetic elements, as well as some previously undescribed genomic
      islands and new variants of class 1 integrons (In1402, In1403, In1404, and
      In1408).

PMID- 28883140
TI  - Draft Genome Sequences of Listeria monocytogenes Strains from Listeriosis
      Outbreaks Linked to Soft Cheese in Washington State.
AB  - Listeria monocytogenes has caused listeriosis outbreaks linked to soft cheese.
      Here, we report the draft genome sequences of seven L. monocytogenes isolates
      from two possibly related outbreaks caused by soft cheese products in Washington
      State.

PMID- 28883141
TI  - Metagenome-Assembled Genome Sequences of Acetobacterium sp. Strain MES1 and
      Desulfovibrio sp. Strain MES5 from a Cathode-Associated Acetogenic Microbial
      Community.
AB  - Draft genome sequences of Acetobacterium sp. strain MES1 and Desulfovibrio sp.
      strain MES5 were obtained from the metagenome of a cathode-associated community
      enriched within a microbial electrosynthesis system (MES). The draft genome
      sequences provide insight into the functional potential of these microorganisms
      within an MES and a foundation for future comparative analyses.

PMID- 28883142
TI  - Genome Sequence of Bradyrhizobium mercantei Strain SEMIA 6399T, Isolated from
      Nodules of Deguelia costata in Brazil.
AB  - SEMIA 6399T is the type strain of Bradyrhizobium mercantei, a nitrogen-fixing
      symbiont of Deguelia costata Its draft genome contains 8,842,857 bp with 8,246
      predicted coding sequences (CDS), several related to amino acids and derivatives
      and to stress tolerance, with an emphasis on oxidative stress, in addition to
      symbiotic genes.

PMID- 28883143
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of Zobellella denitrificans ZD1 (JCM 13380), a Salt
      Tolerant Denitrifying Bacterium Capable of Producing Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate).
AB  - Zobellella denitrificans ZD1, isolated from sediments of an estuarine mangrove
      ecosystem in Taiwan, exhibits growth-associated production of biopolymer poly(3
      hydroxybutyrate) (PHB). This work reports the 4.05-Mbp draft genome sequence of
      Z. denitrificans ZD1, consisting of 217 contigs with a G+C content of 63.8% and
      3,672 protein-coding sequences.

PMID- 28883144
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of a blaOXA-58-Producing Acinetobacter baumannii Strain
      Isolated from a Mexican Hospital.
AB  - In this study, we present the complete genome sequence of a blaOXA-58-producing
      Acinetobacter baumannii strain, sampled from a Mexican hospital and not related
      to the international clones.

PMID- 28883146
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Gluten-Hydrolyzing Bacterium Bacillus subtilis GS
      188, Isolated from Wheat Sourdough.
AB  - The draft genome sequence of Bacillus subtilis GS 188, a novel spore-forming
      probiotic bacterium with gluten-hydrolyzing potential, was isolated from wheat
      sourdough and provides deep insights into the beneficial features of this strain
      for its use in the preparation of gluten-reduced wheat foods for humans with
      celiac disease.

PMID- 28883145
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Endophytic Bacterium Variovorax paradoxus KB5, Which
      Has Antagonistic Activity against a Phytopathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv.
      tomato DC3000.
AB  - Variovorax paradoxus KB5, isolated from the inside of Arabidopsis thaliana
      leaves, showed antibacterial activity against the phytopathogen Pseudomonas
      syringae pv. tomato DC3000. Here, we report a draft genome sequence of V.
      paradoxus KB5, which contains a delftibactin-like nonribosomal peptide
      biosynthetic gene cluster.

PMID- 28883147
TI  - Draft Genome Sequences of 64 Salmonella enterica Serotype Enteritidis Isolates
      Obtained from Wild Mice.
AB  - Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis is a foodborne pathogen of global
      concern, because it is frequently isolated from foods and patients. Draft genome
      sequences are reported here for 64 S Enteritidis strains isolated from the
      intestines and spleens of mice caught live on chicken farms in the U.S.
      Northeast. The availability of these genomes provides baseline information on the
      genomic diversity of S Enteritidis during the 1990s, when foodborne outbreaks
      traced to internal contamination of eggs were prevalent.

PMID- 28883148
TI  - Complete Genome Sequence of Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228 Chromosome and
      Plasmids, Generated by Long-Read Sequencing.
AB  - Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228 was sequenced using a long-read method to
      generate a complete genome sequence, including some plasmid sequences. Some
      differences from the previously generated short-read sequence of this
      nonpathogenic and non-biofilm-forming strain were noted. The assembly size was
      2,570,371 bp with a total G+C% content of 32.08%.

PMID- 28883149
TI  - Erratum for Edwards et al., "Draft Genome Sequence of Uncultured Upland Soil
      Cluster Gammaproteobacteria Gives Molecular Insights into High-Affinity
      Methanotrophy".

PMID- 28883150
TI  - Genome Sequence of Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum Strains with Compatible and
      Incompatible Interactions with the Major Tomato Resistance Source Hawaii 7996.
AB  - We report here the complete genome sequences of two Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum
      strains, isolated from the warm northeast region of Brazil. They display
      divergent (compatible versus incompatible) interactions with the resistant tomato
      line Hawaii 7996. Polymorphisms were detected in a subset of effector genes that
      might be associated with these contrasting phenotypes.

PMID- 28883151
TI  - Genome Sequence of Oceanimonas doudoroffii ATCC 27123T.
AB  - Oceanimonas doudoroffii ATCC 27123T is an obligately aerobic Gram-negative rod of
      the class Gammaproteobacteria It was first isolated from surface seawater off the
      coast of Oahu, HI, USA, in 1972. The predicted genome size is 3,832,938 bp (G+C
      content, 60.03%), which contains 3,524 predicted coding sequences.

PMID- 28883152
TI  - Complete Genome Sequences of Seven Strains Composing a Model Bacterial Community
      of Maize Roots.
AB  - Previously, we assembled a model bacterial community of maize roots. Here, we
      report the complete genome sequences of the seven strains composing the
      community.

PMID- 28883153
TI  - Genome Sequence of a Novel Picorna-Like RNA Virus from Feces of the Antarctic Fur
      Seal (Arctocephalus gazella).
AB  - A novel RNA virus was detected in a fecal sample collected from the Antarctic fur
      seal (Arctocephalus gazella) in King George Island, Antarctica. The almost
      complete genome sequence reveals two open reading frames and a dicistrovirus-like
      gene order.

PMID- 28883154
TI  - Draft Genome Sequence of the Marine Bacterium Oceanimonas baumannii ATCC 700832T.
AB  - The aerobic phenol-degrading Gram-negative rod Oceanimonas baumannii ATCC 700832T
      was first isolated from estuary mud from the River Wear, United Kingdom, in 1983.
      Information on the draft genome sequence for O. baumannii ATCC 700832T is
      included in this announcement. The predicted genome size is 3,809,332 bp, with
      55.88% G+C content.

PMID- 28883155
TI  - Is Brazil going to achieve the road traffic deaths target? An analysis about the
      sustainable development goals.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the temporal relationship between the road traffic
      mortality rate and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Brazil, and make an
      annual prediction of the evolution of both indicators until 2020, the end of the
      Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) monitoring period. METHODS: Brazilian road
      traffic mortality rate official data were described from 2000 to 2015, while the
      GDP per capita official data were described from 2000 to 2013. GDP per capita and
      traffic mortality rate predictions were performed until 2020 using fractional
      polynomial analysis. Correlations were assessed using Pearson's correlation
      coefficient. RESULTS: From 2000 to 2015, there were over 446 000 road crashes
      fatal victims in Brazil. The road traffic mortality rate was positively related
      to the Brazilian GDP per capita, with a strong correlation (r=0.89; p<0.001) from
      2000 to 2013 and a mild correlation (r=0.55; p<0.001) considering the whole
      period (2000-2020). The predictions show a reduction on the road traffic
      mortality rates in Brazil; however, if this same reduction pace continues, we
      estimate that the country will reach 12.4 road crash deaths per 100 000
      inhabitants in 2020, a reduction of only 13.4% compared with 2015. CONCLUSION: If
      the same mortality reduction pace continues in Brazil, the country will not reach
      the proposed SDG, which is to reduce by half the number of deaths per 100 000
      inhabitants. In addition, an intertwined conciliation between economical growth,
      sustainable development and public policies is needed in order to meet such an
      overwhelming goal.

PMID- 28883158
TI  - How to Teach Health IT Evaluation: Recommendations for Health IT Evaluation
      Courses.
AB  - Systematic health IT evaluation studies are needed to ensure system quality and
      safety and to provide the basis for evidence-based health informatics. Well
      trained health informatics specialists are required to guarantee that health IT
      evaluation studies are conducted in accordance with robust standards. Also,
      policy makers and managers need to appreciate how good evidence is obtained by
      scientific process and used as an essential justification for policy decisions.
      In a consensus-based approach with over 80 experts in health IT evaluation,
      recommendations for the structure, scope and content of health IT evaluation
      courses on the master or postgraduate level have been developed, supported by a
      structured analysis of available courses and of available literature. The
      recommendations comprise 15 mandatory topics and 15 optional topics for a health
      IT evaluation course.

PMID- 28883159
TI  - Developing and Evaluating Collaborative Online-Based Instructional Designs in
      Health Information Management.
AB  - The number of students enrolled in online courses is increasing steadily.
      Distance education offers many advantages, but also has inherent challenges.
      Successful distance education needs a thoughtfully designed instructional
      strategy where students are supported to actively create knowledge. We present
      the design and evaluation of three online-based courses in health informatics.
      The courses were based on a collaborative instructional strategy. The evaluation
      comprised workload analysis, student evaluation, student interviews and student
      reflections. Students expressed high satisfaction with online learning, despite a
      high workload, and high perceived learning outcomes. Using the Community of
      Inquiry framework as reference, we found very high levels of teaching presence,
      social presence and cognitive presence. Summarizing, we found that the chosen
      instructional strategy supported student-centered, collaborative learning. We
      conclude by presenting lesson learned for online-based instructional design.

PMID- 28883156
TI  - Structural insights into the interaction of the nuclear exosome helicase Mtr4
      with the preribosomal protein Nop53.
AB  - The nuclear exosome and the associated RNA helicase Mtr4 participate in the
      processing of several ribonucleoprotein particles (RNP), including the maturation
      of the large ribosomal subunit (60S). S. cerevisiae Mtr4 interacts directly with
      Nop53, a ribosomal biogenesis factor present in late pre-60S particles containing
      precursors of the 5.8S rRNA. The Mtr4-Nop53 interaction plays a pivotal role in
      the maturation of the 5.8S rRNA, providing a physical link between the nuclear
      exosome and the pre-60S RNP. An analogous interaction between Mtr4 and another
      ribosome biogenesis factor, Utp18, directs the exosome to an earlier preribosomal
      particle. Nop53 and Utp18 contain a similar Mtr4-binding motif known as the arch
      interacting motif (AIM). Here, we report the 3.2 A resolution crystal structure
      of S. cerevisiae Mtr4 bound to the interacting region of Nop53, revealing how the
      KOW domain of the helicase recognizes the AIM sequence of Nop53 with a network of
      hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. The AIM-interacting residues are
      conserved in Mtr4 and are not present in the related cytoplasmic helicase Ski2,
      rationalizing the specificity and versatility of Mtr4 in the recognition of
      different AIM-containing proteins. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), we
      show that the KOW domain of Mtr4 can simultaneously bind an AIM-containing
      protein and a structured RNA at adjacent surfaces, suggesting how it can dock
      onto RNPs. The KOW domains of exosome-associated helicases thus appear to have
      evolved from the KOW domains of ribosomal proteins and to function as RNP-binding
      modules in the context of the nuclear exosome.

PMID- 28883160
TI  - User Experience Evaluations in Rehabilitation Video Games for Children: A
      Systematic Mapping of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, the interest in user experience (UX) evaluation
      methods for assessing technology solutions, especially in health systems for
      children with special needs like cognitive disabilities, has increased.
      OBJECTIVE: Conduct a systematic mapping study to provide an overview in the field
      of UX evaluations in rehabilitation video games for children. METHODS: The
      definition of research questions, the search for primary studies and the
      extraction of those studies by inclusion and exclusion criteria lead to the
      mapping of primary papers according to a classification scheme. RESULTS: Main
      findings from this study include the detection of the target population of the
      selected studies, the recognition of two different ways of evaluating UX: (i)
      user evaluation and (ii) system evaluation, and UX measurements and devices used.
      CONCLUSIONS: This systematic mapping specifies the research gaps identified for
      future research works in the area.

PMID- 28883161
TI  - The Implementation of Medical Informatics in the National Competence Based
      Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for
      Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM) describes medical skills and attitudes
      without being ordered by subjects or organs. Thus, the NKLM enables systematic
      curriculum mapping and supports curricular transparency. In this paper we
      describe where learning objectives related to Medical Informatics (MI) in
      Hannover coincide with other subjects and where they are taught exclusively in
      MI. METHODS: An instance of the web-based MERLIN-database was used for the
      mapping process. RESULTS: In total 52 learning objectives overlapping with 38
      other subjects could be allocated to MI. No overlap exists for six learning
      objectives describing explicitly topics of information technology or data
      management for scientific research. Most of the overlap was found for learning
      objectives relating to documentation and aspects of data privacy. DISCUSSION: The
      identification of numerous shared learning objectives with other subjects does
      not mean that other subjects teach the same content as MI. Identifying common
      learning objectives rather opens up the possibility for teaching cooperations
      which could lead to an important exchange and hopefully an improvement in medical
      education. CONCLUSION: Mapping of a whole medical curriculum offers the
      opportunity to identify common ground between MI and other medical subjects.
      Furthermore, in regard to MI, the interaction with other medical subjects can
      strengthen its role in medical education.

PMID- 28883163
TI  - Implications of Low Levels of the UV Index for Sun Protection.
AB  - A Global Solar Ultraviolet Index (UVI) value of 2 is generally linked to the
      health message 'You can safely stay outside!' To examine whether this is sound
      advice for all skin types and even for prolonged periods spent outside we used
      erythemal irradiance data of all 136 days during the study period from 2014 till
      2016 with such a UVI measured by the German Federal Office for Radiation
      Protection (BfS) in Munich, Germany. A comparison between the ambient erythemal
      doses calculated for various time intervals and minimal erythemal doses (MEDs) of
      the Caucasian skin types I-IV led us to a critical reappraisal of the above
      health message. Specifically, the message might be misleading if people with a
      fair complexion want to spend several hours outside, because without any
      protective measures the doses received can be sufficient to induce erythema. We
      thus recommend an amendment of the health message related to a safe level of the
      UVI and, moreover, generally tailoring UVI-related health messages to different
      skin types. Currently, these messages do not seem to be strictly evidence based,
      which might be one reason for the unexpected result of our analysis.

PMID- 28883164
TI  - Routine Data Analyses to Compare Outpatient Depression Treatment Regimens.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Routine data analyses are becoming increasingly important for health
      policy decision making. However such databases often vary in data quality,
      completeness and accessibility. The aim of this study is to describe the quality
      of a large outpatient healthcare database, the process of data extraction and to
      give a brief overview of data-structure with focusing on provider-type and
      disease severity in an example of the treatment of depressive disorders. METHOD:
      The quality of the database is described and diagnosis rates of depression in
      outpatient care (ICD-10 diagnoses F32/33) in relation to the provider-type (i.e.
      general or somatic physician vs. physicians specialized in mental-health vs.
      psychotherapist) were calculated using Cramers V as a measure for effect size.
      RESULTS: The database consisted of 2,383,672 cases from 2015. Most depressive
      patients were diagnosed and treated by general or somatic physicians. A clear
      relationship between the severity of depression and provider-type is shown. In
      contrast to psychotherapists or physicians specialized in mental-health, general
      or somatic physicians diagnose a higher rate of unspecified depressive episodes.

PMID- 28883166
TI  - Standards-Based Procedural Phenotyping: The Arden Syntax on i2b2.
AB  - Phenotyping, or the identification of patient cohorts, is a recurring challenge
      in medical informatics. While there are open source tools such as i2b2 that
      address this problem by providing user-friendly querying interfaces, these
      platforms lack semantic expressiveness to model complex phenotyping algorithms.
      The Arden Syntax provides procedural programming language construct, designed
      specifically for medical decision support and knowledge transfer. In this work,
      we investigate how language constructs of the Arden Syntax can be used for
      generic phenotyping. We implemented a prototypical tool to integrate i2b2 with an
      open source Arden execution environment. To demonstrate the applicability of our
      approach, we used the tool together with an Arden-based phenotyping algorithm to
      derive statistics about ICU-acquired hypernatremia. Finally, we discuss how the
      combination of i2b2's user-friendly cohort pre-selection and Arden's procedural
      expressiveness could benefit phenotyping.

PMID- 28883167
TI  - On-The-Fly Query Translation Between i2b2 and Samply in the German Biobank Node
      (GBN) Prototypes.
AB  - Information retrieval is a major challenge in medical informatics. Various
      research projects have worked on this task in recent years on an institutional
      level by developing tools to integrate and retrieve information. However, when it
      comes down to querying such data across institutions, the challenge persists due
      to the high heterogeneity of data and differences in software systems. The German
      Biobank Node (GBN) project faced this challenge when trying to interconnect four
      biobanks to enable distributed queries for biospecimens. All biobanks had already
      established integrated data repositories, and some of them were already part of
      research networks. Instead of developing another software platform, GBN decided
      to form a bridge between these. This paper describes and discusses a core
      component from the GBN project, the OmniQuery library, which was implemented to
      enable on-the-fly query translation between heterogeneous research
      infrastructures.

PMID- 28883168
TI  - Evaluation of the IT Infrastructure of the RESIST Study with the Evidence-Based
      CIPROS Checklist.
AB  - Efficient and powerful information systems are substantial to perform medical
      research projects successfully. Especially, translational medicine poses specific
      challenges to the corresponding IT infrastructure. The RESIST study is a
      translational research project in oncology where xenografts inform about patients
      second-line treatment. DBFORM, an in-house developed system, was used as EDC
      system. It was enhanced with project specific features. We demonstrate how the
      CIPROS checklist has the potential to optimize the related requirements
      engineering process. The CIPROS checklist consists of 72 items, organized within
      12 Aspects/Topics and was developed to assess such patient registry software
      systems. In this paper we use the CIPROS checklist (1) to elucidate the projects
      requirements and (2) to assess systems features. The application of the CIPROS
      checklist to fix the RESIST project requirements and system features was
      successful. The interplay between (1) and (2) helped to accelerate the
      requirements engineering process and to set up a system suitable to perform the
      translational research project successful.

PMID- 28883169
TI  - Analysis of Age and Gender Structures for ICD-10 Diagnoses in Outpatient
      Treatment Using Shannon's Entropy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diagnostic diversity has been in the focus of several studies of
      health services research. As the fraction of people with statutory health
      insurance changes with age and gender it is assumed that diagnostic diversity may
      be influenced by these parameters. METHODS: We analyze fractions of patients in
      Schleswig-Holstein with respect to the chapters of the ICD-10 code in outpatient
      treatment for quarter 2/2016 with respect to age and gender/sex of the patient.
      In a first approach we analyzed which diagnose chapters are most relevant in
      dependence of age and gender. To detect diagnostic diversity, we finally applied
      Shannon's entropy measure. Due to multimorbidity we used different
      standardizations. RESULTS: Shannon entropy strongly increases for women after the
      age of 15, reaching a limit level at the age of 50 years. Between 15 and 70 years
      we get higher values for women, after 75 years for men. DISCUSSION: This article
      describes a straight forward pragmatic approach to diagnostic diversity using
      Shannon's Entropy. From a methodological point of view, the use of Shannon's
      entropy as a measure for diversity should gain more attraction to researchers of
      health services research.

PMID- 28883170
TI  - Markov Model of the Outpatient Classification System Morbidity Related Groups
      (MRG).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benchmarking and guidance of outpatient physicians in Germany are
      almost always based on one year data. This also holds true for morbidity related
      groups, a classification system applied in northern Germany since 2017. A study
      of the markov properties of prescription based grouping algorithms is reported
      here. RESULTS: There is a strongly connected graph for almost all components and
      the resulting markov chain has a unique stationary solution. CONCLUSIONS: Target
      values based on the status quo of prescription behavior can provide stable
      guidelines for outpatient physicians. Every set of partitions converging like MRG
      should be considered for controlling measures.

PMID- 28883172
TI  - IT Infrastructure for Biomedical Research in North-West Germany.
AB  - The efficient use of routine data for biomedical research presupposes an IT
      infrastructure designed for health care facilities. The objective of this study
      was to analyse which IT infrastructure is used in hospitals and by general
      practitioners' (GP) practices in the region Oldenburg-Bremen and to examine how
      well this supports research projects. To this end, IT managers and GPs were
      interviewed. The usage of hospital information systems (HIS) and data warehouse
      systems (DWS) in hospitals is of major importance for the study. Over 90 % use
      DWS for administration, 42 % for clinical research. None of the hospitals
      implemented consent for the use of routine data for research. Only a third of the
      GPs have participated in studies. The GPs' offices based EHR systems in use offer
      virtually no support for research projects. The study results demonstrate that
      technical and organisational measures are required for the further usage of
      routine data in the region.

PMID- 28883173
TI  - Data Collection of Medication - Impact of Autocompletion in eCRFs on Efficiency
      and Data Quality.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Openclinica Input Completion (OIC) was developed to increase the
      efficiency to enter drugs in eCRF in OpenClinica<sup>(r)</sup>. The aim of the
      study was to evaluate the impact on efficiency and data quality as well as
      usability. METHODS: 20 participants were asked to input 15 drugs with the new
      tool and by hand. RESULTS: The mean input time got decreased from 16:12m to
      3:59m. 31 of 300 (10%) of manual entered medication data sets had one or more
      errors versus 10 of 300 (3,3%) data sets entered with OIC. CONCLUSION: OIC was
      able to increase efficiency and data quality. We conclude that new additions to
      the graphical user interface in electronical Case-Report-Form (eCRF) systems
      should be validated before usage in research projects.

PMID- 28883174
TI  - A Decentralized IT Architecture for Locating and Negotiating Access to Biobank
      Samples.
AB  - There is a need among researchers for the easy discoverability of biobank
      samples. Currently, there is no uniform way for finding samples and negotiate
      access. Instead, researchers have to communicate with each biobank separately. We
      present the architecture for the BBMRI-CS IT platform, whose goal is to
      facilitate sample location and access. We chose a decentral approach, which
      allows for strong data protection and provides the high flexibility needed in the
      highly heterogeneous landscape of European biobanks. This is the first
      implementation of a decentral search in the biobank field. With the addition of a
      Negotiator component, it also allows for easy communication and a follow-through
      of the lengthy approval process for accessing samples.

PMID- 28883175
TI  - Semi-Automatic Terminology Generation for Information Extraction from German
      Chest X-Ray Reports.
AB  - Extraction of structured data from textual reports is an important subtask for
      building medical data warehouses for research and care. Many medical and most
      radiology reports are written in a telegraphic style with a concatenation of noun
      phrases describing the presence or absence of findings. Therefore a lexico
      syntactical approach is promising, where key terms and their relations are
      recognized and mapped on a predefined standard terminology (ontology). We propose
      a two-phase algorithm for terminology matching: In the first pass, a local
      terminology for recognition is derived as close as possible to the terms used in
      the radiology reports. In the second pass, the local terminology is mapped to a
      standard terminology. In this paper, we report on an algorithm for the first step
      of semi-automatic generation of the local terminology and evaluate the algorithm
      with radiology reports of chest X-ray examinations from Wurzburg university
      hospital. With an effort of about 20 hours work of a radiologist as domain expert
      and 10 hours for meetings, a local terminology with about 250 attributes and
      various value patterns was built. In an evaluation with 100 randomly chosen
      reports it achieved an F1-Score of about 95% for information extraction.

PMID- 28883176
TI  - Implementing a Data Management Platform for Longitudinal Health Research.
AB  - Health IT adoption research is rooted in Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory,
      which is based on longitudinal analyses. However, many studies in this field use
      cross-sectional designs. The aim of this study therefore was to design and
      implement a system to (i) consolidate survey data sets originating from different
      years (ii) integrate additional secondary data and (iii) query and statistically
      analyse these longitudinal data. Our system design comprises a 5-tier
      architecture that embraces tiers for data capture, data representation, logics,
      presentation and integration. In order to historicize data properly and to
      separate data storage from data analytics a data vault schema was implemented.
      This approach allows the flexible integration of heterogeneous data sets and the
      selection of comparable items. Data analysis is prepared by compiling data in
      data marts and performed by R and related tools. IT Report Healthcare data from
      2011, 2013 and 2017 could be loaded, analysed and combined with secondary
      longitudinal data.

PMID- 28883177
TI  - A Customizable Importer for the Clinical Data Warehouses PaDaWaN and I2B2.
AB  - In recent years, clinical data warehouses (CDW) storing routine patient data have
      become more and more popular to support scientific work in the medical domain.
      Although CDW systems provide interfaces to import new data, these interfaces have
      to be used by processing tools that are often not included in the systems
      themselves. In order to establish an extraction-transformation-load (ETL)
      workflow, already existing components have to be taken or new components have to
      be developed to perform the load part of the ETL. We present a customizable
      importer for the two CDW systems PaDaWaN and I2B2, which is able to import the
      most common import formats (plain text, CSV and XML files). In order to be run,
      the importer only needs a configuration file with the user credentials for the
      target CDW and a list of XML import configuration files, which determine how
      already exported data is indented to be imported. The importer is provided as a
      Java program, which has no further software requirements.

PMID- 28883178
TI  - Automated Transformation of CDISC ODM to OpenClinica.
AB  - Due to the increasing use of electronic data capture systems for clinical
      research, the interest in saving resources by automatically generating and
      reusing case report forms in clinical studies is growing. OpenClinica, an open
      source electronic data capture system enables the reuse of metadata in its own
      Excel import template, hampering the reuse of metadata defined in other standard
      formats. One of these standard formats is the Operational Data Model for
      metadata, administrative and clinical data in clinical studies. This work
      suggests a mapping from Operational Data Model to OpenClinica and describes the
      implementation of a converter to automatically generate OpenClinica conform case
      report forms based upon metadata in the Operational Data Model.

PMID- 28883179
TI  - Proof-of-Concept Integration of Heterogeneous Biobank IT Infrastructures into a
      Hybrid Biobanking Network.
AB  - Cross-institutional biobank networks hold the promise of supporting medicine by
      enabling the exchange of associated samples for research purposes. Various
      initiatives, such as BBMRI-ERIC and German Biobank Node (GBN), aim to
      interconnect biobanks for enabling the compilation of joint biomaterial
      collections. However, building software platforms to facilitate such
      collaboration is challenging due to the heterogeneity of existing biobank IT
      infrastructures and the necessary efforts for installing and maintaining
      additional software components. As a remedy, this paper presents the concept of a
      hybrid network for interconnecting already existing software components commonly
      found in biobanks and a proof-of-concept implementation of two prototypes
      involving four biobanks of the German Biobank Node. Here we demonstrate the
      successful bridging of two IT systems found in many German biobanks - Samply and
      i2b2.

PMID- 28883181
TI  - Alarm Fatigue: Causes and Effects.
AB  - The term "Alarm fatigue" is commonly used to describe the effect which a high
      number of alarms can have on caregivers: Frequent alarms, many of which are
      avoidable, can lead to inadequate responses, severely impacting patient safety.
      In the first step of a long-term effort to address this problem, both the direct
      and indirect impact of alarms, as well as possible causes of unnecessary alarms
      were focused. Models of these causes and impacts were developed using a scoping
      review which included guided interviews with experts from medical informatics,
      clinicians and medical device manufacturers. These models can provide the
      methodical grounds for the definition of targeted interventions and the
      assessment of their effects.

PMID- 28883182
TI  - IT Decision Making in German Hospitals - Do CEOs Open the Black Box?
AB  - Health IT and communication systems are indispensable in German hospitals for
      clinical as well as administrative process support. However, IT is often regarded
      as a "black box" for hospital CEOs. Thus, the question arises how can CEOs decide
      if they do not know what is in the box? In order to answer this question, half
      structured interviews with 14 German hospital CEOs were conducted. They revealed
      three principle decision processes: the supported decision, the joint decision
      and the corporate level decision. In all cases, the hospital CEO and the CIO
      interacted to reach the final decision, most strongly in the joint decision mode
      and least strongly in the corporate decision mode. Only the joint decision mode
      definitely forced the CEO to open the "black box" of IT. In the era of
      digitalisation, however, CEOs must develop better competencies to decide over
      complex matters.

PMID- 28883183
TI  - Cognitive Performance of Users Is Affected by Electronic Handovers Depending on
      Role, Task and Human Factors.
AB  - Patient handovers are cognitively demanding, crucial for information continuity
      and patient safety, but error prone. This study investigated the effect of an
      electronic handover tool, i.e. the handoverEHR, on the memory and care planning
      performance of nurse students (n=32) in a randomised, controlled cross-over
      design with the factors handover task and handover role. On a descriptive level,
      handover recipients could improve their memory performance with electronic
      support, handover givers their performance of writing care plans. Statistically
      meaningful differences occurred, however, only when the participants were givers.
      Without handover experience and with low fluency to word problems, givers
      performed badly in the most demanding of the handover tasks. Final
      recommendations, however, can only be made after replicating this study in a
      clinical setting with mixed groups.

PMID- 28883184
TI  - Technical Environment for Developing the SNIK Ontology of Information Management
      in Hospitals.
AB  - The SNIK project converts textbooks about information management in hospitals to
      a domain ontology that provides a shared vocabulary for institutions to model and
      integrate processes, data and infrastructure. To accommodate user groups with
      different requirements and technical backgrounds, and to support incremental and
      cooperative development, we create a system architecture to publish, visualize,
      browse and query the ontology, as well as to evaluate and improve the data
      quality.

PMID- 28883185
TI  - Factors Influencing the Implementation and Distribution of Clinical Decision
      Support Systems (CDSS).
AB  - Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) can have positive effects on quality of
      care measures, yet have not gained widespread traction in healthcare. This study
      sought to determine and evaluate barriers and facilitators to CDSS implementation
      and distribution. Based on 768 systems identified in a literature review we
      conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 54 system developers in 16
      countries. Qualitative analysis led to the identification of 66 key factors
      influencing implementation. Central issues evolved around CDSS properties,
      quality and integration, as well as usability, user related factors, internal
      marketing, resource issues and collaborations with emphasis partly on topics
      differing from existing research. Additionally, evidence pointed to regional
      differences regarding implementation hurdles. Recent regulatory requirements were
      deemed less of a barrier to system adoption than expected, even though lacking
      expertise in this area was surprisingly common among interview partners.

PMID- 28883186
TI  - Disseminating a Standard for Medical Records in Emergency Departments Among
      Different Software Vendors Using HL7 CDA.
AB  - A standardized medical record for the emergency department (GEDMR) was released
      in Germany, but only sparsely and randomly implemented by emergency department
      (ED) electronic health record (EHR) vendors. A reason for this may be a lacking
      common language between the medical and the Health Information Technology (HIT)
      domain. HL7 clinical document architecture (CDA) may leverage this communication
      gap. This paper reports on the effects of a professional medical association
      record standard on EHR vendors and the German ED-EHR market. Standard records and
      data standards are developed and published by different institutions either on
      governmental, healthcare agency or medical association level. There are some
      standard records, especially by US cardiology associations, transformed into HL7
      C-CDA. GEDMR was modeled as HL7 CDA with the use of interoperable terminologies
      like LOINC and SNOMED CT. Being part of an emergency department data registry
      development project, local deployment at 15 project hospitals receiving
      sufficient funding was performed. Two major ED-EHR vendors adapted GEDMR within
      their product including CDA export. 106,868 CDAs were produced in six hospitals
      until now. Four local implementations with four different ED-EHRs were developed,
      producing 42,256 CDAs. Five additional vendors are adapting or developing an ED
      EHR. The GEDMR-CDA implementation guide with funding for implementation in
      project hospitals had a significant impact on the German ED-EHR market. Within
      two years after release, a broadening and increasingly self-enforcing support by
      German ED-EHR vendors is notable.

PMID- 28883187
TI  - Requirements Analysis for a Clinical Decision Support System Aiming at Improving
      the Artificial Nutrition of Critically Ill Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nutrition support is an important aspect regarding the care of
      critically ill patients. Malnutrition affects the recovery process negatively.
      However, the impact on the clinical outcome is often underestimated in complex
      clinical settings due to several factors hindering optimization of nutrition.
      OBJECTIVE: To identify the requirements for a clinical decision support system
      that enables the medical staff to improve its patients' nutritional status.
      METHODS: A literature review and interviews with two senior physicians were
      conducted to refine the requirements for the support system as well as to
      determine the inclusion criteria for a subsequent intervention study. RESULTS:
      The analysis resulted in: (i) the identification of 4 measurement parameters for
      the assessment of the nutrition status; (ii) the graphical layout in adherence to
      the standards-based implementation approach for the creation of multi-patient
      dashboards; (iii) the definition of the study group. The nutrition dashboard will
      be implemented and integrated based on the set requirements, followed by an
      intervention study evaluating the dashboard's efficacy.

PMID- 28883188
TI  - Antecedents of CIOs' Innovation Capability in Hospitals: Results of an Empirical
      Study.
AB  - CIOs' innovation capability is regarded as a precondition of successful HIT
      adoption in hospitals. Based on the data of 142 CIOs, this study aimed at
      identifying antecedents of perceived innovation capability. Eight features
      describing the status quo of the hospital IT management (e.g. use of IT
      governance frameworks), four features of the hospital structure (e.g. functional
      diversification) and four CIO characteristics (e.g. duration of employment) were
      tested as potential antecedents in an exploratory stepwise regression approach.
      Perceived innovation capability in its entirety and its three sub-dimensions
      served as criterion. The results show that CIOs' perceived innovation capability
      could be explained significantly (R<sup>2</sup>=0.34) and exclusively by facts
      that described the degree of formalism and structure of IT management in a
      hospital, e.g. intensive and formalised strategic communication, the existence of
      an IT strategy and the use of IT governance frameworks. Breaking down innovation
      capability into its constituents revealed that "innovative organisational
      culture" contributed to a large extent (R<sup>2</sup>=0.26) to the overall result
      sharing several predictors. In contrast, "intrapreneurial personality"
      (R<sup>2</sup>=0.11) and "openness towards users" (R<sup>2</sup>=0.18) could be
      predicted less well. These results hint at the relationship between working in a
      well-structured, formalised and strategy oriented environment and the overall
      feeling of being capable to promote IT innovation.

PMID- 28883189
TI  - Identification of Measures and Indicators for the IT Security of Networked
      Medical Devices: A Delphi Study.
AB  - The networking of medical devices or systems in a hospital network is the
      foundation for modern medical diagnostics and therapy. This, however, makes
      possible numerous hazards that could lead to risks for patients, clinical
      processes or data and information. The aim of the work was to develop a catalogue
      of measures and indicators for the effective support of the IT risk management
      process in a health facility. Through a qualitative and quantitative Delphi study
      among 21 experts, it was possible to identify an initial 51 practice-relevant
      measures of IT risk management that a hospital should implement. Additionally, 27
      indicators were defined which can be used to measure the impact of these
      measures. Of the 51 measures, 35 were seen as especially important, particularly
      organizational measures. Of the 27 indicators, six were seen as especially
      important, particularly indicators to measure networking effectiveness. The study
      also investigated the impact of the measures on the indicators. A case study is
      planned to investigate the practicability of the identified measures and
      indicators.

PMID- 28883190
TI  - Extending the Query Language of a Data Warehouse for Patient Recruitment.
AB  - Patient recruitment for clinical trials is a laborious task, as many texts have
      to be screened. Usually, this work is done manually and takes a lot of time. We
      have developed a system that automates the screening process. Besides standard
      keyword queries, the query language supports extraction of numbers, time-spans
      and negations. In a feasibility study for patient recruitment from a stroke unit
      with 40 patients, we achieved encouraging extraction rates above 95% for numbers
      and negations and ca. 86% for time spans.

PMID- 28883191
TI  - Implementation of Task-Tracking Software for Clinical IT Management.
AB  - Often in clinical IT departments, many different methods and IT systems are used
      for task-tracking and project organization. Based on managers' personal
      preferences and knowledge about project management methods, tools differ from
      team to team and even from employee to employee. This causes communication
      problems, especially when tasks need to be done in cooperation with different
      teams. Monitoring tasks and resources becomes impossible: there are no defined
      deliverables, which prevents reliable deadlines. Because of these problems, we
      implemented task-tracking software which is now in use across all seven teams at
      the University Hospital Erlangen. Over a period of seven months, a working group
      defined types of tasks (project, routine task, etc.), workflows, and views to
      monitor the tasks of the 7 divisions, 20 teams and 340 different IT services. The
      software has been in use since December 2016.

PMID- 28883193
TI  - Expert2OWL: A Methodology for Pattern-Based Ontology Development.
AB  - The formalization of expert knowledge enables a broad spectrum of applications
      employing ontologies as underlying technology. These include eLearning, Semantic
      Web and expert systems. However, the manual construction of such ontologies is
      time-consuming and thus expensive. Moreover, experts are often unfamiliar with
      the syntax and semantics of formal ontology languages such as OWL and usually
      have no experience in developing formal ontologies. To overcome these barriers,
      we developed a new method and tool, called Expert2OWL that provides efficient
      features to support the construction of OWL ontologies using GFO (General Formal
      Ontology) as a top-level ontology. This method allows a close and effective
      collaboration between ontologists and domain experts. Essentially, this tool
      integrates Excel spreadsheets as part of a pattern-based ontology development and
      refinement process. Expert2OWL enables us to expedite the development process and
      modularize the resulting ontologies. We applied this method in the field of
      Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) and used Expert2OWL to automatically generate an
      accurate Chinese Herbology ontology (CHO). The expressivity of CHO was tested and
      evaluated using ontology query languages SPARQL and DL. CHO shows promising
      results and can generate answers to important scientific questions such as which
      Chinese herbal formulas contain which substances, which substances treat which
      diseases, and which ones are the most frequently used in CHM.

PMID- 28883194
TI  - Light-Weighted Automatic Import of Standardized Ontologies into the Content
      Management System Drupal.
AB  - The amount of ontologies, which are utilizable for widespread domains, is growing
      steadily. BioPortal alone, embraces over 500 published ontologies with nearly 8
      million classes. In contrast, the vast informative content of these ontologies is
      only directly intelligible by experts. To overcome this deficiency it could be
      possible to represent ontologies as web portals, which does not require knowledge
      about ontologies and their semantics, but still carries as much information as
      possible to the end-user. Furthermore, the conception of a complex web portal is
      a sophisticated process. Many entities must be analyzed and linked to existing
      terminologies. Ontologies are a decent solution for gathering and storing this
      complex data and dependencies. Hence, automated imports of ontologies into web
      portals could support both mentioned scenarios. The Content Management System
      (CMS) Drupal 8 is one of many solutions to develop web presentations with less
      required knowledge about programming languages and it is suitable to represent
      ontological entities. We developed the Drupal Upper Ontology (DUO), which models
      concepts of Drupal's architecture, such as nodes, vocabularies and links. DUO can
      be imported into ontologies to map their entities to Drupal's concepts. Because
      of Drupal's lack of import capabilities, we implemented the Simple Ontology
      Loader in Drupal (SOLID), a Drupal 8 module, which allows Drupal administrators
      to import ontologies based on DUO. Our module generates content in Drupal from
      existing ontologies and makes it accessible by the general public. Moreover
      Drupal offers a tagging system which may be amplified with multiple standardized
      and established terminologies by importing them with SOLID. Our Drupal module
      shows that ontologies can be used to model content of a CMS and vice versa CMS
      are suitable to represent ontologies in a user-friendly way. Ontological entities
      are presented to the user as discrete pages with all appropriate properties,
      links and tags.

PMID- 28883195
TI  - Mapping Equivalence of German Emergency Department Medical Record Concepts with
      SNOMED CT After Implementation with HL7 CDA.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The German Emergency Department Medical Record (GEDMR) was created
      by medical domain experts and healthcare providers providing a dataset as well as
      a form. The trauma module of GEDMR was syntactically standardized using HL7 CDA
      and semantically standardized using different terminologies including SNOMED CT,
      LOINC and proprietary coding systems. This study depicts the mapping accuracy
      with aforementioned syntactical and semantical standards in general and
      especially the content coverage of SNOMED CT. METHODS: The specification of GEDMR
      (V2015.1) concepts with eHealth-standards HL7-CDA, LOINC, SNOMED CT was analyzed.
      A content coverage assessment was made using the ISO TR 12300 rating scheme,
      following descriptive analysis. RESULTS: The trauma module of GEDMR contains 489
      concepts, with 202 concepts expressed via HL7 CDA structure. It is possible to
      code 89 % of the remaining concepts via SNOMED CT. 79 % provide an advanced level
      of semantic interoperability, as they represent the source information either
      lexically or as an approved synonym. DISCUSSION: The terminology binding problem
      is relevant when combining different standards for syntactic and semantic
      interoperability with best practice documents and reference specifications
      providing guidance. A national license and extension for SNOMED CT in Germany as
      well as an ongoing effort in contributing to the International Version of SNOMED
      CT would be necessary to gain full coverage for concepts in German Emergency
      Medicine and to leverage the associated standardization process.

PMID- 28883196
TI  - From a Content Delivery Portal to a Knowledge Management System for Standardized
      Cancer Documentation.
AB  - Heterogeneous tumor documentation and its challenges of interpretation of medical
      terms lead to problems in analyses of data from clinical and epidemiological
      cancer registries. The objective of this project was to design, implement and
      improve a national content delivery portal for oncological terms. Data elements
      of existing handbooks and documentation sources were analyzed, combined and
      summarized by medical experts of different comprehensive cancer centers.
      Informatics experts created a generic data model based on an existing metadata
      repository. In order to establish a national knowledge management system for
      standardized cancer documentation, a prototypical tumor wiki was designed and
      implemented. Requirements engineering techniques were applied to optimize this
      platform. It is targeted to user groups such as documentation officers,
      physicians and patients. The linkage to other information sources like PubMed and
      MeSH was realized.

PMID- 28883197
TI  - An Abstraction Layer to Facilitate Technical Interoperability Between Medical
      Records and Knowledge Modules.
AB  - Integrating clinical decision support (CDS) functions into an existing hospital
      information system (HIS) is often a tedious task. This problem area is so
      pervasive that the Arden Syntax, a widely used standard for CDS functions,
      assigned a specific designation, the so-called "curly braces problem". It derives
      from a pair of curly braces used to encapsulate any parameters required for the
      interactions with a HIS. The traditional approach is to leave the problem area of
      technical interoperability entirely to the specific institution, possibly
      entailing a considerable amount of initial programming work. This study describes
      a reusable and expandable solution to this problem in the form of an abstraction
      layer. Our study comprised an analytical phase in which we investigated the data
      source access capabilities of five Arden Syntax environments. Building on the
      results, we implemented a working prototype that is capable of querying
      heterogeneous data sources, which facilitates a straightforward connection of new
      data sources with existing and future communication protocols and standards. From
      our point of view, the technical aspects of the "curly braces problem" with
      respect to data source access have changed over the years, insofar as technical
      progress lead to defacto standards for data storage, data querying and inter
      system communication. An agreement on such a convention, together with the supply
      of commonly used data source adapters could promote the further dissemination of
      the Arden Syntax as a standard for representing and sharing medical knowledge.

PMID- 28883198
TI  - Analysis of Annotated Data Models for Improving Data Quality.
AB  - The public Medical Data Models (MDM) portal with more than 9.000 annotated forms
      from clinical trials and other sources provides many research opportunities for
      the medical informatics community. It is mainly used to address the problem of
      heterogeneity by searching, mediating, reusing, and assessing data models, e. g.
      the semi-interactive curation of core data records in a special domain.
      Furthermore, it can be used as a benchmark for evaluating algorithms that create,
      transform, annotate, and analyse structured patient data. Using CDISC ODM for
      syntactically representing all data models in the MDM portal, there are semi
      automatically added UMLS CUIs at several ODM levels like ItemGroupDef, ItemDef,
      or CodeList item. This can improve the interpretability and processability of the
      received information, but only if the coded information is correct and reliable.
      This raises the question how to assure that semantically similar datasets are
      also processed and classified similarly. In this work, a (semi-)automatic
      approach to analyse and assess items, questions, and data elements in clinical
      studies is described. The approach uses a hybrid evaluation process to rate and
      propose semantic annotations for under-specified trial items. The evaluation
      algorithm operates with the commonly used NLM MetaMap to provide UMLS support and
      corpus-based proposal algorithms to link datasets from the provided CDISC ODM
      item pool.

PMID- 28883200
TI  - Optimizing a Query by Transformation and Expansion.
AB  - In the biomedical sector not only the amount of information produced and uploaded
      into the web is enormous, but also the number of sources where these data can be
      found. Clinicians and researchers spend huge amounts of time on trying to access
      this information and to filter the most important answers to a given question. As
      the formulation of these queries is crucial, automated query expansion is an
      effective tool to optimize a query and receive the best possible results. In this
      paper we introduce the concept of a workflow for an optimization of queries in
      the medical and biological sector by using a series of tools for expansion and
      transformation of the query. After the definition of attributes by the user, the
      query string is compared to previous queries in order to add semantic co
      occurring terms to the query. Additionally, the query is enlarged by an inclusion
      of synonyms. The translation into database specific ontologies ensures the
      optimal query formulation for the chosen database(s). As this process can be
      performed in various databases at once, the results are ranked and normalized in
      order to achieve a comparable list of answers for a question.

PMID- 28883201
TI  - Deep Learning for Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting: A New Approach for
      Predicting Quantitative Parameter Values from Time Series.
AB  - The purpose of this work is to evaluate methods from deep learning for
      application to Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF). MRF is a recently
      proposed measurement technique for generating quantitative parameter maps. In MRF
      a non-steady state signal is generated by a pseudo-random excitation pattern. A
      comparison of the measured signal in each voxel with the physical model yields
      quantitative parameter maps. Currently, the comparison is done by matching a
      dictionary of simulated signals to the acquired signals. To accelerate the
      computation of quantitative maps we train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on
      simulated dictionary data. As a proof of principle we show that the neural
      network implicitly encodes the dictionary and can replace the matching process.

PMID- 28883202
TI  - Evaluation of an Interactive Visualization Tool for the Interpretation of
      Pediatric Laboratory Test Results.
AB  - The physiological age-related development of pediatric laboratory results
      interferes with pathological derangements, which can complicate the
      interpretation of test results. Recently proposed continuous reference intervals
      (RIs) promise to be beneficial, although their clinical use may depend on
      graphical presentations. To estimate the clinical utility of continuous RIs, we
      developed and evaluated an interactive visualization tool, and examined the
      differentiation of hemoglobinopathies that is attainable based on the underlying
      innovative RI model. The implemented web application allows users to easily enter
      laboratory test results, and displays various visualizations in conjunction with
      the corresponding RIs, such as charts and personalized Z-scores. To evaluate the
      usability of the visualization tool, we conducted concurrent think-aloud sessions
      with four physicians, who were prompted to solve a set of typical interpretation
      tasks, and acquired additional information through a questionnaire including the
      System Usability Scale (SUS). We used 85 de-identified clinical cases for an
      exemplified assessment of how well model-based interpretations of blood count
      parameters reproduced previously diagnosed hemoglobinopathies. Usability tests as
      well as questionnaire responses indicated that the developed tool was well
      received by the physicians. Results from the think-aloud evaluation revealed only
      minor problems and the tool reached an average SUS score of 86.9, suggesting good
      usability. Hemoglobinopathy discrimination depended on the considered subtype,
      although the overall performance of the novel method rivaled the one of the
      conventional approach. The interactive visualization of innovative continuous
      reference intervals demonstrated promising results, which justifies further
      testing on the path towards clinical routine.

PMID- 28883203
TI  - Machine Learning Models of Post-Intubation Hypoxia During General Anesthesia.
AB  - Fine-meshed perioperative measurements are offering enormous potential for
      automatically investigating clinical complications during general anesthesia. In
      this study, we employed multiple machine learning methods to model perioperative
      hypoxia and compare their respective capabilities. After exporting and
      visualizing 620 series of perioperative vital signs, we had ten anesthesiologists
      annotate the subjective presence and severity of temporary post-intubation oxygen
      desaturation. We then applied specific clustering and prediction methods on the
      acquired annotations, and evaluated their performance in comparison to the inter
      rater agreement between experts. When reproducing the expert annotations, the
      sensitivity and specificity of multi-layer neural networks substantially
      outperformed clustering and simpler threshold-based methods. The achieved
      performance of our best automated hypoxia models thereby approximately equaled
      the observed agreement between different medical experts. Furthermore, we
      deployed our classification methods for processing unlabeled inputs to estimate
      the incidence of hypoxic episodes in another sizeable patient cohort, which
      attests to the feasibility of using the approach on a larger scale. We interpret
      that our machine learning models could be instrumental for computerized
      observational studies of the clinical determinants of post-intubation oxygen
      deficiency. Future research might also investigate potential benefits of more
      advanced preprocessing approaches such as automated feature learning.

PMID- 28883204
TI  - Considering Information Up-to-Dateness to Increase the Accuracy of Therapy
      Decision Support Systems.
AB  - During the diagnostic process a lot of information is generated. All this
      information is assessed when making a final diagnosis and planning the therapy.
      While some patient information is stable, e.g., gender, others may become
      outdated, e.g., tumor size derived from CT data. Quantifying this information up
      to-dateness and deriving consequences are difficult. Especially for the
      implementation in clinical decision support systems, this has not been studied.
      When information entities tend to become outdated, in practice, clinicians
      intuitively reduce their impact when making decisions. Therefore, in a system's
      calculations their impact should be reduced as well. We propose a method of
      decreasing the certainty of information entities based on their up-to-dateness.
      The method is tested in a decision support system for TNM staging based on
      Bayesian networks. We compared the actual N-state in records of 39 patients to
      the N-state calculated with and without decreasing data certainty. The results
      under decreased certainty correlated better with the actual states (r=0.958,
      p=0.008). We conclude that the up-to-dateness must be considered when processing
      clinical information to enhance decision making and ensure more patient safety.

PMID- 28883205
TI  - Processual Reasoning over Sequences of Situations in Endoscopic Surgery.
AB  - Minimally invasive surgery is a highly complex and technically demanding
      alternative to open surgery. Surgical procedures based on this method are
      characterized by small incisions and allow for a fast recovery of the patient.
      Such techniques are challenging for surgeons since they do not have a direct view
      of the surgical area. Systems that provide surgical navigation are well
      established in clinical practice but depend on external markers allowing a
      mapping between a surgeon's tools and a patient's medical images. As of today,
      these systems are prone to inaccuracies, the reasons of which lie in their
      extensive technical requirements. The BIOPASS project aims to develop an
      alternative that works without external markers and indirect computation of
      locations. An ontology has been used to provide an adequate vocabulary describing
      situations and their temporal relationship. This ontology is expected to relate
      real time multimodal sensor data and static surgical process models in order to
      infer movement directions, subsequent actions and hidden anatomical structures
      that inhere risk for surgical interventions. However, the Web Ontology Language
      is not capable of modelling temporal conditions, which are necessary to provide
      such exhaustive situational descriptions as expected by a surgeon. This paper
      concerns an ontology design pattern developed to overcome this issue by the
      integration of dynamic ontological classes that are assigned according to the
      temporal relations between situations.

PMID- 28883208
TI  - Basic study of intratracheal instillation study of nanomaterials for the
      estimation of the hazards of nanomaterials.
AB  - In order to examine the usefulness of intratracheal instillation of nanoparticles
      for the screening of the harmful effects of nanoparticles, we performed
      intratracheal instillation studies of nanomaterials on rats using different
      delivery devices and postures as a basic study. Multiwall carbon nanotubes
      (MWCNTs) with a geometric mean length and secondary diameter of 2.16 MUm and 752
      nm, respectively, were used as the nanomaterials. Male F344 rats were
      intratracheally exposed to 0.04 or 0.2 mg/rat of MWCNT, were dissected at 1 d and
      3 d, and cell analyses of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were analyzed.
      Two delivery devices were used for the intratracheal instillation of the MWCNTs:
      a gavage needle and a microsprayer aerolizer. Both induced neutrophil influx in
      the lung at 1 and 3 d, and there were no significant differences in neutrophil
      inflammation between the two delivery devices. The main distribution of pulmonary
      inflammation by both delivery devices was in the centrilobular spaces in the
      lung. Two postures were used: an angle of approximately 45 degrees and a standing
      posture on a board, both of which also induced pulmonary influx in BALF and
      pulmonary inflammation mainly in the centrilobular spaces, with no large
      difference in pulmonary inflammation between the two postures. Taken together,
      the differences in the delivery devices and postures of the rats in the
      intratracheal instillation did not affect the acute pulmonary toxicity of the
      nanomaterials.

PMID- 28883209
TI  - Is Anatomic Lung Resection Necessary in Surgical Treatment of Giant Lung Hydatid
      Cysts in Childhood?
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the results of parenchymal saving
      methods for giant lung hydatid cysts and to discuss the necessity of anatomic
      lung resection in childhood. METHODS: The patients under the age of 16 years who
      were operated between January 2000 and January 2017 due to pulmonary hydatid cyst
      were evaluated retrospectively (n = 200). In all, 32 patients who had giant
      hydatid cyst were included in this study. Parenchymal saving methods (cystotomy
      capitonnage) were preferred and decortication was also performed for pleural
      thickening if needed. No lung resections were applied. RESULTS: Male patients
      were 53.1%. The mean age was 11.3 +/- 3.2 years. The total number of giant cysts
      was 32. The average size of the cysts was 11 cm. Thirty seven point five percent
      of the cysts were perforated. Postoperative complication rate was 31.3%. No
      recurrence and mortality were seen during follow-up period. CONCLUSION:
      Considering the high recovery capacity of lung tissue, a chance should be given
      to recover the existing infection, atelectasis, and parenchymal damage.
      Especially in areas where hydatid disease is endemic, children may be infected
      with the parasite again. For these reasons, we do not recommend resection with
      any indications.

PMID- 28883210
TI  - Developmental changes in hypothalamic SF-1, POMC, and ERalpha mRNA expression and
      their sensitivity to fasting in male and female rats.
AB  - Estrogen plays pivotal roles in body weight regulation through its effects on
      central estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha) expression. ERalpha is found on neurons
      that express the hypothalamic anorexigenic factors steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1)
      and pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) mediate these effects of estrogen. As the gonadal
      hormonal milieu is drastically altered during the developmental period, the
      expression levels of SF-1 and POMC might also change during this period. In this
      study, we showed that hypothalamic SF-1 and ERalpha mRNA expression did not
      change during the neonatal to pre-pubertal period (from postnatal day 10 to 30),
      and there were no significant differences in the hypothalamic mRNA expression
      levels of these molecules between males and females at any examined age. On the
      other hand, hypothalamic POMC mRNA expression and the serum estradiol (E2) level
      increased during development in both males and females. Significant positive
      correlations were detected between the serum E2 level and hypothalamic POMC mRNA
      expression in both males and females. Hypothalamic ERalpha and POMC mRNA
      expression were decreased by fasting in male rats at all examined ages, whereas
      fasting had no effect on hypothalamic ERalpha or POMC mRNA expression in the
      female rats. These results indicate that the regulatory system involving E2 and
      hypothalamic POMC expression might already be established in the neonatal period
      and that the roles of POMC and ERalpha in body weight regulation during
      development might differ slightly between males and females.

PMID- 28883212
TI  - [Verification of Learning Effects by Team-based Learning].
AB  - It has been recommended that active learning methods, such as team-based
      learning (TBL) and problem-based learning (PBL), be introduced into university
      classes by the Central Council for Education. As such, for the past 3 years, we
      have implemented TBL in a medical therapeutics course for 4-year students. Based
      upon our experience, TBL is characterized as follows: TBL needs fewer teachers
      than PBL to conduct a TBL module. TBL enables both students and teachers to
      recognize and confirm the learning results from preparation and reviewing. TBL
      grows students' responsibility for themselves and their teams, and likely
      facilitates learning activities through peer assessment.

PMID- 28883211
TI  - CIDE Family-Mediated Unique Lipid Droplet Morphology in White Adipose Tissue and
      Brown Adipose Tissue Determines the Adipocyte Energy Metabolism.
AB  - White adipose tissue (WAT) stores energy as triacylglycerol in preparation for
      fasting state. In contrast, brown adipose tissue (BAT) consumes energy and
      produces heat in a cold environment. One of the major differences between these
      two adipose tissues is the morphology of the intracellular lipid droplet (LD),
      which is large and unilocular in WAT and small and multilocular in BAT. Although
      the fat-specific protein 27 alpha (FSP27alpha), belonging to the cell death
      inducing DNA fragmentation factor A (DFFA)-like effector (Cide) family, was known
      to be indispensable for large unilocular LD formation in WAT, the mechanism that
      regulated small multilocular LD formation in BAT remained unknown. We recently
      uncovered that FSP27beta, a novel isoform of FSP27 abundantly expressed in BAT,
      plays a crucial role in small multilocular LD formation by inhibiting the
      homodimerization of CideA in BAT. We speculate that unilocular LD formation is
      ideal for efficient lipid storage in WAT because lipolysis from the LD surface is
      restricted due to the minimum LD surface area. In addition, hydrolyzed free fatty
      acid (FFA) and glycerol can efficiently flow out into the circulation from the
      cell surface. In contrast, small multilocular LD formation is ideal for efficient
      intracellular lipolysis from the LD surface and the subsequent facilitation of
      FFA transport to mitochondria that are adjacent to LDs for beta-oxidation in BAT.
      Thus, intracellular LD morphology is closely related to the functions and
      characteristics of adipose tissues. Given that the browning of adipose tissue
      leads to enhanced energy expenditure and the prevention of obesity, clarification
      of the mechanism with respect to intracellular LD formation is very meaningful.

PMID- 28883213
TI  - [Present Status of Displaying Pharmaceutical Products for Sale on Flea Market
      Applications for Smartphones and the Responses to Illicit Selling by Service
      Providers].
AB  - In Japan, a pharmacy or drug store license is required for selling
      pharmaceutical products. However, civilians without a pharmacy or drug store
      license are displaying pharmaceutical products for sale on a flea market
      application, which is illegal dealing. This study discussed the modality for
      implementing countermeasures for the illicit selling of pharmaceutical products.
      We extracted pharmaceutical products displayed for sale on three flea market
      applications (Mercari, Rakuma, Fril) on one day. One hundred and eighty-one
      pharmaceutical products were displayed (49 on Mercari, 86 on Rakuma, and 46 on
      Fril). There were 6.1% (11/181) domestically prescribed drugs, 69.1% (125/181)
      domestic OTC drugs, 23.8% (43/181) foreign-made prescribed drugs, and 1.1%
      (2/181) foreign-made OTC drugs. The seller could display the product for sale
      without confirming whether it is prohibited. We alerted the service providers of
      this illicit selling at flea markets at three different instances. The
      pharmaceutical product displays were deleted by the service providers at a rate
      of 55.1% (27/49) for Mercari and 51.2% (44/86) for Rakuma. The average number of
      drugs that were displayed for sale by each seller was 1.4 and the average number
      of total products that were displayed for sale by each seller was 100. The seller
      could have unintentionally displayed the pharmaceutical products for sale,
      without the knowledge that it is illegal. The service providers of flea market
      applications should create mechanisms to alert the sellers that displaying
      pharmaceutical products for sale is an illicit act and regulate these violations.

PMID- 28883214
TI  - The Incidence of Atypical Femoral Fractures in Patients with Rheumatic Disease:
      Yamagata Prefectural Committee of Atypical Femoral Fractures (YamaCAFe) Study.
AB  - Atypical femoral fractures (AFFs) have been reported to occur with minimal or
      spontaneous subtrochanteric and femoral shaft fractures with a characteristic
      transverse pattern, compared with typical femoral fractures in young patients
      with high-energy trauma. AFFs are related to long-term use of bisphosphonates
      (BPs), glucocorticoids and rheumatic diseases. We have estimated a blind analysis
      of AFFs in rheumatic patients receiving BPs and glucocorticoids ordinary over a
      long time in all Yamagata prefectural area through radiographic examination. The
      123 AFFs including suspected cases over six years were collected and reviewed by
      two independent orthopedic surgeons. We found 86 patients with a total of 99 AFFs
      between 2009 and 2014 (1.43 cases/100,000 person/year). Of these 99 AFFs, 11 were
      in 8 rheumatic patients including three patients with bilateral AFFs. The
      incidence of AFFs in rheumatic patients had trend to increase from 2012. The mean
      age of all 8 patients was 54.9 years. All 8 patients received BPs and 7/8
      received prednisolone (PSL). The mean dose of PSL was 14 mg/day. Compared to
      patients with unilateral AFFs, those with bilateral AFFs in rheumatic patients
      were on a higher dose of PSL (20 mg/day vs. 7 mg/day) and had less femoral neck
      shaft angle (129 degrees  vs. 136 degrees , p < 0.05). In conclusion, the
      incidence of AFFs in rheumatic patients showed a trend to increase from 2012 to
      2014 in Yamagata prefecture. Careful management of AFFs is of particular
      importance in rheumatic patients who have taken high doses of PSL and have small
      femoral neck-shaft angle.

PMID- 28883216
TI  - Impact of Speed-Eating Habit on Subsequent Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure
      Among Schoolchildren - The Ibaraki Children's Cohort Study (IBACHIL).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Habitual speed eating is a risk factor of obesity but evidence of
      this in children is limited. We examined the association between speed-eating
      habit and subsequent body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP) among Japanese
      children.Methods and Results:The community-based study comprised 1,490 Japanese
      boys and girls who were born in 1989, involved in the Ibaraki Children's Cohort
      Study at age 3 years, and had returned questionnaires at both ages 6 and 12
      years. In a subsample, we measured BP (n=263). Speed-eating habit was categorized
      into 4 groups: Never, Quit, Newly, and Continuous. Sex-specific mean values of
      questionnaire-based BMI and measured BPs at age 12 were examined according to
      speed-eating habit. Children with continuous speed eating had a higher BMI at age
      12 than those who had never had a speed-eating habit (20.0 vs. 17.9 kg/m2for boys
      (P<0.001); 20.0 vs. 18.4 kg/m2(P<0.001) for girls). Systolic BP at age 12 was
      higher in boys with continuous speed eating than in those without (117 vs. 110
      mmHg, P=0.01), but such a difference was not observed in girls (112 vs. 111 mmHg,
      P=0.95). CONCLUSIONS: Habitualspeed eating was positively associated with
      subsequent BMI among boys and girls as well as with systolic BP among boys.

PMID- 28883215
TI  - Cytokine Response to Diet and Exercise Affects Atheromatous Matrix
      Metalloproteinase-2/9 Activity in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to identify the principal circulating
      factors that modulate atheromatous matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity in
      response to diet and exercise.Methods and Results:Apolipoprotein-E knock-out
      (ApoE-/-) mice (n=56) with pre-existing plaque, fed either a Western diet (WD) or
      normal diet (ND), underwent either 10 weeks of treadmill exercise or had no
      treatment. Atheromatous MMP activity was visualized using molecular imaging with
      a MMP-2/9 activatable near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) probe. Exercise did not
      significantly reduce body weight, visceral fat, and plaque size in either WD-fed
      animals or ND-fed animals. However, atheromatous MMP-activity was different; ND
      animals that did or did not exercise had similarly low MMP activities, WD animals
      that did not exercise had high MMP activity, and WD animals that did exercise had
      reduced levels of MMP activity, close to the levels of ND animals. Factor
      analysis and path analysis showed that soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule
      (sVCAM)-1 was directly positively correlated to atheromatous MMP activity.
      Adiponectin was indirectly negatively related to atheromatous MMP activity by way
      of sVCAM-1. Resistin was indirectly positively related to atheromatous MMP
      activity by way of sVCAM-1. Visceral fat amount was indirectly positively
      associated with atheromatous MMP activity, by way of adiponectin reduction and
      resistin elevation. MMP-2/9 imaging of additional mice (n=18) supported the
      diet/exercise-related anti-atherosclerotic roles for sVCAM-1. CONCLUSIONS: Diet
      and exercise affect atheromatous MMP activity by modulating the systemic
      inflammatory milieu, with sVCAM-1, resistin, and adiponectin closely interacting
      with each other and with visceral fat.

PMID- 28883217
TI  - Safety and Efficacy of Long-Term Use of Tolvaptan in Patients With Heart Failure
      and Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We assessed the long-term safety and efficacy of tolvaptan in 102
      patients with heart failure (HF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Median follow
      up duration was 1.6 years (1.0-4.4 years).Methods and Results:One patient
      discontinued tolvaptan because of hypernatremia. There were no changes in renal
      function or electrolytes during the 1-year follow-up. The cardiac-related death
      free or HF-related hospitalization-free survival rate was significantly higher in
      patients receiving tolvaptan than in propensity score-matched patients who did
      not receive tolvaptan. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with HF and CKD, long-term
      administration of tolvaptan was well-tolerated, relatively safe and effective,
      suggesting its utility for long-term management of these conditions.

PMID- 28883218
TI  - Genesis and the Risk Score of Atrial Fibrillation for Personalized Management.

PMID- 28883219
TI  - High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation following
      systemic chemotherapy, prophylactic intrathecal methotrexate, and radiotherapy
      prevents relapse and improves the outcome of advanced stage primary testicular
      lymphoma even with cardiac involvement.
AB  - Primary testicular lymphoma (PTL) is a rare but aggressive disease. Although most
      patients present in the early stage, their prognosis is poor. Similar with PTL,
      cardiac lymphoma is also an uncommon disease characterized by its aggressive
      clinical course and poor prognosis. We herein report an extremely rare case of
      advanced stage PTL with cardiac involvement, treated by high-dose chemotherapy
      with autologous stem cell transplantation (HDT-ASCT) followed by systemic
      chemotherapy, prophylactic intrathecal methotrexate (IT-MTX), and radiotherapy. A
      48-year-old man presented with painless left scrotal swelling. He was diagnosed
      with PTL after orchiectomy, and the histological type was diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma. For staging of lymphoma, positron emission tomography was performed,
      which revealed uptake in the right atrium and early cardiac metastasis within
      just 2 months after orchiectomy. He underwent 6 cycles of systemic chemotherapy
      that consisted of rituximab, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and
      prednisolone (R-CHOP). He also received central nervous system prophylaxis 4
      times with weekly IT-MTX during the first 2 cycles of R-CHOP. He achieved
      complete response after 6 cycles of R-CHOP, and underwent HDT-ASCT and
      radiotherapy as consolidation therapy without irreversible adverse effects. He is
      currently doing well, with a progression-free survival of 31 months. The above
      treatment strategy including HDT-ASCT may be one of the treatment options for
      advanced stage PTL with cardiac metastasis in patients younger than 65 years old.

PMID- 28883220
TI  - A case of Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia in which intermittent one-day
      administration cycles of bendamustine were effective for alleviation of nausea
      and maintenance of remission.

PMID- 28883221
TI  - Welder's pulmonary hemosiderosis associated with systemic iron overload following
      exacerbation of acute adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.
AB  - Herein, we describe a 61-year-old man diagnosed with pulmonary hemosiderosis
      following chemotherapy for acute adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). Liver and
      heart biopsy confirmed hemosiderosis. ATLL progressed, and the patient died from
      multiorgan damage. Welder's lung may have been involved in hemosiderosis and
      systemic iron overload. Abnormal iron metabolism or immune reactions may have
      influenced the clinical course, but these were not validated. Detailed analyses
      of family medical and lifestyle histories, and genetic examination should be
      performed in cases of systemic iron overload.

PMID- 28883222
TI  - Temporal Changes in Platelet Response in Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients With
      Prasugrel and Clopidogrel After Stent Implantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prasugrel has been shown to provide more potency and less variability
      than clopidogrel, but its potential temporal variability has not been
      described.Methods and Results:We conducted a prospective open-label study,
      evaluating platelet reactivity overtime in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients
      on aspirin and clopidogrel (n=60) or prasugrel (n=61), after a percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI). Blood samples were taken at discharge and at 3 and 6
      months. Platelet function tests included VerifyNow (VN-P2Y12), and Multiplate
      Aggregometry (MEA). By means of VN-P2Y12, prasugrel patients displayed
      significantly (P<0.001) higher platelet inhibition than clopidogrel patients over
      time, although there were not significant differences using MEA. Prasugrel
      patients showed higher platelet inhibition at baseline than at 3 months (59.3+/
      8.1 vs. 105.0+/-49.2; P<0.001), without significant change at 6 months (107.9+/
      72.0; P=0.919 vs. 3 months). Clopidogrel patients showed a similar trend (160.1+/
      65.1, 184.8+/-62.7 and 185.0+/-53.3; baseline vs. 3 months P=0.060; 3 months vs.
      6 months P=0.974). High platelet reactivity (HPR) was shown in 16.3% prasugrel
      patients, with no patient consistently remaining in HPR over time. HPR was
      detected in 36.6% of the clopidogrel patients, being consistently observed in
      15.0% of them. Low platelet reactivity (LPR) was detected in 60.5% prasugrel and
      9.8% clopidogrel patients. CONCLUSIONS: Prasugrel patients showed less temporal
      variation than patients on clopidogrel in terms of HPR. In contrast, higher
      variability in LPR was detected in prasugrel patients for up to 6 months' follow
      up.

PMID- 28883223
TI  - Exercise Ischemia Induced by Essential Thrombocytemia Diagnosed on Treadmill Test
      - Transcutaneous Oxygen Pressure Measurement of Foot Ischemia.

PMID- 28883224
TI  - Time Trend in Interest and Satisfaction Towards Clinical Training and Academic
      Activities Among Early-Career Cardiologists - The Japanese Circulation Society
      Post-Graduate Training Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Satisfaction among early-career cardiologists is a key performance
      metric for cardiovascular (CV) educational programs. To assess the time trend in
      the interest and activities of early-career cardiologists regarding their
      training, we conducted web-based surveys in 2011 and 2015.Methods and
      Results:Early-career cardiologists were defined as physicians who planned to
      attend Japanese Circulation Society (JCS) annual meetings within 10 years of
      graduation. A total of 272 and 177 participants completed the survey for the
      years 2011 and 2015, respectively. Survey questions were designed to obtain core
      insights into the workplace, research interests, and demographic profile of
      respondents. Main outcome measures were satisfaction levels with their training
      program. The overall satisfaction rate for training was lower in 2015 than 2011;
      this was largely affected by decreases in the rates of satisfaction for valvular
      heart disease, ischemic heart disease, advanced heart failure, and congenital
      heart disease. Moreover, satisfaction with CV training was associated with the
      volume of invasive procedures such as coronary angiography and percutaneous
      coronary interventions in 2011 but not 2015. CONCLUSIONS: Early-career
      cardiologists' satisfaction with their training decreased during the study
      period, especially in the field of evolving subspecialties (e.g., valvular heart
      disease or advanced heart failure), suggesting that prompt reevaluation of the
      current educational curriculum is needed to properly adapt to progress in
      cardiology.

PMID- 28883225
TI  - Anemia Is Associated With Blunted Response to beta-Blocker Therapy Using
      Carvedilol - Insights From Japanese Chronic Heart Failure (J-CHF) Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anemia portends a poor clinical outcome in patients with chronic
      heart failure (CHF). However, its mechanism remains unknown. We sought to
      elucidate the effect of anemia on patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction
      (HFrEF) who receive carvedilol therapy.Methods and Results:J-CHF study was a
      prospective, randomized, multicenter trial that assigned 360 HFrEF patients to
      2.5 mg/5 mg/20 mg carvedilol groups according to the target dose. At baseline 70
      patients (19%) had anemia ([A]) defined as hemoglobin level (Hb) <13 g/dL (male)
      or <12 g/dL (female) and the remaining 290 did not ([N]). Allocated and achieved
      doses of carvedilol were similar. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and
      plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) level significantly improved in both
      groups over 56 weeks, but they were smaller in [A] than in [N] (LVEF, P=0.046;
      BNP, P<0.0001 by ANOVA). Baseline Hb was an independent predictor of absolute
      change in LVEF (beta=0.13, P=0.047) and BNP (beta=-0.10, P=0.01). Presence of
      chronic kidney disease defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60
      mL/min/1.73 m2at baseline was not associated with differential response to
      carvedilol therapy. During 3.8+/-1.4 years follow-up, group [A] had a higher
      incidence of the composite endpoint of death, hospitalization for cardiovascular
      causes including HF compared with [N] (P=0.006). Baseline Hb was an independent
      predictor of the composite endpoint (hazard ratio 0.86, P=0.04), whereas baseline
      eGFR was not. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggested that anemia was associated with a
      blunted response to carvedilol in HFrEF patients.

PMID- 28883226
TI  - Rapid Globalization of Medical Device Clinical Development Programs in Japan -
      The Case of Drug-Eluting Stents.
AB  - Delays in the introduction to the Japanese market of drug-eluting stents (DES)
      developed overseas (i.e., "device lag") decreased sharply between 2004 and 2012.
      The reduction accompanied a shift in clinical development from a succession
      pattern (initial product development and approval overseas followed by eventual
      entrance into the Japanese market) to parallel development (employing
      multiregional clinical trials (MRCTs)). Although resource-intensive in the short
      term, MRCTs are proving to be an effective tool in simultaneous global product
      development. Creative study designs and the absence of significant ethnic
      differences in Japanese subjects regarding DES safety and efficacy and the
      pharmacokinetic behavior of their coating drugs propel this process. More general
      factors such as medical need and industry incentivization also encourage this
      shift. Physicians' preference for DES over other percutaneous coronary
      interventions, the expanding global DES market, and streamlined development and
      approval prospects each motivate industry to continue investing in DES product
      development. The efforts of various stakeholders were also integral to overcoming
      practical obstacles, and contributions by 'Harmonization by Doing' and a
      premarket collaboration initiative between the USA and Japan were particularly
      effective. Today, USA/Japan regulatory cooperation is routine, and Japan is now
      integrated into global medical device development. MRCTs including Japanese
      subjects, sites, and investigators are now commonplace.

PMID- 28883227
TI  - Utilization of Anticoagulant and Antiplatelet Agents Among Patients With Atrial
      Fibrillation Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention - Retrospective Cohort
      Study Using a Nationwide Claims Database in Japan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The European Society of Cardiology recommends a risk-based
      antithrombotic strategy for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who undergo
      percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) based on CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED
      scores. However, because it is unclear if that strategy can be generalized to
      Asians, we aimed to describe antithrombotic therapies among Japanese
      patients.Methods and Results:Using a nationwide claims database in Japan, this
      retrospective cohort study identified AF patients who underwent PCI from April 1,
      2014 to March 31, 2015. The primary outcome was utilization of anticoagulant and
      antiplatelet agents before PCI, at discharge, and 6, 9, and 12 months after PCI.
      The secondary outcome was incidence of stroke after PCI. We identified 10,862
      patients and 87.5% of them had high CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores. There were
      no significant differences in antithrombotic therapies across the risk strata.
      More than 30% of patients at high risk of thrombosis did not receive oral
      anticoagulant prescriptions at discharge. The hazard ratio of incidence of stroke
      in patients with prior stroke compared with patients without prior stroke was
      9.09 (95% confidence interval 7.86-10.50, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Among Japanese AF
      patients who underwent PCI, prescriptions for antiplatelet agents were more
      common than those for anticoagulant agents. The majority of study participants
      were classified as high risk, suggesting a need for a new risk classification
      that reflects the risk profiles of Japanese patients.

PMID- 28883228
TI  - Paget-Schroetter Syndrome Resulting from Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and KAATSU
      Training.
AB  - A 29-year-old woman who worked as a KAATSU (a type of body exercise that involves
      blood flow restriction) instructor visited our emergency room with a chief
      complaint of swelling and left upper limb pain. Chest computed tomography (CT)
      showed non-uniform contrast images corresponding to the site from the left
      axillary vein to the left subclavian vein; vascular ultrasonography of the upper
      limb revealed a thrombotic obstruction at the same site, leading to a diagnosis
      of Paget-Schroetter syndrome (PSS). We herein report our experience with a case
      of PSS derived from thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), in a patient who was a KAATSU
      instructor.

PMID- 28883229
TI  - Efficacy and Patient Satisfaction of the Weekly DPP-4 Inhibitors Trelagliptin and
      Omarigliptin in 80 Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - Objective We investigated the efficacy, safety, and patient satisfaction of once
      weekly DPP-4 inhibitors (DPP-4Is). Methods Either of two once-weekly DPP-4Is,
      trelagliptin or omarigliptin, was administered alone or in combination with other
      antidiabetic drugs in 80 outpatients with type 2 diabetes mellitus for 3 months.
      The HbA1c, glycoalbumin (GA), body weight, and the Diabetes Treatment
      Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ) scores were evaluated. Results Patients
      switching from other daily DPP-4Is (n=29) showed no significant changes in the
      HbA1c or GA levels. However, the HbA1c and GA levels of patients who had been
      naive to DPP-4Is (n=37) significantly improved from 9.31+/-2.53% to 7.02+/-1.20%
      (p<0.001) and 26.7+/-11.8% to 17.3+/-5.7% (p<0.001), respectively. Several non
      serious adverse events were reported, including nausea (n=1), abdominal
      distension (n=1), and constipation (n=1). In the DTSQs, the total score for six
      questions on the primary factors representing patient treatment satisfaction was
      not markedly changed in patients switching from daily to weekly DPP-4Is but was
      significantly improved from 21.0 to 28.0 (p<0.001) in patients naive to DPP-4Is.
      Conclusion These findings suggest that the use of a once-weekly DPP-4I is
      effective and well-tolerated in diabetes treatment and improves treatment
      satisfaction.

PMID- 28883230
TI  - The Endovascular Management of an Iatrogenic Superior Gluteal Artery Rupture
      Following Bone Marrow Biopsy.
AB  - We herein report an uncommon case of a life-threatening retroperitoneal hematoma
      after a bone marrow biopsy. Two hours after iliac crest bone harvesting, the
      patient experienced syncope and severe hypotension. Urgent contrast-enhanced
      computed tomography demonstrated extravasation from the superior gluteal artery.
      Transcatheter coil embolization was performed successfully, without
      complications. Life-threatening complications caused by retroperitoneal bleeding
      after bone marrow biopsy are very rare. There are few reports on the use of
      endovascular treatment in the management of life-threatening hemorrhagic
      complications after bone marrow biopsy.

PMID- 28883231
TI  - The Assessment of the Efficacy of Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors in Patients
      with Glucocorticoid-induced Diabetes by Continuous Glucose Monitoring.
AB  - Objective The administration of glucocorticoids usually causes a mild increase in
      fasting glucose levels and a greater dose-dependent increase in postprandial
      values in patients without pre-existing diabetes mellitus. Patients with
      persistent hyperglycemia due to glucocorticoid therapy sometimes require insulin
      therapy, which might result in increased weight gain and more episodes of
      hypoglycemia, some of which are severe. On the other hand, scant evidence is
      available on the efficacy of oral hypoglycemic agents in treating glucocorticoid
      induced diabetes. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of dipeptidyl
      peptidase (DPP)-4 inhibitors in patients with glucocorticoid-induced diabetes by
      continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Methods We examined the glycemic profiles
      using CGM at baseline and 1-4 weeks after initiating DPP-4 inhibitor treatment in
      patients with newly developed glucocorticoid-induced diabetes. Results Eleven
      patients who had been diagnosed with kidney disease or other diseases with renal
      involvement were recruited for the present retrospective study. After starting
      DPP-4 inhibitors, the mean and standard deviation (SD) of the glucose level, and
      the mean amplitude of glycemic excursion (MAGE) were significantly improved in
      comparison to baseline. Furthermore, the area over the curve (AOC) for the
      glucose levels <70 mg/dL was not increased in comparison to baseline after the
      initiation of DPP-4 inhibitor treatment. The results indicate that the treatment
      of patients with glucocorticoid-induced diabetes using DPP-4 inhibitors can
      minimize the risk of hypoglycemia and reduce glucose variability. Conclusion DPP
      4 inhibitors are potentially useful for blood glucose control in patients with
      glucocorticoid-induced diabetes.

PMID- 28883233
TI  - Aortic Valve Stenosis and Atheromatous Ascending Aorta.

PMID- 28883232
TI  - Severe Hypertriglyceridemia Possibly Masked Acute Pancreatitis and Led to a
      Difficult Diagnosis in an Obese Patient with Ketoacidosis-onset Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - A young obese man with ketoacidosis-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus, associated
      with severe hypertriglyceridemia, was admitted to a local hospital complaining of
      abdominal pain. Although the abdominal pain worsened, his serum amylase level
      remained normal with persistent severe hypertriglyceridemia until the second day
      of hospitalization. The next day, computed tomography showed severe acute
      pancreatitis (AP) with serum amylase elevation, while the patient's triglyceride
      level decreased to 558 mg/dL. He was transferred to our hospital and recovered
      after intensive care. AP accompanied by diabetic ketoacidosis is not rare but an
      early diagnosis can be difficult to make due to normal amylase levels in the
      presence of severe hypertriglyceridemia.

PMID- 28883234
TI  - Crowned Dens Syndrome Associated with Bowel Cleaning for Colonoscopy.
AB  - A 77-year-old man was admitted with posterior cervical pain, lumbago, a low-grade
      fever, and anorexia after bowel cleaning with polyethylene glycol for
      colonoscopy. Computed tomography of the neck showed calcification of the
      transverse ligament of the atlas. He was diagnosed with crowned dens syndrome
      (CDS). His condition improved following treatment with corticosteroids. This
      represents a rare case of CDS after endoscopy with polypectomy. We should
      consider CDS in the differential diagnosis of patients with unexplained fever and
      posterior cervical pain after bowel preparation for colonoscopy.

PMID- 28883235
TI  - A Patient with Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Isolated Right Atrial Metastases.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with isolated right atrial metastasis is extremely
      rare; most cases are considered inoperable. We herein report the case of a 74
      year-old man with HCC with isolated right atrial metastases without hepatic vein
      invasion; the right atrial lesion was resected because of the risk of heart
      failure and sudden death. Postoperatively, he underwent transcatheter arterial
      chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation for intrahepatic HCC. He recovered
      completely, with a long-term survival of 36 months. This is the first report of
      an HCC patient with isolated right atrial metastases without hepatic vein
      invasion. Tumorectomy for solitary atrial metastasis is effective for HCC
      patients.

PMID- 28883236
TI  - Amyand's Hernia Diagnosed by Computed Tomography.

PMID- 28883237
TI  - Chronic Intestinal Pseudo-obstruction and Orthostatic Hypotension Associated with
      Small Cell Lung Cancer that Improved with Tumor Reduction after
      Chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIPO) is a rare disease with symptoms of
      ileus without obstruction. Most cases of CIPO are idiopathic, and CIPO as a
      paraneoplastic neurological syndrome (PNS) associated with small cell lung cancer
      (SCLC) is rare. A 63-year-old man was diagnosed with functional ileus and
      confined to bed due to orthostatic hypotension. Chest computed tomography
      revealed a right hilar mass suspected of being lung cancer. Based on detailed
      examinations, he was diagnosed with limited-stage SCLC. His symptoms were
      confirmed as PNS because his serum anti-Hu antibody was positive. His PNS was
      improved with complete tumor reduction by chemoradiotherapy.

PMID- 28883238
TI  - Hemoptysis Is a Critical Sign of Aortobronchial Fistula.

PMID- 28883239
TI  - Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome May Be Overlooked in Women with Functional
      Dyspepsia.
AB  - Objective Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome is characterized by the
      compression of the third segment of the duodenum between the SMA and aorta,
      resulting in duodenal obstruction. Because the symptoms of the syndrome are
      similar to those of functional dyspepsia (FD), this study aimed to examine
      whether or not patients with SMA syndrome were present among those diagnosed with
      FD. Methods Patients with an FD diagnosis underwent measurement of the angle and
      distance between the SMA and aorta by ultrasonography or computed tomography.
      Patients with an angle of <=22 degrees  or with a distance of <=8 mm between the
      SMA and aorta were diagnosed with SMA syndrome. Bacterial culture of the duodenal
      aspirate was also performed. Results Of the 46 FD patients, 5 (11%) met the
      criteria. All 5 were women with a body mass index significantly lower than the
      remaining 41 patients (18.7 vs. 24.0 kg/m2, p=0.003). In addition, all 5 patients
      had 105/mL or more bacteria in the duodenum. The symptoms of these five patients
      were treated through dietary and postprandial posture counselling with or without
      medication. Conclusion Patients with SMA syndrome were observed among underweight
      women diagnosed with FD. Their symptoms may be associated with bacterial
      overgrowth.

PMID- 28883240
TI  - Listeria Monocytogenes Septicemia and Meningitis Caused by Listeria Enteritis
      Complicating Ulcerative Colitis.
AB  - An 80-year-old man, who had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, was admitted
      due to a fever and bloody diarrhea and was treated with a glucocorticoid and
      azathioprine. After 5 days, he developed an impaired consciousness, headache, and
      neck stiffness. A sample of the colonic mucosa, blood cultures, and cerebrospinal
      fluid revealed Listeria monocytogenes infection. Intravenous ampicillin improved
      the symptoms of fever, bloody diarrhea, and headache without any neurological
      sequelae. Physicians should consider that Listeria enteritis complicating
      ulcerative colitis can cause septicemia and meningitis in immunosuppressed
      patients. A patient's central nervous system can avoid the effects of Listeria
      meningitis by an early diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

PMID- 28883241
TI  - Ketoacidosis due to a Low-carbohydrate Diet in an Elderly Woman with Dementia and
      Abnormal Eating Behavior.
AB  - Strict restriction of carbohydrates can induce symptomatic ketoacidosis. We
      herein report a 76-year-old demented woman who developed ketoacidosis after 1
      month of abnormal eating behavior involving selectively eating hamburger steak
      (estimated carbohydrate =12.7 g/day). Laboratory tests showed high-anion-gap
      metabolic acidosis with elevated blood ketone levels. She was successfully
      treated with intravenous fluids followed by oral intake of a regular diet. She
      remained relapse-free after correcting her eating habits. Healthcare providers
      should know that abnormal eating behavior in demented people can lead to an
      extremely-low-carbohydrate diet and cause atypical ketoacidosis unexplained by
      diabetes, heavy alcohol intake, or starvation conditions.

PMID- 28883242
TI  - Cardiac Tamponade Provoked by a Subphrenic Abscess.

PMID- 28883243
TI  - An HIV-positive Case of Obstructive Jaundice Caused by Immune Reconstitution
      Inflammatory Syndrome of Tuberculous Lymphadenitis Successfully Treated with
      Corticosteroids.
AB  - A 60-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of a persistent fever with
      enlargement of multiple lymph nodes in the mediastinum and around the pancreatic
      head. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus
      infection. We started antiretroviral therapy three weeks after the initiation of
      anti-tuberculous therapy. Two weeks later, jaundice appeared with dilatation of
      the biliary tract due to further enlargement of the lymph nodes, which seemed to
      be immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). The administration of
      corticosteroids resolved the obstructive jaundice without surgical treatment or
      endoscopic drainage. Obstructive jaundice caused by IRIS should first be treated
      with corticosteroids before invasive treatment.

PMID- 28883244
TI  - The Association between Tobacco Smoke and Serum Immunoglobulin E Levels in Korean
      Adults.
AB  - Objective Smoking is common in patients with allergic diseases. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the cross-sectional association between the current smoking
      status and total and specific Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels in Korean adults.
      Methods Data were obtained from the 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey, a national cross-sectional study. We analyzed the data of
      subjects whose smoking status and serum IgE levels were of acceptable quality.
      Results A total of 1,963 subjects (1,118 never smokers, 340 ex-smokers, and 505
      current smokers) were included. The total IgE levels and specific IgE levels to
      house dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae (Df), cockroach, and dog allergens in
      never smokers were significantly (p<0.0001) lower than in ex-smokers or current
      smokers. After adjusting for other variables, current smokers independently had
      significantly higher levels of total IgE and cockroach-specific IgE than ex
      smokers or never smokers. The proportions of subjects with total IgE >=150 kU/L
      and specific IgE >=0.35 kU/L to Df-specific IgE were significantly (p value for
      trend <0.05) increased in ex-smokers and current smokers. The total IgE levels
      and IgE levels specific to Df, cockroaches, and dogs significantly (p value for
      trend <0.05) and proportionally increased with increasing numbers of cigarettes
      smoked daily. Conclusion Smoking was associated with elevated total IgE levels
      and IgE levels specific to Df, cockroach, and dog allergens in a cumulative, dose
      dependent manner. Furthermore, current smoking status was an independent risk
      factor for elevated total IgE levels and IgE levels specific to cockroach
      allergen.

PMID- 28883245
TI  - The Sequential Development of Antiglomerular Basement Membrane Nephritis and
      Myeloperoxidase-antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-associated Vasculitis.
AB  - A 55-year-old woman presented with deafness, increased levels of myeloperoxidase
      (MPO)-antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA), and renal insufficiency with
      proteinuria and hematuria. Renal biopsy revealed crescentic glomerulonephritis
      with the linear deposition of immunoglobulin G along the glomerular basement
      membrane (GBM) and peritubular capillaritis. The anti-GBM antibody levels on
      admission and 10 days after admission were 11.7 U/mL and 127 U/mL, respectively.
      These results indicated the sequential development of anti-GBM nephritis and MPO
      ANCA-associated vasculitis. This report shows that anti-GBM nephritis may be
      caused by MPO-ANCA-associated vasculitis because of preceding otitis media, the
      sequential anti-GBM antibody titers, and the findings of peritubular
      capillaritis.

PMID- 28883246
TI  - Dacryoadenitis with Ptosis and Diplopia as the Initial Presentation of
      Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis.
AB  - A 77-year-old Japanese woman presented to an ophthalmologist with an erythematous
      swollen upper eyelid and diplopia which was initially diagnosed to be idiopathic
      dacryoadenitis on the basis of a histological evaluation of an orbital mass that
      was in remission following a 3.5-month period of systemic corticosteroid therapy.
      She subsequently developed respiratory symptoms, and was finally diagnosed with
      systemic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) based on the clinical and
      histological features. She was successfully treated with corticosteroids and
      azathioprine. Dacryoadenitis in the form of an orbital inflammatory pseudotumor
      may be an initial presenting feature of GPA, sometimes as the limited phenotype,
      and occasionally progressing to systemic disease.

PMID- 28883247
TI  - Hepatic and Gastric Involvement in a Case of Systemic Sarcoidosis Presenting with
      Rupture of Esophageal Varices.
AB  - A 46-year-old woman presented with massive hematemesis, caused by the rupture of
      esophageal varices. The laboratory investigations showed pancytopenia, and
      imaging tests revealed hepatosplenomegaly and ascites. A diagnosis of systemic
      sarcoidosis was made based on biopsies of the liver, stomach, lungs, heart, and
      skin. Although fat deposition was predominant, non-caseating granuloma and
      cirrhotic changes were found in the liver. Non-caseating granuloma was also
      identified in a biopsy specimen from minute depressions of the gastric folds.
      This case illustrates the rare involvement of the digestive system in a case of
      systemic sarcoidosis.

PMID- 28883248
TI  - The Development of Yellow Nail Syndrome after the Implantation of a Permanent
      Cardiac Pacemaker.
AB  - Yellow nail syndrome (YNS) is characterized by yellowish nails, lymphedema,
      sinusitis, and pulmonary involvement and can be triggered by various underlying
      conditions, such as sinusitis or titanium exposure from an artificial joint or
      dental implant. Since YNS is potentially treatable, its timely diagnosis is
      important. The authors recently experienced a case of YNS in a patient who
      developed sinusitis, yellowish nails, bilateral edema of the extremities, and
      subclinical rheumatoid arthritis after the implantation of a cardiac pacemaker
      made from titanium. This case may be the first report of YNS induced by a
      titanium cardiac pacemaker.

PMID- 28883249
TI  - Pneumonitis with Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage Induced by Sho-seiryu-to.
AB  - A 78-year-old man presented with acute-onset fever and dyspnea. He had been
      taking Sho-seiryu-to for allergic rhinitis. A chest radiograph showed diffuse
      bilateral ground-glass opacities with subpleural sparing, crazy-paving pattern,
      and traction bronchiectasis. The patient's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was
      bloody and transbronchial lung biopsy specimens showed alveolitis, organizing
      pneumonia, and type 2 alveolar epithelial cell proliferation. There were no
      clinical and laboratory findings suggestive of respiratory tract infection or
      connective tissue disease. Based on the clinical course and the exclusion of
      other etiologies, Sho-seiryu-to-induced pneumonitis with diffuse alveolar
      hemorrhage was considered. The patient's pneumonitis resolved after the
      discontinuation of the drug and the administration of systemic corticosteroid
      therapy.

PMID- 28883250
TI  - Mitochondrial Myopathy, Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like Episodes
      (MELAS) due to a m.10158T>C ND3 Mutation with a Normal Muscle Biopsy.

PMID- 28883251
TI  - Ossification of the Posterior Atlantoaxial Membrane: An Atypical Presentation.

PMID- 28883252
TI  - Switching Therapy from Intravenous Landiolol to Transdermal Bisoprolol in a
      Patient with Thyroid Storm Complicated by Decompensated Heart Failure and
      Gastrointestinal Dysfunction.
AB  - Thyroid storm is a life-threatening disorder that remains a therapeutic
      challenge. Although beta-blockers are the mainstay for treatment, their use can
      be challenging in cases complicated by rapid atrial fibrillation and
      decompensated heart failure. We present a case of thyroid storm-associated atrial
      fibrillation and decompensated heart failure complicated by gastrointestinal
      dysfunction secondary to diffuse peritonitis that was successfully managed by a
      switching therapy, in which the continuous intravenous administration of
      landiolol was changed to bisoprolol via transdermal patch, in the acute phase
      treatment. This switching therapy may offer a promising therapeutic option for
      this potentially lethal disorder.

PMID- 28883253
TI  - Interstitial Lung Disease as an Initial Manifestation of Giant Cell Arteritis.
AB  - Interstitial lung disease (ILD) has rarely been reported as a manifestation of
      giant cell arteritis (GCA). We herein report a unique case of GCA in a 76-year
      old woman who presented with ILD as an initial manifestation of GCA. Ten years
      before admission, she had been diagnosed with granulomatous ILD of unknown
      etiology. Corticosteroid therapy induced remission. One year after the cessation
      of corticosteroid therapy, she was admitted with a persistent fever. After
      admission, she developed left oculomotor paralysis. Positron emission tomography
      with 2-deoxy-2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-D-glucose integrated with computed tomography
      (18F-FDG PET/CT) proved extremely useful in establishing the diagnosis. Our case
      promotes awareness of GCA as a possible diagnosis for granulomatous ILD with
      unknown etiology.

PMID- 28883255
TI  - Critical Leg Ischemia Following Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Occlusion.

PMID- 28883254
TI  - Naratriptan in the Prophylactic Treatment of Cluster Headache.
AB  - Objective Naratriptan has been reported to reduce the frequency of cluster
      headache. The purpose of this study was to determine whether naratriptan is
      effective as a prophylactic treatment for cluster headache in Japan. Methods We
      retrospectively reviewed all 43 patients with cluster headache who received
      preventive treatment with naratriptan from April 2009 to April 2015. The
      International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd Edition (beta version)
      (ICHD-3 beta) was used to diagnose cluster headache. This study was conducted at
      3 centers (Department of Neurology, Saitama Medical University; Saitama
      Neuropsychiatric Institute; Saitama Medical University International Medical
      Center). Patients were recruited from these specialized headache outpatient
      centers. Naratriptan was taken before the patient went to bed. Results The study
      population included 30 men (69.8%) and 13 women (30.2%). Twenty-two cases
      received other preventive treatments (51.2%), while 21 cases only received
      naratriptan (48.8%). Among the 43 cases, 37 patients (86.0%) achieved an
      improvement of cluster headache on naratriptan. Conclusion Naratriptan has been
      suggested as a preventive medicine for cluster headache because of the longer the
      biological half-life in comparison to other triptans. The internal use of
      naratriptan 2 hours before attacks appears to achieve a good response in patients
      with cluster headache.

PMID- 28883256
TI  - Atrial Involvement in Pleomorphic Carcinoma of the Lung.

PMID- 28883257
TI  - Buried Bumper Syndrome Leading to Peritonitis and Ileus.

PMID- 28883258
TI  - Mitochondrial Myopathy, Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like Episodes
      (MELAS) due to a m.10158T>C ND3 Mutation with a Normal Muscle Biopsy.

PMID- 28883259
TI  - Naratriptan May Become an Alternative Prophylactic Option for Patients with
      Cluster Headache.

PMID- 28883260
TI  - A case of metastatic follicular thyroid carcinoma complicated with Graves'
      disease after total thyroidectomy.
AB  - Thyroid cancer and Graves' disease may present simultaneously in one patient. The
      incidence of the development of hyperthyroidism from metastatic differentiated
      thyroid carcinoma is rare. We herein report a case of metastatic follicular
      carcinoma complicated with Graves' disease after total thyroidectomy. A 57-year
      old woman underwent right hemithyroidectomy for follicular carcinoma. Metastatic
      lesions appeared in the lungs and skull two years after the first surgery, and
      remnant thyroidectomy was performed for radioactive iodine-131 (RAI) therapy,
      during which the TSH receptor antibody (TRAb) was found to be negative. The
      patient was treated with RAI therapy four times for four years and was receiving
      levothyroxine suppressive therapy. Although radioiodine uptake was observed in
      the lesions after the fourth course of RAI therapy, metastatic lesions had
      progressed. Four years after the second surgery, she had heart palpitations and
      tremors. Laboratory data revealed hyperthyroidism and positive TRAb. She was
      diagnosed with Graves' disease and received a fifth course of RAI therapy. 131I
      scintigraphy after RAI therapy showed strong radioiodine uptake in the metastatic
      lesions. As a result, the sizes and numbers of metastatic lesions decreased, and
      thyroid function improved. Metastatic lesions produced thyroid hormone and caused
      hyperthyroidism. RAI therapy was effective for Graves' disease and thyroid
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28883261
TI  - Fine-needle aspiration cytology for medullary thyroid carcinoma: a single
      institutional experience in Japan.
AB  - Many cytological studies on medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) have been reported;
      however, such studies in large series of patients with MTC have not been
      performed. We investigated MTC at a single institution in Japan using fine-needle
      aspiration cytology (FNAC), and aimed to establish a preoperative diagnostic
      algorithm for MTC. FNAC was performed in 119 of 149 patients with MTC (79.9%) who
      ultimately underwent surgical resection. Moreover, 22 of 56 hereditary MTC
      (39.3%) were diagnosed preoperatively without FNAC by their high serum calcitonin
      levels or increased response to calcium stimulation (11 cases each), as well as
      RET mutation analysis. On FNAC, 76.5% of nodules were categorized as 'malignancy'
      or 'suspicious for malignancy'. The sensitivity and specificity of calcitonin
      measurement in aspiration needle wash-out fluid and in immunocytochemical
      staining for calcitonin were 96.3% and 92.3% respectively. We proposed an
      algorithm for preoperative diagnosis of MTC utilizing FNAC: When thyroid nodules
      are highly suspicious for MTC by their clinical and ultrasonographic features,
      serum calcitonin measurement with or without a calcium stimulation test is
      required. Furthermore, FNAC should be performed for patients who do not have
      those findings. When there is a possibility of MTC at the time of FNAC,
      calcitonin measurement using needle wash-out fluid is a reliable diagnostic tool.
      When MTC is suspected on cytological examination, immunocytochemical staining for
      calcitonin is useful for confirming MTC diagnosis.

PMID- 28883262
TI  - Retraction: Transcription Factor SOX9 Promotes Osteosarcoma Cell Growth by
      Repressing Claudin-8 Expression.
AB  - We reported "Transcription Factor SOX9 Promotes Osteosarcoma Cell Growth by
      Repressing Claudin-8 Expression" in Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2017, 241 (1), 55-63;
      doi: 10.1620/tjem.241.55. After publication of the paper, we have become aware of
      the ethical violation in collecting the samples from some patients. We therefore
      wish to retract the paper and apologize for any inconvenience caused by the
      retraction.

PMID- 28883263
TI  - Combination therapy with monoclonal antibodies for treatment of newly diagnosed
      multiple myeloma.
AB  - Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with new mechanisms of action are emerging as
      promising agents for patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Of these, anti-CD38
      antibodies and anti-signaling lymphocytic activation molecule F7 (SLAMF7)
      antibody have demonstrated efficacy for relapsed and refractory myeloma (RRMM).
      Two CD38-targeting antibodies, daratumumab and isatuximab had significant
      activity as single agents, whereas the SLAMF7-targeting antibody, elotuzumab, did
      not. Patients with RRMM treated with 16 mg/kg daratumumab achieved at least PR of
      36% and 29% in two distinct phase 2 studies. More favorable results of phase 3
      study of 16 mg/kg daratumumab with lenalidomide and dexamethasone revealed that
      92.9% of patients with RRMM achieved at least partial response (PR), with a 43.1%
      complete response (CR) rate. The median PFS was better in daratumumab arm (Not
      Reached) than control arm (18.4 months). When combined with lenalidomide plus
      dexamethasone, elotuzumab, at a dose of 10 mg/kg, improved the median PFS from
      14.9 months to 19.4 months in a phase 3 study named ELOQUENT-2. In addition to
      IMiDs, bortezomib was a hopeful partner. Regarding toxicity, these mAbs are
      tolerable even in elderly patients. The most common adverse event is an infusion
      related reaction. Based on several published reports, we suggest that mAbs
      combined with standard agents could be successfully adapted for the treatment of
      newly diagnosed patients with MM.

PMID- 28883264
TI  - Treatment algorithms for multiple myeloma in Japan.
AB  - Recent progress in the development of novel therapeutic agents has remarkably
      improved the treatment outcome for multiple myeloma (MM). Proteasome inhibitors
      such as bortezomib, carfilzomib, and ixazomib; immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs)
      such as thalidomide, lenalidomide, and pomalidomide; the histone deacetylase
      (HDAC) inhibitor panobinostat; and the monoclonal antibody, elotuzumab, have all
      been approved in Japan, although only bortezomib and lenalidomide have been
      approved for initial therapy. Accordingly, the Japanese Society of Hematology has
      released updated treatment guidelines for MM. Initial treatments with bortezomib
      based 2-3 drug regimens and lenalidomide+dexamethasone are recommended for
      patients eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), while
      bortezomib+melphalan+prednisolone and lenalidomide+dexamethasone are recommended
      for patients who are not eligible for ASCT. These novel agents provide us with
      wider therapeutic options for relapsed or refractory patients. Consequently,
      treatment paradigms for MM continue to rapidly evolve, and it is important to
      select the optimal treatment strategy for each patient.

PMID- 28883265
TI  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adolescents and young adults: from the viewpoint
      of pediatricians.
AB  - Patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in adolescents and young adults
      (AYA) generation are treated by both pediatricians and adult hematologists.
      Because their participation rate in clinical trials has been low, the treatment
      results have been unsatisfactory. However, with a recent widespread adaptation of
      pediatric-based regimen in adult ALL trials, their prognosis has dramatically
      improved. Moreover, their characteristic biology is being rapidly elucidated. For
      further improvement of AYA-ALL prognosis and quality of life, the collaboration
      between pediatricians and adult hematologists is essential and multidisciplinary
      approach is necessary.

PMID- 28883266
TI  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia of adolescents and young adults: from the viewpoint
      of physicians.
AB  - Fusion genes found in cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are reported to
      be associated with age, such as MLL rearrangements in neonates and BCR-ABL1 in
      adults. However, the pathogenesis of ALL in adolescents and young adults (AYA)
      remains largely unknown. To investigate the potential role of fusion genes, we
      performed RNA-sequencing on 73 BCR-ABL1-negative ALL patients who were all AYA.
      Interestingly, DUX4-IGH was the most frequent fusion gene detected in B-ALL
      (18.5%) and was preferentially detected in the AYA generation. ZNF384 and MEF2D
      genes were also recurrently identified as functionally relevant fusion genes in
      16.7% and 9.3% of AYA with B-ALL, respectively. Patients with DUX4 and ZNF384
      fusion genes displayed better prognosis, while those with the MEF2D fusion gene
      displayed a worse outcome. To improve treatment outcome, the fusion genes
      detected in this study will be useful for risk stratification and target therapy.

PMID- 28883267
TI  - Acute myeloid leukemia in adolescents and young adults: from the viewpoint of
      pediatricians.
AB  - It is well known that adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) should be treated based on pediatric ALL protocol,
      which could yield better survival rates. However, an optimal treatment strategy
      for AYAs with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is not yet established and
      corresponding data are limited. Compared with ALL, clinical and biological
      characteristics of pediatric and adult AML are relatively similar. Moreover,
      treatment strategy is quite similar, although pediatric protocols are more
      intensive and transplant indications are narrower. Previous reports show that
      AYAs with AML have similar to relatively lower survival rates and higher
      treatment-related mortality than children with AML. These results indicated that
      intensive pediatric chemotherapy is effective for preventing AML relapse in AYAs
      but higher toxicity rates compensates overall survival. To improve the outcomes
      of AYAs with AML, it is essential to develop optimal intensive chemotherapy,
      introduce novel targeted therapies, and adopt better risk stratification,
      particularly to determine appropriate transplant indications. These strategies
      should be accomplished by close cooperation between pediatric
      hematologists/oncologists and adult hematologists.

PMID- 28883268
TI  - Acute myeloid leukemia in adolescents and young adults: from the viewpoint of
      physicians.
AB  - Based on various studies, the survival of adolescent and young adults (AYAs) with
      acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was reportedly similar to or worse than younger
      children. AYAs with AML treated in adult institutions are usually offered the
      same treatment as that of the older adults. Although pediatric protocols
      generally include intensified regimens compared with adult protocols, it is still
      controversial whether an intensified pediatric AML regimen results in an improved
      survival for the AYA population. Somatic mutations have proven to be
      significantly prognostic in AML. Although such molecular markers are becoming
      increasingly important as a means of risk stratification for both children and
      adults with AML, the prevalence and significance of somatic mutations remain
      largely unknown in AYAs with AML. In addition to the biological characteristics
      of cancer, non-biological factors, such as compliance with treatment, may
      influence the treatment outcomes of AYAs. AYAs have specific and unique needs
      that are different from children and older adults such as psychosocial care,
      transition from the pediatric to adult care environment, and fertility
      considerations among long-term survivors. A further multidisciplinary approach
      for AYAs with AML is still an issue among adult institutes.

PMID- 28883269
TI  - Malignant lymphoma of adolescents and young adults: from the viewpoint of
      pediatricians.
AB  - Since adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with lymphoma began to be treated by
      pediatric hematologists and hematology physicians, few data have been collected
      regarding lymphoma in this generation of patients in Japan. We analyzed the
      number of pediatric hospitals that have treated hematological AYA patients. In
      half of the pediatric facilities, patients >15 years of age had been treated, and
      40% of those facilities treated >1 AYA every year. A past lymphoma study by the
      Japanese Pediatric Leukemia/Lymphoma Study Group included some AYA patients.
      However, only the B-NHL03 study analyzed the difference between children and
      AYAs. In that study, 25 AYAs (7.8%) were treated among all 321 study patients.
      The 5-year overall survival rates of patients aged <10, 10-14, >14 years, were
      88.7%, 87.0%, and 79.3%, respectively. However, this difference was not
      statistically significant because of the less number of patients. We analyzed
      data of stem cell transplantation in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Of
      the allogeneic transplant patients, children and AYAs did not significantly
      differ in treatment results. However, the 5-year transplant-related mortality
      after autologous transplantation was significantly higher in children than in
      AYAs. In NHL patients, the survival rate of AYAs after transplantation was not
      inferior to that of children.

PMID- 28883270
TI  - Malignant lymphoma in adolescents and young adults: from the viewpoint of
      physicians.
AB  - Malignant lymphoma (ML) is one of the most common malignancies among adolescents
      and young adults (AYA), accounting for approximately 20% of newly diagnosed
      cancers in this group. Although Hodgkin lymphoma represents only approximately 4%
      5% of all cancers in children younger than 15 years of age, its incidence
      increases to approximately 16% in AYA. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the common
      malignancies affecting AYA include diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, Burkitt
      lymphoma, and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Although it is generally accepted
      that AYA with ML experience outcomes that are worse than those experienced by
      children with ML, there are several critical issues. Hemato-oncologists and
      pediatric oncologists often follow diverse treatment strategies for ML, and it is
      unclear as to which treatment strategy is more suitable for AYA. Considering
      other aspects, tumor biology may explain the different outcomes. In Japan, there
      are no detailed data regarding the incidence, biology, treatment, prognosis, and
      long-term outcomes of ML in AYA. In future clinical trials, it will be important
      to determine whether the different outcomes result from the differences between
      the therapeutic approaches in pediatric and adult regimens or they are
      attributable to other factors such as variation in tumor biology and aging.

PMID- 28883271
TI  - Picture in Clinical Hematology No. 106.

PMID- 28883272
TI  - Peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified: a retrospective single
      center analysis.
AB  - We retrospectively analyzed clinical and pathological features, treatments, and
      prognoses in 28 patients with newly diagnosed peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not
      otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS) in Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital.
      Of them, 16 were males and 12 were females, and their median age was 62.5 (range,
      26-88) years. The International Prognostic Index was high-intermediate/high in
      68% of patients. Twelve patients were treated with CHOP/THP-COP and nine with
      third-generation chemotherapy regimens. At a median follow-up period of 30
      (range: 1-164) months, the 2-year overall survival and progression-free survival
      rates were 61% and 44%, respectively. Further investigation of novel agents for
      treating PTCL-NOS is warranted.

PMID- 28883273
TI  - Regression of uterine cervical diffuse large B-cell lymphoma transformed from
      mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma subsequent to Chlamydia trachomatis
      eradication.
AB  - A 37-year-old-woman was referred to our center after her uterine cervix health
      screening presented abnormal findings. We performed a biopsy of the uterine
      cervix to examine for cervical dysplasia, and diagnosed a diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma transformed from mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma of
      the cervix. The patient presented with concurrent chlamydial cervicitis and
      received eradication therapy for Chlamydia trachomatis. Four months later, the
      CD20 positive abnormal lymphocyte disappeared and complete remission was
      achieved. MALT lymphoma is considered to correlate with infection and
      inflammation. Particularly, the relationship between gastric MALT lymphoma and
      Helicobacter pylori is well known. MALT lymphoma of the uterine cervix is rare,
      and its relationship with C.trachomatis infection is unknown. Further studies are
      warranted to investigate this association.

PMID- 28883274
TI  - Successful long-term management with low-dose prednisolone in an adult patient
      with Diamond-Blackfan anemia.
AB  - Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a rare congenital disease caused by mutations in
      ribosomal protein genes and is characterized by pure red cell aplasia. While the
      prognosis is relatively favorable, quality of life (QOL) among DBA patients is
      negatively impacted by the adverse effects of long-term prednisolone (PSL)
      therapy and blood transfusions. We describe a 43-year-old man who was diagnosed
      with DBA (Hb of 2.18 g/dl) at the age of two months. He was initially treated
      with PSL and blood transfusions, followed by cyclosporine and low-dose (6 mg/day)
      PSL, which resulted in a sustained hemoglobin level of 9 g/dl without severe
      adverse events or loss of QOL. High levels of eADA and GSH as well as a RPS19
      gene mutation were confirmed. The only curative therapy is hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation, which is associated with significant mortality. However,
      using low-dose PSL to maintain a stable hemoglobin level may improve QOL for
      patients who receive curative treatment.

PMID- 28883275
TI  - Successful management of intraperitoneal bleeding with platelet apheresis and von
      Willebrand factor supplementation in a patient with essential thrombocythemia and
      acquired von Willebrand syndrome.
AB  - A 36-year-old woman with essential thrombocythemia (ET) was admitted to our
      hospital for acute lower abdominal pain. Given no family history of bleeding
      disorder, she was diagnosed with acquired von Willebrand syndrome. Despite having
      a medical history of venous thrombosis, she had never been treated for ET because
      of her preferences. On admission, CT scan revealed massive hemorrhage in the
      ascending colon with the leakage of a contrast agent. Furthermore, a delayed
      enhancement of fluid collection in the Douglas fossa followingcontrast CT
      indicated bloody ascites. Laboratory data revealed elevated platelets
      (1,569*103/ul) and reduced von Willebrand factor (VWF) :RCo (32%) and VWF:Ag
      (48%). Platelet apheresis was initiated, combined with the infusion of VWF
      containing concentrates and cytoreductive therapy with hydroxyurea. Three days
      after admission, her platelet count decreased to 992*103/ul after the second
      round of platelet apheresis. CT scan revealed no hemorrhage, which implied
      hemostasis. Because of the absence of symptoms, she was discharged 23 days after
      admission. These results suggest that platelet apheresis, combined with infusion
      of VWF-containing concentrates and cytoreductive therapy with hydroxyurea, is an
      effective approach for the treatment of acquired von Willebrand syndrome
      characterized by emergent bleeding concomitant with ET.

PMID- 28883276
TI  - Acute exacerbation of organizing pneumonia leading to sudden death in a patient
      with sarcoidosis-lymphoma syndrome.
AB  - The subject was an 83-year-old female; she had a history of Propionibacterium
      acnes-related sarcoidosis at the age of 79 years. At diagnosis, she was treated
      with clarithromycin and achieved remission. Four years later, during a routine
      physical check-up, she presented with pulmonary opacities and swelling of
      multiple lymph nodes. A definitive diagnosis of lymphoma could not be made by
      inguinal lymph node biopsy. The patient's general condition was good, and we
      observed her clinical course. Oh the 56th day of her illness, she died suddenly.
      Autopsy revealed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Sarcoidosis-lymphoma
      syndrome (SLS) was diagnosed after sampling hyalinized nodules from both lungs.
      The cause of death was organizing pneumonia around an epithelioid granuloma and
      cor pulmonale. Organization markedly increased around the DLBCL. These findings
      might be associated with cor pulmonale. Although SLS often appears during chronic
      active sarcoidosis, sudden death is rare and there are few reports on SLS in
      Japan. We report this case along with a review of the literature.

PMID- 28883277
TI  - Siblings with congenital thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.
AB  - Congenital thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare hereditary
      deficiency of ADAMTS13 (von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease) characterized by
      thrombocytopenia and microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. The spectrum of the
      clinical phenotype is wide, ranging from asymptomatic episodes of
      thrombocytopenia to life-threatening multiorgan failure. Reportedly, some
      patients develop isolated thrombocytopenia during childhood. We herein report
      sibling cases of congenital TTP. An 11-year-old boy with thrombocytopenia
      accompanied by influenza virus infection was referred to our hospital. He had a
      history of severe neonatal jaundice. His 15-year-old brother also had recurrent
      thrombocytopenia with approximately 10 episodes of recurrence since 3 years of
      age. Their ADAMTS13 activities were low and ADAMTS13 inhibitors were negative,
      and a gene analysis confirmed the diagnosis of congenital TTP. Notably,
      congenital TTP should be included in the differential diagnosis, and it is
      essential to determine the ADAMTS13 activity for pediatric patients with
      thrombocytopenia of unknown etiology.

PMID- 28883278
TI  - Loss of CD45 expression at relapse of acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - A 49-year-old female was initially diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) M4
      with a CD45+CD13+CD33+CD34-HLA-DR+ immunophenotype. She underwent allogeneic bone
      marrow transplantation, but the disease recurred. The bone marrow was infiltrated
      with 87.0% blasts negative for myeloperoxidase (MPO) staining. Immunophenotyping
      by flow cytometry identified the presence of a CD45-negative blast population.
      These blasts exhibited a CD13+CD33+CD19-CD10-CD34-HLA-DR- immunophenotype. The
      lack of CD45 expression is often observed in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia,
      whereas CD45-negative AML is extremely rare; only one older male with AML-M0 has
      been reported. In the present case, the CD45-negative blasts had an MPO
      CD13+CD33+ phenotype, which is similar to AML-M0.

PMID- 28883279
TI  - Functional analysis of Protection of Telomeres 1a (Pot1a) in regulation of
      hematopoietic stem cell aging.
AB  - Repeated cell divisions induce DNA damage accumulation, which impairs stem cell
      function during aging. However, the general molecular mechanisms by which this
      occurs remain unclear. Herein, we show that the expression of protection of
      telomeres 1a (Pot1a), a component of shelterin, is crucial for prevention of
      telomeric DNA damage response (DDR) and maintenance of hematopoietic stem cell
      (HSC) activity during aging. We observed that HSCs express high levels of Pot1a
      during development, and this expression declines with aging. Knockdown of Pot1a
      induced an age-related phenotype, characterized by increased telomeric DDR and
      reduced long-term reconstitution activity. In contrast, treatment with exogenous
      Pot1a protein prevented telomeric DDR, which decreased stem cell activity and
      partially rejuvenated HSC activity. These results highlight a general, reversible
      mechanism by which aging compromises mammalian stem cell activity, with
      widespread implications for regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28883280
TI  - Susceptibility to 6-mercaptopurine toxicity related with NUDT15 and ABCC4
      variants in Japanese childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - 6-Mercaptopurine (6-MP) is one of the main components for the treatment of
      childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, many patients require a
      dose reduction of 6-MP due to its severe toxicities. NUDT15 variants are one of
      the factors that cause 6-MP intolerability in Asians. In each patient with
      heterozygous variants of NUDT15, 6-MP intolerability differs. Therefore, we
      hypothesized that the combination of NUDT15 genotype with ABCC4 genotype, which
      is associated with 6-MP efflux, might enable to accurately predict 6-MP
      intolerability. We analyzed the association between 6-MP-related events and the
      genotypes of NUDT15 and ABCC4. All patients with both NUDT15 rs116855232
      heterozygous variants and ABCC4 rs3765534 variants suffered from severe
      leukopenia and required 6-MP dose reduction to less than 35 mg/m2/day. In
      conclusion, genotyping NUDT15 and ABCC4 facilitates the prediction of 6-MP
      intolerability. The results of this study will improve personalized medicines in
      Japanese patients with childhood ALL.

PMID- 28883281
TI  - Novel mechanism of immune evasion in cancer via structural variations of the PD
      L1 gene.
AB  - Cancer cells are thought to circumvent immune surveillance through PD-1/PD-L1
      signaling. However, the genetic basis for PD-L1-PD-L1-mediated immune escape has
      not been completely understood, with the exception of elevated PD-L1 expression
      by gene amplification and the utilization of an ectopic promoter by
      translocation. Recently, we demonstrated a unique genetic mechanism of immune
      escape caused by structural variations (SVs) commonly disrupting the 3' part of
      the PD-L1 gene. These SVs invariably cause a marked elevation of aberrant PD-L1
      transcripts that are stabilized by truncation of the 3'-untranslated region
      (UTR), and thereby widely affect multiple common cancer types, including adult T
      cell leukemia/lymphoma (27%), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (8%), and
      adenocarcinoma of the stomach (2%). All SVs invariably result in a prominent
      increase of aberrant PD-L1 transcripts commonly lacking an intact 3'-UTR, which
      most typically generate gene fusions with ectopic sequences including integrated
      viral genomes. In this review, the critical role of 3'-UTR disruption is briefly
      summarized.

PMID- 28883282
TI  - Development of immune checkpoint inhibitors.
AB  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors are the most striking innovation in the clinical
      development of immunotherapy. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) restore and augment
      the antitumor immune activities of cytotoxic T cells by mainly blocking immune
      checkpoint molecules on T cells or their ligands on antigen-presenting and tumor
      cells. Based on preclinical data, many clinical trials have demonstrated the
      acceptable safety profiles and efficacies of mAb in various cancers. The A first
      in-class approved immune checkpoint inhibitor is ipilimumab, which is a fully
      humanized mAb that blocks the immunosuppressive signal by cytotoxic T-lymphocyte
      antigen 4. In 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of
      ipilimumab for the treatment of advanced metastatic melanoma. Then, nivolumab,
      which is a humanized mAb that blocks programmed death-1 (PD-1), was approved for
      use in the treatment of advanced melanoma in 2014 and of advanced non-small-cell
      lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in 2015 in Japan. Pembrolizumab, which is another anti-PD
      1 antibody, was approved for use in the treatment of advanced melanoma and
      advanced NSCLC as the first-line therapy in 2016 in Japan. Thereafter, nivolumab
      was also approved for use in the treatment of advanced renal cell cancer in
      August 2016, of Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2016, and of head and neck cancer
      in March 2017 in Japan. Moreover, phase III trials of anti-PD-1 mAb and anti-PD
      ligand 1 mAb for use in the treatment of cancers, such as gastric, ovarian,
      bladder, and esophageal cancers, are ongoing. Several clinical trials have
      investigated new agents, alone and in combination, for use in the treatment of
      various cancers. Current advances in tumor immunology have unveiled the
      importance of immunosuppressive cells, such as regulatory T cells, myeloid
      derived suppressor cells, and tumor-associated macrophages, especially in a tumor
      microenvironment (TME). Some data from basic research in mouse models and the
      immunomonitoring of cancer patients suggest that the inhibition of
      immunosuppressive cells and the cytokines related to them activate and infiltrate
      cytotoxic T cells and in TME, which could be one of the next combination
      strategies. The current clinical development of, translational research on, and
      future challenges in utilizing immune checkpoint inhibitors are described.

PMID- 28883284
TI  - Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia with genetic alterations.
AB  - Annually, it is estimated that approximately 150-200 children aged 0-16 years are
      diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In Japan, clinical studies with
      ANLL91, AML99, CCLSG-AML9805, and JPLSG-AML05 protocols were performed
      historically, and the risk stratification with a combination of chemotherapy and
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation resulted in the improvement of clinical
      outcomes. Regarding the onset of pediatric AML at the molecular level, mutations
      in FLT3-ITD or KIT (Class I mutation) showed a poor prognosis, but the ratio of
      mutations in Class III-V genes was smaller than that in adult AML. In contrast,
      several pediatric AML cases are complicated due to chromosome fragility syndrome
      or congenital bone marrow failure syndrome. To improve the clinical outcomes,
      clinical application of next generation sequencing may allow for personalized
      therapy in each patient in the future.

PMID- 28883283
TI  - Oncolytic coxsackievirus therapy as an immunostimulator.
AB  - Recently, the active development of oncolytic virotherapy has gathered attention.
      Enterovirus research seeks to better understand its pathogenicity. In particular,
      coxsackievirus A21 (CVA21) is a promising candidate for oncolytic virotherapy,
      and thus is the focus of many clinical trials. We have reported that
      coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) had potent oncolytic activity for cancer, and induced
      immunogenic cell death of CVB3-infected cells. We then genetically engineered
      wild type CVB3 and successfully produced a novel recombinant CVB3-miRT, improving
      its safety by the introducing an organ-specific miRNA target sequence. We also
      developed the production method of CVB3 agent, and are conducting a clinical
      trial of CVB3 therapy for cancer patients. In this report, we review recent
      clinical progress in oncolytic virotherapy of CVA21 and clinical development of
      our CVB3.

PMID- 28883285
TI  - Genetic abnormalities in core binding factor acute myeloid leukemia.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a genetically heterogeneous disease, and its
      prognosis is stratified on the basis of chromosomal and genetic alterations. Core
      binding factor (CBF) leukemia consists of AML with t (8;21) (p22;q22) and inv16
      (q16q16) /t (16;16) (q16;q16) and is included in AML with recurrent genetic
      abnormality according to WHO classification. Although CBF-AML is categorized as
      favorable-risk AML, approximately 40% of patients show relapse. The t (8;21) and
      inv16 (q16q16) /t (16;16) (q16;q16) result in RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and CBFB-MYH11 fusion
      genes, respectively; however, the fusion proteins encoded by these genes alone
      are insufficient for the development of leukemia. Activating kinase mutations in
      KIT, FLT3, and N-RAS have been frequently found, and their cooperation with RUNX1
      RUNX1T1 or CBFB-MYH11 is thought to be crucial for leukemogenesis in CBF-AML.
      Recently, mutations in ASXL2, ZBTB7A, CCND2, and DHX15 have been frequently
      identified in t (8;21) AML, but their biological and clinical significance have
      not been elucidated. Thus, a combination of several genetic alterations is
      associated with the development of CBF-AML, and comprehensive genetic analysis is
      necessary for the stratification of this leukemia. CBF-AML is a still
      heterogeneous disease entity, and it is necessary to elucidate the combinations
      of genomic abnormalities and clonal evolutions for better understanding of the
      disease and to develop a new treatment strategy.

PMID- 28883286
TI  - Proteasome inhibitors in first-line treatment of transplant-ineligible multiple
      myeloma patients.
AB  - Since the turn of the century, many agents against multiple myeloma (MM) have
      been introduced into daily clinical practice. The development of further agents
      is ongoing and some of these will reach the point of use in clinical practice in
      the near future. As various treatment options become available, the selection of
      an appropriate treatment strategy for an individual patient becomes more
      important. Treatment selection and decision making are based on the following two
      apparently opposite factors: 1) generalized findings and evidence from clinical
      trials, and 2) disease risks and background of individuals, which are diverse
      among patients. Proteasome inhibitors (PIs) are central players in MM treatment.
      In this review, we summarize evidence for the efficacy and safety of a first
      generation PI, bortezomib, and discuss its advantages in controlling disease
      risks and myeloma-defining events in patients with transplant-ineligible,
      untreated, newly diagnosed MM (NDMM). We also highlight on recent knowledge
      regarding the use of second generation PIs such as carfilzomib and ixazomib in
      the treatment of transplant-ineligible, untreated NDMM.

PMID- 28883287
TI  - Current evidence and topics of diagnosis and treatment for hepatocellular
      carcinoma.

PMID- 28883289
TI  - Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma:current
      topics.

PMID- 28883288
TI  - The evidence and topics for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28883290
TI  - Evidence and topics of surgical treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28883291
TI  - Evidence and topics of chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28883292
TI  - Reactive swelling of the regional lymph nodes in patients with stage II
      colorectal cancer as a prognostic factor.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between reactive swelling
      of regional lymph node (LN) and survival in colorectal carcinoma. We
      retrospectively studied 170 patients with surgically resected colorectal
      carcinoma histopathologically diagnosed as stage II (pStage II). These patients
      were classified into two groups:a) a "reactive LN swelling" group (clinically
      diagnosed as positive for LN metastasis, but pathologically negative) and b) a
      "no LN swelling" group. Survival analyses of the two groups showed that overall
      survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were longer in the reactive LN
      swelling group than in the no LN swelling group in patients with total colorectal
      and right-sided colon cancer. Multivariate analyses revealed that reactive LN
      swelling was an independent prognostic factor in OS and DSS in patients with
      right-sided colon cancer. Reactive swelling of regional LN is regarded as an
      expression of local immune responses, which could explain the present results.

PMID- 28883293
TI  - Usefulness of a peripherally inserted central catheter for total parenteral
      nutrition in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) have been
      widely used as a blood access route for total parenteral nutrition (TPN) in
      recent years. However, there have been few reports that evaluated the usefulness
      of PICC for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this study, we
      compared the clinical courses in patients with IBD who received TPN during their
      hospitalization by conventional central venous catheters (CVC) and PICC. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: A total of 137 IBD patients were enrolled. The CVC group and the
      PICC group included 56 and 81 patients, respectively. The clinical courses in
      both groups were compared retrospectively. RESULTS: As a complication of the
      puncture, pneumothorax occurred in two patients (3.6%) in the CVC group, but in
      none (0%) in the PICC group. The PICC group had significantly higher rates of
      achieving the scheduled TPN without removing the catheter, lower rates of
      catheter-related blood stream infection (CRBSI) and longer periods without CRBSI
      than the CVC group. CONCLUSION: PICC might be more useful than CVC in terms of
      safety and the ability to deliver scheduled TPN for IBD patients.

PMID- 28883294
TI  - Potential risk factors for postoperative complications and deaths after
      laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the elderly.
AB  - Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is performed for gallbladder stones and
      cholecystitis in a large number of elderly patients. However, the safety of LC in
      the elderly is questioned. The aim of this study was to investigate predictive
      factors for the incidence of postoperative complications and deaths after LC in
      patients aged 80 years and older. Data from 85 elderly patients who underwent LC
      between January 2005 and December 2015 were prospectively collected in a database
      at our hospital. The following factors were compared for the occurrence of
      postoperative complications and deaths:age, gender, Body Mass Index, laboratory
      date, severity grade of cholecystitis, comorbidity of choledocholithiasis,
      conversion to open cholecystectomy, early or delayed LC, amount of time from
      onset to LC, operative duration, blood loss, and the following scoring systems
      for predicting risk of surgery:ECOG-PS, ASA, SIRS, CONUT, POSSUM, SAS, E-PASS.
      The complication rate of LC was 14.1% in this cohort. WBC, CRP, BUN, Cre, Na, PT
      INR, severity of cholecystitis, conversion to open cholecystectomy, operative
      duration, early LC, ASA, SIRS, CONUT, POSSUM (PS, OS, complication rate), SAS, E
      PASS (PRS, SSS, CRS) showed significant variability in univariate analysis. A
      high POSSUM score of complication and moderate or severe cholecystitis were
      independent risk factors for postoperative complication. Analysis of the ROC
      showed that the best cut-off point for the POSSUM score of complication was 51.5.
      LC for gallbladder stones and cholecystitis in elderly is a reliable operation,
      but the procedure for cases with a high score of the POSSUM for complications, or
      moderate or severe cholecystitis, may have the risk of postoperative
      complications in elderly patients.

PMID- 28883295
TI  - A case of granulomatous inflammation of the sigmoid colon caused by a fish bone
      that resembled cancer.
AB  - This case involved a 76-year-old man. Total colonoscopy was performed as a second
      examination for colorectal cancer because of positive fecal occult blood results,
      revealing a neoplasm with ulceration in the sigmoid colon. We suspected type-3
      colorectal cancer and performed a biopsy, but the biopsy diagnosis showed only an
      ulcer with active inflammation. Colonoscopic re-examination in a highly advanced
      medical institution revealed granulomatous inflammation of the sigmoid colon
      caused by a fish bone, and the fish bone was removed endoscopically.
      Granulomatous inflammation of the colon caused by a fish bone is very rare, but
      sometimes needs to be differentiated from cancer. Endoscopic therapy can also be
      an option, depending on abdominal findings and the penetration status of the fish
      bone into the large intestinal wall.

PMID- 28883296
TI  - Multifocal angiosarcoma of the gastrointestinal tract:a case report.
AB  - An 80-year-old man presented to our hospital with complaints of tarry stool and
      shortness of breath. A blood test confirmed marked anemia. On abdominal contrast
      enhanced computed tomography, neither hemorrhagic lesions nor tumorous lesions
      could be pointed out. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed multiple
      erythematous flat elevated lesions, which were about 10mm in diameter, located
      between the stomach and the horizontal part of the duodenum. Colonoscopy revealed
      similar lesions throughout the entire colon. Pathological examination of biopsy
      specimens demonstrated the proliferation of neoplastic cells positive for
      immunostaining of factor VIII-related antigen, CD31, and CD34. Accordingly, the
      patient was diagnosed with angiosarcoma of the gastrointestinal tract. Although
      the patient was transferred to another hospital for chemotherapy, he died shortly
      after the transfer because of deterioration of his bleeding symptoms.
      Angiosarcoma is a soft-tissue neoplasm of vascular endothelium origin, accounting
      for less than 2% of all sarcomas. It usually occurs in the skin of the head and
      neck and in soft tissues. Angiosarcoma of the gastrointestinal tract is rare and
      is described only in case reports and small series. These tumors are
      characterized by an extremely aggressive course, with a high tendency to
      metastasize, leaving patients with a poor prognosis. When angiosarcoma is found
      in multiple sites of the gastrointestinal tract, it is sometimes difficult to
      differentiate between primary and metastatic occurrences. We analyzed reported
      cases of multifocal angiosarcoma of the digestive tract, of which there are 43 so
      far. In 24 cases, the angiosarcoma was thought to originate from the
      gastrointestinal tract (primary angiosarcoma). In 13 cases, angiosarcoma of other
      organs metastasized to the digestive tract (metastatic angiosarcoma). In the
      remaining 6 cases, whether the multifocal angiosarcoma of the digestive tract was
      primary or metastatic was unclear. In the current case, no primary lesion was
      found outside the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, he was diagnosed with
      primary multifocal angiosarcoma.

PMID- 28883297
TI  - A case of serous cystic neoplasm with form changes on an image obtained during
      long-term follow-up.
AB  - A 45-year-old man presented with a 24-mm macrocystic lesion at the pancreatic
      head, which was detected by computed tomography (CT). During six years of follow
      up, CT, MRI, and endosonographic images of the cystic lesion showed that the
      cystic lesion had enlarged to 42mm, with the appearance of a thick cyst wall.
      Since a cystic tumor could not be ruled out, surgery was performed. Pathological
      examination of the resected specimen revealed microcystic-type serous cystadenoma
      of the pancreas, with the presence of internal bleeding in the cyst and
      hemorrhage and thick fibrous tissue in the cyst wall. We could observe a serous
      cystic neoplasm with prismatic form changes on an image obtained during long-term
      follow-up. Thus, we considered this case to be useful for investigating the
      natural history of serous cystic neoplasm of the pancreas.

PMID- 28883298
TI  - In vitro study on the osteogenesis enhancement effect of BMP-2 incorporated
      biomimetic apatite coating on titanium surfaces.
AB  - To fabricate a sustained-release delivery system of bone morphogenetic protein
      (BMP-2) on titanium surface, explore the effect of BMP-2 concentration on the
      loading/release behavior of BMP-2 and evaluate the cell compatibility of the
      system in vitro, pure titanium specimens were immersed into supersaturated
      calcium phosphate solutions (SCP) containing 4 different concentrations of BMP-2:
      0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 ng/mL. Biomimetic calcium phosphate coating was formed on
      titanium surface and BMP-2 was incorporated into the coating through co
      deposition. The release profile of BMP-2 suggested that BMP-2 were delivered
      sustainably up to 20 days. CCK-8 and ALP assay showed that 200 group and 400
      ng/mL BMP-2 group have significant effect on promoting MC3T3-E1 cell
      proliferation and differentiation. The BMP-2 incorporated into the hybrid coating
      released in a sustained manner and significantly promoted the proliferation and
      differentiation of MC3T3-E1 on the titanium surface.

PMID- 28883299
TI  - Cast, milled and EBM-manufactured titanium, differences in porcelain shear bond
      strength.
AB  - The objectives were to analyze the oxide layer generated between titanium and
      porcelain during firing and compare it in different manufacturing techniques:
      cast, milled and EBM-technique. Seventy two specimens were manufactured,
      subdivided according to surface treatment: time of passivation (P) and no time of
      passivation (NP) before porcelain firing. Specimens from each group were analyzed
      with scanning electron microscopy: one only fired once, and one subjected to six
      firings. Remaining specimens were subjected to shear bond strength test. The EBM
      produced NP-group had highest mean value (25.0 MPa) and the milled P-group showed
      lowest mean value (18.5 MPa) when all factors were compared. No significant
      difference was detected according to time of passivation. SEM showed consistent
      and well-defined boundary between the different layers. Time of passivation and
      impact on oxide growth was not detected. The bond strength of porcelain to milled
      titanium is lower when compared to cast titanium and EBM-produced titanium.

PMID- 28883300
TI  - Irrigation effectiveness of continuous ultrasonic irrigation system: An ex vivo
      study.
AB  - This study evaluated the irrigation extrusion and smear layer (SL) removal of
      continuous ultrasonic irrigation (CUI). Forty root canals were shaped, embedded
      in warm sterile saline agar colored with 1% acid red, and distributed into four
      groups; three groups had the final irrigation sequence of sodium hypochlorite and
      EDTA solutions performed by using syringe irrigation (SI), EndoVac (EV), and CUI,
      respectively. Group 4 had the canals ultrasonically irrigated with saline (CUIS).
      Irrigant extrusion was verified by a color change of the agar. The SL was
      evaluated under scanning electron microscope. Irrigant extrusion was observed in
      two and four teeth in the CUI and SI, respectively, whilst none had irrigant
      extruded in the EV. In term of SL, the CUI was comparable to EV at 1 and 3 mm but
      different to SI at 1 mm. Although CUI might clean the root canal system
      effectively, it was unable to avoid irrigant extrusion.

PMID- 28883301
TI  - Changes in polymerization stress and elastic modulus of bulk-fill resin
      composites for 24 hours after irradiation.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate changes in polymerization stress
      and elastic modulus for light-cured bulk-fill resin composites following
      irradiation. Crack analysis was applied to obtain the stresses for 24 h after
      irradiation, which were calculated from the lengths of cracks in a glass mold
      bonded to the composites. The elastic modulus was repeatedly measured by nano
      indentation tests performed over 24 h. The lengths of the cracks, the interfacial
      stress, and the elastic modulus were significantly affected by the material and
      time after irradiation (p<0.01). The stress and elastic modulus continued to
      increase for more than 6 and 1 h, respectively (p<0.05). Strong relationships
      (r>0.85) were revealed between the stress and elastic modulus. The bulk-fill
      resin composites generated smaller stresses than a flowable resin composite
      reported to generate relatively low stress. Post-irradiation polymerization
      during the first 1 h is a major determinant for the magnitude of stress.

PMID- 28883303
TI  - Accentuating systolic aortic regurgitation during premature ventricular systole.

PMID- 28883302
TI  - Effect of framework design on fracture load after thermal cycling and mechanical
      loading of implant-supported zirconia-based prostheses.
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of zirconia framework design on fracture load of
      implant-supported zirconia-based prostheses after thermal cycling and mechanical
      loading. Three different zirconia framework designs were investigated: uniform
      thickness (UNI), anatomic (ANA), and supported anatomic (SUP) designs. Each
      framework was layered with feldspathic porcelain (ZAC group) or indirect
      composite material (ZIC group). The specimens then underwent fracture load
      testing after thermal cycling and cyclic loading. In the ZAC group, mean fracture
      load was significantly lower for UNI design specimens than for the other
      framework designs. In the ZIC group, there was no significant difference in mean
      fracture load between ANA design specimens and either UNI or SUP design
      specimens. To improve fracture resistance of implant-supported zirconia-based
      prostheses after artificial aging, uniformly thick layering material and
      appropriate lingual support with zirconia frameworks should be provided.

PMID- 28883304
TI  - Real-time three-dimensional echocardiography imaging of the main pulmonary artery
      pseudoaneurysm.

PMID- 28883306
TI  - Editorial, Issue: September 2017.

PMID- 28883305
TI  - Cor calcium: heart trapped in a pericardial cage.

PMID- 28883307
TI  - Tolvaptan in the very elderly with acute decompensated heart failure- a
      therapeutic option worth of consideration.

PMID- 28883308
TI  - Successful management of iatrogenic retrograde dissection into the aortic root.

PMID- 28883309
TI  - Preventing Kounis syndrome by stent implantation: a reciprocal process?

PMID- 28883310
TI  - Author's Reply.

PMID- 28883311
TI  - Patients' knowledge and perspectives on vitamin K antagonists for stroke
      prevention in atrial fibrillation: implications for treatment quality.

PMID- 28883312
TI  - Hydrothermal Synthesis of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles in Supercritical Water.
AB  - This paper summarizes specific features of supercritical hydrothermal synthesis
      of metal oxide particles. Supercritical water allows control of the crystal
      phase, morphology, and particle size since the solvent's properties, such as
      density of water, can be varied with temperature and pressure, both of which can
      affect the supersaturation and nucleation. In this review, we describe the
      advantages of fine particle formation using supercritical water and describe
      which future tasks need to be solved.

PMID- 28883314
TI  - Sintering of Fine Particles in Suspension Plasma Sprayed Coatings.
AB  - Suspension plasma spraying is a process that enables the production of finely
      grained nanometric or submicrometric coatings. The suspensions are formulated
      with the use of fine powder particles in water or alcohol with some additives.
      Subsequently, the suspension is injected into plasma jet and the liquid additives
      evaporate. The remaining fine solids are molten and subsequently agglomerate or
      remain solid, depending on their trajectory in the plasma jet. The coating's
      microstructure results from these two groups of particles arriving on a substrate
      or previously deposited coating. Previous experimental studies carried out for
      plasma sprayed titanium oxide and hydroxyapatite coatings enabled us to observe
      either a finely grained microstructure or, when a different suspension injection
      mode was used, to distinguish two zones in the microstructure. These two zones
      correspond to the dense zone formed from well molten particles, and the
      agglomerated zone formed from fine solid particles that arrive on the substrate
      in a solid state. The present paper focuses on the experimental and theoretical
      analysis of the formation process of the agglomerated zone. The experimental
      section establishes the heat flux supplied to the coating during deposition. In
      order to achieve this, calorimetric measurements were made by applying
      experimental conditions simulating the real coatings' growth. The heat flux was
      measured to be in the range from 0.08 to 0.5 MW/m2,depending on the experimental
      conditions. The theoretical section analyzes the sintering during the coating's
      growth, which concerns the fine particles arriving on the substrate in the solid
      state. The models of volume, grain boundary and surface diffusion were analyzed
      and adapted to the size and chemistry of the grains, temperature and time scales
      corresponding to the suspension plasma spraying conditions. The model of surface
      diffusion was found to best describe the sintering during suspension plasma
      spraying. The formation of necks having the relative size equal to 10% of
      particle diameter was found to be possible during the thermal cycles occurring at
      the coatings' deposition. Transmission electron microscopic observations of the
      agglomerated zone hydroxyapatite coating confirm the sintering of some of the
      fine grains.

PMID- 28883313
TI  - A Comprehensive Review on Separation Methods and Techniques for Single-Walled
      Carbon Nanotubes.
AB  - Structural control of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is attracting
      enormous interest in view of their applications to nanoelectronics and
      nanooptics. Actually, more than 200 papers regarding separation of SWNTs have
      been published since 1998. In this review, they are classified into the following
      five sections according to the separation methods; electrophoresis,
      centrifugation, chromatography, selective solubilization and selective reaction.
      In each method, all literature is summarized in tables showing the separated
      objects (metallic/semiconducting (M/S), length, diameter, (n, m) structure and/or
      handedness), the production process of the used SWNTs (CoMoCAT, HiPco, arc
      discharge and/or laser vaporization) and the employed chemicals, such as
      detergents and polymers. Changes in annual number of publications related to this
      subject are also discussed.

PMID- 28883317
TI  - Combustion Synthesis of Porous TiC/Ti Composite by a Self-Propagating Mode.
AB  - Porous titanium carbide (TiC) and TiC/Ti composites were synthesized by self
      propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). Titanium and carbon powders were
      blended by various Ti/C blending ratios. The heat of reaction between titanium
      and carbon was high enough to induce the self-sustaining reaction of TiC
      formation on condition that some processing parameters (Ti/C ratio and porosity
      of the precursor) were appropriately selected. When the Ti/C blending ratio was
      high, the excess amount of titanium absorbed the heat of reaction. Consequently,
      the heated zone was not heated up to the ignition temperature. On the other hand,
      when the Ti/C ratio was low, high thermal conductivity of the precursor prevented
      an ignition of the heated side of precursors. The pore morphology was controlled
      by changing the Ti/C ratio and the preheat temperature.

PMID- 28883316
TI  - Characterization of Biomaterials by Soft X-Ray Spectromicroscopy.
AB  - Synchrotron-based soft X-ray spectromicroscopy techniques are emerging as useful
      tools to characterize potentially biocompatible materials and to probe protein
      interactions with model biomaterial surfaces. Simultaneous quantitative chemical
      analysis of the near surface region of the candidate biomaterial, and adsorbed
      proteins, peptides or other biological species can be obtained at high spatial
      resolution via scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and X-ray
      photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM). Both techniques use near-edge X-ray
      absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectral contrast for chemical identification
      and quantitation. The capabilities of STXM and X-PEEM for the analysis of
      biomaterials are reviewed and illustrated by three recent studies: (1)
      characterization of hydrophobic surfaces, including adsorption of fibrinogen (Fg)
      or human serum albumin (HSA) to hydrophobic polymeric thin films, (2) studies of
      HSA adsorption to biodegradable or potentially biocompatible polymers, and (3)
      studies of biomaterials under fully hydrated conditions. Other recent
      applications of STXM and X-PEEM to biomaterials are also reviewed.

PMID- 28883315
TI  - Bioactive Glass and Glass-Ceramic Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering.
AB  - Traditionally, bioactive glasses have been used to fill and restore bone defects.
      More recently, this category of biomaterials has become an emerging research
      field for bone tissue engineering applications. Here, we review and discuss
      current knowledge on porous bone tissue engineering scaffolds on the basis of
      melt-derived bioactive silicate glass compositions and relevant composite
      structures. Starting with an excerpt on the history of bioactive glasses, as well
      as on fundamental requirements for bone tissue engineering scaffolds, a detailed
      overview on recent developments of bioactive glass and glass-ceramic scaffolds
      will be given, including a summary of common fabrication methods and a discussion
      on the microstructural-mechanical properties of scaffolds in relation to human
      bone (structure-property and structure-function relationship). In addition, ion
      release effects of bioactive glasses concerning osteogenic and angiogenic
      responses are addressed. Finally, areas of future research are highlighted in
      this review.

PMID- 28883318
TI  - Nanoscale "Quantum" Islands on Metal Substrates: Microscopy Studies and
      Electronic Structure Analyses.
AB  - Confinement of electrons can occur in metal islands or in continuous films grown
      heteroepitaxially upon a substrate of a different metal or on a metallic alloy.
      Associated quantum size effects (QSE) can produce a significant height-dependence
      of the surface free energy for nanoscale thicknesses of up to 10-20 layers. This
      may suffice to induce height selection during film growth. Scanning STM analysis
      has revealed remarkable flat-topped or mesa-like island and film morphologies in
      various systems. We discuss in detail observations of QSE and associated film
      growth behavior for Pb/Cu(111), Ag/Fe(100), and Cu/fcc-Fe/Cu(100) [A/B or A/B/A],
      and for Ag/NiAl(110) with brief comments offered for Fe/Cu3Au(001) [A/BC binary
      alloys]. We also describe these issues for Ag/5-fold i-Al-Pd-Mn and Bi/5-fold i
      Al-Cu-Fe [A/BCD ternary icosohedral quasicrystals]. Electronic structure theory
      analysis, either at the level of simple free electron gas models or more
      sophisticated Density Functional Theory calculations, can provide insight into
      the QSE-mediated thermodynamic driving force underlying height selection.

PMID- 28883320
TI  - Synthesis and Characterization of Multifunctional Chitosan- MnFe2O4 Nanoparticles
      for Magnetic Hyperthermia and Drug Delivery.
AB  - Multifunctional nanoparticles composed of MnFe2O4 were encapsulated in chitosan
      for investigation of system to combine magnetically-triggered drug delivery and
      localized hyperthermia for cancer treatment with the previously published
      capacity of MnFe2O4 to be used as an efficient MRI contrast agent for cancer
      diagnosis. This paper focuses on the synthesis and characterization of magnetic
      MnFe2O4 nanoparticles, their dispersion in water and their incorporation in
      chitosan, which serves as a drug carrier. The surface of the MnFe2O4
      nanoparticles was modified with meso-2,3-di-mercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) to
      develop stable aqueous dispersions. The nanoparticles were coated with chitosan,
      and the magnetic properties, heat generation and hydrodynamic size of chitosan
      coated MnFe2O4 were evaluated for various linker concentrations and in a range of
      pH conditions.

PMID- 28883322
TI  - Emission Properties, Solubility, Thermodynamic Analysis and NMR Studies of Rare
      Earth Complexes with Two Different Phosphine Oxides.
AB  - The paper proposes novel molecular designs for rare-earth complexes involving the
      introduction of two different phosphine oxide structures into one rare-earth ion.
      These designs are effective for improving solubility and emission intensity.
      Additionally, the complexes are indispensable for realizing high performances in
      LEDs and security media. The thermodynamic properties of Eu(III) complexes are
      correlated with the solubility. Correlations between coordination structures and
      emission intensity were explained by NMR analysis. The luminous flux of red LED
      devices with Eu(III) complexes is very high (20 mA, 870 m lumen). A new white LED
      has its largest spectra intensity in the red region and a human look much more
      vividly under this light.

PMID- 28883321
TI  - Synthesis of Polymer-Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposites.
AB  - Polymer nanocomposites show unique properties combining the advantages of the
      inorganic nanofillers and the organic polymers. The mesoporous silica nanofillers
      have received much attention due to their ordered structure, high surface area
      and ease for functionalization of the nanopores. To accommodate macromolecules,
      the nanopores lead to unusually intimate interactions between the polymer and the
      inorganic phase, and some unusual properties can be observed, when compared with
      nonporous fillers. Whereas many review articles have been devoted to
      polymer/nonporous nanofiller nanocomposites, few review articles focus on
      polymer/mesoporous silica nanocomposites. This review summarizes the recent
      development in the methods for synthesizing polymer/mesoporous silica
      nanocomposites based on the papers published from 1998 to 2009, and some unique
      properties of these composites are also described.

PMID- 28883323
TI  - Thin Film Deposition Using Energetic Ions.
AB  - One important recent trend in deposition technology is the continuous expansion
      of available processes towards higher ion assistance with the subsequent
      beneficial effects to film properties. Nowadays, a multitude of processes,
      including laser ablation and deposition, vacuum arc deposition, ion assisted
      deposition, high power impulse magnetron sputtering and plasma immersion ion
      implantation, are available. However, there are obstacles to overcome in all
      technologies, including line-of-sight processes, particle contaminations and low
      growth rates, which lead to ongoing process refinements and development of new
      methods. Concerning the deposited thin films, control of energetic ion
      bombardment leads to improved adhesion, reduced substrate temperatures, control
      of intrinsic stress within the films as well as adjustment of surface texture,
      phase formation and nanotopography. This review illustrates recent trends for
      both areas; plasma process and solid state surface processes.

PMID- 28883324
TI  - Large-Scale Synthesis of Carbon Nanomaterials by Catalytic Chemical Vapor
      Deposition: A Review of the Effects of Synthesis Parameters and Magnetic
      Properties.
AB  - The large-scale production of carbon nanomaterials by catalytic chemical vapor
      deposition is reviewed in context with their microwave absorbing ability. Factors
      that influence the growth as well as the magnetic properties of the carbon
      nanomaterials are discussed.

PMID- 28883325
TI  - Hydrothermal Synthesis of Nanostructured Vanadium Oxides.
AB  - A wide range of vanadium oxides have been obtained via the hydrothermal treatment
      of aqueous V(V) solutions. They exhibit a large variety of nanostructures ranging
      from molecular clusters to 1D and 2D layered compounds. Nanotubes are obtained
      via a self-rolling process while amazing morphologies such as nano-spheres, nano
      flowers and even nano-urchins are formed via the self-assembling of nano
      particles. This paper provides some correlation between the molecular structure
      of precursors in the solution and the nanostructure of the solid phases obtained
      by hydrothermal treatment.

PMID- 28883319
TI  - Functional Coatings or Films for Hard-Tissue Applications.
AB  - Metallic biomaterials like stainless steel, Co-based alloy, Ti and its alloys are
      widely used as artificial hip joints, bone plates and dental implants due to
      their excellent mechanical properties and endurance. However, there are some
      surface-originated problems associated with the metallic implants: corrosion and
      wear in biological environments resulting in ions release and formation of wear
      debris; poor implant fixation resulting from lack of osteoconductivity and
      osteoinductivity; implant-associated infections due to the bacterial adhesion and
      colonization at the implantation site. For overcoming these surface-originated
      problems, a variety of surface modification techniques have been used on metallic
      implants, including chemical treatments, physical methods and biological methods.
      This review surveys coatings that serve to provide properties of anti-corrosion
      and anti-wear, biocompatibility and bioactivity, and antibacterial activity.

PMID- 28883326
TI  - Charge-Transfer Interactions in Organic Functional Materials.
AB  - Our goal in this review is three-fold. First, we provide an overview of a number
      of quantum-chemical methods that can abstract charge-transfer (CT) information on
      the excited-state species of organic conjugated materials, which can then be
      exploited for the understanding and design of organic photodiodes and solar cells
      at the molecular level. We stress that the Composite-Molecule (CM) model is
      useful for evaluating the electronic excited states and excitonic couplings of
      the organic molecules in the solid state. We start from a simple polyene dimer as
      an example to illustrate how interchain separation and chain size affect the
      intercahin interaction and the role of the charge transfer interaction in the
      excited state of the polyene dimers. With the basic knowledge from analysis of
      the polyene system, we then study more practical organic materials such as
      oligophenylenevinylenes (OPVn), oligothiophenes (OTn), and oligophenylenes (OPn).
      Finally, we apply this method to address the delocalization pathway (through-bond
      and/or through-space) in the lowest excited state for cyclophanes by combining
      the charge-transfer contributions calculated on the cyclophanes and the
      corresponding hypothetical molecules with tethers removed. This review represents
      a step forward in the understanding of the nature of the charge-transfer
      interactions in the excited state of organic functional materials.

PMID- 28883327
TI  - STM, SECPM, AFM and Electrochemistry on Single Crystalline Surfaces.
AB  - Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques have had a great impact on research
      fields of surface science and nanotechnology during the last decades. They are
      used to investigate surfaces with scanning ranges between several 100 mm down to
      atomic resolution. Depending on experimental conditions, and the interaction
      forces between probe and sample, different SPM techniques allow mapping of
      different surface properties. In this work, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
      in air and under electrochemical conditions (EC-STM), atomic force microscopy
      (AFM) in air and scanning electrochemical potential microscopy (SECPM) under
      electrochemical conditions, were used to study different single crystalline
      surfaces in electrochemistry. Especially SECPM offers potentially new insights
      into the solid-liquid interface by providing the possibility to image the
      potential distribution of the surface, with a resolution that is comparable to
      STM. In electrocatalysis, nanostructured catalysts supported on different
      electrode materials often show behavior different from their bulk electrodes.
      This was experimentally and theoretically shown for several combinations and
      recently on Pt on Au(111) towards fuel cell relevant reactions. For these
      investigations single crystals often provide accurate and well defined reference
      and support systems. We will show heteroepitaxially grown Ru, Ir and Rh single
      crystalline surface films and bulk Au single crystals with different orientations
      under electrochemical conditions. Image studies from all three different SPM
      methods will be presented and compared to electrochemical data obtained by cyclic
      voltammetry in acidic media. The quality of the single crystalline supports will
      be verified by the SPM images and the cyclic voltammograms. Furthermore, an
      outlook will be presented on how such supports can be used in electrocatalytic
      studies.

PMID- 28883328
TI  - Molecular Dynamics in Two-Dimensional Supramolecular Systems Observed by STM.
AB  - Since the invention of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), 2D supramolecular
      architectures have been observed under various experimental conditions. The
      construction of these architectures arises from the balance between interactions
      at the medium-solid interface. This review summarizes molecular motion observed
      in 2D-supramolecular structures on surfaces using nanospace resolution STM. The
      observation of molecular motion on surfaces provides a visual understanding of
      intermolecular interactions, which are the major driving force behind
      supramolecular arrangement.

PMID- 28883329
TI  - Metal Dependence of Signal Transmission through MolecularQuantum-Dot Cellular
      Automata (QCA): A Theoretical Studyon Fe, Ru, and Os Mixed-Valence Complexes.
AB  - Dynamic behavior of signal transmission through metal complexes [L5M-BL-ML5]5+
      (M=Fe, Ru, Os, BL=pyrazine (py), 4,4'-bipyridine (bpy), L=NH3), which are
      simplified models of the molecular quantum-dot cellular automata (molecular QCA),
      is discussed from the viewpoint of one-electron theory, density functional
      theory. It is found that for py complexes, the signal transmission time (tst) is
      Fe(0.6 fs) < Os(0.7 fs) < Ru(1.1 fs) and the signal amplitude (A) is Fe(0.05 e) <
      Os(0.06 e) < Ru(0.10 e). For bpy complexes, tst and A are Fe(1.4 fs) < Os(1.7 fs)
      < Ru(2.5 fs) and Os(0.11 e) < Ru(0.12 e) <Fe(0.13 e), respectively. Bpy complexes
      generally have stronger signal amplitude, but waste longer time for signal
      transmission than py complexes. Among all complexes, Fe complex with bpy BL shows
      the best result. These results are discussed from overlap integral and energy gap
      of molecular orbitals.

PMID- 28883330
TI  - Preparation of Fast Dissolving Films for Oral Dosage from Natural
      Polysaccharides.
AB  - Fast-dissolving films (FDFs) were prepared from natural polysaccharides, such as
      pullulan, without heating, controlling the pH, or adding other materials. The
      release profiles of model drugs from the films were investigated. In the absence
      of a drug, the casting method and subsequent evaporation of the solvent resulted
      in the polysaccharide forming a circular film. The presence of drugs (both their
      type and concentration) affected film formation. The thickness of the film was
      controllable by adjusting the concentration of the polysaccharide, and regular
      unevenness was observed on the surface of 2% pullulan film. All films prepared
      with polysaccharides readily swelled in dissolution medium, released the
      incorporated compound, and subsequently disintegrated. The release of
      dexamethasone from the films was complete after 15 min, although this release
      rate was slightly slower than that of pilocarpine or lidocaine. Therefore, FDFs
      prepared from polysaccharides could be promising candidates as oral dosage forms
      containing drugs, and would be expected to show drug dissolution in the oral
      cavity.

PMID- 28883331
TI  - Recent Developments in Halogen Free Flame Retardants for Epoxy Resins for
      Electrical and Electronic Applications.
AB  - The recent implementation of new environmental legislations led to a change in
      the manufacturing of composites that has repercussions on printed wiring boards
      (PWB). This in turn led to alternate processing methods (e.g., lead-free
      soldering), which affected the required physical and chemical properties of the
      additives used to impart flame retardancy. This review will discuss the latest
      advancements in phosphorus containing flame retardants for electrical and
      electronic (EE) applications and compare them with commercially available ones.
      The mechanism of degradation and flame retardancy of phosphorus flame retardants
      in epoxy resins will also be discussed.

PMID- 28883332
TI  - Emission Spectroscopy as a Probe into Photoinduced Intramolecular Electron
      Transfer in Polyazine Bridged Ru(II),Rh(III) Supramolecular Complexes.
AB  - Steady-state and time-resolved emission spectroscopy are valuable tools to probe
      photochemical processes of metal-ligand, coordination complexes. Ru(II) polyazine
      light absorbers are efficient light harvesters absorbing in the UV and visible
      with emissive 3MLCT excited states known to undergo excited state energy and
      electron transfer. Changes in emission intensity, energy or band-shape, as well
      as excited state lifetime, provide insight into excited state dynamics.
      Photophysical processes such as intramolecular electron transfer between electron
      donor and electron acceptor sub-units may be investigated using these methods.
      This review investigates the use of steady-state and time-resolved emission
      spectroscopy to measure excited state intramolecular electron transfer in
      polyazine bridged Ru(II),Rh(III) supramolecular complexes. Intramolecular
      electron transfer in these systems provides for conversion of the emissive 3MLCT
      (metal-to-ligand charge transfer) excited state to a non-emissive, but
      potentially photoreactive, 3MMCT (metal-to-metal charge transfer) excited state.
      The details of the photophysics of Ru(II),Rh(III) and Ru(II),Rh(III),Ru(II)
      systems as probed by steady-state and time-resolved emission spectroscopy will be
      highlighted.

PMID- 28883333
TI  - Nanoscale Hollow Spheres: Microemulsion-Based Synthesis, Structural
      Characterization and Container-Type Functionality.
AB  - A wide variety of nanoscale hollow spheres can be obtained via a microemulsion
      approach. This includes oxides (e.g., ZnO, TiO2, SnO2, AlO(OH), La(OH)3),
      sulfides (e.g., Cu2S, CuS) as well as elemental metals (e.g., Ag, Au). All hollow
      spheres are realized with outer diameters of 10-60 nm, an inner cavity size of 2
      30 nm and a wall thickness of 2-15 nm. The microemulsion approach allows
      modification of the composition of the hollow spheres, fine-tuning their diameter
      and encapsulation of various ingredients inside the resulting "nanocontainers".
      This review summarizes the experimental conditions of synthesis and compares them
      to other methods of preparing hollow spheres. Moreover, the structural
      characterization and selected properties of the as-prepared hollow spheres are
      discussed. The latter is especially focused on container-functionalities with the
      encapsulation of inorganic salts (e.g., KSCN, K2S2O8, KF), biomolecules/bioactive
      molecules (e.g., phenylalanine, quercetin, nicotinic acid) and fluorescent dyes
      (e.g., rhodamine, riboflavin) as representative examples.

PMID- 28883334
TI  - Carbon Nanotubes Filled with Ferromagnetic Materials.
AB  - Carbon nanotubes (CNT) filled with ferromagnetic metals like iron, cobalt or
      nickel are new and very interesting nanostructured materials with a number of
      unique properties. In this paper we give an overview about different chemical
      vapor deposition (CVD) methods for their synthesis and discuss the influence of
      selected growth parameters. In addition we evaluate possible growth mechanisms
      involved in their formation. Moreover we show their identified structural and
      magnetic properties. On the basis of these properties we present different
      application possibilities. Some selected examples reveal the high potential of
      these materials in the field of medicine and nanotechnology.

PMID- 28883335
TI  - Stability Criteria of Fullerene-like Nanoparticles: Comparing V2O5 to Layered
      Metal Dichalcogenides and Dihalides.
AB  - Numerous examples of closed-cage nanostructures, such as nested fullerene-like
      nanoparticles and nanotubes, formed by the folding of materials with layered
      structure are known. These compounds include WS2, NiCl2, CdCl2, Cs2O, and
      recently V2O5. Layered materials, whose chemical bonds are highly ionic in
      character, possess relatively stiff layers, which cannot be evenly folded. Thus,
      stress-relief generally results in faceted nanostructures seamed by edge-defects.
      V2O5, is a metal oxide compound with a layered structure. The study of the seams
      in nearly perfect inorganic "fullerene-like" hollow V2O5 nanoparticles (NIF-V2O5)
      synthesized by pulsed laser ablation (PLA), is discussed in the present work. The
      relation between the formation mechanism and the seams between facets is
      examined. The formation mechanism of the NIF-V2O5 is discussed in comparison to
      fullerene-like structures of other layered materials, like IF structures of MoS2,
      CdCl2, and Cs2O. The criteria for the perfect seaming of such hollow closed
      structures are highlighted.

PMID- 28883336
TI  - Fluorescence and FTIR Spectra Analysis of Trans-A2B2-Substituted Di- and Tetra
      Phenyl Porphyrins.
AB  - A series of asymmetrically substituted free-base di- and tetra-phenylporphyrins
      and the associated Zn-phenylporphyrins were synthesized and studied by X-ray
      diffraction, NMR, infrared, electronic absorption spectra, as well as
      fluorescence emission spectroscopy, along with theoretical simulations of the
      electronic and vibration structures. The synthesis selectively afforded trans
      A2B2 porphyrins, without scrambling observed, where the AA and BB were taken as
      donor- and acceptor-substituted phenyl groups. The combined results point to
      similar properties to symmetrically substituted porphyrins reported in the
      literature. The differences in FTIR and fluorescence were analyzed by means of
      detailed density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The X-ray diffraction
      analysis for single crystals of zinc-containing porphyrins revealed small
      deviations from planarity for the porphyrin core in perfect agreement with the
      DFT optimized structures. All calculated vibrational modes (2162 modes for all
      six compounds studied) were found and fully characterized and assigned to the
      observed FTIR spectra. The most intense IR bands are discussed in connection with
      the generic similarity and differences of calculated normal modes. Absorption
      spectra of all compounds in the UV and visible regions show the typical ethio
      type feature of meso-tetraarylporphyrins with a very intense Soret band and weak
      Q bands of decreasing intensity. In diphenyl derivatives, the presence of only
      two phenyl rings causes a pronounced hypsochromic shift of all bands in the
      absorption spectra. Time-dependent DFT calculations revealed some peculiarities
      in the electronic excited states structure and connected them with vibronic bands
      in the absorption and fluorescence spectra from associated vibrational sublevels.

PMID- 28883337
TI  - New Trends in Reaction and Resistance to Fire of Fire-retardant Epoxies.
AB  - This paper focuses on current trends in the flame retardancy of epoxy-based
      thermosets. This review examines the incorporation of additives in these
      polymers, including synergism effects. Reactive flame-retardants-which are
      incorporated in the polymer backbone-are reported and the use of fire-retardant
      epoxy coatings for materials protection is also considered.

PMID- 28883338
TI  - Influence of the Structural Properties of Mesoporous Silica on the Adsorption of
      Guest Molecules.
AB  - Amino-functionalized mesoporous silica of different pore sizes and pore system
      dimensionalities is used as a host material for the inclusion of fluorescein (non
      covalent host-guest interaction) and fluorescein isothiocyanate (covalent host
      guest interaction). The parameters determining the achievable guest loading
      depend on the type of host-guest interaction. For covalent interaction, the
      loading is mainly determined by the accessibility of the adsorption sites, while
      a more complex situation was encountered in case of non-covalent interactions. In
      addition to the accessibility of the adsorption sites, an interpretation of the
      results needs to take into account the confinement of the included guests, as
      well as the distribution of the adsorption sites.

PMID- 28883339
TI  - C60 Intercalated Graphite as Nanolubricants.
AB  - We synthesized the novel nanocomposite consisting of alternately stacked single
      graphene sheets and a C60 monolayer by using the graphite intercalation technique
      in which alkylamine molecules help intercalate large C60 molecules into the
      graphite. It is found that the intercalated C60 molecules can rotate in between
      single graphene sheets by using 13C NMR measurements. The grease with the
      nanocomposite materials provides a much better lubricating performance than that
      with other additives that have been well-known up to now. This result exhibits
      that a C60 monolayer intercalated between graphenes plays an important role in
      lubricating behavior.

PMID- 28883340
TI  - Surface Nano-Structuring by Adsorption and Chemical Reactions.
AB  - Nano-structuring of the surface caused by adsorption of molecules or atoms and by
      the reaction of surface atoms with adsorbed species are reviewed from a chemistry
      viewpoint. Self-assembly of adsorbed species is markedly influenced by weak
      mutual interactions and the local strain of the surface induced by the
      adsorption. Nano-structuring taking place on the surface is well explained by the
      notion of a quasi-molecule provided by the reaction of surface atoms with
      adsorbed species. Self-assembly of quasi-molecules by weak internal bonding
      provides quasi-compounds on a specific surface. Various nano-structuring
      phenomena are discussed: (i) self-assembly of adsorbed molecules and atoms; (ii)
      self-assembly of quasi-compounds; (iii) formation of nano-composite surfaces;
      (iv) controlled growth of nano-materials on composite surfaces. Nano-structuring
      processes are not always controlled by energetic feasibility, that is, the
      formation of nano-composite surface and the growth of nano-particles on surfaces
      are often controlled by the kinetics. The idea of the "kinetic controlled
      molding" might be valuable to design nano-materials on surfaces.

PMID- 28883341
TI  - The Electronic Structure and Secondary Pyroelectric Properties of Lithium
      Tetraborate.
AB  - We review the pyroelectric properties and electronic structure of Li2B4O7(110)
      and Li2B4O7(100) surfaces. There is evidence for a pyroelectric current along the
      [110] direction of stoichiometric Li2B4O7 so that the pyroelectric coefficient is
      nonzero but roughly 103 smaller than along the [001] direction of spontaneous
      polarization. Abrupt decreases in the pyroelectric coefficient along the [110]
      direction can be correlated with anomalies in the elastic stiffness contributing
      to the concept that the pyroelectric coefficient is not simply a vector but has
      qualities of a tensor, as expected. The time dependent surface photovoltaic
      charging suggests that surface charging is dependent on crystal orientation and
      doping, as well as temperature.

PMID- 28883342
TI  - The Utility of Nanocomposites in Fire Retardancy.
AB  - Nanocomposites have been shown to significantly reduce the peak heat release
      rate, as measured by cone calorimetry, for many polymers but they typically have
      no effect on the oxygen index or the UL-94 classification. In this review, we
      will cover what is known about the processes by which nanocomposite formation may
      bring this about. Montmorillonite will be the focus in this paper but attention
      will also be devoted to other materials, including carbon nanotubes and layered
      double hydroxides. A second section will be devoted to combinations of
      nanocomposite formation with conventional (and unconventional) fire retardants.
      The paper will conclude with a section attempting to forecast the future.

PMID- 28883344
TI  - Copper Nanoparticles for Printed Electronics: Routes Towards Achieving Oxidation
      Stability.
AB  - In the past few years, the synthesis of Cu nanoparticles has attracted much
      attention because of its huge potential for replacing expensive nano silver inks
      utilized in conductive printing. A major problem in utilizing these copper
      nanoparticles is their inherent tendency to oxidize in ambient conditions.
      Recently, there have been several reports presenting various approaches which
      demonstrate that copper nanoparticles can resist oxidation under ambient
      conditions, if they are coated by a proper protective layer. This layer may
      consist of an organic polymer, alkene chains, amorphous carbon or graphenes, or
      inorganic materials such as silica, or an inert metal. Such coated copper
      nanoparticles enable achieving high conductivities by direct printing of
      conductive patterns. These approaches open new possibilities in printed
      electronics, for example by using copper based inkjet inks to form various
      devices such as solar cells, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, and
      electroluminescence devices. This paper provides a review on the synthesis of
      copper nanoparticles, mainly by wet chemistry routes, and their utilization in
      printed electronics.

PMID- 28883343
TI  - Creating Surface Properties Using a Palette of Hydrophobins.
AB  - Small secreted proteins called hydrophobins play diverse roles in the life cycle
      of filamentous fungi. For example, the hydrophobin SC3 of Schizophyllum commune
      is involved in aerial hyphae formation, cell-wall assembly and attachment to
      hydrophobic surfaces. Hydrophobins are capable of self-assembly at a hydrophilic
      hydrophobic interface, resulting in the formation of an amphipathic film. This
      amphipathic film can make hydrophobic surfaces of a liquid or a solid material
      wettable, while a hydrophilic surface can be turned into a hydrophobic one. These
      properties, among others, make hydrophobins of interest for medical and technical
      applications. For instance, hydrophobins can be used to purify proteins from
      complex mixtures; to reduce the friction of materials; to increase the
      biocompatibility of medical implants; to increase the solubility of water
      insoluble drugs; and to immobilize enzymes, for example, biosensor surfaces.

PMID- 28883345
TI  - Fabrication of Al-Al3Ti/Ti3Al Functionally Graded Materials under a Centrifugal
      Force.
AB  - Fabrication of Al-Al3Ti functionally graded materials (FGMs) under the
      centrifugal force has recently attracted some attention. The controlled
      compositional gradient of the fabricated FGMs, the low cost of the process, and
      the good mold filling, are the main advantages of the centrifugal method (CM).
      Using the conventional CM techniques such as the centrifugal solid-particle
      method and centrifugal in-situ method, FGMs rings with gradually distributed
      properties could be achieved. As a more practical choice, the centrifugal mixed
      powder method (CMPM) was recently proposed to obtain FGMs containing nano
      particles selectively dispersed in the outer surface of the fabricated parts.
      However, if a control of the particles morphology, compound formulas or sizes, is
      desired, another CM technique is favored. As a development of CMPM, our novel
      reaction centrifugal mixed-powder method (RCMPM) has been presented. Using RCMPM,
      Al-Al3Ti/Ti3Al FGMs with good surface properties and temperature controlled
      compositional gradient could be achieved. In this short review, this novel method
      will be discussed in detail and the effect of RCMPM processing temperature on the
      reinforcement particles morphology, size and distribution through the fabricated
      samples, will be reviewed.

PMID- 28883346
TI  - Growth and Structure of ZnO Nanorods on a Sub-Micrometer Glass Pipette and Their
      Application as Intracellular Potentiometric Selective Ion Sensors.
AB  - This paper presents the growth and structure of ZnO nanorods on a sub-micrometer
      glass pipette and their application as an intracellular selective ion sensor.
      Highly oriented, vertical and aligned ZnO nanorods were grown on the tip of a
      borosilicate glass capillary (0.7 um in diameter) by the low temperature aqueous
      chemical growth (ACG) technique. The relatively large surface-to-volume ratio of
      ZnO nanorods makes them attractive for electrochemical sensing. Transmission
      electron microscopy studies show that ZnO nanorods are single crystals and grow
      along the crystal's c-axis. The ZnO nanorods were functionalized with a polymeric
      membrane for selective intracellular measurements of Na+. The membrane-coated ZnO
      nanorods exhibited a Na+-dependent electrochemical potential difference versus an
      Ag/AgCl reference micro-electrode within a wide concentration range from 0.5 mM
      to 100 mM. The fabrication of functionalized ZnO nanorods paves the way to sense
      a wide range of biochemical species at the intracellular level.

PMID- 28883347
TI  - Detection of the Presence of Gold Nanoparticles in Organs by Transmission
      Electron Microscopy.
AB  - Gold nanoparticles of 10 nm and 250 nm were intravenously injected in rats. At 24
      h after administration, tissues were collected and prepared for transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM). In the liver and spleen of animals treated with 10 nm
      gold nanoparticles, groups of nanoparticles were observed that could be
      positively identified by Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis to contain gold,
      while nanoparticles could not be detected in the heart, kidney and brain. The 10
      nm gold nanoparticles were present in the phagocytic cells of the reticulo
      endothelial system (RES). The 250 nm gold nanoparticles could not be detected in
      any of the organs investigated. Considering the number of 250 nm gold
      nanoparticles administered, calculations showed that it would indeed be almost
      impossible to detect the 250 nm gold nanoparticles in TEM preparations in view of
      the very low number of particles that would be theoretically present in one TEM
      tissue section. This shows that relatively high numbers of nanoparticles need to
      be administered to enable the detection of nanoparticles in organs by TEM. In a
      number of samples, several globular structures of approximately the expected size
      were found in liver cells and the endothelium of blood vessels in the brain.
      However, elemental analysis with EDX detection showed that these structures did
      not contain gold. Our studies thus indicate that the in vivo identification of
      nanoparticles cannot only depend on the detection of nanosized structures in
      cells. An additional identification of the composing elements of the nanomaterial
      is necessary for a positive identification of the nanomaterial.

PMID- 28883348
TI  - Calcium Phosphate Bone Cements Including Sugar Surfactants: Part One-Porosity,
      Setting Times and Compressive Strength.
AB  - Addition of sugar surfactants, sucrose fatty acid esters and alkylpolyglucosides,
      to calcium phosphate cement designed for bone reconstruction is described. Thanks
      to their surface activity and through their adsorption at the surface of the
      calcium phosphate particles, they both induced a strong increase in the porosity
      (quantified by Image Analysis) and brought a very good workability. Other
      properties typically studied for these cements are reported, including setting
      times, compressive strength, cohesion in water, and effect of sterilization on
      these properties. The whole study brought good insight in the interest of adding
      these mild surfactants to improve several properties of the calcium phosphate
      cement, without impairing their function.

PMID- 28883349
TI  - Phosphorus-based Flame Retardancy Mechanisms-Old Hat or a Starting Point for
      Future Development?
AB  - Different kinds of additive and reactive flame retardants containing phosphorus
      are increasingly successful as halogen-free alternatives for various polymeric
      materials and applications. Phosphorus can act in the condensed phase by
      enhancing charring, yielding intumescence, or through inorganic glass formation;
      and in the gas phase through flame inhibition. Occurrence and efficiency depend,
      not only on the flame retardant itself, but also on its interaction with
      pyrolysing polymeric material and additives. Flame retardancy is sensitive to
      modification of the flame retardant, the use of synergists/adjuvants, and changes
      to the polymeric material. A detailed understanding facilitates the launch of
      tailored and targeted development.

PMID- 28883350
TI  - Aryl Polyphosphonates: Useful Halogen-Free Flame Retardants for Polymers.
AB  - Aryl polyphosphonates (ArPPN) have been demonstrated to function in wide
      applications as flame retardants for different polymer materials, including
      thermosets, polycarbonate, polyesters and polyamides, particularly due to their
      satisfactory thermal stability compared to aliphatic flame retardants, and to
      their desirable flow behavior observed during the processing of polymeric
      materials. This paper provides a brief overview of the main developments in ArPPN
      and their derivatives for flame-retarding polymeric materials, primarily based on
      the authors' research work and the literature published over the last two
      decades. The synthetic chemistry of these compounds is discussed along with their
      thermal stabilities and flame-retardant properties. The possible mechanisms of
      ArPPN and their derivatives containing hetero elements, which exhibit a
      synergistic effect with phosphorus, are also discussed.

PMID- 28883351
TI  - Effect of Temperature on Isolation and Characterization of Hydroxyapatite from
      Tuna (Thunnus obesus) Bone.
AB  - The effect of temperature on isolation and characterization of hydroxyapatite
      (HAp) from tuna bone was evaluated at different temperatures ranging from 200 
      degrees C to 1200  degrees C. The calcined bones were characterized by thermo
      gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray
      diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy
      dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and cytotoxicity assay. The FTIR and TGA
      results revealed the presence of inorganic and organic matrices in raw bone and a
      preserved carbonated group in the derived HAp. The XRD results of the derived HAp
      were coherent with the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards (JCPDS-09
      0432/1996) data. In addition, FE-SEM results revealed the formation of
      nanostructured HAp (80-300 nm) at 600  degrees C and crystal agglomeration was
      observed with an increase in temperature. The calcium to phosphorous weight ratio
      was determined by EDX results of treated bones. Derived HAp with various crystal
      sizes had no cytotoxicity on the MG 63 cell line. Based on the analysis, we
      conclude that varying the isolation temperature between 600-900  degrees C has
      tremendous impact on the production of HAp from Thunnus obesus with required
      properties.

PMID- 28883352
TI  - Postfunctionalization of Alkyne-Linked Conjugated Carbazole Polymer by Thermal
      Addition Reaction of Tetracyanoethylene.
AB  - The postfunctionalization of the main chain alkyne moieties of carbazole
      containing poly(arylenebutadiynylene)s was attempted by using a high yielding
      addition reaction between electron rich alkynes and a strong acceptor molecule,
      tetracyanoethylene (TCNE). After successful postfunctionalization, the polymer
      band gap decreased due to the intramolecular donor-acceptor interactions. The
      resulting donor-acceptor alternating polymer showed a very broad charge-transfer
      band in the visible region as well as redox activities in both anodic and
      cathodic directions. The optical band gap showed good agreement with the
      electrochemical band gap. Furthermore, the thermal stability was enhanced after
      postfunctionalization. These features of the donor-acceptor alternating polymer
      are expected to be useful for high performance activities in organic solar cell
      applications.

PMID- 28883353
TI  - Standard Dyes for Total Protein Staining in Gel-Based Proteomic Analysis.
AB  - Staining of two-dimensional gels is a primary concern in proteomic studies using
      two-dimensional gel electrophoresis with respect to the number of proteins
      analyzed, the accuracy of spot quantification and reproducibility. In this review
      article, the efficiency of the most widely used dyes was investigated. Visible
      dyes (Coomassie blue and silver nitrate), fluorescent dyes (Sypro Ruby, Deep
      Purple) and cyanine labeled methods were compared.

PMID- 28883354
TI  - Broadband Transformation Optics Devices.
AB  - Recently we have suggested that two-dimensional broadband transformation optics
      devices based on metamaterial designs may be built using tapered waveguides. Here
      we review application of this principle to broadband electromagnetic cloaking,
      trapped rainbow, and novel microscopy devices.

PMID- 28883355
TI  - Ion-Induced Nanoscale Ripple Patterns on Si Surfaces: Theory and Experiment.
AB  - Nanopatterning of solid surfaces by low-energy ion bombardment has received
      considerable interest in recent years. This interest was partially motivated by
      promising applications of nanopatterned substrates in the production of
      functional surfaces. Especially nanoscale ripple patterns on Si surfaces have
      attracted attention both from a fundamental and an application related point of
      view. This paper summarizes the theoretical basics of ion-induced pattern
      formation and compares the predictions of various continuum models to
      experimental observations with special emphasis on the morphology development of
      Si surfaces during sub-keV ion sputtering.

PMID- 28883356
TI  - Toxicity of Transition Metal Oxide Nanoparticles: Recent Insights from in vitro
      Studies.
AB  - Nanotechnology has evolved to play a prominent role in our economy. Increased use
      of nanomaterials poses potential human health risk. It is therefore critical to
      understand the nature and origin of the toxicity imposed by nanomaterials
      (nanotoxicity). In this article we review the toxicity of the transition metal
      oxides in the 4th period that are widely used in industry and biotechnology.
      Nanoparticle toxicity is compellingly related to oxidative stress and alteration
      of calcium homeostasis, gene expression, pro-inflammatory responses, and cellular
      signaling events. The precise physicochemical properties that dictate the
      toxicity of nanoparticles have yet to be defined, but may include element
      specific surface catalytic activity (e.g., metallic, semiconducting properties),
      nanoparticle uptake, or nanoparticle dissolution. These in vitro studies
      substantially advance our understanding in mechanisms of toxicity, which may lead
      to safer design of nanomaterials.

PMID- 28883357
TI  - Mapping Disorder in Polycrystalline Relaxors: A Piezoresponse Force Microscopy
      Approach.
AB  - Relaxors constitute a large class of ferroelectrics where disorder is introduced
      by doping with ions of different size and valence, in order to maximize their
      useful properties in a broad temperature range. Polarization disorder in relaxors
      is typically studied by dielectric and scattering techniques that do not allow
      direct mapping of relaxor parameters, such as correlation length or width of the
      relaxation time spectrum. In this paper, we introduce a novel method based on
      measurements of local vibrations by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) that
      detects nanoscale polarization on the relaxor surface. Random polarization
      patterns are then analyzed via local Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the FFT PFM
      parameters, such as amplitude, correlation radius and width of the spectrum of
      spatial correlations, are mapped along with the conventional topography. The
      results are tested with transparent (Pb, La) (Zr, Ti)O3 ceramics where local
      disorder is due to doping with La3+. The conclusions are made about the
      distribution of the defects responsible for relaxor behavior and the role of the
      grain boundaries in the macroscopic response.

PMID- 28883358
TI  - Catalytic CVD Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes: Towards High Yield and Low
      Temperature Growth.
AB  - The catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) is currently the most flexible and
      economically attractive method for the growth of carbon nanotubes. Although its
      principle is simple, the precisely controlled growth of carbon nanotubes remains
      very complex because many different parameters influence the growth process. In
      this article, we review our recent results obtained on the synthesis of carbon
      nanotubes via CCVD. We discuss the role of the catalyst and the catalyst support.
      Our recent results obtained from the water assisted growth and the equimolar C2H2
      CO2 reaction are also discussed. Both procedures lead to significantly enhanced
      carbon nanotube growth. In particular, the latter allows growing carbon nanotubes
      on diverse substrate materials at low temperatures.

PMID- 28883359
TI  - Transparent Conducting Oxides for Photovoltaics: Manipulation of Fermi Level,
      Work Function and Energy Band Alignment.
AB  - Doping limits, band gaps, work functions and energy band alignments of undoped
      and donor-doped transparent conducting oxides Zn0, In2O3, and SnO2 as accessed by
      X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS/UPS) are summarized and
      compared. The presented collection provides an extensive data set of
      technologically relevant electronic properties of photovoltaic transparent
      electrode materials and illustrates how these relate to the underlying defect
      chemistry, the dependence of surface dipoles on crystallographic orientation
      and/or surface termination, and Fermi level pinning.

PMID- 28883360
TI  - Photovoltaic Properties in Interpenetrating Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells
      Utilizing MoO3 and ZnO Charge Transport Buffer Layers.
AB  - Organic thin-film solar cells with a conducting polymer (CP)/fullerene (C60)
      interpenetrating heterojunction structure, fabricated by spin-coating a CP onto a
      C60 deposit thin film, have been investigated and demonstrated to have high
      efficiency. The photovoltaic properties of solar cells with a structure of indium
      tin-oxide/C60/ poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PAT6)/Au have been improved by the
      insertion of molybdenum trioxide (VI) (MoO3) and zinc oxide charge transport
      buffer layers. The enhanced photovoltaic properties have been discussed, taking
      into consideration the ground-state charge transfer between PAT6 and MoO3 by
      measurement of the differential absorption spectra and the suppressed contact
      resistance at the interface between the organic and buffer layers.

PMID- 28883361
TI  - Review of the Two-Step H2O/CO2-Splitting Solar Thermochemical Cycle Based on
      Zn/ZnO Redox Reactions.
AB  - This article provides a comprehensive overview of the work to date on the two
      step solar H2O and/or CO2 splitting thermochemical cycles with Zn/ZnO redox
      reactions to produce H2 and/or CO, i.e., synthesis gas-the precursor to renewable
      liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The two-step cycle encompasses: (1) The endothermic
      dissociation of ZnO to Zn and O2 using concentrated solar energy as the source
      for high-temperature process heat; and (2) the non-solar exothermic oxidation of
      Zn with H2O/CO2 to generate H2/CO, respectively; the resulting ZnO is then
      recycled to the first step. An outline of the underlying science and the
      technological advances in solar reactor engineering is provided along with life
      cycle and economic analyses.

PMID- 28883362
TI  - Solvent Vapor Treatment Effects on Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Thin Films and its
      Application for Interpenetrating Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells.
AB  - The solvent vapor treatment (SVT) for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PAT6) films and its
      application to interpenetrating heterojunction organic solar cells have been
      studied. It was found that SVT could improve the crystallinity and electrical
      characteristics of the PAT6 films. We fabricated organic solar cells with an
      interpenetrating structure of PAT6 and fullerenes utilizing the SVT process, and
      discuss the improved performance of the solar cells by taking the film
      crystallinity, optical properties, and morphology into consideration.

PMID- 28883363
TI  - Recent Progress of Ferroelectric-Gate Field-Effect Transistors and Applications
      to Nonvolatile Logic and FeNAND Flash Memory.
AB  - We have investigated ferroelectric-gate field-effect transistors (FeFETs) with
      Pt/SrBi2Ta2O9/(HfO2)x(Al2O3)1-x (Hf-Al-O) and Pt/SrBi2Ta2O9/HfO2 gate stacks. The
      fabricated FeFETs have excellent data retention characteristics: The drain
      current ratio between the on- and off-states of a FeFET was more than 2 * 106
      after 12 days, and the decreasing rate of this ratio was so small that the
      extrapolated drain current ratio after 10 years is larger than 1 * 105. A
      fabricated self-aligned gate Pt/SrBi2Ta2O9/Hf-Al-O/Si FET revealed a sufficiently
      large drain current ratio of 2.4 * 105 after 33.5 day, which is 6.5 * 104 after
      10 years by extrapolation. The developed FeFETs also revealed stable retention
      characteristics at an elevated temperature up to 120  degrees C and had small
      transistor threshold voltage (Vth) distribution. The Vth can be adjusted by
      controlling channel impurity densities for both n-channel and p-channel FeFETs.
      These performances are now suitable to integrated circuit application with
      nonvolatile functions. Fundamental properties for the applications to
      ferroelectric-CMOS nonvolatile logic-circuits and to ferroelectric-NAND flash
      memories are demonstrated.

PMID- 28883364
TI  - Mechanisms of Texture Development in Lead-Free Piezoelectric Ceramics with
      Perovskite Structure Made by the Templated Grain Growth Process.
AB  - The mechanisms of texture development were examined for BaTiO3 and a
      (K,Na,Li)(Nb,Ta)O3 solid solution made by the templated grain growth method, and
      compared with the mechanism in Bi0.5(Na,K)0.5TiO3. The dominant mechanism was
      different in each material; grain boundary migration in BaTiO3, solid state
      spreading in Bi0.5(Na,K)0.5TiO3, and abnormal grain growth in the
      (K,Na,Li)(Nb,Ta)O3 solid solution. The factor determining the dominant mechanism
      is the degree of smoothness of surface structure at an atomic level.

PMID- 28883365
TI  - SAXS Studies of TiO2 Nanoparticles in Polymer Electrolytes and in Nanostructured
      Films.
AB  - Polymer electrolytes as nanostructured materials are very attractive components
      for batteries and opto-electronic devices. (PEO)8ZnCl2 polymer electrolytes were
      prepared from PEO and ZnCl2. The nanocomposites (PEO)8ZnCl2/TiO2 themselves
      contained TiO2 nanograins. In this work, the influence of the TiO2 nanograins on
      the morphology and ionic conductivity of the nanocomposite was systematically
      studied by transmission small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) simultaneously
      recorded with wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning
      calorimetry (DSC) at the synchrotron ELETTRA. Films containing nanosized grains
      of titanium dioxide (TiO2) are widely used in the research of optical and
      photovoltaic devices. The TiO2 films, prepared by chemical vapor deposition and e
      beam epitaxy, were annealed in hydrogen atmospheres in the temperature range
      between 20  degrees C and 900  degrees C in order to study anatase-rutile phase
      transition at 740  degrees C. Also, grazing-incidence small angle X-ray
      scattering (GISAXS) spectra for each TiO2 film were measured in reflection
      geometry at different grazing incident angles. Environmentally friendly galvanic
      cells, as well as solar cells of the second generation, are to be constructed
      with TiO2 film as working electrode, and nanocomposite polymer as electrolyte.

PMID- 28883366
TI  - Neural Stem Cell Spreading on Lipid Based Artificial Cell Surfaces, Characterized
      by Combined X-ray and Neutron Reflectometry.
AB  - We developed a bioadhesive coating based on a synthetic peptide-conjugate (AK
      cyclo[RGDfC]) which contains multiples of the arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid (RGD)
      amino acid sequence. Biotinylated AK-cyclo[RGDfC] is bound to a supported lipid
      bilayer via a streptavidin interlayer. Layering, hydration and packing of the
      coating is quantified by X-ray and neutron reflectometry experiments. AK
      cyclo[RGDfC] binds to the streptavidin interlayer in a stretched-out on edge
      configuration. The highly packed configuration with only 12% water content
      maximizes the number of accessible adhesion sites. Enhanced cell spreading of
      neural stem cells was observed for AK-cyclo[RGDfC] functionalized bilayers. Due
      to the large variety of surfaces which can be coated by physisorption of lipid
      bilayers, this approach is of general interest for the fabrication of
      biocompatible surfaces.

PMID- 28883367
TI  - Probing the Nanodomain Origin and Phase Transition Mechanisms in (Un)Poled PMN-PT
      Single Crystals and Textured Ceramics.
AB  - Outstanding electrical properties of solids are often due to the composition
      heterogeneity and/or the competition between two or more sublattices. This is
      true for superionic and superprotonic conductors and supraconductors, as well as
      for many ferroelectric materials. As in PLZT ferroelectric materials, the
      exceptional ferro- and piezoelectric properties of the PMN-PT ((1
      x)PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-xPbTiO3) solid solutions arise from the coexistence of different
      symmetries with long and short scales in the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB)
      region. This complex physical behavior requires the use of experimental
      techniques able to probe the local structure at the nanoregion scale. Since both
      Raman signature and thermal expansion behavior depend on the chemical bond
      anharmonicity, these techniques are very efficient to detect and then to analyze
      the subtitle structural modifications with an efficiency comparable to neutron
      scattering. Using the example of poled (field cooling or room temperature) and
      unpoled PMN-PT single crystal and textured ceramic, we show how the competition
      between the different sublattices with competing degrees of freedom, namely the
      Pb-Pb dominated by the Coulombian interactions and those built of covalent bonded
      entities (NbO6 and TiO6), determine the short range arrangement and the
      outstanding ferro- and piezoelectric properties.

PMID- 28883368
TI  - Application of Nanostructures in Electrochromic Materials and Devices: Recent
      Progress.
AB  - The recent progress in application of nanostructures in electrochromic materials
      and devices is reviewed. ZnO nanowire array modified by viologen and WO3,
      crystalline WO3 nanoparticles and nanorods, mesoporous WO3 and TiO2, poly(3,4
      ethylenedioxythiophene) nanotubes, Prussian blue nanoinks and nanostructures in
      switchable mirrors are reviewed. The electrochromic properties were significantly
      enhanced by applying nanostructures, resulting in faster switching responses,
      higher stability and higher optical contrast. A perspective on the development
      trends in electrochromic materials and devices is also proposed.

PMID- 28883369
TI  - Mn-doped Ge and Si: A Review of the Experimental Status.
AB  - Diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMS) are in the focus of intense research
      due to their potential applications in spintronics and their striking new
      physical properties. So far Mn-doped III-V compound semiconductors such as GaMnAs
      are the most important and best understood ones, but they are ferromagnetic only
      at well below room temperature. An interesting alternative could be magnetic
      semiconductors based on elemental semiconductors, also owing to their
      compatibility with Si microelectronics. In the last decades, considerable amount
      of work has been devoted to fabricate Mn-doped Ge and Si FMS. In this article,
      the structural, magnetic and magneto-transport properties of Mn-doped Ge and Si
      will be reviewed.

PMID- 28883370
TI  - Volumetrical Characterization of Sheet Molding Compounds.
AB  - For a comprehensive study of Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) surfaces, topographical
      data obtained by chromatic confocal imaging were submitted systematically for the
      development of a profile model to understand the formation of cavities on the
      surface. In order to qualify SMC surfaces and to predict their coatability, a
      characterization of cavities is applied. To quantify the effect of surface
      modification treatments, a new parameter (Surface Relative Smooth) is presented,
      applied and probed. The parameter proposed can be used for any surface
      modification of any solid material.

PMID- 28883371
TI  - Control of Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Polyurethane Elastomers by
      Restriction of Crystallization of Soft Segment.
AB  - Mechanical properties of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers based on either
      polyether or polycarbonate (PC)-glycols, 4,4'-dipheylmethane diisocyanate (1,1'
      methylenebis(4-isocyanatobenzene)), 1,4-butanediol, were controlled by
      restriction of crystallization of polymer glycols. For the polyether glycol based
      polyurethane elastomers (PUEs), poly(oxytetramethylene) glycol (PTMG), and PTMG
      incorporating dimethyl groups (PTG-X) and methyl side groups (PTG-L) were
      employed as a polymer glycol. For the PC-glycol, the randomly copolymerized PC
      glycols with hexamethylene (C6) and tetramethylene (C4) units between carbonate
      groups with various composition ratios (C4/C6 = 0/100, 50/50, 70/30 and 90/10)
      were employed. The degree of microphase separation and mechanical properties of
      both the PUEs were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic
      viscoelastic property measurements and tensile testing. Mechanical properties
      could be controlled by changing the molar ratio of two different monomer
      components.

PMID- 28883372
TI  - Calcium Phosphate Bone Cements Including Sugar Surfactants: Part Two
      Injectability, Adhesive Properties and Biocompatibility.
AB  - Addition of sugar surfactants, sucrose fatty acid esters and alkylpolyglucosides
      to a calcium phosphate cement, designed for bone reconstruction, is described.
      Thanks to their adsorption at the surface of the calcium phosphate particles, the
      sugar surfactants allowed a full injectability and brought a very good
      workability. Injectability was measured by monitoring force-distance curves. With
      some of the selected sugar surfactants adhesive properties of the cement pastes
      were also observed, which were measured by tack tests. Finally, some properties
      related to biological applications are described, including gentamicine release
      and osteoblast viability experiments. The whole study demonstrates that addition
      of these mild surfactants improved several properties of the calcium phosphate
      cement, without impairing function.

PMID- 28883373
TI  - Dyes as Photoinitiators or Photosensitizers of Polymerization Reactions.
AB  - A short but up-to-date review on the role of dyes in the photoinitiation
      processes of polymerization reactions is presented. Radical and cationic
      reactions are largely encountered in the radiation curing and the imaging areas
      for use in traditional coating applications as well as in high tech sectors such
      as nanofabrication, computer-to-plate processing, laser direct imaging,
      manufacture of optical elements, etc. Recent promising developments concerned
      with the introduction of the silyl radical chemistry that enhances the
      polymerization efficiency are also discussed.

PMID- 28883374
TI  - Thermotropic and Thermochromic Polymer Based Materials for Adaptive Solar
      Control.
AB  - The aim of this review is to present the actual status of development in adaptive
      solar control by use of thermotropic and organic thermochromic materials. Such
      materials are suitable for application in smart windows. In detail polymer
      blends, hydrogels, resins, and thermoplastic films with a reversible temperature
      dependent switching behavior are described. A comparative evaluation of the
      concepts for these energy efficient materials is given as well. Furthermore, the
      change of strategy from ordinary shadow systems to intrinsic solar energy
      reflection materials based on phase transition components and a first remark
      about their realization is reported. Own current results concerning extruded
      films and high thermally stable casting resins with thermotropic properties make
      a significant contribution to this field.

PMID- 28883375
TI  - Applications of Piezoelectric Materials in Structural Health Monitoring and
      Repair: Selected Research Examples.
AB  - The paper reviews the recent applications of piezoelectric materials in
      structural health monitoring and repair conducted by the authors. First, commonly
      used piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and structure repair
      are introduced. The analysis of plain piezoelectric sensors and actuators and
      interdigital transducer and their applications in beam, plate and pipe structures
      for damage detection are reviewed in detail. Second, an overview is presented on
      the recent advances in the applications of piezoelectric materials in structural
      repair. In addition, the basic principle and the current development of the
      technique are examined.

PMID- 28883376
TI  - In vitro Evaluation of Acyclovir/Chitosan Floating Systems.
AB  - Chitosan (CS) floating lyophilized formulations (L) for gastric drug delivery of
      acyclovir (ACV) have been developed. The freeze-dried formulations were obtained
      from acidic aqueous suspensions prepared with different ACV/CS ratios. No changes
      in ACV crystallinity were observed during X-ray diffraction powder studies as a
      consequence of the manufacturing process. Considering that fed and fasted states
      modified the intragastric pH, swelling and in vitro dissolution studies were
      carried out in different acidic media (0.1 M HCl and progressive pH medium) in
      order to understand the influence of these physiological states on ACV/CS
      formulations. Swelling behavior of the floating lyophilized formulations was
      dependent on CS and ACV proportions within L and on medium nature due to pH
      dependent CS solubility. Furthermore, no interactions between ACV and CS were
      detected in solid state according to the X-ray studies. In vitro dissolution of
      ACV from L was influenced by the swelling behavior. However, it is feasible to
      optimize the ACV/CS ratios to achieve a desired formulation that releases the
      total quantity of ACV at a specific time. Moreover, floatability was assessed by
      buoyancy tests. The results demonstrated that the freeze-drying process achieved
      effective floating systems capable of remaining within the stomach while the
      total amount of ACV is released from L.

PMID- 28883377
TI  - Positive and Negative Temperature Dependence in the Resistivity of Crystallized
      Zr-Fe-Ni Metallic Glasses.
AB  - Ni0.25Fe0.75Zr3 metallic glassy ribbons were annealed in evacuated quartz
      ampoules beyond the crystallization temperatures (Tx ~655 K) over the range 773
      to 1,173 K for varying periods of time. The resistivity of samples annealed over
      the temperature range 923 to 1,073 K for periods less than four hours increased
      as a function of decreasing temperature, while it decreased for samples annealed
      for more than four hours or at temperatures below 923 K or above 1,073 K for any
      period of time. All the annealed samples were found to contain only Ni, Fe and Zr
      from energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses.

PMID- 28883378
TI  - Morphologies, Preparations and Applications of Layered Double Hydroxide Micro
      /Nanostructures.
AB  - Layered double hydroxides (LDHs), also well-known as hydrotalcite-like layered
      clays, have been widely investigated in the fields of catalysts and catalyst
      support, anion exchanger, electrical and optical functional materials, flame
      retardants and nanoadditives. This feature article focuses on the progress in
      micro-/nanostructured LDHs in terms of morphology, and also on the preparations,
      applications, and perspectives of the LDHs with different morphologies.

PMID- 28883379
TI  - Piezoelectric Materials Synthesized by the Hydrothermal Method and Their
      Applications.
AB  - Synthesis by the hydrothermal method has various advantages, including low
      reaction temperature, three-dimensional substrate availability, and automatic
      polarization alignment during the process. In this review, powder synthesis, the
      fabrication of piezoelectric thin films, and their applications are introduced. A
      polycrystalline lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film was applied to a micro
      ultrasonic motor, and an epitaxial lead titanate (PbTiO3) thin film was estimated
      as a ferroelectric data storage medium. Ferroelectric and piezoelectric
      properties were successfully obtained for epitaxial PbTiO3 films. As lead-free
      piezoelectric powders, KNbO3 and NaNbO3 powders were synthesized by the
      hydrothermal method and sintered together to form (K,Na)NbO3 ceramics, from which
      reasonable piezoelectric performance was achieved.

PMID- 28883380
TI  - Bond Strength-Coordination Number Fluctuation Model of Viscosity: An Alternative
      Model for the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann Equation and an Application to Bulk Metallic
      Glass Forming Liquids.
AB  - The Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation has been used extensively in the
      analysis of the experimental data of temperature dependence of the viscosity or
      of the relaxation time in various types of supercooled liquids including metallic
      glass forming materials. In this article, it is shown that our model of
      viscosity, the Bond Strength-Coordination Number Fluctuation (BSCNF) model, can
      be used as an alternative model for the VFT equation. Using the BSCNF model, it
      was found that when the normalized bond strength and coordination number
      fluctuations of the structural units are equal, the viscosity behaviors described
      by both become identical. From this finding, an analytical expression that
      connects the parameters of the BSCNF model to the ideal glass transition
      temperature T0 of the VFT equation is obtained. The physical picture of the
      Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts relaxation function in the glass forming liquids is
      also discussed in terms of the cooperativity of the structural units that form
      the melt. An example of the application of the model is shown for metallic glass
      forming liquids.

PMID- 28883381
TI  - Structure Analyses of Fe-based Metallic Glasses by Electron Diffraction.
AB  - Nanoscale structural information of amorphous structures has become obtainable by
      using nanobeam electron diffraction in combination with high resolution imaging.
      In addition, accurate radial distribution function analysis using energy filter
      has also become available to know averaged amorphous structures. In this paper,
      we introduce some applications of these techniques, especially to several Fe
      based metallic glasses. On the basis of these results, we discuss a relationship
      between the glass structure and the glass stability in Fe-based metallic glasses.

PMID- 28883382
TI  - Chemistry of the Fe2O3/BiFeO3 Interface in BiFeO3 Thin Film Heterostructures.
AB  - We investigate the interfacial chemistry of secondary Fe2O3 phases formed in a
      BiFeO3 (BFO) layer in BFO/ La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO)/SrTiO3 (STO) heterostructures.
      A combination of high-resolution spherical aberration corrected scanning TEM and
      spectroscopy results, reveals that specific chemical and crystallographic
      similarities between Fe2O3 and BFO, enable the BFO layer to form a facile host
      for Fe2O3.

PMID- 28883383
TI  - Fabrication of Large Area Fishnet Optical Metamaterial Structures Operational at
      Near-IR Wavelengths.
AB  - In this paper, we demonstrate a fabrication process for large area (2 mm * 2 mm)
      fishnet metamaterial structures for near IR wavelengths. This process involves:
      (a) defining a sacrificial Si template structure onto a quartz wafer using deep
      UV lithography and a dry etching process (b) deposition of a stack of Au-SiO2-Au
      layers and (c) a 'lift-off' process which removes the sacrificial template
      structure to yield the fishnet structure. The fabrication steps in this process
      are compatible with today's CMOS technology making it eminently well suited for
      batch fabrication. Also, depending on area of the exposure mask available for
      patterning the template structure, this fabrication process can potentially lead
      to optical metamaterials spanning across wafer-size areas.

PMID- 28883384
TI  - Membrane and Films Based on Novel Crown-Containing Dyes as Promising
      Chemosensoring Materials.
AB  - This paper discusses several works on supramolecular systems such as monolayer
      and multilayer, polymer films of various crown-containing dyes, surface-active
      monomers and polymers. Design, production and investigation of the membrane
      nanostructures based on crown ethers is a rapidly developing field at the
      "junction" of materials sciences and nanotechnology. These nanostructures can
      serve as convenient models for studying the self-organization and molecular
      recognition processes at interfaces that are typical for biomembranes. Based on
      the results obtained for such structures by absorption and fluorescence
      spectroscopy, atomic force and Brewster-angle microscopy, surface pressure and
      surface potential isotherm measurements, the possibility of developing micro- and
      nanomaterials possessing a set of specified properties (including chemosensor,
      photochromic and photorefractive materials) is demonstrated.

PMID- 28883385
TI  - Evaluation of Compatibility between Beetle-Killed Lodgepole Pine (Pinus Contorta
      var. Latifolia) Wood with Portland Cement.
AB  - The compatibility of wood from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosa)
      killed lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) with Portland cement was
      investigated based on time-since-death as a quantitative estimator, and the
      presence of blue-stained sapwood, brown rot, or white rot as qualitative
      indicators. The exothermic behavior of cement hydration, maximum heat rate, time
      to reach this maximum, and total heat released within a 3.5-24 h interval were
      used for defining a new wood-cement compatibility index (CX). CX was developed
      and accounted for large discrepancies in assessing wood-cement compatibility
      compared to the previous methods. Using CX, no significant differences were found
      between fresh or beetle-killed wood with respect to the suitability for cement;
      except for the white rot samples which reached or exceeded the levels of
      incompatibility. An outstanding physicochemical behavior was also found for blue
      stained sapwood and cement, producing significantly higher compatibility indices.

PMID- 28883386
TI  - Role of Alloying Additions in Glass Formation and Properties of Bulk Metallic
      Glasses.
AB  - Alloying addition, as a means of improving mechanical properties and saving on
      costs of materials, has been applied to a broad range of uses and products in the
      metallurgical fields. In the field of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), alloying
      additions have also proven to play effective and important roles in promoting
      glass formation, enhancing thermal stability and improving plasticity of the
      materials. Here, we review the work on the role of alloying additions in glass
      formation and performance improvement of BMGs, with focus on our recent results
      of alloying additions in Pd-based BMGs.

PMID- 28883387
TI  - Significance of Proper Graft Selection in Adult Living-Donor Liver Transplant
      Recipients with Preoperative Deteriorated Condition.
AB  - BACKGROUND The outcome of living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is poor for
      recipients with severely deteriorated preoperative condition. This study
      therefore evaluated the proper graft selection according to the recipients'
      preoperative condition. MATERIAL AND METHODS We evaluated the clinical outcomes
      in 66 patients who underwent adult LDLT from October 2003 to June 2016 in our
      institution, excluding fulminant liver failure and ABO-incompatible cases.
      Preoperative risk factors included MELD score >20, preoperative hospitalization
      for over 2 weeks or intensive care unit admission and bacterial infection within
      1 month before LDLT. Patients were classified into those with 0-1 risk factors
      (Group LR, n=44) and those with 2-3 risk factors (Group HR, n=22). RESULTS The
      overall survival (OS) rate after LDLT was significantly lower in Group HR than in
      Group LR (1-year: HR 83.9% vs. LR 93%, 3-year: HR 70.8% vs. LR 90.5%, 5-year: HR
      62% vs. LR 87.6%; p=0.029). In Group LR, OS rates did not differ significantly by
      graft type or donor age. In Group HR, OS rates at 1 (93.8% vs. 66.7%), 3 (85.2%
      vs. 50%), and 5 (75.8% vs. 25%) years were significantly higher using right
      (n=16) vs. left (n=6) lobe grafts (p=0.046). CONCLUSIONS Proper graft selection
      is very important to improve the outcome of LDLT recipients in deteriorated
      preoperative condition. LDLT using right-lobe grafts may be recommended for high
      risk severely deteriorated patients.

PMID- 28883388
TI  - Retrospective Clinical Study of the Effects of T-Tube Placement for Bile Duct
      Stricture.
AB  - BACKGROUND T-tube placement in the common bile duct (CBD) is a surgical
      alternative to bile duct reconstruction in cholecystectomy for cholecysto
      choledocholithiasis, or gallstones. The aim of this retrospective clinical study
      was to investigate the incidence of late complications of T-tube placement.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS Retrospective review identified 35 patients who had T-tube
      placement during cholecystectomy. Clinical data were collected on surgical
      indications, patient demographics, and clinical symptoms. Ultrasound (US) was
      used measure the diameter of the common bile duct (CBD), intrahepatic ducts, and
      presence or absence of stones in the CBD. Data from laboratory investigations
      included the aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), which was
      used as a non-invasive method to evaluate both cholestasis and liver fibrosis.
      RESULTS Of the 35 patients included in the study, 33 (94.3%) underwent open
      cholecystectomy, CBD exploration, and T-tube placement due to cholecysto
      choledocholithiasis. The remaining two patients (5.7%) underwent primary CBD
      repair and T-tube placement secondary to CBD injury. The mean follow-up period
      after T-tube placement was 69 months. In patients with T-tube placement, the CBD
      diameters ranged from 4-21 mm, were normal in 20 patients (57.1%), dilated in 15
      patients (42.9%), with the mean CBD diameter being 8.91+/-4.82 mm. No residual or
      recurrent CBD calculus and no clinical or laboratory evidence of cholangitis or
      cholestasis were found. CONCLUSIONS A retrospective clinical study at a single
      surgical center, showed that T-tube placement during open cholecystectomy and CBD
      exploration was a safe procedure that did not result in late complications.

PMID- 28883389
TI  - Septic Shock with Multi Organ Failure Due to Fluoroquinolones Resistant
      Campylobacter Jejuni.
AB  - BACKGROUND Campylobacter jejuni infections are typically self-limited, and severe
      extra-intestinal complications are uncommon. CASE REPORT We report a case of a
      man with septic shock due to fluoroquinolones resistant Campylobacter jejuni.
      CONCLUSIONS This manuscript emphasizes the potential lethality of fluorquinolones
      resistant Campylobacter jejuni bacteremia.

PMID- 28883391
TI  - Ultrawide thermal free-carrier tuning of dielectric antennas coupled to epsilon
      near-zero substrates.
AB  - The principal challenge for achieving reconfigurable optical antennas and
      metasurfaces is the need to generate continuous and large tunability of
      subwavelength, low-Q resonators. We demonstrate continuous and steady-state
      refractive index tuning at mid-infrared wavelengths using temperature-dependent
      control over the low-loss plasma frequency in III-V semiconductors. In doped InSb
      we demonstrate nearly two-fold increase in the electron effective mass leading to
      a positive refractive index shift (Deltan > 1.5) that is an order of magnitude
      greater than conventional thermo-optic effects. In undoped films we demonstrate
      more than 10-fold change in the thermal free-carrier concentration producing a
      near-unity negative refractive index shift. Exploiting both effects within a
      single resonator system-intrinsic InSb wires on a heavily doped (epsilon-near
      zero) InSb substrate-we demonstrate dynamically steady-state tunable Mie
      resonances. The observed line-width resonance shifts (Deltalambda > 1.7 MUm)
      suggest new avenues for highly tunable and steady-state mid-infrared
      semiconductor antennas.Achieving large tunability of subwavelength resonators is
      a central challenge in nanophotonics. Here the authors demonstrate refractive
      index tuning at mid-infrared wavelengths using temperature-dependent control over
      the low loss plasma frequency in III-V semiconductors.

PMID- 28883390
TI  - Prophage-triggered membrane vesicle formation through peptidoglycan damage in
      Bacillus subtilis.
AB  - Bacteria release membrane vesicles (MVs) that play important roles in various
      biological processes. However, the mechanisms of MV formation in Gram-positive
      bacteria are unclear, as these cells possess a single cytoplasmic membrane that
      is surrounded by a thick cell wall. Here we use live cell imaging and electron
      cryo-tomography to describe a mechanism for MV formation in Bacillus subtilis. We
      show that the expression of a prophage-encoded endolysin in a sub-population of
      cells generates holes in the peptidoglycan cell wall. Through these openings,
      cytoplasmic membrane material protrudes into the extracellular space and is
      released as MVs. Due to the loss of membrane integrity, the induced cells
      eventually die. The vesicle-producing cells induce MV formation in neighboring
      cells by the enzymatic action of the released endolysin. Our results support the
      idea that endolysins may be important for MV formation in bacteria, and this
      mechanism may potentially be useful for the production of MVs for applications in
      biomedicine and nanotechnology.It is unclear how Gram-positive bacteria, with a
      thick cell wall, can release membrane vesicles. Here, Toyofuku et al. show that a
      prophage-encoded endolysin can generate holes in the cell wall through which
      cytoplasmic membrane material protrudes and is released as vesicles.

PMID- 28883392
TI  - Tunable inverted gap in monolayer quasi-metallic MoS2 induced by strong charge
      lattice coupling.
AB  - Polymorphism of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides such as
      molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) exhibit fascinating optical and transport properties.
      Here, we observe a tunable inverted gap (~0.50 eV) and a fundamental gap (~0.10
      eV) in quasimetallic monolayer MoS2. Using spectral-weight transfer analysis, we
      find that the inverted gap is attributed to the strong charge-lattice coupling in
      two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs). A comprehensive
      experimental study, supported by theoretical calculations, is conducted to
      understand the transition of monolayer MoS2 on gold film from trigonal
      semiconducting 1H phase to the distorted octahedral quasimetallic 1T' phase. We
      clarify that electron doping from gold, facilitated by interfacial tensile
      strain, is the key mechanism leading to its 1H-1T' phase transition, thus
      resulting in the formation of the inverted gap. Our result shows the importance
      of charge-lattice coupling to the intrinsic properties of the inverted gap and
      polymorphism of MoS2, thereby unlocking new possibilities for 2D-TMD-based device
      fabrication.MoS2 exhibits multiple electronic properties associated with
      different crystal structures. Here, the authors observe inverted and fundamental
      gaps through a designed annealing-based strategy, to induce a semiconductor-to
      metal phase transition in monolayer-MoS2 on Au, facilitated by interfacial strain
      and electron transfer from Au to MoS2.

PMID- 28883393
TI  - Fas cell surface death receptor controls hepatic lipid metabolism by regulating
      mitochondrial function.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the most prevalent metabolic disorders
      and it tightly associates with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular
      disease. Reduced mitochondrial lipid oxidation contributes to hepatic fatty acid
      accumulation. Here, we show that the Fas cell surface death receptor
      (Fas/CD95/Apo-1) regulates hepatic mitochondrial metabolism. Hepatic Fas
      overexpression in chow-fed mice compromises fatty acid oxidation, mitochondrial
      respiration, and the abundance of mitochondrial respiratory complexes promoting
      hepatic lipid accumulation and insulin resistance. In line, hepatocyte-specific
      ablation of Fas improves mitochondrial function and ameliorates high-fat-diet
      induced hepatic steatosis, glucose tolerance, and insulin resistance.
      Mechanistically, Fas impairs fatty acid oxidation via the BH3 interacting-domain
      death agonist (BID). Mice with genetic or pharmacological inhibition of BID are
      protected from Fas-mediated impairment of mitochondrial oxidation and hepatic
      steatosis. We suggest Fas as a potential novel therapeutic target to treat
      obesity-associated fatty liver and insulin resistance.Hepatic steatosis is a
      common disease closely associated with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance.
      Here Item et al. show that Fas, a member of the TNF receptor superfamily,
      contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction, steatosis development, and insulin
      resistance under high fat diet.

PMID- 28883394
TI  - A thiol probe for measuring unfolded protein load and proteostasis in cells.
AB  - When proteostasis becomes unbalanced, unfolded proteins can accumulate and
      aggregate. Here we report that the dye, tetraphenylethene maleimide (TPE-MI) can
      be used to measure cellular unfolded protein load. TPE-MI fluorescence is
      activated upon labelling free cysteine thiols, normally buried in the core of
      globular proteins that are exposed upon unfolding. Crucially TPE-MI does not
      become fluorescent when conjugated to soluble glutathione. We find that TPE-MI
      fluorescence is enhanced upon reaction with cellular proteomes under conditions
      promoting accumulation of unfolded proteins. TPE-MI reactivity can be used to
      track which proteins expose more cysteine residues under stress through proteomic
      analysis. We show that TPE-MI can report imbalances in proteostasis in induced
      pluripotent stem cell models of Huntington disease, as well as cells transfected
      with mutant Huntington exon 1 before the formation of visible aggregates. TPE-MI
      also detects protein damage following dihydroartemisinin treatment of the malaria
      parasites Plasmodium falciparum. TPE-MI therefore holds promise as a tool to
      probe proteostasis mechanisms in disease.Proteostasis is maintained through a
      number of molecular mechanisms, some of which function to protect the folded
      state of proteins. Here the authors demonstrate the use of TPE-MI in a
      fluorigenic dye assay for the quantitation of unfolded proteins that can be used
      to assess proteostasis on a cellular or proteome scale.

PMID- 28883395
TI  - Bio-degradable highly fluorescent conjugated polymer nanoparticles for bio
      medical imaging applications.
AB  - Conjugated polymer nanoparticles exhibit strong fluorescence and have been
      applied for biological fluorescence imaging in cell culture and in small animals.
      However, conjugated polymer particles are hydrophobic and often chemically inert
      materials with diameters ranging from below 50 nm to several microns. As such,
      conjugated polymer nanoparticles cannot be excreted through the renal system.
      This drawback has prevented their application for clinical bio-medical imaging.
      Here, we present fully conjugated polymer nanoparticles based on imidazole units.
      These nanoparticles can be bio-degraded by activated macrophages. Reactive oxygen
      species induce scission of the conjugated polymer backbone at the imidazole unit,
      leading to complete decomposition of the particles into soluble low molecular
      weight fragments. Furthermore, the nanoparticles can be surface functionalized
      for directed targeting. The approach opens a wide range of opportunities for
      conjugated polymer particles in the fields of medical imaging, drug-delivery, and
      theranostics.Conjugated polymer nanoparticles have been applied for biological
      fluorescence imaging in cell culture and in small animals, but cannot readily be
      excreted through the renal system. Here the authors show fully conjugated polymer
      nanoparticles based on imidazole units that can be bio-degraded by activated
      macrophages.

PMID- 28883397
TI  - Port-based teleportation in arbitrary dimension.
AB  - Port-based teleportation (PBT), introduced in 2008, is a type of quantum
      teleportation protocol which transmits the state to the receiver without
      requiring any corrections on the receiver's side. Evaluating the performance of
      PBT was computationally intractable and previous attempts succeeded only with
      small systems. We study PBT protocols and fully characterize their performance
      for arbitrary dimensions and number of ports. We develop new mathematical tools
      to study the symmetries of the measurement operators that arise in these
      protocols and belong to the algebra of partially transposed permutation
      operators. First, we develop the representation theory of the mentioned algebra
      which provides an elegant way of understanding the properties of subsystems of a
      large system with general symmetries. In particular, we introduce the theory of
      the partially reduced irreducible representations which we use to obtain a
      simpler representation of the algebra of partially transposed permutation
      operators and thus explicitly determine the properties of any port-based
      teleportation scheme for fixed dimension in polynomial time.

PMID- 28883396
TI  - In vivo quantitative imaging of tumor pH by nanosonophore assisted multispectral
      photoacoustic imaging.
AB  - Changes of physiological pH are correlated with several pathologies, therefore
      the development of more effective medical pH imaging methods is of paramount
      importance. Here, we report on an in vivo pH mapping nanotechnology. This
      subsurface chemical imaging is based on tumor-targeted, pH sensing nanoprobes and
      multi-wavelength photoacoustic imaging (PAI). The nanotechnology consists of an
      optical pH indicator, SNARF-5F, 5-(and-6)-Carboxylic Acid, encapsulated into
      polyacrylamide nanoparticles with surface modification for tumor targeting.
      Facilitated by multi-wavelength PAI plus a spectral unmixing technique, the
      accuracy of pH measurement inside the biological environment is not susceptible
      to the background optical absorption of biomolecules, i.e., hemoglobins. As a
      result, both the pH levels and the hemodynamic properties across the entire tumor
      can be quantitatively evaluated with high sensitivity and high spatial resolution
      in in vivo cancer models. The imaging technology reported here holds the
      potential for both research on and clinical management of a variety of
      cancers.Background optical absorption of several biomolecules impedes an
      effective in vivo pH imaging in tumors. Here, the authors developed a visible
      light-based in vivo pH mapping method by coupling photoacoustic imaging and pH
      responsive modified nanoparticles that selectively target tumor cells.

PMID- 28883398
TI  - Robustness and mode selectivity in parity-time (PT) symmetric lasers.
AB  - We investigate two important aspects of PT symmetric photonic molecule lasers,
      namely the robustness of their single longitudinal mode operation against
      instabilities triggered by spectral hole burning effects, and the possibility of
      more versatile mode selectivity. Our results, supported by numerically
      integrating the nonlinear rate equations and performing linear stability
      analysis, reveals the following: (1) In principle a second threshold exists after
      which single mode operation becomes unstable, signaling multimode oscillatory
      dynamics, (2) For a wide range of design parameters, single mode operation of PT
      lasers having relatively large free spectral range (FSR) can be robust even at
      higher gain values, (3) PT symmetric photonic molecule lasers are more robust
      than their counterpart structures made of single microresonators; and (4)
      Extending the concept of single longitudinal mode operation based on PT symmetry
      in millimeter long edge emitting lasers having smaller FSR can be challenging due
      to instabilities induced by nonlinear modal interactions. Finally we also present
      a possible strategy based on loss engineering to achieve more control over the
      mode selectivity by suppressing the mode that has the highest gain (i.e. lies
      under the peak of the gain spectrum curve) and switch the lasing action to
      another mode.

PMID- 28883399
TI  - Antibiotic treatment for Tuberculosis induces a profound dysbiosis of the
      microbiome that persists long after therapy is completed.
AB  - Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of Tuberculosis (TB), infects one third of
      the world's population and causes substantial mortality worldwide. In its
      shortest format, treatment of TB requires six months of multidrug therapy with a
      mixture of broad spectrum and mycobacterial specific antibiotics, and treatment
      of multidrug resistant TB is longer. The widespread use of this regimen makes
      this one of the largest exposures of humans to antimicrobials, yet the effects of
      TB treatment on intestinal microbiome composition and long-term stability are
      unknown. We compared the microbiome composition, assessed by both 16S rDNA and
      metagenomic DNA sequencing, of TB cases during antimycobacterial treatment and
      following cure by 6 months of antibiotics. TB treatment does not perturb overall
      diversity, but nonetheless dramatically depletes multiple immunologically
      significant commensal bacteria. The microbiomic perturbation of TB therapy can
      persist for at least 1.2 years, indicating that the effects of TB treatment are
      long lasting. These results demonstrate that TB treatment has dramatic effects on
      the intestinal microbiome and highlight unexpected durable consequences of
      treatment for the world's most common infection on human ecology.

PMID- 28883400
TI  - Snapshot 3D Electron Imaging of Structural Dynamics.
AB  - In order to understand the physical properties of materials it is necessary to
      determine the 3D positions of all atoms. There has been significant progress
      towards this goal using electron tomography. However, this method requires a
      relatively high electron dose and often extended acquisition times which
      precludes the study of structural dynamics such as defect formation and
      evolution. In this work we describe a method that enables the determination of 3D
      atomic positions with high precision from single high resolution electron
      microscopic images of graphene that show dynamic processes. We have applied this
      to the study of electron beam induced defect coalescence and to long range
      rippling in graphene. The latter strongly influences the mechanical and
      electronic properties of this material that are important for possible future
      applications.

PMID- 28883401
TI  - Comparison of APACHE IV with APACHE II, SAPS 3, MELD, MELD-Na, and CTP scores in
      predicting mortality after liver transplantation.
AB  - The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV score and
      Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) 3 include liver transplantation as a
      diagnostic category. The performance of APACHE IV-liver transplantation (LT)
      specific predicted mortality, SAPS 3, APACHE II, Model for End-stage Liver
      Disease (MELD)-Na, MELD, and CTP scores in predicting in-hospital and 1 year
      mortality in liver transplant patients was compared using 590 liver
      transplantations in a single university hospital. In-hospital mortality and 1
      year mortality were 2.9% and 4.2%, respectively. The APACHE IV-LT specific
      predicted mortality showed better performance in predicting in-hospital mortality
      (AUC 0.91, 95% CI [0.86-0.96]) compared to SAPS 3 (AUC 0.78, 95% CI [0.66-0.90],
      p = 0.01), MELD-Na (AUC 0.74, 95% CI [0.57-0.86], p = 0.01), and CTP (AUC 0.68,
      95% CI [0.54-0.81], p = 0.01). The APACHE IV-LT specific predicted mortality
      showed better performance in predicting 1 year mortality (AUC 0.83, 95% CI [0.76
      0.9]) compared to MELD-Na (AUC 0.67, 95% CI [0.55-0.79], p = 0.04) and CTP (AUC
      0.64, 95% CI [0.53-0.75], p = 0.03), and also in all MELD groups and in both
      living and deceased donor transplantation. The APACHE IV-LT specific predicted
      mortality showed better performance in predicting in-hospital and 1 year
      mortality after liver transplantation.

PMID- 28883403
TI  - New Late Permian tectonic model for South Africa's Karoo Basin: foreland
      tectonics and climate change before the end-Permian crisis.
AB  - Late Permian Karoo Basin tectonics in South Africa are reflected as two fining
      upward megacycles in the Balfour and upper Teekloof formations. Foreland
      tectonics are used to explain the cyclic nature and distribution of
      sedimentation, caused by phases of loading and unloading in the southern source
      areas adjacent to the basin. New data supports this model, and identifies
      potential climatic effects on the tectonic regime. Diachronous second-order
      subaerial unconformities (SU) are identified at the base and top of the Balfour
      Formation. One third-order SU identified coincides  with  a faunal turnover which
      could be related to the Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). The SU are traced,
      for the first time, to the western portion of the basin (upper Teekloof
      Formation). Their age determinations support the foreland basin model as they
      coincide with dated paroxysms. A condensed distal (northern) stratigraphic record
      is additional support for this tectonic regime because orogenic loading and
      unloading throughout the basin was not equally distributed, nor was it in-phase.
      This resulted in more frequent non-deposition with increased distance from the
      tectonically active source. Refining basin dynamics allows us to distinguish
      between tectonic and climatic effects and how they have influenced ancient
      ecosystems and sedimentation through time.

PMID- 28883402
TI  - In search of a small molecule agonist of the relaxin receptor RXFP1 for the
      treatment of liver fibrosis.
AB  - The peptide hormone human relaxin-2 (H2-RLX) has emerged as a potential therapy
      for cardiovascular and fibrotic diseases, but its short in vivo half-life is an
      obstacle to long-term administration. The discovery of ML290 demonstrated that it
      is possible to identify small molecule agonists of the cognate G-protein coupled
      receptor for H2-RLX (relaxin family peptide receptor-1 (RXFP1)). In our efforts
      to generate a new medicine for liver fibrosis, we sought to identify improved
      small molecule functional mimetics of H2-RLX with selective, full agonist or
      positive allosteric modulator activity against RXFP1. First, we confirmed
      expression of RXFP1 in human diseased liver. We developed a robust cellular cAMP
      reporter assay of RXFP1 signaling in HEK293 cells transiently expressing RXFP1. A
      high-throughput screen did not identify further specific agonists or positive
      allosteric modulators of RXFP1, affirming the low druggability of this receptor.
      As an alternative approach, we generated novel ML290 analogues and tested their
      activity in the HEK293-RXFP1 cAMP assay and the human hepatic cell line LX-2.
      Differences in activity of compounds on cAMP activation compared with changes in
      expression of fibrotic markers indicate the need to better understand cell- and
      tissue-specific signaling mechanisms and their disease-relevant phenotypes in
      order to enable drug discovery.

PMID- 28883404
TI  - Identification of 2-hydroxyisocaproic acid production in lactic acid bacteria and
      evaluation of microbial dynamics during kimchi ripening.
AB  - Lactic acid bacteria produce diverse functional metabolites in fermented foods.
      However, little is known regarding the metabolites and the fermentation process
      in kimchi. In this study, the culture broth from Leuconostoc lactis, a lactic
      acid bacterium isolated from kimchi, was analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry and identified by the MS-DIAL program. The MassBank database
      was used to analyse the metabolites produced during fermentation. A mass spectrum
      corresponding to 2-hydroxyisocaproic acid (HICA) was validated based on a
      collision-induced dissociation (CID) fragmentation pattern with an identified m/z
      value of 131.07. HICA production by lactic acid bacteria was monitored and showed
      a positive correlation with hydroxyisocaproate dehydrogenases (HicDs), which play
      a key role in the production of HICA from leucine and ketoisocaproic acid.
      Interestingly, the HICA contents of kimchi varied with Leuconostoc and
      Lactobacillus content during the early stage of fermentation, and the addition of
      lactic acid bacteria enhanced the HICA content of kimchi. Our results suggest
      that HICA production in kimchi is dependent on the lactic acid bacterial
      composition.

PMID- 28883406
TI  - MiR-338-5p enhances the radiosensitivity of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by
      inducing apoptosis through targeting survivin.
AB  - Radioresistance is a challenge in the treatment of esophageal squamous cell
      carcinoma (ESCC). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to play an important role in the
      functional modification of cancer cells and recent studies have reported miRNA
      mediated radiotherapy resistance. However, further research is necessary to
      reveal the regulation mechanisms, and treatment strategies using miRNA are yet to
      be established for ESCC. We compared the miRNA expression profiles of ESCC
      parental (TE-4) and acquired radioresistance (TE-4R) cell lines using a miRNA
      microarray and qRT-PCR. Our data showed that miR-338-5p, one of the target miRNA
      biomarkers, was significantly downregulated in TE-4R. Ectopic overexpression of
      miR-338-5p induced apoptosis and sensitivity to radiation treatment by
      interfering with survivin, which is a known inhibitor of apoptosis.
      Overexpression of survivin reversed miR-338-5p-induced apoptosis. Tumor xenograft
      experiments indicated that therapeutic delivery of the miR-338-5p mimics via
      direct injection into tumor mass increased sensitivity to radiation therapy. In
      conclusion, our findings suggest that miR-338-5p is a potential radiosensitizer
      and may be a therapeutic biomarker for radioresistant in ESCC.

PMID- 28883405
TI  - Modeling a linkage between blood transcriptional expression and activity in brain
      regions to infer the phenotype of schizophrenia patients.
AB  - : Hundreds of genetic loci participate to schizophrenia liability. It is also
      known that impaired cerebral connectivity is directly related to the cognitive
      and affective disturbances in schizophrenia. How genetic susceptibility and brain
      neural networks interact to specify a pathological phenotype in schizophrenia
      remains elusive. Imaging genetics, highlighting brain variations, has proven
      effective to establish links between vulnerability loci and associated clinical
      traits. As previous imaging genetics works in schizophrenia have essentially
      focused on structural DNA variants, these findings could be blurred by epigenetic
      mechanisms taking place during gene expression. We explored the meaningful links
      between genetic data from peripheral blood tissues on one hand, and regional
      brain reactivity to emotion task assayed by blood oxygen level-dependent
      functional magnetic resonance imaging on the other hand, in schizophrenia
      patients and matched healthy volunteers. We applied Sparse Generalized Canonical
      Correlation Analysis to identify joint signals between two blocks of variables:
      (i) the transcriptional expression of 33 candidate genes, and (ii) the blood
      oxygen level-dependent activity in 16 region of interest. Results suggested that
      peripheral transcriptional expression is related to brain imaging variations
      through a sequential pathway, ending with the schizophrenia phenotype.
      Generalization of such an approach to larger data sets should thus help in
      outlining the pathways involved in psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia.
      IMAGING: SEARCHING FOR LINKS TO AID DIAGNOSIS: Researchers explore links between
      the expression of genes associated with schizophrenia in blood cells and
      variations in brain activity during emotion processing. El Cherif Ibrahim and
      Eric Fakra at Aix-Marseille Universite, France, and colleagues have developed a
      method to relate the expression levels of 33 schizophrenia susceptibility genes
      in blood cells and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data obtained as
      individuals carry out a task that triggers emotional responses. Although they
      found no significant differences in the expression of genes between the 26
      patients with schizophrenia and 26 healthy controls they examined, variations in
      activity in the superior temporal gyrus were strongly linked to schizophrenia
      associated gene expression and presence of disease. Similar analyses of larger
      data sets will shed further light on the relationship between peripheral
      molecular changes and disease-related behaviors and ultimately, aid the diagnosis
      of neuropsychiatric disease.

PMID- 28883407
TI  - In situ characterization of mixed-wettability in a reservoir rock at subsurface
      conditions.
AB  - We used X-ray micro-tomography to image the in situ wettability, the distribution
      of contact angles, at the pore scale in calcite cores from a producing
      hydrocarbon reservoir at subsurface conditions. The contact angle was measured at
      hundreds of thousands of points for three samples after twenty pore volumes of
      brine flooding.We found a wide range of contact angles with values both above and
      below 90 degrees . The hypothesized cause of wettability alteration by an
      adsorbed organic layer on surfaces contacted by crude oil after primary drainage
      was observed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and identified using Energy
      Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. However, not all oil-filled pores were altered
      towards oil-wet conditions, which suggests that water in surface roughness, or in
      adjacent micro-porosity, can protect the surface from a strong wettability
      alteration. The lowest oil recovery was observed for the most oil-wet sample,
      where the oil remained connected in thin sheet-like layers in the narrower
      regions of the pore space. The highest recovery was seen for the sample with an
      average contact angle close to 90 degrees , with an intermediate recovery in a
      more water-wet system, where the oil was trapped in ganglia in the larger regions
      of the pore space.

PMID- 28883409
TI  - Revised version of the Cenozoic Collision along the Zagros Orogen, Insights from
      Cr-spinel and Sandstone Modal Analyses.
AB  - Geoscientists have always considered the Neyriz region, located along the Zagros
      Suture Zone, an important area of interest because of the outcrops of Neotethys
      ophiolitic rocks. We carried out a modal analysis of the Cenozoic sandstones and
      geochemistry of the detrital Cr-spinels at Neyriz region in order to determine
      their provenance and tectonic evolution in the proximal part of Zagros Basin. Our
      data shows a clear change in provenance from the Late Cretaceous onwards. As from
      the Late Cretaceous to Eocene, lithic grains are mostly chert and serpentinite;
      and higher Cr# values of the detrital Cr-spinel compositions indicate that they
      originate from the fore-arc peridotites and deposited in an accretionary prism
      setting during this period. From the Late Oligocene to the Miocene periods,
      volcaniclastic and carbonate lithic grains show an increasing trend, and in the
      Miocene, metasedimentary lithic grains appear in the sediments. Ophiolite
      obduction caused a narrow trough sub-basin to be formed parallel to the general
      trend of the Zagros Orogeny between the Arabian and Iranian plates in Oligocene.
      From the Miocene onwards, the axial metamorphic complex belt was uplifted in the
      upper plate. Therefore, the collision along the Zagros Suture Zone must have
      occurred in the Late Oligocene.

PMID- 28883408
TI  - Loss of brain inter-frequency hubs in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) causes alterations of brain network structure and
      function. The latter consists of connectivity changes between oscillatory
      processes at different frequency channels. We proposed a multi-layer network
      approach to analyze multiple-frequency brain networks inferred from
      magnetoencephalographic recordings during resting-states in AD subjects and age
      matched controls. Main results showed that brain networks tend to facilitate
      information propagation across different frequencies, as measured by the multi
      participation coefficient (MPC). However, regional connectivity in AD subjects
      was abnormally distributed across frequency bands as compared to controls,
      causing significant decreases of MPC. This effect was mainly localized in
      association areas and in the cingulate cortex, which acted, in the healthy group,
      as a true inter-frequency hub. MPC values significantly correlated with memory
      impairment of AD subjects, as measured by the total recall score. Most predictive
      regions belonged to components of the default-mode network that are typically
      affected by atrophy, metabolism disruption and amyloid-beta deposition. We
      evaluated the diagnostic power of the MPC and we showed that it led to increased
      classification accuracy (78.39%) and sensitivity (91.11%). These findings shed
      new light on the brain functional alterations underlying AD and provide
      analytical tools for identifying multi-frequency neural mechanisms of brain
      diseases.

PMID- 28883410
TI  - A minimal double quantum dot.
AB  - Double quantum dots (DQDs) are a versatile platform for solid-state physics,
      quantum computation and nanotechnology. The micro-fabrication techniques commonly
      used to fabricate DQDs are difficult to extend to the atomic scale. Using an
      alternative approach, which relies on scanning tunneling microscopy and
      spectroscopy, we prepared a minimal DQD in a wide band-gap semiconductor matrix.
      It is comprised of a pair of strongly coupled donor atoms that can each be doubly
      charged. The donor excitation diagram of this system mimicks the charge stability
      diagram observed in transport measurements of DQDs. We furthermore illustrate how
      the charge and spin degrees of freedom of the minimal DQD may be used to obtain a
      single quantum bit and to prepare a Bell state. The results open an intriguing
      perspective for quantum electronics with atomic-scale structures.

PMID- 28883411
TI  - Active Control of Charge Density Waves at Degenerate Semiconductor Interfaces.
AB  - We present an optoelectronic switch for functional plasmonic circuits based on
      active control of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) at degenerate PN+-junction
      interfaces. Self-consistent multi-physics simulations of the electromagnetic,
      thermal and IV characteristics of the device have been performed. The lattice
      matched Indium Gallium Arsenide (In0.53Ga0.47As) is identified as a better
      semiconductor material compared to Si for the practical implementation of the
      proposed optoelectronic switch providing higher optical confinement, reduced size
      and faster operation. The optimal device is shown to operate at signal modulation
      surpassing -100 dB, responsivity in excess of -600 dB.V-1 and switching rates up
      to 50 GHz, thus potentially providing a new pathway toward bridging the gap
      between electronic and photonic devices.

PMID- 28883412
TI  - BMP-2 induced Dspp transcription is mediated by Dlx3/Osx signaling pathway in
      odontoblasts.
AB  - Dentin sialophosphoprotein (Dspp) as a differentiation marker of odontoblasts is
      regulated by BMP-2. However, the intimate mechanism is still unknown.
      Transcription factors Dlx3 and Osx are essential for odontoblasts
      differentiation. We hypothesized that BMP-2 regulation of Dspp transcription was
      mediated by Dlx3 and/or Osx in odontoblasts. In the present investigation, we
      found that BMP-2 stimulated expression and nuclear translocation of Dlx3 and Osx
      in odontoblasts both in vitro and in vivo. Osx was a downstream target of Dlx3
      and both of them stimulated Dsp expression. Both Dlx3 and Osx were able to
      activate Dspp promoter from nucleotides (nt) -318 to +54 by transfections of
      luciferase reports containing different lengths of mouse Dspp promoters. The
      binding of Dlx3 and Osx with nt -318 to +54 of Dspp promoter was verified by
      chromatin immunoprecipitation in vivo. Two Dlx3 binding sites and one Osx binding
      site on Dspp promoter were found by EMSA. Furthermore, the exact biological
      function of these binding sites was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis. At
      last, the protein-protein interaction between Dlx3 and Osx in odontoblasts was
      detected by co-immunoprecipitation. In conclusion, in this study we found a novel
      signaling pathway in which BMP-2 activates Dspp gene transcription via Dlx3/Osx
      pathway.

PMID- 28883414
TI  - A general mechanistic model enables predictions of the biological effectiveness
      of different qualities of radiation.
AB  - Predicting the responses of biological systems to ionising radiation is extremely
      challenging, particularly when comparing X-rays and heavy charged particles, due
      to the uncertainty in their Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE). Here we
      assess the power of a novel mechanistic model of DNA damage repair to predict the
      sensitivity of cells to X-ray, proton or carbon ion exposures in vitro against
      over 800 published experiments. By specifying the phenotypic characteristics of
      cells, the model was able to effectively stratify X-ray radiosensitivity (R 2 =
      0.74) without the use of any cell-specific fitting parameters. This model was
      extended to charged particle exposures by integrating Monte Carlo calculated dose
      distributions, and successfully fit to cellular proton radiosensitivity using a
      single dose-related parameter (R 2 = 0.66). Using these parameters, the model was
      also shown to be predictive of carbon ion RBE (R 2 = 0.77). This model can
      effectively predict cellular sensitivity to a range of radiations, and has the
      potential to support developments of personalised radiotherapy independent of
      radiation type.

PMID- 28883413
TI  - The Ca2+ influx through the mammalian skeletal muscle dihydropyridine receptor is
      irrelevant for muscle performance.
AB  - Skeletal muscle excitation-contraction (EC) coupling is initiated by sarcolemmal
      depolarization, which is translated into a conformational change of the
      dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR), which in turn activates sarcoplasmic reticulum
      (SR) Ca2+ release to trigger muscle contraction. During EC coupling, the
      mammalian DHPR embraces functional duality, as voltage sensor and L-type Ca2+
      channel. Although its unique role as voltage sensor for conformational EC
      coupling is firmly established, the conventional function as Ca2+ channel is
      still enigmatic. Here we show that Ca2+ influx via DHPR is not necessary for
      muscle performance by generating a knock-in mouse where DHPR-mediated Ca2+ influx
      is eliminated. Homozygous knock-in mice display SR Ca2+ release, locomotor
      activity, motor coordination, muscle strength and susceptibility to fatigue
      comparable to wild-type controls, without any compensatory regulation of multiple
      key proteins of the EC coupling machinery and Ca2+ homeostasis. These findings
      support the hypothesis that the DHPR-mediated Ca2+ influx in mammalian skeletal
      muscle is an evolutionary remnant.In mammalian skeletal muscle, the DHPR
      functions as a voltage sensor to trigger muscle contraction and as a Ca2+
      channel. Here the authors show that mice where Ca2+ influx through the DHPR is
      eliminated display no difference in skeletal muscle function, suggesting that the
      Ca2+ influx through this channel is vestigial.

PMID- 28883415
TI  - High expression FUT1 and B3GALT5 is an independent predictor of postoperative
      recurrence and survival in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Cancer may arise from dedifferentiation of mature cells or maturation-arrested
      stem cells. Previously we reported that definitive endoderm from which liver was
      derived, expressed Globo H, SSEA-3 and SSEA-4. In this study, we examined the
      expression of their biosynthetic enzymes, FUT1, FUT2, B3GALT5 and ST3GAL2, in 135
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues by qRT-PCR. High expression of either FUT1
      or B3GALT5 was significantly associated with advanced stages and poor outcome.
      Kaplan Meier survival analysis showed significantly shorter relapse-free survival
      (RFS) for those with high expression of either FUT1 or B3GALT5 (P = 0.024 and
      0.001, respectively) and shorter overall survival (OS) for those with high
      expression of B3GALT5 (P = 0.017). Combination of FUT1 and B3GALT5 revealed that
      high expression of both genes had poorer RFS and OS than the others (P < 0.001).
      Moreover, multivariable Cox regression analysis identified the combination of
      B3GALT5 and FUT1 as an independent predictor for RFS (HR: 2.370, 95% CI: 1.505
      3.731, P < 0.001) and OS (HR: 2.153, 95% CI: 1.188-3.902, P = 0.012) in HCC. In
      addition, the presence of Globo H, SSEA-3 and SSEA-4 in some HCC tissues and
      their absence in normal liver was established by immunohistochemistry staining
      and mass spectrometric analysis.

PMID- 28883416
TI  - Purple spot damage dynamics investigated by an integrated approach on a 1244 A.D.
      parchment roll from the Secret Vatican Archive.
AB  - Ancient parchments are commonly attacked by microbes, producing purple spots and
      detachment of the superficial layer. Neither standard cultivation nor molecular
      methods (DGGE) solved the issue: causative agents and colonization model are
      still unknown. To identify the putative causal agents, we describe the 16 S rRNA
      gene analysis (454-pyrosequencing) of the microbial communities colonizing a
      damaged parchment roll dated 1244 A.D. (A.A. Arm. I-XVIII 3328, Vatican Secret
      Archives). The taxa in damaged or undamaged areas of the same document were
      different. In the purple spots, marine halotolerant Gammaproteobacteria, mainly
      Vibrio, were found; these microorganisms are rare or absent in the undamaged
      areas. Ubiquitous and environmental microorganisms were observed in samples from
      both damaged and undamaged areas. Pseudonocardiales were the most common,
      representing the main colonizers of undamaged areas. We hypothesize a
      successional model of biodeterioration, based on metagenomic data and
      spectroscopic analysis of pigments, which help to relate the damage to a
      microbial agent. Furthermore, a new method (Light Transmitted Analysis) was
      utilized to evaluate the kind and entity of the damage to native collagen. These
      data give a significant advance to the knowledge in the field and open new
      perspectives to remediation activity on a huge amount of ancient document.

PMID- 28883417
TI  - The Deposition and Accumulation of Microplastics in Marine Sediments and Bottom
      Water from the Irish Continental Shelf.
AB  - Microplastics are widely dispersed throughout the marine environment. An
      understanding of the distribution and accumulation of this form of pollution is
      crucial for gauging environmental risk. Presented here is the first record of
      plastic contamination, in the 5 mm-250 MUm size range, of Irish continental shelf
      sediments. Sixty-two microplastics were recovered from 10 of 11 stations using
      box cores. 97% of recovered microplastics were found to reside shallower than 2.5
      cm sediment depth, with the area of highest microplastic concentration being the
      water-sediment interface and top 0.5 cm of sediments (66%). Microplastics were
      not found deeper than 3.5 +/- 0.5 cm. These findings demonstrate that
      microplastic contamination is ubiquitous within superficial sediments and bottom
      water along the western Irish continental shelf. Results highlight that cores
      need to be at least 4-5 cm deep to quantify the standing stock of microplastics
      within marine sediments. All recovered microplastics were classified as secondary
      microplastics as they appear to be remnants of larger items; fibres being the
      principal form of microplastic pollution (85%), followed by broken fragments
      (15%). The range of polymer types, colours and physical forms recovered suggests
      a variety of sources. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms
      influencing microplastic transport, deposition, resuspension and subsequent
      interactions with biota.

PMID- 28883418
TI  - Quantitative proteomics of Sf21 cells during Baculovirus infection reveals
      progressive host proteome changes and its regulation by viral miRNA.
AB  - System level knowledge of alterations in host is crucial to elucidate the
      molecular events of viral pathogenesis and to develop strategies to block viral
      establishment and amplification. Here, we applied quantitative proteomics
      approach to study global proteome changes in the host; Spodoptera frugiperda upon
      infection by a baculovirus, Spodoptera litura NPV at two stages i.e. 12 h and 72
      h post infection. At 12 hpi, >95% of host proteins remained stable, however at 72
      hpi, 52% host proteins exhibited downregulation of 2-fold or more. Functional
      analysis revealed significant upregulation of transposition and proteasomal
      machinery while translation, transcription, protein export and oxidative
      phosphorylation pathways were adversely affected. An assessment of perturbed
      proteome after viral infection and viral miRNA expression led to the
      identification of 117 genes that are potential targets of 10 viral miRNAs. Using
      miRNA mimics, we confirmed the down regulation of 9 host genes. The results
      comprehensively show dynamics of host responses after viral infection.

PMID- 28883419
TI  - Bio-fabrication of silver nanoparticles by phycocyanin, characterization, in
      vitro anticancer activity against breast cancer cell line and in vivo
      cytotxicity.
AB  - In recent decades, researchers were attracted towards cyanobacterial components
      which are potential low-cost biological reagents for silver nanoparticle
      biosynthesis. This article describes the biological synthesis of silver
      nanoparticles using a proteinaceous pigment phycocyanin extracted from Nostoc
      linckia as reducing agent. The synthesized silver nanoparticles have a surface
      plasmon resonance band centered at 425 nm. Face-centered central composite design
      used for optimization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) biosynthesis using
      phycocyanin. The maximum AgNPs biosynthesis obtained using the optimized four
      variables, initial pH level (10), AgNO3 concentration (5 mM), phycocyanin pigment
      concentration (1 mg/mL) and incubation period (24 h) was 1100.025 ug/mL. The TEM
      analysis of AgNPs showed spherical nanoparticles with mean size between 9.39 to
      25.89 nm. FTIR spectra showed major peaks of proteins involved in AgNPs
      biosynthesis by identifying different functional groups involved in effective
      capping of AgNPs. The biosynthesized AgNPs significantly inhibited the growth of
      medically important pathogenic Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus), Gram
      negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia). The
      synthesized AgNPs exhibited effective cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and the
      inhibitory concentration (IC50) was recorded at 27.79 +/- 2.3 ug/mL. The in vivo
      studies clearly indicated that AgNPs has a capacity to inhibit the growth of
      tumor in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma bearing mice.

PMID- 28883420
TI  - Personalized structural image analysis in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - Volumetric and morphometric studies have demonstrated structural abnormalities
      related to chronic epilepsies on a cohort- and population-based level. On a
      single-patient level, specific patterns of atrophy or cortical reorganization may
      be widespread and heterogeneous but represent potential targets for further
      personalized image analysis and surgical therapy. The goal of this study was to
      compare morphometric data analysis in 37 patients with temporal lobe epilepsies
      with expert-based image analysis, pre-informed by seizure semiology and ictal
      scalp EEG. Automated image analysis identified abnormalities exceeding expert
      determined structural epileptogenic lesions in 86% of datasets. If EEG
      lateralization and expert MRI readings were congruent, automated analysis
      detected abnormalities consistent on a lobar and hemispheric level in 82% of
      datasets. However, in 25% of patients EEG lateralization and expert readings were
      inconsistent. Automated analysis localized to the site of resection in 60% of
      datasets in patients who underwent successful epilepsy surgery. Morphometric
      abnormalities beyond the mesiotemporal structures contributed to subtype
      characterisation. We conclude that subject-specific morphometric information is
      in agreement with expert image analysis and scalp EEG in the majority of cases.
      However, automated image analysis may provide non-invasive additional information
      in cases with equivocal radiological and neurophysiological findings.

PMID- 28883421
TI  - Changes in specific leaf area of dominant plants in temperate grasslands along a
      2500-km transect in northern China.
AB  - Specific leaf area (SLA) is a key trait with great ecological importance as it
      correlates with whole plant growth. We aimed to investigate how SLA varies with
      environmental factors at a geographical scale in temperate grasslands. We
      measured SLA and mass-based leaf nitrogen content (N mass) of four dominant plant
      genera along a 2500 km climatic gradient in northern China grassland, and
      correlated SLA with mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature
      (MAT), soil nitrogen concentration (soil N), soil C:N and N mass. Climate
      accounts much more for SLA variation than soil variables for Stipa, Cleistogens
      and Carex. SLA of Stipa is negatively associated with MAP and soil N, while
      positively with MAT, but Cleistogenes and Carex show the opposite. For Leymus,
      soil N promotes SLA and accounts for largest fraction of SLA variation. Overall,
      SLA was positively correlated with N mass in semi-arid regions, but not
      significant in arid regions. The genus-dependent responses of SLA may have
      consequences on ecosystem functioning, thus may help to predict the community
      composition and ecosystem functions under future climate scenario. The finding of
      SLA-N mass trade-off and its susceptibility to precipitation will advance our
      understanding on plant resource use strategies.

PMID- 28883422
TI  - Effect of Metabolic Syndrome on the Functional Outcome of Corticosteroid
      Injection for Lateral Epicondylitis: Retrospective Matched Case-Control Study.
AB  - Both obesity and diabetes mellitus are well-known risk factors for
      tendinopathies. We retrospectively compared the efficacy of single corticosteroid
      injections in treating lateral epicondylitis in patients with and without
      metabolic syndrome (MetS). Fifty-one patients with lateral epicondylitis and MetS
      were age- and sex-matched with 51 controls without MetS. Pain severity,
      Disability of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand score, and grip strength were assessed
      at base line and at 6, 12 and 24 weeks post-injection. The pain scores in the
      MetS group were greater than those in the control group at 6 and 12 weeks. The
      disability scores and grip strength in the MetS group were significantly worse
      than those of the control group at 6 weeks. However, there were no significant
      differences at 24 weeks between the groups in terms of pain, disability scores
      and grip strengths. After 24 weeks, three patients (6%) in the control group and
      five patients (10%) in the MetS group had surgical decompression (p = 0.46).
      Patients with MetS are at risk for poor functional outcome after corticosteroid
      injection for lateral epicondylitis in the short term, but in the long term there
      was no difference in outcomes of steroid injection in patients with and without
      MetS.

PMID- 28883423
TI  - Conductance through a helical state in an Indium antimonide nanowire.
AB  - The motion of an electron and its spin are generally not coupled. However in a
      one-dimensional material with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) a helical state
      may emerge at finite magnetic fields, where electrons of opposite spin will have
      opposite momentum. The existence of this helical state has applications for spin
      filtering and cooper pair splitter devices and is an essential ingredient for
      realizing topologically protected quantum computing using Majorana zero modes.
      Here, we report measurements of a quantum point contact in an indium antimonide
      nanowire. At magnetic fields exceeding 3 T, the 2 e 2/h conductance plateau shows
      a re-entrant feature toward 1 e 2/h which increases linearly in width with
      magnetic field. Rotating the magnetic field clearly attributes this experimental
      signature to SOI and by comparing our observations with a numerical model we
      extract a spin-orbit energy of approximately 6.5 meV, which is stronger than the
      spin-orbit energy obtained by other methods.Indium antimonide nanowires have
      large spin-orbit coupling, which can give rise to helical states that are an
      important part of proposals for topological quantum computing. Here the authors
      measure conductance through the helical states and extract a larger spin-orbit
      energy than obtained before.

PMID- 28883424
TI  - Efficient post-acceleration of protons in helical coil targets driven by sub-ps
      laser pulses.
AB  - The characteristics of laser driven proton beams can be efficiently controlled
      and optimised by employing a recently developed helical coil technique, which
      exploits the transient self-charging of solid targets irradiated by intense laser
      pulses. Here we demonstrate a well collimated (<1 degrees  divergence) and narrow
      bandwidth (~10% energy spread) proton beamlet of ~107 particles at 10 +/- 0.5 MeV
      obtained by irradiating helical coil targets with a few joules, sub-ps laser
      pulses at an intensity of ~2 * 1019 W cm-2. The experimental data are in good
      agreement with particle tracing simulations suggesting post-acceleration of
      protons inside the coil at a rate ~0.7 MeV/mm, which is comparable to the results
      obtained from a similar coil target irradiated by a fs class laser at an order of
      magnitude higher intensity, as reported in S. Kar et al., Nat. Commun, 7, 10792
      (2016). The dynamics of hot electron escape from the laser irradiated target was
      studied numerically for these two irradiation regimes, which shows that the
      target self-charging can be optimised at a pulse duration of few hundreds of fs.
      This information is highly beneficial for maximising the post-acceleration
      gradient in future experiments.

PMID- 28883425
TI  - Computational genome-wide survey of odorant receptors from two solitary bees
      Dufourea novaeangliae (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) and Habropoda laboriosa
      (Hymenoptera: Apidae).
AB  - Olfactory/odorant receptors (ORs) probably govern eusocial behaviour in honey
      bees through detection of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) and queen mandibular
      gland pheromones (QMP). CHCs are involved in nest-mate recognition whereas QMP
      acts as sex pheromone for drones and as retinue pheromone for female workers.
      Further studies on the effect of eusociality on the evolution of ORs are hindered
      by the non-availability of comprehensive OR sets of solitary species. We report
      complete OR repertoires from two solitary bees Dufourea novaeangliae (112 ORs)
      and Habropoda laboriosa (151 ORs). We classify these ORs into 34 phylogenetic
      clades/subfamilies. Differences in the OR sets of solitary and eusocial bees are
      observed in individual subfamilies like subfamily 9-exon (putative CHC receptors)
      and L (contains putative QMP receptor group). A subfamily (H) including putative
      floral scent receptors is expanded in the generalist honey bees only, but not in
      the specialists. On the contrary, subfamily J is expanded in all bees
      irrespective of their degree of social complexity or food preferences. Finally,
      we show species-lineage specific and OR-subfamily specific differences in the
      putative cis-regulatory DNA motifs of the ORs from six hymenopteran species. Out
      of these, [A/G]CGCAAGCG[C/T] is a candidate master transcription factor binding
      site for multiple olfactory genes.

PMID- 28883426
TI  - Bioaccumulation and biomagnification of short and medium chain polychlorinated
      paraffins in different species of fish from Liaodong Bay, North China.
AB  - Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are highly complex technical mixtures, and the short
      chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are classed as persistent and have been
      included in the Stockholm Convention. However, there have been few studies of
      SCCPs and medium chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs) and their bioaccumulation
      and biomagnification in different species of fish. The present study investigated
      the levels, congener group profiles, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification of
      SCCPs and MCCPs in different species of fish from Liaodong Bay, North China. The
      ranges for the SigmaSCCP and SigmaMCCP concentrations were 376.3-8596 ng/g lipid
      weight (lw) and 22.37-5097 ng/g lw, respectively. The logarithms of
      bioaccumulation factors of SigmaSCCPs ranged from 4.69 to 6.05, implying that
      SCCPs bioaccumulated in the fish. The trophic magnification factor of SigmaSCCPs
      was 2.57, indicating that SCCPs could biomagnify in fish. Carbon chain length,
      the numbers of chlorine atoms, and octanol/water partition coefficients of the
      SCCPs and MCCPs might be important factors affecting the bioaccumulation of these
      chemicals in fish. The risk posed to human health by consumption of fish
      containing SCCPs was low. New SCCPs with nine carbons (C9) were detected in fish
      in this study.

PMID- 28883428
TI  - Assessing SNP genotyping of noninvasively collected wildlife samples using
      microfluidic arrays.
AB  - Noninvasively collected samples are a common source of DNA in wildlife genetic
      studies. Currently, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping using
      microfluidic arrays is emerging as an easy-to-use and cost-effective methodology.
      Here we assessed the performance of microfluidic SNP arrays in genotyping
      noninvasive samples from grey wolves, European wildcats and brown bears, and we
      compared results with traditional microsatellite genotyping. We successfully SNP
      genotyped 87%, 80% and 97% of the wolf, cat and bear samples, respectively.
      Genotype recovery was higher based on SNPs, while both marker types identified
      the same individuals and provided almost identical estimates of pairwise
      differentiation. We found that samples for which all SNP loci were scored had no
      disagreements across the three replicates (except one locus in a wolf sample).
      Thus, we argue that call rate (amplification success) can be used as a proxy for
      genotype quality, allowing the reduction of replication effort when call rate is
      high. Furthermore, we used cycle threshold values of real-time PCR to guide the
      choice of protocols for SNP amplification. Finally, we provide general guidelines
      for successful SNP genotyping of degraded DNA using microfluidic technology.

PMID- 28883427
TI  - Tau exacerbates excitotoxic brain damage in an animal model of stroke.
AB  - Neuronal excitotoxicity induced by aberrant excitation of glutamatergic receptors
      contributes to brain damage in stroke. Here we show that tau-deficient (tau-/-)
      mice are profoundly protected from excitotoxic brain damage and neurological
      deficits following experimental stroke, using a middle cerebral artery occlusion
      with reperfusion model. Mechanistically, we show that this protection is due to
      site-specific inhibition of glutamate-induced and Ras/ERK-mediated toxicity by
      accumulation of Ras-inhibiting SynGAP1, which resides in a post-synaptic complex
      with tau. Accordingly, reducing SynGAP1 levels in tau-/- mice abolished the
      protection from pharmacologically induced excitotoxicity and middle cerebral
      artery occlusion-induced brain damage. Conversely, over-expression of SynGAP1
      prevented excitotoxic ERK activation in wild-type neurons. Our findings suggest
      that tau mediates excitotoxic Ras/ERK signaling by controlling post-synaptic
      compartmentalization of SynGAP1.Excitotoxicity contributes to neuronal injury
      following stroke. Here the authors show that tau promotes excitotoxicity by a
      post-synaptic mechanism, involving site-specific control of ERK activation, in a
      mouse model of stroke.

PMID- 28883429
TI  - A method for estimating intracellular ion concentration using optical nanosensors
      and ratiometric imaging.
AB  - Optical nanoparticle (NP)-based sensors have been widely implemented as tools for
      detection of targeted ions and biomolecules. The NP sensing platform offer a
      modular design that can incorporate different sensing components for greater
      target specificity and the ability to tune the dynamic range, as well as
      encapsulation of multiple dyes to generate a ratiometric signal with varying
      spectra. Despite these advantages, demonstrating quantitative ion imaging for
      intracellular measurement still possess a major challenge. Here, we describe
      fundamentals that enable intracellular validation of this approach using ion
      selective nanosensors for investigating calcium (Ca2+) as a model ion. While
      conventional indicators can improve individual aspects of indicator performance
      such as Kd, wavelength, and ratiometric measurements, the use of NP sensors can
      achieve combined benefits of addressing these issues simultaneously. The
      nanosensor incorporates highly calcium-selective ionophores and two fluorescence
      indicators that act as signal transducers to facilitate quantitative ratiometric
      imaging. For intracellular Ca2+ application, the sensors are fine-tuned to
      physiological sensing range, and live-cell imaging and quantification are
      demonstrated in HeLa cells loaded with nanosensors and their responsiveness to
      carbachol-evoked store release (~400 nM). The current nanosensor design thus
      provides a promising sensing platform for real-time detection and optical
      determination of intracellular ions.

PMID- 28883430
TI  - Magneto-actuated cell apoptosis by biaxial pulsed magnetic field.
AB  - We report on a highly efficient magneto-actuated cancer cell apoptosis method
      using a biaxial pulsed magnetic field configuration, which maximizes the induced
      magnetic torque. The light transmissivity dynamics show that the biaxial magnetic
      field configuration can actuate the magnetic nanoparticles with higher
      responsiveness over a wide range of frequencies as compared to uniaxial field
      configurations. Its efficacy was demonstrated in in vitro cell destruction
      experiments with a greater reduction in cell viability. Magnetic nanoparticles
      with high aspect ratios were also found to form a triple vortex magnetization at
      remanence which increases its low field susceptibility. This translates to a
      larger magneto-mechanical actuated force at low fields and 12% higher efficacy in
      cell death as compared to low aspect ratio nanoparticles.

PMID- 28883431
TI  - Association Between Body Mass Index Combined with Albumin: creatinine Ratio and
      All-cause Mortality in Chinese Population.
AB  - The association between body mass index (BMI) combined with albumin: creatinine
      ratio (ACR) and all-cause mortality in the general population has not been
      established. To address this, we examined a representative sample from the
      general population of China. The study included 46,854 participants with a follow
      up of 4.6 years. Compared to the normal weight with ACR <10 mg/g group (the
      reference group), the crude hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality for the
      underweight with ACR >10 mg/g, normal weight with ACR >10 mg/g, overweight with
      ACR >10 mg/g, and obese with ACR >10 mg/g groups, were 2.22 (95% CI, 1.41 to
      3.49), 1.70 (95% CI, 1.42 to 2.04), 1.52 (95% CI, 1.22 to 1.89), and 2.05 (95%
      CI, 1.45 to 2.89), respectively. After multivariable adjustments for age, race,
      comorbidities, and baseline eGFR, the HRs for the underweight with ACR >10 mg/g
      and normal weight with ACR >10 mg/g groups were 1.85 (95% CI, 1.17 to 2.91) and
      1.36 (95% CI, 1.13 to 1.63), respectively. The results indicate that BMI combined
      with ACR can better predict all-cause mortality than BMI alone in the general
      Chinese population. Underweight and normal weight people with elevated ACR are at
      a higher risk of all-cause mortality than those in the same BMI category with ACR
      <10 mg/g.

PMID- 28883432
TI  - Quantitative Phosphoproteomic Analysis Reveals Key Mechanisms of Cellular
      Proliferation in Liver Cancer Cells.
AB  - Understanding the mechanisms of uncontrolled proliferation in cancer cells
      provides valuable insights into tumor development and is benefit for discovering
      efficient methods in cancer treatment. In this study, we identified and
      quantified 2,057 phosphoproteins and 9,824 unique phosphosites in three liver
      cell lines with high (QGY, Hep3B) and low (L02) proliferative potentials and
      disclosed the wide variations in phosphorylation sites and levels among them. We
      found that the number of identified phosphoproteins and phosphosites in these
      cells were negatively correlated with their proliferative abilities. The function
      analysis suggested that the aberrant phosphorylation of SR proteins and
      activation of MAPK pathway might be two critical factors to promote cancer cell
      proliferation. Meanwhile, the phosphorylation status of mini-chromosome
      maintenance (MCM) and nuclear pore (NPC) complexes are significantly different
      between cell lines with high and low proliferative potentials. Furthermore, the
      phosphosites targeted by kinase families of CDK, STE and HIPK in the proteins
      coded by cancer driver genes showed distinct profiles between caner and normal
      cell lines. These results present key phosphorylation networks involving in
      abnormal proliferation of cancer cells and uncovered potential molecular markers
      for estimating the proliferation ability of liver cancer cells.

PMID- 28883433
TI  - In situ wrapping of the cathode material in lithium-sulfur batteries.
AB  - While lithium-sulfur batteries are poised to be the next-generation high-density
      energy storage devices, the intrinsic polysulfide shuttle has limited their
      practical applications. Many recent investigations have focused on the
      development of methods to wrap the sulfur material with a diffusion barrier
      layer. However, there is a trade-off between a perfect preassembled wrapping
      layer and electrolyte infiltration into the wrapped sulfur cathode. Here, we
      demonstrate an in situ wrapping approach to construct a compact layer on
      carbon/sulfur composite particles with an imperfect wrapping layer. This special
      configuration suppresses the shuttle effect while allowing polysulfide diffusion
      within the interior of the wrapped composite particles. As a result, the wrapped
      cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries greatly improves the Coulombic efficiency
      and cycle life. Importantly, the capacity decay of the cell at 1000 cycles is as
      small as 0.03% per cycle at 1672 mA g-1.To suppress the polysulfide shuttling
      effect in Li-S batteries, here the authors report a carbon/sulfur composite
      cathode with a wrapping layer that overcomes the trade-off between limiting
      polysulfide diffusion and allowing electrolyte infiltration, and affords
      extraordinary cycling stability.

PMID- 28883434
TI  - Automated video-mosaicking approach for confocal microscopic imaging in vivo: an
      approach to address challenges in imaging living tissue and extend field of view.
AB  - We describe a computer vision-based mosaicking method for in vivo videos of
      reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). RCM is a microscopic imaging technique,
      which enables the users to rapidly examine tissue in vivo. Providing resolution
      at cellular-level morphology, RCM imaging combined with mosaicking has shown to
      be highly sensitive and specific for non-invasively guiding skin cancer
      diagnosis. However, current RCM mosaicking techniques with existing microscopes
      have been limited to two -dimensional sequences of individual still images,
      acquired in a highly controlled manner, and along a specific predefined raster
      path, covering a limited area. The recent advent of smaller handheld microscopes
      is enabling acquisition of videos, acquired in a relatively uncontrolled manner
      and along an ad-hoc arbitrarily free-form, non-rastered path. Mosaicking of video
      images (video-mosaicking) is necessary to display large areas of tissue. Our
      video-mosaicking methods addresses this need. The method can handle unique
      challenges encountered during video capture such as motion blur artifacts due to
      rapid motion of the microscope over the imaged area, warping in frames due to
      changes in contact angle and varying resolution with depth. We present test
      examples of video-mosaics of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, to
      demonstrate potential clinical utility.

PMID- 28883435
TI  - A massive tsunami promoted gene flow and increased genetic diversity in a near
      threatened plant species.
AB  - The magnitude and frequency of disturbances affect species diversity and spatial
      distributions, but the direct effects of large-scale disturbances on genetic
      diversity are poorly understood. On March 11, 2011, the Great Tohoku Earthquake
      in Japan caused a massive tsunami that resulted in substantial alteration of
      community compositions. Populations of a near-threatened tidal marsh Carex
      rugulosa inhabiting brackish sandbars was also affected. We found four out of six
      remnant C. rugulosa populations along the Pacific Ocean had become completely
      extinct. Newly emergent post-tsunami populations, however, had higher allelic
      numbers than pre-tsunami populations, indicating higher genetic diversity after
      the tsunami. In addition, genetic differentiation (Fst) between post-tsunami
      populations was significantly lower than that of pre-tsunami populations. We
      therefore conclude that the tsunami enhanced gene flow. Seeds of many Carex
      species persist for long periods in soil, which suggests that seed banks are
      important genetic resources for post-disturbance recovery of genetic diversity.
      When its brackish sandbar habitat is no longer subject to disturbance and changes
      to the land, C. rugulosa is outcompeted by terrestrial plant competitors and
      eliminated. Disturbance is a driving force for the recovery and maintenance of
      populations of species such as C. rugulosa-even after near-complete eradication.

PMID- 28883437
TI  - Alpha subunit-dependent glycine receptor clustering and regulation of synaptic
      receptor numbers.
AB  - Accumulation of glycine receptors at synapses requires the interaction between
      the beta subunit of the receptor and the scaffold protein gephyrin. Here, we
      questioned whether different alpha subunits could modulate the receptors'
      diffusion and propensity to cluster at spinal cord synapses. Using quantitative
      photoactivated localisation microscopy we found that alpha-1 and alpha-3
      containing glycine receptors display the same alpha3:beta2 stoichiometry and
      gephyrin binding. Despite these similarities, alpha-3 containing receptors are
      less mobile and cluster at higher density compared to alpha-1, with 1500 versus
      1100 complexes um-2, respectively. Furthermore, we identified a subunit-specific
      regulation of glycine receptor copy numbers at synapses: when challenged with
      interleukin 1beta, the synaptic occupancy of alpha-1 but not alpha-3 receptors
      was reduced. This mechanism may play a role in the cell-type dependent regulation
      of glycinergic currents in response to interleukin 1beta and highlights the
      capacity of the alpha subunits to affect receptor-gephyrin binding at synapses.

PMID- 28883436
TI  - Pandemic 2009 H1N1 Influenza Venus reporter virus reveals broad diversity of MHC
      class II-positive antigen-bearing cells following infection in vivo.
AB  - Although it is well established that Influenza A virus infection is initiated in
      the respiratory tract, the sequence of events and the cell types that become
      infected or access viral antigens remains incompletely understood. In this
      report, we used a novel Influenza A/California/04/09 (H1N1) reporter virus that
      stably expresses the Venus fluorescent protein to identify antigen-bearing cells
      over time in a mouse model of infection using flow cytometry. These studies
      revealed that many hematopoietic cells, including subsets of monocytes,
      macrophages, dendritic cells, neutrophils and eosinophils acquire influenza
      antigen in the lungs early post-infection. Surface staining of the viral HA
      revealed that most cell populations become infected, most prominently CD45neg
      cells, alveolar macrophages and neutrophils. Finally, differences in infection
      status, cell lineage and MHC class II expression by antigen-bearing cells
      correlated with differences in their ability to re-stimulate influenza-specific
      CD4 T cells ex vivo. Collectively, these studies have revealed the cellular
      heterogeneity and complexity of antigen-bearing cells within the lung and their
      potential as targets of antigen recognition by CD4 T cells.

PMID- 28883438
TI  - Stretchable Dual-Capacitor Multi-Sensor for Touch-Curvature-Pressure-Strain
      Sensing.
AB  - We introduce a new type of multi-functional capacitive sensor that can sense
      several different external stimuli. It is fabricated only with
      polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films and silver nanowire electrodes by using
      selective oxygen plasma treatment method without photolithography and etching
      processes. Differently from the conventional single-capacitor multi-functional
      sensors, our new multi-functional sensor is composed of two vertically-stacked
      capacitors (dual-capacitor). The unique dual-capacitor structure can detect the
      type and strength of external stimuli including curvature, pressure, strain, and
      touch with clear distinction, and it can also detect the surface-normal
      directionality of curvature, pressure, and touch. Meanwhile, the conventional
      single-capacitor sensor has ambiguity in distinguishing curvature and pressure
      and it can detect only the strength of external stimulus. The type,
      directionality, and strength of external stimulus can be determined based on the
      relative capacitance changes of the two stacked capacitors. Additionally, the
      logical flow reflected on a tree structure with its branches reaching the
      direction and strength of the corresponding external stimulus unambiguously is
      devised. This logical flow can be readily implemented in the sensor driving
      circuit if the dual-capacitor sensor is commercialized actually in the future.

PMID- 28883439
TI  - T cells display mitochondria hyperpolarization in human type 1 diabetes.
AB  - T lymphocytes constitute a major effector cell population in autoimmune type 1
      diabetes. Despite essential functions of mitochondria in regulating activation,
      proliferation, and apoptosis of T cells, little is known regarding T cell
      metabolism in the progression of human type 1 diabetes. In this study, we report,
      using two independent cohorts, that T cells from patients with type 1 diabetes
      exhibited mitochondrial inner-membrane hyperpolarization (MHP). Increased MHP was
      a general phenotype observed in T cell subsets irrespective of prior antigen
      exposure, and was not correlated with HbA1C levels, subject age, or duration of
      diabetes. Elevated T cell MHP was not detected in subjects with type 2 diabetes.
      T cell MHP was associated with increased activation-induced IFNgamma production,
      and activation-induced IFNgamma was linked to mitochondria-specific ROS
      production. T cells from subjects with type 1 diabetes also exhibited lower
      intracellular ATP levels. In conclusion, intrinsic mitochondrial dysfunction
      observed in type 1 diabetes alters mitochondrial ATP and IFNgamma production; the
      latter is correlated with ROS generation. These changes impact T cell
      bioenergetics and function.

PMID- 28883440
TI  - Mechanism and DNA-based detection of field-evolved resistance to transgenic Bt
      corn in fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda).
AB  - Evolution of resistance threatens sustainability of transgenic crops producing
      insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The fall
      armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) is a devastating pest of corn in the Western
      Hemisphere initially controlled by transgenic Bt corn producing the Cry1Fa
      insecticidal protein (event TC1507). However field-evolved resistance to TC1507
      was observed in Puerto Rico in 2007 and has subsequently been reported in a
      number of locations in North and South America. Early studies on Puerto Rico fall
      armyworm populations found that the resistance phenotype was associated with
      reduced expression of alkaline phosphatase. However, in this work we show that
      field-evolved resistance to Cry1Fa Bt corn in Puerto Rico is closely linked to a
      mutation in an ATP Binding Cassette subfamily C2 (ABCC2) gene that functions as a
      Cry1Fa receptor in susceptible insects. Furthermore, we report a DNA-based
      genotyping test used to demonstrate the presence of the resistant (SfABCC2mut)
      allele in Puerto Rico populations in 2007, coincident with the first reports of
      damage to TC1507 corn. These DNA-based field screening data provide strong
      evidence that resistance to TC1507 in fall armyworm maps to the SfABCC2 gene and
      provides a useful molecular marker for detecting the SfABCC2mut allele in
      resistant fall armyworm.

PMID- 28883441
TI  - Spatio-Temporal Patterns of the International Merger and Acquisition Network.
AB  - This paper analyses the world web of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) using a
      complex network approach. We use data of M&As to build a temporal sequence of
      binary and weighted-directed networks for the period 1995-2010 and 224 countries
      (nodes) connected according to their M&As flows (links). We study different
      geographical and temporal aspects of the international M&A network (IMAN),
      building sequences of filtered sub-networks whose links belong to specific
      intervals of distance or time. Given that M&As and trade are complementary ways
      of reaching foreign markets, we perform our analysis using statistics employed
      for the study of the international trade network (ITN), highlighting the
      similarities and differences between the ITN and the IMAN. In contrast to the
      ITN, the IMAN is a low density network characterized by a persistent giant
      component with many external nodes and low reciprocity. Clustering patterns are
      very heterogeneous and dynamic. High-income economies are the main acquirers and
      are characterized by high connectivity, implying that most countries are targets
      of a few acquirers. Like in the ITN, geographical distance strongly impacts the
      structure of the IMAN: link-weights and node degrees have a non-linear relation
      with distance, and an assortative pattern is present at short distances.

PMID- 28883442
TI  - Interdisciplinary, Comprehensive Oral and Ocular Evaluation of Patients with
      Primary Sjogren's Syndrome.
AB  - A comprehensive evaluation of oral and ocular symptoms and findings in primary
      Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) patients may provide valuable information for
      management. Medical history was obtained from female pSS patients, and sex- and
      age-matched non-SS patients with sicca symptoms (non-SS sicca controls) as well
      as healthy subjects without sicca complaints (healthy controls). Oral (Summated
      Xerostomia Inventory, SXI) and ocular (McMonnies Dry Eye questionnaire, MDEIS,
      and Ocular Surface Disease Index, OSDI) subjective complaints were recorded.
      Objective findings including clinical oral dryness scores (CODS), unstimulated
      and stimulated saliva secretion rates (UWS/SWS), Schirmer I test, tear
      osmolarity, tear film break-up time (TFBUT), and ocular surface staining (OSS)
      were determined. The pSS and non-SS sicca controls were extensively troubled by
      subjective dryness, while the pSS group had higher CODS, significantly lower
      saliva and tear secretion, shorter TFBUT and higher OSS than both control groups.
      Furthermore, candida counts were significantly higher in the pSS patients. In the
      pSS group, subjective oral dryness significantly correlated with ocular dryness
      (MDEIS: r = 0.5, OSDI: r = 0.413) and SWS was significantly correlated with
      Schirmer I (r = 0.419). The findings imply that interdisciplinary subjective and
      objective evaluation of patients with xerostomia and xerophthalmia not only have
      implications for patient care, but also may guide clinicians in differentiating
      between pSS and non-SS sicca patients.

PMID- 28883444
TI  - The effect of a high frequency electromagnetic field in the microwave range on
      red blood cells.
AB  - The effect of red blood cells (RBC) exposed to an 18 GHz electromagnetic field
      (EMF) was studied. The results of this study demonstrated for the first time that
      exposure of RBCs to 18 GHz EMF has the capacity to induce nanospheres uptake in
      RBCs. The uptake of nanospheres (loading efficiency 96% and 46% for 23.5 and 46.3
      nm nanospheres respectively), their presence and locality were confirmed using
      three independent techniques, namely scanning electron microscopy, confocal laser
      scanning microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. It appeared that 23.5
      nm nanospheres were translocated through the membrane into the cytosol, while the
      46.3 nm-nanospheres were mostly translocated through the phospholipid-cholesterol
      bilayer, with only some of these nanospheres passing the 2D cytoskeleton network.
      The nanospheres uptake increased by up to 12% with increasing temperature from 33
      to 37  degrees C. The TEM analysis revealed that the nanospheres were engulfed by
      the cell membrane itself, and then translocated into the cytosol. It is believed
      that EMF-induced rotating water dipoles caused disturbance of the membrane,
      initiating its deformation and result in an enhanced degree of membrane
      trafficking via a quasi-exocytosis process.

PMID- 28883443
TI  - Planar polarized Rab35 functions as an oscillatory ratchet during cell
      intercalation in the Drosophila epithelium.
AB  - The coordination between membrane trafficking and actomyosin networks is
      essential to the regulation of cell and tissue shape. Here, we examine Rab
      protein distributions during Drosophila epithelial tissue remodeling and show
      that Rab35 is dynamically planar polarized. Rab35 compartments are enriched at
      contractile interfaces of intercalating cells and provide the first evidence of
      interfacial monopolarity. When Rab35 function is disrupted, apical area
      oscillations still occur and contractile steps are observed. However,
      contractions are followed by reversals and interfaces fail to shorten,
      demonstrating that Rab35 functions as a ratchet ensuring unidirectional movement.
      Although actomyosin forces have been thought to drive interface contraction,
      initiation of Rab35 compartments does not require Myosin II function. However,
      Rab35 compartments do not terminate and continue to grow into large elongated
      structures following actomyosin disruption. Finally, Rab35 represents a common
      contractile cell-shaping mechanism, as mesoderm invagination fails in Rab35
      compromised embryos and Rab35 localizes to constricting surfaces.Various stages
      of tissue morphogenesis involve the contraction of epithelial surfaces. Here, the
      authors identify the Rab GTPase Rab35 as an essential component of this
      contractile process, which functions as a membrane ratchet to ensure
      unidirectional movement of intercalating cells.

PMID- 28883445
TI  - Plant litter dynamics in the forest-stream interface: precipitation is a major
      control across tropical biomes.
AB  - Riparian plant litter is a major energy source for forested streams across the
      world and its decomposition has repercussions on nutrient cycling, food webs and
      ecosystem functioning. However, we know little about plant litter dynamics in
      tropical streams, even though the tropics occupy 40% of the Earth's land surface.
      Here we investigated spatial and temporal (along a year cycle) patterns of litter
      inputs and storage in multiple streams of three tropical biomes in Brazil
      (Atlantic forest, Amazon forest and Cerrado savanna), predicting major
      differences among biomes in relation to temperature and precipitation regimes.
      Precipitation explained most of litter inputs and storage, which were generally
      higher in more humid biomes (litterfall: 384, 422 and 308 g m-2 y-1, storage: 55,
      113 and 38 g m-2, on average in Atlantic forest, Amazon and Cerrado,
      respectively). Temporal dynamics varied across biomes in relation to
      precipitation and temperature, with uniform litter inputs but seasonal storage in
      Atlantic forest streams, seasonal inputs in Amazon and Cerrado streams, and
      aseasonal storage in Amazon streams. Our findings suggest that litter dynamics
      vary greatly within the tropics, but point to the major role of precipitation,
      which contrasts with the main influence of temperature in temperate areas.

PMID- 28883447
TI  - Software for improved field surveys of nesting marine turtles.
AB  - Field data are still recorded on paper in many worldwide beach surveys of nesting
      marine turtles. The data must be subsequently transferred into an electronic
      database, and this can introduce errors in the dataset. To minimize such errors,
      the "Turtles" software was developed and piloted to record field data by one
      software user accompanying one Tortuguero in Akumal beaches, Quintana Roo,
      Mexico, from June 1st to July 31st during the night patrols. Comparisons were
      made between exported data from the software with the paper forms entered into a
      database (henceforth traditional). Preliminary assessment indicated that the
      software user tended to record a greater amount of metrics (i.e., an average of
      18.3 fields +/- 5.4 sd vs. 8.6 fields +/- 2.1 sd recorded by the traditional
      method). The traditional method introduce three types of "errors" into a dataset:
      missing values in relevant fields (40.1%), different answers for the same value
      (9.8%), and inconsistent data (0.9%). Only 5.8% of these (missing values) were
      found with the software methodology. Although only tested by a single user, the
      software may suggest increased efficacy and warrants further examination to
      accurately assess the merit of replacing traditional methods of data recording
      for beach monitoring programmes.

PMID- 28883446
TI  - Biomass burning in the Amazon region causes DNA damage and cell death in human
      lung cells.
AB  - Most of the studies on air pollution focus on emissions from fossil fuel burning
      in urban centers. However, approximately half of the world's population is
      exposed to air pollution caused by biomass burning emissions. In the Brazilian
      Amazon population, over 10 million people are directly exposed to high levels of
      pollutants resulting from deforestation and agricultural fires. This work is the
      first study to present an integrated view of the effects of inhalable particles
      present in emissions of biomass burning. Exposing human lung cells to particulate
      matter smaller than 10 um (PM10), significantly increased the level of reactive
      oxygen species (ROS), inflammatory cytokines, autophagy, and DNA damage.
      Continued PM10 exposure activated apoptosis and necrosis. Interestingly, retene,
      a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon present in PM10, is a potential compound for
      the effects of PM10, causing DNA damage and cell death. The PM10 concentrations
      observed during Amazon biomass burning were sufficient to induce severe adverse
      effects in human lung cells. Our study provides new data that will help elucidate
      the mechanism of PM10-mediated lung cancer development. In addition, the results
      of this study support the establishment of new guidelines for human health
      protection in regions strongly impacted by biomass burning.

PMID- 28883448
TI  - Effects of influent C/N ratios and treatment technologies on integral biogas
      upgrading and pollutants removal from synthetic domestic sewage.
AB  - Three different treatment technologies, namely mono-algae culture, algal
      bacterial culture, and algal-fungal culture, were applied to remove pollutants
      form synthetic domestic sewage and to remove CO2 from biogas in a
      photobioreactor. The effects of different initial influent C/N ratios on
      microalgal growth rates and pollutants removal efficiencies by the three
      microalgal cultures were investigated. The best biogas upgrading and synthetic
      domestic sewage pollutants removal effect was achieved in the algal-fungal system
      at the influent C/N ratio of 5:1. At the influent C/N ratio of 5:1, the algal
      fungal system achieved the highest mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal
      efficiency of 81.92% and total phosphorus (TP) removal efficiency of 81.52%,
      respectively, while the algal-bacterial system demonstrated the highest mean
      total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency of 82.28%. The average CH4 concentration
      in upgraded biogas and the removal efficiencies of COD, TN, and TP were 93.25 +/-
      3.84% (v/v), 80.23 +/- 3.92%, 75.85 +/- 6.61%, and 78.41 +/- 3.98%, respectively.
      These results will provide a reference for wastewater purification ad biogas
      upgrading with microalgae based technology.

PMID- 28883450
TI  - Virome analysis for identification of novel mammalian viruses in bats from
      Southeast China.
AB  - Bats have been shown as important mammal resevoirs to carry a variety of zoonotic
      pathogens. To analyze pathogenic species in bats from southeast coastal regions
      of China, we performed metagenomic sequencing technology for high throughput
      sequencing of six sentinels from southeast coastal area of China. We obtained
      5,990,261 high quality reads from intestine and lung tissue of 235 bats,
      including 2,975,371 assembled sequences. 631,490 reads predicted overlapping
      sequences for the open reading frame (ORF), which accounts for 2.37% of all the
      sequences (15,012/631,490). Further, the acquired virus sequences were classified
      into 25 viral families, including 16 vertebrate viruses, four plant viruses and
      five insect viruses. All bat samples were screened by specific PCR and
      phylogenetic analysis. Using these techniques, we discovered many novel bat
      viruses and some bat viruses closely-related to known human/animal pathogens,
      including coronavirus, norovirus, adenovirus, bocavirus, astrovirus, and
      circovirus. In summary, this study extended our understanding of bats as the
      viral reservoirs. Additionally, it also provides a basis for furher studying the
      transmission of viruses from bats to humans.

PMID- 28883451
TI  - Magnetic states of nanostructures containing Ni2+ ions at the surface of SiO2
      nanospheres.
AB  - Ultra-small magnetic particles containing Ni2+ ions were grown at the surface of
      SiO2 spheroidal nanoparticles (typical diameter: 50 nm) starting from NiCl2
      solutions. Depending on preparation details, two samples characterized by
      magnetic sub-nanostructures or lamellar sub-nanoparticles at the SiO2 nanosphere
      surface were obtained. The decorated SiO2 nanospheres were submitted to physico
      chemical and magnetic characterization. In both samples, a magnetically blocked
      phase is observed at low temperature. Below 5 K, discontinuities in isothermal
      magnetization loops and magnetic relaxation effects suggest the onset of coherent
      quantum tunneling of nanoparticle magnetization (QTM). Relaxation effects give
      are described by a field- and temperature-dependent magnetic viscosity SV(H,T);
      the total spin number of magnetic units is estimated by fitting the isothermal
      SV(H) curve to a model for an assembly of particles with random anisotropy axes.
      The mean number of aligned spins involved in the low-temperature relaxation is 32
      and 15 in the two considered samples. Phonon-assisted QTM plays an increasingly
      important role with raising temperature and the quantum regime gradually merges
      with the classical behavior. Above the blocking temperature the magnetic units
      behave as classical superparamagnetic particles. When the intra-particle
      ferromagnetic order disappears the Ni2+ ions respond individually to the magnetic
      field.

PMID- 28883449
TI  - Graphene Quantum Dot Solid Sheets: Strong blue-light-emitting & photocurrent
      producing band-gap-opened nanostructures.
AB  - Graphene has been studied intensively in opto-electronics, and its transport
      properties are well established. However, efforts to induce intrinsic optical
      properties are still in progress. Herein, we report the production of micron
      sized sheets by interconnecting graphene quantum dots (GQDs), which are termed
      'GQD solid sheets', with intrinsic absorption and emission properties. Since a
      GQD solid sheet is an interconnected QD system, it possesses the optical
      properties of GQDs. Metal atoms that interconnect the GQDs in the bottom-up
      hydrothermal growth process, induce the semiconducting behaviour in the GQD solid
      sheets. X-ray absorption measurements and quantum chemical calculations provide
      clear evidence for the metal-mediated growth process. The as-grown graphene
      quantum dot solids undergo a Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) interaction
      with GQDs to exhibit an unconventional 36% photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield
      in the blue region at 440 nm. A high-magnitude photocurrent was also induced in
      graphene quantum dot solid sheets by the energy transfer process.

PMID- 28883452
TI  - Release and Degradation of Microencapsulated Spinosad and Emamectin Benzoate.
AB  - The dynamics of release and degradation of the microencapsulation formulation
      containing spinosad (SP) and emamectin benzoate (EM) were evaluated in the
      present study. SP and EM were microencapsulated using biodegradable poly-lactic
      acid (PLA) as the wall material. Their release from and degradation within the
      prepared SP and EM microspheres (SP-EM-microspheres) were studied. It was found
      that the encapsulation significantly prolonged the insecticide release. The
      release could be further extended if the external aqueous phase was pre-saturated
      with the insecticides and the microspheres were additionally coated with gelatin.
      On the other hand, increasing the water content of the emulsion or the
      hydrophilic polycaprolactone (PCL) content in the PLA/PCL mixture accelerated the
      release. Due to the photolysis and hydrolysis of SP and EM by sunlight, the
      toxicity of the non-encapsulated insecticides in water declined continuously from
      0 through the 9th day (d), and dissipated in 13 d. In contrast, an aqueous
      suspension containing 5% SP-EM-microspheres maintained a mostly constant toxicity
      to Plutella xylostella for 17 d. The biodegradable SP-EM-microspheres showed
      significantly higher long-term toxicity to P. xylostella due to lower release,
      reduced photolysis and hydrolysis of the encapsulated insecticides, which were
      affected by the varied preparation conditions.

PMID- 28883454
TI  - Structural basis for functional selectivity and ligand recognition revealed by
      crystal structures of human secreted phospholipase A2 group IIE.
AB  - Secreted phospholipases A2s (sPLA2s) are involved in various pathological
      conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular disease. Many
      inhibitors were developed and studied in clinical trials, but none have reached
      the market yet. This failure may be attributed to the lack of subtype selectivity
      for these inhibitors. Therefore, more structural information for subtype sPLA2 is
      needed to guide the selective inhibitor development. In this study, the crystal
      structure of human sPLA2 Group IIE (hGIIE), coupled with mutagenesis experiments,
      proved that the flexible second calcium binding site and residue Asn21 in hGIIE
      are essential to its enzymatic activity. Five inhibitor bound hGIIE complex
      structures revealed the key residues (Asn21 and Gly6) of hGIIE that are
      responsible for interacting with inhibitors, and illustrated the difference in
      the inhibitor binding pocket with other sPLA2s. This will facilitate the
      structure-based design of sPLA2's selective inhibitors.

PMID- 28883455
TI  - Sensory cue-combination in the context of newly learned categories.
AB  - A large body of prior research has evaluated how humans combine multiple sources
      of information pertaining to stimuli drawn from continuous dimensions, such as
      distance or size. These prior studies have repeatedly demonstrated that in these
      circumstances humans integrate cues in a near-optimal fashion, weighting cues
      according to their reliability. However, most of our interactions with sensory
      information are in the context of categories such as objects and phonemes,
      thereby requiring a solution to the cue combination problem by mapping sensory
      estimates from continuous dimensions onto task-relevant categories. Previous
      studies have examined cue combination with natural categories (e.g., phonemes),
      providing qualitative evidence that human observers utilize information about the
      distributional properties of task-relevant categories, in addition to sensory
      information, in such categorical cue combination tasks. In the present study, we
      created and taught human participants novel audiovisual categories, thus allowing
      us to quantitatively evaluate participants' integration of sensory and
      categorical information. Comparing participant behavior to the predictions of a
      statistically optimal observer that ideally combines all available sources of
      information, we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that human
      observers combine sensory and category information in a statistically optimal
      manner.

PMID- 28883453
TI  - beta-catenin, Twist and Snail: Transcriptional regulation of EMT in smokers and
      COPD, and relation to airflow obstruction.
AB  - COPD is characterised by poorly reversible airflow obstruction usually due to
      cigarette smoking. The transcription factor clusters of beta-catenin/Snail1/Twist
      has been implicated in the process of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), an
      intermediate between smoking and airway fibrosis, and indeed lung cancer. We have
      investigated expression of these transcription factors and their "cellular
      localization" in bronchoscopic airway biopsies from patients with COPD, and in
      smoking and non-smoking controls. An immune-histochemical study compared cellular
      protein expression of beta-catenin, Snail1 and Twist, in these subject groups in
      3 large airways compartment: epithelium (basal region), reticular basement
      membrane (Rbm) and underlying lamina propria (LP). beta-catenin and Snail1
      expression was generally high in all subjects throughout the airway wall with
      marked cytoplasmic to nuclear shift in COPD (P < 0.01). Twist expression was
      generalised in the epithelium in normal but become more basal and nuclear with
      smoking (P < 0.05). In addition, beta-catenin and Snail1 expression, and to
      lesser extent of Twist, was related to airflow obstruction and to expression of a
      canonical EMT biomarker (S100A4). The beta-catenin-Snail1-Twist transcription
      factor cluster is up-regulated and nuclear translocated in smokers and COPD, and
      their expression is closely related to both EMT activity and airway obstruction.

PMID- 28883456
TI  - Knowledge diffusion of dynamical network in terms of interaction frequency.
AB  - In this paper, we present a knowledge diffusion (SKD) model for dynamic networks
      by taking into account the interaction frequency which always used to measure the
      social closeness. A set of agents, which are initially interconnected to form a
      random network, either exchange knowledge with their neighbors or move toward a
      new location through an edge-rewiring procedure. The activity of knowledge
      exchange between agents is determined by a knowledge transfer rule that the
      target node would preferentially select one neighbor node to transfer knowledge
      with probability p according to their interaction frequency instead of the
      knowledge distance, otherwise, the target node would build a new link with its
      second-order neighbor preferentially or select one node in the system randomly
      with probability 1 - p. The simulation results show that, comparing with the Null
      model defined by the random selection mechanism and the traditional knowledge
      diffusion (TKD) model driven by knowledge distance, the knowledge would spread
      more fast based on SKD driven by interaction frequency. In particular, the
      network structure of SKD would evolve as an assortative one, which is a
      fundamental feature of social networks. This work would be helpful for deeply
      understanding the coevolution of the knowledge diffusion and network structure.

PMID- 28883457
TI  - QTL mapping using an ultra-high-density SNP map reveals a major locus for grain
      yield in an elite rice restorer R998.
AB  - To dissect the genetic basis of yield formation in restorer line of hybrid rice,
      we conducted QTL analysis for 6 yield traits including panicles per plant (PPP),
      grains per panicle (GPP), grain yield per plant (GY), thousand-grain weight
      (TGW), above-ground biomass (AGB), and harvest index (HI) using SNP markers in a
      recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population derived from a cross between a
      tropical japonica inbred Francis and an elite indica restorer Guanghui 998
      (R998). A total of 26 QTLs were detected using a high density genetic map
      consisting of 3016 bin markers. Nineteen out of the 26 QTL alleles from R998 had
      a beneficial effect on yield traits. Most of the QTLs were co-located with
      previously reported rice QTLs. qAGB6 and qHI9, controlling AGB and HI
      respectively, were detected as novel QTLs. Four QTLs for GY were repeatedly
      detected across two years, with all the beneficial alleles from R998. Notably,
      qGY8 explained over 20% of the yield variance in both years. Moreover, qGY8
      together with qTGW8 and qHI8 formed a QTL cluster. Markers tightly linked with
      qGY8 were developed. Cloning of qGY8 will facilitate its further exploitation in
      high-yield breeding.

PMID- 28883459
TI  - Pedestrian collective motion in competitive room evacuation.
AB  - When a sizable number of people evacuate a room, if the door is not large enough,
      an accumulation of pedestrians in front of the exit may take place. This is the
      cause of emerging collective phenomena where the density is believed to be the
      key variable determining the pedestrian dynamics. Here, we show that when
      sustained contact among the individuals exists, density is not enough to describe
      the evacuation, and propose that at least another variable -such as the kinetic
      stress- is required. We recorded evacuation drills with different degrees of
      competitiveness where the individuals are allowed to moderately push each other
      in their way out. We obtain the density, velocity and kinetic stress fields over
      time, showing that competitiveness strongly affects them and evidencing patterns
      which have been never observed in previous (low pressure) evacuation experiments.
      For the highest competitiveness scenario, we detect the development of sudden
      collective motions. These movements are related to a notable increase of the
      kinetic stress and a reduction of the velocity towards the door, but do not
      depend on the density.

PMID- 28883458
TI  - Genetic correlations reveal the shared genetic architecture of transcription in
      human peripheral blood.
AB  - Transcript co-expression is regulated by a combination of shared genetic and
      environmental factors. Here, we estimate the proportion of co-expression that is
      due to shared genetic variance. To do so, we estimated the genetic correlations
      between each pairwise combination of 2469 transcripts that are highly heritable
      and expressed in whole blood in 1748 unrelated individuals of European ancestry.
      We identify 556 pairs with a significant genetic correlation of which 77% are
      located on different chromosomes, and report 934 expression quantitative trait
      loci, identified in an independent cohort, with significant effects on both
      transcripts in a genetically correlated pair. We show significant enrichment for
      transcription factor control and physical proximity through chromatin
      interactions as possible mechanisms of shared genetic control. Finally, we
      construct networks of interconnected transcripts and identify their underlying
      biological functions. Using genetic correlations to investigate transcriptional
      co-regulation provides valuable insight into the nature of the underlying genetic
      architecture of gene regulation.Covariance of gene expression pairs is due to a
      combination of shared genetic and environmental factors. Here the authors
      estimate the genetic correlation between highly heritable pairs and identify
      transcription factor control and chromatin interactions as possible mechanisms of
      correlation.

PMID- 28883460
TI  - Gender-based differences in host behavior and gut microbiota composition in
      response to high fat diet and stress in a mouse model.
AB  - Obesity is associated with a high prevalence of mood disorders such as anxiety
      and depression. Both stress and high fat diet can alter the gut microbiota and
      contribute to obesity. To examine the interrelationships between obesity, stress,
      gut microbiota and mood disorders, obesity was induced in mice using a high fat
      diet, and the mice were subsequently stressed using a chronic unpredictable mild
      stress protocol. During the experiment, the composition of the gut microbiota was
      analyzed by 16 S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing, and anxiety-like behaviors
      were measured. The results revealed distinct gender differences in the impacts of
      obesity and stress on anxiety-like behaviors, activity levels, and composition of
      the gut microbiota. Male mice were more vulnerable to the anxiogenic effects of
      the high fat diet, and obese male mice showed decreased locomotion activity in
      response to stress whereas obese female mice did not. In females, stress caused
      the gut microbiota of lean mice to more closely resemble that of obese mice.
      Taken together, these results suggest the importance of considering gender as a
      biological variable in studies on the role of gut microbiota in obesity-related
      mood disorders.

PMID- 28883461
TI  - Stacking-fault strengthening of biomedical Co-Cr-Mo alloy via multipass
      thermomechanical processing.
AB  - The strengthening of metallic biomaterials, such as Co-Cr-Mo and titanium alloys,
      is of crucial importance to the improvement of the durability of orthopedic
      implants. In the present study, we successfully developed a face-centered cubic
      (fcc) Co-Cr-Mo alloy with an extremely high yield strength (1400 MPa) and good
      ductility (12%) by multipass hot-rolling, which is suitable for industrial
      production, and examined the relevant strengthening mechanisms. Using an X-ray
      diffraction line-profile analysis, we revealed that a substantial increase in the
      number of stacking faults (SFs) in the fcc gamma-matrix occurred at a greater
      height reduction (r), while physical modeling demonstrated that the contribution
      of the accumulated SFs (i.e., the reduction in SF spacing) with an increase in r
      successfully explains the entire strengthening behavior of the hot-rolled alloy.
      The present study sheds light on the importance of the SF strengthening
      mechanism, and will help to guide the design and manufacturing strategy for the
      high-strength Co-Cr-Mo alloys used in highly durable medical devices.

PMID- 28883462
TI  - Mapping a Type-specific Epitope by Monoclonal Antibody against VP3 Protein of
      Duck Hepatitis A Type 1 Virus.
AB  - Duck hepatitis A subtype 1 virus (DHAV-1) infection causes high mortality in
      ducklings, resulting in significant losses to duck industries. VP3 is a
      structural protein of DHAV-1. However, B-cell epitopes on VP3 have not been
      investigated. To stimulate VP3 antibody response, eukaryotic expression plasmid
      pCI-neo-VP3 was constructed and used as DNA immunogen to prepare mAbs. Western
      blot showed that 25.5 kDa VP3 could be detected by mAbs in duck embryo fibroblast
      (DEF) cells transfected with pCI-neo-VP3. Immunofluorescence assay showed that
      mAbs could specifically bind to DEF cells infected with DHAV-1. DAPI staining
      indicated that VP3 localizes to the cytoplasm and nucleus of DHAV-1 infected DEF.
      With neutralizing mAb 3B7, minimal epitope PSNI was mapped. Sequence alignment
      indicated that 205PSNI208 is highly conserved among DHAV-1, but different from
      those of DHAV-2 and DHAV-3. Epitope peptide reacted specifically with DHAV-1
      positive duck sera by dot blotting, revealing PSNI is DHAV-1 type-specific
      epitope and the importance of these amino acids in antibody-epitope binding
      reactivity. These findings provided useful information for understanding the
      antigenicity of VP3 and might be valuable in the development of epitope-based
      vaccine or diagnostic kit for DHAV-1 infection and provide insights for
      understanding the pathogenesis of DHAV-1.

PMID- 28883463
TI  - Reovirus inhibits interferon production by sequestering IRF3 into viral
      factories.
AB  - Upon viral infection, an arms-race between the cellular intrinsic innate immune
      system and viral replication is established. To win this race, viruses have
      established multiple strategies to inhibit the cellular response. Mammalian
      reovirus (MRV) constitutes a great model to study pathogenesis and life cycle of
      dsRNA viruses. It replicates in the cytosol of infected cells by forming viral
      induced-replication compartments, or viral factories. Little is known about the
      strategy used by MRV to evade the cellular intrinsic immune system. In this
      study, we unraveled that MRV induces a replication-dependent global reduction in
      interferon-mediated antiviral immune response. We determined that although MRV
      leads to the activation and phosphorylation of interferon regulatory factor 3
      (IRF3), the nuclear translocation of IRF3 was impaired in infected cells.
      Additionally, we showed that MRV does not degrade IRF3 but sequesters it in
      cytoplasmic viral factories. We demonstrate that the viral factory matrix protein
      MUNS is solely responsible for the sequestration of IRF3. This finding highlights
      novel mechanisms used by MRV to interfere with the intrinsic immune system and
      places the viral factories as not only a replication compartment but as an active
      strategy participating in immune evasion.

PMID- 28883464
TI  - Characterizing the virome of Ixodes ricinus ticks from northern Europe.
AB  - RNA viruses are abundant infectious agents and present in all domains of life.
      Arthropods, including ticks, are well known as vectors of many viruses of concern
      for human and animal health. Despite their obvious importance, the extent and
      structure of viral diversity in ticks is still poorly understood, particularly in
      Europe. Using a bulk RNA-sequencing approach that captures the complete
      transcriptome, we analysed the virome of the most common tick in Europe - Ixodes
      ricinus. In total, RNA sequencing was performed on six libraries consisting of 33
      I. ricinus nymphs and adults sampled in Norway. Despite the small number of
      animals surveyed, our virus identification pipeline revealed nine diverse and
      novel viral species, phylogenetically positioned within four different viral
      groups - bunyaviruses, luteoviruses, mononegavirales and partitiviruses - and
      sometimes characterized by extensive genetic diversity including a potentially
      novel genus of bunyaviruses. This work sheds new light on the virus diversity in
      I. ricinus, expands our knowledge of potential host/vector-associations and tick
      transmitted viruses within several viral groups, and pushes the latitudinal limit
      where it is likely to find tick-associated viruses. Notably, our phylogenetic
      analysis revealed the presence of tick-specific virus clades that span multiple
      continents, highlighting the role of ticks as important virus reservoirs.

PMID- 28883465
TI  - The Oceanic Biological Pump: Rapid carbon transfer to depth at Continental
      Margins during Winter.
AB  - The oceanic biological pump is responsible for the important transfer of CO2-C as
      POC "Particulate Organic Carbon" to the deep sea. It plays a decisive role in the
      Earth's carbon cycle and significant effort is spent to quantify its strength. In
      this study we used synchronized daily time-series data of surface chlorophyll-a
      concentrations from the NASA's MODIS satellite in combination with hourly to
      daily observations from sea surface buoys and from an Internet Operated Vehicle
      (IOV) on the seafloor within Barkley Canyon (Northeast Pacific) to investigate
      the importance of winter processes in the export of fresh phytodetritus. The
      results indicate that phytoplankton pulses during winter can be as important in
      POC transfer to depth as the pulses associated with spring and summer blooms.
      Short winter phytoplankton pulses were observed to disappear from surface waters
      after low-pressure systems affected the area. Pulses of chlorophyll reached the
      IOV, at 870 m depth on the canyon seafloor, 12-72 hours later. These observed
      short pulses of biological carbon production regularly observed in the region
      from December to March have not been considered a significant component of the
      biological pump when compared with the denser summer productivity blooms.

PMID- 28883466
TI  - Multiscale cytometry and regulation of 3D cell cultures on a chip.
AB  - Three-dimensional cell culture is emerging as a more relevant alternative to the
      traditional two-dimensional format. Yet the ability to perform cytometry at the
      single cell level on intact three-dimensional spheroids or together with temporal
      regulation of the cell microenvironment remains limited. Here we describe a
      microfluidic platform to perform high-density three-dimensional culture,
      controlled stimulation, and observation in a single chip. The method extends the
      capabilities of droplet microfluidics for performing long-term culture of
      adherent cells. Using arrays of 500 spheroids per chip, in situ
      immunocytochemistry and image analysis provide multiscale cytometry that we
      demonstrate at the population scale, on 104 single spheroids, and over 105 single
      cells, correlating functionality with cellular location within the spheroids.
      Also, an individual spheroid can be extracted for further analysis or culturing.
      This will enable a shift towards quantitative studies on three-dimensional
      cultures, under dynamic conditions, with implications for stem cells, organs-on
      chips, or cancer research.3D cell culture is more relevant than the two
      dimensional format, but methods for parallel analysis and temporal regulation of
      the microenvironment are limited. Here the authors develop a droplet
      microfluidics system to perform long-term culture of 3D spheroids, enabling
      multiscale cytometry of individual cells within the spheroid.

PMID- 28883467
TI  - Tanycytes control the hormonal output of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis.
AB  - The hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis maintains circulating thyroid
      hormone levels in a narrow physiological range. As axons containing thyrotropin
      releasing hormone (TRH) terminate on hypothalamic tanycytes, these specialized
      glial cells have been suggested to influence the activity of the HPT axis, but
      their exact role remained enigmatic. Here, we demonstrate that stimulation of the
      TRH receptor 1 increases intracellular calcium in tanycytes of the median
      eminence via Galphaq/11 proteins. Activation of Galphaq/11 pathways increases the
      size of tanycyte endfeet that shield pituitary vessels and induces the activity
      of the TRH-degrading ectoenzyme. Both mechanisms may limit the TRH release to the
      pituitary. Indeed, blocking TRH signaling in tanycytes by deleting Galphaq/11
      proteins in vivo enhances the response of the HPT axis to the chemogenetic
      activation of TRH neurons. In conclusion, we identify new TRH- and Galphaq/11
      dependent mechanisms in the median eminence by which tanycytes control the
      activity of the HPT axis.The hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis regulates
      a wide range of physiological processes. Here the authors show that hypothalamic
      tanycytes play a role in the homeostatic regulation of the HPT axis; activation
      of TRH signaling in tanycytes elevates their intracellular Ca2+ via Galphaq/11
      pathway, ultimately resulting in reduced TRH release into the pituitary vessels.

PMID- 28883468
TI  - Ezrin links CFTR to TLR4 signaling to orchestrate anti-bacterial immune response
      in macrophages.
AB  - Macrophages (MPhis) with mutations in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance
      regulator (CFTR) have blunted induction of PI3K/AKT signaling in response to TLR4
      activation, leading to hyperinflammation, a hallmark of cystic fibrosis (CF)
      disease. Here, we show that Ezrin links CFTR and TLR4 signaling, and is necessary
      for PI3K/AKT signaling induction in response to MPhi activation. Because PI3K/AKT
      signaling is critical for immune regulation, Ezrin-deficient MPhis are
      hyperinflammatory and have impaired Pseudomonas aeruginosa phagocytosis,
      phenocopying CF MPhis. Importantly, we show that activated CF MPhis have reduced
      protein levels and altered localization of the remaining Ezrin to filopodia that
      form during activation. In summary, we have described a direct link from CFTR to
      Ezrin to PI3K/AKT signaling that is disrupted in CF, and thus promotes hyper
      inflammation and weakens phagocytosis.

PMID- 28883469
TI  - Characteristics of newly diagnosed COPD patients treated with triple inhaled
      therapy by general practitioners: a real world Italian study.
AB  - : Factors predicting prescriptions of triple therapy were investigated in a large
      group of general practitioners in Italy. In the population treated by identified
      general practitioners, a cohort of newly diagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease patients was extracted from IMS Health Longitudinal Database during the
      period 2010-2013. From the diagnosis, 1-year follow-up was evaluated. Thirty-two
      thousand forty-six newly diagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients
      were evaluated (57.7% male, mean age 67 years). During 2 years prior to diagnosis
      less than 13% of patients were requested with a pulmonology evaluation and less
      than 5% with a spirometry; 65.1% cases were prescribed with a respiratory drug,
      which in 9.6% of cases was inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta2-agonist fixed
      dose combination. Two thousand and twenty eight patients (6.3% of the newly
      diagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients) were treated with
      triple therapy during the first year of follow-up, whose 858 (42.3%) starting
      immediately, and 762 (37.6%) following an initial treatment with inhaled
      corticosteroid/long-acting beta2-agonist fixed-dose combination. Being older,
      being requested with pulmonologist evaluation or spirometry, being prescribed
      with a inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta2-agonist fixed-dose combination at
      diagnosis resulted independent predictors of triple therapy use. CHRONIC LUNG
      DISEASE: ENSURING CORRECT PRESCRIPTIONS FOR EARLY-STAGE DISEASE: An improved
      education program for doctors promoting correct use of medication for chronic
      lung disease is needed in Italy. Current guidelines state that inhaled
      corticosteroids (ICSs) should be reserved for patients with severe chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but it appears that doctors do not always
      follow this advice. Fabiano Di Marco, at San Paolo Hospital-Universita degli
      Studi di Milano, and co-workers analyzed data from 32,046 COPD patients newly
      diagnosed by family doctors in Italy between 2010 and 2013. When the researchers
      followed up on patients after 1 year, 2028 (6.3%) of newly-diagnosed patients
      were being treated with triple inhaled therapy incorporating ICSs-42% of these
      patients had started triple therapy immediately upon diagnosis. Being an older
      male and having been prescribed with a ICS/LABA FDC at diagnosis were strong
      predictors of triple therapy use within 1 year from the diagnosis.

PMID- 28883470
TI  - Cytoglobin Promotes Cardiac Progenitor Cell Survival against Oxidative Stress via
      the Upregulation of the NFkappaB/iNOS Signal Pathway and Nitric Oxide Production.
AB  - Human cardiac stem/progenitor cells (hCPCs) may serve in regenerative medicine to
      repair the infarcted heart. However, this approach is severely limited by the
      poor survival of donor cells. Recent studies suggest that the mammalian globin
      cytoglobin (CYGB) regulates nitric oxide (NO) metabolism and cell death. In the
      present study, we found that CYGB is expressed in hCPCs. Through molecular
      approaches aimed at increasing or decreasing CYGB expression in hCPCs, we found
      that CYGB functions as a pro-survival factor in response to oxidative stress.
      This was associated with the upregulation of primary antioxidant systems such as
      peroxiredoxins-1, heme oxygenase-1, and anti-apoptotic factors, including BCL2,
      BCL-XL, and MCL1. Most significantly, we established that CYGB increased the
      expression of NFkB-dependent genes including iNOS, and that iNOS-dependent NO
      production was required for a feedforward loop that maintains CYGB expression.
      Our study delineates for the first time a role for a globin in regulating hCPC
      survival and establishes mechanistic insights in the function of CYGB. It
      provides a rationale for the exploration of the CYGB pathway as a molecular
      target that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of cardiac stem/progenitor
      cell therapy for ischemic heart disease.

PMID- 28883471
TI  - Potential Systematic Interception Errors are Avoided When Tracking the Target
      with One's Eyes.
AB  - Directing our gaze towards a moving target has two known advantages for judging
      its trajectory: the spatial resolution with which the target is seen is
      maximized, and signals related to the eyes' movements are combined with retinal
      cues to better judge the target's motion. We here explore whether tracking a
      target with one's eyes also prevents factors that are known to give rise to
      systematic errors in judging retinal speeds from resulting in systematic errors
      in interception. Subjects intercepted white or patterned disks that moved from
      left to right across a large screen at various constant velocities while either
      visually tracking the target or fixating the position at which they were required
      to intercept the target. We biased retinal motion perception by moving the
      pattern within the patterned targets. This manipulation led to large systematic
      errors in interception when subjects were fixating, but not when they were
      tracking the target. The reduction in the errors did not depend on how smoothly
      the eyes were tracking the target shortly before intercepting it. We propose that
      tracking targets with one's eyes when one wants to intercept them makes one less
      susceptible to biases in judging their motion.

PMID- 28883472
TI  - The Relationship between Hematological Indices and Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases
      (ARDs), a Meta-Analysis.
AB  - This meta-analysis was undertaken to investigate the relationship between
      hematological indices and autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs). PubMed, Embase,
      and Web of Science were searchedfor studies of ARDs and hematological indices.
      Standardized mean difference (SMD) was calculated with confidence interval (CI)
      of 95%. 18 studies were included in our meta-analysis. Compared to the healthy
      control group, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was increased in patients with
      ankylosing spongdylitis(AS), Behcet's disease(BD), andrheumatoid
      arthritis(RA)(SMD = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.47; SMD = 1.90; 95% CI: 0.13 to 3.67;
      SMD = 0.75; 95% CI: 0.23 to 1.28). Platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) was found
      increased in RA and SLE (SMD = 33.91; 95% CI: 20.50 to 47.32; SMD = 59.11; 95%
      CI: 4.46 to 113.76). Mean platelet volume (MPV)was irrelevant to BD and SLE by
      comparing with the healthy control group respectively. (SMD = 0.24; 95% CI: -0.49
      to 0.97; SMD = -0.15; 95% CI: -1.77 to 1.48). Red cell distribution width (RDW)
      was not related to AS (SMD = 0.59, 95% CI: -0.37, 1.55). Our findings indicated
      that NLR had a strong association with AS, BD, and RA. PLR was also related to RA
      and SLE. NLR and PLR could be recommended as inexpensive diagnostic biomarkers
      for ARDs.

PMID- 28883473
TI  - Identification of Aspergillus fumigatus UDP-Galactopyranose Mutase Inhibitors.
AB  - Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic human pathogen responsible for deadly,
      invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. The A. fumigatus cell wall is
      a complex network of polysaccharides among them galactofuran, which is absent in
      humans. UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM) catalyzes the conversion of UDP
      galactofuranose (UDP-Galf) to UDP-galactopyranose (UDP-Galp) and is an important
      virulence factor. UGM is a flavin-dependent enzyme that requires the reduced
      flavin for activity; flavin reduction is achieved by reaction with NADPH. The aim
      of this work was to discover inhibitors of UGM by targeting the NADPH binding
      site using an ADP-TAMRA probe in a high-throughput screening assay. The
      flavonoids (2S)-hesperetin and (2S)-naringenin were validated as competitive
      inhibitors of UGM against NADPH with Ki values of 6 uM and 74 uM, respectively.
      To gain insight into the active chemical substituents involved in the inhibition
      of UGM, several derivatives of these inhibitors were studied. The results show
      that the hydroxyl groups of (2S)-hesperetin are important for inhibition, in
      particular the phenyl-chroman moiety. Congo red susceptibility assay and growth
      temperature effects showed that these compounds affected cell wall biosynthesis
      in A. fumigatus. This work is the first report of inhibition studies on UGM from
      eukaryotic human pathogens.

PMID- 28883475
TI  - The Mobility Enhancement of Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Transistors via Low
      temperature Crystallization using a Tantalum Catalytic Layer.
AB  - High-mobility indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are
      achieved through low-temperature crystallization enabled via a reaction with a
      transition metal catalytic layer. For conventional amorphous IGZO TFTs, the
      active layer crystallizes at thermal annealing temperatures of 600  degrees C or
      higher, which is not suitable for displays using a glass substrate. The
      crystallization temperature is reduced when in contact with a Ta layer, where
      partial crystallization at the IGZO back-channel occurs with annealing at 300 
      degrees C, while complete crystallization of the active layer occurs at 400 
      degrees C. The field-effect mobility is significantly boosted to 54.0 cm2/V.s for
      the IGZO device with a metal-induced polycrystalline channel formed at 300 
      degrees C compared to 18.1 cm2/V.s for an amorphous IGZO TFT without a catalytic
      layer. This work proposes a facile and effective route to enhance device
      performance by crystallizing the IGZO layer with standard annealing temperatures,
      without the introduction of expensive laser irradiation processes.

PMID- 28883474
TI  - Plasma exosomal miR-223 expression regulates inflammatory responses during
      cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.
AB  - Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) induces inflammatory responses, and effective
      endogenous homeostasis is important for preventing systemic inflammation. We
      assessed whether plasma exosomal microRNAs in patients undergoing cardiac surgery
      with CPB are involved in the regulation of inflammatory responses. Plasma samples
      were isolated from CPB patients (n = 21) at 5 specified time points: pre-surgery,
      pre-CPB and 2 hours (h), 4 h and 24 h after CPB began. Plasma TNF-alpha
      expression was increased after CPB began compared to that in the pre-surgery
      samples. Plasma IL-8 and IL-6 expression peaked at 4 h after CPB began but was
      downregulated at 24 h. The number of plasma exosomes collected at 2 h (55.1 +/-
      8.3%), 4 h (63.8 +/- 10.1%) and 24 h (83.5 +/- 3.72%) after CPB began was
      significantly increased compared to that in the pre-CPB samples (42.8 +/- 0.11%).
      These exosomes had a predominantly parental cellular origin from RBCs and
      platelets. Additionally, the plasma exosomal miR-223 levels were significantly
      increased after CPB began compared to those in the pre-CPB samples. Further,
      exosomal miR-223 from plasma collected after CPB began downregulated IL-6 and
      NLRP3 expression in the monocytes. Here, we present the novel findings that
      increased plasma exosomal miR-223 expression during cardiac surgery with CPB
      might play homeostatic roles in downregulating inflammatory responses through
      intercellular communication.

PMID- 28883476
TI  - Measurement of gut permeability using fluorescent tracer agent technology.
AB  - The healthy gut restricts macromolecular and bacterial movement across tight
      junctions, while increased intestinal permeability accompanies many intestinal
      disorders. Dual sugar absorption tests, which measure intestinal permeability in
      humans, present challenges. Therefore, we asked if enterally administered
      fluorescent tracers could ascertain mucosal integrity, because transcutaneous
      measurement of differentially absorbed molecules could enable specimen-free
      evaluation of permeability. We induced small bowel injury in rats using high- (15
      mg/kg), intermediate- (10 mg/kg), and low- (5 mg/kg) dose indomethacin. Then, we
      compared urinary ratios of enterally administered fluorescent tracers MB-402 and
      MB-301 to urinary ratios of sugar tracers lactulose and rhamnose. We also tested
      the ability of transcutaneous sensors to measure the ratios of absorbed
      fluorophores. Urinary fluorophore and sugar ratios reflect gut injury in an
      indomethacin dose dependent manner. The fluorophores generated smooth curvilinear
      ratio trajectories with wide dynamic ranges. The more chaotic sugar ratios had
      narrower dynamic ranges. Fluorophore ratios measured through the skin
      distinguished indomethacin-challenged from same day control rats. Enterally
      administered fluorophores can identify intestinal injury in a rat model.
      Fluorophore ratios are measureable through the skin, obviating drawbacks of dual
      sugar absorption tests. Pending validation, this technology should be considered
      for human use.

PMID- 28883477
TI  - The Strong Cell-based Hydrogen Peroxide Generation Triggered by Cold Atmospheric
      Plasma.
AB  - Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important signaling molecule in cancer cells.
      However, the significant secretion of H2O2 by cancer cells have been rarely
      observed. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a near room temperature ionized gas
      composed of neutral particles, charged particles, reactive species, and
      electrons. Here, we first demonstrated that breast cancer cells and pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma cells generated micromolar level H2O2 during just 1 min of direct
      CAP treatment on these cells. The cell-based H2O2 generation is affected by the
      medium volume, the cell confluence, as well as the discharge voltage. The
      application of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) in cancer treatment has been
      intensively investigated over the past decade. Several cellular responses to CAP
      treatment have been observed including the consumption of the CAP-originated
      reactive species, the rise of intracellular reactive oxygen species, the damage
      on DNA and mitochondria, as well as the activation of apoptotic events. This is a
      new previously unknown cellular response to CAP, which provides a new prospective
      to understand the interaction between CAP and cells in vitro and in vivo. The
      short-lived reactive species in CAP may activate cells in vivo to generate long
      lived reactive species such as H2O2, which may trigger immune attack on tumorous
      tissues via the H2O2-mediated lymphocyte activation.

PMID- 28883478
TI  - Dissection of iron signaling and iron accumulation by overexpression of subgroup
      Ib bHLH039 protein.
AB  - Iron is an essential growth determinant for plants, and plants acquire this
      micronutrient in amounts they need in their environment. Plants can increase iron
      uptake in response to a regulatory transcription factor cascade. Arabidopsis
      thaliana serves as model plant to identify and characterize iron regulation
      genes. Here, we show that overexpression of subgroup Ib bHLH transcription factor
      bHLH039 (39Ox) caused constitutive iron acquisition responses, which resulted in
      enhanced iron contents in leaves and seeds. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated
      that 39Ox plants displayed simultaneously gene expression patterns characteristic
      of iron deficiency and iron stress signaling. Thereby, we could dissect iron
      deficiency response regulation. The transcription factor FIT, which is required
      to regulate iron uptake, was essential for the 39Ox phenotype. We provide
      evidence that subgroup Ib transcription factors are involved in FIT
      transcriptional regulation. Our findings pose interesting questions to the
      feedback control of iron homeostasis.

PMID- 28883479
TI  - Refractive index engineering through swift heavy ion irradiation of LiNbO3
      crystal towards improved light guidance.
AB  - Swift heavy ion irradiation has been widely used to modify refractive indices of
      optical materials for waveguide fabrication. In this work, we propose refractive
      index engineering by swift heavy ion (Ar) irradiation via electronic energy
      deposition to construct waveguides of diverse geometries in LiNbO3 crystal. The
      feasibility to modulate the refractive index of LiNbO3 crystal at variable depths
      through electronic energy depositions of argon ions at different energies has
      been experimentally explored. The surface and cladding-like optical waveguides
      with thicknesses of ~13, ~36 and ~23 MUm have been produced by using swift Ar ion
      irradiation at single energy of ~120, ~240, and double energy of (120 + 240) MeV,
      respectively. The fabricated waveguides are capable of effective waveguiding in
      single and multiple modes at 1064 nm, which enables efficient guided-wave second
      harmonic generation at room temperature. This work paves the way to produce
      waveguides with diverse geometries in dielectric crystals through electronic
      damage of multiple swift heavy ion irradiation.

PMID- 28883480
TI  - Genome-wide identification and co-expression network analysis provide insights
      into the roles of auxin response factor gene family in chickpea.
AB  - Auxin response factors (ARFs) are the transcription factors that regulate auxin
      responses in various aspects of plant growth and development. Although genome
      wide analysis of ARF gene family has been done in some species, no information is
      available regarding ARF genes in chickpea. In this study, we identified 28 ARF
      genes (CaARF) in the chickpea genome. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that CaARFs
      can be divided into four different groups. Duplication analysis revealed that 50%
      of CaARF genes arose from duplication events. We analyzed expression pattern of
      CaARFs in various developmental stages. CaARF16.3, CaARF17.1 and CaARF17.2 showed
      highest expression at initial stages of flower bud development, while CaARF6.2
      had higher expression at later stages of flower development. Further, CaARF4.2,
      CaARF9.2, CaARF16.2 and CaARF7.1 exhibited differential expression under
      different abiotic stress conditions, suggesting their role in abiotic stress
      responses. Co-expression network analysis among CaARF, CaIAA and CaGH3 genes
      enabled us to recognize components involved in the regulatory network associated
      with CaARFs. Further, we identified microRNAs that target CaARFs and TAS3 locus
      that trigger production of trans-acting siRNAs targeting CaARFs. The analyses
      presented here provide comprehensive information on ARF family members and will
      help in elucidating their exact function in chickpea.

PMID- 28883481
TI  - Early X chromosome inactivation during human preimplantation development revealed
      by single-cell RNA-sequencing.
AB  - In female mammals, one X chromosome is transcriptionally inactivated (XCI),
      leading to dosage compensation between sexes, fundamental for embryo viability. A
      previous study using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data proposed that
      female human preimplantation embryos achieve dosage compensation by
      downregulating both Xs, a phenomenon named dampening of X expression. Using a
      novel pipeline on those data, we identified a decrease in the proportion of
      biallelically expressed X-linked genes during development, consistent with XCI.
      Moreover, we show that while the expression sum of biallelically expressed X
      linked genes decreases with embryonic development, their median expression
      remains constant, rejecting the hypothesis of X dampening. In addition, analyses
      of a different dataset of scRNA-seq suggest the appearance of X-linked
      monoallelic expression by the late blastocyst stage in females, another hallmark
      of initiation of XCI. Finally, we addressed the issue of dosage compensation
      between the single active X and autosomes in males and females for the first time
      during human preimplantation development, showing emergence of X to autosome
      dosage compensation by the upregulation of the active X chromosome in both male
      and female embryonic stem cells. Our results show compelling evidence of an early
      process of X chromosome inactivation during human preimplantation development.

PMID- 28883482
TI  - Low body surface area predicts hepatotoxicity of nintedanib in patients with
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - After the commercialization of nintedanib in Japan, a high incidence of
      hepatotoxicity resulting in treatment interruption was noted in idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients treated with nintedanib in our hospital. This
      study aimed to clarify the risk factors for hepatotoxicity of nintedanib. Sixty
      eight consecutive cases of IPF newly treated with nintedanib at a dose of 150 mg
      twice daily from September 2015 to September 2016 were enrolled: 46 patients
      (67.6%) exhibited aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and/or alanine
      aminotransferase (ALT) elevation and 16 patients (23.5%) also had a Common
      Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) grade >=2. Body surface area
      (BSA) was significantly lower in the CTCAE grade >=2 group than in another group.
      A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the association between
      BSA and AST/ALT elevation with CTCAE grade >=2 was statistically significant.
      Eight of 10 patients who resumed nintedanib at a reduced dose of 100 mg twice
      daily after interruption due to hepatotoxicity did not again develop AST/ALT
      elevation. In conclusion, a low BSA was associated with hepatotoxicity of
      nintedanib at a dose of 150 mg twice daily. It would be a good option for
      patients with a small physique to start nintedanib at a dose of 100 mg twice
      daily and then increase if possible after confirming its safety.

PMID- 28883484
TI  - Astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in grey and white matter regions of the brain
      metabolize fatty acids.
AB  - The grey and white matter regions of the mammalian brain consist of both neurons
      and neuroglial cells. Among the neuroglia, the two macroglia oligodendrocytes and
      astrocytes are the most abundant cell types. While the major function of
      oligodendrocytes is the formation of the lipid-rich myelin structure, the
      heterogeneous group of astrocytes fulfils a multitude of important roles in
      cerebral development and homeostasis. Brain lipid homeostasis involves the
      synthesis of a specific cerebral lipidome by local lipid metabolism. In this
      study we have investigated the fatty acid uptake and lipid biosynthesis in grey
      and white matter regions of the murine brain. Key findings were: (i) white matter
      oligodendrocytes and astrocytes take up saturated and unsaturated fatty acids,
      (ii) different grey matter regions show varying lipid labelling intensities,
      (iii) the medial habenula, an epithalamic grey matter structure, and the
      oligodendrocytes and astrocytes therein are targeted by fatty acids, and (iv) in
      the medial habenula, the neutral lipid containing lipid droplets are found in
      cells facing the ventricle but undetectable in the habenular parenchyma. Our data
      indicate a role for oligodendrocytes and astrocytes in local lipid metabolism of
      white and grey matter regions in the brain.

PMID- 28883483
TI  - SERPINB2 is a novel TGFbeta-responsive lineage fate determinant of human bone
      marrow stromal cells.
AB  - TGF-beta1, a multifunctional regulator of cell growth and differentiation, is the
      most abundant bone matrix growth factor. During differentiation of human bone
      stromal cells (hBMSCs), which constitute bone marrow osteoblast (OS) and
      adipocyte (AD) progenitor cells, continuous TGF-beta1 (10 ng/ml) treatment
      enhanced OS differentiation as evidenced by increased mineralised matrix
      production. Conversely, pulsed TGF-beta1 administration during the commitment
      phase increased mature lipid-filled adipocyte numbers. Global gene expression
      analysis using DNA microarrays in hBMSCs treated with TGF-beta1 identified 1587
      up- and 1716 down-regulated genes in OS-induced, TGF-beta1-treated compared to OS
      induced hBMSCs (2.0 fold change (FC), p < 0.05). Gene ontology (GO) analysis
      revealed enrichment in 'osteoblast differentiation' and 'skeletal system
      development-associated' genes and up-regulation of several genes involved in
      'osteoblastic-differentiation related signalling pathways'. In AD-induced, TGF
      beta1-treated compared to AD-induced hBMSCs, we identified 323 up- and 369 down
      regulated genes (2.0 FC, p < 0.05) associated with 'fat cell differentiation',
      'fatty acid derivative biosynthesis process', 'fatty acid derivative metabolic
      process', and 'inositol lipid-mediated'. Serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade B
      (ovalbumin), member 2 (SERPINB2) was down-regulated 3-fold in TGF-beta1-treated
      hBMSCs. siRNA-mediated SERPINB2 inhibition enhanced OS and AD differentiation.
      Thus, TGF-beta signalling is important for hBMSC OS and AD differentiation and
      SERPINB2 is a TGF-beta-responsive gene that plays a negative regulatory role in
      hBMSC differentiation.

PMID- 28883485
TI  - FLO5 gene controls flocculation phenotype and adhesive properties in a
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae sparkling wine strain.
AB  - Flocculation is an important feature for yeast survival in adverse conditions.
      The natural diversity of flocculating genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae can also
      be exploited in several biotechnological applications. Flocculation is mainly
      regulated by the expression of genes belonging to the FLO family. These genes
      have a similar function, but their specific contribution to flocculation ability
      is still unclear. In this study, the distribution of FLO1, FLO5 and FLO8 genes in
      four S. cerevisiae wine strains was investigated. Subsequently, both FLO1 and
      FLO5 genes were separately deleted in a flocculent S. cerevisiae wine strain.
      After gene disruption, flocculation ability and agar adhesion were evaluated.
      FLO1 and FLO5 genes inheritance was also monitored. All strains presented
      different lengths for FLO1 and FLO5 genes. Results confirm that in S. cerevisiae
      strain F6789, the FLO5 gene drives flocculation and influences adhesive
      properties. Flocculation ability monitoring after a cross with a non-flocculent
      strain revealed that FLO5 is the gene responsible for flocculation development.

PMID- 28883486
TI  - Conditions for Eltonian Pyramids in Lotka-Volterra Food Chains.
AB  - In ecological communities consumers (excluding parasites and parasitoids) are in
      general larger and less numerous than their resource. This results in a well
      known observation known as 'Eltonian pyramids' or the 'pyramid of numbers', and
      metabolic arguments suggest that this pattern is independent of the number of
      trophic levels in a system. At the same time, Lotka-Volterra (LV) consumer
      resource models are a frequently used tool to study many questions in community
      ecology, but their capacity to produce Eltonian pyramids has not been formally
      analysed. Here, I address this knowledge gap by investigating if and when LV food
      chain models give rise to Eltonian pyramids. I show that Eltonian pyramids are
      difficult to reproduce without density-dependent mortality in the consumers,
      unless biologically plausible relationships between mortality rate and
      interaction strength are taken into account.

PMID- 28883487
TI  - Reconciling the opposing effects of warming on phytoplankton biomass in 188 large
      lakes.
AB  - Lake ecosystems are deeply integrated into local and regional economies through
      recreation, tourism, and as sources of food and drinking water. Shifts in lake
      phytoplankton biomass, which are mediated by climate warming will alter these
      benefits with potential cascading effects on human well-being. The metabolic
      theory of ecology suggests that warming reduces lake phytoplankton biomass as
      basal metabolic costs increase, but this hypothesis has not been tested at the
      global scale. We use satellite-based estimates of lake surface temperature (LST)
      and lake surface chlorophyll-a concentration (chl-a; as a proxy for phytoplankton
      biomass) in 188 of the world's largest lakes from 2002-2016 to test for
      interannual associations between chl-a and LST. In contrast to predictions from
      metabolic ecology, we found that LST and chl-a were positively correlated in 46%
      of lakes (p < 0.05). The associations between LST and chl-a depended on lake
      trophic state; warming tended to increase chl-a in phytoplankton-rich lakes and
      decrease chl-a in phytoplankton-poor lakes. We attribute the opposing responses
      of chl-a to LST to the effects of temperature on trophic interactions, and the
      availability of resources to phytoplankton. These patterns provide insights into
      how climate warming alters lake ecosystems on which millions of people depend for
      their livelihoods.

PMID- 28883488
TI  - Integrated Method to Attach DNA Handles and Functionally Select Proteins to Study
      Folding and Protein-Ligand Interactions with Optical Tweezers.
AB  - Optical tweezers has emerged as a powerful tool to study folding, ligand binding,
      and motor enzymes. The manipulation of proteins with optical tweezers requires
      attaching molecular handles to the protein of interest. Here, we describe a novel
      method that integrates the covalent attachment of DNA handles to target proteins
      with a selection step for functional and properly folded molecules. In addition,
      this method enables obtaining protein molecules in different liganded states and
      can be used with handles of different lengths. We apply this method to study the
      cAMP binding domain A (CBD-A) of Protein kinase A. We find that the functional
      selection step drastically improves the reproducibility and homogeneity of the
      single molecule data. In contrast, without a functional selection step, proteins
      often display misfolded conformations. cAMP binding stabilizes the CBD-A against
      a denaturing force, and increases the folded state lifetime. Data obtained with
      handles of 370 and 70 base pairs are indistinguishable, but at low forces short
      handles provide a higher spatial resolution. Altogether, this method is flexible,
      selects for properly folded molecules in different liganded states, and can be
      readily applicable to study protein folding or protein-ligand interactions with
      force spectroscopy that require molecular handles.

PMID- 28883489
TI  - Sliding friction of graphene/hexagonal -boron nitride heterojunctions: a route to
      robust superlubricity.
AB  - The origin of ultra-low friction exhibited by heterogeneous junctions of graphene
      and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is revealed. For aligned interfaces, we
      identify a characteristic contact size, below which the junction behaves like its
      homogeneous counterparts with friction forces that grow linearly with the contact
      area. Superlubricity sets in due to the progressive appearance of Moire patterns
      resulting in a collective stick-slip motion of the elevated super-structure
      ridges that turns into smooth soliton-like gliding with increasing contact size.
      Incommensurability effects are enhanced in misaligned contacts, where the
      friction coefficients further drop by orders of magnitude. Our fully atomistic
      simulations show that the superlubric regime in graphene/h-BN heterostructures
      persists up to significantly higher loads compared to the well-studied twisted
      homogeneous graphene interface. This indicates the potential of achieving robust
      superlubricity in practical applications using two-dimensional layered materials
      heterojunctions.

PMID- 28883490
TI  - In vitro exposure of simulated meat-cooking fumes to assess adverse biological
      effects.
AB  - The heterocyclic amine 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) is
      considered as a human carcinogenic or mutagenic compound that is produced from
      the co-condensation of creatinine and amino acids as meats cook at high
      temperatures. The cooking of meats at high temperatures produces fumes, and these
      fumes can be suspended as aerosols via the vapor-to-particle (or -droplet)
      process in a temperature gradient field. Size distributions of the aerosols
      included a significant portion of nano- and submicron-sized particles, and these
      can be directly deposited in the lungs and on skin by particle transport
      phenomena near cooking areas. In this study, for the first time, PhIP
      incorporated oleic acid (OA, simulating cooking oil) (PhIP@OA) particles,
      including individual particulate PhIP as simulated fumes from meat cooking, were
      constantly produced via collison atomization and subsequent drying processes. The
      aerosol particles were then dispersed in phosphate-buffered saline for
      cytotoxicity and senescence-associated beta-galactosidase assays, which were
      compared with dissolved PhIP in dimethyl sulfoxide. PhIP and PhIP@OA did not show
      significant cytotoxic effects on SHSY5Y, MRC5, and human dermal fibroblast cells
      compared with the dissolved PhIP but clearly induced premature senescence
      activities that may be caused by a limited release of PhIP molecules from the
      particulate PhIP.

PMID- 28883491
TI  - Lateral movements of a massive tail influence gecko locomotion: an integrative
      study comparing tail restriction and autotomy.
AB  - Tails are an intricate component of the locomotor system for many vertebrates.
      Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) possess a large tail that is laterally
      undulated during steady locomotion. However, the tail is readily shed via
      autotomy, resulting in the loss of tail function, loss in body mass, and a
      cranial shift in the center of mass. To elucidate the function of tail
      undulations, we investigated changes in limb kinematics after manipulating the
      tail artificially by restricting tail undulations and naturally by removing the
      tail via autotomy. Restricting tail undulations resulted in kinematic adjustments
      similar to those that occur following tail autotomy, characterized by more flexed
      hind limb joints. These data suggest that effects of autotomy on locomotion may
      be linked to the loss of tail movements rather than the loss of mass or a shift
      in center of mass. We also provide empirical support for the link between lateral
      tail undulations and step length through the rotation of the pelvic girdle and
      retraction of the femur. Restriction and autotomy of the tail limits pelvic
      rotation, which reduces femur retraction and decreases step length. Our findings
      demonstrate a functional role for tail undulations in geckos, which likely
      applies to other terrestrial vertebrates.

PMID- 28883492
TI  - On the role of initial velocities in pair dispersion in a microfluidic chaotic
      flow.
AB  - Chaotic flows drive mixing and efficient transport in fluids, as well as the
      associated beautiful complex patterns familiar to us from our every day life
      experience. Generating such flows at small scales where viscosity takes over is
      highly challenging from both the theoretical and engineering perspectives. This
      can be overcome by introducing a minuscule amount of long flexible polymers,
      resulting in a chaotic flow dubbed 'elastic turbulence'. At the basis of the
      theoretical frameworks for its study lie the assumptions of a spatially smooth
      and random-in-time velocity field. Previous measurements of elastic turbulence
      have been limited to two-dimensions. Using a novel three-dimensional particle
      tracking method, we conduct a microfluidic experiment, allowing us to explore
      elastic turbulence from the perspective of particles moving with the flow. Our
      findings show that the smoothness assumption breaks already at scales smaller
      than a tenth of the system size. Moreover, we provide conclusive experimental
      evidence that 'ballistic' separation prevails in the dynamics of pairs of tracers
      over long times and distances, exhibiting a memory of the initial separation
      velocities. The ballistic dispersion is universal, yet it has been overlooked so
      far in the context of small scales chaotic flows.Elastic turbulence, a random-in
      time flow, can drive efficient mixing in microfluidics. Using a 3D particle
      tracking method, the authors show that the smoothness assumption breaks at scales
      far smaller than believed and the ballistic pair dispersion holds over much
      longer distances than expected.

PMID- 28883494
TI  - The Experimental Demonstration of High Efficiency Interaction-free Measurement
      for Quantum Counterfactual-like Communication.
AB  - We present an interaction-free measurement with quantum Zeno effect and a high
      efficiency eta = 74.6% +/- 0.15%. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, this
      measurement can be used to implement a quantum counterfactual-like communication
      protocol. Instead of a single photon state, we use a coherent light as the input
      source and show that the output agrees with the proposed quantum counterfactual
      communication protocol according to Salih et al. Although the counterfactuality
      is not achieved due to the presence of a few photons in the public channel, we
      show that the signal light is nearly absent in the public channel, which exhibits
      a proof-of-principle quantum counterfactual-like property of communication.

PMID- 28883493
TI  - Regulation of Akt-mTOR, ubiquitin-proteasome and autophagy-lysosome pathways in
      locomotor and respiratory muscles during experimental sepsis in mice.
AB  - Sepsis induced loss of muscle mass and function contributes to promote physical
      inactivity and disability in patients. In this experimental study, mice were
      sacrificed 1, 4, or 7 days after cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) or sham
      surgery. When compared with diaphragm, locomotor muscles were more prone to
      sepsis-induced muscle mass loss. This could be attributed to a greater activation
      of ubiquitin-proteasome system and an increased myostatin expression. Thus, this
      study strongly suggests that the contractile activity pattern of diaphragm muscle
      confers resistance to atrophy compared to the locomotor gastrocnemius muscle.
      These data also suggest that a strategy aimed at preventing the activation of
      catabolic pathways and preserving spontaneous activity would be of interest for
      the treatment of patients with sepsis-induced neuromyopathy.

PMID- 28883495
TI  - Spatially-resolved optical and structural properties of semi-polar [Formula: see
      text] Al x Ga1-x N with x up to 0.56.
AB  - Pushing the emission wavelength of efficient ultraviolet (UV) emitters further
      into the deep-UV requires material with high crystal quality, while also reducing
      the detrimental effects of built-in electric fields. Crack-free semi-polar
      [Formula: see text] Al x Ga1-x N epilayers with AlN contents up to x = 0.56 and
      high crystal quality were achieved using an overgrowth method employing GaN
      microrods on m-sapphire. Two dominant emission peaks were identified using
      cathodoluminescence hyperspectral imaging. The longer wavelength peak originates
      near and around chevron-shaped features, whose density is greatly increased for
      higher contents. The emission from the majority of the surface is dominated by
      the shorter wavelength peak, influenced by the presence of basal-plane stacking
      faults (BSFs). Due to the overgrowth technique BSFs are bunched up in parallel
      stripes where the lower wavelength peak is broadened and hence appears slightly
      redshifted compared with the higher quality regions in-between. Additionally, the
      density of threading dislocations in these region is one order of magnitude lower
      compared with areas affected by BSFs as ascertained by electron channelling
      contrast imaging. Overall, the luminescence properties of semi-polar AlGaN
      epilayers are strongly influenced by the overgrowth method, which shows that
      reducing the density of extended defects improves the optical performance of high
      AlN content AlGaN structures.

PMID- 28883496
TI  - Overexpression of Insig-2 inhibits atypical antipsychotic-induced adipogenic
      differentiation and lipid biosynthesis in adipose-derived stem cells.
AB  - Atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) are considered to possess superior efficacy for
      treating both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia; however, AAP
      use often causes excessive weight gain and metabolic abnormalities. Recently,
      several reports have demonstrated that AAPs activate sterol regulatory element
      binding protein (SREBP). SREBP, SREBP cleavage-activating protein (SCAP) and
      insulin-induced gene (Insig) regulate downstream cholesterol and fatty acid
      biosynthesis. In this study, we explored the effects of clozapine, olanzapine and
      risperidone on SREBP signaling and downstream lipid biosynthesis genes in the
      early events of adipogenic differentiation in adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs).
      After the induction of adipogenic differentiation for 2 days, all AAPs, notably
      clozapine treatment for 3 and 7 days, enhanced the expression of SREBP-1 and its
      downstream lipid biosynthesis genes without dexamethasone and insulin
      supplementation. Simultaneously, protein level of SREBP-1 was significantly
      enhanced via inhibition of Insig-2 expression. By contrast, SREBP-1 activation
      was suppressed when Insig-2 expression was upregulated by transfection with Insig
      2 plasmid DNA. In summary, our results indicate that AAP treatment, notably
      clozapine treatment, induces early-stage lipid biosynthesis in ASCs. Such
      abnormal lipogenesis can be reversed when Insig-2 expression was increased,
      suggesting that Insig/SCAP/SREBP signaling may be a therapeutic target for AAP
      induced weight gain and metabolic abnormalities.

PMID- 28883497
TI  - Spatiotemporal brain dynamics supporting the immediate automatization of
      inhibitory control by implementation intentions.
AB  - While cognitive interventions aiming at reinforcing intentional executive control
      of unwanted response showed only modest effects on impulse control disorders, the
      establishment of fast automatic, stimulus-driven inhibition of responses to
      specific events with implementation intention self-regulation strategies has
      proven to be an effective remediation approach. However, the neurocognitive
      mechanisms underlying implementation intentions remain largely unresolved. We
      addressed this question by comparing electrical neuroimaging analyses of event
      related potentials recorded during a Go/NoGo task between groups of healthy
      participants receiving either standard or implementation intentions instructions
      on the inhibition stimuli. Inhibition performance improvements with
      implementation intentions were associated with a Group by Stimulus interaction
      200-250 ms post-stimulus onset driven by a selective decrease in response to the
      inhibition stimuli within the left superior temporal gyrus, the right precuneus
      and the right temporo-parietal junction. We further observed that the
      implementation intentions group showed already at the beginning of the task the
      pattern of task-related functional activity reached after practice in the group
      having received standard instructions. We interpret our results in terms of an
      immediate establishment of an automatic, bottom-up form of inhibitory control by
      implementation intentions, supported by stimulus-driven retrieval of verbally
      encoded stimulus-response mapping rules, which in turn triggered inhibitory
      processes.

PMID- 28883498
TI  - The mechanical and photoelastic properties of 3D printable stress-visualized
      materials.
AB  - Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology integrating frozen stress techniques
      has created a novel way to directly represent and characterize 3D interior
      discontinuities and the full-field stress induced by mining- or construction
      related disturbances of deeply buried rock masses. However, concerns have been
      raised about the similitude between the mechanical behaviours of the printed
      model and its prototype rock mass. Ensuring the mechanical properties of the
      printable materials are as close as possible to those of real rock mass is of
      critical significance. In this work, a transparent, light, photosensitive polymer
      material was investigated for applications in frozen stress tests. The chemical
      composition of the material was determined by integrating the results of infrared
      spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy), X-ray diffraction (XRD), pyrolysis, gas
      chromatography and mass spectrometry (PY-GC/MS). Measures to improve the
      mechanical properties of the printable material, including printing orientation,
      post-processing, and temperature control, were evaluated by comparing the treated
      material with its prototype rock. The optical stress sensitivity of the material,
      including stress-visualized properties and stress-frozen performance, was also
      tested. This study offers an understanding of how printable materials should be
      modified to better simulate real rock masses, in terms of not only their
      geological geometry but also their mechanical performance.

PMID- 28883499
TI  - A reminder before extinction strengthens episodic memory via reconsolidation but
      fails to disrupt generalized threat responses.
AB  - A reminder can temporarily renew flexibility of consolidated memories, referred
      to as reconsolidation. Pavlovian threat-conditioning studies suggest that a
      reminder can renew flexibility of threat responses but that episodic memories
      remain stable. In contrast, outside the threat-conditioning domain, studies
      testing memory for word lists or stories find that a reminder can renew
      flexibility of episodic memory. This discrepancy in findings leaves it unclear if
      episodic memories reconsolidate, or only Pavlovian responses. Here we unite the
      different approaches in the field and show that a reminder can retroactively
      strengthen episodic memory for Pavlovian threat-conditioned events, but that, in
      contrast to threat-conditioning studies with simple sensory stimuli, extinction
      after a reminder fails to prevent recovery of generalized threat responses. Our
      results indicate the episodic memories also reconsolidate, allowing strengthening
      of relevant memories. These findings also suggest that generalized threat
      responses and episodic memories are less susceptible to be modified by reminder
      interventions procedures.

PMID- 28883500
TI  - Quantitative imaging of anti-phase domains by polarity sensitive orientation
      mapping using electron backscatter diffraction.
AB  - Advanced structural characterisation techniques which are rapid to use, non
      destructive and structurally definitive on the nanoscale are in demand,
      especially for a detailed understanding of extended-defects and their influence
      on the properties of materials. We have applied the electron backscatter
      diffraction (EBSD) technique in a scanning electron microscope to non
      destructively characterise and quantify antiphase domains (APDs) in GaP thin
      films grown on different (001) Si substrates with different offcuts. We were able
      to image and quantify APDs by relating the asymmetrical intensity distributions
      observed in the EBSD patterns acquired experimentally and comparing the same with
      the dynamical electron diffraction simulations. Additionally mean angular error
      maps were also plotted using automated cross-correlation based approaches to
      image APDs. Samples grown on substrates with a 4 degrees  offcut from the [110]
      do not show any APDs, whereas samples grown on the exactly oriented substrates
      contain APDs. The procedures described in our work can be adopted for
      characterising a wide range of other material systems possessing non
      centrosymmetric point groups.

PMID- 28883501
TI  - CAPS-1 requires its C2, PH, MHD1 and DCV domains for dense core vesicle
      exocytosis in mammalian CNS neurons.
AB  - CAPS (calcium-dependent activator protein for secretion) are multi-domain
      proteins involved in regulated exocytosis of synaptic vesicles (SVs) and dense
      core vesicles (DCVs). Here, we assessed the contribution of different CAPS-1
      domains to its subcellular localization and DCV exocytosis by expressing CAPS-1
      mutations in four functional domains in CAPS-1/-2 null mutant (CAPS DKO) mouse
      hippocampal neurons, which are severely impaired in DCV exocytosis. CAPS DKO
      neurons showed normal development and no defects in DCV biogenesis and their
      subcellular distribution. Truncation of the CAPS-1 C-terminus (CAPS Delta654
      1355) impaired CAPS-1 synaptic enrichment. Mutations in the C2 (K428E or G476E)
      or pleckstrin homology (PH; R558D/K560E/K561E) domain did not. However, all
      mutants rescued DCV exocytosis in CAPS DKO neurons to only 20% of wild type CAPS
      1 exocytosis capacity. To assess the relative importance of CAPS for both
      secretory pathways, we compared effect sizes of CAPS-1/-2 deficiency on SV and
      DCV exocytosis. Using the same (intense) stimulation, DCV exocytosis was impaired
      relatively strong (96% inhibition) compared to SV exocytosis (39%). Together,
      these data show that the CAPS-1 C-terminus regulates synaptic enrichment of CAPS
      1. All CAPS-1 functional domains are required, and the C2 and PH domain together
      are not sufficient, for DCV exocytosis in mammalian CNS neurons.

PMID- 28883502
TI  - Activation of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Granulosa Cells from Patients with
      Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Contributes to Ovarian Fibrosis.
AB  - Recent studies report the involvement of intra-ovarian factors, such as
      inflammation and oxidative stress, in the pathophysiology of polycystic ovary
      syndrome (PCOS), the most common endocrine disorder of reproductive age women.
      Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a local factor that affects various cellular
      events during a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological conditions. It
      may also be an important determinant of pro-fibrotic remodeling during tissue
      fibrosis. In the present study, we showed that ER stress was activated in
      granulosa cells of PCOS patients as well as in a well-established PCOS mouse
      model. Pharmacological inducers of ER stress, tunicamycin and thapsigargin, were
      found to increase the expression of pro-fibrotic growth factors, including
      transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1, in human granulosa cells, and their
      expression also increased in granulosa cells of PCOS patients. By contrast,
      treatment of PCOS mice with an ER stress inhibitor, tauroursodeoxycholic acid or
      BGP-15, decreased interstitial fibrosis and collagen deposition in ovaries,
      accompanied by a reduction in TGF-beta1 expression in granulosa cells. These
      findings suggest that ER stress in granulosa cells of women with PCOS contributes
      to the induction of pro-fibrotic growth factors during ovarian fibrosis, and that
      ER stress may serve as a therapeutic target in PCOS.

PMID- 28883503
TI  - Differential impact of lipopolysaccharide defects caused by loss of RfaH in
      Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis.
AB  - RfaH enhances transcription of a select group of operons controlling bacterial
      surface features such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Previous studies have
      suggested that rfaH may be required for Yersinia pseudotuberculosis resistance to
      antimicrobial chemokines and survival during mouse infections. In order to
      further investigate the role of RfaH in LPS synthesis, resistance to host defense
      peptides, and virulence of Yersinia, we constructed DeltarfaH mutants of Y.
      pseudotuberculosis IP32953 and Y. pestis KIM6+. Loss of rfaH affected LPS
      synthesis in both species, resulting in a shorter core oligosaccharide.
      Susceptibility to polymyxin and the antimicrobial chemokine CCL28 was increased
      by loss of rfaH in Y. pseudotuberculosis but not in Y. pestis. Transcription of
      genes in the ddhD-wzz O-antigen gene cluster, but not core oligosaccharide genes,
      was reduced in DeltarfaH mutants. In addition, mutants with disruptions in
      specific ddhD-wzz O-antigen cluster genes produced LPS that was indistinguishable
      from the DeltarfaH mutant. This suggests that both Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y.
      pestis produce an oligosaccharide core with a single O-antigen unit attached in
      an RfaH-dependent fashion. Despite enhanced sensitivity to host defense peptides,
      the Y. pseudotuberculosis DeltarfaH strain was not attenuated in mice, suggesting
      that rfaH is not required for acute infection.

PMID- 28883504
TI  - Investigation of the polymerization mechanism of ferrocene doped C60 under high
      pressure and high temperature.
AB  - In situ high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) study has been carried out on
      C60/ferrocene (Fc) in order to detect the process of polymerization and reveal
      the polymerization mechanism. Pristine C60 was also studied under same conditions
      for comparison. In both cases, similar types of polymers can be observed after
      pressure and temperature release, but with different fractions, i.e. a larger
      amount of 2D polymers were formed in pure C60, while more branch-like polymers
      were synthesized in C60/Fc, although the most fraction of the polymers is still
      1D chain-like polymer in both of the materials. The polymers formed in C60 can be
      detected both during the "up" run (pressure and temperature increase) and the
      "down" run (pressure and temperature decrease), while in C60/Fc, the polymers can
      only be synthesized in the "down" run. The differences between the two cases were
      attributed to the different initial lattice structures of the two materials and
      the confinement effect of the dopant. The polymerization mechanism on C60/Fc
      under HPHT was also revealed in this work.

PMID- 28883505
TI  - Channel Formation and Membrane Deformation via Sterol-Aided Polymorphism of
      Amphidinol 3.
AB  - Amphidinol 3 (AM3) is an anti-fungal polyene extracted from a marine
      dinoflagellate. Here, we examined the ion channel activity and membrane-embedded
      structure of AM3 using a lipid bilayer method and atomic force microscopy (AFM).
      AM3 exhibited large-conductance (~1 nS) and non-selective single-channel activity
      only when sterols were present in the membrane leaflet of the AM3-added side. The
      variable conductance suggests the formation of a multimeric barrel-stave pore. At
      high AM3 concentrations, giant-conductance "jumbo" channels (~40 nS) emerged. AFM
      revealed a thicker raft-like membrane phase with the appearance of a wrinkled
      surface, in which phase pores (diameter: ~10 nm) were observed. The flip-flop of
      ergosterol occurred only after the appearance of the jumbo channel, indicating
      that the jumbo channel induced a continuity between the outer and inner leaflets
      of the membrane: a feature characteristic of toroidal-like pores. Thus, AM3 forms
      different types of sterol-aided polymorphic channels in a concentration dependent
      manner.

PMID- 28883506
TI  - Deep-reef fish assemblages of the Great Barrier Reef shelf-break (Australia).
AB  - Tropical mesophotic and sub-mesophotic fish ecology is poorly understood despite
      increasing vulnerability of deeper fish assemblages. Worldwide there is greater
      fishing pressure on continental shelf-breaks and the effects of disturbances on
      deeper fish species have not yet been assessed. Difficult to access, deeper reefs
      host undocumented fish diversity and abundance. Baited Remote Underwater Video
      Stations (BRUVS) with lights were used to sample deeper habitats (54-260 m), in
      the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. Here we describe fish biodiversity,
      relative abundance and richness, assessing the prediction that depth would drive
      assemblage structure in the GBR. Distinct groups of fishes were found with depth
      whilst overall richness and abundance decreased steeply between 100 and 260 m.
      Commercially-valuable Lutjanidae species from Pristipomoides and Etelis genera,
      were absent from shallower depths. Few fish species overlapped between adjacent
      depth strata, indicating unique assemblages with depth. We also detected new
      location records and potential new species records. The high biodiversity of fish
      found in shelf-break environments is poorly appreciated and depth is a strong
      predictor of assemblage composition. This may pose a challenge for managers of
      commercial fisheries as distinct depth ranges of taxa may translate to more
      readily targeted habitats, and therefore, an inherent vulnerability to
      exploitation.

PMID- 28883507
TI  - Organotypic pancreatoids with native mesenchyme develop Insulin producing
      endocrine cells.
AB  - Replacement of lost beta cells in patients with diabetes has the potential to
      alleviate them of their disease, yet current protocols to make beta cells are
      inadequate for therapy. In vitro screens can reveal the signals necessary for
      endocrine maturation to improve beta cell production, however the complexities of
      in vivo development that lead to beta cell formation are lost in two-dimensional
      systems. Here, we create three-dimensional organotypic pancreatic cultures, named
      pancreatoids, composed of embryonic day 10.5 murine epithelial progenitors and
      native mesenchyme. These progenitors assemble in scaffold-free, floating
      conditions and, with the inclusion of native mesenchyme, develop into
      pancreatoids expressing markers of different pancreatic lineages including
      endocrine-like cells. Treatment of pancreatoids with (-)-Indolactam-V or phorbol
      12-myristate 13-acetate, two protein kinase C activators, leads to altered
      morphology which otherwise would be overlooked in two-dimensional systems.
      Protein kinase C activation also led to fewer Insulin+ cells, decreased Ins1 and
      Ins2 mRNA levels, and increased Pdx1 and Hes1 mRNA levels with a high number of
      DBA+ cells. Thus, organotypic pancreatoids provide a useful tool for
      developmental studies, and can further be used for disease modeling, small
      molecules and genetic screens, or applied to human pluripotent stem cell
      differentiation for beta-like cell formation.

PMID- 28883508
TI  - Inter-subject Functional Correlation Reveal a Hierarchical Organization of
      Extrinsic and Intrinsic Systems in the Brain.
AB  - The brain is constantly monitoring and integrating both cues from the external
      world and signals generated intrinsically. These extrinsically and intrinsically
      driven neural processes are thought to engage anatomically distinct regions,
      which are thought to constitute the extrinsic and intrinsic systems of the brain.
      While the specialization of extrinsic and intrinsic system is evident in primary
      and secondary sensory cortices, a systematic mapping of the whole brain remains
      elusive. Here, we characterized the extrinsic and intrinsic functional activities
      in the brain during naturalistic movie-viewing. Using a novel inter-subject
      functional correlation (ISFC) analysis, we found that the strength of ISFC shifts
      along the hierarchical organization of the brain. Primary sensory cortices appear
      to have strong inter-subject functional correlation, consistent with their role
      in processing exogenous information, while heteromodal regions that attend to
      endogenous processes have low inter-subject functional correlation. Those brain
      systems with higher intrinsic tendency show greater inter-individual variability,
      likely reflecting the aspects of brain connectivity architecture unique to
      individuals. Our study presents a novel framework for dissecting extrinsically-
      and intrinsically-driven processes, as well as examining individual differences
      in brain function during naturalistic stimulation.

PMID- 28883509
TI  - The circadian clock in immune cells controls the magnitude of Leishmania parasite
      infection.
AB  - The intracellular parasite Leishmania uses neutrophils and macrophages as host
      cells upon infection. These immune cells harbour their own intrinsic circadian
      clocks, known to influence many aspects of their functions. Therefore, we tested
      whether the host circadian clocks regulate the magnitude of Leishmania major
      infection in mice. The extent of parasitic infection varied over 24 h in bone
      marrow-derived macrophages in vitro and in two different in vivo models, footpad
      and peritoneal cavity infection. In vivo this was paralleled by time of day
      dependent neutrophil and macrophage infiltration to the infection site and
      rhythmic chemokine expression. Thus, rhythmic parasitic infection observed in
      vivo was likely initiated by the circadian expression of chemoattractants and the
      subsequent rhythmic infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages. Importantly, all
      rhythms were abolished in clock-deficient macrophages and when mice lacking the
      circadian clock in immune cells were infected. Therefore we demonstrated a
      critical role for the circadian clocks in immune cells in modulating the
      magnitude of Leishmania infection. To our knowledge this is the first report
      showing that the circadian clock controls infection by protozoan parasites in
      mammals. Understanding the timed regulation of host-parasite interactions will
      allow developing better prophylactic and therapeutic strategies to fight off
      vector-borne diseases.

PMID- 28883510
TI  - Disseminated tuberculosis among hospitalised HIV patients in South Africa: a
      common condition that can be rapidly diagnosed using urine-based assays.
AB  - HIV-associated disseminated TB (tuberculosis) has been under-recognised and
      poorly characterised. Blood culture is the gold-standard diagnostic test, but is
      expensive, slow, and may under-diagnose TB dissemination. In a cohort of
      hospitalised HIV patients, we aimed to report the prevalence of TB-blood-culture
      positivity, performance of rapid diagnostics as diagnostic surrogates, and better
      characterise the clinical phenotype of disseminated TB. HIV-inpatients were
      systematically investigated using sputum, urine and blood testing. Overall,
      132/410 (32.2%) patients had confirmed TB; 41/132 (31.1%) had a positive TB blood
      culture, of these 9/41 (22.0%) died within 90-days. In contrast to sputum
      diagnostics, urine Xpert and urine-lipoarabinomannan (LAM) combined identified
      88% of TB blood-culture-positive patients, including 9/9 who died within 90-days.
      For confirmed-TB patients, half the variation in major clinical variables was
      captured on two principle components (PCs). Urine Xpert, urine LAM and TB-blood
      culture positive patients clustered similarly on these axes, distinctly from
      patients with localised disease. Total number of positive tests from urine Xpert,
      urine LAM and MTB-blood-culture correlated with PCs (p < 0.001 for both). PC1&PC2
      independently predicted 90-day mortality (ORs 2.6, 95%CI = 1.3-6.4; and 2.4,
      95%CI = 1.3-4.5, respectively). Rather than being a non-specific diagnosis,
      disseminated TB is a distinct, life-threatening condition, which can be diagnosed
      using rapid urine-based tests, and warrants specific interventional trials.

PMID- 28883511
TI  - Cytotoxic response against Epstein Barr virus coexists with diffuse large B-cell
      lymphoma tolerogenic microenvironment: clinical features and survival impact.
AB  - Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is present in neoplastic cells of 15% of Asian and Latin
      American diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Even though a
      tolerogenic microenvironment was recently described in DLBCL, little is known
      concerning immunomodulatory features induced by EBV. As suggested in Hodgkin
      lymphoma, EBV-specific cytotoxic T-cells are increased but showing immune
      exhaustion features. Hence, host immunity suppression may play a critical role in
      tumor progression. This study aimed to investigate, whether an association
      between tumor microenvironment features and EBV presence is taking place, and its
      clinical correlate. The incidence of EBV+DLBCL NOS was 12.6% in this cohort.
      Cytokine and chemokine transcripts expression and immunophenotype analysis showed
      that EBV infection was associated with increased gene expression of
      immunosuppressive cytokine (IL-10) together with increased CD8+ T-cells and
      granzyme B+ cytotoxic effector cells. However, this specific response coexists
      with a tolerogenic milieu, by PD-1 expression, in EBV+ and EBV-DLBCL cases. High
      PD-1+ cell counts, EBV presence and low CCL22 expression were associated with
      worse survival, supporting our hypothesis that EBV-specific response is mounted
      locally and its inhibition by, for example PD-1+ cells, may negatively affect
      outcome. The better understanding of the interplay between lymphoma cells and
      microenvironment in a viral framework could thereby facilitate the discovery of
      new targets for innovative anti-lymphoma treatment strategies.

PMID- 28883512
TI  - Leukaemia: Beyond the C.

PMID- 28883513
TI  - Prostate cancer: BET inhibitors - SPOP right there!

PMID- 28883514
TI  - Next generation highly resistant mirrors featuring all-silica layers.
AB  - A principal possibility to overcome fundamental (intrinsic) limit of pure optical
      materials laser light resistance is investigated by designing artificial
      materials with desired optical properties. We explore the suitability of high
      band-gap ultra-low refractive index material (n less than 1.38 at 550 nm) in the
      context of highly reflective coatings with enhanced optical resistance. The new
      generation all-silica (porous/nonporous) SiO2 thin film mirror with 99%
      reflectivity was prepared by glancing angle deposition (GLAD). Its damage
      performance was directly compared with state of the art hafnia/silica coating
      produced by Ion-Beam-Sputtering. Laser-Induced Damage Thresholds (LIDT) of both
      coatings were measured in nanosecond regime at 355 nm wavelength. Novel approach
      indicates the potential for coating to withstand laser fluence of at least 65
      J/cm2 without reaching intrinsic threshold value. Reported concept can be
      expanded to virtually any design thus opening a new way of next generation thin
      film production well suited for high power laser applications.

PMID- 28883515
TI  - Factor Xa Mediates Calcium Flux in Endothelial Cells and is Potentiated by Igg
      From Patients With Lupus and/or Antiphospholipid Syndrome.
AB  - Factor (F) Xa reactive IgG isolated from patients with antiphospholipid syndrome
      (APS) display higher avidity binding to FXa with greater coagulant effects
      compared to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) non APS IgG. FXa signalling via
      activation of protease-activated receptors (PAR) leads to increased intracellular
      calcium (Ca2+). Therefore, we measured alterations in Ca2+ levels in human
      umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) following FXa-mediated PAR activation
      and investigated whether FXa reactive IgG from patients with APS or SLE/APS-
      alter these responses. We observed concentration-dependent induction of Ca2+
      release by FXa that was potentiated by APS-IgG and SLE/APS- IgG compared to
      healthy control subjects' IgG, and FXa alone. APS-IgG and SLE/APS- IgG increased
      FXa mediated NFkappaB signalling and this effect was fully-retained in the
      affinity purified anti-FXa IgG sub-fraction. Antagonism of PAR-1 and PAR-2
      reduced FXa-induced Ca2+ release. Treatment with a specific FXa inhibitor,
      hydroxychloroquine or fluvastatin significantly reduced FXa-induced and IgG
      potentiated Ca2+ release. In conclusion, PAR-1 and PAR-2 are involved in FXa
      mediated intracellular Ca2+ release in HUVEC and FXa reactive IgG from patients
      with APS and/or SLE potentiate this effect. Further work is required to explore
      the potential use of IgG FXa reactivity as a novel biomarker to stratify
      treatment with FXa inhibitors in these patients.

PMID- 28883517
TI  - Nab-Paclitaxel in combination with Cisplatin Versus Docetaxel Plus Cisplatin as
      First-Line Therapy in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - Albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-PC) and docetaxel both produced favorable efficacy
      and safety as first-line therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
      However, the comparison between nab-PC and docetaxel remained unclear until now.
      This retrospective study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of nab
      PC/cisplatin with docetaxel/cisplatin as first-line therapy in advanced NSCLC.
      271 patients with advanced NSCLC, who received either nab-PC (55 patients) or
      docetaxel (216 patients) were reviewed from 2012 to 2016. The primary endpoint
      was objective overall response rate (ORR). The secondary endpoints were disease
      control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and
      safety profiles. Nab-PC presented a significantly higher ORR than docetaxel
      (47.3% vs 31.9%; P = 0.033). The difference of ORR was more significantly
      remarkable in patients with squamous histology (58.3% vs 29.0%; P = 0.007).
      Additionally, the DCR of nab-PC was significantly higher than docetaxel. Patients
      in nab-PC group had a trend toward improved PFS and OS compared with patients in
      docetaxel group, but this didn't reach statistical significance. Grade >= 3
      neutropenia was less in nab-PC group, while Grade >= 3 anemia and
      thrombocytopenia were less in docetaxel group. Nab-PC/cisplatin as first-line
      therapy, produced significantly higher efficacy and reduced neutropenia than
      docetaxel/cisplatin in advanced NSCLC.

PMID- 28883516
TI  - Effects of low-intensity pulsed electromagnetic fields on bone microarchitecture,
      mechanical strength and bone turnover in type 2 diabetic db/db mice.
AB  - Type 2 diabetic patients have impaired bone quality, leading to increased
      fracture risk. Substantial evidence demonstrates that pulsed electromagnetic
      fields (PEMF) could resist osteopenia/osteoporosis induced by estrogen deficiency
      and disuse. However, the effects of PEMF on osteopenia/osteoporosis associated
      with diabetes, especially for more prevalent type 2 diabetes, remain poorly
      understood. We herein investigated the skeletal effects and mechanisms of PEMF
      (15 Hz, 20 Gs) on leptin receptor-deficient db/db mice with typical type 2
      diabetic symptoms. Our uCT results showed that 12-week PEMF exposure
      significantly improved both cancellous and cortical bone microarchitecture in
      db/db mice. Three-point bending and biomechanical indentation testing
      demonstrated that PEMF improved whole-bone structural properties and tissue-level
      material properties in db/db mice. PEMF significantly promoted bone formation in
      db/db mice evidenced by increased serum osteocalcin and bone mineral apposition
      rate, whereas PEMF exerted no observable alteration in bone resorption. Real-time
      PCR showed that PEMF upregulated tibial gene expression of osteoblastogenesis
      related of canonical Wnt/beta-catenin signaling but not osteoclastogenesis
      related RANKL-RANK signaling in db/db mice. Our findings demonstrate that PEMF
      improved bone quantity and quality with obvious anabolic activities in db/db
      mice, and imply that PEMF might become a clinically applicable treatment modality
      for improving bone quality in type 2 diabetic patients.

PMID- 28883518
TI  - New compounds identified through in silico approaches reduce the alpha-synuclein
      expression by inhibiting prolyl oligopeptidase in vitro.
AB  - Prolyl oligopeptidase (POP) is a serine protease that is responsible for the
      maturation and degradation of short neuropeptides and peptide hormones. The
      inhibition of POP has been demonstrated in the treatment of alpha
      synucleinopathies and several neurological conditions. Therefore, ligand-based
      and structure-based pharmacophore models were generated and validated in order to
      identify potent POP inhibitors. Pharmacophore-based and docking-based virtual
      screening of a drug-like database resulted in 20 compounds. The in vitro POP
      assays indicated that the top scoring compounds obtained from virtual screening,
      Hit 1 and Hit 2 inhibit POP activity at a wide range of concentrations from 0.1
      to 10 uM. Moreover, treatment of the hit compounds significantly reduced the
      alpha-synuclein expression in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells, that is
      implicated in Parkinson's disease. Binding modes of Hit 1 and Hit 2 compounds
      were explored through molecular dynamics simulations. A detailed investigation of
      the binding interactions revealed that the hit compounds exhibited hydrogen bond
      interactions with important active site residues and greater electrostatic and
      hydrophobic interactions compared to those of the reference inhibitors. Finally,
      our findings indicated the potential of the identified compounds for the
      treatment of synucleinopathies and CNS related disorders.

PMID- 28883520
TI  - Penicilliumin B, a novel sesquiterpene methylcyclopentenedione from a deep sea
      derived Penicillium strain with renoprotective activities.
AB  - A novel sesquiterpene methylcyclopentenedione, penicilliumin B (1), was obtained
      from a deep sea-derived fungus Penicillium sp. F00120, together with three known
      sesquiterpene cyclohexenones (2-4). Penicilliumin B (1), presenting the first
      example with the sesquiterpene cyclopentenedione skeleton as natural products,
      was structurally determined by analysis of the NMR and MS spectroscopic data,
      while the absolute configurations were assigned by single-crystal X-ray
      experiments. The plausible biosynthetic pathway of the unusual cyclopentenone
      skeleton of 1 was proposed. Penicilliumin B (1), with low toxicity, was showed
      significant potential to inhibit the kidney fibrogenic action in vitro, by a
      mechanism dependent on disruption of oxidative stress, presenting a new type of
      promising renoprotective agent.

PMID- 28883521
TI  - Impact of maternal obesity on the incidence of pregnancy complications in France
      and Canada.
AB  - The aim of our study was to compare the impact of maternal obesity on the
      incidence of medical complications of pregnancy in France and Canada. We
      performed a prospective comparative cohort study using French data, retrieved
      from a prospective cohort of singleton deliveries, and Canadian data retrieved
      from QUARISMA, a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in Quebec, both
      between 2009 and 2011. Outcomes studied included, hypertensive disorders of
      pregnancy (HDP), venous thromboembolism, stillbirth, caesarean delivery and
      macrosomia. The impact of obesity across both cohorts was studied using
      univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, adjusting for relevant
      confounders. The French and Canadian databases included 26,973 and 22,046
      deliveries respectively, with obesity rates of 9.1% and 16% respectively (p <
      0.001). In both cohorts, obesity was significantly associated with an increased
      rate of HDP, cesarean delivery, and macrosomia. However, in both cohorts the
      relationship between increasing body mass index and the incidence of medical
      complication of pregnancy was the same, regardless the outcome studied. In
      conclusion, obesity is a risk factor for adverse maternal and fetal outcomes in
      both cohorts. Similar trends of increased risk were noted in both cohorts even
      though obesity is more prevalent in Canada.

PMID- 28883519
TI  - Monolithic Chip for High-throughput Blood Cell Depletion to Sort Rare Circulating
      Tumor Cells.
AB  - Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a treasure trove of information regarding the
      location, type and stage of cancer and are being pursued as both a diagnostic
      target and a means of guiding personalized treatment. Most isolation technologies
      utilize properties of the CTCs themselves such as surface antigens (e.g.,
      epithelial cell adhesion molecule or EpCAM) or size to separate them from blood
      cell populations. We present an automated monolithic chip with 128 multiplexed
      deterministic lateral displacement devices containing ~1.5 million
      microfabricated features (12 um-50 um) used to first deplete red blood cells and
      platelets. The outputs from these devices are serially integrated with an
      inertial focusing system to line up all nucleated cells for multi-stage
      magnetophoresis to remove magnetically-labeled white blood cells. The monolithic
      CTC-iChip enables debulking of blood samples at 15-20 million cells per second
      while yielding an output of highly purified CTCs. We quantified the size and
      EpCAM expression of over 2,500 CTCs from 38 patient samples obtained from breast,
      prostate, lung cancers, and melanoma. The results show significant heterogeneity
      between and within single patients. Unbiased, rapid, and automated isolation of
      CTCs using monolithic CTC-iChip will enable the detailed measurement of their
      physicochemical and biological properties and their role in metastasis.

PMID- 28883522
TI  - Visualization of ligand-induced dopamine D2S and D2L receptor internalization by
      TIRF microscopy.
AB  - G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), including the dopamine receptors, represent
      a group of important pharmacological targets. Upon agonist binding, GPCRs
      frequently undergo internalization, a process that is known to attenuate
      functional responses upon prolonged exposure to agonists. In this study,
      internalization was visualized by means of total internal reflection fluorescence
      (TIRF) microscopy at a level of discrete single events near the plasma membrane
      with high spatial resolution. A novel method has been developed to determine the
      relative extent of internalized fluorescent receptor-ligand complexes by
      comparative fluorescence quantification in living CHO cells. The procedure
      entails treatment with the reducing agent sodium borohydride, which converts
      cyanine-based fluorescent ligands on the membrane surface to a long-lived reduced
      form. Because the highly polar reducing agent is not able to pass the cell
      membrane, the fluorescent receptor-ligand complexes located in internalized
      compartments remain fluorescent under TIRF illumination. We applied the method to
      investigate differences of the short (D2S) and the long (D2L) isoforms of
      dopamine D2 receptors in their ability to undergo agonist-induced
      internalization.

PMID- 28883523
TI  - Information seeking about tool properties in great apes.
AB  - Evidence suggests that great apes engage in metacognitive information seeking for
      food items. To support the claim that a domain-general cognitive process
      underlies ape metacognition one needs to show that selective information seeking
      extends to non-food items. In this study, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and
      orangutans (Pongo abelii) either had to determine the location of a desired food
      item or a property of a non-food item (length of a tool). We manipulated whether
      subjects received prior information about the item's location or property. During
      the test, subjects had the opportunity to seek the respective information.
      Results show that apes engaged in more information seeking when they had no prior
      knowledge. Importantly, this selective pattern of information seeking applied to
      food as well as to tools.

PMID- 28883524
TI  - Flat building blocks for flat silicene.
AB  - Silicene is the silicon equivalent of graphene, which is composed of a honeycomb
      carbon structure with one atom thickness and has attractive characteristics of a
      perfect two-dimensional pi-conjugated sheet. However, unlike flat and highly
      stable graphene, silicene is relatively sticky and thus unstable due to its
      puckered or crinkled structure. Flatness is important for stability, and to
      obtain perfect pi-conjugation, electron-donating atoms and molecules should not
      interact with the pi electrons. The structural differences between silicene and
      graphene result from the differences in their building blocks, flat benzene and
      chair-form hexasilabenzene. It is crucial to design flat building blocks for
      silicene with no interactions between the electron donor and pi-orbitals. Here,
      we report the successful design of such building blocks with the aid of density
      functional theory calculations. Our fundamental concept is to attach substituents
      that have sp-hybrid orbitals and act as electron donors in a manner that it does
      not interact with the pi orbitals. The honeycomb silicon molecule with BeH at the
      edge designed according to our concept, clearly shows the same structural, charge
      distribution and molecular orbital characteristics as the corresponding carbon
      based molecule.

PMID- 28883525
TI  - Self-supporting sulfur cathodes enabled by two-dimensional carbon yolk-shell
      nanosheets for high-energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries.
AB  - How to exert the energy density advantage is a key link in the development of
      lithium-sulfur batteries. Therefore, the performance degradation of high-sulfur
      loading cathodes becomes an urgent problem to be solved at present. In addition,
      the volumetric capacities of high-sulfur-loading cathodes are still at a low
      level compared with their areal capacities. Aiming at these issues, two
      dimensional carbon yolk-shell nanosheet is developed herein to construct a novel
      self-supporting sulfur cathode. The cathode with high-sulfur loading of 5 mg cm-2
      and sulfur content of 73 wt% not only delivers an excellent rate performance and
      cycling stability, but also provides a favorable balance between the areal (5.7
      mAh cm-2) and volumetric (1330 mAh cm-3) capacities. Remarkably, an areal
      capacity of 11.4 mAh cm-2 can be further achieved by increasing the sulfur
      loading from 5 to 10 mg cm-2. This work provides a promising direction for high
      energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries.One of the challenges facing lithium
      sulfur batteries is to develop cathodes with high mass and high volume loading.
      Here the authors show that two-dimensional carbon yolk-shell nanosheets are
      promising sulfur host materials, enabling stable battery cells with high energy
      density.

PMID- 28883526
TI  - Synthesis, high-throughput screening and pharmacological characterization of beta
      lactam derivatives as TRPM8 antagonists.
AB  - The mammalian transient receptor potential melastatin channel 8 (TRPM8), highly
      expressed in trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia, mediates the cooling sensation
      and plays an important role in the cold hypersensitivity characteristic of some
      types of neuropathic pain, as well as in cancer. Consequently, the identification
      of selective and potent ligands for TRPM8 is of great interest. Here, a series of
      compounds, having a beta-lactam central scaffold, were prepared to explore the
      pharmacophore requirements for TRPM8 modulation. Structure-activity studies
      indicate that the minimal requirements for potent beta-lactam-based TRPM8
      blockers are hydrophobic groups (benzyl preferentially or t Bu) on R1, R2, R3 and
      R5 and a short N-alkyl chain (<=3 carbons). The best compounds in the focused
      library (41 and 45) showed IC50 values of 46 nM and 83 nM, respectively, in
      electrophysiology assays. These compounds selectively blocked all modalities of
      TRPM8 activation, i.e. menthol, voltage, and temperature. Molecular modelling
      studies using a homology model of TRPM8 identified two putative binding sites,
      involving networks of hydrophobic interactions, and suggesting a negative
      allosteric modulation through the stabilization of the closed state. Thus, these
      beta-lactams provide a novel pharmacophore scaffold to evolve TRPM8 allosteric
      modulators to treat TRPM8 channel dysfunction.

PMID- 28883527
TI  - Quantifying the efficacy of first aid treatments for burn injuries using
      mathematical modelling and in vivo porcine experiments.
AB  - First aid treatment of burns reduces scarring and improves healing. We quantify
      the efficacy of first aid treatments using a mathematical model to describe data
      from a series of in vivo porcine experiments. We study burn injuries that are
      subject to various first aid treatments. The treatments vary in the temperature
      and duration. Calibrating the mathematical model to the experimental data
      provides estimates of the thermal diffusivity, the rate at which thermal energy
      is lost to the blood, and the heat transfer coefficient controlling the loss of
      thermal energy at the interface of the fat and muscle. A limitation of working
      with in vivo experiments is the difficulty of measuring variations in temperature
      across the tissue layers. This limitation motivates us to use a simple, single
      layer mathematical model. Using the solution of the calibrated mathematical model
      we visualise the temperature distribution across the thickness of the tissue.
      With this information we propose a novel measure of the potential for tissue
      damage. This measure quantifies two important factors: (i) the volume of tissue
      that rises above the threshold temperature associated with the accumulation of
      tissue damage; and (ii) the duration of time that the tissue remains above this
      threshold temperature.

PMID- 28883528
TI  - Knowledge, attitude, and practice about malaria: Socio-demographic implications
      for malaria control in rural Ghana.
AB  - Despite continuing international attention to malaria prevention, the disease
      remains a global public health problem. We investigated socio-demographic factors
      influencing knowledge, attitudes, and practices about malaria in rural Ghana. Our
      survey looked at 354 households. Mean knowledge score was higher among
      individuals with a history of volunteers having visited their households to
      educate them about malaria; families with 4-6 members; and males. Households with
      at least one under-five-aged child also had significantly higher knowledge
      scores. Households with at least one pregnant woman evinced a positive attitude
      towards malaria prevention. National malaria control strategies have achieved
      positive results in the fight against malaria. Nonetheless, multipronged
      community-based health strategies that integrate malaria programs and population
      growth control initiatives may be able to reach by 2030 the sustainable
      development goal of eliminating malaria.

PMID- 28883529
TI  - The formation of nanocrystalline ZrO2 nuclei in a Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2 glass - a
      combined XANES and TEM study.
AB  - The high economic importance of glass ceramics based on Li2O/Al2O3/SiO2 (LAS) is
      mainly due to their low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), which make these
      materials suitable candidates for a number of applications. The exact mechanism
      of the crystallization processes in LAS glasses is still not fully understood.
      The present work focuses on the formation and development of nanocrystalline ZrO2
      within an LAS base composition which contains only ZrO2 as nucleating agent.
      Using a combination of transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption
      spectroscopy techniques, the temporal evolution of the ZrO2 nanocrystal formation
      is described. It is found that the formation of ZrO2 is initiated by liquid
      liquid phase separation droplets with high Zr content, which eventually evolve
      into the nanocrystalline ZrO2 precipitations. This process is accompanied by a
      gradual change of the coordination of the tetravalent Zr ions from sixfold in the
      glass to eightfold in the crystals. The diameters of the ZrO2 crystals stay well
      below 4 nm, even at late stages. The degree of crystallization at each step of
      the crystallization process is deduced, and from that, the Avrami coefficient n
      is determined to be n ~ 1, which describes a barrier-limited crystal growth
      process.

PMID- 28883530
TI  - Study on dose-dependent, frequency-dependent, and accumulative effects of 1.5 GHz
      and 2.856 GHz microwave on cognitive functions in Wistar rats.
AB  - Many studies have revealed the cognitive decline induced by microwave radiation.
      However, the systematic study on dose-dependent, frequency-dependent and
      accumulative effects of microwave exposure at different frequencies was lacking.
      Here, we studied the relationship between the effects and the power and frequency
      of microwave and analyzed the accumulative effects of two different frequency
      microwaves with the same average power density. After microwave radiation,
      declines in spatial learning and memory and fluctuations of brain electric
      activities were found in the 10 mW/cm2 single frequency exposure groups and
      accumulative exposure groups. Meanwhile, morphological evidences in hippocampus
      also supported the cognitive dysfunction. Moreover, the decrease of Nissl
      contents in neurons indicated protein-based metabolic disorders in neurons. By
      detecting the key functional proteins of cholinergic transmitter metabolism,
      cytokines, energy metabolism and oxidative stress in the hippocampus, we found
      that microwave could lead to multiple metabolic disorders. Our results showed
      that microwave-induced cognitive decline was largely determined by its power
      rather than frequency. Injury effects were also found in accumulative exposure
      groups. We particularly concerned about the safety dose, injury effects and
      accumulative effects of microwaves, which might be very valuable in the future.

PMID- 28883532
TI  - Patterns of Oxygen Pulse Curve in Response to Incremental Exercise in Patients
      with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - An Observational Study.
AB  - In COPD, pulmonary hyperinflation causes decreased stroke volume thereby
      decreased oxygen pulse (O2P). While O2P flattening is related to myocardial
      ischemia in cardiac patients, O2P patterns have seldom been explored in COPD. The
      aims of the study were to investigate O2P-curve patterns and associated factors
      in COPD. Seventy-five patients with stable COPD were enrolled. The demographics,
      cardiac size, physiological measurements and stress EKG were compared among O2P
      curve pattern groups. An algorithm to identify O2P-curve patterns was developed
      in 28 patients. In the remaining 45 patients after excluding two with poor
      effort, this algorithm revealed 20 (44%) flattening, 16 (36%) increasing, and
      nine (20%) decreasing patterns. The flattening-type group had lower body mass,
      cardiac size, and diffusing capacity, and larger lung volumes (p = 0.05-<0.0001)
      compared to the increasing-type group. During exercise, the flattening-type group
      had a lower operable O2P and more hyperventilation and dyspnea (p = 0.02-<0.01).
      None had ST-T changes. Most differences were related to body mass and mildly to
      inspiratory fraction. The decreasing-type group performed higher effort than the
      increasing-type group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, O2P flattening was common and
      was associated with reduced body mass and pulmonary hyperinflation rather than
      with myocardial ischemia. The decreasing-type may be caused by motivation to
      exercise.

PMID- 28883531
TI  - Engineered proteins with sensing and activating modules for automated
      reprogramming of cellular functions.
AB  - Protein-based biosensors or activators have been engineered to visualize
      molecular signals or manipulate cellular functions. Here we integrate these two
      functionalities into one protein molecule, an integrated sensing and activating
      protein (iSNAP). A prototype that can detect tyrosine phosphorylation and
      immediately activate auto-inhibited Shp2 phosphatase, Shp2-iSNAP, is designed
      through modular assembly. When Shp2-iSNAP is fused to the SIRPalpha receptor
      which typically transduces anti-phagocytic signals from the 'don't eat me' CD47
      ligand through negative Shp1 signaling, the engineered macrophages not only allow
      visualization of SIRPalpha phosphorylation upon CD47 engagement but also rewire
      the CD47-SIRPalpha axis into the positive Shp2 signaling, which enhances
      phagocytosis of opsonized tumor cells. A second SIRPalpha Syk-iSNAP with
      redesigned sensor and activator modules can likewise rewire the CD47-SIRPalpha
      axis to the pro-phagocytic Syk kinase activation. Thus, our approach can be
      extended to execute a broad range of sensing and automated reprogramming actions
      for directed therapeutics.Protein-based biosensors have been engineered to
      interrogate cellular signaling and manipulate function. Here the authors
      demonstrate iSNAP, a tool to detect tyrosine phosphorylation and activate desired
      protein enzymes allowing the control of phagocytosis in macrophages.

PMID- 28883533
TI  - Systems Identification and Characterization of Cell Wall Reassembly and
      Degradation Related Genes in Glycine max (L.) Merill, a Bioenergy Legume.
AB  - Soybean is a promising biomass resource for generation of second-generation
      biofuels. Despite the utility of soybean cellulosic biomass and post-processing
      residues in biofuel generation, there is no comprehensive information available
      on cell wall loosening and degradation related gene families. In order to achieve
      enhanced lignocellulosic biomass with softened cell walls and reduced
      recalcitrance, it is important to identify genes involved in cell wall polymer
      loosening and degrading. Comprehensive genome-wide analysis of gene families
      involved in cell wall modifications is an efficient stratagem to find new
      candidate genes for soybean breeding for expanding biofuel industry. We report
      the identification of 505 genes distributed among 12 gene families related to
      cell wall loosening and degradation. 1262 tandem duplication events contributed
      towards expansion and diversification of studied gene families. We identified 687
      Simple Sequence Repeat markers and 5 miRNA families distributed on 316 and 10
      genes, respectively. Publically available microarray datasets were used to
      explore expression potential of identified genes in soybean plant developmental
      stages, 68 anatomical parts, abiotic and biotic stresses. Co-expression networks
      revealed transcriptional coordination of different gene families involved in cell
      wall loosening and degradation process.

PMID- 28883535
TI  - Mechanisms of silver nanoparticle toxicity to the coastal marine diatom
      Chaetoceros curvisetus.
AB  - Inputs of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to marine waters continue to increase yet
      mechanisms of AgNPs toxicity to marine phytoplankton are still not well resolved.
      This study reports a series of toxicity experiments on a representative coastal
      marine diatom species Chaetoceros curvisetus using the reference AgNP, NM-300K.
      Exposure to AgNPs resulted in photosynthetic impairment and loss of diatom
      biomass in proportion to the supplied AgNP dose. The underlying mechanism of
      toxicity was explored via comparing biological responses in parallel experiments.
      Diatom responses to AgNP, free Ag(I) species, and dialysis bag-retained AgNP
      treatments showed marked similarity, pointing towards a dominant role of Ag(I)
      species uptake, rather than NPs themselves, in inducing the toxic response. In
      marked contrast to previous studies, addition of the organic complexing agent
      cysteine (Cys) alongside Ag only marginally moderated toxicity, implying AgCys-
      complexes were bioavailable to this diatom species. A preliminary field
      experiment with a natural phytoplankton community in the southeast Atlantic Ocean
      showed no significant toxic response at a NM-300 K concentration that resulted in
      ~40% biomass loss in the culture studies, suggesting a modulating effect of
      natural seawaters on Ag toxicity.

PMID- 28883534
TI  - Biological effects of dosing aerobic exercise and neuromuscular electrical
      stimulation in rats.
AB  - Aerobic exercise (AE) and non-aerobic neuromuscular electric stimulation (NMES)
      are common interventions used in physical therapy. We explored the dose
      dependency (low, medium, high) of these interventions on biochemical factors,
      such as brain derived neurotrophic growth factor (BDNF), vascular endothelial
      growth factor-A (VEGF-A), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and Klotho, in the
      blood and brain of normal rats, as well as a treadmill-based maximum capacity
      test (MCT). A medium dose of AE produced the most improvement in MCT with dose
      dependent changes in Klotho in the blood. A dose-dependent increase of BDNF was
      evident following completion of an NMES protocol, but there was no improvement in
      MCT performance. Gene expression in the hippocampus was increased after both AE
      and NMES, with IGF-1 being a signaling molecule that correlated with MCT
      performance in the AE conditions, but also highly correlated with VEGF-A and
      Klotho. Blood Klotho levels can serve as a biomarker of therapeutic dosing of AE,
      whereas IGF-1 is a key molecule coupled to gene expression of other molecules in
      the hippocampus. This approach provides a translatable paradigm to investigate
      the mode and mechanism of action of interventions employed in physical therapy
      that can improve our understanding of how these factors change under pathological
      conditions.

PMID- 28883536
TI  - Techniques and long-term effects of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt
      on liver cirrhosis-related thrombotic total occlusion of main portal vein.
AB  - Portal vein hypertension (PVH) in liver cirrhosis complicated with portal venous
      thrombosis (PVT) has been mainly treated with transjugular intrahepatic
      portosystemic shunt (TIPS). The clinical effects of TIPS have been confirmed,
      however, no large-scale studies have been focused on technical analyses and a
      long-term follow-up, especially on thrombotic total occlusion of main portal vein
      (MPV). To demonstrate critical techniques and clinical outcome of TIPS on liver
      cirrhosis-related thrombotic total occlusion of MPV, 98 patients diagnosed with
      liver cirrhosis related thrombotic total occlusion of MPV and treated with TIPS
      from January 2000 to January 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. Twenty-three
      (23.5%) patients had MPV (single site) thrombosis, 55 (56.1%) had multiple site
      thrombosis (MPV and other), 17 (17.3%) had cavernous transformation of portal
      vein, and 3 (3.1%) had post-transplant thrombosis. The successful rate of TIPS
      was 90.7%, without any procedure-related deaths or severe complications. Mean
      portal pressure was dropped from 33.08 +/- 1.38 mmHg preoperatively to 20.18 +/-
      0.83 mmHg postoperatively (p < 0.001). Collectively, TIPS is safe and effective
      in treating liver cirrhosis-related thrombotic total occlusion of MPV. This
      complex procedure requires combination of indirect portography and percutaneous
      transhepatic portal techniques to increase the rate of success.

PMID- 28883537
TI  - Spontaneous approaches of divers by free-ranging orcas (Orcinus orca): age- and
      sex-differences in exploratory behaviours and visual laterality.
AB  - Running comparative studies of laterality in mammals is a way to deepen our
      understanding of the evolution of the brain hemisphere functions. Studies on
      vision highlighted a possible task-sharing between hemispheres depending on the
      characteristics of the observers, the nature of the observed stimulus and the
      context of the observation, a phenomenon that could go beyond the monitoring of
      conspecifics. Cetaceans are predators that adapted to an aquatic habitat and
      display a clear crossing of fibers to the side of the brain opposite the eye of
      origin. Here, we analysed the interactions between humans and cetaceans when free
      ranging orcas approach divers. Our study concentrated on the spontaneous
      exploratory behaviours of divers by orcas depending on their age and sex, and on
      the possible expression of a visual laterality. The results showed a significant
      preference for the use of the left eye but exclusively in adult females. Adult
      males had a more sustained attention than adult females, marked by a higher
      spatial proximity to divers, slower approaches and longer look durations. Adult
      females, probably more cautious, explored from the distance and more furtively.
      Our findings support a possible link between attentional/motivational states and
      visual laterality in mammals.

PMID- 28883538
TI  - Shorter sleep duration is associated with higher energy intake and an increase in
      BMI z-score in young children predisposed to overweight.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inadequate sleep has been shown to be a contributor to obesity in
      both children and adults. Less evidence is available for toddlers and among those
      with higher obesity risk. The objective of this study was to examine the
      relationship between sleep patterns and body weight development in a group of
      young obesity-predisposed children, and to assess whether intakes of energy or
      macronutrients mediate this relationship. METHODS: Participants included 368
      Danish children aged 2-6 years from the Healthy Start Study, a 1.3 year
      randomised controlled intervention trial. Sleep habits were measured using a 7
      day sleep diary. Multivariate linear regression with adjustment for confounders
      was used to assess the association of sleep duration and sleep variability with
      1.3 year changes (Delta) in body mass index (BMI) z-score from baseline to follow
      up. RESULTS: The average nighttime sleep duration was 10.7 h (range 8.8-12.5 h).
      After controlling for potential confounders, a significant inverse association
      between nighttime sleep duration and DeltaBMI z-score (beta=-0.090, P=0.046) was
      observed. This relationship was mediated by energy intake, with all
      macronutrients contributing to this mediation effect. No associations were found
      for sleep variability and DeltaBMI z-score but baseline intake of added sugars
      and sugary beverages were positively associated with sleep variability.
      CONCLUSION: Shorter sleep duration, mediated by energy intake in early in life,
      seems a risk factor for weight gain among young obesity-predisposed children.

PMID- 28883539
TI  - Role of adipose tissue in melanoma cancer microenvironment and progression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An epidemiological association between excess weight and increased
      risk of cancer has been described in melanoma, for which the physiopathological
      mechanisms are still unknown. The study of tumor microenvironment and of the role
      of adipocytes in cancer development, progression and metastasis has recently
      received great interest. However, the role of peritumoral adipocytes has been
      characterized only in a few types of cancer, and in melanoma it still remains to
      be defined. METHODS: We investigated the interactions between adipocytes and
      melanoma cells using an in vitro co-culture system. We studied the morphological
      and functional properties of 3T3-L1 adipocytes before and after co-culture with
      A375 melanoma cells, in order to assess the role of adipocytes on melanoma
      migration. RESULTS: Morphological analysis showed that after 6 days of co-culture
      3T3-L1 adipocytes were reduced in number and size. Moreover, we observed the
      appearance of dedifferentiated cells with a fibroblast-like phenotype that were
      not present in controls and that had lost the expression of some adipocyte
      specific genes, and increased the expression of collagen, metalloproteinases and
      genes typical of dedifferentiation processes. Through the Matrigel Invasion Test,
      as well the Scratch Test, it was possible to observe that co-culture with
      adipocytes induced in melanoma cells increased migratory capacity, as compared
      with controls. In particular, the increase in migration observed in co-culture
      was suppressed after adding the protein SFRP-5 in the medium, supporting the
      involvement of the Wnt5a pathway. The activation of this pathway was further
      characterized by immunofluorescence and western blot analysis, showing in
      melanocytes in co-culture the activation of beta-catenin and LEF-1, two
      transcription factors involved in migration processes, neo-angiogenesis and
      metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: These data allow us to hypothesize a dedifferentiation
      process of adipocytes toward fibroblast-like cells, which can promote migration
      of melanoma cells through activation of Wnt5a and the intracellular pathways of
      beta-catenin and LEF-1.

PMID- 28883540
TI  - BAT is independently affected by peripheral and central pathways.

PMID- 28883541
TI  - Prenatal risk factors influencing childhood BMI and overweight independent of
      birth weight and infancy BMI: a path analysis within the Danish National Birth
      Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Prenatal risk factors for childhood overweight may
      operate indirectly through development in body size in early life and/or directly
      independent hereof. We quantified the effects of maternal and paternal body mass
      index (BMI), maternal age, socioeconomic position (SEP), parity, gestational
      weight gain, maternal smoking during pregnancy, caesarean section, birth weight,
      and BMI at 5 and 12 months on BMI and overweight at 7 and 11 years. METHODS:
      Family triads with information on maternal, paternal and child BMI at ages 7
      (n=29 374) and 11 years (n=18 044) were selected from the Danish National Birth
      Cohort. Information originated from maternal interviews and medical health
      examinations. Path analysis was used to estimate the direct and indirect effects
      of prenatal risk factors on childhood BMI z-scores (BMIz per unit score of the
      risk factor). Logistic regression was used to examine associations with
      overweight. RESULTS: The strongest direct effects on BMIz at age 7 were found for
      maternal and paternal BMI (0.19 BMIz and 0.14 BMIz per parental BMIz), low SEP
      (0.08 BMIz), maternal smoking (0.12 BMIz) and higher BMIz at 5 and 12 months (up
      to 0.19 BMIz per infant BMIz). For BMIz at age 11 with BMIz at age 7 included in
      the model, similar effects were found, but the direct effects of BMIz at age 5
      and 12 months were mediated through BMI at age 7 (0.62 BMIz per BMIz). Same
      results were found for overweight. The sum of the direct effects can be
      translated to approximate absolute measures: 2.4 kg at 7 years, 5.7 kg at 11
      years, in a child with average height and BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Parental BMI, low SEP
      and smoking during pregnancy have persisting, strong and direct effects on child
      BMI and overweight independent of birth weight and infancy BMI.

PMID- 28883542
TI  - Longitudinal micro-ultrasound assessment of the ob/ob mouse model: evaluation of
      cardiovascular, renal and hepatic parameters.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and is associated
      with increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Leptin-deficient mice
      (ob/ob) are widely employed to investigate obesity. Aim of this study was to
      provide a micro-ultrasound (MUUS) longitudinal evaluation of the ob/ob mouse
      model in terms of cardiovascular effects, consequences for renal microcirculation
      and liver fat accumulation. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Sixteen wild-type (wt) and eleven
      ob/ob male mice were studied at 8 (T0) and 25 (T1) weeks of age with a MUUS
      system (Vevo2100) and B-mode and Doppler images were acquired. Cardiac output
      (CO), ejection fraction (EF), stroke volume (SV), fractional shortening (FS) and
      E/A ratio were measured from cardiac images. Mean diameter (Dmabd, Dmcar),
      relative distension (relDabd and relDcar) and pulse wave velocity (PWVabd and
      PWVcar) were obtained for both abdominal aorta and common carotid. As regards
      renal microcirculation, renal resistivity and pulsatility index (RI and PI) were
      assessed. The ratio between grey levels related to liver and kidney (Steato
      Score) was used as index of hepatic steatosis. RESULTS: At T0, ob/ob mice showed
      reduced SV, EF, CO and relDabd values and increased LVmass, PWVabd, RI, PI and
      Steato-score measurements. The same comparison repeated at T1 highlighted similar
      results for SV, EF, CO, RI, PI and Steato-Score; furthermore, obese mice showed
      reduced Dmabd and Dmcar measurements in comparison with lean controls. The
      longitudinal analysis showed an increase in LVmass and Dmabd and a reduction of
      FS, EF, CO, relDabd and relDcar for wt animals, while no differences were found
      for the ob/ob group. CONCLUSIONS: ob/ob mice presented a premature cardiac
      dysfunction without a further age-related deterioration and a reduction in the
      abdominal aorta and carotid artery mean diameter in adult age. The proposed
      analysis can represent a valid approach for longitudinal studies aimed at testing
      new therapeutic strategies or for characterizing other mouse models.

PMID- 28883543
TI  - Pre-treatment microbial Prevotella-to-Bacteroides ratio, determines body fat loss
      success during a 6-month randomized controlled diet intervention.
AB  - On the basis of the abundance of specific bacterial genera, the human gut
      microbiota can be divided into two relatively stable groups that might have a
      role in personalized nutrition. We studied these simplified enterotypes as
      prognostic markers for successful body fat loss on two different diets. A total
      of 62 participants with increased waist circumference were randomly assigned to
      receive an ad libitum New Nordic Diet (NND) high in fiber/whole grain or an
      Average Danish Diet for 26 weeks. Participants were grouped into two discrete
      enterotypes by their relative abundance of Prevotella spp. divided by Bacteroides
      spp. (P/B ratio) obtained by quantitative PCR analysis. Modifications of dietary
      effects of pre-treatment P/B group were examined by linear mixed models. Among
      individuals with high P/B the NND resulted in a 3.15 kg (95% confidence interval
      (CI): 1.55; 4.76, P<0.001) larger body fat loss compared with ADD, whereas no
      differences was observed among individuals with low P/B (0.88 kg (95% CI: -0.61;
      2.37, P=0.25)). Consequently, a 2.27 kg (95% CI: 0.09; 4.45, P=0.041) difference
      in responsiveness to the diets were found between the two groups. In summary,
      subjects with high P/B ratio appeared more susceptible to lose body fat on diets
      high in fiber and whole grain than subjects with a low P/B ratio.

PMID- 28883544
TI  - Global fibroblast activation throughout the left ventricle but localized fibrosis
      after myocardial infarction.
AB  - Fibroblast (Fb) differentiation and interstitial fibrosis contribute to cardiac
      remodeling and loss of function after myocardial infarction (MI). We investigated
      regional presence and regulation of fibrosis in a pig MI model. In vivo analysis
      of regional function and perfusion defined three regions: the scar, the
      myocardium adjacent to the scar (MIadjacent, reduced function, reduced perfusion
      reserve), and the remote myocardium (MIremote, minimal functional deficit,
      maintained perfusion). Interstitial and perivascular fibrosis, and increase of
      collagen type I, was only observed in the MIadjacent. Fb activated protein-alpha
      (FAP-alpha) was enriched in MIadjacent compared to MIremote. TGF-beta1, which
      triggers Fb differentiation, was upregulated in both MIadjacent and MIremote,
      whereas lysyl oxidase, a regulator of collagen cross-linking, and the
      proteoglycans decorin and biglycan were only increased in the MIadjacent. Fb
      isolated and cultured for 4 days had myoFb characteristics with little difference
      between MIremote and MIadjacent, although RNA sequencing revealed differences in
      gene expression profiles. Fbs from all regions maintained proliferative capacity,
      and induced contraction of 3-D collagen matrices but scar myoFb was more
      effective. These data suggest that after MI, signaling through TGF-beta1,
      possibly related to increased mechanical load, drives Fb activation throughout
      the left ventricle while regional signaling determines further maturation and
      extracellular matrix remodeling after MI.

PMID- 28883545
TI  - Copy number rather than epigenetic alterations are the major dictator of
      imprinted methylation in tumors.
AB  - It has been postulated that imprinting aberrations are common in tumors. To
      understand the role of imprinting in cancer, we have characterized copy-number
      and methylation in over 280 cancer cell lines and confirm our observations in
      primary tumors. Imprinted differentially methylated regions (DMRs) regulate
      parent-of-origin monoallelic expression of neighboring transcripts in cis. Unlike
      single-copy CpG islands that may be prone to hypermethylation, imprinted DMRs can
      either loose or gain methylation during tumorigenesis. Here, we show that
      methylation profiles at imprinted DMRs often not represent genuine epigenetic
      changes but simply the accumulation of underlying copy-number aberrations (CNAs),
      which is independent of the genome methylation state inferred from cancer
      susceptible loci. Our results reveal that CNAs also influence allelic expression
      as loci with copy-number neutral loss-of-heterozygosity or amplifications may be
      expressed from the appropriate parental chromosomes, which is indicative of
      maintained imprinting, although not observed as a single expression foci by RNA
      FISH.Altered genomic imprinting is frequently reported in cancer. Here, the
      authors analyze copy number and methylation in cancer cell lines and primary
      tumors to show that imprinted methylation profiles represent the accumulation of
      copy number alteration, rather than epigenetic alterations.

PMID- 28883546
TI  - API5 induces cisplatin resistance through FGFR signaling in human cancer cells.
AB  - Most tumors frequently undergo initial treatment with a chemotherapeutic agent
      but ultimately develop resistance, which limits the success of chemotherapies. As
      cisplatin exerts a high therapeutic effect in a variety of cancer types, it is
      often used in diverse strategies, such as neoadjuvant, adjuvant and combination
      chemotherapies. However, cisplatin resistance has often manifested regardless of
      cancer type, and it represents an unmet clinical need. Since we found that API5
      expression was positively correlated with chemotherapy resistance in several
      specimens from patients with cervical cancer, we decided to investigate whether
      API5 is involved in the development of resistance after chemotherapy and to
      explore whether targeting API5 or its downstream effectors can reverse chemo
      resistance. For this purpose, cisplatin-resistant cells (CaSki P3 CR) were
      established using three rounds of in vivo selection with cisplatin in a
      xenografted mouse. In the CaSki P3 CR cells, we observed that API5 acted as a
      chemo-resistant factor by rendering cancer cells resistant to cisplatin-induced
      apoptosis. Mechanistic investigations revealed that API5 mediated chemo
      resistance by activating FGFR1 signaling, which led to Bim degradation.
      Importantly, FGFR1 inhibition using either an siRNA or a specific inhibitor
      disrupted cisplatin resistance in various types of API5high cancer cells in an in
      vitro cell culture system as well as in an in vivo xenograft model. Thus, our
      results demonstrated that API5 promotes chemo-resistance and that targeting
      either API5 or its downstream FGFR1 effectors can sensitize chemo-refractory
      cancers.

PMID- 28883548
TI  - A Novel Statistical Method to Diagnose, Quantify and Correct Batch Effects in
      Genomic Studies.
AB  - Genome projects now generate large-scale data often produced at various time
      points by different laboratories using multiple platforms. This increases the
      potential for batch effects. Currently there are several batch evaluation methods
      like principal component analysis (PCA; mostly based on visual inspection), and
      sometimes they fail to reveal all of the underlying batch effects. These methods
      can also lead to the risk of unintentionally correcting biologically interesting
      factors attributed to batch effects. Here we propose a novel statistical method,
      finding batch effect (findBATCH), to evaluate batch effect based on probabilistic
      principal component and covariates analysis (PPCCA). The same framework also
      provides a new approach to batch correction, correcting batch effect
      (correctBATCH), which we have shown to be a better approach to traditional PCA
      based correction. We demonstrate the utility of these methods using two different
      examples (breast and colorectal cancers) by merging gene expression data from
      different studies after diagnosing and correcting for batch effects and retaining
      the biological effects. These methods, along with conventional visual inspection
      based PCA, are available as a part of an R package exploring batch effect
      (exploBATCH; https://github.com/syspremed/exploBATCH ).

PMID- 28883547
TI  - Casein kinase 2 is a critical determinant of the balance of Th17 and Treg cell
      differentiation.
AB  - Th17 cells promote inflammatory reactions, whereas regulatory T (Treg) cells
      inhibit them. Thus, the Th17/Treg cell balance is critically important in
      inflammatory diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this balance
      are unclear. Here, we demonstrate that casein kinase 2 (CK2) is a critical
      determinant of the Th17/Treg cell balance. Both the inhibition of CK2 with a
      specific pharmacological inhibitor, CX-4945, and its small hairpin RNA (shRNA)
      mediated knockdown suppressed Th17 cell differentiation but reciprocally induced
      Treg cell differentiation in vitro. Moreover, CX-4945 ameliorated the symptoms of
      experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and reduced Th17 cell infiltration into
      the central nervous system. Mechanistically, CX-4945 inhibited the IL-6/STAT3 and
      Akt/mTOR signaling pathways. Thus, CK2 has a crucial role in regulating the
      Th17/Treg balance.

PMID- 28883549
TI  - In situ disordering of monoclinic titanium monoxide Ti5O5 studied by transmission
      electron microscope TEM.
AB  - The superlattice and domain structures exhibited by ordered titanium monoxide
      Ti5O5 are disrupted by low energy electron beam irradiation. The effect is
      attributed to the disordering of the oxygen and titanium sublattices. This
      disordering is caused by the displacement of both oxygen and titanium atoms by
      the incident electrons and results in a phase transformation of the monoclinic
      phase Ti5O5 into cubic B1 titanium monoxide. In order to determine the energies
      required for the displacement of titanium or oxygen atoms, i.e. threshold
      displacement energies, a systematic study of the disappearance of superstructure
      reflections with increasing electron energy and electron bombardment dose has
      been performed in situ in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). An incident
      electron energy threshold between 120 and 140 keV has been observed. This
      threshold can be ascribed to the displacements of titanium atoms with 4 as well
      as with 5 oxygen atoms as nearest neighbors. The displacement threshold energy of
      titanium atoms in Ti5O5 corresponding with the observed incident electron
      threshold energy lies between 6.0 and 7.5 eV. This surprisingly low value can be
      explained by the presence of either one or two vacant oxygen lattice sites in the
      nearest neighbors of all titanium atoms.

PMID- 28883550
TI  - Electrokinetically driven continuous-flow enrichment of colloidal particles by
      Joule heating induced temperature gradient focusing in a convergent-divergent
      microfluidic structure.
AB  - Enrichment of colloidal particles in continuous flow has not only numerous
      applications but also poses a great challenge in controlling physical forces that
      are required for achieving particle enrichment. Here, we for the first time
      experimentally demonstrate the electrokinetically-driven continuous-flow
      enrichment of colloidal particles with Joule heating induced temperature gradient
      focusing (TGF) in a microfluidic convergent-divergent structure. We consider four
      mechanisms of particle transport, i.e., advection due to electroosmosis,
      electrophoresis, dielectrophoresis and, and further clarify their roles in the
      particle enrichment. It is experimentally determined and numerically verified
      that the particle thermophoresis plays dominant roles in enrichment of all
      particle sizes considered in this study and the combined effect of electroosmosis
      induced advection and electrophoresis is mainly to transport particles to the
      zone of enrichment. Specifically, the enrichment of particles is achieved with
      combined DC and AC voltages rather than a sole DC or AC voltage. A numerical
      model is formulated with consideration of the abovementioned four mechanisms, and
      the model can rationalize the experimental observations. Particularly, our
      analysis of numerical and experimental results indicates that thermophoresis
      which is usually an overlooked mechanism of material transport is crucial for the
      successful electrokinetic enrichment of particles with Joule heating induced TGF.

PMID- 28883551
TI  - Shape-based separation of microalga Euglena gracilis using inertial
      microfluidics.
AB  - Euglena gracilis (E. gracilis) has been proposed as one of the most attractive
      microalgae species for biodiesel and biomass production, which exhibits a number
      of shapes, such as spherical, spindle-shaped, and elongated. Shape is an
      important biomarker for E. gracilis, serving as an indicator of biological clock
      status, photosynthetic and respiratory capacity, cell-cycle phase, and
      environmental condition. The ability to prepare E. gracilis of uniform shape at
      high purities has significant implications for various applications in biological
      research and industrial processes. Here, we adopt a label-free, high-throughput,
      and continuous technique utilizing inertial microfluidics to separate E. gracilis
      by a key shape parameter-cell aspect ratio (AR). The microfluidic device consists
      of a straight rectangular microchannel, a gradually expanding region, and five
      outlets with fluidic resistors, allowing for inertial focusing and ordering,
      enhancement of the differences in cell lateral positions, and accurate
      separation, respectively. By making use of the shape-activated differences in
      lateral inertial focusing dynamic equilibrium positions, E. gracilis with
      different ARs ranging from 1 to 7 are directed to different outlets.

PMID- 28883552
TI  - Preparing a personal development plan for all members of the dental team.
AB  - Personal development plans (PDPs) have been a requirement for NHS hospital staff,
      Foundation Training and Dental Core Training for some years; however, the General
      Dental Council (GDC) are changing continuing professional development (CPD)
      requirements in 2018 (enhanced CPD) making a PDP a requirement for all members of
      the dental team. A PDP consists of objectives for targeting CPD most relevant to
      your practice or intended practice to undertake over a defined period to maximise
      the improvement of your professional development. The aim of this article is to
      explain how to prepare a PDP ahead of the requirement to utilise its benefits in
      training and performance for the dental team. This article references a template
      for all members of the dental team to record their PDP.

PMID- 28883553
TI  - The use and understanding of dental notation systems in UK and Irish dental
      hospitals.
AB  - Aim To identify the types of dental notation systems used in dental hospitals,
      and their perceived advantages and disadvantages. In addition, to record the
      dental notation used in patient referral letters.Method A self-completed
      questionnaire survey asking about the use of dental notation systems was
      distributed to 16 dental hospitals in the UK and Ireland in the summer of 2016.
      In addition, dentist referrals to the Restorative Dentistry department of the
      University Dental Hospital of Manchester were sequentially assessed for the
      dental notation used.Results Twelve hospitals replied. In order of frequency, the
      notation systems in use were the Alphanumeric, the Palmer, and the Federation
      Dentaire Internationale system. No hospital used the Universal system. Perceived
      advantages and disadvantages of each of the different systems were volunteered.
      One hundred and twenty-four referral letters were assessed and 100 were
      identified where dental notation was used. The majority used Alphanumeric
      notation.Conclusion A variety of dental notation systems remain in use in dental
      hospitals. The move to electronic recording and communication of information
      regarding teeth is encouraging the use of the Alphanumeric system. General dental
      practitioners are predominantly using the Alphanumeric system as their notation
      of choice in referral letters to the Restorative Dentistry department in
      Manchester.

PMID- 28883554
TI  - Adaptive mutations of neuraminidase stalk truncation and deglycosylation confer
      enhanced pathogenicity of influenza A viruses.
AB  - It has been noticed that neuraminidase (NA) stalk truncation has arisen from
      evolutionary adaptation of avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) from wild aquatic
      birds to domestic poultry. We identified this molecular alteration after the
      adaptation of a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus (pH1N1) in BALB/c mice. The mouse
      adapted pH1N1 lost its eight consecutive amino acids including one potential N
      linked glycosite from the NA stalk region. To explore the relationship of NA
      stalk truncation or deglycosylation with viral pathogenicity changes, we
      generated NA stalk mutant viruses on the pH1N1 backbone by reverse genetics.
      Intriguingly, either NA stalk truncation or deglycosylation changed pH1N1 into a
      lethal virus to mice by resulting in extensive pathologic transformation in the
      mouse lungs and systemic infection affecting beyond the respiratory organs in
      mice. The increased pathogenicity of these NA stalk mutants was also reproduced
      in ferrets. In further investigation using a human-infecting H7N9 avian IAV
      strain, NA stalk truncation or deglycosylation enhanced the replication property
      and pathogenicity of H7N9 NA stalk mutant viruses in the same mouse model. Taken
      together, our results suggest that NA stalk truncation or deglycosylation can be
      the pathogenic determinants of seasonal influenza viruses associated with the
      evolutionary adaptation of IAVs.

PMID- 28883556
TI  - Alternative sugars: Stevia.

PMID- 28883555
TI  - Associations between trunk muscle morphology, strength and function in older
      adults.
AB  - Skeletal muscle plays an important role in performing activities of daily living.
      While the importance of limb musculature in performing these tasks is well
      established, less research has focused on the muscles of the trunk. The purpose
      of the current study therefore, was to examine the associations between
      functional ability and trunk musculature in sixty-four community living males and
      females aged 60 years and older. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the a
      priori hypotheses were performed and reported with correlation coefficients and
      unstandardized beta coefficients (beta) respectively. The univariate analysis
      revealed significant correlations between trunk muscle size and functional
      ability (rectus abdominis: six-minute walk performance, chair stand test, sitting
      and rising test; lumbar multifidus: timed up and go) as well as trunk muscle
      strength and functional ability (trunk composite strength: six-minute walk
      performance, chair stand test, Berg balance performance, sitting and rising
      test). After controlling for covariates (age and BMI) in the multivariate
      analysis, higher composite trunk strength (beta = 0.34) and rectus abdominis size
      (beta = 0.33) were associated with better performance in the sitting and rising
      test. The importance of incorporating trunk muscle training into programs aimed
      at improving balance and mobility in older adults merits further exploration.

PMID- 28883557
TI  - Paediatric dentistry: Let's support each other.

PMID- 28883558
TI  - Nocturnal sleep architecture is altered by sleep bruxism.
AB  - Does sleep bruxism impair the night sleep architecture?

PMID- 28883561
TI  - Lips don't lie: Why there's more to a smile than just teeth.
AB  - An evaluation of the influence of teeth and the labial soft tissues on the
      perceived aesthetics of a smile.

PMID- 28883564
TI  - Lorna Jean Mary Knox.

PMID- 28883565
TI  - How can dentists help patients with diabetes?

PMID- 28883567
TI  - What is a profession?
AB  - Loss of autonomy should mean that dentistry may no longer be viewed as a
      profession. Relationships between medical professions, patients and politicians
      evolve as society disease patterns change. A new and more appropriately modern
      definition of what constitutes a profession may now be needed.

PMID- 28883568
TI  - NHS dentistry: Slow the troubling trend.

PMID- 28883570
TI  - Hypersensitivity - a touchy subject.
AB  - Clinical study to monitor dentinal hypersensitivity with episodic use of a
      desensitising dentifrice.

PMID- 28883571
TI  - BES meeting to focus on endodontic infections and systemic health.

PMID- 28883574
TI  - Dental education: Missing something vital?

PMID- 28883576
TI  - The antibiotic course has had its day.
AB  - A barrier to antibiotic conservation?

PMID- 28883580
TI  - Special feature: New regulations on X-ray use: likely implications for dental
      practices.

PMID- 28883582
TI  - Factors associated with use of general anaesthesia for dental procedures among
      British children.
AB  - Objectives To assess the demographic, socioeconomic, behavioural and clinical
      factors associated with use of dental general anaesthesia (DGA) among British
      children.Methods This study used data from 3053 children who participated in the
      2013 Children's Dental Health Survey in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Data
      were collected through parental questionnaires and clinical examinations. The
      crude and adjusted association of demographic (sex, age, ethnicity and country of
      residence), socioeconomic (socioeconomic classification and area deprivation),
      behavioural (age toothbrushing started, age when first went to the dentist, usual
      reason for dental visit and dental anxiety) and clinical factors (numbers of
      decayed and filled teeth) with DGA was assessed in logistic regression
      models.Results The lifetime prevalence of DGA use was 9.1%. Older children and
      those living in Wales, with higher levels of dental anxiety and more dental
      fillings, who visited the dentist only when in trouble, and who had parents in
      routine/manual occupations and parents who never worked have greater odds of
      reporting having ever used DGA.Conclusion This study shows that family
      socioeconomic background, usual reason for dental visit and country of residence
      were associated with DGA use among British children, over and above the effect of
      child age, dental anxiety and dental status.

PMID- 28883584
TI  - Social media and professionalism: a retrospective content analysis of Fitness to
      Practise cases heard by the GDC concerning social media complaints.
AB  - Introduction Since 2013, all General Dental Council (GDC) registrants' online
      activities have been regulated by the GDC's social media guidelines. Failure to
      comply with these guidelines results in a Fitness to Practise (FtP) complaint
      being investigated.Aims This study explores the prevalence of social media
      related FtP cases investigated by the GDC from 1 September 2013 to 21 June
      2016.Method Documentary analysis of social media related FtP cases published on
      the GDC's website was undertaken. All cases that met the study's inclusion
      criteria were analysed using a quantitative content analysis framework.Findings
      It was found that 2.4% of FtP cases published on the GDC website during that
      period were related to breaches of the social media guidelines. All of the cases
      investigated were proven and upheld. Most of those named in the complaints were
      dental nurses and the most common type of complaint was inappropriate Facebook
      comments.Conclusions The low incidence rate should be interpreted with caution,
      being illustrative of the types of issues that might arise rather than the
      volume. The GDC will need to remain vigilant in this area and ensure that social
      media awareness training is an active part of CPD for all the dental team.

PMID- 28883586
TI  - What is digital about dentistry?

PMID- 28883588
TI  - Highly politicised opinions.

PMID- 28883591
TI  - Oral health: Caries risk category.

PMID- 28883593
TI  - New BDA Northern Ireland Director.

PMID- 28883590
TI  - Peri-implantitis and the prosthodontist.
AB  - Peri-implantitis has been described as progressive crestal bone loss around a
      dental implant. The condition is poorly understood, and is challenging to manage;
      it is commonly and widely attributed to issues with the implant, the implant
      surface, surgical technique and oral hygiene. The effect of prosthodontic stages
      of treatment on the postoperatively established state has not been adequately
      investigated. It is the authors' contention that the manner in which the implant
      is restored contributes significantly to prognosis and peri-implant disease
      experience, and that the role of prosthodontic aspects of treatment in the
      causation of peri-implantitis may be seriously underestimated. The prosthodontist
      has a clear role and responsibility in the avoidance of future peri-implant
      problems by ensuring that implants are restored in an entirely biologically and
      biomechanically sound manner. The number of implant treatments carried out year
      on-year is rising apace, with more and more implants being restored in general
      dental practice. With the rapid emergence of lower cost dental implant systems
      and a broadening range of generic restorative options and components for well
      established systems, there is an increasing need to consider and understand how
      the implant restorative process may have a negative impact upon the peri-implant
      tissues, and how this effect may be minimised and peri-implant health promoted
      and maintained by paying attention to detail throughout the entire process.

PMID- 28883592
TI  - Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with offspring hypodontia.
AB  - '...maternal smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for having a child with
      hypodontia.'

PMID- 28883594
TI  - Conference report: 2nd Nazareth Conference on Dental Public Health.

PMID- 28883595
TI  - Chewing gum developed that detects peri-implant disease.

PMID- 28883597
TI  - 'Antibiotics advice is nothing new' says FGDP (UK).

PMID- 28883598
TI  - Comments regarding: Radia S, Sherriff M, McDonald F, Naini FB. Relationship
      between maxillary central incisor proportions and facial proportions.
AB  - '...the mean is a lonely place...'

PMID- 28883599
TI  - Plumbing the depths of barodontalgia.
AB  - Effect of a hyperbaric environment (diving conditions) on adhesive restorations:
      An in-vitro study.

PMID- 28883600
TI  - Tooth bleaching questions answered.
AB  - Tooth bleaching is an exciting treatment option for patients, which has many
      treatment options and considerations for the dentist. The purpose of this article
      is to answer questions in a Q&A fashion about different types of tooth bleaching
      and their applications to various clinical situations and patients' dental
      situations.

PMID- 28883601
TI  - How prepared are foundation dentists in England and Wales for independent general
      dental practice?
AB  - Introduction The Graduate Assessment of Preparedness for Practice (GAPP)
      questionnaire has been shown to be valid and reliable in assessing the
      preparedness of foundation dentists (FDs) for independent general dental practice
      (GDP). In this study it is used to establish preparedness at six weeks of dental
      foundation training (DFT) across England and Wales.Method GAPP questionnaires
      were sent to all FDs and ESs in England and Wales in mid-September 2012. Part 1
      of the GAPP questionnaire collected the descriptive data of respondents. Part 2
      comprised 34 'competence areas' designed to reflect the breadth of Preparing for
      Practice allowing respondents a 7-category Likert style response. Part 3
      comprised open questions designed to allow respondents to expand on their views.
      Quantitative categorical data from Part 2 was analysed using IBM SPSS (version
      20). Median scores were analysed and mean rank scores were generated in order to
      compare FD and ES responses. Part 2 results were cross-tabulated with the Part 1
      descriptors and analysed using the Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H non
      parametric tests. Mean rank scores were considered to be statistically
      significant if P <=0.05. Part 3 data was analysed thematically using NVivo
      (version 10).Results FDs and ESs felt that FDs were generally well prepared for
      independent GDP, although FDs rated their preparedness significantly higher than
      ESs in all areas. FDs who graduated from 4-year courses felt significantly more
      prepared across most of the curriculum than those from 5-year courses, and
      graduates from outside the UK felt less prepared for GDP than those from a UK
      school.Conclusions FDs appear to be well prepared for independent GDP at six
      weeks of DFT. FDs rated their preparedness significantly higher than ESs across
      the curriculum. Coupled with the finding that the more experienced ESs felt their
      FDs were less well prepared, that may indicate FDs potentially overstate their
      level of preparedness. FDs who completed 4-year courses were generally more
      prepared across a range of curricular areas, some of which may reflect
      differences in the courses they completed, while others may relate to the
      individual being a graduate on entry to the course. Distribution of
      questionnaires through DFT schemes has resulted in a large number of respondents
      which may allow valuable generalisations to be made about the preparedness of
      graduates entering DFT in the UK.

PMID- 28883603
TI  - Dental radiography: Living in a bubble.

PMID- 28883605
TI  - Effect of a hyperbaric environment (diving conditions) on adhesive restorations:
      an in vitro study.
AB  - Objectives No recent study has addressed the effect of diving conditions
      (pressure increase) on adhesive restorations. We evaluated the impact of a
      simulated hyperbaric environment on microleakage of the dentine-composite resin
      interface. The ultimate aim was to propose recommendations for restorative
      dentistry for patients who are divers to limit barodontalgia (dental pain caused
      by pressure variations of the environment) and may lead to dangerous
      sequelae.Methods We bonded 20 dentine disks by using an adhesive system
      (Scothbond Universal) to ten intact composite cylinders and ten composite
      cylinders with porosity (Ceram X mono). For each group, the samples were divided
      into two subgroups, one submitted to a simulated hyperbaric environment and the
      other to an ambient environment. All samples were immersed in a silver nitrate
      solution to evaluate microleakage at the interface after analysis with a
      camera.Results Dye percolation for groups in the hyperbaric environment was
      greater than groups in ambient environment. For each subgroup, dye percolation
      was greater for samples with than without porosity.Conclusions High percolation
      percentages demonstrate that our simulated hyperbaric condition led to loss of
      sealing at the dentine-composite resin interface, especially with porous
      composites.Clinical significance Respect of the protocol and the quality of
      condensation for adhesive restorations are important in all clinical situations,
      especially for patients who are divers. A more interventionist approach must be
      adopted with these patients.

PMID- 28883606
TI  - Photothermal enhancement of chemotherapy in breast cancer by visible irradiation
      of Gold Nanoparticles.
AB  - Photothermal Therapy (PTT) impact in cancer therapy has been increasing due to
      the enhanced photothermal capabilities of a new generation of nanoscale
      photothermal agents. Among these nanoscale agents, gold nanoshells and nanorods
      have demonstrated optimal properties for translation of near infra-red radiation
      into heat at the site of interest. However, smaller spherical gold nanoparticles
      (AuNPs) are easier to produce, less toxic and show improved photoconversion
      capability that may profit from the irradiation in the visible via standard
      surgical green lasers. Here we show the efficient light-to-heat conversion of
      spherical 14 nm AuNPs irradiated in the visible region (at the surface plasmons
      resonance peak) and its application to selectively obliterate cancer cells. Using
      breast cancer as model, we show a synergistic interaction between heat
      (photoconversion at 530 nm) and cytotoxic action by doxorubicin with clear
      advantages to those of the individual therapy approaches.

PMID- 28883607
TI  - Isoniazid Killing of Mycobacterium smegmatis NADH Pyrophosphatase Mutant at
      Single-Cell Level using Microfluidics and Time-Lapse Microscopy.
AB  - We introduce single-cell analysis for isoniazid-treated Mycobacterium smegmatis
      mutant, msm1946-NADH pyrophosphatase, using microfluidics and automated time
      lapse microscopy. Mycobacterial NADH pyrophosphatase isoforms play an important
      role for the mechanism of isoniazid and ethionamide activation. Our single-cell
      analysis revealed important insights on isoniazid killing mechanism that was
      masked by traditional killing assays, raised significant questions related to
      viable but non-culturable subpopulation of cells, and existing methods that
      defines minimum inhibitory concentration of drugs. The major goal of this study
      was quantitatively analyze bacterial cell parameters to obtain high-resolution
      data for the time evolution of antibiotic killing at the single-cell level. The
      presented tools and methods could be applied to the closely related organisms to
      provide more detailed information for the design and employment of antibiotic
      treatments.

PMID- 28883609
TI  - Thermal activation energy of 3D vortex matter in NaFe1-x Co x As (x = 0.01, 0.03
      and 0.07) single crystals.
AB  - We report on the thermally activated flux flow dependency on the doping dependent
      mixed state in NaFe1-x Co x As (x = 0.01, 0.03, and 0.07) crystals using the
      magnetoresistivity in the case of B//c-axis and B//ab-plane. It was found clearly
      that irrespective of the doping ratio, magnetoresistivity showed a distinct tail
      just above the T c,offset associated with the thermally activated flux flow
      (TAFF) in our crystals. Furthermore, in TAFF region the temperature dependence of
      the activation energy follows the relation [Formula: see text] with q = 1.5 in
      all studied crystals. The magnetic field dependence of the activation energy
      follows a power law of [Formula: see text] where the exponent alpha is changed
      from a low value to a high value at a crossover field of B = ~2 T, indicating the
      transition from collective to plastic pinning in the crystals. Finally, it is
      suggested that the 3D vortex phase is the dominant phase in the low temperature
      region as compared to the TAFF region in our series samples.

PMID- 28883608
TI  - GYY4137, a Hydrogen Sulfide Donor Modulates miR194-Dependent Collagen Realignment
      in Diabetic Kidney.
AB  - The relationship between hydrogen sulfide (H2S), microRNAs (miRs), matrix
      metalloproteinases (MMPs) and poly-ADP-ribose-polymerase-1 (PARP-1) in diabetic
      kidney remodeling remains mostly obscured. We aimed at investigating whether
      alteration of miR-194-dependent MMPs and PARP-1 causes renal fibrosis in diabetes
      kidney, and whether H2S ameliorates fibrosis. Wild type, diabetic Akita mice as
      well as mouse glomerular endothelial cells (MGECs) were used as experimental
      models, and GYY4137 as H2S donor. In diabetic mice, plasma H2S levels were
      decreased while ROS and expression of its modulator (ROMO1) were increased. In
      addition, alteration of MMPs-9, -13 and -14 expression, PARP-1, HIF1alpha, and
      increased collagen biosynthesis as well as collagen cross-linking protein, P4HA1
      and PLOD2 were observed along with diminished vascular density in diabetic
      kidney. These changes were ameliorated by GYY4137. Further, downregulated miRNA
      194 was normalized by GYY4137 in diabetic kidney. Similar results were obtained
      in in vitro condition. Interestingly, miR-194 mimic also diminished ROS
      production, and normalized ROMO1, MMPs-9, -13 and -14, and PARP-1 along with
      collagen biosynthesis and cross-linking protein in HG condition. We conclude that
      decrease H2S diminishes miR-194, induces collagen deposition and realignment
      leading to fibrosis and renovascular constriction in diabetes. GYY4137 mitigates
      renal fibrosis in diabetes through miR-194-dependent pathway.

PMID- 28883610
TI  - Analysis of Bioactive Amino Acids from Fish Hydrolysates with a New Bioinformatic
      Intelligent System Approach.
AB  - The current economics of the fish protein industry demand rapid, accurate and
      expressive prediction algorithms at every step of protein production especially
      with the challenge of global climate change. This help to predict and analyze
      functional and nutritional quality then consequently control food allergies in
      hyper allergic patients. As, it is quite expensive and time-consuming to know
      these concentrations by the lab experimental tests, especially to conduct large
      scale projects. Therefore, this paper introduced a new intelligent algorithm
      using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system based on whale optimization
      algorithm. This algorithm is used to predict the concentration levels of
      bioactive amino acids in fish protein hydrolysates at different times during the
      year. The whale optimization algorithm is used to determine the optimal
      parameters in adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. The results of proposed
      algorithm are compared with others and it is indicated the higher performance of
      the proposed algorithm.

PMID- 28883611
TI  - Genome-wide association study Identified multiple Genetic Loci on Chilling
      Resistance During Germination in Maize.
AB  - Maize (Zea mays, L.) cultivation has expanded greatly from tropical to temperate
      zones; however, its sensitivity to chilling often results in decreased
      germination rates, weak seedlings with reduced survival rates, and eventually
      lower yields. We conducted germination tests on the maize-282-diverse-panel (282
      inbred lines) under normal (25  degrees C) and chilling (8  degrees C)
      conditions. Three raw measurements of germination were recorded under each
      condition: 1) germination rate, 2) days to 50% germination, and 3) germination
      index. Three relative traits were derived as indicators of cold-tolerance. By
      using the 2,271,584 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the panel from
      previous studies, and genome-wide association studies by using FarmCPU R package
      to identify 17 genetic loci associated with cold tolerance. Seven associated SNPs
      hit directly on candidate genes; four SNPs were in high linkage disequilibrium
      with candidate genes within 366 kb. In total, 18 candidate genes were identified,
      including 10 candidate genes supported by previous QTL studies and five genes
      supported by previous gene cloning studies in maize, rice, and Arabidopsis. Three
      new candidate genes revealed by two associated SNPs were supported by both QTL
      analyses and gene cloning studies. These candidate genes and associated SNPs
      provide valuable resources for future studies to develop cold-tolerant maize
      varieties.

PMID- 28883612
TI  - Human electronegative low-density lipoprotein modulates cardiac repolarization
      via LOX-1-mediated alteration of sarcolemmal ion channels.
AB  - Dyslipidemia is associated with greater risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmias in
      patients with cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to examine whether the most
      electronegative subfraction of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), L5, is correlated
      with QTc prolongation in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and
      investigate the effects of human L5 on the electrophysiological properties of
      cardiomyocytes in relation to the lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor (LOX-1). L5
      was isolated from the plasma of 40 patients with angiography documented CAD and
      13 patients with no CAD to correlate the QTc interval respectively. The mean
      concentration of L5 was higher and correlated with QTc in patients with CAD
      compared to controls. To examine the direct effect of L5 on QTc, mice were
      intravenously injected with L5 or L1. L5-injected wild-type but not LOX-1-/- mice
      showed longer QTc compared to L1-injected animals in vivo with corresponding
      longer action potential duration (APD) in cardiomyocytes incubated with L5 in
      vitro. The APD prolongation was mediated by an increase of L-type calcium current
      and a decrease of transient outward potassium current. We show that L5 was
      positively correlated with QTc prolongation in patients with ischemic heart
      disease. L5 can modulate cardiac repolarization via LOX-1-mediated alteration
      sarcolemmal ionic currents.

PMID- 28883613
TI  - Evidence that endogenous formaldehyde produces immunogenic and atherogenic adduct
      epitopes.
AB  - Endogenous formaldehyde is abundantly present in our bodies, at around 100 uM
      under normal conditions. While such high steady state levels of formaldehyde may
      be derived by enzymatic reactions including oxidative demethylation/deamination
      and myeloperoxidation, it is unclear whether endogenous formaldehyde can initiate
      and/or promote diseases in humans. Here, we show that fluorescent malondialdehyde
      formaldehyde (M2FA)-lysine adducts are immunogenic without adjuvants in mice.
      Natural antibody titers against M2FA are elevated in atherosclerosis-prone mice.
      Staining with an antibody against M2FA demonstrated that M2FA is present in
      plaque found on the aortic valve of ApoE -/- mice. To mimic inflammation during
      atherogenesis, human myeloperoxidase was incubated with glycine, H2O2,
      malondialdehyde, and a lysine analog in PBS at a physiological temperature, which
      resulted in M2FA generation. These results strongly suggest that the 1,4
      dihydropyridine-type of lysine adducts observed in atherosclerosis lesions are
      likely produced by endogenous formaldehyde and malondialdehyde with lysine. These
      highly fluorescent M2FA adducts may play important roles in human inflammatory
      and degenerative diseases.

PMID- 28883614
TI  - An optical probe for detecting chondrocyte apoptosis in response to mechanical
      injury.
AB  - Cartilage injury induced by acute excessive contact stress is common and mostly
      affects young adult. Although early detection of cartilage injury may prevent
      serious and lifelong arthritic complications, early detection and treatment is
      not possible due to the lack of a reliable detection method. Since chondrocyte
      injury and subsequent cell death are the early signs of cartilage injury, it is
      likely that cartilage cell apoptosis can be used to predict the extent of injury.
      To test this hypothesis, a near infrared probe was fabricated to have high
      affinity to apoptotic cells. In vitro tests show that this apoptosis probe has
      low toxicity, high specificity, and high affinity to apoptotic cells. In
      addition, there is a positive relationship between apoptotic cell numbers and
      fluorescence intensities. Using a mouse xiphoid injury model, we found
      significant accumulation of the apoptosis probes at the injured xiphoid cartilage
      site. There was also a positive correlation between probe accumulation and the
      number of apoptotic chondrocytes within the injured xiphoid cartilage, which was
      confirmed by TUNEL assay. The results support that the apoptosis probes may serve
      as a powerful tool to monitor the extent of mechanical force-induced cartilage
      injury in vivo.

PMID- 28883615
TI  - Development of new experimental platform 'MARS'-Multiple Artificial-gravity
      Research System-to elucidate the impacts of micro/partial gravity on mice.
AB  - This Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency project focused on elucidating the
      impacts of partial gravity (partial g) and microgravity (MUg) on mice using newly
      developed mouse habitat cage units (HCU) that can be installed in the Centrifuge
      equipped Biological Experiment Facility in the International Space Station. In
      the first mission, 12 C57BL/6 J male mice were housed under MUg or artificial
      earth-gravity (1 g). Mouse activity was monitored daily via downlinked videos;
      MUg mice floated inside the HCU, whereas artificial 1 g mice were on their feet
      on the floor. After 35 days of habitation, all mice were returned to the Earth
      and processed. Significant decreases were evident in femur bone density and the
      soleus/gastrocnemius muscle weights of MUg mice, whereas artificial 1 g mice
      maintained the same bone density and muscle weight as mice in the ground control
      experiment, in which housing conditions in the flight experiment were replicated.
      These data indicate that these changes were particularly because of gravity. They
      also present the first evidence that the addition of gravity can prevent
      decreases in bone density and muscle mass, and that the new platform 'MARS' may
      provide novel insights on the molecular-mechanisms regulating biological
      processes controlled by partial g/MUg.

PMID- 28883617
TI  - Performance of cervical phIGFBP-1 test alone or combined with short cervical
      length to predict spontaneous preterm birth in symptomatic women.
AB  - We aimed to assess the accuracy of cervical phosphorylated insulin-like growth
      factor binding protein-1 (phIGFBP-1) test alone or in combination with cervical
      length (CL), to predict preterm birth (PTB) in symptomatic women. We performed a
      prospective cohort study from 2012 to 2015 including singleton pregnancies with
      symptoms of preterm labor, intact membranes and CL < 25 mm at 24-34 weeks of
      gestation. Studied outcome were spontaneous delivery within 7 and 14 days of
      testing and spontaneous PTB at <34 and <37 weeks of gestation. Among 180 women,
      21 (11.7%) had a positive phIGFBP-1 test. Spontaneous PTB occurred within 7 days,
      14 days of testing and before 34 weeks and 37 weeks in 7.8%, 10.6%, 12.9% and
      28.8%, respectively. The phIGFBP-1 test had a low predictive performance for all
      studied outcomes varying for positive likelihood ratios (2.8 to 3.4) and negative
      likelihood ratios (0.8). Combining phIGFBP-1 and CL did not increase its
      predictive ability. After adjustment, positive phIGFBP-1 test was no more
      independently associated with a delivery within 7 days (p = 0.55), unlike CL < 15
      mm (p = 0.04). In conclusion, phIGFBP-1 test alone or in combination with CL has
      a low predictive accuracy to predict PTB in symptomatic women.

PMID- 28883616
TI  - Association between Insomnia and Metabolic Syndrome in a Chinese Han Population:
      A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - The association between insomnia and metabolic syndrome remains unclear,
      especially among different-aged groups. A cross-sectional study with 8017
      participants was performed to identify whether insomnia was associated with
      metabolic syndrome or not. Demographic characteristics, lifestyles and other risk
      factors were collected using a predesigned, semi-structured, self-administered
      questionnaire, and physical examinations were conducted by certificated community
      physicians. Insomnia was not independently associated with metabolic syndrome
      across all subjects; however, the association between insomnia and metabolic
      syndrome was statistically significant in the male group (odds ratio (OR): 1.35,
      95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02-1.77) and the middle-aged group (OR: 1.40, 95%
      CI: 1.09-1.79) but not in the female group, the young adult group or the older
      group. Analyses of the individual components of metabolic syndrome revealed that
      insomnia was independently associated with raised blood pressure (OR: 1.24, 95%
      CI: 1.05-1.43) and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) (OR: 1.16,
      95% CI: 1.01-1.33). Insomnia was also independently associated with the severity
      of metabolic abnormalities (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.03-1.32). This study demonstrates
      an independent association between insomnia and metabolic syndrome in males and
      middle-aged participants, which suggests that treatment for insomnia will
      contribute to the prevention of metabolic syndrome in males and the middle-aged
      population.

PMID- 28883618
TI  - CG200745, an HDAC inhibitor, induces anti-tumour effects in cholangiocarcinoma
      cell lines via miRNAs targeting the Hippo pathway.
AB  - Cholangiocarcinoma is a devastating malignancy with fatal complications that
      exhibits low response and resistance to chemotherapy. Here, we evaluated the
      anticancer effects of CG200745, a novel histone deacetylase inhibitor, either
      alone or in combination with standard chemotherapy drugs in cholangiocarcinoma
      cells. CG200745 dose-dependently reduced the viability of cholangiocarcinoma
      cells in vitro and decreased tumour volume and weight in a xenograft model.
      Administering CG200745 along with other chemotherapeutic agents including
      gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin, oxaliplatin, or gemcitabine plus
      cisplatin further decreased cholangiocarcinoma cell viability, with a combination
      index < 1 that indicated synergistic action. CG200745 also enhanced the
      sensitivity of gemcitabine-resistant cells to gemcitabine and 5-FU, thereby
      decreasing cell viability and inducing apoptosis. This was accompanied by
      downregulation of YAP, TEAD4, TGF-beta2, SMAD3, NOTCH3, HES5, Axl, and Gas6 and
      upregulation of the miRNAs miR-22-3p, miR-22-5p, miR-194-5p, miR-194-3p, miR-194
      5p, miR-210-3p, and miR-509-3p. The Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed that
      CG200745 mainly targets the Hippo signalling pathway by inducing miR-509-3p
      expression. Thus, CG200745 inhibits cholangiocarcinoma growth in vitro and in
      vivo, and acts synergistically when administered in combination with standard
      chemotherapeutic agents, enabling dose reduction. CG200745 is therefore expected
      to improve the outcome of cholangiocarcinoma patients who exhibit resistance to
      conventional therapies.

PMID- 28883619
TI  - Tertiary and quaternary structural basis of oxygen affinity in human hemoglobin
      as revealed by multiscale simulations.
AB  - Human hemoglobin (Hb) is a benchmark protein of structural biology that shaped
      our view of allosterism over 60 years ago, with the introduction of the MWC model
      based on Perutz structures of the oxy(R) and deoxy(T) states and the more recent
      Tertiary Two-State model that proposed the existence of individual subunit states
      -"r" and "t"-, whose structure is yet unknown. Cooperative oxygen binding is
      essential for Hb function, and despite decades of research there are still open
      questions related to how tertiary and quaternary changes regulate oxygen
      affinity. In the present work, we have determined the free energy profiles of
      oxygen migration and for HisE7 gate opening, with QM/MM calculations of the
      oxygen binding energy in order to address the influence of tertiary differences
      in the control of oxygen affinity. Our results show that in the alpha subunit the
      low to high affinity transition is achieved by a proximal effect that mostly
      affects oxygen dissociation and is the driving force of the allosteric
      transition, while in the beta subunit the affinity change results from a complex
      interplay of proximal and distal effects, including an increase in the HE7 gate
      opening, that as shown by free energy profiles promotes oxygen uptake.

PMID- 28883620
TI  - Antibody production by in vivo RNA transfection.
AB  - Monoclonal antibodies have a variety of applications in research and medicine.
      Here, we report development of a new method for production of monoclonal
      antibodies. Our method relies on in vivo RNA transfection rather than peptide
      vaccination. We took advantage of RNA transcripts complexed with DOTMA and DOPE
      lipids to transfect mice. Intravenous administration of our RNA vaccine to mice
      resulted in expression of the antigenic peptides by splenic dendritic cells and
      detection of the antigens in the serum. The RNA vaccine stimulated production of
      specific antibodies against the RNA-encoded peptides. We produced monoclonal
      antibodies against viral, bacterial, and human antigens. In addition, we showed
      that our RNA vaccine stimulated humoral immunity and rescued mice infected with
      influenza A virus. Our method could be used as an efficient tool to generate
      monoclonal antibodies and to stimulate humoral immunity for research and medical
      purposes.

PMID- 28883621
TI  - Assessing the potential for raw meat to influence human colonization with
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - The role of household meat handling and consumption in the transfer of
      Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) from livestock to consumers is not well
      understood. Examining the similarity of S. aureus colonizing humans and S. aureus
      in meat from the stores in which those individuals shop can provide insight into
      the role of meat in human S. aureus colonization. S. aureus isolates were
      collected from individuals in rural and urban communities in Iowa (n = 3347) and
      contemporaneously from meat products in stores where participants report
      purchasing meat (n = 913). The staphylococcal protein A (spa) gene was sequenced
      for all isolates to determine a spa type. Morisita indices and Permutational
      Multivariate Analysis of Variance Using Distance Matrices (PERMANOVA) were used
      to determine the relationship between spa type composition among human samples
      and meat samples. spa type composition was significantly different between
      households and meat sampled from their associated grocery stores. spa types found
      in meat were not significantly different regardless of the store or county in
      which they were sampled. spa types in people also exhibit high similarity
      regardless of residential location in urban or rural counties. Such findings
      suggest meat is not an important source of S. aureus colonization in shoppers.

PMID- 28883623
TI  - MITF and BRN2 contribute to metastatic growth after dissemination of melanoma.
AB  - Melanoma tumors are highly heterogeneous, comprising of different cell types that
      vary in their potential for growth and invasion. Heterogeneous expression of the
      Microphthalmia-associated Transcription Factor (MITF) and the POU domain
      transcription factor BRN2 (POU3F2) has been found in malignant melanoma. Changing
      expression of these transcription factors as the disease progresses has been
      linked to the metastatic mechanism of phenotype switching. We therefore
      investigated the effects of MITF and BRN2 expression in melanoma growth and
      metastasis. Depletion of MITF resulted in a cell population that had a slowed
      cell cycle progression, was less invasive in vitro and had hindered tumor and
      metastasis forming ability in mouse xenograft studies. BRN2 depletion left a cell
      population with intact proliferation and invasion in vitro; however metastatic
      growth was significantly reduced in the mouse xenograft model. These results
      suggest that the proliferative population within melanoma tumors express MITF,
      and both MITF and BRN2 are important for metastatic growth in vivo. This finding
      highlights the importance of BRN2 and MITF expression in development of melanoma
      metastasis.

PMID- 28883622
TI  - SOCS2 Binds to and Regulates EphA2 through Multiple Mechanisms.
AB  - Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins inhibit signaling by serving as
      substrate receptors for the Cullin5-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase (CRL5) and through a
      variety of CRL5-independent mechanisms. CRL5, SOCS2 and SOCS6 are implicated in
      suppressing transformation of epithelial cells. We identified cell proteins that
      interact with SOCS2 and SOCS6 using two parallel proteomics techniques: BioID and
      Flag affinity purification mass spectrometry. The receptor tyrosine kinase ephrin
      type-A receptor 2 (EphA2) was identified as a SOCS2-interacting protein. SOCS2
      EphA2 binding requires the SOCS2 SH2 domain and EphA2 activation loop
      autophosphorylation, which is stimulated by Ephrin A1 (EfnA1) or by
      phosphotyrosine phosphatase inhibition. Surprisingly, EfnA1-stimulated EphA2
      SOCS2 binding is delayed until EphA2 has been internalized into endosomes. This
      suggests that SOCS2 binds to EphA2 in the context of endosomal membranes. We also
      found that SOCS2 overexpression decreases steady state levels of EphA2,
      consistent with increased EphA2 degradation. This effect is indirect: SOCS2
      induces EfnA1 expression, and EfnA1 induces EphA2 down-regulation. Other RTKs
      have been reported to bind, and be regulated by, over-expressed SOCS proteins.
      Our data suggest that SOCS protein over-expression may regulate receptor tyrosine
      kinases through indirect and direct mechanisms.

PMID- 28883624
TI  - Intraoperative Fentanyl Consumption Does Not Impact Cancer Recurrence or Overall
      Survival after Curative Colorectal Cancer Resection.
AB  - Whether opioid use in cancer surgery would promote tumor dissemination in humans
      is inconclusive. We investigated the effect of intraoperative fentanyl dose on
      colorectal cancer (CRC) prognosis following resection in this retrospective
      study. A total of 1679 patients with stage I-III CRC undergoing tumor resection
      between January 2011 and December 2014 were evaluated through August 2016.
      Postoperative recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were
      analyzed using Cox regression models. Multivariable Cox regression analysis
      demonstrated no dose-response association between the amount of fentanyl dose and
      RFS (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.03, 95% CI: 0.89-1.19) or OS (adjusted hazard
      ratio: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.64-1.09). Patients were further classified into the high-
      and low-dose groups by the median of fentanyl dose (3.0 MUg.kg-1), and there was
      no significant difference in RFS or OS between groups, either (adjusted hazard
      ratio: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.74-1.17 for RFS; 0.79, 95% CI: 0.52-1.19 for OS). We
      concluded that intraoperative fentanyl consumption has no impact on recurrence
      free or overall survival in patients after curative CRC resection.

PMID- 28883625
TI  - Redundant Functions for Nap1 and Chz1 in H2A.Z Deposition.
AB  - H2A.Z is a histone H2A variant that contributes to transcriptional regulation,
      DNA damage response and limits heterochromatin spreading. In Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae, H2A.Z is deposited by the SWR-C complex, which relies on several
      histone chaperones including Nap1 and Chz1 to deliver H2A.Z-H2B dimers to SWR-C.
      However, the mechanisms by which Nap1 and Chz1 cooperate to bind H2A.Z and their
      contribution to H2A.Z deposition in chromatin is not well understood. Using
      structural modeling and molecular dynamics simulations, we identify a series of
      H2A.Z residues that form a chaperone-specific binding surface. Mutation of these
      residues revealed different surface requirements for Nap1 and Chz1 interaction
      with H2A.Z. Consistent with this result, we found that loss of Nap1 or Chz1
      individually resulted in mild defects in H2A.Z deposition, but that deletion of
      both Nap1 and Chz1 resulted in a significant reduction of H2A.Z deposition at
      promoters and led to heterochromatin spreading. Together, our findings reveal
      unique H2A.Z surface dependences for Nap1 and Chz1 and a redundant role for these
      chaperones in H2A.Z deposition.

PMID- 28883626
TI  - Moral judgment modulation by disgust priming via altered fronto-temporal
      functional connectivity.
AB  - Moral judgments are not just the product of conscious reasoning, but also involve
      the integration of social and emotional information. Irrelevant disgust stimuli
      modulate moral judgments, with individual sensitivity determining the direction
      and size of effects across both hypothetical and incentive-compatible
      experimental designs. We investigated the neural circuitry underlying this
      modulation using fMRI in 19 individuals performing a moral judgment task with
      subliminal priming of disgust facial expressions. Our results indicate that
      individual changes in moral acceptability due to priming covaried with individual
      differences in activation within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC).
      Further, whole-brain analyses identified changes in functional connectivity
      between the dmPFC and the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). High sensitivity
      individuals showed enhanced functional connectivity between the TPJ and dmPFC,
      corresponding with deactivation in the dmPFC, and rating the moral dilemmas as
      more acceptable. Low sensitivity individuals showed the opposite pattern of
      results. Post-hoc, these findings replicated in the dorsal anterior cingulate
      cortex (daMCC), an adjacent region implicated in converting between objective and
      subjective valuation. This suggests a specific computational mechanism - that
      disgust stimuli modulate moral judgments by altering the integration of social
      information to determine the subjective valuation of the considered moral
      actions.

PMID- 28883627
TI  - Development of Fluorescent Probes that Target Serotonin 5-HT2B Receptors.
AB  - Some 5-HT2B fluorescent probes were obtained by tagging 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4
      iodophenyl)-propan-2-amine (DOI) with a subset of fluorescent amines. Some of the
      resulting fluorescent ligands showed excellent affinity and selectivity profiles
      at the 5-HT2B receptors (e.g. 12b), while retain the agonistic functional
      behaviour of the model ligand (DOI). The study highlighted the most salient
      features of the structure-activity relationship in this series and these were
      substantiated by a molecular modelling study based on a receptor-driven docking
      model constructed on the basis of the crystal structure of the human 5-HT2B
      receptor. One of the fluorescent ligands developed in this work, compound 12i,
      specifically labelled CHO-K1 cells expressing 5-HT2B receptors and not parental
      CHO-K1 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. 12i enables imaging and
      quantification of specific 5-HT2B receptor labelling in live cells by automated
      fluorescence microscopy as well as quantification by measurements of fluorescence
      intensity using a fluorescence plate reader.

PMID- 28883629
TI  - Reply to 'Pitfalls of using confocal-microscopy based automated quantification of
      synaptic complexes in honeybee mushroom bodies (response to Peng and Yang 2016)'.
AB  - In a comment on our Article "Sublethal Dosage of Imidacloprid Reduces the
      Microglomerular Density of Honey Bee Mushroom Bodies", Rossler et al. assert that
      our reported counts are overall lower than previously reported due to the use of
      automated quantification. We address these issues in this reply.

PMID- 28883628
TI  - Virulence of current German PEDV strains in suckling pigs and investigation of
      protective effects of maternally derived antibodies.
AB  - Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) has caused tremendous losses to the United States
      pig industry since 2013. From 2014, outbreaks were also reported from Central
      Europe. To characterize the Central European PEDV strains regarding their
      virulence in suckling piglets, and to assess the protective effect of maternally
      derived antibodies (MDA), four trial groups were randomly assigned, each
      consisting of two pregnant sows and their litter. To induce MDA in a subset of
      piglets, two sows received a cell culture-adapted PEDV strain, and another two
      sows were inoculated with field material from German PED outbreaks. Four sows
      stayed naive. Subsequently, all piglets were inoculated with the corresponding
      PEDV strains at an age of 3 to 6 days, and virus shedding, clinical signs and
      occurrence of specific antibodies were assessed. Piglets without MDA showed a
      morbidity of 100% and low lethality, while almost all MDA-positive piglets stayed
      clinically healthy and showed considerably lower virus shedding. Taken together,
      the Central European PEDV strains showed rather low virulence under experimental
      conditions, and pre-inoculation of sows led to a solid protection of their
      offspring. The latter is the prerequisite for a sow vaccination concept that
      could help to prevent PED induced losses in the piglet sector.

PMID- 28883630
TI  - A clinical investigation treating different types of fibroids identified by MRI
      T2WI imaging with ultrasound guided high intensity focused ultrasound.
AB  - Clinical data from 172 cases of uterine fibroids with different appearances on
      MRI-T2WI and accepted ultrasound guided high intensity focused ultrasound
      (USgHIFU) treatment were retrospectively analyzed. This study aimed to evaluate
      the clinical safety and efficacy of ablating different types of fibroids,
      classified by T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI-T2WI). Based on MRI
      T2WI signal intensities, uterine fibroids were classified as three types:
      hypointensive (52 cases), isointensive (64 cases) and hyperintensive (56 cases).
      Evaluation parameters including treatment time, ablation efficiency, percentage
      non-perfused volume, fibroid reduction rate, adverse reactions, symptom severity
      scores (SSS) and re-intervention rate were assessed from 3 months to 1 year. The
      percentage non-perfused volume and ablation efficiency of hyperintensive uterine
      fibroids were lower than those of isointensive and hypointensive uterine
      fibroids. All fibroids shrunk and the SSS continued to reduce at 3 and 6 months
      after treatment respectively. At 12-month postoperative assessments,
      hypointensive fibroids continued to shrink, while the isointensive fibroids
      enlarged but remained smaller than pre-treatment. The incident rate of
      postoperative Society of Interventional Radiology B-class (SIRB-class) adverse
      events showed no significant differences. The re-interventional rate of
      hyperintensive fibroids was higher than in isointensive and hypointensive groups.
      USgHIFU ablation of all types of fibroids were safe and effective.

PMID- 28883631
TI  - Antihyperglycaemic and organic protective effects on pancreas, liver and kidney
      by polysaccharides from Hericium erinaceus SG-02 in streptozotocin-induced
      diabetic mice.
AB  - The present work was designed to investigate the antihyperglycaemic and
      protective effects of two Hericium erinaceus intracellular polysaccharide (HIPS)
      purified fractions (HIPS1 and HIPS2) from mycelia of H. erinaceus SG-02 on
      pancreas, liver and kidney in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. The
      supplementation of HIPS1 and HIPS2 significantly decreased the blood glucose
      (GLU) levels; suppressed the abnormal elevations of alkaline phosphatase (ALP),
      alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), urea nitrogen
      (BUN) and creatinine (CRE) levels in serum; improved the antioxidant enzymatic
      (superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT))
      activities; and attenuated the pathological damage to these organs. The HIPS1
      showed superior effects in antihyperglycaemia and organic protection than HIPS2
      possible owing to the abundant functional groups (-NH2, -COOH and S=O) in HIPS1,
      indicating that H. erinaceus SG-02 could be used as a functional food and natural
      drug for the prevention of diabetes and its complications.

PMID- 28883632
TI  - Extraction, separation and characterization of endotoxins in water samples using
      solid phase extraction and capillary electrophoresis-laser induced fluorescence.
AB  - This study focuses on one of the key environmental threats, endotoxins, also
      known as lipopolysaccharides (LPS). A capillary electrophoresis method in
      combination with laser induced fluorescence (LIF) detection was developed for the
      analysis of endotoxins from 16 different bacterial strains. LPSs were derivatized
      with the amino-reactive fluorescent dye, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC),
      separated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) under the optimized conditions
      with the use of 50 mM sodium tetraborate buffer (pH 9.30), and detected by LIF
      detector. To improve the sensitivity of CZE-LIF detection for the determination
      of trace amounts of endotoxins and to remove possible interference materials in
      environmental samples, a solid phase extraction (SPE) pre-concentration technique
      was applied successfully. The SPE targeted at polysaccharide moieties of LPSs and
      showed LPS enrichment effects too. CE migration time could also reveal the O
      antigen chain lengths of LPSs. This CE method and SPE pretreatment showed
      linearity at 99.84%, and repeatabilities at 8.44% and 11.0% for endotoxins from
      E. Coli O55:B5 and E. Coli O26:B6. The limit of detection (LOD) could reach
      around 5 ng/mL at optimized condition. The method was applied successfully to the
      determination of LPS levels in tap water and wastewater, and demonstrated
      sensitive, reproducible and reliable results.

PMID- 28883634
TI  - Association of the resolvin precursor 17-HDHA, but not D- or E- series resolvins,
      with heat pain sensitivity and osteoarthritis pain in humans.
AB  - Resolvins are omega-3 fatty acid derived potent bioactive lipids that resolve
      inflammation and modulate transient receptor potential channels. Exogenous
      administration of the resolvin precursor 17-HDHA shows a strong analgesic effect
      in animal models of osteoarthritis and acute inflammatory pain, but has not been
      studied in humans. Our aim was to assess the role of 17-HDHA and resolvins in
      heat pain sensitivity and in osteoarthritis pain in humans. Resolvins D1, D2, D3,
      D5, E1 and 17-HDHA, were measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and
      tested for association with heat pain thresholds in 250 healthy volunteers who
      had undergone quantitative sensory testing. Resolvins D1, D2 and 17-HDHA were
      then tested in 62 individuals affected with knee osteoarthritis and 52 age
      matched controls and tested for association with knee pain. Circulating levels of
      docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were also measured. Levels of 17-HDHA, but not those
      of the other 5 resolvins tested, were associated with increased heat pain
      thresholds (beta = 0.075; 95% CI 0.024, 0.126; p < 0.0046). 17-HDHA was
      associated with lower pain scores in OA patients (beta -0.41; 95% CI-0.69, -0.12;
      p < 0.005; adjusted for covariates) but not with radiographic osteoarthritis. The
      associations of 17-HDHA with heat pain sensitivity and osteoarthritis pain were
      independent of DHA levels.

PMID- 28883633
TI  - Pokemon GO and psychological distress, physical complaints, and work performance
      among adult workers: a retrospective cohort study.
AB  - The effects of Pokemon GO, a new mobile game application which utilizes augmented
      reality, on risky behavior and health have already been discussed in anecdotal
      evidence. However, there have been no studies about its effects on mental health.
      This study investigated the relationships between Pokemon GO and psychological
      distress from an existing workers' cohort in Japan. Online surveys were conducted
      to 3,915 full-time workers, at baseline (Nov 26, 2015-Feb 18, 2016) and at follow
      up (Dec 1-4, 2016), using a self-report questionnaire. Pokemon GO players were
      defined as participants who had played Pokemon GO for one month or longer.
      Psychological distress was measured using validated scales. Of the completers,
      246 (9.7%) had continued to play Pokemon GO. They were significantly younger than
      non-players. From the results of the general linear modeling, improvement in
      psychological distress was significantly greater among Pokemon GO players than
      among non-players (p = 0.025). Cohen's d for the difference in psychological
      distress was -0.20 (95% CI, -0.33, -0.07). Pokemon GO may be effective for
      improving psychological distress among workers. Although its effect size is
      small, the game could have positive effects on the mental health of the adult
      working population.

PMID- 28883636
TI  - Precipitation in a warming world: Assessing projected hydro-climate changes in
      California and other Mediterranean climate regions.
AB  - In most Mediterranean climate (MedClim) regions around the world, global climate
      models (GCMs) consistently project drier futures. In California, however,
      projections of changes in annual precipitation are inconsistent. Analysis of
      daily precipitation in 30 GCMs reveals patterns in projected hydrometeorology
      over each of the five MedClm regions globally and helps disentangle their causes.
      MedClim regions, except California, are expected to dry via decreased frequency
      of winter precipitation. Frequencies of extreme precipitation, however, are
      projected to increase over the two MedClim regions of the Northern Hemisphere
      where projected warming is strongest. The increase in heavy and extreme
      precipitation is particularly robust over California, where it is only partially
      offset by projected decreases in low-medium intensity precipitation. Over the
      Mediterranean Basin, however, losses from decreasing frequency of low-medium
      intensity precipitation are projected to dominate gains from intensifying
      projected extreme precipitation. MedClim regions are projected to become more sub
      tropical, i.e. made dryer via pole-ward expanding subtropical subsidence.
      California's more nuanced hydrological future reflects a precarious balance
      between the expanding subtropical high from the south and the south-eastward
      extending Aleutian low from the north-west. These dynamical mechanisms and
      thermodynamic moistening of the warming atmosphere result in increased horizontal
      water vapor transport, bolstering extreme precipitation events.

PMID- 28883635
TI  - Tissue alkalosis in cold-ischemia time.
AB  - The control of pre-analytical-factors in human biospecimens collected for health
      research is currently required. Only two previous reports using post-mortem brain
      samples have tried to address the impact of cold-ischemia on tissue pH. Here we
      report pH variations according to time (third-order polynomial model) in mice for
      liver, kidney and lung samples. Tissue alkalosis in cold-ischemia time may be an
      underlying mechanism of gene expression changes. Therefore, tissue-pH regulation
      after organ removal may minimize biological stress in human tissue samples.

PMID- 28883637
TI  - Capture of organic iodides from nuclear waste by metal-organic framework-based
      molecular traps.
AB  - Effective capture of radioactive organic iodides from nuclear waste remains a
      significant challenge due to the drawbacks of current adsorbents such as low
      uptake capacity, high cost, and non-recyclability. We report here a general
      approach to overcome this challenge by creating radioactive organic iodide
      molecular traps through functionalization of metal-organic framework materials
      with tertiary amine-binding sites. The molecular trap exhibits a high CH3I
      saturation uptake capacity of 71 wt% at 150  degrees C, which is more than 340%
      higher than the industrial adsorbent Ag0@MOR under identical conditions. These
      functionalized metal-organic frameworks also serve as good adsorbents at low
      temperatures. Furthermore, the resulting adsorbent can be recycled multiple times
      without loss of capacity, making recyclability a reality. In combination with its
      chemical and thermal stability, high capture efficiency and low cost, the
      adsorbent demonstrates promise for industrial radioactive organic iodides capture
      from nuclear waste. The capture mechanism was investigated by experimental and
      theoretical methods.Capturing radioactive organic iodides from nuclear waste is
      important for safe nuclear energy usage, but remains a significant challenge.
      Here, Li and co-workers fabricate a stable metal-organic framework functionalized
      with tertiary amine groups that exhibits high capacities for radioactive organic
      iodides uptake.

PMID- 28883638
TI  - Mild traumatic brain injury induces memory deficits with alteration of gene
      expression profile.
AB  - Repeated mild traumatic brain injury (rmTBI), the most common type of traumatic
      brain injuries, can result in neurological dysfunction and cognitive deficits.
      However, the molecular mechanisms and the long-term consequence of rmTBI remain
      elusive. In this study, we developed a modified rmTBI mouse model and found that
      rmTBI-induced transient neurological deficits and persistent impairments of
      spatial memory function. Furthermore, rmTBI mice had long-lasting detrimental
      effect on cognitive function, exhibiting memory deficits even 12 weeks after
      rmTBI. Microarray analysis of whole genome gene expression showed that rmTBI
      significantly altered the expression level of 87 genes which are involved in
      apoptosis, stress response, metabolism, and synaptic plasticity. The results
      indicate the potential mechanism underlying rmTBI-induced acute neurological
      deficits and its chronic effect on memory impairments. This study suggests that
      long-term monitoring and interventions for rmTBI individuals are essential for
      memory function recovery and reducing the risk of developing neurodegenerative
      diseases.

PMID- 28883639
TI  - Hysteretic Dynamics of Multi-Stable Early Afterdepolarisations with
      Repolarisation Reserve Attenuation: A Potential Dynamical Mechanism for Cardiac
      Arrhythmias.
AB  - Some cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular drugs frequently cause excessive
      prolongation of the cardiac action potential (AP) and lead to the development of
      early afterdepolarisations (EADs), which trigger lethal ventricular arrhythmias.
      Combining computer simulations in APs with numerical calculations based on
      dynamical system theory, we investigated stability changes of APs observed in a
      paced human ventricular myocyte model by decreasing and/or increasing the rapid
      (I Kr) and slow (I Ks) components of delayed rectifying K+ current. Upon reducing
      I Kr, the APs without EADs (no-EAD response) showed gradual prolongation of AP
      duration (APD), and were annihilated without AP configuration changes due to the
      occurrence of saddle-node bifurcations. This annihilation caused a transition to
      an AP with EADs as a new stable steady state. Furthermore, reducing
      repolarisation currents (repolarisation reserve attenuation) evoked multi-stable
      states consisting of APs with different APDs, and caused multiple hysteretic
      dynamics. Depending on initial ion circumstances within ventricular myocytes,
      these multi-stable AP states might increase the local/global heterogeneity of AP
      repolarisations in the ventricle. Thus, the EAD-induced arrhythmias with
      repolarisation reserve attenuation might be attributed to the APD variability
      caused by multi-stability in cardiac AP dynamics.

PMID- 28883640
TI  - A somatotopic bidirectional hand prosthesis with transcutaneous electrical nerve
      stimulation based sensory feedback.
AB  - According to amputees, sensory feedback is amongst the most important features
      lacking from commercial prostheses. Although restoration of touch by means of
      implantable neural interfaces has been achieved, these approaches require
      surgical interventions, and their long-term usability still needs to be fully
      investigated. Here, we developed a non-invasive alternative which maintains some
      of the advantages of invasive approaches, such as a somatotopic sensory
      restitution scheme. We used transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to
      induce referred sensations to the phantom hand of amputees. These sensations were
      characterized in four amputees over two weeks. Although the induced sensation was
      often paresthesia, the location corresponded to parts of the innervation regions
      of the median and ulnar nerves, and electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings
      confirmed the presence of appropriate responses in relevant cortical areas. Using
      these sensations as feedback during bidirectional prosthesis control, the
      patients were able to perform several functional tasks that would not be possible
      otherwise, such as applying one of three levels of force on an external sensor.
      Performance during these tasks was high, suggesting that this approach could be a
      viable alternative to the more invasive solutions, offering a trade-off between
      the quality of the sensation, and the invasiveness of the intervention.

PMID- 28883641
TI  - Calaxin establishes basal body orientation and coordinates movement of monocilia
      in sea urchin embryos.
AB  - Through their coordinated alignment and beating, motile cilia generate
      directional fluid flow and organismal movement. While the mechanisms used by
      multiciliated epithelial tissues to achieve this coordination have been widely
      studied, much less is known about regulation of monociliated tissues such as
      those found in the vertebrate node and swimming planktonic larvae. Here, we show
      that a calcium sensor protein associated with outer arm dynein, calaxin, is a
      critical regulator for the coordinated movements of monocilia. Knockdown of
      calaxin gene in sea urchin embryos results in uncoordinated ciliary beating and
      defective directional movement of the embryos, but no apparent abnormality in
      axoneme ultrastructure. Examination of the beating cycle of individual calaxin
      deficient cilia revealed a marked effect on the waveform and spatial range of
      ciliary bending. These findings indicate that calaxin-mediated regulation of
      ciliary beating is responsible for proper basal body orientation and ciliary
      alignment in fields of monociliated cells.

PMID- 28883642
TI  - Fungicidal activity of peptides encoded by immunoglobulin genes.
AB  - Evidence from previous works disclosed the antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-tumour
      and/or immunomodulatory activity exerted, through different mechanisms of action,
      by peptides expressed in the complementarity-determining regions or even in the
      constant region of antibodies, independently from their specificity and isotype.
      Presently, we report the selection, from available databases, of peptide
      sequences encoded by immunoglobulin genes for the evaluation of their potential
      biological activities. Synthetic peptides representing the translated products of
      J lambda and J heavy genes proved to act in vitro against pathogenic fungi,
      entering yeast cells and causing their death, and exerted a therapeutic effect in
      a Galleria mellonella model of infection by Candida albicans. No haemolytic,
      cytotoxic and genotoxic effects were observed on mammalian cells. These findings
      raise the hypothesis that antibodies could be the evolutionary result of the
      adaptive combination of gene products ancestrally devoted to innate antimicrobial
      immunity.

PMID- 28883643
TI  - Soil organic phosphorus transformations during 2000 years of paddy-rice and non
      paddy management in the Yangtze River Delta, China.
AB  - The contents and properties of soil organic phosphorus (Po) largely drive
      ecosystem productivity with increasing development of natural soil. We
      hypothesized that soil Po would initially increase with paddy management and then
      would persist under steady-state conditions. We analyzed soils from a 2000-year
      chronosequence of a rice-wheat rotation and an adjacent non-paddy 700-year
      chronosequence in Bay of Hangzhou (China) for their Po composition using solution
      31P-NMR after NaOH-EDTA extraction. Land reclamation promoted Po accumulation in
      both paddy and non-paddy topsoils (depths <= 18 cm) until steady-state equilibria
      were reached within 200 years of land use. Greater Po concentrations were found,
      however, in the non-paddy subsoils than in those under paddy management.
      Apparently, the formation of a dense paddy plough pan hindered long-term Po
      accumulation in the paddy subsoil. The surface soils showed higher proportions of
      orthophosphate diesters under paddy than under non-paddy management, likely
      reflecting suppressed decomposition of crop residues despite elevated microbial P
      compounds stocks under anaerobic paddy-rice management. Intriguingly, the
      composition of Po was remarkably stable after 194-years of paddy management and
      144-years of non-paddy management, suggesting novel steady-state equilibria of P
      dynamics had been reached in these man-made ecosystems after less than two
      centuries.

PMID- 28883644
TI  - Decreased hail size in China since 1980.
AB  - The response of hailstorm intensity to climate variability/change has become a
      topic of community interest recently. But the lack of persistent and homogenous
      observations makes it difficult to confidently describe its interannual
      variations. Hail size, as a common indicator of hailstorm intensity, displays
      distinct regional variability. Here, for the first time, we show robust evidence
      of a decrease in hail size using continuous and coherent hail size records from
      2,254 manned stations in China since 1980. The stations were categorized based on
      their elevation: plateaus (above 2000 m), foothills (between 500 and 2000 m), and
      plains (below 500 m). Compared with 1980-1997, the hail size spectra from 1998 to
      2015 all shifted toward smaller sizes significantly in plateaus, foothills, and
      plains. The proportion of overall hail events with maximum sizes of at least 5
      and 20 mm significantly decreased since 1980. Meanwhile, the annual mean size of
      hail above 10 and 20 mm significantly decreased during the research period,
      especially after 1990. These changes in the hail size spectra may imply a
      weakened intensity of hailstorms in China in recent decades.

PMID- 28883645
TI  - Combining Biomarkers with EMR Data to Identify Patients in Different Phases of
      Sepsis.
AB  - Sepsis is a leading cause of death and is the most expensive condition to treat
      in U.S. hospitals. Despite targeted efforts to automate earlier detection of
      sepsis, current techniques rely exclusively on using either standard clinical
      data or novel biomarker measurements. In this study, we apply machine learning
      techniques to assess the predictive power of combining multiple biomarker
      measurements from a single blood sample with electronic medical record data (EMR)
      for the identification of patients in the early to peak phase of sepsis in a
      large community hospital setting. Combining biomarkers and EMR data achieved an
      area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.81, while
      EMR data alone achieved an AUC of 0.75. Furthermore, a single measurement of six
      biomarkers (IL-6, nCD64, IL-1ra, PCT, MCP1, and G-CSF) yielded the same
      predictive power as collecting an additional 16 hours of EMR data(AUC of 0.80),
      suggesting that the biomarkers may be useful for identifying these patients
      earlier. Ultimately, supervised learning using a subset of biomarker and EMR data
      as features may be capable of identifying patients in the early to peak phase of
      sepsis in a diverse population and may provide a tool for more timely
      identification and intervention.

PMID- 28883646
TI  - Heat conjugation of antibacterial agents from amino acids and plant oil.
AB  - Antimicrobial peptides are components of the innate immune systems in animals and
      plants as natural defense against pathogens. Critical issues like manufacturing
      costs have to be addressed before mass production of these peptides for
      agriculture or community sterilizations. Here, we report a cost-effective
      chemical synthesis method to produce antimicrobial cocktails, which was based on
      the heat conjugation of amino acids in the presence of phosphoric acid and plant
      oil at 150  degrees C. The conjugates showed potent biological activities against
      all tested bacteria including a multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain
      Y5 and ampicillin resistant Pseudomonas aerugenosa ATCC9027 strain, demonstrating
      potential in agriculture, and prophylactic applications in hospital and community
      settings.

PMID- 28883647
TI  - Circulating miR-122 and miR-200a as biomarkers for fatal liver disease in ART
      treated, HIV-1-infected individuals.
AB  - Liver disease is one of the main contributors to the increased levels of
      morbidity and mortality seen in the HIV-1-infected, ART-treated population.
      Circulating miRNAs, particularly those located inside extracellular vesicles, are
      seen as promising biomarkers for a number of human disease conditions, including
      liver-related diseases. Here, we show that serum levels of miR-122 and miR-200a
      are greater in HIV/HCV co-infected individuals compared to HIV-1 mono-infected
      individuals. We also show that miR-122 and miR-200a are elevated in ART-treated,
      HIV-1-infected individuals prior to the development of fatal liver disease,
      suggesting that these miRNA may have some potential clinical utility as
      biomarkers. While this study is hypothesis generating, it shows clearly that both
      miR-122 and miR-200a are promising novel biomarkers for liver disease in the ART
      treated, HIV-1-infected population.

PMID- 28883648
TI  - The utility of mtDNA and rDNA for barcoding and phylogeny of plant-parasitic
      nematodes from Longidoridae (Nematoda, Enoplea).
AB  - The traditional identification of plant-parasitic nematode species by morphology
      and morphometric studies is very difficult because of high morphological
      variability that can lead to considerable overlap of many characteristics and
      their ambiguous interpretation. For this reason, it is essential to implement
      approaches to ensure accurate species identification. DNA barcoding aids in
      identification and advances species discovery. This study sought to unravel the
      use of the mitochondrial marker cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (coxI) as barcode
      for Longidoridae species identification, and as a phylogenetic marker. The
      results showed that mitochondrial and ribosomal markers could be used as
      barcoding markers, except for some species from the Xiphinema americanum group.
      The ITS1 region showed a promising role in barcoding for species identification
      because of the clear molecular variability among species. Some species presented
      important molecular variability in coxI. The analysis of the newly provided
      sequences and the sequences deposited in GenBank showed plausible
      misidentifications, and the use of voucher species and topotype specimens is a
      priority for this group of nematodes. The use of coxI and D2 and D3 expansion
      segments of the 28S rRNA gene did not clarify the phylogeny at the genus level.

PMID- 28883649
TI  - Dual role of carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 6 expression
      in predicting the overall survival of gastric cancer patients.
AB  - Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 6 (CEACAM6) is a member
      of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked immunoglobulin superfamily that is
      implicated in many human cancers. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of
      CEACAM6 expression in predicting the overall survival (OS) in gastric cancer
      (GC). The impact of CEACAM6 on the survival of patients with GC (n = 876) was
      assessed using an online Kaplan-Meier plotter. Findings were validated using the
      OS data of patients (n = 160) recruited from Ruijin Hospital. We found that high
      CEACAM6 expression was associated with a better OS in early-stage or well
      differentiated GC, or who were treated without 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Conversely,
      high CEACAM6 expression was associated with a poor OS in advanced-stage GC,
      poorly differentiated tumors, or who were treated with 5-FU. Furthermore, CEACAM6
      may serve as a better marker for predicting OS in GC than CEA. In addition,
      CEACAM6 overexpression in GC cells increased apoptotic resistance to 5-FU.
      Moreover, CEACAM6 induced cluster of differentiation 4- and 8-positive
      lymphocytes were detected in early-stage GC. In conclusion, CEACAM6 plays a
      contradictory role in predicting the OS in GC. In early-stage GC, high CEACAM6
      expression is associated with improved OS. However, in advanced-stage GC, high
      CEACAM6 expression is associated with a poor OS.

PMID- 28883650
TI  - A novel and stress adaptive alternative oxidase derived from alternative splicing
      of duplicated exon in oyster Crassostrea virginica.
AB  - Alternative oxidase (AOX) is a mitochondrial inner-membrane oxidase that accepts
      electrons directly from ubiquinol and reduces oxygen to water without involving
      cytochrome-linked electron transport chain. It is highly conserved in many non
      vertebrate taxa and may protect cells against hypoxia and oxidative stress. We
      identified two AOX mRNAs in eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, CvAOXA and
      CvAOXB, which differ by 170 bp but encode AOXs of the same size. Sequence
      analyses indicate that CvAOX has 10 exons with a tandem duplication of exon 10,
      and 3' alternative splicing using either the first or second exon 10 produces the
      two variants CvAOXB or CvAOXA, respectively. The second exon 10 in CvAOXA is more
      conserved across taxa, while the first exon 10 in CvAOXB contains novel mutations
      surrounding key functional sites. Both variants are expressed in all organs with
      the expression of CvAOXA higher than that of CvAOXB under normal condition. Under
      stress by air exposure, CvAOXB showed significantly higher expression than CvAOXA
      and became the dominant variant. This is the first case of alternative splicing
      of duplicated exon in a mollusc that produces a novel variant adaptive to stress,
      highlighting genome's versatility in generating diversity and phenotypic
      plasticity.

PMID- 28883651
TI  - The role of transcriptional factor p63 in regulation of epithelial barrier and
      ciliogenesis of human nasal epithelial cells.
AB  - Disruption of nasal epithelial tight junctions (TJs) and ciliary dysfunction are
      found in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and nasal polyps (NPs), along
      with an increase of p63-positive basal cells and histone deacetylase (HDAC)
      activity. To investigate these mechanisms, primary cultures of HNECs transfected
      with human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT-HNECs) were transfected with
      siRNAs of TAp63 and DeltaNp63, treated with the NF-kB inhibitor curucumin and
      inhibitors of HDACs, and infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In TERT
      HNECs, knockdown of p63 by siRNAs of TAp63 and DeltaNp63, induced claudin-1 and 
      4 with Sp1 activity and enhanced barrier and fence functions. The knockdown of
      p63 enhanced the number of microvilli with the presence of cilia-like structures.
      Treatment with curcumin and inhibitors of HDACs, or infection with RSV prevented
      expression of p63 with an increase of claudin-4 and the number of microvilli. The
      knockdown or downregulation of p63 inhibited phospho-p38MAPK, and the p38MAPK
      inhibitor downregulated p63 and upregulated the barrier function. Thus,
      epithelial barrier and ciliogenesis of nasal epithelium are regulated in a p63
      negative manner in normal and upper airway diseases. Understanding of the
      regulation of p63/p38 MAPK/NF-kappaB may be important in the therapy for airway
      allergy and its drug delivery system.

PMID- 28883652
TI  - Tracking the tumor invasion front using long-term fluidic tumoroid culture.
AB  - The analysis of invading leader cells at the tumor invasion front is of
      significant interest as these cells may possess a coordinated functional and
      molecular phenotype which can be targeted for therapy. However, such analyses are
      currently limited by available technologies. Here, we report a fluidic device for
      long-term three-dimensional tumoroid culture which recapitulated the tumor
      invasion front, allowing for both quantification of invasive potential and
      molecular characterization of invasive leader cells. Preliminary analysis of the
      invasion front indicated an association with cell proliferation and higher
      expression of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15). This device makes real
      time tracking of invading leader cell phenotypes possible and has potential for
      use with patient material for clinical risk stratification and personalized
      medicine.

PMID- 28883653
TI  - Excellent thermoelectric properties induced by different contact geometries in
      phenalenyl-based single-molecule devices.
AB  - We investigated the thermoelectric properties of phenalenyl-based molecular
      devices by using the non-equilibrium Green's function method combined with
      density function theory. The results show that the thermoelectric performance of
      molecular device can be significantly improved by different contact geometries.
      The ZT value of the device can reach 1.2 at room temperature, which is two orders
      of magnitude higher than that of graphene. Moreover, the change of the coupling
      between molecule and electrodes can also enhance the ZT value. The ZT value can
      be further optimized to 1.4 at 300 K and 5.9 at 100 K owing to the decrease of
      electronic thermal conductance and almost unchanged power factor.

PMID- 28883654
TI  - Target margin design for real-time lung tumor tracking stereotactic body
      radiation therapy using CyberKnife Xsight Lung Tracking System.
AB  - The objective of this study is to quantify the clinical accuracy of the
      Cyberknife Xsight Lung Tracking System (XLTS) in our center and calculate the PTV
      margin of XLTS treated lung tumors. Data from the treatment log files of 22 lung
      cancer patients treated with the CyberKnife XLTS were analyzed and the PTV margin
      was calculated. Segmentation, deformation, correlation, prediction and targeting
      errors were calculated from the log files of XLTS treatments. Two different
      methods were used to calculate anisotropic treatment margin. The relationships
      between tumor motion ranges and the correlation and prediction errors were also
      analyzed. Based on our estimation of a 4 mm global margin, 95% coverage in the S
      I direction and 100% coverage in the L-R and A-P directions were obtained. Strong
      correlations between tumor motion range and the standard deviation (SD) of
      correlation and prediction errors were also found. Tumor position motion caused
      by respiration can be compensated using the Xsight Lung Tracking System. We found
      total tracking errors to be less than 4 mm in all three directions. This result
      could provide a reference for the selection of PTV margin for treatment with the
      CyberKnife XLTS.

PMID- 28883655
TI  - Label-free characterization of ultra violet-radiation-induced changes in skin
      fibroblasts with Raman spectroscopy and quantitative phase microscopy.
AB  - Minimizing morbidities and mortalities associated with skin cancers requires
      sustained research with the goal of obtaining fresh insights into disease onset
      and progression under specific stimuli, particularly the influence of ultraviolet
      rays. In the present study, label-free profiling of skin fibroblasts exposed to
      time-bound ultra-violet radiation has been performed using quantitative phase
      imaging and Raman spectroscopy. Statistically significant differences in
      quantifiable biophysical parameters, such as matter density and cell dry mass,
      were observed with phase imaging. Accurate estimation of changes in the
      biochemical constituents, notably nucleic acids and proteins, was demonstrated
      through a combination of Raman spectroscopy and multivariate analysis of spectral
      patterns. Overall, the findings of this study demonstrate the promise of these
      non-perturbative optical modalities in accurately identifying cellular phenotypes
      and responses to external stimuli by combining molecular and biophysical
      information.

PMID- 28883656
TI  - The presence of acquired enamel pellicle changes acid-induced erosion from
      dissolution to a softening process.
AB  - Erosive wear undermines the structural properties of enamel resulting in
      irreversible enamel loss. A thin protein layer formed from natural saliva on
      tooth surfaces, acquired enamel pellicle (AEP), protects against erosive wear.
      The exact components in saliva responsible for such protection are not yet known.
      We prepared three solutions containing different components: proteins and ions
      [natural saliva (NS)], minerals with no proteins [artificial saliva (AS)] and
      neither proteins nor ions [deionised water (DW)]. To assess the protection of the
      three solutions against citric acid enamel erosion, enamel specimens were
      immersed in the corresponding solution for 24 h. All specimens were then exposed
      to five erosion cycles, each consisted of a further 30 min immersion in the same
      solution followed by 10-min erosion. Mean step height using a non-contacting
      profilometer, mean surface microhardness (SMH) using Knoop microhardness tester
      (final SMH), and roughness and 2D profiles using atomic force microscopy were
      measured after five cycles. The final SMH values were compared to the starting
      values (after 24 hr). NS group had significantly less tissue loss but greater SMH
      change (P < 0.0001) than AS and DW groups. Specimens in NS were softer and
      rougher (P < 0.001) but less eroded than specimens in AS and DW.

PMID- 28883657
TI  - Deamination-independent restriction of LINE-1 retrotransposition by APOBEC3H.
AB  - The APOBEC3 family of cytosine deaminase enzymes are able to restrict replication
      of retroelements, such as LINE-1. However, each of the seven APOBEC3 enzymes have
      been reported to act differentially to prevent LINE-1 retrotransposition and the
      mechanisms of APOBEC3-mediated LINE-1 inhibition has not been well understood.
      The prevailing view for many years was that APOBEC3-mediated LINE-1 inhibition
      was deamination-independent and relied on APOBEC3s blocking the LINE-1 reverse
      transcriptase DNA polymerization or transport of the LINE-1 RNA into the nucleus.
      However, recently it was shown that APOBEC3A can deaminate cytosine, to form
      uracil, on transiently exposed single-stranded LINE-1 cDNA and this leads to LINE
      1 cDNA degradation. In this study, we confirmed that APOBEC3A is a potent
      deamination-dependent inhibitor of LINE-1 retrotransposition, but show that in
      contrast, A3H haplotype II and haplotype V restrict LINE-1 activity using a
      deamination-independent mechanism. Our study supports the model that different
      APOBEC3 proteins have evolved to inhibit LINE-1 retrotransposition through
      distinct mechanisms.

PMID- 28883658
TI  - Running reorganizes the circuitry of one-week-old adult-born hippocampal neurons.
AB  - Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is an important form of structural and functional
      plasticity in the mature mammalian brain. The existing consensus is that GABA
      regulates the initial integration of adult-born neurons, similar to neuronal
      development during embryogenesis. Surprisingly, virus-based anatomical tracing
      revealed that very young, one-week-old, new granule cells in male C57Bl/6 mice
      receive input not only from GABAergic interneurons, but also from multiple
      glutamatergic cell types, including mature dentate granule cells, area CA1-3
      pyramidal cells and mossy cells. Consistently, patch-clamp recordings from
      retrovirally labeled new granule cells at 7-8 days post retroviral injection
      (dpi) show that these cells respond to NMDA application with tonic currents, and
      that both electrical and optogenetic stimulation can evoke NMDA-mediated synaptic
      responses. Furthermore, new dentate granule cell number, morphology and
      excitatory synaptic inputs at 7 dpi are modified by voluntary wheel running.
      Overall, glutamatergic and GABAergic innervation of newly born neurons in the
      adult hippocampus develops concurrently, and excitatory input is reorganized by
      exercise.

PMID- 28883659
TI  - Urine to highly porous heteroatom-doped carbons for supercapacitor: A value added
      journey for human waste.
AB  - Obtaining functionalized carbonaceous materials, with well-developed pores and
      doped heteroatoms, from waste precursors using environmentally friendly processes
      has always been of great interest. Herein, a simple template-free approach is
      devised to obtain porous and heteroatom-doped carbon, by using the most abundant
      human waste, "urine". Removal of inherent mineral salts from the urine carbon
      (URC) makes it to possess large quantity of pores. Synergetic effect of the
      heteroatom doping and surface properties of the URC is exploited by carrying out
      energy storage application for the first time. Suitable heteroatom content and
      porous structure can enhance the pseudo-capacitance and electric double layer
      capacitance, eventually generating superior capacitance from the URC. The optimal
      carbon electrode obtained particularly at 900  degrees C (URC-900) possesses high
      BET surface area (1040.5 m2g-1), good conductivity, and efficient heteroatom
      doping of N, S, and P, illustrating high specific capacitance of 166 Fg-1 at 0.5
      Ag-1 for three-electrode system in inorganic electrolyte. Moreover, the URC-900
      delivers outstanding cycling stability with only 1.7% capacitance decay over
      5,000 cycles at 5 Ag-1. Present work suggests an economical approach based on
      easily available raw waste material, which can be utilized for large-scale
      production of new age multi-functional carbon nanomaterials for various energy
      applications.

PMID- 28883660
TI  - Chromatin remodeling system p300-HDAC2-Sin3A is involved in Arginine Starvation
      Induced HIF-1alpha Degradation at the ASS1 promoter for ASS1 Derepression.
AB  - Argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1) is the key enzyme that controls
      biosynthesis of arginine (Arg). ASS1 is silenced in many human malignancies
      therefore, these tumors require extracellular Arg for growth. The Arg-degrading
      recombinant protein, pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG20), has been in
      clinical trials for targeting Arg auxotrophic tumors by Arg starvation therapy.
      Resistance to Arg starvation is often developed through reactivation of ASS1
      expression. We previously demonstrated that ASS1 silencing is controlled by HIF
      1alpha and Arg starvation-reactivated ASS1 is associated with HIF-1alpha
      downregulation. However, mechanisms underlying ASS1 repression and HIF-1alpha
      turnover are not known. Here, we demonstrate that interplay of p300-HDAC2-Sin3A
      in the chromatin remodeling system is involved in HIF-1alpha degradation at the
      ASS1 promoter. The histone acetyltransferase p300 is normally associated with the
      ASS1 promoter to maintain acetylated H3K14ac and H3K27ac for ASS1 silencing. Arg
      starvation induces p300 dissociation, allowing histone HDAC2 and cofactor Sin3A
      to deacetylate these histones at the ASS1 promoter, thereby facilitating HIF
      1alpha-proteasomal complex, driven by PHD2, to degrade HIF-1alpha in situ. Arg
      starvation induces PHD2 and HDAC2 interaction which is sensitive to antioxidants.
      This is the first report describing epigenetic regulation of chromosomal HIF
      1alpha turnover in gene activation that bears important implication in cancer
      therapy.

PMID- 28883661
TI  - Visualizing Micro-anatomical Structures of the Posterior Cornea with Micro
      optical Coherence Tomography.
AB  - Diagnosis of corneal disease and challenges in corneal transplantation require
      comprehensive understanding of corneal anatomy, particularly that of the
      posterior cornea. Micro-optical coherence tomography (uOCT) is a potentially
      suitable tool to meet this need, owing to its ultrahigh isotropic spatial
      resolution, high image acquisition rate and depth priority scanning mode. In this
      study, we explored the ability of uOCT to visualize micro-anatomical structures
      of the posterior cornea ex vivo and in vivo using small and large animals. uOCT
      clearly delineated cornea layers and revealed micro-anatomical structures,
      including not only polygonal endothelial cells, stellate keratocytes, collagen
      fibres and corneal nerve fibres but also new structures such as the dome-shaped
      basolateral side of endothelial cells and lattice structures at the interface
      between endothelium and Descemet's membrane. Based on these observations, a short
      post-harvest longitudinal study was conducted on rat cornea to test the
      feasibility of using uOCT to monitor the quality of endothelial cells. This study
      successfully reveals a series of morphological features and pathological changes
      in the posterior cornea at the cellular level in situ and in real time with uOCT.
      These findings enrich knowledge of corneal anatomy and suggest that uOCT may be a
      promising imaging tool in corneal transplantation.

PMID- 28883662
TI  - Analyzing the Molecular Kinetics of Water Spreading on Hydrophobic Surfaces via
      Molecular Dynamics Simulation.
AB  - In this paper, we report molecular kinetic analyses of water spreading on
      hydrophobic surfaces via molecular dynamics simulation. The hydrophobic surfaces
      are composed of amorphous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with a static contact
      angle of ~112.4 degrees  for water. On the basis of the molecular kinetic theory
      (MKT), the influences of both viscous damping and solid-liquid retarding were
      analyzed in evaluating contact line friction, which characterizes the frictional
      force on the contact line. The unit displacement length on PTFE was estimated to
      be ~0.621 nm and is ~4 times as long as the bond length of C-C backbone. The
      static friction coefficient was found to be ~[Formula: see text] Pa.s, which is
      on the same order of magnitude as the dynamic viscosity of water, and increases
      with the droplet size. A nondimensional number defined by the ratio of the
      standard deviation of wetting velocity to the characteristic wetting velocity was
      put forward to signify the strength of the inherent contact line fluctuation and
      unveil the mechanism of enhanced energy dissipation in nanoscale, whereas such
      effect would become insignificant in macroscale. Moreover, regarding a liquid
      droplet on hydrophobic or superhydrophobic surfaces, an approximate solution to
      the base radius development was derived by an asymptotic expansion approach.

PMID- 28883664
TI  - Patent watch: The evolving intellectual property landscape for pruritus
      therapies.

PMID- 28883663
TI  - An algorithm based on positive and negative links for community detection in
      signed networks.
AB  - Community detection problem in networks has received a great deal of attention
      during the past decade. Most of community detection algorithms took into account
      only positive links, but they are not suitable for signed networks. In our work,
      we propose an algorithm based on random walks for community detection in signed
      networks. Firstly, the local maximum degree node which has a larger degree
      compared with its neighbors is identified, and the initial communities are
      detected based on local maximum degree nodes. Then, we calculate a probability
      for the node to be attracted into a community by positive links based on random
      walks, as well as a probability for the node to be away from the community on the
      basis of negative links. If the former probability is larger than the latter,
      then it is added into a community; otherwise, the node could not be added into
      any current communities, and a new initial community may be identified. Finally,
      we use the community optimization method to merge similar communities. The
      proposed algorithm makes full use of both positive and negative links to enhance
      its performance. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world signed
      networks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

PMID- 28883665
TI  - Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of core functional bacteria and their synergetic and
      competitive interactions in denitrifying sulfur conversion-assisted enhanced
      biological phosphorus removal.
AB  - Denitrifying sulfur conversion-assisted enhanced biological phosphorus removal
      (DS-EBPR) has recently been developed for simultaneously removing nitrogen and
      phosphorus from saline sewage with minimal sludge production. This novel process
      could potentially enable sustainable wastewater treatment. Yet, the core
      functional bacteria and their roles are unknown. Here, we used high-throughput
      16S rRNA gene sequencing coupled with principal coordinates analysis and ANOVA
      with Tukey's test to unravel the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of functional
      bacteria and their synergetic and competitive interactions. We did not find any
      obvious spatial heterogeneity within the bacterial population in different size
      fractionated sludge samples, but the main functional bacteria varied
      significantly with operation time. Thauera was enriched (9.26~13.63%) as become
      the core functional genus in the DS-EBPR reactors and links denitrifying
      phosphorus removal to sulfide oxidation. The other two functional genera were
      sulfate-reducing Desulfobacter (4.31~12.85%) and nitrate-reducing and sulfide
      oxidizing Thiobacillus (4.79~9.92%). These bacteria cooperated in the DS-EBPR
      process: Desulfobacter reduced sulfate to sulfide for utilization by
      Thiobacillus, while Thauera and Thiobacillus competed for nitrate and sulfide as
      well as Thauera and Desulfobacter competed for acetate. This study is the first
      to unravel the interactions among core functional bacteria in DS-EBPR, thus
      improving our understanding of how this removal process works.

PMID- 28883667
TI  - NETWORK STRUCTURAL INFLUENCES ON THE ADOPTION OF EVIDENCE-BASED PREVENTION IN
      COMMUNITIES.
AB  - This study examined the impact of key variables in coalition communication
      networks, centralization and density, on the adoption of evidence-based substance
      abuse prevention. Data were drawn from a network survey and a corresponding
      community leader survey that measured leader attitudes and practices toward
      substance abuse prevention programs. Two types of coalition networks were
      measured: advice-seeking and discussion relations. For each community, we
      computed network-level measurements (n = 20), and then used multiple linear
      regression. Results showed that adoption outcomes were associated with a decrease
      in centralization for the advice network and an increase in centralization for
      the discussion network, controlling for density. This suggests that community
      coalitions might consider decreasing their network density in such a manner that
      distributes power and influence among a broader base of coalition members to seek
      advice about programs while simultaneously discussing these programs in a more
      concentrated group to facilitate decisions about which programs to adopt.

PMID- 28883666
TI  - A Statistical Framework to Evaluate Extreme Weather Definitions from A Health
      Perspective: A Demonstration Based on Extreme Heat Events.
AB  - A statistical framework for evaluating definitions of extreme weather phenomena
      can help weather agencies and health departments identify the definition(s) most
      applicable for alerts nd other preparedness operations related to extreme weather
      episodes.

PMID- 28883668
TI  - Daily physical activity of Brazilian carriers of arterial hypertension: a
      transversal analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the profile of the practice of physical activity in the
      daily life of Brazilian adults with arterial hypertension and to analyze whether
      the practice performed complies with the recommendations of the World Health
      Organization. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were obtained from the Surveillance
      System of Risk Factors and Protection for Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases of
      2014, involving 40,853 adults aged 18 years and over in all Brazilian capitals,
      interviewed by telephone survey. RESULTS: Walking, soccer and water aerobics were
      the main modalities of exercise and sport practiced. The weekly volume of effort
      led 35% of practitioners to reach the recommended goal of the World Health
      Organization. The low weekly frequency of activities stood out among
      hypertensives who did not reach the goal. CONCLUSION: Health services should
      clarify the need for regularity of physical activity for hypertensive individuals
      to benefit substantially.

PMID- 28883670
TI  - Medical Informatics as Academic and Scientific Discipline in Bosnia and
      Herzegovina - Twenty Five Years of Experiences from Faculty of Medicine,
      University of Sarajevo.

PMID- 28883669
TI  - Novel bioglasses for bone tissue repair and regeneration: Effect of glass design
      on sintering ability, ion release and biocompatibility.
AB  - Eight novel silicate, phosphate and borate glass compositions (coded as NCLx,
      where x = 1 to 8), containing different oxides (i.e. MgO, MnO2, Al2O3, CaF2,
      Fe2O3, ZnO, CuO, Cr2O3) were designed and evaluated alongside apatite
      wollastonite (used as comparison material), as potential biomaterials for bone
      tissue repair and regeneration. Glass frits of all the formulations were
      processed to have particle sizes under 53 MUm, with their morphology and
      dimensions subsequently investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In
      order to establish the nature of the raw glass powders, X-ray diffraction (XRD)
      analysis was also performed. The sintering ability of the novel materials was
      determined by using hot stage microscopy (HSM). Ionic release potential was
      assessed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).
      Finally, the cytotoxic effect of the novel glass powders was evaluated for
      different glass concentrations via a colorimetric assay, on which basis three
      formulations are considered promising biomaterials.

PMID- 28883671
TI  - A Three-Phase Decision Model of Computer-Aided Coding for the Iranian
      Classification of Health Interventions (IRCHI).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Accurate coded data in the healthcare are critical. Computer
      Assisted Coding (CAC) is an effective tool to improve clinical coding in
      particular when a new classification will be developed and implemented. But
      determine the appropriate method for development need to consider the
      specifications of existing CAC systems, requirements for each type, our
      infrastructure and also, the classification scheme. AIM: The aim of the study was
      the development of a decision model for determining accurate code of each medical
      intervention in Iranian Classification of Health Interventions (IRCHI) that can
      be implemented as a suitable CAC system. METHODS: first, a sample of existing CAC
      systems was reviewed. Then feasibility of each one of CAC types was examined with
      regard to their prerequisites for their implementation. The next step, proper
      model was proposed according to the structure of the classification scheme and
      was implemented as an interactive system. RESULTS: There is a significant
      relationship between the level of assistance of a CAC system and integration of
      it with electronic medical documents. Implementation of fully automated CAC
      systems is impossible due to immature development of electronic medical record
      and problems in using language for medical documenting. So, a model was proposed
      to develop semi-automated CAC system based on hierarchical relationships between
      entities in the classification scheme and also the logic of decision making to
      specify the characters of code step by step through a web-based interactive user
      interface for CAC. It was composed of three phases to select Target, Action and
      Means respectively for an intervention. CONCLUSION: The proposed model was
      suitable the current status of clinical documentation and coding in Iran and
      also, the structure of new classification scheme. Our results show it was
      practical. However, the model needs to be evaluated in the next stage of the
      research.

PMID- 28883672
TI  - Comparison of Different Analgesic Techniques for Pain Relief During
      Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy: a Double-blind, Randomized Clinical Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most patients experience some degree of pain during extracorporeal
      shock waves lithotripsy (ESWL). AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      effect of target-controlled infusion (TCI) of remifentanil or sufentanil and
      patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with sufentanil or morphine for pain relief
      during ESWL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a double blind, randomized clinical trial,
      a total of 60 patients who were scheduled for elective ESWL, randomly assigned
      into four groups (A, B, C and D). Patients in group A and B received remifentanil
      and sufentanil with TCI, respectively. Also, patients in group C and D received
      sufentanil and morphine with PCA, respectively. All patients in four groups were
      assessed about the intensity of their pain with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) in
      three phases; the discharge of the waves (phase A), during breaking the stones
      (phase B) and the end of the procedure (phase C). RESULTS: Patients in morphine
      PCA group experienced highest pain intensity in all stages, but patients in
      remifentanil TCI group experienced lowest pain intensity during lithotripsy.
      Remifentanil/TCI group experienced the lowest pain in B and C phases and the
      sufentanil/TCI group had the lowest pain only in the phase A. There was no
      significant difference in the occurrence of complications in all four groups.
      CONCLUSION: The current study demonstrates that efficacy of TCI pump in the
      reduction of pain during ESWL is superior to the PCA pump. Among the drugs that
      used in this study, remifentanil has more effective in pain management in the all
      phases during ESWL. We believe that using remifentanil/TCI should strongly be
      considered to clinicians in ESWL units.

PMID- 28883673
TI  - Impact of Gate 99mTc DTPA GFR, Serum Creatinine and Urea in Diagnosis of Patients
      with Chronic Kidney Failure.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was determination of validity of 99mTcDTPA estimation
      of GFR for early detection of chronic kidney failure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: There
      were 110 patients (54 males and 56 females) with kidney disease referred for
      evaluation of renal function at UCC of Kosovo. All patients were included in two
      groups. In the first group were included 30 patients confirmed with renal
      failure, whereas in the second group were included 80 patients with other renal
      disease. In study were included only patients with ready results of creatinine,
      urea and glucose in the blood serum. For estimation of GFR we have used the Gate
      GFR DTPA method. The statistical data processing was conducted using statistical
      methods such as arithmetic average, the student t-test, percentage or rate,
      sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the test. RESULTS: The average age of
      all patients was 36 years old. The average age of female was 37 whereas of male
      35. Patients with renal failure was significantly older than patients with other
      renal disease (p<0.005). Renal failure was found in 30 patients (27.27%). The
      concentration of urea and creatinine in blood serum of patients with renal
      failure were significantly higher than in patients with other renal disease (P<
      0.00001). GFR in patients with renal failure were significantly lower than in
      patients with other renal disease, 51.75 ml/min (p<0.00001). Sensitivity of
      uremia and creatininemia for detection of renal failure were 83.33%, whereas
      sensitivity of 99mTcDTPA GFR was 100%. Specificity of uraemia and creatininemia
      were 63% whereas specificity of 99mTcDTPA GFR was 47.5%. Diagnostic accuracy of
      blood urea and creatinine in detecting of renal failure were 69%, whereas
      diagnostic accuracy of 99mTcDTPA GFR was 61.8%. CONCLUSION: Gate 99mTc DTPA
      scintigraphy in collaboration with biochemical tests are very sensitive methods
      for early detection of patients with chronic renal failure.

PMID- 28883674
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs) of Occipital
      Region in Patients with Schizophrenia and Migraine Headache.
AB  - AIM: To examine the morphologic variations of occipital sulci patterns in
      patients with schizophrenia and migraine haeadache regarding gender and
      laterality as well as damage of visual pathway in patients with schizophrenia
      using magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) and visual evoked potentials (VEPs).
      METHODS: This study included 80 patients and brain scans and visual evoked
      potential responses recorded over the occipital cortex were performed to analyze
      the occipital region of both hemispheres. Average total volumes of both
      hemispheres and average values of amplitude of the healthy population for the
      comparasion were used. RESULTS: There was statistically significant difference
      between subjects considering gender (p=0.012). Parameters of parieto-occipital
      fissure (p=0.0314) showed statistically significant positive correlation with
      P100 amplitude (p=0.05), body of the calcarine sulcus (p=0.0213) had significant
      positive correlation with P100 amplitude (p=0.04), retro calcarine sulcus
      (p=0.0516) and P100 amplitude (p=0.03) showed statistically significant
      difference only of left hemisphere in male patients with schizophrenia with
      shallower depth of the sulcus and P100 amplitude reduction. CONCLUSION:
      Schizophrenia is associated with the volume changes of the occipital lobe.
      Comparative analysis of morphologic differences in the gray matter of occipital
      lobe using MRI and VEPs revealed changes especially of the left hemisphere
      (shallower depth of sulcus and P100 amplitude reduction) only among a group of
      male patients.

PMID- 28883675
TI  - Developing the Medication Reminder Mobile Application "Seeb".
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Today, the structure of comprehensive health care emphasizes self
      care more than therapy. Medication therapy is a strong instrument for therapy
      received through the health setting, especially in medication area. Error in
      medication administration has produced different problems and they cost billions
      of dollars every year. Regarding mobile phone extensions, we developed a local
      medication reminder mobile application called "Seeb" as a suitable solution for
      decreasing medication errors for Iranians. METHODS: We conducted a mixed methods
      study in three Phases: 1) Comparative study of existing mobile applications; 2)
      developed its object-oriented model; 3) Developed the initial version of "Seeb"
      that was approved for production. RESULTS: This application was designed for the
      appropriate medication administration including time and dosages through:
      recording patient and medication data; scheduling patients' medication; and
      reporting medication administration on progress. CONCLUSION: "Seeb" has been
      designed in compliance with Iranian health information technologists and
      pharmacists requirements. It is expected to reduce medication error and improve
      patient adherence to medical prescriptions.

PMID- 28883676
TI  - Exclusion of Non-English Speakers in Published Emergency Medicine Research - A
      Comparison of 2004 and 2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Non-English speakers (NES) as a proportion of the United States
      population have steadily increased in recent years. There remains substantial
      risk of excluding NES from research. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the percentage
      of emergency medicine (EM) studies that exclude Non-English speakers from
      participation has changed with time. METHODS: In a structured fashion, the lead
      investigator analyzed all original research articles in Academic Emergency
      Medicine and Annals of Emergency Medicine retrospectively for 2004 and
      prospectively for 2014. An independent investigator conducted a blind review of a
      sample of articles to assess for interobserver agreement. Demographic data were
      analyzed using descriptive statistics. Chi-square, t-tests, and linear regression
      models were utilized; alpha set at 0.05. Cohen's kappa calculated to assess
      interrater reliability. RESULTS: We included a total of 236 original research
      articles. Overall, 11% excluded NES from research (10% AEM, 12% Annals). Cohen's
      kappa (nonweighted) was 0.73. Comparing all articles in 2004 vs. 2014, research
      excluded NES 6% vs. 16% of the time respectively (P=0.02). This was not
      statistically significant when comparing year to year for AEM (7.3% vs. 14.5%;
      P=0.12) and Annals (6.7% vs. 19%; P=0.06) separately. Factors affecting NES
      exclusion included type of study design (P<0.001), geographic area (P=0.009) and
      hospital type (P=0.035). Interestingly, 42% of articles failed to mention
      language as an exclusion or inclusion criteria. CONCLUSION: We found that the
      percentage of articles excluding NES from EM research increased between 2004 and
      20014. Further, many investigators do not report whether NES are
      excluded/included in their studies.

PMID- 28883677
TI  - Comparison of Results of Measurement of Dimensions of the Placed Dental Implants
      on Cone Beam Computed Tomography with Dimensions of the Producers of the
      Implants.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: One of the most frequently used method for scanning patients with
      indication for dental implantation in dentistry is cone beam computed tomography.
      Implantation, CBCT imaging and implant programme are inevitable when planning a
      successful replacement of lost teeth. CBCT offers exact information about
      available bone and its density, adjacent tooth roots, the place of mandibular
      canal and maxillary sinus and adjacent anatomical structure. AIM: The goal of
      this study is to estimate accuracy of measurements on CBCT images ofpatients who
      have implants of different producers and determine if there is any statistically
      significant correlation between four test groups regardless of the alloy of which
      implants are made. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was a prospective-comparative,
      and included fifteen patients with hundred dental implants divided in four groups
      depending on the producer. RESULTS: Over dimensioning in the gained measurements
      of the whole sample on CBCT images in relation to dimensions of producers is
      between 0.1006mm and 0.368mm. Even though over dimensioning is measured in
      millimetres, it has to be taken into consideration in clinical practice when
      planning an implant placement, and we can recommend safety zone of 0.5mm. There
      have been no statistically significant differences in the gained results in over
      dimensioning of implants of different alloys for horizontal and vertical
      measurements on CBCT images of Astra Tech, Brendet titanium implants and
      Straumann titanium-zirconium implants. Based on the goals of the study there have
      been confirmed statistically significant correlations of great value (from 0.841
      to 0.936) of high level of importance between manufactured value of dimensions
      and average dimensions values gained through CBCT imaging in four types of
      implants (four test groups). The total exactness of measurements on CBCT scan in
      this research is 96.66% for horizontal measuring and 96.92% for vertical
      measuring. Therefore, we can conclude that CBCT as radiological method has an
      unavoidable importance in planning and successful realisation of dental implant
      procedure. CONCLUSION: Cone Beam Computed Tomography provides exact measurements
      of dimensions of placed dental implant in relation to dimensions of the producers
      of the implant because the material from which dental implants have been made
      does not significantly affect the precision of the measurement.

PMID- 28883678
TI  - Mobile Clinical Decision Support System for Acid-base Balance Diagnosis and
      Treatment Recommendation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This paper presents mobile application implementing a decision
      support system for acid-base disorder diagnosis and treatment recommendation.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: The application was developed using the official integrated
      development environment for the Android platform (to maximize availability and
      minimize investments in specialized hardware) called Android Studio. RESULTS: The
      application identifies disorder, based on the blood gas analysis, evaluates
      whether the disorder has been compensated, and based on additional input related
      to electrolyte imbalance, provides recommendations for treatment. CONCLUSION: The
      application is a tool in the hands of the user, which provides assistance during
      acid-base disorders treatment. The application will assist the physician in
      clinical practice and is focused on the treatment in intensive care.

PMID- 28883679
TI  - The Relationship Between Nephrolithiasis Risk with Body Fat Measured by Body
      Composition Analyzer in Obese People.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nephrolithiasis (kidney stones) continues to be a major cause of
      morbidity and healthcare spending that visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue
      may associate with kidney stone formation. This study aimed to investigate the
      relationship between nephrolithiasis with visceral fat scale in obese people in
      Western Iran for the first time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 2017, 103 participants
      with BMI>=30 kg/m2 were selected for the present study. The participants were
      divided into two groups, 52 as case group (having the kidney stone) and 58 as
      healthy control group (no kidney stone or history of the kidney stone or any
      other disease). The levels of body composition were checked by body composition
      analyzer (BoCA x1) based on Bio Impedance mechanism. RESULTS: Two groups were
      matched in terms of sex and BMI. There was a significant difference between two
      groups for the visceral fat to subcutaneous fat ratio (VSR) that accordingly, the
      mean VSR in the case group was higher than the control group. The difference for
      other variables between two groups was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      showed that visceral and subcutaneous fat and VSR were important risk factors for
      kidney stone formation (nephrolithiasis). Evaluating these fats in stone formers
      may facilitate a tailored metabolic evaluation and treatment plan.

PMID- 28883680
TI  - Health ATMs in Saudi Arabia: A Perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health ATMs are terminals which are connected to a centrally located
      database storing patients' electronic healthcare records (EHR). These machines
      are capable of collecting information in a far superior fashion than humans and
      are also able to rectify obsolete data in a manner that humans are generally not
      inclined to. OBJECTIVES: The main goal of this study is to assess the importance
      of adopting health ATMs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which can improve
      the confidence of patients, reward health self-management, and achieve positive
      health outcomes through their easy-to-use applications that are secure and
      accessible through various devices. METHODS: Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and
      Threat (SWOT) analysis was used to assess the efficiency of adopting health ATMs
      in KSA and reveal the said characteristics. Three focus groups assembled in the
      cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam during the period 2013-2014. The groups
      consisted of individuals experienced in the function of health ATMs. RESULTS: It
      was found that the sector possessed a number of strengths that would help it in
      reaching the goals outlined therein, thereby achieving successful outcomes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Health ATMs could be a promising new advancement in the field of
      health if the project were to be planned and implemented correctly. Their
      benefits would consequently reach organizational and national levels. It is,
      therefore, crucial to educate the project managers about the benefits of learning
      from others as well as educating them about the needs and the requirements of the
      concerned organization.

PMID- 28883681
TI  - Occupational Disease Registries-Characteristics and Experiences.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Due to growth of occupational diseases and also increase of public
      awareness about their consequences, attention to various aspects of diseases and
      improve occupational health and safety has found great importance. Therefore,
      there is the need for appropriate information management tools such as registries
      in order to recognitions of diseases patterns and then making decision about
      prevention, early detection and treatment of them. These registries have
      different characteristics in various countries according to their occupational
      health priorities. AIM: Aim of this study is evaluate dimensions of occupational
      diseases registries including objectives, data sources, responsible institutions,
      minimum data set, classification systems and process of registration in different
      countries. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study, the papers were searched using
      the MEDLINE (PubMed) Google scholar, Scopus, ProQuest and Google. The search was
      done based on keyword in English for all motor engines including "occupational
      disease", "work related disease", "surveillance", "reporting", "registration
      system" and "registry" combined with name of the countries including all
      subheadings. After categorizing search findings in tables, results were compared
      with each other. RESULTS: Important aspects of the registries studied in ten
      countries including Finland, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Czech Republic,
      Malaysia, United States, Singapore, Russia and Turkey. The results show that
      surveyed countries have statistical, treatment and prevention objectives. Data
      sources in almost the rest of registries were physicians and employers. The
      minimum data sets in most of them consist of information about patient, disease,
      occupation and employer. Some of countries have special occupational related
      classification systems for themselves and some of them apply international
      classification systems such as ICD-10. Finally, the process of registration
      system was different in countries. CONCLUSION: Because occupational diseases are
      often preventable, but not curable, it is necessary to all countries, to consider
      prevention and early detection of occupational diseases as the objectives of
      their registry systems. Also it is recommended that all countries reach an
      agreement about global characteristics of occupational disease registries. This
      enables country to compare their data at international levels.

PMID- 28883683
TI  - The Most Influential Scientist in the Development of Medical informatics (17):
      Eugene Garfield.

PMID- 28883682
TI  - Role of MRI in Diagnosis of Ruptured Intracranial Dermoid Cyst.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Intracranial dermoid cystic tumors account for <1% of all
      intracranial masses. CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old male, having headaches, nausea
      and is presented with a history of 2 episodes of new onset seizures. On
      presentation, the patient had a normal physical exam, including a complete
      neurological and cranial nerve exam. METHODS: Precontrast MRI; TSE/T2Wsequence in
      axial/coronal planes; 3D - HI-resolution T1W sagittal; FLAIR/T2W axial;
      FLAIR/T2W, Flash/T2W oblique coronal plane, GRE/T2W axial. Post-contrast TSE/T1W
      sequence in axial, coronal and sagittal planes. Diffusion weighted and ADC
      mapping, postcontrast: TSE/T1W sequence in axial, coronal and sagittal planes.
      RESULTS: Subsequent MRI of the brain revealed an oval and lobulated 47x34x30mm
      (TRxAPxCC) non-enhancing T1-hyperintense mass in right cavernous sinus, with
      compression of surrounding mesial temporal lobe and right anterolateral aspect of
      mesencephalon. Findings are consistent with ruptured dermoid cyst, given the
      evacuated sebum content at its lower half. Sebum particles in millimetric sizes
      are seen within right Sylvian fissure, anterior horns of lateral ventricles and
      to a lesser extent within left Sylvian fissure, right parietal sulci, cerebral
      aqueduct, and basal cisterns. No restricted diffusion is seen, eliminating the
      possibility of epidermoid. A shunt catheter is evident traversing between right
      lateral ventricle and right parietal bone; besides, slit-like right lateral
      ventricle is noted (likely secondary to over-draining shunt catheter).
      CONCLUSION: Intracranial dermoid cysts are benign rare slow-growing tumors that
      upon rupture, however, widespread presence of T1 hyperintense droplets and
      leptomeningeal enhancement can be noted-making MRI the best imaging modality for
      diagnosis of this rare entity.

PMID- 28883684
TI  - Morphological study of the antennal sensilla in Gerromorpha (Insecta: Hemiptera:
      Heteroptera).
AB  - The external morphology and distribution of the antennal sensilla of 21 species
      from five families of semiaquatic bugs (Gerromorpha) were examined using scanning
      electron microscopy. Nine main types were distinguished based on their
      morphological structure: sensilla trichoidea, sensilla chaetica, sensilla
      leaflike, sensilla campaniformia, sensilla coeloconica, sensilla ampullacea,
      sensilla basiconica, sensilla placoidea and sensilla bell-mouthed. The specific
      morphological structure of one type of sensilla (bell-mouthed sensilla) was
      observed only in Aquarius paludum. Several subtypes of sensilla are described,
      differentiated by number, location and type of sensillum characteristic for each
      examined taxon. The present study provides new data about the morphology and
      distribution of the antennal sensilla in Gerromorpha.

PMID- 28883685
TI  - The forewing of the Aphis fabae (Scopoli 1763) (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha): a
      morphological and histological study.
AB  - Dorsal and ventral sides of the forewing of Aphis fabae (Scopoli 1763)
      (Sternorrhyncha, Hemiptera) were examined by scanning electron microscopy.
      Reinforcement elements on their surface as well as scale-like elements were
      described. Using histological methods, cross-sections of the material were done.
      They showed a two-layered membrane with a circular foramen inside. The course of
      veins and places of their bifurcation were followed. Common stem of radius (R),
      media (M), and cubitus anterior (CuA) veins were composed of separate tracheae,
      which ran separately at the beginning, then continued in a single tunnel, and
      finally disappeared. Nerves were not observed. Neither were tracheae visible on
      the further course of those veins. The presence of a devoid-of-trachea costal
      vein was confirmed. Under scanning electron microscope, convex reinforcements on
      dorsal side of the wing turned out to be more sclerotized parts of chitin, not
      giving a zigzag-like profile of the wing on sections. In this paper, we show for
      the first time a cross-section of a very delicate wing of an aphid
      representative.

PMID- 28883686
TI  - Principles of Experimental Design for Big Data Analysis.
AB  - Big Datasets are endemic, but are often notoriously difficult to analyse because
      of their size, heterogeneity and quality. The purpose of this paper is to open a
      discourse on the potential for modern decision theoretic optimal experimental
      design methods, which by their very nature have traditionally been applied
      prospectively, to improve the analysis of Big Data through retrospective designed
      sampling in order to answer particular questions of interest. By appealing to a
      range of examples, it is suggested that this perspective on Big Data modelling
      and analysis has the potential for wide generality and advantageous inferential
      and computational properties. We highlight current hurdles and open research
      questions surrounding efficient computational optimisation in using retrospective
      designs, and in part this paper is a call to the optimisation and experimental
      design communities to work together in the field of Big Data analysis.

PMID- 28883687
TI  - Experimental Porcine Toxoplasma gondii Infection as a Representative Model for
      Human Toxoplasmosis.
AB  - Porcine infections are currently not the state-of-the-art model to study human
      diseases. Nevertheless, the course of human and porcine toxoplasmosis is much
      more comparable than that of human and murine toxoplasmosis. For example,
      severity of infection, transplacental transmission, and interferon-gamma-induced
      antiparasitic effector mechanisms are similar in pigs and humans. In addition,
      the severe immunosuppression during acute infection described in mice does not
      occur in the experimentally infected ones. Thus, we hypothesise that porcine
      Toxoplasma gondii infection data are more representative for human toxoplasmosis.
      We therefore suggest that the animal model chosen must be critically evaluated
      for its assignability to human diseases.

PMID- 28883689
TI  - Lateral column lengthening for adolescent idiopathic pes planovalgus deformity -
      Systematic review.
AB  - : Pes planovalgus is the commonest foot deformity in children and presents with
      wide range of severity and symptoms. Surgery is mostly indicated for significant
      malalignment, resistant to non-surgical management. Lateral column lengthening is
      considered an appealing option as does not involve arthrodesis and allows for
      further growth and foot development. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review on
      lateral column lengthening for pes planovalgus deformity in line with PRISMA-P
      Checklist. We carried out detailed literature search on PubMed, Cochrane, EMBASE,
      CINAHL, Google Scholar and Bibliographies. We analysed selected studies for
      patient demographics, radiological, clinical outcome and complications. RESULTS:
      We identified seven studies with 103 patients involving 156 feet. The mean age
      was 13.3 years (Range 5.7-42) and mean follow up was 70.2 Months (Range 24.9
      156). There was statistical significant improvement in Calcaneal pitch, Lateral
      Talo-metatarsal and AP Talo-navicular angles (p-value 0.001). The mean
      preoperative AOFAS Score (71 Feet) was 58.85 (Range 34-78) and mean postoperative
      AOFAS Score (91 Feet) was 92.25 (Range 73-100). Two studies (32 Feet) used author
      specified criteria has reported Good/Excellent result in 72% (23/32 feet) and
      Fair/Poor result in 18% (9/32) feet. Complications were reported in 17.5%
      (18/103) included nerve related, pseudo arthrosis, non-union and metal related
      complications. CONCLUSION: Surgical intervention with lateral column lengthening
      has good radiological and clinical outcome with high patient satisfaction and
      acceptable complications. The literature is mostly retrospective and there is
      need for prospective, multi-centre studies using patient centred validated
      outcome measure.

PMID- 28883688
TI  - A Controversial Medicolegal Issue: Timing the Onset of Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic
      Brain Injury.
AB  - Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, as a result of chronic, subacute, and
      acute insults, represents the pathological consequence of fetal distress and
      birth or perinatal asphyxia, that is, "nonreassuring fetal status." Hypoxic
      ischemic injury (HII) is typically characterized by an early phase of damage,
      followed by a delayed inflammatory local response, in an apoptosis-necrosis
      continuum. In the early phase, the cytotoxic edema and eventual acute lysis take
      place; with reperfusion, additional damage should be assigned to excitotoxicity
      and oxidative stress. Finally, a later phase involves all the inflammatory
      activity and long-term neural tissue repairing and remodeling. In this model
      mechanism, loss of mitochondrial function is supposed to be the hallmark of
      secondary injury progression, and autophagy which is lysosome-mediated play a
      role in enhancing brain injury. Early-induced molecules driven by hypoxia, as
      chaperonins HSPs and ORP150, besides common markers for inflammatory responses,
      have predictive value in timing the onset of neonatal HII; on the other hand,
      clinical biomarkers for HII diagnosis, as CK-BB, LDH, S-100beta, and NSE, could
      be useful to predict outcomes.

PMID- 28883690
TI  - Direct-acting antiviral agents against hepatitis C virus and lipid metabolism.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection induces steatosis and is accompanied by
      multiple metabolic alterations including hyperuricemia, reversible
      hypocholesterolemia and insulin resistance. Total cholesterol, low-density
      lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglyceride levels are increased by peginterferon
      and ribavirin combination therapy when a sustained virologic response (SVR) is
      achieved in patients with HCV. Steatosis is significantly more common in patients
      with HCV genotype 3 but interferon-free regimens are not always effective for
      treating HCV genotype 3 infections. HCV infection increases fatty acid synthase
      levels, resulting in the accumulation of fatty acids in hepatocytes. Of note, low
      density lipoprotein receptor, scavenger receptor class B type I and Niemann-Pick
      C1-like 1 proteins are candidate receptors that may be involved in HCV. They are
      also required for the uptake of cholesterol from the external environment of
      hepatocytes. Among HCV-infected patients with or without human immunodeficiency
      virus infection, changes in serum lipid profiles are observed during interferon
      free treatment and after the achievement of an SVR. It is evident that HCV
      affects cholesterol metabolism during interferon-free regimens. Although higher
      SVR rates were achieved with interferon-free treatment of HCV, special attention
      must also be paid to unexpected adverse events based on host metabolic changes
      including hyperlipidemia.

PMID- 28883692
TI  - Fluctuation of zonulin levels in blood vs stability of antibodies.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the measurement of zonulin level and antibodies of zonulin and
      other tight junction proteins in the blood of controls and celiac disease
      patients. METHODS: This study was conducted to assess the variability or
      stability of zonulin levels vs IgA and IgG antibodies against zonulin in blood
      samples from 18 controls at 0, 6, 24 and 30 h after blood draw. We also measured
      zonulin level as well as zonulin, occludin, vinculin, aquaporin 4 and glial
      fibrillary acidic protein antibodies in the sera of 30 patients with celiac
      disease and 30 controls using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methodology.
      RESULTS: The serum zonulin level in 6 out of 18 subjects was low or < 2.8 ng/mL
      and was very close to the detection limit of the assay. The other 12 subjects had
      zonulin levels of > 2.8 ng/mL and showed significant fluctuation from sample to
      sample. Comparatively, zonulin antibody measured in all samples was highly stable
      and reproducible from sample to sample. Celiac disease patients showed zonulin
      levels with a mean of 8.5 ng/mL compared to 3.7 ng/mL in controls (P < 0.0001).
      Elevation of zonulin level at 2SD above the mean was demonstrated in 37% of
      celiac disease patients, while antibodies against zonulin, occludin and other
      tight junction proteins was detected in up to 86% of patients with celiac
      disease. CONCLUSION: Due to its fluctuation, a single measurement of zonulin
      level is not recommended for assessment of intestinal barrier integrity.
      Measurement of IgG and IgA antibodies against zonulin, occludin, and other tight
      junction proteins is proposed for the evaluation of the loss of intestinal
      barrier integrity.

PMID- 28883691
TI  - Liquid biopsy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: Circulating tumor cells
      and cell-free nucleic acids.
AB  - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with its high incidence and mortality rate, is
      one of the most common malignant tumors. Despite recent development of a
      diagnostic and treatment method, the prognosis of HCC remains poor. Therefore, to
      provide optimal treatment for each patient with HCC, more precise and effective
      biomarkers are urgently needed which could facilitate a more detailed
      individualized decision-making during HCC treatment, including the following;
      risk assessment, early cancer detection, prediction of treatment or prognostic
      outcome. In the blood of cancer patients, accumulating evidence about circulating
      tumor cells and cell-free nucleic acids has suggested their potent clinical
      utilities as novel biomarker. This concept, so-called "liquid biopsy" is widely
      known as an alternative approach to cancer tissue biopsy. This method might
      facilitate a more sensitive diagnosis and better decision-making by obtaining
      genetic and epigenetic aberrations that are closely associated with cancer
      initiation and progression. In this article, we review recent developments based
      on the available literature on both circulating tumor cells and cell-free nucleic
      acids in cancer patients, especially focusing on Hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28883693
TI  - Effects of albumin/glutaraldehyde glue on healing of colonic anastomosis in rats.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the effect of local surgical adhesive glue
      (albumin/glutaraldehyde-Bioglue) on the healing of colonic anastomoses in rats.
      METHODS: Forty Albino-Wistar male rats were randomly divided into two groups,
      with two subgroups of ten animals each. In the control group, an end-to-end
      colonic anastomosis was performed after segmental resection. In the Bioglue
      group, the anastomosis was protected with extraluminar application of adhesive
      glue containing albumin and glutaraldehyde. Half of the rats were sacrificed on
      the fourth and the rest on the eighth postoperative day. Anastomoses were
      resected and macroscopically examined. Bursting pressures were calculated and
      histological features were graded. Other parameters of healing, such as
      hydroxyproline and collagenase concentrations, were evaluated. The experimental
      data were summarized and computed from the results of a one-way ANOVA. Fisher's
      exact test was applied to compare percentages. RESULTS: Bursting pressures,
      adhesion formation, inflammatory cell infiltration, and collagen deposition were
      significantly higher on the fourth postoperative day in the
      albumin/glutaraldehyde group than in the control group. Furthermore,
      albumin/glutaraldehyde significantly increased adhesion formation, inflammatory
      cell infiltration, neoangiogenesis, and collagen deposition on the eighth
      postoperative day. There was no difference in fibroblast activity or
      hydroxyproline and collagenase concentrations. CONCLUSION:
      Albumin/glutaraldehyde, when applied on colonic anastomoses, promotes their
      healing in rats. Therefore, the application of protective local agents in colonic
      anastomoses leads to better outcomes.

PMID- 28883694
TI  - Cytoplasmic domain of tissue factor promotes liver fibrosis in mice.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the role of tissue factor (TF) and protease activated receptor
      (PAR)-2 in liver fibrosis. METHODS: Using CCl4 administration for eight weeks, we
      induced hepatic fibrosis in wild-type C57BL/6 mice and in mice with deletion of
      the cytoplasmic signalling domain of TF (TFSCT/SCT), deletion of PAR-2 (PAR-2-/-)
      and combined deletion of TF signalling domain and PAR-2 (TFSCT/SCT/PAR-2-/-).
      Hepatic fibrosis area was assessed by quantitative imaging of picrosirius red
      staining. Hepatic collagen content was assessed by hydroxyproline levels. Hepatic
      stellate cells (alphaSMA positive) and hepatic macrophages (CD68 positive) were
      identified by immunohistochemistry. Hepatic gene expression was determined by PCR
      and liver TGFbeta1 content by ELISA. RESULTS: CCl4 treated mice with deletion of
      the PAR-2 gene (PAR-2-/-) and the cytoplasmic domain of TF (TFSCT/SCT) developed
      significantly less hepatic fibrosis, characterised by reduced liver fibrosis area
      and hydroxyproline content, compared to control wildtype mice treated with CCl4.
      The observed reduction in histological fibrosis was accompanied by a significant
      decrease in the hepatic content of TGFbeta, the prototypic fibrogenic cytokine,
      as well as fewer activated hepatic stellate cells and hepatic macrophages.
      Deletion of the TF cytoplasmic signalling domain reduced hepatic fibrosis to
      levels similar to those observed in mice lacking PAR-2 signalling but combined
      deletion provided no added protection against fibrosis indicating a lack of
      mutual modulating effects that have been observed in other contexts such as
      angiogenic responses. CONCLUSION: Tissue factor cytoplasmic domain is involved in
      TF-PAR-2 signalling initiating hepatic fibrosis and is a potential therapeutic
      target, as its deletion would not impact coagulation.

PMID- 28883695
TI  - Schistosoma japonicum attenuates dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis in mice
      via reduction of endoplasmic reticulum stress.
AB  - AIM: To elucidate the impact of Schistosoma (S.) japonicum infection on
      inflammatory bowel disease by studying the effects of exposure to S. japonicum
      cercariae on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis. METHODS: Infection was
      percutaneously established with 20 +/- 2 cercariae of S. japonicum, and colitis
      was induced by administration of 3% DSS at 4 wk post infection. Weight change,
      colon length, histological score (HS) and disease activity index (DAI) were
      evaluated. Inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-2, IL-10 and IFN-gamma, were tested
      by a cytometric bead array and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction
      (RT-PCR). Protein and mRNA levels of IRE1alpha, IRE1beta, GRP78, CHOP, P65, P
      P65, P-IkappaBalpha and IkappaBalpha in colon tissues were examined by Western
      blot and RT-PCR, respectively. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated
      dUTP nick-end labeling positive cells, cleaved-caspase 3 expression and Bcl2/Bax
      were investigated to assess the apoptosis in colon tissues. RESULTS: Mice
      infected with S. japonicum cercariae were less susceptible to DSS. Mice infected
      with S. japonicum cercariae and treated with DSS showed decreased weight loss,
      longer colon, and lower HS and DAI compared with mice treated with DSS alone. A
      substantial decrease in Th1/Th2/Th17 response was observed after infection with
      S. japonicum. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the nuclear factor-kappa B
      (NF-kappaB) pathway were reduced in mice infected with S. japonicum cercariae and
      treated with DSS, along with ameliorated celluar apoptosis, in contrast to mice
      treated with DSS alone. CONCLUSION: Exposure to S. japonicum attenuated
      inflammatory response in a DSS-induced colitis model. In addition to the
      Th1/Th2/Th17 pathway and NF-kappaB pathway, ER stress was shown to be involved in
      mitigating inflammation and decreasing apoptosis. Thus, ER stress is a new aspect
      in elucidating the relationship between helminth infection and inflammatory bowel
      disease (IBD), which may offer new therapeutic methods for IBD.

PMID- 28883696
TI  - Metabolomic profiling for identification of metabolites and relevant pathways for
      taurine in hepatic stellate cells.
AB  - AIM: To develop a reliable and simple method to identify important biological
      metabolites and relevant pathways for taurine in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs),
      in order to provide more data for taurine therapy. METHODS: All the biological
      samples were analyzed by using high-performance liquid chromatography-time
      electrospray ionization/quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry. Principal
      component analysis and partial least squares discriminant analysis were used to
      identify statistically different metabolites for taurine in HSCs, and metabolomic
      pathway analysis was used to do pathway analysis for taurine in HSCs. The
      chemical structure of the related metabolites and pathways was identified by
      comparing the m/z ratio and ion mode with the data obtained from free online
      databases. RESULTS: A total of 32 significant differential endogenous metabolites
      were identified, which may be related to the mechanism of action of taurine in
      HSCs. Among the seven relevant pathways identified, sphingolipid metabolism
      pathway, glutathione metabolism pathway and thiamine metabolism pathway were
      found to be the most important metabolic pathways for taurine in HSCs.
      CONCLUSION: This study showed that there were distinct changes in biological
      metabolites of taurine in HSCs and three differential metabolic pathways
      including sphingolipid pathway, glutathione pathway and thiamine metabolism
      pathway might be of key importance in mediating the mechanism of action of
      taurine in HSCs.

PMID- 28883697
TI  - Protective effects of Foeniculum vulgare root bark extract against carbon
      tetrachloride-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the protective effects of Foeniculum vulgare root bark
      (FVRB), a traditional Uyghur medicine, against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)
      induced hepatic fibrosis in mice. METHODS: Mice were randomly divided into eight
      groups (n = 20 each). Except for the normal control group, mice in the rest
      groups were intraperitoneally injected (i.p.) with 0.1% CCl4-olive oil mixture at
      10 mL/kg twice a week to induce liver fibrosis. After 4 wk, mice were treated
      concurrently with the 70% ethanol extract of FVRB (88, 176, 352 and 704 mg/kg,
      respectively) daily by oral gavage for 4 wk to evaluate its protective effects.
      Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT),
      triglyceride (TG), hexadecenoic acid (HA), laminin (LN), glutathione (GSH),
      superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver tissues were
      measured. Hematoxylin-eosin (H and E) staining and Masson trichrome (MT) staining
      were performed to assess histopathological changes in the liver. The expression
      of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1), matrix metalloprotein 9 (MMP-9)
      and metallopeptidase inhibitor 1 (TIMP-1) was detected by immunohistochemical
      analysis. Additionally, TGF-beta1 and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA)
      protein expression was measured by Western blot. RESULTS: A significant reduction
      in serum levels of AST, ALT, TG, HA and LN was observed in the FVRB-treated
      groups, suggesting that FVRB displayed hepatoprotective effects. Also, the
      depletion of GSH, SOD, and MDA accumulation in liver tissues was suppressed by
      FVRB. The expression of TGF-beta1, MMP-9 and TIMP-1 determined by
      immunohistochemistry was markedly reduced in a dose-dependent manner by FVRB
      treatment. Furthermore, protective effects of FVRB against CCl4-induced liver
      injury were confirmed by histopathological studies. Protein expression of TGF
      beta1 and alpha-SMA detected by Western blot was decreased by FVRB treatment.
      CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that FVRB may be a promising agent against
      hepatic fibrosis and its possible mechanisms are inhibiting lipid peroxidation
      and reducing collagen formation in liver tissue of liver fibrosis mice.

PMID- 28883698
TI  - Hypothesized summative anal physiology score correlates but poorly predicts
      incontinence severity.
AB  - AIM: To explore the relationship between such a construct and an existing
      continence score. METHODS: A retrospective study of incontinent patients who
      underwent anal physiology (AP) was performed. AP results and Cleveland Clinic
      Continence Scores (CCCS) were extracted. An anal physiology score (APS) was
      developed using maximum resting pressures (MRP), anal canal length (ACL),
      internal and external sphincter defects and pudendal terminal motor latency.
      Univariate associations between each variable, APS and CCCS were assessed.
      Multiple regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Of 508 (419 women)
      patients, 311 had both APS and CCCS measured. Average MRP was 51 mmHg (SD 23.2
      mmHg) for men and 39 mmHg (19.2 mmHg) for women. Functional ACL was 1.7 cm for
      men and 0.7 cm for women. Univariate analyses demonstrated significant
      associations between CCCS and MRP (P = 0.0002), ACL (P = 0.0006) and pudendal
      neuropathy (P < 0.0001). The association between APS and CCCS was significant (P
      < 0.0001) but accounted for only 9.2% of the variability in CCCS. Multiple
      regression showed that the variables most useful in predicting CCCS were external
      sphincter defect, pudendal neuropathy and previous pelvic surgery, but only
      improving the scores predictive ability to 12.5%. CONCLUSION: This study shows
      that the ability of AP tests to predict continence scores improves when
      considered collectively, but that a constructed summation model before and after
      multiple regression is poor at predicting the variability in continence scores.

PMID- 28883699
TI  - Minor endoscopic sphincterotomy followed by large balloon dilation for large
      choledocholith treatment.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate early and late outcomes of endoscopic papillary large balloon
      dilation (EPLBD) with minor endoscopic sphincterotomy (mEST) for stone removal.
      METHODS: A total of 149 consecutive patients with difficult common bile duct
      (CBD) stones (diameter >= 10 mm or >= 3 stones) underwent conventional endoscopic
      sphincterotomy (EST) or mEST plus EPLBD from May 2012 to April 2016. Their
      demographic, laboratory and procedural data were collected, and
      pancreaticobiliary complications were recorded. RESULTS: Sixty-nine (94.5%) of
      the patients in the EPLBD + mEST group and 64 (84.2%) in the conventional EST
      group achieved stone clearance following the first session (P = 0.0421). The
      procedure time for EPLBD + mEST was shorter than for EST alone (42.1 +/- 13.6 min
      vs 47.3 +/- 11.8 min, P = 0.0128). The overall rate of early complications in the
      EPLBD + mEST group (11%) was lower than in the EST group (21.1%); however, the
      difference was not significant (P = 0.0938). The cumulative recurrence rate of
      cholangitis and CBD stones between the two groups was also similar. The procedure
      time was independently associated with post-endoscopic retrograde
      cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis (OR = 6.374, 95%CI: 1.193-22.624, P =
      0.023), CBD stone diameter >= 16 mm (OR = 7.463, 95%CI: 2.705-21.246, P = 0.0452)
      and use of mechanical lithotripsy (OR = 9.913, 95%CI: 3.446-23.154, P = 0.0133)
      were independent risk factors for stone recurrence. CONCLUSION: EPLBD with mEST
      is more effective than EST alone for difficult CBD stone removal, with shorter
      procedure time and fewer early complications.

PMID- 28883701
TI  - Accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition in the evaluation of
      lymph nodes enlargement in the absence of on-site pathologist.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate factors that influence the diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic
      ultrasound (EUS)-guided tissue acquisition for lymph node enlargement in the
      absence of an on-site pathologist. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patients
      who underwent EUS-guided tissue acquisition for the pathological diagnosis of
      lymph node enlargement between April 2012 and June 2015 is reported. Tissue
      acquisition was performed with both cytology and biopsy needles of different
      calibers. The variables evaluated were lymph node location and size, number of
      passes and type of needle used. Final diagnosis was based on surgical
      histopathology or, in non-operated cases, on EUS-guided tissue acquisition and
      imaging assessment with a minimum clinical follow-up of 6 mo. RESULTS: During the
      study period, 168 lymph nodes with a median size of 20.3 mm (range 12.5-27) were
      sampled from 152 patients. Ninety lymph nodes (53.6%) were located at
      mediastinum, and 105 (62.5%) were acquired with biopsy needles. The final
      diagnosis was benign/reactive origin in 87 cases (51.8%), malignant in 65 cases
      (38.7%), and lymphoma in 16 cases (9.5%). The sensitivity, specificity, positive
      predictive value and negative predictive value for the detection of malignancy
      were 74.1%, 100%, 100% and 80.6%, respectively. The overall accuracy was 87.5%
      (95%CI: 81.7-91.7). No variables were independently associated with a correct
      final diagnosis according to the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: EUS-guided
      tissue acquisition is a highly accurate technique for assessing lymph node
      enlargement. None of the variables evaluated were associated with diagnostic
      accuracy.

PMID- 28883700
TI  - Diagnostic value of FIB-4, aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index and
      liver stiffness measurement in hepatitis B virus-infected patients with
      persistently normal alanine aminotransferase.
AB  - AIM: To assess the diagnostic value of FIB-4, aspartate aminotransferase-to
      platelet ratio index (APRI), and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) in patients
      with hepatitis B virus infection who have persistently normal alanine
      transaminase (PNALT). METHODS: We enrolled 245 patients with chronic hepatitis B:
      95 in PNALT group, 86 in intermittently elevated alanine transaminase (PIALT1)
      group [alanine transaminase (ALT) within 1-2 * upper limit of normal value
      (ULN)], and 64 in PIALT2 group (ALT > 2 * ULN). All the patients received a
      percutaneous liver biopsy guided by ultrasonography. LSM, biochemical tests, and
      complete blood cell counts were performed. RESULTS: The pathological examination
      revealed moderate inflammatory necrosis ratios of 16.81% (16/95), 32.56% (28/86),
      and 45.31% (28/64), and moderate liver fibrosis of 24.2% (23/95), 33.72% (29/86),
      and 43.75% (28/64) in the PNALT, PIALT1, and PIALT2 groups, respectively. The
      degrees of inflammation and liver fibrosis were significantly higher in the PIALT
      groups than in the PNALT group (P < 0.05). No significant difference was found in
      the areas under the curve (AUCs) between APRI and FIB-4 in the PNALT group;
      however, significant differences were found between APRI and LSM, and between FIB
      4 and LSM in the PNALT group (P < 0.05 for both). In the PIALT1 and PIALT2
      groups, no significant difference (P > 0.05) was found in AUCs for all
      comparisons (P > 0.05 for all). In the overall patients, a significant difference
      in the AUCs was found only between LSM and APRI (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: APRI and
      FIB-4 are not the ideal noninvasive hepatic fibrosis markers for PNALT patients.
      LSM is superior to APRI and FIB-4 in PNALT patients because of the influence of
      liver inflammation and necrosis.

PMID- 28883702
TI  - Doublecortin and CaM kinase-like-1 as an independent prognostic factor in
      patients with resected pancreatic carcinoma.
AB  - AIM: To elucidate the effect of expression of doublecortin and CaM kinase-like-1
      (DCLK1) in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). METHODS: Tumor
      specimens were obtained from 136 patients with pancreatic cancer who had
      undergone resection without preoperative therapy between January 2000 and
      December 2013 at the Department of Surgical Oncology, Osaka City University. The
      resected specimens were analyzed for associations with clinicopathological data,
      including DCLK1 expression, epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker
      expression, and cancer stem cell (CSC) marker expression. Univariate and
      multivariate survival analyses were performed and we assessed the association
      between DCLK1 expression and clinicopathological factors, including the EMT
      marker and CSC marker. RESULTS: In total, 48.5% (66/136) of the pancreatic cancer
      samples were positive for DCLK1. Patients with DCLK1-positive tumors had
      significantly shorter survival times than those with DCLK1-negative tumors
      (median, 18.7 mo vs 49.5 mo, respectively; P < 0.0001). Positive DCLK1 expression
      correlated with histological grade (P = 0.0290), preoperative CA19-9 level (P =
      0.0060), epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) expression (P = 0.0235), and
      the triple-positive expression of CD44/CD24/EpCAM (P = 0.0139). On univariate
      survival analysis, five factors were significantly associated with worse overall
      survival: histological grade of G2 to G4 (P = 0.0091), high preoperative serum
      SPan-1 level (P = 0.0034), R1/2 (P < 0.0001), positive expression of DCLK1 (P <
      0.0001) or CD44 (P = 0.0245). On multivariate survival analysis, R1/2 [odds ratio
      (OR) = 2.019, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.380-2.933; P = 0.0004] and positive
      DCLK1 expression (OR = 1.848, 95%CI: 1.2854-2.661; P = 0.0009) were independent
      prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: DCLK1 expression was found to be an independent
      prognostic factor and it may play a crucial prognostic role by promoting
      acquisition of stemness.

PMID- 28883703
TI  - Study to determine guidelines for pediatric colonoscopy.
AB  - AIM: To investigated characteristics, diagnosis, bowel-cleansing preparation,
      sedation, and colonoscope length and diameter in Japanese pediatric patients
      receiving total colonoscopy. METHODS: The present study evaluated consecutive
      patients aged <= 15 years who had undergone their first colonoscopy in Kurume
      University between January 2007 and February 2015. Data were retrospectively
      analyzed. We identified 110 pediatric patients who had undergone colonoscopy that
      had reached the cecum, allowing the observation of the total colon. RESULTS:
      Hematochezia, abdominal pain, and diarrhea were the most common symptoms. For
      bowel-cleansing preparation, pediatric patients aged <= 12 years were treated
      with magnesium citrate, and patients aged 13-15 years were treated with
      polyethylene glycol 4000. For sedation, thiamylal with pentazocine, which has an
      analgesic effect, was used in patients aged <= 6 years, and midazolam with
      pentazocine was used in patients aged >= 7 years. Regarding the choice of
      endoscope, short and thin endoscopes were selected for younger patients,
      particularly patients aged <= 3 years. Positive diagnoses were made in 78
      patients (70.9%). Inflammatory bowel disease (n = 49, 44.5%), including
      ulcerative colitis (n = 37, 33.6%) and Crohn's disease (n = 12, 10.9%), was the
      most common diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Colonoscopy offers a high diagnostic
      capability for pediatric patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. The selection
      of appropriate management the performance of colonoscopy is important in
      pediatric patients.

PMID- 28883704
TI  - Postoperative changes of manometry after restorative proctocolectomy in Korean
      ulcerative colitis patients.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the changes of postoperative anal sphincter function and
      bowel frequency in Korean patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: A total
      of 127 patients with UC who underwent restorative proctocolectomy (RPC) during 20
      years were retrospectively analyzed. The parameters of anal manometry and bowel
      frequency were compared according to the 6-mo intervals until 24 mo
      postoperatively. Manometry was used to measure the maximal squeezing pressure
      (MSP) and maximal resting pressure (MRP). RESULTS: MSP decreased after surgery
      until 6 mo (157 to 142 mmHg); thereafter, it improved and was recovered to and
      maintained at the preoperative value at 12 mo postoperatively (142-170 mmHg, P <
      0.001). Although the decreased MRP (65 to 56 mmHg) improved after 18 mo (62
      mmHg), it did not completely recover to the preoperative value. The decreased
      rectal capacity after surgery (90 to 82 mL) gradually increased up to 150 mL at
      24 mo. Although bowel frequency showed significant gradual decreases at each
      interval, it was stabilized after 12 mo postoperatively (6.5 times/d).
      CONCLUSION: Postoperative changes of manometry and bowel frequency after
      restorative proctocolectomy in Korean patients with UC were not different from
      those in Western patients with UC.

PMID- 28883705
TI  - Threonine and tyrosine kinase may serve as a prognostic biomarker for gallbladder
      cancer.
AB  - AIM: To detect the expression of threonine and tyrosine kinase (TTK) in
      gallbladder cancer (GBC) specimens and analyze the associations between TTK
      expression and clinicopathological parameters and clinical prognosis. METHODS: A
      total of 68 patients with GBC who underwent surgical resection were enrolled in
      this study. The expression of TTK in GBC tissues was detected by
      immunohistochemistry. The assessment of TTK expression was conducted using the H
      scoring system. H-score was calculated by the multiplication of the overall
      staining intensity with the percentage of positive cells. The expression of TTK
      in the cytoplasm and nucleus was scored separately to achieve respective H-score
      values. The correlations between TTK expression and clinicopathological
      parameters and clinical prognosis were analyzed using Chi-square test, Kaplan
      Meier method and Cox regression. RESULTS: In both the nucleus and cytoplasm, the
      expression of TTK in tumor tissues was significantly lower than that in normal
      tissues (P < 0.001 and P = 0.026, respectively). Using the median H-score as the
      cutoff value, it was discovered that, GBC patients with higher levels of TTK
      expression in the nucleus, but not the cytoplasm, had favorable overall survival
      (P < 0.001), and it was still statistically meaningful in Cox regression
      analysis. Further investigation indicated that there were close negative
      correlations between TTK expression and tumor differentiation (P = 0.041), CA 19
      9 levels (P = 0.016), T stage (P < 0.001), nodal involvement (P < 0.001), distant
      metastasis (P = 0.024) and TNM stage (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The expression of
      TTK in GBC is lower than that in normal tissues. Higher levels of TTK expression
      in GBC are concomitant with longer overall survival. TTK is a favorable
      prognostic biomarker for patients with GBC.

PMID- 28883706
TI  - Simple instruments facilitating achievement of transanal total mesorectal
      excision in male patients.
AB  - AIM: To assess the efficacy of a modified approach with transanal total
      mesorectal excision (taTME) using simple customized instruments in male patients
      with low rectal cancer. METHODS: A total of 115 male patients with low rectal
      cancer from December 2006 to August 2015 were retrospectively studied. All
      patients had a bulky tumor (tumor diameter >= 40 mm). Forty-one patients (group
      A) underwent a classical approach of transabdominal total mesorectal excision
      (TME) and transanal intersphincteric resection (ISR), and the other 74 patients
      (group B) underwent a modified approach with transabdominal TME, transanal ISR,
      and taTME. Some simple instruments including modified retractors and an anal
      dilator with a papilionaceous fixture were used to perform taTME. The operative
      time, quality of mesorectal excision, circumferential resection margin, local
      recurrence, and postoperative survival were evaluated. RESULTS: All 115 patients
      had successful sphincter preservation. The operative time in group B (240 min,
      range: 160-330 min) was significantly shorter than that in group A (280 min,
      range: 200-360 min; P = 0.000). Compared with group A, more complete distal
      mesorectum and total mesorectum were achieved in group B (100% vs 75.6%, P =
      0.000; 90.5% vs 70.7%, P = 0.008, respectively). After 46.1 +/- 25.6 mo follow
      up, group B had a lower local recurrence rate and higher disease-free survival
      rate compared with group A, but these differences were not statistically
      significant (5.4% vs 14.6%, P = 0.093; 79.5% vs 65.1%, P = 0.130). CONCLUSION:
      Retrograde taTME with simple customized instruments can achieve high-quality TME,
      and it might be an effective and economical alternative for male patients with
      bulky tumors.

PMID- 28883707
TI  - Donor-derived infections among Chinese donation after cardiac death liver
      recipients.
AB  - AIM: To investigate blood cultures of deceased donors and report the confirmed
      transmission of bacterial infection from donors to liver recipients. METHODS: We
      retrospectively studied the results of blood cultures among our donation after
      cardiac death (DCD) donors and calculated the donor-derived bacterial infection
      rates among liver recipients. Study participants underwent liver transplantation
      between January 1, 2010 and February 1, 2017. The study involved a total of 67
      recipients of liver grafts from 67 DCD donors. We extracted the data of donors'
      and patients' characteristics, culture results and clinical outcomes, especially
      the post-transplant complications in liver recipients, from electronic medical
      records. We analyzed the characteristics of the donors and the corresponding
      liver recipients with emphasis put on donor-derived infections. RESULTS: Head
      trauma was the most common origin of death among our 67 DCD donors (46.3%). Blood
      taken prior to the procurement operation was cultured for 53 of the donors, with
      17 episodes of bloodstream infections developing from 13 donors. The predominant
      organism isolated from the blood of donors was Gram-positive bacteria (70.6%).
      Only three (4.5%) of 67 liver recipients developed confirmed donor-derived
      bacterial infections, with two isolates of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella
      pneumoniae and one isolate of multidrug-resistant Enterobacter aerogenes. The
      liver recipients with donor-derived infections showed relation to higher crude
      mortality and graft loss rates (33.3% each) within 3 mo post transplantation, as
      compared to those without donor-derived infections (9.4% and 4.7%, respectively).
      All three liver recipients received appropriate antimicrobial therapy.
      CONCLUSION: Liver recipients have high occurrence of donor-derived infections.
      The liver recipients with donor-derived multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
      infections can have good outcome if appropriate antimicrobial therapy is given.

PMID- 28883708
TI  - Rarity among benign gastric tumors: Plexiform fibromyxoma - Report of two cases.
AB  - Plexiform fibromyxoma is a very rare mesenchymal tumor of the stomach, found
      almost exclusively in the antrum/pylorus region. The most common presenting
      symptoms are anemia, hematemesis, nausea and unintentional weight loss, without
      sex or age predilection. We describe here two cases of plexiform fibromyxoma,
      involving a 16-year-old female and a 34-year-old male. Both patients underwent
      complete resection (R0) by distal gastrectomy and retrocolic gastrojejunostomy
      (according to Billroth 2); for both, the postoperative course was uneventful.
      Histology showed multiple intramural and subserosal nodules with characteristic
      plexiform growth, featuring bland spindle cells situated in an abundant myxoid
      stroma with low mitotic activity. Immunohistochemistry showed alpha-smooth muscle
      actin-positive spindle cells, focal positivity for CD10, and negative staining
      for KIT, DOG1, CD34, S100, beta-catenin, STAT-6 and anaplastic lymphoma kinase.
      One of the cases showed focal positivity for h-caldesmon and desmin. Upon follow
      up, no sign of disease was found. In the differential diagnosis of plexiform
      fibromyxoma, it is important to exclude the more common gastrointestinal stromal
      tumors as they have greater potential for aggressive behavior. Other lesions,
      like neuronal and vascular tumors, inflammatory fibroid polyps, abdominal desmoid
      type fibromatosis, solitary fibrous tumors and smooth muscle tumors, must also be
      excluded.

PMID- 28883710
TI  - Secure Skyline Queries on Cloud Platform.
AB  - Outsourcing data and computation to cloud server provides a cost-effective way to
      support large scale data storage and query processing. However, due to security
      and privacy concerns, sensitive data (e.g., medical records) need to be protected
      from the cloud server and other unauthorized users. One approach is to outsource
      encrypted data to the cloud server and have the cloud server perform query
      processing on the encrypted data only. It remains a challenging task to support
      various queries over encrypted data in a secure and efficient way such that the
      cloud server does not gain any knowledge about the data, query, and query result.
      In this paper, we study the problem of secure skyline queries over encrypted
      data. The skyline query is particularly important for multi-criteria decision
      making but also presents significant challenges due to its complex computations.
      We propose a fully secure skyline query protocol on data encrypted using
      semantically-secure encryption. As a key subroutine, we present a new secure
      dominance protocol, which can be also used as a building block for other queries.
      Finally, we provide both serial and parallelized implementations and empirically
      study the protocols in terms of efficiency and scalability under different
      parameter settings, verifying the feasibility of our proposed solutions.

PMID- 28883709
TI  - Tegafur-uracil-induced rapid development of advanced hepatic fibrosis.
AB  - Tegafur-uracil has been reported to have only minor adverse effects and is
      associated with liver injury in 1.79% of Japanese patients. The development of
      tegafur-uracil-induced hepatic fibrosis with portal hypertension is rare. Here,
      we report a case of a 74-year-old woman with rapidly developing tegafur-uracil
      induced hepatic fibrosis. The patient had no history of liver disease and had
      been treated with tegafur-uracil for 8 mo after breast cancer surgery. The
      patient was admitted to our hospital for abdominal distension and leg edema
      associated with liver dysfunction. Computed tomography imaging revealed massive
      ascites and splenomegaly, and a non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis
      indicated advanced fibrosis. The histopathological findings revealed periportal
      fibrosis and bridging fibrosis with septation. The massive ascites resolved after
      discontinuing tegafur-uracil. These findings suggest that advanced hepatic
      fibrosis can develop from a relatively short-term administration of tegafur
      uracil and that non-invasive assessment is useful for predicting hepatic
      fibrosis.

PMID- 28883711
TI  - Quantifying Differential Privacy under Temporal Correlations.
AB  - Differential Privacy (DP) has received increasing attention as a rigorous privacy
      framework. Many existing studies employ traditional DP mechanisms (e.g., the
      Laplace mechanism) as primitives, which assume that the data are independent, or
      that adversaries do not have knowledge of the data correlations. However,
      continuous generated data in the real world tend to be temporally correlated, and
      such correlations can be acquired by adversaries. In this paper, we investigate
      the potential privacy loss of a traditional DP mechanism under temporal
      correlations in the context of continuous data release. First, we model the
      temporal correlations using Markov model and analyze the privacy leakage of a DP
      mechanism when adversaries have knowledge of such temporal correlations. Our
      analysis reveals that the privacy loss of a DP mechanism may accumulate and
      increase over time. We call it temporal privacy leakage. Second, to measure such
      privacy loss, we design an efficient algorithm for calculating it in polynomial
      time. Although the temporal privacy leakage may increase over time, we also show
      that its supremum may exist in some cases. Third, to bound the privacy loss, we
      propose mechanisms that convert any existing DP mechanism into one against
      temporal privacy leakage. Experiments with synthetic data confirm that our
      approach is efficient and effective.

PMID- 28883712
TI  - Integrated results from the COPERNICUS and GALILEO studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To report on the efficacy and safety of intravitreal aflibercept in
      patients with macular edema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) in
      an integrated analysis of COPERNICUS and GALILEO. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients
      were randomized to receive intravitreal aflibercept 2 mg every 4 weeks or sham
      injections until week 24. From week 24 to week 52, all intravitreal aflibercept
      treated patients in both studies and sham-treated patients in COPERNICUS were
      eligible to receive intravitreal aflibercept based on prespecified criteria. In
      GALILEO, sham-treated patients continued to receive sham treatment through week
      52. RESULTS: At week 24, mean gain in best-corrected visual acuity and mean
      reduction in central retinal thickness were greater for intravitreal aflibercept
      treated patients compared with sham, consistent with individual trial results. At
      week 52, after 6 months of intravitreal aflibercept as-needed treatment in
      COPERNICUS, patients originally randomized to sham group experienced visual and
      anatomic improvements but did not improve to the extent of those initially
      treated with intravitreal aflibercept, while the sham group in GALILEO did not
      improve over week 24 mean best-corrected visual acuity scores. Ocular serious
      adverse events occurred in <10% of patients. CONCLUSION: This analysis of
      integrated data from COPERNICUS and GALILEO confirmed that intravitreal
      aflibercept is an effective treatment for macular edema following CRVO.

PMID- 28883713
TI  - Patients' knowledge of heart failure and their perception of the disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to gain a deeper insight into patients'
      perception of chronic heart failure (CHF) symptoms by analyzing their compliance
      with nonpharmacological recommendations. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a
      prospective, single-center survey-based registry. Patients included in this study
      were hospitalized between December 2014 and January 2016 at the 1st Department of
      Cardiology, University Hospital of Lord's Transfiguration, Poznan University of
      Medical Sciences, and had been diagnosed with CHF at least 3 months prior to
      inclusion. Participants were divided according to New York Heart Association
      (NYHA) functional class into mild CHF (NYHA I and II) and severe CHF (NYHA III
      and IV), and according to age into young (<50 years), middle-aged (50-70 years)
      and old (>70 years). The survey included information about the patients' sex,
      age, education, length of the illness and 12 questions about their perception of
      CHF. This study included 201 patients. The mean age was 58+/-15 years. RESULTS:
      The younger the patients, the more often they thought that CHF is curable. The
      patients presenting with severe CHF tended to think that CHF is incurable
      significantly more often than those with mild CHF. Most of the patients
      considered loss of appetite, cough and vomiting the least alarming symptoms.
      Significantly more patients with severe CHF exercised less and reported reduced
      sexual activity more often in comparison to the mild CHF patients. Most of the
      young patients reported no changes to their sexual activity, body mass index
      (BMI) or exercise after diagnosis of CHF. Most of the old patients exercised less
      than before diagnosis of CHF. Significantly more middle-aged patients reduced
      their BMI, quit smoking and reported lower sexual activity after diagnosis of CHF
      in comparison to the other groups. CONCLUSION: Patients need to be better
      educated about the nature of CHF and the importance of lifestyle changes.

PMID- 28883714
TI  - Vascular aging and subclinical atherosclerosis: why such a "never ending" and
      challenging story in cardiology?
AB  - The true onset of atherosclerosis remains one of the biggest challenges for
      cardiologists. Is atheroma plaque development considered the earliest step of
      vascular aging? If so, when it starts? Before or after birth? If it starts before
      birth or early during childhood, it seems that Thomas Sydenham was right: "A man
      is as old as his arteries." Except disorganization of elastic fibers, less is
      known about the morphology of vascular aging and also about the molecular events
      influencing the age of arteries, arterial stiffness, and their role in the
      appearance of future complications. Cellular and molecular events responsible for
      the switch from physiologic to pathologic aging of human arteries are less known.
      Epigenetic, genetic, and environmental influences at the onset of early vascular
      aging (EVA) should specifically influence the process. This paper briefly reviews
      the controversial data regarding vascular aging with an emphasis on the less
      known facts about the morphology of EVA.

PMID- 28883715
TI  - Impact of age on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation survival of patients with
      cardiac failure.
AB  - PURPOSE: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used to treat patients in
      critical condition with cardiogenic shock. However, few studies have examined the
      effect of old age in ECMO survival. This study analyzed the impact of age on ECMO
      survival of patients with cardiac failure, and analyzed predictive factors for
      survival according to age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the
      medical records of 95 patients who required veno-arterial (V-A) ECMO between May
      2009 and May 2016 at a single center. Patients were classified into "age >=65"
      (n=48, 50.5%) and "age <65" (n=47, 49.5%) groups. RESULTS: The age >=65 group was
      significantly associated with increased mortality (HR: 1.715; 95% CI =1.038
      2.831) at 90 days after ECMO initiation. These associations were attenuated and
      did not retain statistical significance after adjustment for comorbidities (HR:
      1.485; 95% CI =0.844-2.614). To determine predictive factors of mortality,
      multivariate logistic analysis revealed that age >=65 (OR 5.750; 95% CI [1.508
      21.920]; P=0.010), low pre-ECMO serum bicarbonate (OR 0.884; 95% CI [0.788
      0.991]; P=0.035), and high pre-ECMO serum creatinine (OR 4.546; 95% CI [1.021
      20.239]; P=0.047) were significantly associated with survival to 90 days. By
      analyzing two groups separately, high pre-ECMO serum potassium level (OR 3.552;
      95% CI [1.023-12.331]; P=0.046) was the only independent predictor in patients
      aged <65 years while low Glasgow Coma Scale score (OR 0.698; 95% CI [0.478
      1.019]; P=0.063) showed a considerable trend toward significance in patients aged
      >=65. CONCLUSION: Older age was not an independent risk factor for mortality at
      90 days among V-A ECMO patients. In addition, our study provides understanding of
      the differences in predictive factors for ECMO survival according to age. Pre
      ECMO laboratory findings and mental status can assist clinicians in the
      prediction of a patient's prognosis.

PMID- 28883716
TI  - Spontaneous cervical artery dissection in patients aged over 70 years: two cases
      and systematic literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Spontaneous cervical artery dissection (CAD) is a cerebrovascular
      disease typically considered to affect the young population. Literature reports
      cases in the elderly only as incidental findings, making the diagnosis unlikely
      in older patients. Incidence and pathogeny in this specific population remain to
      be assessed. METHODS: We reviewed patients aged over 70 years admitted for
      spontaneous CAD in the Stroke Unit of the University Hospital of Nancy
      (northeastern France) over a period of 12 years as well as all reported cases in
      literature. RESULTS: During this period, only two patients aged over 70 years
      were diagnosed with internal carotid artery dissection in our center. The first
      patient was diagnosed with the typical radiological feature of long tapered
      stenosis due to mural hematoma. The second patient presented with the classic
      painful Horner syndrome. Literature review identified only two case reports and
      eight studies with an age range above 70 years. Headache was present in nearly
      all documented cases. Radiological features were the same as those usually
      described in younger patients. CONCLUSIONS: Even if spontaneous CAD in patients
      aged over 70 years would appear to be rare, it does occur with comparable
      clinical and radiological features as in the younger population. CAD is probably
      underdiagnosed in this population due to a higher prevalence of more common
      causes of stroke at this age. However, a simple investigation into headache or
      the Horner syndrome during the patient's diagnostic workup would lead to adapted
      exploration of cervical arteries and improve detection of CAD in the elderly.

PMID- 28883717
TI  - Assessing balance through the use of a low-cost head-mounted display in older
      adults: a pilot study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As the population ages, the prevention of falls is an increasingly
      important public health problem. Balance assessment forms an important component
      of fall-prevention programs for older adults. The recent development of cost
      effective and highly responsive virtual reality (VR) systems means new methods of
      balance assessment are feasible in a clinical setting. This proof-of-concept
      study made use of the submillimeter tracking built into modern VR head-mounted
      displays (VRHMDs) to assess balance through the use of visual-vestibular
      conflict. The objective of this study was to evaluate the validity,
      acceptability, and reliability of using a VRHMD to assess balance in older
      adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Validity was assessed by comparing measurements
      from the VRHMD to measurements of postural sway from a force plate. Acceptability
      was assessed through the use of the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire pre- and
      postexposure to assess possible side effects of the visual-vestibular conflict.
      Reliability was assessed by measuring correlations between repeated measurements
      1 week apart. Variables of possible importance that were found to be reliable
      (r>=0.9) between tests separated by a week were then tested for differences
      compared to a control group. Assessment was performed as a cross-sectional single
      site community center-based study in 13 older adults (>=65 years old, 80.2+/-7.3
      years old, 77% female, five at risk of falls, eight controls). The VR balance
      assessment consisted of four modules: a baseline module, a reaction module, a
      balance module, and a seated assessment. RESULTS: There was a significant
      difference in the rate at which participants with a risk of falls changed their
      tilt in the anteroposterior direction compared to the control group. Participants
      with a risk of falls changed their tilt in the anteroposterior direction at 0.7
      degrees /second vs 0.4 degrees /second for those without a history of falls. No
      significant differences were found between pre/postassessment for oculomotor
      score or total Simulator Sickness Questionnaire score. Both the force plate and
      the head-mounted display balance-assessment system were able to detect
      differences between conditions meant to mask visual and proprioceptive
      information. CONCLUSION: This VRHMD is both affordable and portable, causes
      minimal simulator sickness, and produces repeatable results that can be used to
      assess balance in older adults.

PMID- 28883718
TI  - Contributions of COPD, asthma, and ten comorbid conditions to health care
      utilization and patient-centered outcomes among US adults with obstructive airway
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among persons with obstructive airway disease, the relative
      contributions of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and common
      comorbid conditions to health care utilization and patient-centered outcomes
      (PCOs) have not been previously reported. METHODS: We followed a total of 3,486
      persons aged >=40 years with COPD, asthma, or both at baseline, from the Medical
      Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) cohorts enrolled annually from 2008 through 2012
      for 1 year. MEPS is a prospective observational study of US households recording
      self-reported COPD, asthma, and ten medical conditions: angina, arthritis,
      cancer, coronary heart disease, cognitive impairment, diabetes, hypertension,
      lung cancer, myocardial infarction, and stroke/transient ischemic attack. We
      studied the separate contributions of these conditions to health care utilization
      (all-cause and respiratory disease hospitalization, any emergency department [ED]
      visit, and six or more outpatient visits) and PCOs (seven or more days spent in
      bed due to illness, incident loss of mobility, and incident decline in self
      perceived health). RESULTS: COPD made the largest contributions to all-cause and
      respiratory disease hospitalization and ED visits, while arthritis made the
      largest contribution to outpatient health care. Arthritis and COPD, respectively,
      made the greatest contributions to the PCOs. CONCLUSION: COPD made the largest
      and second largest contributions to health care utilization and PCOs among US
      adults with obstructive airway disease. The twelve medical conditions
      collectively accounted for between 52% and 61% of the health care utilization
      outcomes and between 53% and 68% of the PCOs. Cognitive impairment, diabetes,
      hypertension, and stroke also made significant contributions.

PMID- 28883719
TI  - Incidence and risk factors of atrial fibrillation in Asian COPD patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence and risk factors of atrial fibrillation
      (AF) in Asian chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: We selected a study population older than 40 years with a COPD diagnosis
      and who had used at least one inhaled bronchodilator medication between 1998 and
      2012. The date of the index COPD diagnosis was defined as the index date. We
      excluded patients with a history of AF, significant mitral valve disease,
      disorders of the thyroid gland, or ischemic heart disease before the index date.
      We followed all patients from the index date to the day of AF occurrence, the day
      of death, or the date of December 31, 2013. The baseline of comorbidities was
      identified before the index date. Comorbidities included hypertension, diabetes
      mellitus, end-stage renal disease, congenital heart failure, stroke, peripheral
      arterial occlusive disease, and malignancy. RESULTS: We included 6,208 COPD
      patients and 12,409 patients without COPD. The incidence of AF was higher in COPD
      patients than in those without COPD. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for AF among
      those with COPD was 2.23 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.98-2.51
      compared to those without COPD. After multiple analyses, patients with
      hypertension (HR 1.43 [95% CI =1.26-1.62]) or heart failure (HR 2.36 [95% CI
      =1.81-3.08]) were found to have a significantly higher incidence of AF than those
      without these conditions. CONCLUSION: It is important for physicians to monitor,
      prevent, and provide early intervention for AF in COPD patients with hypertension
      or heart failure.

PMID- 28883720
TI  - Effect of a rehabilitation-based chronic disease management program targeting
      severe COPD exacerbations on readmission patterns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is recommended after a severe COPD
      exacerbation, but its short- and long-term effects on health care utilization
      have not been fully established. AIMS: The aims of this study were to evaluate
      patient compliance with a chronic disease management (CDM) program incorporating
      home-based exercise training as the main component after a severe COPD
      exacerbation and to determine its effects on health care utilization in the
      following year. MATERIALS AND METHODS: COPD patients with a severe exacerbation
      were included in a case-cohort study at admission. An intervention group
      participated in a nurse-supervised CDM program during the 2 months after
      discharge, comprising of home-based PR with exercise components directly
      supervised by a physiotherapist, while the remaining patients followed usual
      care. RESULTS: Nineteen of the twenty-one participants (90.5%) were compliant
      with the CDM program and were compared with 29 usual-care patients. Compliance
      with the program was associated with statistically significant reductions in
      admissions due to respiratory disease in the following year (median
      [interquartile range]: 0 [0-1] vs 1 [0-2.5]; P=0.022) and in days of admission (0
      [0-7] vs 7 [0-12]; P=0.034), and multiple linear regression analysis confirmed
      the protective effect of the CDM program (beta coefficient -0.785, P=0.014, and
      R2=0.219). CONCLUSION: A CDM program incorporating exercise training for COPD
      patients without limiting comorbidities after a severe exacerbation achieves high
      compliance and reduces admissions in the year following after the intervention.

PMID- 28883721
TI  - Determinants of each domain of the Short Physical Performance Battery in COPD.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is an assessment tool
      with good prognostic value in COPD. It includes the following: standing balance,
      4 m gait speed test (4MGS), and the timed five-repetition sit-to-stand test
      (5STS). The specific differences in determinants between these three tasks have
      not been adequately characterized in COPD patients. We aimed to identify health
      related, functional, and psychological determinants of each SPPB test. METHODS:
      We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 137 patients with stable COPD.
      Patients performed the SPPB, quadriceps muscle strength (QMS), exercise tolerance
      test (6-min walk test [6MWT]), and pulmonary function; and health-related and
      psychological factors, physical activity, the COPD assessment test (CAT), body
      mass index, age, and depression were assessed. RESULTS: Separate multivariable
      regression models predicting the 4MGS, 5STS, and balance test results described
      31%, 39.1%, and 12.1% of the variance for each test, respectively. QMS was
      negatively associated with all three tests. The 6MWT was negatively associated
      with the 4MGS and 5STS. Depression and age were positively associated with 4MGS
      scores, whereas CAT and age were positively associated with 5STS scores.
      CONCLUSION: The three SPPB tests did not provide equivalent information regarding
      a COPD patient's status. The 5STS was associated with health status factors,
      while the 4MGS was associated with psychological factors.

PMID- 28883722
TI  - ACTIVATE: the effect of aclidinium/formoterol on hyperinflation, exercise
      capacity, and physical activity in patients with COPD.
AB  - The Phase IV, 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled ACTIVATE study
      (NCT02424344) evaluated the effect of aclidinium/formoterol (AB/FF) 400/12 MUg
      twice daily on lung hyperinflation, exercise capacity, and physical activity in
      patients with moderate-to-severe COPD. Patients received AB/FF (n=134) or placebo
      (n=133) (1:1) via the GenuairTM/Pressair(r) dry powder inhaler for 8 weeks. From
      Weeks 5 to 8, all patients participated in behavioral intervention (BI; daily
      messages providing step goals). The primary end point was trough functional
      residual capacity (FRC) at Week 4. Exercise endurance time and physical activity
      were assessed at Week 4 (pharmacotherapy only) and at Week 8 (8 weeks of
      pharmacotherapy plus 4 weeks of BI). Other end points included post-dose FRC,
      residual volume, and inspiratory capacity (IC) at rest and during exercise. After
      4 weeks, trough FRC improved with AB/FF versus placebo but did not reach
      significance (125 mL; P=0.0690). However, post-dose FRC, residual volume, and IC
      at rest improved significantly with AB/FF at Week 4 versus placebo (all
      P<0.0001). AB/FF significantly improved exercise endurance time and IC at isotime
      versus placebo at Week 4 (P<0.01 and P<0.0001, respectively) and Week 8 (P<0.05
      and P<0.0001, respectively). AB/FF achieved higher step counts (P<0.01) with
      fewer inactive patients (P<0.0001) at Week 4 versus placebo. Following BI, AB/FF
      maintained improvements in physical activity at Week 8 and nonsignificant
      improvements were observed with placebo. AB/FF 400/12 MUg demonstrated
      improvements in lung hyperinflation, exercise capacity, and physical activity
      versus placebo that were maintained following the addition of BI. A 4-week period
      of BI might be too short to augment the improvements of physical activity
      observed with AB/FF.

PMID- 28883723
TI  - Comparison of pulsed versus continuous oxygen delivery using realistic adult
      nasal airway replicas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Portable oxygen concentrators (POCs) typically include pulse flow
      (PF) modes to conserve oxygen. The primary aims of this study were to develop a
      predictive in vitro model for inhaled oxygen delivery using a set of realistic
      airway replicas, and to compare PF for a commercial POC with steady flow (SF)
      from a compressed oxygen cylinder. METHODS: Experiments were carried out using a
      stationary compressed oxygen cylinder, a POC, and 15 adult nasal airway replicas
      based on airway geometries derived from medical images. Oxygen delivery via nasal
      cannula was tested at PF settings of 2.0 and 6.0, and SF rates of 2.0 and 6.0
      L/min. A test lung simulated three breathing patterns representative of a chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease patient at rest, during exercise, and while asleep.
      Volume-averaged fraction of inhaled oxygen (FiO2) was calculated by analyzing
      oxygen concentrations sampled at the exit of each replica and inhalation flow
      rates over time. POC pulse volumes were also measured using a commercial O2
      conserver test system to attempt to predict FiO2 for PF. RESULTS: Relative volume
      averaged FiO2 using PF ranged from 68% to 94% of SF values, increasing with
      breathing frequency and tidal volume. Three of 15 replicas failed to trigger the
      POC when used with the sleep breathing pattern at the 2.0 setting, and four of 15
      replicas failed to trigger at the 6.0 setting. FiO2 values estimated from POC
      pulse characteristics followed similar trends but were lower than those derived
      from airway replica experiments. CONCLUSION: For the POC tested, PF delivered
      similar, though consistently lower, volume-averaged FiO2 than SF rates equivalent
      to nominal PF settings. Assessment of PF oxygen delivery using POC pulse
      characteristics alone may be insufficient; testing using airway replicas is
      useful in identifying possible cases of failure and may provide a better
      assessment of FiO2.

PMID- 28883724
TI  - Nanomedicinal products: a survey on specific toxicity and side effects.
AB  - Due to their specific properties and pharmacokinetics, nanomedicinal products
      (NMPs) may present different toxicity and side effects compared to non
      nanoformulated, conventional medicines. To facilitate the safety assessment of
      NMPs, we aimed to gain insight into toxic effects specific for NMPs by
      systematically analyzing the available toxicity data on approved NMPs in the
      European Union. In addition, by comparing five sets of products with the same
      active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in a conventional formulation versus a
      nanoformulation, we aimed to identify any side effects specific for the nano
      aspect of NMPs. The objective was to investigate whether specific toxicity could
      be related to certain structural types of NMPs and whether a nanoformulation of
      an API altered the nature of side effects of the product in humans compared to a
      conventional formulation. The survey of toxicity data did not reveal nanospecific
      toxicity that could be related to certain types of structures of NMPs, other than
      those reported previously in relation to accumulation of iron nanoparticles
      (NPs). However, given the limited data for some of the product groups or
      toxicological end points in the analysis, conclusions with regard to (a lack of)
      potential nanomedicine-specific effects need to be considered carefully. Results
      from the comparison of side effects of five sets of drugs (mainly liposomes
      and/or cytostatics) confirmed the induction of pseudo-allergic responses
      associated with specific NMPs in the literature, in addition to the side effects
      common to both nanoformulations and regular formulations, eg, with liposomal
      doxorubicin, and possibly liposomal daunorubicin. Based on the available data,
      immunotoxicological effects of certain NMPs cannot be excluded, and we conclude
      that this end point requires further attention.

PMID- 28883726
TI  - Doxorubicin-loaded redox-responsive micelles based on dextran and indomethacin
      for resistant breast cancer.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) against chemotherapeutic agents has become one of the
      major obstacles to successful cancer therapy and MDR-associated proteins (MRPs)
      mediated drug efflux is the key factor for MDR. In this study, a redox-responsive
      polymer based on dextran (DEX) and indomethacin (IND), which could reduce MRPs
      mediated efflux of chemotherapeutics, was synthesized, and the obtained polymer
      could spontaneously form stable micelles with well-defined core-shell structure
      and a uniform size distribution with an average diameter of 50 nm and effectively
      encapsulate doxorubicin (DOX); the micelles contain a disulfide bridge
      (cystamine, SS) between IND and DEX (DEX-SS-IND). In vitro drug release results
      indicated that DEX-SS-IND/DOX micelles could maintain good stability in a
      stimulated normal physiological environment and promptly depolymerized and
      released DOX in a reducing environment. After incubating DEX-SS-IND/DOX micelles
      with drug-resistant tumor (MCF-7/ADR) cells, the intracellular accumulation and
      retention of DOX were significantly increased under the synergistic effects of
      redox-responsive delivery and the inhibitory effect of IND on MRPs. In vitro
      cytotoxicity showed that DEX-SS-IND/DOX micelles exhibited higher cytotoxicity
      against MCF-7/ADR cells. Moreover, DEX-SS-IND/DOX micelles showed significantly
      enhanced inhibition of tumor in BALB/c nude mice bearing MCF-7/ADR tumors and
      reduced systemic toxicity. Overall, the cumulative evidence indicates that DEX-SS
      IND/DOX micelles hold significant promise for overcoming MDR for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28883725
TI  - Gold nanoparticles enlighten the future of cancer theranostics.
AB  - Development of multifunctional nanomaterials, one of the most interesting and
      advanced research areas in the field of nanotechnology, is anticipated to
      revolutionize cancer diagnosis and treatment. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are now
      being widely utilized in bio-imaging and phototherapy due to their tunable and
      highly sensitive optical and electronic properties (the surface plasmon
      resonance). As a new concept, termed "theranostics," multifunctional AuNPs may
      contain diagnostic and therapeutic functions that can be integrated into one
      system, thereby simultaneously facilitating diagnosis and therapy and monitoring
      therapeutic responses. In this review, the important properties of AuNPs relevant
      to diagnostic and phototherapeutic applications such as structure, shape, optics,
      and surface chemistry are described. Barriers for translational development of
      theranostic AuNPs and recent advances in the application of AuNPs for cancer
      diagnosis, photothermal, and photodynamic therapy are discussed.

PMID- 28883728
TI  - A charge-reversible nanocarrier using PEG-PLL (-g-Ce6, DMA)-PLA for photodynamic
      therapy.
AB  - A polyelectrolyte nanoparticle composed of PEG-PLL(-g-Ce6, DMA)-PLA was developed
      for nanomedicinal application in photodynamic therapy. These nanoparticles formed
      stable aggregates through the hydrophobic interaction of poly(lactic acid) and
      demonstrated pH-dependent behaviors such as surface charge conversion and
      enhanced cellular uptake at acidic pH, resulting in improved phototoxicity. In
      vivo animal imaging revealed that the prepared PEG-PLL(-g-Ce6, DMA)-PLA
      nanoparticles effectively accumulated at the targeted tumor site through enhanced
      permeability and retention effects. Reversible surface charge for PEG-PLL (-g
      Ce6, DMA)-PLA nanoparticles allows the nanoparticles to escape the immune system
      and concentrate on the tumor tissue. Tumor growth in the nude mice treated with
      the nanoparticles decreased significantly and the hydrophobic interaction in the
      poly(lactic acid) block could allow the incorporation of multiple drugs.
      Therefore, the PEG-PLL(-g-Ce6, DMA)-PLA nanoparticles could have considerable
      potential as a nanomedicinal platform for photodynamic therapy.

PMID- 28883727
TI  - Vaccination with poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles loaded with soluble
      Leishmania antigens and modified with a TNFalpha-mimicking peptide or
      monophosphoryl lipid A confers protection against experimental visceral
      leishmaniasis.
AB  - Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) persists as a major public health problem, and since
      the existing chemotherapy is far from satisfactory, development of an effective
      vaccine emerges as the most appropriate strategy for confronting VL. The
      development of an effective vaccine relies on the selection of the appropriate
      antigen and also the right adjuvant and/or delivery vehicle. In the present
      study, the protective efficacy of poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)
      nanoparticles (NPs), which were surface-modified with a TNFalpha-mimicking eight
      amino-acid peptide (p8) and further functionalized by encapsulating soluble
      Leishmania infantum antigens (sLiAg) and monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA), a TLR4
      ligand, was evaluated against challenge with L. infantum parasites in BALB/c
      mice. Vaccination with these multifunctionalized PLGA nanoformulations conferred
      significant protection against parasite infection in vaccinated mice. In
      particular, vaccination with PLGA-sLiAg-MPLA or p8-PLGA-sLiAg NPs resulted in
      almost complete elimination of the parasite in the spleen for up to 4 months post
      challenge. Parasite burden reduction was accompanied by antigen-specific humoral
      and cellular immune responses. Specifically, injection with PLGA-sLiAg-MPLA
      raised exclusively anti-sLiAg IgG1 antibodies post-vaccination, while in p8-PLGA
      sLiAg-vaccinated mice, no antibody production was detected. However, 4 months
      post-challenge, in mice vaccinated with all the multifunctionalized NPs, antibody
      class switching towards IgG2a subtype was observed. The study of cellular immune
      responses revealed the increased proliferation capacity of spleen cells against
      sLiAg, consisting of IFNgamma-producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Importantly, the
      activation of CD8+ T cells was exclusively attributed to vaccination with PLGA
      NPs surface-modified with the p8 peptide. Moreover, characterization of cytokine
      production in vaccinated-infected mice revealed that protection was accompanied
      by significant increase of IFNgamma and lower levels of IL-4 and IL-10 in
      protected mice when compared to control infected group. Conclusively, the above
      nanoformulations hold promise for future vaccination strategies against VL.

PMID- 28883729
TI  - Maternal exposure to nanosized titanium dioxide suppresses embryonic development
      in mice.
AB  - Although nanoscale titanium dioxide (nano-TiO2) has been extensively used in
      industrial food applications and daily products for pregnant women, infants, and
      children, its potential toxicity on fetal development has been rarely studied.
      The main objective of this investigation was to establish the effects of maternal
      exposure of nano-TiO2 on developing embryos. Female imprinting control region
      mice were orally administered nano-TiO2 from gestational day 0 to 17. Our
      findings showed that Ti concentrations in maternal serum, placenta, and fetus
      were increased in nano-TiO2-exposed mice when compared to controls, which
      resulted in reductions in the contents of calcium and zinc in maternal serum,
      placenta, and fetus, maternal weight gain, placental weight, fetal weight, number
      of live fetuses, and fetal crown-rump length as well as cauda length, and caused
      an increase in the number of both dead fetuses and resorptions. Furthermore,
      maternal nano-TiO2 exposure inhibited development of the fetal skeleton,
      suggesting a significant absence of cartilage, reduced or absent ossification,
      and an increase in the number of fetuses with dysplasia, including exencephaly,
      spina bifida, coiled tail, scoliosis, rib absence, and sternum absence. These
      findings indicated that nano-TiO2 can cross the blood-fetal barrier and placental
      barrier, thereby delaying the development of fetal mice and inducing skeletal
      malformation. These factors may be associated with reductions in both calcium and
      zinc in maternal serum and the fetus, and both the placenta and embryos may be
      major targets of developmental toxicity following maternal exposure to nano-TiO2
      during the prenatal period. Therefore, the application of nano-TiO2 should be
      carried out with caution.

PMID- 28883730
TI  - Drug delivery approaches for breast cancer.
AB  - Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting women worldwide. The
      controlled release of drugs to the precise site of the disease using a
      nanocarrier vehicle increases the therapeutic efficiency of the drugs.
      Nanotechnology-based approaches used to endorse clinical improvement from a
      disease also help to understand the interaction of malignant cells with their
      microenvironment. Receptor-based targeting is another approach for drug delivery
      which is undergoing clinical trials. Nanoparticles (NPs) delivery has been proven
      to promise high loading capacity, less toxicity, and stability of the drugs or
      biomolecules compared to traditional chemotherapeutic drugs. The goal of this
      review is to present the current problems of breast cancer therapy and discuss
      the NP-based targeting to overcome the hurdles of conventional drug therapy
      approach.

PMID- 28883732
TI  - Analyzing a single nucleotide polymorphism in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis
      approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder affecting >21 million
      people worldwide. Some genetic studies reported that single nucleotide
      polymorphism (SNP) involving variant rs1344706 from the ZNF804A gene in human
      beings is associated with the risk of schizophrenia in several populations.
      Similar results tend to conflict with other reports in literature, indicating
      that no true significant association exists between rs1344706 and schizophrenia.
      We seek to determine the level of association of this SNP with schizophrenia in
      the Asian population using more recent genome-wide association study (GWAS)
      datasets. METHODS: Applying a computational approach with inclusion of more
      recent GWAS datasets, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the level of
      association of SNP rs1344706 and the risk of schizophrenia disorder among the
      Asian population constituting Chinese, Indonesians, Japanese, Kazakhs and
      Singaporeans. For a total of 21 genetic studies, including a total of 28,842
      cases and 35,630 controls, regression analysis, publication bias, Cochran's Q and
      I2 tests were performed. The DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model was used
      to assess the association of the genetic variant to schizophrenia. Leave-one-out
      sensitivity analysis was also conducted to determine the influence of each study
      on the final outcome of the association study. RESULTS: Our summarized analysis
      for Asian population revealed a pooled odds ratio of 1.06, 95% confidence
      interval of 1.01-1.11 and two-tailed P-value of 0.0228. Our test for
      heterogeneity showed the presence of large heterogeneity (I2=53.44%, P =0.00207)
      and Egger's regression test (P =0.8763) and Begg's test (P =0.8347), indicating
      no presence of publication bias among our selected studies. In our sensitivity
      analysis, 10 different studies comprising of ~50% of the entire study had an
      impact on our final results as each leave-one-out test became insignificant. Our
      result suggests that genetic variant rs1344706 might be associated with the
      development of schizophrenia in Asians.

PMID- 28883733
TI  - Fan the flame: trazodone-induced mania in a unipolar depressed patient with
      stable sertraline treatment.
AB  - Depressed patients often complain of sleep disturbance. Routine antidepressive
      strategies sometimes fail to deal with this intractable issue. Indeed, the
      supplementation of sleep promoting antidepressants (eg, trazodone, mirtazapine,
      and agomelatine) is prevalent in clinical practice. However, the combination of
      different antidepressants may increase the affective lability. Herein, we
      document a patient with unipolar depression who was compliant with sertraline
      treatment and who dramatically switched to mania after adding trazodone as a
      sleeping aid. This case extended our understanding of the potential manic
      switching risk when trazodone is used to promote sleep.

PMID- 28883734
TI  - Prognostic impact of blood pressure and heart rate at admission on in-hospital
      mortality after primary percutaneous intervention for acute myocardial infarction
      with ST-segment elevation in western Romania.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the
      prognostic impact of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR) on in
      hospital mortality in ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI)
      patients, after primary percutaneous intervention (PCI). PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      The study included 294 patients admitted for STEMI. They were divided into five
      groups according to the SBP at admission: group I, <105 mmHg; group II, 105-125
      mmHg; group III, 126-140 mmHg; group IV, 141-158 mmHg; and group V, >=159 mmHg.
      Increased HR was defined as >=80 beats per minute (bpm). In-hospital death was
      defined as all-cause death during admission and classified into cardiac and
      noncardiac death. RESULTS: Among the 294 patients admitted for STEMI, 218 (74%)
      were men. The mean age was 62+/-17 years. In-hospital mortality rate was 6%
      (n=18), with 11 (3.7%) deaths having cardiac causes. The highest mortality was
      registered in group I (n=9, 16%, P=0.018). Compared to the other groups, group I
      patients were older (P=0.033), more often smokers (P=0.026), and had a history of
      myocardial infarction (P=0.003), systemic hypertension (P=0.023), diabetes
      (P=0.041), or chronic kidney disease (P=0.0200). They more often had a HR >=80
      bpm (P=0.028) and a Killip class 3 or 4 at admission (P=0.020). The peak creatine
      phosphokinase-MB level was significantly higher in this group (P=0.005), while
      the angiographic findings more often identified as culprit lesions were the right
      coronary artery (P=0.005), the left main trunk (P=0.040), or a multivessel
      coronary artery disease (P=0.044). Multivariate analysis showed that group I
      patients had a significantly higher risk for both all-cause death (P=0.006) and
      cardiac death (P=0.003). Patients with HR >=80 bpm also had higher mortality
      rates (P=0.0272 for general mortality and P=0.0280 for cardiac mortality).
      CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that SBP <105 mmHg and HR >=80 bpm at
      admission of STEMI patients are associated with a higher risk of in-hospital
      death, even after primary PCI.

PMID- 28883731
TI  - Antipsychotic-associated weight gain: management strategies and impact on
      treatment adherence.
AB  - Antipsychotic-induced weight gain is a major management problem for clinicians.
      It has been shown that weight gain and obesity lead to increased cardiovascular
      and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality, reduced quality of life and poor
      drug compliance. This narrative review discusses the propensity of various
      antipsychotics to cause weight gain, the pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic
      interventions available to counteract this effect and its impact on adherence.
      Most antipsychotics cause weight gain. The risk appears to be highest with
      olanzapine and clozapine. Weight increases rapidly in the initial period after
      starting antipsychotics. Patients continue to gain weight in the long term.
      Children appear to be particularly vulnerable to antipsychotic-induced weight
      gain. Tailoring antipsychotics according to the needs of the individual and close
      monitoring of weight and other metabolic parameters are the best preventive
      strategies at the outset. Switching to an agent with lesser tendency to cause
      weight gain is an option, but carries the risk of relapse of the illness.
      Nonpharmacologic interventions of dietary counseling, exercise programs and
      cognitive and behavioral strategies appear to be equally effective in individual
      and group therapy formats. Both nonpharmacologic prevention and intervention
      strategies have shown modest effects on weight. Multiple compounds have been
      investigated as add-on medications to cause weight loss. Metformin has the best
      evidence in this respect. Burden of side effects needs to be considered when
      prescribing weight loss medications. There is no strong evidence to recommend
      routine prescription of add-on medication for weight reduction. Heterogeneity of
      study methodologies and other confounders such as lifestyle, genetic and illness
      factors make interpretation of data difficult.

PMID- 28883735
TI  - Hollow viscus injuries: predictors of outcome and role of diagnostic delay.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hollow viscus injuries (HVIs) are uncommon but potentially
      catastrophic conditions with high mortality and morbidity rates. The aim of this
      study was to analyze our 16-year experience with patients undergoing surgery for
      blunt or penetrating bowel trauma to identify prognostic factors with particular
      attention to the influence of diagnostic delay on outcome. METHODS: From our
      multicenter trauma registry, we selected 169 consecutive patients with an HVI,
      enrolled from 2000 to 2016. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data
      were analyzed to assess determinants of mortality, morbidity, and length of stay
      by univariate and multivariate analysis models. RESULTS: Overall mortality and
      morbidity rates were 15.9% and 36.1%, respectively. The mean length of hospital
      stay was 23+/-7 days. Morbidity was independently related to an increase of white
      blood cells (P=0.01), and to delay of treatment >6 hours (P=0.033), while Injury
      Severity Score (ISS) (P=0.01), presence of shock (P=0.01), and a low diastolic
      arterial pressure registered at emergency room admission (P=0.02) significantly
      affected postoperative mortality. CONCLUSION: There is evidence that patients
      with clinical signs of shock, low diastolic pressure at admission, and high ISS
      are at increased risk of postoperative mortality. Leukocytosis and delayed
      treatment (>6 hours) were independent predictors of postoperative morbidity. More
      effort should be made to increase the preoperative detection rate of HVI and
      reduce the delay of treatment.

PMID- 28883736
TI  - Omentum flap as a salvage procedure in deep sternal wound infection.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Deep sternal wound infections (DSWIs) are rare but devastating
      complication after median sternotomy following cardiac surgery. Especially in the
      presence of artificial material or inadequate preliminary muscle flaps, the
      pedicled omentum flap is due to its immunological properties, the predetermined
      flap in salvage procedures. METHODS: We treated 14 patients suffering a
      mediastinitis and open thorax using a pedicled omentoplasty as a salvage
      procedure because of persisting DSWIs. Omentoplasty was performed in combination
      with a split skin graft and the wound was closed by a vacuum-assisted therapy for
      7 days. The patients' sex and comorbid risk factors supporting DSWIs as well as
      the postoperative complications were recorded. RESULTS: Retrospective analysis of
      14 patients (10 males and four females) after a follow-up time of 24 months was
      performed. The average age was 75 years (range: 67-83). Heart surgery took place
      electively in eight cases, in three cases urgently and three for emergency
      reasons. The preoperative Euro Score was 16 (range 3.51-42.58). We had no flap
      loss in any patients. The skin graft showed a full take in all patients. Two
      patients needed revision of an abdominal wound dehiscence after laparotomy and
      one patient developed hernia in the late outcome. DISCUSSION: The greater omentum
      flap has, over many years, become an ideal partner in the coverage and treatment
      of DSWIs. Especially due to its immunologic capacity and amorphous structure, it
      has the ability to fill up cavities and cover infected artificial material so
      residual infections can be controlled.

PMID- 28883737
TI  - Scabies masquerading as bullous pemphigoid: scabies surrepticius.
AB  - Scabies, a parasitic infestation caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, is
      diagnosed by observing either the mite, its ova, or its excrement. The mite
      tracts, known as burrows and a characteristic presentation of the pruritic
      condition, are typically found on the web spaces between the fingers. Other
      cutaneous lesions include excoriated papules, pustules, and vesicles. However,
      atypical clinical variants of scabies, such as bullous, crusted, hidden,
      incognito, nodular, and scalp forms of the parasitic infestation, mimic the
      morphologic features of other non-parasitic dermatoses. A 76-year-old man
      presented with pruritic blisters and urticarial plaques that demonstrated not
      only pathology changes, but direct immunofluorescence also showed findings of
      bullous pemphigoid. His condition improved, but did not resolve, with topical
      corticosteroid cream for the management of the primary autoimmune blistering
      disorder. When other family members subsequently developed scabies, the correct
      diagnosis for his condition, bullous scabies, was established by demonstrating
      mites, ova, and scybala on a mineral oil preparation from a skin scraping of a
      newly appearing burrow. Bullous scabies can masquerade not only clinically, but
      also both pathologically and immunologically as bullous pemphigoid. Scabies
      serrupticius is introduced as a unifying term to designate all of the non-classic
      presentations of S. scabiei mite infestation.

PMID- 28883738
TI  - Checkpoint inhibitors for malignant melanoma: a systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Rates of malignant melanoma are continuing to
      increase, and until recently effective treatments were lacking. However, since
      2011 three immunotherapeutic agents, known as checkpoint inhibitors, have been
      approved. This review aims to establish whether these three drugs - ipilimumab,
      nivolumab, and pembrolizumab - offer greater efficacy and tolerability compared
      to control interventions (placebo, immunotherapy, or chemotherapy) in patients
      with stage III or IV unresectable cutaneous melanoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      search on four major medical and scientific databases yielded 7,553 records, of
      which seven met the inclusion criteria, with a total study population of 3,628.
      Only prospective Phase II or III randomized controlled trials on checkpoint
      inhibitors for patients with unresectable cutaneous melanoma that reported data
      on survival (overall or progression-free), tumor response, or adverse events were
      included. Three meta-analyses were carried out. RESULTS: The hazard ratio for
      progression or death was 0.54 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.44-0.67), and the
      odds ratio for best overall response rate was 4.48 (95% CI: 2.77-7.24), both in
      favor of checkpoint inhibitors. However, control treatments were associated with
      an insignificantly lower rate of discontinuation of treatment due to adverse
      effects or treatment-related adverse events (odds ratio =1.63 [95% CI: 0.55
      4.88]). CONCLUSION: This study finds that checkpoint inhibitors are more
      effective than control interventions, both in terms of survival and tumor
      response, and yet no less tolerable. PD1 therapies (nivolumab and pembrolizumab)
      appear to offer greater efficacy than CTLA4 therapy (ipilimumab). The combination
      of nivolumab and ipilimumab was, however, the most effective, but significantly
      less tolerable than monotherapy. The lack of published clinical data does,
      however, limit this study. Further research is needed in two areas in particular:
      1) to determine the optimal use of checkpoint inhibitors, specifically in terms
      of combination therapy, and 2) to identify reliable biomarkers to predictive
      responders and guide treatment assignment.

PMID- 28883739
TI  - Hyperbilirubinemia in atazanavir-treated human immunodeficiency virus-infected
      patients: the impact of the UGT1A1*28 allele.

PMID- 28883740
TI  - A cross-sectional study of factors associated with the number of anatomical pain
      sites in an actual elderly general population: results from the PainS65+ cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have illustrated that multisite pain is more frequent
      than single pain site, and it is associated with an array of negative
      consequences. However, there is limited knowledge available about the potential
      factors associated with multisite pain in the elderly general population.
      OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study examines whether the number of anatomical
      pain sites (APSs) is related to sociodemographic and health-related factors in
      older adults including oldest-old ages using a new method (APSs) to assess the
      location of pain on the body. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample came from the
      PainS65+ cohort, which included 6,611 older individuals (mean age = 76.0 years;
      standard deviation [SD] = 7.4) residing in southeastern Sweden. All the
      participants completed and returned a postal survey that measured
      sociodemographic data, total annual income, pain intensity and frequency, general
      well-being, and quality of life. The number of pain sites (NPS) was marked on a
      body manikin of 45 sections, and a total of 23 APSs were then calculated.
      Univariable and multivariable models of regression analysis were performed.
      RESULTS: Approximately 39% of the respondents had at least two painful sites. The
      results of the regression analysis showed an independent association between the
      APSs and the age group of 75-79 years, women, married, high pain intensity and
      frequency, and low well-being and quality of life, after adjustments for
      consumption of analgesics and comorbidities. The strongest association was
      observed for the higher frequency of pain. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that
      APSs are highly prevalent with strong relationships with various sociodemographic
      and health-related factors and concur well with the notion that multisite pain is
      a potential indicator of increased pain severity and impaired quality of life in
      the elderly. Our comprehensive method of calculating the number of sites could be
      an essential part of the clinical presentation, assessment, and treatment of
      multisite pain.

PMID- 28883741
TI  - Treatment and prognostic factors for survival in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma
      patients with bortezomib and dexamethasone regimen: a single Chinese center
      retrospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the efficacy and
      prognostic factors of bortezomib and dexamethasone (BD) chemotherapy regimen in
      the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients in our hospital.
      METHODS: A total of 47 newly diagnosed MM patients treated in our hospital from
      May 2010 to September 2016 were included in this study. All the enrolled patients
      received at least two cycles of BD chemotherapy regimen. RESULTS: The overall
      response rate after treatment was 68.5% with a complete response of 23.4%, very
      good partial response of 17.0%, partial response of 21.3% and minor response of
      6.8%. The median time of overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS)
      and time to progression (TTP) of the treated patients were 36.0, 19.0 and 18.0
      months, respectively; the mean OS, PFS and TTP were 36.0, 19.3 and 18.8 months,
      respectively. Though some adverse events had occurred, none of the patients was
      discontinued from treatment. Level of albumin, beta2-microglobulin and
      cytogenetic abnormalities were prognostic factors for OS, and plasma cell
      percentage in bone marrow, beta2-microglobulin and cytogenetic abnormalities were
      prognostic factors for PFS as revealed by log-rank test of univariate analysis;
      no prognostic factors for OS and PFS were detected by COX regression of
      multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that BD regimen was
      effective and well tolerated in newly diagnosed MM patients, and prognostic
      factors for patients' survival include level of albumin, plasma cell percentage
      in bone marrow, beta2-microglobulin and cytogenetic abnormalities.

PMID- 28883742
TI  - Somatic symptom profiles in the general population: a latent class analysis in a
      Danish population-based health survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify and describe somatic symptom
      profiles in the general adult population in order to enable further
      epidemiological research within multiple somatic symptoms. METHODS: Information
      on 19 self-reported common somatic symptoms was achieved from a population-based
      questionnaire survey of 36,163 randomly selected adults in the Capital Region of
      Denmark (55.4% women). The participants stated whether they had been considerably
      bothered by each symptom within 14 days prior to answering the questionnaire. We
      used latent class analysis to identify the somatic symptom profiles. The profiles
      were further described by their association with age, sex, chronic disease, and
      self-perceived health. RESULTS: We identified 10 different somatic symptom
      profiles defined by number, type, and site of the symptoms. The majority of the
      population (74.0%) had a profile characterized by no considerable bothering
      symptoms, while a minor group of 3.9% had profiles defined by a high risk of
      multiple somatic symptoms. The remaining profiles were more likely to be
      characterized by a few specific symptoms. The profiles could further be described
      by their associations with age, sex, chronic disease, and self-perceived health.
      CONCLUSION: The identified somatic symptom profiles could be distinguished by
      number, type, and site of the symptoms. The profiles have the potential to be
      used in further epidemiological studies on risk factors and prognosis of somatic
      symptoms but should be confirmed in other population-based studies with specific
      focus on symptom burden.

PMID- 28883743
TI  - Medical decision making and risky choices: psychological and medicolegal
      consequences of HIV and HCV contamination of blood products.
AB  - AIMS: The overall goal of this article is to make a scientific comment about the
      psycho-social consequences of hemophilia patients affected by human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV) and to point out the
      related medicolegal issues. METHODS: This commentary takes into account some
      published evidences about the current scenario of hemophilia patients infected by
      HIV and/or HCV who received contaminated blood products in the late 1970s through
      1985. RESULTS: Several psychological and medicolegal consequences are related
      with HIV and HCV contamination of blood products. A multidisciplinary approach is
      needed to treat all the difficulties experienced by these patients and to ensure
      good clinical decisions in medical practice. CONCLUSION: The literature on the
      psychosocial functioning of hemophilia patients with human HIV and HCV infection
      offers a number of implications, including medicolegal issues, that can be
      discussed for guaranteeing a good level of care and safeguard of this group of
      patients.

PMID- 28883744
TI  - Sexual autonomy and contraceptive use among women in Nigeria: findings from the
      Demographic and Health Survey data.
AB  - CONTEXT: The persistent low contraceptive use and high fertility in Nigeria
      despite improvements in educational achievements calls for an examination of the
      role of factors, which may moderate the use of modern contraception. This article
      explores the influence of sexual autonomy on the use of modern contraceptive
      methods among women and its relative importance compared with other, more
      traditional, indicators of women's autonomy such as education and occupation.
      DATA AND METHODS: Data from two Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), 2008 and
      2013, were used in this study. An index of sexual autonomy was constructed by
      combining related DHS variables, and its association with current use of modern
      contraception was examined at each time point as well as over time using
      multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: The observed prevalence for use of
      modern contraception was 2.8 and 2.6 times higher among women who had high sexual
      autonomy in 2008 and 2013, respectively. The corresponding figures for women with
      secondary or higher education were 8.2 and 11.8 times higher, respectively,
      compared with women with no education. But after controlling for wealth index,
      religion, place of residence, autonomy and experience of intimate partner
      violence (IPV), the likelihood of use of modern contraception was lowered to
      about 2.5 (from 8.2) and 2.8 (from 11.8) times during 2008 and 2013,
      respectively, among women with secondary or higher education. The likelihood of
      use of modern contraception lowered only to 1.6 (from 2.8) and 1.8 (from 2.6)
      times among women with high sexual autonomy after controlling for other
      covariates, respectively, during the same period. CONCLUSION: Sexual autonomy
      seems to play an important role in women's use of modern contraceptive methods
      independent of education and a number of other factors related to women's status.
      Sexual autonomy needs to be simultaneously promoted alongside increasing
      educational opportunities to enhance women's ability to use modern contraception.

PMID- 28883745
TI  - Review of devices used in neuromuscular electrical stimulation for stroke
      rehabilitation.
AB  - Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), specifically functional electrical
      stimulation (FES) that compensates for voluntary motion, and therapeutic
      electrical stimulation (TES) aimed at muscle strengthening and recovery from
      paralysis are widely used in stroke rehabilitation. The electrical stimulation of
      muscle contraction should be synchronized with intended motion to restore
      paralysis. Therefore, NMES devices, which monitor electromyogram (EMG) or
      electroencephalogram (EEG) changes with motor intention and use them as a
      trigger, have been developed. Devices that modify the current intensity of NMES,
      based on EMG or EEG, have also been proposed. Given the diversity in devices and
      stimulation methods of NMES, the aim of the current review was to introduce some
      commercial FES and TES devices and application methods, which depend on the
      condition of the patient with stroke, including the degree of paralysis.

PMID- 28883746
TI  - Clinical impact of early diagnosis of autism on the prognosis and parent-child
      relationships.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a lifelong condition that usually
      appears in late infancy or early childhood, and is characterized by social and
      communication deficits that impede optimal functioning. Despite widespread
      research and greater public awareness, ASD has an unclear etiology and no known
      cure, making it difficult to acquire accurate and timely diagnoses. In addition,
      once an ASD diagnosis is made, parents find it challenging to navigate the
      healthcare system and determine which interventions are most effective and
      appropriate for their child. A growing body of evidence supports the value of
      early diagnosis and treatment with evidence-based interventions, which can
      significantly improve the quality of life of individuals with ASD as well as of
      their carers and families. Particularly noteworthy are early interventions that
      occur in natural surroundings and can be modified to address age-related goals
      throughout the lifespan. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to: 1) provide
      readers with a brief background related to ASD; 2) describe commonly used
      screening instruments and tools for early diagnosis; 3) describe early
      interventions that have empirical support; and 4) discuss how the parent-child
      and family relationships can be affected through this process. This information
      can provide professionals with information they can use to assist families who
      make critical and potentially life-changing decisions for children with ASD.

PMID- 28883747
TI  - Proton beam therapy in non-small cell lung cancer: state of the art.
AB  - This review summarizes the past and present status of proton beam therapy (PBT)
      for lung cancer. PBT has a unique characteristic called the Bragg peak that
      enables a reduction in the dose of normal tissue around the tumor, but is
      sensitive to the uncertainties of density changes. The heterogeneity in electron
      density for thoracic lesions, such as those in the lung and mediastinum, and
      tumor movement according to respiration necessitates respiratory management for
      PBT to be applied in lung cancer patients. There are two types of PBT - a
      passively scattered approach and a scanning approach. Typically, a passively
      scattered approach is more robust for respiratory movement and a scanning
      approach could result in a more conformal dose distribution even when the tumor
      shape is complex. Large tumors of centrally located lung cancer may be more
      suitably irradiated than with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or
      stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). For a locally advanced lung cancer, PBT
      can spare the lung and heart more than photon IMRT. However, no randomized
      controlled trial has reported differences between PBT and IMRT or SBRT for early
      stage and locally advanced lung cancers. Therefore, a well-designed controlled
      trial is warranted.

PMID- 28883748
TI  - The predictive effect of medical illnesses for mental health care in adolescence:
      a register-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a developmentally sensitive stage, during which a
      medical illness may have an effect on individual development, and vice versa.
      Chronic medical illnesses in adolescents have been associated with psychiatric
      symptoms. The aim of the present register-based pilot study was to assess
      whether, and to what extent, different medical diagnoses predict subsequent use
      of mental health services among adolescents. METHODS: The study material
      comprised data on visits to a pediatric clinic by 12- to 16-year-old adolescent
      patients over a period of 5 years. Altogether, 10,154 visits by 1,781 patients
      were identified. The associations of the medical diagnoses with a subsequent
      visit to the adolescent psychiatry clinic were analyzed using logistic
      regression. RESULTS: During the follow-up period, 299 patients (16.8%) visited or
      contacted the adolescent psychiatry clinic at least once. Of various diagnoses,
      the highest odds ratios (ORs) were observed for diabetes mellitus (OR=4.07,
      p<0.001) and neoplasms (OR=3.29, p=0.047). An association was found between
      adolescent psychiatry clinic visits and female gender. CONCLUSION: Medical
      symptoms and illnesses that require a referral to a pediatrician are a marked
      risk factor for later use of mental health services. The results call for
      screening for psychological distress among patients with somatic illnesses and
      prompt referrals to mental health services if required.

PMID- 28883749
TI  - Student-selected component in the medical curriculum: investigations and
      psychiatric referral for paracetamol overdose in an accident and emergency
      department.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A student-selected component (SSC) of the medical curriculum requires
      the student to be self-directed in locating and undertaking a placement in a
      clinical specialty of their choosing and completing a project. The clinical area
      for experience was an accident and emergency department, and our topic was a
      focused audit on the investigations and referral for paracetamol overdose. The
      purpose of this paper is twofold: to reflect on the education value to medical
      students of an SSC in a medical curriculum, and to highlight learning and
      understanding through completion of an audit. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An audit
      approach was applied. The aim of the project study was to investigate the level
      of compliance with best-practice guidelines for investigations and psychiatric
      referral in paracetamol overdose. RESULTS: A total of 40 cases meeting the
      inclusion criteria were randomly selected. The sample had a mean age of 27 years,
      of whom 70.5% were female, and the ingested dose of paracetamol ranged from 0.864
      to 80 g. Paracetamol abuse may present as intentional and unintentional overdose.
      In our study, 85% of cases were identified as intentional overdose and 76% had a
      history of psychiatric illness. Generally, medical management was compliant with
      guidelines, with some minor irregularities. The international normalized ratio
      was the most underperformed test. CONCLUSION: Our choice of topic, paracetamol
      overdose, contributed to our understanding of the breadth of factors to be
      considered in the emergency medical management of a patient. In this regard, we
      had the benefit of understanding how the diagnostic and therapeutic factors, when
      applied in accordance with best-practice guidelines, work very effectively. The
      SSC impacted positively on our cognitive, personal, and professional development.
      In facilitating the student with choice, the SSC encouraged self-direction and
      proactivity. We gained experience in the discipline of research and acquired some
      skills in independent thinking and analysis.

PMID- 28883750
TI  - Effect of etoricoxib on experimental oxidative testicular ischemia-reperfusion
      damage in rats induced with torsion-detorsion.
AB  - Etoricoxib features antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties concomitantly,
      suggesting that it may be beneficial in testicular ischemia reperfusion (I/R)
      damage. Our aim is to investigate the effects of etoricoxib on testicular I/R
      damage induced with torsion-detorsion (TD). The etoricoxib + torsion-detorsion
      (ETD) groups of animals were given etoricoxib in 50 and 100 mg/kg of body weight
      (ETD-50 and ETD-100), while the testes torsion-detorsion (TTD) and sham operation
      rat group (SOG) animals were given single oral doses of distilled water as a
      solvent. TTD, ETD-50 and ETD-100 groups were subjected to 720 degrees  degrees
      torsion for four hours, and detorsion for four hours. The SOG group was not
      subjected to this procedure. Biochemical, gene expression and histopathological
      analyses were carried out on the testicular tissues. The levels of
      malondialdehyde (MDA), myeloperoxidase (MPO), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) and
      tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were significantly higher, and the levels
      of total glutathione (tGSH) and glutathione reductase (GSHRd) were significantly
      lower in the TTD group, compared to the ETD-50, ETD-100 and SOG groups.
      Etoricoxib at a dose of 100 mg/kg better prevented I/R damage than the 50 mg/kg
      dose. Etoricoxib may be useful in clinical practice in the reduction of I/R
      damage on testes caused by torsion-detorsion.

PMID- 28883751
TI  - Resveratrol raises in vitro anticancer effects of paclitaxel in NSCLC cell line
      A549 through COX-2 expression.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the raising anticancer effects of
      resveratrol (Res) on paclitaxel (PA) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell
      line A549. The 10 ug/ml of Res had no effect on human fetal lung fibroblast MRC-5
      cells or on A549 cancer cells and the 5 or 10 ug/ml of PA also had no effect on
      MRC-5 normal cells. PA-L (5 ug/ml) and PA-H (10 ug/ml) had the growth inhibitory
      effects in NSCLC cell line A549, and Res increased these growth inhibitory
      effects. By flow cytometry experiment, after Res (5 ug/ml)+PA-H (10 ug/ml)
      treatment, the A549 cells showed the most apoptosic cells compared to other group
      treatments, and after additional treatment with Res, the apoptosic cells of both
      two PA concentrations were raised. Res+PA could reduce the mRNA and protein
      expressions of COX-2, and Res+PA could reduce the COX-2 related genes of VEGF,
      MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-9, NF-kappaB, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, procollagen I, collagen I,
      collagen III and CTGF, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, iNOS and raise the TIMP-1, TIMP-2,
      TIMP-3, IkappaB-alpha, p53, p21, caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, Bax genes
      compared to the control cells and the PA treated cells. From these results, it
      can be suggested that Res could raise the anticancer effects of PA in A549 cells,
      thus Res might be used as a good sensitizing agent for PA.

PMID- 28883752
TI  - RhGLP-1 (7-36) protects diabetic rats against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion
      injury via up-regulating expression of Nrf2/HO-1 and increasing the activities of
      SOD.
AB  - The present study aimed to explore the neuroprotective effect and possible
      mechanisms of rhGLP-1 (7-36) against transient ischemia/reperfusion injuries
      induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in type 2 diabetic rats.
      First, diabetic rats were established by a combination of a high-fat diet and low
      dose streptozotocin (STZ) (30 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). Second, they were
      subjected to MCAO for 2 h, then treated with rhGLP-1 (7-36) (10, 20, 40 ug/kg
      i.p.) at the same time of reperfusion. In the following 3 days, they were
      injected with rhGLP-1 (7-36) at the same dose and route for three times each day.
      After 72 h, hypoglycemic effects were assessed by blood glucose changes, and
      neuroprotective effects were evaluated by neurological deficits, infarct volume
      and histomorphology. Mechanisms were investigated by detecting the distribution
      and expression of the nuclear factor erythroid-derived factor 2 related factor 2
      (Nrf2) in ischemic brain tissue, the levels of phospho-PI3 kinase (PI3K)/PI3K
      ratio and heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-l), as well as the activities of superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA). Our results showed
      that rhGLP-1 (7-36) significantly reduced blood glucose and infarction volume,
      alleviated neurological deficits, enhanced the density of surviving neurons and
      vascular proliferation. The nuclear positive cells ratio and expression of Nrf2,
      the levels of P-PI3K/PI3K ratio and HO-l increased, the activities of SOD
      increased and the contents of MDA decreased. The current results indicated the
      protective effect of rhGLP-1 (7-36) in diabetic rats following MCAO/R that may be
      concerned with reducing blood glucose, up-regulating expression of Nrf2/HO-1 and
      increasing the activities of SOD.

PMID- 28883753
TI  - Inhibition of anterior cingulate cortex excitatory neuronal activity induces
      conditioned place preference in a mouse model of chronic inflammatory pain.
AB  - The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is known for its role in perception of
      nociceptive signals and the associated emotional responses. Recent optogenetic
      studies, involving modulation of neuronal activity in the ACC, show that the ACC
      can modulate mechanical hyperalgesia. In the present study, we used optogenetic
      techniques to selectively modulate excitatory pyramidal neurons and inhibitory
      interneurons in the ACC in a model of chronic inflammatory pain to assess their
      motivational effect in the conditioned place preference (CPP) test. Selective
      inhibition of pyramidal neurons induced preference during the CPP test, while
      activation of parvalbumin (PV)-specific neurons did not. Moreover, chemogenetic
      inhibition of the excitatory pyramidal neurons alleviated mechanical
      hyperalgesia, consistent with our previous result. Our results provide evidence
      for the analgesic effect of inhibition of ACC excitatory pyramidal neurons and a
      prospective treatment for chronic pain.

PMID- 28883754
TI  - The activation of alpha2-adrenergic receptor in the spinal cord lowers sepsis
      induced mortality.
AB  - The effect of clonidine administered intrathecally (i.t.) on the mortality and
      the blood glucose level induced by sepsis was examined in mice. To produce
      sepsis, the mixture of D-galactosamine (GaLN; 0.6 g/10 ml)/lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS; 27 ug/27 ul) was treated intraperitoneally (i.p.). The i.t. pretreatment
      with clonidine (5 ug/5 ul) increased the blood glucose level and attenuated
      mortality induced by sepsis in a dose-dependent manner. The i.t. post-treatment
      with clonidine up to 3 h caused an elevation of the blood glucose level and
      protected sepsis-induced mortality, whereas clonidine post-treated at 6, 9, or 12
      h did not affect. The pre-treatment with oral D-glucose for 30 min prior to i.t.
      post-treatment (6 h) with clonidine did not rescue sepsis-induced mortality. In
      addition, i.t. pretreatment with pertussis toxin (PTX) reduced clonidine-induced
      protection against mortality and clonidine-induced hyperglycemia, suggesting that
      protective effect against sepsis-induced mortality seems to be mediated via
      activating PTX-sensitive G-proteins in the spinal cord. Moreover, pretreatment
      with clonidine attenuated the plasma tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha)
      induced by sepsis. Clonidine administered i.t. or i.p. increased p-AMPKalpha1 and
      p-AMPKalpha2, but decreased p-Tyk2 and p-mTOR levels in both control and sepsis
      groups, suggesting that the up-regulations of p-AMPKalpha1 and p-AMPKalpha2, or
      down-regulations of p-mTOR and p-Tyk2 may play critical roles for the protective
      effect of clonidine against sepsis-induced mortality.

PMID- 28883755
TI  - Effect of glucose level on chemical hypoxia- and hydrogen peroxide-induced
      chemokine expression in human glioblastoma cell lines.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary intracranial tumor in
      adults and has poor prognosis. The GBM-specific tumor microenvironment (TME)
      plays a crucial role in tumor progression, immune escape, local invasion, and
      metastasis of GBM. Here, we demonstrate that hypoxia, reactive oxygen species
      (ROS), and differential concentration of glucose influence the expression of
      cytokines and chemokines, such as IL-6, IL-8, and IP-10, in human glial cell
      lines. Treatment with cobalt chloride (CoCl2) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
      significantly increased the expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and IP-10 in a dose
      dependent manner in CRT-MG and U251-MG astroglioma cells, but not in microglia
      cells. However, we found strikingly different patterns of expression of cytokines
      and chemokines between H2O2-treated CRT-MG cells cultured in low- and high
      glucose medium. These results suggest that astroglioma and microglia cells
      exhibit distinct patterns of cytokine and chemokine expression in response to
      CoCl2 and H2O2 treatment, and different concentrations of glucose influence this
      expression under either hypoxic or oxidant-enriched conditions.

PMID- 28883756
TI  - Sodium butyrate has context-dependent actions on dipeptidyl peptidase-4 and other
      metabolic parameters.
AB  - Sodium butyrate (SB) has various metabolic actions. However, its effect on
      dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) needs to be studied further. We aimed to evaluate
      the metabolic actions of SB, considering its physiologically relevant
      concentration. We evaluated the effect of SB on regulation of DPP-4 and its other
      metabolic actions, both in vitro (HepG2 cells and mouse mesangial cells) and in
      vivo (high fat diet [HFD]-induced obese mice). Ten-week HFD-induced obese
      C57BL/6J mice were subjected to SB treatment by adding SB to HFD which was
      maintained for an additional 16 weeks. In HepG2 cells, SB suppressed DPP-4
      activity and expression at sub-molar concentrations, whereas it increased DPP-4
      activity at a concentration of 1,000 uM. In HFD-induced obese mice, SB decreased
      blood glucose, serum levels of insulin and IL-1beta, and DPP-4 activity, and
      suppressed the increase in body weight. On the contrary, various tissues
      including liver, kidney, and peripheral blood cells showed variable responses of
      DPP-4 to SB. Especially in the kidney, although DPP-4 activity was decreased by
      SB in HFD-induced obese mice, it caused an increase in mRNA expression of TNF
      alpha, IL-6, and IL-1beta. The pro-inflammatory actions of SB in the kidney of
      HFD-induced obese mice were recapitulated by cultured mesangial cell experiments,
      in which SB stimulated the secretion of several cytokines from cells. Our results
      showed that SB has differential actions according to its treatment dose and the
      type of cells and tissues. Thus, further studies are required to evaluate its
      therapeutic relevance in metabolic diseases including diabetes and obesity.

PMID- 28883757
TI  - Time-dependent proteomic and genomic alterations in Toll-like receptor-4
      activated human chondrocytes: increased expression of lamin A/C and annexins.
AB  - Activation of Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) in articular chondrocytes increases
      the catabolic compartment and leads to matrix degradation during the development
      of osteoarthritis. In this study, we determined the proteomic and genomic
      alterations in human chondrocytes during lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced
      inflammation to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and consequences of TLR-4
      activation. Human chondrocytes were cultured with LPS for 12, 24, and 36 h to
      induce TLR-4 activation. The TLR-4-induced inflammatory response was confirmed by
      real-time PCR analysis of increased interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6
      (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) expression levels. In TLR-4
      activated chondrocytes, proteomic changes were determined by two-dimensional
      electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectroscopy
      analysis, and genomic changes were determined by microarray and gene ontology
      analyses. Proteomics analysis identified 26 proteins with significantly altered
      expression levels; these proteins were related to the cytoskeleton and oxidative
      stress responses. Gene ontology analysis indicated that LPS treatment altered
      specific functional pathways including 'chemotaxis', 'hematopoietic organ
      development', 'positive regulation of cell proliferation', and 'regulation of
      cytokine biosynthetic process'. Nine of the 26 identified proteins displayed the
      same increased expression patterns in both proteomics and genomics analyses.
      Western blot analysis confirmed the LPS-induced increases in expression levels of
      lamin A/C and annexins 4/5/6. In conclusion, this study identified the time
      dependent genomic, proteomic, and functional pathway alterations that occur in
      chondrocytes during LPS-induced TLR-4 activation. These results provide valuable
      new insights into the underlying mechanisms that control the development and
      progression of osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28883758
TI  - Hydroquinone suppresses IFN-beta expression by targeting AKT/IRF3 pathway.
AB  - Previous studies have demonstrated the role of hydroquinone (HQ), a hydroxylated
      benzene metabolite, in modulating various immune responses; however, its role in
      macrophage-mediated inflammatory responses is not fully understood. In this
      study, the role of HQ in inflammatory responses and the underlying molecular
      mechanism were explored in macrophages. HQ down-regulated the expression of
      interferon (IFN)-beta mRNA in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells without any
      cytotoxicity and suppressed interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-3-mediated
      luciferase activity induced by TIR-domain-containing adapter-inducing interferon
      beta (TRIF) and TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1). A mechanism study revealed that HQ
      inhibited IRF-3 phosphorylation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), TRIF, and
      AKT by suppressing phosphorylation of AKT, an upstream kinase of the IRF-3
      signaling pathway. IRF-3 phosphorylation is highly induced by wild-type AKT and
      poorly induced by an AKT mutant, AKT C310A, which is mutated at an inhibitory
      target site of HQ. We also showed that HQ inhibited IRF-3 phosphorylation by
      targeting all three AKT isoforms (AKT1, AKT2, and AKT3) in RAW264.7 cells and
      suppressed IRF-3-mediated luciferase activities induced by AKT in HEK293 cells.
      Taken together, these results strongly suggest that HQ inhibits the production of
      a type I IFN, IFN-beta, by targeting AKTs in the IRF-3 signaling pathway during
      macrophage-mediated inflammation.

PMID- 28883759
TI  - The advantage of topographic prominence-adopted filter for the detection of short
      latency spikes of retinal ganglion cells.
AB  - Electrical stimulation through retinal prosthesis elicits both short and long
      latency retinal ganglion cell (RGC) spikes. Because the short-latency RGC spike
      is usually obscured by electrical stimulus artifact, it is very important to
      isolate spike from stimulus artifact. Previously, we showed that topographic
      prominence (TP) discriminator based algorithm is valid and useful for artifact
      subtraction. In this study, we compared the performance of forward backward (FB)
      filter only vs. TP-adopted FB filter for artifact subtraction. From the extracted
      retinae of rd1 mice, we recorded RGC spikes with 8*8 multielectrode array (MEA).
      The recorded signals were classified into four groups by distances between the
      stimulation and recording electrodes on MEA (200-400, 400-600, 600-800, 800-1000
      um). Fifty cathodic phase-1st biphasic current pulses (duration 500 us, intensity
      5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 uA) were applied at every 1 sec. We compared false
      positive error and false negative error in FB filter and TP-adopted FB filter. By
      implementing TP-adopted FB filter, short-latency spike can be detected better
      regarding sensitivity and specificity for detecting spikes regardless of the
      strength of stimulus and the distance between stimulus and recording electrodes.

PMID- 28883760
TI  - Retraction notice to: Myosin VI contributes to malignant proliferation of human
      glioma cells.
AB  - [This retracts the article on p. 139 in vol. 20, PMID: 26937209.].

PMID- 28883761
TI  - Properties and applied use of the mosquitocidal bacterium, Bacillus sphaericus.
AB  - Strains of Bacillus sphaericus exhibit varying levels of virulence against
      mosquito larvae. The most potent strain, B. sphaericus 2362, which is the active
      ingredient in the commercial product VectoLex(r), together with another well
      known larvicide Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis, are used to control
      vector and nuisance mosquito larvae in many regions of the world. Although not
      all strains of B. sphaericus are mosquitocidal, lethal strains produce one or two
      combinations of three different types of toxins. These are (1) the binary toxin
      (Bin) composed of two proteins of 42 kDa (BinA) and 51 kDa (BinB), which are
      synthesized during sporulation and co-crystallize, (2) the soluble mosquitocidal
      toxins (Mtx1, Mtx2 and Mtx3) produced during vegetative growth, and (3) the two
      component crystal toxin (Cry48Aa1/Cry49Aa1). Non-mosquitocidal toxins are also
      produced by certain strains of B. sphaericus, for examples sphaericolysin, a
      novel insecticidal protein toxic to cockroaches. Larvicides based on B.
      sphaericus-based have the advantage of longer persistence in treated habitats
      compared to B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. However, resistance is a much
      greater threat, and has already emerged at significant levels in field
      populations in China and Thailand treated with B. sphaericus. This likely
      occurred because toxicity depends principally on Bin rather than various
      combinations of crystal (Cry) and cytolytic (Cyt) toxins present in B.
      thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. Here we review both the general characteristics
      of B. sphaericus, particularly as they relate to larvicidal isolates, and
      strategies or considerations for engineering more potent strains of this
      bacterium that contain built-in mechanisms that delay or overcome resistance to
      Bin in natural mosquito populations.

PMID- 28883762
TI  - Telephone-assisted CPR: A literature review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Despite numerous efforts, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)
      survival has not significantly increased in recent decades. The first telephone
      assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (T-CPR) studies were published in the
      1980s, but only in the last decade has T-CPR been implemented in dispatch
      centers. T-CPR is still not available in all dispatch centers and no national or
      international T-CPR recommendations are available. METHODS: Studies from PubMed
      were identified and evaluated. Preliminary information from the European Dispatch
      Center Survey (EDiCeS) is also included. RESULTS: In all, 42 studies were
      included. T-CPR is implemented in 87.6 % of those dispatch centers which have
      joined the not-yet published EDiCeS. According to German Resuscitation Registry
      data, about 10 % of OHCA patients received T-CPR in 2014. Agonal breathing is the
      leading cause for nonrecognition of OHCA by the dispatcher. Sensitivity of OHCA
      recognition by the dispatcher is about 75 %, whereby 8-45 % of these patients
      were not in cardiac arrest. The time interval from call to first compression is
      140-328 s. Instructing rescue breathing by telephone is time consuming, leads to
      extensive hands-off times, and often to ineffective ventilation; therefore,
      rescue breathing is not indicated in adults with primary cardiac arrest. Studies
      showed improved survival with standardized T-CPR implementation. CONCLUSION: T
      CPR is established in many dispatch centers. However, emergency call
      interrogation and T-CPR vary between dispatch centers and are often performed
      without evaluation. International recommendations with standardized quality
      control are necessary and may lead to improved survival.

PMID- 28883763
TI  - Cyberknife stereotactic radiosurgery and denosumab for giant cell tumour of the
      skull base: Case report.
AB  - Giant cell tumours (GCT) of the skull is a rare entity with only small number of
      cases reported in literature and optimal treatment is yet to be determined. These
      tumours have shown high recurrence rates after incomplete surgery, usually
      occurring during the first year. Even with new surgical techniques a complete
      resection in skull base tumours is not always possible without functional
      compromise. Therefore, adjuvant therapy is essential to enhance local control and
      quality of life. We report a rare case of a 34-year-old male with giant cell
      tumour (GCT) of the skull base involving the petrous bone, clivus and sphenoid
      body. The patient received Cyberknife stereotactic radiosurgery (CK SRS) and
      denosumab after surgery. This combined therapy allowed local control and tumour
      reduction with secondary neurological improvement during a 4-year follow up.

PMID- 28883764
TI  - Prognostic significance, diagnosis and treatment in patients with gastric cancer
      and positive peritoneal washings. A review of the literature.
AB  - Peritoneal dissemination is a common consequence of a relapse following a radical
      surgical treatment of gastric cancer. The development of the disease in the
      peritoneum depends not only on its stage, but also on free cancer cells
      exfoliated from the tumor mass or from involved lymph nodes, and which are
      capable of being implanted in the peritoneum. According to the latest TNM (7
      edition; 2010) classification, patients with free cancer cells in the peritoneal
      washings qualify for stage IV of the disease. Patients in whom free cancer cells
      were found during the operation - have a recurrence of gastric cancer - mainly in
      the peritoneum, and the majority of them die within two years of the diagnosis.
      To properly assess the prognosis, it is vital to determine the stage of cancer by
      additionally assessing the washings for the presence of free cancer cells before
      taking a therapeutic decision. This also allows identifying those patients who
      require different medical procedures to obtain the best treatment results
      possible. Medical literature describes various methods of examining peritoneal
      washings aimed at detecting free cancer cells. The methods apply different cancer
      cell detection rates, sensitivity and specificity in prediction of a peritoneal
      relapse. Oncological Departments performing the evaluation of the washings employ
      non-standard methods of treatment in this group of patients and the results
      presented are promising.

PMID- 28883765
TI  - Software-based evaluation of a class solution for prostate IMRT planning.
AB  - AIM: To use plan analysis software to evaluate a class solution for prostate
      intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) planning. BACKGROUND: Class solutions for
      radiotherapy planning are increasingly being considered for streamlining
      planning. Plan analysis software provides an objective approach to evaluating
      radiotherapy plans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three iterations of a class solution
      for prostate IMRT planning (T1, T2 and Tfinal) were compared to the clinical plan
      of 74 prostate patients using radiotherapy plan analysis software (Plan IQTM, Sun
      Nuclear Corporation). A set of institution-specific plan quality metrics (scores)
      were established, based on best practice guidelines. RESULTS: For CTV coverage,
      Tfinal was not significantly different to the clinical plan. With the exception
      of 95% PTV coverage, Tfinal metrics were significantly better than the clinical
      plan for PTV coverage. In the scoring analysis, mean dose, 95% and 107% isodose
      coverage scores were similar for all the templates and clinical plan. 100%
      coverage of the CTV clinical plan was similar to Tfinal but scored higher than T1
      and T2. There were no significant differences between Tfinal and the clinical
      plan for the metrics and scores associated with organs at risk. The total plan
      score was similar for Tfinal and the clinical plan, although the scores for
      volume receiving total dose outside the PTV were higher for Tfinal than for the
      clinical plan (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The radiotherapy plan analysis software
      was useful for evaluating a class solution for prostate IMRT planning and
      provided evidence that the class solution produced clinically acceptable plans
      for these patients.

PMID- 28883766
TI  - Intraoral stents in preventing adverse radiotherapeutic effects in lip cancer
      patients.
AB  - AIM: To fabricate and evaluate the efficacy of individualized intraoral stents to
      minimize the potential side effects of radiation on oral tissues in patients with
      early stages of lip cancer. BACKGROUND: Lower lip cancer is a common tumor found
      almost exclusively in middle-aged and elderly males. Surgery is the most common
      treatment of choice, although for less extensive lesions, exclusive radiotherapy
      may be preferred. Some studies have found that the use of intraoral stents in
      patients with intraoral cancer (e.g., of the tongue or floor of the mouth)
      obtained favorable results in preventing unnecessary radiation doses to adjacent
      normal tissue and reducing oral complications. However, studies investigating the
      efficacy of individualized intraoral stents in patients with lip cancer have not
      been reported in the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six patients with early
      stage lip cancer were eligible for curative radiotherapy and personalized
      intraoral stents. The stents were fabricated and all participants were evaluated
      for the occurrence of oral complications. RESULTS: The regions of the oral mucosa
      protected from radiation by intraoral stents showed no mucositis. One patient
      complained of mild oral dryness but without interference in habits. At follow-up,
      none of the patients had late xerostomia or signs of dental caries by radiation.
      CONCLUSIONS: The use of individualized intraoral stents was shown to be promising
      in reducing the adverse effects of radiation therapy in lip cancer patients.
      These findings highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary team during
      oncological therapy.

PMID- 28883767
TI  - The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Nurses Toward Management of Hospital
      acquired Infections in the University Clinical Center of Kosovo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) are called those infections that
      were not present at the time of patient' hospitalization in a hospital or other
      medical institutions and have been acquired after hospitalization. AIM: The aim
      of this paper was to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices
      of nurses about preventing the spread and management of HAIs at University
      Clinical Center of Kosovo (UCCK). METHODS: The questionnaire was used as a tool
      for data collection in 6 clinics of UCCK during the November-December 2016. Out
      of 350 nurses, only 331 returned the questionnaire completed. Data were analyzed
      with descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package-SPSS,
      version 22. RESULTS: The age of participants was 37.9 +/- 9.3 years by the mean.
      The general level of knowledge of nurses about the spread of HAIs was 90%, about
      the attitudes was 84.4% and about the nurses' practices was 76.2%. The work
      experience had a significant impact on the nurses' knowledge about management of
      HAIs OR = 2.18 (95% Cl 1.01-4.71), the attitudes of nurses OR = 3.99 (95% Cl 2.14
      7.45) and the nurses' practices OR = 2.87 (95% Cl 1.65-4.99). The impact of the
      level of education in the knowledge OR = 0.22 (95% Cl 0.10-0.48) was significant
      (p <0.05), while its impact in the nurses' attitudes OR = 0.59 (95% Cl 0.32-1.09)
      and the nurses' practices OR = 0.8 (95% Cl 0.46-1.38) was not statistically
      significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Nurses stated that they had the necessary
      competencies to practice safe patient care. However, there are necessary joint
      efforts of policymakers and managers of UCCK to implement intervention strategies
      in order to reduce HAIs.

PMID- 28883768
TI  - Comparison of Statistical Models of Predict the Factors Affecting the Length of
      Stay (LOS) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Teaching Hospital.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Modeling can be a useful tool to find out how the distributions of
      hospital length of stay (LOS) and the factors affecting the length of stay. The
      present study aims to determine factors affecting the length of stay and
      selecting suitable statistical models. MATERIAL AND METHOD: this is a cross -
      sectional study of 565 patients who were treated in the intensive care unit of
      Imam Khomeini hospital in Ahwaz. Preliminary data were collected retrospectively
      through the medical records of all patients admitted on intensive care units of
      Ahwaz Imam Khomeini Hospital in 2015. Statistical analysis and multivariate
      regression models were done using of SPSS 21 and STATA 7 software. RESULTS:
      Average length of stay in ICU was 8.16+/-0.75 days. The Mean and Median age of
      patients were 58.61+/-20 and 61 respectively, The Mean LOS for females (16.44+/
      9.37 days) was more than the men (11.5+/-5.35 days) (p<0.01). The maximum and
      minimum lengths of stay belonged to patients with endocrine disorders (14.7+/-3.1
      days) and patients with gastrointestinal disorders (5.53+/-1.1 days) respectively
      (p<0.01). The goodness of fit for Gamma model showed that this model was more
      suitable and powerful than Log-normal model to predict the factors affecting the
      patient's length of stay in intensive care units of hospital. CONCLUSION: Gamma
      regression model was more robust to predict factors regarding the hospital length
      of stay. According to Gamma model the key factor in predicting the length of stay
      in ICU was the type of disease diagnosis. The result of statistical modeling can
      help managers and policy makers to estimate hospital resources and allocate them
      for different hospital services.

PMID- 28883769
TI  - Influence of Unemployment on Mental Health of the Working Age Population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of the highest unemployment rates in
      the Balkan region (43.2%), so unemployment is one of the most serious public
      concerns in our country. AIM: To analyze the influence of unemployment on mental
      health of the working age population who attend primary care center. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The study was carried out in the municipality of Bosanska Krupa, which
      has the highest unemployment rate in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
      (56%), and included 510 randomly selected working age patients (aged 23-65
      years). We used the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) to evaluate mental
      health of the working age population. RESULTS: There were significantly more
      women than men (53.5% vs. 46.5%; p=0.02). The mean age of participants was
      51.04+/-12.84 years. The experimental group included 318 (62.35%) unemployed
      working age participants: 160 (50.3%) had been unemployed for more than 5 years
      and had had no work experience, while 158 (49.7%) unemployed participants had had
      a previous work experience of more than five years. The control group included
      192 (37.65%) employed working age participants. Unemployment had a significant
      influence on mental health of the working age population. The unemployed
      participants had a significantly poorer mental health compared to the employed
      (p=0.0003). A predictor of impaired mental health was a job loss. A significantly
      greater mental health impairment occured in the group of unemployed participants
      with previous work experience of more than five years compared to the unemployed
      participants who had had no work experience (p=0.001) and employed (p=0.000).
      CONCLUSION: Unemployment has a negative impact and leads to impaired mental
      health of the working age population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A job loss has a
      predictive role. It indicates that social and health policies must be developed
      in order to improve well-being of the working age population.

PMID- 28883770
TI  - Frequency of Depression and its Correlation with Quality of Life of Patients with
      Oral Cavity Cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: the effects of malignant tumors of oral cavity may be reflected
      through mental, physical, social and emotional well-being and quality of life of
      patients. Those suffering from malignancies show a large degree of psychological
      problems (fear, anxiety, depression, panic disorders, phobias) both at the time
      of diagnosis and during the treatment. AIM: to determine a level of depression in
      patients with oral cavity cancer and to link quality of life and level of
      depression of patients with oral cavity cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study
      was conducted at the Clinic of Maxillofacial Surgery of the Clinical Center
      University of Sarajevo (CCUS) in the period from July to late October 2015,
      through a survey of patients with verified oral cavity cancer, questionnaire
      related to socio-demographic characteristics of the patients, the University of
      Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire (UW-QOL), and the Beck Depression
      Inventory (BDI). RESULTS: Majority of patients from our study, specifically 50
      (56%) of them, did not suffer from depression, 8 (9%) respondents suffered from
      mild depression, 14 (16%) respondents had moderate depression, whereas 17 (19%)
      of them had severe depression. CONCLUSION: quality of life and level of
      depression of patients with oral cavity cancer are in negative and almost linear
      correlation. The worse the evaluation results of one's physical or socio
      emotional health, the higher degree of depression.

PMID- 28883771
TI  - Behavioral Sexual Characteristics of Female Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Characteristics of sexual behaviour of female students, which will
      affect fertility in adulthood, represent one of the critical parameters of
      reproductive health. AIM: The aim of this study was assess characteristics of
      sexual behavior of female students in Bosnia and Herzegovina. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In a prospective study on a representative sample of 2,872 regular girls
      aged 19-24 years, an anonymous survey on the reproductive health of female
      students in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2007 to 2009 was conducted. RESULTS: Of
      the total number (N = 2872) of surveyed female students, 49.44% were sexually
      active. Average sexarcha age was 18.14+/-1.83 years, and there was statistically
      significant earlier sexarcha in female students in Banja Luka vs. female students
      of the University of Sarajevo (p<0.001), as well as in female students in Mostar
      vs. female students of the University of Tuzla (p<0.001). Sexually active female
      students in 74,4 % cases had intercourses with only one partner, and 7,7 % of
      them had intercourses with three or more partners. Regarding the use of
      contraceptive methods, 69.4% female students were using contraception at first
      intercourse and 66.7% of them at last intercourse. 3.5% of sexually active
      students (N=50) had intentional abortion. Almost half (46.9%) of surveyed female
      students had regular pelvic exams; nearly two-third of those (63.4%) had
      gynecological exams in private institutions, and 36.6% of them in public health
      facilitie. Only one-third (35.8%) sexually active female students in BiH stated
      that Pap test was performed. CONCLUSION: Sexual behaviour of female students in
      BiH is less risky than in the immediate environment, but health care quality is
      poor.

PMID- 28883772
TI  - Comparison of Resilience and Psychological Wellbeing in Women with Irritable
      Bowel Syndrome and Normal Women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Resilience and Psychological Wellbeing are two important concepts
      in adaption of patients to chronic disease conditions. GOAL: To compare
      resilience and psychological wellbeing in women with irritable bowel syndrome and
      normal women. METHODS: This was an analytical-comparative study. The statistical
      population consisted of all patients with irritable bowel syndrome visiting Imam
      Ali Hospital in Zahedan. Of all patients, 50 female patients with irritable bowel
      syndrome and 50 normal women were randomly selected and matched. The research
      tools were resilience and psychological wellbeing scales. Collected data was
      assessed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). RESULTS: The results
      showed a difference between resilience and the components of positive relations
      with others, environmental mastery, purpose in life and acceptance in women with
      irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and normal women (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: more
      effective training programs can be designed and more efficient measures can be
      taken given the definite role of psychological factors (especially, resilience
      and psychological wellbeing) in incidence or exacerbation of physical disease
      symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

PMID- 28883773
TI  - Emotional Profile of Women Victims of Domestic Violence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Research indicates that women victims of domestic violence show
      significant cognitive changes, emotional numbing, and avoidance of interpersonal
      relationships. AIM: The aim of this research was to analyze emotional profile of
      women victims of domestic violence, and to determine the relationship between
      dimensions of emotions and frequency of women exposure to domestic violence.
      METHODS: The research was conducted on the sample of 169 women, 111 were victims
      of domestic violence and 58 were women who did not experience domestic violence.
      Plutchik's Emotions Profile Index (EPI) was used for measuring of the emotion
      profile, and the Modified Inventory of Domestic Violence for measuring
      experiences of different types of violence. Basic socio-demographic data were
      also collected. RESULTS: Significant differences between women victims of
      domestic violence and women who did not experience domestic violence were found
      in a few dimensions of emotional profile. Women victims of domestic violence had
      higher results in the dimensions of deprivation/depression and
      aggression/destruction, while women who did not experience domestic violence had
      higher results in dimensions of reproduction and incorporation. Aggression was in
      significant negative correlation with reproduction, incorporation and self
      protection, whereas it was significant positive correlation with deprivation and
      opposition. There were significant and positive correlation between the
      dimensions of aggression and deprivation and frequency of all three forms of
      domestic violence and age of women. CONCLUSION: According to results obtained in
      this research, it can be concluded that women victims of domestic violence have
      significantly more intensive negative emotional dimensions in comparison to women
      who were not abused. Women victims of domestic violence with higher frequency of
      abuse describe themselves as more sad, apathetic, lonely, angry, quarrelsome and
      less sociable. Prominence of negative emotions, deprivation and aggression, can
      be factor of risk for mental health disorders and for re-victimisation of women
      victims of domestic violence.

PMID- 28883774
TI  - Palliative Care: a Cross Sectional Study Focused on Different Capacity Building
      Programmes Evaluated Through Self- Rated Knowledge and Efficiency in Family
      Medicine Tutors.
AB  - AIM: Educational possibilities in palliative care have been overseen in this part
      of Europe and therefore this important issue should be addressed to implement
      current treatment palliative care in Slovenia. This study was the first in
      Slovenia dealing with the self-rated knowledge and self-efficacy associated with
      educational programmes attended about palliative medicine at primary health care
      level. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Material for our work was general practitioner (GP)
      who work in education like tutors. A cross-sectional study was carried out from
      July to November 2015 with participation of them. For the purpose of the study
      (self-assessment of knowledge and efficacy), the validated questionnaire
      Palliative Kompetenztest (PKT) was applied with added some demographical data.
      138 of the 250 invited GP answered the questionnaire. RESULTS: Knowledge was
      averagely assessed with 23.0 +/- 4.0 (out of 34) and self-efficacy achieved 38.5
      +/- 8.6 out of 54 points. Physicians who attended "Step by step" educational
      model, rated their knowledge (26.2 +/- 3.4 (p < 0.001)) and self-efficacy higher
      (41.9 +/- 7.7 (p < 0.010)) in comparison with those who attended conferences and
      other palliative care related capacity building programmes. CONCLUSION: When
      taking into account self-assessed knowledge and efficacy in palliative care, it
      was shown the capacity-building program "Step by step" to be an effective model
      for GPs. However, self-perceived efficiency due to past experience was also shown
      to be associated with the efficiency score, therefore we should be restrained in
      favouring specific capacity building programme at this time.

PMID- 28883775
TI  - Seasonal and Monthly variation in stroke and its subtypes-10 Year Hospital-Based
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is no evidence of long-term studies of seasonal
      variations in stroke in Iran. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the
      seasonal and monthly variation of 28-day mortality in Isfahan, Iran. METHODS:
      From 2003 to 2013, In a Hospital-based retrospective study, 24186 cases with
      first-ever stroke were analyzed in Isfahan. Multinomial logistic regression was
      used to calculate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for
      seasonal and monthly 28-day mortality for stroke in general and three subtypes of
      stroke including intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), ischemic (IS) and subarachnoid
      hemorrhage (SAH). RESULTS: In this study, unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios of
      seasonal 28-day mortality of stroke was highest in the winter and lowest in the
      summer. Although, differences were not statistically significant. For total and
      IS stroke, the unadjusted 28-day mortality ratio (UMR) was significant in
      February (1.19, 95% CI 1.00 -1.42, P= 0.04) as compared to March. Whereas after
      adjusted, for total stroke, 28-day mortality was significantly lowest in May
      (0.746, 95% CI 0.575-0.97, p=0.029), June (0.777, 95% CI 0.60-0.99, p=0.49) and
      July (0.771, 95% CI 0.59-0.99 p=0.049) as compared to March. The AMR between
      months were not significant in SAH and IS. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate
      clear obvious monthly variation of 28-day mortality of stroke and its subtypes in
      Isfahan but no seasonal variations were observed.

PMID- 28883776
TI  - Receptive Vocabulary and Cognition of Elderly People in Institutional Care.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Basic cognitive functions such as: alertness, working memory, long
      term memory and perception, as well as higher levels of cognitive functions like:
      speech and language, decision-making and executive functions are affected by
      aging processes. Relations between the receptive vocabulary and cognitive
      functioning, and the manifestation of differences between populations of elderly
      people based on the primary disease is in the focus of this study. AIM: To
      examine receptive vocabulary and cognition of elderly people with: verified
      stroke, dementia, verified stroke and dementia, and without the manifested brain
      disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 120 participants older
      than 65 years, living in an institution. A total of 26 variables was analyzed and
      classified into three groups: case history/anamnestic, receptive vocabulary
      assessment, and cognitive assessments. The interview with social workers, nurses
      and caregivers, as well as medical files were used to determine the anamnestic
      data. A Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) was used for the assessment of
      cognition. In order to estimate the receptive vocabulary, Peabody Picture
      Vocabulary Test was used. RESULTS: Mean raw score of receptive vocabulary is
      161.58 (+-21:58 points). The best results for cognitive assessment subjects
      achieved on subscales of orientation, naming, serial subtraction, and delayed
      recall. Discriminative analysis showed the significant difference in the
      development of receptive vocabulary and cognitive functioning in relation to the
      primary disease of elderly people. The biggest difference was between subjects
      without manifested brain disease (centroid = 1.900) and subjects with dementia
      (centroid = -1754). CONCLUSION: There is a significant difference between elderly
      with stroke; dementia; stroke and dementia, and elderly people without manifested
      disease of the brain in the domain of receptive vocabulary and cognitive
      functioning. Variables of serial subtraction, standardized test results of
      receptive vocabulary, delayed recall, abstraction, orientation and vigilance
      successfully discriminate studied groups.

PMID- 28883777
TI  - Importance of Early Detection of Potentially Malignant Lesions in the Prevention
      of Oral Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the importance of early diagnosis
      of potentially malignant lesions in the prevention of oral cancer. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: In order to achieve the set objectives, we selected our participant
      pool. Of the 340 patients who came to the initial examination at the Clinic for
      Oral Medicine and Periodontology, we selected 40 patients with potentially
      malignant oral lesions (PMOL) of both sexes and of different ages. After an
      extensive anamnesis and a clinical examination of all mucous membranes, we
      documented potentially malignant lesions, their localization, subjective and
      objective symptoms, duration of pathological lesion, and bad habits (smoking and
      alcohol). All lesions were colored with Toluidine blue, which indicates
      malignancy in 75% of cases. Patients who had a positive Toluidine blue staining
      test were sent to biopsy and pathohistological analysis. RESULTS: The most common
      potentially malignant lesions are Lichen reticularis (25%), Lichen erosivus
      (20%), and Leukoplakia (15%). The most common localization of lesions is the
      buccal mucosa bilaterally (26%), buccal mucosa unilaterally (10%), and the lower
      lip (10%). The staining test with Toluidine blue was positive at 23% PMOLs. In
      patients with positive Toluidine staining findings, biopsy and pathohistological
      analysis were performed, which showed that 20% of all lesions are carcinoma (CIS,
      Baseocellular Carcinoma, Squamocellular Carcinoma), while 14% are mucosal
      epithelial dysplasia. Statistical analysis confirmed the significance of positive
      staining of Toluidine blue and Leukoplakia (Spearman's coefficient = 0.427, p =
      0.006, N = 40), and statistically significant positive association of
      Squamocellular Carcinoma and Toluidine blue staining (Spearman's coefficient =
      0.619, p = 0.000, N = 40). CONCLUSION: Most oral cancers are caused by
      potentially malignant lesions, which is why a very detailed clinical examination
      with the visualization of pathological lesions is very important. Toluidine blue
      test can be an auxiliary tool for clinical diagnosis but does not replace the
      pathohistological finding. Biopsy and pathohistological findings are the gold
      standard in the diagnosis of oral cancers, as confirmed in our research.

PMID- 28883778
TI  - Examination of Risk Factors for the Development of Surgical Site Infections.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and surgical site infections
      (SSI) are a global public health problem. The aim of the study was to determine
      the incidence of SSIs at the Surgical Clinics of the University Clinical Centre
      Banja Luka and to identify risk factors for the development of SSIs. METHODS: In
      order to determine the frequency of SSIs through the incidence compared to the
      patients operated at the Surgical Clinics of the University Clinical Centre Banja
      Luka, we conducted a prospective cohort study which encompassed 11.216 operated
      patients, in the period from November 11th, 2014 to September 30th, 2015. In
      order to identify risk factors for the development of SSIs, a nested case-control
      study of risk factors for SSIs was conducted. The study group consisted of
      patients who were diagnosed with SSIs in the period of monitoring, while the
      control group was consisted of patients without SSIs who corresponded with the
      study group in age and sex. RESULTS: The highest values of incidence of SSIs were
      observed at the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care (2.65%), Department
      of Orthopaedic Surgery (2.48%) and the Department of Vascular Surgery (2.15%),
      and the lowest ones at the Department of Urology (0.59%). Among the cases of
      SSIs, deep infections of the surgical site were the most represented (82.7%).
      Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the following independent
      risk factors: length of pore-operative stay in hospital (p=0.000; OR=1.062; 95%
      CI=1.037-1.087), reintervention (p=0.000; OR=22.409; 95% CI=6.361-79.071) and
      cotrticosteroids (p=0.023; OR=4.141; 95%CI=1.221-14.047). CONCLUSION: The
      incidence of SSIs at the Surgical Clinics of the University Clinical Centre Banja
      Luka is at the level of hospitals in developed countries. There are a number of
      risk factors for SSIs, which may be prevented.

PMID- 28883779
TI  - Users' Knowledge About Adverse Effects of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs
      in Tirana, Albania.
AB  - AIM: To assess the level of knowledge of the adult users of non-steroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) regarding their side effects and the socio
      demographic factors associated with the use of these drugs in the adult
      population of Albania. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study including a
      representative sample of 199 individuals aged >=18 years (77% women; overall mean
      age: 30.3+/-10.0 years; overall response rate: 90%) who were users of NSAIDs
      recruited in ten different pharmacies in Tirana municipality during April-May
      2015. A self-administered questionnaire contained basic socio-demographic
      information and questions about NSAIDs use, their types, participants' knowledge
      about NSAIDs side effects and their interaction with other drugs. RESULTS: In 56%
      of the cases, NSAIDs were taken by participants' own decisions, whereas in about
      29% of the cases these drugs were prescribed by physicians. Acetaminophen,
      ketoprofen and ibuprofen were the most frequently used NSAIDs. Overall, 51% of
      participants thought NSAIDs could cause allergic reactions, whereas one third or
      fewer were aware of each of the following side effects: upper and lower
      gastrointestinal bleeding, hypertension, gastritis, kidney failure, myopathy,
      osteoporosis. About one third of participants were aware of NSAIDs-other drug
      interactions, whereas some of them were already taking contraindicated drugs. No
      significant differences were noticed regarding sex, age, educational level,
      employment status and marital status, with very few exceptions. CONCLUSION: Our
      findings indicate limited knowledge about NSAIDs side effects and their
      interaction with other drugs among the Albania adult population, which is a cause
      of concern.

PMID- 28883780
TI  - Intended Career Choice in Family Medicine in Slovenia: An Issue of Gender, Family
      Background or Empathic Attitudes in Final Year Medical Students?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Among a variety of complex factors affecting a decision to take
      family medicine as a future specialisation, this study focused on demographic
      characteristics and assessed empathic attitudes in final year medical students.
      METHODS: A convenience sampling method was employed in two consecutive academic
      years of final year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana,
      Slovenia, in May 2014 and May 2015. A modified version of the 16-item Jefferson
      Scale of Empathy - Student Version (JSE-S) was administered to examine self
      reported empathic attitudes. An intended career in family medicine was reported
      using a five-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Of the 175 medical school seniors in
      study year 2013/14, there were 64 (36.6%) men and 111 (63.4%) women, while in the
      second group (study year 2014/5), there were 68 (40.5%) men and 100 (59.5%)
      women; 168 students in total. They were 24.9+/-1.6 (generation 2013/4) and 24.9+/
      1.7 (generation 2014/15) years old. Thirty-six percent of the students in the
      academic year 2013/14 intended to choose family medicine as a future career, and
      a similar proportion in academic year 2014/15 (31.7%). Gender (chi2=6.763,
      p=0.034) and empathic attitudes (c2=14.914; p=0.001) had a bivariate association
      with an intended career choice of family medicine in the 2014/15 generation. When
      logistic regression was applied to this group of students, an intended career
      choice in family medicine was associated with empathic attitudes (OR 1.102, 95%
      CI 1.040-1.167, p=0.001), being single (OR 3.659, 95% CI 1.150-11.628, p=0.028)
      and the father having only primary school education (OR 142.857 95% CI 1.868,
      p=0.025), but not with gender (OR 1.117, 95% CI 0.854-1.621, p=0.320).
      CONCLUSION: The level of students' father's education, and not living in an
      intimate partnership, increased the odds on senior medical students to choose
      family medicine, yet we expected higher JSE-S scores to be associated with
      interest in this speciality. To deepen our understanding, this study should be
      repeated to give us solid grounded insight into the determinants of career
      choice; associations with gender in particular need to be re-tested.

PMID- 28883781
TI  - Bosnian Franciscans and the Monasteries in Kresevo and Fojnica as Source of
      Scientific Bibliography.
AB  - All of these centuries-old records contain enormous treasures, and the modern
      medicine is increasingly searching for the sources of natural remedies. The
      Franciscans should be credited for carefully collecting the methods folk
      treatment and passed them on to future generations. In the words of Br. Marko
      Karamatic: "The fact that the Friars were engaged in healthcare, that they became
      the first graduate doctors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that they wrote" herbal
      manuals " and other medical records, is the result of historical opportunities in
      these areas, and this activity became one of the most important tasks for the
      Franciscans. They performed their duties regardless of the circumstances.

PMID- 28883782
TI  - The Acceptability and Feasibility of Screening for Alcohol and Drug Misuse in a
      Hospital Emergency Department.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Screening and brief intervention (SBI) is an evidence-based technique
      for reducing harmful consumption of alcohol and other drugs, which has been shown
      to be effective in Emergency Departments (EDs). The feasibility of SBI in the ED,
      however, remains contentious and no studies have been conducted on this topic in
      a New Zealand ED. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study recruited 8 experienced ED
      nurses who attempted to provide SBI, using the ASSIST-Lite tool, to as many of
      their patients as possible over one calendar month. All nurses participated in a
      comprehensive 1-day training workshop on the administration and interpretation of
      the ASSIST-Lite and linked brief intervention. RESULTS: Only 46 (11.79%) of the
      390 eligible patients were given the opportunity to participate over the data
      collection period. Analysis of the data showed there was a significant, negative
      correlation between the number of patients in the ED and the average number of
      screens that were performed by the nurses, and that the number of screens waned
      immediately after SBI training. Following the data collection period, the nurse
      participants were interviewed about their experience. These interviews revealed 3
      main themes that contextualized the willingness to, but inherent difficulty of,
      administering the SBI within the ED environment. CONCLUSIONS: High patient-to
      nurse ratios in the ED currently preclude nurses from providing consistent SBI to
      all eligible patients; however, there are several practical considerations
      highlighted here that might help nurses increase the participation rate.

PMID- 28883783
TI  - Performing Arm-Based Network Meta-Analysis in R with the pcnetmeta Package.
AB  - Network meta-analysis is a powerful approach for synthesizing direct and indirect
      evidence about multiple treatment comparisons from a collection of independent
      studies. At present, the most widely used method in network meta-analysis is
      contrast-based, in which a baseline treatment needs to be specified in each
      study, and the analysis focuses on modeling relative treatment effects (typically
      log odds ratios). However, population-averaged treatment-specific parameters,
      such as absolute risks, cannot be estimated by this method without an external
      data source or a separate model for a reference treatment. Recently, an arm-based
      network meta-analysis method has been proposed, and the R package pcnetmeta
      provides user-friendly functions for its implementation. This package estimates
      both absolute and relative effects, and can handle binary, continuous, and count
      outcomes.

PMID- 28883784
TI  - Neuroscience of Compulsive Eating Behavior.
AB  - A systematic characterization of compulsivity in pathological forms of eating has
      been proposed in the context of three functional domains: (1) habitual
      overeating; (2) overeating to relieve a negative emotional state; and (3)
      overeating despite aversive consequences. In this review, we provide evidence
      supporting this hypothesis and we differentiate the nascent field of
      neurocircuits and neurochemical mediators of compulsive eating through their
      underlying neuropsychobiological processes. A better understanding of the
      neurobiological mechanisms that lead to compulsive eating behavior can improve
      behavioral and pharmacological intervention for disorders of pathological eating.

PMID- 28883785
TI  - Early Postnatal but Not Late Adult Neurogenesis Is Impaired in the Pitx3-Mutant
      Animal Model of Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - The generation of new neurons in the adult dentate gyrus has functional
      implications for hippocampal formation. Reduced hippocampal neurogenesis has been
      described in various animal models of hippocampal dysfunction such as dementia
      and depression, which are both common non-motor-symptoms of Parkinson's disease
      (PD). As dopamine plays an important role in regulating precursor cell
      proliferation, the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) in
      PD may be related to the reduced neurogenesis observed in the neurogenic regions
      of the adult brain: subventricular zone (SVZ) and dentate gyrus (DG). Here we
      examined adult hippocampal neurogenesis in the Pitx3-mutant mouse model of PD
      (aphakia mice), which phenotypically shows a selective embryonic degeneration of
      dopamine neurons within the SN and to a smaller extent in the ventral tegmental
      area (VTA). Proliferating cells were labeled with BrdU in aphakia mice and
      healthy controls from 3 to 42 weeks of age. Three weeks old mutant mice showed an
      18% reduction of proliferating cells in the DG and of 26% in the SVZ. Not only
      proliferation but also the number of new neurons was impaired in young aphakia
      mice resulting in 33% less newborn cells 4 weeks after BrdU-labeling. Remarkably,
      however, the decline in the number of proliferating cells in the neurogenic
      regions vanished in older animals (8-42 weeks) indicating that aging masks the
      effect of dopamine depletion on adult neurogenesis. Region specific reduction in
      precursor cells proliferation correlated with the extent of dopaminergic
      degeneration in mesencephalic subregions (VTA and SN), which supports the theory
      of age- and region-dependent regulatory effects of dopaminergic projections.
      Physiological stimulation of adult neurogenesis by physical activity (wheel
      running) almost doubled the number of proliferating cells in the dentate gyrus of
      8 weeks old aphakia mice to a number comparable to that of wild-type mice,
      abolishing the slight reduction of baseline neurogenesis at this age. The
      described age-dependent susceptibility of adult neurogenesis to PD-like
      dopaminergic degeneration and its responsiveness to physical activity might have
      implications for the understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of non
      motor symptoms in PD.

PMID- 28883786
TI  - Arterial Pulsations cannot Drive Intramural Periarterial Drainage: Significance
      for Abeta Drainage.
AB  - Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and to date there is
      no cure or efficient prophylaxis. The cognitive decline correlates with the
      accumulation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) in the walls of capillaries and arteries.
      Our group has demonstrated that interstitial fluid and Abeta are eliminated from
      the brain along the basement membranes of capillaries and arteries, the
      intramural periarterial drainage (IPAD) pathway. With advancing age and
      arteriosclerosis, the stiffness of arterial walls, this pathway fails in its
      function and Abeta accumulates in the walls of arteries. In this study we tested
      the hypothesis that arterial pulsations drive IPAD and that a valve mechanism
      ensures the net drainage in a direction opposite to that of the blood flow. This
      hypothesis was tested using a mathematical model of the drainage mechanism. We
      demonstrate firstly that arterial pulsations are not strong enough to produce
      drainage velocities comparable to experimental observations. Secondly, we
      demonstrate that a valve mechanism such as directional permeability of the IPAD
      pathway is necessary to achieve a net reverse flow. The mathematical simulation
      results are confirmed by assessing the pattern of IPAD in mice using pulse
      modulators, showing no significant alteration of IPAD. Our results indicate that
      forces other than the cardiac pulsations are responsible for efficient IPAD.

PMID- 28883787
TI  - Investigations into Hypoxia and Oxidative Stress at the Optic Nerve Head in a Rat
      Model of Glaucoma.
AB  - The vascular hypothesis of glaucoma proposes that retinal ganglion cell axons
      traversing the optic nerve head (ONH) undergo oxygen and nutrient insufficiency
      as a result of compromised local blood flow, ultimately leading to their
      degeneration. To date, evidence for the hypothesis is largely circumstantial.
      Herein, we made use of an induced rat model of glaucoma that features
      reproducible and widespread axonal transport disruption at the ONH following
      chronic elevation of intraocular pressure. If vascular insufficiency plays a role
      in the observed axonal transport failure, there should exist a physical signature
      at this time point. Using a range of immunohistochemical and molecular tools, we
      looked for cellular events indicative of vascular insufficiency, including the
      presence of hypoxia, upregulation of hypoxia-inducible, or antioxidant-response
      genes, alterations to antioxidant enzymes, increased formation of superoxide, and
      the presence of oxidative stress. Our data show that ocular hypertension caused
      selective hypoxia within the laminar ONH in 11/13 eyes graded as either medium or
      high for axonal transport disruption. Hypoxia was always present in areas
      featuring injured axons, and, the greater the abundance of axonal transport
      disruption, the greater the likelihood of a larger hypoxic region. Nevertheless,
      hypoxic regions were typically focal and were not necessarily evident in sections
      taken deeper within the same ONH, while disrupted axonal transport was frequently
      encountered without any discernible hypoxia. Ocular hypertension caused
      upregulation of heme oxygenase-1-an hypoxia-inducible and redox-sensitive enzyme
      in ONH astrocytes. The distribution and abundance of heme oxygenase-1 closely
      matched that of axonal transport disruption, and encompassed hypoxic regions and
      their immediate penumbra. Ocular hypertension also caused upregulations in the
      iron-regulating protein ceruloplasmin, the anaerobic glycolytic enzyme lactate
      dehydrogenase, and the transcription factors cFos and p-cJun. Moreover, ocular
      hypertension increased the generation of superoxide radicals in the retina and
      ONH, as well as upregulating the active subunit of the superoxide-generating
      enzyme NADPH oxidase, and invoking modest alterations to antioxidant-response
      enzymes. The results of this study provide further indirect support for the
      hypothesis that reduced blood flow to the ONH contributes to axonal injury in
      glaucoma.

PMID- 28883788
TI  - Loss of Mitochondrial Ndufs4 in Striatal Medium Spiny Neurons Mediates
      Progressive Motor Impairment in a Mouse Model of Leigh Syndrome.
AB  - Inability of mitochondria to generate energy leads to severe and often fatal
      myoencephalopathies. Among these, Leigh syndrome (LS) is one of the most common
      childhood mitochondrial diseases; it is characterized by hypotonia, failure to
      thrive, respiratory insufficiency and progressive mental and motor dysfunction,
      leading to early death. Basal ganglia nuclei, including the striatum, are
      affected in LS patients. However, neither the identity of the affected cell types
      in the striatum nor their contribution to the disease has been established. Here,
      we used a mouse model of LS lacking Ndufs4, a mitochondrial complex I subunit, to
      confirm that loss of complex I, but not complex II, alters respiration in the
      striatum. To assess the role of striatal dysfunction in the pathology, we
      selectively inactivated Ndufs4 in the striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), which
      account for over 95% of striatal neurons. Our results show that lack of Ndufs4 in
      MSNs causes a non-fatal progressive motor impairment without affecting the
      cognitive function of mice. Furthermore, no inflammatory responses or neuronal
      loss were observed up to 6 months of age. Hence, complex I deficiency in MSNs
      contributes to the motor deficits observed in LS, but not to the neural
      degeneration, suggesting that other neuronal populations drive the plethora of
      clinical signs in LS.

PMID- 28883789
TI  - Static and Dynamic Measures of Human Brain Connectivity Predict Complementary
      Aspects of Human Cognitive Performance.
AB  - In cognitive network neuroscience, the connectivity and community structure of
      the brain network is related to measures of cognitive performance, like attention
      and memory. Research in this emerging discipline has largely focused on two
      measures of connectivity-modularity and flexibility-which, for the most part,
      have been examined in isolation. The current project investigates the
      relationship between these two measures of connectivity and how they make
      separable contribution to predicting individual differences in performance on
      cognitive tasks. Using resting state fMRI data from 52 young adults, we show that
      flexibility and modularity are highly negatively correlated. We use a Brodmann
      parcellation of the fMRI data and a sliding window approach for calculation of
      the flexibility. We also demonstrate that flexibility and modularity make unique
      contributions to explain task performance, with a clear result showing that
      modularity, not flexibility, predicts performance for simple tasks and that
      flexibility plays a greater role in predicting performance on complex tasks that
      require cognitive control and executive functioning. The theory and results
      presented here allow for stronger links between measures of brain network
      connectivity and cognitive processes.

PMID- 28883790
TI  - Impedance Control for Robotic Rehabilitation: A Robust Markovian Approach.
AB  - The human-robot interaction has played an important role in rehabilitation
      robotics and impedance control has been used in the regulation of interaction
      forces between the robot actuator and human limbs. Series elastic actuators
      (SEAs) have been an efficient solution in the design of this kind of robotic
      application. Standard implementations of impedance control with SEAs require an
      internal force control loop for guaranteeing the desired impedance output.
      However, nonlinearities and uncertainties hamper such a guarantee of an accurate
      force level in this human-robot interaction. This paper addresses the dependence
      of the impedance control performance on the force control and proposes a control
      approach that improves the force control robustness. A unified model of the human
      robot system that considers the ankle impedance by a second-order dynamics
      subject to uncertainties in the stiffness, damping, and inertia parameters has
      been developed. Fixed, resistive, and passive operation modes of the robotics
      system were defined, where transition probabilities among the modes were modeled
      through a Markov chain. A robust regulator for Markovian jump linear systems was
      used in the design of the force control. Experimental results show the approach
      improves the impedance control performance. For comparison purposes, a standard
      [Formula: see text] force controller based on the fixed operation mode has also
      been designed. The Markovian control approach outperformed the [Formula: see
      text] control when all operation modes were taken into account.

PMID- 28883791
TI  - Proteasome Inhibitor YSY01A Abrogates Constitutive STAT3 Signaling via Down
      regulation of Gp130 and JAK2 in Human A549 Lung Cancer Cells.
AB  - Proteasome inhibition interfering with many cell signaling pathways has been
      extensively explored as a therapeutic strategy for cancers. Proteasome inhibitor
      YSY01A is a novel agent that has shown remarkable anti-tumor effects; however,
      its mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Here we report that YSY01A is
      capable of suppressing cancer cell survival by induction of apoptosis.
      Paradoxically, we find that YSY01A abrogates constitutive activation of STAT3 via
      proteasome-independent degradation of gp130 and JAK2, but not transcriptional
      regulation, in human A549 non-small cell lung cancer cells. The reduction in
      gp130 and JAK2 can be restored by co-treatment with 3-methyladenine, an early
      stage autophagy lysosome and type I/III PI3K inhibitor. YSY01A also effectively
      inhibits cancer cell migration and lung xenograft tumor growth with little
      adverse effect on animals. Thus, our findings suggest that YSY01A represents a
      promising candidate for further development of novel anticancer therapeutics
      targeting the proteasome.

PMID- 28883792
TI  - Antidiabetic Effect of Tibetan Medicine Tang-Kang-Fu-San in db/db Mice via
      Activation of PI3K/Akt and AMPK Pathways.
AB  - This study was to investigate the anti-diabetic effects and molecular mechanisms
      of Tang-Kang-Fu-San (TKFS), a traditional Tibetan medicine, in treating type 2
      diabetes mellitus of spontaneous diabetic db/db mice. Firstly HPLC fingerprint
      analysis was performed to gain the features of the chemical compositions of TKFS.
      Next different doses of TKFS (0.5 g/kg, 1.0 g/kg, and 2.0 g/kg) were
      administrated via oral gavage to db/db mice and their controls for 4 weeks. TKFS
      significantly lowered hyperglycemia and ameliorated insulin resistance (IR) in
      db/db mice, indicated by results from multiple tests, including fasting blood
      glucose test, intraperitoneal insulin and glucose tolerance tests, fasting serum
      insulin levels and homeostasis model assessment of IR analysis as well as
      histology of pancreas islets. TKFS also decreased concentrations of serum
      triglyceride, total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, even though it did
      not change the mouse body weights. Results from western blot and
      immunohistochemistry analysis indicated that TKFS reversed the down-regulation of
      p-Akt and p-AMPK, and increased the translocation of Glucose transporter type 4
      in skeletal muscles of db/db mice. In all, TKFS had promising benefits in
      maintaining the glucose homeostasis and reducing IR. The underlying molecular
      mechanisms are related to promote Akt and AMPK activation and Glucose transporter
      type 4 translocation in skeletal muscles. Our work showed that multicomponent
      Tibetan medicine TKFS acted synergistically on multiple molecular targets and
      signaling pathways to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28883793
TI  - A Multilevel Analysis of Real-World Variations in Oral Anticoagulation Initiation
      for Atrial Fibrillation in Valencia, a European Region.
AB  - Introduction: Beyond clinical trials, clinical practice guidelines, and
      administrative regulation, treatment decision-making can be influenced by
      individual and contextual factors. Our goal was to describe variations in the
      patterns of initiation of anticoagulation therapy in patients with atrial
      fibrillation by Health Areas (HA) in the region of Valencia in Spain and to
      quantify the influence of the HAs on variations in treatment choice. Methods: We
      conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of all atrial
      fibrillation patients who started treatment with oral anticoagulants between
      November 2011 and February 2014 in each of the region's 24 HAs. We described
      patient and utilization characteristics per HA and initiation patterns over time,
      and we identified contextual and individual factors associated with differences
      in initiation patterns. Results: 21,879 patients initiated treatment with an oral
      anticoagulant in the 24 HAs. Initiation with direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) in
      the first year was 14.6%. In November 2013 the ratio was 25.4%, with HA ratios
      ranging from 3.8 to 57.1%. DOAC-initiating patients had less comorbidity but were
      more likely to present episodes of previous ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke,
      or TIA when compared with patients initiating with VKA treatment. Variability
      among HAs was statistically significant, with the majority of HAs ranking above
      or below the regional initiation average (ICC ~ 8%). Conclusion: There was high
      variability in the percentage of DOAC initiation and in the choice of DOAC among
      HAs. Interventions aimed to improve DOAC initiation decision-making and to reduce
      variations should take into account the Health Area component.

PMID- 28883794
TI  - A Meta-Analysis on Sex Differences in Resting-State Vagal Activity in Children
      and Adolescents.
AB  - Lower vagal activity is associated with psychopathology independent of age.
      Research suggests that alterations of vagal activity precede the development of
      psychopathology. The present review aimed to quantify sex differences in vagal
      activity in children and adolescents. Studies reporting on sex differences on
      measures of vagally-mediated heart rate variability derived from short-term
      recordings under resting conditions in boys and girls were included. Drawing on
      data from more than 5,000 children and adolescents, we provide evidence that
      healthy young girls display lower vagal activity and greater mean heart rate
      compared to boys, a finding that may have implications for risk associated with
      the development of internalizing psychopathology and somatic ill-health.

PMID- 28883795
TI  - Atrial Electrogram Fractionation Distribution before and after Pulmonary Vein
      Isolation in Human Persistent Atrial Fibrillation-A Retrospective Multivariate
      Statistical Analysis.
AB  - Purpose: Complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAE)-guided ablation after
      pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) has been used for persistent atrial fibrillation
      (persAF) therapy. This strategy has shown suboptimal outcomes due to, among other
      factors, undetected changes in the atrial tissue following PVI. In the present
      work, we investigate CFAE distribution before and after PVI in patients with
      persAF using a multivariate statistical model. Methods: 207 pairs of atrial
      electrograms (AEGs) were collected before and after PVI respectively, from
      corresponding LA regions in 18 persAF patients. Twelve attributes were measured
      from the AEGs, before and after PVI. Statistical models based on multivariate
      analysis of variance (MANOVA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) have been
      used to characterize the atrial regions and AEGs. Results: PVI significantly
      reduced CFAEs in the LA (70 vs. 40%; P < 0.0001). Four types of LA regions were
      identified, based on the AEGs characteristics: (i) fractionated before PVI that
      remained fractionated after PVI (31% of the collected points); (ii) fractionated
      that converted to normal (39%); (iii) normal prior to PVI that became
      fractionated (9%) and; (iv) normal that remained normal (21%). Individually, the
      attributes failed to distinguish these LA regions, but multivariate statistical
      models were effective in their discrimination (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Our
      results have unveiled that there are LA regions resistant to PVI, while others
      are affected by it. Although, traditional methods were unable to identify these
      different regions, the proposed multivariate statistical model discriminated LA
      regions resistant to PVI from those affected by it without prior ablation
      information.

PMID- 28883796
TI  - Functions of NQO1 in Cellular Protection and CoQ10 Metabolism and its Potential
      Role as a Redox Sensitive Molecular Switch.
AB  - NQO1 is one of the two major quinone reductases in mammalian systems. It is
      highly inducible and plays multiple roles in cellular adaptation to stress. A
      prevalent polymorphic form of NQO1 results in an absence of NQO1 protein and
      activity so it is important to elucidate the specific cellular functions of NQO1.
      Established roles of NQO1 include its ability to prevent certain quinones from
      one electron redox cycling but its role in quinone detoxification is dependent on
      the redox stability of the hydroquinone generated by two-electron reduction.
      Other documented roles of NQO1 include its ability to function as a component of
      the plasma membrane redox system generating antioxidant forms of ubiquinone and
      vitamin E and at high levels, as a direct superoxide reductase. Emerging roles of
      NQO1 include its function as an efficient intracellular generator of NAD+ for
      enzymes including PARP and sirtuins which has gained particular attention with
      respect to metabolic syndrome. NQO1 interacts with a growing list of proteins,
      including intrinsically disordered proteins, protecting them from 20S proteasomal
      degradation. The interactions of NQO1 also extend to mRNA. Recent identification
      of NQO1 as a mRNA binding protein have been investigated in more detail using
      SERPIN1A1 (which encodes the serine protease inhibitor alpha-1-antitrypsin) as a
      target mRNA and indicate a role of NQO1 in control of translation of alpha-1
      antitrypsin, an important modulator of COPD and obesity related metabolic
      syndrome. NQO1 undergoes structural changes and alterations in its ability to
      bind other proteins as a result of the cellular reduced/oxidized pyridine
      nucleotide ratio. This suggests NQO1 may act as a cellular redox switch
      potentially altering its interactions with other proteins and mRNA as a result of
      the prevailing redox environment.

PMID- 28883797
TI  - Genetic Bases of Bicuspid Aortic Valve: The Contribution of Traditional and High
      Throughput Sequencing Approaches on Research and Diagnosis.
AB  - Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is a common (0.5-2.0% of general population)
      congenital heart defect with increased prevalence of aortic dilatation and
      dissection. BAV has an autosomal dominant inheritance with reduced penetrance and
      variable expressivity. BAV has been described as an isolated trait or associated
      with syndromic conditions [e.g., Marfan Marfan syndrome or Loeys-Dietz syndrome
      (MFS, LDS)]. Identification of a syndromic condition in a BAV patient is
      clinically relevant to personalize aortic surgery indication. A 4-fold increase
      in BAV prevalence in a large cohort of unrelated MFS patients with respect to
      general population was reported, as well as in LDS patients (8-fold). It is also
      known that BAV is more frequent in patients with thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA)
      related to mutations in ACTA2, FBN1, and TGFBR2 genes. Moreover, in 8 patients
      with BAV and thoracic aortic dilation, not fulfilling the clinical criteria for
      MFS, FBN1 mutations in 2/8 patients were identified suggesting that FBN1 or other
      genes involved in syndromic conditions correlated to aortopathy could be involved
      in BAV. Beyond loci associated to syndromic disorders, studies in humans and
      animal models evidenced/suggested the role of further genes in non-syndromic BAV.
      The transcriptional regulator NOTCH1 has been associated with the development and
      acceleration of calcium deposition. Genome wide marker-based linkage analysis
      demonstrated a linkage of BAV to loci on chromosomes 18, 5, and 13q. Recently, a
      role for GATA4/5 in aortic valve morphogenesis and endocardial cell
      differentiation has been reported. BAV has also been associated with a reduced
      UFD1L gene expression or involvement of a locus containing AXIN1/PDIA2. Much
      remains to be understood about the genetics of BAV. In the last years, high
      throughput sequencing technologies, allowing the analysis of large number of
      genes or entire exomes or genomes, progressively became available. The latter
      issue together with the development of "BigData" analysis methods improving their
      interpretation and integration with clinical data represents a promising
      opportunity to increase the disease knowledge and diagnosis in monogenic and
      multifactorial complex traits. This review summarized the main knowledge on the
      BAV genetic bases, the role of genetic diagnosis in BAV patient managements and
      the crucial challenges for the comprehension of genetics of BAV in research and
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28883798
TI  - Eye Development in Sepia officinalis Embryo: What the Uncommon Gene Expression
      Profiles Tell Us about Eye Evolution.
AB  - In metazoans, there is a remarkable diversity of photosensitive structures; their
      shapes, physiology, optical properties, and development are different. To
      approach the evolution of photosensitive structures and visual function,
      cephalopods are particularly interesting organisms due to their most highly
      centralized nervous system and their camerular eyes which constitute a
      convergence with those of vertebrates. The eye morphogenesis in numerous
      metazoans is controlled mainly by a conserved Retinal Determination Gene Network
      (RDGN) including pax, six, eya, and dac playing also key developmental roles in
      non-retinal structures and tissues of vertebrates and Drosophila. Here we have
      identified and explored the role of Sof-dac, Sof-six1/2, Sof-eya in eye
      morphogenesis, and nervous structures controlling the visual function in Sepia
      officinalis. We compare that with the already shown expressions in eye
      development of Sof-otx and Sof-pax genes. Rhodopsin is the pigment responsible
      for light sensitivity in metazoan, which correlate to correlate visual function
      and eye development. We studied Sof-rhodopsin expression during retina
      differentiation. By in situ hybridization, we show that (1) all of the RDGN
      genes, including Sof-pax6, are expressed in the eye area during the early
      developmental stages but they are not expressed in the retina, unlike Sof-otx,
      which could have a role in retina differentiation; (2) Sof-rhodopsin is expressed
      in the retina just before vision gets functional, from stage 23 to hatching. Our
      results evidence a role of Sof-six1/2, Sof-eya, and Sof-dac in eye development.
      However, the gene network involved in the retinal photoreceptor differentiation
      remains to be determined. Moreover, for the first time, Sof-rhodopsin expression
      is shown in the embryonic retina of cuttlefish suggesting the evolutionary
      conservation of the role of rhodopsin in visual phototransduction within
      metazoans. These findings are correlated with the physiological and behavioral
      observations suggesting that S. officinalis is able to react to light stimuli
      from stage 25 of organogenesis on, as soon as the first retinal pigments appear.

PMID- 28883799
TI  - REM Sleep and Endothermy: Potential Sites and Mechanism of a Reciprocal
      Interference.
AB  - Numerous data show a reciprocal interaction between REM sleep and
      thermoregulation. During REM sleep, the function of thermoregulation appears to
      be impaired; from the other hand, the tonic activation of thermogenesis, such as
      during cold exposure, suppresses REM sleep occurrence. Recently, both the central
      neural network controlling REM sleep and the central neural network controlling
      thermoregulation have been progressively unraveled. Thermoregulation was shown to
      be controlled by a central "core" circuit, responsible for the maintenance of
      body temperature, modulated by a set of accessory areas. REM sleep was suggested
      to be controlled by a group of hypothalamic neurons overlooking at the REM sleep
      generating circuits within the brainstem. The two networks overlap in a few
      areas, and in this review, we will suggest that in such overlap may reside the
      explanation of the reciprocal interaction between REM sleep and thermoregulation.
      Considering the peculiar modulation of thermoregulation by REM sleep the result
      of their coincidental evolution, REM sleep may therefore be seen as a period of
      transient heterothermy.

PMID- 28883801
TI  - Procrastinating Behavior in Computer-Based Learning Environments to Predict
      Performance: A Case Study in Moodle.
AB  - Introduction: Research about student performance has traditionally considered
      academic procrastination as a behavior that has negative effects on academic
      achievement. Although there is much evidence for this in class-based
      environments, there is a lack of research on Computer-Based Learning Environments
      (CBLEs). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate student behavior in
      a blended learning program and specifically procrastination behavior in relation
      to performance through Data Mining techniques. Materials and Methods: A sample of
      140 undergraduate students participated in a blended learning experience
      implemented in a Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning
      Environment) Management System. Relevant interaction variables were selected for
      the study, taking into account student achievement and analyzing data by means of
      association rules, a mining technique. The association rules were arrived at and
      filtered through two selection criteria: 1, rules must have an accuracy over 0.8
      and 2, they must be present in both sub-samples. Results: The findings of our
      study highlight the influence of time management in online learning environments,
      particularly on academic achievement, as there is an association between
      procrastination variables and student performance. Conclusion: Negative impact of
      procrastination in learning outcomes has been observed again but in virtual
      learning environments where practical implications, prevention of, and
      intervention in, are different from class-based learning. These aspects are
      discussed to help resolve student difficulties at various ages.

PMID- 28883800
TI  - Childhood Trauma and Minimization/Denial in People with and without a Severe
      Mental Disorder.
AB  - : Background: Childhood trauma has garnered extensive research concerning its
      role in the psychopathology of mental disorders, including psychosis. The
      Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) utilizes a minimization/denial (MD) scale to
      denote potential under-reporters of trauma, yet MD scores are infrequently
      reported and validations of the scale are lacking in the literature. STUDY AIM:
      Elucidate differences in MD between patients with severe mental disorders to
      healthy individuals, and secondly, investigate if MD influences reports of
      childhood trauma between the groups. Methods: We included 621 patients with a DSM
      schizophrenia spectrum, bipolar spectrum diagnosis, or major depression disorder
      with psychotic features and 299 healthy controls as part of the NORMENT study in
      Oslo, Norway. History of childhood trauma was obtained using the CTQ. Clinical
      diagnoses were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM
      Disorders. Results: A significantly greater proportion of healthy controls
      (42.8%) had a positive MD score compared to patients (26.7%). When controlling
      for MD, the patient group still exhibited elevated reports of childhood trauma
      compared to controls (Cohen's d = 1.27), concordant with reports of childhood
      trauma being more frequently reported in a population of severe mental disorders.
      Conclusion: Elevated MD in the healthy control group could suggest an enhanced
      self-serving bias, potentially attenuated in the psychiatric group. Clinicians
      and researchers would benefit from including the MD component of CTQ when
      assessing retrospective information on childhood trauma to rule out potential
      effect of MD.

PMID- 28883802
TI  - Absorption in Sport: A Cross-Validation Study.
AB  - Absorption has been identified as readiness for experiences of deep involvement
      in the task. Conceptually, absorption is a key psychological construct,
      incorporating experiential, cognitive, and motivational components. Although, no
      operationalization of the construct has been provided to facilitate research in
      this area, the purpose of this research was the development and examination of
      the psychometric properties of a sport-specific measure of absorption that
      evolved from the use of the modified Tellegen Absorption Scale (MODTAS; Jamieson,
      2005) in mainstream psychology. The study aimed to provide evidence of the
      psychometric properties, reliability, and validity of the Measure of Absorption
      in Sport Contexts (MASCs). The psychometric examination included a calibration
      sample from Scotland and a cross-validation sample from Australia using a cross
      sectional design. The item pool was developed based on existing items from the
      modified Tellegen Absorption Scale (Jamieson, 2005). The MODTAS items were
      reworded and translated into a sport context. The Scottish sample consisted of
      292 participants and the Australian sample of 314 participants. Congeneric model
      testing and confirmatory factor analysis for both samples and multi-group
      invariance testing across samples was used. In the cross-validation sample the
      MASC subscales showed acceptable internal consistency and construct reliability
      (>=0.70). Excellent fit indices were found for the final 18-item, six-factor
      measure in the cross-validation sample, [Formula: see text] = 197.486, p < 0.001;
      CFI = 0.957; TLI = 0.945; RMSEA = 0.045; SRMR = 0.044. Multi-group invariance
      testing revealed no differences in item meaning, except for two items. The MASC
      and the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 showed moderate-to-strong positive
      correlations in both samples, r = 0.38, p < 0.001 and r = 0.42, p < 0.001,
      supporting the external validity of the MASC. This article provides initial
      evidence in support of the psychometric properties, reliability, and validity of
      the sport-specific measure of absorption. The MASC provides rich research
      opportunities in sport psychology that can enhance the theoretical understanding
      between absorption and related constructs and facilitate future intervention
      studies.

PMID- 28883805
TI  - Applying Permutation Tests and Multivariate Modification Indices to Configurally
      Invariant Models That Need Respecification.
AB  - The assumption of equivalence between measurement-model configurations across
      groups is typically investigated by evaluating overall fit of the same model
      simultaneously to multiple samples. However, the null hypothesis (H0) of
      configural invariance is distinct from the H0 of overall model fit. Permutation
      tests of configural invariance yield nominal Type I error rates even when a model
      does not fit perfectly (Jorgensen et al., 2017, in press). When the configural
      model requires modification, lack of evidence against configural invariance
      implies that researchers should reconsider their model's structure simultaneously
      across all groups. Application of multivariate modification indices is therefore
      proposed to help decide which parameter(s) to free simultaneously in all groups,
      and I present Monte Carlo simulation results comparing their Type I error control
      to traditional 1-df modification indices. I use the Holzinger and Swineford
      (1939) data set to illustrate these methods.

PMID- 28883803
TI  - Basic Emotions in Human Neuroscience: Neuroimaging and Beyond.
AB  - The existence of so-called 'basic emotions' and their defining attributes
      represents a long lasting and yet unsettled issue in psychology. Recently,
      neuroimaging evidence, especially related to the advent of neuroimaging meta
      analytic methods, has revitalized this debate in the endeavor of systems and
      human neuroscience. The core theme focuses on the existence of unique neural
      bases that are specific and characteristic for each instance of basic emotion.
      Here we review this evidence, outlining contradictory findings, strengths and
      limits of different approaches. Constructionism dismisses the existence of
      dedicated neural structures for basic emotions, considering that the assumption
      of a one-to-one relationship between neural structures and their functions is
      central to basic emotion theories. While these critiques are useful to pinpoint
      current limitations of basic emotions theories, we argue that they do not always
      appear equally generative in fostering new testable accounts on how the brain
      relates to affective functions. We then consider evidence beyond PET and fMRI,
      including results concerning the relation between basic emotions and awareness
      and data from neuropsychology on patients with focal brain damage. Evidence from
      lesion studies are indeed particularly informative, as they are able to bring
      correlational evidence typical of neuroimaging studies to causation, thereby
      characterizing which brain structures are necessary for, rather than simply
      related to, basic emotion processing. These other studies shed light on
      attributes often ascribed to basic emotions, such as automaticity of perception,
      quick onset, and brief duration. Overall, we consider that evidence in favor of
      the neurobiological underpinnings of basic emotions outweighs dismissive
      approaches. In fact, the concept of basic emotions can still be fruitful, if
      updated to current neurobiological knowledge that overcomes traditional one-to
      one localization of functions in the brain. In particular, we propose that the
      structure-function relationship between brain and emotions is better described in
      terms of pluripotentiality, which refers to the fact that one neural structure
      can fulfill multiple functions, depending on the functional network and pattern
      of co-activations displayed at any given moment.

PMID- 28883804
TI  - The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory.
AB  - Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans,
      including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem
      solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially
      modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and
      behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning
      processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on
      relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of
      information efficiently. However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory
      are not always univalent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances
      or impairs learning and long-term memory (LTM) retention, depending on a range of
      factors. Recent neuroimaging findings have indicated that the amygdala and
      prefrontal cortex cooperate with the medial temporal lobe in an integrated manner
      that affords (i) the amygdala modulating memory consolidation; (ii) the
      prefrontal cortex mediating memory encoding and formation; and (iii) the
      hippocampus for successful learning and LTM retention. We also review the nested
      hierarchies of circular emotional control and cognitive regulation (bottom-up and
      top-down influences) within the brain to achieve optimal integration of emotional
      and cognitive processing. This review highlights a basic evolutionary approach to
      emotion to understand the effects of emotion on learning and memory and the
      functional roles played by various brain regions and their mutual interactions in
      relation to emotional processing. We also summarize the current state of
      knowledge on the impact of emotion on memory and map implications for educational
      settings. In addition to elucidating the memory-enhancing effects of emotion,
      neuroimaging findings extend our understanding of emotional influences on
      learning and memory processes; this knowledge may be useful for the design of
      effective educational curricula to provide a conducive learning environment for
      both traditional "live" learning in classrooms and "virtual" learning through
      online-based educational technologies.

PMID- 28883807
TI  - Comparing CAT12 and VBM8 for Detecting Brain Morphological Abnormalities in
      Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.
AB  - The identification of the brain morphological alterations that play important
      roles in neurodegenerative/neurological diseases will contribute to our
      understanding of the causes of these diseases. Various automated software
      programs are designed to provide an automatic framework to detect brain
      morphological changes in structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. A
      voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis can also be used for the detection of
      brain volumetric abnormalities. Here, we compared gray matter (GM) and white
      matter (WM) abnormality results obtained by a VBM analysis using the
      Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) via the current version of Statistical
      Parametric Mapping software (SPM12) with the results obtained by a VBM analysis
      using the VBM8 toolbox implemented in the older software SPM8, in adult temporal
      lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients with (n = 51) and without (n = 57) hippocampus
      sclerosis (HS), compared to healthy adult controls (n = 28). The VBM analysis
      using CAT12 showed that compared to the healthy controls, significant GM and WM
      reductions were located in ipsilateral mesial temporal lobes in the TLE-HS
      patients, and slight GM amygdala swelling was present in the right TLE-no
      patients (n = 27). In contrast, the VBM analysis via the VBM8 toolbox showed
      significant GM and WM reductions only in the left TLE-HS patients (n = 25)
      compared to the healthy controls. Our findings thus demonstrate that compared to
      VBM8, a VBM analysis using CAT12 provides a more accurate volumetric analysis of
      the brain regions in TLE. Our results further indicate that a VBM analysis using
      CAT12 is more robust and accurate against volumetric alterations than the VBM8
      toolbox.

PMID- 28883806
TI  - Functional Neuroimaging in Traumatic Brain Injury: From Nodes to Networks.
AB  - Since the invention of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), thousands of
      studies in healthy and clinical samples have enlightened our understanding of the
      organization of cognition in the human brain and neuroplastic changes following
      brain disease and injury. Increasingly, studies involve analyses rooted in
      complex systems theory and analysis applied to clinical samples. Given the
      complexity in available approaches, concise descriptions of the theoretical
      motivation of network techniques and their relationship to traditional approaches
      and theory are necessary. To this end, this review concerns the use of fMRI to
      understand basic cognitive function and dysfunction in the human brain scaling
      from emphasis on basic units (or "nodes") in the brain to interactions within and
      between brain networks. First, major themes and theoretical issues in the
      scientific study of the injured brain are introduced to contextualize these
      analyses, particularly concerning functional "brain reorganization." Then,
      analytic approaches ranging from the voxel level to the systems level using graph
      theory and related approaches are reviewed as complementary approaches to examine
      neurocognitive processes following TBI. Next, some major findings relevant to
      functional reorganization hypotheses are discussed. Finally, major open issues in
      functional network analyses in neurotrauma are discussed in theoretical,
      analytic, and translational terms.

PMID- 28883808
TI  - Grass Carp Follisatin: Molecular Cloning, Functional Characterization, Dopamine
      D1 Regulation at Pituitary Level, and Implication in Growth Hormone Regulation.
AB  - Activin is involved in pituitary hormone regulation and its pituitary actions can
      be nullified by local production of its binding protein follistatin. In our
      recent study with grass carp, local release of growth hormone (GH) was shown to
      induce activin expression at pituitary level, which in turn could exert an
      intrapituitary feedback to inhibit GH synthesis and secretion. To further examine
      the activin/follistatin system in the carp pituitary, grass carp follistatin was
      cloned and confirmed to be single-copy gene widely expressed at tissue level. At
      the pituitary level, follistatin signals could be located in carp somatotrophs,
      gonadotrophs, and lactotrophs. Functional expression also revealed that carp
      follistatin was effective in neutralizing activin's action in stimulating target
      promoter with activin-responsive elements. In grass carp pituitary cells,
      follistatin co-treatment was found to revert activin inhibition on GH mRNA
      expression. Meanwhile, follistatin mRNA levels could be up-regulated by local
      production of activin but the opposite was true for dopaminergic activation with
      dopamine (DA) or its agonist apomorphine. Since GH stimulation by DA via
      pituitary D1 receptor is well-documented in fish models, the receptor specificity
      for follistatin regulation by DA was also investigated. Using a pharmacological
      approach, the inhibitory effect of DA on follistatin gene expression was
      confirmed to be mediated by pituitary D1 but not D2 receptor. Furthermore,
      activation of D1 receptor by the D1-specific agonist SKF77434 was also effective
      in blocking follistatin mRNA expression induced by activin and GH treatment both
      in carp pituitary cells as well as in carp somatotrophs enriched by density
      gradient centrifugation. These results, as a whole, suggest that activin can
      interact with dopaminergic input from the hypothalamus to regulate follistatin
      expression in carp pituitary, which may contribute to GH regulation by
      activin/follistatin system via autocrine/paracrine mechanisms.

PMID- 28883809
TI  - Recent Research Progress in China on Haemonchus contortus.
AB  - Haemonchus contortus is one of the most important parasites of ruminants with
      worldwide distribution that can bring huge economic losses to the breeding
      industry of cattle, sheep, and goats. In recent 20 years, studies on H. contortus
      in China mainly focused on the epidemiology, population genetics, anthelmintic
      resistance, structural and functional studies of important genes regulating the
      development of this parasite, interaction between parasite molecules and host
      cells and vaccine development against haemonchosis, and achieved good progress.
      However, there is no systematic review about the studies by Chinese researchers
      on H. contortus in China. The purpose of this review is to bring together the
      findings from the studies on H. contortus in China in order to obtain the
      knowledge gained from the recent studies in China and provide foundation for
      identifying future research directions to establish novel diagnostic methods,
      discover new drug targets and vaccine candidates for use in preventing and
      controlling H. contortus in China.

PMID- 28883810
TI  - From Farms to Markets: Gram-Negative Bacteria Resistant to Third-Generation
      Cephalosporins in Fruits and Vegetables in a Region of North Africa.
AB  - The role of food in human exposure to antimicrobial-resistant bacteria is a
      growing food safety issue. The contribution of fruits and vegetables eaten raw to
      this exposure is still unclear. The evaluation of contamination levels of fruits,
      vegetables and the agricultural environment by third-generation cephalosporin
      (3GC)-resistant Gram-negative bacteria was performed by analyzing 491 samples of
      fruits and vegetables collected from 5 markets and 7 farms in Bejaia area, north
      eastern Mediterranean coast of Algeria. Ninety soil samples and 45 irrigation
      water samples were also sampled in farms in order to assess them as potential
      inoculum sources. All samples were investigated at the same time on ceftazidime
      containing selective media for 3GC-resistant Gram-negative bacteria detection and
      on Hektoen media, for Salmonella spp. presence. The bacteria isolated (n = 30)
      from fruits and vegetables, soil and irrigation water collected in the farms were
      almost all non-fermenting bacterial species (Stenotrophomonas, Acinetobacter,
      Pseudomonas, Ochrobactrum) except one strain of Enterobacter cloacae and two
      strains of Citrobacter murliniae, isolated on one cucumber and two tomato samples
      in the same farm. Greater diversity in bacterial species and antimicrobial
      resistance profiles was observed at markets: Enterobacteriaceae (n = 41) were as
      strongly represented as non-fermenting bacteria (n = 37). Among
      Enterobacteriaceae, E. cloacae (n = 21), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 13) were
      the most common isolates. Most of the K. pneumoniae isolates were extended
      spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producers (n = 11). No Salmonella spp. was
      recovered in any sample. This study showed that fruits and vegetables including
      those which may be eaten up raw constitute a reservoir of 3GC-resistant Gram
      negative bacteria and multi-drug resistant-bacteria in general that can be
      transferred to humans through food. The general public should be informed of this
      hazard for health in order to encourage good domestic hygiene practices. In
      addition, further investigation is needed throughout the production chain to
      enrol professionals in actions to reduce this contamination.

PMID- 28883811
TI  - Culture Media and Individual Hosts Affect the Recovery of Culturable Bacterial
      Diversity from Amphibian Skin.
AB  - One current challenge in microbial ecology is elucidating the functional roles of
      the large diversity of free-living and host-associated bacteria identified by
      culture-independent molecular methods. Importantly, the characterization of this
      immense bacterial diversity will likely require merging data from culture
      independent approaches with work on bacterial isolates in culture. Amphibian skin
      bacterial communities have become a recent focus of work in host-associated
      microbial systems due to the potential role of these skin bacteria in host
      defense against the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which
      is associated with global amphibian population declines and extinctions. As there
      is evidence that some skin bacteria may inhibit growth of Bd and prevent
      infection in some cases, there is interest in using these bacteria as probiotic
      therapy for conservation of at-risk amphibians. In this study, we used skin swabs
      from American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) to: (1) assess the diversity and
      community structure of culturable amphibian skin bacteria grown on high and low
      nutrient culture media, (2) determine which culture media recover the highest
      proportion of the total skin bacterial community of individual toads relative to
      culture-independent data, and (3) assess whether the plated communities from the
      distinct media types vary in their ability to inhibit Bd growth in in-vitro
      assays. Overall, we found that culture media with low nutrient concentrations
      facilitated the growth of more diverse bacterial taxa and grew distinct
      communities relative to media with higher nutrient concentrations. Use of low
      nutrient media also resulted in culturing proportionally more of the bacterial
      diversity on individual toads relative to the overall community defined using
      culture-independent methods. However, while there were differences in diversity
      among media types, the variation among individual hosts was greater than
      variation among media types, suggesting that swabbing more individuals in a
      population is the best way to maximize culture collections, regardless of media
      type. Lastly, the function of the plated communities against Bd did not vary
      across culture media type or between high and low nutrient media. These results
      inform current efforts for developing a probiotic-based approach for amphibian
      conservation and help to ensure that culture collections are capturing the
      majority of the important diversity in these systems.

PMID- 28883812
TI  - The Geographic Distribution of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Isolates within three
      Italian Neighboring Winemaking Regions Reveals Strong Differences in Yeast
      Abundance, Genetic Diversity and Industrial Strain Dissemination.
AB  - In recent years the interest for natural fermentations has been re-evaluated in
      terms of increasing the wine terroir and managing more sustainable winemaking
      practices. Therefore, the level of yeast genetic variability and the abundance of
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae native populations in vineyard are becoming more and
      more crucial at both ecological and technological level. Among the factors that
      can influence the strain diversity, the commercial starter release that
      accidentally occur in the environment around the winery, has to be considered. In
      this study we led a wide scale investigation of S. cerevisiae genetic diversity
      and population structure in the vineyards of three neighboring winemaking regions
      of Protected Appellation of Origin, in North-East of Italy. Combining mtDNA RFLP
      and microsatellite markers analyses we evaluated 634 grape samples collected over
      3 years. We could detect major differences in the presence of S. cerevisiae
      yeasts, according to the winemaking region. The population structures revealed
      specificities of yeast microbiota at vineyard scale, with a relative Appellation
      of Origin area homogeneity, and transition zones suggesting a geographic
      differentiation. Surprisingly, we found a widespread industrial yeast
      dissemination that was very high in the areas where the native yeast abundance
      was low. Although geographical distance is a key element involved in strain
      distribution, the high presence of industrial strains in vineyard reduced the
      differences between populations. This finding indicates that industrial yeast
      diffusion it is a real emergency and their presence strongly interferes with the
      natural yeast microbiota.

PMID- 28883814
TI  - Virucidal Influence of Ionic Liquids on Phages P100 and MS2.
AB  - An increasing number of publications describe the potential of ionic liquids
      (ILs) as novel antimicrobials, antibacterial coatings and even as active
      pharmaceutical ingredients. Nevertheless, a major research area, notably their
      impact on viruses, has so far been neglected. Consequently the aim of this study
      was to examine the effects of ILs on the infectivity of viruses. A systematic
      analysis to investigate the effects of defined structural elements of ILs on
      virus activity was performed using 55 ILs. All structure activity relationships
      (SARs) were tested on the human norovirus surrogate phage MS2 and phage P100
      representing non-enveloped DNA viruses. Results demonstrate that IL SAR
      conclusions, established for prokaryotes and eukaryotes, are not readily
      applicable to the examined phages. A virus-type-dependent IL influence was also
      apparent. Overall, four ILs, covering different structural elements, were found
      to reduce phage P100 infectivity by >=4 log10 units, indicating a virucidal
      effect, whereas the highest reduction for phage MS2 was about 3 log10 units.
      Results indicate that future applications of ILs as virucidal agents will require
      development of novel SARs and the obtained results serve as a good starting point
      for future studies.

PMID- 28883813
TI  - A Structural and Functional Elucidation of the Rumen Microbiome Influenced by
      Various Diets and Microenvironments.
AB  - The structure and function of the microbiome inhabiting the rumen are, amongst
      other factors, mainly shaped by the animal's feed intake. Describing the
      influence of different diets on the inherent community arrangement and associated
      metabolic activities of the most active ruminal fractions (bacteria and archaea)
      is of great interest for animal nutrition, biotechnology, and climatology.
      Samples were obtained from three fistulated Jersey cows rotationally fed with
      corn silage, grass silage or grass hay, each supplemented with a concentrate
      mixture. Samples were fractionated into ruminal fluid, particle-associated rumen
      liquid, and solid matter. DNA, proteins and metabolites were analyzed
      subsequently. DNA extracts were used for Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene
      and the metabolomes of rumen fluids were determined by 500 MHz-NMR spectroscopy.
      Tryptic peptides derived from protein extracts were measured by LC-ESI-MS/MS and
      spectra were processed by a two-step database search for quantitative
      metaproteome characterization. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the
      identifier PXD006070. Protein- and DNA-based datasets revealed significant
      differences between sample fractions and diets and affirmed similar trends
      concerning shifts in phylogenetic composition. Ribosomal genes and proteins
      belonging to the phylum of Proteobacteria, particularly Succinivibrionaceae,
      exhibited a higher abundance in corn silage-based samples while fiber-degraders
      of the Lachnospiraceae family emerged in great quantities throughout the solid
      phase fractions. The analysis of 8163 quantified bacterial proteins revealed the
      presence of 166 carbohydrate active enzymes in varying abundance. Cellulosome
      affiliated proteins were less expressed in the grass silage, glycoside hydrolases
      appeared in slightest numbers in the corn silage. Most expressed glycoside
      hydrolases belonged to families 57 and 2. Enzymes analogous to ABC transporters
      for amino acids and monosaccharides were more abundant in the corn silage whereas
      oligosaccharide transporters showed a higher abundance in the fiber-rich diets.
      Proteins involved in carbon metabolism were detected in high numbers and
      identification of metabolites like short-chain fatty acids, methylamines and
      phenylpropionate by NMR enabled linkage between producers and products. This
      study forms a solid basis to retrieve deeper insight into the complex network of
      microbial adaptation in the rumen.

PMID- 28883815
TI  - Microbiota-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as New Systemic Regulators.

PMID- 28883817
TI  - Commentary: Nationwide Surveillance of Novel Oxazolidinone Resistance Gene optrA
      in Enterococcus Isolates in China from 2004 to 2014.

PMID- 28883816
TI  - Modulation of Zinc Homeostasis in Acanthamoeba castellanii as a Possible
      Antifungal Strategy against Cryptococcus gattii.
AB  - Cryptococcus gattii is a basidiomycetous yeast that can be found in the
      environment and is one of the agents of cryptococcosis, a life-threatening
      disease. During its life cycle, cryptococcal cells take hold inside environmental
      predators such as amoebae. Despite their evolutionary distance, macrophages and
      amoebae share conserved similar steps of phagocytosis and microbial killing. To
      evaluate whether amoebae also share other antifungal strategies developed by
      macrophages, we investigated nutritional immunity against cryptococcal cells. We
      focused on zinc homeostasis modulation in Acanthamoeba castellanii infected with
      C. gattii. The intracellular proliferation rate (IPR) in amoebae was determined
      using C. gattii R265 and mutants for the ZIP1 gene, which displays defects of
      growth in zinc-limiting conditions. We detected a reduced IPR in cells lacking
      the ZIP1 gene compared to wild-type strains, suggesting that amoebae produce a
      low zinc environment to engulfed cells. Furthermore, flow cytometry analysis
      employing the zinc probe Zinpyr-1 confirmed the reduced concentration of zinc in
      cryptococcal-infected amoebae. qRT-PCR analysis of zinc transporter-coding genes
      suggests that zinc export by members of the ZnT family would be involved in the
      reduced intracellular zinc concentration. These results indicate that amoebae may
      use nutritional immunity to reduce fungal cell proliferation by reducing zinc
      availability for the pathogen.

PMID- 28883818
TI  - Real-Time Assessment of Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Disruption by Phage-Derived
      Proteins.
AB  - A current focus of research is the development of new tools for removing
      bacterial biofilms in industrial settings. Bacteriophage-encoded proteins, such
      as endolysins, virion-associated peptidoglycan hydrolases, and exopolysaccharide
      depolymerases, have been shown to be efficient against these structures. However,
      the current screening techniques for the identification of antibiofilm properties
      of phage-derived proteins have important shortcomings. The aim of this work was
      to use the rapid, reproducible and accurate technology "real-time cell analyzer"
      for screening and comparing the antibiofilm ability of four phage-derived
      compounds, three lytic proteins (LysH5, CHAP-SH3b, and HydH5-SH3b) and one
      exopolysaccharide depolymerase (Dpo7) against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms,
      which have been associated with recurrent contamination of food products. The
      data generated after biofilm treatment allowed for the calculation of different
      antibiofilm parameters: (1) the minimum biofilm eradicating concentration that
      removes 50% of the biofilm (ranging from 3.5 +/- 1.1 to 6.6 +/- 0.5 MUM), (2) the
      lowest concentration needed to observe an antibiofilm effect (~1.5 MUM for all
      the proteins), and (3) the specific antibiofilm activity and the percentage of
      biofilm removal that revealed LysH5 as the best antibiofilm compound. Overall,
      this technology might be used to quickly assess and compare by standardized
      parameters the disaggregating activity of phage antibiofilm proteins.

PMID- 28883819
TI  - Immunogenicity of DNA Vaccine against H5N1 Containing Extended Kappa B Site: In
      Vivo Study in Mice and Chickens.
AB  - Influenza is one of the most important illnesses in the modern world, causing
      great public health losses each year due to the lack of medication and broadly
      protective, long-lasting vaccines. The development of highly immunogenic and safe
      vaccines is currently one of the major problems encountered in efficient
      influenza prevention. DNA vaccines represent a novel and powerful alternative to
      the conventional vaccine approaches. To improve the efficacy of the DNA vaccine
      against influenza H5N1, we inserted three repeated kappa B (kappaB) motifs,
      separated by a 5-bp nucleotide spacer, upstream of the cytomegalovirus promoter
      and downstream of the SV40 late polyadenylation signal. The kappaB motif is a
      specific DNA element (10pb-long) recognized by one of the most important
      transcription factors NFkappaB. NFkappaB is present in almost all animal cell
      types and upon cell stimulation under a variety of pathogenic conditions.
      NFkappaB is released from IkappaB and translocates to the nucleus and binds to
      kappaB sites, thereby leading to enhanced transcription and expression of
      downstream genes. We tested the variants of DNA vaccine with kappaB sites
      flanking the antigen expression cassette and without such sites in two animal
      models: chickens (broilers and layers) and mice (BALB/c). In chickens, the
      variant with kappaB sites stimulated stronger humoral response against the target
      antigen. In mice, the differences in humoral response were less apparent.
      Instead, it was possible to spot several gene expression differences in the
      spleens isolated from mice immunized with both variants. The results of our study
      indicate that modification of the sequence outside of the sequence encoding the
      antigen might enhance the immune response to the target but understanding the
      mechanisms responsible for this process requires further analysis.

PMID- 28883820
TI  - Decidual Macrophage Functional Polarization during Abnormal Pregnancy due to
      Toxoplasma gondii: Role for LILRB4.
AB  - During gestation, Toxoplasma gondii infection produces a series of complications
      including stillbirths, abortions, and congenital malformations. The inhibitory
      receptor, LILRB4, which is mainly expressed by professional antigen-presenting
      cells (especially macrophages and dendritic cells) may play an important immune
      regulatory role at the maternal-fetal interface. To assess the role of LILRB4
      during T. gondii infection, LILRB4-/- and T. gondii infected pregnant mouse
      models were established. Further, human primary-decidual macrophages were treated
      with anti-LILRB4 neutralizing antibody and then infected with T. gondii. These in
      vivo and in vitro models were used to explore the role of LILRB4 in T. gondii
      mediated abnormal pregnancy outcomes. The results showed that abnormal pregnancy
      outcomes were more prevalent in LILRB4-/- infected pregnant mice than in wild
      type infected pregnant mice. In subsequent experiments, expression levels of
      LILRB4, M1, and M2 membrane-functional molecules, arginine metabolic enzymes, and
      related cytokines were assessed in uninfected, infected, LILRB4-neutralized
      infected, and LILRB4-/- infected models. The results demonstrated T. gondii
      infection to downregulate LILRB4 on decidual macrophages, which strengthened M1
      activation functions and weakened M2 tolerance functions by changing M1 and M2
      membrane molecule expression, synthesis of arginine metabolic enzymes, and
      cytokine secretion profiles. These changes contributed to abnormal pregnancy
      outcomes. The results of this study provide not only a deeper understanding of
      the immune mechanisms operational during abnormal pregnancy, induced by T. gondii
      infection, but also identify potential avenues for therapeutic and preventive
      treatment of congenital toxoplasmosis.

PMID- 28883821
TI  - Hidden Lineage Complexity of Glycan-Dependent HIV-1 Broadly Neutralizing
      Antibodies Uncovered by Digital Panning and Native-Like gp140 Trimer.
AB  - Germline precursors and intermediates of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs)
      are essential to the understanding of humoral response to HIV-1 infection and B
      cell lineage vaccine design. Using a native-like gp140 trimer probe, we examined
      antibody libraries constructed from donor-17, the source of glycan-dependent
      PGT121-class bNAbs recognizing the N332 supersite on the HIV-1 envelope
      glycoprotein. To facilitate this analysis, a digital panning method was devised
      that combines biopanning of phage-displayed antibody libraries, 900 bp long-read
      next-generation sequencing, and heavy/light (H/L)-paired antibodyomics. In
      addition to single-chain variable fragments resembling the wild-type bNAbs,
      digital panning identified variants of PGT124 (a member of the PGT121 class) with
      a unique insertion in the heavy chain complementarity-determining region 1, as
      well as intermediates of PGT124 exhibiting notable affinity for the native-like
      trimer and broad HIV-1 neutralization. In a competition assay, these bNAb
      intermediates could effectively compete with mouse sera induced by a scaffolded
      BG505 gp140.681 trimer for the N332 supersite. Our study thus reveals previously
      unrecognized lineage complexity of the PGT121-class bNAbs and provides an array
      of library-derived bNAb intermediates for evaluation of immunogens containing the
      N332 supersite. Digital panning may prove to be a valuable tool in future studies
      of bNAb diversity and lineage development.

PMID- 28883822
TI  - The Role of the Chemokine System in Tissue Response to Prosthetic By-products
      Leading to Periprosthetic Osteolysis and Aseptic Loosening.
AB  - Millions of total joint replacements are performed annually worldwide, and the
      number is increasing every year. The overall proportion of patients achieving a
      successful outcome is about 80-90% in a 10-20-years time horizon postoperatively,
      periprosthetic osteolysis (PPOL) and aseptic loosening (AL) being the most
      frequent reasons for knee and hip implant failure and reoperations. The chemokine
      system (chemokine receptors and chemokines) is crucially involved in the
      inflammatory and osteolytic processes leading to PPOL/AL. Thus, the modulation of
      the interactions within the chemokine system may influence the extent of PPOL.
      Indeed, recent studies in murine models reported that (i) blocking the CCR2-CCL2
      or CXCR2-CXCL2 axis or (ii) activation of the CXCR4-CXCL12 axis attenuate the
      osteolysis of artificial joints. Importantly, chemokines, inhibitory mutant
      chemokines, antagonists of chemokine receptors, or neutralizing antibodies to the
      chemokine system attached to or incorporated into the implant surface may
      influence the tissue responses and mitigate PPOL, thus increasing prosthesis
      longevity. This review summarizes the current state of the art of the knowledge
      of the chemokine system in human PPOL/AL. Furthermore, the potential for
      attenuating cell trafficking to the bone-implant interface and influencing tissue
      responses through modulation of the chemokine system is delineated. Additionally,
      the prospects of using immunoregenerative biomaterials (including chemokines) for
      the prevention of failed implants are discussed. Finally, this review highlights
      the need for a more sophisticated understanding of implant debris-induced changes
      in the chemokine system to mitigate this response effectively.

PMID- 28883823
TI  - Under the Microscope: Single-Domain Antibodies for Live-Cell Imaging and Super
      Resolution Microscopy.
AB  - Single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) have substantially expanded the possibilities of
      advanced cellular imaging such as live-cell or super-resolution microscopy to
      visualize cellular antigens and their dynamics. In addition to their unique
      properties including small size, high stability, and solubility in many
      environments, sdAbs can be efficiently functionalized according to the needs of
      the respective imaging approach. Genetically encoded intrabodies fused to
      fluorescent proteins (chromobodies) have become versatile tools to study dynamics
      of endogenous proteins in living cells. Additionally, sdAbs conjugated to organic
      dyes were shown to label cellular structures with high density and minimal
      fluorophore displacement making them highly attractive probes for super
      resolution microscopy. Here, we review recent advances of the chromobody
      technology to visualize localization and dynamics of cellular targets and the
      application of chromobody-based cell models for compound screening. Acknowledging
      the emerging importance of super-resolution microscopy in cell biology, we
      further discuss advantages and challenges of sdAbs for this technology.

PMID- 28883825
TI  - Seed Carotenoid and Tocochromanol Composition of Wild Fabaceae Species Is Shaped
      by Phylogeny and Ecological Factors.
AB  - Carotenoids distribution and function in seeds have been very scarcely studied,
      notwithstanding their pivotal roles in plants that include photosynthesis and
      phytohormone synthesis, pigmentation, membrane stabilization and antioxidant
      activity. Their relationship with tocochromanols, whose critical role in
      maintaining seed viability has already been evidenced, and with chlorophylls,
      whose retention in mature seed is thought to have negative effects on
      storability, remain also unexplored. Here, we aimed at elucidating seed
      carotenoids relationship with tocochromanols and chlorophylls with regard to
      phylogenetic and ecological traits and at understanding their changes during
      germination. The composition and distribution of carotenoids were investigated in
      seeds of a wide range of wild species across the Fabaceae (the second-most
      economically important family after the Poaceae). Photosynthetic pigments and
      tocochromanols were analyzed by HPLC in mature dry seeds of 50 species
      representative of 5 subfamilies within the Fabaceae (including taxa that
      represent all continents, biomes and life forms within the family) and at key
      timepoints during seedling establishment in three species representative of
      distinct clades. Total-carotenoids content positively correlated with tocopherols
      in the basal subfamilies Detarioideae, Cercidoideae, and Dialioideae, and with
      chlorophylls in the Papilionoideae. Papilionoideae lacked tocotrienols and had
      the highest total-carotenoids, chlorophyll and gamma-tocopherol contents.
      Interestingly, lutein epoxide was present in 72% of the species including several
      herbs from different subfamilies. Overall, species original from temperate biomes
      presented higher carotenoids and lower tocochromanols levels than those from
      tropical biomes. Also shrub species showed higher carotenoids content than herbs
      and trees. During germination, total content of photosynthetic pigments increased
      in parallel to changes in relative abundance of carotenoids: zeaxanthin and
      anteraxanthin decreased and beta-carotene augmented. Notably, the highest
      contents of nutritionally valuable carotenoids were found in Papilionoideae
      subfamily to which all pulses of socio-economic importance belong. The major
      differences in carotenoids and tocochromanols composition across the Fabaceae are
      apparently related to phylogeny in conjunction with ecological traits such as
      biome and growth form.

PMID- 28883824
TI  - Natural Killer (NK) Cell Education Differentially Influences HIV Antibody
      Dependent NK Cell Activation and Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity.
AB  - Immunotherapy using broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) endowed with Fc
      mediated effector functions has been shown to be critical for protecting or
      controlling viral replication in animal models. In human, the RV144 Thai trial
      was the first trial to demonstrate a significant protection against HIV infection
      following vaccination. Analysis of the correlates of immune protection in this
      trial identified an association between the presence of antibody-dependent
      cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) mediated by immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies (Abs)
      to HIV envelope (Env) V1/V2 loop structures and protection from infection,
      provided IgA Abs with competing specificity were not present. Systems serology
      analyses implicated a broader range of Ab-dependent functions in protection from
      HIV infection, including but not limited to ADCC and Ab-dependent NK cell
      activation (ADNKA) for secretion of IFN-gamma and CCL4 and expression of the
      degranulation marker CD107a. The existence of such correlations in the absence of
      bNAbs in the RV144 trial suggest that NK cells could be instrumental in
      protecting against HIV infection by limiting viral spread through Fc-mediated
      functions such as ADCC and the production of antiviral cytokines/chemokines.
      Beside the engagement of FcgammaRIIIa or CD16 by the Fc portion of anti-Env IgG1
      and IgG3 Abs, natural killer (NK) cells are also able to directly kill infected
      cells and produce cytokines/chemokines in an Ab-independent manner.
      Responsiveness of NK cells depends on the integration of activating and
      inhibitory signals through NK receptors, which is determined by a process during
      their development known as education. NK cell education requires the engagement
      of inhibitory NK receptors by their human leukocyte antigen ligands to establish
      tolerance to self while allowing NK cells to respond to self cells altered by
      virus infection, transformation, stress, and to allogeneic cells. Here, we review
      recent findings regarding the impact of inter-individual differences in NK cell
      education on Ab-dependent functions such as ADCC and ADNKA, including what is
      known about the HIV Env epitope specificity of ADCC competent Abs and the
      conformation of HIV Env on target cells used for ADCC assays.

PMID- 28883826
TI  - Efficient CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing Using a Chimeric Single-Guide RNA
      Molecule.
AB  - The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been applied in diverse eukaryotic organisms for
      targeted mutagenesis. However, targeted gene editing is inefficient and requires
      the simultaneous delivery of a DNA template for homology-directed repair (HDR).
      Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate targeted double-strand breaks and to
      deliver an RNA repair template for HDR in rice (Oryza sativa). We used chimeric
      single-guide RNA (cgRNA) molecules carrying both sequences for target site
      specificity (to generate the double-strand breaks) and repair template sequences
      (to direct HDR), flanked by regions of homology to the target. Gene editing was
      more efficient in rice protoplasts using repair templates complementary to the
      non-target DNA strand, rather than the target strand. We applied this cgRNA
      repair method to generate herbicide resistance in rice, which showed that this
      cgRNA repair method can be used for targeted gene editing in plants. Our findings
      will facilitate applications in functional genomics and targeted improvement of
      crop traits.

PMID- 28883827
TI  - Genetic and Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis of Cell Wall Components and Forage
      Digestibility in the Zheng58 * HD568 Maize RIL Population at Anthesis Stage.
AB  - The plant cell wall plays vital roles in various aspects of the plant life cycle.
      It provides a basic structure for cells and gives mechanical rigidity to the
      whole plant. Some complex cell wall components are involved in signal
      transduction during pathogenic infection and pest infestations. Moreover, the
      lignification level of cell walls strongly influences the digestibility of forage
      plants. To determine the genetic bases of cell wall components and digestibility,
      quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses for six related traits were performed
      using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population from a cross between Zheng58 and
      HD568. Eight QTL for in vitro neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility were
      observed, out of which only two increasing alleles came from HD568. Three QTL out
      of ten with alleles increasing in vitro dry matter digestibility also originated
      from HD568. Five-ten QTL were detected for lignin, cellulose content, acid
      detergent fiber, and NDF content. Among these results, 29.8% (14/47) of QTL
      explained >10% of the phenotypic variation in the RIL population, whereas 70.2%
      (33/47) explained <=10%. These results revealed that in maize stalks, a few large
      effect QTL and a number of minor-effect QTL contributed to most of the genetic
      components involved in cell wall biosynthesis and digestibility.

PMID- 28883828
TI  - Simultaneous Extraction and Identification of Phenolic Compounds in Anoectochilus
      roxburghii Using Microwave-Assisted Extraction Combined with UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS and
      Their Antioxidant Activities.
AB  - This study used MAE and RSM to extract phenolic compounds from Anoectochilus
      roxburghii, and the optimum conditions defined by the model to give an optimum
      yield of 1.31%. The antioxidant activity in vitro showed when the concentration
      of phenolic compounds was reached 1 mg mL-1, the clearance rates were 82.58% for
      DPPH and 97.62% for ABTS+. In vivo antioxidant experiments used D-galactose to
      build oxidative damage in healthy Kunming mice. The result showed that the
      extractions of A. roxburghii can improve the antioxidant ability and the medium
      and low dose groups had better ability to scavenge free radicals. The UPLC-Q-TOF
      MS/MS was developed to identify 21 kinds of phenolic compounds by molecular mass,
      ms/ms fragmentation, as well as retention time. The result showed that the
      phenolic compounds of A. roxburghii had significant potential as a natural
      antioxidant to promote health and to reduce the risk of disease.

PMID- 28883830
TI  - Corrigendum to "Automated Feature Extraction in Brain Tumor by Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging Using Gaussian Mixture Models".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2015/868031.].

PMID- 28883829
TI  - Genomic Analysis of Terpene Synthase Family and Functional Characterization of
      Seven Sesquiterpene Synthases from Citrus sinensis.
AB  - Citrus aroma and flavor, chief traits of fruit quality, are derived from their
      high content in essential oils of most plant tissues, including leaves, stems,
      flowers, and fruits. Accumulated in secretory cavities, most components of these
      oils are volatile terpenes. They contribute to defense against herbivores and
      pathogens, and perhaps also protect tissues against abiotic stress. In spite of
      their importance, our understanding of the physiological, biochemical, and
      genetic regulation of citrus terpene volatiles is still limited. The availability
      of the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) genome sequence allowed us to
      characterize for the first time the terpene synthase (TPS) family in a citrus
      type. CsTPS is one of the largest angiosperm TPS families characterized so far,
      formed by 95 loci from which just 55 encode for putative functional TPSs. All TPS
      angiosperm families, TPS-a, TPS-b, TPS-c, TPS-e/f, and TPS-g were represented in
      the sweet orange genome, with 28, 18, 2, 2, and 5 putative full length genes
      each. Additionally, sweet orange beta-farnesene synthase, (Z)-beta-cubebene/alpha
      copaene synthase, two beta-caryophyllene synthases, and three multiproduct
      enzymes yielding beta-cadinene/alpha-copaene, beta-elemene, and beta
      cadinene/ledene/allo-aromandendrene as major products were identified, and
      functionally characterized via in vivo recombinant Escherichia coli assays.

PMID- 28883831
TI  - Helicobacter pylori Infection Is Associated with Type 2 Diabetes, Not Type 1
      Diabetes: An Updated Meta-Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extragastric manifestations of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)
      infection have been reported in many diseases. However, there are still
      controversies about whether H. pylori infection is associated with diabetes
      mellitus (DM). This study was aimed at answering the question. METHODS: A
      systematic search of the literature from January 1996 to January 2016 was
      conducted in PubMed, Embase databases, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Wanfang
      Data, China national knowledge database, and SinoMed. Published studies reporting
      H. pylori infection in both DM and non-DM individuals were recruited. RESULTS: 79
      studies with 57,397 individuals were included in this meta-analysis. The
      prevalence of H. pylori infection in DM group (54.9%) was significantly higher
      than that (47.5%) in non-DM group (OR = 1.69, P < 0.001). The difference was
      significant in comparison between type 2 DM group and non-DM group (OR = 2.05),
      but not in that between type 1 DM group and non-DM group (OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 0.77
      1.96, P = 0.38). CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis suggested that there is
      significantly higher prevalence of H. pylori infection in DM patients as compared
      to non-DM individuals. And the difference is associated with type 2 DM but not
      type 1 DM.

PMID- 28883832
TI  - BMI Modulates the Effect of Thyroid Hormone on Lipid Profile in Euthyroid Adults.
AB  - The impacts of thyroid hormones (TH) on lipid profile in euthyroid adults have
      gained much attention. It is currently unknown whether BMI influences such
      interaction. In the present study, we investigate the role of BMI in modulating
      the association between TH and lipid parameters in 1372 euthyroid healthy adults.
      Our results show that thyroid parameters are differentially associated with lipid
      profile. FT3 is positively correlated with total cholesterol (beta = 0.176 +/-
      0.046, P < 0.001) and LDL cholesterol levels (beta = 0.161 +/- 0.040, P < 0.001).
      FT4 is negatively correlated with TG (beta = -0.087 +/- 0.029, P < 0.01) while
      positively correlated with HDL cholesterol levels (beta = 0.013 +/- 0.005, P <
      0.01). TSH is positively associated with TG (beta = 0.145 +/- 0.056, P < 0.05)
      and total cholesterol levels (beta = 0.094 +/- 0.030, P < 0.01). Importantly, BMI
      modulates the effect of TH on lipid profile: the interaction of FT4 and BMI and
      the interaction of FT3 and BMI reach statistical significance in predicting TG
      and HDL cholesterol levels, respectively. Stratified according to BMI levels,
      most associations between TH and lipid profile are significant only in normal
      weight group. In conclusion, in euthyroid adults, high normal FT3, TSH levels,
      and low normal FT4 levels are associated with unfavorable lipid profile. BMI
      mediates the effect of thyroid function on lipid profile in euthyroid adults.

PMID- 28883833
TI  - Preoperative Signs and Symptoms as Prognostic Markers in Nasal Septoplasty.
AB  - Identification of preoperative signs and symptoms that may predict the outcome of
      surgery is important, for both patient selection and the development of
      interventions for improving outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess the
      value of some selected preoperative signs and symptoms for predicting outcomes of
      nasal septoplasty. Patients undergoing septoplasty with or without turbinoplasty
      responded to the Nasal Surgical Questionnaire (NSQ) preoperatively and six months
      postoperatively. The questionnaire contains visual analogue scales (VAS) for
      nasal obstruction during the day and at night. We compared preoperative and
      postoperative VAS scores in patients with unilateral versus bilateral septal
      deviation and patients with low versus high preoperative scores. Of 446 patients
      undergoing septoplasty from September 2014 to December 2015 who had responded to
      the preoperative NSQ, 286 (64.1%) also returned the postoperative version. There
      was greater improvement in obstruction in patients with preoperative unilateral
      compared to bilateral septal deviation (day scores, p = 0.04). The grade of
      deviation and the presence of concomitant bony conchal hypertrophy did not
      influence results. Patients with lower preoperative VAS scores obtained better
      end results than those with higher scores (p = 0.04). Type of septal deviation
      and preoperative VAS scores may aid in predicting outcome of nasal surgery.

PMID- 28883834
TI  - Ameloblastic Fibroodontoma: Uncommon Case Presentation in a 6-Year-Old Child with
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - Ameloblastic fibroodontoma is a benign mixed odontogenic neoplasm considered in
      patients with asymptomatic swelling and unerupted teeth that exhibit histologic
      features between ameloblastic fibroma and complex odontoma. Radiographically,
      this lesion appears as radiolucency admixed with focal radio opaque masses of
      irregular shapes and sizes. This lesion is confirmed by the presence of
      proliferating odontogenic epithelium, ectomesenchyme, and dental hard tissue
      formation on pathological analysis supplementing clinical and radiographic
      findings. As this tumour is less commonly seen in routine clinical practice,
      ameloblastic fibroodontoma with detailed orofacial features and periodic approach
      to its diagnosis is discussed. This paper reports a case of ameloblastic
      fibroodontoma of the mandible in a 6-year-old male patient with an uncommon case
      presentation and review of the literature.

PMID- 28883836
TI  - The Effect of Pyrroloquinoline Quinone on the Expression of WISP1 in Traumatic
      Brain Injury.
AB  - WISP1, as a member of the CCN4 protein family, has cell protective effects of
      promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting cell apoptosis. Although some studies
      have confirmed that WISP1 is concerned with colon cancer and lung cancer, there
      is little report about the influence of WISP1 in traumatic brain injury. Here, we
      found that the expression of WISP1 mRNA and protein decreased at 3 d and then
      increased at 5 d after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Meanwhile,
      immunofluorescence demonstrated that there was little colocation of WISP1 with
      GFAP, Iba1, and WISP1 colocalized with NeuN partly. WISP1 colocalized with LC3,
      but there was little of colocation about WISP1 with cleaved caspase-3. Subsequent
      study displayed that the expression of beta-catenin protein was identical to that
      of WISP1 after TBI. WISP1 was mainly located in cytoplasm of PC12 or SHSY5Y
      cells. Compared with the negative control group, WISP1 expression reduced
      obviously in SHSY5Y cells transfected with WISP1 si-RNA. CCK-8 assay showed that
      pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) had little influence on viability of PC12 and
      SHSY5Y cells. These results suggested that WISP1 played a protective role after
      traumatic brain injury in rats, and this effect might be relative to autophagy
      caused by traumatic brain injury.

PMID- 28883835
TI  - An Overview of Lipid Droplets in Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells.
AB  - For decades, lipid droplets have been considered as the main cellular organelles
      involved in the fat storage, because of their lipid composition. However, in
      recent years, some new and totally unexpected roles have been discovered for
      them: (i) they are active sites for synthesis and storage of inflammatory
      mediators, and (ii) they are key players in cancer cells and tissues, especially
      in cancer stem cells. In this review, we summarize the main concepts related to
      the lipid droplet structure and function and their involvement in inflammatory
      and cancer processes.

PMID- 28883837
TI  - Role of the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway in Regulating the Behavior of Germline
      Stem Cells.
AB  - Germline stem cells (GSCs) are adult stem cells that are responsible for the
      production of gametes and include spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) and ovarian
      germline stem cells (OGSCs). GSCs are located in a specialized microenvironment
      in the gonads called the niche. Many recent studies have demonstrated that
      multiple signals in the niche jointly regulate the proliferation and
      differentiation of GSCs, which is of significance for reproductive function.
      Previous studies have demonstrated that the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway
      participates in the proliferation and differentiation of various stem cells,
      including GSCs in Drosophila and male mammals. Furthermore, the discovery of
      mammalian OGSCs challenged the traditional opinion that the number of primary
      follicles is fixed in postnatal mammals, which is of significance for the
      reproductive ability of female mammals and the treatment of diseases related to
      germ cells. Meanwhile, it still remains to be determined whether the Hh signaling
      pathway participates in the regulation of the behavior of OGSCs. Herein, we
      review the current research on the role of the Hh signaling pathway in mediating
      the behavior of GSCs. In addition, some suggestions for future research are
      proposed.

PMID- 28883838
TI  - Corrigendum to "Increasing Dose of Autologous Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells
      Transplantation Is Related to Stroke Outcome: Results from a Pooled Analysis of
      Two Clinical Trials".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2016/8657173.].

PMID- 28883840
TI  - Modalities of ventricular pacing for cardiac resynchronization therapy in
      patients with heart failure: a meta-analysis and systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This meta-analysis evaluated 14 studies which compared clinical and
      functional outcomes after different cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT)
      modalities. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Relevant studies were selected from the
      Medline, PubMed, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases until June 27th, 2016. We
      analyzed and compared the clinical outcomes (peak O2 consumption and LVEF) and
      functional outcomes (6-min walk distance and quality of life (SF-36)) of HF
      patients who received different CRT modalities with outcomes in patients who
      received conventional univentricular therapy. RESULTS: There was no significant
      difference in post-treatment 6-min walking distance between the biventricular
      (BiV) and left/right univentricular (LUV/RUV) groups (standardized difference in
      means = 0.049, 95% CI: -0.119 to 0.217, p = 0.566), or between the BiV and
      triventricular (TriV) groups (standardized difference in means = 0.035, 95% CI: 
      0.270 to 0.340, p = 0.822). Peak O2 consumption was comparable between BiV and
      LUV/RUV groups (standardized difference in means = 0.306, 95% CI: -0.002 to
      0.614, p = 0.052). Patients in the TriV group had a significant improvement in
      LVEF compared to the BiV group (standardized difference in means = 0.647, 95% CI:
      0.313 to 0.982, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: TriV CRT is an attractive alternative to
      univentricular or BiV pacing for heart failure patients. It is necessary to
      conduct further large randomized trials to validate our present data.

PMID- 28883842
TI  - Diabetes as a risk factor of hospitalization in the surgical ward due to cancer
      in the elderly and middle-aged population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetes can be considered as a risk factor of several types of
      malignancy. Surgery is one of the primary methods of cancer treatment. The
      objective of this study was to evaluate the association between diabetes and
      hospital admissions to the surgery unit due to malignancy among elderly and
      middle-aged people. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data for analysis were taken from the
      medical records of 7,694 patients aged > 45, hospitalized in the General Surgery
      Ward in the Specialist District Hospital in Stalowa Wola in the Subcarpathian
      (Podkarpacie) Province, Poland, in the years 2010-2013. Among them malignancy was
      diagnosed in 652 patients and diabetes in 370 subjects. Ninety-three patients
      suffered from both diabetes and cancer. RESULTS: Diabetes was associated with
      significantly elevated risk of hospitalization due to malignancy compared with
      the non-diabetic population, odds ratio (OR) 4.051 (95% confidence interval:
      3.154-5.203), p < 0.001. Among people with diabetes, elderly patients (> 65
      years) had higher risk of hospital admission due to cancer compared with the
      middle-aged population, OR = 5.238 (2.873-9.550), p < 0.001. Also, urban
      residents had higher risk compared with rural inhabitants, OR = 2.272 (1.375
      3.752), p = 0.002. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with diabetes, especially elderly and
      urban inhabitants, are at high risk of hospital admission due to malignancy. This
      indicates the need for oncological vigilance in such patients for early detection
      and treatment of cancers common in this population.

PMID- 28883841
TI  - Antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy in elderly people with type 2 diabetes
      mellitus in Poland (based on the PolSenior Study).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an important and common
      cardiovascular risk factor. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the
      frequency of use of oral antiplatelet drugs (OAPs) and oral anticoagulant drugs
      (OACs) among the elderly with T2DM in Poland. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was
      based on the data collected in the Polish national PolSenior study. RESULTS:
      Among 4979 PolSenior participants aged 65 and over, 883 (17.8%) had previously
      diagnosed T2DM. Among them, 441 (49.9%) used at least one drug in pharmacological
      cardiovascular prevention, i.e. OAPs (mostly ASA) in 405 (45.9%) cases and OACs
      in 38 (4.3%). The use of these drugs significantly depended on the sex (p = 0.02)
      and personal income (p = 0.05). Age, place of residence and level of education
      did not affect the prevalence of pharmacological prevention. Previous stroke and
      myocardial infarction were mostly associated with OAPs, whereas a history of
      atrial fibrillation (AF) was related to OAC treatment. Among participants treated
      with OAPs, therapy was applied as secondary cardiovascular prevention in 211
      (52.1%) subjects, and as primary prevention in 194 (47.9%) subjects. Among
      participants treated with OACs, 24 (64.9%) persons had a history of AF. Secondary
      cardiovascular pharmacological prevention should be considered in 45 untreated
      participants (12.5%), and primary cardiovascular pharmacological prevention
      (SCORE >= 10 and/or AF) in 154 participants (42.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiovascular
      pharmacological prevention in the elderly with T2DM in Poland seems to be
      unsatisfactory. Educational programmes concerning current recommendations for
      pharmacological cardiovascular prevention should be developed among general
      practitioners.

PMID- 28883843
TI  - Plasma soluble CD36, carotid intima-media thickness and cognitive function in
      patients with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetes and atherosclerosis are both risk factors of cognitive
      deficits. Scavenger receptor CD36 is associated with increasing risk of diabetes
      and atherosclerosis, and may play a role in cognitive deficits. The aim of this
      study is to determine the correlations of plasma soluble CD36 concentrations with
      carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and cognitive function in patients with type
      2 diabetes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We determined the levels of soluble CD36
      (sCD36), blood lipids, fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, carotid
      atherosclerosis as IMT, cognitive function by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment
      (MoCA) scoring system, and other clinical characteristics in 357 patients with
      type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: Diabetic patients with the lowest quartile of IMT (Q1)
      had lower sCD36 concentrations (ANOVA, ptrend < 0.05) and higher MoCA scores than
      upper ones (Q2-Q4) (ptrend < 0.05), and those with the highest quartile of
      sCD36(Q4) had higher FBG, LDL-C and carotid IMT than lower ones (Q1-Q3) (ptrend <
      0.05 for all). Plasma log10(sCD36) was significantly correlated with carotid IMT
      (r = 0.202, p < 0.001) after adjustment for age, gender, and education level.
      Carotid IMT was significantly associated with MoCA scores (r = 0.284, p < 0.001)
      after adjustment for, age, gender, education level, duration of DM and
      hypertension. There were no correlations between sCD36 and MoCA scores (r = 
      0.038, p = 0.470). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that sCD36 is associated with
      carotid IMT, and carotid IMT is inversely correlated with cognitive function in
      type 2 diabetic patients. Nevertheless, no cross-sectional association between
      sCD36 and MoCA scores was detected in this study.

PMID- 28883844
TI  - Cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome and health behaviours of
      postmenopausal women working in agriculture.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to examine the impact of occurrence
      of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and metabolic syndrome (MS) diagnoses on the
      frequency of health behaviours in postmenopausal women working in agriculture.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eight hundred and ten postmenopausal women living in rural
      areas and working in agriculture, aged 46-70 and at least 12 months from the last
      menstrual period, were examined. Analysis of variance with multiple comparison
      tests was used to compare the Inventory of Health Behaviours among the women with
      and without CVDs and MS. RESULTS: The frequency of some health behaviours, mainly
      health practices, is higher in postmenopausal women working in agriculture with
      CVDs or MS than in those without CVDs or MS (p = 0.045). Women with such
      disorders more often limit their physical effort (p = 0.029), try to be less
      overworked (p < 0.001) and to take more rest (p = 0.027), more often limit
      consumption of animal fat and sugar (p = 0.024), more regularly visit physicians
      (p = 0.003) and more often take seriously recommendations concerning their
      health. However, an insufficient frequency of health behaviours was observed
      among both the healthy women and those with metabolic disorders and CVDs. One
      third of all the examined women had a high frequency of health behaviours, one
      third had an average frequency and one third had a low frequency; hence actions
      should be taken to improve the situation. CONCLUSIONS: Postmenopausal women
      working in agriculture more often perform beneficial health behaviours if they
      have MS and CVDs diagnosed in comparison to healthy women.

PMID- 28883839
TI  - Lipid lowering nutraceuticals in clinical practice: position paper from an
      International Lipid Expert Panel.

PMID- 28883845
TI  - The impact of hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia on plasma P-selectin and platelet
      markers after ischemic stroke.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Platelet activation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of
      ischemic cerebrovascular diseases. Thus, it is very important to identify novel
      pharmacological targets for platelet inhibition to improve ischemic stroke
      treatment. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between metabolic
      disorders and platelet activity markers in patients with acute ischemic stroke.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ninety-four patients with acute ischemic stroke were
      divided into four groups with: normolipidemia and normoglycemia (NL/NG), n = 25;
      normolipidemia and hyperglycemia (NL/HG), n = 21; hyperlipidemia and
      normoglycemia (HL/NG), n = 27; hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia (NL/NG), n = 21.
      Twenty-one healthy subjects served as controls. We assessed the CD62P expression
      on resting and thrombin-activated blood platelets using the flow cytometer and
      anti-CD61 and anti-CD62P monoclonal antibodies. CD61-positive microparticles were
      defined as platelet-derived microparticles. The level of sP-selectin in serum was
      measured by the ELISA method. RESULTS: We observed a significant influence of
      hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia on sP-selectin concentration. A strong
      correlation between higher sP-selectin concentration and enhanced LDL (p =
      0.001), total cholesterol (p = 0.02), HbA1c level (p < 0.001) was noticed. The
      level of sP-selectin and PDMPs (p < 0.001) were significantly higher in all
      groups of stroke patients compared with the controls. CD62P expression on resting
      and thrombin activated platelets were significantly lower in groups of patients
      with stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia exert an equal
      stimulatory effect on tested platelet markers but with no synergistic action in
      stroke patients with both of the metabolic comorbidities. sP-selectin
      concentration in stroke patients best reflects the impact of hyperglycemia and
      hyperlipidemia on vascular lesions and platelet activation.

PMID- 28883846
TI  - Prior transient ischemic attacks may have a neuroprotective effect in patients
      with ischemic stroke.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although functional recovery and survival after ischemic infarction
      seem to improve in patients with prior transient ischemic attack (TIA), little is
      known about the role of characteristics of prior TIA in subsequent cerebral
      infarction. Thus, the objective of this study was to explore how the
      characteristics of prior TIA have a neuroprotective effect on patients with
      ischemic stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 221 patients admitted
      consecutively to a primary care center for first-ever ischemic stroke were
      divided into two groups on the basis of the presence or absence of prior TIAs.
      The initial NIHSS modified Rankin Scale was used to measure the severity and
      disability after the stroke. Subgroups were based on the TIA duration (< 10 min,
      10 to 60 min, and > 60 min), TIA frequency (1 time, 2-3 times, more than 3
      times), and the interval of stroke (< 1 week, 1-4 weeks, > 4 weeks). The severity
      of the neurologic picture on admission and functional disability after stroke
      were compared between patients with and without TIAs and subgroups as well.
      RESULTS: A total of 132 (59.73%) of the 221 patients had prior TIAs before
      stroke. Risk factors and the initial clinical picture did not differ between
      patients with or without TIAs. Patients with prior TIA had a more favorable
      outcome than those without TIA (59.09% vs. 43.82%), and a significant difference
      between the two groups was observed (chi2 = 4.976, p = 0.026). Furthermore,
      neurological outcome in patients with prior TIA lasting for 60 min, less than 3
      times and shorter intervals within 4 weeks was significantly different from that
      in the non-TIA group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Prior transient ischemic attacks
      may have a neuroprotective effect on the subsequent ischemic stroke, and this
      effect might be affected by the characteristics of TIAs. Patients with TIAs of
      low frequency, short duration and short interval are considered to have better
      neurological outcomes.

PMID- 28883847
TI  - Effects of aspiration pneumonia on the intensive care requirements and in
      hospital mortality of hospitalised patients with acute cerebrovascular disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of the development
      of aspiration pneumonia (AP) on the intensive care unit (ICU) requirements and in
      hospital mortality of patients hospitalised in the neurology ward due to an acute
      cerebrovascular accident (CVA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Five hundred and three
      patients hospitalised in the neurology ward following an acute CVA were
      retrospectively analysed. The patients were divided into two groups: those with
      AP (group 1) and those without AP (group 2). Demographic characteristics and
      physical and radiological findings, including the localisation, lateralisation
      and aetiology of the infarction, in addition to ICU requirements and mortality,
      were evaluated. RESULTS: Aspiration pneumonia was detected in 80 (15.9%) patients
      during the in-hospital stay. Transfer to the ICU for any reason was required in
      37.5% of the patients in group 1 and 4.7% of those in group 2 (p < 0.001). In
      hospital mortality occurred in 7.5% and 1.4% of the patients in group 1 and group
      2, respectively (p = 0.006). The incidence of AP was highest in patients with an
      infarction of the medial cerebral artery (MCA) (p < 0.001). The AP was associated
      with older age (p < 0.001), hypertension (p = 0.007), echocardiography findings
      (p = 0.032) and the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      Our findings suggest that the requirement rate for transfer to the ICU and the
      mortality rate appear to be significantly higher in patients with a diagnosis of
      AP. Precautions should be taken, starting from the first day of hospitalisation,
      to decrease the incidence of AP in patients with acute CVA, focusing especially
      on older patients and those with a severe mRS score.

PMID- 28883848
TI  - Interleukin-6 signaling in patients with chronic heart failure treated with
      cardiac resynchronization therapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Increased expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been described in
      left ventricular dysfunction in the course of chronic heart failure. Cardiac
      resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a unique treatment method that may reverse the
      course of chronic heart failure (CHF) with reduced ejection fraction (HF-REF). We
      aimed to evaluate the IL-6 system, including soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) and
      soluble glycoprotein 130 (sgp130), in HF-REF patients, with particular emphasis
      on CRT effects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study enrolled 88 stable HF-REF
      patients (63.6 +/-11.1 years, 12 females, EF < 35%) and 35 comorbidity-matched
      controls (63.5 +/-9.8 years, 7 females). Forty-five HF-REF patients underwent CRT
      device implantation and were followed up after 6 months. Serum concentrations of
      IL-6, sIL-6R and sgp130 were determined using ELISA kits. RESULTS: The HF-REF
      patients had higher IL-6 (median: 2.6, IQR: 1.6-3.8 vs. 2.1, IQR: 1.4-3.1 pg/ml,
      p = 0.03) and lower sIL-6R concentrations compared to controls (median: 51, IQR:
      36-64 vs. 53. IQR 44-76 ng/ml, p = 0.008). There was no significant difference
      between sgp130 concentrations. In the HF-REF group IL-6 correlated negatively
      with EF (r = -0.5, p = 0.001) and positively with BNP (r = 0.5, p = 0.008) and
      CRP concentrations (r = 0.4, p = 0.02). Patients who presented a positive
      response after CRT showed a smaller change of sIL-6R concentration compared to
      nonresponders (DeltasIL-6R: -0.2 +/-7.1 vs. 7 +/-14 ng/ml; p = 0.04).
      CONCLUSIONS: HF-REF patients present higher IL-6 and lower sIL-6R levels. IL-6
      concentration reflects their clinical status. CRT-related improvement of
      patients' functional status is associated with a smaller change of sIL-6R
      concentration in time.

PMID- 28883849
TI  - Lipoprotein(a) is associated with left ventricular systolic dysfunction in a
      Chinese population of patients with hypertension and without coronary artery
      disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Data on relationship between lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) and non
      ischemic heart dysfunction are limited. This study is aimed to assess the
      association between Lp(a) and left ventricular systolic dysfunction in a Chinese
      population of patients with hypertension and without coronary artery disease
      (CAD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 1611 patients
      with hypertension and without CAD in China. The factors associated with left
      ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were evaluated using univariate and
      multivariate analysis. RESULTS: A higher percentage of hypertensive patients with
      LVEF < 50% were men, and had lower plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,
      but higher plasma Lp(a), serum creatinine, and hemoglobin levels than those with
      LVEF >= 50% using univariate analysis. When participants were classified as four
      groups according to Lp(a) quartiles, LVEF was decreased with increased Lp(a)
      levels. The prevalence of LVEF < 50% was increased with Lp(a) quartiles. Multiple
      linear regression analysis indicated that plasma Lp(a) levels, man, and serum
      creatinine levels were independently correlated with LVEF in hypertensive
      patients. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that plasma Lp(a)
      levels (OR = 5.566, 95% CI: 1.745-17.758, p = 0.004) or Lp(a) quartiles (quartile
      4: OR = 3.234, 95% CI: 1.290-8.105, quartile 1 as reference, p = 0.012) was
      independently correlated with LVEF < 50% with adjustment for other potential
      confounders. Ordinal logistic regression analysis demonstrated that Lp(a) (OR =
      5.760, 95% CI: 1.831-18.120, p = 0.003) was independently correlated with
      different LVEF categories (>= 50%, 35-49%, and < 35%) in hypertensive patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: Left ventricular ejection fraction is decreased with increased
      plasma Lp(a) levels. Lipoprotein(a) is independently correlated with left
      ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients with hypertension and without CAD.

PMID- 28883850
TI  - C-reactive protein levels predict systolic heart failure and outcome in patients
      with first ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with coronary angioplasty.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is growing evidence that inflammation plays a pivotal role in
      the etiology and progression of atherosclerosis. High C-reactive protein (CRP)
      levels have been associated with high mortality in patients with acute myocardial
      infarction (AMI). Furthermore, in animal models CRP has been found to
      significantly increase infarct size. So there is growing evidence that CRP is not
      only a marker for cardiovascular disease but also might be pathogenic. The aim of
      our study was to test the hypothesis that peak CRP levels could predict heart
      failure (HF) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Eighty-one consecutive patients with STEMI were prospectively enrolled
      in the study. C-reactive protein concentrations were measured on admission and
      after 6, 12, 24, 30, 48, 72 and 96 h. We assessed the association between the
      elevation of CRP, heart failure and cardiovascular mortality following the first
      12 months after STEMI. RESULTS: C-reactive protein levels reached a peak after 48
      h. Patients with STEMI and signs of HF showed significantly higher peak CRP
      levels. We found a positive correlation between maximum CK levels and peak CRP
      and a negative correlation between left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) and
      peak CRP. One year total mortality and HF mortality rates were found to be higher
      in patients with peak CRP > 47.5 mg/l than in those with CRP below that level (p
      < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Peak CRP levels in STEMI patients predict emergence of HF.
      Peak CRP is also a strong predictor of global and cardiovascular mortality during
      the following year after STEMI.

PMID- 28883851
TI  - Improvement of exercise tolerance in cardiopulmonary testing with sustained
      safety after regular training in outpatients with systolic heart failure (NYHA
      III) and an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. Prospective 18-month
      randomized study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of individual
      training on the level of physical capacity and echocardiographic parameters in
      patients with systolic heart failure (SHF), NYHA III and an implantable
      cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 84
      patients with SHF, randomly assigned to one of two groups: with regular training
      (ICD-Ex) and a control group (ICD-control). The ICD-Ex group participated in a
      hospital rehabilitation program which after discharge was individually continued
      for 6 months in an outpatient setting. The ICD-control group participated in a
      training program during hospitalization, but after discharge did not perform any
      controlled activities. Prior to discharge, at 6 and 18 months cardiopulmonary
      exercise testing (CPX), standard echocardiographic examination and the 6-minute
      walk test (6-MWT) were performed in all patients. RESULTS: After 18 months in the
      ICD-Ex group most of the CPX parameters improved significantly (VO2 peak,
      ml/kg/min: 13.0 +/-4.1 vs. 15.9 +/-6.1, p < 0.0017; VCO2 peak, l/min: 1.14 +/
      0.34 vs. 1.58 +/-0.65, p < 0.0008; Watt: 74.5 +/-29.7 vs. 92.6 +/-39.1, p <
      0.0006; METs 3.72 +/-1.81 vs. 4.35 +/-1.46, p < 0.0131). In the ICD-control group
      no significant improvement of any parameter was observed. Left ventricular
      systolic dimensions remained significantly lower at 18 months only in the ICD-Ex
      group (49.5 +/-11.0 vs. 43.4 +/-10.0, p < 0.011). Left ventricular ejection
      fraction in both groups significantly increased at 6 and 18 months compared to
      baseline (ICD-Ex: 25.07 +/-5.4 vs. 31.4 +/-9.2, p < 0.001, vs. 30.9 +/-8.9, p <
      0.002, ICD-C: 25.1 +/-8.3 vs. 29.2 +/-7.7, p < 0.012 vs. 30.1 +/-9.1, p < 0.005).
      Distance of the 6-MWT was significantly improved after 6 and 18 months in the ICD
      Ex group and was overall longer than in the ICD-control group (491 +/-127 vs. 423
      +/-114 m, p < 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: An individual, 6-month training program,
      properly controlled in patients with SHF and an implanted ICD, was safe and
      resulted in a significant improvement of exercise tolerance and capacity and
      echocardiographic parameters.

PMID- 28883852
TI  - A randomized clinical trial comparing hemodynamic responses to ketamine-propofol
      combination (ketofol) versus etomidate during anesthesia induction in patients
      with left ventricular dysfunction undergoing coronary artery bypass graft
      surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Anesthesia induction is often accompanied by a period of
      hemodynamic instability, which could be a significant problem in patients with
      compromised ventricular function. The aim of this study is to compare the
      hemodynamic responses to etomidate versus a combination of ketamine and propofol
      (ketofol) for anesthetic induction in patients with left ventricular dysfunction
      undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In
      a double-blind randomized clinical study, a total of 84 patients with ischemic
      left ventricular dysfunction (EF < 40%) were randomly assigned to two groups (A
      and B). Patients in group A received etomidate 0.2 mg/kg and a placebo (normal
      saline); group B received a combination of ketamine (1 mg/kg) and propofol (1.5
      mg/kg) at the induction of anesthesia. Two minutes after induction, hemodynamic
      variables, including systolic, diastolic, mean arterial pressure (SAP, DAP, MAP)
      and heart rate (HR), were measured immediately before and after the laryngoscopy,
      and before intubation and post-intubation at 1, 2, and 3 min. RESULTS: The
      decrease in all hemodynamic parameters (SBP, DBP, MAP and HR) from induction time
      to laryngoscopy was greater in the ketofol group (group B) than in the etomidate
      group (group A) (p < 0.05). The ephedrine prescription rate due to hemodynamic
      changes was 24.4% (10 patients) and 5% (2 patients) in group B and group A,
      respectively (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: We found that etomidate provides superior
      hemodynamic stability as compared to ketofol in patients with left ventricular
      dysfunction undergoing CABG surgery under general anesthesia.

PMID- 28883853
TI  - Cardiac surgery related cardio-renal syndrome assessed by conventional and novel
      biomarkers - under or overestimated diagnosis?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Serum creatinine is a 'gold standard' criterion of recognizing and
      staging of acute kidney injury (AKI) despite it being a suboptimal, delayed
      indicator. The interpretation of increased values of biomarkers imposes great
      difficulty regarding cardiac surgery procedures performed with cardiopulmonary
      bypass and may lead to under- or overestimated diagnosis. The aim of this study
      was to evaluate the clinical utility of the sole serum creatinine or urine
      neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) concentration used for
      identification of patients with AKI after cardiac surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      A prospective observational study was conducted on a group of 88 adult patients
      undergoing a coronary artery bypass grafting procedure. Serum creatinine was
      evaluated on the day of the operation, and 24 and 48 h post-operatively. Urinary
      NGAL concentration was measured: immediately after and one hour after
      cardiopulmonary bypass, and 24 h from the beginning of the operation. We assessed
      features of kidney injury and 30-day and 5-year mortality. RESULTS: Patients in
      the AKI group diagnosed with creatinine level and urine output criteria presented
      more advanced age (p = 0.01), higher body mass index (p = 0.01) and preoperative
      myocardial infarction (p = 0.02). Elevation of NGAL level was observed in 5 of 13
      cases with AKI, based on creatinine criteria and 4 of 75 cases without AKI.
      Within 5 years after the surgical procedure the recurrence of renal failure was
      36% in the AKI group (with perioperative NGAL elevation in 2 cases only).
      CONCLUSIONS: In the cardiac surgery patients the diagnosis of AKI based on sole
      serum creatinine or urine NGAL concentration confirmed transient kidney injury.
      However, the clinical implications of these findings are insufficient for
      prediction of clinical outcome.

PMID- 28883854
TI  - Predictive abilities of baseline measurements of fluid overload, assessed by
      bioimpedance spectroscopy and serum N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide,
      for mortality in hemodialysis patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Fluid overload is one of the most important, yet modifiable, risk
      factors associated with worse outcomes in hemodialysis (HD) patients. However,
      its precise assessment in clinical practice is still under investigation.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is an observational prospective study which included
      285 stable patients with end-stage renal disease on standard thrice-weekly HD
      therapy. Overhydration was assessed by the combination of relative fluid overload
      (RFO), using bioimpedance spectroscopy, and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic
      peptide (NT-proBNP). The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. RESULTS:
      The median values for NT-proBNP and RFO were 4595 pg/ml and 6.9%, respectively.
      We divided the study population into four groups according to these median
      levels: group 1 - low NT-proBNP and low RFO; group 2 - high NT-proBNP and low
      RFO; group 3 - low NT-proBNP and high RFO; group 4 - high NT-proBNP and high RFO.
      During the follow-up (mean: 41.1, median: 48.7 months), 89 (31.2%) patients died.
      In the univariable Cox survival analysis only patients in group 4, and not those
      from group 2 or 3, had significantly higher HRs as compared to those in group 1
      (HR = 1.5, 95% CI: 0.8-2.8, HR = 1.6, 95% CI: 0.8-2.9 and HR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3
      4.2, for group 2, 3 and 4, respectively). Furthermore, these results were
      maintained in the multivariable Cox analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Including both
      bioimpedance and NT-proBNP monitoring in a more comprehensive fluid status
      assessment could improve the diagnosis of fluid overload with a final improvement
      in patients' outcome.

PMID- 28883855
TI  - Five gene variants in nonagenarians, centenarians and average individuals.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Genetic factors contribute to the variation of human life span
      which is believed to be more profound after 85 years of age. The aim of the
      present study was to evaluate the frequency of 5 gene polymorphisms between
      nonagenarians, centenarians and average individuals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT;
      rs2736098), insulin-like growth factor-1 binding protein-3 (IGFBP3; A-202C,
      rs2857744), fork-head box O3A (FOXO3A; rs13217795 and rs2764264) factor and
      adiponectin (ADIPOQ; rs2241766) were evaluated in 405 individuals: n = 256
      nonagenarians and centenarians (study group) and n = 149 average lifespan
      individuals (control group aged 18 - < 80 years). RESULTS: The frequency of women
      was significantly higher in the study group than the control group (64.5 vs.
      49.7%, p = 0.004). Genotypic and allele frequencies did not differ between groups
      according to gender. However, in men, the frequency of TT genotype of FOXO3A;
      rs2764264 was higher in the study group than the control group (45.6 vs. 28.0%, p
      = 0.05). Overall, the frequency of the C allele of FOXO3A; rs2764264 was
      significantly lower in the study group than the control group (3.9 vs. 9.5%,
      respectively, p = 0.023). Furthermore, in the study group, the T allele was
      significantly more frequent in the nonagenarians (n = 239) than the centenarians
      (n = 17) in both FOXO3A; rs13217795 and rs2764264 (64.4 vs. 44.1%, p = 0.018 and
      69.7 vs. 50.0%, p = 0.017, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: According to survival
      status, there is differentiation in the prevalence of both studied FOXO3A gene
      polymorphisms. The study group had half of the C alleles compared with the
      control group and centenarians less frequently had the T allele of both FOXO3A
      gene polymorphisms compared with nonagenarians. No difference was found between
      groups according to TERT, IGFBP3 and ADIPOQ gene polymorphisms. It seems that
      some polymorphisms may be significant in prolonging our lifespan. Nevertheless,
      confirmation in additional study populations is needed.

PMID- 28883856
TI  - Interleukin-21 gene polymorphism rs2221903 is associated with disease activity in
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Interleukin-21 (IL-21) is a cytokine which plays a significant role
      in the pathogenesis and disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Genetic
      polymorphisms in the IL-21 gene may alter the synthesis of IL-21. The aim of this
      study was to examine IL-21 and IL-21R polymorphisms in patients with RA. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: We examined 422 patients with RA and 338 healthy controls. Single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the IL-21 (rs6822844 G>T, rs6840978 C>T,
      rs2221903 T>C) and IL-21R (rs2285452 G>A) genes were genotyped using TaqMan
      genotyping assays. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences
      in the distribution of studied genotypes and alleles between RA patients and the
      control group. To examine whether IL-21 polymorphisms affect disease activity in
      RA patients, we compared the distribution of IL-21 genotypes between patients
      with DAS28 <= 2.5 (patients with remission of disease symptoms) and patients with
      DAS28 > 2.5 (patients with active RA). Among patients with DAS28 > 2.5, increased
      prevalence of rs2221903 CT and CC genotypes was observed (OR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.04
      2.28; p = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that IL-21 and
      IL-21R gene polymorphisms are not risk loci for RA susceptibility, whereas the IL
      21 rs2221903 polymorphism is associated with disease activity.

PMID- 28883857
TI  - Postmenopausal cognitive changes and androgen levels in the context of
      apolipoprotein E polymorphism.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The focus of this study was to assess cognitive functions in
      relation to androgens and specifically testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone in
      postmenopausal women as well as the correlation between cognitive functions and
      these two androgens according to polymorphism of the apolipoprotein E gene
      (APOE). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A group of 402 women was recruited to the study
      (minimum 2 years after the last menstruation, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
      more than 30 U/ml and no dementia signs on Montreal Cognitive Assessment). The
      computerized battery of the Central Nervous System Vital Signs test was used to
      diagnose cognitive functions. APOE genotyping was performed by multiplex
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Testosterone (TTE) and dehydroepiandrosterone
      (DHEA) in the blood serum were assessed for further statistical correlations
      analysis. RESULTS: In the group of postmenopausal women, higher testosterone
      concentration was associated with lower scores for Neurocognition Index (NCI) (p
      = 0.028), memory (p = 0.008) and psychomotor speed (p < 0.001). Presence of at
      least one APOE epsilon4 allele potentiated testosterone's negative influence on
      cognitive functions (p < 0.05). Woman with a high normal level of DHEA scored
      significantly better in verbal (p = 0.027) and visual memory (p < 0.001) than
      other participants. APOE polymorphism did not modify the relationship between
      DHEA concentration and scores for cognitive functions. CONCLUSIONS: Hormonal
      balance variations after menopause may influence brain processes concerned with
      cognition, especially memory and psychomotor speed. The observed effects may be
      related to androgens' influence on higher cortical functions in the changed
      hormonal dynamics of the postmenopausal period.

PMID- 28883858
TI  - Association between low thyroid-stimulating hormone, posterior cortical atrophy
      and nitro-oxidative stress in elderly patients with cognitive dysfunction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cortical atrophy is known to be a valuable sign of cognitive
      decline. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between low
      thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), posterior cortical atrophy (Koedam score - KS)
      and nitro-oxidative stress in elderly patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A study
      (SG) and a control group (CG), each subdivided by gender, were investigated.
      Subjects older than 59 years with low serum TSH level and with mild cognitive
      impairment were included in the SG. The CG was formed by subjects free of
      significant cortical atrophy and free or thyroid dysfunction. Demographic and
      clinical characteristics of the patients (Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE),
      Koedam score on cranial magnetic resonance imaging, and blood parameters (TSH,
      FT4, and nitric oxide - NOx) were assessed. RESULTS: Subjects in the study group
      had fewer years of education above the 8th grade compared with the control group
      (p < 0.0001). A significantly higher percentage of subjects in the study group
      had a Koedam score of 2 or 3 compared with controls, who had in the majority of
      cases a Koedam score of zero (p < 0.02). Significantly higher NOx levels were
      observed when study groups of both genders were compared with corresponding
      controls (p < 0.001). No significant differences were observed with regard to FT4
      (p > 0.70). Nitric oxide was found to be significantly associated with TSH (p <
      0.03) and KS (p < 0.002) when the whole study group was considered as well as
      when just the non-smoker study group was investigated. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      revealed an association between subclinical thyroid hypofunction, nitro-oxidative
      stress, and posterior cortical atrophy as an early stage of global atrophy.

PMID- 28883859
TI  - Neuropsychiatric symptoms and faster progression of cognitive impairments as
      predictors of risk of conversion of mild cognitive impairment to dementia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this research, based on 7 years of observations, was to
      assess the relationship between the dynamics of changes in the realm of cognitive
      functions in the early stages of observations and the presence of
      neuropsychiatric symptoms as well as further progression of cognitive function
      impairments in people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: One hundred and ninety three individuals were included in the study,
      all of whom referred themselves to the Mental Health Clinic and were diagnosed
      with MCI based on the criteria of the Working Group on MCI. It was assumed that
      these individuals would be subjected to systematic psychiatric and
      neuropsychological observation until they were diagnosed with dementia. This
      report concerns a completed 7-year period of these observations. Participants
      were assessed based on the following scales: MMSE, NPI and GDS. RESULTS: The
      obtained results indicate statistically significant differences between groups of
      subjects at the time of inclusion in the study, regarding the frequency of
      occurrence and severity of the following categories of impairments: thought
      impairments (p < 0.001), arousal/aggression (p < 0.001), depression/dysphoria (p
      < 0.001), disinhibition (p < 0.03), irritability/lability (p < 0.001), abnormal
      motor behaviors (p < 0.02), as well as sleep and night-time behavior disorders (p
      < 0.01) Moreover, individuals who developed dementia during observation exhibited
      greater progression in cognitive function impairment assessed with the MMSE scale
      in the first year of observation (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The accruing of
      cognitive function impairments and the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms seem
      to be important risk factors for the development of dementia.

PMID- 28883861
TI  - Bioavailable testosterone is independently associated with Fatty Liver Index in
      postmenopausal women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have examined the correlation between
      hyperandrogenemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in women and
      showed contradictory results. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the relationship
      between testosterone level and Fatty Liver Index (FLI), as a surrogate marker for
      NAFLD, in a cohort of postmenopausal women. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 150
      postmenopausal women were included in this cross-sectional study. Anthropometric
      and biochemical parameters, as well as blood pressure, were obtained. Non
      alcoholic fatty liver disease is assessed by FLI, an algorithm based on body mass
      index, waist circumference, triglycerides and gamma-glutamyl transferase, as a
      simple and accurate predictor of hepatic steatosis. Women were divided into three
      groups (FLI < 30, n = 80; 30 <= FLI < 60, n = 44; FLI >= 60, n = 26). Homeostasis
      model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) as a surrogate marker of insulin
      resistance was calculated. RESULTS: Multiple linear regression analysis revealed
      that the best model consisted of 4 parameters (e.g., bioavailable testosterone
      (beta = 0.288, p = 0.001), log HOMA-IR (beta = 0.227, p = 0.005), log high
      sensitivity C-reactive protein (beta = 0.322, p < 0.001), and retinol-binding
      protein 4 (beta = 0.226, p < 0.001)). Adjusted R2 for the best model was 0.550,
      which means that as much as 55.0% of variation in FLI could be explained with
      this model. CONCLUSIONS: Bioavailable testosterone is independently associated
      with FLI in postmenopausal women.

PMID- 28883860
TI  - Impact of beverage consumption, age, and site dependency on dual energy X-ray
      absorptiometry (DEXA) measurements in perimenopausal women: a prospective study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine the best site for bone
      mineral density (BMD) measurements based on T-scores, age, and beverage
      consumption. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this prospective study, 271 women
      stratified by age (average age: 61.9 years) underwent dual energy X-ray
      absorptiometry (DEXA) scanning of their lumbar spine, hips, and forearms.
      Osteoporosis was defined as a BMD of 2.5 standard deviations or more below the
      mean peak bone mass based on a reference population of adult women (translated as
      a T-score <= -2.5), as measured by DEXA. Participants were also evaluated
      regarding alcohol and caffeine consumption by a semiquantitative questionnaire.
      RESULTS: A significant discrepancy was observed in the classification of
      osteoporosis at different locations, with hip and forearm showing the best
      correlation (Pearson's r = 0.627, p < 0.001). In addition, for participants over
      50 years of age, hip and forearm showed the best correlation. Significant
      correlations were also noted between forearm T-scores and caffeine consumed and,
      to a lesser extent, the level of alcohol consumption. In the group <= 50 years of
      age, lumbar spine and forearm T-scores were only associated with alcohol
      consumption. In the group over 50 years of age, hip and forearm T-scores were
      only associated with caffeine consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Bone mineral density
      measurements at the hip and forearm correlated with caffeine consumption in
      elderly Taiwanese women. This is an important finding since age and caffeine
      consumption are known risk factors for osteoporosis.

PMID- 28883862
TI  - Prevalence of chronic pain in the elderly Polish population - results of the
      PolSenior study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pain is the most common complaint of elderly people. In Poland, no
      large studies on the prevalence of chronic pain in the elderly were conducted
      until recently. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was a part of the PolSenior
      project, a cross-sectional multidisciplinary study on ageing of the Polish
      population, and included a randomly selected group of 716 people aged 55-59
      years, and 4979 people over 65 years. The survey was conducted through a
      standardized questionnaire. An evaluation of pain occurrence, location, intensity
      and coexistence of pains in relation to gender, age and use of health care was
      performed. RESULTS: Chronic pain affected 42.0% of respondents aged 65 years and
      over (48.6% of women and 35.8% of men) as compared to 35.2% of the pre-elderly.
      The most common pain locations were the lumbar region (51.6%) and knees (41.0%).
      The average number of pain sites was 3.1 +/-2.3. Average intensity of pain was
      6.2 points on the VAS scale in people over 65 years and 6.0 points in the pre
      elderly (NS). Average pain intensity increased significantly from 5.7 points in
      patients reporting pain in one place to 7.2 points in those reporting six pain
      sites. Elderly respondents with pain compared to those without pain more
      frequently reported physician visits performed at least once a month (54.6% vs.
      48.4%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Polish elderly most frequently complained of low
      back and lower limb pain. In respondents reporting many sites of pain, an
      increase in the intensity of pain was observed. Elderly patients with chronic
      pain often use medical care.

PMID- 28883863
TI  - The evolution of natriuretic peptide augmentation in management of heart failure
      and the role of sacubitril/valsartan.
AB  - Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of morbidity, mortality, and
      health care expenditures in the US and worldwide. For three decades, the pillars
      of treatment of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) were medications that
      targeted the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the renin-angiotensin
      aldosterone system (RAAS). Prior attempts to augment the natriuretic peptide
      system (NPS) for the management of HF failed either due to lack of significant
      clinical benefit or due to the unacceptable side effect profile. This review
      article will discuss the NPS, the failure of early drugs which targeted the NPS
      as therapies for HF, and the sequence of events which led to the development of
      sacubitril plus valsartan (Entresto; LCZ696; Novartis). LCZ696 has been shown to
      be superior to the standard of care available for treatment of HFrEF in several
      substantial hard endpoints including heart failure hospitalizations,
      cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality.

PMID- 28883864
TI  - The efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen in hemorrhagic stroke: experimental and
      clinical implications.
AB  - Hemorrhagic stroke, accounting for 10-30% of stroke cases, carries high rates of
      morbidity and mortality. This review presents the current knowledge on the
      efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO)-based modalities in the preclinical research
      on hemorrhagic stroke. Both preconditioning and post-treatment with HBO are
      considered as prospective therapeutic options. High efficacy of HBO therapy
      (HBOT) for brain hemorrhage has been noted. We found that moderate hyperbaric
      pressures appear optimal for therapeutic effect, while the therapeutic window of
      opportunity is short. HBO preconditioning offers more modest neuroprotective
      benefit as compared to HBO post-treatment for experimental intracerebral
      hemorrhage. We advocate for mandatory calculations of percent changes in the
      experimentally investigated indexes of HBO effectiveness and stress the need to
      design new clinical trials on HBO for hemorrhagic stroke.

PMID- 28883866
TI  - Race, sense of control over life, and short-term risk of mortality among older
      adults in the United States.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sense of control over life has been shown to have protective health
      effects in studies that have mostly enrolled White middle class individuals. It
      is unknown, however, whether populations differ in the protective health gain
      associated with sense of control over life. This study compared a nationally
      representative sample of Black and White older adults for protective effects of
      sense of control over life on short-term risk of all-cause mortality in the
      United States. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This longitudinal prospective study followed
      1,493 White (n = 759) and Black (n = 734) older adults (age 66 or more) from 2001
      to 2004. Race, demographics, socio-economics, sense of control over life, health
      behaviors, and self-rated health were measured at baseline in 2001. Outcome was
      all-cause mortality occurring between 2001 and 2004. Logistic regression models
      were used for data analysis. RESULTS: In the pooled sample, sense of control over
      life was protective against 3-year mortality risk above and beyond demographics,
      socio-economics, health behaviors, and self-rated health. We found a race by
      sense of control over life interaction, suggesting a stronger protective effect
      of control over life on mortality risk for Whites compared to Blacks. In race
      specific models, sense of control over life at baseline was predictive of
      mortality among Whites but not Blacks. CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, Black
      older adults do not gain a survival benefit associated with high levels of sense
      of control over life, as do their White counterparts. It is not clear why sense
      of control over life translates into survival for Whites but not for Blacks.

PMID- 28883865
TI  - Does genetic testing for ERalpha gene polymorphisms provide new possibilities of
      treatment for cognitive function disorders in postmenopausal women?
AB  - It is commonly considered that cognitive abilities decrease with age, especially
      with respect to processing and psychomotor speed. It is an interesting issue
      whether, apart from the ageing process, the undergoing of menopause itself
      deteriorates cognitive functions, compared to women at reproductive age. Hopes
      for improvement of cognitive functions were pinned on the use of menopausal
      hormone therapy. However, the results of studies concerning the effect of hormone
      replacement therapy on cognition proved to be contradictory. It seems that the
      essence of the problem is more complicated than only estrogen deficiency. It is
      suggested that estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) polymorphism may be responsible
      for the differences in the effect of estrogens on cognitive processes. The
      article presents current knowledge concerning the effect of estrogens on the
      central nervous system, especially the role of ERalpha polymorphism, with respect
      to foreseeing benefits from the use of exogenous estrogens for cognitive
      functions. At the present stage of research, ERalpha appears to be poorly
      specific; nevertheless, it may be an important instrument for the classification
      of peri- and post-menopausal patients in the group where therapy with the use of
      estrogens may bring about benefits in terms of prevention and treatment of
      cognitive disorders. It also seems necessary to conduct prophylactic, screening
      examination of cognitive functions in post-menopausal women, in order to identify
      those at risk of the development of dementia.

PMID- 28883867
TI  - Lifestyle measures for treating hypertension.

PMID- 28883868
TI  - The need to apply the best therapy in heart failure - the era after PARADIGM-HF.

PMID- 28883869
TI  - Ataxia in Childhood: Epidemiological, Clinical and Neuroradiologic Features, and
      the Risk of Recurrence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted on the demographic data, clinical
      characteristics, electroencephalography, neuroradiological findings, and their
      impact on the recurrence of ataxia. MATERIALS & METHODS: A 3-yr retrospective
      review of 49 children with ataxia in Mofid Children Hospital, Tehran, Iran was
      conducted from Apr 2013 to Apr 2016. The demographic, clinical and paraclinical
      data were recorded in pre-prepared questionnaires. The patients were also
      classified in two groups of with or without recurrence and the results were
      compared. The diagnostic etiologies in our patients were classified as brain
      tumor, drug ingestion, encephalitis, post infectious immune-mediated disorders,
      pseudoataxia, trauma, congenital malformations of the central nervous system and
      hereditary ataxias. RESULTS: Forty-nine children with ataxia were enrolled. The
      mean age of the patients with a recurrence of ataxia was more than those without
      a recurrence. Neurodevelopmental delay in patients with recurrence was more
      frequent than those without a recurrence. Abnormal findings in the neuroimaging
      were seen more in the patients with recurrence than those without recurrence. The
      most common cause of ataxia in patients with recurrence was hereditary ataxia and
      in patients without recurrence was a viral post infectious disorder. CONCLUSION:
      After a mean follow-up period of 16.36 months (range: 2-37 months), 9 cases
      (18.4%) showed recurrence. Older age, abnormal neuroimaging, and
      neurodevelopmental delay should be considered as the risk factors of recurrence
      of ataxia in children.

PMID- 28883870
TI  - Assessment of the Relationship between Body Mass Index and Gross Motor
      Development in Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Obesity is a growing epidemic and public health problem in children.
      The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of body mass index (BMI) on
      the gross motor development. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this cross-sectional study
      conducted in 2012-13 in Gorgan, northern Iran, the gross motor development of 90
      children 3-5 yr old in three groups of lean, normal and obese/overweight were
      evaluated by the ages and stages questionnaires (ASQ) and Denver 2 scale.
      RESULTS: Totally, 90 children were enrolled and their developmental level was
      assessed with two ASQ and Denver II indices. The mean and standard deviation of
      the ASQ scores of the children was 53.11+/- 11.06 and based on Denver index, 9
      children (10%) were at developmental delay status, 15 (16.7%) in the caution
      conditions, and 53 (58.9%) at normal developmental status. The developmental
      level was lower in obese/overweight group comparing with other groups according
      to both Denver and ASQ and there was a significant difference between
      obese/overweight group and normal group based in Denver and ASQ, respectively.
      There was no significant difference between underweight and normal and obese and
      underweight groups. CONCLUSION: Overweight and obesity could affect on the gross
      motor development.

PMID- 28883871
TI  - Drug-Induced Apnea in Children Admitted to Loghman Hakim Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Environmental hazards, including poisons, can cause irreparable
      effects and even fatal for children. Poisoning in children is common and serious,
      but often is preventable and treatable. This study aimed to evaluate the
      prevalence of drugs and chemical toxicity leading to apnea. In addition, we
      detected type of drug that induced apnea among children. MATERIALS & METHODS: In
      a retrospective cross-sectional study from Apr 2012 to Apr 2013, data of all
      hospitalized drug-induced Apnea in children were collected through hospital
      records. RESULTS: The most common cause of drug toxicity was methadone opium,
      baclofen and heroin (74%,13%,5%,2%). The mortality rate was 3.1%; all of them due
      to methadone poisoning. CONCLUSION: There was a high prevalence of Methadone
      poisoning and apnea in children. Methadone poisoning should be considered in
      apnea.

PMID- 28883872
TI  - Therapeutic Effects of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone ACTH in Children with Severely
      Intractable Seizure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Treatment of intractable seizures other than spasms is difficult and
      controversial. There are few studies on efficacy of adrenocorticotropic hormone
      (ACTH) in treatment of patients with intractable seizure. MATERIALS & METHODS:
      Twenty-five patients with intractable seizure other than spasm including 14 boys
      and 11 girls with median age of 58 months referred to university clinics of
      Pediatric Neurology in Isfahan, Iran, during 2014-2015 were prospectively
      investigated. ACTH was administrated according to our protocol. All cases were
      followed regularly and assessed for response to treatment and probable side
      effects, 3 wk after beginning of ACTH therapy and three months after the ACTH
      therapy. EEG finding were recorded before and three months after the end of ACTH
      therapy. Statistical analysis using Freidman test and Wilcoxon signed - rank test
      were performed in order to compare seizure frequency and EEG changes,
      respectively. RESULTS: Mean A significant reduction (>80%) in seizure frequency
      in 11 cases (44%) and moderate reduction (50%-80%) in 7 (28%) after 3 wk of ACTH
      therapy. Despite initial positive response, recurrence of seizure was observed in
      7 out of 18 cases with favorable initial response within 3 months after ACTH
      therapy cessation. The comparison of EEG finding before and 3 months after ACTH
      therapy using Wilcoxon signed - rank test showed significant differences.
      CONCLUSION: ACTH therapy may be useful in treatment of children with intractable
      seizures who are resistant to usual antiepileptic drugs. However further studies
      should be performed to determine the long-term efficacy of ACTH in treatment of
      intractable seizure.

PMID- 28883873
TI  - Circadian Rhythm and the Seasonal Variation in Childhood Febrile Seizure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the circadian rhythm and the seasonal variation in
      childhood febrile seizure (FS). MATERIALS & METHODS: This descriptive cross
      sectional study was conducted retrospectively on patients' records. Investigators
      assessed the records of patients with simple FS aged 6 to 60 months referred to
      Emergency Department of 17-Shahrivar Hospital, Rasht northern Iran during Jan
      2010 to Jan 2013. Data were gathered by a checklist including age, sex,
      temperature, duration of seizure, seasonal, months, diurnal variation, and level
      of consciousness. RESULTS: Totally, 349 patients including 193 (55.3%) boys and
      156 (44.7%) girls with the mean age of 22.85+/-18.34 months were enrolled in this
      study. The mean temperature of patients was 38.45+/-0.53 degrees C. The mean
      duration of seizure was 97.91+/-57 sec. Awake, drowsy and slept patients were
      noted in 170 (48.7%), 33(9.5%) and 146 (41.8%) cases, respectively. Most of the
      FS occurred in winter 118 (33.8%), afternoon 132 (37.8%) and in Jan 55 (15.8%).
      CONCLUSION: Body temperature adjusted by hypothalamus affecting by circadian
      rhythm. FS is the most common form of seizure in childhood occurred by
      multifactorial issues. Otherwise, the occurrence of seizure in patients with
      epilepsy may be affected by the circadian rhythm. Seizures happen more frequent
      at a specific time in 24 h during a day.

PMID- 28883874
TI  - Treatment of Cystic Craniopharyngioma with Intracystic Stereotactic Instillation
      of Phosphorus 32.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cystic craniopharyngiomas are considered the most common intracranial
      nonglial tumor in children with the tendency for cyst formations. The aim of this
      study was to evaluate the effect of intracystic phosphorus 32 (P32) therapies on
      controlling the growth of the cystic component of craniopharyngioma. MATERIALS &
      METHODS: This clinical study was conducted on 47 patients with cystic
      craniopharyngioma from March 1998 to June 2012 at Shohada Tajrish Hospital,
      Tehran, Iran. Patients were treated with stereotactic intracystic P32. The mean
      cyst volume was 23.5 ml, and the dose of radiation to the inner cyst wall was 250
      Gy. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 78.1% and the mean survival was
      113.1+/-11months. The survival rate at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years after p32 therapy
      was 91%, 77%, 73%, and 52%, respectively. There was no mortality related to the
      procedure and no visual or endocrinal deterioration. Visual improvement occurred
      in 88% of patients presented with recent deterioration due to the cyst
      enlargement. CONCLUSION: Intracystic p32 therapy was an effective and almost safe
      procedure for the treatment of cystic component of craniopharyngioma.

PMID- 28883875
TI  - Is Infantile Colic an Early Life Expression of Childhood Migraine?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Migraine is the mosyndrome and infantile colic is a common cause of
      infantile cry. The pathogenesis of migraine and colic has not been well
      established and different factors may cause them. There is an association between
      infantile colic and the occurrence of childhood migraine. We aimed to assess
      whether infantile colic could be noted as an early life expression of childhood
      migraine or not. MATERIALS & METHODS: This retrospective case-control study was
      conducted on 5-15-year-old childrenin Rasht, Iran during 2015-2016. Forty-one
      cases were children with migraine with or without aura. Overall, 123 Control
      participants were children with the same age referred to the pediatric clinic for
      routine care. Data were gathered by a checklist including age, sex, birth weight,
      family history of migraine, the occurrence of colic and type of feeding during
      infancy. Data were reported by descriptive statistics and analyzed by Fisher
      exact test using SPSS ver. 19. RESULTS: Overall, 164 children with the mean age
      of 8.36+/- 2.53 yr were enrolled. Seventeen (41.46%) children with migraine vs.
      44 (35.7%) children in control group had the positive history of infantile colic
      and Fisher exact test noted significant relation between migraine and colic.
      Thirty-three children with infantile colic (46.57%) had the positive family
      history of migraine, which was significantly higher than 27 children without
      colic (29.7%). There was a significant relation between infantile feeding and
      migraine. CONCLUSION: There is a probable relation between colic and migraine,
      therefore, migraine and colic as 2 pain syndromes may have a common
      pathophysiology and further investigations on this common pathophysiology is
      justified.

PMID- 28883876
TI  - Metabolic Screening in Children with Neurodevelopmental Delay, Seizure and/or
      Regression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Neurometabolic disorder is one of the important groups of diseases
      that prominently has presentation early infantile period. In this study, we
      evaluated the result of metabolic screening of the patient with seizure,
      developmental delay and/or regression in development, demographic disease
      clinical and radiological findings on admitted and outpatient visited children.
      MATERIALS & METHODS: Two-year retrospective review of 187 children with seizure,
      developmental delay and/or regression in the Mofid Children Hospital, Tehran,
      Iran was performed. The diagnosis was based on observation, findings of EEG and
      history of the patient, besides evaluation of patient milestones. The result of
      metabolic screening with Tandem mass spectrometry was evaluated using SPSS
      (ver.18.0) Statistical software. RESULTS: Totally, 187 children with seizure,
      regression and/or developmental delay were evaluated by metabolic screening with
      tandem mass spectrometry method. The results of laboratory examination had no
      relationship between positive results of metabolic screening and the mentioned
      disease. The relations between positive results of metabolic screening and
      seizure, regression and/or developmental delay were not statistically meaningful.
      CONCLUSION: Positive results of metabolic screening and seizure, regression
      and/or developmental delay were not statistically meaningful.

PMID- 28883877
TI  - Homocystinuria with Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis: Excellent Recovery with
      Intravenous Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator.
AB  - Hyperhomocysteinemia can cause cerebral venous thrombosis. Recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator is one of the treatment options for cerebral venous
      thrombosis in selected cases. We present here a 7-year-old boy with
      homocysteinuria with stroke. MRI of brain showed cerebral venous sinus
      thrombosis. We successfully treated with intravenous recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator. He recovered completely without any complications.
      Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator can be considered one of the treatment
      options in cerebral venous thrombosis in homocystinura.

PMID- 28883878
TI  - The Report of Three Rare Cases of the Niemann-pick Disease in Birjand, South
      Khorasan, Eastern Iran.
AB  - Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is a rare neurovisceral and irreversible
      disease leading to premature death and disabling neurological signs. This
      autosomal recessive disease with incidence rate of 1:120000 is caused by
      mutations in either the NPC1 or the NPC2 gene, which leads to accumulation of
      cholesterol in body tissues especially brain and progressive neurological
      symptoms. NP-C is characterized by nonspecific visceral, neurological and
      psychiatric manifestations in infants. The neurological involvement is typically
      proceeded by systemic signs (cholestatic jaundice in the neonatal period or
      isolated spleno-or hepatosplenomegaly in infancy or childhood). Early detection
      of NPC is important so that therapy with miglustat can delay onset of
      neurological symptoms and prolong survival. We describe here three infants from
      Birjand, South Khorasan, eastern Iran in 2016 with splenomegaly and different
      neurological signs that diagnosis was confirmed by genetic study. In all of them,
      NPC-509 was pathologically increased. They also had an unreported homozygous
      mutation (c.1415T>C, p.Leu472Pro) in exon 9 of the NPC1 gene. We found unreported
      homozygous mutation in NPC gene. Knowing this mutation is significant to our
      people. Genotype-phenotype correlations for this specific mutation needs to be
      further studied.

PMID- 28883879
TI  - Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Type 2E Due to a Novel Large Deletion in SGCB
      Gene.
AB  - Autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD type 2) are a group of
      clinically and genetically heterogeneous diseases with the main characteristics
      of weakness and wasting of the pelvic and shoulder girdle muscles. Among them are
      sarcoglycanopathies caused by mutations in at least four genes named SGCA, SGCB,
      SGCG and SGCD. Here we report a consanguineous Iranian family with two children
      affected with LGMD type 2E. Mutation analysis revealed a novel homozygous exon 2
      deletion of SGCB gene in the patients with the parents being heterozygous for
      this deletion. This result presents a novel underlying genetic mechanism for LGMD
      type 2E.

PMID- 28883880
TI  - Semi Lobar Holoprosencephaly with Vertebral Segmentation Defects.
AB  - Holoprosencephaly is the most common embryonic brain defect. Foetuses who survive
      during intrauterine life are born with varying grades of brain and facial
      deformities. Extra craniofacial manifestations are common. Vertebral segmentation
      defects are rarely seen with holoprosencephaly, mainly in association with
      holoprosencephaly diencephalic hamartoblastoma (HDH) association. A female infant
      was born at term by normal delivery. Birth head circumference was below the 3rd
      percentile. Antenatal scan had showed microcephaly as the only abnormality.
      Physical examination revealed microcephaly, ocular hypotelorism, left ear skin
      tag and short neck. MRI of the brain showed semilobar holoprosencephaly. Neck
      radiograph revealed gross vertebral segmentation defect involving cervical and
      upper thoracic vertebrae. She had initial feeding difficulties. She showed severe
      global developmental delay and had underlying central diabetes insipidus.
      Vertebral segmentation defect is rare in holoprosencephaly.

PMID- 28883881
TI  - Zinc and Copper Metabolism and Risk of Autism: a reply to Sayehmiri et al.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Sayehmiri et al. recently conducted a meta-analysis to explore the
      relationship between zinc and copper metabolism and autism spectrum disorders
      (ASD). Recent reports have elucidated a full behavioral profile of mice exposed
      to prenatal zinc deficiency and documented a phenotype similar to that found in
      autism spectrum disorders (ASD). These studies suggest that significant
      alterations in Zn metabolism may be an important nutritional component in the
      development of ASD. MATERIALS & METHODS: The idea that prenatal zinc deficiency
      may be to blame is cursorily challenged. Epidemiological studies show that high
      income countries with a low estimated prevalence of inadequate zinc intake report
      the highest prevalence of ASD. Consistent with other reports indicating a link
      between air pollution and ASD, it has recently been proposed that use of the
      herbicide, glyphosate, in agriculture may serve as an instrumental variable in
      predicting later neurodevelopmental impairment via emissions of the agricultural
      air pollutant, nitrous oxide (N2O). RESULTS: Work in anesthesiology has
      demonstrated the neurological effects from subanesthetic doses of N2O, including
      its inhibition of the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha7), a
      receptor coupled to both central nitric oxide (NO) metabolism and peripheral anti
      inflammation. CONCLUSION: This correspondence explores how the aforementioned
      nutritional phenotypes found by Sayehmiri et al. in their systematic review may
      be a compensatory mechanism to counter the effects (namely, alpha7 inhibition) of
      air pollutant exposures occurring during the most critical stages of fetal
      development.

PMID- 28883882
TI  - Effects of Combined Far-Infrared Radiation and Acupuncture at ST36 on Peripheral
      Blood Perfusion and Autonomic Activities.
AB  - Using four-channel photoplethysmography (PPG) for acquiring peripheral arterial
      waveforms, this study investigated vascular and autonomic impacts of combined
      acupuncture-far infrared radiation (FIR) in improving peripheral circulation.
      Twenty healthy young adults aged 25.5 +/- 4.6 were enrolled for 30-minute
      measurement. Each subject underwent four treatment strategies, including
      acupuncture at ST36 (Zusanli), pseudoacupuncture, FIR, and combined acupuncture
      FIR at different time points. Response was assessed at 5-minute intervals. Area
      under arterial waveform at baseline was defined as AreaBaseline, whereas AreaStim
      referred to area at each 5-minute substage during and after treatment.
      AreaStim/AreaBaseline was compared at different stages and among different
      strategies. Autonomic activity at different stages was assessed using low-to-high
      frequency power ratio (LHR). The results demonstrated increased perfusion for
      each therapeutic strategy from stage 1 to stage 2 (all p < 0.02). Elevated
      perfusion was noted for all treatment strategies at stage 3 compared to stage 1
      except pseudoacupuncture. Increased LHR was noted only in subjects undergoing
      pseudoacupuncture at stage 3 compared to stage 1 (p = 0.045). Reduced LHR at
      stage 2 compared to stage 1 was found only in combined treatment group (p =
      0.041). In conclusion, the results support clinical benefits of combined
      acupuncture-FIR treatment in enhancing peripheral perfusion and parasympathetic
      activity.

PMID- 28883883
TI  - Atractylodin Induces Myosin Light Chain Phosphorylation and Promotes Gastric
      Emptying through Ghrelin Receptor.
AB  - Atractylodin is one of the main constituents in the rhizomes of Atractylodes
      lancea Thunb., being capable of treating cancer cachexia-anorexia and age-related
      diseases as an agonist of growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). GHSR was
      herein expressed in human gastric smooth muscle cells (HGSMCs) and activated by
      ghrelin receptor agonist L-692,585. Like L-692,585, atractylodin also increased
      Ca2+ and enhanced the phosphorylation of myosin light chain (MLC) through GHSR in
      HGSMCs. In addition, atractylodin promoted gastric emptying and MLC
      phosphorylation in the gastric antrum of mice also through GHSR. Collectively,
      atractylodin can activate GHSR in gastric smooth muscle, as a potential target in
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28883884
TI  - iTRAQ-Based Quantitative Proteomics Analysis of the Protective Effect of
      Yinchenwuling Powder on Hyperlipidemic Rats.
AB  - Yinchenwuling powder (YCL) is an effective traditional Chinese medicine formula
      to modulate lipid levels. In this study, we established hyperlipidemic rat models
      and treated them with YCL. The serum concentrations of lipid, malondialdehyde
      (MDA), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) were
      measured. Adventitia-free vascular proteins between hyperlipidemic rats and YCL
      treated rats were identified using iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics research
      approach. Proteins with 1.3-fold difference were analyzed through bioinformatics,
      and proteomic results were verified by Western blot. The results showed that the
      serum levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, ET-1, and MDA were significantly decreased,
      whereas the HDL-C and CGRP levels were significantly increased in the YCL-treated
      group. Proteomics technology identified 4,382 proteins, and 15 proteins were
      selected on the basis of their expression levels and bioinformatics. Of these
      proteins, 2 (Adipoq and Gsta1) were upregulated and 13 (C3, C4, C6, Cfh, Cfp,
      C8g, C8b, Lgals1, Fndc1, Fgb, Fgg, Kng1, and ApoH) were downregulated in the YCL
      treated rats. Their functions were related to immunity, inflammation, coagulation
      and hemostasis, oxidation and antioxidation, and lipid metabolism and transport.
      The validated results of ApoH were consistent with the proteomics results. This
      study enhanced our understanding on the therapeutic effects and mechanism of YCL
      on hyperlipidemia.

PMID- 28883885
TI  - Synergistic Antitumor Effects of Berbamine and Paclitaxel through ROS/Akt Pathway
      in Glioma Cells.
AB  - In our preliminary study, Berbamine (BA), one of the most commonly used
      traditional Chinese medicines, was effective in inducing the intracellular ROS
      levels. Since the regulation of cellular antioxidant capacity is crucial to the
      sensitivity of Ptx, it is feasible to propose that sensitizing cells to Ptx can
      be achieved through increasing the antioxidant capacity by codelivering BA.
      Cytotoxicity test demonstrates that either single or combinational treatment of
      BA and Ptx dose-dependently inhibits the proliferation of U-87 cells. Median
      effect analysis clearly proves the synergistic anticancer effect between BA and
      Ptx. Combinational treatment of both drugs induced more intracellular ROS
      generation than either of the drugs did. Cotreatment of NAC could partially
      reverse the ROS generation and ameliorate the cytotoxicity induced by BA plus
      Ptx. Moreover, sequential activation of ROS-dependent phosphor-Akt expression was
      dose-dependently inhibited by the combinational application of BA and Ptx, which
      was more significantly effective than the single treatment of either BA or Ptx.
      Additionally, the coadministration of BA and Ptx shows the strongest tumor
      delaying effect in a U87 xenograft model, demonstrating the synergism between two
      drugs. Therefore, BA is a promising adjuvant to traditional chemotherapy,
      especially in combination with Ptx, to treat malignant glioma.

PMID- 28883886
TI  - Differences in Complexion between Cold- and Heat-Prescription Groups in Sasang
      Medicine.
AB  - Sasang constitutional medicine (SCM) is a type of traditional Korean medicine
      (TKM) that classifies the human constitution into four types. The appearance of
      the complexion is one of the diagnostic factors of SCM but is rarely used in a
      quantitative and objective manner for diagnosis. In this study, an analysis using
      actual clinical data was conducted to assess the use of the complexion as a
      diagnostic element. A total of 528 Sasang medicine prescriptions from Korea
      Constitutional Multicenter Bank (KCMB) were classified into either a Cold
      prescription group or a Heat-prescription group, and the complexion differences
      of the patients were analyzed using the L*a*b* color space. After adjusting for
      age, BMI, and systolic blood pressure, significant differences were observed
      among the Cold- and Heat-prescription groups within each Sasang constitution.
      However, when the Sasang constitution was ignored, no significant difference was
      observed for either sex. This study quantitatively analyzed the complexion of
      patients, which is used as a diagnostic element in clinical practice. It is hoped
      that the results will contribute to objective medical treatments in the future,
      such as determining an appropriate herbal prescription based on the patient's
      complexion.

PMID- 28883887
TI  - Indices of immune function used by ecologists are mostly unaffected by repeated
      freeze-thaw cycles and methodological deviations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over the past couple of decades, measuring immunological parameters
      has become widespread in studies of ecology and evolution. A combination of
      different immunological indices is useful for quantifying different parts of the
      immune system and comprehensively assessing immune function. Running multiple
      immune assays usually requires samples to be repeatedly thawed and re-frozen.
      There is some evidence that repeated freezing and thawing can affect assay
      results, but this has never been comprehensively studied in some common
      ecological immunology assays. We tested the effect of multiple (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
      10) freeze-thaw cycles on the results of four commonly used immunological assays:
      haemolysis-haemagglutination titres, haptoglobin concentration, bacterial killing
      capacity and total immunoglobulins (IgY). We tested five different bird species
      from four different bird orders (Passeriformes, Columbiformes, Charadriiformes
      and Galliformes), and we included both captive and free-living individuals. In
      addition, we tested for haptoglobin concentrations and the haemolysis
      haemagglutination assay if re-analysing samples 1 year apart led to different
      results. For the haemolysis-haemagglutination assay we also tested two different
      sources of rabbit blood, and we compared untreated microtitre plates with plates
      that were "blocked" to prevent nonspecific interactions between the plate and
      assay reagents. RESULTS: Repeated freezing and thawing of plasma had no effect on
      lysis titres, haptoglobin concentrations, bacterial killing capacity, or total
      immunoglobulin levels. Agglutination titres were unaffected by up to five cycles
      but were lower after ten freeze-thaw cycles. For the haemolysis-haemagglutination
      assay and haptoglobin concentrations, re-analysing samples 1 year apart yielded
      highly correlated data. For the haemolysis-haemagglutination assay, the source of
      rabbit blood did not influence the results, and the untreated vs. blocked plates
      differed slightly overall, but at the individual level assay results were highly
      correlated. Using different rabbit blood sources or different types of microtitre
      plates yielded highly correlated data. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that
      repeated freeze-thaw cycles do not impair assay results to the point of
      influencing ecological or evolutionary conclusions. Plasma samples can be safely
      stored in one tube and thawed repeatedly for different assays. Nevertheless, we
      recommend consistent treatment of samples in terms of freeze-thaw cycles or other
      laboratory treatments to minimize the potential for introducing a systematic
      bias.

PMID- 28883888
TI  - Spectroscopic evidence of a new energy scale for superconductivity in H3S.
AB  - The discovery of a superconducting phase in sulfur hydride under high pressure
      with a critical temperature above 200 K has provided fresh impetus to the search
      for superconductors at ever higher temperatures. Although this systems displays
      all the hallmarks of superconductivity, the mechanism through which it arises
      remains to be determined. Here we provide a first optical spectroscopy study of
      this superconductor. Experimental results for the optical reflectivity of H3S,
      under hydrostatic pressure of 150 GPa, for several temperatures and over the
      range 60 to 600 meV of photon energies, are compared with theoretical
      calculations based on Eliashberg theory. Two significant features stand out: some
      remarkably strong infrared active phonons at around 160 meV, and a band with a
      depressed reflectance in the superconducting state in the region from 450 meV to
      600 meV. In this energy range H3S becomes more reflecting with increasing
      temperature, a change that is traced to superconductivity originating from the
      electron-phonon interaction. The shape, magnitude, and energy dependence of this
      band at 150 K agrees with our calculations. This provides strong evidence of a
      conventional mechanism. However, the unusually strong optical phonon suggests a
      contribution of electronic degrees of freedom.

PMID- 28883889
TI  - A review of factors affecting the transfer of sexual and reproductive health
      training into practice in low and lower-middle income country humanitarian
      settings.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A lack of access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care is the
      leading cause of morbidity and mortality among displaced women and girls of
      reproductive age. Efforts to address this public health emergency in humanitarian
      settings have included the widespread delivery of training programmes to address
      gaps in health worker capacity for SRH. There remains a lack of data on the
      factors which may affect the ability of health workers to apply SRH knowledge and
      skills gained through training programmes in humanitarian contexts. METHODS: We
      searched four electronic databases and ten key organizations' websites to locate
      literature on SRH training for humanitarian settings in low and lower-middle
      income countries. Papers were examined using content analysis to identify factors
      which contribute to health workers' capacity to transfer SRH knowledge, skills
      and attitudes learned in training into practice in humanitarian settings.
      RESULTS: Seven studies were included in this review. Six research papers focused
      on the response stage of humanitarian crises and five papers featured the
      disaster context of conflict. A range of SRH components were addressed including
      maternal, newborn health and sexual violence. The review identified factors,
      including appropriate resourcing, organisational support and confidence in health
      care workers that were found to facilitate the transfer of learning. The findings
      suggest the presence of factors that moderate the transfer of training at the
      individual, training, organisational, socio-cultural, political and health system
      levels. CONCLUSION: Supportive strategies are necessary to best assist trainees
      to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills in their work settings. These
      interventions must address factors that moderate the success of learning
      transfer. Findings from this review suggest that these are related to the
      individual trainee, the training program itself and the workplace as well as the
      broader environmental context. Organisations which provide SRH training for
      humanitarian emergencies should work to identify the system of moderating factors
      that affect training transfer in their setting and employ evidence-based
      strategies to ameliorate these.

PMID- 28883890
TI  - Facing the challenge of sustainable bioenergy production: Could halophytes be
      part of the solution?
AB  - Due to steadily growing population and economic transitions in the more populous
      countries, renewable sources of energy are needed more than ever. Plant biomass
      as a raw source of bioenergy and biofuel products may meet the demand for
      sustainable energy; however, such plants typically compete with food crops, which
      should not be wasted for producing energy and chemicals. Second-generation or
      advanced biofuels that are based on renewable and non-edible biomass resources
      are processed to produce cellulosic ethanol, which could be further used for
      producing energy, but also bio-based chemicals including higher alcohols, organic
      acids, and bulk chemicals. Halophytes do not compete with conventional crops for
      arable areas and freshwater resources, since they grow naturally in saline
      ecosystems, mostly in semi-arid and arid areas. Using halophytes for biofuel
      production may provide a mid-term economically feasible and environmentally
      sustainable solution to producing bioenergy, contributing, at the same time, to
      making saline areas - which have been considered unproductive for a long time -
      more valuable. This review emphasises on halophyte definition, global
      distribution, and environmental requirements. It also examines their enzymatic
      valorization, focusing on salt-tolerant enzymes from halophilic microbial species
      that may be deployed with greater advantage compared to their conventional
      mesophilic counterparts for faster degradation of halophyte biomass.

PMID- 28883891
TI  - The in vitro and ex vivo effect of Auranta 3001 in preventing Cryptosporidium
      hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cryptosporidium is a major cause of diarrhea worldwide in both humans
      and farm animals with no completely effective treatment available at present. In
      this study, we assessed the inhibitory effect of different concentrations of
      Auranta 3001 (0.1, 0.5 and 1%), a novel natural feed supplement, on C. hominis
      and C. parvum invasion of human ileocecal adenocarcinoma (HCT-8), bovine primary
      cells and C. parvum invasion of HCT-8, bovine primary cells and bovine intestinal
      biopsies. The effect of the feed supplement on the production of pro-inflammatory
      cytokines IL-8 and INF-gamma, the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, the
      expression of CpSUB1 protease gene during infection was also assessed by
      quantitative PCR (q-PCR). Transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) was
      employed to measure the integrity of tight junction dynamics of the culture
      models. RESULTS: Pre-treatment of intestinal cells or oocysts with the Auranta
      3001 significantly reduced the invasiveness of C. hominis and C. parvum against
      HCT-8 and bovine primary cells in a dose dependent manner. The most pronounced
      reduction in the invasiveness of both parasites was observed when Auranta 3001
      was present during infection. Levels of IL-8 were significantly reduced in both
      HCT-8 and bovine primary cells, while the levels of INF-gamma and IL-10 showed
      opposite trends in the two cell lines during infection in the presence of Auranta
      3001. CpSUB1 gene protease expression, which mediates infection, was
      significantly reduced suggesting that this enzyme is a possible target of Auranta
      3001. CONCLUSIONS: Although, C. hominis and C. parvum use different invasion
      mechanisms to infect cells, the novel feed additive can significantly attenuate
      the entry of Cryptosporidium in HCT-8 cells, primary bovine cells and bovine
      intestinal biopsies and thus provide an alternative method to control
      cryptosporidiosis.

PMID- 28883892
TI  - Impact of post-meal and one-time daily exercise in patient with type 2 diabetes
      mellitus: a randomized crossover study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the effectiveness of short-timed post-meal and one-time
      daily exercise on glycemic control in patients with T2DM. METHODS: Sixty-four
      T2DM patients were randomised into crossover design. Group A (n = 32) underwent
      post-meal exercise (moderate-intensity brisk walking covering 1500-1600 steps for
      15 min, starting 15 min after each meal) from d1 to d60 followed by one-time
      daily exercise (45 min pre-breakfast brisk walking at stretch covering 4500-4800
      steps) from d61 to d120, while it was vice versa for the group B (n = 32). The
      five-point blood glucose profile was performed on d1, d30, d60, d90 and d120, and
      HbA1c on d1, d60 and d120. Fitness wrist band was used for step-counting to
      ensure the intensity of exercise and compliance to exercise protocol. RESULTS:
      Group A patients showed a significant improvement in five point blood glucose
      profile and HbA1c after performing post-meal exercise (p < 0.001), which was
      mitigated after switchover to one-time daily exercise (p < 0.001). While, group B
      patients showed improvement in glucose profile and HbA1c (p < 0.001) after
      performing post-meal exercise, as compared to one-time daily exercise. Further,
      on pooled analysis (post-meal versus one-time daily exercise group) the
      beneficial effect of post-meal exercise on glucose profile and HbA1c was
      consistent as compared to one time daily exercise and the significance persisted
      on comparison between the two groups. No hypoglycemic events were noted between
      the groups during the study period. CONCLUSION: Post-meal exercise is more
      effective than routine one-time daily exercise for glycemic control in T2DM
      patients.

PMID- 28883893
TI  - The association between Alu hypomethylation and severity of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cellular senescence due to genomic instability is believed to be one
      of the mechanisms causing health problems in diabetes mellitus (DM). Low
      methylation levels of Alu elements or Alu hypomethylation, an epigenomic event
      causing genomic instability, were commonly found in aging people and patients
      with aging phenotypes, such as osteoporosis. RESULTS: We investigate Alu
      methylation levels of white blood cells of type 2 DM, pre-DM, and control. The DM
      group possess the lowest Alu methylation (P < 0.001, P < 0.0001 adjusted age). In
      the DM group, Alu hypomethylation is directly correlated with high fasting blood
      sugar, HbA1C, and blood pressure. CONCLUSION: Genome-wide hypomethylation may be
      one of the underlining mechanisms causing genomic instability in type 2 DM.
      Moreover, Alu methylation levels may be a useful biomarker for monitoring
      cellular senescence in type 2 DM patients.

PMID- 28883894
TI  - Epigenetic regulation of inflammation in localized aggressive periodontitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated a Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated
      hyper-responsive phenotype in our cohort of localized aggressive periodontitis
      (LAP) individuals. However, mechanisms related to this phenotype are still not
      clear in the literature. The objective of this cross-sectional study is to
      examine the role of epigenetic regulation, specifically DNA methylation status of
      genes in the TLR pathway in this cohort. Peripheral blood was collected from 20
      LAP patients and 20 healthy unrelated controls. Whole blood was stimulated with 1
      MUl (100 ng/MUl) of purified Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 24 h
      and cyto/chemokines in the supernatants analyzed by Luminex multiplex assays.
      Genomic DNA extracted from buffy coats prepared from a second tube of whole blood
      was used for DNA methylation analysis by pyrosequencing of seven TLR signaling
      genes (FADD, MAP3K7, MYD88, IL6R, PPARA, IRAK1BP1, RIPK2). RESULTS: Significant
      differences in the methylation status were observed at specific CpG positions in
      LAP patients compared to healthy controls and interestingly also between severe
      and moderate LAP. Specifically, subjects with moderate LAP presented
      hypermethylation of both the upregulating (MAP3K7, MYD88, IL6R, and RIPK2) and
      downregulating (FADD, IRAK, and PPARA) genes, while severe LAP presented
      hypomethylation of these genes. Further analysis on CpG sites with significant
      differences in methylation status correlates with an increased pro-inflammatory
      cytokine profile for LAP patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that
      epigenetic modifications of genes in the TLR pathway may orchestrate the
      thresholds for balancing induction and prevention of tissue destruction during
      the course of disease, and thus differ significantly at different stages of the
      disease, where moderate LAP shows hypermethylation and severe LAP shows
      hypomethylation of several genes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://clinicaltrials.gov,
      NCT01330719.

PMID- 28883895
TI  - Alterations of sorbin and SH3 domain containing 3 (SORBS3) in human skeletal
      muscle following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Obesity is a disease that is caused by genetic and environmental
      factors. However, epigenetic mechanisms of obesity are less well known. DNA
      methylation provides a mechanism whereby environmental factors can influence gene
      transcription. The aim of our study was to investigate skeletal muscle DNA
      methylation of sorbin and SH3 domain containing 3 (SORBS3) with weight loss
      induced by Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). RESULTS: Previously, we had shown
      increased methylation (5.0 to 24.4%) and decreased gene expression (fold change -
      1.9) of SORBS3 with obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) compared to lean controls. In the
      present study, basal muscle biopsies were obtained from seven morbidly obese (BMI
      > 40 kg/m2) female subjects pre- and 3 months post-RYGB surgery, in combination
      with euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamps to assess insulin sensitivity. We
      identified 30 significantly altered promoter and untranslated region methylation
      sites in SORBS3 using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). Twenty
      nine of these sites were decreased (- 5.6 to - 24.2%) post-RYGB compared to pre
      RYGB. We confirmed the methylation in 2 (Chr.8:22,423,690 and Chr.8:22,423,702)
      of the 29 decreased SORBS3 sites using pyrosequencing. This decreased methylation
      was associated with an increase in SORBS3 gene expression (fold change + 1.7)
      post-surgery. In addition, we demonstrated that SORBS3 promoter methylation in
      vitro significantly alters reporter gene expression (P < 0.0001). Two of the
      SORBS3 methylation sites (Chr.8:22,423,111 and Chr.8:22,423,205) were strongly
      correlated with fasting plasma glucose levels (r = 0.9, P = 0.00009 and r = 0.8,
      P = 0.0010). Changes in SORBS3 gene expression post-surgery were correlated with
      obesity measures and fasting insulin levels (r = 0.5 to 0.8; P < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that SORBS3 methylation and gene
      expression are altered in obesity and restored to normal levels through weight
      loss induced by RYGB surgery.

PMID- 28883896
TI  - Near-Wall Molecular Ordering of Dilute Ionic Liquids.
AB  - The interfacial behavior of ionic liquids promises tunable lubrication as well as
      playing an integral role in ion diffusion for electron transfer. Diluting the
      ionic liquids optimizes bulk parameters, such as electric conductivity, and one
      would expect dilution to disrupt the near-wall molecular ordering. We study this
      ordering in the ionic liquids [Emim]+[NTf2]-, [Emim]+[DCA]-, and [C4mpyr]+[NTf2]
      , diluted in the solvent dimethyl sulfoxide. We found a structural crossover from
      well-ordered ionic liquids to a well-ordered solvent with increasing dilution,
      but this occurs nonlinearly, with solvent molecules initially space-filling and
      solvating and later disrupting the ionic layers. This is of key importance for
      ionic liquids as optimized tunable nanolubricants.

PMID- 28883897
TI  - Mobility and Decay Dynamics of Charge Carriers in One-Dimensional Selenium van
      der Waals Solid.
AB  - Trigonal selenium is a semiconducting van der Waals solid that consists of
      helical atomic chains. We studied the mobility and decay dynamics of excess
      electrons and holes moving along the selenium chains. Excess charge carriers were
      generated by irradiation of powdered selenium with 3 MeV electron pulses. Their
      mobility and decay via trapping or recombination was studied by time-resolved
      microwave conductivity measurements as a function of temperature. The mobility of
      charge carriers along the Se chains is at least ca. 0.5 cm2.V-1.s-1 at room
      temperature. Charges decay predominantly by trapping at defects. The appreciable
      mobility, together with the potential for large-scale production of Se wires by
      liquid exfoliation, makes this material of great interest for use in
      nanoelectronics.

PMID- 28883898
TI  - Upregulation of PSMD10 caused by the JMJD2A histone demethylase.
AB  - PSMD10, also known as gankyrin, is associated with the proteasome and has been
      shown to be an oncoprotein in the liver. Here, we report that PSMD10 expression
      is stimulated by the histone demethylase JMJD2A/KDM4A and its interaction
      partner, the ETV1 transcription factor, in LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Global
      analysis of expression patterns revealed that PSMD10 mRNA levels are positively
      correlated with those of both JMJD2A and ETV1. In human prostate tumors, PSMD10
      is highly overexpressed at the protein level and correlates with JMJD2A
      overexpression; further, PSMD10 expression is enhanced in the prostates of
      transgenic JMJD2A mice. Moreover, PSMD10 is particularly overexpressed in high
      Gleason score prostate tumors. Downregulation of PSMD10 in LNCaP prostate cancer
      cells impaired their growth, indicating that PSMD10 may exert a pro-oncogenic
      function in the prostate. Lastly, we observed that PSMD10 expression is
      correlated to YAP1, a component of the Hippo signaling pathway and whose gene
      promoter is regulated by JMJD2A, and that PSMD10 can cooperate with YAP1 in
      stimulating LNCaP cell growth. Altogether, these data indicate that PSMD10 is a
      novel downstream effector of JMJD2A and suggest that inhibition of the JMJD2A
      histone demethylase by small molecule drugs may be effective to curtail the
      oncogenic activity of PSMD10 in various PSMD10-overexpressing tumors.

PMID- 28883899
TI  - Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester Reduces Ischemia-Induced Kidney Mitochondrial Injury
      in Rats.
AB  - During partial nephrectomy, the avoidance of ischemic renal damage is extremely
      important as duration of renal artery clamping (i.e., ischemia) influences
      postoperative kidney function. Mitochondria (main producer of ATP in the cell)
      are very sensitive to ischemia and undergo damage during oxidative stress.
      Finding of a compound which diminishes ischemic injury to kidney is of great
      importance. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), biologically active compound of
      propolis, might be one of the promising therapeutic agents against ischemia
      caused damage. Despite wide range of biological activities of CAPE, detailed
      biochemical mechanisms of its action at the level of mitochondria during ischemia
      are poorly described and need to be investigated. We investigated if CAPE (22
      mg/kg and 34 mg/kg, injected intraperitoneally) has protective effects against
      short (20 min) and longer time (40 min) rat kidney ischemia in an in vitro
      ischemia model. CAPE ameliorates in part ischemia-induced renal mitochondrial
      injury, improves oxidative phosphorylation with complex I-dependent substrate
      glutamate/malate, increases Ca2+ uptake by mitochondria, blocks ischemia-induced
      caspase-3 activation, and protects kidney cells from ischemia-induced necrosis.
      The protective effects on mitochondrial respiration rates were seen after shorter
      (20 min) time of ischemia whereas reduction of apotosis and necrosis and increase
      in Ca2+ uptake were revealed after both, shorter and longer time of ischemia.

PMID- 28883900
TI  - Corrigendum to "Paricalcitol Pretreatment Attenuates Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion
      Injury via Prostaglandin E2 Receptor EP4 Pathway".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2017/5031926.].

PMID- 28883901
TI  - Loss of Sigma-1 Receptor Chaperone Promotes Astrocytosis and Enhances the Nrf2
      Antioxidant Defense.
AB  - Sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R) functions as a chaperon that interacts with multiple
      proteins and lipids and is implicated in neurodegenerative and psychiatric
      diseases. Here, we used Sig-1R KO mice to examine brain expression profiles of
      astrocytes and ubiquitinated proteins, which are both hallmarks of central
      nervous system (CNS) pathologies. Our results showed that Sig-1R KO induces
      increased glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression in primary neuron
      glia cultures and in the whole brain of fetus mice with concomitantly increased
      accumulations of ubiquitinated proteins. Astrogliosis was also observed in the
      neuron-glia culture. Upon proteasome or autophagy inhibitor treatments, the
      pronounced ubiquitinated proteins were further increased in Sig-1R KO neurons,
      indicating that the Sig-1R regulates both protein degradation and quality control
      systems. We found that Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2), which
      functions to overcome the stress condition, was enhanced in the Sig-1R KO systems
      especially when cells were under stressful conditions. Mutation or deficiency of
      Sig-1Rs has been observed in neurodegenerative models. Our study identifies the
      critical roles of Sig-1R in CNS homeostasis and supports the idea that functional
      complementation pathways are triggered in the Sig-1R KO pathology.

PMID- 28883902
TI  - SIRT1 Activation by Resveratrol Alleviates Cardiac Dysfunction via Mitochondrial
      Regulation in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major threat for diabetic
      patients. Silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) has a regulatory effect on
      mitochondrial dynamics, which is associated with DCM pathological changes. Our
      study aims to investigate whether resveratrol, a SRIT1 activator, could exert a
      protective effect against DCM. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cardiac-specific SIRT1
      knockout (SIRT1KO) mice were generated using Cre-loxP system. SIRT1KO mice
      displayed symptoms of DCM, including cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction, insulin
      resistance, and abnormal glucose metabolism. DCM and SIRT1KO hearts showed
      impaired mitochondrial biogenesis and function, while SIRT1 activation by
      resveratrol reversed this in DCM mice. High glucose caused increased apoptosis,
      impaired mitochondrial biogenesis, and function in cardiomyocytes, which was
      alleviated by resveratrol. SIRT1 deletion by both SIRT1KO and shRNA abolished the
      beneficial effects of resveratrol. Furthermore, the function of SIRT1 is mediated
      via the deacetylation effect on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma
      coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1alpha), thus inducing increased expression of nuclear
      respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1), NRF-2, estrogen-related receptor-alpha (ERR-alpha),
      and mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac deletion of
      SIRT1 caused phenotypes resembling DCM. Activation of SIRT1 by resveratrol
      ameliorated cardiac injuries in DCM through PGC-1alpha-mediated mitochondrial
      regulation. Collectively, SIRT1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for
      DCM.

PMID- 28883903
TI  - Dietary Polyphenols, Mediterranean Diet, Prediabetes, and Type 2 Diabetes: A
      Narrative Review of the Evidence.
AB  - Dietary polyphenols come mainly from plant-based foods including fruits,
      vegetables, whole grains, coffee, tea, and nuts. Polyphenols may influence
      glycemia and type 2 diabetes (T2D) through different mechanisms, such as
      promoting the uptake of glucose in tissues, and therefore improving insulin
      sensitivity. This review aims to summarize the evidence from clinical trials and
      observational prospective studies linking dietary polyphenols to prediabetes and
      T2D, with a focus on polyphenol-rich foods characteristic of the Mediterranean
      diet. We aimed to describe the metabolic biomarkers related to polyphenol intake
      and genotype-polyphenol interactions modulating the effects on T2D. Intakes of
      polyphenols, especially flavan-3-ols, and their food sources have demonstrated
      beneficial effects on insulin resistance and other cardiometabolic risk factors.
      Several prospective studies have shown inverse associations between polyphenol
      intake and T2D. The Mediterranean diet and its key components, olive oil, nuts,
      and red wine, have been inversely associated with insulin resistance and T2D. To
      some extent, these associations may be attributed to the high amount of
      polyphenols and bioactive compounds in typical foods conforming this traditional
      dietary pattern. Few studies have suggested that genetic predisposition can
      modulate the relationship between polyphenols and T2D risk. In conclusion, the
      intake of polyphenols may be beneficial for both insulin resistance and T2D risk.

PMID- 28883904
TI  - Centella asiatica Attenuates Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress in
      Abeta-Exposed Hippocampal Neurons.
AB  - Centella asiatica has been used for centuries to enhance memory. We have
      previously shown that a water extract of Centella asiatica (CAW) protects against
      the deleterious effects of amyloid-beta (Abeta) in neuroblastoma cells and
      attenuates Abeta-induced cognitive deficits in mice. Yet, the neuroprotective
      mechanism of CAW has yet to be thoroughly explored in neurons from these animals.
      This study investigates the effects of CAW on neuronal metabolism and oxidative
      stress in isolated Abeta-expressing neurons. Hippocampal neurons from amyloid
      precursor protein overexpressing Tg2576 mice and wild-type (WT) littermates were
      treated with CAW. In both genotypes, CAW increased the expression of antioxidant
      response genes which attenuated the Abeta-induced elevations in reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation in Tg2576 neurons. CAW also improved
      mitochondrial function in both genotypes and increased the expression of electron
      transport chain enzymes and mitochondrial labeling, suggesting an increase in
      mitochondrial content. These data show that CAW protects against mitochondrial
      dysfunction and oxidative stress in Abeta-exposed hippocampal neurons which could
      contribute to the beneficial effects of the extract observed in vivo. Since CAW
      also improved mitochondrial function in the absence of Abeta, these results
      suggest a broader utility for other conditions where neuronal mitochondrial
      dysfunction occurs.

PMID- 28883906
TI  - Corrigendum to "Propofol Attenuates Small Intestinal Ischemia Reperfusion Injury
      through Inhibiting NADPH Oxidase Mediated Mast Cell Activation".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2015/167014.].

PMID- 28883905
TI  - Rosmarinic Acid Alleviates the Endothelial Dysfunction Induced by Hydrogen
      Peroxide in Rat Aortic Rings via Activation of AMPK.
AB  - Endothelial dysfunction is the key player in the development and progression of
      vascular events. Oxidative stress is involved in endothelial injury. Rosmarinic
      acid (RA) is a natural polyphenol with antioxidative, antiapoptotic, and anti
      inflammatory properties. The present study investigates the protective effect of
      RA on endothelial dysfunction induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Compared with
      endothelium-denuded aortic rings, the endothelium significantly alleviated the
      decrease of vasoconstrictive reactivity to PE and KCl induced by H2O2. H2O2
      pretreatment significantly injured the vasodilative reactivity to ACh in
      endothelium-intact aortic rings in a concentration-dependent manner. RA
      individual pretreatment had no obvious effect on the vasoconstrictive reaction to
      PE and KCl, while its cotreatment obviously mitigated the endothelium-dependent
      relaxation impairments and the oxidative stress induced by H2O2. The RA
      cotreatment reversed the downregulation of AMPK and eNOS phosphorylation induced
      by H2O2 in HAEC cells. The pretreatment with the inhibitors of AMPK (compound C)
      and eNOS (L-NAME) wiped off RA's beneficial effects. All these results
      demonstrated that RA attenuated the endothelial dysfunction induced by oxidative
      stress by activating the AMPK/eNOS pathway.

PMID- 28883908
TI  - Increased Levels of Oxidative Stress Markers, Soluble CD40 Ligand, and Carotid
      Intima-Media Thickness Reflect Acceleration of Atherosclerosis in Male Patients
      with Ankylosing Spondylitis in Active Phase and without the Classical
      Cardiovascular Risk Factors.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of the study was to assess levels of oxidative stress
      markers, soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), serum pregnancy-associated plasma protein
      A (PAPP-A), and placental growth factor (PlGF) as well as carotid intima-media
      thickness (IMT) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) with active phase
      without concomitant classical cardiovascular risk factors. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      The observational study involved 96 male subjects: 48 AS patients and 48 healthy
      ones, who did not differ significantly regarding age, BMI, comorbid disorders,
      and distribution of classical cardiovascular risk factors. In both groups, we
      estimated levels of oxidative stress markers, lipid profile, and inflammation
      parameters as well as sCD40L, serum PAPP-A, and PlGF. In addition, we estimated
      carotid IMT in each subject. RESULTS: The study showed that markers of oxidative
      stress, lipid profile, and inflammation, as well as sCD40L, PlGF, and IMT, were
      significantly higher in the AS group compared to the healthy group. CONCLUSION:
      Our results demonstrate that ankylosing spondylitis may be associated with
      increased risk for atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28883907
TI  - Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Diabetic Atherosclerosis: Herbal Medicines
      as a Potential Therapeutic Approach.
AB  - An increasing number of patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus eventually
      develop severe coronary atherosclerosis disease. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes
      mellitus increase the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with
      atherosclerosis. The cellular and molecular mechanisms affecting the incidence of
      diabetic atherosclerosis are still unclear, as are appropriate strategies for the
      prevention and treatment of diabetic atherosclerosis. In this review, we discuss
      progress in the study of herbs as potential therapeutic agents for diabetic
      atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28883910
TI  - Blood Interferon Signatures Putatively Link Lack of Protection Conferred by the
      RTS,S Recombinant Malaria Vaccine to an Antigen-specific IgE Response.
AB  - Malaria remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Progress has
      been made in recent years with the development of vaccines that could pave the
      way towards protection of hundreds of millions of exposed individuals. Here we
      used a modular repertoire approach to re-analyze a publically available
      microarray blood transcriptome dataset monitoring the response to malaria
      vaccination. We report the seminal identification of interferon signatures in the
      blood of subjects on days 1, 3 and 14 following administration of the third dose
      of the RTS,S recombinant malaria vaccine. These signatures at day 1 correlate
      with protection, and at days 3 and 14 to susceptibility to subsequent challenge
      of study subjects with live parasites. In addition we putatively link the
      decreased abundance of interferon-inducible transcripts observed at days 3 and 14
      post-vaccination with the elicitation of an antigen specific IgE response in a
      subset of vaccine recipients that failed to be protected by the RTS,S vaccine.

PMID- 28883909
TI  - Computing Platforms for Big Biological Data Analytics: Perspectives and
      Challenges.
AB  - The last decade has witnessed an explosion in the amount of available biological
      sequence data, due to the rapid progress of high-throughput sequencing projects.
      However, the biological data amount is becoming so great that traditional data
      analysis platforms and methods can no longer meet the need to rapidly perform
      data analysis tasks in life sciences. As a result, both biologists and computer
      scientists are facing the challenge of gaining a profound insight into the
      deepest biological functions from big biological data. This in turn requires
      massive computational resources. Therefore, high performance computing (HPC)
      platforms are highly needed as well as efficient and scalable algorithms that can
      take advantage of these platforms. In this paper, we survey the state-of-the-art
      HPC platforms for big biological data analytics. We first list the
      characteristics of big biological data and popular computing platforms. Then we
      provide a taxonomy of different biological data analysis applications and a
      survey of the way they have been mapped onto various computing platforms. After
      that, we present a case study to compare the efficiency of different computing
      platforms for handling the classical biological sequence alignment problem. At
      last we discuss the open issues in big biological data analytics.

PMID- 28883911
TI  - Antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation among coagulase-negative
      staphylococci isolated from clinical samples at a tertiary care hospital of
      eastern Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coagulase negative staphylococci were long regarded non-pathogenic as
      they are the commensals of human skin and mucosa but the recent changes in the
      medical practice and changes in underlying host populations, they are being
      considered significant pathogens associated with number of nosocomial infections.
      The objective of the study was to determine the species, antimicrobial
      susceptibility pattern, biofilm forming ability of the clinically significant
      CoNS isolates and to compare the different methods for the detection of biofilm
      formation. METHODS: A total of 52 clinically significant CoNS isolates obtained
      from different units during a year period were studied. Characterization was done
      using standard microbiological guidelines and antimicrobial susceptibility was
      done following CLSI guidelines. Biofilm formation was detected by using three
      methods i.e. tissue culture plate method, congo red agar method and tube
      adherence method. RESULTS: Among 52 isolates, S. epidermidis (52%) was the most
      common species which was followed by S. saprophyticus (18%) and S. haemolyticus
      (14%). Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of CoNS documented resistance of 80%
      to ampicillin. Resistance to cefoxitin and ceftriaxone was observed in 58% of the
      isolates. Biofilm formation was observed in 65.38% of the isolates. The accuracy
      of Congo red agar and tube adherence method for the detection of biofilm
      formation was 82% and 76% respectively. CONCLUSION: CoNS isolates obtained from
      clinical samples should be processed routinely and antimicrobial susceptibility
      testing should be performed. Multidrug-resistant CoNS are prevalent. All the
      three methods i.e. tissue culture plate, Congo red agar and tube adherence method
      can be used in detecting biofilm formation.

PMID- 28883912
TI  - Infection control at an urban hospital in Manila, Philippines: a systems
      engineering assessment of barriers and facilitators.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income countries, including
      the Philippines, face substantial challenges in achieving effective infection
      control. Early stages of interventions should include efforts to understand
      perceptions held by healthcare workers who participate in infection control
      programs. METHODS: We performed a qualitative study to examine facilitators and
      barriers to infection control at an 800-bed, private, tertiary hospital in
      Manila, Philippines. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 nurses,
      physicians, and clinical pharmacists using a guide based on the Systems
      Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS). Major facilitators and
      barriers to infection control were reported for each SEIPS factor: person,
      organization, tasks, physical environment, and technology and tools. RESULTS:
      Primary facilitators included a robust, long-standing infection control
      committee, a dedicated infection control nursing staff, and innovative electronic
      hand hygiene surveillance technology. Barriers included suboptimal dissemination
      of hand hygiene compliance data, high nursing turnover, clinical time
      constraints, and resource limitations that restricted equipment purchasing.
      CONCLUSIONS: The identified facilitators and barriers may be used to prioritize
      possible opportunities for infection control interventions. A systems engineering
      approach is useful for conducting a comprehensive work system analysis, and
      maximizing resources to overcome known barriers to infection control in heavily
      resource-constrained settings.

PMID- 28883913
TI  - Glucosamine supplementation during late gestation alters placental development
      and increases litter size.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During late gestation the placental epithelial interface becomes
      highly folded, which involves changes in stromal hyaluronan. Hyaluronan is
      composed of glucoronate and N-acetyl-glucosamine. We hypothesized that
      supplementing gestating dams with glucosamine during this time would support
      placental folded-epithelial-bilayer development and increase litter size. In Exp.
      1, gilts were unilaterally hysterectomized-ovariectomized (UHO). UHO gilts were
      mated and then supplemented daily with 10 g glucosamine (n = 16) or glucose
      (control, n = 17) from d 85 of gestation until slaughter (d 105). At slaughter,
      the number of live fetuses was recorded and each live fetus and its placenta was
      weighed. Uterine wall samples adjacent to the largest and smallest fetuses within
      each litter were processed for histology. In Exp. 2, pregnant sows in a
      commercial sow farm were supplemented with either 10 g glucosamine or glucose
      daily from d 85 of gestation to farrowing. Total piglets born and born alive were
      recorded for each litter. In Exp. 3, the same commercial farm and same protocol
      were used except that the dose of glucosamine and glucose was doubled to 20 g/d.
      RESULTS: In Exp. 1, the number of live fetuses tended to be greater in
      glucosamine-treated UHO gilts (P = 0.098). Placental morphometry indicated that
      the width of the folded bilayer was greater (P = 0.05) in glucosamine-treated
      gilts. In Exp. 2, litter size did not differ between glucosamine- and glucose
      treated sows. However in Exp. 3, the increased dose of glucosamine resulted in a
      significant treatment by parity interaction (P <= 0.01), in which total piglets
      born and born alive were greater in glucosamine treated sows of later parity (5
      and 6). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that glucosamine supplementation
      increased the width of the folds of the placental bilayer and increased litter
      size in later parity, intact pregnant commercial sows.

PMID- 28883914
TI  - Effect of recombinant and native buffalo OVGP1 on sperm functions and in vitro
      embryo development: a comparative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An oviduct- specific glycoprotein, OVGP1, is synthesized and secreted
      by non-ciliated epithelial cells of the mammalian oviduct which provides an
      essential milieu for reproductive functions. The present study reports the
      effects of recombinant buffalo OVGP1 that lacks post-translational modifications,
      and native Buffalo OVGP1 isolated from oviductal tissue, on frozen- thawed sperm
      functions and in vitro embryo development. RESULTS: The proportion of viable
      sperms was greater (P < 0.05) in the recombinant OVGP1-treated group compared to
      the native OVGP1-treated group at 2 h, 3 h, and 4 h of incubation. The proportion
      of motile sperms at 3 h and 4 h of incubation; and membrane- intact sperms at 4 h
      was greater (P < 0.05) in the native OVGP1-treated group compared to the control
      and recombinant OVGP1-treated groups. The proportion of capacitated and acrosome-
      reacted sperms was greater (P < 0.05) in the native OVGP1-treated group compared
      to the recombinant OVGP1 group at 4 h. The rates of cleavage of embryos and their
      development to the blastocyst stage were greater (P < 0.05) in the presence of
      either native or recombinant OVGP1 in comparison to control at 10 MUg/mL
      concentration as compared to 5 or 20 MUg/mL. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that
      both native and recombinant OVGP1 impart a positive effect on various sperm
      features and in vitro embryo development. However, native OVGP1 was found to have
      a more pronounced effect in comparison to recombinant non-glycosylated OVGP1 on
      various sperm functions except viability. Hence, our current findings infer that
      glycosylation of OVGP1 might be essential in sustaining the sperm functions but
      not the in vitro embryo development.

PMID- 28883915
TI  - Evaluation of fatty acid metabolism and innate immunity interactions between
      commercial broiler, F1 layer * broiler cross and commercial layer strains
      selected for different growth potentials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The broiler industry has undergone intense genetic selection over the
      past 50 yr. resulting in improvements for growth and feed efficiency, however,
      significant variation remains for performance and growth traits. Production
      improvements have been coupled with unfavourable metabolic consequences,
      including immunological trade-offs for growth, and excess fat deposition. To
      determine whether interactions between fatty acid (FA) metabolism and innate
      immunity may be associated with performance variations commonly seen within
      commercial broiler flocks, total carcass lipid %, carcass and blood FA
      composition, as well as genes involved with FA metabolism, immunity and cellular
      stress were investigated in male birds of a broiler strain, layer strain and F1
      layer * broiler cross at d 14 post hatch. Heterophil: lymphocyte ratios, relative
      organ weights and bodyweight data were also compared. RESULTS: Broiler bodyweight
      (n = 12) was four times that of layers (n = 12) by d 14 and had significantly
      higher carcass fat percentage compared to the cross (n = 6; P = 0.002) and layers
      (P = 0.017) which were not significantly different from each other (P = 0.523).
      The carcass and whole blood FA analysis revealed differences in the FA
      composition between the three groups indicating altered FA metabolism, despite
      all being raised on the same diet. Genes associated with FA synthesis and beta
      oxidation were upregulated in the broilers compared to the layers indicating a
      net overall increase in FA metabolism, which may be driven by the larger relative
      liver size as a percentage of bodyweight in the broilers. Genes involved in
      innate immunity such as TLR2 and TLR4, as well as organelle stress indicators
      ERN1 and XBP1 were found to be non-significant, with the exception of high
      expression levels of XBP1 in layers compared to the cross and broilers.
      Additionally there was no difference in heterophil: lymphocytes between any of
      the birds. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide evidence that genetic selection may
      be associated with altered metabolic processes between broilers, layers and their
      F1 cross. Whilst there is no evidence of interactions between FA metabolism,
      innate immunity or cellular stress, further investigations at later time points
      as growth and fat deposition increase would provide useful information as to the
      effects of divergent selection on key metabolic and immunological processes.

PMID- 28883916
TI  - Circulating leptin and its muscle gene expression in Nellore cattle with
      divergent feed efficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Leptin has a strong relation to important traits in animal
      production, such as carcass composition, feed intake, and reproduction. It is
      mainly produced by adipose cells and acts predominantly in the hypothalamus. In
      this study, circulating leptin and its gene expression in muscle were evaluated
      in two groups of young Nellore bulls with divergent feed efficiency. Individual
      dry matter intake (DMI) and average daily gain (ADG) of 98 Nellore bulls were
      evaluated in feedlot for 70 d to determinate the residual feed intake (RFI) and
      select 20 animals for the high feed efficient (LRFI) and 20 for the low feed
      efficient (HRFI) groups. Blood samples were collected on d 56 and at slaughter
      (80 d) to determine circulating plasma leptin. Samples of Longissimus dorsi were
      taken at slaughter for leptin gene expression levels. RESULTS: DMI and RFI were
      different between groups and LRFI animals showed less back fat and rump fat
      thickness, as well as less pelvic and kidney fat weight. Circulating leptin
      increased over time in all animals. Plasma leptin was greater in LRFI on 56 d and
      at slaughter (P = 0.0049). Gene expression of leptin were greater in LRFI animals
      (P = 0.0022) in accordance with the plasma levels. The animals of the LRFI group
      were leaner, ate less, and had more circulating leptin and its gene expression.
      CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrated that leptin plays its physiological role
      in young Nellore bulls, probably controlling food intake because feed efficient
      animals have more leptin and lower residual feed intake.

PMID- 28883917
TI  - Betaine affects muscle lipid metabolism via regulating the fatty acid uptake and
      oxidation in finishing pig.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Betaine affects fat metabolism in animals, but the specific mechanism
      is still not clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate possible
      mechanisms of betaine in altering lipid metabolism in muscle tissue in finishing
      pigs. METHODS: A total of 120 crossbred gilts (Landrace * Yorkshire * Duroc) with
      an average initial body weight of 70.1 kg were randomly allotted to three dietary
      treatments. The treatments included a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented
      with 0, 1250 or 2500 mg/kg betaine. The feeding experiment lasted 42 d. RESULTS:
      Betaine addition to the diet significantly increased the concentration of free
      fatty acids (FFA) in muscle (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the levels of serum
      cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were decreased (P < 0.05)
      and total cholesterol content was increased in muscle (P < 0.05) of betaine fed
      pigs. Experiments on genes involved in fatty acid transport showed that betaine
      increased expression of lipoprotein lipase(LPL), fatty acid translocase/cluster
      of differentiation (FAT/CD36), fatty acid binding protein (FABP3) and fatty acid
      transport protein (FATP1) (P < 0.05). The abundance of fatty acid transport
      protein and fatty acid binding protein were also increased by betaine (P < 0.05).
      As for the key factors involved in fatty acid oxidation, although betaine
      supplementation didn't affect the level of carnitine and malonyl-CoA, betaine
      increased mRNA and protein abundance of carnitine palmitransferase-1(CPT1) and
      phosphorylated-AMPK (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that betaine
      may promoted muscle fatty acid uptake via up-regulating the genes related to
      fatty acid transporter including FAT/CD36, FATP1 and FABP3. On the other hand,
      betaine activated AMPK and up-regulated genes related to fatty acid oxidation
      including PPARalpha and CPT1. The underlying mechanism regulating fatty acid
      metabolism in pigs supplemented with betaine is associated with the up-regulation
      of genes involved in fatty acid transport and fatty acid oxidation.

PMID- 28883919
TI  - A case of Klinefelter syndrome with hypersexual desire.
AB  - : Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a chromosomal disorder affecting males, with the
      typical karyotype of 47,XXY due to a supernumerary X chromosome, which causes
      progressive testicular failure resulting in androgen deficiency and infertility.
      Despite it being the most common sex chromosomal disorder, its diagnosis is
      easily missed. In addition to its classical clinical features of tall stature,
      gynaecomastia, small testes, and symptoms and signs of hypogonadism including
      infertility, KS is also often associated with neurocognitive, behavioural and
      psychiatric disorders. We present a 44-year-old man with KS who, despite having
      erectile dysfunction, paradoxically had increased libido. He used sildenafil to
      overcome his erectile dysfunction. Hypersexuality was manifested by very frequent
      masturbation, multiple sexual partners most of whom were casual, and a sexual
      offence conviction at the age of 17 years. Discussion focuses on the frequent
      failure of clinicians to diagnose KS, the neurocognitive, behavioural and
      psychiatric aspects of KS, this unusual presentation of hypersexuality in a man
      with KS, and the challenges of medical management of hypogonadism in a man with a
      history of a sexual offence. LEARNING POINTS: Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is common
      in men (about 1 in 600 males), but the diagnosis is very often missed.In addition
      to classic features of hypogonadism, patients with KS can often have associated
      neurocognitive, behavioural and/or psychiatric disorders.More awareness of the
      association between KS and difficulties related to verbal skills in boys could
      improve rates of early diagnosis and prevent longer-term psychosocial
      disability.Hypersexuality in the context of hypogonadism raises the possibility
      of sex steroid independent mechanistic pathways for libido.Testosterone
      replacement therapy in KS with hypersexuality should be undertaken with caution
      using a multidisciplinary team approach.

PMID- 28883918
TI  - Predicting intolerance of uncertainty in individuals with eating disorder
      symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) is recognized for its contribution to
      various psychopathologies, in particular anxiety and depression. Studies
      highlight the relevance of IU for Eating Disorders (EDs) however, potential
      factors contributing to IU in EDs remain unstudied. METHODS: Three hundred and
      forty-nine women with ED symptoms and 214 individuals without ED symptoms were
      recruited and compared on levels of IU, insecure (anxious and avoidant)
      attachment styles, extraversion and openness. Secondly, the contribution of these
      factors to IU were tested. RESULTS: Compared to the non-ED group, the ED group
      scored higher on IU, insecure attachment, and lower on extraversion and openness.
      Regression analyses confirmed that higher insecure attachment, and lower
      extraversion predicted higher IU scores in the ED group, and that insecure
      attachment predicted higher IU scores in the non-ED group. CONCLUSIONS: Results
      confirm the relevance of IU to ED, and demonstrate that personality traits and
      insecure attachment styles contribute to IU in ED. Findings add to the growing
      literature on IU in ED and suggest that people with EDs may benefit from clinical
      interventions targeting IU.

PMID- 28883920
TI  - Exogenous T3 toxicosis following consumption of a contaminated weight loss
      supplement.
AB  - : A 42-year-old male presented with a one-week history of palpitations and
      sweating episodes. The only significant history was of longstanding idiopathic
      dilated cardiomyopathy. Initial ECG demonstrated a sinus tachycardia. Thyroid
      function testing, undertaken as part of the diagnostic workup, revealed an un
      measureable thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (T4). Upon
      questioning the patient reported classical thyrotoxic symptoms over the preceding
      weeks. Given the persistence of symptoms free tri-iodothyronine (T3) was measured
      and found to be markedly elevated at 48.9 pmol/L (normal range: 3.1-6.8 pmol/L).
      No goitre or nodular disease was palpable in the neck. Historically there had
      never been any amiodarone usage. Radionucleotide thyroid uptake imaging (123I)
      demonstrated significantly reduced tracer uptake in the thyroid. Upon further
      questioning the patient reported purchasing a weight loss product online from
      India which supposedly contained sibutramine. He provided one of the tablets and
      laboratory analysis confirmed the presence of T3 in the tablet. Full symptomatic
      resolution and normalised thyroid function ensued upon discontinuation of the
      supplement. LEARNING POINTS: Free tri-iodothyronine (T3) measurement may be
      useful in the presence of symptoms suggestive of thyrotoxicosis with discordant
      thyroid function tests.Thyroid uptake scanning can be a useful aid to
      differentiating exogenous hormone exposure from endogenous
      hyperthyroidism.Ingestion of thyroid hormone may be inadvertent in cases of
      exogenous thyrotoxicosis.Medicines and supplements sourced online for weight loss
      may contain thyroxine (T4) or T3 and should be considered as a cause of
      unexplained exogenous hyperthyroidism.

PMID- 28883921
TI  - British Thoracic Society Guideline for oxygen use in adults in healthcare and
      emergency settings.

PMID- 28883922
TI  - Assessment of patient-reported outcome measures in pleural interventions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a lack of data evaluating the clinical effect on symptoms
      of pleural intervention procedures. This has led to the development of patient
      reported outcome measures (PROMs) to define what constitutes patient benefit. The
      primary aim of this paper was to prospectively assess the effect of pleural
      procedures on PROMs and investigate the relationship between symptom change and
      clinical factors. METHODS: We prospectively collected data as part of routine
      clinical care from 158 patients with pleural effusion requiring interventions.
      Specific questionnaires included two patient-reported scores (a seven-point
      Likert scale and a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) to assess symptoms).
      RESULTS: Excluding diagnostic aspiration, the majority of patients (108/126,
      85.7%) experienced symptomatic benefit from fluid drainage (mean VAS improvement
      42.6 mm, SD 24.7, 95% CI 37.9 to 47.3). There was a correlation between
      symptomatic benefit and volume of fluid removed post aspiration. A negative
      association was identified between the number of septations seen on ultrasound
      and improvement in dyspnoea VAS score in patients treated with intercostal chest
      drain. CONCLUSION: The results of our study highlight the effect of pleural
      interventions from a patient's perspective. The outcomes defined have the
      potential to form the basis of a clinical useful tool to appraise the effect,
      compare the efficiency and identify the importance of pleural interventions to
      the patients.

PMID- 28883924
TI  - Metabolic heterogeneity of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a metabolomic study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and fatal disease
      of unknown cause characterised by progressive fibrotic formation in lung tissue.
      We hypothesise that disrupted metabolic pathways in IPF contribute to disease
      pathogenesis. METHODS: Metabolomics of human IPF was performed using mass
      spectroscopy (IPF lung=8; donor lung=8). Gene expression of key metabolic enzymes
      was measured using microarrays. Of the 108 metabolites whose levels were found
      altered, 48 were significantly increased, whereas 60 were significantly decreased
      in IPF samples compared with normal controls. RESULTS: Specific metabolic
      pathways mediating the IPF remodelling were found with a downregulated
      sphingolipid metabolic pathway but an upregulated arginine pathway in IPF. In
      addition, disrupted glycolysis, mitochondrial beta-oxidation and tricarboxylic
      acid cycle, altered bile acid, haem and glutamate/aspartate metabolism were found
      in IPF samples compared with control. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show alterations
      in metabolic pathways for energy consumption during lung structural remodelling,
      which may contribute to IPF pathogenesis. We believe that this is the first
      report of simultaneously and systemically measuring changes of metabolites
      involving nine metabolic pathways in human severe IPF lungs. The measurement of
      the metabolites may serve in the future diagnosis and prognosis of IPF.

PMID- 28883923
TI  - Integrated care for resected early stage lung cancer: innovations and exploring
      patient needs.
AB  - There is no consensus as to the duration and nature of follow-up following
      surgical resection with curative intent of lung cancer. The integration of cancer
      follow-up into primary care is likely to be a key future area for quality and
      cost-effective cancer care. Evidence from other solid cancer types demonstrates
      that such follow-up has no adverse outcomes, similar health-related quality of
      life, high patient satisfaction rates at a lower cost to the healthcare system.
      Core elements for successful models of shared cancer care are required: clear
      roles and responsibilities, timely effective communication, guidance on follow-up
      protocols and common treatments and rapid routes to (re)access specialist care.
      There is thus a need for improved communication between hospital specialists and
      primary care. Unmet needs for patients with early stage lung cancer are likely to
      include psychological symptoms and carer stress; the importance of smoking
      cessation may frequently be overlooked or underappreciated in the current
      hospital-based follow-up system. There is therefore a need for quality randomised
      controlled trials of patients with resected early stage lung cancer to establish
      optimal protocols for primary care-based follow-up and to more adequately address
      patients' and carers' unmet psychosocial needs, including the crucial role of
      smoking cessation.

PMID- 28883925
TI  - Combining creative writing and narrative analysis to deliver new insights into
      the impact of pulmonary hypertension.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary hypertension is life limiting. Delays in diagnosis are
      common, and even after treatment has been initiated, pulmonary hypertension has
      marked effects on many aspects of social and physical function. We believed that
      a new approach to examining disease impact could be achieved through a
      combination of narrative research and creative writing. METHODS: Detailed
      unstructured narrative interviews with people with pulmonary hypertension were
      analysed thematically. Individual moments were also summarised and studied using
      creative writing, in which the interviewer created microstories from narrative
      and interview data. Stories were shared with their subjects, and with other
      patients, clinicians, researchers and the wider public. The study was carried out
      in hospital and in patients' homes. RESULTS: Narrative analysis generated a rich
      data set which highlighted profound effects of pulmonary hypertension on
      identity, and demonstrated how the disease results in very marked personal change
      with ongoing and unpredictable requirement for adaptation. The novel methodology
      of microstory development proved to be an effective tool to summarise,
      communicate and explore the consequences of pulmonary hypertension and the
      clinical challenges of caring for patients with this illness. CONCLUSIONS: A
      holistic approach to treatment of chronic respiratory diseases such as pulmonary
      hypertension requires and benefits from explicit exploration of the full impacts
      of the illness. Narrative analysis and the novel approach of targeted microstory
      development can form a valuable component of the repertoire of approaches to
      effectively comprehend chronic disease and can also facilitate patient-focused
      discussion and interventions.

PMID- 28883926
TI  - Clinical use of nintedanib in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare lung disease characterised by
      progressive loss of lung function, dyspnoea and cough. IPF has a variable
      clinical course but a poor prognosis. Nintedanib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is
      one of two drugs approved for the treatment of IPF. In clinical trials,
      nintedanib slowed disease progression by reducing the rate of decline in forced
      vital capacity (FVC) in patients with IPF and mild or moderate lung function
      impairment. The effect of nintedanib was consistent across patient subgroups
      defined by baseline characteristics including FVC % predicted, diffusion capacity
      of the lung for carbon monoxide % predicted and the presence of emphysema.
      Recently, it has been shown that the rate of decline in FVC and the treatment
      effect of nintedanib are the same in patients with preserved lung volume (FVC
      >90% predicted) as in patients with greater impairment in FVC, supporting the
      value of early treatment of IPF. The adverse events most commonly associated with
      nintedanib, both in clinical trials and real-world clinical practice, are mild
      gastrointestinal events, particularly diarrhoea. Side effects are manageable in a
      majority of patients through symptomatic treatment, dose reductions and treatment
      interruptions, enabling most patients to stay on treatment in the long term.

PMID- 28883928
TI  - CPAP IMPACT: a protocol for a randomised trial of bubble continuous positive
      airway pressure versus standard care for high-risk children with severe pneumonia
      using adaptive design methods.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pneumonia is a leading cause of mortality among children in low
      resource settings. Mortality is greatest among children with high-risk conditions
      including HIV infection or exposure, severe malnutrition and/or severe
      hypoxaemia. WHO treatment recommendations include low-flow oxygen for children
      with severe pneumonia. Bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) is a
      non-invasive support modality that provides positive end-expiratory pressure and
      oxygen. bCPAP is effective in the treatment of neonates in low-resource settings;
      its efficacy is unknown for high-risk children with severe pneumonia in low
      resource settings. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: CPAP IMPACT is a randomised clinical
      trial comparing bCPAP to low-flow oxygen in the treatment of severe pneumonia
      among high-risk children 1-59 months of age. High-risk children are stratified
      into two subgroups: (1) HIV infection or exposure and/or severe malnutrition; (2)
      severe hypoxaemia. The trial is being conducted in a Malawi district hospital and
      will enrol 900 participants. The primary outcome is in-hospital mortality rate of
      children treated with standard care as compared with bCPAP. ETHICS AND
      DISSEMINATION: CPAP IMPACT has approval from the Institutional Review Boards of
      all investigators. An urgent need exists to determine whether bCPAP decreases
      mortality among high-risk children with severe pneumonia to inform resource
      utilisation in low-resource settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02484183; Pre
      results.

PMID- 28883927
TI  - Listening panel agreement and characteristics of lung sounds digitally recorded
      from children aged 1-59 months enrolled in the Pneumonia Etiology Research for
      Child Health (PERCH) case-control study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Paediatric lung sound recordings can be systematically assessed,
      but methodological feasibility and validity is unknown, especially from
      developing countries. We examined the performance of acoustically interpreting
      recorded paediatric lung sounds and compared sound characteristics between cases
      and controls. METHODS: Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health staff in six
      African and Asian sites recorded lung sounds with a digital stethoscope in cases
      and controls. Cases aged 1-59 months had WHO severe or very severe pneumonia; age
      matched community controls did not. A listening panel assigned examination
      results of normal, crackle, wheeze, crackle and wheeze or uninterpretable, with
      adjudication of discordant interpretations. Classifications were recategorised
      into any crackle, any wheeze or abnormal (any crackle or wheeze) and primary
      listener agreement (first two listeners) was analysed among interpretable
      examinations using the prevalence-adjusted, bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK). We
      examined predictors of disagreement with logistic regression and compared case
      and control lung sounds with descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Primary listeners
      considered 89.5% of 792 case and 92.4% of 301 control recordings interpretable.
      Among interpretable recordings, listeners agreed on the presence or absence of
      any abnormality in 74.9% (PABAK 0.50) of cases and 69.8% (PABAK 0.40) of
      controls, presence/absence of crackles in 70.6% (PABAK 0.41) of cases and 82.4%
      (PABAK 0.65) of controls and presence/absence of wheeze in 72.6% (PABAK 0.45) of
      cases and 73.8% (PABAK 0.48) of controls. Controls, tachypnoea, >3
      uninterpretable chest positions, crying, upper airway noises and study site
      predicted listener disagreement. Among all interpretable examinations, 38.0% of
      cases and 84.9% of controls were normal (p<0.0001); wheezing was the most common
      sound (49.9%) in cases. CONCLUSIONS: Listening panel and case-control data
      suggests our methodology is feasible, likely valid and that small airway
      inflammation is common in WHO pneumonia. Digital auscultation may be an important
      future pneumonia diagnostic in developing countries.

PMID- 28883929
TI  - Frailty and patient-reported outcomes in subjects with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease: are they independent entities?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a hypothesis that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      (COPD) is an accelerated ageing disease. Frailty is a geriatric syndrome
      characterised by physical, psychological and social vulnerability, thought to be
      a feature of ageing. The authors aimed to explore the relationship between
      frailty and physiological and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in subjects with
      stable COPD. METHODS: We administered the Kihon Checklist that has been validated
      for frailty screening. We also assessed patient-reported measurements of health
      status and dyspnoea using the COPD Assessment Test (CAT), the St. George's
      Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), the Hyland Scale, the Medical Outcomes Study 36
      item short-form (SF-36), the Baseline Dyspnea Index (BDI) and the Dyspnea-12 (D
      12). Pulmonary function was also measured. RESULTS: Of 79 consecutive COPD
      outpatients, 38 (48.1%), 24 (30.4%) and 17 (21.5%) patients were classified as
      robust, prefrail and frail, respectively. The total Kihon Checklist score was
      significantly weakly to moderately correlated with the CAT score (Spearman's rank
      correlation coefficient (Rs)=0.38, p<0.01), the SGRQ total score (Rs=0.65,
      p<0.01), the Hyland Scale score (Rs=-0.54, p<0.01), all subscale scores of the SF
      36 (Rs=-0.64 to -0.31, p<0.01), the BDI score (Rs=-0.46, p<0.01) and the D-12
      score (Rs=0.41, p<0.01). We found no or only weak correlations between the total
      Kihon Checklist score and lung function measurements. We found statistically
      significant between-group (robust, prefrail and frail) differences in most PRO
      scores. Using stepwise multiple regression analyses to identify the variables
      that predicted the total Kihon Checklist score, the SGRQ total score alone
      significantly explained 49.1% of the variance (p<0.01). DISCUSSION: Frailty was
      significantly correlated with PROs, especially health status, unlike lung
      function. Frailty should be assessed in addition to PROs separately from lung
      function as part of multidimensional analyses of COPD.

PMID- 28883930
TI  - Breathing-swallowing discoordination is associated with frequent exacerbations of
      COPD.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Impaired coordination between breathing and swallowing (breathing
      swallowing discoordination) may be a significant risk factor for the exacerbation
      of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We examined breathing-swallowing
      discoordination in patients with COPD using a non-invasive and quantitative
      technique and determined its association with COPD exacerbation. METHODS: We
      recruited 65 stable outpatients with COPD who were enrolled in our prospective
      observational cohort study and did not manifest an apparent swallowing disorder.
      COPD exacerbation was monitored for 1 year before and 1 year after recruitment.
      Swallowing during inspiration (the I-SW pattern) and swallowing immediately
      followed by inspiration (the SW-I pattern) were identified. RESULTS: The mean
      frequency of the I-SW and/or SW-I patterns (I-SW/SW-I rate) was 21.5%+/-25.5%.
      During the 2-year observation period, 48 exacerbation incidents (25 patients)
      were identified. The I-SW/SW-I rate was significantly associated with the
      frequency of exacerbation. During the year following recruitment, patients with a
      higher I-SW/SW-I frequency using thicker test foods exhibited a significantly
      higher probability of future exacerbations (p=0.002, log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS:
      Breathing-swallowing discoordination is strongly associated with frequent
      exacerbations of COPD. Strategies that identify and improve breathing-swallowing
      coordination may be a new therapeutic treatment for patients with COPD.

PMID- 28883931
TI  - Rural to urban migration is associated with increased prevalence of childhood
      wheeze in a Latin-American city.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The urbanisation process has been associated with increases in
      asthma prevalence in urban and rural areas of low-income and middle-income
      countries (LMICs). However, although rural to urban migration and migration
      between cities are considered important determinants of this process, few studies
      have evaluated the effects of internal migration on asthma in urban populations
      of LMICs. The present study evaluated the effects of internal migration on the
      prevalence of wheeze in an urban area of Latin America. METHODS: We did a cross
      sectional analysis of 2510 schoolchildren living in the city of Esmeraldas,
      Ecuador. Logistic regression was used to analyse associations between childhood
      wheeze and different aspects of migration among schoolchildren. RESULTS: 31% of
      schoolchildren were migrants. Rural to urban migrants had a higher prevalence of
      wheeze, (adj.OR=2.01,95% CI1.30 to 3.01, p=0.001) compared with non-migrants. Age
      of migration and time since migration were associated with wheeze only for rural
      to urban migrants but not for urban to urban migrants. Children who had migrated
      after 3 years of age had a greater risk of wheeze (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.56 to 3.97,
      p=0.001) than non-migrants while migrants with less than 5 years living in the
      new residence had a higher prevalence of wheeze than non-migrants (<3 years:
      OR=2.34, 95% CI 1.26 to 4.33, p<0.007 and 3-5 years: OR=3.03, 95% CI 1.49 to
      6.15, p<0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides evidence that rural to urban
      migration is associated with an increase in the prevalence of wheeze among
      schoolchildren living in a Latin-American city. Age of migration and time since
      migration were important determinants of wheeze only among migrants from rural
      areas. A better understanding of the social and environmental effects of internal
      migration could improve our understanding of the causes of the increase in asthma
      and differences in prevalence between urban and rural populations.

PMID- 28883932
TI  - Effect of vitamin D3 on the antimicrobial activity of human airway surface
      liquid: preliminary results of a randomised placebo-controlled double-blind
      trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D3 supplementation has been reported to prevent lung
      infections and increase the gene expression of antimicrobial peptides such as
      cathelicidin. We investigated the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on the
      antimicrobial activity of airway surface liquid (ASL) in human subjects. Since
      smoking can increase the risk of respiratory infections, we also investigated the
      effect of smoking in the cathelicidin response to vitamin D3 in human airway
      epithelia in vitro. METHODS: This study is a subanalysis of single-centre
      community-based randomised placebo-controlled double-blind trial. Participants
      were randomised to receive 1000 international units per day of oral vitamin D3 or
      identical placebo for 90 days. Blood and ASL samples were collected
      preintervention and postintervention. 105 participants were originally enrolled,
      86 completed the trial, and due to low protein concentration in the samples, 40
      participants were finally analysed. Our primary outcome was ASL antimicrobial
      activity. We also considered secondary outcomes including changes in serum
      concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3), 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D3, calcium
      and parathyroid hormone (PTH). In addition, we studied the effect of cigarette
      smoke extract (CSE) exposure to primary human airway epithelial cell cultures on
      the gene expression of cathelicidin in response to vitamin D3 and expression of
      CYP27B1 (1-alpha hydroxylase), responsible for vitamin D3 activation. RESULTS:
      Vitamin D3 supplementation significantly increased both ASL antimicrobial
      activity and serum concentration of 25(OH)D3. In a subgroup analysis, we found
      that smokers did not increase their baseline antimicrobial activity in response
      to vitamin D3. Exposure to CSE on human airway epithelia decreased baseline
      CYP27B1 gene expression and cathelicidin response to 25(OH)D3. CONCLUSION:
      Vitamin D3 supplementation for 90 days increases ASL antimicrobial activity. Data
      from this preliminary study suggest that smoking may alter the ability of airway
      epithelia to activate vitamin D3 and increase the gene expression of cathelicidin
      antimicrobial peptide. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01967628; Post-results.

PMID- 28883933
TI  - Interventions for post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review
      of treatment efficacy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) due to traveler's
      diarrhea is the second most common illness seen in post-travel clinics, yet its
      optimal management remains unknown. We performed a systematic review to evaluate
      treatment efficacy in PI-IBS. METHODS: We searched Medline, EMBASE, LILACS,
      CINAHL, CAB abstracts, and the Cochrane Library to February 3, 2014 for
      intervention studies of the pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management of PI
      IBS and examined the evidence according to a modified Grading of Recommendations
      Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) scale. RESULTS: Of 336 records, 9
      studies were included. Eight studies of pharmacologic interventions examined 5
      agents (mesalazine or mesalamine, ondansetron, prednisolone, cholestyramine, and
      metronidazole). One study examined the non-pharmacologic intervention of
      different infant nutritional formulas following acute gastroenteritis. The
      quality of the evidence to date was low, with small sample size (fewer than 50
      participants) and short duration of follow-up. Overall, the efficacy of
      pharmacological treatment ranged from no benefit (ondansetron and prednisolone)
      to moderately beneficial (cholestyramine and metronidazole). The evidence for
      mesalazine was equivocal: one study showed benefit, two others showed none.
      CONCLUSIONS: Heterogeneity in outcome measures and low strength of evidence
      preclude recommendations on the optimal management of PI-IBS by a specific agent.
      More comparative intervention research into PI-IBS treatment is needed for
      consistent best practice in PI-IBS management. Clinicians may elect to pursue
      therapeutic trials of mesalazine, cholestyramine, or metronidazole in individual
      patients, but should be aware that data supporting the efficacy of these agents
      is limited.

PMID- 28883934
TI  - A cross-sectional analysis of clinical presentations of and risk factors for
      enteric protozoan Infections in an Active Duty Population during Operation Iraqi
      Freedom.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infectious travelers' diarrhea (TD) is a well-appreciated problem
      among service members serving abroad, particularly where infrastructure is
      limited due to ongoing combat operations, and efforts at sanitation and hygiene
      may not be considered an immediate priority. Bacterial and viral causes of
      travelers' diarrhea are well-described among deployed service members, however,
      gastrointestinal protozoan infections among deployed service members are less
      well documented. This study's purpose was to identify potential risk factors for,
      and clinical presentations of, enteric protozoan infections in an active duty
      military population deployed to combat operations in the Southwest Asia. METHODS:
      A cross-sectional study of enteric protozoan infections among US service members
      deployed in Al-Asad Air Base, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)
      was conducted in summer 2004. Subjects were obtained through a randomized sector
      sampling scheme, and through presentations for care at the air base medical
      facilities. All study participants provided a stool sample, either diarrhea or
      solid, upon study entry and completed a questionnaire documenting demographic
      information, clinical symptoms of any prior diarrheal episodes, and health risk
      behaviors. Basic diagnostic microscopy for protozoa was conducted to include acid
      fast and modified trichrome staining. RESULTS: Four hundred thirty-seven subjects
      were included in the analysis, and 75 (17.1 %) subjects were found to have
      enteric protozoan infections as identified by diagnostic stool microscopy.
      Blastocystis hominis (n = 36), Entamoeba coli (n = 25), Endolimax nana (n = 20),
      and Entamoeba histolytica (n = 5) were the predominant organisms isolated. Crude
      incidence of prior episodes of diarrhea was greater among subjects from whom
      enteric protozoa were isolated compared to those without (IRR 1.66, 95 % CI 1.47
      1.87). Bivariate analysis of health risk and hygiene behaviors found increased
      odds for presence of Blastocystis hominis among those service members who
      reported off base ice (OR 3.61, 95 % CI 1.40-9.28) and raw vegetable consumption
      (OR 8.18, 95 % CI 1.40-47.5). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that US service
      members deployed to the early stages of OIF were at greater risk of acquiring
      enteric protozoa than previously understood. The noted prevalence of enteric
      protozoa among US service members in this study is higher than in prior reports,
      approaching prevalence expected in the general host nation population, suggesting
      that US service members operating at Al-Asad Air Base in early OIF were exposed
      to greater degrees of fecally contaminated food and water, and poor hygienic and
      sanitation practices. Consumption of food and water prepared by host nation
      parties in Southwest Asia may place US service members at risk for acquiring
      intestinal protozoa.

PMID- 28883935
TI  - Travel risk behaviors as a determinants of receiving pre-travel health
      consultation and prevention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An estimated 30-60 % of travelers experience an illness while
      traveling. The incidence of travel-related illness can be reduced by preventive
      measures such as those provided by the Traveler Health Clinic (THC) in Kuwait.
      METHODS: The present study is an analytical comparative study between groups of
      travelers visiting the THC during the study period (May 2009 - December 2010) and
      an age- and gender-matched control group of non-visitors (800 people). Both
      groups completed a modified pre-departure questionnaire. RESULTS: Bivariate
      analysis revealed that Kuwaitis (68.2 %), those traveling for work (25.3 %) or
      leisure (59.5 %), those living in camps (20.4 %) or hotels (64.0 %), and those
      with knowledge of the THC from the media (28.1 %) or other sources (57.3 %), were
      more likely to be associated with a high frequency of visits to the THC (p <
      0.001). Additionally, travelers heading to Africa (47 %) and South America (10 %)
      visited the THC more than did others (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed
      that nationality, followed by purpose of travel, duration of stay, and choice of
      travel destination are independent predictors of receiving pre-travel
      consultation from the THC. CONCLUSION: Nationality, purpose of travel, length of
      stay, and travel destination are predictors for receiving a pre-travel
      consultation from the THC.

PMID- 28883936
TI  - Drug resistance in bacteria isolated from patients presenting with wounds at a
      non-profit Surgical Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 2011-2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Emerging antibiotic resistance amongst clinically significant
      bacteria is a public health issue of increasing significance worldwide, but it is
      relatively uncharacterized in Cambodia. In this study we performed standard
      bacterial cultures on samples from wounds at a Non-Governmental-Organization
      (NGO) Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Testing was performed to elucidate
      pathogenic bacteria causing wound infections and the antibiotic resistance
      profiles of bacterial isolates. All testing was performed at the Naval Medical
      Research Unit, No.2 (NAMRU-2) main laboratory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. METHODS:
      Between 2011-2013, a total of 251 specimens were collected from patients at the
      NGO hospital and analyzed for bacterial infection by standard bacterial cultures
      techniques. Specimens were all from wounds and anonymous. No specific clinical
      information accompanied the submitted specimens. Antibiotic susceptibility
      testing, and phenotypic testing for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) were
      performed and reported based on CLSI guidelines. Further genetic testing for CTX
      M, TEM and SHV ESBLs was accomplished using PCR. RESULTS: One-hundred and seventy
      six specimens were positive following bacterial culture (70 %). Staphlycoccus
      aureus was the most frequently isolated bacteria. Antibiotic drug resistance
      testing revealed that 52.5 % of Staphlycoccus aureus isolates were oxacillin
      resistant. For Escherichia coli isolates, 63.9 % were ciprofloxacin and
      levofloxacin resistant and 96 % were ESBL producers. Resistance to meropenem and
      imipenem was observed in one of three Acinetobacter spp isolates. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study is the first of its kind detailing the antibiotic resistance profiles
      of pathogenic bacteria causing wound infections at a single surgical hospital in
      Cambodia. The reported findings of this study demonstrate significant antibiotic
      resistance in bacteria from injured patients and should serve to guide treatment
      modalities in Cambodia.

PMID- 28883937
TI  - The local importance of global infectious diseases.

PMID- 28883939
TI  - Perceived risk of watery diarrhea and dysentery and intended compliance with
      chemoprophylaxis among a deployed military population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases are a leading cause of morbidity among travelers
      to resource-limited regions and primary prevention is a cornerstone to risk
      reduction. Chemoprophylaxis has been successfully utilized for specific diseases.
      METHODS: We assessed self-reported compliance to daily chemoprophylaxis among
      deployed US military personnel. A 21 item self-completed questionnaire was
      completed by military personnel during mid-deployment. RESULTS: The perception of
      high disease risk was associated with an increased likelihood of compliance with
      daily chemoprophylaxis. However, 60 % of respondents stated they would not comply
      with a daily regimen. CONCLUSIONS: These data highlight the complexity of
      perceived risk and the difficulties with prophylactic interventions.

PMID- 28883938
TI  - The converging burdens of infectious and non-communicable diseases in rural-to
      urban migrant Sub-Saharan African populations: a focus on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis
      and cardio-metabolic diseases.
AB  - Africa has the unenviable challenge of dealing with a double burden of disease:
      infectious diseases (IDs) such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are high while non
      communicable diseases (NCDs) are rapidly rising in the region. Populations with
      increased susceptibility to both include migrants. This review highlights the
      susceptibility of rural-to-urban migrants in Sub-Saharan Africa to the IDs of
      HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and to NCDs, particularly cardiovascular diseases. The
      disruption that occurs with migration is often accompanied by unhealthy exposures
      and environments. These include partaking in risky sexual practices and a
      subsequent greater risk for HIV infection in migrants than the general
      populations which contributes to the spread of the disease. Migrants frequently
      work and live in conditions that are poorly ventilated and overcrowded with
      suboptimal sanitation which increases their risk for tuberculosis. Considering
      that migrants have an increased risk of acquiring both HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis,
      and in view of the interaction between these diseases, they are likely to be at
      high risk for co-infection. They are also likely to facilitate the geographical
      spread of these infections and serve as conduits of disease dissemination to
      rural areas. Changes in lifestyle behaviours that accompany migration and
      urbanisation are exemplified primarily by shifts in physical activity and dietary
      patterns which promote the development of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and
      cardiovascular diseases. Urban living and employment is generally less physically
      exerting than rural routines; when migrants relocate from their rural residence
      they adapt to their new environment by significantly reducing their physical
      activity levels. Also, nutritional patterns among migrants in urban centres
      change rapidly with a shift to diets higher in fat, sugar and salt. Consequently,
      increases in weight, blood pressure and glucose levels have been reported within
      a year of migration. Interactions between IDs and NCDs are common; considering
      that migrants have an increased susceptibility to IDs and demonstrate a rapid
      rise in their risk for NCDs, the concurrent prevalence of both is likely in this
      population. There is a need for a combined strategy to combat IDs and NCDs with
      screening and treatment programmes geared towards this high risk group.

PMID- 28883940
TI  - Correlating quantitative real-time PCR to rapid diagnostic test and RNA
      transcript expression in isolated gametocytemia and asexual parasitemia of
      Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: At present, only microscopic examination of stained thick and thin
      blood smears for malaria can differentiate clinically relevant asexual
      parasitemia from clinically irrelevant isolated gametocytemia. Microscopy is time
      consuming, labour intensive, and requires significant technical expertise to
      perform. Simple and rapid tests that can distinguish asexual from isolated sexual
      parasitemia are needed. METHODS: To determine if parasitemia and cycle threshold
      (CT) values on Plasmodium genus and P. falciparum-specific quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays correlate to positivity of rapid
      diagnostic test (RDT), and 18S rRNA gene copy number, we analyzed blood samples
      from Ontario patients with isolated P. falciparum gametocytemia or asexual
      stages. RNA transcripts were evaluated to determine whether there is correlation
      of expression to different life cycle stages of P. falciparum. RESULTS: 45
      specimens containing isolated P. falciparum gametocytes, and 40 specimens
      containing isolated asexual stages by microscopy were identified and analyzed. By
      RDT, 40 of 45 (88.9 %) isolated gametocytemia specimens and 40 of 40 (100 %)
      asexual-stage specimens were positive for Plasmodium falciparum-specific
      histidine rich protein-2 (HRP-2). Fourteen of 45 (31.1 %) isolated gametocytemia
      specimens, and 36 of 40 (90 %) asexual-stage specimens were positive for
      Plasmodium genus aldolase T2 band. Positivity of the aldolase T2 band was
      associated with lower mean Plasmodium genus and P. falciparum-specific CT values,
      and to higher mean 18S rRNA gene copy by qPCR for both isolated gametocytemia and
      asexual-stage specimens. There was also a negative correlation of asexual
      parasitemia to both CT values, and positive correlation to 18S rRNA gene copy
      number. Analysis of asexual stage-specific erythrocyte binding antigen (eba-175)
      transcripts on 25 isolated gametocytemia and 20 asexual-stage specimens gave a
      positive predictive value of 62.5 % and negative predictive value of 100 % for
      asexual parasitemia. Thus, an absence of eba-175 transcripts excluded the
      presence of asexual (clinically relevant) parasitemia. CONCLUSIONS: Positivity of
      the aldolase T2 band of BinaxNow RDT correlated to higher parasite load in both
      isolated gametocytemia and asexual-stage specimens. Asexual stage-specific eba
      175 RNA transcript expression provided reasonable negative predictive value for
      exclusion of asexual parasitemia in clinical samples, but was present in both
      isolated gametocytemia and asexual stage specimens.

PMID- 28883941
TI  - A cross-sectional household cluster serosurvey of hepatitis C virus antibodies in
      an urban slum of Cairo, Egypt in 2004.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) continues to be a burden to the Egyptian
      population and its economy. Despite all efforts, the prevalence of infection
      continues to be one of the highest in the world. The high national prevalence has
      been attributed to unintentional, nosocomial spread during an anti
      schistosomiasis campaign conducted in the 1970's, but that does not fully explain
      the persistent infection rates. Work is needed to further clarify risk
      associations. A serosurvey was performed in Manshiet Nasser, a slum in Cairo
      sometimes referred to as Mokattem Hills where a primary occupation is garbage
      collection and sorting, to characterize potential risk factors for infection.
      METHODS: Following a detailed mapping and census of the area, a cluster sampling
      was performed and demographic and risk behavior data and a blood sample were
      collected from subjects older than 6 months. Blood samples were tested using 4th
      generation anti-HCV EIA kit. RESULTS: The slum was estimated to house 45,000
      residents. Blood samples were obtained from 2169 subjects. The age adjusted anti
      HCV seroprevalence was 9.1 %. Participants with HCV antibodies were more likely
      to be male, heads of households, subjects without formal education, and those
      with a lower standard of living. After adjustment of all prevalence ratios (aPR)
      for age, the following risk factors were significantly associated with higher
      risk of HCV infection: Garbage collection (aPR 1.5), history of blood transfusion
      (aPR 2.0), tattooing (aPR 1.4), history of schistosomiasis (aPR 1.5), and use of
      traditional latrines (aPR 2.0) or pits for sanitation (aPR 1.3). The results of
      the multivariate analysis indicated that age (p < 0.01), history of
      schistosomiasis (p < 0.05), garbage sorting (p = 0.05), blood transfusions
      (<0.001), and the use of traditional latrines for sanitation (p < 0.01) were
      significantly associated with infection. CONCLUSION: While HCV prevalence among
      those over 30 could be attributed to anti-schistosomiasis injections, the
      prevalence in younger age indicates ongoing transmission. Although specific
      behavioral risks were not identified, HCV infection appears to be an occupational
      hazard of garbage collection and sorting in this environment. Given the large
      reservoir of HCV infection in the population, further effort needs to be made to
      identify and mitigate new infections.

PMID- 28883942
TI  - Japanese encephalitis: a review of clinical guidelines and vaccine availability
      in Asia.
AB  - Travelers to Asia are at risk for acquiring Japanese Encephalitis (JEV), an
      arbovirus with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Recent advances in
      vaccination resulting in vaccines with low rates of side effects have
      strengthened the rationale to vaccinate more travelers to this region, as
      reflected in many updated national guidelines for prevention of disease in
      travelers. Vaccines however still require a complex pre-travel schedule and are
      costly, often leading to a requirement or desire for a vaccination option in the
      destination country. We explore current national guidelines for prevention of
      Japanese Encephalitis and seek to provide information on availability of JEV
      vaccines in various Asian countries.

PMID- 28883943
TI  - Phenomenological analysis of going home in Caribbean-American international
      travelers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In travel health risk assessments visiting friends and relatives
      (VFR) travel status is often used as an indicator for high-risk travel behavior.
      VFR travelers have been associated with increased risk of travel-associated
      illnesses due to poor adherence to travel guidelines and lack of pre-travel
      health consultations. For travelers to dengue endemic regions, guidelines include
      compliance with mosquito avoidance practices (MAP). The goal of this study is to
      understand the meaning of travel experiences to the home country for immigrant
      and first generation American VFR travelers in the United States (US). METHODS: A
      phenomenology study was conducted on VFR travelers to identify social and
      physical environmental factors associated with travel health behaviors, and
      determine how 'going home' influences compliance with recommendations for dengue
      prevention. Purposive sampling identified participants for semi-structured
      interviews on travel behavior with iterative collection and analysis until data
      reached saturation. RESULTS: Interviews revealed five themes that defined the
      experience of going home: connectedness; control of the experience; two different
      experiences at home; seeing what home has to offer; and there is no place like
      home. Moreover, risk perception of health and disease risks in the travel
      destination influenced travel behavior and compliance with guidelines.
      CONCLUSIONS: VFR travel status does not fully capture the experience of
      international travel. Behavior was associated with the emergent concept of
      Cultural Embeddedness when traveling home and to new destinations. More research
      on improving terminology for travel health risk assessments is needed to improve
      prevention strategies in VFR travelers.

PMID- 28883944
TI  - Epidemiology of tunga penetrans infestation in selected areas in Kiharu
      constituency, Murang'a County, Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tungiasis is a parasitic skin disease brought about by female Tunga
      penetrans when they burrow into the skin of their hosts. It is a disease that has
      largely been ignored. Epidemiology of tungiasis has not been widely studied in
      Kenya which could negatively affect effective intervention strategies. This study
      therefore sought to investigate epidemiology of tungiasis in selected areas in
      Kiharu constituency, Murang'a County in Kenya. METHODS: The study population
      comprised of public primary school pupils, the most vulnerable age group (n =
      508) in Gaturi, Kimathi, Kahuhia and Mugoiri in Kiharu constituency. Public
      primary school pupils in the study area were randomly sampled. Through
      questionnaires and observations, data was collected. RESULTS: The overall
      prevalence of tungiasis in pupils in the study area was 19.1 %. In multinomial
      logistic regression analysis some factors were identified to be associated with
      tungiasis such as lack of regular use of closed foot ware (Adjusted odds ratio =
      10.45; 95 % Confidence Interval; 1.49-73.23), living in earthen mud walled houses
      (aOR = 13.78; 95 % CI = 3.127-60.69), sharing living quarters with domestic
      animals (aOR = 3.1; 95 % CI = 0.003-.046) and learning in classrooms with dusty
      floors (aOR = 14.657; 95 % CI = 2.262-94.95). Treatment of tungiasis was found to
      be mainly through mechanical removal of embedded T. penetrans. CONCLUSION: This
      study shows that tungiasis in the selected study areas of Kiharu constituency is
      a disease of significant health concern. Factors associated with tungiasis were
      identified that should be the focus of sustainable and effective control
      measures.

PMID- 28883945
TI  - Norovirus: new developments and implications for travelers' diarrhea.
AB  - Noroviruses are the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States
      and are responsible for at least 50 % of acute gastroenteritis outbreaks
      occurring worldwide each year. In addition, noroviruses have caused outbreaks on
      cruise ships, in nursing homes and hospitals, and in deployed military personnel,
      but its role in the etiology of travelers' diarrhea is not well defined. The aim
      of this review is to describe the role of noroviruses in travelers' diarrhea in
      terms of epidemiology, current diagnostics, treatment and vaccine development
      efforts. Studies have shown prevalence rates of noroviruses in travelers'
      diarrhea cases ranging from 10-65 %. It is likely that norovirus prevalence rates
      are highly underestimated in travelers' diarrhea due to rapid onset, short
      duration of the illness, limited availability of laboratory facilities, and the
      fact that most clinical laboratories lack the diagnostic capability to detect
      noroviruses in stool. Further, additional studies are needed to accurately
      determine the true prevalence rates of norovirus as an etiologic agent of
      diarrhea among travelers to different regions around the world. With the rapid
      progress in the development of a norovirus vaccine, travelers could serve as an
      ideal population for future norovirus clinical trials.

PMID- 28883946
TI  - Malaria in the returning older traveler.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased co-morbidities and physiological changes mean older
      patients may be at higher risk of adverse outcomes from certain imported
      illnesses. One of the most commonly diagnosed imported infections in returning
      travelers is malaria. Increasing age is strongly and independently associated
      with increasing morbidity and mortality from malaria. Delayed diagnosis leads to
      higher risks of poor clinical outcomes in older patients presenting with malaria.
      The objective of this study was to quantify malaria presentations in older
      patients as a percentage of total malaria presentations, compare length of
      hospital stay (LOS) between the older and younger cohort, and to describe medical
      co-morbidities, length of time to diagnosis and factors contributing to delayed
      diagnosis and increased LOS in the older cohort. METHODS: A retrospective cohort
      study was undertaken in two university hospitals of all patients aged 65 years or
      older presenting with malaria from 2002-2012. A national hospital inpatient
      database was used to identify patients of all ages with a discharge diagnosis of
      malaria over this ten year period, and quantify LOS in those aged <65 and those
      aged 65 years or older. The case-notes for all of the older cohort were reviewed.
      RESULTS: There were a total of 203 cases, 12 of whom were aged >=65 years (5.9 %-
      total). Median time to diagnosis in this older group was two days (range 0-35),
      median LOS was eight days (range 1-77), compared to a median LOS of three days in
      those aged <65 years. All patients aged >=65 years presented with fever. Travel
      history was documented in only 6/12 charts, and 11/12 had two or more co-morbid
      illnesses. Six of the 12 patients were not diagnosed or treated within 48 h of
      presentation. CONCLUSIONS: This case series highlights the need for appropriate
      history-taking and timely diagnosis of the older traveler returning with fever,
      as delayed diagnosis and treatment can contribute to prolonged hospital stay and
      increased morbidity. With increasing numbers of older travelers, physicians must
      remain vigilant to the presence of imported illnesses, particularly malaria, in
      older patients with unexplained fever.

PMID- 28883947
TI  - Ecotourism as a source of infection with Schistosoma mansoni in Minas Gerais,
      Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In recent years, a new pattern of schistosomiasis transmission has
      been described which is related to recreational activities associated with rural
      or ecological tourism and migratory flows and accompanying changes in social
      dynamics in Brazil. The objective of this report is to describe two
      schistosomiasis outbreaks that occurred during the practice of rural tourism in
      Minas Gerais, Brazil, and review this pattern of transmission within the wider
      context of schistosomiasis control. FINDINGS: The first outbreak was
      characterized by its high infection rate, showing that 59 % of the exposed eco
      tourists became positive for infection with Schistosoma mansoni. In addition, all
      three disease transmitting species of intermediate host snails were found in the
      area. In the second outbreak, all members of one tourist family were infected and
      reported contact with water in a well-known tourist area. The malacological
      survey in the region revealed an infection rate with S. mansoni of 8.3 % among
      the collected snails. CONCLUSIONS: Infection of urban dwellers that report
      contact with contaminated water associated with ecotourism represents a new
      pattern of disease transmission and dissemination. The infection with the disease
      at these occasions finds its expression in outbreaks of acute schistosomiasis
      among internal tourists to rural areas. Therefore, epidemiological surveillance
      in endemic areas should be aware of this schistosomiasis transmission pattern,
      and a multidisciplinary approach, most of all sanitation and health education
      measures, is required in order increase the efficiency of control strategies.

PMID- 28883948
TI  - Antimicrobial resistance acquisition after international travel in U.S.
      travelers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prior studies have shown an increase in multidrug-resistant (MDR) E.
      coli colonization from two percent in U.S.-based to 11 % in deployed, healthy
      military personnel. It is unclear if colonization with MDR organisms occurs
      through deployment exposures or risks related to routine overseas travel. This
      study prospectively evaluates rates and risk factors associated with MDR gram
      negative bacterial and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) colonization after
      international travel. METHODS: Participants traveled internationally for five or
      more days. Pre- and post-travel, colonizing bacteria from oropharyngeal, nares,
      groin, and peri-rectal (PR) areas were collected using BD CultureSwabTM MaxV(+).
      Identification and susceptibilities were done utilizing the BD PhoenixTM
      Automated Microbiology System. Non-MDR pre- and post-travel MDR bacteria within a
      subject were compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). A questionnaire
      solicited demographics and potential risk factors for MDR acquisition. RESULTS:
      Of 58 participants, 41 % were male and median age was 64 years. Pre- and post
      travel swabs were obtained a median of ten and seven days before and after
      travel, respectively. Itineraries included 18 participants traveling to the
      Caribbean and Central America, 17 to Asia, 16 to Africa, 5 to Europe, 4 to South
      and North America. Seventeen of 22 travelers used atovaquone/proguanil for
      malaria prophylaxis. The only MDR organism isolated was extended-spectrum beta
      lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli in five (9 %) participants post-travel (all PR
      and unrelated by PFGE). There were no statistically significant associations
      between exposure risks and new ESBL-producing E.coli colonization. Of 36
      participants colonized with E. coli pre- and post-travel, new resistance was
      detected: TMP/SMX in 42 % of isolates (p < 0.01), tetracycline in 44 % (p <
      0.01), and ampicillin-sulbactam in 33 % (p = 0.09). No participants were
      colonized with MRSA pre- or post-travel. CONCLUSION: Consistent with prior
      studies, new antimicrobial resistance was noted in colonizing E. coli after
      international travel. Nine percent of participants acquired new strains of ESBL
      producing E.coli without identified risks.

PMID- 28883949
TI  - Prevalence of active trachoma and associated risk factors among children in
      Gazegibela district of Wagehemra Zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia: community-based
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trachoma continues to be hyperendemic in many rural areas of
      Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated
      risk factors of active trachoma among children in Gazegibela district, Ethiopia.
      METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2015
      among children aged 1-9 years. Data were collected through an interview and eye
      examinations. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed.
      RESULTS: Among 601 children, 315 (52.4 %) were positive for active trachoma. Of
      these cases, 49.1 % were trachomatous inflammation-follicular and 3.3 % were
      trachomatous inflammation-intense. Children from households using rivers and
      ponds as their source of drinking water were more likely to develop active
      trachoma compared to those from households using water from springs or hand-dug
      wells (aOR = 2.9, 95 % CI: 1.70-4.81). Children from farming households were more
      likely to develop active trachoma (AOR = 3.3, 95 % CI: 1.02-10.65), as were
      children from housholds that lacked a latrine (aOR = 12.9, 95 % CI: 5.96-28.29).
      Children who washed their face only once a day were more likely to have active
      trachoma compared to those who washed for two and more times a day (aOR = 2.6, 95
      % CI: 1.43-4.72). CONCLUSION: There is a high prevalence of trachoma among
      children from Gazegibela district. Trachoma remains a public health challenge in
      this region, requiring intervention from the government and other stakeholders.

PMID- 28883950
TI  - Travellers returning ill from the tropics - a descriptive retrospective study.
AB  - International travel continues to increase in frequency. Health care providers
      need a wide understanding of the spectrum of travel related diseases and their
      management. This retrospective study analyses the demographic and clinical data
      of 360 travellers returning from the tropics presenting to an outpatient clinic
      at a tertiary hospital between 2003 - 2007. The aim of this study was to analyse
      the frequency of presenting symptoms and diseases in ill returning travellers and
      to correlate them to the areas visited and the duration and purpose of travel.
      The main symptoms during travel were diarrhoea (n = 200, 56 %) and fever (n =
      124, 34 %). Travellers not visiting friends and relatives but with close contact
      to the local population were at more than two-fold increased risk of diarrhoea
      (Odds Ratio [OR] 2.5; 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.1-6.0, p = 0.03) and fever
      (OR 2.4; 95 % CI 1.1-5.3; p = 0.02) compared to tourist travellers. Travellers
      visiting friends and relatives (VFR) were not at increased risk for diarrhoea (OR
      0.6; 95 % CI 0.3-1.3; p = 0.17), or fever (OR 1.5; 95 % CI 0.7-3.4; p = 0.28).
      Thirty-two percent of all travellers (n = 115) were diagnosed with a specific
      pathogen. Malaria (6 %), giardiasis (6 %) and amebiasis (4 %) were the most
      frequently detected pathogens. The odds of malaria as a cause of the presenting
      illness was lower among travellers reporting pre-travel advice. Specific
      antimicrobial treatment was required in around one third of the patients.

PMID- 28883951
TI  - Incidence and risk factors for disease and non-battle injury aboard the hospital
      ship USNS COMFORT during a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response Mission,
      Continuing Promise 2011.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Disease and non-battle injury (DNBI) are a leading cause of morbidity
      in deployments and can compromise operational mission performance. No study to
      date has examined DNBI incidence and impact aboard humanitarian aid/disaster
      response (HADR) mission ships. METHODS: From April to September 2011, US military
      and civilian personnel participated in Continuing Promise 2011, a HADR training
      mission aboard USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20). Health surveillance was conducted for the
      purpose of assessing DNBI trends and improving force health protection during the
      deployment through passive surveillance, collection of DNBI data among those
      seeking care at the ship's clinic, and actively through use of an anonymous
      weekly, self-report questionnaire. Categorical and total DNBI incidence rates
      were calculated per 100 person-weeks and incidence rate ratios (IRR) were
      calculated utilizing a negative binomial model to assess potential risk factors.
      RESULTS: The leading syndrome-specific cause of weekly visits to the ship's
      clinic was gastrointestinal (GI) followed by dermatologic and respiratory
      conditions (2.22, 1.97, and 1.46 cases per 100 person-weeks, respectively). The
      top three categorical DNBI were similarly represented by the questionnaire, with
      respiratory conditions having the highest reported rate followed by dermatologic
      and GI (11.79, 8.71, and 7.38 cases per 100 person-weeks, respectively). GI had
      the highest morbidity measures accounting for 61.9 % of lost work days and 27.3 %
      of reported moderate/severe impact to mission performance. Several factors were
      also associated with increased DNBI rates including personnel ages 26-36 (IRR =
      1.23), officers (IRR = 1.23), days-off-ship (IRR = 1.09), and affiliation with
      nursing services (IRR = 1.48), naval mobile construction battalion (IRR = 3.17),
      and security (IRR = 1.71). CONCLUSIONS: DNBI can significantly impact mission
      performance on HADR missions, and establishing baseline rates and identifying
      risk factors can help improve force health protection in future HADR missions.

PMID- 28883952
TI  - Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding dengue infection among public
      sector healthcare providers in Machala, Ecuador.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dengue fever is a rapidly emerging infection throughout the tropics
      and subtropics with extensive public health burden. Adequate training of
      healthcare providers is crucial to reducing infection incidence through patient
      education and collaboration with public health authorities. We examined how
      public sector healthcare providers in a dengue-endemic region of Ecuador view and
      manage dengue infections, with a focus on the 2009 World Health Organization
      (WHO) Dengue Guidelines. METHODS: A 37-item questionnaire of dengue knowledge,
      attitudes, and practices was developed and administered to dengue healthcare
      providers in Machala, Ecuador. Survey focus areas included: "Demographics,"
      "Infection and Prevention of Dengue," "Dengue Diagnosis and the WHO Dengue
      Guide," "Laboratory Testing," "Treatment of Dengue," and "Opinions Regarding
      Dengue." RESULTS: A total of 76 healthcare providers participated in this study,
      of which 82 % were medical doctors and 14 % were nurses. Fifty-eight percent of
      healthcare professionals practiced in ambulatory clinics and 34 % worked in a
      hospital. Eighty-nine percent of respondents were familiar with the 2009 WHO
      Dengue Guidelines, and, within that group, 97 % reported that the WHO Dengue
      Guide was helpful in dengue diagnosis and clinical management. Knowledge gaps
      identified included Aedes aegypti mosquito feeding habits and dengue
      epidemiology. Individuals with greater dengue-related knowledge were more likely
      to consider dengue a major health problem. Only 22 % of respondents correctly
      reported that patients with comorbidities and dengue without warning signs
      require hospital admission, and 25 % of providers reported never admitting
      patients with dengue to the hospital. Twenty percent of providers reported rarely
      (<=25 % of cases) obtaining laboratory confirmation of dengue infection.
      Providers reported patient presumptive self-medication as an ongoing problem.
      Thirty-one percent of healthcare providers reported inadequate access to
      resources needed to diagnose and treat dengue. CONCLUSION: Participants
      demonstrated a high level of knowledge of dengue symptoms and treatment, but
      additional training regarding prevention, diagnosis, and admission criteria is
      needed. Interventions should not only focus on increasing knowledge, but also
      encourage review of the WHO Dengue Guidelines, avoidance of presumptive self
      medication, and recognition of dengue as a major health problem. This study
      provided an assessment tool that effectively captured healthcare providers'
      knowledge and identified critical gaps in practice.

PMID- 28883953
TI  - Health problems and health care seeking behavior among adult backpackers while
      traveling in Thailand.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health problems among travelers in developing countries are not
      uncommon. Little is known about the occurrence of health problems and their
      impacts among backpackers in Thailand. The objective of this study was to assess
      the health problems and the health seeking behavior among adult backpackers who
      visited Thailand. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study.
      Data were collected from foreign adult backpackers in Khao San Road, Bangkok.
      They were asked about their demographic data, health problems (if any), and
      health-care seeking behavior if they became ill. RESULTS: During May to July
      2015, 420 backpackers were enrolled in this study. Of these, 51.4 % were male
      with a median age of 26.4 years. Up to 66.9 % were of European origin, while 17.4
      % were North American. Fifty-eight percent sought pre-travel consultation before
      traveling. In this study, 10.2 % (43/420) of the participants reported at least
      health problem during travel. Most of them (79.1 %) had single episode of
      illness. Of this, diarrhea was the most common health problem (30.4 %), followed
      by abdominal pain (14.3 %), skin problems (8.9 %), respiratory problems (8.9 %),
      accident-associated injury (7.1 %), and febrile illness (7.1 %). One third of
      backpackers with health problems spontaneously recovered without any treatment,
      while nearly a quarter treated themselves with standby medication, and one in
      five had to buy over the counter medication. Just over 9 % of backpackers with a
      health problem sought medical care at a hospital. Among travellers with health
      problems, 72.1 % reported that their health problems did not significantly impact
      to their trip, while 23.3 % had to delay or postpone their trip for at least 1
      day, and 4.7 % had to cancel some trip and/or activity. Longer duration of stay
      was significantly related to higher occurrence of health problems while
      traveling. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 10 % of adult backpackers experienced some
      health problems during their trip in Thailand. Although most of their health
      problems were mild, up to 22 % of backpackers with health problems need to seek
      medical care either in a clinic or in a hospital.

PMID- 28883954
TI  - The threat of antimalarial drug resistance.
AB  - The battle between man and malaria has continued for thousands of years.
      Antimalarial drugs are essential weapons to fight the disease, but their efficacy
      is threatened by drug resistance which continues to emerge creating a major
      obstacle to malaria control and jeopardizing renewed hopes for elimination. As
      2016 is the first year under WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030,
      it is a good time to ponder the progress of both sides and plan for the future.

PMID- 28883955
TI  - Diarrheal disease and enteric infections in LMIC communities: how big is the
      problem?
AB  - Studies of enteric diseases have historically focused on observations of clinical
      diarrhea as a cause of mortality and morbidity. Emerging evidence suggests that
      diarrhea dramatically underestimates both exposure to enteropathogens and the
      long-term consequences arising from infection. High burden of pathogens in the
      gut, even in the absence of diarrhea, is common in infants in low and middle
      income countries. Continual challenge by pathogens, in conjunction with an
      inadequate diet stimulates an inflammatory disease that alters the structure of
      the gut, metabolic and immunological pathways and changes the microbiome. Both
      diarrhea and enteropathogen infection have been associated with reduced growth,
      reduced cognitive development, and reduced vaccine efficacy suggesting that the
      burden of diarrheal disease is dramatically underestimated.

PMID- 28883957
TI  - Knowledge, practices and perceptions of trachoma and its control among
      communities of Narok County, Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness in the world.
      It is commonly found in cultural groups with poor hygiene. Trachoma control
      includes Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental Improvement
      (SAFE). Potentially blinding and active trachoma are monitored using trachomatous
      trichiasis (TT) in adults and trachoma inflammation-follicular (TF) in children
      aged 1-9 years respectively. A cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge,
      practices and perceptions of trachoma and its control was conducted in the
      endemic communities in Narok County. METHODS: Qualitative methods were used for
      data collection. Using purposive sampling, 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) with
      single sex adult and young men and women groups of homogenous characteristics, 12
      key informant interviews with opinion leaders and 5 in-depth interviews (IDIs)
      with trichiasis patients and 6 with persons who have undergone trichiasis surgery
      were conducted. Data was audio recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed manually
      by study themes; knowledge, practices and perceptions of trachoma transmission,
      infection signs, prevention and control. RESULTS: Majority of the community
      members had knowledge of trachoma and its transmission. The practices that
      contributed to transmission of infection included: failure to wash faces and
      bathe regularly, sharing of water basins and towels for face washing, traditional
      methods of trachoma treatment and dirty household environment. Due to socio
      cultural perceptions, toilets were unacceptable and use of bushes for human waste
      disposal was common. Poor perceptions on disease susceptibility, flies on
      children's faces, latrine ownership and usage and separation of human and animal
      dwellings also played a role in the transmission of trachoma. Fear of loss of
      sight during surgery was a deterrent to its uptake and a desire to be able to see
      and take care of domestic animals promoted surgery uptake. Majority of the
      community members were appreciative of Mass Drug Administration (MDA) though side
      effect such as vomiting and diarrhoea were reported. CONCLUSION: Poor practices
      and related socio-cultural perceptions are important risk factors in sustaining
      trachoma infection and transmission. Community members require health education
      for behavior change and awareness creation about surgery, MDA and its potential
      side effects for elimination of trachoma in Narok County, Kenya. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: KEMRI SSC 2785. Registered 2 September 2014.

PMID- 28883956
TI  - Prevalence of Nasal colonization with Staphylococcus aureus in 4 cities in Peru.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health threat
      around the world and is not well characterized in the developing setting.
      Specifically, there is a lack of information regarding nasal colonization with S.
      aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Latin America
      and Peru. METHODS: This is the report of the baseline findings of a prospective
      cohort study followed up over 1 year at four geographically and ecologically
      distinct Peruvian Air Force bases in order to determine S. aureus nasal
      colonization prevalence and risk factors. Additionally, all MRSA isolates
      underwent molecular analysis which included pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and
      determination of virulence and resistance genes. RESULTS: We enrolled 756
      military personnel. Anterior nares colonization with Staphylococcus aureus was
      detected in 73 of 756 participants (9.7 %) and MRSA was detected in 2 of 756 (0.3
      %). Colonization rates differed significantly (P = 0.02) between geographic
      enrollment sites: Talara-4.3 %, Iquitos-9.1 %, Arequipa-14.0 % and Lima-11.3 %.
      Risk factors for S. aureus colonization included being male and a reported
      history of respiratory disease. CONCLUSION: Overall, we found low prevalence of
      S. aureus and MRSA nasal colonization in this Peruvian military population. These
      findings contribute to the overall epidemiological understanding of S. aureus and
      MRSA in Latin America. The colonization rates which varied based on geographical
      location warrants further study.

PMID- 28883958
TI  - Hepatitis B vaccination for international travelers to Asia.
AB  - There is a wide range in prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and HBV
      immunization programs between different regions. Hepatitis B is a vaccine
      preventable disease yet is still endemic in the majority of countries in Asia.
      Despite the decreasing global prevalence of chronic HBV infection, there is still
      considerable risk of HBV infection among international travelers to high endemic
      areas. Numbers of international travelers are expected to increase year by year;
      thus immunization among this cohort is a crucial preventive measure. Among
      international travelers to Asia, HBV immunization should be recommended for those
      without previous HBV vaccination who plan to travel to countries with
      intermediate to high prevalence of HBV, and especially for those individuals at
      greater risk of HBV infection; including travelers engaging in casual sex,
      getting a tattoo or piercing, and those having dental surgery or other medical
      procedures. Longer duration of travel is also associated with a greater risk of
      HBV infection. Travelers from low HBV prevalence countries, especially those born
      before implementation of universal HBV vaccination, might benefit from HBV
      vaccination during long-term traveling to HBV intermediate to high endemic
      country.

PMID- 28883959
TI  - Update on non-vector transmission of dengue: relevant studies with Zika and other
      flaviviruses.
AB  - Human dengue virus infection without mosquito vector has been reported to occur
      as a result of mucocutaneous transmission, needlestick in patient care and
      laboratory accident, blood transfusion, bone marrow transplant, organ transplant,
      intrapartum and perinatal transmission, and breastfeeding. The emergence of Zika
      virus, another mosquito-borne flavivirus, has illustrated additional potential
      routes of non-vector transmission in humans. A recent study in another
      flavivirus, Japanese encephalitis virus, in pigs has also demonstrated non-vector
      transmission. We highlight some reports on dengue virus that have documented non
      vector transmission and that are relevant to the transmission of Zika virus and
      other flaviviruses.

PMID- 28883960
TI  - Prevalence of malaria and associated factors in Benna Tsemay district of
      pastoralist community, Southern Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Though the burden of malaria is declining, challenges in control
      continue globally, regionally and nationally as the transmission of malaria is
      dynamic and determinants differ by place and time, and across populations. The
      current level of knowledge on malaria prevalence and associated factors in
      specific communities, such as pastoralist communities of Ethiopia, is lacking.
      METHODS: A community based cross-sectional survey was conducted among pastoralist
      communities from December 2011 to January 2012. Background information and
      peripheral blood samples were collected from 461 randomly selected study
      participants. Multivariate regression analysis was done to explore the risk
      factors associated to malaria. RESULT: The prevalence of malaria among 461
      examined study participants was 6.1 % (95 % CI = 4.2, 8.5). The infection rate
      with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax was 64.3 % (95 % CI = 45.5, 80.2)
      and 21.4 % (95 % CI = 19.8, 54.5), respectively, while mixed infection was 14.3 %
      (95 % CI = 4.7, 30.9). The infection rate was higher among lactating (22.2 %, 95
      % CI =7.5, 45.3) and pregnant (17.6 %, 95 % CI = 4.7, 40.9) women compared with
      other community groups like infants (12 %). Mosquito net coverage of the study
      population was 90.1 % with an average of 1.8 per household. Traditional practices
      related to malaria prevention and treatment were not significantly associated
      with malaria infection (p > 0.05). Pregnancy (adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR]: 12.6, 95
      % CI = 1.7, 94.7) and saving mosquito net for later use (AOR 9.6: 95 % CI = 2.2,
      42.8) were independently associated with prevalent malaria infection. CONCLUSION:
      In spite of high coverage of mosquito nets, prevalence of malaria in this
      pastoralist community was high, affecting pregnant and lactating women at a
      higher rate. Pregnancy and saving mosquito nets for later use were identified as
      the associated risk factors. Health education on prevalence of malaria and
      knowledge on risk factors might be able to change the health behavior in this
      pastoralist community which consequently can decrease the malaria morbidity and
      mortality. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN ISRCTN73824458, Registered 28 September
      2014.

PMID- 28883961
TI  - Giardia lamblia infection increases risk of chronic gastrointestinal disorders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Giardia lamblia is a common parasitic cause of infectious
      gastroenteritis in the United States and the world and may be linked to an
      increased risk of chronic gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. We sought to assess
      the risk of several chronic GI disorders following Giardia infection among active
      duty US military personnel. METHODS: This study was designed as a retrospective
      cohort study in which active duty military personnel with documented G. lamblia
      infection were assessed for the subsequent risk of developing a chronic GI
      disorder including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), dyspepsia and gastroesophageal
      reflux disease (GERD). Post-giardia chronic GI disorder risk was compared to risk
      in uninfected personnel matched on several demographic characteristics and
      medical encounter information. Data were obtained from the Defense Medical
      Surveillance System and exposures (1998-2009) with outcomes identified based on
      documented medical encounters with specific medical billing codes. Modified
      Poisson regression was used to evaluate the relationship between G. lamblia
      infection and chronic GI disorders. RESULTS: A total of 80 Giardia cases were
      identified for an estimated incidence of 0.55 cases per 100,000 person-years.
      Cases were matched to 294 unexposed subjects. After adjusting for important
      covariates, there was an increased risk of IBS (relative risk: 2.1, p = 0.03)
      associated with antecedent Giardia infection. CONCLUSION: These data add to a
      growing body of literature and demonstrate an increased risk of IBS after
      infection with G. lamblia.

PMID- 28883962
TI  - Unrecognized human immunodeficiency virus infection and risk factors among
      elderly medical patients at the Korle Bu teaching hospital, Accra, Ghana.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection usually infects
      persons in the reproductive age group (15-49 years), but elderly people are also
      susceptible. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana believe that
      elderly people are not at risk for HIV. Despite numerous reports of the high
      prevalence of HIV infection among the elderly worldwide, there are no from Ghana.
      This work determined the sero-prevalence of HIV infection and risk factors for
      its transmission among 1,100 hospitalized elderly people at the Korle Bu Teaching
      Hospital (KBTH), Accra, Ghana. METHODS: Subjects voluntarily completed a risk
      factor questionnaire and provided a blood specimen for HIV testing. RESULTS: Of
      the study participants, 440 were male (mean age: 64 +/- 10.55 years), and 660
      were female (mean age: 63 +/- 9.51 years). The overall HIV-1 sero-prevalence
      among the subjects was 4.18 % (n = 46). On multivariate analysis, there was no
      statistical significance between the socio-demographics or risk factors and the
      HIV status of the participants. CONCLUSION: The results suggest high prevalence
      of HIV-1 among hospitalized elderly people at KBTH, recommending the need to
      include the elderly in HIV/AIDS testing, prevention, and control programmes.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration number: MS-Et/M.9 - p4.10/2012-2013.
      Registered: 10th April, 2013.

PMID- 28883963
TI  - World Rabies Day - a decade of raising awareness.
AB  - World Rabies Day was set up in 2007 to raise global awareness about rabies, to
      provide information on how to prevent the disease in at-risk communities and
      support advocacy for increased efforts in rabies control. It is held annually on
      September 28th, with events, media outreach and other initiatives carried out by
      individuals, professionals, organisations and governments from the local to the
      international level. The Global Alliance for Rabies Control coordinates World
      Rabies Day, amplifying the campaign's reach through the provision of a central
      event platform and resources to support events across the world, the promotion of
      messages through key rabies stakeholders, and the implementation of specific
      activities to highlight particular issues. Over the last decade, more than 1,700
      registered events have been held across the world and shared with others in the
      global rabies community. Events in canine rabies endemic countries, particularly
      in Africa and Asia, have increased over time. Beyond the individual events, World
      Rabies Day has gained the support of governments and international agencies that
      recognise its value in supporting existing rabies control initiatives and
      advocating for improvements. As the rabies landscape has changed, World Rabies
      Day remains a general day of awareness but has also become an integral part of
      national, regional and global rabies elimination strategies. The global adoption
      of 2030 as the goal for the elimination of rabies as a public health threat has
      led to even greater opportunities for World Rabies Day to make a sustainable
      impact on rabies, by bringing the attention of policy makers and donors to the
      ongoing situation and elimination efforts in rabies-endemic countries.

PMID- 28883964
TI  - Syphilis ascendant: a brief history and modern trends.
AB  - To provide a miniature review of recent literature surrounding a brief history of
      syphilis, to discuss the recently increasing incidence of syphilis, to discuss
      recent United State Preventative Service Task Force recommendations for syphilis
      screening, and to discuss congenital syphilis. The literature review was
      conducting using PubMed with the following search terms: syphilis, congenital
      syphilis, MSM and syphilis, prenatal syphilis, neurosyphilis, and other related
      terms. Treponema pallidum has been a constant, and unwanted, companion of
      humankind since antiquity. This sexually transmitted infection (STI) has the
      potential to affect virtually every rung of society-young and old, rich and poor,
      but it has a proclivity for the most vulnerable groups among us. Since record
      high rates of infection in the World War II era, tremendous progress has been
      made in effectively controlling the infection, and this has been largely mediated
      by the efficacy of penicillin on the causative spirochete. However, 2014 data
      from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrated a sharp increase
      in the rate of new cases of syphilis, predominantly in men who have sex with men.
      Additionally, the numbers of newly diagnosed cases of congenital syphilis are on
      the rise as well. In effect, a burgeoning crisis has come to the doorstep of the
      medical community. We are faced with changing attitudes regarding sexual
      interactions. The authors believe that geolocation dating and sex applications
      for smart phones increase the availability of sexual encounters. Pre-exposure
      prophylaxis may be leading to more laissez-faire attitudes toward unprotected
      intercourse, and with increased opportunities for sexual encounters, co-infected
      states with other diseases may be altering the landscape of STIs. In 2016, in
      response to increasing rates of newly diagnosed syphilis, the United States
      Preventative Health Services Task Force reaffirmed the need for syphilis
      screening in at-risk populations. However, primary care physicians and advanced
      practice providers may not always be aware of which patients fall into that
      category. Due to the highly personal nature of discussing sexuality, sexual
      behavior may not be explored at all. Numerous challenges lie ahead of the
      infectious diseases, primary care, and public health communities in attempting to
      bend the curve of the ascendant rise in syphilis. To adequately combat this
      infection, sufficient funding will need to be provided to public health
      departments, adequate access to health care resources will be needed to allow for
      the necessary screening of patients, and primary care practitioners will need
      thoroughly engage with their patients to understand their sexual practices and to
      offer the necessary interventions.

PMID- 28883966
TI  - World Rabies Day campaign in the Philippines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rabies is a fatal disease, claiming the lives of around 59,000 people
      annually worldwide. It is considered a neglected and underreported disease
      leading to inadequate support from governments. Apart from dog vaccination and
      proper animal bite management, an integral part of a successful rabies control
      program is community education. The Philippine government conducts an extensive
      nationwide annual World Rabies Day (WRD) celebration as part of its community
      education. METHODS: Strong inter-sectoral collaboration at the national level is
      a key factor for the success of WRD, capitalizing on the partners' strengths to
      mobilize various sectors. Strategies include the National WRD Celebration and
      releasing national government memorandums. An invitation letter campaign was
      initiated, encouraging stakeholders to register their activities. Banners were
      given as an incentive for those who registered. Mass and social media were also
      utilized to promote WRD. RESULTS: Registered WRD events held in the Philippines
      rose from 10 events in 2012, to 37 events in 2013, to 66 events in 2014 and 76
      events in 2015. The individual activities involved veterinary services and
      information, communication, and education (IEC) activities. Nine unique WRD IEC
      activities are highlighted in this paper. Promotion of WRD through social media
      was also utilized in recent years. More news items were published online than
      those printed in newspapers and aired on television. CONCLUSION: The campaign's
      success underlines the value of a national government-led program. The national
      rabies program sets the agenda for priority activities including the WRD
      campaign. Its capacity to allocate funds for the program also denotes stability
      which is beneficial for local program implementers. Different segments of society
      were tapped through various strategies. The campaign's flexibility allowed for a
      large range of activities and presented opportunities for expanding partnerships
      and integration with others interventions for its sustainability. With
      appropriate tools and government support, the extensive WRD campaign in the
      Philippines can be replicated in other countries. The strategies discussed prove
      that since different localities celebrate WRD in their own way, other countries
      can also organize activities adapted to their culture and contribute to the
      global campaign against rabies.

PMID- 28883965
TI  - Hepatic steatosis in HCV-infected persons in the direct-acting antiviral era.
AB  - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects 130-170 million people worldwide. Recently,
      direct-acting antivirals have been shown to eradicate HCV infection in 90-95 % of
      non-cirrhotic patients depending on genotype, treatment experience, and regimen
      used. Similar rates are achieved among compensated cirrhotics, although longer
      treatment duration and/or ribavirin may be required. HCV uses host lipid
      metabolism for its lifecycle and can cause hepatic steatosis and insulin
      resistance. Hepatic steatosis, defined as excessive triglyceride deposition in
      hepatocytes, affects approximately half of HCV-infected individuals. Genetic
      factors and co-morbidities can drive further steatosis, which in turn can
      instigate fibrosis and progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
      Polymorphisms in genes that modulate lipid deposition in hepatocytes such as
      patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) and transmembrane
      six superfamily member 2 (TM6SF2) predispose people to steatosis. Metabolic
      syndrome, obesity, and insulin resistance are increasing worldwide and further
      contribute to hepatic steatosis, and alcohol has long been recognized as a cause
      of lipid deposition in the liver. HIV and antiretroviral drugs, but not HBV, may
      further drive hepatic steatosis. While many of these factors limit response to
      interferon-based regimens for treating HCV, responses to direct-acting antivirals
      appear not to be impaired. The effect of HCV eradication on hepatic steatosis and
      progression to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma warrants further
      study in the era of direct-acting antivirals.

PMID- 28883967
TI  - Safety of antimalarial medications for use while scuba diving in malaria Endemic
      Regions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recreational diving occurs annually in areas of the world where
      malaria is endemic. The safety and efficacy of antimalarials for travelers in a
      hyperbaric environment is unknown. Of particular concern would be medications
      with adverse effects that could either mimic diving related illnesses such as
      barotrauma, decompression sickness (DCS) and gas toxicities, or increase the risk
      for such illnesses. METHODS: We conducted a review of PubMed and Cochrane
      databases to determine rates of neurologic adverse effects or other effects from
      antimalarials that may be a problem in the diving environment. RESULTS: One case
      report was found on diving and mefloquine. Multiple case reports and clinical
      trials were found describing neurologic adverse effects of the major
      chemoprophylactic medications atovaquone/proguanil, chloroquine, doxycycline,
      mefloquine, and primaquine. CONCLUSIONS: Of the available literature,
      atovaquone/proguanil and doxycycline are most likely the safest agents and should
      be preferred; atovaquone/proguanil is superior due to reduced rates of sunburn in
      the marine environment. Primaquine also appears to be safe, but has reduced
      efficacy against P. falciparum; mefloquine possesses the highest rate of
      neurologic side effects and therefore these agents should be limited to extreme
      cases of patients intolerant to other agents. Chloroquine appears unsafe in the
      hyperbaric environment and should be avoided. More studies are required to
      include database reviews of returned divers traveling to malaria endemic areas
      and randomized controlled trials in the hyperbaric environments.

PMID- 28883968
TI  - The role of pre-school teachers in the control of soil-transmitted helminthes in
      coastal region, Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Soil transmitted helminthes (STH) are significant health problems
      among school-age children. In Kenya's coastal region, the prevalence among pre
      school age children (PSAC) ranges from 27.8 to 66.7 %. Whereas some pre-schools
      are as far as 7 km from the nearest primary schools, the National School-Based
      Deworming Programme (NSBDP) requires the pre-school teachers to walk with the
      children to primary schools for deworming by trained primary school teachers. The
      long distances may contribute in making drug delivery ineffective and
      unsustainable. METHODS: To assess the pre-school teachers' knowledge, experiences
      and perceptions of STH and the NSBDP, a cross-sectional study using qualitative
      methods was conducted in four sub-counties of the Coast Region. Through purposive
      sampling, 41 pre-schools which are 2 or more kilometers away from a primary
      school were selected and in-depth interviews administered to the teachers.
      Separate in-depth interviews were administered to 34 community health extension
      workers, 40 opinion leaders and 38 primary school teachers all purposively
      selected to assess their perceptions of the role of pre-school teachers in the
      NSBDP. Data was audio recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed manually by study
      themes. RESULTS: A third of the pre-school teachers were aware of signs of STHs
      and a half indicated that poor hygiene and sanitation practices are major causes.
      A majority of the pre-school teachers reported that health education and
      environmental sanitation are key control methods. Majority (39) had received
      information on NSBDP from various sources and all took part in community
      sensitization and in treating the pre-school children. A large majority of all
      study participants indicated that treating the children at pre-schools is ideal
      for increased coverage. Majority of the pre-school teachers perceived the NSBDP
      as important in improving the health status of the children. All study
      participants felt that the parents needed to be given adequate information on
      STHs and training the pre-school teachers to assist in community sensitization
      and drug administration would be useful. CONCLUSION: Pre-school teachers are a
      potential resource to the NSBDP that should be utilized to instill proper water
      and sanitation practices to the young children and assist in community
      sensitization. They should be empowered and allowed to administer treatment for
      STH control. County Governments, their current employers should find ways of
      engaging them in worm control efforts. TRIAL REGISTRATION: KEMRI SSC 2547,
      Registered 22 July 2013.

PMID- 28883969
TI  - Are you PEPped and PrEPped for travel? Risk mitigation of HIV infection for
      travelers.
AB  - The HIV pandemic persists globally and travelers are at risk for infection by the
      Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). While HIV-focused guidelines delineate risk
      stratification and mitigation strategies for people in their home communities,
      travel issues are not addressed. In this review, direct and indirect evidence on
      HIV risk among travelers is explored. The burgeoning practice of employing pre
      exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with anti-retroviral therapy in the non-travel
      setting is introduced, as well as the more established use of post-exposure
      prophylaxis (PEP). Challenges in applying these lessons to travelers are
      discussed, and a new guidelines process is scoped and recommended.

PMID- 28883970
TI  - The Pertussis resurgence: putting together the pieces of the puzzle.
AB  - Pertussis incidence is rising in almost every country where acellular pertussis
      (aP) vaccines have been introduced, and is occurring across all age groups from
      infancy to adulthood. The key question is why? While several known factors such
      as waning of immunity, detection bias due to more sensitive tests and higher
      awareness of the disease among practitioners, and evolutionary shifts among B.
      pertussis all likely contribute, collectively, these do not adequately explain
      the existing epidemiologic data, suggesting that additional factors also
      contribute. Key amongst these is recent data indicating that the immune responses
      induced by aP vaccines differ fundamentally from those induced by the whole cell
      pertussis (wP) vaccines, and do not lead to mucosal immunity. If so, it appears
      likely that differences in how the two categories of vaccines work, may be
      pivotal to our overall understanding of the pertussis resurgence.

PMID- 28883972
TI  - Molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance profiles of Salmonella
      isolated from fecal matter of domestic animals and animal products in Nairobi.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Salmonella has significant public health implications causing food
      borne and zoonotic diseases in humans. Treatment of infections due to Salmonella
      is becoming difficult due to emergence of drug resistant strains. There is
      therefore need to characterize the circulating non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS)
      serovars in domestic animals and animal products in Kenya as well as determine
      their antibiotic resistance profiles. METHODS: A total of 740 fecal samples were
      collected from cows (n = 150), pigs (n = 182), chicken (n = 191) and chicken eggs
      (n = 217) from various markets and abattoirs in Nairobi. The prevalence of NTS
      serovars using culture techniques and biochemical tests, antimicrobial
      sensitivity testing using disc diffusion method of the commonly prescribed
      antibiotics and phylogenetic relationships using 16S rRNA were determined.
      RESULTS: The results showed that the overall prevalence of Salmonella was 3.8,
      3.6, 5.9 and 2.6% for pigs, chicken, eggs and cows respectively. Two serovars
      were isolated S. Typhimurium (85%) and S. Enteritidis (15%) and these two
      serovars formed distinct clades on the phylogenetic tree. Forty percent of the
      isolates were resistant to one or more antibiotics. CONCLUSION: The isolation of
      Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Enteritidis that are resistant to commonly
      used antibiotics from seemingly healthy animals and animal products poses a
      significant public health threat. This points to the need for regular
      surveillance to be carried out and the chain of transmission should be viewed to
      ascertain sources of contamination.

PMID- 28883973
TI  - Vectored immunoprophylaxis: an emerging adjunct to traditional vaccination.
AB  - The successful development of effective vaccines has been elusive for many of the
      world's most important infectious diseases. Additionally, much of the population,
      such as the aged or immunocompromised, are unable to mount an effective
      immunologic response for existing vaccines. Vectored Immunoprophylaxis (VIP) is a
      novel approach designed to address these challenges. Rather than utilizing an
      antigen to trigger a response from the host's immune system as is normally done
      with traditional vaccines, VIP genetically engineers the production of tailored
      antibodies from non-hematopoietic cells, bypassing the humoral immune system.
      Direct administration of genes encoding for neutralizing antibodies has proven to
      be effective in both preventing and treating several infectious diseases in
      animal models. While, a significant amount of work has focused on HIV, including
      an ongoing clinical trial, the approach has also been shown to be effective for
      malaria, dengue, hepatitis C, influenza, and more. In addition to presenting
      itself as a potentially efficient approach to solving long-standing vaccine
      challenges, the approach may be the best, if not only, method to vaccinate
      immunocompromised individuals. Many issues still need to be addressed, including
      which tissue(s) makes the most suitable platform, which vector(s) are most
      efficient at transducing the platform tissue used to secrete the antibodies, and
      what are the long-term effects of such a treatment. Here we provide a brief
      overview of this approach, and its potential application in treating some of the
      world's most intractable infectious diseases.

PMID- 28883971
TI  - Vaccination of HIV-infected pregnant women: implications for protection of their
      young infants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV has resulted in
      reduced burden of pediatric HIV-infection, but the prevalence of maternal HIV
      infection remains high in sub-Saharan African countries. HIV-exposed-uninfected
      infants have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality due to infectious
      diseases than HIV-unexposed infants, particularly during the first six months of
      life, which in part might be due to lower levels of pathogen-specific protective
      antibodies acquired transplacentally from their mothers. This could be mitigated
      by vaccinating pregnant women to boost antibody levels; although vaccine
      responses among HIV-infected pregnant women might differ compared to HIV
      uninfected women. We reviewed studies that compared natural and vaccine-induced
      antibody levels to different epitopes between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected
      pregnant women. FINDINGS: Most studies reported lower baseline/pre-vaccination
      antibody levels in HIV-infected pregnant women, which may not be reversed by
      antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy. There were only few studies on
      vaccination of HIV-infected pregnant women, mainly on influenza virus and group B
      Streptococcus (GBS) vaccines. Immunogenicity studies on influenza vaccines
      indicated that HIV-infected pregnant women had lower vaccine induced
      hemagglutination inhibition antibody titers and a decreased likelihood of
      seroconversion compared to HIV-uninfected women; and while higher CD4+ T
      lymphocyte levels were associated with better immune responses to vaccination,
      HIV viral load was not associated with responses. Furthermore, infants born to
      influenza vaccinated HIV-infected pregnant women also had lower antibody levels
      and a lower proportion of HIV-exposed infants had titers above the putative
      correlate of protection compared to HIV-unexposed infants. The immunogenicity of
      a CRM197-conjugated trivalent GBS vaccine was also lower in HIV-infected pregnant
      women compared to HIV-uninfected women, irrespective of CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts.
      CONCLUSIONS: Poorer immunogenicity of vaccines reported in HIV-infected compared
      to HIV-uninfected pregnant women might compromise the potential benefits to their
      young infants. Alternate vaccination strategies, including vaccines with higher
      antigen concentration, adjuvanted vaccines or multiple doses schedules might be
      required in HIV-infected pregnant women to optimize antibody transferred to their
      fetuses.

PMID- 28883974
TI  - The salivary gland as a target for enhancing immunization response.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An organism's immune response to a vaccine is dependent on a number
      of factors, including the site of immunization. While muscle is the most common
      site for vaccine administration, other sites, including the salivary gland, are
      poised to confer stronger and broader immunoprotection. FINDINGS: Studies
      exploring the salivary gland as an immunization site have involved protein
      antigens, as well as live pathogens and DNA vaccines. While intraductal
      instillation of protein antigens into the salivary gland may result in a
      relatively transient increase in antibody production, DNA or attenuated pathogen
      vaccination appear to confer a lasting widespread mucosal immune response that
      includes robust salivary and enteric IgA, as well as high levels of circulating
      IgG. Furthermore, vaginal and lung antibodies are also seen. For enteric
      pathogens, a common class of pathogen encountered by travelers, this type of
      immune response provides for a level of redundant protection against foreign
      microbes with mucosal targets. CONCLUSION: The strength of immune response
      conferred by salivary gland vaccination is generally stronger than that seen in
      response to the same vaccine at a comparison site. For example, where other
      routes fail, immunization of the salivary gland has been shown to confer
      protection in lethal challenge models of infectious pathogens. A host of vaccines
      currently under development suffer from immunogenicity challenges, adding to the
      widespread interest and search for novel routes and adjuvants. With its
      capability to facilitate a strong and broad immune response, the salivary gland
      warrants consideration as an immunization site, especially for vaccines with
      immunogenicity challenges, as well as vaccines that would benefit from combined
      systemic and mucosal immunity.

PMID- 28883975
TI  - More harm than good? The questionable ethics of medical volunteering and
      international student placements.
AB  - It has been argued that much of international medical volunteering is done for
      the wrong reasons, in that local people serve as a means to meet volunteers'
      needs, or for the right reasons but ignorance and ill-preparedness harm the
      intended beneficiaries, often without volunteers' grasp of the damage caused. The
      literature on ethical concerns in medical volunteering has grown tremendously
      over the last years highlighting the need for appropriate guidelines. These same
      concerns, however, and an appreciation of the reasons why current aid paradigms
      are flawed, can serve as indicators on how to change existing practices to ensure
      a better outcome for those who are in need of help. Such paradigm change
      envisages medical assistance in the spirit of solidarity, social justice,
      equality, and collegial collaboration.

PMID- 28883976
TI  - Prospecting for an HIV vaccine.
AB  - Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sets several challenges for the development of
      a preventative HIV vaccine. Predictable, protective natural immunity against HIV
      does not occur and so unlike most other diseases for which vaccines exist, there
      are few guideposts from natural infection. Nonetheless, six vaccine efficacy
      trials have occurred. One in particular, the Thai trial called RV144, showed
      partial protective efficacy and potential ways ahead to a better vaccine
      approach. This coupled with other lessons from studies of acute infections as
      well as an increasingly complex knowledge of HIV-related vaccine immunology bring
      hope that a vaccine solution might be reached for this pervasive and deadly
      pandemic.

PMID- 28883977
TI  - Management of Plasmodium vivax risk and illness in travelers.
AB  - Malaria poses an exceptionally complex problem for providers of travel medicine
      services. Perceived high risk of exposure during travel typically prompts
      prescribing protective antimalarial drugs. Suppressive chemoprophylactic agents
      have dominated strategy for that practice for over 70 years. This broad class of
      therapeutic agents kills parasites after they emerge from the liver and attempt
      development in red blood cells. The dominance of suppressive chemoprophylaxis in
      travel medicine stems largely from the view of Plasmodium falciparum as the
      utmost threat to the patient - these drugs are poorly suited to preventing
      Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale due to inactivity against the latent liver
      stages of these species not produced by P. falciparum. Those hypnozoites awaken
      to cause multiple clinical attacks called relapses in the months following
      infection. Causal prophylactic agents kill parasites as they attempt development
      in hepatic cells. The only drug proven effective for causal prophylaxis against
      P. vivax is primaquine. That drug is not widely recommended for primary
      prophylaxis for travelers despite preventing both primary attacks of all the
      plasmodia and relapses of P. vivax. The long-held perception of P. vivax as
      causing a benign malaria in part explains the dominance of suppressive
      chemoprophylaxis strategies poorly suited to its prevention. Recent evidence from
      both travelers and patients hospitalized in endemic areas reveals P. vivax as a
      pernicious clinical threat capable of progression to severe disease syndromes
      associated with fatal outcomes. Effective prevention of clinical attacks of vivax
      malaria following exposure during travel requires primary causal prophylaxis or
      post-travel presumptive anti-relapse therapy following suppressive prophylaxis.

PMID- 28883978
TI  - Sanitation for all: the global opportunity to increase transgenerational health
      gains and better understand the link between NCDs and NTDs, a scoping review.
AB  - The global sanitation divide is narrowing. However, in many countries in Asia and
      Africa, the gap between rural and urban sanitation coverage is rather widening.
      Moreover, there is an increase in the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs),
      notwithstanding to the already high burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
      A scientific query is building on how the global 'sanitation for all' goal will
      address the dual burden of NTDs and NCDs, and help further understand the link
      between the two. This paper aims to discuss the link between i) sanitation and
      NTDs, and ii) sanitation and NCDs through a scoping review of the literature.

PMID- 28883979
TI  - Review: chronic and persistent diarrhea with a focus in the returning traveler.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Travelers' diarrhea is a common malady afflicting up to 50% of
      travelers after a 2-week travel period. An appreciable percentage of these cases
      will become persistent or chronic. We summarized the published literature
      reporting persistent/chronic diarrhea in travelers elucidating current
      understanding of disease incidence, etiology and regional variability. METHODS:
      We searched electronic databases (Medline, Embase, and Cochrane database of
      clinical trials) from 1990 to 2015 using the following terms: "chronic or
      persistent diarrh* and (returning) travel* or enteropathogen, GeoSentinel, and
      travel-associated infection. Included studies published in the English language
      on adult returning travelers (duration < 3-months) reporting denominator data.
      Point estimates and standard 95% confidence intervals were calculated for
      incidence using a random-effects model. Study incidence heterogeneity rates were
      assessed using x2 heterogeneity statistics, graphically represented with Forest
      plots. RESULTS: We identified 19 studies meeting the inclusion criteria (all
      published after 1999). 18 studies reported upon the incidence of
      persistent/chronic diarrhea as a syndromic diagnosis in returning travelers; one
      study reported adequate denominator data from which to assess pathogen specific
      etiology. Giardiasis comprise an appreicaible percentage of infectious mediated
      persistent/chronic diarrhea in returning travelers. The overall estimate of
      persistent/chronic diarrhea incidence was 6% (0.05-0.07) in 321,454, travelers;
      with significant heterogeniety observed across regions. The total number of
      regional travelers, and point estimates for incidence (95% CI) for Latin
      American, African, and Asian travelers were [15816 (0.09 [0.07-0.11]), 42290
      (0.06 [0.05-0.07]), and 27433 (0.07 [0.06-0.09])] respectively. We identified
      lower published rates of chronic diarrhea from Sub-Saharan Africa relative to
      [North Africa, South Central Asia, and Central America]. Persistent/chronic
      diarrhea ranked fourth as a syndromic diagnosis in all regions. CONCLUSIONS:
      Persistent/Chronic diarrhea is a leading syndromic diagnosis in returning
      travelers across all regions. The 6% incidence [proportionate morbidity (PM) of
      60] observed in over >300,000 global travelers is comparable to prior estimates.
      We identified lower published rates of chronic diarrhea from Sub-Saharan Africa
      relative to [North Africa, South Central Asia, and Central America]. Giardiasis
      comprises an appreciabile percentatge of travel-associated infectious mediated
      persistent/chronic diarrhea. There's a dearth of published data characterizing
      the incidence of specific enteropathogenic etiologies for persistent/chronic
      diarrhea in returning travelers.

PMID- 28883980
TI  - Guidelines for the prevention of travel-associated illness in older adults.
AB  - International travel to the developing world is becoming more common in elderly
      patients (defined here as individuals greater than 65 years old). When providing
      pre-travel counseling, providers must appreciate the changing physiology,
      comorbidities, immunity and pharmacokinetics associated with the aging process to
      prepare elderly patients for the stressors of international travel. These
      guidelines present an evidence-based approach to pre-travel counseling,
      immunization, and pharmacology concerns unique to elderly patients seeking care
      in a travel clinic setting.

PMID- 28883981
TI  - Immunization of mice with soluble lysate of interferon gamma expressing
      Plasmodium berghei ANKA induces high IFN-gamma production.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Efforts in search of lasting malaria vaccine have led to the
      development of transgenic rodent malaria parasites. As a result, wild type
      Plasmodium berghei ANKA (WTPbA) has recently been transformed to express mouse
      interferon gamma (mIFN-gamma). The immunomodulatory effect of this transgenic
      parasite on WTPbA infection has been demonstrated. However, the protective immune
      responses after repeated immunization with soluble lysate of this parasite has
      not been investigated. METHODS: Soluble lysate of transgenic PbA (TPbA) was
      prepared and concentration of IFN-gamma in lysate determined by ELISA. Four
      groups of 20 BALB/c mice each (two treatment groups and two control groups) were
      setup. Treatment Groups 1 and 2 were primed (at day 0) with lysate of TPbA
      containing 75 pg/ml IFN-gamma and live TPbA parasites respectively. Infection in
      Group 2 mice was cured with CoartemTM at 450 mg/kg for 3 days. At day 14 post
      priming, both groups were boosted twice at day 14 and day 28 with lysate of TPbA
      containing 75 pg/ml IFN-gamma and 35 pg/ml IFN-gamma respectively. Blood and
      spleen samples were collected at day 0, day 14, day 21 and day 28 for preparation
      of serum and cell cultures respectively. Serum IgG and cytokines (TNF-alpha and
      IFN-gamma) levels in culture supernatant were measred by ELISA.Survivorship and
      parasitemia were daily monitored for 21 days. Data were statistically analyzed
      using ANOVA student's t test. A p value of <0.05 was considered significant.
      RESULTS: At day 28 post-priming, IFN-gamma production in Group 1 was tenfold
      higher than in RBC control group (p = 0.070) There was significant difference in
      IFN-gamma production among the groups at day 28 (p < 0.0001). TNF-alpha
      production in Group 1 mice increased fourfold in Group 2 mice from day 14 to day
      28 post-immunization (p = 0.0005). There was no significant effect on serum IgG
      production. Mice in treatment groups survived 5 to 4 days longer compared to non
      immunized group. CONCLUSION: The study has demonstrated that, repeated
      immunization with soluble lysate of TPbA induces Th 1 response leading to
      increased IFN-gamma and TNF-gamma production.

PMID- 28883982
TI  - Assessment of the agreement between the Framingham and DAD risk equations for
      estimating cardiovascular risk in adult Africans living with HIV infection: a
      cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Absolute cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk evaluation using
      multivariable CVD risk models is increasingly advocated in people with HIV, in
      whom existing models remain largely untested. We assessed the agreement between
      the general population derived Framingham CVD risk equation and the HIV-specific
      Data collection on Adverse effects of anti-HIV Drugs (DAD) CVD risk equation in
      HIV-infected adult Cameroonians. METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved 452
      HIV infected adults recruited at the HIV day-care unit of the Yaounde Central
      Hospital, Cameroon. The 5-year projected CVD risk was estimated for each
      participant using the DAD and Framingham CVD risk equations. Agreement between
      estimates from these equations was assessed using the spearman correlation and
      Cohen's kappa coefficient. RESULTS: The mean age of participants (80% females)
      was 44.4 +/- 9.8 years. Most participants (88.5%) were on antiretroviral
      treatment with 93.3% of them receiving first-line regimen. The most frequent
      cardiovascular risk factors were abdominal obesity (43.1%) and dyslipidemia
      (33.8%). The median estimated 5-year CVD risk was 0.6% (25th-75th percentiles:
      0.3-1.3) using the DAD equation and 0.7% (0.2-2.0) with the Framingham equation.
      The Spearman correlation between the two estimates was 0.93 (p < 0.001). The
      kappa statistic was 0.61 (95% confident interval: 0.54-0.67) for the agreement
      between the two equations in classifying participants across risk categories
      defined as low, moderate, high and very high. CONCLUSION: Most participants had a
      low-to-moderate estimated CVD risk, with acceptable level of agreement between
      the general and HIV-specific equations in ranking CVD risk.

PMID- 28883983
TI  - Antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter and other diarrheal pathogens isolated
      from US military personnel deployed to Thailand in 2002-2004: a case-control
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Campylobacter continues to be an important cause of diarrheal disease
      worldwide and a leading cause in Southeast Asia. Studies of US soldiers and
      marines deployed to Thailand for a 2 to 3 week field exercise provide a unique
      population in which to study traveler's diarrhea. METHODS: A case-control study
      of 217 deployed military personnel was conducted from 2002 through 2004. Of
      these, 155 subjects who presented to a field medical unit with acute diarrhea
      were enrolled as cases. These subjects referred an additional 62 diarrhea-free
      colleagues who served as controls. Frequencies of isolation of Campylobacter spp.
      and other enteric pathogens were compared in cases and controls, and antibiotic
      resistance of isolates was described. RESULTS: Of the 155 subjects with diarrhea,
      Campylobacter spp. was the most commonly identified pathogen, found in 54 (35%)
      of the subjects, followed by non-typhoidal Salmonella species found in 36 (23%)
      subjects. Of the 57 separate C. jejuni and C. coli isolates from these
      individuals, 51 (89%) were resistant to ciprofloxacin by the disc diffusion
      method. Nearly one-third of the Campylobacter species were resistant to
      ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Resistance to azithromycin remained
      low at 2% (n = 1). CONCLUSIONS: The significant morbidity and marked
      fluoroquinolone resistance associated with Campylobacter infections in Thailand
      are important considerations for clinicians providing counseling on appropriate
      antibacterial regimens for civilian and military travelers.

PMID- 28883984
TI  - The changing epidemiology of Japanese encephalitis and New data: the implications
      for New recommendations for Japanese encephalitis vaccine.
AB  - The epidemiology of Japanese Encephalitis and risk to the traveler has changed
      and continues to evolve. The spread of Japanese Encephalitis virus into new
      environments, changes in agricultural practice and animal vectors, climate
      change, peri-urban growth, changes in international travel to Asia, personal risk
      factors, mosquito vector free transmission, interactions with other flaviviruses
      and better information on infections without encephalitis and other factors make
      Japanese Encephalitis an underappreciated risk. There has also been a change in
      the incidence of Japanese Encephalitis cases that questions the current travel
      duration and geographic based recommendations. A safe, effective vaccine (Ixiaro)
      that may be administered in a short course regimen is now available in the United
      States without the risks of the previous vaccine. However, the vaccine is
      significantly underutilized. These changes in the epidemiology and new data on
      the risks of the Japanese Encephalitis virus require a review of the practice
      guidelines and expert recommendations that do not reflect the current state of
      knowledge.

PMID- 28883985
TI  - Local stakeholders' perceptions of community sensitization for school-based
      deworming programme in Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Kenya, the National School-Based Deworming Programme (NSBDP) for
      soil-transmitted helminthes and schistosomiasis in prioritized areas has been
      going on since the year 2012. By the year 2013 over 6 million School Age Children
      (SAC) had been treated. A community sensitization supplement containing key
      messages and answers to frequently asked questions was developed as a guiding
      tool. Awareness creation methods used include county sensitization meetings,
      stakeholder forums, town criers and posters. To assess the local stakeholders'
      perceptions of community sensitization for programme implementation, a
      qualitative cross-sectional survey was conducted in four-sub-counties of coastal
      region. METHODS: In-depth interviews (IDIs) were administered to 40 purposively
      selected opinion leaders so as to explore their perceptions of awareness creation
      sources, adequacy of information given, length of period of awareness creation
      and period between which information is given and drugs are administered.
      Separate IDIs were administered to pre-school teachers (41), community health
      extension workers (34) and primary school teachers (38). To elicit more
      information, 20 focus group discussions (FGDs) categorized by gender and age were
      conducted among parents of school-age children. Data was audio recorded,
      transcribed, coded and analyzed manually by study themes. RESULTS: The most
      commonly reported source of information was school pupils. Due to low literacy
      levels, use of posters was regarded as ineffective and religious institutions,
      town criers and vernacular radio stations considered more effective. The
      information given during programme implementation was considered inadequate and
      use of complementary methods to reach all targeted children including the non
      enrolled, and relay adequate information reported as important. Use of school and
      chief's meetings with health personnel being present was mentioned as a useful
      method that would allow for interaction with participants indicating that they
      did not understand why adults were not being treated. Repeated awareness creation
      before deworming day to serve as a reminder and to reach those missing initial
      messages was also mentioned as important. Furthermore, the awareness creation
      period needed to be extended as 85% of the participants indicated that they
      learnt of deworming a day before it took place or after their children had
      received the drugs. CONCLUSION: Awareness creation is a key factor in the success
      of NSBDP implementation. For programme sustainability, preferences of local
      stakeholders need to be considered as control of worms can only be achieved
      through an integrated approach of deworming, health education and use of safe
      water and sanitation facilities which require collaboration with local
      stakeholders.

PMID- 28883986
TI  - Redox-active conducting polymers modulate Salmonella biofilm formation by
      controlling availability of electron acceptors.
AB  - Biofouling is a major problem caused by bacteria colonizing abiotic surfaces,
      such as medical devices. Biofilms are formed as the bacterial metabolism adapts
      to an attached growth state. We studied whether bacterial metabolism, hence
      biofilm formation, can be modulated in electrochemically active surfaces using
      the conducting conjugated polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). We
      fabricated composites of PEDOT doped with either heparin, dodecyl benzene
      sulfonate or chloride, and identified the fabrication parameters so that the
      electrochemical redox state is the main distinct factor influencing biofilm
      growth. PEDOT surfaces fitted into a custom-designed culturing device allowed for
      redox switching in Salmonella cultures, leading to oxidized or reduced
      electrodes. Similarly large biofilm growth was found on the oxidized anodes and
      on conventional polyester. In contrast, biofilm was significantly decreased (52
      58%) on the reduced cathodes. Quantification of electrochromism in unswitched
      conducting polymer surfaces revealed a bacteria-driven electrochemical reduction
      of PEDOT. As a result, unswitched PEDOT acquired an analogous electrochemical
      state to the externally reduced cathode, explaining the similarly decreased
      biofilm growth on reduced cathodes and unswitched surfaces. Collectively, our
      findings reveal two opposing effects affecting biofilm formation. While the
      oxidized PEDOT anode constitutes a renewable electron sink that promotes biofilm
      growth, reduction of PEDOT by a power source or by bacteria largely suppresses
      biofilm formation. Modulating bacterial metabolism using the redox state of
      electroactive surfaces constitutes an unexplored method with applications
      spanning from antifouling coatings and microbial fuel cells to the study of the
      role of bacterial respiration during infection.

PMID- 28883988
TI  - The current state of genetic counseling and newborn screening: an interview with
      Megan Tucker.
AB  - Megan Tucker talks to Francesca Lake, Managing Editor: A certified genetic
      counselor for over 10 years, Megan is currently the director of the Indiana State
      University Genetic Counseling Graduate Program and the Genetic Counseling Clinic
      at Union Hospital (Terre Haute, IN, USA). She began her career split between the
      Center for Prenatal Diagnosis and the Medical Genetics and Neurodevelopmental
      Center at St Vincent Hospital (Indianapolis, IN, USA). During this time she was
      instrumental in both the development of the statewide Perinatal Loss Evaluation
      Program and a hospital protocol to ensure collection of cord blood to allow time
      to effectively genetically evaluate babies. Her current clinical focus is in
      cancer and psychiatric genetic counseling.

PMID- 28883987
TI  - Obesity and kidney disease: hidden consequences of the epidemic.
AB  - Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic, and its prevalence has been projected to
      grow by 40% in the next decade. This increasing prevalence has implications for
      the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and also for chronic kidney disease.
      A high BMI is one of the strongest risk factors for new-onset chronic kidney
      disease. In individuals affected by obesity, a compensatory hyperfiltration
      occurs to meet the heightened metabolic demands of the increased body weight. The
      increase in intraglomerular pressure can damage the kidneys and raise the risk of
      developing chronic kidney disease in the long-term. The incidence of obesity
      related glomerulopathy has increased tenfold in recent years. Obesity has also
      been shown to be a risk factor for nephrolithiasis, and for a number of
      malignancies including kidney cancer. This year the World Kidney Day promotes
      education on the harmful consequences of obesity and its association with kidney
      disease, advocating healthy lifestyle and health policy measures that make
      preventive behaviors an affordable option.

PMID- 28883989
TI  - Osteoinductive effects of preoperative dexamethasone in human dental pulp stem
      cells primary culture.
AB  - AIM: The use of dexamethasone (DEX) in mesenchymal cell culture induces
      osteoblastic differentiation and, consequently, formation of mineralized tissues.
      Tissue engineering proposes the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at
      structural and functional regeneration of biological tissues. In this sense, cell
      characterization in vitro is critical to ensure the development of such
      techniques. Our objective was to evaluate the osteoinductive effect of DEX
      administered as a preoperative medication in primary cell culture of human dental
      pulp stem cell. METHODOLOGY: Cells from the third molar pulp were divided into
      two experimental groups, each with two preoperative medication protocols used in
      dental practice and differentiated by the intake of DEX in one of them. The
      assessment of proliferation, differentiation and viability through trypan blue,
      methylthiazol tetrazolium, and von Kossa and alizarin red assays, respectively,
      were held within fixed intervals: 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. CONCLUSION: This study
      has shown that DEX may influence in vitro human dental pulp stem cell behavior.

PMID- 28883991
TI  - What's next for genomics and prion diseases?

PMID- 28883990
TI  - The development of T cells from stem cells in mice and humans.
AB  - T cells develop from hematopoietic stem cells in the specialized microenvironment
      of the thymus. The main transcriptional players of T-cell differentiation such as
      Notch, Tcf-1, Gata3 and Bcl11b have been identified, but their role and
      regulation are not yet completely understood. In humans, functional experiments
      on T-cell development have traditionally been rather difficult to perform, but
      novel in vitro culture systems and in vivo xenograft models have allowed detailed
      studies on human T-cell development. Recent work has allowed the use of human
      severe combined immunodeficiency stem cells to unravel developmental checkpoints
      for human thymocyte development.

PMID- 28883993
TI  - Further insight into AE37 peptide vaccination in prostate cancer.

PMID- 28883994
TI  - Lipidomics of human umbilical cord serum: identification of unique sterol
      sulfates.
AB  - AIM: There are currently limited lipidomics data for human umbilical cord blood.
      Therefore, the lipidomes of cord sera from six newborns and sera from six
      nonpregnant females were compared. MATERIALS & METHODS: Sera lipidomics analyses
      were conducted using a high-resolution mass spectrometry analytical platform.
      RESULTS: Cord serum contained a diverse array of glycerophospholipids, albeit
      generally at lower concentrations than monitored in adult serum. The unexpected
      observations were that cord serum contained several neurosteroid sulfates and
      bile acid sulfates that were not detectable in adult serum. CONCLUSION: Our data
      are the first to demonstrate that cord serum contains bile acid sulfates that are
      synthesized early in the hydroxylase, neutral and acidic pathways of primary bile
      acid biosynthesis and support previous publications of cord blood perfluoralkyl
      toxins in newborns.

PMID- 28883995
TI  - Strategies to enhance graphic and results interpretation of a regression-based
      approach for method comparison studies.
AB  - To improve the effectiveness of a previous regression-based approach for the
      assessment of the agreement between different analytical methods, two
      modifications/integrations to the original scheme by means of log10
      transformation of data and implementation of inherent combined imprecision are
      presented in this study.

PMID- 28883992
TI  - Integrating the glioblastoma microenvironment into engineered experimental
      models.
AB  - Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most lethal cancer originating in the brain. Its high
      mortality rate has been attributed to therapeutic resistance and rapid, diffuse
      invasion - both of which are strongly influenced by the unique microenvironment.
      Thus, there is a need to develop new models that mimic individual
      microenvironmental features and are able to provide clinically relevant data.
      Current understanding of the effects of the microenvironment on GBM progression,
      established experimental models of GBM and recent developments using
      bioengineered microenvironments as ex vivo experimental platforms that mimic the
      biochemical and physical properties of GBM tumors are discussed.

PMID- 28883996
TI  - Immunotherapy for penile cancer.

PMID- 28883997
TI  - Evaluation of T1/T2 ratios in a pilot study as a potential biomarker of biopsy:
      proven benign and malignant breast lesions in correlation with histopathological
      disease stage.
AB  - AIM: Early breast cancer detection is important for intervention and prognosis.
      Advances in treatment and outcome require diagnostic tools with highly positive
      predictive value. PURPOSE: To study the potential role of quantitative MRI (qMRI)
      using T1/T2 ratios to differentiate benign from malignant breast lesions.
      METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 69 women with 69 known or suspicious breast
      lesions were scanned with mixed-turbo spin echo pulse sequence. Patients were
      grouped according to histopathological assessment of disease stage: untreated
      malignant tumor, treated malignancy and benign disease. RESULTS & DISCUSSION:
      Elevated T1/T2 means were observed for biopsy-proven malignant lesions and for
      malignant lesions treated prior to qMRI with chemotherapy and/or radiation, as
      compared with benign lesions. The qMRI-obtained T1/T2 ratios correlated with
      histopathology. Analysis revealed correlation between elevated T1/T2 ratio and
      disease stage. This could provide valuable complementary information on tissue
      properties as an additional diagnostic tool.

PMID- 28883998
TI  - Endoplasmic reticulum stress and unfolded protein response in infection by
      intracellular parasites.
AB  - Perturbations of the physiological status of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      trigger a specific response known as the ER stress response or unfolded protein
      response (UPR). In mammalian cells, the UPR is mediated by three ER transmembrane
      proteins (IRE1, PERK and ATF6) which activate three signaling cascades to restore
      ER homeostasis. In recent years, a cross-talk between UPR, inflammatory and
      microbial sensing pathways has been elucidated. Pathogen infection can lead to
      UPR activation; moreover, several pathogens subvert the UPR to promote their
      survival and replication. While the UPR in viral and bacterial infection has been
      characterized, little is known about the role of UPR in intracellular parasite
      infection. Here, we review recent findings on UPR induction/modulation by
      intracellular parasites in host cells.

PMID- 28884000
TI  - Catabolic and anabolic faces of insulin resistance and their disorders: a new
      insight into circadian control of metabolic disorders leading to diabetes.
AB  - Maintenance of glucose homeostasis during circadian behavioral cycles is
      critical. The processes controlling the switch between predominant
      lipolysis/fatty oxidation during fasting and predominant lipid storage/glucose
      oxidation following feeding are determined principally by insulin. Chronic
      elevated threshold of insulin resistance (IR) is a key pathological feature of
      obesity, Type 2 diabetes, sepsis and cancer cachexia; however, a temporal reduced
      threshold of IR is widely met in fasting/hibernation, pregnancy, antibacterial
      immunity, exercise and stress. Paradoxically, some of these cases are associated
      with catabolic metabolism, whereas others are related to anabolic pathways. This
      article considers the possible causes of circadian disorders in glucose and lipid
      metabolism that act as a driving force for obesity-promoted development of Type 2
      diabetes. This is intended to provide improved insight into the pathogenesis of
      chronic circadian disorders that increase the risk of diabetes, and consider new
      targets for its metabolic and drug correction.

PMID- 28883999
TI  - Galactofuranose antigens, a target for diagnosis of fungal infections in humans.
AB  - The use of biomarkers for the detection of fungal infections is of interest to
      complement histopathological and culture methods. Since the production of
      antibodies in immunocompromised patients is scarce, detection of a specific
      antigen could be effective for early diagnosis. D-Galactofuranose (Galf) is the
      antigenic epitope in glycoconjugates of several pathogenic fungi. Since Galf is
      not biosynthesized by mammals, it is an attractive candidate for diagnosis of
      infection. A monoclonal antibody that recognizes Galf is commercialized for
      detection of aspergillosis. The linkage of Galf in the natural glycans and the
      chemical structures of the synthesized Galf-containing oligosaccharides are
      described in this paper. The oligosaccharides could be used for the synthesis of
      artificial carbohydrate-based antigens, not enough exploited for diagnosis.

PMID- 28884002
TI  - Biologically synthesized metal nanoparticles: recent advancement and future
      perspectives in cancer theranostics.

PMID- 28884001
TI  - 6,7-dimethoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-isoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid attenuates
      heptatocellular carcinoma in rats with NMR-based metabolic perturbations.
AB  - AIM: 6,7-dimethoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-isoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid (M1) was
      synthesized and evaluated for in-vivo antiproliferative action in
      diethylnitrosamine-induced hepatocarcinogenic rats. MATERIALS & METHODS: The
      antiproliferative effect of M1 was assessed by various biochemical parameters,
      histopathology of liver and HPLC analysis. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance
      based serum metabolic study was implemented on rat sera to explore the effects of
      M1 on hepatocellular carcinoma-induced metabolic alterations. RESULTS: M1 showed
      protective action on liver and restored the arrangement of liver tissues in
      normal proportion. HPLC analysis displayed a good plasma drug concentration after
      its oral administration. Score plots of partial least squares discriminate
      analysis models exhibited that M1 therapy ameliorated hepatocellular carcinoma
      induced metabolic alterations which signified its antiproliferative potential.
      CONCLUSION: M1 manifested notable antiproliferative profile, and warrants further
      investigation for future anticancer therapy.

PMID- 28884004
TI  - Human epigenetics and microbiome: the potential for a revolution in both research
      areas by integrative studies.

PMID- 28884003
TI  - The transformation of the nuclear nanoarchitecture in human field carcinogenesis.
AB  - Morphological alterations of the nuclear texture are a hallmark of
      carcinogenesis. At later stages of disease, these changes are well characterized
      and detectable by light microscopy. Evidence suggests that similar albeit
      nanoscopic alterations develop at the predysplastic stages of carcinogenesis.
      Using the novel optical technique partial wave spectroscopic microscopy, we
      identified profound changes in the nanoscale chromatin topology in
      microscopically normal tissue as a common event in the field carcinogenesis of
      many cancers. In particular, higher-order chromatin structure at supranucleosomal
      length scales (20-200 nm) becomes exceedingly heterogeneous, a measure we
      quantify using the disorder strength (Ld ) of the spatial arrangement of
      chromatin density. Here, we review partial wave spectroscopic nanocytology
      clinical studies and the technology's promise as an early cancer screening
      technology.

PMID- 28884005
TI  - Gynecological cancers: an alternative approach to healing.
AB  - Grief and hope are two conflicting emotions that a patient recently diagnosed
      with cancer has to master. The real challenge for gynecologic oncologists is how
      to reach out. Conventional wisdom states that offering patients focus and belief
      when combating cancer in their lives allows them to embrace hope with greater
      confidence, which minimizes their grief. Three pictorial models are presented: '4
      cusp approach' model used at the initial consultation; 'tapestry of bereavement
      or landscape of grief' model at the postsurgery consultation; and 'Venn-diagram'
      model at any time during patient management. We have applied these models in our
      practice and believe that they can act as a fulcrum for the patient, the family
      and healthcare team around which therapy should be centered.

PMID- 28884006
TI  - Engineering challenges in microphysiological systems.

PMID- 28884007
TI  - Combined-modality hypofractionated radiotherapy for elderly patients with
      glioblastoma: setting a new standard.

PMID- 28884009
TI  - Identifying relationships between unrelated pharmaceutical target proteins on the
      basis of shared active compounds.
AB  - AIM: Computational exploration of small-molecule-based relationships between
      target proteins from different families. MATERIALS & METHODS: Target annotations
      of drugs and other bioactive compounds were systematically analyzed on the basis
      of high-confidence activity data. RESULTS: A total of 286 novel chemical links
      were established between distantly related or unrelated target proteins. These
      relationships involved a total of 1859 bioactive compounds including 147 drugs
      and 141 targets. CONCLUSION: Computational analysis of large amounts of compounds
      and activity data has revealed unexpected relationships between diverse target
      proteins on the basis of compounds they share. These relationships are relevant
      for drug discovery efforts. Target pairs that we have identified and associated
      compound information are made freely available.

PMID- 28884008
TI  - Efficient method to create integration-free, virus-free, Myc and Lin28-free human
      induced pluripotent stem cells from adherent cells.
AB  - AIM: Nonviral induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC) reprogramming is not efficient
      without the oncogenes, Myc and Lin28. We describe a robust Myc and Lin28-free
      IPSC reprogramming approach using reprogramming molecules. METHODS: IPSC colony
      formation was compared in the presence and absence of Myc and Lin28 by the
      mixture of reprogramming molecules and episomal vectors. RESULTS: While more
      colonies were observed in cultures transfected with the aforementioned oncogenes,
      the Myc and Lin28-free method achieved the same reprogramming efficiency as
      reports that used these oncogenes. Further, all colonies were fully reprogrammed
      based on expression of SSEA4, even in the absence of Myc and Lin28. CONCLUSION:
      This approach satisfies an important regulatory pathway for developing IPSC cell
      therapies with lower clinical risk.

PMID- 28884010
TI  - Mass spectrometry in medicine: a technology for the future?

PMID- 28884011
TI  - Adaptation to macrophage killing by Talaromyces marneffei.
AB  - Talaromyces (Penicillium) marneffei is an important opportunistic fungal
      pathogen. It causes disseminated infection in immunocompromised patients
      especially in Southeast Asian countries. The pathogenicity of T. marneffei
      depends on the ability of the fungus to survive the killing process and replicate
      inside the macrophage. Major stresses inside the phagosome of macrophages are
      heat, oxidative substances and nutrient deprivation. The coping strategies of
      this pathogen with these stresses are under investigation. This paper summarizes
      factors relating to the stress responses that contribute to the intracellular
      survival of T. marneffei. These include molecules in the MAP signal transduction
      cascade, heat shock proteins, antioxidant enzymes and enzymes responsible in
      nutrient retrieval. There is speculation that the ability of T. marneffei to
      withstand these defenses plays an important role in its pathogenicity.

PMID- 28884012
TI  - Performance of seven criteria to assess CA125 increments among ovarian cancer
      patients monitored during first-line chemotherapy and the post-therapy follow-up
      period.
AB  - AIM: To investigate seven CA125 criteria to monitor progressive ovarian cancer
      among patients with stage IC-IV disease. MATERIALS & METHODS: Four criteria were
      used to asses CA125 increments starting from concentrations >=35 U/ml and three
      criteria to asses increments starting from concentrations <35 U/ml. RESULTS: A
      total of 231 patients were allocated to CA125 monitoring. The performances of the
      CA125 criteria were similar with sensitivities of 30-55%, negative predictive
      values of 28-46%, positive predictive values of 90-100% and median lead times of
      26-87 days. CONCLUSION: The criteria showed low sensitivity and inability to
      exclude progressive ovarian cancer. The study suggests that CA125 information
      cannot stand alone but should be considered used in conjunction with other
      investigative procedures.

PMID- 28884014
TI  - Expanding the investigation of meaningful effects in physiology research.

PMID- 28884013
TI  - Reconceptualizing cancer immunotherapy based on plant production systems.
AB  - Plants can be used as inexpensive and facile production platforms for vaccines
      and other biopharmaceuticals. More recently, plant-based biologics have expanded
      to include cancer immunotherapy agents. The following review describes the
      current state of the art for plant-derived strategies to prevent or reduce
      cancers. The review discusses avenues taken to prevent infection by oncogenic
      viruses, solid tumors and lymphomas. Strategies including cancer vaccines,
      monoclonal antibodies and virus nanoparticles are described, and examples are
      provided. The review ends with a discussion of the implications of plant-based
      cancer immunotherapy for developing countries.

PMID- 28884015
TI  - Point-of-care devices: the next frontier in personalized chemotherapy.

PMID- 28884016
TI  - Analytical validation of a 12-gene molecular test for the prediction of distant
      recurrence in breast cancer.
AB  - AIM: To validate the analytical performance of a 12-gene molecular assay that
      predicts distant recurrence for early-stage ER+/HER2- invasive breast cancer as
      run within a central reference laboratory. MATERIALS & METHODS: Formalin-fixed
      paraffin-embedded breast resections were evaluated by quantitative reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction for the expression of eight target genes,
      three housekeeper genes and one control gene to assess for DNA contamination.
      RESULTS: The assay results were highly correlated with a validated reference
      laboratory. The assay had a broad linear range for input RNA, with similar
      amplicon efficiencies for target and housekeeper genes. The assay test was highly
      reproducible, with comparable inter- and intrabatch precision to the reference
      laboratory. CONCLUSION: These studies demonstrate that the 12-gene molecular
      assay is highly robust and accurate.

PMID- 28884017
TI  - Development and validation of an impedance biosensor for point-of-care detection
      of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 toward lupus diagnostics.
AB  - AIM: Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease that requires chronic
      monitoring. In this study, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept study of a highly
      attractive noninvasive strategy for monitoring systemic lupus erythematosus
      through biomarker quantification. RESULTS: This sensor technology requires 50 MUl
      of urine to detect and quantify vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 in 15 min. The
      sensor used nonfaradaic detection to demonstrate performance with and without
      detection antibody. Binding of immunoassay and target biomarkers were quantified
      with an impedance electrical immunoassay and correlated with an equivalent
      circuit. CONCLUSION: The novel sensor technology demonstrates detection in the
      range of 8 fg/ml to 800 pg/ml and comparative analysis with ELISA platforms was
      performed for 12 patient urine samples.

PMID- 28884018
TI  - PP2A-B' holoenzyme substrate recognition, regulation and role in cytokinesis.
AB  - Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is a major Ser/Thr phosphatase; it forms diverse
      heterotrimeric holoenzymes that counteract kinase actions. Using a peptidome that
      tiles the disordered regions of the human proteome, we identified proteins
      containing [LMFI]xx[ILV]xEx motifs that serve as interaction sites for B'-family
      PP2A regulatory subunits and holoenzymes. The B'-binding motifs have important
      roles in substrate recognition and in competitive inhibition of substrate
      binding. With more than 100 novel ligands identified, we confirmed that the
      recently identified LxxIxEx B'alpha-binding motifs serve as common binding sites
      for B' subunits with minor variations, and that S/T phosphorylation or D/E
      residues at positions 2, 7, 8 and 9 of the motifs reinforce interactions.
      Hundreds of proteins in the human proteome harbor intrinsic or phosphorylation
      responsive B'-interaction motifs, and localize at distinct cellular organelles,
      such as midbody, predicting kinase-facilitated recruitment of PP2A-B' holoenzymes
      for tight spatiotemporal control of phosphorylation at mitosis and cytokinesis.
      Moroever, Polo-like kinase 1-mediated phosphorylation of Cyk4/RACGAP1, a
      centralspindlin component at the midbody, facilitates binding of both RhoA
      guanine nucleotide exchange factor (epithelial cell transforming sequence 2
      (Ect2)) and PP2A-B' that in turn dephosphorylates Cyk4 and disrupts Ect2 binding.
      This feedback signaling loop precisely controls RhoA activation and specifies a
      restricted region for cleavage furrow ingression. Our results provide a framework
      for further investigation of diverse signaling circuits formed by PP2A-B'
      holoenzymes in various cellular processes.

PMID- 28884019
TI  - Microtubule-binding protein FOR20 promotes microtubule depolymerization and cell
      migration.
AB  - Microtubules are highly dynamic filaments assembled from alphabeta-tubulin
      heterodimers and play important roles in many cellular processes, including cell
      division and migration. Microtubule dynamics is tightly regulated by microtubule
      associated proteins (MAPs) that function by binding to microtubules or free
      tubulin dimers. Here, we report that FOR20 (FOP-related protein of 20 kDa), a
      conserved protein critical for ciliogenesis and cell cycle progression, is a
      previously uncharacterized MAP that facilitates microtubule depolymerization and
      promotes cell migration. FOR20 not only directly binds to microtubules but also
      regulates microtubule dynamics in vitro by decreasing the microtubule growth rate
      and increasing the depolymerization rate and catastrophe frequency. In the in
      vitro microtubule dynamics assays, FOR20 appears to preferentially interact with
      free tubulin dimers over microtubules. Depletion of FOR20 inhibits microtubule
      depolymerization and promotes microtubule regrowth after the nocodazole treatment
      in HeLa cells. In addition, FOR20 knockdown significantly inhibits both
      individual and collective migration of mammalian cells. Taken together, these
      data suggest that FOR20 functions as a MAP to promote microtubule
      depolymerization and cell migration.

PMID- 28884020
TI  - Pitfalls of exome sequencing: a case study of the attribution of HABP2 rs7080536
      in familial non-medullary thyroid cancer.
AB  - Next-generation sequencing using exome capture is a common approach used for
      analysis of familial cancer syndromes. Despite the development of robust
      computational algorithms, the accrued experience of analyzing exome data sets and
      published guidelines, the analytical process remains an ad hoc series of
      important decisions and interpretations that require significant oversight.
      Processes and tools used for sequence data generation have matured and are
      standardized to a significant degree. For the remainder of the analytical
      pipeline, however, the results can be highly dependent on the choices made and
      careful review of results. We used primary exome sequence data, generously
      provided by the corresponding author, from a family with highly penetrant
      familial non-medullary thyroid cancer reported to be caused by HABP2 rs7080536 to
      review the importance of several key steps in the application of exome sequencing
      for discovery of new familial cancer genes. Differences in allele frequencies
      across populations, probabilities of familial segregation, functional impact
      predictions, corroborating biological support, and inconsistent replication
      studies can play major roles in influencing interpretation of results. In the
      case of HABP2 rs7080536 and familial non-medullary thyroid cancer, these factors
      led to the conclusion of an association that most data and our re-analysis fail
      to support, although larger studies from diverse populations will be needed to
      definitively determine its role.

PMID- 28884022
TI  - Identification, Characterization, and Structure of Tm16 from Trichuris muris.
AB  - Trichuriasis is a disease of poverty for which excretory and secretory (ES)
      products that induce the protective immunity are being investigated as candidate
      vaccines antigens. In this study, ES products of T. muris and immune sera were
      produced. The immune sera recognized more than 20 proteins on a 2D-gel of ES
      products of T. muris adult worms. Tm16 was one of the proteins identified by mass
      spectrometry. Tm16 shares 57% sequence identity with Ov16, an immunodominant
      diagnostic antigen from Onchocerca volvulus. Recombinant Tm16 with a carboxyl
      terminal hexahistidine was produced using Pichia pastoris. Polyclonal antibodies
      against rTm16 were generated by one-prime and two-boost immunization of three
      female Balb/c mice with 25 MUg of recombinant Tm16 emulsified with ISA720
      adjuvant. These polyclonal antibodies confirmed that Tm16 is localized to the ES
      products and the soluble fraction of the adult worm. Additionally, the high
      resolution crystal structure of Tm16 was solved by molecular replacement. Tm16
      belongs to the phosphatidylethanolamine-binding-like protein (PEBP1) family and
      this is the first structure of a PEBP1 from a parasite.

PMID- 28884023
TI  - Clinical Features and Visual Acuity Outcomes in Culture-Positive Endogenous
      Fungal Endophthalmitis in Southern China.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the causative organisms, management strategies, and visual
      outcomes of culture-proven endogenous fungal endophthalmitis in a case series
      from southern China. METHODS: We reviewed the microbiological and medical records
      of patients with culture-positive endogenous fungal endophthalmitis visiting the
      Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Guangzhou, China, between January 1, 2006, and March
      31, 2016. RESULTS: The inclusion criteria were met in 32 eyes of 29 patients.
      Molds were a common causative organism in 15 patients (51.7%), while yeasts
      appeared in 14 patients (48.3%). Initial visual acuity (VA) at the level of
      finger counting or better was significantly related to a good visual outcome (P =
      0.002). Molds as a causative agent were significantly associated with worse
      visual outcome than yeasts (P = 0.020). CONCLUSION: Molds were a common cause of
      culture-proven fungal endophthalmitis. Endogenous fungal endophthalmitis is
      generally associated with poor VA outcomes, especially if caused by molds and if
      the patient's initial VA is too low to permit finger counting.

PMID- 28884021
TI  - Genomic epidemiology of a national outbreak of post-surgical Mycobacterium
      abscessus wound infections in Brazil.
AB  - An epidemic of post-surgical wound infections, caused by a non-tuberculous
      mycobacterium, has been on-going in Brazil. It has been unclear whether one or
      multiple lineages are responsible and whether their wide geographical
      distribution across Brazil is due to spread from a single point source or is the
      result of human-mediated transmission. 188 isolates, collected from nine
      Brazilian states, were whole genome sequenced and analysed using phylogenetic and
      comparative genomic approaches. The isolates from Brazil formed a single clade,
      which was estimated to have emerged in 2003. We observed temporal and geographic
      structure within the lineage that enabled us to infer the movement of sub
      lineages across Brazil. The genome size of the Brazilian lineage was reduced
      relative to most strains in the three subspecies of Mycobacterium abscessus and
      contained a novel plasmid, pMAB02, in addition to the previously described pMAB01
      plasmid. One lineage, which emerged just prior to the initial outbreak, is
      responsible for the epidemic of post-surgical wound infections in Brazil.
      Phylogenetic analysis indicates that multiple transmission events led to its
      spread. The presence of a novel plasmid and the reduced genome size suggest that
      the lineage has undergone adaptation to the surgical niche.

PMID- 28884024
TI  - Combined Phacoemulsification and Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant (Ozurdex(r))
      in Diabetic Patients with Coexisting Cataract and Diabetic Macular Edema.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the effectiveness and safety of combined
      phacoemulsification and dexamethasone intravitreal implant in patients with
      cataract and diabetic macular edema. METHODS: In this two-center, retrospective,
      single-group study, the charts of 16 consecutive patients who underwent combined
      phacoemulsification and intravitreal dexamethasone implant were retrospectively
      reviewed. These 16 patients, 7 men and 9 women, were observed at least 3 months
      of follow-up. Primary outcome was the change of the central retinal thickness
      (CRT); secondary outcome was the change of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA).
      Any ocular complications were recorded. RESULTS: Mean CRT decreased significantly
      from 486 +/- 152.4 MUm at baseline to 365.5 +/- 91 MUm at 30 days (p = .005), to
      326 +/- 80 MUm at 60 days (p = .0004), and to 362 +/- 134 MUm at 90 days (p =
      .001). Mean BCVA was 20/105 (logMAR, 0.72 +/- 0.34) at baseline and improved
      significantly (p <= .007) at all postsurgery time points. One case of ocular
      hypertension was observed and successfully managed with topical therapy. No
      endophthalmitis or other ocular complications were observed. CONCLUSION:
      Intravitreal slow-release dexamethasone implant combined with cataract surgery
      may be an effective approach on morphologic and functional outcomes for patients
      with cataract and diabetic macular edema for at least three months after surgery.

PMID- 28884025
TI  - The Pattern of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer and Macular Ganglion Cell-Inner
      Plexiform Layer Thickness Changes in Glaucoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the patterns of retinal ganglion cell damage at
      different stages of glaucoma, using the circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer
      (RNFL) and macula ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thicknesses.
      METHODS: In 296 eyes of 296 glaucoma patients and 55 eyes of 55 healthy controls,
      the correlations of mean deviation (MD) with the superior and inferior quadrant
      RNFL/GCIPL thickness (defined as the average of three superior and inferior
      sectors, resp.) were analyzed. RESULTS: In early to moderate glaucoma, most of
      the RNFL/GCIPL thicknesses had significant positive correlations with the MD. In
      advanced glaucoma, the superior GCIPL thickness showed the highest correlation
      with MD (r = 0.495), followed by the superior RNFL (r = 0.452) (all; P < 0.05).
      The correlation coefficient of the inferior RNFL thickness with MD (r < 0.471)
      was significantly stronger in early to moderate glaucoma compared to that in
      advanced glaucoma (r = 0.192; P < 0.001). In contrast, the correlations of the
      superior GCIPL thickness with MD (r = 0.452) in advanced glaucoma was
      significantly stronger compared to that in early to moderate glaucoma (r = 0.159;
      P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The most preserved region in advanced glaucoma appears
      to be the superior macular GCIPL, whereas the most vulnerable region for initial
      glaucoma is the inferior RNFL around the optic disc.

PMID- 28884026
TI  - Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: Prognostic Factors and Multidisciplinary
      Management.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) mostly affects young obese
      women and can lead to permanent visual impairment. However, prognostic factors
      and therapeutic strategy remain unclear. METHODS: We retrospectively collected
      data from all patients diagnosed and managed for IIH in our university center
      from January 2001 to December 2016. RESULTS: Seventy-nine patients were diagnosed
      with IIH. Bilateral transverse sinus stenosis (TSS) was found in 74% of the
      population. Visual outcome at 6 months was poor for 46% of patients, including
      all patients presenting weight gain of at least 5% since diagnosis (p < 0.001),
      whereas mean body mass index at diagnosis was not different between patients with
      poor versus good outcome (32.9 +/- 7.7 versus 34.6 +/- 9.4 kg.m-2). Other
      significant factors of poor prognosis were bilateral TSS (OR = 5.2; 95 CI: 1.24
      24.9; p = 0.024). Thirteen patients with poor outcome after 6-month assessment
      underwent unilateral TSS stenting leading to visual improvement in 11 cases.
      CONCLUSION: Weight gain, rather than initial weight, emerged as the leading
      factor of poor visual outcome in patients with IIH, followed by presence of
      bilateral TSS. Consequently, first-line treatment must include dietary measures
      to control weight. Unilateral stenting appears to be a safe second-line treatment
      option for patients with bilateral TSS.

PMID- 28884028
TI  - Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection: A Rare Manifestation of Alport Syndrome.
AB  - Alport syndrome (AS) is a genetic disorder due to inheritance of genetic
      mutations which lead to production of abnormal type IV collagen. AS has been
      associated with renal, auditory, and ocular diseases due to the presence of
      abnormal alpha chains of type IV collagen in the glomerulus, cochlea, cornea,
      lens, and retina. The resulting disorder includes hereditary nephritis, corneal
      opacities, anterior lenticonus, fleck retinopathy, temporal retinal thinning, and
      sensorineural deafness. Aortic and aortic valve pathologies have been described
      as extrarenal manifestations of AS in multiple case reports. One case report
      described intramural hematoma of the coronary artery. We report the first case of
      true spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) with an intimal flap as a very
      rare manifestation of AS. The patient is a 36-year-old female with history of AS
      with chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and obesity who presented to the
      emergency room with acute onset of substernal chest pain radiating to her neck
      and arms. Troponin was elevated, and ECG showed transient 1 mm ST-segment
      elevation in the inferior leads. Subsequent coronary angiography revealed
      localized dissection of the left circumflex artery. Percutaneous coronary
      angioplasty was performed and her symptoms improved. This case illustrates that
      SCAD may be a manifestation of AS patients with chest pain.

PMID- 28884027
TI  - AAV-KLF7 Promotes Descending Propriospinal Neuron Axonal Plasticity after Spinal
      Cord Injury.
AB  - DPSN axons mediate and maintain a variety of normal spinal functions.
      Unsurprisingly, DPSN tracts have been shown to mediate functional recovery
      following SCI. KLF7 could contribute to CST axon plasticity after spinal cord
      injury. In the present study, we assessed whether KLF7 could effectively promote
      DPSN axon regeneration and synapse formation following SCI. An AAV-KLF7 construct
      was used to overexpress KLF7. In vitro, KLF7 and target proteins were
      successfully elevated and axonal outgrowth was enhanced. In vivo, young adult
      C57BL/6 mice received a T10 contusion followed by an AAV-KLF7 injection at the T7
      9 levels above the lesion. Five weeks later, overexpression of KLF7 was expressed
      in DPSN. KLF7 and KLF7 target genes (NGF, TrkA, GAP43, and P0) were detectably
      increased in the injured spinal cord. Myelin sparring at the lesion site, DPSN
      axonal regeneration and synapse formation, muscle weight, motor endplate
      morphology, and functional parameters were all additionally improved by KLF7
      treatment. Our findings suggest that KLF7 promotes DPSN axonal plasticity and the
      formation of synapses with motor neurons at the caudal spinal cord, leading to
      improved functional recovery and further supporting the potential of AAV-KLF7 as
      a therapeutic agent for spinal cord injury.

PMID- 28884029
TI  - A Step-by-Step Conservative Approach for CAD-CAM Laminate Veneers.
AB  - The use of CAD/CAM technology has allowed the fabrication of ceramic restorations
      efficiently and with predictable results. Lithium disilicate is a type of glass
      ceramic material that can be used for the elaboration of laminate veneers, being
      monolithic restorations which require characterization through a covering ceramic
      in order to achieve acceptable esthetic results. The next case report shows a
      predictable clinical protocol for the rehabilitation of the anterior teeth
      through the preparation of CAD/CAM veneers (e.max CAD, Ivoclar Vivadent,
      Liechtenstein) which have been characterized by a nanofluorapatite ceramic (e.max
      Ceram, Ivoclar Vivadent, Liechtenstein) through the layering technique.

PMID- 28884030
TI  - Insight into Natural History of Congenital Vitiligo: A Case Report of a 23-Year
      Old with Stable Congenital Vitiligo.
AB  - Vitiligo is a disorder of skin pigmentation. It affects approximately 1% of the
      world's population. Vitiligo occurs equally between the sexes with no racial
      predilections. The majority of cases are acquired and arise between the second
      and third decades of life. Acquired vitiligo has an unpredictable clinical
      course. Congenital vitiligo is rare with few reported cases. Due to the rarity of
      congenital vitiligo, little is known about the clinical course. For patients with
      acquired or congenital vitiligo, the psychosocial burden can have a profound
      impact on quality of life. The unknown course of congenital vitiligo can
      exacerbate the feelings of distress and embarrassment. We report of a case of
      congenital vitiligo that has been stable for 23 years. The patient had no
      associated autoimmune disease. The pathogenesis of congenital vitiligo is
      unknown. This case may be useful to assist clinicians caring for newborns with
      congenital vitiligo in reassuring parents.

PMID- 28884031
TI  - A Case of Lionfish Envenomation Presenting to an Inland Emergency Department.
AB  - Lionfish envenomation can cause erythema, edema, necrosis, and severe pain at the
      exposed site. Treatment often includes supportive wound care, pain management,
      and hot water immersion. We report a case of lionfish exposure presenting to an
      inland emergency department treated successfully with these measures.

PMID- 28884032
TI  - Neurological Manifestations of X-Linked Ichthyosis: Case Report and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - A 5-year-old boy presented with mild autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity
      disorder (ADHD). Chromosomal microarray demonstrated a 1.7 Mb deletion at
      Xp22.31, which was consistent with X-linked ichthyosis (XLI). Further exam
      revealed dry, scaly skin on his abdomen and pretibial areas. Patients with
      mutations involving solely the STS gene or the recurrent ~2 Mb deletion may
      present with ADHD, whereas those with larger deletions including the NLGN4 gene
      can present with both ADHD and autism. However, our patient presented with mild
      autism in addition to ADHD despite having only the recurrent deletion without
      loss of NLGN4. Such neurological manifestations of XLI warrant attention as
      practical targets of clinical management.

PMID- 28884033
TI  - High-Grade B-Cell Neoplasm with Surface Light Chain Restriction and Tdt
      Coexpression Evolved in a MYC-Rearranged Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: A Dilemma
      in Classification.
AB  - According to World Health Organization (WHO) classification (2008), B-cell
      neoplasms are classified into precursor B-cell or a mature B-cell phenotype and
      this classification was also kept in the latest WHO revision (2016). We are
      reporting a male patient in his fifties, with tonsillar swelling diagnosed as
      diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), germinal center. He received 6 cycles of
      RCHOP and showed complete metabolic response. Two months later, he presented with
      severe CNS symptoms. Flow cytometry on bone marrow (BM) showed infiltration by
      CD10-positive Kappa-restricted B-cells with loss of CD20 and CD19, and
      downregulation of CD79b. Moreover, the malignant population showed Tdt
      expression. BM Cytogenetics revealed t(8;14)(q24;q32) within a complex karyotype.
      Retrospectively, MYC and Tdt immunostains performed on original diagnostic tissue
      and came negative for Tdt and positive for MYC. It has been rarely reported that
      mature B-cell neoplasms present with features of immaturity; however the
      significance of Tdt acquisition during disease course was not addressed before.
      What is unique in this case is that the emerging disease has acquired an
      immaturity marker while retaining some features of the original mature clone. No
      definitive WHO category would adopt high-grade neoplasms that exhibit significant
      overlapping features between mature and immature phenotypes.

PMID- 28884034
TI  - Snakebite Induced Thrombotic Microangiopathy Leading to Renal Cortical Necrosis.
AB  - Renal complications from snakebite result in high mortality and morbidity. Acute
      kidney injury (AKI) occurs in 5-30% of cases. Renal manifestation could include
      acute tubular necrosis, cortical necrosis, interstitial nephritis,
      glomerulonephritis, and vasculitis. We present a case of thrombotic
      microangiopathy (TMA) resulting in renal cortical necrosis. Renal biopsy showed
      fibrin thrombi in glomeruli and arterioles with cortical necrosis. Our patient
      progressed to end-stage renal disease.

PMID- 28884035
TI  - Cooccurrence of Chorea-Acanthocytosis and Mesial Temporal Sclerosis: A Possible
      Role of Caudate Nucleus.
AB  - Chorea-acanthocytosis (ChAc) is an orphan disease, caused by mutations on
      chromosome 9. Epileptic seizures of mesial temporal origin can be a predominant
      symptom. We report on a 29-year-old woman with ChAc and bilateral MTS.
      Previously, few patients with coexisting ChAc and MTS were reported. The
      underlying pathophysiology is unknown, and further studies are needed.

PMID- 28884036
TI  - Severe Hepatopulmonary Syndrome in a Child with Caroli Syndrome.
AB  - Hepatopulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is a potential complication of chronic liver
      disease and is more commonly seen in the adult population. Caroli Syndrome is a
      rare inherited disorder characterized by intrahepatic ductal dilation and liver
      fibrosis that leads to portal hypertension. In children with liver disease, HPS
      should be considered in the differential diagnosis of prolonged, otherwise
      unexplained, hypoxemia. The presence of HPS can improve patient priority on the
      liver transplantation wait list, despite their Pediatric End-Stage Liver Disease
      (PELD) score. We present a 6-year-old girl with Caroli Syndrome and End-Stage
      Renal Disease who presented with persistent hypoxemia. The goal of this report is
      to increase awareness of HPS in children.

PMID- 28884038
TI  - Differential Diagnosis of Parkinson Disease, Essential Tremor, and Enhanced
      Physiological Tremor with the Tremor Analysis of EMG.
AB  - We investigate the differential diagnostic value of tremor analysis of EMG on
      Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET), and enhanced physiological
      tremor (EPT). Clinical data from 25 patients with PD, 20 patients with ET, and 20
      patients with EPT were collected. The tremor frequency and muscle contraction
      pattern of the resting, posture, and 500 g and 1000 g overload were recorded. The
      frequency of PD tremor was 4-6 Hz, and the frequency of ET was also in this
      range; the frequency of EPT is 6-12 hz having some overlap with PD. The muscle
      contraction patterns of the ET and EPT group were mainly synchronous contraction,
      and the muscle contraction mode of the PD group was mainly alternating
      contraction. Having tremor latency from rest to postural position and having
      changes in tremor amplitude after mental concentration in PD might distinguish
      ET. Tremor analysis of EMG was able to distinguish PD from ET and EPT by varying
      the tremor frequency and muscle contraction pattern. It can also differentiate
      between PD and ET by the latency and concentration effect and ET and EPT by
      weight load effect.

PMID- 28884037
TI  - New Insights about Pulmonary Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma: Review of the
      Literature and Two Case Reports.
AB  - Pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (PEH) is a rare neoplasm of vascular
      origin. There are three different major imaging patterns identified in thoracic
      manifestation of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma: (1) multiple pulmonary
      nodules; (2) multiple pulmonary reticulonodular opacities; and (3) diffuse
      infiltrative pleural thickening. Radiographically, presence of bilateral multiple
      nodules is the most common pattern of presentation. The diagnosis is made on the
      basis of histopathological findings and confirmed by positive
      immunohistochemistry staining. Although the prognostic factors for PEH have not
      yet been well established, a better prognosis is usually associated with the
      multinodular pattern. We report two different imagological presentations of this
      rare disease, based on two institutional experiences, along with a review of the
      relevant literature.

PMID- 28884039
TI  - Nanotechnology-based combination therapy for overcoming multidrug-resistant
      cancer.
AB  - Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major obstacle to successful cancer treatment and
      is crucial to cancer metastasis and relapse. Combination therapy is an effective
      strategy for overcoming MDR. However, the different pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles
      of combined drugs often undermine the combination effect in vivo, especially when
      greatly different physicochemical properties (e.g., those of macromolecules and
      small drugs) combine. To address this issue, nanotechnology-based codelivery
      techniques have been actively explored. They possess great advantages for tumor
      targeting, controlled drug release, and identical drug PK profiles. Thus, a
      powerful tool for combination therapy is provided, and the translation from in
      vitro to in vivo is facilitated. In this review, we present a summary of various
      combination strategies for overcoming MDR and the nanotechnology-based
      combination therapy.

PMID- 28884040
TI  - Recent progress on nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems for cancer therapy.
AB  - The development of cancer nanotherapeutics has attracted great interest in the
      recent decade. Cancer nanotherapeutics have overcome several limitations of
      conventional therapies, such as nonspecific biodistribution, poor water
      solubility, and limited bioavailability. Nanoparticles with tuned size and
      surface characteristics are the key components of nanotherapeutics, and are
      designed to passively or actively deliver anti-cancer drugs to tumor cells. We
      provide an overview of nanoparticle-based drug delivery methods and cancer
      therapies based on tumor-targeting delivery strategies that have been developed
      in recent years.

PMID- 28884043
TI  - Preclinical and clinical applications of specific molecular imaging for HER2
      positive breast cancer.
AB  - Precision medicine and personalized therapy are receiving increased attention,
      and molecular-subtype classification has become crucial in planning therapeutic
      schedules in clinical practice for patients with breast cancer. Human epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is associated with high-grade breast tumors, high
      rates of lymph-node involvement, high risk of recurrence, and high resistance to
      general chemotherapy. Analysis of HER2 expression is highly important for doctors
      to identify patients who can benefit from trastuzumab therapy and monitor the
      response and efficacy of treatment. In recent years, significant efforts have
      been devoted to achieving specific and noninvasive HER2-positive breast cancer
      imaging in vivo. In this work, we reviewed existing literature on HER2 imaging in
      the past decade and summarized the studies from different points of view, such as
      imaging modalities and HER2-specific probes. We aimed to improve the
      understanding on the translational process in molecular imaging for HER2 breast
      cancer.

PMID- 28884044
TI  - Survival after pulmonary metastasectomy in colorectal cancer patients: does a
      history of resected liver metastases worsen the prognosis? A literature review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: : To assess the impact of past liver metastases on the survival
      duration of patients who are undergoing surgery for lung metastases. METHODS: :
      We conducted a review of literature published from 2007 to 2014. The studies were
      identified by searching PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase and were supplemented by a
      manual search of the references listed by the retrieved studies. The following
      search terms were used: lung metastasectomy, pulmonary metastasectomy, lung
      metastases, and lung metastasis. We selected retrospective and prospective
      studies published from 2007 to 2014 on patients with lung metastases from
      colorectal cancer and were undergoing surgery with curative intent. We excluded
      reviews, studies that focused on surgical techniques, patients who were treated
      non-surgically, analyses of specific subgroups of patients, and those that did
      not report follow-up of the patients undergoing surgery. RESULTS: : We identified
      28 papers that assessed survival after lung metastases, 21 of which were mostly
      retrospective studies that identified previous liver metastases to explore their
      impact on patient survival. In more than half of the papers analyzed (63.2%),
      patients with a history of resected liver metastases had a lower survival rate
      than those who did not have such a history, and the difference was statistically
      significant in eight of these studies. However, data were presented differently,
      and authors reported mean survival time, survival rates, or hazard ratios.
      CONCLUSIONS: : A history of liver metastases seems to be a negative prognostic
      factor, but the individual data need to undergo a meta-analysis.

PMID- 28884041
TI  - Natural and artificial small RNAs: a promising avenue of nucleic acid
      therapeutics for cancer.
AB  - Since the failure of traditional therapy, gene therapy using functional DNA
      sequence and small RNA/DNA molecules (oligonucleotide) has become a promising
      avenue for cancer treatment. The discovery of RNA molecules has impelled
      researchers to investigate small regulatory RNA from various natural and
      artificial sources and determine a cogent target for controlling tumor
      progression. Small regulatory RNAs are used for therapeutic silencing of
      oncogenes and aberrant DNA repair response genes. Despite their advantages,
      therapies based on small RNAs exhibit limitations in terms of stability of
      therapeutic drugs, precision-based delivery in tissues, precision-based
      intercellular and intracellular targeting, and tumor heterogeneity-based
      responses. In this study, we summarize the potential and drawbacks of small RNAs
      in nucleic acid therapeutics for cancer.

PMID- 28884042
TI  - Aberrant control of NF-kappaB in cancer permits transcriptional and phenotypic
      plasticity, to curtail dependence on host tissue: molecular mode.
AB  - The role of the transcription factor NF-kappaB in shaping the cancer
      microenvironment is becoming increasingly clear. Inflammation alters the activity
      of enzymes that modulate NF-kappaB function, and causes extensive changes in
      genomic chromatin that ultimately drastically alter cell-specific gene
      expression. NF-kappaB regulates the expression of cytokines and adhesion factors
      that control interactions among adjacent cells. As such, NF-kappaB fine tunes
      tissue cellular composition, as well as tissues' interactions with the immune
      system. Therefore, NF-kappaB changes the cell response to hormones and to contact
      with neighboring cells. Activating NF-kappaB confers transcriptional and
      phenotypic plasticity to a cell and thereby enables profound local changes in
      tissue function and composition. Research suggests that the regulation of NF
      kappaB target genes is specifically altered in cancer. Such alterations occur not
      only due to mutations of NF-kappaB regulatory proteins, but also because of
      changes in the activity of specific proteostatic modules and metabolic pathways.
      This article describes the molecular mode of NF-kappaB regulation with a few
      characteristic examples of target genes.

PMID- 28884045
TI  - BRAF mutation in colorectal carcinomas with signet ring cell component.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: : Signet ring cell carcinoma is a rare subtype of colorectal carcinoma
      (CRC) with an associated BRAFV600E mutation. We investigated frequencies of BRAF
      mutation in 28 CRCs containing variable signet ring cell component and their
      relation with clinicopathologic parameters. METHODS: : According to the presence
      of signet ring cell component, tumors were categorized into groups as follows: 0%
      9%, 10%-24%, 25%-49%, and >50%. Genomic DNA was isolated and analyzed for BRAF
      V600E gene mutation by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length
      polymorphism. Eleven of 28 cases (39.3%) showed BRAFV600E mutation, which was
      also confirmed by Sanger sequencing. To elucidate the importance of existence of
      signet ring cell component at the molecular level, we separated cases into two
      groups with cut-off levels of 10% and 50%, which pertain to percentages of signet
      ring cells. RESULTS: : Seven of 19 cases (36.8%) under the threshold of 50% and
      four of nine cases (44.4%) over this threshold value demonstrated BRAF mutation.
      Three of 7 cases (42.8%) featuring <10% signet ring cell component and eight out
      of 21 cases (38.1%) showing >10% were BRAF mutated. CONCLUSIONS: : BRAF mutation
      must be closely associated with the presence of malignant signet ring cells
      regardless of their percentages.

PMID- 28884046
TI  - Inhibition of IKK-NFkappaB pathway sensitizes lung cancer cell lines to
      radiation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: : Cancer cell radioresistance is a stumbling block in radiation
      therapy. The activity in the nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB) pathway correlates
      with anti-apoptotic mechanisms and increased radioresistance. The IKK complex
      plays a major role in NFkappaB activation upon numerous signals. In this study,
      we examined the interaction between ionizing radiation (IR) and different members
      of the IKK-NFkappaB pathway, as well as upstream activators, RAF1, ERK, and AKT1.
      METHODS: : The effect of 4 Gy of IR on the expression of the RAF1-ERK-IKK
      NFkappaB pathway was examined in A549 and H1299 lung cancer cell lines using
      Western blot analysis and confocal microscopy. We examined changes in radiation
      sensitivity using gene silencing or pharmacological inhibitors of ERK and
      IKKbeta. RESULTS: : IKKalpha, IKKgamma, and IkappaBalpha increased upon exposure
      to IR, thereby affecting nuclear levels of NFkappaB (phospho-p65). ERK inhibition
      or siRNA-mediated down-regulation of RAF1 suppressed the post-irradiation
      survival of the examined lung cancer cell lines. A similar effect was detected on
      survival upon silencing IKKalpha/IKKgamma or inhibiting IKKbeta. CONCLUSIONS: :
      Exposure of lung cancer cells to IR results in NFkappaB activation via IKK. The
      genetic or pharmacological blockage of the RAF1-ERK-IKK-NFkappaB pathway
      sensitizes cells to therapeutic doses of radiation. Therefore, the IKK pathway is
      a promising target for therapeutic intervention in combination with radiotherapy.

PMID- 28884047
TI  - BsmI (rs1544410) and FokI (rs2228570) vitamin D receptor polymorphisms, smoking,
      and body mass index as risk factors of cutaneous malignant melanoma in northeast
      Italy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: : To investigate whether vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) BsmI-rs1544410
      and FokI-rs2228570 polymorphisms, smoking duration, and body mass index (BMI) are
      risk factors for cutaneous melanoma, especially metastatic melanoma. METHODS: :
      We studied 120 cutaneous melanoma cases [68 stage I and II non-metastatic
      melanoma (NMetM) patients, plus 52 Stage III and IV metastatic melanoma (MetM)
      patients], and 120 matching healthy controls from northeast Italy. VDR
      polymorphisms were measured by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
      Absence or presence of BsmI and FokI restriction sites was denoted by " B" and "
      F" or by " b" and " f," respectively. RESULTS: : VDR-BsmI bb genotype was more
      frequent among MetM (32.7%) than among NMetM cases (13.2%), with odds ratio
      (OR)=3.18. Comparison of all melanoma patients vs healthy controls showed that
      the following biomarkers were at risk: >=20 years of smoking (OR=2.43); >=20
      years of smoking combined with bb (OR=4.78), Bb+bb (OR=2.30), Ff (OR=3.04), and
      Ff+ff (OR=3.08); obesity (BMI>30 kg/m2) alone (OR=3.54); and obesity combined
      with Bb+bb (OR=3.52), Ff (OR=4.78), and Ff+ff (OR=6.56). Comparison of MetM vs
      NMetM patients revealed that the following biomarkers were at risk: >=20 years of
      smoking (OR=2.39), >=20 years of smoking combined with bb (OR=5.13), Bb+bb
      (OR=3.07), and Ff+ff (OR=2.66); and obesity combined with Bb+bb (OR=5.27), Ff
      (OR=6.28), and Ff+ff (OR=9.18). Triple combination of >=20 years of smoking,
      obesity, and Bb+bb yielded OR=9.65 for melanoma patients vs healthy controls and
      OR=12.2 for MetM vs. NMetM patients. CONCLUSIONS: : Risk factors for cutaneous
      MetM include two VDR polymorphisms combined with smoking duration and obesity.
      Results suggest gene-environment implications in melanoma susceptibility and
      severity. Future studies in larger cohorts and in subjects with different genetic
      background are warranted to extend our findings.

PMID- 28884048
TI  - Expression levels of beta-catenin and galectin-3 in meningioma and their effect
      on brain invasion and recurrence: a tissue microarray study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Meningiomas are neoplasms that arise from the meninges of the central
      nervous system (CNS). They constitute about 25.6% of CNS tumors diagnosed in
      Egypt. Some morphological variants of meningiomas display aggressive behavior,
      leading to brain-invasive growth pattern. Although meningiomas are usually
      treated by complete surgical excision, the risk of postoperative recurrence
      remains. Hence, additional biomarkers for predicting aggressive behavior must be
      discovered. This study aims to explore the clinical and biological relevance of
      the protein expression levels of beta-catenin and galectine-3 in meningioma and
      to understand the pathobiology of this neoplasm. METHODS: This retrospective
      study was carried out on 153 cases of meningioma by using tissue microarrays and
      immunohistochemistry for beta-catenin and galectine-3. RESULTS: High beta-catenin
      expression was significantly associated with transitional and
      meningiotheliomatous meningiomas, low tumor grade, low recurrence rate, and low
      incidence of brain invasion. Meanwhile, high galectin-3 expression was associated
      with brain invasion, recurrence, high tumor grade, and tumor type. Logistic
      regression analysis indicated that among all variables included in the model,
      beta-catenin and galactin-3 expression levels were significant predictors of
      tumor recurrence (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Galectin-3 and beta-catenin are involved
      in meningioma recurrencebut not in brain invasion. These molecules could be
      important potential therapeutic targets and predictors for meningiomas.

PMID- 28884049
TI  - Potential predictive factors for pathologic complete response after the
      neoadjuvant treatment of rectal adenocarcinoma: a single center experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: : To assess the response rate of patients with rectal adenocarcinoma
      to neoadjuvant therapy and to identify the predictors of histological regression
      after neoadjuvant radiotherapy (RT) or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT).
      METHODS: : This study recruited 64 patients. The patients had resectable cancer
      of the lower and the middle rectum (T3/T4 and/or N+) without distant metastasis
      and received neoadjuvant RT or CCRT followed by radical surgery with total
      mesorectal excision (TME) between January 2006 and December 2011. The patients
      were classified into non-response (NR), partial response (PR), and pathologic
      complete response (pCR) based on the Dworak tumor regression grading system.
      RESULTS: : The median age of patients was 57 years (ranging from 22 to 85). A
      total of 24 patients were treated with neoadjuvant CCRT, whereas 40 patients were
      treated with RT alone. Abdominoperineal resection (APR) was performed on 29
      patients (45%). Anterior resection with TME was performed on 34 patients (53%).
      One patient had local resection. Histologically, 12 (19%), 24 (73%), and 28 (44%)
      patients exhibited pCR, PR, and NR, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed
      that the predictors of tumor regression were as follows: the absence of lymph
      node involvement from initial imaging (cN0) (P=0.021); normal initial
      carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level (P=0.01); hemoglobin level >=12 g/dl
      (P=0.009); CCRT (P=0.021); and tumor downstaging in imaging (P=0.001).
      Multivariate analysis showed that the main predictors of pCR were CT combined
      with neoadjuvant RT, cN0 stage, and tumor regression on imaging. CONCLUSIONS: :
      Identifying the predictors of pCR following neoadjuvant therapy aids the
      selection of responsive patients for non-aggressive surgical treatment and
      possible surveillance.

PMID- 28884050
TI  - Ready! Aim! Fire! targeting the right medical science journal.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Inadvertently submitting a paper to a journal that is unlikely to
      publish it is a waste of resources and ultimately delays dissemination of one's
      research. A high proportion of manuscripts are rejected by their author's first
      choice journal. The aim of the present work was to review guidance provided
      within the literature for journal selection that might minimize the chance of
      manuscript rejection. We also consider papers that encompass more than one main
      medical science and describe the selection process that we used with a paper that
      was published in Cardiovascular Endocrinology. METHODS: A database search
      (Embase, PubMed and Medworm) was performed for all articles published in the
      scientific literature providing guidance on journal selection. Articles were
      identified that either had journal selection as their principal topic or included
      journal selection as part of a broader discussion of publishing. The relative
      performance of four free-to-use, web-based applications that claim to provide
      guidance on journal selection was compared. RESULTS: The searches identified 286
      hits, of which 249 were in English. Of these papers, 16 discussed journal
      selection and a further 10 articles were identified from citations within the
      original 16 articles. Only one article described a comprehensive model for
      submission decision-making. Identification of appropriate candidate journals by
      various web-based applications was erratic, with the Jane database providing the
      most robust suggestions. CONCLUSION: Our work suggests that little attention has
      been focused in the scientific literature on the mechanisms that authors use to
      select a journal for their work. Nevertheless, scientists for the most part seem
      to have a good sense of where their papers are most likely to be accepted. Beyond
      ensuring that a manuscript fulfils all the target journal's requirements, the
      literature suggests that it is important to have an objective view of the
      scientific contribution or 'value' of your work.

PMID- 28884051
TI  - Anti-n-Methyl-d-Aspartate-Receptor (NMDAR) Encephalitis in Association with
      Ovarian Teratoma.
AB  - Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate-Receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is an autoimmune disorder
      with a multifaceted presentation that involves memory deficits, psychiatric
      symptoms, and autonomic instability. This case report describes the classic
      presentation of Anti-NMDAR encephalitis and highlights its association with
      ovarian teratomas. We present a 26 -year-old female who came in with new onset
      seizures and altered mentation who subsequently developed automatism.
      Electroencephalograms (EEG) showed left frontal spikes and right temporal delta
      activity. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed right temporal hyper
      intensity. The diagnosis was established with positive anti-NMDAR antibodies in
      the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The patient was initially treated with steroids
      and valproic acid, however, her condition progressively worsened. A five-day
      course of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) was started followed by rituximab.
      The clinical course was complicated with the patient developing neutropenic fever
      and cerebrospinal fluid cultures (CSF) growing methicillin-sensitive
      Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). She underwent pelvic imaging which showed a right
      ovarian teratoma. Evidence suggests that removal of ovarian tumor leads to better
      clinical and mortality outcomes in patients with Anti-NMDAR encephalitis. It is
      important for the internist to consider paraneoplastic syndromes in patients with
      Anti-NMDAR encephalitis.

PMID- 28884052
TI  - Colovesical Fistula: An Unusual Complication of Cytomegalovirus Colitis.
AB  - Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a double-stranded DNA virus that is associated with
      clinically significant disease in patients with advanced immunosuppression,
      particularly those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired
      immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). End-organ disease with CMV is classically
      associated with a CD4 cell count less than 50 cells/microliter. CMV colitis is
      the second most common manifestation of end-organ disease in this patient
      population. CMV-associated enteric fistula is a rare complication that has been
      described in only a few case reports in the literature. These cases describe
      gastrocolic, enterocutaneous, enterocolic, rectovaginal, and colocutaneous
      fistulae. However, colovesical fistula has not been described previously. Here,
      we report the first case of CMV-associated colovesical fistula in a patient with
      HIV infection and AIDS.

PMID- 28884053
TI  - Pes Anserinus Bursitis due to Tibial Spurs in Children.
AB  - Osteochondromas are the most common bone tumours. Although these tumors are
      relatively common in the long bones of children, the varied clinical and
      radiographic presentation of such neoplasms around the knee joint can cause
      diagnostic delays, especially when not associated with a palpable swelling.
      Proximal tibial osteochondromas can sometimes unusually present as spurs/ rose
      thorns leading to pes anserinus bursitis and vague knee pain. We describe the
      clinico-radiographic features of such proximal tibial metaphyseal osteochondromas
      giving rise to pes anserinus bursitis in three children, including bilaterally
      symmetrical osteochondroma in one of the cases, who were treated conservatively
      with good outcomes.

PMID- 28884054
TI  - The Role of Apixaban in the Treatment of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia.
AB  - Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) can present as arterial and venous
      thrombosis in adults who are treated with heparin. We present a case of a patient
      who developed HIT when she was treated for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and
      pulmonary embolism with heparin. During the treatment with heparin and while
      being transitioned to warfarin, she developed arterial thrombosis. A work-up for
      HIT was sent, and it was positive. She was started on the argatroban drip and her
      platelet counts stabilized. Since her platelet counts remained stable and were
      not increasing for three weeks, we decided to transition the patient to an oral
      anticoagulant. She was started on apixaban, a novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC),
      and her platelet counts remained stable. Therefore, through this case, we
      highlight the importance of platelet counts remaining stable when a patient with
      HIT is treated with apixaban.

PMID- 28884056
TI  - The effect of the electrical double layer on hydrodynamic lubrication: a non
      monotonic trend with increasing zeta potential.
AB  - In the present study, a modified Reynolds equation including the electrical
      double layer (EDL)-induced electroviscous effect of lubricant is established to
      investigate the effect of the EDL on the hydrodynamic lubrication of a 1D slider
      bearing. The theoretical model is based on the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann
      equation without the use of the Debye-Huckel approximation. Furthermore, the
      variation in the bulk electrical conductivity of the lubricant under the
      influence of the EDL is also considered during the theoretical analysis of
      hydrodynamic lubrication. The results show that the EDL can increase the
      hydrodynamic load capacity of the lubricant in a 1D slider bearing. More
      importantly, the hydrodynamic load capacity of the lubricant under the influence
      of the EDL shows a non-monotonic trend, changing from enhancement to attenuation
      with a gradual increase in the absolute value of the zeta potential. This non
      monotonic hydrodynamic lubrication is dependent on the non-monotonic
      electroviscous effect of the lubricant generated by the EDL, which is dominated
      by the non-monotonic electrical field strength and non-monotonic electrical body
      force on the lubricant. The subject of the paper is the theoretical modeling and
      the corresponding analysis.

PMID- 28884055
TI  - A biofunctionalizable ink platform composed of catechol-modified chitosan and
      reduced graphene oxide/platinum nanocomposite.
AB  - We present an ink platform for a printable polymer-graphene nanocomposite that is
      intended for the development of modular biosensors. The ink consists of catechol
      modified chitosan and reduced graphene oxide decorated with platinum
      nanoparticles (rGO-Pt). We modified the chitosan with catechol groups, in order
      to obtain adhesive properties and improve solubility. Dispersions of rGO-Pt in
      ethylene glycol were admixed with an aqueous solution of modified chitosan to
      yield an ink that is suitable for non-contact piezoelectric printing using a
      commercial microplotter (Sonoplot GIX Microplotter Desktop). As a proof of
      concept, printed patterns were biofunctionalized with DNA oligonucleotide probes
      for Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B streptococcus) using glutaraldehyde as a
      linker. Confocal microscopy revealed the successful hybridization of
      complementary polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products and low non-specific
      binding. Our results demonstrate that catechol-modified chitosan/rGO-Pt
      nanocomposites can be used as inks for piezoelectric printing and facilitate the
      attachment of biorecognition elements for biosensor applications.

PMID- 28884057
TI  - Fixation mechanisms of nanoparticles on substrates by electron beam irradiation.
AB  - For applications such as the fabrication of plasmonic waveguides we developed a
      patterning technique to fabricate an array of nanoparticles on a substrate using
      focused electron beams (Noriki, T.; Abe, S.;.Kajikawa, K.; Shimojo, M. Beilstein
      J. Nanotechnol.2015,6, 1010-1015). This technique consists of three steps:
      Firstly, nanoparticles are placed over the entire surface of a substrate.
      Secondly, the nanoparticles are fixed on the substrate by focused electron beam
      irradiation. The electron beam decomposes the organic molecules located around
      the particle into amorphous carbon. The amorphous carbon immobilizes the particle
      on the substrate. Finally, the unfixed nanoparticles are removed. However, in
      this original technique, the area in which the nanoparticles were fixed was wider
      than the electron-probe size of a few nanometers. To understand this widening
      mechanisms, the effects of accelerating voltage, particle size and substrate
      material are investigated by means of both experiments and simulation. It is
      demonstrated that the fixing area is greatly affected by the electrons back
      scattered by the substrate. The back-scattering leads to an increase in line
      width and thus reduces the resolution of this patterning technique.

PMID- 28884058
TI  - Nanostructures for sensors, electronics, energy and environment III.

PMID- 28884059
TI  - Parylene C as a versatile dielectric material for organic field-effect
      transistors.
AB  - An emerging new technology, organic electronics, is approaching the stage of
      large-scale industrial application. This is due to a remarkable progress in
      synthesis of a variety of organic semiconductors, allowing one to design and to
      fabricate, so far on a laboratory scale, different organic electronic devices of
      satisfactory performance. However, a complete technology requires upgrading of
      fabrication procedures of all elements of electronic devices and circuits, which
      not only comprise active layers, but also electrodes, dielectrics, insulators,
      substrates and protecting/encapsulating coatings. In this review, poly(chloro
      para-xylylene) known as Parylene C, which appears to become a versatile
      supporting material especially suitable for applications in flexible organic
      electronics, is presented. A synthesis and basic properties of Parylene C are
      described, followed by several examples of use of parylenes as substrates,
      dielectrics, insulators, or protecting materials in the construction of organic
      field-effect transistors.

PMID- 28884060
TI  - Low-temperature CO oxidation over Cu/Pt co-doped ZrO2 nanoparticles synthesized
      by solution combustion.
AB  - Zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles co-doped with Cu and Pt were applied as catalysts
      for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation. These materials were prepared through
      solution combustion in order to obtain highly active and stable catalytic
      nanomaterials. This method allows Pt2+ and Cu2+ ions to dissolve into the ZrO2
      lattice and thus creates oxygen vacancies due to lattice distortion and charge
      imbalance. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) results
      showed Cu/Pt co-doped ZrO2 nanoparticles with a size of ca. 10 nm. X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectra confirmed cubic structure and larger oxygen
      vacancies. The nanoparticles showed excellent activity for CO oxidation. The
      temperature T50 (the temperature at which 50% of CO are converted) was lowered by
      175  degrees C in comparison to bare ZrO2. Further, they exhibited very high
      stability for CO reaction (time-on-stream ~ 70 h). This is due to combined effect
      of smaller particle size, large oxygen vacancies, high specific surface area and
      better thermal stability of the Cu/Pt co-doped ZrO2 nanoparticles. The apparent
      activation energy for CO oxidation is found to be 45.6 kJ.mol-1. The CO
      conversion decreases with increase in gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) and
      initial CO concentration.

PMID- 28884061
TI  - Luminescent supramolecular hydrogels from a tripeptide and nitrogen-doped carbon
      nanodots.
AB  - The combination of different components such as carbon nanostructures and organic
      gelators into composite nanostructured hydrogels is attracting wide interest for
      a variety of applications, including sensing and biomaterials. In particular,
      both supramolecular hydrogels that are formed from unprotected D,L-tripeptides
      bearing the Phe-Phe motif and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (NCNDs) are
      promising materials for biological use. In this work, they were combined to
      obtain luminescent, supramolecular hydrogels at physiological conditions. The
      self-assembly of a tripeptide upon application of a pH trigger was studied in the
      presence of NCNDs to evaluate effects at the supramolecular level. Luminescent
      hydrogels were obtained whereby NCND addition allowed the rheological properties
      to be fine-tuned and led to an overall more homogeneous system composed of
      thinner fibrils with narrower diameter distribution.

PMID- 28884062
TI  - High-speed dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy imaging of polymers: an adaptive
      multiloop-mode approach.
AB  - Adaptive multiloop-mode (AMLM) imaging to substantially increase (over an order
      of magnitude) the speed of tapping-mode (TM) imaging is tested and evaluated
      through imaging three largely different heterogeneous polymer samples in
      experiments. It has been demonstrated that AMLM imaging, through the combination
      of a suite of advanced control techniques, is promising to achieve high-speed
      dynamic-mode atomic force microscopy imaging. The performance, usability, and
      robustness of the AMLM in various imaging applications, however, is yet to be
      assessed. In this work, three benchmark polymer samples, including a PS-LDPE
      sample, an SBS sample, and a Celgard sample, differing in feature size and
      stiffness of two orders of magnitude, are imaged using the AMLM technique at high
      speeds of 25 Hz and 20 Hz, respectively. The comparison of the images obtained to
      those obtained by using TM imaging at scan rates of 1 Hz and 2 Hz showed that the
      quality of the 25 Hz and 20 Hz AMLM imaging is at the same level of that of the 1
      Hz TM imaging, while the tip-sample interaction force is substantially smaller
      than that of the 2 Hz TM imaging.

PMID- 28884064
TI  - Charge transfer from and to manganese phthalocyanine: bulk materials and
      interfaces.
AB  - Manganese phthalocyanine (MnPc) is a member of the family of transition-metal
      phthalocyanines, which combines interesting electronic behavior in the fields of
      organic and molecular electronics with local magnetic moments. MnPc is
      characterized by hybrid states between the Mn 3d orbitals and the pi orbitals of
      the ligand very close to the Fermi level. This causes particular physical
      properties, different from those of the other phthalocyanines, such as a rather
      small ionization potential, a small band gap and a large electron affinity. These
      can be exploited to prepare particular compounds and interfaces with appropriate
      partners, which are characterized by a charge transfer from or to MnPc. We
      summarize recent spectroscopic and theoretical results that have been achieved in
      this regard.

PMID- 28884063
TI  - Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation
      and environmental remediation applications.
AB  - In the pursuit towards the use of sunlight as a sustainable source for energy
      generation and environmental remediation, photocatalytic water splitting and
      photocatalytic pollutant degradation have recently gained significant importance.
      Research in this field is aimed at solving the global energy crisis and
      environmental issues in an ecologically-friendly way by using two of the most
      abundant natural resources, namely sunlight and water. Over the past few years,
      carbon-based nanocomposites, particularly graphene and graphitic carbon nitride,
      have attracted much attention as interesting materials in this field. Due to
      their unique chemical and physical properties, carbon-based nanocomposites have
      made a substantial contribution towards the generation of clean, renewable and
      viable forms of energy from light-based water splitting and pollutant removal.
      This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the recent research
      progress in the field of energy generation and environmental remediation using
      two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites. It begins with a brief introduction
      to the field, basic principles of photocatalytic water splitting for energy
      generation and environmental remediation, followed by the properties of carbon
      based nanocomposites. Then, the development of various graphene-based
      nanocomposites for the above-mentioned applications is presented, wherein
      graphene plays different roles, including electron acceptor/transporter,
      cocatalyst, photocatalyst and photosensitizer. Subsequently, the development of
      different graphitic carbon nitride-based nanocomposites as photocatalysts for
      energy and environmental applications is discussed in detail. This review
      concludes by highlighting the advantages and challenges involved in the use of
      two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalysis. Finally, the
      future perspectives of research in this field are also briefly mentioned.

PMID- 28884065
TI  - Molecular characterizations of somatic hybrids developed between Pleurotus
      florida and Lentinus squarrosulus through inter-simple sequence repeat markers
      and sequencing of ribosomal RNA-ITS gene.
AB  - The 12 pfls somatic hybrids and 2 parents of Pleurotus florida and Lentinus
      squarrosulus were characterized by ISSR and sequencing of rRNA-ITS genes. Five
      ISSR primers were used and amplified a total of 54 reproducible fragments with
      98.14% polymorphism among all the pfls hybrid populations and parental strains.
      UPGMA-based cluster exhibited a dendrogram with three major groups between the
      parents and pfls hybrids. Parent P. florida and L. squarrosulus showed different
      degrees of genetic distance with all the hybrid lines and they showed closeness
      to hybrid pfls 1m and pfls 1h, respectively. ITS1(F) and ITS4(R) amplified the
      rRNA-ITS gene with 611-867 bp sequence length. The nucleotide polymorphisms were
      found in the ITS1, ITS2 and 5.8S rRNA region with different number of bases.
      Based on rRNA-ITS sequence, UPGMA cluster exhibited three distinct groups between
      L. squarrosulus and pfls 1p, pfls 1m and pfls 1s, and pfls 1e and P. florida.

PMID- 28884066
TI  - Actinomycetes mediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles from the culture
      supernatant of Streptomyces griseoruber with special reference to catalytic
      activity.
AB  - Biogenic synthesis of nanoparticles has received a tremendous attention from the
      past few decades. The significant progress in the field of nanotechnology has
      resulted in a cost-effective and eco-friendly process for nanoparticle synthesis.
      In the present study, the extracellular synthesis of gold nanoparticles was
      carried out using culture supernatant of Streptomyces griseoruber, actinomycetes
      isolated from the soil. Bioreduction of gold nanoparticles was confirmed by UV
      visible spectrophotometer that showed the peak between 520 and 550 nm. The
      crystalline nature and mean size of the GNPs were confirmed using XRD. FTIR
      revealed the possible functional group that could be useful in immobilisation and
      stabilisation of GNPs. Size and distribution of the biosynthesized GNPs were
      analysed by HR-TEM that showed the formation of GNPs in the range of 5-50 nm. The
      synthesised GNPs showed good catalytic activity for the degradation of methylene
      blue. The study shows the rapid and eco-friendly synthesis of GNPs from
      Streptomyces griseoruber, and this is the first report on the catalytic activity
      of GNPs from actinomycetes so far.

PMID- 28884067
TI  - Optimization of thermostable organic solvent-tolerant lipase production by
      thermotolerant Rhizopus sp. using solid-state fermentation of palm kernel cake.
AB  - This study enhanced the production of thermostable organic solvent-tolerant (TS
      OST) lipase by locally isolated thermotolerant Rhizopus sp. strain using solid
      state fermentation (SSF) of palm kernel cake (PKC). The optimum conditions were
      achieved using a series of statistical approaches. The cultivation parameters,
      which include fermentation time, moisture content, temperature, pH, inoculum
      size, various carbon and nitrogen sources, as well as other supplements, were
      initially screened by the definitive screening design, and one-factor-at-a-time
      using PKC as the basal medium. Three significant factors (olive oil
      concentration, pH, and inoculum size) were further optimized using face-centred
      central composite design. The results indicated a successful and significant
      improvement of lipase activity by almost two-fold compared to the initial
      screening production. The findings showed that the optimal conditions were 2%
      (v/w) inoculum size, 2% (v/w) olive oil, 0.6% (w/w) peptone, 2% (v/w) ethanol,
      70% moisture content at initial pH 10.0 and 45  degrees C within 72 h of
      fermentation. Process optimization resulted in maximum lipase activity of 58.63
      U/gram dry solids (gds). The analysis of variance showed that the statistical
      model was significant (p value <0.0001) and reliable with a high value of R2
      (0.98) and adjusted R2 (0.96). This indicates a better correlation between the
      actual and predicted responses of lipase production. By considering this study,
      the low-cost PKC through SSF appears to be promising in the utilization of agro
      industrial waste for TS-OST lipase production. This is because satisfactory
      enzyme activity could be attained that promises industrial applications.

PMID- 28884068
TI  - Different methodologies for sustainability of optimization techniques used in
      submerged and solid state fermentation.
AB  - Optimization techniques are considered as a part of nature's way of adjusting to
      the changes happening around it. There are different factors that establish the
      optimum working condition or the production of any value-added product. A model
      is accepted for a particular process after its sustainability has been verified
      on a statistical and analytical level. Optimization techniques can be divided
      into categories as statistical, nature inspired and artificial neural network
      each with its own benefits and usage in particular cases. A brief introduction
      about subcategories of different techniques that are available and their
      computational effectivity will be discussed. The main focus of the study revolves
      around the applicability of these techniques to any particular operation such as
      submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid state fermentation (SSF), their ability to
      produce secondary metabolites and the usefulness in the laboratory and industrial
      level. Primary studies to determine the enzyme activity of different
      microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and yeast will also be discussed. l
      Asparaginase, the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) shall be considered as an example, a short
      discussion on models used in the production by the processes of SmF and SSF will
      be discussed to understand the optimization techniques that are being dealt. It
      is expected that this discussion would help in determining the proper technique
      that can be used in running any optimization process for different purposes, and
      would help in making these processes less time-consuming with better output.

PMID- 28884069
TI  - Cerebral Hemorrhage following Chiropractic Activator Treatment: Case Report and
      Review of Literature.

PMID- 28884070
TI  - Contemporary Issues in Exposure Assessment Using Biomonitoring.
AB  - In environmental epidemiology, use of biomonitoring (i.e., trace-level
      measurement of environmental chemicals or their metabolites in biospecimens) for
      exposure assessment has increased considerably in past decades. Although exposure
      biomarkers should reflect a person's exposure to the target chemicals (or their
      precursors) within a specific timeframe, timing, duration, and intensity of
      exposures are normally unknown and likely vary within the study period.
      Therefore, evaluating exposure beyond a single time point may require collecting
      more than one biospecimen. Of note, collection and sample processing procedures
      will impact integrity and usefulness of biospecimens. All of the above factors
      are fundamental to properly interpret biomonitoring data. We will discuss the
      relevance of the exposure assessment study protocol design to (a) ensure that
      biomonitoring specimens reflect the intended exposure, (b) consider the temporal
      variability of concentrations of the target biomarkers, and

PMID- 28884071
TI  - Increased risk of SSEs in bone-only metastatic breast cancer patients treated
      with zoledronic acid.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone represents one of the most common sites to which breast cancer
      cells metastasize. Patients experience skeletal related adverse events
      (pathological fractures, spinal cord compressions, and irradiation for
      deteriorated pain on bone) even during treatment with zoledronic acid (ZA).
      Therefore, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to investigate the
      predictive factors for symptomatic skeletal events (SSEs) in bone-metastasized
      breast cancer (b-MBC) patients. METHODS: We retrospectively collected data on b
      MBC patients treated with ZA. Patient characteristics, including age, subtype,
      the presence of non-bone lesions, the presence of multiple bone metastases at the
      commencement of ZA therapy, duration of ZA therapy, the time interval between
      breast cancer diagnosis and the initiation of ZA therapy, and type of systemic
      therapy, presence of previous SSE were analyzed using multivariable logistic
      regression analysis. RESULTS: The medical records of 183 patients were reviewed
      and 176 eligible patients were analyzed. The median age was 59 (range, 30-87)
      years. Eighty-seven patients were aged >=60 years and 89 patients were aged < 60
      years. The proportions of patients with estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor,
      and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive disease were 81.8%, 63.1%,
      and 17.6%, respectively. Fifty-three patients had bone-only MBC at the
      commencement of ZA therapy. SSEs were observed in 42 patients. In the
      multivariable logistic regression analysis, bone-only MBC but not a breast cancer
      subtype was an independent risk factor for an SSE during ZA therapy (odds ratio:
      3.878, 95% confidence interval: 1.647-9.481; p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Bone-only
      MBC patients are more likely to experience an SSE even after treatment with ZA.

PMID- 28884072
TI  - Ochroconis gallopava bronchitis mimicking haemoptysis in a patient with
      bronchiectasis.
AB  - Ochroconis gallopava is an anamorphic mould characterized by slow growth rate and
      production of a maroon pigment, which has been isolated worldwide from soil,
      thermal springs, decaying vegetation, and chicken litter. It has been reported to
      cause localized, mostly pulmonary, and systemic infection in severely
      immunocompromised patients. We describe the case of a 76-year-old woman known for
      ulcerative colitis-related bronchiectasis treated with low dose oral steroids,
      who developed a fungal bronchitis with dark, bloody-like, sputum which was
      initially misinterpreted as haemoptysis. A filamentary mould grew on sputum
      culture, and was identified by DNA analysis as Ochroconis gallopava. We observed
      a significant clinical improvement after 6 weeks of itraconazole therapy.

PMID- 28884074
TI  - Exophthalmos associated to orbital zygomatic mucocele and complex maxillary
      malformation in a puppy.
AB  - A case of exophthalmos due to zygomatic mucocele in a puppy with ipsilateral
      segmental maxillary atrophy is reported. A 7-month-old, mixed breed, male dog
      suffered the sudden-onset of unilateral painful exophthalmos and a gradual
      swelling of the right temporal region. A compressing, right retrobulbar mass was
      observed by ultrasound. Computed tomography revealed a large multiloculated cyst
      like lesion of the right zygomatic gland projecting into the orbital space, thus
      displacing the eyeball. The ipsilateral molar part of the maxillary bone was
      underdeveloped, besides showing crowded, abnormal, multiple, unerupted maxillary
      molar teeth in the caudal maxillary region. Modified lateral orbitotomy and a
      selective caudal maxillary bone access were performed. The cyst-like lesion was
      removed and the zygomatic gland and the wall was collected for histology, which
      confirmed the mucocele. Clinical and imaging examinations six months after
      surgery showed neither recurrence of the mucocele nor ocular abnormalities. A
      possible common pathogenic mechanism involving these two conditions could be
      hypothesized.

PMID- 28884073
TI  - Connectome-based lesion-symptom mapping (CLSM): A novel approach to map
      neurological function.
AB  - Lesion-symptom mapping is a key tool in understanding the relationship between
      structure and function in neuroscience as it can provide objective evidence about
      which regions are crucial for a given process. Initial limitations with this
      approach were largely overcome by voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM), a
      method introduced in the early 2000s, which allows for a whole-brain approach to
      study the association between damaged areas and behavioral impairment by applying
      an independent statistical test at every voxel. By doing so, this technique
      eliminated the need to predefine regions of interest or classify patients into
      groups based on arbitrary cutoff scores. VLSM has nonetheless its own
      limitations; chiefly, a bias towards recognizing cortical necrosis/gliosis but
      with poor sensitivity for detecting injury along long white matter tracts, thus
      ignoring cortical disconnection, which can per se lead to behavioral impairment.
      Here, we propose a complementary method that, instead, establishes a statistical
      relationship between the strength of connections between all brain regions of the
      brain (as defined by a standard brain atlas) and the array of behavioral
      performance seen in patients with brain injury: connectome-based lesion-symptom
      mapping (CLSM). Whole-brain CLSM therefore has the potential to identify key
      connections for behavior independently of a priori assumptions with applicability
      across a broad spectrum of neurological and psychiatric diseases. We propose that
      this approach can further our understanding of brain-structure relationships and
      is worth exploring in clinical and theoretical contexts.

PMID- 28884075
TI  - Laryngeal paralysis associated with a muscle pseudotumour in a young dog.
AB  - An 18-month-old male entire Bloodhound dog was presented with a six-week history
      of progressive inspiratory dyspnoea, stridor, dysphonia and exercise intolerance.
      CT scan performed elsewhere had revealed the presence of an unencapsulated
      nodular mass (3x1x5 cm) dorsal to the larynx and first tracheal rings.
      Laryngoscopy demonstrated the presence of bilateral laryngeal paralysis and
      distorted laryngeal architecture suggestive of extraluminal compression.
      Histopathology results of incisional biopsies from the mass were suggestive of a
      benign non-neoplastic muscular lesion. Surgery was performed to manage laryngeal
      paralysis and attempt mass excision. A second histopathology examination
      confirmed an inflammatory and dysplastic lesion suggestive of a pseudotumour. All
      clinical signs resolved after surgery and at the 13 months follow-up the dog
      remains asymptomatic. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of a
      case of laryngeal paralysis caused by a muscle pseudotumour in a young dog.

PMID- 28884076
TI  - Effects of storage temperature on the quantity and integrity of genomic DNA
      extracted from mice tissues: A comparison of recovery methods.
AB  - Efficient extraction of genomic DNA (gDNA) from biological materials found in
      harsh environments is the first step for successful forensic DNA profiling. This
      study aimed to evaluate two methods for DNA recovery from animal tissues (livers,
      muscles), focusing on the best storage temperature for DNA yield in term of
      quality, quantity, and integrity for use in several downstream molecular
      techniques. Six male Swiss albino mice were sacrificed, liver and muscle tissues
      (n=32) were then harvested and stored for one week in different temperatures, -20
      degrees C, 4 degrees C, 25 degrees C and 40 degrees C. The conditioned animal
      tissues were used for DNA extraction by Chelex-100 method or NucleoSpinC Blood
      and Tissue kit. The extracted gDNA was visualized on 1.5% agarose gel
      electrophoresis to determine the quality of gDNA and analysed
      spectrophotometrically to determine the DNA concentration and the purity. Both
      methods, Chelex-100 and NucleoSpin Blood and Tissue kit found to be appropriate
      for yielding high quantity of gDNA, with the Chelex 100 method yielding a greater
      quantity (P < 0.045) than the kit. At -20 degrees C, 4 degrees C, and 25 degrees
      C temperatures, the concentration of DNA yield was numerically lower than at 40
      degrees C. The NucleoSpinC Blood and Tissue kit produced a higher (P=0.031)
      purity product than the Chelex-100 method, particularly for muscle tissues. The
      Chelex-100 method is cheap, fast, effective, and is a crucial tool for yielding
      DNA from animal tissues (livers, muscles) exposed to harsh environment with
      little limitations.

PMID- 28884077
TI  - Environmentally toxicant exposures induced intragenerational transmission of
      liver abnormalities in mice.
AB  - Environmental toxicants such as chemicals, heavy metals, and pesticides have been
      shown to promote transgenerational inheritance of abnormal phenotypes and/or
      diseases to multiple subsequent generations following parental and/or ancestral
      exposures. This study was designed to examine the potential transgenerational
      action of the environmental toxicant trichloroethane (TCE) on transmission of
      liver abnormality, and to elucidate the molecular etiology of hepatocyte cell
      damage. A total of thirty two healthy immature female albino mice were randomly
      divided into three equal groups as follows: a sham group, which did not receive
      any treatment; a vehicle group, which received corn oil alone, and TCE treated
      group (3 weeks, 100 MUg/kg i.p., every 4th day). The F0 and F1 generation control
      and TCE populations were sacrificed at the age of four months, and various
      abnormalities histpathologically investigated. Cell death and oxidative stress
      indices were also measured. The present study provides experimental evidence for
      the inheritance of environmentally induced liver abnormalities in mice. The
      results of this study show that exposure to the TCE promoted adult onset liver
      abnormalities in F0 female mice as well as unexposed F1 generation offspring. It
      is the first study to report a transgenerational liver abnormalities in the F1
      generation mice through maternal line prior to gestation. This finding was based
      on careful evaluation of liver histopathological abnormalities, apoptosis of
      hepatocytes, and measurements of oxidative stress biomarkers (lipid peroxidation,
      protein carbonylation, and nitric oxide) in control and TCE populations. There
      was an increase in liver histopathological abnormalities, cell death, and
      oxidative lipid damage in F0 and F1 hepatic tissues of TCE treated group. In
      conclusion, this study showed that the biological and health impacts of
      environmental toxicant TCE do not end in maternal adults, but are passed on to
      offspring generations. Hence, linking observed liver abnormality in the offspring
      to environmental exposure of their parental line. This study also illustrated
      that oxidative stress and apoptosis appear to be a molecular component of the
      hepatocyte cell injury.

PMID- 28884078
TI  - Effects of topical flurbiprofen sodium, diclofenac sodium, ketorolac tromethamine
      and benzalkonium chloride on corneal sensitivity in normal dogs.
AB  - To evaluate corneal sensitivity by using the Cochet-Bonnet(r) esthesiometer in
      normal canine eyes at different time points following instillation of three
      different topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (flurbiprofen sodium
      0.03%, diclofenac sodium 0.1% and ketorolac tromethamine 0.5%) and benzalkonium
      chloride 0.01%. Six healthy mixed breed dogs from the same litter were used in
      two different stages. First, one drop of flurbiprofen sodium 0.03% and diclofenac
      sodium 0.1% in each eye; second, one drop of ketorolac tromethamine 0.5% and
      benzalkonium chloride 0.01% in each eye. Baseline esthesiometry was obtained
      before eye drop application and every 15 minutes thereafter until a total of 105
      minutes of evaluation time. A one-week interval was allowed between the two
      treatment phases. Statistical analysis was used to compare means according to
      time of evaluation and drug used. Diclofenac sodium 0.1% decreased corneal
      sensitivity at 75 and 90 minutes (P > 0.015) with possible interference on
      neuronal nociceptive activity and analgesic effect while ketorolac tromethamine
      0.5% did not show any variation for esthesiometry means along the evaluation.
      Flurbiprofen sodium 0.03% resulted in increased esthesiometry values 30 minutes
      after instillation (P > 0.013), increasing corneal sensitivity and possibly
      producing a greater irritant corneal effect over its analgesic properties.
      Benzalkonium chloride 0.01% significantly increased corneal sensitivity at 15
      minutes of evaluation (P > 0.001), most likely resulting from its irritating
      effect. Esthesiometry did not allow a definite conclusion over the analgesic
      effect of the NSAIDs tested; however it was effective in detecting fluctuations
      in corneal sensitivity.

PMID- 28884079
TI  - Podophyllotoxin: a novel potential natural anticancer agent.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present review is to give an overview about the role,
      biosynthesis, and characteristics of Podophyllotoxin (PTOX) as a potential
      antitumor agent with particular emphasis on key biosynthesis processes, function
      of related enzymes and characterization of genes encoding the enzymes. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Google scholar, PubMed and Scopus were searched for literatures
      which have studied identification, characterization, fermentation and therapeutic
      effects of PTOX and published in English language until end of 2016. RESULTS:
      PTOX is an important plant-derived natural product, has derivatives such as
      etoposide and teniposide, which have been used as therapies for cancers and
      venereal wart. PTOX structure is closely related to the aryltetralin lactone
      lignans that have antineoplastic and antiviral activities. Podophyllum emodi
      Wall. (syn. P. hexandrum) and Podophyllum peltatum L. (Berberidaceae) are the
      major sources of PTOX. It has been shown that ferulic acid and methylenedioxy
      substituted cinnamic acid are the enzymes involved in PTOX synthesis. PTOX
      prevents cell growth via polymerization of tubulin, leading to cell cycle arrest
      and suppression of the formation of the mitotic-spindles microtubules.
      CONCLUSION: Several investigations have been performed in biosynthesis of PTOX
      such as cultivation of these plants, though they were unsuccessful. Thus, it is
      important to find alternative sources to satisfy the pharmaceutical demand for
      PTOX. Moreover, further preclinical studies are warranted to explore the
      molecular mechanisms of these agents in treatment of cancer and their possible
      potential to overcome chemoresistance of tumor cells.

PMID- 28884080
TI  - Antibacterial, antioxidant and cell proliferative properties of Coccinia grandis
      fruits.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Little knowledge is available on the antimicrobial and antioxidant
      properties of Coccina grandis fruits and no study has reported on its cell
      proliferative property. The aim of this study was to examine the antimicrobial,
      antioxidant and cell proliferative property of fruits of C. grandis. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Fruits of C. grandis were extracted using water; ethanol and acetone
      by cold and hot Soxhlet extraction. The antibacterial activities of the extracts
      were tested against Staphylococcusaureus,Enterococcusfaecalis,Escherichiacoli and
      Pseudomonasaeruginosa using the modified Kirby-Bauer diffusion method and
      compared against erythromycin. The antioxidant property was determined using
      Cayman's antioxidant assay; whereas cell proliferation/cytotoxic properties were
      evaluated using the Cell Titer 96 Aqueous One Solution Cell MTS assay with MDA-MB
      321 breast cancer cells. Data were analyzed for correlation and differences using
      unpaired student's t-test and one-way ANOVA. A p value of <0.05 was considered
      statistically significant. RESULTS: Both cold and hot ethanol and acetone
      extracts of C. grandis fruits showed some degree of bacterial growth inhibition.
      Acetone extracts exhibited higher antibacterial activity. Both ethanol extracts
      showed antioxidant property when compared with standard Trolox. In contrary to
      cytotoxicity, all four extracts showed cell proliferation compared to controls at
      different concentrations. However, acetone extracts exhibited greater cell
      proliferation compared to ethanol extracts and cold extracts performed better
      than the hot extracts. CONCLUSION: C. grandis fruits exhibited some degree of
      antimicrobial, antioxidant and cell proliferative properties. Further
      investigation is warranted to isolate, confirm and characterize phytochemicals
      that are responsible for the medicinal properties observed.

PMID- 28884081
TI  - The Effect of ginger herbal spray on reducing xerostomia in patients with type II
      diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of ginger
      herbal spray on reducing dry mouth in patients with Type II diabetes. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: This clinical trial was conducted on 20 patients with Type II
      diabetes suffering from dry mouth. The control individual for each patient was
      the same patient himself/herself. Each patient filled out his/her questionnaire
      at three different times, (before treatment, after treatment with placebo, and
      after taking the drug). Furthermore, the Schirmer test was performed to measure
      the flow of saliva in the patients. The drug and the placebo were prepared as
      oral sprays containing herbal extracts of ginger. RESULTS: The mean amount of
      saliva after using the ginger plant spray increased significantly (p<0.001). The
      mean amount of saliva after treatment with medication was considerably different
      from the mean amount of saliva after treatment with the placebo (p<0.001). Our
      study included patients aged between 49 and 69 years old, (mean age 58.6 years
      old, and the standard deviation 5.3). The minimum and the maximum periods of type
      II diabetes were 2 and 21 years, the mean and the standard deviation of which
      were 8.8 and 5.8, respectively. CONCLUSION: With regard to the effectiveness of
      ginger herbal spray in rapidly increasing the patients' saliva and satisfaction
      as well as the acceptability of this type of medicine to treat dry mouths, ginger
      herbal spray could act as a new, cheap, and available treatment for diabetic
      patients with dry mouth.

PMID- 28884082
TI  - Effects of pomegranate seed oil on oxidant/antioxidant balance in heart and
      kidney homogenates and mitochondria of diabetic rats and high glucose-treated
      H9c2 cell line.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Oxidative stress is a major cause of diabetes complications. The
      present study aimed to investigate the beneficial effects of Pomegranate Seed Oil
      (PSO) on diabetes-induced changes in oxidant/antioxidant balance of the kidney,
      heart and mitochondria from rats and H9c2 cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      these in vivo and in vitro studies, male rats were divided into four groups
      (twelve each): group 1 served as control, group 2-4 received a single dose of
      streptozotocin (60 mg/kg, i.p), groups 3 and 4 received PSO (0.36 and 0.72
      mg/kg/daily, gavage), respectively. After three weeks, six rats of each group and
      one week later the remaining animals were anaesthetized and the hearts and
      kidneys were removed and homogenized. Mitochondrial fractions were separated and
      enzyme activities were measured in each sample. H9c2 cells were pretreated with
      high levels of glucose (35 mM), and then, incubated with PSO. Finally, cell
      viability test, reactive oxygen species production and lipid peroxidation were
      evaluated. RESULTS: Significant reduction in enzymes activity (Superoxide
      dismutase, Glutathione S-transferase and Paraoxonase 1), compensatory elevation
      in Glutathione Reductase, Glutathione Peroxidase and Catalase activity followed
      by reduction after one week and significant elevation in Oxidative Stress Index
      (OSI) were observed in diabetic group. PSO treatment resulted in a significant
      increase in enzymes activity and decreased OSI values compared to diabetic group
      in both tissue and mitochondrial fractions. PSO remarkably decreased glucose
      induced toxicity, ROS level and lipid peroxidation in H9c2 cells. CONCLUSION:
      Results suggested that PSO has a protective effect against diabetes-induced
      alterations in oxidant/antioxidant balance in tissues, mitochondrial and H9c2
      cell line.

PMID- 28884083
TI  - Hydro-alcoholic extract of Matricaria recutita exhibited dual anti-spasmodic
      effect via modulation of Ca2+ channels, NO and PKA2-kinase pathway in rabbit
      jejunum.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several studies have shown the antispasmodic activity of
      Matricariarecutita without detailing the underlying mechanism(s). The present
      study was designed to determine whether the antispasmodic mechanisms of M.
      recutita extract mediated via histaminergic/cholinergic receptors, Ca2+channels,
      activation of PKA2 and NO release in isolated rabbit jejunum. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: The concentration- dependent (3 * 10-3-1.3 * 10-2 mg/ml) antispasmodic
      effect of the hydro-alcoholic extract of M. recutita flowers was studied in
      isolated rabbit jejunum. The isolated jejunum preparations were divided into
      seven groups, including the pharmacological probes that modulate cholinergic,
      histaminergic, and nitrergic receptors, as well as PKA2. RESULTS: M. recutita
      inhibited spontaneous smooth muscle contractility of the jejunum in a
      concentration-dependent manner (3 * 10-3-1.3 * 10-2 mg/ml) and reduced both K+-
      and Ca2+-induced contractions, which is similar to the effect of verapamil. The
      antispasmodic effect of M. recutita was inhibited by H89 (a PKA2 inhibitor). The
      myorelaxant effect of M. recutita increased in the presence of ACh/His and H89.
      CONCLUSION: M. recutita evoked antispasmodic and spasmolytic effects mediated
      through different signaling pathways. Our results have shown this dual inhibitory
      effect is mediated by blocking Ca2+ channels, activating His and ACh receptors,
      releasing NO, and activating PKA2.

PMID- 28884084
TI  - Crocin prevents acute angiotensin II-induced hypertension in anesthetized rats.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Angiotensin II (Ang II), the main product of renin-angiotensin system
      (RAS) has a well-known role in cardiovascular regulation. Over-production of Ang
      II is one of the important underlying mechanisms of hypertension. In this study,
      the effect of crocin on cardiovascular responses in rats with acute hypertension
      induced by Ang II was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were divided into
      six groups (n = 6): 1) Control: rats that received saline, 2) Ang II: rats that
      received Ang II (300 ng/kg) infused in two min, 3) Losartan (Los) + Ang II : rats
      that received Los (10 mg/kg, i.v) before Ang II, and 4-6) Crocin (Cro) + Ang II
      groups: rats that received three doses of crocin (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, slow
      i.v) 10 min before Ang II. Femoral artery and vein were cannulated for recording
      of cardiovascular parameters and injection of drugs, respectively. Systolic blood
      pressure (SBP), mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were
      continuously recorded by power lab system. After injection of reagents and
      extracts, maximum changes (?) of MAP, SBP and HR were recorded and compared with
      control group. RESULTS: Ang II (300 ng/kg) increased maximal changes in MAP, SBP
      and HR compared to control group (p<0.001) and Los significantly attenuated these
      effects of Ang II (p<0.001). Maximal changes of MAP, SBP and HR induced by Ang
      II, were significantly attenuated by pretreatment with all doses of crocin
      (50,100 and 200) (p<0.05 and p<0.001). Also, changes of MAP, SBP and HR in Crocin
      + Ang II groups were significantly different from Los + Ang II group (p<0.05 and
      p<0. 01). CONCLUSION: Based on the effects of crocin on acute Ang II-induced
      hypertension, it is hypothesized that the cardiovascular improving effects of
      crocin may be mediated via suppressing of RAS.

PMID- 28884085
TI  - Anti-anxiety and hypnotic effects of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Lippia
      citriodora leaves and verbascoside in mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The extract of Lippia citriodora and its main component,
      verbascoside, are known for their hypnotic effects in traditional medicine. In
      this study, the anxiolytic and hypnotic effects of L. citriodora leave extracts
      and verbascoside were evaluated in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Animals were
      divided into 11 groups of six mice each. Group I received normal saline, Group II
      received Diazepam (2 mg/kg) as positive control, Groups III, IV and V received L.
      citriodora ethanolic extracts (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, respectively), Groups VI,
      VII and VIII received L. citriodora aqueous extracts (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg,
      respectively) and Groups IX, X and XI received Verbascoside (25, 50 and 100
      mg/kg, respectively). All agents were administrated intraperitoneally. To
      evaluate hypnotic activity, pentobarbital sleeping test, and for anxiolytic
      activity, elevated plus-maze (EPM), locomotor activity, open field and motor
      coordination (rotarod test) tests were used. To understand the role of GABAA
      receptor, flumazenil was also administered. RESULTS: The extracts and
      verbascoside increased the time spent and number of entries in the open arms of
      EPM. Moreover, these agents significantly increased the sleeping time induced by
      pentobarbital. In addition, the highest dose of extracts and verbascoside reduced
      time spent on the rod and total locomotion in the open field tests, respectively.
      Flumazenil inhibited the effects of extracts and verbascoside in EPM and hypnotic
      tests. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that ethanolic and aqueous extracts of
      L. citriodora and verbascoside exhibit anxiolytic, hypnotic and muscle relaxant
      effects especially at the highest doses and these effects are partially due to
      the interaction with GABAA receptor.

PMID- 28884086
TI  - Anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of the methanolic extract of
      Opuntia humifusa stem.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Opuntia humifusa (O. humifusa) Raf. has been used for the prevention
      and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, and cancer. Our study was
      designed to unveil the anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of the
      methanolic extract of O. humifusa Raf stem (OHS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The anti
      nociceptive effect was measured by hot plate, acetic acid-induced writhing, and
      tail flick assays in mice and rats. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory effect was
      measured by vascular permeability and carrageenan and serotonin-induced paw edema
      tests in rats. Furthermore, anti-inflammatory effect was also measured using
      macrophage-like LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. RESULTS: OHS extract inhibited
      acetic acid-induced writhing (p<0.0001), and delayed the reaction time of mice to
      the hot plate-induced thermal stimulation (p<0.0001) and tail flick tests
      (p<0.05). OHS extract attenuated the carrageenan and serotonin-induced paw edema
      in rats (p<0.001). Similarly, OHS extract significantly decreased Evans blue
      concentration in acetic acid induced vascular permeability test (p<0.0001),
      revealing its strong anti-inflammatory effect. Finally, among four different
      fractions of OHS extract, n-butanol fraction strongly decreased NO production
      (p<0.0001) and iNOS expression in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. CONCLUSION: Our
      results suggest that the methanolic extract of O. humifusa stem can be used to
      develop a therapeutic or supportive drug and/or functional food against pain and
      inflammation related diseases.

PMID- 28884087
TI  - Curcumin attenuates harmful effects of arsenic on neural stem/progenitor cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Arsenic, an environmental pollutant, decreases neuronal migration as
      well as cellular maturation and inhibits the proliferation of neural progenitor
      cells. Curcumin has been described as an antioxidant and neuroprotective agent
      with strong therapeutic potential in some neurological disorders. Human adipose
      derived stem cells (hADSCs), a source of multipotent stem cells, can self-renew
      and differentiate into neural cells. The aim of the present study was to
      investigate the preventive effect of curcumin against arsenic toxic effects on
      the viability, telomerase activity, and apoptosis of neural stem/progenitor cells
      (NSPCs) derived from hADSCs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The characteristics of human
      adipose tissue were identified by immunocytochemistry for surface markers namely,
      CD105, CD73, and CD90. Using neurosphere assay, hADSCs were differentiated into
      neuronal cells. To characterize neural cells, expression of nestin, SOX2, MAP2,
      and GFAP were assessed by immunocytochemistry. Cytotoxicity and viability of
      NSPCs were evaluated by MTT assay. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by
      arsenic exposure, were measured and caspase 3/7 activity and caspase-3 processing
      as well as the telomerase activity were determined. RESULTS: The isolated hADSCs
      positively expressed CD105, CD73, and CD90. Nestin, Sox2, GFAP, and MAP2 were
      expressed in the neurospheres derived from hADSCs. Curcumin/arsenic co-treatment
      significantly increased telomerase activity of NSPCs compared to arsenic group.
      Furthermore, curcumin significantly reduced arsenic-induced apoptosis (via
      inactivation of caspases) as well as arsenic-associated ROS generation.
      CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed that curcumin has the potential to prevent
      harmful effects of arsenic on neurogenesis.

PMID- 28884089
TI  - Splenic microRNA Expression Profiles and Integration Analyses Involved in Host
      Responses to Salmonella enteritidis Infection in Chickens.
AB  - To understand the role of miRNAs in regulating genes involved in the host
      response to Salmonella enteritidis (SE) infection, next generation sequencing was
      applied to explore the altered splenic expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) and
      deregulated genes in specific-pathogen-free chickens. Birds were either infected
      or not (controls, C) and those challenged with SE were evaluated 24 h later and
      separated into two groups on the basis of the severity of clinical symptoms and
      blood load of SE: resistant (R, SE challenged-slight clinical symptoms and <105
      cfu / 10 MUL), and susceptible (S, SE challenged-severe clinical symptoms and
      >107 cfu/10 MUL). Thirty-two differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were identified
      in spleen, including 16 miRNAs between S and C, 13 between R and C, and 13
      between S and R. Through integration analysis of DE miRNAs and mRNA, a total of
      273 miRNA-target genes were identified. Functional annotation analysis showed
      that Apoptosis and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway and adaptive immune
      response were significantly enriched (P < 0.05). Interestingly, apoptosis pathway
      was significantly enriched in S vs. C, while NOD-like receptor pathway was
      enriched in R vs. C (P < 0.05). Two miRNAs, gga-miR-101-3p and gga-miR-155, in
      the hub positions of the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network, were identified as
      candidates potentially associated with SE infection. These 2 miRNAs directly
      repressed luciferase reporter gene activity via binding to 3'-untranslated
      regions of immune-related genes IRF4 and LRRC59; over-expressed gga-miR-155 and
      interference gga-miR-101-3p in chicken HD11 macrophage cells significantly
      altered expression of their target genes and decreased the production of pro
      inflammatory cytokines. These findings facilitate better understanding of the
      mechanisms of host resistance and susceptibility to SE infection in chickens.

PMID- 28884090
TI  - Combination of Erythromycin and Curcumin Alleviates Staphylococcus aureus Induced
      Osteomyelitis in Rats.
AB  - Osteomyelitis is commonly caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Both erythromycin and
      curcumin can suppress S. aureus growth, but their roles in osteomyelitis are
      barely studied. We aim to explore the activities of erythromycin and curcumin
      against chronical osteomyelitis induced by methicillin-resistant S. aureus
      (MRSA). Chronicle implant-induced osteomyelitis was established by MRSA infection
      in male Wistar rats. Four weeks after bacterial inoculation, rats received no
      treatment, erythromycin monotherapy, curcumin monotherapy, or erythromycin plus
      curcumin twice daily for 2 weeks. Bacterial levels, bone infection status,
      inflammatory signals and side effects were evaluated. Rats tolerated all
      treatments well, with no death or side effects such as, diarrhea and weight loss.
      Two days after treatment completion, erythromycin monotherapy did not suppress
      bacterial growth and had no effect in bone infection, although it reduced serum
      pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)
      6. Curcumin monotherapy slightly suppressed bacterial growth, alleviated bone
      infection and reduced TNF-alpha and IL-6. Erythromycin and curcumin combined
      treatment markedly suppressed bacterial growth, substantially alleviated bone
      infection and reduced TNF-alpha and IL-6. Combination of erythromycin and
      curcumin lead a much stronger efficiency against MRSA induced osteomyelitis in
      rats than monotherapy. Our study suggests that erythromycin and curcumin could be
      a new combination for treating MRSA induced osteomyelitis.

PMID- 28884092
TI  - Objectivity in scientific publication.

PMID- 28884088
TI  - Oncolytic Viral Therapy for Mesothelioma.
AB  - The limited effectiveness of conventional therapy for malignant pleural
      mesothelioma demands innovative approaches to this difficult disease. Even with
      aggressive multimodality treatment of surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy,
      the median survival is only 1-2 years depending on stage and histology. Oncolytic
      viral therapy has emerged in the last several decades as a rapidly advancing
      field of immunotherapy studied in a wide spectrum of malignancies. Mesothelioma
      makes an ideal candidate for studying oncolysis given the frequently localized
      pattern of growth and pleural location providing access to direct intratumoral
      injection of virus. Therefore, despite being a relatively uncommon disease, the
      multitude of viral studies for mesothelioma can provide insight for applying such
      therapy to other malignancies. This article will begin with a review of the
      general principles of oncolytic therapy focusing on antitumor efficacy, tumor
      selectivity, and immune system activation. The second half of this review will
      detail results of preclinical models and human studies for oncolytic virotherapy
      in mesothelioma.

PMID- 28884091
TI  - Alterations of the Gut Microbiome in Hypertension.
AB  - Introduction: Human gut microbiota is believed to be directly or indirectly
      involved in cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. However, the identification
      and functional status of the hypertension-related gut microbe(s) have not yet
      been surveyed in a comprehensive manner. Methods: Here we characterized the gut
      microbiome in hypertension status by comparing fecal samples of 60 patients with
      primary hypertension and 60 gender-, age-, and body weight-matched healthy
      controls based on whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing. Results: Hypertension
      implicated a remarkable gut dysbiosis with significant reduction in within-sample
      diversity and shift in microbial composition. Metagenome-wide association study
      (MGWAS) revealed 53,953 microbial genes that differ in distribution between the
      patients and healthy controls (false discovery rate, 0.05) and can be grouped
      into 68 clusters representing bacterial species. Opportunistic pathogenic taxa,
      such as, Klebsiella spp., Streptococcus spp., and Parabacteroides merdae were
      frequently distributed in hypertensive gut microbiome, whereas the short-chain
      fatty acid producer, such as, Roseburia spp. and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii,
      were higher in controls. The number of hypertension-associated species also
      showed stronger correlation to the severity of disease. Functionally, the
      hypertensive gut microbiome exhibited higher membrane transport,
      lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis and steroid degradation, while in controls the
      metabolism of amino acid, cofactors and vitamins was found to be higher. We
      further provided the microbial markers for disease discrimination and achieved an
      area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.78,
      demonstrating the potential of gut microbiota in prediction of hypertension.
      Conclusion: These findings represent specific alterations in microbial diversity,
      genes, species and functions of the hypertensive gut microbiome. Further studies
      on the causality relationship between hypertension and gut microbiota will offer
      new prospects for treating and preventing the hypertension and its associated
      diseases.

PMID- 28884093
TI  - Hamstring injuries: update article.
AB  - Hamstring (HS) muscle injuries are the most common injury in sports. They are
      correlated to long rehabilitations and have a great tendency to recur. The HS
      consist of the long head of the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and
      semimembranosus. The patient's clinical presentation depends on the
      characteristics of the lesion, which may vary from strain to avulsions of the
      proximal insertion. The most recognized risk factor is a previous injury.
      Magnetic resonance imaging is the method of choice for the injury diagnosis and
      classification. Many classification systems have been proposed; the current
      classifications aim to describe the injury and correlate it to the prognosis. The
      treatment is conservative, with the use of anti-inflammatory drugs in the acute
      phase followed by a muscle rehabilitation program. Proximal avulsions have shown
      better results with surgical repair. When the patient is pain free, shows
      recovery of strength and muscle flexibility, and can perform the sport's
      movements, he/she is able to return to play. Prevention programs based on
      eccentric strengthening of the muscles have been indicated both to prevent the
      initial injury as well as preventing recurrence.

PMID- 28884094
TI  - Is it safe to use local anesthesia with adrenaline in hand surgery? WALANT
      technique.
AB  - In the past it was taught that local anesthetic should not be used with
      adrenaline for procedures in the extremities. This dogma is transmitted from
      generation to generation. Its truth has not been questioned, nor the source of
      the doubt. In many situations the benefit of use was not understood, because it
      was often thought that it was not necessary to prolong the anesthetic effect,
      since the procedures were mostly of short duration. After the disclosure of
      studies of Canadian surgeons, came to understand that the benefits went beyond
      the time of anesthesia. The WALANT technique allows a surgical field without
      bleeding, possibility of information exchange with the patient during the
      procedure, reduction of waste material, reduction of costs, and improvement of
      safety. Thus, after passing through the initial phase of the doubts in the use of
      this technique, the authors verified its benefits and the patients' satisfaction
      in being able to immediately return home after the procedures.

PMID- 28884095
TI  - Hand and wrist surgery without suspending warfarin or oral antiplatelet -
      systematic review.
AB  - To assess, through a systematic literature review, whether or not it is necessary
      to suspend antithrombotic medications (warfarin, aspirin, and clopidogrel) to
      perform elective wrist and hand surgeries. The search for articles was performed
      using a combination of keywords in the databases available, without scientific
      design constraints, being selected series with five or more surgeries; the
      selected articles were analyzed regarding serious (need for surgical treatment)
      and mild complications (without surgery). Seven articles were retrieved and
      analyzed; 410 wrist and hand surgeries were performed in patients on warfarin or
      aspirin and clopidogrel, with three serious complications (0.7%) and 38 mild
      (9.2%); 2023 surgeries were performed in patients without use of antithrombotics,
      with zero serious and 18 (0.8%) minor complications. Patients using warfarin or
      oral antiplatelet (aspirin, clopidogrel, and aspirin associated with clopidogrel)
      need not suspend the medication to undergo wrist and hand surgery.

PMID- 28884096
TI  - Finite element analysis of the equivalent stress distribution in Schanz screws
      during the use of a femoral fracture distractor.
AB  - To evaluate the mechanical stress and elastic deformation exercised in the
      thread/shaft transition of Schanz screws in assemblies with different screw
      anchorage distances in the entrance to the bone cortex, through the distribution
      and location of tension in the samples. An analysis of 3D finite elements was
      performed to evaluate the distribution of the equivalent stress (triple stress
      state) in a Schanz screw fixed bicortically and orthogonally to a tubular bone,
      using two mounting patterns: (1) thread/shaft transition located 20 mm from the
      anchorage of the Schanz screws in the entrance to the bone cortex and (2)
      thread/shaft transition located 3 mm from the anchorage of the Schanz screws in
      entrance to the bone cortex. The simulations were performed maintaining the same
      direction of loading and the same distance from the force vector in relation to
      the center of the hypothetical bone. The load applied, its direction, and the
      distance to the center of the bone were constant during the simulations in order
      to maintain the moment of flexion equally constant. The present calculations
      demonstrated linear behavior during the experiment. It was found that the model
      with a distance of 20 mm between the Schanz screws anchorage in the entrance to
      the bone cortex and the thread/shaft transition reduces the risk of breakage or
      fatigue of the material during the application of constant static loads; in this
      model, the maximum forces observed were higher (350 MPa). The distance between
      the Schanz screws anchorage at the entrance to the bone cortex and the smooth
      thread/shaft transition of the screws used in a femoral distractor during acute
      distraction of a fracture must be farther from the entrance to the bone cortex,
      allowing greater degree of elastic deformation of the material, lower mechanical
      stress in the thread/shaft transition, and minimized breakage or fatigue. The
      suggested distance is 20 mm.

PMID- 28884097
TI  - Perilunate carpal dislocation. Clinical evaluation of patients operated with
      reduction and percutaneous fixation without capsular-ligament repair.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To qualitatively assess surgeries performed in patients with
      perilunate dislocations without associated fractures, who were operated using the
      closed reduction and percutaneous fixation method. The follow-up time ranged from
      one to seven years. METHODS: 628 patient records with traumatic wrist injuries,
      operated by the same group of Hand Surgeons between 2008 and 2014 due to acute
      trauma were collected, with a mean follow-up of 3.2 years. Of these, 51 were
      cases of perilunate fracture-dislocations, and 38 were pure perilunate
      dislocations without associated fractures; of these, only 32 underwent
      percutaneous fixation without ligamentous repair, thus meeting the inclusion
      criteria. Of the nine patients with perilunate dislocations who were treated
      using the closed reduction and percutaneous fixation method, whose mean age was
      38 years (range 26-49 years), the dominant side was the left in two-thirds of the
      cases, and the predominant trauma mechanism was direct trauma. RESULTS: This
      study is in agreement with the literature, showing that cases treated early
      present good results. CONCLUSION: 88% of patients who were treated by closed
      reduction and percutaneous fixation method maintained their daily activities and
      were assessed as excellent or good by the Clinical Scoring Chart.

PMID- 28884098
TI  - Are diaphyseal clavicular fractures still treated traditionally in a non-surgical
      way?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the decision of orthopedics surgeons regarding which cases
      they would indicate surgery or non-surgical treatment. METHODS: 20 images of
      radiographs with fracture in the middle third of the collar bone (AO/OTA 15-B) in
      anteroposterior view were analyzed, and divided into four groups: group 1 -
      fracture type AO/OTA 15-B1 without displacement; group 2 - fracture type AO/OTA
      15-B1 with displacement; group 3 - fracture type AO/OTA 15-B2; group 4 - fracture
      type AO/OTA 15-B3. The evaluator was requested to indicate the choice of
      treatment, surgical or non-surgical. RESULTS: There was no strong correlation
      between the amount of surgical indications and the working experience or age of
      the medical evaluator. It was observed that the average of surgical indications
      in the total sample was 52%. When indications were studied in different areas of
      Brazil, there was no significant difference among them. No pattern for the
      Brazilian regions studied was observed in the case analysis. Even within a group
      (cases of the same complexity), no specific pattern of surgical indication was
      observed. CONCLUSION: No association between surgical indication and the length
      of professional experience was found. The Southern and Southeastern regions were
      those that most recommended surgeries in groups 2, 3, and 4. In no region the
      same level of surgical indication for cases of the same complexity rate was kept.

PMID- 28884099
TI  - Medial patellofemoral ligament and medial patellotibial ligament reconstruction
      in children: preliminary results.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the reconstruction of the medial
      patellofemoral ligament associated with the medial patellotibial ligament in
      skeletally immature patients. METHOD: This is a case series study in patients
      with patellar instability with open physis. In total, seven patients were
      evaluated: four males and three females were operated using the proposed
      technique. Patients with open physis who had more than two episodes of recurring
      patellar dislocation were included. No patients underwent additional procedures.
      The distance from the anterior tibial tuberosity to the trochlea grove (TT-TG)
      was measured in all patients. On physical examination, the inverted J-sign, the
      apprehension sign, and the knee range of motion parameters were used in the pre-
      and post-operative period. In addition, the Kujala and Lysholm scores were
      applied before and 12 months after surgery. The results were analyzed with the
      Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 11.28 in both genders.
      Comparing the data of the pre- and post-operative period, the inverted J-sign was
      present in six patients (85.7%) vs. absent in one (14.3%). The apprehension sign
      was absent in cases in the postoperative period; the range of motion was 117.85
      +/- 8.09 vs. 148.57 +/- 3.77. The Kujala score was 42.57 +/- 8.9 vs. 88.57 +/-
      5.09 and the Lysholm scores were classified as excellent or good in 28.6% and
      71.4%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The combined reconstruction of the medial
      patellofemoral ligament combined with the medial patellotibial ligament in
      skeletally immature patients with predisposing factors, presents satisfactory
      results without episodes of recurrence or residual subluxation; according to
      these preliminary results, it should be considered as a treatment option.

PMID- 28884100
TI  - Relationship between the critical shoulder angle and the development of rotator
      cuff lesions: a retrospective epidemiological study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To perform a retrospective epidemiological study of radiographs in
      order to evaluate the relationship between the anatomy of the scapula and the
      development of rotator cuff injuries (RCIs). METHODS: This study retrospectively
      evaluated the relation of the critical shoulder angle (CSA) and RCIs from January
      2011 to November 2013; patients were examined in the Orthopedics and Traumatology
      Department of a university hospital. The CSA was measured by radiographic
      standardization of two groups: a control group of 34 asymptomatic shoulders and a
      study group of 44 shoulders with complete RCIs. RESULTS: The mean age in the
      control group was 59.97 years (45-84) and the mean age in the group with RCIs was
      59.75 years (45-84). Regarding the CSA, the control group had a mean angle of
      33.59 degrees  (+/-3.37) and the group with RCIs had a mean angle of 39.75
      degrees  (+/-5.35; p < 0.007). CONCLUSION: There is an association between CSA
      and RCIs.

PMID- 28884101
TI  - What is the best fixation technique for the treatment of supracondylar humerus
      fractures in children?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To define the best technique for the surgical treatment of
      supracondylar fracture of the humerus (SFH) in children, evaluating percutaneous
      pinning with side wires vs. cross-pinning. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials
      using the Medline, CAPES, and BIREME. The criteria for inclusion of articles
      criteria were: (1) randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing percutaneous
      wire fixation techniques, (2) SFH Gartland II B, III, and IV, and (3) children
      aged 1-14 years. The following were used as main variables: incidence of
      iatrogenic injury to the ulnar nerve and loss reduction. RESULTS: Eight studies
      were selected (521 patients) comparing surgical treatment with pinning in
      supracondylar fracture of the humerus in children Gartland II type B, III or IV.
      Iatrogenic injury to the ulnar nerve was greater with the cross-pinning
      technique, with RR 0.28 and p = 0.03, while the mini-open technique presented RR
      0.14 and p = 0.2. A statistically significant greater loss of reduction in the
      lateral pinning was observed in FSU Gartland III and IV(p = 0.04). CONCLUSION:
      Based upon this meta-analysis of prospective randomized clinical trials, the
      following is recommended: (1) percutaneous pinning with lateral wires in
      supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children classified as Gartland II type
      B; (2) use of crossed wires for Gartland type III or IV, using the mini-open
      technique for the medial wire.

PMID- 28884102
TI  - Effects of preoperative walking ability and patient's surgical education on
      quality of life and functional outcomes after total knee arthroplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prospectively analyze the effect of preoperative walking status and
      the patient's surgical education on functional outcomes and the three dimensions
      of quality of life (QoL) (pain, physical function, and mental health) after
      elective total knee arthroplasty (TKA). METHODS: A comparative analysis on the
      QoL and functional outcomes in patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty
      between January 2014 and June 2015. To compare effects of the patient's walking
      status and knowledge of the surgical procedure on QoL and functional outcomes
      following TKA by means of SF-36 questionnaire, CES D10, VAS, KSS, KSFS, WOMAC, as
      well as Friedmann and Wyman scores, 10MWT, and 30-second timed chair test,
      assessed before the operation and one, three, and six months after the operation.
      RESULTS: There were 168 knees in 154 patients: 46.75% men and 53.24% women.
      52.38% of knees had grade-III OA and 40.47% of knees had grade-IV OA.
      Preoperatively, SF-36 PCS was 33.2 and MCS was 35.4. Mean KSS and KSFS in females
      was 37.3 (16.2) and 31.5 (13.8); in males it was 49.2 (18.4) and 42.5 (15.7),
      respectively. Mean WOMAC scores were 64.2 in females and 56.5 in males. Mean VAS
      and CES D10 scores were 8.8 and 8.2 in females, and 6.9 and 6.4 in males,
      respectively. Post operatively at the first, third, and sixth month, significant
      improvements in QoL and mean SF-36, CES D10, VAS, KSS, KSFS, WOMAC, and Friedmann
      and Wyman scores were observed, as well as in the 10MWT and 30 s timed chair test
      scores. Patients with better preoperative functional activity and satisfactory
      understanding of TKA presented a better functional performance and achieved a
      good quality life (p < 0.01). DISCUSSION: Surgeons educate TKA candidates
      regarding the surgical procedure, the nature of implants, and how the procedure
      would affect their lifestyle and what their expectations from TKA should be.
      These crucial considerations should boost their confidence, enhancing their
      involvement and cooperation in post-surgical rehabilitation, thereby improving
      their QoL, functional results, and post TKA experience. CONCLUSION: TKA
      candidates with good preoperative walking ability and understanding of knee
      arthroplasty have better QoL in early and late post-surgery periods. Patient's
      lifestyle and understanding significantly enhances the postoperative functional
      ability.

PMID- 28884103
TI  - Lateral patellar retinacular release: changes over the last ten years.
AB  - Lateral retinacular release is a useful resource in knee surgery that can be used
      for disorders of the extensor mechanism. For many years, it was indiscriminately
      used in the treatment of the various patellofemoral joint alterations, with
      conflicting functional results. This study aimed to analyze the changes that have
      occurred in the indications and clinical effectiveness of lateral retinacular
      release by reviewing the relevant literature of the past ten years, comparing it
      to the classic literature on the subject. It was found that less extensive
      releases decompress the lateral patellar facet, helping with pain control, while
      decreasing the risks of medial subluxation. Nowadays, there is clear evidence for
      its indication in the lateral patellar hypercompression syndrome associated with
      anterior knee pain, as long as there is no related instability; furthermore, it
      will normally play an adjuvant role in extensor mechanism alignment surgeries for
      cases of recurrent patellar instability. The initial results for symptomatic
      patellofemoral osteoarthritis are promising when lateral release is combined with
      cartilage debridement; in total knee replacement, it is more commonly used for
      the correction of valgus deformity in order to improve the components'
      congruency. Finally, distinguishing the different patellofemoral joint
      pathologies is seen as crucial in order to indicate this procedure. Further
      randomized control trials that compare surgical techniques with long-term results
      are still needed.

PMID- 28884104
TI  - Diffuse pigmented villonodular synovitis in knee joint: diagnosis and treatment.
AB  - Pigmented villonodular synovitis is a rare proliferative condition of the
      synovium. Although the condition can present in any joint, the knee is the most
      commonly affected site. Despite being a benign condition, pigmented villonodular
      synovitis is often aggressive, with marked extra-articular extension in some
      cases. Monoarticular involvement occurs in two forms: localized and diffuse. The
      latter is more common, with a high recurrence rate. There is no standard method
      of management of this lesion. Open surgery is a classical and effective method
      for treatment. Arthroscopic synovectomy, however, has gained popularity, and has
      several advantages over the open technique particularly in exclusively articular
      cases. The combined approach is suggested in cases with extra-articular
      involvement. Synovectomy through any approach may prevent secondary
      osteoarthritis and subsequent joint arthroplasty. Internal irradiation or
      external beam radiation as an adjuvant treatment to surgical synovectomy appears
      to decrease the rate of local recurrence in diffuse cases. The authors observed a
      great heterogeneity in reporting of functional results, and specific conclusions
      should not be drawn. Each patient should be managed in accordance with his/her
      particular condition.

PMID- 28884105
TI  - Analysis of postoperative monitoring of patients undergoing shoulder arthroscopy
      for anterior instability.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Analyze the postoperative follow-up of patients undergoing shoulder
      arthroscopy for treatment of anterior instability and correlate with the
      prevalence of recurrence. METHODS: A six-question survey was applied by phone and
      mail to 65 patients, seeking information on the current result of the surgical
      procedure. All patients were treated arthroscopically for anterior shoulder
      instability, with at least 12 months of postoperative time. Patients with
      associated posterior labial lesions and revision surgeries were not included.
      RESULTS: At the time of the survey the patients had a median of 56 (IQR: 34.5
      110.5) postoperative months. The mean sample age was 24.6 years (maximum = 47,
      minimum = 12; SD = 7.3). Complaint of pain in the shoulder was observed in 20
      patients (30.7%). Dislocation recurrence was observed in 10 patients (15.3%).
      Forty-four patients (67.6%) considered their shoulder normal, which was more
      frequent in non-recurrence patients (p < 0.001). Forty-three patients (66.1%)
      returned to their previous level of sport and there was no difference between
      recurrence and non-recurrence patients (p = 0.456). It was found that the
      prevalence of recurrence was 5.6 (95% CI: 1.30-24.46) times higher in individuals
      who abandoned monitoring before six months postoperatively (p = 0.012).
      CONCLUSION: The abandonment of postoperative monitoring in the early stages, when
      the patients receive orientation for muscle strengthening, proprioceptive
      education, and dangerous movements to avoid, can increase the rates of recurrent
      shoulder dislocation in patients treated for anterior instability by arthroscopy.

PMID- 28884106
TI  - Understanding posterior meniscal roots lesions: from basic science to treatment.
AB  - The variability of symptoms and the fact that they are not easily recognized in
      imaging studies make the diagnosis and treatment of posterior meniscal roots
      lesions a challenging task to the orthopedist. In recent years, a more precise
      understanding of the anatomy and biomechanical impair of the knee joint in these
      cases has enabled great advances in therapeutic approaches. Well-documented
      studies have shown that the repair of these lesions presents superior functional
      and clinical improvement when compared with meniscectomy. However, the
      progression of degenerative joint changes in the long-term still exhibits
      conflicting results.

PMID- 28884107
TI  - Giant cell tumor locally advanced around the knee: treatment and literature
      review.
AB  - Giant cell tumor (GCT) is a benign bone tumor with aggressive characteristics.
      They are more prevalent in the third decade of life and demonstrate a preference
      for locating in the epiphyseal region of long bones. They have a high local
      recurrence rate, which depends on the type of treatment and initial tumor
      presentation. The risk of lung metastases is around 3%. Between October 2010 and
      August 2014, nine patients diagnosed with locally advanced GCT or with
      pathological fracture to the knee level underwent surgical treatment. The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the results of the treatment, particularly with regard
      to relapse, and to conduct a literature review. There was a predominance of males
      (77.7%). The most common location was the distal femur. Four patients (44%)
      developed local recurrence in the first year after surgery, three in distal femur
      and one in proximal tibia. Of the two patients with pathologic fracture at
      diagnosis, one of them presented recurrence after five months. The treatment of
      GCT is still a challenge. The authors believe that the best treatment method is
      wide resection and reconstruction of bone defects with non-conventional
      endoprostheses. Patients should be aware and well informed about the possible
      complications and functional losses that may occur as a result of the surgical
      treatment chosen and the need for further surgery in the medium and long term.

PMID- 28884108
TI  - Characteristics and clinical aspects of patients with spinal cord injury
      undergoing surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the characteristics of patients with spinal cord injury
      (SCI) undergoing surgery. METHODS: Previously, 321 patients with SCI were
      selected. Clinical and socio-demographic variables were collected. RESULTS: A
      total of 211 patients were submitted to surgery. Fall and injuries in the upper
      cervical and lumbosacral regions were associated with conservative treatment.
      Patients with lesions in the lower cervical spine, worse neurological status, and
      unstable injuries were associated with surgery. Individuals undergoing surgery
      were associated with complications after treatment. The authors assessed whether
      age influenced the characteristics of patients submitted to surgery. Subjects
      with <60 years of age were associated with motorcycle accidents and the
      morphologies of injury were fracture-dislocation. Elderly individuals were
      associated to fall, SCI in the lower cervical spine and the morphology of injury
      was listhesis. Subsequently, the authors analyzed the gender characteristics in
      these patients. Women who suffered car accidents were associated to surgery.
      Women were associated with paraparesis and the morphologic diagnosis was fracture
      explosion, especially in the thoracolumbar transition and lumbosacral regions.
      Men who presented traumatic brain injury and thoracic trauma were related to
      surgery. These individuals had a worse neurological status and were associated to
      complications. Men and the cervical region were most affected, thereby, these
      subjects were analyzed separately (n = 92). The presence of complications
      increased the length of hospital stay. The simultaneous presence of morphological
      diagnosis, worst neurological status, tetraplegia, sensory, and motor alterations
      were associated with complications. Pneumonia and chest trauma were associated
      with mortality. CONCLUSION: These factors enable investments in prevention,
      rehabilitation, and treatment.

PMID- 28884109
TI  - Brachial plexus injury secondary to pseudoaneurysm of axillary artery after
      glenohumeral dislocation: case report.
AB  - Lesions of the axillary artery and consequent compression of the brachial plexus
      are extremely rare in patients with glenohumeral dislocation and may have greatly
      varying clinical manifestations. This joint is one of the most affected by
      dislocation in the human body, accounting for approximately 45% of cases. Less
      than 1% of patients with shoulder dislocation have vascular complications;
      however, when there is damage in the axillary artery, the incidence of associated
      brachial plexus injury is 27% to 44%. The authors report on a case of brachial
      plexus compression by an axillary artery pseudoaneurysm after a glenohumeral
      dislocation, aiming to highlight the existence of this association, in order to
      make an early diagnosis and avoid serious complications, such as neurologic
      injury.

PMID- 28884110
TI  - Malignant Triton tumor: a rare cause of sciatic pain and foot drop.
AB  - Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) are very rare and are frequently
      localized in the buttocks, thigh, arm, or paraspinal region; one variant is the
      malignant Triton tumor, with rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation. The authors
      present a challenging differential diagnosis of a sciatic pain and foot drop in a
      woman with history of lumbar disk herniation, which was found to be caused by a
      Triton tumor of the sciatic nerve. She underwent surgical excision, followed by
      radiation and chemotherapy. Malignant Triton tumor cases have rarely been
      described and reported in the literature. The recommended treatment is radical
      excision followed by high-dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The prognosis,
      although poor, depends on the location, grade, and completeness of surgical
      margins.

PMID- 28884111
TI  - Rotator cuff repair in the Brazilian Unified Health System: Brazilian trends from
      2003 to 2015.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the historical trend of rotator cuff repairs in Brazil
      between 2003 and 2015, using the database of the Brazilian Unified Health
      System's (Sistema Unico de Saude [SUS]) Department of Informatics (DataSUS).
      METHODS: Historical series using DataSUS. Surgeries performed between 2003 and
      2015 were included and data relating to cuff tear repair were assessed, including
      decompression procedures were included. The numerator was the total number of
      rotator cuff repair and the denominator, the total population of the assessed
      locality. Population data were based on information from the Instituto Brasileiro
      de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE). RESULTS: During the period, 50,207 surgeries
      were performed. The rate was presented as number of procedures per 100,000
      inhabitants, and increased from 0.83 to 2.81, a growth of 238%. In 2015, the
      South region had the highest rate, 6.32, followed by the Southeast, 3.62, while
      the North had the lowest rate, 0.13. The growing trend can be observed in the
      Southeast, South, and Midwest, while the rate is stable in the North and
      Northeast. CONCLUSION: The rate of rotator cuff repairs in Brazil performed
      through the SUS increased from 0.83 to 2.81 between 2003 and 2015, representing a
      growth of 238%, but remains lower than that of developed countries. A trend of
      growth can be observed in the Southeast, South, and Midwest, while the rate is
      stable in the North and Northeast.

PMID- 28884112
TI  - Translation and validation of the new version of the Knee Society Score - The
      2011 KS Score - into Brazilian Portuguese.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the new version of
      the Knee Society Score - The 2011 KS Score - into Brazilian Portuguese and
      verification of its measurement properties, reproducibility, and validity. In
      2012, the new version of the Knee Society Score was developed and validated. This
      scale comprises four separate subscales: (a) objective knee score (seven items:
      100 points); (b) patient satisfaction score (five items: 40 points); (c) patient
      expectations score (three items: 15 points); and (d) functional activity score
      (19 items: 100 points). METHOD: A total of 90 patients aged 55-85 years were
      evaluated in a clinical cross-sectional study. The pre-operative translated
      version was applied to patients with TKA referral, and the post-operative
      translated version was applied to patients who underwent TKA. Each patient
      answered the same questionnaire twice and was evaluated by two experts in
      orthopedic knee surgery. Evaluations were performed pre-operatively and three,
      six, or 12 months post-operatively. The reliability of the questionnaire was
      evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the two
      applications. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS:
      The ICC found no difference between the means of the pre-operative, three-month,
      and six-month post-operative evaluations between sub-scale items. CONCLUSION: The
      Brazilian Portuguese version of The 2011 KS Score is a valid and reliable
      instrument for objective and subjective evaluation of the functionality of
      Brazilian patients who undergo TKA and revision TKA.

PMID- 28884113
TI  - In vitro Culture of Naive Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells: A Stemness
      Based Approach.
AB  - Human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) resides in their
      niches in close proximity to hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These naive MSCs
      have tremendous potential in regenerative therapeutics, and may also be exploited
      by cancer and infectious disease agents. Hence, it is important to study the
      physiological and pathological roles of naive MSC. However, our knowledge of
      naive MSCs is limited by lack of appropriate isolation and in vitro culture
      methods. Established culture methods use serum rich media, and serial passaging
      for retrospective isolation of MSCs. These primed MSCs may not reflect the true
      physiological and pathological roles of naive MSCs (Figure 1). Therefore, there
      is a strong need for direct isolation and in vitro culture of naive MSCs to study
      their stemness (self-renewal and undifferentiated state) and developmental
      ontogeny. We have taken a niche-based approach on stemness to better maintain
      naive MSCs in vitro. In this approach, stemness is broadly divided as niche
      dependent (extrinsic), niche independent (intrinsic) and niche modulatory
      (altruistic or competitive). Using this approach, we were able to maintain naive
      CD271+/CD133+ BM-MSCs for 2 weeks. Furthermore, this in vitro culture system
      helped us to identify naive MSCs as a protective niche site for Mycobacterium
      tuberculosis, the causative organism of pulmonary tuberculosis. In this review,
      we discuss the in vitro culture of primed vs. naive human BM derived MSCs with a
      special focus on how a stemness based approach could facilitate the study of
      naive BM-MSCs.

PMID- 28884114
TI  - The Mediterranean Diet Reduces the Risk and Mortality of the Prostate Cancer: A
      Narrative Review.
AB  - Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in the world among men, and is
      the fifth most common cause of cancer death among men. The aim of our review was
      to analyze observational and case-control studies to point out the effects of
      overweight and diets components on the cancer risk, particularly on risk of
      prostate cancer, and the effect of the Mediterranean diet (MD) on the reduction
      of risk and mortality of prostate cancer. It is known that incidence and
      progression of cancer is multifactorial. Cancer of the large bowel, breast,
      endometrium, and prostate are due also to a high body mass index and to high
      consumption of high carcinogenic dietary factors, as red and processed meat or
      saturated fats rich foods, and to a low consumption of vegetables and fruits.
      Previous meta-analysis suggested that high adherence to diet model based on the
      traditional MD pattern gives a significant protection from incidence and
      mortality of cancer of all types. The main component of the MD is olive oil,
      consumed in high amount by Mediterranean basin populations. In addition, phenolic
      compounds exert some strong chemo-preventive effects, which are due to several
      mechanisms, including both antioxidant effects and actions on cancer cell
      signaling and cell cycle progression and proliferation. The protective effect of
      the MD against the prostate cancer is also due to the high consumption of tomato
      sauce. Lycopene is the most relevant functional component in tomatoes; after
      activating by the cooking of tomato sauce, it exerts antioxidant properties by
      acting in the modulation of downregulation mechanisms of the inflammatory
      response. MD, therefore, represents a healthy dietary pattern in the context of a
      healthy lifestyle habits. In conclusion, our narrative review allows us to
      reaffirm how nutritional factors play an important role in cancer initiation and
      development, and how a healthy dietary pattern represented by MD and its
      components, especially olive oil, could exert a protective role by the
      development and progression of prostate cancer.

PMID- 28884115
TI  - Management of Peripheral and Truncal Venous Injuries.
AB  - Civilian injuries are increasing according to the World Health Organization, and
      this is attributed mainly to road traffic accidents and urban interpersonal
      violence. Vascular injuries are common in these scenarios and are associated with
      high morbidity and mortality rates. Associated peripheral venous trauma is less
      likely to lead to death and controversy remains whether ligation or repair should
      be the primary approach. Conversely, non-compressible truncal venous insult can
      be lethal due to exsanguination, thus a high index of suspicion is crucial.
      Operative management is demanding with fair results but recent endovascular
      adjuncts demonstrate promising results and seem to be the way forward for these
      serious conditions.

PMID- 28884117
TI  - The Role of miRNAs as Biomarkers for Pregnancy Outcomes: A Comprehensive Review.
AB  - Several studies showed that altered expression of the miRNA-ome in maternal
      circulation or in placental tissue may reflect not only gestational disorders,
      such as preeclampsia, spontaneous abortion, preterm birth, low birth weight, or
      macrosomia, but also prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants. Generally,
      the relationships between environmental exposure, changes in miRNA expression,
      and gestational disorders are explored separately, producing conflicting
      findings. However, validation of tissue-accessible biomarkers for the monitoring
      of adverse pregnancy outcomes needs a systematic methodological approach that
      takes also into account early-life environmental exposure. To achieve this goal,
      exposure to xenochemicals, endogenous agents, and diet should be assessed. This
      study has the aim to provide a comprehensive review on the role of miRNAs as
      potential biomarkers for adverse pregnancy outcomes and prenatal environmental
      exposure.

PMID- 28884116
TI  - The Role of Pontin and Reptin in Cellular Physiology and Cancer Etiology.
AB  - Pontin (RUVBL1, TIP49, TIP49a, Rvb1) and Reptin (RUVBL2, TIP48, TIP49b, Rvb2) are
      highly conserved ATPases of the AAA+ (ATPases Associated with various cellular
      Activities) superfamily and are involved in various cellular processes that are
      important for oncogenesis. First identified as being upregulated in
      hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal cancer, their overexpression has since
      been shown in multiple cancer types such as breast, lung, gastric, esophageal,
      pancreatic, kidney, bladder as well as lymphatic, and leukemic cancers. However,
      their exact functions are still quite unknown as they interact with many
      molecular complexes with vastly different downstream effectors. Within the
      nucleus, Pontin and Reptin participate in the TIP60 and INO80 complexes important
      for chromatin remodeling. Although not transcription factors themselves, Pontin
      and Reptin modulate the transcriptional activities of bona fide proto-oncogenes
      such as MYC and beta-catenin. They associate with proteins involved in DNA damage
      repair such as PIKK complexes as well as with the core complex of Fanconi anemia
      pathway. They have also been shown to be important for cell cycle progression,
      being involved in assembly of telomerase, mitotic spindle, RNA polymerase II, and
      snoRNPs. When the two ATPases localize to the cytoplasm, they were reported to
      promote cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Due to their various roles in
      carcinogenesis, it is not surprising that Pontin and Reptin are proving to be
      important biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of various cancers. They are
      also current targets for the development of new therapeutic anticancer drugs.

PMID- 28884119
TI  - Genetic Association Study of KCNQ5 Polymorphisms with High Myopia.
AB  - Identification of genetic variations related to high myopia may advance our
      knowledge of the etiopathogenesis of refractive error. This study investigated
      the role of potassium channel gene (KCNQ5) polymorphisms in high myopia. We
      performed a case-control study of 1563 unrelated Han Chinese subjects (809 cases
      of high myopia and 754 emmetropic controls). Five tag single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) of KCNQ5 were genotyped, and association testing with high
      myopia was conducted using logistic regression analysis adjusted for sex and age
      to give Pasym values, and multiple comparisons were corrected by permutation test
      to give Pemp values. All five noncoding SNPs were associated with high myopia.
      The SNP rs7744813, previously shown to be associated with refractive error and
      myopia in two GWAS, showed an odds ratio of 0.75 (95% CI 0.63-0.90; Pemp =
      0.0058) for the minor allele. The top SNP rs9342979 showed an odds ratio of 0.75
      (95% CI 0.64-0.89; Pemp = 0.0045) for the minor allele. Both SNPs are located
      within enhancer histone marks and DNase-hypersensitive sites. Our data support
      the involvement of KCNQ5 gene polymorphisms in the genetic susceptibility to high
      myopia and further exploration of KCNQ5 as a risk factor for high myopia.

PMID- 28884118
TI  - The Role of Adenosine A2A Receptor, CYP450s, and PPARs in the Regulation of
      Vascular Tone.
AB  - Adenosine is an endogenous mediator involved in a myriad of physiologic
      functions, including vascular tone regulation. It is also implicated in some
      pathologic conditions. Four distinct receptor subtypes mediate the effects of
      adenosine, such as its role in the regulation of the vascular tone. Vascular tone
      regulation is a complex and continuous process which involves many mechanisms and
      mediators that are not fully disclosed. The vascular endothelium plays a pivotal
      role in regulating blood flow to and from all body organs. Also, the vascular
      endothelium is not merely a physical barrier; it is a complex tissue with
      numerous functions. Among adenosine receptors, A2A receptor subtype (A2AAR)
      stands out as the primary receptor responsible for the vasodilatory effects of
      adenosine. This review focuses on important effectors of the vascular
      endothelium, including adenosine, adenosine receptors, EETs (epoxyeicosatrienoic
      acids), HETEs (hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids), PPARs (peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptors), and KATP channels. Given the impact of vascular tone
      regulation in cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology, better understanding
      of the mechanisms affecting it could have a significant potential for developing
      therapeutic agents for cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28884120
TI  - Automated Classification of Lung Cancer Types from Cytological Images Using Deep
      Convolutional Neural Networks.
AB  - Lung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Currently, in differential
      diagnosis of lung cancer, accurate classification of cancer types
      (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and small cell carcinoma) is required.
      However, improving the accuracy and stability of diagnosis is challenging. In
      this study, we developed an automated classification scheme for lung cancers
      presented in microscopic images using a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN),
      which is a major deep learning technique. The DCNN used for classification
      consists of three convolutional layers, three pooling layers, and two fully
      connected layers. In evaluation experiments conducted, the DCNN was trained using
      our original database with a graphics processing unit. Microscopic images were
      first cropped and resampled to obtain images with resolution of 256 * 256 pixels
      and, to prevent overfitting, collected images were augmented via rotation,
      flipping, and filtering. The probabilities of three types of cancers were
      estimated using the developed scheme and its classification accuracy was
      evaluated using threefold cross validation. In the results obtained,
      approximately 71% of the images were classified correctly, which is on par with
      the accuracy of cytotechnologists and pathologists. Thus, the developed scheme is
      useful for classification of lung cancers from microscopic images.

PMID- 28884121
TI  - Contrast Microsphere Destruction by a Continuous Flow Ventricular Assist Device:
      An In Vitro Evaluation Using a Mock Circulation Loop.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is fundamental in managing
      patients supported with ventricular assist devices (VAD). However imaging can be
      difficult in these patients. Contrast improves image quality but they are
      hydrodynamically fragile agents. The aim was to assess contrast concentration
      following passage through a VAD utilising a mock circulation loop (MCL). METHODS:
      Heartware continuous flow (CF) VAD was incorporated into a MCL. Definity(r)
      contrast was infused into the MCL with imaging before and after CF-VAD. 5 mm2
      regions of interest were used to obtain signal intensity (decibels), as a
      surrogate of contrast concentration. RESULTS: Four pump speeds revealed
      significant reduction in contrast signal intensity after CF-VAD compared to
      before CF-VAD (all p < 0.0001). Combined pre- and postpump data at all speeds
      showed a 22.2% absolute reduction in contrast signal intensity across the CF-VAD
      (14.8 +/- 0.8 dB prepump versus 11.6 +/- 1.4 dB postpump; p < 0.0001). Mean
      signal intensity reduction at each speed showed an inverse relationship between
      speed and relative reduction in signal intensity. CONCLUSION: Contrast
      microsphere transit through a CF-VAD within a MCL resulted in significant
      reduction in signal intensity, consistent with destruction within the pump. This
      was evident at all CF-VAD pump speeds but relative signal drop was inversely
      proportional to pump speed.

PMID- 28884122
TI  - Advanced Oxidation Protein Products and Carbonylated Proteins as Biomarkers of
      Oxidative Stress in Selected Atherosclerosis-Mediated Diseases.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The main question of this study was to evaluate the intensity of
      oxidative protein modification shown as advanced oxidation protein products
      (AOPP) and carbonylated proteins, expressed as protein carbonyl content (C=O) in
      abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD), and
      chronic kidney disease (CKD). DESIGN AND METHODS: The study was carried out in a
      group of 35 AAA patients and 13 AIOD patients. However, CKD patients were divided
      into two groups: predialysis (PRE) included 50 patients or hemodialysis (HD)
      consisted of 34 patients. AOPP and C=O were measured using colorimetric assay
      kit, while C-reactive protein concentration was measured by high-sensitivity
      assay (hsCRP). RESULTS: The concentration of AOPP in both AAA and AIOD groups was
      higher than in PRE and HD groups according to descending order: AAA~AIOD > HD >
      PRE. The content of C=O was higher in the PRE group in comparison to AIOD and AAA
      according to the descending order: PRE~HD > AAA~AIOD. CONCLUSIONS: AAA, AIOD, and
      CKD-related atherosclerosis (PRE and HD) contribute to the changes in the
      formation of AOPP and C=O. They may promote modification of proteins in a
      different way, probably due to the various factors that influence oxidative
      stress here.

PMID- 28884124
TI  - Response to: Comment on "Detecting Key Genes Regulated by miRNAs in Dysfunctional
      Crosstalk Pathway of Myasthenia Gravis".

PMID- 28884123
TI  - Deviation of the Fecal Stream in Colonic Bowel Segments Results in Increased
      Numbers of Isolated Lymphoid Follicles in the Submucosal Compartment in a Novel
      Murine Model of Diversion Colitis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diversion colitis is a significant health problem due to its high
      incidence in patients with diverting enterostomy. This mucosal inflammation
      presents characteristic histopathological features allowing for the
      differentiation of this entity from other inflammatory bowel diseases. The
      pathophysiology of this disease remains ill-defined, in part due to the lack of
      appropriate animal models. The present study was performed in order to develop
      and characterize a murine model of diversion colitis. METHODS: A diverting loop
      colostomy was performed in C57BL/6 mice either in the ascending colon or in the
      transverse colon. Animals were assessed for clinical and histopathological
      parameters during short-term and long-term survival. RESULTS: Animals with a
      colostomy in the transverse colon showed a good long-term survival and developed
      a mild colitis in the bypassed bowel closely resembling the human pathology on a
      histopathological level. CONCLUSION: This model is a promising tool to further
      elucidate the pathomechanism leading to impaired mucosal homeostasis in bypassed
      colonic segments. Moreover, the establishment of the model in the C57BL/6
      background allows the combination of this colitis model with various transgenic
      mouse strains to investigate the effect of locally deregulated mucosal immunity
      on systemic immune homeostasis and to develop specific therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28884127
TI  - Corrigendum to "Ciprofloxacin Controlled-Solid Lipid Nanoparticles:
      Characterization, In Vitro Release, and Antibacterial Activity Assessment".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2017/2120734.].

PMID- 28884125
TI  - Green Tea Extracts Epigallocatechin-3-gallate for Different Treatments.
AB  - Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a component extracted from green tea, has been
      proved to have multiple effects on human pathological and physiological
      processes, and its mechanisms are discrepant in cancer, vascularity, bone
      regeneration, and nervous system. Although there are multiple benefits associated
      with EGCG, more and more challenges are still needed to get through. For example,
      EGCG shows low bioactivity via oral administration. This review focuses on
      effects of EGCG, including anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
      anticollagenase, and antifibrosis effects, to express the potential of EGCG and
      necessity of further studies in this field.

PMID- 28884126
TI  - The Influence of Cigarette Smoke Exposure on the Copper Concentration in the
      Serum Depending on the Use of Menopausal Hormone Therapy.
AB  - This study evaluated the effect of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) on serum
      concentration of copper in postmenopausal women depending on passive or active
      exposure to tobacco smoke or lack thereof. The study included healthy
      postmenopausal women aged 42-69 years, who used (n = 76) or did not use (n = 76)
      MHT. Salivary cotinine and serum copper concentrations were determined in all the
      study subjects. Salivary cotinine exceeded 14 ng/ml in 14 women from the MHT
      group (18.5%) and in 16 controls (21.1%). Up to 41 (27%) study subjects had serum
      copper above the upper normal limit (1.17 mg/l). No correlation was found between
      salivary cotinine and serum copper in women with cotinine concentrations <14
      ng/ml, and these two parameters correlated weakly in subjects with cotinine >14
      ng/ml. Salivary concentration of cotinine increased with serum copper level in
      the MHT group, but not in the controls; smokers using MHT presented with
      significantly higher serum copper than nonsmokers. These findings imply that MHT
      does not affect serum concentration of copper in women who are not exposed to
      tobacco smoke. However, MHT seems to contribute to unfavorable increase in serum
      copper in passive and active smokers.

PMID- 28884128
TI  - Erratum to "miR319, miR390, and miR393 Are Involved in Aluminum Response in Flax
      (Linum usitatissimum L.)".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2017/4975146.].

PMID- 28884129
TI  - Candidemia in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Retrospective, Observational
      Survey and Analysis of Literature Data.
AB  - We evaluated the epidemiology of Candida bloodstream infections in the neonatal
      intensive care unit (NICU) of an Italian university hospital during a 9-year
      period as a means of quantifying the burden of infection and identifying emerging
      trends. Clinical data were searched for in the microbiological laboratory
      database. For comparative purposes, we performed a review of NICU candidemia.
      Forty-one candidemia cases were reviewed (overall incidence, 3.0 per 100
      admissions). Candida parapsilosis sensu stricto (58.5%) and C. albicans (34.1%)
      were the most common species recovered. A variable drift through years was
      observed; in 2015, 75% of the cases were caused by non-albicans species. The
      duration of NICU hospitalization of patients with non-albicans was significantly
      longer than in those with C. albicans (median days, 10 versus 12). Patients with
      non-albicans species were more likely to have parenteral nutrition than those
      with C. albicans (96.3% versus 71.4%). Candida albicans was the dominant species
      in Europe and America (median, 55% and 60%; resp.); non-albicans species
      predominate in Asia (75%). Significant geographic variation is evident among
      cases of candidemia in different parts of the world, recognizing the importance
      of epidemiological data to facilitate the treatment.

PMID- 28884130
TI  - Drinking Water Quality Status and Contamination in Pakistan.
AB  - Due to alarming increase in population and rapid industrialization, drinking
      water quality is being deteriorated day by day in Pakistan. This review sums up
      the outcomes of various research studies conducted for drinking water quality
      status of different areas of Pakistan by taking into account the physicochemical
      properties of drinking water as well as the presence of various pathogenic
      microorganisms. About 20% of the whole population of Pakistan has access to safe
      drinking water. The remaining 80% of population is forced to use unsafe drinking
      water due to the scarcity of safe and healthy drinking water sources. The primary
      source of contamination is sewerage (fecal) which is extensively discharged into
      drinking water system supplies. Secondary source of pollution is the disposal of
      toxic chemicals from industrial effluents, pesticides, and fertilizers from
      agriculture sources into the water bodies. Anthropogenic activities cause
      waterborne diseases that constitute about 80% of all diseases and are responsible
      for 33% of deaths. This review highlights the drinking water quality,
      contamination sources, sanitation situation, and effects of unsafe drinking water
      on humans. There is immediate need to take protective measures and treatment
      technologies to overcome unhygienic condition of drinking water supplies in
      different areas of Pakistan.

PMID- 28884131
TI  - MiR-219-5p Inhibits the Growth and Metastasis of Malignant Melanoma by Targeting
      BCL-2.
AB  - Malignant melanoma is a very dangerous tumor which is resistant to conventional
      therapy. MicroRNA exerts a vital function in promoting or inhibiting tumor
      development. The research has investigated the expression and function of miR-219
      5p in melanoma. As a result, miR-219-5p expression was distinctly reduced in
      melanoma tissues and cell lines and was negatively correlated with Bcl-2 protein
      level in melanoma. Patients with low miR-219-5p level represented obviously a low
      overall survival in comparison with patients with high miR-219-5p level. The
      upregulation of miR-219-5p inhibited melanoma growth and metastasis and
      strengthened melanoma cells chemosensitivity by targeting Bcl-2. Therefore, the
      modulation of miR-219-5p expression may be a novel treatment strategy in
      melanoma.

PMID- 28884133
TI  - Bone Marrow Metastasis Is an Early Stage of Bone Metastasis in Breast Cancer
      Detected Clinically by F18-FDG-PET/CT Imaging.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in detection of bone marrow
      (BM) metastasis in breast cancer which is considered an early stage of bone
      metastasis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospectively, breast cancer patients with
      bone metastasis were included. BM metastasis was considered if the lesion was PET
      positive/CT occult while bone metastasis was considered if the lesion was PET
      positive/ CT positive. BM metastases were observed sequentially on F18-FDG
      PET/CT. RESULTS: We included 35 patients. Eighteen patients (51%) had BM
      metastases in addition to other bone metastases. BM metastases comprised 24% of
      all lesions. Posttreatment scan was performed on 26/35 patients. Twenty-three
      percent of BM metastases had resolved completely without causing bone destruction
      after treatment. Sixty-five percent of BM metastases had converted into bone
      metastases after treatment. Twelve percent of BM metastases had persisted after
      treatment. CONCLUSION: This retrospective study showed clinically by 18F-FDG
      PET/CT imaging that BM metastasis is an early stage of bone metastasis in breast
      cancer. Interestingly, 18F-FDG-PET/CT showed that early eradication of individual
      BM metastasis by systemic treatment precluded development of bone metastasis.
      However, more research is needed to study the impact of an early diagnosis of BM
      metastases on treatment outcome.

PMID- 28884132
TI  - Renal Function Improvement by Telbivudine in Liver Transplant Recipients with
      Chronic Kidney Disease.
AB  - Chronic renal failure is a frequent complication in liver transplantation.
      Telbivudine, anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) nucleoside, can improve renal function.
      It is interesting if using telbivudine for prophylaxis of HBV recurrence has
      additional value on renal function improvement. 120 liver transplant recipients
      with lamivudine prophylaxis for HBV recurrence were 1 : 1 randomized into
      lamivudine-continuous (n = 60) and telbivudine-replacement (n = 60) groups. Fifty
      eight patients in lamivudine-continuous group and 54 in telbivudine-replacement
      group completed the study. In telbivudine-replacement group, the estimated
      glomerular filtration rate (eGRF) was improved from 63.0 +/- 16.3 ml/min to 72.8
      +/- 21.1 ml/min at 12 months after telbivudine administration (p = 0.003).
      Stratifying the patients according to renal function staging, the eGRF was
      improved from 74.7 +/- 6.9 ml/min to 84.2 +/- 16.6 ml/min (p = 0.002) in 32 stage
      II patients and from 48.2 +/- 7.3 ml/min to 59.7 +/- 11.8 ml/min in 20 stage III
      patients after 12 months of telbivudine administration (p < 0.001). Eleven
      (18.3%) patients with telbivudine developed polyneuritis during the trial and
      post hoc following-up. In conclusion, renal function was improved by telbivudine
      in liver transplant recipients with long-term chronic kidney disease. However,
      the high incidence of polyneuritis induced by telbivudine has to be closely
      monitored. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials NCT02447705.

PMID- 28884135
TI  - Career Development Guidance and Mentorship during Anesthesia Residency Training:
      An Internet Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We conducted a survey of Anesthesiology residency programs in the
      United States to identify current practice regarding mentorship and teaching of
      topics related to career development. METHODS: Program directors for all
      currently accredited Anesthesiology residency programs (N=129 as of April 2016)
      were contacted by e-mail and invited to complete a short internet survey. Two
      follow-up e-mails were sent at one-week intervals to those who had not yet
      responded. RESULTS: 59 program directors responded, yielding 53 complete
      responses, for an adjusted response rate of 41.1%. Program and practice
      management type (university versus other, hospital versus private) were not
      strongly associated with presence of a career development curriculum (CDC). In
      general, larger residency programs (30 or more residents) and university-based
      programs were more likely to provide lectures on specific CDC topics. Whether
      residency program directors agreed or disagreed with the premise that instruction
      should be provided on other topics besides anesthesia, was unrelated to the
      presence of CDC in their programs. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this survey
      demonstrate that the establishment of a mentorship program (even a rudimentary
      one) may be the first step in creating a CDC. Apart from having a CDC program
      already in place, the strongest predictor of CDC content was the size of the
      residency program. Though there are training programs that openly stated on our
      survey that they do not have a CDC in place, some of these programs still
      provided lectures on one or more of the topics surveyed.

PMID- 28884134
TI  - Intracellular pH Regulates TRAIL-Induced Apoptosis and Necroptosis in Endothelial
      Cells.
AB  - During ischemia or inflammation of organs, intracellular pH can decrease if acid
      production exceeds buffering capacity. Thus, the microenvironment can expose
      parenchymal cells to a reduced extracellular pH which can alter pH-dependent
      intracellular functions. We have previously shown that while silencing caspase-8
      in an in vivo ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) model results in improved organ
      function and survival, removal of caspase-8 function in a donor organ can
      paradoxically result in enhanced receptor-interacting protein kinase 1/3-
      (RIPK1/3-) regulated necroptosis and accelerated graft loss following
      transplantation. In our current study, TRAIL- (TNF-related apoptosis-inducing
      ligand-) induced cell death in vitro at neutral pH and caspase-8 inhibition
      enhanced RIPK1-dependent necroptotic death were confirmed. In contrast, both
      caspase-8 inhibition and RIPK1 inhibition attenuated cell death at a cell pH of
      6.7. Cell death was attenuated with mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL)
      silencing, indicating that MLKL membrane rupture, a distinctive feature of
      necroptosis, occurs regardless of pH. In summary, there is a distinct regulatory
      control of apoptosis and necroptosis in endothelial cells at different
      intracellular pH. These results highlight the complexity of modulating cell death
      and therapeutic strategies that may need to consider different consequences on
      cell death dependent on the model.

PMID- 28884136
TI  - Neutrophils as Components of Mucosal Homeostasis.
AB  - Inflammatory responses in the intestinal mucosa inevitably result in the
      recruitment of neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes [PMNs]). Epithelial
      cells that line the mucosa play an integral role in the recruitment, maintenance,
      and clearance of PMNs at sites of inflammation. The consequences of such PMN
      epithelial interactions often determine tissue responses and, ultimately, organ
      function. For this reason, there is significant interest in understanding how
      PMNs function in the mucosa during inflammation. Recent studies have shown that
      PMNs play a more significant role in molding of the immune response than
      previously thought. Here, we review the recent literature regarding the
      contribution of PMNs to the development and resolution of inflammation, with an
      emphasis on the role of the tissue microenvironment and pathways for promoting
      epithelial restitution. These studies highlight the complex nature of
      inflammatory pathways and provide important insight into the difficulties of
      treating mucosal inflammation.

PMID- 28884138
TI  - Chronic Helicobacter cinaedi cellulitis diagnosed by microbial polymerase chain
      reaction.

PMID- 28884140
TI  - Treatment of cutaneous leiomyomas with 5% lidocaine patches in a patient with
      hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (Reed syndrome).

PMID- 28884137
TI  - Hepatitis B Virus Activates Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3
      Supporting Hepatocyte Survival and Virus Replication.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The human hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of chronic
      hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma, but molecular mechanisms driving liver
      disease and carcinogenesis are largely unknown. We therefore studied cellular
      pathways altered by HBV infection. METHODS: We performed gene expression
      profiling of primary human hepatocytes infected with HBV and proved the results
      in HBV-replicating cell lines and human liver tissue using real-time polymerase
      chain reaction and Western blotting. Activation of signal transducer and
      activator of transcription (STAT3) was examined in HBV-replicating human
      hepatocytes, HBV-replicating mice, and liver tissue from HBV-infected individuals
      using Western blotting, STAT3-luciferase reporter assay, and
      immunohistochemistry. The consequences of STAT3 activation on HBV infection and
      cell survival were studied by chemical inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation and
      small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of STAT3. RESULTS: Gene expression
      profiling of HBV-infected primary human hepatocytes detected no interferon
      response, while genes encoding for acute phase and antiapoptotic proteins were up
      regulated. This gene regulation was confirmed in liver tissue samples of patients
      with chronic HBV infection and in HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma. Pathway
      analysis revealed activation of STAT3 to be the major regulator. Interleukin-6
      dependent and -independent activation of STAT3 was detected in HBV-replicating
      hepatocytes in cell culture and in vivo. Prevention of STAT3 activation by
      inhibition of Janus tyrosine kinases as well as small interfering RNA-mediated
      knockdown of STAT3-induced apoptosis and reduced HBV replication and gene
      expression. CONCLUSIONS: HBV activates STAT3 signaling in hepatocytes to foster
      its own replication but also to prevent apoptosis of infected cells. This very
      likely supports HBV-related carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28884139
TI  - Localized bullous pemphigoid in a melanoma patient with dual exposure to PD-1
      checkpoint inhibition and radiation therapy.

PMID- 28884141
TI  - Apremilast for treatment of recalcitrant aphthous stomatitis.

PMID- 28884142
TI  - Corrigendum to "Low Body Mass Index Can Identify Majority of Osteoporotic
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Missed by Current Guidelines".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1100/2012/807438.].

PMID- 28884143
TI  - Use of Genotype MTBDRplus Assay for Diagnosis of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis
      in Nepal.
AB  - The main aims of this study were to study the patterns of mutations in rpoB,
      katG, and inhA genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from patients
      from Nepal and to evaluate the performance of genotype MTBDRplus assay, taking
      conventional drug susceptibility testing as gold standard for diagnosis of MDR
      TB. A total of 69 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from 73 smear
      positive sputum samples from patients suspected of suffering from multidrug
      resistant tuberculosis were used in our study. The drug susceptibility pattern of
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from these sputum specimens was determined by
      using genotype MTBDRplus assay taking conventional drug susceptibility testing as
      reference. The sensitivity and specificity of the genotype MTBDRplus assay for
      the detection of MDR-TB were found to be 88.7% and 100%, respectively. 88.7% of
      the rifampicin resistant isolates had mutations in rpoB gene. Similarly, 79.7%
      and 9.4% of isoniazid resistant isolates had mutations in katG and inhA genes,
      respectively. Genotype MTBDRplus assay was found to be very rapid and highly
      sensitive and specific method for diagnosis of MDR-TB and will be very helpful
      for early diagnosis of MDR-TB in high tuberculosis burden countries.

PMID- 28884144
TI  - Erratum: Inflammation of mammary adipose tissue occurs in overweight and obese
      patients exhibiting early-stage breast cancer.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41523-017-0015-9.].

PMID- 28884145
TI  - Sensory experience shapes the integration of adult-born neurons into the
      olfactory bulb.
AB  - Olfaction is an ancient sensory modality which is heavily involved in viscerally
      important tasks like finding food and identifying mates. Olfactory processing
      involves interpreting stimuli from a non-continuous odor space, and translating
      them into an organized pattern of neuronal activity in the olfactory bulb.
      Additionally, olfactory processing is rapidly modulated by behavioral states and
      vice versa. This implies strong bidirectional neuromodulation between the
      olfactory bulb and other brain regions that include the cortex, hippocampus, and
      basal forebrain. Intriguingly, the olfactory bulb is one of the only brain
      regions where adult-born neurons are integrated into existing networks throughout
      life. The ongoing integration of adult-born neurons is known to be important for
      olfactory processing, odor discrimination, and odor learning. Furthermore, the
      survival and integration of the adult-born neurons is regulated by
      neuromodulatory signaling, sensory experience, and olfactory learning. Studies
      making use of new genetic markers to label and manipulate immature adult-born
      neurons reveal an increase in their population response to odors as they mature.
      Importantly, this reflects a period of developmental plasticity where adult-born
      neurons are especially sensitive to sensory experience and olfactory learning. In
      this review, we discuss the contribution of adult neurogenesis to olfactory bulb
      plasticity and information processing, with a focus on the developmental
      plasticity of adult born neurons, and how it is influenced by sensory experience
      and olfactory learning. Ultimately, recent studies raise important questions
      about behavioral-state-dependent effects on adult-born neurons, and the
      consequences of neuromodulation on the developmental plasticity of newborn
      neurons in the olfactory bulb.

PMID- 28884146
TI  - Optimizing Respiratory-Swallowing Coordination in Patients With Oropharyngeal
      Head and Neck Cancer.
AB  - Swallowing impairment (dysphagia) represents the highest functional morbidity in
      oropharyngeal (OP) head and neck (HNC) treated either with surgical approaches
      followed by radiation or with more recent organ preservation protocols, including
      combined chemotherapy and radiation. Despite the promising overall increasing
      survival rates, swallowing impairments remain chronic, are often resistant to
      traditional swallowing therapy, and have devastating consequences on health and
      well-being. The respiratory-swallow cross-system approach presented here extends
      beyond traditional swallowing interventions that commonly targets muscles and
      structures alone, and is instead, directed toward the re-establishment of optimal
      respiratory-swallowing coordination. Results from our work investigating a
      respiratory-swallow treatment (RST) paradigm is presented, including results from
      an RST clinical trial in HNC patients, primarily with OP cancers, with chronic
      and with intractable dysphagia post-cancer and post-traditional swallowing
      treatment. Future work will investigate the impact of RST on the degree and
      durability of clinical outcomes, including oral intake and quality of life, while
      also examining the potential added benefits of a home practice program that uses
      a commercially available and easy to use recording and analysis hardware and
      software.

PMID- 28884147
TI  - Use of a botulinum toxin A in dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery.
AB  - Botulinum toxin (BT) was the first toxin to be used in the history of human
      medicine. Among the eight known serotypes of this toxin, those currently used in
      medicine are types A and B. This review article mainly discusses BT type A (BTA)
      because it is usually used in dentistry including dental anesthesiology and oral
      and maxillofacial surgery. BTA has been used mainly in the treatment of
      temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) and hypertrophy and hyperactivity of the
      masticatory muscles, along with being a therapeutic option to relieve pain and
      help in functional recovery from dental and oral and maxillofacial surgery.
      However, it is currently used broadly for cosmetic purposes such as reducing
      facial wrinkles and asymmetry. Although the therapeutic effect of BTA is
      temporary and relatively safe, it is essential to have knowledge about related
      anatomy, as well as the systemic and local adverse effects of medications that
      are applied to the face.

PMID- 28884148
TI  - Therapeutic potential of stellate ganglion block in orofacial pain: a mini
      review.
AB  - Orofacial pain is a common complaint of patients that causes distress and
      compromises the quality of life. It has many etiologies including trauma,
      interventional procedures, nerve injury, varicella-zoster (shingles), tumor, and
      vascular and idiopathic factors. It has been demonstrated that the sympathetic
      nervous system is usually involved in various orofacial pain disorders such as
      postherpetic neuralgia, complex regional pain syndromes, and atypical facial
      pain. The stellate sympathetic ganglion innervates the head, neck, and upper
      extremity. In this review article, the effect of stellate ganglion block and its
      mechanism of action in orofacial pain disorders are discussed.

PMID- 28884149
TI  - Smart syringe pumps for drug infusion during dental intravenous sedation.
AB  - Dentists often sedate patients in order to reduce their dental phobia and stress
      during dental treatment. Sedatives are administered through various routes such
      as oral, inhalation, and intravenous routes. Intravenous administration has the
      advantage of rapid onset of action, predictable duration of action, and easy
      titration. Typically, midazolam, propofol or dexmedetomidine are used as
      intravenous sedatives. Administration of these sedatives via infusion by using a
      syringe pump is more effective and successful than infusing them as a bolus.
      However, during intravenous infusion of sedatives or opioids using a syringe
      pump, fatal accidents may occur due to the clinician's carelessness. To prevent
      such risks, smart syringe pumps have been introduced clinically. They allow
      clinicians to perform effective sedation by using a computer to control the dose
      of the drug being infused. To ensure patient safety, various alarm features along
      with a drug library, which provides drug information and prevents excessive
      infusion by limiting the dose, have been added to smart pumps. In addition,
      programmed infusion systems and target-controlled infusion systems have also been
      developed to enable effective administration of sedatives. Patient-controlled
      infusion, which allows a patient to control his/her level of sedation through
      self-infusion, has also been developed. Safer and more successful sedation may be
      achieved by fully utilizing these new features of the smart pump.

PMID- 28884150
TI  - Remifentanil induces autophagy and prevents hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis
      in Cos-7 cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study investigated the effect of remifentanil pretreatment on
      Cos-7 cells exposed to oxidative stress, and the influence of remifentanil on
      intracellular autophagy and apoptotic cell death. METHODS: Cells were divided
      into 4 groups: (1) Control: non-pretreated cells were incubated in normoxia (5%
      CO2, 21% O2, and 74% N2). (2) H2O2: non-pretreated cells were exposed to H2O2 for
      24 h. (3) RPC+H2O2: cells pretreated with remifentanil were exposed to H2O2 for
      24 h. (4) 3-MA+RPC+H2O2: cells pretreated with 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) and
      remifentanil were exposed to H2O2 for 24 h. We determined the cell viability of
      each group using an MTT assay. Hoechst staining and FACS analysis of Cos-7 cells
      were performed to observe the effect of remifentanil on apoptosis. Autophagy
      activation was determined by fluorescence microscopy, MDC staining, and AO
      staining. The expression of autophagy-related proteins was observed using western
      blotting. RESULTS: Remifentanil pretreatment increased the viability of Cos-7
      cells exposed to oxidative stress. Hoechst staining and FACS analysis revealed
      that oxidative stress-dependent apoptosis was suppressed by the pretreatment.
      Additionally, fluorescence microscopy showed that remifentanil pretreatment led
      to autophagy-induction in Cos-7 cells, and the expression of autophagy-related
      proteins was increased in the RPC+H2O2 group. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that
      remifentanil pretreatment stimulated autophagy and increased viability in an
      oxidative stress model of Cos-7 cells. Therefore, we suggest that apoptosis was
      activated upon oxidative stress, and remifentanil preconditioning increased the
      survival rate of the cells by activating autophagy.

PMID- 28884151
TI  - Effects of airway evaluation parameters on the laryngeal view grade in mandibular
      prognathism and retrognathism patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Failure to maintain a patent airway can result in brain damage or
      death. In patients with mandibular prognathism or retrognathism, intubation is
      generally thought to be difficult. We determined the degree of difficulty of
      airway management in patients with mandibular deformity using anatomic criteria
      to define and grade difficulty of endotracheal intubation with direct
      laryngoscopy. METHODS: Measurements were performed on 133 patients with
      prognathism and 33 with retrognathism scheduled for corrective esthetic surgery.
      A case study was performed on 89 patients with a normal mandible as the control
      group. In all patients, mouth opening distance (MOD), mandibular depth (MD),
      mandibular length (ML), mouth opening angle (MOA), neck extension angle (EXT),
      neck flexion angle (FLX), thyromental distance (TMD), inter-notch distance (IND),
      thyromental area (TMA), Mallampati grade, and Cormack and Lehane grade were
      measured. RESULTS: Cormack and Lehane grade I was observed in 84.2%, grade II in
      15.0%, and grade III in 0.8% of mandibular prognathism cases; among retrognathism
      cases, 45.4% were grade I, 27.3% grade II, and 27.3% grade III; among controls,
      65.2% were grade I, 26.9% were grade II, and 7.9% were grade III. MOD, MOA, ML,
      TMD, and TMA were greater in the prognathism group than in the control and
      retrognathism groups (P < 0.05). The measurements of ML were shorter in
      retrognathism than in the control and prognathism groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      Laryngoscopic intubation was easier in patients with prognathism than in those
      with normal mandibles. However, in retrognathism, the laryngeal view grade was
      poor and the ML was an important factor.

PMID- 28884152
TI  - Body composition and hemodynamic changes in patients with special needs.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Some patients with special needs exhibit intellectual disability,
      including deficits in cognitive skills and decreased quality of life. The purpose
      of this study was to retrospectively compare changes in body composition and
      hemodynamics during general anesthesia in patients with and without special
      needs. METHODS: The backgrounds of patients who underwent oral maxillofacial
      surgery under general anesthesia were recorded from medical records.
      Intracellular water (ICW), extracellular water (ECW), stroke volume variation
      (SVV), and heart rate (HR) were recorded for 3 h after the start of anesthesia.
      Categorical data were compared using an unpaired t-test, and a P-value of less
      than 0.05 was regarded as significant. Numerical data were compared using the
      Bonferroni correction, and a P-value of less than 0.0125 was regarded as
      significant. RESULTS: A total of 21 patients were included in the study: 10
      patients without special needs (non-S-group) and 11 patients with special needs
      (S-group). There were no significant differences in patients' backgrounds, except
      with regard to height (P = 0.03). In both groups, ICW and ECW were maintained,
      although they were lower in the S-group compared to the non-S-group. SVV was
      maintained in both groups, although it was higher in the S-group than the non-S
      group. HR was significantly lower in the S-group 1 h after induction of
      anesthesia (P < 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Changes in hemodynamics due to body fluid
      imbalance should be monitored during general anesthesia, especially for patients
      with special needs.

PMID- 28884153
TI  - Prevalence of dental anxiety in 10-14 years old children and its implications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to provide insight on dental fear amongst
      schoolchildren and evaluate the association between caries experience and fear of
      dental procedures. METHODS: A sample size of 250 students (both sexes) of ages 10
      14 years were enrolled in the study. Before dental examination, each participant
      was informed about the study and given the Children's Fear Survey Schedule -
      Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) questionnaire. Children who scored greater than 38 were
      included in the 'with dental fear' group and those who scored less than 38 were
      assigned to the 'without dental fear' group. All oral check-ups were carried out
      on the school premises according to WHO criteria. RESULTS: There were 105
      children (42%) who experienced dental fear. As CFSS-DS scores increased, scores
      on the Decayed, Missing and Filled Surfaces Index (DMFS) also increased. Scores
      were highest on "injections" followed by "dentist drill" and "feeling of
      choking". Children were significantly less anxious about items of dental
      treatment if they had experienced that particular form of treatment. Female
      participants were found to be more dentally anxious than the male participants.
      CONCLUSIONS: The data revealed dental fear in 10-14 years old children and showed
      that dental fear scores decreased with increase in age and experience.

PMID- 28884154
TI  - A survey of dental treatment under general anesthesia in a Korean university
      hospital pediatric dental clinic.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In South Korea, the number of cases of dental treatment for the
      disabled is gradually increasing, primarily at regional dental clinics for the
      disabled. This study investigated pediatric patients at a treatment clinic for
      the disabled within a university hospital who received dental treatment under
      general anesthesia. This data could assist those that provide dental treatment
      for the disabled and guide future treatment directions and new policies. METHODS:
      This study was a retrospective analysis of 263 cases in which patients received
      dental treatment under general anesthesia from January 2011 to May 2016. The
      variables examined were gender, age, reason for anesthesia, type of disability,
      time under anesthesia, duration of treatment, type of procedure, treatment
      details, and annual trends in the use of general anesthesia. RESULTS: Among
      pediatric patients with disabilities who received dental treatment under general
      anesthesia, the most prevalent age group was 5-8 years old (124 patients, 47.1%),
      and the primary reason for administering anesthesia was dental anxiety or phobia.
      The mean time under anesthesia was 132.7 +/- 77.6 min, and the mean duration of
      treatment was 101.9 +/- 71.2 min. The most common type of treatment was
      restoration, accounting for 158 of the 380 treatments performed. CONCLUSIONS: Due
      to increasing demand, the number of cases of dental treatment performed under
      general anesthesia is expected to continue increasing, and it can be a useful
      method of treatment in patients with dental anxiety or phobia.

PMID- 28884155
TI  - Dental anesthesia for patients with allergic reactions to lidocaine: two case
      reports.
AB  - Lidocaine, a local anesthetic commonly used in dental treatments, is capable of
      causing allergies or adverse effects similar to allergic reactions. However, the
      frequency of such occurrences in actual clinical settings is very rare, and even
      clinical tests on patients with known allergies to local anesthetics may often
      show negative results. When adverse effects, such as allergy to lidocaine, are
      involved, patients can be treated by testing other local anesthetics and choosing
      a local anesthetic without any adverse effects, or by performing dental treatment
      under general anesthesia in cases in which no local anesthetic without adverse
      effects is available. Along with a literature review, the authors of the present
      study report on two cases of patients who tested positive on allergy skin tests
      for lidocaine and bupivacaine and subsequently underwent successful dental
      treatments with either general anesthesia or a different local anesthetic.

PMID- 28884156
TI  - Dental treatment under general anesthesia in an intellectually disabled child
      with intellectually disabled parents.
AB  - Children with an intellectual disability often demonstrate lack of cooperation
      during dental treatment and require behavioral management. A child with mild
      intellectual disability can be managed adequately using restraints and
      medication. However, in cases of profound intellectual disability, dental
      treatment under general anesthesia is usually required. In cases where the
      patient is an intellectually disabled child who has intellectually disabled
      parents, it is difficult to evaluate the patient's preoperative condition and to
      obtain consent for treatment under general anesthesia. Furthermore, they are
      unable to respond to emergencies after treatment. Therefore, dental treatment
      should be performed under general anesthesia with hospitalization for children
      with an intellectual disability. This case presents the dental treatment of an
      intellectually disabled child, who has intellectually disabled parents, and who
      required general anesthesia and hospitalization.

PMID- 28884157
TI  - Use of ADMSTM during sedation for dental treatment of an intellectually disabled
      patient: a case report.
AB  - Dental treatment is often performed under general anesthesia or sedation when an
      intellectually disabled patient has a heightened fear of treatment or has
      difficulty cooperating. When it is impossible to control the patient due to the
      severity of intellectual disability, conscious sedation is not a viable option,
      and only deep sedation should be performed. Deep sedation is usually achieved by
      propofol infusion using the target controlled infusion (TCI) system, with deep
      sedation being achieved at a slightly lower concentration of propofol in disabled
      patients. In such cases, anesthesia depth monitoring using EEG, as with a
      Bispectral Index (BIS) monitor, can enable dental treatment under appropriate
      sedation depth. In the present case, we performed deep sedation for dental
      treatment on a 27-year-old female patient with mental retardation and severe
      dental phobia. During sedation, we used BIS and a newly developed Anesthetic
      Depth Monitor for Sedation (ADMSTM), in addition to electrocardiography, pulse
      oximetry, blood pressure monitoring, and capnometry for patient safety. Oxygen
      was administered via nasal prong to prevent hypoxemia during sedation. The BIS
      and ADMSTM values were maintained at approximately 70, and dental treatment was
      successfully performed in approximately 30 min..

PMID- 28884158
TI  - A geo-coded inventory of anophelines in the Afrotropical Region south of the
      Sahara: 1898-2016.
AB  - Background: Understanding the distribution of anopheline vectors of malaria is an
      important prelude to the design of national malaria control and elimination
      programmes. A single, geo-coded continental inventory of anophelines using all
      available published and unpublished data has not been undertaken since the 1960s.
      Methods: We have searched African, European and World Health Organization
      archives to identify unpublished reports on anopheline surveys in 48 sub-Saharan
      Africa countries. This search was supplemented by identification of reports that
      formed part of post-graduate theses, conference abstracts, regional insecticide
      resistance databases and more traditional bibliographic searches of peer-reviewed
      literature. Finally, a check was made against two recent repositories of dominant
      malaria vector species locations ( circa 2,500). Each report was used to extract
      information on the survey dates, village locations (geo-coded to provide a
      longitude and latitude), sampling methods, species identification methods and all
      anopheline species found present during the survey. Survey records were collapsed
      to a single site over time.    Results: The search strategy took years and
      resulted in 13,331 unique, geo-coded survey locations of anopheline vector
      occurrence between 1898 and 2016. A total of 12,204 (92%) sites reported the
      presence of 10 dominant vector species/sibling species; 4,473 (37%) of these
      sites were sampled since 2005. 4,442 (33%) sites reported at least one of 13
      possible secondary vector species; 1,107 (25%) of these sites were sampled since
      2005. Distributions of dominant and secondary vectors conform to previous
      descriptions of the ecological ranges of these vectors. Conclusion: We have
      assembled the largest ever geo-coded database of anophelines in Africa,
      representing a legacy dataset for future updating and identification of knowledge
      gaps at national levels. The geo-coded database is available on Harvard Dataverse
      as a reference source for African national malaria control programmes planning
      their future control and elimination strategies.

PMID- 28884159
TI  - A Reexamination of Thioredoxin Reductase from Thermoplasma acidophilum, a
      Thermoacidophilic Euryarchaeon, Identifies It as an NADH-Dependent Enzyme.
AB  - Flavin-containing Trx reductase (TrxR) of Thermoplasma acidophilum (Ta), a
      thermoacidophilic facultative anaerobic archaeon, lacks the structural features
      for the binding of 2'-phosphate of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate
      (NADPH), and this feature has justified the observed lack of activity with NADPH;
      NADH has also been reported to be ineffective. Our recent phylogenetic analysis
      identified Ta-TrxR as closely related to the NADH-dependent enzymes of Thermotoga
      maritima and Desulfovibrio vulgaris, both being anaerobic bacteria. This
      observation instigated a reexamination of the activity of the enzyme, which
      showed that Ta-TrxR is NADH dependent; the apparent Km for NADH was 3.1 MUM, a
      physiologically relevant value. This finding is consistent with the observation
      that NADH:TrxR has thus far been found primarily in anaerobic bacteria and
      archaea.

PMID- 28884160
TI  - Micelle Maker: An Online Tool for Generating Equilibrated Micelles as Direct
      Input for Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
AB  - Micelles play an important role in both experimental and computational studies of
      the effect of lipid interactions on biological systems. The spherical geometry
      and the dynamical behavior of micelles makes generating micelle structures for
      use in molecular simulations challenging. An easy tool for generating simulation
      ready micelle models, covering a broad range of lipids, is highly desirable.
      Here, we present a new Web server, Micelle Maker, which can provide equilibrated
      micelle models as a direct input for subsequent molecular dynamics simulations
      from a broad range of lipids (currently 25 lipid types, including 24
      glycolipids). The Web server, which is available at http://www.micellemaker.net,
      uses error checking routines to prevent clashes during the initial placement of
      the lipids and uses AMBER's GLYCAM library for generating minimized or
      equilibrated micelle models, but the resulting structures can be used as starting
      points for simulations with any force field or simulation package. Extensive
      validation simulations with an overall simulation time of 12 MUs using eight
      micelle models where assembly information is available show that all of the
      micelles remain very stable over the whole simulation time. Finally, we discuss
      the advantages of Micelle Maker relative to other approaches in the field.

PMID- 28884161
TI  - Conformational Dynamics Modulate Activation of the Ubiquitin Conjugating Enzyme
      Ube2g2.
AB  - The ubiquitin conjugating enzyme Ube2g2 together with its cognate E3 ligase gp78
      catalyzes the synthesis of lysine-48 polyubiquitin chains constituting signals
      for the proteasomal degradation of misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic
      reticulum. Here, we employ NMR spectroscopy in combination with single-turnover
      diubiquitin formation assays to examine the role of the RING domain from gp78 in
      the catalytic activation of Ube2g2~Ub conjugates. We find that approximately 60%
      of the Ube2g2~Ub conjugates occupy a closed conformation in the absence of gp78
      RING, with the population increasing to 82% upon gp78-RING binding. As expected,
      strong mutations in the hydrophobic patch residues of the ~Ub moiety result in
      Ube2g2~Ub populating only open states with corresponding loss of the ubiquitin
      conjugation activity. Less disruptive mutations introduced into the hydrophobic
      patch of the ~Ub moiety also destabilize the closed conformational state, yet the
      corresponding effect on the ubiquitin conjugation activity ranges from complete
      loss to an enhancement of the catalytic activity. These results present a picture
      in which Ube2g2's active site is in a state of continual dynamic flux with the
      organization of the active site into a catalytically viable conformation
      constituting the rate-limiting step for a single ubiquitin ligation event.
      Ube2g2's function as a highly specific K48-polyubiquitin chain elongator leads us
      to speculate that this may be a strategy by which Ube2g2 reduces the probability
      of nonproductive catalytic outcomes in the absence of available substrate.

PMID- 28884162
TI  - Modifier-Free Microfluidic Electrochemical Sensor for Heavy-Metal Detection.
AB  - Heavy-metal pollution poses severe threat to ecological systems and presents a
      great challenge for global sustainability. Portable point-of-care sensing
      platform for detection/monitoring of heavy-metal pollution in the environment is
      urgently demanded. Herein, a highly sensitive, robust, and low-cost microfluidic
      electrochemical carbon-based sensor (MUCS) for detection of trace heavy metals is
      presented. The miniaturized MUCS devices are based on a microfluidic paper
      channel combined with a novel three-dimensional layout with working and counter
      electrodes facing each other and analyte flowing along the microfluidic channel
      between these two electrodes. Pristine graphite foil free of any surface modifier
      is not only used as the electronically conductive pad but also directly employed
      as the working electrode for fabricating the MUCS. The resulting simple and
      portable device was applied in Cd2+ and Pb2+ detection using square-wave anodic
      stripping voltammetry. Detection limits down to 1.2 MUg/L for Cd2+ and 1.8 MUg/L
      for Pb2+ can be achieved over the MUCS. The MUCS devices are also found to be
      highly robust, and 10 repetitive measurements with a single MUCS device resulted
      to be highly reproducible.

PMID- 28884163
TI  - Identification of a Novel Class of BRD4 Inhibitors by Computational Screening and
      Binding Simulations.
AB  - Computational screening is a method to prioritize small-molecule compounds based
      on the structural and biochemical attributes built from ligand and target
      information. Previously, we have developed a scalable virtual screening workflow
      to identify novel multitarget kinase/bromodomain inhibitors. In the current
      study, we identified several novel N-[3-(2-oxo-pyrrolidinyl)phenyl]
      benzenesulfonamide derivatives that scored highly in our ensemble docking
      protocol. We quantified the binding affinity of these compounds for BRD4(BD1)
      biochemically and generated cocrystal structures, which were deposited in the
      Protein Data Bank. As the docking poses obtained in the virtual screening
      pipeline did not align with the experimental cocrystal structures, we evaluated
      the predictions of their precise binding modes by performing molecular dynamics
      (MD) simulations. The MD simulations closely reproduced the experimentally
      observed protein-ligand cocrystal binding conformations and interactions for all
      compounds. These results suggest a computational workflow to generate
      experimental-quality protein-ligand binding models, overcoming limitations of
      docking results due to receptor flexibility and incomplete sampling, as a useful
      starting point for the structure-based lead optimization of novel BRD4(BD1)
      inhibitors.

PMID- 28884164
TI  - ecoAO: A Simple System for the Study of Human Aldehyde Oxidases Role in Drug
      Metabolism.
AB  - Although aldehyde oxidase (AO) is an important hepatic drug-metabolizing enzyme,
      it remains understudied and is consequently often overlooked in preclinical
      studies, an oversight that has resulted in the failure of multiple clinical
      trials. AO's preclusion to investigation stems from the following: (1)
      difficulties synthesizing metabolic standards due to the chemospecificity and
      regiospecificity of the enzyme and (2) significant inherent variability across
      existing in vitro systems including liver cytosol, S9 fractions, and primary
      hepatocytes, which lack specificity and generate discordant expression and
      activity profiles. Here, we describe a practical bacterial biotransformation
      system, ecoAO, addressing both issues simultaneously. ecoAO is a cell paste of
      MoCo-producing Escherichia coli strain TP1017 expressing human AO. It exhibits
      specific activity toward known substrates, zoniporide, 4-trans-(N,N
      dimethylamino)cinnamaldehyde, O6-benzylguanine, and zaleplon; it also has utility
      as a biocatalyst, yielding milligram quantities of synthetically challenging
      metabolite standards such as 2-oxo-zoniporide. Moreover, ecoAO enables routine
      determination of kcat and V/K, which are essential parameters for accurate in
      vivo clearance predictions. Furthermore, ecoAO has potential as a preclinical in
      vitro screening tool for AO activity, as demonstrated by its metabolism of 3
      aminoquinoline, a previously uncharacterized substrate. ecoAO promises to provide
      easy access to metabolites with the potential to improve pharmacokinetic
      clearance predictions and guide drug development.

PMID- 28884165
TI  - Developmental Methylmercury Exposure Affects Swimming Behavior and Foraging
      Efficiency of Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Larvae.
AB  - Methylmercury (MeHg) is a pervasive and ubiquitous environmental neurotoxicant
      within aquatic ecosystems, known to alter behavior in fish and other vertebrates.
      This study sought to assess the behavioral effects of developmental MeHg exposure
      on larval yellow perch (Perca flavescens)-a nonmodel fish species native to the
      Great Lakes. Embryos were exposed to MeHg (0, 30, 100, 300, and 1000 nM) for 20 h
      and then reared to 25 days post fertilization (dpf) for analyses of spontaneous
      swimming, visual motor response (VMR), and foraging efficiency. MeHg exposures
      rendered total mercury (THg) body burdens of 0.02, 0.21, 0.95, 3.14, and 14.93
      MUg/g (wet weight). Organisms exposed to 1000 nM exhibited high mortality; thus,
      they were excluded from downstream behavioral analyses. All MeHg exposures tested
      were associated with a reduction in spontaneous swimming at 17 and 25 dpf.
      Exposure to 30 and 100 nM MeHg caused altered locomotor output during the VMR
      assay at 21 dpf, whereas exposure to 100 nM MeHg was associated with decreased
      foraging efficiency at 25 dpf. For the sake of comparison, the second-lowest
      exposure tested here rendered a THg burden that represents the permissible level
      of consumable fish in the United States. Moreover, this dose is reported in
      roughly two-thirds of consumable fish species monitored in the United States,
      according to the Food and Drug Administration. Although the THg body burdens
      reported here were higher than expected in the environment, our study is the
      first to analyze the effects of MeHg exposure on fundamental survival behaviors
      of yellow perch larvae and advances in the exploration of the ecological
      relevance of behavioral end points.

PMID- 28884166
TI  - Crystal Structure of Thioesterase SgcE10 Supporting Common Polyene Intermediates
      in 9- and 10-Membered Enediyne Core Biosynthesis.
AB  - Enediynes are potent natural product anticancer antibiotics, and are classified
      as 9- or 10-membered according to the size of their enediyne core carbon
      skeleton. Both 9- and 10-membered enediyne cores are biosynthesized by the
      enediyne polyketide synthase (PKSE), thioesterase (TE), and PKSE-associated
      enzymes. Although the divergence between 9- and 10-membered enediyne core
      biosynthesis remains unclear, it has been observed that nascent polyketide
      intermediates, tethered to the acyl carrier protein (ACP) domain of PKSE, could
      be released by TE in the absence of the PKSE-associated enzymes. In this study,
      we determined the crystal structure of SgcE10, the TE that participates in the
      biosynthesis of the 9-membered enediyne C-1027. Structural comparison of SgcE10
      with CalE7 and DynE7, two TEs that participate in the biosynthesis of the 10
      membered enediynes calicheamicin and dynemicin, respectively, revealed that they
      share a common alpha/beta hot-dog fold. The amino acids involved in both
      substrate binding and catalysis are conserved among SgcE10, CalE7, and DynE7. The
      volume and the shape of the substrate-binding channel and active site in SgcE10,
      CalE7, and DynE7 confirm that TEs from both 9- and 10-membered enediyne
      biosynthetic machineries bind the linear form of similar ACP-tethered polyene
      intermediates. Taken together, these findings further support the proposal that
      the divergence between 9- and 10-membered enediyne core biosynthesis occurs
      beyond PKSE and TE catalysis.

PMID- 28884168
TI  - AUC-Maximized Deep Convolutional Neural Fields for Protein Sequence Labeling.
AB  - Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) has shown excellent performance in a
      variety of machine learning tasks. This paper presents Deep Convolutional Neural
      Fields (DeepCNF), an integration of DCNN with Conditional Random Field (CRF), for
      sequence labeling with an imbalanced label distribution. The widely-used training
      methods, such as maximum-likelihood and maximum labelwise accuracy, do not work
      well on imbalanced data. To handle this, we present a new training algorithm
      called maximum-AUC for DeepCNF. That is, we train DeepCNF by directly maximizing
      the empirical Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC), which is an unbiased measurement
      for imbalanced data. To fulfill this, we formulate AUC in a pairwise ranking
      framework, approximate it by a polynomial function and then apply a gradient
      based procedure to optimize it. Our experimental results confirm that maximum-AUC
      greatly outperforms the other two training methods on 8-state secondary structure
      prediction and disorder prediction since their label distributions are highly
      imbalanced and also has similar performance as the other two training methods on
      solvent accessibility prediction, which has three equally-distributed labels.
      Furthermore, our experimental results show that our AUC-trained DeepCNF models
      greatly outperform existing popular predictors of these three tasks. The data and
      software related to this paper are available at
      https://github.com/realbigws/DeepCNF_AUC.

PMID- 28884167
TI  - Anxiolytic effects of buspirone and MTEP in the Porsolt Forced Swim Test.
AB  - Traditionally, a reduction in floating behavior or immobility in the Porsolt
      forced swim test (FST) is employed as a predictor of antidepressant efficacy.
      However, over the past several years, our studies of alcohol withdrawal-induced
      negative affect consistently indicate the coincidence of increased anxiety
      related behaviors on various behavioral tests with reduced immobility in the FST.
      Further, this behavioral profile correlates with increased mGlu5 protein
      expression within limbic brain regions. As the role for mGlu5 in anxiety is well
      established, we hypothesized that the reduced immobility exhibited by alcohol
      withdrawn mice when tested in the FST might reflect anxiety, possibly a hyper
      reactivity to the acute swim stressor. Herein, we evaluated whether or not the
      decreased FST immobility during alcohol withdrawal responds to systemic treatment
      with a behaviorally-effective dose of the prototypical anxiolytic, buspirone (5
      mg/kg). We also determined the functional relevance of the withdrawal-induced
      increase in mGlu5 expression for FST behavior by comparing the effects of
      buspirone to a behaviorally effective dose of the mGlu5 negative allosteric
      modulator MTEP (3 mg/kg). Adult male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to a 14-day,
      multi-bottle, binge-drinking protocol that elicits hyper-anxiety and increases
      glutamate-related protein expression during early withdrawal. Control animals
      received only water. At 24hr withdrawal, animals from each drinking condition
      were subdivided into groups and treated with an IP injection of buspirone, MTEP,
      or vehicle, 30min prior to the FST. Drug effects on general locomotor activity
      were also assessed. As we reported previously, alcohol-withdrawn animals
      exhibited significantly reduced immobility in the FST compared to water controls.
      Both buspirone and MTEP significantly increased immobility in alcohol-withdrawn
      animals, with a modest increase also seen in water controls. No significant group
      differences were observed for locomotor activity, indicating that neither
      anxiolytic was sedating. These results provide predictive validity for increased
      swimming/reduced immobility in the FST as a model of anxiety and provide novel
      evidence in favor of mGlu5 inhibition as an effective therapeutic strategy for
      treating hyperanxiety during alcohol withdrawal.

PMID- 28884169
TI  - Cloud Engineering Principles and Technology Enablers for Medical Image Processing
      as-a-Service.
AB  - Traditional in-house, laboratory-based medical imaging studies use hierarchical
      data structures (e.g., NFS file stores) or databases (e.g., COINS, XNAT) for
      storage and retrieval. The resulting performance from these approaches is,
      however, impeded by standard network switches since they can saturate network
      bandwidth during transfer from storage to processing nodes for even moderate
      sized studies. To that end, a cloud-based "medical image processing-as-a-service"
      offers promise in utilizing the ecosystem of Apache Hadoop, which is a flexible
      framework providing distributed, scalable, fault tolerant storage and parallel
      computational modules, and HBase, which is a NoSQL database built atop Hadoop's
      distributed file system. Despite this promise, HBase's load distribution strategy
      of region split and merge is detrimental to the hierarchical organization of
      imaging data (e.g., project, subject, session, scan, slice). This paper makes two
      contributions to address these concerns by describing key cloud engineering
      principles and technology enhancements we made to the Apache Hadoop ecosystem for
      medical imaging applications. First, we propose a row-key design for HBase, which
      is a necessary step that is driven by the hierarchical organization of imaging
      data. Second, we propose a novel data allocation policy within HBase to strongly
      enforce collocation of hierarchically related imaging data. The proposed
      enhancements accelerate data processing by minimizing network usage and
      localizing processing to machines where the data already exist. Moreover, our
      approach is amenable to the traditional scan, subject, and project-level analysis
      procedures, and is compatible with standard command line/scriptable image
      processing software. Experimental results for an illustrative sample of imaging
      data reveals that our new HBase policy results in a three-fold time improvement
      in conversion of classic DICOM to NiFTI file formats when compared with the
      default HBase region split policy, and nearly a six-fold improvement over a
      commonly available network file system (NFS) approach even for relatively small
      file sets. Moreover, file access latency is lower than network attached storage.

PMID- 28884170
TI  - SERS-active metal-dielectric nanostructures integrated in microfluidic devices
      for label-free quantitative detection of miRNA.
AB  - In this work, SERS-based microfluidic PDMS chips integrating silver-coated porous
      silicon membranes were used for the detection and quantitation of microRNAs
      (miRNAs), which consist of short regulatory non-coding RNA sequences typically
      over- or under-expressed in connection with several diseases such as oncogenesis.
      In detail, metal-dielectric nanostructures which provide noticeable Raman
      enhancements were functionalized according to a biological protocol, adapted and
      optimized from an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), for the detection of
      miR-222. Two sets of experiments based on different approaches were designed and
      performed, yielding a critical comparison. In the first one, the labelled target
      miRNA is revealed through hybridization to a complementary thiolated DNA probe,
      immobilized on the silver nanoparticles. In the second one, the probe is halved
      into shorter strands (half1 and half2) that interact with the complementary miRNA
      in two steps of hybridization. Such an approach, taking advantage of the Raman
      labelling of half2, provides a label-free analysis of the target. After suitable
      optimisation of the procedures, two calibration curves allowing quantitative
      measurements were obtained and compared on the basis of the SERS maps acquired on
      the samples loaded with several miRNA concentrations. The selectivity of the two
      step assay was confirmed by the detection of target miR-222 mixed with different
      synthetic oligos, simulating the hybridization interference coming from similar
      sequences in real biological samples. Finally, that protocol was applied to the
      analysis of miR-222 in cellular extracts using an optofluidic multichamber
      biosensor, confirming the potentialities of SERS-based microfluidics for early
      cancer diagnosis.

PMID- 28884171
TI  - Model-guided identification of novel gene amplification targets for improving
      succinate production in Escherichia coli NZN111.
AB  - Reconstruction and application of genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have
      facilitated metabolic engineering by providing a platform on which systematic
      computational analysis of metabolic networks can be performed. In this study, a
      GEM of Escherichia coli NZN111 was employed by the analysis of production and
      growth coupling (APGC) algorithm to identify genetic strategies for the
      overproduction of succinate. Through in silico simulation and reaction expression
      analysis, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), phosphoglycerate
      kinase (PGK), triosephosphate isomerase (TPI), and phosphoenolpyruvate
      carboxylase (PPC), encoded by gapA, pgk, tpiA, and ppc, respectively, were
      selected for experimental overexpression. The results showed that overexpressing
      any of these could improve both growth and succinate production. Specifically,
      overexpression of GAPDH or PGK showed a significant effect with up to 24%
      increase in succinate production. These results indicate that the APGC algorithm
      can be effectively used to guide genetic manipulation for strain design by
      identifying genome-wide gene amplification targets.

PMID- 28884173
TI  - Mediators of mutualistic microbe-microbe interactions.
AB  - The co-existence of different microbial species in one habitat is prerequisite
      for many ecosystem processes. To facilitate co-habitation of ecological niches,
      intricate mechanisms have evolved that regulate the growth and the behaviour of
      microbes. A crucial aspect for the establishment and maintenance of a microbial
      population is the communication among species. Whereas intraspecies communication
      processes have been widely studied, little is known about the molecular
      mechanisms underlying interspecies interactions. Through the advance of modern
      analytical and sequencing technologies, we are now beginning to gain deeper
      insights into these complex processes. A key feature of microbe-microbe
      interaction is the secretion of chemical mediators to influence either the
      microbial partner or co-occurring higher organisms to shape the specific
      microenvironment. Here we summarize recent advances in understanding the role of
      natural products as regulators of microbial interaction in various ecological
      niches. Special attention is paid to mutualistic relationships with relevance for
      ecology and agriculture as well as medicine.

PMID- 28884172
TI  - A 4-dimethylaminobenzoate-functionalized Ti6-oxo cluster with a narrow band gap
      and enhanced photoelectrochemical activity: a combined experimental and
      computational study.
AB  - Organic donor-pi-bridge-acceptor (D-pi-A) dyes with arylamines as an electron
      donor have been widely used as photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells
      (DSSCs). However, titanium-oxo clusters (TOCs) functionalized with this kind of D
      pi-A structured dye-molecule have rarely been explored. In the present study, the
      4-dimethylaminobenzoate-functionalized titanium-oxo cluster [Ti6(MU3
      O)6(OiPr)6(DMABA)6].2C6H5CH3 (DMABA = 4-dimethylaminobenzoate) was synthesized
      and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. For
      comparison, two other Ti6-oxo clusters, namely [Ti6(MU3-O)6(OiPr)6(AD)6] (AD = 1
      adamantanecarboxylate) and [Ti6(MU3-O)2(MU2-O)(MU2-OiPr)4(OiPr)10(DMM)2] (DMM =
      dimethylmalonate), were also studied. The DMABA-functionalized cluster exhibits a
      remarkably reduced band gap of ~2.5 eV and much enhanced photocurrent response in
      comparison with the other two clusters. The electronic structures and electronic
      transitions of the clusters were studied by DFT and TDDFT calculations. The
      computational results suggest that the low-energy transitions of the DMABA
      functionalized cluster have a substantial charge-transfer character arising from
      the DMABA -> {Ti6} cluster core ligand-to-core charge transfer (LCCT), along with
      the DMABA-based intra-ligand charge transfer (ILCT). These low-energy charge
      transfer transitions provide efficient electron injection pathways for photon-to
      electron conversion.

PMID- 28884174
TI  - Probing RbBr solvation in freestanding sub-2 nm water clusters.
AB  - Concentration dependent solvation of RbBr in freestanding sub-2 nm water clusters
      was studied using core level photoelectron spectroscopy with synchrotron
      radiation. Spectral features recorded from dilute to saturated clusters indicate
      that either solvent shared or contact ion pairs are present in increasing amount
      when the concentration exceeds 2 mol kg-1. For comparison, spectra from anhydrous
      RbBr clusters are also presented.

PMID- 28884175
TI  - Protonation/reduction dynamics at the [4Fe-4S] cluster of the hydrogen-forming
      cofactor in [FeFe]-hydrogenases.
AB  - The [FeFe]-hydrogenases of bacteria and algae are the most efficient hydrogen
      conversion catalysts in nature. Their active-site cofactor (H-cluster) comprises
      a [4Fe-4S] cluster linked to a unique diiron site that binds three carbon
      monoxide (CO) and two cyanide (CN-) ligands. Understanding microbial hydrogen
      conversion requires elucidation of the interplay of proton and electron transfer
      events at the H-cluster. We performed real-time spectroscopy on [FeFe]
      hydrogenase protein films under controlled variation of atmospheric gas
      composition, sample pH, and reductant concentration. Attenuated total reflection
      Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was used to monitor shifts of the CO/CN-
      vibrational bands in response to redox and protonation changes. Three different
      [FeFe]-hydrogenases and several protein and cofactor variants were compared,
      including element and isotopic exchange studies. A protonated equivalent (HoxH)
      of the oxidized state (Hox) was found, which preferentially accumulated at acidic
      pH and under reducing conditions. We show that the one-electron reduced state
      Hred' represents an intrinsically protonated species. Interestingly, the
      formation of HoxH and Hred' was independent of the established proton pathway to
      the diiron site. Quantum chemical calculations of the respective CO/CN- infrared
      band patterns favored a cysteine ligand of the [4Fe-4S] cluster as the
      protonation site in HoxH and Hred'. We propose that proton-coupled electron
      transfer facilitates reduction of the [4Fe-4S] cluster and prevents premature
      formation of a hydride at the catalytic diiron site. Our findings imply that
      protonation events both at the [4Fe-4S] cluster and at the diiron site of the H
      cluster are important in the hydrogen conversion reaction of [FeFe]-hydrogenases.

PMID- 28884176
TI  - Morphometric characterization of fibrinogen's alphaC regions and their role in
      fibrin self-assembly and molecular organization.
AB  - The flexible C-terminal parts of fibrinogen's Aalpha chains named the alphaC
      regions have been shown to play a role in fibrin self-assembly, although many
      aspects of their structure and functions remain unknown. To examine the
      involvement of the alphaC regions in the early stages of fibrin formation, we
      used high-resolution atomic force microscopy to image fibrinogen and oligomeric
      fibrin. Plasma-purified full-length human fibrinogen or des-alphaC fibrinogen
      lacking most of the alphaC regions, untreated or treated with thrombin, was
      imaged. Up to 80% of the potentially existing alphaC regions were visualized and
      quantified; they were highly heterogeneous in their length and configurations.
      Conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin was accompanied by an increase in the
      incidence and length of the alphaC regions as well as transitions from more
      compact conformations, such as a globule on a string, to extended and more
      flexible offshoots. Concurrent dynamic turbidimetry, confocal microscopy, and
      scanning electron microscopy revealed that trimming of the alphaC regions slowed
      down fibrin formation, which correlated with longer protofibrils, thinner fibers,
      and a denser network. No structural distinctions, except for the incidence of the
      alphaC regions, were revealed in the laterally aggregated protofibrils made of
      the full-length or des-alphaC fibrinogens, suggesting a pure kinetic effect of
      the alphaC regions on the fibrin architecture. This work provides a structural
      molecular basis for the promoting role of the alphaC regions in the early stages
      of fibrin self-assembly and reveals this stage of fibrin formation as a potential
      therapeutic target to modulate the structure and mechanical properties of blood
      clots.

PMID- 28884177
TI  - Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 based on a CeO2 photocatalyst loaded with
      imidazole fabricated N-doped graphene and Cu(ii) as cocatalysts.
AB  - Cocatalysts are vital for improving photocatalytic activity. Incorporating
      nitrogen atoms on a graphene frame using an imidazole cycle resulted in a new N
      doped graphene (denoted as ING). Cerium(iv) oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles were
      dispersed on ING sheets, producing an ING/CeO2 hybrid material. The ING/CeO2
      hybrid material was characterized using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron
      microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance
      spectroscopy and surface photovoltage spectroscopy. Copper(ii) ions [Cu(ii)] were
      adsorbed on the ING/CeO2 hybrid material to directly form Cu(ii)/ING/CeO2, which
      could capture the photogenerated electrons to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) to
      methanol (CH3OH) under incident light irradiation. The results showed that the
      yield from reducing CO2 to CH3OH during the photocatalytic process using
      Cu(ii)/ING/CeO2 as the photocatalyst approached 385.8 MUmol g-1 cat. h-1, whereas
      the yield was only 3.57 MUmol g-1 cat. h-1 using ING/CeO2 as the photocatalyst.
      This shows that the Cu(ii) ions play a vital role during photocatalytic reduction
      of CO2 by forming copper(i) ions [Cu(i)]. The percentage of ING in the ING/CeO2
      hybrid material was investigated, and the results indicated that 3.6% of ING
      achieved an optimal yield of CH3OH during the photo-reduction process. The
      simultaneous roles of Cu(ii) ions and ING sheets demonstrate a synergistic
      strategy for improving the photocatalytic CO2 reduction.

PMID- 28884178
TI  - Screening of potential anti-adipogenic effects of phenolic compounds showing
      different chemical structure in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.
AB  - This study was designed to analyze the anti-adipogenic effect of fifteen phenolic
      compounds from various chemical groups in 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes. Cells were
      treated with 25 MUM, 10 MUM or 1 MUM of apigenin, luteolin, catechin,
      epicatechin, epigallocatechin, genistein, daizein, naringenin, hesperidin,
      quercetin, kaempferol, resveratrol, vanillic acid, piceatannol and pterostilbene
      for 8 days. At 25 MUM lipid accumulation was reduced by all the compounds, with
      the exception of catechin, epicatechin and epigallocatechin. At a dose of 10 MUM
      apigenin, luteolin, naringenin, hesperidin, quercetin and kaempferol induced
      significant reductions, and at 1 MUM only naringenin, hesperidin and quercetin
      were effective. The expression of c/ebpalpha was not. C/ebpbeta was significantly
      reduced by genistein and kaempferol, ppargamma by genistein and pterostilbene,
      srebp1c by luteolin, genistein, hesperidin, kaempferol, pterostilbene and
      vanillic acid, and lpl by kaempferol. In conclusion, the most effective phenolic
      compounds are naringenin, hesperidin and quercetin. Differences were found in
      terms of effects on the expression of genes involved in adipogenesis among the
      analyzed compounds.

PMID- 28884179
TI  - Morphology of a self-doped conducting oligomer for green energy applications.
AB  - A recently synthesized self-doped conducting oligomer, salt of bis[3,4
      ethylenedioxythiophene]3thiophene butyric acid, ETE-S, is a novel promising
      material for green energy applications. Recently, it has been demonstrated that
      it can polymerize in vivo, in plant systems, leading to a formation of long-range
      conducting wires, charge storage and supercapacitive behaviour of living plants.
      Here we investigate the morphology of ETE-S combining the experimental
      characterisation using Grazing Incidence Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (GIWAXS) and
      atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The GIWAXS measurements reveal a
      formation of small crystallites consisting of pi-pi stacked oligomers (with the
      staking distance 3.5 A) that are further organized in h00 lamellae. These
      experimental results are confirmed by MD calculations, where we calculated the X
      ray diffraction pattern and the radial distribution function for the distance
      between ETE-S chains. Our MD simulations also demonstrate the formation of the
      percolative paths for charge carriers that extend throughout the whole structure,
      despite the fact that the oligomers are short (6-9 rings) and crystallites are
      thin along the pi-pi stacking direction, consisting of only two or three pi-pi
      stacked oligomers. The existence of the percolative paths explains the previously
      observed high conductivity in in vivo polymerized ETE-S. We also explored the
      geometrical conformation of ETE-S oligomers and the bending of their aliphatic
      chains as a function of the oligomer lengths.

PMID- 28884180
TI  - Facile synthesis of photoluminescent inorganic-organic hybrid carbon dots codoped
      with B and N: towards an efficient lubrication additive.
AB  - A novel environmentally friendly bis-functional dicationic ionic liquid
      containing chelated orthoborate was synthesized and polycondensed with glutamic
      acid in order to synthesize inorganic-organic carbon dots (CD/IL) consisting of
      an ionic liquid moiety inserted in the carbon skeleton. The obtained CD/IL was
      found to be a new kind of nitrogen/boron-codoped nanomaterial, one with a mean
      particle diameter of 2.66 nm. CD/IL was verified to be a high-performance
      lubricant additive: in particular, the anti-wear and friction-reducing properties
      of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were improved by 89.34% and 62.18%, respectively,
      when 1% CD/IL was added. Lubricants consisting of a mixture of CD/IL and PEG
      showed intense blue photo-fluorescence, and the corresponding photoluminescence
      (PL) intensity decreased considerably after carrying out a tribo-test. Moreover,
      CD/IL became transferred onto a rubbing steel interface during the tribo-test
      according to EDX and Raman analyses of a worn surface. CD/IL showed poor
      crystallinity, and interestingly, an intense G (~1600 cm-1) signature was
      detected on the steel surface after a high-load and long-duration tribo-test,
      which indicated that ordered carbon materials were generated on the interface,
      inhibiting the undesirable wear.

PMID- 28884181
TI  - Probing the solvation structure and dynamics in ionic liquids by time-resolved
      infrared spectroscopy of 4-(dimethylamino)benzonitrile.
AB  - In this work we demonstrate the use of the push-pull model system 4
      (dimethylamino)benzonitrile (DMABN) as a convenient molecular probe to
      investigate the local solvation structure and dynamics by means of time-resolved
      infrared spectroscopy (TRIR). The photochemical features associated with this
      system provide several advantages due to the high charge separation between the
      ground and charge transfer states involving the characteristic nitrile bond, and
      an excited state lifetime that is long enough to observe the slow solvation
      dynamics in organic solvents and ionic liquids. The conversion from a locally
      excited state to an intramolecular charge transfer state (LE-ICT) in ionic
      liquids shows similar kinetic lifetimes in comparison to organic solvents. This
      similarity confirms that such conversion depends solely on the intramolecular
      reorganization of DMABN in the excited state, and not by the dynamics of
      solvation. In contrast, the relative shift of the nu(CN) vibration during the
      relaxation of the ICT state reveals two distinct lifetimes that are sensitive to
      the solvent environment. This study reveals a fast time component which is
      attributed to the dipolar relaxation of the solvent and a slower time component
      related to the rotation of the dimethylamino group of DMABN.

PMID- 28884182
TI  - Point defects in turbostratic stacked bilayer graphene.
AB  - The special properties of graphene can be largely influenced by point defects in
      the lattice. However, TEM studies of topological defects in few-layered graphene
      have rarely been reported. In this work, the two simplest forms of point defects
      monovacancy and divacancy in twisted bilayer graphene are characterized using
      aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (AC-TEM) at 80 kV. A
      convenient approach by using a negative mask in the fast Fourier transform (FFT)
      has been applied to separate the image signal of the two graphene layers. In the
      study combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations and tight
      binding molecular dynamics simulations, the analysis of the defect structure and
      movement shows the stability and migration behavior of both defects. DFT
      calculations indicate that the migration of monovacancy in bilayer graphene needs
      to overcome a higher energy barrier.

PMID- 28884183
TI  - A comparison of the solvation structure and dynamics of the lithium ion in linear
      organic carbonates with different alkyl chain lengths.
AB  - The structure and dynamics of electrolytes composed of lithium
      hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6) in dimethyl carbonate, ethyl methyl carbonate, and
      diethyl carbonate were investigated using a combination of linear and two
      dimensional infrared spectroscopies. The solutions studied here have a LiPF6
      concentration of X(LiPF6) = 0.09, which is typically found in commercial lithium
      ion batteries. This study focuses on comparing the differences in the solvation
      shell structure and dynamics produced by linear organic carbonates of different
      alkyl chain lengths. The IR experiments show that either linear carbonate forms a
      tetrahedral solvation shell (coordination number of 4) around the lithium ion
      irrespective of whether the solvation shell has anions in close proximity to the
      carbonates. Moreover, analysis of the absorption cross sections via FTIR and DFT
      computations reveals a distortion in the angle formed by Li+-O[double bond,
      length as m-dash]C which decreases from the expected 180 degrees  when the alkyl
      chains of the carbonate are lengthened. In addition, our findings also reveal
      that, likely due to its asymmetric structure, ethyl methyl carbonate has a
      significantly more distorted tetrahedral lithium ion solvation shell than either
      of the other two investigated carbonates. IR photon echo studies further
      demonstrate that the motions of the solvation shell have a time scale of a few
      picoseconds for all three linear carbonates. Interestingly, a slowdown of the in
      place-motions of the first solvation shell is observed when the carbonate has a
      longer alkyl chain length irrespective of the symmetry. In addition, vibrational
      energy transfer with a time scale of tens of picoseconds is observed between
      strongly coupled modes arising from the solvation shell structure of the Li+
      which corroborates the modeling of these solvation shells in terms of highly
      coupled vibrational states. Results of this study provide new insights into the
      molecular structure and dynamics of the lithium ion electrolyte components as a
      function of solvent structure.

PMID- 28884184
TI  - Branched polyethylenimine-functionalized carbon dots as sensitive and selective
      fluorescent probes for N-acetylcysteine via an off-on mechanism.
AB  - N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) plays an important role in optimizing the protective
      ability of cells as well as in the treatment of some chronic clinical conditions.
      Unfortunately, current methods for determining NAC based on fluorescence assay
      strategies remain poorly investigated. In this study, a new fluorescence method
      for highly sensitive and selective detection of NAC was developed. The detection
      method employed the fluorescence (FL) signal of branched polyethylenimine
      functionalized carbon dots (PEI-CDs) via an off-on mechanism. The detection
      system was based on the formation of cupric amine complexes by the reaction of
      Cu2+ ions with surface amino groups on PEI-CDs. The FL of PEI-CDs at 460.0 nm
      upon exciting at 360.0 nm was quenched as a result of electron transfer between
      the complexes and PEI-CDs. Upon addition of NAC to Cu2+-CD solution, electron
      transfer occurred from the mercapto group on NAC to Cu2+, leading to the
      formation of Cu+ species and the dissociation of cupric amine complexes. As a
      result, the FL signal of PEI-CDs was turned on since single excited electrons
      cannot be transferred from PEI-CDs to the cupric amine complexes. The detection
      limit of this method was 0.56 MUM, while the linear response ranged from 5.56 MUM
      to 277.8 MUM.

PMID- 28884185
TI  - Significant enhancement of the selectivity of propylene epoxidation for propylene
      oxide: a molecular oxygen mechanism.
AB  - As an attractive and environmentally friendly process for propylene oxide (PO)
      production, direct epoxidation of propylene (DEP) with molecular oxygen catalyzed
      by metal-based catalysts such as Ag and Cu has drawn much attention, but remains
      one of the biggest challenges in chemistry. In this work, the crucial competitive
      reactions of propylene alpha-H stripping (AHS) versus the oxametallacycle
      formation (OMMP formation) using adsorbed atomic oxygen (O*) or adsorbed
      molecular oxygen (O2*) as an oxidant are extensively compared on IB group metal
      surfaces (Cu, Ag and Au) with varied electronic and structural effects in order
      to explore the possibility to enhance the PO selectivity by virtue of first
      principles calculations. The determining factor for the PO selectivity is
      quantitatively revealed: it is found that with atomic O*, the AHS pathway was
      preferred, indicating the reason for low PO selectivity with current catalysts.
      By contrast, the undissociated molecular O2* species is found to prefer to
      electrophilically attack the C[double bond, length as m-dash]C double bond of
      propylene and form a special oxametallacycle intermediate (OOMMP) rather than
      nucleophilically abstracting the alpha-H. This OOMMP can readily cleave the O-O
      bond and transform into OMMP. These results demonstrate that the presence of
      undissociated O2* can efficiently promote the PO selectivity. Furthermore, the
      merit of such a molecular O2* mechanism can be rationalized by our quantitative
      barrier decomposition analyses, which reveal that the lower hydrogen affinity
      (DeltaEH) of the O2* species dominantly contributes to the limited AHS reaction,
      and boosts the OMMP selectivity. Therefore, DeltaEH can be applied as a
      selectivity descriptor. An efficient strategy to promote PO formation is
      presented. The insight obtained could pave the way for further development of
      catalysts for propylene epoxidation.

PMID- 28884186
TI  - Correction: An integrated anti-arrhythmic target network of compound Chinese
      medicine Wenxin Keli revealed by combined machine learning and molecular pathway
      analysis.
AB  - Correction for 'An integrated anti-arrhythmic target network of a Chinese
      medicine compound, Wenxin Keli, revealed by combined machine learning and
      molecular pathway analysis' by Taiyi Wang et al., Mol. BioSyst., 2017, 13, 1018
      1030.

PMID- 28884187
TI  - Enantioselective recognition of an isomeric ligand by a biomolecule: mechanistic
      insights into static and dynamic enantiomeric behavior and structural
      flexibility.
AB  - Chirality is a ubiquitous basic attribute of nature, which inseparably relates to
      the life activity of living organisms. However, enantiomeric differences have
      still failed to arouse enough attention during the biological evaluation and
      practical application of chiral substances, and this poses a large threat to
      human health. In the current study, we explore the enantioselective
      biorecognition of a chiral compound by an asymmetric biomolecule, and then
      decipher the molecular basis of such a biological phenomenon on the static and,
      in particular, the dynamic scale. In light of the wet experiments, in silico
      docking results revealed that the orientation of the latter part of the optical
      isomer structures in the recognition domain can be greatly affected by the chiral
      carbon center in a model ligand molecule, and this event may induce large
      disparities between the static chiral bioreaction modes and noncovalent
      interactions (especially hydrogen bonding). Dynamic stereoselective
      biorecognition assays indicated that the conformational stability of the protein
      (S)-diclofop system is clearly greater than the protein-(R)-diclofop adduct; and
      moreover, the conformational alterations of the diclofop enantiomers in the
      dynamic process will directly influence the conformational flexibility of the key
      residues found in the biorecognition region. These points enable the changing
      trends of biopolymer structural flexibility and free energy to exhibit
      significant distinctions when proteins sterically recognize the (R)-/(S)
      stereoisomers. The outcomes of the energy decomposition further showed that the
      van der Waals' energy has roughly the same contribution to the chiral recognition
      biosystems, whereas the contribution of electrostatic energy to the protein-(R)
      diclofop complex is notably smaller than to the protein-(S)-diclofop
      bioconjugate. This proves that differences in the noncovalent bonds would have a
      serious impact on the stereoselective biorecognition between a biomacromolecule
      and chiral ligand. The present scenario is expected to attract more interest from
      both researchers and administrative agencies, since in a chiral environment,
      enantioselectivity exists in all of the biochemical processes of a chiral
      chemical, and this might finally elicit the disparate biological activities of
      (R)-/(S)-enantiomers.

PMID- 28884188
TI  - A convenient access to N-phosphonio-substituted NHC metal complexes [M = Ag(i),
      Rh(i), Pd(ii)].
AB  - A series of NHC pre-ligands featuring a pendant phosphonium moiety attached to N'
      position through a propyl linker was readily obtained upon quaternization of N
      mesityl- and N-methyl-imidazole, or N-mesityl-imidazoline using (3-bromo-propyl)
      triphenylphosphonium bromide. Reactions of the resulting dicationic salts with
      [PdCl(allyl)]2 in the presence of K2CO3 afforded the anticipated NHC-ligated
      Pd(ii) metal complexes in high yields. Further treatment of the latter complexes
      with tBuOK induced a deprotonation of the carbon atom adjacent to the phosphonium
      moiety and the formation of the corresponding C,C-chelating NHC-phosphonium ylide
      Pd(ii) complexes. Investigation of an alternative synthetic route involving a
      silver transmetallation reaction incidentally allowed isolation and full
      characterization of an unusual dimeric tetranuclear NHC Ag(i) complex of general
      formula [(NHC~P+)2(Ag4Br6)2-].

PMID- 28884189
TI  - An approach to spirooxindoles via palladium-catalyzed remote C-H activation and
      dual alkylation with CH2Br2.
AB  - A facile and efficient approach for the synthesis of spirooxindoles has been
      developed via the coupling of spirocyclic C,C-palladacycles with CH2Br2. The key
      spirocyclic palladacycles are generated catalytically via remote C-H activation.
      A range of spirooxindoles can be synthesized in good to excellent yields from
      readily available starting material.

PMID- 28884191
TI  - The Appearance and Diversification of Receptors for IgM During Vertebrate
      Evolution.
AB  - Three different receptors that interact with the constant domains of IgM have
      been identified: the polymeric immunoglobulin (Ig) receptor (PIGR), the dual
      receptor for IgA/IgM (FcalphauR) and the IgM receptor (FcuR). All of them are
      related in structure and located in the same chromosomal region in mammals. The
      functions of the PIGRs are to transport IgM and IgA into the intestinal lumen and
      to saliva and tears, whereas the FcalphauRs enhance uptake of immune complexes
      and antibody coated bacteria and viruses by B220+ B cells and phagocytes, as well
      as dampening the Ig response to thymus-independent antigens. The FcuRs have broad
      spectrum effects on B-cell development including effects on IgM homeostasis, B
      cell survival, humoral immune responses and also in autoantibody formation. The
      PIGR is the first of these receptors to appear during vertebrate evolution and is
      found in bony fish and all tetrapods but not in cartilaginous fish. The FcuR is
      present in all extant mammalian lineages and also in the Chinese and American
      alligators, suggesting its appearance with early reptiles. Currently the
      FcalphauR has only been found in mammals and is most likely the evolutionary
      youngest of the three receptors. In bony fish, the PIGR has either 2, 3, 4, 5 or
      6 extracellular Ig-like domains, whereas in amphibians, reptiles and birds it has
      4 domains, and 5 in all mammals. The increase in domain number from 4 to 5 in
      mammals has been proposed to enhance the interaction with IgA. Both the
      FcalphauRs and the FcuRs contain only one Ig domain; the domain that confers Ig
      binding. In both of these receptors this domain shows the highest degree of
      sequence similarity to domain 1 of the PIGR. All Ig domains of these three
      receptors are V type domains, indicating they all have the same origin although
      they have diversified extensively in function during vertebrate evolution by
      changing expression patterns and cytoplasmic signaling motifs.

PMID- 28884192
TI  - Erratum to: Of ions and messengers: an intricate link between potassium,
      glutamate, and cyclic di-AMP.
AB  - In the original publication, article title was incorrectly published as
      'Perspective of ions and messengers: an intricate link between potassium,
      glutamate, and cyclic di-AMP'. The correct title should read as 'Of ions and
      messengers: an intricate link between potassium, glutamate, and cyclic di-AMP'.

PMID- 28884193
TI  - Neurotrophin Trk Receptors: New Targets for Cancer Therapy.
AB  - In the last few years, exciting reports have emerged regarding the role of the
      two types of neurotrophin receptors, p75NTR and Trks, not only in neurons, where
      they were discovered, but also in non-neural cells and, especially, in numerous
      cancers, including breast, lung, colon-rectum, pancreas, prostate, glioblastoma,
      neuroblastoma, myeloma, and lymphoid tumors. Traditionally, p75NTR, activated by
      all neurotrophins and their precursors, is an inhibitor. In various cancers,
      however, activated p75NTR induces variable effects, from inhibition to
      stimulation of cell proliferation, dependent on their direct or
      coordinate/indirect mechanism(s) of action. TrkA, TrkB, and TrkC, activated by
      distinct neurotrophins, are high affinity stimulatory receptors. In cancers,
      activation of Trks, especially of TrkB, are stimulators of cell proliferation,
      aggressiveness, and metastases. In rare cancers, these processes are due not to
      receptor activation but to fusion or mutation of the encoding genes. A
      considerable panel of anti-Trk drugs, developed recently, has been investigated
      both in vitro and in living mice for their effects on cancer cells. Many such
      drugs protect from cancers by preventing cell proliferation and inducing
      apoptosis. At present, these drugs are under control by trials, to promote
      introduction in human therapy. Moreover, anti-Trk drugs have been employed also
      in combination with classical chemotherapeutic drugs. So far, studies in mice
      have been positive. The chemotherapeutic/anti-receptor combinations exhibited in
      fact increased potency and down-regulation of resistance, with no increase of
      side effects.

PMID- 28884194
TI  - [Erratum to: Definition, classification, clinical diagnosis and prognosis of
      fibromyalgia syndrome : Updated guidelines 2017 and overview of systematic review
      articles].

PMID- 28884196
TI  - ?

PMID- 28884197
TI  - ?

PMID- 28884199
TI  - Behavioral responses to visual overstimulation in the cockroach Periplaneta
      americana L.
AB  - In the visual systems of insects, different types of photoreceptors contribute to
      specialized visual channels that mediate distinct functions and behaviors. Large
      compound eyes of Periplaneta americana contain photoreceptors of two spectral
      classes, broadband green-sensitive photoreceptors and narrow-band UV-sensitive
      photoreceptors. Here, we investigated how visual stimulation by UV and green
      light affects locomotor, resting, and grooming behaviors in P. americana under
      conditions when light avoidance is not possible. We show that green but not UV
      light stimulates locomotor activity, inducing paradoxical positive masking.
      Duration of resting and grooming decreased with increasing light intensity,
      consistent with development of behavioral stress in response to visual
      overstimulation. A reaction of full immobility is described under UV light and at
      higher intensities of green light, with relative periods of immobility and
      grooming strongly negatively correlated. Low-intensity UV was more effective than
      low-intensity green light in suppressing grooming and inducing immobility. Our
      results suggest that locomotor activity in P. americana is mainly regulated by
      green-sensitive photoreceptors, and that dim UV light can trigger behavioral
      immobility, whereas both wavelengths induce stress-like reactions at high
      intensities. Considering the intrinsic UV sensitivity of green-sensitive
      photoreceptors, the contrasting behavioral responses indicate antagonistic
      interactions between UV and green visual channels.

PMID- 28884198
TI  - Mouse pancreatic islet macrophages use locally released ATP to monitor beta cell
      activity.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Tissue-resident macrophages sense the microenvironment and
      respond by producing signals that act locally to maintain a stable tissue state.
      It is now known that pancreatic islets contain their own unique resident
      macrophages, which have been shown to promote proliferation of the insulin
      secreting beta cell. However, it is unclear how beta cells communicate with islet
      resident macrophages. Here we hypothesised that islet macrophages sense changes
      in islet activity by detecting signals derived from beta cells. METHODS: To
      investigate how islet-resident macrophages respond to cues from the
      microenvironment, we generated mice expressing a genetically encoded Ca2+
      indicator in myeloid cells. We produced living pancreatic slices from these mice
      and used them to monitor macrophage responses to stimulation of acinar, neural
      and endocrine cells. RESULTS: Islet-resident macrophages expressed functional
      purinergic receptors, making them exquisite sensors of interstitial ATP levels.
      Indeed, islet-resident macrophages responded selectively to ATP released locally
      from beta cells that were physiologically activated with high levels of glucose.
      Because ATP is co-released with insulin and is exclusively secreted by beta
      cells, the activation of purinergic receptors on resident macrophages facilitates
      their awareness of beta cell secretory activity. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our
      results indicate that islet macrophages detect ATP as a proxy signal for the
      activation state of beta cells. Sensing beta cell activity may allow macrophages
      to adjust the secretion of factors to promote a stable islet composition and
      size.

PMID- 28884200
TI  - Spatial distribution of early red lesions is a risk factor for development of
      vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Diabetic retinopathy is characterised by morphological lesions
      related to disturbances in retinal blood flow. It has previously been shown that
      the early development of retinal lesions temporal to the fovea may predict the
      development of treatment-requiring diabetic maculopathy. The aim of this study
      was to map accurately the area where lesions could predict progression to vision
      threatening retinopathy. METHODS: The predictive value of the location of the
      earliest red lesions representing haemorrhages and/or microaneurysms was studied
      by comparing their occurrence in a group of individuals later developing vision
      threatening diabetic retinopathy with that in a group matched with respect to
      diabetes type, age, sex and age of onset of diabetes mellitus who did not develop
      vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy during a similar observation period.
      RESULTS: The probability of progression to vision-threatening diabetic
      retinopathy was higher in a circular area temporal to the fovea, and the
      occurrence of the first lesions in this area was predictive of the development of
      vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy. The calculated peak value showed that
      the risk of progression was 39.5% higher than the average. There was no
      significant difference in the early distribution of lesions in participants later
      developing diabetic maculopathy or proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
      CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The location of early red lesions in diabetic
      retinopathy is predictive of whether or not individuals will later develop vision
      threatening diabetic retinopathy. This evidence should be incorporated into risk
      models used to recommend control intervals in screening programmes for diabetic
      retinopathy.

PMID- 28884201
TI  - Pouch functional outcomes after restorative proctocolectomy with ileal-pouch
      reconstruction in patients with ulcerative colitis: Japanese multi-center
      nationwide cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although several complications capable of causing pouch failure may
      develop after restorative proctocolectomy (RPC) for ulcerative colitis (UC), the
      incidences and causes are conflicting and vary according to country, race and
      institution. To avoid pouch failure, this study aimed to evaluate the rate of
      pouch failure and its risk factors in UC patients over the past decade via a
      nationwide cohort study. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, observational,
      multicenter study that included 13 institutions in Japan. Patients who underwent
      RPC between January 2005 and December 2014 were included. The characteristics and
      backgrounds of the patients before and during surgery and their postoperative
      courses and complications were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 2376 patients were
      evaluated over 6.7 +/- 3.5 years of follow-up. Twenty-seven non-functional
      pouches were observed, and the functional pouch rate was 98.9% after RPC.
      Anastomotic leakage (odds ratio, 9.1) was selected as a risk factor for a non
      functional pouch. The cumulative pouch failure rate was 4.2%/10 years. A change
      in diagnosis to Crohn's disease/indeterminate colitis (hazard ratio, 13.2) was
      identified as an independent risk factor for pouch failure. CONCLUSION: The
      significant risk factor for a non-functional pouch was anastomotic leakage. The
      optimal staged surgical procedure should be selected according to a patient's
      condition to avoid anastomotic failure during RPC. Changes in diagnosis after RPC
      confer a substantial risk of pouch failure. Additional cohort studies are needed
      to obtain an understanding of the long-standing clinical course of and proper
      treatment for pouch failure.

PMID- 28884202
TI  - Gcg CreERT2 knockin mice as a tool for genetic manipulation in pancreatic alpha
      cells.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The Cre/loxP system, which enables tissue-specific manipulation
      of genes, is widely used in mice for diabetes research. Our aim was to develop a
      new Cre-driver mouse line for the specific and efficient manipulation of genes in
      pancreatic alpha cells. METHODS: A Gcg CreERT2 knockin mouse, which expresses a
      tamoxifen-inducible form of Cre from the endogenous preproglucagon (Gcg) gene
      locus, was generated by homologous recombination. The new Gcg CreERT2 mouse line
      was crossed to the Rosa26 tdTomato (R26 tdTomato ) Cre reporter mouse line in
      order to evaluate the tissue specificity, efficiency and tamoxifen dependency of
      Gcg CreERT2 -mediated recombination. Cell types of pancreatic islets were
      identified using immunohistochemistry. Biochemical and physiological data,
      including blood glucose levels, plasma glucagon and glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1
      levels, and pancreatic glucagon content, were collected and used to assess the
      overall effect of Gcg gene targeting on Gcg CreERT2/w heterozygous mice. RESULTS:
      Tamoxifen-treated Gcg CreERT2/w ;R26 tdTomato/w mice displayed Cre reporter
      activity, i.e. expression of tdTomato red fluorescent protein (RFP) in all known
      cells that produce proglucagon-derived peptides. In the adult pancreas, RFP was
      detected in 94-97% of alpha cells, whereas it was detected in a negligible (~
      0.2%) proportion of beta cells. While more than 98% of cells labelled with
      tamoxifen-induced RFP were glucagon-positive cells, 14-25% of pancreatic
      polypeptide (PP)-positive cells were also positive for RFP, indicating the
      presence of glucagon/PP bihormonal cell population. Tamoxifen-independent
      expression of RFP occurred in approximately 6% of alpha cells. In contrast to
      alpha cells and GLP-1-producing neurons, in which RFP expression persisted for at
      least 5 months after tamoxifen administration (presumably due to rare neogenesis
      in these cell types in adulthood), nearly half of RFP-positive intestinal L cells
      were replaced with RFP-negative L cells over the first 2 weeks after tamoxifen
      administration. Heterozygous Gcg CreERT2/w mice showed reduced Gcg mRNA levels in
      islets, but maintained normal levels of pancreatic and plasma glucagon. The mice
      did not exhibit any detectable baseline physiological abnormalities, at least in
      young adulthood. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The newly developed Gcg CreERT2
      knockin mouse shows faithful expression of CreERT2 in pancreatic alpha cells,
      intestinal L cells and GLP-1-producing neurons. This mouse line will be
      particularly useful for manipulating genes in alpha cells, due to highly specific
      and efficient CreERT2-mediated recombination in this cell type in the pancreas.

PMID- 28884203
TI  - Left Ventricular Dilation: When Pediatric Meet Adult Guidelines.
AB  - Measuring and grading left ventricular (LV) size is essential for diagnostic,
      treatment, and prognostic purposes. Guidelines for quantifying LV size exist for
      pediatric and adult patients via M-mode measurements, but no data exist
      determining how well they agree with one another. The goal of this study was to
      determine the agreement between pediatric echocardiographic readers (PER),
      pediatric guidelines, and adult guidelines in assessing LV dilation. A
      retrospective review of all noncongenital echocardiograms from 9/2002 to 11/2015
      that had a left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) >5.8 cm for males and
      >5.2 cm for females was performed. LV size was graded as normal (Z-score <= 2),
      mild (2 < Z-score <= 3), moderate (3 < Z-score <= 4), or severe (4 < Z-score)
      based on pediatric and adult guidelines. PER interpretation was also recorded.
      Agreement between LV size assessments was determined for these three
      interpretations. A total of 1489 echocardiograms met the inclusion criteria (654
      males:835 females). Males were 19.0 +/- 6.9 years old and had a BSA of 1.9 +/-
      0.3 m2, and LVEDD was 6.3 +/- 0.5 cm. Females were 18.7 +/- 8.3 years old and had
      a BSA of 1.8 +/- 0.3 m2, and LVEDD was 5.7 +/- 0.5 cm. There was a 63.91%
      agreement for males and an 81.8% agreement for females between PER and pediatric
      guidelines in assessing LV size. There was a 39.14% agreement for males and a
      14.13% agreement for females between PER and adult guidelines in assessing LV
      size. There was a 41.44% agreement for males and a 14.49% agreement for females
      between adult and pediatric guidelines in assessing LV size. These agreement
      percentages did not change significantly when separating the population into
      greater than or less than 18 years of age cohorts. Pediatric echocardiographic
      readers were more consistent in following pediatric guidelines than adult
      guidelines in assessing LV size. The agreement for PER and pediatric guidelines
      was poor, especially for females, in relation to adult guidelines when assessing
      LV size. Further standardization and guidelines are needed for pediatric patients
      that are adult size.

PMID- 28884204
TI  - Exotic Earthworms Decrease Cd, Hg, and Pb Pools in Upland Forest Soils of Vermont
      and New Hampshire USA.
AB  - Exotic earthworms are present in the forests of northeastern USA, yet few studies
      have documented their effects on pollutant metals in soil. The objective of this
      study was to identify if Cd, Hg, and Pb strong-acid extractable concentrations
      and pools (bulk inventories) in forest soils decreased with the presence of
      exotic earthworms. We compared 'Low Earthworm Abundance' (LEA) sites (<=10 g m-2
      earthworms, n = 13) and 'High Earthworm Abundance' (HEA) (>10 g m-2 earthworms, n
      = 17) sites at five watersheds across Vermont and New Hampshire. Organic horizon
      Cd, Hg, and Pb concentrations were lower at HEA than LEA sites. Organic horizon
      and total soil pools of Cd and Hg were negatively correlated with earthworm
      biomass. Soil profile Cd and Hg concentrations were lower at HEA than LEA sites.
      Our results suggest earthworms are decreasing accumulation of Cd, Hg, and Pb in
      forest soils, potentially via greater mobilization through organic matter
      disruption or bioaccumulation.

PMID- 28884205
TI  - Development of Brassica oleracea-nigra monosomic alien addition lines: genotypic,
      cytological and morphological analyses.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: We report the development and characterization of Brassica oleracea 
      nigra monosomic alien addition lines (MAALs) to dissect the Brassica B genome.
      Brassica nigra (2n = 16, BB) represents the diploid Brassica B genome which
      carries many useful genes and traits for breeding but received limited studies.
      To dissect the B genome from B. nigra, the triploid F1 hybrid (2n = 26, CCB)
      obtained previously from the cross B. oleracea var. alboglabra (2n = 18, CC) * B.
      nigra was used as the maternal parent and backcrossed successively to parental B.
      oleracea. The progenies in BC1 to BC3 generations were analyzed by the methods of
      FISH and SSR markers to screen the monosomic alien addition lines (MAALs) with
      each of eight different B-genome chromosomes added to C genome (2n = 19, CC + 1B1
      8), and seven different MAALs were established, except for the one with
      chromosome B2 which existed in one triple addition. Most of these MAALs were
      distinguishable morphologically from each other, as they expressed the characters
      from B. nigra differently and at variable extents. The alien chromosome remained
      unpaired as a univalent in 86.24% pollen mother cells at diakinesis or metaphase
      I, and formed a trivalent with two C-genome chromosomes in 13.76% cells.
      Transmission frequency of all the added chromosomes was far higher through the
      ovules (averagely 14.40%) than the pollen (2.64%). The B1, B4 and B5 chromosomes
      were transmitted by female at much higher rates (22.38-30.00%) than the other
      four (B3, B6, B7, B8) (5.04-8.42%). The MAALs should be valuable for exploiting
      the genome structure and evolution of B. nigra.

PMID- 28884206
TI  - Neonatal congenital lung tumors - the importance of mid-second-trimester
      ultrasound as a diagnostic clue.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The differential diagnosis for primary lung masses in neonates
      includes a variety of developmental abnormalities; it also consists of the much
      rarer congenital primary lung tumors: cystic pleuropulmonary blastoma (cystic
      PPB), fetal lung interstitial tumor (FLIT), congenital peribronchial
      myofibroblastic tumor (CPMT), and congenital fibrosarcoma. Radiologic
      differentiation between malformations and tumors is often very challenging.
      OBJECTIVE: The objective was to establish distinctive features between
      developmental pulmonary abnormalities and primary lung tumors. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 135 congenital lung lesions at a
      university mother and child center over a period of 10 years (2005-2015). During
      this time, we noted four tumors (two cystic PPBs and two FLITs) and 131
      malformations. We recorded the following parameters: timing of conspicuity in
      utero (mid-second trimester, third trimester, or not seen prenatally), presence
      of symptoms at birth, prenatal and perinatal radiologic findings, and either
      histological diagnoses by pathology or follow-up imaging in non-operated cases.
      RESULTS: All lesions except the four tumors were detected during mid-second
      trimester ultrasound. In none of the tumors was any pulmonary abnormality found
      on the mid-second-trimester sonogram, contrary to the developmental pulmonary
      abnormalities. CONCLUSION: The timing of conspicuity in utero appears to be a key
      feature for the differentiation between malformations and tumors. Lesions that
      were not visible at the mid-second-trimester ultrasound should be considered as
      tumor. A cystic lung lesion in the context of a normal mid-second-trimester
      ultrasound is highly suggestive of a cystic PPB. Differentiating the types of
      solid congenital lung tumors based upon imaging features is not yet feasible.

PMID- 28884207
TI  - Kinematic Outcome Measures using Target-Reaching Arm Movement in Stroke.
AB  - This study aimed to quantitatively investigate upper extremity motor performance
      and disclose the abnormality of motor control induced by stroke. Ten patients and
      ten healthy subjects were instructed to perform target-reaching tasks at nine
      difficulty levels, and coordinates of the shoulder, elbow and tip of the index
      finger were recorded. Age-matched control performed significantly better than
      patients, as indicated by lower movement time (MT) and normalized jerk score
      (NJS) and higher peak velocity (V peak), percentage time to peak velocity (PTPV),
      fuzzy approximate entropy (fApEn) and relative joint angles correlation (RJAC);
      also, significant effects of difficulty on all parameters except RJAC and fApEn,
      were observed in two groups. There were significant correlations between PTPV and
      Fugl-Meyer assessment for upper extremity (FMA-UE) and between RJAC and FMA-UE at
      certain difficulty levels. The stroke-related differences could be explained by
      the increase in intrinsic neuromotor noise, and the difficulty-related
      differences may be related to extrinsic neuromotor noise. The increase in either
      noises could result in a degradation in motor control. The significant linear
      relationships between some kinematic parameters and the clinical score suggested
      that the kinematic parameters could be applied as quantitative outcome measures
      in the clinic in the future.

PMID- 28884208
TI  - Lacosamide treatment of childhood refractory focal epilepsy: the first reported
      side effect in paediatric patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: Lacosamide (LCM) is an effective antiepileptic drug (AED) approved for
      the treatment of focal epilepsy in both children and adults. The aim of this
      observational study was to review our centre's experience with LCM and to
      characterise its efficacy and tolerability as an adjunct therapy in children with
      refractory focal epilepsy. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical
      records of 12 paediatric patients who underwent treatment with LCM from January
      2014 to December 2015. We recorded the treatment response at three time points:
      at 3 and 6 months after LCM therapy and at the final follow-up visit. Children
      showing seizure reduction >= 50% were considered responders. RESULTS: We included
      12 patients (five boys), and their mean age was 13.8 years (range: 6.2-17.6
      years) at the end of LCM treatment. The average length of follow-up after
      starting LCM was 23 months (11-37 months). Eight patients (66%) had > 50%
      reduction in seizures at the 3-month follow-up visit, and seven (58%) had > 50%
      reduction at the 6-month follow-up visit. Six patients (50%) maintained >= 50%
      reduction in seizures at the final follow-up visit. Two patients (16.6%) were
      seizure free at the 6-month and final follow-up visits. Common adverse side
      effects included dizziness, ataxia, nausea, and vomiting. Two patients developed
      status epilepticus (SE), one each at 3 and 11 days after the first LCM dose; they
      both discontinued treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our study points to the efficacy of LCM
      in a small paediatric group. Furthermore, it was important to report status
      epilepticus after LCM administration in the paediatric population for the first
      time.

PMID- 28884209
TI  - Neural correlates of implicit knowledge about statistical regularities.
AB  - In this study, we examined the neural correlates of implicit knowledge about
      statistical regularities of temporal order and item chunks using functional
      magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a familiarization scan, participants viewed
      a stream of scenes consisting of structured (i.e., three scenes were always
      presented in the same order) and random triplets. In the subsequent test scan,
      participants were required to detect a target scene. Test sequences included both
      forward order of scenes presented during the familiarization scan and backward
      order of scenes (i.e., reverse order of forward scenes). Behavioral results
      showed a learning effect of temporal order in the forward condition and scene
      chunks in the backward condition. fMRI data from the familiarization scan showed
      the difference of activations between the structured and random blocks in the
      left posterior cingulate cortex including the retrosplenial cortex. More
      important, in the test scan, we observed brain activities in the left parietal
      lobe when participants detected target scenes on temporal order information. In
      contrast, the left precuneus activated when participants detected target scenes
      based on scene chunks. Our findings help clarify the brain mechanisms of implicit
      knowledge about acquired regularities.

PMID- 28884210
TI  - Mortality in Swedish patients with Hirschsprung disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) has previously been associated with
      increased mortality. The aim of this study was to assess mortality in patients
      with Hirschsprung disease in a population-based cohort. METHODS: This was a
      nationwide, population-based cohort study. The study exposure was HSCR and the
      study outcome was death. The cohort included all individuals with HSCR registered
      in the Swedish National Patient Register between 1964 and 2013 and ten age- and
      sex-matched controls per patient, randomly selected from the Population Register.
      Mortality and cause of death were assessed using the Swedish National Causes of
      Death Register. RESULTS: The cohort comprised 739 individuals with HSCR (565
      male) and 7390 controls (5650 male). Median age of the cohort was 19 years (range
      2-49). Twenty-two (3.0%) individuals with HSCR had died at median age 2.5 years
      (range 0-35) compared to 49 (0.7%) controls at median age 20 years (0-44), p <
      0.001. Hazard ratio for death in HSCR patients compared to healthy controls was
      4.77 (confidence interval (CI) 95% 2.87-7.91), and when adjusted for Down
      syndrome, the hazard ratio was 3.6 (CI 95% 2.04-6.37). CONCLUSIONS: The mortality
      rate in the HSCR cohort was 3%, which was higher than in controls also when data
      were adjusted for Down syndrome.

PMID- 28884211
TI  - The Changing Presentation of Paget's Disease of Bone in Australia, A High
      Prevalence Region.
AB  - Studies from several countries suggest that the incidence of Paget's disease of
      bone (PDB) and the severity of newly diagnosed cases are declining. The aim of
      this study was to examine secular changes in clinical presentation of PDB in
      Australia, which historically had the highest prevalence outside the United
      Kingdom. The participants were 293 patients (61% male) diagnosed between 1956 and
      2013 with details recorded in the database of the Paget's Disease Research Group
      of Western Australia. The mean age at diagnosis was 62 years (range 28-90); 26%
      of participants had a family history of PDB and 11% had Sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1)
      mutations. After adjustment for covariates (SQSTM1 mutation status, family
      history, country of birth, smoking and dog exposure), there was a significant
      positive relationship between year of diagnosis and age at diagnosis (P < 0.001)
      and significant negative relationships between year of diagnosis and both pre
      treatment total plasma alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) and number of involved
      bones (P < 0.001 for each). Patients with SQSTM1 mutations had more extensive
      disease (P < 0.001) and higher pre-treatment ALP (P = 0.013). In subgroup
      analyses, relationships between year of diagnosis and each of age at diagnosis,
      number of involved bones and ALP were similar in patients with sporadic or
      familial disease, and in patients with and without SQSTM1 mutations. We conclude
      that the severity of PDB in Western Australia has declined over recent decades.
      This is likely to reflect altered exposure to one or more environmental agents
      involved in pathogenesis.

PMID- 28884212
TI  - Routine Sildenafil Does Not Improve Clinical Outcomes After Fontan Operation.
AB  - Fontan operation can be complicated by persistent chest tube output (CTO) leading
      to prolonged hospital length of stay (LOS). Postoperative sildenafil
      administration has been shown to improve clinical outcomes in selected patients
      after Fontan. We initiated a practice change utilizing intravenous (IV)
      sildenafil in early postoperative period in all patients undergoing Fontan
      operation with aim to decrease LOS and CTO. Nineteen patients (February 2014-May
      2016) received 0.35 mg/kg sildenafil IV (three doses) followed by enteral, 1
      mg/kg every eight hours until hospital discharge. Clinical outcomes were compared
      to 84 pre-protocol controls. Vital signs were recorded after second sildenafil
      dose. Demographics were similar between groups. Sildenafil group had longer
      median LOS [9 (7, 11) vs. 13 (8, 25) days, p = 0.016]. CTO days were longer [6
      (5, 8) vs. 8 (6, 13) days, p = 0.011]. Sildenafil group had longer mechanical
      ventilation [6.9 (3.5, 11.1) vs. 4 (2, 7) h, p = 0.045] and longer oxygen therapy
      [99 (52, 225) vs. 14.5 (14, 56) h, p = 0.001]. There was a trend towards more
      albumin 5% resuscitation in first 24 h [17 (1, 30) vs. 21 (10, 40) ml/kg, p =
      0.069]. There was no difference in inotrope score at 24 h, maximum lactate, or
      fluid balance. Readmission rates were similar. There was no mortality. IV
      sildenafil was well tolerated, and no doses were held. Routine early
      administration of sildenafil after Fontan operation is not associated with an
      improvement in any measured clinical outcome, including postoperative CTO, LOS,
      colloid administration, or duration of mechanical ventilation.

PMID- 28884213
TI  - Reply to Radbruch et al.: 'interpreting signal-intensity ratios without visible
      T1 hyperintensities in clinical gadolinium retention studies'.

PMID- 28884214
TI  - [Opacification posterior to the intraocular lens - but no typical secondary
      cataract?]

PMID- 28884215
TI  - Effect of smoking cessation on quantitative computed tomography in smokers at
      risk in a lung cancer screening population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To longitudinally evaluate effects of smoking cessation on
      quantitative CT in a lung cancer screening cohort of heavy smokers over 4 years.
      METHODS: After 4 years, low-dose chest CT was available for 314 long-term ex
      smokers (ES), 404 continuous smokers (CS) and 39 recent quitters (RQ) who quitted
      smoking within 2 years after baseline CT. CT acquired at baseline and after 3 and
      4 years was subjected to well-evaluated densitometry software, computing mean
      lung density (MLD) and 15th percentile of the lung density histogram (15TH).
      RESULTS: At baseline, active smokers showed significantly higher MLD and 15TH (
      822+/-35 and -936+/-25 HU, respectively) compared to ES (-831+/-31 and -947+/-22
      HU, p<0.01-0.001). After 3 years, CS again had significantly higher MLD and 15TH
      (-801+/-29 and -896+/-23 HU) than ES (-808+/-27 and -906+/-20 HU, p<0.01-0.001)
      but also RQ (-813+/-20 and -909+/-15 HU, p<0.05-0.001). Quantitative CT
      parameters did not change significantly after 4 years. Importantly, smoking
      status independently predicted MLD at baseline and year 3 (p<0.001) in
      multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: On quantitative CT, lung density is higher in
      active smokers than ex-smokers, and sustainably decreases after smoking
      cessation, reflecting smoking-induced inflammation. Interpretations of
      quantitative CT data within clinical trials should consider smoking status. KEY
      POINTS: * Lung density is higher in active smokers than ex-smokers. * Lung
      density sustainably decreases after smoking cessation. * Impact of smoking
      cessation on lung density is independent of potentially confounding factors. *
      Smoke-induced pulmonary inflammation and particle deposition influence lung
      density on CT.

PMID- 28884216
TI  - Standardized unfold mapping: a technique to permit left atrial regional data
      display and analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Left atrial arrhythmia substrate assessment can involve multiple imaging
      and electrical modalities, but visual analysis of data on 3D surfaces is time
      consuming and suffers from limited reproducibility. Unfold maps (e.g., the left
      ventricular bull's eye plot) allow 2D visualization, facilitate multimodal data
      representation, and provide a common reference space for inter-subject
      comparison. The aim of this work is to develop a method for automatic
      representation of multimodal information on a left atrial standardized unfold map
      (LA-SUM). METHODS: The LA-SUM technique was developed and validated using 18
      electroanatomic mapping (EAM) LA geometries before being applied to ten cardiac
      magnetic resonance/EAM paired geometries. The LA-SUM was defined as an unfold
      template of an average LA mesh, and registration of clinical data to this mesh
      facilitated creation of new LA-SUMs by surface parameterization. RESULTS: The LA
      SUM represents 24 LA regions on a flattened surface. Intra-observer variability
      of LA-SUMs for both EAM and CMR datasets was minimal; root-mean square difference
      of 0.008 +/- 0.010 and 0.007 +/- 0.005 ms (local activation time maps), 0.068 +/-
      0.063 gs (force-time integral maps), and 0.031 +/- 0.026 (CMR LGE signal
      intensity maps). Following validation, LA-SUMs were used for automatic
      quantification of post-ablation scar formation using CMR imaging, demonstrating a
      weak but significant relationship between ablation force-time integral and scar
      coverage (R 2 = 0.18, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed LA-SUM displays an
      integrated unfold map for multimodal information. The method is applicable to any
      LA surface, including those derived from imaging and EAM systems. The LA-SUM
      would facilitate standardization of future research studies involving segmental
      analysis of the LA.

PMID- 28884217
TI  - Critical genomic regulation mediated by Enhancer of Polycomb.
AB  - Enhancer of Polycomb (EPC) was first identified for its contributions to
      development in Drosophila and was soon-thereafter purified as a subunit of the
      NuA4/TIP60 acetyltransferase complex. Since then, EPC has often been left in the
      shadows as an essential, yet non-catalytic subunit of NuA4/TIP60; however, its
      deep conservation and disease association make clear that it warrants additional
      attention. In fact, recent studies in yeast demonstrated that its Enhancer of
      Polycomb, Epl1, was just as important for gene expression and acetylation as is
      the catalytic subunit of NuA4. Despite its conservation, studies of EPC have
      often remained siloed between organisms. Here, our goal is to provide a cohesive
      view of the current state of the EPC literature as it stands among the major
      model organisms in which it has been studied. EPC is involved in multiple
      processes, beginning with its cardinal role in regulating global and targeted
      histone acetylation. EPC also frequently serves as an important interaction
      partner in these basic cellular functions, as well as in multicellular
      development, such as in hematopoiesis and skeletal muscle differentiation, and in
      human disease. Taken together, a unifying theme from these studies highlights EPC
      as a critical genomic regulator.

PMID- 28884219
TI  - Cerebral air emboli complicating trans-bronchial needle aspiration using endo
      bronchial ultrasound.

PMID- 28884218
TI  - Use of Levosimendan in Postoperative Setting After Surgical Repair of Congenital
      Heart Disease in Children.
AB  - Low cardiac output is one of the most common complications after cardiac surgery.
      Levosimendan, a new inotrope agent, has been demonstrated in adult patient to be
      an effective treatment for this purpose when classical therapy is not effective.
      The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Levosimendan on cardiac
      output parameters in cardiac children with low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS.).
      We carried out a retrospective analysis on 62 children hospitalized in our
      pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) after cardiac surgery, which demonstrated
      LCOS not responding to classical catecholamine therapy and who received
      levosimendan as rescue therapy. LCOS parameters like diuresis, central venous
      oxygen saturation (SvO2), venous-to-arterial CO2 difference (?avCO2), and
      plasmatic lactate were compared before therapy and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 h after
      the beginning of the levosimendan infusion. We also analyzed the effect on the
      Vasoactive-inotropic score (VIS), adverse events, and mortality. After the
      beginning of levosimendan infusion, diuresis (1.1 vs. 3.5 ml/kg/h, p = 0.001) and
      SvO2 (59.5 vs. 63.3%, p = 0.026) increased significantly during the 24 h of
      infusion, and at the same time, plasmatic lactate (2.3 vs. 1.3 mmol/l, p < 0.001)
      decreased. ?avCO2 (10.8 vs. 9.4 mmHg, p = 0.21) and the VIS (44.5 vs. 22.5, p =
      0.143) also decreased, but not significantly. No side effects were noted. The
      mortality in this patient group was 16%. Levosimendan is an effective treatment
      in children presenting LCOS after congenital heart surgery. Our study confirms
      the improvement of cardiac output already shown in other pediatric studies, with
      no undesirable side effects.

PMID- 28884220
TI  - Inflammatory response of disc cells against Propionibacterium acnes depends on
      the presence of lumbar Modic changes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Intervertebral disc with Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is suggested
      to be an etiology of Modic type I changes in the adjacent bone marrow. However it
      is unknown if disc cells can respond to P. acnes and if bone marrow cells respond
      to bacterial and disc metabolites draining from infected discs. METHODS: Human
      disc cells (n = 10) were co-cultured with 10- and 100-fold excess of P. acnes
      over disc cells for 3 h and 24 h. Lipopolysaccharide was used as positive
      control. Expression of IL1, IL6, IL8, and CCL2 by disc cells was quantified by
      quantitative PCR. Lipase activity was measured in culture supernatants (n = 6).
      Human vertebral bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMNCs) (n = 2) were cultured in
      conditioned media from disc cell/P. acnes co-cultures and expression of IL1, IL6,
      IL8, and CCL2 was measured after 24 h. RESULTS: All disc cells responded to
      lipopolysaccharide but only 6/10 responded to P. acnes with increased cytokine
      expression. Cytokine increase was time- but not P. acnes concentration-dependent.
      Disc cell responsiveness was associated with the presence of lumbar Modic changes
      in the donor. Lipase activity was increased independent of disc cell
      responsiveness. BMNCs responded with inflammatory activity only when cultured in
      supernatants from responsive disc cell lines. CONCLUSION: Disc cell
      responsiveness to P. acnes associates with the presence of lumbar Modic changes.
      Furthermore, bone marrow cells had an inflammatory response to the cocktail of
      disc cytokines and P. acnes metabolites. These data indicate that low virulent P.
      acnes infection of the disc is a potential exacerbating factor to Modic changes.

PMID- 28884221
TI  - Evaluation of the Greek TranQol: a novel questionnaire for measuring quality of
      life in transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients.
AB  - The aim of our study was to evaluate the Greek version of the transfusion
      dependent quality of life (TranQol) questionnaire and report our experience of
      using this novel disease-specific quality of life (QoL) measure in patients with
      transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT). The TranQol and SF-36v2 questionnaires
      were administered to 94 adult TDT patients with a mean age of 32.1 years (SD = 7,
      range = 19-58), recruited from the Adult Thalassemia Unit of Hippokration General
      Hospital of Thessaloniki, Greece. The TranQol was evaluated in terms of construct
      validity, reliability, and responsiveness. There was a moderately strong
      correlation between the TranQol summary and both the SF-36v2 physical and mental
      component summaries (r = 0.4, p < 0.001 and r = 0.5, p < 0.001, respectively).
      There was also a moderately strong correlation between the physical health scale
      of TranQol and the relevant SF-36v2 scales, including physical functioning (r =
      0.4, p < 0.001), role-physical (r = 0.6, p < 0.001), and bodily pain (r = 0.5, p
      < 0.001). TranQol also exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha
      coefficient = 0.9) and excellent test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation
      coefficient = 0.9). The subgroup of patients that reported a better QoL 1 week
      after transfusion also demonstrated a significant improvement in their TranQol
      score. These are the first data regarding the administration of the Greek TranQol
      in a single thalassemia unit. The psychometric properties of the Greek TranQol
      confirmed it is a valid, reliable, and responsive to change questionnaire, which
      can be incorporated into future clinical trials.

PMID- 28884223
TI  - Optimism and the continued promise of maintenance chemotherapy.

PMID- 28884222
TI  - Diagnostic feasibility and safety of CT-guided core biopsy for lung nodules less
      than or equal to 8 mm: A single-institution experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This retrospective study evaluated the diagnostic yield and safety of
      CT-guided core biopsy of pulmonary nodules <=8 mm. METHODS: We determined the
      diagnostic yield and safety profile of CT-guided lung biopsies for 125 pulmonary
      nodules <=8 mm. Pathological diagnoses were made by a combination of
      histopathological examination and imprint cytology. Results were compared with
      biopsy results for 134 pulmonary nodules >8 and <=10 mm. RESULTS: Final diagnoses
      were established in 94 nodules <=8 mm. The sensitivity, specificity and
      diagnostic accuracy of CT-guided core biopsy for nodules <=8 mm were 87.1 %
      (61/70 nodules), 100 % (24/24) and 90.4 % (85/94), respectively. Diagnostic
      failure rates were comparable for nodules <=8 mm and nodules >8 mm and <=10 mm
      (9/94, 9.6 % and 7/111, 6.3 %, respectively, P=0.385). The rate of tube
      thoracostomy for nodules <=8 mm was comparable to that for nodules >8 and <=10 mm
      (1.6 % vs. 0.7 %, P=0.611). Nodules <=6 mm had a higher non-diagnostic result
      rate of 15.4 % (6/39) than did nodules >8 and <=10 mm (3.7 %, 5/134, P=0.017).
      CONCLUSIONS: CT-guided pulmonary biopsy is feasible for lung nodules <=8 mm,
      especially those >6 mm, and has an acceptable diagnostic yield and safety
      profile. KEY POINTS: * CT-guided biopsy of lung nodules <=8 mm has high
      diagnostic accuracy. * Safety profiles are similar between nodules <=8 mm and 8
      10 mm. * Nodules <=6 mm have higher rates of non-diagnostic results in biopsy. *
      Non-subpleural nodules and old age are risk factors for higher grade haemorrhage.
      * Biopsy is feasible for diagnosing nodules >6 and <=8 mm.

PMID- 28884224
TI  - Transfection of embryonated Muscovy duck eggs with a recombinant plasmid is
      suitable for rescue of infectious Muscovy duck parvovirus.
AB  - For members of the family Parvoviridae, rescue of infectious virus from
      recombinant plasmid is usually done in cultured cells. In this study, the whole
      genome of the pathogenic Muscovy duck parvovirus (MDPV) strain YY was cloned into
      the pBluescript II (SK) vector, generating recombinant plasmid pYY. With the aid
      of a transfection reagent, pYY plasmid was inoculated into 11-day-old embryonated
      Muscovy duck eggs via the chorioallantoic membrane route, resulting in the
      successful rescue of infectious virus and death of the embryos. The rescued virus
      exhibited pathogenicity in Muscovy ducklings similar to that of its parental
      strain, as evaluated based on the mortality rate. The results demonstrate that
      plasmid transfection in embryonated Muscovy duck eggs is a convenient and
      efficacious method for rescue of infectious MDPV in comparison to transfection of
      primary cells, which is somewhat time-consuming and laborious.

PMID- 28884225
TI  - Safety of endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) of large non-pedunculated colorectal
      adenomas in the elderly.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) has been proven to be safe and
      effective for the treatment of colorectal adenomas. However, data are limited on
      the safety of this technique for large polyps and in elderly patients. Aims of
      our study were to examine the bleeding and perforation rates in patients with
      large non-pedunculated adenomas (>=20mm) and to evaluate the influence of size
      (>=40mm) and age (>=75 years) on the complication rates. METHODS: In this
      multicenter retrospective study, patients who underwent EMR of non-pedunculated
      adenomas >=20mm between January 2012 and March 2016 were included. The
      demographics of the patients, the use of antithrombotic drugs, size of the
      polyps, type of resection, pathology report, occurrence of post-polypectomy
      bleeding, and perforation- and recurrence rate were collected. RESULTS: In 343
      patients, 412 adenomas were removed. Eighty patients (23.3%) were >=75 years of
      age, 138 polyps (33.5%) were >=40mm. Bleeding complications were observed in 28
      cases (6.8%) and were found significantly more frequent in adenomas >=40mm,
      independent of the use of antithrombotic therapy. Five perforations (1.2%) were
      described, not related to the size of the polyp. There was no significant
      difference in complication rates between patients <75 years and patients >=75
      years. Bleeding complications rates were significantly higher in patients
      receiving double antithrombotic therapy. CONCLUSION: EMR is safe in elderly
      patients. EMR of adenomas of >=40mm was associated with more bleeding
      complications. Future studies should address how the bleeding rates can be
      reduced in these patients, especially in those who use double antithrombotic
      treatment.

PMID- 28884226
TI  - The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence.
AB  - Attentional disengagement is important for successful interaction with our
      environment. The efficiency of attentional disengagement is commonly assessed
      using the gap paradigm. There is, however, a sharp contrast between the number of
      studies applying the gap paradigm to clinical populations and the knowledge about
      the underlying developmental trajectory of the gap effect. The aim of the present
      study was, therefore, to investigate attentional disengagement in a group of
      children aged 9-15. Besides the typically deployed gap and the overlap
      conditions, we also added a baseline condition in which the fixation point was
      removed at the moment that the target appeared. This allowed us to reveal the
      appropriate experimental conditions to unravel possible developmental
      differences. Correlational analyses showed that the size of the gap effect became
      smaller with increasing age, but only for the difference between the gap and the
      overlap conditions. This shows that there is a gradual increase in the capacity
      to disengage visual attention with increasing age, but that this effect only
      becomes apparent when the gap and the overlap conditions are compared. The
      gradual decrease of the gap effect with increasing age provides additional
      evidence that the attentional system becomes more efficient with increasing age
      and that this is a gradual process.

PMID- 28884227
TI  - Sleep quality in subjects suffering from chronic pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleeping problems are very common in patients with chronic pain. The
      aim of the study was to investigate the association between different dimensions
      of chronic pain and sleep quality in chronic pain patients. METHODS: In this
      cross-sectional interview-based questionnaire study, patients from 3 different
      pain treatment centers in Vienna aged 18-65 years, with pain lasting 3 months or
      longer were asked to participate. The association between the short-form McGill
      pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and sleep quality (sleep onset latency, interrupted
      sleep due to pain, sleep duration and recovering effect of sleep) was assessed.
      RESULTS: In this study 121 patients (male 32, female 89, mean age 49 +/- 9 years)
      could be analyzed. Of the patients 38.8% needed more than 30 min for falling
      asleep, 63.6% reported sleep fragmentation, 30.6% slept less than 5 h and 60.3%
      reported no recovering effect of sleep. The strongest associations between pain
      characteristics and sleep quality were found for pain intensity and affective
      pain aspects. Logistic regression analyses revealed that one point more in the
      total score of SF-MPQ increased the odds of needing more than 30 min for falling
      asleep, waking up more than 3 times due to pain, sleeping less than 5 h, and
      perceiving the sleep as non-recovering, by 6%. Adjusting for physical and
      psychological quality of life lowered the odds ratios and the association was no
      longer significant. CONCLUSION: The results underline the importance of paying
      attention to sleep quality in patients with chronic pain. The results also
      indicate that psychological factors might mediate the association between pain
      and sleep quality.

PMID- 28884228
TI  - Expression of ATF6 as a marker of pre-cancerous atypical change in ulcerative
      colitis-associated colorectal cancer: a potential role in the management of
      dysplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of low-grade dysplasia (LGD) is important in the management
      of ulcerative colitis (UC), but it is often difficult to distinguish LGD from
      inflammatory regenerative epithelium. The unfolded protein response (UPR) is
      activated in inflammatory bowel disease and malignancies. We aimed to identify a
      UPR-related gene that is involved in the development of non-UC and UC-associated
      colorectal cancer (CRC), and to investigate whether the target gene is useful for
      the diagnosis of LGD. METHODS: Using our microarray gene expression database of
      152 CRCs, we identified activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6) as a target
      gene. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) of ATF6 were analyzed in 137 surgically resected
      CRCs, 95 endoscopically resected adenomas and pTis cancers, and 136 samples from
      51 UC patients (93 colitis without neoplasia, 31 dysplasia, and 12 UC-associated
      CRC). The diagnostic accuracy of ATF6 and p53 as markers of LGD was assessed.
      RESULTS: ATF6 expression was detectable in all CRCs but not in normal colonic
      mucosa, was elevated with increase in cellular atypia (adenoma with moderate
      atypia < severe atypia < pTis CRC, p < 0.001), and higher in dysplasia and CRC
      than in non-neoplastic colitis (p < 0.001). Notably, the difference between
      colitis and LGD was significant. Compared to p53-IHC, ATF6-IHC had better
      diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing LGD from background inflammatory mucosa
      (sensitivity 70.8 vs. 16.7%, specificity 78.5 vs.71.0%, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: ATF6 was expressed in lesions undergoing pre-cancerous atypical
      change in both non-UC and UC-associated CRC and may be used to distinguish LGD
      from inflammatory regenerative epithelium in UC patients.

PMID- 28884229
TI  - Time-to-event analysis of surgically treated posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus in
      preterm infants: a single-institution retrospective study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to report time points relevant to the
      neurosurgical management of posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH). METHODS: Data
      were collected retrospectively on 104 preterm infants with intraventricular
      hemorrhage (IVH) who received neurosurgical intervention for PHH at St. Louis
      Children's Hospital from 1994 to 2016. Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed for
      various endpoints. RESULTS: IVH grade on head ultrasound obtained through routine
      clinical care was II, III, and IV in 5 (4.8%), 33 (31.7%), and 66 (63.5%) of the
      patients, respectively. Neither IVH size nor location appeared to affect
      development of PHH. Days from birth to IVH, ventriculomegaly, temporizing
      neurosurgical procedure (TNP), and permanent neurosurgical intervention were 2.0
      (95% CI 1.7-2.3), 3.0 (2.5-3.5), 24.0 (22.2-25.8), and 101.0 (90.4-111.6),
      respectively. Grades III and IV IVH did not differ in age at IVH diagnosis (Chi 2
      (1 d.f.) = 1.32, p = 0.25), ventriculomegaly (Chi 2 = 0.73, p = 0.40), TNP (Chi 2
      = 0.61, p = 0.43), or permanent intervention (Chi 2 = 2.48, p = 0.17).
      Ventricular reservoirs and ventriculosubgaleal shunts were used in 71 (68.3%) and
      30 (28.8%), respectively. Eighty (76.9%) of the patients ultimately received a
      VPS. Five (4.8%) underwent a primary endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), and
      two (1.9%) had ETV for a revision procedure. Four of the seven ETVs had choroid
      plexus cauterization. CONCLUSIONS: Although most infants who develop IVH and
      ventriculomegaly will do so within a few days of birth, at-risk infants should be
      observed for at least 4 weeks with serial head ultrasounds to monitor for PHH
      requiring surgery.

PMID- 28884230
TI  - Environmental impacts caused by cemeteries and crematoria, new funeral
      technologies, and preferences of the Northeastern and Southern Brazilian
      population as for the funeral process.
AB  - Cemeteries and crematoria are the main funeral ways used in the world nowadays.
      It is a little-studied segment in the present days, mainly as for the possible
      environmental impacts in the environment, such as those derived from dental
      amalgam, prostheses, and dioxins, among other. This article aimed to identify the
      environmental impacts caused by cemeteries and crematoria and to point out new
      trends in funeral processes such as freeze-drying and alkaline hydrolysis. The
      study is justified due to the large part of the Brazilian population that do not
      know the environmental impacts caused by cemeteries and crematoria, as well as to
      bring information about the new processes. For that, a research was carried out
      with 400 people. The main results show that among all the funeral processes, the
      new freeze-drying process was opted by 33% of the sample. We also identified that
      the main reasons for choosing the funeral process were less environmental impact
      (28%), no after-death expenses (grave payment) (16.1%), and the possibility of
      putting away or throwing away the remains wherever you want (14.9%). Finally, new
      funeral processes were well accepted by the Brazilian population-those who were
      interviewed-due to their benefits.

PMID- 28884231
TI  - Infant brachial neuritis following a viral prodrome: a case in a 6-month old
      child and review of the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Brachial neuritis, commonly known as Parsonage-Turner syndrome,
      affects two to three people per 100,000 and presents with pain and weakness of
      the arm and shoulder. Brachial neuritis is uncommon in infants. METHODS: Here, we
      present the case of a 6-month old female, who presented with right upper
      extremity weakness and paresis following a viral prodrome. We also present a
      summary of all reported cases of brachial neuritis in infants. RESULTS: This is
      the youngest case of brachial neuritis diagnosed at our institution. The child
      was treated with prednisolone and physical therapy. The patient is now 16 months
      old and her symptoms have significantly improved. CONCLUSIONS: Brachial neuritis
      should be considered in the differential when an infant presents with sudden
      onset of upper limb weakness, following a viral prodrome. Finally, a genetic
      workup is suggested for patients with recurring episodes.

PMID- 28884232
TI  - [18F]AV-1451 binding to neuromelanin in the substantia nigra in PD and PSP.
AB  - This study investigated binding of [18F]AV-1451 to neuromelanin in the substantia
      nigra of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and progressive supranuclear
      palsy (PSP). [18F]AV-1451 is a positron emission tomography radiotracer designed
      to bind pathological tau. A post-mortem study using [18F]AV-1451 discovered off
      target binding properties to neuromelanin in the substantia nigra. A subsequent
      clinical study reported a 30% decrease in [18F]AV-1451 binding in the midbrain of
      PD patients. A total of 12 patients and 10 healthy age-matched controls were
      recruited. An anatomical MRI and a 90-min PET scan, using [18F]AV-1451, were
      acquired from all participants. The standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) from
      60 to 90 min post-injection was calculated for the substantia nigra, using the
      cerebellar cortex as the reference region. The substantia nigra was delineated
      using automated region of interest software. An independent samples ANOVA and LSD
      post hoc testing were used to test for differences in [18F]AV-1451 SUVR between
      groups. Substantia nigra SUVR from 60 to 90 min was significantly greater in HC
      compared to both PSP and PD groups. Although the PD group had the lowest SUVR,
      there was no significant difference in substantia nigra uptake between PD and
      PSP. [18F]AV-1451 may be the first PET radiotracer capable of imaging
      neurodegeneration of the substantia nigra in parkinsonisms. Further testing must
      be done in PD and atypical parkinsonian disorders to support this off-target use
      of [18F]AV-1451.

PMID- 28884233
TI  - In Vivo Strain Analysis of Dilated Ascending Thoracic Aorta by ECG-Gated CT
      Angiographic Imaging.
AB  - Accurate assessment of aortic extensibility is a requisite first step for
      elucidating the pathophysiology of an ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA).
      This study aimed to develop a framework for the in vivo evaluation of the full
      field distribution of the aortic wall strain by imaging analysis of
      electrocardiographic- (ECG) gated thoracic data of 34 patients with ATAA. Seven
      healthy controls (i.e., non-aneurysmal aorta) from patients who underwent ECG
      gated CT angiography for coronary artery diseases were included for comparison.
      To evaluate the systolic function, ECG-gated computed tomography (CT) angiography
      was used to generate patient-specific geometric meshes of the ascending aorta,
      and then to estimate both the displacement and strain fields using a mathematical
      algorithm. Results evidenced stiff behavior for the aneurysmal aorta compared
      with that of the healthy ascending aorta of the controls, with patients over 55
      years of age displaying significantly lower extensibility. Moreover, the patient
      risk as quantified by the ratio of in vivo strain to the ruptured one increased
      significantly with increased systolic blood pressure, older age, and higher
      pressure-strain modulus. Statistical analysis also indicated that an increased
      pressure-strain modulus is a risk factor for ATAAs with bicuspid aortic valve,
      suggesting a different mechanism of failure in these patients. The approach here
      proposed for the in vivo evaluation of the aortic wall strain is simple and fast,
      with promising applicability in routine clinical imaging, and could be used to
      develop a rupture potential criterion on the basis of the aortic aneurysm
      extensibility.

PMID- 28884234
TI  - Impact of a Mental Health Based Primary Care Program on Quality of Physical
      Health Care.
AB  - We examine the impact of mental health based primary care on physical health
      treatment among community mental health center patients in New York State using
      propensity score adjusted difference in difference models. Outcomes are quality
      indicators related to outpatient medical visits, diabetes HbA1c monitoring, and
      metabolic monitoring of antipsychotic treatment. Results suggest the program
      improved metabolic monitoring for patients on antipsychotics in one of two waves,
      but did not impact other quality indicators. Ceiling effects may have limited
      program impacts. More structured clinical programs to may be required to achieve
      improvements in quality of physical health care for this population.

PMID- 28884235
TI  - A cross-sectional survey comparing a free treatment program for advanced
      schistosomiasis japonica to a general assistance program.
AB  - The prevalence and intensity of schistosomiasis has dropped dramatically in China
      due to an effective integrated control program. However, advanced schistosomiasis
      is becoming a key challenge on the road to elimination. The aims of this study
      were to compare the disease condition between advanced cases under the general
      assistance program (GAP) and free treatment program (FTP) and to determine
      whether the FTP should be popularized to provide an objective reference for
      policymakers in China's advanced schistosomiasis control program. One hundred and
      ninety-four patients with schistosomiasis japonica who were enrolled in the GAP
      or FTP participated in this study. Little significant difference was observed in
      the potential confounders, including general characteristics, comorbidities, and
      lifestyle, indicating a similar effect on the pathology of liver damage caused by
      schistosome infection. There was no apparent difference in the incidence of
      common clinical symptoms. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed in
      the ultrasound findings, implying that the GAP and FTP groups shared a similar
      degree of liver lesion. With the exception of the abnormal rates of aspartate
      aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and hyaluronic acid (HA), the
      other serological indicators were comparable between the groups. Overall, the FTP
      is not a better option for controlling advanced schistosomiasis in China. It is
      important to reveal the precise mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of advanced
      schistosomiasis so that specific approaches to treating and preventing the
      development of advanced schistosomiasis can be developed and schistosomiasis can
      be eliminated in China.

PMID- 28884236
TI  - Identification of a serotype-independent linear epitope of foot-and-mouth disease
      virus.
AB  - Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), caused by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), is a
      highly contagious infectious disease that affects domestic and wild cloven-hoofed
      animals worldwide. VP2 is a structural protein of FMDV. In this study, an FMDV
      serotype-independent monoclonal antibody (MAb), 10B10, against the viral capsid
      protein VP2 was generated, and a series of GST fusion proteins expressing a
      truncated peptide of VP2 was subjected to Western blot analysis using MAb 10B10.
      Their results indicated that the peptide 8TLLEDRILT16 of VP2 is the minimal
      requirement of the epitope recognized by MAb 10B10. Importantly, this linear
      epitope was highly conserved among all seven serotypes of FMDV in a sequence
      alignment analysis. Subsequent alanine-scanning mutagenesis analysis revealed
      that the residues Thr8 and Asp12 of the epitope were crucial for MAb-10B10
      binding. Furthermore, Western blot analysis also revealed that the MAb 10B10
      directed epitope could be recognized by positive sera from FMDV-infected cattle.
      The discovery that MAb 10B10 recognizes a serotype-independent linear epitope of
      FMDV suggests potential applications for this MAb in the development of serotype
      independent tests for FMDV.

PMID- 28884237
TI  - Relationship between intracranial aneurysms and the severity of autosomal
      dominant polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a hereditary
      kidney disease characterized by the progressive enlargement of innumerable renal
      cysts. Although the association of intracranial aneurysms (ICANs) with ADPKD is
      well known, the relationship between the ICAN and the disease severity including
      total kidney volume (TKV) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is
      poorly understood. METHODS: We screened 265 patients with ADPKD (mean age, 48.8
      years; range, 14.9-88.3 years) with MR angiography. The patients with a past
      history related to ICANs were excluded from the study. The incidence and
      characteristics of ICAN in patients with ADPKD were evaluated. TKV was measured
      by volumetric analyses of MR imaging. RESULTS: We detected 65 ICANs in 49
      patients (37 women and 12 men, mean age, 52.7 years; range, 20.4-86 years). The
      incidence of ICANs was 18.5% and female patients had was higher incidence (23.1%)
      than male patients (11.4%) (p = 0.02). An age of those with ICANs was
      significantly higher than those without (p = 0.006), and the cumulative risk of
      diagnosis of ICANs increased with age. TKV was significantly larger in those with
      ICANs than those without (p = 0.001), but eGFR was not different between two
      groups (p = 0.07). By multivariate analyses, only TKV was significantly related
      to the development of ICANs (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of ICANs
      increased with age, was higher in females, and correlated with kidney enlargement
      in patients with ADPKD. Necessity of screening ICANs would be particularly high
      in elderly women with large kidneys.

PMID- 28884238
TI  - Medicolegal Sidebar: (Mis)Informed Consent in Medical Negligence Lawsuits.

PMID- 28884240
TI  - The serological markers of acute infection with hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and G
      viruses revisited.
AB  - Viral hepatitis is a liver infection caused by one of the six hepatitis viruses:
      hepatitis A, B, C, D, E, and G virus (HAV to HEV and HGV). These agents differ in
      their biological, immunological, pathological and epidemiological
      characteristics. They cause infections that, when symptomatic, lead to clinical
      manifestations and laboratory findings that are not specific to a particular
      virus, often making differential diagnosis difficult, especially when no
      knowledge is available regarding the patient's medical history or the
      epidemiological background. A number of acute-phase serological markers, such as
      anti-HAV, anti-HBc, anti-HDV and anti-HEV IgM antibodies, are able to provide a
      clear indication of an infection caused by HAV, HBV, HDV or HEV. Anti-HCV
      antibodies and HGV/RNA are used for the diagnosis of HCV and HGV infections. The
      importance of each of these markers will be reviewed, and different factors that
      can interfere with the diagnosis of acute infections caused by these viruses will
      be described.

PMID- 28884239
TI  - Nano-Composite Foam Sensor System in Football Helmets.
AB  - American football has both the highest rate of concussion incidences as well as
      the highest number of concussions of all contact sports due to both the number of
      athletes and nature of the sport. Recent research has linked concussions with
      long term health complications such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy and early
      onset Alzheimer's. Understanding the mechanical characteristics of concussive
      impacts is critical to help protect athletes from these debilitating diseases and
      is now possible using helmet-based sensor systems. To date, real time on-field
      measurement of head impacts has been almost exclusively measured by devices that
      rely on accelerometers or gyroscopes attached to the player's helmet, or embedded
      in a mouth guard. These systems monitor motion of the head or helmet, but do not
      directly measure impact energy. This paper evaluates the accuracy of a novel,
      multifunctional foam-based sensor that replaces a portion of the helmet foam to
      measure impact. All modified helmets were tested using a National Operating
      Committee Standards for Athletic Equipment-style drop tower with a total of 24
      drop tests (4 locations with 6 impact energies). The impacts were evaluated using
      a headform, instrumented with a tri-axial accelerometer, mounted to a Hybrid III
      neck assembly. The resultant accelerations were evaluated for both the peak
      acceleration and the severity indices. These data were then compared to the
      voltage response from multiple Nano Composite Foam sensors located throughout the
      helmet. The foam sensor system proved to be accurate in measuring both the HIC
      and Gadd severity index, as well as peak acceleration while also providing
      additional details that were previously difficult to obtain, such as impact
      energy.

PMID- 28884241
TI  - Torsed appendix epididymis in an adult: misdiagnosis as tumor of tunica vaginalis
      on sonography.
AB  - We report the sonographic findings in a case of torsed appendix epididymis that
      occurred in an adult, which was misdiagnosed as a tunica vaginalis tumor such as
      cystic mesothelioma. Scrotal gray-scale sonography revealed an ovoid-shaped,
      heterogeneously hypoechoic mass with multiple tiny cystic foci and thick septa in
      the sac of the right tunica vaginalis, which abuts to the right epididymal head.
      Color Doppler sonography showed no blood flow within the mass. Pathological
      examination revealed torsion of the appendix epididymis.

PMID- 28884242
TI  - A comparative crossover study on the treatment of hemifacial spasm and
      blepharospasm: preseptal and pretarsal botulinum toxin injection techniques.
AB  - Hemifacial spasm (HFS) and benign essential blepharospasm (BEB) are chronic and
      disabling abnormal craniofacial movements that produce involuntary eyelid
      twitching and closure. The efficacy and safety of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A)
      injections have been accepted and widely used for the treatment of HFS and BEB.
      However, different injection sites may influence the effectiveness, doses, and
      side effects. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy, patient
      satisfaction, and complications of low-dose BoNT-A injections between injection
      at the preseptal (PS) and the pretarsal (PT) portion of the orbicularis oculi
      muscle. A total of 40 patients, 31 patients with HFS and 9 patients with BEB,
      participated in this study. Each patient received both PS and PT BoNT-A
      injections in a crossover design study. Latency to response, duration of
      improvement, the Jankovic Rating Scale (JRS), self-response scale, patient
      satisfaction scale, and complications were compared. Low-dose injections of BoNT
      A at the PT portion produced a significantly higher response rate in terms of
      latency to response, duration of improvement, JRS, self-response scale, and
      patient satisfaction scale than the PS injections. Major side effects including
      ptosis and droopy eyelid were observed only after the PS injections. These
      findings confirmed that low-dose injections of BoNT-A at the PT portion provide
      more efficacy, patient satisfaction, and fewer complications than the PS
      injections for the treatment of involuntary eyelid twitching and closure in
      patients with HFS and BEB.

PMID- 28884243
TI  - Smoking Policy Change Within Permanent Supportive Housing.
AB  - Smoke-free policies effectively reduce secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among non
      smokers, and reduce consumption, encourage quit attempts, and minimize relapse to
      smoking among smokers. Such policies are uncommon in permanent supportive housing
      (PSH) for formerly homeless individuals. In this study, we collaborated with a
      PSH provider in San Diego, California to assess a smoke-free policy that
      restricted indoor smoking. Between August and November 2015, residents completed
      a pre-policy questionnaire on attitudes toward smoke-free policies and exposure
      to secondhand smoke, and then 7-9 months after policy implementation residents
      were re-surveyed. At follow-up, there was a 59.7% reduction in indoor smoking.
      The proportion of residents who identified as current smokers reduced by 13% (95%
      CI: -38, 10.2). The proportion of residents who reported never smelling SHS
      indoors (apartment 24.2%, 95% CI: 4.2, 44.1; shared areas 17.2%, 95% CI: 1.7,
      32.7); in outdoor areas next to the living unit (porches or patio 56.7%, 95% CI:
      40.7, 72.8); and in other outdoor areas (parking lot 28.6%, 95% CI: 8.3, 48.9)
      was lower post-policy compared with pre-policy. Overall, resident support
      increased by 18.7%; however, the greatest increase in support occurred among
      current smokers (from 14.8 to 37.5%). Fewer current smokers reported that the
      policy would enable cessation at post-policy compared to pre-policy. Our findings
      demonstrate the feasibility of implementing smoke-free policies in PSH for
      formerly homeless adults. However, policy alone appears insufficient to trigger
      change in smoking behavior, highlighting the need for additional cessation
      resources to facilitate quitting.

PMID- 28884244
TI  - Lasers and intense pulsed light (IPL) association with cancerous lesions.
AB  - The development and use of light and lasers for medical and cosmetic procedures
      has increased exponentially over the past decade. This review article focuses on
      the incidence of reported cases of skin cancer post laser or IPL treatment. The
      existing evidence base of over 25 years of laser and IPL use to date has not
      raised any concerns regarding its long-term safety with only a few anecdotal
      cases of melanoma post treatment over two decades of use; therefore, there is no
      evidence to suggest that there is a credible cancer risk. Although laser and IPL
      technology has not been known to cause skin cancer, this does not mean that laser
      and IPL therapies are without long-term risks. Light therapies and lasers to
      treat existing lesions and CO2 laser resurfacing can be a preventative measure
      against BCC and SCC tumour formation by removing photo-damaged keratinocytes and
      encouraged re-epithelisation from stem cells located deeper in the epidermis. A
      review of the relevant literature has been performed to address the issue of long
      term IPL safety, focussing on DNA damage, oxidative stress induction and the
      impact of adverse events.

PMID- 28884245
TI  - Life satisfaction and inflammation in couples: an actor-partner analysis.
AB  - Life satisfaction has been linked to lower cardiovascular disease mortality.
      However, much less is known about the biological mechanisms linking life
      satisfaction to physical health. In addition, the dyadic context of life
      satisfaction has not been considered despite increasing evidence that partners
      influence each other in health-relevant ways. These questions were addressed with
      94 married couples who completed measures of life satisfaction and had their
      blood drawn for determination of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein
      (CRP). Actor-partner models showed that higher actor levels of life satisfaction
      predicted lower levels of IL-6 and CRP (p's < .05), whereas partner levels of
      life satisfaction did not predict any measure of inflammation. The actor results
      were not mediated by marital satisfaction or health behaviors. Finally, no actor
      * partner interactions were significant and these links were not moderated by
      marital satisfaction. These data highlight inflammation as a potentially
      important biological mechanism linking actor reports of life satisfaction to
      lower cardiovascular mortality.

PMID- 28884246
TI  - Impulsivity Dimensions and Risky Sex Behaviors in an At-Risk Young Adult Sample.
AB  - Impulsivity is a personality-based risk factor that has been well studied in
      relation to risky sexual behavior. Recent conceptualizations of impulsivity have
      proposed multidimensional facets comprised of premeditation, perseverance,
      sensation seeking, negative urgency, and positive urgency (UPPS-P model). Prior
      studies have found that these facets are associated with risky sexual behavior in
      adolescent and college student samples, but no prior studies have evaluated them
      in clinical samples. The current study examined how impulsivity-related traits
      related to two different risky sexual behaviors in a clinical sample of at-risk
      young adults who had both conduct disorder and substance use disorder symptoms as
      adolescents (n = 529). Lack of premeditation was also tested as a moderator of
      the relationship between facets of impulsivity and both risky sex outcomes.
      Results demonstrated that sensation seeking, negative urgency, and positive
      urgency were correlated with risky sex behaviors. Additionally, multiple
      regression analyses indicated that sensation seeking was uniquely associated with
      the number of sexual partners in the past 5 years, whereas positive urgency was
      uniquely associated with unprotected sex while under the influence. Finally, a
      significant interaction between lack of premeditation and negative urgency
      suggests that at-risk young adults with both high negative urgency and lack of
      premeditation were the likeliest to have the most sexual partners in the past 5
      years. This study adds to the current understanding of the relationship between
      reward- and affect-driven facets of impulsivity and risky sexual behaviors and
      may lend utility to the development of interventions for at-risk populations.

PMID- 28884247
TI  - The potential forensic significance of convict archives from Van Diemen's Land,
      1820-1877.

PMID- 28884248
TI  - Swipe Right: Dating Website and App Use Among Men Who Have Sex With Men.
AB  - This study explored the frequency of dating website and app usage among MSM to
      understand sub-group differences in use. Web-based survey data (N = 3105) were
      analyzed to assess the use of dating websites and apps. More than half (55.7%) of
      MSM in this sample were frequent users of dating websites and apps. Two-thirds
      (66.7%) of frequent users had casual partners only in the past 12 months and
      reported a high average number of casual sexual partners in the past 12 months
      (Mdn = 5.0) compared to never users (Mdn = 0.0; chi 2(2) = 734.94, adj. p <
      .001). The most frequently used dating website or app was Grindr, with 60.2% of
      the sample reporting some or frequent use. Adam4Adam (23.5%), Jack'd (18.9%) and
      Scruff (18.7%) were also frequently used. Dating websites and apps may be
      effective channels to reach a diverse group of MSM with HIV prevention messages.

PMID- 28884249
TI  - CDOCKER and lambda-dynamics for prospective prediction in D3R Grand Challenge 2.
AB  - The opportunity to prospectively predict ligand bound poses and free energies of
      binding to the Farnesoid X Receptor in the D3R Grand Challenge 2 provided a
      useful exercise to evaluate CHARMM based docking (CDOCKER) and [Formula: see
      text]-dynamics methodologies for use in "real-world" applications in computer
      aided drug design. In addition to measuring their current performance, several
      recent methodological developments have been analyzed retrospectively to
      highlight best procedural practices in future applications. For pose prediction
      with CDOCKER, when the protein structure used for rigid receptor docking was
      close to the crystallographic holo structure, reliable poses were obtained.
      Benzimidazoles, with a known holo receptor structure, were successfully docked
      with an average RMSD of 0.97 [Formula: see text]. Other non-benzimidazole ligands
      displayed less accuracy largely because the receptor structures we chose for
      docking were too different from the experimental holo structures. However,
      retrospective analysis has shown that when these ligands were re-docked into
      their holo structures, the average RMSD dropped to 1.18 [Formula: see text] for
      all ligands. When sulfonamides and spiros were docked with the apo structure,
      which agrees more with their holo structure than the structures we chose, five
      out of six ligands were correctly docked. These docking results emphasize the
      need for flexible receptor docking approaches. For [Formula: see text]-dynamics
      techniques, including multisite [Formula: see text]-dynamics (MS[Formula: see
      text]D), reasonable agreement with experiment was observed for the 33 ligands
      investigated; root mean square errors of 2.08 and 1.67 kcal/mol were obtained for
      free energy sets 1 and 2, respectively. Retrospectively, soft-core potentials,
      adaptive landscape flattening, and biasing potential replica exchange (BP-REX)
      algorithms were critical to model large substituent perturbations with sufficient
      precision and within restrictive timeframes, such as was required with
      participation in Grand Challenge 2. These developments, their associated
      benefits, and proposed procedures for their use in future applications are
      discussed.

PMID- 28884250
TI  - Memory Impairment in HIV-Infected Individuals with Early and Late Initiation of
      Regular Marijuana Use.
AB  - Marijuana use is disproportionately prevalent among HIV-infected individuals. The
      strongest neurocognitive effect of marijuana use is impairment in the domain of
      memory. Memory impairment is also high among HIV-infected persons. The present
      study examined 69 HIV-infected individuals who were stratified by age of regular
      marijuana initiation to investigate how marijuana use impacts neurocognitive
      functioning. A comprehensive battery assessed substance use and neurocognitive
      functioning. Findings indicated early onset marijuana users (regular use prior to
      age 18), compared to non-marijuana users and late onset marijuana users (regular
      use at age 18 or later), were over 8 times more likely to have learning
      impairment and nearly 4 times more likely to have memory impairment. A similar
      pattern of early onset marijuana users performing worse in learning emerged when
      examining domain deficit scores. The potential for early onset of regular
      marijuana use to exacerbate already high levels of memory impairment among HIV
      infected persons has important clinical implications, including increased
      potential for medication non-adherence and difficulty with independent living.

PMID- 28884252
TI  - MicroRNA-192 regulates hypertrophic scar fibrosis by targeting SIP1.
AB  - Hypertrophic scar (HS) is a fibro-proliferative disorder which is characterized
      by excessive deposition of collagen and accumulative activity of myofibroblasts.
      Increasing evidences have demonstrated miRNAs play a pivotal role in the
      pathogenesis of HS. MiR-192 is closely associated with renal fibrosis, but its
      effect on HS formation and skin fibrosis remains unknown. In the study, we
      presented that miR-192 was up-regulated in HS and HS derived fibroblasts (HSFs)
      compared to normal skin (NS) and NS derived fibroblasts (NSFs), accompanied by
      the reduction of smad interacting protein 1 (SIP1) expression and the increase of
      Col1, Col3 and alpha-SMA levels. Furthermore, we confirmed SIP1 was a direct
      target of miR-192 by using luciferase reporter assays. Meanwhile, the
      overexpression of miR-192 increased the levels of Col1, Col3 and alpha-SMA. The
      synthesis of collagen and more positive alpha-SMA staining were also observed in
      bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis model of BALB/c mice treated with subcutaneous
      miR-192 mimics injection, whereas the inhibition of miR-192 decreased the
      expression of Col1, Col3 and alpha-SMA. Moreover, SIP1 siRNA could enhance the
      levels of Col1, Col3 and alpha-SMA, showing that the effect of knockdown SIP1 was
      similar to miR-192 mimics, and the phenomenon manifested miR-192 regulated HS
      fibrosis by targeting SIP1. Together, our results indicated that miR-192 was a
      critical factor of HS formation and facilitated skin fibrosis by targeting
      directly SIP1.

PMID- 28884253
TI  - Assessing transhumance corridors on high mountain environments by least cost path
      analysis: the case of yak herds in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
AB  - Mountain environments in the world host highly specialized flora and fauna which
      are vulnerable because of land use and climate change. Transhumance and other
      land use traditional practices are present in most of the mountains of the world,
      and management tools able to cope with new socioeconomic settings and
      environmental changes are urgently needed. During past centuries, yak (Bos
      grunniens) herding in Northern Pakistan involved the migration of herds to high
      mountain international rangelands, but the recent establishment of international
      borders breaks the traditional transhumance paths, promoting several ecological
      problems. In this paper, we propose the use of least cost path (LCP) algorithm to
      identify the most efficient corridors of transhumance for yak herds on northern
      high altitudes of Pakistan. Specifically, LCP was implemented to identify the
      critical grazing areas and the connecting zones to be accounted in a new
      management plan for the yaks in the region. The LCP analysis showed that some
      grazing areas are connected with several paths, whereas other areas are connected
      to a lesser extent. The analyses identified a set of best minimum cost paths able
      to guarantee local connectivity. We also delineated several medium and low
      efficient paths that could play a crucial role for maintaining regional
      connectivity which is essential for reducing the isolation of herds and the
      consequent inbreeding problems. The analytical framework implemented in this
      study allowed to (1) provide valuable information concerning the movement of yak
      herds in Gilgit-Baltistan, (2) identify potential corridors that are able to
      promote herd movement between villages and high mountain rangelands, and (3)
      identify critical areas for the connectivity of yaks by ranking of the potential
      corridors according to their length and permeability. The analysis would be
      extended to other transhumant herds and high mountain areas that are facing
      sociopolitical transformations and environmental changes.

PMID- 28884251
TI  - The influence of hospital volume on long-term oncological outcome after rectal
      cancer surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: The association between hospital volume and outcome in rectal cancer
      surgery is still subject of debate. The purpose of this study was to assess the
      impact of hospital volume on outcomes of rectal cancer surgery in the Netherlands
      in 2011. METHODS: In this collaborative research with a cross-sectional study
      design, patients who underwent rectal cancer resection in 71 Dutch hospitals in
      2011 were included. Annual hospital volume was stratified as low (< 20), medium
      (20-50), and high (>= 50). RESULTS: Of 2095 patients, 258 patients (12.3%) were
      treated in 23 low-volume hospitals, 1329 (63.4%) in 40 medium-volume hospitals,
      and 508 (24.2%) in 8 high-volume hospitals. Median length of follow-up was 41
      months. Clinical tumor stage, neoadjuvant therapy, extended resections,
      circumferential resection margin (CRM) positivity, and 30-day or in-hospital
      mortality did not differ significantly between volume groups. Significantly, more
      laparoscopic procedures were performed in low-volume hospitals, and more
      diverting stomas in high-volume hospitals. Three-year disease-free survival for
      low-, medium-, and high-volume hospitals was 75.0, 74.8, and 76.8% (p = 0.682).
      Corresponding 3-year overall survival rates were 75.9, 79.1, and 80.3% (p =
      0.344). In multivariate analysis, hospital volume was not associated with long
      term risk of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: No significant impact of hospital volume on
      rectal cancer surgery outcome could be observed among 71 Dutch hospitals after
      implementation of a national audit, with the majority of patients being treated
      at medium-volume hospitals.

PMID- 28884254
TI  - Elderly-Onset and Adult-Onset Ulcerative Colitis Are More Similar than Previously
      Reported in a Nationwide Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elderly-onset ulcerative colitis (EO-UC) is recognized as a distinct
      subpopulation of UC. To our knowledge, there have been no nationwide studies of
      EO-UC populations in the USA. AIMS: We aim to characterize differences in
      presentation at diagnosis and clinical course between EO-UC and adult-onset UC
      (AO-UC) patients in a national cohort. METHODS: Complete medical records of
      patients newly diagnosed with UC from October 2001 to October 2011 in the
      Veterans Affairs health system were obtained. Patients were followed until
      colectomy, death, or the end of the observation period on November 2015. EO-UC
      patients (age of diagnosis >=65 years) were compared to AO-UC patients (age of
      diagnosis <=40 years) with respect to demographic, severity, and therapeutic
      data. Statistical analysis was performed using JMP statistical software. RESULTS:
      We identified 836 newly diagnosed UC patients, of which 207 had EO-UC and 102 had
      AO-UC. The mean age of diagnosis was 72.4 years (EO-UC) and 32.9 years (AO-UC),
      with a mean 8-year follow-up period. The incidence of pancolitis at the time of
      diagnosis was similar between both groups (p = 0.67). There was no difference in
      steroid use (36.7 vs 45.1%, p = 0.1563), thiopurine use (19.3 vs 22.6%, p =
      0.5081), and colectomy rates (6.3 vs 5.9%, p = 0.8911) between EO-UC and AO-UC
      populations. There was lower anti-TNF use in EO-UC patients compared to AO-UC
      patients (5.8 vs 14.7%, p = 0.0091). CONCLUSION: In this nationwide cohort, we
      found that the use of steroids, thiopurines, and colectomy was similar in both
      populations, while anti-TNF use was lower among the elderly.

PMID- 28884256
TI  - Geochemical distribution of major and trace elements in agricultural soils of
      Castilla-La Mancha (central Spain): finding criteria for baselines and delimiting
      regional anomalies.
AB  - Castilla-La Mancha (central Spain) is a region characterized by significant
      agricultural production aimed at high-quality food products such as wine and
      olive oil. The quality of agricultural products depends directly on the soil
      quality. Soil geochemistry, including dispersion maps and the recognition of
      baselines and anomalies of various origins, is the most important tool to assess
      soil quality. With this objective, 200 soil samples were taken from agricultural
      areas distributed among the different geological domains present in the region.
      Analysis of these samples included evaluation of edaphological parameters
      (reactivity, electrical conductivity, organic matter content) and the
      geochemistry of major and trace elements by X-ray fluorescence. The dataset
      obtained was statistically analyzed for major elements and, in the case of trace
      elements, was normalized with respect to Al and analyzed using the relative
      cumulative frequency (RCF) distribution method. Furthermore, the geographic
      distribution of analytical data was characterized and analyzed using the kriging
      technique, with a correspondence found between major and trace elements in the
      different geologic domains of the region as well as with the most important
      mining areas. The results show an influence of the clay fraction present in the
      soil, which acts as a repository for trace elements. On the basis of the results,
      of the possible elements related with clay that could be used for normalization,
      Al was selected as the most suitable, followed by Fe, Mn, and Ti. Reference
      values estimated using this methodology were lower than those estimated in
      previous studies.

PMID- 28884255
TI  - Using the chemical mass balance model to estimate VOC source contributions in
      newly built timber frame houses: a case study.
AB  - Basing on the material emission data obtained in a test chamber, chemical mass
      balance (CMB) was used to assess the source apportionment of volatile organic
      compound (VOC) concentrations in three newly built timber frame houses. CMB has
      been proven to be able to discriminate the source contributions for two
      contrasted environmental conditions (with and without ventilation). The shutdown
      of the ventilation system caused an increase in the VOC concentrations due to the
      increased contribution of indoor surface materials like the door material and
      furniture explaining together over 65% of total VOCs. While the increase in
      formaldehyde concentration is mainly due to furniture (contribution of 70%), the
      increase in alpha-pinene concentration is almost exclusively attributable to the
      emission of door material (up to 84%). The apportionment of VOC source
      contributions appears as highly dependent on the position of source materials in
      the building (surface materials or internal materials) and the ventilation
      conditions explaining that the concentrations of compounds after the shutdown of
      ventilation system do not increase in equivalent proportion. Knowledge of indoor
      sources and its contributions in real conditions may help in the selection of
      materials and in the improvement of construction operations to reduce the indoor
      air pollution.

PMID- 28884257
TI  - Crohn's Disease: Hard to Swallow!

PMID- 28884258
TI  - Do implicit attitudes toward physical activity and sedentary behavior
      prospectively predict objective physical activity among persons with obesity?
AB  - This study conducted among adults with obesity examined the associations between
      implicit attitudes toward physical activity and sedentary behavior, and physical
      activity behavior measured 4 months later. At baseline, 76 participants (M AGE =
      56; M BMI = 39.1) completed a questionnaire assessing intentions toward physical
      activity and sedentary behavior and two computerized Single-Category Implicit
      Association Tests assessing implicit attitudes toward these two behaviors. At
      follow-up, physical activity was measured with accelerometers. Multiple
      regression analysis showed that implicit attitudes toward physical activity were
      positively and significantly associated with physical activity when participants'
      age, BMI, past physical activity and intentions were controlled for. Implicit
      attitudes toward sedentary behavior were not associated with physical activity.
      Adults with obesity who implicitly reported more favorable attitudes toward
      physical activity at baseline were more likely to present higher physical
      activity levels at follow-up. Implicit attitudes could be targeted in future
      research to enhance physical activity.

PMID- 28884259
TI  - Impact of mathematical pharmacology on practice and theory: four case studies.
AB  - Drug-discovery has become a complex discipline in which the amount of knowledge
      about human biology, physiology, and biochemistry have increased. In order to
      harness this complex body of knowledge mathematics can play a critical role, and
      has actually already been doing so. We demonstrate through four case studies,
      taken from previously published data and analyses, what we can gain from
      mathematical/analytical techniques when nonlinear concentration-time courses have
      to be transformed into their equilibrium concentration-response (target or
      complex) relationships and new structures of drug potency have to be deciphered;
      when pattern recognition needs to be carried out for an unconventional response
      time dataset; when what-if? predictions beyond the observational concentration
      time range need to be made; or when the behaviour of a semi-mechanistic model
      needs to be elucidated or challenged. These four examples are typical situations
      when standard approaches known to the general community of pharmacokineticists
      prove to be inadequate.

PMID- 28884260
TI  - Barriers and Facilitators of Responding to Problem Gambling: Perspectives from
      Australian Mental Health Services.
AB  - Despite high rates of comorbidity between problem gambling and mental health
      disorders, few studies have examined barriers or facilitators to the
      implementation of screening for problem gambling in mental health services. This
      exploratory qualitative study identified key themes associated with screening in
      mental health services. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 30
      clinicians and managers from 11 mental health services in Victoria, Australia.
      Major themes and subthemes were identified using qualitative content analysis.
      Six themes emerged including competing priorities, importance of routine
      screening, access to appropriate screening tools, resources, patient
      responsiveness and workforce development. Barriers to screening included a focus
      on immediate risk as well as gambling being often considered as a longer-term
      concern. Clinicians perceived problem gambling as a relatively rare condition,
      but did acknowledge the need for brief screening. Facilitators to screening were
      changes to system processes, such as identification of an appropriate brief
      screening instrument, mandating its use as part of routine screening, as well as
      funded workforce development activities in the identification and management of
      problem gambling.

PMID- 28884261
TI  - The connection between exercise addiction and orthorexia nervosa in German
      fitness sports.
AB  - PURPOSE: The combination of physical activity and healthy eating habits has
      potentially positive effects on health. However, both practices can also lead to
      pathological behaviors such as exercise addiction (EA) and orthorexia nervosa
      (ON), thus generating negative effects. So far, studies analyzing the connection
      between these two phenomena cannot be found. The current paper is aiming to close
      this gap. METHODS: The sample (n = 1.008) consisted of 559 male and 449 female
      active members of three fitness studios, and was analyzed in a cross-sectional
      study design. The Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI) was used to establish
      exercise addiction and the Dusseldorfer Orthorexie Skala (DOS) was used to
      evaluate orthorectic eating behavior. RESULTS: Out of the whole sample, 10.2%
      exhibit EA, while ON is prevalent in 3.4%. Twenty-three (2.3%) individuals suffer
      from both. There is a significant positive correlation between DOS and EAI (p <
      .001, r = .421). Female participants (p < .001, r = .452) show a higher
      correlation compared to male participants (p < .001, r = .418). CONCLUSION: The
      results suggest a positive correlation between ON and EA in the context of German
      fitness sports. Both seem to be serious phenomena and require further
      investigation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V (cross-sectional descriptive study).

PMID- 28884262
TI  - Sleep correlates of substance use in community-dwelling Ethiopian adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: The relationship between sleep disturbances and substance use can have
      harmful effects. Evidence shows widespread use of substances, including khat, in
      the Ethiopian population. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has
      investigated the sleep correlates of substance use in community-dwelling
      Ethiopian adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study using simple
      random sampling was performed on community-dwelling adults (n = 371, age = 25.5
      +/- 5.7 years, body mass index = 22.0 +/- 2.2 kg/m2) in Mizan-Aman, Ethiopia.
      Dichotomized sleep measures (sleep quality and sleep latency) assessed by the
      Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used in association analysis using
      binary logistic regression with substance use (khat, smoking, and alcohol).
      RESULT: Sleep latency was associated with khat chewing (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)
      = 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7-4.4) and tobacco smoking (AOR = 2.1, 95%
      CI 1.4-3.0). Sleep quality was associated with khat chewing (AOR = 3.1, 95% CI
      1.8-5.2), tobacco smoking (AOR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.5), and alcohol intake (AOR =
      1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.1). CONCLUSION: Sleep correlates of substance use were found in
      community-dwelling Ethiopians. These findings may aid in the development of
      targeted strategies to manage substance use-related sleep disturbances.

PMID- 28884263
TI  - Efficient propagation of archetype JC polyomavirus in COS-7 cells: evaluation of
      rearrangements within the NCCR structural organization after transfection.
AB  - John Cunningham virus (JCPyV) is an ubiquitous human pathogen that causes disease
      in immunocompromised patients. The JCPyV genome is composed of an early region
      and a late region, which are physically separated by the non-coding control
      region (NCCR). The DNA sequence of the NCCR distinguishes two forms of JCPyV, the
      designated archetype and the prototype, which resulted from a rearrangement of
      the archetype sequence. To date, the cell culture systems for propagating JCPyV
      archetype have been very limited in their availability and robustness. Prior to
      this study, it was demonstrated that JCPyV archetype DNA replicates in COS-7
      simian kidney cells expressing SV40 TAg and COS-7 cells expressing HIV-1 Tat.
      Based on these observations, the present study was conducted to reproduce an in
      vitro model in COS-7 cells transfected with the JCPyV archetype strain in order
      to study JCPyV DNA replication and analyze NCCR rearrangements during the viral
      life cycle. The efficiency of JCPyV replication was evaluated by quantitative PCR
      (Q-PCR) and by hemagglutination (HA) assay after transfection. In parallel,
      sequence analysis of JCPyV NCCR was performed. JCPyV efficiently replicated in
      kidney-derived COS-7 cells, as demonstrated by a progressive increase in viral
      load and virion particle production after transfection. The archetypal structure
      of NCCR was maintained during the viral cycle, but two characteristic point
      mutations were detected 28 days after transfection. This model is a useful tool
      for analyzing NCCR rearrangements during in vitro replication in cells that are
      sites of viral persistence, such as tubular epithelial cells of the kidney.

PMID- 28884264
TI  - Ambulatory screening tool for sleep apnea: analyzing a single-lead
      electrocardiogram signal (ECG).
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: The goal was to determine the utility and accuracy of automated
      analysis of single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) data using two algorithms,
      cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC), and cyclic variation of heart rate (CVHR) to
      identify sleep apnea (SA). METHODS: The CPC-CVHR algorithms were applied to
      identify SA by analyzing ECG from diagnostic polysomnography (PSG) from 47
      subjects. The studies were rescored according to updated AASM scoring rules, both
      manually by a certified technologist and using an FDA-approved automated scoring
      software, Somnolyzer (Philips Inc., Monroeville, PA). The CPC+CVHR output of
      Sleep Quality Index (SQI), Sleep Apnea Indicator (SAI), elevated low frequency
      coupling broadband (eLFCBB) and elevated low frequency coupling narrow-band
      (eLFCNB) were compared to the manual and automated scoring of apnea hypopnea
      index (AHI). RESULTS: A high degree of agreement was noted between the CPC-CVHR
      against both the manually rescored AHI and the computerized scored AHI to
      identify patients with moderate and severe sleep apnea (AHI > 15). The combined
      CPC+CVHR algorithms, when compared to the manually scored PSG output presents
      sensitivity 89%, specificity 79%, agreement 85%, PPV (positive predictive value)
      0.86 and NPV (negative predictive value) 0.83, and substantial Kappa 0.70.
      Comparing the output of the automated scoring software to the manual scoring
      demonstrated sensitivity 93%, specificity 79%, agreement 87%, PPV 0.87, NPV 0.88,
      and substantial Kappa 0.74. CONCLUSION: The CPC+CVHR technology performed as
      accurately as the automated scoring software to identify patients with moderate
      to severe SA, demonstrating a clinically powerful tool that can be implemented in
      various clinical settings to identify patients at risk for SA. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: NCT01234077.

PMID- 28884265
TI  - How is weight stigma related to children's health-related quality of life? A
      model comparison approach.
AB  - PURPOSE: Obesity is a highly stigmatizing condition for both adults and children,
      and both obesity and stigma experiences are negatively related with health
      related quality of life (HRQoL). However, the relations among these constructs
      have been modeled in different and sometimes inconsistent terms in past research,
      and have been the object of surprisingly few studies in pediatric populations.
      The present study addresses this gap by comparing, in a sample of preadolescent
      children, four competing models (i.e., additive, mediation, moderation, and
      moderated mediation models) accounting for the role of stigma experiences in the
      concurrent relation between body weight and HRQoL. METHODS: A community sample of
      600 children aged 8-11 years completed the Perception of Teasing Scale to assess
      weight-based teasing experiences and the PedsQL 4.0 to assess HRQoL. Parent
      reported height and weight were used to calculate age- and gender-adjusted zBMI.
      Log-likelihood test, BIC difference, and Wald test were used for model
      comparisons. RESULTS: The mediation model outperformed both additive and
      moderation models and was found to be equally informative (but more parsimonious)
      as compared to the moderated mediation account. The same pattern of results was
      replicated for both global HRQoL and domain-specific quality of life domains
      (i.e., physical, emotional, social, and scholastic). CONCLUSIONS: The mediation
      model provided the best fitting and more parsimonious representation of the
      relations between body weight, stigma experiences, and HRQoL, meaning that an
      increased likelihood of experiencing weight-based teasing episodes, rather than
      excess weight per se, is associated with reduced quality of life in middle
      childhood.

PMID- 28884266
TI  - MicroRNA expression changes following synthesis of three full-sib Populus
      triploid populations with different heterozygosities.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Through high-throughput sequencing, we compared the relative
      expression levels of miRNA in three full-sib Populus triploid populations with
      that in their parents and one diploid hybrid population. We found similar numbers
      of miRNAs differentially expressed between the parents and the four progeny
      hybrid populations. In addition, unbalanced parental expression level dominance
      of miRNAs were found in the three allotriploid and interspecific hybrid
      populations, which may reprogram gene expression networks and contribute to the
      growth of Populus hybrids. These results indicated that hybridization has a great
      impact on the miRNA expression variation in the newly synthesized Populus
      triploid and diploid hybrid populations. However, we also found no significant
      differences in miRNA expression among one diploid and three triploid hybrid
      populations, hinting that miRNA abundances do not increase with the genome
      content. No dosage effect of miRNA expression could lead to dosage-dependent
      negative effects on target genes and their downstream pathway in polyploids. We
      speculate that polyploids may gain advantages from the slight decrease in miRNA
      regulation, suggesting an important molecular mechanism of polyploid advantage.
      Hybridization with three types of induced 2n gametes transmitted different
      parental heterozygosities has been proven as an efficient method for Populus
      triploid production. Several researches have shown that miRNA could be non
      additively expressed in allopolyploids. However, it is still unclear whether the
      non-additively expressed miRNAs result from the effect of hybridization or
      polyploidization, and whether a dose response to the additional genomic content
      exists for the expression of miRNA. Toward this end, through high-throughput
      sequencing, we compared the expression levels of miRNA in three full-sib Populus
      triploid populations with that in their parents and one interspecific hybrid
      population. We found similar numbers of miRNAs differentially expressed between
      the parents and the four progeny hybrid populations. Unbalanced parental
      expression level dominance of miRNAs were found in the three triploid and diploid
      hybrid populations, which may reprogram gene expression networks and affect the
      growth of Populus hybrids. These results indicated that hybridization has a great
      impact on the miRNA expression variation in the newly synthesized Populus
      triploid and diploid hybrid populations. However, we also found no significant
      differences in miRNA expression among the three triploid populations and the
      diploid hybrid population. No dosage effect of miRNA expression could lead to
      dosage-dependent negative effects on target genes and their downstream pathway in
      polyploids. We speculate that polyploids may gain advantages from the decrease in
      miRNA negative regulation, suggesting an important molecular mechanism of
      polyploid advantage.

PMID- 28884267
TI  - Diet and enteral nutrition in patients with chronic kidney disease not on
      dialysis: a review focusing on fat, fiber and protein intake.
AB  - The clinical data available on dietary requirements of patients with chronic
      kidney disease (CKD) not on dialysis are limited and largely inconclusive in
      terms of the renal, cardiovascular and nutritional outcomes achievable through
      dietary modifications. Restriction of protein intake during the early stages of
      CKD may in fact slow its progression, but at the same time this approach may also
      lead to protein-energy wasting, if energy intake is not adequate and properly
      monitored. Unfortunately, compliance to dietary recommendations is traditionally
      low in this patient population. A switch from saturated to mono- and
      polyunsaturated fats is generally recognized as advantageous for cardiac health;
      however, the benefits in term of renal function are largely unknown. Similarly,
      the association between dietary fiber intake and kidney disease is largely
      unknown. In fact, while there is evidence on the positive health effects of
      dietary fibers in the general population, nutritional guidelines for CKD lack
      formal recommendations concerning fiber intake. This paper reviews data and
      evidence from clinical trials and meta-analyses on renal and cardiovascular
      outcomes related to modifications in protein, fat and fiber intake. Suggestions
      for maintaining nutritional status through patient-oriented dietary patterns and
      enteral supplementation in CKD patients on conservative therapy are also
      presented.

PMID- 28884268
TI  - Can a Parenting Intervention to Prevent Early Conduct Problems Interrupt Girls'
      Risk for Intimate Partner Violence 10 Years Later?
AB  - This study tests whether a parenting intervention for families of preschoolers at
      risk for conduct problems can prevent later risk for intimate partner violence
      (IPV). Ninety-nine preschoolers at familial risk for conduct problems were
      randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Ten years later, 45
      preschoolers and 43 of their siblings completed an assessment of their romantic
      relationships, including measures of physical and psychological IPV. The study
      focuses on the 54 females, including targets (n = 27) and siblings (n = 27) who
      participated in a 10-year follow-up (M age = 16.5, SD = 5.2, range = 10-28).
      Using an intent-to-treat (ITT) design, multivariate regressions suggest that
      females from families randomly assigned to intervention in early childhood scored
      lower than those in the control condition on perceptions of dating violence as
      normative, beliefs about IPV prevalence, exposure to IPV in their own peer group,
      and expected sanction behaviors for IPV perpetration and victimization. Findings
      suggest that early parenting intervention may reduce association of high-risk
      females with aggressive peers and partners in adolescence.

PMID- 28884269
TI  - CORR Insights(r): What is the Rate of Revision Discectomies After Primary
      Discectomy on a National Scale?

PMID- 28884270
TI  - River biofilm community changes related to pharmaceutical loads emitted by a
      wastewater treatment plant.
AB  - Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are the main sources of a broad spectrum of
      pharmaceuticals found in freshwater ecosystems. These pollutants raise
      environmental health concerns because of their highly bioactive nature and their
      chronic releases. Despite this, pharmaceuticals' effects on aquatic environments
      are poorly defined. Biofilms represent a major part of the microbial life in
      rivers and streams. They can drive key metabolic cycles and their organizations
      reflect exposures to changing chemical, physical, and biological constraints.
      This study estimated the concentrations, over a 3-year period, of ten
      pharmaceuticals and five nutrients in a river contaminated by a conventional WWTP
      fed by urban and hospital wastewaters. Variations in these concentrations were
      related to biofilm bacterial community dynamics. Rock biofilms had developed over
      defined periods and were harvested at four locations in the river from the up-
      and downstream WWTP discharge point. Pharmaceuticals were found in all locations
      in concentrations ranging from not being detected to 192 ng L-1. Despite the high
      dilution factor of the WWTP effluents by the receiving river, pharmaceuticals
      were found more concentrated downstream than upstream the WWTP. Shifts in
      bacterial community structures linked to the environmental emission of
      pharmaceuticals were superior to seasonal community changes. A community
      structure from a site located downstream but close to the WWTP was more strongly
      associated with high pharmaceutical loads and different from those of biofilm
      samples from the WWTP upstream or far downstream sites. These latter sites were
      more strongly associated with high nutrient contents. Low environmental
      concentrations of pharmaceuticals can thus be transferred from WWTP effluents to
      a connected stream and induce bacterial aquatic community changes over time.

PMID- 28884271
TI  - The effect of anaerobic digestion and storage on indicator microorganisms in
      swine and dairy manure.
AB  - The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate the influence of anaerobic
      digestion and storage on indicator microorganisms in swine and dairy excreta.
      Samples were collected every 90 days for 15 months at eight farms, four pig, and
      four dairy farms, four of them having a biogas plant. Moreover, to evaluate
      storage effects on samples, 20 l of manure and slurry taken at each farm
      (digested manure only in farms with a biogas plant) were stored in a controlled
      climatic chamber at 18  degrees C, for 6 months. The bacterial load and the
      chemical-physical characteristics of excreta were evaluated at each sampling
      time, stored slurry, and manure were sampled and analyzed every 2 months. A high
      variability of the concentration of bacteria in the different excreta types was
      observed during the experiment, mainly depending on the type and time of
      treatment. No sample revealed either the presence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 or
      of Salmonella, usually linked to the temporary rearing of infected animals in
      facilities. Anaerobic digestion and storage affected in a significant way the
      reduction of indicator bacteria like lactobacilli, coliforms, and streptococci.
      Anaerobic digestion lowered coliforms in pig slurry (- 2.80 log, P < 0.05),
      streptococci in dairy manure (- 2.44 log, P < 0.001) and in pig slurry (- 1.43
      log, P < 0.05), and lactobacilli in pig slurry (- 3.03 log, P < 0.05). Storage
      lowered coliforms and the other indicators counts, in particular in fresh wastes,
      while clostridia did not show a reduction in concentration.

PMID- 28884272
TI  - Viewing Sexually Explicit Media and Its Association with Mental Health Among Gay
      and Bisexual Men Across the U.S.
AB  - Gay and bisexual men (GBM) have reported viewing significantly more sexually
      explicit media (SEM) than heterosexual men. There is evidence that viewing
      greater amounts of SEM may result in more negative body attitude and negative
      affect. However, no studies have examined these variables within the same model.
      A national sample of 1071 HIV-negative GBM in the U.S. participating in a larger
      study completed an online survey, which included measures of SEM consumption,
      male body attitudes, anxiety, and depression. Participants reported viewing 3 h
      of SEM per week, on average, and 96% of participants reported recently viewing at
      least some SEM. Greater consumption of SEM was directly related to more negative
      body attitude and both depressive and anxious symptomology. There was also a
      significant indirect effect of SEM consumption on depressive and anxious
      symptomology through body attitude. These findings highlight the relevance of
      both SEM on body image and negative affect along with the role body image plays
      in anxiety and depression outcomes for GBM. They also indicate a potential role
      for body image in explaining the co-occurrence of SEM consumption and negative
      affect. For interventions looking to alleviate negative affect for GBM, it may be
      important to address SEM consumption and body image as they are shown to be
      associated with both anxious and depressive symptomology.

PMID- 28884273
TI  - Validation of the Chinese (Mandarin) Version of the Oxford Knee Score in Patients
      with Knee Osteoarthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With the increasing number of patients with knee osteoarthritis
      undergoing TKAs in China, there is a clear need for a valid, short, joint
      specific patient-reported outcome measure such as the Oxford Knee Score (OKS).
      QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: To test the translated and cross-culturally adapted Chinese
      (Mandarin) version of the Oxford Knee Score (OKS-CV) and its (1) reliability, (2)
      construct validity, (3) dimensionality, and (4) responsiveness. METHODS: Three
      native Chinese bilingual translators (a professional English translator, an
      experienced orthopaedic surgeon, an advanced-practice nursing specialist)
      translated the English-language OKS into Mandarin Chinese. A consensus panel
      created a synthesis of those efforts, which then was back-translated by two
      bilingual nonmedical, professional English-language translators. The OKS-CV was
      developed according to the guidelines of copyright holders. Between March 2013
      and March 2015, 253 patients underwent TKAs. Among them, 114 Mandarin-speaking
      patients with knee osteoarthritis underwent primary unilateral TKA (age, 67 +/- 7
      years; range, 55-84 years; female, 80%; preoperatively 54% had moderate to severe
      knee osteoarthritis), completed the preoperative questionnaires, and were
      followed up, with a mean postoperative followup of 2.7 years (SD, 0.5 years).
      Eligibility criteria were (1) patients with knee osteoarthritis who were
      scheduled to have a primary unilateral TKA, (2) patients who were fluent in
      Mandarin, and (3) consent to participate. The exclusion criteria were: (1) lack
      of understanding of Mandarin, and (2) inability to comprehend the questionnaires
      owing to cognitive impairment. To evaluate test-retest reliability, another group
      of 35 Mandarin-speaking outpatients with knee osteoarthritis (age, 61 +/- 10
      years; range, 44-84 years; female, 77%) was recruited to complete the OKS-CV
      twice at a 1-week interval. Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha and
      intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Construct validity was evaluated using
      Spearman's rank correlation coefficient to quantify the correlations between the
      OKS-CV and the WOMAC, Short Form-8 Health Survey (SF-8TM), and EuroQol Group 5
      Dimension Self-Report Questionnaire (EQ-5D). Exploratory factor analysis was
      performed to clarify dimensionality. The eigenvalue indicates the importance of
      each factor obtained from factor analysis. Responsiveness was determined by
      standardized response mean (SRM) and effect size (ES) from preoperative and
      postoperative scores of the OKS-CV. Floor and ceiling effects also were analyzed.
      RESULTS: The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.89) and test-retest
      reliability (ICC = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.87-0.97) proved good. Convergent construct
      validity was supported by moderate to strong correlations between the OKS-CV and
      the WOMAC (r = -0.80, p < 0.001), the SF-8TM physical component summary (r =
      0.65, p < 0.001), and the EQ-5D usual activities (r = -0.41, p < 0.001) and
      mobility (r = -0.35, p < 0.001). There also were correlations between the OKS-CV
      and the SF-8TM mental component summary (r = 0.58, p < 0.001) and the EQ-5D
      anxiety/depression (r = -0.35, p < 0.001). The factor analysis yielded three
      factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. Responsiveness was excellent (SRM =
      1.52; ES = 1.52). No floor or ceiling effect was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The OKS
      CV showed good acceptability and psychometric properties for the intended
      population. Future studies are needed to evaluate the mental state of patients
      with knee osteoarthritis. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The OKS-CV appears to be a
      reliable, valid, and responsive instrument for Chinese patients with knee
      osteoarthritis. Based on these results we believe the OKS-CV can be used as a
      valuable tool for the assessment of patient-reported outcomes in Chinese patients
      with knee osteoarthritis before and after TKA.

PMID- 28884274
TI  - Functional group influences on the reactive azo dye decolorization performance by
      electrochemical oxidation and electro-Fenton technologies.
AB  - Electrochemical water treatment technologies are highly promising to achieve
      complete decolorization of dyebath effluents, as demonstrated by several studies
      reported in the literature. However, these works are focused on the treatment of
      one model pollutant and generalize the performances of the processes which are
      not transposable since they depend on the pollutant treated. Thus, in the present
      study, we evaluate, for the first time, the influence of different functional
      groups that modify the dye structure on the electrochemical process
      decolorization performance. The textile azo dyes Reactive Orange 16, Reactive
      Violet 4, Reactive Red 228, and Reactive Black 5 have been selected because they
      present the same molecular basis structure with different functional groups. The
      results demonstrate that the functional groups that reduce the nucleophilicity of
      the pollutant hinder the electrophilic attack of electrogenerated hydroxyl
      radical. Thereby, the overall decolorization efficiency is consequently reduced
      as well as the decolorization rate. Moreover, the presence of an additional
      chromophore azo bond in the molecule enhances the recalcitrant character of the
      azo dyes as pollutants. The formation of a larger and more stable conjugated pi
      system increases the activation energy required for the electrophyilic attack of
      *OH, affecting the performance of electrochemical technologies on effluent
      decolorization.

PMID- 28884276
TI  - Pregnancy in Residency.

PMID- 28884275
TI  - Alloy Microstructure Dictates Corrosion Modes in THA Modular Junctions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adverse local tissue reactions (ALTRs) triggered by corrosion
      products from modular taper junctions are a known cause of premature THA failure.
      CoCrMo devices are of particular concern because cobalt ions and chromium
      orthophosphates were shown to be linked to ALTRs, even in metal-on-polyethylene
      THAs. The most common categories of CoCrMo alloy are cast and wrought alloy,
      which exhibit fundamental microstructural differences in terms of grain size and
      hard phases. The impact of implant alloy microstructure on the occurring modes of
      corrosion and subsequent metal ion release is not well understood.
      QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether (1) the
      microstructure of cast CoCrMo alloy varies broadly between manufacturers and can
      dictate specific corrosion modes; and whether (2) the microstructure of wrought
      CoCrMo alloy is more consistent between manufacturers and has low implications on
      the alloy's corrosion behavior. METHODS: The alloy microstructure of four femoral
      stem and three femoral-head designs from four manufacturers was
      metallographically and electrochemically characterized. Three stem designs were
      made from cast alloy; all three head designs and one stem design were made from
      wrought alloy. Alloy samples were sectioned from retrieved components and then
      polished and etched to visualize grain structure and hard phases such as carbides
      (eg, M23C6) or intermetallic phases (eg, sigma phase). Potentiodynamic
      polarization (PDP) tests were conducted to determine the corrosion potential
      (Ecorr), corrosion current density (Icorr), and pitting potential (Epit) for each
      alloy. Four devices were tested within each group, and each measurement was
      repeated three times to ensure repeatable results. Differences in PDP metrics
      between manufacturers and between alloys with different hard phase contents were
      compared using one-way analysis of variance and independent-sample t-tests.
      Microstructural features such as twin boundaries and slip bands as well as
      corrosion damage features were viewed and qualitatively assessed in a scanning
      electron microscope. RESULTS: We found broad variability in implant alloy
      microstructure for both cast and wrought alloy between manufacturers, but also
      within the same implant design. In cast alloys, there was no difference in PDP
      metrics between manufacturers. However, coarse hard phases and clusters of hard
      phases (mainly intermetallic phases) were associated with severe phase boundary
      corrosion and pitting corrosion. Furthermore, cast alloys with hard phases had a
      lower Epit than those without (0.46 V, SD 0.042; 0.53 V, SD 0.03, respectively; p
      = 0.015). Wrought alloys exhibited either no hard phases or numerous carbides
      (M23C6). However, the corrosion behavior was mainly affected by lattice defects
      and banded structures indicative of segregations that appear to be introduced
      during bar stock manufacturing. Alloys with banding had a lower Ecorr (p = 0.008)
      and higher Icorr (p = 0.028) than alloys without banding (-0.76 V, SD 0.003; 
      0.73 V, SD 0.009; and 1.14 * 10-4 mA/cm2, SD 1.47 * 10-5; 5.2 * 10-5 mA/cm2, SD
      2.57 * 10-5, respectively). Alloys with carbides had a slightly higher Ecorr (p =
      0.046) than those without (-0.755 V, SD 0.005; -0.761 V, SD 0.004); however,
      alloys with carbides exhibited more severe corrosion damage as a result of phase
      boundary corrosion, hard phase detachment, and subsequent local crevice
      corrosion. CONCLUSIONS: The observed variability in CoCrMo alloy microstructure
      of both cast and wrought components in this study appears to be an important
      issue to address, perhaps through better standards, to minimize in vivo
      corrosion. The finding of the banded structures within wrought alloys is
      especially concerning because it unfavorably influences the corrosion behavior
      independent of the manufacturer. The findings suggest that a homogeneous alloy
      microstructure with a minimal hard phase fraction exhibits more favorable
      corrosion behavior within the in vivo environment of modular taper junctions,
      thus lowering metal ion release and subsequently the risk of ALTRs to corrosion
      products. Also, the question arises if hard phases fulfill a useful purpose in
      metal-on-polyethylene bearings, because they may come with a higher risk of phase
      boundary corrosion and pitting corrosion and the benefit they provide by adding
      strength is not needed (unlike in metal-on-metal bearings). CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      Implant failure resulting from corrosion processes within modular junctions is a
      major concern in THA. Our results suggest that implant alloy microstructure is
      not sufficiently standardized and may also dictate specific corrosion modes and
      subsequent metal ion release.

PMID- 28884277
TI  - Global stability for epidemic models on multiplex networks.
AB  - In this work, we consider an epidemic model in a two-layer network in which the
      dynamics of susceptible-infected-susceptible process in the physical layer
      coexists with that of a cyclic process of unaware-aware-unaware in the virtual
      layer. For such multiplex network, we shall define the basic reproduction number
      [Formula: see text] in the virtual layer, which is similar to the basic
      reproduction number [Formula: see text] defined in the physical layer. We show
      analytically that if [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], then the
      disease and information free equilibrium is globally stable and if [Formula: see
      text] and [Formula: see text], then the disease free and information saturated
      equilibrium is globally stable for all initial conditions except at the origin.
      In the case of [Formula: see text], whether the disease dies out or not depends
      on the competition between how well the information is transmitted in the virtual
      layer and how contagious the disease is in the physical layer. In particular, it
      is numerically demonstrated that if the difference in [Formula: see text] and
      [Formula: see text] is greater than the product of [Formula: see text], the
      deviation of [Formula: see text] from 1 and the relative infection rate for an
      aware susceptible individual, then the disease dies out. Otherwise, the disease
      breaks out.

PMID- 28884278
TI  - HPV prevalence in vulvar cancer in Austria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Even if vulvar cancer is not common, over one hundred women are
      affected in Austria per year. There is strong evidence that basaloid and warty
      variants are associated with types of human papillomavirus (HPV). METHODS: The
      aim of this study is to analyze the types of HPV in vulvar cancer in Austria.
      This cross-sectional period-prevalence international collaborative study on
      archival specimens was performed in cooperation with the Institut Catalan di
      Oncologia in Barcelona, Spain. A total of 177 consecutive samples of Austrian
      women were analyzed to detect the presence of various HPV types using the SPF10
      PCR/DEIA/LiPA25 system. Furthermore, the expression of the tumor suppressor
      protein p16INK4a was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (CINtec histology kit,
      ROCHE). A tumor was considered HPV-driven if an overexpression of p16INK4a was
      detected. RESULTS: In all, 41 cases of vulvar cancer tested positive for HPV DNA
      (23%) and 32 (18%) were p16 positive. Patients with warty and basaloid squamous
      cell cancer were significantly younger than those with keratinizing squamous cell
      cancer (63.3 years vs. 71.0 years, p = 0.021). In addition, 77.4% of all cases
      suffering from warty or basaloid squamous cell cancer tested positive for HPV,
      compared to 9.5% of the keratinizing squamous cell cancer cases (p < 0.001). The
      most commonly detected HPV strain was type 16, followed by 31 and 33. CONCLUSION:
      Infection with HPV type 16 appears to be strongly correlated to the development
      of warty or basaloid squamous cell cancer. Vaccination against HPV can be
      expected to prevent this type of vulvar cancer.

PMID- 28884279
TI  - Primary HIV Infection: Clinical Presentation, Testing, and Treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review was to provide current data on
      clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of primary HIV infection (PHI).
      RECENT FINDINGS: In 65 to 95% of cases, PHI causes acute retroviral syndrome
      presenting with unspecific flu-like symptoms. Symptomatic PHI was associated with
      a faster clinical and immunological progression of HIV infection. Point-of-care
      tests remain less sensitive than fourth-generation immunoassays (IA) in PHI,
      especially after tenofovir-based prophylaxis use. Early antiretroviral treatment
      (ART) started during PHI prevents HIV transmission and decreases viral and
      immunological reservoir constitution. Recommended ART regimens in PHI are
      combinations of tenofovir and emtricitabine with either darunavir/ritonavir, or
      dolutegravir. Starting ART the earliest is highly recommended for clinical,
      virological, immunological, and public health benefits. Reducing HIV reservoir
      constitution in PHI may optimize potential opportunities for future functional
      cure.

PMID- 28884280
TI  - Clinical outcomes of everolimus in patients with advanced, nonfunctioning
      pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: a multicenter study in Korea.
AB  - PURPOSE: Everolimus is a standard treatment option for advanced pancreatic
      neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs). This multicenter study evaluated the efficacy and
      safety of everolimus in low and intermediate grade advanced pNETs. METHODS:
      Tumors were graded according to the World Health Organization 2010 classification
      system. Patients with low or intermediate grade pNETs who received everolimus as
      first- or second-line chemotherapy between 2002 and 2014 were included. RESULTS:
      A total of 40 patients with metastatic or recurrent pNETs were included in this
      study. The median age was 54.5 years (range 19-83 years). Twelve patients (30%)
      experienced recurrence. There were 11 patients (27.5%) with low grade pNETs and
      29 (72.5%) with intermediate. Everolimus was administered as first-line therapy
      in 30 patients (75%) and as second-line therapy in 10 patients (25%). The median
      progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with low and intermediate grade pNETs
      was significantly different (median not reached vs. 11 months, P = 0.015). On
      multivariate analysis, tumor grade (intermediate grade; HR 6.52, 95% CI 1.31
      32.27, P = 0.022) was the only independent prognostic factor for PFS in pNETs.
      The most common adverse events were stomatitis, skin rash, and anemia.
      CONCLUSIONS: World Health Organization 2010 grade is the most important
      determinant for PFS in patients undergoing everolimus treatment for pNETs with an
      acceptable incidence of adverse events.

PMID- 28884281
TI  - Angiotensin Receptor Blockade by Inhibiting Glial Activation Promotes Hippocampal
      Neurogenesis Via Activation of Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling in Hypertension.
AB  - Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for central nervous system (CNS)
      disorders like stroke and Alzheimer's disease (AD). On the other hand, CNS
      diseases like AD have been associated with gliosis and impaired neurogenesis.
      Further, renin angiotensin system (RAS) is intricately associated with
      hypertension; however, the accumulating evidences suggest that over-activity of
      RAS may perpetuate the brain inflammation related with AD. Therefore, in the
      present study, we examined the effect of hypertension and RAS on glial
      (astrocytes and microglia) activation and hippocampal neurogenesis in a rat model
      of chronic hypertension. We used Candesartan [angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R)
      blocker (ARB)] both at a low dose (0.1 mg/kg) and anti-hypertensive dose (2
      mg/kg) to explore whether their effect on astrocyte and microglial activation,
      neuroinflammation, and neurogenesis is blood pressure (BP) dependent or
      independent. Our data revealed that hypertension induces robust microglial and
      astrocyte activation, neuroinflammation, and cripples hippocampal neurogenesis.
      Importantly, AT1R blockade by Candesartan, even at low dose (0.1 mg/kg),
      prevented astrocyte and microglial activation and neuroinflammation in the brain
      of hypertensive rats. Mechanistically, AT1R blockade prevented the activation of
      NADPH oxidase, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, suppression of MAP
      kinase and NFkB signaling. Importantly, we, for the first time to our knowledge,
      provided the evidence that AT1R blockade by activating Wnt/beta-catenin
      signaling, promotes neurogenesis during hypertensive state. We conclude that AT1R
      blockade prevents astrocyte and microglial activation and improves hippocampal
      neurogenesis in hypertensive state, independent of BP lowering action.

PMID- 28884282
TI  - Efficiency Analysis of Integrated Public Hospital Networks in Outpatient Internal
      Medicine.
AB  - Healthcare systems are evolving towards a complex network of interconnected
      services due to the increasing costs and the increasing expectations for high
      service levels. It is evidenced in the literature the importance of implementing
      management techniques and sophisticated methods to improve the efficiency of
      healthcare systems, especially in emerging economies. This paper proposes an
      integrated collaboration model between two public hospitals to reach the
      reduction of weighted average lead time in outpatient internal medicine
      department. A strategic framework based on value stream mapping and collaborative
      practices has been developed in real case study settled in Colombia.

PMID- 28884284
TI  - Body farms - characteristics and contributions.

PMID- 28884283
TI  - Clinical outcomes of early scheduled Fontan completion following Kawashima
      operation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study reviewed late clinical features after Kawashima operation
      to confirm the impact of scheduled subsequent early Fontan completion. METHODS:
      Of the 17 consecutive patients who underwent the Kawashima operation between 1987
      and 2010, 11 underwent the procedure as inter-stage palliation (scheduled Fontan
      group). Ten of these patients underwent subsequent early Fontan completion after
      a median interval of 0.6 years. The remaining 6 patients underwent the Kawashima
      operation initially as definitive surgery (non-scheduled group). Late Fontan
      completion was performed in 4 of these patients as salvage surgery to prevent
      progression of hypoxia after a median interval of 6.6 years. RESULTS: All
      patients completed follow-up; the mean follow-up period was 12 +/- 7 years (range
      0.6-28.2). Cumulative survival at 10 years was 66% in the non-scheduled group and
      79% in the scheduled group (p = 0.66). Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations
      developed after Kawashima operation in all 4 patients without antegrade pulmonary
      blood flow in the non-scheduled group but in only 2 of 11 patients in the
      scheduled group, both of which completely resolved after Fontan completion. In
      the scheduled Fontan group, 3 patients developed venovenous malformations between
      the Fontan pathway and the pulmonary veins or atrium after Fontan completion.
      CONCLUSIONS: Issues related to pulmonary arteriovenous malformations after
      Kawashima operation resolved with early scheduled Fontan completion. However,
      data on long-term outcomes are limited and the risk of death continues throughout
      early life. For unsuitable Fontan candidates, the Kawashima operation with
      antegrade pulmonary blood flow may provide definitive palliation.

PMID- 28884285
TI  - Immune TB Antibody Phage Display Library as a Tool To Study B Cell Immunity in TB
      Infections.
AB  - B cells and in particular antibodies has always played second fiddle to cellular
      immunity in regard to tuberculosis (TB). However, recent studies has helped
      position humoral immunity especially antibodies back into the foray in relation
      to TB immunity. Therefore, the ability to correlate the natural antibody
      responses of infected individuals toward TB antigens would help strengthen this
      concept. Phage display is an intriguing approach that can be utilized to study
      antibody-mediated responses against a particular infection via harvesting the B
      cell repertoire from infected individuals. The development of disease-specific
      antibody libraries or immune libraries is useful to better understand antibody
      mediated immune responses against specific disease antigens. This study describes
      the generation of an immune single-chain variable fragment (scFv) library derived
      from TB-infected individuals. The immune library with an estimated diversity of
      109 independent clones was then applied for the identification of monoclonal
      antibodies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis alpha-crystalline as a model
      antigen. Biopanning of the library isolated three monoclonal antibodies with
      unique gene usage. This strengthens the role of antibodies in TB immunity in
      addition to the role played by cellular immunity. The developed library can be
      applied against other TB antigens and aid antibody-derived TB immunity studies in
      the future.

PMID- 28884286
TI  - Combination of Irinotecan, Oxaliplatin and 5-Fluorouracil as a Rechallenge
      Regimen for Heavily Pretreated Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: Our objective was to evaluate the benefit of re-exposing patients with
      refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) to a combination of oxaliplatin,
      irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil treatment. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed
      patients with mCRC who received a combination of oxaliplatin, irinotecan and
      fluorouracil as a rechallenge regimen after progressing on the same drugs. Both
      FOLFOXIRI and FOLFIRINOX were used. Toxicity was evaluated for each treatment
      cycle, and survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method.
      RESULTS: A total of 21 patients who were treated between January 2011 and
      December 2013 were selected for this study. Most of the patients (95.2%) had an
      ECOG status of 0-1. The median age at diagnosis was 52.1 years (range 36-77
      years), and 14 (66.6%) patients had wild-type KRAS. Thirteen patients received
      FOLFIRINOX, and eight received FOLFOXIRI. Most patients had previously received
      at least three regimens, with 80% receiving anti-VEGF and 66% anti-EGFR
      antibodies. The response rate was 38%, and 24% patients had stable disease. The
      median time to disease progression was 4.0 months (range 1.0-9.1 months), and the
      median overall survival duration was 8.6 months (range 6.3-11.5 months). Most
      patients required dose adjustment and treatment delays. One patient experienced
      grade 5 neutropenic sepsis. CONCLUSIONS: Both FOLFIRINOX and FOLFOXIRI are active
      and potentially feasible rechallenge treatment options for heavily pretreated
      patients with good performance status. With dose reduction and close monitoring
      for toxicity, the risk of serious adverse events can be minimised.

PMID- 28884287
TI  - Incidence of comprehensive hospitalization due to infection, cardiovascular
      disease, fractures, and malignancies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - To comprehensively analyze the overall incidence of hospitalization for
      comorbidities in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We prospectively
      analyzed overall hospitalizations for comorbidities using the Institute of
      Rheumatology, Rheumatoid Arthritis (IORRA) cohort. The incidence of hospitalized
      comorbidity was calculated. Risk factors for the most frequent hospitalized
      comorbidities were determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Among
      5519 RA patients contributing 5336.5 person-years of observation, 435 incidences
      of hospitalized comorbidity [8.15/100 person-years; 95% confidence interval (CI)
      7.40-8.95] were confirmed. The most frequent cause of hospitalized comorbidity
      was infection (1.52/100 person-years), primarily respiratory system infection
      (0.77/100 person-years), followed by malignancy (1.03/100 person-years), extra
      articular manifestations (0.78/100 person-years), bone fracture (0.77/100 person
      years), and acute coronary syndrome (0.22/100 person-years). Death occurred in
      0.34/100 person-years (95% CI 0.20-0.53), and in 94.4% of cases the cause of
      death was the same as that of admission. The risk factors for the most frequent
      cause of hospitalization, hospitalized infection, were age [odds ratio (OR) 1.03;
      95% CI 1.00-1.05], serum albumin level (OR 0.30; 95% CI 0.13-0.69), and
      corticosteroid use (prednisone > 5 mg/day; OR 3.66; 95% CI 1.81-7.35), but not
      methotrexate or biological agent use. The present study determined the overall
      burden of hospitalized comorbidities in patients with RA. These comprehensive
      data on hospitalized comorbidities may provide a basis for future improvements in
      the treatment of RA.

PMID- 28884288
TI  - Dyslipidemia incidence and the trend of lipid parameters changes in women with
      history of gestational diabetes: a 15-year follow-up study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Evidence shows that patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)
      may exhibit features of dyslipidemic phenotype later in life. We aimed to examine
      and compare dyslipidemia incidence rate and the trend of lipid changes over a 15
      years follow-up between the women with the history of GDM and their healthy
      peers. METHODS: This longitudinal study included 289 patients with GDM and 1183
      women without GDM, aged 20-50 years. Pooled logistic regression model was
      utilized to estimate odds ratio of dyslipidemia. The generalized estimating
      equation was used to evaluate the trend of lipid parameters changes over time.
      RESULTS: Person-time dyslipidemia incidence rate in women with previous GDM was
      0.067 (CI: 0.038, 0.096) with a median progression time of 2.13 years and for
      those without GDM was 0.059 (CI: 0.046, 0.072) with the median time of 2.31 years
      ([Formula: see text] = 0.214). The generalized estimating equation (GEE) analysis
      revealed no significant difference in trend changes of lipid profiles between two
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: Lipid disorder after GDM might be more influenced by other
      variables (BMI, anthropometric features, and smoking/lifestyle habits) rather
      than by the GDM status alone. Lipid profile changes of GDM women do not become
      significantly worse than their non-GDM counterparts, as time progresses.

PMID- 28884289
TI  - Dispersals of the Siberian Y-chromosome haplogroup Q in Eurasia.
AB  - The human Y-chromosome has proven to be a powerful tool for tracing the paternal
      history of human populations and genealogical ancestors. The human Y-chromosome
      haplogroup Q is the most frequent haplogroup in the Americas. Previous studies
      have traced the origin of haplogroup Q to the region around Central Asia and
      Southern Siberia. Although the diversity of haplogroup Q in the Americas has been
      studied in detail, investigations on the diffusion of haplogroup Q in Eurasia and
      Africa are still limited. In this study, we collected 39 samples from China and
      Russia, investigated 432 samples from previous studies of haplogroup Q, and
      analyzed the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) subclades Q1a1a1-M120, Q1a2a1
      L54, Q1a1b-M25, Q1a2-M346, Q1a2a1a2-L804, Q1a2b2-F1161, Q1b1a-M378, and Q1b1a1
      L245. Through NETWORK and BATWING analyses, we found that the subclades of
      haplogroup Q continued to disperse from Central Asia and Southern Siberia during
      the past 10,000 years. Apart from its migration through the Beringia to the
      Americas, haplogroup Q also moved from Asia to the south and to the west during
      the Neolithic period, and subsequently to the whole of Eurasia and part of
      Africa.

PMID- 28884290
TI  - Attempt at standardization of bone quantitative ultrasound in Japan.
AB  - Dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is used to diagnose osteoporosis. On the other
      hand, quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is widely used to assess bone density as part
      of medical screening as it is relatively inexpensive and easy to perform. Current
      QUS devices do not share precise ultrasound-related parameters, such as
      frequency, waveform, beam pattern, transient response, definition of propagation
      time, definition of degree of attenuation, and precise measurement site,
      resulting in different measurements across models. The Japan Osteoporosis Society
      established a QUS Standardization Committee in 2007 to investigate
      standardization of speed of sound (SOS) and broadband ultrasonic attenuation
      (BUA) measurements to resolve this issue. The committee came up with a formula to
      convert SOS and BUA values yielded by each model available in Japan. This has
      made it possible to convert QUS measurements from different models into
      standardized values, greatly improving the effectiveness of QUS measurements.

PMID- 28884291
TI  - Pre-treatment carcinoembryonic antigen and outcome of patients with rectal cancer
      receiving neo-adjuvant chemo-radiation and surgical resection: a systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Neo-adjuvant chemo-radiation is the standard of care for patients with locally
      advanced rectal carcinoma. The aim of the present paper is to evaluate the
      relationship of the baseline serologic concentration of the carcinoembryonic
      antigen with the outcome. Data sources included MEDLINE and Web of Science
      databases. A systematic search of the databases by a predefined criterion has
      been conducted. Chemo-radiation followed by surgical resection of rectal tumors
      was the intervention of interest. From selected studies, the relationships
      between carcinoembryonic antigen and pathologic complete response, disease-free
      survival and overall survival were assessed. Carcinoembryonic antigen correlated
      significantly and inversely with the rate of pathologic complete responses (OR
      2.00). Similar to this relationship, a low baseline carcinoembryonic antigen
      concentration was associated with a better disease-free survival (OR 1.88) and a
      better overall survival (OR 1.85). Heterogeneity of studies and publication bias
      were considerable in evaluating the relationship of baseline carcinoembryonic
      antigen and pathologic complete response. Baseline carcinoembryonic antigen
      should be regarded as a predictor of outcome of patients undergoing neo-adjuvant
      chemo-radiation. A calibration of the cutoff value from 5 to 3 ng/ml appears more
      appropriate to this patient population and should be evaluated in prospective
      trials.

PMID- 28884293
TI  - Human parainfluenza virus type 2 polymerase complex recognizes leader promoters
      of other species belonging to the genus Rubulavirus.
AB  - Leader sequence, located at the 3' terminus of paramyxovirus genomes, determines
      the degree of viral transcription and replication. The essential nucleotides in
      the leader sequence that influence viral propagation, however, have not been
      investigated in detail. In the present study, we show that polymerase complex of
      human parainfluenza virus type 2 (hPIV2) uses a luciferase-encoding hPIV2 mini
      genome possessing the leader sequence from other closely related viruses as a
      template. Furthermore, we demonstrate that although hPIV2 polymerase complex can
      recognize the leader sequence of hPIV4B, mumps virus (MuV) and PIV5 as well as
      Newcastle disease virus (NDV), it cannot recognize measles virus, hPIV1, Sendai
      virus (SeV) or hPIV3. We could obtain the chimeric hPIV2 possessing the leader
      sequence from hPIV4B, MuV and PIV5, but not from other species, including NDV and
      SeV. These results reveal that although hPIV2 polymerase complex can recognize
      the leader sequence from rubulaviruses to achieve efficient viral infection, this
      does not apply to viruses belonging to other genus. A comparison of leader
      sequence nucleotides among paramyxoviruses highlights the importance of the
      conservation in the first 13 nucleotides for infectious hPIV2 growth.

PMID- 28884292
TI  - The Advancement of Biomaterials in Regulating Stem Cell Fate.
AB  - Stem cells are well-known to have prominent roles in tissue engineering
      applications. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells
      (iPSCs) can differentiate into every cell type in the body while adult stem cells
      such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be isolated from various sources.
      Nevertheless, an utmost limitation in harnessing stem cells for tissue
      engineering is the supply of cells. The advances in biomaterial technology allows
      the establishment of ex vivo expansion systems to overcome this bottleneck. The
      progress of various scaffold fabrication could direct stem cell fate decisions
      including cell proliferation and differentiation into specific lineages in vitro.
      Stem cell biology and biomaterial technology promote synergistic effect on stem
      cell-based regenerative therapies. Therefore, understanding the interaction of
      stem cell and biomaterials would allow the designation of new biomaterials for
      future clinical therapeutic applications for tissue regeneration. This review
      focuses mainly on the advances of natural and synthetic biomaterials in
      regulating stem cell fate decisions. We have also briefly discussed how
      biological and biophysical properties of biomaterials including wettability,
      chemical functionality, biodegradability and stiffness play their roles.

PMID- 28884294
TI  - A Concise Review of MicroRNA Exploring the Insights of MicroRNA Regulations in
      Bacterial, Viral and Metabolic Diseases.
AB  - MicroRNA (miRNA) is a small section of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that reduces the
      protein formation by making the pair of the complementary piece of mRNA. The
      genes of miRNA are present as transcriptional or polycistronic units in the
      chromosomes. The cellular multiplication, separation and existence like the
      multitude of genetic functions are affected by miRNA. Nearly 50% of identified
      miRNA are located in the residence in the intronic part of the genes. The mature
      miRNA is yielded in two steps. Drosha and RNA-induced silencing complex are the
      catalysts that play an important role in miRNA synthesis. The miRNA may function
      by just hindering the translation or complete vitiation of miRNA that occurs to
      control the genes. The microRNA antagonists and miRNA mimics are therapeutics
      approaches for the treatment of abnormalities. The upregulation and
      downregulation of miRNAs are linked to a number of diseases as miR-122 is
      associated with viral hepatitis, and some members of let-7 and other miRNAs are
      concerned with various diseases. Overexpressed miRNAs may function as both
      oncogenes and regulator of cellular processes. The miRNA functions can be altered
      by single-point mutations in miRNA target and epigenetic silencing of
      transcription units. There are numerous molecular targets for miRNA as
      degradation by nuclease and phosphodiesterase. Thus, miRNA has potential
      applications in disease diagnosis along with therapy, but the mechanisms involved
      in miRNA systems and its targeted delivery of miRNA are much more important to
      achieve its therapeutic applications.

PMID- 28884295
TI  - Dietary Patterns, Nutrition Knowledge, Lifestyle, and Health-Related Quality of
      Life: Associations with Anti-Hypertension Medication Adherence in a Sample of
      Australian Adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Poor anti-hypertension medication (AHT) adherence can increase
      disease costs and adverse outcomes. Hypertensive individuals who have a better
      nutrition knowledge may lead a healthier lifestyle, have a better health-related
      quality of life (HRQoL) and greater confidence to change behaviour. On this
      basis, they may have better treatment adherence. AIM: To explore the association
      between the above-mentioned variables and AHT adherence in a group of Australian
      adults with high blood pressure (BP) in a cross-sectional clinical and community
      based study. METHODS: Adults with high BP (n = 270) completed a questionnaire
      including: food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), nutrition knowledge, HRQoL, self
      efficacy of diet and exercise, lifestyle and AHT adherence sections. Bivariate
      analysis and hierarchical logistic regression were used to explore the data.
      RESULTS: Three dietary patterns were identified from the FFQ, using factor and
      cluster analyses (Western, Snack and Alcohol, and Balanced). We observed that
      following a Western dietary pattern, having lower exercise self-efficacy and
      shorter sleep duration were more dominant in the poor AHT adherence individuals
      compared to their counterparts. A positive association was observed between self
      efficacy and sleep duration with AHT adherence. A Western dietary pattern was
      prevalent in high BP participants which slightly reduced the likelihood of good
      adherence. CONCLUSION: A healthier dietary pattern, better exercise self-efficacy
      and adequate sleep (more than six hours a night) may increase the likelihood of
      AHT adherence in individuals with high BP. Interventions focusing on improving
      these variables are required to confirm the findings of this study.

PMID- 28884296
TI  - An open-label, prospective, observational study of the efficacy of bisphosphonate
      therapy for painful osteoid osteoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of bisphosphonate therapy on bone pain in
      patients with osteoid osteoma (OO) (main objective), and to describe
      bisphosphonate-induced changes in nidus mineralisation and regional bone-marrow
      oedema (BMO). METHODS: A prospective, observational study was conducted from 2011
      to 2014. Patients with risk factors for complications of percutaneous or surgical
      ablation or recurrence after ablation, were offered once monthly intravenous
      bisphosphonate treatment until significant pain alleviation was achieved.
      RESULTS: We included 23 patients. The first two patients received pamidronate and
      the next 21 zoledronic acid (mean, 2.95 infusions per patient). Bisphosphonate
      therapy was successful in 19 patients (83%), whose mean pain visual analogue
      scale score decreased by 76.7%; this pain-relieving effect persisted in 17
      patients (74%) with a mean follow-up time of 36 months. Computed tomography (CT)
      demonstrated a mean nidus density increase of 177.7% (p = 0.001). By magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI), mean decreases were 38.4% for BMO surface area and 30.3%
      for signal intensity (p = 0.001 and p = 0.000, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In
      17/23 patients with painful OO managed conservatively with bisphosphonates, long
      term final success was achieved. Bisphosphonates may accelerate the spontaneous
      healing of OO. KEY POINTS: * 19/23 patients with OO managed with bisphosphonates
      experienced significant pain relief * Pain relief was sustained in 17/23
      patients, mean follow-up of 36 months * CT demonstrated a significant increase in
      nidus mineralisation * MRI demonstrated a significant decrease in bone marrow
      oedema * Bisphosphonate therapy may accelerate the spontaneous healing of OO.

PMID- 28884297
TI  - The effect of different organic materials amendment on soil bacteria communities
      in barren sandy loam soil.
AB  - To effectively improve soil productivity and optimize organic fertilizer
      management while reducing environmental pollution and resource wasting in
      farmland system, the present study was conducted in Wuqiao Experiment Station of
      China Agricultural University, Hebei Province. Taking crop straw treatment as
      control, four kinds of organic materials including pig manure (PM), biogas
      residue (BR), biochar (BC) and crop straw (ST) were applied to soil at the same
      nitrogen (N) level. The soil bacteria community characteristics were explored
      using Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing technologies. The results were as
      follows: (1) Compared with ST, PM, BR and BC had no significant effect on Chao 1
      and Shannon index. The dominant bacterial groups include Proteobacteria,
      Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Chloroflexi in sandy loam soil
      after the application of different organic materials. The abundance of
      Proteobacteria in BC treatment was significantly lower than that of ST (control)
      treatment (p < 0.05). On the contrary, compared to ST, the abundances of
      Acidobacteria increased by 65.0, 40.7, and 58.7% in the BC, BR, and PM
      treatments, respectively. (2) Compared to ST, the BC treatment significantly (p <
      0.05) increased in soil organic carbon (SOC) and pH in the arable layer (0-20 cm)
      in the farmland (p < 0.05), and significantly increased the soil pH with a value
      of 0.26 level (p < 0.05). (3) Pearson correlation analysis results showed that
      the PCoA1 scores and soil pH were closely correlated (R 2 = 0.3738, p < 0.05). In
      addition, pairwise regression between PCoA1 scores and SOC (R 2 = 0.5008, p <
      0.05), PCoA2 scores and SOC (R 2 = 0.4053, p < 0.05) were both closely
      correlated. In general, our results indicated that organic materials amendment
      shaped the bacterial community in sandy loam soil through changing the soil pH
      and SOC.

PMID- 28884298
TI  - Educational Interventions May Promote Better Blood Pressure Control in Russia.

PMID- 28884299
TI  - Can Inferior Vena Cava Measurement be an Alternative to Central Venous Pressure
      Measurement?

PMID- 28884300
TI  - What every radiologist should know about adnexal torsion.
AB  - Adnexal torsion is the fifth most common gynecologic surgical emergency,
      requiring clinician and radiologist awareness. It involves the rotation of the
      ovarian tissue on its vascular pedicle leading to stromal edema, hemorrhagic
      infarction, and necrosis of the adnexal structures with the subsequent sequelae.
      Expedient diagnosis poses a difficult challenge because the clinical presentation
      is variable and often misleading. Adnexal torsion can mimic malignancy as it can
      take a subacute, intermittent, or chronic course, and thereby can be complicated
      to diagnose. The torsion may occur in the normal ovary but is usually secondary
      to a preexisting adnexal mass. Early surgery is necessary to avoid irreversible
      adnexal damage and to preserve ovarian function especially in children and young
      women. Pelvic ultrasound forms the foundation of diagnostic evaluation due to its
      ability to directly and rapidly evaluate both ovarian anatomy and perfusion.
      Moreover, it is a noninvasive and accessible technique. However, the color
      Doppler appearance of the ovary should not be relied upon to rule out torsion
      because a torsed ovary or adnexa may still have preserved arterial flow due to
      the dual blood supply. MR and CT may be used as problem-solving tools needed
      after the ultrasound examination but should not be the first-line imaging
      modalities in this setting due to ionizing radiation and potential time delay in
      diagnosis. The goal of this article is to review the adnexal anatomy, to
      familiarize radiologists with the main imaging features, and to discuss the main
      mimickers and the most common pitfalls of adnexal torsion. Main points Adnexal
      torsion is an uncommon gynecological disorder caused by partial or complete
      rotation of the ovary and/or the Fallopian tube about the infundibulopelvic
      ligament. The ovaries receive a dual blood supply from the ovarian artery and
      uterine artery. The lack of pathognomonic symptoms and specific findings on
      physical examination makes this entity difficult to diagnose. Since the right
      adnexa are most commonly involved, symptoms may mimic acute appendicitis.
      Persistence of adnexal vascularization does not exclude torsion. In the pediatric
      age group, gray-scale ultrasound is the best modality of choice. Obtaining CT
      and/or MR images should not delay treatment in order to preserve ovarian
      viability.

PMID- 28884301
TI  - Clinical and pathologic predictors of central lymph node metastasis in papillary
      thyroid microcarcinoma: a retrospective cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the clinical and pathological predictors of central lymph
      node metastasis (CLNM) in patients with clinically lymph node-negative papillary
      thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data pertaining to 541
      clinically lymph node-negative PTMC patients who underwent thyroid surgery at the
      Shanghai General Hospital between January 2010 and December 2013 were
      retrospectively analyzed. According to histopathological evidence of central
      lymph node involvement, patients were divided into central lymph node metastasis
      (CLNM)-positive and CLNM-negative groups; risk factors for CLNM were identified
      statistically. RESULTS: LNM was found in 148 (27.4%) patients. Gender (P =
      0.002), age (P < 0.001), tumor size (P < 0.001), multifocality (P < 0.001), and
      extrathyroidal extension (P < 0.001) were significantly different between CLNM
      positive and CLNM-negative groups. On multivariate analyses, male sex (odds ratio
      [OR] = 2.656), age <45 years (OR = 4.184), tumor size >0.575 cm (OR = 2.105),
      gross extrathyroidal extension (OR = 14.605) and multifocality (OR = 2.084) were
      independent risk factors for CLNM. Among patients who did not have any of these
      five risk factors, only 3.9% were found to have CLNM. CONCLUSIONS: A relatively
      high prevalence of CLNM was observed in patients with clinically lymph node
      negative PTMC. CLNM was associated with male sex, younger age, larger tumor size,
      extrathyroidal extension and multifocal PTMC.

PMID- 28884302
TI  - Monitoring vegetation cover in Chongqing between 2001 and 2010 using remote
      sensing data.
AB  - In this study, we applied asymmetric Gaussian function fitting to reconstruct a
      high-quality MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series
      dataset. Following this, we retrieved vegetation cover data from the Chongqing
      area between 2001 and 2010 using this dataset, applying a dimidiate pixel method.
      We then used several analytical indices to analyze spatial and temporal changes
      and trends related to these changes. We determined that a reconstruction of the
      MODIS NDVI dataset using asymmetric Gaussian fitting in conjunction with a data
      quality weight coefficient improved data quality and created a foundation for
      accurate estimations of vegetation cover. We also determined that vegetation
      cover in the Chongqing area decreased gradually from east to west. During the 10
      year study period, vegetation cover in the Chongqing area generally increased,
      changing from low to high coverage. This increase in vegetation cover was mainly
      the result of ecological protection policies and improving climate conditions. We
      also found that changes in vegetation cover were mainly the result of urban
      construction and afforestation initiatives, but vegetation cover improved
      overall.

PMID- 28884303
TI  - Efficacy and safety of clindamycin-based treatment for bone and joint infections:
      a cohort study.
AB  - Clindamycin has high bioavailability together with good diffusion in bone tissue
      and could represent an alternative antibiotic compound for the treatment of bone
      and joint infections (BJIs). However, data regarding the efficacy and safety of
      clindamycin for BJIs are limited. A monocentric cohort study based on our medical
      dashboard, which prospectively recorded 28 characteristics for all hospitalized
      patients since July 2005, was performed. BJIs were selected, and then, all mono
      microbial BJI managed with clindamycin-based therapy were included. Remission was
      defined as the absence of clinical and/or microbiological relapse after
      treatment. The duration of follow-up without relapse was determined
      retrospectively using computerized medical records. For 10 years, 196 BJIs, of
      which 80 (41%) were device-associated infections, were treated with clindamycin
      based therapy. The bacterial causative agent was Staphylococcus aureus in 130
      cases (66%), coagulase-negative staphylococci in 29 cases (15%), streptococci in
      31 cases (16%) and other bacteria in 6 cases (3%). When used in combination
      therapy, clindamycin was mainly paired with fluoroquinolones (31%) or rifampin
      (27%). The mean duration of clindamycin treatment was 7.4 +/- 3.2 weeks (range, 1
      24). An AE was recorded for 9 (4.5%) patients. Remission was recorded for 111
      (57%) patients, with a mean duration of clinical follow-up of 28 +/- 24 months.
      Treatment failure occurred in 22 (11%) patients, 50 patients (25%) were lost to
      follow-up, and 8 (4%) required long-term suppressive therapy. Among the
      assessable patients, clindamycin-based therapy was efficient in 111/133 cases
      (83%) and thus represents a reliable and safe alternative treatment option.

PMID- 28884305
TI  - Opportunities and challenges in conducting community-engaged
      dissemination/implementation research.

PMID- 28884304
TI  - Cell-cycle arrest biomarkers in urine to predict acute kidney injury in septic
      and non-septic critically ill patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyse the usefulness of the composite index of the tissue inhibitor
      of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP-2) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7
      (IGFBP7) as urinary biomarkers for the early prediction of AKI in septic and non
      septic patients. METHODS: This is a prospective, observational study including
      patients admitted to ICU from acute care departments and hospital length of stay
      <48 h. The main exclusion criteria were pre-existing eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 and
      hospitalisation 2 months prior to current admission. The [TIMP-2].[IGFBP7] index
      was analysed twice, within the first 12 h of ICU admission. RESULTS: The sample
      included 98 patients. AKI incidence during ICU stay was 50%. Sepsis was diagnosed
      in 40.8%. Baseline renal variables were comparable between subgroups except for a
      higher baseline eGFR in non-septic patients. Patients were stratified based on
      the presence of AKI and their highest level of [TIMP-2].[IGFBP7] within the first
      12 h of stay. [TIMP-2].[IGFBP7] index values were dependent on the incidence of
      AKI but not of sepsis. [TIMP-2].[IGFBP7] values were significantly related to AKI
      severity according to AKIN criteria (p < 0.0001). The AUROC curve to predict AKI
      of the worst [TIMP-2].[IGFBP7] index value was 0.798 (sensitivity 73.5%,
      specificity 71.4%, p < 0.0001). Index values below 0.8 ruled out any need for
      renal replacement (NPV 100%), whereas an index >0.8 predicted a rate of AKI of
      71% and AKIN >= 2 of 62.9%. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, urinary [TIMP-2].[IGFBP7]
      was an early predictor of AKI in ICU patients regardless of sepsis. Besides,
      index values <0.8(ng/mL)2/1000 ruled out the need for renal replacement.

PMID- 28884306
TI  - Probiotic Soy Milk Consumption and Renal Function Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients
      with Nephropathy: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.
AB  - Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one the most important complications of diabetes
      leading to end-stage renal disease. Dietary approaches have been considered to
      control of the kidney function deterioration among these patients. The aim of the
      present study was to determine the effects of fortified soy milk with
      Lactobacillus plantarum A7 on renal function biomarkers in type 2 DN patients.
      Forty-eight DN subjects were attended to this parallel randomized trial study.
      Participants were randomly assigned to consume a diet containing 200 mL/day
      probiotic soy milk in intervention group or soy milk in the control condition for
      8 weeks. An inflammatory adipokine-Progranulin (PGRN), a cytokine receptor
      soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (sTNFR1), and serum levels of Neutrophil
      gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and cystatin C (Cys-C) as the new renal
      function biomarkers were measured after 8 weeks of intervention according to the
      standard protocol. Our analysis showed that consumption of probiotic soy milk
      resulted in a significant reduction in the Cys-C and PGRN levels compared with
      the soy milk (P = 0.01) in the final adjusted model. In addition, after
      adjustment for age, weight, and energy intake, a marginally significant in the
      NGAL level was seen between two groups (P = 0.05). However, there was no
      significant differences on the sTNFR1concenteration between two groups (P =
      0.06). Overall, intake of probiotic soy milk may have a beneficial effect on the
      renal function in patients with DN.

PMID- 28884307
TI  - The role of the transient receptor potential ankyrin type-1 (TRPA1) channel in
      migraine pain: evaluation in an animal model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical and experimental studies have pointed to the possible
      involvement of the transient receptor potential ankyrin type-1 (TRPA1) channels
      in migraine pain. In this study, we aimed to further investigate the role of
      these channels in an animal model of migraine using a novel TRPA1 antagonist,
      ADM_12, as a probe. METHODS: The effects of ADM_12 on nitroglycerin-induced
      hyperalgesia at the trigeminal level were investigated in male rats using the
      quantification of nocifensive behavior in the orofacial formalin test. The
      expression levels of the genes coding for c-Fos, TRPA1, calcitonin gene-related
      peptide (CGRP) and substance P (SP) in peripheral and central areas relevant for
      migraine pain were analyzed. CGRP and SP protein immunoreactivity was also
      evaluated in trigeminal nucleus caudalis (TNC). RESULTS: In rats bearing
      nitroglycerin-induced hyperalgesia, ADM_12 showed an anti-hyperalgesic effect in
      the second phase of the orofacial formalin test. This effect was associated to a
      significant inhibition of nitroglycerin-induced increase in c-Fos, TRPA1 and
      neuropeptides mRNA levels in medulla-pons area, in the cervical spinal cord and
      in the trigeminal ganglion. No differences between groups were seen as regards
      CGRP and SP protein expression in the TNC. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support a
      critical involvement of TRPA1 channels in the pathophysiology of migraine, and
      show their active role in counteracting hyperalgesia at the trigeminal level.

PMID- 28884308
TI  - Spa therapy adjunct to pharmacotherapy is beneficial in rheumatoid arthritis: a
      crossover randomized controlled trial.
AB  - This study aims to investigate whether 2-week spa therapy, as an adjunct to usual
      pharmacological therapy, has any beneficial effect in patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA). In this single-blind crossover study, 50 patients were randomly
      assigned in a 1:1 manner to receive usual pharmacological therapy plus 2-week spa
      therapy or usual pharmacological therapy alone (period 1.6 months); after a 9
      month washout, patients were crossed over to the opposite assignment (period 2.6
      months). Spa therapy program included a daily saline balneotherapy session at 36
      37  degrees C for 20 min except Sundays. The clinical outcomes were evaluated at
      baseline, after spa therapy (2 weeks) and 3 and 6 months after the spa therapy in
      both period and were pain (Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)), patient and physician
      global assessments (VAS), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and Disease
      Activity Score (DAS28). Spa therapy was superior to control therapy in improving
      all the assessed clinical outcomes at the end of the spa therapy. This
      superiority persisted significantly in physician global assessment (p = 0.010)
      and with a trend in favor of spa group in patient global assessment (p = 0.058),
      function (p = 0.092), and disease activity (p = 0.098) at 3 months. Statistically
      significant improvements were found in spa therapy compared to control in disease
      activity (p = 0.006) and patient (p = 0.020) and physician global (p = 0.011)
      assessments, and a trend toward improvements in pain (p = 0.069) and swollen
      joints (p = 0.070) at 6 months. A 2-week spa therapy adjunct to usual
      pharmacological therapy provided beneficial clinical effects compared to usual
      pharmacological therapy alone, in RA patients treated with traditional disease
      modifying antirheumatic drugs. These beneficial effects may last for 6 months.

PMID- 28884309
TI  - Globulin-platelet model predicts significant fibrosis and cirrhosis in CHB
      patients with high HBV DNA and mildly elevated alanine transaminase levels.
AB  - The globulin-platelet model (GP) is a new noninvasive liver fibrosis model
      developed in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. This study aimed to evaluate the
      diagnostic performance of GP model for liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in CHB
      patients with high HBV DNA and mildly elevated alanine transaminase (ALT) levels.
      We enrolled 316 CHB patients with HBV DNA >= 4 log 10 copies/mL and 40 IU/L < ALT
      <= 80 IU/L. The GP, aspartate transaminase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) and
      fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4) were calculated. Using liver
      histology as a gold standard, the diagnostic performances of noninvasive fibrosis
      models were compared by the area under receiver operating characteristic curves
      (AUROCs). Of 316 patients, 146 (46.2%), 64 (20.3%) and 40 (12.7%) were classified
      as having significant fibrosis, severe fibrosis and cirrhosis, respectively. To
      predict significant fibrosis, the AUROC of GP was lower than APRI (0.64 vs 0.76,
      p < 0.001) and equivalent to FIB-4 (0.64 vs 0.66, p = 0.366). To predict severe
      fibrosis, the AUROC of GP was equivalent to APRI (0.82 vs 0.79, p = 0.409) and
      FIB-4 (0.82 vs 0.77, p = 0.224). To predict cirrhosis, the AUROC of GP was higher
      than APRI (0.91 vs 0.84, p = 0.033) and FIB-4 (0.91 vs 0.80, p = 0.004). GP is a
      more accurate noninvasive fibrosis model than APRI and FIB-4 to diagnose
      cirrhosis in CHB patients with high HBV DNA and mildly elevated ALT levels. The
      clinical application of GP model may reduce the need for liver biopsy in CHB
      patients.

PMID- 28884311
TI  - Improved Glycemic Control Achieved by Switching to Insulin Degludec in Insulin
      Treated Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in a Real-World Setting: a Non
      interventional, Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Retrospective cohort study evaluating the clinical effectiveness of
      insulin degludec (IDeg) in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes
      switching from other insulins to IDeg in a real-world setting. METHODS: Data were
      drawn from the Maccabi Health Management Organization in Israel and included
      patients treated with IDeg between 1 September 2014 and 29 February 2016. Main
      inclusion criteria were age >=18 years, diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, and treated
      with insulin for at least 1 year prior to IDeg initiation. HbA1c, insulin dose,
      body weight, and body mass index were recorded before and 90 and 180 days post
      switch. RESULTS: Of 211 eligible patients, 57% were male, mean age +/- SD 62.2 +/
      12.1 years, and diabetes duration >10 years. Switching to IDeg decreased HbA1c
      from a mean 8.8 +/- 1.5% (73.0 +/- 16.4 mmol/mol) baseline by 0.58 +/- 1.0% (6.3
      +/- 10.9 mmol/mol) (p < 0.001). Baseline HbA1c of >8.5% (69.0 mmol/mol) and daily
      insulin dose of >=50 U were associated with a greater reduction in HbA1c [1.0 +/-
      1.1% (10.9 +/- 12.0 mmol/mol) and 1.2 +/- 1.1% (13.1 +/- 12.0 mmol/mol),
      respectively] compared with the total population. At 180 days post-switch, the
      mean daily basal insulin dose increased by 2 U compared with pre-switch. There
      was no significant change in body weight post-switch. CONCLUSIONS: In a real
      world setting, switching from another insulin to IDeg significantly improved
      glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes, without significant weight
      gain and with only a modest increase in insulin dose after IDeg initiation.
      FUNDING: Novo Nordisk.

PMID- 28884310
TI  - Radiation-induced acute dysphagia : Prospective observational study on 42 head
      and neck cancer patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: Acute toxicity in head and neck (H&N) cancer patients treated with
      definitive radiotherapy (RT) has a crucial role in compliance to treatments. The
      aim of this study was to correlate doses to swallowing-associated structures and
      acute dysphagia. METHODS: We prospectively analyzed 42 H&N cancer patients
      treated with RT. Dysphagia (grade >= 3) and indication for percutaneous
      endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) insertion were classified as acute toxicity. Ten
      swallowing-related structures were considered for the dosimetric analysis. The
      correlation between clinical information and the dose absorbed by the contoured
      structures was analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression method using resampling
      methods (bootstrapping) was applied to select model order and parameters for
      normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) modelling. RESULTS: A strong
      multiple correlation between dosimetric parameters was found. A two-variable
      model was suggested as the optimal order by bootstrap method. The optimal model
      (Rs = 0.452, p < 0.001) includes V45 of the cervical esophagus (odds ratio [OR] =
      1.016) and Dmean of the cricopharyngeal muscle (OR = 1.057). The model area under
      the curve was 0.82 (95% confidence interval 0.69-0.95). CONCLUSION: Our results
      suggested that the absorbed dose to the cricopharyngeal muscle and cervical
      esophagus might play a relevant role in the development of acute RT-related
      dysphagia.

PMID- 28884312
TI  - Kinematically aligned total knee arthroplasty limits high tibial forces,
      differences in tibial forces between compartments, and abnormal tibial contact
      kinematics during passive flexion.
AB  - PURPOSE: Following total knee arthroplasty (TKA), high tibial forces, large
      differences in tibial forces between the medial and lateral compartments, and
      anterior translation of the contact locations of the femoral component on the
      tibial component during passive flexion indicate abnormal knee function. Because
      the goal of kinematically aligned TKA is to restore native knee function without
      soft tissue release, the objectives were to determine how well kinematically
      aligned TKA limits high tibial forces, differences in tibial forces between
      compartments, and anterior translation of the contact locations of the femoral
      component on the tibial component during passive flexion. METHODS: Using cruciate
      retaining components, kinematically aligned TKA was performed on thirteen human
      cadaveric knee specimens with use of manual instruments without soft tissue
      release. The tibial forces and tibial contact locations were measured in both the
      medial and lateral compartments from 0 degrees  to 120 degrees  of passive
      flexion using a custom tibial force sensor. RESULTS: The average total tibial
      force (i.e. sum of medial + lateral) ranged from 5 to 116 N. The only significant
      average differences in tibial force between compartments occurred at 0 degrees 
      of flexion (29 N, p = 0.0008). The contact locations in both compartments
      translated posteriorly in all thirteen kinematically aligned TKAs by an average
      of 14 mm (p < 0.0001) and 18 mm (p < 0.0001) in the medial and lateral
      compartments, respectively, from 0 degrees  to 120 degrees  of flexion.
      CONCLUSIONS: After kinematically aligned TKA, average total tibial forces due to
      the soft tissue restraints were limited to 116 N, average differences in tibial
      forces between compartments were limited to 29 N, and a net posterior translation
      of the tibial contact locations was observed in all kinematically aligned TKAs
      during passive flexion from 0 degrees  to 120 degrees , which are similar to what
      has been measured previously in native knees. While confirmation in vivo is
      warranted, these findings give surgeons who perform kinematically aligned TKA
      confidence that the alignment method and surgical technique limit high tibial
      forces, differences in tibial forces between compartments, and anterior
      translation of the tibial contact locations during passive flexion.

PMID- 28884313
TI  - Endocan as an early biomarker of severity in patients with acute respiratory
      distress syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Plasma concentrations of endocan, a proteoglycan preferentially
      expressed in the pulmonary vasculature, may represent a biomarker of lung
      (dys)function. We sought to determine whether the measurement of plasma endocan
      levels early in the course of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) could
      help predict risk of death or of prolonged ventilation. METHODS: All patients
      present in the department of intensive care during a 150-day period were screened
      for ARDS (using the Berlin definition). Endocan concentrations were measured at
      the moment of ARDS diagnosis (T0) and the following morning (T1). We compared
      data from survivors and non-survivors and data from survivors with less than 10
      days of ventilator support (good evolution) and those who died or needed more
      than 10 days of mechanical ventilation (poor evolution). Results are presented as
      numbers (percentages), mean +/- standard deviation or medians (percentile 25-75).
      RESULTS: Ninety-six consecutive patients were included [median APACHE II score of
      21 (17-27) and SOFA score of 9 (6-12), PaO2/FiO2 ratio 155 (113-206)]; 64 (67%)
      had sepsis and 51 (53%) were receiving norepinephrine. Non-survivors were older
      (66 +/- 15 vs. 59 +/- 18 years, p = 0.045) and had higher APACHE II scores [27
      (22-30) vs. 20 (15-24), p < 0.001] and blood lactate concentrations at study
      inclusion [2.1 (1.3-4.0) vs. 1.5 (0.9-2.6) mmol/L, p = 0.024] than survivors, but
      PaO2/FiO2 ratios [150 (116-207) vs. 158 (110-206), p = 0.95] were similar in the
      two groups. Endocan concentrations on the day after ARDS diagnosis were
      significantly higher in patients with poor evolution than in those with good
      evolution [12.0 (6.8-18.6) vs. 7.2 (5.4-12.5), p < 0.01]. CONCLUSION: Blood
      endocan concentrations early in the evolution of ARDS may be a useful marker of
      disease severity.

PMID- 28884314
TI  - Spectroscopic sampling of the left side of long-TE spin echoes: a free lunch?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Use of spectroscopically-acquired spin echoes typically involves
      Fourier transformation of the right side of the echo while largely neglecting the
      left side. For sufficiently long echo times, the left side may have enough
      spectral resolution to offer some utility. Since the acquisition of this side is
      "free", we deemed it worthy of attention and investigated the spectral properties
      and information content of this data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Theoretical
      expressions for left- and right-side spectra were derived assuming Lorentzian
      frequency distributions. For left-side spectra, three regimes were identified
      based upon the relative magnitudes of reversible and irreversible transverse
      relaxation rates, R 2' and R 2, respectively. Point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS)
      data from muscle, fat deposit and bone marrow were acquired at 1.5 T to test
      aspects of the theoretical expressions. RESULTS: For muscle water or methylene
      marrow resonances, left-side signals were substantially or moderately larger than
      right-side signals but were similar in magnitude for muscle choline and creatine
      resonances. Left- versus right-side spectral-peak amplitude ratios depend
      sensitively on the relative values of R 2 and R 2' , which can be estimated given
      this ratio and a right-side linewidth measurement. CONCLUSION: Left-side spectra
      can be used to augment signal-to-noise and to estimate spectral R 2 and R 2'
      values under some circumstances.

PMID- 28884315
TI  - Is digital photography an accurate and precise method for measuring range of
      motion of the hip and knee?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Accurate measurements of knee and hip motion are required for
      management of musculoskeletal pathology. The purpose of this investigation was to
      compare three techniques for measuring motion at the hip and knee. The authors
      hypothesized that digital photography would be equivalent in accuracy and show
      higher precision compared to the other two techniques. METHODS: Using infrared
      motion capture analysis as the reference standard, hip flexion/abduction/internal
      rotation/external rotation and knee flexion/extension were measured using visual
      estimation, goniometry, and photography on 10 fresh frozen cadavers. These
      measurements were performed by three physical therapists and three orthopaedic
      surgeons. Accuracy was defined by the difference from the reference standard,
      while precision was defined by the proportion of measurements within either 5
      degrees  or 10 degrees . Analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-tests, and chi-squared
      tests were used. RESULTS: Although two statistically significant differences were
      found in measurement accuracy between the three techniques, neither of these
      differences met clinical significance (difference of 1.4 degrees  for hip
      abduction and 1.7 degrees  for the knee extension). Precision of measurements was
      significantly higher for digital photography than: (i) visual estimation for hip
      abduction and knee extension, and (ii) goniometry for knee extension only.
      CONCLUSIONS: There was no clinically significant difference in measurement
      accuracy between the three techniques for hip and knee motion. Digital
      photography only showed higher precision for two joint motions (hip abduction and
      knee extension). Overall digital photography shows equivalent accuracy and near
      equivalent precision to visual estimation and goniometry.

PMID- 28884316
TI  - Improving extracellular production of Serratia marcescens lytic polysaccharide
      monooxygenase CBP21 and Aeromonas veronii B565 chitinase Chi92 in Escherichia
      coli and their synergism.
AB  - Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) can oxidize recalcitrant
      polysaccharides and boost the conversion of the second most abundant
      polysaccharide chitin by chitinase. In this study, we aimed to achieve the
      efficient extracellular production of Serratia marcescens LPMO CBP21 and
      Aeromonas veronii B565 chitinase Chi92 by Escherichia coli. Twelve signal
      peptides reported with high secretion efficiency were screened to assess the
      extracellular production efficiency of CBP21 and Chi92, with glycine used as a
      medium supplement. The results showed that PelB was the most productive signal
      peptide for the extracellular production of CBP21 and Chi92 in E. coli.
      Furthermore, CBP21 facilitated the degradation of the three chitin substrates
      (colloidal chitin, beta-chitin, and alpha-chitin) by Chi92. This study will be
      valuable for the industrial production and application of the two enzymes for
      chitin degradation.

PMID- 28884317
TI  - Relationship of very low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels with long-term
      survival in a large cohort of colorectal cancer patients from Germany.
AB  - To investigate the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D3) with
      survival in a large prospective cohort study of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.
      The study population consisted of 2,910 patients diagnosed with CRC between 2003
      and 2010 who participated in the DACHS study, a multicenter study from Germany
      with comprehensive long-term follow-up. 25(OH)D3 was determined in serum samples
      collected shortly after cancer diagnosis by High Performance Liquid
      Chromatography-Electro Spray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry. Analyses of survival
      outcomes were performed using Cox regression with comprehensive adjustment for
      relevant confounders. The majority (59%) of CRC patients were vitamin D deficient
      (serum 25(OH)D3 levels <30 nmol/L). During a median follow-up of 4.8 years, 787
      deaths occurred, 573 of which were due to CRC. Compared to patients in the
      highest 25(OH)D3 quintile (>45.20 nmol/L), those in the lowest 25(OH)D3 quintile
      (<11.83 nmol/L) had a strongly increased mortality. Adjusted hazard ratios (95%
      Confidence Interval) were 1.78 (1.39-2.27), 1.65 (1.24-2.21), 1.32 (1.03-1.71)
      and 1.48 (1.18-1.85) for all-cause mortality, CRC-specific mortality, recurrence
      free and disease-free survival, respectively. Subgroup analyses did not show any
      significant effect modification across strata defined by sex, age, stage, body
      mass index, or the late entry. Dose-response analyses showed a strong inverse
      relationship between serum 25(OH)D3 levels and survival endpoints at 25(OH)D3
      levels <30 nmol/L, and no association with mortality at higher 25(OH)D3 levels.
      Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in CRC patients and a strong independent
      predictor of poor prognosis. The possibility of enhancing CRC prognosis by
      vitamin D supplementation, ideally combined with outdoor physical activity,
      should be evaluated by randomized controlled trials focusing on patients with
      vitamin D deficiency.

PMID- 28884318
TI  - Implications of fALS Mutations on Sod1 Function and Oligomerization in Cell
      Models.
AB  - Among the familial forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS), 20% are
      associated with the Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (Sod1). fALS is characterized by
      the accumulation of aggregated proteins and the increase in oxidative stress
      markers. Here, we used the non-invasive bimolecular fluorescence complementation
      (BiFC) assay in human H4 cells to investigate the kinetics of aggregation and
      subcellular localization of Sod1 mutants. We also studied the effect of the
      different Sod1 mutants to respond against oxidative stress by following the
      levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after treatment with hydrogen peroxide.
      Our results showed that only 30% of cells transfected with A4VSod1 showed no
      inclusions while for the other Sod1 mutants tested (L38V, G93A and G93C), this
      percentage was at least 70%. In addition, we found that 10% of cells transfected
      with A4VSod1 displayed more than five inclusions per cell and that A4V and G93A
      Sod1 formed inclusions more rapidly than L38V and G93C Sod1. Expression of WTSod1
      significantly decreased the intracellular oxidation levels in comparison with
      expression of fALS Sod1 mutants, suggesting the mutations induce a functional
      impairment. All fALS mutations impaired nuclear localization of Sod1, which is
      important for maintaining genomic stability. Consistently, expression of WTSod1,
      but not of fALS Sod1 mutants, reduced DNA damage, as measured by the comet assay.
      Altogether, our study sheds light into the effects of fALS Sod1 mutations on
      inclusion formation, dynamics, and localization as well as on antioxidant
      response, opening novel avenues for investigating the role of fALS Sod1 mutations
      in pathogenesis.

PMID- 28884319
TI  - Benchmarking pre-spawning fitness, climate preferendum of some catfishes from
      river Ganga and its proposed utility in climate research.
AB  - The concept of threshold condition factor (Fulton), beyond which more than 50% of
      the female fish population may attain readiness for spawning coined as pre
      spawning fitness (K spawn50), has been proposed in the present article and has
      been estimated by applying the non-parametric Kaplan-Meier method for fitting
      survival function. A binary coding strategy of gonadal maturity stages was used
      to classify whether a female fish is "ready to spawn" or not. The proposed K
      spawn50 has been generated for female Mystus tengara (1.13-1.21 units), M.
      cavasius (0.846-0.945 units), and Eutropiichthys vacha (0.716-0.799 units).
      Information on the range of egg parameters (fecundity, egg weight, egg diameter)
      expected at the pre-spawning stage was also generated. Additional information on
      species-specific thermal and precipitation window (climate preferendum) within
      which K spawn50 is attained was also generated through the LOESS smoothing
      technique. Water temperatures between 31 and 36  degrees C (M. tengara), 30 and
      32  degrees C (M. cavasius), and 29.5 and 31  degrees C (E. vacha) and monthly
      rainfall between 200 and 325 mm (M. tengara), > 250 mm (M. cavasius), and around
      50 mm and between 350 and 850 mm (E. vacha) were found to be optimum for
      attainment of K spawn50. The importance of parameterization and benchmarking of K
      spawn50 in addition to other conventional reproductive biology parameters has
      been discussed in the present article. The purposes of the present study were
      fulfilled by generating baseline information and similar information may be
      generated for other species replicating the innovative methodology used in this
      study.

PMID- 28884321
TI  - Elevated rate of alcohol consumption in borderline personality disorder patients
      in daily life.
AB  - RATIONALE: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is highly associated with
      alcohol use disorder, but little is known about how BPD individuals consume
      alcohol or the immediate effects of their consumption. There is therefore a need
      for research investigating drinking behavior in BPD. OBJECTIVES: The current
      study examined rate of alcohol consumption in BPD (N = 54) and community
      individuals (COM; N = 59) within ecologically valid drinking episodes. We
      hypothesized that rate of consumption would be elevated in BPD individuals. We
      further hypothesized that rate of consumption would be positively associated with
      subjective stimulation, but not sedation, and that stimulation would be
      associated with increased positive affect (PA) and reduced negative affect (NA).
      METHODS: Ambulatory assessment was used to assess rate of consumption, subjective
      alcohol response, and affect in the moment (N observations = 3444). Rate of
      consumption was defined as change in estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC)
      relative to drinking episode start. Multilevel modeling was used to test
      hypotheses. RESULTS: As hypothesized, BPD individuals demonstrated a faster
      increase in eBAC than COM individuals. Rate of consumption was associated with
      subjective stimulation, but not sedation, in both groups. Stimulation was
      associated with increased PA in both groups and reduced NA in the BPD group.
      CONCLUSIONS: BPD individuals consumed alcohol more rapidly than COM individuals.
      Faster consumption may serve as a means for BPD individuals to maximize the
      rewarding pharmacological effects of alcohol and to increase positive and reduce
      negative affect.

PMID- 28884322
TI  - Assessment of sleepiness, fatigue, and depression among Gulf Cooperation Council
      commercial airline pilots.
AB  - PURPOSE: No studies have assessed the prevalence of fatigue, depression,
      sleepiness, and the risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) among commercial
      airlines pilots in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). METHODS: This was a
      quantitative cross-sectional study conducted among pilots who were on active duty
      and had flown during the past 6 months for one of three commercial airline
      companies. We included participants with age between 20 and 65 years. Data were
      collected using a predesigned electronic questionnaire composed of questions
      related to demographic information in addition to the Fatigue Severity Scale
      (FSS), the Berlin Questionnaire, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the
      Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS: The study included 328
      pilots with a mean age +/- standard deviation of 41.4 +/- 9.7 years. Overall, 224
      (68.3%) pilots had an FSS score >= 36 indicating severe fatigue and 221 (67.4%)
      reported making mistakes in the cockpit because of fatigue. One hundred and
      twelve (34.1%) pilots had an ESS score >= 10 indicating excessive daytime
      sleepiness and 148 (45.1%) reported falling asleep at the controls at least once
      without previously agreeing with their colleagues. One hundred and thirteen
      (34.5%) pilots had an abnormal HADS depression score (>= 8), and 96 (29.3%)
      pilots were at high risk for OSA requiring further assessment. CONCLUSION:
      Fatigue, sleepiness, risk of OSA, and depression are prevalent among GCC
      commercial airline pilots. Regular assessment by aviation authorities is needed
      to detect and treat these medical problems.

PMID- 28884320
TI  - Direct-Acting Antivirals Decreased Tumor Recurrence After Initial Treatment of
      Hepatitis C Virus-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Suppressive activity of recurrence by interferon-free direct-acting
      antivirals (DAA) is not elucidated after curative treatment of hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 177 patients received DAA after
      curative manners of HCC: 89 patients underwent DAA therapy after initial HCC
      treatment, and the other 88 patients after repeated therapy of 2-10 times. Among
      a cohort of HCC patients with surgery and radiofrequency ablation, 89 patients
      were chosen adjusting age, gender, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC)
      staging with 89 patients with initial HCC therapy. RESULTS: HCC recurrence rates
      at the end of first and second year were 18.1 and 22.1% in patients with once of
      HCC therapy, 28.2 and 41.6% in those with 2-3 times of therapy, and 60.2 and
      74.5% in those with 4 or more times of therapy, respectively (P < 0.0001).
      Recurrence rates were compared between 89 patients with DAA therapy after initial
      HCC therapy and 89 age-, gender-, and BCLC staging-matched patients without
      antiviral therapy after initial HCC therapy. HCC recurrence rates at first and
      second year were 18.1 and 25.0% in patients with DAA therapy and 21.8 and 46.5%
      in those without DAA therapy, respectively (P = 0.003). Multivariate analysis
      showed DAA therapy significantly decreased recurrence rate with a hazard ratio of
      0.353 (confidence interval: 0.191-0.651) after adjustment with covariates of
      tumor multiplicity, alpha-fetoprotein value, and prothrombin time. CONCLUSIONS:
      DAA therapy significantly decreased recurrence rate when it was performed after
      initial HCC therapy.

PMID- 28884323
TI  - [Proctology for internists].
AB  - In proctology patients can often be helped with very little effort. With
      knowledge of the most common disease symptoms the treating physician can in many
      cases correctly recognize the cause of the complaints and initiate the
      appropriate therapy or arrange referral to a proctological institution. This
      article aims to briefly and succinctly present the most common diseases in
      proctology (e.g. mariscae, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, perianal venous
      thrombosis, abscesses and fistulas, condyloma acuminatum and anal carcinoma) and
      to provide the treating internist, even outside of gastroenterology, assistance
      with the management of proctological symptoms.

PMID- 28884324
TI  - Natural and engineered polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase: key enzyme in
      biopolyester production.
AB  - With the finite supply of petroleum and increasing concern with environmental
      issues associated with their harvest and processing, the development of more eco
      friendly, sustainable alternative biopolymers that can effectively fill the role
      of petro-polymers has become a major focus. Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) can be
      naturally produced by many species of bacteria and the PHA synthase is believed
      to be key enzyme in this natural pathway. Natural PHA synthases are diverse and
      can affect the properties of the produced PHAs, such as monomer composition,
      molecular weights, and material properties. Moreover, recent studies have led to
      major advances in the searching of PHA synthases that display specific
      properties, as well as engineering efforts that offer more efficient PHA
      synthases, increased PHA compound production, or even novel biopolyesters which
      cannot be naturally produced. In this article, we review the updated information
      of natural PHA synthases and their engineering strategies for improved
      performance in polyester production. We also speculate future trends on the
      development of robust PHA synthases and their application in biopolyester
      production.

PMID- 28884325
TI  - The occurrence of toxic cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii and its
      toxin cylindrospermopsin in the Huong River, Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam.
AB  - This research reports the presence of species Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii and
      cylindrospermopsin (CYN) in the Huong River and the relationship between species
      with environmental factors to find a scientific basis for predicting the risk of
      pollution of the species and CYN in waters. Strains of C. raciborskii isolated
      from the river were also identified as potentially toxin-producing through the
      determination of the presence of toxins in the cultures by ELISA; the presence of
      the genes involved by PCR confirms the CYN-producing ability of species C.
      raciborskii from this water body. Our results have confirmed the presence of
      toxic cyanobacteria C. raciborskii in the Huong River. C. raciborskii from the
      Huong River are mostly solitary, straight trichomes. Analyses of all C.
      raciborskii strains from the Huong River by ELISA for cylindrospermopsin were
      positive. The contents of cylindrospermopsin (CYN) in each strain were different,
      ranging from 5.25 ng mg-1 wet weight in CR1DD to 70.83 ng mg-1 wet weight in
      CR1NY. PCR analysis confirmed that the genes involved in the production of this
      cyanotoxin were present in C. raciborskii. The relationship between densities and
      toxicity showed a correlation coefficient R of 0.88. This was a relatively high
      positive correlation index, indicating the close links between densities and
      toxins: toxin CYN concentrations increased when C. raciborskii densities
      increased.

PMID- 28884326
TI  - One question might be capable of replacing the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index
      (SPADI) when measuring disability: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - QUESTIONS: Is it possible to replace the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index
      (SPADI) with a single substitute question for people with shoulder pain, when
      measuring disability and how well does this substitute question perform as a
      predictor for recovery. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: A total
      of 356 patients with shoulder pain in primary care. ANALYSES: Convergent,
      divergent, and "known" groups validity were assessed by using hypotheses testing.
      Responsiveness was assessed using the Receiver Operating Curve and hypothesis
      testing. In addition, we performed multivariate regression to assess if the
      substitute question showed similar properties as the SPADI and if it affected the
      model itself, using recovery as an outcome. RESULTS: The Spearman correlation
      coefficient between the total SPADI score and the substitute question was high,
      and moderate with the Shoulder Disability Questionnaire. The correlation between
      the substitute question and the EQ-5D-3L was low and the responsiveness was
      acceptable. The substitute question did not significantly contribute to both
      prognostic prediction models as opposed to the SPADI. Regardless all models
      showed poor to fair discrimination. CONCLUSION: The single question is a
      reasonable substitute for the SPADI and can be used as a screening instrument for
      shoulder disability in primary clinical practice. It has slightly poorer
      predictive power and should therefore not be used for prognosis.

PMID- 28884327
TI  - Introductory review: periostin-gene and protein structure.
AB  - Although many studies have described the role of periostin in various diseases,
      the function of the periostin protein structures derived from alternative
      splicing and proteinase cleavage at the C-terminal remain unknown. Further
      experiments revealing the protein structures that are highly related to diseases
      are essential to understand the function of periostin in depth, which would
      accelerate its clinical application by establishing new approaches for curing
      intractable diseases. Furthermore, this understanding would enhance our knowledge
      of novel functions of periostin related to stemness and response to mechanical
      stress.

PMID- 28884329
TI  - Perioperative Mortality Following Oesophagectomy and Pancreaticoduodenectomy in
      Australia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Oesophagectomy (OG) and pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) remain
      associated with significant perioperative mortality rates (POMR). Improved
      outcomes in high-volume centres have led to these procedures being centralised in
      some countries. This retrospective, population-based cohort study was conducted
      to determine the Australian national, and state and territory based POMR
      associated with OG and PD, and assess trends over time. METHODS: Logistic
      regression analysis was performed using de-identified procedural data between 1
      July 2005 and 30 June 2013 from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
      Codes relating to OG and PD contained in the Australian Classification of Health
      Interventions were used to extract patient data. Mortality rates were risk
      adjusted for age, gender and urgency of admission. Temporal trends and
      differences between states/territories were investigated. RESULTS: The average
      Australian POMR throughout the study period was 3.5 and 3.0% for OG and PD,
      respectively. OG POMR showed no significant change over time (P = 0.30) or
      variation between states (P = 0.079). The annual POMR associated with PD,
      however, showed a significant decrease during the study period (P = 0.01) with
      variation in PD POMR outcomes evident amongst different regions (P = 0.0004).
      CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates a comparable Australian PD and OG POMR when
      correlated with international studies. National PD POMR improved throughout the
      study with consistent improvement across the states and territories. This study
      does, however, show variation in PD POMR between states and territories.
      Potential intra-state variation merits further investigation.

PMID- 28884328
TI  - The Glycine soja NAC transcription factor GsNAC019 mediates the regulation of
      plant alkaline tolerance and ABA sensitivity.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Overexpression of Gshdz4 or GsNAC019 enhanced alkaline tolerance in
      transgenic Arabidopsis. We proved that Gshdz4 up-regulated both GsNAC019 and
      GsRD29B but GsNAC019 may repress the GsRD29B expression under alkaline stress.
      Wild soybean (Glycine soja) has a high tolerance to environmental challenges. It
      is a model species for dissecting the molecular mechanisms of salt-alkaline
      stresses. Although many NAC transcription factors play important roles in
      response to multiple abiotic stresses, such as salt, osmotic and cold, their mode
      of action in alkaline stress resistance is largely unknown. In our study, we
      identified a G. soja NAC gene, GsNAC019, which is a homolog of the Arabidopsis
      AtNAC019 gene. GsNAC019 was highly up-regulated by 50 mM NaHCO3 treatment in the
      roots of wild soybean. Further investigation showed that a well-characterized
      transcription factor, Gshdz4 protein, bound the cis-acting element sequences
      (CAATA/TA), which are located in the promoter of the AtNAC019/GsNAC019 genes.
      Overexpression of Gshdz4 positively regulated AtNAC019 expression in transgenic
      Arabidopsis, implying that AtNAC019/GsNAC019 may be the target genes of Gshdz4.
      GsNAC019 was demonstrated to be a nuclear-localized protein in onion epidermal
      cells and possessed transactivation activity in yeast cells. Moreover,
      overexpression of GsNAC019 in Arabidopsis resulted in enhanced tolerance to
      alkaline stress at the seedling and mature stages, but reduced ABA sensitivity.
      The closest Arabidopsis homolog mutant plants of Gshdz4, GsNAC019 and GsRD29B
      containing athb40, atnac019 and atrd29b were sensitive to alkaline stress.
      Overexpression or the closest Arabidopsis homolog mutant plants of the GsNAC019
      gene in Arabidopsis positively or negatively regulated the expression of stress
      related genes, such as AHA2, RD29A/B and KIN1. Moreover, this mutation could
      phenotypically promoted or compromised plant growth under alkaline stress,
      implying that GsNAC019 may contribute to alkaline stress tolerance via the ABA
      signal transduction pathway and regulate expression of the downstream stress
      related genes.

PMID- 28884330
TI  - Prospects in the use of aptamers for characterizing the structure and stability
      of bioactive proteins and peptides in food.
AB  - Food-derived bioactive proteins and peptides have gained acceptance among
      researchers, food manufacturers and consumers as health-enhancing functional food
      components that also serve as natural alternatives for disease prevention and/or
      management. Bioactivity in food proteins and peptides is determined by their
      conformations and binding characteristics, which in turn depend on their primary
      and secondary structures. To maintain their bioactivities, the molecular
      integrity of bioactive peptides must remain intact, and this warrants the study
      of peptide form and structure, ideally with robust, highly specific and sensitive
      techniques. Short single-stranded nucleic acids (i.e. aptamers) are known to have
      high affinity for cognate targets such as proteins and peptides. Aptamers can be
      produced cost-effectively and chemically derivatized to increase their stability
      and shelf life. Their improved binding characteristics and minimal modification
      of the target molecular signature suggests their suitability for real-time
      detection of conformational changes in both proteins and peptides. This review
      discusses the developmental progress of systematic evolution of ligands by
      exponential enrichment (SELEX), an iterative technology for generating cost
      effective aptamers with low dissociation constants (K d) for monitoring the form
      and structure of bioactive proteins and peptides. The review also presents case
      studies of this technique in monitoring the structural stability of bioactive
      peptide formulations to encourage applications in functional foods. The
      challenges and potential of aptamers in this research field are also discussed.
      Graphical abstract Advancing bioactive proteins and peptide functionality via
      aptameric ligands.

PMID- 28884331
TI  - Paratuberculosis in Latin America: a systematic review.
AB  - Latin America is the definition of the American group, where languages of Latin
      origin are spoken, including countries in South, Central, and North America.
      Paratuberculosis is a gastrointestinal contagious chronic disease that affects
      ruminants, whose etiological agent is the bacilli Mycobacterium avium subsp.
      paratuberculosis (MAP). Paratuberculosis is characterized by intermittent
      diarrhea, decreased milk production, dehydration, and progressive weight loss and
      is possibly involved in Crohn's disease, a human intestinal disease. MAP is
      resistant to environmental factors, pasteurization, and water disinfection, which
      coupled with the subclinical-clinical nature of the disease, and makes
      paratuberculosis a relevant socioeconomic and public health issue, justifying the
      descriptive review of research on the disease carried out in Latin American
      countries. A survey of articles, published until September 2016, on the Scopus
      database, PubMed, Agris, and Science Direct, about detection of the agent and the
      disease in Latin America, without restrictions to the date of the research was
      performed. The keywords were as follows: "paratuberculosis," "Mycobacterium avium
      subsp. paratuberculosis," "cattle," "milk," "wildlife," "goat," "ovine," "dairy,"
      and the name of each country in English. Studies found from nine of the 20 Latin
      America countries, 31 related to Brazil, 17 to Argentina, 14 to Chile, eight to
      Colombia, six to Mexico, two to Peru, two to Venezuela, and one to Panama and to
      Bolivia, each. The agent was detected in cattle, goats, sheep, domesticated water
      buffalo, and wild animals. Microbiological culture, PCR, and ELISA were the
      frequent techniques. The small number of studies may result in overestimation or
      underestimation of the real scenario.

PMID- 28884332
TI  - Subchondral mesenchymal stem cells from osteoarthritic knees display high
      osteogenic differentiation capacity through microRNA-29a regulation of HDAC4.
AB  - : Subchondral bone deterioration and osteophyte formation attributable to
      excessive mineralization are prominent features of end-stage knee osteoarthritis
      (OA). The cellular events underlying subchondral integrity diminishment remained
      elusive. This study was undertaken to characterize subchondral mesenchymal stem
      cells (SMSCs) isolated from patients with end-stage knee OA who required total
      knee arthroplasty. The SMSCs expressed surface antigens CD29, CD44, CD73, CD90,
      CD105, and CD166 and lacked CD31, CD45, and MHCII expression. The cell cultures
      exhibited higher proliferation and greater osteogenesis and chondrogenesis
      potencies, whereas their population-doubling time and adipogenic lineage
      commitment were lower than those of bone marrow MSCs (BMMSCs). They also
      displayed higher expressions of embryonic stem cell marker OCT3/4 and osteogenic
      factors Wnt3a, beta-catenin, and microRNA-29a (miR-29a), concomitant with lower
      expressions of joint-deleterious factors HDAC4, TGF-beta1, IL-1beta, TNF-alpha,
      and MMP3, in comparison with those of BMMSCs. Knockdown of miR-29a lowered Wnt3a
      expression and osteogenic differentiation of the SMSCs through elevating HDAC4
      translation, which directly regulated the 3'-untranslated region of HDAC4.
      Likewise, transgenic mice that overexpressed miR-29a in osteoblasts exhibited a
      high bone mass in the subchondral region. SMSCs in the transgenic mice showed a
      higher osteogenic differentiation and lower HDAC4 signaling than those in wild
      type mice. Taken together, high osteogenesis potency existed in the SMSCs in the
      osteoarthritic knee. The miR-29a modulation of HDAC4 and Wnt3a signaling was
      attributable to the increase in osteogenesis. This study shed an emerging light
      on the characteristics of SMSCs and highlighted the contribution of SMSCs in the
      exacerbation of subchondral integrity in end-stage knee OA. KEY MESSAGES:
      Subchondral MSCs (SMSCs) from OA knee expressed embryonic stem cell marker
      Oct3/4. The SMSCs showed high proliferation and osteogenic and chondrogenic
      potencies. miR-29a regulated osteogenesis of the SMSCs through modulation of
      HDAC4 and Wnt3a. A high osteogenic potency of the SMSCs existed in mice
      overexpressing miR-29a in bone. Aberrant osteogenesis in SMSCs provides a new
      insight to subchondral damage in OA.

PMID- 28884333
TI  - Supplement intervention associated with nutritional deficiencies in autism
      spectrum disorders: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Nutritional supplements have been used for correction of deficiencies
      that may occur in patient with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to improve core
      symptoms. We aim to provide current best evidence about supplements for
      nutritional deficiencies and core symptoms in children with ASD and to evaluate
      the effectiveness and safety. METHODS: A systematic literature search of
      scientific databases was performed to retrieve relevant randomized controlled
      trials. Risk of bias was assessed for each study. RESULTS: 18 randomized
      controlled trials of five supplements were included. B6/Mg was not helpful for
      improving ASD symptoms (seven RCTs). Two RCTs of methyl B12 reported some
      improvement in ASD severity but the effects on the correction of deficiencies
      were inconclusive. Two RCTs of vitamin D3 both reported increased levels of mean
      25(OH)D in serum but inconsistent results in behavioral outcomes. Omega-3 fatty
      acid supplementation did not affect ASD behaviors but may correct deficiencies
      (six RCTs). One RCT of folinic acid reported positive results in improving ASD
      symptoms measured by various behavioral scales. CONCLUSIONS: Current evidence for
      the use of supplements for correcting nutritional deficiencies in children with
      ASD and to improve the symptoms is little. More studies are needed.

PMID- 28884334
TI  - Periostin in kidney diseases.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease is an incurable to date pathology, with renal replacement
      therapy through dialysis or transplantation being the only available option for
      end-stage patients. A deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing
      the progression of kidney diseases will permit the identification of unknown
      mediators and potential novel markers or targets of therapy which promise more
      efficient diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Over the last years, periostin
      was established by several studies as a novel key player in the progression of
      renal disease. Periostin is de novo expressed focally by the injured kidney cells
      during the development of renal disease. In diverse cohorts of renal disease
      patients, the expression levels of periostin in the kidney and urine were highly
      correlated with the stage of the pathology and the decline of renal function.
      Subsequent studies in animal models demonstrated that periostin is centrally
      involved in mediating renal inflammation and fibrosis, contributing to the
      deterioration of renal structure and function. Genetic or pharmaco-genetic
      inhibition of periostin in animal models of renal disease was efficient in
      arresting the progression of the pathology. This review will summarize the recent
      advances on periostin in the field of kidney diseases and will discuss its
      utility of as a novel target of therapy for chronic kidney disease.

PMID- 28884335
TI  - Association between objective signs and subjective symptoms of dry eye disease in
      patients with systemic sclerosis.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between clinical signs and
      symptoms of dry eye disease (DED) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). This
      cross-sectional observational study included 19 SSc patients and 19 normal
      subjects with no ocular symptoms or ocular surface disorders. Clinical parameters
      included tear film break-up time (tBUT), Schirmer I, lissamine green (LG) dye,
      and tear film osmolarity tests, tear production, and tear secretion flow. For
      assessment of the dry eye symptoms, the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI)
      questionnaire was administered to all patients. The following mean values were
      found in SSc patients: OSDI 33.6 +/- 19.86; osmolarity of the tear fluid 310.8
      mOsmol/l +/- 14.47; tBUT time 5.158 +/- 2.328 s; Schirmer I test 5.395 mm/5 min;
      LG grading score 2.026 +/- 0.8893; collected tear fluid volume 6.397 +/- 2.761
      ul. The calculated average tear velocity was 4.654 +/- 1.963 ul/min. A
      significant correlation was found between the OSDI as a subjective parameter and
      disease duration. Early recognition of dry eye symptoms, a possible extra
      intestinal manifestation of SSc, should be included in the check up of the
      disease to reduce ocular complications. The objective tear functional tests were
      strongly influenced by individual factors like age and disease duration.

PMID- 28884336
TI  - The effects of constraining vision and eye movements on whole-body coordination
      during standing turns.
AB  - Turning the body towards a new direction is normally achieved via a top-down
      synergy whereby gaze (eye direction in space) leads the upper body segments,
      which in turn lead the feet. These anticipatory eye movements are observable even
      in darkness and constraining the initial eye movements modifies the stereotyped
      top-down reorientation sequence. Our aim was to elucidate the relative
      contributions of vision and eye movements to whole-body coordination during large
      standing turns by observing the effects of separately removing visual information
      or suppressing eye movements throughout the turn. We predicted that constraining
      eye movements would modify the steering synergy, whereas removing vision would
      have little effect. We found that preventing eye movements modified both timing
      and spatial characteristics of axial segment and feet rotation. When gaze was
      fixed, gait initiation, but not axial segment rotation, was delayed in comparison
      to both full vision and no vision turns. When eye movements were prevented, the
      predictable relationship between the extent head rotation led the body and peak
      head angular velocity was abolished suggesting that anticipatory head movements
      normally subserve gaze behaviour. In addition, stepping frequency significantly
      reduced during the gaze fixation condition but not during the no-vision
      condition, suggesting that oculomotor control is linked to stepping behaviour.

PMID- 28884338
TI  - Reply to "a Rare Complication of Bariatric Surgery: Retrograde Intussusception".

PMID- 28884340
TI  - Assessing Effects of Preoperative Anemia on Adverse Outcomes After Coronary
      Surgery.

PMID- 28884337
TI  - The multifaceted role of periostin in priming the tumor microenvironments for
      tumor progression.
AB  - Tumor microenvironment consists of tumor cells, stromal cells, extracellular
      matrix and a plethora of soluble components. The complex array of interactions
      between tumor cells and their surrounding tumor microenvironments contribute to
      the determination of the fate of tumor cells during tumorigenesis and metastasis.
      Matricellular protein periostin is generally absent in most adult tissues but is
      highly expressed in tumor microenvironments. Current evidence reveals that
      periostin plays a critical role in establishing and remodeling tumor
      microenvironments such as the metastatic niche, cancer stem cell niche,
      perivascular niche, pre-metastatic niche, fibrotic microenvironment and bone
      marrow microenvironment. Here, we summarize the current knowledge of the
      multifaceted role of periostin in the tumor microenvironments.

PMID- 28884339
TI  - Altered expression of circadian clock genes in polyglandular autoimmune syndrome
      type III.
AB  - PURPOSE: Circadian timing system is a highly conserved, ubiquitous molecular
      "clock" which creates internal circadian rhythmicity. Dysregulation of clock
      genes expression is associated with various diseases including immune
      dysregulation. In this study we investigated the circadian pattern of Clock
      related genes in patients with polyglandular autoimmune syndrome type III (PAS
      type III). METHODS: Nineteen patients diagnosed with PAS type III and 12 healthy
      controls were enrolled. mRNA and protein expression of Clock-related genes
      (CLOCK, BMAL1, ROR and Per-1,-2,-3), as well as the GR-a and the GILZ genes were
      determined by real-time quantitative PCR and western blot analysis from blood
      samples drawn at 8 pm and 8am. Serum cortisol and TSH, as well as plasma ACTH,
      were measured by chemiluminescence. RESULTS: There were no statistical
      significant differences in the metabolic profile, cortisol, ACTH and TSH levels
      between patients and controls. Patients with PAS type III expressed higher
      transcript levels of CLOCK, BMAL1 and Per-1 in the evening than in the morning (p
      = 0.03, p = 0.029, p = 0.013, respectively), while the ratios (Rpm/am) of GR-a,
      CLOCK, BMAL1, and Per-3 mRNA levels were statistically different between patients
      and controls. Cortisol circadian variation (Fpm/am) was positively correlated
      with GILZ mRNA circadian pattern (Rpm/am) in the patient group and with the GR-a
      mRNA (Rpm/am) in the control group. CONCLUCIONS: Our findings suggest that there
      is an aberrant circadian rhythm of Clock-related genes in patients with PAS type
      III. The disruption of the expression of 4 circadian Clock-related genes could
      indicate a possible association with the pathogenesis of the disease.

PMID- 28884341
TI  - [Current strategies in the treatment of ventricular tachycardia by catheter
      ablation : A review].
AB  - The treatment of ventricular tachycardia has recently undergone relevant changes
      as certain interventional treatment options, such as radiofrequency catheter
      ablation, have gained in importance. Numerous current publications have
      demonstrated the advantages of catheter ablation compared to conventional therapy
      with antiarrhythmic drugs in terms of effectiveness and morbidity. Improving the
      ablation technique and identifying those patient collectives who are most likely
      to benefit from ablation are still the objectives of current research. The
      treatment of ventricular tachycardia in the setting of different cardiac and non
      cardiac conditions can be challenging and requires understanding of the current
      procedures and the recommendations for catheter ablation of ventricular
      tachycardia. This review succinctly summarizes the current research in this
      evolving field of interventional cardiology.

PMID- 28884342
TI  - Pre-operative guided imagery in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive
      surgery: a randomized trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The purpose was to determine if pre-operative guided
      imagery (GIM) would help women to feel more prepared, less anxious, and have
      higher satisfaction scores 6 weeks after surgery compared with routine care.
      METHODS: Eligible women planning to undergo pelvic floor surgery were enrolled
      and randomized. The GIM group received an institution-specific CD that uses GIM
      to detail day of surgery (DOS) events and expectations. Participants were asked
      to listen to the CD once daily during the week before surgery. At three time
      points (surgical consent visit, DOS, and 6-weeks post-operatively), we measured
      anxiety using the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults (STADI), in
      addition to preparedness for surgery and overall satisfaction (ten-point Likert
      scales). Data were analyzed in SPSS 23 using two-tailed t tests. RESULTS: A total
      of 38 out of 44 (86%) enrolled participants completed the study (GIM: 18,
      control: 20). The GIM self-reported compliance rate was 72%, with an average use
      of 4.8 times (range = 3-8 times). Women in the GIM group reported a significant
      increase from baseline in preparedness for surgery on both DOS and 6 weeks post
      operatively (7.32 +/- 1.81 vs 9.11 +/- 1.13, p = 0.001) and (7.32 +/- 1.81 vs
      9.22 +/- 0.81, p = 0.001) respectively; a change that was not seen in the control
      group. Satisfaction was high in both the GIM and the control group (9.55 +/- 0.85
      and 9.05 +/- 1.70, p = 0.263). In all patients, anxiety increased from baseline
      to DOS and dropped at 6 weeks post-operatively, and was not significantly
      different in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Guided imagery improved patient
      preparedness for pelvic floor surgery with an overnight stay on their DOS and 6
      weeks post-operatively.

PMID- 28884343
TI  - Prognostic impact of isolated right ventricular dysfunction in sepsis and septic
      shock: an 8-year historical cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic myocardial dysfunction is reported commonly in
      sepsis and septic shock, but there are limited data on sepsis-related right
      ventricular dysfunction. This study sought to evaluate the association of right
      ventricular dysfunction with clinical outcomes in patients with severe sepsis and
      septic shock. METHODS: Historical cohort study of adult patients admitted to all
      intensive care units at the Mayo Clinic from January 1, 2007 through December 31,
      2014 for severe sepsis and septic shock, who had an echocardiogram performed
      within 72 h of admission. Patients with prior heart failure, cor-pulmonale,
      pulmonary hypertension and valvular disease were excluded. Right ventricular
      dysfunction was defined by the American Society of Echocardiography criteria.
      Outcomes included 1-year survival, in-hospital mortality and length of stay.
      RESULTS: Right ventricular dysfunction was present in 214 (55%) of 388 patients
      who met the inclusion criteria-isolated right ventricular dysfunction was seen in
      100 (47%) and combined right and left ventricular dysfunction in 114 (53%). The
      baseline characteristics were similar between cohorts except for the higher
      mechanical ventilation use in patients with isolated right ventricular
      dysfunction. Echocardiographic findings demonstrated lower right ventricular and
      tricuspid valve velocities in patients with right ventricular dysfunction and
      lower left ventricular ejection fraction and increased mitral E/e' ratios in
      patients with combined right and left ventricular dysfunction. After adjustment
      for age, comorbidity, illness severity, septic shock and use of mechanical
      ventilation, isolated right ventricular dysfunction was independently associated
      with worse 1-year survival-hazard ratio 1.6 [95% confidence interval 1.2-2.1; p =
      0.002) in patients with sepsis and septic shock. CONCLUSIONS: Isolated right
      ventricular dysfunction is seen commonly in sepsis and septic shock and is
      associated with worse long-term survival.

PMID- 28884344
TI  - Coats' disease: not such a smooth ride.

PMID- 28884345
TI  - Karyotype reshufflings of Festuca pratensis * Lolium perenne hybrids.
AB  - Many different processes have an impact on the shape of plant karyotype.
      Recently, cytogenetic examination of Lolium species has revealed the occurrence
      of spontaneous fragile sites (FSs) associated with 35S rDNA regions. The FSs are
      defined as the chromosomal regions that are sensitive to forming gaps or breaks
      on chromosomes. The shape of karyotype can also be determined by interstitial
      telomeric sequences (ITSs), what was recognized for the first time in this paper
      in chromosomes of Festuca pratensis * Lolium perenne hybrids. Both FSs and ITSs
      can contribute to genome instabilities and chromosome rearrangements. To evaluate
      whether these cytogenetic phenomena have an impact on karyotype reshuffling
      observed in Festuca * Lolium hybrids, we examined F1 F. pratensis * L. perenne
      plants and generated F2-F9 progeny by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)
      using rDNA sequences, telomere and centromere probes, as well as by genomic in
      situ hybridization (GISH). Analyses using a combination of FISH and GISH revealed
      that intergenomic rearrangements did not correspond to FSs but overlapped with
      ITSs for several analyzed genotypes. It suggests that internal telomeric repeats
      can affect the shape of F. pratensis * L. perenne karyotypes. However, other
      factors that are involved in rearrangements and have a more crucial impact could
      exist, but they are still unknown.

PMID- 28884346
TI  - Quality of randomized controlled trials published in the International
      Urogynecology Journal 2007-2016.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) provide the best
      quality clinical evidence. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of
      RCTs published by the International Urogynecology Journal (IUJ) in 2007-2016.
      METHODS: RCTs in original articles were extracted from PubMed and IUJ homepage.
      Change in RCT quality over time was assessed with Jadad and van Tulder scales and
      Cochrane Collaboration's risk of bias tool (CCRBT). Jadad scores of 3-5 or van
      Tulder scores of >5 indicated high-quality RCTs. The effect on RCT quality of
      including funding source and institutional review board (IRB) approval statements
      and describing the intervention was assessed. In addition, changes in RCT topics
      over time were assessed. RESULTS: Annual RCT frequencies did not change
      significantly (6.7-15.7%): 36.1% and 25.7% described blinding and allocation
      concealment, respectively. Both tended to increase between 2013 and 2016,
      particularly 2013 and 2014. Funding statement inclusion (39.1% overall) and
      intervention description (78.2% overall) tended to increase steadily. IRB
      statement inclusion (60.4% overall) increased significantly (p < 0.01). Jadad
      scores and van Tulder rose significantly until 2014 (p < 0.01). Frequencies of
      high-quality RCTs tended to rise. CCRBT indicated that RCTs with a low risk of
      bias tended to increase until 2014. However, from 2015, Jadad scores, van Tulder,
      and CCRBT the low risk tended to decreased. RCTs with funding and IRB approval
      statements had higher Jadad and van Tulder scores than unfunded RCTs (p < 0.01
      and p < 0.01, respectively). Intervention description did not associate with
      better quality. CONCLUSIONS: RCT quality improved over time, but a dip in quality
      was observed in 2015-2016 because of decreased blinding and allocation
      concealment.

PMID- 28884347
TI  - Effects of levosimendan for perioperative cardiovascular dysfunction in patients
      receiving cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis.

PMID- 28884348
TI  - Extravesical robotic ureteral reimplantation for ureterovaginal fistula.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We present a video describing the technical considerations for
      performing an extravesical robotic ureteral reimplantation. METHODS: A 55-year
      old woman presented with urinary incontinence secondary to a ureterovaginal
      fistula after robotic-assisted hysterectomy. After failure of more conservative
      measures, she proceeded to a robotic ureteral reimplantation. Following port
      placement, the ureter is identified at the level of the iliac vessels and
      dissected circumferentially. The ureter is dissected free to the level of the
      ureterovaginal fistula, transected, and the distal remnant ligated. The ureter is
      spatulated, a cystotomy created, and a running anastomosis with mucosa-to-mucosa
      apposition performed over a stent. Care is taken to ensure it is tension free.
      The integrity of the anastomosis is tested with retrograde filling of the
      bladder. Postoperatively, a drainage catheter is left to allow for adequate
      healing. Follow-up imaging is performed to ensure a patent anastomosis. RESULTS:
      The patient had an uncomplicated postoperative course. A cystogram showed
      adequate healing at 10 days, and the stent was removed at 6 weeks. A follow-up
      renal ultrasound 6 weeks later showed no hydronephrosis. CONCLUSIONS:
      Extravesical robotic ureteral reimplantation is a useful technique for managing
      ureterovaginal fistula; here we highlight pertinent technical considerations.

PMID- 28884349
TI  - Functional and morphological recovery of solitary kidneys after drainage. Double
      J stent placement vs emergency ureteroscopy: which one is reasonable?
AB  - The purpose of the study was to evaluate the functional and morphological
      recovery of solitary kidneys following the relief of obstruction by two different
      approaches. Data of 65 adult patients with acute renal failure in obstructed
      solitary kidney were evaluated. Depending on the type of emergent decompression
      procedure while 34 patients were treated with a double J stent placement only 31
      patients underwent ureteroscopic lithotripsy with double J stent placement.
      Following these procedures, in addition to the amount of excreted urine during
      the first 24 h, changes in the serum creatinine levels and the degree of
      hydronephrosis were noted and evaluated during the first week of follow-up after
      intervention. Evaluation of the urine output values during the first 24-h period
      revealed a statistically significant difference in favour of ureteroscopic
      lithotripsy. Serum creatinine levels in terms of the mean change in serum
      creatinine values and also percentage of the changes revealed no statistically
      significant change between two groups. Comparative evaluation of the change in
      the degree of hydronephrosis between baseline and post-procedural seventh day
      values revealed a statistically significant decrease in favour of ureteroscopic
      lithotripsy. Lastly, there was a statistically insignificant but meaningful
      difference with respect to the percent of change in the degree of hydronephrosis
      between two group of cases. Although temporary decompression of the obstructed
      solitary kidney by placing a double J stent may relieve the obstruction to a
      certain extent; emergent ureteroscopic lithotripsy could be applied as a
      reasonable alternative where adequate experience and technical availability are
      present.

PMID- 28884350
TI  - Simple and effective: transvaginal vesico-vaginal fistula repair with a modified
      Latzko technique.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The incidence of vesico-vaginal fistulas after
      hysterectomies for benign indications in developed countries is less than one
      percent. The objective of this video is to demonstrate an easy-to-follow, step-by
      step approach to repairing a small, uncomplicated vesico-vaginal fistula
      transvaginally using a modified Latzko technique. METHODS: In this video, we
      present a case of a 46-year-old woman who developed a simple, uncomplicated
      vesico-vaginal fistula after a total abdominal hysterectomy. To correct her
      fistula, we used a modified Latzko technique, which is a transvaginal approach to
      vesico-vaginal fistula repair that involves mobilizing the vaginal mucosa around
      the fistula and then closing the pubo-vesical fascia and vaginal mucosa in
      layers. RESULTS: The patient had successful surgical correction of her vesico
      vaginal fistula without recurrence of the fistula. CONCLUSIONS: For small,
      uncomplicated vesico-vaginal fistulas, a transvaginal approach has an equivalent
      success rate to that of other approaches with less invasiveness and faster
      recovery times. Therefore, it is reasonable to use a modified Latzko technique to
      help restore the quality of life to women affected by small, uncomplicated vesico
      vaginal fistulas.

PMID- 28884351
TI  - Tube Thoracostomy Complications: More to Learn: Reply.

PMID- 28884352
TI  - Risk Factors for Knee Injury in Golf: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Golf is commonly considered a low-impact sport that carries little
      risk of injury to the knee and is generally allowed following total knee
      arthroplasty (TKA). Kinematic and kinetic studies of the golf swing have reported
      results relevant to the knee, but consensus as to the loads experienced during a
      swing and how the biomechanics of an individual's technique may expose the knee
      to risk of injury is lacking. OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to establish (1) the
      prevalence of knee injury resulting from participation in golf and (2) the risk
      factors for knee injury from a biomechanical perspective, based on an improved
      understanding of the internal loading conditions and kinematics that occur in the
      knee from the time of addressing the ball to the end of the follow-through.
      METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted to determine the injury
      rate, kinematic patterns, loading, and muscle activity of the knee during golf.
      RESULTS: A knee injury prevalence of 3-18% was established among both
      professional and amateur players, with no clear dependence on skill level or sex;
      however, older players appear at greater risk of injury. Studies reporting
      kinematics indicate that the lead knee is exposed to a complex series of motions
      involving rapid extension and large magnitudes of tibial internal rotation,
      conditions that may pose risks to the structures of a natural knee or TKA. To
      date, the loads experienced by the lead knee during a golf swing have been
      reported inconsistently in the literature. Compressive loads ranging from 100 to
      440% bodyweight have been calculated and measured using methods including inverse
      dynamics analysis and instrumented knee implants. Additionally, the magnitude of
      loading appears to be independent of the club used. CONCLUSIONS: This review is
      the first to highlight the lack of consensus regarding knee loading during the
      golf swing and the associated risks of injury. Results from the literature
      suggest the lead knee is subject to a higher magnitude of stress and more
      demanding motions than the trail knee. Therefore, recommendations regarding
      return to golf following knee injury or surgical intervention should carefully
      consider the laterality of the injury.

PMID- 28884353
TI  - A prospective longitudinal investigation of the (dis)continuity of mental health
      difficulties between mid- to late-childhood and the predictive role of familial
      factors.
AB  - Understanding individual variation in the continuity of youth mental health
      difficulties is critical for identifying the factors that promote recovery or
      chronicity. This study establishes the proportion of children showing
      psychopathology at 9 years, whose pathology had either remitted or persisted at
      13. It describes the socio-demographic and clinical profiles of these groups, and
      examines the factors in 9-year-olds' familial environments that predict
      longitudinal remission vs. persistence of psychopathology. The study utilised
      data from a prospective longitudinal study of 8568 Irish children. Child
      psychopathology was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
      (SDQ). Analysis established the rates of continuity of SDQ classifications
      between 9 and 13 years. Analysis also investigated the familial factors that
      predicted the remission vs. persistence of psychopathological symptoms,
      controlling for socio-demographic and child factors. Average SDQ scores improved
      between the ages of 9 and 13, F(1, 7292) = 276.52, p < 0.001, [Formula: see text]
      = 0.04. Of children classified Abnormal aged 9, 41.1% remained so classified at
      13, 21.4% were reclassified Borderline, and 37.6% Normal. Demographic and child
      risk factors for persistence of pathology were maleness (beta = -1.00, p = 0.001,
      CI = 0.20-0.67), one-carer households (beta = -0.71, p = 0.04, CI = 0.25-0.97),
      poor physical health (beta = -0.64, p = 0.03, CI = 0.30-0.92), and low cognitive
      ability (beta = 0.61, p = 0.002, CI = 1.26-2.70). Controlling for these factors,
      the only familial variable at 9 years that predicted subsequent pathological
      persistence was caregiver depression (beta = -0.07, p = 0.03, CI = 0.87-0.99).
      The analysis highlights substantial rates of psychopathological discontinuity in
      a community sample and identifies the children most at risk of chronic mental
      health problems. These results will inform the targeting of early interventions
      and distribution of clinical resources.

PMID- 28884354
TI  - Synthetic biology for manufacturing chemicals: constraints drive the use of non
      conventional microbial platforms.
AB  - Genetically modified microbes have had much industrial success producing protein
      based products (such as antibodies and enzymes). However, engineering microbial
      workhorses for biomanufacturing of commodity compounds remains challenging.
      First, microbes cannot afford burdens with both overexpression of multiple
      enzymes and metabolite drainage for product synthesis. Second, synthetic circuits
      and introduced heterologous pathways are not yet as "robust and reliable" as
      native pathways due to hosts' innate regulations, especially under suboptimal
      fermentation conditions. Third, engineered enzymes may lack channeling
      capabilities for cascade-like transport of metabolites to overcome diffusion
      barriers or to avoid intermediate toxicity in the cytoplasmic environment.
      Fourth, moving engineered hosts from laboratory to industry is unreliable because
      genetic mutations and non-genetic cell-to-cell variations impair the large-scale
      fermentation outcomes. Therefore, synthetic biology strains often have
      unsatisfactory industrial performance (titer/yield/productivity). To overcome
      these problems, many different species are being explored for their metabolic
      strengths that can be leveraged to synthesize specific compounds. Here, we
      provide examples of non-conventional and genetically amenable species for
      industrial manufacturing, including the following: Corynebacterium glutamicum for
      its TCA cycle-derived biosynthesis, Yarrowia lipolytica for its biosynthesis of
      fatty acids and carotenoids, cyanobacteria for photosynthetic production from its
      sugar phosphate pathways, and Rhodococcus for its ability to biotransform
      recalcitrant feedstock. Finally, we discuss emerging technologies (e.g., genome
      to-phenome mapping, single cell methods, and knowledge engineering) that may
      facilitate the development of novel cell factories.

PMID- 28884355
TI  - Influenza-associated thrombotic microangiopathies.
AB  - Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) refers to phenotypically similar disorders,
      including hemolytic uremic syndromes (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic
      purpura (TTP). This review explores the role of the influenza virus as trigger of
      HUS or TTP. We conducted a literature survey in PubMed and Google Scholar using
      HUS, TTP, TMA, and influenza as keywords, and extracted and analyzed reported
      epidemiological and clinical data. We identified 25 cases of influenza-associated
      TMA. Five additional cases were linked to influenza vaccination and analyzed
      separately. Influenza A was found in 83%, 10 out of 25 during the 2009 A(H1N1)
      pandemic. Two patients had bona fide TTP with ADAMTS13 activity <10%. Median age
      was 15 years (range 0.5-68 years), two thirds were male. Oligoanuria was
      documented in 81% and neurological involvement in 40% of patients. Serum C3 was
      reduced in 5 out of 14 patients (36%); Coombs test was negative in 7 out of 7 and
      elevated fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products were documented in 6 out of 8
      patients. Pathogenic complement gene mutations were found in 7 out of 8 patients
      tested (C3, MCP, or MCP combined with CFB or clusterin). Twenty out of 24
      patients recovered completely, but 3 died (12%). Ten of the surviving patients
      underwent plasma exchange (PLEX) therapy, 5 plasma infusions. Influenza-mediated
      HUS or TTP is rare. A sizable proportion of tested patients demonstrated
      mutations associated with alternative pathway of complement dysregulation that
      was uncovered by this infection. Further research is warranted targeting the
      roles of viral neuraminidase, enhanced virus-induced complement activation and/or
      ADAMTS13 antibodies, and rational treatment approaches.

PMID- 28884357
TI  - Estimation of HbA1c in hospitalized patients with bronchial asthma.

PMID- 28884356
TI  - Diagnostic value of MRI-based 3D texture analysis for tissue characterisation and
      discrimination of low-grade chondrosarcoma from enchondroma: a pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the diagnostic value of MRI-based 3D texture analysis to
      identify texture features that can be used for discrimination of low-grade
      chondrosarcoma from enchondroma. METHODS: Eleven patients with low-grade
      chondrosarcoma and 11 patients with enchondroma were retrospectively evaluated.
      Texture analysis was performed using mint Lesion: Kurtosis, entropy, skewness,
      mean of positive pixels (MPP) and uniformity of positive pixel distribution (UPP)
      were obtained in four MRI sequences and correlated with histopathology. The Mann
      Whitney U-test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were
      performed to identify most discriminative texture features. Sensitivity,
      specificity, accuracy and optimal cut-off values were calculated. RESULTS:
      Significant differences were found in four of 20 texture parameters with regard
      to the different MRI sequences (p<0.01). The area under the ROC curve values to
      discriminate chondrosarcoma from enchondroma were 0.876 and 0.826 for kurtosis
      and skewness in contrast-enhanced T1 (ceT1w), respectively; in non-contrast T1,
      values were 0.851 and 0.822 for entropy and UPP, respectively. The highest
      discriminatory power had kurtosis in ceT1w with a cut-off >=3.15 to identify low
      grade chondrosarcoma (82 % sensitivity, 91 % specificity, accuracy 86 %).
      CONCLUSION: MRI-based 3D texture analysis might be able to discriminate low-grade
      chondrosarcoma from enchondroma by a variety of texture parameters. KEY POINTS: *
      MRI texture analysis may assist in differentiating low-grade chondrosarcoma from
      enchondroma. * Kurtosis in the contrast-enhanced T1w has the highest power of
      discrimination. * Tools provide insight into tumour characterisation as a non
      invasive imaging biomarker.

PMID- 28884358
TI  - Effective enhancement of resistance to Phytophthora infestans by overexpression
      of miR172a and b in Solanum lycopersicum.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: Overexpression of miR172a and b in tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum
      ) Zaofen No. 2 increased resistance to Phytophthora infestans infection by
      suppressing of an AP2/ERF transcription factor. The miR172 family has been shown
      to participate in the growth phase transition, flowering time control, abiotic
      and biotic stresses by regulating the expression of a small group of AP2/ERF
      transcription factors. In this study, the precursors of miR172a and b were cloned
      from tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium L3708. We used the degradome sequencing to
      determine the cleavage site of miR172 to a member of the AP2/ERF transcription
      factor family (Solyc11g072600.1.1). qRT-PCR results showed that the expression of
      AP2/ERF was negatively correlated with the expression of miR172 in S.
      pimpinellifolium L3708 infected with Phytophthora infestans. Overexpression of
      miR172a and b in S. lycopersicum Zaofen No. 2 conferred greater resistance to P.
      infestans infection, as evidenced by decreased disease index, lesion sizes, and
      P. infestans abundance. The SOD and POD play important roles in scavenging late
      massive ROS in plant-pathogen interaction. Malonaldehyde (MDA) is widely
      recognized as an indicator of lipid peroxidation. Membrane damage in plants can
      be estimated by measuring leakage of electrolytes, which is evaluated by
      determining relative electrolyte leakage (REL). Less H2O2 and O2-, higher
      activities of POD and SOD, less MDA content and REL, and higher chlorophyll
      content and photosynthetic rate were also shown in transgenic plants after
      inoculation with P. infestans. Our results constitute the first step towards
      further investigations into the biological function and molecular mechanism of
      miR172-mediated silencing of AP2/ERF transcription factors in S. lycopersicum-P.
      infestans interaction and provide a candidate gene for breeding to enhance biotic
      stress-resistance in S. lycopersicum.

PMID- 28884359
TI  - Development of a shear stress-free microfluidic gradient generator capable of
      quantitatively analyzing single-cell morphology.
AB  - Microfluidics, the science of engineering fluid streams at the micrometer scale,
      offers unique tools for creating and controlling gradients of soluble compounds.
      Gradient generation can be used to recreate complex physiological
      microenvironments, but is also useful for screening purposes. For example, in a
      single experiment, adherent cells can be exposed to a range of concentrations of
      the compound of interest, enabling high-content analysis of cell behaviour and
      enhancing throughput. In this study, we present the development of a microfluidic
      screening platform where, by means of diffusion, gradients of soluble compounds
      can be generated and sustained. This platform enables the culture of adherent
      cells under shear stress-free conditions, and their exposure to a soluble
      compound in a concentration gradient-wise manner. The platform consists of five
      serial cell culture chambers, all coupled to two lateral fluid supply channels
      that are used for gradient generation through a source-sink mechanism.
      Furthermore, an additional inlet and outlet are used for cell seeding inside the
      chambers. Finite element modeling was used for the optimization of the design of
      the platform and for validation of the dynamics of gradient generation. Then, as
      a proof-of-concept, human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells were cultured inside the
      platform and exposed to a gradient of Cytochalasin D, an actin polymerization
      inhibitor. This set-up allowed us to analyze cell morphological changes over
      time, including cell area and eccentricity measurements, as a function of
      Cytochalasin D concentration by using fluorescence image-based cytometry.

PMID- 28884360
TI  - Calcium and zinc decrease intracellular iron by decreasing transport during iron
      repletion in an in vitro model.
AB  - PURPOSE: Iron is an essential micronutrient that participates in a number of
      vital reactions and its absorption may be altered by various nutritional factors
      such as other micronutrients. Our hypothesis is that iron absorption is decreased
      because of the interactions with zinc and calcium. We evaluated the interaction
      between calcium and zinc on iron uptake and transport, intracellular Fe and Zn
      levels and mRNA expression of DMT1, ferroportin, Zip4 and ZnT1 in an in vitro
      model. METHODS: Caco-2 cells were cultivated with 1 mM Ca; 10 or 30 uM Zn and/or
      10, 20 or 30 uM Fe for 24 h. RESULTS: Intracellular Fe decreased in cells
      incubated with 30 uM Zn or with the mix Ca/10 uM Zn/Fe. Zn mostly increased under
      Ca, Zn and Fe treatment. DMT1 mRNA expression decreased when intracellular Fe
      increased. Ferroportin expression displayed no change in cells cultured with
      different Fe concentrations. The mix of Ca, Zn and Fe increased DMT1 and
      ferroportin expression mainly under high Zn concentration. Zip4 expression was
      mostly augmented by Ca and Fe; however, ZnT1 showed no change in all conditions
      studied. Fe uptake was higher in all the conditions studied compared to control
      cells; however, Fe transport increased only in cells incubated with Fe alone. In
      all the other conditions, Fe transport was lower than that in control cells.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that Ca and Zn interfere with iron
      metabolism. This interference is through an increase in ferroportin activity,
      which results in a diminished net iron absorption.

PMID- 28884362
TI  - Erratum to: Applications of the BLEND Software to Crystallographic Data from
      Membrane Proteins.

PMID- 28884361
TI  - Importance of glomerular filtration rate change as surrogate endpoint for the
      future incidence of end-stage renal disease in general Japanese population:
      community-based cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because of the necessity for extended period and large costs until
      the event occurs, surrogate endpoints are indispensable for implementation of
      clinical studies to improve chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients' prognosis.
      METHODS: Subjects with serum creatinine level for a baseline period over 1-3
      years were enrolled (n = 69,238) in this community-based prospective cohort study
      in Okinawa, Japan, and followed up for 15 years. The endpoint was end-stage renal
      disease (ESRD). The percent of estimated glomerular filtration rate (%eGFR)
      change was calculated on the basis of the baseline period. RESULTS: Subjects had
      a mean +/- SD age, 55.59 +/- 14.69 years; eGFR, 80.15 +/- 21.15 ml/min/1.73 m2.
      Among the subjects recruited, 15.81% had a low eGFR (<60 ml/min/1.73 m2) and
      36.1/100,000 person years developed ESRD. Cox proportional hazards models
      adjusted for baseline characteristics showed that the risk of ESRD tended to be
      high with high rates of decrease in %eGFR changes over 2 or 3 years in the high-
      and low-eGFR groups. The specificities and positive predictive values for ESRD
      based on a cutoff value of %eGFR change of less than -30% over 2 or 3 years were
      high in the high- and low-eGFR groups. CONCLUSIONS: %eGFR change tends to be
      associated with the risk of ESRD. %eGFR change of less than -30% over 2 or 3
      years can be a candidate surrogate endpoint for ESRD in the general Japanese
      population.

PMID- 28884363
TI  - Surgical considerations when reporting MRI studies of soft tissue sarcoma of the
      limbs.
AB  - Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare tumours that require prompt diagnosis and
      treatment at a specialist centre. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become the
      modality of choice for identification, characterisation, biopsy planning and
      staging of soft tissue masses. MRI enables both the operating surgeon and patient
      to be optimally prepared prior to surgery for the likelihood of margin-negative
      resection and to anticipate possible sacrifice of adjacent structures and
      consequent loss of function. The aim of this review is to aid the radiologist in
      performing and reporting MRI studies of soft tissue sarcomas, with particular
      reference to the requirements of the surgical oncologist.

PMID- 28884364
TI  - A new chemical complex can rapidly concentrate lentivirus and significantly
      enhance gene transduction.
AB  - In this study, we developed a new purification method using chondroitin sulfate C
      (CSC) and protamine sulfate (PS) to concentrate lentivirus. To evaluate the
      efficiency of this new method, we compared it with several previously described
      purification protocols, including virus concentrated by ultracentrifugation
      (Ultra), precipitated by polyethylene glycol (PEG), and sedimented by CSC
      combined with polybrene (PB). After using the different methods to purify and
      concentrate equivalent amounts of lentivirus supernatant, the virus pellets
      precipitated by the different methods were resuspended using the equivalent
      volumes of DMEM. Subsequently, 10 MUl of each lentivirus stock carrying EGFP gene
      was used to transduce two types of cells, human embryonic kidney 293T (HEK293T)
      cells and mouse mesenchymal stem cells (mMSC). It was obvious that HEK293T and
      mMSC appeared much intensiver green fluorescence through virus transduction from
      PS method than from other methods. To quantitate the transduction efficiency of
      the viruses, we examined virus titer in the cells after transduction using a real
      time PCR-based analysis. Accordingly, we verified that PS precipitation could
      generate virus with a higher titer (4.39 * 108 IU/ml) than PB (2.43 * 108 IU/ml),
      Ultra (1.16 * 108 IU/ml), and PEG (0.56 * 108 IU/ml) in HEK293T cells. As for
      HEK293T cells in mMSC, the PS method also generated virus with a higher titer
      (4.66 * 108 IU/ml) than the Ultra method (2.36 * 108 IU/ml), and a much higher
      titer than those of the other chemical-based precipitation methods using PB (4.82
      * 106 IU/ml) and PEG (8.98 * 104 IU/ml). Furthermore, the HEK293T cells and mMSC
      transduced by PS(1X)-virus appeared to have higher cell growth ratios,
      respectively, than the HEK293T cells and mMSC transduced by lentivirus using the
      other methods. We conclude that our new method for purifying lentivirus is cost
      effective, time-saving, and highly efficient, and that lentivirus purification by
      this means could possibly be used to transduce a variety of cells, including stem
      cells.

PMID- 28884365
TI  - Transcriptomic analysis of the tumor microenvironment to guide prognosis and
      immunotherapies.
AB  - Tumors are highly heterogeneous tissues where malignant cells are surrounded by
      and interact with a complex tumor microenvironment (TME), notably composed of a
      wide variety of immune cells, as well as vessels and fibroblasts. As the
      dialectical influence between tumor cells and their TME is known to be clinically
      crucial, we need tools that allow us to study the cellular composition of the
      microenvironment. In this focused research review, we report MCP-counter, a
      methodology based on transcriptomic markers that assesses the proportion of
      several immune and stromal cell populations in the TME from transcriptomic data,
      and we highlight how it can provide a way to decipher the complex mechanisms at
      play in tumors. In several malignancies, MCP-counter scores have been used to
      show various prognostic impacts of the TME, which we also show to be linked with
      the mutational burden of tumors. We also compared established molecular
      classifications of colorectal cancer and clear-cell renal cell carcinoma with the
      output of MCP-counter, and show that molecular subgroups have different TME
      profiles, and that these profiles are consistent within a given subgroup.
      Finally, we provide insights as to how knowing the TME composition may shape
      patient care in the near future.

PMID- 28884366
TI  - Weather conditions: a neglected factor in human salivary cortisol research?
AB  - There is ample evidence that environmental stressors such as extreme weather
      conditions affect animal behavior and that this process is in part mediated
      through the elevated activity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis which
      results in an increase in cortisol secretion. This relationship has not been
      extensively researched in humans, and weather conditions have not been analyzed
      as a potential confounder in human studies of stress. Consequently, the goal of
      this paper was to assess the relationship between salivary cortisol and weather
      conditions in the course of everyday life and to test a possible moderating
      effect of two weather-related variables, the climate region and timing of
      exposure to outdoors conditions. The sample consisted of 903 secondary school
      students aged 18 to 21 years from Mediterranean and Continental regions. Cortisol
      from saliva was sampled in naturalistic settings at three time points over the
      course of a single day. We found that weather conditions are related to salivary
      cortisol concentration and that this relationship may be moderated by both the
      specific climate and the anticipation of immediate exposure to outdoors
      conditions. Unpleasant weather conditions are predictive for the level of
      salivary cortisol, but only among individuals who anticipate being exposed to it
      in the immediate future (e.g., in students attending school in the morning
      shift). We also demonstrated that isolated weather conditions or their patterns
      may be relevant in one climate area (e.g., Continental) while less relevant in
      the other (e.g., Mediterranean). Results of this study draw attention to the
      importance of controlling weather conditions in human salivary cortisol research.

PMID- 28884367
TI  - Pelvic floor muscle activity during impact activities in continent and
      incontinent women: a systematic review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Investigating the activity of the pelvic floor
      muscles (PFMs) in women during impact activities such as jumping, running or
      coughing may elucidate different aspects of PFM activation and therefore clarify
      the pathophysiology of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). A systematic review
      (PROSPERO 2016:CRD42016035624) was conducted to summarize current evidence on PFM
      activity during impact activities in both continent and incontinent women.
      METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, and SPORTDiscus databases were systematically
      searched for studies published up to December 2016. The PICO approach (patient,
      intervention, comparison, outcome) was used to construct the search queries.
      Original studies were included that investigated PFM activity during impact
      activities if they included terms related to muscle activity and measurement
      methods, test positions, activities performed and continence status. Two
      reviewers screened titles and abstracts independently to ascertain if the
      included studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, and extracted data on outcome
      parameters. RESULTS: The search revealed 28 studies that fulfilled the inclusion
      criteria, of which 26 were cross-sectional studies. They used different
      electromyography measurement methods, test activities, test positions, and
      comparisons with other structures. Ten studies compared continent and incontinent
      women. The timing of PFM activity in relation to the activity of other trunk
      muscles seems to be a crucial factor in maintaining continence. Women with SUI
      have delayed PFM activity. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this systematic review
      suggest that impact activities causing involuntary and reflex PFM activity should
      be the subject of further study. This may help guide clinical studies to improve
      our understanding of how the PFMs react during impact activities and to determine
      best practices that can be included in rehabilitation programmes.

PMID- 28884368
TI  - Anatomical and Optical Properties of Atrial Tissue: Search for a Suitable Animal
      Model.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate structural and optical properties of
      atrial tissue from common animal models and to compare it with human atria. We
      aimed to do this in a format that will be useful for development of better
      ablation tools and/or new means for visualizing atrial lesions. Human atrial
      tissue from clinically relevant age group was compared and contrasted with atrial
      tissue of large animal models commonly available for research purposes. These
      included pigs, sheep, dogs and cows. The presented data include area measurements
      of smooth atrial surface available for ablation and estimates of thickness of
      collagen and muscle for five different species. We also described methods to
      quantify presence of collagen and overall thickness of atrial wall. Provided
      information enables placement of atrial lesions to locations with clinically
      relevant atrial wall thickness and macroscopic structure ultimately helping
      investigators to develop better ablation and imaging tools. It also highlights
      the impact of collagen thickness on optical measurements and lesion
      visualization.

PMID- 28884369
TI  - Carbon Nanotube Fiber Ionization Mass Spectrometry: A Fundamental Study of a
      Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Functionalized Corona Discharge Pin for Polycyclic
      Aromatic Hydrocarbons Analysis.
AB  - Mass spectrometry continues to tackle many complicated tasks, and ongoing
      research seeks to simplify its instrumentation as well as sampling. The
      desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) source was the first ambient ionization
      source to function without extensive gas requirements and chromatography.
      Electrospray techniques generally have low efficiency for ionization of nonpolar
      analytes and some researchers have resorted to methods such as direct analysis in
      real time (DART) or desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI)
      for their analysis. In this work, a carbon nanotube fiber ionization (nanoCFI)
      source was developed and was found to be capable of solid phase microextraction
      (SPME) of nonpolar analytes as well as ionization and sampling similar to that of
      direct probe atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DP-APCI). Conductivity and
      adsorption were maintained by utilizing a corona pin functionalized with a multi
      walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) thread. Quantitative work with the nanoCFI source
      with a designed corona discharge pin insert demonstrated linearity up to 0.97
      (R2) of three target PAHs with phenanthrene internal standard. Graphical Abstract
      ?.

PMID- 28884370
TI  - Diagnosis of gastrogastric fistula on computed tomography: a quantitative
      approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if the attenuation of contrast material in the excluded
      stomach compared with the gastric pouch is helpful in diagnosing gastrogastric
      (GG) fistula. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a retrospective study, 13 CT scans in 12
      patients (age 43.2 +/- 9.2, 10 females) who had undergone Roux-en-Y gastric
      bypass and who had oral contrast in both the gastric pouch and excluded stomach
      were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated for GG fistula by two
      radiologists, using upper GI series (UGI) as the gold standard. Quantitative
      analysis was performed by computing the relative attenuation (RA) ratio (HU in
      excluded stomach/HU in gastric pouch). Statistical analysis was performed to
      determine if the RA ratio values correlated with the UGI findings of GG fistula.
      RESULTS: 46.2% (6/13) of UGI studies demonstrated a GG fistula. Statistical
      analysis demonstrated a significant difference in RA ratio (P < 0.05) between the
      fistula group (1.12 +/- 0.29) and the reflux group (0.56 +/- 0.19). A receiver
      operating characteristic analysis identified an RA ratio of 0.8 that maximized
      sensitivity (100%), at the expense of specificity (78.6%), for diagnosing GG
      fistula. In contrast, the initial qualitative evaluation for GG fistula yielded a
      lower sensitivity (45.8%) and a higher specificity (89.2%). After taking RA
      ratios into account, radiologists' final conclusions achieved higher sensitivity
      (58.3%) and specificity (100%). CONCLUSION: The relative attenuation ratio of
      oral contrast in the excluded stomach versus the gastric pouch can be a reliable
      tool in differentiating GG fistula from oral contrast reflux up the
      biliopancreatic limb on CT.

PMID- 28884372
TI  - Anthropogenic Activities Induce Depletion in Microbial Communities at Urban Sites
      of the River Ganges.
AB  - The Ganges is the largest river of India, worshiped by Hindus with a belief that
      bathing in the river causes the remission of sins and is considered very pure. It
      is heavily polluted by the unrestricted human usage including ritual practices,
      urbanization, and industrialization. Such perturbations may subsequently
      influence the bacterial community composition and ecosystem functioning. Here, we
      applied targeted amplicon sequencing to determine the impact of spatial variation
      on the microbial community assemblage of the Ganga River. The river bacterial
      community demonstrates taxonomic variability across the sites with accumulation
      of Firmicutes (20.9%) Verrucomicrobia (6.09%), Actinobacteria (4.51%), and
      Synergistetes (1.16%), at rural site while Proteobacteria (49.4%) and
      Bacteroidetes (12.7%) predominate at urban sites. Furthermore, sites under study
      establish the unique taxonomic signature which could represent the impact of
      spatial variation on the microbial community assemblage.

PMID- 28884371
TI  - EGFR T790M mutation testing of non-small cell lung cancer tissue and blood
      samples artificially spiked with circulating cell-free tumor DNA: results of a
      round robin trial.
AB  - The European Commision (EC) recently approved osimertinib for the treatment of
      adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC) harboring EGFR T790M mutations. Besides tissue-based testing, blood
      samples containing cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can be used to
      interrogate T790M status. Herein, we describe the conditions and results of a
      round robin trial (RRT) for T790M mutation testing in NSCLC tissue specimens and
      peripheral blood samples spiked with cell line DNA mimicking tumor-derived ctDNA.
      The underlying objectives of this two-staged external quality assessment (EQA)
      approach were (a) to evaluate the accuracy of T790M mutations testing across
      multiple centers and (b) to investigate if a liquid biopsy-based testing for
      T790M mutations in spiked blood samples is feasible in routine diagnostic. Based
      on a successfully completed internal phase I RRT, an open RRT for EGFR T790M
      mutation testing in tumor tissue and blood samples was initiated. In total, 48
      pathology centers participated in the EQA. Of these, 47 (97.9%) centers submitted
      their analyses within the pre-defined time frame and 44 (tissue), respectively,
      40 (plasma) successfully passed the test. The overall success rates in the RRT
      phase II were 91.7% (tissue) and 83.3% (blood), respectively. Thirty-eight out of
      48 participants (79.2%) successfully passed both parts of the RRT. The RRT for
      blood-based EGFR testing initiated in Germany is, to the best of our knowledge,
      the first of his kind in Europe. In summary, our results demonstrate that blood
      based genotyping for EGFR resistance mutations can be successfully integrated in
      routine molecular diagnostics complementing the array of molecular methods
      already available at pathology centers in Germany.

PMID- 28884373
TI  - Prevalence of and factors associated with renal dysfunction in rheumatoid
      arthritis patients: a cross-sectional study in community hospitals.
AB  - This study was designed to determine the prevalence of renal dysfunction in
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to identify factors associated with this
      complication. Between October 2014 and May 2015, we consecutively recruited RA
      patients at rheumatology sections of community hospitals in Japan. Each patient's
      absolute and body surface area (BSA)-indexed estimated glomerular filtration rate
      (eGFR) values were measured twice over a 3-month interval. Renal dysfunction was
      defined as absolute eGFR or BSA-indexed eGFR < 60. Albuminuria and hematuria were
      also recorded. Associations between renal dysfunction and possible risk factors
      were examined by multivariate logistic regression analyses. A total of 1908
      outpatients with RA were included in this study. The prevalence of renal
      dysfunction based on absolute eGFR and BSA-indexed eGFR was 33.8 and 18.6%,
      respectively. Albuminuria was observed in 8.1% of this patient cohort, and the
      prevalence of hematuria was 7.5%. Advanced age (odds ratio [OR] 7.24, p < 0.001),
      female sex (OR 3.12, p < 0.001), hypertension (OR 2.22, p < 0.001), and obesity
      (OR 0.59, p < 0.001) were independently associated with the risk of absolute eGFR
      based renal dysfunction. Advanced age (OR 5.19, p < 0.001) and hypertension (OR
      3.05, p < 0.001) also had associations with BSA-indexed eGFR-based renal
      dysfunction. RA duration, stages, severity, and cumulative steroid dose were
      considered significant risk factors in univariate analyses, but their
      associations were less potent after adjustment for other covariates. Renal
      dysfunction is relatively common in RA patients and is mainly associated with
      advanced age and hypertension but not with RA-related factors.

PMID- 28884374
TI  - "Eyeball test" of thermographic patterns for predicting a successful lateral
      infraclavicular block.
AB  - PURPOSE: Increased distal skin temperature can be used to predict the success of
      lateral infraclavicular (LIC) block. We hypothesized that an "eyeball test" of
      specific infrared thermographic patterns after LIC block could be used to
      determine block success. METHODS: In this observational study, five observers
      trained in four distinct thermographic patterns independently evaluated
      thermographic images of the hands of 40 patients at baseline and at one-minute
      intervals for 30 min after a LIC block. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive
      values of a positive and a negative test were estimated to evaluate the validity
      of specific thermographic patterns for predicting a successful block. Sensory and
      motor block of the musculocutaneous, radial, ulnar, and median nerves defined
      block success. Fleiss' kappa statistics of multiple interobserver agreements were
      used to evaluate reliability. RESULTS: As a diagnostic test, the defined specific
      thermographic patterns of the hand predicted a successful block with increasing
      accuracy over the 30-min observation period. Block success was predicted with a
      sensitivity of 92.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 86.8 to 96.2) and with a
      specificity of 84.0% (95% CI, 70.3 to 92.4) at min 30. The Fleiss' kappa for the
      five observers was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.96). CONCLUSION: We conclude that
      visual evaluation by an eyeball test of specific thermographic patterns of the
      blocked hands may be useful as a valid and reliable diagnostic test for
      predicting a successful LIC block.

PMID- 28884375
TI  - Patterns of Alcohol Intake of Pregnant and Lactating Women in Rural Western
      Australia.
AB  - Objectives Monitoring surveys and research outline a paucity of alcohol
      consumption data for women in the period of lactation, particularly in rural
      areas of developed countries. Identifying the drinking profile of ante- and
      postnatal women in this population will aid in the effective dissemination of
      public health interventions. This paper will present the first alcohol
      consumption data of pregnant and breastfeeding women living in rural Western
      Australia (WA). Methods A prospective cohort of 489 mothers and their infants
      were recruited between April 2010 and November 2011. All women regardless of
      their infant feeding method were followed up at 4, 10, 16, 26, 32, 40 and 52
      weeks postpartum. Data were analysed to ascertain the prevalence and patterns of
      alcohol consumption during pregnancy and lactation. Results Approximately 20% of
      women consumed alcohol during pregnancy, with a predominance of women from older
      age groups and smokers. At 4, 6 and 12 months postpartum; 45.9%, 47.0% and 51.9%
      of breastfeeding mothers were consuming alcohol respectively. Conclusions for
      Practice There remains a considerable proportion of women who continue to drink
      during pregnancy. Although proven successful, public health campaigns now need to
      target women who are older and who smoke. Women are continuing to consume alcohol
      during the period of lactation, with the majority doing so at low levels.

PMID- 28884376
TI  - Environmental risk assessment of lead-zinc mining: a case study of Adudu
      metallogenic province, middle Benue Trough, Nigeria.
AB  - Assessment of the impacts of lead-zinc mining in Adudu-Imon metallogenic province
      was carried out. Reconnaissance and detailed field studies were done.
      Lithologies, stream sediments, farmland soils, mine tailings, artificial pond
      water, stream water, well water, and borehole water were collected and subjected
      to atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses.
      Geochemical maps were generated using ArcGIS 10.1. Significant contamination with
      cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), and lead (Pb) was recorded in the collected water
      samples. Virtually all collected soil samples were observed to be highly
      contaminated when compared with the European Union environmental policy standard.
      The discharge of mining effluents through farmlands to the Bakebu stream, which
      drains the area, further exposes the dwellers of this environment to the
      accumulation of potentially harmful metals (PHMs) in their bodies through the
      consumption of food crops, aquatic animals, and domestic uses of the water
      collected from the stream channels. The study revealed non-conformity of past
      mining operations in the Adudu-Imon province to existing mining laws in Nigeria.
      Inhabitants of this region should stop farming in the vicinity of the mines,
      fishing from the Bakebu stream channels should be discouraged, and domestic use
      of the water should be condemned, even as concerned government agencies put
      necessary mercenaries in place to ensure conformity of miners to standard mining
      regulations in Nigeria.

PMID- 28884377
TI  - IDH mutation status trumps the Pignatti risk score as a prognostic marker in low
      grade gliomas.
AB  - Management of low-grade gliomas (LGG) is based on clinical and radiologic
      features, including the Pignatti prognostic scoring system, which classifies
      patients as low- or high-risk. To determine whether molecular data can offer
      advantages over these features, we have examined the prognostic impact of several
      molecular alterations in LGG. In a cohort of 58 patients with LGG, we have
      retrospectively analyzed clinical and molecular characteristics, including the
      Pignatti criteria, IDH mutations, TP53 mutations, the 1p/19q deletion, and MGMT
      methylation, and correlated our findings with progression-free survival (PFS) and
      overall survival (OS). Mean age of patients was 45 years; 71% were classified as
      low-risk by the Pignatti system. IDH mutations were detected in 62%, p53
      mutations in 17%, the 1p/19q codeletion in 46%, and MGMT methylation in 40% of
      patients. Survival analyses were performed in the 49 patients without contrast
      enhancement. In the univariate analysis, IDH mutations, the 1p/19q codeletion,
      and the combination of IDH mutations with the 1p/19q codeletion were associated
      with both longer PFS (P = 0.006, P = 0.037, and P = 0.003, respectively) and
      longer OS (P < 0.001, P = 0.02, and P < 0.001, respectively). The multivariate
      analysis identified absence of IDH mutations as a factor for greater risk of
      progression [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.1; P = 0.007]and death (HR = 6.4; P < 0.001).
      We suggest that IDH mutations may be more effective than the Pignatti score in
      discriminating low- and high-risk patients with LGG.

PMID- 28884378
TI  - Efficacy of topical tofacitinib in promoting hair growth in non-scarring
      alopecia: possible mechanism via VEGF induction.
AB  - Tofacitinib is a Janus kinase 3 (JAK3) inhibitor that promotes hair growth;
      however, the efficacy and mechanism of this effect are not yet understood. This
      study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and mechanism of topical tofacitinib on hair
      growth in mice. Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were divided equally into four
      groups and treated topically with tofacitinib, minoxidil, or vehicle once daily
      for 21 days. Weekly photographs were taken to determine the area and rate of hair
      growth, and tissue samples were collected for histopathological evaluation. mRNA
      and protein expression of anagen-maintaining growth factors, including vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), were
      determined via RT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. Tofacitinib-treated mice exhibited
      more hair regrowth than either minoxidil-treated or control mice did between day
      7 and 21 (P < 0.05). Topical tofacitinib also promoted more rapid hair growth
      rate than topical minoxidil or control did (P < 0.001). Histopathology showed a
      distinct increase in the number of hair follicles, mostly in the anagen phase, in
      the tofacitinib-treated group. Hair follicles in the minoxidil- and vehicle
      treated groups were more often classified as catagen and anagen. VEGF mRNA and
      protein expression in the tofacitinib-treated group was significantly greater
      than those in the other groups (P < 0.05). IGF-1 mRNA expression was not
      upregulated in tofacitinib-treated mice. Topical tofacitinib is effective in
      promoting hair growth, and the possible mechanism involves increased VEGF levels
      and lowered inflammation. This study will help develop a new therapeutic option
      for non-scarring alopecia.

PMID- 28884380
TI  - Role of calmodulin and calcineurin in regulating flagellar motility and wave
      polarity in Leishmania.
AB  - We have previously reported the involvement of cyclic AMP in regulating flagellar
      waveforms in Leishmania. Here, we investigated the roles of calcium, calmodulin,
      and calcineurin in flagellar motility regulation in L. donovani. Using high-speed
      videomicroscopy, we show that calcium-independent calmodulin and calcineurin
      activity is necessary for motility in Leishmania. Inhibition of calmodulin and
      calcineurin induced ciliary beats interrupting flagellar beating in both live (in
      vivo) and ATP-reactivated (in vitro) parasites. Our results indicate that
      signaling mediated by calmodulin and calcineurin operates antagonistically to
      cAMP signaling in regulating the waveforms of Leishmania flagellum. These two
      pathways are possibly involved in maintaining the balance between the two
      waveforms, essential for responding to environmental cues, survival, and
      infectivity.

PMID- 28884379
TI  - Genetic interaction of purinergic P2X7 receptor and ER-alpha polymorphisms in
      susceptibility to osteoporosis in Chinese postmenopausal women.
AB  - Osteoporosis (OP) is an increasing public health problem worldwide. Genetic
      factors are considered to be major contributors to the pathogenesis of OP. The
      aim of this study was to investigate the association of the purinergic P2X7
      receptor (P2X7R) and estrogen receptor-alpha (ER-alpha) genes with OP risk, and
      the effect of the possible interaction between the two genes on predisposition to
      OP in Chinese postmenopausal women. A total of 596 subjects, including 350 OP
      patients and 246 controls, were recruited in this case-control study. Five
      functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the P2X7R gene (rs2393799,
      rs7958311, rs1718119, rs2230911, rs3751143) and two ER-alpha PvuII and XbaI
      polymorphisms were genotyped and analyzed. Single-gene variant analysis showed
      that the carriers of the CC genotype of P2X7R rs3751143 revealed an increased OP
      risk. Haplotype rs1718119G-rs2230911G-rs3751143C also appeared to be a
      significant 'risk' haplotype with OP. For the ER-alpha gene, no evidence of
      significant association of PvuII or XbaI polymorphism with OP risk was found.
      Moreover, there was a significant gene-gene interaction between P2X7R rs3751143
      and ER-alpha PvuII; the cross-validation consistency was 10/10 and the testing
      accuracy was 0.5818 (P = 0.0107). A 1.67-fold-increased risk for OP was detected
      in individuals carrying the genotypes of AC or CC of rs3751143 and Pp or PP of
      PvuII compared to subjects with AA of rs3751143 and pp of PvuII. Our findings
      suggest an important association of the P2X7R rs3751143CC genotype and the
      rs1718119G-rs2230911G-rs3751143C haplotype with an increased OP risk. Also, the
      P2X7R rs3751143 and ER-alpha PvuII two-locus interaction confers a significantly
      high susceptibility to OP in Chinese postmenopausal women.

PMID- 28884381
TI  - Development of a Computer-Aided Differential Diagnosis System to Distinguish
      Between Usual Interstitial Pneumonia and Non-specific Interstitial Pneumonia
      Using Texture- and Shape-Based Hierarchical Classifiers on HRCT Images.
AB  - A computer-aided differential diagnosis (CADD) system that distinguishes between
      usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) and non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP)
      using high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images was developed, and its
      results compared against the decision of a radiologist. Six local interstitial
      lung disease patterns in the images were determined, and 900 typical regions of
      interest were marked by an experienced radiologist. A support vector machine
      classifier was used to train and label the regions of interest of the lung
      parenchyma based on the texture and shape characteristics. Based on the regional
      classifications of the entire lung using HRCT, the distributions and extents of
      the six regional patterns were characterized through their CADD features. The
      disease division index of every area fraction combination and the asymmetric
      index between the left and right lungs were also evaluated. A second SVM
      classifier was employed to classify the UIP and NSIP, and features were selected
      through sequential-forward floating feature selection. For the evaluation, 54
      HRCT images of UIP (n = 26) and NSIP (n = 28) patients clinically diagnosed by a
      pulmonologist were included and evaluated. The classification accuracy was
      measured based on a fivefold cross-validation with 20 repetitions using random
      shuffling. For comparison, thoracic radiologists assessed each case using HRCT
      images without clinical information or diagnosis. The accuracies of the
      radiologists' decisions were 75 and 87%. The accuracies of the CADD system using
      different features ranged from 70 to 81%. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed
      CADD system after sequential-forward feature selection was 91%.

PMID- 28884382
TI  - Therapy-free interval has prognostic value in patients with recurrent cervical
      cancer treated with chemotherapy following definitive concurrent
      chemoradiotherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Patients with cervical cancer recurrence after concurrent
      chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) who are not candidates for surgical resection or salvage
      radiotherapy have a dismal prognosis. The predictive factors for the effects of
      chemotherapy and prognostic factors in these patients were analyzed. METHODS: We
      collected data for patients with recurrent cervical cancer who were primarily
      treated with CCRT between 2000 and 2013. Among them, 57 patients treated with
      only systemic chemotherapy were analyzed for the overall survival (OS), the
      overall response rate (ORR), and prognostic factors. RESULTS: The median age was
      47 years. Inside the irradiated field recurrence occurred in 24, outside in 20
      and both in 13 patients. Time to recurrence after the CCRT (i.e., therapy-free
      interval; TFI) were <6 months in 11, 6-12 months in 15, >=12 months in 23
      patients, and persistent disease in 8 patients. The median OS was 18 months and
      ORR was 15.7%. Those with a longer TFI showed a tendency for better ORR (p =
      0.051) and those receiving a taxane-containing regimen showed significantly
      higher ORR (p = 0.0232). Multivariate analysis revealed a significant correlation
      between the median OS and TFI (HR = 4.688, 95% CI = 2.178-11.10, p < 0.0001) and
      chemotherapy response (HR = 20.08, 95% CI = 3.936-368.4, p < 0.0001).
      Furthermore, even in patients with stable disease, the median OS increased
      corresponding to the length of the TFI (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: TFI has
      predictive value for response to chemotherapy and prognosis of patients with
      recurrent cervical cancer after definitive CCRT.

PMID- 28884383
TI  - Phosphorus and nitrogen co-limitation of forest ground vegetation under elevated
      anthropogenic nitrogen deposition.
AB  - Plant growth in northern forest ecosystems is considered to be primarily nitrogen
      limited. Nitrogen deposition is predicted to change this towards co
      limitation/limitation by other nutrients (e.g., phosphorus), although evidence of
      such stoichiometric effects is scarce. We utilized two forest fertilization
      experiments in southern Sweden to analyze single and combined effects of nitrogen
      and phosphorus on the productivity, composition, and diversity of the ground
      vegetation. Our results indicate that the productivity of forest ground
      vegetation in southern Sweden is co-limited by nitrogen and phosphorus.
      Additionally, the combined effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on the productivity
      was larger than when applied solely. No effects on species richness of any of
      these two nutrients were observed when applied separately, while applied in
      combination, they increased species richness and changed species composition,
      mainly by promoting more mesotrophic species. All these effects, however,
      occurred only for the vascular plants and not for bryophytes. The tree layer in a
      forest has a profound impact on the productivity and diversity of the ground
      vegetation by competing for both light and nutrients. This was confirmed in our
      study where a combination of nitrogen and high tree basal area reduced cover of
      the ground vegetation compared to all the other treatments where basal area was
      lower after stand thinning. During the past decades, nitrogen deposition may have
      further increased this competition from the trees for phosphorus and gradually
      reduced ground vegetation diversity. Phosphorus limitation induced by nitrogen
      deposition may, thus, contribute to ongoing changes in forest ground vegetation.

PMID- 28884384
TI  - Study of ChiR function in Serratia marcescens and its application for improving
      2,3-butanediol from crystal chitin.
AB  - Microbial utilization of chitin, a potential renewable biomass feedstock, is
      being pursued as a means of developing novel consolidated bioprocessing for the
      production of chemicals. Serratia marcescens is a gram-negative bacterium that is
      known for its chitinolytic capability and as a native 2,3-butanediol producer. In
      S. marcescens, ChiR has been suggested to be a positive regulator of chitinase
      production. In this study, we aim to understand the effect of ChiR in regulating
      nine chitinase-related genes in S. marcescens Db11 and demonstrate manipulation
      of chiR as a useful and efficient genetic target to enhance chitin utilization.
      First, a chiR overexpression (chiROE) strain and a chiR deletion (DeltachiR)
      strain were generated and characterized in terms of cellular growth, chitinase
      activity, and total secreted protein. Compared to the wild-type Db11 strain, the
      S. marcescens chiROE strain showed an increase in chitinase activity (2.14- to
      6.31-fold increase). Increased transcriptional expression of chitinase-related
      genes was measured using real-time PCR, showing 2.12- to 10.93-fold increases.
      The S. marcescens DeltachiR strain showed decreases in chitinase activity (4.5-
      to 25-fold decrease), confirming ChiR's role as a positive regulator of chitinase
      expression. Finally, chiR overexpression was investigated as a means of
      increasing biochemical production (2,3-butanediol) from crystal chitin. The
      chiROE strain produced 1.13 +/- 0.08 g/L 2,3-butanediol from 2% crystal chitin, a
      2.83-fold improvement from the wild-type strain, indicating ChiR is an important
      and useful genetic engineering target for enhancing chitin utilization in S.
      marcescens.

PMID- 28884385
TI  - Low frequency of polyps in colonic regions with diverticulosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Conflicting evidence exists regarding any association between
      diverticulosis and adenomatous polyps. We evaluated the prevalence of polyps and
      cancer in colonic regions containing diverticula. METHODS: Six hundred
      consecutive colonoscopy reports from a single endoscopist were reviewed to
      determine prevalence and location of diverticulosis and polyps. Additionally,
      pathology reports of 88 colon cancer resection specimens were reviewed for the
      presence of diverticulosis, and compared with expected prevalence of
      diverticulosis in that colonic region based on the collected colonoscopy data.
      RESULTS: Overall, rates of detected polyps were comparable between patients with
      and without diverticulosis. However, analyzing the data by colonic segment
      containing diverticulosis, the prevalence of adenomatous polyps was reduced in
      regions of diverticulosis compared to the same colonic segment unaffected by
      diverticulosis (7 vs. 17% for rectosigmoid (p = 0.005); 5 vs. 18% for descending
      (p < 0.0001); and 17 vs. 27% for ascending colon (p = 0.0495)). Among colon
      cancer resection specimens, the prevalence of diverticulosis was significantly
      reduced in the rectosigmoid and ascending colon, compared with expected rates of
      diverticulosis in those regions. (13 vs. 42% in rectosigmoid (p = 0.0006); 3 vs.
      17% in ascending colon (p = 0.043)). CONCLUSION: Despite similar overall
      frequency of polyps in patients with and without diverticulosis, polyps were
      significantly less likely in the colonic segment affected by diverticulosis.
      Additionally, the frequency of diverticulosis in areas of cancer in the
      rectosigmoid and ascending colon was significantly lower than expected compared
      with the expected frequency of diverticulosis for those colonic regions. These
      observations suggest a true negative association between colonic neoplasia and
      diverticulosis.

PMID- 28884386
TI  - Association between cardiac autonomic control and cognitive performance among
      patients post stroke and age-matched healthy controls-an exploratory pilot study.
AB  - Associations between autonomic nervous system health and cognitive performance
      have been described in different populations. Autonomic disturbances are a common
      phenomenon in patients post stroke. Little is known about the relationship
      between post stroke disturbances of the autonomic nervous system and the commonly
      occurring disturbances of cognitive functions revealed by victims of stroke. To
      assess the association between heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive
      performance among patients post ischemic stroke and healthy age-matched controls,
      13 patients post first-ever ischemic stroke aged 40-80 years and 15 age-matched
      healthy controls were evaluated. HRV was monitored during sustained handgrip,
      while breathing at a rate of six breaths per minute, while performing the serial
      3 subtraction task sitting at rest, and while cycling. Patients post stroke had
      greater error rate in the serial-3 subtraction task, and lower HRV (both at rest
      and during task performance) relative to healthy controls (at rest 26 ms [10-53]
      vs. 43 ms [29-88]). The HRV of stroke patients showed less sensitivity to changes
      in testing conditions, and also failed to show the correlation with cognitive
      performance exhibited by the healthy subjects. Stroke patients experience
      autonomic nervous system dysfunction in parallel to their motor and cognitive
      impairments. Too often only the latter receive appropriate treatment
      consideration in the rehabilitation setting. The current results, and earlier
      research, point to the importance of focusing clinical attention to the status of
      the autonomic nervous system, as amelioration of its functioning is likely to
      enhance motor and cognitive functioning as well.

PMID- 28884387
TI  - Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in coronary heart disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To better understand the molecular mechanisms of atherosclerosis, we
      conducted a comparative analysis of DNA methylation patterns in right coronary
      arteries in the area of advanced atherosclerotic plaques (CAP), great saphenous
      vein (GSV), and internal mammary artery (IMA) of patients affected by coronary
      heart disease. METHODS: DNA methylation data (accession number E-GEOD-62867) were
      divided into three paired groups: CAP vs. IMA, CAP vs. GSV, and IMA vs. GSV.
      Differentially methylated genes (DMGs) were extracted to analyze the changes in
      the DMGs in the three different tissues. The gplots package was used for the
      clustering and heatmap analysis of DMGs. Subsequently, DMG-related pathways were
      identified using DAVID (Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated
      Discovery) and transcription factors (TFs) were predicted. RESULTS: Based on the
      filtering criterion of p < 0.05, and a mean beta value difference of >=0.2, there
      were 252, 373, and 259 DMGs, respectively, in the CAP vs. IMA, CAP vs. GSV, and
      IMA vs. GSV groups. Interestingly, the S100A10 gene was hypomethylated in CAP
      compared with IMA and GSV. Clustering and heatmap analyses suggested that DMGs
      were segregated into two distinct clusters. Hypermethylated genes in CAP as
      compared with GSV were only involved in the pathway of fat digestion and
      absorption, while hypomethylated genes in CAP compared with GSV mainly
      participated in immune response-associated pathways (cytokine-cytokine receptor
      interaction, MAPK signaling pathway). CONCLUSION: The DNA methylation differences
      in vascular tissues of patients with coronary artery disease may provide new
      insights into the mechanisms underlying the development of atherosclerosis. The
      functions identified here-cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, MAPK signaling
      pathway, DMG (S100A10), and TF (NF-kB)-may serve as potential targets in the
      treatment of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28884388
TI  - Circulating C3 and glucose metabolism abnormalities in patients with OSAHS.
AB  - PURPOSE: Obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is a common breathing
      disorder during sleep characterized by multiple disease roots, including
      disorders of complement and glycometabolism. And the main purpose of the present
      study is to make clear the effect of complement C3 on glucose metabolism
      abnormalities in patients with OSAHS. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study.
      Two hundred six patients, mean age 44.58 +/- 11.84 years and 26 female patients
      (26/206), had been suspected with OSAHS and underwent overnight polysomnography.
      The assessment of complement levels included complement 3 (C3), complement 4
      (C4), and serum total complement (TC). The measured indicators of glucose
      metabolism were fasting blood glucose (FPG), fasting insulin (FINS), and 75 g
      oral glucose tolerance test-derived glucose. A multivariate linear regression was
      used to determine relevant factors with 2-h postprandial blood glucose (2hPG) and
      C3. RESULTS: The patients were classified according to apnea-hypopnea index (AHI)
      into four groups: simple snore (n = 21), mild OSAHS (n = 43), moderate OSAHS (n =
      35), and severe OSAHS (n = 107). The level of C3 in the severe OSAHS was higher
      than other groups (simple snore: 1.16 +/- 0.18 g/L VS 1.00 +/- 0.18 g/L, p <
      0.001; mild OSAHS: 1.16 +/- 0.18 g/L VS 1.04 +/- 0.17 g/L, p < 0.001; moderate
      OSAHS: 1.16 +/- 0.18 g/L VS 1.06 +/- 0.14 g/L, p = 0.003) and no-severe OSAHS
      group (1.16 +/- 0.18 g/L VS 1.04 +/- 0.16 g/L, p < 0.001). And C3 was associated
      with AHI, average pulse oxygen saturation (A-spo2), homeostasis model assessment
      insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), 2hPG, age, sleep stage (I + II)/TST, and sleep
      stage (III)/TST, respectively. HOMA-IR was correlated to AHI after adjustment
      with age and BMI. OSAHS was an independent risk of C3 regardless of obesity and
      sleep parameters (p = 0.002). After adjustment with neck circumference (NC), BMI,
      AHI, sleep stage (I + II)/TST, and sleep stage (III)/TST,C3 level was associated
      with 2hPG (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A high level in C3 is correlated with the
      occurrence of OSAHS and C3 alterations in OSAHS patients seem to contribute to
      disorders of glucose metabolism. And targeting OSAHS to improve glucose
      metabolism and immune function could be useful.

PMID- 28884390
TI  - Patients treated for acute VTE during periods of treatment-related
      thrombocytopenia have high rates of recurrent thrombosis and transfusion-related
      adverse outcomes.
AB  - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common complication of hematologic
      malignancies. Prolonged periods of thrombocytopenia are experienced universally
      by patients undergoing treatment for these diseases, yet data to guide management
      of anticoagulation in this setting are lacking. To obtain data on the management
      and outcomes of VTE in patients with thrombocytopenia related to the treatment of
      hematologic malignancies. This was an observational cohort study of patients
      experiencing VTE during periods of treatment-related thrombocytopenia over a 5
      year period at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Medical records were
      reviewed for diagnostic, treatment and outcomes data, including bleeding events
      (categorized by WHO criteria) and progression or recurrence of VTE. Eighty-two
      patients meeting inclusion criteria were identified. Forty-eight percent were
      male and the median age was 55. Sixty-seven patients received anticoagulation,
      88% of these were managed with transfusion support for a platelet goal of 50 *
      109/L. Thirty-one patients experienced bleeding events, 22 of which were grade 2
      and nine of which were grade 3/4. The median platelet count at the time of
      bleeding event was 54 * 109/L. Seven patients experienced progression of
      thrombosis and/or recurrence. Eleven patients experienced transfusion reactions
      and 30 experienced volume overload requiring diuretics or dialysis. While
      bleeding events were not uncommon, the majority of events were non-major/non
      clinically relevant. Most bleeding events occurred while the platelet count was
      within the 'goal' range of >=50 * 109/L, and many patients experienced
      transfusion related adverse events. Prospective studies are urgently needed to
      identify the optimal transfusion strategy for these patients.

PMID- 28884389
TI  - Microbial communities in pesticide-contaminated soils in Kyrgyzstan and
      bioremediation possibilities.
AB  - In Kyrgyzstan, many former storehouses and dump sites for obsolete pesticides
      exist. In 2009/2010, an inventory and assessment of these sites including risks
      of environmental hazard has been conducted by FAO and the World Bank. Monitoring
      revealed high concentration of pesticides listed as persistent organic pollutants
      (POPs). The purpose of this research was to study the microbial structural
      complexes of the pesticide-contaminated soils in these dumping zones, and to
      search for and select microorganism's destructors with cytochrome P450 genes for
      pesticide degradation. Culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches were
      used to determine the taxonomic composition of these bacterial communities. The
      universal primer set for the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene and the specific
      primer set P450R were used to amplify the cytochrome P450 hydroxylase gene. In
      soils from Suzak A and B and soils from Balykchy dumping sites, the bacteria from
      the Actinobacteria phylum (Micrococcus genus) were dominant. These bacteria made
      up 32-47% of the indigenous local microflora; bacteria species from the
      Pseudomonas genus (Gammaproteobacteria phylum) made up 23% in Suzak, 12% in
      Balykchy soils. Bacillus species from the Firmicutes phylum were found only in
      Suzak soils. The 16S rRNA analyses and the specific primer set P450R have
      revealed bacteria with cytochrome genes which are directly involved in the
      degradation process of organic carbon compounds. Experiments were carried out to
      help select active degraders from the bacterial populations isolated and used to
      degrade Aldrin in laboratory. Active bacterial strains from the Pseudomonas
      fluorescens and Bacillus polymyxa population were selected which demonstrated
      high rates of degradation activity on Aldrin.

PMID- 28884391
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Surgical Margin Size After Neoadjuvant FOLFOX and/or
      FOLFIRI for Colorectal Liver Metastases.
AB  - PURPOSE: Optimal margin size when resecting colorectal liver metastases (CRLM)
      remains unclear, particularly in the setting of perioperative chemotherapy. We
      evaluated the prognostic significance of margin size in patients who received
      neoadjuvant FOLFOX and/or FOLFIRI prior to resection of CRLM. METHODS:
      Clinicopathologic factors were collected for patients who underwent curative
      liver resections for CRLM between 4/2004-1/2016 and received neoadjuvant
      oxaliplatin and/or irinotecan and 5-FU (FOLFOX, FOLFIRI). Margins were
      categorized as < 1, >= 1-< 5, >= 5-< 10, or >= 10 mm and evaluated for
      association with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) by Cox
      multiple regression analysis. Margin status was classified as positive (< 1 mm)
      or negative (>= 1 mm) and similarly evaluated. RESULTS: Of 227 patients, the
      median age was 58 years and most had synchronous (80%) lesions. The majority had
      colon cancers (75%). Margin sizes were 13% < 1 mm, 27% >= 1-< 5 mm, 23% >= 5-< 10
      mm, 36% >= 10 mm. Most (63%) received chemotherapy post-liver resection. Five
      year OS and DFS were 54% (95% CI 46-62%) and 22% (95% CI 16-28%), respectively.
      Positive margins significantly increased the risk of death without post-liver
      resection chemotherapy (HR = 3.32, p = 0.0077), but not with post-liver resection
      chemotherapy (HR = 1.00, p = 0.99). Negative margin sizes of >= 1-< 5, >= 5-< 10,
      and >= 10 mm were not significant predictors of OS (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION:
      Patients undergoing liver resection for CRLM should receive post-resection
      chemotherapy if negative margins (>= 1 mm) cannot be achieved. For patients
      receiving FOLFOX and/or FOLFIRI chemotherapy, wider margins did not improve OS.

PMID- 28884392
TI  - Socioeconomic status and breast cancer treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Evidence suggests substantial disparities in breast cancer survival by
      socioeconomic status (SES). We examine the extent to which receipt of newer, less
      invasive, or more effective treatments-a plausible source of disparities in
      survival-varies by SES among elderly women with early-stage breast cancer.
      METHODS: Multivariate regression analyses applied to 11,368 women (age 66-90
      years) identified from SEER-Medicare as having invasive breast cancer diagnosed
      in 2006-2009. Socioeconomic status was defined based on Medicaid enrollment and
      level of poverty of the census tract of residence. All analyses controlled for
      demographic, clinical health status, spatial, and healthcare system
      characteristics. RESULTS: Poor and near-poor women were less likely than high SES
      women to receive sentinel lymph node biopsy and radiation after breast-conserving
      surgery (BCS). Poor women were also less likely than near-poor or high SES women
      to receive any axillary surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. There were no
      significant differences in use of aromatase inhibitors (AI) between poor and high
      SES women. However, near-poor women who initiated hormonal therapy were more
      likely to rely exclusively on tamoxifen, and less likely to use the more
      expensive but more effective AI when compared to both poor and high SES women.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that SES disparities in the receipt of
      treatments for incident breast cancer are both pervasive and substantial. These
      disparities remained despite women's geographic area of residence and extent of
      disease, suggesting important gaps in access to effective breast cancer care.

PMID- 28884393
TI  - Effects of long exposure to spent potliner on seeds, root tips, and meristematic
      cells of Allium cepa L.
AB  - Spent potliner (SPL) is a solid waste generated in the aluminum mining and
      processing industry. It is sometimes dumped into the environment and leach in
      contact with water, thereupon affecting living beings, which are likely to be
      exposed to the waste for long periods. Considering this, we aimed to evaluate the
      effects of extended exposure to SPL through bioassays using Allium cepa as plant
      model system. Seeds of A. cepa were either directly exposed to SPL (continuous
      exposure) or first germinated in water and then exposed to SPL (discontinuous
      exposure). The germination rate was determined from 24 to 192 h of exposure. The
      maximum effects of SPL on germination were observed after 96 h in both exposure
      approaches. For the parameter root elongation, the discontinuous treatment was
      more efficient in demonstrating differences among the applied SPL concentrations
      (60% of reduction). Microscopic analysis was carried out in root tip cells
      discontinuously exposed to SPL for 96 h. A mitodepressive effect was observed
      (above 50%), as well as increased rate of chromosome abnormalities (up to 100
      fold) and induction of cell death. The consequences of exposure to SPL for longer
      periods are discussed.

PMID- 28884394
TI  - A decrease in the number and incidence of osteoporotic hip fractures among
      elderly individuals in Niigata, Japan, from 2010 to 2015.
AB  - We investigated the incidence of hip fracture in patients aged >=50 years in 2015
      in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. We also determined the long-term trend in hip
      fracture incidence from 1985 to 2015. In 2015, 3214 hip fractures occurred in
      Niigata Prefecture. The crude incidence rate of hip fracture was 282.7 per
      100,000 persons per year (122.9 in men and 416.4 in women). The incidence of hip
      fracture decreased from 2010 to 2015 in all age groups except in men aged 65-69
      years and women aged 60-64 years. The percentage of patients who took anti
      osteoporotic medication before their hip fractures increased from 10.2% in 2010
      to 14.9% in 2015. The age-specific incidence in women tended to increase until
      2010, but significantly decreased from 2010 to 2015 (p < 0.001). Similarly, the
      incidence in men decreased from 2010 to 2015 but was not significantly different
      from that in 1994 (p = 0.633); this incidence had been increasing since 1999. In
      conclusion, a generally increasing trend was observed in the incidence of hip
      fractures for 30 years in both men and women in Niigata Prefecture; however, it
      turned into a descending trend beginning in 2010.

PMID- 28884395
TI  - Cellular cholesterol is required for porcine nidovirus infection.
AB  - Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic
      diarrhea virus (PEDV) are porcine nidoviruses that are considered emerging and re
      emerging viral pathogens of pigs that pose a significant economic threat to the
      global pork industry. Although cholesterol is known to affect the replication of
      a broad range of viruses in vitro, its significance and role in porcine nidovirus
      infection remains to be elucidated. Therefore, the present study was conducted to
      determine whether cellular or/and viral cholesterol levels play a role in porcine
      nidovirus infection. Our results showed that depletion of cellular cholesterol by
      treating cells with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MbetaCD) dose-dependently
      suppressed the replication of both nidoviruses. Conversely, cholesterol depletion
      from the viral envelope had no inhibitory effect on porcine nidovirus production.
      The addition of exogenous cholesterol to MbetaCD-treated cells moderately
      restored the infectivity of porcine nidoviruses, indicating that the presence of
      cholesterol in the target cell membrane is critical for viral replication. The
      antiviral activity of MbetaCD on porcine nidovirus infection was found to be
      predominantly exerted when used as a treatment pre-infection or prior to the
      viral entry process. Furthermore, pharmacological sequestration of cellular
      cholesterol efficiently blocked both virus attachment and internalization and,
      accordingly, markedly affected subsequent post-entry steps of the replication
      cycle, including viral RNA and protein biosynthesis and progeny virus production.
      Taken together, our data indicate that cell membrane cholesterol is required for
      porcine nidovirus entry into cells, and pharmacological drugs that hamper
      cholesterol-dependent virus entry may have antiviral potential against porcine
      nidoviruses.

PMID- 28884396
TI  - Ginsenoside Re Protects Trimethyltin-Induced Neurotoxicity via Activation of IL-6
      Mediated Phosphoinositol 3-Kinase/Akt Signaling in Mice.
AB  - Ginseng (Panax ginseng), an herbal medicine, has been used to prevent
      neurodegenerative disorders. Ginsenosides (e.g., Re, Rb1, or Rg1) were obtained
      from Korean mountain cultivated ginseng. The anticonvulsant activity of
      ginsenoside Re (20 mg/kg/day * 3) against trimethyltin (TMT) insult was the most
      pronounced out of ginsenosides (e.g., Re, Rb1, and Rg1). Re itself did not
      significantly alter tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-Upsilon
      (IFN-Upsilon), and interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) expression, however, it
      significantly increases the interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression. In addition, Re
      attenuated the TMT-induced decreases in IL-6 protein level. Therefore, IL-6
      knockout (-/-) mice were employed to investigate whether Re requires IL-6
      dependent neuroprotective activity against TMT toxicity. Re significantly
      attenuated TMT-induced lipid peroxidation, protein peroxidation, and reactive
      oxygen species in the hippocampus. Re-mediated antioxidant effects were more
      pronounced in IL-6 (-/-) mice than in WT mice. Consistently, TMT-induced increase
      in c-Fos-immunoreactivity (c-Fos-IR), TUNEL-positive cells, and nuclear chromatin
      clumping in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus were significantly attenuated by
      Re. Furthermore, Re attenuated TMT-induced proapoptotic changes. Protective
      potentials by Re were comparable to those by recombinant IL-6 protein (rIL-6)
      against TMT-insult in IL-6 (-/-) mice. Moreover, treatment with a phosphoinositol
      3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, LY294002 (1.6 ug, i.c.v) counteracted the protective
      potential mediated by Re or rIL-6 against TMT insult. The results suggest that
      ginsenoside Re requires IL-6-dependent PI3K/Akt signaling for its protective
      potential against TMT-induced neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28884398
TI  - Developmental exposure of decabromodiphenyl ether impairs subventricular zone
      neurogenesis and morphology of granule cells in mouse olfactory bulb.
AB  - Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are additive flame retardants widely used
      in various products (e.g., textiles, consumer electronics, and plastics). Strong
      evidence indicates that PBDEs are developmental neurotoxicants that can cause
      neurodevelopmental disabilities and cognitive defects. Currently,
      decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE 209) is the only PBDE permitted for production in
      most countries. This study investigated the impact of BDE 209 on postnatal
      neurogenesis in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of ICR mice. For this purpose,
      pregnant ICR mice were orally administrated a daily dose of 0, 20 or 100 mg/kg
      BDE 209 from gestation day 6 to postnatal day 16. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)
      incorporation and in vivo postnatal electroporation were performed to label the
      newly generated cells in the SVZ. On PND 16, a reduction of type-B stem cells was
      found in the 100 mg/kg group. BDE 209 also decreased the number of newborn cells
      and Calretinin+ interneurons in granule cell layer at the dose of 100 mg/kg. In
      addition, we observed impaired neuronal migration and dendritic development of
      newborn olfactory granule cells in both 20 and 100 mg/kg groups. In conclusion,
      developmental exposure to BDE 209 produces adverse effects on SVZ neurogenesis
      and dendritic growth of mouse offspring. These findings suggest a potential risk
      of BDE 209 in human neurodevelopment.

PMID- 28884397
TI  - BRCA1 gene: function and deficiency.
AB  - The BRCA1 protein, a hereditary breast and ovarian cancer-causing gene product,
      is known as a multifunctional protein that performs various functions in cells.
      It is well known, along with BRCA 2, to cause hereditary breast and ovarian
      cancer, but here we will specifically focus on BRCA1. We introduce the mechanism
      and the latest report on homologous recombination repair, replication,
      involvement in checkpoint regulation, transcription, chromatin remodeling, and
      cytoplasmic function (centrosome regulation, apoptosis, selective autophagy), and
      consider the possibility of carcinogenesis from inhibition of the intracellular
      functions in each. We also consider the possibility of drug development based on
      each function. Finally, we will explain, from data obtained through basic
      research, that an appropriate regimen is important for raising the response rate
      for poly (ADP)-ribose polymerase inhibitors, in the case of low susceptibility,
      iatrogenic toxicity, tolerance, etc.

PMID- 28884399
TI  - Bias and Correction in RNA-seq Data for Marine Species.
AB  - RNA-seq is a recently developed approach widely used for transcriptome profiling
      in biological analyses that use next-generation sequencing technologies. Accurate
      estimation of gene expression levels is critical for answering biological
      questions. Here, we show that the commonly used measure of gene expression
      levels, fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM), is
      biased in transcript length, GC content, and dinucleotide frequencies in the RNA
      seq analysis of marine species. We used a generalized linear model to correct the
      observed biases of FPKM. We used RNA-seq data sets from eight species obtained by
      different sequencing methods to evaluate the correction methods. Our work
      contributes to the understanding of potential technical artifacts in RNA-seq
      experiments for marine species, and presents a means by which more accurate gene
      expression measures can be obtained.

PMID- 28884400
TI  - Nutrition and Aging: a Practicing Oncologist's Perspective.
AB  - Malnutrition is common in patients with cancer and is associated with a variety
      of negative outcomes. These can include reduced treatment tolerance and worsened
      cancer prognosis. Various aspects of aging, including sensory, physical, or
      psychosocial changes, place older patients at a particularly high risk for
      malnutrition, and these geriatric factors must be identified early and addressed.
      Despite the lack of available evidence on the optimal nutritional interventions
      for older adults with cancer, the oncologist must be prepared to address the
      common nutritional concerns that arise in both advanced cancer and survivorship
      settings. While BMI, weight loss, and serum albumin are commonly used as
      surrogates of malnutrition, the use of a comprehensive screening tool may promote
      early identification of disrupted eating patterns and allow for prompt
      intervention. New digital technologies have also demonstrated promise to improve
      nutritional assessment capabilities. Use of conventional nutritional support in
      conjunction with novel nutraceutical and anti-cachexia approaches may enhance the
      effectiveness of interventions and improve our ability to reverse malnutrition
      associated alterations in body composition. Future geriatric-focused nutrition
      research will be crucial in helping guide our patients and effectively addressing
      their dietary and lifestyle concerns.

PMID- 28884401
TI  - 4D flow image quality with blood pool contrast: a comparison of gadofosveset
      trisodium and ferumoxytol.
AB  - To evaluate the effect of MRI blood pool contrast agent on 4D flow image quality
      and ventricular volume measurements. Adult patients referred for clinical cardiac
      MRI (n = 22) were imaged with 4D flow. Patients with renal failure (n = 10)
      received ferumoxytol, and the remainder (n = 12) received gadofosveset trisodium.
      Image quality was assessed with (1) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); (2) contrast-to
      noise ratio (CNR); and (3) 5-point Likert scale based on endocardial border
      definition (1 = none; 2 = partial but unable to visualize; 3 = able to roughly
      estimate; 4 = visible for most of the cardiac cycle; 5 = excellent definition). A
      subset (n = 15) had short axis steady-state free precession (SSFP) cine imaging
      allowing for comparison of standard volumetric measurement technique with 4D flow
      derived volumetric measurements. 4D flow studies using ferumoxytol demonstrated a
      higher median Likert score of 5 (IQR, 5-5) versus 3 (IQR, 2-3). Median cavity SNR
      and CNR were higher for ferumoxytol compared to gadofosveset trisodium [65 (IQR,
      50-74) versus 22 (IQR, 14-28), p < 0.001; and 40 (IQR, 32-49) versus 4 (IQR, 3
      10), p < 0.001]. Good correlation (p < 0.001) was seen between SSFP and 4D flow
      measured ventricular volumes (ESV and EDV) with ferumoxytol (r = 0.998, mean
      difference = 1.2 mL, LOA = - 7.7-10.1 mL) and gadofosveset trisodium (r = 0.942,
      mean difference = - 2.7 mL, LOA = - 35.7-27.1 mL). Ferumoxytol used off-label as
      an MRI blood pool contrast agent offers an attractive alternative to gadofosveset
      trisodium in patients with renal failure, with excellent 4D flow image quality
      and good correlation of volumetric measurements compared to the CMR reference
      (SSFP).

PMID- 28884402
TI  - Obstructive Sleep Apnea Increases the Risk of Cardiopulmonary Adverse Events
      Associated with Ambulatory Colonoscopy Independent of Body Mass Index.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiopulmonary
      adverse events (CAEs) for ambulatory colonoscopy is unclear. AIM: To assess the
      association of BMI and CAEs associated with ambulatory colonoscopy. METHODS: This
      is a retrospective cohort analysis of 418 patients who underwent outpatient
      colonoscopy at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center categorized as
      normal/overweight (BMI < 30), obese (BMI 30-34), or morbidly obese (BMI >= 35).
      Adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: At least one CAE
      occurred in 46.4% of patients (220 events, 72.7% were hypoxia). The rate of CAEs
      (BMI < 30: 43.8%, BMI 30-34: 48.0%, BMI >= 35: 50.6%, p = 0.53) and rate of
      hypoxia (BMI < 30: 34.8%, BMI 30-34: 40.9%, BMI >= 35: 43.2%, p = 0.32) were
      numerically higher for obese and morbidly obese patients, but not statistically
      significant. Obese (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.70-1.73) and morbidly obese (OR 1.07, 95%
      CI 0.61-1.85) patients did not have an increased risk of CAEs after adjusting for
      age, ASA class, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and type of sedation. OSA was
      independently associated with an increased risk of CAEs (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.09
      2.74, p = 0.02) after adjusting for BMI, age, ASA class, and type of sedation.
      CONCLUSION: OSA confers a higher risk of CAEs independent of BMI and sedation
      type. Consideration of undiagnosed OSA is recommended for appropriate pre
      procedure risk stratification. While not statistically significant in this study,
      there may be clinically significant increased risks of CAEs and hypoxia for
      patient with BMI > 30 that require further evaluation with larger studies.

PMID- 28884403
TI  - Resonance Raman studies on the flavohemoglobin of the protist Giardia
      intestinalis: evidence of a type I/II-peroxidase-like heme environment and roles
      of the active site distal residues.
AB  - Flavohemoglobins are microbial enzymes that counter nitrosative stress, but the
      details of their underlying enzymatic activities and structure-function
      relationships are not completely understood. These enzymes have been identified
      in Gram-negative bacteria, certain fungi, and the parasitic protist Giardia
      intestinalis (gFlHb) which, despite lacking the ability to make heme, encodes
      several hemeproteins. To gain knowledge about the biophysical properties of the
      active site of gFlHb, we used resonance Raman spectroscopy to probe the wild-type
      protein and variants at globin domain positions E11, E7, and B10 on the distal,
      ligand-binding side of the heme. The heme of gFlHb has a peroxidase-like
      environment resembling that of the well-characterized E. coli flavohemoglobin
      HMP. We provide evidence that gFlHb has two Fe-His stretching modes, a feature
      that also occurs in type I/II-peroxidases in which a proximal histidine with
      strong imidazolate character and a nearby carboxylic acid residue can exist as a
      tautomeric pair depending on the position of a shared proton. Characterization of
      the distal variants Tyr30Phe, Gln54Leu, and Leu59Ala shows that TyrB10 and GlnE7
      but not LeuE11 are implicated in stabilisation of bound exogenous ligands such as
      CO and O2. Our work revealed that several biophysical properties of the heme
      active site of gFlHb are highly conserved compared to HMP and suggest that they
      are conserved across the flavohemoglobin family.

PMID- 28884404
TI  - Palatability of nine fodders species used by guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus).
AB  - Nine fodders commonly offered to the guinea pigs by the breeders in Lubumbashi
      (Democratic Republic of Congo) were compared for chemical composition and for
      both daily dry matter intake and palatability indices by using 13 three-month-old
      guinea pigs. Four different plant families were provided to each guinea pig, and
      each animal was exposed to all the experimental diets studied for 8 consecutive
      days. The fodder species were three grasses: Trypsacum laxum, Panicum maximum,
      and Pennisetum purpureum; three trees or bushes Moringa oleifera, Leucaena
      leucocephala, and Bauhinia variegata; and three flowering plants Bidens
      oligoflora, Bidens pilosa, and Commelina diffusa. Dry matter content varied from
      14 to 44/100 g FM, and CP from 13 to 28/100 g DM. B. variegata and P. purpureum
      showed the lowest CP value and L. leucocephala the highest. The grasses and the
      Commelina had higher levels of hemicelluloses than the tree fodders, especially
      P. maximum (45/100 g DM). High levels of K were found in the grasses and Bidens,
      and high Ca in the tree fodders and Bidens. The guinea pigs preferred, in a
      descending order, P. purpureum (0.79), B. pilosa (0.78), C. diffusa (0.78), T.
      laxum (0.77), P. maximum (0.76), B. oligoflora (0.75), M. oleifera (0.45), L.
      leucocephala (0.37), and B. variegata (0.33). The DMI and the palatability index
      were strongly correlated to the ash (r = 0.82; p ? 0.05) and the potassium (r =
      0.88; p ? 0.05) contents in fodders.

PMID- 28884405
TI  - Ethnicity and Language Proficiency Differences in the Provision of and Intention
      to Use Prenatal Screening for Down's Syndrome and Congenital Anomalies. A
      Prospective, Non-selected, Register-Based Study in the Netherlands.
AB  - Objective We aimed to conduct an analysis of the associations between the
      information provision procedure of prenatal screening for Down's syndrome and
      congenital anomalies and the intention to participate in prenatal screening (PS)
      of ethnicity groups and Dutch language proficiency groups. Design Using a
      prospective web-based registration form, we asked counselors (midwives, general
      practitioners, nurses and gynecologists) to report whether and how they offered
      information about PS to pregnant women. Duration The study was conducted from
      2008 to 2010. Participants We collected data on the characteristics of the women
      who received an information offer about PS from counselors. Measurements Measures
      included socio-demographic and language proficiency level (LPL) characteristics,
      key elements of the provision procedure of PS, and intentional participation in
      PS. Findings The dataset represents 37% of the total population in the study
      area. Women with a non-native Dutch background and/or insufficient Dutch LPL
      received fewer information offers about PS, faced a reduced chance of receiving
      counseling, and showed lower intentional participation rates for PS. Key
      Conclusions Women with a non-native Dutch background and/or with an insufficient
      LPL are underserved in the Dutch PS program. These findings present evidence
      indicating that the fundamental principle of the Dutch Population Screening Act,
      namely, equal access to PS for all pregnant women, is not being realized.
      Implications for Practice Therefore, the study findings are important for
      national and international healthcare, policy makers and governmental
      professionals to allow ethnic and LPL-related differences in the provision and
      intentional uptake of PS.

PMID- 28884406
TI  - Similarities and Differences in Barriers and Opportunities Affecting Climate
      Change Adaptation Action in Four North American Landscapes.
AB  - Climate change presents a complex set of challenges for natural resource managers
      across North America. Despite recognition that climate change poses serious
      threats to species, ecosystems, and human communities, implementation of
      adaptation measures is not yet happening on a broad scale. Among different
      regions, a range of climate change trajectories, varying political contexts, and
      diverse social and ecological systems generate a myriad of factors that can
      affect progress on climate change adaptation implementation. In order to
      understand the general versus site-specific nature of barriers and opportunities
      influencing implementation, we surveyed and interviewed practitioners, decision
      makers, and scientists involved in natural resource management in four different
      North American regions, northern Ontario (Canada), the Adirondack State Park
      (US), Arctic Alaska (US), and the Transboundary Rocky Mountains (US and Canada).
      Common barriers among regions related to a lack of political support and
      financial resources, as well as challenges related to translating complex and
      interacting effects of climate change into management actions. Opportunities
      shared among regions related to collaboration, funding, and the presence of
      strong leadership. These commonalities indicate the importance of cross-site
      learning about ways to leverage opportunities and address adaptation barriers;
      however, regional variations also suggest that adaptation efforts will need to be
      tailored to fit specific ecological, political, social and economic contexts.
      Comparative findings on the similarities and differences in barriers and
      opportunities, as well as rankings of barriers and opportunities by region,
      offers important contextual insights into how to further refine efforts to
      advance adaptation actions in those regions.

PMID- 28884407
TI  - Can Preoperative Frailty Accurately Predict Morbidity and Mortality Following
      Liver Surgery?

PMID- 28884408
TI  - Religion and health in Europe: cultures, countries, context.
AB  - Much of the research on the relationships between religious participation and
      health comes from the United States. Studies in other geographic regions or
      cultural contexts is more sparse. Evidence presented by Ahrenfelt et al., and
      that from other research studies, is reviewed concerning the associations between
      religion and health within Europe and world-wide. The evidence within Europe
      suggests protective associations between various forms of religious participation
      and lower depression, lower mortality, and better self-rated health.
      Methodological challenges in such research are reviewed, and discussion is given
      as to whether a person-culture-fit explanation suffices to account for the
      existing data and to what other mechanisms might be operative.

PMID- 28884409
TI  - Chronic exposure to rapamycin and episodic serum starvation modulate ageing of
      human fibroblasts in vitro.
AB  - Mild stress-induced activation of stress response (SR) pathways, such as
      autophagy, heat shock response, oxidative SR, DNA damage response, and
      inflammatory response, can be potentially health beneficial. Using the model
      system of cellular ageing and replicative senescence in vitro, we have studied
      the ageing modulatory effects of the two conditions, rapamycin and serum
      starvation. Chronic exposure to 0.1, 1 and 10 nM rapamycin positively modulated
      the survival, growth, morphology, telomere length, DNA methylation levels, 8-oxo
      dG level in DNA, N6-methyl-adenosine level in RNA, and ethanol stress tolerance
      of serially passaged normal human skin fibroblasts. Furthermore, episodic (once a
      week) serum starvation of human skin fibroblasts extended their replicative
      lifespan by about 22%, along with the maintenance of early passage youthful
      morphology even in late passage cultures. Although the results of this study may
      be considered preliminary, it can be inferred that intermittent and episodic
      induction of SR, rather than chronic up-regulation of SR, is more effective and
      applicable in the practice of hormesis for healthy ageing and longevity.

PMID- 28884410
TI  - AN-7, a butyric acid prodrug, sensitizes cutaneous T-cell lymphoma cell lines to
      doxorubicin via inhibition of DNA double strand breaks repair.
AB  - We previously found that the novel histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACI)
      butyroyloxymethyl diethylphosphate (AN-7) had greater selectivity against
      cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) than SAHA. AN-7 synergizes with doxorubicin
      (Dox), an anthracycline antibiotic that induces DNA breaks. This study aimed to
      elucidate the mechanism underlying the effect of AN-7 on Dox-induced double
      strand DNA breaks (DSBs) in CTCL, MyLa and Hut78 cell lines. The following
      markers/assays were employed: comet assay; western blot of gammaH2AX and p-KAP1;
      immunofluorescence of gammaH2AX nuclear foci; Western blot of repair protein;
      quantification of DSBs-repair through homologous recombination. DSB induction by
      Dox was evidenced by an increase in DSB markers, and DSBs-repair, by their
      subsequent decrease. The addition of AN-7 slightly increased Dox induction of
      DSBs in MyLa cells with no effect in Hut78 cells. AN-7 inhibited the repair of
      Dox-induced DSBs, with a more robust effect in Hut78. Treatment with AN-7
      followed by Dox reduced the expression of DSB-repair proteins, with direct
      interference of AN-7 with the homologous recombination repair. AN-7 sensitizes
      CTCL cell lines to Dox, and when combined with Dox, sustains unrepaired DSBs by
      suppressing repair protein expression. Our data provide a mechanistic rationale
      for combining AN-7 with Dox or other DSB inducers as a therapeutic modality in
      CTCL.

PMID- 28884411
TI  - Role of calcitonin gene-related peptide in energy metabolism.
AB  - PURPOSE: Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a neuropeptide produced by
      alternative tissue-specific splicing of the primary transcript of the CALC genes.
      CGRP is widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous system, as well
      as in several organs and tissues. The presence of CGRP in the liver and brown and
      white adipose tissue suggests an effect of this neuropeptide on regulation of
      energy homeostasis. METHODS: In this review, we summarize the current knowledge
      of the effect of CGRP on the control of energy metabolism, primarily focusing on
      food intake, thermoregulation and lipid metabolism in adipose tissue, liver and
      muscle. RESULTS: CGRP induces anorexia, stimulating anorexigenic neuropeptide
      and/or inhibiting orexigenic neuropeptide expression, through cAMP/PKA pathway
      activation. CGRP also induces energy expenditure, increasing the skin temperature
      and brown adipose tissue thermogenesis. It has been also suggested that
      information related to peripheral lipid stores may be conveyed to the brain via
      CGRP-sensory innervation from adipose tissue. More recently, it was demonstrated
      that mice lacking alphaCGRP are protected from obesity induced by high-fat diet
      and that CGRP regulates the content of lipid in liver, muscle and adipose tissue.
      CONCLUSIONS: It is unclear the receptor responsible by CGRP effects, as well as
      whether this neuropeptide acts directly or indirectly in liver, muscle and
      adipose tissue.

PMID- 28884413
TI  - Knockdown of long non-coding RNA prostate cancer-associated ncRNA transcript 1
      inhibits multidrug resistance and c-Myc-dependent aggressiveness in colorectal
      cancer Caco-2 and HT-29 cells.
AB  - The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) prostate cancer-associated ncRNA transcript 1
      (PCAT-1) has been shown to promote prostate cancer cell proliferation through c
      Myc and is associated with the poor prognosis of CRC patients. In the current
      study, it was hypothesized that the effect of PCAT-1 on the aggressiveness of CRC
      cells was dependent on the function of c-Myc. Human CRC cell lines Caco-2 and HT
      29 were transfected with specific PCAT-1 shRNAs, and cell migration,
      invasiveness, and resistance to 5-fluorouracil were measured. To elucidate the
      role of c-Myc in PCAT-1 function, c-Myc was overexpressed in PCAT-1-silenced CRC
      cells and the effect of c-Myc overexpression on the aggressiveness of PCAT-1
      silenced cells was detected. The results showed that knockdown of PCAT-1 in CRC
      cells suppressed cell motility and invasiveness, and sensitized the cells to 5
      fluorouracil, as evidenced by the reduced viability and induced apoptosis in PCAT
      1-silenced cells compared to the parental cells in response to 5-fluorouracil
      treatment. The expression of c-Myc in PCAT-1-silenced CRC cells was down
      regulated, and forced expression of c-Myc partially restored the invasiveness in
      PCAT-1-silenced cells. In summary, the findings outlined in the current study
      suggest that PCAT-1 regulates the invasiveness and drug resistance in CRC cells
      and that PCAT-1 may promote CRC cell invasion by modulating the expression of c
      Myc.

PMID- 28884412
TI  - Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) Therapy for Recovery of Fertility: a Systematic
      Review.
AB  - In recent years, the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have provided the new
      opportunities to treat different disorders including infertility. Different
      studies have suggested that the MSCs have ability to differentiate into germ-like
      cells under specific induction conditions as well as transplantation to gonadal
      tissues. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the results obtained
      from different studies on MSCs therapy for promoting fertility. This search was
      done in PubMed and Science Direct databases using key words MSCs, infertility,
      therapy, germ cell, azoospermia, ovarian failure and mesenchymal stem cell. Among
      the more than 11,400 papers, 53 studies were considered eligible for more
      evaluations. The obtained results indicated that the most studies were performed
      on MSCs derived from bone marrow and umbilical cord as compared with the other
      types of MSCs. Different evaluations on animal models as well as in vitro studies
      supported from their role in the recovery of spermatogenesis and
      folliculogenesis. Although the data obtained from this systematic review are
      promising, but the further studies need to assess the efficiency and safety of
      transplantation of these cells in fertility recovery.

PMID- 28884414
TI  - Effect of programmed intermittent epidural boluses and continuous epidural
      infusion on labor analgesia and obstetric outcomes: a randomized controlled
      trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: Continuous epidural infusion and programmed intermittent epidural
      boluses are analgesic techniques routinely used for pain relief in laboring
      women. We aimed to assess both techniques and compare them with respect to labor
      analgesia and obstetric outcomes. METHODS: After Institutional Review Board
      approval, 132 laboring women aged between 18 and 45 years were randomized to
      epidural analgesia of 10 mL of a mixture of 0.1% bupivacaine plus 2 ug/mL of
      fentanyl either by programmed intermittent boluses or continuous infusion (66 per
      group). Primary outcome was quality of analgesia. Secondary outcomes were
      duration of labor, total drug dose used, maternal satisfaction, sensory level,
      motor block level, presence of unilateral motor block, hemodynamics, side
      effects, mode of delivery, and newborn outcome. RESULTS: Patients in the
      programmed intermittent epidural boluses group received statistically less drug
      dose than those with continuous epidural infusion (24.9 vs 34.4 mL bupivacaine; P
      = 0.01). There was no difference between groups regarding pain control,
      characteristics of block, hemodynamics, side effects, and Apgar scores.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our study evidenced a lower anesthetic consumption in the programmed
      intermittent boluses group with similar labor analgesic control, and obstetric
      and newborn outcomes in both groups.

PMID- 28884417
TI  - Neratinib: First Global Approval.
AB  - Neratinib (NerlynxTM) is an oral, irreversible inhibitor of the human epidermal
      growth factor receptors HER1 (EGFR), HER2 and HER4. The drug originally arose
      from research by Wyeth (now Pfizer) and is now being developed by Puma
      Biotechnology primarily for the treatment of HER2-positive (HER+) breast cancer.
      Neratinib is approved in the USA for the extended adjuvant treatment of patients
      with HER2+ early-stage breast cancer who have been previously treated with a
      trastuzumab-based adjuvant regimen, and is in the preregistration phase for this
      indication in the EU. Neratinib, as monotherapy and/or combination therapy, is
      also in phase 3 development for metastatic breast cancer and in phase 1/2
      development for advanced breast cancer and other solid tumours, including non
      small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer and glioblastoma. This article
      summarizes the milestones in the development of neratinib leading to this first
      approval for breast cancer.

PMID- 28884416
TI  - Repeated Stress Exaggerates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammatory Response in
      the Rat Spleen.
AB  - Spleen is an immune organ innervated with sympathetic nerves which together with
      adrenomedullary system control splenic immune functions. However, the mechanism
      by which prior stress exposure modulates the immune response induced by
      immunogenic challenge is not sufficiently clarified. Thus, the aim of this study
      was to investigate the effect of a single (2 h) and repeated (2 h daily for 7
      days) immobilization stress (IMO) on the innate immune response in the spleen
      induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 ug/kg). LPS elevated splenic levels of
      norepinephrine and epinephrine, while prior IMO prevented this response. LPS did
      not alter de novo production of catecholamines, however, prior IMO attenuated
      phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase gene expression. Particularly repeated IMO
      exacerbated LPS-induced down-regulation of alpha1B- and beta1-adrenergic
      receptors (ARs), while enhanced alpha2A- and beta2-AR mRNAs. Elevated expression
      of inflammatory mediators (iNOS2, IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-10) was observed
      following LPS and repeated IMO again potentiated this effect. These changes were
      associated with enhanced Ly6C gene expression, a monocyte marker, and elevated
      MCP-1, GM-CSF, and CXCL1 mRNAs suggesting an increased recruitment of monocytes
      and neutrophils into the spleen. Additionally, we observed increased Bax/Bcl-1
      mRNA ratio together with reduced B cell numbers in rats exposed to repeated IMO
      and treated with LPS but not in acutely stressed rats. Altogether, these data
      indicate that repeated stress via changes in CA levels and specific alpha- and
      beta-AR subtypes exaggerates the inflammatory response likely by recruiting
      peripheral monocytes and neutrophils to the spleen, resulting in the induction of
      apoptosis within this tissue, particularly in B cells. These changes may alter
      the splenic immune functions with potentially pathological consequences.

PMID- 28884418
TI  - Altruism and Religion: A New Paradigm for Organ Donation.
AB  - Activity of NGO's supporting living donor kidney donations can affect the
      shortage of kidneys. Matnat Chaim is a Jewish orthodox organization active in
      Israel since 2009. This is a voluntary organization with aims to shorten and
      eliminate the waiting list for kidneys. Since the beginning of its activity, it
      has said to play a key role in 379 kidney transplantations. In 2015, out of 174
      live donor kidney transplantations that took place in Israel, Matnat Chaim had a
      key role in 88 of them (50.6%). We found some ethical issues concerning the
      organization's activity. The donor can restrict his or her donation to specific
      characteristics of recipient which can result in organs transplanted in a
      homogeneous group of the population. Another issue is the question of whether
      nudging people to kidney donation takes place and whether it is valid to do so.
      We found that Matnat Chaim does a great deal for promotion and intermediation of
      kidney donations in Israel. This form of promotion can be implemented by other
      organizations and countries.

PMID- 28884415
TI  - Criteria for the definition of Pituitary Tumor Centers of Excellence (PTCOE): A
      Pituitary Society Statement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: With the goal of generate uniform criteria among centers dealing
      with pituitary tumors and to enhance patient care, the Pituitary Society decided
      to generate criteria for developing Pituitary Tumors Centers of Excellence
      (PTCOE). METHODS: To develop that task, a group of ten experts served as a Task
      Force and through two years of iterative work an initial draft was elaborated.
      This draft was discussed, modified and finally approved by the Board of Directors
      of the Pituitary Society. Such document was presented and debated at a specific
      session of the Congress of the Pituitary Society, Orlando 2017, and suggestions
      were incorporated. Finally the document was distributed to a large group of
      global experts that introduced further modifications with final endorsement.
      RESULTS: After five years of iterative work a document with the ideal criteria
      for a PTCOE is presented. CONCLUSIONS: Acknowledging that very few centers in the
      world, if any, likely fulfill the requirements here presented, the document may
      be a tool to guide improvements of care delivery to patients with pituitary
      disorders. All these criteria must be accommodated to the regulations and
      organization of Health of a given country.

PMID- 28884419
TI  - Identification of HSP70 gene in Corythucha ciliata and its expression profiles
      under laboratory and field thermal conditions.
AB  - Previous laboratory studies have demonstrated that insects can tolerate high
      temperatures by expressing inducible heat shock proteins (HSPs). This HSP-based
      tolerance, however, has seldom been studied under field conditions. Here, we
      cloned the HSP70 gene of Corythucha ciliata (Cchsp70), an invasive insect species
      with substantial thermal tolerance in subtropical China. We also compared the
      relative mRNA expression levels of Cchsp70 in response to controlled temperature
      treatments (2 h at 33-43  degrees C at 2  degrees C intervals in the laboratory)
      and to natural increases in temperature (08:00-14:00 at 2-h intervals, 29.7-37.2 
      degrees C) on a hot summer day in the field. The complete cDNA of Cchsp70 is 2256
      bp long and has a 1917 bp open reading frame that encodes a protein (CcHSP70)
      with 639 amino acids. The expression levels of Cchsp70 significantly increased in
      response to high temperatures in both laboratory and field. At similar
      temperatures, however, the expression levels were much higher in the field than
      in the laboratory. These results suggest that CcHSP70 contributes to the thermal
      tolerance of C. ciliata and that factors in addition to thermal stress may induce
      Cchsp70 expression in the field.

PMID- 28884420
TI  - Relation between biophysical properties of nanostructures and their toxicity on
      zebrafish.
AB  - In recent years, the use of commercial nanoparticles in different industry and
      health fields has increased exponentially. However, the uncontrolled application
      of nanoparticles might present a potential risk to the environment and health.
      Toxicity of these nanoparticles is usually evaluated by a fast screening assay in
      zebrafish (Danio rerio). The use of this vertebrate animal model has grown due to
      its small size, great adaptability, high fertilization rate and fast external
      development of transparent embryos. In this review, we describe the toxicity of
      different micro- and nanoparticles (carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, emulsions,
      liposomes, metal nanoparticles, and solid lipid nanoparticles) associated to
      their biophysical properties using this model. The main biophysical properties
      studied are size, charge and surface potential due to their impact on the
      environment and health effects. The review also discusses the correlation of the
      effects of the different nanoparticles on zebrafish. Special focus is made on
      morphological abnormalities, altered development and abnormal behavior. The last
      part of the review debates changes that should be made in future directions in
      order to improve the use of the zebrafish model to assess nanotoxicity.

PMID- 28884421
TI  - Assessing responsiveness over time of the PROMIS(r) pediatric symptom and
      function measures in cancer, nephrotic syndrome, and sickle cell disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Previous studies provided evidence for the validity of the PROMIS
      Pediatric measures in cross-sectional studies. This study evaluated the ability
      of the PROMIS Pediatric measures to detect change over time in children and
      adolescents with cancer, nephrotic syndrome (NS), or sickle cell disease (SCD).
      METHODS: Participants (8-17 years) completed measures of fatigue, pain
      interference, anger, anxiety, depressive symptoms, mobility, upper extremity, and
      peer relationships at three or four time points (T1-T4). Between T1 and T2,
      children with cancer received chemotherapy and children with SCD experienced a
      pain exacerbation. Children with NS were first assessed during active disease
      (T2), with T3 and T4 conducted at disease remission. For the primary analysis of
      responsiveness, we expected better scores at T3 (recovery) compared to T2 (event)
      for all diseases. T1 and T4 are also expected to have better scores than T2.
      Linear mixed models were used and adjusted for time, gender, age, race/ethnicity,
      education, comorbid conditions, and disease. RESULTS: Enrolled were 96 children
      with cancer, 121 children with SCD, and 127 children with NS. Fatigue, pain
      interference, mobility, and upper extremity scores worsened from T1 (baseline) to
      T2 (event) (p < 0.01), and significantly improved from T2 to T3 and T4 (p <
      0.01). Similarly, anxiety and depressive symptoms significantly improved from T2
      to T3 and T4 (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence for the
      responsiveness of seven PROMIS Pediatric measures to clinical disease state in
      three chronic illnesses. The findings support use of PROMIS Pediatric measures in
      clinical research.

PMID- 28884422
TI  - Less strict intervention thresholds for the FRAX and TBS-adjusted FRAX predict
      clinical fractures in osteopenic postmenopausal women with no prior fractures.
AB  - Little is known about the clinical relevance of treating post-menopausal women
      with no prior history of fragility fracture and bone mineral densities (BMD)
      within the osteopenic range. In recent years, in addition to BMD and FRAX
      fracture probability assessments, a surrogate measure of bone micro-architecture
      quality, called the trabecular bone score (TBS), has been proven to predict
      future fragility fractures independently of both BMD and the FRAX. In this
      retrospective analysis of a follow-up study, we compared three risk assessment
      instruments-the FRAX, the TBS, and a TBS-adjusted FRAX score-in their ability, to
      predict future fragility fractures over a minimum of five years of follow-up
      among post-menopausal osteopenic women with no prior fragility fractures. We also
      sought to determine if more- versus less-stringent criteria were better when
      stratifying patients into higher-risk patients warranting osteoporosis-targeted
      intervention versus lower-risk patients in whom intervention would usually be
      deemed unnecessary. Over a mean 5.2 years follow-up, 18 clinical fragility
      fractures were documented among 127 women in the age 50 years and older (mean age
      = 66.1). On multivariate analysis utilizing regression models and Kaplan-Meier
      curve analysis, less-stringent criteria for the FRAX and TBS-adjusted FRAX were
      capable of predicting future fractures (with sensitivity/specificity of 83/31;
      39/77 and 78/50% for TBS, FRAX and TBS-adjusted FRAX, respectively), while more
      stringent criteria were incapable of doing so (with sensitivity/specificity of
      56/60; 39/77 and 39/74 for TBS, FRAX and TBS-adjusted FRAX, respectively).
      Neither TBS threshold alone was a significant predictor of future fracture in our
      study. However, hazard ratio analysis revealed slight superiority of the TBS
      adjusted FRAX over the FRAX alone (HR = 3.09 vs. 2.79). Adjusting the FRAX tool
      by incorporating the TBS may be useful to optimize the detection of post
      menopausal osteopenic women with no prior fractures who warrant osteoporosis
      targeted therapy.

PMID- 28884423
TI  - Electronic Cigarette Use in US Adults at Risk for or with COPD: Analysis from Two
      Observational Cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are battery-operated nicotine
      delivery devices used by some smokers as a cessation tool as well as by never
      smokers. OBJECTIVE: To determine the usage of e-cigarettes in older adults at
      risk for or with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). DESIGN:
      Prospective cohorts. PARTICIPANTS: COPDGene (N = 3536) and SPIROMICS (N = 1060)
      subjects who were current or former smokers aged 45-80. MAIN MEASURES:
      Participants were surveyed to determine whether e-cigarette use was associated
      with longitudinal changes in COPD progression or smoking habits. KEY RESULTS:
      From 2010 to 2016, participants who had ever used e-cigarettes steadily increased
      to 12-16%, but from 2014 to 2016 current use was stable at ~5%. E-cigarette use
      in African-Americans (AA) and whites was similar; however, AA were 1.8-2.9 times
      as likely to use menthol-flavored e-cigarettes. Current e-cigarette and
      conventional cigarette users had higher nicotine dependence and consumed more
      nicotine than those who smoked only conventional cigarettes. E-cigarette users
      had a heavier conventional cigarette smoking history and worse respiratory
      health, were less likely to reduce or quit conventional cigarette smoking, had
      higher nicotine dependence, and were more likely to report chronic bronchitis and
      exacerbations. Ever e-cigarette users had more rapid decline in lung function,
      but this trend did not persist after adjustment for persistent conventional
      cigarette smoking. CONCLUSIONS: E-cigarette use, which is common in adults with
      or at risk for COPD, was associated with worse pulmonary-related health outcomes,
      but not with cessation of smoking conventional cigarettes. Although this was an
      observational study, we find no evidence supporting the use of e-cigarettes as a
      harm reduction strategy among current smokers with or at risk for COPD.

PMID- 28884424
TI  - Immunobiology of spinal cord injuries and potential therapeutic approaches.
AB  - The incidence of spinal cord injuries (SCI) is high every year. As the spinal
      cord is the highway that allows for the brain to control the rest of the body,
      spinal cord injuries greatly impact the quality of life of the patients. The SCI
      include the primary response consisting of the initial accident-induced damage
      and the secondary response that is characterized by damage due to inflammation
      and biological responses. Astrocytes are the first to act at the site of the
      injury, forming a glial scar and attracting immune cells. The immune system plays
      a role in cleaning out the debris caused by the injury, as well as preventing
      neurons to grow and heal. The secondary injury caused by the inflammatory
      response is the major target to combat SCI. This article critically reviews the
      key players in the inflammatory SCI response and potential therapies,
      specifically targeting astrocytes, neutrophils, and macrophages. These cells are
      both beneficial and detrimental following SCI, depending on the released
      molecules and the types of cells infiltrated to the site of injury. Indeed,
      depending on the subtype of macrophages, M1 or M2, beneficial or detrimental
      response could be incited. Therapeutic strategies to regulate and manipulate the
      immune cells via increasing or decreasing their recruitment to the site of injury
      could be developed together with upregulating and downregulating the release of
      certain chemicals from the infiltrated cells.

PMID- 28884425
TI  - Can a Neurosteroid Ameliorate Fragile X-Associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome?

PMID- 28884426
TI  - Thyroid autoimmune antibodies in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma: a
      double-edged sword?
AB  - PURPOSE: The relationship between thyroid autoimmunity and thyroid cancer remains
      controversial. The objective of this study is to comprehensively analyze the
      association between thyroid autoimmune antibodies and disease statuses of
      papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). METHODS: Patients were divided into different
      groups according to their final diagnoses after radioiodine therapy as well as
      their serum anti-thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) and anti-thyroidperoxidase
      antibody (TPOAb) titers. Clinicopathologic characteristics were then compared
      between groups. RESULTS: In all, 1126 PTC patients met the inclusion criteria.
      When compared with thyroid autoimmune antibody negative group, patients in
      positive group were young female predominant. After age and gender adjusted,
      patients in thyroid autoimmune antibody positive group had much more cervical
      metastatic node count and this effect was limited to the central compartment but
      not to the lateral compartment. Antibody positivity rate was much lower in
      patients with distant metastasis and multivariable logistic regression analysis
      showed positive status of antibody was a protective factor of distant metastasis
      of PTC with an OR value of 0.403 (95% CI 0.216-0.622, p < 0.001). Additionally,
      subgroup analysis demonstrated single TgAb positivity and combined positivity of
      TgAb and TPOAb were shown to be related to less distant metastatic disease.
      CONCLUSIONS: Positive thyroid auto-antibody status could be a risk factor of more
      metastatic cervical lymph nodes while a protective factor of distant metastatic
      disease in PTC patients. The association between thyroid autoimmunity and thyroid
      cancer can be patient and antibody specific. A systemic immunosupression status
      may exist in PTC patients with distant metastasis.

PMID- 28884427
TI  - Effect of oleuropein on cognitive deficits and changes in hippocampal brain
      derived neurotrophic factor and cytokine expression in a rat model of post
      traumatic stress disorder.
AB  - Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that develops after an
      individual has experienced a major trauma. This psychopathological response to
      traumatic stressors induces learning and memory deficits in rats. Oleuropein
      (OLE), a major compound in olive leaves, has been reported to possess several
      pharmacological properties, including anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti
      atherosclerotic and neuroprotective activities. However, the cognitive effects of
      OLE and its mechanism of action have remained unclear in PTSD. In this study, we
      examined whether OLE improved spatial cognitive impairment induced in rats
      following single prolonged stress (SPS), an animal model of PTSD. Male rats were
      treated intraperitoneally (i.p.) with vehicle or various doses of OLE for 14
      consecutive days after the SPS procedure. The SPS procedure resulted in cognitive
      impairment in the object recognition task and the Morris water maze test, which
      was reversed by OLE (100 mg/kg, i.p). Additionally, as assessed by
      immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
      analysis, the administration of OLE significantly alleviated memory-associated
      decreases in the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and cAMP response
      element-binding protein and mRNA in the hippocampus. Together, these findings
      suggest that OLE attenuated SPS-induced cognitive impairment significantly by
      inhibiting the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators in the rat brain. Thus,
      OLE reversed several behavioral impairments triggered by the traumatic stress of
      SPS and might be a potential useful therapeutic intervention for PTSD.

PMID- 28884428
TI  - In vitro and in vivo anti-proliferative evaluation of bis(4'-(4-tolyl)-2,2':6',2"
      terpyridine)copper(II) complex against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma tumors.
AB  - The bis(4'-(4-tolyl)-2,2':6',2"-terpyridine)copper(II) complex [Cu(ttpy)2]Cl2 was
      synthesized and authenticated by single crystal analysis, which shows distorted
      octahedral geometry around copper(II) ion. The crystal packing is stabilized by C
      H...pi inter and intramolecular interactions. The complex was found to be
      lipophilic as determined by shake-flask method. In vitro cytotoxicity of the
      complex was tested against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) and L6 myotube cell
      lines. The complex exhibit potent cytotoxicity with respect to the commercially
      available anticancer drug cisplatin. Hoechst 33258, AO/EB and PI (flow cytometry)
      staining methods suggest that the complex can induce apoptosis in EAC cells. Cell
      cycle analyses also support the induced apoptosis. Cellular uptake studies
      revealed that the complex can go into the cytoplasm and accumulate in the cell
      nuclei. The complex induces EAC cell apoptosis through a ROS-mediated
      mitochondrial pathway by activating caspase 3 and caspase 7 and regulates the Bcl
      2 family proteins. In vivo study of the complex was validated against the animal
      tumor growth (EAC) cell in Swiss albino mice. The bis(4'-(4-tolyl)-2,2':6',2"
      terpyridine)copper(II) complex induces EAC cell apoptosis through a ROS-mediated
      mitochondrial pathway and significantly reduced the body weight and solid tumor
      volume in Swiss albino mice.

PMID- 28884429
TI  - Effects of hypergravity on gene levels in anti-gravity muscle and bone through
      the vestibular system in mice.
AB  - We recently reported that hypergravity with 3 g for 4 weeks affects muscle and
      bone through the vestibular system in mice. The purpose of this study was to
      investigate the effects of hypergravity with 2 g, which had no influence on
      circulating glucocorticoid level, on the gene levels in muscle and bone, as well
      as the roles of the vestibular system in those changes using vestibular lesioned
      (VL) mice. Hypergravity for 2 and 8 weeks or VL exerted little effects on the
      mRNA levels of muscle differentiation factors and myokines in the soleus muscle.
      Although hypergravity for 2 weeks significantly elevated alkaline phosphatase
      (ALP) and type I collagen mRNA levels in the tibia, VL significantly attenuated
      the levels of ALP mRNA enhanced by hypergravity. In conclusion, the present study
      suggests that a 2-g load for 2 weeks enhances osteoblast differentiation partly
      through the vestibular system in mice.

PMID- 28884430
TI  - Investigation of the accumulation of ash, heavy metals, and polycyclic aromatic
      hydrocarbons to assess the stability of lysis-cryptic growth sludge reduction in
      sequencing batch reactor.
AB  - The accumulation of ash, heavy metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
      (collectively called potential accumulating substances, PAS) was evaluated to
      ascertain the stability of lysis-cryptic growth sludge reduction process (LSRP)
      for municipal sludge treatment. One sequencing batch reactor (SBR) incorporated
      with homogenization was run to test the LSRP and another SBR as a control. The
      continuous monitoring results for 2 months showed that the ash and heavy metals
      slightly increased, and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons decreased by 18.0%,
      indicating that there may be negligible accumulations during the LSRP. Their
      accumulations met pattern I, as demonstrated by statistical analysis, proving no
      PAS accumulation for LSRP. This was further confirmed by sludge activity and
      system performance. Moreover, the mechanism for no PAS accumulation was
      discussed. It was concluded that the LSRP was stable with no worries about PAS
      accumulation under the operational conditions.

PMID- 28884432
TI  - Plasma enterolactone and risk of prostate cancer in middle-aged Swedish men.
AB  - PURPOSE: Enterolactone (ENL) is formed in the human gut after consumption of
      lignans, has estrogenic properties, and has been associated with risk of prostate
      cancer. We examined the association between plasma ENL levels and prostate cancer
      in a nested case-control study within the population-based Malmo Diet and Cancer
      cohort. We also examined the association between plasma ENL and dietary and
      lifestyle factors. METHODS: The study population consisted of 1010 cases
      occurring during a mean follow-up of 14.6 years, and 1817 controls matched on age
      and study entry date. We used national registers (95%) and hospital records (5%)
      to ascertain cases. Diet was estimated by a modified diet history method. Plasma
      ENL concentrations were determined by a time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay. Odds
      ratios were calculated by unconditional logistic regression. RESULTS: There were
      no significant associations between plasma ENL and incidence of all prostate
      cancer (odds ratio 0.99 [95% confidence interval 0.77-1.280] for the highest ENL
      quintile versus lowest, p for trend 0.66). However, in certain subgroups of men,
      including men with abdominal obesity (p for interaction = 0.012), we observed
      associations between high ENL levels and lower odds of high-risk prostate cancer.
      Plasma ENL was positively associated with consumption of high-fibre bread, fruit,
      tea, and coffee; with age, and with height, while it was negatively associated
      with smoking and waist circumference; however, although significant, all
      associations were rather weak (r <= |0.14|). CONCLUSION: ENL concentration was
      not consistently associated with lower prostate cancer risk, although it was
      weakly associated with a healthy lifestyle.

PMID- 28884433
TI  - Oviposition inhibitor in umbelliferous medicinal plants for the common yellow
      swallowtail (Papilio machaon).
AB  - Umbelliferous medicinal plants, such as Angelica acutiloba Kitagawa and Angelica
      dahurica Bentham et Hooker filius ex Franchet et Savatier, account for a large
      percentage of crude drug consumption in Japan. The most serious problem in the
      cultivation of umbelliferous medicinal plants is the feeding damage caused by the
      common yellow swallowtail (Papilio machaon hippocrates C. & R. Felder, 1864).
      When we compared the numbers of eggs laid by P. machaon on six umbelliferous
      medicinal plants, the eggs on A. acutiloba, A. dahurica, and Glehnia littoralis
      Fr. Schmidt ex Miquel were the most numerous, those on Saposhnikovia divaricata
      Schischkin and Cnidium officinale Makino were rare, and Bupleurum falcatum Linne
      was not oviposited at all. To identify oviposition inhibitors for P. machaon in
      B. falcatum, S. divaricata, and C. officinale, the volatile chemical constituents
      of these umbelliferous medicinal plants were compared with GC-MS. We carried out
      multivariate analysis of gas chromatographic data and concluded that germacrene
      D, alpha-humulene, and trans-caryophyllene play important roles in protecting
      plants from oviposition by P. machaon. Their oviposition repellent activity was
      confirmed by the fact that the number of eggs laid on the leaves around a
      repellent device containing a mixture of germacrene D, alpha-humulene, and trans
      caryophyllene was reduced by 40% compared to a control.

PMID- 28884434
TI  - Clinical Predictors of Malignancy in Patients with Pheochromocytoma and
      Paraganglioma.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Factors associated with malignancy in patients with
      pheochromocytoma (adrenal tumors, Pheo) and paraganglioma (extra-adrenal, PGL)
      are not well-defined and all patients require lifelong surveillance. The primary
      aim of our study was to determine genetic and clinical variables associated with
      malignancy in patients with Pheo/PGL. METHODS: Single institution retrospective
      review was performed of all patients who underwent surgery (1/95-1/15) for
      Pheo/PGL. Malignancy was defined as histology-confirmed distant metastasis, lymph
      nodal involvement, or tumor bed recurrence. RESULTS: A total of 157 Pheo/PGL
      patients (44 malignant, 113 benign) with mean follow-up of 87 months were
      included. Compared with patients with benign Pheo/PGL, patients with malignant
      Pheo/PGL were younger (median 42 vs 50 years, p = 0.014), had larger tumors
      (median 6.5 vs 4 cm, p < 0.001) and had PGL (63.6 vs 4.4%, p < 0.001). Genetic
      testing was performed in 60 patients and was positive in 38 (63%). Although
      positive genetic results were equally likely in malignant vs benign Pheo/PGL (76
      vs 54%, p = 0.1), all 11 patients with germline SDHB mutations had malignant
      disease. In multivariable analysis, younger age, larger tumor size, and PGL were
      associated with malignancy (p < 0.05). Pheo patients with negative genetic
      testing and negative family history who developed metachronous metastases all had
      primary tumors >=4 cm in size. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who are young, have larger
      tumors, positive genetic testing (especially SDHB) or have PGL require long-term
      follow-up. Patients with negative genetic testing or family history and Pheo <4
      cm have a lower risk of malignancy, and de-escalated long-term surveillance may
      be appropriate follow-up.

PMID- 28884431
TI  - Angiotensin II AT2 Receptors Contribute to Regulate the Sympathoadrenal and
      Hormonal Reaction to Stress Stimuli.
AB  - Angiotensin II, through AT1 receptor stimulation, mediates multiple
      cardiovascular, metabolic, and behavioral functions including the response to
      stressors. Conversely, the function of Angiotensin II AT2 receptors has not been
      totally clarified. In adult rodents, AT2 receptor distribution is very limited
      but it is particularly high in the adrenal medulla. Recent results strongly
      indicate that AT2 receptors contribute to the regulation of the response to
      stress stimuli. This occurs in association with AT1 receptors, both receptor
      types reciprocally influencing their expression and therefore their function. AT2
      receptors appear to influence the response to many types of stressors and in all
      components of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The molecular mechanisms
      involved in AT2 receptor activation, the complex interactions with AT1 receptors,
      and additional factors participating in the control of AT2 receptor regulation
      and activity in response to stressors are only partially understood. Further
      research is necessary to close this knowledge gap and to clarify whether AT2
      receptor activation may carry the potential of a major translational advance.

PMID- 28884435
TI  - Aggression by Children Exposed to IPV: Exploring the Role of Child Depressive
      Symptoms, Trauma-Related Symptoms, & Warmth in Family Relationships.
AB  - Multi-informant reports of aggression by siblings in families with and without a
      history of IPV were compared. Associations between aggressive behavior and child
      depressive and trauma-related symptoms, as well as maternal and sibling warmth
      were also explored. Mothers, observers and the siblings themselves reported on
      aggressive behaviour. Mothers reported on child trauma-related symptoms while
      children provided self-report on depressive symptoms and mother-child and sibling
      warmth. The frequency of observed aggression did not differ across groups on
      average, although more sibling dyads exposed to IPV engaged in aggression than
      those not exposed. Child reports of sibling aggression did not differ across
      groups but mothers reported significantly less aggressive behavior by children
      exposed to IPV than those not exposed. Regression results indicated that
      depressive and trauma-related symptoms were significant risk factors for
      aggression, while the role of mother-child and sibling warmth was more complex.
      Results were discussed within a developmental psychopathology framework.

PMID- 28884437
TI  - Extrapolation of a Brivaracetam Exposure-Response Model from Adults to Children
      with Focal Seizures.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Prediction of brivaracetam effects in children was obtained by
      scaling an existing adult pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model for
      brivaracetam to children, using an existing population PK model for brivaracetam
      in children. The scaling was supported by estimating the change from adults to
      children in the concentration-effect relationship parameters for levetiracetam, a
      compound interacting with the same target protein (synaptic vesicle protein
      SV2A). METHODS: The existing adult PK/PD model for brivaracetam was applied to a
      combined adult-pediatric dataset of levetiracetam. This model was then used to
      predict the effective oral twice-daily dose of brivaracetam in children aged >=4
      to <16 years as adjunctive treatment for focal (partial onset) seizures. The
      existing model described daily seizure counts using a negative binomial
      distribution, taking previous-day seizure frequencies into account, and using a
      mixture model to separate 'placebo-like' and 'responder' subpopulations. The
      model was adapted to describe aggregated monthly seizure counts for adult
      patients in the levetiracetam studies: daily seizure counts were only available
      for children in the levetiracetam studies. RESULTS: The levetiracetam PK/PD model
      successfully described both the adult and pediatric data using the same drug
      effect parameters, and using a model structure similar to the existing adult
      brivaracetam PK/PD model. CONCLUSION: Simulation with the adult brivaracetam
      PK/PD model in combination with an existing pediatric brivaracetam population PK
      model allowed characterization of the dose-response curve, suggesting maximum
      response at brivaracetam 4 mg/kg/day dosing (capped at 200 mg/day, the maximum
      adult dose) in children aged >=4 years.

PMID- 28884438
TI  - Development of a standard reference material containing 22 chlorinated
      hydrocarbon gases at 1 MUmol/mol in nitrogen.
AB  - A gas standard mixture containing 22 chlorinated hydrocarbons in high purity
      nitrogen was prepared using a two-step weighing method and a gasifying apparatus
      developed in-house. The concentration of each component was determined using a
      gas chromatograph with flame ionization detection (GC/FID). Linear regression
      analysis of every component was performed using the gas standard mixture with
      concentrations ranging from 1 to 10 MUmol/mol, showing the complete gasification
      of volatile organic compound (VOCs) species in a selected cylinder. Repeatability
      was also examined to ensure the reliability of the preparation method. In
      addition, no significant difference was observed between domestic treated and
      imported treated cylinders, which were conducive to reduction of the cost of raw
      materials. Moreover, the results of stability testing at different pressures and
      long-term stability tests indicated that the gas standard at 1 MUmol/mol level
      with relative expanded uncertainties of 5% was stable above 2 MPa for a minimum
      of 12 months. Finally, a quantity comparison was conducted between the gas
      standard and a commercial gas standard from Scott Specialty Gases (now Air
      Liquide America Specialty Gases). The excellent agreement of every species
      suggested the favorable accuracy of our gas standard. Therefore, this reference
      material can be applied to routine observation of VOCs and for other purposes.

PMID- 28884436
TI  - Effects of VEGF levels on anti-VEGF therapy for patients with idiopathic
      choroidal neovascularization.
AB  - The objective of this study is to investigate the levels of vascular endothelial
      growth factor (VEGF) and other cytokines in aqueous humor of patients with
      idiopathic choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and their effects together with
      central retinal thickness (CRT) on the response to intravitreal injection of anti
      VEGF antibody ranibizumab. This clinical study recruited 32 eyes from 32 patients
      with CNV under or besides fovea. VEGF, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and monocyte
      chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 levels were detected in aqueous humor (0.1 ml)
      sampled during intravitreal injection. Aqueous humor controls were from nine
      cataract patients without any systemic disorders. The VEGF levels in aqueous
      humor were negatively related (r = -0.373, p = 0.035) to CRT, which was
      positively related (r = 0.743, p < 0.001) to the number of injections. The VEGF
      levels before treatment and during the third injection in four patients with
      three or more injections were 13.42 +/- 8.50 and 5.75 +/- 3.68 (p = 0.055),
      respectively. The average best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) before and 12
      months after treatment were 57.03 +/- 16.15 and 75.16 +/- 11.78 (p < 0.001), and
      the average CRT before and 12 months after treatment were 352.09 +/- 84.15 and
      251.13 +/- 63.96 (p < 0.001), respectively. The visual improvement was negatively
      related (r = -0.815, p < 0.001) to the visual baseline, and the vision 12 months
      after treatment was positively related (r = 0.581, p < 0.001) to that before
      treatment. No severe ocular or systemic complication appeared during treatment
      and follow-ups for all the patients. Intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF antibody
      ranibizumab is safe and effective for the treatment of idiopathic CNV through
      decreasing CRT. The patients with larger CRT baseline need more injections of
      ranibizumab.

PMID- 28884439
TI  - Neurotrophins and neuroinflammation in fetuses exposed to maternal depression and
      anxiety disorders during pregnancy: a comparative study on cord blood.
AB  - In recent years, there have been changes in the approach to maternal psychiatric
      disorders and their effects on the fetus, with the focus redirected to the search
      for biological markers. Neurotrophic factors and inflammatory processes have
      received particular attention in the past few years. According to the Structured
      Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
      Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), the study sample (n = 136) consisted of three groups:
      mothers with major depressive disorder (MDD group, n = 25), mothers with anxiety
      disorder (AD group, n = 18), and mothers without any psychiatric disorders (not
      diagnosed (ND) group, n = 93). During the delivery/cesarean section, a blood
      sample was obtained from the umbilical cord. Serum concentrations of BDNF, NT-3,
      FGF2, TNF-alpha, and neopterin were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA), according to the manufacturer's procedure. Clinical and
      biochemical characteristics were assessed. We did not find a significant
      difference among the three study groups with regard to BDNF, NT-3, and TNF-alpha
      levels. The ANOVA test indicated statistically significant differences in FGF2
      levels and neopterin between the study groups. The newborns of mothers with AD
      had significantly higher FGF2 levels and significantly higher neopterin levels
      when compared with those of mothers with MDD and healthy mothers. The present
      study sheds light on the effects of higher FGF2 and neopterin levels in fetuses
      exposed to AD. Our results should be replicated through further prospective
      studies with a larger sample size.

PMID- 28884440
TI  - Disappearance of multiple hyperechoic liver nodules in sporadic porphyria cutanea
      tarda after treatment with ledipasvir/sofosbuvir for hepatitis C.
AB  - Ultrasonography in a 60-year-old man with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) demonstrated
      multiple hyperechoic nodules. Radiological investigations did not reveal any
      signs of malignancy. However, magnetic resonance chemical shift imaging showed
      multiple focal fatty changes in the liver. Urinary levels of uroporphyrin and
      coproporphyrin were elevated, and we made a diagnosis of porphyria cutanea tarda.
      Direct-acting antivirals, ledipasvir/sofosbuvir, were initiated for CHC, which
      led to sustained viral response, resolution of the liver nodules, and
      normalization of urinary porphyrin. Hepatitis C virus infection can cause
      porphyria cutanea tarda with multiple hyperechoic liver nodules, which might be
      cured by direct-acting antivirals.

PMID- 28884441
TI  - Inhibition of retroviral Gag assembly by non-silencing miRNAs promotes autophagic
      viral degradation.
AB  - We recently reported an unconventional mechanism by which miRNAs inhibit HIV-1
      viral production. This occurs when miRNAs bind nonspecifically to the viral
      structural protein Gag, interfering with viral RNA-mediated Gag assembly at the
      plasma membrane. Consequently, misassembled viral complexes are redirected into
      the endocytic pathway where they are delivered to lysosomes for degradation. In
      this study, we demonstrate that autophagy is a critical mediator of the viral
      degradation pathway and that this pathway is not HIV-1 specific. Misassembled
      viral complexes were found to colocalize extensively with LC3 and p62 in late
      endosomes/lysosomes, demonstrating a convergence of autophagy with functional
      degradative compartments. Knocking down autophagosome formation machineries
      reduced this convergence, while treatment with autophagy-inducer rapamycin
      enhanced the convergence. Furthermore, similar autophagy-dependent nonspecific
      miRNA inhibition of murine leukemia virus (MLV) assembly was shown. Overall,
      these results reveal autophagy as a crucial regulator of the retroviral
      degradation pathway in host cells initiated by nonspecific miRNA-Gag
      interactions. These findings could have significant implications for
      understanding how cells may regulate retroviral complex assembly by miRNA
      expression and autophagy, and raise the possibility that similar regulations can
      occur in other biological contexts.

PMID- 28884442
TI  - Whitening and anti-wrinkle activities of ferulic acid isolated from Tetragonia
      tetragonioides in B16F10 melanoma and CCD-986sk fibroblast cells.
AB  - Ferulic acid isolated from Tetragonia tetragonioides was tested for its whitening
      effect on the B16F10 mouse melanoma cell line and its anti-wrinkle activity on
      the CCD-986sk human dermal fibroblast cell line. Ferulic acid, one of the primary
      phenolic compounds that can be isolated from T. tetragonioides, has been reported
      to show potential as a functional food, for its whitening effect and anti-wrinkle
      activity. To measure its whitening and anti-wrinkle activities, cells were
      treated with ferulic acid isolated from T. tetragonioides at concentrations
      between 5 and 20 MUM. Ferulic acid showed no cytotoxicity at concentrations up to
      20 MUM. Ferulic acid inhibited melanin synthesis, tyrosinase expression, and
      microphthalmia transcription factor expression in B16F10 cells stimulated with
      alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone. Ferulic acid induced procollagen synthesis,
      hyaluronic acid synthesis, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase synthesis, and
      inhibited matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-9 expression in CCD-986sk
      cells stimulated with UV-B. On the basis of these results, we conclude that
      ferulic acid isolated from T. tetragonioides shows potential for use as a
      functional food, with whitening and anti-wrinkle activities.

PMID- 28884443
TI  - Megakaryoblastic transformation of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms with
      concomitant MYC amplification on double minute chromosomes.

PMID- 28884444
TI  - The CCAAT box in the proximal SERCA2 gene promoter regulates basal and stress
      induced transcription in cardiomyocytes.
AB  - The cardiac sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase-2a (SERCA2a) is vital for the
      correct handling of calcium concentration in cardiomyocytes. Recent studies
      showed that the induction of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress (ERS) with the
      SERCA2 inhibitor Thapsigargin (Tg) increases the mRNA and protein levels of
      SERCA2a. The SERCA2 gene promoter contains an ERS response element (ERSE) at
      position -78 bp that is conserved among species and might transcriptionally
      regulate SERCA2 gene expression. However, its involvement in SERCA2 basal and
      calcium-mediated transcriptional activation has not been elucidated. In this
      work, we show that in cellular cultures of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes, the
      treatment with Tg or the calcium ionophore A23187 increases the SERCA2a mRNA and
      protein abundance, as well as the transcriptional activity of two chimeric human
      SERCA2 gene constructs, containing -254 and -2579 bp of 5'-regulatory region
      cloned in the pGL3-basic vector and transiently transfected in cultured
      cardiomyocytes. We found that the ERSE present in the SERCA2 proximal promoter
      contains a CCAAT box that is involved in basal and ERS-mediated hSERCA2
      transcriptional activation. The EMSA results showed that the CCAAT box present in
      the ERSE recruits the NF-Y transcription factor. Additionally, by ChIP assays, we
      confirmed in vivo binding of NF-Y and C/EBPbeta transcription factors to the
      SERCA2 gene proximal promoter.

PMID- 28884445
TI  - Antiviral activity of quercetin-3-beta-O-D-glucoside against Zika virus
      infection.
AB  - Q3G is a natural derivative of quercetin and is already widely used in various
      foods and drinks. Our results clearly demonstrated that Q3G exerts antiviral
      activity against ZIKV in both tissue culture and knockout mice, and that post
      exposure in vivo treatment with Q3G could have a beneficial effect. In the
      future, Q3G should be tested in human cell lines (such as Huh-7, HeLa, or K048, a
      fetal brain neural stem cell line) to provide further data supporting its
      potential efficacy in humans; in addition, live viral loads or viremia should be
      tested in treated animals to supplement the survival results observed in this
      study. Although the treatment regimens will need to be further optimized (i.e.,
      dosage, frequency of treatment, and administration routes), our results support
      the results of Q3G efficacy studies in nonhuman primates against ZIKV infection.
      Further studies will also be needed to investigate the mechanism of Q3G antiviral
      action, in order to obtain valuable insights into the design of novel targets for
      antiviral therapeutics in the future.

PMID- 28884447
TI  - Guidelines in review: Comparison of ESC and ACC/AHA guidelines for the diagnosis
      and management of patients with stable coronary artery disease.
AB  - In 2012, the American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) and the American
      Heart Association (AHA) Task Force on Practice Guidelines jointly with the
      American College of Physicians, American Association for Thoracic Surgery,
      Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association, Society for Cardiovascular
      Angiography and Interventions, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons produced a set of
      recommendations intended to assist physicians in the diagnosis and management of
      patients with stable ischemic heart disease. Two years later, a focused update on
      the 2012 guidelines was published. A year before this update, The Task Force on
      the management of stable coronary artery disease (CAD) of the European Society of
      Cardiology (ESC) issued a guideline on the management of stable CAD. This
      document brings together European and American recommendations that include the
      use of stress testing and non-invasive imaging for the diagnosis and management
      of patients with known or suspected stable CAD.

PMID- 28884446
TI  - Analysis of Homeostatic Mechanisms in Biochemical Networks.
AB  - Cell metabolism is an extremely complicated dynamical system that maintains
      important cellular functions despite large changes in inputs. This "homeostasis"
      does not mean that the dynamical system is rigid and fixed. Typically, large
      changes in external variables cause large changes in some internal variables so
      that, through various regulatory mechanisms, certain other internal variables
      (concentrations or velocities) remain approximately constant over a finite range
      of inputs. Outside that range, the mechanisms cease to function and
      concentrations change rapidly with changes in inputs. In this paper we analyze
      four different common biochemical homeostatic mechanisms: feedforward excitation,
      feedback inhibition, kinetic homeostasis, and parallel inhibition. We show that
      all four mechanisms can occur in a single biological network, using folate and
      methionine metabolism as an example. Golubitsky and Stewart have proposed a
      method to find homeostatic nodes in networks. We show that their method works for
      two of these mechanisms but not the other two. We discuss the many interesting
      mathematical and biological questions that emerge from this analysis, and we
      explain why understanding homeostatic control is crucial for precision medicine.

PMID- 28884448
TI  - Conference report: the 5th Asia Pacific Protein Association Conference joint
      meeting with the 12th International Symposium of the Protein Society of Thailand.

PMID- 28884449
TI  - Insulin Resistance and Hunger in Childhood Obesity: A Patient and Physician's
      Perspective.
AB  - This article is co-authored by the mother of a child with obesity and insulin
      resistance, who gives her perspective. It is also co-authored by the treating
      Obesity Medicine clinician and an investigator in obesity clinical research (both
      certified in Obesity Medicine), who give their perspectives. The discussion
      focuses upon the potential clinical use of metformin in managing young patients
      with obesity and insulin resistance. The article integrates what is
      scientifically known about the mechanisms of actions of metformin and how these
      mechanisms are reflected in the clinical response of young patients.

PMID- 28884450
TI  - Illness Representations of Pertussis and Predictors of Child Vaccination Among
      Mothers in a Strict Vaccination Exemption State.
AB  - Background Vaccine preventable diseases are making a comeback in the US. However,
      research is lacking on illness representations of vaccine preventable diseases
      and their application in improving childhood immunization. Objective We utilized
      the common sense model of self-regulation to examine illness representations of
      pertussis and their associations with child's receipt of any vaccine, up-to-date
      vaccination status, and mothers' intentions to follow the recommended vaccination
      schedule in the future. Methods We developed vaccine worry and vaccine hassles
      scales to assess mothers' worries and hassles for child vaccination, and used an
      open ended question to assess mother's illness representations of pertussis. We
      surveyed mothers with children <3 years old (N = 160) in the Appalachian state of
      West Virginia, which only allows medical vaccine exemptions. Results Some
      children (5.0%) had received no vaccination, 15.0% were not up-to-date with the
      recommended vaccination schedule, and 13.8% mothers reported no intention to
      follow the recommended schedule in future (future intention). Illness
      representations included identity (17.8%), timeline (61.8%), consequences
      (58.6%), cause (35.0%), and cure/control (56.7%). Higher vaccine worry was
      associated with child receiving no vaccine. Not using daycare, higher vaccine
      worry, and difficulty breathing (identity) were associated with child not being
      up-to-date. Higher vaccine worry, cough (identity), and belief that vaccines are
      ineffective (cure/control) were associated with no future intention. Conclusions
      Vaccination interventions need to address mothers' worry regarding vaccine
      safety. 'Common Sense' beliefs regarding vaccines need to be reconciled with
      scientific data about vaccine safety and effectiveness, even among those with
      high socio-economic status in a strict vaccination state.

PMID- 28884452
TI  - Microsurgical Reconstruction Following Oncologic Resection in Pediatric Patients:
      A 15-Year Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Free tissue transfer in the pediatric population is a challenging
      endeavor, even for experienced microsurgeons. Some surgeons argue these cases can
      be limited by vessel size and spasticity and should be undertaken only when
      absolutely necessary. We present a 15-year experience examining outcomes of free
      tissue transfer in pediatric oncologic patients. METHODS: All free flaps
      performed at a single institution in pediatric patients (age range 3-17) between
      January 2000 and December 2014 were reviewed. RESULTS: Overall, 102 patients
      (mean age 12.1 +/- 4.0 years) were identified who underwent 109 free flaps. The
      most common flaps were the fibula free flap (46%) and the anterolateral thigh
      free flap (27%). 81 cases (74%) had malignant disease with 70 cases (64%)
      involving the head and neck region. 21 cases (19%) had preoperative radiation and
      58 cases (53%) had preoperative chemotherapy. 5 cases had total flap loss (4.6%)
      and 17 cases (15.6%) had immediate post-operative complications, with wound
      infection (4.6%) being most common. 17 cases (15.6%) had long-term complications
      with delayed or non-union (4.6%) being most common. Survival rate was 91.7% at 1
      year and 78.9% at 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: Free tissue transfer is a reliable and
      appropriate choice in pediatric patients requiring soft tissue or bony
      reconstruction. Even in pediatric oncologic patients with preoperative
      chemotherapy or radiation, flap survival and outcomes are comparable to the adult
      population. Pediatric free tissue transfer should not be avoided but instead
      considered the gold standard for patients with complex defects, just as it is in
      the adult population.

PMID- 28884453
TI  - Gastric cancer associated with refractory cytomegalovirus gastritis.
AB  - Cytomegalovirus (CMV) sometimes causes gastritis, especially in immunocompromised
      patients, but whether CMV gastritis promotes the development of gastric cancer is
      unknown. Here, we report a case of gastric cancer that developed in the presence
      of CMV gastritis, which had been present for at least 4 years and was refractory
      to treatment. An 80-year-old woman had noted epigastric discomfort and appetite
      loss. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed a shallow geographical ulcer extending
      from the upper body to the pylorus. Histological findings of the biopsy and
      serology were suggestive of CMV gastritis. Serum anti-Helicobacter pylori
      antibody test was positive, suggesting co-infection with CMV and H. pylori. Her
      gastritis was unimproved with repeated antiviral therapy and eradication of H.
      pylori. Thirty months later, wide-spread gastric cancer had developed. We suggest
      the possibility that the addition of chronic inflammation of CMV infection to H.
      pylori-induced gastritis facilitated the development of gastric cancer.

PMID- 28884454
TI  - Prevalence of patient-reported gastrointestinal symptoms and agreement with
      clinician toxicity assessments in radiation therapy for anal cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms pose a significant burden to patients
      receiving chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for anal cancer; however, the impact of
      symptoms from the patient perspective has not been quantified. This retrospective
      study examined and compared patient and clinician reports of acute GI toxicity
      during CRT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients treated with definitive RT using
      intensity-modulated radiation therapy for anal cancer between 9/09 and 11/12 were
      reviewed. Median RT dose was 56 Gy (range 45-56), and 76 patients (97%) received
      concurrent 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy. During RT, patients completed the 7
      item Bowel Problem Scale (BPS) weekly. Clinicians assessed toxicity separately
      using CTCAE v. 3.0. Scores of BPS >= 3 and CTCAE >= 1 were considered to be
      clinically meaningful. Agreement of the two assessments was evaluated by Cohen's
      kappa coefficient. RESULTS: Seventy-eight patients completed at least one BPS and
      had a corresponding clinician assessment. Patients reporting scores of >=3 was
      highest at week 5 (n = 68) for diarrhea (44.1%), proctitis (57.4%), and mucus
      (48.4%), while urgency (47.6%), tenesmus (31.7%), and cramping (27%) were highest
      at week 4 (n = 63). Baseline bleeding scores (26.7%; score >=3) improved during
      treatment (13.4% at week 5). "Poor" agreement was observed between patient- and
      clinician-reported proctitis (Cohen's k = 0.11; n = 58); however, there was
      "good" agreement for diarrhea (Cohen's k = 0.68; n = 58). CONCLUSIONS: Acute GI
      toxicity during definitive CRT for anal cancer was most significant during weeks
      4-5, while rectal bleeding improved during treatment. Discrepancies in patient-
      and clinician-reported symptoms demonstrate the potential for patient-reported
      outcomes to be useful tools for anal cancer clinical assessments.

PMID- 28884455
TI  - Mild electrokinetic treatment of cadmium-polluted manure for improved
      applicability in greenhouse soil.
AB  - Applications of cadmium (Cd) and salinity-containing manures contribute to Cd
      pollution and salinization in greenhouse soils. In this study, chicken manure
      polluted with Cd (5.6 mg/kg) was mildly electrokinetically treated (0.25 V/cm)
      for 48 h with intermittent replacement of catholyte with 20 mM acetic acid
      solution to remove Cd and salinity for application without need of post-treatment
      in greenhouse soil. The electrokinetic treatment created pH conditions mainly
      ranging from 5.0 to 8.0 within the manure for minimizing re-precipitation of
      desorbed Cd and evaporative loss of ammonium. However, without manure pre
      acidification, electrokinetic treatment resulted in negligible removal of total
      Cd but 61.7% of increase in the small fraction of exchangeable Cd, due to poor
      desorption but enhanced formation of exchangeable Cd. In contrast, manure pre
      acidification with 20 mM acetic acid favored Cd desorption, leading to
      electrokinetic removal of exchangeable, carbonate-bound, and total Cd by 32.2%,
      34.5%, and 14.5%, respectively. Mild electrokinetic treatment of manure with and
      without pre-acidification resulted in similar removal of salinity (72.3% and
      68.0%), similar pH condition (7.2 and 7.4), and basically same evaporative loss
      of ammonium (14.6% and 14.2%). Overall, the mild electrokinetic treatment
      considerably lowered the risk of Cd and the salinity from the pre-acidified
      manure for improved applicability in greenhouse soil, and more studies are needed
      to enhance the performance of electrokinetic Cd removal from manure.

PMID- 28884456
TI  - Erratum to: Repeat Rifaximin for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: No Clinically
      Significant Changes in Stool Microbial Antibiotic Sensitivity.

PMID- 28884457
TI  - [The development of clinical practice algorithms for the appropriate use of
      psychotropic drugs in older persons with high risk of falls].
AB  - Psychotropic drugs (hypno-sedatives, antidepressants and antipsychotics) are
      commonly used in the older population. On the long term, psychotropic drug use in
      older persons is associated with several negative functional outcomes such as an
      increased risk of falls. Gradual withdrawal of psychotropic drugs in older
      persons is feasible and leads to a significant reduction of falls. Both
      withdrawal of psychotropic drugs as well as the initiation of appropriate
      treatment with psychotropic drugs requires knowledge, consultation and
      cooperation between disciplines and a mentality change among healthcare
      professionals. In order to inform and support healthcare professionals, the
      Centre of Expertise for Fall and Fracture Prevention Flanders developed three
      clinical practice algorithms for the appropriate use of psychotropic drugs in
      older persons with high risk of falls and a fact sheet with background
      information.

PMID- 28884458
TI  - Erratum to: The cardiothoracic ratio and all-cause and cardiovascular disease
      mortality in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis: results of the MBD-5D
      study.

PMID- 28884459
TI  - The Study on the Correlation Between Six Kinds of Mineral Elements and Diabetes.
AB  - The study aimed to explore the relationship of six kinds of mineral elements and
      diabetes among adults in northeast China. A cross-sectional survey was conducted
      in Jilin Province, northeast China. A total of 366 males and 204 females aged 18
      ~ 77 years from Jingyu town, Dongliao town, and Changling town were included
      using a multistage stratified random cluster sampling design. Data was obtained
      from face to face interview, physical examination, and laboratory measurement. We
      defined the normal people (3.9 ~ 6.0 mmol/L), impaired fasting glucose (IFG)
      individuals (6.1 ~ 6.9 mmol/L), and diabetes mellitus (DM) (> 7.0 mmol/L)
      according to the WHO diagnostic criteria. Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman rank
      correlation, as well as binary logistic regression were used to analyze
      influencing factors. lg(Cu/Zn)was correlated with DM (OR 8.390; 95% CI of OR
      1.272-55.347). The specific mineral elements such as Zn, Ca, as well as Cu/Zn
      ratio may be the potential risk factors for diabetes. So, the supplement or
      reduction of these elements is supposed to be told to IFG to prevent or delay the
      occurrence of diabetes or DM to avoid its complication.

PMID- 28884461
TI  - Erratum to: Prolonged survival in patients with breast cancer and a history of
      brain metastases: results of a preplanned subgroup analysis from the randomized
      phase III BEACON trial.

PMID- 28884460
TI  - Potassium Channels: A Potential Therapeutic Target for Parkinson's Disease.
AB  - The pathogenesis of the second major neurodegenerative disorder, Parkinson's
      disease (PD), is closely associated with the dysfunction of potassium (K+)
      channels. Therefore, PD is also considered to be an ion channel disease or
      neuronal channelopathy. Mounting evidence has shown that K+ channels play crucial
      roles in the regulations of neurotransmitter release, neuronal excitability, and
      cell volume. Inhibition of K+ channels enhances the spontaneous firing frequency
      of nigral dopamine (DA) neurons, induces a transition from tonic firing to burst
      discharge, and promotes the release of DA in the striatum. Recently, three K+
      channels have been identified to protect DA neurons and to improve the motor and
      non-motor symptoms in PD animal models: small conductance (SK) channels, A-type
      K+ channels, and KV7/KCNQ channels. In this review, we summarize the
      physiological and pharmacological effects of the three K+ channels. We also
      describe in detail the laboratory investigations regarding K+ channels as a
      potential therapeutic target for PD.

PMID- 28884462
TI  - Benchmarking adult CT-dose levels to regional and national references using a
      dose-tracking software: a multicentre experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To benchmark CT-dose data for standard adult CT studies to regional
      and national reference levels using a dose-tracking system. METHODS: Data from
      five CT systems from three hospitals were collected over a 1- to 2.5-year period
      (2012-2014), using the same type of dose management system. Inclusion criteria
      were adult patients and standard CT-head, CT-abdomen-pelvis, CT-thorax, CT-lumbar
      spine, CT-pulmonary embolism, CT-cervical spine and CT-thorax-abdomen studies,
      with one helical scan. Volumetric CT-dose index (CTDIvol), dose length product
      (DLP) and scan length from 31,709 scans were analysed statistically. RESULTS:
      After dose optimisation CTDIvol and DLP values were below the national diagnostic
      reference levels (DRLs) for all CT studies and for all systems investigated.
      Mostly no significant differences were found between CTDIvol and DLP levels (p
      values >= 0.01) of CT studies performed on different scanners within the same
      hospital. Significant dose differences (p values < 0.01) were instead observed
      among hospitals for comparable CT studies. Dose level range and scan length
      differences for similar CT studies were revealed. CONCLUSIONS: Dose-tracking
      systems help to reduce CT-dose levels below national DRLs. However, dose and
      protocol data comparison between and within hospitals has the potential to
      further reduce variability in dose data of standard adult CT studies. KEY POINTS:
      * Retrospective three-centre study on dose levels of standard adult CT
      procedures. * Dose-tracking systems help hospitals to stay below national dose
      reference levels. * Dose-tracking systems help to align CT dose levels between
      scanners within hospitals. * Benchmarking shows CT dose level variability for
      similar examinations in different hospitals. * Differences in dose level
      range/scan length for similar CT studies are revealed.

PMID- 28884463
TI  - Response to the comment: Is observed upper airway obstruction patterns during
      drug-induced sedation endoscopy dose-dependent?

PMID- 28884464
TI  - Tribute to Volker Schumpelick, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Hernia.

PMID- 28884465
TI  - Coordinating medical education and health care systems: the power of the social
      accountability approach.
AB  - CONTEXT: As the purpose of medical education is to produce graduates able to most
      effectively address people's health concerns, there is general agreement that
      coordination with the health care system is essential. For too long, coordination
      has been dealt with in a subjective manner with only few landmarks to ensure
      objective and measurable achievements. Over the last 30 years, since the
      Edinburgh Declaration on medical education, progress has been made, namely with
      the concept of social accountability. METHODS: The social accountability approach
      provides a way to plan, deliver and assess medical education with the explicit
      aim to contribute to effective, equitable and sustainable health system
      development. It is based on a system-wide scope exploring issues from
      identification of people's and society's health needs to verification of the
      effects of medical education in meeting those needs. A wide international
      consultation among medical education leaders led to the adoption of the Global
      Consensus on Social Accountability of Medical Schools. EXPERIENCES: Benchmarks of
      social accountability are in the process of being conceived and tested, enabling
      medical schools to steer medical education in a more purposeful way in relation
      to determinants of health. A sample of schools using the social accountability
      approach claims to have had a positive influence on health care system
      performance and people's health status. CONCLUSION: Improved coordination of
      medical education and other key stakeholders in the health system is an important
      challenge for medical schools as well as for countries confronted with an urgent
      need for optimal use of their health workforce. There is growing interest
      worldwide in defining policies and strategies and supporting experiences in this
      regard.

PMID- 28884466
TI  - Celebrating the quality of our referees.

PMID- 28884467
TI  - Cre-expressing neurons in visual cortex of Ntsr1-Cre GN220 mice are
      corticothalamic and are depolarized by acetylcholine.
AB  - The Ntsr1-Cre GN220 mouse expresses Cre-recombinase in corticothalamic (CT)
      neurons in neocortical layer 6. It is not known if the other major types of
      pyramidal neurons in this layer also express this enzyme. By electrophysiological
      recordings in slices and histological analysis of the uptake of retrogradely
      transported beads we show that Cre-positive neurons are CT and not
      corticocortical or corticoclaustral types. Furthermore, we show that Ntsr1-Cre
      positive cells are immuno-positive for the nuclear transcription factor Forkhead
      box protein P2 (FoxP2). We conclude that Cre-expression is limited to a specific
      type of pyramidal neuron: CT. However, it appears as not all CT neurons are Cre
      expressing; there are indications that the penetrance of the gene is about 90%.
      We demonstrate the utility of assigning a specific identity to individual neurons
      by determining that the CT neurons are potently modulated by acetylcholine acting
      on both nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. These results
      corroborate the suggested function of these neurons in regulating the gain of
      thalamocortical transfer of sensory information depending on attentional demand
      and state of arousal.

PMID- 28884468
TI  - When I say ... healing.

PMID- 28884469
TI  - Cancer of the esophagus and asbestos exposure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our study aimed at analyzing incidence and mortality from esophageal
      cancer within a cohort of workers with previous occupational asbestos exposure
      (ARDCo Program). METHODS: A 10-year follow-up study was conducted in the 14 515
      male subjects included in this program between October 2003 and December 2005.
      Follow-up began when exposure stopped. Asbestos exposure was analyzed by
      industrial hygienists using data from a standardized questionnaire. The Cox model
      was used, with age as the time axis variable adjusted for smoking, time since
      first exposure (TSFE) and cumulative exposure index (CEI) of exposure to
      asbestos. RESULTS: We reported a significant dose-response relationship between
      CEI of exposure to asbestos and esophageal cancer, in both incidence (hazard
      ratio [HR] 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00-1.58), and mortality (HR 1.40,
      [95%CI 1.12-1.75]). CONCLUSIONS: This large-scale study suggests the existence of
      a relationship between asbestos exposure and cancer of the esophagus.

PMID- 28884470
TI  - Breast conserving therapy and mastectomy revisited: Breast cancer-specific
      survival and the influence of prognostic factors in 129,692 patients.
AB  - This large population-based study compared breast-conserving surgery with
      radiation therapy (BCT) with mastectomy on (long-term) breast cancer-specific
      (BCSS) and overall survival (OS), and investigated the influence of several
      prognostic factors. Patients with primary T1-2N0-2M0 breast cancer, diagnosed
      between 1999 and 2012, were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. We
      investigated the 1999-2005 (long-term outcome) and the 2006-2012 cohort
      (contemporary adjuvant systemic therapy). Cause of death was derived from the
      Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Multivariable analyses, per time cohort, were
      performed in T1-2N0-2, and separately in T1-2N0-1 and T1-2N2 stages. The T1-2N0-1
      stages were further stratified for age, hormonal receptor and HER2 status,
      adjuvant systemic therapy and comorbidity. In total, 129,692 patients were
      included. In the 1999-2005 cohort, better BCSS and OS for BCT than mastectomy was
      seen in all subgroups, except in patients < 40 years with T1-2N0-1 stage. In the
      2006-2012 cohort, superior BCSS and OS were found for T1-2N0-1, but not for T1
      2N2. Subgroup analyses for T1-2N0-1 showed superior BCSS and OS for BCT in
      patients >50 years, not treated with chemotherapy and with comorbidity. Both
      treatments led to similar BCSS in patients <50 years, without comorbidity and
      those treated with chemotherapy. Although confounding by severity and residual
      confounding cannot be excluded, this study showed better long-term BCSS for BCT
      than mastectomy. Even with more contemporary diagnostics and therapies we
      identified several subgroups that may benefit from BCT. Our results support the
      hypothesis that BCT might be preferred in most breast cancer patients when both
      treatments are suitable.

PMID- 28884472
TI  - A crustacean lobula plate: Morphology, connections, and retinotopic organization.
AB  - The lobula plate is part of the lobula complex, the third optic neuropil, in the
      optic lobes of insects. It has been extensively studied in dipterous insects,
      where its role in processing flow-field motion information used for controlling
      optomotor responses was discovered early. Recently, a lobula plate was also found
      in malacostracan crustaceans. Here, we provide the first detailed description of
      the neuroarchitecture, the input and output connections and the retinotopic
      organization of the lobula plate in a crustacean, the crab Neohelice granulata
      using a variety of histological methods that include silver reduced staining and
      mass staining with dextran-conjugated dyes. The lobula plate of this crab is a
      small elongated neuropil. It receives separated retinotopic inputs from columnar
      neurons of the medulla and the lobula. In the anteroposterior plane, the neuropil
      possesses four layers defined by the arborizations of such columnar inputs.
      Medulla projecting neurons arborize mainly in two of these layers, one on each
      side, while input neurons arriving from the lobula branch only in one. The
      neuropil contains at least two classes of tangential elements, one connecting
      with the lateral protocerebrum and the other that exits the optic lobes toward
      the supraesophageal ganglion. The number of layers in the crab's lobula plate,
      the retinotopic connections received from the medulla and from the lobula, and
      the presence of large tangential neurons exiting the neuropil, reflect the
      general structure of the insect lobula plate and, hence, provide support to the
      notion of an evolutionary conserved function for this neuropil.

PMID- 28884473
TI  - Pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation: effects by subgroup defined by genetically
      informed biomarkers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Smoking cessation therapies are not effective for all smokers, and
      researchers are interested in identifying those subgroups of individuals (e.g.
      based on genotype) who respond best to specific treatments. OBJECTIVES: To assess
      whether quit rates vary by genetically informed biomarkers within pharmacotherapy
      treatment arms and as compared with placebo. To assess the effects of
      pharmacotherapies for smoking cessation in subgroups of smokers defined by
      genotype for identified genome-wide significant polymorphisms. SEARCH METHODS: We
      searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group specialised register, clinical
      trial registries, and genetics databases for trials of pharmacotherapies for
      smoking cessation from inception until 16 August 2016. SELECTION CRITERIA: We
      included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that recruited adult smokers and
      reported pharmacogenomic analyses from trials of smoking cessation
      pharmacotherapies versus controls. Eligible trials included those with data on a
      priori genome-wide significant (P < 5 * 10-8) single-nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs), replicated non-SNPs, and/or the nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR),
      hereafter collectively described as biomarkers. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We
      used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. The primary outcome
      was smoking abstinence at six months after treatment. The secondary outcome was
      abstinence at end of treatment (EOT). We conducted two types of meta-analyses-
      one in which we assessed smoking cessation of active treatment versus placebo
      within genotype groups, and another in which we compared smoking cessation across
      genotype groups within treatment arms. We carried out analyses separately in non
      Hispanic whites (NHWs) and non-Hispanic blacks (NHBs). We assessed heterogeneity
      between genotype groups using T2, I2, and Cochrane Q statistics. MAIN RESULTS:
      Analyses included 18 trials including 9017 participants, of whom 6924 were NHW
      and 2093 NHB participants. Data were available for the following biomarkers: nine
      SNPs (rs1051730 (CHRNA3); rs16969968, rs588765, and rs2036527 (CHRNA5); rs3733829
      and rs7937 (in EGLN2, near CYP2A6); rs1329650 and rs1028936 (LOC100188947); and
      rs215605 (PDE1C)), two variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs; DRD4 and SLC6A4),
      and the NMR. Included data produced a total of 40 active versus placebo
      comparisons, 16 active versus active comparisons, and 64 between-genotype
      comparisons within treatment arms.For those meta-analyses showing statistically
      significant heterogeneity between genotype groups, we found the quality of
      evidence (GRADE) to be generally moderate. We downgraded quality most often
      because of imprecision or risk of bias due to potential selection bias in
      genotyping trial participants. Comparisons of relative treatment effects by
      genotypeFor six-month abstinence, we found statistically significant
      heterogeneity between genotypes (rs16969968) for nicotine replacement therapy
      (NRT) versus placebo at six months for NHB participants (P = 0.03; n = 2 trials),
      but not for other biomarkers or treatment comparisons. Six-month abstinence was
      increased in the active NRT group as compared to placebo among participants with
      a GG genotype (risk ratio (RR) 1.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07 to 2.03),
      but not in the combined group of participants with a GA or AA genotype (RR 0.43,
      95% CI 0.15 to 1.26; ratio of risk ratios (RRR) GG vs GA or AA of 3.51, 95% CI
      1.19 to 10.3). Comparisons of treatment effects between genotype groups within
      pharmacotherapy randomisation armsFor those receiving active NRT, treatment was
      more effective in achieving six-month abstinence among individuals with a slow
      NMR than among those with a normal NMR among NHW and NHB combined participants
      (normal NMR vs slow NMR: RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.78; n = 2 trials). We found no
      such differences in treatment effects between genotypes at six months for any of
      the other biomarkers among individuals who received pharmacotherapy or placebo.
      AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We did not identify widespread differential treatment
      effects of pharmacotherapy based on genotype. Some genotype groups within certain
      ethnic groups may benefit more from NRT or may benefit less from the combination
      of bupropion with NRT. The reader should interpret these results with caution
      because none of the statistically significant meta-analyses included more than
      two trials per genotype comparison, many confidence intervals were wide, and the
      quality of this evidence (GRADE) was generally moderate. Although we found
      evidence of superior NRT efficacy for NMR slow versus normal metabolisers,
      because of the lack of heterogeneity between NMR groups, we cannot conclude that
      NRT is more effective for slow metabolisers. Access to additional data from
      multiple trials is needed, particularly for comparisons of different
      pharmacotherapies.

PMID- 28884471
TI  - The complexity of empathy during medical school training: evidence for positive
      changes.
AB  - CONTEXT: Empathy is an essential aspect of clinical care, associated with
      improved patient satisfaction, increased adherence to treatment, and fewer
      malpractice complaints. Previous studies suggest that empathy declines during
      medical training. However, past research relied on a single narrowly
      operationalised, self-report measure of empathy. As empathy is a complex socio
      emotional construct, it is critical to assess changes across its distinct
      components using multiple measures in order to better understand how it is
      influenced by medical training. METHODS: In a longitudinal study, medical
      students completed a series of self-report and behavioural measures twice per
      year during the first 3 years of their study (2012-2015). These included the
      previously used Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), designed to assess
      empathy in the clinical context, the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective
      Empathy (QCAE), designed to assess overall empathy and its main components, and
      behavioural measures of sensitivity to others' pain and understanding of others'
      emotions, both of which are important aspects of empathy. The employment of
      multiple measures allowed for a more complete assessment of medical students'
      empathy and related processes. RESULTS: In reflection of findings in previous
      work, students' empathy assessed by the JSPE decreased over training. However, on
      the QCAE, aspects of students' empathy, specifically overall cognitive empathy
      and its subcomponent perspective taking, and the emotion contagion subcomponent
      of affective empathy improved, whereas the remaining subcomponents remained
      stable. During medical school, students also exhibited comparable growth in their
      understanding of others' emotions and increased sensitivity to others' pain.
      CONCLUSIONS: Changes in empathy during medical school cannot be simply
      characterised as representing an overall decline. Indeed, aspects of empathy
      thought to be valuable in positive physician-patient interactions improve during
      training. Overall, this study points to the importance of assessing the distinct
      components of empathy using multiple forms of measurement in order to better
      understand the mechanisms involved in empathy changes in medical practice.

PMID- 28884474
TI  - Recognition by natural killer cells of N6-isopentenyladenosine-treated human
      glioma cell lines.
AB  - Cancer cell stress induced by cytotoxic agents promotes antitumor immune
      response. Here, we observed that N6-isopentenyladenosine (iPA), an isoprenoid
      modified adenosine with a well established anticancer activity, was able to
      induce a significant upregulation of cell surface expression of natural killer
      (NK) cell activating receptor NK Group 2 member D (NKG2D) ligands on glioma cells
      in vitro and xenografted in vivo. Specifically suboptimal doses of iPA (0.1 and 1
      uM) control the selective upregulation of UL16-binding protein 2 on p53wt
      expressing U343MG and that of MICA/B on p53mut-expressing U251MG cells. This
      event made the glioblastoma cells a potent target for NK cell-mediated
      recognition through a NKG2D restricted mechanism. p53 siRNA-mediated knock-down
      and pharmacological inhibition (pifithrin-alpha), profoundly prevented the iPA
      action in restoring the immunogenicity of U343MG cells through a mechanism that
      is dependent upon p53 status of malignancy. Furthermore, accordingly to the
      preferential recognition of senescent cells by NK cells, we found that iPA
      treatment was critical for glioma cells entry in premature senescence through the
      induction of S and G2/M phase arrest. Collectively, our results indicate that
      behind the well established cytotoxic and antiangiogenic effects, iPA can also
      display an immune-mediated antitumor activity. The indirect engagement of the
      innate immune system and its additional activity in primary derived patient's
      glioma cell model (GBM17 and GBM37), fully increase its translational relevance
      and led to the exploitation of the isoprenoid pathway for a valid therapeutic
      intervention in antiglioma research.

PMID- 28884476
TI  - Probiotics for preventing urinary tract infection in people with neuropathic
      bladder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neuropathic or neurogenic bladder describes a process of
      dysfunctional voiding as the result of injury in the brain, spinal cord or nerves
      innervating the bladder. People with neuropathic bladder, such as from spinal
      cord injury (SCI), are at significant risk of morbidity from urinary tract
      infections (UTI). Effective methods to prevent UTI in people with SCI have been
      sought for many years. Probiotics (micro-organisms that exert beneficial health
      effects in the host) have been recommended for bacterial interference of the
      urological tract to reduce colonisation by uropathogen and to manage the dual
      problems of infection and antibiotic resistance. OBJECTIVES: This review looked
      at the benefits and harms of probiotics in preventing symptomatic UTI in people
      with neuropathic bladder compared with placebo, no therapy, or non-antibiotic
      prophylaxis (cranberry juice, methenamine hippurate, topical oestrogen). SEARCH
      METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Kidney and Transplant Specialised Register up
      to 10 March 2017 through contact with the Information Specialist using search
      terms relevant to this review. Studies in the Specialised Register are identified
      through searches of CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE, conference proceedings, the
      International Clinical Trials Register (ICTRP) Search Portal, and
      ClinicalTrials.gov. SELECTION CRITERIA: All randomised controlled trials (RCTs),
      quasi-RCTs and cross-over RCTs looking at the use of probiotics for the
      prophylaxis of UTI in people with neuropathic bladders was considered for
      inclusion. Men, women and children of all ages with neuropathic bladders from
      neurological injury such as suprapontine, supra sacral and sacral aetiologies was
      included. All bladder management types, including reflex voiding, time voiding,
      indwelling and intermittent catheterization were eligible for this review.Studies
      comparing probiotics to placebo, no treatment or other non-antibiotic prophylaxis
      was included. Studies comparing probiotics with antibiotics or in combination
      with antibiotics were excluded. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Summary estimates
      of effect were obtained using a random-effects model, and results were expressed
      as risk ratios (RR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for dichotomous
      outcomes, and mean difference (MD) or standardised mean difference (SMD) and 95%
      CI were planned for continuous outcomes. MAIN RESULTS: This review includes a
      total of three studies (one cross-over and two parallel RCTs) which involved 110
      participants. All three studies looked at intravesical instillation of a low
      virulent Escherichia coli (E. coli) strain in reducing the risk of symptomatic
      UTI in participants with neuropathic bladder, predominantly from SCI. Two studies
      used the E. coli 83972 strain and one study used the E. coli HU2117 strain.We did
      not find any RCTs involving other probiotics or other routes of administration
      for preventing UTI in people with neuropathic bladder.There was consistency in
      definition of symptomatic UTI in all three studies. Symptoms that all studies
      considered were relevant to diagnose UTI were adequately defined. All three
      studies defined microbiological diagnosis of symptomatic UTI.Asymptomatic
      bacteriuria was not considered an outcome measure in any of the included studies;
      however it was defined in two studies to establish successful inoculation.It is
      uncertain if the risk of symptomatic UTI is reduced with bladder inoculation
      using E. coli because the certainty of the evidence is very low (3 studies, 110
      participants: RR 0.32, 95% CI 0.08 to 1.19; I2 = 82%).Two studies reported
      adverse events. One study reported one episode of autonomic dysreflexia. One
      study reported three symptomatic UTI occurring in two patients, and two studies
      mentioned the absence of septicaemia and pyelonephritis. Intravesical
      instillation was reported as "generally safe". One study reported high attrition
      rates in participants due to the need to adhere to strict instillation
      protocols.The overall quality of the studies was poor. All three studies had high
      risk of attrition bias due to failure of an intention-to-treat analysis which
      undermines the randomisation process and weakened the results of the studies. All
      three studies also had high risk of reporting bias. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: In this
      review, there were no studies identified addressing oral probiotics in preventing
      UTI in people with neuropathic bladder. It is uncertain if the risk of
      symptomatic UTI is reduced in people with neuropathic bladders via intravesical
      instillation of non-pathogenic E. coli as data were derived from small studies
      with high risk of bias.Although very minimal levels of harm was reported with
      this procedure, due to variable success rates, the need for strict adherence to
      instillation protocols together with high attrition rates in these studies, it is
      doubtful bladder instillation will be a widely accepted intervention in its
      current form.It is recommended that further appropriately powered RCTs with more
      robust methodological reporting be carried out.

PMID- 28884475
TI  - Chronic exposure of interleukin-13 suppress the induction of matrix
      metalloproteinase-1 by tumour necrosis factor alpha in normal and scleroderma
      dermal fibroblasts through protein kinase B/Akt.
AB  - Peripheral blood mononuclear cells taken from patients with scleroderma express
      increased levels of interleukin (IL)-13. Moreover, the expression of matrix
      metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) from involved scleroderma skin fibroblasts is
      refractory to stimulation by tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. To elucidate the
      mechanism(s) involved, we examined the effect of IL-13 on TNF-alpha-induced MMP-1
      expression in normal and scleroderma human dermal fibroblast lines and studied
      the involvement of serine/threonine kinase B/protein kinase B (Akt) in this
      response. Dermal fibroblast lines were stimulated with TNF-alpha in the presence
      of varying concentrations of IL-13. Total Akt and pAkt were quantitated using
      Western blot analyses. Fibroblasts were treated with or without Akt inhibitor
      VIII in the presence of IL-13 followed by TNF-alpha stimulation. MMP-1 expression
      was analysed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of
      variance (anova) or Student's t-test. Upon TNF-alpha stimulation, normal dermal
      fibroblasts secrete more MMP-1 than systemic sclerosis (SSc) fibroblasts. This
      increase in MMP-1 is lost when fibroblasts are co-incubated with IL-13 and TNF
      alpha. IL-13 induced a significant increase in levels of pAkt in dermal
      fibroblasts, while Akt inhibitor VIII reversed the suppressive effects of IL-13
      on the response of cultured fibroblasts to TNF-alpha, increasing their expression
      of MMP-1. We show that IL-13 suppresses MMP-1 in TNF-alpha-stimulated normal and
      scleroderma dermal fibroblast. Akt inhibitor VIII is able to reverse the
      suppressive effect of IL-13 on MMP-1 expression and protein synthesis. Our data
      suggest that IL-13 regulates MMP-1 expression in response to TNF-alpha through an
      Akt-mediated pathway and may play a role in fibrotic diseases such as
      scleroderma.

PMID- 28884478
TI  - Medical students as teachers: hands-on quality improvement education.

PMID- 28884477
TI  - Fragile X granules are a family of axonal ribonucleoprotein particles with
      circuit-dependent protein composition and mRNA cargos.
AB  - Local axonal protein synthesis plays a crucial role in the formation and function
      of neuronal circuits. Understanding the role of this mechanism in specific
      circuits requires identifying the protein composition and mRNA cargos of the
      ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs) that form the substrate for axonal
      translation. FXGs (Fragile X granules) are axonal RNPs present in a stereotyped
      subset of mature axons in the intact brain that contain one or more of the
      Fragile X related (FXR) proteins (FMRP, FXR2P, and FXR1P) along with mRNA and
      ribosomes. Here we performed a systematic survey of the FXR protein composition
      and mRNA association of FXGs in the brain. We have identified four FXG types that
      can be categorized based on their FXR protein complement. All FXGs contain FXR2P,
      with FMRP and/or FXR1P present in circuit-selective subsets. Individual neuronal
      cell types predominantly express a single FXG type, with FMRP-containing FXGs the
      most prevalent in forebrain neurons. All FXG types associate with ribosomes and
      mRNA, but the specific mRNA cargos are a function of FXG type, brain region and
      neuron class. Transcripts for beta-catenin and its regulator APC associate with a
      subset of forebrain FXGs. Moreover, both these transcripts can colocalize within
      individual FXGs, suggesting that the axonal translation of functionally related
      proteins may be coordinately regulated with high spatiotemporal resolution. Cell
      type-dependent expression of specific RNP types with distinct mRNA cargos, such
      as FXGs, presents a potential mechanism for regulating local translation and its
      output in a circuit-dependent manner.

PMID- 28884479
TI  - Transcriptional repression of Aurora-A gene by wild-type p53 through directly
      binding to its promoter with histone deacetylase 1 and mSin3a.
AB  - In this study, we firstly showed that p53 transcriptionally represses Aurora-A
      gene expression through directly binding to its promoter. DNA affinity
      precipitation assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay indicated that p53
      physically bound to the Aurora-A promoter. Moreover, the in vitro and in vivo
      assays showed that p53 directly bound to the Aurora-A promoter together with
      histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and mSin3a as corepressors. Furthermore, we
      identified that the nucleotides -360 to -354 (CCTGCCC), upstream of the Aurora-A
      transcriptional start site, was responsible for the p53-mediated repression.
      Mutation within this site disrupted its interaction with p53, mSin3a and HDAC1,
      as well as attenuated the repressive effect of p53 on Aurora-A promoter activity.
      Treatment with trichostatin A (TSA), a HDAC1 inhibitor, disrupted the interaction
      of p53-HDAC1-mSin3a complex with the nucleotides -365~-345 region, and enhanced
      the Aurora-A promoter activity and gene expression. Additionally, knockdown of
      p53 or mSin3a also drastically blocked the formation of p53-HDAC1-mSin3a
      repressive complex onto this promoter region and elevated the Aurora-A promoter
      activity and gene expression. Moreover, the p53-HDAC1-mSin3a repressive complex
      also involved in the inhibition of Aurora-A gene expression upon cisplatin
      treatment. Finally, the clinical investigation showed that Aurora-A and p53
      exhibited an inverse correlation in both the expression level and prognostic
      status, and the low p53/high Aurora-A showed the poorest prognosis of NSCLC
      patients. Our findings showed novel regulatory mechanisms of p53 in regulating
      Aurora-A gene expression in NSCLC cells.

PMID- 28884480
TI  - Blood monocytes sample MelanA/MART1 antigen for long-lasting cross-presentation
      to CD8+ T cells after differentiation into dendritic cells.
AB  - Human blood monocytes are very potent to take up antigens. Like macrophages in
      tissue, they efficiently degrade exogenous protein and are less efficient than
      dendritic cells (DCs) at cross-presenting antigens to CD8+ T cells. Although it
      is generally accepted that DCs take up tissue antigens and then migrate to lymph
      nodes to prime T cells, the mechanisms of presentation of antigens taken up by
      monocytes are poorly documented so far. In the present work, we show that
      monocytes loaded in vitro with MelanA long peptides retain the capacity to
      stimulate antigen-specific CD8+ T cell clones after 5 days of differentiation
      into monocytes-derived dendritic cells (MoDCs). Tagged-long peptides can be
      visualized in electron-dense endocytic compartments distinct from lysosomes,
      suggesting that antigens can be protected from degradation for extended periods
      of time. To address the pathophysiological relevance of these findings, we
      screened blood monocytes from 18 metastatic melanoma patients and found that
      CD14+ monocytes from two patients effectively activate a MelanA-specific CD8 T
      cell clone after in vitro differentiation into MoDCs. This in vivo sampling of
      tumor antigen by circulating monocytes might alter the tumor-specific immune
      response and should be taken into account for cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28884481
TI  - Estrogen receptor beta selective agonist ameliorates liver cirrhosis in rats by
      inhibiting the activation and proliferation of hepatic stellate cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aim of this study is to explore the roles of estrogen
      receptor (ER) subtypes and corresponding agonists/antagonists on the development
      of cirrhosis and activation and proliferation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs).
      METHODS: Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 )-induced cirrhotic ovariectomized rats were
      administered non-selective ER agonist (beta-estradiol, E2), ER selective agonists
      (ERalpha agonist, propylpyrazoletriol; ERbeta agonist, diarylpropionitrile [DPN];
      and G-protein-coupled ER [GPER] agonist, G1), or E2 + ER selective antagonists
      (ERalpha antagonist, MPP; ERbeta antagonist, PHTPP; and GPER antagonist, G15) for
      12 weeks. The expression of the three ER subtypes in livers and HSCs and the
      effects of the drugs on hepatic fibrosis, isolated HSCs, and uteri were
      evaluated. RESULTS: Selective ER agonists/antagonists had various effects on CCl4
      -induced cirrhosis. The cirrhotic rats in the CCl4  + E2, CCl4  + DPN, CCl4  + E2
      + MPP, and CCl4  + E2 + G15 groups presented reduced fibrosis scores, compared
      with those in the CCl4 group. The cirrhotic rats in the E2 + PHTPP group
      presented increased fibrosis scores that similar to those in the CCl4 group. The
      ovariectomized rats had enlarged uteri with increased uterus indexes after E2
      administration; however, the proliferative effects of E2 were partially blocked
      by MPP or G15, but not PHTPP. In the in vitro study, DPN attenuated the
      transformation of quiescent HSCs to activated phenotype, suppressed collagen I,
      and alpha-smooth muscle actin expression. DPN also suppressed platelet-derived
      growth factor-induced proliferation in cultured HSCs, which was reversed by
      PHTPP. CONCLUSIONS: The antifibrogenic effects of estrogen were mediated by
      ERbeta but not ERalpha or GPER. The ERbeta selective agonist exerted a
      fibrosuppressive effect by inhibiting the activation and proliferation of HSCs,
      but did not induce uterine hyperplasia.

PMID- 28884483
TI  - Training medical students how to extract, assess and communicate evidence from an
      article.

PMID- 28884482
TI  - Histological characterization of umbilical cord in alpaca (Vicugna pacos).
AB  - The histomorphometric features of umbilical cord constituents in seven foetuses
      of alpaca (Vicugna pacos) from Cerro de Pasco, Department, Peru, were determined.
      Sections of 2-5 cm of umbilical cord were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin
      and processed for light microscopy. Standard histological slides stained with
      haematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome and Van Gieson's trichrome were
      obtained. Histologically, common features of umbilical artery and vein were
      observed as well as mucous connective tissue, some cell features that compound
      this tissue constituted by cells presented features of myofibroblasts. Among most
      important findings that were observed, the lumen of umbilical vein was
      obliterated into star-shaped form with the thinner umbilical artery wall; the
      smooth muscles and fibroblast were comparatively more in number in umbilical
      artery than that of umbilical vein, and the tunica media was larger in dimension
      than the tunica adventitia in umbilical vein. Conclusively, this histological
      study features an observation of the umbilical cord of alpaca foetuses and shows
      the similarity between them and those of other mammal species, including
      dromedaries and South American camelids.

PMID- 28884484
TI  - Identification of telocytes in the porcine heart.
AB  - Recently, a new interstitial cell type called telocyte has been identified.
      Telocytes are found in many organs including the heart, where they are especially
      well described. However, their presence in the porcine heart has not yet been
      proven. The pig is a valuable animal model in research because of its resemblance
      with man, making it interesting to determine whether telocytes can be found in
      pigs as well. The focus of this study is the identification and ultrastructural
      description of telocytes in the heart tissue of pig. Using transmission electron
      microscopy, telocytes were found in both left and right atrium and ventricle,
      usually close to cardiomyocytes and/or blood vessels. Their most important
      characteristic is the long cytoplasmic processes called telopodes, which have a
      moniliform aspect, measure tens of MUm and usually have a thickness below 0.2
      MUm. This unique morphological feature enables telocytes to be recognized from
      other interstitial cells such as fibroblasts. Additional observations include the
      ability to release extracellular vesicles and to make contacts with other
      structures such as endothelial cells, suggesting a role in intercellular
      communication.

PMID- 28884485
TI  - Clustal Omega for making accurate alignments of many protein sequences.
AB  - Clustal Omega is a widely used package for carrying out multiple sequence
      alignment. Here, we describe some recent additions to the package and benchmark
      some alternative ways of making alignments. These benchmarks are based on protein
      structure comparisons or predictions and include a recently described method
      based on secondary structure prediction. In general, Clustal Omega is fast enough
      to make very large alignments and the accuracy of protein alignments is high when
      compared to alternative packages. The package is freely available as executables
      or source code from www.clustal.org or can be run on-line from a variety of
      sites, especially the EBI www.ebi.ac.uk.

PMID- 28884486
TI  - Are sound abatement measures necessary in the cytology reading room? A study of
      auditory distraction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Listening to music and other auditory material during microscopy work
      is common practice among cytologists. While many cytologists would claim several
      benefits of such activity, research in other fields suggests that it might
      adversely affect diagnostic performance. Using a cross-modal distraction
      paradigm, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of auditory
      stimulation on the visual interpretation of cell images. METHODS: Following
      initial training, 34 participants undertook cell interpretation tests under four
      auditory conditions (liked music, disliked music, speech and silence) in a
      counterbalanced repeated-measures study. Error rate, area under the receiver
      operating characteristic curve, criterion and response time were measured for
      each condition. RESULTS: There was no significant effect of auditory stimulation
      on the accuracy or speed with which cell images were interpreted, mirroring the
      results of a previous visual distraction study. CONCLUSION: To the extent that
      the experiment reflects clinical practice, listening to music or other forms of
      auditory material whilst undertaking microscopy duties is unlikely to be a source
      of distraction in the cytopathology reading room. From a cognitive perspective,
      the results are consistent with the notion that high focal-task engagement may
      have blocked any attentional capture the sound may otherwise have produced.

PMID- 28884487
TI  - Radiofrequency ablation in patients with large cervical heterotopic gastric
      mucosa and globus sensation: Closing the treatment gap.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Symptomatic cervical heterotopic gastric mucosa, also known
      as cervical inlet patch (CIP), may present in various shapes and causes
      laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Unfortunately, argon plasma coagulation, standard
      treatment of small symptomatic CIP, is limited in large CIP mainly because of
      concerns of stricture formation. Therefore, we aimed to investigate
      radiofrequency ablation (RFA), a novel minimally invasive ablation method, in the
      treatment of CIP focusing on large symptomatic patches. METHODS: Consecutive
      patients with macroscopic and histological evidence of large (>=20 mm diameter)
      heterotopic gastric mucosa were included in this prospective trial. Primary
      outcome was complete macroscopic and histological eradication rate of CIP.
      Secondary outcome measures were symptom improvement, quality of life, severity of
      LPR and adverse events. RESULTS: Ten patients (females, n = 5) underwent RFA of
      symptomatic CIP. Complete histological and macroscopic eradication of CIP was
      observed in 80% (females, n = 4) of individuals after two ablations. Globus
      sensations significantly improved from median visual analog scale score 8 (5-9)
      at baseline to 1.5 (1-7) after first ablation and 1 (1-2) after final evaluation
      (P < 0.001). Mental health scores significantly increased from 41.4 (+/- 8.5) to
      54.4 (+/- 4.4) after RFA (P = 0.007). LPR improved significantly (P = 0.005) with
      absence of strictures after a mean follow up of 1.9 (+/- 0.5) years. CONCLUSIONS:
      This is the first study on RFA focusing on therapy of large symptomatic
      heterotopic gastric mucosa. Hereby, we demonstrate that this new technique can be
      successfully implemented in patients where treatment was limited so far
      (NCT03023280).

PMID- 28884488
TI  - Uniqueness of Entamoeba sulfur metabolism: sulfolipid metabolism that plays
      pleiotropic roles in the parasitic life cycle.
AB  - Sulfur metabolism is ubiquitous and terminally synthesizes various biomolecules
      that are crucial for organisms, such as sulfur-containing amino acids and co
      factors, sulfolipids and sulfated saccharides. Entamoeba histolytica, a protozoan
      parasite responsible for amoebiasis, possesses the unique sulfur metabolism
      features of atypical localization and its terminal product being limited to
      sulfolipids. Here, we present an overall scheme of E. histolytica sulfur
      metabolism by relating all sulfotransferases and sulfatases to their substrates
      and products. Furthermore, a novel sulfur metabolite, fatty alcohol disulfates,
      was identified and shown to play an important role in trophozoite proliferation.
      Cholesteryl sulfate, another synthesized sulfolipid, was previously demonstrated
      to play an important role in encystation, a differentiation process from
      proliferative trophozoite to dormant cyst. Entamoeba survives by alternating
      between these two distinct forms; therefore, Entamoeba sulfur metabolism
      contributes to the parasitic life cycle via its terminal products. Interestingly,
      this unique feature of sulfur metabolism is not conserved in the nonparasitic
      close relative of Entamoeba, Mastigamoeba, because lateral gene transfer-mediated
      acquisition of sulfatases and sulfotransferases, critical enzymes conferring this
      feature, has only occurred in the Entamoeba lineage. Hence, our findings suggest
      that sulfolipid metabolism has a causal relationship with parasitism.

PMID- 28884489
TI  - Voltage and wear debris from Ti-6Al-4V interact to affect cell viability during
      in-vitro fretting corrosion.
AB  - Fretting corrosion (or mechanically assisted corrosion, MAC) is a major corrosion
      mechanism in modular orthopedic implants. There is a complex interplay between
      fretting corrosion and the surrounding biological environment that includes
      particle generation and electrochemical potential excursions and currents. The
      goal of this work is to directly investigate the effects of fretting on cells in
      vitro. Using an in vitro fretting device, MC3T3 preosteoblasts were cultured onto
      Ti-6Al-4V disks adjacent to the fretting site. Under fretting corrosion
      conditions, cell viability dramatically decreased to 0.5% with the voltage drop
      reaching -1 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Under the same fretting corrosion conditions, but
      potentiostatically holding the Ti-6Al-4V sample surface potential to -300 mV or 
      50 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl), the cell viability increases to 70% and 38%, respectively.
      The results indicate that both cathodic potential excursions and wear debris play
      significant roles in affecting cell viability. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 160-167, 2018.

PMID- 28884490
TI  - Manganese Dioxide Nanozymes as Responsive Cytoprotective Shells for Individual
      Living Cell Encapsulation.
AB  - A powerful individual living cell encapsulation strategy for long-term
      cytoprotection and manipulation is reported. It uses manganese dioxide (MnO2 )
      nanozymes as intelligent shells. As expected, yeast cells can be directly coated
      with continuous MnO2 shells via bio-friendly Mn-based mineralization.
      Significantly, the durable nanozyme shells not only can enhance the cellular
      tolerance against severe physical stressors including dehydration and lytic
      enzyme, but also enable the survival of cells upon contact with high levels of
      toxic chemicals for prolonged periods. More importantly, these encased cells
      after shell removal via a facile biomolecule stimulus can fully resume growth and
      functions. This strategy is applicable to a broad range of living cells.

PMID- 28884491
TI  - Pd-PEPPSI-IPent-SiO2 : A Supported Catalyst for Challenging Negishi Coupling
      Reactions in Flow.
AB  - A silica-supported precatalyst, Pd-PEPPSI-IPent-SiO2 , has been prepared and
      evaluated for its proficiency in the Negishi cross-coupling of hindered and
      electronically deactivated coupling partners. The precatalyst Pd-PEPPSI-IPent
      loaded onto packed bed columns shows high catalytic activity for the room
      temperature coupling of deactivated/hindered biaryl partners. Also for the first
      time, the flowed Csp3 -Csp2 coupling of secondary alkylzinc reagents to
      (hetero)aromatics has been achieved with high selectivity with Pd-PEPPSI-IPent
      SiO2 . These couplings required residence times as short as 3 minutes to effect
      completion of these challenging transformations with excellent selectivity for
      the nonrearranged product.

PMID- 28884492
TI  - Patterned semiconductor structures modulate neuronal outgrowth: Implication for
      the development of a neurobionic interface.
AB  - Auditory implants stimulate the neurons by broad electrical fields, which leads
      to a low number of spectral channels. A reduction in the distance between the
      electrode and the neuronal structures might lead to better electrical
      transduction. The use of microstructured semiconductors offers a large number of
      contacts, which could attract neurons and stimulate them individually. To
      investigate the interaction between neurons and semiconductors, differentiated
      neuronal precursor cells were cultured on silicon wafers. Different structures
      were added on the wafers by electron beam lithography, and deep reactive ion
      etching in different depths (2 and 7 um). Grooved surfaces guided the neurons and
      resulted in straight oriented axons, but neuronal outgrowth was impaired by the 7
      um grooves. Within the 7 um structures, the neuronal cell body was totally
      encased and the nuclei were deformed from a round to an elliptical shape. On both
      square and cylindrical structures neuronal bridging could be detected in
      different forms, either between the tops of the structures or between the bottom
      and the top. Furthermore, neuronal bridges were established on the lateral part
      of the structures, and change in direction of neuronal growth was induced by the
      structure. Finally, it could be shown that neuronal growth cones were
      particularly attracted by the top of the cylinders, which might allow for the
      stimulation of neurons via this structure. In conclusion, study results indicate
      that structured semiconductors can modulate neuronal growth and its direction,
      offering a novel method for the development of new implants with improved
      neuronal stimulation. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A:
      106A: 65-72, 2018.

PMID- 28884493
TI  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection in the West: Current status and future
      directions.
AB  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) was first conceptually described almost 30
      years ago in Japan and is now widely practiced throughout East Asia. ESD expands
      the boundaries of endoscopic resection (ER) by allowing en bloc resection of
      large early neoplastic lesions within the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). This
      offers advantages over other ER techniques by facilitating definitive
      histological staging and curative treatment of early cancer in selected cases.
      Indeed, the experience of ESD in Eastern countries is significant, and excellent
      outcomes from high-volume centers are reported. The potential benefits of ESD are
      recognized by Western endoscopists, but its adoption has been limited. A number
      of factors contribute to this, including epidemiological differences in GIT
      neoplasia between Western and Eastern populations and limitations in training
      opportunities. In this review, we discuss the role of ESD, its current status and
      the future in Western endoscopic practice.

PMID- 28884494
TI  - Multilayered pore-closed PLGA microsphere delivering OGP and BMP-2 in sequential
      release patterns for the facilitation of BMSCs osteogenic differentiation.
AB  - Bone tissue regeneration may be more effectively administrated by controlled
      release of multiple biofactors, given that bone healing comprises a cascade of
      biological events controlled by numerous cytokines and growth factors (GFs).
      Here, we propose a novel microcarrier with the capability to sequentially deliver
      dual biofactors for better controlling the bone regeneration process. First,
      osteogenic growth peptide (OGP) was incorporated in porous poly(lactic-co
      glycolic) acid (PLGA) microspheres by a simple solution dipping method and
      subsequent pore-closing treatment. Then, a multilayered polyelectrolyte coating
      ((HA-CS)2 -Hep-BMP-2-Hep-(CS-HA)2 ) was prepared on the surface of such OGP
      loaded pore-closed PLGA microspheres by layer-by-layer assembly. Results showed
      that the OGP release was minimal (<17.1%) in the first 15 days but accelerated
      remarkably thereafter, while at least 60.3% of the bone morphogenetic protein-2
      (BMP-2) load was released in the first 15 days and only very slow release was
      observed subsequently. Further in vitro cell experiments showed that the dual
      biomolecule-loaded microspheres elicited more cells with extremely elongated
      cellular morphology, much higher alkaline phosphatase level and upregulated
      expression of osteocalcin. Such a dual loading of OGP and BMP-2 had a more
      positive impact on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells proliferation and
      osteogenic differentiation compared with either OGP or BMP-2 alone, suggesting
      potential synergistic benefit of the sequential release of multiple peptide-based
      biofactors in a coordinated manner. Overall, this dual delivery system may
      provide a therapeutic strategy sequentially targeting multiple events (or
      mechanisms) during bone healing, which is believed to benefit the regenerative
      repair of bone defects. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part
      A: 106A: 95-105, 2018.

PMID- 28884495
TI  - Asymmetrical size and functionality of the pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus)
      testes: Right testis is bigger but left testis is more efficient in
      spermatogenesis.
AB  - Information about gonadal asymmetries in ruminants is very scarce. In this work,
      we performed three complementary studies to compare characteristics of both
      testes: (i) weight and size of offspring and adult dead males; (ii) the
      tissue:fluid relationship determined by ultrasound scanning; and (iii) the
      spermatogenic status using fine needle aspiration cytology. The right testis was
      heavier than the left one in both offspring and adult animals and had greater
      width and volume in adult males than the left one. The ultrasound pixel intensity
      was similar in both testes. The right testis tended to have more spermatogonia (p
      = .06) and had a greater percentage of early spermatids (p = .004) than the left
      testis. On the other hand, the left testis had a greater percentage of
      spermatozoa (p = .05). The left testis had a greater spermatozoa/spermatogonia
      ratio (p = .02) and tended to have more spermatozoa/Sertoli cells ratio (p =
      .07). The spermatogenic index tended to be greater in the left than in the right
      testis (p = .06). Overall, we concluded that the right testis of pampas deer
      males is bigger but according to the cytology, it seems to be less
      spermatogenically effective than the left one, but these differences are not
      explained by different tissue:fluid ratio in each testis. Although differences
      were greater in adults than in offspring, asymmetry was observed even in just
      born offspring.

PMID- 28884496
TI  - Potential Role of Curcumin Against Biofilm-Producing Organisms on the Skin: A
      Review.
AB  - Turmeric root (Curcuma longa) is predominantly used as a spice, but has also long
      been known to possess antimicrobial, analgesic, antiinflammatory, and anticancer
      properties. One predominant group of active compounds in turmeric are
      curcuminoids, namely bright yellow-pigmented curcumin. While modern science has
      yet to fully investigate the therapeutic claims of turmeric and its derivatives,
      results have proven promising in decreasing pain and inflammation in arthritis,
      improving insulin sensitivity in diabetes, and even curing a variety of
      infections. The purpose of this review is to discuss the potential for curcumin
      as an agent against microbial infections, with a special focus on the skin and in
      the development of bacterial biofilms. Curcumin has demonstrated bactericidal
      efficacy against a variety of infections when administered with antibiotics in
      several clinical studies, with consistent antimicrobial activity demonstrated in
      vitro, as well as in urinary tract infections, gingival infections, and chronic
      wound infections. Hypothesized mechanisms of action include curcumin's ability to
      perturb bacterial membranes, disturb protofillament assembly, and even impair
      bacterial virulence factors. Further investigation is needed to fully understand
      which organisms are most susceptible to the effects of curcumin and how curcumin
      can be implemented in dermatology to treat skin conditions such as chronic wounds
      and acne vulgaris. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28884497
TI  - Risk stratification of Asian patients with heart failure and reduced ejection
      fraction: the effectiveness of the Echo Heart Failure Score.

PMID- 28884498
TI  - Aldo-keto reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase contribute to benznidazole natural
      resistance in Trypanosoma cruzi.
AB  - The improvement of Chagas disease treatment is focused not only on the
      development of new drugs but also in understanding mechanisms of action and
      resistance to drugs conventionally used. Thus, some strategies aim to detect
      specific changes in proteins between sensitive and resistant parasites and to
      evaluate the role played in these processes by functional genomics. In this work,
      we used a natural Trypanosoma cruzi population resistant to benznidazole, which
      has clones with different susceptibilities to this drug without alterations in
      the NTR I gene. Using 2DE-gel electrophoresis, the aldo-keto reductase and the
      alcohol dehydrogenase proteins were found up regulated in the natural resistant
      clone and therefore their possible role in the resistance to benznidazole and
      glyoxal was investigated. Both genes were overexpressed in a drug sensitive T.
      cruzi clone and the biological changes in response to these compounds were
      evaluated. The results showed that the overexpression of these proteins enhances
      resistance to benznidazole and glyoxal in T. cruzi. Moreover, a decrease in
      mitochondrial and cell membrane damage was observed, accompanied by a drop in the
      intracellular concentration of reactive oxygen species after treatment. Our
      results suggest that these proteins are involved in the mechanism of action of
      benznidazole.

PMID- 28884499
TI  - Peroral endoscopic myotomy in achalasia and large epiphrenic diverticulum.
AB  - Symptomatic epiphrenic diverticula are mostly treated surgically with
      laparoscopic diverticulectomy, myotomy and anterior fundoplication. However, in
      case the patient does not agree with surgical therapy or is contraindicated,
      there are limited ways of alternative treatment. We present a case report of a 72
      year-old female patient with severe dysphagia, regurgitation, paroxysmal cough,
      weight loss and malnutrition who was diagnosed with achalasia and large
      epiphrenic diverticulum. She did not give consent to the proposed surgical
      treatment. Alternatively, peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) was carried out. In
      one-year follow up, we observed complete symptom resolution, significant weight
      gain, improvement of nutritional status and no complications. We suggest that
      POEM could serve as an effective and safe alternative treatment for patients with
      achalasia and esophageal epiphrenic diverticula.

PMID- 28884500
TI  - Under-diagnosed chronic kidney disease in Jordanian adults: prevalence and
      correlates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Jordan has no relevant database or registry by which chronic kidney
      disease (CKD) would be early identified. The purpose of the present study is to
      uncover the prevalence of CKD in a national sample of Jordanian patients at high
      risk and examine the association of CKD with demographic and clinical factors.
      METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, correlational study that involved 540
      outpatients at high risk for CKD. Demographic and clinical data were obtained in
      the period from September 2013 to March 2014. Prevalence of CKD was defined based
      on the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative
      Classification of CKD using estimated glomerular filtration rate. Associations of
      CKD and demographic and clinical factors were examined using bivariate analysis.
      RESULTS: The majority of the sample were females (64%), their mean age (+/-SD)
      was 55.0 +/- 12.5 years, their mean eGFR (+/-SD) was 116.0 +/- 47.5. One third of
      patients had eGFR of 23.5%, 5.4%, 0.7% and 0.7% which corresponds with mild,
      moderate, severe and very severe reduction in eGFR, respectively. Ageing, being
      male, unemployment, packs/years of smoking, co-morbidities [hypertension (HTN),
      diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease] and low high density
      lipoprotein (HDL) correlated positively with development of CKD. CONCLUSION: This
      study demonstrates a high rate of under-diagnosed CKD among Jordanians. Several
      demographic and clinical factors are linked with the development of CKD.
      Policymakers and healthcare providers need to establish an evidence-based
      practice project to prevent and screen for CKD in Jordan.

PMID- 28884501
TI  - Procalcitonin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein in acute
      pulmonary exacerbations of cystic fibrosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute pulmonary exacerbations of cystic fibrosis (APECF) are a
      leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with cystic fibrosis
      (CF). APECF require frequent administration of antibiotics and subsequently lead
      to development of resistant organisms. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to
      identify inflammatory markers that may be help identify need for antibiotics and
      exacerbation as well as predict risk of exacerbations. METHODS: A total of 17
      patients were enrolled, and baseline erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C
      reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin levels were obtained in addition to
      obtaining these levels during admissions for APECF. RESULTS: A total of 28 APECF
      were recorded. ESR and CRP significantly increased during exacerbation (P < .01
      for both). Procalcitonin did not increase during exacerbations. Baseline
      elevations in ESR and CRP increased risk of an exacerbation (RR = 2.3 and 4.5,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: ESR and CRP are useful markers for CF exacerbations,
      as levels rise with exacerbations. Baseline elevations in ESR and CRP were noted
      to show an increased risk for CF exacerbations. Procalcitonin, in contrast, is
      not a useful inflammatory marker.

PMID- 28884502
TI  - Fabrication of tough poly(ethylene glycol)/collagen double network hydrogels for
      tissue engineering.
AB  - In this study, a series of poly(ethylene glycol)/collagen (PEG/Col) double
      network (DN) hydrogel is fabricated from PEG and Col. Results of the compressive
      strength test indicate that the strength and toughness of these DN hydrogels are
      significantly enhanced. The fracture strength of PEG/Col DN hydrogels increases
      by 9- to 12-fold compared with that of PEG single network (SN) hydrogel, and by
      36- to 48-fold compared with that of Col SN hydrogel. Taking advantage of both
      PEG and Col building blocks, the PEG/Col DN hydrogels possess a strengthened
      skeleton. Moreover, the water-storage capability and favorable biocompatibility
      of Col are effectively maintained. Given that the DN hydrogels can provide the
      appropriate environment for the adhesion, growth, and proliferation of MC3T3-E1
      cells, PEG/Col DN hydrogels have potential as a load-bearing tissue repair
      material. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 192
      200, 2018.

PMID- 28884503
TI  - Efficient secretion of three fungal laccases from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and
      their potential for decolorization of textile industry effluent-A comparative
      study.
AB  - Laccases are enzymes with a broad range of biotechnological applications and
      have, for example, the ability to oxidize many xenobiotics including synthetic
      dyes. In order to obtain an efficient laccase for the decolorization of dyes
      which spoil wastewater from the textile industry, genes encoding three various
      laccase enzymes were expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The expression of
      laccases from ascomycete Myceliophthora thermophila (MtL), and two basidiomycetes
      Trametes versicolor (TvL) and Trametes trogii (TtL) was optimized via selection
      of plasmids, promoters, media composition, and cultivation conditions. For the
      first time, the activity of the three secreted laccases was directly compared
      with the use of various substrates, including different dyes and a wastewater
      sample. A strong constitutive ADH1 promoter, minimal growth medium, optimized
      combination of copper and organic nitrogen source, and low cultivation
      temperature were shown to significantly increase the yields and relative
      activities of secreted laccases. Heterologous expression of three fungal laccases
      was successfully achieved in S. cerevisiae being the highest for MtL and the
      lowest for TvL. MtL, and particularly TtL, showed the decolorization capacity.
      This is the first report which compared decolorization of synthetic dyes and
      wastewater by several recombinant laccases and suggested MtL and TtL to be
      applicable in the ecofriendly enzymatic treatment of colored industry effluent.
      (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:69-80,
      2018.

PMID- 28884506
TI  - Evaluation of a series of silk fibroin protein-based nonwoven mats for use as an
      anti-adhesion patch for wound management in robotic surgery.
AB  - A novel anti-adhesion nonwoven mat mainly composed of silk fibroin protein (SFP)
      was fabricated via the single-spinneret electrospinning technique. A series of
      SFP-based electrospun nonwoven mats containing additives of different synthetic
      polymer ratios, such as pure SFP, SFP/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), SFP/polyethylene
      glycol (PEG), and SFP/polyethylene oxide (PEO) were produced and compared. All
      membranes were porous and had diameters of 324.02 +/- 113.7, 308.86 +/- 74.02,
      366.22 +/- 115.81, and 341.82 +/- 119.42 nm, respectively. The average pore size
      for each membrane was 1.132 +/- 0.99, 0.811 +/- 0.424, 0.975 +/- 0.741, and 0.784
      +/- 0.497 MUm2 . No nonwoven mats showed significant cytotoxicity toward
      fibroblast cells based on the results of MTT assays. Surprisingly, for all groups
      of SFP-based nonwoven mats, nitrate formation was reduced by up to 94.55 +/-
      14.50%, 92.16 +/- 19.38%, 91.28 +/- 28.375%, and 92.00 +/- 12.64% in
      lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages model. Tissue anti-adhesion
      potential was evaluated in an in vitro fibroblast cell adhesion model and in vivo
      wounded mice model. In vitro, the mean cell anti-adhesion percentage of
      fibroblast cells changed over time in the following order: PVA/SFP > SFP >
      PEG/SFP~PEO/SFP. In vivo, SFP and PVA/SFP-treated groups both showed superior
      collagen regeneration and wound closure. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 221-230, 2018.

PMID- 28884505
TI  - Alternative Oils Tested as Feedstocks for Enzymatic FAMEs Synthesis: Toward a
      More Sustainable Process.
AB  - Previously isolated and characterized Pseudomonas lipases were immobilized in a
      low-cost MP-1000 support by a re-loading procedure that allowed a high activity
      per weight of support. Immobilized LipA, LipC, and LipCmut lipases, and
      commercial Novozym(r) 435 were tested for fatty acid methyl ester (FAMEs)
      synthesis using conventional and alternative feedstocks. Triolein and degummed
      soybean oils were used as model substrates, whereas waste cooking oil and M.
      circinelloides oil were assayed as alternative, low cost feedstocks, whose free
      fatty acid (FFA), and acylglyceride profile was characterized. The reaction
      conditions for FAMEs synthesis were initially established using degummed soybean
      oil, setting up the best water and methanol concentrations for optimum
      conversion. These conditions were further applied to the alternative feedstocks
      and the four lipases. The results revealed that Pseudomonas lipases were unable
      to use the FFAs, displaying a moderate FAMEs synthesis, whereas a 44% FAMEs
      production was obtained when M. circinelloides oil was used as a substrate in the
      reaction catalysed by Novozym(r) 435, used under the conditions established for
      degummed soybean oil. However, when Novozym(r) 435 was tested under previously
      described optimal conditions for this lipase, promising values of 85 and 76%
      FAMEs synthesis were obtained for waste cooking oil and M. circinelloides oil,
      respectively, which might result in promising, nonfood, alternative feedstocks
      for enzymatic biodiesel production. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical
      Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1209-1217, 2017.

PMID- 28884507
TI  - Extracellular matrix derived from periodontal ligament cells maintains their
      stemness and enhances redifferentiation via the wnt pathway.
AB  - Large numbers of viable cells cannot be obtained from periodontal ligament
      tissues of patients with periodontitis. Therefore, it is imperative to establish
      an ex vivo environment that can support cell proliferation and delay senescence.
      Here, we have successfully reconstructed a native extracellular matrix (ECM),
      derived from early-passage human periodontal ligament cells (PDLCs) using the NH4
      OH/Triton X-100 protocol. The ECM was investigated by scanning electron
      microscopy and immunostaining for specific ECM proteins (collagen I and
      fibronectin). Late-passage ECM-expanded PDLCs exhibited a much higher
      proliferation index and lower levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), confirmed
      by the increased expression of pluripotent markers and enhanced osteogenic
      capacity. Interestingly, the Wnt pathway was suppressed during the ECM expansion
      mediated increase in pluripotency, but was activated in an osteogenic
      differentiation environment, as confirmed by treatment with the XAV-939 beta
      catenin inhibitor or the SP600125 c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor. Cell
      sheets formed by ECM-expanded PDLCs exhibited an enhanced periodontal tissue
      regeneration capacity compared to those formed on tissue culture polystyrene
      (TCP) surfaces in vivo. Taken together, the cell-free ECM provides a tissue
      specific cell niche for the ex vivo expansion of PDLCs while retaining stemness
      and osteogenic potential, partially via the Wnt pathway. This represents a
      promising matrix for future applications in periodontal tissue regeneration
      therapy. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 272
      284, 2018.

PMID- 28884504
TI  - The where, what, and when of membrane protein degradation in neurons.
AB  - Membrane protein turnover and degradation are required for the function and
      health of all cells. Neurons may live for the entire lifetime of an organism and
      are highly polarized cells with spatially segregated axonal and dendritic
      compartments. Both longevity and morphological complexity represent challenges
      for regulated membrane protein degradation. To investigate how neurons cope with
      these challenges, an increasing number of recent studies investigated local,
      cargo-specific protein sorting, and degradation at axon terminals and in
      dendritic processes. In this review, we explore the current answers to the
      ensuing questions of where, what, and when membrane proteins are degraded in
      neurons. (c) 2017 The Authors Developmental Neurobiology Published by Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 78: 283-297, 2018.

PMID- 28884508
TI  - The unique calcium chelation property of poly(vinyl phosphonic acid-co-acrylic
      acid) and effects on osteogenesis in vitro.
AB  - There is a clear clinical need for a bioactive bone graft substitute. Poly(vinyl
      phosphonic acid-co-acrylic acid) (PVPA-co-AA) has been identified as a promising
      candidate for bone regeneration but there is little evidence to show its direct
      osteogenic effect on progenitor or mature cells. In this study mature osteoblast
      like cells (SaOS-2) and human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM
      MSCs) were cultured with PVPA-co-AA polymers with different VPA:AA ratio and at
      different concentrations in vitro. We are the first to report the direct
      osteogenic effect of PVPA-co-AA polymer on bone cells and, more importantly, this
      effect was dependent on VPA:AA ratio and concentration. Under the optimized
      conditions, PVPA-co-AA polymer not only has an osteoconductive effect, enhancing
      SaOS-2 cell mineralization, but also has an osteoinductive effect to promote hBM
      MSCs' osteogenic differentiation. Notably, the same PVPA-co-AA polymer at
      different concentrations could lead to differential osteogenic effects on both
      SaOS-2 and hBM-MSCs in vitro. This study furthers knowledge of the PVPA-co-AA
      polymer in osteogenic studies, which is critical when utilizing the PVPA-co-AA
      polymer for the design of novel bioactive polymeric tissue engineering scaffolds
      for future clinical applications. (c) 2017 The Authors Journal of Biomedical
      Materials Research Part A Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res
      Part A: 106A: 168-179, 2018.

PMID- 28884509
TI  - Evaluation of osteogenic inductivity of a novel BMP2-mimicking peptide P28 and
      P28-containing bone composite.
AB  - We developed a novel BMP2-mimicking peptide P28, which possesses two distinct
      special structural elements-seven repetitive aspartic acids and phosphorylated
      serine designed to promote affinity to hydroxyapatite as well as nucleation of
      apatite crystallization and mineralization. In this work, we systematically
      studied the osteogenic inductivity of P28 in vitro and in vivo in comparison with
      BMP2. We confirmed its effects on proliferation, recruitment, and osteogenic
      differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells in vitro. Furthermore, we loaded P28 into a
      biomimetic bone composite nanohydroxyapatite/collagen/poly(l-lactide) (nHAC/PLA)
      and evaluated its ability to promote bone regeneration in vivo using a rabbit
      femoral condyle defect model. The micro-CT reconstruction and quantification
      analysis and the histological analysis indicated that P28/nHAC/PLA bone composite
      was capable of repairing bone defects. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed
      Mater Res Part A: 106A: 210-220, 2018.

PMID- 28884510
TI  - Cryoconcentration of flavonoid extract for enhanced biophotovoltaics and pH
      sensitive thin films.
AB  - Flavonoids are important value added products for dye sensitized solar cells
      biosensors, functional foods, medicinal supplements, nanomaterial synthesis, and
      other applications. Brassica oleracea contains high levels of anthocyanins in
      leaf sap vacuoles, and there are many viable extraction techniques that vary in
      terms of simplicity, environmental impact, cost, and extract
      photochemical/electrochemical properties. The efficiency of value added
      biotechnologies from flavonoid is a function of anthocyanin
      activity/concentration and molecule stability (i.e., ability to retain molecular
      resonance under a wide range of conditions). In this paper, we show that block
      cryoconcentration and partial thawing of anthocyanin from B. oleracea is a green,
      facile, and highly efficient technique that does not require any special
      equipment or protocols for producing enhanced value added products.
      Cryoconcentration increased anthocyanin activity and total phenol content
      approximately 10 times compared with common extraction techniques.
      Cryoconcentrated extract had enhanced electrochemical properties (higher
      oxidation potential), improved chroma, and higher UV absorbance than extract
      produced with other methods for a pH range of 2-12, with minimal effect on the
      diffusion coefficient of the extract. As a proof of concept for energy harvesting
      and sensor applications, dye sensitized solar cells and pH-sensitive thin films
      were prepared and tested. These devices were comparable with other recently
      published biotechnologies in terms of efficacy, but did not require
      expensive/environmentally detrimental extraction or concentration methods. This
      low cost, biorenewable, and simple method can be used for development of a
      variety of value added products. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical
      Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:206-217, 2018.

PMID- 28884511
TI  - Effects of pH, conductivity, host cell protein, and DNA size distribution on DNA
      clearance in anion exchange chromatography media.
AB  - Flowthrough anion exchange chromatography is commonly used as a polishing step in
      downstream processing of monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutic proteins to
      remove process-related impurities and contaminants such as host cell DNA, host
      cell proteins, endotoxin, and viruses. DNA with a wide range of molecular weight
      distributions derived from Chinese Hamster Ovary cells was used to advance the
      understanding of DNA binding behavior in selected anion exchange media using the
      resin (Toyopearl SuperQ-650M) and membranes (Mustang(r) Q and Sartobind(r) Q)
      through DNA spiking studies. The impacts of the process parameters pH (6-8),
      conductivity (2-15 mS/cm), and the potential binding competition between host
      cell proteins and host cell DNA were studied. Studies were conducted at the least
      and most favorable experimental conditions for DNA binding based on the
      anticipated electrostatic interactions between the host cell DNA and the resin
      ligand. The resin showed 50% higher DNA binding capacity compared to the membrane
      media. Spiking host cell proteins in the load material showed no impact on the
      DNA clearance capability of the anion exchange media. DNA size distributions were
      characterized based on a "size exclusion qPCR assay." Results showed preferential
      binding of larger DNA fragments (>409 base pairs). (c) 2017 The Authors
      Biotechnology Progress published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American
      Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:141-149, 2018.

PMID- 28884512
TI  - Bone-healing capacity of conditioned medium derived from three-dimensionally
      cultivated human mesenchymal stem cells and electrical stimulation on collagen
      sponge.
AB  - Continuing from our previous study, we hypothesized that combining electrical
      stimulation (ES) and three-dimensional (3D) culture would be a useful strategy to
      obtain more bioactive factors in conditioned medium (CM) derived from human
      mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). Our aim in this study was to investigate the bone
      healing capacity of CM derived from hMSC after 4 days of culture on a collagen
      sponge-exposed (CM-ES) or unexposed (CM-control; CM-CON) to ES in comparison with
      that of hMSC implantation. A cytokine assay of both CMs revealed the presence of
      cytokines, growth factors, and trophic factors. In vitro evaluation of both CMs
      showed increased cell growth and alkaline phosphatase activity of the hMSC, with
      little difference between CMs. We investigated the bone-healing effect using two
      bone disease models: bone defect and inflammatory bone loss. The calvaria defect
      was implanted with whole CM or 3D-precultured hMSC unexposed to ES. Microcomputed
      tomography analysis after 4 weeks indicated a twofold greater bone volume in the
      CM-CON and CM-ES groups than in the hMSC and vehicle groups, though we found no
      difference between the CM groups. However, CM-ES enhanced the bone healing of
      interleukin-1-induced bone loss to a level comparable with hMSC, whereas CM-CON
      did not. These results show that 3D-cultured CM had a greater or similar capacity
      for bone healing as treatment using hMSC transplantation, and CM-ES was
      especially effective against inflammatory bone loss. Thus, 3D-cultured CM with or
      without ES presents an encouraging alternative to MSC-based bone healing. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 311-320, 2018.

PMID- 28884513
TI  - TGF-beta1 attenuated branching morphogenesis of embryonic murine submandibular
      gland through Smad3 activation.
AB  - Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) plays several crucial regulatory
      roles in multiple physiological and pathological processes. The aim of this work
      was to investigate the role of TGF-beta1 in branching morphogenesis of salivary
      gland. We harvested and cultured submandibular salivary glands (SMGs) from murine
      embryos, which were then treated with exogenous TGF-beta1, or its neutralized
      antibody, Smad3 inhibitor, or Smad3 small interfering RNA (siRNA). Our results
      suggested that TGF-beta1 attenuated branching morphogenesis of embryonic murine
      SMG via Smad3 activation, thus playing a negative regulatory role in salivary
      gland development.

PMID- 28884514
TI  - Estrogenic regulation of skeletal muscle proteome: a study of premenopausal women
      and postmenopausal MZ cotwins discordant for hormonal therapy.
AB  - Female middle age is characterized by a decline in skeletal muscle mass and
      performance, predisposing women to sarcopenia, functional limitations, and
      metabolic dysfunction as they age. Menopausal loss of ovarian function leading to
      low circulating level of 17beta-estradiol has been suggested as a contributing
      factor to aging-related muscle deterioration. However, the underlying molecular
      mechanisms remain largely unknown and thus far androgens have been considered as
      a major anabolic hormone for skeletal muscle. We utilized muscle samples from 24
      pre- and postmenopausal women to establish proteome-wide profiles, associated
      with the difference in age (30-34 years old vs. 54-62 years old), menopausal
      status (premenopausal vs. postmenopausal), and use of hormone replacement therapy
      (HRT; user vs. nonuser). None of the premenopausal women used hormonal medication
      while the postmenopausal women were monozygotic (MZ) cotwin pairs of whom the
      other sister was current HRT user or the other had never used HRT. Label-free
      proteomic analyses resulted in the quantification of 797 muscle proteins of which
      145 proteins were for the first time associated with female aging using
      proteomics. Furthermore, we identified 17beta-estradiol as a potential upstream
      regulator of the observed differences in muscle energy pathways. These findings
      pinpoint the underlying molecular mechanisms of the metabolic dysfunction
      accruing upon menopause, thus having implications for understanding the complex
      functional interactions between female reproductive hormones and health.

PMID- 28884515
TI  - Controlled Hydrothermal Crystallization of Anhydrous Ln2 (OH)4 SO4 (Ln=Eu-Lu, Y)
      as a New Family of Layered Rare Earth Metal Hydroxides.
AB  - Anhydrous hydroxide sulfates Ln2 (OH)4 SO4 (Ln=Eu-Lu, Y) were hydrothermally
      synthesized as a new family of layered rare earth metal hydroxides (LRHs). They
      crystallize in the monoclinic system (space group C2/m) with structures built up
      by alternate stacking of interlayer SO42- and the two-dimensional host layer
      composed of tricapped [LnO9 ] trigonal prisms along the a axis. In distinct
      contrast to the recently discovered hydrated LRHs Ln2 (OH)4 SO4 ?2 H2 O, which
      only exist for Ln=La-Dy, the host layers of the anhydrous phase are linked
      together by sharing edges instead of an O node of the SO42- tetrahedron. Rietveld
      refinement showed that the cell dimension tends to decrease for smaller Ln3+ ,
      while the axis angle (beta=98.78-100.31 degrees ) behaves oppositely. Comparative
      thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis in air revealed that the
      dehydroxylation and desulfurization temperatures become gradually higher and
      lower, respectively, for smaller Ln3+ , and thus the temperature range of Ln2 O2
      SO4 existence is narrowed. The newly discovered Ln2 (OH)4 SO4 , together with
      their hydrated counterparts, allow for the first time green synthesis of Ln2 O2
      SO4 with water as the only exhaust for the full spectrum of lanthanides.
      Calcining Ln2 (OH)4 SO4 in H2 yielded phase-pure Ln2 O2 S for Eu and Gd and a
      mixture of Ln2 O2 S and Ln2 O3 for the other Ln. The effects of the lanthanide
      contraction were clearly revealed, and photoluminescence was found for the
      anhydrous LRHs of Eu and Tb.

PMID- 28884516
TI  - Removing vessel constriction on the embryonic heart results in changes in valve
      gene expression, morphology, and hemodynamics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The formation of healthy heart valves throughout embryonic
      development is dependent on both genetic and epigenetic factors. Hemodynamic
      stimuli are important epigenetic regulators of valvulogenesis, but the resultant
      molecular pathways that control valve development are poorly understood. Here we
      describe how the heart and valves recover from the removal of a partial
      constriction (banding) of the OFT/ventricle junction (OVJ) that temporarily
      alters blood flow velocity through the embryonic chicken heart (HH stage 16/17).
      Recovery is described in terms of 24- and 48-hr gene expression, morphology, and
      OVJ hemodynamics. RESULTS: Collectively, these studies show that after 24 hr of
      recovery, important epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) genes TGFbetaRIII
      and Cadherin 11 (CDH11) transcript levels normalize return to control levels, in
      contrast to Periostin and TGFbeta,3 which remain altered. In addition, after 48
      hr of recovery, TGFbeta3 and CDH11 transcript levels remain normalized, whereas
      TGFbetaRIII and Periostin are down-regulated. Analyses of OFT cushion volumes in
      the hearts show significant changes, as does the ratio of cushion to cell volume
      at 24 hr post band removal (PBR). Morphologically, the hearts show visible
      alteration following band removal when compared to their control age-matched
      counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Although some aspects of the genetic/cellular profiles
      affected by altered hemodynamics seem to be reversed, not all gene expression and
      cardiac growth normalize following 48 hr of band removal. Developmental Dynamics
      247:531-541, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28884517
TI  - Biocompatibility assessment of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in mice
      fetoplacental unit.
AB  - As the applications of titanium dioxide nanomaterials (nTiO2 ) are growing with
      an ever-increasing speed, the hazardous risks of this material have become a
      major concern. Several recent studies have reported that nTiO2 can cross the
      placental barrier in pregnant mice and cause neurotoxicity in their offspring.
      However, the influence of these nanoparticles on the fetoplacental unit during
      the pregnancy is yet to be studied. The present study reports on the effects of
      nTiO2 on the anatomical structure of fetal brain and liver in a pregnant mice
      model. Moreover, changes in the size and weight of the fetus and placenta are
      investigated as markers of fetal growth. Lastly, the toxicity of nTiO2 in primary
      brain and liver is quantified. Animals treated with nTiO2 showed a disrupted
      anatomical structure of the fetal brain and liver. Furthermore, the fetus and
      placental unit in the mice treated with these nanoparticles were smaller compared
      to untreated controls. Toxicity analyses revealed that nTiO2 was toxic to the
      brain and liver cells and the mechanism of cell death was mostly necrosis. (c)
      2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 580-589, 2018.

PMID- 28884518
TI  - Pectoral nerves and serratus plane block for persistent post surgical pain after
      video-assisted thoracic surgery.

PMID- 28884519
TI  - Gelatin methacrylate scaffold for bone tissue engineering: The influence of
      polymer concentration.
AB  - Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) is an inexpensive, photocrosslinkable, cell
      responsive hydrogel which has drawn attention for a wide range of tissue
      engineering applications. The potential of GelMA scaffolds was demonstrated to be
      tunable for different tissue engineering (TE) applications through modifying the
      polymer concentration, methacrylation degree, or UV light intensity. Despite the
      promising results of GelMA hydrogels in tissue engineering, the influence of
      polymer concentration for bone tissue engineering (BTE) scaffolds was not
      established yet. Thus, in this study, we have demonstrated the effect of polymer
      concentration in GelMA scaffolds on osteogenic differentiation. We prepared GelMA
      scaffolds with 5 and 10% polymer concentrations and characterized the scaffolds
      in terms of porosity, pore size, swelling characteristics, and mechanical
      properties. Subsequent to the scaffolds characterization, the scaffolds were
      seeded with bone marrow derived rat mesenchymal stem cells and cultured in
      osteogenic media to evaluate the possible osteogenic differentiation effect
      exerted by the polymer concentration. After 7, 14, 21, and 28 days, DNA content,
      calcium deposition, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of scaffolds were
      evaluated quantitatively by colorimetric bioassays. Furthermore, the distribution
      of the calcium deposition within the scaffolds was attained qualitatively and
      quantitatively by microcomputer tomography (uCT). Our data suggest that GelMA
      hydrogels prepared with 5% polymer concentration has promoted homogeneous
      extracellular matrix calcification and it is a great candidate for BTE
      applications. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A:
      201-209, 2018.

PMID- 28884520
TI  - Relative pressure estimation from velocity measurements in blood flows: State-of
      the-art and new approaches.
AB  - The relative pressure difference across stenotic blood vessels serves as an
      important clinical index for the diagnosis of many cardiovascular diseases. While
      the clinical gold standard for relative pressure difference measurements is
      invasive catheterization, Phase-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging has emerged
      as a promising tool for enabling a noninvasive quantification, by linking highly
      spatially resolved velocity measurements with relative pressures via the
      incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In this work, we provide a review and
      analysis of current methods for relative pressure estimation and propose 3
      additional techniques. Methods are compared using synthetic data from numerical
      examples, and sensitivity to subsampling and noise was explored. Through our
      analysis, we verify that the newly proposed approaches are more robust with
      respect to spatial subsampling and less sensitive to noise and therefore provide
      improved means for estimating relative pressure differences noninvasively.

PMID- 28884521
TI  - A Single-Framework Synthetic Antibody Library Containing a Combination of
      Canonical and Variable Complementarity-Determining Regions.
AB  - Synthetic antibody libraries have been used to generate antibodies with favorable
      biophysical and pharmacological properties. Here, we describe the design,
      construction, and validation of a phage-displayed antigen-binding fragment (Fab)
      library built on a modified trastuzumab framework with four fixed and two
      diversified complementarity-determining regions (CDRs). CDRs L1, L2, H1, and H2
      were fixed to preserve the most commonly observed "canonical" CDR conformation
      preferred by the modified trastuzumab Fab framework. The library diversity was
      engineered within CDRs L3 and H3 by use of custom-designed trinucleotide
      phosphoramidite mixes and biased towards human antibody CDR sequences. The
      library contained ~7.6 billion unique Fabs, and >95 % of the library correctly
      encoded both diversified CDR sequences. We used this library to conduct
      selections against the human epidermal growth factor receptor-3 extracellular
      domain (HER3-ECD) and compared the CDR diversity of the naive library and the
      anti-HER3 selection pool by use of next-generation sequencing. The most commonly
      observed CDR combination isolated, named Her3-3, was overexpressed and purified
      in Fab and immunoglobulin G (IgG) formats. Fab HER3-3 bound to HER3-ECD with a KD
      value of 2.14 nm and recognized cell-surface HER3. Although HER3-3 IgG bound to
      cell-surface HER3, it did not inhibit the proliferation of HER3-positive cells.
      Near-infrared imaging showed that Fab HER3-3 selectively accumulated in a murine
      HER3-postive xenograft, thus providing a lead for the development of HER3 imaging
      probes.

PMID- 28884522
TI  - Development of a high-throughput microscale cell disruption platform for Pichia
      pastoris in rapid bioprocess design.
AB  - The time and cost benefits of miniaturized fermentation platforms can only be
      gained by employing complementary techniques facilitating high-throughput at
      small sample volumes. Microbial cell disruption is a major bottleneck in
      experimental throughput and is often restricted to large processing volumes.
      Moreover, for rigid yeast species, such as Pichia pastoris, no effective high
      throughput disruption methods exist. The development of an automated,
      miniaturized, high-throughput, noncontact, scalable platform based on adaptive
      focused acoustics (AFA) to disrupt P. pastoris and recover intracellular
      heterologous protein is described. Augmented modes of AFA were established by
      investigating vessel designs and a novel enzymatic pretreatment step. Three
      different modes of AFA were studied and compared to the performance high-pressure
      homogenization. For each of these modes of cell disruption, response models were
      developed to account for five different performance criteria. Using multiple
      responses not only demonstrated that different operating parameters are required
      for different response optima, with highest product purity requiring suboptimal
      values for other criteria, but also allowed for AFA-based methods to mimic large
      scale homogenization processes. These results demonstrate that AFA-mediated cell
      disruption can be used for a wide range of applications including buffer
      development, strain selection, fermentation process development, and whole
      bioprocess integration. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
      Biotechnol. Prog., 34:130-140, 2018.

PMID- 28884523
TI  - Response of umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells to varying titanium
      topographical signals.
AB  - A wide variety of titanium implant modifications have been developed to improve
      tissue- or cell-material interactions including bone bonding, implant failure,
      and contact osteogenesis. Osteogenesis can be stimulated by mechanobiological
      signals such as topography though translation of in vivo reactions to in vitro
      bioactivity and stem cell culture data, and vice versa, is challenging. We
      hypothesized that a systematic in vitro approach comparing clinically well
      accepted implant surface topographical modifications could shed light on
      potential cell biological mechanisms provoked by submicron-, micron- or
      macrostructured surfaces. In this study, we investigated the response of
      umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs) to anodized, particle
      blasted, and plasma sprayed highly porous Plasmapore surfaces, which is known to
      promote bony ingrowth in vivo. After 21 days, UC-MSCs undergo a morphological
      shift from a 2D to 3D behavior on micro- or macrostructures visualized by actin
      vinculin fluorescence and are able to fill the porous surfaces completely. Cell
      viability after 7 days was significantly decreased on the micro- and
      macrostructured surfaces particle blasted and Plasmapore, compared to polished
      controls. The analysis of osteogenic differentiation under noninduced conditions
      revealed a significantly elevated ALP activity on Plasmapore, indicating a
      beneficial effect of this macrostructured surface toward osteogenic
      differentiation supported by late elevated gene expression of osteopontin
      evaluated by qPCR. Mineralization as well as in vitro bioactivity was pronounced
      on anodized surfaces. Our findings point to synergistic implant modification
      strategies allowing early contact osteogenesis and bone ingrowth for future
      implant designs. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A:
      106A: 180-191, 2018.

PMID- 28884525
TI  - [Research strategies in standard decoction of medicinal slices].
AB  - This paper discusses the research situation of the standard decoction of
      medicinal slices at home and abroad. Combined with the experimental data, the
      author proposes that the standard decoction of medicinal slices is made of single
      herb using standard process which should be guided by the theory of traditional
      Chinese medicine, based on clinical practice and referred to modern extraction
      method with a standard process. And the author also proposes the principles of
      establishing the specification of process parameters and quality standards and
      established the basis of drug efficacy material and biological reference. As a
      standard material and standard system, the standard decoction of medicinal slices
      can provide standards for clinical medication, standardize the use of the new
      type of medicinal slices especially for dispensing granules, which were widely
      used in clinical. It can ensure the accuracy of drugs and consistency of dose,
      and to solve current supervision difficulties. Moreover the study of standard
      decoction of medicinal slices will provide the research on dispensing granules,
      traditional Chinese medicine prescription standard decoction and couplet
      medicines standard decoction a useful reference.

PMID- 28884524
TI  - HIV transmission and retention in care among HIV-exposed children enrolled in
      Malawi's prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Malawi, HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women are
      offered lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) regardless of CD4 count or clinical
      stage (Option B+). Their HIV-exposed children are enrolled in the national
      prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme, but many are lost
      to follow-up. We estimated the cumulative incidence of vertical HIV transmission,
      taking loss to follow-up into account. METHODS: We abstracted data from HIV
      exposed children enrolled into care between September 2011 and June 2014 from
      patient records at 21 health facilities in central and southern Malawi. We used
      competing risk models to estimate the probability of loss to follow-up, death,
      ART initiation and discharge, and used pooled logistic regression and inverse
      probability of censoring weighting to estimate the vertical HIV transmission
      risk. RESULTS: A total of 11,285 children were included; 9285 (82%) were born to
      women who initiated ART during pregnancy. At age 30 months, an estimated 57.9%
      (95% CI 56.6-59.2) of children were lost to follow-up, 0.8% (0.6-1.0) had died,
      2.6% (2.3-3.0) initiated ART, 36.5% (35.2-37.9) were discharged HIV-negative and
      2.2% (1.5-2.8) continued follow-up. We estimated that 5.3% (95% CI 4.7-5.9) of
      the children who enrolled were HIV-infected by the age of 30 months, but only
      about half of these children (2.6%; 95% CI 2.3-2.9) were diagnosed. CONCLUSIONS:
      Confirmed mother-to-child transmission rates were low, but due to poor retention
      only about half of HIV-infected children were diagnosed. Tracing of children lost
      to follow-up and HIV testing in outpatient clinics should be scaled up to ensure
      that all HIV-positive children have access to early ART.

PMID- 28884526
TI  - [Study on balance of process of alcohol precipitation of ganmaoling granules].
AB  - Ganmaoling granule is the first brand of domestic cold medicine sales, but its
      preparation method and process control parameters are relatively rough. Therefore
      it is urgent to upgrade the technologies of large varieties of traditional
      Chinese medicine (TCM). This paper focused on the balance between the remove of
      impurity and the retention of linarin during the process of alcohol precipitation
      of Ganmaoling granules. The effects of four factors on the process were
      investigated via single factor experiments. The results showed that the
      precipitating period, the initial ethanol concentration and the final ethanol
      concentration had a great effect on retention of linarin while the initial
      density of the extract has not. Similarly, the initial ethanol concentration, the
      final ethanol concentration and the initial extract density have a great effect
      on the yield of dry extract while the time of alcohol precipitation has not. The
      parameters of alcohol precipitation of Ganmaoling granules were optimized as 16 h
      of precipitating period, 95% ethanol as the initial reagent, 70% of the final
      ethanol concentration, and 1.10 of the initial extract density.

PMID- 28884527
TI  - [Modeling of thermal degradation of linarin during concentration process].
AB  - Ganmaoling granule, with annual sale of over one billion yuan, is the first brand
      of domestic cold medicine sales. As the only traditonal Chinese medicine(TCM)
      quality control indicator of Ganmaoling granule, linarin is thermally unstable.
      Its content will be changed significantly during the production process, which
      would then affect the quality of the finished product. In this paper, the law of
      degradation of linarin was investigated. The experimental results showed that
      degradation reaction of linarin belongs to the first reaction characteristics.
      The effective methods to reduce the loss of linarin would be realized fortunately
      by strictly controlling the heating temperature or shortening the heating time.

PMID- 28884528
TI  - [On-line monitoring of extraction of coldrine by near-infrared spectrum].
AB  - Extraction of the four Chinese herbals is the beginning step of the production
      process of coldrine granules and influences on drug quality significantly. In
      this paper, the on-line near infrared spectrum was collected during the
      extraction process of coldrine and then pre-processed by the first derivative.
      Partial least square regression (PLSR) model was developed for the quantity
      indicators of linarin, chlorogenic acid and solid content, according to results
      of both HPLC and weight-loss as reference methods. The correlation coefficient,
      root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV), root mean square error of
      calibration (RMSEC) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were used to
      optimize model parameters and confirm their performance. Correlation coefficients
      of three quality control indicator models reached more than 0.95.Values of RMSEC
      of linarin, chloroenic acid and solid content were 0.010 4, 0.009 34 and 0.055 5,
      respectively. And the values of RMSEP were 0.009 47, 0.142 and 0.008 42,
      respectively. The models, built on-line analyze data, revealed that the
      correlation coefficients of predicted values and measured values were greater
      than 0.97 and values of RSEP of linarin, chloroenic acid and solid content were
      8.14%, 8.17% and 9.86%, respectively. The results showed that the NIR method
      could achieve the on-line detection and real-time monitoring of multi-indexes
      during the extraction process of coldrine. The technology could be used for drug
      quality control in the process of practical production, reducing the batch
      differences and ensuring pharmaceutical quality stability. In addition, it could
      provide real-time production data for subsequent product quality backtracking.

PMID- 28884529
TI  - [Study on main pharmacodynamics and underlying mechanisms of 999 Ganmaoling].
AB  - To observe synergistic effects of 999 Ganmaoling (GML) and its Chinese/Western
      materia medica (CMM and WMM) on pharmacodynamic action and to study underlying
      mechanisms, their anti-inflammatory, antipyretic effects were compared by
      assaying the increased capillary permeability induced by glacial acetic acid in
      mice, ear swelling induced by Xylene in mice, non-specific pleurisy induced by
      carrageenan in rats, and yeast induced fever in rats. Crystal violet (CV) and
      microbial activity (XTT) assay were used to evaluate the inhibition of GML and
      its CMM and WMM on KPN biofilm formation, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
      was applied for observing KPN biofilm morphology changes. The results showed that
      compared with control group, GML could reduce exudation amount of Evans-Blue and
      the degree of Ear swelling significantly, and CMM and WMM have no significant
      effects. The concentration of TNF-alpha and IL-1beta of rat pleural effusion in
      GML, CMM and WMM group decreased significantly. The concentration of TNF-alpha,
      IL-1beta and IL-8 in GML group, TNF-alpha, IL-8 in WMM group and IL-8 in CMM in
      rats serum decreased significantly. The body temperature in rats decreased
      significantly in GML and WMM group after 4-8 h of administration. CMM group
      showed no significant difference in rat body temperature compare with control.
      Compared with control group, GML (55-13.75 g*L-1) could inhibit KPN biofilm
      formation and reduce number of viable cells in the KPN biofilm. CMM (45-22.5 g*L
      1) and WMM (10 g*L-1) could also inhibit KPN biofilm formation and reduce number
      of viable cells (P<0.01). Result of SEM also showed that GML (55 g*L-1) and its
      CMM (45 g*L-1) and WMM (10 g*L-1) could interfere the bacterial arrangement of
      KPN biofilm and extracellular matrix. GML and its CMM & WMM could inhibit the
      formation of KPN biofilm, CMM & WMM in GML showed synergism and complementation
      in inhibit KPN biofilm. Results showed that GML had obvious anti-inflammatory and
      antipyretic effects and could destruct KPN mature biofilm. WMM and CMM showed
      obvious synergistic effect against inflammation and inhibition of KPN biofilm
      formation and reduction of number of viable cells but no same effects against
      fever.

PMID- 28884530
TI  - [Study on toxicity of 999 Ganmaoling grain and influence of diet on hepatic
      toxicity].
AB  - This paper was aimed to compare the acute toxicity of 999 Ganmaoling grain and
      its different ingredients, and investigate the influence of routine diet on the
      hepatic toxicity induced by Ganmaoling in mice, so as to provide experimental
      basis for the clinical safety evaluation. Mice were given a single dose of
      Ganmaoling grain or its different ingredients respectively by gavage, and then
      observed for 14 days. LD50 values of Ganmaoling grain or its chemical ingredient
      and the maximal tolerated dose of its herb ingredient were determined. Mice were
      divided into starvation and diet group, a single dose of Ganmaoling grain was
      administered by gavage. LD50 values were estimated after 14 day observation. Mice
      were divided into starvation and diet group. At the same time,control group was
      set up for each. A single dose of Ganmaoling grain was given. Serum biochemical
      indexes were detected, liver weight index was calculated and liver tissue
      morphological change was observed after 6 h. LD50 values were 4.42, 0.64 g*kg-1
      for Ganmaoling grain group and chemical ingredient group, respectively. The
      maximal tolerated dose of the herb ingredient group was close to 24.24 g*kg-1.
      The toxic symptom was basically similar in the Ganmaoling grain and the chemical
      ingredient group. The body weight and food intake were decreased to a certain
      extent in both groups. There were pathological changes of liver and heart tissue
      in some of the surviving animals. The animals in the Ganmaoling grain group
      exhibited a lighter toxicity and recovered faster than that in the chemical
      ingredient group. LD50 values of Ganmaoling grain were 2.56, 6.93 g*kg-1 for
      starvation and diet group respectively. TD50 values were 1.29, 6.31 g*kg-1 for
      starvation and diet group respectively. The toxicity of 999 Ganmaoling was less,
      which may be related to the reduction of toxicity after the combination of herb
      and chemical ingredients. Compared with starvation group, the values of LD50 and
      TD50 of diet group was significantly increased, and toxicity was decreased. From
      the point of view of safety, it is safer to use Ganmaoling in the absence of
      hunger or after meal. The above tests provide experimental basis for the clinical
      safety use of Ganmaoling.

PMID- 28884531
TI  - [Studies on chemical constituents of Valeriana plants and their biological
      activities].
AB  - The recent progresses on chemical components and pharmacological activities of
      the genus Valerianawere summarized.Besides-essential oil, the chemical
      composition of Valerianais mainly focused on
      monoterpenoids,sesquiterpenoids,lignans, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc. Iridoids are
      the main chemical components ofmonoterpenoids. There are two types ofiridoidson
      the basis of the cyclopentane open or not. The Valerianahas been drawmuch
      attention for their significant sedation,spasmolysis,antidepression,antitumor,
      against adenosine A1 receptors and cytotoxicityactivity,and had certain function
      for cardiovascular disease treatment. Given to the fact of the lack of systematic
      review and summary of studies on the Valeriana, we summarized and analyze the
      study literatures on the pharmacological activity of Valerianain recent years,
      and providedsome basisfor further study.

PMID- 28884532
TI  - [Screening of different AFLP fragments between near-isogenic lines of male
      sterile and fertile Salvia miltiorrhiza and their comparison analysis].
AB  - There is distinctive advantage of using male sterile lines to breed new cultivar
      and produce hybrids, when compared with general breeding method on yield and
      quality. In our previous work, near-isogenic lines (NILs) of male sterile and
      fertile Salvia miltiorrhiza have been obtained through continuous hybridization
      in many years. In this investigation, 378 primer combination were screened by
      using AFLP and BSA technique, in which 26 markers amplified from seven primers
      were found to tightly link to male sterile gene. Based on these markers, two
      linkage genetic maps were constructed. A 2 027,2 028 bp fragment was amplifed
      from NILs of fertile and sterile S. miltiorrhiza, respectively, using genome
      walking technique and previous E11/M4-208 marker as template. Four base mutations
      were found in intron when comparing both fragments. Among all different markers
      between NILs of male sterile and fertile S. miltiorrhiza, four was found to have
      100% identities to chromosome 1, 3 and 5 of Arabidopsis, namely, E01/M09-418,
      E05/M13-308, E05/M04-750 and E01/M01-204. The E01/M09-418 marker was very close
      to male sterile gene of S. miltiorrhiza with distance of 2.1 cM, which also had
      100% identities to male sterile gene MS2 in Arabidopsis. Both were distributed in
      chromosome 3 of Arabidopsis. The 2 028 bp fragment also had 100% identities to
      MS2 gene. Another E05/M04-750 marker that had 100% identities to chromosome 5 of
      Arabidopsis was found to have high identities to POP085-M05 gene of poplars and
      low affinity calcium antiporter CAX2 of Arabidopsis with very low E-value. The
      constructed genetic map and differential fragments with potential functions found
      in this study provide a solid foundation to lock male sterile genes in S.
      miltiorrhiza genome and to discover their functions.

PMID- 28884533
TI  - [Transcriptome-based gene mining and bioinformatics analysis of p-hydroxybenzoate
      geranyltransferase genes in Arnebia euchroma].
AB  - The p-hydroxybenzoate geranyltransferases(PGT) play an important role in the
      biosynthesis pathways of shikonin derivatives. Six PGTs were obtained from
      transcriptome datebase of Arnebia euchroma by using bioinformatics methods and
      the proteins'physiochemical properties they encoded were predicted. The result of
      protein domain prediction showed all of the six protein sequences contained the
      conserved domain of Ubia prenyltransferase family and possessed the motif
      NDxxDxxxD for prenyldiphosphate binding and a GX(K/Y)STAL sequence for putative
      aromatic ring binding. The phylogenetic tree showed that PGT and p
      hydroxybenzoate polyprenyltransferase(PPT) belonged to two different clades. The
      results of gene expression analyses showed that the expression levels in the red
      shikonin-proficient line and the overground part of A. euchroma that could
      produce shikonin derivatives was much higher than the white shikonin-deficient
      line and the underground part, which suggested a positive correlation between the
      expression levels of PGT genes and shikonin production. This study aims to lay a
      foudation for further understanding of the function and enzymatic properties of
      PGT and provide a basis for the biosynthesis pathways and metabolic regulation of
      shikonin derivatives.

PMID- 28884534
TI  - [Study on quality evaluation of sequence and SSR information in transcriptome of
      Astragalus membranacus].
AB  - In this study, 454/Roche GS FLX sequencing technology was used to obtain the data
      of the Astragalus membranaceus. Four hundred and fifty-four Sequencing System
      Software was applied to carry out the transcription of the group from scratch.
      Using MISA tools, 9 893 unigenes were selected for the sequence of the genome of
      A. membranaceus, and the information of SSR locus was analyzed. According to the
      result, the average length of reads was 413 bp, about 86% of the reads was
      involved in the splicing, the length of the N50 was 1 205 bp, the number of
      unigenes was measured by the whole transcript. 1 729 SSR loci in the A.
      membranaceus transcriptome were searched, the occurrence frequency of SSR was
      9.24%, the frequency of SSR in the whole transcriptome was 13.42%, the average
      length of SSR was 7.97 kb. One hundred and twenty-seven kinds of core repeat
      sequences were found, the dominant type was TG/AC type of dinucleotide, it
      appeared to account for 4.25% of the total SSR locus. The results of the sequence
      of the transcription of the A. membranaceus transcriptome revealed the overall
      expression, and a large number of unigenessequence was obtained, and the SSR
      locus in the genome of the A. membranaceus is high, and the type is diverse, and
      the polymorphism of the gene is high.

PMID- 28884535
TI  - [Study of deltamethrin detection method and its residual dynamics in Loincerae
      Japonicae Flos].
AB  - This paper reports the residual dynamics of deltamethrin and detection method in
      Loincerae Japonicae Flos to provide scientific basis for safe and appropriate use
      of deltamethrin. A field experiment was conducted in Fengqiu, Henan Province
      China. The field plots were sprayed with deltamethrin at the recommended dose and
      a high dose, respectively, and a control was set up, totally being 3 treatments
      with 3 replications. The flowers were picked at 2 hours, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11,
      13 and 15 days after pesticide application and then dried. The residue of
      deltamethrin was determined by gas chromatography method with electron capture
      detector for the above samples. Results showed that recoveries of deltamethrin
      ranged from 76.4% to 86.9%,and the relative standard deviation was below
      11%,Linearity was observed over a range of 5-500 MUg*L -1 with correlation
      coefficient was 0. 999 2. The established method meets the requirements of
      pesticide residue analytical methods. The degradation of deltamethrin followed
      the first order dynamics. The residue dynamic equation of the high dose and
      recommended dose deltamethrin were C=5.992 2e-0.338t and C=1.536 9e-0.31t
      respectively, and the half-life of deltamethrin in Loincerae Japonicae Flos was
      2.09-2.24 days, which indicates that deltamethrin is an easily degradable
      pesticide. It is concluded that deltamethrin should be used in aphids occurring
      period and the safety interval was more than 7 days to ensure the safety of
      Loincerae Japonicae Flos consuming.

PMID- 28884536
TI  - [Study on seed quality test and quality standard of Lonicera macranthoides].
AB  - Referring to the rules for agricultural seed testing (GB/T 3543-1995) issued by
      China, the test of sampling, purity, thousand seed weight, moisture, viability,
      relative conductivity and germination rate had been studied for seed quality test
      methods of Lonicera macranthoides. The seed quality from 38 different collection
      areas was measured to establish quality classification standard by K-means
      clustering. The results showed that at least 7.5 g seeds should be sampled, and
      passed 20-mesh sieve for purity analysis.The 500-seed method used to measure
      thousand seed weight. The moisture was determined by crushed seeds dried in high
      temperature (130+/-2) C for 3 h.The viability determined by 25 C 0.1% TTC stained
      5h in dark. 1.0 g seeds soaked in 50 ml ultra pure water in 25 C for 12 hours to
      determine the relative conductivity. The seed by 4 Cstratification for 80 days
      were cultured on paper at 15 C. Quality of the seeds from different areas was
      divided into three grades. The primary seed quality classification standard was
      established.The I grade and II grade were recommend use in production.

PMID- 28884538
TI  - [Introduction trial of medicine mulberry (Morus nigra) in Chongqing].
AB  - Medicine mulberry (Morus nigra) mainly distributed in southern areas of Xinjiang
      Uighur Autonomous Region and introduced by grafting, is a unique Morus species,
      whose plant number is little. As a traditional herbal medicine, medicine mulberry
      with high levels of secondary metabolites has important values of scientific
      research and utilization. In order to solve the introduction problems for
      medicine mulberry, we have established its rapid propagation system through
      tissue culture since 2011. The shoots of medicine mulberry through tissue culture
      were transplanted into the field to carry out an introduction experiment. Here,
      we firstly reported that the growth status and pest and disease occurrence of
      medicine mulberry in the field of Chongqing and found that the medicine mulberry
      through tissue culture had well-developed root system, it showed better growth
      than medicine mulberry by grafting technique, and Pseudodendrothrips moil was a
      major pest of medicine mulberry. The introduction technique for medicine mulberry
      established successfully in this study could lay the foundation for large-scale
      cultivation and high efficiency utilization of medicine mulberry.

PMID- 28884537
TI  - [Morphological and cytohistological observations of seed germination and
      protocorm development of Bletilla striata].
AB  - In order to investigate the mechanism of growth for Bletilla striata, which could
      be applied for rapid propagation, morphological and cytohistological of seed
      germination and protocorm development in vitro culture were observed using
      paraffin section techniques. In this study, we have found that the development of
      B. striata goes through four stages: embryo, protocorm, rhizome and pseudobulb.
      The end away from embryo suspensor is able to differentiate green buds after the
      seed of B. striata swelling, growing point. At the same time, the other end of
      embryo grows many white villous roots, with the green bud differentiating into
      cotyledon, the embryo breaking through seed coat and being protocorm. The shoot
      apical meristem of protocorm consists of tunica, corpus and leaf primordium,
      whose developmental flowing tunica-corpus theory. After more vascular bundle
      appeared from the leaf primordium, B. striata grows into the stage of rhizome.
      While in the stage of rhizome, the root primordium of tissue culture seedlings
      are differentia initially that derived from rhizome vascular bundle, belonging to
      internal origin. Subsequently, the pseudobulb forms by the inner meristem growing
      into mature parenchymatous tissue and the rhizome enlargement gradually.

PMID- 28884539
TI  - [Lignans from cultivated Gynura nepalensis].
AB  - Taking application of some isolation and purification technologies, including
      solvent extraction, rude solvent isolation, column chromatographies on silica gel
      and Sephadex LH-20 , and preparative HPLC , 4 compounds were obtained from Gynura
      nepalensis cultivated in a suburban area of Beijing. Their structures were
      identified by spectroscopic methods in conjunction with comparison of the NMR
      data with literature values as 7S,8R-9'-O-ethyl-dehydrodiconiferyl-9-acetate (1),
      9'-O-ethyl-dehydrodiconiferyl alcohol (2), dehydrodiconiferyl-9,9'-diacetate(3),
      and (+)-medioresinol(4), respectively. 1 is a new 2,3-dihydrobenzofuran-8,3'
      neolignane type compound, and 2-4 were isolated from G.nepalensis for the first
      time. The complete assignment of the 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopic data of the
      four compounds recorded in DMSO-d6 was achieved.

PMID- 28884540
TI  - [Rapid analysis of compounds in leaves of Chinese seabuckthorn and Tibetan
      seabuckthorn by UPLC/Q-TOF-MS].
AB  - The study is aimed to analyze the chemical components in leaves of Chinese
      seabuckthorn and Tibetan seabuckthorn qualitatively and compare the differences
      between them by using ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with
      quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS).The chromatographic
      separation of the components was achieved ona Waters ACQUITY UPLC-T3 column (2.1
      mm*100 mm, 1.7 MUm)using gradient mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile (A) and
      aqueous solution (B). The identification of the separated compounds was performed
      on atandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)by fragmentation patterns under the negative
      electrospray ionization. The parameters of ion source were as follows:capillary
      voltage, 2 000 V; Cone voltage, 40 V. The ion source temperature, 100 C;
      collision gas argon; sheath gas flow rate, 900 L*h-1; sheath gas temperature, 450
      C. Through the analysis of mass spectrometry data and with the help of literature
      data, a total of 35 compounds were detected and most of them were flavonoids.
      Among these compounds, 29 were common components for the two species, two
      components were unique to Chinese seabuckthorn and 4 were characteristic
      components of Tibetan seabuckthorn. The results indicated that the compositions
      of the two kinds of seabuckthorn leaves were quite similar. It is also
      demonstrated that UPLC/Q-TOF-MS method could be applied to rapidly and
      effectively analyze and speculate the compounds in leaves of Chinese seabuckthorn
      and Tibetan seabuckthorn.

PMID- 28884541
TI  - [Determination of five effective components in medicinal material of Tripterygium
      by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS].
AB  - This paper is aimed to develop a method for the determination of five effective
      components in medicinal material of Tripterygium using ultra performance liquid
      chromalography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC
      ESI-MS/MS), which then was used to study their contents in raw materials from
      different areas and different sources.The separation was performed on a Waters
      ACQUITY UPLC-CSH-C18S column(2.1 mm*100 mm,1.7 MUm), usingacetonitrile-0.2%
      ammonium form ateaqueous solutionas mobile phase. The target components were
      detected in multiple-reaction monitoring(MRM) mode by mass spectrometry with
      electrospray ionization (ESI) source operated in positive ionization mode. The
      quantitative results showed that good linearity was achieved in their respective
      linear ranges and fine determination coefficient (r > 0.997 8),and the overall
      recoveries ranged from 96.72%-103.2% with the RSD ranging from 1.0%-2.4%.The
      method is sensitive and accurate, and suitable for the effective components
      quantification in medicinal material of Tripterygium; contents of five effective
      components from different sources vary significantly, so the quality and safety
      of medicinal material of Tripterygium needs to be improved. It is very important
      to control the quality with multi-index for clinic safety.

PMID- 28884542
TI  - [Simultaneous determination of thirteen components in Polygoni Multifori Caulis
      by UPLC-MS/MS].
AB  - A comprehensive analytical method based on UPLC-MS/MS was developed for the
      simultaneous determination of thirteen components including three stilbenes
      (stilbeneglucoside, polydatin, resveratrol), four anthraquinones (emodin,
      physcion, emodin-8-beta-D-glucopyranoside, aloe-emodin), five flavonoids
      (epicatechin, rutin, hyperoside, astragalin,quercetin) and one phenolic acid
      (gallic acid) in Polygoni Multifori Caulis.The separation was carried out on a
      Waters BEH C18 column(2.1 mm*100 mm,1.7 MUm)with gradient elution of acetonitrile
      water (0.1% acetic acid) at a flow rate of 0.25 mL*min-1, and column temperature
      was 35 C. The target compounds were analyzed by multiple reaction monitoring
      (MRM) mode. TOPSIS analysis ware performed to evaluate the samples from different
      areas and commercial herbs according to the contents of thirteen components. The
      correlation coefficients of all the calibration curves were higher than 0.991 5.
      The average recoveries ranged from 95.24% to 102.3%, and the relative standard
      deviations were less than 5%. The result of TOPSIS analysis showed that the
      comprehensive quality of Polygoni Multifori Caulis sample from Guangzhou was
      better. The developed method with good repeatability and accuracy was suitable
      for the simultaneous determination of multiple functional substances, which
      provided a new basis for the comprehensive assessment and overall control of the
      quality of Polygoni Multifori Caulis.

PMID- 28884543
TI  - [Simultaneous determination of four coumaroylspermidine constituents in Carthamus
      tinctorius by HPLC-DAD].
AB  - The HPLC-DAD method was established to simultaneously determine the contents of
      four coumaroylspermidine[ N1, N5, N10-(Z)-tri-p-coumaroylspermidine (1), N1, N5
      (Z)-N10-(E)-tri-p-coumaroylspermidine (2), N1(E)-N5-(Z)-N10-(E)-tri-p
      coumaroylspermidine (3), and N1, N5, N10-(E)-tri-p-coumaroyl-spermidine (4) ] in
      Carthamus tinctorius. The method was performed on an Eclipse XDB-C18 column (4.6
      mm*250 mm, 5 MUm) eluted with 47% methanol in an isocratic program. The flow rate
      was 1 mL*min-1; the injection volume was 10 MUL, and the column temperature was
      30 C. The detective wavelength was 270, 280, 290, and 300 nm, respectively. Four
      coumaroylspermidine constituents showed a good linearity in the range of 0.002 1
      0.041 6 (r=0.999 5), 0.002 6-0.051 2 (r=0.999 7), 0.002 7-0.054 0 (r=0.999 8) g*L
      1, and 0.005 0-0.100 4 (r=0.999 8) g*L-1, respectively. The average recoveries of
      these four coumaroylspermidine constituents were in the range of 98.61%-100.9%
      (RSD 2.3%-3.0%). In conclusion, the method is simple, rapid, and sensitive, which
      could be used as a quantitative determination method for the four
      coumaroylspermidine components in C.tinctorius.

PMID- 28884544
TI  - [Development of FTIR fingerprint for identification of armand clematis stem
      (Chuanmutong) and related herbs].
AB  - Armand clematis stem (Clematidis Armandii Caulis, Chuanmutong) is a widely used
      Chinese herb to disinhibit urine and relieve stranguria. It is difficult to be
      identified owing to its various macroscopic feature and unknown characteristic
      compounds. Thus, total of 24 Chuanmutong samples and 7 related herbs including
      four manshurian aristolochia stem (Aristolochiae Manshuriensis Caulis,
      Guanmutong) and three akebia stem (Akebiae Caulis, Mutong) samples were collected
      and analyzed in the range of 4 000 - 400 cm-1 by Fourier Transform Infrared
      (FTIR) and two-dimensional infrared correlation spectroscopy (2D-FTIR)
      techniques. The FTIR spectra of 24 Chuanmutong samples are consistent in the
      spectrum profiles, position and intensity of characteristic peaks. 20 of the 24
      Chuanmutong samples were randomly selected as calibration samples to calculate
      and simulate mean spectrum. This mean spectrum is named as FTIR fingerprint of
      Chuanmutong with characteristic peaks at 3 412, 2 932, 1 739, 1 639, 1 509, 1
      456, 1 426, 1 376, 1 332, 1 261, 1 159, 1 035, 897 ,609 cm-1. Meanwhile, the
      limited level (Mean-3sigma=0.992 6) to identify true or false Chuanmutong by
      correlation coefficient of FTIR spectra was calculated based on the 20
      Chuanmutong calibration samples. Then, the rest 4 Chuanmutong, 4 Guanmutong and 3
      Mutong samples were used as validation samples to evaluate the identification
      efficacy. The result shows that the FTIR spectra of 4 Chuanmutong validation
      samples were similar to the fingerprint. Their correlation coefficients of FTIR
      spectra were over the limited level and accepted as Chuanmutong. However, the
      spectra of Guanmutong and Mutong were significantly different from Chuanmutong
      fingerprint. The correlation coefficients of Guanmutong (0.902 1-0.940 4, n=4)
      and Mutong (0.954 9-0.978 9, n=3) FTIR spectra were less than the limited level
      and rejected from Chuanmutong. Furthermore, the number, position and intensity of
      auto-peaks on the 2D-FTIR were drastically different among the three herbs. It is
      concluded that the developed FTIR fingerprinting can be rapidly and accurately
      identify Chuanmutong and differentiate from related herbs.

PMID- 28884545
TI  - [Repair effect of Qinbai Qingfei concentrated pellets to AEC-II of rats infected
      by Mycoplasmal pneumonia].
AB  - To discuss the repair mechanism of Qinbai Qingfei concentrated pellets to AEC-II
      of rats infected by mycoplasma through the observation of the changes and
      distribution of TGF-beta and SP-A in lungs, totally 60 Wistar rats that weighing
      80-100 g were collected, with male and female in half. The rats were divided into
      six groups randomly, with 10 rats each group, namely blank group, model group,
      positive group and Qinbai Qingfei concentrated pellets high, middle and low dose
      groups. Rats were infected through nasal intubation drip of MP. After 10 days of
      administration, serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected to
      detect the concentration of surface activity related protein A (SP-A) by ELISA,
      left pulmonary tissues of rats were collected to observe the expression and
      distribution of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and SP-A by
      immunohistochemistry, and right pulmonary tissues were taken to detect TGF-beta
      and SP-A mRNA expression level by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR). Qinbai
      Qingfei concentrated pellets can reduce the expression of TGF-beta and increase
      the expression of SP-A in the lung tissues of rats infected by mycoplasma.
      Specifically, TGF-beta was mainly distributed among the lung interstitium, while
      SPAs were mainly distributed in AEC-II and parts of alveolar macrophage. The
      level of SP-A was reduced in serum and increased in BALF in rats in Qinbai
      Qingfei concentrated pellets groups. It was proved that Qinbai Qingfei
      concentrated pellets can restore the normal morphology and function of the lung
      by reducing the content of TGF-beta to inhibit epithelial-mesenchymal transition
      (EMT) of alveolar type II epithelial cells and increasing the expression of SP-A.
      Qinbai Qingfei concentrated pellets have the repairing ability to capillary
      vessel damage caused by MP in lung tissues of rats.

PMID- 28884546
TI  - [Inhibitory effects of vina-ginsenoside R7 on activation of rat C6 astrocytes
      induced by LPS and TNF-alpha combination].
AB  - To investigate the inhibitory effect and mechanism of vina-ginsenoside R7 (R7) on
      the activation of rat C6 astrocytes cells induced by LPS/TNF-alpha, cells in
      logarithmic growth phase were cultured in DMEM medium without FBS for 24 h. After
      dissociated using 0.25% EDTA-trypsin, the cells were seeded into respective
      plates at the density of 1.5*106 cells per mL and cultured overnight. The cells
      were divided into the following groups: control group (no treatment), model group
      (treated with LPS 1 MUg*mL-1 and TNF-alpha 10 MUg*L-1 treated for 24 h), R7
      groups (pre-treated with 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, and 75 MUmol*L-1 R7, 4 MUmol*L-1 L
      NMMA for 2 h and then stimulated with LPS 1 mg*L-1 and TNF-alpha 10 MUg*L-1 for
      24 h). Cell viability was analyzed by CCK-8 kit. Secretion of nitric oxide (NO)
      in the medium was measured by Greiss method. Concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL
      6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) were assayed by ELISA kits. Gene
      expressions of inflammatory factors were examined by quantitative-PCR analysis.
      Activation of NF-kappaB was detected by dual luciferase reporter gene assay kit.
      The results showed that R7 could significantly inhibit the secretion of NO from
      C6 cells in a dose-effect manner, with an IC50 of 34 MUmol*L-1. And it could
      reduce cell proliferation induced by LPS/TNF-alpha stimulation. Furthermore, R7
      at 50 MUmol*L-1 significantly down-regulated gene expressions of iNOS (P<0.001),
      TNF-alpha (P<0.001), IL-1beta(P<0.05), and COX-2 (P<0.001), but could not change
      gene expression of IL-6. However, R7 reduced the secretion of TNF-alpha (P<0.001)
      and IL-6 (P<0.001). Further studies disclosed that, different concentrations of
      R7 (25, 50, 100 MUmol*L-1) could significantly inhibit the transcription activity
      of NF-kappaB(P<0.05, P<0.01, and P<0.001). In conclusion, R7 could inhibit
      inflammatory responses in C6 cells induced by LPS/TNF-alpha probably by
      inhibiting the transcription activity of NF-kappaB, which indicates its possible
      therapeutic effect in neurological diseases related to neuroinflammation.

PMID- 28884547
TI  - [Effects of aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen on activity hepatic microsomal
      CYP450 isozymes in rats].
AB  - To study the effect of aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen on the activity, mRNA and
      protein expressions of cytochrome P450(CYP450) system in rat liver microsomes,
      microsomes of rat liver were prepared after the oral administration with aqueous
      extract of Cassiae Semen for 14 days. The enzyme activity was quantified by
      Cocktail method. Meanwhile, the mRNA and protein expressions of CYP1A2, CYP2B1,
      CYP2C11, CYP2D2, CYP2E1 and CYP3A1 in the livers were detected by RT-PCR and
      Western blot. The result of this experiment was that aqueous extract of Cassiae
      Semen obviously induced the enzyme activities of CYP1A2, CYP2B1, CYP2C11, CYP2D2,
      CYP2E1 and CYP3A1. Low dose of aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen significantly
      reduced the activity of CYP2D2, but the activity of CYP2D2 was significantly
      induced by middle dose and high dose of aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen. These
      subtypes were increased in a dose-dependent manner except for CYP3A1. The mRNA
      levels of CYP1A2, CYP2C11, CYP2D2 and CYP2E1 were also induced in rats treated
      with aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen, but with no significant effect in CYP2B1
      and CYP3A1 mRNA expressions. The protein levels of CYP2C11 and CYP2E1 were also
      induced in rats treated with aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen, but with no
      significant difference. Since the enzyme activity, mRNA and protein expressions
      of CYP450, particularly CYP2C11and2E1subtypes, were induced or inhibited by
      aqueous extract of Cassiae Semen to varing degrees, suggesting the potential drug
      drug interactions should be concerned.

PMID- 28884548
TI  - [Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics for sedative and hypnotic effect
      of Banxia Houpo decoction].
AB  - Insomnia was a common disease, which might be correlated with gamma-aminobutyric
      acid A (GABAA) receptor mechanism, cytokine regulatory mechanism, excitatory
      amino acid mechanism and hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptor mechanism, but the
      correlations between these independent mechanisms and pathological
      characterization were still unclear. To further explore the effect of Banxia
      Houpo decoction on known or unknown biological pathways during treatment of
      insomnia, the metabonomics method based on 1H-NMR was developed for detecting the
      significant changes in metabolomics after the administration with Banxia Houpo
      decoction in pentobarbital sodium-induced rat sleeping experiment. Serum and
      urine samples were analyzed by 1H-NMR. Principal component analysis (PCA) was
      carried out for endogenous small molecule metabolites in urine and serum. H-NMR
      spectroscopies and relevant metabolites were found and identified by Simca-p 17.0
      (Umet-rics, Umea, Sweden) and Chenomx NMR Suite 7.1 (Chenomx, Inc., Edmonton,
      Alberta, Canada) software. The result suggests that Banxia Houpo decoction group
      and indiplon group had significant differences. The load diagram showed the
      biggest variation metabolites and intergroup significant differences among 10
      metabolic substances. According to the experiment, Banxia Houpo decoction group
      and indiplon group can prolonge the sleeping time of pentobarbital sodium-induced
      sprague-dawley rats, with a synergistic effect. The significant changes of these
      biomarkers indicated that the Banxia Houpo decoction could aid sleep by adjusting
      the content of glutamine, creatine phosphate, 2-oxoglutarate, and reducing the
      activity of brain nerves.

PMID- 28884549
TI  - [Comparison of essential oil from Mentha haplocalyx and menthol used as
      penetration enhancers].
AB  - The aim of this paper was to investigate and compare the penetration-enhancing
      characteristics of menthol and essential oil from Mentha haplocalyx(M.haplocalyx
      oil) on the transdermal absorption of the complex traditional Chinese
      medicine(TCM) components. A series of TCM components were selected as model drugs
      based on their lipophilicity (logP value), namely osthole(OT, logP=3.85),
      tetramethylpyrazine(TMP, logP=2.34), ferulic acid(FA, logP=1.26), puerarin(PR,
      logP=-0.35) and geniposide(GP, logP=-1.01), in order to simply and characterize
      the TCM complex components system. Transdermal experiment in vitro was employed
      to investigate and compare the penetration-enhancing characteristics of menthol
      and M.haplocalyx oil on the transdermal absorption of these model drugs.
      Meanwhile, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) was used to further
      compare the effect of menthol and M. haplocalyx oil on the molecular structure of
      stratum corneum(SC). The results showed that both of menthol and M.haplocalyx oil
      at proper concentration could promote the transdermal absorption of the selected
      model drugs. After application of menthol, the drug logP values gradually tended
      to have negative linear relationship with the logarithm of penetration
      enhancement ratio(ER); while after application of M.haplocalyx oil, the logP
      values tended to have parabolic relationship with the logarithm of ER. However,
      both menthol and M.haplocalyx oil exhibited higher efficiency for the drugs with
      relative low lgP value(ie hydrophilic drugs), with similar penetration-enhancing
      characteristics between these two. Infrared spectroscopy results showed that
      menthol and M.haplocalyx oil could affect the skin barrier functions mainly via
      stratum corneum lipids, with similar effect intensity, and this was consistent
      with the results of transdermal experiment in vitro. Thus, Menthol had similar
      penetration-enhancing characteristics with M.haplocalyx oil, and had same effect
      on the SC molecular structure. Therefore, as transdermal penetration enhancer,
      the menthol with single composition could be considered to replace M.haplocalyx
      oil with complex compositions.

PMID- 28884550
TI  - [Metabonomics on toxicity reduction of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma for Aconiti
      Lateralis Radix Preparata in Sini Tang].
AB  - To analyze the endogenous metabolite changes in rat plasma after intervention by
      Sini Tang and Sini Tang without Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma based on GC-MS
      metabonomics technology, and study the toxicity reduction effect of Glycyrrhizae
      Radix et Rhizoma in Sini Tang on Aconiti Lateralis Radix Preparata. Eighteen SD
      rats were randomly divided into normal group, Sini Tang group and Sini Tang
      without Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma group on average. The rats in Sini Tang
      group and Sini Tang without Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma group were treated
      respectively with physic liquor by intragastric administration at the dose of
      0.02 mL*g -1 (equivalent to 0.8 g*mL -1 crude drugs) once a day for 7 days. The
      rats in normal group were given with equal volume of saline solution. The plasma
      samples were collected from each rat 0.5 h after the last administration for GC
      MS detection. The data was used for multivariate statistical analysis to obtain
      14 potential metabolic markers(13 of them were identified). Then their relative
      content and metabolic pathways were analyzed. Compared with Sini Tang without
      Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma group, seven metabolic markers of were reduced in
      Sini Tang group. Analysis on physiological functions of these potential metabolic
      markers showed that the Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma in Sini Tang could reduce
      the toxicity of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Preparata by adjusting the glycolysis,
      lipid metabolism, citrate cycle and some amino acids metabolism.

PMID- 28884551
TI  - [Pharmacokinetics of bullatine A in Aconitum brachypodum total alkaloids gel in
      transdermal delivery].
AB  - In this study, the changes of bullatine A in plasma and skin of mice with time in
      microemulsion gel and ordinary gel of Aconitum brachypodum total alkaloids were
      compared through UPLC-MS/MS, and their pharmacokinetic parameters were also
      compared and analyzed, to investigate the feasibility of microemulsion agent in
      the transdermal drug delivery. UPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination
      of bullatine A in plasma and skin had high sensitivity and was in line with the
      pharmacokinetic study requirements for transdermal drug delivery. The main
      pharmacokinetic parameters for microemulsion gel in the plasma were as follows:
      Cmax=(37.62+/-14.31) MUg*L-1, Tmax=(3.40+/-1.34) h, AUC0-infinity=(1 027.7+/-260)
      MUg*L-1*h-1, MRT=(34.80+/-12.31) h, MRTlast=(10.68+/-0.57) h, t1/2=(23.11+/-9.20)
      h; main pharmacokinetic parameters for ordinary gel in the blood: Cmax=(52.23+/
      15.90) MUg*L-1, Tmax=(4.00+/-0.00) h, AUC0-infinity=(728.60+/-280.80) MUg*L-1*h
      1, MRT=(20.69+/-3.98) h, MRTlast=(9.34+/-0.42) h, t1/2=(14.69+/-3.15) h. The
      results showed that the microemulsion gel had more stable transdermal absorption,
      longer duration of action and higher bioavailability than ordinary gel,
      indicating that the microemulsion gel had a good and stable transdermal effect.
      There was no significant difference in bioavailability of bullatine A in skin
      between microemulsion gel and ordinary gel.

PMID- 28884552
TI  - [Effect of puerarin in Longmaining formula on pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics
      correlation in rats with myocardial ischemia].
AB  - To study the pharmacokinetics of puerarin in compound Longmaining(FFLMN) in
      normal rats and myocardial ischemia rats, and investigate its correlation with
      anti-myocardial ischemia effect of FFLMN. Models of myocardial ischemia rats were
      produced by subcutaneous injection of isoproterenol(ISO), then FFLMN extract
      solution was administered by gavage. Orbital sinus blood sampling was collected
      at different time points after gavage. HPLC-UV method was applied to determine
      the concentration of puerarin in plasma, and compare the difference in
      pharmacokinetics between normal rats and model rats after application of same
      dose of FFLMN. Meanwhile, microplate reader was used to determine IL-6 and SOD
      activities in plasma of different time points, and draw dose-effect curve. The
      results indicated that the pharmacokinetics of puerarin conformed to the two
      compartment model in both normal group and myocardial ischemia model group. In
      the comparison of main pharmacokinetic parameters between two groups: AUC0
      infinity=(11.451+/-3.228) mg*h*L-1,AUC0-t=(14.047+/-3.765) mg*h*L-1,
      Cmax=(5.623+/-1.40) mg*L-1 in normal group; AUC0-infinity=(68.849+/-50.396 9)
      mg*h*L-1, AUC0-t= (58.312+/-45.802) mg*h*L-1,Cmax=(18.456+/-7.517) mg*L-1 in
      treatment group. The SOD level was significantly increased and IL-6 concentration
      was significantly decreased in plasma, indicating that as compared with the
      normal group, puerarin in FFLMN had a higher plasma concentration, slower
      elimination rate and higher bioavailability. Therefore, puerarin concentration in
      plasma has correlation with the anti-myocardial ischemia effect of FFLMN, which
      could increase SOD level and inhibit the release of IL-6.

PMID- 28884553
TI  - [Effect of rat intestinal flora in vitro on metabolites of acteoside].
AB  - Acteoside was used for anaerobic incubation with rat intestinal flora in vitro.
      HPLC was used to detect the changes of acteoside at different incubation time
      points and HPLC-Q-TOF-MS was used to identify the metabolites of acteoside. The
      results showed that acteoside could be metabolized by rat intestinal flora in
      vitro and the metabolites were 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl acid, caffeic acid and 3-(3'
      hydroxyphenyl) propionic acid.

PMID- 28884555
TI  - [Clinical characteristics and drug combination analysis in patients with
      inflammatory bowel disease based on real world HIS data of 14 758 cases].
AB  - To analyze the characteristics and clinical medicine for inflammatory bowel
      disease based on the diagnostic information and medical advice information in
      hospital information system of 20 3A hospitals. Frequency analysis and
      correlation analysis results showed that the most common complications for
      inflammatory bowel disease included hypertension (2 058 cases, 13.94%), chronic
      superficial gastritis (1 611 cases, 10.92%), bowel benign tumor (1 351 cases,
      9.51%), coronary heart disease (1 346 cases, 9.15%), chronic gastritis (1 044
      cases, 7.07%), stomachache (1 030 cases, 6.98%), chronic antrum gastritis (988
      cases, 6.69%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (956 cases, 6.48%), upper respiratory
      infection (816 cases, 5.53%) and gastrointestinal bleeding (784 cases, 5.31%).
      The most-frequently-used drug combination was montmorillonite powder-berberine
      hydrochloride tablets (35.56%), followed by glycyrrhiza compound-ambroxol
      (29.8%), Yunnan Baiyao-hemocoagulase (28.8%), and berberine hydrochloride tablets
      aspirin (27.91%). The study indicated that the complications of inflammatory
      bowel disease had their own features, so we should attach importance to the
      treatment of these complications. Meanwhile, Chinese medicine accounted for a
      high proportion in the drug combinations for inflammatory bowel disease, thus
      importance shall be attached to integrative Chinese and western medicine to
      achieve ideal treatment effect.

PMID- 28884554
TI  - [Percutaneous permeability of rhein at shenque acupoint in vitro].
AB  - To study rhein's permeative properties of acupoint and non-acupoint and different
      species' transdermal administration in vitro. Cumulative permeation amount and
      steady-state infiltration rate were taken as evaluative indexes to assess the
      permeability difference. The Valia-Chien diffusion cell method was used to
      conduct the permeability test, with fresh acupoint and non-acupoint skin of rat,
      rabbit and swine in vitro as permeation barriers, and blank 20% EtOH saline as
      absorption liquid. HPLC was used to determine the rhein. The absorption
      difference was observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The 24-hour
      cumulative permeation amount through acupoint skin in rats was (102.63+/-9.60)
      MUg*cm-2, the steady-state infiltration rate was 4.307 MUg*cm-2*h-1, both were
      higher than that through non-acupoint skin. The thickness of acupoint skin in rat
      was thinner than that in rabbit and swine. The cumulative permeation amount and
      steady-state infiltration rate of rhein in acupoint of rat were signally higher
      than those in rabbit and swine. The absorption difference can be clearly observed
      through an accumulation of fluorescence. In conclusion, species and acupoint all
      affect the permeability of rhein in vitro. The permeation amount and rate of
      rhein on Shenque acupoint were better than that on non-acupoint skin, which could
      verify that treatment through Shenque acupoint is superior to that through non
      acupoint. The preliminary mechanism may be the drug delivery through Shenque
      acupoint as a channel and carrier, which is a visual verification the specificity
      and superiority of clinical application through Shenque acupoint in treating
      diseases.

PMID- 28884556
TI  - [Discussion of price forecasting of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma based on ARIMA
      model].
AB  - Based on the analysis of price fluctuations on Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma, this
      paper takes advantage of the price data of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma which
      specification is 120 from January 2004 to August 2015, using autoregressive
      integrated moving average model [ARIMA (p, d, q)] forecasting the price of
      Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma from September 2015 to August 2016. In the process
      of determining the form of model, the stability test used to determine the model
      of p, and the autocorrelation function and particles autocorrelation functions to
      identify the p and q of model. According to test the model, the forecast minimum
      error model was identified. In this paper, ARIMA (2,1,3) model was used to
      predict next year's price of Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma, for providing
      information for Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma growers, pharmaceutical companies.

PMID- 28884557
TI  - Factors predicting outcome of surgical treatment of spontaneous spinal hematomas:
      a retrospective cohort study in four tertiary reference centers.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Spontaneous spinal extradural hematoma (SSEH) is a
      rare but disabling disorder. Most of the previous assumptions regarding the
      factors that contribute to poor neurological recovery from SSEH are based on
      small case samples or conditions with similar clinical presentations but
      different physiopathologies. Our goal was to find the most relevant prognostic
      factors for neurological recovery in patients suffering SSEH treated with
      surgical evacuation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From a retrospective database of 29
      surgical patients with SSEH, several clinical and radiological variables were
      recorded. These variables were compared between patients with good and poor
      neurological recovery, considering good as an improvement by at least one point
      in the ASIA scale. RESULTS: Among the patients included, morbidity and mortality
      rate was 6.9 and 3.4%, respectively, with a mean follow up of 7.1 months.
      Neurological full recovery was experienced by 33% of the patients included, and
      86% of individuals had an improvement in their neurological condition at last
      follow-up. Lesser intramedullary lesions were significantly associated with
      greater chances of improvement in ASIA scale at discharge and at follow up.
      Surgical decompression within the first 24 hours of onset of symptoms were
      correlated with better neurological outcomes at follow up. CONCLUSIONS: MRI is a
      powerful tool to predict the neurological outcome in SSEH patients, and it should
      be considered as an another resource to better know the patients with greater
      chances of having neurological recovery, especially in cases where the
      neurological examination is not reliable at the initial exam.

PMID- 28884558
TI  - Spinal angiolipoma: observations upon three cases.

PMID- 28884559
TI  - Artificial neural network predicts hemorrhagic contusions following decompressive
      craniotomy in traumatic brain injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore relevant factors of hemorrhagic contusions
      following decompressive craniotomy (DC) in traumatic brain injury (TBI), and
      create an artificial neural network (ANN) prediction model of the risk factors of
      hemorrhagic contusions. METHODS: This study analyzed 425 patients with TBI who
      underwent DC in the Neurosurgery Department of Shaoxing People's Hospital between
      2009 and 2014. Patients were divided into two groups according to the first
      postoperative CT scans: hemorrhage group and non-hemorrhage group. Gender, age,
      preoperative situations (Initial Rotterdam CT score, GCS score, pupillary
      response, laboratory data and preoperative hematoma), the time gap between trauma
      and DC, postoperative CT scans, and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) scores were
      recorded. ANN was used to predict hematoma. Correlation analysis was used to
      state the relationship between increased hemorrhage volumes and GOS scores.
      RESULTS: The ANN prediction model was established. This model included 11
      parameters: initial Rotterdam CT score, GCS score, C-reactive protein, age, the
      time gap between trauma and DC, pupillary response, platelet count, bone-flap
      size, glucose level, hernia magnitude and preoperative hematoma volume. The
      overall predictive accuracy of the model was 73.0%. CONCLUSION: Initial Rotterdam
      CT scores and GCS scores may predict the risk of expansion contusions following
      DC. The ANN prediction model has a high accuracy to forecast hemorrhage.

PMID- 28884560
TI  - Retroperitoneal hematoma after minimally invasive lumbar discectomy: is the
      percutaneous endoscopic approach really safe?

PMID- 28884561
TI  - Tanycytic ependymoma of the brain stem, presentations of rare cystic disease
      variants and review of literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this paper was to systematically review the evidence
      linking Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) with the develop Tanycytic ependymoma
      (tcE) is a rare variant of ependymoma and management guidelines for patients with
      this disease are not established. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We performed a systematic
      search on Pubmed complimented by hand-searching citation lists to identify
      patients with pathologically confirmed tcE. Signs and symptoms, radiological and
      specific pathological findings as well as reported treatment modalities and
      outcomes were recorded and analyzed. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Fifty-one studies
      involving a total of 77 patients were identified and included in this review.
      Most cases of tcEs occurred in the spinal cord (50.6%), followed by lesions
      located in upper intracranial sites (36.4%) and only a few at the
      cervicomedullary junction (3.9%). Female to male ratio was calculated as about
      1:1.5, with a mean age at diagnosis of approximately 36.1+/-18 years. Complete
      resection of the tumor without further additional therapy was the treatment of
      choice in most cases (63.6%), radiotherapy was considered in 10 cases (13.0%). In
      18 reported cases of tcE (23.4%), the treatment was not documented. Defined
      follow-up periods for patients with tcE were only documented in 44 cases (57.1%),
      the mean follow-up was 22.3 months. 36 cases (46.8%) had no recurrence of tumor
      after treatment (26 months mean follow-up). CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive
      review on tcEs supports surgery as the initial treatment modality of choice.
      Radiotherapy can be considered when total gross resection cannot be achieved and
      allows for prolonged progression-free survival. Given the benign nature of this
      subtype of ependymoma, aggressive treatment such as chemotherapy is usually not
      indicated.

PMID- 28884562
TI  - OMPSQ-Short Score and determinants of chronic pain: cross-sectional results from
      a middle-aged birth cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire (OMPSQ) was
      developed to identify patients at risk of developing work disability due to pain.
      So far, neither the OMPSQ or its short version (OMSPQ-short) have been tested in
      population-based samples. AIM: We examined the associations between several well
      known determinants for chronic pain and OMPSQ-Short Score. DESIGN: Cross
      sectional study. SETTING: All measurements and tests were made at the University
      of Oulu. POPULATION: Subjects belonging to the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966
      answered a questionnaire at the age of 46 years (N.=5637). METHODS: The
      questionnaire included the OMPSQ-short as well as questions about smoking,
      education, location, number of pain sites, and physical activity. In addition,
      body weight and height were measured in order to calculate the Body Mass Index.
      RESULTS: In multivariate logistic regression analysis, reporting 4-5 pain sites
      (females OR 3.4; males 3.0), >=6 pain sites (females OR 12.4; males 7.4) and
      current smoking (females 1.8; males 2.6) were associated with being classified
      into the OMPSQ high risk group. In females, also obesity (OR 1.6) and less than 9
      years of education (2.7) were associated with higher OMPSQ Score. The frequency
      of physical activity was not associated with the OMPSQ Score. CONCLUSIONS: High
      number of pain sites and smoking among both genders, and obesity and low
      education level among females is associated with higher OMPSQ scores. Therefore,
      the OMPSQ-short may be a working instrument for also screening the general
      population. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: Results of this study may improve the
      detection of patients at high risk of developing work disability due to pain.

PMID- 28884563
TI  - Expressions and significance of HIF-1alpha and AQP-3 in intervertebral disc
      degeneration tissues of cervical spondylotic myelopathy.

PMID- 28884565
TI  - How should we manage patients with functional dyspepsia in clinical practice?

PMID- 28884564
TI  - Pattern of food intolerance in patients with gastro-esophageal reflux symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many food items have been involved in gastro-esophageal reflux
      disease pathogenesis and dietary modification has been proposed as first-line
      treatment. Test-based exclusion diets have shown to significantly reduce reflux
      symptoms. We aimed to assess the patterns of food intolerance in a series of
      patients with typical gastro-esophageal reflux symptoms (GERS). METHODS: We
      retrospectively evaluated all patients with typical reflux symptoms, attending
      the Centre Study Association on Food Intolerance and Nutrition of Ferrara from
      January 2010 to October 2015, who resulted positive to at least one food item at
      the Leucocytotoxic Test. The presence and severity of typical GERS (heartburn
      and/or acid regurgitation) were assessed using the Gastro-esophageal Reflux
      Disease Impact Scale (GIS) questionnaire. Only individuals with a GIS Score of at
      least 5 points were included. RESULTS: Almost all patients (91.1%) were
      intolerant to at least 5 food items. The most frequent food intolerance (more
      than 33% of patients) were found for milk (55.4%), lettuce (46.4%), coffee
      (43.7%), brewer's yeast (42.9%), pork (42.9%), tuna (37.5%), rice (35.7%), sole
      (34.8%), asparagus (34.8%) and eggs (33.9%). Nine different clusters of food
      intolerance were detected. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with typical gastro-esophageal
      reflux symptoms seem to have intolerance to multiple food items, some of which
      (lettuce, brewer's yeast, tuna, rice, sole and asparagus) have not yet been
      associated to gastro-esophageal reflux disease.

PMID- 28884566
TI  - Effects on cognitive function of propofol medium and long chain lipid emulsion in
      patients with hepatic encephalopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our study aimed to investigate the effects of propofol medium and
      long chain lipid emulsion on cognitive function of the patients with hepatic
      encephalopathy undergoing hemofiltration treatment. METHODS: A total of 87
      patients diagnosed with hepatic encephalopathy from January 2014 to January 2016
      were continuously selected, and randomly (using random number method) divided
      into an observation group (45 cases) and a control group (42 cases). All patients
      were treated with persistent hemofiltration; the patients in control group were
      not given any sedative measures, while the patients in observation group were
      given a propofol medium-long chain lipid emulsion injection with a dose
      determined by each individual's degree of restlessness and tolerance to
      hemofiltration (intravenous injection was performed with the first dose of 100
      mg, and then patients are subjected to micro-infusion pump with a dose of 0.5~4
      mg/kg/h, sedation lasted for 24 h). The indicators of treatment outcome and
      cognitive function changes of these two groups were compared. RESULTS: Our
      results showed that the blood ammonia, beta-endorphin and total bilirubin levels
      all decreased after treatment, and those of observation group decreased more
      significantly, (P<0.05). At the same time levels of alanine aminotransferase
      (ALT) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) of both of the two groups were lower
      than those before treatment, in addition, the levels of ALT and GGT in patients
      of observation group decreased more significantly than those of the patients in
      control group, (P<0.05). Finally, we found that Mini-Mental State Examination
      (MMSE) scores at two different time points (immediately after treatment and two
      weeks after treatment) of both two groups increased and the scores of the
      observation group were even higher than those of the control group, (P<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results we found that propofol medium-long chain lipid
      emulsion can significantly improve the curative effect of hemofiltration on
      patients with hepatic encephalopathy, and can also improve their cognitive
      function. We recommend the use of this propofol emulsion when considering
      hemofiltration treatment in this group of patients.

PMID- 28884568
TI  - Computational Study of Low Interlayer Friction in Tin+1Cn (n = 1, 2, and 3)
      MXene.
AB  - The friction of adjacent Tin+1Cn (n = 1, 2, and 3) MXene layers is investigated
      using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and classical molecular
      dynamics simulations with ReaxFF potentials. The calculations reveal the sliding
      pathways in all three MXene systems with low energy barriers. The friction
      coefficients for interlayer sliding are evaluated using static calculations. Both
      DFT and ReaxFF methods predict friction coefficients between 0.24 and 0.27 for
      normal loads less than 1.2 GPa. The effect of titanium (Ti) vacancies in
      sublayers and terminal oxygen (O) vacancies at surfaces on the interlayer
      friction is further investigated using the ReaxFF potential. These defects are
      found to increase the friction coefficients by increasing surface roughness and
      creating additional attractive forces between adjacent layers. However, these
      defective MXenes still maintain friction coefficients below 0.31. We also
      consider functionalized Ti3C2 MXene terminated with -OH and -OCH3 and find that
      compared to the -O-terminated surface both groups further reduce the interlayer
      friction coefficient to 0.10-0.14.

PMID- 28884567
TI  - High peak PaO2 values associated with adverse outcome in patients treated with
      noninvasive ventilation for acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema and pneumonia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) has a sigificant impact on mortality in
      acute respiratory failure (ARF). Predictive parameters for mortality are of high
      interest. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 3759 blood gas analysis and
      clinical parameters of 475 patients presenting with ARF based on acute
      cardiogenic pulmonary edema and/or pneumonia. The influence of peak arterial
      oxygen partial pressure levels (PaO2) with respect to its predictive value for in
      hopital and long-term mortality was investigated. RESULTS: Overall intra-hospital
      mortality was 24%. Peak PaO2 levels in kPa were significantly higher in non
      survivors (20.01+/-10.11) compared to survivors (15.65+/-6.79, P<0.001). A
      univariate Cox proportional-hazards analysis for long-term mortality revealed
      associations with maximum PaO2 levels (overall cohort: HR= 1.02; 95% CI: 1.007
      1.03; P=0.003; CPE: HR= 1.02; 95% CI: 0.99-1.04, P=0.05, pneumonia: HR= 1.02; 95%
      CI: 1-1.4, P=0.02). A PaO2 cut-off value of 13 kiloPascal (kPa) was calculated by
      means of Youden Index and remained true even after correction for APACHE 2 Score
      (HR= 1.50; 95% CI: 1.00-2.25; P=0.05) and for PaCO2 (HR= 1.63; 95% CI: 1.14-2.33;
      P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Peak PaO2 levels were associated with worse in-hopital and
      long-term mortality in patients treated with NIV due to ARF. These findings may
      indicate that application of high oxygen may be detrimental in such patients.

PMID- 28884569
TI  - Endogenous MicroRNA-Triggered and Real-Time Monitored Drug Release via Cascaded
      Energy Transfer Payloads.
AB  - It is a great challenge to design a drug delivery system with a controlled
      manner, especially one triggered by an exclusive endogenous disease marker and
      with an easily tracked release process. Herein, we developed a drug delivery
      platform of carbon dots which were connected to a stem-loop molecular beacon
      loaded with doxorubicin and polyethylene glycol modified folic acid. Such a
      platform enables one to release drugs on demand under the stimuli of endogenous
      microRNA-21, and turn on the fluorescence of carbon dots and doxorubicin, which
      allows one to monitor the drug release process. The intracellular experiment
      indicated that folic acid could mediate endocytosis of the nanocarrier, and the
      overexpressed endogenous microRNA-21 served as a unique key to unlock the drug
      nanocarrier by competitive hybridization with the molecular beacon, which finally
      resulted in fluorescence recovery and realized a chemotherapeutic effect within
      human breast cancer cells. The nanocarrier may have potential application in
      personalized treatment of different cancer subtypes in which the corresponding
      miRNAs are overexpressed.

PMID- 28884571
TI  - Clickable Multifunctional Dumbbell Particles for in Situ Multiplex Single-Cell
      Cytokine Detection.
AB  - We report a novel strategy for fabrication of multifunctional dumbbell particles
      (DPs) through click chemistry for monitoring single-cell cytokine releasing. Two
      different types of DPs were prepared on a large scale through covalent
      bioorthogonal reaction between methyltetrazine and trans-cyclooctene on a
      microchip under a magnetic field. After collection of the DPs, the two sides of
      each particle were further functionalized with different antibodies for cell
      capturing and cytokine detection, respectively. These DPs labeled with different
      fluorescent dyes have been used for multiplex detection and analysis of cytokines
      secreted by single live cells. Our results show that this new type of DPs are
      promising for applications in cell sorting, bioimaging, single-cell analysis, and
      biomedical diagnostics.

PMID- 28884570
TI  - Electrochromic Asymmetric Supercapacitor Windows Enable Direct Determination of
      Energy Status by the Naked Eye.
AB  - Because of the popularity of smart electronics, multifunctional energy storage
      devices, especially electrochromic supercapacitors (SCs), have attracted
      tremendous research interest. Herein, a solid-state electrochromic asymmetric SC
      (ASC) window is designed and fabricated by introducing WO3 and polyaniline as the
      negative and positive electrodes, respectively. The two complementary materials
      contribute to the outstanding electrochemical and electrochromic performances of
      the fabricated device. With an operating voltage window of 1.4 V and an areal
      capacitance of 28.3 mF cm-2, the electrochromic devices show a high energy
      density of 7.7 * 10-3 mW h cm-2. Meanwhile, they exhibit an obvious and
      reversible color transition between light green (uncharged state) and dark blue
      (charged state), with an optical transmittance change between 55 and 12% at a
      wavelength of 633 nm. Hence, the energy storage level of the ASC is directly
      related to its color and can be determined by the naked eye, which means it can
      be incorporated with other energy cells to visual display their energy status.
      Particularly, a self-powered and color-indicated system is achieved by combining
      the smart windows with commercial solar cell panels. We believe that the novel
      electrochromic ASC windows will have great potential application for both smart
      electronics and smart buildings.

PMID- 28884572
TI  - Nanobody-Based Apolipoprotein E Immunosensor for Point-of-Care Testing.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers can reflect the neurochemical indicators used
      to estimate the risk in clinical nephrology. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is an early
      biomarker for AD in clinical diagnosis. In this research, through bactrian camel
      immunization, lymphocyte isolation, RNA extraction, and library construction,
      ApoE-specific Nbs with high affinity were successfully separated from an immune
      phage display nanobody library. Herein, a colorimetric immunosensor was developed
      for the point-of-care testing of ApoE by layer-by-layer nanoassembly techniques
      and novel nanobodies (Nbs). Using highly oriented Nbs as the capture and
      detection antibodies, an on-site immunosensor was developed by detecting the mean
      gray value of fade color due to the glutaraldehyde@3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane
      oxidation by H2O2. The detection limit of AopE is 0.42 pg/mL, and the clinical
      analysis achieves a good performance. The novel easily operated immunosensor may
      have potential application in the clinical diagnosis and real-time monitoring for
      AD.

PMID- 28884573
TI  - Cornlike Ordered Mesoporous Silicon Particles Modified by Nitrogen-Doped Carbon
      Layer for the Application of Li-Ion Battery.
AB  - The cornlike ordered mesoporous silicon (OM-Si) particles modified by the
      nitrogen-doped carbon layer (OM-Si@NC) are successfully fabricated and used as
      the anode of lithium-ion battery (LIBs). The influences of the N-doped carbon
      layer on the structure and electrochemical properties of the OM-Si@NC composite
      are detailedly investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray
      diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrum, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and
      charge/discharge tests. The results reveal that the amorphous N-doped carbon
      layer can offer the abundant conductive pathways for fast lithium ion
      transportation and electron transfer, which not only leads to a high specific
      capacity under high ampere density but also serves as a structural barrier
      maintaining the whole integrity and settling the mechanical breaking due to the
      huge volume changes of Si host. Therefore, the as-synthesized OM-Si@NC composite
      exhibits a high original discharge capacity of 2548 mA h g-1 under 0.2 A g-1 as
      well as a large reversible capacity of 1336 mA h g-1 under 1 A g-1 after 200
      circles. The OM-Si@NC composite prepared by a relatively simple and feasible
      synthesis method shows excellent electrochemical performances and turns out to be
      promising for the application of high power LIBs.

PMID- 28884574
TI  - Polypyrrole Films with Micro/Nanosphere Shapes for Electrodes of High-Performance
      Supercapacitors.
AB  - We demonstrate a simple and efficient one-step procedure for synthesizing a solid
      state polypyrrole (PPy) thin film for supercapacitor applications using
      alternating current impedance spectroscopy. By controlling the frequency and
      amplitude we were able to create unique PPy nano/microstructures with a
      particular morphology of the loop. Our PPy micro/nanosphere shows extremely high
      capacitance of 568 F/g, which is close to the theoretical value of 620 F/g and 20
      100% higher than that of other reported PPy electrodes. Most of all, this
      material presents high capacitance and significantly improved electrochemical
      stability without pulverization of its structure, demonstrating 77% retention of
      the capacitance value even after 10 000 charge/discharge cycles. These results
      are a consequence of the larger surface area and adequate porosity generated due
      to the balance between the nano/micro PPy loops. This created porous structure
      also allows the favored penetration of electrolyte and high ion mobility within
      the polymer and prevents the mechanical failure of the physical structure during
      volume variation associated with the insertion/deinsertion of ions upon cycling.

PMID- 28884575
TI  - Novel Au Catalysis Strategy for the Synthesis of Au@Pt Core-Shell
      Nanoelectrocatalyst with Self-Controlled Quasi-Monolayer Pt Skin.
AB  - Design of catalytically active Pt-based catalysts with minimizing the usage of Pt
      is a major issue in fuel cells. Herein, for the first time, we have developed a
      Au catalytic reduction strategy to synthesize a Au@Pt core-shell electrocatalyst
      with a quasi-monolayer Pt skin spontaneously formed from the gold surface
      catalysis. In the presence of presynthesized gold nanocrystals (used as the
      catalyst and Au seeds) and 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid
      buffer (used as reductant), under the Au surface catalysis, platinum ions can be
      reduced and deposited on the gold nanocrystals to form a Pt skin surface with a
      quasi-monatomic thickness. In the present strategy, Pt ions can be reduced only
      under the catalysis of gold surface and thus when the surface of Au NPs is
      covered by a monatomic Pt layer, the reduction reaction of Pt ions will be
      spontaneously turned off. Therefore, the significant advantage of this synthesis
      strategy is that the formation of quasi-monolayer Pt skin surface can be self
      controlled and is completely free of controlling the dosage of platinum ions and
      the size distribution of Au cores. The synthesized Au@Pt core@shell structure
      exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic activities for oxygen reduction reaction and
      methanol oxidation reaction, which are 6.87 and 10.17 times greater than those of
      Pt/C catalyst, respectively. The present study provides a new strategy for
      obtaining high-performance bimetallic/multimetallic electrocatalysts with high
      utilization of precious metals.

PMID- 28884576
TI  - Facile Pyrolyzed N-Doped Binder Network for Stable Si Anodes.
AB  - Although nanoengineering provides improved stability of Si-based nanostructures,
      a facile and efficacious method to directly use raw Si practices is still absent.
      Herein, we report a pyrolyzed N-doped binder network to improve the cycling
      stability of raw Si particles. Such an N-doped binder network is formed at a
      conformal pyrolysis condition of the electrode binder using polyacrylonitrile and
      provides a tight encapsulation of the Si particles with significantly improved
      cycling stability. In contrast to the single Si particles that pulverize and lose
      the total capacity at the 20th cycle, the discharge capacity could be retained
      ~1700 mA h g-1 at the 100th cycle for the Si particles imbedded in the pyrolyzed
      N-doped binder network. Our results demonstrate that such a facile remedy could
      significantly improve the cycling stability of raw Si particles for high-energy
      density lithium-ion batteries.

PMID- 28884577
TI  - Uranium Release from Acidic Weathered Hanford Sediments: Single-Pass Flow-Through
      and Column Experiments.
AB  - The reaction of acidic radioactive waste with sediments can induce mineral
      transformation reactions that, in turn, control contaminant fate. Here, sediment
      weathering by synthetic uranium-containing acid solutions was investigated using
      bench-scale experiments to simulate waste disposal conditions at Hanford's cribs
      (Hanford, WA). During acid weathering, the presence of phosphate exerted a strong
      influence over uranium mineralogy and a rapidly precipitated, crystalline uranium
      phosphate phase (meta-ankoleite [K(UO2)(PO4).3H2O]) was identified using
      spectroscopic and diffraction-based techniques. In phosphate-free system, uranium
      oxyhydroxide minerals such as K-compreignacite [K2(UO2)6O4(OH)6.7H2O] were
      formed. Single-pass flow-through (SPFT) and column leaching experiments using
      synthetic Hanford pore water showed that uranium precipitated as meta-ankoleite
      during acid weathering was strongly retained in the sediments, with an average
      release rate of 2.67 * 10-12 mol g-1 s-1. In the absence of phosphate, uranium
      release was controlled by dissolution of uranium oxyhydroxide (compreignacite
      type) mineral with a release rate of 1.05-2.42 * 10-10 mol g-1 s-1. The uranium
      mineralogy and release rates determined for both systems in this study support
      the development of accurate U-release models for the prediction of contaminant
      transport. These results suggest that phosphate minerals may be a good candidate
      for uranium remediation approaches at contaminated sites.

PMID- 28884578
TI  - Enhanced Anti-Infective Efficacy of ZnO Nanoreservoirs through a Combination of
      Intrinsic Anti-Biofilm Activity and Reinforced Innate Defense.
AB  - The increasing prevalence of implant-associated infections (IAIs) imposes a heavy
      burden on patients and medical providers. Bacterial biofilms are recalcitrant to
      antiseptic drugs and local immune defense and can attenuate host proinflammatory
      response to interfere with bacterial clearance. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO
      NPs) play a dual role in antibacterial and immunomodulatory activities but
      compromise the cytocompatibility because of their intracellular uptake. Here, ZnO
      NPs were immobilized on titanium to form homogeneous nanofilms (from
      discontinuous to continuous) through magnetron sputtering, and the possible
      antimicrobial activity and immunomodulatory effect of nano-ZnO films were
      investigated. Nano-ZnO films were found to prohibit sessile bacteria more than
      planktonic bacteria in vitro, and the antibacterial effect occurred in a dose
      dependent manner. Using a novel mouse soft tissue IAI model, the in vivo results
      revealed that nano-ZnO films possessed outstanding antimicrobial efficacy, which
      could not be ascribed solely to the intrinsic anti-infective activity of nano-ZnO
      films observed in vitro. Macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), two
      important factors in innate immune response, were cocultured with nano-ZnO and
      bacteria/lipopolysaccharide in vitro, and the nano-ZnO films could enhance the
      antimicrobial efficacy of macrophages and PMNs through promoting phagocytosis and
      secretion of inflammatory cytokines. This study provides insights into the anti
      infective activity and mechanism of ZnO and consolidates the theoretical basis
      for future clinical applications of ZnO.

PMID- 28884579
TI  - Facile Processing of Free-Standing Polyaniline/SWCNT Film as an Integrated
      Electrode for Flexible Supercapacitor Application.
AB  - Flexible supercapacitors (SCs) with compact configuration are ideal energy
      storage devices for portable electronics, owing to their original advantages
      (e.g., fast charging/discharging). To effectively reduce the volume of SCs, an
      integrated electrode of free-standing polyaniline (PANI)/single-wall carbon
      nanotube (SWCNT) film with high performance has been developed via a facile
      solution deposition method, which can be employed as current collector and active
      material in the meantime. Thanks to the strong pi-pi interactions between PANI
      and CNTs, an efficient conductive network with ordered PANI molecular chains is
      formed in this hybrid film electrode, which is beneficial for the ion diffusion
      process and fast redox reaction resulting in a high capacitance of 446 F g-1 and
      outstanding cycling stability, achieving 98% retention over 13 000 cycles.
      Predictably, solid-state SCs constructed by this free-standing PANI/SWCNT film
      electrode exhibited remarkable mechanical stability and flexibility in a compact
      configuration, let alone its excellent capacitive performance (218 F g-1).
      Moreover, the highest energy density of flexible solid-state SC reached 19.45 Wh
      kg-1 at a power density of 320.5 W kg-1, further indicating a good potential as
      an energy storage device. This work would inspire other simple process techniques
      for high-performance flexible SCs, catering to the demand of portable electronic
      devices.

PMID- 28884580
TI  - Enhancing Performance and Uniformity of Perovskite Solar Cells via a Solution
      Processed C70 Interlayer for Interface Engineering.
AB  - Although some kinds of semiconductor metal oxides (SMOs) have been applied as
      electron selective layers (ESLs) for planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs),
      electron transfer is still limited by low electron mobility and defect film
      formation of SMO ESLs fabricated via low-temperature solution process. Herein,
      the C70 interlayer between TiO2 and (HC(NH2)2PbI3)x(CH3NH3PbCl3)1-x is prepared
      by spin-coating and low-temperature annealing for planar n-i-p PSCs. The
      resultant TiO2/C70 ESL shows good surface morphology, efficient electron
      extraction, and facilitation of high-quality perovskite film formation, which can
      be attributed to the suitable nanosize and the superior electronic property of
      C70 molecules. In comparison with pristine TiO2-based PSCs, the efficiency and
      hysteresis index are, respectively, enhanced 28% and reduced 76% by adding the
      C70 interlayer between TiO2 and perovskite on the basis of statistical data of
      more than 50 cells. With the main advantages of low-temperature process and
      optimized interface, the champion efficiency of PSCs on flexible substrates could
      exceed 12% in contrast with the above 18% on rigid substrate.

PMID- 28884581
TI  - Rationalization of Anomalous Pseudocontact Shifts and Their Solvent Dependence in
      a Series of C3-Symmetric Lanthanide Complexes.
AB  - Bleaney's long-standing theory of magnetic anisotropy has been employed with some
      success for many decades to explain paramagnetic NMR pseudocontact shifts, and
      has been the subject of many subsequent approximations. Here, we present a
      detailed experimental and theoretical investigation accounting for the anomalous
      solvent dependence of NMR shifts for a series of lanthanide(III) complexes,
      namely [LnL1] (Ln = Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb; L1: 1,4,7-tris[(6
      carboxypyridin-2-yl)methyl]-1,4,7-triazacyclononane), taking into account the
      effect of subtle ligand flexibility on the electronic structure. We show that the
      anisotropy of the room temperature magnetic susceptibility tensor, which in turn
      affects the sign and magnitude of the pseudocontact chemical shift, is extremely
      sensitive to minimal structural changes in the first coordination sphere of L1.
      We show that DFT structural optimizations do not give accurate structural models,
      as assessed by the experimental chemical shifts, and thus we determine a
      magnetostructural correlation and employ this to evaluate the accurate solution
      structure for each [LnL1]. This approach allows us to explain the
      counterintuitive pseudocontact shift behavior, as well as a striking solvent
      dependence. These results have important consequences for the analysis and design
      of novel magnetic resonance shift and optical emission probes that are sensitive
      to the local solution environment and polarity.

PMID- 28884582
TI  - Complex Dynamical Networks Constructed with Fully Controllable Nonlinear
      Nanomechanical Oscillators.
AB  - Control of the global parameters of complex networks has been explored
      experimentally in a variety of contexts. Yet, the more difficult prospect of
      realizing arbitrary network architectures, especially analog physical networks
      that provide dynamical control of individual nodes and edges, has remained
      elusive. Given the vast hierarchy of time scales involved, it also proves
      challenging to measure a complex network's full internal dynamics. These span
      from the fastest nodal dynamics to very slow epochs over which emergent global
      phenomena, including network synchronization and the manifestation of exotic
      steady states, eventually emerge. Here, we demonstrate an experimental system
      that satisfies these requirements. It is based upon modular, fully controllable,
      nonlinear radio frequency nanomechanical oscillators, designed to form the nodes
      of complex dynamical networks with edges of arbitrary topology. The dynamics of
      these oscillators and their surrounding network are analog and continuous-valued
      and can be fully interrogated in real time. They comprise a piezoelectric
      nanomechanical membrane resonator, which serves as the frequency-determining
      element within an electrical feedback circuit. This embodiment permits network
      interconnections entirely within the electrical domain and provides unprecedented
      node and edge control over a vast region of parameter space. Continuous
      measurement of the instantaneous amplitudes and phases of every constituent
      oscillator node are enabled, yielding full and detailed network data without
      reliance upon statistical quantities. We demonstrate the operation of this
      platform through the real-time capture of the dynamics of a three-node ring
      network as it evolves from the uncoupled state to full synchronization.

PMID- 28884583
TI  - Herpes Esophagitis With Concomitant Eosinophilic Esophagitis in a Child: A Case
      Report.

PMID- 28884585
TI  - Analysis of the cost-effectiveness of carbetocin for the prevention of hemorrhage
      following cesarean delivery in Ecuador.
AB  - AIM: To compare the cost of carbetocin with that of oxytocin for the prevention
      and management of hemorrhage following cesarean delivery in Ecuador. MATERIALS &
      METHODS: We developed a decision tree based cost-effectiveness model to compare
      carbetocin with oxytocin in the prevention of hemorrhage following cesarean
      delivery in Ecuador. Our model was run from a third party payer perspective and
      was validated by local experts in the field. The efficacy of the interventions
      was determined based on a systematic review of the literature. Direct costs were
      calculated based on current National Health Service price lists and retail price.
      Since the period covered by the analysis was 1 year, costs and health effects
      were not discounted. RESULTS: The difference in costs between the interventions
      was US$16.26, with a difference in effectiveness of 0.0067 disability adjusted
      life years averted. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for carbetocin
      compared with oxytocin for prevention of hemorrhage following cesarean delivery
      was US$2432.89 per disability adjusted life year averted. CONCLUSION: Carbetocin
      is as efficacious and safe as oxytocin for primary prevention of hemorrhage in
      cesarean delivery in Ecuador. It is highly cost effective for reducing the need
      for additional uterotonic drugs in both emergency and elective cesarean delivery.

PMID- 28884584
TI  - A fruitful decade for fungal polyketides from 2007 to 2016: antimicrobial
      activity, chemotaxonomy and chemodiversity.
AB  - The last three decades have shown that the fungi can be 'biofactories' of novel,
      bioactive secondary metabolites that produce numerous natural products with novel
      skeletons and biological activities. Particularly in the last 10 years, large
      numbers of antimicrobial fungal secondary metabolites have been discovered. This
      review provides an overview of key, defining developments of the last 10 years
      regarding the discovery of antimicrobial activity, chemotaxonomy and
      chemodiversity of fungal polyketides.

PMID- 28884586
TI  - Worsening Necrotic Skin Infection: What Lurks Below.

PMID- 28884588
TI  - Nutritional Assessment of Snacks and Beverages in Southeastern Virginia Daycare
      Centers.
AB  - This study sought to determine the nutritional quality of snacks and beverages
      provided at licensed daycare centers of variable sizes in Southeastern Virginia.
      This cross-sectional study employed self-report surveys about snack offerings
      administered at each daycare site that agreed to participate. In addition,
      researchers completed an observation survey on the day of visit to observe and
      document the food and beverages actually served at snack time. Although many
      daycare directors reported serving fresh fruit and vegetables for snacks, there
      was a poor correlation on the offering of these healthy snacks between
      researchers and directors ( P < .05). Researchers observed salty, caloric dense
      foods for snack time more frequently than fresh fruits and vegetables. These
      findings demonstrate the importance of improving and perhaps regulating the
      quality and diversity of snacks and beverages offered in childcare, as dietary
      amendments may prevent the development of childhood obesity.

PMID- 28884587
TI  - Anticancer activity of metal nanoparticles and their peptide conjugates against
      human colon adenorectal carcinoma cells.
AB  - In the present study, nanoparticles of gold, iron oxide and zinc oxide (ZnO) were
      studied for cytotoxicity in the colorectal cancer cell HT 29. The metallic
      nanoparticles in the range of <50 and <100 nm were screened for anticancer
      activity by MTT assay. The nanoparticles were tested at concentrations ranging
      from 0.5 to 50 ug/ml. Zinc oxide exhibited significant anti-cancer activity in
      comparison to other nanoparticles. It had an IC50 value of 17.12 ug/ml. The
      mechanism of action was studied by fluorescence microscopy with acridine orange,
      propidium iodide and DAPI staining techniques. The ROS production of ZnO
      nanoparticles was determined by DCFH-DA. The ZnO nanoparticles were conjugated
      with novel hydrophobic peptides and evaluated for anticancer activity. It was
      observed that the nanoparticles peptide complex showed better cytotoxicity than
      either peptide or nanoparticle alone. Thus, the ZnO nanoparticles tested in our
      study has anticancer activity against colon cancer cells. It can also be
      conjugated with peptides and used for targeting cancer cells with higher
      efficacy.

PMID- 28884589
TI  - Is there a role for modified probiotics as beneficial microbes: a systematic
      review of the literature.
AB  - Our objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis for the use of
      modified (heat-killed or sonicated) probiotics for the efficacy and safety to
      prevent and treat various diseases. Recent clinical research has focused on
      living strains of probiotics, but use in high-risk patients and potential adverse
      reactions including bacteremia has focused interest on alternatives to the use of
      live probiotics. We searched MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials, CINAHL, Alt Health Watch, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, from
      inception to February 14, 2017 for randomised controlled trials involving
      modified probiotic strains. The primary outcome was efficacy to prevent or treat
      disease and the secondary outcome was incidence of adverse events. A total of 40
      trials were included (n=3,913): 14 trials (15 arms with modified probiotics and
      20 control arms) for the prevention of diseases and 26 trials (29 arms with
      modified probiotics and 32 control arms) for treatment of various diseases.
      Modified microbes were compared to either placebo (44%), or the same living
      probiotic strain (39%) or to only standard therapies (17%). Modified microbes
      were not significantly more or less effective than the living probiotic in 86% of
      the preventive trials and 69% of the treatment trials. Modified probiotic strains
      were significantly more effective in 15% of the treatment trials. Incidence rates
      of adverse events were similar for modified and living probiotics and other
      control groups, but many trials did not collect adequate safety data. Although
      several types of modified probiotics showed significant efficacy over living
      strains of probiotics, firm conclusions could not be reached due to the limited
      number of trials using the same type of modified microbe (strain, daily dose and
      duration) for a specific disease indication. Further research may illuminate
      other strains of modified probiotics that may have potential as clinical
      biotherapeutics.

PMID- 28884590
TI  - Galacto-oligosaccharides ameliorate dysbiotic Bifidobacteriaceae decline in
      Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes.
AB  - Gut microbiota affects the host's metabolism, and it is suggested that there are
      differences in gut microbiota composition between patients with type 2 diabetes
      and healthy individuals. Additionally, dysbiosis may increase the concentration
      of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), causing metabolic endotoxemia, which induces
      impaired glucose tolerance. Several studies have reported relationships between
      metabolic diseases and the gut microbiota; and prebiotics, such as
      oligosaccharides, are commonly consumed to regulate gut microbiotas in healthy
      individuals. Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are a major prebiotic, which
      specifically increase Bifidobacteriaceae abundance. Recent studies have reported
      that Bifidobacteriaceae improved metabolic endotoxemia or impaired glucose
      tolerance. However, there are few studies reporting the effects of GOS on
      patients with type 2 diabetes. In the current study, we compared clinical
      parameters, faecal gut microbiota, their associated metabolic products and their
      components such as LPS, and LPS-binding protein (LBP) produced by the host,
      between patients with diabetes and healthy controls. We then assessed the effects
      of GOS on glycaemic control, and gut microbiotas and metabolites in patients with
      type 2 diabetes in a double-blind controlled manner. LBP levels were
      significantly higher in patients with diabetes than those of healthy subjects,
      which was consistent with previous reports. The abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae
      and the diversity of intestinal microbiota were significantly lower in patients
      with diabetes than in healthy subjects. Interestingly, Bifidobacteriaceae was
      markedly restored in patients with diabetes after consumption of GOS, whereas LBP
      and glucose tolerance did not improve during this short-term trial period. In the
      present study, we demonstrated that GOS can ameliorate dysbiosis in patients with
      diabetes, and continuous intake of GOS may be a promising method for managing
      type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28884591
TI  - Monitoring of Recommended Metabolic Laboratory Parameters Among Medicaid
      Recipients on Second-Generation Antipsychotics in Federally Qualified Health
      Centers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2004, a consensus statement outlining recommended metabolic
      monitoring for patients prescribed second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) was
      published. More than a decade later, suboptimal adherence rates to these
      recommendations continue to be reported, which could lead to long-term and costly
      complications. OBJECTIVES: To define the prevalence of appropriately monitored
      Medicaid patients receiving care at federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)
      prescribed SGAs. METHODS: This was a retrospective study examining electronic
      health record and Medicaid claims data to assess the rates of glucose and lipid
      monitoring for patients prescribed SGAs from January 2014 to August 2016 in a
      FQHC. Prescription and laboratory claims for patients receiving care at 4 FQHCs
      were reviewed. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the primary outcome.
      RESULTS: A total of 235 patients were included in the analysis. Patients
      initiated on SGA therapy (n = 92) had baseline glucose and lipid monitoring rates
      of 50% and 23%, respectively. The 3-month monitoring rates were 37% for glucose
      and 26% for lipids, whereas annual rates were 71% and 40%, respectively. Patients
      continuing SGA therapy (n = 143) had annual glucose and lipid monitoring rates of
      67% and 44%. CONCLUSIONS: Medicaid patients at FQHCs initially prescribed SGAs
      have low baseline and 3-month metabolic monitoring, whereas annual monitoring was
      comparable to previously published studies. Adults receiving chronic care at a
      FQHC were more likely to receive glucose monitoring. Those with type 2 diabetes
      mellitus and/or hyperlipidemia were more likely to receive glucose and lipid
      monitoring.

PMID- 28884592
TI  - Peripheral nerve intersectional repair by bi-directional induction and systematic
      remodelling: biodegradable conduit tubulization from basic research to clinical
      application.
AB  - In terms of the clinical effect of peripheral nerve injury repair, the biological
      degradable conduit 2 mm small gap tubulization is far better than the traditional
      epineurial or perineurium neurorrhaphy. The assumption of the bi-directional
      induction between the central system and the terminal effector during peripheral
      nerve regeneration is purposed and proved in clinical by our group. The surgical
      approach of transferring a portion of or the whole contralateral C7 nerve to
      repair a part of or the whole ipsilateral brachial plexus injury is clinically
      promoted, in which the most important idea and practice is to use the cone
      conduit designed by the group to repair thick nerves with fine nerves. Some of
      the patients suffering from cerebral palsy or cerebral haemorrhage and those who
      got cerebral infarction yet have not reached recovery after 3-6 months could
      regain some functions of the ipsilateral upper limb and improve the life quality
      by transfer of a portion of or the whole contralateral C7 nerve and connection by
      cone conduit.

PMID- 28884593
TI  - Effect of Sequential Sectioning of Ligaments on Syndesmotic Instability in the
      Coronal Plane Evaluated Arthroscopically.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Arthroscopic evaluation of the syndesmosis allows direct
      visualization of syndesmotic instability. The purpose of this study was to
      determine the minimum degree of ligamentous injury necessary to destabilize the
      syndesmosis in the coronal plane when assessed arthroscopically and pinpoint
      where such instability should be measured within the incisura. METHODS: Fourteen
      cadaveric specimens were divided into 2 groups and arthroscopically assessed
      first with the syndesmosis intact and then following serial differential
      ligamentous transection. Group 1 (n = 7): anterior-inferior tibiofibular (AITFL),
      interosseous (IOL), posterior-inferior tibiofibular (PITFL), and deltoid (DL)
      ligament. Group 2 (n = 7): PITFL-IOL-AITFL-DL. At each step, a standard 100-N
      lateral hook test was applied and tibiofibular coronal plane diastasis measured
      arthroscopically at both the anterior and posterior third of the incisura. These
      measurements were in turn compared with those of the stressed intact ligamentous
      state. RESULTS: There was no significant syndesmotic instability measured at
      either the anterior or posterior margin of the incisura after transection of a
      singular ligament (AITFL or PITFL) or after the IOL was additionally transected.
      Diastasis at the posterior margin was significantly increased when all
      syndesmotic ligaments were sectioned (group 1: P = .018; group 2: P = .008), but
      this was not noted along the anterior margin. Diastasis at the anterior margin
      reached significance only with complete transection of syndesmosis and DL (group
      1: P < .001; group 2: P = .044). CONCLUSION: Under arthroscopic evaluation, the
      syndesmosis becomes unstable in the coronal plane only when all syndesmotic
      ligaments are transected, which should preferentially be measured at the
      posterior margin of the incisura. Anteriorly, diastasis becomes apparent only
      with addition of DL disruption, although this added finding may aid in diagnosis
      of occult deltoid injury. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: AITFL, IOL, and PITFL need to be
      injured to produce coronal plane syndesmotic instability. Arthroscopic assessment
      of such instability should occur along the posterior margin of the incisura. When
      they exist, similar findings anteriorly suggest concomitant deltoid injury.

PMID- 28884594
TI  - Predicting Failure of Nonoperative Treatment for Insertional Achilles Tendinosis.
AB  - : Nonoperative treatment for midportion Achilles tendinosis is well defined by
      the literature. Multiple modalities are described for the management of
      insertional Achilles pathology, but no consensus exists regarding efficacy.
      Surgical intervention for insertional Achilles tendinosis (IAT) is successful
      greater than 80% of the time. Our objective was to risk stratify patients who
      would fail nonsurgical management of IAT and thus benefit progressing to surgery.
      We reviewed the records of 664 patients with IAT. The cohort was 53% male and 80%
      obese. Mean age was 53.7 years (standard deviation 14.7 years). Average duration
      of symptoms was 10.4 months (standard deviation 28 months). Of the parameters
      collected, 4 were found to correlate with failing nonoperative treatment: visual
      analog scale, limited ankle range of motion, previous corticosteroid injection,
      and presence of Achilles tendon enthesophyte. We found that as the number of risk
      factors increased so did the chance of failing nonoperative treatment. With all 4
      parameters, chance of failing conservative treatment was only 55%. Thus,
      nonoperative management should be exhausted until surgery is the only remaining
      option. However, the presence of one of the aforementioned risk factors can aid a
      surgeon in the decision to pursue surgery in the appropriate clinical scenario.
      LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level IV: Retrospective Case series.

PMID- 28884595
TI  - Risk of osteoporosis in thyroid cancer patients using levothyroxine: a population
      based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The outcomes of thyroid cancer patients using levothyroxine are
      largely undetermined. METHODS: The study population consisted of 9398 patients
      newly diagnosed with thyroid cancer; their data was retrieved from a subset of
      the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan during the period of
      1999-2011. In this nationwide retrospective cohort study, we compared the risk of
      osteoporosis among thyroid cancer patients with levothyroxine use, those without
      levothyroxine use, and propensity-score-matched non-thyroid controls. We also
      investigated the duration-response and dose-response relationships between
      levothyroxine use and the risk of osteoporosis. The competing risk was also
      analyzed. RESULTS: The mean duration of follow-up was 6.63 years for patients
      without thyroid cancer, 5.45 years for thyroid cancer patients without
      levothyroxine use, and 6.46 years for thyroid cancer patients with levothyroxine
      use. The incidence of osteoporosis was higher in the thyroid cancer cohort than
      in the non-thyroid-cancer cohort (8.69 vs. 6.60 per 1000 person-years,
      respectively), with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.39 (95% confidence interval
      [CI] = 1.22-1.58). Thyroid cancer patients with levothyroxine use exhibited a
      significantly higher risk of osteoporosis than non-thyroid-cancer patients, while
      thyroid cancer patients not using levothyroxine did not have significant higher
      risks than non-thyroid-cancer patients. Compared with patients without thyroid
      cancer, the risk of osteoporosis increased from 1.53 (95% CI = 0.91-2.57) in
      patients receiving a cumulative dose of <=265 mg levothyroxine, to 3.62 in those
      receiving a cumulative dose of >395 mg levothyroxine (95% CI = 2.16-6.06).
      CONCLUSION: Our population-based cohort study showed that thyroid cancer patients
      receiving levothyroxine have a higher risk of osteoporosis.

PMID- 28884596
TI  - 3D-map modelling for the melting points prediction of intumescent flame-retardant
      coatings.
AB  - The applicability of 3D map modelling for melting point prediction was studied.
      The melting points in the ammonium polyphosphate-pentaerythritol-melamine
      chemical system of intumescent flame-retardant coatings over a wide range of
      concentrations were collected. The ternary diagram (triangle) of the melting
      points was plotted and an approximated 3D map was built for the range 205-345
      degrees C. The present work contains the thermal data for the observed ternary
      system and provides a new graphic system for making predictions for intumescent
      flame-retardant coatings. The applicability of the calculated 3D map for
      obtaining experimental samples of fire-retardant paints with a low melting point
      for thin steel constructions was shown.

PMID- 28884597
TI  - A Piecewise Local Partial Least Squares (PLS) Method for the Quantitative
      Analysis of Plutonium Nitrate Solutions.
AB  - We have developed a piecewise local (PL) partial least squares (PLS) analysis
      method for total plutonium measurements by absorption spectroscopy in nitric acid
      based nuclear material processing streams. Instead of using a single PLS model
      that covers all expected solution conditions, the method selects one of several
      local models based on an assessment of solution absorbance, acidity, and Pu
      oxidation state distribution. The local models match the global model for
      accuracy against the calibration set, but were observed in several instances to
      be more robust to variations associated with measurements in the process. The
      improvements are attributed to the relative parsimony of the local models. Not
      all of the sources of spectral variation are uniformly present at each part of
      the calibration range. Thus, the global model is locally overfitting and
      susceptible to increased variance when presented with new samples. A second set
      of models quantifies the relative concentrations of Pu(III), (IV), and (VI).
      Standards containing a mixture of these species were not at equilibrium due to a
      disproportionation reaction. Therefore, a separate principal component analysis
      is used to estimate of the concentrations of the individual oxidation states in
      these standards in the absence of independent confirmatory analysis. The PL
      analysis approach is generalizable to other systems where the analysis of
      chemically complicated systems can be aided by rational division of the overall
      range of solution conditions into simpler sub-regions.

PMID- 28884598
TI  - Skin targeting of curcumin solid lipid nanoparticles-engrossed topical gel for
      the treatment of pigmentation and irritant contact dermatitis.
AB  - Irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) and hyperpigmentation are the problems
      associated with skin. Topical curcumin (CUR) although effective in
      hyperpigmentation and ICD, is a challenging molecule due to low-solubility.
      Encapsulation of CUR into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) makes it amenable to
      topical dosing as their small size promotes its penetration into the skin. CUR
      SLNs were prepared using Precirol ATO5 and Tween-80 by probe ultrasonication
      method. Further, CUR-SLNs were incorporated into Carbopol gel and investigated
      for ex-vivo skin permeation, skin deposition and skin irritation studies. The
      potential of CUR-SLN gel was checked against hyperpigmentation through the
      inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme. It was further evaluated for possible effects on
      ICD using BALB/c mice. The optimized CUR-SLN showed the particle size of 51 nm
      and 93% EE. Ex vivo permeation of CUR-SLN gel exhibited controlled drug release
      up to 24 h, similarly in vitro drug deposition studies showed potential for skin
      targeting. In vitro tyrosinase inhibition assay indicates that the formulated gel
      has potential in skin depigmentation. The gel also confirmed proficient
      suppression of ear swelling and reduction in skin water content in the BALB/c
      mouse. Thus, the CUR-SLN gel would be a safe and effective alternative to
      conventional vehicles for treatment of ICD and pigmentation.

PMID- 28884599
TI  - A Simplified Approach Using Rate of Change Arrows to Adjust Insulin With Real
      Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring.

PMID- 28884600
TI  - Dapagliflozin/Saxagliptin Fixed-Dose Tablets: A New Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter
      2 and Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 Combination for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, and
      place in therapy of the fixed-dose combination (FDC) product, QTERN
      (dapagliflozin/saxagliptin) tablets. DATA SOURCES: Searches of MEDLINE (1946 to
      July 1, 2017) were conducted using the keywords QTERN, saxagliptin, and
      dapagliflozin. Additional data were obtained from the prescribing information,
      the product dossier, and Clinicaltrials.gov . STUDY SELECTION AND DATA
      EXTRACTION: All English language articles related to pharmacology,
      pharmacokinetics, efficacy, or safety of the combination therapy in human
      subjects were reviewed. DATA SYNTHESIS: The pharmacokinetics of saxagliptin and
      dapagliflozin were not affected significantly when administered as an FDC
      product. Saxagliptin may suppress the increased secretion of glucagon associated
      with dapagliflozin. The combination dapagliflozin/saxagliptin has been studied as
      add-on therapy to metformin in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes
      mellitus (T2DM). The difference in hemoglobin A1C (A1C) between saxagliptin +
      dapagliflozin + metformin (triple therapy) and saxagliptin + metformin was -0.59
      (95% CI = -0.81 to -0.37, P < 0.0001), and the difference between triple therapy
      and dapagliflozin + metformin was -0.27 (95% CI = -0.48 to -0.05, P = 0.0166).
      The combination was well tolerated when added to metformin. CONCLUSION: QTERN
      (dapagliflozin/saxagliptin) tablets are a reasonable option for patients with
      T2DM not controlled on metformin, but cost, insurance coverage, and a lackluster
      reduction in A1C will likely limit its use until more data regarding its effects
      on complications of diabetes and cardiovascular outcomes become available.

PMID- 28884601
TI  - Systematic review of AAC intervention research for adolescents and adults with
      autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - Much of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) research for individuals
      with autism spectrum disorder has focused on young children. Given that the
      lives, communication, strengths, and needs of adolescents and adults with autism
      spectrum disorder are quite different from those of young children, the purpose
      of the current study was to consolidate current AAC intervention research
      findings specific to these individuals. A systematic review was conducted to
      identify and evaluate relevant research. Results indicate that AAC intervention
      benefits adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder. However, more
      research is urgently needed. Future research focused on supporting communicative
      functions other than requesting (e.g., social closeness, information transfer)
      while participating in contexts important to the lives of adolescents and adults
      may be particularly valuable.

PMID- 28884602
TI  - Enhancement of anticancer activity by silibinin and paclitaxel combination on the
      ovarian cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ovarian carcinoma is the most lethal cancer among all gynaecological
      malignancies. One of the most chemotherapy drugs used for ovarian cancer is
      paclitaxel which induces apoptosis. Paclitaxel has been used for many years.
      Similar to the most cancers this responds to chemotherapy initially but in a long
      run, drug resistance happens which fails the treatment procedure. Combination of
      chemotherapy drugs has been suggested to deal with this issue. Silibinin, a plant
      extraction, has been used from ancient time in traditional medicine and
      identified to have powerful antioxidant activity. AIM: The aim of this study was
      to examine the effect of paclitaxel and silibinin combination on SKOV-3 cancer
      cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The human epithelial ovarian cancer cell line,
      SKOV-3, was cultured and treated with paclitaxel, silibinin and paclitaxel plus
      silibinin for 48 hours. MTT assay was carried out to determine cell viability.
      For apoptotic process, we used real-time PCR to study P53 and P21 genes
      expression after drug treatment and network analysis was performed using Pathway
      Studio web tool (Elsevier). RESULTS: Cell growth was inhibited considerably (p <
      .05) by combination of paclitaxel and silibinin after 48 hours of treatment. Also
      silibinin and paclitaxel combination induced apoptosis in SKOV-3 cells.
      Expression analysis by real-time PCR showed the significant up-regulation of two
      tumour suppressor genes, P53 and P21 in response to combination of silibinin and
      paclitaxel. In addition, computational network analysis demonstrated the
      crosstalk between paclitaxel, silibinin and ovarian cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results showed that combination of chemotherapy drugs of silibinin and paclitaxel
      can be more efficient in treatment of ovarian cancer cells.

PMID- 28884604
TI  - Novel treatment options for the management of heterozygous familial
      hypercholesterolemia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Even though statins represent the mainstay of treatment of
      heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), their low-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering efficacy is finite and most patients with FH will
      not achieve LDL-C targets with statin monotherapy. Addition of ezetimibe with or
      without bile acid sequestrants will also not lead to treatment goals in many of
      these patients, particularly in those with established cardiovascular disease. In
      this selected subgroup of the FH population, proprotein convertase subtilisin
      kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors provide substantial reductions in LDL-C levels,
      reduce cardiovascular morbidity and appear to be safe. Mipomersen, an antisense
      single-strand oligonucleotide that inhibits the production of apoB by binding to
      the mRNA that encodes the synthesis of apoB, and lomitapide, an inhibitor of
      microsomal triglyceride transfer protein, also reduce LDL-C levels but are
      currently indicated only for the management of homozygous FH. Areas covered: In
      the present review, the role of PCSK9 inhibitors, mipomersen and lomitapide in
      the management of FH is briefly discussed. Other LDL-C-lowering agents under
      evaluation include inclisiran, a small interference RNA molecule that induces
      long-term inhibition of PSCK9 synthesis, anacetrapib, a cholesterol ester
      transfer protein inhibitor, ETC-1002 (bempedoic acid), an inhibitor of adenosine
      triphosphate citrate lyase, and gemcabene, which reduces hepatic apolipoprotein C
      III mRNA. The safety and efficacy of these agents are also reviewed. Expert
      Commentary: Even though several novel treatment options for heterozygous FH are
      under development, it remains to be shown whether these treatments will also
      reduce cardiovascular morbidity in these high-risk patients.

PMID- 28884603
TI  - Folic Acid in Pregnancy and Childhood Asthma: A US Cohort.
AB  - Prenatal folic acid exposure has been linked to higher risk of childhood asthma
      in countries that do not fortify the food supply with folic acid. This study
      seeks to examine this association in the United States, where the food supply is
      generally fortified with folic acid. Participants were 1279 mother-child pairs
      from Project Viva, an ongoing prospective birth cohort, with folic acid intake in
      pregnancy assessed through validated food frequency questionnaires. The primary
      outcome was physician-diagnosed asthma at mid-childhood. In an unadjusted
      logistic regression model, higher folic acid intake was associated with lower
      odds of asthma in mid-childhood (odds ratio [OR] 0.48; 95% CI 0.31-0.76).
      However, in the adjusted analysis this association was attenuated (adjusted OR
      [aOR] 0.80; 95% CI 0.49-1.33). Our results suggest that in the United States,
      where there is generalized folic acid fortification of food, maternal folic acid
      intake during pregnancy is not associated with asthma development in offspring.

PMID- 28884605
TI  - Nanomedicines: a theranostic approach for hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - The liver is an imperative organ of tremendous importance concerned with
      maintenance of metabolic functions and detoxification of exogenous and endogenous
      challenges like xenobiotics, viral infections and chronic alcoholism. Liver
      diseases particularly hepatitis B virus infections, liver cirrhosis and
      hepatocellular carcinoma continue to pose a significant health challenge
      worldwide due to the lack of therapeutic management options besides liver
      resection and transplantation. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most
      common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. HCC has
      a high mortality rate because of poor diagnosis. The majority of patients with
      liver cancer die within one year as a result of poor patient compliance. HCC is
      clinically treated by chemotherapy besides surgery. However, most anticancer
      drugs have high toxicity and low specificity, leading to systemic toxicity and
      severe side effects. To limit the severe side effects of cancer chemotherapy on
      normal tissues, tumor targeting drug delivery systems need to be explored, which
      provides the impetus to develop targeted therapies for achieving higher efficacy
      with minimal side effects. The nanostructures used as good drug carriers, possess
      advantages of good solubility including high drug encapsulation efficiency, high
      cellular uptake, further desirable pharmacokinetics and can preferentially
      accumulate at the tumor site through the enhanced permeability and retention
      (EPR) effect with the goal of minimizing toxic effects on healthy tissues while
      maintaining antitumor efficacy.

PMID- 28884606
TI  - Stigma Resistance in Stable Schizophrenia: The Relative Contributions of
      Stereotype Endorsement, Self-Reflection, Self-Esteem, and Coping Styles.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Stigma resistance (SR) has recently emerged as a prominent aspect of
      research on recovery from schizophrenia, partly because studies have suggested
      that the development of stigma-resisting beliefs may help individuals lead a
      fulfilling life and recover from their mental illness. The present study assessed
      the relationship between personal SR ability and prediction variables such as
      self-stigma, self-esteem, self-reflection, coping styles, and psychotic
      symptomatology. METHOD: We performed an exploratory cross-sectional study of 170
      community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia. Self-stigma, self-esteem, self
      reflection, coping skills, and SR were assessed through self-report. Psychotic
      symptom severity was rated by the interviewers. Factors showing significant
      association in univariate analyses were included in a stepwise backward
      regression model. RESULTS: Stepwise regressions revealed that acceptance of
      stereotypes of mental illness, self-esteem, self-reflection, and only 2 adaptive
      coping strategies (positive reinterpretation and religious coping) were
      significant predictors of SR. The prediction model accounted for 27.1% of the
      variance in the SR subscale score in our sample. CONCLUSIONS: Greater reflective
      capacity, greater self-esteem, greater preferences for positive reinterpretation
      and religious coping, and fewer endorsements of the stereotypes of mental illness
      may be key factors that relate to higher levels of SR. These factors are
      potentially modifiable in tailored interventions, and such modification may
      produce considerable improvements in the SR of the investigated population. This
      study has implications for psychosocial rehabilitation and emerging views of
      recovery from mental illness.

PMID- 28884607
TI  - Assessing the Relationship between Disordered Gamblers with Psychosis and
      Increased Gambling Severity: The Mediating Role of Impulsivity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recent research suggests that disordered gambling and psychosis co
      occur at higher rates than expected in the general population. Gamblers with
      psychosis also report greater psychological distress and increased gambling
      severity. However, the mechanism by which psychosis leads to greater gambling
      symptomology remains unknown. The objective of the present research was to test
      whether impulsivity mediated the relationship between comorbid psychosis and
      gambling severity. METHOD: The sample consisted of 394 disordered gamblers
      voluntarily seeking treatment at a large university hospital in Sao Paulo,
      Brazil. A semistructured clinical interview (Mini-International Neuropsychiatric
      Interview) was used to diagnosis the presence of psychosis by registered
      psychiatrists. Severity of gambling symptoms was assessed using the Gambling
      Symptom Assessment Scale, and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 provided a
      measure of impulsivity. RESULTS: Of the sample, 7.2% met diagnostic criteria for
      psychosis. Individuals with a dual diagnosis of psychosis did not report greater
      gambling severity. Conversely, dual diagnoses of psychosis were associated with
      greater levels of impulsivity. Higher levels of impulsivity were also associated
      with greater gambling severity. Importantly, support for our hypothesised
      mediation model was found such that impulsivity mediated the association between
      disordered gambling and psychosis and gambling severity. CONCLUSION: Impulsivity
      appears to be a transdiagnostic process that may be targeted in treatment among
      disordered gamblers with a dual diagnosis of psychosis to reduce problematic
      gambling behaviours.

PMID- 28884608
TI  - Analysis of Risk Factors of Stroke and Venous Thromboembolism in Females With
      Oral Contraceptives Use.
AB  - Thrombotic diathesis has been a well-known complication of oral contraceptive use
      for more than 50 years. This is true not only for venous thrombosis but also for
      an arterial one. The etiology is usually multifactorial and depends on several
      additional risk factors. We analyzed the prevalence of inherited and acquired
      thrombophilia in a cohort of 770 females who had a thrombotic event in
      association with oral contraceptive use (700 women with venous thromboembolism
      [VTE], 70 with stroke). Moreover, we tried to identify additional risk factors.
      Inherited thrombophilia was found in 44.5% with higher frequency in the cohort
      with VTE (42%) than in females with stroke (24%). The most frequent finding was
      factor V Leiden. Cigarette smoking was significantly more frequent in the group
      with stroke (50% vs 25%). The prevalence of cigarette smoking in the group with
      VTE did not exceed the frequency in general population. Women on oral
      contraceptive pills have higher risk of venous as well as arterial thrombosis.
      The risk of venous thrombosis is increased in females with inherited
      thrombophilia, whereas those with some additional acquired risk factors
      (especially smoking) may be predisposed to arterial thrombosis. However, the
      absolute risk of thrombosis in healthy women is low, far less than the risk of
      unintended pregnancy. Moreover, the risk may be reduced by keeping some rules
      before the prescription of the pills, healthy life style, and a proper choice of
      contraception.

PMID- 28884609
TI  - Impact of Classical Risk Factors for Arterial or Venous Thrombosis in Patients
      With Antiphospholipid Syndrome.
AB  - There are classical risk factors associated with arterial thrombosis (AT) or
      venous thromboembolic disease (VTD). However, less is known about these risk
      factors and AT or VTD episodes in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS).
      Our aim was to elucidate whether APS-related thrombotic episodes are associated
      with the same risk factors as the non-APS population. We gathered demographics,
      medical history, complications, and causes of death associated with the risk
      factors for AT or VTD in patients with APS. We analyzed 677 thrombotic events in
      386 patients. Type 2 diabetes mellitus and grade 3 obesity were associated with
      VTD instead of AT. There were no significant differences between the groups for
      almost all laboratory tests analyzed, although lupus anticoagulant was
      significantly higher in the VTD group. We suggest that thrombosis in APS is due
      to the APS itself and that the risks factors for AT or VTD do not have a main
      role. Our findings may have an ethnical background. Therefore, it may be
      difficult to elaborate predictive thrombotic clinical scores applicable to
      patients with different ethnical background.

PMID- 28884610
TI  - Performance of Current Thromboembolism Risk Assessment Tools in Patients With
      Gastric Cancer and Validity After First Treatment.
AB  - Patients with gastric cancer (GC) are at higher risk of thromboembolism when
      compared to other solid tumors. We aim to determine the predictive performance of
      current venous thromboembolism (VTE) predictive tools and their variability and
      validity after first treatment. Single institution cohort of GC-treated patients
      (2010*15). We abstracted predictive tools, validated for VTE prediction in
      patient with cancer; including the Khorana Score (KRS), platelet to lymphocyte
      ratio (PLR), and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR). The primary outcome was
      CAT prediction. We included 112 patients who were predominantly men (66%), 58 (51
      64)-year-olds, with adenocarcinoma (84%) and advanced disease (59%). The median
      follow-up was 21.3 months (9.5-42.6). The VTE occurrence was 12%. The median time
      from diagnosis to VTE occurrence was 59 days (36-258). In our cohort, performance
      status (PS; hazard ratio [HR], 8.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.37-27.14; P
      < .01) was an independent predictor of VTE whereas KRS (univariate HR, 2.3; 95%
      CI, 0.7-7.4; P = .17), PLR (univariate HR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.2-3.1; P = .8), and NLR
      (univariate HR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.3-2.5; P = .8) at baseline were not associated
      with VTE risk. The posttreatment KRS was an independent predictor of VTE (HR,
      3.69; 95% CI, 1.17-11.65; P = .25) along with PS (HR, 7.58; 95% CI, 2.27-25.33; P
      = .01). Posttreatment KRS appears as a valid tool to identify patients with GC at
      high risk of VTE after first cancer treatment.

PMID- 28884611
TI  - An Evaluation of the Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time Waveform.
AB  - The activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) waveform includes several
      parameters that are related to various underlying diseases. The APTT waveform was
      examined in various diseases. Regarding the pattern of APTT waveform, a biphasic
      pattern of the first or second derivative curve (DC) was observed in patients
      with hemophilia and patients positive for antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies or
      coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) inhibitors. The time of the first and second DC
      and fibrin formation at 1/2 height were prolonged in patients with hemophilia,
      patients with inhibitors, patients positive for aPL, patients treated with anti
      Xa agents, and patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). These
      values all tended to decrease in pregnant women (at 28-36 weeks' gestation). The
      height of the second derivative peak 1 was significantly lower in patients with
      hemophilia, patients with FVIII inhibitors, patients positive for aPL, patients
      treated with anti-Xa agents, and patients with DIC; these values tended to be
      significantly higher in pregnant women. The height of the first DC was
      significantly lower in patients who were positive for FVIII inhibitors and was
      significantly higher in patients treated with anti-Xa agents and pregnant women.
      The height of the first and second DC was useful for the analysis of hemophilia,
      FVIII inhibitor, and aPL.

PMID- 28884612
TI  - Conjugation with 20 kDa dextran decreases the autoxidation rate of bovine
      hemoglobin.
AB  - Haemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC) is highly susceptible to autoxidation
      that renders a series of tissue and cellular toxicities. HBOC is prepared by
      chemical modification of haemoglobin (Hb), which typically increases the
      autoxidation rate of Hb. Thus, it is necessary to decrease the autoxidation of
      HBOC. In the present study, two dextran-bHb conjugates (dex20-bHb and dex40-bHb)
      were prepared by conjugation with 20 kDa or 40 kDa dextrans, where the thiol
      group of Cys-93(beta) was reversibly protected. The autoxidation rate of bHb was
      decreased by conjugation with 20 kDa dextran and maintained by conjugation with
      40 kDa dextran. In order to understand the low autoxidation rate of dex20-bHb,
      the effects of aldehyde modification and dextran on the autoxidation rate of
      dex20-bHb were investigated. The high oxygen affinity, high tetramer stability
      and dextran itself were found to decrease the autoxidation rate of dex20-bHb. The
      conjugated dextran had a predominant effect on decreasing the autoxidation rate
      of bHb, which was particularly promising for the potential development of safe
      HBOCs. Conjugation with dextran is of general significance to decrease the
      oxidation process of the heme-containing proteins, such as Hb and myoglobin.

PMID- 28884613
TI  - Frequency of Adverse Event Monitoring in Ambulatory Patients on Amiodarone or
      Dofetilide.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Published studies state that adherence to regular laboratory
      assessments for anti-arrhythmic drugs is as low as 20%. Monitoring adherence is
      important as other studies have shown that up to 93% of patients on amiodarone
      experience an adverse drug event leading to a potentially lethal event.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients prescribed amiodarone or dofetilide are
      being monitored according to package labeling and guideline recommendations for
      adverse events. METHODS: Patients prescribed amiodarone or dofetilide from a 2
      year period were eligible for inclusion. Patients with ventricular arrhythmias,
      prescribed more than 1 anti-arrhythmic agent, or received anti-arrhythmic
      monitoring outside the health-care system were excluded. Adherence to monitoring
      parameters was assessed according to labeled recommendations and published
      guidelines. The primary objective was to determine the frequency of baseline and
      follow-up monitoring recommendations for patients receiving amiodarone or
      dofetilide. The secondary objective was to determine rates of adverse drug
      events. RESULTS: One hundred patients were evaluated (amiodarone n = 50,
      dofetilide n = 50). Average rates of baseline and follow-up amiodarone monitoring
      parameters were 55% and 57%, respectively. Average rates of baseline and follow
      up dofetilide monitoring were 99.6% and 85%, respectively. There was a
      statistically significant difference in abnormally elevated thyroid-stimulating
      hormone levels (8%-30%, P <= .005) after patients were prescribed amiodarone.
      Twelve percent of patients taking dofetilide had an increase in QTc interval by
      >15%. CONCLUSIONS: Amiodarone adverse event monitoring was lower than dofetilide
      in this cohort. Improving the monitoring of these agents may decrease morbidity
      risk in this population.

PMID- 28884614
TI  - Characteristics of Inmates Who Misuse Prescription Medication.
AB  - Substance use disorders are common among incarcerated individuals, and prescribed
      medications have been reported as abused, diverted, or otherwise misused in
      correctional settings. We conducted a retrospective chart review of electronic
      medical records and reports on institutional charges for misuse of authorized
      medication by inmates in the New Jersey Department of Corrections between 2003
      and 2013. The most frequently cited medications for misuse were gabapentin,
      diphenhydramine, clonidine, and ibuprofen. When compared with the entire current
      inmate population, subjects were more likely to have any history of a substance
      use disorder, to be in treatment for a mental illness, to have any diagnosis of
      antisocial personality disorder, to have any history of malingering, and to be
      prescribed a greater number of medicines. Prescribers in correctional settings
      should be aware that medications not traditionally prescribed by a psychiatrist
      may also be misused, and caution should be taken to manage this risk.

PMID- 28884615
TI  - Resveratrol-loaded nanoparticles conjugated with kidney injury molecule-1 as a
      drug delivery system for potential use in chronic kidney disease.
AB  - AIM: We used resveratrol (Res)-loaded nanoparticles (Res NPs) as a novel method
      for improving the pharmacokinetic properties of Res and analyzed the effect of
      Res NPs in chronic kidney disease (CKD). MATERIALS & METHODS: We coupled anti
      kidney injury molecule-1 antibodies to Res NPs and analyzed safety and efficacy.
      RESULTS: Res NPs had low toxicity and induced autophagy. Res NPs inhibited the
      NLRP3 inflammasome and IL-1beta secretion. Higher NLRP3 expression levels were
      observed in peripheral blood monocytic cells of CKD patients than healthy
      individuals. Treatment with kidney injury molecule-1-Res NPs significantly
      reduced creatinine and protected against tubulointerstitial injury in a murine
      model of CKD. CONCLUSION: Res NPs through NLRP3 inflammasome attenuation and
      autophagy induction may be as a strategy to prevent CKD.

PMID- 28884616
TI  - Effect of walking in footwear with varying heel sole differentials on shank and
      foot segment kinematics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: When walking in footwear with a positive "heel sole differential",
      the sagittal kinematics of the base of the footwear appear to mimic normal
      barefoot foot kinematics, creating an "effective foot," yet sagittal shank,
      thigh, and trunk kinematics appear to remain unchanged. These observations have
      not been quantified. OBJECTIVES: To quantify these observations by assessing the
      effect of different heel sole differentials on sagittal shank and foot segment
      kinematics of able-bodied walking. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS:
      Gait data from 10 nondisabled females were collected while they walked with no
      heel (mean heel sole differential = 0 (standard deviation = 0) mm), mid-heel
      (mean heel sole differential = 37 (standard deviation = 10) mm), and high-heel
      shoes (mean heel sole differential = 71 (standard deviation = 17) mm) to
      calculate the shank-to-vertical angle and foot-to-horizontal angle. RESULTS:
      There were no significant differences between shoe conditions in stride lengths (
      p = 0.056) or shank kinematics between 0% and 50% gait cycle ( p = 0.079). There
      were significant differences in foot kinematics ( p = 0.000), with foot segment
      angle increasing with increasing heel sole differential. CONCLUSION: The ankle
      joint and actual foot segment adapt their kinematics to maintain consistent shank
      kinematics. The finding that heel sole differential and foot segment angle can be
      varied without influencing shank segment kinematics has implications for orthotic
      and prosthetic practice. Clinical relevance Heel sole differentials of footwear
      can be varied without implications for shank kinematics, which is relevant for
      both orthotics and prosthetics. Assessments and interventions with varying heel
      sole differential footwear may be helpful in patients with short calf muscle or
      restricted ankle motion who may walk more normally if an appropriate heel sole
      differential were provided.

PMID- 28884617
TI  - Strengths and Gaps in Physicians' Risk Communication: A Scenario Study of the
      Influence of Numeracy on Cancer Screening Communication.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Many patients have low numeracy, which impedes their understanding of
      important information about health (e.g., benefits and harms of screening). We
      investigated whether physicians adapt their risk communication to accommodate the
      needs of patients with low numeracy, and how physicians' own numeracy influences
      their understanding and communication of screening statistics. METHODS: UK family
      physicians ( N = 151) read a description of a patient seeking advice on cancer
      screening. We manipulated the level of numeracy of the patient (low v. high v.
      unspecified) and measured physicians' risk communication, recommendation to the
      patient, understanding of screening statistics, and numeracy. RESULTS: Consistent
      with best practices, family physicians generally preferred to use visual aids
      rather than numbers when communicating information to a patient with low (v.
      high) numeracy. A substantial proportion of physicians (44%) offered high quality
      (i.e., complete and meaningful) risk communication to the patient. This was more
      often the case for physicians with higher (v. lower) numeracy who were more
      likely to mention mortality rates, OR=1.43 [1.10, 1.86], and harms from
      overdiagnosis, OR=1.44 [1.05, 1.98]. Physicians with higher numeracy were also
      more likely to understand that increased detection or survival rates do not
      demonstrate screening effectiveness, OR=1.61 [1.26, 2.06]. CONCLUSIONS: Most
      physicians know how to appropriately tailor risk communication for patients with
      low numeracy (i.e., with visual aids). However, physicians who themselves have
      low numeracy are likely to misunderstand the risks and unintentionally mislead
      patients by communicating incomplete information. High-quality risk communication
      and shared decision making can depend critically on factors that improve the risk
      literacy of physicians.

PMID- 28884619
TI  - Correction to: Arheiam, et al., Arab dentists' refusal to treat HIV positive
      patients: a survey of recently graduated dentists from three Arab dental schools.

PMID- 28884618
TI  - Predictors of Change in Quality of Life in Patients With End-Stage Disease During
      Hospitalization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Currently, there are no studies aimed at evaluating the quality of
      life (QoL) of patients with end-stage disease during hospitalization and the
      factors that influence it. AIM: The aim of the research was to identify
      predictors of change in the QoL of patients hospitalized due to advanced stage of
      disease. METHODS: The sample consisted of 140 patients with end-stage disease who
      were hospitalized on this account. For evaluation of QoL, the European
      Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire
      (EORTC QLQ-C30) was used. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Karnofsky
      Performance Status questionnaires were used for the assessment of mental and
      functional status. For the evaluation of predictors of negative change in QoL, a
      logistic regression analysis was used. RESULTS: During hospitalization, there was
      a significant deterioration in the scores given for all domains of the functional
      QLQ-C30 scale, but not the symptomatic scale. Predictors of change in overall QoL
      detected were marital status, improved functional status, and depression detected
      on admission to hospital. Gender and age were found to be protective factors
      against deterioration in overall QoL. CONCLUSION: Sociodemographic
      characteristics and mental and functional status may be associated with change in
      QoL of patients with end-stage disease during hospitalization.

PMID- 28884620
TI  - Nusinersen for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive
      degenerative neuromuscular disorder characterized by loss of spinal motor neurons
      leading to muscle weakness. This review article focuses on a novel antisense
      oligonucleotide treatment, first ever approved for SMA (nusinersen, SpinrazaTM)
      and describes the exciting journey from early ASO clinical trials to regulatory
      approval of the first ever known effective treatment for SMA. Areas covered: This
      article reviews the results of the published open label nusinersen studies in
      infants and children, and briefly covers the preliminary findings of the recently
      completed but as yet unpublished nusinersen-sham controlled trials, as well as
      the presymptomatic nusinersen trial known as Nurture. Clinical use of nusinersen
      is also reviewed. Expert commentary: Collectively, the studies show improvement
      in motor function across SMA of all types, including SMA type 3. Best motor
      response was observed with early treatment; presymptomatic treatment prevented
      disease manifestations. Nusinersen was found to be safe and well tolerated across
      all age groups studied. Nusinersen has irrevocably altered the natural history of
      SMA and allowed for the first time children to transition between SMA types.
      Nusinersen should be considered as standard of care for the treatment of SMA of
      all types.

PMID- 28884621
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28884623
TI  - Association Between Weather Variables, Airborne Inoculum Concentration, and
      Raspberry Fruit Rot Caused by Botrytis cinerea.
AB  - Botrytis fruit rot (BFR), one of the most important diseases of raspberry (Rubus
      spp.), is controlled primarily with fungicides. Despite the use of fungicides,
      crop losses due to BFR are high in most years. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the association between airborne inoculum, weather variables, and BFR
      in order to improve the management of the disease as well as harvest and storage
      decisions. Crop losses, measured as the percentage of diseased berries during the
      harvest period, were monitored in unsprayed field plots at four sites in three
      successive years, together with meteorological data and the number of conidia in
      the air. Based on windowpane analysis, there was no evidence of correlation
      between crop losses and temperature, vapor pressure deficit, wind, solar
      radiation, or probability of infection. There were significant correlations
      between crop losses and airborne inoculum and between crop losses and humidity
      related variables, and the best window length was identified as 7 days. Using 7
      day average airborne inoculum concentration combined with 7-day average relative
      humidity for periods ending 6 to 8 days before bloom, it was possible to
      accurately predict crop losses (R2 of 0.86 to 0.89). These models could be used
      to assist with managing BFR, timing harvests, and optimizing storage duration in
      raspberry crops.

PMID- 28884622
TI  - Ex Vivo and In Vivo Noninvasive Imaging of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor
      Inhibition on Colon Tumorigenesis Using Activatable Near-Infrared Fluorescent
      Probes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging combined with enzyme
      activatable NIRF probes has yielded promising results in cancer detection.
      OBJECTIVE: To test whether 3-dimensional (3-D) noninvasive in vivo NIRF imaging
      can detect effects of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor on both
      polypoid and flat tumor load in azoxymethane (AOM)-induced colon tumors or tumors
      in ApcMin/+ mice. METHODS: The AOM-injected KK-HIJ mice received EGFR inhibitor
      diet or chow diet. These and ApcMin/+ mice were given cathepsin-activatable
      probes (ProSense 680) before imaging. In vivo imaging was performed using
      quantitative tomographic NIRF imaging. Ex vivo imaging and histologic examination
      were performed. Dual imaging by micro computed tomography (CT) and 3D NIRF
      imaging was used to verify tumor location. RESULTS: Tumor load reduction by EGFR
      inhibition was detected ex vivo using cathepsin B probes. In vivo imaging
      revealed intense activation of probes only in large tumors. Dual imaging with
      microCT and 3D NIRF imaging improved tumor detection in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: The 3
      D NIRF imaging with ProSense 680 can detect and quantify drug effects on colon
      tumors ex vivo. The NIRF imaging with ProSense 680 probe has limitations as a
      valid nonendoscopic method for intestinal tumor detection. Combing with other
      imaging modalities will improve the specificity and sensitivity of intestinal
      tumor detection in vivo.

PMID- 28884624
TI  - Identification of Weather Conditions Associated with the Occurrence, Severity,
      and Incidence of Black Seed Disease of Strawberry Caused by Mycosphaerella
      fragariae.
AB  - Black seed disease (BSD) of strawberry is a sporadic disease caused by
      Mycosphaerella fragariae. Because little is known about potential crop losses or
      the weather conditions conducive to disease development, fungicides are generally
      not applied or are applied based on a preset schedule. Data collected from 2000
      to 2011 representing 50 farm-years (total of 186 strawberry fields) were used to
      determine potential crop losses and to study the influence of weather on disease
      occurrence and development. First, logistic regression was used to model the
      relationship between occurrence of BSD and weather variables. Second, linear and
      nonlinear regressions were used to model the number of black seed per berry
      (severity) and the percentage of diseased berries (incidence). Of the 186 fields
      monitored, 78 showed black seed symptoms, and the number of black seed per berry
      ranged from 1 to 10, whereas the percentage of diseased berries ranged from 3 to
      32%. The most influential weather variable was total rainfall (in millimeters) in
      May, with a threshold of 103 mm of rain (absence of BSD < 103 mm < presence of
      BSD). Similarly, nonlinear models with the total rainfall in May accurately
      predicted both disease severity and incidence (r = 0.94 and 0.97, respectively).
      Considering that management actions such as fungicide application are not needed
      every year in every field, these models could be used to identify fields that are
      at risk of BSD.

PMID- 28884626
TI  - In silico and empirical approaches toward understanding the structural adaptation
      of the alkaline-stable lipase KV1 from Acinetobacter haemolyticus.
AB  - Interests in Acinetobacter haemolyticus lipases are showing an increasing trend
      concomitant with growth of the enzyme industry and the widening search for novel
      enzymes and applications. Here, we present a structural model that reveals the
      key catalytic residues of lipase KV1 from A. haemolyticus. Homology modeling of
      the lipase structure was based on the structure of a carboxylesterase from the
      archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus as the template, which has a sequence that is 58%
      identical to that of lipase KV1. The lipase KV1 model is comprised of a single
      compact domain consisting of seven parallel and one anti-parallel beta-strand
      surrounded by nine alpha-helices. Three structurally conserved active-site
      residues, Ser165, Asp259, and His289, and a tunnel through which substrates
      access the binding site were identified. Docking of the substrates tributyrin and
      palmitic acid into the pH 8 modeled lipase KV1 active sites revealed an aromatic
      platform responsible for the substrate recognition and preference toward
      tributyrin. The resulting binding modes from the docking simulation correlated
      well with the experimentally determined hydrolysis pattern, for which pH 8 and
      tributyrin being the optimum pH and preferred substrate. The results reported
      herein provide useful insights into future structure-based tailoring of lipase
      KV1 to modulate its catalytic activity.

PMID- 28884627
TI  - Apoptosis-mediated neurotoxicity and altered gene expression induced by silver
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Although not fully recognized, the neurotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag
      NPs) are thought to occur through induction of oxidative stress and apoptosis. To
      investigate the exact underlying molecular mechanism, we aimed to explore the
      apoptotic effects of intraperitoneal injection of Ag-NPs and investigated the
      possible attributed changes in the mRNA expression of Bcl-2 and Bax genes in the
      rat hippocampus. Two in vivo sets of experiments, one to demonstrate apoptosis
      and the other to assess gene expression, were conducted on male Wistar rats. In
      each set, the first group, acting as control, received saline and the other three
      groups received Ag-NP at doses of 100, 200, and 400 ppm for five successive days.
      Ten days after the last injection, hippocampal tissue of the first set of rats
      was assessed for apoptosis using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated
      deoxy uridine triphosphate nick-end labeling staining. In the second set of
      experiments, mRNA expression of Bcl-2 and Bax genes was evaluated using real-time
      polymerase chain reaction. Ag-NP treatment was shown to induce apoptosis in a
      dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, Ag-NP reduced mRNA level of Bcl-2 in the rat
      hippocampal cells at all investigated doses compared to the control group ( p <
      0.001). The mRNA level of Bax, on the other hand, was increased in these cells.
      The increase was significant compared to the control group at the doses of 200
      ppm ( p < 0.05) and 400 ppm ( p < 0.001). Our results show that Ag-NPs reduce Bcl
      2 and increase Bax genes expression, resulting in increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratios in
      rat hippocampal cells. This altered gene expression induces cell apoptosis and
      contributes to the neurotoxicity of Ag-NPs.

PMID- 28884628
TI  - The effect of tannic acid on bone mechanical and geometric properties, bone
      density, and trabecular histomorphometry as well as the morphology of articular
      and growth cartilages in rats co-exposed to cadmium and lead is dose dependent.
AB  - Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are toxic elements that accumulate to the largest
      extent in bones. Rats were used to investigate whether tannic acid (TA; 0.5%,
      1.0%, 1.5%. 2.0%, or 2.5%) would have a protective effect on the structure and
      properties of bones in the case of exposure to Cd and Pb (diet: 7 mg Cd/kg and 50
      mg Pb/kg) for 6 weeks. The effects of administration of TA in Cd- and Pb-poisoned
      rats on bone characteristics and the morphology of articular and growth
      cartilages were determined. All the rats administered Cd and Pb had an enhanced
      Cd and Pb concentration in blood plasma and bone and reduced bone Ca content
      irrespective of the TA administration. Cd and Pb alone reduced the mechanical
      endurance and histomorphometric parameters of trabecular bone and the thickness
      of the growth plate and articular cartilage. Tannic acid improved cancellous bone
      parameters in the rat exposed to Cd and Pb. A diet rich in TA improved articular
      cartilage constituents in heavy metal-poisoned rats. These results suggest that
      alimentary TA supplementation can counteract in a dose-dependent manner some of
      the destructive changes evoked by Cd and Pb possibly by reducing the exposure.

PMID- 28884629
TI  - Maternal Lifestyle Impairs Embryonic Growth: The Rotterdam Periconception Cohort.
AB  - Previously, embryonic growth has been assumed to be uniform, but in recent years,
      it has become more clear that genetic and environmental factors may influence the
      intrauterine environment and therefore embryonic growth trajectories as well as
      pregnancy course and outcome. The objective of this study was to investigate
      associations between modifiable maternal nutrition and lifestyle factors during
      the periconception period and embryonic growth. We established a prospective
      cohort including 342 women less than 13 weeks pregnant. At enrollment, women
      filled out a questionnaire regarding demographic and medical data and a validated
      food frequency questionnaire. Participants received multiple 3-dimensional
      ultrasound examinations up until the 12th week of pregnancy, and crown-rump
      length (CRL) and embryonic volume (EV) were measured offline using V-Scope
      Virtual Reality software (version 1.0.0) in a Barco I-Space. Associations between
      maternal periconception vegetable and fruit intake, folic acid supplement use,
      smoking, and alcohol consumption and embryonic growth measurements were assessed
      by linear mixed models adjusted for potential confounders. No or postconception
      initiation of folic acid supplement use was significantly associated with a 0.76
      mm (-7.8%) and 1.63 mm (-3.7%) smaller CRL and a 0.01 cm3 (-19.5%) and 0.86 cm3 (
      12.2%) smaller EV at 7+0 and 11+0 weeks of gestation, respectively. Smoking,
      alcohol consumption, and inadequate fruit and vegetable intake showed weaker
      associations with embryonic growth parameters. These results emphasize the
      influence of periconceptional maternal folic acid supplement use on embryonic
      growth. Results regarding maternal nutrition and lifestyle factors also suggest
      an association with embryonic growth, but this has to be confirmed in a larger
      study.

PMID- 28884630
TI  - Fetal and Placental DNA Stimulation of TLR9: A Mechanism Possibly Contributing to
      the Pro-inflammatory Events During Parturition.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: While there is evidence for a relationship between cell-free fetal
      DNA (cffDNA) and parturition, questions remain regarding whether cffDNA could
      trigger a pro-inflammatory response on the pathway to parturition. We
      hypothesized that placental and/or fetal DNA stimulates toll-like receptor 9
      (TLR9) leading to secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by macrophage cells.
      METHODS: Four in vitro DNA stimulation studies were performed using RAW 264.7
      mouse peritoneal macrophage cells incubated in media containing the following DNA
      particles: an oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN2395), intact genomic DNA (from mouse
      placentas, fetuses and adult liver), mouse DNA complexed with DOTAP (a cationic
      liposome forming compound), and telomere-depleted mouse DNA. Interleukin 6 (IL6)
      secretion was measured in the media by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; and the
      cell pellet was homogenized for protein content (picograms IL6/mg protein).
      RESULTS: Robust IL6 secretion was observed in response to ODN2395 (a CpG-rich
      TLR9 agonist), mouse DNA-DOTAP complexes, and telomere-depleted mouse DNA in
      concentrations of 5 to 15 MUg/mL. In contrast, ODN A151 (containing telomere
      sequence motifs), intact genomic mouse DNA, and restriction enzyme-digested DNA
      had no effect on IL6 secretion. The IL6 response was significantly inhibited by
      chloroquine (10 MUg/mL), thereby confirming the important role for TLR9 in the
      response by macrophage cells. CONCLUSIONS: DNA derived from mouse placentas and
      fetuses, and depleted of telomeric sequences, stimulates a robust pro
      inflammatory response by macrophage cells, thereby supporting the hypothesis that
      cffDNA is able to stimulate an innate immune response that could trigger the
      onset of parturition. These findings are of clinical importance, as we search for
      effective treatment/prevention of preterm parturition.

PMID- 28884631
TI  - Takotsubo cardiomyopathy associated with Paragonimiasis westermani.
AB  - An 11-year-old boy collapsed during morning assembly at his junior high school.
      The automated external defibrillator detected ventricular fibrillation and
      provided shock delivery. He was successfully resuscitated and reverted to sinus
      rhythm. Electrocardiography showed ST-T elevation in the precordial leads.
      Echocardiography and angiography demonstrated akinesia of the apex and mid-wall
      of the left ventricle with preserved contraction of the basal segments, which
      suggested Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. The patient and his family had often eaten
      uncooked crab, and his father had a past history of infection with Paragonimiasis
      westermani. The patient had had a persistent cough and chest pain for several
      weeks. Chest radiograph showed cystic cavities in the left upper lung.
      Microbiological examination of the sputum demonstrated an egg of P. westermani
      and immunological assay showed a raised antibody titre to P. westermani. On
      the12th day of admission, he developed seizures, and magnetic resonance imaging
      demonstrated cerebral involvement. After the administration of praziquantel for 3
      days, the clinical manifestations improved immediately, and echocardiography
      normalised within 3 weeks. The patient was discharged on the 32nd day + and
      follow-up was normal. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy following a potentially fatal
      arrhythmia is a rare cardiac complication associated with pulmonary and central
      nervous system infection by P. westermani.

PMID- 28884632
TI  - A comprehensive analysis of the computed tautomer fractions of the imidazole ring
      of histidines in Loligo vulgaris.
AB  - A recently introduced electrostatic-based method to determine the pKa values of
      ionizable residues and fractions of ionized and tautomeric forms of histidine
      (His) and acid residues in proteins, at a given fixed pH, is applied here to the
      analysis of a His-rich protein, namely Loligo vulgaris (pdb id 1E1A), a 314
      residue all-beta protein. The average tautomeric fractions for the imidazole ring
      of each of the six histidines in the sequence were computed using an approach
      that includes, but is not limited to, molecular dynamic simulations coupled with
      calculations of the ionization states for all 94 ionizable residues of protein
      1E1A in water at pH 6.5 and 300 K. The electrostatic-calculated tautomeric
      fractions of the imidazole ring of His were compared with predictions obtained
      from an existent NMR-based methodology. Our results indicate that: (i) the
      averaged electrostatic-based tautomeric predictions for the imidazole ring of all
      histidines of Loligo vulgaris are dominated by the Nepsilon2-H rather than the
      Ndelta1-H form, although such preferences from the NMR-based methodology are not
      so well defined; (ii) the computed average absolute difference between the
      electrostatic- and the NMR-based tautomeric predictions among all six histidines
      vary among 0% to 17%; (iii) for the His showing the largest fraction of the
      neutral form (81%), the absolute difference between the NMR- and electrostatic
      based computed tautomeric predictions is only 3%; and (iv) the tautomeric
      predictions for the imidazole ring of His computed with the NMR-based methodology
      are stable within a certain, well-defined, range of variations of a tautomer
      related parameter.

PMID- 28884633
TI  - Oxidative removal of aromatic amino acids by manganese dioxide: kinetic modeling
      and effect of co-solutes.
AB  - The degradation of aromatic amino acids, including L-tryptophan, L-tyrosine, and
      L-phenylalanine, by delta-MnO2 was investigated. L-tryptophan and L-tyrosine
      underwent rapid oxidative degradation in the delta-MnO2 suspension solution. In
      contrast, L-phenylalanine was not oxidized by delta-MnO2. The degradation of L
      tryptophan was faster than that of L-tyrosine. The oxidation rates of amino acids
      increased with increasing concentration of delta-MnO2. The increase of
      concentrations of substrates and pH disfavored the degradation. The kinetics
      modeling showed that the reaction orders of amino acids, MnO2, and H+ were 0.67,
      1.24, 0.72 and 0.32, 1.20, 1.05 for L-tryptophan and L-tyrosine, respectively.
      The coexistence of metal ions markedly inhibited the degradation in the order of
      Al3+ > Mn2+ > Zn2+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+. The inhibition effect of metal ions was related
      to the stability constant and hydration radius of metal ions. The addition of
      fulvic acid to the reaction solutions did not affect the degradation of
      substrate. This finding suggests that delta-MnO2 selectively oxidize aromatic
      amino acids and it can be used as an efficient oxidant for the removal of certain
      aromatic acid pollutants.

PMID- 28884634
TI  - The context and quality of evidence used by tobacco interests to oppose ANVISA's
      2012 regulations in Brazil.
AB  - Evidence is an important resource for policy makers. Alongside its practical
      utility, evidence is a persuasive strategic and rhetorical tool. This study
      scrutinises the information used by tobacco interests in opposition to Brazil's
      National Health Surveillance Agency's (ANVISA) 2012 regulations. We analysed one
      prominent document widely cited in the policy discourse, produced by Fundacao
      Getulio Vargas (FGV) in 2010 when ANVISA initiated public consultations. The FGV
      document formed the basis of opposition to the regulations. We conducted four
      levels of analysis of the FGV document: (1) identifying the main arguments, (2)
      linking the arguments with evidence, (3) analysing the quality of evidence and
      (4) a contextual analysis, examining how evidence was interpreted and
      represented. Three of five arguments were supported by information produced by an
      external source. Sixty eight percent of evidence sources were supported by the
      tobacco industry and only 31% were peer-reviewed. Information was often
      misrepresented in the arguments. Tobacco interests continue to draw from sources
      they claim are scientific to legitimise their opposition to tobacco regulation.
      The information from these sources are often misrepresented, used to distract
      from the health objectives of policy and receive direct or indirect support from
      the tobacco industry.

PMID- 28884635
TI  - Psoriasis in solid organ transplant patients: best practice recommendations from
      The Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment of solid organ transplant patients who have psoriasis can
      be a therapeutic challenge. Biologic and systemic drugs used to treat psoriasis
      can result in an increase in infections or malignancies. OBJECTIVE: We sought to
      develop a treatment algorithm for organ transplant recipients (OTR) diagnosed
      with psoriasis vulgaris. METHODS: A systematic literature search for psoriasis
      treatment in organ transplant patients was performed using MEDLINE and GOOGLE.
      RESULTS: In mild-to-moderate disease, topical therapy should be a first-line
      treatment. In moderate-to-severe disease, first-line treatment is acitretin with
      narrow band ultraviolet light (NBUVB), NBUVB, or acitretin. Second-line treatment
      is increasing the current antirejection drug dose. Other systemic or biologic
      therapies should be reserved for more severe or refractory cases. CONCLUSION: No
      systematic clinical studies have been done to explore psoriasis treatments among
      affected solid organ transplant patients who have psoriasis, and only a few case
      reports are available. The algorithm for best practices was developed based on
      these reports and on the clinical experience and judgment of the Medical Board of
      the National Psoriasis Foundation. There remains a need for further research on
      the management of psoriasis in the organ transplant patient population.

PMID- 28884636
TI  - Acceptability of the POWERPLAY Program: A Workplace Health Promotion Intervention
      for Men.
AB  - The workplace health promotion program, POWERPLAY, was developed, implemented,
      and comprehensively evaluated among men working in four male-dominated worksites
      in northern British Columbia, Canada. The purpose of this study was to explore
      the POWERPLAY program's acceptability and gather recommendations for program
      refinement. The mixed-method study included end-of-program survey data collected
      from 103 male POWERPLAY program participants, interviews with workplace leads,
      and field notes recorded during program implementation. Data analyses involved
      descriptive statistics for quantitative data and inductive analysis of open-ended
      questions and qualitative data. Among participants, 70 (69%) reported being
      satisfied with the program, 51 (51%) perceived the program to be tailored for
      northern men, 56 (62%) believed the handouts provided useful information, and 75
      (74%) would recommend this program to other men. The findings also highlight
      program implementation experiences with respect to employee engagement, feedback,
      and recommendations for future delivery. The POWERPLAY program provides an
      acceptable approach for health promotion that can serve as a model for advancing
      men's health in other contexts.

PMID- 28884639
TI  - A Call for Gender-Inclusive Global Health Strategies.
AB  - The WHO's "Global Strategy for Women's, Children's, and Adolescents' Health 2016
      2030" (GS-WCAH 2016-2030) is a comprehensive plan developed to improve the lives
      of women, children, and adolescents. Due to the success in the creation,
      ratification, and advocacy of the GS-WCAH 2016-2030, the clear health outcome
      disparities between males and females, and the general absence of male health
      from existing policies and sponsored programs, it is time now to develop a global
      strategy specifically drafted to improve the lives of men and boys. The following
      commentary provides three points for why a male-oriented program, like the GS
      WCAH 2016-2030, should be created: (a) health outcomes disparities, (b) economic
      impact of poor male health, and (c) fathers' role in promoting the health of
      women, children, and adolescents. Implications for how male health can be
      incorporated into future projects and priorities are provided, as well as
      advocacy for overall gender-inclusivity in regard to global public health
      efforts.

PMID- 28884637
TI  - Men's Mental Health Promotion Interventions: A Scoping Review.
AB  - There is an increasing need for mental health promotion strategies that
      effectively engage men. Although researchers have examined the effectiveness of
      diverse mental wellness interventions in male-dominated industries, and reviewed
      suicide prevention, early intervention, and health promotion interventions for
      boys and men, few have focused on sex-specific program effects. The purpose of
      this review was to (a) extend the previous reviews to examine the effectiveness
      of mental health promotion programs in males, and (b) evaluate the integration of
      gender-specific influences in the content and delivery of men's mental health
      promotion programs. A search of MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and EMBASE databases
      for articles published between January 2006 and December 2016 was conducted.
      Findings from the 25 included studies indicated that a variety of strategies
      offered within (9 studies) and outside (16 studies) the workplace show promise
      for promoting men's mental health. Although stress was a common area of focus (14
      studies), the majority of studies targeted multiple outcomes, including some
      indicators of positive well-being such as self-efficacy, resilience, self-esteem,
      work performance, and happiness/quality of life. The majority of programs were
      offered to both men and women, and six studies explicitly integrated gender
      related influences in male-specific programs in ways that recognized men's
      interests and preferences.

PMID- 28884638
TI  - Low-Intensity Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy Can Improve Erectile Function in
      Patients Who Failed to Respond to Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors.
AB  - Managing patients with erectile dysfunction (ED) who failed to respond to
      phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5is) is a challenging task. Recently, low
      intensity extracorporeal shockwave therapy (LI-ESWT) was reported to improve ED
      by enhancing perfusion of the penis. The current study was performed to evaluate
      whether combined treatment with LI-ESWT and PDE5is can restore erectile function
      in patients who failed to respond to PDE5is alone. This was an open-label single
      arm prospective study. ED patients with an erection hardness score (EHS) ?2 under
      a maximal dosage of PDE5is were enrolled. Sociodemographic information and
      detailed medical history were recorded. LI-ESWT treatment consisted of 3,000
      shockwaves once weekly for 12 weeks. All patients continued their regular PDE5is
      use. The EHS and the 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile
      Function (IIEF-5) were used to evaluate the change in erectile function 1 and 3
      months after LI-ESWT. A total of 52 patients were enrolled. After LI-ESWT
      treatment, 35 of the 52 patients (67.3%) could achieve an erection hard enough
      for intercourse (EHS ? 3) under PDE5is use at the 1-month follow-up. Initial
      severity of ED was the only significant predictor of a successful response (EHS1:
      35.7% vs. EHS2: 78.9%, p = .005). Thirty-three of the 35 (94.3%) subjects who
      responded to LI-ESWT could still maintain their erectile function at the 3-month
      follow-up. LI-ESWT can serve as a salvage therapy for ED patients who failed to
      respond to PDE5is. Initial severity of ED was an important predictor of a
      successful response.

PMID- 28884640
TI  - Advocacy and Legislative Engagement: Every School Nurse's Responsibility.
AB  - It is a professional responsibility of school nurses to be engaged with their
      elected officials and the legislative process. Legislative contact can be an
      intimidating process, but nurses and the public in general can be prepared
      through their elected official's website and professional association resources.
      Background information and voting history from legislative sessions along with
      current bills can guide the conversation leading to a productive encounter for
      all participants.

PMID- 28884641
TI  - Paint Your Definition of School Nursing.

PMID- 28884642
TI  - The ABCs of Burn Care for School-Age Children.
AB  - Burn injuries are among the most painful injuries any child can endure. This
      article explains common sources of burn injuries in student populations,
      diagnosis and classification of burn injuries, initial burn management, and how
      to determine when a child needs to be evaluated by a physician.

PMID- 28884643
TI  - The Role of the Designated State Data Champion.
AB  - Step Up & Be Counted! (Step Up!) is a joint project of the National Association
      of School Nurses (NASN) and the National Association of State School Nurse
      Consultants (NASSNC). The goal of the initiative is to develop a National School
      Nurse Standardized Data Set that will be used by nurses across the country to
      uniformly collect data the same way. The data will be used to determine the
      health of children and youth, the care that is delivered in schools, and the
      impact of school nurses on academic success and well-being. This article focuses
      on the role of the Designated State Data Champion in the initiative.

PMID- 28884644
TI  - The role of language in expressing the life sciences in a polarized age.
AB  - This Perspective is based on the keynote plenary lecture delivered at the Annual
      Conference of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS), held on
      October 23, 2015, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PMID- 28884645
TI  - The "chicken-and-egg" development of political opinionsThe roles of genes, social
      status, ideology, and information.
AB  - Twin studies have revealed political ideology to be partially heritable.
      Neurological research has shown that ideological differences are reflected in
      brain structure and response, suggesting a direct genotype-phenotype link. Social
      and informational environments, however, also demonstrably affect brain structure
      and response. This leads to a "chicken-and-egg" question: do genes produce brains
      with ideological predispositions, causing the preferential absorption of
      consonant information and thereby forming an ideology, or do social and
      informational environments do most of the heavy lifting, with genetic evidence
      the spurious artifact of outdated methodology? Or are both inextricably
      intertwined contributors? This article investigates the relative contributions of
      genetic and environmental factors to ideological development using a role-play
      experiment investigating the development of opinions on a novel political issue.
      The results support the view that the process is bidirectional, suggesting that,
      like most traits, political ideology is produced by the complex interplay of
      genetic and (social/informational) environmental influences.

PMID- 28884650
TI  - Communities ready for takeoffIntegrating social assets for biofuel site-selection
      modeling.
AB  - Although much of the social science literature supports the importance of
      community assets for success in many policy areas, these assets are often
      overlooked when selecting communities for new infrastructure facilities.
      Extensive collaboration is crucial for the success of environmental and economic
      projects, yet it often is not adequately addressed when making siting decisions
      for new projects. This article develops a social asset framework that includes
      social, creative, and human capital to inform site-selection decisions. This
      framework is applied to the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance project to
      assess community suitability for biofuel-related developments. This framework is
      the first to take all necessary community assets into account, providing insight
      into successful site selection beyond current models. The framework not only
      serves as a model for future biorefinery projects but also guides tasks that
      depend on informed location selection for success.

PMID- 28884651
TI  - Nonverbal contention and contempt in U.K. parliamentary oversight hearings on
      fiscal and monetary policy.
AB  - In parliamentary committee oversight hearings on fiscal policy, monetary policy,
      and financial stability, where verbal deliberation is the focus, nonverbal
      communication may be crucial in the acceptance or rejection of arguments
      proffered by policymakers. Systematic qualitative coding of these hearings in the
      2010-15 U.K. Parliament finds the following: (1) facial expressions, particularly
      in the form of anger and contempt, are more prevalent in fiscal policy hearings,
      where backbench parliamentarians hold frontbench parliamentarians to account,
      than in monetary policy or financial stability hearings, where the witnesses
      being held to account are unelected policy experts; (2) comparing committees
      across chambers, hearings in the House of Lords committee yield more reassuring
      facial expressions relative to hearings in the House of Commons committee,
      suggesting a more relaxed and less adversarial context in the former; and (3)
      central bank witnesses appearing before both the Lords and Commons committees
      tend toward expressions of appeasement, suggesting a willingness to defer to
      Parliament.

PMID- 28884652
TI  - The incidence of pregnancy-related stroke: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Background Stroke risk is increased during pregnancy, but estimates of pregnancy
      related stroke incidence vary widely. Aims A systematic review and meta-analysis
      was conducted to assess the incidence of stroke during pregnancy and the
      puerperium. Ovid Medline, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science were searched for
      studies published between 1990 and January 2017 reporting stroke incidence during
      pregnancy and postpartum, from defined pregnancy populations. Pooled analyses
      were conducted using a random effects approach and expressed as an incidence rate
      per 100,000 pregnancies, with 95% confidence intervals. Subgroup analyses of
      stroke type and timing were conducted. Summary of review Eleven studies met
      inclusion criteria. Variation in estimated rates was noted based on geography and
      study methodology. The pooled crude rate of pregnancy-related stroke was 30.0 per
      100,000 pregnancies (95% confidence interval 18.8-47.9). The pooled crude rates
      from nonhemorrhagic stroke (arterial and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis) were
      19.9 (95% confidence interval 10.7-36.9) and from hemorrhage 12.2 (95% confidence
      interval 6.4-23.2) per 100,000 pregnancies. For studies separately reporting
      cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, the rates were roughly equal between ischemic
      stroke (12.2, 95% confidence interval 6.7-22.2), cerebral venous sinus thrombosis
      (9.1, 95% confidence interval 4.3-18.9), and hemorrhage (12.2, 95% confidence
      interval 6.4-23.2). The crude stroke rate for antenatal/perinatal stroke was 18.3
      (95% confidence interval 11.9-28.2), and for postpartum stroke was 14.7 (95%
      confidence interval 8.3-26.1). Conclusions Stroke affects 30.0 per 100,000
      pregnancies, with ischemia, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, and hemorrhage
      causing roughly equal numbers and with highest risk peripartum and postpartum.
      Organized approaches to the management of this high-risk population, informed by
      existing evidence from stroke and obstetrical care are needed.

PMID- 28884653
TI  - Smartphone electrographic monitoring for atrial fibrillation in acute ischemic
      stroke and transient ischemic attack.
AB  - Rationale Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is a common and preventable cause of
      devastating strokes. However, currently available monitoring methods, including
      Holter monitoring, cardiac telemetry and event loop recorders, have drawbacks
      that restrict their application in the general stroke population. AliveCorTM
      heart monitor, a novel device that embeds miniaturized electrocardiography (ECG)
      in a smartphone case coupled with an application to record and diagnose the ECG,
      has recently been shown to provide an accurate and sensitive single lead ECG
      diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. This device could be used by nurses to record a
      30-s ECG instead of manual pulse taking and automatically provide a diagnosis of
      atrial fibrillation. Aims To compare the proportion of patients with paroxysmal
      atrial fibrillation detected by AliveCorTM ECG monitoring with current standard
      practice. Sample size 296 Patients. Design Consecutive ischemic stroke and
      transient ischemic attack patients presenting to participating stroke units
      without known atrial fibrillation will undergo intermittent AliveCorTM ECG
      monitoring administered by nursing staff at the same frequency as the vital
      observations of pulse and blood pressure until discharge, in addition to the
      standard testing paradigm of each participating stroke unit to detect paroxysmal
      atrial fibrillation. Study outcome Proportion of patients with paroxysmal atrial
      fibrillation detected by AliveCorTM ECG monitoring compared to 12-lead ECG, 24-h
      Holter monitoring and cardiac telemetry. Discussion Use of AliveCorTM heart
      monitor as part of routine stroke unit nursing observation has the potential to
      be an inexpensive non-invasive method to increase paroxysmal atrial fibrillation
      detection, leading to improvement in stroke secondary prevention.

PMID- 28884654
TI  - Controlled clinical trials of cell therapy in stroke: Meta-analysis at six months
      after treatment.
AB  - Background Cell therapy is promising in experimental studies and has been
      assessed only in a few studies on humans. Aims To evaluate the effect of cell
      therapy in humans. Methods We included clinical trials with a control group that
      reported safety and efficacy six months following treatment. Quality was
      evaluated and clinical scales data were extracted. Quantitative analysis was
      based on the standardized means difference (SMD). Among 28 trials published from
      1995 to 2016, nine studies (194 patients; 191 controls) were eligible.
      Publication biases were assessed with the funnel plot and pre-specified
      explanatory variables were tested with a group analysis and a meta-regression.
      Results The overall quality was moderate. Cell therapy had a positive effect on
      the outcome (SMD: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.22-0.92; p = 0.002). The sensitivity analysis
      showed an upper level of effect size of 0.81 (95% CI: 0.34-1.27; p = 0.001) and a
      lower level of 0.455 (95% CI: 0.04-0.87; p = 0.03). None of the pre-specified
      explanatory variable was significantly correlated to outcome: age, ratio
      infarction/hemorrhage, delay from stroke to treatment, route of administration,
      cell type, randomization, and blinded outcome assessment. The significant
      heterogeneity (p = 0.03) was not explained by publication biases (p = 0.09) and
      was more likely due to methodological and quality differences between the trials.
      Conclusions This result suggests that cell therapy is beneficial in stroke and is
      expected to help in the designing of stem cells controlled clinical trials (CCT)
      in large populations.

PMID- 28884655
TI  - Screening for the presence of lipophilic marine biotoxins in shellfish samples
      using the neuro-2a bioassay.
AB  - The neuro-2a bioassay is considered as one of the most promising cell-based in
      vitro bioassays for the broad screening of seafood products for the presence of
      marine biotoxins. The neuro-2a assay has been shown to detect a wide array of
      toxins like paralytic shellfish poisons (PSPs), ciguatoxins, and also lipophilic
      marine biotoxins (LMBs). However, the neuro-2a assay is rarely used for routine
      testing of samples due to matrix effects that, for example, lead to false
      positives when testing for LMBs. As a result there are only limited data on
      validation and evaluation of its performance on real samples. In the present
      study, the standard extraction procedure for LMBs was adjusted by introducing an
      additional clean-up step with n-hexane. Recovery losses due to this extra step
      were less than 10%. This wash step was a crucial addition in order to eliminate
      false-positive outcomes due to matrix effects. Next, the applicability of this
      assay was assessed by testing a broad range of shellfish samples contaminated
      with various LMBs, including diarrhetic shellfish toxins/poisons (DSPs). For
      comparison, the samples were also analysed by LC-MS/MS. Standards of all
      regulated LMBs were tested, including analogues of some of these toxins. The
      neuro-2a cells showed good sensitivity towards all compounds. Extracts of 87
      samples, both blank and contaminated with various toxins, were tested. The neuro
      2a outcomes were in line with those of LC-MS/MS analysis and support the
      applicability of this assay for the screening of samples for LMBs. However, for
      use in a daily routine setting, the test might be further improved and we discuss
      several recommended modifications which should be considered before a full
      validation is carried out.

PMID- 28884656
TI  - Preface: Studies on Understanding and Anti-Tumor Agents of Reproductive Cancer
      Cells.

PMID- 28884657
TI  - The prevalence and progression of mild cognitive impairment among clinic and
      community populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been reported that up to 42% of the population aged over 60
      are affected by mild cognitive impairment (MCI) worldwide. This study aims to
      investigate the prevalence and progression of MCI through a meta-analysis.
      METHODS: We searched Embase and PubMed for relevant literature. Stable disease
      rate (SR), reversion rate (RR), dementia rate (DR), and Alzheimer's disease rate
      (AR) were used to evaluate the progression of MCI. The prevalence and progression
      rates were both obtained by reported percentile and indirect data analysis.
      Additionally, we carried out sensitivity analysis of each index by excluding some
      studies due to influence analysis with the most publication bias. RESULTS: Effect
      size (ES) was used to present adjusted overall prevalence (16%) and progression
      rates including SR (45%), RR (15%), DR (34%), and AR (28%) of MCI. Compared with
      clinic-based outcomes, MCI prevalence, SR, and RR are significantly higher in
      community, while DR and AR are lower. Despite significant heterogeneity found
      among the studies, no publication bias was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Age and gender
      were observed to be associated with MCI, in which age was considered as an impact
      factor for DR. The strong heterogeneity may result from variations in study
      design and baselines. Standardized MCI criteria were suggested to systematically
      evaluate MCI in the future.

PMID- 28884658
TI  - Sphingobacterium corticis sp. nov., isolated from bark of Populus * euramericana.
AB  - A Gram-stain negative, aerobic, non-motile bacterial strain, 23D10-4-9T, was
      isolated from symptomatic canker bark tissue of Populus * euramericana. The
      isolate grew between 4 and 35  degrees C, with optimal growth occurring at 25 
      degrees C. The species was positive for catalase and negative for oxidase
      activity. Nitrate was not reduced to nitrite. It showed activities toward beta
      galactosidase and beta-glucosidase. Citrate was not utilized. Acid was produced
      from d-glucose. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 1omega7c and iso
      C17 : 0 3-OH. The main polar lipid profiles of the novel isolate included
      phosphatidylethanolamine, phospholipids and seven unknown lipids. The predominant
      menaquinone of the novel isolate was MK-7. The DNA G+C content was 40.6 mol%. 16S
      rRNA gene data revealed that the novel isolate shares the greatest sequence
      similarity with Sphingobacterium populi 7Y-4T (96.1 %). Based on phenotypic and
      genotypic characteristics, the isolate represents a novel species within the
      genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacteriumcorticis sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is 23D10-4-9T (=CFCC 12640T=KCTC 42248T).

PMID- 28884659
TI  - Winogradskyella maritima sp. nov., isolated from seawater.
AB  - A novel bacterium, designated HME9613T, was isolated from seawater of the Yellow
      Sea in the Republic of Korea. Cells of strain HME9613T were Gram-stain-negative,
      aerobic, motile by gliding and rod-shaped. Strain HME9613T grew optimally at 25 
      degrees C, at pH 7 and in the presence of 3 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis
      based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain HME9613T formed a lineage
      within the genus Winogradskyella of the family Flavobacteriaceae, and showed
      highest sequence similarity to Winogardskyella exilis 022-2-26T (95.9 %). The 16S
      rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain HME9613T and other Winogradskyella
      species ranged from 93.7 to 95.9 %. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 1 G,
      summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and iso-C15 : 0. The
      polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified
      aminolipids and two unidentified lipids. The predominant respiratory quinone was
      menaquinone-6 (MK-6). The DNA G+C content of the strain HME9613T was 38.4 mol%.
      On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genotypic data,
      strain HME9613T represents a novel species within the genus Winogradskyella, for
      which the name Winogradskyella maritima sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is
      HME9613T (=KCTC 42189T=CECT 8979T).

PMID- 28884660
TI  - Parasphingopyxis algicola sp. nov., isolated from a marine red alga Asparagopsis
      taxiformis and emended description of the genus Parasphingopyxis Uchida et al.
      2012.
AB  - An aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain
      ATAX6-5T, was isolated from a marine red alga, Asparagopsistaxiformis, in South
      Korea. Cells were non-motile rods showing catalase- and oxidase-positive
      reactions. Growth of strain ATAX6-5T was observed at 5-35  degrees C (optimum, 30
      degrees C), at pH 6.0-9.5 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the presence of 0-6.0 % (w/v)
      NaCl (optimum, 2 %). Ubiquinone-10 was detected as the sole isoprenoid quinone
      and C18 : 1omega7c, C16 : 0 and C17 : 1omega6c were identified as the major
      cellular fatty acids. Diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine,
      phosphatidylglycerol, sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylcholine, an unknown
      phospholipid and four unknown glycolipids were detected as polar lipids. The G+C
      content of the genomic DNA was 60.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA
      gene sequences showed that strain ATAX6-5T formed a tight phylogenic lineage with
      Parasphingopyxis lamellibrachiae JAMH 0132T with a 100 % bootstrap value. Strain
      ATAX6-5T was most closely related to P. lamellibrachiae JAMH 0132T with a 96.9 %
      16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and
      molecular features, strain ATAX6-5T clearly represents a novel species of the
      genus Parasphingopyxis, for which the name Parasphingopyxis algicola sp. nov. is
      proposed. The type strain is ATAX6-5T (=KACC 18993T=JCM 31719T). An emended
      description of the genus Parasphingopyxis is also proposed.

PMID- 28884661
TI  - Reclassification of Sphingopyxis contaminans as Sphingorhabdus contaminans comb.
      nov. and emended description of the genus Sphingorhabdus.
AB  - With the description of the genus Sphingorhabdus, the taxonomic position of
      Sphingopyxis contaminans was re-evaluated based on analyses of 16S rRNA gene
      sequences and phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics. The results revealed
      that Sphingopyxis contaminans is clearly a member of the genus Sphingorhabdus and
      we proposed that Sphingopyxis contaminans(Subhash Y, Sasikala C, Ramana CV. Int J
      Syst Evol Microbiol 2014;64:2238-2243) should be reclassified as
      Sphingorhabduscontaminans comb. nov. An emended description of the genus
      Sphingorhabdus is also provided.

PMID- 28884662
TI  - Streptomyces cerasinus sp. nov., isolated from soil in Thailand.
AB  - A novel actinomycete, strain SR3-134T, belonging to the genus Streptomyces, was
      isolated from soil collected from the Sakaerat Environmental Research Station,
      Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, Nakhon Ratchasima
      Province, Thailand. The taxonomic position of the strain was characterized by
      using a polyphasic approach. ll-Diaminopimelic acid, glucose, mannose and ribose
      were detected in its whole-cell hydrolysates. The N-acyl type of muramic acid was
      acetyl. The menaquinones were MK-9(H8), MK-9(H6), MK-9(H4) and MK-9(H2). The
      predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0, C16 : 0, iso
      C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C14 : 0. The major polar lipids were
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol,
      phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol mannoside. blast analysis of the
      almost-complete 16S rRNA gene showed 98.7 % sequence similarities to Streptomyces
      lanatus JCM 4588T and Streptomyces psammoticus JCM 4434T. The DNA G+C content was
      71.4 mol%. Strain SR3-134T showed low DNA-DNA relatedness (12.9+/-4.0-44.1+/-1.0
      %) to S. lanatus JCM 4588T and S. psammoticus JCM 4434T. The new strain could
      also be distinguished from its closely related strains by differences in their
      phenotypic characteristics. The results of taxonomic analysis suggested that
      strain SR3-134T represented a novel species of the genus Streptomyces for which
      the name Streptomyces cerasinus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SR3-134T
      (=TISTR 2494T=KCTC 39910T).

PMID- 28884663
TI  - Proposal of 'Candidatus Frankia californiensis', the uncultured symbiont in
      nitrogen-fixing root nodules of a phylogenetically broad group of hosts endemic
      to western North America.
AB  - The genus Frankia comprises a group of nitrogen-fixing actinobacteria that form
      root-nodule symbioses with perennial dicotyledonous plants in the nitrogen-fixing
      clade. These bacteria have been characterized phylogenetically and grouped into
      four clusters (clusters 1-4). Cluster 2 contains mostly uncultured strains that
      induce nodules on species of the genera Datisca (Datiscaceae), Coriaria
      (Coriariaceae), Ceanothus (Rhamnaceae) and several genera in the family Rosaceae
      (Cercocarpus, Chamaebatia, Dryas, Purshia), all of which except members of the
      genus Coriaria are present within the California Floristic Province (CFP) or
      neighbouring areas of western North America. Those strains occurring in western
      North America are genetically very closely related to one another, and
      genetically distinct from strains characterized from other locales. We hereby
      propose to create a 'Candidatus Frankia californiensis' species for those cluster
      2 strains of the genus Frankia with both high genetic similarity and a
      geographical distribution in or near the CFP.

PMID- 28884664
TI  - Early nasopharyngeal microbial signature associated with severe influenza in
      children: a retrospective pilot study.
AB  - A few studies have highlighted the importance of the respiratory microbiome in
      modulating the frequency and outcome of viral respiratory infections. However,
      there are insufficient data on the use of microbial signatures as prognostic
      biomarkers to predict respiratory disease outcomes. In this study, we aimed to
      evaluate whether specific bacterial community compositions in the nasopharynx of
      children at the time of hospitalization are associated with different influenza
      clinical outcomes. We utilized retrospective nasopharyngeal (NP) samples (n=36)
      collected at the time of hospital arrival from children who were infected with
      influenza virus and had been symptomatic for less than 2 days. Based on their
      clinical course, children were classified into two groups: patients with mild
      influenza, and patients with severe respiratory or neurological complications. We
      implemented custom 16S rRNA gene sequencing, metagenomic sequencing and
      computational analysis workflows to classify the bacteria present in NP specimens
      at the species level. We found that increased bacterial diversity in the
      nasopharynx of children was strongly associated with influenza severity. In
      addition, patients with severe influenza had decreased relative abundance of
      Staphylococcus aureus and increased abundance of Prevotella (including P.
      melaninogenica), Streptobacillus, Porphyromonas, Granulicatella (including G.
      elegans), Veillonella (including V. dispar), Fusobacterium and Haemophilus in
      their nasopharynx. This pilot study provides proof-of-concept data for the use of
      microbial signatures as prognostic biomarkers of influenza outcomes. Further
      large prospective cohort studies are needed to refine and validate the
      performance of such microbial signatures in clinical settings.

PMID- 28884665
TI  - Prototheca blaschkeae subsp. brasiliensis subsp. nov., isolated from cow milk.
AB  - A strain of an achlorophyllic alga, named PR24T, was isolated from cow milk
      samples from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Based on 18S rDNA, 28S rRNA,
      D1/D2 region of the LSU rDNA and SSU rRNA gene sequence similarities, this strain
      was found to be a member of the genus Prototheca and closely related to
      Protothecablaschkeae SAG2064T. However, the novel strain could easily be
      distinguished from recognized Prototheca species by internal transcribed spacer,
      species-specific PCR, single-strand conformation polymorphism-PCR analysis and
      phenotypic characteristics. The inability to grow in Sabouraud broth at pH 4.0
      and the different cellular fatty acid composition clearly distinguished PR24T
      from the reference strain of P. blaschkeae. The combination of genotypic and
      phenotypic data indicates that strain PR24T represents a subspecies of P.
      blaschkeae, for which the name Prototheca blaschkeae subsp. brasiliensis subsp.
      nov. is proposed. The respective type strain is PR24T (=DSM 103592T=IHEM 26958T).

PMID- 28884666
TI  - ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Picornaviridae.
AB  - The family Picornaviridae comprises small non-enveloped viruses with RNA genomes
      of 6.7 to 10.1 kb, and contains >30 genera and >75 species. Most of the known
      picornaviruses infect mammals and birds, but some have also been detected in
      reptiles, amphibians and fish. Many picornaviruses are important human and
      veterinary pathogens and may cause diseases of the central nervous system, heart,
      liver, skin, gastrointestinal tract or upper respiratory tract. Most
      picornaviruses are transmitted by the faecal-oral or respiratory routes. This is
      a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on
      the taxonomy of the Picornaviridae, which is available at
      www.ictv.global/report/picornaviridae.

PMID- 28884667
TI  - Influenza virus replication in macrophages: balancing protection and
      pathogenesis.
AB  - Macrophages are essential for protection against influenza A virus infection, but
      are also implicated in the morbidity and mortality associated with severe
      influenza disease, particularly during infection with highly pathogenic avian
      influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus. While influenza virus infection of macrophages was
      once thought to be abortive, it is now clear that certain virus strains can
      replicate productively in macrophages. This may have important consequences for
      the antiviral functions of macrophages, the course of disease and the outcome of
      infection for the host. In this article, we review findings related to influenza
      virus replication in macrophages and the impact of productive replication on
      macrophage antiviral functions. A clear understanding of the interactions between
      influenza viruses and macrophages may lead to new antiviral therapies to relieve
      the burden of severe disease associated with influenza viruses.

PMID- 28884668
TI  - Borrelia lanei sp. nov. extends the diversity of Borrelia species in California.
AB  - The diversity of Borrelia species discovered in California appears to be
      particularly high. A divergent group of Borrelia strains collected from Ixodes
      ticks in California was described by Postic and co-workers and designated
      'genomospecies 2' (Postic D, Garnier M, Baranton G. Int J Med Microbiol
      2007;297:263-271; Postic D, Ras NM, Lane RS, Hendson M, Baranton G. J Clin
      Microbiol 1998;36:3497-3504). We performed multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA)
      using eight housekeeping loci (clpA, clpX, nifS, pepX, pyrG, recG, rplB and uvrA)
      on 12 strains of this Borreliagenospecies to confirm that these strains form a
      distinct group within the Borreliaburgdorferi s. l. complex (Margos G, Hojgaard
      A, Lane RS, Cornet M, Fingerle V et al.Ticks Tick Borne Dis 2010;1:151-158).
      Phylogenetic and genetic distance analyses based on sequences of the MLSA
      housekeeping genes corroborated the distinctness of this group; genetic distances
      to all other members of the B. burgdorferi s.l. complex were 96 % or lower. We
      propose the name Borrelia lanei sp. nov. for this genospecies in honor of
      Professor Robert S. Lane, University of California Berkeley, for his
      contributions to Borrelia and tick research. The type strain for Borrelia lanei
      sp. nov., strain CA28-91T, has been deposited to two culture collections (=DSM
      17992T=CIP 109135T).

PMID- 28884669
TI  - Acinetobacter guangdongensis Feng et al. 2014 is a junior heterotypic synonym of
      Acinetobacter indicus Malhotra et al. 2012.
AB  - A draft whole-genome sequence was obtained for Acinetobacter guangdongensis
      strain KCTC 42012T and compared against those of the type strains of all
      Acinetobacter species with validly published names. High similarity was found to
      Acinetobacter indicus CCM 7832T (average nucleotide identity based on blast and
      digital DNA-DNA hybridization values of 96.3 and 70.4 %, respectively). In
      addition, the metabolic, physiological and chemotaxonomic features of KCTC 42012T
      were shown to be congruent with those of A. indicus. We conclude that
      Acinetobacter guangdongensisFeng et al. 2014 is a later heterotypic synonym of
      Acinetobacter indicus Malhotra et al. 2012.

PMID- 28884670
TI  - Basic Processes in Salmonella-Host Interactions: Within-Host Evolution and the
      Transmission of the Virulent Genotype.
AB  - Transmission and virulence are central aspects of pathogen evolution. However, in
      many cases their interconnection has proven difficult to assess by
      experimentation. Here we discuss recent advances from a mouse model for
      Salmonella diarrhea. Mouse models mimic the enhanced susceptibility of antibiotic
      treated individuals to nontyphoidal salmonellosis. In streptomycin-pretreated
      mice, Salmonella enterica subspecies 1 serovar Typhimurium efficiently colonizes
      the gut lumen and elicits pronounced enteropathy. In the host's gut, S.
      Typhimurium forms two subpopulations that cooperate to elicit disease and
      optimize transmission. The disease-causing subpopulation expresses a set of
      dedicated virulence factors (the type 3 secretion system 1 [TTSS-1]) that drive
      gut tissue invasion. The virulence factor expression is "costly" by retarding the
      growth rate and exposing the pathogen to innate immune defenses within the gut
      tissue. These costs are compensated by the gut inflammation (a "public good")
      that is induced by the invading subpopulation. The inflamed gut lumen fuels S.
      Typhimurium growth, in particular that of the TTSS-1 "off" subpopulation. The
      latter grows up to very high densities and promotes transmission. Thus, both
      phenotypes cooperate to elicit disease and ensure transmission. This system has
      provided an experimental framework for studying within-host evolution of pathogen
      virulence, how cooperative virulence is stabilized, and how environmental changes
      (e.g., antibiotic therapy) affect the transmission of the virulent genotype.

PMID- 28884671
TI  - Detection of fungal pathogens by a new broad range real-time PCR assay targeting
      the fungal ITS2 region.
AB  - PURPOSE: The rise in the incidence of fungal infections and the expanding
      spectrum of fungal pathogens make early and broad detection of fungal pathogens
      essential. In the present study, a panfungal real-time PCR assay for the broad
      range detection of fungal DNA (Fungi assay) in a wide variety of clinical
      specimens was developed. METHODOLOGY: Our in-house, HybProbe real-time PCR assay
      targets the ITS2 region of fungal DNA. The applicability was evaluated by testing
      105 clinical samples from 98 patients with suspected fungal infection. Samples
      included tissue biopsies, paraffin embedded tissues, aspirates, EDTA
      anticoagulated blood, cerebrospinal fluids and bronchoalveolar lavages. RESULTS:
      Fungal pathogens were identified by the Fungi assay in 47 samples. In all of
      these cases, conventional methods and clinical data were also indicative for a
      fungal infection. Five samples were interpreted false negative. blast analyses of
      the amplicons derived from 11 samples revealed the presence of environmental
      fungal species while other tests and clinical data did not suggest a fungal
      infection. This fact might indicate contaminated samples. The remaining 42
      samples were negative by the Fungi assay as well as the conventional methods and
      were therefore regarded as true negatives. Thus, sensitivity was 90.4 % and
      specificity 79.2 %. CONCLUSION: The Fungi assay improved the targeted diagnosis
      of fungal infections allowing pathogen identification in samples that were
      histologically positive but culture negative. For reliable diagnosis, results
      have to be interpreted in context with conventional methods and clinical data.

PMID- 28884672
TI  - Geofilum rhodophaeum sp. nov., isolated from coastal sediment.
AB  - A novel Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic, filamentous and rose-brown
      pigmented bacterium, designated strain HF401T, was isolated from marine sediment
      off the coast of Weihai, China. The isolate grew at temperatures between 4 and 45
      degrees C (optimal growth at 33  degrees C), at pH 6.5-8.5 (optimal growth at pH
      7.5) and with 0.5-6.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimal growth at 3.0 %). The predominant
      menaquinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 50.8
      mol% (from high-performance liquid chromatography). The major fatty acids were
      iso-C15 : 0, C16:0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1omega7c and/or
      iso-C15 : 0 2OH). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine,
      phospholipid and an unidentified lipid. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene
      sequences indicated that strain HF401T formed a distinct branch with Geofilum
      rubicundum JCM 15548T in the family Marinilabiliaceae. The most closely related
      strains of strain HF401T were Natronoflexuspectinivorans AP1T (96.2 % 16S rRNA
      gene sequence similarity), G. rubicundum JCM 15548T (96.2 %) and
      Alkalitaleasaponilacus SC/BZ-SP2T (96.0 %). Average nucleotide identity (ANI)
      values between strain HF401T and G. rubicundum JCM 15548T showed a relatedness of
      71.3 % (ANIb) and 86.0 % (ANIm). The percentage of conserved proteins (POCP)
      value between strain HF401T and G. rubicundum JCM 15548T was 61.2 %. Based on
      polyphasic analysis, especially the phylogenetic relationships and the higher
      POCP value, strain HF401T is considered to represent a novel species in the genus
      Geofilum, for which the name Geofilum rhodophaeum sp. nov. is proposed. The type
      strain of Geofilum rhodophaeum is HF401T (KCTC 42595T=MCCC 1H00119T).

PMID- 28884673
TI  - Reclassification of Halothiobacillus hydrothermalis and Halothiobacillus
      halophilus to Guyparkeria gen. nov. in the Thioalkalibacteraceae fam. nov., with
      emended descriptions of the genus Halothiobacillus and family
      Halothiobacillaceae.
AB  - The genus Halothiobacillus contains four species of obligate autotrophs with
      validly published names, of which Halothiobacillus halophilus and
      Halothiobacillus hydrothermalis are very distant from the type species - on the
      basis of the 16S rRNA gene, they have 90.7 % and 90.9 % identity to that of the
      type species, Halothiobacillus neapolitanus. As these values fall below the Yarza
      cut-off for the rank of genus, and these two species also show no clear
      affiliation to the closely related genus Thioalkalibacter, a polyphasic study was
      undertaken to determine if they represent a separate genus. Unlike
      Halothiobacillus spp. sensu stricto, H. halophilus and H. hydrothermalis are
      halophilic (rather than halotolerant) and moderately alkaliphilic (rather than
      neutrophilic) and additionally do not produce tetrathionate as a detectable
      intermediate of thiosulfate metabolism, indicating some significant metabolic
      differences. On the basis of these data and of functional gene examination, it is
      proposed that they be circumscribed as a new genus Guyparkeria gen.nov, for which
      the type species is Guyparkeria halophila gen. nov., comb. nov. Additionally,
      Thioalkalibacter and Guyparkeria gen. nov. fall distant from the
      Halothiobacillaceae so the Thioalkalibacteraceae fam. nov. is proposed, for which
      Thioalkalibacter is the type genus. Emended descriptions of Halothiobacillus,
      Halothiobacillus neapolitanus and the Halothiobacillaceae are provided.

PMID- 28884674
TI  - Thalassotaleaprofundi sp. nov. isolated from a deep-sea seamount.
AB  - The Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, strictly aerobic, motile bacterial strain,
      designated YM155T, was isolated from a seamount near the Yap Trench in the
      tropical western Pacific. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence
      showed that strain YM155T was related to the genus Thalassotalea and had highest
      16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with the type strains of Thalassotalea
      piscium T202T (97.2 %) and Thalassotalea agariperforans M-M1T (97.2 %). The
      predominant cellular fatty acids were C17 : 1omega8c, summed feature 3 (composed
      of iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and/or C16 : 1omega7c) and iso-C16 : 0. Ubiquinone 8 (Q-8)
      was the respiratory quinone. The polar lipid profile contained
      phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids
      and one unidentified lipid. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain YM155T was 36.1
      mol%. On the basis of the evidence presented in this study, strain YM155T
      represents a novel species of the genus Thalassotalea, for which we propose the
      name Thalassotalea profundi sp. nov. (type strain YM155T=KACC 18563T=CGMCC
      1.15922T).

PMID- 28884675
TI  - Sphingomonas frigidaeris sp. nov., isolated from an air conditioning system.
AB  - A strictly aerobic Gram-stain-negative bacterium, designated strain KER25-10T,
      was isolated from a laboratory air conditioning system in South Korea. Cells were
      yellow-pigmented, non-motile rods showing catalase- and oxidase-positive
      reactions. The strain grew at pH 4.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 6.0-7.0) and 10-40  degrees
      C (optimum, 30  degrees C) and in the presence of 0-3 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0
      %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 65.1 mol%. Strain KER25-10T contained
      ubiquinone-10 (Q-10) as the predominant isoprenoid quinone and C16 : 0, C17 :
      1omega6c, summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1omega7c and/or C16 : 1omega6c) and
      summed feature 8 (comprising C18 : 1omega7c and/or C18 : 1omega6c) as the major
      fatty acids. The major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid,
      diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and
      phosphatidylcholine. Only spermidine was detected as the polyamine. Phylogenetic
      analysis based on 16S rRNA sequences indicated that strain KER25-10T formed a
      distinct phylogenetic lineage within the genus Sphingomonas of the family
      Sphingomonadaceae and the strain was most closely related to Sphingomonas
      kyeonggiense THG-DT81T with a 96.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. On the
      basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular features, strain KER25-10T
      clearly represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name
      Sphingomonas frigidaeris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KER25-10T
      (=KACC 19285T=JCM 32053T).

PMID- 28884676
TI  - The MtrAB two-component system controls antibiotic production in Streptomyces
      coelicolor A3(2).
AB  - MtrAB is a highly conserved two-component system implicated in the regulation of
      cell division in the Actinobacteria. It coordinates DNA replication with cell
      division in the unicellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis and links antibiotic
      production to sporulation in the filamentous Streptomyces venezuelae.
      Chloramphenicol biosynthesis is directly regulated by MtrA in S. venezuelae and
      deletion of mtrB constitutively activates MtrA and results in constitutive over
      production of chloramphenicol. Here we report that in Streptomyces coelicolor,
      MtrA binds to sites upstream of developmental genes and the genes encoding ActII
      1, ActII-4 and RedZ, which are cluster-situated regulators of the antibiotics
      actinorhodin (Act) and undecylprodigiosin (Red). Consistent with this, deletion
      of mtrB switches on the production of Act, Red and streptorubin B, a product of
      the Red pathway. Thus, we propose that MtrA is a key regulator that links
      antibiotic production to development and can be used to upregulate antibiotic
      production in distantly related streptomycetes.

PMID- 28884677
TI  - Spathaspora boniae sp. nov., a D-xylose-fermenting species in the Candida
      albicans/Lodderomyces clade.
AB  - Two yeast isolates producing asci-containing elongate ascospores with curved ends
      typical of the genus Spathaspora were isolated from rotting wood samples
      collected in an Atlantic rainforest ecosystem in Brazil. Phylogenetic analysis of
      the LSU rRNA gene D1/D2 domain sequences demonstrated that the strains represent
      a new species and placed it next to Candida blackwellae, in a clade that also
      contains Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis. Other sequences of the
      ribosomal gene cluster supported same placementin the same clade, and a
      phylogenomic analysis placed this new species in an early emerging position
      relative to the larger C. albicans/Lodderomyces clade. One interpretation is that
      the genus Spathaspora is, in fact, paraphyletic. In conformity with this view, we
      propose the novel species Spathaspora boniae sp. nov. to accommodate the
      isolates. The type strain of Spathaspora boniae sp. nov. is UFMG-CM-Y306T (=CBS
      13262T). The MycoBank number is MB 821297. A detailed analysis of xylose
      metabolism was conducted for the new species.

PMID- 28884678
TI  - Oryzihumus soli sp. nov., isolated from soil and emended description of the genus
      Oryzihumus.
AB  - A novel strain designated Aerobe-19T was isolated from a soil sample collected
      from a lawn located in Seoul National University in Korea. The cells were Gram
      stain-positive, aerobic, and coccus-shaped. Colonies were circular with entire
      edges, convex, opaque and pale yellow. The strain grew at 15-30 C (optimum, 30
      C), pH 5.0-7.0 (optimum, 6.0) and in the presence of 0-0.5 % (w/v) NaCl.
      Phylogenetically, the strain was found to be closely related to members of the
      genus Oryzihumus and showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 96.4 and 96.3
      % with Oryzihumus leptocrescens NRRL B-24347T and Oryzihumus terrae KACC 16543T,
      respectively. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C17 : 0, iso-C15 : 0,
      anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The predominant menaquinone was MK-8 (H4). The
      polar lipids profile revealed the presence of diphosphatidylglycerol,
      glycolipids, unknown amino-glycophospholipid, unknown phospholipid and unknown
      lipids. The peptidoglycan type was A1gamma. The DNA G+C content of this stain was
      73.9 mol%. On the basis of data presented, strain Aerobe-19T is considered to
      represent a novel species of the genus Oryzihumus, for which the name Oryzihumus
      soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Aerobe-19T (=KACC 18485T =KCTC
      39705T=NBRC 111450T).

PMID- 28884679
TI  - The integration of a macrophage-adapted live vaccine strain of equine infectious
      anaemia virus (EIAV) in the horse genome.
AB  - Integration is an important feature of retroviruses and retrovirus-based
      therapeutic transfection vectors. The non-primate lentivirus equine infectious
      anaemia virus (EIAV) primarily targets macrophages/monocytes in vivo.
      Investigation of the integration features of EIAVDLV121 strains, which are
      adapted to donkey monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), is of great interest. In
      this study, we analysed the integration features of EIAVDLV121 in equine MDMs
      during in vitro infection. Our previously published integration sites (IS) for
      EIAVFDDV13 in fetal equine dermal (FED) cells were also analysed in parallel as
      references. Sequencing of the host genomic regions flanking the viral IS showed
      that reference sequence (RefSeq) genes were preferentially targeted for
      integration by EIAVDLV121. Introns, AT-rich regions, long interspersed nuclear
      elements (LINEs) and DNA transposons were also predominantly biased toward viral
      insertion, which is consistent with EIAVFDDV13 integration into the horse genome
      in FED cells. In addition, the most significantly enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of
      Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, specifically gag junctions for EIAVDLV121 and
      tight junctions for EIAVFDDV13, are regulators of metabolic function, which is
      consistent with the common bioprocesses, specifically cell cycle and
      chromosome/DNA organization, identified by gene ontology (GO) analysis. Our
      results demonstrate that EIAV integration occurs in regions that harbour
      structural and topological features of local chromatin in both macrophages and
      fibroblasts. Our data on EIAV will facilitate further understanding of lentivirus
      infection and the development of safer and more effective gene therapy vectors.

PMID- 28884680
TI  - Thigmo Responses: The Fungal Sense of Touch.
AB  - The growth and development of most fungi take place on a two-dimensional surface
      or within a three-dimensional matrix. The fungal sense of touch is therefore
      critical for fungi in the interpretation of their environment and often signals
      the switch to a new developmental state. Contact sensing, or thigmo-based
      responses, include thigmo differentiation, such as the induction of invasion
      structures by plant pathogens in response to topography; thigmonasty, where
      contact with a motile prey rapidly triggers its capture; and thigmotropism, where
      the direction of hyphal growth is guided by physical features in the environment.
      Like plants and some bacteria, fungi grow as walled cells. Despite the well
      demonstrated importance of thigmo responses in numerous stages of fungal growth
      and development, it is not known how fungal cells sense contact through the
      relatively rigid structure of the cell wall. However, while sensing mechanisms at
      the molecular level are not entirely understood, the downstream signaling
      pathways that are activated by contact sensing are being elucidated. In the
      majority of cases, the response to contact is complemented by chemical cues and
      both are required, either sequentially or simultaneously, to elicit normal
      developmental responses. The importance of a sense of touch in the lifestyles and
      development of diverse fungi is highlighted in this review, and the candidate
      molecular mechanisms that may be involved in fungal contact sensing are
      discussed.

PMID- 28884681
TI  - Resource depletion through primate stone technology.
AB  - Tool use has allowed humans to become one of the most successful species.
      However, tool-assisted foraging has also pushed many of our prey species to
      extinction or endangerment, a technology-driven process thought to be uniquely
      human. Here, we demonstrate that tool-assisted foraging on shellfish by long
      tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park,
      Thailand, reduces prey size and prey abundance, with more pronounced effects
      where the macaque population size is larger. We compared availability, sizes and
      maturation stages of shellfish between two adjacent islands inhabited by
      different-sized macaque populations and demonstrate potential effects on the prey
      reproductive biology. We provide evidence that once technological macaques reach
      a large enough group size, they enter a feedback loop - driving shellfish prey
      size down with attendant changes in the tool sizes used by the monkeys. If this
      pattern continues, prey populations could be reduced to a point where tool
      assisted foraging is no longer beneficial to the macaques, which in return may
      lessen or extinguish the remarkable foraging technology employed by these
      primates.

PMID- 28884682
TI  - MicroCT-based phenomics in the zebrafish skeleton reveals virtues of deep
      phenotyping in a distributed organ system.
AB  - Phenomics, which ideally involves in-depth phenotyping at the whole-organism
      scale, may enhance our functional understanding of genetic variation. Here, we
      demonstrate methods to profile hundreds of phenotypic measures comprised of
      morphological and densitometric traits at a large number of sites within the
      axial skeleton of adult zebrafish. We show the potential for vertebral patterns
      to confer heightened sensitivity, with similar specificity, in discriminating
      mutant populations compared to analyzing individual vertebrae in isolation. We
      identify phenotypes associated with human brittle bone disease and thyroid
      stimulating hormone receptor hyperactivity. Finally, we develop allometric models
      and show their potential to aid in the discrimination of mutant phenotypes masked
      by alterations in growth. Our studies demonstrate virtues of deep phenotyping in
      a spatially distributed organ system. Analyzing phenotypic patterns may increase
      productivity in genetic screens, and facilitate the study of genetic variants
      associated with smaller effect sizes, such as those that underlie complex
      diseases.

PMID- 28884683
TI  - Characterisation of the biflavonoid hinokiflavone as a pre-mRNA splicing
      modulator that inhibits SENP.
AB  - We have identified the plant biflavonoid hinokiflavone as an inhibitor of
      splicing in vitro and modulator of alternative splicing in cells. Chemical
      synthesis confirms hinokiflavone is the active molecule. Hinokiflavone inhibits
      splicing in vitro by blocking spliceosome assembly, preventing formation of the B
      complex. Cells treated with hinokiflavone show altered subnuclear organization
      specifically of splicing factors required for A complex formation, which
      relocalize together with SUMO1 and SUMO2 into enlarged nuclear speckles
      containing polyadenylated RNA. Hinokiflavone increases protein SUMOylation
      levels, both in in vitro splicing reactions and in cells. Hinokiflavone also
      inhibited a purified, E. coli expressed SUMO protease, SENP1, in vitro,
      indicating the increase in SUMOylated proteins results primarily from inhibition
      of de-SUMOylation. Using a quantitative proteomics assay we identified many SUMO2
      sites whose levels increased in cells following hinokiflavone treatment, with the
      major targets including six proteins that are components of the U2 snRNP and
      required for A complex formation.

PMID- 28884684
TI  - Inhibition of DYRK1A disrupts neural lineage specificationin human pluripotent
      stem cells.
AB  - Genetic analysis has revealed that the dual specificity protein kinase DYRK1A has
      multiple roles in the development of the central nervous system. Increased DYRK1A
      gene dosage, such as occurs in Down syndrome, is known to affect neural
      progenitor cell differentiation, while haploinsufficiency of DYRK1A is associated
      with severe microcephaly. Using a set of known and newly synthesized DYRK1A
      inhibitors, along with CRISPR-mediated gene activation and shRNA knockdown of
      DYRK1A, we show here that chemical inhibition or genetic knockdown of DYRK1A
      interferes with neural specification of human pluripotent stem cells, a process
      equating to the earliest stage of human brain development. Specifically, DYRK1A
      inhibition insulates the self-renewing subpopulation of human pluripotent stem
      cells from powerful signals that drive neural induction. Our results suggest a
      novel mechanism for the disruptive effects of the absence or haploinsufficiency
      of DYRK1A on early mammalian development, and reveal a requirement for DYRK1A in
      the acquisition of competence for differentiation in human pluripotent stem
      cells.

PMID- 28884686
TI  - Turning taboos into action.

PMID- 28884685
TI  - Standardized mean differences cause funnel plot distortion in publication bias
      assessments.
AB  - Meta-analyses are increasingly used for synthesis of evidence from biomedical
      research, and often include an assessment of publication bias based on visual or
      analytical detection of asymmetry in funnel plots. We studied the influence of
      different normalisation approaches, sample size and intervention effects on
      funnel plot asymmetry, using empirical datasets and illustrative simulations. We
      found that funnel plots of the Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) plotted against
      the standard error (SE) are susceptible to distortion, leading to overestimation
      of the existence and extent of publication bias. Distortion was more severe when
      the primary studies had a small sample size and when an intervention effect was
      present. We show that using the Normalised Mean Difference measure as effect size
      (when possible), or plotting the SMD against a sample size-based precision
      estimate, are more reliable alternatives. We conclude that funnel plots using the
      SMD in combination with the SE are unsuitable for publication bias assessments
      and can lead to false-positive results.

PMID- 28884687
TI  - Questions on asparaginase-associated pancreatitis.

PMID- 28884688
TI  - Liquorice: a treatment for all sorts?

PMID- 28884689
TI  - While We Still Have Time.

PMID- 28884690
TI  - "Death is an adventure": the power of terminal diagnosis.

PMID- 28884691
TI  - Correction to Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1182-91.

PMID- 28884692
TI  - Why is survival after pembrolizumab affected by previous radiotherapy?

PMID- 28884693
TI  - Why is survival after pembrolizumab affected by previous radiotherapy? - Authors'
      reply.

PMID- 28884694
TI  - Fasting conditions in clinical oncology trials and drug labelling.

PMID- 28884695
TI  - Fasting conditions in clinical oncology trials and drug labelling - Authors'
      reply.

PMID- 28884696
TI  - Primary medical therapy for BRAFV600E-mutant melanoma brain metastases-is this
      good enough?

PMID- 28884698
TI  - Correction to Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1274-84.

PMID- 28884697
TI  - Primary medical therapy for BRAFV600E-mutant melanoma brain metastases-is this
      good enough? - Authors' reply.

PMID- 28884699
TI  - Correction to Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 917-28.

PMID- 28884700
TI  - Correction to Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1040-48.

PMID- 28884701
TI  - Palliative care in Africa: a scoping review from 2005-16.
AB  - Since the last comprehensive review on the development of national palliative
      care in Africa was undertaken 12 years ago, in 2005, we did a scoping review of
      peer-reviewed, published articles on palliative care development between 2005-16
      for each African country. The scoping review was conducted by assessing the
      medical literature and including local expert recommendations of suggested
      articles. We did a basic quality assessment of the articles using the journals'
      impact factor, journal quartile, and the number of citations as suitable metrics
      for quality consideration. Articles published in English, Spanish, Portuguese,
      and French that mentioned at least one dimension of WHO's palliative care public
      health strategy (implementation of services, education, policies, or medicine
      availability) and vitality (activity by professionals or advocates) were
      included. Of the 518 articles found, 49 met the inclusion criteria. Information
      on 26 (48%) of 54 African countries was found. Most services were concentrated in
      Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda, and 14 (26%) countries showed an increase in
      services during this timeframe. Stand-alone palliative care policies exist in
      Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Postgraduate
      diplomas in palliative care are available in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and
      Tanzania. Restricted access to opioids, prescriber restriction laws, and a low
      prevalence of morphine use remain common barriers to adequate palliative care
      provision. Although information on palliative care is unevenly distributed, the
      available information showed an increased development of palliative care services
      in a subset of African countries. Despite this growth, however, there is still
      minimal to no identified palliative care development in most African countries.

PMID- 28884702
TI  - Radiotherapy for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
AB  - Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive disease that continues to be
      associated with poor outcomes. Although, traditionally this disease is considered
      to be resistant to radiotherapy, more recent evidence suggests that radiotherapy
      can produce positive outcomes. Over the past 15 years, the development of new,
      highly conformal radiotherapy techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiation
      therapy (IMRT), has enabled investigators to optimise the delivery of high-dose
      radiotherapy to the whole of the hemithorax. Prospective single-arm trials have
      shown that the median survival of patients who have completed high-dose
      hemithoracic radiotherapy after extrapleural pneumonectomy could reach 23.9-39.4
      months independent of the chemotherapeutic response, suggesting that IMRT could
      potentially have an intrinsic benefit to this subset of patients. These
      observations have led to a change in practice, with the introduction of adjuvant
      pleural IMRT after pleurectomy-decortication and the development of induction
      accelerated hemithoracic IMRT followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy. This Review
      focuses on recent observations on the role of radiotherapy in the treatment of
      malignant pleural mesothelioma, with particular emphasis on the results of
      clinical trials that evaluate the role of high-dose hemithoracic radiotherapy.

PMID- 28884703
TI  - Definition and recommendations for advance care planning: an international
      consensus supported by the European Association for Palliative Care.
AB  - Advance care planning (ACP) is increasingly implemented in oncology and beyond,
      but a definition of ACP and recommendations concerning its use are lacking. We
      used a formal Delphi consensus process to help develop a definition of ACP and
      provide recommendations for its application. Of the 109 experts (82 from Europe,
      16 from North America, and 11 from Australia) who rated the ACP definitions and
      its 41 recommendations, agreement for each definition or recommendation was
      between 68-100%. ACP was defined as the ability to enable individuals to define
      goals and preferences for future medical treatment and care, to discuss these
      goals and preferences with family and health-care providers, and to record and
      review these preferences if appropriate. Recommendations included the adaptation
      of ACP based on the readiness of the individual; targeting ACP content as the
      individual's health condition worsens; and, using trained non-physician
      facilitators to support the ACP process. We present a list of outcome measures to
      enable the pooling and comparison of results of ACP studies. We believe that our
      recommendations can provide guidance for clinical practice, ACP policy, and
      research.

PMID- 28884704
TI  - Hypoglossal paresis caused by a solitary breast cancer metasasis at the basal
      skull.

PMID- 28884705
TI  - Cryptochrome-1 Gene Expression is a Reliable Prognostic Indicator in Egyptian
      Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: A Prospective Cohort Study
AB  - Objective: Traditional prognostic factors have proved insufficient to account for
      heterogeneity in the clinical behavior of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
      Cryptochrome-1 (CRY-1) is a circadian clock gene essential in maintaining the
      circadian rhythm and regulating cell proliferation. We evaluated CRY-1 gene
      expression in CLL and addressed its putative role as a prognostic indicator for
      the clinical course of CLL. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 CLL patients at
      diagnosis were studied for CRY-1 gene expression by real-time reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction and were followed for assessment of time
      to first treatment (TFT). Results: CRY-1 was expressed in 94% of the CLL patients
      at diagnosis. The median CRY-1 relative gene expression level (0.006) stratified
      patients into high and low expression groups. Forty of 100 (40%) CLL patients
      showed high CRY-1, 54/100 (54%) showed low CRY-1, and 6/100 (6%) had undetectable
      CRY-1 gene expression. High CRY-1 gene expression was concordant with CD38+, Zap
      70+, and double CD38+Zap-70+ expression; unfavorable/intermediate cytogenetics;
      unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable-region gene; and diffuse marrow
      infiltration. The high CRY-1 gene expression patient group exhibited shorter TFT
      than the patients with low CRY-1 gene expression. A Cox proportional hazard
      regression model identified CRY-1 gene expression to be independently predictive
      for TFT. Conclusion: CRY-1 is differentially expressed among CLL patients,
      stratifying them into low-risk and high-risk groups. CRY-1 gene expression could
      constitute a reliable prognostic indicator for CLL progression, complementing the
      role of standard well-established prognostic factors. CRY-1 gene expression could
      be employed as a prognostic indicator for disease progression during the initial
      prognostic work-up and follow-up for CLL patients.

PMID- 28884707
TI  - Review of medical radiography and tomography with proton beams.
AB  - The use of hadron beams, especially proton beams, in cancer radiotherapy has
      expanded rapidly in the past two decades. To fully realize the advantages of
      hadron therapy over traditional x-ray and gamma-ray therapy requires accurate
      positioning of the Bragg peak throughout the tumor being treated. A half century
      ago, suggestions had already been made to use protons themselves to develop
      images of tumors and surrounding tissue, to be used for treatment planning. The
      recent global expansion of hadron therapy, coupled with modern advances in
      computation and particle detection, has led several collaborations around the
      world to develop prototype detector systems and associated reconstruction codes
      for proton computed tomography (pCT), as well as more simple proton radiography,
      with the ultimate intent to use such systems in clinical treatment planning and
      verification. Recent imaging results of phantoms in hospital proton beams are
      encouraging, but many technical and programmatic challenges remain to be overcome
      before pCT scanners will be introduced into clinics. This review introduces
      hadron therapy and the perceived advantages of pCT and proton radiography for
      treatment planning, reviews its historical development, and discusses the physics
      related to proton imaging, the associated experimental and computation issues,
      the technologies used to attack the problem, contemporary efforts in detector and
      computational development, and the current status and outlook.

PMID- 28884708
TI  - Dual-echo ASL based assessment of motor networks: a feasibility study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Dual-echo arterial spin labeling (DE-ASL) technique has been recently
      proposed for the simultaneous acquisition of ASL and blood-oxygenation-level
      dependent (BOLD)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The
      assessment of this technique in detecting functional connectivity at rest or
      during motor and motor imagery tasks is still unexplored both per-se and in
      comparison with conventional methods. The purpose is to quantify the sensitivity
      of the DE-ASL sequence with respect to the conventional fMRI sequence (cvBOLD) in
      detecting brain activations, and to assess and compare the relevance of node
      features in decoding the network structure. APPROACH: Thirteen volunteers were
      scanned acquiring a pseudo-continuous DE-ASL sequence from which the concomitant
      BOLD (ccBOLD) simultaneously to the ASL can be extracted. The approach consists
      of two steps: (i) model-based analyses for assessing brain activations at
      individual and group levels, followed by statistical analysis for comparing the
      activation elicited by the three sequences under two conditions (motor and motor
      imagery), respectively; (ii) brain connectivity graph-theoretical analysis for
      assessing and comparing the network models properties. MAIN RESULTS: Our results
      suggest that cvBOLD and ccBOLD have comparable sensitivity in detecting the
      regions involved in the active task, whereas ASL offers a higher degree of co
      localization with smaller activation volumes. The connectivity results and the
      comparative analysis of node features across sequences revealed that there are no
      strong changes between rest and tasks and that the differences between the
      sequences are limited to few connections. SIGNIFICANCE: Considering the
      comparable sensitivity of the ccBOLD and cvBOLD sequences in detecting activated
      brain regions, the results demonstrate that DE-ASL can be successfully applied in
      functional studies allowing to obtain both ASL and BOLD information within a
      single sequence. Further, DE-ASL is a powerful technique for research and
      clinical applications allowing to perform quantitative comparisons as well as to
      characterize functional connectivity.

PMID- 28884709
TI  - Hydrothermal Synthesis of SnQ (Q=Te, Se, S) and Their Thermoelectric Properties.
AB  - Lead-free IV-VI semiconductors SnQ (Q=Te, Se, S) are deemed as promising
      thermoelectric materials. In this work, we designed a hydrothermal route to
      selectively synthesize single phase SnTe, SnSe and SnS nanopowders. For all three
      samples, the phase structure were characterized by X-ray diffraction, SnTe
      particles with octahedron structure and SnSe/SnS particles with plate-like shape
      were observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission
      electron microscopy, the formation mechanism was discussed in detail. Then, SnTe,
      SnSe and SnS nanopowders were densified by spark plasma sintering for
      investigating thermoelectric properties. It was noticed that SnSe and SnS
      exhibited remarkably anisotropy in both electrical and thermal properties
      attributed to the layered crystal structure. The highest ZT values 0.79 at 873 K,
      0.21 at 773 K, and 0.13 at 773 K were achieved for SnTe, SnSe and SnS bulk
      samples, respectively.

PMID- 28884706
TI  - Biological Features of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Childhood Acute
      Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have a supportive role in
      hematopoiesis and as components of the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment may
      present alterations during acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and be affected by
      chemotherapeutic agents. We examined the biological and functional
      characteristics of MSCs in ALL diagnosis and treatment and their effect on MSC
      qualitative properties. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Immunophenotypic characterization,
      evaluation of clonogenicity, and proliferative capacity were measured. Apoptotic
      features, cell-cycle analysis, and stromal cell-derived factor 1alpha and
      angiopoietin-1 levels in MSC supernatant at diagnosis and in different phases of
      treatment were assessed. Chemotherapy was administered according to the Berlin
      Frankfurt-Munster-2000 protocol. BM samples from children with solid tumors
      without BM involvement were used as the control group. RESULTS: The morphology,
      the immunophenotypic profile, and the apoptotic characteristics of the MSCs were
      not affected by leukemia. The secretion of factors involved in the trafficking of
      hematopoietic cells in the BM seems to be upregulated at diagnosis in comparison
      to the treatment phases. MSCs are influenced by the disease in terms of their
      functional characteristics such as clonogenicity and proliferation rate. These
      effects cease as soon as treatment is initiated. Chemotherapy does not seem to
      exert any effect on any of the MSC features examined. CONCLUSION: MSCs from
      children with ALL are affected by their interaction with the leukemic
      environment, but this phenomenon ceases upon treatment initiation, while no
      effect is observed by chemotherapy itself.

PMID- 28884710
TI  - Atmospheric pulsed laser deposition and thermal annealing of plasmonic silver
      nanoparticle films.
AB  - A new method for pulsed laser deposition of plasmonic silver nanoparticle (NP)
      films in flowing gas at atmospheric pressure is described. The ablation was done
      using an excimer laser at 248 nm. Fast optical imaging shows that the ablation
      plume is captured by the flowing gas, and is expected to form a NP aerosol, which
      is carried 5-20 mm to the substrate. The dependence of the deposition rate on
      laser fluence, gas flow velocity, and target-substrate distance was investigated
      using electron microscopy and absorption spectroscopy of the deposited films. The
      NP films were annealed in argon and hydrogen at 400  degrees C, and in air for
      temperatures in the range 200  degrees C-900  degrees C, leading to strong
      enhancement, and narrowing of the surface plasmon resonance. The films were used
      for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of a 10-5 molar solution of Rhodamine 6G;
      films annealed in air at 400  degrees C were five times more sensitive than the
      as-deposited films.

PMID- 28884711
TI  - [Clinical polymorphism of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].
AB  - AIM: To clarify clinical polymorphism of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was based on records of a hospital personalized
      register. Ninety-four patients, aged from 25 to 81 years, diagnosed with ALS
      according to El Escorial criteria were included. Electromyography and, if
      necessary, transcranial magnetic stimulation and magnetic-resonance tomography
      were used to confirm the diagnosis. Disease progression was assessed with the
      ARSFRS. Age at disease onset, progression rate and duration of survival of
      patients, rare symptoms of ALS ('extramotor'), time for palliative care
      (gastrostomy, non-invasive and invasive lung ventilation) and provision of the
      care to the patient, family history were recorded in a specially designed
      questionnaire. RESULTS: Most of the patients had sporadic ALS, only two familial
      cases were identified. Spinal onset ALS was found in 66.0% of the patients,
      bulbar onset in 29.8%, diffuse onset (spinal and bulbar motor neurons were
      affected simultaneously) in 4.2%. Moderate ALS progression was observed in 42.6%
      of the patients, mean time till death was 3.0+/-1.2 years. A slow progression was
      found in patients with cervical, low back and bulbar onset. A rapid and even
      'momentary' type of progression was in diffuse and breast onset. An extremely
      slow progression with the long-term hospital treatment and survival >5 years was
      found in 9.7%. Rare ALS symptoms were represented by specific cognitive and
      psychological impairments, a type of frontal/temporal dysfunction, but only 5
      (5.3%) patients were diagnosed with ALS-dementia. Signs of pathological muscle
      fatigue (myasthenic syndrome) were identified in 18 (19.1%), extrapyramidal
      disorders in 5 (5.3%), coordination disorders in 4 (4.3%), pain in 12 (12.8%),
      sensory symptoms in 5 (5.3%) of the patients. CONCLUSION: ALS is a multisystemic
      neurodegeneration disease though the progressive motor neuron death determines
      the fatal outcome.

PMID- 28884712
TI  - [Clinical and neurovisualization characteristics of apathetic depression].
AB  - AIM: To study apathetic depression first diagnosed at late age and identify its
      relation to cognitive and social dysfunction as well as to morphological and
      functional changes in the brain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-two patients at the
      age above 60 years with newly diagnosed depressive episode and 15 healthy age
      matched volunteers were included in the study. All patients were divided into two
      groups by the score on the Apathy scale (AS): >14 - depression with apathy
      (n=21), <14 - depression without apathy (n=11). Patients were examined using
      psychometric methods (HAMD, GDS, AS, SHAPS, SF-36, MoCA-test), neuroimaging (MRI
      scanner with a magnetic field strength of 1.5 Tesla - EXCEL ART Vantage Atlas-X,
      Toshiba, Japan) and statistical data analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Apathy
      component in clinical depression reflects a tendency towards the increase in
      depression severity and cognitive deterioration that results in the substantial
      lowering of quality of life and correlates with cerebrovascular changes, decrease
      in gray and white matter volume and mean cortical thickness of large hemispheres.

PMID- 28884713
TI  - [Mental disorders in patients with breast cancer: a differentiated approach to
      the study of nozogeny].
AB  - AIM: To study mental disorders in patients with breast cancer (BC) at different
      stages of the disease taking into account premorbid characteristics and
      psychosomatic correlations in their development. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study
      included 82 patients with histologically confirmed BC. The first group consisted
      of 30 patients (mean age 49.7+/-11.1 years) with the first established diagnosis
      of BC and mental disorders caused by somatic disease (ICD-10 F40-F48, stress
      related neurotic and somatoform disorders). The second group included 52 patients
      (mean age 56.8+/-6.7 years) with illness duration and follow-up >=3 years (17
      years in some cases) with signs of personality disorder (PD) according to ICD-10
      F62. Clinical/pschopathological, follow-up and statistical methods were used.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Mental disorders are represented by two nosologic
      categories: nosogenic reactions and pathological personality. Manifestation of a
      nozogeny reaction is closely correlated with premorbid personality
      characteristics. Anxious - depressive nozogenic reaction (n=17) is strongly
      correlated with the anxious type of personality accentuation and weakly
      correlated with personality characteristics of the affective (bipolar) range.
      Anxious-nozogenic dissociative response (n=9) was characteristic of hysterical
      and expansive schizotypal PD with a significant direct correlation with
      constitutional hyperthymia. Anxiety - hypomanic nozogeny response (n=4) was
      observed in schizotypal PD correlated with symptoms of persistent hyperthymia.
      Five types of PD are formed in the follow-up period: hypochondriacal dysthymia,
      'paranoia struggle', 'aberrant hypochondria', hypomanic endoform response with
      the phenomenon of post-traumatic growth and 'new life'.

PMID- 28884714
TI  - [Therapeutic monitoring and prediction of the efficacy of neurotrophic treatment
      in patients with amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment].
AB  - AIM: To perform therapeutic monitoring and prediction of the neurotrophic therapy
      efficacy in patients with amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) in a
      model of course cerebrolysin therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved a
      group of 19 elderly patients who met the diagnostic criteria of aMCI. All
      patients received a course of neurotrophic therapy consisting of 20 intravenous
      infusions of cerebrolysin (30 ml of cerebrolysin in 100 ml of isotonic sodium
      chloride solution). To assess the therapy efficacy, psychometric scales (CGI,
      MMSE, MoCA-test, MDRS, FAB, Clock Drawing Test, BNT, Word Recall test, delayed
      reproduction of 10 words, naming digits in a direct and reverse order) were used
      at 0, 4, 10 and 26 weeks of the study. Antibodies to p75 neurotrophin receptor
      (NTR) were measured by ELISA in blood serum of 19 patients before cerebrolysin
      therapy and after 10 and 26 weeks of treatment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The study
      showed that aMCI patients had an increased level of antibodies against P75NTR
      that was significantly decreased after 5.5 month of cerebrolysin treatment.
      Therefore, it can be a potential biomarker of long-term therapeutic effect of
      cerebrolysin treatment in aMCI patients. The modified fragment 155-164 of P75 NTR
      determined in the serum of patients can be an effective indicator for monitoring
      and predicting the efficacy of long-term neurotrophic therapy.

PMID- 28884715
TI  - [Multicenter observational program for evaluation of the effectiveness of the
      recognan (citicoline) in the correction of cognitive impairment in patients with
      chronic cerebrovascular pathology].
AB  - AIM: To study the efficacy and safety of recognan (citicoline) in the treatment
      of cognitive and depressive disorders in chronic cerebrovascular pathology
      (chronic brain ischemia) developed in patients with arterial hypertension and/or
      atherosclerosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Seven hundred and thirty-six patients with
      cerebrovascular pathology, cognitive impairment and mild dementia were examined.
      The sample included 279 (37.9%) men and 457 (62.1%) women aged from 35 to 80
      years (mean age 64.5+/-8.7 years). The drug recognan ('Gerofarm', Russia) was
      administered in the dose of 1000 mg daily during 30 days. Recovery of cognitive
      functions was assessed with MSSE, correction of visual/spatial coordination with
      CDT, depression severity with MGDS. RESULTS: The improvement of cognitive
      function, memory and visual/spatial coordination, decrease in depression severity
      were observed during the treatment. CONCLUSION: Recognan reduced cognitive
      dysfunction and disturbances of visual/spatial coordinationas well as had a
      positive effect on the emotional sphere decreasing the level of depression.

PMID- 28884716
TI  - [Efficacy of different doses of botox in treatment of chronic migraine].
AB  - AIM: To compare the efficacy of botox used in doses of 155 U and 195 U for
      preventive treatment of chronic migraine (CM). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-nine
      women with CM were stratified into two groups according to the dose of botox. The
      duration of the study was 9 month, patient's state was assessed before treatment
      and after repeated injections (every 3 month). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: With
      regard to the frequency of migraine attacks, the 1st and 2nd injections of botox
      were equally effective. After the 3rd injection, the frequency was significantly
      lower in group 2 (195 U). After 2nd and 3rd injections, an effect on patient's
      adaptation assessed with the MIDAS and patient's satisfaction with treatment were
      higher. The results suggest the dose-dependent efficacy of repeated injections of
      botox. The dose of 195 U can be recommended in preventive treatment of CM as more
      effective.

PMID- 28884717
TI  - [Clinical and emotional/behavioral characteristics of acute and chronic low-back
      pain].
AB  - AIM: To analyze clinical and emotional/behavioral characteristics of acute and
      chronic low-back pain that significantly affect quality-of-life. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Fifty-three patients with pain syndromes were examined using the
      painDETECT questionnaire, the Visual Analog Scale for Pain, The McGill Pain
      Questionnaire and laboratory and instrumental methods of neurological assessment.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A 'picture of the patient with acute and chronic pain'
      was built, a group of patients with neuropathic component of pain was described.
      The size of herniated discs was not correlated with VAS assessments and the
      neuropathic component had a mild effect on pain intensity. The significant
      correlation was found between the severity of pain and coping strategies for
      pain. The results indicate the importance of effective and safety pain stopping,
      in particular at the acute stage, to prevent pain chronification. A drug of
      choice in case of intensive pain and marked nociceptive component are highly
      effective and safe nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, in particular etoricoxib
      (Arcoxia), a selective COX-2 inhibitor.

PMID- 28884718
TI  - [Dynamics of indicators of the functional state of the central nervous system in
      Navy operators treated with cytoflavin after a long working cycle].
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of cytoflavin in the correction of functional state
      and working ability of Navy operators after a long working cycle. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Results of the examination of 25 Navy operators, aged from 27 to 42
      years, were analyzed at baseline and after treatment with cytoflavin. The Rusalov
      questionnaire for Individuality Formal Dynamic Properties and EEG were used to
      evaluate the state of participants. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results
      demonstrate the ability of cytoflavin to exert the positive effect on the
      energetic component of the functional state of Navy operators after a long
      working cycle, increasing the psychomotor activity and optimizing the spontaneous
      electrical activity of the brain. The activation of energetic potential, physical
      activity and emotional reactions by cytoflavin is correlated with the growth of
      the central nervous system reserves in Navy operators treated after a long
      working cycle.

PMID- 28884719
TI  - [Vestibular migraine: diagnostic difficulties and treatment optimization].
AB  - AIM: The study aimed at showing actual information about vestibular migraine and
      presenting different features of vestibular migraine for prevention of diagnostic
      mistakes and choosing an effective treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty
      patients with vestibular migraine were diagnosed according to the International
      Classification of Headache Disorders 3rd edition and examined in a neurological
      department. RESULTS: Problems with outpatient diagnosis and treatment were found.
      Many patients were not diagnosed correctly and, therefore, did not receive
      effective management of vestibular migraine. All clinical features, information
      of disease history and different objective signs were important for differential
      diagnosis with other types of dizziness. Management according to guidelines for
      migraine treatment and recent research of vestibular migraine showed its
      efficiency for patients. CONCLUSION: Spreading of actual information about
      vestibular migraine is important due to its underdiagnosis. Knowledge of clinical
      features is helpful for diagnosis and differential diagnosis. Treatment
      approaches according to guidelines and last research should be used.

PMID- 28884720
TI  - [Etiopathogenetic factors of peripheral neuropathic pain in rheumatoid
      arthritis].
AB  - AIM: To determine a neuropathic component of pain and define its causes in
      patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and
      eighty-three patients with confirmed RA, mean age 46,5+/-11,7 years, RA duration
      from 3 month to 30 years, were studied. Rheumatology, neurological, using the DN4
      questionnaire, examinations and stimulation electromyography were used. Results
      and sonclusion. Signs of neuropathic pain (NP) assessed with the DN4 were
      identified in 73 (43%) patients with RA. These patients were older, had longer RA
      duration as well as higher clinical stage of disease and reduced functional
      abilities. There were no correlation between NP and disease activity. Peripheral
      nervous system (PNS) lesions were seen in 96% patients with NP: sensory motor
      neuropathy (55%), tunnel syndrome (14%), mononeuropathy (19%) and their
      combinations (4%), cervical myelopathy (4%). PNS lesions is the main
      etiopathogenetic factor of peripheral NP in RA. This finding opens new
      perspectives for complex treatment, including group B vitamins, of chronic pain
      in RA.

PMID- 28884721
TI  - [A search of target regions for association studies between DNA methylation and
      cognitive impairment in schizophrenia].
AB  - AIM: To develop a strategy for the search for candidate genes and targets for
      epigenetic studies of cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A search for literature on epigenetics of schizophrenia and
      cognitive functions was performed. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that
      can create or abolish a site for DNA methylation or transcription factor sites
      were determined using a custom script. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Eight candidate
      genes, including BDNF, COMT, RELN, SNRPN, PSMA4, FAM63B, IL-1RAP, MAD1L1, as well
      as 750 targets in CpG islands in the linkage regions identified in GWAS of
      schizophrenia and 406 targets in SNV located within transcription factor binding
      sites were selected.

PMID- 28884722
TI  - [Severe carotid stenosis: cerebral autoregulation in the ipsilateral region].
AB  - AIM: To study cerebral autoregulation (CA) in region of the stenotic carotid
      artery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved 35 patients with critical
      stenosis of the carotid arteries, including 24 patients were asymptomatic and 11
      patients with symptomatic course. Blood flow velocity in middle cerebral arteries
      was monitored using Multi Dop X (DWL, Germany) with simultaneous noninvasive
      systemic blood pressure registration (CNAP, Austria). CA was assessed by
      calculating the phase shift (PS) between spontaneous oscillations of blood flow
      velocity and blood pressure within the range of systemic Mayer waves (80-120
      mHz). RESULTS: In 18 patients, the CA indicators were in the normal range (PS
      1.2+/-0.3 rad). Seventeen patients, including asymptomatic as well as symptomatic
      types, had impaired CA (PS 0.2+/-0.2 rad and 0.3+/-0.2 rad, respectively).
      Reconstructive surgery, irrespective of clinical manifestations, led to the
      significant increase in PS (p<0.001) in the early postoperative period (0.9+/-0.5
      and 0.9+/-0.3 rad, respectively). CONCLUSION: A significant variability in the
      cerebrovascular reserve capacity in symptomatic and asymptomatic types of carotid
      artery stenosis was found. CA can be used in determining the indications for
      surgical treatment and evaluation of its effectiveness in patients with stenosis
      of carotid arteries.

PMID- 28884723
TI  - [First cases of Pompe's disease in Kazakhstan].
AB  - The article presents the clinical observations of two newly diagnosed patients
      with Pompe disease in the Republic of Kazakhstan, confirmed by genetic research.

PMID- 28884724
TI  - ['Primary', 'basic' and 'secondary' symptoms of schizophrenia in the concept of
      E. Bleuler].
AB  - Two first works of swiss psychiatrist E. Bleuler that revise the symptomatology
      of Kraepelinian dementia praecox leaning on some findings of the psychoanalysis
      of S. Freud, C. Jung, F. Riklin, K. Abraham and on the P. Janet's concept of
      psychasthenia are analyzed. The early concept of primary (testifying the direct
      organic lesion) and secondary (of psychogenic origin) symptoms of schizophrenia
      formulated by E. Bleuler is compared with his following concept of 'basic' and
      'accessory' symptoms of schizophrenia. The concept of primary and secondary
      symptoms of schizophrenia was created firstly as a ground for the prognosis of
      the disease, and the concept of basic and accessory symptoms for the confident
      diagnosis of the disease. E. Bleuler's concept accentuated the diagnosis of
      schizophrenia on the psychopathological and pathopsychological state of the
      patient, in contrast to E. Kraepelin's concept of dementia praecox based on the
      course and outcome, made possible the expansion of schizophrenia boundaries at
      the expense of different psychotic and nonpsychotic disorders that other authors
      attributed to the forms of 'degenerative madness', neuroses and psychopathies.

PMID- 28884725
TI  - [Ethical aspects of teaching of nervous diseases].
AB  - Ethical aspects of training of physicians are considered. The author highlights
      the importance of teaching the basic disciplines during the training of the
      neurologist. An analysis of most frequent mistakes that arise in practical
      activity as a consequence of overestimation of paraclinical methods of
      investigation, underestimation of a role of treatment that the patient receives
      due to other indications is presented. The formation of life attitude of the
      physician is the extremely important component of teaching process. One should
      not forget the lessons of history shown examples of physicians that gave their
      lives to save patients. Also, there are examples of physicians who had violated
      the fundamental humanitarian principles.

PMID- 28884726
TI  - [Polyneuropathies in intestinal diseases].
AB  - Different aspects of polyneuropathies (PN) developed due to the deficit of group
      B vitamins in intestinal diseases are considered. Neurological disturbances
      related to intestinal diseases are caused by malabsorption that leads to the
      deficit of some compounds extremely important for normal cell metabolism,
      pathological changes of mucous coat of the stomach and intestine and higher
      sensitivity to the plant protein gluten. Vitamin B12 deficit can lead to a number
      of neurological disturbances; patients with pernicious anemia most often develop
      myelopathy and PN. An increase in serum vitamin B1 concentration is identified in
      30-80% of patients with alcoholism. However, vitamin B1 deficit is seen also in
      ulcer disease, chronic gastritis, acute pancreatitis, esophageal metastatic
      lesions as well as in primary tumors of the stomach and intestine. Demyelinating
      as well as axonal PN may develop in patients with enteropathy. Gluten intolerance
      is the most often cause of PN in pathological changes in the intestine
      Possibilities of clinical and paraclinical diagnosis of these disorders are
      analyzed.

PMID- 28884727
TI  - [Disturbance of oligodendrocyte differentiation in schizophrenia in relation to
      main hypothesis of the disease].
AB  - Increasing evidence coming from neuroimaging, molecular genetic and post-mortem
      studies have implicated oligodendrocyte abnormalities and compromised myelin
      integrity in schizophrenia. Activity-dependent myelination in adult brain is
      considered to be an important mechanism of neural circuit's plasticity due to the
      presence of a large population of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC) in the
      adult CNS. Growing evidence for impairment of oligodendrocyte differentiation has
      been reported in the brain of schizophrenia subjects. OPC are very vulnerable
      inflammation, oxidative stress, and elevated glutamate levels leading to
      excitotoxicity. The mechanisms of prolonged suppression of oligodendrocyte
      differentiation caused by prenatal maternal infection or preterm birth are
      discussed in view of increased risk of schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental and
      inflammation hypotheses of the disease. The data that some neuroleptics stimulate
      OPC differentiation and ameliorate myelin alterations support the notion that
      impairment in the differentiation of OPCs contributes to oligodendrocyte
      abnormalities and to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

PMID- 28884728
TI  - [Psychiatry of the future: multidimensionality of the problems of modern
      psychiatry and development of classification systems].
AB  - The success and achievements in the area of neurosciences due to the development
      of neuroimaging, neurochemical and genome studies provide tasks for psychiatry
      determined by the necessity to develop new classifications of mental diseases,
      primarily ICD-11, specify clinical diagnostic criteria and rethink the essence of
      some mental disorders. In spite of the multiple direction of scientific opinions
      on the discussed issues, the development of modern psychiatry is characterized by
      intensive search of biological background of psychiatric disorders and
      elaboration of effective approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of mental
      diseases, including medical rehabilitation of patients.

PMID- 28884729
TI  - [Mental disorders in Hodgkin's Lymphoma].
AB  - This literature review differentially describes mental disorders in patients with
      Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) with an emphasis on psychotic disorders, affective states
      and adjustment disorders. Psychotic disorders observed in patients with HL
      include affective, delusional conditions, delirium. There are different
      psychogenic states among the adjustment disorders. Attention is drawn to the
      frequency of anxious, depressive or mixed states. Conversion disorders and
      behavioral disorders that lead to non-compliance in patients with HL are
      described as well. In nosologic aspect, mental disorders in HL are classified as
      somatogenic and adjustement disorders.

PMID- 28884730
TI  - [Pharmacological effects and clinical application of pantogam and pantogam
      active].
AB  - Clinical studies and experience in the use of pantogam (hopanthenic acid) and
      pantogam active (rac-gopantenic/D-, L-gopantenic acid) showed their efficacy and
      safety in patients with various pathologies. Pantogam has a unique spectrum of
      pharmacological effects (nootropic, anticonvulsant, mild activating) in the
      absence of addiction, hyperstimulation or withdrawal syndrome. Pantogam active,
      having also an additional anxiolytic effect, is characterized by bimodal
      activity, improves not only cognitive functions, but also emotional state in
      patients in psychiatric, neurological and cardiological practice with such
      diseases and conditions as anxiety/anxiety-depressive disorders, chronic brain
      ischemia, ischemic heart disease, chronic heart failure, arterial hypertension,
      epilepsy, craniocerebral trauma, schizophrenia as well as cognitive impairment in
      the structure of neurological and psychogenic deficiencies.

PMID- 28884731
TI  - [Optimization of the algorithm for the detection and the differential non
      pharmacological correction of the risk factors and the preclinical stages of
      atherosclerosis at the level of the health resort-based primary care].
AB  - This article presents the results of a comparative prospective study of 276
      subjects at the age between 40 and 65 years presenting with risk factors (RF) of
      atherosclerosis and its preclinical stages (APC). All of them were reckoned to be
      at a moderate risk of developing APC based on the results of evaluation with the
      use of the SCORE scale which implied the necessity of their differential non
      pharmacological treatment during a two-year period with the application of a
      variety of preventive therapeutic strategies. The patients were allocated to
      three different (initially comparable) groups. The main group (group 1) was
      comprised of 98 subjects who received the optimized combined treatment including
      climatotherapy, dietary therapy, psychotherapy, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, and
      hypoxytherapy; in addition, they were involved in the program of therapeutic
      physical exercises and in the educational program. The group of comparison (group
      2) consisted of 88 subjects who were advised to withstand pernicious habits, to
      keep to the prescribed diet, and intensify the physical activity. The subjects
      included in the control group 3 were given no preventive treatment whatsoever.
      The optimized system for the early diagnostics and identification of the risk
      factors and/or ACD was employed for examining the members of group 1. By the end
      of the study, risk factors of atherosclerosis and APC were documented in 86.2%
      and 76.6% of the patients of group 1, respectively. The number of disability days
      averaged 7.2 per person versus 16.3 and 22.6 in comparison and control groups,
      respectively. There were no newly diagnosed cases of cardiovascular diseases
      (CVD) over the study period among the patients of group 1, in contrast to 11.4%
      and 25.6% such cases in groups 2 and 3, respectively. The results of this study
      give evidence that the optimized strategy of non-pharmacological correction of
      the risk factors and the preclinical stages of atherosclerosis at the level of
      the health resort-based primary care has advantages over the standard therapy
      because it makes it possible to reduce the frequency of development of new cases
      of cardiovascular diseases and to decrease the disability rate. It is concluded
      that the proposed approach enhances the effectiveness of primary prophylaxis of
      cardiovascular diseases associated with atherosclerosis and relieves the burden
      of this pathology. It can therefore be recommended for the more extensive
      application at the level of the health resort-based primary care settings.

PMID- 28884732
TI  - [The rehabilitative treatment of the patients presenting with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease including the application of the manual handling methods].
AB  - AIM: The objective of the present study was to identify the peculiar features and
      advantages of different methods for the mechanical impact on the thoracic tissues
      of the patients presenting with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
      to develop specific indications for their clinical applications. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: This randomized prospective comparative study included 137 patients with
      COPD. In accordance with the currently accepted classification (GOLD, 2013), all
      the patients had COPD of medium severity. The smoldering inflammatory process was
      diagnosed in 75 (54.7%) patients, grade I and II respiratory insufficiency in 80
      (58.4%) and 57 (41.6%) patients, respectively. The external respiration function
      was evaluated by means of pneumotachometry techniques during the forced
      expiratory maneuver and by spirometry. The pulmonary hemodynamics and myocardial
      contractility of the right ventricle were studied with the use of
      rheopulmonography and central hemodynamics by tetrapolar thoracic rheography. The
      routine inflammatory and immune tests were employed. RESULTS: Investigations of
      the systemic circulation have demonstrated the prevalence of its hyperkinetic
      type (54,0%) over the hypokinetic and eukinetic ones (23,3% and 22,7%
      respectively). All the patients were divided into three group identical in terms
      of clinical and functional characteristics. The patients comprising group 1
      (n=46) were prescribed the rehabilitative treatment in the form of classical
      chest massage, those of group 2 (n=47) were treated by means of intense massage
      of asymmetric chest zones, and the patients included in group 3 (n=44) underwent
      manual therapy. It was shown that intense massage produced the most pronounced
      beneficial effect. Classical massage also resulted in the reduction of the
      inflammatory manifestations but its effectiveness was significantly lower than
      that of the intense treatment (r<0,05-0,02). Manual therapy failed to cause any
      appreciable changes in the character and severity of the inflammatory process
      (r>0,5). CONCLUSION: The intense massage of asymmetric chest zones proved to
      provide the most efficient tool for the anti-inflammatory treatment of the
      patients presenting with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in comparison with
      other known methods for the mechanical impact on the thoracic tissues. However,
      the application of this technique is limited in the patients with the hypokinetic
      type of systemic circulation and pulmonary hypertension. The most important
      advantage of chest massage by the conventional method is the possibility of its
      application for the treatment of the patients suffering from severe forms of COPD
      associated with pulmonary and systemic cardiohemodynamic disturbances with
      alveolar hypoxia. Manual therapy can be recommended in the first place to the
      patients with COPD in remission and the accompanying functional blockade of the
      vertebral segments.

PMID- 28884733
TI  - [The application of impulse magnetic therapy for the treatment of the patients
      presenting with lymphedema of the lower extremities].
AB  - AIM: The principal objective of the present work was to evaluate the influence of
      impulse magnetic therapy on the state of the microcirculatory system in the
      patients presenting with lymphedema of the lower extremities. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: The study included 59 patients with stage of 1 and 2 lymphedema who were
      divided into two groups. Those comprising the first group had impulse magnetic
      therapy applied to their lower extremities while the patients making up the
      second group served as controls. All the patients were examined with the use of
      the laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) that revealed the initially present
      pathological changes in the microcirculatory system of their lower extremities.
      RESULTS: The study has demonstrated that the application of impulse magnetic
      therapy produced a positive effect on all the constituent components of the
      microcirculatory blood stream of the patients suffering from lymphedema of the
      lower extremities. Specifically, the initially increased arteriolar tonus was
      decreased, the blood flow in the capillary vessels was improved, and congestive
      phenomena in the venular segments of the microcirculation blood stream were
      markedly reduced. The results of the LDF examination in the control group gave no
      evidence of significant changes in the patients' microcirculatory system. The
      results of the LDF examination of the patients of the control group suggested the
      absence of any appreciable changes in the microcirculatory system. CONCLUSION:
      The present study has demonstrated the advisability of the application of impulse
      magnetic therapy for the treatment of the patients presenting with lymphedema of
      the lower extremities as a minimally invasive technique for the evaluation of the
      condition of the microcirculatory system and the objective assessment of the
      effectiveness of the outcomes of physiotherapy in the patients with vascular
      pathology.

PMID- 28884734
TI  - [The meteopathic reactions as reflected in the indicators of electropuncture
      diagnostics. A pilot study].
AB  - The present article was designed to report the results of the electropuncture
      diagnostics (EPD) with the use of the 'Prognoz' electropunctural device obtained
      during the examination of 12 patients who experienced meteopathic reactions (MPR)
      during magnetic storms. The most frequently detected changes were deviations
      affecting the acupuncture channels (AC) of the heart, pericardium and triple
      energizer. The latter underwent the most pronounced deviation from the 'balanced
      condition'. In 2 cases out of the three (66,6%), its hypofunction was documented
      The pericardium channel was characterized by extreme asymmetry of its left and
      right branches. To a lesser extent, a similar asymmetry was apparent in the
      acupuncture channels of the heart. The present pilot study revealed the
      noticeable changed in the functional state of two AC (pericardium and triple
      energizer) in people suffering from meteopathic reactions. It is concluded that
      the further studies involving a larger population of the weather-dependent
      subjects is likely to identify other sensitive acupuncture channels; the analysis
      of their functional condition may be instrumental in determining the typical MPR
      profiles based on the results of the evaluation of the effectiveness of
      electropunctural diagnostics. The newly detected patterns may be useful for the
      development of the personalized approach to the prediction, prevention, and
      relief of the meteopathic reactions.

PMID- 28884735
TI  - [The spa and health resort-based treatment of metabolic syndrome with the
      application of the therapeutic courses of different duration: the evaluation
      according long-term results].
AB  - AIM: The objective of the present study was to estimate the effectiveness of the
      new therapeutic modalities for the spa and health resort-based treatment of
      metabolic syndrome based on the results of the long-term follow-up observations.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 100 patients presenting with metabolic syndrome
      were recruited for the participation in the study. All of them underwent a
      shortened course of mineral water intake in the combination with the use of the
      herbal medicinal products. RESULTS: The results of the study give evidence of the
      more favorable changes in the clinical and instrumental characteristics of the
      patients with metabolic syndrome treated with the use of the proposed approach in
      comparison the patients treated by the conventional methods. Moreover, the
      beneficial effects of the proposed approach persisted during a longer period. The
      basal treatment given to our patients was supplemented by dietary therapy,
      therapeutic physical exercise, narzan baths, intake of mineral water having a
      temperature of 35-37  degrees S in conjunction with sulphate mineral water
      (narzan) cooled to 13-15  degrees S, and a phytococktail. CONCLUSION: The results
      of the long-term observations confirmed the enhanced effectiveness of the spa and
      health resort-based treatment of metabolic syndrome including the therapeutic
      courses with the intake of cooled narzan mineral water in the combination with
      phytococktails. This therapeutic modality increased the duration of the favorable
      changes of various parameters that characterize metabolic syndrome. Specifically,
      they persisted during 5-6 months after the application of the standard methods,
      were still apparent within 6-7 months after the two-week course of the treatment
      with cold narzan and phytococktails, and during 8-9 months when the duration of
      the treatment course was extended up to 3 weeks.

PMID- 28884736
TI  - [The application of low-frequency ultrasound for the comprehensive treatment and
      rehabilitation of the patients presenting with chronic endometritis].
AB  - The incidence of chronic endometritis remains rather high despite considerable
      progress in reproductive medicine including the advent of the new methods for
      assisted reproduction; the pregnancy rate after the treatment of this condition
      is still unacceptably low. It implies the necessity of the careful preparation of
      endometrium for the implantation of the embryo especially in women with a history
      of unsuccessful outcomes of the IVF treatment. It calls for the development of
      the efficient therapeutic modalities for the management of chronic endometritis
      and restoration of the normal reproductive function; their introduction into the
      therapeutic algorithm remains equally relevant. The characteristic features of
      chronic endometritis include blood circulatory disorders in the vessels of the
      uterus and in the pelvic vascular basin, changes of local immunity in the
      endometrium concomitant with the activation of cellular and humoral responses of
      inflammation in the form of enhanced leukocyte infiltration and increased
      production of cytokines. The long duration of such a process results in the
      development of fibrosis that, in its turn, leads to chronic tissue hypoxia,
      potentiation of inflammation, and disruption of decidualization that hampers
      successful implantation. The article shows the possibility of using low-intensity
      ultrasound for the treatment and rehabilitation of the patients presenting with
      chronic endometritis. The data concerning the primary biophysical processes
      developing in the tissues under the influence of ultrasound are discussed. The
      therapeutic effects and their underlying mechanisms and described. The
      physiotherapeutic treatment considerably improved vascular hemodynamics in the
      pelvic basin and produced trophotropic, defibrosing, and anti-inflammatory
      effects. The clinical data giving evidence of the high effectiveness of the
      application of intrauterine ultrasound cavitation provide a basis for the
      recommendation to include this physical factor in the existing algorithms for the
      pre-gravid preparation of the women presenting with disorders of the reproductive
      function and chronic endometritis.

PMID- 28884737
TI  - [The application of the acupuncture techniques for the combined treatment of
      neurotic tics in the children].
AB  - : At present, the frequency of neurosis in the children is growing under the
      influence of the increasingly intensive stressful factors. The neurotic ticks are
      one of the manifestations of neurosis in the children characterized by
      involuntary movements; they are often accompanied by hyperactivity, deficit of
      attention, fatigue, and headaches. AIM: The objective of the present study was to
      evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture used for the treatment of neurotic tics
      in the children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was carried out at the basis of
      the department of children's rehabilitation of the Moscow city polyclinic #39.
      All the children were counselled by a neurologist, psychologist, and
      acupuncturist. An electroencephalogram was obtained from each patient and a
      questionnaire study involving the patients' parents was conducted. The patients
      were treated with the application of reflexotherapy and were given
      recommendations of a psychologist. A total of 30 children at the age from 6 to 12
      years were available for the examination. The participants of the study were
      allocated to two groups depending on the strategy of the outpatient care. Group 1
      was comprised of the patients (n=17) who were given 3 courses of reflexotherapy
      in addition to pharmacotherapy and psychologist's recommendations. The patients
      included in group 2 served as controls (n=13) and received only medications and
      psychotherapy without acupuncture. The effectiveness of the treatment was
      evaluated based on the dynamics of the patients' complaints. RESULTS AND
      DISCUSSION: The resullts of the study give evidence of the higher effectiveness
      of the treatment of the children suffering from neurotic ticks with the
      application of acupuncture therapy compared with the conventional approach. A few
      courses of reflexotherapy provided in the combination with pharmacotherapy and
      the compliance with the recommendations of a psychologist resulted in the more
      efficient elimination of the neurotic tics together with the associated
      hyperactivity, deficit of attention, fatigue, and headaches than the use of
      medication therapy and psychotherapy without acupuncture.

PMID- 28884738
TI  - [The influence of physical loads on the functional parameters of the eyes in the
      children and adolescents regularly engaged in sports activities].
AB  - : Myopia (short-sightedness) is the most common refractive disorder throughout
      the world prone to progression which is caused, inter alia, by violation of the
      working regime and resting conditions in the combination with the enhanced
      physical and psychological stresses. AIM: The objective of the present study was
      to evaluate the influence of the strenuous physical exercises on the visual
      analyzer in the children and adolescents regularly engaged in sports activities.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 600 children and adolescents at the age from 8
      to 17 years were recruited for the participation in the study. They were
      allocated to two groups of 300 subjects each. The first group was comprised of
      the children regularly involved in sport activities ('athletes') while the second
      group included the children and adolescents not involved in the sports activities
      on a regular basis ('schoolchildren'). The groups were additionally divided into
      two subgroups that consisted of 150 members each. One subgroup within each group
      was composed of the persons with emmetropic refraction ('healthy') while the
      other included the children presenting with mild or moderately severe myopia. The
      parameters of visual acuity, the length of the anterior-posterior segment of the
      eye, and indices of regional hemodynamics of the eye were evaluated in all the
      participants of the study. RESULTS: Twelve months after the initiation of the
      study, the members of the first group ('athletes') were found to exhibit a slight
      decrease in visual acuity with and without ts correction and without correction
      as well as a statistically significant decrease of refraction by 0.14+/-0.18 dptr
      on the average (p=0.009). In the members of the second group not engaged in
      sports activities on a regular bases ('schoolchildren#), the decrease in visual
      acuity without correction and parameters of refraction averaged 0.06+/-0.19 dptr
      (p=0.004) and 0.35+/-0.61 dptr (p<0.001), respectively. Deterioration of short
      sightedness amongst the children of the first group ('athletes') was documented
      in 3 cases (2.0%) compared with 11 (7.3%) in the second group ('schoolchildren').
      Among the healthy adolescents, myopia was diagnosed 12 months after the beginning
      of the observations in 9 cases (6%) in the first group ('athletes') and in 15
      (10%) cases in the second group ('schoolchildren'). CONCLUSION: The results of
      the present study give evidence that physical training on a regular basis
      facilitates the reduction of the risk of developing myopia; moreover, it helps to
      stabilize the visual acuity without correction and reduce the rate of progression
      of the myopic process in the adolescents having mild and moderate myopia.

PMID- 28884739
TI  - [The influence of the main components of the ultraphonophoresis phytocomplex
      method on the release of the biologically active substances (an experimental
      study)].
AB  - The present study was designed to investigate kinetics of flavonoidrelease from
      the working compositions containing a phytocomplex. The basic parameters of this
      processes during phonophoresis were determined in the model in vitro experiments.
      The study has demonstrated the dependence of the flavonoid release rate on their
      initial concentration in the working compositions and the influence of
      dimethylsulfoxide (as well as the main and auxiliary agents of the working
      composition) on the release of biologically active substances. The technological
      methods designed for the enhancement of the effectiveness of the phytocomplex
      phonophoresis technique are proposed.

PMID- 28884740
TI  - [The specific features of the psycho-emotional status and the application of
      psychotherapy for the rehabilitative treatment of the patients presenting with
      rheumatoid arthritis].
AB  - The relevance of the problem of rheumatoid arthritis arises from the influence of
      such factors as its prevalence rate, unpredictability, tendency towards the
      transition to the chronic form, severe pain syndrome, high levels of disability,
      and long-term loss of working ability, as well as the accompanying psycho
      emotional disorders. The present reviews article was designed to analyze the
      premorbid personality characteristics, the specifics features of mental health,
      and the response to the disease in the patients presenting with rheumatoid
      arthritis. Special emphasis is placed on the discusses of the relationship
      between the intensity of the pain syndrome and psycho-emotional disorders. The
      factors responsible for the development of the depressive states associated with
      rheumatoid arthritis are distinguished; they are shown to be related to both
      pathogenesis and the clinical symptoms of the underlying pathology as well as the
      general course of the disease and the specific features of the patients'
      psychological condition. The most extensively applied psychodiagnostics
      techniques are described, and the commonest psychotherapeutic approaches to the
      combined therapy and rehabilitation of the patients presenting with rheumatoid
      arthritis are overviewed.

PMID- 28884741
TI  - [The nephroprotective potential of peloid therapy used for the rehabilitation of
      the patients presenting with chronic pyelonephritis].
AB  - This review article presents the data on the mechanism of action of peloid
      therapy from the perspective of its defibrosing effect, the structure and
      functions of the extracellular matrix under the normal and pathological
      conditions. In addition, role of this treatment modality in the progression of
      tubulointerstitial fibrosis which determines the severity and prognosis of
      chronic pyelonephritis is considered. The researchers are currently carry out the
      extensive studies aimed at the search of the methods for the primary and
      secondary prevention of chronic pyelonephritis. A wide range of
      pharmacotherapeutic modalities are currently used for this purpose. Moreover the
      development of long-acting anti-relapse medications is currently underway along
      with the further improvement of high-tech reconstructive surgical methods for the
      intervention on the organs of the urinary system. At the same time, the
      nephroprotective potential of the natural physical factors, such as therapeutic
      muds, e.g. peloids, remains poorly explored even though their well apparent
      thermophysical properties, unique organic and mineral composition, and saturation
      with biologically active compounds are well known long ago. The systemic response
      to peloid therapy manifests itself as the changes in the metabolism of the
      intercellular matrix and collagen of the connective tissue associated with the
      alterations in the process of fibrogenesis and the development of
      tubulointerstitial disorders. The direct and indirect influence of peloids on the
      connective tissue is possible. The indirect effects are attributable to the
      peloid impact on the antioxidant status, immunity, hormonal regulation, and
      metabolic processes. These findings suggest the necessity of the relevant
      experimental and clinical studies for the evaluation of the influence of peloid
      therapy on the structure and metabolism of the connective tissue in the kidneys
      including dynamics of the markers of inflammation, proliferation and
      fibrogenesis, and the hormonal status of the patients suffering from chronic
      pyelonephritis based on the application of the modern technologies in accordance
      with the requirements of evidence-based medicine.

PMID- 28884742
TI  - IPA1: a direct target of SL signaling.
AB  - The plant hormone strigolactone (SL) is important for many processes in plants,
      but its molecular mode of action has been difficult to elucidate. A new discovery
      has identified the SPL transcription factor, IPA1, as a crucial component
      directly involved in SL signaling.

PMID- 28884743
TI  - Three-dimensional analysis of the physiological foramen geometry of maxillary and
      mandibular molars by means of micro-CT.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the physiological foramen diameter,
      shape and distance between physiological and anatomical apex of maxillary and
      mandibular first and second molars. Accurate knowledge of the physiological
      foramina morphology; thus, inherent mechanical shaping technical hindrances, is
      decisive when taking the corresponding root canal final preparation decision. The
      morphological dimensions of a total of 1727 physiological foramina were
      investigated by means of micro-computed tomography. Mean narrow and wide (to a
      high number, oval) diameters of the physiological foramen were 0.24, 0.22 and
      0.33 mm and 0.33, 0.31 and 0.42 mm in mesiobuccal (MB), distobuccal (DB) and
      palatal (P) roots in maxillary first molars; 0.24, 0.22 and 0.33 mm and 0.41,
      0.33 and 0.44 in MB, DB, and P roots in maxillary second molars. Mandibular first
      molars showed mean narrow and wide diameters of 0.24 and 0.30 mm and of 0.39 and
      0.46 mm in mesial (M) and distal (D) roots; second mandibular molars showed 0.25
      and 0.31 mm and 0.47 mm in M and D roots. The mean distance between the
      physiological foramina and anatomical apex was 0.82, 0.81 and 1.02 mm and 0.54,
      0.43 and 0.63 mm in MB, DB and P roots of the maxillary first and second molars,
      respectively. A mean distance of 0.95 mm (M) and 1.05 mm (D) in the first and
      0.78 mm (M) and 0.81 mm (D) in the second mandibular molars was observed. Based
      on the results obtained, assumable recommendations for final preparation size of
      the physiological foramen were calculated. However, when taking into
      consideration, the resulting standard deviations of marginal errors must be
      cautiously considered when taking a final decision in clinical endodontic
      treatment.

PMID- 28884744
TI  - Pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma with adenocarcinoma-like features:
      napsin A expression and genomic alterations.
AB  - Pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a highly aggressive
      malignancy, which was recently found to comprise three major genomic subsets:
      small cell carcinoma-like, non-small cell carcinoma (predominantly
      adenocarcinoma)-like, and carcinoid-like. To further characterize adenocarcinoma
      like subset, here we analyzed the expression of exocrine marker napsin A, along
      with TTF-1, in a large series of LCNECs (n=112), and performed detailed
      clinicopathologic and genomic analysis of napsin A-positive cases. For
      comparison, we analyzed napsin A expression in other lung neuroendocrine
      neoplasms (177 carcinoids, 37 small cell carcinomas) and 60 lung adenocarcinomas.
      We found that napsin A was expressed in 15% of LCNEC (17/112), whereas all
      carcinoids and small cell carcinomas were consistently negative. Napsin A
      reactivity in LCNEC was focal in 12/17 cases, and weak or moderate in intensity
      in all cases, which was significantly lower in the extent and intensity than seen
      in adenocarcinomas (P<0.0001). The combination of TTF-1-diffuse/napsin A-negative
      or focal was typical of LCNEC but was rare in adenocarcinoma, and could thus
      serve as a helpful diagnostic clue. The diagnosis of napsin A-positive LCNECs was
      confirmed by classic morphology, diffuse labeling for at least one neuroendocrine
      marker, most consistently synaptophysin, and the lack of distinct adenocarcinoma
      component. Genomic analysis of 14 napsin A-positive LCNECs revealed the presence
      of mutations typical of lung adenocarcinoma (KRAS and/or STK11) in 11 cases. In
      conclusion, LCNECs are unique among lung neuroendocrine neoplasms in that some of
      these tumors exhibit low-level expression of exocrine marker napsin A, and harbor
      genomic alterations typical of adenocarcinoma. Despite the apparent close
      biological relationship, designation of adeno-like LCNEC as a separate entity
      from adenocarcinoma is supported by their distinctive morphology, typically
      diffuse expression of neuroendocrine marker(s) and aggressive behavior. Further
      studies are warranted to assess the clinical utility and optimal method of
      identifying adenocarcinoma-like and other subsets of LCNEC in routine practice.

PMID- 28884745
TI  - Clinicopathologic and genetic characteristics of young patients with pleural
      diffuse malignant mesothelioma.
AB  - Pleural diffuse malignant mesothelioma typically presents during the seventh
      decade of life and has poor prognosis. Recent epidemiologic studies have shown
      differences between young and older mesothelioma patients, but the biology of
      pleural mesothelioma in young patients is poorly understood. We studied the
      clinicopathologic and genetic characteristics in pleural mesothelioma patients
      aged 35 years and younger. Thirty-six consecutive pleural mesothelioma patients
      aged 35 years and younger were compared with 48 older patients. We examined
      demographic and clinical characteristics, histologic type, growth patterns,
      mitotic index, and nuclear grade on hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides, BAP1
      protein expression by immunohistochemistry, and CDKN2A and NF2 deletions by
      fluorescence in situ hybridization. Clinicopathologic and cytogenetic results
      were compared between young and older groups, and correlated with overall
      survival. Young patients were more frequently women, reported less asbestos
      exposure, and had a greater frequency of prior therapeutic radiation and family
      history of breast cancer than older patients (P<0.05 each). There were no
      histologic differences between young and older patients (all P>0.05). CDKN2A
      deletion was less prevalent in young patients (P=0.01), loss of BAP1 protein
      expression less frequent in young patients (P=0.06), and NF2 deletion rates
      similar between groups (P>0.05 each). Median overall survival was 40 vs 26 months
      (P=0.10) in young and older patients, respectively, and 47 vs 31 months (P=0.04)
      when comparing patients with epithelioid histology only. High mitotic index and
      non-epithelioid histology were the only characteristics associated with a poor
      overall survival in young patients. Young patients with pleural mesothelioma have
      an equal sex distribution and are more likely to have a history of mantle
      radiation, family history of breast cancer, and lower rates of CDKN2A deletion
      than older patients. Our results suggest that pleural mesothelioma in young
      patients has distinctive clinical and genetic characteristics, despite some
      similarities to pleural mesothelioma in older patients.

PMID- 28884746
TI  - Inflammatory leiomyosarcoma is a distinct tumor characterized by near
      haploidization, few somatic mutations, and a primitive myogenic gene expression
      signature.
AB  - Inflammatory leiomyosarcoma is a soft-tissue tumor resembling conventional
      leiomyosarcoma, but with a prominent intrinsic inflammatory component. Previous
      studies have suggested that inflammatory leiomyosarcoma differs genetically from
      leiomyosarcoma, but in-depth analyses are lacking. Here we provide a
      comprehensive picture of the genome and transcriptome of inflammatory
      leiomyosarcoma by combining cytogenetic, single-nucleotide polymorphism array,
      mRNA-sequencing, and whole-exome sequencing data. The results show that
      inflammatory leiomyosarcoma has a specific genetic profile characterized by near
      haploidization with or without subsequent whole-genome doubling. Consistently,
      both parental copies of chromosomes 5 and 22 are preserved. Apart from recurrent
      mutation of the NF1 gene, additional somatic events that could serve as driver
      mutations were not found at either the nucleotide or the genome level.
      Furthermore, no fusion transcripts were identified. Global gene expression
      profiling revealed particularly prominent differential expression of genes,
      including ITGA7, MYF5, MYF6, MYOD1, MYOG, and PAX7, involved in muscle
      development and function, providing strong argument for grouping inflammatory
      leiomyosarcoma with myogenic sarcomas, rather than with myofibroblastic lesions.
      Combined with previously published data, there are now 10 cases of inflammatory
      leiomyosarcoma with confirmed near-haploid genotype. These patients differ from
      leiomyosarcoma patients in being younger (median 41 years), showing a male
      predominance (9:1), and few relapses (1 of 8 informative patients). Thus, the
      clinical, morphological, and genetic data provide compelling support for
      inflammatory leiomyosarcoma being a distinct subtype of myogenic tumors.

PMID- 28884747
TI  - Adverse prognostic value of PD-L1 expression in primary resected pulmonary
      squamous cell carcinomas and paired mediastinal lymph node metastases.
AB  - Immunohistochemical assessment of programmed cell death (PD)-ligand 1 (PD-L1)
      expression in lung cancer in the context of therapeutically targeting the PD1/PD
      L1 axis is still controversially discussed. This includes the comparability of
      antibody clones, prognostic value, and discrepancies between primary tumors and
      metastases. We assessed tumoral PD-L1 expression using clones E1L3N and SP142 in
      372 primary resected pulmonary squamous cell carcinomas, including 40 paired N2
      lymph node metastases, in relation with clinico-pathological parameters. PD-L1
      expression was negative (<1%) in 163/372 (44%, E1L3N) or 231/370 patients (62%,
      SP142). Positivity of 1-<50% was observed in 135 (36%, E1L3N) or 92 patients
      (25%, SP142) and >=50% in 74 (20%, E1L3N) or 47 patients (13%, SP142). PD-L1
      staining correlated significantly between both antibodies (r=0.781; P<0.001).
      Scores correlated significantly between full-slide sections (N=40) and tissue
      microarrays, and between primaries and N2 metastases (P<0.001 all). CD8+ tumor
      infiltrating lymphocyte counts positively correlated with PD-L1 expression
      (P<0.001). PD-L1 >=50% showed the best prognostic discrimination using the split
      sample validation method. It was associated with shorter disease-specific
      survival in the observation group (E1L3N: P=0.035, SP142: P=0.002) and validation
      group (E1L3N: P=0.024, SP142: P=0.101) and shorter time to recurrence
      (observation group: E1L3N: P=0.056, SP142: P<0.001; validation group: E1L3N:
      P=0.036, SP142: P=0.247). Multivariate analysis showed that PD-L1 expression
      >=50% determined by clone E1L3N was an independent prognostic factor in the
      observation group regarding disease-specific survival (HR=2.768; 95% CI=1.149
      6.666; P=0.023) and time to recurrence (HR=2.164; 95% CI=1.056-4.436; P=0.035)
      and in the validation group (disease-specific survival: HR=1.978; 95% CI=0.928
      4.214; P=0.077 and time to recurrence: HR=1.571; 95% CI=0.838-2.944; P=0.159).
      High PD-L1 expression was associated with adverse prognosis in pulmonary squamous
      cell carcinoma. Clone E1L3N was more sensitive than SP142 and superior regarding
      prognostication. PD-L1 expression correlated significantly between primary tumor
      and N2 metastases, rendering mediastinal lymph node metastases adequate for
      immunohistochemical assessment.

PMID- 28884748
TI  - A FISH assay efficiently screens for BRAF gene rearrangements in pancreatic
      acinar-type neoplasms.
AB  - Approximately 1-2% of pancreatic neoplasms are acinar cell carcinomas. Recently,
      BRAF gene rearrangements were identified in over 20% of acinar-type neoplasms,
      which included both pure acinar cell carcinomas and mixed carcinomas with acinar
      differentiation, using next-generation sequencing-based platforms, providing a
      potential therapeutic target for patients with these neoplasms. Thus, it is
      clinically important to develop a rapid, cost- and material-efficient assay to
      screen for BRAF gene fusions in pancreatic acinar-type neoplasms. We developed a
      dual color, break-apart FISH assay to detect BRAF gene rearrangements in these
      neoplasms and evaluated its performance in comparison to next-generation
      sequencing-based studies. A blinded BRAF rearrangement FISH investigation was
      performed on 31 acinar-type neoplasms that had been studied previously by next
      generation sequencing-based analysis as well as on 18 additional acinar-type
      neoplasms that were accrued over the past 2 years. In total, BRAF fusions were
      identified in 12/49 (24%) acinar-type neoplasms by FISH. BRAF fusion partners
      were uncovered by using targeted next-generation sequencing studies in 11 FISH
      positive cases that had sufficient material for next-generation sequencing
      studies. SND1 was the most frequent fusion partner involved in BRAF-fusion acinar
      type neoplasms (50%), followed by HERPUD1 (18%). No BRAF fusions were identified
      by next-generation sequencing in any of the FISH-negative cases investigated.
      FISH analysis showed that BRAF rearrangements were diffusely present across tumor
      rich areas in BRAF-fusion acinar-type neoplasms, which is consistent with an
      oncogenic driver alteration pattern. Thus, we demonstrated that, in comparison to
      targeted next-generation sequencing-based technologies, the FISH assay is highly
      sensitive and specific as well as time- and cost-efficient in the detection of
      BRAF fusions in acinar-type neoplasms. The FISH assay can be easily implemented
      in diagnostic settings to identify acinar-type neoplasms patients potentially
      suitable for targeted therapy to inhibit MAPK pathway activity.

PMID- 28884749
TI  - Comprehensive clinical and molecular analyses of neuroendocrine carcinomas of the
      breast.
AB  - Neuroendocrine breast carcinomas represent a rare subtype of breast cancer. Their
      definition, prevalence, and prognosis remain controversial in the literature. The
      2012 WHO classification of breast cancer categorizes neuroendocrine carcinomas
      into three morphologically distinct subtypes: well-differentiated neuroendocrine
      tumors, poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas, and invasive breast
      carcinomas with neuroendocrine differentiation. We aimed to gain insight into the
      clinical, morphologic, phenotypic, and molecular features of 47 neuroendocrine
      breast carcinomas. Targeted next-generation sequencing by an AmpliSeq 22 cancer
      gene hotspot panel and the Prosigna assay were performed on 42/47 and 35/47
      cases, respectively. Average age at diagnosis was 69 years. All tumors were
      estrogen receptor-positive and the large majority expressed progesterone receptor
      (89%), GATA3 (98%), FOXA1 (96%), and CK8/18 (98%). There was an almost equal
      distribution of luminal A (52%) and B (48%) carcinomas. Almost half of the cohort
      (49%) displayed a high risk of recurrence score with the Prosigna test. Patients
      with a neuroendocrine carcinoma had a shorter disease-free survival compared with
      those affected by carcinomas of no special type matched for age, size, grade, and
      estrogen receptor status. No significant differences were observed in terms of
      overall survival. Stratification of neuroendocrine carcinomas using the 2012 WHO
      criteria did not reveal statistically significant differences among the distinct
      categories (well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors, poorly differentiated
      neuroendocrine carcinomas, and invasive breast carcinomas with neuroendocrine
      differentiation), in terms of either progression-free or overall survival. Our
      targeted sequencing analysis found three cases (7%) harboring a PIK3CA mutation,
      and in three other cases (7%) TP53 mutations were detected. This study showed
      that neuroendocrine breast carcinoma is a distinct subtype of luminal carcinoma
      with a low rate of PIK3CA mutations and with an aggressive clinical behavior. An
      accurate identification of neuroendocrine differentiation may be useful to better
      tailor patient adjuvant therapy within luminal carcinomas.

PMID- 28884750
TI  - Brain imaging tests for chronic pain: medical, legal and ethical issues and
      recommendations.
AB  - Chronic pain is the greatest source of disability globally and claims related to
      chronic pain feature in many insurance and medico-legal cases. Brain imaging (for
      example, functional MRI, PET, EEG and magnetoencephalography) is widely
      considered to have potential for diagnosis, prognostication, and prediction of
      treatment outcome in patients with chronic pain. In this Consensus Statement, a
      presidential task force of the International Association for the Study of Pain
      examines the capabilities of brain imaging in the diagnosis of chronic pain, and
      the ethical and legal implications of its use in this way. The task force
      emphasizes that the use of brain imaging in this context is in a discovery phase,
      but has the potential to increase our understanding of the neural underpinnings
      of chronic pain, inform the development of therapeutic agents, and predict
      treatment outcomes for use in personalized pain management. The task force
      proposes standards of evidence that must be satisfied before any brain imaging
      measure can be considered suitable for clinical or legal purposes. The
      admissibility of such evidence in legal cases also strongly depends on laws that
      vary between jurisdictions. For these reasons, the task force concludes that the
      use of brain imaging findings to support or dispute a claim of chronic pain -
      effectively as a pain lie detector - is not warranted, but that imaging should be
      used to further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying pain.

PMID- 28884751
TI  - Tuberculous meningitis.
AB  - Tuberculosis remains a global health problem, with an estimated 10.4 million
      cases and 1.8 million deaths resulting from the disease in 2015. The most lethal
      and disabling form of tuberculosis is tuberculous meningitis (TBM), for which
      more than 100,000 new cases are estimated to occur per year. In patients who are
      co-infected with HIV-1, TBM has a mortality approaching 50%. Study of TBM
      pathogenesis is hampered by a lack of experimental models that recapitulate all
      the features of the human disease. Diagnosis of TBM is often delayed by the
      insensitive and lengthy culture technique required for disease confirmation.
      Antibiotic regimens for TBM are based on those used to treat pulmonary
      tuberculosis, which probably results in suboptimal drug levels in the
      cerebrospinal fluid, owing to poor blood-brain barrier penetrance. The role of
      adjunctive anti-inflammatory, host-directed therapies - including
      corticosteroids, aspirin and thalidomide - has not been extensively explored. To
      address this deficit, two expert meetings were held in 2009 and 2015 to share
      findings and define research priorities. This Review summarizes historical and
      current research into TBM and identifies important gaps in our knowledge. We will
      discuss advances in the understanding of inflammation in TBM and its potential
      modulation; vascular and hypoxia-mediated tissue injury; the role of intensified
      antibiotic treatment; and the importance of rapid and accurate diagnostics and
      supportive care in TBM.

PMID- 28884752
TI  - Alzheimer disease: Revising the risk of Alzheimer disease in women.

PMID- 28884753
TI  - Cladribine - an old newcomer for pulsed immune reconstitution in MS.
AB  - The EMA has approved cladribine tablets for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
      The drug is not new, and the journey to its approval has been a long one, but the
      old concepts that cladribine therapy are based on provide a new option for the
      possibility of drug-free remission.

PMID- 28884754
TI  - Bifidobacteria exert species-specific effects on constipation in BALB/c mice.
AB  - Constipation is one of the most common gastrointestinal complaints worldwide. The
      aim of this study was to determine whether edible bifidobacteria (Bifidobacterium
      longum, B. infantis, B. animalis, B. bifidum, B. adolescentis or B. breve)
      exhibit interspecies differences in alleviating constipation induced by
      loperamide in BALB/c mice and to analyse the main reasons for the interspecies
      differences. BALB/c mice were given bifidobacteria by gavage once per day for 8
      days. The primary outcome measures, which included related constipation
      indicators, and the secondary outcome measures, which included changes in the
      concentration of short-chain fatty acids in faeces and changes in the faecal
      flora, were used to evaluate the therapeutic effects of the edible bifidobacteria
      on constipation. The findings show that the six species of Bifidobacterium
      differed in their ability to relieve constipation. B. longum, B. infantis and B.
      bifidum were the most effective in relieving constipation, B. adolescentis and B.
      breve were partially effective and B. animalis was not effective. Furthermore,
      edible Bifidobacterium treated constipation by increasing the abundance of
      Lactobacillus and decreasing the abundance of Alistipes, Odoribacter and
      Clostridium. Higher concentrations of short-chain fatty acids were found in the
      faecal samples from the edible Bifidobacterium treatment groups. Meanwhile, an
      increased concentration of acetic acid could alleviate constipation. In
      conclusion, edible bifidobacteria exhibit interspecies differences in the
      alleviation of constipation. Meanwhile, bifidobacteria improved constipation
      symptoms by increasing the concentration of acetic acid and the relative
      abundance of Lactobacillus and reducing the content of Alistipes, Odoribacter and
      Clostridium.

PMID- 28884757
TI  - An in-tether chiral center modulates the proapoptotic activity of the KLA
      peptide.
AB  - The helical peptide KLA (KLAKLAKKLAKLAK) is a well-known inducer of cellular
      apoptosis, acting to disrupt the mitochondrial membrane. However, its weak
      cellular uptake impedes development of any further applications. Here, we have
      utilized a novel in-tether chiral center induced helicity strategy (CIH) to
      develop a potent apoptosis inducer based on this KLA sequence. Notably, for the
      two resulting epimers of the CIH-KLA peptide, the CIH-KLA-(R) epimer exhibited
      superior cellular uptakes and special mitochondrial targeting when compared with
      its S counterpart. This work provides a promising and versatile method to modify
      the KLA peptide and a proof-of-concept application for the CIH strategy in
      modifying bioactive peptides.

PMID- 28884758
TI  - Prebiotic synthesis of 2-deoxy-d-ribose from interstellar building blocks
      promoted by amino esters or amino nitriles.
AB  - Understanding the prebiotic genesis of 2-deoxy-d-ribose, which forms the backbone
      of DNA, is of crucial importance to unravelling the origins of life, yet remains
      open to debate. Here we demonstrate that 20 mol% of proteinogenic amino esters
      promote the selective formation of 2-deoxy-d-ribose over 2-deoxy-d-threopentose
      in combined yields of >=4%. We also demonstrate the first aldol reaction promoted
      by prebiotically-relevant proteinogenic amino nitriles (20 mol%) for the
      enantioselective synthesis of d-glyceraldehyde with 6% ee, and its subsequent
      conversion into 2-deoxy-d-ribose in yields of >= 5%. Finally, we explore the
      combination of these two steps in a one-pot process using 20 mol% of an amino
      ester or amino nitrile promoter. It is hence demonstrated that three interstellar
      starting materials, when mixed together with an appropriate promoter, can
      directly lead to the formation of a mixture of higher carbohydrates, including 2
      deoxy-d-ribose.

PMID- 28884760
TI  - Chemical systems out of equilibrium.

PMID- 28884761
TI  - Equilibrium between inactive ready Ni-SIr and active Ni-SIa states of [NiFe]
      hydrogenase studied by utilizing Ni-SIr-to-Ni-SIa photoactivation.
AB  - Previously, the Ni-SIr state of [NiFe] hydrogenase was found to convert to the Ni
      SIa state by light irradiation. Herein, large activation energies and a large
      kinetic isotope effect were obtained for the reconversion of the Ni-SIa state to
      the Ni-SIr state after the Ni-SIr-to-Ni-SIa photoactivation, suggesting that the
      Ni-SIa state reacts with H2O and leaves a bridging hydroxo ligand for the Ni-SIr
      state.

PMID- 28884762
TI  - Proteins at air-water and oil-water interfaces in an all-atom model.
AB  - We study the behavior of five proteins at the air-water and oil-water interfaces
      by all-atom molecular dynamics. The proteins are found to get distorted when
      pinned to the interface. This behavior is consistent with the phenomenological
      way of introducing the interfaces in a coarse-grained model through a force that
      depends on the hydropathy indices of the residues. Proteins couple to the oil
      water interface stronger than to the air-water one. They diffuse slower at the
      oil-water interface but do not depin from it, whereas depinning events are
      observed at the other interface. The reduction of the disulfide bonds slows the
      diffusion down.

PMID- 28884763
TI  - On the role of topology in regulating transcriptional cascades.
AB  - We study the impact of topology on the response of a transcriptional cascade with
      certain circuit topologies to a constant and time-varying input signal. We
      systematically analyze the response of the output to activating and repressing
      cascades. We identify two types of responses for a linear cascade, namely the
      "Decaying mode", where the input signal becomes exceedingly weaker as it
      propagates, and the "Bistable mode", where the input signal can either be
      amplified or die out in the pathway. We examine how the transition occurs from
      one mode to the other as we add coherent and/or incoherent feed-forward loops in
      an otherwise linear cascade. We find that pathways with at least one incoherent
      feedforward loop can perform adaptive responses with the quality of response
      varying among different topologies. Furthermore, we study the origin of a
      (non)monotonic input-output profile for various circuit topologies over a wide
      range of parameter space. For a time-varying input signal, we identify some
      circuit topologies that are more prone to noise propagation than others that are
      more reliable in blocking out high-amplitude fluctuations. We discuss the effect
      of cell to cell variation in protein expression on the output of a linear cascade
      and compare the robustness of activating and repressing cascades to noise
      propagations. In the end, we apply our model to study an example of a
      transcription cascade that guides the development of Bacillus subtilis spores and
      discuss an example from a metabolic pathway where a transition from the decaying
      to bistable mode can occur by changing the topology of interactions in the
      pathway.

PMID- 28884764
TI  - The reversal of the spontaneous exchange bias effect and zero-field-cooling
      magnetization in La1.5Sr0.5Co1-xFexMnO6: the effect of Fe doping.
AB  - The crystal structure, electronic structure and magnetic properties were
      systematically studied in a series of Fe-doped La1.5Sr0.5CoMnO6 double
      perovskites. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the samples are all refined with a
      rhombohedral (R3[combining macron]c) structure. The parameters a and c
      continuously increase with increasing Fe doping concentration x. X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra of the Mn, Co, and Fe 2p core levels,
      consistent with the soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) spectra of Mn, Co,
      and Fe L2,3 edges, indicate that their valence states are Mn3+ and Mn4+, Co2+ and
      Co3+, and Fe3+, respectively. However, relative to samples with x <= 0.1, there
      is an abrupt change of photon energy in the Co- and Fe-2p XAS spectra for x >=
      0.2, implying the spin state transition is from high to low. In addition, this is
      further confirmed by a comparison between the calculated effective spin moment
      from the paramagnetic data and the theoretical value. Interestingly, we
      demonstrate the reversal of both zero-field-cooling magnetization and the sign
      switching of the spontaneous exchange bias (SEB) with the doping concentration
      from magnetic measurements. The magnetization reverses from positive to negative
      with the temperature decreasing across the compensation temperature at the
      critical concentration x = 0.2. Meanwhile, the exchange bias field of the SEB
      reverses from large negative values to positive ones. Our findings allow us to
      propose that the spin state transition caused by inhomogeneity is considered to
      play an important role in the reversal of the magnetization and the SEB effect.

PMID- 28884765
TI  - Enhancement in thermoelectric performance of SiGe nanoalloys dispersed with SiC
      nanoparticles.
AB  - SiGe is one of the most widely used thermoelectric materials for radioisotope
      thermoelectric generator applications for harnessing waste-heat at high
      temperatures. In the present study, we report a simple experimental strategy for
      enhancing the thermoelectric and mechanical properties of n-type SiGe nanoalloys
      by dispersing SiC nanoparticles in a SiGe nanoalloy matrix. This strategy yielded
      a high value of figure-of-merit (ZT) of ~1.7 at 900  degrees C in the SiGe/SiC
      nanocomposite, which is nearly twice that reported for its pristine bulk
      counterpart and ~15% higher than that of pristine SiGe nanoalloys. This
      significant enhancement in the ZT primarily originates from a reduction in the
      lattice thermal conductivity, owing to a high density of nano-scale interfaces,
      lattice-scale modulations and mass fluctuations, which lead to extensive
      scattering of heat-carrying phonons. The dispersion of SiC nanoparticles also
      significantly enhances the mechanical properties of the resulting SiGe/SiC
      nanocomposite, including fracture toughness and hardness. The enhancement in the
      thermoelectric and mechanical properties of the SiGe/SiC nanocomposites has been
      correlated with their microstructural features, elucidated employing X-ray
      diffraction, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy.

PMID- 28884766
TI  - Anion binding by p-aminoazobenzene-derived aromatic amides: spectroscopic and
      electrochemical studies.
AB  - The synthesis and complexing properties of p-aminoazobenzene-derived mono-, bis-,
      and trisamides were described. Ligands 3 and 4 bind anions, including fluorides,
      chlorides, bromides, acetates, benzoates, dihydrogen phosphates, hydrogen
      sulfates, and p-toluenesulfonates, in chloroform forming 1 : 1 complexes. The
      highest value of stability constant was evaluated for the 4-F- complex (log K =
      5.63 +/- 0.21). On the basis of 1H NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy, the possible
      nature of the ligand-anion interactions was proposed. The E ? Z isomerization
      process of tripodal amide 4 in chloroform was studied. The effect of anions on Z
      to E thermal back isomerization was investigated.

PMID- 28884767
TI  - Tuning hexagonal NaYbF4 nanocrystals down to sub-10 nm for enhanced photon
      upconversion.
AB  - Enhancing upconversion emission is critical for small-sized lanthanide doped
      upconversion nanocrystals. A promising way is increasing the doping concentration
      of excitation energy absorbers, the Yb3+ sensitizer. However, it is still a
      challenge to obtain small-sized hexagonal NaLnF4 (Ln: lanthanide) upconversion
      nanocrystals with a high Yb3+ concentration due to the fast growth of NaYbF4
      crystals, which hinders their applications particularly in biology. We here
      demonstrate a highly repeatable and controllable method for tuning the size of
      hexagonal NaYbF4 nanocrystals, down to ~7 nm, without the assistance of
      additional impurity doping. By monitoring the reaction process, we found that
      ultrasmall hexagonal NaYbF4 nanocrystals were formed through an in situ
      transformation of their cubic counterparts. We observed an enhanced upconversion
      emission of NaYbF4:Tm nanocrystals when compared to that of NaYbF4:Y/Tm
      nanocrystals with less Yb3+ doping. After coating a thin layer of a NaYF4 shell
      on NaYbF4:Tm nanocrystals, a ~100 times upconversion emission enhancement with
      over 800 times stronger emission in the ultraviolet and blue ranges was observed.
      This versatile method, together with the strong upconversion emission of the as
      prepared ultrasmall nanocrystals, should facilitate the future applications of
      upconversion nanocrystals.

PMID- 28884768
TI  - The composition of potentially bioactive triterpenoid glycosides in red raspberry
      is influenced by tissue, extraction procedure and genotype.
AB  - The beneficial effects of consumption of berry fruits on a range of chronic
      diseases has been attributed (at least in part) to the presence of unique
      phytochemicals. Recently, we identified novel ursolic acid-based triterpenoid
      glycosides (TTPNs) in raspberry fruit and demonstrated their survival in human
      ileal fluids after feeding which confirmed their colon-availability in vivo. In
      this paper, in vitro digestion studies demonstrated that certain TTPNs were
      stable under gastrointestinal conditions and confirmed that these components may
      have been responsible for bioactivity noted in previous studies. Sequential
      extractions of raspberry puree, isolated seeds and unseeded puree showed that
      certain TTPN components (e.g. peak T1 m/z 679, and T2 m/z 1358) had different
      extractabilities in water/solvent mixes and were differentially associated with
      the seeds. Purified seed TTPNs (mainly T1 and T2) were shown to be anti-genotoxic
      in HT29 and CCD841 cell based in vitro colonocyte models. Further work confirmed
      that the seeds contained a wider range of TTPN-like components which were also
      differentially extractable in water/solvent mixes. This differential
      extractability could influence the TTPN composition and potential bioactivity of
      the extracts. There was considerable variation in total content of TTPNs (~3
      fold) and TTPN composition across 13 Rubus genotypes. Thus, TTPNs are likely to
      be present in raspberry juices and common extracts used for bioactivity studies
      and substantial variation exists in both content and composition due to genetics,
      tissue source or extraction conditions, which may all affect observed
      bioactivity.

PMID- 28884769
TI  - An experimental and computational framework for engineering multifunctional
      nanoparticles: designing selective anticancer therapies.
AB  - A key challenge in the treatment of cancer with nanomedicine is to engineer and
      select nanoparticle formulations that lead to the desired selectivity between
      tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic cells. To this aim, novel designed nanomaterials,
      deep biochemical understanding of the mechanisms of interaction between
      nanomaterials and cells, and computational models are emerging as very useful
      tools to guide the design of efficient and selective nanotherapies. This works
      shows, using a combination of detailed experimental approaches and simulations,
      that the specific targeting of cancer cells in comparison to non-tumorigenic
      cells can be achieved through the custom design of multivalent nanoparticles. A
      theoretical model that provides simple yet quantitative predictions to tune the
      nanoparticles targeting and cytotoxic properties by their degree of
      functionalization is developed. As a case study, a system that included a
      targeting agent and a drug and is amenable to controlled experimental
      manipulation and theoretical analysis is used. This study shows how at defined
      functionalization levels multivalent nanoparticles can selectively kill tumor
      cells, while barely affecting non-tumorigenic cells. This work opens a way to the
      rational design of multifunctionalized nanoparticles with defined targeting and
      cytotoxic properties for practical applications.

PMID- 28884770
TI  - Theoretical modeling of voltage effects and the chemical mechanism in surface
      enhanced Raman scattering.
AB  - Theoretical approaches can provide insight into the mechanisms and magnitudes of
      electromagnetic and chemical effects in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS),
      properties that are not readily available experimentally. Here, we model the SERS
      spectra of two geometries of the prototypical Ag20-pyridine cluster using a
      semiempirical INDO/SCI approach that allows a straightforward decomposition of
      the enhancement factors at each wavelength into electromagnetic and chemical
      terms, with proper treatment of resonant charge-transfer contributions to the
      enhancement. The method also enables us to determine the dependence of the
      enhancement on the electrochemical potential. We show that the electromagnetic
      enhancements for the Ag20 cluster are <10 far from resonance but can increase to
      102 to 103 on resonance with plasmon excitation in the cluster. The decomposition
      also shows that for the systems studied here, the chemical enhancements are
      primarily due to resonance with excited states with significant charge-transfer
      character. This term is typically <10 but can be >102 at electrochemical
      potentials where the charge-transfer excited states are resonant with the
      incoming light, leading to total enhancements of >104.

PMID- 28884771
TI  - Iron-catalyzed intermolecular cycloaddition of diazo surrogates with hexahydro
      1,3,5-triazines.
AB  - We report here an unprecedented iron-catalyzed cycloaddition reaction of diazo
      surrogates with hexahydro-1,3,5-triazines, providing five-membered heterocycles
      in moderate to high yields under mild reaction conditions. This cycloaddition
      features C-N and C-C bond formation using a cheap iron catalyst. Importantly,
      different to our former report on a gold-catalyzed system, both donor/donor and
      donor/acceptor diazo substrates are tolerated in this iron-catalyzed protocol.

PMID- 28884772
TI  - AFM combined to ATR-FTIR reveals Candida cell wall changes under caspofungin
      treatment.
AB  - Fungal pathogens from Candida genus are responsible for severe life-threatening
      infections and the antifungal arsenal is still limited. Caspofungin, an
      antifungal drug used for human therapy, acts as a blocking agent of the cell wall
      synthesis by inhibiting the beta-1,3-glucan-synthase encoded by FKS genes.
      Despite its efficiency, the number of genetic mutants that are resistant to
      caspofungin is increasing. An important challenge to improve antifungal therapy
      is to understand cellular phenomenon that are associated with drug resistance.
      Here we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) combined to Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy in attenuated total reflection mode (ATR-FTIR) to decipher the
      effect of low and high drug concentration on the morphology, mechanics and cell
      wall composition of two Candida strains, one susceptible and one resistant to
      caspofungin. Our results confirm that caspofungin induces a dramatic cell wall
      remodelling via activation of stress responses, even at high drug concentration.
      Additionally, we highlighted unexpected changes related to drug resistance,
      suggesting that caspofungin resistance associated with FKS gene mutations comes
      from a combination of effects: (i) an overall remodelling of yeast cell wall
      composition; and (ii) cell wall stiffening through chitin synthesis. This work
      demonstrates that AFM combined to ATR-FTIR is a valuable approach to understand
      at the molecular scale the biological mechanisms associated with drug resistance.

PMID- 28884774
TI  - High-energy asymmetric supercapacitors based on free-standing hierarchical Co-Mo
      S nanosheets with enhanced cycling stability.
AB  - Layered transition metal sulfides (TMS) are emerging as advanced materials for
      energy storage and conversion applications. In this work, we report a facile and
      cost-effective anion exchange technique to fabricate a layered, multifaceted,
      free standing, ultra-thin ternary cobalt molybdenum sulfide nanosheet (Co-Mo-S
      NS) architecture grown on a 3D porous Ni foam substrate. The unique Co-Mo layered
      double hydroxides are first synthesized as precursors and consequently
      transformed into ultra-thin Co-Mo-S NS. When employed as an electrode for
      supercapacitors, the Co-Mo-S NS delivered an ultra-high specific capacitance of
      2343 F g-1 at a current density of 1 mA cm-2 with tremendous rate capability and
      extraordinary cycling performance (96.6% capacitance retention after 20 000
      cycles). Furthermore, assembled Co-Mo-S/nitrogen doped graphene nanosheets (NGNS)
      in an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device delivered an excellent energy
      density of 89.6 Wh kg-1, an amazing power density of 20.07 kW kg-1, and superior
      cycling performance (86.8% capacitance retention after 50 000 cycles). Such
      exceptional electrochemical performance of Co-Mo-S NS is ascribed to the good
      electrical contact with the 3D Ni foam, ultra-high contact area with the
      electrolyte, and enhanced architectural softening during the charging/discharging
      process. It is expected that the fabricated, unique, ultra-thin Co-Mo-S NS have
      great potential for future energy storage devices.

PMID- 28884775
TI  - Modeling of active swimmer suspensions and their interactions with the
      environment.
AB  - In this article, we review mathematical models used to study the behaviour of
      suspensions of micro-swimmers and the accompanying biophysical phenomena, with
      specific focus on stimulus response. The methods discussed encompass a range of
      interactions exhibited by the micro-swimmers; including passive hydrodynamic
      (gyrotaxis) and gravitational (gravitaxis) effects, and active responses to
      chemical cues (chemotaxis) and light intensities (phototaxis). We introduce the
      simplest models first, and then build towards more sophisticated recent
      developments, in the process, identifying the limitations of the former and the
      new results obtained by the latter. We comment on the accuracy/validity of the
      models adopted, based on the agreement between theoretical results and
      experimental observations. We conclude by identifying some of the open problems
      and associated challenges faced by researchers in the realm of active
      suspensions.

PMID- 28884776
TI  - Ruthenium catalyzed beta-C(sp3)-H functionalization on the 'privileged'
      piperazine nucleus.
AB  - beta-C(sp3)-H functionalization on the 'privileged' piperazine nucleus has been
      disclosed using ruthenium catalysis. The ruthenium catalyzed synthesis of a
      variety of piperazine fused indoles from ortho-piperazinyl (hetero)aryl aldehydes
      is presented. This transformation takes place via the dehydrogenation of
      piperazine followed by an intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the transient
      enamine moiety onto the carbonyl group and aromatization cascade.

PMID- 28884777
TI  - Ru atom-modified covalent triazine framework as a robust electrocatalyst for
      selective alcohol oxidation in aqueous electrolytes.
AB  - This work demonstrates that a single Ru atom-modified covalent triazine framework
      (Ru-CTF) has selectivity for the electrooxidation of benzyl alcohol in water over
      the oxygen evolution reaction. Additionally, Ru-CTF displayed higher stability
      than an immobilized Ru-organometallic complex due to the covalently cross-linked
      structure of CTF.

PMID- 28884778
TI  - A bodipy based hydroxylamine sensor.
AB  - With this research, we have developed a bodipy based system as the first "turn
      on" fluorescence system for the detection hydroxylamine.

PMID- 28884779
TI  - Electrochemical ion transfer mediated by a lipophilic Os(ii)/Os(iii) dinonyl
      bipyridyl probe incorporated in thin film membranes.
AB  - A new lipophilic dinonyl bipyridyl Os(ii)/Os(iii) complex successfully mediates
      ion transfer processes across voltammetric thin membranes. An added lipophilic
      cation-exchanger may impose voltammetric anion or cation transfer waves of
      Gaussian shape that are reversible and repeatable. The peak potential is found to
      shift with the ion concentration in agreement with the Nernst equation. The
      addition of tridodecylmethylammonium nitrate to the polymeric film dramatically
      reduces the peak separation from 240 mV to 65 mV, and the peak width to a near
      theoretical value of 85 mV, which agrees with a surface confined process. It is
      suggested that the cationic additive serves as a phase transfer catalyst.

PMID- 28884780
TI  - Synthesis of a water-soluble 2,6-helic[6]arene derivative and its strong binding
      abilities towards quaternary phosphonium salts: an acid/base controlled
      switchable complexation process.
AB  - A water-soluble 2,6-helic[6]arene derivative was conveniently synthesized, and it
      showed strong binding abilities towards quaternary phosphonium salts in aqueous
      solution. Moreover, an acid/base controlled switchable complexation process was
      also described.

PMID- 28884781
TI  - Novel routes to electromagnetic enhancement and its characterisation in surface-
      and tip-enhanced Raman scattering.
AB  - Quantitative understanding of the electromagnetic component in enhanced Raman
      spectroscopy is often difficult to achieve on account of the complex substrate
      structures utilised. We therefore turn to two structurally simple systems
      amenable to detailed modelling. The first is tip-enhanced Raman scattering under
      electron scanning tunnelling microscopy control (STM-TERS) where, appealing to
      understanding developed in the context of photon emission from STM, it is argued
      that the localised surface plasmon modes driving the Raman enhancement exist in
      the visible and near-infrared regime only by virtue of significant modification
      to the optical properties of the tip and sample metals (gold here). This is due
      to the strong dc field-induced (~109 V m-1) non-linear corrections to the
      dielectric function of gold via the third order susceptibility term in the
      polarisation. Also, sub-5 nm spatial resolution is shown in the modelling.
      Secondly, we suggest a novel deployment of hybrid plasmonic waveguide modes in
      surface enhanced Raman scattering (HPWG-SERS). This delivers strong confinement
      of electromagnetic energy in a ~10 nm oxide 'gap' between a high-index dielectric
      material of nanoscale width (a GaAs nanorod and a 100 nm Si slab are considered
      here) and a metal, yielding a monotonic variation in the Raman enhancement factor
      as a function of wavelength with no long-wavelength cut-off, both features that
      contrast with STM-TERS.

PMID- 28884782
TI  - Electrochemical control of strong coupling states between localized surface
      plasmons and molecule excitons for Raman enhancement.
AB  - The intensity of Raman scattering from dye molecules strongly coupled with
      localized surface plasmons of metal nanostructures was controlled by the
      electrochemical potential. Through in situ electrochemical extinction and surface
      enhanced Raman scattering measurements, it is found that the redox state of the
      molecules affects the coupling strength, leading to the change in the intensity
      of the Raman scattering. Analysis of the Raman spectrum provides information on
      the molecules in strong coupling states showing effective enhancement of Raman
      scattering.

PMID- 28884783
TI  - Ex vivo model unravelling cell distribution effect in hydrogels for cartilage
      repair.
AB  - The implantation of chondrocyte-laden hydrogels is a promising cartilage repair
      strategy. Chondrocytes can be spatially positioned in hydrogels and thus in
      defects, while current clinical cell therapies introduce chondrocytes in the
      defect depth. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of spatial
      chondrocyte distribution on the reparative process. To reduce animal experiments,
      an ex vivo osteochondral plug model was used and evaluated. The role of the
      delivered and endogenous cells in the repair process was investigated. Full
      thickness cartilage defects were created in equine osteochondral plugs. Defects
      were filled with (A) chondrocytes at the bottom of the defect, covered with a
      cell-free hydrogel, (B) chondrocytes homogeneously encapsulated in a hydrogel,
      and (C, D) combinations of A and B with different cell densities. Plugs were
      cultured for up to 57 days, after which the cartilage and repair tissues were
      characterized and compared to baseline samples. Additionally, at day 21, the
      origin of cells in the repair tissue was evaluated. Best outcomes were obtained
      with conditions C and D, which resulted in well-integrated cartilage-like tissue
      that completely filled the defect, regardless of the initial cell density. A
      critical role of the spatial chondrocyte distribution in the repair process was
      observed. Moreover, the osteochondral plugs stimulated cartilage formation in the
      hydrogels when cultured in the defects. The resulting repair tissue originated
      from the delivered cells. These findings confirm the potential of the
      osteochondral plug model for the optimization of the composition of cartilage
      implants and for studying repair mechanisms.

PMID- 28884784
TI  - The Association Between the Use of Zolpidem and the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease
      Among Older People.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the association between zolpidem use and the risk of
      Alzheimer's disease among older people. DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study
      using data from 2001 to 2011 from the National Health Insurance Research
      Database. SETTING: Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 6,922 patients aged 65 years
      or older enrolled from January 2002 to December 2004 (the enrollment period).
      INTERVENTION (EXPOSURE): Zolpidem users were identified as patients who used
      zolpidem during the enrollment period. The index date was the date of the first
      zolpidem prescription. Dosage of zolpidem use was defined using cumulative
      defined daily dose (cDDD) based on the cumulative dosage that patients took
      within one year after the index date (grouped as: less than 28, 28-90, 91-180,
      and more than 180 cDDD). MEASUREMENTS: The occurrence of Alzheimer's disease was
      defined as the time period from the end of one year after the index date to the
      date of the Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. The propensity score was used to
      adjust the measured confounders of Alzheimer's disease. Cox proportional hazards
      models were used to evaluate the association between zolpidem use and the
      incidence of Alzheimer's disease. RESULTS: Zolpidem users with a high cumulative
      dose (>180 cDDD) in the first year after initiation had a significantly greater
      risk of Alzheimer's disease than non-zolpidem users (HR = 2.97, 95% CI = 1.61
      5.49) and low cumulative dose (<28 cDDD) users (HR = 4.18, 95% CI = 1.77-9.86).
      CONCLUSION: We found the use of a high cumulative dose of zolpidem was associated
      with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease among older people living in
      Taiwan. It is advised to use caution when considering long-term use of zolpidem
      in older patients.

PMID- 28884786
TI  - Muscle Ultrasound As a Link to Muscle Quality and Frailty in the Clinic.

PMID- 28884785
TI  - Certolizumab pegol (CDP870) for rheumatoid arthritis in adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha inhibitors are beneficial for the
      treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for reducing the risk of joint damage,
      improving physical function and improving the quality of life. This review is an
      update of the 2014 Cochrane Review of the treatment of RA with certolizumab
      pegol. OBJECTIVES: To assess the clinical benefits and harms of certolizumab
      pegol (CZP) in people with RA who have not responded well to conventional disease
      modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane
      Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL: Cochrane Library 2016, Issue 9),
      MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Knowledge, reference lists of articles,
      clinicaltrials.gov and ICTRP of WHO. The searches were updated from 2014 (date of
      the last search for the previous version) to 26 September 2016. SELECTION
      CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials that compared certolizumab pegol with any
      other agent, including placebo or methotrexate (MTX), in adults with active RA,
      regardless of current or prior treatment with conventional disease-modifying anti
      rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), such as MTX. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review
      authors independently checked search results, extracted data and assessed trial
      quality. We resolved disagreements by discussion or referral to a third review
      author. MAIN RESULTS: We included 14 trials in this update, three more than
      previously. Twelve trials (5422 participants) included measures of benefit. We
      pooled 11 of them, two more than previously. Thirteen trials included information
      on harms, (5273 participants). The duration of follow-up varied from 12 to 52
      weeks and the range of doses of certolizumab pegol varied from 50 to 400 mg given
      subcutaneously. In Phase III trials, the comparator was placebo plus MTX in seven
      trials and placebo in five. In the two Phase II trials the comparator was only
      placebo.The approved dose of certolizumab pegol, 200 mg every other week,
      produced clinically important improvements at 24 weeks for the following
      outcomes:- American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 50% improvement (pain, function
      and other symptoms of RA): 25% absolute improvement (95% confidence interval (CI)
      20% to 33%); number need to treat for an additional beneficial outcome (NNTB) of
      4 (95% CI 3 to 5); risk ratio (RR) 3.80 (95% CI 2.42 to 5.95), 1445 participants,
      5 studies.- The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ): -12% absolute improvement
      (95% CI -9% to -14%); NNTB of 8 (95% CI 7 to 11); mean difference (MD) - 0.35
      (95% CI -0.43 to -0.26; 1268 participants, 4 studies) (scale 0 to 3; lower scores
      mean better function).- Proportion of participants achieving remission (Disease
      Activity Score (DAS) < 2.6) absolute improvement 10% (95% CI 8% to 16%); NNTB of
      8 (95% CI 6 to 12); risk ratio (RR) 2.94 (95% CI 1.64 to 5.28), 2420
      participants, six studies.- Radiological changes: erosion score (ES) absolute
      improvement -0.29% (95% CI -0.42% to -0.17%); NNTB of 6 (95% CI 4 to 10); MD 
      0.67 (95% CI -0.96 to -0.38); 714 participants, two studies (scale 0 to 230), but
      not a clinically important difference.-Serious adverse events (SAEs) were
      statistically but not clinically significantly more frequent for certolizumab
      pegol (200 mg every other week) with an absolute rate difference of 3% (95% CI 1%
      to 4%); number needed to treat for an additional harmful outcome (NNTH) of 33
      (95% CI 25 to 100); Peto odds ratio (OR) 1.47 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.91); 3927
      participants, nine studies.There was a clinically significant increase in all
      withdrawals in the placebo groups (for all doses and at all follow-ups) with an
      absolute rate difference of -29% (95% CI -16% to -42%), NNTH of 3 (95% CI 2 to
      6), RR 0.47 (95% CI 0.39 to 0.56); and there was a clinically significant
      increase in withdrawals due to adverse events in the certolizumab groups (for all
      doses and at all follow-ups) with an absolute rate difference of 2% (95% CI 0% to
      3%); NNTH of 58 (95% CI 28 to 329); Peto OR 1.45 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.94) 5236
      participants Twelve studies.We judged the quality of evidence to be high for
      ACR50, DAS remission, SAEs and withdrawals due to adverse events, and moderate
      for HAQ and radiological changes, due to concerns about attrition bias. For all
      withdrawals we judged the quality of evidence to be moderate, due to
      inconsistency. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The results and conclusions did not change
      from the previous review. There is a moderate to high certainty of evidence from
      randomised controlled trials that certolizumab pegol, alone or combined with
      methotrexate, is beneficial in the treatment of RA for improved ACR50 and health
      related quality of life, an increased chance of remission of RA, and reduced
      joint damage as seen on x-ray. Fewer people stopped taking their treatment, but
      most of these who did stopped due to serious adverse events. Adverse events were
      more frequent with active treatment. We found a clinically but not statistically
      significant risk of serious adverse events.

PMID- 28884787
TI  - Ultrasonic Echo Intensity as a New Noninvasive In Vivo Biomarker of Frailty.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether muscle quality based on echo intensity (EI) is
      associated with muscle strength (MS) and correlates with risk of frailty in
      elderly outpatients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, experimental study. SETTING:
      Outpatient clinic. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 20 to 90 (N = 112). Individuals
      aged 20 to 59 participated as controls. Those aged 60 and older participated in
      the experimental group and were subdivided into robust, prefrail, and frail
      according to the Fried frailty criteria. MEASUREMENTS: EI, muscle thickness (MT),
      and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) of the anterior compartment of the thigh
      were measured using ultrasound images. MS was quantified using a hand
      dynamometer. Participants responded to a questionnaire asking about demographic
      and physical characteristics, frailty criteria, and quality of life. RESULTS:
      There was a significant negative correlation between EI and MS (Women:
      correlation coefficient (r) = -.522, P < .001; Men: r = -.355, P < .001). A
      similar trend was found for MT but not SFT. Statistically significant differences
      were also found between EI values, MT, MS, and quality of life and the different
      stages of frailty (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of EI were associated
      with lower levels of strength and greater frailty. These results, although
      needing to be replicated in larger and more-diverse populations, suggest that EI
      obtained using ultrasound images might be used as noninvasive imaging biomarker
      of frailty in elderly adults and opens the possibility of accurately testing
      interventions performed to prevent it.

PMID- 28884788
TI  - Triple cancers concurrently detected in a case of antitranscriptional
      intermediary factor-1gamma antibody-positive dermatomyositis.

PMID- 28884791
TI  - How does mutation affect the distribution of phenotypes?
AB  - The potential for mutational processes to influence patterns of neutral or
      adaptive phenotypic evolution is not well understood. If mutations are
      directionally biased, shifting trait means in a particular direction, or if
      mutation generates more variance in some directions of multivariate trait space
      than others, mutation itself might be a source of bias in phenotypic evolution.
      Here, we use mutagenesis to investigate the affect of mutation on trait mean and
      (co)variances in zebrafish, Danio rerio. Mutation altered the relationship
      between age and both prolonged swimming speed and body shape. These observations
      suggest that mutational effects on ontogeny or aging have the potential to
      generate variance across the phenome. Mutations had a far greater effect in males
      than females, although whether this is a reflection of sex-specific ontogeny or
      aging remains to be determined. In males, mutations generated positive covariance
      between swimming speed, size, and body shape suggesting the potential for
      mutation to affect the evolutionary covariation of these traits. Overall, our
      observations suggest that mutation does not generate equal variance in all
      directions of phenotypic space or in each sex, and that pervasive variation in
      ontogeny or aging within a cohort could affect the variation available to
      evolution.

PMID- 28884789
TI  - Imputation of Gait Speed for Noncompleters in the 400-Meter Walk: Application to
      the Lifestyle Interventions for Elders Study.
AB  - When a 400-m walk test with time constraint (in 15 minutes) is administered,
      analysis of the associated 400-m gait speed can be challenging because some older
      adults are unable to complete the distance in time (noncompleters). A simplistic
      imputation method is to calculate the observed speeds of the noncompleters as the
      partially completed distance divided by the corresponding amount of elapsed time
      as an estimate of gait speed over the full 400-m distance. This common practice
      has not been validated to the best of our knowledge. We propose a Bayesian
      multiple imputation (MI) method to impute the unobserved 400-m gait speed for
      noncompleters. Briefly, MI is performed under the assumption that the unobserved
      400-m gait speed of noncompleters is left-censored from a normal distribution. We
      illustrate the application of the Bayesian MI method using longitudinal data
      collected from the Lifestyle Interventions for Elders (LIFE) study. A simulation
      study was performed to assess the bias in estimation of the mean 400-m gait speed
      using both methods. The results indicate that the simplistic imputation method
      tends to overestimate the population mean, whereas the Bayesian MI method yields
      minimal bias as the sample size increases.

PMID- 28884790
TI  - Fitness change in relation to mutation number in spontaneous mutation
      accumulation lines of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
AB  - Although all genetic variation ultimately stems from mutations, their properties
      are difficult to study directly. Here, we used multiple mutation accumulation
      (MA) lines derived from five genetic backgrounds of the green algae Chlamydomonas
      reinhardtii that have been previously subjected to whole genome sequencing to
      investigate the relationship between the number of spontaneous mutations and
      change in fitness from a nonevolved ancestor. MA lines were on average less fit
      than their ancestors and we detected a significantly negative correlation between
      the change in fitness and the total number of accumulated mutations in the
      genome. Likewise, the number of mutations located within coding regions
      significantly and negatively impacted MA line fitness. We used the fitness data
      to parameterize a maximum likelihood model to estimate discrete categories of
      mutational effects, and found that models containing one to two mutational effect
      categories (one neutral and one deleterious category) fitted the data best.
      However, the best-fitting mutational effects models were highly dependent on the
      genetic background of the ancestral strain.

PMID- 28884792
TI  - Profiling of Single-Cell Transcriptomes.
AB  - Complex biological systems are composed of multiple cell types whose
      transcriptional activity can vary due to differences in cell state, environmental
      stimulation, or intrinsic programs. Conventional bulk analysis methods capture
      the average transcriptional programs of the cell population, thus missing the
      unique cellular signature of each single cell. In recent years, the development
      of single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies has provided a powerful
      approach to dissect the cellular heterogeneity of complex biological systems.
      However, such approaches require specialized equipment or are costly. In this
      article, we describe an improved Smart-seq2-based method to profile the
      transcriptome of hundreds of single cells simultaneously, without utilizing
      commercial kits or requiring any specialized single-cell capture/library
      preparation tools. Moreover, we introduce the Automated Single-cell Analysis
      Pipeline (ASAP), which allows researchers without strong computational expertise
      to explore scRNA-seq data using a wide range of commonly used algorithms and
      sophisticated visualization tools. (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28884793
TI  - Using Vascular Landmarks to Orient 3D Optical Coherence Tomography Images of the
      Mouse Eye.
AB  - Comparing 3D structural information obtained by optical coherence tomography
      (OCT) requires accurate alignment of images acquired from individual subjects.
      Despite the widespread use of OCT to image the anterior and posterior mouse eye,
      few approaches to align the resulting image data have been described, in part due
      to a lack of well-characterized landmarks that are suitable for alignment. Here,
      we provide an OCT acquisition and analysis protocol that incorporates the use of
      the long posterior ciliary arteries as landmarks. In mammals, these two large
      choroidal vessels lie in a plane approximately parallel to the horizon. Our OCT
      imaging approach resolves these vessels in the mouse eye and suggests that their
      location is reproducible. The protocol may be useful for preparing 3D OCT data to
      compare experimental cohorts of mice and for standardizing results from
      independent research laboratories. (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28884794
TI  - Pathology Evaluation of Developmental Phenotypes in Neonatal and Juvenile Mice.
AB  - Necropsy (or autopsy) is the post mortem dissection of an animal to examine and
      collect organs and tissues in order to understand the effects and causes of
      disease. The systematic harvesting of samples at necropsy is an essential step in
      defining the reason for an unexpected death and in characterizing the features
      (i.e., phenotype) of a newly discovered condition. Phenotypic evaluation of young
      (neonatal and juvenile) mice emphasizes morphologic (macroscopic and microscopic)
      techniques and biochemical (clinical chemistry, hematologic, and molecular)
      analyses. This paper describes the most common procedures utilized to gather
      phenotypic data from neonatal and juvenile mice, with advanced alternatives for
      preparing special specimens (e.g., blood smears, electron microscopic samples).
      These techniques are applicable to young mice of all strains and are effective
      regardless of the fundamental cause, including genetically engineered or
      spontaneous mutations and exposure to pathogens or xenobiotic agents (i.e.,
      foreign chemicals). (c) 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PMID- 28884795
TI  - Assortment and the analysis of natural selection on social traits.
AB  - A central problem in evolutionary biology is to determine whether and how social
      interactions contribute to natural selection. A key method for phenotypic data is
      social selection analysis, in which fitness effects from social partners
      contribute to selection only when there is a correlation between the traits of
      individuals and their social partners (nonrandom phenotypic assortment). However,
      there are inconsistencies in the use of social selection that center around the
      measurement of phenotypic assortment. Here, we use data analysis and simulations
      to resolve these inconsistencies, showing that: (i) not all measures of
      assortment are suitable for social selection analysis; and (ii) the
      interpretation of assortment, and how to detect nonrandom assortment, will depend
      on the scale at which it is measured. We discuss links to kin selection theory
      and provide a practical guide for the social selection approach.

PMID- 28884796
TI  - The evolution of between-species reproductive interference capability under
      different within-species mating regimes.
AB  - Sexual selection sometimes favors male traits that benefit their bearers, but
      harm their mates. The harmful effects of male traits may also extend to females
      of other species via heterospecific mating interactions. This could affect the
      coexistence of closely related species during secondary contact. We examined the
      evolution of the interspecific interfering capability of a beetle (Callosobruchus
      chinensis) with a congener (C. maculatus) using C. chinensis males reared under
      conditions of monogamy and polygamy for 17 generations. After experimental
      evolution, C. chinensis males reared under polygamous conditions imposed greater
      impacts on offspring production by C. maculatus females than did C. chinensis
      males reared under monogamous conditions. However, the mechanism by which
      differential mating regimes altered the effect of C. chinensis males on C.
      maculatus females was unclear, because we did not find evidence for the expected
      genital evolution in C. chinensis, despite their body size divergence. Our
      findings suggest that traits that originally evolved through sexual selection in
      two allopatric species could influence the coexistence of these species or the
      likelihood of reinforcement during secondary contact.

PMID- 28884797
TI  - SAPHO syndrome associated with hidradenitis suppurativa and pyoderma gangrenosum
      successfully treated with adalimumab and methotrexate: a case report and review
      of the literature.
AB  - SAPHO (synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis) syndrome is a
      rare inflammatory condition describing the combination of skin, bone, and joint
      manifestations that has a heterogeneous presentation. We report a case of severe
      SAPHO syndrome in association with hidradenitis suppurativa and pyoderma
      gangrenosum in a 27-year-old male. The patient had an initial migratory arthritis
      affecting the knees, ankles, metacarpophalangeal joints, proximal interphalangeal
      joints, wrists, shoulder, and lower back, which progressed to a persistent
      arthritis and swelling at the sternum, shoulders, wrists, hands, feet, and lower
      back. Radiographic changes were consistent with the diagnosis of SAPHO syndrome.
      Serum proinflammatory cytokine levels were significantly elevated and improved
      substantially after 3 months of therapy. Rationale for therapy in this patient
      was the observation that tumor necrosis alpha antagonists have been successfully
      used in SAPHO syndrome, and since arthropathy was so prominent in our patient, we
      elected to use adalimumab combined with methotrexate.

PMID- 28884798
TI  - Neonatal skin care: what should we do? A four-week follow-up randomized
      controlled trial at Zagazig University Hospitals.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Taking care of newborn skin is necessary to avoid skin infections.
      The normal daily exposure to external factors affects the skin negatively. Skin
      hygiene and proper skin cleansing as well as protection of the infant skin
      barrier are essential to maintain barrier function and overall infant health.
      AIM: The aim of this work is to assess the neonatal skin care effectiveness in
      promotion of normal skin development and protection of the optimal skin function
      by avoiding the different neonatal skin disorders which cause skin infection.
      CONCLUSION: In conclusion, proper care and good hygiene of the normal mature
      neonatal skin are essential to maintain skin barrier function and overall health.
      This is achieved by optimizing epidermal barrier integrity that includes: bathing
      and using emollient; preventing and managing infections and skin injury;
      minimizing transepidermal water loss (TEWL); minimizing heat loss and
      percutaneous absorption of toxins. Baby bath products as well as baby wipes are
      safe to use and do not appear to affect an infant's skin barrier integrity. It is
      therefore sensible to use cleansers that have been specially designed for baby's
      skin, which are pH neutral and very mild to avoid irritant dermatitis and
      allergic dermatitis.

PMID- 28884799
TI  - Teriflunomide-induced psoriasiform changes of fingernails: a new example of
      paradoxical side effect?

PMID- 28884800
TI  - A photoconverter gel-assisted blue light therapy for the treatment of rosacea.

PMID- 28884801
TI  - Neurobiology of developmental coordination disorder: time to raise our game.

PMID- 28884802
TI  - A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study has been to confirm the sex and the
      affinity of an individual buried in a well-furnished warrior grave (Bj 581) in
      the Viking Age town of Birka, Sweden. Previously, based on the material and
      historical records, the male sex has been associated with the gender of the
      warrior and such was the case with Bj 581. An earlier osteological classification
      of the individual as female was considered controversial in a historical and
      archaeological context. A genomic confirmation of the biological sex of the
      individual was considered necessary to solve the issue. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Genome-wide sequence data was generated in order to confirm the biological sex,
      to support skeletal integrity, and to investigate the genetic relationship of the
      individual to ancient individuals as well as modern-day groups. Additionally, a
      strontium isotope analysis was conducted to highlight the mobility of the
      individual. RESULTS: The genomic results revealed the lack of a Y-chromosome and
      thus a female biological sex, and the mtDNA analyses support a single-individual
      origin of sampled elements. The genetic affinity is close to present-day North
      Europeans, and within Sweden to the southern and south-central region.
      Nevertheless, the Sr values are not conclusive as to whether she was of local or
      nonlocal origin. DISCUSSION: The identification of a female Viking warrior
      provides a unique insight into the Viking society, social constructions, and
      exceptions to the norm in the Viking time-period. The results call for caution
      against generalizations regarding social orders in past societies.

PMID- 28884803
TI  - Long-Term Research in Ecology and Evolution (LTREE): 2015 survey data.
AB  - To systematically assess views on contributions and future activities for long
      term research in ecology and evolution (LTREE), we conducted and here provide
      data responses and associated metadata for a survey of ecological and
      evolutionary scientists. The survey objectives were to: (1) Identify and
      prioritize research questions that are important to address through long-term,
      ecological field experiments; and (2) understand the role that these experiments
      might play in generating and applying ecological and evolutionary knowledge. The
      survey was developed adhering to the standards of the American Association for
      Public Opinion Research. It was administered online using Qualtrics Survey
      Software. Survey creation was a multi-step process, with questions and format
      developed and then revised with, for example, input from an external advisory
      committee comprising senior and junior ecological and evolutionary researchers.
      The final questionnaire was released to ~100 colleagues to ensure functionality
      and then fielded 2 d later (January 7th , 2015). Two professional societies
      distributed it to their membership, including the Ecological Society of America,
      and it was posted to three list serves. The questionnaire was available through
      February 8th 2015 and completed by 1,179 respondents. The distribution approach
      targeted practicing ecologists and evolutionary biologists in the U.S.
      Quantitative (both ordinal and categorical) closed-ended questions used a
      predefined set of response categories, facilitating direct comparison across all
      respondents. Qualitative, open-ended questions, provided respondents the
      opportunity to develop their own answers. We employed quantitative questions to
      score views on the extent to which long-term experimental research has
      contributed to understanding in ecology and evolutionary biology; its role
      compared to other approaches (e.g., short-term experiments); justifications for
      and caveats to long-term experiments; and the relative importance of incentives
      for conducting long-term research. Qualitative questions were used to assess
      community views on the most important topics and questions for long-term research
      to address, and primary incentives and challenges to realizing this work.
      Finally, demographic data were collected to determine if views were conditional
      on such things as years of experience and field of expertise. The final
      questionnaire and all responses are provided for unrestricted use.

PMID- 28884804
TI  - Frequent and parallel habitat transitions as driver of unbounded radiations in
      the Cape flora.
AB  - The enormous species richness in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of Southern
      Africa is the result of numerous radiations, but the temporal progression and
      possible mechanisms of these radiations are still poorly understood. Here, we
      explore the macroevolutionary dynamics of the Restionaceae, which include 340
      species that are found in all vegetation types in the Cape flora and are
      ecologically dominant in fynbos. Using an almost complete (i.e., 98%) species
      level time calibrated phylogeny and models of diversification dynamics, we show
      that species diversification is constant through the Cenozoic, with no evidence
      of an acceleration with the onset of the modern winter-wet climate, or a recent
      density-dependent slowdown. Contrary to expectation, species inhabiting the
      oldest (montane) and most extensive (drylands) habitats did not undergo higher
      diversification rates than species in the younger (lowlands) and more restricted
      (wetland) habitats. We show that the rate of habitat transitions is more closely
      related to the speciation rate than to time, and that more than a quarter of all
      speciation events are associated with habitat transitions. This suggests that the
      unbounded Restionaceae diversification resulted from numerous, parallel, habitat
      shifts, rather than persistence in a habitat stimulating speciation. We speculate
      that this could be one of the mechanisms resulting in the hyperdiverse Cape
      flora.

PMID- 28884806
TI  - Neurophysiological mechanisms and functional impact of mirror movements in
      children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy.
AB  - : Children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (CP) often have mirror
      movements, i.e. involuntary imitations of unilateral voluntary movements of the
      contralateral upper extremity. The pathophysiology of mirror movements has been
      investigated in small and heterogeneous cohorts in the literature. Specific
      pathophysiology of mirror movements and their impact on upper extremity function
      require systematic investigation in larger and homogeneous cohorts of children
      with unilateral spastic CP. Here we review two possible neurophysiological
      mechanisms underlying mirror movements in children with CP and those with typical
      development: (1) an ipsilateral corticospinal tract projecting from the
      contralesional motor cortex (M1) to both upper extremities; (2) insufficient
      interhemispheric inhibition between the two M1s. We also discuss clinical
      implications of mirror movements in children with unilateral CP and suggest that
      a thorough examination of the relationship between the pathophysiology and
      clinical manifestations of mirror movements is warranted. We suggest two
      premises: (1) the presence of mirror movements is indicative of an ipsilateral
      corticospinal tract reorganization; and (2) the corticospinal tract organization
      may affect patients' responses to certain treatment. If these premises are
      supported through future research, mirror movements should be clinically
      evaluated for patient selection to maximize benefits of therapy, hence promoting
      individualized medicine in this population. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Mirror
      movements may be indicative of the underlying corticospinal tract reorganization
      in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Future research will
      benefit from systematic investigations of the relationship between mirror
      movements and its pathophysiology. Mirror movements may be a potential biomarker
      for individualized medicine in children with unilateral spastic CP.

PMID- 28884805
TI  - Evaluation of the relation between lipid coat, transepidermal water loss, and
      skin pH.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The epidermis is an epidermal barrier which accumulates lipid
      substances and participates in skin moisturizing. An evaluation of the epidermal
      barrier efficiency can be made, among others, by the measurement of the following
      values: the lipid coat, the transepidermal water loss (TEWL) index, and pH.
      MATERIALS: The study involved 50 Caucasian, healthy women aged 19-35 years (mean
      20.56). METHODS: Measurements were made using Courage & Khazaka Multi Probe
      Adapter MPA 580: Tewameter TM 300, pH-Meter PH 905, Sebumeter SM 815. The areas
      of measurements included forehead, nose, left cheek, right cheek, chin, and
      thigh. RESULTS: In the T-zone, the lipid coat was in the range between 0 and 270
      MUg/cm2 (mean 128 MUg/cm2 ), TEWL between 1 and 55 g/m2 /h (mean 11.1 g/m2 /h),
      and pH 4.0-5.6 (mean 5.39). Lower values of the lipid coat up to 100 MUg/cm2 were
      accompanied by TEWL greater than 30 g/m2 /h and less acidic pH of 5.6-9.0. In the
      U-zone the range of lipid coat was up to 200 MUg/cm2 (mean 65.2 MUg/cm2 ), the
      skin pH remained 4.0-5.6 (mean 5.47), and TEWL was in the range between 1 and 20
      g/m2 /h (mean 8.7 g/m2 /h). Lower values of the lipid coat up to 100 MUg/cm2 were
      accompanied by TEWL between 1 and 20 g/m2 /h and less acidic pH of 5.6-9.0. High
      values of the lipid coat between 180 and 200 MUg/cm2 were connected with TEWL of
      1-15 g/m2 /h. On the skin of the thigh, we observed a very thin lipid coat - 35
      MUg/cm2 (mean 5.6 MUg/cm2 ), pH (mean 5.37), and TEWL (mean 8.5 g/m2 /h) were
      considered by us to be within regular limits. CONCLUSIONS: In the T-zone, a
      thinner lipid coat resulted in relatively high TEWL and pH levels changing toward
      alkaline. In the U-zone, thinner lipid coat was accompanied by lower TEWL and pH
      changing toward alkaline. We also observed that lower values of lipid coat up to
      100 MUg/cm2 were associated with higher pH values ranging toward the basic
      character pH 5.6-9.0).

PMID- 28884807
TI  - Co-creation by the ABIM Geriatric Medicine Board and the AGS - Helping Move
      Geriatrics Forward.
AB  - The American board of internal medicine (ABIM) establishes standards for
      physicians. The American geriatrics society (AGS) is a not-for-profit membership
      organization of nearly 6,000 health professionals devoted to improving the
      health, independence, and quality of life of all older people. Beginning in 2013,
      ABIM redesigned its governance structure, including the role of the specialty
      boards. Specialty boards are charged with responsibilities for oversight in four
      main areas: (1) the assessments used in initial certification and maintenance of
      certification (MOC); (2) medical knowledge self-assessment and practice
      assessment in the specialty; (3) building relationships with relevant
      professional societies and other organizational stakeholders; and (4) issues
      related to training requirements for initial certification eligibility within the
      specialty. The aim of this paper is to inform the geriatrics community regarding
      the function of geriatric medicine board (GMB) of the ABIM, and to invite the
      geriatrics community to fully engage with and leverage the GMB as a partner to:
      (1) develop better certification examinations and processes, identifying better
      knowledge and practice assessments, and in establishing appropriate training and
      MOC requirements for geriatric medicine; (2) leverage ABIM assets to conduct
      applied research to guide the field in the areas of training and certification
      and workforce development in geriatric medicine; (3) make MOC relevant for
      practicing geriatricians. Active engagement of the geriatrics community with ABIM
      and the GMB will ensure that certification in geriatric medicine provides the
      greatest possible value and meaning to physicians, patients, and the public.

PMID- 28884808
TI  - Fraction magnitude understanding and its unique role in predicting general
      mathematics achievement at two early stages of fraction instruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prior studies on fraction magnitude understanding focused mainly on
      students with relatively sufficient formal instruction on fractions whose
      fraction magnitude understanding is relatively mature. AIM: This study fills a
      research gap by investigating fraction magnitude understanding in the early
      stages of fraction instruction. It extends previous findings to children with
      limited and primary formal fraction instruction. SAMPLE(S): Thirty-five fourth
      graders with limited fraction instruction and forty fourth graders with primary
      fraction instruction were recruited from a Chinese primary school. METHODS:
      Children's fraction magnitude understanding was assessed with a fraction number
      line estimation task. Approximate number system (ANS) acuity was assessed with a
      dot discrimination task. Whole number knowledge was assessed with a whole number
      line estimation task. General reading and mathematics achievements were collected
      concurrently and 1 year later. RESULTS: In children with limited fraction
      instruction, fraction representation was linear and fraction magnitude
      understanding was concurrently related to both ANS and whole number knowledge. In
      children with primary fraction instruction, fraction magnitude understanding
      appeared to (marginally) significantly predict general mathematics achievement 1
      year later. CONCLUSIONS: Fraction magnitude understanding emerged early during
      formal instruction of fractions. ANS and whole number knowledge were related to
      fraction magnitude understanding when children first began to learn about
      fractions in school. The predictive value of fraction magnitude understanding is
      likely constrained by its sophistication level.

PMID- 28884809
TI  - The relationship between motor skills and psychosocial factors in young children:
      A test of the elaborated environmental stress hypothesis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The elaborated environmental stress hypothesis (EESH) provides a
      framework that describes how motor skills may indirectly cause internalizing
      problems through various mediating psychosocial factors. While there is evidence
      to support this framework, little is known about how the proposed relationships
      may vary across different stages of development. AIMS: This study aimed to
      investigate whether peer problems and perceived self-competence mediated the
      relationship between motor skills and internalizing problems in pre-primary
      children, and at 18-month follow up. SAMPLE: A community sample of 197 pre
      primary school children (M = 5.40 years, SD = 0.30 years; 102 males, 95 females)
      participated at Time 1, with 107 completing the Time 2 follow-up. METHODS:
      Standardized instruments were used to measure motor skills and verbal IQ.
      Perceived self-competence was measured using a self-report measure. Participant
      peer problems and internalizing problems were measured using teacher report. Age,
      gender, and verbal IQ were included as covariates. RESULTS: Mediation analysis
      using PROCESS showed that the relationship between motor skills and internalizing
      problems was mediated by peer problems at Time 1. At Time 2, the relationship was
      mediated by peer problems and perceived physical competence. CONCLUSIONS: The
      current results indicate the EESH may function differently across different
      periods of development. The transition from pre-primary to Grade 1 represents a
      time of important cognitive and psychosocial development, which has implications
      for how the relationship between motor skills and internalizing problems can be
      understood. These findings highlight potential age-appropriate targets for
      psychomotor interventions aiming to improve the emotional well-being of young
      children.

PMID- 28884810
TI  - Comparison between the Valsalva maneuver and intraoperative traction measurements
      in pelvic organ prolapse assessment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the assessment of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) between the
      Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) system with Valsalva maneuver and
      intraoperative measurement with mechanical traction. METHODS: A prospective
      observational study included 100 women with POP attending a tertiary
      urogynecology clinic in the UK and undergoing vaginal prolapse surgical
      procedures between October 2011 and October 2014. The women were examined in the
      clinic using POP-Q with the Valsalva maneuver and in the operating theater under
      general anesthesia with mechanical traction. The two sets of measurements were
      compared. RESULTS: All POP-Q measurements obtained with traction demonstrated
      significantly higher descent as compared with those measured by Valsalva maneuver
      (mean differences: Aa 0.64 cm; Ap 1.32 cm; Ba 0.96 cm; Bp 1.34 cm; C 3.57 cm; D
      3.40 cm; all P<0.001). The perineal body and total vaginal lengths did not differ
      significantly. CONCLUSION: Measurements of six POP-Q points obtained with
      traction showed a higher grade of POP than those assessed with Valsalva maneuver.
      On this basis, surgeons might decide on the extent of surgical procedure after
      examination under anesthesia; however, preoperative patient counselling would be
      essential to obtain consent for this approach. The clinical significance of the
      findings requires further evaluation.

PMID- 28884812
TI  - Cross-cultural similarities and differences in motives to forgive: A comparison
      between and within cultures.
AB  - Recently, researchers have begun to explore people's motives to forgive those who
      have offended them. Using a recall method, we examined whether such motives
      (relationship-, offender- or self-focused) differ between and within cultures
      that are more collectivistic (Moluccan Islands in Indonesia) or more
      individualistic (the Netherlands) and whether this depends on people's
      relationship with the offender. More specifically, we examined the idea that
      other-focused motives should be more important in cultures that are more
      collectivistic and that self-focused motives should prevail in more
      individualistic cultures. We found that Moluccan participants indeed endorsed
      relationship- and offender-focused motives more than Dutch participants. Moluccan
      and Dutch participants did not, however, differ in the extent to which they
      endorsed self-focused motives. Furthermore, Dutch participants were more likely
      to endorse relationship motives (especially in close relations) than self-focused
      motives. For Moluccan participants, relationship-, offender- and self-focused
      motives were equally important and also did not depend on how close they were
      with the offender. Differences between the samples could not be explained by the
      extent to which people defined themselves as more independent or interdependent.
      The implications of these findings for future research on forgiveness motives are
      discussed.

PMID- 28884811
TI  - Repeated cervical length measurements for the verification of short cervical
      length.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine if the verification of short cervical length with a
      repeated measurement improved the identification of patients with short cervical
      length at increased risk of preterm delivery. METHODS: The present secondary
      analysis analyzed prospective cohort study data from patients with singleton
      pregnancies without a history of preterm delivery who presented for obstetric
      care in the Netherlands and delivered between November 18, 2009, and January 1,
      2013. Cervical length was measured during standard anomaly scan and a second
      measurement was performed if the cervical length was 30 mm of shorter. Logistic
      regression and Cox proportional hazards modeling were used to evaluate
      associations between cervical length measurements and spontaneous preterm
      delivery before 37 weeks of pregnancy. RESULTS: Cervical length measurements from
      12 358 patients were included; 221 (1.8%) had an initial cervical length
      measurement of 30 mm or shorter. A second cervical length measurement was
      performed for 167 (75.6%) patients; no differences were identified in the odds of
      spontaneous preterm delivery when evaluated using the first, second, or a mean of
      both measurements, regardless of whether cervical length was analyzed as a
      continuous or dichotomous variable. CONCLUSION: Among patients with singleton
      pregnancies, verification of short cervical length did not improve the
      identification of short cervical length.

PMID- 28884813
TI  - Adult-onset brain tumors and neurodegeneration: Are polyphenols protective?
AB  - Aging is a primary risk factor for both neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) and
      tumors such as adult-onset brain tumors. Since NDs and tumors are severe,
      disabling, progressive and often incurable conditions, they represent a pressing
      problem in terms of human suffering and economic costs to the healthcare systems.
      The current challenge for physicians and researchers is to develop new
      therapeutic strategies in both areas to improve the patients' quality of life. In
      addition to genetics and environmental stressors, the increase in cellular
      oxidative stress as one of the potential common etiologies has been reported for
      both disorders. Recently, the scientific community has focused on the beneficial
      effects of dietary antioxidant classes, known as nutraceuticals, such as
      carotenoids, vitamins, and polyphenols. Among these compounds, polyphenols are
      considered to be one of the most bioactive agents in neurodegeneration and tumor
      prevention. Despite the beneficial activity of polyphenols, their poor
      bioavailability and inefficient delivery systems are the main factors limiting
      their use in medicine and functional food. The development of polymeric
      nanoparticle-based delivery systems able to encapsulate and preserve polyphenolic
      compounds may represent a promising tool to enhance their stability, solubility,
      and cell membrane permeation. In the present review we provide an overview of the
      main polyphenolic compounds used for ND and brain tumor prevention and treatment
      that explores their mechanisms of action, recent clinical findings and principal
      factors limiting their application in medicine.

PMID- 28884814
TI  - Insights into the genetic structure of the rabbitfish Chimaera monstrosa
      (Holocephali) across the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition zone.
AB  - A comparison of the genetic structure of Chimaera monstrosa populations from the
      Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea was carried out using mitochondrial DNA
      analysis. Results indicate high and significant pairwise PhiST values with no
      shared haplotypes between the two areas. Furthermore, migration rate estimates
      suggested absence of gene flow between the two basins. These findings, coupled
      with the species vertical distribution, suggest that the shallow depth of the
      Strait of Gibraltar may act as a barrier limiting the dispersal capabilities of
      these populations, which likely became separated at the end of the middle
      Pleistocene.

PMID- 28884815
TI  - The effect of expressive writing on the error-related negativity among
      individuals with chronic worry.
AB  - The error-related negativity (ERN), an ERP elicited immediately after errors, is
      enlarged among individuals with anxiety. The relationship between anxiety and
      enlarged ERN has spurred interest in understanding potential therapeutic benefits
      of decreasing its amplitude within anxious individuals. The current study used a
      tailored intervention-expressive writing-in an attempt to reduce the ERN among a
      sample of individuals with chronic worry. Consistent with hypotheses, the ERN was
      reduced in the expressive writing group compared to an unrelated writing control
      group. Findings provide experimental support that the ERN can be reduced among
      anxious individuals with tailored interventions. Expressive writing may serve to
      "offload" worries from working memory, therefore relieving the distracting
      effects of worry on cognition as reflected in a decreased ERN.

PMID- 28884816
TI  - Exploiting off-targeting in guide-RNAs for CRISPR systems for simultaneous
      editing of multiple genes.
AB  - Bioinformatics tools to design guide-RNAs (gRNAs) in Clustered Regularly
      Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats systems mostly focused on minimizing off
      targeting to enhance efficacy of genome editing. However, there are circumstances
      in which off-targeting might be desirable to target multiple genes simultaneously
      with a single gRNA. We termed these gRNAs as promiscuous gRNAs. Here, we present
      a computational workflow to identify promiscuous gRNAs that putatively bind to
      the region of interest for a defined list of genes in a genome. We experimentally
      validated two promiscuous gRNA for gene deletion, one targeting FAA1 and FAA4 and
      one targeting PLB1 and PLB2, thus demonstrating that multiplexed genome editing
      through design of promiscuous gRNA can be performed in a time and cost-effective
      manner.

PMID- 28884817
TI  - Association Between CYP2C19*17 Alleles and pH Probe Testing Outcomes in Children
      With Symptomatic Gastroesophageal Reflux.
AB  - Esophageal pH monitoring remains a primary diagnostic tool for detecting
      gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). GERD that is refractory to proton pump
      inhibitor (PPI) medications may be related to CYP2C19 variants. Current PPI
      dosing practices in children do not take into account CYP2C19 allelic variants,
      which may lead to underdosing and subsequently to a misperception of PPI therapy
      failure. We hypothesized that pH probe acid exposure outcomes associate with
      CYP2C19*17 alleles among children with clinical concern for GERD. We identified a
      retrospective cohort of 74 children (age range 0.71-17.1 years, mean 8.5, SD 4.6)
      with stored endoscopic tissue samples and who had also undergone esophageal pH
      testing while on PPI therapy. These individuals were genotyped for common CYP2C19
      alleles and were dichotomized to either CYP2C19*17 allelic carriers without
      corresponding loss of function alleles as cases vs controls. Associations between
      pH probe acid exposure outcomes and CYP2C19*17 alleles were investigated.
      Compared to controls, children who carry CYP2C19*17 alleles without corresponding
      loss-of-function alleles demonstrated statistically significant longer times with
      pH < 4 (76.46 vs 33.47 minutes, P = .03); and higher percent of time with pH <
      4.0 (5.71 vs 2.67 minutes, P = .04). These findings remained statistically
      significant using multiple-regression modeling with test duration, PPI dose, and
      race as confounding variables. PPI therapy in children with *17 alleles may be
      better optimized with CYP2C19 genotype-guided dosing prior to pH probe testing.

PMID- 28884818
TI  - The Effect of Medicaid on Dental Care of Poor Adults: Evidence from the Oregon
      Health Insurance Experiment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of Medicaid coverage on dental care outcomes, a
      major health concern for low-income populations. DATA SOURCES: Primary and
      secondary data on health care use and outcomes for participants in Oregon's 2008
      Medicaid lottery. STUDY DESIGN: We used the lottery's random selection to gauge
      the causal effects of Medicaid on dental care needs, medication, and emergency
      department visits for dental care. DATA COLLECTION: Data were collected for
      lottery participants over 2 years, including mail surveys (N = 23,777) and in
      person questionnaires (N = 12,229). Emergency department (ED) records were
      matched to lottery participants in Portland (N = 24,646). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:
      Medicaid coverage significantly reduced the share of respondents who reported
      needing dental care (-9.8 percentage points, p < .001) or having unmet dental
      care needs (-13.5 percentage points, p < 0.001). Medicaid doubled the share
      visiting the ED for dental care (+2.6 percentage points, p = .003) and the use of
      anti-infective medications often prescribed for dental care, but it had no
      detectable effect on uncovered dental care or out-of-pocket spending.
      CONCLUSIONS: Expansion of Medicaid covering emergency dental care substantially
      reduced unmet need for dental care, increasing ED dental visits and medication
      use, while not changing patient use of uncovered dental services.

PMID- 28884819
TI  - A three-dimensional statistical model for imaged microstructures of porous
      polymer films.
AB  - A thresholded Gaussian random field model is developed for the microstructure of
      porous materials. Defining the random field as a solution to stochastic partial
      differential equation allows for flexible modelling of nonstationarities in the
      material and facilitates computationally efficient methods for simulation and
      model fitting. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed and used to fit
      the model to three-dimensional confocal laser scanning microscopy images. The
      methods are applied to study a porous ethylcellulose/hydroxypropylcellulose
      polymer blend that is used as a coating to control drug release from
      pharmaceutical tablets. The aim is to investigate how mass transport through the
      material depends on the microstructure. We derive a number of goodness-of-fit
      measures based on numerically calculated diffusion through the material. These
      are used in combination with measures that characterize the geometry of the pore
      structure to assess model fit. The model is found to fit stationary parts of the
      material well.

PMID- 28884820
TI  - Endoluminal weight loss and metabolic therapies: current and future techniques.
AB  - Obesity is a public health epidemic associated with a number of comorbidities,
      most notably type 2 diabetes and hypertension, as well as elevated all-cause
      mortality. The treatment for obesity and its associated comorbidities has most
      recently expanded into the field of bariatric endoscopy. This field bridges a gap
      between lifestyle counseling with or without pharmaceutical treatment and the
      most effective treatment of obesity, bariatric surgery. Because of its minimally
      invasive nature, bariatric endoscopic therapy has the potential to appeal to the
      large sector of the obese population that resists surgery, as well as those early
      in the onset of obesity. To date, five endoscopic devices have been approved by
      the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of obesity, and many more
      are in development, undergoing clinical trials, or being used around the world.
      Here, we present the current state of the field, highlight recent developments,
      and describe the clinical outcomes of these minimally invasive procedures in
      terms of weight loss, improvement in metabolic profile, and reduction in
      comorbidities.

PMID- 28884821
TI  - Associations between intratumoral and peritumoral M2 macrophage counts and
      cervical squamous cell carcinoma invasion patterns.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To study the correlation between M2 tumor-associated macrophages
      (TAMs) and invasion patterns in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) tissues.
      METHODS: In the present observational study, two commercial SCC tissue
      microarrays were evaluated by immunohistochemical analysis between January 1,
      2016, and December 31, 2016. CD163-positive cells in a cervical SCC tissue
      microarray were identified. Tissue samples were stratified into groups based on a
      pushing border pattern (PBP), a diffuse infiltration pattern (DIP), or non
      tumorous tissues included as a control group; M2 TAM numbers and distributions
      were compared. RESULTS: The microarrays included 109 cervical SCC samples and 45
      non-tumorous control samples. The mean number of intratumoral M2 TAMs in cervical
      SCC tissue samples (35.8 +/- 28.3) was significantly higher than the number of
      intraepithelial M2 TAMs in non-tumorous cervical samples (1.2 +/- 3.6) (P<0.001);
      similarly, the number of peritumoral M2 TAMs in cervical SCC (44.7 +/- 29.4) was
      higher than in non-tumorous cervical tissues (10.4 +/- 9.2) (P<0.001). The
      numbers of intratumoral (P=0.046) and peritumoral (P=0.002) M2 TAMs were higher
      among the DIP group compared with the PBP group. CONCLUSION: A close relationship
      was identified between M2 TAMs and invasion patterns in cervical SCC. Further, M2
      TAM infiltration was more pronounced in DIP compared with PBP SCC tissue samples.

PMID- 28884822
TI  - RNA binding protein Musashi-2 regulates PIWIL1 and TBX1 in mouse spermatogenesis.
AB  - RNA-binding proteins (RBP) are important facilitators of post-transcriptional
      gene regulation. We have previously established that nuclear overexpression of
      the RBP Musashi-2 (MSI2) during male germ cell maturation is detrimental to sperm
      cell development and fertility. Herein we determine the genes and pathways
      impacted by the upregulation of Msi2. Microarray analysis and qPCR confirmed
      differential gene expression in factors fundamental to the cell cycle, cellular
      proliferation, and cell death. Similarly, comparative protein expression analysis
      via iTRAQ, immunoblot, and immunolocalization, identified differential expression
      and localization of important regulators of transcription, translation, RNA
      processing, and spermatogenesis. Specifically, the testis-expressed transcription
      factor, Tbx1, and the piRNA regulator of gamete development, Piwil1, were both
      found to be targeted for translational repression by MSI2. This study provides
      key evidence to support a fundamental role for MSI2 in post-transcriptional
      regulation during male gamete development.

PMID- 28884824
TI  - Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Anacetrapib Following Single Doses in
      Healthy, Young Japanese and White Male Subjects.
AB  - Anacetrapib is a cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor being
      developed for the treatment of mixed dyslipidemia. The aim of the study was to
      evaluate the pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and safety characteristics of
      anacetrapib following single doses in healthy, young Japanese men. In a double
      blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 3-panel, single-rising-dose study, 6
      healthy young Japanese male or white male subjects (aged 19 to 44 years) received
      single oral doses of 5 to 500 mg anacetrapib, and 2 received placebo. Plasma and
      urine drug concentrations were measured 0-168 hours postdose, and plasma CETP
      inhibition was measured 0-24 hours postdose. Urinary anacetrapib levels were all
      below quantitation limits. Plasma concentrations of anacetrapib increased
      approximately less than dose-proportionally. Consumption of a traditional
      Japanese breakfast prior to dosing increased the plasma pharmacokinetics of
      anacetrapib in Japanese subjects compared with fasted conditions, to a similar
      extent as in white subjects. CETP activity measured over 0-24 hours postdose
      resulted in significant inhibition. Anacetrapib was generally well tolerated, and
      there were no serious adverse experiences. No clinically meaningful differences
      in PK and CETP inhibition parameters were found between Japanese and white
      subjects.

PMID- 28884823
TI  - Evaluation of the natural history of patients who aspirate.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The natural clinical progression of aspiration to eventual
      pulmonary compromise is not well understood. We hypothesized that dietary
      modification recommendations, Penetration-Aspiration Scale (PAS) score, and
      dysphagia etiology would be associated with changes in time to first pulmonary
      event and overall survival for patients with documented aspiration on radiologic
      testing. This study identified a cohort of patients with detectable unsensed
      penetration or aspiration on videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS), and
      followed this cohort over time for development of pulmonary events and death. We
      then evaluated the association of aspiration severity and dietary modification
      recommendations on incidence of these endpoints. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective
      chart review. METHODS: A total of 2,616 VFSS exam reports were reviewed from our
      institution performed between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010. Aspiration
      or unsensed penetration (PAS of 5 or greater) was detected in 564 (21.5%) of
      these patients, who were then included in the study cohort. Medical records were
      reviewed retrospectively for development of pulmonary events (pneumonia,
      pneumonitis, or other life-threatening pulmonary illness) and all-cause mortality
      for up to 54 months after initial VFSS. Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis and
      multivariate Cox regression were performed for time to first pulmonary event and
      survival predicted by recommended diet, PAS score, and dysphagia etiology.
      RESULTS: Dysphagia etiology was highly associated with increased development of
      pulmonary events for some patients, especially those with generalized nonspecific
      dysphagia due to deconditioning or frailty (hazard ratio [HZ] vs. stroke 2.95,
      95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.53-5.69, P = .001) and esophageal dysphagia (HZ:
      2.66, 95% CI: 1.17-6.02, P = .019). Dysphagia etiology was also associated with
      increased mortality for patients with generalized nonspecific dysphagia due to
      deconditioning or frailty (HZ: 3.32, 95% CI: 2.0-5.52, P < .001), postsurgical
      patients (HZ: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.05-2.86, P = .032), and chronic neurologic disease
      (HZ: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.12-3.13, P = .017). Dietary modification recommendations at
      the time of VFSS (prohibition of oral intake or modification of food consistency)
      had no significant impact on time to first pulmonary event (P = .37) or survival
      (P = .17), whereas PAS score was associated with decreased time to first
      pulmonary event on univariate but not multivariate analysis (HZ for 1-point
      increase: 1.6, 95% CI: 0.99-1.36, P = .067). Kaplan-Meier estimate of overall 3
      year mortality for this patient cohort was 39%. CONCLUSIONS: Etiology of
      dysphagia is associated with a higher mortality rate and development of pulmonary
      events in patients with unsensed penetration or aspiration on VFSS, especially
      for those patients with generalized deconditioning and frailty or esophageal
      dysphagia. Severity of aspiration as defined by PAS was not associated with
      altered overall survival. Recommendations for dietary modification to a nothing
      by mouth status or modified food consistency had no statistically significant
      association with development of pulmonary events or survival in patients with
      detectable unsensed penetration or aspiration on VFSS compared to full-diet
      recommendation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope, 127:S1-S10, 2017.

PMID- 28884825
TI  - Parental versus non-parental-directed donation: an 11-year experience of
      infectious disease testing at a pediatric tertiary care blood donor center.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Directed donation is associated with a higher prevalence of donations
      that are positive for infectious disease markers; however, little is known about
      the positive rates among parental-directed, non-parental-directed, and allogeneic
      donations. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We reviewed blood-collection records from
      January 1997 through December 2008, including infectious disease results, among
      parental, non-parental, and community donations. Infectious disease rates were
      compared by Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: In total, 1532 parental, 4910 non
      parental, and 17,423 community donations were examined. Among parental donors,
      the median rate of positive infectious disease testing was 8.66% (interquartile
      range (IQR), 4.49%) for first-time donors and 1.26% (IQR, 5.86%) for repeat
      donors; among non-parental donors, the rate was 1.09% (IQR, 0.98%) for first-time
      donors and 0% (IQR, 0.83%) for repeat donors; and, among community donors, the
      rate was 2.95% (IQR, 1.50%) for first-time donors and 0.45% (IQR, 0.82%) for
      repeat donors. The mean rate of positive infectious disease testing for first
      time parental donors was significantly higher (7.63%), whereas all repeat donors
      had similar rates. However, the rate of positive infectious disease testing among
      first-time non-parental donors was significantly lower than that in the other
      groups, especially for the period from 2001 through 2008. CONCLUSION: First-time
      non-parental and community donors had significantly higher infectious disease
      risk than the respective repeat donors. First-time parental donors had the
      highest rates of positive infectious disease testing. We suggest that first-time
      parental blood donation should be discouraged. Repeat community donors or first
      time non-parental donors provide a safer alternative. These findings can foster
      better patient education, donor selection, and possibly a reduced risk of
      infectious disease.

PMID- 28884826
TI  - An experimental test of the physiological consequences of avian malaria
      infection.
AB  - Chronic, low-intensity parasite infections can reduce host fitness through
      negative impacts on reproduction and survival, even if they produce few overt
      symptoms. As a result, these parasites can influence the evolution of host
      morphology, behaviour and physiology. The physiological consequences of chronic
      infection can provide insight into the processes underlying parasite-driven
      natural selection. Here, we evaluate the physiological consequences of natural,
      low-intensity infection in an avian host-parasite system: adult male red-winged
      blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) infected with haemosporidian parasites. Chronic
      haemosporidian infection has previously been shown to reduce both reproductive
      success and survival in several avian species. We used antimalarial medications
      to experimentally reduce haemosporidian parasitaemia (the proportion of blood
      cells infected with haemosporidian parasites) and measured the effect of
      treatment on body condition, haematology, immune function, physiological stress
      and oxidative state. Treatment with an antimalarial medication reduced
      parasitaemia for the most prevalent haemosporidian parasites from the genus
      Plasmodium. Treatment also increased haemoglobin and haematocrit, and decreased
      red blood cell production rates. We detected no effect of treatment on body
      condition, immune metrics, plasma corticosterone concentrations, total
      antioxidant capacity or reactive oxygen metabolites. Our results suggest that the
      damage and replacement of red blood cells during infection could be important
      costs of chronic haemosporidian infection. Strong links between parasitaemia and
      the physiological consequences of infection indicate that even for relatively low
      intensity infections, measuring parasitaemia rather than only presence/absence
      could be important when evaluating the role of infection in influencing hosts'
      behaviour, physiology or fitness.

PMID- 28884827
TI  - Linking social and spatial networks to viral community phylogenetics reveals
      subtype-specific transmission dynamics in African lions.
AB  - Heterogeneity within pathogen species can have important consequences for how
      pathogens transmit across landscapes; however, discerning different transmission
      routes is challenging. Here, we apply both phylodynamic and phylogenetic
      community ecology techniques to examine the consequences of pathogen
      heterogeneity on transmission by assessing subtype-specific transmission pathways
      in a social carnivore. We use comprehensive social and spatial network data to
      examine transmission pathways for three subtypes of feline immunodeficiency virus
      (FIVPle ) in African lions (Panthera leo) at multiple scales in the Serengeti
      National Park, Tanzania. We used FIVPle molecular data to examine the role of
      social organization and lion density in shaping transmission pathways and tested
      to what extent vertical (i.e., father- and/or mother-offspring relationships) or
      horizontal (between unrelated individuals) transmission underpinned these
      patterns for each subtype. Using the same data, we constructed subtype-specific
      FIVPle co-occurrence networks and assessed what combination of social networks,
      spatial networks or co-infection best structured the FIVPle network. While social
      organization (i.e., pride) was an important component of FIVPle transmission
      pathways at all scales, we find that FIVPle subtypes exhibited different
      transmission pathways at within- and between-pride scales. A combination of
      social and spatial networks, coupled with consideration of subtype co-infection,
      was likely to be important for FIVPle transmission for the two major subtypes,
      but the relative contribution of each factor was strongly subtype-specific. Our
      study provides evidence that pathogen heterogeneity is important in understanding
      pathogen transmission, which could have consequences for how endemic pathogens
      are managed. Furthermore, we demonstrate that community phylogenetic ecology
      coupled with phylodynamic techniques can reveal insights into the differential
      evolutionary pressures acting on virus subtypes, which can manifest into
      landscape-level effects.

PMID- 28884828
TI  - Neutrophil extracellular traps in acrolein promoted hepatic ischemia reperfusion
      injury: Therapeutic potential of NOX2 and p38MAPK inhibitors.
AB  - Neutrophil is a significant contributor to ischemia reperfusion (IR) induced
      liver tissue damage. However, the exact role of neutrophils in IR induced innate
      immune activation and liver damage is not quite clear. Our study sheds light on
      the role of chronic oxidative stress end products in worsening the IR
      inflammatory process by neutrophil recruitment and activation following liver
      surgery. We employed specific inhibitors for molecular targets-NOX2 (NADPH
      oxidase 2) and P38 MAPK (Mitogen activated protein kinase) signal to counteract
      neutrophil activation and neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) release induced
      liver damage in IR injury. We found that acrolein initiated neutrophil chemotaxis
      and induced NET release both in vitro and in vivo. Acrolein exposure caused NET
      induced nuclear and mitochondrial damage in HepG2 cells as well as aggravated the
      IR injury in rat liver. Pretreatment with F-apocynin and naringin, efficiently
      suppressed acrolein induced NET release in vitro. Notably, it suppressed the
      expression of inflammatory cytokines, P38MAPK-ERK activation, and apoptotic
      signals in rat liver exposed to acrolein and subjected to IR. Moreover, this
      combination effectively attenuated acrolein induced NET release and hepatic IR
      injury. In the current study we have shown that the acrolein accumulation in
      liver due to chronic stress, is responsible for neutrophil recruitment and its
      activation leading to NET induced liver damage during surgery. Our study shows
      that therapeutic targeting of NOX2 and P38MAPK signaling in patients with chronic
      hepatic disorders would improve post operative hepatic function and survival.

PMID- 28884829
TI  - Preventive dental care among Medicaid-enrolled senior adults: from community to
      nursing facility residence.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to determine whether the
      utilization rate of preventive oral health care services while senior adults were
      community-dwelling differed from the rate after those same senior adults were
      admitted to nursing facilities. A secondary objective was to evaluate other
      significant predictors of receipt of preventive oral health procedures after
      nursing facility entry. METHODS: Iowa Medicaid claims from 2007-2014 were
      accessed for adults who were 68+ years upon entry to a nursing facility and
      continuously enrolled in Medicaid for at least three years before and at least
      two years after admission (n = 874). Univariate, bivariate and multivariable
      analyses were conducted. RESULTS: During the five years that subjects were
      followed, 52.8% never received a dental exam and 75.9% never received a dental
      hygiene procedure. More Medicaid-enrolled senior adults received >=1 preventive
      dental procedure in the two years while residing in a nursing facility compared
      to the three years before entry. In multivariable analyses, the strongest
      predictor of preventive oral health care utilization after entry was the receipt
      of preventive oral health services before entry (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The
      strongest predictor of receipt of dental procedures in the two years after
      nursing facility entry was the receipt of dental procedures in the three years
      before entry while community-dwelling. This underscores the importance of the
      senior adult establishing a source of dental care while community-dwelling.

PMID- 28884830
TI  - The inhibitory effect in Fraxinellone on oxidative stress-induced senescence
      correlates with AMP-activated protein kinase-dependent autophagy restoration.
AB  - As a natural metabolite of limonoids from Dictamnus dasycarpus, fraxinellone has
      been reported to be neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory. However, its influence
      on cellular metabolism remains largely unknown. In the present study, we
      investigated the effect of fraxinellone on cellular senescence-induced by
      oxidative stress and the potential mechanism. We found that fraxinellone
      administration caused growth arrest and certainly repressed the activity of
      senescence associated beta-galactosidase as well as the expression of senescence
      associated-genes. Interestingly, this effect of fraxinellone is closely
      correlated with the restoration of impaired autophagy and the activation of AMPK.
      Notably, fraxinellone reacts in an AMPK-dependent but mTORC1-independent manner.
      Together, our study demonstrates for the first time that fraxinellone has the
      effect on senescence inhibition and AMPK activation, and supports the notion that
      autophagic mechanism is important for aging prevention. These findings expanded
      the list of natural compounds and will be potentially utilized for aging decay
      and/or AMPK activation.

PMID- 28884831
TI  - Addressing Antiretroviral Therapy-Associated Drug-Drug Interactions in Patients
      Requiring Treatment for Opportunistic Infections in Low-Income and Resource
      Limited Settings.
AB  - An increasing number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients are
      achieving virologic suppression on antiretroviral therapy (ART) limiting the use
      of primary and secondary antimicrobial prophylaxis. However, in low-income and
      resource-limited settings, half of those infected with HIV are unaware of their
      diagnosis, and fewer than 50% of patients on ART achieve virologic suppression.
      Management of comorbidities and opportunistic infections among patients on ART
      may lead to inevitable drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and even toxicities. Elderly
      patients, individuals with multiple comorbidities, those receiving complex ART,
      and patients living in low-income settings experience higher rates of DDIs.
      Management of these cytochrome P450-mediated, nonmediated, and drug transport
      system DDIs is critical in HIV-infected patients, particularly those in resource
      limited settings with few options for ART. This article critically analyzes and
      provides recommendations to manage significant DDIs and drug toxicities in HIV
      infected patients receiving ART.

PMID- 28884832
TI  - Psychometric evaluation of the Caregiver Preparedness Scale in caregivers of
      adults with heart failure.
AB  - Well-prepared informal caregivers play an important role in heart failure (HF)
      care, so an instrument to evaluate their preparedness to care is important. To
      date, HF caregiver preparedness has been rarely investigated quantitatively. The
      Caregiver Preparedness Scale (CPS) has been used in other chronic condition
      populations, but its psychometric characteristics have never been tested in HF
      caregivers. The purpose of this study was to test the validity and reliability of
      the 8-item CPS in HF caregivers. In a convenience sample of 317 HF caregivers
      (72.4% female, mean age 54), we tested the CPS' factorial structure with
      confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and its concurrent validity with the Caregiver
      Contribution to Self-Care of HF Index (CC-SCHFI), and the Hospital Anxiety and
      Depression Scale (HADS). We also tested CPS' reliability with composite
      reliability indicators, Cronbach's alpha, factor score determinacy coefficient,
      and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The CFA for a one-factor model
      resulted in supportive fit indices (e.g., comparative fit index .97). Significant
      correlations (p < .05) of the CPS with both the CC-SCHFI and the HADS supported
      concurrent validity. The composite reliability index, Cronbach's alpha, factor
      score determinacy coefficient, and ICC were .89, .91, .96, .91, respectively,
      supporting reliability. Our study provides evidence that the CPS is a valid and
      reliable instrument to measure HF caregiver preparedness, enabling clinicians,
      and researchers to target specific interventions to HF caregivers.

PMID- 28884834
TI  - Transplantation of hypoxic preconditioned neural stem cells benefits functional
      recovery via enhancing neurotrophic secretion after spinal cord injury in rats.
AB  - Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a debilitating, costly, and common pathological
      condition that affects the function of central nervous system (CNS). To date,
      there are few promising therapeutic strategies available for SCI. To look for a
      suitable therapeutic strategy, we have developed a sublethal hypoxic
      preconditioning procedure using Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)
      analysis, LDH releasing, and cell viability assays in vitro. Meanwhile, we have
      examined the benefits of neural stem cells (NSCs) transplantation prior to
      hypoxic preconditioning on functional recovery and potential mechanism via MRI
      screening, H&E, and Nissl staining, immunofluorescence staining and Elisa assays.
      Our data showed that transplantation of hypoxic prconditioned NSCs could enhance
      neuronal survival, especially 5-TH+ and ChAT+ neurons, in the injured spinal cord
      to reinforce functional benefits. The hypoxia exposure upregulated HIF-1alpha,
      neurotrophic and growth factors including neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), glial cell
      derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
      in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, functional recovery, including locomotor and
      hypersensitivities to mechanical and thermal stimulation assessed via behavioral
      and sensory tests, improved significantly in rats with engraftment of NSCs after
      hypoxia exposure from day 14 post-SCI, compared with the control and N-NSCs
      groups. In short, the approach employed in this study could result in functional
      recovery via upregulating neurotrophic and growth factors, which implies that
      hypoxic preconditioning strategy could serve as an effective and feasible
      strategy for cell-based therapy in the treatment of SCI in rats.

PMID- 28884833
TI  - Circulatory Flow Restoration Versus Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: New
      Therapeutic Approach in Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
AB  - Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) remains a major problem for health authorities
      worldwide. Insufficiencies of current cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are
      most probably related to an inappropriate concept and applied methods that still
      concentrate on heartbeat as priority, instead of blood circulation to maintain
      organs' perfusions. The aim of this works is to propose a new therapeutic
      approach for SCA in a more effective and secure manner compared with current CPR
      methods. It correlates to a non-invasive circulatory flow restoration (CFR)
      device composed of a multilayered thoracic and infradiaphragmatic compartments
      that will be pulsated alternatively and in fixed frequencies using a low-pressure
      pneumatic generator. Proof-of-concept studies with different prototypes and
      methods of SCA, showed restoration of hemodynamics (BP >= 100 mm Hg) and
      increased urine output after 20 min of cardiac arrest in pediatric dogs and
      piglets. In summary, a CFR device can induce shear stress-mediated endothelial
      function to restore microcirculation and cellular metabolism. This represents a
      cost-effective method, predisposes to return of spontaneous circulation in case
      of SCA, adaptable for all age groups, in public and hospital environments.

PMID- 28884835
TI  - Non-invasive electromyographic estimation of motor unit number in the external
      anal sphincter of the rat.
AB  - AIMS: The external anal sphincter (EAS) is essential for maintaining fecal
      continence. Neurological disorders or traumatic injuries to muscle and nervous
      systems could lead to EAS denervation. Currently, there are no techniques
      available to document global innervation changes in the EAS in vivo. The aim of
      this study was to develop a novel approach to non-invasively estimate the number
      of functioning motor units (MUs) in the EAS and validate with immunofluorescent
      techniques in rats. METHODS: Intra-rectal surface electromyography (EMG) signals
      of the EAS, induced by a series of intra-vaginally delivered pudendal nerve
      stimulations with different intensities, were recorded. Variation in EMG
      responses at different intensities was used to estimate the value of a single
      motor unit potential (SMUP) in order to perform the proposed EAS motor unit
      number estimation (MUNE) approach. The EAS MUNE was tested in 12 female Sprague
      Dawley rats, and validated by comparing against the EAS myofiber counting results
      achieved by performing immunostaining of acetylcholine receptors in 7 of the 12
      rats. RESULTS: The mean MU number was 35 +/- 9, with an averaged SMUP size of
      52.49 +/- 20.39 MUV. The mean number of successfully identified myofibers was
      652.7 +/- 130.6 myofiber/EAS. Significance of linear regression between the
      immunofluorescent results and the MUNE was confirmed (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      study represents the first effort to non-invasively assess the innervation of the
      EAS in vivo using the rat as a pre-clinical model. This approach can potentially
      enable future clinical applications for advanced diagnosis and treatment of
      neurogenic EAS disorders.

PMID- 28884836
TI  - A Probabilistic Approach to Assess External Doses to the Public Considering
      Spatial Variability of Radioactive Contamination and Interpopulation Differences
      in Behavior Pattern.
AB  - Dose assessment is an important issue from the viewpoints of protecting people
      from radiation exposure and managing postaccident situations adequately. However,
      the radiation doses received by people cannot be determined with complete
      accuracy because of the uncertainties and the variability associated with any
      process of defining individual characteristics and in the dose assessment process
      itself. In this study, a dose assessment model was developed based on
      measurements and surveys of individual doses and relevant contributors (i.e.,
      ambient dose rates and behavior patterns) in Fukushima City for four population
      groups: Fukushima City Office staff, Senior Citizens' Club, Contractors'
      Association, and Agricultural Cooperative. In addition, probabilistic assessments
      were performed for these population groups by considering the spatial variability
      of contamination and interpopulation differences resulting from behavior
      patterns. As a result of comparison with the actual measurements, the assessment
      results for participants from the Fukushima City Office agreed with the measured
      values, thereby validating the model and the approach. Although the assessment
      results obtained for the Senior Citizens' Club and the Agricultural Cooperative
      differ partly from the measured values, by addressing further considerations in
      terms of dose reduction effects due to decontamination and the impact of
      additional exposure sources in agricultural fields, these results can be
      improved. By contrast, the measurements obtained for the participants from the
      Contractors' Association were not reproduced well in the present study. To assess
      the doses to this group, further investigations of association members' work
      activities and the related dose reduction effects are needed.

PMID- 28884837
TI  - Cognitive-behavioral therapy for eating disorders in primary care settings: Does
      it work, and does a greater dose make it more effective?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether cognitive-behavioral therapy
      (CBT) for eating disorders can be effective in a routine, primary care clinical
      setting, and to assess dose response. METHOD: The participants were 47 patients
      who commenced treatment with a publicly-funded primary care eating disorder
      service. They attended 7-33 sessions of individual CBT (mean = 17), using an
      evidence-based approach. Routine measures were collected pre- and post-therapy.
      RESULTS: Three-quarters of the patients completed treatment. Using intention to
      treat analysis (multiple imputation), the patients showed substantial
      improvements in eating attitudes, bulimic behaviors, and depression. However,
      there was no association between the level of improvement and the length of
      therapy past the 8th to 12th session. DISCUSSION: The level of effectiveness
      shown here is comparable to that previously demonstrated by more specialist
      services in secondary and tertiary care. The nonlinear association between number
      of sessions and recovery highlights the importance of early change, across the
      eating disorders.

PMID- 28884839
TI  - Effects of Glut1 gene silencing on proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis
      of colorectal cancer cells by targeting the TGF-beta/PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling
      pathway.
AB  - This study aims to investigate the effects of glucose transport l (Glut1) gene on
      proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells by
      regulating the TGF-beta/PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling pathway. Immunohistochemistry was
      conducted to detect the positive Glut1 expression. Normal human CRC epithelial
      cells (CCD-18Co) and CRC cell line HCT116 were grouped into the control, blank,
      negative control (NC), and shGlut1-1 groups. RT-qPCR and Western blotting were
      performed to detect the expressions of Glut1, TGF-beta1, PI3K, AKT, PTEN, mTOR,
      Bcl-2, and Bax. Protein expression of phosphorylated-PI3K (p-PI3K), p-S473-AKT, p
      S389-S6K1, p-T70-4EBP1, Cleaved caspase-3 and Cleaved-PARP were detected. MTT
      assay, flow cytometry, and colony formation assay were performed in order to
      detect cell viability, cell cycle, and apoptosis, respectively. The positive
      expression rate of Glut1 in CRC tissues was 75% +/- 8%, while in the adjacent
      normal tissues it was 0%. In comparison to adjacent normal tissues, CRC tissues
      had increased Glut1, TGF-beta1, PI3K, AKT, mTOR, and Bcl-2 expressions, and p
      PI3K, p-S473-AKT, p-S389-S6K1, and p-T70-4EBP1 expressions; and decreased PTEN,
      Bax, Cleaved caspase-3, and Cleaved-PARP expressions. In comparison with the
      blank and NC groups, cells in the shGlut1-1 group showed decreased Glut1, TGF
      beta1, PI3K, AKT, mTOR, and Bcl-2 expressions, and p-PI3K, p-S473-AKT, p-S389
      S6K1, and p-T70-4EBP1 expressions; and increased PTEN, Bax, Cleaved caspase-3,
      and Cleaved-PARP expressions, along with more arrested cells in C0/C1 phase than
      in S phase and slower cell growth. These results suggested that silencing the
      Glut1 gene inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis of CRC cells by
      inactivating TGF-beta/PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling pathway.

PMID- 28884838
TI  - Review article: transient receptor potential channels as possible therapeutic
      targets in irritable bowel syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) remains challenging
      to treat effectively. Researchers have attempted to elucidate visceral
      nociceptive processes in order to guide treatment development. Transient receptor
      potential (TRP) channels have been implied in the generation (TRPV1, TRPV4,
      TRPA1) and inhibition (TRPM8) of visceral pain signals. Pathological changes in
      their functioning have been demonstrated in inflammatory conditions, and appear
      to be present in IBS as well. AIM: To provide a comprehensive review of the
      current literature on TRP channels involved in visceral nociception. In
      particular, we emphasise the clinical implications of these nociceptors in the
      treatment of IBS. METHODS: Evidence to support this review was obtained from an
      electronic database search via PubMed using the search terms "visceral
      nociception," "visceral hypersensitivity," "irritable bowel syndrome" and
      "transient receptor potential channels." After screening the abstracts the
      articles deemed relevant were cross-referenced for additional manuscripts.
      RESULTS: Recent studies have resulted in significant advances in our
      understanding of TRP channel mediated visceral nociception. The diversity of TRP
      channel sensitization pathways is increasingly recognised. Endogenous TRP
      agonists, including poly-unsaturated fatty acid metabolites and hydrogen
      sulphide, have been implied in augmented visceral pain generation in IBS. New
      potential targets for treatment development have been identified (TRPA1 and
      TRPV4,) and alternative means of affecting TRP channel signalling (partial
      antagonists, downstream targeting and RNA-based therapy) are currently being
      explored. CONCLUSIONS: The improved understanding of mechanisms involved in
      visceral nociception provides a solid basis for the development of new treatment
      strategies for abdominal pain in IBS.

PMID- 28884840
TI  - Hydroxycarbamide in children with sickle cell anaemia after first-dose vs.
      chronic therapy: pharmacokinetics and predictive models for drug exposure.
AB  - AIMS: The purposes of this work were to: (1) compare pharmacokinetic (PK)
      parameters for hydroxycarbamide in children receiving their first dose (HCnew )
      vs. those receiving chronic therapy (HCchronic ), (2) assess the external
      validity of a published PK dosing strategy, and (3) explore the accuracy of
      dosing strategies based on a limited number of HC measurements. METHODS:
      Utilizing data from two prospective, multicenter trials of hydroxycarbamide
      (Pharmacokinetics of Liquid Hydroxyurea in Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell
      Anemia; NCT01506544 and Single-Dose (SD) and Steady-State (SS) Pharmacokinetics
      of Hydroxyurea in Children and Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease), plasma drug
      concentration vs. time profiles were evaluated with a model independent approach
      in the HCnew and HCchronic groups. Various predictive scenarios were analysed to
      evaluate whether systemic exposure with hydroxycarbamide could be accurately
      predicted. RESULTS: Absorption of hydroxycarbamide was rapid, variable and dose
      independent. Dose-normalized peak plasma concentrations and drug exposure (AUC)
      were higher, and weight-normalized apparent oral clearance was lower in the HCnew
      group. We assessed a PK-guided dosing strategy along with other predictive
      scenarios and found that inclusion of plasma samples only slightly improved the
      accuracy of AUC predictions when compared to a population-based method.
      CONCLUSIONS: Children naive to hydroxycarbamide exhibit a different PK profile
      compared to children receiving chronic therapy. Accuracy of population-based
      dosing is sufficient to target AUCs in individual patients. Further
      clearance/bioavailability studies are needed to address the factors responsible
      for variability in the disposition of hydroxycarbamide.

PMID- 28884841
TI  - Sclerostin antibody enhances bone formation in a rat model of distraction
      osteogenesis.
AB  - Neutralizing monoclonal sclerostin antibodies are effective in promoting bone
      formation at a systemic level and in orthopedic scenarios including closed
      fracture repair. In this study we examined the effects of sclerostin antibody
      (Scl-Ab) treatment on regenerate volume, density, and strength in a rat model of
      distraction osteogenesis. Surgical osteotomy was performed on 179 Sprague Dawley
      rats. After 1 week, rats underwent distraction for 2 weeks, followed by 6 weeks
      for consolidation. Two treatment groups received biweekly subcutaneous Scl-AbIII
      (a rodent form of Scl-Ab; 25 mg/kg), either from the start of distraction onward
      or restricted to the consolidation phase. These groups were compared to controls
      receiving saline. Measurement modalities included longitudinal DXA, ex vivo QCT,
      and microCT, tissue histology, and biomechanical four-point bending tests. Bone
      volume was increased in both Scl-Ab treatments regimens by the end of
      consolidation (+26-38%, p < 0.05), as assessed by microCT. This was associated
      with increased mineral apposition. Importantly, Scl-Ab led to increased strength
      in united bones, and this reached statistical significance in animals receiving
      Scl-Ab during consolidation only (+177%, p < 0.01, maximum load to failure).
      These data demonstrate that Scl-Ab treatment increases bone formation, leading to
      regenerates with higher bone volume and improved strength. Our data also suggest
      that the optimal effects of Scl-Ab treatment are achieved in the latter stages of
      distraction osteogenesis. These findings support further investigation into the
      potential clinical application of sclerostin antibody to augment bone
      distraction, such as limb lengthening, particularly in the prevention of
      refracture. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1106-1113, 2018.

PMID- 28884842
TI  - Distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Korea in the preceding decade.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB); it is transmitted among people through air. The
      aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of TB and its clinical trends by
      collecting and analyzing data on specimens in Korea. METHODS: All clinical
      specimens referred to the Dankook University Hospital Laboratory in Cheonan,
      Korea, from September 2005 to June 2016 were tested to isolate MTB using solid
      and liquid cultures, acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smears, and polymerase chain
      reactions (PCR). RESULTS: In total, 146 150 specimens were collected; the mean TB
      positivity rate was 7.8%. The highest positivity rate was observed among patients
      30-39 years of age (12.6%), followed by those 20-29 years of age (12.2%). The
      mean positivity rate was highest in 2010 and lowest in 2016 (10.7% and 6.7%,
      respectively). When comparing 2015-2011, we saw a decrease in the number of TB
      positive patients of 3.4%; this represented an annual decrease in 0.9%.
      CONCLUSION: Our data revealed a trend for a decrease in TB prevalence over time.
      Moreover, TB positivity rates were highest among the younger age groups in our
      study. Therefore, rapid diagnosis and treatment of TB in younger individuals are
      crucial.

PMID- 28884843
TI  - Simple Light-Triggered Fluorescent Labeling of Silica Nanoparticles for Cellular
      Imaging Applications.
AB  - A simple and mild light-triggered fluorescent labeling approach, based on the
      photolysis and reactive carbene insertion of diazirine, to rapidly generate
      fluorescent nanoparticles is reported. Proof of concept studies demonstrated that
      the non-fluorescent SiNPs could be covalently labeled by diazirine-conjugated
      fluorescein (dFITC) upon photo irradiation (lambda=365 nm) to afford fluorescent
      SiNPs with good fluorescent stability and low cytotoxicity. In vitro cellular
      imaging results indicated that the internalization of SiNPs into living cells
      could be readily visualized based on fluorescein-labeled SiNPs (F-SiNPs) in real
      time. We believe that the light-triggered labeling approach may offer a valuable
      method for surface modification of nanomaterials to achieve new functions.

PMID- 28884844
TI  - An open-label clinical trial assessing the efficacy and safety of Bend Skincare
      Anti-Aging Formula on minimal erythema dose in skin.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Sunburn and other health risks associated with excess sun
      exposure place huge economic burdens on societies, and create discomfort and
      disease within susceptible individuals. Oral supplements that reduce sunburn may
      be advantageous. This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of Bend Skincare
      Anti-Aging Formula to ameliorate sunburn induced with a solar simulator. METHODS:
      Subjects (n = 28) with Fitzpatrick skin phototypes I, II, or III took 4 capsules
      daily of the supplement providing 1400 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) +
      docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), 120 mg of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), 5 mg of lutein,
      2.5 mg of zeaxanthin, and 1000 IU of vitamin D3 for 8 weeks. Skin on each
      subject's back was exposed to a progressive sequence of timed ultraviolet (UV)
      radiation exposure doses at baseline, and after 4- and 8-week treatment to
      determine their minimal erythema dose (MED). Results were compared before and
      after treatment using 3 paired t tests and subsequently 3 linear mixed models.
      RESULTS: Treatment significantly improved tolerance to UV exposure as evidenced
      by increased MED at 4 and 8 weeks compared with baseline (P < .001). This
      protection increased with prolonged use of Bend Skincare Anti-Aging Formula as
      demonstrated by progressively increased MED between baseline and 4 weeks, and
      again between 4 and 8 weeks (P < .001). Nearly 86% of patients responded to
      treatment within 4 weeks and 100% of patients responded by the end of the study,
      resulting in a 39% mean increase in MED at 4 weeks, and an 84% mean increase in
      MED at 8 weeks compared with baseline. Treatment was well tolerated with no
      product associated adverse events (AE) and only a few mild and expected side
      effects. CONCLUSION: Bend Skincare Anti-Aging Formula safely and effectively
      provides significant skin photoprotection that increases with continued use.

PMID- 28884845
TI  - Selective Stabilization of the Spin States of a Magnetically Anisotropic
      Dysprosium Ion Induced by Photo-Excitation of the Associated Cyclic pi-Conjugated
      System.
AB  - The presence of a new electronic interaction, which couples a 4 f-electronic
      system with a total angular momentum J and a photoexcited cyclic pi-conjugated
      system with an orbital angular momentum L, in the bis(phthalocyaninato)dysprosium
      single-molecule magnet ([DyPc2 ]- ) is reported. Two pi-pi* excited states in the
      visible spectral region of the [DyPc2 ]- complex, which are denoted here as QL
      and QH , showed significantly different temperature and field dependences of the
      magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) A-term intensity. This phenomenon not only
      indicates the presence of a "J-L" interaction, but also that the interaction
      generates two different preferred orientations of the J-L pair, either parallel
      (for the QH band) or antiparallel (for the QL band), depending on the excitation
      energy. We have constructed a theoretical model that reproduces the temperature
      and field dependences, and quantitatively evaluated the J-L interaction.

PMID- 28884846
TI  - The responsibility of gynecologists and obstetricians in providing safe abortion
      services within the limits of the law.
AB  - Approximately 47 000 women die each year worldwide as a result of the
      complications of unsafe abortion, almost exclusively in low- and middle-income
      countries with restrictive abortion laws. In these countries, very few women who
      comply with the conditions imposed by the law can access safe abortion services
      in the public health system. The main obstacle is the unwillingness of
      gynecologists and obstetricians to provide abortion services by claiming
      conscientious objection, which is often used to hide their fear of the stigma
      associated with abortion. This happens because many colleagues are unaware that
      without access to legal services these women will resort to an unsafe abortion
      and its consequences. This violates the statement from FIGO's Committee for the
      Ethical Aspects of Human Reproduction and Women's Health, which asserts that:
      "The primary conscientious duty of obstetrician-gynecologists is at all times to
      treat, or provide benefit and prevent harm, to the patients for whose care they
      are responsible. Any conscientious objection to treating a patient is secondary
      to this primary duty."

PMID- 28884847
TI  - How does the exosite of rhomboid protease affect substrate processing and
      inhibition?
AB  - Rhomboid proteases constitute a family of intramembrane serine proteases
      ubiquitous in all forms of life. They differ in many aspects from their soluble
      counterparts. We applied molecular dynamics (MD) computational approach to
      address several challenging issues regarding their catalytic mechanism: How does
      the exosite of GlpG rhomboid protease control the kinetics efficiency of
      substrate hydrolysis? What is the mechanism of inhibition by the non-competitive
      peptidyl aldehyde inhibitors bound to the GlpG rhomboid active site (AS)? What is
      the underlying mechanism that explains the hypothesis that GlpG rhomboid protease
      is not adopted for the hydrolysis of short peptides that do not contain a
      transmembrane domain (TMD)? Two fundamental features of rhomboid catalysis, the
      enzyme recognition and discrimination of substrates by TMD interactions in the
      exosite, and the concerted mechanism of non-covalent pre-catalytic complex to
      covalent tetrahedral complex (TC) conversion, provide answers to these
      mechanistic questions.

PMID- 28884848
TI  - Perfluoroalkyltricyanoborate and Perfluoroalkylcyanofluoroborate Anions: Building
      Blocks for Low-Viscosity Ionic Liquids.
AB  - The potassium perfluoroalkyltricyanoborates K[Cn F2 n+1 B(CN)3 ] [n=1 (1 d), 2 (2
      d)] and the potassium mono(perfluoroalkyl)cyanofluoroborates K[Cn F2 n+1 BF(CN)2
      ] [n=1 (1 c), 2 (2 c)] and [Cn F2 n+1 BF2 (CN)]- [n=1 (1 b), 2 (2 b), 3 (3 b), 4
      (4 b)] are accessible with perfect selectivities on multi-gram scales starting
      from K[Cn F2 n+1 BF3 ] and Me3 SiCN. The K+ salts are starting materials for the
      preparation of salts with organic cations, for example, [EMIm]+ (EMIm=1-ethyl-3
      methylimidazolium). These [EMIm]+ salts are hydrophobic room-temperature ionic
      liquids (RTILs) that are thermally, chemically and electrochemically very robust,
      offering electrochemical windows up to 5.8 V. The RTILs described herein, exhibit
      very low viscosities with a minimum of 14.0 mPa s at 20  degrees C for [EMIm]1 c,
      low melting points down to -57  degrees C for [EMIm]2 b and extraordinary high
      conductivities up to 17.6 mS cm-1 at 20  degrees C for [EMIm]1 c. The combination
      of these properties makes these ILs promising materials for electrochemical
      devices as exemplified by the application of selected RTILs as component of
      electrolytes in dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs, Gratzel cells). The efficiency
      of the DSSCs was found to increase with a decreasing viscosity of the neat ionic
      liquid. In addition to the spectroscopic characterisation, single crystals of the
      potassium salts of the anions 1 b-d, 2 d, 3 b and 4 c as well as of [nBu4 N]2 c
      have been studied by X-ray diffraction.

PMID- 28884849
TI  - Anger parameters in parolees undergoing psychoeducation: Temporal stability,
      social desirability bias, and comparison with non-offenders.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anger is commonly measured as if it were a single, simple construct.
      This may be particularly unhelpful if the main purpose of a measure is to
      determine change and responsiveness to interventions. AIMS: Our primary aim was
      to assess five anger parameters in parolees - frequency, duration, intensity,
      latency, and threshold - and to test for effects of psychoeducation and social
      desirability bias on parolees' scores. Average anger scores for the offender
      sample were compared with those in a non-offender sample. METHODS: The offender
      sample was drawn from male parolees in San Antonio. Age-matched volunteers
      recruited at public libraries were engaged for baseline comparisons. The Anger
      Parameters Scale and the Marlow-Crowne Scale were used to assess anger and social
      desirability, respectively. Parole officers delivered a psychoeducation course to
      parolees over 12 weeks, and anger and social desirability measures were taken
      before and afterwards. RESULTS: At baseline, parolees were angry more often,
      stayed angry longer, and reached higher levels of anger than the non-offenders,
      confirming their eligibility for the programme. Mean anger scores were not
      significantly different after psychoeducation than before it. Parolees' reported
      anger was significantly and negatively correlated with social desirability
      scores. CONCLUSIONS: Only three of the five anger parameters were prominent among
      these offenders: frequency, duration, and intensity of their outbursts.
      Psychoeducation did not produce improvement, possibly because it was
      instructional rather than therapeutic, but also because group means may mask
      useful individual differences. Concurrent assessment of social desirability is
      likely to assist in interpretation of anger measures. Copyright (c) 2017 John
      Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28884850
TI  - Regioregular Phthalocyanines Substituted with Bulky Donors at Non-Peripheral
      Positions.
AB  - Three regioregular phthalocyanines (1-3) were synthesized selectively by the
      cyclic tetramerization of phthalonitriles bearing a bulky diarylamine substituent
      at the next position of nitrile. The steric repulsion at the tetramerization of
      bulky phthalonitriles allowed for the selective formation of regioregular
      phthalocyanines as confirmed by NMR and single crystal X-ray structural analyses.
      The absorption spectrum of 1 substituted with di(4-tert-butylphenyl)amine groups
      at the non-peripheral positions showed a non-split Q-band at 764 nm, which was
      redshifted by 83 nm compared with that of metal free phthalocyanine (H2 Pc). The
      TD-DFT calculation and electrochemical studies prove that the substitution of
      diarylamine groups at the alpha-positions effectively destabilizes the HOMO
      energy level, which causes a large redshift of the Q-band. Moreover, 1 can
      generate a one-electron oxidation species through chemical oxidation. The Q-band
      position of 2 bearing 4,4'-dimetoxyphenylamine units was further shifted by 10 nm
      compared with that of 1. In addition, 3 having carbazole units showed a small
      redshift of the Q-band relative to H2 Pc. The hole-mobility of 2 in thin film was
      determined to be 1.1*10-5  cm V-1  s-1 by using a space charge limited current
      method. A perovskite solar cell employing 2 as a hole-transporting layer gave an
      efficiency of 5.1 % under standard global 100 Wcm-2 AM 1.5 G illumination.

PMID- 28884851
TI  - "Bottom-up" in situ proteomic differentiation of human and non-human haemoglobins
      for forensic purposes by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of
      flight tandem mass spectrometry.
AB  - RATIONALE: The detection and identification of human blood on crime-related items
      are of particular relevance to many investigations because shed blood can provide
      evidence of violent contact between individuals. However, for any detection and
      identification technique, specificity is a critical performance characteristic to
      assess; that is, whether the technique has the capability to differentiate
      between human blood (which usually is of relevance to a criminal investigation)
      and non-human blood (which usually would not be associated with a crime but may
      be detected incidentally). METHODS: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
      time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) approaches using "top-down"
      (detection of intact proteins) and "bottom-up" (detection of tryptic peptide
      markers) were used to detect and identify haemoglobin in blood from humans and
      from a range of Australian native mammals; the technique could be carried out
      directly on blood stains without the need to extract proteins (i.e., in situ
      measurement). Imaging of haemoglobin was achieved in bloodied fingermarks,
      including those that had been enhanced using two "industry standard" fingermark
      enhancement processes. RESULTS: Differentiation of intact haemoglobin proteins in
      human and non-human blood using "top-down" MALDI-TOF-MS was difficult. However,
      in situ "bottom-up" approaches using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and de novo
      sequencing of tryptic digest peptides allowed unambiguous differentiation.
      Imaging mass spectrometry of human haemoglobin, even when it was mixed with
      animal blood, was achieved in bloodied fingermarks that had been enhanced using
      two common processes (staining with Amido Black or dusted with magnetic powder)
      and "lifted" using adhesive tape. CONCLUSIONS: The MALDI-TOF-MS-based in situ
      "bottom-up" proteomic methodology described here shows great promise for the
      detection of human blood and even imaging of blood in bloodied fingermarks. The
      approach is sensitive, can differentiate between human blood and that from many
      animals (including several Australian native animals), and can be implemented
      after traditional crime scene fingermark enhancement techniques have been carried
      out.

PMID- 28884853
TI  - Continuous Intravenous Acetaminophen for Analgesia: First, Back to the Drawing
      Table?

PMID- 28884852
TI  - Crystal structure of a marine glycoside hydrolase family 99-related protein
      lacking catalytic machinery.
AB  - Algal polysaccharides of diverse structures are one of the most abundant carbon
      resources for heterotrophic, marine bacteria with coevolved digestive enzymes. A
      putative sulfo-mannan polysaccharide utilization locus, which is conserved in
      marine flavobacteria, contains an unusual GH99-like protein that lacks the
      conserved catalytic residues of glycoside hydrolase family 99. Using X-ray
      crystallography, we structurally characterized this protein from the marine
      flavobacterium Ochrovirga pacifica to help elucidate its molecular function. The
      structure reveals the absence of potential catalytic residues for polysaccharide
      hydrolysis, which-together with additional structural features-suggests this
      protein may be noncatalytic and involved in carbohydrate binding.

PMID- 28884855
TI  - Overexpression of miR-216b: Prognostic and predictive value in acute myeloid
      leukemia.
AB  - Accumulating studies have shown that miR-216b acted as a tumor suppressor and was
      down-regulated in solid tumors. However, little studies revealed the role or
      clinical implication of miR-216b in blood cancers. Herein, we reported miR-216b
      expression and its clinical significance in patients with acute myeloid leukemia
      (AML). In the current study, we analyzed bone marrow (BM) miR-216b expression in
      115 de novo AML patients examined by real-time quantitative PCR. Notably, BM miR
      216b expression was significantly up-regulated in AML patients, and could serve
      as a potential biomarker distinguishing AML from controls. No significant
      correlations of BM miR-216 expression were found with sex, age, white blood
      cells, hemoglobin, platelets, BM blasts, French-American-British classifications,
      and karyotypes. Significantly, patients with high miR-216b expression tended to
      have a lower frequency of FLT3-ITD mutation and higher incidence of U2AF1 and
      IDH1/2 mutations. Moreover, complete remission (CR) rate and overall survival
      were negatively affected by BM miR-216b overexpression among cytogenetically
      normal AML (CN-AML). Cox regression analyses showed that high BM miR-216b
      expression may act as an independent risk factor in CN-AML patients. Among the
      follow-up patients, BM miR-216b level in CR phase was markedly lower than in
      diagnosis time, and was returned in relapse phase. Collectively, our findings
      indicated that miR-216b overexpression was a frequent event in de novo AML, and
      independently conferred a poor prognosis in CN-AML. Moreover, miR-216b expression
      was a valuable biomarker correlated with disease recurrence in AML.

PMID- 28884857
TI  - Amerindian ancestry and extended longevity in Nicoya, Costa Rica.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to address the hypothesis that Amerindian
      ancestry is associated with extended longevity in the admixed population of
      Nicoya, Costa Rica. The Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica has been considered a
      "longevity island," particularly for males. METHODS: We estimated Amerindian
      ancestry using 464 ancestral informative markers in 20 old Nicoyans aged >=99
      years, and 20 younger Nicoyans (60-65 years). We used logistic regression to
      estimate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of the association of
      Amerindian ancestry and longevity. RESULTS: Older Nicoyans had higher Amerindian
      ancestry compared to younger Nicoyans (43.3% vs 36.0%, P = .04). Each 10%
      increase of Amerindian ancestry was associated with more than twice the odds of
      being long-lived (OR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.03-5.25). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:
      To our knowledge, this is the first time that ancestry is implicated as a likely
      determinant of extended longevity. Amerindian-specific alleles may protect
      against early mortality. The identification of these protective alleles should be
      the focus of future studies.

PMID- 28884858
TI  - Unassisted return of spontaneous circulation after ventricular fibrillation.

PMID- 28884859
TI  - Network meta-analysis.

PMID- 28884856
TI  - Significance of measurement of serum trough level and anti-drug antibody of
      adalimumab as personalised pharmacokinetics in patients with Crohn's disease: a
      subanalysis of the DIAMOND trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Significance of monitoring adalimumab trough levels and anti
      adalimumab antibodies (AAA) for disease outcome in Crohn's disease (CD) patients
      remained unclear. AIM: To evaluate the association of adalimumab trough levels
      and AAA at week 26 with clinical remission at week 52, the effect of
      azathiopurine on AAA and factors influencing trough levels in CD patients in the
      DIAMOND trial. METHODS: We performed this study using adalimumab trough levels,
      AAA at week 26 and 6-thioguanine nucleotide (TGN) in red blood cells at week 12.
      A multiple regression model and receiver operating analysis was performed to
      identify factors influencing adalimumab trough levels and AAA, and adalimumab
      thresholds for predicting disease activity. RESULTS: There was a significant
      difference of adalimumab trough level at week 26 between patients with disease
      remission and without at week 52 (7.7 +/- 3.3 MUg/mL vs 5.4 +/- 4.3 MUg/mL: P
      <.001). Adalimumab trough level of 5.0 MUg/mL yielded optimal sensitivity and
      specificity for remission prediction (80.2% and 55.6%, respectively). AAA
      development at week 26 significantly affected remission at week 52 (P = .021),
      which was strongly associated with adalimumab trough levels. Female gender and
      increasing body weight were independently associated with low adalimumab trough
      levels, and female gender was associated with AAA development. A cut-off 6TGN
      level of >222.5 p mol/8 *108 RBCs yielded sensitivity (100%) and specificity
      (60.6%) for AAA negativity. CONCLUSION: Adalimumab trough levels and AAA
      occurrence were significantly associated with clinical remission. Higher 6TGN
      affected AAA negativity. The combination therapy is beneficial in some relevant
      aspects for CD patients. (UMIN Registration No. 000005146).

PMID- 28884860
TI  - Pharmacological treatment of oro-facial pain - health technology assessment
      including a systematic review with network meta-analysis.
AB  - This health technology assessment evaluated the efficacy of pharmacological
      treatment in patients with oro-facial pain. Randomised controlled trials were
      included if they reported pharmacological treatment in patients >=18 years with
      chronic (>=3 months) oro-facial pain. Patients were divided into subgroups: TMD
      muscle [temporomandibular disorders (TMD) mainly associated with myalgia]; TMD
      joint (TMD mainly associated with temporomandibular joint pain); and burning
      mouth syndrome (BMS). The primary outcome was pain intensity reduction after
      pharmacological treatment. The scientific quality of the evidence was rated
      according to GRADE. An electronic search in PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE
      from database inception to 1 March 2017 combined with a handsearch identified
      1552 articles. After screening of abstracts, 178 articles were reviewed in full
      text and 57 studies met the inclusion criteria. After risk of bias assessment, 41
      articles remained: 15 studies on 790 patients classified as TMD-joint, nine on
      375 patients classified as TMD-muscle and 17 on 868 patients with BMS. Of these,
      eight studies on TMD-muscle, and five on BMS were included in separate network
      meta-analysis. The narrative synthesis suggests that NSAIDs as well as
      corticosteroid and hyaluronate injections are effective treatments for TMD-joint
      pain. The network meta-analysis showed that clonazepam and capsaicin reduced pain
      intensity in BMS, and the muscle relaxant cyclobenzaprine, for the TMD-muscle
      group. In conclusion, based on a limited number of studies, evidence provided
      with network meta-analysis showed that clonazepam and capsaicin are effective in
      treatment of BMS and that the muscle relaxant cyclobenzaprine has a positive
      treatment effect for TMD-muscle pain.

PMID- 28884862
TI  - A Pathogenic Mechanism Potentially Operative in Multiple Progressive Diseases and
      Its Therapeutic Implications.
AB  - A variety of peptide signaling moieties that we have termed intracrines can act
      in the interiors of their cells of synthesis or of target cells after
      internalization. These intracrine factors are known to be upregulated in such
      disorders as diabetic nephropathy, systolic heart failure, and age-related
      macular degeneration. Indeed, a similar set of intracrines is upregulated in each
      of these disorders, suggesting a commonality of mechanism. In addition, several
      chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease and Parkinson
      disease involve intercellular trafficking of intracellular disease-causing
      proteins. These disorders can be considered intracrine-like. Here the mechanistic
      and therapeutic implications of these observations, and of the relevant modes of
      intracrine action, are discussed, including the possibility that similar
      therapeutic approaches could be effective in multiple progressive disorders and
      the implications of these observations for intracrine pharmacology in general.

PMID- 28884861
TI  - Use of iDXA spine scans to evaluate total and visceral abdominal fat.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Abdominal fat may be a better predictor than body mass index (BMI)
      for risk of metabolically-related diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular
      disease, and some cancers. We sought to validate the percent fat reported on dual
      energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) regional spine scans (spine fat fraction, SFF)
      against abdominal fat obtained from total body scans using the iDXA machine
      (General Electric, Madison, WI), as previously done on the Prodigy model.
      METHODS: Total body scans and regional spine scans were completed on the same day
      (N = 50). In alignment with the Prodigy-based study, the following regions of
      interest (ROI) were assessed from total body scans and compared to the SFF from
      regional spine scans: total abdominal fat at (1) lumbar vertebrae L2-L4 and (2)
      L2-Iliac Crest (L2-IC); (3) total trunk fat; and (4) visceral fat in the android
      region. Separate linear regression models were used to predict each total body
      scan ROI from SFF; models were validated by bootstrapping. RESULTS: The sample
      was 84% female, a mean age of 38.5 +/- 17.4 years, and mean BMI of 23.0 +/- 3.8
      kg/m2 . The SFF, adjusted for BMI, predicted L2-L4 and L2-IC total abdominal fat
      (%; Adj. R2 : 0.90) and total trunk fat (%; Adj. R2 : 0.88) well; visceral fat
      (%) adjusted R2 was 0.83. Linear regression models adjusted for additional
      participant characteristics resulted in similar adjusted R2 values. CONCLUSIONS:
      This replication of the strong correlation between SFF and abdominal fat measures
      on the iDXA in a new population confirms the previous Prodigy model findings and
      improves generalizability.

PMID- 28884863
TI  - Phosphopeptide enrichment with cross-linked Os(II)(dmebpy)2 Cl-derivatized
      acrylamide and vinylimidazole copolymer.
AB  - RATIONALE: Reversible phosphorylation of proteins catalyzed by kinases and
      phosphatases plays a key regulatory role in intracellular biological processes.
      Protein phosphorylation profiling is still a challenge due to its low
      stoichiometry, diversity of phosphorylated protein forms, and dynamic nature of
      phosphorylation states. Mass spectrometry (MS) has been widely used for the
      characterization of protein phosphorylation, due to its high sensitivity and
      MS/MS sequencing capability. However, the low abundance and ionization efficiency
      of phosphorylated peptides and interference from their non-phosphorylated
      counterparts and other peptides in the enzymatic digests of proteins complicate
      the localization of phosphorylation sites in liquid chromatography (LC)/MS
      analysis. So the enrichment of phosphopeptides from the digests is often required
      before LC/MS. Immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) and metal oxide
      affinity chromatography (MOAC) are the two most commonly used enrichment
      techniques for phosphopeptides prior to MS analysis. METHODS: Cross-linked
      Os(II)(4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine)2 Cl-derivatized acrylamide and
      vinylimidazole copolymer were applied for the enrichment of phosphopeptides.
      RESULTS: Under neutral loading buffer conditions phosphopeptides bind on the Os
      polymer without nonspecific binding of acidic peptides. Differential binding of
      monophosphorylated and multiply phosphorylated peptides can be achieved under
      different concentrations of imidazole. Sequential elution of bound
      phosphopeptides can be obtained with elution buffers of different pH values below
      3. The loading buffers with imidazole can be aqueous or 7/3 H2 O/ACN. Once
      phosphopeptides bind onto the Os-polymer, washing with water, 0.1% acetic acid
      (pH ~ 3) or 1/1 H2 O/ACN 0.05% acetic acid (pH ~3) does not elute
      phosphopeptides. The Os-polymer does not show bias of binding and elution toward
      phosphopeptide standards with singly, doubly and triply phosphorylated sites.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cross-linked Os(II)(dimethylbipyridine)2 Cl-derivatized
      poly(acrylamide)-poly(vinylimidazole) copolymer is proven to be a new efficient
      IMAC resin for phosphopeptide enrichment and shows some unique properties for
      differential binding and sequential elution of phosphopeptides. It could become a
      better alternative to traditional IMAC and TiO2 for phosphopeptide enrichment.

PMID- 28884864
TI  - A systematic literature search to identify performance measure outcomes used in
      clinical studies of racehorses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Racing performance is often used as a measurable outcome variable in
      research studies investigating clinical diagnoses or interventions. However, the
      use of many different performance measures largely precludes conduct of
      meaningful comparative studies and, to date, those being used have not been
      collated. OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the veterinary scientific
      literature for the use of racing performance as a measurable outcome variable in
      clinical studies of racehorses, collate and identify those most popular, and
      identify their advantages and disadvantages. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic literature
      search. METHODS: The search criteria "((racing AND performance) AND (horses OR
      equidae))" were adapted for both MEDLINE and CAB Abstracts databases. Data were
      collected in standardised recording forms for binary, categorical and
      quantitative measures, and the use of performance indices. RESULTS: In total, 217
      studies that described racing performance were identified, contributing 117
      different performance measures. No one performance measure was used in all
      studies, despite 90.3% using more than one variable. Data regarding race starts
      and earnings were used most commonly, with 88.0% and 54.4% of studies including
      at least one measure of starts and earnings, respectively. Seventeen variables
      were used 10 times or more, with the top five comprising: 'return to racing',
      'number of starts', 'days to first start', 'earnings per period of time' and
      'earnings per start'. MAIN LIMITATIONS: The search strategies may not have
      identified all relevant papers, introducing bias to the review. CONCLUSIONS:
      Performance indices have been developed to improve assessment of interventions;
      however, they are not widely adopted in the scientific literature. Use of the two
      most commonly identified measures, whether the horse returned to racing and
      number of starts over a defined period of time, would best facilitate future
      systematic reviews and meta-analyses in advance of the development of a gold
      standard measure of race performance outcome.

PMID- 28884866
TI  - Perceived stigma and social support in treatment for pharmaceutical opioid
      dependence.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: The dramatic increase in pharmaceutical opioid (PO) use in
      high-income countries is a growing public health concern. Stigma and social
      support are important as they may influence treatment uptake and outcomes, yet
      few studies exist regarding perceived stigma and social support among people with
      PO dependence. The aims of the study are to: (i) compare characteristics of those
      with PO dependence from iatrogenic and non-iatrogenic causes; (ii) document
      perceived stigma and its correlates in people in treatment for PO dependence; and
      (iii) examine correlates of social support in people in treatment for PO
      dependence. DESIGN AND METHODS: This prospective cohort study included (n = 108)
      PO-dependent people referred from treatment services. Telephone interviews were
      conducted at baseline, 3, 12 and 24 months. Multivariate linear regression was
      used to examine correlations. RESULTS: Mean age was 41 (SD = 10.5). Half (n = 56,
      52%) were female. Two in five met the criteria for iatrogenic dependence (n = 41,
      38%), with iatrogenic dependence associated with chronic pain, and no history of
      injection or heroin use. One quarter of study subjects reported past month
      unsanctioned opioid use (n = 25, 23%). Being married/de facto or female was
      associated with higher levels of perceived stigma. Unsanctioned opioid use,
      iatrogenic dependence and mental health conditions were associated with lower
      social support. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Stigma affects all people in
      treatment. Those who are married/de facto and female may benefit from
      interventions to address stigma. The association of low social support with
      poorer mental health and ongoing substance use indicate that treatment could
      focus more on this area.

PMID- 28884867
TI  - Uncovering allostery and regulation in SAMHD1 through molecular dynamics
      simulations.

PMID- 28884865
TI  - Physical training improves visceral adipose tissue health by remodelling
      extracellular matrix in rats with estrogen absence: a gene expression analysis.
AB  - Adipose tissue development is associated with modifications involving
      extracellular matrix remodelling, and metalloproteinases play a significant role
      in this process. Reduced circulating sexual hormones cause impacts on the size,
      morphology and functions of the adipose tissue, increasing susceptibility to
      diseases. This study investigated whether exercise training may be an alternative
      strategy to combat the effects promoted by estrogen decay through modulation in
      gene expression patterns in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of visceral adipose
      tissue of ovariectomized rats. Nulliparous rats (n = 40) were randomly
      distributed into four groups (n = 10/group): sham sedentary (Sh-S), sham
      resistance training (Sh-Rt), ovariectomized sedentary (Ovx-S) and ovariectomized
      resistance training (Ovx-Rt). The Sh-S animals did not have any type of training.
      The body mass and food intake, ECM gene expression, gelatinase MMP-2 activity and
      adipocyte area were measured. A lack of estrogen promoted an increase in body
      mass, food intake and the visceral, parametrial and subcutaneous adipocyte areas.
      The ovariectomy upregulated the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, TGF-beta, CTGF, VEGF
      A and MMP-2 activity. On the other hand, resistance training decreased the body
      mass, food intake and the adipocyte area of the three fat depots analysed;
      upregulated TIMP-1, VEGF-A and MMP-2 gene expression; downregulated MMP-9, TGF
      beta and CTGF gene expression; and decreased the MMP-2 activity. We speculate
      that resistance training on a vertical ladder could play an important role in
      maintaining and remodelling ECM by modulation in the ECM gene expression and MMP
      2 activity, avoiding its destabilization which is impaired by the lack of
      estrogen.

PMID- 28884868
TI  - A novel multielectrode combined mapping and ablation basket catheter: A future
      player in the atrial fibrillation ablation space?

PMID- 28884869
TI  - The future of the international drug control system and national drug
      prohibitions.
AB  - A major impediment to any nation abandoning the policy of drug prohibition has
      been the fact that international drug treaties to which the majority of United
      Nations (UN) member states are signatory prohibit the non-medical use of
      amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine and heroin. The future of these treaties is now
      uncertain because of decisions by Uruguay, eight US states and Canada to legalize
      cannabis use. This paper: (1) provides a brief account of the international drug
      control treaties; (2) outlines the major criticisms of the treaties; (3) analyses
      critically proposals for treaty reform; and (4) provides a personal view on
      policies that nation states could adopt to minimize the harms from the use of
      cannabis, party drugs and hallucinogens, opioids, stimulants and new psychoactive
      substances. It is argued that: a major risk of cannabis legalization in the
      United States is promotion of heavy use and increased harm by a weakly regulated
      industry; some cautious national experiments with the regulation of party drugs
      and hallucinogens would be informative; a strong case remains for prohibiting the
      nonmedical use of opioids while mitigating the adverse effects that this policy
      has on opioid-dependent people; stimulant legalization will probably increase
      problem use but prohibition is difficult to enforce, highlighting the urgency of
      finding better ways to reduce demand for these drugs and respond to problem
      users; and that it is unclear what the best approach is to reducing possible
      harms that may arise from the use of new psychoactive substances.

PMID- 28884870
TI  - Phosphorylated SNAP25 in the CA1 regulates morphine-associated contextual memory
      retrieval via increasing GluN2B-NMDAR surface localization.
AB  - Although our previous studies have demonstrated both protein kinase C (PKC) and
      GluN2B-containing N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (GluN2B-NMDAR) play crucial roles
      in morphine-associated learning and memory, the relationship between them remains
      unexplored. In this study, we validated the enhanced PKC and membrane GluN2B
      protein expression in the hippocampal CA1 after morphine conditioned place
      preference (CPP) expression in rats. Interestingly, we also found that
      phosphorylation of SNAP25 at Ser187 (pSer187-SNAP25), a PKC-activated target, was
      significantly increased following morphine CPP expression. Blocking the pSer187
      SNAP25 by intra-CA1 injection of an interfering peptide impaired morphine CPP
      expression and accompanied by the reduced ratio of GluN2B membrane/total in the
      CA1. In addition, intra-CA1 blockade of pSer187-SNAP25 did not affect natural
      learning and memory process as evidenced by intact sucrose-induced CPP expression
      and normal locomotor activity in rats. Therefore, our results reveal that
      enhanced pSer187-SNAP25 by PKC recruits GluN2B-NMDAR to the membrane surface in
      the hippocampal CA1 and mediates context-induced addiction memory retrieval. Our
      findings in this study fill in the missing link and provide better understanding
      of the molecular mechanisms involved in morphine-associated contextual memory
      retrieval.

PMID- 28884871
TI  - LncRNA-ATB: An indispensable cancer-related long noncoding RNA.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a group of non-protein-coding RNAs
      that are greater than 200 nucleotides in length. Increasing evidence indicates
      that lncRNAs, which may serve as either oncogenes or tumour suppressor genes,
      play a vital role in the pathophysiology of human diseases, especially in
      tumourigenesis and progression. Deregulation of lncRNAs impacts different
      cellular processes, such as proliferation, dedifferentiation, migration, invasion
      and anti-apoptosis. The aim of this review was to explore the molecular mechanism
      and clinical significance of long non-coding RNA-activated by transforming growth
      factor beta (lncRNA-ATB) in various types of cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this review, we summarize and analyze current studies concerning the biological
      functions and mechanisms of lncRNA-ATB in tumour development. The related studies
      were obtained through a systematic search of Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase and
      Cochrane Library. RESULTS: Long non-coding RNAs-ATB is a novel cancer-related
      lncRNA that was recently found to exhibit aberrant expression in a variety of
      malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer, gastric
      cancer, and lung cancer. Dysregulation of lncRNA-ATB has been shown to contribute
      to proliferation, migration and invasion of cancer cells. Long non-coding RNAs
      ATB promotes tumourigenesis and progression mainly through competitively binding
      miRNAs to induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). CONCLUSIONS: Long non
      coding RNAs-ATB likely represents a feasible cancer biomarker or therapeutic
      target.

PMID- 28884873
TI  - Impact of premature activation of the right ventricle with programmed stimulation
      in Brugada syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Brugada syndrome (BrS), it has been reported that delayed
      activation in the RV is related to the development of type-1 ECG, which is more
      critical than type-2. On the other hand, the coexistence of complete right bundle
      branch block (CRBBB), which also causes delayed activation in the RV, sometimes
      makes typical BrS ECG misleading. We hypothesized that premature stimulation of
      the RV can unmask the influence of delayed activation in the RV and convert the
      morphology of ECG in BrS patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: In 35 BrS patients with
      type-1 ECG including 8 patients with concomitant CRBBB and 6 control subjects
      with CRBBB, progressively premature single stimulations were delivered from the
      RV apex on electrophysiological study. Then we evaluated QRS morphology of fusion
      beats created by single premature stimulation in each patient. In 29 (83%) of 35
      of the BrS patients, conversion from type-1 to type-2 ECG was observed during the
      process of single premature stimulation. Additionally, in all 8 BrS patients with
      concomitant CRBBB, type-1 or type-2 BrS ECG was revealed by premature stimulation
      with relief of CRBBB. These findings were not observed in any of the control
      subjects with CRBBB. CONCLUSION: Single premature stimulation of the RV converts
      ECG from type-1 to type-2 in most BrS cases and unmasks type-1 ECG in all BrS
      cases with CRBBB. Our results could suggest that type-1 ECG is associated with
      delayed activation of the RV compared with type-2 ECG.

PMID- 28884872
TI  - The tip of the muscle is a dominant location of ventricular ectopy originating
      from papillary muscles in the left ventricle.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Frequent ventricular premature complexes (VPCs) may cause symptoms
      and/or lead to deterioration of LV systolic function. Although frequent VPCs may
      be abolished by catheter ablation, it may be challenging in case of their origin
      from the LV papillary muscles (PMs). Our collaborative study aimed to analyze in
      detail the site of origin and the outcome of ablation. METHODS: Consecutive 34
      patients (males: 68%; aged 62 +/- 12 years; LV ejection fraction: 50 +/- 9%)
      undergoing catheter ablation of VPCs originating from PMs were included. All
      procedures were guided by intracardiac echocardiography. RESULTS: The size and
      shape of PMs were highly variable. The length of anterolateral and posteromedial
      PM was 23 +/- 4 mm and 28 +/- 7 mm, respectively. In about one-third of patients,
      the PM was formed by two distinctly separate heads. The ectopic foci were located
      on anterolateral, posteromedial or both PM in 35%, 56% and 9% of cases,
      respectively. Their location was found within the distal, mid, or proximal
      (basal) third of PM in the 67%, 19%, and 14%, respectively. A total of 86% of PM
      foci were acutely abolished and long-term success was achieved in 65% of
      patients. Absence of VPCs of other morphologies and a high burden of ectopic
      activity before ablation were associated with favorable clinical outcome.
      CONCLUSION: VPCs originate predominantly from the distal portion of the PM. This
      knowledge may facilitate the mapping in patients with infrequent ectopic beats.
      Intracardiac echocardiography is of crucial importance for navigation of the
      ablation catheter and for assessment of its stability at PM target sites.

PMID- 28884874
TI  - Cerebral dopaminergic and glutamatergic transmission relate to different
      subjective responses of acute alcohol intake: an in vivo multimodal imaging
      study.
AB  - Converging preclinical evidence links extrastriatal dopamine release and
      glutamatergic transmission via the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) to
      the rewarding properties of alcohol. To date, human evidence is lacking on how
      and where in the brain these processes occur. Mesocorticolimbic dopamine release
      upon intravenous alcohol administration and mGluR5 availability were measured in
      11 moderate social drinkers by single-session [18 F]fallypride and [18 F]FPEB
      positron emission tomography, respectively. Additionally, baseline and
      postalcohol glutamate and glutamine levels in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
      were measured by using proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy. To investigate
      differences in reward domains linked to both neurotransmitters, regional imaging
      data were related to subjective alcohol responses. Alcohol induced significant
      [18 F]fallypride displacement in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), temporal and
      parietal cortices and thalamus (P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons).
      Dopamine release in the ACC and orbitofrontal and ventromedial PFCs were
      correlated with subjective 'liking' and 'wanting' effects (P < 0.05). In
      contrast, baseline mGluR5 availability was positively correlated with the 'high'
      effect of alcohol in dorsolateral, ventrolateral and ventromedial PFCs and in the
      medial temporal lobe, thalamus and caudate nucleus (P < 0.05). Although neither
      proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy glutamate nor glutamine levels were
      affected by alcohol, baseline ACC glutamate levels were negatively associated
      with the alcohol 'liking' effect (P < 0.003). These data reveal new mechanistic
      understanding and differential neurobiological underpinnings of the effects of
      acute alcohol consumption on human behavior. Specifically, prefrontal dopamine
      release may encode alcohol 'liking' and 'wanting' effects in specific areas
      underlying value processing and motivation, whereas mGluR5 availability in
      distinct prefrontal-temporal-subcortical regions is more related to the alcohol
      'high' effect.

PMID- 28884875
TI  - Successful collection of peripheral blood stem cells upon VIDE chemomobilization
      in sarcoma patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: In patients with Ewing sarcoma and some distinct subgroups of soft
      tissue sarcoma (STS), a quantitatively sufficient autologous peripheral blood
      stem cell (PBSC) collection for stem cell support might facilitate treatment
      continuation, dose-intensification, and high-dose chemotherapy. Here, we provide
      a detailed evaluation of PBSC collection upon vincristine, ifosfamide,
      doxorubicin, and etoposide (VIDE) chemomobilization. METHODS: Mobilization and
      collection parameters of 42 sarcoma patients (Ewing sarcoma n = 35, other STS n =
      7) were analyzed retrospectively. Data were evaluated with regard to the number
      of previous VIDE therapy cycles. RESULTS: All patients reached the collection
      goal of >=2.0 * 106 CD34+ cells/kg body weight (bw) upon VIDE/G-CSF mobilization,
      in the majority of cases with one single leukapheresis (LP) session (n = 29,
      69%). No significant differences were identified with regard to mobilization and
      collection variables or the number of previous induction VIDE therapy cycles.
      However, upon 5 cycles of VIDE, we found the highest relative proportion of
      patients who required two or three LP sessions. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate
      the feasibility of successful PBSC collection upon VIDE chemomobilization even
      after up to five cycles of induction therapy, while at the same time the
      increasing risk of bone marrow exhaustion with every consecutive cycle is
      outlined.

PMID- 28884877
TI  - Self-administered acupressure for insomnia disorder: a pilot randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - Self-administered acupressure has potential as a low-cost alternative treatment
      for insomnia. To evaluate the short-term effects of self-administered acupressure
      for alleviating insomnia, a pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted.
      Thirty-one subjects (mean age: 53.2 years; 77.4% female) with insomnia disorder
      were recruited from a community. The participants were randomized to receive two
      lessons on either self-administered acupressure or sleep hygiene education. The
      subjects in the self-administered acupressure group (n = 15) were taught to
      practise self-administered acupressure daily for 4 weeks. The subjects in the
      comparison group (n = 16) were advised to follow sleep hygiene education. The
      primary outcome was the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Other measures included a
      sleep diary, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Short-form Six-Dimension.
      The subjects in the self-administered acupressure group had a significantly lower
      ISI score than the subjects in the sleep hygiene education group at week 8
      (effect size = 0.56, P = 0.03). However, this observed group difference did not
      reach a statistically significant level after Bonferroni correction. With regard
      to the secondary outcomes, moderate between-group effect sizes were observed in
      sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset based on the sleep diary, although
      the differences were not significant. The adherence to self-administered
      acupressure practice was satisfactory, with 92.3% of the subjects who completed
      the lessons still practising acupressure at week 8. In conclusion, self
      administered acupressure taught in a short training course may be a feasible
      approach to improve insomnia. Further fully powered confirmatory trials are
      warranted.

PMID- 28884876
TI  - Intranasal insulin treatment restores cognitive deficits and insulin signaling
      impairment induced by repeated methamphetamine exposure.
AB  - Long-term use of methamphetamine (MA) causes a broad range of cognitive deficits.
      Recently, it has been reported insulin signaling and mitochondrial biogenesis are
      involved in cognitive processes. This study aimed to examine whether MA induces
      cognitive deficits concomitant with insulin signaling impairment and
      mitochondrial dysfunctions and also intranasal (IN) insulin treatment can reverse
      cognitive deficits caused by MA. Rats were repeatedly treated with increasing
      doses of MA (1-10 mg/kg) twice a day for 10 days, and their cognitive functions
      were assessed using Y-maze, novel object recognition and passive avoidance tasks.
      The expression of components involved in insulin signaling
      (IR/IRS2/PI3K/Akt/GSK3beta) and mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC-1alpha, NRF1, and
      TFAM) was measured in the hippocampus. Therapeutic effects of IN insulin delivery
      (0.5- IU/day, for 7 days after MA discontinuation) were also investigated in MA
      treated animals. Our results showed that repeated MA exposure induced cognitive
      deficits, and led to insulin signaling impairment and mitochondrial dysfunction.
      Interestingly, IN insulin treatment reduced MA-induced cognitive impairments
      possibly through activating insulin signaling, particularly PI3K/Akt/GSK3beta
      pathway, and mitochondrial biogenesis. Thus, insulin and insulin signaling
      pathway can be considered as useful targets for the treatment of abnormalities
      associated with MA abuse.

PMID- 28884878
TI  - Fragmentation patterns of chromophore-tagged peptides in visible laser induced
      dissociation.
AB  - RATIONALE: Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is the pivotal tool for protein
      structural characterization and quantification. Identification relies on the
      fragmentation step of tryptic peptides in bottom-up strategy. Specificity of
      fragmentation can be obtained using laser-induced dissociation (LID) in the
      visible range, after tagging of the targeted peptides with an adequate
      chromophore. Backbone fragmentation is required to obtain specific fragments and
      confident identification. We present herein a study of fragmentation patterns of
      chromophore-tagged peptides in LID, showing the potential of LID methodology to
      provide the maximum number of fragments for further identification and
      quantification. METHODS: A total of 401 cysteine-containing tryptic peptides
      originating from the human proteome were derivatizated on the thiol group of
      cysteine with a Dabcyl maleimide chromophore, which has a high photo-absorption
      cross section at 473 nm. The derivatized peptides were then analyzed by LID at
      473 nm on a Q Exactive instrument. RESULTS: LID spectra present a characteristic
      fragment at m/z 252.112 for all precursors. This product ion arises from the
      internal dissociation of the Dabcyl chromophore. Several peptide-backbone
      fragment ions are also detected. Results show the quasi absence of fragmentation
      at the cysteine site. This indicates that part of the energy must be
      redistributed across the entire system despite excitation initially localized at
      the chromophore. Indeed, the fragmentation mainly occurs at 3 to 5 amino acids
      from the derivatized cysteine residue. CONCLUSIONS: LID of derivatized cysteine
      containing peptides displays the initial fragmentation of the chromophore. As
      energy is redistributed all along the peptide sequence, fragmentation of the
      peptide backbone is also observed. Thus, LID of chromophore-tagged peptides
      produces adequate fragment ions, allowing both good sequence coverage for a
      greater confidence of identification, and a large choice of transitions for
      specific quantification.

PMID- 28884879
TI  - Analysis of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) using high-sensitivity HBsAg
      assays in hepatitis B virus carriers in whom HBsAg seroclearance was confirmed by
      conventional assays.
AB  - AIM: We investigated the utility of high-sensitivity hepatitis B surface antigen
      (HBsAg) assays compared with conventional HBsAg assays. METHODS: Using serum
      samples from 114 hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers in whom HBsAg seroclearance was
      confirmed by conventional HBsAg assays (cut-off value, 0.05 IU/mL), the amount of
      HBsAg was re-examined by high-sensitivity HBsAg assays (cut-off value, 0.005
      IU/mL). Cases negative for HBsAg in both assays were defined as consistent cases,
      and cases positive for HBsAg in the high-sensitivity HBsAg assay only were
      defined as discrepant cases. RESULTS: There were 55 (48.2%) discrepant cases, and
      the range of HBsAg titers determined by high-sensitivity HBsAg assays was 0.005
      0.056 IU/mL. Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of nucleos(t)ide
      analog therapy, liver cirrhosis, and negative anti-HBs contributed to the
      discrepancies between the two assays. Cumulative anti-HBs positivity rates among
      discrepant cases were 12.7%, 17.2%, 38.8%, and 43.9% at baseline, 1 year, 3
      years, and 5 years, respectively, whereas the corresponding rates among
      consistent cases were 50.8%, 56.0%, 61.7%, and 68.0%, respectively. Hepatitis B
      virus DNA negativity rates were 56.4% and 81.4% at baseline, 51.3% and 83.3% at 1
      year, and 36.8% and 95.7% at 3 years, among discrepant and consistent cases,
      respectively. Hepatitis B surface antigen reversion was observed only in
      discrepant cases. CONCLUSIONS: Re-examination by high-sensitivity HBsAg assays
      revealed that HBsAg was positive in approximately 50% of cases. Cumulative anti
      HBs seroconversion rates and HBV-DNA seroclearance rates were lower in these
      cases, suggesting a population at risk for HBsAg reversion.

PMID- 28884880
TI  - A novel missense variant in the GLI3 zinc finger domain in a family with digital
      anomalies.
AB  - Mutations in GLI3, which encodes a transcription factor of the Hedgehog signaling
      pathway, cause several developmental anomalies linked to inappropriate tissue
      patterning. Here, we report a novel missense variant in the fifth zinc finger
      domain of GLI3 (c.1826G>A; p.(Cys609Tyr)) initially identified in a proband with
      preaxial polydactyly type IV, developmental delay, sensorineural hearing loss,
      skeletal, and genitourinary anomalies. Additional family members exhibited
      various digital anomalies such as preaxial polydactyly, syndactyly, and postaxial
      polydactyly either in isolation or combined. Functional studies of Cys609Tyr GLI3
      in cultured cells showed abnormal GLI3 processing leading to decreased GLI3
      repressor production, increased basal transcriptional activity, and submaximal
      GLI reporter activity with Hedgehog pathway activation, thus demonstrating an
      intriguing molecular mechanism for this GLI3-related phenotype. Given the
      complexity of GLI3 post-translational processing and opposing biological
      functions as a transcriptional activator and repressor, our findings highlight
      the importance of performing functional studies of presumed GLI3 variants. This
      family also demonstrates how GLI3 variants are variably expressed.

PMID- 28884881
TI  - Effects of a Randomized Weight Loss Intervention Trial in Obese Adolescents on
      Tibia and Radius Bone Geometry and Volumetric Density.
AB  - Obese adolescents have increased fracture risk, but effects of alterations in
      adiposity on bone accrual and strength in obese adolescents are not understood.
      We evaluated 12-month changes in trabecular and cortical volumetric bone mineral
      density (vBMD) and cortical geometry in obese adolescents undergoing a randomized
      weight management program, and investigated the effect of body composition
      changes on bone outcomes. Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) of
      the radius and tibia, and whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans
      were obtained at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months in 91 obese adolescents
      randomized to standard care versus behavioral intervention for weight loss.
      Longitudinal models assessed effects of body composition changes on bone
      outcomes, adjusted for age, bone length, and African-American ancestry, and
      stratified by sex. Secondary analyses included adjustment for physical activity,
      maturation, vitamin D, and inflammatory biomarkers. Baseline body mass index
      (BMI) was similar between intervention groups. Twelve-month change in BMI in the
      standard care group was 1.0 kg/m2 versus -0.4 kg/m2 in the behavioral
      intervention group (p < 0.01). Intervention groups were similar in bone outcomes,
      so they were combined for subsequent analyses. For the tibia, BMI change was not
      associated with change in vBMD or structure. Greater baseline lean body mass
      index (LBMI) associated with higher cortical vBMD in males, trabecular vBMD in
      females, and polar section modulus (pZ) and periosteal circumference (Peri-C) in
      both sexes. In females, change in LBMI positively associated with gains in pZ and
      Peri-C. Baseline visceral adipose tissue (VFAT) was inversely associated with pZ
      in males and cortical vBMD in females. Change in VFAT did not affect bone
      outcomes. For the radius, BMI and LBMI changes positively associated with pZ in
      males. Thus, in obese adolescents, weight loss intervention with modest changes
      in BMI was not detrimental to radius or tibia bone strength, and changes in lean,
      but not adiposity, measures were beneficial to bone development. (c) 2017
      American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

PMID- 28884882
TI  - A retro-prospective effectiveness study on 3448 implant operations at one
      referral clinic: A multifactorial analysis. Part II: Clinical factors associated
      to peri-implantitis surgery and late implant failures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little knowledge is available on implant treatment in large
      effectiveness studies in routine practice. PURPOSE: To report retro-prospective
      data on prevalence of peri-implantitis surgery and late implant failures in a
      large number of routine patients at 1 referral clinic. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Altogether 9582 implants with an anodized surface (Nobel Biocare AB) were
      consecutively placed between 2003 and 2011 and followed-up to end of 2015. All
      peri-implantitis operations and late implant failures were consecutively
      identified. A logistic multivariate data analysis was performed to identify
      association between the complications and different clinical factors.
      Furthermore, data on prevalence on risk for inflammation and bone loss at
      implants ("peri-implantitis") and surgery related to peri-implantitis was
      collected for another reference group of about 10 000 implant patients during 3
      consecutive years (2013-2015). RESULTS: Cumulative survival rates for implant
      operations without peri-implantitis surgery or implant failures were calculated
      to 96.4% (95% CI: 97.3-95.4) and 95.0% (95% CI: 96.0-94.1) after 10 years,
      respectively. Risk for "peri-implantitis surgery" showed a significant
      association (P < .05) to number of placed implants (hazard ratio [HR] 1.40; 95%
      CI: 1.24-1.59). Three factors showed significant association to risk for "late
      implant failures," where "treatment in lower jaw" had the highest risk; HR 2.03.
      "Overall implant failures" were associated to 4 significant factors where
      "surgeon" (HR 2.50) showed highest impact on risk. "Numbers of implants" and
      "bone resorption" at surgery were the 2 significant factors that were consistent
      for all the time periods of failures during follow-up (early/late/total). On an
      average 7.4% of examined patients in the reference group were denoted with
      highest risk group ("peri-implantitis") of which on an average 12.7% of these
      patients had surgery related to peri-implantitis. CONCLUSIONS: "The dentist"
      involved in the surgical and prosthetic rehabilitation of the implant patients,
      "number of implants" and degree of "bone resorption" seem to have most impact on
      overall implant complications and failures in the present patient group.

PMID- 28884883
TI  - Diagnostic imaging using positron emission tomography for gynecological
      malignancy.
AB  - Imaging has played a pivotal role in the management of gynecological malignancy.
      Positron emission tomography (PET), particularly 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18 F
      FDG) PET to reflect cellular glycolytic metabolism, is being increasingly used
      and has proven superior to conventional imaging including ultrasonography,
      computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging. Studies of and evidence
      for the utility of 18 F-FDG PET/CT for the detection of local or metastatic
      disease, treatment planning, response assessment, restaging of recurrent disease,
      and prognostic assessment are growing. We review the latest evidence for and
      limitations of 18 F-FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis of gynecological malignancy.
      Moreover, we also describe the benefits of and evidence for other tracers.

PMID- 28884884
TI  - A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover-style trial of buspirone
      in functional dysphagia and ineffective esophageal motility.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that Ineffective Esophageal Motility (IEM) is the
      manometric correlate of Functional Dysphagia (FD). Currently, there is no
      accepted therapy for either condition. Buspirone is a serotonin modulating
      medication and has been shown to augment esophageal peristaltic amplitude in
      healthy volunteers. We aimed to determine if buspirone improves manometric
      parameters and symptoms in patients with overlapping IEM/FD. METHODS: We
      performed a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover-style trial
      of 10 patients with IEM/FD. The study consisted of two 2-week treatment arms with
      a 2-week washout period. Outcomes measured at baseline, end of week 2, and week 6
      include high resolution esophageal manometry (HREM), the Mayo Dysphagia
      Questionnaire-14 (MDQ-14), and the GERD-HRQL. RESULTS: The mean age of our 10
      patients was 53 +/- 9 years and 70% were female. After treatment with buspirone,
      30% of patients had normalization of IEM on manometry; however, there was 30%
      normalization in the placebo group as well. Comparing buspirone to placebo, there
      was no statistically significant difference in the HREM parameters measured.
      There was also no statistically significant difference in symptom outcomes for
      buspirone compared to placebo. Of note, patients had a statistically significant
      decrease in the total GERD-HRQL total score when treated with placebo compared to
      baseline levels. DISCUSSION: Despite previous data demonstrating improved
      esophageal motility in healthy volunteers, our study shows no difference in terms
      of HREM parameters or symptom scores in IEM/FD patients treated with buspirone
      compared to placebo. Further research is necessary to identify novel agents for
      this condition.

PMID- 28884885
TI  - Effect of different light-dark schedules on estrous cycle in mice, and
      implications for mitigating the adverse impact of night work.
AB  - Approximately 20% of workers in developed countries are involved in night work.
      Nevertheless, many studies have strongly suggested that night-work-induced
      chronic circadian misalignment increases the risk of a diverse range of health
      problems. Although a relation between night work and irregular menstrual cycles
      has been indicated epidemiologically, a direct causal link remains elusive. Here,
      we report that repetitive reversal of light-dark (LD) cycles triggers irregular
      estrous cycles in mice. The findings showed that the estrous cycle remained
      irregular for more than four weeks after the mice were returned to regular LD
      cycles. Importantly, the magnitude of the negative impact of reversed LD cycles
      on the estrous cycle, or more specifically the decreased number of normal estrous
      cycles during the observation period, was dependent on the difference in the
      frequency of LD reversal. Presently, no clear solution to prevent night-work
      mediated menstrual abnormalities is available, and reducing night work in modern
      society is difficult. Our findings indicate that optimizing work schedules could
      significantly prevent menstrual problems without reducing total night-work time.

PMID- 28884886
TI  - One-Step Multigram-Scale Biomimetic Synthesis of Psiguadial B.
AB  - A gram-scale synthesis of psiguadial B, a purported inhibitor of human hepatoma
      cell growth, has been achieved in one step by a biomimetic three-component
      coupling of caryophyllene, benzaldehyde, and diformylphloroglucinol. This cascade
      reaction is catalyzed by N,N'-dimethylethylenediamine, and proceeds at ambient
      temperature to generate four stereocenters, two rings, one C-O bond, and three C
      C bonds. Combined computational and experimental investigations suggest the
      biosynthesis of the natural product is non-enzyme mediated, and is the result of
      a Michael addition between caryophyllene and a reactive ortho-quinone methide,
      followed by two sequential intramolecular cationic cyclization events.

PMID- 28884888
TI  - FOXP1 haploinsufficiency: Phenotypes beyond behavior and intellectual disability?
AB  - The forkhead box (FOX) transcription factors have roles in development,
      carcinogenesis, metabolism, and immunity. In humans FOXP1 mutations have been
      associated with language and speech defects, intellectual disability, autism
      spectrum disorder, facial dysmorphisms, and congenital anomalies of the kidney
      and urinary tract. In mice, Foxp1 plays critical roles in development of the
      spinal motor neurons, lymphocytes, cardiomyocytes, foregut, and skeleton. We
      hypothesized therefore that mutations of FOXP1 affect additional tissues in some
      humans. Supporting this hypothesis, we describe two individuals with novel
      variants of FOXP1 (NM_032682.5:c.975-2A>C and NM_032682.5:c.1574G>A) and
      additional features. One had a lung disease resembling neuroendocrine cell
      hyperplasia of infancy (NEHI), and the second had a skeletal disorder with
      undertubulation of the long bones and relapsing-remitting fevers associated with
      flushing and edema. Although attribution of these traits to mutation of FOXP1
      requires ascertainment of additional patients, we hypothesize that the variable
      expression of these additional features might arise by means of stochastic
      developmental variation.

PMID- 28884889
TI  - Novel homozygous missense mutation in NT5C2 underlying hereditary spastic
      paraplegia SPG45.
AB  - SPG45 is a rare form of autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia associated with
      mental retardation. Detailed phenotyping and mutation analysis was undertaken in
      three individuals with SPG45 from a consanguineous family of Arab Muslim origin.
      Using whole-exome sequencing, we identified a novel homozygous missense mutation
      in NT5C2 (c.1379T>C; p.Leu460Pro). Our data expand the molecular basis of SPG45,
      adding the first missense mutation to the current database of nonsense,
      frameshift, and splice site mutations. NT5C2 mutations seem to have a broad
      clinical spectrum and should be sought in patients manifesting either as
      uncomplicated or complicated HSP.

PMID- 28884887
TI  - Impaired antioxidant enzyme functions with increased lipid peroxidation in
      epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - We aimed to identify the possible role of oxidant-antioxidant status in
      epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) by measuring (a) antioxidant enzyme (AOE)
      activities [total superoxide dismutase (SODtotal ), manganese-SOD (Mn-SOD),
      copper,zinc-SOD (Cu,Zn-SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx1)],
      (b) Mn-SOD protein expression, (c) lipid peroxidation markers [malondialdehyde
      (MDA), 8-epi-prostaglandin-F2alpha (8-epi-PGF2alpha)] and by evaluating the
      possible correlations between tumor biomarkers, reproductive hormone levels and
      all measured parameters, comprehensively. The data obtained from the patients
      with EOC (M, n = 26) evaluated according to the histopathological/clinical
      characteristics of tumors and compared with data of healthy controls [Ctissue
      (C1) and Cblood/urine (C2), n = 30, respectively). Significantly, low activities
      of tumor SODtotal (52%), Mn-SOD (42%), Cu,Zn-SOD (55%); high activities of tumor
      and erythrocyte CAT (66%, 33% respectively) and tumor GPx1 (60%); high levels of
      tumor Mn-SOD protein expression; tumor MDA (193%) and urinary 8-epi-PGF2alpha
      (179%) were observed in serous EOC tumors (M1, n = 18) compared with controls (P
      < 0.05). However, higher levels of tumor MDA, Mn-SOD protein expression and
      urinary 8-epi-PGF2alpha were observed along with lower tumor CAT activity in
      poorly differentiated or undifferentiated (grade 3, G 3) versus well or
      moderately well differentiated (grade 1-2, G 1-2) serous EOC tumors. Obtained
      data indicate the presence of a severe redox imbalance in EOC and draw attention
      to the criticial role of AOEs in the pathogenesis of the disease. (c) 2017 IUBMB
      Life, 69(10):802-813, 2017.

PMID- 28884890
TI  - Research into action? The Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education's (EIDGE)
      experiences as a community-based group in Vancouver, Canada.
AB  - The Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education has been supportive of research
      dedicated to establishing the effectiveness of Managed Alcohol Programs since its
      inception. Dedicated funding for MAPs in Vancouver, British Columbia is
      contingent on the research demonstrating that alcohol-related harms are reduced
      while participating in a Managed Alcohol Program. The Eastside Illicit Drinkers
      Group for Education understands the need for evidence-based research but we are
      critical of how much research is needed before sustainable funding can be
      established for these innovative programs.

PMID- 28884892
TI  - Basic research, chronobiology, ontogeny and clinical sleep medicine.

PMID- 28884891
TI  - Investigation of suitability of ventrogluteal site for intramuscular injections
      in children aged 36 months and under.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study was performed to determine suitability of ventrogluteal (VG)
      site for intramuscular (IM) injections in children aged 36 months and under.
      DESIGN AND METHODS: The present study was designed as a prospective descriptive
      study and performed between 2016 January and June. The study included a total of
      120 children aged 36 months and under that met the study criteria. The
      subcutaneous tissue thickness and muscle thickness of anterolateral, deltoid, and
      VG sites were measured and assessed by ultrasound. RESULT: A strong and powerful
      correlation was identified between the measurements of subcutaneous tissue and
      muscle thicknesses in the injection site by the age groups. The thickness of
      subcutaneous tissue was deltoid < anterolateral < VG by age groups. The muscle
      thickness of anterolateral and VG sites was significantly higher than that of
      deltoid site. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study established that skin thickness
      of VG site was suitable for IM injection in children aged 36 months and under.

PMID- 28884893
TI  - Chimerism for 20q11.2 microdeletion of GDF5 explains discordant phenotypes in
      monochorionic-diamniotic twins.
AB  - Microdeletions of 20q11.2 are rare but have been associated with characteristic
      clinical findings. A 1.6 Mb minimal critical region has been identified that
      includes three OMIM genes: GDF5, EPB41L1, and SAMHD. Here we describe a male
      monozygotic, monochorionic-diamniotic twin pair with discordant phenotypes, one
      with multiple findings that overlap with those reported in 20q11.2 deletions, and
      the other unaffected. Microarray analysis revealed mosaicism for a 363 Kb
      deletion encompassing GDF5 in the peripheral blood of both twins, which was
      confirmed by FISH. Subsequent FISH on buccal cells identified the deletion only
      in the affected twin. The blood FISH findings were interpreted as representing
      chimerism resulting from anastomosis and the blood exchange between the twins in
      utero. The implications of this finding are discussed, as is the contribution of
      GDF5 to the associated clinical findings of 20q11.2 deletions.

PMID- 28884895
TI  - The case for government-run liquor stores in the Australian Northern Territory:
      Looking outside the box in regulating the supply of alcohol.

PMID- 28884894
TI  - CDP-choline circumvents mercury-induced mitochondrial damage and renal
      dysfunction.
AB  - Heavy metal ions are known to produce harmful alterations on kidney function.
      Specifically, the accumulation of Hg2+ in kidney tissue may induce renal failure.
      In this work, the protective effect of CDP-choline against the deleterious
      effects induced by Hg2+ on renal function was studied. CDP-choline administered
      ip at a dose of 125 mg/kg body weight prevented the damage induced by Hg2+
      administration at a dose of 3 mg/kg body weight. The findings indicate that CDP
      choline guards mitochondria against Hg2+ -toxicity by preserving their ability to
      retain matrix content, such as accumulated Ca2+ . This nucleotide also protected
      mitochondria from Hg2+ -induced loss of the transmembrane electric gradient and
      from the generation of hydrogen peroxide and membrane TBARS. In addition, CDP
      choline avoided the oxidative damage of mtDNA and inhibited the release of the
      interleukins IL-1 and IL6, recognized as markers of acute inflammatory reaction.
      After the administration of Hg2+ and CDP, CDP-choline maintained nearly normal
      levels of renal function and creatinine clearance, as well as blood urea nitrogen
      (BUN) and serum creatinine.

PMID- 28884896
TI  - The contribution of alcohol use and other lifestyle factors to socioeconomic
      differences in all-cause mortality in a Swedish cohort.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: A relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and
      mortality has been found in high-income countries. One possible explanation is
      socioeconomic differentials in health behaviours. The aim was to investigate to
      what degree the association between SEP and all-cause mortality is explained by
      differences in alcohol use and other lifestyle factors. DESIGN AND METHODS: The
      study was based on data from a large public health survey from Stockholm County
      in 2002, with 5 year follow-up for all-cause mortality. Proportional hazard
      models estimated the effect of education, occupational class and income on all
      cause mortality, before and after adjusting for alcohol use (both separate and
      combined effects of levels and patterns of drinking), smoking, physical activity
      and body mass index. RESULTS: The prevalence of lifestyle factors showed a marked
      social gradient. All three SEP indicators showed higher mortality for the most
      disadvantaged SEP group than in the least disadvantaged group. Adjusting for a
      combined measure of alcohol use attenuated the SEP differences in mortality by a
      fifth, whereas adjusting for volume of consumption resulted in considerably
      smaller attenuations. Adjusting for smoking resulted in attenuations of 6-18%. In
      the fully adjusted model, physical activity and body mass index did not account
      for the socioeconomic differences in mortality beyond that of alcohol and
      smoking.? DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Irrespective of whether SEP is defined by
      education, occupational class or income, the unequal distribution of hazardous
      alcohol use and smoking contributes to a notable proportion of the socioeconomic
      differences in mortality in Sweden. [Syden L, Landberg J. The contribution of
      alcohol use and other lifestyle factors to socioeconomic differences in all-cause
      mortality in a Swedish cohort. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;00:000-000].

PMID- 28884897
TI  - Shedding Light on Alopecia Areata in Pediatrics: A Retrospective Analysis of
      Comorbidities in Children in the National Alopecia Areata Registry.
AB  - Alopecia areata (AA) is a common autoimmune disease and it is challenging to
      predict which patients will have severe disease. The purpose of this
      retrospective study was to identify comorbidities in children enrolled in the
      National Alopecia Areata Registry. Atopic dermatitis was more common in patients
      with severe AA than in those with mild disease. The most common autoimmune
      comorbidities were vitiligo, psoriasis, thyroid disease, and juvenile idiopathic
      arthritis.

PMID- 28884898
TI  - Response Letter to "Contact Dermatitis Associated with Alopecia and
      Hyperpigmentation".

PMID- 28884899
TI  - Yellow-Orange Penile Papules.

PMID- 28884900
TI  - Verrucous Penile Plaque in an 11-Year-Old Boy.

PMID- 28884901
TI  - Contact Dermatitis Associated with Alopecia and Hyperpigmentation.

PMID- 28884902
TI  - The Role of Elimination Diets in Atopic Dermatitis-A Comprehensive Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Diet is a common concern for individuals with atopic
      dermatitis (AD) and their families. Studies regarding the effect of dietary
      interventions on AD exist, but many are limited by small size and poor design.
      Conflicting results present a challenge to clinicians seeking to counsel
      patients. The aim of the current review is to examine the published literature
      and generate helpful conclusions for clinicians faced with dietary questions in
      AD. METHODS: A PubMed search was performed focusing on dietary interventions for
      AD in children and adults through July 2016. The search was limited to the
      English language and included studies that evaluated one or more forms of dietary
      modification for the treatment of AD. Studies of supplementation, such as with
      vitamins, minerals, or probiotics, were not included, nor were studies on
      prevention of the development of AD. A total of 43 articles met the inclusion
      criteria and were included in the final analysis. RESULTS: Trials varied in type,
      duration, and the AD patient populations studied. Overall, there is some level I
      evidence to support specific exclusion diets in preselected patients but
      insufficient evidence for strict elimination diets (diets that are typically
      limited to six to eight foods). Data supporting other interventions are mixed and
      based on small, poorly designed studies. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive literature
      review reveals some promising results and several areas in need of further study.
      More evidence is needed to form a strong foundation for recommendations regarding
      the utility and role of elimination diets in AD management, but current evidence
      suggests that strict diet management is not effective in the treatment AD in the
      vast majority of patients.

PMID- 28884903
TI  - Long-Term Follow-Up of Lymphatic Malformations in Children Treated with
      Sildenafil.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Lymphatic malformations (LMs) are challenging to treat.
      Reports on the benefits of sildenafil for LM management have been mixed. This
      study evaluated long-term clinical outcomes of pediatric LM patients after
      sildenafil treatment. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed on
      pediatric LM patients treated with sildenafil in the past 5 years. Patients were
      also contacted to complete a survey of comprehensive questions about their LM
      after sildenafil and subsequent interventions. RESULTS: Of 12 patients
      identified, 10 (83.3%) participated in the follow-up survey. The average age was
      8 years (range 4-16 yrs), median treatment duration was 9 months, and the average
      time of follow-up after sildenafil was 4 years; one patient is still taking
      sildenafil. Ten patients surveyed (83.3%) reported positive therapeutic response,
      with improvement in the size and compressibility of their LM during posttreatment
      clinical visits. Six received additional interventions (four sirolimus, one
      sclerotherapy, one surgery) after sildenafil was discontinued, with all but one
      reporting a positive response to subsequent interventions. Minor side effects at
      the time of sildenafil treatment included mild flushing, dizziness, and transient
      nausea, but no adverse effects were reported at the long-term follow-up.
      CONCLUSION: This is the first report of long-term follow-up of pediatric LM
      patients treated with sildenafil. Our findings suggest that sildenafil is
      beneficial for the symptomatic treatment of LMs. Additional analysis on the role
      of sildenafil as adjuvant therapy is necessary to optimize the use of this
      medication in the management of complex LMs.

PMID- 28884904
TI  - Patient Perspectives: What is perioral dermatitis?

PMID- 28884906
TI  - Pediatric Dermatology Photoquiz: A 14-Year-Old Boy with Abrupt-Onset Hair
      Changes.

PMID- 28884905
TI  - Macrodystrophia Lipomatosa.
AB  - Macrodystrophia lipomatosa is an exceedingly rare overgrowth of mesenchymal and
      fibroadipose tissue manifesting as a form of gigantism affecting one or more
      digits on the distal upper or lower extremities. We present a 25-year-old man who
      presented with overgrowth of the right hand associated with occasional pain,
      numbness, and limited function who was found to have macrodystrophia lipomatosa
      with fibrolipomatous hamartoma of the median nerve. Reports of this condition are
      limited in the dermatology literature, and early recognition can lead to better
      outcomes.

PMID- 28884907
TI  - Crusted Plaques, Cicatricial Alopecia, Whitish Plaques in the Oral Cavity, and
      Dystrophic Nails in a Child.

PMID- 28884909
TI  - Atypical Spitz Tumors are Biohistologically Categorizable as Melanocytic Tumors
      of Uncertain Malignant Potential.

PMID- 28884908
TI  - Analysis of Dermatologic Consultations in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Over a 7
      Year Period: Retrospective Review of 60 Cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The need for dermatology consultations for neonatal
      intensive care unit (NICU) patients is increasing, but no study has systemically
      examined the skin diseases of patients in NICUs. The aim of this study was to
      analyze dermatology consultations in the NICU of a tertiary medical center in
      Korea and determine the effect of the dermatology consultation on the clinical
      course and management of the patients after the consultation. METHODS: The
      medical records of patients undergoing dermatologic consultation during their
      stay in a NICU between March 2009 and February 2016 were reviewed
      retrospectively. RESULTS: Sixty patients were enrolled in this study; the male-to
      female ratio was 1:1.1, and mean age at the time of consultation was 3.7 weeks.
      Mean gestational age was 33.7 weeks, and 35 of the subjects (58.3%) were preterm
      neonates. Mean birth weight was 2.14 kg (range 550-4,200 g). The most-common
      disease category was birthmarks and neoplasms (20.0%), followed by eczematous
      dermatoses (18.3%), skin appendageal disease (16.7%), and infectious disease
      (13.3%). CONCLUSION: This study identified the dermatologic problems of neonates
      in a NICU and can raise dermatologists' awareness of the types of patients they
      may encounter in a NICU.

PMID- 28884910
TI  - Successful Use of Cyclosporin A for Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal
      Necrolysis in Three Children.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal
      necrolysis (TEN) are medical emergencies. Mainstays of treatment include removal
      of the offending agent, supportive care, and wound care. The use of
      immunosuppressive agents such as corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulin
      (IVIg) is controversial. Some case reports and small studies report the
      successful use of cyclosporin A (CsA) for SJS/TEN in halting disease progression,
      fostering reepithelialization, and reducing mortality. OBJECTIVE: To report on
      the efficacy of cyclosporine A in the treatment of SJS/TEN in three pediatric
      patients. METHODS: We describe three pediatric patients seen at a tertiary care
      hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, diagnosed with SJS/TEN confirmed by skin
      biopsy who were successfully treated with CsA with improvements seen in time to
      cessation of disease progression or new lesion formation, reepithelialization,
      and duration of hospital stay. RESULTS: The average time cessation of disease
      progression or new lesion formation after CsA administration was 2.2 days (range
      1.5-3 days) and average time to remission or reepithelialization was 13 days
      (range 10-15 days). The average length of hospital stay was 11.7 days (range 4-19
      days). CONCLUSIONS: We describe three pediatric patients treated successfully
      with CsA and provide evidence for the use of cyclosporine in children with
      SJS/TEN. These results further support previous observations that CsA use for
      SJS/TEN produces consistently favorable outcomes. The results in this case series
      are limited by their observational nature. Additional trials are needed to
      evaluate the safety and efficacy of CsA use in children.

PMID- 28884911
TI  - Final Diagnosis of 112 Girls Presenting With Genital Mucocutaneous Symptoms and
      Signs: The Mayo Clinic Experience.
AB  - Pediatric genital mucocutaneous diseases are rare. A retrospective review was
      performed of children presenting with symptomatology of genital dermatoses to a
      hospital-based dermatology service. This study highlights that the range of
      genital diseases in children is not as broad as in adults. The diagnosis of
      genital mucocutaneous disease in children is usually genital lichen sclerosus,
      but other diagnoses should be considered.

PMID- 28884912
TI  - Sudden-Onset Reddish-Brown Macules on the Palms and Soles of Two Children.

PMID- 28884913
TI  - A Girl with Gray Hair and Pyogenic Infections.

PMID- 28884914
TI  - White Eyelashes and Red Eyes in a 7-Year-Old Boy.

PMID- 28884915
TI  - Severe Mucha-Habermann-Like Ulceronecrotic Skin Disease in T-Cell Acute
      Lymphoblastic Leukemia Responsive to Basiliximab and Stem Cell Transplant.
AB  - A 5-year-old girl with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) developed a
      progressive eruption of crusted papules and ulcerative plaques involving 80% of
      her body surface area with histopathology consistent with febrile ulceronecrotic
      Mucha-Habermann disease (FUMHD), although multiple specimens also contained
      clonal leukemic cells. Her skin disease was refractory to many classic treatments
      for FUMHD, including methotrexate, and became so severe that concern about
      superinfection prevented intensification of chemotherapy for her malignancy. The
      addition of basiliximab promoted gradual improvement of the skin, allowing for
      chemotherapy intensification and subsequent bone marrow transplantation, after
      which the eruption resolved completely. This report describes a severe case of
      FUMHD-like eruption associated with clonal leukemic cells that improved with
      basiliximab, suggesting anti-CD25 therapy as a novel treatment for ulceronecrotic
      skin disease in the setting of high interleukin-2 levels.

PMID- 28884916
TI  - Post-Chikungunya Rheumatic Disease in a 13-Year-Old Boy.
AB  - Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral infection that causes an acute febrile
      illness and can result in acute or chronic musculoskeletal disease. A 13-year-old
      boy presented with post-Chikungunya rheumatic disease featuring connective tissue
      disease signs including digital ulcerations, cuticular dystrophy, dilated
      capillary loops, and digital tapering.

PMID- 28884917
TI  - Molluscum Contagiosum: Review and Update on Management.
AB  - Molluscum contagiosum (MC) is an infectious dermatosis that commonly presents in
      children and immunocompromised individuals. Although lesions usually resolve
      spontaneously after several months, they can be symptomatic and cause
      psychosocial distress. We review the evidence underlying treatment methods
      available for MC lesions, including potassium hydroxide, salicylic acid, hydrogen
      peroxide, retinoids, cantharidin, cryotherapy, curettage, and pulsed dye laser to
      aid practicing dermatologists in therapy selection.

PMID- 28884918
TI  - Adams-Oliver Syndrome Type 2 in Association with Compound Heterozygous DOCK6
      Mutations.
AB  - Adams-Oliver syndrome (AOS) is a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome
      characterized by aplasia cutis congenita (ACC) and transverse terminal limb
      defects (TTLDs). We present a case of type 2 autosomal recessive AOS associated
      with heterozygous mutations in the dedicator of cytokinesis 6 (DOCK6) gene, with
      characteristic findings of ACC, TTLD, intracerebral periventricular
      calcifications, and polymicrogyria.

PMID- 28884919
TI  - Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis Presenting with Pyoderma Gangrenosum-Like
      Ulceration and Negative Cytoplasmic Antineutrophilic Cytoplasmic Antibodies in a
      Child.
AB  - Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a vasculitis that most commonly affects
      small to medium-size vessels of the respiratory tract and kidneys, may also
      present with a wide array of skin findings. We present the case of a 12-year-old
      boy with pyoderma gangrenosum-like ulcerations on his lower extremity as the
      initial manifestation of GPA despite negative cytoplasmic antineutrophilic
      cytoplasmic antibodies (c-ANCAs). Although GPA is strongly associated with c
      ANCA, c-ANCA may be negative on presentation. Thus clinical and pathologic clues
      must be relied upon when serologic confirmation is negative.

PMID- 28884920
TI  - Firm Erythematous Nodules in a Hospitalized Infant.

PMID- 28884921
TI  - Survival beyond the perinatal period expands the phenotypes caused by mutations
      in GLE1.
AB  - Mutations in GLE1 underlie Lethal Congenital Contracture syndrome (LCCS) and
      Lethal Arthrogryposis with Anterior Horn Cell Disease (LAAHD). Both LCCS and
      LAAHD are characterized by reduced fetal movements, congenital contractures, and
      a severe form of motor neuron disease that results in fetal death or death in the
      perinatal period, respectively. We identified bi-allelic mutations in GLE1 in two
      unrelated individuals with motor delays, feeding difficulties, and respiratory
      insufficiency who survived beyond the perinatal period. Each affected child had
      missense variants predicted to result in amino acid substitutions near the C
      terminus of GLE1 that are predicted to disrupt protein-protein interaction or
      GLE1 protein targeting. We hypothesize that mutations that preserve function of
      the coiled-coil domain of GLE1 cause LAAHD whereas mutations that abolish the
      function of the coiled-coil domain cause LCCS. The phenotype of LAAHD is now
      expanded to include multiple individuals surviving into childhood suggesting that
      LAAHD is a misnomer and should be re-named Arthrogryposis with Anterior Horn Cell
      Disease (AAHD).

PMID- 28884922
TI  - Congenital heart defects in molecularly proven Kabuki syndrome patients.
AB  - The prevalence of congenital heart defects (CHD) in Kabuki syndrome ranges from
      28% to 80%. Between January 2012 and December 2015, 28 patients had a molecularly
      proven diagnosis of Kabuki syndrome. Pathogenic variants in KMT2D (MLL2) were
      detected in 27 patients, and in KDM6A gene in one. CHD was diagnosed in 19/27
      (70%) patients with KMT2D (MLL2) variant, while the single patient with KDM6A
      change had a normal heart. The anatomic types among patients with CHD included
      aortic coarctation (4/19 = 21%) alone or associated with an additional CHD,
      bicuspid aortic valve (4/19 = 21%) alone or associated with an additional CHD,
      perimembranous subaortic ventricular septal defect (3/19 = 16%), atrial septal
      defect ostium secundum type (3/19 = 16%), conotruncal heart defects (3/19 = 16%).
      Additional CHDs diagnosed in single patients included aortic dilatation with
      mitral anomaly and hypoplastic left heart syndrome. We also reviewed CHDs in
      patients with a molecular diagnosis of Kabuki syndrome reported in the
      literature. In conclusion, a CHD is detected in 70% of patients with KMT2D (MLL2)
      pathogenic variants, most commonly left-sided obstructive lesions, including
      multiple left-sided obstructions similar to those observed in the spectrum of the
      Shone complex, and septal defects. Clinical management of Kabuki syndrome should
      include echocardiogram at the time of diagnosis, with particular attention to
      left-sided obstructive lesions and mitral anomalies, and annual monitoring for
      aortic arch dilatation.

PMID- 28884923
TI  - Low-voltage areas detected by high-density electroanatomical mapping predict
      recurrence after ablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We aimed to evaluate the extent of atrial fibrosis in paroxysmal
      atrial fibrillation (AF) and the correlation with ablation outcomes after
      pulmonary vein antral isolation (PVAlphaI) using a mapping system with high
      resolution and high-spatial sampling. METHODS AND RESULTS: We prospectively
      enrolled 80 consecutive patients (45 males, median age 60.26 years) with
      symptomatic paroxysmal AF who were scheduled for PVAI. Prior to PVAI, high
      density bipolar voltage mapping (median number of 2,485 points) was carried out
      during sinus rhythm in all patients. Criteria for an adequate left atrium (LA)
      shell were > 2,000 points. Each acquired point was classified according to the
      peak-to-peak bipolar voltage electrogram based on two criteria (criterion A:
      healthy > 0.8 mV, border zone: 0.4-0.8 mV and scarred: < 0.4 mV, criterion Beta:
      healthy: > 0.5 mV, border zone: 0.25-0.5 mV and scarred: < 0.25 mV). The extent
      of low-voltage area < 0.4 mV significantly predicted atrial tachyarrhythmia
      recurrence after the blanking period (P = 0.002). In univariate analysis, the
      presence of LA voltage areas < 0.4 mV more than 10% of the total surface area was
      the only significant predictor of arrhythmia recurrence. The analysis based on
      window B cutoff values failed to demonstrate any predictors of arrhythmia
      recurrence. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that the existence of LA voltage
      areas < 0.4 mV more than 10% of the total LA surface area predicts arrhythmia
      recurrence following PVAI for paroxysmal AF.

PMID- 28884924
TI  - Two novel mutations in XYLT2 cause spondyloocular syndrome.
AB  - We report on two new patients with spondyloocular syndrome. Both patients harbor
      novel homozygous mutations in the XYLT2 gene. The patients present severe
      generalized osteoporosis, multiple fractures, short stature, cataract, and mild
      hearing impairment. XYLT2 mutations have been identified in spondyloocular
      syndrome, however only five mutations have been reported previously. These two
      patients with novel mutations extend the phenotypic and genotypic spectrum of
      spondyloocular syndrome.

PMID- 28884926
TI  - An investigation of the beam damage effect on in situ liquid secondary ion mass
      spectrometry analysis.
AB  - RATIONALE: During in situ liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis,
      the primary ion beam is normally scanned on a very small area to collect signals
      with high ion doses (1014 to 1016 ions/cm2 ). As a result, beam damage may become
      a concern when compared with the static limit of SIMS analysis, in which the dose
      is normally less than 1012 ions/cm2 . Therefore, a comparison of ion yields in in
      situ liquid SIMS analysis versus traditional static SIMS analysis of
      corresponding dry samples is of great interest. METHODS: In this study, a
      dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposome solution was used as a model
      system. Both liquid sample and dry sample were examined. Secondary ion yields
      using three primary ion species (Bi+ , Bi3+ and Bi3++ ) with various beam
      currents were investigated. RESULTS: Usable ion yields for both positive and
      negative characteristic signals (including molecular ions and characteristic
      fragment ions) were achievable based on optimized experimental conditions for in
      situ liquid SIMS analysis. The ion yield of the key DPPC molecular ion was
      comparable to that of traditional static SIMS, and unexpected low fragmentation
      was observed. The flexible structure of the liquid plays an important role for
      these observations. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, beam damage may not be a concern in
      in situ liquid SIMS analysis if proper experimental conditions are used.

PMID- 28884925
TI  - Widespread transcriptional alternations in oligodendrocytes in the adult mouse
      brain following chronic stress.
AB  - Emerging evidence shows that oligodendrogenesis and myelination are highly
      responsive to behavioral experience, including physical activity and social
      experience. This form of myelin plasticity is being increasingly appreciated and
      examined in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a critical brain region involved in
      complex emotional and cognitive behavior. However, it remains unclear whether
      myelination in other brain regions is affected by behavioral experience. Here we
      report that exposure to 4 weeks of chronic variable stress induced anxiety- and
      depressive-like behavior in male adult mice. In concert with these behavioral
      responses, transcriptional analysis of PFC, and nucleus accumbens (NAc)-a brain
      region critical for reward response-revealed downregulation of transcripts
      encoding for myelin genes and oligodendrocyte-specific genes. In contrast,
      upregulation of myelin-related transcripts was observed in the corpus callosum
      (CC), whereas the amygdala (AMG) did not show significant changes. Shorter
      exposure to the same stressors induced behavioral changes to a less extent and
      was followed by a stress habituation period. However, reduced myelin and
      oligodendrocyte-specific gene transcripts were detected as early as one week
      following stress exposure in the PFC and NAc. These data indicate that
      oligodendrocyte and their progenitors in multiple brain regions are responsive to
      stressful experiences and show distinctive and region-specific patterns of gene
      expression. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 78: 152-162, 2018.

PMID- 28884927
TI  - Peeling skin syndrome associated with novel variant in FLG2 gene.
AB  - Peeling skin syndrome is a rare genodermatosis characterized by variably pruritic
      superficial generalized peeling of the skin with several genes involved until now
      little is known about the association between FLG2 and peeling skin syndrome. We
      describe multiple family members from a consanguineous Saudi family with peeling
      skin syndrome. Next Generation Sequencing identifies a cosegregating novel
      variant in FLG2 c.632C>G (p.Ser211*) as a likely etiology in this family. Here,
      we reported on the clinical manifestation of homozygous loss of function variant
      in FLG2 as a disease-causing gene for peeling skin syndrome and expand the
      dermatology findings.

PMID- 28884928
TI  - Expression of receptor tyrosine kinase targets PDGFR-beta, VEGFR2 and KIT in
      canine transitional cell carcinoma.
AB  - Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most common neoplasia of the canine
      urinary tract. It tends to be locally invasive and has a moderate metastatic
      rate. Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) play an important role in promoting cell
      growth, differentiation and regulation of cell function. RTK inhibitor toceranib
      phosphate has been used anecdotally to treat TCC. The goal of this study was to
      evaluate archived normal urinary bladder, TCC and cystitis bladder samples for
      expression of toceranib phosphate targets: VEGFR2, PDGFR-beta and stem cell
      factor receptor (KIT). A significant number of TCC samples expressed PDGFR-beta
      compared with cystitis and normal bladder samples (P<.0001). While all the tumour
      samples stained positively for VEGFR2, there was no significant difference
      between tumour, cystitis and normal bladder samples in intensity scores or
      staining distribution. Minimal positive staining for KIT was noted in the tumour
      samples. Based on this proof of target study, further investigation is warranted
      to determine clinical response of TCC to toceranib phosphate.

PMID- 28884929
TI  - Identification of lactic acid bacteria in the feces of dairy cows fed whole crop
      maize silage to assess the survival of silage bacteria in the gut.
AB  - In order to assess the survival of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in whole crop maize
      silage in the gut of dairy cows, one representative silage sample and three
      different feces samples were collected from dairy cows on three dairy farms in
      Hua Bei, China and three dairy farms in Kyushu, Japan. The composition of the
      bacterial community was examined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and
      quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Lactobacillus acetotolerans was detected
      in all bunker-made maize silage samples, regardless of the dairy farm or sampling
      region from which they were sourced. A total of eight LAB species were detected
      in the maize silage samples, of which three (L. acetotolerans, L. pontis and L.
      casei) appeared to survive digestion. The populations of L. acetotolerans in
      silage and feces were 106-7 and 103-4 copies/g, respectively, indicating that,
      even for the LAB species showing potential survival in the gut, competition in
      this niche may be harsh and the population may substantially decrease during the
      digestion process. It may be difficult for silage LAB to survive in the gut of
      silage-fed dairy cows, because marked decrease in population can take place
      during the digestion process, even for surviving species.

PMID- 28884930
TI  - Retreatment with sofosbuvir/ledipasvir with or without lead-in interferon-beta
      injections in patients infected with genotype 1b hepatitis C virus after
      unsuccessful daclatasvir/asunaprevir therapy.
AB  - AIM: To improve the therapeutic efficacy of sofosbuvir/ledipasvir (SOF/LDV) for
      the retreatment of patients after daclatasvir/asunaprevir (DCV/ASV), a customized
      therapy with or without lead-in interferon (IFN)-beta injections was formulated
      according to the types of resistance-associated substitutions (RAS) in the non
      structural protein (NS)5A region of genotype 1b hepatitis C virus (HCV). METHODS:
      Thirty-three patients failing prior DCV/ASV received SOF/LDV for 12 weeks.
      Patients with HCV carrying unfavorable NS5A-RAS and/or those previously treated
      with simeprevir were given lead-in IFN-beta injections twice a day for 2 weeks;
      sequential changes in the NS5A-RAS during the injection period were evaluated
      using deep sequencing. RESULTS: Lead-in injections were not undertaken in 27
      patients; a sustained viral response (SVR) was achieved in 26 patients, while
      viral relapse occurred in 1 patient with HCV carrying NS5A-L28M/R30H/Y93H
      mutations. Among the 6 patients receiving lead-in injections, viral relapse
      occurred in 2 patients who had an unfavorable IFN-lambda3-related gene single
      nucleotide polymorphism allele; both patients had been previously treated with
      simeprevir, and HCV carrying NS5A-L31V/Y93H mutations had emerged after DCV/ASV.
      Deep sequencing revealed no changes in the NS5A-RAS profiles during the lead-in
      injection period in either patient. In contrast, in a patient with a favorable
      allele who was infected with similar unfavorable HCV strains, NS5A-L31/Y93 wild
      type strains appeared during the injection period, enabling an SVR. CONCLUSION:
      Using customized therapies based on the NS5A-RAS profiles, a high SVR rate was
      obtained after SOF/LDV in patients failing prior DCV/ASV. Lead-in IFN-beta
      injections did not improve the efficacy in patients with HCV carrying unfavorable
      NS5A-RAS except in those with a favorable IFN-lambda3-related gene allele.

PMID- 28884931
TI  - Percutaneous ventricular assist devices for catheter ablation of ventricular
      tachycardia in structural heart disease: "A Conditio Sine Qua Non"?

PMID- 28884932
TI  - The relationship between depression and chronotype: A longitudinal assessment
      during childhood and adolescence.
AB  - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: During adolescence, chronotype shifts toward "eveningness."
      "Eveningness" is related to negative physical and mental health outcomes. Little
      is known about what influences the shift in chronotype beyond pubertal status.
      The current study examined the influence of earlier depression predicting later
      individual differences in adolescent chronotype, accounting for pubertal status,
      and the prospective prediction of later increases in depression from earlier
      chronotype. METHODS: Youth (age M = 12.06, SD = 2.35; 56.5% girls) from the
      community completed repeated assessments of depression, including both self
      reports (14 assessments) and diagnostic interviews (eight assessments), over a 48
      month period. At the 36-month timepoint, participants completed chronotype and
      pubertal development measures. Regression and ANOVA analyses examined: (1) the
      influence of earlier depression levels (baseline to 36 months) upon chronotype,
      and (2) chronotype (at 36 months) upon later depression (48 months). RESULTS:
      Youth with higher earlier depression symptoms (beta = -0.347, P < .001) and
      history of depression diagnosis (beta = -0.13, P = .045) showed a greater
      eveningness preference controlling for pubertal status, age, and gender. Further,
      depression diagnosis history interacted with pubertal status to predict
      chronotype: (F(1,243) = 4.171, P = .045) such that the influence of depression on
      chronotype was greatest among postpubertal youth (t = 3.271, P = .002).
      Chronotype (greater eveningness preference) predicted prospective increases in
      depression symptoms (beta = -0.16, P = .03) and onset of depressive episode (b = 
      0.085, OR = 0.92, P = .03) 1 year later. CONCLUSION: Depression, experienced
      earlier in life, predicts greater preference for eveningness, especially among
      postpubertal youth. In turn, later depression is predicted by evening preference.
      These findings suggest the reciprocal interplay between mood and biological
      rhythms, especially depression and chronotype, during adolescence.

PMID- 28884933
TI  - Prediction of nearest neighbor effects on backbone torsion angles and NMR scalar
      coupling constants in disordered proteins.
AB  - Using fine-tuned hydrogen bonding criteria, a library of coiled peptide fragments
      has been generated from a large set of high-resolution protein X-ray structures.
      This library is shown to be an improved representation of phi/psi torsion angles
      seen in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). The phi/psi torsion angle
      distribution of the library, on average, provides good agreement with
      experimentally observed chemical shifts and 3 JHN-Halpha coupling constants for a
      set of five disordered proteins. Inspection of the coil library confirms that
      nearest-neighbor effects significantly impact the phi/psi distribution of
      residues in the coil state. Importantly, 3 JHN-Halpha coupling constants derived
      from the nearest-neighbor modulated backbone phi distribution in the coil library
      show improved agreement to experimental values, thereby providing a better way to
      predict 3 JHN-Halpha coupling constants for IDPs, and for identifying locations
      that deviate from fully random behavior.

PMID- 28884934
TI  - Extracellular vesicle-mediated MFG-E8 localization in the extracellular matrix is
      required for its integrin-dependent function in mouse mammary epithelial cells.
AB  - Milk fat globule-EGF factor 8 (MFG-E8) is a divalent-binding secretory protein
      possessing an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif and a phosphatidylserine (PS)-binding
      motif. This protein has been shown to be involved in mammary gland development
      and morphogenesis. Integrin-binding activity is necessary for these MFG-E8
      dependent cell processes. Although the target cells and molecules of MFG-E8 in
      the cellular microenvironment are important to understand its physiological
      function, its localization is largely unclear. Here, we found that mouse MFG-E8
      localized to the basal lamina of the mammary gland during involution. In a model
      system of mammary COMMA-1D cells, exogenously and endogenously expressed MFG-E8
      was deposited in the extracellular matrix (ECM) with membranous particles
      dependently on the PS-binding motifs in the discoidin domains that were essential
      for association ability to extracellular vesicles (EVs). These data showed the
      basal MFG-E8 localization mechanism in which EVs served as a scaffold. Such an
      immobilized MFG-E8 associating with cell substrata but not soluble one in the
      culture media promoted integrin-dependent suppression of beta-casein expression.
      These results suggest that MFG-E8 requires EVs to transduce cellular signals from
      the basolateral side of the adhesion cells by accumulating in ECM.

PMID- 28884935
TI  - Identification of Nursing Diagnosis-Outcome-Intervention Linkages for Inpatients
      in the Obstetrics Department Nursing Unit in South Korea.
AB  - PURPOSE: To identify the NANDA-I-NOC-NIC (NNN) linkages for inpatients of the
      obstetrics nursing unit using electronic nursing records. METHODS: In this
      retrospective, descriptive survey, the electronic nursing records for 220 adult
      patients aged >=18 years who were discharged after obstetrics nursing unit were
      analyzed. FINDINGS: The 7 most frequent nursing diagnoses were found to be
      associated with 9 nursing outcomes and 26 nursing interventions. CONCLUSIONS:
      Herein, the list of nursing diagnoses was observed to comprise the
      safety/protection domain, the list of nursing outcomes the physiological health
      domain, and the list of nursing interventions the physiological: complex domain.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: This result can contribute to improving the
      nursing quality and will help continuing education and documentation system
      refinement.

PMID- 28884936
TI  - Dietary cation and anion difference: Effects on milk production and body fluid
      distribution in lactating dairy goats under tropical conditions.
AB  - This study aimed to determine the effect of dietary cation and anion difference
      (DCAD) on milk production and body fluid distribution in lactating dairy goats.
      Ten dairy goats were selected and divided into two groups, five animals each.
      Animals received either control DCAD (control, 22.81 mEq/100 g dry matter (DM))
      or high DCAD (DCAD, 39.08 mEq/100 g DM). The results indicated that rectal
      temperature (Tr), respiration rate, milk yield and compositions did not differ
      between groups. But the percentage change of Tr from the DCAD group was lower
      than the control group between 09.00 and 13.00 hours. DM intake tended to
      increase in the DCAD group. Dairy goats in the DCAD group drank more water, but
      urinary excretion and plasma antidiuretic hormone concentration remained
      unchanged. Apparent water balance was higher from the DCAD group over 24 h. There
      was no effect of DCAD on plasma and blood volumes, but tended to increase in
      extracellular fluid and thereby increased total body water. The present results
      indicate that animals supplemented with high DCAD increase their total body water
      and apparent water balance. These results have contributed to the process of
      adaptation for evaporative cooling and would be useful in slowing down the
      elevation in Tr.

PMID- 28884937
TI  - Review: A Japanese population-based meta-analysis of vonoprazan versus PPI for
      Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy: Is superiority an illusion?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vonoprazan (VPZ) is a novel acid suppressant that has been used in
      Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication therapies in recent years. However,
      the efficacy and safety of VPZ vs proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) in H. pylori
      eradication therapies remain controversial. OBJECTIVE: To perform a meta-analysis
      in order to assess the efficacy and safety of VPZ vs PPI for H. pylori
      eradication. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library
      databases were searched up to July 10, 2017, for relevant randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized clinical studies (NRCTs). The pooled eradication
      rate (ER) and pooled occurrence rates of adverse events were used to compare the
      efficacy and safety of VPZ - and PPI-containing regimens. RESULT: A total of 14
      studies with 14 636 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The results
      showed that the pooled ER of VPZ -containing regimens was much higher than that
      of PPI-containing regimens when used as first-line therapies. This difference was
      significant for both intention-to-treat (85.1% vs 68.0%, P < .00001) and per
      protocol analyses (89.0% vs 74.2%, P < .00001). Moreover, subgroup analysis
      indicated significant superiority of VPZ in both patients with clarithromycin
      resistant strains (81.5% vs 40.9%, P < .00001) and those with clarithromycin
      susceptible strains (94.9% vs 89.6%, P = .006). However, VPZ did not show
      superiority to PPI as part of a second-line triple therapy based on both
      intention-to-treat (83.4% vs 82.0%, P = .79) and per-protocol analyses (89.3% vs
      90.1%, P = .06). Finally, RCT subgroup analysis showed the safety of VPZ 
      containing regimens to be better than PPI-containing regimens (26.4% vs 33.3%, P
      = .008), whereas there was no significant difference in this regard for the NRCT
      subgroup analysis (5.7% vs 4.7%, P = .08). CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of VPZ is
      superior to PPI in first-line H. pylori triple eradication therapies but not in
      second-line therapies. The safety of VPZ -containing regimens appears to be equal
      or even superior to that of PPI. However, most reports included in this study had
      low levels of evidence. Hence, adequate and high-quality RCTs will be needed to
      support our results.

PMID- 28884938
TI  - The Nursing Diagnosis Disturbed Thought Processes: An Integrative Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze and synthetize the existing scientific literature in relation
      to the nursing diagnosis disturbed thought processes (DTPs) (00130). METHODS: An
      integrative review was developed, identifying relevant papers through a search of
      international and Spanish databases and the examination of key manuals. FINDINGS:
      Theoretical papers propose modifications for the nursing diagnosis DTPs. Most of
      the research papers offer data about its frequency in different clinical
      settings. CONCLUSIONS: There exists an interest in the nursing diagnosis DTPs.
      However, the available evidence is not very extensive and further work is
      necessary in order to refine this nursing diagnosis. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
      PRACTICE: The re-inclusion of DTPs in the NANDA-I classification will specially
      contribute to increment its utility in mental healthcare.

PMID- 28884939
TI  - An Extensive Family of Heterometallic Titanium(IV)-Metal(III) Rings with
      Structure Control through Templates.
AB  - A family of heterometallic [Cat][Tix MO(x+1 )(O2 Ct Bu)2x+2 ] rings is reported
      where Cat=a secondary or tertiary alkyl ammonium ion, x=7, 8 or 9, and M=FeIII ,
      GaIII , CrIII , InIII and AlIII . The structures are regular polygons with eight,
      nine or ten vertices with each edge bridged by an oxide and two pivalates. The
      size of the ring formed is controlled by the alkylammonium cation present. In
      each case a homometallic by-product is found [Cat][Tix O(x+1 )(O2 Ct Bu)2x-1 ].

PMID- 28884940
TI  - Variable phenotypic expression in a large Noonan syndrome family segregating a
      novel SOS1 mutation.
AB  - Noonan syndrome (NS) is an autosomal dominant multisystem condition with a
      variable phenotype. The most characteristic features are short stature,
      congenital heart defects, and recognizable facial features. Mutations in SOS1 are
      found in 10-20% of patients with NS. Different genotype-phenotype studies mention
      correlations between SOS1 mutations and some features, such as ectodermal
      abnormalities and specific facial features. We present a large NS family with a
      novel pathogenic mutation; SOS1 c.3134C>G, p.Pro1045Arg. Ten family members with
      NS are included with genetically confirmed mutation and clinical evaluation. The
      phenotype shows a broad spectrum from only few suggestive features for NS in the
      older generation to typical features in the youngest generation. We report on a
      novel pathogenic mutation in the SOS1 gene and a large clinical spectrum in a NS
      family with ten genetically confirmed affected individuals.

PMID- 28884942
TI  - Structural properties of bioactive peptides with alpha-glucosidase inhibitory
      activity.
AB  - Bioactive peptides are emerging as promising class of drugs that could serve as
      alpha-glucosidase inhibitors for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. This article
      identifies structural and physicochemical requirements for the design of
      therapeutically relevant alpha-glucosidase inhibitory peptides. So far, a total
      of 43 fully sequenced alpha-glucosidase inhibitory peptides have been reported
      and 13 of them had IC50 values several folds lower than acarbose. Analysis of the
      peptides indicates that the most potent peptides are tri- to hexapeptides with
      amino acids containing a hydroxyl or basic side chain at the N-terminal. The
      presence of proline within the chain and alanine or methionine at the C-terminal
      appears to be relevant for high activity. Hydrophobicity and isoelectric points
      are less important variables for alpha-glucosidase inhibition whilst a net charge
      of 0 or +1 was predicted for the highly active peptides. In silico simulated
      gastrointestinal digestion revealed that the high and moderately active peptides,
      including the most potent peptide (STYV), were gastrointestinally unstable,
      except SQSPA. Molecular docking of SQSPA, STYV, and STY (digestion fragment of
      STYV) with alpha-glucosidase suggested that their hydrogen bonding interactions
      and binding energies were comparable with acarbose. The identified criteria will
      facilitate the design of new peptide-derived alpha-glucosidase inhibitors.

PMID- 28884941
TI  - Characterization of the novel HLA-DQB1*05:155 allele by sequencing-based typing.
AB  - HLA-DQB1*05:155 differs from HLA-DQB1*05:01:01 by one nucleotide substitution at
      position 474 (G>C).

PMID- 28884943
TI  - Xenotransplantation of human intestine into mouse abdomen or subcutaneous tissue:
      Novel platforms for the study of the human enteric nervous system.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Current efforts to develop stem cell therapy as a novel treatment for
      neurointestinal diseases are limited by the unavailability of a model system to
      study cell transplantation in the human intestine. We propose that xenograft
      models support enteric nervous system (ENS) development in the fetal human
      intestine when transplanted into mice subcutaneously or intra-abdominally.
      METHODS: Fetal human small and large intestine were grafted onto the small
      intestinal mesentery and into the subcutaneous tissue of immunodeficient mice for
      up to 4 months. Intestinal cytoarchitecture and ENS development were studied
      using immunohistochemistry. KEY RESULTS: In both abdominal and subcutaneous
      grafts, the intestine developed normally with formation of mature epithelial and
      mesenchymal layers. The ENS was patterned in two ganglionated plexuses containing
      enteric neurons and glia, including cholinergic and nitrergic neuronal subtypes.
      c-Kit-immunoreactive interstitial cells of Cajal were present in the gut wall.
      CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: Abdominal xenografts represent a novel model that
      supports the growth and development of fetal human intestine. This in vivo
      approach will be a useful method to study maturation of the ENS, the
      pathophysiology of neurointestinal diseases, and the long-term survival and
      functional differentiation of neuronal stem cells for the treatment of enteric
      neuropathies.

PMID- 28884944
TI  - Characterization of the novel HLA-A*02:07:10 allele by sequencing-based typing.
AB  - HLA-A*02:07:10 differs from HLA-A*02:07:01 by one nucleotide substitution at
      position 117.

PMID- 28884945
TI  - Enzymatic Cascade Catalysis for the Synthesis of Multiblock and Ultrahigh
      Molecular-Weight Polymers with Oxygen Tolerance.
AB  - Synthesis of well-defined multiblock and ultrahigh-molecular-weight (UHMW)
      polymers has been a perceived challenge for reversible-deactivation radical
      polymerization (RDRP). An even more formidable task is to synthesize these
      extreme polymers in the presence of oxygen. A novel methodology involving
      enzymatic cascade catalysis is developed for the unprecedented synthesis of
      multiblock polymers in open vessels with direct exposure to air and UHMW polymers
      in closed vessels without prior degassing. The success of this methodology relies
      on the extraordinary deoxygenation capability of pyranose oxidase (P2Ox) and the
      mild yet efficient radical generation by horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The facile
      and green synthesis of multiblock and UHMW polymers using biorenewable enzymes
      under environmentally benign and scalable conditions provides a new pathway for
      developing advanced polymer materials.

PMID- 28884946
TI  - Risk factors for postoperative infection in Chinese lung cancer patients: A meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify risk factors for
      postoperative infection in Chinese lung cancer patients. METHODS: A comprehensive
      search was performed in PubMed, EMbase, CNKI, and WanFang Data databases to
      identify studies investigating risk factors for postoperative infection in
      Chinese lung cancer patients. Meta-analysis was performed by using Revman 5.2
      software. RESULTS: A total of 12 studies were included. The results of meta
      analysis showed that old age, male gender, diabetes, cigarette smoking, squamous
      cell carcinoma, pulmonary diseases, longer of mechanical ventilation, and longer
      time of surgery procedure were associated with increased risk of postoperative
      infection. In addition, prophylactic antibiotic was associated with decreased
      risk of postoperative infection. CONCLUSION: The current meta-analysis suggests
      that the old age, male gender, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking, squamous
      cell carcinoma, pulmonary diseases, longer of mechanical ventilation, and longer
      of surgery time are risk factors for postoperative infection in Chinese lung
      cancer patients. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies,
      more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above results.

PMID- 28884947
TI  - Confirmation of an ARID2 defect in SWI/SNF-related intellectual disability.
AB  - We present a 4-year-old girl with delayed neuromotor development, short stature
      of prenatal onset, and specific behavioral and craniofacial features harboring an
      intragenic deletion in the ARID2 gene. The phenotype confirmed the major features
      of the recently described ARID2-related intellectual disability syndrome.
      However, our patient showed overlapping features with Nicolaides-Baraitser
      syndrome and Coffin-Siris syndrome, providing further arguments to reclassify
      these disorders as "SWI/SNF-related intellectual disability syndromes."

PMID- 28884948
TI  - Exploring research cultures through internationalization at home for doctoral
      students in Hong Kong and Sweden.
AB  - Cultural skills are fundamental to developing global academic scholars.
      Internationalization at home can facilitate the acquisition of these skills
      without students having to go abroad. However, research on the effect of
      internationalization of higher education is scarce, despite apparent benefits to
      incorporating cultural sensitivity in research. Further, little is known about
      the role information and communication technology plays. In this pilot study, we
      describe the experience of doctoral students with an internationalization-at-home
      program, and its impact on developing an understanding about different research
      cultures. Eight doctoral nursing students from Sweden and Hong Kong participated
      in five webinars as "critical friends". The study followed a descriptive,
      qualitative design. The results demonstrated that students observed cultural
      differences in others' research training programs. However, while cultural
      differences reinforced friendship among local peers, they challenged engagement
      with critical friends. Challenges led to the perception of one another not as
      critical friends but as "distant" friends. We discuss the possible reasons for
      these outcomes, and emphasize a need to nurture connectivity and common goals.
      This would prepare students to identify, translate, and recognize cultural
      differences to help develop knowledge of diverse research cultures.

PMID- 28884949
TI  - Estimated glucose disposal rate predicts mortality in adults with type 1
      diabetes.
AB  - AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the association between insulin resistance
      as determined by the estimated glucose disposal rate (eGDR), and survival in
      adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Sweden. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Using the
      Swedish National Diabetes Register, indviduals with T1D were included from
      January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2012. Outcomes were retrieved from National
      healthcare registers. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs)
      were calculated for the associations between eGDR (mg/kg/min) categorized into
      <4, 4 to 5.99, 6 to 7.99, and >=8 (reference) and outcomes. Relative survival
      methods were used to compare survival to a matched Swedish reference population.
      RESULTS: Among 17 050 included individuals with T1D, 10.5%, 20.2%, 20.5% and
      48.9% had an eGDR of <4, 4 to 5.99, 6 to 7.99, and >=8, respectively. Individuals
      with an eGDR <8 were older and had more comorbidities. During a median follow-up
      of 7.1 years, there were 946 (6%) deaths; 264 (15%), 367 (11%), 195 (6%) and 120
      (1%) deaths occurred in individuals with an eGDR of <4, 4 to 5.99, 6 to 7.99 and
      >=8, respectively. After adjustment for a wealth of different covariates
      including diabetes duration, age, sex and renal function, individuals with an
      eGDR <4, 4 to 5.99, and 6 to 7.99 had an increased risk of death compared to
      those with an eGDR >=8 (adjusted HRs, 95% CIs, P values: 2.78, 2.04 to 3.77,
      <.001; 1.92, 1.49 to 2.46, <.001; 1.73, 1.34 to 2.21, <.001). Survival in
      individuals with an eGDR >=8 was equal to a matched general population.
      CONCLUSIONS: There is a strong association between eGDR and all-cause mortality,
      as well as cardiovascular mortality, in individuals with T1D. Our findings may
      guide preventive measures by improving risk assessment in individuals with T1D.

PMID- 28884950
TI  - Abnormal gray matter volume and impulsivity in young adults with Internet gaming
      disorder.
AB  - Reduced executive control is one of the central components of model on the
      development and maintenance of Internet gaming disorder (IGD). Among the various
      executive control problems, high impulsivity has consistently been associated
      with IGD. We performed voxel-based morphometric analysis with diffeomorphic
      anatomical registration by using an exponentiated Lie algebra algorithm (DARTEL)
      to investigate the relationship of gray matter abnormalities to impulsivity in
      IGD. Thirty-one young male adults whose excessive Internet gaming began in early
      adolescence, and 30 age-matched male healthy controls were examined. IGD subjects
      showed smaller gray matter volume (GMV) in brain regions implicated in executive
      control, such as the anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor area.
      The GMVs in the anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor area were
      negatively correlated with self-reporting scales of impulsiveness. IGD subjects
      also exhibited smaller GMV in lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices comprising
      the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the left inferior parietal lobule
      when compared with healthy controls. The GMVs in the left ventrolateral
      prefrontal cortex were negatively correlated with lifetime usage of Internet
      gaming. These findings suggest that gray matter abnormalities in areas related to
      executive control may contribute to high impulsivity of young adults with IGD.
      Furthermore, alterations in the prefrontal cortex were related with long-term
      excessive Internet gaming during adolescence.

PMID- 28884951
TI  - Evaluation of chemical stability of polymers of XIENCE everolimus-eluting
      coronary stents in vivo by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.
AB  - The polymers poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) and
      poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) are employed in manufacturing the XIENCE family
      of coronary stents. PBMA serves as a primer and adheres to both the stent and the
      drug coating. PVDF-HFP is employed in the drug matrix layer to hold the drug
      everolimus on the stent and control its release. Chemical stability of the
      polymers of XIENCE stents in the in-vivo environment was evaluated by pyrolysis
      gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) detection. For this
      evaluation, XIENCE stents explanted from porcine coronary arteries and from human
      coronary artery specimens at autopsy after 2-4 and 5-7 years of implantation,
      respectively, were compared to freshly manufactured XIENCE stents (controls). The
      comparison of pyrograms of explanted stent samples and controls showed identical
      fragmentation fingerprints of polymers, indicating that PVDF-HFP and PBMA
      maintained their chemical integrity after multiple years of XIENCE coronary stent
      implantation. The findings of the present study demonstrate the chemical
      stability of PVDF-HFP and PBMA polymers of the XIENCE family of coronary stents
      in the in-vivo environment, and constitute a further proof of the suitability of
      PVDF-HFP as a drug carrier for the drug eluting stent applications. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1721
      1729, 2018.

PMID- 28884953
TI  - A retro-prospective effectiveness study on 3448 implant operations at one
      referral clinic: A multifactorial analysis. Part I: Clinical factors associated
      to early implant failures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limited numbers of large effectiveness studies on routine dental
      implant treatment are available in the literature. PURPOSE: To report retro
      prospective data on prevalence of early implant failures in a large number of
      routine patients/operations at 1 referral clinic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total
      of 2848 patients were consecutively provided with 9582 implants with an anodized
      surface (Nobel Biocare AB) during 3448 implant operations between 2003 and 2011.
      All patients were invited to a follow-up program and early implant failures up to
      first annual examination were consecutively identified. A logistic multivariate
      data analysis was performed to identify possible factors with an association to
      early implant failures. RESULTS: A total of 43, 73, and 81 implant operations
      were denoted as early failures depending on when cut-off time was defined, using:
      abutment connection, prosthesis placement, or at first year of follow-up,
      respectively. Five factors showed significant association to "early implant
      failures," where the highest risk for a failure was associated to "surgeon"
      (hazard ratio [HR] 5.13), followed by "not prosthetic treatment at the referral
      clinic" (HR 2.71). When all 5 significant factors were present, the risk for an
      early failure after an operation was 7.0%, and the risk decreased to 0.1% when
      none/lowest risk factors were present. CONCLUSIONS: The role of the
      surgeons/dentists involved in the rehabilitation of the implant patients and
      numbers of placed implants (degree of tooth loss) showed the strongest
      associations to early implant failures in the present clinic. Also increased bone
      resorption was associated to increased risk for implant failure.

PMID- 28884952
TI  - Soluble Dietary Fiber Reduces Trimethylamine Metabolism via Gut Microbiota and Co
      Regulates Host AMPK Pathways.
AB  - SCOPE: Evidence from animal experiments and clinical medicine suggests that high
      dietary fiber intake, followed by gut microbiota-mediated fermentation, decreases
      trimethylamine (TMA) metabolism, the mechanism of which, however, remains
      unclear. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate, using mice fed with red
      meat, the effects of soluble dietary fiber (SDF) intervention on TMA metabolism.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: Low- or high-dose soluble dietary fiber (SDF) from natural
      wheat bran (LN and HN, low- and high-dose natural SDF), fermented wheat bran (LF
      and HF, low- and high-dose fermented SDF), and steam-exploded wheat bran (LE and
      HE, low- and high-dose exploded SDF groups) were used to examine whether SDF
      interventions in mice fed with red meat can alter TMA and trimethylamine N-oxide
      (TMAO) metabolism by gut microbial communities in a diet-specific manner. Results
      demonstrated that SDF-diets could reduce TMA and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO)
      metabolism by 40.6 and 62.6%, respectively. DF feeding, particularly fermented
      SDF, reshaped gut microbial ecology and promoted the growth of certain beneficial
      microflora species. SDF-diet decreased energy intake, weight gain, intestinal pH
      values, and serum lipid and cholesterol levels. SDF-diet also enhanced the
      production of short chain fatty acids with activation of the intestinal
      epithelial adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK). CONCLUSION:
      These findings suggest a central mechanism via which SDF-diet may control TMA
      metabolism by gut microflora and co-regulate the AMPK pathways of the host.

PMID- 28884954
TI  - Native Desorption Electrospray Ionization Liberates Soluble and Membrane Protein
      Complexes from Surfaces.
AB  - Mass spectrometry (MS) applications for intact protein complexes typically
      require electrospray (ES) ionization and have not been achieved via direct
      desorption from surfaces. Desorption ES ionization (DESI) MS has however
      transformed the study of tissue surfaces through release and characterisation of
      small molecules. Motivated by the desire to screen for ligand binding to intact
      protein complexes we report the development of a native DESI platform. By
      establishing conditions that preserve non-covalent interactions we exploit the
      surface to capture a rapid turnover enzyme-substrate complex and to optimise
      detergents for membrane protein study. We demonstrate binding of lipids and drugs
      to membrane proteins deposited on surfaces and selectivity from a mix of related
      agonists for specific binding to a GPCR. Overall therefore we introduce this
      native DESI platform with the potential for high-throughput ligand screening of
      some of the most challenging drug targets including GPCRs.

PMID- 28884956
TI  - Osteoblast cell membrane chromatography coupled with liquid chromatography and
      time-of-flight mass spectrometry for screening specific active components from
      traditional Chinese medicines.
AB  - A method using osteoblast membrane chromatography coupled with liquid
      chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry was developed to recognize
      and identify the specific active components from traditional Chinese medicines.
      Primary rat osteoblasts were used for the preparation of the stationary phase in
      the cell chromatography method. Retention components from the cell chromatography
      were collected and analyzed by liquid chromatography with time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry. This method was applied in screening active components from
      extracts of four traditional Chinese medicines. In total, 24 potentially active
      components with different structures were retained by osteoblast cell
      chromatography. There were five phenolic glucosides and one triterpenoid saponin
      from Curculigo orchioides Gaertn, two organic acids and ten flavonoids from
      Epimedium sagittatum Maxim, one phthalide compound and one organic acid from
      Angelica sinensis Diels, and two flavonoids and two saponins from Anemarrhena
      asphodeloides Bunge. Among those, four components (icariin, curculigoside,
      ferulaic acid, and timosaponin BII) were used for in vitro pharmacodynamics
      validation. They significantly increased the osteoblast proliferation, alkaline
      phosphatase activity, levels of bone gla protein and collagen type 1, and
      promoted mineralized nodule formation. The developed method was an effective
      screening method for finding active components from complex medicines that act on
      bone diseases.

PMID- 28884955
TI  - HLA-B*40:302, a novel allele identified by sequence-based typing in a Korean
      individual.
AB  - B*40:302 differs from B*40:02:01:01 by a single nonsynonymous nucleotide
      substitution at codon 81 (CCG->CTG).

PMID- 28884957
TI  - Long-term sequelae of hippocampal lesions in patients with transient global
      amnesia: A multiparametric MRI study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: MRI signal diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) hyperintensity in the
      hippocampus in patients with transient global amnesia (TGA) are resolved within
      several days after the onset of TGA. PURPOSE: To use multiparametric MRI to
      unravel the sequelae of TGA. STUDY TYPE: A prospective longitudinal study.
      POPULATION: Eight TGA patients. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: A 3.0T Siemens Tim Trio
      MRI scanner with T1 -weighted MPRAGE, diffusion-weighted echo planar imaging, and
      multiecho gradient-recalled echo sequences. ASSESSMENT: Brain MRI scanned within
      72 hours, 2 weeks, and 3 months after onset of TGA, respectively. T1 image
      hippocampus was first segmented into 12 subregions using FreeSurfer and
      registered to DWI to locate DWI lesion. Then a T1 image with segmented
      hippocampus was registered to its corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient
      (ADC) map, fractional anisotropy (FA) map, and quantitative susceptibility map,
      respectively. Finally, the volume, water diffusion and anisotropy, and magnetic
      susceptibility of DWI lesion were analyzed. STATISTICAL TESTS: A paired samples t
      test was performed to detect measurement differences between three tests. Pearson
      correlation was used to assess the correlations between all measurements.
      RESULTS: Hyperintensity was detected in the head, body, and caudate of CA1 and
      hippocampal tail. No significant changes existed in CA1/unit volume across the
      three timepoint measurements (all, P > 0.480). In Test 1, ratio ADC (DWI lesion /
      adjacent healthy, rADC) and ratio FA (rFA) decreased below, while ratio
      susceptibility increased above 1.0. In Test 2, all the episodes normalized around
      1.0. In Test 3, rADC remained normalization, but rFA decreased and ratio
      susceptibility increased again. In Test 1 and Test 3 (vs. Test 2), decreased FA
      values were accompanied with lower axial diffusivity and/or higher radial
      diffusivity (all, P < 0.001). Moreover, rFA significantly correlated with ratio
      susceptibility in Test 3 (r = -0.665, P = 0.039). DATA CONCLUSION:
      Microstructural sequelae in hippocampus were demonstrated, which indicates that
      ischemic lesions may be associated with TGA. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical
      Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:1350-1358.

PMID- 28884959
TI  - Turkish Society of Physiological Sciences 43rd National Physiology Congress, 07 -
      10 September 2017, Pamukkale University, Congress Center, Denizli (Turkey).

PMID- 28884958
TI  - Serum lactate in liver resection with intermittent Pringle maneuver: the "square
      root- shape.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serum lactate (sLac) concentration during liver resection with
      intermittent hepatic hilum clamping (i.e. Pringle maneuver, PM) was
      retrospectively investigated. METHODS: A total of 133 patients who underwent
      liver resection were enrolled. We analyzed the sLac peri-operatively.
      Correlations were searched between the PM and lactatemia and its variations (i.e.
      lactate clearance, cLac) and other factors which it might be related to.
      Lactatemia in triplicate intraoperatively was recorded, just after the awakening,
      and 1 and 2 h later. The cLac between two consecutive measurements [(sLac1 -
      sLac2 )/sLac1 ] was computed. RESULTS: A reliable dependence of sLac was found
      from the cumulative PM. More than 76 min of cumulative Pringle Time (cPT) exposed
      patients to a worse cLac at the end of the resection phase (P < 0.0001). We found
      cPT >76 min, global operation time >365 min and bleeding >225 ml to be predictors
      of hyperlactatemia (sLac >4 mmol/L). Normal liver resulted as a risk factor for
      hyperlactatemia and steatosis was not (P = 0.030 vs. P = 0.325). Finally, cLac
      showed a "square-root- shape, just like the mathematical operation sign.
      CONCLUSIONS: Lactatemia during liver resection depends on the duration of PM,
      bleeding and the duration of the operation. Normal liver may expose the patient
      to the risk of hyperlactatemia.

PMID- 28884960
TI  - Genotypic-phenotypic features and enzyme replacement therapy outcome in patients
      with mucopolysaccharidosis VI from Turkey.
AB  - Mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI) is a lysosomal storage disorder (LSD)
      characterized by a chronic, progressive course with multiorgan involvement. In
      our study, clinical, biochemical, molecular findings, and response to enzyme
      replacement therapy (ERT) for at least 6 months were evaluated in 20 patients
      with MPS VI. Treatment effects on clinical findings such as liver and spleen
      sizes, cardiac and respiratory parameters, visual and auditory changes, joints'
      range of motions, endurance tests and changes in urinary glycosaminoglycan
      excretions, before and after ERT were analyzed. ERT caused increased physical
      endurance and decreased urinary dermatan sulfate/chondroitin sulfate ratios.
      Changes in growth parameters, cardiac, respiratory, visual, auditory findings,
      and joint mobility were not significant. All patients and parents reported out an
      increased quality of life, which were not correlated with clinical results. The
      most prevalent mutation was p.L321P, accounting for 58.8% of the mutant alleles
      and two novel mutations (p.G79E and p.E390 K) were found. ERT was a safe but
      expensive treatment for MPS VI, with mild benefits in severely affected patients.
      Early treatment with ERT is mandatory before many organs and systems are
      involved.

PMID- 28884961
TI  - Bartonellosis in Chronic Kidney Disease: An Unrecognized and Unsuspected
      Diagnosis.
AB  - Systemic cat scratch disease or bartonellosis is a clinical entity caused by
      Bartonella henselae, which manifests with necrotizing granulomas in visceral
      organs. The cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, is the vector responsible for
      horizontal transmission of the disease from cat to cat, and its bite can also
      infect humans. In immunocompromised patients including chronic kidney disease and
      renal transplant recipients, it can cause persistent and disseminated cat scratch
      disease. The aim of this paper is to perform a systematic review of the studies
      that have addressed the diagnostic methods of cat scratch disease in chronic
      kidney disease and renal transplant recipients. This review was searched via
      electronic PubMed and Google scholar databases. Few qualitative full-text
      original articles in chronic kidney disease and kidney transplant were extracted.
      At this paper, 19 articles identified including six articles in chronic kidney
      disease and 13 articles in renal transplant recipients. Of these six identified
      case reports in chronic kidney disease, serology via immunofluorescence antibody
      test was led to diagnosis of cat scratch disease in five patients and a one
      patient showed nonreactive serologic test. Polymerase chain reaction usage to
      detect deoxyribonucleic acid in tissue biopsy and bone marrow biopsy was led to
      diagnosis. Cat scratch disease diagnosis in 13 renal transplant recipients was
      attained more by combining serology and polymerase chain reaction to detect
      deoxyribonucleic acid in tissue specimens. These selected studies demonstrate
      that serology and polymerase chain reaction via deoxyribonucleic acid extraction
      of tissue specimens yield the best outcome in diagnostic field of bartonellosis.

PMID- 28884963
TI  - Identification of HLA-B*58:01:21, a novel allele in a Korean individual.
AB  - B*58:01:21 has a single nucleotide change, c.264A>G (ACA->ACG at codon 88)
      compared with B*58:01:01:01.

PMID- 28884964
TI  - Anion-pi Catalysis of Diels-Alder Reactions.
AB  - Among concerted cycloadditions, the Diels-Alder reaction is the grand old
      classic, which is usually achieved with acid catalysis. In this report,
      hydroxypyrones, oxa-, and thiazolones are explored because they provide access to
      anionic dienes. Their [4+2] cycloaddition with cyclic and acyclic dienophiles,
      such as maleimides and fumarates, affords bicyclic products with four new
      stereogenic centers. Bifunctional anion-pi catalysts composed of amine bases next
      to the pi surface of naphthalenediimides (NDIs) are shown to selectively
      stabilize the "open", fully accessible anionic exo transition state on the pi
      acidic aromatic surface. Our results also include reactivities that are hard to
      access with conventional organocatalysts, such as the exo-specific and highly
      enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction of thiazolones and maleimides with complete
      suppression of the otherwise dominant Michael addition. With increasing pi
      acidity of the anion-pi catalysts, the rates, chemo-, diastereo-, and
      enantioselectivities increase consistently.

PMID- 28884962
TI  - Delphi consensus on bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: an
      evolutionary cul-de-sac or the birth pangs of a new technical framework?
AB  - Bile duct injury (BDI) during laparoscopic cholecystectomy remains a serious
      iatrogenic surgical complication. BDI most often occurs as a result of
      misidentification of the anatomy; however, clinical evidence on its precise
      mechanism and surgeons' perceptions is scarce. Surgeons from Japan, Korea,
      Taiwan, and the USA, etc. (n = 614) participated in a questionnaire regarding
      their BDI experience and near-misses; and perceptions on landmarks,
      intraoperative findings, and surgical techniques. Respondents voted for a Delphi
      process and graded each item on a five-point scale. The consensus was built when
      >=80% of overall responses were 4 or 5. Response rates for the first- and second
      round Delphi were 60.6% and 74.9%, respectively. Misidentification of local
      anatomy accounted for 76.2% of BDI. Final consensus was reached on: (1) Effective
      retraction of the gallbladder, (2) Always obtaining critical view of safety, and
      (3) Avoiding excessive use of electrocautery/clipping as vital procedures; and
      (4) Calot's triangle area and (5) Critical view of safety as important landmarks.
      For (6) Impacted gallstone and (7) Severe fibrosis/scarring in Calot's triangle,
      bail-out procedures may be indicated. A consensus was reached among expert
      surgeons on relevant landmarks and intraoperative findings and appropriate
      surgical techniques to avoid BDI.

PMID- 28884965
TI  - Favorable effects of hydroxychloroquine on serum low density lipid in patients
      with systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has shown to have significant immunomodulatory
      effects in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Current studies
      show favorable effects of HCQ on traditional cardiac risk factors in patients
      with SLE. This review examined the effects of HCQ on serum low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL) level in patients with SLE. METHODS: A systematic search of
      seven major literature search databases from their inception until 3 April, 2017
      identified nine studies. Random-effects pooled mean difference with corresponding
      95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. Heterogeneity was measured by I2 .
      Publication bias was assessed by visual inspection of funnel plots. Sensitivity
      analysis examined whether HCQ effect on serum total cholesterol level was similar
      to the main analysis. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and
      Evaluation system was used to assess the overall quality of evidence. RESULTS:
      Pooled study participants were 559 patients from eight observation studies (two
      before-after studies; six case-control studies) examining the effects of HCQ on
      serum LDL. Pooled study participants' characteristics were as follows: mean age
      45.719, female 95.262%, and prednisone use 58.366%. HCQ reduced mean LDL levels
      by 24.397 mg/dL (95% CI 8.921-39.872; P = 0.002). The number of studies
      identifying statin use was too few to perform meta-regression analysis of statin
      use. Heterogeneity was extensive (I2 = 94.739%). Symmetrical funnel plot
      visualized no evidence of publication bias. CONCLUSION: HCQ was associated with
      serum LDL level reduction by mean 24.397 mg/dL in patients with SLE. Future
      prospective studies are need to fully characterize the treatment effect.

PMID- 28884966
TI  - Enhancement of the luminescence properties of Sr3 (PO4 )2 :Dy3+ ,Li+ white-light
      emitting phosphors by charge compensator Li+ co-doping.
AB  - Sr3 (PO4 )2 :Dy3+ ,Li+ phosphors were prepared using a simple high temperature
      solid method for luminescence enhancement. The structures of the as-prepared
      samples agreed well with the standard phase of Sr3 (PO4 )2 , even when Dy3+ and
      Li+ were introduced. Under ultraviolet excitation at 350 nm, the Sr3 (PO4 )2
      :Dy3+ sample exhibited two emission peaks at 483 nm and 580 nm, which were due to
      the 4 F9/2  -> 6 H15/2 and 4 F9/2  -> 6 H13/2 transitions of Dy3+ ions,
      respectively. A white light was fabricated using these two emissions from the Sr3
      (PO4 )2 :Dy3+ phosphors. The luminescence properties of Sr3 (PO4 )2 :Dy3+ ,Li+
      phosphors, including emission intensity and decay time, were improved remarkably
      with the addition of Li+ as the charge compensator, which would promote their
      application in near-ultraviolet excited white-light-emitting diodes.

PMID- 28884967
TI  - Sexual Expression of Nursing Home Residents: Systematic Review of the Literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: Living longer, baby boomers will need specialized care offered by
      nursing homes to manage chronic conditions. This review explores the knowledge,
      attitudes, and experiences towards older people's sexuality and sexual expression
      in nursing homes-an important area of research to meet the needs of this emerging
      population. DESIGN: A primary search of the Cumulative Index to Nursing and
      Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and PubMed databases and secondary inclusion of
      cited references covering the period January 2000 to November 2016 identified 12
      relevant studies. METHODS: Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
      Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram of the screening process, data
      were extracted, summarized, and compared, and risk of bias was assessed focusing
      on ethical considerations, sample size and sampling methods, validity and
      reliability of data collection instruments, participation, cooperation, and
      response rate. FINDINGS: Overall, sexual expression in older adults is recognized
      as a basic need that should be supported. Positive attitudes towards sexuality in
      nursing homes were correlated with a higher level of knowledge about older
      adults' sexuality. In addition, positive predictors of attitudes towards
      sexuality in nursing homes were found to be: age, level of education, and years
      of experience. Barriers to addressing sexuality in the elderly are the lack of
      privacy and staff discomfort, which together represent common causes for
      loneliness and lack of intimacy in nursing homes. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing research
      and practice need to shift their focus towards individual needs of nursing home
      residents to accommodate their values and expectations. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Care
      providers must include a thorough assessment of sexual health of older adults
      living in nursing homes in routine practice, and include sexual health in the
      treatment plan.

PMID- 28884968
TI  - Boys have not caught up, family influences still continue: Influences on
      executive functioning and behavioral self-regulation in elementary students in
      Germany.
AB  - The development of self-regulation is influenced by various child-level and
      family-level characteristics. Previous research focusing on the preschool period
      reported a female advantage in self-regulation and negative effects of various
      adverse features of the family environment on self-regulation. The present study
      aimed to investigate growth in self-regulation (i.e., executive functioning and
      behavioral self-regulation) over 1 school year during early elementary school and
      to explore the influences of child sex, the level of home chaos, and family
      educational resources on self-regulation. Participants were 263 German children
      (51% girls; mean age 8.59 years, SD = 0.56 years). Data were collected during the
      fall and spring of the school year. A computer-based standardized test battery
      was used to assess executive functioning. Caregiver ratings assessed children's
      behavioral self-regulation and information on the family's home environment
      (chaotic home environment and educational resources). Results suggest growth in
      elementary school children's executive functioning over the course of the school
      year. However, there were no significant changes in children's behavioral self
      regulation between the beginning and the end of Grade 3. Sex differences in
      inhibitory control/cognitive flexibility and behavioral self-regulation were
      found, suggesting an advantage for girls. Educational resources in the family but
      not chaotic family environment were significantly related to self-regulation at
      both time-points. Children from families with more educational resources scored
      higher on self-regulation measures compared to their counterparts from less
      advantaged families. We did not find evidence for child-level or family-level
      characteristics predicting self-regulation growth over time. Findings add to the
      evidence of a gender gap in self-regulation skills, but suggest that it might not
      further widen towards the end of elementary school age. Adequate self-regulation
      skills should be fostered in both girls and boys. Results also add to the
      importance of supporting self-regulation development in children from
      disadvantaged family backgrounds early in life.

PMID- 28884969
TI  - Evaluation of Bioequivalence Between the New Procaterol Hydrochloride Hydrate Dry
      Powder Inhaler and the Approved Dry Powder Inhaler in Patients With Asthma in a
      Randomized, Double-Blind, Double-Dummy, Crossover Comparison Study: A Phase 3
      Study.
AB  - Procaterol hydrochloride hydrate (procaterol) is a beta2 -adrenergic receptor
      agonist that induces a strong bronchodilatory effect. The procaterol dry powder
      inhaler (DPI) has been frequently used in patients with bronchial asthma or
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We evaluated the bioequivalence and safety
      between the new procaterol DPI (new DPI) and the approved procaterol DPI
      (approved DPI). This study was a randomized, double-blind, double-dummy,
      crossover comparison to evaluate the pharmacodynamic equivalence of the new DPI
      and the approved DPI in patients with bronchial asthma. Primary efficacy
      variables were area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) forced expiratory
      volume in the first second (FEV1 )/h and maximum FEV1 during the 480-minute
      measurement period. Patients were divided into 2 groups, New-DPI-First (n = 8)
      and Approved-DPI-First (n = 8), according to the investigational medical product
      that was administered first. Patients inhaled 20 MUg of procaterol in each
      period. FEV1 was measured by a spirometer at predose and at 15, 30, 60, 90, 120,
      180, 240, 360, and 480 minutes after each investigational medical product
      administration. Equivalence was evaluated by confirming that the 2-sided 90%CIs
      for the difference between the new and the approved DPI in means of AUC (FEV1 )/h
      and maximum FEV1 were within the acceptance criteria of -0.15 to 0.15 L. The
      difference in means of AUC (FEV1 )/h and maximum FEV1 was 0.041 L and 0.033 L,
      respectively, and the 90%CI was 0.004 to 0.078 L and -0.008 to 0.074 L,
      respectively. These CIs were both within the acceptance criteria. The new DPI was
      assessed as being bioequivalent to the approved DPI.

PMID- 28884970
TI  - A Dithiol Compound Binds to the Zinc Finger Protein TRAF6 and Suppresses Its
      Ubiquitination.
AB  - Despite various inhibitors targeting the zinc center(s) of enzymes, drugs that
      target zinc fingers have not been examined in detail. We previously developed a
      dithiol compound named SN-1 that has an inhibitory effect on the function of zinc
      finger transcription factors, but its mechanism of action has not yet been
      elucidated. To establish a general principle for new drugs, the details of the
      action of SN-1 against a zinc finger protein were examined. As a zinc-finger
      containing protein, we focused on TRAF6, which is related to cancer and
      inflammation. Binding of SN-1 to TRAF6 and its effect on TRAF6 ubiquitination
      were examined in vitro, and the binding mode was calculated by computational
      methodology. Furthermore, ubiquitination of TRAF6 and downstream signaling was
      examined by cell-based experiments. The results show that SN-1 binds to TRAF6,
      inhibiting its auto-ubiquitination and downstream NF-kappaB signaling. Docking
      studies indicate that SN-1 binds directly to the first zinc finger of TRAF6. This
      binding disrupts the neighboring structure, that is, the RING finger domain, to
      suppress the ubiquitin ligase activity of TRAF6. Taken together, this study
      provides a platform for developing new small molecules that target zinc finger
      proteins.

PMID- 28884972
TI  - In Situ Fabrication of Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Based on Cu/Co-ZIF and Cu2 O.
AB  - We successfully fabricate a well-defined inorganic/organic hybrid Cu2 O@Cu/Co-ZIF
      (ZIF=zeolitic imidazolate frameworks) by use of growth of dual-metal Cu/Co-ZIF on
      the obtained Cu2 O hollow spheres. The key point of the strategy is coupling the
      in situ self-sacrificing template. Cu2 O and the coordination of metal ions (Cu+
      and Co2+ ) with 2-methylimidazole. This new hybrid was characterized by powder X
      ray diffraction, (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive
      spectroscopy mapping, in situ FT-IR spectroscopy, UV/Vis diffuse reflection
      spectroscopy, N2 sorption measurements, and electron spin resonance. It was
      evidenced that Cu/Co-ZIF nanocrystals have been assembled to continuous shells
      surrounding the Cu2 O cores as well as in the voids between layers and inner
      pores. Cu2 O@Cu/Co-ZIF exhibits visible light responsiveness and holds potential
      as narrow band gap semiconductor and visible photocatalyst.

PMID- 28884971
TI  - Testing the face shape hypothesis in twins discordant for nonsyndromic orofacial
      clefting.
AB  - Nonsyndromic orofacial clefts (OFCs) are complex traits characterized by
      multifactorial inheritance and wide phenotypic variability. Numerous studies have
      shown subtle differences in the faces of unaffected relatives from cleft families
      compared to controls, the implication being that such outward differences are an
      incomplete expression reflecting an underlying genetic predisposition. Twins
      discordant for OFCs provide a unique opportunity to further test this idea, as
      the unaffected co-twin shares on average 50% (for dizygotic twins) and 100% (for
      monozygotic twins) of the genetic risk factors as the affected twin. We used 3D
      surface imaging and spatially-dense morphometry to compare facial shape in a
      sample of 44 unaffected co-twins and age- and sex-matched unaffected controls (n
      = 241). Unaffected co-twins showed statistically significant differences in the
      midface, lateral upper face, and forehead regions, compared to controls.
      Furthermore, co-twins were characterized by a distinct pattern of midfacial
      retrusion, broader upper faces, and greater protrusion of the mandible and brow
      ridges. This same general facial pattern was shown in both unaffected monozygotic
      and dizygotic co-twin subsets. These results provide additional support that
      altered facial shape is a phenotypic marker for OFC susceptibility.

PMID- 28884974
TI  - 42nd FEBS Congress, From Molecules to Cells and Back, Jerusalem, Israel,
      September 10-14, 2017.

PMID- 28884973
TI  - A novel multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay for detection of both HLA
      A*31:01/HLA-B*15:02 alleles, which confer susceptibility to carbamazepine-induced
      severe cutaneous adverse reactions.
AB  - HLA-A*31:01 and HLA-B*15:02 have been widely reported to confer genetic
      susceptibility to carbamazepine (CBZ)-induced severe cutaneous adverse reactions
      (SCARs). Accordingly, the screening for these alleles has been highly recommended
      to prevent SCAR prior to introducing CBZ therapy. Although a number of methods
      are available for screening of HLA-A*31:01 or HLA-B*15:02 alleles separately,
      developing an assay that can detect both these alleles would be more clinically
      practical, cost-effective and less time-consuming. Therefore, in this study, a
      multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using TaqMan Probe was designed and
      validated to be able to detect HLA-A*31:01 and HLA-B*15:02. In comparison with
      Luminex-SSO/SBT/SSB, the multiplex PCR assay for detection of HLA-A*31:01 and HLA
      B*15:02 had a perfect agreement in the validation group of 125 samples. The
      method was able to detect the target genes at the DNA concentration of 0.037
      ng/MUL. The unit cost of this assay is less than $5 USD with total time of 110
      minutes.

PMID- 28884975
TI  - Pharmacological interventions to improve cognition and adaptive functioning in
      Down syndrome: Strides to date.
AB  - Although an increasing number of clinical trials have been developed for
      cognition in Down syndrome, there has been limited success to date in identifying
      effective interventions. This review describes the progression from pre-clinical
      studies with mouse models to human clinical trials research using pharmacological
      interventions to improve cognition and adaptive functioning in Down syndrome. We
      also provide considerations for investigators when conducting human clinical
      trials and describe strategies for the pharmaceutical industry to advance the
      field in drug discovery for Down syndrome. Future research focusing on earlier
      pharmaceutical interventions, development of appropriate outcome measures, and
      greater collaboration between industry, academia, advocacy, and regulatory groups
      will be important for addressing limitations from prior studies and developing
      potential effective interventions for cognition in Down syndrome.

PMID- 28884976
TI  - Prenatal alcohol exposure enhances the susceptibility to NMDA-induced generalized
      tonic-clonic seizures in developing rats.
AB  - AIMS: Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with a higher likelihood of
      developing generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in infants and children.
      However, experimental studies of PAE-related seizures have yielded conflicting
      results. Here, we investigated the effect of acute PAE on N-methyl-D-aspartate
      (NMDA)-induced seizures in developing rats. METHODS: Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats
      were given an oral dose of either ethanol (5 g/kg body weight) or vehicle on
      embryonic day 18. The offspring were tested for susceptibility to NMDA-induced
      seizures on postnatal day 7 (P7), 21 (P21), 35 (P35), and 42 (P42). Specifically,
      the prevalence and latency of NMDA-induced continuous wild running-like behaviors
      (CWR), flexion seizures (FS), wild running seizures (WRS), GTCS, and tonic
      seizures (TS) were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: N-methyl-D-aspartate-induced
      seizures consisted of CWR, FS, GTCS, and TS in <P21 rats, while WRS, GTCS, and TS
      were observed in >P21 rats. Thus, GTCS were consistently observed during
      development. PAE significantly increases the prevalence of GTCS in female and
      male P7-P21 rats and P7-P35 rats, respectively, but not in older rats. PAE also
      increases the prevalence of TS in male, but not female P21-P35 rats. CONCLUSIONS:
      The PAE animal model of GTCS may provide a new opportunity to investigate the
      mechanisms that underlie neuronal hyperexcitability in developing animals
      prenatally-exposed to alcohol.

PMID- 28884977
TI  - Organoid technology for brain and therapeutics research.
AB  - Brain is one of the most complex organs in human. The current brain research is
      mainly based on the animal models and traditional cell culture. However, the
      inherent species differences between humans and animals as well as the gap
      between organ level and cell level make it difficult to study human brain
      development and associated disorders through traditional technologies. Recently,
      the brain organoids derived from pluripotent stem cells have been reported to
      recapitulate many key features of human brain in vivo, for example recapitulating
      the zone of putative outer radial glia cells. Brain organoids offer a new
      platform for scientists to study brain development, neurological diseases, drug
      discovery and personalized medicine, regenerative medicine, and so on. Here, we
      discuss the progress, applications, advantages, limitations, and prospects of
      brain organoid technology in neurosciences and related therapeutics.

PMID- 28884978
TI  - Response to Letter to the Editor: Can MR spectroscopy and muscle biopsy findings
      be correlated in MELAS and CPEO?

PMID- 28884979
TI  - Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs on the Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness in
      Epileptic Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: It has been reported that taking antiepileptic drugs
      (AEDs) may increase the risk of atherosclerosis. We performed a meta-analysis to
      evaluate the carotid artery intima-media thickness (CA-IMT) as a surrogate factor
      for atherosclerosis in epileptic patients. METHODS: We searched NCBI (PubMed),
      ISI Web of Knowledge, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases for studies of
      the association between AEDs and CA-IMT in epileptic patients. A random-effects
      meta-analysis was used to pool results across studies. RESULTS: Fifteen studies
      involving 1,775 epileptic patients were included in the analysis. The overall CA
      IMT was significantly larger among users of AEDs [mean difference (MD)=0.09 mm,
      95% confidence interval (CI)=0.06-0.12 mm). When stratified by age, the MD was
      similar in adult patients (MD=0.09 mm, 95% CI=0.06-0.13 mm), but no significant
      difference was observed in children (MD=0.03 mm, 95% CI=0.00-0.07 mm). Regarding
      specific AEDs, monotherapy with carbamazepine (CBZ) or valproic acid (VPA) was
      associated with a larger CA-IMT, while phenytoin monotherapy was not and the
      result for lamotrigine was inconclusive. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that
      using AEDs is associated with the CA-IMT in patients with epilepsy, particularly
      for adult patients. In particular, CBZ and VPA may be related to a significant
      increase in CA-IMT.

PMID- 28884980
TI  - Perioperative Stroke, In-Hospital Mortality, and Postoperative Morbidity
      Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: A Nationwide Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Perioperative stroke is a significant complication of
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). This study aimed to quantify
      perioperative stroke as an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality and
      postoperative morbidity in patients receiving TAVI. METHODS: A retrospective
      cohort study was conducted using the National Inpatient Sample. Patients
      undergoing TAVI during 2012 and 2013 were identified using diagnostic codes of
      International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision. Univariate and
      multivariate analyses were performed using patient demographics and comorbidities
      to identify predictors of mortality and morbidity, defined by a length of stay of
      >14 days and/or discharge to a place other than home. RESULTS: Data were obtained
      from 7,556 patients undergoing TAVI during 2012 and 2013. The incidence rates of
      mortality and morbidity were 4.57 and 71.12%, respectively. Perioperative stroke
      was an independent risk factor for mortality [odds ratio (OR)=3.182, 95%
      confidence interval (CI)=1.530-6.618, p=0.002], as were infection (OR=17.899, 95%
      CI=9.876-32.440, p<0.001) and pericardial tamponade (OR=7.272, 95% CI=2.874
      18.402, p<0.001). Stroke also predicted morbidity (OR=5.223, 95% CI=2.005-13.608,
      p=0.001), which was also associated with age, being female, being Asian, moderate
      and high Van Walraven scores (VWR), and infection. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion,
      perioperative stroke was found to be independently associated with in-hospital
      mortality and postoperative morbidity, as are age and high VWR. Our findings
      support the use of further preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative
      management strategies during TAVI.

PMID- 28884981
TI  - Ultrastructural Changes in Skeletal Muscle of Infants with Mitochondrial
      Respiratory Chain Complex I Defects.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The pathogenesis of mitochondrial disease (MD) involves
      the disruption of cellular energy metabolism, which results from defects in the
      mitochondrial respiratory chain complex (MRC). We investigated whether infants
      with MRC I defects showed ultrastructural changes in skeletal muscle. METHODS:
      Twelve infants were enrolled in this study. They were initially evaluated for
      unexplained neurodegenerative symptoms, myopathies, or other progressive
      multiorgan involvement, and underwent muscle biopsies when MD was suspected.
      Muscle tissue samples were subjected to biochemical enzyme assays and observation
      by transmission electron microscopy. We compared and analyzed the ultrastructure
      of skeletal muscle tissues obtained from patients with and without MRC I defects.
      RESULTS: Biochemical enzyme assays confirmed the presence of MRC I defects in 7
      of the 12 patients. Larger mitochondria, lipid droplets, and fused structures
      between the outer mitochondrial membrane and lipid droplets were observed in the
      skeletal muscles of patients with MRC I defects. CONCLUSIONS: Mitochondrial
      functional defects in MRC I disrupt certain activities related to adenosine
      triphosphate synthesis that produce changes in the skeletal muscle. The
      ultrastructural changes observed in the infants in this study might serve as
      unique markers for the detection of MD.

PMID- 28884982
TI  - Comparison of Somatic and Sudomotor Nerve Fibers in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to find a sensitive
      method for the early detection of diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) and determine the
      relationship between the functions of somatic and autonomic small nerve fibers in
      DPN. METHODS: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and DPN based on clinical
      symptoms, signs, intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD), and findings in the
      quantitative sudomotor axon reflex test (QSART) were enrolled retrospectively.
      Neurological examinations and nerve conduction studies were performed on all
      patients. Heart-rate variability during deep breathing (DB ratio) and the
      Valsalva maneuver (Valsalva ratio) were used to quantify the cardiovagal
      function. Patients were divided into two groups: 1) normal nerve conduction,
      defined as small-fiber neuropathy (SFN) and 2) abnormal nerve conduction, defined
      as mixed-fiber neuropathy. RESULTS: In total, 82 patients were enrolled (age:
      60.7+/-10.7 years, mean+/-SD). A decreased IENFD was the most frequent
      abnormality across all of the patients, followed by abnormalities of the QSART
      and cardiovagal function. A decreased IENFD was more sensitive than the QSART, DB
      ratio, and Valsalva ratio for detecting diabetic SFN. The DB ratio was
      significantly correlated with the duration of diabetes mellitus and clinical
      symptoms and signs. There was no correlation between the IENFD and the findings
      of the QSART for the distal leg. CONCLUSIONS: Measuring the IENFD was a more
      sensitive method than the QSART for the early detection of DPN. The degree of
      involvement of the somatic small nerve fibers and sudomotor nerve fibers was
      independent in DPN.

PMID- 28884983
TI  - Unusual Neurological Presentation of Nevoid Basal Cell Carcinoma Syndrome (Gorlin
      Goltz Syndrome).

PMID- 28884984
TI  - Tafamidis for a Transplant Patient with Transthyretin Amyloid Polyneuropathy.

PMID- 28884985
TI  - Staged endovascular repair of critical limb ischemia in high risk patients: the
      procedural and clinical outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper was to retrospectively evaluate the procedural
      and clinical outcomes after staged angioplasty in high-risk, chronic, critical
      limb ischemia (CLI) patients. METHODS: Between 2013 and 2015, 29 patients (29
      limbs) (mean age 77 years) were treated by staged revascularization procedures in
      1) the iliac artery-DFA alone or with the femoropopliteal artery followed by 2)
      the femoropopliteal artery and a below-the-knee artery. All patients had long
      segment iliofemoral artery and below-the-knee artery (TASCII D) occlusions with
      abnormal serum myoglobin and ischemic lesions. Clinical outcome was assessed at
      1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Clinical treatment efficacy was defined as patient
      survival with resolved CLI without major amputations after the last
      revascularization procedure. RESULTS: Angioplasty was performed in all limbs with
      a technical success rate of 100%. All the patients received 2 stage endovascular
      interventions. The interval time between the two stages was 19.56+/-6.56 days. In
      the second stage, the peroneal artery (PA) in 11 patients, the anterior tibial
      artery (ATA) in 7 patients, both the PA and ATA in 6 patients, and the posterior
      tibial artery (PTA) in 6 patients were recanalized. Rest pain and lesions were
      resolved in all patients after the second-stage revascularization. An upward
      shift of limb status and EQ-5D scores after the first or second revascularization
      indicated a significant change. No major amputations occurred, although minor
      amputations were required in 5 patients within 3 months after the second
      endovascular revascularization. The primary patency was 82.76%. Repeat TLR was
      necessary for 5 patients after endovascular BTK revascularization. Clinical
      treatment efficacy was 71% at 12 months; the cumulative rate of repeat target
      limb revascularization was 45.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Staged endovascular treatment in
      high-risk CLI patients can effectively relieve rest pain and symptoms of
      necrosis, which greatly improves the survival and quality of life of patients
      less suited for conventional repair.

PMID- 28884986
TI  - Corticosteroids in management of anaphylaxis; a systematic review of evidence.
AB  - Summary: As anaphylaxis is a medical emergency, there are no randomized
      controlled clinical trials on its emergency management. Therefore, current
      guidelines are mostly based on data from observational studies, animal and
      laboratory studies. Although epinephrine is the mainstay of recommended
      treatment, corticosteroids are also frequently used. This review evaluates the
      evidence on the use of corticosteroids in emergency management of anaphylaxis
      from published human and animal or laboratories studies. Thirty original research
      papers were found with 22 human studies and eight animal or laboratory studies.
      The average rate of corticosteroid use in emergency treatment was 67.99% (range
      48% to 100%). Corticosteroids appear to reduce the length of hospital stay, but
      did not reduce revisits to the emergency department. There was no consensus on
      whether corticosteroids reduce biphasic anaphylactic reactions. None of the human
      studies had sufficient data to compare the response to treatment in different
      treatment groups (i.e. corticosteroids, epinephrine, antihistamines). Animal
      studies demonstrated that corticosteroids act through multiple mechanisms. These
      modulate gene expression, with effects becoming evident 4 to 24 hours after
      administration. A much quicker response has been detected within 5 to 30 minutes,
      through blockade of signal activation of glucocorticoid receptors independent of
      their genomic effects. Therefore, we conclude that there is no compelling
      evidence to support or oppose the use of corticosteroid in emergency treatment of
      anaphylaxis. However, based on the available data, it appears to be beneficial
      and there was no evidence of adverse outcomes related to the use of
      corticosteroids in emergency treatment of anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28884987
TI  - The link between chronic spontaneous urticaria and metabolic syndrome.
AB  - Summary: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular
      disease and is considered a chronic low-level systemic inflammatory condition.
      Recent preliminary findings have shown an increased prevalence of MS among
      patients with chronic urticaria (CU) as compared to controls, with a particularly
      higher prevalence detected in patients with uncontrolled CU. Chronic spontaneous
      urticaria (CSU) appears to share some pathomechanisms with MS, including a pro
      inflammatory state, increased oxidative stress, alterations in adipokine profile
      and activation of the coagulation system. Further studies are needed to assess
      the association of MS and its components with CU/CSU and to obtain more precise
      information regarding epidemiological aspects, clinical significance and
      implications. The aim of this review is to present the most relevant literature
      data on the link between CU/CSU and MS.

PMID- 28884988
TI  - Assessment of allergen-specific IgE by immunoblotting method in atopic
      dermatitis.
AB  - Summary: Background and Objectives. Stimulating the immune system by exposure to
      various allergens to produce specific IgE has a significant role in the
      pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis. Identifying disease-causing allergens,
      prevention of exposure to those allergens, and immunotherapy will play an
      important role in the treatment of Atopic Disease. The purpose of this study was
      to determine the common allergens of northwest of Iran in patients with atopic
      dermatitis that are resistant to treatment. Materials and methods. In this
      descriptive-analytical study, serum levels of total IgE and frequency of specific
      IgE were measured by Immunoblotting against 20 common allergens in 150 cases of
      patients with atopic dermatitis, attending to dermatology and asthma and allergy
      clinics from 2010 to 2011. The control group consisted of individuals who had
      been clinically healthy. Results. In the 90% of patients that were included in
      this study, total IgE levels were higher than in healthy people with mean serum
      levels of total IgE 227.51 +/- 103 IU/ml. 136 patients (90.6%) had specific IgE
      for at least one allergen. The frequency of positive allergens among the patients
      who were included in this study were 53.34%, 26.8%, and 19.56% respectively in
      plants and fungus allergens group, animal allergens group and food allergens
      group. After avoiding of the allergens (which they had been sensitized to), 60%
      of patients were cured with immune therapy, and total IgE serum levels in the
      control group were not increased. Conclusion. Identifying the abundant allergens
      such as cultivated rye, Timothy grass, house dust mite, birch, cat, horse,
      potato, dog, egg white, cow milk, in order to advise patients to avoid them or to
      do immunotherapy and desensitization, is useful in this area.

PMID- 28884989
TI  - Hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of anti-histamine refractory chronic
      spontaneous urticaria, randomized single-blinded placebo-controlled trial and an
      open label comparison study.
AB  - Summary: Background. The management of anti-histamine refractory chronic
      spontaneous urticaria (CSU) has poorly defined therapeutic options. Some patients
      with CSU respond poorly to a fourfold increase in dosage of H1-anti-histamines
      treatment. Aim. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of an
      adjunct treatment of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on remission rate and reduction of
      urticarial symptoms. Methods. Sixty subjects with anti-histamine refractory CSU
      were randomly assigned to 400 mg of HCQ daily or placebo for 12 weeks in a single
      blind placebo controlled trial. In a second follow up trial, non-remission
      subjects were offered open-label HCQ in the placebo group or a leukotriene
      receptor antagonist (LTRA) in the HCQ group for 12 weeks. All subjects took 4 H1
      anti-histamines tablets throughout the study. The endpoints measured were the
      urticarial symptom score (USS) and dermatology life quality index (DLQI).
      Results. Forty-eight patients (24 HCQ, 24 placebos) completed the randomized
      trial medication. Five of 24 on HCQ treatment but none on placebo had a remission
      at 12 weeks (P = 0.01). There was a low proportion of therapeutic failures
      occurred with 12-week HCQ treatment (n = 5) compared with placebo (n = 14, P =
      0.001). After 12 weeks, USS and DLQI significantly improved in HCQ group over the
      placebo group. Forty non-remission subjects completed an open-label HCQ (n = 22)
      or LTRA (n = 18) comparison study. The remission rates on HCQ and LTRA were
      22.72% and 5.55% at 12 weeks. However, no significant difference between the two
      groups in the therapeutic responses was observed. The mean USS on HCQ
      significantly decreased compared to the LTRA group, but there was no significant
      difference in DLQI. The adverse events reported were minimal and there were no
      subjects who discontinued the trial. Conclusions. This study suggests that HCQ is
      clinically effective as an adjunct treatment for CSU.

PMID- 28884990
TI  - Evaluation of asthma control in the pharmacy: an Italian cross-sectional study.
AB  - Summary: Background. In Western countries a large proportion of asthmatic
      patients remain uncontrolled, despite the availability of effective drugs. An
      involvement of pharmacies / pharmacists in asthma management has been suggested
      in guidelines, since this could provide a relevant support. Objective. The
      present cross-sectional study aimed at assessing the level of asthma control, by
      using ACT questionnaire, in the community pharmacies in the County of Verona,
      North East of Italy. Methods. A call for participation was sent by Verona
      Pharmacists' Association to all the pharmacies located in the Verona
      municipality. Patients with a medical prescription and an asthma exemption code
      were recruited in pharmacies. They were asked to fill the ACT questionnaire and
      to answer some additional questions on asthma treatment, smoke habits and
      comorbidities. Results. Thirty-seven community pharmacies recruited 239 patients.
      According to the ACT score, more than 50% of patients had a controlled asthma but
      20% of them were totally uncontrolled and 12% were using oral steroid. Only 2.9%
      of patients had received an asthma action plan. Asthma was intermittent in 17.6%
      of patients, mild persistent in 13.8%, moderate persistent in 63.1% and severe in
      5.4%. Discordance was observed between the self-perceived asthma control and
      objective parameters, when available. Of note, in the severe asthma group, most
      patients had an ACT > 20. Conclusion. This is the first Italian pharmacy-based
      study on asthma control. A better asthma control was recorded in this study in
      comparison with other trials, but about 50% of patients were insufficiently
      controlled. The community pharmacies can play a relevant role in the preliminary
      assessment of asthma control by using easy and not time consuming tools, such as
      ACT.

PMID- 28884991
TI  - Acute cardiac disease in a patient with hyper-IgE syndrome.
AB  - Summary: We describe the case of a 24-year-old male with hyper-IgE syndrome
      (HIES) which was diagnosed at 4 years of age and died from a very rare cardiac
      complication. He had typical clinical and laboratory manifestations of HIES,
      including total serum IgE as high as > 100,000 IU/mL. Stem cell transplantation
      was not available. During the 20-year follow-up, he suffered numerous various
      infections of the skin and deep organs, partial lung resection, as well as
      multiple bone fractures. At age 24, he developed acute decompensated heart
      failure associated with elevated serum troponin I and brain natriuretic protein.
      Two-dimensional echocardiogram revealed global hypokinesis of the left ventricle
      with estimated ejection fraction 20-25%, and catheterization revealed ectasia of
      multiple coronary arteries. Endomyocardial biopsy showed lymphocytic myocarditis,
      focal necrosis, mild fibrosis, and myxoid degeneration, but cultures were
      negative. The patient improved on corticosteroid therapy and was discharged on
      heart failure therapy and external defibrillator. Six weeks later, he developed
      supraventricular tachycardia and persistent global hypokinesis and was treated
      with amiodarone. A trial of intravenous immunoglobulin was initiated and was
      repeated as outpatient every four weeks for four times. However, his cardiac
      function did not improve and he developed severe hypotension and pulseless
      electrical activity arrest. Resuscitation was unsuccessful. To the best of our
      knowledge, this is the first reported case of HIES complicated with lymphocytic
      myocarditis. Both immunologists and cardiologists need to be aware of such a
      complication and practice caution in using immunosuppressants when the patient's
      immune status is markedly compromised.

PMID- 28884992
TI  - New therapeutic approach by sirolimus for enteropathy treatment in patients with
      LRBA deficiency.
AB  - Summary: Purpose. To report the successful use of sirolimus for management of
      enteropathy in four patients with LPS-responsive beige-like anchor protein (LRBA)
      deficiency. Methods. Case series. Results. sirolimus therapy led to a complete
      improvement of symptoms including decrease in frequency and severity of diarrhea,
      as well as patients' weight gain. No signs of abdominal cramps and anorexia were
      also detected during the follow up period after treatment. Conclusions. sirolimus
      with its potential efficacy and immunomodulatory properties may be recommended
      for the treatment of severe enteropathy refractory to conventional therapy in
      patients with LRBA deficiency.

PMID- 28884994
TI  - The International Health Regulations (IHR) - 10 years of global public health
      security.

PMID- 28884993
TI  - Cholera, 2016.

PMID- 28884995
TI  - The opioid epidemic: What can surgeons do about it?

PMID- 28884996
TI  - CoC Chair Dr. Shulman works to improve quality of cancer care.

PMID- 28884997
TI  - Latin America Indicator Research Coalition examines prehospital care using a
      trauma systems applicationof LCoGS indicator 1.

PMID- 28884998
TI  - Profiles in surgical research: Julie A. Freischlag, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon).

PMID- 28884999
TI  - Near-Infrared Trigged Stimulus-Responsive Photonic Crystals with Hierarchical
      Structures.
AB  - Stimuli-responsive photonic crystals (PCs) trigged by light would provide a novel
      intuitive and quantitative method for noninvasive detection. Inspired by the
      flame-detecting aptitude of fire beetles and the hierarchical photonic structures
      of butterfly wings, we herein developed near-infrared stimuli-responsive PCs
      through coupling photothermal Fe3O4 nanoparticles with thermoresponsive poly(N
      isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), with hierarchical photonic structured butterfly
      wing scales as the template. The nanoparticles within 10 s transferred near
      infrared radiation into heat that triggered the phase transition of PNIPAM; this
      almost immediately posed an anticipated effect on the PNIPAM refractive index and
      resulted in a composite spectrum change of ~26 nm, leading to the direct visual
      readout. It is noteworthy that the whole process is durable and stable mainly
      owing to the chemical bonding formed between PNIPAM and the biotemplate. We
      envision that this biologically inspired approach could be utilized in a broad
      range of applications and would have a great impact on various monitoring
      processes and medical sensing.

PMID- 28885000
TI  - A Multiplatform Approach for the Discovery of Novel Drug-Induced Kidney Injury
      Biomarkers.
AB  - Drug-induced kidney injury (DIKI) is a common toxicity observed in pharmaceutical
      development. We demonstrated the use of label-free liquid chromatography-mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS) and multiplex liquid chromatography-single reaction
      monitoring (LC-SRM) as practical extensions of standard immunoassay based safety
      biomarker assessments for identification of new toxicity marker candidates and
      for improved mechanistic understanding. Two different anticancer drugs,
      doxorubicin (DOX) and cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloridoplatinum, CDDP), were
      chosen as the toxicants due to their different modes of nephrotoxicity. Analyses
      of urine samples from toxicant treated and untreated rats were compared to
      identify biochemical analytes that changed in response to toxicant exposure. A
      discovery (label-free LC-MS) and targeted proteomics (multiplex LC-SRM) approach
      was used in combination with well established immunoassay experiments for the
      identification of a panel of urinary protein markers related to drug induced
      nephrotoxicity in rats. The initial generation of an expanded set of markers was
      accomplished using the label-free LC-MS discovery screen and ELISA based analysis
      of six nephrotoxicity biomarker proteins. Diagnostic performance of the expanded
      analyte set was statistically compared to conventional nephrotoxicity biomarkers.
      False discovery rate (FDR) analysis revealed 18 and 28 proteins from the CDDP and
      DOX groups, respectively, exhibiting significant differences between the vehicle
      and treated groups. Multiplex SRM assays were constructed to more precisely
      quantify candidate markers selected from the discovery screen and immunoassay
      experiments. To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity for each of the
      candidate biomarkers, histopathology severity scores were used as a benchmark for
      renal injury followed by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis
      on selected biomarkers. Further examination of the best performing analytes
      revealed relevant biological significance after consideration of anatomical
      localization and functional roles. In summary, the inclusion of mass spectrometry
      together with conventional ELISA based assays resulted in the identification of
      an expanded set of biomarkers with a realistic potential for providing additional
      beneficial information in mechanistic investigations of drug induced kidney
      injury and with similar responsiveness to conventionally applied indicators of
      renal injury.

PMID- 28885001
TI  - Two Are Better than One: Halloysite Nanotubes-Supported Surface Imprinted
      Nanoparticles Using Synergy of Metal Chelating and Low pKa Boronic Acid Monomers
      for Highly Specific Luteolin Binding under Neutral Condition.
AB  - Surface-imprinted nanoparticles with double recognition (DM-MIPs) are fabricated
      onto halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) for highly specific separation of natural
      flavone luteolin (LTL) under neutral condition. Specifically, a two-step strategy
      via consecutive surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP)
      is employed to introduce inherent recognition of molecular imprinting and
      reversible covalent affinity of boronic acid ligands and immobilized Zn2+ into DM
      MIPs. First, Zn2+-immobilized poly(vinyl imidazole) (PVLD) shell based on the
      HNTs via the first SI-ATRP is prepared to capture LTL by metal chelating. Then
      HNTs-supported surface imprinted nanoparticles are prepared using low pKa boronic
      acid monomer 4-(2-acrylamidoethylcarbamoyl)-3-fluorophenylboronic acid (AMC-FPBA)
      via the second SI-ATRP. Taking advantage of low apparent pKa of AMC-FPBA and
      large high-affinity binding site density, DM-MIPs possess a promising binding
      with cis-diol-containing LTL under neutral condition. In static adsorption, DM
      MIPs show large LTL loading amount (83.42 mg g-1), fast capture kinetics,
      remarkable selectivity, and excellent recyclability at pH = 7.0. More
      importantly, by reducing the pH to 4.0, the loaded TLL can be simply released. As
      a proof of this concept, a commercially available LTL with 85% purity can be
      easily enriched and further purified, and the product exhibits the similar
      antibacterial performance with standard substance.

PMID- 28885002
TI  - A New Nucleoside Antibiotic Chokes Bacterial RNA Polymerase.

PMID- 28885003
TI  - Differential Enzymatic 16O/18O Labeling for the Detection of Cross-Linked Nucleic
      Acid-Protein Heteroconjugates.
AB  - Cross-linking of nucleic acids to proteins in combination with mass spectrometry
      permits the precise identification of interacting residues between nucleic acid
      protein complexes. However, the mass spectrometric identification and
      characterization of cross-linked nucleic acid-protein heteroconjugates within a
      complex sample is challenging. Here we establish a novel enzymatic differential
      16O/18O-labeling approach, which uniquely labels heteroconjugates. We have
      developed an automated data analysis workflow based on OpenMS for the
      identification of differentially isotopically labeled heteroconjugates against a
      complex background. We validated our method using synthetic model DNA
      oligonucleotide-peptide heteroconjugates, which were subjected to the labeling
      reaction and analyzed by high-resolution FTICR mass spectrometry.

PMID- 28885004
TI  - Gold-Catalyzed Solid-Phase Synthesis of 3,4-Dihydropyrazin-2(1H)-ones: Relevant
      Pharmacophores and Peptide Backbone Constraints.
AB  - Here, we report the efficient solid-phase synthesis of N-propargyl peptides using
      Fmoc-amino acids and propargyl alcohol as key building blocks. Gold-catalyzed
      nucleophilic addition to the triple bond induced C-N bond formation, which
      triggered intramolecular cyclization, yielding 1,3,4-trisubstituted-5-methyl-3,4
      dihydropyrazin-2(1H)-ones. Conformations of acyclic and constrained peptides were
      compared using a two-step conformer distribution analysis at the molecular
      mechanics level and density functional theory. The results indicated that the
      incorporation of heterocyclic molecular scaffold into a short peptide sequence
      adopted extended conformation of peptide chain. The amide bond adjacent to the
      constraint did not show significant preference for either cis or trans isomerism.
      Prepared model compounds demonstrate a proof of concept for gold-catalyzed
      polymer-supported synthesis of variously substituted 3,4-dihydropyrazin-2(1H)
      ones for applications in drug discovery and peptide backbone constraints.

PMID- 28885005
TI  - MOF-Mediated Destruction of Cancer Using the Cell's Own Hydrogen Peroxide.
AB  - A novel reduced iron metal-organic framework nanoparticle with cytotoxicity
      specific to cancer cells is presented. This nanoparticle was prepared via a
      hydrothermal method, reduced using hydroquinone, and finally conjugated with
      folic acid (namely, rMOF-FA). The synthesized nanoparticle shows the controlled
      release of iron in an acidic ex-vivo environment. Iron present on the rMOF-FA and
      released into solution can react with high levels of hydrogen peroxide found
      specifically in cancer cells to increase the hydroxyl radical concentration. The
      hydroxyl radicals oxidize proteins, lipids, and/or DNA within the biological
      system to decrease cell viability. In vitro experiments demonstrate that this
      novel nanoparticle is cytotoxic to cancer cells (HeLa) through generation of OH*
      inside the cells. At low concentrations of rMOF-FA, the cancer cell viability
      decreases dramatically, with no obvious reduction of normal cell (NIH-3T3)
      viability. The calculated half-maximum inhibitory concentration value (IC50) was
      43 MUg/mL for HeLa cells, which was significantly higher than 105 MUg/mL for NIH
      3T3. This work thus demonstrates a new type of agent for controlled hydroxyl
      radical generation using the Fenton reaction to kill the tumor cells.

PMID- 28885006
TI  - Preparation of Ice-Templated MOF-Polymer Composite Monoliths and Their
      Application for Wastewater Treatment with High Capacity and Easy Recycling.
AB  - An ice-templating process was used to fabricate polymer/MOF monoliths,
      specifically chitosan/UiO-66, as adsorbents for water treatment. The ice
      templated macropores enhanced mass transport, while the monoliths could be easily
      recovered from solution. This was demonstrated by the adsorption of
      methylchlorophenoxypropionic acid (MCPP, a herbicide compound) from dilute
      aqueous solution. To enhance the stability, the freeze-dried monoliths were
      treated with NaOH solution, solvent exchanged, and dried. The treated
      chitosan/UiO-66 monolith achieved an adsorption capacity of 34.33 mg g-1 (a
      maximum theoretic value of 334 mg g-1 by the Langmuir model), closer to the
      capacity (36.00 mg g-1) of the freshly prepared UiO-66 nanoparticles and much
      higher than that of the NaOH-washed UiO-66 nanoparticles (18.55 mg g-1), by
      performing the tests in 60 ppm MCPP solution. The composite monolith could be
      easily picked up using tweezers and used for recycling tests. Over 80% of the
      adsorption capacity was retained after three more cycles. The powder X-ray
      diffraction and N2 sorption studies suggested the crystalline structure of UiO-66
      was destroyed during NaOH washing procedure. This, however, provides the
      potential to improve the adsorption capacity by developing methods to fabricate
      true polymer/MOF composites.

PMID- 28885008
TI  - Metallic Transition Metal Selenide Holey Nanosheets for Efficient Oxygen
      Evolution Electrocatalysis.
AB  - Catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are pivotal to the scalable storage
      of sustainable energy by means of converting water to oxygen and hydrogen fuel.
      Designing efficient electrocatalysis combining the features of excellent
      electrical conductivity, abundant active surface, and structural stability
      remains a critical challenge. Here, we report the rational design and controlled
      synthesis of metallic transition metal selenide NiCo2Se4-based holey nanosheets
      as a highly efficient and robust OER electrocatalyst. Benefiting from synergistic
      effects of metallic nature, heteroatom doping, and holey nanoarchitecture,
      NiCo2Se4 holey nanosheets exhibit greatly enhanced kinetics and improved cycling
      stability for OER. When further employed as an alkaline electrolyzer, the
      NiCo2Se4 holey nanosheet electrocatalyst enables a high-performing overall water
      splitting with a low applied external potential of 1.68 V at 10 mA cm-2. This
      work not only represents a promising strategy to design the efficient and robust
      OER catalysts but also provides fundamental insights into the structure-property
      performance relationship of transition metal selenide-based electrocatalytic
      materials.

PMID- 28885007
TI  - Stereoselective Differences between the Reinforcing and Motivational Effects of
      Cathinone-Derived 4-Methylmethcathinone (Mephedrone) In Self-Administering Rats.
AB  - Mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC)) (MEPH) is a new psychoactive substance
      (NPS) of the synthetic cathinone class. MEPH has a chiral center and exists as
      two enantiomers (R-,S-MEPH), yet stereospecific effects of MEPH have not been
      extensively investigated in preclinical assays. Because significant behavioral
      and neurochemical differences can exist between enantiomers, probing effects of
      stereochemistry on biological activity enables separation of adverse and
      therapeutic effects. Our prior work showed that R-MEPH, relative to S-MEPH,
      produced greater locomotor activation, place preference, and facilitation of
      brain reward thresholds in rodents. The present study sought to determine if MEPH
      enantiomers display stereospecific reward and reinforcement in rat self
      administration assays. In Experiment 1, rats were trained to self-administer
      racemic MEPH (0.50 mg/kg/inf), and dose substitution effects of R-MEPH (0.50
      mg/kg/inf) and S-MEPH (0.25, 0.50, 2.00 mg/kg/inf) were examined. In Experiment
      2, separate rats were trained to self-administer R-MEPH (0.25, 0.50, 2.00
      mg/kg/inf) or S-MEPH (0.25, 0.50, 2.00 mg/kg/inf) and were thereafter evaluated
      under progressive-ratio access conditions. Within this cohort, 50 kHz ultrasonic
      vocalizations (USVs) were recorded to measure potential differences in subjective
      positive affect associated with MEPH enantiomer self-administration. We
      identified enantiomer- and dose-dependent effects on infusions earned during self
      administration following acquisition of racemic MEPH, with greatest infusions
      under low-effort, fixed-ratio 1 access conditions from low-dose S-MEPH self
      administration. When taxed with progressive-ratio access conditions, rats trained
      to self-administer R-MEPH showed higher break points than those of rats trained
      to self-administer S-MEPH. Additionally, R-MEPH elicited greatest rates of 50 kHz
      USVs compared to S-MEPH. Taken together, these data suggest that the R-enantiomer
      of MEPH is primarily responsible for the rewarding, reinforcing, and motivational
      properties of racemic MEPH, which increases our understanding of stereospecific
      preferences pertaining to MEPH abuse.

PMID- 28885009
TI  - A Combined Variable-Temperature Neutron Diffraction and Thermogravimetric
      Analysis Study on a Promising Oxygen Electrode, SrCo0.9Nb0.1O3-delta, for
      Reversible Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.
AB  - The present study investigates the temperature-structure-stoichiometry
      relationship of a promising oxygen electrode SrCo0.9Nb0.1O3-delta over a
      temperature (T) range from room temperature (RT) to 900  degrees C. The
      techniques employed are variable-temperature neutron diffraction (VTND) and
      thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). At T < 75  degrees C, VTND reveals a tetragonal
      (P4/mmm) structure with a G-type magnetic ordering. Above 75  degrees C, the
      nucleus structure remains the same, while the magnetic ordering disappears. A
      phase transition from tetragonal (P4/mmm) to cubic (Pm3m) is observed at 412 
      degrees C, where the two Co sites and three O sites in the P4/mmm phase converge
      to one equivalent site, respectively. The phase transition temperature coincides
      with the peak temperature of oxygen uptake obtained by TGA. It is also observed
      that the Nb dopant has no preferred Co site to occupy. The oxygen vacancies are
      mostly located at the O3 site surrounding the Co2 site in the P4/mmm structure.
      The intermediate-spin state of Co3+ at the Co2 site is responsible for the
      observed distortions of CoO6 octahedra, i.e., elongation of Co2O6 octahedra and
      shortening of Co1O6 octahedra along the c-axis, which is a phenomenon known as
      Jahn-Teller distortion. At high temperatures, large thermal displacement factor
      for O2- is observed with high concentration of oxygen vacancies, providing a
      structural environment favorable to high O2- conductivity in Nb-doped SrCoO3
      based oxygen electrode materials.

PMID- 28885010
TI  - Synthesis, Structure and Reactivity of a Borylene Cation [(NHSi)2B(CO)]+
      Stabilized by Three Neutral Ligands.
AB  - A borylene cation stabilized by bis(silylene) and carbon monoxide was prepared
      and structurally characterized via the reaction of bis(silylene)-stabilized
      bromoborylene with W(CO)6. This is the first example of a borylene cation
      coordinated by three neutral ligands, which can be viewed as a cationic form of a
      long-sought Lewis base-stabilized zerovalent boron compound. This cation can
      cleave dihydrogen.

PMID- 28885011
TI  - Atmospheric Transport and Deposition of Bromoanisoles Along a Temperate to Arctic
      Gradient.
AB  - Bromoanisoles (BAs) arise from O-methylation of bromophenols, produced by marine
      algae and invertebrates. BAs undergo sea-air exchange and are transported over
      the oceans. Here we report 2,4-DiBA and 2,4,6-TriBA in air and deposition on the
      Swedish west coast (Rao) and the interior of arctic Finland (Pallas). Results are
      discussed in perspective with previous measurements in the northern Baltic region
      in 2011-2013. BAs in air decreased from south to north in the order Rao >
      northern Baltic > Pallas. Geometric mean concentrations at Pallas increased
      significantly (p < 0.05) between 2002 and 2015 for 2,4-DiBA but not for 2,4,6
      TriBA. The logarithm of BA partial pressures correlated significantly to
      reciprocal air temperature at the coastal station Rao and over the Baltic, but
      only weakly (2,4-DiBA) or not significantly (2,4,6-TriBA) at inland Pallas.
      Deposition fluxes of BAs were similar at both sites despite lower air
      concentrations at Pallas, due to greater precipitation scavenging at lower
      temperatures. Proportions of the two BAs in air and deposition were related to
      Henry's law partitioning and source regions. Precipitation concentrations were 10
      40% of those in surface water of Bothnian Bay, northern Baltic Sea. BAs deposited
      in the bay catchment likely enter rivers and provide an unexpected source to
      northern estuaries. BAs may be precursors to higher molecular weight compounds
      identified by others in Swedish inland lakes.

PMID- 28885012
TI  - The Impact of the Major Baltic Inflow of December 2014 on the Mercury Species
      Distribution in the Baltic Sea.
AB  - The Baltic Sea is a marginal sea characterized by stagnation periods of several
      years. Oxygen consumption in its deep waters leads to the buildup of sulfide from
      sulfate reduction. Some of the microorganisms responsible for these processes
      also transform reactive ionic mercury to neurotoxic methylmercury. Episodic
      inflows of oxygenated saline water from the North Sea temporally re-establish
      oxic life in deep waters of the Baltic Sea. Thus, this sea is an especially
      important region to better understand mercury species distributions in connection
      with variable redox conditions. Mercury species were measured on three Baltic Sea
      campaigns, during the preinflow, ongoing inflow, and subsiding inflow of water,
      respectively, to the central basin. The inflowing water caused the removal of
      total mercury by 600 nmol m-2 and of methylmercury by 214 nmol m-2 in the Gotland
      Deep, probably via attachment of the mercury compounds to sinking particles. It
      appears likely that the consequences of the oxygenation of Baltic Sea deep
      waters, which are the coprecipitation of mercury species and the resettlement of
      the oxic deep waters, could lead to the enhanced transfer of accumulated mercury
      and methylmercury to the planktonic food chain and finally to fish.

PMID- 28885013
TI  - Facile Bulk Synthesis of pi-Cubic SnS.
AB  - The cubic modification of binary tin sulfide (SnS) has gained significant
      interest as an earth-abundant, low-toxicity solar absorber material with a band
      gap close to the optimal value for the conversion of sunlight. We herein report a
      simple synthesis for the metastable material, which will allow more elaborate
      characterization methods to be used on this material, and present a full powder
      refinement of the material along with some preliminary results on the optical and
      thermal stability properties.

PMID- 28885014
TI  - Synthesis and Evaluation of Dolastatin 10 Analogues Containing Heteroatoms on the
      Amino Acid Side Chains.
AB  - Synthetic analogues of the natural occurring dolastatin 10 are of great interest
      in cancer due to their potent in vitro activity and their uses as payloads in
      antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Modification of the dolastatin 10 core scaffold
      has mainly focused on modifications of the P1, N-terminus, and P5, C-terminus,
      with minimal attention to the P2 subunit. In this paper we discuss the
      introduction of heteroatoms to the P2 side chain, which results in potent
      activity in vitro. The most active compounds contained azides in the P2 unit and
      required a phenylalanine-derived P5 subunit.

PMID- 28885016
TI  - Characterization of the Key Aroma Compounds in Five Varieties of Mandarins by Gas
      Chromatography-Olfactometry, Odor Activity Values, Aroma Recombination, and
      Omission Analysis.
AB  - In this study, volatile compounds of five varieties of mandarin juices [Tankan,
      Miyagawa, Mashui (MS), Skiranui, and Ponkan (PG)] were investigated by gas
      chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC
      MS). A total of 47 volatile compounds were identified by GC-MS. Partial least
      squares regression was used to process the mean scores from sensory evaluation by
      panelists of volatile compounds and samples. The sample PG was associated with
      "fruity", "floral", and "sweet" notes, while MS was correlated with "green" and
      "peely" notes. In addition, 36 aroma-active compounds, including esters,
      alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and monoterpenes, were detected by GC-O. According
      to the quantitative results, 29 aroma compounds were important, which indicated
      that their odor activity values (OAVs) were >=1. On the basis of the GC-O results
      and OAVs of these volatile compounds, 22 odor-active compounds were mixed to
      simulate successfully the overall aroma of PG mandarin juice. Furthermore,
      omission experiments confirmed that nonanal, hexanal, linalool, and (R)-(+)
      limonene were the key odorants for the overall aroma of PG juice sample and that
      beta-ionone, decanal, gamma-terpinene, and methyl butyrate were also important
      odor-active compounds.

PMID- 28885015
TI  - A Small Molecule Causes a Population Shift in the Conformational Landscape of an
      Intrinsically Disordered Protein.
AB  - Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) have roles in myriad biological
      processes and numerous human diseases. However, kinetic and amplitude information
      regarding their ground-state conformational fluctuations has remained elusive. We
      demonstrate using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based relaxation dispersion
      that the D2 domain of p27Kip1, a prototypical IDP, samples multiple discrete,
      rapidly exchanging conformational states. By combining NMR with mutagenesis and
      small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), we show that these states involve aromatic
      residue clustering through long-range hydrophobic interactions. Theoretical
      studies have proposed that small molecules bind promiscuously to IDPs, causing
      expansion of their conformational landscapes. However, on the basis of previous
      NMR-based screening results, we show here that compound binding only shifts the
      populations of states that existed within the ground state of apo p27-D2 without
      changing the barriers between states. Our results provide atomic resolution
      insight into how a small molecule binds an IDP and emphasize the need to examine
      motions on the low microsecond time scale when probing these types of
      interactions.

PMID- 28885017
TI  - Parameterization of Acyclic Diaminocarbene Ligands Applied to a Gold(I)-Catalyzed
      Enantioselective Tandem Rearrangement/Cyclization.
AB  - Computed descriptors for acyclic diaminocarbene ligands are developed in the
      context of a gold catalyzed enantioselective tandem [3,3]-sigmatropic
      rearrangement-[2+2]-cyclization. Surrogate structures enable the rapid
      identification of parameters that reveal mechanistic characteristics. The
      observed selectivity trends are validated in a robust multivariate analysis
      facilitating the development of a highly enantioselective process.

PMID- 28885018
TI  - Molecular Mechanisms of Perfluorooctanoate-Induced Hepatocyte Apoptosis in Mice
      Using Proteomic Techniques.
AB  - The stability of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) coupled with its wide use cause
      serious concerns regarding its potential risk to human health. The molecular
      mechanisms of PFOA-induced hepatotoxicity relevant to human health was
      investigated using both in vivo (mouse model) and in vitro (human hepatocyte
      cells, HL-7702) techniques. Both male and female Balb/c mice were administered
      PFOA at 0.05, 0.5, or 2.5 mg/kg-d for 28-d, with serum PFOA concentrations after
      exposure being found at environmentally relevant levels. Liver samples were
      examined for histology and proteomic change using iTRAQ and Western Blotting,
      showing dose-dependent hepatocyte apoptosis and peroxisome proliferation. At high
      doses, genotoxicity resulting from ROS hypergeneration was due to suppression of
      Complex I subunits in the electron transport chain and activation of PPARalpha in
      both genders. However, at 0.05 mg/kg-d, Complex I suppression occurred only in
      females, making them more sensitive to PFOA-induced apoptosis. In vitro assays
      using HL-7702 cells confirmed that apoptosis was also induced through a similar
      mechanism. The dose/gender-dependent toxicity mechanisms help to explain some
      epidemiological phenomena, i.e., liver cancer is not often associated with PFOA
      exposure in professional workers. Our results demonstrated that a proteomic
      approach is a robust tool to explore molecular mechanisms of toxic chemicals at
      environmentally relevant levels.

PMID- 28885019
TI  - Sulfonium as a Surrogate for Ammonium: A New alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine
      Receptor Partial Agonist with Desensitizing Activity.
AB  - Weak partial agonists that promote a desensitized state of the alpha7 nicotinic
      acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) have been associated with anti-inflammatory
      effects. Exemplar compounds feature a tertiary or quaternary ammonium group. We
      report the synthesis, structure, and electrophysiological evaluation of 1-ethyl-4
      phenylthiomorpholin-1-ium triflate, a weak partial agonist with a sulfonium
      isostere of the ammonium pharmacophore. These results offer new insights in
      understanding nAChR-ligand interactions and provide a new chemical space to
      target the alpha7 nAChR.

PMID- 28885021
TI  - Ruthenium Phosphine-Pyridone Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Alcohols To form alpha
      Alkylated Ketones.
AB  - An efficient and green route to access diverse functionalized ketones via
      dehydrogenative-dehydrative cross-coupling of primary and secondary alcohols is
      demonstrated. Selective and tunable formation of ketones or alcohols is catalyzed
      by a recently developed proton responsive ruthenium phosphine-pyridone complex.
      Light alcohols such as ethanol could be used as alkylating agents in this
      methodology. Moreover, selective tandem double alkylation of isopropanol is
      achieved by sequential addition of different alcohols.

PMID- 28885020
TI  - Facile Aqueous Route to Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbons.
AB  - An aqueous-based approach for the scalable synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous
      carbons with high specific surface area (SSA) and high nitrogen content is
      presented. Low molecular weight polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is solubilized in water
      in the presence of ZnCl2 that also acts as a volatile porogen during PAN
      pyrolysis to form mesoporous structures with significantly increased SSA. By
      templating with commercial SiO2 nanoparticles, nanocellulose fillers or filter
      paper, nanocarbons with SSA = 1776, 1366, and 1501 m2/g, respectively and 10 wt %
      N content were prepared. The materials formed by this benign process showed
      excellent catalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction via the four-electron
      mechanism.

PMID- 28885022
TI  - Effect of Storage on Lactase-Treated beta-Casein and beta-Lactoglobulin with
      Respect to Bitter Peptide Formation and Subsequent in Vitro Digestibility.
AB  - Using active lactose to hydrolyze lactose during storage is a common process to
      produce lactose-hydrolyzed (LH) milk. Proteolysis induced by residual proteases
      in commercial lactase was studied in a system using purified beta-casein or beta
      lactoglobulin during a 60-day storage period at 22 or 38  degrees C. The
      proteolysis of beta-casein by residual proteases occurred more extensively than
      that of beta-lactoglobulin. Peptidomic analysis by LC-ESI-MS/MS revealed that
      Ile, Leu, Tyr, and Phe residues near the C-terminus of beta-casein were the main
      sites of cleavage by the residual proteases, generating assumed bitter peptides.
      In the subsequent in vitro digestion study, proteolysis during storage was shown
      to greatly affect the subsequent digestibility of beta-casein, leading to an
      elevated degree of hydrolysis and the formation of new digested peptides. This
      study highlights the potential influence of residual proteases in commercial
      lactase on the storage quality and digestibility of LH milk containing active
      lactase.

PMID- 28885023
TI  - Crystalline Structure and Vacancy Ordering across a Surface Phase Transition in
      Sn/Cu(001).
AB  - We report a surface X-ray diffraction study of the crystalline structure changes
      and critical behavior across the (3?2 * ?2)R45 degrees  -> (?2 * ?2)R45 degrees 
      surface phase transition at 360 K for 0.5 monolayers of Sn on Cu(100). The phase
      transition is of the order-disorder type and is due to the disordering of the Cu
      atomic vacancies present in the low temperature phase. Two different atomic sites
      for Sn atoms, characterized by two different heights, are maintained across the
      surface phase transition.

PMID- 28885024
TI  - Construction of Sierpinski Triangles up to the Fifth Order.
AB  - Self-similar fractal structures are of fundamental importance in science,
      mathematics, and aesthetics. A series of molecular defect-free Sierpinski
      triangle fractals have been constructed on surfaces recently. However, the
      highest order of the fractals is only 4 because of the limitation of kinetic
      growth. Here complete fifth-order Sierpinski triangles with a lateral length of
      0.05 MUm were successfully prepared in ultrahigh vacuum by a combination of
      templating and coassembly methods. Fe atoms, 4,4"-dicyano-1,1':3',1"-terphenyl,
      and 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)benzene molecules were used to build fractals on the
      reconstructed Au(100)-(hex) surface. The new strategy may be applied to construct
      various Sierpinski triangles of higher orders.

PMID- 28885025
TI  - Systematic Search for Chemical Reactions in Gas Phase Contributing to Methanol
      Formation in Interstellar Space.
AB  - A massive search for chemical routes leading to methanol formation in gas phase
      has been conducted using computational chemistry, at the CBS-QB3 level of theory.
      The calculations were performed at five different temperatures (100, 80, 50, 20,
      and 10 K) and at three pressures (0.1, 0.01, and 0.001 atm) for each temperature.
      The search was focused on identifying reactions with the necessary features to be
      viable in the interstellar medium (ISM). A searching strategy was applied to that
      purpose, which allowed to reduce an initial set of 678 possible reactions to a
      subset of 11 chemical routes that are recommended, for the first time, as
      potential candidates for contributing to methanol formation in the gas phase of
      the ISM. They are all barrier-less, and thus they are expected to take place at
      collision rates. Hopefully, including these reactions in the currently available
      models, for the gas-phase methanol formation in the ISM, would help improving the
      predicted fractional abundance of this molecule in dark clouds. Further
      investigations, especially those dealing with grain chemistry and electronic
      excited states, would be crucial to get a complete picture of the methanol
      formation in the ISM.

PMID- 28885026
TI  - Interaction of the Lipopeptide Biosurfactant Lichenysin with Phosphatidylcholine
      Model Membranes.
AB  - Lichenysins produced by Bacillus licheniformis are anionic lipopeptide
      biosurfactants with cytotoxic, antimicrobial, and hemolytic activities that
      possess enormous potential for chemical and biological applications. Through the
      use of physical techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry, small- and
      wide-angle X-ray diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy as well
      as molecular dynamics simulations, we report on the interaction of Lichenysin
      with synthetic phosphatidylcholines differing in hydrocarbon chain length.
      Lichenysin alters the thermotropic phase behavior of phosphatidylcholines,
      displaying fluid-phase immiscibility and showing a preferential partitioning into
      fluid domains. The interlamellar repeat distance of
      dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) is modified, affecting both the
      phospholipid palisade and the lipid/water interface, which also experiences a
      strong dehydration. Molecular dynamics confirms that Lichenysin is capable of
      interacting both with the hydrophobic portion of DPPC and with the polar
      headgroup region, which is of particular relevance to explain much of its
      properties. The results presented here help to establish a molecular basis for
      the Lichenysin-induced perturbation of model and biological membranes previously
      described in the literature.

PMID- 28885027
TI  - alpha-Cyclodextrin: How Effectively Can Its Hydrophobic Cavity Be Hydrated?
AB  - Cyclodextrins (CDs) are among the most widely used native host systems with
      ability to form inclusion complexes with various molecular objects. This ability
      is so strong that the "hydrophobic" CD cavity never remains empty, even in the
      guest-free state it is filled with water molecules. However, no consensus has
      been reached concerning both the total number of hydrating water molecules and
      their preferred binding location in the CDs. Several outstanding questions
      regarding the CD hydration still wait to be answered: (1) Which spots of the CD
      cavity ("hot spots") have the highest affinity for the guest water molecules? (2)
      How stable are water clusters inside the cavity? (3) Which mode of water binding,
      sequential or bulk, is thermodynamically more favored? (4) What is the upper
      limit of the number of water molecules bound inside the host cavity? (5) What
      factors do control the CD hydration process? Here, using alphaCD as a typical
      representative of the cyclodextrin family, we endeavor to answer these questions
      by combining experimental measurements (differential scanning calorimetry and
      thermogravimetry) with theoretical (DFT) calculations. Enthalpies of the alphaCD
      hydrate formation are evaluated and the role of different factors, such as the
      number and mode of binding (sequential vs bulk) of water molecules, type of
      hydrogen bonds established (water-water vs water-alphaCD), and the dielectric
      properties of the medium, on the complexation process is assessed. The results
      obtained shed light on the intimate mechanism of water binding to alphaCD and
      disclose the key factors governing the process.

PMID- 28885028
TI  - Numerical Calculation Method of Apparent Contact Angles on Heterogeneous Double
      Roughness Surfaces.
AB  - Double-roughness surfaces can be used to mimic lotus surfaces. The apparent
      contact angles (ACAs) of droplets on these surfaces were first calculated by
      Herminghaus. Then Patankar utilized the pillar model to improve the Herminghaus
      approach and put forward the formulas for ACAs calculation of the homogeneous
      double-roughness surfaces where the dual-scale structures and the bases were the
      same wettable materials. In this paper, we propose a numerical calculation method
      of ACAs on the heterogeneous double-roughness surfaces where the dual-scale
      structures and the bases are made of different wettable materials. This numerical
      calculation method has successfully enhanced the Herminghaus approach. It is
      promising to become a novel design approach of heterogeneous superhydrophobic
      surfaces, which are frequently applied in technical fields of self-cleaning, anti
      icing, antifogging, and enhancing condensation heat transfer.

PMID- 28885029
TI  - Polymer Nanosheets from Supramolecular Assemblies of Conjugated Linoleic Acid
      High Surface Area Adsorbents from Renewable Materials.
AB  - We present a strategy for robustly cross-linking self-assembled lamellar
      mesophases made from plant-derived materials to generate polymer nanosheets
      decorated with a high density of functional groups. We formulate a supramoleclar
      complex by hydrogen-bonding conjugated linoleic acid moieties to a structure
      directing tribasic aromatic core. The resulting constructs self-assemble into a
      thermotropic lamellar mesophase. Photo-cross-linking the mesophase with the aid
      of an acrylate cross-linker yields a polymeric material with high-fidelity
      retention of the lamellar mesophase structure. Transmission electron microscopy
      images demonstrate the preservation of the large area, highly ordered layered
      nanostructures in the polymer. Subsequent extraction of the tribasic core and
      neutralization of the carboxyl groups by NaOH result in exfoliation of polymer
      nanosheets with a uniform thickness of ~3 nm. The nanosheets have a large
      specific area of ~800 m2/g, are decorated by negatively charged carboxylate
      groups at a density of 4 nm-2, and exhibit the ability to readily adsorb
      positively charged colloidal particles. The strategy as presented combines
      supramolecular self-assembly with the use of renewable or sustainably derived
      materials in a scalable manner. The resulting nanosheets have potential for use
      as adsorbents and, with further development, rheology modifiers.

PMID- 28885031
TI  - Enantioselective Synthesis of beta-Fluoro-beta-aryl-alpha-aminopentenamides by
      Organocatalytic [2,3]-Sigmatropic Rearrangement.
AB  - The tetramisole-promoted catalytic enantioselective [2,3]-sigmatropic
      rearrangement of quaternary ammonium salts bearing a (Z)-3-fluoro-3-arylprop-2
      ene group generates, after addition of benzylamine, a range of beta-fluoro-beta
      aryl-alpha-aminopentenamides containing a stereogenic tertiary fluorine
      substituent. Cyclic and acyclic nitrogen substituents as well as various aromatic
      substituents are tolerated, giving the beta-fluoro-beta-aryl-alpha
      aminopentenamide products in up to 76% yield, 96:4 dr, and 98:2 er.

PMID- 28885030
TI  - Platelet Adhesion and Activation on Chiral Surfaces: The Influence of Protein
      Adsorption.
AB  - Adsorbed proteins and their conformational change on blood-contacting
      biomaterials will determine their final hemocompatibility. It has frequently been
      reported that surface chirality of biomaterials may highly influence their
      protein adsorption behavior. Here, lysine and tartaric acid with different
      chirality were immobilized onto TiO2 films respectively, and the influence of
      surface chirality on protein adsorption, platelet adhesion, and activation was
      also investigated. It showed that the l- and d-molecule grafted samples had
      almost the same grafting density, surface topography, chemical components, and
      hydrophilicity in this study. However, biological behaviors such as protein
      adsorption, platelet adhesion, and activation were quite different. The d-lysine
      grafted surface had a greater ability to inhibit both bovine serum albumin and
      fibrinogen adsorption, along with less degeneration of fibrinogen compared to the
      l-lysine anchored surface. However, the d-tartaric acid grafted surface adsorbed
      more protein but with less denatured fibrinogen compared to the l-tartaric acid
      grafted one. Further studies showed that the secondary structural change of the
      adsorbed albumin and fibrinogen on all surfaces with deduction of the alpha-helix
      content and increase of disordered structure, while the changing degree was
      apparently varied. As a result, the d-lysine immobilized surface absorbed less
      platelets and red blood cells and achieved slightly increased platelet
      activation. For tartaric acid anchored surfaces, a larger number of platelets
      adhered to the D-surface but were less activated compared to the L-surface. In
      conclusion, the surface chirality significantly influenced the adsorption and
      conformational change of blood plasma protein, which in turn influenced both
      platelet adhesion and activation.

PMID- 28885033
TI  - Adsorption of DNA Fragments at Aqueous Graphite and Au(111) via Integration of
      Experiment and Simulation.
AB  - We combine single molecule force spectroscopy measurements with all-atom
      metadynamics simulations to investigate the cross-materials binding strength
      trends of DNA fragments adsorbed at the aqueous graphite C(0001) and Au(111)
      interfaces. Our simulations predict this adsorption at the level of the
      nucleobase, nucleoside, and nucleotide. We find that despite challenges in making
      clear, careful connections between the experimental and simulation data,
      reasonable consistency between the binding trends between the two approaches and
      two substrates was evident. On C(0001), our simulations predict a binding trend
      of dG > dA ~ dT > dC, which broadly aligns with the experimental trend. On
      Au(111), the simulation-based binding strength trends reveal stronger adsorption
      for the purines relative to the pyrimadines, with dG ~ dA > dT ~ dC. Moreover,
      our simulations provide structural insights into the origins of the similarities
      and differences in adsorption of the nucleic acid fragments at the two
      interfaces. In particular, our simulation data offer an explanation for the
      differences observed in the relative binding trend between adenosine and guanine
      on the two substrates.

PMID- 28885032
TI  - Effective Surface Passivation of InP Nanowires by Atomic-Layer-Deposited Al2O3
      with POx Interlayer.
AB  - III/V semiconductor nanostructures have significant potential in device
      applications, but effective surface passivation is critical due to their large
      surface-to-volume ratio. For InP such passivation has proven particularly
      difficult, with substantial depassivation generally observed following dielectric
      deposition on InP surfaces. We present a novel approach based on passivation with
      a phosphorus-rich interfacial oxide deposited using a low-temperature process,
      which is critical to avoid P-desorption. For this purpose we have chosen a POx
      layer deposited in a plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (ALD) system at room
      temperature. Since POx is known to be hygroscopic and therefore unstable in
      atmosphere, we encapsulate this layer with a thin ALD Al2O3 capping layer to form
      a POx/Al2O3 stack. This passivation scheme is capable of improving the
      photoluminescence (PL) efficiency of our state-of-the-art wurtzite (WZ) InP
      nanowires by a factor of ~20 at low excitation. If we apply the rate equation
      analysis advocated by some authors, we derive a PL internal quantum efficiency
      (IQE) of 75% for our passivated wires at high excitation. Our results indicate
      that it is more reliable to calculate the IQE as the ratio of the integrated PL
      intensity at room temperature to that at 10 K. By this means we derive an IQE of
      27% for the passivated wires at high excitation (>10 kW cm-2), which constitutes
      an unprecedented level of performance for undoped InP nanowires. This conclusion
      is supported by time-resolved PL decay lifetimes, which are also shown to be
      significantly higher than previously reported for similar wires. The passivation
      scheme displays excellent long-term stability (>7 months) and is additionally
      shown to substantially improve the thermal stability of InP surfaces (>300 
      degrees C), significantly expanding the temperature window for device processing.
      Such effective surface passivation is a key enabling technology for InP nanowire
      devices such as nanolasers and solar cells.

PMID- 28885034
TI  - Treatment outcomes of Class II malocclusion cases treated with miniscrew-anchored
      Forsus Fatigue Resistant Device: A randomized controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the skeletal, dental, and soft tissue effects of the
      Forsus Fatigue Resistant Device (FRD) used with miniscrew anchorage and compare
      them with those of the conventional Forsus FRD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study
      was carried out on 38 patients. These patients were randomly allocated into three
      groups. The 14 patients in group 1 (aged 12.76 +/- 1.0 years) were treated with
      the FRD appliance. In group 2, the 15 patients (aged 12.52 +/- 1.12 years)
      received treatment with FRD using miniscrew anchorage, and the 9 patients in
      group 3 (aged 12.82 +/- 0.9 years) received no treatment as a control group.
      Linear and angular measurements were made on lateral cephalograms before and
      immediately after Forsus treatment. Data were analyzed statistically using paired
      t-, ANOVA, and Tukey tests. RESULTS: Class I molar relationship and overjet
      correction were achieved in both treatment groups. Although mandibular growth was
      statistically nonsignificant, there was a significant headgear effect on the
      maxilla. Mandibular incisor proclination, maxillary incisor retroclination, and
      distalization of maxillary molars were significant in both treatment groups.
      However, no significant differences were found between the treatment groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: Class II correction was mainly dentoalveolar in both treatment
      groups. Use of miniscrews with Forsus did not enhance mandibular forward growth
      nor prevent labial tipping of the mandibular incisors.

PMID- 28885035
TI  - Can rapid maxillary expansion cause auditory improvement in children and
      adolescents with hearing loss? A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether the use of palatal expansion techniques can
      influence hearing loss in children and adolescents with previous hearing
      impairment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Electronic searches in PubMed, Scopus, Web of
      Science, The Cochrane Library, Lilacs, OpenGrey, and Google Scholar were
      performed with a controlled vocabulary and free-text terms relating to palatal
      expansion and hearing loss. No language or time restrictions were imposed.
      Clinical trials that focused on human patients treated with rapid or semirapid
      maxillary expansion in children and teenagers with hearing loss were included.
      Data extraction was undertaken by two authors, with conflict resolution by a
      third author. Risk of bias assessment and data extraction were performed on the
      selected studies. RESULTS: Seventy-four citations were retrieved by the search.
      Initially, 12 studies were selected according to the eligibility criteria, but
      three studies were excluded because of the presence of adults, absence of hearing
      level evaluation, and oversampling, resulting in nine studies. The mean
      improvement in hearing levels varied from 2 to 19 dB among the studies. The risk
      of bias varied from low to moderate risk. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence indicated
      that there was a hearing improvement after maxillary expansion in patients with
      hearing loss in the evaluated studies, although more controlled and randomized
      studies are necessary to investigate this issue further.

PMID- 28885037
TI  - Will Biosimilar Insulins Be Cheaper?

PMID- 28885036
TI  - Postnatal diet remodels hepatic DNA methylation in metabolic pathways established
      by a maternal high-fat diet.
AB  - AIM: We investigate how postweaning diet may modify the epigenetic landscape to
      meet metabolic demands later in life. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed
      to a high-fat (HF) diet during gestation and lactation. At weaning, male
      offspring were placed either on an HF diet (HF/HF) or a control diet (HF/C).
      Methylation-dependent immunoprecipitation sequencing and methylation-sensitive
      restriction enzyme sequencing were used to quantify hepatic DNA methylation.
      RESULTS: Out of the 3966 identified differentially methylated regions, 37% were
      mapped to gene bodies while 6% fell within promoter or downstream regions.
      Differentially methylated genes were clustered in the type II diabetes mellitus
      and the adipocytokine signaling pathways. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that
      compared with a lifelong HF diet, offspring exposed to a new postweaning control
      diet are able to remodel the hepatic epigenome, emphasizing the dynamic nature of
      the methylome even after early life.

PMID- 28885038
TI  - Assessing the relative importance of correlates of loneliness in later life.
      Gaining insight using recursive partitioning.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Improving the design and targeting of interventions is important for
      alleviating loneliness among older adults. This requires identifying which
      correlates are the most important predictors of loneliness. This study
      demonstrates the use of recursive partitioning in exploring the characteristics
      and assessing the relative importance of correlates of loneliness in older
      adults. METHOD: Using exploratory regression trees and random forests, we
      examined combinations and the relative importance of 42 correlates in relation to
      loneliness at age 68 among 2453 participants from the birth cohort study the MRC
      National Survey of Health and Development. RESULTS: Positive mental well-being,
      personal mastery, identifying the spouse as the closest confidant, being
      extrovert and informal social contact were the most important correlates of lower
      loneliness levels. Participation in organised groups and demographic correlates
      were poor identifiers of loneliness. The regression tree suggested that
      loneliness was not raised among those with poor mental wellbeing if they
      identified their partner as closest confidante and had frequent social contact.
      CONCLUSION: Recursive partitioning can identify which combinations of experiences
      and circumstances characterise high-risk groups. Poor mental wellbeing and sparse
      social contact emerged as especially important and classical demographic factors
      as insufficient in identifying high loneliness levels among older adults.

PMID- 28885039
TI  - Primary health care decision making in pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This qualitative descriptive study explored the primary health care
      decisions of a group of 12 Australians in Stages 3B to 5 with chronic kidney
      disease in the preservation of kidney health. METHODS: Questioning within the
      qualitative interviews focused on gaining an understanding of the participants'
      perceptions of their kidney health and the decisions made as a consequence of
      their interaction within the Australian primary health care system. RESULTS:
      Participants were dependent on their General Practitioner to recognise their
      symptoms, make the correct diagnosis and authorise the correct referral for
      specialist nephrology care. Three pathways in this process were identified:
      'easy'; 'difficult' and 'protracted'. Clinician failure to correctly attribute
      symptoms to chronic kidney disease influenced the 'difficult' pathway, while
      failure to adequately communicate kidney health status influenced the
      'protracted' pathway. Use of the language of 'recovery', 'stability' and
      'protection' held meaning to the participants in gaining an understanding of
      their kidney health. DISCUSSION: Identifying pathways to diagnosis and referral
      can raise awareness of the challenges kidney health consumers face in their
      participation within the primary health care arena. Using consumer meaningful
      language improves the capacity of these consumers to engage in their own primary
      health care agenda.

PMID- 28885040
TI  - Validation of Next-Generation Sequencer for 24-Chromosome Aneuploidy Screening in
      Human Embryos.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is the latest approach for
      preimplantation genetic diagnoses (PGD). AIM: The purpose of this study was to
      standardize and validate an NGS method for comprehensive chromosome screening and
      to investigate its applicability to PGD. METHODS: Embryo biopsy, whole-genome
      amplification, array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), and semiconductor
      sequencing were employed. RESULTS: A total of 204 whole-genome-amplified products
      were tested with an NGS-based protocol, from which 100 samples were used for
      standardization and to evaluate the quality of the results produced by this new
      technique. The remaining 104 samples tested by NGS were previously analyzed by
      using the aCGH protocol to determine the sensitivity and specificity of this new
      technique. In total, 4896 chromosomes were assessed, out of which 196 carried a
      copy number imbalance. NGS sensitivity and specificity for calling aneuploidy was
      100%. CONCLUSION: This is the first study reporting preclinical validation and
      accuracy assessment of the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) NGS-based
      comprehensive chromosome screening method using blastomeres and blastocysts. The
      NGS proved to be a robust methodology and is ready for clinical application in
      reproductive medicine, with the major advantage of low cost and enhanced
      precision when compared with other technologies used for comprehensive chromosome
      screening.

PMID- 28885041
TI  - Developmental Origins of Rumination in Middle Childhood: The Roles of Early
      Temperament and Positive Parenting.
AB  - Rumination, a thinking style characterized by a repetitive inward focus on
      negative cognitions, has been linked to internalizing disorders, particularly
      depression. Moreover, research suggests that rumination may be a cognitive
      vulnerability that predisposes individuals to psychopathology. Surprisingly
      little is known, however, about the etiology and development of rumination. The
      present study examined the role of specific components of child temperamental
      negative emotionality (sadness, fear, anger) and effortful control (inhibition),
      as well as parenting behaviors during early childhood on the development of
      rumination in middle childhood. Early childhood (age 3) temperament and parenting
      behaviors were assessed observationally and rumination was self-reported in
      middle childhood (age 9) in a large community sample (N = 425; 47.1% female). Two
      significant interactions emerged. First, temperamental anger interacted with
      inhibitory control (IC) such that high anger and low IC predicted higher levels
      of rumination, whereas low anger and low IC predicted lower levels of rumination.
      Second, IC interacted with parenting such that children with low IC and positive
      parenting had lower levels of rumination. In contrast, children with high IC
      reported similar levels of rumination regardless of parenting quality. Overall,
      these findings highlight the interplay of early IC with temperamental anger and
      positive parenting in the development of ruminative tendencies in middle
      childhood.

PMID- 28885042
TI  - Searching for Life on Mars Before It Is Too Late.
AB  - Decades of robotic exploration have confirmed that in the distant past, Mars was
      warmer and wetter and its surface was habitable. However, none of the spacecraft
      missions to Mars have included among their scientific objectives the exploration
      of Special Regions, those places on the planet that could be inhabited by extant
      martian life or where terrestrial microorganisms might replicate. A major reason
      for this is because of Planetary Protection constraints, which are implemented to
      protect Mars from terrestrial biological contamination. At the same time, plans
      are being drafted to send humans to Mars during the 2030 decade, both from
      international space agencies and the private sector. We argue here that these two
      parallel strategies for the exploration of Mars (i.e., delaying any efforts for
      the biological reconnaissance of Mars during the next two or three decades and
      then directly sending human missions to the planet) demand reconsideration
      because once an astronaut sets foot on Mars, Planetary Protection policies as we
      conceive them today will no longer be valid as human arrival will inevitably
      increase the introduction of terrestrial and organic contaminants and that could
      jeopardize the identification of indigenous martian life. In this study, we
      advocate for reassessment over the relationships between robotic searches, paying
      increased attention to proactive astrobiological investigation and sampling of
      areas more likely to host indigenous life, and fundamentally doing this in
      advance of manned missions. Key Words: Contamination-Earth Mars-Planetary
      Protection-Search for life (biosignatures). Astrobiology 17, 962-970.

PMID- 28885043
TI  - Negotiating the Edge: The Rationalization of Sexual Risk Taking Among Western
      Male Sex Tourists to Thailand.
AB  - Every year thousands of Western men travel to Thailand as sex tourists to
      participate in paid-for sex. Although many of these men will use condoms to
      protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), others will
      not, despite the risks. By applying Steven Lyng's (1990) concept of edgework to
      data collected from 14 face-to-face interviews with male sex tourists in Pattaya,
      Thailand, and 1,237 online discussion board posts, this article explores the ways
      in which these men understood and sought to rationalize the sexual risks they
      took. We argue that notions of likelihood of infection and significance of
      consequence underpin these behaviors, and we identify the existence of
      understandings of sexual risk that reject mainstream safer-sex messages and frame
      condomless sex as a broadly safe activity for heterosexual men. The article
      concludes by summarizing the difficulties inherent in driving behavior change
      among this group of men, for whom sexual risks appear to be easily rationalized
      away as either inconsequential or irrelevant.

PMID- 28885044
TI  - Rapid biosynthesis of Bauhinia variegata flower extract-mediated silver
      nanoparticles: an effective antioxidant scavenger and alpha-amylase inhibitor.
AB  - Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized using Bauhinia variegata flower
      extract (BVFE). The BVF-AgNPs was found to be spherical shaped with the size of 5
      15 nm. The phytoconstituents analysis and FTIR spectrum indicated that bioactive
      compounds like, phenols, flavonoids, benzophenones, nitro compounds, aromatics
      and aliphatic amines from BVFE might absorb on the surface of BVF-AgNPs. The
      synthesized BVF-AgNPs showed potent antioxidant property and alpha-amylase enzyme
      activity inhibition. The IC50 value of BVF-AgNPs was found to be 4.64 and 16.6
      ug/ml for DPPH and ferric reducing power assay, respectively. The IC50 value of
      BVF-AgNPs for alpha-amylase inhibition was found to be 38 ug/ml. The Ki value of
      BVF-AgNPs for alpha-amylase inhibitory effect was found to be 21 ug/ml with the
      non-competitive mode of inhibition. These results suggest that BVF-AgNPs might be
      an effective nano-drug to treat diabetic conditions.

PMID- 28885045
TI  - Duret hemorrhage complicating a sinking skin flap syndrome.
AB  - Duret hemorrhage has always been reported during an episode of increased
      intracranial pressure with transtentorial herniation. We reported a Duret
      hemorrhage occurring during an episode of intracranial hypotension resulted in
      sinking skin flap syndrome which was responsible for acute paradoxal descending
      transtentorial herniation and Duret hemorrhage, 10 days after large
      hemicraniectomy which could indicate early cranioplasty.

PMID- 28885047
TI  - Dating Infidelity in Turkish Couples: The Role of Attitudes and Intentions.
AB  - Studies on dating infidelity have mostly been carried out in individualistic,
      Western cultures and have tended to investigate either attitudes or intentions
      toward infidelity in isolation from each other. The current study therefore
      investigated dating infidelity in a more collectivist, predominantly Muslim
      culture. Informed by the theory of planned behavior, it tested intentions as a
      potential mechanism that might account for the association between attitudes
      toward infidelity and reported infidelity. In doing so, the role of gender and
      infidelity history was also investigated in regard to attitudes and intentions
      toward infidelity. A sample of 420 college students (292 women) completed the
      Turkish versions of the Attitudes Towards Infidelity Scale and the Intentions
      Towards Infidelity Scale. A 2 (gender) * 2 (infidelity history: yes, no)
      multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed main effects but no
      interaction effect. Men compared to women and cheaters compared to noncheaters
      reported more favorable attitudes and intentions toward infidelity. Moreover,
      intentions toward infidelity fully and partly mediated the association between
      attitudes toward infidelity and infidelity for women and men, respectively.
      Findings are interpreted in light of dating infidelity research, with a focus on
      universal and culturally specific aspects. Recommendations are made for future
      research.

PMID- 28885046
TI  - Cerebellar Contributions to Language in Typical and Atypical Development: A
      Review.
AB  - In this review, we present the growing literature suggesting, from a variety of
      angles, that the cerebellum contributes to higher-order cognitive functions,
      rather than simply sensorimotor functions, and more specifically to language and
      its development. The cerebellum's association with language function is
      determined by the specific cortico-cerebellar connectivity to the right
      cerebellum from the left cortical hemisphere. The findings we review suggest that
      the cerebellum plays an important role as part of a broader language network, and
      also implies that the cerebellum may be a potential new therapeutic target to
      treat speech and language deficits, especially during development.

PMID- 28885048
TI  - Correction to: Semerci SY et al., Urgent surgical management of congenital
      intracranial hemangiopericytoma in a preterm neonate.

PMID- 28885049
TI  - Effect of Plant Antimicrobial Agents Containing Marinades on Storage Stability
      and Microbiological Quality of Broiler Chicken Cuts Packed with Modified
      Atmosphere Packaging.
AB  - The food industry, including the meat industry, is currently looking for natural
      preservatives to prevent the growth of harmful microbes in foods. The potential
      of plant-derived antimicrobial extracts to increase the shelf life and to delay
      the microbiological spoilage of marinated broiler chicken cuts in modified
      atmosphere packages during cold storage was investigated in this study. We
      evaluated the impact of aqueous ethanolic extracts of Finnish sea buckthorn
      berries and lingonberries and supercritical CO2-extracted herbal extracts from an
      antimicrobial blend and oregano leaves on the shelf life of broiler meat. The
      commercial antimicrobial blend extract and the oregano extract inhibited the
      growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and Brochothrix thermosphacta in the
      marinated samples. The antimicrobial blend extract also reduced the growth of
      psychrotrophic aerobic bacteria, whereas the sea buckthorn and lingonberry
      extracts did not. Only minor antimicrobial activity against Enterobacteriaceae by
      all the extracts was observed. Plate count analysis, denaturing gradient gel
      electrophoresis, and quantitative real-time PCR indicated that LAB, which are the
      major spoilage group in marinated modified atmosphere-packaged poultry products,
      were not significantly affected by the berry extracts studied. During this shelf
      life study, LAB isolates of Lactobacillus and Leuconostoc were identified in the
      marinated samples. Antimicrobial blends and oregano leaf extracts can act as
      antimicrobial agents in marinade blends, although tailoring of the dose is needed
      because of their strong taste. Further studies for exploiting synergistic effects
      of plant extracts could contribute to the development of potential and more
      effective antimicrobial blends. Studies are needed in meat matrices and in
      product applications to demonstrate the efficacy of these compounds.

PMID- 28885050
TI  - Effects of Nitrite and Erythorbate on Clostridium perfringens Growth during
      Extended Cooling of Cured Ham.
AB  - To control the growth of Clostridium perfringens in cured meat products, the meat
      and poultry industries commonly follow stabilization parameters outlined in
      Appendix B, "Compliance Guidelines for Cooling Heat-Treated Meat and Poultry
      Products (Stabilization)" ( U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and
      Inspection Service [USDA-FSIS], 1999 ) to achieve cooling (54.4 to 4.4 degrees C)
      within 15 h after cooking. In this study, extended cooling times and their impact
      on C. perfringens growth were examined. Phase 1 experiments consisted of cured
      ham with 200 mg/kg ingoing sodium nitrite and 547 mg/kg sodium erythorbate
      following five bilinear cooling profiles: a control (following Appendix B
      guidelines: stage A cooling [54.4 to 26.7 degrees C] for 5 h, stage B cooling
      [26.7 to 4.4 degrees C] for 10 h), extended stage A cooling for 7.5 or 10 h, and
      extended stage B cooling for 12.5 or 15 h. A positive growth control with 0 mg/kg
      nitrite added (uncured) was also included. No growth was observed in any
      treatment samples except the uncured control (4.31-log increase within 5 h; stage
      A). Phase 2 and 3 experiments were designed to investigate the effects of various
      nitrite and erythorbate concentrations and followed a 10-h stage A and 15-h stage
      B bilinear cooling profile. Phase 2 examined the effects of nitrite
      concentrations of 0, 50, 75, 100, 150, and 200 mg/kg at a constant concentration
      of erythorbate (547 mg/kg). Results revealed changes in C. perfringens
      populations for each treatment of 6.75, 3.59, 2.43, -0.38, -0.48, and -0.50 log
      CFU/g, respectively. Phase 3 examined the effects of various nitrite and
      erythorbate concentrations at 100 mg/kg nitrite with 0 mg/kg erythorbate, 100
      with 250, 100 with 375, 100 with 547, 150 with 250, and 200 with 250,
      respectively. The changes in C. perfringens populations for each treatment were
      4.99, 2.87, 2.50, 1.47, 0.89, and -0.60 log CFU/g, respectively. Variability in
      C. perfringens growth for the 100 mg/kg nitrite with 547 mg/kg erythorbate
      treatment was observed between phases 2 and 3 and may have been due to variations
      in treatment pH and NaCl concentrations. This study revealed the importance of
      nitrite and erythorbate for preventing growth of C. perfringens during a much
      longer (25 h) cooling period than currently specified in the USDA-FSIS Appendix
      B.

PMID- 28885051
TI  - Degradation of Histamine by Lactobacillus plantarum Isolated from Miso Products.
AB  - Histamine is a toxic chemical and is the causative agent of food poisoning. This
      foodborne toxin may be degraded by the oxidative deamination activity of certain
      microorganisms. In this study, we isolated four histamine-degrading Lactobacillus
      plantarum bacteria from miso products. Among them, L. plantarum D-103 exhibited
      100% degradation of histamine in de Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) broth containing 50
      ppm of histamine after 24 h of incubation at 30 degrees C. The optimal growth,
      histamine oxidase, and histamine-degrading activity of L. plantarum D-103 were
      observed in histamine MRS broth at pH 7.0, 3% NaCl, and 30 degrees C. It also
      exhibited tolerance to broad ranges of pH (4 to 10) and salt concentrations (0 to
      12%) in histamine MRS broth. Therefore, the histamine-degrading L. plantarum D
      103 might be used as an additive culture to prevent histamine accumulation in
      miso products during fermentation.

PMID- 28885052
TI  - Migraine and vascular disease biomarkers: A population-based case-control study.
AB  - Background The underpinnings of the migraine-stroke association remain uncertain,
      but endothelial activation is a potential mechanism. We evaluated the association
      of migraine and vascular disease biomarkers in a community-based population.
      Methods Participants (300 women, 117 men) were recruited as a part of the Dutch
      CAMERA 1 (Cerebral Abnormalities in Migraine, an Epidemiologic Risk Analysis)
      study. Participants were aged 30-60 (mean 48) years, 155 migraine had with aura
      (MA), 128 migraine without aura (MO), and 134 were controls with no severe
      headaches. Plasma concentrations of fibrinogen, Factor II, D-dimer, high
      sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and von Willebrand factor antigen were
      compared between groups, also stratifying by sex. Results Fibrinogen and hs-CRP
      were elevated in migraineurs compared to controls. In logistic regression
      analyses, MO and MA had increased likelihood of elevated fibrinogen, and MA had
      increased likelihood of elevated Factor II and hs-CRP. Fibrinogen and Factor II
      were associated with MA in women but not men. In the migraine subgroup, the total
      number of years of aura, but not headache, predicted elevated hs-CRP, and the
      average number of aura, but not headache, attacks predicted all biomarkers but
      Factor II. Conclusions Elevated vascular biomarkers were associated with
      migraine, particularly MA, as well as with years of aura and number of aura
      attacks.

PMID- 28885053
TI  - Board Walk - September 2017.

PMID- 28885055
TI  - The Evolution of Tree Diversity / L'evolution de la diversite chez les arbres.

PMID- 28885054
TI  - A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Zephyr Endobronchial Valve Treatment
      in Heterogeneous Emphysema (TRANSFORM).
AB  - RATIONALE: Single-center randomized controlled trials of the Zephyr endobronchial
      valve (EBV) treatment have demonstrated benefit in severe heterogeneous
      emphysema. This is the first multicenter study evaluating this treatment
      approach. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Zephyr EBVs in
      patients with heterogeneous emphysema and absence of collateral ventilation.
      METHODS: This was a prospective, multicenter 2:1 randomized controlled trial of
      EBVs plus standard of care or standard of care alone (SoC). Primary outcome at 3
      months post-procedure was the percentage of subjects with FEV1 improvement from
      baseline of 12% or greater. Changes in FEV1, residual volume, 6-minute-walk
      distance, St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire score, and modified Medical
      Research Council score were assessed at 3 and 6 months, and target lobe volume
      reduction on chest computed tomography at 3 months. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: Ninety seven subjects were randomized to EBV (n = 65) or SoC (n = 32).
      At 3 months, 55.4% of EBV and 6.5% of SoC subjects had an FEV1 improvement of 12%
      or more (P < 0.001). Improvements were maintained at 6 months: EBV 56.3% versus
      SoC 3.2% (P < 0.001), with a mean +/- SD change in FEV1 at 6 months of 20.7 +/-
      29.6% and -8.6 +/- 13.0%, respectively. A total of 89.8% of EBV subjects had
      target lobe volume reduction greater than or equal to 350 ml, mean 1.09 +/- 0.62
      L (P < 0.001). Between-group differences for changes at 6 months were
      statistically and clinically significant: DeltaEBV-SoC for residual volume, -700
      ml; 6-minute-walk distance, +78.7 m; St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire
      score, -6.5 points; modified Medical Research Council dyspnea score, -0.6 points;
      and BODE (body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity)
      index, -1.8 points (all P < 0.05). Pneumothorax was the most common adverse
      event, occurring in 19 of 65 (29.2%) of EBV subjects. CONCLUSIONS: EBV treatment
      in hyperinflated patients with heterogeneous emphysema without collateral
      ventilation resulted in clinically meaningful benefits in lung function, dyspnea,
      exercise tolerance, and quality of life, with an acceptable safety profile.
      Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02022683).

PMID- 28885056
TI  - The Evolution of Tree Diversity: Proceedings of the 2016 IUFRO Genomics and
      Forest Tree Genetics Conference, Phylogenetics and Genomic Evolution Session,
      Arcachon, France.

PMID- 28885057
TI  - Plasticity in older adults' theory of mind performance: the impact of motivation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Recently, motivation has been found to attenuate the age-related
      decline in Theory of Mind (ToM) performance (i.e. faux pas recognition). However,
      whether or not this effect could be generalized to other ToM tasks is still
      unknown. In the present study, we investigated whether and how motivation could
      enhance older adults' performance and reduce age differences in ToM tasks (Faux
      Pas vs. Animation task) that differ in familiarity. METHOD: Following a previous
      paradigm, 171 Chinese adults (87 younger adults and 84 older adults) were
      recruited, and we experimentally manipulated the level of perceived closeness
      between participants and the experimenter before administering the ToM tasks in
      order to enhance participants' motivation. RESULTS: Results showed that, for the
      Faux Pas task, we replicated previous findings such that older adults under the
      enhanced motivation conditions performed equally well as younger adults.
      Conversely, for the Animation task, younger adults outperformed older adults,
      regardless of motivation. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that motivation can
      enhance older adults' performance in ToM tasks, however, this beneficial effect
      cannot be generalized across ToM tasks.

PMID- 28885058
TI  - Ustekinumab use in Crohn's disease: a Canadian tertiary care centre experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Real world data regarding clinical response to ustekinumab in Crohn's
      disease is lacking. We report our experience of ustekinumab use using a novel
      subcutaneous (SC) induction strategy and aim to identify predictors of response.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective, observational study of compassionate
      ustekinumab use in Crohn's disease was conducted with the use of a standard or
      high dose SC induction protocol. Symptomatic response was assessed after 3 months
      (short-term), and if remaining on therapy, within 3-12 months (medium-term) and
      at least 12 months (long-term). Endoscopic or radiologic response was assessed
      when available. Survival analysis of time to failure (cessation of ustekinumab)
      and multivariate logistic regression to identify predictors of response were
      performed. RESULTS: Seventy-nine patients commenced ustekinumab, with six
      patients lost to follow-up and five asymptomatic at baseline. Symptomatic
      response was assessed in 68 patients; 56% (38) of patients had a short-term
      symptomatic response. Type of preceding anti-TNF response was the only
      significant predictor of short-term response, with primary non-response being a
      strong predictor. In the medium-term, symptomatic response occurred in 72%
      (30/42) of patients and endoscopic or radiologic response was achieved in 72%
      (26/36) of patients assessed. The median time to failure was 22 months.
      Maintenance dose escalation to 90 mg every 4 weeks was successful in three of 16
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: Fifty-six percent of patients had short-term symptomatic
      response, with a history of primary non-response to prior anti-TNF therapy being
      a predictor of response. Dose escalation had only modest benefit.

PMID- 28885059
TI  - Viral deubiquitinases: role in evasion of anti-viral innate immunity.
AB  - Host anti-viral innate-immune signalling pathways are regulated by a variety of
      post-translation modifications including ubiquitination, which is critical to
      regulate various signalling pathways for synthesis of anti-viral molecules. A
      homeostasis of host immune responses, induced due to viral infection and further
      ubiquitination, is maintained by the action of deubiquitinases (DUB). Infecting
      viruses utilize the process of deubiquitination for tricking host immune system
      wherein viral DUBs compete with host DUBs for inhibition of innate-immune anti
      viral signalling pathways, which instead of maintaining an immune homeostasis
      bring about virus-mediated pathogenesis. This suggests that viruses co-evolve
      with their hosts to acquire similar machinery for tricking immune surveillance
      and establishing infection.

PMID- 28885060
TI  - Tracking the southern river terrapin (Batagur affinis) through environmental DNA:
      prospects and challenges.
AB  - Environmental DNA detection has emerged as a powerful tool to monitor aquatic
      species without the need for capture or visual identification and is particularly
      useful for rare or elusive species. Our objective was to develop an eDNA approach
      for detecting the southern river terrapin (Batagur affinis) in Malaysia. We
      designed species-specific primers for a fragment of B. affinis mtDNA and
      evaluated their effectiveness in silico, in vitro and in situ. The primers
      amplified 110 bp of the cytochrome b mtDNA sequence of B. affinis from aquarium
      water samples housing nine juvenile B. affinis. We also successfully detected B.
      affinis eDNA from river samples taken from a site where turtles were known to be
      in the vicinity. Prospects and challenges of using an eDNA approach to help
      determine the distribution of B. affinis, essential information for an effective
      conservation plan, are discussed.

PMID- 28885061
TI  - Psychometric evaluation of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptom Questionnaire (RASQ)
      in an observational study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the psychometric performance of the scores produced by the
      Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptom Questionnaire (RASQ), a new patient-reported outcome
      (PRO) questionnaire developed to assess the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA). METHODS: Adult subjects with clinically confirmed RA completed a
      set of questionnaires (including the RASQ) at an initial study visit (Day 1), and
      then completed the RASQ and the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGI-C) on
      their own on Day 8. Demographic and health data were summarized using descriptive
      statistics, and psychometric analyses were conducted, including: acceptability,
      item and scale distribution, reliability (internal consistency and test-re-test
      reliability), and construct-related validity (convergent validity and known
      groups methods). RESULTS: In total, 200 subjects (females = 61.5%; white = 72.0%;
      and age [mean] = 60.7 years) with RA were recruited across the US and included in
      the analysis. There were no missing data recorded for the RASQ, and scores were
      well distributed for both timepoints. The RASQ Total Symptom Score surpassed the
      threshold (alpha >= 0.70) for internal consistency at Day 1 (alpha = 0.967) and
      test-re-test score reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient [ICC] > 0.70)
      (ICC = 0.960). Convergent validity analyses demonstrated that the RASQ items and
      Total Symptom Score had high correlations (convergent validity) with other PRO
      questionnaires. Known-groups methods demonstrated that the RASQ (Total Symptom
      Score and all single items) can differentiate between clinically distinct groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: The RASQ is capable of producing psychometrically sound scores when
      administered to adults with RA.

PMID- 28885062
TI  - Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: always coronary angiography?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains one of the principle
      challenges in the setting of critical care medicine and emergency cardiology.
      Areas covered: Long-term survival rates even after successful resuscitation are
      variable but increasing in the recent years; due to the improvement of base and
      advanced cardiac life support techniques an increasing number of resuscitated
      patients are admitted to the hospital. Recent data suggested that patients
      surviving to hospital discharge after OHCA presented long-term outcome similar to
      patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. However, limited and
      incompletely clear data are available in the literature about the selection and
      risk stratification of patients to be subjected to coronary angiography,
      particularly in patients who have unfavorable clinical features in whom
      procedures may be futile and may affect public reporting of morality. Recently
      the ESC and AHA addressed appropriate treatments for ST-elevation myocardial
      infarction (STEMI) patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Expert
      commentary: Immediate coronary intervention in the setting of OHCA appears to be
      associated with better survival to discharge; the documentation of an occluded
      coronary artery in medium 25% of patients without signs of STEMI at ECG helps to
      explain why early angiography can improve outcomes. In the treatment of OHCA we
      can find some ethical issues; for example a combination of comorbidities with
      advanced age and prolonged ischemia indicated by severe lactic acidosis may
      signify a high enough chance of multiorgan failure or anoxic brain injury and
      where the benefit of coronary reperfusion therapy appears minimal.

PMID- 28885063
TI  - Treatment-free interval as a metric of patient experience and a health outcome of
      value for advanced multiple myeloma: the case for the histone deacetylase
      inhibitor panobinostat, a next-generation novel agent.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with relapsed or relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM)
      face poor treatment options by the time third-line therapy is required, despite
      advances in overall survival in recent years. Treatment free interval (TFI) and
      opportunities to maintain quality of life (QoL) have been cited as additional
      measures of efficacy that can be utilized in personalized treatment decisions.
      METHODS: The clinical health outcomes data from PANORAMA-1, the pivotal phase-3
      trial comparing panobinostat-bortezomib-dexamethasone (PAN-BTZ-DEX) with placebo
      (PBO)-BTZ-DEX in RRMM patients treated with 1 to 3 prior regimens,
      retrospectively assessed TFI as a health outcome measure and metric of patient
      treatment experience relevant to the RRMM population. RESULTS: PAN-BTZ-DEX shows
      promise for prolonged TFI (mean TFI, 7.49 months; 95% CI, 6.02 to 8.71) compared
      to PBO-BTZ-DEX (mean TFI, 3.86 months; 95% CI, 3.08 to 4.60) for heavily pre
      treated advanced RRMM patients), due to the short duration of therapy and
      extended progression free-survival. Further, QoL during the TFI was similar to
      baseline. CONCLUSIONS: PAN-BTZ-DEX provides a treatment regimen with prolonged
      TFI benefits previously not available for RRMM patients. TFI has not been
      traditionally measured in clinical trials, but should be assessed in prospective
      data collection given its value to payers, providers, and patients.

PMID- 28885064
TI  - Araniella cucurbitina: the first molecular evidence of a Palearctic species of
      genus Araniella inhabiting India.
AB  - The present study represents first genetic record of single spider species
      Araniella cucurbitina, genus Araniella from Uttarakhand, India. There are 12
      identified species under Araniella genus and they are distributed in Palearctic
      region. Here, we used known N = 47 (2 from present study and 45 from GenBank)
      cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) sequences of A. cucurbitina representing seven
      different geographical groups, additionally 23 sequences of eight Araniella
      species were used for phylogenetic relationship. The CO1 (561 bp) sequences of A.
      cucurbitina consisted of n = 14 haplotypes, where haplotype 14 (Hap 14)
      represents Indian species, while all 13 haplotypes (Hap1-13) shared between six
      A. cucurbitina groups. The overall 'h' and 'pi' diversities among seven groups of
      A. cucurbitina were 0.85291 and 0.00888, respectively, while overall evolutionary
      divergence was 0.04. The Indian Hap 14, showed minimum sequence divergence (0.02)
      from Italy and Czech Republic haplotypes (Hap 6), it means it is the closest
      group compared to others. Evolutionary divergence among eight species of
      Araniella ranges from 0.003 to 0.114. The maximum likelihood (ML) topology based
      on 14 haplotypes of A. cucurbitina was divided into two major clades and further
      two subclades. Furthermore, ML topology between eight species of Araniella was
      divided into three major clades, where A. cucurbitina and A. proxima clustered
      together in clade 'A', while six others were present together in clade 'B' and
      'C'. This study helps to identify the Indian species from the rest of Araniella
      species and other cucurbitina population across the world. This study further
      needs to be on a large scale to know the exact status distribution and molecular
      phylogeography of this single species of genus Araniella from India.

PMID- 28885065
TI  - Recovery and serious mental illness: a review of current clinical and research
      paradigms and future directions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recovery from serious mental illness has historically not been
      considered a likely or even possible outcome. However, a range of evidence
      suggests the courses of SMI are heterogeneous with recovery being the most likely
      outcome. One barrier to studying recovery in SMI is that recovery has been
      operationalized in divergent and seemingly incompatible ways: as an objective
      outcome versus a subjective process. Areas covered: This paper offers a review of
      recovery as a subjective process and recovery as an objective outcome; contrasts
      methodologies utilized by each approach to assess recovery; reports rates and
      correlates of recovery; and explores the relationship between objective and
      subjective forms of recovery. Expert commentary: There are two commonalities of
      approaching recovery as a subjective process and an objective outcome: (i) the
      need to make meaning out of one's experiences to engage in either type of
      recovery and (ii) there exist many threats to engaging in meaning making that may
      impact the likelihood of moving toward recovery. We offer four clinical
      implications that stem from these two commonalities within a divided approach to
      the concept of recovery from SMI.

PMID- 28885066
TI  - Nanoparticle size-specific actin rearrangement and barrier dysfunction of
      endothelial cells.
AB  - In this work, we evaluated the impact of gold nanoparticles on endothelial cell
      behavior and function beyond the influence on cell viability. Five types of gold
      nanoparticles were studied: 5 nm and 20 nm bare gold nanoparticles, 5 nm and 20
      nm gold nanoparticles with biocompatible polyethylene glycol (PEG) coating and 60
      nm bare gold nanoparticles. We found that all tested gold nanoparticles did not
      affect cell viability significantly and reduced the reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      level in endothelial cells. Only 20 nm bare gold nanoparticles caused an over 50%
      increase in endothelial barrier permeability and slow recovery of barrier
      function was observed after the gold nanoparticles were removed. This impairment
      in endothelial barrier function was caused by unbalanced forces between
      intracellular tensions and paracellular forces, actin microfilament
      rearrangement, which occurred through a Rho/ROCK kinase-dependent pathway and
      broke the force balance between intracellular tensions and paracellular forces.
      The size-specific effect of gold nanoparticles on endothelial cells may have
      important implications regarding the behavior of nanoparticles in the biological
      system and provide valuable guidance in nanomaterial design and biomedical
      applications.

PMID- 28885067
TI  - Differential gene expression in primary fibroblasts induced by proton and cobalt
      60 beam irradiation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Proton beam therapy delivers a more conformal dose distribution
      than conventional radiotherapy, thus improving normal tissue sparring. Increasing
      linear energy transfer (LET) along the proton track increases the relative
      biological effectiveness (RBE) near the distal edge of the Spread-out Bragg peak
      (SOBP). The severity of normal tissue side effects following photon beam
      radiotherapy vary considerably between patients. AIM: The dual study aim was to
      identify gene expression patterns specific to radiation type and proton beam
      position, and to assess whether individual radiation sensitivity influences gene
      expression levels in fibroblast cultures irradiated in vitro. METHODS: The study
      includes 30 primary fibroblast cell cultures from patients previously classified
      as either radiosensitive or radioresistant. Cells were irradiated at three
      different positions in the proton beam profile: entrance, mid-SOBP and at the
      SOBP distal edge. Dose was delivered in three fractions * 3.5 Gy(RBE) (RBE 1.1).
      Cobalt-60 (Co-60) irradiation was used as reference. Real-time qPCR was performed
      to determine gene expression levels for 17 genes associated with inflammation
      response, fibrosis and angiogenesis. RESULTS: Differences in median gene
      expression levels were observed for multiple genes such as IL6, IL8 and CXCL12.
      Median IL6 expression was 30%, 24% and 47% lower in entrance, mid-SOBP and SOBP
      distal edge groups than in Co-60 irradiated cells. No genes were found to be
      oppositely regulated by different radiation qualities. Radiosensitive patient
      samples had the strongest regulation of gene expression; irrespective of
      radiation type. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the increased LET at the
      SOBP distal edge position did not generally lead to increased transcriptive
      response in primary fibroblast cultures. Inflammatory factors were generally less
      extensively upregulated by proton irradiation compared with Co-60 photon
      irradiation. These effects may possibly influence the development of normal
      tissue damage in patients treated with proton beam therapy.

PMID- 28885068
TI  - The phylogenetic relationships and molecular systematics of scincid lizards of
      the genus Heremites (Sauria, Scincidae) in the Middle East based on mtDNA
      sequences.
AB  - The taxonomic status of species included in the genus Heremites in Iran and Iraq
      is uncertain. Three of these species have been assigned to the genus based on
      morphology: Heremites auratus transcaucasica, H. vittatus, and H.
      septemtaeniatus. We examined the phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic status
      of the Iranian and Iraqi species of Heremites by performing phylogenetic analyses
      using mitochondrial DNA sequences (cytochrome b and 16S rRNA). Phylogenetic
      relationships and estimated genetic distances indicated that the Heremites
      populations of the area (Iran and Iraq) form five distinct clades. Three of these
      clades are found only in Iran, specifically in: (1) Fars and Hormozgan provinces;
      (2) Northeastern Khuzestan; and (3) Khorasan and Isfahan provinces. The fourth
      clade (H. septemtaeniatus) is found in west and Mahshahr in Iran as well as in
      eastern and northern parts of Iraq. The fifth clade, Heremites vittatus, is found
      in Iran and Iraq. We also confirm the absence of H. auratus in Iran and Iraq. It
      also indicated that H. vittatus is sister taxon to the other groups that our
      analyses estimate the divergence of this clade in the Middle Miocene (15.9 Mya).
      The clade containing the Fars-Hormozgan and Khuzestan populations diverged at the
      end of the Miocene (8.5 Mya). The Isfahan and Khorasan populations separated at
      the Pliocene (4.2 Mya) from the western Iranian group, the group in Mahshahr,
      Iran and the groups in northern and eastern Iraq.

PMID- 28885069
TI  - JQ1 reduces Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoproliferative disease in mice
      without sustained oncogene repression.

PMID- 28885070
TI  - The Nepean Belief Scale: preliminary reliability and validity in obsessive
      compulsive disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the psychometric characteristics of the Nepean Belief
      Scale (NBS), a short clinician-administered scale that assesses the
      characteristics and intensity of beliefs in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
      METHODS: The NBS was administered by two clinicians to 27 subjects with OCD as
      part of a larger study that included a comprehensive assessment using the Yale
      Brown Obsessive Compulsive Symptom Scale (Y-BOCS), the Overvalued Ideas Scale
      (OVIS) and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90R). Test-retest reliability of
      the NBS was assessed by administering the scale 5 days after initial
      administration. RESULTS: The 5-item NBS proved easy to use with an assessment
      time of less than 5 min. Its interrater reliability revealed 99.5% concordance,
      while the kappa for test-retest reliability was 0.98 (95% CI = 0.95-1.00).
      Cronbach alpha coefficient for internal consistency was 0.87. The NBS was found
      to have excellent convergent and discriminant validity. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary
      results suggest that the NBS could be a useful shorter alternative to the
      currently more widely used instruments for assessing beliefs such as the OVIS and
      the Brown Assessment of Belief Scale. The NBS has clear instructions and
      definitions, excellent interrater reliability and convergent validity, and it
      more accurately measures belief-related insight.

PMID- 28885071
TI  - Genetic effects of released swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus) on wild
      populations inferred from mitochondrial control region sequences.
AB  - Along the coast of Shandong Province in China, an extensive hatchery-release
      programme has been conducted for more than 10 years. However, no information has
      been reported concerning the long-term effects on the wild population resulting
      from the release of large numbers of juveniles in Portunus trituberculatus. In
      this study, sequence variation of swimming crab P. trituberculatus based on the
      mitochondrial control region was investigated for 946 swimming crabs at the
      releasing sites from 2012 to 2014. The result showed that the wild P.
      trituberculatus was characterized by high genetic diversity indices, and not
      significantly different from the previous study. Low FST values were estimated
      among the groups of different years and different sites, which suggested no
      genetic differentiation found in the wild population after the stock enhancement
      programme. Hence, the long-term extensive hatchery release programme has not
      affected the genetic structure of wild P. trituberculatus populations along the
      coast of Shandong Province.

PMID- 28885073
TI  - Corrigendum to: Fall-related healthcare use and costs in neurogenic orthostatic
      hypotension with Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28885072
TI  - Programming characteristics of cochlear implants in children: effects of
      aetiology and age at implantation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We investigated effects of aetiology and age at implantation on
      changes in threshold (T) levels, comfortable (C) levels and dynamic range (DR)
      for cochlear implants (CIs) in children over the first five years of life.
      DESIGN: Information was collected at 6 months post-activation of CIs, and at 3
      and 5 years of age. STUDY SAMPLE: One hundred and sixty-one children
      participating in the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment
      (LOCHI) study. RESULTS: Children with neural and structural cochlear lesions had
      higher T-levels and C-levels as compared to those without these conditions.
      Parameter settings varied from manufacturer's defaults more often in the former
      than in the latter group. Investigation of the effect of age at implantation for
      children without neural and structural cochlear lesions showed that those
      implanted at <=12 months of age had higher T-levels and narrower DR at 6 months
      post-activation, as compared to the later-implanted group. For both early- and
      later-implanted groups, the C-levels at 6 months post-activation were lower than
      those at age 3 and 5 years. There were no significant differences in T-levels, C
      levels, or DR between age 3 and 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: Aetiology and age at
      implantation had significant effects on T-levels and C-levels.

PMID- 28885074
TI  - Clinical risks of St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) co-administration.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: St. John's wort (SJW) is a common medicinal herb used for the
      treatment of mild to moderate depression. Hyperforin, one of the chief components
      of SJW, plays an important role in the induction of cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP)
      and P-glycoprotein transporter (P-gp), and therefore, affects the
      pharmacokinetics of various drugs. There are several clinical studies
      demonstrating the interaction of SJW with the metabolism of conventional drugs
      which may cause life-threatening events. Areas covered: This review focuses on
      human studies that have evaluated pharmacokinetic alterations of conventional
      drugs in concomitant use with different SJW preparations. Expert opinion: SJW
      preparations have demonstrated clinically important interactions with several
      classes of conventional drugs such as immunosuppressants, anticancer agents,
      cardiovascular drugs, oral contraceptives, and lipid lowering agents that caused
      life-threatening events in several cases. The patient information label on the
      SJW products should provide enough information regarding the possible risk of
      interaction. Hyperforin seems to be the major ingredient responsible for CYP and
      P-gp inducing activity of SJW; thus, hyperforin-free products may be future
      candidates to decrease SJW's drug interactions.

PMID- 28885075
TI  - CompNanoTox2015: novel perspectives from a European conference on computational
      nanotoxicology on predictive nanotoxicology.
AB  - A first European Conference on Computational Nanotoxicology, CompNanoTox, was
      held in November 2015 in Benahavis, Spain with the objectives to disseminate and
      integrate results from the European modeling and database projects (NanoPUZZLES,
      ModENPTox, PreNanoTox, MembraneNanoPart, MODERN, eNanoMapper and EU COST TD1204
      MODENA) as well as to create synergies within the European NanoSafety Cluster.
      This conference was supported by the COST Action TD1204 MODENA on developing
      computational methods for toxicological risk assessment of engineered
      nanoparticles and provided a unique opportunity for cross fertilization among
      complementary disciplines. The efforts to develop and validate computational
      models crucially depend on high quality experimental data and relevant assays
      which will be the basis to identify relevant descriptors. The ambitious
      overarching goal of this conference was to promote predictive nanotoxicology,
      which can only be achieved by a close collaboration between the computational
      scientists (e.g. database experts, modeling experts for structure, (eco)
      toxicological effects, performance and interaction of nanomaterials) and
      experimentalists from different areas (in particular toxicologists, biologists,
      chemists and material scientists, among others). The main outcome and new
      perspectives of this conference are summarized here.

PMID- 28885076
TI  - Late mucosal ulcers in dose-escalated adaptive dose-painting treatments for head
      and-neck cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To identify predictive factors for the development of late grade 4
      mucosal ulcers in adaptive dose-escalated treatments for head-and-neck cancer.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patient data of four dose-escalated three-phase adaptive
      dose-painting by numbers (DPBN) clinical trials were analyzed in this study.
      Correlations between the development of late grade 4 ulcers and factors related
      with the treatment, disease characteristics and the patient were investigated.
      Dosimetrical thresholds were searched among the highest doses received by 1.75
      cm3 (D1.75cc) of the primary gross tumor volume (GTVT) and the corresponding
      normalized isoeffective dose (NID21.75cc, with a reference dose of 2Gy/fraction
      and alpha/beta of 3 Gy). RESULTS: From 39 studied patients, nine developed late
      grade 4 mucosal ulcers. The continuation to either smoke or drink alcohol after
      therapy was the factor that showed a strong (eight out of nine patients)
      association with the occurrence of grade 4 ulcers. Six of the patients who
      continued to smoke or/and drink had D1.75cc and NID21.75cc above 84 Gy and 95.5
      Gy, respectively. Seven of the patients with grade 4 had the dose levels above
      these thresholds, but even if the D1.75cc threshold was significant in the
      prediction of late grade 4 ulcers, it could not be considered as the only
      contributing factor. CONCLUSIONS: The search for patterns provided strong reasons
      to apply a dosimetrical threshold for the peak-dose volume of 1.75 cm3 as a
      preventive measure for late grade 4 mucosal ulcers. Also, patients that continue
      to smoke or drink alcohol after therapy have increased risk to develop late
      mucosal ulcers.

PMID- 28885077
TI  - Innate immunity may play a role in growth and relapse of chordoid meningioma.
AB  - Chordoid meningioma (CM) is a rare subtype of meningioma, which represents only
      0.5% of all meningiomas. It is classified as Grade II according to the World
      Health Organization classification because of its tendency to relapse.
      Pathological and clinical characteristics have been studied in order to forecast
      the future evolution of the lesions. However, information about infiltration of
      macrophagic elements and mast cells is very scarce. The authors analyzed the
      immunohistochemical patterns of three cases and a relapse of CM, in order to
      verify whether infiltrating macrophages are in a polarized state and what would
      be the proportion between such elements and mastocytes. Results suggest that
      macrophages in CMs are mainly in a non-polarized or M2 state and their abundance
      might be associated with a major potential of relapse; additionally, there is an
      inverse correlation between the number of mast cells and macrophages. Further
      studies are requested in order to confirm these intriguing data.

PMID- 28885078
TI  - The law of unintended consequences: current design challenges in inferior vena
      cava filters.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Venous thromboembolic disease (VTD) encompassing deep vein
      thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) is a commonly encountered condition
      with potentially fatal sequelae. When unable to be adequately anticoagulated,
      patients require a mechanical means to prevent PE. This review discusses the
      history of inferior vena cava interruption and the development of inferior vena
      cava filters (IVCF). Areas covered: Milestone innovations in the mechanical
      treatment of VTD, their successes and shortcomings are discussed. The unforeseen
      complications that have occurred with implantation of IVCF have a profound impact
      on the present utilization of retrievable filters. Particular attention is
      dedicated to the evidence for safe and effective use of IVCF and the challenges
      presented to further improvement of these technologies. Expert commentary: While
      evidence suggests that IVCF are effective in preventing PE, the recent 'de
      volution' from permanent to retrievable design has unleashed an epidemic device
      related complications. Retrievable filter design is reliant on a 'Goldilocks'
      premise: make the device stable (so it doesn't migrate), but not too stable (so
      you can still retrieve it). Efforts must be aimed at optimizing utilization using
      decision support tools, meticulous follow up after deployment, and conversion
      from retrievable to permanent devices if the patient requires lifelong mechanical
      prophylaxis.

PMID- 28885079
TI  - A review of renal disease in children with HIV infection.
AB  - Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection continues to be a leading cause of
      morbidity and mortality. HIV-infected individuals are now surviving for a
      relatively longer period and this is because of easy accessibility to
      antiretroviral therapy these days. As a result, chronic disease-related
      complications are now being recognized more often. Kidney disease in HIV-infected
      children can vary from glomerular to tubular-interstitial involvement. We
      searched the database to identify various kidney diseases seen in HIV-infected
      children. We describe the epidemiology, pathogenesis, pathology, clinical and
      laboratory manifestations, management and outcome of commonly seen kidney disease
      in HIV-infected children. We also provide a brief overview of toxicity of
      antiretroviral drugs seen in HIV-infected children. Kidney involvement in HIV
      infected children may arise because of HIV infection per se, opportunistic
      infections, immune mediated injury and drug toxicity. HIV-associated nephropathy
      is perhaps the most common and most severe form of kidney disease. Proteinuria
      may be a cost-effective screening test in the long-term management of HIV
      infected children, however, there are no definite recommendations for the same.
      Other important renal diseases are HIV immune complex kidney disease, thrombotic
      microangiopathy, interstitial nephritis and vasculitis.

PMID- 28885080
TI  - Survival of localized NSCLC patients without active treatment or treated with
      SBRT.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little information on the natural history of patients with localized
      NSCLC is available since many of the studies covering the subject lack
      information on pathological confirmation, staging procedures and comorbidity. No
      randomized studies have compared SBRT with no treatment for patients with
      localized NSCLC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether SBRT has
      influence on overall survival for patients with localized NSCLC and investigate
      the effect of baseline ventilatory lung function on overall survival. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: From 2007 to 2013, 136 patients treated with SBRT at Odense
      University Hospital were prospectively recorded. The thoracic SBRT consisted of
      three fractions of 15-22 Gy delivered in 9 days. For comparison, a national group
      of 73 untreated patients in the same time period was extracted from the Danish
      Lung Cancer Registry. All patients had histologically/cytologically proven NSCLC
      T1-2N0M0 with a tumour diameter <=5 cm. RESULTS: The 5-year relative survival was
      44% versus 7% for the SBRT and untreated groups, respectively. In a propensity
      score matched comparison the median overall survival was 47 months versus 11
      months for the SBRT and untreated groups, respectively (p < .05). On multivariate
      analysis, SBRT was significantly associated with improved prognosis while ECOG
      performance status 2+ and tumour diameter >=3 cm significantly predicted poorer
      prognosis. Severe to very severe reduction of forced expiratory volume in one
      second (FEV1) did not predict poorer survival for the SBRT treated patients with
      localized NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS: SBRT offers more favourable survival than no
      treatment for patients with localized NSCLC. Performance status of 0-1, tumour
      diameter less than 3 cm and SBRT predicted improved survival. SBRT should not be
      withheld for patients with localized NSCLC based on poor ventilatory lung
      function.

PMID- 28885081
TI  - The Denominator: Evolving the Electronic Medical Record To Discover Who Needs
      Palliative Care.

PMID- 28885082
TI  - Human Papillomavirus Testing by Veterans Administration Women's Health Providers:
      Are They Adhering to Guidelines?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence-based guidelines have been created by professional
      societies, including the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)
      and American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP), for use of
      human papillomavirus (HPV) cotesting in cervical cancer screening. We
      investigated whether Veterans Health Administration (VA) providers at one VA
      medical center follow these guidelines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective
      chart review of women aged 21-65 who had an HPV test ordered with pap testing in
      fiscal year 2014 at one Veterans Administration (VA) medical center to evaluate
      concordance of HPV ordering with screening (USPSTF) and management (ASCCP)
      guidelines. We collected data on patient characteristics and gynecologic history
      and documented the reason, if given, for HPV testing. RESULTS: Of the 210
      eligible HPV tests evaluated, 142 tests (68%) were determined to be guideline
      discordant. Of the 142 guideline-discordant tests, 90 had no documented reason
      for HPV testing in the chart. Site of care was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study demonstrates potential overuse of HPV testing among women's health
      providers at one VA medical center. This may indicate that VA providers lack an
      understanding of HPV cotesting guidelines. Further studies are needed to
      characterize VA provider adherence to HPV testing guidelines nationally.
      Implementation of educational interventions and decision aids may improve VA
      providers' adherence to guidelines.

PMID- 28885083
TI  - Risk factors for progressive neuromuscular scoliosis requiring posterior spinal
      fusion after selective dorsal rhizotomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) via limited laminectomy is an
      effective treatment of lower-extremity spasticity in the pediatric population.
      Children with spasticity are also at risk for neuromuscular scoliosis; however,
      specific risk factors for progressive spinal deformity requiring posterior spinal
      fusion (PSF) after SDR are unknown. The authors' goal was to identify potential
      risk factors. METHODS The authors performed a retrospective cohort study of
      patients who underwent SDR via limited laminectomy between 2003 and 2014 and who
      had at least 1 year of follow-up. They analyzed demographic, clinical, and
      radiographic variables to elucidate risk factors for progressive neuromuscular
      scoliosis. The primary outcome was need for PSF. RESULTS One hundred thirty-four
      patients underwent SDR and had at least 12 months of follow-up (mean 65 months);
      48 patients (36%) had detailed pre- and postoperative radiographic data
      available. The mean age at surgery was 10 years (SD 5.1 years). Eighty-four
      patients (63%) were ambulatory before SDR, 109 (82%) underwent a single-level
      laminectomy, and a mean of 53% of the dorsal rootlets from L-1 to S-1 were
      sectioned. Fifteen patients (11.2%) subsequently required PSF for progressive
      deformity. Nonambulatory status (p < 0.001) and a preoperative Cobb angle > 30
      degrees  (p = 0.003) were significantly associated with PSF on univariate
      analysis, but no statistically significant correlation was found with any
      clinical or radiographic variable and PSF after SDR on multivariate regression
      analysis. CONCLUSIONS Patients with preoperative nonambulatory status and Cobb
      angle > 30 degrees  may be at risk for progressive spinal deformity requiring PSF
      after SDR. These are well-known risk factors for progressive deformity in
      children with spasticity in general. Although our analysis suggests SDR via
      limited laminectomy may not significantly accelerate the development of
      neuromuscular scoliosis, further case-control studies are critical to elucidate
      the impact of SDR on spinal deformity.

PMID- 28885084
TI  - Influence of gray level discretization on radiomic feature stability for
      different CT scanners, tube currents and slice thicknesses: a comprehensive
      phantom study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radiomic analyses of CT images provide prognostic information that
      can potentially be used for personalized treatment. However, heterogeneity of
      acquisition- and reconstruction protocols influences robustness of radiomic
      analyses. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of different CT
      scanners, slice thicknesses, exposures and gray-level discretization on radiomic
      feature values and their stability. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A texture phantom with
      ten different inserts was scanned on nine different CT-scanners with varying tube
      currents. Scans were reconstructed with 1.5 mm or 3 mm slice thickness. Image pre
      processing comprised gray-level discretization in ten different bin widths
      ranging from 5 to 50 HU and different resampling methods (i.e., linear, cubic and
      nearest neighbor interpolation to 1 * 1 * 3 mm3 voxels) were investigated.
      Subsequently, 114 textural radiomic features were extracted from a 2.1 cm3 sphere
      in the center of each insert. The influence of slice thickness, exposure and bin
      width on feature values was investigated. Feature stability was assessed by
      calculating the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) in a test-retest
      setting and for different combinations of scanners, tube currents and slice
      thicknesses. RESULTS: Bin width influenced feature values, but this only had a
      marginal effect on the total number of stable features (CCC > 0.85) when
      comparing different scanners, slice thicknesses or exposures. Most radiomic
      features were affected by slice thickness, but this effect could be reduced by
      resampling the CT-images before feature extraction. Statistics feature 'energy'
      was the most dependent on slice thickness. No clear correlation between feature
      values and exposures was observed. CONCLUSIONS: CT-scanner, slice thickness and
      bin width affected radiomic feature values, whereas no effect of exposure was
      observed. Optimization of gray-level discretization to potentially improve
      prognostic value can be performed without compromising feature stability.
      Resampling images prior to feature extraction decreases the variability of
      radiomic features.

PMID- 28885085
TI  - Targeting the central projection of the dural trigeminovascular system for
      migraine prophylaxis.
AB  - Migraine abortives likely target both peripheral-dural and central
      trigeminovascular mechanisms in mediating their therapeutic effects. However, in
      preclinical assays, many migraine preventives have little success at inhibiting
      similar trigeminovascular-mediated peripheral changes within the dural
      microenvironment. In addition, their effects on central trigeminovascular
      neuronal responses are largely unknown. Using a validated preclinical model of
      acute dural-intracranial (migraine-like) head pain, using Sprague Dawley rats, we
      tested whether migraine preventives suppress ongoing firing of central
      trigeminocervical neurons, and evoked responses to cranial neurovascular
      activation. Flunarizine, sodium valproate, propranolol, and amitriptyline, all
      dose-dependently inhibited ongoing spontaneous firing of dural trigeminovascular
      neurons, and differentially affected neuronal responses to intracranial-dural and
      extracranial-cutaneous somatosensory stimulation. Lamotrigine, only effective in
      the treatment of migraine aura, did not affect responses. These data provide a
      mechanistic rationale for the clinical effects of migraine preventives in the
      treatment of migraine, via the modulation of dural-responsive central
      trigeminovascular neurons. Also, given their limited effect on peripheral dural
      vasdilatory responses, these data also suggest that migraine preventives
      specifically target central, rather than peripheral, components of trigeminal
      neurovascular mechanisms involved in migraine pathophysiology, to mediate their
      preventive action. Finally, these data further validate this preclinical model of
      central trigeminovascular activation to screen migraine preventives.

PMID- 28885087
TI  - Encephalocele development from a congenital meningocele: case report.
AB  - A fetal MRI study obtained at 21 weeks' gestation revealed a suboccipital
      meningocele without hydrocephalus. One day after term birth, MRI demonstrated an
      acquired cerebellar encephalocele, and MRI obtained 5 months later showed
      progressive enlargement of the encephalocele, still without obvious
      hydrocephalus. The patient underwent an operation in which an external
      ventricular drain was placed, the grossly normal cerebellum was reduced into the
      posterior fossa without resection, and the dural defect was closed. The drain was
      weaned out over 5 days, and no ventriculoperitoneal shunt was placed.
      Postoperative MR images revealed normal cerebellum and no hydrocephalus. The
      patient is developmentally normal. Meningocele and encephalocele are
      embryologically distinct. An acquired encephalocele could develop from
      hydrocephalus (which was not present in this case), or secondary to the lower
      resistance to expansion into the dural defect of the meningocele relative to the
      resistance to expansion of the fetal skull. The cerebellar tissue was normal in
      this case, and was thus preserved. The developmental prognosis is excellent. To
      the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of this occurrence. It is
      important to differentiate between congenital and acquired encephalocele
      etiologies, because resection of the cerebellar tissue in an acquired
      encephalocele (as is routinely done in cases of congenital encephalocele) would
      be expected to result in neurological deficits.

PMID- 28885086
TI  - Enlarging pediatric ectopic Rathke's cleft cyst in the prepontine cistern: case
      report.
AB  - Rathke's cleft cyst is a cystic disease that occurs in the sella turcica or,
      occasionally, in the suprasellar area. An ectopic Rathke's cleft cyst is
      extremely rare, and its nature is less well understood. The authors report the
      case of a 14-year-old girl who presented with a growing cystic lesion in the
      prepontine cistern, immediately behind the dorsum sellae. Preoperative imaging
      and intraoperative investigation showed part of the cyst wall continuing into the
      dorsum sellae, to the pituitary gland. The cisternal portion of the cyst wall was
      totally resected via a right subtemporal approach. Histopathological examination
      of the cyst wall showed a monolayer of ciliated cells, identical to those of
      Rathke's cleft cyst. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this represents the
      first pediatric case of Rathke's cleft cyst occurring in the prepontine cistern.

PMID- 28885088
TI  - Progression of trunk imbalance in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis with a
      thoracolumbar/lumbar curve: is it predictable at the initial visit?
AB  - OBJECTIVE Progression of trunk imbalance is an important finding during follow-up
      of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Nevertheless, no factors
      that predict progression of trunk imbalance have been identified. The purpose of
      this study was to identify parameters that predict progression of trunk imbalance
      in cases of AIS with a structural thoracolumbar/lumbar (TL/L) curve. METHODS This
      study included 105 patients with AIS and a structural TL/L curve who were
      followed up at an outpatient clinic. Patients with trunk imbalance (trunk shift
      >= 20 mm) at the initial visit were excluded. All patients were followed up for
      more than 2 years. Patients were divided into the following groups according to
      progression of trunk imbalance: 1) Group P, trunk shift >= 20 mm at the final
      visit and degree of progression >= 10 mm; and 2) Group NP, trunk shift < 20 mm at
      the final visit or degree of progression < 10 mm. Radiological parameters
      included Cobb angle, upper end vertebrae and lower end vertebrae (LEV), LEV tilt,
      disc wedge angle between LEV and LEV+1, trunk shift, apical vertebral
      translation, and apical vertebral rotation (AVR). Each parameter was compared
      between groups. Radiological parameters were assessed at every visit using whole
      spine standing anteroposterior radiographs. RESULTS Among the 105 patients
      examined, 13 showed trunk imbalance with progression >= 10 mm at the final visit
      (Group P). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified a lower Risser
      grade (p = 0.002) and a greater initial AVR (p = 0.020) as predictors of
      progressive trunk imbalance. A change in LEV tilt during follow-up was associated
      with trunk imbalance (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Risser grade and AVR measured at
      the initial visit may predict progression of trunk imbalance. Surgeons should
      consider the risk of progressive trunk imbalance if patients show skeletal
      immaturity and a greater AVR at the initial visit.

PMID- 28885089
TI  - Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Elevates Suicide Risk among United States Military
      Personnel with Lifetime Attempted Suicide.
AB  - Military psychiatric inpatients with and without a lifetime history of non
      suicidal self-injury (NSSI), combined with a history of at least one suicide
      attempt, were compared on suicide ideation severity, number of suicide attempts,
      and Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide variables. Data were derived
      from baseline assessments performed in a psychotherapy randomized controlled
      trial. Lifetime history of NSSI and lifetime number of suicide attempts were
      assessed using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS; Posner et al.,
      2011 ). Individuals with versus without a combined lifetime history of attempted
      suicide and NSSI showed significant elevations on thwarted belongingness and
      acquired capability for suicide. No significant between-group differences were
      found on perceived burdensomeness, frequency, duration, and controllability of
      suicide ideation, or number of lifetime suicide attempts. A history of NSSI,
      above and beyond attempted suicide, appears to increase service members' social
      alienation and acquired capability for suicide.

PMID- 28885090
TI  - Difference in target definition using three different methods to include
      respiratory motion in radiotherapy of lung cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Minimizing the planning target volume (PTV) while ensuring
      sufficient target coverage during the entire respiratory cycle is essential for
      free-breathing radiotherapy of lung cancer. Different methods are used to
      incorporate the respiratory motion into the PTV. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifteen
      patients were analyzed. Respiration can be included in the target delineation
      process creating a respiratory GTV, denoted iGTV. Alternatively, the respiratory
      amplitude (A) can be measured based on the 4D-CT and A can be incorporated in the
      margin expansion. The GTV expanded by A yielded GTV + resp, which was compared to
      iGTV in terms of overlap. Three methods for PTV generation were compared. PTVdel
      (delineated iGTV expanded to CTV plus PTV margin), PTVsigma (GTV expanded to CTV
      and A was included as a random uncertainty in the CTV to PTV margin) and PTV?
      (GTV expanded to CTV, succeeded by CTV linear expansion by A to CTV + resp, which
      was finally expanded to PTV?). RESULTS: Deformation of tumor and lymph nodes
      during respiration resulted in volume changes between the respiratory phases. The
      overlap between iGTV and GTV + resp showed that on average 7% of iGTV was outside
      the GTV + resp implying that GTV + resp did not capture the tumor during the full
      deformable respiration cycle. A comparison of the PTV volumes showed that
      PTVsigma was smallest and PTVSigma largest for all patients. PTVsigma was in mean
      14% (31 cm3) smaller than PTVdel, while PTVdel was 7% (20 cm3) smaller than
      PTVSigma. CONCLUSIONS: PTVsigma yields the smallest volumes but does not ensure
      coverage of tumor during the full respiratory motion due to tumor deformation.
      Incorporating the respiratory motion in the delineation (PTVdel) takes into
      account the entire respiratory cycle including deformation, but at the cost,
      however, of larger treatment volumes. PTVSigma should not be used, since it
      incorporates the disadvantages of both PTVdel and PTVsigma.

PMID- 28885091
TI  - No Occultation in the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care
      Position Statement on Palliative Care and Assisted Suicide.

PMID- 28885092
TI  - Infant Discovery Learning and Lower Extremity Coordination: Influence of
      Prematurity.
AB  - AIMS: Preterm infants at increased risk for neurodevelopmental disabilities,
      including cerebral palsy, demonstrate reduced selective leg joint coordination.
      Full-term infants demonstrate more selective hip-knee coordination when specific
      leg actions are reinforced using an overhead infant mobile. The purpose of this
      pilot study was to determine the ability of preterm infants to: (1) perform and
      learn through discovery, the contingency between leg action and mobile
      activation, and (2) demonstrate more selective hip-knee coordination when leg
      actions are reinforced with mobile activation. METHODS: At both 3 and 4-months
      corrected age, ten infants born very preterm and with very low birth weight
      participated in 2 sessions of mobile reinforcement on consecutive days. RESULTS:
      The preterm group at 4-months, but not 3-months, learned the contingency between
      leg action and mobile activation. Preterm infants at 4-months were separated into
      those that learned (n = 6) and did not learn (n = 4) the contingency. As a group,
      preterm infants at 4-months who learned the contingency, did not demonstrate more
      selective hip-knee coordination when interacting with the mobile on Day 2 as
      compared to spontaneous kicking on Day 1. CONCLUSIONS: Preterm infants, as
      compared to full-term infants, may have difficulty producing more selective hip
      knee coordination during task-specific leg action.

PMID- 28885093
TI  - Heart rate recovery time in metabolically healthy and metabolically unhealthy
      obese children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autonomic dysfunction is an emerging non-traditional cardiovascular
      risk factor that correlates with obesity, components of metabolic syndrome, as
      well as cardiorespiratory fitness. As a simple and validated index of autonomic
      balance, heart rate recovery (HRR) has been reported as a useful biomarker for
      predicting cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this
      study was to compare HRR in metabolically healthy vs. metabolically unhealthy
      obese children. METHODS: A total of 56 obese children of whom 31 had metabolic
      syndrome were examined. All the participants underwent the multistage submaximal
      cycle ergometer test and HRR was determined one minute after the test. RESULTS:
      The HRR was significantly lower (18.9 +/- 3.7) in a group of metabolically
      unhealthy obese children compared to metabolically healthy obese children (24 +/-
      4.1) p < 0.001. Logistic regression analysis showed that reduction in HRR was
      also influenced by higher BMI. CONCLUSION: Our findings implicate the presence of
      the autonomic dysfunction as reflected by impaired heart rate recovery (HRR) in
      obese children with metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28885094
TI  - Frontal and occipital horn ratio is associated with multifocal intraparenchymal
      hemorrhages in neonatal shunted hydrocephalus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Placement of a cerebrospinal fluid diversion device (i.e., shunt) is a
      routine pediatric neurosurgical procedure, often performed in the first weeks of
      life for treatment of congenital hydrocephalus. In the postoperative period,
      shunt placement may be complicated by subdural, catheter tract, parenchymal, and
      intraventricular hemorrhages. The authors observed a subset of infants and
      neonates who developed multifocal intraparenchymal hemorrhages (MIPH) following
      shunt placement and sought to determine any predisposing perioperative variables.
      METHODS A retrospective review of the electronic medical record at a tertiary
      care children's hospital was performed for the period 1998-2015. Inclusion
      criteria consisted of shunt placement, age < 30 days, and available pre- and
      postoperative brain imaging. The following data were collected and analyzed for
      each case: ventricular size ratios, laboratory values, clinical presentation,
      shunt and valve type, and operative timing and approach. RESULTS A total of 121
      neonates met the inclusion criteria for the study, and 11 patients (9.1%) had
      MIPH following shunt placement. The preoperative frontal and occipital horn ratio
      (FOR) was significantly higher in the patients with MIPH than in those without
      (0.65 vs 0.57, p < 0.001). The change in FOR (?FOR) after shunt placement was
      significantly greater in the MIPH group (0.14 vs 0.08, p = 0.04). Among neonates
      who developed MIPH, aqueductal stenosis was the most common etiology (45%). The
      type of shunt valve was associated with incidence of MIPH (p < 0.001).
      Preoperative clinical parameters, including head circumference, bulging
      fontanelle, and coagulopathy, were not significantly associated with development
      of MIPH. CONCLUSIONS MIPH represents an underrecognized complication of neonatal
      shunted hydrocephalus. Markers of severity of ventriculomegaly (FOR) and
      ventricular response to CSF diversion (?FOR) were significantly associated with
      occurrence of MIPH. Choice of shunt and etiology of hydrocephalus were also
      significantly associated with MIPH. After adjusting for corrected age, etiology
      of hydrocephalus, and shunt setting, the authors found that ?FOR after shunting
      was still associated with MIPH. A prospective study of MIPH prevention strategies
      and assessment of possible implications for patient outcomes is needed.

PMID- 28885095
TI  - Spatial rectal dose/volume metrics predict patient-reported gastro-intestinal
      symptoms after radiotherapy for prostate cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastro-intestinal (GI) toxicity after radiotherapy (RT) for prostate
      cancer reduces patient's quality of life. In this study, we explored associations
      between spatial rectal dose/volume metrics and patient-reported GI symptoms after
      RT for localized prostate cancer, and compared these with those of dose
      surface/volume histogram (DSH/DVH) metrics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Dose
      distributions and six GI symptoms (defecation urgency/emptying difficulties/fecal
      leakage, >=Grade 2, median follow-up: 3.6 y) were extracted for 200 patients
      treated with image-guided RT in 2005-2007. Three hundred and nine metrics
      assessed from 2D rectal dose maps or DSHs/DVHs were subject to 50-times iterated
      five-fold cross-validated univariate and multivariate logistic regression
      analysis (UVA, MVA). Performance of the most frequently selected MVA models was
      evaluated by the area under the receiving-operating characteristics curve (AUC).
      RESULTS: The AUC increased for dose-map compared to DSH/DVH-based models (mean
      SD: 0.64 +/- 0.03 vs. 0.61 +/- 0.01), and significant relations were found for
      six versus four symptoms. Defecation urgency and faecal leakage were explained by
      high doses at the central/upper and central areas, respectively; while emptying
      difficulties were explained by longitudinal extensions of intermediate doses.
      CONCLUSIONS: Predictability of patient-reported GI toxicity increased using
      spatial metrics compared to DSH/DVH metrics. Novel associations were particularly
      identified for emptying difficulties using both approaches in which intermediate
      doses were emphasized.

PMID- 28885096
TI  - Infant hydrocephalus in sub-Saharan Africa: the reality on the Tanzanian side of
      the lake.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Infant hydrocephalus is estimated to affect more than 100,000 new
      infants each year in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Bugando Medical Centre (BMC), a
      government-funded and patient cost-shared referral center, serves over 13 million
      people in the Lake and Western regions of Tanzania. The goals of this study were
      to characterize the infant population affected by hydrocephalus who presented to
      BMC and were treated with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) to determine the
      rate of early complications associated with this surgical procedure and to assess
      its potential risk factors. METHODS Data were prospectively collected from all
      patients less than 1 year of age who, over a period of 7 months, were diagnosed
      with hydrocephalus and admitted to BMC for insertion of a primary VPS.
      Demographic data, maternal history, preoperative studies, surgical procedure, and
      surgical complications developing by the time of the first follow-up visit were
      analyzed. Risk factors associated with the surgical complications were
      determined. RESULTS During the 7-month study period, 125 infants eligible for the
      study were included in the analysis. Overall, 75% were younger than 6 months of
      age, and 56% were males. Only 7% of mothers had a gestational ultrasound, 98% did
      not receive preconception folic acid, and 25% delivered their child at home. In
      most patients with hydrocephalus the etiology was uncertain (56%), and other
      patients had postinfectious (22.4%) or myelomeningocele-associated (16%)
      hydrocephalus. Patients' mean head circumference on admission was 51.4 +/- 6.3
      cm. Their median age at shunt surgery was 137 days, and 22.4% of the patients
      were operated on without having undergone radiological assessment. The majority
      of shunts were placed in a right parietooccipital location. Thirteen patients had
      undergone a previous intraventricular endoscopic procedure. Overall, at least one
      surgical complication was found in 33.6% of patients up to the first follow-up
      assessment (median follow-up time of 70 days); shunt infection was the most
      common complication. The postoperative mortality rate was 9%. The risk factors
      associated with early surgical complications were tumor-related etiology, larger
      head circumference, and postoperative hospital stays of greater duration.
      CONCLUSIONS In a region of the continent where most infant hydrocephalus cases
      had an uncertain etiology, most patients presented to the hospital in a late
      stage, with no prenatal diagnosis and with large head circumferences. Standard
      preoperative investigations were not uniformly performed, and the surgical
      complications, led by VPS infection, were disturbingly high. Younger patient age,
      previous endoscopic procedure, surgeon involved, and cranial location of the VPS
      had no statistical relation to the surgical complications. This study shows that
      the positive results previously reported by SSA mission hospitals, subspecialized
      in pediatric neurosurgery, are still not generalizable to every hospital in East
      Africa. To improve maternal and neonatal care in the Lake region of Tanzania, the
      development of a fluxogram to determine hydrocephalus etiology, a strict
      perioperative protocol for VPS insertion, and an increase in the number of
      endoscopic procedures are recommended to BMC.

PMID- 28885097
TI  - Predictors of a high defibrillation threshold test during routine ICD
      implantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is growing evidence that routine defibrillation threshold (DFT)
      testing during implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation is not
      necessary. However a small group of patients might be at risk if no DFT testing
      is performed. METHODS: Patients with a new pectoral ICD implantation in our
      hospital between 2006 and 2014 were included in a retrospective registry. A
      clinical high DFT was defined as a safety margin <10 J of the maximal device
      output. Logistic regression for prediction of high DFT was performed using
      patient characteristics, clinical, echocardiographic and device-related
      parameters. RESULTS: DFT testing was performed in 788/864 (91.2%) procedures. In
      76 (8.8%) patients no DFT testing was performed mainly due to atrial
      fibrillation, intra-cardiac thrombus, hemodynamic instability or logistical
      reasons. A high DFT was present in 44 (5.6%) patients. A QRS duration >=150 ms, a
      low left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF <=25%), a severely dilated left
      ventricle >=60 mm and right sided pre-pectoral implantations were univariate
      predictors of a high DFT. Independent predictors of a high DFT were a LVEF <=25%
      (HR 2.195, 95%CI 1.085-4.443) and right sided pre-pectoral implantations (HR
      3.135, 95% CI 1.186-8.287). CONCLUSIONS: A high DFT is still present in about 5%
      of patients and is more frequent in patients with a severely dilated left
      ventricle, a very low LVEF, right sided pre-pectoral implantation and wider QRS
      duration. It might be clinically important to continue DFT testing in these high
      risk patients.

PMID- 28885098
TI  - Rosuvastatin inhibits high glucose-stimulated upregulation of VCAM-1 via the MAPK
      signalling pathway in endothelial cells.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the molecular mechanisms and
      effect of rosuvastatin on adhesion molecule induction in human endothelial cells
      under high-glucose conditions (HG). METHODS AND RESULTS: The effects of
      rosuvastatin on vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 production and pERK
      phosphorylation were measured in HG-induced human umbilical vein endothelial
      cells (HUVECs) with inhibitors targeting the mitogen-activated protein kinase
      (MAPK) signal pathway. HG increased levels of VCAM-1. Treatment with rosuvastatin
      inhibited VCAM-1 expression in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. In
      addition, we investigated the effects of rosuvastatin on the extracellular signal
      regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 signal pathway. Rosuvastatin completely inhibited HG
      induced phosphorylation of ERK. ERK/MAPK inhibitors completely prevented the VCAM
      1 inhibition effect of rosuvastatin under HG condition. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      demonstrated that rosuvastatin suppresses HG-induced VCAM-1 production via the
      MAPK signalling pathway, playing a role in the suppression of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28885099
TI  - Experimental design-based isotope-dilution SPME-GC/MS method development for the
      analysis of smoke flavouring products.
AB  - For the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 2065/2003 related to smoke
      flavourings used or intended for use in or on foods a method based on solid-phase
      micro extraction (SPME) GC/MS was developed for the characterisation of liquid
      smoke products. A statistically based experimental design (DoE) was used for
      method optimisation. The best general conditions to quantitatively analyse the
      liquid smoke compounds were obtained with a polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene
      (PDMS/DVB) fibre, 60 degrees C extraction temperature, 30 min extraction time,
      250 degrees C desorption temperature, 180 s desorption time, 15 s agitation time,
      and 250 rpm agitation speed. Under the optimised conditions, 119 wood pyrolysis
      products including furan/pyran derivatives, phenols, guaiacol, syringol,
      benzenediol, and their derivatives, cyclic ketones, and several other
      heterocyclic compounds were identified. The proposed method was repeatable (RSD%
      <5) and the calibration functions were linear for all compounds under study. Nine
      isotopically labelled internal standards were used for improving quantification
      of analytes by compensating matrix effects that might affect headspace
      equilibrium and extractability of compounds. The optimised isotope dilution SPME
      GC/MS based analytical method proved to be fit for purpose, allowing the rapid
      identification and quantification of volatile compounds in liquid smoke
      flavourings.

PMID- 28885100
TI  - Recent Suicide Attempts Across Multiple Social Identities Among Gay and Bisexual
      Men: An Intersectionality Analysis.
AB  - This study draws from intersectionality to describe variations in recent suicide
      attempts (RSA) among gay and bisexual men (GBM) across sociodemographics. Using
      survey data, logistic regression modeling explored RSA in two analytical stages:
      (1) the individual effects of each sociodemographic were measured; (2) two-way
      interaction terms between sociodemographics were tested and added to the models
      created in stage A. In stage A, only education and income achieved significance.
      In stage B, the study found that (a) education and income interacted
      significantly such that the odds of RSA increased for those with a lower income
      and a lower education; (b) sexual orientation and partnership status interacted,
      resulting in decreased odds among bisexual men in heterosexual partnerships; and
      (c) income and education interacted with geography; the effects of these
      variables were significant only among urban men. These findings suggest that GBM
      are at unequal risk of RSA according to intersecting sociodemographics.

PMID- 28885101
TI  - Association between the maximal distance of atrial septal protrusion and
      cryptogenic stroke.
AB  - Background and purpose Previous studies have suggested that atrial septal
      aneurysm is a potential risk factor for cerebral embolism. However, the
      association between the level of atrial septal protrusion and cerebral embolism
      is still unclear. The purpose of the present study was to assess the association
      between the maximal distance of atrial septal protrusion and cryptogenic stroke.
      Methods A total of 588 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients (70 +/- 11
      (mean +/- SD) years, 401 men) who underwent transesophageal echocardiography were
      enrolled. The maximal distance of atrial septal protrusion into the right or left
      atrium was measured. Atrial septal aneurysm was diagnosed when the maximal
      distance of atrial septal protrusion was >10 mm. Cryptogenic stroke was defined
      as non-lacunar ischemic stroke without >50% proximal artery stenosis or
      occlusion, cardioembolic sources, >=4 mm atherosclerotic plaques in the aortic
      arch, or carotid or vertebral artery dissection. Results The rate of cryptogenic
      stroke increased with the increasing maximal distance of atrial septal
      protrusion. The maximal distance of atrial septal protrusion (multivariate
      adjusted odds ratio (OR) per 1 mm, 1.14; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04-1.24;
      P = 0.003) and atrial septal aneurysm (multivariate-adjusted OR, 4.32; 95% CI,
      1.22-20.39; P = 0.022) was independently associated with cryptogenic stroke.
      Conclusions The maximal distance of atrial septal protrusion was independently
      associated with cryptogenic stroke.

PMID- 28885102
TI  - Home programs for upper extremity recovery post-stroke: a survey of occupational
      therapy practitioners.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Upper extremity hemiparesis is an impairment post-stroke that impacts
      quality of life. Home programs are an intervention strategy used by many
      occupational therapists to support continued motor recovery post-stroke, yet
      little is known about how these programs are designed and implemented.
      OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe how occupational therapy
      practitioners approach this task and specifically what strategies they use to
      support adherence and what types of technology are most commonly used. METHODS:
      An on-line survey methodology was used. Participants were recruited through
      multiple sources including state associations and occupational therapy
      educational program directors. RESULTS: A total of 73 occupational therapy
      practitioners submitted complete surveys. It was found that majority of
      occupational therapy practitioners in the sample (n = 53) reported creating home
      programs focused on upper extremity motor recovery more than 80% of the time.
      Range of motion and strengthening were reported as being in the top three most
      commonly used interventions by more than half the sample, however incorporating
      clients' goals and interests were reported most often as strategies to create
      meaning in the home program. Respondents also reported limited incorporation of
      technology and strategies to support adherence. Personal motivation was reported
      by occupational therapy practitioners to be a key moderator of adherence to a
      home program. CONCLUSIONS: Occupational therapy practitioners often provide home
      programs for individuals post-stroke focusing on upper extremity function. Future
      research that aims to understand stakeholders' perspectives on home programs and
      determine effective strategies for ensuring adherence is needed.

PMID- 28885103
TI  - LGBQ-Specific Elderly Housing as a "Sparkling Sanctuary": Boundary Work on LGBQ
      Identity and Community in Relationship to Potential LGBQ-Specific Elderly Housing
      in Sweden.
AB  - This study explored how boundaries in relationship to community and identity were
      created and negotiated among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) people
      within the framework of picturing LGBQ-specific elderly housing as a housing
      alternative in older age, by applying focus group methodology. "An island as a
      sparkling sanctuary" was identified as a metaphor for how symbolic resources
      defining the LGBQ community can be manifested in LGBQ-specific qualities of
      elderly housing. The boundary work underlying this manifestation included
      elaborations on the dilemma between exclusiveness and normality. The findings
      illustrate further how symbolic resources and collective identities were
      developed through dialectic interplay between internal and external definitions.
      Further, the findings show how boundary work generated shared feelings of
      similarity and group membership. The associated symbolic and social resources not
      only served to deal with difficult situations but also to manifest LGBQ identity
      and sense of community as a "gold medal."

PMID- 28885104
TI  - Not Threat, But Threatening: Potential Causes and Consequences of Gay Innumeracy.
AB  - Existing literature on numeracy suggests that people are likely to perceive
      outgroups as larger if the group is perceived as threatening. However, some
      studies also suggest that numeracy is a function of wishful thinking or even a
      lack of political knowledge. We engage the literature on numeracy of the gay and
      lesbian population by employing data from 1977 and 2013 surveys of American
      adults. We examine the factors that are associated with estimating the gay
      population. Next we explore how innumeracy may shape attitudes about
      homosexuality and gay rights. Our findings suggest that estimates of the gay
      population are partly a function of knowledge, and perhaps wishful thinking, but
      not threat. However, our analysis also reveals that higher estimates of the gay
      population are associated with less support for gay civil rights in the current
      era and were not a factor in the past.

PMID- 28885105
TI  - Canadian Stroke Congress Abstracts 2017; Calgary, Alberta September 9-11, 2017.

PMID- 28885107
TI  - 2017 Canadian Stroke Congress Abstracts.

PMID- 28885109
TI  - Late Breaking Abstracts.

PMID- 28885108
TI  - Other Additional Abstracts.

PMID- 28885110
TI  - Corrigenda.

PMID- 28885111
TI  - Effects of different montages of transcranial direct current stimulation on the
      risk of falls and lower limb function after stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is associated with high rates of falling and severe impairment
      of lower limb in patients who survive. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      analyze the effectiveness of different montages of transcranial direct current
      stimulation (tDCS) on reducing falls and on lower limb function after acute
      stroke. METHODS: Sixty participants with acute stroke were randomly allocated
      into four groups with different electrode's setups: anodal, cathodal, bilateral
      and sham tDCS. Each patient received 10 stimulation sessions (five consecutive
      days for two weeks). Four Square Step Test, Occurrence of Falling Index, Overall
      Stability Index, Falls Efficacy Scale - International, Berg Balance Scale, Six
      minute walk test and Sit to Stand Test were measured at baseline, post-treatment,
      and at one- and three-month follow-up. RESULTS: At baseline, no differences
      between the groups in terms of clinical and demographic characteristics were
      found. However, after treatment and during follow up, all the groups that
      received active stimulation showed greater reduction in the risk of falls and
      improved performance of the lower limb's motor skills when compared to the sham
      group. No significant differences were found between the three types of active
      montages in relation to the risk of falling. In relation to lower limb function,
      bilateral stimulation provided a higher improvement when compared to anodal and
      cathodal tDCS. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first trial with different setups of tDCS
      on acute stroke patients. tDCS presents as an effective treatment strategy in
      reducing the risk of falls and improving lower limb function after a stroke.
      ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 02422173).

PMID- 28885112
TI  - Management of failing bioprosthesis in elderly patients who have undergone
      transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has revolutionized
      the treatment of symptomatic aortic stenosis. The number of TAVR procedures is
      expected to increase exponentially in the next decade. Therefore, patients will
      inevitably present with signs and symptoms attributable to TAVR bioprosthesis
      failure many years after an acutely successful procedure. Their management will
      become increasing important moving forward. Areas covered: The aim of this
      article is to review the causes of bioprosthesis failure and outline optimal
      management strategies in elderly patients. The principal causes outlined are
      valve degeneration, endocarditis, thrombosis, migration and compression. Expert
      commentary: A key question for TAVR moving forward is its efficacy with regards
      to long-term durability. The 5-year durability of TAVR prosthesis is excellent
      but comprehensive longer-term follow-up is awaited. Other mechanisms of failure
      include: TAVR endocarditis, diagnosis can be challenging and it is essential to
      have high clinical suspicion; TAVR migration, a rare complication that can be
      treated with second TAVR prosthesis; TAVR thrombosis, either subclinical
      identified on computed tomography or obstructive symptomatic thrombosis
      identified on echocardiogram, both types are effectively treated by formal
      anticoagulation; TAVR compression, a phenomenon observed in post-mortem
      examination following cardiopulmonary resuscitation, treatment options include
      balloon post-dilatation and second TAVR prosthesis implantation.

PMID- 28885113
TI  - A 3D printed surgical analogue to reduce donor tooth trauma during
      autotransplantation.
AB  - Surgical trauma and prolonged extra-alveolar exposure of the donor tooth's root
      sheath are both complicating factors during tooth autotransplantation surgery.
      This case report describes a 12-year-old female patient who underwent surgical
      transplantation of a maxillary second premolar to a central incisor site. A three
      dimensional printed analogue of the donor tooth was fabricated from a cone beam
      (CBCT) scan of the tooth in order to minimise the extra-oral (exposure) time and
      frequency of trial insertions of the donor tooth into the recipient socket. The
      laboratory and clinical aspects of this novel technique are described.

PMID- 28885114
TI  - Clinical predictors of tissue necrosis following rattlesnake envenomation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rattlesnake envenomation (RSE) causes edema, hemotoxicity and tissue
      necrosis. Necrosis may result in permanent disability. OBJECTIVE: To study
      patient-related factors associated with tissue necrosis after Crotalus
      envenomation. METHODS: Prospective cohort study of patients admitted to the
      Medical Toxicology service with diagnosis of RSE between April 2011 and November
      2014. Inclusion criteria were age >=18 years and upper extremity (UE)
      envenomation site. Primary outcome was tissue necrosis, including dermonecrosis,
      manifesting as bullae. Secondary outcome was amputation. RESULTS: 77 subjects,
      age 18 to 88 years, met inclusion criteria. Rattlesnake species was unknown in
      most cases. All received Fab antivenom. 62 (82%) had a digital envenomation. 31
      (40.3%) had necrosis. Necrotic area ranged from 0.1 cm2 to 14 cm2. Procedural
      interventions, (superficial debridement, dermotomy, surgical exploration, and
      operative debridement of devitalized tissue) occurred in 25 (32.5%). Five (6.5%)
      underwent dermotomy and 6 (7.8%) operative debridement. No amputations were
      performed. Patients with cyanosis on presentation had increased risk of
      developing necrosis (11/12; RR 2.98 95% CI 1.99-4.46). Ecchymosis on presentation
      was also associated with increased risk of necrosis (24/32; RR 4.04 95% CI 2.08
      7.86). Patients with social or regular ethanol use were more likely to develop
      necrosis than those without (28/53; RR 4.23 95% CI 1.42-12.6). Regular cocaine
      use was associated with increased risk of operative debridement (4/6; RR 9.13 95%
      CI 2.33-35.8). A nonsignificant risk of operative debridement occurred with
      tobacco use (RR 1.14 95%CI 0.99-1.31 p = 0.09). Time to antivenom did not
      correlate with risk of necrosis. CONCLUSION: UE RSE patients who presented with
      cyanosis, ecchymosis or history of ethanol use were at increased risk of
      developing necrosis. Cocaine use was associated with increased risk of operative
      debridement.

PMID- 28885115
TI  - A 9-Week Jaques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics Intervention Improves Single and Dual-Task
      Gait Speed in Community-Dwelling Older People.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Falls are a major public health concern among older adults, and most
      occur while walking, especially under dualtask conditions. Jaques-Dalcroze
      eurhythmics (JDE) is a music-based movement training program that emphasizes
      multitask coordinated movement. A previous 6-mo JDE study in older people
      demonstrated improved gait and balance; however, the effects of short-term JDE
      interventions on fall risk-related outcomes are largely unknown. We conducted a
      preliminary investigation on whether a 9-week JDE intervention improved gait and
      stability in a community-dwelling older cohort, hypothesizing that improvements
      would occur in all outcome measures. METHODS: Nine participants (78.9 +/- 12.3 y)
      completed the supervised JDE intervention (once/week for 60 min). Gait speed was
      determined by the 6-m timed walk test (6MTW); dual-task gait speed was determined
      by another 6MTW while counting backward from 50 aloud; and coordinated stability
      was assessed using a Swaymeter-like device. RESULTS: Gait speed (0.92 +/- 0.11 vs
      1.04 +/- 0.12 m/sec, P = .04) and dual-task gait speed (0.77 +/- 0.09 vs 0.92 +/-
      0.11 m/sec, P = .0005) significantly improved. CONCLUSIONS: This novel
      intervention is an effective short-term physical activity option for those that
      plan physical activity or fall-risk reduction programs for the older people.

PMID- 28885116
TI  - Intrinsic subtype characterization of local recurrences and new contralateral
      primary tumors in patients with low risk breast cancer. Influence of age and
      primary surgery.

PMID- 28885117
TI  - The interperiosteodural concept applied to the jugular foramen and its
      compartmentalization.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The dura mater is made of 2 layers: the endosteal layer (outer layer),
      which is firmly attached to the bone, and the meningeal layer (inner layer),
      which directly covers the brain and spinal cord. These 2 dural layers join
      together in most parts of the skull base and cranial convexity, and separate into
      the orbital and perisellar compartments or into the spinal epidural space to form
      the extradural neural axis compartment (EDNAC). The EDNAC contains fat and/or
      venous blood. The aim of this dissection study was to anatomically verify the
      concept of the EDNAC by focusing on the dural layers surrounding the jugular
      foramen area. METHODS The authors injected 10 cadaveric heads (20 jugular
      foramina) with colored latex and fixed them in formalin. The brainstem and
      cerebellum of 7 specimens were cautiously removed to allow a superior approach to
      the jugular foramen. Special attention was paid to the meningeal architecture of
      the jugular foramen, the petrosal inferior sinus and its venous confluence with
      the sigmoid sinus, and the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves. The 3
      remaining heads were bleached with a 20% hydrogen peroxide solution. This
      procedure produced softening of the bone without modifying the fixed soft
      tissues, thus permitting coronal and axial dissections. RESULTS The EDNAC of the
      jugular foramen was limited by the endosteal and meningeal layers and contained
      venous blood. These 2 dural layers joined together at the level of the petrous
      and occipital bones and separated at the inferior petrosal sinus and the sigmoid
      sinus, and around the lower cranial nerves, to form the EDNAC. Study of the dural
      sheaths allowed the authors to describe an original compartmentalization of the
      jugular foramen in 3 parts: 2 neural compartments-glossopharyngeal and vagal-and
      the interperiosteodural compartment. CONCLUSIONS In this dissection study, the
      existence of the EDNAC concept in the jugular foramen was demonstrated, leading
      to the proposal of a novel 3-part compartmentalization, challenging the classical
      2-part compartmentalization, of the jugular foramen.

PMID- 28885118
TI  - Stereotactic radiosurgery for Spetzler-Martin Grade IV and V arteriovenous
      malformations: an international multicenter study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Due to the complexity of Spetzler-Martin (SM) Grade IV-V arteriovenous
      malformations (AVMs), the management of these lesions remains controversial. The
      aims of this multicenter, retrospective cohort study were to evaluate the
      outcomes after single-session stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for SM Grade IV-V
      AVMs and determine predictive factors. METHODS The authors retrospectively pooled
      data from 233 patients (mean age 33 years) with SM Grade IV (94.4%) or V AVMs
      (5.6%) treated with single-session SRS at 8 participating centers in the
      International Gamma Knife Research Foundation. Pre-SRS embolization was performed
      in 71 AVMs (30.5%). The mean nidus volume, SRS margin dose, and follow-up
      duration were 9.7 cm3, 17.3 Gy, and 84.5 months, respectively. Statistical
      analyses were performed to identify factors associated with post-SRS outcomes.
      RESULTS At a mean follow-up interval of 84.5 months, favorable outcome was
      defined as AVM obliteration, no post-SRS hemorrhage, and no permanently
      symptomatic radiation-induced changes (RIC) and was achieved in 26.2% of
      patients. The actuarial obliteration rates at 3, 7, 10, and 12 years were 15%,
      34%, 37%, and 42%, respectively. The annual post-SRS hemorrhage rate was 3.0%.
      Symptomatic and permanent RIC occurred in 10.7% and 4% of the patients,
      respectively. Only larger AVM diameter (p = 0.04) was found to be an independent
      predictor of unfavorable outcome in the multivariate logistic regression
      analysis. The rate of favorable outcome was significantly lower for unruptured SM
      Grade IV-V AVMs compared with ruptured ones (p = 0.042). Prior embolization was a
      negative independent predictor of AVM obliteration (p = 0.024) and radiologically
      evident RIC (p = 0.05) in the respective multivariate analyses. CONCLUSIONS In
      this multi-institutional study, single-session SRS had limited efficacy in the
      management of SM Grade IV-V AVMs. Favorable outcome was only achieved in a
      minority of unruptured SM Grade IV-V AVMs, which supports less frequent
      utilization of SRS for the management of these lesions. A volume-staged SRS
      approach for large AVMs represents an alternative approach for high-grade AVMs,
      but it requires further investigation.

PMID- 28885119
TI  - Volume of distribution and clearance of peptide-based nanofiber after convection
      enhanced delivery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Drug clearance may be a limiting factor in the clinical application of
      convection-enhanced delivery (CED). Peptide-based nanofibers (NFPs) have a high
      aspect ratio, and NFPs loaded with drugs could potentially maintain effective
      drug concentrations for an extended period sufficient for cancer therapy. The
      objective of this study was to assess the volume of distribution (Vd) and
      clearance of variable lengths of NFPs when administered using CED. METHODS NFPs
      composed of multiple methoxypolyethylene glycol (mPEG)-conjugated constructs
      (mPEG2000-KLDLKLDLKLDL-K( FITC)-CONH2, for which FITC is fluorescein
      isothiocyanate) were assembled in an aqueous buffer. The NFPs were approximately
      5 nm in width and were formulated into different lengths: 100 nm (NFP-100), 400
      nm (NFP-400), and 1000 nm (NFP-1000). The NFP surface was covalently conjugated
      with multiple Cy5.5 fluorophores as the optical reporters to track the post-CED
      distribution. Forty-two 6- to 8-week-old Ntv-a;p53fl/fl mice underwent CED to the
      striatum. Animals were killed immediately, 24 hours or 72 hours after CED. The
      brains were extracted and sectioned for assessing NFP Vd to volume of infusion
      (Vi) ratio, and clearance using fluorescence microscopy. RESULTS CED of NFPs was
      well tolerated by all the animals. The average Vd/Vi ratios for NFP-100, NFP-400,
      NFP-1000, and unconjugated positive control (free Cy5.5) were 1.87, 2.47, 1.07,
      and 3.0, respectively, which were statistically different (p = 0.003). The
      percentages remaining of the original infusion volume at 24 hours for NFP-100, 
      400, and -1000 were 40%, 90%, and 74%, respectively. The percentages remaining at
      72 hours for NFP-100, -400, and -1000 were 15%, 30%, and 46%, respectively.
      Unconjugated Cy5.5 was not detected at 24 or 72 hours after CED. CONCLUSIONS CED
      of NFPs is feasible with Vd/Vi ratios and clearance rates comparable to other
      nanocarriers. Of the 3 NFPs, NFP-400 appears to provide the best distribution and
      slowest clearance after 24 hours. NFP provides a dynamic theranostic platform,
      with the potential to deliver clinically efficacious drug payload to brain tumor
      after CED.

PMID- 28885120
TI  - Threshold of the extent of resection for WHO Grade III gliomas: retrospective
      volumetric analysis of 122 cases using intraoperative MRI.
AB  - OBJECTIVE WHO Grade III gliomas are relatively rare and treated with multiple
      modalities such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. The impact of the
      extent of resection (EOR) on improving survival in patients with this tumor type
      is unclear. Moreover, because of the heterogeneous radiological appearance of
      Grade III gliomas, the MRI sequence that best correlates with tumor volume is
      unknown. In the present retrospective study, the authors evaluated the prognostic
      significance of EOR. METHODS Clinical and radiological data from 122 patients
      with newly diagnosed WHO Grade III gliomas who had undergone intraoperative MRI
      guided resection at a single institution between March 2000 and December 2011
      were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were divided into 2 groups by
      histological subtype: 81 patients had anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) or anaplastic
      oligoastrocytoma (AOA), and 41 patients had anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO).
      EOR was calculated using pre- and postoperative T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced
      T1-weighted MR images. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to
      evaluate the prognostic significance of EOR on overall survival (OS). RESULTS The
      5-, 8-, and 10-year OS rates for all patients were 74.28%, 70.59%, and 65.88%,
      respectively. The 5- and 8-year OS rates for patients with AA and AOA were 72.2%
      and 67.2%, respectively, and the 10-year OS rate was 62.0%. On the other hand,
      the 5- and 8-year OS rates for patients with AO were 79.0% and 79.0%; the 10-year
      OS rate is not yet available. The median pre- and postoperative T2-weighted high
      signal intensity volumes were 56.1 cm3 (range 1.3-268 cm3) and 5.9 cm3 (range 0
      180 cm3), respectively. The median EOR of T2-weighted high-signal intensity
      lesions (T2-EOR) and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted lesions were 88.8% (range 0.3%
      100%) and 100% (range 34.0%-100%), respectively. A significant survival advantage
      was associated with resection of 53% or more of the preoperative T2-weighted high
      signal intensity volume in patients with AA and AOA, but not in patients with AO.
      Univariate analysis showed that preoperative Karnofsky Performance Scale score (p
      = 0.0019), isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 ( IDH1) mutation (p = 0.0008), and T2-EOR
      (p = 0.0208) were significant prognostic factors for survival in patients with AA
      and AOA. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that T2-EOR (HR 3.28; 95% CI 1.22
      8.81; p = 0.0192) and IDH1 mutation (HR 3.90; 95% CI 1.53-10.75; p = 0.0044) were
      predictive of survival in patients with AA and AOA. CONCLUSIONS T2-EOR was one of
      the most important prognostic factors for patients with AA and AOA. A significant
      survival advantage was associated with resection of 53% or more of the
      preoperative T2-weighted high-signal intensity volume in patients with AA and
      AOA.

PMID- 28885121
TI  - Epilepsy, headache, and abdominal pain after shunt surgery for idiopathic normal
      pressure hydrocephalus: the INPH-CRasH study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Adverse events related to shunt surgery are common and might have a
      negative effect on outcome in patients with idiopathic normal pressure
      hydrocephalus (INPH). The authors' objectives were to establish the frequencies
      of epilepsy, headache, and abdominal pain and determine their impact on patient
      quality of life (QOL), in long-term follow-up after shunt surgery for INPH.
      METHODS One hundred seventy-six shunt-treated patients with INPH (mean age 74
      years) and 368 age- and sex-matched controls from the population were included.
      The mean follow-up time after surgery was 21 months (range 6-45 months). Each
      participant answered a questionnaire regarding present frequency and severity of
      headache and abdominal pain. Confirmed diagnoses of epilepsy and all
      prescriptions for antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) before and after shunt surgery for
      INPH were gathered from national registries. Equivalent presurgical and
      postsurgical time periods were constructed for the controls based on the date of
      surgery (the division date for controls is referred to as virtual surgery). All
      registry data covered a mean period of 6 years (range 3-8 years) before
      surgery/virtual surgery and 4 years (range 2-6 years) after surgery/virtual
      surgery. Provoked epileptic seizures were excluded. Patient QOL was assessed with
      the EuroQoL 5-dimension 5-level instrument. RESULTS Epilepsy was more common in
      shunt-treated patients with INPH than in controls (4.5% vs 1.1%, respectively; p
      = 0.023), as was treatment with AEDs (14.8% vs 7.3%, respectively; p = 0.010). No
      difference was found between the populations before surgery/virtual surgery
      (epilepsy, 2.3% [INPH] vs 1.1% [control], p = 0.280; AED treatment, 8.5% [INPH]
      vs 5.4% [control], p = 0.235). New-onset epilepsy and new AED treatment after
      surgery/virtual surgery were more common in INPH (epilepsy, 2.3% [INPH] vs 0.0%
      [control], p = 0.011; AED, 8.5% [INPH] vs 3.3% [control], p = 0.015). At follow
      up, more patients with INPH than controls experienced headache several times per
      month or more often (36.1% vs 11.6%, respectively; p < 0.001). Patients with INPH
      and unilateral headache had more right-sided headaches than controls (p = 0.038).
      Postural headache was experienced by 16% (n = 27 of 169) of the patients with
      INPH. Twenty percent (n = 35) of the patients with INPH had persistent abdominal
      pain. Headache was not correlated to lower QOL. The study was underpowered to
      draw conclusions regarding QOL in patients with INPH who had epilepsy and
      abdominal pain, but the finding of no net difference in mean QOL indicates that
      no correlation between them existed. CONCLUSIONS Epilepsy, headache, and
      abdominal pain are common in long-term follow-up in patients after shunt surgery
      for INPH and are more common among patients with INPH than in the general
      population. All adverse events, including mild and moderate ones, should be
      considered during postoperative follow-ups and in the development of new methods
      for shunt placement.

PMID- 28885122
TI  - Clinicopathological variables of sporadic schwannomas of peripheral nerve in 291
      patients and expression of biologically relevant markers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE While sporadic peripheral schwannomas (SPSs) are generally well treated
      with surgery, their biology is not well understood. Consequently, treatment
      options are limited. The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive
      description of SPS. The authors describe clinicopathological features and
      treatment outcomes of patients harboring these tumors, and they assess expression
      of biomarkers using a clinically annotated tissue microarray. Together, these
      data give new insight into the biology and management of SPS. METHODS Patients
      presenting with a primary SPS between 1993 and 2011 (n = 291) were selected from
      an institutional registry to construct a clinical database. All patients
      underwent follow-up, and short- and long-term outcomes were assessed. Expression
      of relevant biomarkers was assessed using a new tissue microarray (n = 121).
      RESULTS SPSs were generally large (mean 5.5 cm) and frequently painful at
      presentation (55%). Most patients were treated with surgery (80%), the majority
      of whom experienced complete resolution (52%) or improvement (18%) of their
      symptoms. Tumors that were completely resected (85%) did not recur. Some patients
      experienced short-term (16%) and long-term (4%) complications postoperatively.
      Schwannomas expressed higher levels of platelet-derived growth factor receptor
      beta (2.1) than malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) (1.5, p =
      0.004) and neurofibromas (1.33, p = 0.007). Expression of human epidermal growth
      factor receptor-2 was greater in SPSs (0.91) than in MPNSTs (0.33, p = 0.002) and
      neurofibromas (0.33, p = 0.026). Epidermal growth factor receptor was expressed
      in far fewer SPS cells (10%) than in MPNSTs (58%, p < 0.0001) or neurofibromas
      (37%, p = 0.007). SPSs more frequently expressed cytoplasmic survivin (66% of
      tumor cells) than normal nerve (46% of cells), but SPS expressed nuclear survivin
      in fewer tumor cells than in MPNSTs (24% and 50%, respectively; p = 0.018).
      CONCLUSIONS Complete resection is curative for SPS. Left untreated, however,
      these tumors can cause significant morbidity, and not all patients are candidates
      for resection. SPSs express a pattern of biomarkers consistent with the
      dysregulation of the tumor suppressor merlin observed in neurofibromatosis Type 2
      associated schwannomas, suggesting a shared etiology. This SPS pattern is
      distinct from that of other tumors of the peripheral nerve sheath.

PMID- 28885123
TI  - Thirty-Day Inpatient Readmissions for Asian American and Pacific Islander
      Subgroups Compared With Whites.
AB  - Asian and Pacific Islander (API) 30-day potentially preventable readmissions
      (PPRs) are understudied. Hawaii Health Information Corporation data from 2007
      2012 statewide adult hospitalizations ( N = 495,910) were used to compare API
      subgroup and White PPRs. Eight percent of hospitalizations were PPRs. Seventy-two
      percent of other Pacific Islanders, 60% of Native Hawaiians, and 52% of Whites
      with a PPR were 18 to 64 years, compared with 22% of Chinese and 21% of Japanese.
      In multivariable models including payer, hospital, discharge year, residence
      location, and comorbidity, PPR disparities existed for some API subpopulations
      65+ years, including Native Hawaiian men (odds ratio [OR] = 1.14; 95% confidence
      interval [CI] = 1.04-1.24), Filipino men (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 1.04-1.38), and
      other Pacific Islander men (OR = 1.30; 95% CI = 1.19-1.43) and women (OR = 1.23;
      95% CI = 1.02-1.51) compared with Whites, while many API groups 18 to 64 years
      had significantly lower PPR odds. Distinct PPR characteristics across API
      subpopulations and age groups can inform policy and practice. Further research
      should determine why elderly API have higher PPR rates, while nonelderly rates
      are lower.

PMID- 28885124
TI  - Thoracic spinal cord impingement by an arachnoid web at the level of a
      hemivertebra: case report.
AB  - Congenital scoliosis due to a hemivertebra requires surgical stabilization prior
      to skeletal maturity if rapidly progressive curve growth occurs. Here the authors
      present the unique case of a man who, at the age of 12 years, had undergone
      Harrington rod placement for stabilization of progressive congenital scoliosis
      due to a T-11 hemivertebra and then, at the age of 53 years, presented with
      acutely progressive myelopathy due to spinal cord compression from an arachnoid
      web at T-11 despite a solid fusion mass at the prior surgical site. The patient
      underwent a posterior midline approach for resection of the T-11 pedicle at the
      level of the hemivertebra, intradural spinal cord detethering with resection of
      the arachnoid web at T-11, and T2-L2 instrumented fusion with deformity
      correction, leading to subsequent resolution of his acute myelopathic symptoms.
      In conclusion, arachnoid web formation superimposed on preexisting tension on the
      thoracic spinal cord from congenital scoliosis due to a T-11 hemivertebra caused
      acute myelopathy in an adult with a previously solid fusion mass from childhood.
      The resolution of acute myelopathy and halting of further progression occurred
      with pedicle resection, arachnoid web fenestration, and spinal deformity
      correction.

PMID- 28885125
TI  - Risk factor analysis of kyphotic malalignment after cervical intramedullary tumor
      resection in adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE A number of studies have reported that surgery for cervical
      intramedullary tumors via the posterior approach can result in postoperative
      sagittal malalignment of the cervical spine; however, the risk factors remain
      unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in cervical
      spinal alignment after surgery for cervical intramedullary tumors in adults and
      to elucidate the risk factors for cervical spinal sagittal misalignment. METHODS
      Data for the period from April 2001 to December 2011 for all adults who had
      undergone surgery for cervical intramedullary spinal cord tumors at a single
      institution were retrospectively analyzed to determine the postoperative changes
      in cervical spine alignment. Patients younger than 20 years of age and those who
      required postoperative radiotherapy were excluded from the study. Patients were
      divided into 2 groups according to tumor location: upper tumor (U) group, in
      which the central region of the tumor was above the C-5 level; and lower tumor
      (L) group, in which the central region of the tumor was at or below the C-5
      level. Changes in alignment of the cervical spine were measured on plain lateral
      radiographs. Data on atrophy of the deep extensor muscles (DEMs), tumor location,
      detachment of the DEMs from the C-2 spinous process, the C2-7 angle before
      surgery, patient age at surgery, tumor histology, patient sex, tumor size, and
      number of laminae affected were reviewed for each patient, and the correlation of
      each of these factors with cervical spinal malalignment was evaluated using
      statistical analysis. RESULTS The 54 adults eligible for analysis had a mean age
      of 49.1 years. Ependymoma was the most common cervical intramedullary tumor
      (63.0%) in this series. In the tumor location U group, the kyphotic angle of the
      C2-7 spinal segments increased after surgery (-5.8 degrees  +/- 2.8 degrees ). In
      contrast, in the L group, the C2-7 lordotic angle increased after surgery (6.4
      degrees  +/- 2.6 degrees ). In the univariate analysis, atrophy of the DEMs,
      detachment of the DEMs from the C-2 spinous process, and an upper cervical
      location of the tumor were identified as factors significantly correlated with
      the development of cervical spinal kyphosis after surgery. Multiple linear
      regression analysis revealed the following as risk factors for kyphotic change of
      the cervical spine after surgery: 1) atrophy of the DEMs after surgery (beta = 
      0.54, p < 0.01), and 2) detachment of the DEMs from the C-2 spinous process (beta
      = -0.37, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Atrophy of the DEMs after surgery and detachment
      of the DEMs from the C-2 spinous process are directly related to the risk of
      cervical spinal kyphosis after surgery for cervical intramedullary tumors in
      adults. Therefore, preservation of the DEMs, especially those attached to the C-2
      spinous process, is important for the prevention of kyphotic malalignment of the
      cervical spine after surgery for intramedullary tumors.

PMID- 28885126
TI  - Utility and costs of radiologist interpretation of perioperative imaging in
      patients with traumatic single-level thoracolumbar fractures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE The cost of spine management is rising. As diagnostic imaging accounts
      for approximately 10% of total patient care spending, there is interest in
      determining if economies could be made with regard to the routine consultation of
      radiology for image interpretation. In the context of spine trauma, both the
      spine surgeon and the radiologist interpret perioperative imaging. Authors of the
      present study investigated the impact of radiologist interpretation of
      perioperative imaging from patients with traumatic single-level thoracolumbar
      fractures given that spine surgeons are expected to be comfortable interpreting
      pathologies of the musculoskeletal system. METHODS The authors conducted a
      retrospective review of all patients presenting with a single-level thoracolumbar
      fracture treated at the McGill University Health Centre in the period from
      January 2003 to December 2010. The time between image capture and radiologist
      interpretation as well as the number of extraskeletal and/or incidental findings
      was extracted from the radiology reports on all perioperative images including
      radiographic, fluoroscopic, and CT images. The cost of interpretation was
      obtained from the provincial health insurance entity of Quebec. RESULTS Eighty
      two patients met the study inclusion criteria. Radiologists took a median of 1
      day (IQR 0-5.5 days) to interpret preoperative radiographs. Intraoperative
      fluoroscopic images and postoperative radiographs were read by the radiologist a
      median of 19 days (IQR 4-56.75 days) and 34 days (IQR 1-137.5 days) after
      capture, respectively (p < 0.05). Preoperative radiologist dictations reported
      extraskeletal and/or incidental findings for 8.1% of radiographs; there were no
      intraoperative or postoperative extraskeletal findings beyond those previously
      reported on the preoperative radiographs. Radiologists took a median of 1 day
      (IQR 0-1 day) to read both preoperative and postoperative CT scans; extraskeletal
      and/or incidental findings were present in 46.2% of preoperative reports and 4.5%
      of postoperative reports. There were no intraoperative or postoperative
      radiological findings that provoked reoperation. A total of 66 intraoperative
      fluoroscopy images and 225 postoperative radiographs were read for a cost of
      $1399.20 and $1867.50 (Canadian dollars), respectively, for radiologist
      interpretation. This cost amounted to 40.3% of all perioperative image
      interpretation spending. CONCLUSIONS In the management of single-level
      thoracolumbar fractures, radiologists add information to the diagnostic picture
      when interpreting preoperative radiographs and perioperative CT scans; however,
      the interpretation of intraoperative fluoroscopic images and postoperative
      radiographs comes with significant delay, does not add additional information,
      and represents an area of potential cost and professional-resource reduction.

PMID- 28885127
TI  - Timing and risks of chemoprophylaxis after spinal surgery: a single-center
      experience with 6869 consecutive patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Venous thromboembolism (VTE) after spinal surgery is a major cause of
      morbidity, but chemoprophylactic anticoagulation can prevent it. However, there
      is variability in the timing and use of chemoprophylactic anticoagulation after
      spine surgery, particularly given surgeons' concerns for spinal epidural
      hematomas. The goal of this study was to provide insight into the safety,
      efficacy, and timing of anticoagulation therapy after spinal surgery. METHODS The
      authors retrospectively examined records from 6869 consecutive spinal surgeries
      performed in their departments at Northwestern University. Data on patient
      demographics, surgery, hospital course, timing of chemoprophylaxis, and
      complications, including deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE),
      and spinal epidural hematomas requiring evacuation, were collected. Data from the
      patients who received chemoprophylaxis (n = 1904) were compared with those of
      patients who did not (n = 4965). The timing of chemoprophylaxis, the rate of
      VTEs, and the incidence of spinal epidural hematomas were analyzed. RESULTS The
      chemoprophylaxis group had more risk factors, including greater age (59.70 vs
      51.86 years, respectively; p < 0.001), longer surgery (278.59 vs 145.66 minutes,
      respectively; p < 0.001), higher estimated blood loss (995 vs 448 ml,
      respectively; p < 0.001), more comorbid diagnoses (2.69 vs 1.89, respectively; p
      < 0.001), history of VTE (5.8% vs 2.1%, respectively; p < 0.001), and a higher
      number were undergoing fusion surgery (46.1% vs 24.7%, respectively; p < 0.001).
      The prevalence of VTE was higher in the chemoprophylaxis group (3.62% vs 2.03%,
      respectively; p < 0.001). The median time to VTE occurrence was shorter in the
      nonchemoprophylaxis group (3.6 vs 6.8 days, respectively; p = 0.0003, log-rank
      test; hazard ratio 0.685 [0.505-0.926]), and the peak prevalence of VTE occurred
      in the first 3 postoperative days in the nonchemoprophylaxis group. The average
      time of initiation of chemoprophylaxis was 1.46 days after surgery. The rates of
      epidural hematoma were 0.20% (n = 4) in the chemoprophylaxis group and 0.18% (n =
      9) in the nonchemoprophylaxis group (p = 0.622). CONCLUSIONS The risks of spinal
      epidural hematoma among patients who receive chemoprophylaxis and those who do
      not are low and equivalent. Administering anticoagulation therapy from 1 day
      before to 3 days after surgery is safe for patients at high risk for VTE.

PMID- 28885128
TI  - Sagittal alignment and complications following lumbar 3-column osteotomy: does
      the level of resection matter?
AB  - OBJECTIVE Three-column osteotomy (3CO) is a demanding technique that is performed
      to correct sagittal spinal malalignment. However, the impact of the 3CO level on
      pelvic or truncal sagittal correction remains unclear. In this study, the authors
      assessed the impact of 3CO level and postoperative apex of lumbar lordosis on
      sagittal alignment correction, complications, and revisions. METHODS In this
      retrospective study of a multicenter spinal deformity database, radiographic data
      were analyzed at baseline and at 1- and 2-year follow-up to quantify spinopelvic
      alignment, apex of lordosis, and resection angle. The impact of 3CO level and
      apex level of lumbar lordosis on the sagittal correction was assessed. Logistic
      regression analyses were performed, controlling for cofounders, to investigate
      the effects of 3CO level and apex level on intraoperative and postoperative
      complications as well as on the need for subsequent revision surgery. RESULTS A
      total of 468 patients were included (mean age 60.8 years, mean body mass index
      28.1 kg/m2); 70% of patients were female. The average 3CO resection angle was
      25.1 degrees  and did not significantly differ with regard to 3CO level. There
      were no significant correlations between the 3CO level and amount of sagittal
      vertical axis or pelvic tilt correction. The postoperative apex level
      significantly correlated with greater correction of pelvic tilt (2 degrees  per
      more caudal level, R = -0.2, p = 0.006). Lower-level 3CO significantly correlated
      with revisions for pseudarthrosis (OR = 3.88, p = 0.001) and postoperative motor
      deficits (OR = 2.02, p = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS In this study, a more caudal lumbar
      3CO level did not lead to greater sagittal vertical axis correction. The
      postoperative apex of lumbar lordosis significantly impacted pelvic tilt. 3CO
      levels that were more caudal were associated with more postoperative motor
      deficits and revisions.

PMID- 28885129
TI  - Relationship between vertebral artery blood flow in different head positions and
      vertigo.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify the vertebral artery blood flow in different head
      positions in patients with positional vertigo with no specific diagnosis.
      METHODS: Patients with history of vestibular symptoms associated with changes in
      head position were enrolled into the study. Healthy volunteers were evaluated as
      control group. Doppler ultrasonography examination of the cervical segment of the
      vertebral arteries was performed under three different head positions: (i) supine
      position, (ii) head hyperextended and rotated to the right side and (iii) head
      hyperextended and rotated to the left side. RESULTS: In the study group, right
      and left vertebral artery blood flow was significantly lower in the ipsilateral
      hyperextended position compared to standard supine position (respectively p =
      .014; p = .001), but did not differ significantly when compared between the
      standard supine and contralateral hyperextended positions (respectively = .959; p
      = .669). In the control group, left and right vertebral artery blood flow did not
      differ significantly when the head was hyperextended to the right or left sides
      compared to standard supine position (p > .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      demonstrated that the etiology of vestibular complaints in patients with
      undiagnosed positional vertigo might be related to impairment in vertebral artery
      blood flow according to head positions.

PMID- 28885130
TI  - A comparison of relative proton stopping power measurements across patient size
      using dual- and single-energy CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the accuracy and precision across phantom size of a dual
      energy computed tomography (DECT) technique used to calculate relative proton
      stopping power (SPR) in tissue-simulating materials and a silicone implant
      relative to conventional single-energy CT (SECT). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A 32 cm
      lateral diameter (CIRS model 062M, Norfolk, Virginia) electron density phantom
      containing inserts which simulated the chemical composition of eight tissues in a
      solid-water background was scanned using SECT and DECT. A liquid water insert was
      included to confirm CT number accuracy. All materials were also placed in four
      water tanks, ranging from 15 to 45 cm in lateral width and scanned using DECT and
      SECT. A silicone breast implant was scanned in the same water phantoms. SPR
      values were calculated based on commercial software (syngo CT Dual Energy,
      Siemens Healthcare GmbH) and compared to reference values derived from proton
      beam measurements. Accuracy and precision were quantified across phantom size
      using percent error and standard deviation. Graphical and regression analysis
      were used to determine whether SECT or DECT was superior in estimating SPR across
      phantom size. RESULTS: Both DECT and SECT SPR data resulted in good agreement
      with the reference values. Percent error was +/-3% for both DECT and SECT in all
      materials except lung and dense bone. The coefficient of variation (CV) across
      materials and phantom sizes was 1.12% for SECT and 0.96% for DECT. Material
      specific regression and graphical analysis did not reveal size dependence for
      either technique but did show reduced systematic bias with DECT for dense bone
      and liver. Mean percent error in SPR for the implant was reduced from 11.46% for
      SECT to 0.49% for DECT. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate the superior ability of DECT
      to mitigate systematic bias in bones and liver and estimate SPR in a silicone
      breast implant.

PMID- 28885131
TI  - Applying a Treatment Effects Model to Investigate Public Amenity Effect on
      Physical Activity of the Elderly.
AB  - The increasing elderly population puts significant health, economic, and social
      burdens on society. Physical activity is one of the most cost-effective ways to
      maintain the health of the elderly. This study adopts a treatment effects model
      to investigate the causal relationship between environment attributes and
      physical activity among the elderly, while taking endogeneity into account. The
      data were collected from 274 participants by face-to-face interviews in Taichung,
      Taiwan. Performing physical activity regularly in parks is the most important
      measure of the amount of physical activity by the elderly. Providing sufficient
      and accessible parks in metropolitan residential neighborhoods could be one of
      the most cost-effective ways to promote physical activity for the elderly living
      in midsize Asian cities.

PMID- 28885132
TI  - No long-term risk of wrist osteoarthritis due to subchondral haematomas in distal
      radial fractures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study of distal radius fractures was to
      determine if a subchondral haematoma in an unfractured compartment predicts
      secondary osteoarthritis. METHODS: In 1995-1997, 41 patients, 22 women, a median
      age of 41 years (20-57 years) with a displaced distal radius fracture underwent
      diagnostic wrist arthroscopy in addition to the fracture treatment. In 12
      patients (7/12 women), subchondral haematomas were identified in a joint
      compartment not involved in the fracture. RESULTS: At 13-15 years, 37 patients
      were still alive. Twenty-eight patients attended the follow-up and 8/28 had had a
      subchondral haematoma within an uninjured compartment at the time of arthroscopy.
      The range of motion at 13-15 years was impaired in the injured wrist, but
      unrelated to the presence of a subchondral haematoma. The mean grip strength in
      patients with subchondral haematoma was 80% of the contralateral, compared to 78%
      in patients without. No correlation was found between the presence of a
      subchondral haematoma at arthroscopy and the development of radiographic
      osteoarthritis in the long term. CONCLUSION: The presence of a subchondral
      hematoma in an uninjured compartment at the time of fracture did not alter the
      long-term clinical or radiographic outcome after a distal radius fracture.

PMID- 28885133
TI  - The addition of duraplasty to posterior fossa decompression in the surgical
      treatment of pediatric Chiari malformation Type I: a systematic review and meta
      analysis of surgical and performance outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE Surgery is the definitive treatment of Chiari malformation Type I (CM
      I). It involves posterior fossa decompression, which can be performed along with
      C-1 laminectomy, reconstructive duraplasty, or tonsil shrinkage. The aim of this
      study was to provide an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the latest
      available evidence regarding posterior fossa decompression only (PFDO) versus
      posterior fossa decompression with duraplasty (PFDD) in the treatment of CM-I in
      children. METHODS A literature search was performed in compliance with the PRISMA
      (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines
      for article identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. Relevant
      articles were identified from 6 electronic databases from their inception to
      April 2016. These articles were screened against established criteria for
      inclusion into this study. RESULTS From 12 relevant studies identified, 1492
      pediatric patients treated via PFDD were compared with 1963 pediatric patients
      treated by PFDO for CM-I. PFDD was associated with greater overall clinical
      improvement (p = 0.009), along with longer length of stay (p < 0.0001) and more
      postoperative complications (p = 0.0001) compared with PFDO. No difference was
      observed between PFDD and PFDO in terms of revision surgery incidence (p = 0.13),
      estimated blood loss (p = 0.14), syrinx improvement (p = 0.09), or scoliosis
      improvement (p = 0.95). CONCLUSIONS It appears that the addition of duraplasty to
      posterior decompression in the definitive treatment of CM-I in children may alter
      surgical and performance outcomes. In particular, parameters of overall clinical
      improvement, length of stay, and postoperative complication may differ between
      children undergoing PFDD and those undergoing PFDO. Current evidence in the
      literature is of low to very low quality that, as of yet, has not been able to
      completely control for inherent selection bias both in study design and surgeon
      preference. Future, large prospective registries and randomized controlled trials
      are warranted to validate the findings of this study.

PMID- 28885134
TI  - Gay Seouls: Expanding Religious Spaces for Non-Heterosexuals in South Korea.
AB  - What Protestant congregations offer spaces for worship and dialogue among persons
      with different sexual orientations? The academic literature finds or assumes that
      non-heterosexuals are stigmatized or invisible in theologically conservative
      congregations and are welcomed in progressive, affirming congregations. This
      article develops an alternative claim that some conservative or evangelical
      congregations offer attractive spaces for non-heterosexuals to worship and
      dialogue. We illustrate with an exploratory study of four congregations in South
      Korea-two theologically progressive, two evangelical-whose pastors welcomed
      everybody regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. The "inclusive
      evangelical" congregations retained conservative theology on sexuality (sexual
      relations only within heterosexual marriage) but offered more empathic dialogue
      with non-heterosexuals than did most evangelical congregations; they also
      provided more resources, conventional religious culture, and ties to traditional
      affective networks than the affirming-progressive congregations. Inclusive
      evangelical congregations offer an institutional venue for non-heterosexual
      Christians in Korea to potentially reconcile three central values: conservative
      Christianity, traditional (Confucian) affective networks, and expressive
      individualism.

PMID- 28885135
TI  - Percutaneous closure of aorta-right atrial tunnel in a newborn.
AB  - A tunnel between the aorta and right atrium in a newborn was occluded with 5*6
      Amplatzer Duct Occluder II-Additional Size. Our case is different because of
      enlarged right atrium and atypical location of tunnel orifice.

PMID- 28885136
TI  - Contacts of healthcare workers, patients and visitors in general wards in
      Singapore.
AB  - To characterize contacts in general wards, a prospective survey of healthcare
      workers (HCWs), patients and visitors was conducted using self-reported diary,
      direct observation and telephone interviews. Nurses, doctors and assorted HCWs
      reported a median of 14, 18 and 15 contact persons over one work shift,
      respectively. Within 1 h, we observed 3.5 episodes with 25.6 min of cumulative
      contact time for nurses, 2.9 episodes and 22.1 min for doctors and 5.0 episodes
      with 44.3 min for assorted-HCWs. In interactions with patients, nurses had
      multiple brief episodes of contact; doctors had fewer episodes and less
      cumulative contact time; assorted-HCWs had fewer contact episodes of longer
      durations (than for nurses and doctors). Assortative mixing occurred amongst
      HCWs: those of the same HCW type were the next most frequent class of contact
      after patients. Over 24-h, patients contacted 14 persons with 23 episodes and
      314.5 min of contact time. Patient-to-patient contact episodes were rare, but a
      maximum of five were documented from one patient participant. 22.9% of visitors
      reported contact with patients other than the one they visited. Our study
      revealed differences in the characteristics of contacts among different HCW types
      and potential transmission routes from patients to others within the ward
      environment.

PMID- 28885137
TI  - Effects of reducing processed culinary ingredients and ultra-processed foods in
      the Brazilian diet: a cardiovascular modelling study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the impact of reducing saturated fat, trans-fat, salt and
      added sugar from processed culinary ingredients and ultra-processed foods in the
      Brazilian diet on preventing cardiovascular deaths by 2030. DESIGN: A modelling
      study. SETTING: Data were obtained from the Brazilian Household Budget Survey
      2008/2009. All food items purchased were categorized into food groups according
      to the NOVA classification. We estimated the energy and nutrient profile of foods
      then used the IMPACT Food Policy model to estimate the reduction in deaths from
      CVD up to 2030 in three scenarios. In Scenario A, we assumed that the intakes of
      saturated fat, trans-fat, salt and added sugar from ultra-processed foods and
      processed culinary ingredients were reduced by a quarter. In Scenario B, we
      assumed a reduction of 50 % of the same nutrients in ultra-processed foods and
      processed culinary ingredients. In Scenario C, we reduced the same nutrients in
      ultra-processed foods by 75 % and in processed culinary ingredients by 50 %.
      RESULTS: Approximately 390 400 CVD deaths might be expected in 2030 if current
      mortality patterns persist. Under Scenarios A, B and C, CVD mortality can be
      reduced by 5.5, 11.0 and 29.0 %, respectively. The main impact is on stroke with
      a reduction of approximately 6.0, 12.6 and 32.0 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Substantial potential exists for reducing the CVD burden through overall
      improvements of the Brazilian diet. This might require reducing the penetration
      of ultra-processed foods by means of regulatory policies, as well as improving
      the access to and promotion of fresh and minimally processed foods.

PMID- 28885138
TI  - Characterization of five unclassified orthobunyaviruses (Bunyaviridae) from
      Africa and the Americas.
AB  - The Bunyaviridae family is made up of a diverse range of viruses, some of which
      cause disease and are a cause for concern in human and veterinary health. Here,
      we report the genomic and antigenic characterization of five previously
      uncharacterized bunyaviruses. Based on their ultrastructure, antigenic
      relationships and phylogenomic relationships, the five viruses are classified as
      members of the Orthobunyavirus genus. Three are viruses in the California
      encephalitis virus serogroup and are related to Trivittatus virus; the two others
      are most similar to the Mermet virus in the Simbu serogroup, and to the Tataguine
      virus, which is not currently assigned to a serogroup. Each of these five viruses
      was pathogenic to newborn mice, indicating their potential to cause illness in
      humans and other animals.

PMID- 28885139
TI  - Prevalence of fosfomycin resistance and plasmid-mediated fosfomycin-modifying
      enzymes among carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in Zhejiang, China.
AB  - Two hundred and thirty-three nonduplicated clinical isolates of carbapenem
      resistant Enterobacteriaceae were collected from four hospitals in Zhejiang,
      China. 45.1 % (105/233) strains were resistant to fosfomycin, among which plasmid
      mediated fosfomycin-modifying enzymes fosA, fosA2, fosA3 and fosA5 were positive,
      and the other fos genes were negative. 80 % (12/15) Enterobacter cloacae isolates
      were positive for fosA. 100 % (73/73) Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were
      positive for fosA5. A conjugation experiment indicated that fosfomycin resistance
      could be transferred to an Escherichia coli recipient strain successfully.
      Fosfomycin still exhibits partial activity in carbapenem-resistant
      Enterobacteriaceae, especially carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli. To our
      knowledge, plasmid-mediated fosfomycin-modifying enzymes account for the
      dominance in the carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. Therefore, we need to
      pay attention to the plasmid-mediated fosfomycin-modifying enzymes fosA and fosA5
      in Enterobacter cloacae and K. pneumoniae to prevent clonal dissemination in
      China.

PMID- 28885140
TI  - Xenogenic rolling-circle replication of a synthetic beak and feather disease
      virus genomic clone in 293TT mammalian cells and Nicotiana benthamiana.
AB  - The preparation of infectious beak and feather disease circovirus virions (BFDV)
      has until now relied on the extraction of virus from whole tissue of deceased or
      euthanized parrots known to be infected with the virus. Extraction from diseased
      tissue is necessary, as the virus has yet to be grown in vitro using tissue
      cultured cells from any source. While infectious DNA clones have been synthesized
      for porcine and duck circoviruses, and both replicate in host cells and result in
      active viral infection in animals, this has not been shown for BFDV. The aim of
      this study was to prepare an infectious BFDV genomic clone that could be used as
      challenge material in birds for vaccine testing. A putatively infectious BFDV
      genomic clone was designed and tested in mammalian cell culture, and in the plant
      Nicotiana benthamiana in the presence of plant-specific ssDNA geminivirus
      replication components. Replication was assessed using rolling-circle
      amplification, qPCR, replication-deficient clones and rescue plasmids. We showed
      that a synthetic partially dimeric BFDV genomic clone self-replicated when
      transfected into 293TT mammalian cells, and was also replicated in N. benthamiana
      in the presence of geminivirus replication elements. This is the first report of
      a BFDV genome replicating in any cell system, and the first report of a
      circovirus replicating with the aid of a geminivirus in a plant. Both of these
      developments could open up possibilities for making reagents and vaccines for
      BFDV, testing vaccine efficacy and investigating viral replication using
      rationally designed artificial genomes.

PMID- 28885142
TI  - Sonic Hedgehog switches on Wnt/planar cell polarity signaling in commissural axon
      growth cones by reducing levels of Shisa2.
AB  - Commissural axons switch on responsiveness to Wnt attraction during midline
      crossing and turn anteriorly only after exiting the floor plate. We report here
      that Sonic Hedgehog (Shh)-Smoothened signaling downregulates Shisa2, which
      inhibits the glycosylation and cell surface presentation of Frizzled3 in rodent
      commissural axon growth cones. Constitutive Shisa2 expression causes randomized
      turning of post-crossing commissural axons along the anterior-posterior (A-P)
      axis. Loss of Shisa2 led to precocious anterior turning of commissural axons
      before or during midline crossing. Post-crossing commissural axon turning is
      completely randomized along the A-P axis when Wntless, which is essential for Wnt
      secretion, is conditionally knocked out in the floor plate. This regulatory link
      between Shh and planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling may also occur in other
      developmental processes.

PMID- 28885141
TI  - Automated long-term recording and analysis of neural activity in behaving
      animals.
AB  - Addressing how neural circuits underlie behavior is routinely done by measuring
      electrical activity from single neurons in experimental sessions. While such
      recordings yield snapshots of neural dynamics during specified tasks, they are
      ill-suited for tracking single-unit activity over longer timescales relevant for
      most developmental and learning processes, or for capturing neural dynamics
      across different behavioral states. Here we describe an automated platform for
      continuous long-term recordings of neural activity and behavior in freely moving
      rodents. An unsupervised algorithm identifies and tracks the activity of single
      units over weeks of recording, dramatically simplifying the analysis of large
      datasets. Months-long recordings from motor cortex and striatum made and analyzed
      with our system revealed remarkable stability in basic neuronal properties, such
      as firing rates and inter-spike interval distributions. Interneuronal
      correlations and the representation of different movements and behaviors were
      similarly stable. This establishes the feasibility of high-throughput long-term
      extracellular recordings in behaving animals.

PMID- 28885144
TI  - Trajectory Predictor by Using Recurrent Neural Networks in Visual Tracking.
AB  - Motion models have been proved to be a crucial part in the visual tracking
      process. In recent trackers, particle filter and sliding windows-based motion
      models have been widely used. Treating motion models as a sequence prediction
      problem, we can estimate the motion of objects using their trajectories.
      Moreover, it is possible to transfer the learned knowledge from annotated
      trajectories to new objects. Inspired by recent advance in deep learning for
      visual feature extraction and sequence prediction, we propose a trajectory
      predictor to learn prior knowledge from annotated trajectories and transfer it to
      predict the motion of target objects. In this predictor, convolutional neural
      networks extract the visual features of target objects. Long short-term memory
      model leverages the annotated trajectory priors as well as sequential visual
      information, which includes the tracked features and center locations of the
      target object, to predict the motion. Furthermore, to extend this method to
      videos in which it is difficult to obtain annotated trajectories, a dynamic
      weighted motion model that combines the proposed trajectory predictor with a
      random sampler is proposed. To evaluate the transfer performance of the proposed
      trajectory predictor, we annotated a real-world vehicle dataset. Experiment
      results on both this real-world vehicle dataset and an online tracker benchmark
      dataset indicate that the proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-art
      trackers.

PMID- 28885145
TI  - Reinforcement Learning for Constrained Energy Trading Games With Incomplete
      Information.
AB  - This paper considers the problem of designing adaptive learning algorithms to
      seek the Nash equilibrium (NE) of the constrained energy trading game among
      individually strategic players with incomplete information. In this game, each
      player uses the learning automaton scheme to generate the action probability
      distribution based on his/her private information for maximizing his own averaged
      utility. It is shown that if one of admissible mixed-strategies converges to the
      NE with probability one, then the averaged utility and trading quantity almost
      surely converge to their expected ones, respectively. For the given discontinuous
      pricing function, the utility function has already been proved to be upper
      semicontinuous and payoff secure which guarantee the existence of the mixed
      strategy NE. By the strict diagonal concavity of the regularized Lagrange
      function, the uniqueness of NE is also guaranteed. Finally, an adaptive learning
      algorithm is provided to generate the strategy probability distribution for
      seeking the mixed-strategy NE.

PMID- 28885143
TI  - Promiscuous bacteria have staying power.
AB  - Being able to take up DNA from their environment might allow pneumococcal
      bacteria to colonize the human nose and throat for longer periods of time.

PMID- 28885146
TI  - Adaptive Neural Network Control of a Flapping Wing Micro Aerial Vehicle With
      Disturbance Observer.
AB  - The research of this paper works out the attitude and position control of the
      flapping wing micro aerial vehicle (FWMAV). Neural network control with full
      state and output feedback are designed to deal with uncertainties in this complex
      nonlinear FWMAV dynamic system and enhance the system robustness. Meanwhile, we
      design disturbance observers which are exerted into the FWMAV system via
      feedforward loops to counteract the bad influence of disturbances. Then, a
      Lyapunov function is proposed to prove the closed-loop system stability and the
      semi-global uniform ultimate boundedness of all state variables. Finally, a
      series of simulation results indicate that proposed controllers can track desired
      trajectories well via selecting appropriate control gains. And the designed
      controllers possess potential applications in FWMAVs.

PMID- 28885148
TI  - Ultra-Wideband Millimeter-Wave Dielectric Characteristics of Freshly Excised
      Normal and Malignant Human Skin Tissues.
AB  - Millimeter waves have recently gained attention for the evaluation of skin
      lesions and the detection of skin tumors. Such evaluations heavily rely on the
      dielectric contrasts existing between normal and malignant skin tissues at
      millimeter-wave frequencies. However, current studies on the dielectric
      properties of normal and diseased skin tissues at these frequencies are limited
      and inconsistent. In this study, a comprehensive dielectric spectroscopy study is
      conducted for the first time to characterize the ultra-wideband dielectric
      properties of freshly excised normal and malignant skin tissues obtained from
      skin cancer patients having undergone Mohs micrographic surgeries at Hackensack
      University Medical Center. Measurements are conducted using a precision slim-form
      open-ended coaxial probe in conjunction with a millimeter-wave vector network
      analyzer over the frequency range of 0.5-50 GHz. A one-pole Cole-Cole model is
      fitted to the complex permittivity dataset of each sample. Statistically
      considerable contrasts are observed between the dielectric properties of
      malignant and normal skin tissues over the ultra-wideband millimeter-wave
      frequency range considered.

PMID- 28885147
TI  - Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) Algorithms: Mathematical Rationale and
      Computational Implementations.
AB  - Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) solves the magnetic field-to
      magnetization (tissue susceptibility) inverse problem under conditions of noisy
      and incomplete field data acquired using magnetic resonance imaging. Therefore,
      sophisticated algorithms are necessary to treat the ill-posed nature of the
      problem and are reviewed here. The forward problem is typically presented as an
      integral form, where the field is the convolution of the dipole kernel and tissue
      susceptibility distribution. This integral form can be equivalently written as a
      partial differential equation (PDE). Algorithmic challenges are to reduce
      streaking and shadow artifacts characterized by the fundamental solution of the
      PDE. Bayesian maximum a posteriori estimation can be employed to solve the
      inverse problem, where morphological and relevant biomedical knowledge (specific
      to the imaging situation) are used as priors. As the cost functions in Bayesian
      QSM framework are typically convex, solutions can be robustly computed using a
      gradient-based optimization algorithm. Moreover, one can not only accelerate
      Bayesian QSM, but also increase its effectiveness at reducing shadows using prior
      knowledge based preconditioners. Improving the efficiency of QSM is under active
      development, and a rigorous analysis of preconditioning needs to be carried out
      for further investigation.Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) solves the
      magnetic field-to-magnetization (tissue susceptibility) inverse problem under
      conditions of noisy and incomplete field data acquired using magnetic resonance
      imaging. Therefore, sophisticated algorithms are necessary to treat the ill-posed
      nature of the problem and are reviewed here. The forward problem is typically
      presented as an integral form, where the field is the convolution of the dipole
      kernel and tissue susceptibility distribution. This integral form can be
      equivalently written as a partial differential equation (PDE). Algorithmic
      challenges are to reduce streaking and shadow artifacts characterized by the
      fundamental solution of the PDE. Bayesian maximum a posteriori estimation can be
      employed to solve the inverse problem, where morphological and relevant
      biomedical knowledge (specific to the imaging situation) are used as priors. As
      the cost functions in Bayesian QSM framework are typically convex, solutions can
      be robustly computed using a gradient-based optimization algorithm. Moreover, one
      can not only accelerate Bayesian QSM, but also increase its effectiveness at
      reducing shadows using prior knowledge based preconditioners. Improving the
      efficiency of QSM is under active development, and a rigorous analysis of
      preconditioning needs to be carried out for further investigation.

PMID- 28885150
TI  - Fixed Points of Belief Propagation-An Analysis via Polynomial Homotopy
      Continuation.
AB  - Belief propagation (BP) is an iterative method to perform approximate inference
      on arbitrary graphical models. Whether BP converges and if the solution is a
      unique fixed point depends on both the structure and the parametrization of the
      model. To understand this dependence it is interesting to find all fixed points.
      In this work, we formulate a set of polynomial equations, the solutions of which
      correspond to BP fixed points. To solve such a nonlinear system we present the
      numerical polynomial-homotopy-continuation (NPHC) method. Experiments on binary
      Ising models and on error-correcting codes show how our method is capable of
      obtaining all BP fixed points. On Ising models with fixed parameters we show how
      the structure influences both the number of fixed points and the convergence
      properties. We further asses the accuracy of the marginals and weighted
      combinations thereof. Weighting marginals with their respective partition
      function increases the accuracy in all experiments. Contrary to the conjecture
      that uniqueness of BP fixed points implies convergence, we find graphs for which
      BP fails to converge, even though a unique fixed point exists. Moreover, we show
      that this fixed point gives a good approximation, and the NPHC method is able to
      obtain this fixed point.

PMID- 28885149
TI  - Learning from Narrated Instruction Videos.
AB  - Automatic assistants could guide a person or a robot in performing new tasks,
      such as changing a car tire or repotting a plant. Creating such assistants,
      however, is non-trivial and requires understanding of visual and verbal content
      of a video. Towards this goal, we here address the problem of automatically
      learning the main steps of a task from a set of narrated instruction videos. We
      develop a new unsupervised learning approach that takes advantage of the
      complementary nature of the input video and the associated narration. The method
      sequentially clusters textual and visual representations of a task, where the two
      clustering problems are linked by joint constraints to obtain a single coherent
      sequence of steps in both modalities. To evaluate our method, we collect and
      annotate a new challenging dataset of real-world instruction videos from the
      Internet. The dataset contains videos for five different tasks with complex
      interactions between people and objects, captured in a variety of indoor and
      outdoor settings. We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed method can
      automatically discover, learn and localize the main steps of a task in input
      videos.

PMID- 28885151
TI  - Sharable and Individual Multi-View Metric Learning.
AB  - This paper presents a sharable and individual multi-view metric learning (MvML)
      approach for visual recognition. Unlike conventional metric leaning methods which
      learn a distance metric on either a single type of feature representation or a
      concatenated representation of multiple types of features, the proposed MvML
      jointly learns an optimal combination of multiple distance metrics on multi-view
      representations, where not only it learns an individual distance metric for each
      view to retain its specific property but also a shared representation for
      different views in a unified latent subspace to preserve the common properties.
      The objective function of the MvML is formulated in the large margin learning
      framework via pairwise constraints, under which the distance of each similar pair
      is smaller than that of each dissimilar pair by a margin. Moreover, to exploit
      the nonlinear structure of data points, we extend MvML to a sharable and
      individual multi-view deep metric learning (MvDML) method by utilizing the neural
      network architecture to seek multiple nonlinear transformations. Experimental
      results on face verification, kinship verification, and person re-identification
      show the effectiveness of the proposed sharable and individual multi-view metric
      learning methods.

PMID- 28885152
TI  - Multimodal Breast Parenchymal Patterns Correlation Using a Patient-Specific
      Biomechanical Model.
AB  - In this paper, we aim to produce a realistic 2-D projection of the breast
      parenchymal distribution from a 3-D breast magnetic resonance image (MRI). To
      evaluate the accuracy of our simulation, we compare our results with the local
      breast density (i.e., density map) obtained from the complementary full-field
      digital mammogram. To achieve this goal, we have developed a fully automatic
      framework, which registers MRI volumes to X-ray mammograms using a subject
      specific biomechanical model of the breast. The optimization step modifies the
      position, orientation, and elastic parameters of the breast model to perform the
      alignment between the images. When the model reaches an optimal solution, the MRI
      glandular tissue is projected and compared with the one obtained from the
      corresponding mammograms. To reduce the loss of information during the ray
      casting, we introduce a new approach that avoids resampling the MRI volume. In
      the results, we focus our efforts on evaluating the agreement of the
      distributions of glandular tissue, the degree of structural similarity, and the
      correlation between the real and synthetic density maps. Our approach obtained a
      high-structural agreement regardless the glandularity of the breast, whilst the
      similarity of the glandular tissue distributions and correlation between both
      images increase in denser breasts. Furthermore, the synthetic images show
      continuity with respect to large structures in the density maps.

PMID- 28885153
TI  - Thee-Dimensional Single-Track-Location Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging.
AB  - Conventional multiple-track-location shear wave elasticity imaging (MTL-SWEI) is
      a powerful tool for noninvasively estimating tissue elasticity. The resolution
      and noise levels of MTL-SWEI systems, however, are limited by ultrasound speckle.
      Single-track-location SWEI (STL-SWEI) is a novel variant which fixes the position
      of the tracking beam and modulates the push location to effectively cancel out
      the effects of speckle-induced bias. We present here a 3-D STL-SWEI system, which
      provides full suppression of lateral and elevation speckle bias for high
      resolution volumetric elasticity imaging, and requires no spatial smoothing to
      make accurate measurements of shear wave speed. We demonstrate and analyze the
      system's performance in homogeneous and layered elasticity phantoms.

PMID- 28885154
TI  - Sequence Synopsis: Optimize Visual Summary of Temporal Event Data.
AB  - Event sequences analysis plays an important role in many application domains such
      as customer behavior analysis, electronic health record analysis and vehicle
      fault diagnosis. Real-world event sequence data is often noisy and complex with
      high event cardinality, making it a challenging task to construct concise yet
      comprehensive overviews for such data. In this paper, we propose a novel
      visualization technique based on the minimum description length (MDL) principle
      to construct a coarse-level overview of event sequence data while balancing the
      information loss in it. The method addresses a fundamental trade-off in
      visualization design: reducing visual clutter vs. increasing the information
      content in a visualization. The method enables simultaneous sequence clustering
      and pattern extraction and is highly tolerant to noises such as missing or
      additional events in the data. Based on this approach we propose a visual
      analytics framework with multiple levels-of-detail to facilitate interactive data
      exploration. We demonstrate the usability and effectiveness of our approach
      through case studies with two real-world datasets. One dataset showcases a new
      application domain for event sequence visualization, i.e., fault development path
      analysis in vehicles for predictive maintenance. We also discuss the strengths
      and limitations of the proposed method based on user feedback.

PMID- 28885156
TI  - The VSPA Foot: A Quasi-Passive Ankle-Foot Prosthesis With Continuously Variable
      Stiffness.
AB  - Most commercially available prosthetic feet do not exhibit a biomimetic torque
      angle relationship, and are unable to modulate their mechanics to assist with
      other mobility tasks, such as stairs and ramps. In this paper, we present a quasi
      passive ankle-foot prosthesis with a customizable torque-angle curve and an
      ability to quickly modulate ankle stiffness between tasks. The customizable
      torque-angle curve is obtained with a cam-based transmission and a fiberglass
      leaf spring. To achieve variable stiffness, the leaf spring's support conditions
      can be actively modulated by a small motor, shifting the torque-angle curve to be
      more or less stiff. We introduce the design, characterize the available torque
      angle curves, and present kinematics from a transtibial amputee subject
      performing level-ground walking, stair ascent/descent, and ramp ascent/descent.
      The subject exhibited a more normative range of motion on stairs and ramps at
      lower stiffness levels, and preferred different stiffness levels for each task.
      Paired with an appropriate intent recognition system, our novel ankle prosthesis
      could improve gait biomechanics during walking and many other mobility tasks.

PMID- 28885155
TI  - A Nonlinear Dynamics-Based Estimator for Functional Electrical Stimulation:
      Preliminary Results From Lower-Leg Extension Experiments.
AB  - Miniature inertial measurement units (IMUs) are wearable sensors that measure
      limb segment or joint angles during dynamic movements. However, IMUs are
      generally prone to drift, external magnetic interference, and measurement noise.
      This paper presents a new class of nonlinear state estimation technique called
      state-dependent coefficient (SDC) estimation to accurately predict joint angles
      from IMU measurements. The SDC estimation method uses limb dynamics, instead of
      limb kinematics, to estimate the limb state. Importantly, the nonlinear limb
      dynamic model is formulated into state-dependent matrices that facilitate the
      estimator design without performing a Jacobian linearization. The estimation
      method is experimentally demonstrated to predict knee joint angle measurements
      during functional electrical stimulation of the quadriceps muscle. The nonlinear
      knee musculoskeletal model was identified through a series of experiments. The
      SDC estimator was then compared with an extended kalman filter (EKF), which uses
      a Jacobian linearization and a rotation matrix method, which uses a kinematic
      model instead of the dynamic model. Each estimator's performance was evaluated
      against the true value of the joint angle, which was measured through a rotary
      encoder. The experimental results showed that the SDC estimator, the rotation
      matrix method, and EKF had root mean square errors of 2.70 degrees , 2.86 degrees
      , and 4.42 degrees , respectively. Our preliminary experimental results show the
      new estimator's advantage over the EKF method but a slight advantage over the
      rotation matrix method. However, the information from the dynamic model allows
      the SDC method to use only one IMU to measure the knee angle compared with the
      rotation matrix method that uses two IMUs to estimate the angle.

PMID- 28885157
TI  - Conformational Space Sampling Method Using Multi-Subpopulation Differential
      Evolution for De novo Protein Structure Prediction.
AB  - Protein structure prediction can be considered as a multimodal optimization
      problem for sampling the protein conformational space associated with an
      extremely complex energy landscape. To address this problem, a conformational
      space sampling method using multi-subpopulation differential evolution, MDE, is
      proposed. MDE first devotes to generate given numbers of concerned modal under
      the ultrafast shape recognition-based modal identification protocol, which
      regards each individual as one modal at beginning. Then, differential evolution
      is used for keeping the preserved modal survival in the evolution process.
      Meanwhile, a local descent direction used to sample along with is constructed
      based on the abstract convex underestimate technique for modal enhancement, which
      could enhance the ability of sampling in the region with lower energy. Through
      the sampling process of evolution, several certain clusters contain a series of
      conformations in proportion to the energy score will be obtained. Representative
      conformations in the generated clusters can be directly picked out as decoy
      conformations for further refinement with no extra clustering operation needs. A
      total of 20 target proteins are tested, in which ten target proteins are tested
      for comparison with Rosetta and three evolutionary algorithms, and ten easy/hard
      target proteins in CASP 11 are tested for further verifying the effectiveness of
      MDE. Test results show strong sampling ability that MDE holds, and near-native
      conformations can be effectively obtained.

PMID- 28885158
TI  - Reduction of Qualitative Models of Biological Networks for Transient Dynamics
      Analysis.
AB  - Qualitative models of dynamics of signalling pathways and gene regulatory
      networks allow for the capturing of temporal properties of biological networks
      while requiring few parameters. However, these discrete models typically suffer
      from the so-called state space explosion problem which makes the formal
      assessment of their potential behaviors very challenging. In this paper, we
      describe a method to reduce a qualitative model for enhancing the tractability of
      analysis of transient reachability properties. The reduction does not change the
      dimension of the model, but instead limits its degree of freedom, therefore
      reducing the set of states and transitions to consider. We rely on a transition
      centered specification of qualitative models by the mean of automata networks.
      Our framework encompasses the usual asynchronous Boolean and multi-valued
      network, as well as 1-bounded Petri nets. Applied to different large-scale
      biological networks from the litterature, we show that the reduction can lead to
      a drastic improvement for the scalability of verification methods.

PMID- 28885159
TI  - Identification of protein complexes by using a spatial and temporal active
      protein interaction network.
AB  - The rapid development of proteomics and high-throughput technologies has produced
      a large amount of Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) data, which makes it possible
      for considering dynamic properties of protein interaction networks (PINs) instead
      of static properties. Identification of protein complexes from dynamic PINs
      becomes a vital scientific problem for understanding cellular life in the post
      genome era. Up to now, a plenty of models or methods have been proposed for the
      construction of dynamic PINs to identify protein complexes. However, most of the
      constructed dynamic PINs just focus on the temporal dynamic information and thus
      overlook the spatial dynamic information of the complex biological systems.To
      address the limitation of the existing dynamic PIN analysis approaches, in this
      paper, we propose a new model-based scheme for the construction of the Spatial
      and Temporal Active Protein Interaction Network (ST-APIN) by integrating time
      course gene expression data and subcellular location information. To evaluate the
      efficiency of ST-APIN, the commonly used classical clustering algorithm MCL is
      adopted to identify protein complexes from ST-APIN and the other three dynamic
      PINs, NF-APIN, DPIN, TC-PIN. The experimental results show that, the performance
      of MCL on ST-APIN outperforms those on the other three dynamic PINs in terms of
      matching with known complexes, sensitivity, specificity and f-measure.
      Furthermore, we evaluate the identified protein complexes by GO (Gene Ontology)
      function enrichment analysis. The validation shows that the identified protein
      complexes from ST-APIN are more biologically significant. This study provides a
      general paradigm for constructing the ST-APINs, which is essential for further
      understanding of molecular systems and the biomedical mechanism of complex
      diseases.

PMID- 28885160
TI  - A Differential Electrochemical Readout ASIC With Heterogeneous Integration of Bio
      Nano Sensors for Amperometric Sensing.
AB  - A monolithic biosensing platform is presented for miniaturized amperometric
      electrochemical sensing in CMOS. The system consists of a fully integrated
      current readout circuit for differential current measurement as well as on-die
      sensors developed by growing platinum nanostructures (Pt-nanoS) on top of
      electrodes implemented with the top metal layer. The circuit is based on the
      switch-capacitor technique and includes pseudodifferential integrators for
      concurrent sampling of the differential sensor currents. The circuit further
      includes a differential to single converter and a programmable gain amplifier
      prior to an ADC. The system is fabricated in [Formula: see text] technology and
      measures current within [Formula: see text] with minimum input-referred noise of
      [Formula: see text] and consumes [Formula: see text] from a [Formula: see text]
      supply. Differential sensing for nanostructured sensors is proposed to build
      highly sensitive and offset-free sensors for metabolite detection. This is
      successfully tested for bio-nano-sensors for the measurement of glucose in
      submilli molar concentrations with the proposed readout IC. The on-die electrodes
      are nanostructured and cyclic voltammetry run successfully through the readout IC
      to demonstrate detection of [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28885161
TI  - Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems for Renal Interventions: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Many virtual and augmented reality systems have been proposed to support
      renal interventions. This paper reviews such systems employed in the treatment of
      renal cell carcinoma and renal stones. METHODS: A systematic literature search
      was performed. Inclusion criteria were virtual and augmented reality systems for
      radical or partial nephrectomy and renal stone treatment, excluding systems
      solely developed or evaluated for training purposes. RESULTS: In total, 52
      research papers were identified and analyzed. Most of the identified literature
      (87%) deals with systems for renal cell carcinoma treatment. About 44% of the
      systems have already been employed in clinical practice, but only 20% in studies
      with ten or more patients. Main challenges remaining for future research include
      the consideration of organ movement and deformation, human factor issues, and the
      conduction of large clinical studies. CONCLUSION: Augmented and virtual reality
      systems have the potential to improve safety and outcomes of renal interventions.
      In the last ten years, many technical advances have led to more sophisticated
      systems, which are already applied in clinical practice. Further research is
      required to cope with current limitations of virtual and augmented reality
      assistance in clinical environments.

PMID- 28885162
TI  - Adaptive Approximation-Based Regulation Control for a Class of Uncertain
      Nonlinear Systems Without Feedback Linearizability.
AB  - In this paper, for a general class of uncertain nonlinear (cascade) systems,
      including unknown dynamics, which are not feedback linearizable and cannot be
      solved by existing approaches, an innovative adaptive approximation-based
      regulation control (AARC) scheme is developed. Within the framework of adding a
      power integrator (API), by deriving adaptive laws for output weights and
      prediction error compensation pertaining to single-hidden-layer feedforward
      network (SLFN) from the Lyapunov synthesis, a series of SLFN-based approximators
      are explicitly constructed to exactly dominate completely unknown dynamics. By
      the virtue of significant advancements on the API technique, an adaptive API
      methodology is eventually established in combination with SLFN-based adaptive
      approximators, and it contributes to a recursive mechanism for the AARC scheme.
      As a consequence, the output regulation error can asymptotically converge to the
      origin, and all other signals of the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately
      bounded. Simulation studies and comprehensive comparisons with backstepping- and
      API-based approaches demonstrate that the proposed AARC scheme achieves
      remarkable performance and superiority in dealing with unknown dynamics.

PMID- 28885163
TI  - Closeness-Centrality-Based Synchronization Criteria for Complex Dynamical
      Networks With Interval Time-Varying Coupling Delays.
AB  - This paper investigates synchronization in complex dynamical networks (CDNs) with
      interval time-varying delays. The CDNs are representative of systems composed of
      a large number of interconnected dynamical units, and for the purpose of the
      mathematical analysis, the leading work is to model them as graphs whose nodes
      represent the dynamical units. At this time, we take note of the importance of
      each node in networks. One way, in this paper, is that the closeness-centrality
      mentioned in the field of social science is grafted onto the CDNs. By
      constructing a suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, and utilizing some
      mathematical techniques, the sufficient and closeness-centrality-based conditions
      for synchronization stability of the networks are established in terms of linear
      matrix inequalities. Ultimately, the use of the closeness-centrality can be
      weighted with regard to not only the interconnection relation among the nodes,
      which was utilized in the existing works but also more information about nodes.
      Here, the centrality will be added as the concerned information. Moreover, to
      avoid the computational burden causing the nonconvex term including the square of
      the time-varying delay, how to deal with it is applied by estimating it to the
      convex term including time-varying delay. Finally, two illustrative examples are
      given to show the advantage of the closeness-centrality in point of the
      robustness on time-delay.

PMID- 28885164
TI  - A Diversity-Enhanced Resource Allocation Strategy for Decomposition-Based
      Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm.
AB  - The multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) based on decomposition
      transforms a multiobjective optimization problem into a set of aggregated
      subproblems and then optimizes them collaboratively. Since these subproblems
      usually have different degrees of difficulty, resource allocation (RA) strategies
      have been reported to enhance performance, attempting to dynamically assign
      proper amounts of computational resources for the solution of each of these
      subproblems. However, existing schemes for decomposition-based MOEAs fully rely
      on the relative improvement of the aggregated functions to do this. This paper
      proposes a diversity-enhanced RA strategy for this kind of MOEA, depending on
      both relative improvement on aggregated function value and solution density
      around each subproblem to assign computational resources. Thus, one subproblem
      surrounded with fewer solutions in its neighboring area and more relative
      improvement on the aggregated function value will be allocated a higher
      probability for evolution. Our experimental results show the advantages of our
      proposed strategy over two popular RA strategies available for decomposition
      based MOEAs, on tackling a set of complicated benchmark problems.

PMID- 28885165
TI  - Synchronization Control for a Class of Discrete-Time Dynamical Networks With
      Packet Dropouts: A Coding-Decoding-Based Approach.
AB  - The synchronization control problem is investigated for a class of discrete-time
      dynamical networks with packet dropouts via a coding-decoding-based approach. The
      data is transmitted through digital communication channels and only the sequence
      of finite coded signals is sent to the controller. A series of mutually
      independent Bernoulli distributed random variables is utilized to model the
      packet dropout phenomenon occurring in the transmissions of coded signals. The
      purpose of the addressed synchronization control problem is to design a suitable
      coding-decoding procedure for each node, based on which an efficient decoder
      based control protocol is developed to guarantee that the closed-loop network
      achieves the desired synchronization performance. By applying a modified uniform
      quantization approach and the Kronecker product technique, criteria for ensuring
      the detectability of the dynamical network are established by means of the size
      of the coding alphabet, the coding period and the probability information of
      packet dropouts. Subsequently, by resorting to the input-to-state stability
      theory, the desired controller parameter is obtained in terms of the solutions to
      a certain set of inequality constraints which can be solved effectively via
      available software packages. Finally, two simulation examples are provided to
      demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.

PMID- 28885166
TI  - Robust Fusion of Color and Depth Data for RGB-D Target Tracking Using Adaptive
      Range-Invariant Depth Models and Spatio-Temporal Consistency Constraints.
AB  - This paper presents a novel robust method for single target tracking in RGB-D
      images, and also contributes a substantial new benchmark dataset for evaluating
      RGB-D trackers. While a target object's color distribution is reasonably motion
      invariant, this is not true for the target's depth distribution, which
      continually varies as the target moves relative to the camera. It is therefore
      nontrivial to design target models which can fully exploit (potentially very
      rich) depth information for target tracking. For this reason, much of the
      previous RGB-D literature relies on color information for tracking, while
      exploiting depth information only for occlusion reasoning. In contrast, we
      propose an adaptive range-invariant target depth model, and show how both depth
      and color information can be fully and adaptively fused during the search for the
      target in each new RGB-D image. We introduce a new, hierarchical, two-layered
      target model (comprising local and global models) which uses spatio-temporal
      consistency constraints to achieve stable and robust on-the-fly target
      relearning. In the global layer, multiple features, derived from both color and
      depth data, are adaptively fused to find a candidate target region. In ambiguous
      frames, where one or more features disagree, this global candidate region is
      further decomposed into smaller local candidate regions for matching to local
      layer models of small target parts. We also note that conventional use of depth
      data, for occlusion reasoning, can easily trigger false occlusion detections when
      the target moves rapidly toward the camera. To overcome this problem, we show how
      combining target information with contextual information enables the target's
      depth constraint to be relaxed. Our adaptively relaxed depth constraints can
      robustly accommodate large and rapid target motion in the depth direction, while
      still enabling the use of depth data for highly accurate reasoning about
      occlusions. For evaluation, we introduce a new RGB-D benchmark dataset with per
      frame annotated attributes and extensive bias analysis. Our tracker is evaluated
      using two different state-of-the-art methodologies, VOT and object tracking
      benchmark, and in both cases it significantly outperforms four other state-of-the
      art RGB-D trackers from the literature.

PMID- 28885167
TI  - Event-Triggered Distributed Control of Nonlinear Interconnected Systems Using
      Online Reinforcement Learning With Exploration.
AB  - In this paper, a distributed control scheme for an interconnected system composed
      of uncertain input affine nonlinear subsystems with event triggered state
      feedback is presented by using a novel hybrid learning scheme-based approximate
      dynamic programming with online exploration. First, an approximate solution to
      the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is generated with event sampled neural
      network (NN) approximation and subsequently, a near optimal control policy for
      each subsystem is derived. Artificial NNs are utilized as function approximators
      to develop a suite of identifiers and learn the dynamics of each subsystem. The
      NN weight tuning rules for the identifier and event-triggering condition are
      derived using Lyapunov stability theory. Taking into account, the effects of NN
      approximation of system dynamics and boot-strapping, a novel NN weight update is
      presented to approximate the optimal value function. Finally, a novel strategy to
      incorporate exploration in online control framework, using identifiers, is
      introduced to reduce the overall cost at the expense of additional computations
      during the initial online learning phase. System states and the NN weight
      estimation errors are regulated and local uniformly ultimately bounded results
      are achieved. The analytical results are substantiated using simulation studies.

PMID- 28885168
TI  - Generalized Multi-View Embedding for Visual Recognition and Cross-Modal
      Retrieval.
AB  - In this paper, the problem of multi-view embedding from different visual cues and
      modalities is considered. We propose a unified solution for subspace learning
      methods using the Rayleigh quotient, which is extensible for multiple views,
      supervised learning, and nonlinear embeddings. Numerous methods including
      canonical correlation analysis, partial least square regression, and linear
      discriminant analysis are studied using specific intrinsic and penalty graphs
      within the same framework. Nonlinear extensions based on kernels and (deep)
      neural networks are derived, achieving better performance than the linear ones.
      Moreover, a novel multi-view modular discriminant analysis is proposed by taking
      the view difference into consideration. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the
      proposed multi-view embedding methods on visual object recognition and cross
      modal image retrieval, and obtain superior results in both applications compared
      to related methods.

PMID- 28885169
TI  - Connectivity-Preserving Approach for Distributed Adaptive Synchronized Tracking
      of Networked Uncertain Nonholonomic Mobile Robots.
AB  - This paper addresses a distributed connectivity-preserving synchronized tracking
      problem of multiple uncertain nonholonomic mobile robots with limited
      communication ranges. The information of the time-varying leader robot is assumed
      to be accessible to only a small fraction of follower robots. The main
      contribution of this paper is to introduce a new distributed nonlinear error
      surface for dealing with both the synchronized tracking and the preservation of
      the initial connectivity patterns among nonholonomic robots. Based on this
      nonlinear error surface, the recursive design methodology is presented to
      construct the approximation-based local adaptive tracking scheme at the robot
      dynamic level. Furthermore, a technical lemma is established to analyze the
      stability and the connectivity preservation of the total closed-loop control
      system in the Lyapunov sense. An example is provided to illustrate the
      effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

PMID- 28885170
TI  - Event-Triggered Control for the Disturbance Decoupling Problem of Boolean Control
      Networks.
AB  - This paper investigates the disturbance decoupling problem (DDP) of Boolean
      control networks (BCNs) by event-triggered control. Using the semi-tensor product
      of matrices, algebraic forms of BCNs can be achieved, based on which, event
      triggered controllers are designed to solve the DDP of BCNs. In addition, the DDP
      of Boolean partial control networks is also derived by event-triggered control.
      Finally, two illustrative examples demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed
      methods.

PMID- 28885171
TI  - Gestational Age and Outcomes in Critical Congenital Heart Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It is unknown how gestational age (GA) impacts
      neonatal morbidities in infants with critical congenital heart disease (CCHD). We
      aim to quantify GA-specific mortality and neonatal morbidity in infants with
      CCHD. METHODS: Cohort study using a database linking birth certificate, infant
      hospital discharge, readmission, and death records, including infants 22 to 42
      weeks' GA without chromosomal anomalies (2005-2012, 2 988 925 live births). The
      International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnostic and procedure
      codes were used to define CCHD and neonatal morbidities (intraventricular
      hemorrhage, retinopathy, periventricular leukomalacia, chronic lung disease,
      necrotizing enterocolitis). Adjusted absolute risk differences (ARDs) with 95%
      confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. RESULTS: We identified 6903 out of 2
      968 566 (0.23%) infants with CCHD. The incidence of CCHD was highest at 29 to 31
      weeks' GA (0.9%) and lowest at 39 to 42 weeks (0.2%). Combined neonatal morbidity
      or mortality in infants with and without CCHD was 82.8% and 57.9% at <29 weeks
      and declined to 10.9% and 0.1% at 39 to 42 weeks' GA. In infants with CCHD, being
      born at 34 to 36 weeks was associated with a higher risk of death or morbidity
      than being born at 37 to 38 weeks (adjusted ARD 9.1%, 95% CI 5.5% to 12.7%), and
      being born at 37 to 38 weeks was associated with a higher risk of death or
      morbidity than 39 to 42 weeks (adjusted ARD 3.2%, 95% CI 1.6% to 4.9%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Infants born with CCHD are at high risk of neonatal morbidity.
      Morbidity remains increased across all GA groups in comparison with infants born
      at 39 to 42 weeks. This substantial risk of neonatal morbidity is important to
      consider when caring for this patient population.

PMID- 28885172
TI  - Status and Prospects of Next Generation Sequencing Technologies in Crop Plants.
AB  - The history of DNA sequencing dates back to 1970s. During this period the two
      first generation nucleotide sequencing techniques were developed. Subsequently
      the Sanger's dideoxy method of sequencing gained popularity over Maxam and
      Gilbert's chemical method of sequencing. However, in the last decade, we have
      observed revolutionary changes in DNA sequencing technologies leading to the
      emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques. NGS technologies have
      enhanced the throughput and speed of sequencing combined with bringing down the
      overall cost of the process over a time. The major applications of NGS
      technologies being genome sequencing and resequencing, transcriptomics,
      metagenomics in relation to plant-microbe interactions, exon and genome
      capturing, development of molecular markers and evolutionary studies. In this
      review, we present a broader picture of evolution of NGS tools, its various
      applications in crop plants, and future prospects of the technology for crop
      improvement.

PMID- 28885173
TI  - Next-Generation Sequencing Promoted the Release of Reference Genomes and
      Discovered Genome Evolution in Cereal Crops.
AB  - In recent decades, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was developed and brought
      biology into a new era. Rice, maize, wheat, sorghum and barley are the most
      important cereal crops and feed most of the world's population. Great progress in
      the study of cereal genomes has been made with the help of NGS. Reference genome
      sequence assembly and re-sequencing have grown exponentially. Thus, evolution and
      comparative genomics are renewed, including origin verification, evolution
      tracking and so on. In this review, we briefly record the development of
      sequencing technology, the comparison of next-generation sequencing methods and
      platforms and summarize the bioinformatics tools used for NGS data analysis. We
      describe how NGS accelerates reference genome assembly and new evolutionary
      findings. We finally discuss how to discover more valuable resources and improve
      cereal breeding in the future.

PMID- 28885174
TI  - Advanced Applications of Next-Generation Sequencing Technologies to Orchid
      Biology.
AB  - Next-generation sequencing technologies are revolutionizing biology by
      permitting, transcriptome sequencing, whole-genome sequencing and resequencing,
      and genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism profiling. Orchid research has
      benefited from this breakthrough, and a few orchid genomes are now available; new
      biological questions can be approached and new breeding strategies can be
      designed. The first part of this review describes the unique features of orchid
      biology. The second part provides an overview of the current next-generation
      sequencing platforms, many of which are already used in plant laboratories. The
      third part summarizes the state of orchid transcriptome and genome sequencing and
      illustrates current achievements. The genetic sequences currently obtained will
      not only provide a broad scope for the study of orchid biology, but also serves
      as a starting point for uncovering the mystery of orchid evolution.

PMID- 28885175
TI  - Bioinformatics Resources for Plant Genomics: Opportunities and Bottlenecks in The
      -omics Era.
AB  - The sudden exponential increase of biological data concerning genome structure
      and functionalities, also fostered by the advent of Next Generation Sequencing
      (NGS) technologies, while expanding the opportunity to highlight still uncovered
      molecular aspects, challenges bioinformatics in several repects. Data management,
      processing, updating, dissemination and integration are the major areas of
      concern. The rapid increase in various omics technologies causes two major
      issues, which may even appear contrasting: the dissemination of poorly curated
      datasets, still in the form of raw collections or preliminary draft results, and
      the fast updating of information that, as a consequence, affects the
      establishment of stable reliable resources. These issues are mainly caused by the
      lower rate of bioinformatics in extracting added value information from the large
      amount of data, when compared to the faster technologies involved in data
      production. This review describes main bioinformatics resources for plants
      genomics to underline the heterogeneity of the available collections, coherent
      with the multifaceted complexity of plant sciences. It aims to provide an in
      depth report highlighting bottlenecks that may significantly affect a fluent
      progress in the field and attempts to suggest possible solutions to the various
      issues.

PMID- 28885176
TI  - Applications of Bioinformatics to Plant Biotechnology.
AB  - Bioinformatics encompasses many tools and techniques that today are essential for
      all areas of research in the biological sciences. New databases with a wealth of
      information about genomes, proteins, metabolites, and metabolic pathways appear
      almost daily. Particularly, for scientists who carry out research in plant
      biology, the amount of information has multiplied exponentially due to the large
      number of databases available for many individual plant species. In this sense,
      bioinformatics together with next generation sequencing and 'omics' approaches,
      can provide tools for plant breeding and the genetic engineering of plants. In
      addition, these technologies enable a better understanding of the processes and
      mechanisms that can lead to plants with increased tolerance to different abiotic
      stress conditions and resistance to pathogen attack, as well as the development
      of crop varieties with improved nutritional quality of seeds and fruits.

PMID- 28885177
TI  - Quantitative Genetics of Disease Resistance in Wheat.
AB  - Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the top three global food security crops.
      Fusarium head blight is one of the major constraints in sustainable wheat
      production and resistance to the disease is polygenic. This review provides an
      overview of recent efforts in mapping these genes/loci with the objective to aid
      marker-assisted selection breeding.

PMID- 28885178
TI  - A Rice Genetic Improvement Boom by Next Generation Sequencing.
AB  - Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food crop for people worldwide, and a key goal
      has been to increase its grain yield. An increasing population that relies on a
      decreasing level of farmland has rendered the traditional method for the
      isolation and use of genetic loci in rice breeding unsatisfactory. Recently, the
      rapid development in next generation sequencing (NGS) has boosted the number of
      genome sequences for hundreds to thousands of rice varieties. A MutMap strategy
      and bulk segregation analysis (BSA) has been developed to directly identify
      candidate genes based on NGS. The genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) has
      become a commonly used approach toward identifying the genetic loci and candidate
      genes for several traits that are closely associated with grain yield. The Multi
      parent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross population (MAGIC) is introduced here to
      discuss potential applications for mapping QTLs for rice varietal development.
      These strategies broaden the capacity of functional gene identification and its
      application as a complementary method to insert mutants that comprise T-DNA and
      transposons. High-throughput SNP analysis platforms, such as the SNP array,
      provide novel strategies for genomic-assisted selections (GAS) for rice genetic
      improvements. Moreover, accurate genome sequence information enables genome
      editing for the utilization of key recessive genes that control important
      agronomic traits. This review summarizes how NGS accelerates rice genetic
      improvements through the identification and utilization of key functional genes
      that regulate agronomic traits.

PMID- 28885179
TI  - Dual RNA-Sequencing to Elucidate the Plant-Pathogen Duel.
AB  - RNA-sequencing technology has been widely adopted to investigate host responses
      during infection with pathogens. Dual RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) allows the
      simultaneous capture of pathogen specific transcripts during infection, providing
      a more complete view of the interaction. In this review, we focus on the design
      of dual RNA-seq experiments and the application of downstream data analysis to
      gain biological insight into both sides of the interaction. Recent literature in
      this area demonstrates the power of the dual RNA-seq approach and shows that it
      is not limited to model systems where genomic resources are available. A
      reduction in sequencing cost and single cell transcriptomics coupled with protein
      and metabolite level dual approaches are set to enhance our understanding of
      plant-pathogen interactions. Sequencing costs continue to decrease and single
      cell transcriptomics is becoming more feasible. In combination with proteomics
      and metabolomics studies, these technological advances are likely to contribute
      to our understanding of the temporal and spatial aspects of dynamic plant
      pathogen interactions.

PMID- 28885180
TI  - Next-Generation Sequencing Sheds New Light on Small RNAs in Plant Reproductive
      Development.
AB  - Reproductive development is a key step of the plant life cycles and indicates the
      start of a new life cycle. The reproductive organs including flower, fruit and
      seed, have diverse and complex structures, which is a syndrome in the evolution
      of angiosperms. The development of plant reproductive organs depends on the
      correct spatial and temporal expression of numerous genes acting in concert to
      form regulatory networks. Small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) play a key role in the
      reproductive development through different modes of sequence-specific interaction
      with their targets. The sRNAs guide transcriptional and post-transcriptional
      regulation to intensively integrate into the complex process. Next generation
      sequencing techniques (NGS) has greatly extended scientist's capabilities to
      identified and quantify sRNAs by supplying a massive of sequences. In turn this
      has led to a greater understanding of the many complex roles and interactions
      that sRNAs are involved with during reproductive development. In this review, we
      provide an overview of the biogenesis and classification of plant sRNAs, and
      summarize the recent progress in the understanding of plant sRNA in the flower,
      and fruit/seed development. Also, we discuss NGS approaches to profile global
      sRNA expression, as well as the application of sRNA-seq/degradome-seq approaches
      to identify novel sRNAs and verify their targets related to the above development
      processes.

PMID- 28885181
TI  - ChIP-Seq: A Powerful Tool for Studying Protein-DNA Interactions in Plants.
AB  - DNA-binding proteins, including transcription factors, epigenetic and chromatin
      modifiers, control gene expressions in plants. To pinpoint the binding sits of
      DNA-binding proteins in genome is crucial for decoding gene regulatory networks.
      Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by high-throughput DNA sequencing
      (ChIP-Seq) is a widely used approach to identify the DNA regions bound by a
      specific protein in vivo. The information generated from ChIP-Seq has
      tremendously advanced our understanding on the mechanism of transcription
      factors, cofactors and histone modifications in regulating gene expression. In
      this review, we reviewed the recent research advance of ChIP-Seq in plants,
      including description of the ChIP-Seq workflow and its various applications in
      plants, and in addition, provided perspective of the potential advances of ChIP
      Seq.

PMID- 28885182
TI  - Cataloging Plant Genome Structural Variations.
AB  - Structural variation (SV) is a type of genetic variation identified through the
      comparison of genome structures which often have direct and significant
      associations with phenotypic variations. Building on the next generation
      sequencing (NGS) technologies, research on plant structural variations are
      gaining momentum and have revolutionized our view on the functional impact of the
      'hidden' diversity that were largely understudied before. Herein, we first
      describe the current state of plant genomic SV research based on NGS and in
      particular focus on the biological insights gained from the large-scale
      identification of various types of plant SVs. Specific examples are chosen to
      demonstrate the genetic basis for phenotype diversity in model plant and major
      agricultural crops. Additionally, development of new genomic mapping
      technologies, including optical mapping and long read sequencing, as well as
      improved computational algorithms associated with these technologies have helped
      to pinpoint the exact nature and location of genomic SVs with much better
      resolution and precision. Future direction of plant research on SVs should focus
      on the population level to build a comprehensive catalog of SVs, leading to full
      assessment of their impact on biological diversity.

PMID- 28885183
TI  - From Microscopy to Genomic Approach in Soil Biodiversity Assessment.
AB  - Soil biota represents a major component of the earth's biodiversity and for over
      200 years, the microscopy approach was the only way to explore it. In the last
      decade, the DNA-based technique has been adopted in soil ecology. Due to the
      rapid development of cutting-edge technology, the field is transitioning from
      barcoding individuals to metabarcoding communities. With the advent of next
      generation sequencing and a rapid decline in sequencing cost, it has become
      feasible to assess soil biodiversity at species level. This review article
      summarizes current approaches in soil biodiversity research along with their
      advantages and disadvantages.

PMID- 28885184
TI  - Balsam-pear-like rutile/anatase core/shell titania nanorod arrays for
      photoelectrochemical water splitting.
AB  - In this work, a solution combustion followed by dissolution in hydrogen peroxide
      is adopted to achieve a precursor for decorating anatase TiO2 nanosheets along
      single-crystalline rutile TiO2 nanorods, which achieves balsam-pear-like
      core/shell nanorod arrays with enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting. The
      photocurrent of the rutile/anatase nanorods is about 1.4 times and 20.7 times
      that of the rutile nanorods and the anatase nanosheets at 0.8 V vs SCE,
      respectively. The enhanced photoelectrochemical performance is attributed to the
      novel nanoarchitecture, which can simultaneously offer high surface area,
      enhanced light-harvesting, rutile/anatase junction for charge carrier separation
      and conductive pathway for charge carrier collection. The photoanode design can
      also give hints to other functional materials.

PMID- 28885185
TI  - Nanoscale x-ray investigation of magnetic metallofullerene peapods.
AB  - Endohedral lanthanide ions packed inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in a one
      dimensional assembly have been studied with a combination of high resolution
      transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning transmission x-ray microscopy
      (STXM), and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). By correlating HRTEM and
      STXM images we show that structures down to 30 nm are resolved with chemical
      contrast and record x-ray absorption spectra from endohedral lanthanide ions
      embedded in individual nanoscale CNT bundles. XMCD measurements of an Er3N@C80
      bulk sample and a macroscopic assembly of filled CNTs indicate that the magnetic
      properties of the endohedral Er3+ ions are unchanged when encapsulated in CNTs.
      This study demonstrates the feasibility of local magnetic x-ray characterisation
      of low concentrations of lanthanide ions embedded in molecular nanostructures.

PMID- 28885186
TI  - High-speed true random number generation based on paired memristors for security
      electronics.
AB  - True random number generator (TRNG) is a critical component in hardware security
      that is increasingly important in the era of mobile computing and internet of
      things. Here we demonstrate a TRNG using intrinsic variation of memristors as a
      natural source of entropy that is otherwise undesirable in most applications. The
      random bits were produced by cyclically switching a pair of tantalum oxide based
      memristors and comparing their resistance values in the off state, taking
      advantage of the more pronounced resistance variation compared with that in the
      on state. Using an alternating read scheme in the designed TRNG circuit, the
      unbiasedness of the random numbers was significantly improved, and the bitstream
      passed standard randomness tests. The Pt/TaO x /Ta memristors fabricated in this
      work have fast programming/erasing speeds of ~30 ns, suggesting a high random
      number throughput. The approach proposed here thus holds great promise for
      physically-implemented random number generation.

PMID- 28885187
TI  - A review on mechanical considerations for chronically-implanted neural probes.
AB  - This review intends to present a comprehensive analysis of the mechanical
      considerations for chronically-implanted neural probes. Failure of neural
      electrical recordings or stimulation over time has shown to arise from foreign
      body reaction and device material stability. It seems that devices that match
      most closely with the mechanical properties of the brain would be more likely to
      reduce the mechanical stress at the probe/tissue interface, thus improving body
      acceptance. The use of low Young's modulus polymers instead of hard substrates is
      one way to enhance this mechanical mimetism, though compliance can be achieved
      through a variety of means. The reduction of probe width and thickness in
      comparison to a designated length, the use of soft hydrogel coatings and the
      release in device tethering to the skull, can also improve device compliance.
      Paradoxically, the more compliant the device, the more likely it will fail during
      the insertion process in the brain. Strategies have multiplied this past decade
      to offer partial or temporary stiffness to the device to overcome this buckling
      effect. A detailed description of the probe insertion mechanisms is provided to
      analyze potential sources of implantation failure and the need for a mechanically
      enhancing structure. This leads us to present an overview of the strategies that
      have been put in place over the last ten years to overcome buckling issues.
      Particularly, great emphasis is put on bioresorbable polymers and their
      assessment for neural applications. Finally, a discussion is provided on some of
      the key features for the design of mechanically-reliable, polymer-based next
      generation of chronic neuroprosthetic devices.

PMID- 28885188
TI  - Ab initio phonon thermal transport in monolayer InSe, GaSe, GaS, and alloys.
AB  - We compare vibrational properties and phonon thermal conductivities (kappa) of
      monolayer InSe, GaSe, and GaS systems using density functional theory and Peierls
      Boltzmann transport methods. In going from InSe to GaSe to GaS, system mass
      decreases giving both increasing acoustic phonon velocities and decreasing
      scattering of these heat-carrying modes with optic phonons, ultimately giving
      kappa<sub>InSe</sub> < kappa<sub>GaSe</sub> < kappa<sub>GaS</sub>. This behavior
      is demonstrated by correlating the scattering phase space limited by fundamental
      conservation conditions with mode scattering rates and phonon dispersions for
      each material. We also show that, unlike flat monolayer systems such as graphene,
      in InSe, GaSe and GaS thermal transport is governed by in-plane vibrations.
      Alloying of InSe, GaSe, and GaS systems provides an effective method for
      modulating their kappa through intrinsic vibrational modifications and phonon
      scattering from mass disorder giving reductions ~ 2-3.5 times. This disorder also
      suppresses phonon mean free paths in the alloy systems compared to those in their
      crystalline counterparts. This work provides fundamental insights of lattice
      thermal transport from basic vibrational properties for an interesting set of two
      dimensional materials.

PMID- 28885189
TI  - Addendum: Measurement of charged particle yields from PMMA irradiated by a 220
      MeV/u <sup>12</sup>C beam.
AB  - In this paper we report the re-analysis of the data published in (Piersanti et
      al. 2014) documenting the charged secondary particles production induced by the
      interaction of a 220 MeV/u 12C ion beam impinging on a polymethyl methacrylate
      (PMMA) target, measured in 2012 at the GSI facility in Darmstadt (Germany). This
      re-analysis takes into account the inhomogeneous light response of the LYSO
      crystal in the experimental setup measured in a subsequent experiment (2014)
      performed in the Heidelberg Ion- Beam Therapy Center. A better description of the
      detector and re-calculation of the geometrical efficiencies have been implemented
      as well, based on an improved approach that accounts also for the energy
      dependence of the emission spectrum.&#13; The new analysis has small effect on
      the total secondary charged flux, but has an impact on the production yield and
      emission velocity distributions of the different particle species (protons,
      deuterons and tritons) at different angles with respect to the beam direction (60
      degrees  and 90 degrees ). All these observables indeed depend on the particle
      identification algorithms and hence on the LYSO detector energy response.&#13;
      The results of the data re-analysis presented here are intended to supersede and
      replace the results published in (Piersanti et al. 2014).

PMID- 28885190
TI  - Film dosimetry using a smart device camera: a feasibility study for point dose
      measurements.
AB  - In this work, a methodology for using a smartphone camera, in conjunction with a
      light-tight box operating in reflective transmission mode, is investigated as a
      proof of concept for use as a film dosimetry system. An imaging system was
      designed to allow the camera of a smartphone to be used as a pseudo densitometer.
      Ten pieces of Gafchromic EBT3 film were irradiated to doses up to 16.89 Gy and
      used to evaluate the effects of reproducibility and orientation, as well as the
      ability to create an accurate dose response curve for the smartphone based
      dosimetry system, using all three colour channels. Results were compared to a
      flatbed scanner system. Overall uncertainty was found to be best for the red
      channel with an uncertainty of 2.4% identified for film irradiated to 2.5 Gy and
      digitised using the smartphone system. This proof of concept exercise showed that
      although uncertainties still exceed a flatbed scanner system, the smartphone
      system may be useful for providing point dose measurements in situations where
      conventional flatbed scanners (or other dosimetry systems) are unavailable or
      unaffordable.

PMID- 28885191
TI  - Radiation dose and risk in children undergoing cardiac interventions performed
      using flat detector angiography systems.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to measure radiation doses and estimate risk from
      various beam projections in children undergoing cardiac interventions. The dose
      area product (DAP) was measured for eleven patent ductus arteriosus device
      closures (PDA), four atrial septal defect device closures (ASD), and three
      balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty (BPV) interventions performed using a flat
      detector system. The total mean DAPs for PDA, ASD and BPV were 1.9 Gycm2, 9.8
      Gycm2 and 6.2 Gycm2 respectively. The fluoroscopic kerma dose rates increased by
      10%, 33% and 92% when changing the projection from posterior-anterior to lateral
      projection for PDA interventions among infants, <5 yrs and >5 yrs respectively.
      The effective dose (ED) and organ doses were estimated from DAP using Monte Carlo
      software. Lungs received the highest organ dose of 7.4 mGy (PDA), 20.7 mGy (ASD)
      and 17.3 mGy (BPV) compared to other organs. The mean EDs from PDA, ASD and BPV
      were 2.5 mSv, 6.1 mSv and 4.9 mSv respectively. PDA intervention performed in
      infants had a radiation risk 66% higher than children aged between 3-10 years.
      Their lifetime attributable risk as per BEIR VII for cancer incidence was 1 in
      907 males and 1 in 1047 females.

PMID- 28885192
TI  - Confinement sensitivity in quantum dot singlet-triplet relaxation.
AB  - Spin-orbit mediated phonon relaxation in a two-dimensional quantum dot is
      investigated using different confining potentials. Elliptical harmonic oscillator
      and cylindrical well results are compared to each other in the case of a two
      electron GaAs quantum dot subjected to a tilted magnetic field. The lowest energy
      set of two-body singlet and triplet states are calculated including spin-orbit
      and magnetic effects. These are used to calculate the phonon induced transition
      rate from the excited triplet to the ground state singlet for magnetic fields up
      to where the states cross. The roll of the cubic Dresselhaus effect, which is
      found to be much more important than previously assumed, and the positioning of
      'spin hot-spots' are discussed and relaxation rates for a few different systems
      are exhibited.

PMID- 28885193
TI  - Time crystals: a review.
AB  - Time crystals are time-periodic self-organized structures postulated by Frank
      Wilczek in 2012. While the original concept was strongly criticized, it
      stimulated at the same time an intensive research leading to propositions and
      experimental verifications of discrete (or Floquet) time crystals-the structures
      that appear in the time domain due to spontaneous breaking of discrete time
      translation symmetry. The struggle to observe discrete time crystals is reviewed
      here together with propositions that generalize this concept introducing
      condensed matter like physics in the time domain. We shall also revisit the
      original Wilczek's idea and review strategies aimed at spontaneous breaking of
      continuous time translation symmetry.

PMID- 28885194
TI  - Evidence for thermal activation in the glassy dynamics of insulating granular
      aluminum conductance.
AB  - Insulating granular aluminum is one of the proto-typical disordered insulators
      whose low temperature electrical conductance exhibits ubiquitous non-equilibrium
      phenomena. These include slow responses to temperature or gate voltage changes,
      characteristic field effect anomalies and ageing phenomena typical of a glass. In
      this system the influence of temperature on the glassy dynamics has remained
      elusive. A similar situation was met in insulating indium oxide and it was
      concluded that in high carrier density Anderson insulators, electronic slow
      relaxations essentially proceed via activationless processes. In this work we
      experimentally demonstrate that thermal effects do play a role and that the slow
      dynamics in granular aluminum is subject to thermal activation. We show how its
      signatures can be revealed and activation energy distributions can be extracted,
      providing a promising grasp on the nature of the microscopic mechanism at work in
      glassy Anderson insulators. We explain why some of the experimental protocols
      previously used in the literature fail to reveal thermal activation in these
      systems. Our results and analyses call for a reassessment of the emblematic case
      of indium oxide, and question the existence of purely activationless dynamics in
      any of the systems studied so far.

PMID- 28885195
TI  - SERRS and absorption spectra of pyridine on Au m Ag n (m + n = 6) bimetallic
      nanoclusters: substrate composition and applied electric field effects.
AB  - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and absorption spectra of the pyridine
      molecule adsorbed on Au m Ag n (m + n = 6) bimetallic clusters are theoretically
      investigated by time-dependent density functional theory. The contributions of
      static chemical enhancement to the ground-state system are analyzed, and the
      static Raman intensity of Py-Au m Ag n complexes are enhanced by an order of 10.
      A method of visualization on charge transfer is used to distinguish the
      contributions of charge-transfer enhancement and electromagnetic enhancement. The
      intensity of surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) spectroscopy of
      Py-Au m Ag n is strongly enhanced by an order of 103-105, compared to the static
      Raman intensity of pyridine. The influence of the static external electric field
      on SERS is investigated by calculating the optical properties of the Py-Au3Ag3
      complex. The intensity of SERRS spectra and normal Raman spectra can be
      significantly enhanced by the positive electric fields, and the intensities of
      specific Raman vibrational modes could be selectively enhanced or weakened by
      tuning the direction and strength of the static electric field applied on Py
      Au3Ag3.

PMID- 28885196
TI  - Propagation of registration uncertainty during multi-fraction cervical cancer
      brachytherapy.
AB  - Multi-fraction cervical cancer brachytherapy is a form of image-guided
      radiotherapy that heavily relies on 3D imaging during treatment planning,
      delivery, and quality control. In this context, deformable image registration can
      increase the accuracy of dosimetric evaluations, provided that one can account
      for the uncertainties associated with the registration process. To enable such
      capability, we propose a mathematical framework that first estimates the
      registration uncertainty and subsequently propagates the effects of the computed
      uncertainties from the registration stage through to the visualizations, organ
      segmentations, and dosimetric evaluations. To ensure the practicality of our
      proposed framework in real world image-guided radiotherapy contexts, we
      implemented our technique via a computationally efficient and generalizable
      algorithm that is compatible with existing deformable image registration
      software. In our clinical context of fractionated cervical cancer brachytherapy,
      we perform a retrospective analysis on 37 patients and present evidence that our
      proposed methodology for computing and propagating registration uncertainties may
      be beneficial during therapy planning and quality control. Specifically, we
      quantify and visualize the influence of registration uncertainty on dosimetric
      analysis during the computation of the total accumulated radiation dose on the
      bladder wall. We further show how registration uncertainty may be leveraged into
      enhanced visualizations that depict the quality of the registration and highlight
      potential deviations from the treatment plan prior to the delivery of radiation
      treatment. Finally, we show that we can improve the transfer of delineated
      volumetric organ segmentation labels from one fraction to the next by encoding
      the computed registration uncertainties into the segmentation labels.

PMID- 28885197
TI  - Cardiac frequency and cutaneous microcirculation during and after exercising in
      the view of physical condition.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In the field of cardiovascular diseases an ergometer test is a
      common diagnostical method in which a change in microcirculation can be reached.
      In this paper cardiac frequency and cutaneous microcirculation during and after
      exercising will be compared with each other. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cutaneous
      microcirculation of  6 healthy volunteers (2 females, 4 males) is measured. As an
      instrument the PeriFlux 5000 combined with a Laser-Doppler-Flow(LDF)-Probe
      (Perimed Instruments) is used. The cardiac frequency (CF) is measured by the
      POLAR T31 sensor and as an ergometer the ERGO-FIT (r) 457 is used. RESULTS: The
      mean initial LDF (97,7+/-57,3 PU) decreases at the beginning (64,5+/-21,7 PU),
      increases during theexercise, reaches its maximum (247,8+/-82,1 PU) after the end
      of the exercise and drops to lower values (256,4+/-69,5 PU)after a few minutes.
      Contrasting to the LDF the mean initial CF (86+/-22/min) increases at the
      beginning (97+/-9/min),furthermore during the whole exercise (103+/-9/min) and
      then falls after having finished the exercise (96+/-3/min).Furthermore, during
      regeneration, one can see the CF decreasing towards its initial value, while LDF
      reaches its maximum. CONCLUSION: In further studies, realized with volunteers
      with well-known levels of physical condition, a directconnection between
      cutaneous microcirculation and physical condition might be found.

PMID- 28885198
TI  - Engineering of cell-laden gelatin-based microgels for cell delivery and
      immobilization in regenerative therapies.
AB  - Cell-based therapies often face the challenge of low cell retention and viability
      upon transplantation. Hence, biomaterials, which can immobilize transplanted
      cells, while at the same time support cell viability, are essential for
      successful clinical application. Noteworthy, biomaterials in the micrometer range
      such as microcapsules or microspheres have the advantage of a minimally invasive
      introduction into tissue.Hence, we established an approach to generate gelatin
      based cell carriers in the form of microspherical hydrogels. Fibroblasts were
      microencapsulated in glycidylmethacrylate (GMA)-functionalized gelatin by
      photopolymerization. While the degree of GMA-functionalization was kept constant,
      the hydrogel cross-linking density was adjusted by varying the time of
      irradiation or the average gelatin-chain length.Stable microspheres were
      synthesized from 10 wt% GMA-gelatin solutions for all irradiation periods tested
      (0.5 -2 min). Evaluation of cell viability revealed that microgels with the same
      weight content of biopolymer but with decreased cross-linking densities and thus
      decreased storage and E modulus, resulted in best cell support. Noteworthy,
      encapsulated cells partially migrated out of the microspheres and attached to the
      spherical surface.10 wt% GMA-gelatin-based hydrogels with E moduli comparable to
      the native cellular niche proved to be a promising biomaterial suitable for the
      production of cell-laden microspheres and shall be evaluated further for
      biomedical application.

PMID- 28885199
TI  - Adipogenic differentiation of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells in 3D
      architectured gelatin based hydrogels (ArcGel).
AB  - Polymeric matrices mimicking multiple functions of the ECM are expected to enable
      a material induced regeneration of tissues. Here, we investigated the adipogenic
      differentiation of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs) in a 3D
      architectured gelatin based hydrogel (ArcGel) prepared from gelatin and L-lysine
      diisocyanate ethyl ester (LDI) in an one-step process, in which the formation of
      an open porous morphology and the chemical network formation were integrated. The
      ArcGel was designed to support adipose tissue regeneration with its 3D porous
      structure, high cell biocompatibility, and mechanical properties compatible with
      human subcutaneous adipose tissue. The ArcGel could support initial cell adhesion
      and survival of hADSCs. Under static culture condition, the cells could migrate
      into the inner part of the scaffold with a depth of 840+/-120 MUm after 4 days,
      and distributed in the whole scaffold (2 mm in thickness) within 14 days. The
      cells proliferated in the scaffold and the fold increase of cell number after 7
      days of culture was 2.55+/-0.08. The apoptotic rate of hADSCs in the scaffold was
      similar to that of cells maintained on tissue culture plates. When cultured in
      adipogenic induction medium, the hADSCs in the scaffold differentiated into
      adipocytes with a high efficiency (93+/-1%). Conclusively, this gelatin based 3D
      scaffold presented high cell compatibility for hADSC cultivation and
      differentiation, which could serve as a potential implant material in clinical
      applications for adipose tissue reparation and regeneration.

PMID- 28885200
TI  - Divisive influence of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist polymorphisms in melanoma
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) contributes to tumor
      survival and progression in multiple cancer entities. IL-1RA polymorphisms
      influence IL-1RA expression patterns and function. A known polymorphism was
      correlated with clinical outcomes in melanoma patients with particularly
      aggressive disease. METHODS: DNA of 343 controls and 97 melanoma patients with
      poor prognostic indicators (time from diagnosis to death, nodal status,
      metastasis) was analyzed for a variable number of tandem repeat polymorphisms
      (VNTR) of the IL-1RA gene. Five alleles containing two (allele 2), three (allele
      4), four (allele 1), five (allele 3) or six (allele 5) 86-bp repeats were
      targeted via PCR amplification. RESULTS: Genotype 1/2 is less common in the
      melanoma patient group vs. the control (28.8% vs. 39.6%; p = 0.06). Significant
      was the stage of the melanoma in order to predict the survivability (p = 0.008).
      The 1/1 and 1/2 genotype appeared to have lower hazards ratios than the 2/2
      genotype (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the general population, the
      distribution of alleles coding for IL-1RA is different in melanoma patients. This
      alteration and the potential impact on tumor protein function and systemic
      inflammatory response may warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28885201
TI  - The mechanisms of late scaffold thrombosis.
AB  - Coronary scaffolds have been recently developed to address the long-term
      limitations of metallic drug eluting stents. Concerns have however been expressed
      on the safety of these devices, with evidence of both early and late scaffold
      thrombosis. While early thrombosis has been associated with incomplete scaffold
      expansion, leading to flow disturbances, blood recirculation, and platelet
      activation, the pathophysiology of late events remains less understood. Recent
      cases series have shown that malapposition and scaffold dismantling might play a
      role in this phenomenon, an observation that further confirms the importance of
      an accurate implantation. Further, the role of dual antiplatelet therapy, and
      whether prolonging it may reduce event rates, remains to be elucidated. As well,
      the role of inflammatory phenomena has been proposed but never demonstrated. This
      brief review summarizes the current evidence on these phenomena.

PMID- 28885202
TI  - Reference range and variability of Laser-Doppler-Fluxmetry.
AB  - The Laser Doppler technique (Laser-Doppler-Fluxmetry, LDF), a noninvasive method
      to estimate skin blood flow (LDF), is frequently used in research and clinical
      routine [1]. Here, the measurements were carried out with a new Laser Doppler
      system, the DOP-system, which allows to measure frequency spectra in four
      different frequency windows according to the velocities in venules (low
      velocity), capillaries (low to medium velocities), and in arteries (with high and
      very high velocities). However, the diagnostic reliability or the effectiveness
      of the LDF has not yet been evaluated sufficiently, which is indispensable, where
      medical diagnostics and therapy controls are concerned. For a valid
      interpretation of LDF values of individual patients, the knowledge of the
      reference range and the variability of the measured parameters is required.In
      four successive studies the reference range (62 apparently healthy subjects), the
      circadian variability (8 subjects), the variability from day-to-day (6 subjects)
      and over one year with monthly measurements (6 subjects) were evaluated.With the
      knowledge of the reference range, microcirculatory disorders can now be diagnosed
      using the DOP method. Following a standard measurement procedure there was no
      dependence of the measured data on the day or season of measurement.

PMID- 28885203
TI  - Vascular malformations of upper and lower extremity - from radiological
      interventional therapy to surgical soft tissue reconstruction - an
      interdisciplinary treatment.
AB  - This article presents our experience in managing peripheral vascular
      malformations of upper and lower extremities over a 4-year period in a series of
      46 patients of the Department of Plastic Surgery treated in the Interdisciplinary
      Center of Vascular Anomalies (ICVA) at the University of Regensburg. The patients
      presented vascular malformations of upper and lower extremity and were selected
      from our prospective vascular anomalies file archive from 2012 to 2016. During
      this period in the ICVA at University of Regensburg were performed more than 1400
      radiological interventional treatments in patients with vascular
      malformations.The purpose of this retrospective study was to review combined
      embolotherapy, sclerotherapy (embolo/sclerotherapy), and surgical procedures
      (surgical excision and soft tissue reconstruction) to manage vascular
      malformations. Treatments were principally induced to reduce pain, daily physical
      limitations, social discomfort and recover tegument continuity after
      ulceration.The 46 patients were first examined with noninvasive radiological
      procedures. After diagnosis was posed, embolo/sclerotherapy, surgical procedures
      and clinically as well as radiological follow-ups were coordinated and
      established by the multidisciplinary team. All vascular malformations were
      categorized according to the classification approved at the April 2014 General
      Assembly of International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies (ISSVA) in
      Melbourne, Australia. Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) were further classified
      following the Cho-Do and Schobinger classification.Embolo/sclerotherapy shows to
      be the most appropriate procedure in vascular malformations treatment.
      Nevertheless was found that in case of complications or lack of improvement as
      well as to improve functional or aesthetical results, a following partial or
      complete surgical excision and immediate soft tissue reconstruction seems to be
      the gold-standard treatment. In addition, the precise clinical and radiological
      diagnosis as well as an intensive postoperative patient care have a significant
      positive influence on the clinical outcome and patient satisfaction while
      decreasing morbidity and recurrence during early and late follow-up.Vascular
      malformations require a multidisciplinary approach and individual treatment after
      complex excision and indispensable reconstruction.

PMID- 28885204
TI  - Quantitative evaluation of real-time maximum liver capacity (LiMAx) and time
      intensity curve (TIC) analysis in CEUS-based microperfusion.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the diagnostic performance of real-time maximum liver
      capacity (LiMAx) with dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)-based liver
      microcirculation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 23 patients underwent liver function
      capacity (LiMAx) test and consecutive or previous CEUS examinations. A bolus
      injection of 1.4 ml sulfur hexafluoride microbubbles was administered for CEUS
      measurements (1-6 MHz) and quantitative perfusion analysis (TIC) was performed
      with an integrated perfusion software using stored cine-loops. Two perfusion
      parameters, time to peak (TtoP) and area under the curve (Area), were evaluated
      in liver parenchyma and portal vein using TIC analysis.To compare quantification
      parameters, patients were classified in patients representing a healthy
      population (LiMAx value >315 MUg/kg/h) and those representing patients with liver
      disease (LiMAx value <315 MUg/kg/h). RESULTS: Comparing perfusion parameters
      derived from portal vein measurements, TtoP and Area were higher in patients with
      normal liver function TtoP: 25.0+/-8.4 s, Area: 1483+/-920 a.u. compared to
      patients with impaired liver function TtoP: 22.4+/-14.0 s; Area 1351+/-1212 a.u.
      This difference however was not statistically significant (p = 0.52, p = 0.48).In
      parameters derived from measurements in liver parenchyma TtoP was higher (38.5+/
      11.3 s) and Area was lower (999+/-632 a.u.) in patients with normal liver
      function compared to patients with impaired liver function (TtoP; 30.6+/-11.0 s,
      p = 0.156; Area: 1202+/-719 a.u.) (p = 0.16, p = 0.56).In a simple linear
      regression model, none of the perfusion parameters measured in portal vein (TtoP
      portal, Area portal) and liver parenchyma (TtoP liver, Area liver) correlated
      significantly with respective LiMAx values (p = 0.194-0.950). CONCLUSION: Within
      the framework of this study, CEUS-based perfusion parameters were not able to
      assess severity of liver disease, assessed with LiMAx- test.

PMID- 28885205
TI  - Reduced microperfusion due to portal vein thrombosis: Impact on the outcome of
      percutaneous thermal tumor ablation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the influence of pre-interventionally existing portal vein
      thrombosis on the ablation success of percutaneous tumor ablation of HCC.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: 15 patients with HCC and pre-existing portal vein
      thrombosis underwent thermal tumor ablation. We retrospectively analyzed the pre-
      and post-interventionally performed CT and MRI scans in terms of technical
      success as well as the complication rate. The portal vein thrombosis was
      classified into segmental, lobar and central thrombus. RESULTS: In 13/15 cases
      (87%) complete ablation with no evidence of residual tumor tissue was seen 6
      weeks after the procedure in contrast-enhanced MRI scans and contrast-enhanced
      ultrasound (CEUS). No major and 2 minor complications were observed after the
      ablation procedure. CONCLUSION: Reduced perfusion due to pre-interventionally
      existing portal vein thrombosis has no significant impact on the ablation success
      or the complication rate.

PMID- 28885206
TI  - Ultrasound elastography in diagnosis and follow-up for patients with chronic
      recurrent parotitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chronic recurrent parotitis (CRP) is a non-obstructive disease with
      episodes characterized by painful swelling of the parotid gland. It presents in
      both a juvenile and an adult form, with no clear information on its actual
      origin. Diagnosis is based on patient medical history and ultrasound examination
      but is frequently not correctly identified. Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse
      Imaging (ARFI) is a novel ultrasound elastography technology that has recently
      been implemented in the diagnostic work-up of patients with malignancies. This
      study aimed to answer whether ARFI can reasonably be employed in the initial
      examination and follow-up during therapy in patients with CRP. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Mechanical tissue properties of the salivary glands were analyzed by
      ARFI in 37 parotid glands of patients with CRP. RESULTS: Having integrated ARFI
      into our diagnostic protocol for CRP, affected parotid glands were found to
      exhibit lower tissue elasticity compared to both healthy contralateral glands in
      the same individuals as well as those of healthy individuals. Most importantly,
      this method enabled us to quantitatively assess the patient benefit of therapy
      regarding the recovery of the glands' diseased parenchyma. CONCLUSIONS: ARFI
      provides a quick, easy, and reliable diagnostic tool for the assessment of
      disease severity and progression in patients with CRP that can be seamlessly
      implemented into preexisting ultrasound protocols.

PMID- 28885207
TI  - Effect of irreversible electroporation of prostate cancer on microcirculation:
      Imaging findings in contrast-enhanced T1-weighted 3D MRI.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel focal ablation
      technique applicable for treatment of prostate cancer (PCa). We aim to evaluate
      imaging findings of T1-weighted contrast-enhanced MRI after percutaneous IRE of
      low-risk PCa. METHODS: A total of 13 male patients underwent IRE of focal low
      risk PCa and were included in this analysis. Prostate IRE was conducted using 2-4
      electrodes being placed under CT-fluoroscopy guidance. Dynamic contrast-enhanced
      3D isotropic fat-saturated T1-weighted MRI (DCE-MRI) was performed 24-72 hours
      before and 24-72 hours after ablation. RESULTS: Ablated prostate was either
      homogeneously (8/13 [62%]) or heterogeneously (5/13 [38%]) hypo attenuating.
      Peripheral contrast enhancement manifesting as a hyper attenuating margin was
      observed during the arterial (60 sec) (3/13 [23%]) and venous (240 sec) (10/13
      [77%]) phase. The ablation defect showed a sharp (8/13 [62%]) or blurry (5/13
      [38%]) margin. CONCLUSIONS: The results show a venous peripheral rim enhancement
      in most of the cases, indicating reactive hyperaemia. The heterogeneous
      appearance of the defect zone in some cases may be secondary to sustained
      vascularization.

PMID- 28885208
TI  - The diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) as a new technique
      for imaging of vascular complications in renal transplants compared to standard
      imaging modalities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vascular complications in renal transplant patients are a well-known
      issue in post transplant patient care. If malfunctioning of the renal transplant
      is suspected to be caused by vascular complications an early diagnosis and
      therapy is required to maintain the renal transplant. Computed tomography (CT),
      digital substraction angiography (DSA) and radioisotope renography are the gold
      standard imaging modalities to diagnose vascular complications. OBJECTIVE: To
      analyse the sensitivity and specificity of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in
      comparison to the standard imaging modalities CT, DSA and radioisotope renography
      in the diagnosis of vascular complications in renal transplant patients. METHODS:
      A total of 33 renal transplant recipients with elevated kidney function
      parameters with initial diagnostic imaging between 2006 and 2017 were included in
      the study. The imaging studies and clinical data were analysed retrospectively.
      The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS was compared to CT, DSA and renal scintigraphy
      respectively which are classified as gold standard for diagnosis of vascular
      complications in renal transplant patients. Out of 23 patients 15 patients showed
      vascular complications in CT, DSA or radioisotope renography and in 15 out of 15
      patients CEUS detected the vascular complication. RESULTS: CEUS showed a
      sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 66.7%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of
      71.4%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%. CONCLUSIONS: CEUS is a non
      nephrotoxic and safe method for the initial imaging of vascular complications in
      renal transplant recipients. Compared to the gold standard imaging modalities CT,
      DSA and radioisotope renography CEUS shows a high sensitivity and NPV in
      detecting vascular complications. In cases with suspected stenosis of the
      transplant renal artery additional DSA might be needed.

PMID- 28885209
TI  - Investigation of the acute plantar fasciitis with contrast-enhanced ultrasound
      and shear wave elastography - first results.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The plantar fasciitis is a common disease with a high prevalence in
      public and a frequent cause of heel pain. OBJECTIVE: In our pilot study, we
      wanted to characterise the feasibility of shear-wave elastography and contrast
      enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the assessment of the plantar fasciitis. METHODS:
      23 cases of painful heels were examined by B-Mode ultrasound, Power Doppler (PD),
      shear wave elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound before anti-inflammatory
      radiation. Time-intensity-curves were analysed by the integrated software. The
      results for area-under-the-curve (AUC), peak, time-to-peak (TTP) and mean-transit
      time (MTT) were compared between the plantar fascia and the surrounding tissue.
      RESULTS: All cases showed thickening of the plantar fascia, in most cases with
      interstitial oedema (87.0%). Shear wave elastography showed inhomogeneous
      stiffness of the plantar fascia. 83.3% of cases showed a visible hyperperfusion
      in CEUS at the proximal plantar fascia in comparison to the surrounding tissue.
      This hyperperfusion could also be found in 75.0% of cases with no signs of
      vascularisation in PD. AUC (p = 0.0005) and peak (p = 0.037) were significantely
      higher in the plantar fascia than in the surrounding tissue. CONCLUSION: CEUS and
      shear wave elastography are new diagnostic tools in the assessment of plantar
      fasciitis and can provide quantitative parameters for monitoring therapy.

PMID- 28885210
TI  - Does Virtual Touch IQ elastography help to improve the preoperative diagnosis of
      parotid tumors: A prospective trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is difficult to assess tumors of the parotid gland preoperatively.
      However, it is essential for the surgeon to know which kind of tumor is present.
      Ultrasound is the method of choice, but there is still no reliable differential
      diagnostic tool for determining whether a tumor is malignant or benign.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to examine the value of Virtual Touch imaging
      quantification (VTIQ) elastograpy in distinguishing between malignant and benign
      tumors as well as in identifying the most common benign tumor types. METHODS: The
      parenchyma of 100 parotid glands and 12 lymph nodes of healthy volunteers and 50
      tumors of the parotid gland were analyzed via ultrasound, color Doppler
      ultrasound, and VTIQ, and the results were then compared with histopathology.
      RESULTS: In comparison with benign tumors, in malignant tumors the tumor border
      was diffuse, the perfusion higher, and the VTIQ quality much lower. Share wave
      velocity of the user-defined region of interest was more frequently higher than
      6.8 m/s in malignant tumors in comparison to benign tumors. CONCLUSIONS: VTIQ in
      combination with ultrasound examination provides additional information for
      distinguishing between benign and malignant tumors and shows promise for
      integration into preexisting ultrasound protocols.

PMID- 28885211
TI  - Postoperative control of functional muscle flaps for facial palsy reconstruction:
      Ultrasound guided tissue monitoring using contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and
      ultrasound elastography.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Facial paralysis causes excruciating impairments
      including facial asymmetry, limited eye closure, oral incontinence and social
      dysfunction. Modern plastic surgical reconstructions render favorable results
      with well-perfused dynamic muscle flaps. Post-operative tissue monitoring is a
      critical determinant for success. Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) and
      elastography have proven superior properties to evaluate tissue perfusion in
      various organs. We evaluated their role for functional muscle flaps positioned at
      the sub-skin level in facial palsy patients. METHODS: From 2016-2017 five
      patients received muscle flap reconstructions. Flaps included four free
      transplants and one pedicled transfer. Postoperatively tissue vitality and blood
      flow were assessed with CEUS. One experienced examiner using linear probes (6-9,
      6-15 MHz) and bolus injections of Sulphur-hexafluoride microbubbles evaluated
      tissue perfusion. Using the time intensity curve- (TIC)-analysis measurements
      were recorded for TTP (time to peak) and AUC (Area under curve). Tissue
      elasticity was assessed with ultrasound elastography. RESULTS: All flaps were
      successful and showed no major complications. TTP-values in flap tissue showed
      slightly decreased values of 35.12+/-33.99 s and 25.04+/-10.86 s compared to
      surrounding tissue with 19.88+/-6.94 s. AUC-analysis however revealed higher
      values of 292.25+/-169.52 RU and 274.51+/-115.88 RU than surrounding tissue with
      150.90+/-40.21 RU. Elastography demonstrated predominantly elastic flap tissue
      whereas surrounding tissue confirmed a slightly harder tissue quality. CEUS in
      combination with elastography verified tissue vitality and blood flow in a safe
      and reproducible manner. CONCLUSIONS: Post-operative perfusion monitoring in
      muscle flaps positioned at a sub-skin level may be performed superiorly by CEUS
      and elastography in a quick, reproducible and minimally-invasive fashion.

PMID- 28885212
TI  - Comparison of computed tomography (CT) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)
      for the quantitative evaluation of an ablation defect following radiofrequency
      ablation of malignant liver lesions.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and contrast
      enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for the quantitative evaluation of an ablation defect
      following radiofrequency ablation of malignant liver lesions in a prospective
      study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 22 radiofrequency ablations of malignant liver
      tumors were performed. The ablation defects were then measured and evaluated by
      two independent examiners via contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and
      contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) using a 1-5 MHz multifrequency convex
      ultrasound transducer (LOGIQ E9, GE) with respect to the short-axis diameter, the
      long-axis diameter, and the area. RESULTS: Quantitative evaluation of ablation
      defects is possible with both contrast-enhanced CT and CEUS. The average long
      axis diameter was 47.1 mm (+/-11.08;+/-23,5%) on CEUS and 56.48 mm (+/-14.14;+/
      25,0%) on CT; the short-axis diameter was 39.72 mm (+/-11.14;+/-28,05%) on CEUS
      and 40.27 mm (+/-10.50;+/-26,07%) on CT; the area was 1439.82 mm2 (+/-678.57;+/
      47,13%) on CEUS and 2392.68 mm2 (1147.67;+/-48,0%) on CT. On average, ablation
      defects are assessed to be larger on CT than on CEUS. A significant correlation
      between the modalities could not be achieved for all measurement axes.
      CONCLUSION: CEUS can be used for the postinterventional detection and evaluation
      of ablation defects. However, these are always assessed to be larger on contrast
      enhanced CT than CEUS.

PMID- 28885213
TI  - Presentation of a variation of the chorioallantoic membrane set up as a potential
      model for individual therapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx.
AB  - The chorioallantoic membrane of fertilized chicken eggs in an early phase of
      breeding presents an approved test situation for the growth and treatment of
      human cancer cells.These models work due to the inoculation of cells into the
      membrane that stays within the egg shell during the time of investigation. In
      this study a modification of this model is presented. Samples of native tumors,
      rather than cell lines, are transplanted into the membrane and the body of the
      egg is taken out of the shell and placed in a plastic bowl. These modifications
      lead to an enhanced accessibility to the chorioallantoic membrane and the
      surrounding vessels thus facilitating intra venous access and application of
      pharmaceuticals and a focused radiotherapy. With the current modifications the
      embryo was kept alive and additionally, the vascularized tumor environment was
      preserved.

PMID- 28885214
TI  - Breast sensitivity after mastectomy and autologous reconstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breast Carcinoma is the most common malign tumor disease in women. 20
      30% of these tumors have to be treated by removing all of the breast tissue.
      After that kind of therapeutic procedure, most of the women are severely
      traumatized and ask for reconstruction. The goldstandard of breast reconstruction
      is the free perforator flap from the lower abdomen (DIEAP-flap), which can
      provide body-own tissue and natural shape for the reconstructed breast.Many
      studies evaluate the shape of the reconstructed breast but neglect the skin
      sensitivity. Claim of this study was to compare this important part of
      reconstruction on two different techniques of mastectomy. OBJECTIVE: In this
      retrospective study we evaluated which technique of mastectomy and breast
      reconstruction with DIEAP-Flap offers the highest outcome for sensibility of the
      reconstructed breast. Skin sparing mastectomy was compared with conventional
      mastectomy and the results of skin sensitivity were measured. METHODS: Ten
      patients underwent breast reconstruction with free abdominal perforator flap
      between 2011 and 2015 after conventional mastectomy (CM) and were compared with
      ten patients, who had a skin sparing mastectomy (SSM) with immediate
      reconstruction by DIEAP-flap during the same time interval. These two groups were
      matched by age, height, weight and the time between reconstruction and
      examination. The sensitivity of the skin was measured by Semmes-Weinstein
      Filaments in the strength beginning from 0,07 g till 300 g for deep sensation.
      The logarithmic profile of these measurements had been transferred into a
      continuous data system beginning from 1 point, which stands for no sensation,
      till 7 points for pressure threshold of 0,07 g. RESULTS: Patients who underwent
      DIEAP-reconstruction after skin sparing mastectomy showed a higher sensation at
      all regions of the new breast in comparison to reconstruction after conventional
      mastectomy, beginning from the nipple to the areola and the breast skin. The
      results in the CM-group were 1.0 points at the mamilla, 1.33 pts. at the areola
      and 1.78 pts. at the breast skin. In the SSM-group, the findings were 3 pts. at
      the mamilla, 3.25 pts. at the areola and 5.25 pts. at the breast skin.
      CONCLUSION: The skin sparing mastectomy combined with immediate reconstruction by
      DIEAP-flap provides an excellent therapeutic option for patients, who are
      suitable for this technique, which takes into account not only the form but also
      the sensitivity of the breast.

PMID- 28885215
TI  - Hyperspectral imaging as a novel diagnostic tool in microcirculation of wounds.
AB  - : Monitoring of perfusion is a cornerstone in surgery, phlebology and basic
      science to proof wound healing by interventions. In chronic wound management it
      is of utmost importance to realize and parametrize wound bed perfusion to verify
      actual, and plan further treatment by noninvasive diagnostics. Up to now
      monitoring is based on visual inspection of wounds as conventionally practiced
      over more than decades. The main problems of visual inspection are the lack of
      standardization and comparability because of interindividual variations.
      Therefore technical performance with contact free probes based on standardized
      perfusion measuring is strongly needed. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was
      investigated to overcome manual and visual wound inspection in monitoring of
      wound healing. HSI works noninvasive, and imaging of relevant perfusion
      parameters is possible without the need of contrast enhancing drugs. METHODS: HSI
      technology uses imaging spectroscopic analysis in visual and near infrared
      spectrum to get information on imaged tissue in less than 10 s. Tissue is
      radiated by broad spectrum light and the following parameters are calculated from
      remitted spectra: the grade of oxygenation and the volume proportion of
      hemoglobin (in superficial and also deeper (8 mm) tissues. The calculated data
      comprise the "Tissue hemoglobin oxygen saturation" (StO2) as percental
      oxygenation index to assess superficial perfusion (VIS-spectrum), the "Near
      infrared perfusion" (NIR) to assess deeper perfusion (near infrared spectrum) and
      the "Tissue hemoglobin index" (THI) to measure the percental volume of hemoglobin
      of surface perfusion (VIS-spectrum). The measurements of these parameters are
      calculated as false color-coded perfusion results on screen.We investigated
      different kind of wounds (combustion, infection, ulcer wounds, wounds in immune
      disorders, trauma wounds) determining superficial and deeper oxygen saturation,
      hemoglobin distribution and water content using hyperspectral imaging with
      TIVITATM Tissue system. RESULTS: Hyperspectral Imaging allowed easy real time
      determination and visualization of hemodynamically relevant parameters-
      superficial and deeper oxygen saturation, total hemoglobin and tissue water
      content. In the patient with scleroderma, acral lesions with decreased perfusion
      correlated well with necrotic skin aspects.HSI clearly revealed macroscopic
      conspicuous suture wounds after Dupuytren surgery, infected soft tissue wounds
      with strong inflammatory hyperemia, edema in burn injuries, spatial geometry of
      abscess formation and chronic ulcer wounds. All measurements influenced further
      surveillance decisions. Hyperspectral imaging seems suitable for routine
      diagnostics and monitoring of skin and soft tissue lesions like acute and chronic
      wounds. It allows surveillance of postoperative suture wounds and burn wounds.
      Special indications may be transplant surveillance and monitoring of
      therapeutical interventions.

PMID- 28885216
TI  - Microcirculation measurements: Barriers for use in clinical routine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In patients with shock, inflammation and sepsis alterations in
      microcirculation are common problems. Although the pathophysiologic consequences
      are well understood, measurements of microcirculation have not entered clinical
      routine so far. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the requirements for clinical
      microcirculation measurement techniques and the barriers for implementation into
      routine practice. METHODS: Clinical review of reliability, reproducibility,
      validity, availability and usefulness of clinically available measurement
      techniques to be used in patients with sepsis or cardiac surgery with
      cardiopulmonary bypass. RESULTS: Few methods such as video microscopy are readily
      available at the bedside, but are hampered by the high variability of
      measurements and the lack of reliable automated software analysis. The
      correlation of microcirculation impairment measured by in-vivo microscopy with
      fatal outcomes has been established, but no recommendations have been given which
      parameters should be targeted to improve outcomes. Measurement of regional brain
      tissue oxygenation has been recommended for cardiac surgery, but does not
      specifically target microcirculation. CONCLUSIONS: International guidelines for
      the management of sepsis or cardiac anesthesia do not recommend specific goals
      targeting the microcirculation directly, but global hemodynamics. The reason for
      this may be attributed to the lack of methods that fulfill the requirements
      necessary to be clinically acceptable. Once the validity, i.e. any improvement in
      patient's outcomes attributable to microcirculation measurements, can be
      established, clinical measurement of microcirculation could become part of
      routine treatment of patients with sepsis, inflammation and shock. Until then,
      more clinical studies targeting microcirculation are urgently needed.

PMID- 28885217
TI  - Continuing medical education and pharmaceutical industry involvement: An
      evaluation of policies adopted by Canadian professional medical associations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Professional medical associations (PMAs) play a crucial role in
      providing accredited continuing medical education (CME) to physicians. Funding
      from the pharmaceutical industry may lead to biases in CME. OBJECTIVE: This study
      examines publicly available policies on CME, adopted by Canadian PMAs as of
      December 2015. METHODS: Policies were evaluated using an original scoring tool
      comprising 21 items, two questions about PMAs' general and CME funding from
      industry, and three enforcement measures. RESULTS: We assessed 236 policies
      adopted by Canadian PMAs (range, 0 to 32). Medical associations received
      summative scores that ranged from 0% to 49.2% of the total possible points
      (maximum score = 63). Twenty-seven associations received an overall score of 0%.
      The highest mean scores were achieved in the areas of industry involvement in
      planning CME activities (mean: 1.1/3), presence of a review process for topics of
      CME activities (mean: 1.1/3), content review for balanced information (mean:
      1.1/3), and responsibility of distribution of funds (mean: 1.0/3). The lowest
      mean scores were achieved in the areas of awards (mean: 0.0/3), industry
      personnel, representatives, and employees (mean: 0.1/3), distribution of industry
      funded educational materials at CME activities (mean: 0.1/3), and distinction
      between marketing and educational materials (mean: 0.1/3). CONCLUSION: These
      results suggest that Canadian PMAs' publicly available policies on industry
      involvement in CME are generally weak or non-existent; therefore, the accredited
      CME that is provided to Canadian physicians may be viewed as open to bias. We
      encourage all Canadian medical associations to strengthen their policies to avoid
      the potential for industry influence in CME.

PMID- 28885218
TI  - Off-label use of medicines: The need for good practice guidelines.
AB  - BACKGROUND: 'Off-label use' is the term used for the prescription and dispensing
      of a medicinal product for any indication, patient group, route of
      administration, dosage or treatment regimen other than that listed in the Summary
      of Product Characteristics. OBJECTIVE: In this article the authors present a
      brief overview of current practices of off-label use in Europe and the applicable
      European law and jurisprudence. They then go on to present a set of guidelines
      for best practice in off-label use which underlines the need for guidance on
      prescription to be firmly rooted in the need to ensure patient safety above all
      other concerns. METHODS: The article was written from desk research and expert
      engagement, including a presentation and Q&A in the European Parliament. RESULTS:
      This article intends to demonstrate that off-label use entails increased risks
      for patients, especially when it is not underpinned by rigorous clinical studies
      or the reporting routes for use are not well defined. CONCLUSIONS: Europe is
      seeing a growing trend the promotion of off-label prescription of medicinal
      products for reasons other than pure medical need, including motives such as cost
      containment. This poses a numer of questions for the ethical and legal framework
      for medicine prescription and dispensing in Europe.

PMID- 28885219
TI  - Recognition of possible risk factors for clinically significant drug-drug
      interactions among Indian people living with HIV receiving highly active
      antiretroviral therapy and concomitant medications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Greatest challenges for clinician is to recognize risk factors for
      clinically significant drug interactions (CSDIs). There is a lack of awareness
      about CSDIs among healthcare professionals in India. OBJECTIVE: To recognize all
      possible risk factors for drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and to identify
      clinically significant drug interactions (CSDIs), the prevalence, pattern of
      occurrence of DDIs in People Living with HIV (PLW-HIV) receiving highly active
      antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and concomitant medications. METHODS: A
      retrospective medical record review was carried out by clinical pharmacist with
      ethics committee approval. Case files of HIV patients receiving HAART with
      concomitant medications were analyzed for CSDIs using University of Liverpool
      drug interaction database and CSDIs were classified based on red flag indication
      (RFI) or contraindicated drug-drug interaction (XDDIs) and orange flag indication
      (OFI) or DDIs that needs close monitoring. Patients with DDIs (cases) and
      patients without DDIs (controls) were compared with Chi-square tests. P value
      <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 240 HIV
      patients' cases were screened. Out of which 267 DDIs were reported in 107
      patients. Prevalence of DDIs was higher in male 71 (66.4%) compared to female 36
      (33.6%). On zero-inflated poisson regression analysis, factors of polypharmacy,
      opportunistic infections, comorbid condition like Ischemic heart disease,
      respiratory tract infections, and psychiatric disorder were found to be
      predictors of high risk factors for DDIs to HAART. Fourteen XDDIs with RFI and
      two hundred fifty three DDIs with OFI were reported. XDDIs were atazanavir with
      fluconazole 4 (28.6%), ritonavir with fluconazole 4 (28.6%), nevirapine with
      rifampicin 2 (14.4%), ritonavir with quetiapine, atazanavir with pantoprazole.
      Pharmacokinetic DDIs were highest 238 (89.1%). Sixteen DDIs were reported in a
      single patient. The majority 97 (90.6%) patients had developed <=5 DDIs, 8 (7.5%)
      developed six to eleven DDIs. The highest DDIs were reported with efavirenz 49
      (18.4%) and zidovudine 44 (16.5%) based HAART regimen. CONCLUSION: In India, with
      the increasing access to HAART usage, Clinician must focus to pay attention to
      recognize possible risk factors for CSDIs associated with HAART regimen and
      strictly to avoid "Red Flag Indication combinations" while prescribing so as to
      prevent CSDIs.

PMID- 28885220
TI  - Antidepressants and suicide among young women in Sweden 1999-2013.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To establish whether the young women (15-24 year old) who committed
      suicide in Sweden (1999-2013) received antidepressant treatment or not, and to
      what extent, prior to and/or at the time of suicide. To investigate the belief
      that increased prescription of antidepressants would drastically reduce the
      number of suicides. METHODS: An analysis of data from the Swedish Prescribed Drug
      Register, the Causes of Death Register, with registers cross checked, and from
      the National Board of Forensic Medicine. RESULTS: This analysis shows a
      covariance between increased prescription of antidepressants and an increasing
      trend in the number of suicides among young women. In the period 1999-2003
      antidepressants were found in toxicological analyses done in 23% of the young
      women who committed suicide, and in 39% of cases for 2009-2013. CONCLUSION: An
      increasingly larger proportion of young women who later committed suicide, had in
      the last few years been treated with antidepressants, prior to and at the time of
      the suicide. The previous assumptions that treatment with antidepressants would
      lead to a drastic reduction in suicide rates, are incorrect for the population of
      young women. On the contrary, it was found that an increasing tendency of
      completed suicides follow the increased prescription of antidepressants.

PMID- 28885221
TI  - The establishment of the Drug Naming Committee to restrict look-alike medication
      names in Iran: A qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medication errors is a prominent issue on the health policy agenda
      due to its significant human and financial costs; confusing drug names are one of
      the most common causes of them. This issue necessitates the adoption of a
      mechanism to restrict such a confusion before approving drug names. OBJECTIVE:
      Following the establishment of a committee and developed relevant criteria as
      mechanisms to address the issue of drug names similarity Iran, there were
      problems in this process. This study explores the process of adopting this
      mechanism. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted using date gathered
      through documents, observation and 31 semi-structured interviews. Ethical
      approval was achieved from the Research Ethics Committee in TUMS. Confidentiality
      was ensured at all the interviews. The interviews were recorded verbatim,
      transcribed and coded, using the MAXQDA ver.12 software. Data were analyzed
      utilizing the Health Policy Triangle Framework. RESULTS: High rate of medication
      errors and warning from the WHO about drug names in Iran pushed the issue of drug
      proprietary names to the FDO agenda. A National Drugs Naming Committee was
      established and relevant criteria were developed by the Food and Drug
      Organization (FDO). This committee was dissolved for four years; the function was
      delegated to the General Office of Trademarks Registry. However, the committee
      was reestablished and resumed functioning. Finings mainly indicated a higher rate
      of medication errors during dissolving the committee. CONCLUSION: Health policy
      makers have a public responsibility for making a decision and the consequences.
      Regarding the process of naming drugs, it is important for policy makers to
      consider two issues: patient safety and trademarks rights. However, the Iran FDO
      adopted an approach to address these issues, a more multifaceted, integrated
      approach to initial naming of drugs is suggested. The committee' function is seen
      to hold the most promise. However the function is partially complete to ensure
      patient safety. Given the change experienced by altering relevant organizational
      authorities in the FDO, the sustainability of the committee cannot hope to be
      guaranteed. Yet, the need for such a guarantee is particularly important.

PMID- 28885222
TI  - Opinions of Maltese doctors and pharmacists on medication errors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pharmacovigilance directive 2010/84/EU focused attention on
      medication errors and encouraged regulators to identify causing and contributing
      factors. OBJECTIVES: (1) To study opinions of doctors/pharmacists on factors
      bearing a causal link to MEs as well as ways to minimise MEs (2) to test whether
      differences in opinion exist between subgroups of doctors and pharmacists working
      in community, hospital or office settings. METHODS: Different questionnaires were
      circulated to doctors and pharmacists. Respondents were subdivided according to
      their primary practice. RESULTS: 320 responses were received (204 doctors/116
      pharmacists). Differences in opinion reaching statistical significance were
      observed on distractions from staff, overwork and fatigue, availability of
      technical resources and having more than 1 doctor on duty. For pharmacists',
      differences on issues of generic medicine availability and interruptions were
      found. CONCLUSION: Distractions and interruptions while executing tasks was
      flagged as an area requiring attention. Issues of overwork and fatigue affect
      especially doctors in hospital the majority of which are of the opinion that
      regulatory control on patient numbers could minimize errors. Increasing technical
      resources and keeping knowledge up-to-date, addressing overwork and high patient
      workloads have been identified as important areas when looking to reduce MEs.

PMID- 28885223
TI  - Prescription audit of NSAIDs and gastroprotective strategy in elderly in primary
      care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) is deemed a
      major risk factor for peptic ulcer disease in elderly population that requires
      concomitant therapy with gastroprotective agents (GPAs). OBJECTIVE: This study
      evaluated the rational prescribing of NSAIDs and GPAs, and extent of adherence to
      the guideline recommendations in primary care. METHODS: Nationwide audit of
      prescriptions issued to elderly patients (>=65 years) with hypertension or
      diabetic hypertension in primary care. RESULTS: Among 2090 elderly, 45.9% were on
      low-dose aspirin, and 13.5% on other NSAIDs. Diclofenac-XR was the most
      frequently prescribed NSAIDs to three-quarter patients whereas naproxen, the
      safest NSAID for patients with high cardiovascular (CV) risk, was rarely
      prescribed. Among those on NSAID, 82.9% were on a scheduled dosing regimen; of
      these 78.8% received long-term NSAID therapy (3.9+/-0.9 months). The prescription
      rate of GPAs was low: 29.2% for aspirin and 33.3% for other NSAIDs. A quarter of
      the patients on histamine type-2 receptor antagonists received ranitidine at
      subtherapeutic single-dose for gastroprotection. Approximately half of the
      patients on proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) were prescribed supra-therapeutic
      double-dose regimen: omeprazole and esomeprazole accounted for 63.2% of overall
      prescribed PPIs. CONCLUSIONS: The rational choice of NSAIDs and physicians'
      adherence to gastroprotective measures was suboptimal in primary care. The choice
      of NSAIDs and gastroprotective strategy in elderly be guided by the CV and
      gastrointestinal adverse events likelihood due to the NSAIDs and risk profile of
      patients for such adverse events.

PMID- 28885224
TI  - Impaired reproduction after exposure to ADHD drugs: Systematic review of animal
      studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have reported on long-term harms caused by ADHD drugs but
      they are known to impair growth. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether ADHD drugs impair
      reproduction in mammals. METHODS: Systematic review of reproduction in studies of
      animals treated with ADHD drugs. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Biosis and EMBASE.
      RESULTS: We included 17 studies. The studies were generally of poor quality or
      poorly reported. Two studies reported the use of one of three advised
      randomisation methods. Fifteen studies used placebo which suggested blinding. On
      clonidine, the ability to produce offspring was reduced for male rats, which
      approached two females each. In one study, 10 treated rats produced no offspring
      while all four controls did. In another study, 10 treated rats impregnated nine
      females while 10 controls impregnated 16. On methylphenidate, vaginal opening was
      delayed in two studies (in one, the mean difference was 4.0 days, 95% CI 2.5 to
      5.6, and number of estrous cycles was halved; in the other, the minimum delay was
      6 days), while in two other studies no difference occurred. Generally, the
      impairments improved after a drug-free period and were less pronounced when
      treatment started later in life. CONCLUSION: ADHD drugs impair the reproduction
      in animals.

PMID- 28885225
TI  - Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure - copy and immediate recall (3 minutes): Normative
      data for Spanish-speaking pediatric populations.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To generate normative data for the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure
      (ROCF) in Spanish-speaking pediatric populations. METHOD: The sample consisted of
      4,373 healthy children from nine countries in Latin America (Chile, Cuba,
      Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Puerto Rico) and Spain.
      Each participant was administered the ROCF as part of a larger neuropsychological
      battery. The ROCF copy and immediate recall (3 minutes) scores were normed using
      multiple linear regressions and standard deviations of residual values. Age,
      age2, sex, and mean level of parental education (MLPE) were included as
      predictors in the analyses. RESULTS: The final multiple linear regression models
      showed main effect for age on copy and immediate recall scores, such that scores
      increased linearly as a function of age. Age2 affected ROCF copy score for all
      countries, except Puerto Rico; and ROCF immediate recall scores for all
      countries, except Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, and Puerto Rico. Models
      indicated that children whose parent(s) had a MLPE >12 years obtained higher
      scores compared to children whose parent(s) had a MLPE<=12 years for Chile,
      Puerto Rico, and Spain in the ROCF copy, and Paraguay and Spain for the ROCF
      immediate recall. Sex affected ROCF copy and immediate recall score for Chile and
      Puerto Rico with girls scoring higher than boys. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest
      Spanish-speaking pediatric normative study in the world, and it will allow
      neuropsychologists from these countries to have a more accurate approach to
      interpret the ROCF Test in pediatric populations.

PMID- 28885227
TI  - Be Sweet to Babies During Painful Procedures: A Pilot Evaluation of a Parent
      Targeted Video.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding (BF), skin-to-skin care (SSC), and sucrose effectively
      reduce babies' pain during newborn blood work, but these strategies are
      infrequently used. Our team developed a parent-targeted video intervention
      showing the effectiveness of the 3 pain management strategies. PURPOSE: To
      evaluate neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents' (1) baseline knowledge and
      previous use of BF, SSC, and sucrose for procedural pain management; (2)
      intention to advocate/use BF, SSC, or sucrose for their infants' future blood
      work after viewing the video; (3) intention to recommend the video to other
      parents; and (4) perceptions of the video and identify areas for improvement.
      METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of parents in an NICU. RESULTS: Fifty parents
      were enrolled: 33 mothers and 17 fathers. More than two-thirds (68%) of parents
      had prior knowledge of analgesic effects of sucrose; knowledge of SSC and BF as
      pain-reduction strategies was lower: 44% and 34%, respectively. Eighty-six
      percent of parents felt the video was the right length; 7 (14%) felt the video
      was too long. After viewing the video, 96% of parents intended to advocate for
      BF, SSC, or sucrose for pain management and 88% parents would recommend the video
      to other parents. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The video is acceptable to parents,
      is feasible to deliver to parents in an NICU, and has potential to increase
      parents' intent to advocate for pain management strategies for their infants.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: Future studies are required to evaluate the
      effectiveness of this parent-targeted intervention on increasing actual use of
      pain management in clinical practice.

PMID- 28885228
TI  - Genetic and Transcriptomic Bases of Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Dysfunction in
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intestinal barrier defects are common in patients with inflammatory
      bowel disease (IBD). To identify which components could underlie these changes,
      we performed an in-depth analysis of epithelial barrier genes in IBD. METHODS: A
      set of 128 intestinal barrier genes was selected. Polygenic risk scores were
      generated based on selected barrier gene variants that were associated with
      Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) in our study. Gene expression was
      analyzed using microarray and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain
      reaction. Influence of barrier gene variants on expression was studied by cis
      expression quantitative trait loci mapping and comparing patients with low- and
      high-risk scores. RESULTS: Barrier risk scores were significantly higher in
      patients with IBD than controls. At single-gene level, the associated barrier
      single-nucleotide polymorphisms were most significantly enriched in PTGER4 for CD
      and HNF4A for UC. As a group, the regulating proteins were most enriched for CD
      and UC. Expression analysis showed that many epithelial barrier genes were
      significantly dysregulated in active CD and UC, with overrepresentation of mucus
      layer genes. In uninflamed CD ileum and IBD colon, most barrier gene levels
      restored to normal, except for MUC1 and MUC4 that remained persistently increased
      compared with controls. Expression levels did not depend on cis-regulatory
      variants nor combined genetic risk. CONCLUSIONS: We found genetic and
      transcriptomic dysregulations of key epithelial barrier genes and components in
      IBD. Of these, we believe that mucus genes, in particular MUC1 and MUC4, play an
      essential role in the pathogenesis of IBD and could represent interesting targets
      for treatment.

PMID- 28885229
TI  - Impact of Diagnostic Delay and Associated Factors on Clinical Outcomes in a U.S.
      Inflammatory Bowel Disease Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The impact of diagnostic delay in inflammatory bowel disease,
      including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), on disease course
      remains uncertain. This study examines factors that may influence time to
      diagnosis and disease outcomes in a U.S. patient cohort. METHODS: We
      retrospectively collected data on patient characteristics, time to diagnosis,
      disease phenotype, and complications in 177 patients with inflammatory bowel
      disease (110 CD and 67 UC) diagnosed at our institution from 2008 to 2015.
      Factors potentially affecting time to diagnosis were analyzed. Association
      between disease complications (perianal disease, intestinal strictures, surgery,
      fistula, abscess, and perforation) and time to diagnosis was tested by
      multivariable analysis. RESULTS: The median time to diagnosis was longer for
      patients with CD compared with patients with UC (median 9.5 versus 3.1 months; P
      < 0.001). The median time from symptom onset to initial physician visit was
      similar for patients with CD and patients with UC (1 month). However, the median
      time from symptom onset to specialist evaluation was longer for patients with CD
      compared with patients with UC: 7 months (interquartile range: 3-23) versus 3
      months (interquartile range: 1-8), respectively (P < 0.001). In CD, ileal disease
      and hematochezia were positively and negatively correlated, respectively, with
      longer time to diagnosis (P < 0.05). Compared with patients with time to
      diagnosis <=4 months, patients with time >26 months had increased overall
      complications (odds ratio, 8.22; P = 0.007) and intestinal strictures (odds
      ratio, 8.96; P = 0.012) at time of diagnosis. Such correlation persisted at
      follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Time to diagnosis was long in CD. Physician-related delay
      in diagnosing CD was associated with increased overall complications and
      intestinal strictures (See Video Abstract, Supplemental Digital Content 1,
      http://links.lww.com/IBD/B646).

PMID- 28885230
TI  - Novel Artificial Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Methods for Genotyping
      Immunity-related GTPase M Promoter Polymorphisms.

PMID- 28885231
TI  - Effectiveness of Shortwave Diathermy for Subacromial Impingement Syndrome and
      Value of Night Pain for Patient Selection: A Double-Blinded, Randomized, Placebo
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of short
      wave diathermy (SWD) in patients with subacromial impingement syndrome. DESIGN:
      In this double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 57 patients (aged
      35-65 yrs) were classified into night pain positive (NP[+]) (n = 28) and night
      pain negative (NP[-]) (n = 29) groups. Both groups were randomly assigned to SWD
      (NP[+], n = 14; NP[-], n = 14) and sham (NP[+], n = 15; NP[-], n = 14) subgroups.
      Visual analog scale, Constant-Murley Scale (CS), and Shoulder Disability
      Questionnaire (SDQ) scores were used for evaluation. RESULTS: There was only a
      significant difference in pain with activity at 1-mo (mean difference [MD], 
      1.65; 95% confidence interval, -3.01 to -0.28]) and 2-mo evaluations (MD, -2.1;
      95% confidence interval, -3.51 to -0.69) between SWD versus sham groups. In the
      NP(+) SWD group, the CS pain score was significantly higher than in the NP(+)
      sham group at all evaluations after treatment. At 1 mo, the NP(-) SWD group
      showed significantly better pain, strength, total CS, and SDQ scores than the NP(
      ) sham group. At 2 mos, the pain, range of motion, strength, and total CS and SDQ
      scores were better in the NP(-) SWD group than in the NP(-) sham group (P <
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Short wave diathermy is more effective in subacromial
      impingement syndrome without NP.

PMID- 28885232
TI  - Comparison of Proliferation Markers Ki67 and Phosphohistone-H3 (pHH3) in Breast
      Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.
AB  - Proliferative index is a prognostic feature of invasive ductal carcinoma of the
      breast, and has more recently emerged as a predictor of ductal carcinoma in situ
      (DCIS) local recurrence and progression when used in combination with other
      predictive markers. Ki67 is the most commonly used immunohistochemical marker of
      proliferative index. However, high interobserver and interlaboratory variability
      has been reported, in part due to differences in staining methodologies,
      positivity thresholds, and approaches to quantification. Phosphohistone-H3 (pHH3)
      is a marker of mitotic activity that has emerged as a more reliable indicator of
      proliferation in other neoplasms. Quantification of proliferative index was
      compared in 48 cases of DCIS using Ki67 and pHH3 immunohistochemistry. A strong
      linear relationship between Ki67 and pHH3 quantification was observed (P<0.0001,
      R=0.75). Interobserver concordance was modestly higher for pHH3 than Ki67
      proliferative indices. However, positive pHH3 staining was more dichotomous
      (either negative or uniformly positive) and specific for mitotic activity, and
      interpretation of pHH3 proliferative indices was significantly faster than that
      of Ki67. The strong correlation between pHH3 and Ki67 supports the use of this
      marker as a measure of proliferative activity in DCIS.

PMID- 28885233
TI  - Diagnostic Value of PCT and CRP for Detecting Serious Bacterial Infections in
      Patients With Fever of Unknown Origin: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is vital to recognize the cause of an infection to enable earlier
      treatment. Studies have shown that procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein
      (CRP) have very high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing serious bacterial
      infections (SBIs), with PCT performing better than CRP. METHODS: Multiple
      databases were searched for relevant studies, and full-text articles involving
      diagnosis with PCT and CRP were reviewed. All meta-analyses were conducted with
      Review Manager 5.0. Sensitivity and bias analyses were performed to evaluate the
      quality of articles. In addition, a funnel plot and Egger test were used to
      assess possible publication bias. RESULT: A total of 17 articles met the criteria
      for inclusion. The concentrations of both PCT and CRP were higher in the SBI
      group than in the nonbacterial infection group. Sensitivity for differentiating
      bacterial infections from nonbacterial infections was higher for PCT compared
      with CRP, whereas there was no significant difference in specificity. The area
      under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve for PCT was larger than
      that for CRP. CONCLUSION: Both PCT and CRP are useful markers and should be used
      to evaluate SBIs with fever of unknown origin.

PMID- 28885235
TI  - Corticosteroids Therapy for Paraneoplastic Nephrotic Syndrome.

PMID- 28885234
TI  - Assessing the Relationship Between the Electrically Evoked Compound Action
      Potential and Speech Recognition Abilities in Bilateral Cochlear Implant
      Recipients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of the present study was to examine the
      relationship between suprathreshold electrically evoked compound action potential
      (ECAP) measures and speech recognition abilities in bilateral cochlear implant
      listeners. We tested the hypothesis that the magnitude of ear differences in ECAP
      measures within a subject (right-left) could predict the difference in speech
      recognition performance abilities between that subject's ears (right-left).
      DESIGN: To better control for across-subject variables that contribute to speech
      understanding, the present study used a within-subject design. Subjects were 10
      bilaterally implanted adult cochlear implant recipients. We measured ECAP
      amplitudes and slopes of the amplitude growth function in both ears for each
      subject. We examined how each of these measures changed when increasing the
      interphase gap of the biphasic pulses. Previous animal studies have shown
      correlations between these ECAP measures and auditory nerve survival. Speech
      recognition measures included speech reception thresholds for sentences in
      background noise, as well as phoneme discrimination in quiet and in noise.
      RESULTS: Results showed that the between-ear difference (right-left) of one
      specific ECAP measure (increase in amplitude growth function slope as the
      interphase gap increased from 7 to 30 us) was significantly related to the
      between-ear difference (right-left) in speech recognition. Frequency-specific
      response patterns for ECAP data and consonant transmission cues support the
      hypothesis that this particular ECAP measure may represent localized functional
      acuity. CONCLUSIONS: The results add to a growing body of literature suggesting
      that when using a well-controlled research design, there is evidence that
      underlying neural function is related to postoperative performance with a
      cochlear implant.

PMID- 28885236
TI  - Effectiveness of the conductive educational approach added to conventional
      physiotherapy in the improvement of gait parameters of poststroke patients:
      randomized-controlled pilot study.
AB  - Our objective was to assess the benefits of the conductive education (CE)
      approach added to conventional physiotherapy in gait functions of poststroke,
      hemiparetic patients. A randomized-controlled trial was designed in a
      rehabilitation clinic. Late and chronic poststroke patients with gait
      disturbances (n=17, median age: 55 years, range: 41-72 years) were enrolled in
      the study. All patients received conventional physiotherapy. However, patients of
      only one group took part in therapy on the basis of the CE approach. The gait
      parameters, semiobjective outcome measures, functional independence measure, and
      International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health domains were
      collected. The effectiveness of the CE approach was underlined by those outcome
      measures that were only significant (P<=0.05) in the conductive group: functional
      independence measure motor subscale; maintaining body position and walking long
      distances; and muscle strength in some muscle groups. The results suggest that CE
      could have an additive effect on gait improvement of stroke patients.

PMID- 28885237
TI  - Exploring the Perceived Value of a Personalized Informatics Tool to Anticipate
      and Mitigate Patient Risk.
AB  - Health care systems are implementing a myriad of strategies to improve patient
      outcomes and reduce both adverse events and unplanned readmissions. These
      approaches include interventions related to people, processes, and technology.
      This article describes the development of a technology-based model in the form of
      an actionable risk profile, which was used by one inpatient surgical unit
      (people) during a daily care team briefing (process). The risk profile was
      evaluated for its perceived value to the care team as a method of organizing care
      and anticipating patients' needs. Preliminary findings of the proof of concept
      are presented along with recommendations for practice and research.

PMID- 28885238
TI  - Improving the Implementation of Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines at an Academic
      Primary Care Practice.
AB  - Expert groups recommend annual chest computed tomography for lung cancer
      screening (LCS) in high-risk patients. Lung cancer screening in primary care is a
      complex process that includes identification of the at-risk population,
      comorbidity assessment, and shared decision making. We identified three key
      processes required for high-quality screening implementation in our academic
      primary care practice: (1) systematic collection of lifetime cumulative smoking
      history to identify potentially eligible patients; (2) visit-based clinical
      reminders and order sets embedded in the electronic health record (EHR); and (3)
      tools to facilitate shared decision making and appropriate test ordering. We
      applied quality improvement techniques to address gaps in these processes. Over
      12 months, we developed and implemented a nurse protocol for collecting complete
      smoking history and entering that data into discrete EHR fields. We obtained
      histories on over 50% of the clinic's more than 2,300 known current and former
      smokers, aged 55-80 years. We then built and pilot tested an automated visit
      based reminder (VBR) system, driven by the discrete smoking history data. The VBR
      included an order set and template for documentation of shared decision making.
      Physicians interacted with the VBR in approximately 30% of opportunities for use.
      Further work is needed to better understand how to systematically provide
      appropriate LCS in primary care environments.

PMID- 28885239
TI  - Opioid Use in Children and Adolescents After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair.
AB  - Opioid overdose is a leading cause of death from unintentional injury in the
      United States. When more opioids are prescribed than needed, leftover opioids may
      be misused if not properly disposed. The purpose of this study is to describe the
      opioid use of subjects (aged 13-21 years) after an anterior cruciate ligament
      (ACL) repair. After obtaining IRB approval, we obtained consent from 100 subjects
      (over an 8-month period) undergoing ACL reconstructions performed by five sports
      medicine surgeons. The mean age of enrolled subjects was 16 years, most were
      female (60%) and white (72%). While in the hospital, many subjects received the
      following: a regional anesthetic technique through a single shot femoral nerve
      block (50%); ketorolac (89%); and acetaminophen (84%). One week after surgery, we
      interviewed subjects to determine the amount of opioid used (36%) as compared to
      the amount prescribed.

PMID- 28885240
TI  - Advancing Value-Based Population Health Management Through Payer-Provider
      Partnerships: Improving Outcomes for Children With Complex Conditions.
AB  - Population health management (PHM) approaches to improve cost and quality remain
      limited. To address this gap, stakeholders within an integrated delivery and
      financing system in Western Pennsylvania designed, implemented, and tested a
      value-based care model for children with medically complex conditions that could
      be scaled across the broader pediatric population. The model included: (1) a
      multilevel, interdisciplinary infrastructure; (2) actionable analytics reports to
      guide continuous quality improvement; (3) alternative provider payments; (4)
      consumer-directed spending accounts; and (5) shared savings with practices. Four
      practices caring for 215 children (<age 21) with medically complex conditions
      participated in the demonstration. Quality and cost outcomes were compared
      between the intervention group and a comparison group using propensity scores.
      The program generated cost savings over a 2-year performance period, although the
      difference between the intervention and comparison groups was not significant,
      likely because of the small N. Quality of care was maintained or improved for the
      intervention group from baseline to the end of the performance period. This model
      is an example of how real-world laboratories that leverage strong payer-provider
      partnerships can be a useful platform for testing value-based PHM models with the
      potential to reduce healthcare costs while maintaining or improving care quality.

PMID- 28885242
TI  - The Use of Femtosecond Laser in Refractive and Cataract Surgery.

PMID- 28885241
TI  - Technology Solutions to Support Care Continuity in Home Care: A Focus Group
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elevated hospital readmission rates from home care are an indicator
      of poor care quality, and rates are particularly high for patients with heart
      failure. Readmissions may be avoided by optimizing continuity of care. PURPOSE:
      To explore perceptions among home care clinicians of the barriers they face and
      the information they need to improve care continuity for patients with heart
      failure. METHODS: Focus groups were conducted with teams of home care clinicians
      at a large certified home healthcare agency in the Northeastern United states.
      RESULTS: In total, there were 61 participants across 6 focus groups. Three
      overarching themes emerged: continuity of care and communication on care
      transitions, maintaining continuity of care during a home care episode (with
      subthemes tracking signs and symptoms and patient teaching), and health
      information technology (HIT) characteristics to support communication and care
      continuity. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights areas of improvement for HIT
      solutions that could support care delivery for patients with heart failure in a
      home care setting. IMPLICATIONS: Home care agencies planning to introduce
      technology can use these findings to assess if and how potential systems can
      support nurses to provide continuity of care across healthcare organizations and
      home care visits.

PMID- 28885243
TI  - Learning From the Past and Looking Toward the Future in Cataract Surgery: How to
      Evaluate Innovations and Incorporate Into Clinical Practice.

PMID- 28885244
TI  - Advances in Imaging of Ocular Surface Tumors.

PMID- 28885245
TI  - Novel Treatments for Corneal Angiogenesis.

PMID- 28885246
TI  - Surgical Innovations in Glaucoma: The Transition From Trabeculectomy to MIGS.

PMID- 28885247
TI  - Novel Glaucoma Drug Delivery Devices.

PMID- 28885248
TI  - Adjunctive Imaging for Canal-based Glaucoma Surgery.

PMID- 28885250
TI  - Innovations in Orbital Surgical Navigation, Orbital Implants, and Orbital
      Surgical Training.

PMID- 28885249
TI  - Innovations in Treatment of Lagophthalmos and Exposure Keratopathy.

PMID- 28885251
TI  - Advances in Amblyopia Treatment: Paradigm Shifts and Future Directions.

PMID- 28885253
TI  - Emerging Applications for Polymers in Ophthalmology.

PMID- 28885252
TI  - Microparticle Drug Delivery in Ophthalmology.

PMID- 28885254
TI  - CRISPR-based Gene Editing: A Guide for the Clinician.

PMID- 28885255
TI  - Current and Emerging Treatment for Diabetic Macular Edema.

PMID- 28885256
TI  - Accessing the Suprachoroidal Space for Therapeutic Delivery.

PMID- 28885257
TI  - Sustained Release Corticosteroid Therapy for Noninfectious Uveitis.

PMID- 28885258
TI  - Differences in Retinal Surgery Innovation Between the United States and European
      Union: Why We Do Things Differently.

PMID- 28885259
TI  - Clinical Results of the Hoffer H-5 Formula in 2707 Eyes: First 5th-generation
      Formula Based on Gender and Race.

PMID- 28885262
TI  - If it is Not a Glioblastoma, Then What is it? A Differential Diagnostic Review.
AB  - As its historical name glioblastoma multiforme implies, glioblastoma is a
      histologically diverse, World Health Organization grade IV astrocytic neoplasm.
      In spite of its simple definition of presence of vascular proliferation and/or
      necrosis in a diffuse astrocytoma, the wide variety of cytohistomorphologic
      appearances overlap with many other neoplastic or non-neoplastic lesions. Here,
      after a brief review of glioblastoma is provided, the differential diagnostic
      possibilities with an emphasis on mimics and pitfalls are discussed. To provide
      an approach applicable to diagnostic practice, these discussions are grouped
      arbitrarily according to general malignant appearance such as pleomorphic
      xanthoastrocytoma and ganglioglioma, especially their anaplastic versions, and
      cellular features such as small cell and epithelioid glioblastoma. Some non
      neoplastic lesions that can potentially be mistaken for glioblastoma under
      certain circumstances are also briefly mentioned. Additional studies, including
      immunohistochemistry and molecular markers, are included where applicable.
      Otherwise, exhaustive review of these individual entities, including their
      epidemiology and molecular biology, is outside the scope of this discussion.

PMID- 28885263
TI  - The use of methylphenidate to relieve fatigue.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review recent evidence on the efficacy and safety of
      methylphenidate as a symptomatic treatment of patients with cancer-related
      fatigue (CRF). RECENT FINDINGS: Five clinical trials published since 2011 were
      identified. Two of these concluded that methylphenidate is more efficacious than
      placebo in providing relief from CRF, but the remaining three showed no
      difference in favour of methylphenidate. The studies were heterogeneous as per
      the dosage, scales used for evaluating fatigue and the target group studied. None
      of the studies detected serious reactions, and only mild and infrequent side
      effects of methylphenidate were reported. Three new metanalyses show the slightly
      superior effect of methylphenidate compared to placebo in CRF. SUMMARY: Overall,
      literature supports the existence of moderate benefit of methylphenidate in CRF,
      backed up by weak evidence. Future studies should aim at better identifying the
      profile of patients who would benefit most from this pharmacological
      intervention.

PMID- 28885261
TI  - Epigenetic Alterations in Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors.
AB  - Human malignancies are driven by heritable alterations that lead to unchecked
      cellular proliferation, invasive growth and distant spread. Heritable changes can
      arise from changes in DNA sequence, or, alternatively, through altered gene
      expression rooted in epigenetic mechanisms. In recent years, high-throughput
      sequencing of tumor genomes has revealed a central role for mutations in
      epigenetic regulatory complexes in oncogenic processes. Through interactions with
      or direct modifications of chromatin, these proteins help control the
      accessibility of genes, and thus the transcriptional profile of a cell.
      Dysfunction in these proteins can lead to activation of oncogenic pathways or
      silencing of tumor suppressors. Although epigenetic regulators are altered across
      a broad spectrum of human malignancies, they play a particularly central role in
      tumors of mesenchymal and neuroectodermal origin. This review will focus on
      recent advances in the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of a subset of
      tumors in which alterations in the polycomb family of chromatin modifying
      complexes, the SWI/SNF family of nucleosome remodelers, and histones play a
      central role in disease pathogenesis. Although this review will focus
      predominantly on the molecular mechanisms underlying these tumors, each section
      will also highlight areas in which an understanding of the molecular pathogenesis
      of these diseases has led to the adoption of novel immunohistochemical and
      molecular markers.

PMID- 28885264
TI  - Incorporation of a Mobile Application in an Online Advanced Pharmacology Course.

PMID- 28885265
TI  - Cardioprotective Exercise and Pharmacologic Interventions as Complementary
      Antidotes to Cardiovascular Disease.
AB  - Exercise and pharmacologic therapies to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease
      have advanced largely through independent efforts. Understanding of first-line
      drug therapies, findings from preclinical animal studies, and the need for
      research initiatives related to complementary cardioprotective exercise-pharma
      interventions are reviewed from the premise that contemporary cardioprotective
      therapies must include adjunctive exercise and lifestyle interventions in
      addition to pharmacologic agents.

PMID- 28885266
TI  - Sedentary Behaviors and Adiposity in Young People: Causality and Conceptual
      Model.
AB  - Research on sedentary behavior and adiposity in youth dates back to the 1980s.
      Sedentary behaviors, usually screen time, can be associated with adiposity.
      Although the association usually is small but significant, the field is complex,
      and results are dependent on what sedentary behaviors are assessed and may be
      mediated and moderated by other behaviors.

PMID- 28885268
TI  - N1-guanyl-1,7-diaminoheptane enhances the chemosensitivity of acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia cells to vincristine through inhibition of eif5a-2 activation.
AB  - N1-guanyl-1,7-diaminoheptane (GC7), a deoxyhypusine synthase inhibitor, has been
      shown to exert antiproliferation effects in many solid tumors by regulating
      eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5a2 (eif5a-2). However, little is known
      about the role of GC7 and eif5a-2 in drug resistance in acute lymphoblastic
      leukemia (ALL). In the present study, we investigated the effect of GC7 on drug
      resistant ALL and its potential mechanism. We found that using the CCK-8 assay
      that combined treatment with GC7 and vincristine (VCR) significantly inhibited
      the cell viability of two ALL cell lines. Using EdU incorporation assays and flow
      cytometry, we also showed that GC7 could markedly enhance the VCR sensitivity of
      ALL cells by suppressing cell proliferation and promoting apoptosis. Furthermore,
      we showed that GC7 could downregulate eif5a-2 and myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1)
      expression. Knockdown of eif5a-2 inhibited the expression of Mcl-1 and
      significantly enhanced the VCR sensitivity. Moreover, eif5a-2 knockdown decreased
      the regulatory role of GC7 in increasing VCR sensitivity. Thus, our findings
      indicate that combined treatment with GC7 could enhance VCR sensitivity of ALL
      cells by regulating the eif5a-2/Mcl-1 axis. Together, our results highlight the
      potential clinical application of GC7 in VCR-based chemotherapy for the treatment
      of ALL.

PMID- 28885267
TI  - Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL mediate resistance to receptor tyrosine kinase-targeted therapy
      in lung and gastric cancer.
AB  - Promising clinical efficacy has been observed with receptor tyrosine kinase
      inhibitors (TKIs) particularly in lung and gastric cancers with mutations or
      amplifications in the targeted receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). However, the
      efficacy and the duration of the response to these inhibitors are limited by the
      emergence of drug resistance. Here, we report treatment of RTK-dependent lung and
      gastric cancer cell lines with TKIs increased protein levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL.
      The combination of the Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL inhibitor ABT-263 and TKIs was superior
      to TKIs alone in reducing cell viability and capacity of resistant colony
      formation. Furthermore, resistant cells established with exposure of RTK
      dependent cells to increasing concentrations of TKIs also express higher levels
      of Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL compared with their parental cells. The combination of
      inhibitors of PI3K/AKT, MEK/ERK, and Bcl-2/Bcl-xL effectively reduced the
      viability of resistant cells and inhibited tumor size in a xenograft model
      derived from resistant cells by inducing apoptosis. Our results define a
      generalizable resistance mechanism to TKIs and rationalize inhibition of Bcl-2
      and Bcl-xL as a strategy to augment responses and blunt acquired resistance to
      TKIs in lung and gastric cancer.

PMID- 28885269
TI  - Increasing HIV Treatment Optimism but No Changes in HIV Risk Behavior Among Men
      Who Have Sex With Men in Vancouver, Canada.

PMID- 28885272
TI  - Letter From the Editor-October 2017.

PMID- 28885270
TI  - Association Between Internalized HIV-Related Stigma and HIV Care Visit Adherence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Internalized HIV-related stigma acts as a barrier to antiretroviral
      therapy (ART) adherence, but its effects on other HIV care continuum outcomes are
      unclear. METHODS: Among 196 HIV clinic patients in Birmingham, AL, we assessed
      internalized HIV-related stigma and depressive symptom severity using validated
      multi-item scales and assessed ART adherence using a validated single-item
      measure. HIV visit adherence (attended out of total scheduled visits) was
      calculated using data from clinic records. Using covariate-adjusted regression
      analysis, we investigated the association between internalized stigma and visit
      adherence. Using path analytic methods with bootstrapping, we tested the
      mediating role of depressive symptoms in the association between internalized
      stigma and visit adherence and the mediating role of visit adherence in the
      association between internalized stigma and ART adherence. RESULTS: Higher
      internalized stigma was associated with lower visit adherence (B = -0.04, P =
      0.04). Black (versus white) race and depressive symptoms were other significant
      predictors within this model. Mediation analysis yielded no indirect effect
      through depression in the association between internalized stigma and visit
      adherence (B = -0.18, SE = 0.11, 95% confidence interval: -0.44 to -0.02) in the
      whole sample. Supplemental mediated moderation analyses revealed gender-specific
      effects. Additionally, the effect of internalized stigma on suboptimal ART
      adherence was mediated by lower visit adherence (B = -0.18, SE = 0.11, 95%
      confidence interval: -0.44 to -0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Results highlight the
      importance of internalized HIV stigma to multiple and sequential HIV care
      continuum outcomes. Also, findings suggest multiple intervention targets,
      including addressing internalized stigma directly, reducing depressive symptoms,
      and promoting consistent engagement in care.

PMID- 28885271
TI  - Isoniazid Preventive Therapy Completion in the Era of Differentiated HIV Care.

PMID- 28885273
TI  - A Comparative Study of Video Endoscopic Inguinal Lymphadenectomy and Conventional
      Open Inguinal Lymphadenectomy for Treating Vulvar Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare the complications, oncological outcomes,
      cosmetic satisfaction, and quality of life experienced by women with vulvar
      cancer undergoing video endoscopic inguinal lymphadenectomy (VEIL) versus
      conventional open inguinal lymphadenectomy (COIL). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty
      eight consecutive patients with vulvar cancer who underwent COIL (n = 27) or VEIL
      (n = 21) at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai,
      China between 2003 and 2016 were included in this retrospective cohort study. The
      perioperative data, postoperative complications, oncological outcomes, cosmetic
      satisfaction, and quality of life of the COIL and VEIL groups were compared.
      RESULTS: Twenty patients (74.1%) in the COIL group and 19 patients (90.5%) in the
      VEIL group returned for follow-up after the operation. The median follow-up time
      was 73 months (8-162 months) for the COIL group and 28 months (8-58 months) for
      the VEIL group. The inguinal lymph node yield in the VEIL group was comparable
      with that in the COIL group (15 +/- 5 vs 18 +/- 6, P = 0.058). The VEIL and COIL
      groups had a similar 2-year recurrence rate (10.5% vs 10%, P = 0.957) and 2-year
      disease-specific survival rate (95.5% vs 93.3%, P = 0.724). The wound
      complication rate was significantly lower in the VEIL group than the COIL group
      (4.8% vs 55.6%, P = 0.000). The VEIL group had higher body image scores (16.27 +/
      1.20 vs 13.16 +/- 0.87, P < 0.0001) and cosmetic scores (20.13 +/- 0.98 vs 16.92
      +/- 0.72, P < 0.0001) than the COIL group. The patients in the VEIL group had
      higher life quality scores on the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Vulvar
      questionnaire than those in the COIL group (165.9 +/- 6.3 vs 160.5 +/- 6.0, P =
      0.026). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with COIL, VEIL can effectively reduce
      postoperative wound complications and improve patients' cosmetic satisfaction and
      life quality without compromising therapeutic efficacy. Hence, we believe that
      VEIL is a good alternative to COIL for vulvar cancer patients when surgical
      expertise is available.

PMID- 28885275
TI  - The ethics of creating genetically modified children using genome editing.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the recent ethical, legal, and social issues
      surrounding human reproduction involving germline genome editing. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Genome editing techniques, such as CRISPR/Cas9, have facilitated
      genetic modification in human embryos. The most likely purpose of germline genome
      editing is the prevention of serious genetic disease in offspring. However,
      complex issues still remain, including irremediable risks to fetuses and future
      generations, the role of women, the availability of alternatives, long-term
      follow-up, health insurance coverage, misuse for human enhancement, and the
      potential effects on adoption. Further discussions, a broad consensus, and
      appropriate regulations are required before human germline genome editing is
      introduced into the global society. SUMMARY: Before germline genome editing is
      used for disease prevention, a broad consensus must be formed by carefully
      discussing its ethical, legal, and social issues.

PMID- 28885274
TI  - Fertility Preserved Hysteroscopic Approach for the Treatment of Stage Ia
      Endometrioid Carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the feasibility of a hysteroscopic
      procedure combined with progestin therapy in young patients with stage Ia
      endometrioid carcinoma (EC) to avoid sterilization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eleven
      young women with stage Ia EC (International Federation of Gynecology and
      Obstetrics grade 1) who were treated with a hysteroscopic approach combined with
      progestin from July 2004 to June 2016 were retrospectively analyzed and followed
      up to monitor their general recovery and pregnancy outcome. RESULTS: The
      patients' median age was 27.3 years (range, 25-39 years). Comorbidities consisted
      of primary infertility in 8 patients, polycystic ovary syndrome in 4, uterine
      fibroids in 2, and diabetes in 1. The results of immunohistochemical analysis
      were positive for all estrogen and progestin receptors. After treatment, 9
      patients attained complete remission, and 2 patients achieved partial remission.
      The results of peritoneal cytology in 4 patients were negative. As of this
      writing, 6 of the 11 patients have given birth to 7 infants, and 1 patient had an
      ectopic pregnancy. Two patients ultimately underwent radical resection. The
      average follow-up time was 82.3 months (range, 15 to 152 months), and all
      patients remain disease-free. CONCLUSIONS: Hysteroscopic surgery combined with
      progestin treatment for stage Ia EC in young patients to avoid sterilization was
      practical and may represent a new option for patients with stage Ia EC who wish
      to preserve their fertility.

PMID- 28885276
TI  - Performance of simple noninvasive scoring systems for the prediction of advanced
      fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aim of the study was to analyze the diagnostic
      performance and clinical utility of simple noninvasive tests for the detection of
      advanced fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection seen at a
      tertiary referral center in Germany. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively
      analyzed 239 adult CHB patients with available liver biopsies. Patient
      demographics, hepatitis B markers, antiviral treatment, laboratory parameters,
      results from liver imaging, and histology were recorded. The sensitivity,
      specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were determined along
      with the area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) using
      published formulas and cut-off values for fibrosis index based on the four
      factors, aspartate aminotransferase-alanine aminotransferase ratio index (AAR),
      aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), and age-platelet
      index. RESULTS: The median documented duration of CHB infection was 31 months
      (range: 6-340 months); 86% of the patients were Caucasian and 71% were men. The
      AUROCs for the detection of advanced fibrosis were 0.75 [95% confidence interval
      (CI): 0.67-0.82], 0.72 (95% CI: 0.64-0.80), 0.48 (95% CI: 0.39-0.56), and 0.73
      (95% CI: 0.66-0.81) for fibrosis index the four factors, APRI, AAR, and age
      platelet index, respectively. Patients with advanced fibrosis on biopsy were
      misclassified as having mild fibrosis in 35% (APRI) to 82% (AAR) of cases.
      CONCLUSION: Because of their moderate test performance (AUROCs: 0.48-0.75) and
      their high misclassification rate, we could not confirm a reliable clinical
      utility for the analyzed noninvasive fibrosis scoring systems for the prediction
      of advanced fibrosis in mostly Caucasian CHB patients.

PMID- 28885277
TI  - Neuroimaging in Psychiatry: A Quarter Century of Progress.

PMID- 28885278
TI  - Short- and Longer-Term Association Between Body Mass Index and Health Status in
      Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The association between body mass index (BMI) and subjective health
      status before and after cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and 1 year later was compared
      in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) who did
      (CR group) and did not receive CR (no-CR group). The aim was to investigate the
      association between BMI and subjective health status based on the Short Form-12
      questionnaire. METHODS: Between 2009 and 2011, 242 patients with pPCI with an
      acute myocardial infarction completed a CR program and were compared with 115
      patients in the no-CR group. All patients completed the Short Form-12
      questionnaire at baseline, at 12 weeks, and at 1-year followup. The CR program
      consisted of a 2 sessions per week for 1.5 hours each for 12 weeks. Patients were
      categorized into 3 groups based on BMI: normal weight, overweight, and obese.
      RESULTS: Compared with patients in the no-CR group, CR group patients in the
      overweight group significantly improved their subjective health status after CR
      and these improvements were sustained at 1-year followup. CR patients in the
      normal weight and obese groups did not significantly improve subjective health
      status. The overweight patients had the highest improvement in subjective health
      status (OR = 3.4 post-CR and 5.1 at 1 year of followup). CONCLUSIONS: After CR,
      overweight patients showed the best improvement in subjective health status. CR
      did not significantly improve subjective health status in normal-weight and obese
      patients.

PMID- 28885279
TI  - The Impact of Reduced Cardiac Rehabilitation on Maximal Treadmill Exercise Time:
      A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cardiac rehabilitation programs (CRPs) remain underutilized partly
      because of access barriers. We therefore evaluated a CRP with fewer center-based
      sessions (rCRP) compared with standard CRP (sCRP) with respect to changes in
      exercise capacity and cardiac risk factors. METHODS: In this randomized
      controlled noninferiority trial, primary and secondary prevention patients at low
      and moderate risk were randomized to an sCRP (n = 60) or an rCRP (n = 61). Over 4
      months, sCRP and rCRP participants attended 32 and 10 on-site cardiac
      rehabilitation sessions, respectively. The primary outcome was the difference in
      the change in exercise capacity from baseline at 4 and 16 months between the
      groups measured in seconds from a maximal treadmill exercise test. Noninferiority
      of the rCRP was tested with mixed-effects model analysis with a cut point of 60
      seconds for the upper value of the group estimate. RESULTS: Attendance was higher
      for the rCRP group (97% +/- 63% vs 71% +/- 22%, P = .002). Over 16 months,
      exercise test time increased for the sCRP (524 +/- 168 to 604 +/- 172 seconds, P
      < .01) and the rCRP (565 +/- 183 to 640 +/- 192 seconds, P < .01). The rCRP was
      not inferior to the sCRP regarding changes in treadmill time (48.47 seconds, P =
      .454). The rCRP was not inferior to the sCRP regarding metabolic and
      anthropometric risk factors. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that, for a
      selected group of low-/moderate-risk patients, the number of center-based CRP
      exercise sessions can be decreased while maintaining reduced cardiovascular risk
      factors.

PMID- 28885280
TI  - Reliability of the Shuttle Walk Test With Controlled Incremental Velocity in
      Patients With Difficult-to-Control Asthma.
AB  - PURPOSE: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by bronchial
      hypersensitivity to endogenous or exogenous agents and variable airflow
      limitation, which is reversible either spontaneously or with the use of
      medication. The evaluation of functional capacity in these patients is commonly
      performed using field tests to gauge activity of daily living. However, the
      reliability of the symptom-controlled shuttle walk test has not yet been
      determined for individuals with difficult-to-control asthma. The aim of the
      present study was to determine the reliability of the shuttle walk test in
      patients with severe, difficult-to-control asthma. METHODS: Forty-five patients
      were evaluated including lung function tests, the International Physical Activity
      Questionnaire (IPAQ), and the Asthma Control Questionnaire. The participants
      performed a shuttle walk test twice, with a 20-min rest period between tests.
      RESULTS: The mean distance walked for this cohort was 330.5 m (range, 50-570 m)
      on the first walk test and 336.3 m (range, 60-571 m) on the second test. There
      was no statistical difference between the mean distances walked. The Bland-Altman
      plots of the 2 tests revealed a mean difference of -12.7 m, with a 95% CI of 37.9
      to -63.2 m. Significant correlations were found between the distance walked in
      meters and the IPAQ (r = 0.36, P < .01) and distance in meters and muscle mass (r
      = 0.39, P < .009). CONCLUSION: The shuttle walk test is reliable for individuals
      with difficult-to-control asthma and can be used in the evaluation of functional
      capacity.

PMID- 28885281
TI  - Correlation Between Exercise Capacity and Quality of Life in Patients With
      Cardiac Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Patients are referred to exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (ECR) to
      increase exercise capacity and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and thereby
      reduce risk of morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to examine
      the correlation between exercise capacity and HRQOL. Furthermore, this study
      examined whether improvements in HRQOL were directly related to improvements in
      exercise capacity. METHODS: The study included 277 patients participating in ECR.
      HRQOL was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Health
      Survey (SF-36), and exercise capacity was measured as peak oxygen uptake
      ((Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak) and oxygen uptake ((Equation
      is included in full-text article.)O2) at the ventilatory threshold (VTh).
      Patients were examined before and after completion of an 8-wk ECR program.
      RESULTS: Analyses at baseline showed a significant correlation between (Equation
      is included in full-text article.)O2peak and VTh and physical functioning (PF),
      role limitations because of physical problems (RP), general health perceptions
      (GH), vitality (VT), and physical component summary (PCS) on the SF-36; PF was
      the only dimension showing a moderate correlation (>0.40 Spearman rho) with
      (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak. The follow-up analyses
      demonstrated a significant correlation between changes in (Equation is included
      in full-text article.)O2peak and changes in PF, RP, VT, and MH. Changes in
      (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2 peak explained 4% of the changes
      in the PF and VT scores. CONCLUSION: The correlations between exercise capacity
      and HRQOL were weak and varied considerably among patients. The ECR program
      improved both exercise capacity and HRQOL, but it was not necessarily the same
      patients who improved both parameters. Therefore, it is recommended to use
      separate objective measures and patient-reported outcomes when evaluating the
      effect of ECR.

PMID- 28885282
TI  - The Importance of Community in Online RN-BSN Courses.

PMID- 28885283
TI  - Report of the 2017 Omaha System International Conference: A Vision for the
      Future.

PMID- 28885284
TI  - Modeling Flow Sheet Data to Support Secondary Use.

PMID- 28885286
TI  - Predicting Perioperative Complications in Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery Using a
      Simple Sliding Scale.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective database study. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to develop and validate a sliding scale for predicting perioperative
      complications associated with adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery. SUMMARY OF
      BACKGROUND DATA: ASD surgery can have high perioperative complication rates,
      which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. METHODS: Data on
      consecutive ASD patients undergoing posterior corrective surgery over a 6-year
      interval were collected from a prospective database. The patients' preoperative
      general condition, surgical status, and perioperative complications occurring
      within 30 days of surgery were analyzed and independent predictors were
      determined using multivariable logistic regression analysis. We made the sliding
      scale using cut-off values from receiver operating curve analysis and validated
      the performance of this model. RESULTS: Three hundred four patients were included
      with a mean age of 62.9 years. One hundred eight patients (35.5%) were affected
      by at least one perioperative complication with a total of 195 perioperative
      complications, including neurological (12.8%), excessive blood loss (11.2%),
      delirium (11.2%), and infection (3.6%). Total independent predictors were age
      [odds ratio (OR): 1.042], operation time (OPT) (OR: 2.015), and estimated blood
      loss (EBL) (OR: 4.885) with cut-off values of approximately 70 years, 6 hours,
      and 2000 mL, respectively. Fusion of >=10 segments (OR: 2.262), three-column
      osteotomy (OR: 1.860), current use of antihypertensive (OR: 2.595) and
      anticoagulant (OR: 7.013), and body mass index (OR: 1.160) were risk factors for
      neurological complications, infection, and deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary
      thrombosis. Our proposed sliding scale had a sensitivity of 91%, specificity of
      58.1%, and the incidence of perioperative complication in the validation dataset
      was smaller than that without this scale (P <= 0.05). CONCLUSION: Patients' age,
      current medication, and degenerative pathology might be independent preoperative
      as well as operative predictors. An age and comorbidities based sliding scale
      with classifications of OPT and EBL may be useful for risk prediction in ASD
      surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28885287
TI  - Whether Orthotic Management and Exercise are Equally Effective to the Patients
      With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis in Mainland China?: A Randomized Controlled
      Trial Study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A prospective randomized controlled trial. OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      this study was to investigate the effectiveness of orthotic management versus
      exercise on spinal curvature, body symmetry, and quality of life. SUMMARY OF
      BACKGROUND DATA: A number of well-designed studies comparing conservative
      treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) have been conducted and the
      evidence becomes stronger. However, there is a lack of the information on the
      effectiveness of orthotic management versus exercise. METHODS: The inclusion
      criteria recommended by the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) and the
      international Society on Scoliosis Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Treatment
      (SOSORT) were used during enrollment. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to
      either bracing group or exercise group. Patients in the bracing group were
      prescribed with a rigid thoracolumbosacral orthosis and requested to wear 23
      h/day, while patients in the exercise group were treated with the protocol of the
      Scientific Exercise Approach to Scoliosis. Data regarding angle of trunk
      inclination, Cobb angle, shoulder balance, body image, and quality of life (QoL)
      were collected every 6 months. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients in the bracing group
      and 29 patients in the exercise group participated in this study. For the
      intergroup comparison, the bracing group showed better results about the
      correction of spinal curvature (Cobb angle at the first 12 months of
      intervention, P = 0.039), scores concerning QoL, especially function (P < 0.001),
      mental health (P < 0.001), and total score (P < 0.001), were higher than that of
      the exercise group. The results of body symmetry evaluation did not differ
      significantly between the two groups. For the intragroup comparison, parameters
      of spinal curvature (baseline vs. 12-month, P < 0.03 in the exercise group and P
      < 0.001 in the bracing group), QoL (baseline vs. 12-month, P < 0.001), and TAPS
      (baseline vs. 12-month, P < 0.033) significantly improved over the studied
      period. Shoulder balance (baseline vs. 12-month, P < 0.005) showed significant
      improvement only in the bracing group. CONCLUSION: Both interventions of bracing
      and exercise showed significant treatment effectiveness on the patients with AIS.
      Bracing was superior to capture corrections in parameters of spinal curvature and
      body symmetry, while the QoL, especially in aspect of the functional and
      psychological status, was significantly better in the exercise group. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 1.

PMID- 28885289
TI  - Mesenchymal Stem Cell Levels of Human Spinal Tissues.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to
      investigate, quantify, compare, and compile the various mesenchymal stem cell
      (MSC) tissue sources within human spinal tissues to act as a compendium for
      clinical and research application. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Recent years have
      seen a dramatic increase in academic and clinical understanding of human MSCs.
      Previously limited to cells isolated from bone marrow, the past decade has
      illicited the characterization and isolation of human MSCs from adipose, bone
      marrow, synovium, muscle, periosteum, peripheral blood, umbilical cord, placenta,
      and numerous other tissues. As researchers explore practical applications of
      cells in these tissues, the absolute levels of MSCs in specific spinal tissue
      will be critical to guide future research. METHODS: The PubMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE,
      and Cochrane databases were searched for articles relating to the harvest,
      characterization, isolation, and quantification of human MSCs from spinal
      tissues. Selected articles were examined for relevant data, categorized according
      to type of spinal tissue, and when possible, standardized to facilitate
      comparisons between sites. RESULTS: Human MSC levels varied widely between spinal
      tissues. Yields for intervertebral disc demonstrated roughly 5% of viable cells
      to be positive for MSC surface markers. Cartilage endplate cells yielded 18,500
      to 61,875 cells/0.8 mm thick sample of cartilage end plate. Ligamentum flavum
      yielded 250,000 to 500,000 cells/g of tissue. Annulus fibrosus fluorescence
      activated cell sorting treatment found 29% of cells positive for MSC marker Stro
      1. Nucleus pulposus yielded mean tissue samples of 40,584 to 234,137 MSCs per
      gram of tissue. CONCLUSION: Numerous tissues within and surrounding the spine
      represent a consistent and reliable source for the harvest and isolation of human
      MSCs. Among the tissues of the spine, the annulus fibrosus and ligamentum flavum
      each offer considerable levels of MSCs, and may prove comparable to that of bone
      marrow. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 5.

PMID- 28885288
TI  - Early Effects of Medicare's Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Program for
      Lumbar Fusion.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of Medicare claims linked to hospital
      participation in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation's episode-based
      Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) program for lumbar fusion. OBJECTIVE:
      To describe the early effects of BPCI participation for lumbar fusion on 90-day
      reimbursement, procedure volume, reoperation, and readmission. SUMMARY OF
      BACKGROUND DATA: Initiated on January 1, 2013, BPCI's voluntary bundle payment
      program provides a predetermined payment for services related to a Diagnosis
      Related Group-defined "triggering event" over a defined time period. As an
      alternative to fee-for-service, these reforms shift the financial risk of care on
      to hospitals. METHODS: We identified fee-for-service beneficiaries over age 65
      undergoing a lumbar fusion in 2012 or 2013, corresponding to the years before and
      after BPCI initiation. Hospitals were grouped based on program participation
      status as nonparticipants, preparatory, or risk-bearing. Generalized estimating
      equation models adjusting for patient age, sex, race, comorbidity, and hospital
      size were used to compare changes in episode costs, procedure volume, and safety
      indicators based on hospital BPCI participation. RESULTS: We included 89,605
      beneficiaries undergoing lumbar fusion, including 36% seen by a preparatory
      hospital and 7% from a risk-bearing hospital. The mean age of the cohort was 73.4
      years, with 59% women, 92% White, and 22% with a Charlson Comorbidity Index of 2
      or more. Participant hospitals had greater procedure volume, bed size, and total
      discharges. Relative to nonparticipants, risk-bearing hospitals had a slightly
      increased fusion procedure volume from 2012 to 2013 (3.4% increase vs. 1.6%
      decrease, P = 0.119), did not reduce 90-day episode of care costs (0.4% decrease
      vs. 2.9% decrease, P = 0.044), increased 90-day readmission rate (+2.7% vs. 
      10.7%, P = 0.043), and increased repeat surgery rates (+30.6% vs. +7.1% points, P
      = 0.043). CONCLUSION: These early, unintended trends suggest an imperative for
      continued monitoring of BPCI in lumbar fusion. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28885290
TI  - Spinal Gout Without Spinal Symptom in a Junior School Student: A Case Report.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Case report. OBJECTIVE: We report a case of a 16-year-old boy with
      intermittent and migratory polyarthralgia, who made a diagnostic dilemma. SUMMARY
      OF BACKGROUND DATA: Spinal involvement without spinal symptom in gout seems to be
      rare. However, the relationship of spinal gout to symptoms is poorly understood.
      METHODS: Description of the case report. RESULTS: Laboratory findings cannot
      explain his symptoms; however, a computed tomography of the pelvis revealed the
      presence of space-occupying lesion involving the left side of spine at L5-S1
      level, and the later biopsy revealed that was a urate crystal, which help us make
      the diagnosis of spinal gout. CONCLUSION: Gout can be a cunning disease which has
      various manifestations, and spinal involvement can be asymptomatic. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: 5.

PMID- 28885291
TI  - How Common Is the Ponticulus Posticus?: A Computed Tomography Based Analysis of
      2917 Patients.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A computed tomography (CT) study of the morphology of the C1
      vertebra. OBJECTIVE: Is to determine the prevalence of ponticulus posticus (PP)
      by analyzing CT scans performed on a large, diverse population in the northeast
      United States. This study also proposes a CT-based classification system both to
      aid in unifying the description of PP, and to aid in future research. SUMMARY OF
      BACKGROUND DATA: The prevalence of PP varies from 5% to 68% in published studies.
      There may be geographic variation in the prevalence of PP. Our objective was to
      establish the prevalence of PP in the general population, and to develop a
      comprehensive classification system to describe PP. METHODS: We evaluated
      cervical spine CT scans performed on patients in the emergency room of a level I
      trauma center over a 1-year period (January 1, 2014-December 31, 2014). The CT
      images were evaluated for the presence of a PP, and if present the following
      demographic data were collected: age, sex, race/ethnicity, and body mass index
      (BMI). We propose a novel classification system to standardize the description of
      PP identified on CT scan. RESULTS: Two thousand, nine hundred and seventeen
      cervical spine CT scans were reviewed in this study. The prevalence of PP was
      22.5%. Men had a higher prevalence of PP than women (53.5% male vs. 46.5% female
      P <= 0.01). When compared with the overall population, African-Americans were
      more likely to have a PP (P <= 0.01), while Caucasian patients were less likely
      (P <= 0.01). The novel classification consisted of a two letter designation for
      each patient, with the first letter denoting the right sided arch and the second
      letter the left sided arch. Each side of the arch described as an A, B, or C
      type. The A type had no presence of a PP, B type had in incomplete PP, and C type
      had a complete PP. The most common type of a PP was CC encompassing 25% of the
      patients. The presence of a PP was more common in the left sided arch than the
      right side (B and C type Left 89.2% vs. B and C type Right 84.7%, P = 0.02).
      CONCLUSION: We found a 22.5% prevalence of PP in 2917 patients undergoing a
      cervical spine CT. This is the largest study to evaluating the prevalence of PP.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28885292
TI  - Incidence and Risk Factors of Anterior Arch Fracture of the Atlas Following C1
      Laminectomy Without Fusion.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective multicenter study. OBJECTIVE: To identify the
      incidence of anterior arch fracture (AAF) of the atlas following C1 (first
      cervical vertebra) laminectomy without fusion, and its risk factors. SUMMARY OF
      BACKGROUND DATA: C1 laminectomy without fusion is a widely accepted surgical
      procedure performed to decompress the spinal cord that is compromised at the
      C1/C2 level, but without instability. Several case series have reported
      spontaneous AAF following this procedure. However, the incidence of post
      laminectomy AAF and its risk factors have not been studied. METHODS: This
      retrospective study included patients who underwent C1 laminectomy without fusion
      in any of the four participating institutions between April 2002 and March 2016.
      The incidence of AAF following C1 laminectomy was determined, and the included
      patients were grouped into those who developed AAF (AAF group) and those who did
      not (non-AAF group). Patient demographics and radiographic parameters including
      subaxial cervical balance on x-ray (C2-7 sagittal vertical axis, C2-7 lordosis,
      C2-7 coronal cobb angle, and T1-slope), and morphology of the atlas on computed
      tomography (CT) scan were compared with the AAF and non-AAF groups. RESULTS:
      Seventy patients who underwent C1 laminectomy without fusion were included in the
      study. The incidence of AAF was 14.2% (10/70). Multivariate analysis revealed
      that a large inferior facet angle (IFA, defined as the coronal inclination angle
      of the C1/2 facet as measured on CT) and the presence of subaxial ankylosis (bony
      ankylosis below C2 on CT) were independent risk factors for AAF. There were no
      significant differences in the subaxial cervical balance as measured on x-ray
      between the AAF and non-AAF groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The incidence of AAF
      after C1 laminectomy without fusion is not uncommon. Preoperative assessment
      using CT may identify patients at high risk of AAF. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28885293
TI  - Surgeon Reimbursement Relative to Hospital Payments for Spinal Fusion: Trends
      From 10-year Medicare Analysis.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, economic analysis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study
      was to analyze the trend in hospital charge and payment adjusted to corresponding
      surgeon charge and payment for cervical and lumbar fusions in a Medicare sample
      population from 2005 to 2014. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Previous studies have
      reported trends and variation in hospital charges and payments for spinal fusion,
      but none have incorporated surgeon data in analysis. Knowledge of the fiscal
      relationship between hospitals and surgeons over time will be important for
      stakeholders as we move toward bundled payments. METHODS: A 5% Medicare sample
      was used to capture hospital and surgeon charges and payments related to cervical
      and lumbar fusion for degenerative disease between 2005 and 2014. We defined
      hospital charge multiplier (CM) as the ratio of hospital/surgeon charge.
      Similarly, the hospital/surgeon payment ratio was defined as hospital payment
      multiplier (PM). The year-wise and regional trend in patient profile, length of
      stay, discharge disposition, CM, and PM were studied for all fusion approaches
      separately. RESULTS: A total of 40,965 patients, stratified as 15,854 cervical
      and 25,111 lumbar fusions, were included. The hospital had successively higher
      charges and payments relative to the surgeon from 2005 to 2014 for all fusions
      with an inverse relation to hospital length of stay. Increasing complexity of
      fusion such as for anterior-posterior cervical fusion had higher hospital
      reimbursements per dollar earned by the surgeon. There was regional variation in
      how much the hospital charged and received per surgeon dollar. CONCLUSION:
      Hospital charge and payment relative to surgeon had an increasing trend despite a
      decreasing length of stay for all fusions. Although the hospital can receive
      higher payments for higher-risk patients, this risk is not reflected
      proportionally in surgeon payments. The shift toward value-based care with shared
      responsibility for outcomes and cost will likely rely on better aligning
      incentives between hospital and providers. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28885294
TI  - Point-of-View: Risk Factors for Surgical Site Infection After Posterior Lumbar
      Spinal Surgery.

PMID- 28885295
TI  - Morphometric Analysis of Rat Spinal Cord Angioarchitecture by Phase Contrast
      Radiography: From 2D to 3D Visualization.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: An advanced imaging of vasculature with synchrotron radiation X-ray
      in a rat model. OBJECTIVE: To develop the potential for quantitative assessment
      of vessel network from two-dimensional (2D) to 3D visualization by synchrotron
      radiation X-ray phase contrast tomography (XPCT) in rat spinal cord model.
      SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Investigation of microvasculature contributes to the
      understanding of pathological development of spinal cord injury. A few of X-ray
      imaging is available to visualize vascular architecture without usage of
      angiography or invasive casting preparation. METHODS: A rat spinal cord injury
      model was produced by modified Allen method. Histomorphometric detection was
      simultaneously analyzed by both histology and XPCT from 2D to 3D visualization.
      The parameters including tissue lesion area, microvessel density, vessel
      diameter, and frequency distribution of vessel diameter were evaluated. RESULTS:
      XPCT rendered the microvessels as small as capillary scale with a pixel size of
      3.7 MUm. It presented a high linear concordance for characterizing the 2D
      vascular morphometry compared with the histological staining (r = 0.8438). In the
      presence of spinal cord injury model, 3D construction quantified the significant
      angioarchitectural deficiency in the injury epicenter of cord lesion (P<0.01).
      CONCLUSION: XPCT has a great potential to detect the smallest vascular network
      with pixel size up to micron dimension. It is inferred that the loss of abundant
      microvessels (<=40 MUm) is responsible for local ischemia and neural dysfunction.
      XPCT holds a promise for morphometric analysis from 2D to 3D imaging in
      experimental model of neurovascular disorders. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A.

PMID- 28885296
TI  - Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial
      Assessing the Effects of Applying a Force to C5 by a Mechanically Assisted
      Instrument on Referred Pain to the Shoulder.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Randomized, prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical
      trial. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of applying a force to C5 of the spine
      by a mechanically assisted instrument (MAI) in patients with referred shoulder
      pain. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Manipulating C5 of the spine is a chiropractic
      treatment for referred shoulder pain; there are no clinical trials evaluating its
      efficacy. Outcome measures were patient ranked questionnaires and independent
      examiner findings. One hundred and twenty-five patients were diagnosed with
      referred shoulder pain of cervical origin; 65 patients were in the treatment
      cohort and 60 patients in the placebo cohort. METHODS: This was a prospective,
      randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial assessing the effects of
      applying a force to C5 by a MAI to patients with referred shoulder pain. The
      treatment cohort had the MAI set at the maximum setting to transmit a force into
      the spine; the placebo cohort had the MAI turned off. Primary outcome measures
      were frequency and severity of extreme shoulder pain obtained via a patient
      reported questionnaire; secondary outcome measures were patient ranked pain and
      functional outcomes as well as examiner assessed range of motion and strength.
      Assessment procedures were completed at 24 weeks posttreatment and data were
      analyzed with intent-to-treat protocol. RESULTS: There was a reduction in the
      frequency but not severity of extreme shoulder pain in the treatment cohort,
      average ranking reducing from weekly to monthly (P < 0.05). Patients treated with
      the MAI had 10 N (P = 0.04) better internal rotation strength after 6 months
      posttreatment. No differences with any other outcome measures between the two
      cohorts at the 24-week study period. CONCLUSION: The major effect of applying a
      MAI to the level of C5 of the spine in referred shoulder pain is improved
      shoulder strength for internal rotation in this randomized double-blinded
      clinical trial. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2.

PMID- 28885297
TI  - Spinal Surgeons' Opinions on Pre- and Postoperative Rehabilitation in Patients
      Undergoing Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery: A Survey-Based Study in the Netherlands
      and Sweden.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey in the Netherlands and Sweden. OBJECTIVE:
      To investigate Dutch and Swedish spinal surgeons' opinions on spinal fusion pre-
      and postoperative rehabilitation. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Lumbar spinal
      fusion surgery is increasingly provided in patients with chronic low back pain.
      No guidelines however exist for pre- and postoperative rehabilitation and it is
      unknown what opinions spinal surgeons currently have about pre- and postoperative
      rehabilitation. METHODS: A survey was circulated to Dutch and Swedish spinal
      surgeons. Reminders were sent after 4 and 8/9 weeks. Data of completed
      questionnaires of orthopedic- and neurosurgeons currently performing lumbar
      spinal fusion were included for analysis. Analysis comprised a range of
      descriptive summaries (numerical, graphical, and tabular). RESULTS: Surveys of 34
      Dutch and 48 Swedish surgeons were analyzed. Surgeons provided preoperative
      information on postoperative mobilization. Spinal fusion techniques varied, but
      technique did not influence postoperative treatment. Swedish surgeons recommended
      slightly faster mobilization than Dutch (direct vs. 1-day postoperative), and
      more activities the first day (sitting, standing, walking). Stair climbing was
      the most reported discharge criterion; however, time point to start varied. More
      Swedish surgeons referred to postoperative physiotherapy than Dutch (88% vs.
      44%). Time-point to start home activities varied from 1 week to more than 6
      months. Pain increase was allowed for less than 24 hours (The Netherlands 81%,
      Sweden 92%). CONCLUSION: Findings reflect variability in lumbar spinal fusion
      rehabilitation in two European countries, especially in postoperative phase. The
      study proposes many new research topics and acts as starting point for future
      research valuable for the spinal community. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28885298
TI  - Increasing Body Mass Index is Associated With Worse Perioperative Outcomes and
      Higher Costs in Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review. OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations of
      obesity with outcomes and costs of adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery. SUMMARY
      OF BACKGROUND DATA: Increasing body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for
      complications after nondeformity spine surgery, but its effect on ASD surgery is
      unknown. METHODS: We reviewed records of 244 ASD patients who underwent spinal
      arthrodesis of >=5 levels from 2010 to 2014 and categorized them by World Health
      Organization BMI groups: BMI < 30, nonobese (64%); BMI = 30-34.99, class-I obese
      (21%); and BMI >= 35, class-II/III obese (15%). We used multivariate logistical
      regression to determine odds of transfusion, inpatient complications, prolonged
      intensive care unit (ICU) stay (>2 days), prolonged total length of hospital stay
      (LOS) (>1 week), and high episode-of-care costs (>$80,000). RESULTS: Preoperative
      characteristics were similar among groups, except sex, preoperative hemoglobin
      concentration, and performance/type of osteotomy (all, P = 0.01). On univariate
      analysis, the groups differed in rates of prolonged ICU stay (P < 0.001),
      prolonged total LOS (P = 0.016), and high episode-of-care costs (P = 0.013).
      Inpatient complication rates were similar among groups (P = 0.218). On
      multivariate analysis, compared with nonobese patients, class I obese patients
      had greater odds of prolonged ICU stay (odds ratio [OR] = 2.24, 95% confidence
      interval [CI]: 1.06, 4.71). Class II/III obese patients also had greater odds of
      prolonged total LOS (OR = 2.21, 95% CI: 1.03, 4.71), and high episode-of-care
      costs (OR = 2.91, 95% CI: 1.31, 6.50). CONCLUSION: In ASD surgery, BMI >=35 is
      associated with significantly worse perioperative outcomes and higher costs
      compared with those of nonobese patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

PMID- 28885299
TI  - Correlates of Stigma Severity Among Persons Seeking Opioid Detoxification.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Among people with opioid use disorder (OUD), stigma is a known
      barrier to accessing treatment and has negative impacts on physical and mental
      health. The purpose of this study was to understand the factors associated with
      self-stigma and perceived stigma severity among people with OUD entering an
      inpatient detoxification program. METHODS: Between December 2015 and August 2016,
      consecutive persons seeking inpatient opioid detoxification were asked to
      complete a survey that included sociodemographic, drug use, treatment variables,
      an 8-item General Self-Stigma scale, and a 3-item Treatment Stigma scale.
      Correlates of stigma severity were estimated using ordinary least squares
      regression. RESULTS: The 407 participants had an average age of 32.4 (+/-8.79)
      years, with 72.2% male and 84.5% non-Hispanic White. Two-thirds had ever received
      medication-assisted treatment for OUD and 323 (79.4%) had ever been admitted to a
      detoxification program. Adjusted mean General Self-Stigma scores were positively
      and significantly associated with recent injection drug use (b = 0.262, P =
      0.032), and having previously entered detoxification programs (b = 0.330, P =
      0.016). Adjusted mean Treatment Stigma scores were positively and significantly
      associated with years of education (b = 0.142, P = 0.002), having ever been
      prescribed naltrexone (b = 0.277, P = 0.025) and having previously entered
      detoxification programs (b = 0.389, P = 0.007). CONCLUSION: People with OUD
      presenting for inpatient detoxification struggle with experiences of self and
      perceived stigma. Strikingly, people with previous detoxification program
      admission had higher levels of stigma on both scales. Our findings suggest an
      opportunity for targeted intervention in this group.

PMID- 28885300
TI  - Use of Smoking Cessation Methods Among Patients Receiving Office-based
      Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Provision of smoking-cessation treatment is limited in office-based
      buprenorphine maintenance treatment (BMT) settings. This study describes smoking
      and smoking-cessation behaviors among patients receiving office-based BMT.
      METHODS: Cross-sectional study of patients receiving office-based BMT at a
      community health center in the Bronx, NY. We interviewed patients assessing
      sociodemographic, and substance use and tobacco use characteristics, including
      methods used for smoking cessation. We reported simple frequencies and explored
      associations of BMT characteristics with smoking behaviors. RESULTS: Of 68
      patients, 87.7% were current cigarette smokers, 7.9% were former smokers, and
      4.4% had never smoked. Of lifetime smokers, 83.1% reported at least 1 prior quit
      attempt, and 78.5% had used medication (75.4% used nicotine replacement therapy,
      29.2% varenicline, and 9.2% bupropion). Ten patients (15.4%) reported using
      electronic cigarettes to try to quit smoking. Stopping "cold turkey" (40.0%) and
      gradually decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked (32.3%) were
      nonpharmacological methods of quitting tried most often. Use of behavioral
      support, including stop-smoking programs and counseling, was low. Higher dose and
      longer duration of BMT was associated with greater smoking frequency.
      CONCLUSIONS: Patients receiving BMT have a high prevalence of cigarette smoking,
      though most have tried to quit, and have prior experience with pharmacotherapy
      for smoking cessation. Efforts to optimize smoking-cessation treatments among BMT
      patients are needed.

PMID- 28885301
TI  - Perceptions of Neighborhood Mediate the Relationship Between PTSD Symptoms and
      Coping in a Neighborhood-Matched Substance-Using Sample.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: People with substance use problems living in neighborhoods with high
      levels of disorder are disproportionately likely to experience trauma and develop
      PTSD symptoms. We sought to evaluate the relationships between objective
      neighborhood disorder, perceptions of neighborhood, and the use of maladaptive
      coping behaviors among both non-substance-using and substance-using participants
      with and without PTSD symptoms. METHODS: Participants (255 non-drug users [NDUs],
      168 marijuana and/or alcohol users [MAUs], and 273 opioid and/or stimulant users)
      completed the Addiction Severity Index, PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version, The COPE
      Inventory, and the Perceived Neighborhood Scale. The Neighborhood Inventory for
      Environmental Typology (NIfETy) was used to objectively assess neighborhood
      disorder at participants' home addresses. Regression modeling was used to assess
      within-group predictors of PTSD and test for mediation in the relationships
      between PTSD, perceptions of neighborhood, and coping behaviors. RESULTS: In
      NDUs, lower sense of community partially mediated the relationship between PTSD
      symptoms and using mental disengagement to cope. In MAUs, higher levels of
      perceived crime partially mediated the individual relationships between PTSD
      symptoms and using mental disengagement, focusing on and venting emotions, and
      using substances to cope. Opioid and/or stimulant users with PTSD symptoms
      reported using higher levels of mental disengagement, focusing on and venting
      emotions, and substances to cope and perceived a higher degree of crime; no
      mediation was inferred. CONCLUSION: Perceptions of community and crime may be
      more predictive of PTSD symptoms than objectively measured neighborhood disorder.
      These perceptions partially mediate the relationship between maladaptive coping
      behaviors and PTSD symptoms.

PMID- 28885302
TI  - Postinfection Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The Links Between Gastroenteritis,
      Inflammation, the Microbiome, and Functional Disease.
AB  - Postinfection irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) is a diarrheal disease that
      develops after infectious gastroenteritis (IGE). Profound alterations in the
      microbiota accompany IGE yet only 10% of IGE patients progress to PI-IBS. This
      review explores research linking IGE severity, psychological comorbidity, PI-IBS,
      and the microbiome in various patient populations. Selective pressures caused by
      inflammation and increased gastrointestinal motility during gastroenteritis can
      alter intestinal bacterial phyla including Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and
      Proteobacteria. More specifically, classes such as Bacteroides and Clostridia are
      differentially abundant in many PI-IBS patients. Altered microbiota may
      perpetuate a cycle of enteric and systemic inflammation, potently activating
      neural afferent signaling in the enteric nervous system and causing pain and
      diarrhea in PI-IBS patients. Altered production of microbial metabolites, for
      example short chain fatty acids, may have enteric and systemic effects on the
      host. Longitudinal sampling to characterize changes in the microbiota's genetic,
      metabolic, and transcriptional activities over time from IGE to PI-IBS may enable
      improved diagnosis and classification of PI-IBS cases into subtypes, allowing for
      targeted antibiotic, probiotic, and prebiotic treatments. PI-IBS is a
      heterogenous and largely organic disease marked by specific alterations in
      functions of the microbiota and is an important model for studying microbial
      influences on intestinal, neurological, and psychological host functions.

PMID- 28885303
TI  - Validation of Probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE) Criteria for
      Diagnosing Colon Polyp Histology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Validated probe-based confocal endomicroscopy (pCLE) criteria for
      distinguishing hyperplastic polyps (HPs) and tubular adenomas (TA) have not yet
      been developed. AIM: To develop pCLE criteria for distinguishing HP from TA and
      evaluate its performance characteristics among experts. METHODS: pCLE criteria
      for colon polyp histology were developed and tested in 2 phases prospectively.
      Phase I: 8 preliminary criteria were developed and tested internally. Criteria
      achieving an accuracy of >75% (epithelial surface: regular vs. irregular; goblet
      cells: increased vs. decreased; gland axis: horizontal vs. vertical; gland shape:
      slit/stellate vs. villiform; image scale: gray vs. dark) were evaluated in Phase
      II of study wherein external assessors evaluated these criteria in a separate set
      of pCLE videos. Accuracy and interobserver agreement (95% confidence intervals)
      were determined for colon histology prediction. RESULTS: Phase I (criteria
      development/internal testing): 8 criteria were assessed by 4 pCLE experts using
      28 videos (14 HP/14 TA). Five of 8 pCLE criteria met selection for phase II
      (accuracy >75%). Phase II (external validation): 36 pCLE colon polyp videos (HP
      16/TA 20) were evaluated by 8 external assessors. Overall accuracy in diagnosis
      of colon polyp histology was 84.9% (95% confidence interval, 81.7-87.7). Of
      predictions made with high confidence (75%), histology was predicted with an
      accuracy of 91%, sensitivity 83%, specificity 100%, negative predictive value 87%
      and positive predictive value 98%. Interobserver agreement was substantial
      (kappa=0.73). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate the development and validation of pCLE
      criteria for prediction of colon polyp histology. Using these criteria, overall
      accuracy in differentiating TA from HP was high with substantial interobserver
      agreement.

PMID- 28885304
TI  - Bowel Preparations Administered the Morning of Colonoscopy Provide Similar
      Efficacy to a Split Dose Regimen: A Meta Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Comparative efficacy of same-day bowel preparations for colonoscopy
      remains unclear. AIMS: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing
      the efficacy of same-day versus split dose bowel preparations for colonoscopy.
      METHODS: A systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, clinicaltrials.gov,
      Cochrane Registry, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science and CINAHL. Studies were
      gathered using keywords: "morning preparation", "morning bowel preparation",
      "same day bowel preparation", and "colonoscopy." Pooled estimates of bowel
      preparation quality were analyzed among studies with categorical and continuous
      outcomes according to relative risk (RR) or mean difference (MD). A random
      effects model was chosen a priori for all analyses. RESULTS: A total of 1216
      studies were retrieved with 15 trials meeting inclusion criteria. The categorical
      outcome of high quality bowel preparation for any same-day bowel preparation
      versus any split preparation was no different with a RR 0.95 [0.90;1.00]
      (P=0.62). Adenoma detection rate (ADR) was not different between groups, RR 0.97
      [0.79;1.20] (P=0.81). Willingness to repeat and tolerability did not differ (RR
      1.14 [0.96,1.36] (P=0.14) and RR 1.00 [0.96;1.04] (P=0.98), respectively. Adverse
      events were similar except for bloating, which was less frequent among the same
      day preparation group, RR 0.68 [0.40;0.94] (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: No clinically
      significant differences were noted among recipients of same day or split dose
      regimens. Adenoma detection rate, willingness to repeat and tolerability were
      similar, but bloating and interference with sleep favored the same-day
      preparations. Given lack of clinical differences, patient preference should
      dictate timing of colonoscopy preparation.

PMID- 28885305
TI  - Successful Esophageal Dilation of Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) Patients With a
      Previous Postdilation Complication: Start Low and Go Slow.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Esophageal dilation is an effective and safe treatment option for
      fibrostenotic eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Despite the safety, adverse events
      occur, yet there is scarce literature on the best treatment postcomplications.
      METHODS: Patients with diagnosis of EoE (>=15 eosinophils per high-power field)
      from 2011 to 2015 treated at our center were included. Thirty patients with
      fibrostenotic disease had records available regarding serial dilation therapy.
      Eight patients previously experienced complications by outside providers. Groups
      were created based on history of complication before our dilation versus a group
      without. Mean difference and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) were
      calculated. RESULTS: There were 8 complications, 7 occurred during dilation and 1
      during passage of the endoscope. Esophageal diameter at initial dilation was
      lower in patients with prior complications 9.0+/-1.51 versus 11.73+/-2.98 mm (95%
      CI: -4.44, -1.02; P=0.003). However, end-esophageal diameter was similar across
      both groups 15.8+/-1.8 versus 16.1+/-2.0 mm. Total number of dilation sessions:
      4.0+/-1.8 versus 2.32+/-1.0 (95% CI: 0.17, 3.19; P=0.03), as well as sessions to
      reach 17 mm diameter 3.8+/-1.0 versus 2.3+/-1.0 (95% CI: -0.08, 2.89; P=0.04),
      were higher in the patients with complications. The length of time in months to
      reach an esophageal diameter of 17 mm was longer in patients with complications,
      but the difference was not statistically significant 3.50+/-0.6 versus 2.3+/-2.3
      months (P=0.09). CONCLUSIONS: Esophageal dilation is a safe and effective
      modality to treat severe fibrostenotic EoE in patients with prior history of
      complications. The keys to success are: (1) start with lower diameter bougies and
      (2) dilate slowly over a longer time course to reach targeted diameter and
      symptom resolution.

PMID- 28885306
TI  - Community, population health, and health care organizations.

PMID- 28885307
TI  - The treatment of paraprotein-related kidney disease.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Myeloma kidney and amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis remain
      the principal kidney complications of paraproteins. In this review, we update
      readers to many of the recent advances which have occurred in the care and
      outcomes for patients with these presentations. RECENT FINDINGS: Myeloma kidney
      has historically caused a severe acute kidney injury with very poor outcomes. The
      combination of new diagnostic techniques, enabling a rapid diagnosis and novel
      chemotherapy agents has transformed these poor outcomes for the better. Two
      multicentre randomized controlled trials have recently evaluated if the removal
      of free light chains by high cut-off haemodialysis improves renal outcomes beyond
      effective chemotherapy alone. Although we await the full articles of these
      studies to be published, abstracts suggested the studies will have contradictory
      primary results. In the field of AL amyloidosis, there are now novel criteria for
      the risk stratification of kidney outcomes which can be used in combination with
      markers of early kidney response to provide clinicians with powerful tools to
      guide patient discussions. SUMMARY: Across both AL amyloidosis and myeloma kidney
      patient outcomes continue to improve. Principally this improvement has been
      driven by the continuing development of novel chemotherapy agents in this field.

PMID- 28885308
TI  - Military Decorative Pin Dermatitis: Prevention for Nickel Allergy Among Service
      Members.

PMID- 28885309
TI  - Effectiveness of European Regulation on Euxyl K400 Sensitization in Northeastern
      Italy From 1996 to 2012 and Occupation.

PMID- 28885310
TI  - Contact Allergy to Hydroperoxides of Linalool and D-Limonene in a US Population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Linalool and D-limonene are common fragrance ingredients that readily
      oxidize on exposure to air. The resulting hydroperoxides of linalool and D
      limonene have been shown to have high frequencies of positive patch test
      reactions in several European and international studies. OBJECTIVE: The aim of
      the study was to investigate the prevalence of contact allergy to the
      hydroperoxides of linalool and D-limonene in a US population. METHODS: In this
      retrospective study, 103 patients with suspected fragrance allergy were patch
      tested to linalool 10% petrolatum (pet), hydroperoxides of linalool 1% pet, D
      limonene 10% pet, and/or the hydroperoxides of D-limonene 0.3% pet between July
      9, 2014, and October 25, 2016. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the frequency of
      positive patch test reactions to the hydroperoxides of linalool is 20% (19/96),
      and the frequency of positive reactions to the hydroperoxides of D-limonene is 8%
      (7/90). These high frequencies suggest that patch testing to the hydroperoxides
      of linalool and limonene should be performed in all patients with suspected
      fragrance allergy.

PMID- 28885311
TI  - Allergenic Ingredients in Hand Wet Wipes.

PMID- 28885312
TI  - Angioedema, Stomatitis, and Urticaria Caused by Contact Allergy to Invisalign.

PMID- 28885313
TI  - Benzalkonium Chloride: An Irritant and Sensitizer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Benzalkonium chloride (BAK) is a known irritant, and potentially
      cross-reacting quaternary ammonium compounds are commonly used as preservatives
      in personal care products. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to review positive
      reactions to BAK in 615 patients patch tested for suspected allergic contact
      dermatitis. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed in 615 patients
      patch tested from June 2015 to October 2016. All patients were tested to a
      Modified American Contact Dermatitis Society core series of 70 allergens
      including BAK (0.1% aqueous). Initial readings were performed at 48 hours with
      final readings performed between 72 and 168 hours. Results were graded as +
      (weak: papules and erythema), ++ (strong: papules and edema or vesicles), or +++
      (extreme: coalescing vesicles, spreading or bullous reactions). RESULTS: A total
      of 141 men (23%) and 475 women (77%) were tested (mean age, 49 years). Four
      hundred thirty-two (70%) were atopic. Of 615 patients, 198 (32%) tested positive
      to BAK, and 64 (10%) had ++ or +++ reactions at their final reading. On average,
      BAK-positive patients were using at least 1 product containing BAK or possible
      cross-reactors. CONCLUSIONS: Widespread exposure to irritants in dermatitis
      patients can predispose to sensitization. Products containing BAK or potential
      cross-reactors should be used carefully in patients with compromised skin
      barriers.

PMID- 28885314
TI  - Treatment of Multiple-Resistant and/or Recurrent Cutaneous Warts With Squaric
      Acid Dibutylester: A Randomized, Double-blind, Vehicle-controlled Clinical Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contact immunotherapy with squaric acid dibutylester (SADBE) for
      cutaneous warts has been reported to be effective, although no controlled studies
      are available so far. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      efficacy of SADBE on cutaneous warts by a randomized, double-blind, vehicle
      controlled, clinical trial. METHODS: Thirty-six patients were randomly assigned
      to SADBE (18 cases) or vehicle (18 cases) group. At 8 weeks, subjects were
      clinically evaluated for number/size reduction rate and for Investigator Global
      Assessment. Those who showed improvement extended therapy up to 40 weeks, whereas
      those who showed unresponsiveness were either switched to SADBE application for
      up to 48 weeks (if in the vehicle group) or withdrawn from the study (if under
      SADBE). RESULTS: At 8 weeks, a significant reduction in wart number (P = 0.020)
      and size (P = 0.010) in the SADBE group, with clearing rates of 41.2% versus
      12.5% in the SADBE and vehicle groups, respectively, was observed. Nine remaining
      SADBE responders who underwent treatment extension up to 40 weeks achieved
      clearing versus 2 patients of the vehicle group who remained unresponsive.
      Clearing was obtained in 81.8% of patients who underwent previous ineffective
      vehicle treatment and had been switched to SADBE. CONCLUSIONS: Squaric acid
      dibutylester is an effective therapeutic option and is significantly more
      effective than vehicle.

PMID- 28885315
TI  - Tuberous Breast: Past, Present, and Future: Personal Classification, Treatment,
      and Surgical Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tuberous breast (TB) is a rare congenital deformity, which may appear
      in different clinical forms representing various degrees of a single pathological
      entity. The worst cases are characterized by severe hypoplasia. Following a
      detailed analysis of the available relevant literature and a significant number
      of treated cases, in this article, the authors propose a new classification, with
      the aim of summarizing and simplifying a more intuitive categorization of the
      malformation, considering all the clinical aspects and including all types of
      TBs, even the minor ones, thus allowing a more immediate diagnosis and surgical
      planning. METHODS: Between September 2006 and December 2015, 78 patients with TBs
      underwent surgical procedures to correct the deformity. The patients' mean age
      was 18.6 years, ranging between 17 and 26 years. There being 11 monolateral
      deformities, the treated TBs amounted to 145. A periareolar approach, adipo
      glandular flaps, and dual plane breast implant placements were performed.
      Postoperative follow-up include photos collected 12 months after operation. The
      authors present a personal classification including all the forms of the
      deformity, plus the minor forms based on the following 2 principal categories:
      hypoplastic and normoplastic TBs, taking into account all the clinical aspects of
      the malformation including the morphology and the consistency of the breast.
      CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative identification of the type of the deformity is
      essential to obtain satisfactory results and a complete and intuitive
      classification including all the possible variants of the deformity, even the
      minor forms, and fundamental in diagnosing and resolving the problem. In this
      article, the authors propose a personal classification and surgical procedure to
      resolve the malformation.

PMID- 28885316
TI  - Evaluation of Single Tooth Loss to Maxillary Sinus and Surrounding Bone Anatomy
      With Cone-Beam Computed Tomography: A Multicenter Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Posterior maxillary tooth loss may complicate the implant treatment
      due to the alterations in alveolar anatomy and maxillary sinus pneumatization.
      This study aimed to comprehensively examine the anatomical structure of this
      region from cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      The posterior maxilla regions with single tooth loss were analyzed by dividing
      the variables into 3 subgroups from images of 597 patients chosen from 1160
      CBCTs. Variables associated with sinus membrane (SM), sinus dimensions, ostium,
      septa, sinus neighborhood, alveolar bone height (ABH) and width (RW), posterior
      superior alveolar artery (PSAA), and adjacent roots were evaluated. RESULTS: The
      majority of the patients demonstrated 0 to 5 mm membrane thickness. Irregular SM
      thickening was lower for female patients. While females showed higher number of
      narrow sinus, males had higher RW than females. Sinus augmentation classification
      showed negative correlation with ABH, root-tip sinus floor and edentulous site
      classification. Posterior septa height was correlated with number of septa and
      ABH. PSAA diameter and location were also correlated between each other.
      CONCLUSION: The present results define formation of a sinus space with 11 mm
      coronal and 16 mm apical width after single tooth loss. A flat or semispherical
      thickening around 4 mm is usual in most cases with 51% possibility of anterior
      septum existence. A ridge anatomy, around 7.5 mm ABH and 7.2 to 9.3 RW from
      coronal to apical, complements this anatomy. Further studies are needed to
      clarify the reasons behind the SM and crestal anatomy variations between genders.

PMID- 28885317
TI  - Ridge Preservation After Maxillary Third Molar Extraction Using 30% Porosity
      PLGA/HA/beta-TCP Scaffolds With and Without Simvastatin: A Pilot Randomized
      Controlled Clinical Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinically and radiographically, in humans, the healing of
      maxillary third molars postextraction sockets after application of different
      ridge preservation techniques 3 months after tooth extraction. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Twenty-six sockets (13 patients) were randomly assigned to 4 treatment
      modalities: deproteinized bovine bone mineral with 10% collagen (DBBM-C),
      poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) with hydroxyapatite/beta-TCP scaffold (PLGA/HA),
      PLGA/HA/beta-TCP with 2.0% simvastatin scaffold (PLGA/HA/S), and spontaneous
      healing (control). Clinical complications were assessed, and cone-beam computed
      tomographies were taken in 5 patients 3 months after surgeries. For statistical
      purposes, the Fisher exact test was used (P < 0.05). RESULTS: After 3 months, 6
      of 9 grafts from the PLGA/HA group were lost (P < 0.05). PLGA/HA/S' loss was only
      2 of 8 (P > 0.05), but no loss was observed in the DBBM-C group. Pain was present
      in 3 of 8 sites that lost the graft (37.5%) (P > 0.05) and infection in 1 of 8
      (12.5%) (P > 0.05), with these only occurring in the PLGA/HA group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Poly (D, L-lactide-co-glycolide) with hydroxyapatite/beta-TCP (PLGA/HA/beta-TCP)
      scaffolds, with and without simvastatin, failed to obtain the initial expected
      results and presented more complications. Scaffolds with simvastatin showed to be
      superior, with less clinical complications than scaffolds without simvastatin.

PMID- 28885318
TI  - Gamma prime (gamma') fibrinogen and carotid intima-media thickness: the
      Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study.
AB  - : We assessed if gamma' fibrinogen, an isoform of fibrinogen, is independently
      associated with subclinical atherosclerosis beyond total fibrinogen in black and
      white men and women participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities
      study. Fasting gamma' fibrinogen was measured in 6847 Atherosclerosis Risk in
      Communities participants, ages 51-70 years, in 1993-1995. Carotid intima-media
      far wall thickness (CIMT) was measured by B-mode ultrasonography at the common,
      internal and bifurcation carotids. The association of gamma' fibrinogen tertiles
      with overall and segment-specific mean CIMT was assessed with linear regression,
      controlling for fibrinogen as well as cardiovascular risk factors, including high
      sensitivity C-reactive protein and D-dimer. gamma' Fibrinogen values ranged from
      8.0 to 80.3 mg/dl and were positively related to age, female sex, black race,
      smoking, BMI, lipids and SBP. Crude gamma' fibrinogen was directly associated
      with all CIMT measures except for the internal carotid, but explained less than
      1% of the variance in the associations. Adjustment for total fibrinogen
      eliminated these associations, and total fibrinogen remained an independent
      predictor of CIMT without explaining additional variance. Adjustment for
      potential confounding variables did not alter the observed associations, which
      did not differ by race or sex. In these cross-sectional data, gamma' fibrinogen
      was not independently associated with CIMT when controlling for total fibrinogen.
      gamma' Fibrinogen and total fibrinogen together explained a very small proportion
      of the variance in CIMT, regardless of the carotid site. If gamma' fibrinogen
      adds to total fibrinogen's ability to predict subclinical atherosclerosis, it may
      be in younger populations.

PMID- 28885320
TI  - An Examination of the Perceived Importance and Skills Related to Policies and
      Policy Making Among State Public Health Injury Prevention Staff.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research is to use the Public Health Workforce
      Interests and Needs Survey to assess in greater detail state injury prevention
      staff perceptions of policy development and related skills and their awareness
      and perception of "Health in All Policies" (HiAP). DESIGN: The Public Health
      Workforce Interests and Needs Survey gauged public health practitioners'
      perspectives on workplace environment, job satisfaction, national trends, and
      training needs, and gathered demographics on the workforce. This study utilizes
      data from the state health agency frame only, focusing solely on those
      permanently employed, central office staff in injury prevention. Respondents were
      sampled from 5 paired Health and Human Services regions. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS:
      Approximately 25 000 invitations were sent to central office employees. The
      response rate was 46% (n = 10 246). The analysis in this article includes only
      injury prevention employees with programmatic roles, excluding clerical and
      custodial staff, providing us with a total of 97 respondents. When weighted, this
      resulted in a weighted population size of 365 injury prevention workers. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome measures include demographics, responses to
      understanding of and skill levels related to policy development, and perceptions
      of HiAP public health trend. RESULTS: State injury prevention workers reported
      lower policy-making skill but had an overall appreciation of the importance of
      policies. In general, state injury prevention workers heard of HiAP, thought
      there should be more emphasis on it, but did not think that HiAP would have an
      impact on their day-to-day work. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND
      PRACTICE: Efforts are needed for all state injury prevention workers to become
      better skilled in policy development, implementation, and evaluation in order to
      become stronger injury prevention advocates and role models.

PMID- 28885321
TI  - Bone fracture risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are predisposed to
      osteoporotic fracture. The present study aims to determine the association
      between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and bone fracture risk, and in relation to
      gender and site-specific fractures. METHODS: Studies related to bone fracture in
      patients with RA were searched from databases including PubMed, EMBASE, and OVID
      from inception through April 2016. The quality of the studies was evaluated using
      the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Meta-analysis was performed with Stata13.1 software.
      The results were reported based on risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval
      (95% CI) using a random effects model. RESULTS: The meta-analysis of 13 studies
      showed a significant higher risk of bone fracture in patients with RA than in
      patients without RA (RR = 2.25, 95% CI [1.76-2.87]). Subgroup analyses showed
      that both female and male patients with RA had increased risk of fracture when
      compared with female and male patients without RA (female: RR = 1.99, 95% CI
      [1.58-2.50]; male: RR = 1.87, 95% CI [1.48-2.37]). Another subgroup analysis of
      site-specific fracture also showed that RA is positively correlated with the
      incidence of vertebral fracture (RR = 2.93, 95% CI [2.25-3.83]) or hip fracture
      (RR = 2.41, 95% CI [1.83-3.17]). CONCLUSION: RA is a risk factor for bone
      fracture in both men and women, with comparable risks of fractures at the
      vertebral and hip.

PMID- 28885319
TI  - Getting the Word Out: New Approaches for Disseminating Public Health Science.
AB  - The gap between discovery of public health knowledge and application in practice
      settings and policy development is due in part to ineffective dissemination. This
      article describes (1) lessons related to dissemination from related disciplines
      (eg, communication, agriculture, social marketing, political science), (2)
      current practices among researchers, (3) key audience characteristics, (4)
      available tools for dissemination, and (5) measures of impact. Dissemination
      efforts need to take into account the message, source, audience, and channel.
      Practitioners and policy makers can be more effectively reached via news media,
      social media, issue or policy briefs, one-on-one meetings, and workshops and
      seminars. Numerous "upstream" and "midstream" indicators of impact include
      changes in public perception or awareness, greater use of evidence-based
      interventions, and changes in policy. By employing ideas outlined in this
      article, scientific discoveries are more likely to be applied in public health
      agencies and policy-making bodies.

PMID- 28885322
TI  - Is serum high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB-1) level correlated with liver fibrosis
      in chronic hepatitis B?
AB  - BACKGROUND: High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), identified as an alarmin molecule,
      was shown to have a role in virus-triggered liver injury. We aimed to evaluate
      the association between serum levels of HMGB1 and liver fibrosis. METHOD: This
      cross-sectional case-control study included 189 chronic hepatitis B (CHB)
      patients and 51 healthy controls. All patients underwent liver biopsy and
      modified Knodell scoring system used to determine the fibrosis level in CHB
      patients. Serum HMGB1 levels were determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent
      assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Mean serum HMGB1 levels of patients (58.1 +/- 54.7) were
      found to be higher than those of the control group (7.1 +/- 4.3) (P = .001).
      HMGB1 levels of patients with advanced-stage fibrosis (stage 4 and 5) were
      detected to be higher than those of patients with early-stage fibrosis (stage 1
      3). However, this difference was not statistically significant (P > .05). Albumin
      levels of fibrosis 3 and 4 patients were lower than fibrosis 1 and 2 patients.
      ALT, HBV DNA, and AFP levels of fibrosis 5 patients were significantly higher
      than fibrosis 1 and 2 patients, and their platelet and albumin levels are lower
      than fibrosis 1 and 2 patients (P < .001). In a logistic regression model,
      fibrosis levels were correlated with ALT values and inversely correlated with
      albumin levels. CONCLUSION: In this study, we demonstrated that serum HMGB1
      levels increase in the early course of liver injury and this increase is not
      correlated with severity of the liver damage.

PMID- 28885323
TI  - PIK3CG single nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with poor responsiveness to
      clopidogrel and increased risk of ischemia in patients with coronary heart
      disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study explores the associations between PIK3CG single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs, rs1129293 and rs17398575) and patient responsiveness to
      clopidogrel to evaluate the risks of ischemia in patients with coronary heart
      disease (CHD). METHODS: The study consisted of 513 CHD patients who received
      clopidogrel as part of antiplatelet therapy, after percutaneous coronary
      intervention. According to the patient responsiveness to clopidogrel, the
      subjects were assigned to either clopidogrel-resistant (CR) or clopidogrel
      sensitive (CS) groups. CR group was determined by patients' platelet aggregation
      rate of >=70% and poor responsiveness to clopidogrel, and CS group by patients'
      platelet aggregation rates of <70% and good responsiveness to clopidogrel.
      Polymerase chain reaction using TaqMan probe was employed to detect PIK3CG
      polymorphism. Haplotype and linkage disequilibrium analyses were performed.
      Prognosis analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier curve. RESULTS:
      Significant difference was found in genotype and rs1129293 and rs17398575 allele
      frequency between the CR and CS groups. Haplotype analysis indicated that the
      frequency of TG allele was higher in the CR group compared with the CS group, and
      the frequency of CA allele was lower in the CR group compared with the CS group.
      Patients with rs1129293 CT + TT genotype and T allele, rs1129293 AG + GG genotype
      and G allele exhibited an increased CR risk. Logistic regression analysis
      determined hypertension history as an independent risk factor for CR. The Kaplan
      Meier curve suggests that distribution curve of cumulative probability
      nonischemic events was different between patients with rs1129293 and rs17398575
      alleles. Stable CHD patients with TT genotype of rs1129293 allele and GG genotype
      of rs17398575 allele showed poorer prognosis compared to those with other
      genotypes and patients with acute coronary syndromes. CONCLUSION: A positive
      correlation may exist between PIK3CG SNPs (rs1129293 and rs17398575) and patients
      with poor responsiveness to clopidogrel. These findings show that this factor may
      contribute to an increased risk of ischemia in patients suffering from CHD.

PMID- 28885324
TI  - The application of high-field magnetic resonance perfusion imaging in the
      diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
AB  - Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the world. It is
      a disease of insidious progression and high lethality. The present study was to
      investigate the diagnostic value of high-filed magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion
      imaging in pancreatic cancer. Thirty-three patients with suspected pancreatic
      cancer were recruited in our study and underwent routine MR imaging. When
      compared with para-tumoral and normal tissue, the pancreatic lesions showed
      significant lower slope, peak enhancement (PE), and signal enhancement ratio
      (SER) as well as higher time to peak (TTP). Para-tumoral tissue was found to have
      significantly lower slope and PE, slightly higher TTP than normal tissue. MR
      perfusion imaging displays hemodynamic alterations in both pancreatic cancer and
      surrounding pancreatic tissue, and provides indirect assessment of tumor
      vascularity. In conclusion, high field MR perfusion imaging has important
      clinical significance in early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28885325
TI  - Combination therapy of metformin plus dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor versus
      metformin plus sulfonylurea and their association with a decreased risk of
      cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical trials assessing the combination therapy of metformin plus
      dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors versus metformin plus Sulfonylureas on risk of
      cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular mortality and/or all-cause mortality in
      type 2 diabetes have shown conflicting results. We therefore evaluated the
      combination therapy on the risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular
      mortality and/or all-cause mortality in type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A systematic
      search of Medline/PubMed (from 2000 to September 2015), EMBASE (from 2000 to
      September 2015), and Web of Knowledge (from 2000 to September 2015) for research
      articles published in English was carried out to examine how combination therapy
      affects the risk of CVD mortality and/or all-cause mortality in T2DM patients. In
      addition, the risks of cardiovascular events, CVD mortality, and/or all-cause
      mortality as well as the adjusted relative risk (RR) or equivalent (hazard ratio
      or odds ratio) and the corresponding variance or equivalent are reported.
      RESULTS: The accumulative RRs (95% confidence intervals) for T2DM patients
      treated with the combination therapy of metformin plus DPP-4 inhibitor versus
      metformin plus sulfonylurea were 0.71 (0.56-0.90) for nonfatal cardiovascular
      events, 1.001 (0.85-1.18) for fatal cardiovascular events, 0.58 (0.41-0.82) for
      CVD mortality, and 0.72 (0.59-0.87) for all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The
      combination therapy of metformin plus DPP-4 inhibitor significantly decreased the
      RR of nonfatal cardiovascular events, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality,
      compared with the combination therapy of metformin plus sulfonylurea. However,
      the number fatal cardiovascular events (e.g., heart failure) was not
      significantly different between the 2 groups.

PMID- 28885326
TI  - Melanoma in situ of penis: a very rare entity: A case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - RATIONALE: Melanoma in situ of the penis is very rare and there are no clear
      guidelines for its surgical treatment. PATIENT CONCERNS: The authors describe the
      case of a 69-year-old man who presented with an asymptomatic brown macula on his
      glans penis and foreskin that appeared about 8 years earlier, enlarged in the
      last few months. DIAGNOSES: A diagnostic biopsy showed the characteristics of a
      melanoma in situ. INTERVENTIONS: The authors decided to excise the lesion keeping
      a healthy margin of 1 cm all over around except close to the urethral meatus,
      where it was impossible, and where only 5 mm of free margin was excised. A full
      thickness mucosal graft from oral cavity was performed to repair the defect.
      OUTCOMES: No recurrence or metastasis occurred during 50 months after the
      operation. LESSONS: Considering that at the sixth clinical follow-up the patient
      was alive and disease free at 50 months after surgery, the chosen treatment has
      proved successful.

PMID- 28885327
TI  - Risk factors for pain after Frey's procedure in chronic pancreatitis.
AB  - Pancreatic pain is the most frequent symptom of chronic pancreatitis (CP) and is
      difficult to treat. This retrospective study aimed to determine the risk factors
      for pain in CP.From January 2009 and March 2014, 75 consecutive patients with CP
      who underwent Frey's procedure were reviewed for this study. According to Izbicki
      pain scores, these patients were divided into 2 groups: (1) pain (Izbicki pain
      score of >10 after a decrease of >50%) and (2) pain-free (Izbicki pain score of
      <=10). Demographic data, medical history, postoperative variables, and follow-up
      evaluations of the patients were documented.The postoperative pain score (11.8)
      was significantly lower than the preoperative score (51.8) after a median follow
      up of 4.2 years. Alcoholism (odds ratio [OR] 7.767, P = .002) and preoperative
      analgesic medication use (OR 4.113, P = .030) were independent risk factors for
      pain.Frey's procedure is an effective operation for pain relief in patients with
      CP. Alcoholism and preoperative analgesic medication use were 2 factors for
      failure to achieve complete pain relief.

PMID- 28885328
TI  - Use of thiazolidinediones and risk of hip fracture in old people in a case
      control study in Taiwan.
AB  - Little research is available on the association between use of thiazolidinediones
      and hip fracture in old people in Taiwan. We conducted a population-based case
      control study to examine this issue.Using the database of the Taiwan National
      Health Insurance Program, we identified 603 type 2 diabetic subjects 65 years or
      older in age with newly diagnosed hip fracture in 2000 to 2013 as cases. We
      randomly selected 603 type 2 diabetic subjects 65 years or older without hip
      fracture as the controls. Both cases and controls were matched with sex, age,
      comorbidities, and index year of diagnosing hip fracture. Current use of
      thiazolidinediones was defined as subjects whose last remaining one tablet of
      thiazolidinediones was noted <=30 days before the date of diagnosing hip
      fracture. Never use of thiazolidinediones was defined as subjects who never had a
      prescription of thiazolidinediones. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence
      interval (CI) for hip fracture associated with thiazolidinediones use was
      estimated by the multivariable unconditional logistic regression analysis.After
      adjustment for covariables, the multivariable logistic regression analysis
      revealed that the adjusted OR of hip fracture was 1.64 for subjects with current
      use of thiazolidinediones (95% CI 1.01, 2.67), when compared with subjects with
      never use of thiazolidinediones.Our findings suggest that current use of
      thiazolidinediones is associated with a 64% higher risk of hip fracture in type 2
      diabetic old people in Taiwan. Clinicians should consider the possibility of
      thiazolidinediones-associated hip fracture among type 2 diabetic old people
      currently using thiazolidinediones.

PMID- 28885329
TI  - Simultaneous endoscopic submucosal dissection for multiple early gastric cancers
      in a low volume center.
AB  - The aim of the study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of simultaneous
      endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for multiple early gastric cancers.A total
      of 70 solitary early gastric cancers from 70 patients and 20 multiple early
      gastric cancers from 10 patients were included in this retrospective study. The
      curative resection rate, en bloc resection rate, procedure-related complications,
      and local recurrence were compared between the 2 groups.There was no statistical
      difference in the rate of complete resection, en bloc resection, and curative
      resection between the 2 groups (P > .05). No significant difference was found
      with respect to the occurrence of postoperative bleeding (P > .05). Procedure
      time was significantly longer in the simultaneous group than that in the single
      group (87.6 +/- 25.1 min vs 54.6 +/- 22.0 min, P = .004). The overall incidence
      of synchronous early gastric cancer was 7.5%.Simultaneous ESD for multiple early
      gastric cancers is a safe and feasible choice in low-volume hospital. The entire
      stomach should be examined meticulously during and after ESD. Larger randomized
      studies are needed to validate our results.

PMID- 28885330
TI  - Fractional curve progression with maintenance of fusion mass in congenital
      scoliosis: An 18-year follow-up of a case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: The management of congenital scoliosis concentrates on early diagnosis
      and proper surgical treatment before the development of severe deformities.
      Decision making regarding the appropriate fusion levels, proper surgical
      treatment, and reduction amount of kyphoscoliosis is very important but difficult
      in the treatment of congenital scoliosis, especially in young children. PATIENT
      CONCERNS: We report an 11-year follow-up of revision surgery for fractional curve
      progression after combined anterior and posterior fusion without hemivertebra
      resection using pedicle screw fixation (PSF) in congenital kyphoscoliosis at age
      4 years (a total 18-year follow-up). A T12 hemivertebra was documented in a 4
      year-old girl and was treated by combined anterior and posterior fusion in two
      stages with PSF. The fusion mass was maintained but the distal compensatory curve
      progressed during the follow-up period. The patient underwent a posterior
      vertebral column resection (PVCR) with extended posterior fusion at the age of
      11, 7 years after initial surgery. OUTCOMES: Eleven years after the revision
      surgery with PVCR, the patient showed satisfactory results and her spine was well
      balanced. LESSONS: The cause of revision surgery for the curve progression may
      include inappropriate fusion level, incomplete hemivertebra resection, or failure
      of anterior and posterior fusion. Especially, inappropriate fusion level may
      result in deterioration of the compensatory curve even without progression of the
      fusion mass. CONCLUSION: Appropriate selection of fusion levels, complete
      resection of hemivertebra, and satisfactory reduction of scoliosis and kyphosis
      are important factors for deformity correction and prevention of progression of
      both main and compensatory curves (adding-on of structural curve or progression
      of compensatory curve) as well as reducing the influence of adjacent vertebral
      growth using as short a fusion as possible.

PMID- 28885331
TI  - Population-based cohort study investigating the correlation of diabetes mellitus
      with pleural empyema in adults in Taiwan.
AB  - We assessed the association between diabetes mellitus and the risk of pleural
      empyema in Taiwan.A population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted
      using the database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. There were
      28,802 subjects aged 20 to 84 years who were newly diagnosed with diabetes
      mellitus from 2000 to 2010 as the diabetes group and 114,916 randomly selected
      subjects without diabetes mellitus as the non-diabetes group. The diabetes group
      and the non-diabetes group were matched by sex, age, comorbidities, and the year
      of index date. The incidence of pleural empyema at the end of 2011 was estimated.
      A multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate
      the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for pleural empyema
      associated with diabetes mellitus.The overall incidence of pleural empyema was
      1.65-fold higher in the diabetes group than that in the non-diabetes group (1.58
      vs 0.96 per 10,000 person-years, 95% CI 1.57-1.72). After adjusting for
      confounders, a multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model revealed
      that the adjusted HR of pleural empyema was 1.71 in subjects with diabetes
      mellitus (95% CI 1.16-2.51), compared with those without diabetes mellitus. In
      further analysis, even in the absence of any comorbidity, the adjusted HR was
      1.99 for subjects with diabetes mellitus alone (95% CI 1.18-3.38).Diabetic
      patients confer a 1.71-fold increased hazard of developing pleural empyema. Even
      in the absence of any comorbidity, the risk remains existent.

PMID- 28885332
TI  - Comparisons of front plate, percutaneous sacroiliac screws, and sacroiliac
      anterior papilionaceous plate in fixation of unstable pelvic fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This observational study was aimed at comparing the clinical efficacy
      of sacroiliac anterior plate fixation (SAPF), sacroiliac anterior papilionaceous
      plate (SAPP), and percutaneous sacroiliac screw internal fixation (PSCIF)
      introduced for patients with unstable pelvic fracture. METHODS: Seventy-eight
      patients with unstable pelvic fracture (Tile type B or C) were recruited. Twenty
      six patients underwent SAPF, 26 underwent SAPP, and 26 underwent PSCIF. Matta
      scores were calculated to evaluate the reduction of pelvic fractures, and Majeed
      scores were applied for the assessment of functional recoveries after surgery.
      Other perioperative clinical indicators were also recorded, including operation
      time, bleeding status, length of incision, ambulation time, fracture healing
      time, and incision infection. RESULTS: Total operation time of PSCIF was
      remarkably shorter than that of SAPF and SAPP (P < .05), and the bleeding volume
      of SAPF and SAPP group was almost 26~29 times as high as that of PSCIF group (P <
      .05). Besides, SAPP resulted in significant blood loss compared with SAPF (P <
      .05), while SAPF resulted in significantly larger operative incision length than
      SAPP and PSCIF (P < .05). Moreover, patients' stay time was prolonged in both
      SAPF and SAPP groups than in the PSCIF group (P < .05). Patients who received
      PSCIF exhibited significantly higher Matta and Majeed scores than those who
      received SAPF (all P < .05). Finally, SAPP was associated with fewer
      complications than SAPF, and complications were barely observed in the PSCIF
      group. CONCLUSION: PSCIF may be more appropriate for patients with unstable
      pelvic fractures in comparison with SAPP and SAPF. Besides, SAPP is likely to be
      more efficacious than SAPF especially for Tile C patients.

PMID- 28885333
TI  - Rapidly decreasing level of prostate-specific antigen during initial androgen
      deprivation therapy is a risk factor for early progression to castration
      resistant prostate cancer: A retrospective study.
AB  - To build a practical model for predicting the progression to castration-resistant
      prostate cancer (CRPC) after androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).In all, 185
      patients with prostate cancer who had received ADT as the primary therapy at our
      institution, from 2003 to 2014, were retrospectively enrolled. The following
      clinical variables were included in the analysis: age, clinical tumor, node,
      metastasis stage, Gleason score, risk groups of prostate cancer, prostate
      specific antigen (PSA) at the initiation of ADT, PSA nadir after ADT, velocity of
      PSA decline, and the time to PSA nadir. Cox proportional-hazards regression
      models were calculated to estimate effects of these variables on the time of
      progression to CRPC.On univariate and multivariate analyses, the presence of
      distant metastasis before ADT (hazard ratio [HR] 6.030, 95% confidence interval
      (CI) 3.229-11.263, P = .001), higher PSA nadir (HR 1.185, 95% CI 1.080-1.301, P =
      .001), a velocity of PSA decline >11 ng/mL per month (HR 2.124, 95% CI 1.195
      3.750, P = .001), and a time to PSA nadir <=9 months (HR 0.276, 95% CI 0.162
      0.469, P = .004) were significantly associated with an increased risk of
      progression to CRPC.Patients with a rapidly decreasing PSA level in the initial
      phase of ADT are more likely to progress to CRPC. Our findings provide a
      practical approach to screen patients during ADT for early identification of
      those likely to progress to CRPC, allowing treatment to be modified to improve
      outcomes.

PMID- 28885334
TI  - Potential association between elevated serum human epididymis protein 4 and renal
      fibrosis: A systemic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human epididymis protein 4 (HE4), a matrix metalloprotease 2 (MMP2),
      and a matrix metalloprotease 9 (MMP9) inhibitor, promotes renal fibrosis by
      inhibiting the degradation of type I collagen. However, the predictive value of
      HE4 for renal fibrosis remains controversial, even though it has been identified
      as one of the most upregulated genes in cultured fibrosis-associated
      myofibroblasts. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to
      investigate the potential association between circulating HE4 and renal fibrosis.
      METHODS: Original and review articles published until January 2017 that analyzed
      the performance of serum HE4 in renal fibrosis were systematically searched for
      in PubMed (1966-2017.1), Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMBASE (1980-2017.1),
      China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, and VIP (Weipu
      Database). The meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 version. Pertinent
      studies were reviewed and the standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95%
      confidence interval was extracted. A total of 5 studies reporting 460
      participants were included in the final analysis. Subgroup and sensitivity
      analyses were performed to explore the potential sources of between-study
      heterogeneity. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that elevated serum HE4 favored
      the diagnosis of renal fibrosis across all trials (SMD = 1.41; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.82-2.01; P < .001). The bubble graph indicated statistically robust
      result. The pooled SMD was similar after removing any single study for
      sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests a positive
      association between circulating HE4 and renal fibrosis. Further studies are
      needed to investigate the effects of interventions on HE4, and the value of HE4
      as a biomarker.

PMID- 28885335
TI  - Rescue patient from tracheal obstruction by dislocated bronchial stent during
      tracheostomy surgery with readily available tools: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Airway stenting is a well-established method that relieves symptoms
      and maintains airway patency in patients with airway obstruction. Serious
      complications caused by airway stents such as stent dislocation and airway
      obstruction during surgery are life-threatening. PATIENT CONCERNS: An 80-year-old
      man was treated with bronchial stent for left bronchus obstruction caused by
      metastatic esophageal cancer. During tracheostomy surgery, he suffered from acute
      tracheal obstruction caused by dislocated bronchial stent. DIAGNOSES: Esophageal
      cancer, left bronchus obstruction, respiratory failure, tracheal obstruction.
      INTERVENTIONS: Threading a 5.0-sized endotracheal tube combined with an Eschmann
      tracheal tube introducer to prop up the collapsed stent. OUTCOMES: The bronchial
      stent was re-expanded and threaded into right main bronchus and ventilation
      restored. LESSONS: Patient with airway stent undergoing surgery with airway
      involved should be performed under the support of a backup physician and
      equipment that are capable of handling potentially life-threatening complications
      of airway stent. If not, in the emergent situation of tracheal obstruction due to
      tracheal/bronchial stent, protruding through the stent with a suitable, small
      sized endotracheal tube with Eschmann tracheal tube introducer may be an
      alternative skill for saving life weighted with possible complications.

PMID- 28885336
TI  - The synergistic effect of inflammation and metabolic syndrome on intraocular
      pressure: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - Intraocular pressure is associated with metabolic syndrome. C-reactive protein
      (CRP) is associated with cardiovascular disease, irrespective of the presence of
      metabolic syndrome. In this study, we examined the synergistic effect of CRP and
      metabolic syndrome on intraocular pressure.A total of 1041 subjects were included
      for data analyses in this cross-sectional study. Intraocular pressure was
      measured using a noncontact tonometer, and serum CRP levels were measured using a
      commercially available kit.The intraocular pressure was significantly higher in
      the subjects with metabolic syndrome than in those without (14.1 +/- 3.0 vs 13.4
      +/- 3.0 mm Hg, P = .002). Furthermore, intraocular pressures significantly
      increased according to CRP tertiles (13.1 +/- 3.0, 13.7 +/- 3.0, and 13.8 +/- 3.0
      mm Hg from the lowest to highest tertile of CRP, respectively; P = .002). The
      highest intraocular pressure was observed in subjects with metabolic syndrome in
      the highest CRP tertile (P value for trend < .001). Multivariate linear
      regression analysis revealed that the influence of CRP was independent of
      metabolic syndrome and that high CRP levels were significantly associated with
      high intraocular pressure (95% confidence interval: 0.080-1.297, P = .027).In
      conclusion, systemic inflammation, reflected by serum CRP levels, is associated
      with high intraocular pressure in subjects with and without metabolic syndrome.

PMID- 28885337
TI  - B-cell lymphocyte kinase polymorphisms rs13277113, rs2736340, and rs4840568 and
      risk of autoimmune diseases: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: B-cell lymphocyte kinase (BLK) is an inhibitor of B cells that has an
      important influence on several autoimmune diseases, but there is a lack of
      comprehensive analysis of its association with autoimmune diseases. Hence, it is
      meaningful to conduct a comprehensive analysis. METHODS: A systematic literature
      search was performed on the PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science databases
      up to June 30, 2016. The data were extracted and quality-assessed before
      conducting the meta-analysis. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals
      (95% CIs) were assessed with the STATA version 12.0 software. Subgroup and
      sensitivity analysis were conducted to explore potential sources of
      heterogeneity. RESULTS: Altogether, 33 studies with 68,874 cases and 90,684
      controls, 24 studies with 31,095 cases and 39,077 controls for rs13277113, 21
      studies with 26,388 cases and 40,635 controls for rs2736340, and 4 studies with
      11,391 cases and 10,972 controls for rs4840568 were included in this meta
      analysis. The results revealed that the BLK rs13277113 and rs2736340
      polymorphisms increased the risk of autoimmune diseases in the total analysis (A
      vs G: OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.27-1.39, P < .01; T vs C: OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.27
      1.41, P < .01), and rs4840568 was positively associated with systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE) (A vs G: OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.22-1.43, P = .01). CONCLUSION:
      This meta-analysis shows that the BLK (rs13277113, rs2736340, rs4840568)
      polymorphisms may be a risk factor for developing autoimmune diseases, especially
      for Asian populations and SLE.

PMID- 28885338
TI  - Association between MDM2 SNP309, p53 Arg72Pro, and hepatocellular carcinoma risk:
      A MOOSE-compliant meta-analysis.
AB  - Epidemiological studies have determined the associations between polymorphisms on
      the promoter of MDM2 (SNP309) and the codon 72 on exon 4 of p53 (p53 Arg72Pro)
      and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, the results were not
      always consistent. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to evaluate the
      overall associations between these 2 variants and HCC risk.The MEDLINE, Web of
      science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and CNKI databases were searched for
      eligibility studies and the data were synthesized under the fixed- or random
      effects model. Heterogeneity among the studies was evaluated with the Cochrane
      test Q and I statistic.For MDM2 SNP309, the pooled odds ratio (OR) from 15
      independent studies with a total of 4038 cases and 5491 controls suggested a
      significant association for the variant with HCC risk [allele model, G vs T:
      pooled OR = 1.48, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.26-1.73; pooled OR = 1.53,
      95% CI = 1.26-1.81, for G/T vs T/T; pooled OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.54-2.71 for G/G
      vs T/T]. For p53 Arg72Pro, a total of 21 studies with 7285 cases and 9710
      controls suggested that the variant was also associated with HCC risk under
      common genetic model (allele Pro vs Arg, pooled OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.02-1.25;
      Pro/Pro vs Arg/Arg, pooled OR = 1.32, 95% CI =1.06-1.64). No publication bias was
      found for all the meta-analysis as suggested by the Begg funnel plot and Egger
      tests.These results suggested that variants MDM2 SNP309 and p53 Arg72Pro are
      susceptibility factors for HCC; however, more studies are warranted to validate
      the results.

PMID- 28885339
TI  - Role of chemotherapy and thrombolysis in treatment of choriocarcinoma accompanied
      with pulmonary embolism: A case report with literature review.
AB  - RATIONALE: Choriocarcinoma accompanied with pulmonary embolism (PE) is rare and
      difficult to diagnose and treat. There are about 25 cases reported in literature,
      which presented variable clinical characteristics and prognosis. PATIENT
      CONCERNS: We reported a case of choriocarcinoma presenting PE as the first
      manifestation in a 26-year-old Chinese female. DIAGNOSES: Four months before her
      admission to our hospital, she presented to a local hospital with respiratory
      manifestations, and was first diagnosed as bronchitis and treated with
      antibiotics without improvement, and subsequently suspected of having pulmonary
      tuberculosis and receive anti-tuberculosis therapy, with no response. Upon
      admission to our hospital, spiral computed tomography-pulmonary angiography
      revealed complete occlusion of right pulmonary artery, leading to PE. She
      received thrombolysis and anticoagulant therapy, without improvement. Further
      interrogation of the patient revealed a history of irregular vaginal bleeding and
      multiple pregnancies and abortions. Following the laboratory report of a
      significantly elevated level of serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (beta
      HCG) combined with other clinical and laboratory findings, a diagnosis of
      choriocarcinoma accompanied with PE was established based on the criteria
      formulated by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics and
      guideline of European Society for Medical Oncology. INTERVENTIONS: With 1 cycle
      of chemotherapy with etoposide-methotrexateactinomycin D-cyclophosphamide
      vincristine (EMA-CO), her dyspnea and other symptoms improved, with a significant
      decrease in the serum beta-HCG level and pulmonary artery pressure. OUTCOMES:
      Unfortunately, she showed bone marrow inhibition, could not continue further
      chemotherapy, and finally died after discharging. We reviewed 25 similar cases in
      the literature, and found that all 17 cases receiving chemotherapy showed
      complete recovery while 6 of 8 cases without chemotherapy died during
      hospitalization. LESSONS: This case report illustrates the challenges in
      diagnosis of choriocarcinoma presenting with respiratory manifestations, and
      highlights the importance of early diagnosis and timely appropriate chemotherapy
      in management of this disease.

PMID- 28885340
TI  - A case report of lung adenocarcinoma with polyserous effusions as the onset
      symptom.
AB  - RATIONALE: Coexistence of lung adenocarcinoma and polyserous effusions is quite
      rare. This complexity of etiology adds difficulty to the diagnosis and is likely
      to cause misdiagnosis and maldiagnosis. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 43-year-old woman was
      admitted with symptoms of dry cough, chest suffocation, polyserous effusions, and
      generalized edema. Only a small number of heterocysts were detected in the
      ascites, and malignant cells were detected in the pleural and pericardial
      effusions. After cytology tests of pericardial, pleural effusions, and ascites,
      puncture biopsy of the left lung lesion was performed with CT guidance, and
      immunohistochemical tests were performed. DIAGNOSES: The diagnosis of lung
      adenocarcinoma was histopathologically confirmed by puncture biopsy with CT
      guidance of the left lower lung lesion. INTERVENTIONS: Combined
      treatments(pemetrexed/cisplatin) was administered after the left lung lesion
      immunohistochemistry. OUTCOMES: The patient has survived more than 1 year after
      pemetrexed/cisplatin combination chemotherapy. LESSONS: Coexistence of lung
      adenocarcinoma and polyserous effusions is quite rare. Close attention should be
      paid whenever a patient with coexistence of ascites, pleural effusion, and
      pericardial effusion. More diverse methods could be helpful to identify the
      diagnosis and avoid misdiagnosis. Patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma need
      individualized therapy, including pemetrexed/cisplatin combination chemotherapy.

PMID- 28885341
TI  - Differences in platelet-related parameters among patients with audiographically
      distinct sudden sensorineural hearing loss: A retrospective study.
AB  - We explored possible relationships between sudden sensorineural hearing loss
      (SSNHL) in patients differing in terms of audiographic data and the levels of
      vascular markers in routine blood data.We included 37 patients with low-frequency
      SSNHL (LF-SSNHL), 28 with high-frequency SSNHL (HF-SSNHL), 32 with all-frequency
      SSNHL (AF-SSNHL), 32 with total-deafness SSNHL (TD-SSNHL), and 31 age- and sex
      matched healthy controls. Peripheral venous blood samples were collected, and
      routine blood parameters including platelet and lymphocyte count, mean platelet
      volume (MPV), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were measured. Each group
      was divided into recovery subgroup and unrecovery subgroup in accordance with
      hearing level after 1 month therapy, then compared the difference of platelet and
      lymphocyte count, MPV, and PLR between the 2 subgroups.No significant difference
      was observed between platelet count of all SSNHL patients and control group (all
      P > .05). MPV of AF-SSNHL and TD-SSNHL, PLR of all SSNHL patients were
      significantly higher than those of control group (all P < .05), while lymphocyte
      count of all audiographically distinct SSNHL patients was significantly lower
      than that of control group (all P < .05). However, the difference of platelet
      count, lymphocyte count, MPV, and PLR among audiographically distinct SSNHL
      patients was not significant (all P > .05). In HF-SSNHL patients, lymphocyte
      count of unrecovery subgroup was significantly lower, while MPV and PLR of the
      unrecovery subgroup were significantly higher than those of recovery subgroup
      (all P < .05). In AF-SSNHL patients, MPV of the unrecovery group was
      significantly higher than that of recovery subgroup (P < .05).Lymphocyte count,
      MPV, and PLR may be relative to SSSNHL, but they could not be used to distinct
      SSNHL audiographically. Lower lymphocyte, higher MPV, and PLR may be indicative
      for the prognosis of HF-SSNHL patients; higher MPV may be related to bad
      treatment outcome of AF-SSNHL patients.

PMID- 28885342
TI  - Clinical features of idiopathic restrictive cardiomyopathy: A retrospective
      multicenter cohort study over 2 decades.
AB  - Idiopathic restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCMP) has not been fully understood
      because this disease is difficult to diagnose. The present study aimed to assess
      the clinical profile and outcome of idiopathic RCMP from a multicenter
      cohort.This investigation is a retrospective study of consecutive patients with
      idiopathic RCMP at 10 centers in Korea between 1990 and 2010. We evaluated the
      clinical characteristics of the patients and prognostic factors associated with
      mortality using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.The
      study included 53 patients (26 men, 49.1%). During a median follow-up of 1.7
      years, 17 patients (32.1%) died and 5 patients (9.4%) received a heart
      transplant. The 5-year survival rate of the overall patients was 64.4% +/- 7.8%.
      In multivariable analyses, the predictors of mortality were tricuspid
      regurgitation (TR) >= moderate (hazard ratio [HR] 32.55, P < .001) and left
      ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) (HR 0.85, P < .001).Idiopathic RCMP
      showed unfavorable prognosis. Advanced TR and lower LVEDD are independent adverse
      predictors of mortality in patients with idiopathic RCMP.

PMID- 28885343
TI  - Risk factors and the surgery affection of respiratory complication and its
      mortality after acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury.
AB  - The aim of this study is to estimate the risk factors of both respiratory
      complication (RC) and mortality after acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury
      (TCSCI). Between July 2005 and July 2015, in 181 patients (142 males and 39
      females; mean age 41.0 years) with acute TCSCI, we compared the difference and
      odds ratio in RC group (n = 73) with that of non-RC group (n = 108), and also
      death group (n = 15) and survival group (n = 166). We collected injury-related
      information after half a year of injury, which is as follows: the causes of
      injury, time of surgery, ICU (intensive care unit) days, ventilator days, ASIA
      (American Spinal Injury Association) classification, neurological injury, CIPS
      (Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score), and BMI (body mass index). Besides these,
      we gathered the general information such as age, gender, smoking history, and use
      of steroids. The study compared perioperative parameters; surgery-related and
      instrumentation- and graft-related complication rates; clinical parameters;
      patient satisfaction; and radiologic parameters. Variations like gender (odds
      ratio [OR] = 1.269, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.609-2.646]), smoking history
      (OR = 2.902, 95% CI [1.564-5.385]), AIS grade (grade A) (OR = 6.439, 95% CI
      [3.334-12.434]), neurological level (C1-C4) (OR = 2.714, 95% CI [1.458-5.066]),
      and steroid use (OR = 2.983, 95% CI [1.276-6.969]) have a facilitated effect on
      RC. When we estimated surgery-related affection, only the time of surgery and
      anterior approach compared with posterior has significant difference in RC (P <
      .05). Between death and survival group, the aspect of age, non-surgical, CPIS,
      AIS grade, and BMI have statistically significant difference. Survival analysis
      reveals significant difference in aforementioned groups. In patients suffering
      from acute TCSCI, those who are old, have long smoking history, complete spinal
      cord injury, C1-C4, high CPIS, and fat have high incidence of RC and mortality.

PMID- 28885344
TI  - Surgical treatment for lumbar hyperlordosis after resection of a spinal lipoma
      associated with spina bifida: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: A hyperlordosis deformity of the lumbar spine is relatively rare, and
      surgical treatment has not been comprehensively addressed. In this case report,
      we describe the clinical presentation, surgical treatment, and medium-term follow
      up of a patient presenting with a progressive lumbar hyperlordosis deformity
      after resection of a spinal lipoma associated with spina bifida. PATIENT
      CONCERNS: The patient was a 20-year-old woman presenting with a progressive
      hyperlordosis deformity of the lumbar spine associated with significant back pain
      (visual analog pain score of 89/100 mm), but with no neurological symptoms.
      DIAGNOSES: The lumbar lordosis (LL), measured on standing lateral view
      radiographs, was 114 degrees , with a sagittal vertical axis (SVA) of -100 mm.
      The patient had undergone excision of a lipoma, associated with spina bifida of
      the lumbar spine, at 7 months of age.She was first evaluated at our hospital at
      18 years of age for progressive spinal deformity and lumbago. INTERVENTIONS: An
      in situ fusion, from T5 to S1, using pedicle screws with bone graft obtained from
      the iliac crest, was performed. OUTCOMES: Postoperatively, the LL decreased to 93
      degrees , and the SVA decreased to -50 mm. The decision to not correct the
      hyperlordosis deformity fully was intentional. Seven years and 1 month
      postsurgery, the patient had no limitations in standing and walking and reported
      a pain score of 8/100 mm; there was no evidence of a loss of correction. LESSONS:
      Lumbar hyperlordosis after resection of a spinal lipoma associated with spina
      bifida is rare. Posterior fixation provided an effective treatment in this case.
      As the lumbar hyperlordosis deformity is often high, correction can be difficult.
      In this case, although the correction and fusion were performed in situ, there
      was no progression of either the deformity or the lumbago. Early detection
      remains an essential component of effective treatment, allowing correction when
      the spinal deformity is easily reversible.

PMID- 28885345
TI  - Long-term effectiveness of the Diabetes Conversation Map Program: A prepost
      education intervention study among type 2 diabetic patients in Taiwan.
AB  - Health education is compulsory for patients with chronic and life-threatening
      disease, especially for those with diabetes mellitus (DM). This study aimed to
      examine the long-term effectiveness of the Diabetes Conversation Map Program
      (DCMP) among DM patients in Taiwan.A quasi-experimental research design using
      convenience sampling and nonrandom group assignment was applied to recruit 95
      type 2 diabetic subjects from a hospital in Taiwan. In addition to routine care,
      the experiment group (n = 49) received 7 sessions of DCMP that delivered over 2
      months, while the control group (n = 46) received only routine care during the
      same period. We conducted structured questionnaire survey and reviewed medical
      record at 3 time points (before DCMP, 3 days after DCMP, and 3 months after DCMP
      completion) to collect the effectiveness data. The effectiveness was determined
      using the generalized estimating equation model.We found that improvements in the
      body mass index, blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, self-monitoring of blood
      glucose, and diabetic health literacy in the DCMP group compared with controls
      (all P values <.05), with no significant changes in depressive symptoms. The
      positive effects were further maintained for 3 months after DCMP.The findings may
      serve as a reference for helping healthcare professionals provide appropriate
      interventions to improve adaptation processes and clinical outcomes for DM
      patients.

PMID- 28885346
TI  - A case-control study of the association between self-reported occupational and
      recreational physical activity and lung cancer.
AB  - This case-control study with a Fujian population investigated whether self
      reported occupational and recreational physical activity may be associated with
      lung cancer.The population comprised 1622 patients with newly diagnosed primary
      lung cancer and 1622 age- and gender-matched healthy controls.High-intensity
      occupational physical activity was associated with significantly higher risk of
      lung cancer (OR = 1.354, 95% CI: 1.068-1.717), especially nonsmall cell lung
      carcinoma (OR = 1.384, 95% CI: 1.087-1.762). Moderate or low intensity
      recreational physical activity was associated with reduced risk of lung cancer.
      The protective effect of recreational physical activity was observed in current
      or former smokers, but not never-smokers, and in subjects with normal or high
      BMI, but not low BMI, as well as people without a history of chronic lung
      disease. The frequency of recreational physical activity was associated with a
      linear reduction in the risk of lung cancer (P < .001), and also specifically
      nonsmall cell lung cancer (P < .001).Occupational and recreational physical
      activity was associated with different effects on the risk of lung cancer in a
      Fujian population. While recreational physical activity was associated with
      decreased risk of lung cancer, occupational physical activity was associated with
      increased risk of lung cancer.

PMID- 28885347
TI  - Metastases to the thyroid gland: A report of 32 cases in PUMCH.
AB  - RATIONALE: Metastases of nonthyroid malignancies to the thyroid gland are rare,
      and only sporadic cases have been reported in literature. We present our
      experience in treating patients with metastases to the thyroid gland at Peking
      Union Medical College Hospital. PATIENT CONCERNS: The clinical data of 32
      patients who presented with secondary thyroid tumors were retrospectively
      analyzed. INTERVENTIONS: Eleven patients (34.5%) had thyroidectomy.Two patients
      (6.25%) had tracheostomies to alleviate compression caused by enlarged thyroid
      tumors. OUTCOMES: The most common primary lesion was in the lungs (14/32),
      followed by the kidney (5/32) and gastrointestinal system (5/32). The interval
      from the diagnosis of the primary tumor to thyroid metastasis varied from 0 month
      to 16 years. Ten patients (31.3%) are still alive, and the longest follow-up
      survival time was 7 years. LESSONS: Thyroid metastases are rare, and the lung was
      the most common primary site of origin. It seems that thyroidectomy has not been
      considered in cases with a high clinical stage of the neoplastic process such as
      lung cancer.

PMID- 28885348
TI  - Effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation therapy for the treatment
      of primary dysmenorrheal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the effect and safety of
      transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy for relieving pain in
      women with primary dysmenorrhea (PD). METHODS: In this study, 134 participants
      with PD were randomly divided into the intervention group and the sham group,
      with 67 participants in each group. Participants in the intervention group
      received TENS, whereas those in the sham group received sham TENS. The primary
      outcome was measured by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). The secondary outcomes
      were measured by the duration of relief from dysmenorrheal pain, number of
      ibuprofen tablets taken, and the World Health Organization quality of life
      (WHOQOL)-BREF score, as well as the adverse events. RESULTS: A total of 122
      participants completed the study. Compared to sham TENS, TENS showed a greater
      effect in pain relief with regard to the NRS (P < .01), duration of relief from
      dysmenorrheal pain (P < .01), and number of ibuprofen tablets taken (P < .01).
      However, no significant differences in the quality of life, measured by the
      WHOQOL-BREF score, were found between 2 groups. The adverse event profiles were
      also similar between 2 groups. CONCLUSION: TENS was efficacious and safe in
      relieving pain in participants with PD.

PMID- 28885349
TI  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection for large colorectal epithelial neoplasms: A
      single center experience in north China.
AB  - Colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a technically difficult
      procedure with a higher risk of complications, especially for large colorectal
      epithelial neoplasms. This study aimed to report our experience and clinical
      outcomes, and to estimate the factors associated with incomplete resection and
      complications.One hundred forty one colorectal epithelial neoplasms in 130
      consecutive patients treated by ESD at the endoscopy center of Tianjin Medical
      University General Hospital from January 2013 to January 2016 were included.
      Factors associated with the incomplete resection and perforation were
      evaluated.The mean colorectal epithelial neoplasm size was 26.5 +/- 9.5 (15.0
      60.0) mm, the mean procedure time of colorectal ESD was 76.1 +/- 48.7 (36.5
      195.0) minutes. The en bloc resection rate, the en bloc R0 resection rate, and
      the curative resection rate, were 93.6% (132/141), 91.5% (129/141), and 88.7%
      (125/141), respectively. Perforation during colorectal ESD occurred in 7 patients
      (4.9%), postoperative bleeding occurred in 4 patients (2.8%). There was no
      recurrence occurred in all patients during follow periods of 13.2 +/- 8.6 (6.0
      36.0) month. Submucosal fibrosis was the only independent factor related to both
      incomplete resection (odds ratio [OR] 12.425; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.501
      61.734; P = .002) and perforation (OR 10.646; 95%CI 1.188-95.421; P = .035) of
      colorectal ESD.Colorectal ESD is a safe and effective technique for en bloc
      resection of large colorectal epithelial neoplasms. Submucosal fibrosis was
      independently related to incomplete resection and perforation.

PMID- 28885350
TI  - Usefulness of three-dimensional spherical index to assess different types of left
      ventricular remodeling: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Left ventricular (LV) remodeling after myocardial injury, volume or
      pressure overload is characterized by a change in LV shape from an ellipse to
      more of a sphere. The usefulness of 3-dimensional (3D) sphericity index (SpI) for
      accurate evaluation of LV remodeling remains uncertain despite extensive
      research. METHODS: We searched Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane
      databases to identify relevant studies from January 1, 1990 to August 1, 2016.
      The quality of each study was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Meta
      regression and sensitivity and subgroup analyses based on patterns of LV
      remodeling were performed. RESULTS: Thirteen studies with a total of 1064
      patients were included in this meta-analysis. There was evidence of obvious
      heterogeneity (I = 82.4%; P < .001), which was mainly accounted for by the
      pattern of remodeling according to meta-regression. The result of subgroup meta
      analyses suggested that SpI in patients with eccentric remodeling was
      significantly higher compared with control group (95% confidence interval [CI],
      0.78-1.10). No statistic difference was found in LV SpI between healthy controls
      and patients with concentric hypertrophy (95% CI, -0.89 to 0.16) or myocardial
      injury (95% CI, -0.13 to 0.41). CONCLUSION: 3D SpI can be widely used to assess
      LV remodeling in patients with eccentric remodeling, but has limitations in
      predicting concentric hypertrophy and regional or chronic myocardial injury.

PMID- 28885351
TI  - A Mal De Meleda patient with severe flexion contractures of hands and feet: A
      case report in West China.
AB  - RATIONALE: Palmoplantar keratoderma (PPK) is a genetically heterogeneous group of
      skin diseases, which is characterized by erythema and hyperkeratosis. Mal de
      Meleda (MDM) is a rare type of PPK with an estimated prevalence in the general
      population of 1 in 100,000. PATIENT CONCERNS: In this study, we report a MDM
      patient with severe lesion in skin and flexion contractures of fingers and toes.
      DIAGNOSES: MDM was diagnosed based on clinical manifestations and gene test.
      INTERVENTIONS: This patient was treated with oral acitretin and topical
      tazarotene. OUTCOMES: Physical examinations indicated that the hyperkeratosis was
      in remission, but the erythema was expanding to her elbows progressively. Due to
      the adverse events (e.g., dry eyes and lips), the patient stopped taking the oral
      drug. LESSONS: MDM is a rare subtype of PPK, which is inherited in an autosomal
      recessive pattern and has characteristics that skin lesions on hands and feet
      appear soon after birth and develop progressively. MDM can lead to severe flexion
      contractures in some cases. The reliable method for the diagnosis of MDM is gene
      test.

PMID- 28885352
TI  - Successful 5-azacytidine treatment of myeloid sarcoma and leukemia cutis
      associated with myelodysplastic syndrome: A case report and literature review.
AB  - RATIONALE: Myeloid sarcoma (MS) and leukemia cutis (LC) are extramedullary tumors
      comprising myeloid blasts. They can occur de novo or concurrently with
      hematological disorders, usually acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AML chemotherapy
      is generally the initial therapy for MS and LC, and hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (HSCT) can be considered as additional therapy. However,
      treatment for older patients who are unable to continue intensive chemotherapy is
      not currently standardized. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 71-year-old Japanese woman was
      diagnosed with multiple MSs associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), using
      bone marrow aspiration and lymph node biopsy. DIAGNOSES: Additionally, LC was
      diagnosed by skin biopsy. Extramedullary MS and LC lesions were formed by massive
      infiltration of myeloblastic cells. INTERVENTIONS: Twenty courses of 5
      azacytidine (5-Aza) were administrated as maintenance therapy after induction
      therapy with daunorubicin and cytarabine. OUTCOMES: Myeloblasts decreased in the
      bone marrow and the LC disappeared after induction therapy. The MSs completely
      disappeared, except for the palatine tonsil lesion, after 5-Aza maintenance
      therapy. 5-Aza treatment provided long-term partial response for more than 21
      months. LESSONS: 5-Aza was well tolerated and may be a good option for the
      treatment of MS and LC associated with MDS, especially in older patients who
      cannot receive HSCT.

PMID- 28885354
TI  - Acute versus subacute community-acquired meningitis: Analysis of 611 patients.
AB  - Community-acquired meningitis can be classified into acute and subacute
      presentations by the duration of illness of <= or >5 days, respectively. There
      are currently no studies comparing the clinical features, management decisions,
      etiologies, and outcomes between acute and subacute presentations.It is a
      retrospective study of adults with community-acquired meningitis hospitalized in
      Houston, TX between January 2005 and January 2010. An adverse clinical outcome
      was defined as a Glasgow Outcome Scale score of <=4.A total of 611 patients were
      identified, of which 458 (75%) were acute and 153 subacute (25%). The most common
      etiologies were unknown in 418 (68.4%), viral in 94 (15.4%), bacterial in 47
      (7.7%), fungal in 42 patients (6.9%), and other noninfectious etiologies in 6
      (1%). Patients with subacute meningitis were more likely to be immunosuppressed
      or have comorbidities, had fungal etiologies, and had higher rates of
      hypoglycorrachia and abnormal neurological findings (P <.05). Patients with an
      acute presentation were more likely to be treated empirically with intravenous
      antibiotics and had higher cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis and serum white blood
      cell counts (P <.05). On logistic regression, age >65 years and abnormal
      neurological findings were predictive of an adverse clinical outcome in both
      acute and subacute meningitis, whereas fever was also a significant prognostic
      factor in acute meningitis. (P <.05).Acute and subacute meningitis differ in
      regards to clinical presentations, etiologies, laboratory findings, and
      management decisions, but did not differ in rates of adverse clinical outcomes.
      Future studies including thoroughly investigated patients with new diagnostic
      molecular methods may show different results and outcomes.

PMID- 28885353
TI  - Association of congenital anomalies with fracture of spine, trunk, and upper and
      lower limbs among young people: A population-based matched cohort study in
      Taiwan.
AB  - According to the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, congenital anomalies
      are caused by kidney malfunctions, which decreased the bone quality, and may
      eventually result in bone fractures. This retrospective cohort study investigated
      the relationship between congenital anomalies and fracture of spine, trunk, and
      upper and lower limbs in young people. We utilized data from the National Health
      Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. This study included patients with
      congenital anomalies (International Classification of Diseases/ICD-9 code: 740
      759) and a comparison group of patients without congenital anomalies. Cases
      evaluated were fracture of spine and trunk (ICD-9 codes: 805-809), fracture of
      upper limbs (ICD-9 codes: 810-819), and fracture of lower limbs (ICD-9 codes: 820
      829). Our study shows that in comparison to the control group, patients with
      congenital anomalies are 1.11 times more likely to develop fractures. This is the
      first documented research study that supports the TCM theory that "the Kidney
      governs the bones, and healthy bones give the body stabilization and prevent
      fracture."

PMID- 28885355
TI  - Secondary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy caused by non-pleural or pulmonary
      tumors.
AB  - Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome
      characterized by digital clubbing, periosteal reaction, polyarthralgia,
      arthritis, and synovitis. Herein, we report a case series of patients with
      secondary HOA caused by non-pleural or pulmonary tumors.The radiologic databases
      of 2 tertiary university hospitals were retrospectively screened for secondary
      HOA patients. In addition, a systemic review of the published case reports. Only
      HOA cases with non-pleural or pulmonary malignancies were involved into the
      study. HOA in primary pleural or pulmonary malignant or benign disorders, as well
      in inflammatory diseases were excluded. In all cases, plain radiography was
      performed and clinical signs were documented.In our databases, 6 patients with
      secondary HOA were identified. In addition, the systemic review yielded 24
      eligible patients. The most prevalent primary tumors were nasopharyngeal
      carcinoma and esophageal cancer in 6 patients (20%), respectively. In 17
      patients, (56.7%) HOA was associated with lung metastases, and in 10 patients
      (33.3%), no lung metastases were detected. In 14 patients (46.7%), HOA was
      symptomatically before a tumor diagnosis was made. Plain radiography displayed
      typically features with periostal enlargement in every case.This study is the
      first report about secondary HOA caused by non-pleural or pulmonary tumors.
      Various primary tumors were identified, including several rare tumors such as
      sarcomas. HOA is a rare disorder with typically radiologically findings, which is
      not only associated with lung cancer or pleural mesothelioma and can even occur
      in tumor patients without lung metastasis.

PMID- 28885356
TI  - Correlations between lumbar neuromuscular function and pain, lumbar disability in
      patients with nonspecific low back pain: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - This study aims to examine the correlations between lumbar neuromuscular function
      and pain, lumbar disability in patients with nonspecific low back pain
      (NSLBP).Ninety patients, with ages 18 to 37 years old, with NSLBP were recruited
      in this study. The lumbar neuromuscular function was tested by the CON-TREX
      multijoint isokinetic test and training machine. This study uses the visual
      analog scale (VAS) and Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) to evaluate
      the pain and the dysfunction index of patients who have low back pain,
      respectively.Pearson correlation coefficient is used to evaluate the correlation
      between lumbar neuromuscular function and the VAS and RMDQ scores. VAS and RMDQ
      scores have correlations with the proprioception in the flexion of the lumbar
      vertebra flexion; the peak torque of both flexion and extension muscle groups;
      and average power and endurance at different angular velocities. The decrease of
      lumbar muscle strength, endurance, and lumbar proprioception of the lumbar
      vertebra leads to an increase in pain intensity and lumbar disability.This study
      suggests that patients with chronic low back pain require targeted training in
      muscle strength, endurance, and lumbar proprioception, providing a theoretical
      basis for prevention and treatment of chronic NSLBP patients.

PMID- 28885357
TI  - Comparative effectiveness of azithromycin for treating scrub typhus: A PRISMA
      compliant systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Scrub typhus is a zoonotic disease that remains an important health
      threat in endemic areas. Appropriate anti-rickettsial treatment ensures a
      successful recovery. Doxycycline is a recommended drug, but it is contraindicated
      in pregnant women and young children. Azithromycin is a safer alternative drug,
      but its effectiveness remains largely unclear. Herein, we conducted a systematic
      review and meta-analysis to determine the effectiveness of azithromycin. METHODS:
      Studies that investigated azithromycin in treating scrub typhus were
      systematically identified from electronic databases up to December 2016.
      Information regarding study population, disease severity, treatment protocols,
      and responses was extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: In this review, 5 studies were
      included, which comprised a total of 427 patients. When comparing the treatment
      failure rate, we observed a favorable outcome in patients treated with
      azithromycin (risk ratio [RR] 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.23-2.98).
      However, patients in the azithromycin group had longer time to defervescence
      (mean difference 4.38 hours, 95% CI -2.51 to 11.27) and higher rate of fever for
      more than 48 hours (RR 1.31, 95% CI 0.81-2.12). Moreover, patients treated with
      azithromycin had less adverse effects (RR 0.8, 95% CI 0.42-1.52). CONCLUSIONS:
      Azithromycin is as effective as other anti-rickettsial drugs with higher
      treatment success rates, lower frequency of adverse effects, and longer time to
      defervescence (GRADE 2B). Therefore, it is reasonable to use azithromycin as the
      first-line treatment against scrub typhus. Further studies are warranted to
      elucidate the effectiveness of azithromycin in specific patient groups, at high
      dose and influence of drug resistance.

PMID- 28885359
TI  - Sustained dysfunctional information processing in patients with Internet gaming
      disorder: 6-month follow-up ERP study.
AB  - Internet gaming disorder (IGD), defined as an inability to control Internet-based
      game play, leads to serious impairment in psychological and social functioning,
      but few studies have identified the neurophysiological characteristics of
      patients with IGD. The aim of this study was to determine neurophysiological
      markers of P300 components associated with changes in symptoms after outpatient
      management with pharmacotherapy in patients with IGD. The present prospective
      longitudinal study included 18 patients with IGD and 29 healthy controls. The
      patients with IGD completed a 6-month outpatient management program including
      selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor-based pharmacotherapy. Event-related
      potentials (ERPs) were acquired during the auditory oddball task. ERPs of the
      patients with IGD were recorded before and after treatment. Between-group
      differences and the pre-to-post treatment differences in P300 components were
      investigated using repeated-measures analysis of variance. The primary treatment
      outcome was a change in score on Young Internet Addiction Test between before and
      after treatment. At baseline assessments, the IGD group showed significantly
      reduced P300 amplitudes and delayed latencies at the midline centro-parietal site
      compared with those in the healthy controls. No significant changes in the P300
      indices were observed between pre and post-treatment in the patients with IGD
      after 6 months of treatment, even though the patients with IGD exhibited
      significant improvements in their IGD symptoms. Furthermore, no significant
      difference in ERPs was observed between responders and nonresponders to a 6-month
      treatment in patients with IGD. These results suggest that reduced P300
      amplitudes and delayed latencies are candidate endophenotypes in the
      pathophysiology of IGD.

PMID- 28885358
TI  - Comorbidity of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety in flood survivors:
      Prevalence and shared risk factors.
AB  - Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety are both prevalent in trauma
      related populations. However, comorbidity of these 2 psychiatric disorders has
      not been investigated in flood survivors. This study aimed to estimate the extent
      to which PTSD and anxiety co-occur in flood survivors, and identify shared risk
      factors for PTSD only and comorbidity of PTSD and anxiety.Individuals who
      experienced Dongting Lake flood in 1998 were enrolled in this study using
      stratified and systematic random sampling method. Information on social support,
      personality traits, PTSD, and anxiety was collected using self-report
      questionnaires. The intensity of exposure to the flood was measured by some
      questions. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated
      with PTSD only and comorbidity of PTSD and anxiety.In all, 325 participants were
      enrolled in this study. The prevalence of PTSD, anxiety, and comorbidity of PTSD
      and anxiety among survivors of the 1998 Dongting Lake flood at 17-year follow-up
      was 9.54%, 9.23%, and 6.15%, respectively. Furthermore, 64.52% of those with PTSD
      had anxiety and 66.67% of those with anxiety had PTSD. Loss of relative, injury
      of body, damage of house, and emotional instability were shared risk factors for
      PTSD only and comorbidity of PTSD and anxiety, in comparison with neither PTSD
      nor anxiety.Post-traumatic stress disorder only and comorbidity of PTSD and
      anxiety are prevalent in flood survivors, and are both related to the intensity
      of exposure to the flood and personality traits, indicating that integrated
      intervention strategies of PTSD and anxiety for flood survivors are needed.

PMID- 28885360
TI  - The prognostic value and potential drug target of phosphatase and tensin homolog
      in breast cancer patients: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The prognostic significance of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN)
      in patients with breast cancer (BC) remains controversial. The aims of our meta
      analysis are to evaluate its association with clinicopathological characteristics
      and prognostic value in patients with breast cancer. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Web
      of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were
      systematically searched up to December 2016. The meta-analysis was performed
      using hazard ratio (HR), odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) as
      effect measures. A fixed or random effect model was used depending on the
      heterogeneity analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using Review manager
      software version 5.3. RESULTS: Seventeen studies including 4343 patients with
      breast cancer were analyzed. The meta-analysis indicated that breast cancers with
      PTEN loss were significantly associated with the tumor size >=2 cm group (ORFEM =
      1.68, 95%CIFEM [1.34, 2.10]), negative expression of estrogen receptor (ORREM =
      1.95, 95%CIREM [1.09, 3.49]), negative expression of progesterone receptor (ORFEM
      = 1.72, 95%CIFEM [1.43, 2.08]), the advanced stage (ORREM = 1.94, 95%CIREM [1.35,
      2.80]), positive axillary lymph node metastasis (ORREM = 1.80, 95%CIREM [1.30,
      2.50]), and the local recurrence (ORFEM = 1.70, 95%CIFEM [1.26, 2.28]). None of
      other clinicopathological parameters such as the HER2 status and distant
      metastasis were associated with PTEN loss. The decreased PTEN expression was
      significantly correlated with the overall survival (OS) of patients (HRREM =
      1.83, 95%CIREM [1.32, 2.53]) and the disease-free survival (DFS) of patients
      (HRREM = 2.43, 95%CIREM [1.31, 4.53]). CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis demonstrates
      that PTEN loss is of particular importance for predicting breast cancer
      aggressiveness and poor prognosis. PTEN is a potential drug target for the
      development of individualized treatment in BC patients.

PMID- 28885361
TI  - Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma and hypereosinophilic syndrome with
      FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion gene effectively treated with imatinib: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) is a rare disorder characterized by
      hypereosinophilia and organ damage. Some cases of HES are caused by the
      FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion gene and respond to imatinib. FIP1L1/PDGFRA-positive HES
      occasionally evolves into chronic eosinophilic leukemia or into another form of
      myeloproliferative neoplasm; however, the development of a malignant lymphoma is
      very rare. We present a rare case of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL)
      and HES with the FIP1L1/PDGFRA gene rearrangement. PATIENT CONCERNS: A man in his
      30s presented to our hospital with fever, hypereosinophilia, widespread
      lymphadenopathy, and splenomegaly. Laboratory tests showed hypereosinophilia,
      increased soluble interleukin-2 receptor, and increased vitamin B12. Positron
      emission tomography with F fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) showed positive FDG uptake in
      multiple enlarged lymph nodes throughout the body and the red bone marrow. A bone
      marrow biopsy showed hypereosinophilia without dysplasia and an increased number
      of blasts. The FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion gene was positive upon fluorescence in situ
      hybridization (FISH) analysis of the peripheral blood. Furthermore, biopsy of a
      lymph node from the neck revealed restiform hyperplasia of capillary vessels,
      with small lymphoma cells arranged around the capillaries. Lymphoma cells were
      positive for CD3, CD4, and CD10, and negative for CD20. Lymphoma cells were also
      positive for the FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion gene by FISH analysis. DIAGNOSES: From
      these findings, the patient was diagnosed with HES and AITL with FIP1L1/PDGFRA.
      INTERVENTIONS: After the diagnosis, corticosteroid was administered but was
      ineffective. Imatinib was then administered. OUTCOMES: Imatinib was very
      effective for treating HES and AITL, and complete remission was achieved in both.
      LESSONS: This report presents the first case in which the FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion
      gene was positive both in peripheral blood and lymph nodes, implying the
      possibility that the tumor cells acquired the FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion gene in the
      early stage of hematopoietic progenitor cell developments. Imatinib was very
      effective in treating both HES and lymphoma, suggesting that the FIP1L1/PDGFRA
      fusion gene plays a key role in the pathogenesis of both HES and lymphoma.

PMID- 28885362
TI  - The protective efficacy and safety of bandage contact lenses in children aged 5
      to 11 after frontalis muscle flap suspension for congenital blepharoptosis: A
      single-center randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative complications, lagophthalmos and exposure keratopathy
      sometimes occur after surgery for congenital blepharoptosis. Bandage contact
      lenses (BCL) can help prevent some ocular surface disorders. The study aims to
      evaluate the efficacy and safety of BCL for protection of the ocular surface in
      children aged 5 to 11 years after frontalis muscle flap suspension for congenital
      blepharoptosis. METHODS: We conducted a prospective randomized clinical study of
      30 eyes of 30 patients with congenital blepharoptosis consecutively enrolled at
      the Ophthalmology Ward of the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical
      University, China from September 1, 2016, to February 30, 2017. After frontalis
      muscle flap suspension surgery, patients were randomly assigned to undergo BCL
      application (BCL group, 15 eyes) or no BCL application (control group, 15 eyes).
      All patients were treated with bramycin 0.3% and polyvinyl alcohol drops after
      surgery. The primary outcomes were dry eye assessed by tear film break time
      (TFBUT), fluoresce in corneal staining (FCS) on slit-lamp on days 1, 3, and 15
      postoperatively, and lower tear meniscus height (LTMH) on optical coherence
      tomography on days 1 and 15 postoperatively. Secondary outcomes were pairwise
      correlation of TFBUT, FCS and LTMH. RESULTS: In the BCL group, abnormal TFBUT and
      FCS were only found in 2 patients (13.33%) on postoperative day 15. In the
      control group, the incidence of dry eye assessed by TFBUT was 67.00% (10/15 eyes)
      on day 1, 73.33% (11/15 eyes) on day 3, and 53.33% (8/15 eyes) on day 15 (P <
      .001). LTMH were significantly higher in the BCL group than the control group
      postoperatively (P < .001). Significant positive correlations were found between
      LTMH and TFBUT pre-operation and on days 1 and 15 post-operation. For LTMH and
      FCSS (R = -0.815, P < .001), and TFBUT and FCS (R = -0.837, P < .001), the
      Pearson coefficient was negative on postoperative day 1, but not correlated on
      day 15. CONCLUSIONS: Silicone hydrogel BCL were safe and efficacious for
      protective use in children after frontalis muscle flap suspension for congenital
      blepharoptosis.

PMID- 28885363
TI  - Prevalence, risk factors, and prognosis of orthostatic hypotension in diabetic
      patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is a major clinical sign of
      cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in diabetic patients. Our aim was to
      quantitatively evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of OH in patients with
      diabetes mellitus (DM) and assess its prognosis. METHODS: A comprehensive search
      of the PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Chinese
      Journal, Wanfang, and SINOMED databases was conducted for related published work
      up to September 25, 2016, and manually searched eligible studies from the
      references in accordance with the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: We included 21
      studies in the analysis, with a total sample size of 13,772. The pooled
      prevalence of OH in DM was 24% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 19-28%). Potential
      risk factors, that is, glycosylated hemoglobin A (HbA1c) (odds ratio [OR], 1.13,
      95% CI, 1.07-1.20), hypertension (OR, 1.02, 95% CI, 1.01-1.02), and diabetic
      nephropathy (OR, 2.37, 95% CI, 1.76-3.19), were significantly associated with OH
      in DM. In addition, the prognosis of OH in DM was associated with higher risk of
      total mortality and cardiovascular events. CONCLUSION: The pooled prevalence of
      OH in DM appears high. HbA1c, hypertension, and diabetic nephropathy are risk
      factors for OH in DM. OH indicates poor prognosis in diabetic patients. Attention
      should be focused on diabetic patients with the stated risk factors to prevent
      OH.

PMID- 28885364
TI  - Comparison of laparoscopic-assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy and abdominal
      radical hysterectomy in patients with early stage cervical cancer: A
      retrospective study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare the safety and survival outcomes
      of early stage cervical cancer patients treated by laparoscopically assisted
      radical vaginal hysterectomy (LARVH) versus abdominal radical hysterectomy (ARH).
      METHODS: Since March 2008 to July 2012, the patients with early stage cervical
      cancer undergoing LARVH or ARH in Beijing hospital have been entered into this
      study. Statistical analysis used Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS)
      and significance was defined as P < .05. RESULT: Forty-two patients were included
      in LARVH group and 35 patients in ARH group. Both groups were similar with
      respect to age, body mass index (BMI), histological diagnosis, and stage. There
      were no differences in operative time, vaginal length, and postoperative
      complications, but blood loss, rate of transfusion, length of catheterized, and
      length of hospital stay were significantly less in LARVH. Number of lymph node
      retrieved was less than ARH. No differences were seen regarding recurrence rate,
      length of disease free survival, overall survival, and mortality rate after a
      median follow up of 58.5 and 48.5 months. CONCLUSION: LARVH is a suitable
      alternative to ARH for early-stage cervical cancer, which shows less blood loss,
      shorter catheterized and hospital stay, and similar survival outcomes.

PMID- 28885365
TI  - Therapeutic efficacy of neuromuscular electrical stimulation and
      electromyographic biofeedback on Alzheimer's disease patients with dysphagia.
AB  - To study the therapeutic effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation and
      electromyographic biofeedback (EMG-biofeedback) therapy in improving swallowing
      function of Alzheimer's disease patients with dysphagia.A series of 103
      Alzheimer's disease patients with dysphagia were divided into 2 groups, among
      which the control group (n = 50) received swallowing function training and the
      treatment group (n = 53) received neuromuscular electrical stimulation plus EMG
      biofeedback therapy. The mini-mental state scale score was performed in all
      patients along the treatment period. Twelve weeks after the treatment, the
      swallowing function was assessed by the water swallow test. The nutritional
      status was evaluated by Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) as well as the levels
      of hemoglobin and serum albumin. The frequency and course of aspiration pneumonia
      were also recorded.No significant difference on mini-mental state scale score was
      noted between 2 groups. More improvement of swallowing function, better
      nutritional status, and less frequency and shorter course of aspiration pneumonia
      were presented in treatment group when compared with the control
      group.Neuromuscular electrical stimulation and EMG-biofeedback treatment can
      improve swallowing function in patients with Alzheimer's disease and
      significantly reduce the incidence of adverse outcomes. Thus, they should be
      promoted in clinical practice.

PMID- 28885366
TI  - Acute vanishing bile duct syndrome after therapy with cephalosporin,
      metronidazole, and clotrimazole: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Vanishing bile duct syndrome (VBDS) consists of a series of diseases
      characterized by the loss of >50% bile duct in portal areas. Many factors are
      associated with VBDS including infections, neoplasms, and drugs. Antibiotic is
      one of the most frequently reported causes of VBDS. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 29-year
      old female was admitted because of liver injury for over 3 months. Tests for
      viruses that can cause hepatitis and autoantibodies were all negative. She was
      prescribed with antibiotics approximately a week before liver injury while there
      was no history of alcohol consumption. DIAGNOSES: Liver biopsy demonstrated a
      loss of intrahepatic bile duct in most of the portal tracts. INTERVENTIONS: This
      patient was treated with ursodeoxycholic acid, polyene phosphatidylcholine, and
      bicyclol. Most importantly, the treatments in our hospital were proved by the
      ethics committee of Department of Infectious Disease, Anhui Provincial Hospital.
      OUTCOMES: The symptoms were improved. She is still under treatment. LESSONS: VBDS
      is rare but can be severe. A liver biopsy offers an important evidence for the
      diagnosis of VBDS, especially for those with a history of susceptible drugs
      taking.

PMID- 28885367
TI  - Compulsive skin-picking behavior after deep brain stimulation in a patient with
      refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder: A case report.
AB  - RATIONAL: The therapeutic effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for refractory
      obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been studied, but complications after
      this treatment have rarely been noted. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 28-year-old man with
      treatment-resistant OCD received bilateral ventral capsule/ventral striatum
      stimulation for 12 months. DIAGNOSIS: Compulsive skin-picking behavior and
      infection were noted following 12-month DBS treatment. INTERVENTION: We removed
      the implanted right-side pulse generator. OUTCOMES: The local inflammation and
      skin-picking behavior gradually improved. The stimulator device was re-implanted
      4 months later. LESSONS: We suggest that patients with the OC spectrum should be
      evaluated for skin-picking behaviors during presurgical and postsurgical follow
      up to reduce the infection and device removal rates.

PMID- 28885368
TI  - Successful management of octreotide-insensitive thyrotropin-secreting pituitary
      adenoma with bromocriptine and surgery: A case report and literature review.
AB  - RATIONALE: Case reports concerning the value of dopamine agonists in the
      treatment of patients with thyrotropin-secreting pituitary adenoma (TSHoma) are
      limited. Herein, we present a rare case of octreotide-insensitive TSHoma
      responding to bromocriptine therapy. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 45-year-old Chinese man
      was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital with marked clinical
      manifestations of hyperthyroidism. DIAGNOSES: Thyroid function tests demonstrated
      elevated concentrations of free thyroid hormones in the presence of normal
      thyrotropin. Magnetic resonance imaging findings showed a pituitary microadenoma
      on the right side of the sellar region. Based on characteristic endocrine results
      and neuroimaging findings, the patient was diagnosed with TSHoma. INTERVENTIONS:
      Most patients with TSHomas are significantly responsive to somatostatin analog
      treatment. However, our patient was orally administered with bromocriptine to
      normalize thyroid function as assessed by suppression tests conducted prior to
      surgery. A transsphenoidal surgery was performed by an experienced neurosurgeon
      for tumor removal. OUTCOMES: The pituitary lesion was totally resected. Following
      the operation, the results of thyroid function tests were immediately within
      reference limits. During the follow-up, there was no residual or recurrent tumor.
      LESSONS: Attention should be paid to the role of dopamine agonists such as
      bromocriptine and cabergoline as adjuvant therapy for TSHomas that are
      insensitive to traditional medical treatment by somatostatin analogs.

PMID- 28885369
TI  - Influencing factors of glycemic variability in hospitalized type 2 diabetes
      patients with insulin therapy: A Strobe-compliant article.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that glucose fluctuation is closely related to
      oxidative stress and diabetic complications. However, only few studies have
      evaluated the influencing factors of glycemic variability (GV) in type 2 diabetes
      (T2D) patients so far.This was a cross-sectional study design. A total of 366
      cases of hospitalized patients with T2D using insulin therapy, whom received
      continuous glucose monitoring from January 2014 to December 2016, were enrolled
      for this study. The evaluation variables of GV included standard deviation of
      blood glucose, coefficient of variation (CV%), mean amplitude of glycemic
      excursion, and absolute means of daily differences.In 366 T2D patients with
      insulin therapy, 148 were used multiple daily injections (MDI) insulin regimen;
      144 were on premixed insulin injection; and 74 were treated with continuous
      subcutaneous insulin injection. Compared with MDI insulin regimen, patients on
      premixed insulin injection have less insulin dose per day, lower mean blood
      glucose, and better glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (all P <.05). Generalized linear
      model showed that family history of diabetes, duration of diabetes, higher HbA1c,
      and higher level of aspartate aminotransferase and high-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol were positively associated with GV parameters. Otherwise, serum
      levels of C-peptide, premixed insulin injection, history of cardiovascular
      disease, and serum concentration of uric acid were inversely associated with GV
      parameters.Dysfunction of pancreatic beta-cell and better insulin sensitivity
      were independent contributors to the fluctuation of blood glucose. Moreover,
      premixed insulin therapy may obtain better glucose control and lower within-day
      and day-to-day glucose variability for Chinese T2D patients with insulin therapy.

PMID- 28885370
TI  - Usefulness of titanium mesh cage for posterior C1-C2 fixation in patients with
      atlantoaxial instability.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of titanium mesh cage as
      an interlaminar spacer combined with nitinol shape memory loop fixation in
      patients with atlantoaxial instability.From April 2009 to March 2017, among the
      patients with atlantoaxial instability, a total of 30 patients were treated by
      nitinol shape memory loop fixation combined with titanium mesh cage as a spacer.
      We retrospectively reviewed 30 enrolled patients. Successful fusion was
      determined as improvement of symptoms and radiologic findings of bone fusion. We
      also reviewed surgical complications, instrumentation failure, bony fusion rate,
      and posterior atlantodental interval (PADI).After surgery, the symptoms of all
      patients significantly improved. Successful fusion was documented throughout the
      follow-up period. Evidence of solid bridging bone was found, and no instability
      was seen on flexion-extension radiographs and callus formation on 3D cervical
      spine computed tomography (CT) 6 months postoperatively in all cases. No surgical
      complications were observed. No cases of instrumentation failure were observed.
      The mean PADI also improved significantly to 22.45 +/- 1.11 mm 6 months
      postoperatively compared with the preoperative value of 18.37 +/- 1.16 mm (P <
      .05).We obtained a good fusion rate by using titanium mesh cage spacer with
      nitinol shape memory alloy loop in patients with atlantoaxial instability. This
      technique can help surgeons in avoiding vertebral artery injury and reducing
      bleeding and operation time. Therefore, we suggest that titanium mesh cage spacer
      combined with nitinol shape memory alloy loop can be a good substitute of
      autograft for C1-C2 fusion in treating atlantoaxial instabilities.

PMID- 28885371
TI  - Clinical and diagnostic features of angiosarcoma with pulmonary metastases: A
      retrospective observational study.
AB  - Angiosarcoma with pulmonary metastasis is a rare, fatal disease that often
      presents with multiple pulmonary nodules and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage. We
      herein review the detailed clinical characteristics of pulmonary metastatic
      angiosarcoma and determine a reasonable diagnostic strategy.The medical records
      of 11 patients with pulmonary angiosarcoma were reviewed.The mean age of the
      patients was 45.7 years (range, 30-71 years). All patients were male. The most
      common symptom was hemoptysis (8/11). Common initial misdiagnoses were
      tuberculosis (5/11), vasculitis (2/11), nontuberculous infectious disease (1/11),
      and constrictive pericarditis (1/11). Chest computed tomography (CT) of patients
      with hemoptysis showed bilateral, randomly distributed, variably shaped, and
      differently sized nodules, as well as ground-glass opacities (GGO) (8/11). The
      right heart was the most common primary tumor site (8/11), but the sensitivity of
      echocardiography was limited; CT angiography and cardiac magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) revealed more atrial masses. CT-guided needle biopsy was difficult
      to perform in most patients because of the small size of the nodules. The
      diagnosis was made by surgical biopsy of either the lung (3/9) or heart (6/9).
      The median overall survival of patients who underwent lung biopsy and those who
      underwent cardiac/pericardiac biopsy was 4.1 and 1.4 months, respectively (P =
      .098). The median overall survival of the 9 available patients was 5.0 months
      (95% confidence interval, 0.500-8.544).Angiosarcoma with pulmonary metastases
      should be considered in patients with hemoptysis and concurrent GGO and nodules
      on their chest CT scan. Careful cardiologic monitoring is necessary for these
      patients, even without any cardiac symptoms or signs, and enhanced cardiac MRI is
      the first recommendation. Surgical biopsy is reliable for histological diagnosis,
      but the safety of the lung biopsy should be carefully assessed. When primary
      cardiac tumors are identified, heart biopsy should be preferentially considered.

PMID- 28885372
TI  - Light therapy for multiple sclerosis-associated fatigue: Study protocol for a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fatigue is the most commonly reported symptom among multiple
      sclerosis (MS) patients, more than a quarter of whom consider fatigue to be their
      most disabling symptom. However, there are few effective treatment options for
      fatigue. We aim to investigate whether supplemental exposure to bright white
      light will reduce MS-associated fatigue. METHODS: Eligible participants will have
      clinically confirmed multiple sclerosis based on the revised McDonald criteria
      (2010) and a score >=36 on the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Participants will be
      randomized 1:1 to bright white light (10,000 lux; active condition) or dim red
      light (<300 lux; control condition) self-administered for 1 hour twice daily. The
      study will include a 2-week baseline period, a 4-week treatment period, and a 4
      week washout period. Participants will record their sleep duration, exercise,
      caffeine, and medication intake daily. Participants will record their fatigue
      using the Visual Analogue Fatigue Scale (VAFS) 4 times every third day, providing
      snapshots of their fatigue level at different times of day. Participants will
      self-report their fatigue severity using FSS on 3 separate visits: at baseline
      (week 0), following completion of the treatment phase (week 6), and at study
      completion (week 10). The primary outcome will be the change in the average FSS
      score after light therapy. We will perform an intention-to-treat analysis,
      comparing the active and control groups to assess the postintervention difference
      in fatigue levels reported on FSS. Secondary outcome measures include change in
      global VAFS scores during the light therapy and self-reported quality of life in
      the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54. DISCUSSION: We present a study design
      and rationale for randomizing a nonpharmacological intervention for MS-associated
      fatigue, using bright light therapy. The study limitations relate to the
      logistical issues of a self-administered intervention requiring frequent
      participant self-report in a relapsing condition. Ultimately, light therapy for
      the treatment of MS-associated fatigue may provide a low-cost, noninvasive, self
      administered treatment for one of the most prevalent and burdensome symptoms
      experienced by people with MS.

PMID- 28885373
TI  - Age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity score is associated with the risk of empyema in
      patients with COPD.
AB  - Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a higher risk of
      pneumonia than the general population due to their impaired lung defense. They
      also have a higher risk of empyema and more comorbidities than patients without
      COPD. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of empyema in patients with COPD
      after adjusting for age and comorbidities using the age-adjusted Charlson
      comorbidity index (ACCI).Data were retrieved from the National Health Insurance
      Research Database. COPD patients were defined as inpatients aged >40 years with
      an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical
      Modification diagnosis code for COPD. In total, 558,660 COPD patients were
      enrolled and separated into 3 groups by ACCI score to represent the severity of
      comorbidity (<=2, 3-5, and >5). Other comorbidities assessed included autoimmune
      diseases, gastroesophageal reflux disease, dyslipidemia, chest wall injury, and
      thoracostomy.Of the 558,660 patients, 36,556 (6.54%) had low ACCI scores (<=2),
      208,292 (37.28%) had moderate ACCI scores (3-5), and 313,812 (56.17%) had high
      ACCI scores (>5). The mean ages of the low, moderate, and high groups were 50.66,
      70.62, and 78.05 years, respectively. The hazard ratio (HRs) for empyema were
      1.26 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13-1.40) in the moderate ACCI group and
      1.55 (95% CI = 1.39-1.72) in the high ACCI group compared with the low ACCI
      group. The overall incidence of empyema in COPD patients was 2.57 per 1000 person
      years.This is the first study to use ACCI scores to analyze the risk of empyema
      in patients with COPD. Patients with high ACCI scores were older and had more
      complicated comorbidities, resulting in a higher risk of empyema and poor
      prognosis. The subgroup analysis indicated that COPD patients with comorbid
      autoimmune disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, chest wall injury, or
      history of thoracostomy did not have a higher risk of empyema than patients
      without these comorbidities.Empyema is an important issue in patients with COPD
      and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Awareness of the risk
      factors for empyema, close monitoring, and early intervention may improve patient
      outcomes and decrease mortality.

PMID- 28885374
TI  - Predictive factors to diagnosis undifferentiated early gastric cancer after
      endoscopic submucosal dissection.
AB  - It is difficult to predict precisely whether the lesion corresponds to endoscopic
      resection indication. Furthermore, discrepancy may occur between endoscopic
      forceps biopsy (EFB) and finally resected specimen, which may be diagnosed as
      undifferentiated cancer and additional surgery may be required. Our study aimed
      to evaluate predictive factors to diagnose undifferentiated cancer after
      endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD).Among the 532 patients diagnosed by ESD
      between January 2009 and December 2015, 557 early gastric cancer (EGC) cases were
      studied. Factors predicting diagnosis of undifferentiated cancer and clinical
      outcomes of the lesions were retrospectively analyzed.Among the 557 cases with
      EGC, 535 (96.1%) were diagnosed as differentiated cancer and 22 (3.9%) as the
      undifferentiated type with ESD. Tumor size was larger (mean size 20.67 vs 13.59
      mm, P < .001) and age was lower (60.24 vs 64.50 years, P < .001) in the group
      with undifferentiated cancer. En bloc resection rate was similar (95.5% vs 95.9%,
      P = .886), but the complete resection rate was lower (72.7% vs 92.4%, P < .001)
      in the group with undifferentiated cancer. On multivariate analysis, tumor size
      >=10 mm (OR = 11.340, P = .032), age <55 years (OR = 5.972, P = .004), surface
      redness (OR = 11.562, P = .024), and whitish discoloration (OR = 35.368, P <
      .001) were predominantly associated with undifferentiated cancer.Young age (<55
      years), large tumor size (>=10 mm), surface redness, and whitish discoloration
      are predictors of undifferentiated cancer, and lesions with these features
      detected need to be treated cautiously.

PMID- 28885375
TI  - Tenofovir alafenamide nephrotoxicity in an HIV-positive patient: A case report.
AB  - RATIONALE: Tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) is novel prodrug of Tenofovir, a
      nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor. TAF is less nephrotoxic than its
      predecessor prodrug, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). Tenofovir causes
      mitochondrial dysfunction and tubular injury when there is elevated accumulation
      in proximal tubule cells. TAF's unique pharmacokinetic profile enables provision
      of lower required doses for antiviral efficacy. Lower concentrations reach renal
      tubules minimizing intracellular accumulation and mitochondrial damage. TAF has
      not been associated with the histologic markers of tenofovir-associated
      nephrotoxicity that are seen with TDF, such as dysmorphic mitochondria in
      proximal tubule cells. Here, we report a patient with dysmorphic mitochondria on
      kidney biopsy after initiating therapy with TAF. LESSONS: This case suggests that
      at risk individuals may experience tubular mitochondrial injury from lower
      concentrations of tenofovir with TAF.

PMID- 28885376
TI  - Clinicopathological features of diabetic and nondiabetic renal diseases in type 2
      diabetic patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria.
AB  - Heavy proteinuria with or without features of nephrotic syndrome is associated
      with many primary and systemic diseases. For diabetic patients, distinguishing
      nondiabetic renal disease (NDRD) from diabetic nephropathy (DN) is important in
      choosing treatment modalities and determining renal prognosis. However, clinical
      relevance of heavy proteinuria is inconsistent with clinical DN assessments. This
      study investigated the clinicopathological features and renal outcomes of DN and
      NDRD in type 2 diabetic patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria.We enrolled 220
      cases of type 2 diabetic patients who underwent renal biopsy. They were grouped
      according to the presence of nephritic-range proteinuria and pathological
      features. Baseline characteristics, laboratory findings, types of pathological
      diagnosis, and renal outcomes were analyzed in patients with heavy
      proteinuria.Upon kidney biopsy, 129 patients (58.6%) showed nephritic-range
      proteinuria. Patients with heavy proteinuria (an average urine protein-to
      creatinine ratio of 10,008 +/- 7307 mg/gCr) showed lower serum albumin levels and
      higher total cholesterol levels, but did not show any difference in age, duration
      of diabetes, renal function, or the presence of retinopathy compared with those
      with mild-to-moderate proteinuria (an average urine protein-to-creatinine ratio
      of 1581 +/- 979 mg/gCr). Renal biopsy revealed that the prevalence of NDRD was
      37.2% in patients with heavy proteinuria, which was significantly lower than that
      in patients with mild-to-moderate proteinuria (63.7%). The most common
      pathological types of NDRD were membranous nephropathy (41.7%), IgA nephropathy
      (14.6%), and minimal change disease (10.4%). NDRD patients showed lower
      prevalence of diabetic retinopathy and better kidney function irrespective of
      proteinuria. Immunosuppressive treatment was administered more frequently in
      patients with heavy proteinuria (56.3%) compared with patients with mild-to
      moderate proteinuria (20%) because of the pathological differences according to
      the amount of proteinuria. Renal outcomes were significantly worse in patients
      with DN than in patients with NDRD.DN patients with heavy proteinuria exhibited
      different prevalence of NDRD and worse prognosis. Renal biopsy in type 2 diabetic
      patients should be more extensively considered to accurately diagnose NDRD, guide
      further management, and predict renal outcomes, especially in patients with
      nephrotic-range proteinuria.

PMID- 28885377
TI  - Clinical Pearls in Venovenous Extracorporeal Life Support for Adult Respiratory
      Failure.
AB  - Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) has been widely utilized to treat neonatal
      respiratory failure for two decades. However, its uptake in the case of adult
      respiratory failure has been slow because of a paucity of quality evidence and a
      sluggish tempo of ECLS-related technological advances. In recent years, interest
      in ECLS has been piqued after encouraging results were reported from its use
      during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. In a world constantly under threat from
      another influenza epidemic or deadly novel respiratory infection, e.g., the
      severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, the Middle East respiratory
      syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the role of venovenous (VV) ECLS as a treatment
      modality for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) cannot be overemphasized.
      In hopes of standardizing practice, the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization
      (ELSO) has published books and guidelines on ECLS. However, high-level evidence
      to guide clinical decisions is still expediently needed in this field. Relying on
      the available literature and our experience in the recent South Korean MERS-CoV
      outbreak, we hope to highlight key physiologic and clinical points in VV ECLS for
      adult respiratory failure in this review.

PMID- 28885378
TI  - Radial Force: An Underestimated Parameter in Oversizing Transcatheter Aortic
      Valve Replacement Prostheses: In Vitro Analysis with Five Commercialized Valves.
AB  - The goal is to inform in depth on transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)
      prosthesis mechanical behavior, depending on frame type, design, and size, and
      how it crucially impacts the oversizing issue in clinical use, and ultimately the
      procedure outcome. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is an established
      therapy for high-risk patients suffering from aortic stenosis, and the indication
      for TAVR is progressively expanding to intermediate-risk patients. Choosing the
      optimal oversizing degree is crucial to safely anchor the TAVR valve-which
      involves limiting the risks for embolism, aortic regurgitation, conductance
      disturbance, or annulus rupture-and to increase the valve prosthesis performance.
      The radial force (RF) profiles of five TAVR prostheses were measured in vitro:
      the CoreValve 23 and 26 (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN), the Acurate neo S (Symetis,
      Ecublens, Vaud, Switzerland), and the SAPIEN XT 23 and 26 (Edwards Lifesciences,
      Irvine, CA). Measurements were run with the RX Machine equipment (Machine
      Solutions Inc., Flagstaff, AZ), which is used in ISO standard tests for
      intravascular stents. Test protocols were adapted for TAVR prostheses. With the
      prostheses RF profiles' results, mechanical behavior differences could be
      described and discussed in terms of oversizing strategy and clinical impact for
      all five valves. Besides, crossing the prostheses' RF profiles with their
      recommended size windows made the assessment of borderline size cases possible
      and helped analyze the risks when accurate measurement of patient aortic annulus
      proves difficult. The prostheses' RF profiles bring new support in clinical
      decision-making for valve type and size in patients.

PMID- 28885379
TI  - Risk Stratification of Patients With Current Generation Continuous-Flow Left
      Ventricular Assist Devices Being Bridged to Heart Transplantation.
AB  - Patients bridged to transplant (BTT) with continuous-flow left ventricular assist
      devices (CF-LVADs) have increased in the past decade. Decision support tools for
      these patients are limited. We developed a risk score to estimate prognosis and
      guide decision-making. We included heart transplant recipients bridged with CF
      LVADs from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database and divided them
      into development (2,522 patients) and validation cohorts (1,681 patients).
      Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were performed.
      Variables that independently predicted outcomes (age, African American race,
      recipient body mass index [BMI], intravenous [IV] antibiotic use, pretransplant
      dialysis, and total bilirubin) were assigned weight using linear transformation,
      and risk scores were derived. Patients were grouped by predicted posttransplant
      mortality: low risk (<= 38 points), medium risk (38-41 points), and high risk (>=
      42 points). We performed Cox proportional hazards analysis on wait-listed CF-LVAD
      patients who were not transplanted. Score significantly discriminated survival
      among the groups in the development cohort (6.7, 12.9, 20.7; p = 0.001),
      validation cohort (6.4, 10.1, 13.6; p < 0.001), and ambulatory cohort (6.4, 11.5,
      17.2; p < 0.001). We derived a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) BTT risk
      score that effectively identifies CF-LVAD patients who are at higher risk for
      worse outcomes after heart transplant. This score may help physicians weigh the
      risks of transplantation in patients with CF-LVAD.

PMID- 28885380
TI  - Use of Durable Continuous-Flow Ventricular Assist Devices in Patients on
      Immunosuppression.
AB  - Durable ventricular assist device (VAD) therapy remains an important treatment
      for end-stage heart failure. Despite advancements in device design, postimplant
      infectious complications continue to plague this population. In this study, we
      aim to evaluate the use of durable VAD therapy in patients on active
      immunosuppression. All patients undergoing durable, continuous-flow VAD placement
      on active immunosuppression at our center from 2004 to 2012 were included in the
      analysis (group immunosuppressed [IS]; n = 13). Demographic data, comorbidities,
      device details, immunosuppression details including indication, postimplant
      infections, and outcomes were collected and compared with patients without
      immunosuppression (group non-IS; n = 259). Mean age in the IS group was 56.3 +/-
      12.4 years, and 12 patients (92.3%) were male. Twelve patients (92.3%) were
      implanted as a bridge to transplant. Incidence of any postimplant infection and
      device-related infection was 1.15 infections/patient * year and 0.38
      infections/patient * year, respectively. Survival to discharge was 84.6% and
      93.1% (p = 0.25), and 1 year survival was 75.0% and 83.1% (p = 0.47) in the IS
      and non-IS group, respectively. Mean duration of support was 384 +/- 466 days,
      and mean follow-up was 2.1 +/- 1.5 years. Active immunosuppression may lead to a
      modest increase in postimplant infection rate in durable VAD patients than in non
      IS patients undergoing the same treatment; however, late on-device survival is
      not affected. Immunosuppression should not be considered an absolute
      contraindication to device implant.

PMID- 28885381
TI  - Characteristics of Medical Adverse Events/Near Misses Associated With
      Laparoscopic/Thoracoscopic Surgery: A Retrospective Study Based on the Japanese
      National Database of Medical Adverse Events.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to clarify the characteristics of adverse
      events/near misses during laparoscopic/thoracoscopic surgery. METHODS: Using
      relevant key words for minimally invasive surgeries, 540 records were identified
      in the database of the Japan Council for Quality Health Care. After data review
      and the classification of adverse events, 746 events associated with laparoscopic
      (laparo group) and/or thoracoscopic (thoraco group) surgery were identified. We
      calculated the frequency of each event, compared the frequency regarding
      recurrent events, and evaluated the types of event that had resulted in deaths
      between the 2 groups. RESULTS: There were 582 events in the laparo group, 159 in
      the thoraco group, and 5 in those undergoing combined surgery. Overall, injury of
      other organs (11.4%, 85/746), retention of a foreign body (9.1%, 68/746),
      breakage/failure of medical equipment or devices (6.2%, 46/746), massive bleeding
      (5.9%, 44/746), misperception of anatomy (5.6%, 42/746), and vascular injury
      (4.8%, 36/746) were frequently reported. There were marked differences in the
      frequency of injury of other organs (laparo group: 13.4%, 78/582; thoraco group:
      4.4%, 7/159), massive bleeding (laparo group: 3.4%, 20/582; thoraco group: 14.5%,
      23/159), and vascular injury (laparo group: 2.6%, 15/582; thoraco group: 12.6%,
      20/159) between the 2 groups. Among the 56 patient-death reports, 132 adverse
      events were identified. In the thoraco group, bleeding events were frequently
      observed, whereas in the laparo group, various categories of events were noted.
      CONCLUSIONS: We observed recurrent incidents and differences in the frequency
      between the 2 groups. Surgeons should keep in mind these characteristics.
      Retention of a foreign body and the breakage/malfunctioning of instruments might
      be reduced by the introduction of specialized checklists.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.

PMID- 28885382
TI  - The Ideal Hospital Discharge Summary: A Survey of U.S. Physicians.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hospital discharge summaries enable communication between inpatient
      and outpatient physicians. Despite existing guidelines for discharge summaries,
      they are frequently suboptimal. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess
      physicians' perspectives about discharge summaries and the differences between
      summaries' authors (hospitalists) and readers (primary care physicians [PCPs]).
      METHODS: A national survey of 1600 U.S. physicians was undertaken. Primary
      measures included physicians' preferences in discharge summary standardization,
      content, format, and audience. RESULTS: A total of 815 physicians responded
      (response rate = 51%). Eighty-nine percent agreed that discharge summaries
      "should have a standardized format." Most agreed that summaries should "document
      everything that was done, found, and recommended in the hospital" (64%) yet "only
      include details that are highly pertinent to the hospitalization" (66%). Although
      74% perceived patients as an important audience of discharge summaries, only 43%
      agreed that summaries "should be written in language that patients...can easily
      understand," and 68% agreed that it "should be written solely for provider-to
      provider communication." Compared with hospitalists, PCPs preferred comprehensive
      summaries (68% versus 59%, P = 0.002). More PCPs agreed that separate summaries
      should be created for patients and for provider-to-provider communication than
      hospitalists (60% versus 47%, P < 0.001). Compared with PCPs, more hospitalists
      believe that "hospitalists are too busy to prepare a high-quality discharge
      summary" (44% versus 23%, P < 0.001) and "PCPs have insufficient time to read an
      entire discharge summary" (60% versus 38%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Physicians
      believe that discharge summaries should have a standardized format but do not
      agree on how comprehensive or in what format they should be. Efforts are
      necessary to build consensus toward the ideal discharge summary.

PMID- 28885383
TI  - Application of a Modified Pedicled Adipofascial Lateral Arm Flap in the
      Prevention and Treatment of Radial Nerve Injuries.
AB  - The fasciocutaneous lateral arm flap is a workhorse flap in upper extremity
      reconstruction. However, its adipofascial variant is not widely used. The
      technique can be used in various clinical scenarios. The adipofascial flap can be
      transposed to circumferentially wrap the radial nerve with a pliable,
      vascularized fat and fascial envelope, mimicking the natural fatty environment of
      peripheral nerves. This technique has the advantage of providing a scar tissue
      barrier, a barrier to hardware irritation and a milieu for vascular regeneration
      of the nerve. Suggested applications include nerve coverage in the setting of
      posterior humerus plating to prevent adhesions; anticipation of bone grafting in
      the setting of an open fractures with bone loss, infection, or with the use of
      the Masquelet technique; in revision total elbow arthroplasty or endoprosthetic
      humerus replacement; and in the setting of neurolysis, repair or nerve grafting.
      The technique is straightforward and does not require microvascular expertise.

PMID- 28885384
TI  - A New Stem Guide and a Tuberosity Anchoring "Lasso" System for Shoulder
      Hemiarthroplasty in the Treatment of Complex Proximal Humerus Fractures.
AB  - Hemiarthroplasty implantation for proximal humerus fracture is challenging. In
      case of young demanding patients with functional rotator cuff, humeral head
      replacement is an option if open reduction internal fixation is not a viable
      solution. The criteria for success in terms of clinical outcomes and longevity
      are anatomic healing of the tuberosities and stem positioning (restoring correct
      height, version, and axis). The purpose of this article is to describe a
      technique including a new stem guide and a tuberosity anchor "lasso" system for
      the implantation of hemiarthroplasty in complex proximal humerus fractures. A
      standard delto-pectoral approach is performed. After humeral head removal and
      tuberosity mobilization and debridement, a stem-positioning system guarantees
      correct height and version of the humeral stem, established after anatomic
      reduction of the greater tuberosity. A centering device is added on the humeral
      stem to prevent any varus or valgus. Fixation of the tuberosities is achieved
      with 6 nonabsorbable sutures fixed on a polyester "lasso" anchoring system
      circling the humerus, respecting the direction of rotator cuff tendons and adding
      double circumferential tightening. After reduction of the implant, stability, and
      passive range of motion are assessed intraoperatively and fluoroscopic control of
      the prosthesis is performed. The patient is maintained in a sling in neutral
      rotation and passive motion is started after 4 weeks; active motion is allowed
      after 2 months. We believe this surgical technique could help limit complications
      and prevent revision of the humeral stem in case of further conversion to reverse
      shoulder arthroplasty.

PMID- 28885385
TI  - Blood pressure variability in individuals with and without (pre)diabetes: The
      Maastricht Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The mechanisms associating (pre)diabetes and cardiovascular disease
      (CVD) are incompletely understood. We hypothesize that greater blood pressure
      variability (BPV) may underlie this association, due to its association with
      (incident) CVD. Therefore, we investigated the association between (pre)diabetes
      and very short-term to mid-term BPV, that is within-visit, 24-h and 7-day BPV.
      METHODS: Cross-sectional data from The Maastricht Study [normal glucose
      metabolism (NGM), n = 1924; prediabetes, n = 511; type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM), n = 975; 51% men, aged 60 +/- 8 years]. We determined SD for within-visit
      BPV (n = 3244), average real variability for 24-h BPV (n = 2699) day (0900-2100
      h) and night (0100-0600 h) separately, and SD for 7-day BPV (n = 2259).
      Differences in BPV as compared with NGM were assessed by multiple linear
      regressions with adjustment for potential confounders. RESULTS: In T2DM, the
      average systolic/diastolic values of within-visit, 24-h and 7-day BPV were
      4.8/2.6, 10.5/7.3 and 10.4/6.5 mmHg, respectively, and in prediabetes 4.9/2.6,
      10.3/7.0 and 9.4/5.9 mmHg, respectively. T2DM was associated with greater
      nocturnal systolic BPV [0.42 mmHg (95% confidence interval: 0.05-0.80)], and
      greater 7-day systolic [0.76 mmHg (0.32-1.19)] and diastolic BPV [0.65 mmHg (0.29
      1.01)], whereas prediabetes was associated with greater within-visit systolic BPV
      only [0.35 mmHg (0.06-0.65)], as compared with NGM. CONCLUSION: Both T2DM and
      prediabetes are associated with slightly greater very short-term to mid-term BPV,
      which may, according to previous literature, explain a small part of the
      increased CVD risk seen in (pre)diabetes. Nevertheless, these findings do not
      detract from the fact that very short-term to mid-term BPV is substantial and
      important in individuals with and without (pre)diabetes.

PMID- 28885386
TI  - A Delta Neutrophil Index for the Prediction of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in
      Patients With St-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Followed By Percutaneous
      Coronary Intervention.
AB  - PURPOSE: We assessed the usefulness of the delta neutrophil index (DNI),
      reflecting immature granulocytes, to stratify risk for developing contrast
      induced nephropathy (CIN) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a
      clinical setting. METHODS: This study retrospectively analyzed prospective data
      of eligible adult patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) with STEMI
      followed by PCI. We determined DNI at multiple time points and analyzed the
      development of CIN and in-hospital mortality according to CIN incidence. RESULTS:
      Overall, 564 patients with STEMI followed by PCI were included. Of these, 58
      patients (10.3%) had CIN. Areas under the curve for predictability of CIN using
      the DNI within 2 h after PCI (I) and 24 h on ED admission (24) among patients
      with CIN were 0.775 (P < 0.001) and 0.751 (P < 0.001), respectively.
      Multivariable logistic regression demonstrated that increased DNI values at time
      I (odds ratio [OR], 1.632; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.357-1.964; P < 0.001)
      and time 24 (OR, 1.503; 95% CI, 1.272-1.777; P < 0.001) were strong independent
      factors for predicting CIN among patients with STEMI who underwent PCI.
      Increasing predictability of CIN was closely associated with DNI more than 1.8%
      on ED admission (OR, 12.494; 95% CI, 6.540-23.87; P < 0.001) and more than 1.9%
      at time 24 (OR, 10.45; 95% CI, 5.769-18.928; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The DNI is
      easily obtained as part of the complete blood count measurement without requiring
      additional cost or time. High DNI independently predicts the development of CIN
      in patients with acute STEMI followed by PCI.

PMID- 28885388
TI  - Differences in Physical Capacity Between Junior and Senior Australian
      Footballers.
AB  - Kelly, SJ, Watsford, ML, Austin, DJ, Spurrs, RW, Pine, MJ, and Rennie, MJ.
      Differences in physical capacity between junior and senior Australian
      footballers. J Strength Cond Res 31(11): 3059-3066, 2017-The purpose of this
      study was to profile and compare anthropometric and physical capacities within
      elite junior and senior Australian football (AF) players of various chronological
      ages and stages of athletic development. Seventy-nine players, including junior
      and senior AF players from one professional club, were profiled using 11
      assessments. Junior players were divided into 2 groups based on chronological age
      (under 16 and 18 years) and senior players according to years since drafted to a
      professional AF team (1-2 years, 3-7 years, and 8+ years). Parametric data were
      assessed using a 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), whereas nonparametric data
      were assessed using a Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA. The magnitude difference between
      players was measured using the Hopkins' effect size (ES). Significant differences
      were evident between under-16 players and all senior player groups for
      anthropometric (p = 0.001-0.019/ES = 1.25-2.13), absolute strength (p = 0.001
      0.01/ES = 1.82-4.46), and relative strength (p = 0.001-0.027/ES = 0.84-3.55). The
      under-18 players displayed significantly lower absolute strength (p = 0.001
      0.012/ES = 1.82-3.79) and relative strength (p = 0.001-0.027/ES = 0.85-4.00)
      compared with the 3-7 and 8+ players. Significant differences were evident
      between the under-16 players and senior player groups for explosive jumping and
      throwing tests (p = 0.001-0.017/ES = 1.03-2.99). Minimal differences were evident
      between all player groups for running assessments; however, the under-16 players
      were significantly slower compared with the 8+ players for the 3-km time trial (p
      < 0.02/ES = 1.31), whereas both junior player groups covered significantly less
      distance during the Yo-Yo IR2 (p < 0.02/ES = 1.19 and 1.60). Results of this
      study display a significant deficit in strength between junior and senior AF
      players.

PMID- 28885387
TI  - Evidence for Persistent Immune Suppression in Patients Who Develop Chronic
      Critical Illness After Sepsis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many sepsis survivors develop chronic critical illness (CCI) and are
      assumed to be immunosuppressed, but there is limited clinical evidence to support
      this. We sought to determine whether the incidence of secondary infections and
      immunosuppressive biomarker profiles of patients with CCI differ from those with
      rapid recovery (RAP) after sepsis. METHODS: This prospective observational study
      evaluated 88 critically ill patients with sepsis and 20 healthy controls. Cohorts
      were defined based on clinical trajectory (early death, RAP, or CCI), whereas
      immunosuppression was clinically determined by the presence of a postsepsis
      secondary infection. Serial blood samples were collected for absolute lymphocyte
      counts (ALCs), monocytic human leukocyte antigen-DR (mHLA-DR) expression, and
      plasma-soluble programmed death-ligand 1 (sPD-L1) concentrations. RESULTS: Of the
      88 patients with sepsis, 3 (3%) died within 14 days of sepsis onset, 50 (57%)
      experienced RAP, and 35 (40%) developed CCI. Compared with RAP patients, CCI
      patients exhibited a higher incidence and overall number of infections adjusted
      for hospital length of stay. ALC and mHLA-DR levels were dramatically reduced at
      the time of sepsis diagnosis when compared with healthy controls, whereas sPD-L1
      concentrations were significantly elevated. There were no differences between RAP
      and CCI patients in ALC, sPD-L1, or mHLA-DR at the time of diagnosis or within 24
      h after sepsis diagnosis. However, in contrast to the RAP group, CCI patients
      failed to exhibit any trend toward restoration of normal values of ALC, HLA-DR,
      and sPD-L1. CONCLUSIONS: Septic patients demonstrate clinical and biological
      evidence to suggest they are immunosuppressed at the time of sepsis diagnosis.
      Those who develop CCI have a greater incidence of secondary infections and
      persistently aberrant markers of impaired host immunity, although measurements at
      the time of sepsis onset did not distinguish between subjects with RAP and CCI.

PMID- 28885389
TI  - Load-Velocity Relationship in Variations of the Half-Squat Exercise: Influence of
      Execution Technique.
AB  - Perez-Castilla, A, Garcia-Ramos, A, Padial, P, Morales-Artacho, AJ, and Feriche,
      B. Load-velocity relationship in variations of the half-squat exercise: influence
      of execution technique. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2017-Previous studies
      have revealed that the velocity of the bar can be used to determine the intensity
      of different resistance training exercises. However, the load-velocity
      relationship seems to be exercise dependent. This study aimed to compare the load
      velocity relationship obtained from 2 variations of the half-squat exercise
      (traditional vs. ballistic) using 2 execution techniques (eccentric-concentric
      vs. concentric-only). Twenty men performed a submaximal progressive loading test
      in 4 half-squat exercises: eccentric-concentric traditional-squat, concentric
      only traditional-squat, countermovement jump (i.e., ballistic squat using the
      eccentric-concentric technique), and squat jump (i.e., ballistic squat using the
      concentric-only technique). Individual linear regressions were used to estimate
      the 1 repetition maximum (1RM) for each half-squat exercise. Thereafter, another
      linear regression was applied to establish the relationship between the relative
      load (%RM) and mean propulsive velocity (MPV). For all exercises, a strong
      relationship was observed between %RM and MPV: eccentric-concentric traditional
      squat (R = 0.949), concentric-only traditional-squat (R = 0.920), countermovement
      jump (R = 0.957), and squat jump (R = 0.879). The velocities associated with each
      %RM were higher for the ballistic variation and the eccentric-concentric
      technique than for the traditional variation and concentric-only technique,
      respectively. Differences in velocity among the half-squat exercises decreased
      with the increment in the relative load. These results demonstrate that the MPV
      can be used to predict exercise intensity in the 4 half-squat exercises. However,
      independent regressions are required for each half-squat exercise because the
      load-velocity relationship proved to be task specific.

PMID- 28885390
TI  - Epidemiology of Admissions From the Emergency Department Among Febrile Infants
      Younger Than 90 Days in the United States, 2002 to 2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Febrile infants younger than 90 days are often
      subjected to invasive diagnostic evaluation and hospitalization to monitor for
      serious bacterial infection (SBI) despite recent changes in SBI risk and advances
      in diagnostics. Nationwide provider practices, over time, are unknown for this
      group. Our objective was to determine the likelihood of admission and associated
      complications of care for such infants, particularly those at lowest risk for
      SBI. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study including multisite emergency
      department (ED) visits using administrative data from the Pediatric Emergency
      Care Applied Research Network Core Data Project. We examined uncomplicated
      febrile infants younger than 90 days seen in the ED from 2002 to 2012 who did not
      have an explicit infectious diagnosis, critical illness, or chronic condition.
      RESULTS: We identified 38,224 infants, among whom, 11,600 (31%) were admitted. We
      observed a 3% increase in ED admission every year during the study period (P <
      0.05). Age less than 30 days and black race were independent predictors of
      admission (P < 0.01). We identified 227 complications of care in the ED. Among
      those with a specified cause, 49% were attributed to antibiotic use or procedures
      related to the diagnosis and empiric treatment of suspected infection.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite the decreasing risk of SBI and diagnostic advances during
      the study period, the odds of hospital admission increased for febrile infants at
      low risk for sepsis. We also provide first data on therapeutic and diagnostic
      test-related adverse events in this setting. These data provide further
      justification for a consensus guideline on management of such infants.

PMID- 28885391
TI  - Abusive Injuries Are Worse Than Vehicular Injuries: Should We Refocus Prevention?
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to compare the injury severity and
      outcome of motor vehicle and nonaccidental traumatic injuries and examine trends
      in mortality rates over time. METHODS: We reviewed data from 2005 to 2013 from a
      level 1 pediatric trauma center including demographics, injury severity, and
      outcomes. Primary outcomes of interest were mortality rates and hospital length
      of stay. RESULTS: Injury severity scores were significantly worse for
      nonaccidental traumas (NATs) (P < 0.001) compared with motor vehicle collisions
      and motor pedestrian collisions. Nonaccidental traumas were also found to have
      significantly longer length of stay and higher fatality rates (P < 0.001).
      Significant differences were also found for the types of injuries sustained for
      head, extremity, trunk, and other injuries (P < 0.001), and for internal injuries
      (P < 0.01. Admission rates also dropped for both motor vehicle collisions and
      motor pedestrian collisions across the 9-year period (P < 0.001) but remained
      stable for NATs. CONCLUSION: In this study population, more severe injuries,
      higher mortality rates, and longer hospital stays were observed in pediatric NAT
      compared with those sustained through vehicular means. Furthermore, we observed
      statistically significant declines in motor vehicle-related injuries compared
      with NAT.

PMID- 28885392
TI  - The Effect of External Thermomechanical Stimulation and Distraction on Reducing
      Pain Experienced by Children During Blood Drawing.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the sole and combined effects of external
      thermomechanical stimulation and distraction in pain relief of children during
      blood drawing.This is a randomized clinical trial. The sample consisted of 218
      children aged 6 to 12 years who were randomly assigned to 4 groups: group 1
      received no intervention, group 2 received external thermomechanical stimulation
      using Buzzy, group 3 received distraction via DistrACTION Cards, and group 4
      received a combination of both external thermomechanical stimulation and
      distraction. Preprocedural anxiety was assessed through parents' and observers'
      observations using the Children's Anxiety and Pain Scale. Children's pain levels
      were assessed by themselves, observers, and parents, as reported using the Faces
      Pain Scale-Revised. Preprocedural anxiety did not differ significantly (P >
      0.05). When the 3 study groups were compared with the control group, all 3 groups
      had significantly lower pain levels than the control group (P < 0.001). The
      lowest pain level was measured in the combined condition (Buzzy and DistrACTION
      Cards). The mean score of the device group was lower than the distraction group.

PMID- 28885393
TI  - The association between red cell distribution width, erythropoietin levels, and
      coronary artery disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a cardiac marker for risk
      stratification and prognostic evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD);
      however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Erythropoietin (EPO), a
      crucial factor affecting erythropoiesis, has been reported to be a protective
      molecule regulating the process of myocardial ischemia and relevant damage. No
      study has as yet reported the relationship between RDW and endogenous EPO in CAD
      patients. This cross-sectional study aimed to establish the association between
      endogenous EPO levels and increases in RDW in CAD patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS:
      Two hundred participants who underwent coronary arteriography were recruited from
      July 2015 to October 2015. The participants were divided into CAD and non-CAD
      groups on the basis of angiography diagnosis. Demographic data were obtained
      through personal interviews and general clinical methods. RESULTS: RDW and EPO
      levels in the CAD group were higher than those in the non-CAD group. The
      correlation between RDW and EPO levels was statistically significant among CAD
      patients (r=0.411, P<0.001). The increases in EPO and RDW were related to the
      prevalence of CAD. The levels of RDW were correlated to endogenous EPO levels in
      CAD patients. CONCLUSION: Increased EPO and RDW might be risk factors for CAD.
      Endogenous EPO levels are associated with increases in RDW in CAD patients.

PMID- 28885394
TI  - Pleiotrophin levels are associated with improved coronary collateral circulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Elucidation of the underlying mechanisms of angiogenesis and
      arteriogenesis in coronary collateral formation is necessary for new therapies.
      Pleiotrophin is a secreted multifunctional cytokine and associated with the
      formation of functional cardiovascular neovascularization in a series of
      experimental animal models. We aimed to evaluate the serum levels of pleiotrophin
      in patients with chronic total coronary artery occlusion and poor or good
      collateral development. METHODS: We included 88 consecutive patients (mean age of
      the entire population: 63.7+/-12.1 years, 68 male patients) with stable angina
      pectoris who underwent coronary angiography and had chronic total occlusion in at
      least one major coronary artery. Collateral grading was performed according to
      the Rentrop classification. After grading, patients were divided into poor
      collateral circulation (Rentrop grade 0 and 1) and good collateral circulation
      (Rentrop grades 2 and 3) groups. Serum pleiotrophin levels were measured using a
      commercial human ELISA kit. RESULTS: Fifty-eight patients had good and 30
      patients had poor coronary collaterals. The good collateral group had higher
      serum pleiotrophin levels than the poor collateral group (690.1+/-187.9 vs.
      415.3+/-165.9 ng/ml, P<0.001). Pleiotrophin levels were higher with higher
      Rentrop grade (P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, increased pleiotrophin was
      associated independently with good collateral development (odds ratio: 1.007;
      confidence interval: 1.003-1.012; P=0.002). CONCLUSION: This study showed that
      increased serum pleiotrophin levels are associated with better developed coronary
      collateral circulation. Further studies are needed to better understand the
      relationship.

PMID- 28885395
TI  - Recurrent myocardial infarction in an aneurysmal coronary artery managed with
      stent grafts.

PMID- 28885396
TI  - A prospective multicenter cohort study of cutaneous melanoma: clinical staging
      and potential associations with HIF-1alpha and VEGF expressions.
AB  - Melanoma is a highly prevalent cancer that is associated with substantial
      mortality. Although clinical staging procedures can serve as relatively robust
      prognostic indicators, we aimed to determine whether assessments of the abundance
      of hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) or vascular endothelial growth
      factor (VEGF) in postexcisional melanoma tumor tissues may enable more accurate
      determination of tumor aggressiveness. We carried out a multicenter prospective
      study, in which we systematically evaluated 376 consecutive patients diagnosed
      with melanoma, and performed histochemical assessments for both HIF-1alpha and
      VEGF immunoreactivity in the tumor biopsies. Multivariate analyses showed that
      higher HIF-1alpha expression, but not high VEGF, were associated significantly
      and independently with increased tumor aggressiveness as derived from several
      well-established aggressiveness criteria. A limitation of this study was that
      this was a descriptive prospective study lacking a post-hoc verification arm.
      Thus, the presence of increased numbers of positively labeled HIF-1alpha cells in
      melanoma tumors may potentially serve as an indicator of tumor phenotype and
      prognosis, and accordingly guide therapy.

PMID- 28885397
TI  - Accuracy of Endometrial Sampling in Endometrial Carcinoma: A Systematic Review
      and Meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the agreement between preoperative endometrial sampling and
      final diagnosis for tumor grade and subtype in patients with endometrial
      carcinoma. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, EMBASE, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Cochrane
      library were searched from inception to January 1, 2017, for studies that
      compared tumor grade and histologic subtype in preoperative endometrial samples
      and hysterectomy specimens. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: In eligible studies, the
      index test included office endometrial biopsy, hysteroscopic biopsy, or
      dilatation and curettage; the reference standard was hysterectomy. Outcome
      measures included tumor grade, histologic subtype, or both. TABULATION,
      INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: Two independent reviewers assessed the eligibility of
      the studies. Risk of bias was assessed (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy
      Studies). A total of 45 studies (12,459 patients) met the inclusion criteria. The
      pooled agreement rate on tumor grade was 0.67 (95% CI 0.60-0.75) and Cohen's
      kappa was 0.45 (95% CI 0.34-0.55). Agreement between hysteroscopic biopsy and
      final diagnosis was higher (0.89, 95% CI 0.80-0.98) than for dilatation and
      curettage (0.70, 95% CI 0.60-0.79; P=.02); however, it was not significantly
      higher than for office endometrial biopsy (0.73, 95% CI 0.60-0.86; P=.08). The
      lowest agreement rate was found for grade 2 carcinomas (0.61, 95% CI 0.53-0.69).
      Downgrading was found in 25% and upgrading was found in 21% of the endometrial
      samples. Agreement on histologic subtypes was 0.95 (95% CI 0.94-0.97) and 0.81
      (95% CI 0.69-0.92) for preoperative endometrioid and nonendometrioid carcinomas,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Overall there is only moderate agreement on tumor grade
      between preoperative endometrial sampling and final diagnosis with the lowest
      agreement for grade 2 carcinomas.

PMID- 28885398
TI  - Trends in Seeing an Obstetrician-Gynecologist Compared With a General Physician
      Among U.S. Women, 2000-2015.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess trends in the percentage of U.S. women who visit an
      obstetrician-gynecologist (ob-gyn) and the percentage who visit a general
      physician (general practitioner, family medicine, and internist). METHODS: We
      used data from the 2000-2015 National Health Interview Surveys, cross-sectional
      nationally representative surveys, to identify the percentage of U.S. women who
      have visited an ob-gyn and the percentage who have visited a general physician
      during the preceding 12 months. Unadjusted percentages, and percentages adjusted
      for sociodemographic and health factors, were entered into joinpoint regressions
      to assess unadjusted and adjusted trends over time. RESULTS: The adjusted
      percentage of U.S. women who saw a general physician during the preceding 12
      months did not significantly change from 2000 to 2015, ranging from 70.1% in 2007
      to 74.2% in 2003 (P>.05 for trend). However, although the adjusted percentage
      that saw an ob-gyn in the preceding 12 months did not change from 2000 to 2003 or
      2007-2011 (P>.05), it declined from 45.0% to 41.2% between 2003 and 2007 and from
      41.8% to 38.4% between 2011 and 2015 (P<.001 for trends). The adjusted percentage
      that saw both an ob-gyn and a general physician was 32.4% in 2000, reaching as
      high as 35.2% in 2003, but then declined to 29.8% in 2015 (P<.001 for trend).
      Unadjusted results were similar. CONCLUSION: The percentage of women who visit an
      ob-gyn has declined since 2000. To assure high-quality and coordinated care,
      physicians should identify whether women see both health care provider types or
      only one to help assure that all recommended services are being offered.

PMID- 28885399
TI  - Clinical Risk Factors Associated With Peripartum Maternal Bacteremia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate risk factors associated with maternal bacteremia in
      febrile peripartum women. METHODS: We performed a case-control study of women
      with fevers occurring between 7 days before and up to 42 days after delivery of
      viable neonates at two academic hospitals. Women with positive blood cultures
      were matched with the next two febrile women meeting inclusion criteria with
      negative blood cultures in the microbiology data without other matching
      parameters. We compared maternal and neonatal characteristics and outcomes
      between women in the case group and those in the control group with univariate
      analysis. We then used logistic regression to examine the association between
      clinical characteristics and maternal bacteremia. RESULTS: After excluding blood
      cultures positive only for contaminants, we compared 115 women in the case group
      with 285 in the control group. Bacteremic women were more likely to experience
      their initial fever during labor (40.9% compared with 22.8%, P<.01) and more
      likely to have fever at or above 102 degrees F (62.6% compared with 31.6%,
      P<.01). These associations persisted in the adjusted analysis: multiparity
      (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.07-2.87), initial fever during labor
      (adjusted OR 2.82, 95% CI 1.70-4.70), and fever at or above 102 degrees F
      (adjusted OR 3.83, 95% CI 2.37-6.19). In an analysis restricted to neonates whose
      mothers had initial fevers before or in the immediate 24 hours after delivery,
      neonates born to women in the case group had higher rates of bacteremia compared
      with those born to women in the control group (9.0% compared with 1.3%, P<.01).
      Eight of the nine bacteremic neonates born to bacteremic mothers (89%) grew the
      same organism as his or her mother in blood culture. CONCLUSION: Maternal
      bacteremia is associated with multiparity, initial fever during labor, and fever
      at or above 102 degrees F; however, 37.5% of cases of bacteremia occurred in
      women with maximum fevers below this threshold. Obstetricians should maintain a
      heightened suspicion for an infectious source of fever in women with these
      clinical characteristics.

PMID- 28885400
TI  - Internal Validation of the Sepsis in Obstetrics Score to Identify Risk of
      Morbidity From Sepsis in Pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To prospectively validate the Sepsis in Obstetrics Score, a pregnancy
      specific sepsis scoring system, to identify risk for intensive care unit (ICU)
      admission for sepsis in pregnancy. METHODS: This is a prospective validation
      study of the Sepsis in Obstetrics Score. The primary outcome was admission to the
      ICU for sepsis. Secondary outcomes included admission to a telemetry unit and
      time to administration of antibiotic therapy. We evaluated test characteristics
      of a predetermined score of 6 or greater. RESULTS: Between March 2012 and May
      2015, 1,250 pregnant or postpartum women presented to the emergency department
      and met systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria. Of those, 425 (34%) had
      a clinical suspicion or diagnosis of an infection, 14 of whom (3.3%) were
      admitted to the ICU. The Sepsis in Obstetrics Score had an area under the curve
      of 0.85 (95% CI 0.76-0.95) for prediction of ICU admission for sepsis. This is
      within the prespecified 15% margin of the area under the curve of 0.97 found in
      the derivation cohort. A score of 6 or greater had a sensitivity of 64%,
      specificity of 88%, positive predictive value of 15%, and negative predictive
      value of 98.6%. Women with a score 6 or greater were more likely to be admitted
      to the ICU (15% compared with 1.4%, P<.01), admitted to a telemetry unit (37.3%
      compared with 7.2%, P<.01), and have antibiotic therapy initiated (90% compared
      with 72.9%, P<.01), initiated more quickly (3.2 compared with 3.7 hours, P=.03),
      although not within 1 hour (5.6 compared with 3.4%, P=.44). CONCLUSION: The
      Sepsis in Obstetrics Score is a validated pregnancy-specific score to identify
      risk of ICU admission for sepsis with the threshold score of 6 having a negative
      predictive value of 98.6%. Adherence to antibiotic administration guidelines is
      poor.

PMID- 28885401
TI  - Inpatient Postpartum Long-Acting Reversible Contraception: Care That Promotes
      Reproductive Justice.
AB  - Inpatient insertion of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) (intrauterine
      devices and implants) is increasingly offered to women immediately after
      childbirth. Enthusiasm for this approach stems from robust safety, effectiveness,
      and cost-effectiveness data and responsiveness to women's needs and preferences.
      Although clinical evidence for immediate postpartum LARC is well-established, the
      ethical implications of enhancing access to this care have not been fully
      considered. Contraceptive policies and practices often embody a tension between
      fostering liberal availability and potentially coercive promotion of some
      methods. Historical contraceptive policies and contemporary disparities in LARC
      use point to the need to consider whether health policies and health care
      practices support all women's reproductive wishes. Immediate postpartum LARC
      services need to be designed and implemented with the goal of ensuring autonomy
      and equity in postpartum contraceptive care. To this end, these services should
      include strategic plans to promote universal availability, prevent coercion, and
      enable device removal.

PMID- 28885402
TI  - Tranexamic Acid for the Management of Obstetric Hemorrhage.
AB  - Obstetric hemorrhage remains the most common cause of maternal mortality
      worldwide. It is believed that increased fibrinolytic activity, secondary to
      release and activation of endothelial tissue plasminogen activator, is involved
      in its pathogenesis. Tranexamic acid (TXA), an antifibrinolytic agent, has been
      shown to be beneficial in trauma patients if used within 3 hours of injury. A
      recent large randomized controlled trial showed that TXA given to hemorrhaging
      women within 3 hours after delivery was associated with decreased risk of death
      resulting from bleeding with no increase in thromboembolic complications. Limited
      evidence suggests that prophylactic TXA reduces blood loss at the time of
      delivery and decreases transfusion rates in the obstetric population. Tranexamic
      acid appears to be a safe and effective option in the treatment of obstetric
      hemorrhage. In addition, the limited available evidence supports the need for a
      well-designed adequately powered clinical trial to test its benefit as a
      prophylactic agent.

PMID- 28885403
TI  - Postpartum Management After Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injuries.
AB  - A 26-year-old woman, gravida 1 para 1, experiences a severe perineal laceration
      that extends through the rectal mucosa after a vaginal delivery. She asks you,
      "What can be done to optimize my recovery?"

PMID- 28885404
TI  - What Is New in Obstetrics and Gynecology Simulation?: Best Articles From the Past
      Year.
AB  - This month we focus on obstetrics and gynecology simulation. Dr. Burda discusses
      four recent publications, which are concluded with a "bottom line" that is the
      take-home message. The complete reference for each can be found in on this page,
      along with direct links to the abstracts.

PMID- 28885405
TI  - Human Papillomavirus Vaccine: More Good News.

PMID- 28885406
TI  - Trends in Obstetrician-Gynecologist Visits.

PMID- 28885407
TI  - Value-Based Medical Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology: A Paradigm Shift.

PMID- 28885408
TI  - Connect the Dots-October 2017.

PMID- 28885409
TI  - A Plea for MERSQI: The Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of educational scholarship presented at a
      large national conference of obstetrics and gynecology educators. METHODS: We
      reviewed Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology-Association
      of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics annual meeting abstracts from 2015 and
      2016, published as supplements to Obstetrics & Gynecology. For this uncontrolled
      observational study, abstracts were reviewed and scored using the Medical
      Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI). Comparisons between types
      of submissions (oral presentations or posters), origin of the report (academic or
      community), setting (undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate), and focus of the
      study (tool development or evaluation) were made. Abstracts from award-winning
      presentations and full manuscripts were compared with the remaining abstracts.
      One- and two-tailed Student t tests with a two-sample unequal variance
      (heteroscedastic) test were performed with a significance threshold of P<=.05.
      RESULTS: One hundred eighty-six abstracts and articles were available, with 101
      posters and 77 oral presentations that could be scored in all six of the MERSQI
      domains. The average MERSQI score was 9.05 (+/-1.90) with scores ranging from 5
      to 13.5 (median 9). Abstracts from full-text articles scored more than 1 point
      higher than other abstracts (10.2 compared with 9.0, P<.001, Cohen's d=0.72).
      Statistically significant smaller magnitude differences were found comparing tool
      development with evaluation, academic with community studies, and for award with
      nonaward winners. No differences were found comparing oral and poster
      presentations. CONCLUSION: The quality of educational scholarship presented at a
      national meeting of obstetrics and gynecology educators falls within the
      published range for other specialties. The MERSQI scoring system is a useful
      method for tracking and benchmarking the quality of medical education scholarship
      in obstetrics and gynecology.

PMID- 28885410
TI  - Distressing Sexual Function at Midlife: Unmet Needs, Practical Diagnoses, and
      Available Treatments.
AB  - Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is characterized as chronic sexual symptoms that
      manifest with personal distress in the domains of desire, arousal, orgasm, and
      pain. Extensive epidemiologic evidence estimates that almost 50% of
      perimenopausal and postmenopausal women experience FSD. Screening for FSD is not
      readily conducted and patient-physician discussion of sexuality is limited by the
      lack of physician training on the topic and by the patient-held belief that
      sexual issues are not medical in nature. The purpose of this commentary is to
      provide clinicians with a framework to approach the discussion of FSD, to
      clinically identify FSD through patient symptoms and physical signs, and to
      manage FSD in perimenopausal and postmenopausal patients with the available U.S.
      Food and Drug Administration-approved and off-label treatments. Particular
      attention will be paid to FSD with common midlife onset including vulvovaginal
      atrophy, vulvodynia, and hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Although evaluating
      FSD can be a challenge, triaging symptoms by addressing pain before desire and
      arousal will improve patient outcomes and greatly simplify FSD management.

PMID- 28885411
TI  - Improvement in Outcomes of Major Obstetric Hemorrhage Through Systematic Change.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report the outcomes over 14 years of sustained systematic
      institutional focus on the care of women with major obstetric hemorrhage, defined
      as estimated blood loss greater than 1,500 mL. METHODS: A retrospective cohort
      study of women with major obstetric hemorrhage at our hospital from 2000 to 2014
      compares baseline conditions (age, multiparity, prior cesarean delivery, morbidly
      adherent placenta), morbidity (lowest mean temperature, lowest mean pH,
      coagulopathy, hysterectomy), and mortality among three time periods (period
      1=January 2000 to December 2001, period 2=January 2002 to August 2005, period
      3=September 2005 to December 2014). We also describe the systematic changes that
      helped to sustain our improved outcomes. RESULTS: During the three time periods,
      there were 5,811, 12,912, and 38,971 births; the rate of major obstetric
      hemorrhage increased over these periods: 2.1, 3.8 and 5.3 cases per 1,000 births,
      respectively. Two deaths from hemorrhage occurred in period 1 and none
      thereafter. Among women who experienced massive hemorrhage, morbidity
      significantly improved in each successive period: median lowest pH increased from
      7.23 to 7.34 to 7.35 (periods 2 and 3 significantly higher than period 1), median
      lowest maternal temperature ( degrees C) improved, 35.2 to 36.1 to 36.4 (all
      difference significant), and the rate of coagulopathy decreased, 58.3% to 28.6%
      to 13.2% (period 3 significantly lower than periods 1 and 2) (all P values
      <.001). Peripartum hysterectomies were more frequent and more frequently planned
      over time rather than urgent in each successive period: 0 of 6 to 6 of 18 (33%)
      to 31 of 64 (48.4%) (P=.044). During period 3, we reorganized the obstetric rapid
      response team, instituted a massive transfusion protocol and use of uterine
      balloon tamponade, and promoted a culture of safety in two ways-through more
      intensive education regarding hemorrhage and escalation (encouraging all staff to
      contact senior leaders). CONCLUSION: A sustained level of patient safety is
      achievable when treating major obstetric hemorrhage, as shown by a progressive
      decrease in morbidity despite increasing rates of hemorrhage.

PMID- 28885412
TI  - Outcomes Associated With a Five-Point Surgical Site Infection Prevention Bundle
      in Women Undergoing Surgery for Ovarian Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors for surgical site infection and to define
      rates associated with cytoreductive surgery before and after implementation of an
      infection prevention bundle. METHODS: We conducted a prospective quality
      improvement study. Patients who underwent ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal
      cancer cytoreductive surgery at an academic tertiary care center from April 2014
      to April 2016 were prospectively enrolled. Patient demographics, surgical
      variables, and surgical site infection rates were compared with a historical
      cohort after introduction of a 5-point infection prevention bundle, including: 1)
      preoperative and intraoperative skin preparation with 4% chlorhexidine and
      intraoperative vaginal preparation with 4% chlorhexidine; 2) preoperative use of
      oral antibiotics and mechanical bowel preparation; 3) appropriate timing of
      intraoperative antibiotics; 4) adoption of enhanced sterile surgical techniques
      for colon procedures and incisional closure; and 5) perioperative incision
      management. RESULTS: During the study period, 219 women underwent surgery: 91
      prebundle and 128 treated in the postbundle period. Stage, body mass index,
      proportion of patients undergoing colon or upper abdominal surgery, and estimated
      blood loss were not different between the cohorts. Overall, the surgical site
      infection rate prebundle was 18 (20%); this was reduced to four (3%) postbundle
      (odds ratio [OR] 0.13, 95% CI 0.037-0.53; P<.001). Patients who underwent a colon
      resection prebundle had an infection rate of 14 (33%) compared with three (7%) in
      the postbundle group (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.037-0.53; P<.001). Additionally, rates of
      surgical site infection-related hospital readmission were also lower in the
      postbundle (4/128 [3%]) compared with the prebundle group (12/91 [13%]; P=.005).
      CONCLUSION: Infection is common after ovarian cancer cytoreductive surgery.
      Implementation of a 5-point surgical site infection prevention bundle in women
      undergoing ovarian cancer operations was associated with dramatically decreased
      infection rates and lower hospital readmission rates.

PMID- 28885413
TI  - Change in Human Papillomavirus Prevalence Among U.S. Women Aged 18-59 Years, 2009
      2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine changes in prevalence of vaginal human papillomavirus (HPV)
      between 2009-2010 and 2013-2014 among both vaccinated and unvaccinated U.S.
      women. METHODS: We evaluated HPV prevalence among women 18-59 years old using
      cross-sectional survey data from three different cycles of the National Health
      and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data were stratified into four age groups (18
      26, 27-34, 35-44, and 45-49 years) to examine trends over time among women of
      different ages in the postvaccine era. Multivariable analyses, which controlled
      for descriptive variables, were used to examine the prevalence of quadrivalent
      vaccine-type HPV by vaccination status. RESULTS: We observed a significant
      decrease in the prevalence of vaccine-type HPV among women 18-59 years of age
      from 2009-2010 to 2013-2014. This decline was only significant in those 18-26
      years old when the sample was stratified into the four age groups. Among
      vaccinated 18-26 year olds, HPV prevalence remained low from 2009-2010 (3.9%) to
      2013-2014 (2.0%; prevalence ratio 0.51, 95% CI 0.18-1.46). Unvaccinated women 18
      26 years old also demonstrated a significant decrease over time from 19.5% in
      2009-2010 to 9.7% in 2013-2014 (prevalence ratio 0.44, 95% CI 0.22-0.91).
      Prevalence did not significantly change among unvaccinated women 26 years old or
      older. CONCLUSIONS: The decline in HPV infections among unvaccinated 18- to 26
      year-old women suggests that young women in the United States are beginning to
      benefit from herd immunity resulting from the introduction of the HPV vaccine.

PMID- 28885414
TI  - Urinary Symptoms and Their Associations With Urinary Tract Infections in
      Urogynecologic Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess urinary symptoms associated with urinary tract infection
      (UTI) in a urogynecologic population of women. METHODS: In this cohort study, we
      enrolled 150 urogynecologic patients who completed the validated UTI Symptom
      Assessment questionnaire and contributed transurethral catheterized urine
      samples. The primary measure (UTI diagnosis) was defined in three ways. Self
      report (a nonculture-based UTI diagnosis) was defined by a yes or no response to
      the query "Do you think you have a UTI?" Two culture-based UTI diagnoses also
      were analyzed: standard urine culture (10 colony-forming units [CFU]/mL or
      greater) and enhanced quantitative urine culture (10 CFU/mL or greater) of any
      uropathogen. Statistical analyses were performed on patient demographics and
      urinary symptom prevalence among patient groups. RESULTS: Although the presence
      of the urinary symptoms of frequency and urgency (respectively) differ somewhat
      between UTI-positive and UTI-negative women (self-report [P=.005 and P<.001],
      standard urine culture [P=.038 and P=.044], or enhanced quantitative urine
      culture [P=.059 and P=.098]), the presence of dysuria (pain or burning) during
      urination was significantly more prevalent in UTI-positive women for all UTI
      definitions (self-report P<.001, standard urine culture P<.001, and enhanced
      quantitative urine culture P=.010). Furthermore, women reporting dysuria had
      higher severity and bother scores for all other urinary symptoms assessed by the
      UTI Symptom Assessment questionnaire compared with women not reporting dysuria
      (frequency P=.001, urgency P=.006, dysuria P<.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings show
      that, in women seeking urogynecologic care, the presence of frequency and urgency
      of urination does not confirm a culture-based UTI diagnosis. Instead, clinicians
      can more readily detect UTI using the presence of dysuria, which more effectively
      discriminates UTI-positive and UTI-negative individuals, regardless of the
      culture-based method used to diagnose UTI.

PMID- 28885415
TI  - Interactive Pelvic Anatomy Model: A Tool for Teaching Basic Pelvic Anatomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A knowledge deficit of pelvic anatomy has been noted in obstetrics
      and gynecology residents. In this article, we introduce an innovative anatomic
      model that uses readily accessible and reusable materials to simulate and teach
      anatomic relationships in the female pelvis. INSTRUMENT: Our anatomic model is a
      reusable and cost-effective modification of an existing pelvic model. We used
      felt fabric pieces with hook-and-loop fasteners to simulate the pelvic floor,
      perineum, and surrounding musculature as they attach to corresponding sites on a
      standard bony pelvis. Our design incorporates the relationship of the ureter and
      major blood vessels in the pelvis by using yarn and ribbon. By allowing the
      student to build the anatomy of the pelvis piece by piece, the model provides the
      student a hands-on illustration of anatomic relationships in three dimensions.
      EXPERIENCE: At our institution, both learners and faculty have positively
      evaluated our model. We have used it to teach residents and fourth-year medical
      students surgically relevant anatomy. It is currently being evaluated as an
      addition to standard anatomy lectures in medical student clerkships. CONCLUSION:
      Our model introduces an innovative design that uses inexpensive and reusable
      materials. Residents, faculty, and student learners at our institution have
      positively received the model.

PMID- 28885416
TI  - Reducing False-Positive Pregnancy Test Results in Patients With Cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the use of a laboratory test specific for intact
      human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) would reduce the number of false-positive
      pregnancy test results. METHODS: From October 21, 2014, to January 20, 2015, and
      April 1, 2015, to June 2, 2015, all serum samples sent for pregnancy screening at
      a large cancer center with a value of 5 milli-international units/mL or greater
      total beta-hCG were frozen and stored and then retested using intact hCG reagent.
      We compared the accuracy of total beta-hCG and intact hCG results for the
      diagnosis of clinically confirmed pregnancy. A negative test was defined as 14
      milli-international units/mL or less, our current institutional cutoff. We also
      assessed a cutoff of less than 5 milli-international units/mL, a historical
      cutoff to rule out pregnancy. RESULTS: We performed intact hCG testing on 64
      patient samples, of which 34 had originally resulted positive when tested for
      total beta-hCG. These included 21 cases of clinically confirmed pregnancy and 13
      false-positive cases. No women were pregnant when their intact hCG concentration
      was 14 milli-international units/mL or less, and all pregnancies were detected at
      and above this concentration. Intact hCG reduced the number of false-positive
      pregnancy test results from 13 to 1, a 92% reduction (95% CI 64-99%),
      corresponding to a reduction in the false-positive rate from 38% (95% CI 22-56%)
      to 3% (95% CI 1-15%). CONCLUSION: The use of intact hCG reagent in patients with
      cancer reduces the rate of false-positive pregnancy test results without
      increasing the rate of false-negative test results.

PMID- 28885417
TI  - Association of Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs and Postpartum Hypertension in
      Women With Preeclampsia With Severe Features.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate whether nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are
      associated with persistent postpartum hypertension in a cohort of women with
      preeclampsia and severe features. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort
      study at a single, tertiary center from January 2013 to December 2015. All women
      diagnosed with severe preeclampsia who remained hypertensive for greater than 24
      hours after delivery were included. The primary outcome was the rate of
      persistent postpartum hypertension, defined as systolic blood pressure 150 mm Hg
      or greater or diastolic 100 mm Hg or greater (or both), on two occasions, at
      least 4 hours apart. Secondary outcomes included severe maternal morbidity:
      pulmonary edema, renal dysfunction, stroke, eclampsia, and intensive care unit
      admission. Additional outcomes included length of postpartum hospital stay,
      receipt of narcotics, and hospital readmission. Multivariable logistic regression
      was performed to adjust for confounders. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) are reported
      for applicable study outcomes. RESULTS: Of the 399 women with severe
      preeclampsia, 324 (81%) remained hypertensive 24 hours after delivery. Two
      hundred forty-three (75%) received NSAIDs (either ibuprofen or ketorolac) and 81
      (25%) did not. After multivariable logistic regression, the likelihood of
      reaching a blood pressure of 150 mm Hg systolic or 100 mm Hg diastolic (or both),
      on two occasions, at least 4 hours apart, was similar between those who received
      NSAIDs compared with those who did not (70% compared with 73%; adjusted OR 1.1,
      95% CI 0.6-2.0). Similarly, puerperal occurrence of pulmonary edema (3% compared
      with 10%; OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.5-13.1), renal dysfunction (5% compared with 8%; OR
      1.7, 95% CI 0.6-4.8), eclampsia (1% compared with 0%; P=.34), or intensive care
      unit admission (3% compared with 8%; OR 2.4, 95% CI 0.8-7.1) was similar between
      the groups. There were no differences in the rate of narcotic use (89% compared
      with 75%; adjusted OR 0.6 95% CI 0.18-1.70). CONCLUSION: In this cohort of women
      with preeclampsia and severe features before delivery, NSAIDs were not associated
      with increased rates of persistent postpartum hypertension.

PMID- 28885419
TI  - Competency-Based Objectives in Global Underserved Women's Health for Medical
      Trainees.
AB  - The Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Committee on Global
      Health developed an inclusive definition of global women's health and competency
      based objectives that reflected work internationally, as well as with U.S.
      vulnerable and underserved populations, such as refugee and immigrant populations
      or those who would otherwise have compromised access to health care. The
      knowledge, skill, and attitude-based competencies required to fulfill each
      learning objective were mapped to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical
      Education Outcomes Project's educational domains and the Consortium of
      Universities for Global Health competency domains. The proposed global women's
      health definition and competency-based learning objective framework is a first
      step in ensuring quality standards for educating trainees to address global
      women's health needs. By proposing these objectives, we hope to guide future
      program development and spark a broader conversation that will improve health for
      vulnerable women and shape educational, ethical, and equitable global health
      experiences for medical trainees.

PMID- 28885418
TI  - Autoimmune Progesterone Dermatitis Presenting as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis is an uncommon disease presenting
      with cyclical skin eruptions corresponding with the menstrual cycle luteal phase.
      Because symptoms are precipitated by rising progesterone levels, treatment relies
      on hormone suppression. CASE: A 22-year-old nulligravid woman presented with
      symptoms mistaken for Stevens-Johnson syndrome. A cyclic recurrence of her
      symptoms was noted, and the diagnosis of autoimmune progesterone dermatitis was
      made by an intradermal progesterone challenge. After 48 months, she remained
      refractory to medical management and definitive surgical treatment with bilateral
      oophorectomy was performed. CONCLUSION: Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis is a
      challenging diagnosis owing to its rarity and variety of clinical presentations.
      Treatment centers on suppression of endogenous progesterone and avoidance of
      exogenous triggers. When these modalities fail, surgical management must be
      undertaken.

PMID- 28885420
TI  - A Missed Opportunity for U.S. Perinatal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Elimination:
      Pre-exposure Prophylaxis During Pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the proportion of women at increased risk of sexual human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition during pregnancy in a high HIV incidence
      urban setting to identify those who may be eligible for pre-exposure prophylaxis.
      METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of women who received prenatal
      care at a large academic center in 2012. Univariable analyses and multiple
      logistic regression models were built to identify correlates for pre-exposure
      prophylaxis eligibility. RESULTS: Among 1,637 pregnant women, mean age was 27.6
      years (SD 6.3), 59.7% were African American, and 56.0% were single. Based on the
      Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines, more than 10% of women
      were at increased risk for HIV acquisition during pregnancy and eligible for pre
      exposure prophylaxis. Younger [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.9/1-year increase, 95%
      CI 0.8-0.9], single (adjusted OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2-4.8), African American women
      (adjusted OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.6-6.7) with higher parity (adjusted OR 1.3/one-child
      increase, 95% CI 1.1-1.5), and who smoked regularly during pregnancy (adjusted OR
      1.8, 95% CI 1.0-3.0) had greater odds of being eligible for pre-exposure
      prophylaxis at any time during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy is a vulnerable
      period during which some heterosexual women in urban settings have a high risk
      for HIV acquisition and stand to benefit from pre-exposure prophylaxis.

PMID- 28885421
TI  - Evidence-Based Bundles and Cesarean Delivery Surgical Site Infections: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association of implementation of evidence-based
      bundles with surgical site infection rates after cesarean delivery. DATA SOURCES:
      We searched MEDLINE through PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, the Cochrane Database of
      Systematic Reviews, Google Scholar, and ClinicalTrials.gov. METHODS OF STUDY
      SELECTION: We searched electronic databases for randomized controlled trials and
      observational studies comparing evidence-based infection prevention bundles for
      cesarean delivery, defined as implementation of three or more processes proven to
      prevent surgical site infection such as chlorhexidine skin preparation,
      antibiotic prophylaxis, and hair clipping, with usual care. The primary outcome
      was overall surgical site infection, defined using Centers for Disease Control
      and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network criteria. Secondary outcomes
      were superficial or deep surgical site infection and endometritis. Quality of
      studies and heterogeneity were assessed using validated measures. Pooled relative
      risks (RRs) with 95% CIs were calculated using random-effects models. Numbers
      needed to treat were estimated for outcomes with significant reduction.
      TABULATIONS, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: We found no randomized controlled trials.
      Fourteen preintervention and postintervention studies met inclusion criteria.
      Eight were full-text articles, and six were published abstracts. Quality of most
      of the primary studies was adequate with regard to the intervention, but modest
      in terms of implementation. The rate of surgical site infection was significantly
      lower after implementing an evidence-based bundle (14 studies: pooled rates 6.2%
      baseline compared with 2.0% intervention, pooled RR 0.33, 95% CI 0.25-0.43,
      number needed to treat=24). Evidence-based bundles were also associated with a
      lower rate of superficial or deep surgical site infection (six studies: pooled
      rate 5.9% baseline compared with 1.1% intervention, pooled RR 0.19, 95% CI 0.12
      0.32, number needed to treat=21). The rate of endometritis was low at baseline
      and not significantly different after intervention (six studies: pooled rate 1.3%
      baseline compared with 0.9% intervention, pooled RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.31-1.06).
      CONCLUSION: Evidence-based bundles are associated with a significant reduction in
      surgical site infection after cesarean delivery.

PMID- 28885422
TI  - Sitting With Fatima: How Longitudinal Learning Inspired My Passion for Obstetrics
      and Gynecology.

PMID- 28885423
TI  - Early Second-Trimester Fetal Growth Restriction and Adverse Perinatal Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes among women with
      isolated fetal growth restriction from 17 to 22 weeks of gestation. METHODS: This
      was a retrospective cohort study of all singleton, nonanomalous pregnancies
      undergoing ultrasonography to assess fetal anatomy between 17 and 22 weeks of
      gestation at a single center from 2010 to 2014. After excluding patients with
      fetal structural malformations, chromosomal abnormalities, or identified
      infectious etiologies, we compared perinatal outcomes between pregnancies with
      and without fetal growth restriction, defined as estimated fetal weight less than
      the 10th percentile for gestational age. Our primary outcome was small for
      gestational age (SGA) at birth, defined as birth weight less than the 10th
      percentile. Secondary outcomes included preterm delivery at less than 37 and less
      than 28 weeks of gestation, preeclampsia, abruption, stillbirth, neonatal death,
      neonatal intensive care unit admission, intraventricular hemorrhage, need for
      respiratory support, and necrotizing enterocolitis. RESULTS: Of 12,783 eligible
      patients, 355 (2.8%) had early second-trimester fetal growth restriction. Risk
      factors for growth restriction were African American race and tobacco use. Early
      second-trimester growth restriction was associated with a more than fivefold
      increase in risk of SGA at birth (36.9% compared with 9.1%, adjusted odds ratio
      [OR] 5.5, 95% CI 4.3-7.0), stillbirth (2.5% compared with 0.4%, OR 6.2, 95% CI
      2.7-12.8), and neonatal death (1.4% compared with 0.3%, OR 5.2, 95% CI 1.6-13.5).
      Rates of indicated preterm birth at less than 37 weeks of gestation (7.3%
      compared with 3.3%, OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.5-3.5) and less than 28 weeks of gestation
      (2.5% compared with 0.2%, OR 10.8, 95% CI 4.5-23.4), neonatal need for
      respiratory support (16.9% compared with 7.8%, adjusted OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.2),
      and necrotizing enterocolitis (1.4% compared with 0.2%, OR 7.7, 95% CI 2.3-20.9)
      were also significantly higher for those with growth restriction. Rates of
      preeclampsia, abruption, and other neonatal outcomes were not significantly
      different. CONCLUSION: Although fetal growth restriction in the early second
      trimester occurred in less than 3% of our cohort and most of those with isolated
      growth restriction did not have adverse outcomes, it is a strong risk factor for
      SGA, stillbirth, neonatal death, and indicated preterm birth.

PMID- 28885424
TI  - Creating Flexible and Sustainable Work Models for Academic Obstetrician
      Gynecologists Engaged in Global Health Work.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe various work models for obstetrics and gynecology global
      health faculty affiliated with academic medical centers and to identify barriers
      and opportunities for pursuing global health work. METHODS: A mixed-methods study
      was conducted in 2016 among obstetrics and gynecology faculty and leaders from
      seven academic medical institutions in Boston, Massachusetts. Global health
      faculty members were invited to complete an online survey about their work models
      and to participate in semistructured interviews about barriers and facilitators
      of these models. Department chairs and residency directors were asked to
      participate in interviews. RESULTS: The survey response rate among faculty was
      65.6% (21/32), of which 76.2% (16/21) completed an interview. Five department
      leaders (45.5% [5/11]) participated in an interview. Faculty described a range of
      work models with varied time and compensation, but only one third reported
      contracted time for global health work. The most common barriers to global health
      work were financial constraints, time limitations, lack of mentorship, need for
      specialized training, and maintenance of clinical skills. Career satisfaction,
      creating value for the obstetrics and gynecology department, and work model
      flexibility were the most important facilitators of sustainable global health
      careers. CONCLUSION: The study identified challenges and opportunities to
      creating flexible and sustainable work models for academic obstetrics and
      gynecology clinicians engaged in global health work. Additional research and
      innovation are needed to identify work models that allow for sustainable careers
      in global women's health. There are opportunities to create professional
      standards and models for academic global health work in the obstetrics and
      gynecology specialty.

PMID- 28885426
TI  - The Evolution of and Evidence for Opportunistic Salpingectomy.
AB  - In the absence of significant benefit from either novel therapeutics or
      screening, the focus of decreasing ovarian cancer incidence and mortality has
      shifted toward primary prevention. Histopathologic data have demonstrated that up
      to 70% of ovarian cancers may actually arise from the fallopian tube. This has
      led to the increased adoption of opportunistic salpingectomy as a tool for
      ovarian cancer prevention. In turn, the potential surgical risks and ovarian
      cancer prevention of this emerging practice have generated multiple studies. In
      this comprehensive review, we address the origins of ovarian cancer, the
      historical context and recent trends of tubal surgery, the existing population
      based data on ovarian cancer risk reduction, and provide a detailed review of the
      evidence on surgical risks of salpingectomy. To date, the safety and ovarian
      cancer risk reduction evidence sheds a positive light on opportunistic
      salpingectomy. Although research on this subject has grown substantially in
      recent years, there remains a paucity of large, prospective studies that examine
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28885425
TI  - Reducing Pain During Intrauterine Device Insertion: A Randomized Controlled Trial
      in Adolescents and Young Women.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effect of a 1% lidocaine paracervical nerve block on
      pain during intrauterine device (IUD) insertion compared with a sham block in
      adolescents and young women. METHODS: We conducted a multisite, single-blind,
      sham-controlled randomized trial in adolescents and young women having a 13.5-mg
      levonorgestrel IUD inserted. Enrollment occurred at three family planning clinics
      in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eligible adolescents and young women were aged 14
      22 years, nulliparous, not currently or recently pregnant, and English-speaking.
      Participants were randomized using computer-generated allocation in block sizes
      of four to receive a 10-mL 1% lidocaine paracervical block or a sham block (1 cm
      depression of the vaginal epithelium at paracervical block sites with a wooden
      cotton-tipped applicator). Only patients were blinded. The primary outcome was
      pain after IUD insertion measured with a 100-mm visual analog scale. Using a two
      sided t test and assuming a 20-mm difference in visual analog scale scores, a SD
      of 28 mm, an alpha of 0.05, and 90% power, a sample of 43 participants per group
      was estimated. RESULTS: Between March 2015 and July 2016, 95 participants
      enrolled (47 lidocaine block group; 48 sham block group). All were included in
      the analysis. Forty-four percent were white, 36% black, 65% privately insured,
      and 79% previously used contraception. The median visual analog scale score after
      IUD insertion was 30.0 (95% CI 20.0-58.0) in the lidocaine block group and 71.5
      (95% CI 66.0-82.0) in the sham block (P<.001). CONCLUSION: A 10-mL 1% lidocaine
      paracervical nerve block reduces pain during IUD insertion in adolescents and
      young women compared with a sham block with pressure on the vaginal epithelium.
      CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02352714.

PMID- 28885427
TI  - Safety of Medical Abortion Provided Through Telemedicine Compared With In Person.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the proportion of medical abortions with a clinically
      significant adverse event among telemedicine and in-person patients at a clinic
      system in Iowa during the first 7 years of the service. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective cohort study. We analyzed data on clinically significant adverse
      events (hospital admission, surgery, blood transfusion, emergency department
      treatment, and death) for all medical abortions performed by telemedicine or in
      person at a clinic system in Iowa between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2015. Data
      on adverse events came from required reporting forms submitted to the
      mifepristone distributor. We calculated the prevalence of adverse events and 95%
      CIs comparing telemedicine with in-person patients. The analysis was designed as
      a noninferiority study. Assuming the prevalence of adverse events to be 0.3%,
      telemedicine provision was considered to be inferior to in-person provision if
      the prevalence were 0.6% or higher. The required sample size was 6,984 in each
      group (one-sided alpha=0.025, power 90%). To explore whether patients with
      adverse events presented to emergency departments and were not reported, we
      conducted a survey of the 119 emergency departments in Iowa, asking whether they
      had treated a woman with an adverse event in the prior year. RESULTS: During the
      study period, 8,765 telemedicine and 10,405 in-person medical abortions were
      performed. Forty-nine clinically significant adverse events were reported (no
      deaths or surgery; 0.18% of telemedicine patients with any adverse event [95% CI
      0.11-0.29%] and 0.32% of in-person patients [95% CI 0.23-0.45%]). The difference
      in adverse event prevalence was 0.13% (95% CI -0.01% to 0.28%, P=.07). Forty-two
      emergency departments responded to the survey (35% response rate); none reported
      treating a woman with an adverse event after medical abortion. CONCLUSION:
      Adverse events are rare with medical abortion, and telemedicine provision is
      noninferior to in-person provision with regard to clinically significant adverse
      events.

PMID- 28885428
TI  - A Brief Prenatal Intervention of Behavioral Change to Reduce the Risk of Maternal
      Cytomegalovirus: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effects of a brief prenatal behavioral intervention on
      risk behaviors for maternal cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. METHODS: Women were
      screened with CMV serology during prenatal care before 20 weeks of gestation and
      followed for at least 10 weeks. Women without serologic evidence of primary CMV
      infection were approached. Participants were apprised of serostatus and then
      randomized 2:1 to either a brief behavioral intervention during their prenatal
      care visit or to standard care (a brochure). The 7- to 10-minute in-office
      intervention included a video and hygiene education using motivational
      interviewing. Participants were then given a reminder calendar to take home and
      weekly text message reminders. The primary outcome was change in behavioral
      compliance score on a scale of 0-100. Secondary outcomes included process
      evaluation and domains of behavior change. A sample size of 180 participants was
      planned to compare the behavioral compliance score change of at least 15% between
      intervention and control groups with 80% power and 2.5% two-sided alpha. RESULTS:
      From April 2013 to October 2014, 197 women were randomized. One hundred eighty
      seven (96%) had outcome data available. Mean gestational age at screening and
      randomization was 9 4/7 and 13 6/7 weeks of gestation, respectively. Primary
      outcome assessment occurred at a mean of 28 4/7 weeks of gestation. Baseline
      behavioral compliance scores increased modestly in the intervention group (mean:
      7-point increase from 80.7 to 87.7, 95% CI 2.4-5.9) compared with the comparison
      group (mean: 4-point increase from 79.7 to 84.1, 95% CI 5.9-8.4; mean difference
      in change score: 3.0, 95% CI, 0.8-5.2; P=.007). Those in the intervention group
      reported change in risk perception related to perceived severity and
      susceptibility, self-efficacy, and perceived norms (P<.05 for all). CONCLUSION: A
      brief behavioral intervention delivered in the prenatal care setting was modestly
      effective at changing behaviors related to CMV infection risk. CLINICAL TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01819519.

PMID- 28885429
TI  - Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Initiation With a 2- to 3-Week Compared With
      a 6-Week Postpartum Visit.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a department policy changing the scheduling of the
      postpartum visit from 6 weeks to 2-3 weeks after delivery is associated with
      higher long-acting reversible contraception initiation at the postpartum visit.
      METHODS: We conducted a quasiexperimental before-after study to evaluate long
      acting reversible contraception initiation, specifically an intrauterine device
      or contraceptive implant, at the postpartum visit between women scheduled for
      follow-up at 6 weeks (before policy change) and 2-3 weeks after delivery (after
      policy change). Secondary outcomes included postpartum visit completion, overall
      contraception initiation at the postpartum visit, overall contraceptive use at 6
      months after delivery, and repeat pregnancies by 6 months postpartum. We obtained
      delivery and postpartum information using the electronic medical record and
      contacted participants 3 and 6 months after delivery to assess contraception use
      and repeat pregnancies. RESULTS: We enrolled 586 participants between December
      2014 and November 2015, of whom 512 women (256 in each cohort) continued to meet
      eligibility criteria after delivery. Long-acting reversible contraception
      initiation rates at the postpartum visit were lower in the 2- to 3-week (16.5%,
      95% CI 12.2-21.8) compared with the 6-week group (31.1%, 95% CI 25.2-37.7,
      P<.01), primarily as a result of patient and health care provider preferences for
      delaying intrauterine device insertion to a later visit. More women completed a
      scheduled 2- to 3-week postpartum visit (90.2%, 95% CI 86.0-93.3) compared with a
      6-week visit (81.6%, 95% CI 76.4-85.9, P<.01). Deferral of any contraception
      initiation was higher in the 2- to 3-week group (27.3%, 95% CI 21.9-33.4)
      compared with the 6-week group (15.8%, 95% CI 11.5-21.4, P<.01), but there were
      no differences in overall contraceptive use patterns at 6 months postpartum. No
      intrauterine device perforations or expulsions were observed in women who
      underwent insertion at 2-3 weeks postpartum. Five pregnancies were reported in
      each cohort by 6 months after delivery. CONCLUSION: Scheduling a visit at 2-3
      weeks after delivery was not associated with increased long-acting reversible
      contraception initiation at this visit despite higher postpartum visit
      attendance.

PMID- 28885430
TI  - Aggressive Angiomyxoma of the Vulva and Bladder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aggressive angiomyxoma is a rare, locally infiltrative tumor,
      frequently occurring in female patients. Although wide local excision is
      considered standard therapy, radical surgery may be needed. CASE: A 49-year-old
      woman presented with an aggressive angiomyxoma involving the vulva and bladder.
      Given the hormone receptor status and size of the tumor, the patient was
      initially treated with fulvestrant and goserelin acetate in an attempt to reduce
      the size of the mass. She was followed up at 1- to 3-month intervals; after 6
      months of treatment, owing to increasing size of the mass and worsening symptoms,
      the decision was made to proceed with radical surgery. CONCLUSION: Although a
      less radical surgical approach is preferred, radical surgery is possible for
      treatment of aggressive angiomyxoma when needed.

PMID- 28885431
TI  - Geographic Comparison of Women in Academic Obstetrics and Gynecology Department
      Based Leadership Roles.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe and compare geographic representation of women in
      obstetrics and gynecology department-based leadership roles across American
      Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) districts and U.S. Census
      Bureau regions while accounting for the proportion of women practicing in each
      area. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study. To more
      meaningfully quantify representation of women as leaders in ACOG districts and
      U.S. Census Bureau regions, we calculated representation ratios-the proportion of
      department-based leaders who were women divided by the proportion of obstetrician
      gynecologists who were women. A ratio of 1.0 indicates proportionate
      representation and less than 1.0 indicates underrepresentation. We calculated 95%
      CIs to compare representation of women in leadership roles across geographic
      areas. The gender of major department-based leaders (chair, vice chair, division
      director) and educational leaders (fellowship, residency, associate residency,
      medical student clerkship director) was determined from websites. RESULTS: The
      proportion of department chairs who were women was highest in the West and lowest
      in the South Census Bureau regions. Representation ratios for women in major
      department-based leadership roles demonstrated underrepresentation relative to
      the practicing base nationally and in all four regions. Although women were
      underrepresented in major department-based leadership throughout the country,
      there was significantly higher women's representation in major department-based
      leadership roles in the West (ratio 0.82, 95% CI 0.68-0.99) compared with the
      Northeast (ratio 0.50, 95% CI 0.42-0.59) and the South (ratio 0.45, 95% CI 0.36
      0.57). Similarly, in the division director role, the West (ratio 0.85, 95% CI
      0.68-1.1) had significantly higher representation of women compared with the
      Northeast (ratio 0.50, 95% CI 0.40-0.62). Nationally, women were underrepresented
      as fellowship directors, proportionately represented as residency program
      directors, and overrepresented as medical student clerkship directors.
      CONCLUSION: Representation ratios of women in major department-based leadership
      roles, which account for the proportion of women practicing in each geographic
      area, suggest that women were more likely to advance to the department-based
      leadership roles of chair, vice chair, or division director in the western United
      States.

PMID- 28885432
TI  - Throw Out a Lifeline, Someone Is Drifting Away: It Takes a Village to Combat
      Burnout.
AB  - The increasing prevalence of professional burnout threatens not only the
      individual but the community of caregivers and, therefore, our patients. There is
      a growing body of individual actions that can be taken to reduce or reverse the
      effect of burnout. However, no amount of individual resolve will be sufficient if
      we do not create a climate conducive to mutual assistance and support.

PMID- 28885433
TI  - Put away your microscopes: the ependymoma molecular era has begun.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To synthesize, integrate, and comment on recent research
      developments to our understanding of the molecular basis of ependymoma (EPN), and
      to place this in context with current treatment and research efforts. RECENT
      FINDINGS: Our recent understanding of the histologically defined molecular entity
      EPN has rapidly advanced through genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic
      profiling studies. SUMMARY: These advancements lay the groundwork for development
      of future EPN biomarkers, models, and therapeutics. Our review discusses these
      discoveries and their impact on our clinical understanding of this disease.
      Lastly, we offer insight into clinical and research areas requiring further
      validation, and open questions remaining in the field.

PMID- 28885435
TI  - Treatment of Metastatic Eyelid Carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to report management and outcomes in patients
      affected by eyelids carcinomas involving regional lymph nodes. METHODS: We have
      retrospectively analyzed the data of patients affected by eyelids carcinoma with
      nodal involvement. The clinical records of 10 patients with malignant eyelid
      carcinoma and regional nodal metastasis treated between September 2011 and March
      2015 have been analyzed. RESULTS: The study included 5 women and 5 men (median
      age 54,5 years; range 37-80 years). The most common tumor was the squamous cell
      carcinoma (4 cases) followed by sebaceous carcinoma (2 cases): 1 case of
      epidermoid carcinoma, 1 case of malignant melanoma, 1 case of Merkel carcinoma,
      and 1 case of basal cell carcinoma. All patients were treated by surgical
      resection; in 2 cases, orbital exenteration was required. The treatment of
      regional nodal metastasis consisted of parotidectomy and radical neck dissection
      followed by radiation therapy. None of the patients developed local recurrence.
      Three patients died: one, affected by Merkel cell carcinoma, died after 2 months
      because of metastatic dissemination to the lung; another one, affected by
      epidermoid carcinoma involving the orbit, died because of liver metastasis; the
      third one, affected by malignant melanoma, died because of other causes. The
      follow-up time ranged from 9 to 36 months (median 19.3 months). CONCLUSIONS:
      Patients affected by advanced malignant eyelid carcinoma need to be strictly
      controlled because metastasis can develop at least 5 years after surgical
      treatment. Therapy may include a combination of local surgery, neck dissection,
      and radiation.

PMID- 28885436
TI  - Intracranial Foreign Body in a Patient With Paranoid Schizophrenia.
AB  - Self-inflicted penetrating head injuries in patients with paranoid schizophrenia
      are an infrequent phenomenon. The authors report on a psychiatric patient who
      presented with epistaxis. Computed tomography showed a nail passing from the
      nasal cavity into the frontal lobe. Given the proximity to large intracranial
      vessels, a craniotomy was performed and the nail was retracted. The patient later
      reported having hammered the nail into the nasal cavity with the intention to
      "kill the voice in my head." Despite use of the latest imaging modalities, metal
      artifacts may have limited the assessment of vascular involvement. Surgical
      decision-making preventing secondary damage is crucial in them.

PMID- 28885437
TI  - Cellular Angiofibroma of the Nasopharynx.
AB  - Angiofibroma is a common tumor of the nasopharynx region but cellular type is
      extremely rare in head and neck. A 13-year-old boy presented with frequent
      epistaxis and nasal obstruction persisting for 6 months. According to the
      clinical symptoms and imaging studies juvenile angiofibroma was suspected.
      Following angiographic embolization total excision of the lesion by midfacial
      degloving approach was performed. Histological examination revealed that the
      tumor consisted of staghorn blood vessels and irregular fibrous stroma. Stellate
      fibroblasts with small pyknotic to large vesicular nuclei were seen in a highly
      cellular stroma. These findings identified cellular angiofibroma mimicking
      juvenile angiofibroma. This article is about a very rare patient of cellular
      angiofibroma of nasopharynx.

PMID- 28885438
TI  - A Volumetric and Craniometric Analysis of Cranial Base Differences in Unicoronal
      Craniosynostosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors hypothesized that patients with unicoronal
      craniosynostosis (UCS) have deviation of the vault, cranial base, and face
      resulting in significant differences in skull base morphology and segmental
      cranial vault volume relative to nonaffected controls. METHODS: Unicoronal
      craniosynostosis patients were collected from the authors' IRB-approved,
      prospective, craniofacial registry; controls were from a trauma registry. Mimics
      software was used to compare those with UCS to controls for a series of
      standardized craniometric angles and distances. A segmented volumetric analysis
      of anterior, middle, and posterior cranial fossae was performed, as well.
      RESULTS: The study included 18 patients with UCS and 19 controls. Nearly all
      angles measured were statistically different in UCS versus controls. Overall
      cranial vault volume did not differ between UCS and controls (P = 0.250). Three
      volumetric ratios comparing the synostosed side to the contralateral were
      significantly less than controls: anterior (0.44 +/- 0.03 versus 0.5 +/- 0.01, P
      < 0.001), middle (0.45 +/- 0.02 versus 0.5 +/- 0.02, P < 0.001), posterior (0.46
      +/- 0.02 versus 0.50 +/- 0.02, P < 0.001). The ratio of total middle volume to
      total cranial volume was larger in UCS patients versus controls, but the
      posterior ratio was smaller: anterior (0.13 +/- 0.02 versus 0.12 +/- 0.02, P =
      0.545), middle (0.50 +/- 0.05 versus 0.42 +/- 0.04, P = 0.001), posterior (0.37
      +/- 0.05 versus 0.45 +/- 0.03, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides
      quantitative evidence of the degree of angulation and torsion of the cranial base
      in UCS and its profound effect on volumetric differences in the cranial vault,
      with significant restriction on the synostosed side and compensatory expansion on
      the nonsynostosed side. Future work will focus on the effects of volumetric
      differences on cerebral architecture and postoperative volumetric changes.

PMID- 28885439
TI  - Multiple Recurrent Fibromatosis With Cranial Fasciitis Characteristics in a
      Pediatric Patient.
AB  - Cranial fasciitis is a rare, rapidly growing, but benign fibroblastic tumor of
      the skull that generally presents in childhood. Local resection or curettage of
      the affected bone is generally curative and the tumor is thought not to recur.
      Cranial fasciitis is distinguished by positive cytoplasmic and nuclear beta
      catenin staining. Fibromatosis is a clonal myofibroblastic nonmalignant
      proliferation that generally demonstrates positive nuclear beta-catenin staining.
      In this report, the authors present a patient with fibromatosis with cranial
      fasciitis characteristics in a 2.5-month-old boy who has had 7 recurrences (total
      8 resections) of this fibroblastic neoplasm over 6 years of follow-up.

PMID- 28885440
TI  - Is Orbital Floor Reconstruction With Titanium Mesh Safe?
AB  - To reconstruct the orbital floor defects there are a lot of reconstruction
      materials, the surgeon must choose one of them. The authors share their
      experience with 10 patients suffering from orbital trauma causing orbital floor
      fracture; those fractures were reconstructed using titanium mesh. No
      complications were encountered postoperatively apart from 1 patient with
      ectropion. Titanium mesh is a perfect material for the reconstruction of the
      orbital fractures, eliminating the need for autogenous bone graft.

PMID- 28885441
TI  - Evaluation of the Post Orthognathic Surgery Satisfaction: a Comparative Cross
      Sectional Study of Patients Class II and III.
AB  - The aim of this study was to analyze the degree of postoperative satisfaction
      regarding facial and dental esthetics, masticatory and respiratory function, and
      psychosocial factors in patients with dentofacial deformity Class II compared
      with Class III. The patients were divided into 2 groups with 50 patients in Group
      1 (Class II) and 30 patients in Group 2 (Class III). Assessing the degree of
      postoperative satisfaction, the authors did not observe a significant difference
      between the groups in terms of improvements in the aesthetic and functional
      aspects and the psychological impact of the treatment. It can be concluded that
      regardless of the type of dentofacial changes, the treatment well indicated and
      conducted, results in significant positive effects on patients lives, both
      aesthetically and in the function, and psychosocial great benefit.

PMID- 28885443
TI  - Temporal Deformity Objectively Measured Before and After Surgery for Metopic
      Synostosis: Retrusion Rather than Hollowing.
AB  - The temporal contour deformity typical of metopic synostosis is often referred to
      as temporal hollowing, but has not been quantitatively defined. This deformity is
      present before surgery and remains to a varying extent at long-term follow-up.
      The present study aimed to objectively evaluate the degree of this contour
      deformity in metopic synostosis before and after surgical correction.All children
      surgically treated for metopic synostosis at Sahlgrenska University Hospital
      between 2002 and 2014 (n = 120) with appropriate computed tomography scans (n =
      160) performed preoperatively and/or at follow-up at 3 years of age were
      included. Depending on age, 1 of 2 surgical techniques was used. Children
      presenting before the age of 6 months were treated with frontal remodeling in
      combination with a spring (S group), whereas children older than 6 months were
      treated with a bone transplant (BT group). The bony temporal deformity was
      measured with a semiautomatic MATLAB program and patients were compared to sex-
      and age-matched controls.The deformity was significantly reduced in both groups
      (P < 0.001). In the S group, it was reduced from a mean +/- standard deviation of
      3.6 +/- 1.9% to 1.0 +/- 1.2% and in the BT group, it was reduced from 3.3% +/-
      1.4% to 1.1% +/- 0.8%.The contour deformity in metopic synostosis is present both
      before and after surgery and should therefore be termed temporal retrusion (TR).
      This assessment method enables objective comparison of TR before and after
      surgical correction and is a potential tool to evaluate TR in metopic synostosis.

PMID- 28885444
TI  - Surgical Treatment of Nonsyndromic Craniosynostosis.
AB  - Studies on the treatment of nonsyndromic craniosynostosis demonstrate decreasing
      morbidity and mortality; however, complication rates still range from 5% to 14%.
      Here, the authors present their last 10 years' experience treatment of
      nonsyndromic single suture craniosynostosis. A retrospective review was performed
      on patients who underwent open surgical treatment of nonsyndromic
      craniosynostosis over 10 years. Patient characteristics and clinical outcomes
      were reviewed. Radiological analysis of intracranial volumes was performed using
      Amira software. The authors' technique for treatment of sagittal synostosis was
      the Foreshortening and Lateral Expansion of the Cranium Activated by Gravity
      (FLAG) procedure. The authors identified 106 patients with a median age of 0.8
      years. Sagittal synostosis was most common (n = 65, 61%). Seventeen percent
      underwent distraction of the cranial vault; the remainder underwent traditional
      remodeling procedures. The average operative time was 131 minutes, blood loss was
      296 mL (30 mL/kg), and intraoperative transfusion was 332 mL (34 mL/kg). There
      were 2 postoperative complications. Six patients required an additional major
      operation years later, most commonly for increased intracranial pressure. The
      authors separately analyzed 50 patients with sagittal synostosis treated with the
      FLAG procedure. There were no postoperative complications, and only 4 patients
      required reoperation. The average operative time for the FLAG procedure was 97.3
      minutes. Intracranial volume increased by 191.45 mL (28.3-427.5 mL) with 28%
      average relative cranial vault expansion (4.5%-93.2%). Surgical correction of
      craniosynostosis using the FLAG technique is safe and effective with minimal
      morbidity and long standing results. Treatment should involve a structured
      approach, which minimizes operative times and decreases complication rates.

PMID- 28885446
TI  - Implementing a Health System-wide Patient Blood Management Program with a
      Clinical Community Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient blood management programs are gaining popularity as quality
      improvement and patient safety initiatives, but methods for implementing such
      programs across multihospital health systems are not well understood. Having
      recently incorporated a patient blood management program across our health system
      using a clinical community approach, we describe our methods and results.
      METHODS: We formed the Johns Hopkins Health System blood management clinical
      community to reduce transfusion overuse across five hospitals. This physician
      led, multidisciplinary, collaborative, quality-improvement team (the clinical
      community) worked to implement best practices for patient blood management, which
      we describe in detail. Changes in blood utilization and blood acquisition costs
      were compared for the pre- and post-patient blood management time periods.
      RESULTS: Across the health system, multiunit erythrocyte transfusion orders
      decreased from 39.7 to 20.2% (by 49%; P < 0.0001). The percentage of patients
      transfused decreased for erythrocytes from 11.3 to 10.4%, for plasma from 2.9 to
      2.2%, and for platelets from 3.1 to 2.7%, (P < 0.0001 for all three). The number
      of units transfused per 1,000 patients decreased for erythrocytes from 455 to 365
      (by 19.8%; P < 0.0001), for plasma from 175 to 107 (by 38.9%; P = 0.0002), and
      for platelets from 167 to 141 (by 15.6%; P = 0.04). Blood acquisition cost
      savings were $2,120,273/yr, an approximate 400% return on investment for our
      patient blood management efforts. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a health system-wide
      patient blood management program by using a clinical community approach
      substantially reduced blood utilization and blood acquisition costs.

PMID- 28885447
TI  - Promoting Safety, Quality, and Value through Patient Blood Management.

PMID- 28885448
TI  - Scientists Must Shape Our Future as They Have Shaped Our Past: Perspective of the
      Former US EPA Administrator.

PMID- 28885449
TI  - Pandemic Influenza A H1N1 Vaccination and Subsequent Risk of Type 1 Diabetes in
      Norway.

PMID- 28885450
TI  - Automated Evaluation of Choroidal Thickness and Minimum Rim Width Thickness in
      Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare peripapillary
      choroidal thickness (pCT) and macular choroidal thickness (CT), Bruch membrane
      opening-minimum rim width (BMO-MRW), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness,
      and optic disc area among nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION)
      eyes, the contralateral unaffected eyes, and healthy control eyes. METHODS:
      Twenty-six patients diagnosed with NAION (29 affected and 21 unaffected eyes) and
      29 healthy matched control individuals (29 eyes) were analyzed by swept-source
      optical coherence tomography. All participants underwent scanning by Spectralis
      optical coherence tomography to analyze BMO-MRW, RNFL thickness, and optic disc
      area. RESULTS: Mean pCT in the NAION eyes, unaffected fellow eyes, and the
      control group was 130.5 +/- 72.1 MUm, 149.6 +/- 75.7 MUm, and 103.7 +/- 36.7 MUm,
      respectively (analysis of variance [ANOVA], P = 0.04). Mean macular CT in the
      NAION eyes, unaffected fellow eyes, and the control group was 226.1 +/- 79.8 MUm,
      244.6 +/- 81.4 MUm, and 189.9 +/- 56.4 MUm, respectively (ANOVA, P = 0.03). Mean
      and all sectorial RNFL and BMO-MRW thickness values were significantly thinner in
      the NAION eyes vs the unaffected fellow and control eyes (P <= 0.00). The
      unaffected fellow eyes in NAION patients showed a significantly thicker average
      and sectorial BMO-MRW values than control eyes (P <= 0.02) except for the nasal
      sector (P = 0.09). Mean optic disc area derived from BMO analysis was not
      significantly different among groups (ANOVA, P = 0.86). CONCLUSIONS: The fellow
      unaffected eyes in patients with NAION showed significantly thicker mean
      peripapillary and macular choroidal and BMO-MRW thicknesses than disease-free
      control eyes. No differences in the mean optic disc area were found. Both a thick
      peripapillary choroid and a thick neuroretinal rim might contribute to the
      development of NAION or possibly be a secondary phenomenon.

PMID- 28885451
TI  - Visual Structure and Function in Collision Sport Athletes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vision-based measures have been shown to be useful markers in
      multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer and Parkinson disease. Therefore, these
      testing paradigms may have applications to populations explaining repetitive head
      trauma that has been associated with long-term neurodegenerative sequelae. We
      investigated retinal structure and visual function in professional collision
      sport athletes compared to age- and race-matched control participants. METHODS:
      In this cross-sectional study, participants underwent spectral-domain optical
      coherence tomography (OCT) measurements of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber
      layer (RNFL) and macular ganglion cell complex (GCC = ganglion cell + inner
      plexiform layers) thickness. High-contrast visual acuity (100% level), low
      contrast letter acuity (LCLA) (1.25% and 2.5% levels), and King-Devick Test of
      rapid number naming performance were administered. Vision-specific quality of
      life (QOL) measures were assessed. RESULTS: Among 46 collision sport athletes
      (boxing, n = 14; football, n = 29; ice hockey, n = 3) and 104 control
      participants, average RNFL thickness was a significant predictor of athlete vs
      control status with athletes demonstrating 4.8-MUm of thinning compared to
      controls (P = 0.01, generalized estimating equation [GEE] models accounting for
      age and within-subject, intereye correlations). Athlete vs control status was not
      a predictor of RNFL thickness for the subgroup of football players in this cohort
      (P = 0.60). Binocular (P = 0.001) and monocular (P = 0.02) LCLA at 2.5% contrast
      and vision-specific QOL (P = 0.04) were significant predictors of athlete vs
      control status (GEE models accounting for age and within-subject, intereye
      correlations). Rapid number naming performance times were not significantly
      different between the control and athlete groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed
      that retinal axonal and neuronal loss is present among collision sport athletes,
      with most notable differences seen in boxers. These findings are accompanied by
      reductions in visual function and QOL, similar to patterns observed in multiple
      sclerosis, Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases. Vision-based changes associated with
      head trauma exposure that have the potential to be detected in vivo represent a
      unique opportunity for further study to determine if these changes in collision
      sport athletes are predictive of future neurodegeneration.

PMID- 28885452
TI  - MicroRNA-mediated downregulation of potassium-chloride-cotransporter and
      vesicular gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter expression in spinal cord
      contributes to neonatal cystitis-induced visceral pain in rats.
AB  - Loss of GABAergic inhibition in pain pathways has been considered to be a key
      component in the development of chronic pain. In the present study, we intended
      to examine whether miR-92b-mediated posttranscriptional dysregulation of spinal
      potassium chloride cotransporter (KCC2) and vesicular gamma-aminobutyric acid
      transporter (VGAT) plays a major role in the development and maintenance of long
      term visceral hyperalgesia in neonatal zymosan-treated rats. Neonatal cystitis
      was induced by transurethral zymosan administration from postnatal (P) days 14 to
      16 (protocol 1). Two other zymosan protocols were also used: adult rechallenge on
      P57 to 59 following neonatal P14 to 16 exposures (protocol 2), and adult zymosan
      exposures on P57 to 59 (protocol 3). Both neonatal and adult bladder inflammation
      protocols demonstrated an increase in spinal miR-92b-3p expression and subsequent
      decrease in KCC2 and VGAT expression in spinal dorsal horn neurons. In situ
      hybridization demonstrated a significant upregulation of miR-92b-3p in the spinal
      dorsal horn neurons of neonatal cystitis rats compared with saline-treated
      controls. In dual in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry studies, we
      further demonstrated coexpression of miR-92b-3p with targets KCC2 and VGAT in
      spinal dorsal horn neurons, emphasizing a possible regulatory role both at pre-
      and post-synaptic levels. Intrathecal administration of lentiviral pLSyn-miR-92b
      3p sponge (miR-92b-3p inhibitor) upregulated KCC2 and VGAT expression in spinal
      dorsal horn neurons. In behavioral studies, intrathecal administration of
      lentiviral miR-92b-3p sponge attenuated an increase in visceromotor responses and
      referred viscerosomatic hypersensitivity following the induction of cystitis.
      These findings indicate that miR-92b-3p-mediated posttranscriptional regulation
      of spinal GABAergic system plays an important role in sensory pathophysiology of
      zymosan-induced cystitis.

PMID- 28885453
TI  - Peripheral afferents and spinal inhibitory system in dynamic and static
      mechanical allodynia.

PMID- 28885455
TI  - Spousal criticism and hostility in response to pain: what is the alternative?

PMID- 28885454
TI  - Attenuation of early phase inflammation by cannabidiol prevents pain and nerve
      damage in rat osteoarthritis.
AB  - Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial joint disease, which includes joint
      degeneration, intermittent inflammation, and peripheral neuropathy. Cannabidiol
      (CBD) is a noneuphoria producing constituent of cannabis that has the potential
      to relieve pain. The aim of this study was to determine whether CBD is anti
      nociceptive in OA, and whether inhibition of inflammation by CBD could prevent
      the development of OA pain and joint neuropathy. Osteoarthritis was induced in
      male Wistar rats (150-175 g) by intra-articular injection of sodium
      monoiodoacetate (MIA; 3 mg). On day 14 (end-stage OA), joint afferent
      mechanosensitivity was assessed using in vivo electrophysiology, whereas pain
      behaviour was measured by von Frey hair algesiometry and dynamic incapacitance.
      To investigate acute joint inflammation, blood flow and leukocyte trafficking
      were measured on day 1 after MIA. Joint nerve myelination was calculated by G
      ratio analysis. The therapeutic and prophylactic effects of peripheral CBD (100
      300 MUg) were assessed. In end-stage OA, CBD dose-dependently decreased joint
      afferent firing rate, and increased withdrawal threshold and weight bearing (P <
      0.0001; n = 8). Acute, transient joint inflammation was reduced by local CBD
      treatment (P < 0.0001; n = 6). Prophylactic administration of CBD prevented the
      development of MIA-induced joint pain at later time points (P < 0.0001; n = 8),
      and was also found to be neuroprotective (P < 0.05; n = 6-8). The data presented
      here indicate that local administration of CBD blocked OA pain. Prophylactic CBD
      treatment prevented the later development of pain and nerve damage in these OA
      joints. These findings suggest that CBD may be a safe, useful therapeutic for
      treating OA joint neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28885457
TI  - Cannabis constituent synergy in a mouse neuropathic pain model.
AB  - Cannabis and its psychoactive constituent Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have
      efficacy against neuropathic pain, however, this is hampered by their side
      effects. It has been suggested that co-administration with another major
      constituent cannabidiol (CBD) might enhance the analgesic actions of THC and
      minimise its deleterious side effects. We examined the basis for this
      phytocannabinoid interaction in a mouse chronic constriction injury (CCI) model
      of neuropathic pain. Acute systemic administration of THC dose-dependently
      reduced CCI-induced mechanical and cold allodynia, but also produced motor
      incoordination, catalepsy, and sedation. Cannabidiol produced a lesser dose
      dependent reduction in allodynia, but did not produce the cannabinoid side
      effects. When co-administered in a fixed ratio, THC and CBD produced a biphasic
      dose-dependent reduction in allodynia. At low doses, the THC:CBD combination
      displayed a 200-fold increase in anti-allodynic potency, but had lower efficacy
      compared with that predicted for an additive drug interaction. By contrast, high
      THC:CBD doses had lower potency, but greater anti-allodynic efficacy compared
      with that predicted for an additive interaction. Only the high dose THC:CBD anti
      allodynia was associated with cannabinoid side effects and these were similar to
      those of THC alone. Unlike THC, the low dose THC:CBD anti-allodynia was not
      cannabinoid receptor mediated. These findings demonstrate that CBD
      synergistically enhances the pain-relieving actions of THC in an animal
      neuropathic pain model, but has little impact on the THC-induced side effects.
      This suggests that low dose THC:CBD combination treatment has potential in the
      treatment of neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28885458
TI  - Compassionate Nitric Oxide Adjuvant Treatment of Persistent Mycobacterium
      Infection in Cystic Fibrosis Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium abscessus is one of the most antibiotic-resistant
      pathogens in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Nitric oxide (NO) has broad-spectrum
      antimicrobial activity. Clinical studies indicated that it is safe and tolerable
      when given as 160 ppm intermittent inhalations. METHODS: A prospective
      compassionate adjunctive inhaled NO therapy in 2 CF patients with persistent
      Mycobacterium abscessus infection. RESULTS: No adverse events were reported. Both
      subjects showed significant reduction in quantitative polymerase chain reaction
      results for Mycobacterium abscessus load in sputum during treatment; estimated
      colony forming unit decreased from 7000 to 550 and from 3000 to 0 for patient 1
      and patient 2, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Intermittent inhalations with 160 ppm
      NO are well tolerated, safe and result in significant reduction of Mycobacterium
      abscessus load. It may constitute an adjuvant therapeutic approach for CF
      patients with Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease. Further studies are needed to
      define dosing, duration and long-term clinical outcome.

PMID- 28885456
TI  - Tumor necrosis factor alpha secreted from oral squamous cell carcinoma
      contributes to cancer pain and associated inflammation.
AB  - Patients with oral cancer report severe pain during function. Inflammation plays
      a role in the oral cancer microenvironment; however, the role of immune cells and
      associated secretion of inflammatory mediators in oral cancer pain has not been
      well defined. In this study, we used 2 oral cancer mouse models: a cell line
      supernatant injection model and the 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO) chemical
      carcinogenesis model. We used the 2 models to study changes in immune cell
      infiltrate and orofacial nociception associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma
      (oSCC). Oral cancer cell line supernatant inoculation and 4NQO-induced oSCC
      resulted in functional allodynia and neuronal sensitization of trigeminal tongue
      afferent neurons. Although the infiltration of immune cells is a prominent
      component of both oral cancer models, our use of immune-deficient mice
      demonstrated that oral cancer-induced nociception was not dependent on the
      inflammatory component. Furthermore, the inflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis
      factor alpha (TNFalpha), was identified in high concentration in oral cancer cell
      line supernatant and in the tongue tissue of 4NQO-treated mice with oSCC.
      Inhibition of TNFalpha signaling abolished oral cancer cell line supernatant
      evoked functional allodynia and disrupted T-cell infiltration. With these data,
      we identified TNFalpha as a prominent mediator in oral cancer-induced nociception
      and inflammation, highlighting the need for further investigation in neural
      immune communication in cancer pain.

PMID- 28885459
TI  - Association Between Mode of Delivery and Risk of Infection in Early Childhood: A
      Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infections are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in
      children. Caesarean section as a potential risk factor for infection has recently
      gained interest. Delivery by caesarean section has increased greatly, with
      nonmedical reasons playing an increasing role. We aimed to analyze the
      association between mode of delivery and hospitalizations because of infection
      and symptoms of infection at home in early childhood. METHODS: A cohort study,
      based on the Odense Child Cohort, following infants from gestation until a mean
      age of 3.5 years. Data on hospitalization because of infections were collected
      from the Danish National Patient Registry. Data on symptoms of infection at home
      were collected via a text message-based questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 1921
      children were born by vaginal delivery, 283 by elective caesarean section and 227
      by acute caesarean section. An adjusted regression model showed an incidence rate
      ratio for hospitalizations because of infection in children born by elective
      caesarean section compared with children born by vaginal delivery of 1.45 (95%
      confidence interval: 1.16-1.80; P = 0.001). The analyses on symptoms of infection
      at home found no associations between any symptom of infection and mode of
      delivery. Symptom-specific subanalyses showed contrasting results. CONCLUSIONS:
      Mode of delivery showed a strong association to hospitalization because of
      infectious disease during early childhood. Overall, no association was present
      between rate of symptoms of infection at home and mode of delivery.

PMID- 28885460
TI  - Potential Diarrheal Pathogens Common Also in Healthy Children in Angola.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Globally, diarrhea kills almost 1500 children daily. In diagnostics,
      molecular methods are replacing traditional assays. We aimed to investigate
      enteropathogens in children with and without diarrhea in Luanda, the capital of
      Angola. METHODS: One hundred and ninety-four stool samples from 98 children with
      acute diarrhea and 96 children without diarrhea were investigated for 17
      enteropathogens with multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The
      median age of children was 10.5 months. Enteropathogens, bacteria, viruses and
      parasites were detected in 91%, 78%, 50% and 25%, respectively. A positive
      finding was significantly (P = 0.003) more common in diarrhea when testing for
      all pathogens combined, for bacteria alone and for viruses alone. More than one
      pathogen was found more frequently in diarrhea than in non-diarrhea stool
      samples, in 87% and in 59% (P < 0.0001), respectively. The median number
      (interquartile range) of pathogens detected was 3 (2) versus 1.5 (2; P < 0.0001),
      respectively. When age was taken into account, diarrhea was found to be
      associated with enterotoxigenic and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli, Shigella,
      Campylobacter, rotavirus, sapovirus and Cryptosporidium. CONCLUSIONS: Multiplex
      polymerase chain reaction detected enteropathogens in almost all stool samples of
      children in Luanda, albeit this occurred more often in diarrhea. Children with
      diarrhea showed more mixed infections than children without diarrhea.

PMID- 28885461
TI  - Vaccinations and Malaria Chemoprophylaxis of Adolescents Traveling From Greece to
      International Destinations: A Nine-Year Prospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are few publications focusing on vaccination and malaria
      chemoprophylaxis in adolescent travelers. We assessed pretravel vaccinations and
      malaria chemoprophylaxis of adolescents 12-18 years old traveling from Greece to
      international destinations. METHODS: We prospectively studied 239 adolescents 12
      18 years old during 2008-2016. A standard questionnaire was used to collect data.
      RESULTS: Adolescents sought pretravel services at a mean of 24.1 days before
      departure. Their main destinations were sub-Saharan Africa (79 adolescents;
      33.1%), Latin America (56; 23.5%) and North America (26; 10.9%). Almost half
      (46.1%) of them planned to stay abroad for at least 3 months. Sixteen (7.4%)
      adolescents planned to visit friends and relatives. The yellow fever vaccine and
      the typhoid vaccine were the most frequently administered vaccines (74.1% and
      20.5%, respectively), while the hepatitis A vaccine and the tetanus-diphtheria
      vaccine accounted for most routine vaccinations (18% and 14.2%, respectively).
      The rabies and the typhoid fever vaccines were administered inadequately to
      adolescents traveling to endemic areas. Malaria chemoprophylaxis should have been
      prescribed in many cases traveling to sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian
      subcontinent. CONCLUSIONS: Only a small number of adolescents from Greece
      traveling abroad seek pretravel counseling. We found significant gaps in typhoid
      fever and rabies vaccinations of adolescents traveling to endemic areas. We also
      found gaps in prescription of malaria chemoprophylaxis for those traveling to
      high-risk areas. There is a need to develop communication strategies to access
      adolescent travelers and improve appropriate vaccination and use of malaria
      chemoprophylaxis.

PMID- 28885463
TI  - Author Response: Implementation of an Early Mobility Pathway in Neurointensive
      Care Unit Patients With Ventriculostomies.

PMID- 28885462
TI  - Early Mobilization of Patients With External Ventricular Devices.

PMID- 28885464
TI  - Through the Resolution of Conflict.

PMID- 28885465
TI  - Interprovider Communication Using a Scheduled Provider Alert-Response
      Communication System in 3 Inpatient Neurology Units.

PMID- 28885467
TI  - Perceived Cognitive Deficits in a Sample of Persons Living With Multiple
      Sclerosis.

PMID- 28885466
TI  - Perceived Cognitive Deficits in a Sample of Persons Living With Multiple
      Sclerosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to describe the nature and diversity of
      perceived cognitive deficits using the Perceived Deficits Questionnaire (PDQ), to
      assess the reliability of the PDQ, and to explore self-reported predictors of PDQ
      scores in a large community-based sample of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Persons with MS enrolled in a randomized controlled trial
      provided demographic data and completed the PDQ along with measures of cognitive
      and memory strategies, cognitive abilities, self-efficacy, and depressive
      symptoms and neuropsychological tests. RESULTS: Most of the 183 participants were
      non-Hispanic white women, approximately 49 years old, and diagnosed with MS 12.5
      years prior. The most frequent cognitive complaints regarded trouble remembering
      telephone numbers, mind drifting, and forgetting why one came into a room. The
      PDQ scores were significantly related to self-rated cognitive abilities,
      depressive symptoms, self-efficacy, and use of cognitive strategies, but not to
      scores on neuropsychological performance tests. When controlling for other
      variables, self-rated cognitive abilities was the strongest, significant
      predictor of perceived cognitive deficits. CONCLUSION: Persons with MS most
      frequently experience deficits related to short-term memory and attention. The
      PDQ total is a reliable measure of perceived cognitive deficits in persons with
      MS, is feasible for use by nurses in clinical settings-can be administered in
      approximately 5 minutes, and is easily scored.

PMID- 28885468
TI  - Trauma registry in Spain. Comment to "Trauma systems around the world: A
      systematic overview".

PMID- 28885469
TI  - Bigger is better: Comparison of alternative devices for tension hemopneumothorax
      and pulseless electrical activity in a Yorkshire swine model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tension pneumothorax is a cause of potentially preventable death in
      prehospital and battlefield settings and 14-gauge angiocatheter (14G AC)
      decompression remains the current treatment standard, despite its high incidence
      of failure. Traumatic pneumothorax is often associated with hemothorax, but 14G
      AC has no proven efficacy for associated hemothorax. We sought to compare the 14G
      AC to three alternative devices for treatment of tension hemopneumothorax (t
      H/PTX) in a positive-pressure ventilation swine model. METHODS: Our tension model
      was modified to incorporate a persistent air leak and pleural blood. Tension
      physiology was achieved with escalating carbon dioxide insufflation via
      transdiaphragmatic trocar, and 10% estimated blood volume was instilled into each
      chest. Intervention was randomized between 14G AC, 10-gauge angiocatheter (10G
      AC), modified Veress-type needle (mVN), and 3-mm laparoscopic trocar (LT). After
      recovery, serial tension-induced pulseless electrical activity (PEA) events were
      induced and decompressed. Success of rescue, time to rescue, and physiologic data
      were recorded. RESULTS: One hundred ninety-five t-H/PTX and 88 PEA events were
      conducted in 25 swine. Laparoscopic trocar and 10G AC were more successful and
      had faster median time to rescue for t-H/PTX compared with 14G AC, whereas mVN
      performed comparably. Following PEA, 14G AC and mVN succeeded at rescue only 50%
      and 57% of the time, whereas 10G AC and LT had 100% success at return of
      spontaneous circulation. Time to successful return of circulation following PEA
      did not differ between devices; however, there was a noticeable difference in the
      rate of meaningful hemodynamic recovery following PEA favoring LT and 10G AC.
      There were no significant injuries noted. CONCLUSIONS: While mVN performed
      comparably to 14G AC, both have unacceptable failure rates. Ten-gauge AC and LT
      performed superiorly in both t-H/PTX and PEA. We believe there is now ample
      evidence supporting replacement of the 14G AC with 10G AC in current treatment
      recommendations.

PMID- 28885471
TI  - Partners in Research: Together We'll Make a Difference.

PMID- 28885470
TI  - Poor microcirculatory flow dynamics are associated with endothelial cell damage
      and glycocalyx shedding after traumatic hemorrhagic shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endothelial cell damage and glycocalyx shedding after trauma can
      increase the risk of inflammation, coagulopathy, vascular permeability, and
      death. Bedside sublingual video-microscopy may detect worse flow and perfusion
      associated with this endotheliopathy. We compared markers of endotheliopathy with
      physical flow dynamics after traumatic hemorrhagic shock. METHODS: Sublingual
      incident dark field video-microscopy was performed at three time points after
      injury (<10 hours, 10-30 hours, and 30-50 hours). Values for microcirculatory
      flow index (MFI), Point Of carE Microcirculation assessment (POEM) score,
      proportion of perfused vessels (PPV), microcirculatory heterogeneity index (MHI),
      perfused vessel density (PVD), and total vessel density (TVD) were obtained.
      ELISAs were performed to measure concentrations of thrombomodulin and syndecan-1
      as biomarkers of endothelial cell damage and glycocalyx shedding respectively.
      Flow parameters were dichotomized to above and below average, and biomarkers
      compared between groups; below average MFI, POEM, PPV, PVD, and TVD, and above
      average MHI were considered poor microcirculatory flow dynamics. RESULTS: A total
      of 155 sublingual video-microscopy clips corresponding to 39 time points from 17
      trauma patients were analyzed. Median age was 35 (IQR 25-52); 16/17 were men.
      Within 10 hours of injury, syndecan-1 concentrations were significantly higher
      compared to 17 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (30 [IQR 20-44] ng/mL) for
      worse TVD (78 [IQR 63-417] ng/mL), PVD (156 [IQR 63-590] ng/mL), PPV (249 [IQR 64
      578] ng/mL), MFI (249 [IQR 64-578] ng/mL), MHI (45 [IQR] 38-68) ng/mL), and POEM
      scores (108 [IQR 44-462] ng/mL) (all p < 0.01). Thrombomodulin was also raised
      within 10 hours of injury when compared to healthy controls (2.9 [IQR 2.2-3.4]
      ng/mL) for worse PPV (4.1 [IQR 3.4-6.2] ng/mL) and MFI (4.1 [IQR 3.4-6.2] ng/mL)
      (both p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Endothelial cell damage and glycocalyx shedding are
      associated with worse flow, density, and heterogeneity within microvessels after
      traumatic hemorrhagic shock. The clinical utility of these biomarkers and flow
      parameters at the bedside are yet to be elucidated. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic
      study, level III.

PMID- 28885472
TI  - What Problems Are You Trying to Solve?

PMID- 28885473
TI  - INS 2017 Infusion Nursing Grand Rounds.

PMID- 28885474
TI  - INS 2017 ePoster Presentations.

PMID- 28885475
TI  - Project HANDS: A Bundled Approach to Increase Short Peripheral Catheter Dwell
      Time.
AB  - Increasing short peripheral catheter (SPC) dwell time is becoming common
      practice. A number of variables lead to unscheduled restarts and significant
      complications with SPCs. Preventing complications is important to patient
      outcomes as dwell time increases. This quality improvement project compared the
      use of a manufactured securement device versus tape and transparent occlusive
      dressing while instituting a standardized insertion and care bundle with a 96
      hour dwell time. Major findings included no statistically significant difference
      in restart rates in SPCs secured with a device compared with those secured with
      tape and transparent occlusive dressing (P = .06). These results differ from
      other published studies and may be due to the traditional nature of the
      hospital's infusion team and patients' average length of stay.

PMID- 28885476
TI  - Determining the Risk of Sepsis Using Nurse-Compounded Elastomeric Pumps for
      Continuous Infusion in Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy.
AB  - Limited availability of compounded antibiotics used for continuous infusion
      outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) can delay or interrupt an OPAT
      course. To solve this problem, OPAT nurses at a hospital in Australia have been
      compounding elastomeric pumps for immediate use. The incidence of sepsis in 5014
      patients before and after the introduction of nurse compounding was compared.
      There were no cases of laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection among the nurse
      compounded group compared with 2 cases (0.045/1000 catheter days) among the
      control group without nurse compounding (P = .16). No compounding medication
      errors occurred in more than 180 patient years of follow-up among the nurse
      compounding group. Nurse compounding can be a safe and convenient alternative
      when immediate access to preloaded elastomeric pumps is required.

PMID- 28885477
TI  - Understanding the Patient Experience of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter
      Related Deep Vein Thrombosis Using Interpretive Phenomenology.
AB  - The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to determine what it
      means to patients to live with a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC)
      related deep vein thrombosis and to describe the influence of the experience on
      the individual's quality of life. The sample included 11 adult patients from an
      acute care setting who developed a PICC-related symptomatic thrombus between
      November 2014 and March 2016, using purposive sampling. Three distinct themes
      emerged from the data in this study: a loss of trust in health care providers,
      additional burdens to existing problems, and a yearning for understanding.

PMID- 28885478
TI  - Use of Electronic Tablets for Patient Education on Flushing Peripherally Inserted
      Central Catheters.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of using an electronic
      tablet to provide patient education for flushing peripherally inserted central
      catheters (PICCs) as a way to reduce the incidence of occlusion. Eleven patients,
      newly diagnosed with cancer, participated in a pilot study that used a video on
      PICC flushing and remote coaching using FaceTime (Apple, Cupertino, CA) to teach
      patients how to maintain their PICCs in their homes. At the end of the 6-week
      intervention, no adverse outcomes (occlusions or infections) were noted among the
      patients who participated in the study.

PMID- 28885479
TI  - High-Dose Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin in Patients With Multifocal Motor
      Neuropathy: A Nursing Perspective.
AB  - Multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN), an immune neuromuscular condition causing
      progressive weakness, usually responds to immune-mediated treatments, including
      intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Fifteen patients with MMN receiving IVIG were
      enrolled in an open-label, single-center trial and switched to 20% subcutaneous
      immunoglobulin (SCIG) using a smooth transition protocol (ie, changing the
      therapy without interruption or impact on the intended outcome of the therapy).
      Patients received individualized training and support based on motivation and
      ability to learn, follow directions, and maintain compliance. Although some
      patients required assistance during the training phase, most managed self
      infusion and reported satisfaction in managing therapy autonomously. Educating
      patients with neuropathies to self-infuse high-dose SCIG at home and with
      flexibility in dosing schedules was successfully demonstrated in this patient
      group.

PMID- 28885480
TI  - Is Thrombus With Subcutaneous Edema Detected by Ultrasonography Related to Short
      Peripheral Catheter Failure? A Prospective Observational Study.
AB  - Short peripheral catheter (SPC) failure is an important clinical problem. The
      purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between SPC failure and
      etiologies such as thrombus, subcutaneous edema, and catheter dislodgment using
      ultrasonography and to explore the risk factors associated with the etiologies.
      Two hundred catheters that were in use for infusion, excluding chemotherapy, were
      observed. Risk factors were examined by logistic regression analysis. Sixty
      catheters were removed as the result of SPC failure. Frequency of thrombus with
      subcutaneous edema in SPC failure cases was significantly greater than in those
      cases where therapy was completed without complications (P < .01). Multivariate
      analysis demonstrated that 2 or more insertion attempts were significantly
      associated with thrombus with subcutaneous edema. Results suggest that subsurface
      skin assessment for catheterization could prevent SPC failure.

PMID- 28885481
TI  - Comparison of an Electromagnetic Middle Ear Implant and Hearing Aid Word
      Recognition Performance to Word Recognition Performance Obtained Under Earphones.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report the results of patients with the Maxum middle ear implant
      (MEI) and compare word recognition scores (WRS) and speech perception gap (SP
      Gap) of Maxum versus optimally fit hearing aids (HA). STUDY DESIGN: Case series
      with chart review. SETTING: Single, private otology clinic. PATIENTS: Eleven
      ears, in nine adult patients (two women; average age 62.7 yr). INTERVENTIONS:
      Twelve consecutive ears with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL)
      underwent implantation of the Maxum system. One patient was not included due to
      inadequate preoperative testing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome measures
      included word recognition score (WRS) and SP Gap (maximum word understanding [PB
      max] - WRSaided) improvement compared with HAs. RESULTS: The average Maxum WRS
      was 64.7% (range, 28-94%), a 41.6% improvement (range, 10-66%) over HAs (p <
      0.001). The average Maxum SP Gap was 6.6% (range, -8 to 24%), a 41.6% improvement
      (range, 10-66%) over HAs (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that the
      Maxum provides superior WRS than HAs for patients with significant aided SP Gaps.
      There is a significant, very strong correlation between Maxum WRS and PB max (r =
      0.85, p = 0.001). This implies that PB max may reasonably predict WRS outcomes
      with Maxum before implantation, and the SP Gap can reasonably predict the degree
      of additional potential benefit with Maxum. In advising patients who may be
      candidates for both a CI and MEI, PB max and SP Gap measurements will provide
      useful predictive information to help clinicians counsel patients on their choice
      of hearing technology. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

PMID- 28885482
TI  - Comparison of Localized and Systemic Otitis Media With ANCA-Associated
      Vasculitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences in immune activity based on the presence of
      multiple organ involvement in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody
      (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) and whether hearing outcomes are different
      between patients with AAV localized to the ear and patients with systemic AAV.
      STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case review. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENTS:
      Twenty patients with otitis media with AAV (OMAAV) who met the criteria proposed
      by the OMAAV study group in Japan. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Serum levels of C
      reactive protein, ANCA titer, soluble interleukin-2 receptor levels, and hearing
      outcome. RESULTS: Thirteen patients had disease involvement of organs other than
      the ear (systemic OMAAV group); involvement was localized to the ear in seven
      patients (localized OMAAV group). Serum levels of C-reactive protein, ANCA titer,
      and soluble interleukin-2 receptor were not significantly different between the
      groups. Hearing levels at diagnosis and in remission were significantly worse in
      the localized OMAAV group compared with the systemic OMAAV group. Hearing gain
      was not significantly different between groups. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that
      immune activity in patients with AAV localized to the ear is equivalent to
      activity in patients with systemic AAV. Therefore, we may need treatment for
      OMAAV equal in intensity to that for systemic AAV. As the hearing level at
      diagnosis was worse in patients with AAV localized to the ear than in patients
      with systemic AAV, earlier diagnosis may be needed to improve hearing outcome.

PMID- 28885483
TI  - Assessing Readability and Reliability of Online Patient Information Regarding
      Vestibular Schwannoma.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study is to objectively assess the quality and
      readability of websites related to vestibular schwannomas. BACKGROUND: Patients
      are increasingly seeking information on confirmed or suspected diagnoses through
      the Internet. Clinicians are often concerned regarding the accuracy, quality, and
      readability of web-based sites. METHODS: Online information relating to
      vestibular schwannoma was searched using the three most popular search engines.
      The terms "acoustic neuroma" and "vestibular schwannoma" were used. The top 50
      results from each site were assessed for readability using the Flesch-Kincaid
      Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease Score, and the Gunning-Fog Index. Quality of
      website information was scored using the DISCERN tool. RESULTS: Of 300 search
      results analyzed, 58 separate appropriate websites were identified. The mean
      readability score using Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 10.27 (95% confidence
      interval [CI] 9.84-10.70). The mean Flesch Reading Ease Score was 48.75 (95% CI
      46.57-50.92). The Gunning-Fog Index was 13.40 (95% CI 12.92-13.89). These scores
      equate to someone finishing secondary school/first year university student.
      DISCERN scores were highly variable but consistently demonstrated great
      variability in quality of information. CONCLUSION: Online patient information on
      vestibular schwannoma is highly variable in quality. Although there are a wide
      range of different websites easily available to patients on their condition and
      its treatment options, the information is written at a difficult level which may
      exceed the understanding level of many patients as it is written at a higher than
      average level of expected reading ability.

PMID- 28885484
TI  - Comparative evaluation of the white matter fiber integrity in patients with
      prelingual and postlingual deafness.
AB  - The aim of this study was to perform a comparative investigation of white matter
      integrity in patients with prelingual and postlingual deafness; we carried out a
      tract-based statistical analysis of diffusion tensor anisotropy in eight and ten
      adults with prelingual and postlingual deafness, respectively. Patients with
      deafness showed significant decreases in diffusion anisotropy at the right
      internal capsule, the right thalamus, and the splenium of the corpus callosum as
      well as within the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (including Heschl gyrus) and
      right temporal white matter. Furthermore, relative to patients with postlingual
      deafness, those with prelingual deafness showed lower anisotropy in the right
      superior temporal gyrus, bilateral temporal white matter, and the genu and
      anterior body of the corpus callosum. We believe that, in patients with deafness,
      reception of early auditory stimuli before language acquisition might be more
      critical to white matter maturation and brain reorganization than the nature of
      auditory stimuli itself or the duration of disuse. These findings provide the
      theoretical background for early auditory rehabilitation.

PMID- 28885485
TI  - Alterations in endocytic protein expression with increasing age in the transgenic
      APP695 V717I London mouse model of amyloid pathology: implications for
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - A major risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasing
      age, but the reason behind this association has not been identified. It is
      thought that the changes in endocytosis seen in AD patients are causal for this
      condition. Thus, we hypothesized that the increased risk of developing AD
      associated with ageing may be because of changes in endocytosis. We investigated
      using Western blotting whether the expression of endocytic proteins involved in
      clathrin-mediated and clathrin-independent endocytosis are altered by increasing
      age in a mouse model of amyloid pathology. We used mice transgenic for human
      amyloid precursor protein containing the V717I London mutation. We compared the
      London mutation mice with age-matched wild-type (WT) controls at three ages, 3, 9
      and 18 months, representing different stages in the development of pathology in
      this model. Having verified that the London mutation mice overexpressed amyloid
      precursor protein and beta-amyloid, we found that the expression of the smallest
      isoform of PICALM, a key protein involved in the regulation of clathrin-coated
      pit formation, was significantly increased in WT mice, but decreased in the
      London mutation mice with age. PICALM levels in WT 18-month mice and clathrin
      levels in WT 9-month mice were significantly higher than those in the London
      mutation mice of the same ages. The expression of caveolin-1, involved in
      clathrin-independent endocytosis, was significantly increased with age in all
      mice. Our results suggest that endocytic processes could be altered by the ageing
      process and such changes could partly explain the association between ageing and
      AD.

PMID- 28885486
TI  - Bacopa monnieri extract enhances learning-dependent hippocampal long-term
      synaptic potentiation.
AB  - Bacopa monnieri has been used in Ayurvedic medicine as a memory enhancer for a
      long time; however, its direct effect on synaptic plasticity has not been
      investigated. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report the
      effect of B. monnieri on long-term synaptic potentiation in acute hippocampal
      slices. Adult male Wistar rats were orally administered either sterile water or
      the ethanolic extract of B. monnieri for 60 days. The extracellular recording was
      performed to measure the field excitatory postsynaptic potential in the acute
      hippocampal slices of these rats. Our results showed that B. monnieri extract
      significantly increased long-term potentiation magnitude compared with the
      control group, whereas there was no change in basal synaptic transmission. The
      data support the beneficial mnemonic effect of B. monnieri, and suggest that this
      effect might be because of the increase of learning-associated synaptic
      machinery, resulting in the long-term potentiation enhancement and strengthening
      of hippocampal synapses, which plays a critical role in learning and memory
      formation.

PMID- 28885487
TI  - Luminance information decoding on the basis of local field potential signals of
      pigeon optic tectum neurons.
AB  - Important aspects of brain information processing can be understood by examining
      decoding of visual stimuli from neuronal response signals. In this research, the
      luminance information is decoded from the local field potential signal in the
      optic tectum region of the pigeon. We designed a luminance visual stimulus model
      with transient flicker characteristics, recorded multichannel local field
      potential (LFP) signals using a microelectrode array, extracted LFP Fourier
      transform energy and phase features, constructed a multivariate linear inverse
      filter luminance information decoding algorithm, and evaluated decoding effects
      using a cross-correlation method. We found that LFP signal phase decoding of
      luminance information yielded better effects than amplitude decoding of luminance
      information. In the case of optimal frequency band, channels, delay time, and
      other parameters, the results of phase and amplitude codecoding could reach
      0.94+/-0.02. Comparing the differences between neuronal spike decoding and LFP
      decoding, we found that LFP signal phase and amplitude codecoding resulted in
      luminance closer to that of the actual stimulus and required fewer decoding
      electrode channels.

PMID- 28885488
TI  - Complement (C1q) Binding De Novo Donor-Specific Antibodies and Cardiac-Allograft
      Vasculopathy in Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We hypothesized C1q binding de novo donor-specific antibody (DSA)
      after heart transplant (HT) is a higher risk for development of coronary artery
      vasculopathy (CAV) in children. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 127
      pediatric HT recipients transplanted between January 2005 and December 2014 was
      used to determine complement (C1q)-binding de novo DSA on the outcomes of HT and
      the ability of the C1q assay to predict CAV development. RESULTS: Of 127
      patients, 59 (46.4%) developed de novo DSA, 37 of those had C1q+ DSA. There was
      no difference in baseline characteristics except patients who developed C1q+ DSA
      more often received a donor heart from a female compared with C1q- DSA group (P =
      0.034). The DSA median fluorescent intensity (MFI) value of 7000 or greater had
      80% sensitivity and 80% specificity (C statistics 0.89, P <0.05) for predicting
      positive C1q binding. Multivariate analyses identified C1q binding DSA as an
      independent risk for CAV with a hazard ratio (HR) of 3.25 (95% confidence
      interval [CI], 1.33-7.93; P = 0.0095). In multivariable Cox proportional hazard
      models, the covariates associated with graft loss included: C1q+ DSA (HR, 3.2;
      95% CI, 1.34-7.86; P < 0.009), pre-HT renal insufficiency (HR, 11.3; 95% CI, 3.71
      34.29; P < 0.0001), and pre-HT ventilator support (HR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.39-7.81; P
      = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: The DSA strength in MFI correlates with positive C1q
      binding activity and hence functional capabilities of DSA. Close monitoring of
      DSA strength in MFI and function (C1q assay) may be useful for identifying
      pediatric HT recipient at risk for development of CAV.

PMID- 28885490
TI  - The Authors' Reply.

PMID- 28885489
TI  - Frailty and Postkidney Transplant Health-Related Quality of Life.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) reflects a patient's disease
      burden, treatment effectiveness, and health status and is summarized by physical,
      mental, and kidney disease-specific scales among end-stage renal disease
      patients. Although on average HRQOL improves postkidney transplant (KT), the
      degree of change depends on the ability of the patient to withstand the stressor
      of dialysis versus the ability to tolerate the intense physiologic changes of KT.
      Frail KT recipients may be extra vulnerable to either of these stressors, thus
      affecting change in HRQOL after KT. METHODS: We ascertained frailty, as well as
      physical, mental, and kidney disease-specific HRQOL in a multicenter prospective
      cohort of 443 KT recipients (May 2014 to May 2017) using Kidney Disease Quality
      of Life Instrument Short Form. We quantified the short-term (3 months) rate of
      post-KT HRQOL change by frailty status using adjusted mixed-effects linear
      regression models. RESULTS: Mean HRQOL scores at KT were 43.3 (SD, 9.6) for
      physical, 52.8 (SD, 8.9) for mental, and 72.6 (SD, 12.8) for kidney disease
      specific HRQOL; frail recipients had worse physical (P < 0.001) and kidney
      disease-specific HRQOL (P = 0.001), but similar mental HRQOL (P = 0.43). Frail
      recipients experienced significantly greater rates of improvement in physical
      HRQOL (frail, 1.35 points/month; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65-2.05;
      nonfrail, 0.34 points/month; 95% CI, -0.17-0.85; P = 0.02) and kidney disease
      specific HRQOL (frail, 3.75 points/month; 95% CI, 2.89-4.60; nonfrail, 2.41
      points/month; 95% CI, 1.78-3.04; P = 0.01), but no difference in mental HRQOL
      (frail, 0.54 points/month; 95% CI, -0.17-1.25; nonfrail, 0.46 points/month; 95%
      CI, -0.06-0.98; P = 0.85) post-KT. CONCLUSIONS: Despite decreased physiologic
      reserve, frail recipients experience improvement in post-KT physical and kidney
      disease-specific HRQOL better than nonfrail recipients.

PMID- 28885492
TI  - Cardiac Risk Score-Halfway There.

PMID- 28885491
TI  - Pancreas Transplantation With Grafts From Donors Deceased After Circulatory
      Death: 5 Years Single-Center Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Donation after circulatory death (DCD) pancreas transplantation has
      been shown to be an additional way to deal with donor organ shortages. The
      results of 5-year DCD pancreas transplantation are presented. METHODS: A
      retrospective, single-center analysis (2011-2015) was performed to compare the
      results of donation after brain death (DBD) to DCD pancreas transplantation.
      RESULTS: During the study period, 104 pancreas transplantations (83 from DBD and
      21 from DCD) were performed. Median Pancreas Donor Risk Index (PDRI) was 1.47,
      (DBD, 1.61 vs DCD, 1.35; P = 0.144). Without the factor DCD, PDRI from DCD donors
      was significantly lower (DBD, 1.61 vs DCD, 0.97; P < 0.001). Donor age was the
      only donor-related risk factor associated with pancreas graft survival (Hazard
      ratio, 1.06; P = 0.037). Postoperative bleeding and kidney delayed graft function
      occurred more frequently in recipients from DCD (P = 0.006). However, DCD
      pancreata had a lower incidence of thrombosis. Kidney and pancreas graft survival
      were equally good in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Pancreas transplantation from DCD
      donors yields comparable results to DBD donors when PDRI of DCD is relatively
      low. Most DCD donors are younger donors with trauma as cause of death. These DCD
      pancreas grafts may be a better option to cope with increasing organ shortages
      than exploring the limits with older (and higher PDRI) DBD donors.

PMID- 28885493
TI  - Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Posttransplant Hepatic Artery and Biliary
      Complications in Patients Treated With Transarterial Chemoembolization Before
      Liver Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatic artery complications are feared complications after liver
      transplantation and may compromise the biliary tract, graft, and patient
      survival. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to
      compare risk of hepatic artery and biliary complications after liver
      transplantation in patients who underwent neoadjuvant transarterial
      chemoembolization (TACE) versus no TACE. METHODS: Comprehensive searches were
      performed in Embase, MEDLINE OvidSP, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane
      databases to identify studies concerning hepatocellular cancer patients
      undergoing preliver transplantation TACE. Quality assessment of studies was done
      by the validated checklist of Downs and Black. Meta-analyses were performed to
      evaluate the incidence of all hepatic artery complications, hepatic artery
      thrombosis, and biliary tract complications, using binary random-effect models.
      RESULTS: Fourteen retrospective studies, representing 1122 TACE patients, met the
      inclusion criteria. Postoperative hepatic artery complications consisted of
      hepatic artery thrombosis, stenosis, and (pseudo)-aneurysms. Preliver
      transplantation TACE was significantly associated with occurrence of
      posttransplant hepatic artery complications (odds ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.09-2.26; P = 0.02). No significant association between neoadjuvant
      TACE and hepatic artery thrombosis alone or biliary tract complications was
      found. CONCLUSIONS: Patients treated with TACE before liver transplantation may
      be at increased risk for development of hepatic artery complications after liver
      transplantation.

PMID- 28885495
TI  - Isoglycyrrhizinate Magnesium Enhances Hepatoprotective Effect of FK506 on
      Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Through HMGB1 Inhibition in a Rat Model of Liver
      Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ischemia-reperfusion injury after liver transplantation (LT) impairs
      graft function and affects prognosis of recipients. Isoglycyrrhizinate magnesium
      (Iso) is a hepatoprotective drug usually used after liver injury. In this study,
      we intended to explore whether Iso alone have protective effect after ischemia
      reperfusion injury in a rat model of liver transplantation. We also aimed to
      study whether Iso could enhance the hepatoprotective effect of FK506 (tacrolimus)
      and underlying mechanism. METHODS: Rats after LT were treated with different
      concentration of FK506 with or without, Iso or lower-dose FK506 plus Iso. Alanine
      transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and albumin level were measured after 48
      hours, 72 hours, and 7 days. A cell ischemic/reperfusion model was established to
      further study the mechanism of hepatoprotective effect of FK506 and Iso. RESULTS:
      Iso treatment alone had no effect on liver grafts after LT, but lower-dose FK506
      + Iso was better for maintenance of liver function than lower-dose FK506 alone at
      48 hours, 72 hours, and 7 days after LT. In terms of mechanism, FK506 induced
      autophagy which resulted in significantly reduced apoptosis and maintained
      proliferative potential. However, autophagy induced by FK506 also lead to high
      mobility group box (HMGB) 1 release from nuclei, resulting in hepatocyte injury
      through triggering of p38 phosphorylation and chemokine release. Iso effectively
      inhibited the release of HMGB1 and downstream inflammatory cytokines.
      CONCLUSIONS: Iso could inhibit release of HMGB1 by FK506 and enhance the
      hepatoprotective effect of FK506 in rat LT. Combining Iso with FK506 would be
      promising for the patients after LT.

PMID- 28885496
TI  - beta Cell Replacement Therapy: The Next 10 Years.
AB  - beta cell replacement with either pancreas or islet transplantation has
      progressed immensely over the last decades with current 1- and 5-year insulin
      independence rates of approximately 85% and 50%, respectively. Recent advances
      are largely attributed to improvements in immunosuppressive regimen, donor
      selection, and surgical technique. However, both strategies are compromised by a
      scarce donor source. Xenotransplantation offers a potential solution by providing
      a theoretically unlimited supply of islets, but clinical application has been
      limited by concerns for a potent immune response against xenogeneic tissue. beta
      cell clusters derived from embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells represent
      another promising unlimited source of insulin producing cells, but clinical
      application is pending further advances in the function of the beta cell like
      clusters. Exciting developments and rapid progress in all areas of beta cell
      replacement prompted a lively debate by members of the young investigator
      committee of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association at the
      15th International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association Congress in
      Melbourne and at the 26th international congress of The Transplant Society in
      Hong Kong. This international group of young investigators debated which modality
      of beta cell replacement would predominate the landscape in 10 years, and their
      arguments are summarized here.

PMID- 28885494
TI  - Prevalence and Predictors of Patient-Reported Long-term Mental and Physical
      Health After Donation in the Adult-to-Adult Living-Donor Liver Transplantation
      Cohort Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prospective and longitudinal studies have examined liver donors'
      medical outcomes beyond the first 1 to 2 years postdonation. There is no
      analogous longitudinal evidence on long-term psychosocial outcomes, including
      patient-reported clinically significant mental health problems and perceptions of
      physical well-being. We examined prevalence, descriptive characteristics, and
      predictors of diagnosable mental health conditions and self-reported physical
      health problems, including fatigue and pain, in the long-term years after liver
      donation. METHODS: Donors from 9 centers who initially completed telephone
      interviews at 3 to 10 years postdonation (mean, 5.8 years; SD, 1.9) were
      reinterviewed annually for 2 years using validated measures. Outcomes were
      examined descriptively. Repeated-measures regression analyses evaluated potential
      predictors and correlates of outcomes. RESULTS: Of 517 donors initially
      interviewed (66% of those eligible), 424 (82%) were reassessed at least once.
      Prevalence rates of major depression and clinically significant pain were similar
      to general population norms; average fatigue levels were better than norms. All
      prevalence rates showed little temporal change. Anxiety and alcohol use disorder
      rates exceeded normative rates at 1 or more assessments. Longer postdonation
      hospitalization, female sex, higher body mass index, concerns about donation
      related health effects, and burdensome donation-related financial costs were
      associated with increased risk for most outcomes (P's < 0.05). Men were at higher
      risk for alcohol use disorder (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety and alcohol use
      disorders were more common than would be expected; they may warrant increased
      research attention and clinical surveillance. Surveillance for long-term problems
      in the areas assessed may be optimized by targeting donors at higher risk based
      on identified predictors and correlates.

PMID- 28885498
TI  - Patient and Kidney Allograft Survival in Recipients With End-Stage Renal Disease
      From Amyloidosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Outcomes after kidney transplantation for patients with amyloidosis
      associated end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have not been well characterized.
      METHODS: We performed a retrospective propensity score matched cohort study with
      Cox proportional hazards modeling using data from the United Network of Organ
      Sharing including patients transplanted from 1987 to 2015 (N = 310 629). RESULTS:
      Amyloidosis patients (N = 576) had higher rates of death (hazard ratio [HR],
      1.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28-1.95) and graft loss (HR, 1.49; 95% CI,
      1.19-1.87) compared with nonamyloidosis patients. The results were similar when
      the cohort was restricted to patients transplanted on or after 2001 (HR, 1.72;
      95% CI, 1.31-2.26 for death; HR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.35-2.33 for graft loss).
      However, there was no significant difference in risk of death or graft loss when
      amyloidosis patients were compared with those with diabetes-associated ESRD
      (mortality: HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.84-1.17; allograft loss: HR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.84
      1.20), or when compared with elderly patients (age, >65 years at the time of
      transplant) (mortality: HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.81-1.21; graft loss: HR, 1.02; 95%
      CI, 0.82-1.26). CONCLUSIONS: For patients with amyloidosis-associated ESRD deemed
      suitable for transplantation, patient and graft survivals are diminished compared
      to kidney transplant recipients overall, but are comparable to other high-risk
      subgroups.

PMID- 28885500
TI  - Endocrine Surgery: A Hopkins Legacy.
AB  - : The field of Endocrine Surgery is linked to extraordinary contributions made by
      Hopkins leaders in surgery including William Stewart Halsted, Harvey Cushing, and
      John L Cameron. Halsted's contributions to the anatomic basis of thyroid and
      parathyroid surgery were based on his experimental and clinical work performed at
      Johns Hopkins Hospital. Halsted's disciple, Harvey Cushing, created the field of
      modern neurosurgery and recognized the disease and syndrome that are immortalized
      with his name. The Halstedian principles promulgated and transmitted by John L
      Cameron to subsequent generations of endocrine surgeons at Hopkins have
      transformed the field of Endocrine Surgery with the stamp of Johns Hopkins
      Hospital.

PMID- 28885497
TI  - Influence of the Novel ATP-Competitive Dual mTORC1/2 Inhibitor AZD2014 on Immune
      Cell Populations and Heart Allograft Rejection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about how new-generation adenosine triphosphate
      competitive mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase inhibitors affect
      immunity and allograft rejection. METHODS: mTOR complex (C) 1 and 2 signaling in
      dendritic cells and T cells was analyzed by Western blotting, whereas immune cell
      populations in normal and heart allograft recipient mice were analyzed by flow
      cytometry. Alloreactive T cell proliferation was quantified in mixed leukocyte
      reaction; intracellular cytokine production and serum antidonor IgG levels were
      determined by flow analysis and immunofluorescence staining used to detect IgG in
      allografts. RESULTS: The novel target of rapamycin kinase inhibitor AZD2014
      impaired dendritic cell differentiation and T cell proliferation in vitro and
      depressed immune cells and allospecific T cell responses in vivo. A 9-day course
      of AZD2014 (10 mg/kg, intraperitoneally, twice daily) or rapamycin (RAPA) (1
      mg/kg, intraperitoneally, daily) prolonged median heart allograft survival time
      significantly (25 days for AZD2014, 100 days for RAPA, 9.5 days for control).
      Like RAPA, AZD2014 suppressed graft mononuclear cell infiltration, increased
      regulatory T cell to effector memory T cell ratios and reduced T follicular
      helper and B cells 7 days posttransplant. By 21 days (10 days after drug
      withdrawal), however, T follicular helper and B cells and donor-specific IgG1 and
      IgG2c antibody titers were significantly lower in RAPA-treated compared with
      AZD2014-treated mice. Elevated regulatory T cell to effector memory T cell ratios
      were maintained after RAPA, but not AZD2014 withdrawal. CONCLUSIONS:
      Immunomodulatory effects of AZD2014, unlike those of RAPA, were not sustained
      after drug withdrawal, possibly reflecting distinct pharmacokinetics or/and
      inhibitory effects of AZD2014 on mTORC2.

PMID- 28885499
TI  - A Concentric Neighborhood Solution to Disparity in Liver Access That Contains
      Current UNOS Districts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Policymakers are deliberating reforms to reduce geographic disparity
      in liver allocation. Public comments and the United Network for Organ Sharing
      Liver and Intestinal Committee have expressed interest in refining the
      neighborhoods approach. Share 35 and Share 15 policies affect geographic
      disparity. METHODS: We construct concentric neighborhoods superimposing the
      current 11 regions. Using concepts from concentric circles, we construct
      neighborhoods for each donor service area (DSA) that consider all DSAs within
      400, 500, or 600 miles as neighbors. We consider limiting each neighborhood to 10
      DSAs and use no metrics for liver supplies and demands. We change Model for End
      Stage Liver Disease (MELD) thresholds for the Share 15 policy to 18 or 20 and
      apply 3- and 5-point MELD proximity boosts to enhance local priority, control
      travel distances, and reduce disparity. We conduct simulations comparing current
      allocation with the neighborhoods and sharing policies. RESULTS: Concentric
      neighborhoods structures provide an array of solutions where simulation results
      indicate that they reduce geographic disparity, annual mortalities, and the
      airplane travel distances by varying degrees. Tuning of the parameters and policy
      combinations can lead to beneficial improvements with acceptable transplant
      volume loss and reductions in geographic disparity and travel distance.
      Particularly, the 10-DSA, 500-mile neighborhood solution with Share 35, Share 15,
      and 0-point MELD boost achieves such while limiting transplant volume losses to
      below 10%. CONCLUSIONS: The current 11 districts can be adapted systematically by
      adding neighboring DSAs to improve geographic disparity, mortality, and airplane
      travel distance. Modifications to Share 35 and Share 15 policies result in
      further improvements. The solutions may be refined further for implementation.

PMID- 28885501
TI  - Outcomes of Abdominal Surgery in Patients With Mechanical Ventricular Assist
      Devices: A Multi-Institutional Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the outcomes of elective and
      emergent abdominal operations performed in end-stage heart failure patients
      supported with ventricular assist devices (VADs). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA:
      With the growing volume of end-stage heart failure patients receiving VADs, an
      increasing number of these patients require surgery for noncardiac pathology.
      There is a paucity of studies on the safety of abdominal operations in this
      population. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review across 3 hospitals
      of patients with VADs who underwent abdominal surgeries between 2003 and 2015. We
      used Chi-square, Fisher exact, and Mann-Whitney U tests for comparison of
      elective and emergent cases. RESULTS: Fifty-seven patients underwent 63
      operations, of which 23 operations were elective, 24 were emergent, and 16 were
      emergently performed in the same admission as VAD placement and analyzed
      separately. Patients undergoing elective versus emergent procedures had similar
      comorbidities (Charlson score 2.9 vs 3.0). 43% versus 32% of patients had VADs as
      a destination therapy. Although perioperative anticoagulation approach was
      variable, holding warfarin and starting heparin/enoxaparin/bivalirudin bridge was
      most common (65% vs 54%). Although 2-fold higher in the emergent group (50 vs 100
      mL, P = 0.06), median estimated blood loss was low. Postoperative bleeding
      requiring transfusion was not very common (13% vs 8%), whereas rate of ischemic
      cerebrovascular accident (4% each) and venous thromboembolism was low (0% vs 13%,
      P = 0.23). Thirty-day mortality rate was 4% versus 17%, P = 0.19. CONCLUSION: VAD
      patients have an acceptable risk profile for abdominal surgery.

PMID- 28885502
TI  - Outcomes of Endovascular Repair for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: A Nationwide
      Survey in Japan.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze data on patients treated with a bifurcated stent graft for
      abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). BACKGROUND: The Japan Committee for Stentgraft
      Management (JACSM) was established in 2007 to manage the safety of endovascular
      aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) in Japan. The JACSM registry includes detailed
      anatomical and clinical data of all patients who undergo stent graft insertion in
      Japan. METHODS: Among 51,380 patients treated with bifurcated stent graft for
      AAA, we identified 38,008 eligible patients (excluding those with rupture or
      insufficient data). The analyzed factors included age, sex, comorbidities, AAA
      pathology and etiology, aneurysm and neck diameters, 7 anti-instructions for use
      (IFU) factors, and endoleaks at hospital discharge. The endpoints were death,
      adverse events, sac dilatation (>=5 mm), and reintervention. RESULTS: The rates
      of intraoperative and in-hospital mortality were 0.08% and 1.07%, respectively.
      Infectious aneurysm and pseudo-aneurysm were associated with overall survival and
      reintervention. Older age, large aneurysm diameter, and all types of persistent
      endoleaks were strong predictors of adverse events, sac dilatation, and
      reintervention. Comorbid cerebrovascular disease, renal dysfunction, and
      respiratory disorders were also risk factors. In total, 47.6% of patients
      violated the IFU; among the anti-IFU factors assessed, poor access and severe
      neck calcification were strong risk factors for mortality, reintervention, and
      adverse events. The sac dilatation rate at 5 years was 23.3%. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although the analysis included EVAR with poor anatomy, the perioperative
      mortality rate was acceptable compared with that in previous large population
      studies.

PMID- 28885503
TI  - Commentary of "Why do General Surgeons Decide to Retire?"

PMID- 28885505
TI  - Current Surgical Therapy: John Cameron's Contribution to Surgical Education and
      Training via Textbook.

PMID- 28885504
TI  - Life-long Lessons Learned From John Cameron in 7 Words.

PMID- 28885506
TI  - The Theory and Practice of Pancreatic Surgery in France.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Measure the caseload of pancreatectomies that influences their short
      term outcome, at a national level, and assess the applicability of a
      centralization policy. BACKGROUND: There is agreement that pancreatectomies
      should be centralized. However, previous studies have failed to accurately define
      a "high-volume" center. METHODS: French healthcare databases were screened to
      identify all adult patients who had elective pancreatectomies between 2007 and
      2012. The patients' age, comorbidities, indication, and extent of surgery, and
      also the hospital administrative-type and location were retrieved. The annual
      caseload of pancreatectomy was calculated for each hospital facility. The primary
      endpoint was 90-day mortality. Spline modeling was used to identify the different
      annual-caseload that influenced mortality. Logistic regressions were performed to
      assess if their influence was independent of confounders, and the accuracy of the
      model calculated. RESULTS: Overall, 22,366 patients underwent a pancreatectomy
      and the mortality was 8.1%. Two cut-offs were identified (25 and 65 per year):
      compared with centers performing >65 resections per year, the adjusted OR of
      mortality was 1.865 (1.529-2.276) in centers performing <=25 resections per year
      and 1.234 (1.031-1.478) in those performing 26 to 65 resections per year. The
      average number of facilities performing <=25, 26 to 65, and >65 pancreatectomies
      per year was 456, 20, and 9, respectively. The percentage of patients operated in
      these facilities was 56.6%, 19.9%, and 23.3%, respectively.For
      pancreaticoduodenectomies (12,670 patients; mortality 9.2%), there were 2 cut
      offs (16 and 40 pancreaticoduodenectomies per year), and both were independent
      predictors of mortality (adjusted OR of 1.979 and 1.333). For distal
      pancreatectomies (7085 patients; 6.2% mortality), there were 2 cut-offs (13 and
      25 distal pancreatectomies per year), but neither was an independent predictor of
      outcome (area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the model =
      0.778). CONCLUSIONS: Centralization of pancreatic surgery is theoretically
      justified, but currently unrealizable. As the incidence of pancreatic cancer
      increases, there is an urgent need to improve the training of surgeons and
      develop both intermediate and high-volume centers.

PMID- 28885507
TI  - Appropriate Surgical Care: Who Decides?: The I. Ridgeway Trimble Lecture.

PMID- 28885509
TI  - Modeling Surgical Technical Skill Using Expert Assessment for Automated Computer
      Rating.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Computer vision was used to predict expert performance ratings from
      surgeon hand motions for tying and suturing tasks. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA:
      Existing methods, including the objective structured assessment of technical
      skills (OSATS), have proven reliable, but do not readily discriminate at the task
      level. Computer vision may be used for evaluating distinct task performance
      throughout an operation. METHODS: Open surgeries was videoed and surgeon hands
      were tracked without using sensors or markers. An expert panel of 3 attending
      surgeons rated tying and suturing video clips on continuous scales from 0 to 10
      along 3 task measures adapted from the broader OSATS: motion economy, fluidity of
      motion, and tissue handling. Empirical models were developed to predict the
      expert consensus ratings based on the hand kinematic data records. RESULTS: The
      predicted versus panel ratings for suturing had slopes from 0.73 to 1, and
      intercepts from 0.36 to 1.54 (Average R = 0.81). Predicted versus panel ratings
      for tying had slopes from 0.39 to 0.88, and intercepts from 0.79 to 4.36 (Average
      R = 0.57). The mean square error among predicted and expert ratings was
      consistently less than the mean squared difference among individual expert
      ratings and the eventual consensus ratings. CONCLUSIONS: The computer algorithm
      consistently predicted the panel ratings of individual tasks, and were more
      objective and reliable than individual assessment by surgical experts.

PMID- 28885508
TI  - Defining Benchmarks in Liver Transplantation: A Multicenter Outcome Analysis
      Determining Best Achievable Results.
AB  - : : This multicentric study of 17 high-volume centers presents 12 benchmark
      values for liver transplantation. Those values, mostly targeting markers of
      morbidity, were gathered from 2024 "low risk" cases, and may serve as reference
      to assess outcome of single or any groups of patients. OBJECTIVE: To propose
      benchmark outcome values in liver transplantation, serving as reference for
      assessing individual patients or any other patient groups. BACKGROUND: Best
      achievable results in liver transplantation, that is, benchmarks, are unknown.
      Consequently, outcome comparisons within or across centers over time remain
      speculative. METHODS: Out of 7492 liver transplantation performed in 17
      international centers from 3 continents, we identified 2024 low risk adult cases
      with a laboratory model for end-stage liver disease score <=20 points, a balance
      of risk score <=9, and receiving a primary graft by donation after brain death.
      We chose clinically relevant endpoints covering intra- and postoperative course,
      with a focus on complications graded by severity including the complication
      comprehensive index (CCI). Respective benchmarks were derived from the median
      value in each center, and the 75 percentile was considered the benchmark cutoff.
      RESULTS: Benchmark cases represented 8% to 49% of cases per center. One-year
      patient-survival was 91.6% with 3.5% retransplantations. Eighty-two percent of
      patients developed at least 1 complication during 1-year follow-up. Biliary
      complications occurred in one-fifth of the patients up to 6 months after surgery.
      Benchmark cutoffs were <=4 days for ICU stay, <=18 days for hospital stay, <=59%
      for patients with severe complications (>= Grade III) and <=42.1 for 1-year CCI.
      Comparisons with the next higher risk group (model for end stage liver disease 21
      30) disclosed an increase in morbidity but within benchmark cutoffs for most, but
      not all indicators, while in patients receiving a second graft from 1 center (n =
      50) outcome values were all outside of benchmark values. CONCLUSIONS: Despite
      excellent 1-year survival, morbidity in benchmark cases remains high with half of
      patients developing severe complications during 1-year follow-up. Benchmark
      cutoffs targeting morbidity parameters offer a valid tool to assess higher risk
      groups.

PMID- 28885510
TI  - Pylorus Resection Does Not Reduce Delayed Gastric Emptying After Partial
      Pancreatoduodenectomy: A Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial (PROPP Study,
      DRKS00004191).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pylorus
      resection on postoperative delayed gastric emptying (DGE) after partial
      pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). BACKGROUND: PD is the standard treatment for tumors
      of the pancreatic head. Preservation of the pylorus has been widely accepted as
      standard procedure. DGE is a common complication causing impaired oral intake,
      prolonged hospital stay, and postponed further treatment. Recently, pylorus
      resection has been shown to reduce DGE. METHODS: Patients undergoing PD for any
      indication at the University of Heidelberg were randomized to either PD with
      pylorus preservation (PP) or PD with pylorus resection and complete stomach
      preservation (PR). The primary endpoint was DGE within 30 days according to the
      International Study Group of Pancreatic Surgery definition. RESULTS: Ninety-five
      patients were randomized to PP and 93 patients to PR. There were no baseline
      imbalances between the groups. Overall, 53 of 188 patients (28.2%) developed a
      DGE (grade: A 15.5%; B 8.8%; C 3.3%). In the PP group 24 of 95 patients (25.3%)
      and in the PR group 29 of 93 patients (31.2%) developed DGE (odds ratio 1.534,
      95% confidence interval 0.788 to 2.987; P = 0.208). Higher BMI, indigestion, and
      intraabdominal major complications were significant risk factors for DGE.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this randomized controlled trial, pylorus resection during PD did
      not reduce the incidence or severity of DGE. The development of DGE seems to be
      multifactorial rather than attributable to pyloric dysfunction alone. Pylorus
      preservation should therefore remain the standard of care in PD. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00004191.

PMID- 28885511
TI  - Response: "Intraoperative Fluid Resuscitation: Importance of Individualized
      Treatment".

PMID- 28885512
TI  - Diagnosis and Treatment of Intestinal Melanoma Metastases in the Era of Effective
      Systemic Treatment: Retraction.

PMID- 28885513
TI  - Measuring Postoperative Complications: On the Right Path but Far Away From the
      Destination: Retraction.

PMID- 28885514
TI  - Helping Those Who Are Brought Into a Closer Connection With You.

PMID- 28885515
TI  - Ethics in Practice: From Moral Distress to Moral Resilience.

PMID- 28885516
TI  - Treating Acute Pain in the Opiate-Dependent Patient.
AB  - Opioid drugs, including prescription as well as heroin, have come to the national
      spotlight due to the unprecedented rate of overdose and addiction. The Centers
      for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has termed this problem as an "epidemic"
      that has reached record numbers of deaths in 2014. Approximately half of these
      deaths are the result from prescribed opioids. Also on the rise are the numbers
      of individuals who are diagnosed with chronic pain and are treated with opioids,
      methadone and buprenorphine. Individuals currently taking opioids for chronic
      pain confound the treatment of acute pain after traumatic injury. Goals of
      treatment include effective pain relief, prevention of opioid withdrawal, and
      managing the associated behavioral and psychological factors with drug addiction
      and dependence. The CDC has put forth guidelines on how to treat chronic pain but
      has yet to provide recommendations on how to treat acute pain in this unique
      population. The purpose of this literature review is to provide resources to
      treat pain, given a tolerant opioid-dependent patient.

PMID- 28885518
TI  - Dissemination of a Child Passenger Safety Program Through Trauma Center-Community
      Partnerships.

PMID- 28885517
TI  - Dissemination of a Child Passenger Safety Program Through Trauma Center-Community
      Partnerships.
AB  - Improper child passenger restraint use contributes to higher pediatric motor
      vehicle collision morbidity and mortality among cultural minority populations.
      Child passenger safety education improves caregiver knowledge of restraint use,
      but effective interventions require culturally specific programming. The purpose
      of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a child passenger safety
      education program culturally adapted through a pediatric trauma center's
      community partnerships. A nonexperimental observational cohort study using
      program evaluation data for the child passenger safety education programs during
      a 24-month period. Paired pretest/posttest self-reported survey responses
      measured changes in caregiver knowledge and self-efficacy of restraint use. Data
      were analyzed by class location and by caregiver language using a paired t test
      and Wilcoxon's signed ranks test. A total of 1,795 paired survey responses were
      collected in English, Spanish, or Russian. An increase in mean knowledge scores
      occurred overall, with a difference in mean of 0.565 (SE = 0.022, 95% CI [0.521,
      0.607]). Stratification by class site and by language reflected significant
      increases in median scores, but findings were variable by study group. Pretest
      median scores for self-efficacy of restraint use were high for all groups, but
      the increases in posttest medians were also significant across groups (p <=
      .001). Caregiver knowledge and self-efficacy for child passenger restraint use
      increased after participation in the community classes. The pediatric trauma
      center's community partnerships facilitated uptake and adaption of the child
      passenger safety education programs and increased the injury prevention outreach
      to minority communities.

PMID- 28885519
TI  - Preparing Global Trauma Nurses for Leadership Roles in Global Trauma Systems.
AB  - Trauma leads to 5.7 million annual deaths globally, accounting for 25%-33% of
      global unintentional deaths and 90% of the global trauma burden in low- and
      middle-income countries. The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and the World
      Health Organization assert that emergent and essential surgical capacity building
      and trauma system improvement are essential to address the global burden of
      trauma. In response, the Rutgers Global Surgery program, the School of Nursing
      and Medicine, and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital faculty
      collaborated in the first Interprofessional Models in Global Injury Care and
      Education Symposium in June 2016. This 2-week symposium combined lectures, high
      fidelity simulation, small group workshops, site visits to Level I trauma
      centers, and a 1-day training course from the Panamerican Trauma Society. The aim
      was to introduce global trauma nurses to trauma leadership and trauma system
      development. After completing the symposium, 10 nurses from China, Colombia,
      Kenya, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay were surveyed. Overall, 88.8% of participants
      reported high levels of satisfaction with the program and 100% stated being very
      satisfied with trauma lectures. Symposia, such as that developed and offered by
      Rutgers University, prepare nurses to address trauma within system-based care and
      facilitate trauma nursing leadership in their respective countries.

PMID- 28885520
TI  - Caring for Trauma Patients With Coexisting Heart Failure.
AB  - The coexisting conditions of traumatic injury coupled with a comorbid condition
      such as heart failure create a complex scenario for the trauma nurse to manage.
      Initial care of the trauma patient includes following the Advanced Trauma Life
      Support guidelines and managing the airway, breathing, and circulation (ABC) of
      the patient. Once the airway is secure and breathing is managed, the team
      addresses circulation. At this point in the patient's care, the team typically
      does not know which, if any, comorbid conditions exist. Managing circulation for
      a hypotensive or hypoperfused patient will most likely include 1-2 L of
      crystalloid solution being given intravenously. Although most patients can
      tolerate this fluid volume challenge, excess volume can be difficult for a
      patient with heart failure. This article describes the monitoring and management
      techniques that are recommended for patients presenting with trauma and the
      comorbid condition of heart failure.

PMID- 28885521
TI  - Caring for Trauma Patients With Coexisting Heart Failure.

PMID- 28885523
TI  - Debrief in Emergency Departments to Improve Compassion Fatigue and Promote
      Resiliency.

PMID- 28885522
TI  - Debrief in Emergency Departments to Improve Compassion Fatigue and Promote
      Resiliency.
AB  - The purpose of this case study was to describe compassion fatigue using one
      nurse's experience as an example and to present the process of Personal
      Reflective Debrief as an intervention to prevent compassion fatigue in emergency
      department (ED) nurses. Debriefing after adverse outcomes using a structured
      model has been used in health care as a nonthreatening and relatively low-cost
      way to discuss unanticipated outcomes, identify opportunities for improvement,
      and heal as a group. There are many methods of debrief tailored to specific
      timing around events, specific populations of health care workers, and amount of
      time for debriefing. Debrief with personal and group reflection will help develop
      insights that nurses may need to understand their own emotions and experiences,
      as well as to develop knowledge that can be used in subsequent situations.
      Regular engagement in a proactive scheduled Personal Reflective Debrief has been
      identified as a method of promoting resiliency in an environment where the
      realities of emergency nursing make compassion fatigue an imminent concern.
      Nurses working in the ED normally experience some level of stress because of high
      acuity patients and high patient volume; yet, repeated exposure puts them at risk
      for developing compassion fatigue. The Personal Reflective Debrief is one way
      emergency nurses can alleviate some of this caring-related stress and thereby
      become more resilient. Increasing nurses' resilience to workplace stress can
      counter compassion fatigue. The key is to provide planned, proactive resources to
      positively improve resiliency.

PMID- 28885524
TI  - Iliac Vascular Injury in the Absence of a Pelvic Fracture.
AB  - This case study presents a rare iliac vascular injury in the absence of a pelvic
      fracture. A 36-year-old man sustained a blunt injury after being stuck by a motor
      vehicle. The only positive computed tomographic finding was in the pelvis that
      showed a 4 * 2-cm left retroperitoneal soft-tissue collection, appearing to
      encompass the left common and left external iliac veins. A pelvic venogram was
      obtained on Day 2 revealing a focal injury to the left external iliac vein with
      60% narrowing. The patient was treated with clopidogrel and acetylsalicylic acid
      and discharged from the hospital to his home 3 days later. A follow-up pelvic
      venogram in 6 weeks later showed complete healing of previously visualized left
      external iliac venous injury without any residual stenosis.

PMID- 28885526
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28885527
TI  - Interview With Eugene A. Woods, FACHE, President and CEO, Carolinas HealthCare
      System, Charlotte, North Carolina.

PMID- 28885525
TI  - Variables to Predict Mortality in Hip Fractures in Patients Over 65 Years of Age:
      A Study on the Role of Anticoagulation as a Risk Factor.
AB  - The objective of this research was to study the possible relationship between the
      consumption of dicoumarinic agents (understanding the consumption of
      acenocoumarol as regulated and monitored anticoagulation) and the mortality rate
      in people older than 65 years undergoing a hip fracture (HF) intervention. It was
      a retrospective, observational and descriptive study. Nine hundred fifty-seven
      patients were included who underwent an intervention for HF between the years
      2012 and 2014 in a third-level hospital. Patients took acenocoumarol (16.1%),
      which compared with nonanticoagulated patients took longer in receiving
      intervention, they remained hospitalized for more days, and they presented
      greater mortality within the first year after the intervention. Likewise, those
      who presented greater risk according to the classification system used by the
      American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) to estimate the risk of anesthesia
      for the different states of the patients who were anticoagulated also suffered
      greater mortality. The next factors increased the mortality in the first year:
      advanced age, delayed surgery, male sex, need for transfusion, high international
      normalized ratio, consumption of acenocoumarol, and a high ASA risk. We concluded
      the consumption of acenocoumarol increased the risk of mortality within the first
      year after surgery in 1.3 of possible cases. Other risk factors that also
      independently increased the risk of mortality included advanced age, male sex,
      delayed surgery, the need for transfusions, and surgical risk (for high levels in
      the ASA classification).

PMID- 28885528
TI  - Every Moment Matters: Cultivating a Culture of C.A.R.E.

PMID- 28885529
TI  - The Three-Legged Stool: Why Safety, Quality, and Equity Depend on Each Other.

PMID- 28885530
TI  - Emotional Intelligence and Burnout in Academic Radiation Oncology Chairs.
AB  - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in physicians
      has attracted attention as researchers begin to focus on the relationship of EI
      to retention, promotion, and productivity among academic physicians. However, to
      date, no formal evaluation of EI has been conducted among current department
      chairs. The objectives of this study were to assess the EI of current chairs of
      academic radiation oncology departments and to correlate EI with a self-reported
      assessment of burnout.The authors invited 95 chairs of academic radiation
      oncology departments to participate in a survey, approved by an institutional
      review board, consisting of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short
      Form (TEIQue-SF) and the abbreviated Maslach Burnout Inventory (a-MBI). TEIQue-SF
      scores were evaluated for correlation with respondents' demographics and self
      reported burnout scores on the a-MBI. Sixty chairs responded to the survey, for a
      response rate of 63.2%. The median (interquartile range) TEIQue-SF for the
      responding cohort was 172 (155-182) out of a maximum possible score of 210. The a
      MBI emotional exhaustion and depersonalization subscores were low, with median
      (interquartile range) scores of 4 (2.25-6.75) and 1 (0-2.75) out of maximum
      possible scores of 18 and 30, respectively. Higher TEIQue-SF global scores were
      weakly correlated with decreased burnout. The study results show that academic
      radiation oncology chairs had a high EI and low rates of self-reported burnout.
      EI may be of increasing importance with respect to recruitment and retention of
      academic medical leaders.

PMID- 28885531
TI  - Practitioner Application: Emotional Intelligence and Burnout in Academic
      Radiation Oncology Chairs.

PMID- 28885532
TI  - Governance Practices in an Era of Healthcare Transformation: Achieving a
      Successful Turnaround.
AB  - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This article illustrates the successful application of
      principles established by the American Hospital Association (AHA) to foster
      hospital transformations (). We examined a small community hospital's successful
      transition from one emergency care center (ECC) physician group to another and
      the methods by which significant improvements in outcomes were achieved. The
      foundation of this transformation included a generative governance style at the
      board level, a shared governance model at the employee level, a renewed sense of
      employee and physician engagement, and a sense of individual accountability.
      Outcomes included improved communication, a more unified vision throughout the
      ECC (which led to improved efficiency and accountability among staff), improved
      metrics, and a positive impact on the community's perception of care. Press Ganey
      scores and ECC operational metrics demonstrated significant increases in patient
      satisfaction and decreases in wait times for seven operational metrics. These
      data serve as a proxy for the transformation's success. Structured interviews
      revealed an increase in employee satisfaction associated with the transition. The
      positive outcomes demonstrate the importance of the AHA-articulated governance
      principles. The AHA recommendations for a superior value-based care model closely
      align with the methods illustrated through Bristol Hospital's successful
      transformation. Other institutions can apply the lessons from this case study to
      drive positive change and improve patient care.

PMID- 28885533
TI  - Practitioner Application: A Method for a Successful Turnaround: Using Governance
      Practices in an Era of Healthcare Transformation.

PMID- 28885534
TI  - An Organizational Model for Excellence in Healthcare Delivery: Evidence From
      Winners of the Baldrige Quality Award.
AB  - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Winners of the Baldrige National Quality Award in healthcare
      have documented top quartile clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction across a
      variety of American communities and a full spectrum of care. Their results also
      show high levels of satisfaction among physicians, nurses, and other workers, as
      well as effective financial performance. The managerial methods they use
      collectively, the Baldrige model-are consistent with organizational theory
      literature and are found across all winners. The winners have sustained
      excellence after winning and expanded it by acquisition of other healthcare
      organizations.The model differs substantially from traditional management
      approaches in healthcare delivery. It is a comprehensive program that emphasizes
      a shared focus on excellence, systematically responsive management, evidence
      based medicine, multidimensional measures and negotiated goals, improvement of
      work processes, thorough training, and extensive rewards. The model could be
      expanded on a much larger scale. Doing so successfully would substantially
      improve the quality and cost of healthcare, as well as the satisfaction and
      commitment of care providers and other staff. The opportunity deserves further
      study and trial by large healthcare delivery systems, insurers, and consulting
      companies.

PMID- 28885535
TI  - Practitioner Application: An Organizational Model for Excellence in Healthcare
      Delivery: Evidence From Winners of the Baldrige Quality Award.

PMID- 28885536
TI  - Moving Upstream in U.S. Hospital Care Toward Investments in Population Health.
AB  - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The root causes for most health outcomes are often
      collectively referred to as the social determinants of health. Hospitals and
      health systems now must decide how much to "move upstream," or invest in programs
      that directly affect the social determinants of health. Moving upstream in
      healthcare delivery requires an acceptance of responsibility for the health of
      populations. We examine responses of 950 nonfederal, general hospitals in the
      United States to the 2015 American Hospital Association Population Health Survey
      to identify characteristics that distinguish those hospitals that are most
      aligned with population health and most engaged in addressing social determinants
      of health. Those "upstream" hospitals are significantly more likely to be large,
      not-for-profit, metropolitan, teaching-affiliated, and members of systems.
      Internally, the more upstream hospitals are more likely to organize their
      population health activities with strong executive-level involvement, full-time
      equivalent support, and coordination at the system level.The characteristics
      differentiating hospitals strongly involved in population health and upstream
      activity are not unlike those characteristics associated with diffusion of many
      innovations in hospitals. These hospitals may be the early adopters in a
      diffusion process that will eventually include most hospitals or, at least, most
      not-for-profit hospitals. Alternatively, the population health and social
      determinants movements could be transient or could be limited to a small portion
      of hospitals such as those identified here, with distinctive patient populations,
      missions, and resources.

PMID- 28885537
TI  - Practitioner Application: Moving Upstream in U.S. Hospital Care Toward
      Investments in Population Health.

PMID- 28885538
TI  - Clinical relevance of 18F-FDG PET/CT lower-limb imaging in patients with
      malignant cutaneous melanoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the clinical relevance of imaging
      the lower limbs when using 2-(F)-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (F-FDG) positron
      emission tomography with computed tomography (PET/CT) for malignant cutaneous
      melanoma in patients without previously known or suspected primary or metastatic
      melanoma lesions in the lower limbs. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively
      assessed 880 consecutive F-FDG PET/CT scans performed for adult patients in a
      context of suspected melanoma spanning a period of 5 years. All scans were
      correlated with the associated patient records (clinical history, physical
      examinations, and pathology reports), as well as follow-up imaging examinations,
      up until at least 6 months after the end of the study. RESULTS: Among the 461
      whole-body scans included for analysis, 109 reported unusual activity in the
      lower limbs, but with at most 21 scans showing lower-limb lesions attributed to
      melanoma on follow-up. No scan showed melanoma lesions exclusively in the lower
      limbs, and in no case did imaging the lower limbs upstage a patient. Imaging the
      lower limbs changed the actual clinical management of the melanoma for only one
      patient, with precautionary local radiation therapy administered following the
      detection of an asymptomatic distal femur bone metastasis in an otherwise
      plurimetastatic patient headed for palliative care. CONCLUSION: Our study, the
      largest of its kind, confirms that, when using F-FDG PET/CT for staging,
      restaging, or surveillance of malignant cutaneous melanoma in patients without
      previously known or suspected lower-limb melanoma lesions, imaging the lower
      extremities offers little additional clinically relevant information and stopping
      the scan at the proximal thighs has essentially no clinical impact.

PMID- 28885539
TI  - A comparison of 18F-FDG PET/MR with PET/CT in pulmonary tuberculosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: PET/computed tomography (CT) has been shown to detect lesions in
      patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and may be useful for assessing PTB
      disease in clinical research studies. However, radiation dose is of concern for
      clinical research in individuals with an underlying curable disease. This study
      aimed to determine whether PET/MR is equivalent to PET/CT in PTB. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Ten patients with microbiologically confirmed PTB were recruited.
      Patients received 129.0+/-4.1 MBq of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose. Five of the
      10 patients underwent a PET/MR scan, followed by PET/CT. The remaining five were
      first imaged on the PET/CT, followed by the PET/MRI. PET acquisition began at
      66.7+/-14.4 min (mean+/-SD) after injection when performing PET/MR first (PET/CT:
      117.2+/-5.6 min) and 92.4+/-7.6 min when patients were imaged on PET/MR second
      (PET/CT: 61.1+/-3.9 min). PET data were reconstructed iteratively with Ordinary
      Poisson Ordered-Subset Expectation-Maximization and reconstruction parameters
      were matched across the two scanners. A visual lesion detection task and a
      standardized uptake value (SUV) analysis were carried out. The CT Hounsfield unit
      values of PTB lesions were also compared with MR-based attenuation correction mu
      map tissue classes. RESULTS: A total of 108 PTB lesions were detected on PET/MR
      and 112 on PET/CT. SUV analysis was carried out on 50 of these lesions that were
      observed with both modalities. Mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean) and
      maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) were significantly lower on PET/MR
      (SUVmean: 2.6+/-1.4; SUVmax: 4.3+/-2.5) than PET/CT (SUVmean: 3.5+/-1.5; SUVmax:
      5.3+/-2.4). CONCLUSION: PET/MR visual performance was shown to be comparable to
      PET/CT in terms of the number of PTB lesions detected. SUVs were significantly
      lower on PET/MR. Dixon-based attenuation correction underestimates the linear
      attenuation coefficient of PTB lesions, resulting in lower SUVs compared with
      PET/CT. However, the use of PET/MR to measure the response of lung lesions to
      assess response to treatment in research studies is unlikely to be affected by
      these differences in quantification.

PMID- 28885540
TI  - Stress-only myocardial perfusion scintigraphy: a prospective study on the
      accuracy and observer agreement with quantitative coronary angiography as the
      gold standard.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Patients with normal stress perfusion have an excellent prognosis.
      Prospective studies on the diagnostic accuracy of stress-only scans with
      contemporary, independent examinations as gold standards are lacking. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: A total of 109 patients with typical angina and no previous coronary
      artery disease underwent a 2-day stress (exercise)/rest, gated, and attenuation
      corrected (AC), 99m-technetium-sestamibi perfusion study, followed by invasive
      coronary angiography. The stress datasets were evaluated twice by four physicians
      with two different training levels (expert and novice): familiar and unfamiliar
      with AC. The two experts also made a consensus reading of the integrated stress
      rest datasets. The consensus reading and quantitative data from the invasive
      coronary angiography were applied as reference methods. RESULTS: The
      sensitivity/specificity were 0.92-1.00/0.73-0.90 (reference: expert consensus
      reading), 0.93-0.96/0.63-0.82 (reference: >=1 stenosis>70%), and 0.75-0.88/0.70
      0.88 (reference: >=1 stenosis>50%). The four readers showed a high and fairly
      equal sensitivity independent of their familiarity with AC. The expert familiar
      with AC had the highest specificity independent of the reference method. The
      intraobserver and interobserver agreements on the stress-only readings were good
      (readers without AC experience) to excellent (readers with AC experience).
      CONCLUSION: AC stress-only images yielded a high sensitivity independent of the
      training level and experience with AC of the nuclear physician, whereas the
      specificity correlated positively with both. Interobserver and intraobserver
      agreements tended to be the best for physicians with AC experience.

PMID- 28885541
TI  - Identification of optimal mask size parameter for noise filtering in 99mTc
      methylene diphosphonate bone scintigraphy images.
AB  - Tc-methylene diphosphonate (Tc-MDP) bone scintigraphy images have limited number
      of counts per pixel. A noise filtering method based on local statistics of the
      image produces better results than a linear filter. However, the mask size has a
      significant effect on image quality. In this study, we have identified the
      optimal mask size that yields a good smooth bone scan image. Forty four bone scan
      images were processed using mask sizes 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 pixels. The
      input and processed images were reviewed in two steps. In the first step, the
      images were inspected and the mask sizes that produced images with significant
      loss of clinical details in comparison with the input image were excluded. In the
      second step, the image quality of the 40 sets of images (each set had input
      image, and its corresponding three processed images with 3, 5, and 7-pixel masks)
      was assessed by two nuclear medicine physicians. They selected one good smooth
      image from each set of images. The image quality was also assessed quantitatively
      with a line profile. Fisher's exact test was used to find statistically
      significant differences in image quality processed with 5 and 7-pixel mask at a
      5% cut-off. A statistically significant difference was found between the image
      quality processed with 5 and 7-pixel mask at P=0.00528. The identified optimal
      mask size to produce a good smooth image was found to be 7 pixels. The best mask
      size for the John-Sen Lee filter was found to be 7*7 pixels, which yielded Tc
      methylene diphosphonate bone scan images with the highest acceptable smoothness.

PMID- 28885542
TI  - Correlation of the apparent diffusion coefficient and the standardized uptake
      value in neoplastic lesions: a meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Diffusion-weighted imaging and fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET are
      increasingly being recognized as feasible oncological techniques. The apparent
      diffusion coefficient (ADC) measured by diffusion-weighted imaging and the
      standardized uptake value (SUV) from fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET have
      similar clinical applications. The aim of this study was to assess the
      correlation between these two parameters in various cancers. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Several major databases were searched for eligible studies. The
      correlation coefficient (rho) values were pooled in a random-effects model.
      Begg's test was used to analyze the existence of publication bias and the sources
      of heterogeneity were explored in subgroup analyses on the basis of study design,
      diagnostic method, scanning modality, and tumor type. RESULTS: Thirty-five
      articles were accepted. The pooled rho value of all of the accepted studies was 
      0.30 (95% confidence interval: -0.33 to -0.27), and notable heterogeneity was
      present (I=69.4%, P<0.001), which indicated a relatively weak negative
      correlation. The pooled rho values were -0.26, -0.33, -0.32, and -0.33 for the
      SUVmax/ADCmean, SUVmax/ADCmin, SUVmean/ADCmean, and SUVmean/ADCmin relationships,
      respectively. The study design and diagnostic method were potential sources of
      heterogeneity. Lung cancer showed a stronger correlation (rho=-0.42) than head
      and neck cancer (rho=-0.27), cervical cancer (rho=-0.21), and breast cancer (rho=
      0.23). A Begg's test indicated no significant publication bias among the accepted
      studies (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The two functional parameters of ADC and SUV showed
      a very weak inverse correlation, which may contribute toward a sophisticated
      characterization of tumor biology. However, the findings require further
      validation with trials with large samples and different tumor types.

PMID- 28885543
TI  - 3D Printed, Microgroove Pattern-Driven Generation of Oriented Ligamentous
      Architectures.
AB  - Specific orientations of regenerated ligaments are crucially required for
      mechanoresponsive properties and various biomechanical adaptations, which are the
      key interplay to support mineralized tissues. Although various 2D platforms or 3D
      printing systems can guide cellular activities or aligned organizations, it
      remains a challenge to develop ligament-guided, 3D architectures with the angular
      controllability for parallel, oblique or perpendicular orientations of cells
      required for biomechanical support of organs. Here, we show the use of scaffold
      design by additive manufacturing for specific topographies or angulated
      microgroove patterns to control cell orientations such as parallel (0 degrees ),
      oblique (45 degrees ) and perpendicular (90 degrees ) angulations. These results
      demonstrate that ligament cells displayed highly predictable and controllable
      orientations along microgroove patterns on 3D biopolymeric scaffolds. Our
      findings demonstrate that 3D printed topographical approaches can regulate
      spatiotemporal cell organizations that offer strong potential for adaptation to
      complex tissue defects to regenerate ligament-bone complexes.

PMID- 28885544
TI  - Chemical Genomics Approach Leads to the Identification of Hesperadin, an Aurora B
      Kinase Inhibitor, as a Broad-Spectrum Influenza Antiviral.
AB  - Influenza viruses are respiratory pathogens that are responsible for annual
      influenza epidemics and sporadic influenza pandemics. Oseltamivir (Tamiflu(r)) is
      currently the only FDA-approved oral drug that is available for the prevention
      and treatment of influenza virus infection. However, its narrow therapeutic
      window, coupled with the increasing incidence of drug resistance, calls for the
      next generation of influenza antivirals. In this study, we discovered hesperadin,
      an aurora B kinase inhibitor, as a broad-spectrum influenza antiviral through
      forward chemical genomics screening. Hesperadin inhibits multiple human clinical
      isolates of influenza A and B viruses with single to submicromolar efficacy,
      including oseltamivir-resistant strains. Mechanistic studies revealed that
      hesperadin inhibits the early stage of viral replication by delaying the nuclear
      entry of viral ribonucleoprotein complex, thereby inhibiting viral RNA
      transcription and translation as well as viral protein synthesis. Moreover, a
      combination of hesperadin with oseltamivir shows synergistic antiviral activity,
      therefore hesperadin can be used either alone to treat infections by oseltamivir
      resistant influenza viruses or used in combination with oseltamivir to delay
      resistance evolution among oseltamivir-sensitive strains. In summary, the
      discovery of hesperadin as a broad-spectrum influenza antiviral offers an
      alternative to combat future influenza epidemics and pandemics.

PMID- 28885546
TI  - An Energy Efficient Technique Using Electric Active Shielding for Capacitive
      Coupling Intra-Body Communication.
AB  - Capacitive coupling intra-body communication (CC-IBC) has become one of the
      candidates for healthcare sensor networks due to its positive prevailing features
      of energy efficiency, transmission rate and security. Under the CC-IBC scheme,
      some of the electric field emitted from signal (SIG) electrode of the transmitter
      will couple directly to the ground (GND) electrode, acting equivalently as an
      internal impedance of the signal source and inducing considerable energy losses.
      However, none of the previous works have fully studied the problem. In this
      paper, the underlying theory of such energy loss is investigated and
      quantitatively evaluated using conventional parameters. Accordingly, a method of
      electric active shielding is proposed to reduce the displacement current across
      the SIG-GND electrodes, leading to less power loss. In addition, the variation of
      such loss in regard to frequency range and positions on human body was also
      considered. The theory was validated by finite element method simulation and
      experimental measurement. The prototype result shows that the receiving power has
      been improved by approximate 5.5 dBm while the total power consumption is
      maximally 9 mW less using the proposed technique, providing an energy efficient
      option in physical layer for wearable and implantable healthcare sensor networks.

PMID- 28885545
TI  - TRIM44 Is a Poor Prognostic Factor for Breast Cancer Patients as a Modulator of
      NF-kappaB Signaling.
AB  - Many of the tripartite motif (TRIM) proteins function as E3 ubiquitin ligases and
      are assumed to be involved in various events, including oncogenesis. In regard to
      tripartite motif-containing 44 (TRIM44), which is an atypical TRIM family protein
      lacking the RING finger domain, its pathophysiological significance in breast
      cancer remains unknown. We performed an immunohistochemical study of TRIM44
      protein in clinical breast cancer tissues from 129 patients. The
      pathophysiological role of TRIM44 in breast cancer was assessed by modulating
      TRIM44 expression in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. TRIM44 strong
      immunoreactivity was significantly associated with nuclear grade (p = 0.033),
      distant disease-free survival (p = 0.031) and overall survival (p = 0.027).
      Multivariate analysis revealed that the TRIM44 status was an independent
      prognostic factor for distant disease-free survival (p = 0.005) and overall
      survival (p = 0.002) of patients. siRNA-mediated TRIM44 knockdown significantly
      decreased the proliferation of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells and inhibited the
      migration of MDA-MB-231 cells. Microarray analysis and qRT-PCR showed that TRIM44
      knockdown upregulated CDK19 and downregulated MMP1 in MDA-MB-231 cells. Notably,
      TRIM44 knockdown impaired nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB)-mediated
      transcriptional activity stimulated by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha).
      Moreover, TRIM44 knockdown substantially attenuated the TNFalpha-dependent
      phosphorylation of the p65 subunit of NF-kappaB and IkappaBalpha in both MCF-7
      and MDA-MB-231 cells. TRIM44 would play a role in the progression of breast
      cancer by promoting cell proliferation and migration, as well as by enhancing NF
      kappaB signaling.

PMID- 28885547
TI  - A Stereo Dual-Channel Dynamic Programming Algorithm for UAV Image Stitching.
AB  - Dislocation is one of the major challenges in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image
      stitching. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for seamlessly stitching UAV
      images based on a dynamic programming approach. Our solution consists of two
      steps: Firstly, an image matching algorithm is used to correct the images so that
      they are in the same coordinate system. Secondly, a new dynamic programming
      algorithm is developed based on the concept of a stereo dual-channel energy
      accumulation. A new energy aggregation and traversal strategy is adopted in our
      solution, which can find a more optimal seam line for image stitching. Our
      algorithm overcomes the theoretical limitation of the classical Duplaquet
      algorithm. Experiments show that the algorithm can effectively solve the
      dislocation problem in UAV image stitching, especially for the cases in dense
      urban areas. Our solution is also direction-independent, which has better
      adaptability and robustness for stitching images.

PMID- 28885548
TI  - Novel Insights into the Adipokinome of Obese and Obese/Diabetic Mouse Models.
AB  - The group of adipokines comprises hundreds of biological active proteins and
      peptides released from adipose tissue. Alterations of those complex protein
      signatures are suggested to play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of
      multifactorial, metabolic diseases. We hypothesized that also the pathophysiology
      of type-2-diabetes is linked to the dysregulation of the adipocyte secretome. To
      test this, we investigated mouse models with monogenic defects in leptin
      signaling which are susceptible to adipositas (C57BL/6 Cg-Lepob (obob)) or
      adipositas with diabetes (C57BL/KS Cg-Leprdb (dbdb)) according to their genetic
      background. At the age of 17 weeks, visceral fat was obtained and primary murine
      adipocytes were isolated to harvest secretomes. Quantitative proteome analyses
      (LC-ESI-MS/MS) identified more than 800 potential secreted proteins. The
      secretome patterns revealed significant differences connected to the
      pathophysiology of obese mice. Pathway analyses indicated that these differences
      focus on exosome modelling, but failed to provide more precise specifications. To
      investigate the relationship of secretome data to insulin sensitivity, we
      examined the content of diabetogenic lipids, i.e., diacylglycerols (DAGs),
      identified as key players in lipid-induced insulin resistance. In contrast to
      obob mice, fat tissue of dbdb mice showed elevated DAG content, especially of DAG
      species with saturated fatty acid C16:0 and C18:0, while unsaturated fatty acid
      C16:1 were only changed in obob. Furthermore, DAG signatures of the models
      specifically correlate to secreted regulated adipokines indicating specific
      pathways. In conclusion, our data further support the concept that the fat tissue
      is an endocrine organ that releases bioactive factors corresponding to adipose
      tissue health status.

PMID- 28885550
TI  - Methods for Real-Time Prediction of the Mode of Travel Using Smartphone-Based GPS
      and Accelerometer Data.
AB  - We propose and compare combinations of several methods for classifying
      transportation activity data from smartphone GPS and accelerometer sensors. We
      have two main objectives. First, we aim to classify our data as accurately as
      possible. Second, we aim to reduce the dimensionality of the data as much as
      possible in order to reduce the computational burden of the classification. We
      combine dimension reduction and classification algorithms and compare them with a
      metric that balances accuracy and dimensionality. In doing so, we develop a
      classification algorithm that accurately classifies five different modes of
      transportation (i.e., walking, biking, car, bus and rail) while being
      computationally simple enough to run on a typical smartphone. Further, we use
      data that required no behavioral changes from the smartphone users to collect.
      Our best classification model uses the random forest algorithm to achieve 96.8%
      accuracy.

PMID- 28885549
TI  - MDG-1, a Potential Regulator of PPARalpha and PPARgamma, Ameliorates Dyslipidemia
      in Mice.
AB  - Hyperlipidemia is a serious epidemic disease caused by lipid metabolism disorder,
      which is harmful to human health. MDG-1, a beta-d-fructan polysaccharide
      extracted from Ophiopogon japonicus, has been shown to improve abnormal blood
      lipid levels and alleviate diabetes. However, the underlying mechanism on
      hyperlipidemia is largely unknown. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were randomly
      separated into three groups, respectively: low-fat diet (Con), high-fat diet
      (HFD), and high-fat diet plus 50/00 MDG-1 (HFD + MDG-1). Body weight was measured
      and the serum lipid levels were analyzed. Using gene microarray, various core
      pathways, together with levels of gene expression within hepatocytes, were
      analyzed. RT-PCR was used to confirm the identity of the differentially expressed
      genes. MDG-1 could prevent obesity in HFD-induced mice and improve abnormal serum
      lipids. Besides, MDG-1 could regulate hyperlipidemia symptoms, specifically, and
      decrease fasting blood glucose, improve glucose tolerance, and ameliorate insulin
      resistance. According to results from gene microarray, most of the identified
      pathways were involved in the digestion and absorption of fat, biosynthesis, and
      catabolism of fatty acids as well as the secretion and biological synthesis of
      bile acids. Furthermore, MDG-1 may act upon peroxisome proliferator-activated
      receptors (PPAR) alpha and gamma, activating PPARalpha whilst inhibiting
      PPARgamma, thus having a potent hypolipidemic effect.

PMID- 28885551
TI  - Design and Validation of a 150 MHz HFFQCM Sensor for Bio-Sensing Applications.
AB  - Acoustic wave resonators have become suitable devices for a broad range of
      sensing applications due to their sensitivity, low cost, and integration
      capability, which are all factors that meet the requirements for the resonators
      to be used as sensing elements for portable point of care (PoC) platforms. In
      this work, the design, characterization, and validation of a 150 MHz high
      fundamental frequency quartz crystal microbalance (HFF-QCM) sensor for bio
      sensing applications are introduced. Finite element method (FEM) simulations of
      the proposed design are in good agreement with the electrical characterization of
      the manufactured resonators. The sensor is also validated for bio-sensing
      applications. For this purpose, a specific sensor cell was designed and
      manufactured that addresses the critical requirements associated with this type
      of sensor and application. Due to the small sensing area and the sensor's
      fragility, these requirements include a low-volume flow chamber in the nanoliter
      range, and a system approach that provides the appropriate pressure control for
      assuring liquid confinement while maintaining the integrity of the sensor with a
      good base line stability and easy sensor replacement. The sensor characteristics
      make it suitable for consideration as the elemental part of a sensor matrix in a
      multichannel platform for point of care applications.

PMID- 28885553
TI  - Deviation of Chinese Adults' Diet from the Chinese Food Pagoda 2016 and Its
      Association with Adiposity.
AB  - Changing diet in China contributes to a raising prevalence of overweight and
      obesity. This study aimed to evaluate the dietary status of Chinese adults (20-59
      years old) using the China Food Pagoda (CFP) proposed in the Chinese Dietary
      Guidelines 2016 (CDG), and investigate the association between adiposity and
      deviation of real diet from CFP using an ordered logistic regression. Results
      showed that the consumption of fruits, eggs, meat, and poultry increased
      significantly during 2004-2011, while the consumption of cereal, potatoes, and
      beans dropped down significantly during the same period (all p < 0.05).
      Meanwhile, great disparity was detected between real consumption and recommended
      intake in CFP. In particular, a deficient intake was found for milk and milk
      products, eggs, and fruit, while over-consumption was observed for cereal,
      potatoes and beans, meat and poultry, legumes and nuts, oil, and salt. In
      addition, over-consumption of cereal, legumes and nuts, and salt, as well as
      under-consumption of vegetables, and meat and poultry, were associated with a
      higher risk of having high body mass index (BMI), while lower consumption of
      cereal, potatoes and beans, eggs, and higher consumption of vegetables
      contributed to low hazard of overweight/obesity (all p < 0.05). The huge
      disparity between real consumption and the CFP calls for specific health
      education campaigns.

PMID- 28885552
TI  - Structure of Pigment Metabolic Pathways and Their Contributions to White Tepal
      Color Formation of Chinese Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis cv Jinzhanyintai.
AB  - Chinese narcissus (Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis) is one of the ten
      traditional flowers in China and a famous bulb flower in the world flower market.
      However, only white color tepals are formed in mature flowers of the cultivated
      varieties, which constrains their applicable occasions. Unfortunately, for lack
      of genome information of narcissus species, the explanation of tepal color
      formation of Chinese narcissus is still not clear. Concerning no genome
      information, the application of transcriptome profile to dissect biological
      phenomena in plants was reported to be effective. As known, pigments are
      metabolites of related metabolic pathways, which dominantly decide flower color.
      In this study, transcriptome profile and pigment metabolite analysis methods were
      used in the most widely cultivated Chinese narcissus "Jinzhanyintai" to discover
      the structure of pigment metabolic pathways and their contributions to white
      tepal color formation during flower development and pigmentation processes. By
      using comparative KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, three pathways related to
      flavonoid, carotenoid and chlorophyll pigment metabolism showed significant
      variations. The structure of flavonoids metabolic pathway was depicted, but, due
      to the lack of F3'5'H gene; the decreased expression of C4H, CHS and ANS genes;
      and the high expression of FLS gene, the effect of this pathway to synthesize
      functional anthocyanins in tepals was weak. Similarly, the expression of DXS, MCT
      and PSY genes in carotenoids synthesis sub-pathway was decreased, while CCD1/CCD4
      genes in carotenoids degradation sub-pathway was increased; therefore, the effect
      of carotenoids metabolic pathway to synthesize adequate color pigments in tepals
      is restricted. Interestingly, genes in chlorophyll synthesis sub-pathway
      displayed uniform down-regulated expression, while genes in heme formation and
      chlorophyll breakdown sub-pathways displayed up-regulated expression, which also
      indicates negative regulation of chlorophyll formation. Further, content change
      trends of various color metabolites detected by HPLC in tepals are consistent
      with the additive gene expression patterns in each pathway. Therefore, all three
      pathways exhibit negative control of color pigments synthesis in tepals, finally
      resulting in the formation of white tepals. Interestingly, the content of
      chlorophyll was more than 10-fold higher than flavonoids and carotenoids
      metabolites, which indicates that chlorophyll metabolic pathway may play the
      major role in deciding tepal color formation of Chinese narcissus.

PMID- 28885555
TI  - A UWB/Improved PDR Integration Algorithm Applied to Dynamic Indoor Positioning
      for Pedestrians.
AB  - Inertial sensors are widely used in various applications, such as human motion
      monitoring and pedestrian positioning. However, inertial sensors cannot
      accurately define the process of human movement, a limitation that causes data
      drift in the process of human body positioning, thus seriously affecting
      positioning accuracy and stability. The traditional pedestrian dead-reckoning
      algorithm, which is based on a single inertial measurement unit, can suppress the
      data drift, but fails to accurately calculate the number of walking steps and
      heading value, thus it cannot meet the application requirements. This study
      proposes an indoor dynamic positioning method with an error self-correcting
      function based on the symmetrical characteristics of human motion to obtain the
      definition basis of human motion process quickly and to solve the abovementioned
      problems. On the basis of this proposed method, an ultra-wide band (UWB) method
      is introduced. An unscented Kalman filter is applied to fuse inertial sensors and
      UWB data, inertial positioning is applied to compensation for the defects of
      susceptibility to UWB signal obstacles, and UWB positioning is used to overcome
      the error accumulation of inertial positioning. The above method can improve both
      the positioning accuracy and the response of the positioning results. Finally,
      this study designs an indoor positioning test system to test the static and
      dynamic performances of the proposed indoor positioning method. Results show that
      the positioning system both has high accuracy and good real-time performance.

PMID- 28885554
TI  - Advances in Genomic Profiling and Analysis of 3D Chromatin Structure and
      Interaction.
AB  - Recent sequence-based profiling technologies such as high-throughput sequencing
      to detect fragment nucleotide sequence (Hi-C) and chromatin interaction analysis
      by paired-end tag sequencing (ChIA-PET) have revolutionized the field of three
      dimensional (3D) chromatin architecture. It is now recognized that human genome
      functions as folded 3D chromatin units and looping paradigm is the basic
      principle of gene regulation. To better interpret the 3D data dramatically
      accumulating in past five years and to gain deep biological insights, huge
      efforts have been made in developing novel quantitative analysis methods.
      However, the full understanding of genome regulation requires thorough knowledge
      in both genomic technologies and their related data analyses. We summarize the
      recent advances in genomic technologies in identifying the 3D chromatin structure
      and interaction, and illustrate the quantitative analysis methods to infer
      functional domains and chromatin interactions, and further elucidate the emerging
      single-cell Hi-C technique and its computational analysis, and finally discuss
      the future directions such as advances of 3D chromatin techniques in diseases.

PMID- 28885556
TI  - Combining Multi-Source Remotely Sensed Data and a Process-Based Model for Forest
      Aboveground Biomass Updating.
AB  - Monitoring and understanding the spatio-temporal variations of forest aboveground
      biomass (AGB) is a key basis to quantitatively assess the carbon sequestration
      capacity of a forest ecosystem. To map and update forest AGB in the Greater
      Khingan Mountains (GKM) of China, this work proposes a physical-based approach.
      Based on the baseline forest AGB from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus
      (ETM+) images in 2008, we dynamically updated the annual forest AGB from 2009 to
      2012 by adding the annual AGB increment (ABI) obtained from the simulated daily
      and annual net primary productivity (NPP) using the Boreal Ecosystem Productivity
      Simulator (BEPS) model. The 2012 result was validated by both field- and aerial
      laser scanning (ALS)-based AGBs. The predicted forest AGB for 2012 estimated from
      the process-based model can explain 31% (n = 35, p < 0.05, RMSE = 2.20 kg/m2) and
      85% (n = 100, p < 0.01, RMSE = 1.71 kg/m2) of variation in field- and ALS-based
      forest AGBs, respectively. However, due to the saturation of optical remote
      sensing-based spectral signals and contribution of understory vegetation, the
      BEPS-based AGB tended to underestimate/overestimate the AGB for dense/sparse
      forests. Generally, our results showed that the remotely sensed forest AGB
      estimates could serve as the initial carbon pool to parameterize the process
      based model for NPP simulation, and the combination of the baseline forest AGB
      and BEPS model could effectively update the spatiotemporal distribution of forest
      AGB.

PMID- 28885557
TI  - Evaluation of a Pilot Implementation to Integrate Alcohol-Related Care within
      Primary Care.
AB  - Alcohol use is a major cause of disability and death worldwide. To improve
      prevention and treatment addressing unhealthy alcohol use, experts recommend that
      alcohol-related care be integrated into primary care (PC). However, few
      healthcare systems do so. To address this gap, implementation researchers and
      clinical leaders at Kaiser Permanente Washington partnered to design a high
      quality Program of Sustained Patient-centered Alcohol-related Care (SPARC). Here,
      we describe the SPARC pilot implementation, evaluate its effectiveness within
      three large pilot sites, and describe the qualitative findings on barriers and
      facilitators. Across the three sites (N = 74,225 PC patients), alcohol screening
      increased from 8.9% of patients pre-implementation to 62% post-implementation (p
      < 0.0001), with a corresponding increase in assessment for alcohol use disorders
      (AUD) from 1.2 to 75 patients per 10,000 seen (p < 0.0001). Increases were
      sustained over a year later, with screening at 84.5% and an assessment rate of 81
      patients per 10,000 seen across all sites. In addition, there was a 50% increase
      in the number of new AUD diagnoses (p = 0.0002), and a non-statistically
      significant 54% increase in treatment within 14 days of new diagnoses (p =
      0.083). The pilot informed an ongoing stepped-wedge trial in the remaining 22 PC
      sites.

PMID- 28885558
TI  - The Relationship between Survival Sex and Borderline Personality Disorder
      Symptoms in a High Risk Female Population.
AB  - Engaging in survival sex and mental illness are overrepresented within homeless
      populations. This article assesses the relationship between symptoms of
      borderline personality disorder (BPD) and engaging in survival sex among homeless
      women. One hundred and fifty-eight homeless women completed surveys on self
      reported BPD symptomology and sexual history. Bivariate and multivariate analyses
      conducted in this study provided insights into the association of experiencing
      BPD symptoms and engaging in survival sex. Results indicate that some symptoms of
      BPD are robustly correlated with engaging in survival sex among homeless adult
      women. Implications for service agencies and others working with at-risk female
      populations are discussed.

PMID- 28885559
TI  - A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut
      Microbiota.
AB  - Mushrooms have long been used for medicinal and food purposes for over a thousand
      years, but a complete elucidation of the health-promoting properties of mushrooms
      through regulating gut microbiota has not yet been fully exploited. Mushrooms
      comprise a vast, and yet largely untapped, source of powerful new pharmaceutical
      substances. Mushrooms have been used in health care for treating simple and
      common diseases, like skin diseases and pandemic diseases like AIDS. This review
      is aimed at accumulating the health-promoting benefits of edible mushrooms
      through gut microbiota. Mushrooms are proven to possess anti-allergic, anti
      cholesterol, anti-tumor, and anti-cancer properties. Mushrooms are rich in
      carbohydrates, like chitin, hemicellulose, beta and alpha-glucans, mannans,
      xylans, and galactans, which make them the right choice for prebiotics. Mushrooms
      act as a prebiotics to stimulate the growth of gut microbiota, conferring health
      benefits to the host. In the present review, we have summarized the beneficial
      activities of various mushrooms on gut microbiota via the inhibition of exogenous
      pathogens and, thus, improving the host health.

PMID- 28885560
TI  - A Novel Energy-Efficient Approach for Human Activity Recognition.
AB  - In this paper, we propose a novel energy-efficient approach for mobile activity
      recognition system (ARS) to detect human activities. The proposed energy
      efficient ARS, using low sampling rates, can achieve high recognition accuracy
      and low energy consumption. A novel classifier that integrates hierarchical
      support vector machine and context-based classification (HSVMCC) is presented to
      achieve a high accuracy of activity recognition when the sampling rate is less
      than the activity frequency, i.e., the Nyquist sampling theorem is not satisfied.
      We tested the proposed energy-efficient approach with the data collected from 20
      volunteers (14 males and six females) and the average recognition accuracy of
      around 96.0% was achieved. Results show that using a low sampling rate of 1Hz can
      save 17.3% and 59.6% of energy compared with the sampling rates of 5 Hz and 50
      Hz. The proposed low sampling rate approach can greatly reduce the power
      consumption while maintaining high activity recognition accuracy. The composition
      of power consumption in online ARS is also investigated in this paper.

PMID- 28885561
TI  - Acute and Late Toxicities of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Locally-Advanced
      Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - For patients with unresectable locally-advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA
      NSCLC), concurrent chemoradiotherapy improves overall survival as compared to
      sequential chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but is associated with higher
      rates of toxicities. Acute, clinically significant esophagitis or pneumonitis can
      occur in one in five patients. The risks of esophagitis and pneumonitis can
      impact the decision to deliver concurrent therapy and limit the total dose of
      radiation therapy that is delivered. Hematologic toxicities and emesis are common
      toxicities from systemic therapies for LA-NSCLC and can result in delaying
      chemotherapy dosing or chemotherapy dose reductions. Late treatment morbidities,
      including pulmonary fibrosis and cardiac toxicities, can also significantly
      impact quality of life and potentially even survival. Recent advances in
      radiation therapy treatment delivery, better knowledge of normal tissue
      radiotherapy tolerances and more widespread and improved uses of supportive care
      and medical management of systemic therapy toxicities have improved the
      therapeutic ratio and reduced the rates of chemoradiotherapy-induced toxicities.
      This review details the acute and late toxicities associated with definitive
      chemoradiotherapy for LA-NSCLC and discusses toxicity management and strategies
      to mitigate the risks of treatment-related toxicities.

PMID- 28885562
TI  - Human CD3+ T-Cells with the Anti-ERBB2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor Exhibit
      Efficient Targeting and Induce Apoptosis in ERBB2 Overexpressing Breast Cancer
      Cells.
AB  - Breast cancer is a common malignancy among women. The innate and adaptive immune
      responses failed to be activated owing to immune modulation in the tumour
      microenvironment. Decades of scientific study links the overexpression of human
      epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ERBB2) antigen with aggressive tumours. The
      Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) coding for specific tumour-associated antigens
      could initiate intrinsic T-cell signalling, inducing T-cell activation, and
      cytotoxic activity without the need for major histocompatibility complex
      recognition. This renders CAR as a potentially universal immunotherapeutic
      option. Herein, we aimed to establish CAR in CD3+ T-cells, isolated from human
      peripheral blood mononucleated cells that could subsequently target and induce
      apoptosis in the ERBB2 overexpressing human breast cancer cell line, SKBR3.
      Constructed CAR was inserted into a lentiviral plasmid containing a green
      fluorescent protein tag and produced as lentiviral particles that were used to
      transduce activated T-cells. Transduced CAR-T cells were then primed with SKBR3
      cells to evaluate their functionality. Results showed increased apoptosis in
      SKBR3 cells co-cultured with CAR-T cells compared to the control (non-transduced
      T-cells). This study demonstrates that CAR introduction helps overcome the innate
      limitations of native T-cells leading to cancer cell apoptosis. We recommend
      future studies should focus on in vivo cytotoxicity of CAR-T cells against ERBB2
      expressing tumours.

PMID- 28885564
TI  - Relationship between the Nutritional Status of Vitamin A per Trimester of
      Pregnancy with Maternal Anthropometry and Anemia after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass.
AB  - The aim of this study was to compare the nutritional status of vitamin A per
      trimester of pregnancy, as well as to assess its influence on pre-pregnancy BMI,
      total gestational weight gain (TGWG) and presence of anemia in women who had
      previously undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). An analytical, longitudinal
      and retrospective study comprising 30 pregnant women who had previously undergone
      RYGB was undertaken. In all trimesters of pregnancy, the serum concentrations of
      retinol, beta-carotene, stages of vitamin A deficiency (VAD), night blindness
      (NB), anemia and anthropometric variables were assessed. VAD in pregnancy
      affected 90% of women, 86.7% developed NB and 82.8% had mild VAD. TGWG
      above/below the recommended range was related to the low serum concentrations of
      beta-carotene (p = 0.045) in the second trimester and women with TGWG above the
      recommended range showed 100% of inadequacy of this nutrient in the third
      trimester. Among the pregnant women with anemia, 90.9% had VAD and 86.4% had NB.
      This study highlights the importance of monitoring the nutritional status of
      vitamin A in prenatal care, due to its relationship with TGWG and the high
      percentage of VAD and NB found since the beginning of pregnancy. It also
      reaffirms the use of the cut-off <1.05 MUmol/L for determining VAD.

PMID- 28885565
TI  - Tracking Dietary Patterns over 20 Years from Childhood through Adolescence into
      Young Adulthood: The Saskatchewan Pediatric Bone Mineral Accrual Study.
AB  - Dietary patterns established during adolescence might play a role in adulthood
      disease. We examined the stability of dietary patterns (DPs) from childhood
      through adolescence and into young adulthood (from age 8 to 34 years). Data from
      130 participants (53 females) of Saskatchewan Pediatric Bone Mineral Accrual
      Study (aged 8-15 years, at baseline) were included. Multiple 24-h recalls were
      collected annually from 1991 to 1997, 2002 to 2005, and 2010 and 2011. Using
      principal component analysis, "Vegetarian-style", "Western-like", "High-fat, high
      protein", "Mixed", and "Snack" DPs were derived at baseline. Applied DP scores
      for all annual measurements were calculated using factor loading of baseline DPs
      and energy-adjusted food group intakes. We analyzed data using generalized
      estimating equations. The tracking coefficient represents correlation between
      baseline dietary pattern scores and all other follow-up dietary pattern scores.
      We found a moderate tracking for the "Vegetarian-style" (beta = 0.44, p < 0.001)
      and "High-fat, high-protein" (beta = 0.39, p < 0.001) DPs in females and
      "Vegetarian-style" DP (beta = 0.30, p < 0.001) in males. The remaining DPs showed
      poor-to-fair tracking in both sexes. No tracking for "Western-like" DP in females
      was observed. Assessing overall change in DP scores from childhood to young
      adulthood showed an increasing trend in adherence to "Vegetarian-style" DP and
      decreasing trend in adherence to "High-fat, high-protein" DP by age in both sexes
      (p < 0.001), while "Western-like" and "Mixed" DP scores increased only in males
      (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that healthy dietary habits established
      during childhood and adolescence moderately continue into adulthood.

PMID- 28885563
TI  - The Effect of Sepsis on the Erythrocyte.
AB  - Sepsis induces a wide range of effects on the red blood cell (RBC). Some of the
      effects including altered metabolism and decreased 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate are
      preventable with appropriate treatment, whereas others, including decreased
      erythrocyte deformability and redistribution of membrane phospholipids, appear to
      be permanent, and factors in RBC clearance. Here, we review the effects of sepsis
      on the erythrocyte, including changes in RBC volume, metabolism and hemoglobin's
      affinity for oxygen, morphology, RBC deformability (an early indicator of
      sepsis), antioxidant status, intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis, membrane proteins,
      membrane phospholipid redistribution, clearance and RBC O2-dependent adenosine
      triphosphate efflux (an RBC hypoxia signaling mechanism involved in microvascular
      autoregulation). We also consider the causes of these effects by host mediated
      oxidant stress and bacterial virulence factors. Additionally, we consider the
      altered erythrocyte microenvironment due to sepsis induced microvascular
      dysregulation and speculate on the possible effects of RBC autoxidation. In
      future, a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in sepsis induced
      erythrocyte pathophysiology and clearance may guide improved sepsis treatments.
      Evidence that small molecule antioxidants protect the erythrocyte from loss of
      deformability, and more importantly improve septic patient outcome suggest
      further research in this area is warranted. While not generally considered a
      critical factor in sepsis, erythrocytes (and especially a smaller subpopulation)
      appear to be highly susceptible to sepsis induced injury, provide an early
      warning signal of sepsis and are a factor in the microvascular dysfunction that
      has been associated with organ dysfunction.

PMID- 28885566
TI  - Effects of Cinnamon Consumption on Glycemic Indicators, Advanced Glycation End
      Products, and Antioxidant Status in Type 2 Diabetic Patients.
AB  - The aim of the current study was to determine the effect of a daily intake of
      three grams of cinnamon over eight weeks on glycemic indicators, advanced
      glycation end products, and antioxidant status in patients with type 2 diabetes.
      In a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial study, 44
      patients with type 2 diabetes, aged 57 +/- 8 years, were randomly assigned to
      take either a three g/day cinnamon supplement (n = 22) or a placebo (n = 22) for
      eight weeks. We measured the fasting blood glucose, insulin, hemoglobinbA1c,
      homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), carboxymethyl
      lysine, total antioxidant capacity, and malondialdehyde levels at the beginning
      and the end of the study. Thirty-nine patients (20 in the intervention group and
      19 in the control group) completed the study. After an eight-week intervention,
      changes in the level of fasting blood glucose, insulin, hemoglobinbA1c, HOMA-IR,
      carboxymethyl lysine, total antioxidant capacity, and malondialdehyde were not
      significant in either group, nor were any significant differences between groups
      observed in these glycemic and inflammatory indicators at the end of the
      intervention. Our study revealed that cinnamon supplementation had no significant
      effects on glycemic and inflammatory indicators in patients with type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28885568
TI  - Emotion-Based Cognition in Mice Is Differentially Influenced by Dose and Chemical
      Form of Dietary Docosahexaenoic Acid.
AB  - Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a major constituent, and primary omega-3 fatty
      acid, in the brain. Evidence suggests that DHA consumption may promote cognitive
      functioning and prevent cognitive decline, and these effects may be particularly
      relevant in the context of fear or stress. However, the potency and efficacy of
      dietary DHA may depend on the form of DHA (e.g., phospholipid; PL vs.
      triglyceride; TG). In this study, we compared in mice the effects of consuming PL
      and TG forms of DHA on associative, avoidance (fear) based learning and memory.
      Diets consisted of either no DHA or 1%, 2%, and 4% PL- or TG-DHA. After 4 weeks
      on the test diets (n = 12/group), we used the 3-day passive avoidance (PA) and
      elevated plus maze (EPM) to examine fear and fear-associated learning and memory.
      We found a significant (p < 0.05) diet by time interaction in the PA and EPM.
      Compared to the control and the 1% TG-DHA group, mice consuming the diet
      supplemented with 1% PL-DHA displayed a significantly greater latency by test day
      2 in the 3-day PA. No differences in latency between any of the groups were
      observed during trials 1 and 3. Mice consuming the 2% PL-DHA diet spent
      significantly more time frequenting the open arms during the first minute, but
      not the last 4 min, of the test. Compared to all other groups, mice fed the 4% TG
      DHA diet had increased spleen, liver, and visceral fat weight. Consumption of the
      lower dose PL-DHA may confer enhanced efficacy, particularly on fear-based
      learning behavior.

PMID- 28885567
TI  - Metabolic and Homeostatic Changes in Seizures and Acquired Epilepsy-Mitochondria,
      Calcium Dynamics and Reactive Oxygen Species.
AB  - Acquired epilepsies can arise as a consequence of brain injury and result in
      unprovoked seizures that emerge after a latent period of epileptogenesis. These
      epilepsies pose a major challenge to clinicians as they are present in the
      majority of patients seen in a common outpatient epilepsy clinic and are prone to
      pharmacoresistance, highlighting an unmet need for new treatment strategies.
      Metabolic and homeostatic changes are closely linked to seizures and epilepsy,
      although, surprisingly, no potential treatment targets to date have been
      translated into clinical practice. We summarize here the current knowledge about
      metabolic and homeostatic changes in seizures and acquired epilepsy, maintaining
      a particular focus on mitochondria, calcium dynamics, reactive oxygen species and
      key regulators of cellular metabolism such as the Nrf2 pathway. Finally, we
      highlight research gaps that will need to be addressed in the future which may
      help to translate these findings into clinical practice.

PMID- 28885569
TI  - Re-Assembly and Analysis of an Ancient Variola Virus Genome.
AB  - We report a major improvement to the assembly of published short read sequencing
      data from an ancient variola virus (VARV) genome by the removal of contig-capping
      sequencing tags and manual searches for gap-spanning reads. The new assembly,
      together with camelpox and taterapox genomes, permitted new dates to be
      calculated for the last common ancestor of all VARV genomes. The analysis of
      recently sequenced VARV-like cowpox virus genomes showed that single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) and amino acid changes in the vaccinia virus (VACV)-Cop-O1L
      ortholog, predicted to be associated with VARV host specificity and virulence,
      were introduced into the lineage before the divergence of these viruses. A
      comparison of the ancient and modern VARV genome sequences also revealed a
      measurable drift towards adenine + thymine (A + T) richness.

PMID- 28885570
TI  - Litchi chinensis as a Functional Food and a Source of Antitumor Compounds: An
      Overview and a Description of Biochemical Pathways.
AB  - Litchi is a tasty fruit that is commercially grown for food consumption and
      nutritional benefits in various parts of the world. Due to its biological
      activities, the fruit is becoming increasingly known and deserves attention not
      only for its edible part, the pulp, but also for its peel and seed that contain
      beneficial substances with antioxidant, cancer preventive, antimicrobial, and
      anti-inflammatory functions. Although literature demonstrates the biological
      activity of Litchi components in reducing tumor cell viability in in vitro or in
      vivo models, data about the biochemical mechanisms responsible for these effects
      are quite fragmentary. This review specifically describes, in a comprehensive
      analysis, the antitumor properties of the different parts of Litchi and
      highlights the main biochemical mechanisms involved.

PMID- 28885572
TI  - Special Issue: Asymmetric Synthesis 2017.
AB  - The use of asymmetric synthetic methodologies plays a crucial role, nowadays, in
      the preparation of bioactive or other interesting compounds [...].

PMID- 28885571
TI  - Prevalence, Causes and Social Factors of Visual Impairment among Chinese Adults:
      Based on a National Survey.
AB  - Visual impairment has become a global challenge, especially for developing
      countries. This study aims to estimate the prevalence, causes and social factors
      of visual impairment among Chinese adults. Data were from a nationally
      representative population-based cross-sectional study. The study population were
      1,909,199 non-institutionalized adults aged 18 years and older in mainland China.
      In the survey, low vision and blindness were checked by ophthalmologists
      according to the WHO best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) criteria. Population
      weighted numbers and prevalence of low vision and blindness with 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were estimated where appropriate. Multivariable logistic
      regression analysis was used to identify the social factors of visual impairment.
      The weighted prevalence of visual impairment was 17.17 (95% CI, 16.84-17.50) per
      1000 Chinese adults aged 18 years and older. Cataract (57.35%), disorders of
      choroid and retina (9.80%), and disorders of cornea (6.49%) contributed more than
      70 percent to the visual impairment in Chinese adults. Older age groups, young or
      middle-aged male adults, female elders, illiterate, rural dwellers, non-eastern
      residents, singles, unemployment, and from family with lower income were
      associated with visual impairment. More efforts are warranted to enhance
      treatment and rehabilitation among people with eye disorders to prevent visual
      impairment.

PMID- 28885573
TI  - Study of Gravity Effects on Titanium Laser Welding in the Vertical Position.
AB  - To obtain satisfactory welds in positional laser beam welding, it is necessary to
      know how process parameters will influence the quality of welds in different
      welding positions. In this study, the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V sheets were laser
      welded in two vertical welding positions (vertical up and vertical down), and the
      appearance, porosity, strength, and ductility of the laser joints were evaluated.
      Results show that undercuts of the vertical up welds were greater than that of
      vertical down welds, while the porosity contents were much higher in vertical
      down welds than that in vertical up welds. When welding with a higher heat input,
      the vertical up welding position resulted in poor weld profiles (undercuts and
      burn-through holes), whereas the vertical down welding position led to excessive
      porosity contents in welds. Both severe undercut and excessive porosity were
      detrimental to the tensile properties of the welds. Weld appearance was improved
      and porosity contents were reduced by using a lower heat input, achieving better
      weld quality. Therefore, it is suggested that process parameter settings with
      relatively high laser powers and welding speeds, which can result in lower heat
      inputs, are used when laser welding the Ti6Al4V titanium alloys vertically.

PMID- 28885575
TI  - Effect of Multi-Pass Friction Stir Processing on Mechanical Properties for
      AA2024/Al2O3 Nanocomposites.
AB  - In the present work, an aluminum metal matrix reinforced with (Al2O3)
      nanoparticles was fabricated as a surface composite sheet using friction stir
      processing (FSP). The effects of processing parameters on mechanical properties,
      hardness, and microstructure grain were investigated. The results revealed that
      multi-pass FSP causes a homogeneous distribution and good dispersion of Al2O3 in
      the metal matrix, and consequently an increase in the hardness of the matrix
      composites. A finer grain is observed in the microstructure examination in
      specimens subjected to second and third passes of FSP. The improvement in the
      grain refinement is 80% compared to base metal. The processing parameters,
      particularly rotational tool speed and pass number in FSP, have a major effect on
      strength properties and surface hardness. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and
      the average hardness are improved by 25% and 46%, respectively, due to presence
      of reinforcement Al2O3 nanoparticles.

PMID- 28885574
TI  - Release of VEGF from Dental Implant Improves Osteogenetic Process: Preliminary In
      Vitro Tests.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: During osseointegration process, the presence of an inflammatory
      event could negatively influence the proper osteogenetic ability of the implant
      surface. In order to reduce this possibility, an implementation of angiogenetic
      event through the release of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) can be a
      tool as co-factor for osteoblastic differentiation. In this paper, novel dental
      implant surfaces enriched with VEGF have been tested. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The
      ability of VEGF-enriched titanium implants to improve the osteogenetic properties
      of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), also in the presence of an inflammatory
      environment, have been in vitro tested. Molecular biology, morphological
      analyses, and biochemical tests have been performed in order to confirm
      biological properties of these surfaces. RESULTS: Our results confirm that the
      presence of VEGF onto the implant surface is able not only to protect the cells
      from in vitro aging and from Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) damage, but it also
      improves their osteogenic and endothelial differentiation, even in the presence
      of inflammatory cytokines. CONCLUSION: This study establishes a biologically
      powerful novel tool that could enhance bone repair in dental implant integration.

PMID- 28885576
TI  - Porcine Bone Scaffolds Adsorb Growth Factors Secreted by MSCs and Improve Bone
      Tissue Repair.
AB  - An ideal tissue-engineered bone graft should have both excellent pro-osteogenesis
      and pro-angiogenesis properties to rapidly realize the bone regeneration in vivo.
      To meet this goal, in this work a porcine bone scaffold was successfully used as
      a Trojan horse to store growth factors produced by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
      This new scaffold showed a time-dependent release of bioactive growth factors,
      such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth
      factor (bFGF), in vitro. The biological effect of the growth factors-adsorbed
      scaffold on the in vitro commitment of MSCs into osteogenic and endothelial cell
      phenotypes has been evaluated. In addition, we have investigated the activity of
      growth factor-impregnated granules in the repair of critical-size defects in rat
      calvaria by means of histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular biology
      analyses. Based on the results of our work bone tissue formation and markers for
      bone and vascularization were significantly increased by the growth factor
      enriched bone granules after implantation. This suggests that the controlled
      release of active growth factors from porcine bone granules can enhance and
      promote bone regeneration.

PMID- 28885577
TI  - Self-Assembled Gold Nano-Ripple Formation by Gas Cluster Ion Beam Bombardment.
AB  - In this study, we used a 30 keV argon cluster ion beam bombardment to investigate
      the dynamic processes during nano-ripple formation on gold surfaces. Atomic force
      microscope analysis shows that the gold surface has maximum roughness at an
      incident angle of 60 degrees  from the surface normal; moreover, at this angle,
      and for an applied fluence of 3 * 1016 clusters/cm2, the aspect ratio of the nano
      ripple pattern is in the range of ~50%. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry
      analysis reveals a formation of a surface gradient due to prolonged gas cluster
      ion bombardment, although the surface roughness remains consistent throughout the
      bombarded surface area. As a result, significant mass redistribution is triggered
      by gas cluster ion beam bombardment at room temperature. Where mass
      redistribution is responsible for nano-ripple formation, the surface erosion
      process refines the formed nano-ripple structures.

PMID- 28885579
TI  - Room Temperature Tunable Multiferroic Properties in Sol-Gel-Derived
      Nanocrystalline Sr(Ti1-xFex)O3-delta Thin Films.
AB  - Sr(Ti1-xFex)O3-delta (0 <= x <= 0.2) thin films were grown on Si(100) substrates
      with LaNiO3 buffer-layer by a sol-gel process. Influence of Fe substitution
      concentration on the structural, ferroelectric, and magnetic properties, as well
      as the leakage current behaviors of the Sr(Ti1-xFex)O3-delta thin films, were
      investigated by using the X-ray diffractometer (XRD), atomic force microscopy
      (AFM), the ferroelectric test system, and the vibrating sample magnetometer
      (VSM). After substituting a small amount of Ti ion with Fe, highly enhanced
      ferroelectric properties were obtained successfully in SrTi0.9Ti0.1O3-delta thin
      films, with a double remanent polarization (2Pr) of 1.56, 1.95, and 9.14 MUC.cm
      2, respectively, for the samples were annealed in air, oxygen, and nitrogen
      atmospheres. The leakage current densities of the Fe-doped SrTiO3 thin films are
      about 10-6-10-5 A.cm-2 at an applied electric field of 100 kV.cm-1, and the
      conduction mechanism of the thin film capacitors with various Fe concentrations
      has been analyzed. The ferromagnetic properties of the Sr(Ti1-xFex)O3-delta thin
      films have been investigated, which can be correlated to the mixed valence ions
      and the effects of the grain boundary. The present results revealed the
      multiferroic nature of the Sr(Ti1-xFex)O3-delta thin films. The effect of the
      annealing environment on the room temperature magnetic and ferroelectric
      properties of Sr(Ti0.9Fe0.1)O3-delta thin films were also discussed in detail.

PMID- 28885578
TI  - Weight Management Interventions in Women with and without PCOS: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinopathy among women
      associated with reproductive, metabolic and psychological features. While weight
      management is recommended as first-line treatment, it is unclear if women with
      PCOS achieve similar benefits as women without PCOS. This systematic review thus
      aimed to compare the efficacy of weight management interventions in women with
      and without PCOS. Databases were searched until May 2017. The primary outcome was
      weight and anthropometric, reproductive, metabolic and psychological measures
      were secondary outcomes. Of 3264 articles identified, 14 studies involving n =
      933 (n = 9 high and n = 5 moderate risk of bias) met the inclusion criteria. No
      statistically significant differences in weight or weight loss following the
      intervention were found between women with and without PCOS in five studies, with
      the remaining studies not comparing the difference in weight or weight loss
      between these groups. Secondary outcomes did not differ significantly between the
      two groups. This review identified that there is a paucity of high quality
      research in this area and that more rigorous research is needed.

PMID- 28885580
TI  - Wound Healing Potential of Chlorogenic Acid and Myricetin-3-O-beta-Rhamnoside
      Isolated from Parrotia persica.
AB  - Wound healing is a complex physiological process that is controlled by a well
      orchestrated cascade of interdependent biochemical and cellular events, which has
      spurred the development of therapeutics that simultaneously target these active
      cellular constituents. We assessed the potential of Parrotia persica
      (Hamamelidaceae) in wound repair by analyzing the regenerative effects of its two
      main phenolic compounds, myricetin-3-O-beta-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid. To
      accomplish this, we performed phytochemical profiling and characterized the
      chemical structure of pure compounds isolated from P. persica, followed by an
      analysis of the biological effects of myricetin-3-O-beta-rhamnoside and
      chlorogenic acid on three cell types, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and
      endothelial cells. Myricetin-3-O-beta-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid exhibited
      complementary pro-healing properties. The percentage of keratinocyte wound
      closure as measured by a scratch assay was four fold faster in the presence of 10
      ug/mL chlorogenic acid, as compared to the negative control. On the other hand,
      myricetin-3-O-beta-rhamnoside at 10 ug/mL was more effective in promoting
      fibroblast migration, demonstrating a two-fold higher rate of closure compared to
      the negative control group. Both compounds enhanced the capillary-like tube
      formation of endothelial cells in an in vitro angiogenesis assay. Our results
      altogether delineate the potential to synergistically accelerate the fibroblastic
      and remodelling phases of wound repair by administering appropriate amounts of
      myricetin-3-O-beta-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid.

PMID- 28885582
TI  - Effect of Vertical Shoot-Positioned, Scott-Henry, Geneva Double-Curtain, Arch
      Cane, and Parral Training Systems on the Volatile Composition of Albarino Wines.
AB  - Viticultural practices influence both grape and wine quality. The influence of
      training systems on volatile composition was investigated for Albarino wine from
      Rias Baixas AOC in Northwest Spain. The odoriferous contribution of the compounds
      to the wine aroma was also studied. Volatile compounds belonging to ten groups
      (alcohols, C6-compounds, ethyl esters, acetates, terpenols, C13-norisoprenoids,
      volatile phenols, volatile fatty acids, lactones and carbonyl compounds) were
      determined in Albarino wines from different training systems, Vertical Shoot
      Positioned (VSP), Scott-Henry (SH), Geneva Double-Curtain (GDC), Arch-Cane (AC),
      and Parral (P) during 2010 and 2011 vintages. Wines from GDC showed the highest
      total volatile composition with the highest concentrations of alcohols, ethyl
      esters, fatty acids, and lactones families. However, the highest levels of
      terpenes and C13-norisoprenoids were quantified in the SH system. A fruitier
      aroma was observed in Albarino wines from GDC when odor activity values were
      calculated.

PMID- 28885581
TI  - Work-Related Noise Exposure in a Cohort of Patients with Chronic Tinnitus:
      Analysis of Demographic and Audiological Characteristics.
AB  - Work-related noise exposure is one of the major factors contributing to the
      development of adult-onset hearing loss and tinnitus. The aim of this study was
      to analyze, in patients with chronic tinnitus and long-term occupational noise
      exposure, (A) characteristics of hearing loss, tinnitus, comorbidities,
      demographic characteristics and a history of work-related noise exposure and (B)
      differences among individuals employed in occupations with high and low risk of
      developing work-related noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). One hundred thirty six
      patients with chronic tinnitus and at least a 10 year-long working history were
      divided into two groups based on the risk of their profession to induce NIHL.
      Individuals employed in jobs at high risk for NIHL were mostly males and
      exhibited a poorer hearing threshold, more evident in the left ear. Tinnitus was
      mostly bilateral; the next largest presentation was left-sided; patients
      described their tinnitus as buzzing or high-pitched. Correlation between age,
      length of tinnitus and worse hearing was found. Patients with a higher degree of
      hearing impairment were mostly males and were more likely to have a family
      history of hearing loss and at least one cardiovascular comorbidity. Our study
      shows some differences in individuals with tinnitus and a history of a profession
      associated with increased exposure to NIHL compared to those without such a
      history.

PMID- 28885583
TI  - Migration and Accumulation of Octachlorodipropyl Ether in Soil-Tea Systems in
      Young and Old Tea Gardens.
AB  - The migration and accumulation of octachlorodipropyl ether (OCDPE) in soil-tea
      systems were investigated using a gas chromatography-electron capture detector
      (GC-ECD) method in young and old tea gardens. When the residual concentration of
      OCDPE was 100 g a.i. hm-2 in soils, the peak concentrations of OCDPE in fresh
      leaves of young and old tea plants were 0.365 mg/kg and 0.144 mg/kg, taking 45
      days and 55 days, respectively. Equations for the accumulation curves of OCDPE in
      fresh leaves of young and old tea plants were Ct = 0.0227e0.0566t (R2 = 0.9154)
      and Ct = 0.0298e-0.0306t (R2 = 0.7156), and were Ct = 3.8435e0.055t (R2 = 0.9698)
      and Ct = 1.5627e-0.048t (R2 = 0.9634) for dissipation curves, with a half-life of
      14.4 days and 12.6 days, respectively. These results have practical guiding
      significance for controlling tea food safety.

PMID- 28885584
TI  - Morphological Evaluation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs) to Investigate
      Invasive Breast Cancer Immunogenicity, Reveal Lymphocytic Networks and Help
      Relapse Prediction: A Retrospective Study.
AB  - Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer are a key representative
      of the tumor immune microenvironment and have been shown to provide prognostic
      and predictive biomarkers. The extent of lymphocytic infiltration in tumor
      tissues can be assessed by evaluating hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained tumor
      sections. We investigated tissue microarrays of 31 invasive breast cancer
      patients, looking at quantity and topological distribution of CD3+, CD8+, CD20+,
      Ki67+, FoxP3+ TILs and CD3+/FoxP3+, CD8+/FoxP3+ cell ratios. We separately
      evaluated TILs at the invasive edge and at the center of the tumor, to find any
      clinical implications of tumor heterogeneity. No statistically significant
      difference was found in quantity and distribution of both TIL subsets and TIL
      ratios, by comparing patients who suffered from a local or distant recurrence of
      the tumor (relapse group: 13 patients) with patients not showing cancer relapse
      (non-relapse group: 18 patients). In the whole sample, we observed three main
      statistically significant positive correlations: (1) between CD3+ and CD8+ T
      cells; (2) between FoxP3+ and Ki67+ lymphocyte infiltration; (3) between
      CD3+/FoxP3+ cell ratio (C3FR) and CD8+/FoxP3+ cell ratio (C8FR). Tumor
      heterogeneity and stronger positive TIL associations were found in the non
      relapse group, where both CD3-CD8 and FoxP3-Ki67 inter-correlations were found to
      be significant at the center of the tumor, while the correlation between C3FR and
      C8FR was significant at the invasive edge. No correlations between TIL subsets
      were detected in the relapse group. Our findings suggest the existence of
      stronger inter-subtype lymphocytic networks in invasive breast cancer not showing
      recurrence. Further evaluations of clinical and topological correlations between
      and within TIL subsets are needed, in addition to the assessment of TIL
      quantification and distribution, in order to follow up on whether morphological
      evaluation of TILs might reveal the underlying lymphocytic functional
      connectivity and help relapse prediction.

PMID- 28885585
TI  - Hair Regenerative Mechanisms of Red Ginseng Oil and Its Major Components in the
      Testosterone-Induced Delay of Anagen Entry in C57BL/6 Mice.
AB  - Hair loss (alopecia) is a universal problem for numerous people in the world. The
      present study was conducted to investigate the effects of red ginseng oil (RGO)
      and its major components on hair re-growth using testosterone (TES)-induced delay
      of anagen entry in C57BL/6 mice and their mechanisms of action. Seven-week-old
      C57BL/6 mice were daily treated with TES for 1 h prior to topical application of
      10% RGO, 1% linoleic acid (LA), 1% beta-sitosterol (SITOS), or 1%
      bicyclo(10.1.0)tridec-1-ene (BICYCLO) once a day for 28 days. Hair regenerative
      capacity was significantly restored by treatment of RGO and its major compounds
      in the TES-treated mice. Histological analysis showed that RGO along with LA and
      SITOS but not BICYCLO promoted hair growth through early inducing anagen phase
      that was delayed by TES in mice. Treatment of mice with RGO, LA, or SITOS up
      regulated Wnt/beta-catenin and Shh/Gli pathways-mediated expression of genes such
      as beta-catenin, Lef-1, Sonic hedgehog, Smoothened, Gli-1, Cyclin D1, and Cyclin
      E in the TES-treated mice. In addition, RGO and its major components reduced the
      protein level of TGF-beta but enhanced the expression of anti-apoptotic protein
      Bcl-2. These results suggest that RGO is a potent novel therapeutic natural
      product for treatment of androgenic alopecia possibly through hair re-growth
      activity of its major components such as LA and SITOS.

PMID- 28885586
TI  - Senna singueana: Antioxidant, Hepatoprotective, Antiapoptotic Properties and
      Phytochemical Profiling of a Methanol Bark Extract.
AB  - Natural products are considered as an important source for the discovery of new
      drugs to treat aging-related degenerative diseases and liver injury. The present
      study profiled the chemical constituents of a methanol extract from Senna
      singueana bark using HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS and 36 secondary metabolites were
      identified. Proanthocyanidins dominated the extract. Monomers, dimers, trimers of
      (epi)catechin, (epi)gallocatechin, (epi)guibourtinidol, (ent)cassiaflavan, and
      (epi)afzelechin represented the major constituents. The extract demonstrated
      notable antioxidant activities in vitro: In DPPH (EC50 of 20.8 ug/mL), FRAP
      (18.16 mM FeSO4/mg extract) assays, and total phenolic content amounted 474 mg
      gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g extract determined with the Folin-Ciocalteu
      method. Also, in an in vivo model, the extract increased the survival rate of
      Caenorhabditis elegans worms pretreated with the pro-oxidant juglone from 43 to
      64%, decreased intracellular ROS inside the wild-type nematodes by 47.90%, and
      induced nuclear translocation of the transcription factor DAF-16 in the
      transgenic strain TJ356. Additionally, the extract showed a remarkable
      hepatoprotective activity against d-galactosamine (d-GalN) induced hepatic injury
      in rats. It significantly reduced elevated AST (aspartate aminotransferase), and
      total bilirubin. Moreover, the extract induced a strong cytoplasmic Bcl-2
      expression indicating suppression of apoptosis. In conclusion, the bark extract
      of S. sengueana represents an interesting candidate for further research in
      antioxidants and liver protection.

PMID- 28885587
TI  - Anti-HIV Activities and Mechanism of 12-O-Tricosanoylphorbol-20-acetate, a Novel
      Phorbol Ester from Ostodes katharinae.
AB  - APOBEC3G is a member of the human cytidine deaminase family that restricts Vif
      deficient viruses by being packaged with progeny virions and inducing the G to A
      mutation during the synthesis of HIV-1 viral DNA when the progeny virus infects
      new cells. HIV-1 Vif protein resists the activity of A3G by mediating A3G
      degradation. Phorbol esters are plant-derived organic compounds belonging to the
      tigliane family of diterpenes and could activate the PKC pathway. In this study,
      we identified an inhibitor 12-O-tricosanoylphorbol-20-acetate (hop-8), a novel
      ester of phorbol which was isolated from Ostodes katharinae of the family
      Euphorbiaceae, that inhibited the replication of wild-type HIV-1 and HIV-2
      strains and drug-resistant strains broadly both in C8166 cells and PBMCs with low
      cytotoxicity and the EC50 values ranged from 0.106 MUM to 7.987 MUM. One of the
      main mechanisms of hop-8 is to stimulate A3G expressing in HIV-1 producing cells
      and upregulate the A3G level in progeny virions, which results in reducing the
      infectivity of the progeny virus. This novel mechanism of hop-8 inhibition of HIV
      replication might represents a promising approach for developing new therapeutics
      for HIV infection.

PMID- 28885588
TI  - Human Erythrocyte Acetylcholinesterase in Health and Disease.
AB  - The biochemical properties of erythrocyte or human red blood cell (RBC) membrane
      acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and its applications on laboratory class and on
      research are reviewed. Evidence of the biochemical and the pathophysiological
      properties like the association between the RBC AChE enzyme activity and the
      clinical and biophysical parameters implicated in several diseases are
      overviewed, and the achievement of RBC AChE as a biomarker and as a prognostic
      factor are presented. Beyond its function as an enzyme, a special focus is
      highlighted in this review for a new function of the RBC AChE, namely a component
      of the signal transduction pathway of nitric oxide.

PMID- 28885589
TI  - The Small Glutathione Peroxidase Mimic 5P May Represent a New Strategy for the
      Treatment of Liver Cancer.
AB  - Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) is an antioxidant protein containing selenium. Owing
      to the limitations of native GPx, considerable efforts have been made to develop
      GPx mimics. Here, a short 5-mer peptides (5P) was synthesized and characterized
      using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry. Enzyme coupled assays were used to evaluate GPx activity. The cell
      viability and apoptosis of H22 cells were tested, and mice bearing H22 cell
      derived tumors were used to determine the effects of 5P on tumor inhibition. In
      comparison with other enzyme models, 5P provided a suitable substrate with proper
      catalytic site positions, resulting in enhanced catalytic activity. In our mouse
      model, 5P showed excellent inhibition of tumor growth and improved immunity. In
      summary, our findings demonstrated the design and synthesis of the small 5P
      molecule, which inhibited tumor growth and improved immunity. Notably, 5P could
      inhibit tumor growth without affecting normal growth. Based on these advantages,
      the novel mimic may have several clinical applications.

PMID- 28885590
TI  - Ethnopharmacology and Therapeutic Value of Bridelia micrantha (Hochst.) Baill. in
      Tropical Africa: A Comprehensive Review.
AB  - Bridelia micrantha is traditionally used in tropical Africa to treat a wide range
      of human and animal diseases. The aim of this study was to summarise the research
      that has been done on the ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological
      properties of B. micrantha so as to understand its importance and potential value
      in primary healthcare systems. The literature search for information on
      ethnomedicinal uses and pharmacological activities of B. micrantha was undertaken
      using databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Science Direct,
      BioMed Central (BMC), PubMed and Springerlink. Other relevant literature sources
      included books, book chapters, websites, theses, conference papers and other
      scientific publications. This study showed that B. micrantha is used as herbal
      medicine in just over half (57.3%) of the countries in tropical Africa where it
      is indigenous. A total of 54 ethnomedicinal uses of B. micrantha have been
      recorded with a high degree of consensus on burns, wounds, conjunctivitis,
      painful eyes, constipation, gastric ulcers, cough, headache, rheumatism, painful
      joints, dysentery, ethnoveterinary medicine, malaria, sexually transmitted
      infections, stomach ache, tape worms and diarrhoea. Different plant parts,
      aqueous and organic extracts exhibited anthelmintic, antimicrobial,
      anticonvulsant and sedative, antidiabetic, antidiarrhoeal, antinociceptive,
      antioxidant, antiplasmodial, antischistosomal, hepatoprotective, insecticidal and
      beta-lactamase inhibitory activities.

PMID- 28885591
TI  - Polymeric Nanocomposite Membranes for Next Generation Pervaporation Process:
      Strategies, Challenges and Future Prospects.
AB  - Pervaporation (PV) has been considered as one of the most active and promising
      areas in membrane technologies in separating close boiling or azeotropic liquid
      mixtures, heat sensitive biomaterials, water or organics from its mixtures that
      are indispensable constituents for various important chemical and bio
      separations. In the PV process, the membrane plays the most pivotal role and is
      of paramount importance in governing the overall efficiency. This article
      evaluates and collaborates the current research towards the development of next
      generation nanomaterials (NMs) and embedded polymeric membranes with regard to
      its synthesis, fabrication and application strategies, challenges and future
      prospects.

PMID- 28885592
TI  - A Tailored Ontology Supporting Sensor Implementation for the Maintenance of
      Industrial Machines.
AB  - The longtime productivity of an industrial machine is improved by condition-based
      maintenance strategies. To do this, the integration of sensors and other cyber
      physical devices is necessary in order to capture and analyze a machine's
      condition through its lifespan. Thus, choosing the best sensor is a critical step
      to ensure the efficiency of the maintenance process. Indeed, considering the
      variety of sensors, and their features and performance, a formal classification
      of a sensor's domain knowledge is crucial. This classification facilitates the
      search for and reuse of solutions during the design of a new maintenance service.
      Following a Knowledge Management methodology, the paper proposes and develops a
      new sensor ontology that structures the domain knowledge, covering both
      theoretical and experimental sensor attributes. An industrial case study is
      conducted to validate the proposed ontology and to demonstrate its utility as a
      guideline to ease the search of suitable sensors. Based on the ontology, the
      final solution will be implemented in a shared repository connected to legacy CAD
      (computer-aided design) systems. The selection of the best sensor is, firstly,
      obtained by the matching of application requirements and sensor specifications
      (that are proposed by this sensor repository). Then, it is refined from the
      experimentation results. The achieved solution is recorded in the sensor
      repository for future reuse. As a result, the time and cost of the design process
      of new condition-based maintenance services is reduced.

PMID- 28885593
TI  - Effect of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles and Amoxicillin on Bacterial Growth in the
      Presence of Dissolved Organic Carbon.
AB  - The impact of emerging contaminants in the presence of active pharmaceutical
      pollutants plays an important role in the persistence and activity of
      environmental bacteria. This manuscript focuses on the impact of amoxicillin
      functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles on bacterial growth, in the presence of
      dissolved organic carbon (humic acid). The impact of these emerging contaminants
      individually and collectively on the growth profiles of model gram positive and
      negative bacteria was tracked for 24 h. Results indicate exposure to
      subinhibitory concentrations of amoxicillin bound iron oxide nanoparticles, in
      the presence of humic acid, increase bacterial growth in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      and Staphylococcus aureus. Accelerated bacterial growth was associated with an
      increase in iron ions, which have been shown to influence upregulation of
      cellular metabolism. Though iron oxide nanoparticles are often regarded as
      benign, this work demonstrates the distinguishable impact of amoxicillin bound
      iron oxide nanoparticles in the presence of dissolved organic carbon. The results
      indicate differential impacts of combined contaminants on bacterial growth,
      having potential implications for environmental and human health.

PMID- 28885595
TI  - Thermal Flow Sensors for Harsh Environments.
AB  - Flow sensing in hostile environments is of increasing interest for applications
      in the automotive, aerospace, and chemical and resource industries. There are
      thermal and non-thermal approaches for high-temperature flow measurement.
      Compared to their non-thermal counterparts, thermal flow sensors have recently
      attracted a great deal of interest due to the ease of fabrication, lack of moving
      parts and higher sensitivity. In recent years, various thermal flow sensors have
      been developed to operate at temperatures above 500  degrees C. Microelectronic
      technologies such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI), and complementary metal-oxide
      semiconductor (CMOS) have been used to make thermal flow sensors. Thermal sensors
      with various heating and sensing materials such as metals, semiconductors,
      polymers and ceramics can be selected according to the targeted working
      temperature. The performance of these thermal flow sensors is evaluated based on
      parameters such as thermal response time, flow sensitivity. The data from thermal
      flow sensors reviewed in this paper indicate that the sensing principle is
      suitable for the operation under harsh environments. Finally, the paper discusses
      the packaging of the sensor, which is the most important aspect of any high
      temperature sensing application. Other than the conventional wire-bonding,
      various novel packaging techniques have been developed for high-temperature
      application.

PMID- 28885594
TI  - Exploring the Relationship between Housing and Health for Refugees and Asylum
      Seekers in South Australia: A Qualitative Study.
AB  - Housing is an important social determinant of health; however, little is known
      about the impact of housing experiences on health and wellbeing for people from
      refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. In this paper, we outline a qualitative
      component of a study in South Australia examining these links. Specifically,
      interviews were conducted with 50 refugees and asylum seekers who were
      purposively sampled according to gender, continent and visa status, from a
      broader survey. Interviews were analysed thematically. The results indicated that
      housing was of central importance to health and wellbeing and impacted on health
      through a range of pathways including affordability, the suitability of housing
      in relation to physical aspects such as condition and layout, and social aspects
      such as safety and belonging and issues around security of tenure. Asylum seekers
      in particular reported that living in housing in poor condition negatively
      affected their health. Our research reinforces the importance of housing for both
      the physical and mental health for asylum seekers and refugees living in
      resettlement countries. Improving housing quality, affordability and tenure
      security all have the potential to lead to more positive health outcomes.

PMID- 28885596
TI  - Research on High Layer Thickness Fabricated of 316L by Selective Laser Melting.
AB  - Selective laser melting (SLM) is a potential additive manufacturing (AM)
      technology. However, the application of SLM was confined due to low efficiency.
      To improve efficiency, SLM fabrication with a high layer thickness and fine
      powder was systematically researched, and the void areas and hollow powders can
      be reduced by using fine powder. Single-track experiments were used to narrow
      down process parameter windows. Multi-layer fabrication relative density can be
      reached 99.99% at the exposure time-point distance-hatch space of 120 MUs-40 MUm
      240 MUm. Also, the building rate can be up to 12 mm3/s, which is about 3-10 times
      higher than the previous studies. Three typical defects were found by studying
      deeply, including the un-melted defect between the molten pools, the micro-pore
      defect within the molten pool, and the irregular distribution of the splashing
      phenomenon. Moreover, the microstructure is mostly equiaxed crystals and a small
      amount of columnar crystals. The averages of ultimate tensile strength, yield
      strength, and elongation are 625 MPa, 525 MPa, and 39.9%, respectively. As
      exposure time increased from 80 MUs to 200 MUs, the grain size is gradually grown
      up from 0.98 MUm to 2.23 MUm, the grain aspect ratio is close to 1, and the
      tensile properties are shown as a downward trend. The tensile properties of high
      layer thickness fabricated are not significantly different than those with a
      coarse-powder layer thickness of low in previous research.

PMID- 28885598
TI  - Report from the 1st MYCOKEY International Conference Global Mycotoxin Reduction
      in the Food and Feed Chain Held in Ghent, Belgium, 11-14 September 2017.
AB  - This conference is organized within the framework of the H2020-Research and
      Innovation Action-Societal Challenge 2-"Food security, sustainable agriculture
      and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
      challenge"-GA 678781 MycoKey "Integrated and innovative key actions for mycotoxin
      management in the food and feed chain" [...].

PMID- 28885597
TI  - Hypoxia Is a Critical Parameter for Chondrogenic Differentiation of Human
      Umbilical Cord Blood Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Type I/III Collagen Sponges.
AB  - Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an attractive alternative to bone marrow for
      isolation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to treat articular cartilage defects.
      Here, we set out to determine the growth factors (bone morphogenetic protein 2
      (BMP-2) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta1)) and oxygen tension
      effects during chondrogenesis of human UCB-MSCs for cartilage engineering.
      Chondrogenic differentiation was induced using 3D cultures in type I/III collagen
      sponges with chondrogenic factors in normoxia (21% O2) or hypoxia (<5% O2) for 7,
      14 and 21 days. Our results show that UCB-MSCs can be committed to chondrogenesis
      in the presence of BMP-2+TGF-beta1. Normoxia induced the highest levels of
      chondrocyte-specific markers. However, hypoxia exerted more benefit by decreasing
      collagen X and matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP13) expression, two chondrocyte
      hypertrophy markers. However, a better chondrogenesis was obtained by switching
      oxygen conditions, with seven days in normoxia followed by 14 days in hypoxia,
      since these conditions avoid hypertrophy of hUCB-MSC-derived chondrocytes while
      maintaining the expression of chondrocyte-specific markers observed in normoxia.
      Our study demonstrates that oxygen tension is a key factor for chondrogenesis and
      suggests that UBC-MSCs 3D-culture should begin in normoxia to obtain a more
      efficient chondrocyte differentiation before placing them in hypoxia for
      chondrocyte phenotype stabilization. UCB-MSCs are therefore a reliable source for
      cartilage engineering.

PMID- 28885599
TI  - Family Social Environment and Parenting Predictors of Alcohol Use among
      Adolescents in Lithuania.
AB  - The role of the family as the social environment in shaping adolescent lifestyle
      has recently received substantial attention. This study was focused on
      investigating the association between familial and parenting predictors and
      alcohol use in school-aged children. Adolescents aged 13- and 15-year from a
      representative sample (N = 3715) of schools in Lithuania were surveyed during the
      spring of 2014. The methodology of the cross-national Health Behaviour in School
      aged Children (HBSC) study was applied. HBSC international questionnaires were
      completed in the classroom anonymously for obtaining information about drinking
      of alcoholic beverages and family characteristics-family's affluence and
      structure, style of communication in the family, parenting style, parental
      monitoring, family time together, etc. Univariate and multivariate logistic
      regression analysis was applied for assessment of the association between
      familial variables and weekly alcohol use. Analysis has demonstrated that
      adolescents from non-intact families tended to show significantly higher risk of
      being weekly drinkers (OR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.30-2.19). The following parenting
      factors were associated with weekly use of alcohol: father's and mother's low
      monitoring, father's authoritarian-repressive and mother's permissive-neglectful
      parenting style. Frequent family time together and frequent electronic media
      communication with parents showed an inverse negative effect than was predicted.
      The study suggests that alcohol misuse among adolescents could be associated with
      a non-intact family structure as well as with complex family and parenting
      determinants which should be investigated more thoroughly by further studies.

PMID- 28885601
TI  - Attitudes towards Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination in the Latin American Andean
      Region.
AB  - This commentary explores the distribution of human papilloma virus (HPV) and HPV
      related diseases, and factors affecting attitudes towards HPV, HPV-related
      diseases, and HPV vaccination in the Latin American Andean region. Lack of
      knowledge of HPV, known negative attitudes or incorrect assumptions about HPV,
      HPV-related diseases, and HPV vaccination provide a basis upon which to develop
      targeted HPV awareness and preventive health media campaigns. For maximal effect,
      media campaigns should use the internet, radio, and television to address health
      care providers, parents, and students. Additional programming can be developed
      for clinics to use in-house with their clients. Ministries of Education, Finance,
      and Health all have roles to play to increase national HPV, HPV-related diseases,
      and HPV vaccination awareness.

PMID- 28885600
TI  - A Cross-Sectional Study of Dietary and Genetic Predictors of Blood Folate Levels
      in Healthy Young Adults.
AB  - Since 1998, the U.S. has mandated folic acid (FA) fortification of certain grain
      products to reduce the risk of neural tube defects. Folate intake and red blood
      cell (RBC) folate concentrations increased substantially post-intervention,
      although recent studies raise concerns about the level of ongoing benefit. This
      study investigated blood folate level determinants in healthy young adults,
      including intake of naturally occurring food folate, synthetic FA, and the
      interaction of naturally occurring food folate with a common missense variant in
      the FOLH1 gene thought to affect absorption. Participants (n = 265) completed the
      Diet History Questionnaire II, RBC folate testing, and were genotyped for the
      484T>C FOLH1 variant. Men reported significantly greater intake of all folate
      sources except for supplemental FA, but RBC folate levels did not significantly
      differ by sex. Synthetic FA was a stronger predictor of RBC folate than naturally
      occurring food folate. In the largest racial group, synthetic FA and the
      interaction of FOLH1 genotype with naturally occurring food folate significantly
      predicted RBC folate, with the overall model accounting for 13.8% of the variance
      in RBC folate levels. Blood folate levels rely on a complex interaction of
      natural and synthetic folate intake as well as FOLH1 genotype.

PMID- 28885602
TI  - Network Location-Aware Service Recommendation with Random Walk in Cyber-Physical
      Systems.
AB  - Cyber-physical systems (CPS) have received much attention from both academia and
      industry. An increasing number of functions in CPS are provided in the way of
      services, which gives rise to an urgent task, that is, how to recommend the
      suitable services in a huge number of available services in CPS. In traditional
      service recommendation, collaborative filtering (CF) has been studied in
      academia, and used in industry. However, there exist several defects that limit
      the application of CF-based methods in CPS. One is that under the case of high
      data sparsity, CF-based methods are likely to generate inaccurate prediction
      results. In this paper, we discover that mining the potential similarity
      relations among users or services in CPS is really helpful to improve the
      prediction accuracy. Besides, most of traditional CF-based methods are only
      capable of using the service invocation records, but ignore the context
      information, such as network location, which is a typical context in CPS. In this
      paper, we propose a novel service recommendation method for CPS, which utilizes
      network location as context information and contains three prediction models
      using random walking. We conduct sufficient experiments on two real-world
      datasets, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods
      and verify that the network location is indeed useful in QoS prediction.

PMID- 28885603
TI  - Functional Characterization of Selected Universal Stress Protein from Salvia
      miltiorrhiza (SmUSP) in Escherichia coli.
AB  - The multigene universal stress protein (USP) family is evolutionarily conserved.
      Members play indispensable roles in plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. Although
      relatively well-characterized in model plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana and
      Oryzasativa, this family has not been investigated in Salvia miltiorrhiza, an
      important herbal plant for which yields can be limited by various abiotic
      stresses. Here, we identified 32 USP family members in the S. miltiorrhiza
      genome, and used phylogenetic analysis to sort these SmUSPs into four groups.
      Groups A and B belong to the ATP-binding class whereas Groups C and D are in the
      non-ATP-binding class. Motif analysis and multiple sequence alignment hinted that
      members of group A and B were able to bind ATP. Our qRT-PCR data from different
      tissues/organs and under salt and heat stresses provided an overall expression
      pattern for those genes. Three SmUSPs (SmUSP1, SmUSP8, and SmUSP27) were cloned
      from S. miltiorrhiza and functionally characterized in Escherichiacoli. Compared
      with the control cells, those that expressed SmUSPs exhibited enhanced tolerance
      to salt, heat, and a combination of the two. This suggested that the protein has
      a protective role in cells when exposed to single-stress and multiple-stress
      conditions. Our findings provide valuable information that helps improve our
      understanding of the evolutionary and functional conservation and diversity
      associated with the USP gene family in S. miltiorrhiza.

PMID- 28885604
TI  - Overprescribing of antibiotics by UK ophthalmologists.

PMID- 28885605
TI  - Searching for the best blood-derived eye drops.

PMID- 28885607
TI  - Same-site surgical revision of failed trabeculectomy blebs with mitomycin C
      augmentation: long-term follow-up.
AB  - PurposeTo determine the long-term outcomes of same-site revision of failed
      filtering blebs with mitomycin C application.Patients and methodsNoncomparative
      retrospective case series of 45 eyes of 39 patients. Main outcome measures were
      surgical success (<=21, <=18, and <=16 mm Hg reduction in intraocular pressure
      (IOP)). Other outcome measures included best-corrected visual acuity (VA), visual
      field loss, number of glaucoma medications, need for further interventions, time
      from surgery to recommencement of medications or interventions, and
      complications.ResultsMean follow-up was 126+/-59.6 months (range 16-227 months).
      The overall success proportion at last follow-up was 96% for IOP <=21 mm Hg
      (criterion 1), 91% for IOP <=18 mm Hg (criterion 2), and 84% for IOP <=16 mm Hg
      (criterion 3). Absolute success at last follow-up was 64%, 38%, and 33% for
      criteria 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Mean baseline IOP was reduced from 24.2+/-5.5
      to 12.4+/-5.5 mm Hg at last follow-up. Ten eyes (22%) had early and 3 (7%) eyes
      had late complications. None of these complications resulted in visual loss or
      surgery failure. Nine eyes (20%) required further glaucoma surgery. Nine eyes
      (20%) required further glaucoma laser.ConclusionsSame-site, augmented, bleb
      revision is a safe and effective technique to control IOP and prevent further
      visual loss in patients with failed trabeculectomies.

PMID- 28885606
TI  - An overview of the clinical applications of optical coherence tomography
      angiography.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) has emerged as a novel, non
      invasive imaging modality that allows the detailed study of flow within the
      vascular structures of the eye. Compared to conventional dye angiography, OCTA
      can produce more detailed, higher resolution images of the vasculature without
      the added risk of dye injection. In our review, we discuss the advantages and
      disadvantages of this new technology in comparison to conventional dye
      angiography. We provide an overview of the current OCTA technology available,
      compare the various commercial OCTA machines technical specifications and discuss
      some future software improvements. An approach to the interpretation of OCTA
      images by correlating images to other multimodal imaging with attention to
      identifying potential artefacts will be outlined and may be useful to
      ophthalmologists, particularly those who are currently still unfamiliar with this
      new technology. This review is based on a search of peer-reviewed published
      papers relevant to OCTA according to our current knowledge, up to January 2017,
      available on the PubMed database. Currently, many of the published studies have
      focused on OCTA imaging of the retina, in particular, the use of OCTA in the
      diagnosis and management of common retinal diseases such as age-related macular
      degeneration and retinal vascular diseases. In addition, we describe clinical
      applications for OCTA imaging in inflammatory diseases, optic nerve diseases and
      anterior segment diseases. This review is based on both the current literature
      and the clinical experience of our individual authors, with an emphasis on the
      clinical applications of this imaging technology.

PMID- 28885608
TI  - A novel use of ultrasound biomicroscopy.

PMID- 28885609
TI  - Vitreous cavity length in keratoconus: implications for keratoplasty.
AB  - PurposeTo compare axial length (AL) with vitreous cavity length (VCL) in patients
      with keratoconus and to ascertain whether graft size can be tailored to reduce
      myopic refractive error in patients with keratoconus undergoing penetrating
      keratoplasty (PK).Patients and methodsThe AL and VCL were measured prospectively
      in patients with keratoconus not undergoing PK (Group 1) and in normal phakic,
      emmetropic individuals (Group 2). A retrospective analysis of these measurements
      in patients with keratoconus who had undergone PK (Group 3) was also performed.
      The postoperative spherical equivalent (SE) was then correlated to size of donor
      buttons.ResultsKeratoconus patients tended to have a longer mean VCL than
      emmetropic normal individuals. The mean VCL of these patients (Group 1) was 16.49
      mm+/-SD 1.13 compared to the mean VCL of 15.94 mm+/-SD 0.56 in normals (Group 2,
      P<0.0001). Patients with keratoconus who had an undersized graft showed reduced
      myopic refractive error compared to those with same size or oversized
      grafts.ConclusionVCL measurement is more accurate than AL measurement in deciding
      upon graft-host size disparity for corneal graft in patients with keratoconus. In
      patients with increased VCL, undersizing the donor button helps in reducing
      postoperative myopia. We recommend VCL measurement as part of the routine workup
      in all keratoconus patients undergoing corneal transplants.

PMID- 28885610
TI  - In silico and preclinical drug screening identifies dasatinib as a targeted
      therapy for T-ALL.

PMID- 28885611
TI  - Secondary acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a distinct clinical entity with
      prognostic significance.
AB  - The effect of prior malignancy on the risk of developing, and prognosis of, acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is unknown. This observational study utilized the
      California Cancer Registry to estimate the risk of developing ALL after a prior
      malignancy using standardized incidence ratios (SIRs, 95% confidence intervals).
      ALL occurring after a malignancy with an SIR>1 (increased-risk (IR) malignancies)
      was considered secondary ALL (s-ALL). Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs, 95%
      confidence intervals) compared the effect of s-ALL with de novo ALL on overall
      survival. A total of 14 481 patients with ALL were identified (1988-2012) and 382
      (3%) had a known prior malignancy. Any prior malignancy predisposed patients to
      developing ALL: SIR 1.62 (1.45-1.79). Hematologic malignancies (SIR 5.57, 4.38
      6.98) and IR-solid tumors (SIR 2.11, 1.73-2.54) increased the risk of developing
      ALL. s-ALL increased the risk of death compared with de novo ALL (aHR 1.38 (1.16
      1.63)) and this effect was more pronounced among younger patients (age<40 years:
      aHR 4.80 (3.15-7.30); age?40 years: aHR 1.40 (1.16-1.69)) (interaction P<0.001).
      This population-based study demonstrates that s-ALL is a distinct entity that
      occurs after specific malignancies and carries a poor prognosis compared with de
      novo ALL, particularly among patients <40 years of age.

PMID- 28885613
TI  - MicroRNA-155 regulates casein kinase 1 gamma 2: a potential pathogenetic role in
      chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

PMID- 28885612
TI  - Understanding CD30 biology and therapeutic targeting: a historical perspective
      providing insight into future directions.
AB  - CD30 is a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily. It is
      characteristically expressed in certain hematopoietic malignancies, including
      anaplastic large cell lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma, among others. The variable
      expression of CD30 on both normal and malignant lymphoid cells has focused
      research efforts on understanding the pathogenesis of CD30 upregulation, its
      contribution to lymphomagenesis through anti-apoptotic mechanisms, and its effect
      on cell survival. Given the restriction of CD30 to certain tumor types, the
      logical extension of this has been to attempt to exploit it as a therapeutic
      target. The efficacy of naked anti-CD30 antibodies in practice was, however,
      modest. Moreover, combinations with bacterial toxins and radioimmunoconjugates
      have also had limited success. The development of the antibody-drug compound
      brentuximab vedotin (BV), however, has rejuvenated interest in CD30 as a tumor
      target. Phase I and II clinical trials in Hodgkin lymphoma, peripheral T-cell
      lymphoma, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and even CD30-expressing B-cell lymphomas,
      have shown the compound is well tolerated, but more importantly, able to deliver
      meaningful disease control even in patients with multiply relapsed or refractory
      disease. FDA approval has been granted for its use in relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma
      and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma. A recent phase III trial of BV in
      cutaneous T-cell lymphoma has confirmed its superiority to standard of care
      therapies. In this manuscript, we explore the history of CD30 as a tumor marker
      and as a therapeutic target, both in the laboratory and in the clinic, with a
      view to understanding future avenues for further study.

PMID- 28885614
TI  - Crystal structure of E. coli apolipoprotein N-acyl transferase.
AB  - In Gram-negative bacteria, lipid modification of proteins is catalysed in a three
      step pathway. Apolipoprotein N-acyl transferase (Lnt) catalyses the third step in
      this pathway, whereby it transfers an acyl chain from a phospholipid to the amine
      group of the N-terminal cysteine residue of the apolipoprotein. Here, we report
      the 2.6-A crystal structure of Escherichia coli Lnt. This enzyme contains an exo
      membrane nitrilase domain fused to a transmembrane (TM) domain. The TM domain of
      Lnt contains eight TM helices which form a membrane-embedded cavity with a
      lateral opening and a periplasmic exit. The nitrilase domain is located on the
      periplasmic side of the membrane, with its catalytic cavity connected to the
      periplasmic exit of the TM domain. An amphipathic lid loop from the nitrilase
      domain interacts with the periplasmic lipid leaflet, forming an interfacial
      entrance from the lipid bilayer to the catalytic centre for both the lipid donor
      and acceptor substrates.

PMID- 28885615
TI  - Necroptosis in microglia contributes to neuroinflammation and retinal
      degeneration through TLR4 activation.
AB  - Inflammation has emerged to be a critical mechanism responsible for neural damage
      and neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia, the resident innate immune cells in
      retina, are implicated as principal components of the immunological insult to
      retinal neural cells. The involvement of microglia in retinal inflammation is
      complex and here we propose for the first time that necroptosis in microglia
      triggers neuroinflammation and exacerbates retinal neural damage and
      degeneration. We found microglia experienced receptor-interacting protein kinase
      1 (RIP1)- and RIP3-dependent necroptosis not only in the retinal degenerative rd1
      mice, but also in the acute retinal neural injury mice. The necroptotic microglia
      released various pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2, which orchestrated the
      retinal inflammation. Importantly, necroptosis blockade using necrostatin-1 could
      suppress microglia-mediated inflammation, rescue retinal degeneration or prevent
      neural injury in vivo. Meanwhile, cultured microglia underwent RIP1/3-mediated
      necroptosis and the necroptotic microglia produced large amounts of pro
      inflammatory cytokines in response to lipopolysaccharide or oxidative stress in
      vitro. Mechanically, TLR4 deficiency ameliorated microglia necroptosis with
      decreased expression levels of machinery molecules RIP1 and RIP3, and suppressed
      retinal inflammation, suggesting that TLR4 signaling was required in microglia
      necroptosis-mediated inflammation. Thus, we proposed that microglia experienced
      necroptosis through TLR4 activation, promoting an inflammatory response that
      serves to exacerbate considerable neural damage and degeneration. Necroptosis
      blockade therefore emerged as a novel therapeutic strategy for tempering
      microglia-mediated neuroinflammation and ameliorating neural injury and
      neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28885618
TI  - Loss of BIM augments resistance of ATM-deficient thymocytes to DNA damage-induced
      apoptosis but does not accelerate lymphoma development.

PMID- 28885616
TI  - MyD88 is an essential component of retinoic acid-induced differentiation in human
      pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cells.
AB  - We have previously reported that myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88
      (MyD88) is downregulated during all-trans retinoic acid (RA)-induced
      differentiation of pluripotent NTera2 human embryonal carcinoma cells (hECCs),
      whereas its maintained expression is associated with RA differentiation
      resistance in nullipotent 2102Ep hECCs. MyD88 is the main adapter for toll-like
      receptor (TLR) signalling, where it determines the secretion of chemokines and
      cytokines in response to pathogens. In this study, we report that loss of MyD88
      is essential for RA-facilitated differentiation of hECCs. Functional analysis
      using a specific MyD88 peptide inhibitor (PepInh) demonstrated that high MyD88
      expression in the self-renewal state inhibits the expression of a specific set of
      HOX genes. In NTera2 cells, MyD88 is downregulated during RA-induced
      differentiation, a mechanism that could be broadly replicated by MyD88 PepInh
      treatment of 2102Ep cells. Notably, MyD88 inhibition transitioned 2102Ep cells
      into a stable, self-renewing state that appears to be primed for differentiation
      upon addition of RA. At a molecular level, MyD88 inhibition combined with RA
      treatment upregulated HOX, RA signalling and TLR signalling genes. These events
      permit differentiation through a standard downregulation of Oct4-Sox2-Nanog
      mechanism. In line with its role in regulating secretion of specific proteins,
      conditioned media experiments demonstrated that differentiated (MyD88 low) NTera2
      cell media was sufficient to differentiate NTera2 cells. Protein array analysis
      indicated that this was owing to secretion of factors known to regulate
      angiogenesis, neurogenesis and all three branches of TGF-beta Superfamily
      signalling. Collectively, these data offer new insights into RA controlled
      differentiation of pluripotent cells, with notable parallels to the ground state
      model of embryonic stem cell self-renewal. These data may provide insights to
      facilitate improved differentiation protocols for regenerative medicine and
      differentiation-therapies in cancer treatment.

PMID- 28885617
TI  - Post-translational regulation of p53 function through 20S proteasome-mediated
      cleavage.
AB  - The tumor suppressor p53 is a transcription factor that regulates the expression
      of a range of target genes in response to cellular stress. Adding to the
      complexity of understanding its cellular function is that in addition to the full
      length protein, several p53 isoforms are produced in humans, harboring diverse
      expression patterns and functionalities. One isoform, Delta40p53, which lacks the
      first transactivation domain including the binding region for the negative
      regulator MDM2, was shown to be a product of alternative translation initiation.
      Here we report the discovery of an alternative cellular mechanism for Delta40p53
      formation. We show that the 20S proteasome specifically cleaves the full-length
      protein (FLp53) to generate the Delta40p53 isoform. Moreover, we demonstrate that
      a dimer of FLp53 interacts with a Delta40p53 dimer, creating a functional hetero
      tetramer. Consequently, the co-expression of both isoforms attenuates the
      transcriptional activity of FLp53 in a dominant negative manner. Finally, we
      demonstrate that following oxidative stress, at the time when the 20S proteasome
      becomes the major degradation machinery and FLp53 is activated, the formation of
      Delta40p53 is enhanced, creating a negative feedback loop that balances FLp53
      activation. Overall, our results suggest that Delta40p53 can be generated by a
      20S proteasome-mediated post-translational mechanism so as to control p53
      function. More generally, the discovery of a specific cleavage function for the
      20S proteasome may represent a more general cellular regulatory mechanism to
      produce proteins with distinct functional properties.

PMID- 28885619
TI  - Powering stem cell decisions with ubiquitin.

PMID- 28885620
TI  - Oxidative stress-induced S100B accumulation converts myoblasts into brown
      adipocytes via an NF-kappaB/YY1/miR-133 axis and NF-kappaB/YY1/BMP-7 axis.
AB  - Muscles of sarcopenic people show hypotrophic myofibers and infiltration with
      adipose and, at later stages, fibrotic tissue. The origin of infiltrating
      adipocytes resides in fibro-adipogenic precursors and nonmyogenic mesenchymal
      progenitor cells, and in satellite cells, the adult stem cells of skeletal
      muscles. Myoblasts and brown adipocytes share a common Myf5+ progenitor cell: the
      cell fate depends on levels of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP-7), a TGF-beta
      family member. S100B, a Ca2+-binding protein of the EF-hand type, is expressed at
      relatively high levels in myoblasts from sarcopenic humans and exerts anti
      myogenic effects via NF-kappaB-dependent inhibition of MyoD, a myogenic
      transcription factor acting upstream of the essential myogenic factor, myogenin.
      Adipogenesis requires high levels of ROS, and myoblasts of sarcopenic subjects
      show elevated ROS levels. Here we show that: (1) ROS overproduction in myoblasts
      results in upregulation of S100B levels via NF-kappaB activation; and (2) ROS/NF
      kappaB-induced accumulation of S100B causes myoblast transition into brown
      adipocytes. S100B activates an NF-kappaB/Ying Yang 1 axis that negatively
      regulates the promyogenic and anti-adipogenic miR-133 with resultant accumulation
      of the brown adipogenic transcription regulator, PRDM-16. S100B also upregulates
      BMP-7 via NF-kappaB/Ying Yang 1 with resultant BMP-7 autocrine activity.
      Interestingly, myoblasts from sarcopenic humans show features of brown
      adipocytes. We also show that S100B levels and NF-kappaB activity are elevated in
      brown adipocytes obtained by culturing myoblasts in adipocyte differentiation
      medium and that S100B knockdown or NF-kappaB inhibition in myoblast-derived brown
      adipocytes reconverts them into fusion-competent myoblasts. At last, interstitial
      cells and, unexpectedly, a subpopulation of myofibers in muscles of geriatric but
      not young mice co-express S100B and the brown adipocyte marker, uncoupling
      protein-1. These results suggest that S100B is an important intracellular
      molecular signal regulating Myf5+ progenitor cell differentiation into fusion
      competent myoblasts or brown adipocytes depending on its levels.

PMID- 28885621
TI  - Primary hyperparathyroidism.
AB  - In this Review, we describe the pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of primary
      hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), with a focus on recent advances in the field. PHPT is
      a common endocrine disorder that is characterized by hypercalcaemia and elevated
      or inappropriately normal serum levels of parathyroid hormone. Most often, the
      presentation of PHPT is asymptomatic in regions of the world where serum levels
      of calcium are routinely measured. In addition to mild hypercalcaemia, PHPT can
      manifest with osteoporosis and hypercalciuria as well as with vertebral fractures
      and nephrolithiasis, both of which can be asymptomatic. Other clinical forms of
      PHPT, such as classical disease and normocalcaemic PHPT, are less common.
      Parathyroidectomy, the only curative treatment for PHPT, is recommended in
      patients with symptoms and those with asymptomatic disease who are at risk of
      progression or have subclinical evidence of end-organ sequelae. Parathyroidectomy
      results in an increase in BMD and a reduction in nephrolithiasis. Various medical
      therapies can increase BMD or reduce serum levels of calcium, but no single drug
      can do both. More data are needed regarding the neuropsychological manifestations
      of PHPT and the pathogenetic mechanisms leading to sporadic PHPT, as well as on
      risk factors for complications of the disorder. Future work that advances our
      knowledge in these areas will improve the management of the disorder.

PMID- 28885624
TI  - Bone diseases: New hope for old bones.

PMID- 28885623
TI  - Chronic endocrine consequences of traumatic brain injury - what is the evidence?
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem with potentially
      debilitating consequences for the individual. Hypopituitarism after TBI has
      received increasing attention over the past decade; development of the condition
      as a consequence of TBI was previously hardly mentioned in textbooks on the
      subject. Hypopituitarism has been reported in more than 25% of patients with TBI
      and is now thought to be one of the most important causes of treatable morbidity
      in TBI survivors. However, most clinicians dealing with neuroendocrine diseases
      and TBI generally do not see such a high incidence of hypopituitarism. This
      disproportion is not clearly explained, but recent data indicate that diagnostic
      testing, which is designed for high-risk populations and not for a cohort of
      patients with, for example, de novo isolated growth hormone deficiency (the
      predominant finding in TBI), might have overestimated the true risk and disease
      burden of hypopituitarism. In this Opinion article, we discuss current
      recommendations for post-traumatic hypopituitarism in light of recent evidence.

PMID- 28885625
TI  - Obesity: Role for creatine metabolism in energy expenditure.

PMID- 28885622
TI  - Adult-onset autoimmune diabetes: current knowledge and implications for
      management.
AB  - Adult-onset autoimmune diabetes is a heterogeneous disease that is characterized
      by a reduced genetic load, a less intensive autoimmune process and a mild
      metabolic decompensation at onset compared with young-onset type 1 diabetes
      mellitus (T1DM). The majority of patients with adult-onset autoimmune diabetes do
      not require insulin treatment for at least 6 months after diagnosis. Such
      patients are defined as having latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), which
      is distinct from classic adult-onset T1DM. The extensive heterogeneity of adult
      onset autoimmune diabetes is apparent beyond the distinction between classic
      adult-onset T1DM and LADA. LADA is characterized by genetic, phenotypic and
      humoral heterogeneity, encompassing different degrees of insulin resistance and
      autoimmunity; this heterogeneity is probably a result of different pathological
      mechanisms, which have implications for treatment. The existence of heterogeneous
      phenotypes in LADA makes it difficult to establish an a priori treatment
      algorithm, and therefore, a personalized medicine approach is required. In this
      Review, we discuss the current understanding and gaps in knowledge regarding the
      pathophysiology and clinical features of adult-onset autoimmune diabetes and
      highlight the similarities and differences with classic T1DM and type 2 diabetes
      mellitus.

PMID- 28885628
TI  - Fluctuation tension and shape transition of vesicles: renormalisation
      calculations and Monte Carlo simulations.
AB  - It has been known for long that the fluctuation surface tension of membranes r,
      computed from the height fluctuation spectrum, is not equal to the bare surface
      tension sigma, which is introduced in the theory either as a Lagrange multiplier
      to conserve the total membrane area or as an external constraint. In this work we
      relate these two surface tensions both analytically and numerically. They are
      also compared to the Laplace tension gamma, and the mechanical frame tension tau.
      Using the Helfrich model and one-loop renormalisation calculations, we obtain, in
      addition to the effective bending modulus kappaeff, a new expression for the
      effective surface tension sigmaeff = sigma - epsilonkBT/(2ap) where kBT is the
      thermal energy, ap the projected cut-off area, and epsilon = 3 or 1 according to
      the allowed configurations that keep either the projected area or the total area
      constant. Moreover we show that the crumpling transition for an infinite planar
      membrane occurs for sigmaeff = 0, and also that it coincides with vanishing
      Laplace and frame tensions. Using extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations,
      triangulated membranes of vesicles made of N = 100-2500 vertices are simulated
      within the Helfrich theory. As compared to alternative numerical models, no local
      constraint is applied and the shape is only controlled by the constant volume,
      the spontaneous curvature and sigma. It is shown that the numerical fluctuation
      surface tension r is equal to sigmaeff both with radial MC moves (epsilon = 3)
      and with corrected MC moves locally normal to the fluctuating membrane (epsilon =
      1). For finite vesicles of typical size R, two different regimes are defined: a
      tension regime for [small sigma, Greek, circumflex]eff = sigmaeffR2/kappaeff > 0
      and a bending one for -1 < [small sigma, Greek, circumflex]eff < 0. A shape
      transition from a quasi-spherical shape imposed by the large surface energy, to
      more deformed shapes only controlled by the bending energy, is observed
      numerically at [small sigma, Greek, circumflex]eff ? 0. We propose that the
      buckling transition, observed for planar supported membranes in the literature,
      occurs for [small sigma, Greek, circumflex]eff ? -1, the associated negative
      frame tension playing the role of a compressive force. Hence, a precise control
      of the value of sigmaeff in simulations cannot but enhance our understanding of
      shape transitions of vesicles and cells.

PMID- 28885629
TI  - Urea-glass preparation of titanium niobium nitrides and subsequent oxidation to
      photoactive titanium niobium oxynitrides.
AB  - Titanium niobium oxynitrides (TiNbON) are an attractive category of potential
      photocatalysts, but strategies for preparing them remain limited. We adapt the
      wet chemical "urea glass" method for pure transition metal nitrides to single
      phase mixed-metal titanium niobium nitrides for a range of niobium mole
      fractions. We then oxidize the nitrides by heating in air to prepare titanium
      niobium oxynitride that absorbs visible light of lambda<= 550 nm. The materials
      are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and
      diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy. Their photochemical activity as a
      function of Nb fraction is benchmarked with methylene blue photomineralization
      promoted by full-spectrum AM 1.5G solar irradiation with and without a lambda>=
      400 nm cut-on filter. First-order Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate constants for
      photomineralization reveal a composition with ~8% Nb to have superior reactivity.
      Full compositional analysis by Kjeldahl chemical nitrogen determination and
      energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy yields a chemical formula of
      Ti0.92Nb0.08O1.97N0.03. Finally, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy
      correlates a localized Nb4+ defect with increased photochemical reaction rate.

PMID- 28885626
TI  - Evidence for a primate origin of zoonotic Helicobacter suis colonizing
      domesticated pigs.
AB  - Helicobacter suis is the second most prevalent Helicobacter species in the
      stomach of humans suffering from gastric disease. This bacterium mainly inhabits
      the stomach of domesticated pigs, in which it causes gastric disease, but it
      appears to be absent in wild boars. Interestingly, it also colonizes the stomach
      of asymptomatic rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys. The origin of modern human-, pig-
      or non-human primate-associated H. suis strains in these respective host
      populations was hitherto unknown. Here we show that H. suis in pigs possibly
      originates from non-human primates. Our data suggest that a host jump from
      macaques to pigs happened between 100 000 and 15 000 years ago and that pig
      domestication has had a significant impact on the spread of H. suis in the pig
      population, from where this pathogen occasionally infects humans. Thus, in
      contrast to our expectations, H. suis appears to have evolved in its main host in
      a completely different way than its close relative Helicobacter pylori in humans.

PMID- 28885627
TI  - Ecological and genomic profiling of anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea in a deep
      granitic environment.
AB  - Recent single-gene-based surveys of deep continental aquifers demonstrated the
      widespread occurrence of archaea related to Candidatus Methanoperedens
      nitroreducens (ANME-2d) known to mediate anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM).
      However, it is unclear whether ANME-2d mediates AOM in the deep continental
      biosphere. In this study, we found the dominance of ANME-2d in groundwater
      enriched in sulfate and methane from a 300-m deep underground borehole in
      granitic rock. A near-complete genome of one representative species of the ANME
      2d obtained from the underground borehole has most of functional genes required
      for AOM and assimilatory sulfate reduction. The genome of the subsurface ANME-2d
      is different from those of other members of ANME-2d by lacking functional genes
      encoding nitrate and nitrite reductases and multiheme cytochromes. In addition,
      the subsurface ANME-2d genome contains a membrane-bound NiFe hydrogenase gene
      putatively involved in respiratory H2 oxidation, which is different from those of
      other methanotrophic archaea. Short-term incubation of microbial cells collected
      from the granitic groundwater with 13C-labeled methane also demonstrates that AOM
      is linked to microbial sulfate reduction. Given the prominence of granitic
      continental crust and sulfate and methane in terrestrial subsurface fluids, we
      conclude that AOM may be widespread in the deep continental biosphere.

PMID- 28885630
TI  - From direct to indirect lithium targets: a comprehensive review of omics data.
AB  - Metal ions are critical to a wide range of biological processes. Among them,
      lithium (Li) has been recognised for its benefit as a treatment for bipolar
      disorder (BD). However, we are yet to grasp the extent of its role in biological
      processes, despite its molecular targets having been extensively studied. Here we
      review a wide range of transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic studies in order
      to obtain a full picture of Li effects at various levels. Multifarious patterns
      of Li-regulated genes, proteins and metabolites are identified. Some of these
      patterns are explained as the outcomes of individual Li targets. For instance, Li
      inhibition of GSK-3 has a wide range of effects: axis development in embryos;
      cell and tissue differentiation, in particular neurogenesis and osteogenesis; or
      control of apoptosis. This results in neuroprotection and an attenuation of
      cognitive deficits. Lithium plays an important role in mitochondrial function,
      which it improves via its role in phospholipid metabolism and inositol depletion.
      This is also seen in metabolomics, where its role in the mitochondrial
      respiratory chain influences energy production and oxidative stress. Lithium also
      affects the proteins involved in the processing of APP, thus highlighting a
      possible involvement in Alzheimer's disease. Finally, Li also impacts lipid
      homeostasis, with studies showing that environmental exposure can impact lipid
      transport and prostaglandin synthesis. It is seldom possible to establish a
      causal relationship between Li targets at the molecular level and the resulting
      effects at the system level. For example, Li effects on adenylate cyclase
      regulation are not easily linked to any omic pattern despite the importance of
      the adenylate pathway. Nevertheless, refining our knowledge on the cellular
      functions of individual Li targets would improve our understanding and
      interpretation of omics data. This review demonstrates that Li is key to a wide
      range of processes at all levels, from neuroprotection to oxidative stress and
      energy production. A corollary of this work is the need for an increased
      awareness of environmental issues related to Li industrial wastes, in particular
      considering the widespread use of this metal in our modern society.

PMID- 28885631
TI  - Surface fouling as a mechanism for chemotaxis in isotropic catalytic swimmers.
AB  - We present microscopic models for surface fouling of an isotropic spherical
      catalytic microswimmer at and away from equilibrium and show how a foulant
      gradient can induce chemotactic behavior. Our simulations establish that the
      presence of foulant manifests itself in two ways: as a braking effect on
      propulsive particle motion, and as a drift term which probes the foulant
      concentration gradient. Our results suggest that, while foulant gradients are
      unlikely to be directly useful for chemotactically directed particles, they
      nevertheless exert a non-negligible influence on particle motion under a wide
      range of conditions.

PMID- 28885632
TI  - The theory of surface-enhanced Raman scattering on semiconductor nanoparticles;
      toward the optimization of SERS sensors.
AB  - We present an expression for the lowest order nonzero contribution to the surface
      enhanced Raman spectrum obtained from a system of a molecule adsorbed on a
      semiconductor nanoparticle. Herzberg-Teller vibronic coupling of the zero-order
      Born-Oppenheimer states results in an expression which may be regarded as an
      extension of the Albrecht A-, B-, and C-terms to SERS substrates. We show that
      the SERS enhancement is caused by combinations of several types of resonances in
      the combined system, namely, surface, exciton, charge-transfer, and molecular
      resonances. These resonances are coupled by terms in the numerator, which provide
      selection rules that enable various tests of the theory and predict the relative
      intensities of the Raman lines. Furthermore, by considering interactions of the
      various contributions to the SERS enhancement, we are able to develop ways to
      optimize the enhancement factor by tailoring the semiconductor nanostructure,
      thereby adjusting the locations of the various contributing resonances. This
      provides a procedure by which molecular sensors can be constructed and optimized.
      We provide several experimental examples on substrates such as monolayer MoS2 and
      GaN nanorods.

PMID- 28885633
TI  - Colloidal nanoparticle size control: experimental and kinetic modeling
      investigation of the ligand-metal binding role in controlling the nucleation and
      growth kinetics.
AB  - Despite the major advancements in colloidal metal nanoparticles synthesis, a
      quantitative mechanistic treatment of the ligand's role in controlling their size
      remains elusive. We report a methodology that combines in situ small angle X-ray
      scattering (SAXS) and kinetic modeling to quantitatively capture the role of
      ligand-metal binding (with the metal precursor and the nanoparticle surface) in
      controlling the synthesis kinetics. We demonstrate that accurate extraction of
      the kinetic rate constants requires using both, the size and number of particles
      obtained from in situ SAXS to decouple the contributions of particle nucleation
      and growth to the total metal reduction. Using Pd acetate and trioctylphosphine
      in different solvents, our results reveal that the binding of ligands with both
      the metal precursor and nanoparticle surface play a key role in controlling the
      rates of nucleation and growth and consequently the final size. We show that the
      solvent can affect the metal-ligand binding and consequently ligand coverage on
      the nanoparticles surface which has a strong effect on the growth rate and final
      size (1.4 nm in toluene and 4.3 nm in pyridine). The proposed kinetic model
      quantitatively predicts the effects of varying the metal concentration and
      ligand/metal ratio on nanoparticle size for our work and literature reports. More
      importantly, we demonstrate that the final size is exclusively determined by the
      nucleation and growth kinetics at early times and not how they change with time.
      Specifically, the nanoparticle size in this work and many literature reports can
      be predicted using a single, model independent kinetic descriptor, (growth-to
      nucleation rate ratio)1/3, despite the different metals and synthetic conditions.
      The proposed model and kinetic descriptor could serve as powerful tools for the
      design of colloidal nanoparticles with specific sizes.

PMID- 28885634
TI  - Pd-P nanoparticles supported on PxOy-incorporated carbon nanotubes for enhanced
      methanol oxidation in an alkaline medium.
AB  - Phosphorous oxide (PxOy)-incorporated carbon nanotubes (PCNTs) and nitric acid
      treated carbon nanotubes (OCNTs) are first synthesized, then phosphorous modified
      palladium nanoparticles (Pd-P NPs) supported on PCNTs (Pd-P/PCNTs) and OCNTs (Pd
      P/OCNTs) are synthesized and employed as electrocatalysts in a methanol oxidation
      reaction. Pd-P/PCNTs show enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability in
      comparison to Pd-P/OCNTs. Combining surface analysis and electrochemical
      performance, PxOy incorporated into CNTs could create anchoring sites for Pd ions
      and P precursors, which could facilitate the synthesis of Pd-P NPs in an aqueous
      solution containing Pd ions and sodium hypophosphite serving as a reducing agent
      and a P source. The electronic modification of embedded Pd-P NPs on PxOy
      incorporated CNTs accounts for the enhanced electrochemical performance of Pd
      P/PCNTs.

PMID- 28885635
TI  - Regenerative nanobots based on magnetic layered double hydroxide for azo dye
      removal and degradation.
AB  - A highly regenerative multifunctional nanobot system, using Fe3O4@SiO2@MgFe-LDH
      nanoparticles, is developed for efficient removal of waterborne azo dyes and
      pharmaceuticals. Efficient capture of pollutants, powerful Fenton degradation,
      and superior materials regeneration lead to a simple and cost-effective
      wastewater remediation solution.

PMID- 28885636
TI  - Further expanding versatility of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: from non
      traditional SERS-active to SERS-inactive substrates and single shell-isolated
      nanoparticle.
AB  - After surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was initiated over four decades
      ago, its practical application seems to be far behind the fundamental research
      that has made tremendous progress. SERS as a highly sensitive technique has not
      been widely adopted by the materials science and surface science communities or
      in the market of analytical instruments. In this discussion, we first classify
      the previous approaches along this direction over the past four decades and
      divide them into three strategies. Based on our recent theoretical and
      experimental approaches, we discuss in more detail the third strategy related to
      shell-isolated nanostructures. It can significantly expand the SERS study on
      nontraditional SERS-active (i.e. weakly SERS-active) materials (e.g. Pt, Ni, Fe,
      etc.) and even SERS-inactive materials (e.g. Si and Al2O3). We then focus on a
      single shell-isolated nanoparticle and how to controllably locate the strong
      electromagnetic field just at the probe surface of various materials. The use of
      side illumination at a high incident angle and/or nanocubes can further enhance
      the Raman signal by one to two orders of magnitude, which could be helpful for
      quantitative studies for surface science, heterogeneous catalysis, and soft
      matter science.

PMID- 28885637
TI  - "Is There An App For That?" Orthopaedic Patient Preferences For A Smartphone
      Application.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients are seeking out medical information on the Internet and
      utilizing smartphone health applications ("apps"). Smartphone use has
      exponentially increased among orthopaedic surgeons and patients. Despite this
      increase, patients are rarely directed to specific apps by physicians. No study
      exists querying patient preferences for a patient-centered, orthopaedic
      smartphone application. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to 1) determine
      Internet use patterns amongst orthopaedic patients; 2) ascertain access to and
      use of smartphones; and 3) elucidate what features orthopaedic patients find most
      important in a smartphone application. METHODS: We surveyed patients in an
      orthopaedic practice in an urban academic center to assess demographics, access
      to and patterns of Internet and Smartphone use, and preferences for features in a
      smartphone app. RESULTS: A total of 310 surveys were completed. Eighty percent of
      patients reported Internet access, and 62% used the Internet for health
      information. Seventy-seven percent owned smartphones, 45% used them for health
      information, and 28% owned health apps. Only 11% were referred to an app by a
      physician. The highest ranked features were appointment reminders, ability to
      view test results, communication with physicians, and discharge instructions.
      General orthopaedic information and pictures or videos explaining surgery were
      the 2 lowest ranked features. Seventy-one percent of patients felt an app with
      some of the described features would improve their healthcare experiences, and
      40% would pay for the app. CONCLUSIONS: The smartphone is an under-utilized tool
      to enhance patient-physician communication, increase satisfaction, and improve
      quality of care. Patients were enthusiastic about app features that are often
      included in patient health portals, but ranked orthopaedic educational features
      lowest. Further study is required to elucidate how best to use orthopaedic apps
      as physician-directed educational opportunities to promote patient satisfaction
      and quality of care.

PMID- 28885638
TI  - Speech Recognition and Cognitive Skills in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users.
AB  - Purpose: To examine the relation between speech recognition and cognitive skills
      in bimodal cochlear implant (CI) and hearing aid users. Method: Seventeen bimodal
      CI users (28-74 years) were recruited to the study. Speech recognition tests were
      carried out in quiet and in noise. The cognitive tests employed included the
      Reading Span Test and the Trail Making Test (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; Reitan,
      1958, 1992), measuring working memory capacity and processing speed and executive
      functioning, respectively. Data were analyzed using paired-sample t tests,
      Pearson correlations, and partial correlations controlling for age. Results: The
      results indicate that performance on some cognitive tests predicts speech
      recognition and that bimodal listening generates a significant improvement in
      speech in quiet compared to unilateral CI listening. However, the current results
      also suggest that bimodal listening requires different cognitive skills than does
      unimodal CI listening. This is likely to relate to the relative difficulty of
      having to integrate 2 different signals and then map the integrated signal to
      representations stored in the long-term memory. Conclusions: Even though
      participants obtained speech recognition benefit from bimodal listening, the
      results suggest that processing bimodal stimuli involves different cognitive
      skills than does unimodal conditions in quiet. Thus, clinically, it is important
      to consider this when assessing treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28885639
TI  - Targeting Immune Checkpoints in Cancer Therapy.

PMID- 28885640
TI  - Inner Speech's Relationship With Overt Speech in Poststroke Aphasia.
AB  - Purpose: Relatively preserved inner speech alongside poor overt speech has been
      documented in some persons with aphasia (PWA), but the relationship of overt
      speech with inner speech is still largely unclear, as few studies have directly
      investigated these factors. The present study investigates the relationship of
      relatively preserved inner speech in aphasia with selected measures of language
      and cognition. Method: Thirty-eight persons with chronic aphasia (27 men, 11
      women; average age 64.53 +/- 13.29 years, time since stroke 8-111 months) were
      classified as having relatively preserved inner and overt speech (n = 21),
      relatively preserved inner speech with poor overt speech (n = 8), or not
      classified due to insufficient measurements of inner and/or overt speech (n = 9).
      Inner speech scores (by group) were correlated with selected measures of language
      and cognition from the Comprehensive Aphasia Test (Swinburn, Porter, & Al, 2004).
      Results: The group with poor overt speech showed a significant relationship of
      inner speech with overt naming (r = .95, p < .01) and with mean length of
      utterance produced during a written picture description (r = .96, p < .01).
      Correlations between inner speech and language and cognition factors were not
      significant for the group with relatively good overt speech. Conclusions: As in
      previous research, we show that relatively preserved inner speech is found
      alongside otherwise severe production deficits in PWA. PWA with poor overt speech
      may rely more on preserved inner speech for overt picture naming (perhaps due to
      shared resources with verbal working memory) and for written picture description
      (perhaps due to reliance on inner speech due to perceived task difficulty).
      Assessments of inner speech may be useful as a standard component of aphasia
      screening, and therapy focused on improving and using inner speech may prove
      clinically worthwhile. Supplemental Materials:
      https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5303542.

PMID- 28885641
TI  - FDA's Innovative Plan to Address the Enormous Toll of Smoking.

PMID- 28885642
TI  - Going With the Flow: The Promise and Challenge of Liquid Biopsies.

PMID- 28885643
TI  - Current practice of BHS members in the treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral
      head in adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The management of osteonecrosis (ON) of the femoral head remains
      controversial. It is unclear the extent to which non-arthroplasty procedures are
      used and there has been no previous report of the trends in operative management
      of ON in the UK. Our objective is to report current trends in management of ON of
      the femoral head amongst specialist hip surgeons in the UK. METHODS: A single
      stage internet-based survey was e-mailed to 352 eligible members of the British
      Hip Society (BHS). This consisted of 10 question stems including 16 hypothetical
      clinical scenarios with imaging. RESULTS: 115 active Consultant members of the
      BHS completed the survey. For symptomatic pre-collapse ON we found core
      decompression (CD) was the most common operative intervention and for post
      collapse ON we found that total hip arthroplasty (THA) was the most common
      operative intervention. We found no difference in the rate of operative
      intervention between 24 and 48-year-old patients at any stage of ON but joint
      preserving procedures were more often selected for the younger patient and
      arthroplasty for the older patient. Surgeons were more likely to offer
      arthroplasty to a 48-year-old patient at an earlier stage of disease.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our respondents would offer different operative interventions
      dependent on stage of ON and patient age. Core decompression (CD) and
      arthroplasty were common but variation in treatment options offered suggests a
      lack of consensus amongst UK hip surgeons. We suggest that further research such
      as a prospective RCT is needed to gain consensus on management of this condition.

PMID- 28885644
TI  - Detection of total hip arthroplasties at airport security checkpoints - how do
      updated security measures affect patients?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There have been historical reports on the experiences of patients
      with total hip arthroplasty (THA) passing through standard metal detectors at
      airports. The purpose of this study was to analyse those who had recently passed
      through airport security and the incidence of: (i) triggering of the alarm; (ii)
      extra security searches; and (iii) perceived inconvenience. METHODS: A
      questionnaire was given to 125 patients with a THA during a follow-up
      appointment. Those who had passed through airport security after January 2014 met
      inclusion criteria. A survey was administered that addressed the number of
      encounters with airport security, frequency of metal detector activation,
      additional screening procedures utilised, whether security officials required
      prosthesis documentation, and perceived inconvenience. RESULTS: 51 patients met
      inclusion criteria. 10 patients (20%) reported triggered security scanners. 4 of
      the 10 patients stated they had surgical hardware elsewhere in the body. 13 of
      the 51 patients (25%) believed that having their THA increased the inconvenience
      of traveling. This is different from the historical cohort with standard metal
      detectors which patients reported a greater incidence of alarm triggering (n =
      120 of 143; p = 0.0001) and perceived inconvenience (n = 99 of 143; p = 0.0001).
      DISCUSSIONS: The percentage of patients who have THA triggering security alarms
      has decreased. Furthermore, the number of patients who feel that their prosthesis
      caused traveling inconvenience has decreased. We feel that this decrease in
      alarms triggered and improved perceptions about inconvenience are related to the
      increased usage of new technology.

PMID- 28885645
TI  - Update of NICE guidance for hip fractures in adults.

PMID- 28885646
TI  - Relationship between clinical results of total hip replacement and postoperative
      activities including weeding and snow shovelling.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Weeding or snow shovelling is indispensable for life in farm
      villages of northern countries. Clarifying the relationships between the degrees
      of these activities after total hip replacement (THR) and the clinical results of
      THR may enable us to predict the results of THR for high-level activity patients.
      The relationships between work activities after THR and the results were
      investigated. METHODS: The subjects were 95 post-THR patients, who consulted 6
      hospitals in August 2012. First, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip-Disease
      Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ) and a questionnaire on postoperative activity
      were administered. Then, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip score (JOA
      score) was evaluated. RESULTS: The subjects' average age was 68 years. The
      average period after surgery was 4 years and 5 months. Weeding and snow
      shovelling were performed after THR in 44.2% and 40.0% of cases, respectively.
      The rate of farming after surgery (25.6%) was greater than that of swimming
      (21.1%). Both the JOA score and JHEQ were higher in those who played sports after
      THR than in those who did not (p = 0.003, p = 0.0046). The JOA score of those who
      performed work activities after THR was higher than that of those who did not (p
      = 0.0295). CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half of patients performed weeding or snow
      shovelling after THR, and about 1/4 of the patients engaged in farming after THR.
      The clinical results in cases doing sports and work activities after THR were
      better than those of cases not doing such activities. Therefore, these activities
      may be positively recommended.

PMID- 28885648
TI  - Improving registration accuracy during total hip arthroplasty: a cadaver study of
      a new, 3-D mini-optical navigation system.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Maintaining accuracy of component placement is an important step in
      ensuring the long-term stability of components during total hip arthroplasty
      (THA). Computer-assisted navigation has improved accuracy but errors associated
      with the registration process are known to impact the accuracy of final
      measurements. The purpose of this cadaver study was to determine the registration
      error associated with a novel mini-navigation system. METHODS: 3 board-certified
      orthopaedic surgeons performed 4 THA procedures each via the posterolateral
      approach on 6 cadavers (12 hips) using the mini-navigation tool. Pre- and post
      operative radiographs and post-operative computed tomography (CT) images were
      obtained. Image analysis was performed by 2 radiologists not involved in the
      surgical procedures. During registration, surgeons aligned the alignment rod with
      the anterior pelvic plane (APP) to provide a reference plane for comparison with
      traditional navigation. Cup position from the device was compared with
      measurements gathered from post-op imaging. RESULTS: The mean difference between
      CT and device measurements for inclination was -1.7 degrees  (standard deviation
      [SD] 4.9 degrees ), while the mean absolute difference was 4.2 degrees  (SD 3.2
      degrees ). The mean difference between anteversion angles calculated from CT
      scans and from the device was -3.5 degrees  (SD 4.5 degrees ), with an absolute
      difference of 4.0 degrees  (SD 4.0 degrees ). 100% (12/12) of inclination
      measurements and 92% (11/12) of anteversion measurements fell within both the
      clinical and statistical limits of agreement when analyzed via the Bland-Altman
      technique. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the registration error
      associated with this new mini-navigation system compares favourably with the
      known registration error associated with traditional navigation systems.

PMID- 28885647
TI  - 10-year results of the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing: a non-designer case series.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recent controversies surrounding metal-on-metal (MoM) hip
      resurfacing has led to a substantial decline in its use. Despite this, there is
      good evidence to support the use of specific implants in select patients.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of Birmingham Hip Resurfacing
      (BHR) patients with a minimum of 10 years follow-up was performed. Functional
      scoring was performed with the Oxford Hip Score (OHS) and failure was defined as
      revision for any cause. 111 patients underwent 121 BHR procedures. All patients
      had a minimum follow-up of 10 years. 70 patients (63%) were male. Mean patient
      age at surgery was 52.5 years (male 53.9 years, female 48.8 years). RESULTS:
      Overall survival at 10 years was 91% (97% male, 80% female). There was a
      statistically significant improvement in OHS postoperatively which remains at 10
      year follow-up (p = <0.05). There was no significant difference in scores between
      the male and female groups. Revisions were most often in patients with smaller
      component sizes but this was not found to be statistically significant.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results reflect that of the wider literature in that good
      outcomes can be obtained with this implant in a select group of patients and
      results are comparable to that of conventional hip arthroplasty in patients of a
      similar age.

PMID- 28885649
TI  - L5 radiculopathy secondary to migration of a revision stemmed acetabular cup.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Stemmed acetabular components are used in patients undergoing
      revision total hip arthroplasty in cases with major acetabular defects or pelvic
      discontinuity. Conflicting results relating to the survival of the component, and
      complication rates are reported in the literature. We present a case of L5
      radiculopathy secondary to proximal migration of this device. CASE DESCRIPTION: A
      79-year-old man was admitted to our department in 2012 with increasing pain and
      paresthesias, initially diagnosed as left L5 radiculopathy. In 2002, he had
      undergone revision surgery due to aseptic loosening of the acetabular component
      with a stemmed acetabular cup. Radiological findings were severe osteolysis
      around the acetabular cup with proximal migration. MRI showed osteolysis
      involving the left L5/S1 facet joint and evidence of soft tissue in the left
      foramina encasing the L5 radicular nerve. Nerve conduction and electromyography
      studies revealed chronic L5 radiculopathy. DISCUSSIONS: This case report
      illustrates the importance of considering acetabular loosening in a patient
      presenting with radicular symptoms. If a stemmed acetabular cup is chosen for an
      acetabular reconstruction, careful surgical technique should be employed in order
      to achieve durable fixation. If the patient has pelvic discontinuity, other
      options of reconstruction have showed better outcomes in the literature.

PMID- 28885650
TI  - The posterior acetabular wall (PAW): an aid to acetabular orientation at primary
      THA.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Incorrect acetabular component positioning during total hip
      arthroplasty (THA) may lead to dislocation, impingement, wear and revision.
      Surgeons commonly use the transverse acetabular ligament (TAL) as a landmark for
      acetabular component orientation. The posterior acetabular wall (PAW) is a
      structure easily viewed on plain radiography and its position can help guide
      acetabular component position. In this study, we examine the efficacy of
      preoperative radiographs in predicting cup position relative to the PAW. METHODS:
      Prospective data was recorded on radiographic findings of the posterior wall
      (prominent, normal, deficient) on a consecutive series of 200 primary THAs
      utilising a standardised posterior approach. The final cup position relative to
      the wall was recorded (prominent, flush, deep). Cup inclination and version were
      then assessed by postoperative radiography and any instances of dislocation
      recorded. RESULTS: There were 117 females and 83 males with a mean age of 66.5
      years. 154 were recorded as having a normal PAW on radiographs, 152 had the cup
      positioned in line with the TAL and flush to the PAW. 29 had a deficient PAW and
      27 of these had a cup positioned prominently with 17 having a prominent PAW and
      of these 16 a deep cup position. Postoperative radiographs showed a mean cup
      version of 20.8 degrees  and inclination of 44.7 degrees  using this method.
      There were 21 outliers (10.5%) with no dislocations at a minimum 12-month follow
      up. CONCLUSIONS: The TAL is a continuation of the posterior labrum. As such, the
      posterior wall is a useful adjunct to and surrogate landmark for the TAL. It has
      the added advantage that it is visible on radiographs and so aids surgical
      planning with respect to cup positioning.

PMID- 28885651
TI  - The practice pattern of anticoagulation prophylaxis for patients undergoing total
      hip replacement in a major orthopaedic centre; a retrospective review.
AB  - METHODS: In a major centre for orthopaedic surgery, we retrospectively analysed
      1,469 patients who underwent elective hip replacement since 2010. All patients
      but 2 received anticoagulation postoperatively and rivaroxaban was the preferred
      choice for anticoagulation. RESULTS: The incidence of all adverse events in those
      who received rivaroxaban was 1.7%. Only 0.3% had a minor upper gastrointestinal
      bleed and 1.3% developed a minor wound bleeding or haematoma. The occurrence of
      symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) was 0.2% of all patients. CONCLUSIONS:
      In this analysis, the incidence of adverse events was lower than the previously 4
      published national figures.

PMID- 28885652
TI  - Vascularised and modified lower-leg rotationplasty for the treatment of severe
      infection and bone loss of the proximal femur: a case report.
AB  - CASE DESCRIPTION: We report a reconstructive case in a paraplegic patient, who
      suffers from a severe proximal femur infection. Aiming at the preservation of the
      capacity to remain in a seated position to operate a wheelchair, lower leg
      rotationplasty was considered suitable for reconstruction. Due to severe
      infection and subclinical femoral artery stenosis, rotationplasty was
      supercharged by the inferior epigastric artery. Furthermore, extensor tendons of
      the foot were attached to the acetabulum to facilitate stability of the neo-hip
      joint. RESULTS: Follow-up examination 1 year after surgery revealed no
      complications and a satisfied patient. CONCLUSIONS: Especially in paraplegic
      patients, lower leg rotationplasty is a possible treatment option for severe
      femoral infection. Supercharging provides well-vascularised tissue to the former
      infection site and improves wound healing.

PMID- 28885653
TI  - Reply to Comments on: Novel use of infrared thermal imaging to predict
      arteriovenous fistula patency and maturation.

PMID- 28885654
TI  - What is the best setting for receiving dialysis vascular access repair and
      maintenance services?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Advances in dialysis vascular access (DVA) management have changed
      where beneficiaries receive this care. The effectiveness, safety, quality, and
      economy of different care settings have been questioned. This study compares
      patient outcomes of receiving DVA services in the freestanding office-based
      center (FOC) to those of the hospital outpatient department (HOPD). It also
      examines whether outcomes differ for a centrally managed system of FOCs (CMFOC)
      compared to all other FOCs (AOFOC). METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of
      clinically and demographically similar patients within Medicare claims available
      through United States Renal Data System (USRDS) (2010-2013) who received at least
      80% of DVA services in an FOC (n = 80,831) or HOPD (n = 133,965). Separately, FOC
      population is divided into CMFOC (n = 20,802) and AOFOC (n = 80,267). Propensity
      matching was used to control for clinical, demographic, and functional
      characteristics across populations. RESULTS: FOC patients experienced
      significantly better outcomes, including lower annual mortality (14.6% vs. 17.2%,
      p<0.001) and DVA-related infections (0.16 vs. 0.20, p<0.001), fewer
      hospitalizations (1.65 vs. 1.91, p<0.001), and lower total per-member-per-month
      (PMPM) payments ($5042 vs. $5361, p<0.001) than HOPD patients. CMFOC patients had
      lower annual mortality (12.5% vs. 13.8%, p<0.001), PMPM payments (DVA services)
      ($1486 vs. $1533, p<0.001) and hospitalizations ($1752 vs. $1816, p<0.001) than
      AOFOC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Where nephrologists send patients for DVA services
      can impact patient clinical and economic outcomes. This research confirmed that
      patients who received DVA care in the FOC had better outcomes than those treated
      in the HOPD. The organizational culture and clinical oversight of the CMFOC may
      result in more favorable outcomes than receiving care in AOFOC.

PMID- 28885655
TI  - Comments on: Novel use of infrared thermal imaging to predict arteriovenous
      fistula patency and maturation.

PMID- 28885656
TI  - Bladder cancer to patients younger than 30 years: a retrospective study and
      review of the literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this report was to study the specific characteristics of
      bladder cancer in patients younger than 30 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five
      patients with a mean age of 24 +/- 2.83 years were included in the study. All
      patients had painless macroscopic hematuria as the first symptom. Three patients
      had pTa as a first diagnosis, one had pT1 and one pT2. All the patients had
      smoking as a risk factor and at least one additional possible risk factor.
      RESULTS: One patient with pTa had an aggressive course and after multiple
      recurrences was diagnosed with pT2 and refused to be submitted to radical
      cystectomy and died from the disease even though he received a multimodality
      treatment. The other two patients with the pTa diagnosis had no recurrence after
      the first TUR-BT and the patient with the pT1 diagnosis after one recurrence with
      a pTa histology is free of recurrence for the last 2 years. The patient diagnosed
      with pT2 was submitted to a radical cystectomy and an s-pouch diversion with a
      preservation of the genital system in order to have the ability of a future
      motherhood with the acceptance of course risks. CONCLUSIONS: Young patients with
      bladder cancer is a difficult group of patients and show more reluctance to
      comply to the necessary strict follow-up of the repeated urinary cytology
      examinations, cystoscopies and CT pyelographies. Herein, we report a
      retrospective study of five patients younger than 30 years with bladder cancer.

PMID- 28885657
TI  - Is hypogonadism the cause of penile self-amputation in a patient with prior
      testes self-mutilation?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This paper presents a rare event of genital self-mutilation and few
      cases are reported in the literature. CASE DESCRIPTION: We report on a patient
      who performed partial self-penectomy 18 months after bilateral testicular
      amputation, as a form of self-mutilation. CONCLUSIONS: The main hypotheses to
      explain the recurrence of self-mutilation would be hypogonadism.

PMID- 28885658
TI  - Circulating tumor DNA is effective for detection of KRAS mutation in colorectal
      cancer: a meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND:: Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) offers a novel and minimally invasive
      approach to the detection of the KRAS oncogene mutation in colorectal cancer.
      This study was conducted to compare the prognostic value of ctDNA with that of
      the current gold standard tumor tissue analysis. METHODS:: A systematic
      literature review was conducted to identify relevant articles published from
      inception to December 27, 2016; the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Wanfang and
      China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were searched. Pooled
      specificity, sensitivity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio
      and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) estimates and areas under summary receiver
      operating characteristic (AUSROC) curves were calculated. We also performed
      subgroup and sensitivity analyses. RESULTS:: Twenty-three studies with 1,715
      colorectal cancer patients were included. The overall sensitivity and specificity
      were 0.75 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-0.82) and 0.98 (CI, 0.95-0.99),
      respectively. The positive likelihood ratio was 31.8 (95% CI, 14.8-68.3), and the
      negative likelihood ratio was 0.26 (95% CI, 0.19-0.36). In addition, the AUSROC
      and DOR were 0.96 (95% CI, 0.93-0.97) and 123 (95% CI, 52-291), respectively.
      Substantial heterogeneity was observed across studies (I2 = 95%, 95% CI, 91-99).
      None of the subgroups investigated, including those defined by blood sample type,
      study region, TNM stage, detection site and detection method, could indicate the
      source of the observed heterogeneity. The results of the sensitivity analysis
      indicated that the results of our meta-analysis were stable. CONCLUSIONS::
      Circulating tumor DNA may serve as a viable alternative to tissue analysis for
      the detection of KRAS mutations in colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28885659
TI  - The role of serum neuron-specific enolase in patients with prostate cancer: a
      systematic review of the recent literature.
AB  - In this systematic review, we evaluated the value of serum concentrations of
      neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) in order to
      clarify the possible role of NSE in the diagnosis, management, treatment and
      monitoring of PCa. A comprehensive search of the recent literature was conducted
      to find relevant data on the role of NSE in PCa. Two hundred and eighty-two
      records were revealed, and 19 articles including 1,772 patients with PCa (either
      confirmed or suspected) were selected. After reviewing the articles, the major
      result was that elevated serum NSE appears to correlate with prognosis in
      advanced PCa, particularly in patients with progressive and metastatic castration
      resistant PCa. Based on the existing literature, the role of serum NSE in PCa
      patients should be further evaluated.

PMID- 28885660
TI  - Cortactin and phosphorylated cortactin tyr421 and tyr466 expression in
      supraglottic laryngeal carcinomas and lymph node metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most important adverse prognostic factor for laryngeal squamous
      cell carcinoma (LSCC) is the presence of cervical lymph node metastases. The
      supraglottic area of the larynx is richly supplied with lymphatics, and 25%-75%
      of supraglottic carcinomas metastasize in neck lymph nodes. Cortactin is a
      multidomain protein related to actin cytoskeleton regulation, podosome and
      lamellipodia formation, integrin signaling, axon guidance and extracellular
      matrix degradation. Cortactin is involved in metastasis formation because of its
      role in cell mobility. The present study focused mainly on the role of cortactin
      and phosphorylated cortactin (residues tyr421 and tyr466) expression and
      subcellular localization in primary supraglottic LSCCs and their cervical lymph
      node metastases. METHODS: The immunohistochemical expression of cortactin, p-Y466
      cortactin and p-Y421-cortactin was assessed in 38 primary supraglottic LSCCs and
      10 lymph node metastases. The statistical approach included bootstrapping
      analysis. RESULTS: Despite a significantly higher expression of cortactin in
      carcinoma cells than in adjacent normal laryngeal mucosa, no associations emerged
      between prognosis and the expression of cortactin or its isoforms in supraglottic
      LSCC. Statistical analysis found cortactin expression higher in less
      differentiated LSCCs (p = 0.03). A significant direct correlation was found
      between cortactin and p-Y466-cortactin levels (p = 0.031), and between p-Y466
      cortactin and p-Y421-cortactin levels (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Cortactin
      expression in carcinoma cells and its known involvement in the EGFR pathway
      suggest a role for this protein as a target for LSCC therapy. Further prospective
      studies are needed to investigate the potential of cortactin, p-Y466-cortactin
      and p-Y421-cortactin expression as markers of response to treatment (particularly
      EGFR-directed agents) in LSCC.

PMID- 28885661
TI  - EGFR as a clinical marker in glioblastomas and other gliomas.
AB  - Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a transmembrane glycoprotein and a
      member of the tyrosine kinase superfamily receptor. Gliomas are tumors
      originating from glial cells, which show a range of aggressiveness depending on
      grade and stage. Many EGFR gene alterations have been identified in gliomas,
      especially glioblastomas, including amplifications, deletions and single
      nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Glioblastomas are discussed as a separate entity
      due to their high correlation with EGFR mutants and the reported association of
      the latter with survival and response to treatment in this glioma subgroup. This
      review is a comprehensive report of EGFR gene alterations and their relations
      with several clinical factors in glioblastomas and other gliomas. It covers all
      EGFR gene alterations including point mutations, SNPs, methylations, copy number
      variations and amplifications, assessed with regard to different clinical
      variables, including response to therapy and survival. This review also discusses
      the current prognostic status of EGFR in glioblastomas and other gliomas, and
      highlights gaps in previous studies. This serves as an update for the medical
      community about the role of EGFR gene alterations in gliomas and specifically
      glioblastomas, as a means for targeted treatment and prognosis.

PMID- 28885662
TI  - Differential diagnosis of alterations in arterial flow and tissue oxygenation on
      venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) may be
      life-saving in several clinical situations, but it is also one of the most
      invasive therapeutic procedures, with significant potential for life-threatening
      complications. Pulse pressure waves are typically very small or even absent at
      the onset of ECMO therapy, and will reappear with the improvement of cardiac
      function. A low pulse pressure may indicate low cardiac output due to heart
      failure during sustained ECMO support. A sudden loss of pulse pressure during
      ECMO therapy, however, may reveal complications like pericardial tamponade,
      hemothorax or pneumothorax. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been shown to
      be useful in detecting cerebral and lower limb ischemic events during ECMO
      therapy and could furthermore improve differential diagnosis in the event
      pulsatility of the arterial pressure trace is lost. METHODS: We are reporting on
      3 different complications of ECMO and their impact on arterial pulse pressure,
      arterial oxygen tension and regional tissue oxygenation measured by NIRS.
      RESULTS: Pericardial hematoma, overinflation of the lung, and tension
      pneumothorax may impede cardiac output during VA-ECMO and cause a loss of pulse
      pressure. Monitoring of regional tissue oxygenation using NIRS, in addition to
      arterial and mixed venous oxygen tension, may allow early recognition and
      treatment of ECMO complications. CONCLUSIONS: Together with the appearance of a
      flat, non pulsatile arterial pressure trace as well as a reduction in mixed
      venous oxygen saturation the improvement of upper body rSO2 measured by NIRS
      enables timely recognition of complications that interfere with natural cardiac
      output during VA-ECMO.

PMID- 28885663
TI  - Removal of bile acids by extracorporeal therapies: an in vitro study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bile acids (BAs) accumulating in the circulation in patients with
      liver failure are considered to be responsible for pruritus, which strongly
      impairs quality of life of the affected patients. The aim of this study was the
      in vitro characterization of different BAs regarding their removability with high
      flux dialysis as well as with different adsorbents, and the evaluation of their
      binding to plasma proteins. METHODS: Dialysis experiments were conducted in
      pediatric circuits with human plasma. For the adsorption studies, batch tests
      using 10% adsorbent in spiked human plasma were carried out. The binding of BAs
      to plasma compounds was determined by centrifugation of spiked plasma through
      spin columns. Sieving coefficients were determined using an albumin filter and a
      high-flux dialyzer. RESULTS: With high-flux dialysis, only hydrophilic BAs such
      as glycocholic and taurocholic acid could be removed efficiently, while all
      tested BAs were removed by adsorption. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the
      hydrophilicity of BAs plays a major role in their removability using
      extracorporeal approaches. Adsorption-based systems offer particular advantages
      for the removal of hydrophobic BAs.

PMID- 28885664
TI  - Postoperative acute kidney injury in living donor liver transplantation
      recipients.
AB  - PURPOSE: There are many risk factors for postoperative acute kidney injury in
      liver transplantation. The aim of this study is to investigate the risk factors
      for postoperative acute kidney injury in living donor liver transplantation
      recipients. METHODS: 220 living donor liver transplantation recipients were
      retrospectively evaluated in the study. According to the Kidney Disease Improving
      Global Outcomes Guidelines, acute kidney injury in postoperative day 7 was
      investigated for all patients. The patient's demographic data, preoperative and
      intraoperative parameters, and outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: Acute kidney
      injury was found in 27 (12.3%) recipients. In recipients with acute kidney
      injury, female population, model for end-stage liver disease score,
      norepinephrine requirement, duration of mean arterial pressure less than 60 mmHg,
      the usage of gelatin and erythrocyte suspension and blood loss were significantly
      higher than recipients with nonacute kidney injury (for all p<0.05). In
      multivariate analyses, the likelihood of acute kidney injury on postoperative day
      7 were increased 2.8-fold (1.1-7.0), 2.7-fold (1.02-7.3), 3.4-fold (1.2-9.9) and
      5.1-fold (1.7-15.0) by postoperative day 7, serum tacrolimus level >=10.2 ng dL
      1, intraoperative blood loss >=14.5 mL kg-1, the usage of gelatin >5 mL kg-1 and
      duration of MAP less than 60 mmHg >=5.5 minutes respectively (for all p<0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: In living donor liver transplantation recipients, serum tacrolimus
      levels, intraoperative blood loss, hypotension period and the usage of gelatin
      may be risk factors for acute kidney injury in the early postoperative period.

PMID- 28885665
TI  - Comparison of 2 plating techniques for lateral clavicle fractures, using a new
      standardized biomechanical testing setup.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conservative treatment of lateral clavicle fractures (Neer type II)
      often ends with unsatisfactory results for patients. Operative treatment is thus
      gaining acceptance. A retrospective study found success using a double plate
      technique for these injuries. For the current study, a standardized testing setup
      was developed to compare the mechanical properties of single versus double plate
      technique for lateral clavicle fractures. METHODS: Six synthetic bones were
      tested for each technique. Neer type IIB fractures were created using computer
      aided design (CAD). Fatigue testing was carried out with a cantilever bending
      test. Parameters measured were cycles undergone, failure load and stiffness at
      the point of failure. RESULTS: The standardized testing setup was able to provide
      reproducible failures. The double plate technique lasted about 16,000 more cycles
      and withstood an additional 22.4 N on average. CONCLUSIONS: The new modified
      standardized testing setup produced reproducible fixation failures for both
      clavicle fracture fixation techniques. The double plate technique seems to be
      mechanically superior to the single plate technique.

PMID- 28885666
TI  - Double acid etching treatment of dental implants for enhanced biological
      properties.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The topographical features on the surface of dental implants have
      been considered as a critical parameter for enhancing the osseointegration of
      implants. In this work, we proposed a surface obtained by a combination of shot
      blasting and double acid etching. The double acid etching was hypothesized to
      increase the submicron topography and hence further stimulate the biological
      properties of the titanium implant. METHODS: The topographical features (surface
      roughness and real surface area), wettability and surface chemical composition
      were analyzed. RESULTS: The results showed that the proposed method produced a
      dual roughness, mainly composed of randomly distributed peaks and valleys with a
      superimposed nanoroughness, and hence with an increased specific surface area.
      Despite the fact that the proposed method does not introduce significant chemical
      changes, this treatment combination slightly increased the amount of titanium
      available on the surface, reducing potential surface contaminants. Furthermore,
      the surface showed increased contact angle values demonstrating an enhanced
      hydrophobicity on the surface. The biological behavior of the implants was then
      assessed by culturing osteoblast-like cells on the surface, showing enhanced
      osteoblast adhesion, proliferation and differentiation on the novel surface.
      CONCLUSIONS: Based on these results, the described surface with dual roughness
      obtained by double acid etching may be a novel route to obtain key features on
      the surface to enhance the osseointegration of the implant. Our approach is a
      simple method to obtain a dual roughness that mimics the bone structure modified
      by osteoclasts and increases surface area, which enhances osseointegration of
      dental implants.

PMID- 28885667
TI  - Variations in retinal nerve fiber layer measurements on optical coherence
      tomography after implantation of trifocal intraocular lens.
AB  - PURPOSE: To establish the changes produced after implantation of a trifocal
      intraocular lens (IOL) on retinal nerve fiber layer measurements performed with
      Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS: This prospective
      study included 100 eyes of 50 patients with bilateral cataract in surgical range,
      no other associated ocular involvement, refractive errors between +5 and -5
      spherical diopters, and less than 1.5 D of corneal astigmatism. The eyes were
      operated by phacoemulsification with implantation of 2 different trifocal IOLs
      (FineVision and AT LISA tri 839MP) in randomized equal groups. Cirrus OCT and
      Spectralis OCT were performed before surgery and 3 months later. Both analyzed
      the thickness of the nerve fiber layer and thickness divided by quadrants (6 in
      case of Spectralis and 4 in case of Cirrus HD). RESULTS: The mean age of patients
      was 67.5 +/- 5.8 years. The global nerve fiber layer thickness measured with
      Spectralis OCT was 96.77 MUm before surgery and 99.55 MUm after. With Cirrus OCT,
      the global thickness was 85.29 MUm before surgery and 89.77 MUm after.
      Statistically significant differences in global thickness measurements between
      preimplantation and postimplantation of the IOL were found with both OCT in the 2
      groups. Statistically significant differences were also found in temporal and
      superior quadrants. CONCLUSIONS: The implantation of a diffractive trifocal IOL
      alters the results of the optic nerve fiber layer on Fourier-domain OCT in these
      patients, which should be taken into account in the posterior study of these
      patients.

PMID- 28885668
TI  - The role of intraoperative optical coherence tomography in pediatric hyphema: a
      case report.
AB  - PURPOSE: Intraoperative optical coherence tomography (iOCT) is a valuable tool
      during vitreoretinal surgery, helping the decision-making process. It is
      particularly useful in pediatric cases to evaluate the macular anatomy
      intraoperatively, avoiding further potentially dangerous surgery in children. The
      aim of this report is to describe the role of integrated iOCT in the management
      of traumatic hyphema in a pediatric patient. CASE REPORT: A 5-year-old girl was
      referred to our department with a history of recent domestic trauma in her right
      eye. Massive bleeding in the anterior chamber without visualization of the
      posterior segment was evident. Surgery was planned for the next day under general
      anesthesia. A 25-G irrigation cannula and 25-G vitrectome were inserted at the
      limbus into the anterior chamber for removal of the anterior chamber clot.
      Careful inspection of the posterior pole and retinal periphery to exclude
      pathologic findings was carried out. A real-time OCT integrated system was used
      to assess the macular anatomy and the corneal state. The postoperative course was
      uneventful and full visual recovery was achieved. CONCLUSIONS: The objective
      confirmation of macular integrity by means of iOCT after anterior chamber
      clearing had great prognostic value, excluding the need for surgical revision
      with a second general anesthesia in this young patient.

PMID- 28885669
TI  - Long-term intraocular pressure after combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy in
      glaucoma associated with Sturge-Weber syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: Vision loss in Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS), a rare congenital disorder,
      is primarily due to glaucoma. METHODS: We reviewed the data of all consecutive
      SWS-associated glaucoma cases in patients who had undergone combined
      trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy (CTT) at a tertiary glaucoma facility between
      January 1993 and December 2015. We analyzed the preoperative and postoperative
      intraocular pressure (IOP), corneal clarity, visual acuity, success rate, need
      for repeat surgery, and number of topical antiglaucoma medications needed at last
      follow-up. RESULTS: Twenty-six eyes of 20 patients with SWS (surgical age 0.7-96
      months; mean 18.64 +/- 29.74 months) had undergone primary CTT. The mean
      preoperative IOP was 32.76 +/- 7.86 mm Hg (range 22-54 mm Hg) with medication
      (mean 3.11 +/- 1.17; range 1-5). At the last follow-up (61-288 months); mean SD
      134.73 +/- 67.77 months), two eyes had IOP <6 mm Hg. Twenty-four eyes analyzed
      had an IOP of 13.63 +/- 6.11 (mean +/- SD; range 9-41) mm Hg. All these had an
      IOP <15 mm Hg at last follow-up except one, which had an IOP of 41 mm Hg. There
      was a mean reduction of 54.62% +/- 31.33% in IOP from baseline. The antiglaucoma
      medication score at last follow-up visit was 0-3. No eye achieved predefined
      complete success or modified complete success. A total of 41.7% (10/24) of eyes
      attained both qualified and modified qualified success. Eleven eyes needed repeat
      surgeries. No intraoperative complications were noted. Visual acuity was below
      6/60 in four eyes. CONCLUSIONS: Combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy showed
      promising results as a treatment for SWS-associated glaucoma in children. Long
      term visual and surgical outcomes are encouraging.

PMID- 28885670
TI  - Novel ABCA4 mutation leads to loss of a conserved C-terminal motif: implications
      for predicting pathogenicity based on genetic testing.
AB  - PURPOSE: Mutations in the ABCA4 gene result in a broad spectrum of severe retinal
      degeneration, including Stargardt macular dystrophy, fundus flavimaculatus,
      autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa, and cone-rod dystrophy. In addition to
      the detection of well-characterized mutations, genetic testing frequently yields
      novel variants of unknown significance. The purpose of this report is to describe
      an approach to aid in the assessment of genetic variants of unknown significance.
      CASE REPORT: We report an 11-year-old girl with Stargardt disease harboring novel
      compound heterozygous deletions of ABCA4 (c.850_857delATTCAAGA and
      c.6184_6187delGTCT). The pathogenicity of these variants was otherwise unknown.
      Both deletions introduce premature stop codons and are localized within the open
      reading frame of ABCA4. The c.850_857delATTCAAGA occurs early in the gene and
      leads to a significantly truncated protein of only 317 amino acids. The
      c.6184_6187delGTCT, is localized to the 3' terminus of the ORF and results in
      removal of the last 161 out of 2,273 amino acids of ABCA4, including the VFVNFA
      motif, which has been shown to be critical in ABCA4 protein function. Homology
      based protein modeling of ABCA4 harboring this deletion suggests significant
      alterations in the protein structure and function. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses
      allowed us to classify novel variants in ABCA4 as being clearly loss-of-function
      mutations, and thus pathogenic variants. In cases of variants of unknown
      significance, appraising the protein structure-function consequences of genetic
      mutations using in silico tools may help to predict the clinical importance of
      variants of uncertain pathogenicity.

PMID- 28885671
TI  - The effect of strabismus surgery on choroidal thickness.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the effects of strabismus surgery on choroidal thickness.
      METHODS: This was a prospective randomized study. The measurements of subfoveal
      and macular choroidal thickness of patients who underwent strabismus surgery were
      obtained by enhanced depth imaging optic coherence tomography. The patients were
      grouped as patients who had 1 horizontal muscle surgery (group 1), 1 oblique
      muscle surgery (group 2), 2 horizontal muscle surgeries (group 3), or 1
      horizontal and 1 oblique muscle surgery (group 4). Choroidal thickness of the
      patients was measured preoperatively and on the postoperative first day, second
      week, first month, and third month. Choroidal thickness was measured at subfoveal
      area (S) and at the nasal (N1, N2) and temporal (T1, T2) fovea with 500-MUm
      intervals. RESULTS: The average age of the 37 patients was 15.59 +/- 13.84 years.
      In preoperative and postoperative first day comparison, a decrease in choroidal
      thickness was found in all areas in group 1. In group 2, a significant decrease
      was found in N2, N1, and S values. In group 3, a significant decrease was found
      in N2, N1, and T2 values. In group 4, a significant decrease was found in N1
      value. The second week comparison of all groups showed significant postoperative
      decrease in choroidal thickness in all areas. On the postoperative first month, a
      significant decrease in choroidal thickness was found only in the subfoveal area
      of group 1 and the N1 area of group 2. At the postoperative third month, there
      was no change in any group. CONCLUSIONS: Strabismus surgery causes a decrease in
      choroidal thickness in the early postoperative period.

PMID- 28885672
TI  - A comparative study of the visual outcomes between a new trifocal and an extended
      depth of focus intraocular lens.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare the visual outcomes and ocular optical
      performance of the PanOptix trifocal intraocular lens (IOL) and Symfony extended
      range of vision IOL. METHODS: Sixty-eight eyes of 34 patients were divided into 2
      groups: 20 patients with the PanOptix IOL and 14 patients with the Symfony IOL.
      Binocular uncorrected distance visual acuity, best-corrected distance visual
      acuity (BCDVA), distance-corrected intermediate visual acuity (DCIVA) at 80 and
      60 cm, and distance-corrected near visual acuity (DCNVA) at 40 cm were evaluated.
      Additionally, preferred reading distance with best-corrected distance and visual
      acuity at that distance, binocular defocus curves, mesopic and photopic contrast
      sensitivity, photic phenomena, and monocular total higher order aberrations
      (HOAs) were also measured. RESULTS: The visual outcomes for PanOptix and Symfony
      IOL groups, respectively, were as follows: BCDVA: -0.03 +/- 0.03 and -0.02 +/-
      0.03 logMAR; DCIVA at 80 cm: 0.06 +/- 0.06 and 0.06 +/- 0.04 logMAR; DCIVA at 60
      cm: 0.06 +/- 0.10 and 0.05 +/- 0.04 logMAR; DCNVA: 0.04 +/- 0.06 and 0.20 +/-
      0.07 logMAR (p<0.001). Similar preferred reading distances were found for both
      groups (37.0 +/- 4.6 and 38.9 +/- 5.7 cm, respectively). The visual acuities at
      those distances were 0.09 +/- 0.08 and 0.19 +/- 0.08 logMAR (p<0.001),
      respectively. The defocus curves showed significantly better outcomes for the
      PanOptix IOL from -2.0 to -4.0 D (p<0.001). No significant differences were found
      for contrast sensitivity, halometry, or HOAs between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: The
      PanOptix and Symfony IOLs showed comparable visual performance at distance and
      intermediate. However, the PanOptix IOL provided better near and preferred
      reading distance VAs and showed a more continuous range of vision than the
      Symfony IOL.

PMID- 28885673
TI  - Reproducibility and normal values of static pupil diameters.
AB  - PURPOSE: To provide additional information on normal values of static pupil
      diameter measurements for binocular infrared pupillometry with PupilX, a
      commercial pupillometer, and assess the reproducibility of this device's
      measurements. METHODS: The pupil diameters from 91 study participants with normal
      eyes with an average age of 39.7 years (SD 16.4 years) were measured with PupilX
      under scotopic (0 lx), mesopic (1 lx), and photopic (16 lx) illumination. To
      assess the repeatability of the device, each measurement was repeated 5 times.
      RESULTS: The mean pupil diameters were 6.5 mm (SD 1.3 mm), 5.5 mm (SD 1.2 mm),
      and 4.03 mm (SD 0.9 mm) under scotopic, mesopic, and photopic illumination. Left
      and right eyes showed no difference in mean pupil diameters. The mean unsigned
      anisocoria was 0.26 mm (SD 0.32 mm) under scotopic, 0.26 mm (SD 0.27 mm) under
      mesopic, and 0.19 mm (SD 0.19 mm) under photopic illumination. The decrease in
      pupil diameter with age was largest for scotopic (~0.057 mm/y) and smallest for
      photopic illumination (~0.025 mm/y). The repeatability of the pupillometer was
      better than 0.2 mm. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides reference values for age-
      and light-related pupil diameters measured with the PupilX digital pupillometer
      in normal subjects.

PMID- 28885674
TI  - The outcome of transscleral cyclophotocoagulation for the management of acute
      angle closure.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the outcome of transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (TCP)
      in the treatment of acute angle closure (AAC) refractory to medical treatment.
      METHODS: This is a retrospective interventional case series. The inclusion
      criteria include patients diagnosed with AAC who had TCP. Pre-TCP and post-TCP
      intraocular pressure (IOP), visual acuity, and AAC treatment were analyzed. The
      complications and the results of subsequent treatments including lens extraction
      if performed were also assessed. RESULTS: Thirteen eyes (13 patients) met the
      study criteria. The median time to TCP from presentation was 5 days (range 3-30
      days). The mean presenting IOP was 56 +/- 6 mm Hg (range 48-70 mm Hg) and the
      medically treated mean IOP before TCP was 40 +/- 5 mm Hg (range 34-52 mm Hg). All
      patients (100%) responded to TCP. The mean post-TCP IOP at day 1 and months 1, 3,
      6, 12, and 24 were 19, 23, 19, 19, 18, and 17 mm Hg. There was 1 case of hyphema
      post-TCP. Lens extraction +/- goniosynechialysis was performed in 10 patients
      (77%) from 1 month post-TCP onwards. The mean IOP prior to lens extraction was 26
      mm Hg (range 19-32 mm Hg). The mean IOP 3 months after lens extraction was 15 mm
      Hg (range 8-19 mm Hg). The mean number of topical IOP-lowering medications 12
      months post-TCP was 1.1. CONCLUSIONS: Transscleral cyclophotocoagulation is
      effective and safe in reducing IOP in patients with AAC refractory to medical and
      laser peripheral iridotomy treatments. We advocate that TCP should be considered
      early in the management of AAC refractory to medical treatment to avoid
      irreversible optic neuropathy.

PMID- 28885675
TI  - Up-regulated HMGB1 in the pleural effusion of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      patients reduces the chemosensitivity of NSCLC cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND:: Pleural effusion is one of the complications of human non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC). High mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) correlates highly
      with invasion and metastasis in multiple tumors. The aim of this study was to
      explore the clinical value of HMGB1 in NSCLC patients, and to investigate the
      role of HMGB1 in the development of pleural effusion. In addition, we also
      investigated the regulatory role of HMGB1 in the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to
      cisplatin. METHODS:: 46 NSCLC malignant pleural effusion (MPE) and 31 benign
      pleural effusion samples were quantitatively analyzed with Enzyme-Linked
      Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for cytokines, such as IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-8 and
      HMGB1. The HMGB1 expression in NSCLC tissues was examined with RT-qPCR and
      western blotting methods. Then the influence by HMGB1 on the chemosensitivity of
      lung cancer A549 cells was examined with MTT assay and colony forming assay for
      the A549 cells post the treatment with cisplatin or (and) HMGB1. RESULTS:: The
      results demonstrated that HMGB1 was up-regulated in the pleural effusion of NSCLC
      patients, along with the up-regulated levels of proinflammatory cytokines such as
      IL-6 and IL-8. And the up-regulation of HMGB1 was confirmed at both the mRNA and
      protein levels in the NSCLC tissues. Recombinant HMGB1 reduced the sensitivity of
      A549 cells to cisplatin in vitro. CONCLUSIONS:: In conclusion, HMGB1 was up
      regulated in the pleural effusion and tumor tissues of NSCLC patients. HMGB1
      reduced the sensitivity of NSCLC A549 cells to cisplatin in vitro.

PMID- 28885676
TI  - Cooperation between in-hospital psychological support and pastoral care
      providers: obstacles and opportunities for a modern approach.
AB  - The meaning that patients with cancer attribute to life influences their
      expectations and their attitudes to the disease and its treatment. Over the
      centuries, religion has commonly been the answer encoded by the social setting
      when it came to matters of life and death. The present article analyzes the
      historical grounds for forms of cooperation between the scientific disciplines
      that focus on mental health and the approach of religion, centered on the Italian
      situation. Such cooperation was hard to imagine in the past, but the situation
      has changed considerably and cooperation is not only possible but extremely
      desirable. Acknowledgment of their spiritual needs helps patients to battle with
      their disease. The care of patients should include catering for their spiritual
      needs by ensuring the constant presence of a chaplain on hospital wards.

PMID- 28885677
TI  - Significance of stroma in biology of oral squamous cell carcinoma.
AB  - The worldwide annual incidence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is over
      300,000 cases with a mortality rate of 48%. This cancer type accounts for 90% of
      all oral cancers, with the highest incidence in men over 50 years of age. A
      significantly increased risk of developing OSCC exists among smokers and people
      who consume alcohol daily. OSCC is an aggressive cancer that metastasizes
      rapidly. Despite the development of new therapies in the treatment of OSCC, no
      significant increase in 5-year survival has been recorded in the past decades.
      The latest research suggests focus should be put on examining tumor stroma
      activation within OSCC, as the stroma may contain cells that can produce signal
      molecules and a microenvironment crucial for the development of metastases. The
      aim of this review is to provide an insight into the factors that activate OSCC
      stroma and hence faciliate neoplastic progression. It is based on the currently
      available data on the role and interaction between metalloproteinases, cytokines,
      growth factors, hypoxia factor and extracellular adhesion proteins in the stroma
      of OSCC and neoplastic cells. Their interplay is additionally presented using the
      Systems Biology Graphical Notation in order to sublimate the collected knowledge
      and enable the more efficient recognition of possible new biomarkers in the
      diagnostics and follow-up of OSCC or in finding new therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28885678
TI  - Understanding urinary toxicity after radiotherapy for prostate cancer: first
      steps forward.
AB  - One of the most relevant achievements of Professor Gianni Bonadonna was the
      implementation of the methodology of controlled clinical trials in medical
      oncology. It is valid for all cancer types, oncological disciplines and clinical
      endpoints, both survival and toxicity. This narrative review reports on the
      status of the current knowledge of the radiation-induced urinary syndrome after
      external-beam radiotherapy for prostate cancer. In recent years, the syndrome has
      been the object of large-scale prospective observational trials specifically
      devoted to investigating the association of patient and treatment features with
      acute/late urinary toxicity. The first results of these trials allow initial
      attempts at predictive modeling, which can serve as a basis for the optimization
      of patient selection and treatment planning.

PMID- 28885679
TI  - PMA2020: Rapid Turn-Around Survey Data to Monitor Family Planning Service and
      Practice in Ten Countries.

PMID- 28885680
TI  - ERRATUM.

PMID- 28885681
TI  - Announcing a New Journal Section: Data Papers.

PMID- 28885683
TI  - Microwave heating modelling of a green smoothie: Effects on glucoraphanin,
      sulforaphane and S-methyl cysteine sulfoxide changes during storage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The heating of a green smoothie during an innovative semi-continuous
      microwave treatment (MW; 9 kW for 15 s) was modelled. Thermal and dielectric
      properties of the samples were previously determined. Furthermore, the heating
      effect on the main chemopreventive compounds of the smoothie and during its
      subsequent storage up to 30 days at 5 or 15  degrees C were studied. Such results
      were compared to conventional pasteurisation (CP; 90  degrees C for 45 s) while
      unheated fresh blended samples were used as the control. RESULTS: A procedure was
      developed to predict the temperature distribution in samples inside the MW oven
      with the help of numerical tools. MW-treated samples showed the highest
      sulforaphane formation after 20 days, regardless of the storage temperature,
      while its content was two-fold reduced in CP samples. Storage of the smoothie at
      5  degrees C is crucial for maximising the levels of the bioactive compound S
      methyl cysteine sulfoxide. CONCLUSION: The proposed MW treatment can be used by
      the food industry to obtain an excellent homogeneous heating of a green smoothie
      product retaining high levels of bioactive compounds during subsequent
      retail/domestic storage up to 1 month at 5  degrees C. (c) 2017 Society of
      Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28885682
TI  - Selective targeting of M-type potassium Kv 7.4 channels demonstrates their key
      role in the regulation of dopaminergic neuronal excitability and depression-like
      behaviour.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The mesolimbic dopamine system originating in the ventral
      tegmental area (VTA) is involved in the development of depression, and firing
      patterns of VTA dopaminergic neurons are key determinants in this process. Here,
      we describe a crucial role for the M-type Kv 7.4 channels in modulating
      excitability of VTA dopaminergic neurons and in the development of depressive
      behaviour in mice. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: We used Kv 7.4 channel knockout mice
      and a social defeat model of depression in combination with electrophysiological
      techniques (patch clamp recording and in vivo single-unit recordings),
      immunohistochemistry, single-cell PCR and behavioural analyses (social
      interaction time and glucose preference tests) to investigate VTA circuits
      involved in the development of depression-like behaviour. KEY RESULTS: Among the
      Kv 7 channels, Kv 7.4 channels are selectively expressed in dopaminergic neurons
      of the VTA. Using a newly identified selective Kv 7.4 channel activator, fasudil,
      and Kv 7.4 channel knockout mice, we demonstrate that these channels are a
      dominant modulator of excitability of VTA dopaminergic neurons, in vitro and in
      vivo. Down-regulation of Kv 7.4 channels could be a causal factor of the altered
      excitability of VTA dopaminergic neurons and depression-like behaviour. The
      selective Kv 7.4 channel activator, fasudil, strongly alleviated depression-like
      behaviour in the social defeat mouse model of depression. CONCLUSION AND
      IMPLICATIONS: Because expression of Kv 7.4 channels in the CNS is limited,
      selectively targeting this M channel subunit is likely to produce less on-target
      side effects than non-selective M channel modulators. Thus, Kv 7.4 channels may
      offer alternative targets in treatment of depression.

PMID- 28885684
TI  - Personality traits of nurses and organizational climate in relation to the use of
      coercion in psychiatric wards.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze the personality traits of nurses
      and the organizational climate in psychiatric wards affecting the frequency of
      the use of coercion. DESIGN AND METHODS: The study applied a descriptive,
      longitudinal design based on a 1-year prospective observation. FINDINGS: The best
      predictor for the initiation of coercion by nursing personnel was a low score on
      the Creative Personality Factor Scale in Adjective Check List and the low score
      in the area of Leadership in Kolb's Organizing Climate Questionnaire (KOQC). The
      best predictor for decisions to use coercion was the low score in the area
      Requirements in the KOQC, whereas the best predictors for the participation in
      coercion were a high value for Leadership area and a low value for Requirements
      area in KOQC. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The nursing personnel should be given
      frequent practical and theoretical training regarding the use of coercion.

PMID- 28885685
TI  - Gut microbiota-derived endotoxin enhanced the incidence of cardia bifida during
      cardiogenesis.
AB  - Cytotoxicity and inflammation-associated toxic responses could be induced by
      bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in vitro and in vivo, respectively. However,
      the mechanism involved in LPS-induced cardiac malformation in prenatal fetus is
      still unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that LPS was induced in gut
      microbiota imbalance mice, and next, LPS exposure during gastrulation in the
      chick embryo increased the incidence of cardia bifida. Gene transfection and
      tissue transplantation trajectory indicated that LPS exposure restricted the cell
      migration of cardiac progenitors to primary heart field in gastrula chick
      embryos. In vitro explant allograft of GFP-labeled anterior primitive streak
      demonstrated that LPS treatments could inhibit cell migration. A similar
      observation was also obtained from the cell migration assay of scratch wounds
      using primary culture of cardiomyocytes or H9c2 cells. In the embryos exposed to
      LPS, expressions of Nkx2.5 and GATA5 were disturbed. These genes are associated
      with cardiomyocyte differentiation when heart tube fusion occurs. Furthermore,
      pHIS3, C-caspase3 immunohistological staining indicated that cell proliferation
      decreased, cell apoptosis increased in the heart tube of chick embryo. Meanwhile,
      in vivo, pHIS3 immunohistological staining and Hochest/PI staining also draw the
      similar conclusions. The LPS exposure also caused the production of excess ROS,
      which might damage the cardiac precursor cells of developing embryos. At last, we
      showed that LPS-induced cardia bifida could be partially rescued through the
      addition of antioxidants. Together, these results reveal that excess ROS
      generation is involved in the LPS-induced defects in heart tube during chick
      embryo development.

PMID- 28885686
TI  - Refining the predictors of outcome in patients with resectable esophageal cancer.

PMID- 28885687
TI  - Peptide supplementation to nutrient-adequate diets enhanced internal egg quality
      during storage in hens at peak production.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is paucity of information on the use of dietary peptides in
      laying hens and its effects on egg production and quality. In the current study,
      peptide from enzymatic hydrolysis of soybean protein was incorporated into laying
      hens' diets to investigate its effect on egg production and internal egg quality.
      RESULTS: There were no treatment effects on egg production (average hen day
      production was 96%) during the experiment. Final body weight of the hens
      increased quadratically (P < 0.05) in response to peptide supplementation. There
      were no significant effects of peptide supplementation on internal egg quality of
      the fresh eggs. Peptide supplementation tended to increase yolk colour (P < 0.10)
      in eggs collected at 4 weeks of the study and stored at room temperature for 14
      days. For the eggs collected at 8 weeks of the experiment and stored at room
      temperature for 14 days, peptide supplementation linearly increased (P < 0.05)
      albumen height, Haugh unit and yolk index but linearly decreased (P < 0.01) yolk
      width. CONCLUSION: Peptide supplementation to laying hens at peak production,
      receiving diets meeting their nutrient requirement, did not improve hen
      production but positively helped to maintain hens' body weight and egg quality
      during storage. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28885688
TI  - Changes in physiological and some nutritional, nutraceuticals, chemical-physical,
      microbiological and sensory quality of minimally processed cactus pears cvs
      'Bianca', 'Gialla' and 'Rossa' stored under passive modified atmosphere.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to compare the overall quality
      changes of minimally processed cactus pears cvs 'Bianca', Gialla' and 'Rossa'
      stored at 4  degrees C for 10 days. Periodically in-package CO2 , O2 and C2 H4
      were determined and fruit were assessed for overall quality changes (pH, acidity,
      sugars, phenolics, betacyanins and betaxanthines, antioxidant capacity, colour,
      firmness, microbiological population and sensory attributes). In a preliminary
      study three different polymeric films were tested to select the most suitable to
      design a package with a short lag time to achieve steady-state conditions.
      RESULTS: Results showed marked differences between measured in-package CO2 and O2
      values and those calculated based on respiration of peeled fruit and film
      permeance to CO2 and O2 provided by manufactures. The sensory evaluation of
      packed fruit indicated in film BBT-Bolphane, which created a steady-state in
      package partial pressure for CO2 of 4.3-4.8 kPa and for O2 of 4.8-5.5 kPa, as the
      best film. Results of in-package gas composition with the three cultivars were
      similar to those achieved in cv. 'Gialla' with the preliminary test. All measured
      qualitative parameters changed slightly over the storage period for all cultivars
      and followed the same trend, despite significant differences existing among
      cultivars. CONCLUSION: This study clearly showed a similar physiological behavior
      of minimally processed 'Bianca', 'Gialla' and 'Rossa' cactus pears. Storage
      conditions optimal for one cultivar fit well for the others; thus mixing fruit of
      different cultivars in a package designed for one specific cultivar does not lead
      to relevant deviation from expected results. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical
      Industry.

PMID- 28885689
TI  - Systematic-analysis of mRNA expression profiles in skeletal muscle of patients
      with type II diabetes: The glucocorticoid was central in pathogenesis.
AB  - Since the past 30 years, the prevalence of diabetes has more than doubled, making
      it an urgent challenge globally. We carried out systematic analysis with the
      public data of mRNA expression profiles in skeletal muscle to study the
      pathogenesis, since insulin resistance in the skeletal muscle is an early
      feature. We utilized three GEO datasets, containing total 60 cases and 63 normal
      samples. After the background removal, R package QC was utilized to finish the
      preprocessing of datasets. We obtained a dataset containing 2481 genes and 123
      samples after the preprocessing. Quantitative quality control measures were
      calculated to represent the quality of these datasets. MetaDE package provides
      functions for conducting different systematic analysis methods for differential
      expression analysis. The GO term enrichment was carried out using PANTHER.
      Protein-protein interactions, drug-gene interactions, and genetic association of
      the identified differentially expressed genes were analyzed using STRING v10.0
      online tool, DGIdb, and the Genetic Association Database, respectively. The
      datasets had good performances on IQC and EQC, which suggested that the datasets
      had good internal and external quality. Totally 96 differentially expressed genes
      were detected using 0.01 as cutoff of AW. The enriched GO terms were mainly
      associated with the response to glucocorticoid. There were seven genes involving
      in the gluconeogenesis were differentially expressed, which might be the
      potential treatment target for this disease. The closely connected networks and
      potential targets of existed drugs suggested that some of the drugs might be
      applied to the treatment of diabetes as well.

PMID- 28885690
TI  - Global analysis of gene expression profiles in the submandibular salivary gland
      of klotho knockout mice.
AB  - Salivary dysfunction commonly occurs in many older adults and is considered a
      physiological phenomenon. However, the genetic changes in salivary glands during
      aging have not been characterized. The present study analyzed the gene expression
      profile in salivary glands from accelerated aging klotho deficient mice (klotho-/
      , 4 weeks old). Microarray analysis showed that 195 genes were differentially
      expressed (z-score > 2 in two independent arrays) in klotho null mice compared to
      wild-type mice. Importantly, alpha2-Na+ /K+ -ATPase (Atp1a2), Ca2+ -ATPase
      (Atp2a1), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and nerve growth factor (NGF), which
      have been suggested to be regulators of submandibular salivary gland function,
      were significantly decreased. When a network was constructed from the
      differentially expressed genes, proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR
      gamma), which regulates energy homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, was located
      at the core of the network. In addition, the expression of genes proposed to
      regulate various PPAR gamma-related cellular pathways, such as Klk1b26, Egfbp2,
      Cox8b, Gpx3, Fabp3, EGF, and NGFbeta, was altered in the submandibular salivary
      glands of klotho-/- mice. Our results may provide clues for the identification of
      novel genes involved in salivary gland dysfunction. Further characterization of
      these differentially expressed genes will be useful in elucidating the genetic
      basis of aging-related changes in the submandibular salivary gland.

PMID- 28885691
TI  - Fibroblast growth factor 2 induces proliferation and distribution of G2 /M phase
      of bovine endometrial cells involving activation of PI3K/AKT and MAPK cell
      signaling and prevention of effects of ER stress.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) is abundantly expressed in conceptuses and
      endometria during pregnancy in diverse animal models including domestic animals.
      However, its intracellular mechanism of action has not been reported for bovine
      endometrial cells. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify functional
      roles of FGF2 in bovine endometrial (BEND) cell line which has served as a good
      model system for investigating regulation of signal transduction following
      treatment with interferon-tau (IFNT) in vitro. Results of present study
      demonstrated that administration of FGF2 to BEND cells increased their
      proliferation and regulated the cell cycle through DNA replication by an increase
      of PCNA and Cyclin D1. FGF2 also increased phosphorylation of AKT, P70S6K, S6,
      ERK1/2, JNK, and P38 in BEND cells in a dose-dependent manner, and expression of
      each of those transcription factors was inhibited by their respective
      pharmacological inhibitor including Wormannin, U0126, and SP600125. In addition,
      the increase in proliferation of BEND cells and activation of the protein kinases
      in response to FGF2 was suppressed by BGJ398, a FGFR inhibitor. Furthermore,
      proliferation of BEND cells was inhibited by tunicamycin, but treatment of BEND
      cells with FGF2 restored proliferation of BEND cells. Consistent with this
      result, the stimulated unfolded protein response (UPR) regulatory proteins
      induced by tunicamycin were down-regulated by FGF2. Results of this study suggest
      that FGF2 promotes proliferation of BEND cells and likely enhances uterine
      capacity and maintenance of pregnancy by activating cell signaling via the PI3K
      and MAPK pathways and by restoring ER stress through the FGFR.

PMID- 28885692
TI  - Control of basal jasmonate signalling and defence through modulation of
      intracellular cation flux capacity.
AB  - Unknown mechanisms tightly regulate the basal activity of the wound-inducible
      defence mediator jasmonate (JA) in undamaged tissues. However, the Arabidopsis
      fatty acid oxygenation upregulated2 (fou2) mutant in vacuolar two-pore channel 1
      (TPC1D454N ) displays high JA pathway activity in undamaged leaves. This mutant
      was used to explore mechanisms controlling basal JA pathway regulation. fou2 was
      re-mutated to generate novel 'ouf' suppressor mutants. Patch-clamping was used to
      examine TPC1 cation channel characteristics in the ouf suppressor mutants and in
      fou2. Calcium (Ca2+ ) imaging was used to study the effects fou2 on cytosolic
      Ca2+ concentrations. Six intragenic ouf suppressors with near wild-type (WT) JA
      pathway activity were recovered and one mutant, ouf8, affected the channel pore.
      At low luminal calcium concentrations, ouf8 had little detectable effect on fou2.
      However, increased vacuolar Ca2+ concentrations caused channel occlusion,
      selectively blocking K+ fluxes towards the cytoplasm. Cytosolic Ca2+
      concentrations in unwounded fou2 were found to be lower than in the unwounded WT,
      but they increased in a similar manner in both genotypes following wounding.
      Basal JA pathway activity can be controlled solely by manipulating endomembrane
      cation flux capacities. We suggest that changes in endomembrane potential affect
      JA pathway activity.

PMID- 28885693
TI  - Epidemiological and molecular analysis of hepatitis B virus infection in
      manicurists in Central Brazil.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate the serological and molecular prevalence
      of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in 514 manicurists/pedicurists and identify
      the risk factors related with this infection. Samples were tested for HBV
      serological markers, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus
      (HIV) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Anti-HBc-positive samples
      were tested to investigate occult hepatitis B by PCR. HBsAg-positive samples were
      genotyped and the viral loads of HBV-DNA positive samples were quantified. The
      overall HBV prevalence was 5.6% (29/514) and of HBsAg was 0.4% (2/514). One case
      of occult hepatitis B was found. The genotypes A1 and F2 were identified in two
      HBsAg-positive samples. Low level of education, not being born in the State of
      Mato Grosso do Sul and working in the central region of the city were associated
      with the HBV infection. No single manicurist/pedicurist was infected by HCV or
      HIV. These findings suggest that despite the exposure to blood contact, this
      occupation was not associated to an increased risk of acquiring HBV, HCV, and HIV
      infections.

PMID- 28885694
TI  - Influence of preoperative septic peritonitis and anastomotic technique on the
      dehiscence of enterectomy sites in dogs: A retrospective review of 210
      anastomoses.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of preoperative septic peritonitis (PSP)
      and stapled versus hand-sewn anastomoses on the dehiscence of intestinal
      resection and anastomosis (IRA). We hypothesized that the incidence of IRA
      dehiscence would be greater (1) when performed with PSP and (2) for hand-sewn
      anastomoses. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective. ANIMAL POPULATIONS: Client-owned dogs
      at Michigan State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. METHODS: Records of
      dogs surviving 72 hours after IRAs between 2003 and 2013 were reviewed for age,
      gender, neuter status, weight, presence of PSP, preoperative albumin, IRA
      indication and location, anastomotic technique, suture type, postoperative
      dehiscence and timing, duration of hospitalization, last follow-up, and other
      complications. Univariate logistic regression and chi-square analysis were used
      to screen prognostic factors; factors with P < .3 were included in a multivariate
      analysis. RESULTS: Two hundred and ten IRAs in 198 dogs fulfilled the inclusion
      criteria. Dehiscence was diagnosed in 11.4% cases, 6.6% without PSP, and 21.1%
      with PSP (P = .01). Indication for IRA did not influence the risk of dehiscence.
      No association was detected between anastomotic technique and IRA dehiscence in
      dogs without PSP (stapled 4.2%, hand-sewn 8.1%); however, stapled anastomoses
      were less likely to dehisce in dogs with PSP (stapled 9.7%, hand-sewn 28.9%).
      Risk factors for dehiscence included PSP (P = .005) and hand-sewn technique (P =
      .02). CONCLUSION: Our results confirmed that PSP is a risk factor for dehiscence
      of IRA and suggest that patients with PSP may be a unique surgical population, in
      which stapling may be preferred over hand-sewn anastomoses after enterectomies.

PMID- 28885695
TI  - Evaluation of Grenache, Graciano and Tempranillo grape stilbene content after
      field applications of elicitors and nitrogen compounds.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stilbenes have a significant biological activity and are one of the
      most important non-flavonoid contributors to grape and wine health-related
      properties. The accumulation of this class of compounds could be favored by
      viticultural practices such as the application of biostimulants. However,
      stilbene concentration also depends on several factors, including, for example,
      grape variety. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the influence of
      foliar treatments carried out with elicitors (methyl jasmonate (MeJ) and a
      commercial foliar spray (YD)) and nitrogen compounds (phenylalanine and urea) on
      the grape stilbene composition of three varieties: Grenache, Graciano and
      Tempranillo. An ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatographic methodology was
      validated for stilbene determination. RESULTS: Results showed that, despite the
      huge influence of the grape variety, YD significantly improved stilbene
      composition in Grenache and Graciano, while MeJ increased the stilbene content in
      Graciano and Tempranillo. As for the nitrogen treatments, phenylalanine
      significantly increased the stilbene concentration in Graciano, while urea
      treatment increased it in Tempranillo. However, the application of elicitors had
      a greater effect than the nitrogen compounds. CONCLUSION: Overall, the foliar
      application of the elicitors could be a suitable practice for increasing the
      amount of stilbenes in grape and, therefore, its nutraceutical properties. (c)
      2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28885696
TI  - Survivorship care planning in skin cancer: An unbiased statistical approach to
      identifying patterns of care-plan use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nearly 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer, and as a result,
      survivors of skin cancer compose one of the largest groups of cancer survivors.
      Survivorship care plans (SCPs) are an important tool for improving patient
      outcomes and provide critical information to both survivors and health care
      professionals. Recent efforts have been made to expand SCP utilization; however,
      which patients currently receive SCPs is poorly understood. METHODS: This study
      used 596 individuals with a diagnosis of melanoma (n = 391) or nonmelanoma skin
      cancer (n = 205) who had used an Internet-based SCP tool from May 2010 to
      December 2016 to model the patient and provider characteristics that determine
      SCP utilization. RESULTS: Survivors were predominantly white (95.3%) and female
      (56.5%). Survivors who received a treatment summary were more likely to also
      receive an SCP. University and nonuniversity cancer centers used SCPs at a higher
      rate than other care settings. Survivors whose care was managed by a team rather
      than just an individual physician were also more likely to receive an SCP.
      Survivors older than 70 years at diagnosis were almost twice as likely to receive
      a plan as survivors who were diagnosed at a younger age. CONCLUSIONS: With a
      convenience sample of skin cancer survivors, it is possible to model factors that
      predict the receipt of SCPs. Important variables include the diagnosis age,
      treatment setting, physician type, and treatment-summary utilization. A closer
      examination of these variables identified several disparities in care-plan use
      and, therefore, opportunities to improve the distribution of SCPs. Further
      validation in additional cohorts of survivors is necessary to confirm these
      conclusions. Cancer 2018;124:183-91. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28885697
TI  - Second-look arthroscopic findings after CORA-based leveling osteotomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the arthroscopic appearance of intra-articular structures
      mid-term (9 months) and long-term (>12 months) after CORA-based leveling
      osteotomy (CBLO). STUDY DESIGN: Case series. ANIMALS: Dogs (n = 41) with second
      look arthroscopy of the stifle after CBLO for treatment of a cranial cruciate
      ligament (CCL) deficiency. Both stifles were re-evaluated (stifles n = 42) in 1
      dog. METHODS: Medical records of dogs that had second-look arthroscopy after CBLO
      were reviewed. Arthroscopic images of the femoral condyles were independently
      reviewed. The surgical report documented the integrity of menisci and articular
      cartilage of the tibial plateaus. RESULTS: The population included 7 stifles with
      stable partial CCL tears, 35 stifles with complete CCL tears (n = 28), or
      incompetent partial CCL tears (n = 7). Median time to second look arthroscopy was
      16 months (9-24 months) for stable partial tears. The CCL remained intact in 6
      stifles. The Outerbridge score of the articular cartilage of the femoral condyles
      was as 0 (6) or 1 (1). The articular cartilage of the tibial plateaus appeared
      normal in all stifles. Median time to second look arthroscopy of stifles with
      complete tears was 12 months (range, 9-34 months). The caudal cruciate ligament
      was normal or mildly fibrillated. The appearance of the articular cartilage of
      the femoral condyles was scored as 0 or near normal (grade 1-2) in all dogs. The
      articular cartilage of the tibial plateaus appeared normal, except in 1 dog with
      grade 4 lesion. CONCLUSION: CBLO results in minimal to no change in articular
      cartilage in at a median time of 14 months after surgery. Postoperative clinical
      lameness is often attributed to late onset meniscal pathology.

PMID- 28885698
TI  - Autoimmune antibodies to collagen XIII in myasthenia gravis patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Evaluation of the nerve fascicular structure can be useful in
      diagnosing nerve damage, but it is a very challenging task with 3T MRI because of
      limited resolution. In this pilot study, we present the feasibility of high
      resolution 7T MRI for examining the nerve fascicular structure. METHODS: A 3
      dimensional (3D) gradient-spoiled sequence was used for imaging peripheral nerves
      in extremities. Images acquired with different in-plane resolutions (0.42 * 0.42
      mm vs. 0.12 * 0.12 mm), and different main field strengths (7T vs. 3T) were
      compared. RESULTS: The individual nerve fascicles were identified at 0.12 * 0.12
      mm resolution in both field strengths but not at 0.42 * 0.42 mm resolution. The
      fascicular structure was more sharply depicted in 7T images than in 3T images.
      DISCUSSION: High-resolution 3D imaging with 7T MRI demonstrated feasibility for
      imaging nerve fascicular structures. Muscle Nerve 57: 506-510, 2018.

PMID- 28885701
TI  - "My Esteemed Colleague, I Must Respectfully Disagree...".

PMID- 28885699
TI  - Alteration of microRNA profiles by a novel inhibitor of human La protein in HBV
      transformed human hepatoma cells.
AB  - A pyrazolopyridine HBSC11 was previously identified as a novel inhibitor of human
      La protein with anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) activity. However, the underlying
      mechanism(s) of HBV inhibition by HBSC11 remains unclear. This study aimed to
      examine the regulation of microRNA (miRNA) by HBSC11 in HBV-transformed human
      hepatoma HepG2.2.15 cells using microarray and quantitative real-time PCR. Target
      genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted and subjected to
      bioinformatics analysis. Results showed that HBSC11 significantly upregulated the
      expression of miR-3912-5p, miR-6793-5p, and miR-7159-5p in HepG2.2.15 cells.
      Target genes of the three miRNAs were mainly involved in the regulation of
      nucleic acid-templated transcription, negative regulation of gene expression,
      nucleic acid binding transcription factor activity and regulation of
      phosphorylation. In addition, target genes were enriched in certain regulatory
      pathways related to HBV infection and HBV-associated disease progression, such as
      the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta, Wnt, and p53 signaling. Our study
      demonstrates the involvement of miR-3912-5p, miR-6793-5p, and miR-7159-5p and the
      potential modulation of specific pathways (TGF-beta, Wnt, and p53 signaling) in
      HBSC11-mediated inhibition of HBV replication. This study provides insight into
      the molecular mechanism of the action of HBSC11 against HBV infection and will
      support the development of antiviral drugs targeting La protein.

PMID- 28885702
TI  - On the Modeling of Inactivation of Listeria innocua in Milk by High Pressure
      Processing.

PMID- 28885700
TI  - Historical time to disease progression and progression-free survival in patients
      with recurrent/refractory neuroblastoma treated in the modern era on Children's
      Oncology Group early-phase trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early-phase trials in patients with recurrent neuroblastoma
      historically used an objective "response" of measureable disease (Response
      Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors [RECIST], without bone/bone marrow
      assessment) to select agents for further study. Historical cohorts may be small
      and potentially biased; to the authors' knowledge, disease recurrence studies
      from international registries are outdated. Using a large recent cohort of
      patients with recurrent/refractory neuroblastoma from Children's Oncology Group
      (COG) modern-era early-phase trials, the authors determined outcome and
      quantified parameters for designing future studies. METHODS: The first early
      phase COG trial enrollment (sequential) of 383 distinct patients with
      recurrent/refractory neuroblastoma on 23 phase 1, 3 phase 1/2, and 9 phase 2
      trials (August 2002 to January 2014) was analyzed for progression-free survival
      (PFS), overall survival (OS), and time to disease progression (TTP). Planned
      frontline therapy for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma included
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (approximately two-thirds of patients
      underwent >=1 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation); 13.2% of patients
      received dinutuximab. RESULTS: From the time of the patient's first early-phase
      trial enrollment (383 patients), the 1-year and 4-year PFS rates ( +/- standard
      error) were 21% +/- 2% and 6% +/- 1%, respectively, whereas the 1-year and 4-year
      OS rates were 57% +/- 3% and 20% +/- 2%, respectively. The median TTP was 58 days
      (interquartile range, 31-183 days [350 patients]); the median follow-up was 25.3
      months (33 patients were found to be without disease recurrence/progression). The
      median time from diagnosis to first disease recurrence/progression was 18.7
      months (range, 1.4-64.8 months) (176 patients). MYCN amplification and 11q loss
      of heterozygosity were prognostic of worse PFS and OS (P = .003 and P<.0001,
      respectively, and P = .02 and P = .03, respectively) after early-phase trial
      enrollment. CONCLUSIONS: This recent COG cohort of patients with
      recurrent/refractory neuroblastoma is inclusive and representative. To the
      authors' knowledge, the current study is the first meta-analysis of PFS, TTP, and
      OS within the context of modern therapy. These results will inform the design of
      future phase 2 studies by providing a) historical context during the search for
      more effective agents; and, b) factors prognostic of PFS and OS after disease
      recurrence to stratify randomization. Cancer 2017;123:4914-23. (c) 2017 American
      Cancer Society.

PMID- 28885703
TI  - Combined Effect of Polyphenol-Chitosan Coating and Irradiation on the Microbial
      and Sensory Quality of Carp Fillets.
AB  - Irradiation can extend the shelf-life of fish, but it may cause unacceptable
      change on quality. Since rose polyphenols have high antioxidant and antibacterial
      activities, this study evaluated the combined effect of polyphenol-chitosan
      coatings and irradiation (3 kGy) on the microbial and sensory qualities of carp
      fillets during storage at 4  degrees C. A dose of 3 kGy irradiation reduced the
      initial total viable counts (TVC) and psychrophiles, and increased the initial b*
      and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) values. During storage, TBARS,
      TVC and psychrophiles of nonirradiated samples increased faster and were higher
      than those irradiated. Regardless of irradiation treatment, samples coated with
      chitosan containing rose polyphenols had lower TBARS, pH and bacteria than that
      in no coating or chitosan coating batches. Carp treated with combined treatment
      could preserve an acceptable sensory quality at the end of storage. The result
      indicated that polyphenol-chitosan coating combined with irradiation can maintain
      fish quality by preventing bacterial growth, oxidation, and changes in color and
      sensory acceptability.

PMID- 28885704
TI  - Response Letter to the Editor: "On the Modeling of Inactivation of Listeria
      Innocua in Milk by High Pressure Processing".

PMID- 28885706
TI  - Halloysite Nanocapsules Containing Thyme Essential Oil: Preparation,
      Characterization, and Application in Packaging Materials.
AB  - Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), which are natural nanomaterials, have a hollow
      tubular structure with about 15 nm inner and 50 nm outer diameters. Because of
      their tubular shape, HNTs loaded with various materials have been investigated as
      functional nanocapsules. In this study, thyme essential oil (TO) was encapsulated
      successfully in HNTs using vacuum pulling methods, followed by end-capping or a
      layer-by-layer surface coating process for complete encapsulation. Nanocapsules
      loaded with TO were mixed with flexographic ink and coated on a paper for
      applications as food packaging materials. Scanning electron microscopy and
      transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the morphology of the
      nanocapsules and to confirm the TO loading of the nanocapsules. Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyses analysis were used to
      complement the structural information. In addition, the controlled release of TO
      from the nanocapsules showed sustained release properties over a period of many
      days. The results reveal that the release properties of TO in these nanocapsules
      could be controlled by surface modifications such as end-capping and/or surface
      coating of bare nanocapsules. The packaging paper with TO-loaded HNT capsules was
      effective in eliminating against Escherichia coli during the first 5 d and showed
      strong antibacterial activity for about 10 d.

PMID- 28885707
TI  - Physical function metric over measure: An illustration with the Patient-Reported
      Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and the Functional Assessment of
      Cancer Therapy (FACT).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Measuring patient-reported outcomes (PROs) is becoming an integral
      component of quality improvement initiatives, clinical care, and research studies
      in cancer, including comparative effectiveness research. However, the number of
      PROs limits comparability across studies. Herein, the authors attempted to link
      the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General Physical Well-Being (FACT-G
      PWB) subscale with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System
      (PROMIS) Physical Function (PF) calibrated item bank. The also sought to augment
      a subset of the conceptually most similar FACT-G PWB items with PROMIS PF items
      to improve the linking. METHODS: Baseline data from 5506 participants in the
      Measuring Your Health (MY-Health) study were used to identify the optimal items
      for linking FACT-G PWB with PROMIS PF. A mixed methods approach identified the
      optimal items for creating the 5-item FACT/PROMIS-PF5 scale. Both the linked and
      augmented relationships were cross-validated using the follow-up MY-Health data.
      RESULTS: A 5-item FACT-G PWB item subset was found to be optimal for linking with
      PROMIS PF. In addition, a 2-item subset, including only items that were
      conceptually very similar to the PROMIS item bank content, were augmented with 3
      PROMIS PF items. This new FACT/PROMIS-PF5 provided superior score recovery.
      CONCLUSIONS: The PROMIS PF metric allows for the evaluation of the extent to
      which similar questionnaires can be linked and therefore expressed on the same
      metric. These results allow for the aggregation of existing data and provide an
      optimal measure for future studies wishing to use the FACT yet also report on the
      PROMIS PF metric. Cancer 2018;124:153-60. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28885708
TI  - Biosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles from Persimmon Byproducts and Incorporation
      in Biodegradable Sodium Alginate Thin Film.
AB  - : Fruit industrial wastes such as persimmon seed, peel, and calyx were used to
      synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and their antioxidant activities were
      compared with byproduct powders having different granularities. The AgNPs were
      incorporated in sodium alginate thin films and transparency and mechanical
      properties of the films was analyzed. Persimmon byproduct AgNPs were
      characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, X
      ray diffraction, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and scanning electron
      microscopy. The byproduct AgNPs displayed higher antioxidant activities than
      powders of different granularities (P < 0.05). Fabrication of alginate thin films
      incorporating byproduct AgNPs resulted in improved transparency (P < 0.05). The
      incorporation of persimmon byproduct AgNPs with excellent antioxidant activities
      into sodium alginate thin films did not diminish the mechanical properties of the
      thin films. Therefore, fruit industrial waste such as persimmon byproducts could
      be used to derive AgNPs and could be incorporated into biodegradable alginate
      thin films, with numerous applications including food packaging. PRACTICAL
      APPLICATION: Fruit industrial wastes such as persimmon seed, peel, and calyx were
      used to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) which were incorporated in sodium
      alginate thin films. This study evaluated the antioxidant activities and
      mechanical properties of the films that could be useful in the manufacture of
      food packaging using biodegradable films.

PMID- 28885709
TI  - Prenylation of viral proteins by enzymes of the host: Virus-driven rationale for
      therapy with statins and FT/GGT1 inhibitors.
AB  - Intracellular bacteria were recently shown to employ eukaryotic prenylation
      system for modifying activity and ensuring proper intracellular localization of
      their own proteins. Following the same logic, the proteins of viruses may also
      serve as prenylation substrates. Using extensively validated high-confidence
      prenylation predictions by PrePS with a cut-off for experimentally confirmed
      farnesylation of hepatitis delta virus antigen, we compiled in silico evidence
      for several new prenylation candidates, including IRL9 (CMV) and few other
      proteins encoded by Herpesviridae, Nef (HIV-1), E1A (human adenovirus 1), NS5A
      (HCV), PB2 (influenza), HN (human parainfluenza virus 3), L83L (African swine
      fever), MC155R (molluscum contagiosum virus), other Poxviridae proteins, and some
      bacteriophages of human associated bacteria. If confirmed experimentally, these
      findings may aid in dissection of molecular functions of uncharacterized viral
      proteins and provide a novel rationale for statin and FT/GGT1-based inhibition of
      viral infections. Prenylation of bacteriophage proteins may aid in moderation of
      microbial infections.

PMID- 28885710
TI  - Isoflavones from green vegetable soya beans and their antimicrobial and
      antioxidant activities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Green vegetable soya beans, known as Maodou in China, are supplied as
      vegetable-type fruits of the soybean plant. Previous study indicated that green
      vegetable soya beans exhibited antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities.
      However, the material basis and pharmacological activities of green soybean plant
      were not unravelled clearly. In this study, we investigated the chemical
      ingredients and their pharmacological activities. RESULTS: Investigation of the
      chemical ingredients indicated that two new isoflavones, 2'-hydroxyerythrin A
      (1), and daidzein-7-O-beta-d-{6"-[(E)-but-2-enoyl]}glycoside (2), together with
      seven known ones - 7,4'-dihydroxy-6-methoxyisoflavone (3), daidzein (4), daidzin
      (5), genistein (6), formononetin (7), ononin (8), and isoerythrinin A (9) - were
      obtained. The structures of compounds 1-9 were elucidated on the basis of
      spectroscopic and chemical analysis. We evaluated the antimicrobial efficacies
      and free-radical scavenging potential of the isolated compounds (1-9). Compounds
      1 and 9 exhibited the most pronounced efficacy against the tested bacterial
      strains with IC50 values ranging from 10.6 to 22.6 MUg mL-1 . The isolated
      compounds showed moderate radical scavenging properties with compound 6 being the
      most active, followed by compounds 3, 1 and 4. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated
      that the isoflavones from soya beans could be considered as potential
      antioxidants or antimicrobials in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical
      industries. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28885711
TI  - Hepatitis B among immigrants from Myanmar: Genotypes and their clinical
      relevance.
AB  - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) from 76 adult immigrants in Australia from Myanmar was
      characterized to determine the prevalence of different HBV genotypes and
      subgenotypes. A mutational analysis was then performed to determine the presence
      of clinically significant mutations and correlate them to clinical outcomes.
      Initial genotyping revealed 68 patients with genotype C (89.5%) and eight
      patients with genotype B (10.5%). Phylogenetic analysis revealed the large
      majority of the genotype C infections were of subgenotype C1 (67/68). Sequencing
      of the HBV polymerase gene (and overlapping surface gene) revealed no mutations
      associated with antiviral resistance. HBV surface gene mutations were detected in
      10 patients with subgenotype C1. HBV BCP/PC sequencing was obtained for 71/76
      (93%) patients. BCP and/or PC mutations were identified in 57/71 (80%) of PCR
      positive patients. Treatment had been commenced for 15/76 (18%) patients, a
      further 26 untreated patients were in a stage of disease where HBV treatment
      would be considered standard of care. It was identified that genotype C1 is the
      predominant sub-genotype in this population. Genotype C is known to be associated
      with increased risk of development of HCC. This highlights the need for screening
      for HCC given the potential for the development of liver cancer. It was also
      identified that people with HBV were potentially not receiving optimal therapy in
      a timely fashion.

PMID- 28885714
TI  - Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance as viewed by haematology
      healthcare professionals.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the words and descriptions used by haematology
      healthcare professionals (HCPs) to describe monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined
      significance (MGUS) to their patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of
      haematology HCPs attending an annual haematology conference was undertaken.
      Content analysis was applied to the returned qualitative responses. RESULTS: In
      total, 55 people, many of whom were doctors (n = 32; 58.2%), responded. The
      majority of respondents reported using simple terminology such as "abnormal
      protein" to describe MGUS to their patients. Some reported using analogies that
      the patient was more likely to be familiar with, such as comparing a paraprotein
      to the finding of a mole or lump. Education level, age and cognitive ability were
      cited as important factors in deciding how and whether information was relayed to
      patients. Many respondents supported frequent follow-up and the transfer of low
      risk MGUS patients to primary care. However, several highlighted a lack of
      awareness and understanding of MGUS outside of haematology, particularly within
      primary care. Only 41.8% of respondents reported providing all of their patients
      with an information leaflet. CONCLUSIONS: With an ageing population, it is
      important to consider management strategies for MGUS patients. Our findings will
      assist those in making these arrangements.

PMID- 28885715
TI  - Genome evolution is driven by gene expression-generated biophysical constraints
      through RNA-directed genetic variation: A hypothesis.
AB  - The biogenesis of RNAs and proteins is a threat to the cell. Indeed, the act of
      transcription and nascent RNAs challenge DNA stability. Both RNAs and nascent
      proteins can also initiate the formation of toxic aggregates because of their
      physicochemical properties. In reviewing the literature, I show that co
      transcriptional and co-translational biophysical constraints can trigger DNA
      instability that in turn increases the likelihood that sequences that alleviate
      the constraints emerge over evolutionary time. These directed genetic variations
      rely on the biogenesis of small RNAs that are transcribed directly from
      challenged DNA regions or processed from the transcripts that directly or
      indirectly generate constraints or aggregates. These small RNAs can then target
      the genomic regions from which they initially originate and increase the local
      mutation rate of the targeted loci. This mechanism is based on molecular pathways
      involved in anti-parasite genome defence systems, and implies that gene
      expression-related biophysical constraints represent a driving force of genome
      evolution.

PMID- 28885712
TI  - Pathological complete response in patients with esophageal cancer after the
      trimodality approach: The association with baseline variables and survival-The
      University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reports are limited regarding clinical and pretreatment features that
      might predict a pathological complete response (pathCR) after treatment in
      patients with esophageal cancer (EC). This might allow patient selection for
      different strategies. This study examines the association of a pathCR with
      pretreatment variables, overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS),
      and patterns of recurrence in a large cohort from a single institution. METHODS:
      The baseline clinical features of 911 consecutive patients with EC who were
      treated with trimodality therapy from January 2000 to November 2013 were
      analyzed. A pathCR was defined as a surgical specimen with no residual carcinoma
      (primary or nodes). Logistic regressions were used to identify independent
      baseline features associated with a pathCR. We applied log-rank testing and Cox
      models to determine the association between a pathCR and the time-to-event
      outcomes (OS and RFS). RESULTS: Of 911 patients, 218 (23.9%) achieved a pathCR.
      The pathCR rate was 23.1% for adenocarcinoma and 32.2% for squamous cell
      carcinoma. A lower pathCR rate was observed for 1) older patients (>60 years), 2)
      patients with poorly differentiated tumors, 3) patients with signet ring cells
      (SRCs), and 4) patients with a higher T stage. Patients with a pathCR had longer
      OS and RFS than those without a pathCR (P = .0021 and P = .0011, respectively).
      Recurrences occurred more in non-pathCR patients. Distant metastases were the
      most common type of recurrence. PathCR patients developed brain metastases at a
      marginally higher rate than non-pathCR patients (P = .051). CONCLUSIONS: In this
      large cohort study, a pathCR is confirmed to be associated with better OS and
      RFS. The presence of a poorly differentiated tumor or SRCs reduces the likelihood
      of a pathCR. Future research should focus on molecular classifiers. Cancer
      2017;123:4106-4113. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28885716
TI  - MicroRNAs are potential objective and early biomarkers for acute rejection of
      transplanted limbs in a rat model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Limb transplantation is considered to be a treatment option for
      amputees. Visual skin inspection and histological assessment are used to assess
      rejection, but these techniques are largely subjective. Using a rat model, we
      examined the potential of several microRNAs (miRNAs) to be used as objective and
      minimally invasive biomarkers of acute rejection of transplanted limbs. METHODS:
      Three Brown Norway rats and 15 Lewis rats were assigned to 2 groups. In the
      allograft group, 3 Brown Norway rats were used as the donors and 6 Lewis rats as
      the recipients. In the syngeneic (control) group, 9 Lewis rats were used as the
      donors and recipients. The hind limbs of the donors were orthotopically
      transplanted to the recipients. Plasma samples were obtained from all recipients
      before surgery and on posttransplantation days 3, 7, 10, and 14. All recipients
      were euthanized on day 14, and skin tissues were harvested for histological
      assessment. RESULTS: On posttransplantation days 10 and 14, the plasma expression
      of miRNA-146a, miRNA-155, and miRNA-182 was significantly upregulated in the
      allograft group compared with the syngeneic control group. Of these 3 miRNAs,
      miRNA-182 had the highest sensitivity and specificity; however the cutoff point
      for miRNA-182 was close to the baseline and miRNA-155 was considered to be most
      suitable for identifying rejection. Most skin samples in the allograft group were
      classified as exhibiting grade III rejection on day 14. CONCLUSIONS: Some miRNAs
      are upregulated during acute rejection of transplanted limbs. These miRNAs are
      potential biomarkers for the objective, early, minimally invasive diagnosis of
      rejection.

PMID- 28885717
TI  - Effects of cyclin D1 gene silencing on cell proliferation, cell cycle, and
      apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
AB  - This study aims to investigate the effects of Cyclin D1 silencing on cell cycle,
      cell proliferation, and apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HCC). Cells
      were divided into the blank group, negative control group (HCC cells transfected
      with control shRNA), Cyclin D1 shRNA group (HCC cells transfected with Cyclin D1
      shRNA), and the normal group (human normal liver L-02 cells). Expressions of
      Cyclin D1, Caspase-3, Bcl-2, and C-myc were detected by RT-qPCR and Western
      blotting. Cell proliferation was detected by Cell Counting Kit-8. Cell cycle and
      apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry. Tumor xenograft in nude mice was
      performed to detect in vivo tumorigenesis. HCC tissues and HCC cells exhibited
      elevated expression levels of Cyclin D1. Cyclin D1 expression levels was found to
      be correlated with tumor size and tumor staging. Compared with the normal group,
      the blank group showed enhanced cell proliferation, a reduction in the amount of
      cells in G0/G1 phase, increased number cells in S and G2/M phase, reduced
      apoptosis, elevated expressions of Cyclin D1, Bcl-2, and C-myc, decreased Caspase
      3 activity and significant tumorigenicity. In comparison with the blank group,
      the Cyclin D1 shRNA group revealed weakened cell proliferation, reduced cells in
      S and G2/M phase, increased cells in G0/G1 phase, increased Annexin V positive
      cell ratio, decreased expression of Cyclin D1, Bcl-2, and C-myc, elevated Caspase
      3 activity and inhibited tumorigenicity. In conclusion, Cyclin D1 gene silencing
      suppresses cell proliferation and inhibits cell apoptosis, which may be a new
      target approach in the treatment and management for HCC.

PMID- 28885718
TI  - Transvaginal Ultrasound-Guided Core Needle Biopsy of Pelvic Masses.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the efficacy and safety of transvaginal
      ultrasound (US)-guided core needle biopsy (CNB) for obtaining adequate pelvic
      mass samples for histologic analysis and evaluated factors that may affect biopsy
      success. METHODS: Two hundred cases underwent transvaginal US-guided CNBs for
      primary inoperable tumors, suspicion of metastases to the ovaries or peritoneum,
      recurrence, or other solid lesions in the pelvis. Biopsy samples were obtained
      from the pelvic cavity (67.0%), vaginal cuff or vaginal wall (17.5%), or
      peritoneal cake (15.5%). The potential influences of the biopsy site (pelvic
      cavity, vaginal cuff or vaginal wall, or peritoneal cake), vascularization,
      ascites, tumor size, and tumor type (inoperable, metastases, recurrence, or solid
      pelvic tumor) on the success of transvaginal US-guided CNB were evaluated by a
      univariate analysis. RESULTS: Adequate samples were obtained in 192 of 200
      biopsies (96.0%), of which 190 yielded successful diagnoses (95.0%). The biopsy
      site had a significant effect on biopsy adequacy, as there was a significantly
      lower probability of obtaining satisfactory specimens for histologic verification
      from the peritoneal cake compared to pelvic tumors and the vaginal cuff or
      vaginal wall (P < .01). Adequacy was also affected by tumor size (P < .05) but
      not by vascularization, ascites, or tumor type. No complications occurred during
      the biopsy procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Transvaginal US-guided CNB is a safe and
      effective alternative to more invasive methods for evaluating pelvic lesions,
      such as laparoscopy and laparotomy.

PMID- 28885719
TI  - Post-transplant consolidation plus lenalidomide maintenance vs lenalidomide
      maintenance alone in multiple myeloma: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM), autologous stem cell
      transplantation (ASCT) remains the standard approach for transplant-eligible
      patients. To control the inevitable relapse, post-transplant
      consolidation/maintenance strategies are commonly used. However, the benefit of
      post-transplant consolidation is still uncertain METHOD: We conducted a
      systematic review of phase II/III studies to compare the efficacy of post-ASCT
      consolidation plus lenalidomide maintenance (CON+LEN) vs lenalidomide maintenance
      alone (LEN alone) in NDMM. A meta-analysis using fixed and random effects models
      was performed. RESULTS: Fourteen studies were included with 2275 participants
      with NDMM treated with ASCT and lenalidomide maintenance. Two groups were
      identified: CON+LEN group (n = 1102) and LEN alone group (n = 1173). There was no
      statistically significant difference in the complete response rate between the
      two groups [RR = 1.1; 95% CI: 0.83-1.44; P = .490]. Interestingly, we found that
      very good partial response or better rate is around 1.5-fold significantly higher
      in the CON+LEN group compared to LEN alone group [RR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.25-1.70; P
      < .0001]. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups
      regarding PFS [RR: 1.0; 95% CI: 0.92-1.08, P = .929] and OS [RR: 0.9; 95% CI:
      0.92-1.01; P = .148] at 3-4 years follow-up. The risk of secondary primary
      malignancy (SPM) was also similar between the two groups (RR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.84
      1.92; P = .2). Data on adverse events were limited. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest
      that, in NDMM patients treated with upfront ASCT, post-transplant consolidation
      may improve depth of response, but does not add to OS or PFS, compared to
      lenalidomide maintenance alone. However, data in this context are still immature.

PMID- 28885720
TI  - Stathmin/Op18 depletion induces genomic instability and leads to premature
      senescence in human normal fibroblasts.
AB  - Stathmin/oncoprotein18 regulates microtubule dynamics and participates in mitotic
      entry and exit. We isolated stathmin as a physically interacting partner of
      KIFC1, a minus-end-directed kinesin functioning in bipolar spindle formation and
      maintenance. We found that stathmin depletion leads to multipolar spindle
      formation in IMR-90 normal human fibroblasts. Stathmin-depleted IMR-90 cells
      showed early mitotic delay but managed to undergo chromosome segregation by
      forming multiple poles or pseudo-bipoles. Consistent with these observations,
      lagging chromosomes, and micronuclei were elevated in stathmin-depleted IMR-90
      cells, demonstrating that stathmin is essential for maintaining genomic stability
      during mitosis in human cells. Genomic instability induced by stathmin depletion
      led to premature senescence without any indication of cell death in normal IMR-90
      cells. Double knock-down of both stathmin and p53 also did not induce cell death
      in IMR-90 cells, while the stathmin knock-down triggered apoptosis in p53
      proficient human lung adenocarcinoma cells. Our results suggest that stathmin is
      essential in bipolar spindle formation to maintain genomic stability during
      mitosis, and the depletion of stathmin prevents the initiation of chromosome
      instability by inducing senescence in human normal fibroblasts.

PMID- 28885721
TI  - Targeting intracellular Staphylococcus aureus to lower recurrence of orthopaedic
      infection.
AB  - Staphylococcus aureus is often found in orthopaedic infections and may be
      protected from commonly prescribed antibiotics by forming biofilms or growing
      intracellularly within osteoblasts. To investigate the effect of non-antibiotic
      compounds in conjunction with antibiotics to clear intracellular and biofilm
      forming S. aureus causing osteomyelitis. SAOS-2 osteoblast-like cell lines were
      infected with S. aureus BB1279. Antibiotics (vancomycin, VAN; and dicloxacillin,
      DICLOX), bacterial efflux pump inhibitors (piperine, PIP; carbonyl cyanide m
      chlorophenyl hydrazone, CCCP), and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP-2) were
      evaluated individually and in combination to kill intracellular bacteria. We
      present direct evidence that after gentamicin killed extracellular planktonic
      bacteria and antibiotics had been stopped, seeding from the infected osteoblasts
      grew as biofilms. VAN was ineffective in treating the intracellular bacteria even
      at 10* MIC; however in presence of PIP or CCCP the intracellular S. aureus was
      significantly reduced. Bacterial efflux pump inhibitors (PIP and CCCP) were
      effective in enhancing permeability of antibiotics within the osteoblasts and
      facilitated killing of intracellular S. aureus. Confocal laser scanning
      microscopy (CLSM) showed increased uptake of propidium iodide within osteoblasts
      in presence of PIP and CCCP. BMP-2 had no effect on growth of S. aureus either
      alone or in combination with antibiotics. Combined application of antibiotics and
      natural agents could help in the treatment of osteoblast infected intracellular
      bacteria and biofilms associated with osteomyelitis. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic
      Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1086-1092,
      2018.

PMID- 28885722
TI  - Astrocytic signaling supports hippocampal-prefrontal theta synchronization and
      cognitive function.
AB  - Astrocytes interact with neurons at the cellular level through modulation of
      synaptic formation, maturation, and function, but the impact of such interaction
      into behavior remains unclear. Here, we studied the dominant negative SNARE
      (dnSNARE) mouse model to dissect the role of astrocyte-derived signaling in
      corticolimbic circuits, with implications for cognitive processing. We found that
      the blockade of gliotransmitter release in astrocytes triggers a critical
      desynchronization of neural theta oscillations between dorsal hippocampus and
      prefrontal cortex. Moreover, we found a strong cognitive impairment in tasks
      depending on this network. Importantly, the supplementation with d-serine
      completely restores hippocampal-prefrontal theta synchronization and rescues the
      spatial memory and long-term memory of dnSNARE mice. We provide here novel
      evidence of long distance network modulation by astrocytes, with direct
      implications to cognitive function.

PMID- 28885723
TI  - Biofilm formation of beta-hemolytic group G Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies
      equisimilis isolates and its association with emm polymorphism.
AB  - Biofilm formation has been well known as a determinant of bacterial virulence.
      Group G Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE), a relevant
      pathogen with increasing medical importance, was evaluated for the biofilm
      forming potential. Microtiter plate assay was used to assess the most feasible
      medium for group G SDSE to form a biofilm. Among 246 SDSE isolates examined,
      46.7%, 43.5%, 33.3%, and 26.4% of isolates showed moderate or strong biofilm
      forming abilities using tryptic soy broth (TSB), brain heart infusion broth
      (BHI), Todd-Hewitt broth (THB), and C medium with 30 mM glucose (CMG),
      respectively. The addition of glucose significantly increased the biofilm-forming
      ability of group G SDSE. FCT (fibronectin-collagen-T-antigen) typing of SDSE was
      first undertaken and 11 FCT types were found. Positive associations of stG10.0 or
      negative associations of stG245.0, stG840.0, and stG6.1 with biofilm-forming
      ability of SDSE were, respectively, found. This was the first investigation
      demonstrating biofilm-forming potential in clinical group G SDSE isolates; also,
      some significant associations of biofilm-forming ability with certain emm types
      were presented.

PMID- 28885725
TI  - Supporting spirituality in the care of older people living with dementia: a
      hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into nurses' experiences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spirituality is defined as a search for answers to existential
      questions about the meaning of life and the individual's relationship with the
      sacred or transcendent. This relationship may or may not involve affiliation with
      a specific religion. Studies on spirituality have focused on palliative care, and
      there are limited studies into the spirituality in the care of older people with
      dementia. AIM: To describe the experiences of nurses supporting spirituality in
      the care of older people living with dementia. METHOD: This study, informed by
      Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology, was conducted in 2014/15. Data were
      collected by interviewing a purposive sample of 17 nurses. RESULTS: Supporting
      the spirituality of older people with dementia was seen as understanding their
      spirituality within a framework of person-centeredness and individuality. The
      participants came to understand the spiritual needs of older people with dementia
      through both verbal and nonverbal expression and by learning about older people's
      individual spiritual backgrounds. Meeting spiritual needs meant approaching the
      person with dementia as a valuable human as well as paying attention, to and
      supporting, his/her personal philosophy of life within nursing care. CONCLUSION:
      Learning and developing an understanding of the spiritual needs of older people
      with dementia is challenging. The nurses offered person-centred, spiritual care,
      to people with dementia from a variety of perspectives, which is important in the
      provision of comprehensive care. There is a need to find usable tools to help
      nurses to learn and understand the individual spiritual needs of older people
      with dementia and to explore how these older adults experience having their
      spirituality supported within their nursing care.

PMID- 28885724
TI  - First progress report on the Japan Endoscopy Database project.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: The Japan Endoscopy Database (JED) Project was started to
      develop the world's largest endoscopic database, capture the actual performance
      of endoscopic practice, and standardize the terminology and fundamental items
      needed for a clinical and research registry. This paper presents a progress
      report on the first phase of this project undertaken at eight endoscopic centers
      in Japan. METHODS: The list of data items to be collected was drafted by the MSED
      J (Minimal Standard Endoscopic Database) subcommittee. These items were
      aggregated offline by integrating data from two endoscopic filing systems between
      July 2015 and December 2015. The study population included all patients who
      underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy or colonoscopy at all eight centers,
      patients who underwent enteroscopy at five of the eight centers, and patients who
      underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) at four of the
      eight centers. RESULTS: Data collected in this phase included 61 070 endoscopic
      procedures, of which 40 475 were esophagogastroduodenoscopies, 215 were
      enteroscopies, 19 204 were colonoscopies, and 1176 were ERCPs. Frequencies of
      complications were 0.68% for esophagogastroduodenoscopy, 0% for enteroscopy,
      0.43% for colonoscopy, and 13.34% for ERCP. In addition, we obtained various data
      including Helicobacter pylori infection status, past history of endoscopy in
      patients who underwent enteroscopy or colonoscopy, and degree of difficulty of
      ERCP, although the frequencies of reporting were sometimes low, with some items
      <20%. CONCLUSION: Results of the first phase suggest that the JED project can
      provide vast quantities of useful data about endoscopic procedures.

PMID- 28885726
TI  - Achieving interfragmentary compression without special drilling technique or
      screw design.
AB  - : Traditional fracture fixation teaching suggests that fully threaded screws do
      not provide interfragmentary compression unless placed through a glide hole.
      Based on this assumption, pelvic surgeons typically use fully threaded screws in
      the treatment of comminuted transforaminal sacral fractures to limit iatrogenic
      neuroforaminal stenosis. Clinical experience with fully threaded screws suggests
      that interfragmentary compression actually does occur. We hypothesized that the
      use of a fully threaded screw does not produce any interfragmentary compression
      and that there is no difference in insertional torque between partially threaded
      and fully threaded screws. To test this hypothesis, fully and partially threaded
      7.0 millimeter (mm) cannulated screws were placed across two synthetic bone
      blocks fabricated to simulate normal and osteoporotic bone. We compared two
      groups of normal and osteoporotic blocks for compression achieved and maximal
      insertional torque generated with fully threaded and partially threaded screw
      insertion. A micro computed tomography (CT) scan of the composite blocks was
      obtained to investigate for structural changes created during screw insertion.
      For both groups, compression was achieved with fully threaded screws and the
      maximal insertional torque was higher using fully threaded screws. Micro CT
      analysis demonstrated local bone damage with structural disruption in the near
      segment of the fully threaded screw path in comparison to the partially threaded.
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: this study demonstrates that compression is generated
      using fully threaded screws without using a predrilled glide hole. The
      insertional torque required to generate compression with fully threaded screws is
      increased but is clinically applicable. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society.
      Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1099-1105, 2018.

PMID- 28885727
TI  - Does benefit justify research with children?
AB  - The inclusion of children in research gives rise to a difficult ethical question:
      What justifies children's research participation and exposure to research risks
      when they cannot provide informed consent? This question arises out of the
      tension between the moral requirement to obtain a subject's informed consent for
      research participation, on the one hand, and the limited capacity of most
      children to provide informed consent, on the other. Most agree that children's
      participation in clinical research can be justified. But the ethical
      justification for exposing children to research risks in the absence of consent
      remains unclear. One prevalent group of arguments aims to justify children's risk
      exposure by appealing to the concept of benefit. I call these 'benefit
      arguments'. Prominent versions of this argument defend the idea that broadening
      our understanding of the notion of benefit to include non-medical benefits (such
      as the benefit of a moral education) helps to justify children's research
      participation. I argue that existing benefit arguments are not persuasive and
      raise problems with the strategy of appealing to broader notions of benefit to
      justify children's exposure to research risk.

PMID- 28885728
TI  - Liquid Quinones for Solvent-Free Redox Flow Batteries.
AB  - Liquid benzoquinone and naphthoquinone having diethylene glycol monomethyl ether
      groups are designed and synthesized as redox active materials that dissolve
      supporting electrolytes. The Li-ion batteries based on the liquid quinones using
      LiBF4 /PC show good performance in terms of voltage, capacity, energy efficiency,
      and cyclability in both static and flow modes. A battery is constructed without
      using intentionally added organic solvent, and its high energy density (264 W h L
      1 ) demonstrates the potential of solvent-free organic redox flow batteries using
      liquid active materials.

PMID- 28885729
TI  - Leptin induces matrix metalloproteinase 7 expression to promote ovarian cancer
      cell invasion by activating ERK and JNK pathways.
AB  - Leptin, an adipokine secreted by adipose tissue, induces cell invasion and
      metastasis. MMP7 is a member of the matrix metalloproteinase family that plays an
      important role in cell invasion. Here we evaluate the possible role and
      underlying mechanism of MMP7 in the leptin-mediated cell invasion in ovarian
      cancer cell lines. All experiments were carried out in cultured SKOV3, OVCAR3,
      and CaoV-3 ovarian cell lines. MMP7 expression was determined using the Western
      blot following treatment to various concentrations of leptin for defined time
      intervals. The activation of ERK, JNK, and P38 MAP kinases were determined using
      Western blotting. Wound healing and BD matrigel invasion assays were used to
      measure cell migration and invasion. The siRNA approach and pharmacological
      inhibitors of ERK and JNK pathway were used to confirm the receptor-dependent
      effect of leptin and a role for ERK and JNK pathway. Zymography assay was
      employed to determine MMP2 and MMP9 activation. Results show that leptin induces
      ERK1/2 and JNK1/2 activation and subsequently promotes MMP7 expression in SKOV3
      (4.8 +/- 0.14 fold of control, P < 0.01) and OVCAR3 (3.1 +/- 0.19 fold of
      control, P < 0.01) ovarian cancer cell lines. These effects was reversed by
      knockdown of OB-Rb and/or pre-incubation with PD98059 (ERK1/2 inhibitor),
      SP600125 (JNK1/2 inhibitor). Gelatin zymography showed that MMP7 gene silencing
      attenuated leptin-induced MMP9 activation in SKOV3 cell line. Taken together, our
      results suggest new evidences for a modulatory effect of leptin in regulation of
      ovarian cancer cell invasion by stimulating MMP7 expression via ERK and JNK
      pathways.

PMID- 28885730
TI  - Low angiomotin-p130 with concomitant high Yes-associated protein 1 expression is
      associated with adverse prognosis of advanced gastric cancer.
AB  - Angiomotin (AMOT) promotes angiogenesis and plays a role in neovascularization
      during tumorigenesis. Recently, the AMOT isoform, AMOT-p130, was shown to exert a
      regulatory effect on Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1), a major downstream effector
      of the Hippo pathway. The specific roles of AMOT-p130 and YAP1 in advanced
      gastric cancer (AGC) are yet to be established. In this study, a total of 166
      patients with AGC were enrolled, and AMOT-p130 and YAP1 levels were analyzed by
      immunohistochemistry using tissue microarrays. Low AMOT-p130 together with high
      YAP1 expression (n = 30, 18.1%) was associated with high T stage (p = 0.042),
      high TNM stage (p = 0.025), and venous invasion (p = 0.048). A Kaplan-Meier
      survival analysis with log-rank test revealed a significant correlation with
      decreased AMOT-p130 coupled with high nuclear YAP1 expression with shorter
      overall survival (p = 0.0045) and disease-free survival (p = 0.0028).
      Furthermore, multivariate analyses showed that the low AMOT-p130/high YAP1
      expression profile was an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival
      (p = 0.008, HR = 1.874, CI, 1.177-2.986) and overall survival (p = 0.012, HR =
      1.903, CI, 1.152-3.143). Our findings collectively demonstrate that low AMOT-p130
      combined with high YAP1 expression is correlated with an unfavorable AGC
      prognosis.

PMID- 28885731
TI  - A multifunctional nanocarrier for efficient TRAIL-based gene therapy against
      hepatocellular carcinoma with desmoplasia in mice.
AB  - : The anticancer efficacy of TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-based
      therapy is limited because of systemic toxicity, poor bioavailability, and
      development of TRAIL resistance. We developed a tumor-targeted LCPP
      (lipid/calcium/phosphate/protamine) nanoparticle (NP) to deliver TRAIL plasmid
      DNA (pDNA) into hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells in a mouse model of HCC.
      TRAIL pDNA was encapsulated in a pH stimuli-responsive calcium phosphate (CaP)
      core, and protamine was added to facilitate nuclear delivery of pDNA. In
      addition, intracellular release of Ca2+ from the CaP core overcame TRAIL
      resistance by calcium influx-dependent DR5 up-regulation. TRAIL expression also
      attenuated fibrosis in liver tissues surrounding HCCs by reverting activated
      hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) to a quiescent state or by directly inducing
      apoptosis in activated HSCs. CONCLUSION: TRAIL pDNA delivered by HCC-targeted
      LCPP NPs in combination with conventional sorafenib treatment attenuated HCC
      progression as well as liver fibrosis. Overall, our study presents an effective
      TRAIL-based cancer therapy that could be developed for clinical applications.
      (Hepatology 2018;67:899-913).

PMID- 28885732
TI  - A role of human beta defensin-1 in predicting prostatic adenocarcinoma in cases
      of false-negative biopsy.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of human beta defensin-1 (hBD
      1) in predicting PAC in morphologically normal prostate glands. In total, 25
      patients with a negative initial biopsy for PAC and diagnosed as PAC positive in
      subsequent biopsies performed within 1 year of the initial biopsy were included.
      As a control group, 22 patients negative for PAC in at least three consecutive
      histologic examinations were selected. Expression of hBD-1 was analyzed
      separately via immunohistochemistry in paired cores of non-neoplastic gland and
      PAC in the false-negative group and control group. Loss of hBD-1 expression was
      observed in 95.6% and 90.0% PAC cases with Gleason Patterns 3 and 4 in repeat
      biopsies, respectively. hBD-1 loss of basal cells in 40 (85.1%) previous non
      neoplastic biopsy cores in the false-negative group was observed, in contrast to
      preserved basal cell expression of hBD-1 in 64 (72.7%) biopsy cores in the
      control group (p = 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that
      hBD-1 basal cell loss (>=20% of prostatic glands in total cores) is an
      independent factor for predicting PAC (odds ratio: 4.739, confidence interval:
      1.093-20.554, p = 0.038). hBD-1 loss of basal cells is a useful indicator to
      identify extremely high-risk patients with initially negative biopsy.

PMID- 28885733
TI  - Attachment styles, pain intensity and emotional variables in women with
      fibromyalgia.
AB  - This study aims to explore the relations between attachment styles and pain
      intensity and certain emotional variables (anxiety, depression and alexithymia)
      in a sample of fibromyalgia patients, in comparison with healthy women. Data were
      collected from 146 women with fibromyalgia and 122 healthy women. The variables
      studied were attachment style, pain intensity, anxiety, depression and
      alexithymia dimensions. Patients with fibromyalgia showed lower percentages of
      secure attachment style (69.9% vs. 86%) whilst showing higher avoidant attachment
      (19.8% vs. 7.4%), as well as increased numbers of anxious-ambivalent attachment
      (10.3% vs. 6.6%) than healthy women (X2  = 9.915, p = .007). Also, fibromyalgia
      patients showed significantly higher scores in two of the insecure attachment
      factors (p < .000; p = .020) and lower scores on the secure attachment factor (p
      = .008) in comparison with healthy women. Higher scores of alexithymia were found
      in women showing anxious-ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles in comparison
      with those showing a secure attachment style, regardless of the group they
      belonged to. In fibromyalgia patients, higher anxiety (p = .005) was found among
      the women with anxious-ambivalent attachment styles (Mean = 15.15; SD = 1.15) in
      comparison with those with secure attachment style (Mean = 11.18; SD = .45). No
      relation was found between attachment style and pain intensity. Avoidant
      attachment seems to carry out a contradictory role and warrants further research.
      The results found seem to highlight the need for the Attachment-Diathesis Model
      of Chronic Pain to include attachment styles as a predictor of the emotional
      experience of pain in fibromyalgia patients.

PMID- 28885735
TI  - The seating mechanics of head-neck modular tapers in vitro: Load-displacement
      measurements, moisture, and rate effects.
AB  - The mechanically assisted crevice corrosion performance of head-neck modular
      tapers is a significant concern in orthopedic biomaterials. Fretting crevice
      corrosion processes in modular tapers are thought to be influenced by a wide
      array of factors including seating mechanics of the junction, hence there is a
      need for in vitro test methods that can assess their performance. This study
      presented a test method to directly measure the load-displacement seating
      mechanics of modular tapers and used this method to compare the seating mechanics
      for different tapers, moisture, seating loads and seating rates. Seating
      mechanics were explored whereby the instantaneous load-displacement behavior of
      the head seating onto the neck is captured and used to define the mechanics of
      seating. Two distinct taper design/material combinations were assembled wet or
      dry using axially applied loads (500, 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 N) at two loading
      rates of 100 and 104  N/s (n = 5 for each condition) using a servohydraulic test
      frame. The results showed that pull-off strength scaled with seating load and
      ranged between 43% and 68% of seating load depending on sample and wetness.
      Tapers seated wet had higher pull-off strengths (2,200 +/- 300 N) than those
      seated dry (1,800 +/- 200 N, p < 0.05). Seating mechanics (load-displacement
      plots) varied due to sample type and due to wetness with differences in seating
      energy, seating stiffness, and seating displacement. These results show the
      detailed mechanics of seating during assembly and provide significant insight
      into the complex interplay of factors associated with even "ideal" seating
      (axial, quasistatic) loading. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1164-1172, 2018.

PMID- 28885734
TI  - Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia masquerading as cutaneous indeterminate dendritic
      cell tumor: Expanding the spectrum of skin lesions in chronic myelomonocytic
      leukemia.
AB  - Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a hematopoietic stem cell neoplasm
      exhibiting both myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative features. Cutaneous
      involvement by CMML is critical to recognize as it typically is a harbinger of
      disease progression and an increased incidence of transformation to acute myeloid
      leukemia. Cutaneous lesions of CMML exhibit heterogeneous histopathologic
      features that can be challenging to recognize as CMML. We describe a 67-year-old
      man with a 3-year history of CMML who had been managed on single-agent
      azacitidine with stable disease before developing splenomegaly and acute onset
      skin lesions. Examination of these skin lesions revealed a dense infiltrate of
      histiocytic cells morphologically resembling Langerhans type cells (lacking frank
      histopathologic atypia), and with the immunophenotype of an indeterminate cell
      histiocytosis (S100+ CD1a+ and langerin-). Given the history of CMML, next
      generation sequencing studies were performed on the skin biopsy. These revealed a
      KRAS (p.G12R) mutation identical to that seen in the CMML 3 years prior,
      establishing a clonal relationship between the 2 processes. This case expands the
      spectrum for and underscores the protean nature of cutaneous involvement by CMML
      and underscores the importance of heightened vigilance when evaluating skin
      lesions of CMML patients.

PMID- 28885736
TI  - Prevalence and prognostic impact of anemia and iron deficiency in patients
      hospitalized in an internal medicine ward: The PRO-IRON study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess prevalence, predictive factors, and prognostic impact on in
      hospital mortality of anemia, iron deficiency anemia (IDA), iron deficiency with
      or without anemia (ID), and iron deficiency without anemia (IDWA) in patients
      admitted to an internal medicine ward. METHODS: This 1-year prospective study
      collected data on demographics, medical history, and blood tests in 771
      consecutive patients on admission. RESULTS: Most patients were >=65 years old
      (80%) and had hypertension (63%), moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) (43%),
      and heart failure (41%). Prevalence of anemia, IDA, ID, and IDWA was 67%, 41%,
      58%, and 18%, respectively. Anemia was independently associated with age >=65
      years (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.15-2.70), active cancer (OR 2.44, 95% CI 1.42-4.39), and
      moderate CKD (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.12-2.43). ID was independently associated with
      female gender (OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.64-3.22), heart failure (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.16
      2.37), and moderate CKD (OR 2.95, 95% CI 2.04-4.30). Incidence of in-hospital
      mortality was 21% and independently associated with anemia (RR 1.82, 95% CI 1.21
      2.74). CONCLUSIONS: Anemia and iron deficiency were highly prevalent in internal
      medicine patients. As anemia negatively impacts on in-hospital mortality,
      awareness should be raised for effective diagnosis and management of these
      comorbidities in hospitalized patients.

PMID- 28885737
TI  - Vascular Pattern Analysis on Microvascular Sonography for Differentiation of
      Pleomorphic Adenomas and Warthin Tumors of Salivary Glands.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pleomorphic adenomas and Warthin tumors are the most common salivary
      gland tumors. It is important to differentiate between them because at least a
      partial parotidectomy is necessary for pleomorphic adenomas, whereas enucleation
      is sufficient for Warthin tumors. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of
      vascular pattern analysis using microvascular sonography to differentiate between
      the tumors. METHODS: Sixty-two patients with pathologically proven pleomorphic
      adenomas (n = 38) and Warthin tumors (n = 24) were included. For all tumors,
      grayscale, power Doppler, and microvascular sonographic examinations were
      performed. Differences in vascular patterns (vascular distribution and internal
      vascularity) on power Doppler and microvascular sonography as well as grayscale
      sonographic features (size, shape, border, echogenicity, heterogeneity, and
      cystic change) between pleomorphic adenomas and Warthin tumors were evaluated. A
      comparison of diagnostic performances of grayscale sonography with power Doppler
      sonography and grayscale sonography with microvascular sonography was performed.
      The level of interobserver agreement between 2 reviewers in diagnosing tumors was
      evaluated. RESULTS: No grayscale sonographic features showed a significant
      difference between the tumors. Vascular distributions and internal vascularity on
      power Doppler sonography (P = .01 and .002) and microvascular sonography (both P
      < .001) were all significantly different. The diagnostic accuracy of grayscale
      sonography with microvascular sonography (79.0%) was higher than that of
      grayscale sonography with power Doppler sonography (72.6%). This difference was
      significant according to the McNemar test (P = .004). Interobserver agreement was
      excellent in diagnosing tumors on both grayscale sonography with power Doppler
      sonography (kappa = 0.83) and grayscale sonography with microvascular sonography
      (kappa = 0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Vascular pattern analysis using microvascular
      sonography with other sonographic features is helpful for differentiating between
      pleomorphic adenomas and Warthin tumors.

PMID- 28885738
TI  - Wearable Large-Scale Perovskite Solar-Power Source via Nanocellular Scaffold.
AB  - Dramatic advances in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and the blossoming of wearable
      electronics have triggered tremendous demands for flexible solar-power sources.
      However, the fracturing of functional crystalline films and transmittance wastage
      from flexible substrates are critical challenges to approaching the high
      performance PSCs with flexural endurance. In this work, a nanocellular scaffold
      is introduced to architect a mechanics buffer layer and optics resonant cavity.
      The nanocellular scaffold releases mechanical stresses during flexural
      experiences and significantly improves the crystalline quality of the perovskite
      films. The nanocellular optics resonant cavity optimizes light harvesting and
      charge transportation of devices. More importantly, these flexible PSCs, which
      demonstrate excellent performance and mechanical stability, are practically
      fabricated in modules as a wearable solar-power source. A power conversion
      efficiency of 12.32% for a flexible large-scale device (polyethylene
      terephthalate substrate, indium tin oxide-free, 1.01 cm2 ) is achieved. This
      ingenious flexible structure will enable a new approach for development of
      wearable electronics.

PMID- 28885739
TI  - Role of Acid in Tailoring Prussian Blue as Cathode for High-Performance Sodium
      Ion Battery.
AB  - Prussian blue (PB) with concave centers is synthesized successfully through a
      hydrothermal method with the assistance of acid. In this study, the role of the
      acid is investigated systematically by adjusting the reaction temperature and
      time, using different kinds and amounts of acid, and changing the amount of PVP
      surfactant added. It is found that the acid can not only trigger the chemical
      reaction to form cubic PB, but also act as an etching reagent to tailor the
      morphology. The as-obtained cubic PB with concave centers demonstrates a superior
      cycle stability and rate performance, which can achieve a capacity of 107 mA h g
      1 at 0.2 A g-1 . The corresponding capacity retention is 74 % after 500 cycles
      relative to the second cycle. Even at a current density of 5 A g-1 , the specific
      capacity remains at 82 mA h g-1 . Furthermore, the full cell, using PB as the
      cathode and hard carbon as the anode, exhibits a high capacity of 70 mA h g-1 at
      0.1 A g-1 , and can power an LED light successfully. This work provides new
      insights into the role of acid in tailoring the morphology of PB, and opens a new
      avenue toward the design of unique structures to improve sodium storage.

PMID- 28885740
TI  - Preferential encoding of movement amplitude and speed in the primary motor cortex
      and cerebellum.
AB  - Voluntary movements require control of multiple kinematic parameters, a task
      carried out by a distributed brain architecture. However, it remains unclear
      whether regions along the motor system encode single, or rather a mixture of,
      kinematic parameters during action execution. Here, rapid event-related
      functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to differentiate brain activity
      along the motor system during the encoding of movement amplitude, duration, and
      speed. We present cumulative evidence supporting preferential encoding of
      kinematic parameters along the motor system, based on blood-oxygenation-level
      dependent signal recorded in a well-controlled single-joint wrist-flexion task.
      Whereas activity in the left primary motor cortex (M1) showed preferential
      encoding of movement amplitude, the anterior lobe of the right cerebellum
      (primarily lobule V) showed preferential encoding of movement speed. Conversely,
      activity in the left supplementary motor area (SMA), basal ganglia (putamen), and
      anterior intraparietal sulcus was not preferentially modulated by any specific
      parameter. We found no preference in peak activation for duration encoding in any
      of the tested regions. Electromyographic data was mainly modulated by movement
      amplitude, restricting the distinction between amplitude and muscle force
      encoding. Together, these results suggest that during single-joint movements,
      distinct kinematic parameters are controlled by largely distinct brain-regions
      that work together to produce and control precise movements. Hum Brain Mapp
      38:5970-5986, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28885741
TI  - Fused 1,2,3-Thiaselenazoles Synthesized from 1,2,3-Dithiazoles through Selective
      Chalcogen Exchange.
AB  - A new approach to the synthesis of fused 1,2,3-thiaselenazoles-rare five-membered
      heterocycles that contain two different chalcogens-from the corresponding 1,2,3
      dithiazoles and SeO2 was accomplished by selective exchange of S and Se atoms.
      The fused carbo- and heterocyclic units were indene, naphthalenone,
      cyclohexadienone, cyclopentadiene, benzoannulene, and benzoxazine. The molecular
      structures of two of the thiaselenadiazole products and one of the dithiazole
      precursors were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The reaction is
      highly solvent selective; it only takes place in solvents that contain a C=O
      group (e.g., DMF or tetramethylurea). According to DFT calculations, the reaction
      is thermodynamically favorable. Based on the DFT calculations and 77 Se NMR
      spectroscopy, two tentative mechanisms that feature isomeric transition states
      and intermediates are suggested for the reaction via ring-opening addition of
      SeO2 to the S-X dithiazole bond (X=N or S). The DFT-calculated first adiabatic
      electron affinities of the compounds were chalcogen independent and positive in
      all cases, which assumes formation of thermodynamically stable radical anions
      (RAs). These calculated RAs featured either normal or abnormal elongation of the
      S1-X2 (X=S or Se) bond relative to their neutral precursors and possessed pi* or
      sigma* SOMOs, respectively.

PMID- 28885743
TI  - alpha- and beta-[Bmim][BiCl4 (2,2'-bpy)]: Two Polymorphic Bismuth-Containing
      Ionic Liquids with Crystallization-Induced Phosphorescence.
AB  - This work reports the syntheses, structures, and luminescence properties of two
      supramolecular polymorphic compounds composed of a hybrid bismuth(III) chloride
      anion and an imidazolium cation, namely alpha- (1) and beta- (2) [Bmim][BiCl4
      (2,2'-bpy)] (Bmim=1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium; 2,2'-bpy=2,2'-bipyridine). They
      are the first two examples of Bi3+ -containing ionic liquids (ILs). Their
      different packing modes may be ascribed to the rotational flexibility of the
      butyl group on the [Bmim]+ cation. A comparative study of the weak intermolecular
      interactions present in the two polymorphs has been performed by Hirshfeld
      surface and two-dimensional fingerprint analyses. Investigations of the
      luminescence properties revealed that crystallization induced greenish-yellow
      phosphorescence with quantum yields of 26.07 % for 1 and 36.59 % for 2, which are
      among the highest hitherto reported for hybrid halobismuthate compounds. The
      difference in phosphorescence may be attributed to the different weak
      interactions in 1 and 2, especially pi-pi contacts. This work opens the way to
      further research on new types of polymorphism-dependent luminescent materials
      based on a combination of rotationally isomeric IL cations with organic decorated
      bismuth(III) chloride anions.

PMID- 28885742
TI  - Adaptive bulk motion exclusion for improved robustness of abdominal magnetic
      resonance imaging.
AB  - Non-Cartesian magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences have shown great promise
      for abdominal examination during free breathing, but break down in the presence
      of bulk patient motion (i.e. voluntary or involuntary patient movement resulting
      in translation, rotation or elastic deformations of the body). This work
      describes a data-consistency-driven image stabilization technique that detects
      and excludes bulk movements during data acquisition. Bulk motion is identified
      from changes in the signal intensity distribution across different elements of a
      multi-channel receive coil array. A short free induction decay signal is acquired
      after excitation and used as a measure to determine alterations in the load
      distribution. The technique has been implemented on a clinical MR scanner and
      evaluated in the abdomen. Six volunteers were scanned and two radiologists scored
      the reconstructions. To show the applicability to other body areas, additional
      neck and knee images were acquired. Data corrupted by bulk motion were
      successfully detected and excluded from image reconstruction. An overall increase
      in image sharpness and reduction of streaking and shine-through artifacts were
      seen in the volunteer study, as well as in the neck and knee scans. The proposed
      technique enables automatic real-time detection and exclusion of bulk motion
      during MR examinations without user interaction. It may help to improve the
      reliability of pediatric MRI examinations without the use of sedation.

PMID- 28885745
TI  - Intravoxel incoherent motion MRI as a means to measure in vivo perfusion: A
      review of the evidence.
AB  - The idea that in vivo intravoxel incoherent motion magnetic resonance signal is
      influenced by blood motion in the microvasculature is exciting, because it
      suggests that local and quantitative perfusion information can be obtained in a
      simple and elegant way from a few diffusion-weighted images, without contrast
      injection. When the method was proposed in the late 1980s some doubts appeared as
      to its feasibility, and, probably because the signal to noise and image quality
      at the time was not sufficient, no obvious experimental evidence could be
      produced to alleviate them. Helped by the tremendous improvements seen in the
      last three decades in MR hardware, pulse design, and post-processing
      capabilities, an increasing number of encouraging reports on the value of
      intravoxel incoherent motion perfusion imaging have emerged. The aim of this
      article is to review the current published evidence on the feasibility of in vivo
      perfusion imaging with intravoxel incoherent motion MRI.

PMID- 28885746
TI  - Pseudo-extravasation rate constant of dynamic susceptibility contrast-MRI
      determined from pharmacokinetic first principles.
AB  - Dynamic susceptibility contrast-magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) is widely
      used to obtain informative perfusion imaging biomarkers, such as the relative
      cerebral blood volume (rCBV). The related post-processing software packages for
      DSC-MRI are available from major MRI instrument manufacturers and third-party
      vendors. One unique aspect of DSC-MRI with low-molecular-weight gadolinium (Gd)
      based contrast reagent (CR) is that CR molecules leak into the interstitium space
      and therefore confound the DSC signal detected. Several approaches to correct
      this leakage effect have been proposed throughout the years. Amongst the most
      popular is the Boxerman-Schmainda-Weisskoff (BSW) K2 leakage correction approach,
      in which the K2 pseudo-first-order rate constant quantifies the leakage. In this
      work, we propose a new method for the BSW leakage correction approach. Based on
      the pharmacokinetic interpretation of the data, the commonly adopted R2 *
      expression accounting for contributions from both intravascular and extravasating
      CR components is transformed using a method mathematically similar to Gjedde
      Patlak linearization. Then, the leakage rate constant (KL ) can be determined as
      the slope of the linear portion of a plot of the transformed data. Using the DSC
      data of high-molecular-weight (~750 kDa), iron-based, intravascular Ferumoxytol
      (FeO), the pharmacokinetic interpretation of the new paradigm is empirically
      validated. The primary objective of this work is to empirically demonstrate that
      a linear portion often exists in the graph of the transformed data. This linear
      portion provides a clear definition of the Gd CR pseudo-leakage rate constant,
      which equals the slope derived from the linear segment. A secondary objective is
      to demonstrate that transformed points from the initial transient period during
      the CR wash-in often deviate from the linear trend of the linearized graph. The
      inclusion of these points will have a negative impact on the accuracy of the
      leakage rate constant, and even make it time dependent.

PMID- 28885747
TI  - Palladium-Catalyzed 2,2,2-Trifluoroethoxylation of Aromatic and Heteroaromatic
      Chlorides Utilizing Borate Salt and the Synthesis of a Trifluoro Analogue of
      Sildenafil.
AB  - A simple and convenient method was developed for the introduction of a 2,2,2
      trifluoroethoxy group to various aromatic and heteroaromatic systems. The novel
      process utilizes aromatic chlorides as substrates, and tetrakis(2,2,2
      trifluoroethoxy) borate salt as an inexpensive and readily available fluoroalkoxy
      source in a palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction. The power of the
      developed methodology was demonstrated in the synthesis of a fluorous derivative
      of Sildenafil.

PMID- 28885749
TI  - Paediatric food-induced anaphylaxis hospital presentations in New Zealand.
AB  - AIM: Globally, rates of paediatric food-induced anaphylaxis (FIA) are increasing.
      Little data is available regarding the epidemiology of FIA among New Zealand (NZ)
      children. This study investigated the incidence of paediatric (0-14 years) FIA
      hospital presentations in NZ over a 10-year period. METHODS: Ministry of Health
      public hospital discharge data from 2006 to 2015 were analysed using FIA-related
      International Classification of Diseases codes (T78.0 - anaphylactic shock due to
      adverse food reaction and T78.2 - anaphylactic shock unspecified and free text
      qualifier) to identify acute hospital presentations. RESULTS: The overall
      annualised FIA hospital presentation rate was 16.2 per 100 000 children. Subgroup
      analysis indicated a significantly higher rate in males (19.1/100 000) than in
      females (13.1/100 000), and among children aged less than 2 years of age
      (50.5/100 000) compared with older children. Rates among Asian and Pacific
      children were higher than Maori and NZ European children. In 67.7% of cases, a
      single specific allergen was suggested by the information provided; among these
      cases, nuts (48%), specifically peanuts (26%), were the most commonly reported
      allergen, followed by cow's milk (21%). Time trend analysis showed a 2.8-fold
      increase in the overall annualised rate for the 10-year period. CONCLUSION: These
      findings are consistent with other international studies indicating increasing
      rates of FIA in children. These data will provide information for a review of NZ
      paediatric allergy services to ensure current international standards with regard
      to the equitable delivery of timely, appropriate and accessible care are being
      met. Reasons for differences by gender, age and ethnicity require further
      investigation.

PMID- 28885748
TI  - Extensive study on physicochemical properties of polychlorinated biphenyls in a
      commercial ion trap mass spectrometer, relevance in analytical and environmental
      chemistry.
AB  - Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) exist as 209 congeners, consisting of biphenyl
      molecules, where the number and substitution positions of halogen atoms are known
      to affect industrial uses, environmental transport mechanisms, distribution,
      fate, and toxicity. The complexity of the problem requires accurate
      physicochemical studies of an increasing number of congeners in order to
      understand the environmental and biological processes at play. This work presents
      a systematic study on the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of PCBs by
      quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry. A clear relationship between structure and
      behavior of PCBs in mass spectrometry experiments has been observed. Overall data
      demonstrate that di-ortho congeners show lower thermodynamic stability and higher
      fragmentation rate than non/mono-ortho. Congeners follow different fragmentation
      mechanisms according to the number of chlorine atoms in ortho position of the
      biphenyl system. Experimental kinetic curves of mono/non-ortho and di-ortho
      congeners show a strong similarity with classical first-order kinetics curves; in
      particular, di-ortho congeners follow a first-order consecutive reaction, while
      mono/non-ortho follow a first-order parallel reaction. For each studied congener,
      the kinetic constant of reaction (fragmentation) has been determined. Data
      support environmental levels and biochemical transformations described in
      literature. The general picture of the PCB behavior inside a quadrupole ion trap
      provides the basis for the development of reliable and cost-effective analytical
      methods to the determination of ultra-low level trace of PCB congeners.

PMID- 28885750
TI  - Ultrathin Anionic Tungstophosphite Molecular Wire with Tunable Hydrophilicity and
      Catalytic Activity for Selective Epoxidation in Organic Media.
AB  - The extended 1D tungstophosphite molecular wire is obtained by connection of
      polyoxometalates. Self-assembly of a triangular PIII O3 unit with tungstate
      produces a hexagonal [HPIII W6 O21 ]2- building block, which then connects
      linearly to form the molecular wire. The surface property of the molecular wire
      is tuned to hydrophobic using organoammonium cations, and the surface-modified
      material disperses easily in organic media. The multifunctional material, which
      possesses nanostructure, hydrophobicity, and redox properties simultaneously, is
      suitable for olefin epoxidation in organic solvent.

PMID- 28885751
TI  - High Oxidation State Molybdenum N-Heterocyclic Carbene Alkylidyne Complexes:
      Synthesis, Mechanistic Studies, and Reactivity.
AB  - The first synthetic protocol to high oxidation state molybdenum(VI) N
      heterocyclic carbene (NHC) alkylidyne complexes (NHC=1,3-diisopropylimidazol-2
      ylidene, 1,3-dimethyl-4,5-R2 -imidazol-2-ylidene, R2 =H, Cl, CN) is reported.
      Steric limitations of the NHCs and the benzylidyne are described. All novel
      complexes were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and solution NMR
      techniques. It was shown that all complexes presented here show activity in the
      self-metathesis of 1-phenyl-1-propyne at room temperature. To identify
      mechanistic differences, an experimental sequence to detect dissociation of
      ligands was developed. Results reveal dissociation of less electron-donating NHCs
      in course of the reaction. Mechanistic and reactivity differences were attributed
      to electronic and steric effects through Tolman's electronic parameter and the
      percentage of buried volume. Furthermore, Mo-1 containing the 1,3
      dimethylimidazol-2-ylidene ligand showed good activity in self-metathesis
      reactions of p-substituted 1-phenyl-1-propynes with electron-donating moieties at
      room temperature.

PMID- 28885752
TI  - Dual-echo ASL contributes to decrypting the link between functional connectivity
      and cerebral blow flow.
AB  - Arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI with a dual-echo readout module (DE-ASL) enables
      noninvasive simultaneous acquisition of cerebral blood flow (CBF)-weighted images
      and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast. Up to date, resting-state
      functional connectivity (FC) studies based on CBF fluctuations have been very
      limited, while the BOLD is still the method most frequently used. The purposes of
      this technical report were (i) to assess the potentiality of the DE-ASL sequence
      for the quantification of resting-state FC and brain organization, with respect
      to the conventional BOLD (cvBOLD) and (ii) to investigate the relationship
      between a series of complex network measures and the CBF information. Thirteen
      volunteers were scanned on a 3 T scanner acquiring a pseudocontinuous multislice
      DE-ASL sequence, from which the concomitant BOLD (ccBOLD) simultaneously to the
      ASL can be extracted. In the proposed comparison, the brain FC and graph
      theoretical analysis were used for quantifying the connectivity strength between
      pairs of regions and for assessing the network model properties in all the
      sequences. The main finding was that the ccBOLD part of the DE-ASL sequence
      provided highly comparable connectivity results compared to cvBOLD. As expected,
      because of its different nature, ASL sequence showed different patterns of brain
      connectivity and graph indices compared to BOLD sequences. To conclude, the
      resting-state FC can be reliably detected using DE-ASL, simultaneously to CBF
      quantifications, whereas a single fMRI experiment precludes the quantitative
      measurement of BOLD signal changes. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5831-5844, 2017. (c) 2017
      Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28885753
TI  - Study of gas-phase reactions of NO2+ with aromatic compounds using proton
      transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
AB  - The study of ion chemistry involving the NO2+ is currently the focus of
      considerable fundamental interest and is relevant in diverse fields ranging from
      mechanistic organic chemistry to atmospheric chemistry. A very intense source of
      NO2+ was generated by injecting the products from the dielectric barrier
      discharge of a nitrogen and oxygen mixture upstream into the drift tube of a
      proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-TOF-MS) apparatus
      with H3 O+ as the reagent ion. The NO2+ intensity is controllable and related to
      the dielectric barrier discharge operation conditions and ratio of oxygen to
      nitrogen. The purity of NO2+ can reach more than 99% after optimization. Using
      NO2+ as the chemical reagent ion, the gas-phase reactions of NO2+ with 11
      aromatic compounds were studied by PTR-TOF-MS. The reaction rate coefficients for
      these reactions were measured, and the product ions and their formation
      mechanisms were analyzed. All the samples reacted with NO2+ rapidly with reaction
      rate coefficients being close to the corresponding capture ones. In addition to
      electron transfer producing [M]+ , oxygen ion transfer forming [MO]+ , and 3-body
      association forming [M.NO2 ]+ , a new product ion [M-C]+ was also formed owing to
      the loss of C?O from [MO]+ .This work not only developed a new chemical reagent
      ion NO2+ based on PTR-MS but also provided significant interesting fundamental
      data on reactions involving aromatic compounds, which will probably broaden the
      applications of PTR-MS to measure these compounds in the atmosphere in real time.

PMID- 28885754
TI  - Deficits in voluntary pursuit and inhibition of risk taking in sensation seeking.
AB  - Sensation seeking has been associated with substance use and other risk-taking
      behaviors. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study
      investigated the neural correlates underlying risk taking in sensation seeking.
      Twenty-eight high sensation seekers (HSS; 14 female and 14 male young adults) and
      28 low sensation seekers (LSS; 14 female and 14 male young adults) performed an
      interactive, sequential gambling task that allowed for voluntary pursuit or
      inhibition of risk taking. Behaviorally, HSS versus LSS exhibited a stronger
      tendency toward risk taking. Comparison of the groups revealed that when taking
      risks, HSS relative to LSS exhibited reduced fMRI responses in brain areas
      involved in risk processing, such as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the
      thalamus. Importantly, during the voluntary inhibition of risk taking, HSS
      relative to LSS showed greater fMRI responses in brain areas implicated in
      cognitive control (the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex) and negative emotion
      (the right anterior insula). These findings suggest that risk taking in sensation
      seeking may be driven by both a hypoactive neural system in the voluntary pursuit
      of risk taking and a hyperactive neural system in the voluntary inhibition of
      risk taking, thus providing implications for future prevention programs targeting
      sensation-seeking behaviors. Hum Brain Mapp 38:6019-6028, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28885755
TI  - Effects of an individualised nutritional education and support programme on
      dietary habits, nutritional knowledge and nutritional status of older adults
      living alone.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The effects of an individualised nutritional education and
      support programme on dietary habits, nutritional knowledge and nutritional status
      of 71 older adults living alone were examined. BACKGROUND: Although a regular
      dietary meal plan is recommended for improving nutritional status of older adults
      living alone, little research is done in this field in Korea. DESIGN: A pre- and
      post-test controlled quasi-experimental design was used at public health centres.
      METHODS: The intervention group participated in an intensive nutritional
      education and support programme once a week for 8 weeks with dietary menus
      provided by home visiting nurses/dieticians; control group received usual care.
      Dietary habits and nutritional knowledge were assessed using structured
      questionnaires; nutritional intake status was analysed using Computer Aided
      Nutritional Analysis Program 5.0. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 77.6
      years, and 81.7% of the participants were women. At 8 weeks, there were
      significant interactions of group by time for dietary habits, nutritional
      knowledge and selected nutritional status of protein, iron and vitamins of B2 and
      C. Changes over time in the mean score of dietary habits and nutritional
      knowledge were significantly improved in the intervention group compared to the
      control group. The percentages of normal nutrition intake of protein, iron and
      vitamins A and C in the intervention group were significantly higher than the
      control group at 8 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Nutritional education and support
      programme positively impacted dietary habits, nutritional knowledge and selected
      nutritional status in older adults living alone, and we highlight the need for
      community-based nutritional education and counselling programmes. RELEVANCE TO
      CLINICAL PRACTICE: Older adults living alone in a community have relatively poor
      nutritional status and thus require tailored nutritional intervention according
      to objective nutritional analysis. It is necessary to link visiting nurses with
      dieticians in the community to manage effective nutritional programme
      continuously.

PMID- 28885756
TI  - Synthesis of Functionalized Quinolines through a Reaction of Amides and Alkynes
      Promoted by Triflic Anhydride/Pyridine.
AB  - A concise, novel and flexible metal-free single step to synthesize functionalized
      quinolines is reported. Triflic anhydride-mediated (Tf2 O) activation of amides
      is discussed in the presence of pyridine to offer strong electrophiles, thereby
      showcasing excellent productivity, high regio- and chemoselectivity, and widely
      tolerable substrates. This approach provides a straightforward and efficient way
      to construct azaheterocycle structures.

PMID- 28885757
TI  - Frequency-specific neuromodulation of local and distant connectivity in aging and
      episodic memory function.
AB  - A growing literature has focused on the brain's ability to augment processing in
      local regions by recruiting distant communities of neurons in response to neural
      decline or insult. In particular, both younger and older adult populations
      recruit bilateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) as a means of compensating for
      increasing neural effort to maintain successful cognitive function. However, it
      remains unclear how local changes in neural activity affect the recruitment of
      this adaptive mechanism. To address this problem, we combined graph theoretical
      measures from functional MRI with diffusion weighted imaging and repetitive
      transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to resolve a central hypothesis: how do
      aged brains flexibly adapt to local changes in cortical activity? Specifically,
      we applied neuromodulation to increase or decrease local activity in a cortical
      region supporting successful memory encoding (left dorsolateral PFC or DLPFC)
      using 5 or 1 Hz rTMS, respectively. We then assessed a region's local within
      module degree, or the distributed between-module degree (BMD) between distant
      cortical communities. We predicted that (1) local stimulation-related deficits
      may be counteracted by boosting BMD between bilateral PFC, and that this effect
      should be (2) positively correlated with structural connectivity. Both
      predictions were confirmed; 5 Hz rTMS increased local success-related activity
      and local increases in PFC connectivity, while 1 Hz rTMS decreases local activity
      and triggered a more distributed pattern of bilateral PFC connectivity to
      compensate for this local inhibitory effect. These results provide an integrated,
      causal explanation for the network interactions associated with successful memory
      encoding in older adults. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5987-6004, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28885758
TI  - Bronsted Base-Mediated Regio- and Stereoselective trans-Silaboration of
      Propargylamides: Access to 1,2-Vinylborasilanes.
AB  - A facile method for the preparation of beta-boryl-alpha-silyl aryl acrylamides
      using phenyllithium, dimethylphenylsilylpinacolborane, and propargylamides is
      reported. A key feature of this transition metal-free reaction is the Bronsted
      base deprotonation of aryl secondary propargylamide to produce a Lewis base that
      activates the B-Si bond, which is followed by a sequential intramolecular alpha
      silylation-trans-beta-borylation. The reaction proceeds in complete regio- and
      stereoselectivity. A wide variety of N- and aryl-substituted propargylamides
      afford trans-1,2-vinylborasilanes in high yield. The vicinal borasilane products
      undergo a variety of subsequent chemoselective transformations.

PMID- 28885759
TI  - Host-Guest Complexes of Cyclodextrins and Nanodiamonds as a Strong Non-Covalent
      Binding Motif for Self-Assembled Nanomaterials.
AB  - We report the inclusion of carboxy- and amine-substituted molecular nanodiamonds
      (NDs) adamantane, diamantane, and triamantane by beta-cyclodextrin and gamma
      cyclodextrin (beta-CD and gamma-CD), which have particularly well-suited
      hydrophobicity and symmetry for an optimal fit of the host and guest molecules.
      We studied the host-guest interactions in detail and generally observed 1:1
      association of the NDs with the larger gamma-CD cavity, but observed 1:2
      association for the largest ND in the series (triamantane) with beta-CD. We found
      higher binding affinities for carboxy-substituted NDs than for amine-substituted
      NDs. Additionally, cyclodextrin vesicles (CDVs) were decorated with d-mannose by
      using adamantane, diamantane, and triamantane as non-covalent anchors, and the
      resulting vesicles were compared with the lectin concanavalin A in agglutination
      experiments. Agglutination was directly correlated to the host-guest association:
      adamantane showed lower agglutination than di- or triamantane with beta-CDV and
      almost no agglutination with gamma-CDV, whereas high agglutination was observed
      for di- and triamantane with gamma-CDV.

PMID- 28885760
TI  - Extending Long-lived Charge Separation Between Donor and Acceptor Blocks in Novel
      Copolymer Architectures Featuring a Sensitizer Core.
AB  - A bifunctional RuII photosensitizer unit was decorated with one n- and one p-type
      polymer chain to form precisely controlled hierarchical copolymer-type
      architectures for light-induced charge separation. The applied modular chemistry
      on-the-complex strategy benefits from separately prepared building blocks and
      their orthogonal linkage in the two final assembly steps. Upon visible light
      absorption, electron transfer is initiated between the conjugated poly(3,6
      carbazole) chain and the styrenic poly(naphthalene diimide) segments. Steady
      state and time-resolved spectroscopy show complete charge separation within a few
      nanoseconds (>95 % efficiency) persisting several tens of microseconds. The
      recombination is significantly reduced in comparison to low-molecular model
      systems or to non-conjugated congeners, reflecting the higher charge mobility in
      conjugated polymers. In summary, the modularity of the presented approach is
      expected to serve as a versatile platform to tailor the interface between the
      charge transport domains in a systematic fashion.

PMID- 28885761
TI  - X-ray Structure Analysis of N-Containing Nucleophilic Compounds by the
      Crystalline Sponge Method.
AB  - Crystalline sponges (CS) used under a set of standard conditions have often
      failed to give viable N-containing nucleophilic compounds. Despite the high
      affinity of these nucleophiles to the binding sites of the CS, N-containing
      compounds considerably harm the coordination framework of the CS during the guest
      soaking step. Herein, it is disclosed that these compounds are efficiently
      absorbed into the CS, without harming the host, under mild conditions (<4 
      degrees C, <2 MUg) that normally do not work for common organic guests. Moreover,
      the use of ZnCl2 as the metal component of CS significantly improved the
      tolerance and robustness of the host framework toward N-containing compounds. Out
      of 22 drug (or drug-like) N-containing compounds chosen from the WHO model list
      of essential medicines, we succeeded in analyzing 17 analytes with the modified
      protocols and/or by using the ZnCl2 -noded CS. This demonstrates that the CS
      method is now a practical tool for drug-discovery research in pharmaceutical
      industries.

PMID- 28885762
TI  - Transition-Metal-Free Ring-Opening Silylation of Indoles and Benzofurans with
      (Diphenyl-tert-butylsilyl)lithium.
AB  - A practical method is presented for ring opening various indoles and benzofurans
      with concomitant stereoselective silylation using readily generated (diphenyl
      tert-butylsilyl)lithium to afford ortho-beta-silylvinylanilines or -phenols.
      Dearomatization of the heteroarene core proceeds in the absence of any transition
      metal catalyst through addition of a silyl anion and a subsequent stereoselective
      beta-elimination. DFT calculations provide insight into the mechanism.
      Functionalizing C-X bond cleavage of heteroarenes is rare and generally requires
      transition-metal catalysts.

PMID- 28885763
TI  - The Maastricht Frailty Screening Tool for Hospitalised Patients (MFST-HP) to
      Identify Non-Frail Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Maastricht frailty screening tool for hospitalised patients (MFST
      HP) is a frailty screening tool that is fully integrated in the nursing
      assessment at admission. This study aims to determine the predictive value of the
      MFST-HP for the health outcomes length of hospital stay, discharge destination,
      readmission and mortality. METHODS: Data of 2691 hospitalised patients (70+),
      admitted between 01-01-2013 and 31-12-2013, were included in the study. The
      predictive value of the MFST-HP was analysed by means of receiver operating
      characteristics curves. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV)
      and negative predictive value (NPV) for different MFST-HP cut-off scores were
      examined. RESULTS: Mean age of the population was 78.9 years (SD 6.4) and their
      average length of stay was 10.2 days (SD 9.7). Nearly 75.0% of the patients were
      discharged to their home and around. Approximately 25% of the patients were
      readmitted within 120 days. Mortality rates were 4.3% and 9.5% (within 30 or 120
      days postdischarge, respectively). The area under the curve was moderate and
      varied from 0.50 to 0.69 for the different outcomes. As a result of high values
      on negative predictive value (between 73.5% and 96.7%) the MFST-HP is able to
      rule out a large proportion of non-frail patients. In this study 84% of the
      patients had a MFST-HP score of >= 6, suggested as most favourable cut off.
      CONCLUSIONS: The MFST-HP seems to operate more strongly as a non-frailty
      indicator than as a frailty indicator and may in this respect help professionals
      to decide upon subsequent care. The MFST-HP is able to rule out 84% of the non
      frail population in this study. The remaining 16% need to be assessed by means of
      a comprehensive geriatric assessment or rapid geriatric assessment, to gain more
      insight in the level of vulnerability in the frail-group.

PMID- 28885764
TI  - Porphyrin Derivatives Inhibit the Interaction between Receptor Activator of NF
      kappaB and Its Ligand.
AB  - Receptor activator of NF-kappaB (RANK), a member of the TNF-receptor superfamily,
      plays an important role in bone resorption and stimulates immune and epithelial
      cell activation. Denosumab, a human monoclonal antibody that blocks the RANK
      ligand (RANKL), is approved for the treatment of osteoporosis and bone
      metastasis. However, a small molecule that inhibits the RANK-RANKL interaction
      would be beneficial to decrease cost and to facilitate treatments with orally
      available therapeutic agents. Herein we report the discovery of the first
      nonpeptidic inhibitors of RANK-RANKL interactions. In screening a chemical
      library by competitive ELISA, the porphyrin verteporfin was identified as a hit.
      Derivatives were screened, and the chlorin-macrocycle-containing pheophorbide A
      and purpurin 18 were found to bind recombinant RANKL, to inhibit RANK-RANKL
      interactions in the ELISA, and to suppress the RANKL-dependent activation of
      model cells and the differentiation of RANK-expressing precursors into
      osteoclasts. This discovery of a family of small molecules that inhibit RANK
      activation presents an initial basis for further development of nonpeptidic
      therapeutic agents targeting the interaction between RANK and RANKL.

PMID- 28885765
TI  - Reducing hospital-acquired pressure ulcers using bundle methodology in pediatric
      and neonatal patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy: An
      integrative review and call to action.
AB  - PURPOSE: This review focuses on identifying (1) evidence of the effectiveness of
      care bundle methodology to reduce hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) in
      pediatric and neonatal patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
      (ECMO) therapy and (2) barriers to implementing HAPU care bundles in this at-risk
      population. DESIGN AND METHODS: An integrative review was conducted and reported
      following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
      guidelines. A search of the scientific literature was performed. Studies included
      were published between January 2011 and February 2016. A total of seven articles
      met inclusion criteria. Data were extracted from each published article and
      analyzed to identify common themes, specifically bundle methodology and barriers
      to implementing HAPU bundles, in this population. RESULTS: There is limited
      research on effectiveness of care bundle methodology in reducing HAPUs in
      children, and no research specific to its effectiveness in pediatric or neonatal
      ECMO patients. No research was identified studying barriers to implementation of
      HAPU care bundles in this population. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Nurses are well
      poised to test innovative strategies to prevent HAPUs. Nurses should consider
      implementing and testing bundle methodology to reduce HAPU in this at-risk
      population, and conduct research to identify any barriers to implementing this
      strategy. There is literature to support the use of nurses as unit-based skin
      care champions to facilitate teamwork and reliable use of the bundle, both
      critical components to the success of bundle methodology.

PMID- 28885766
TI  - Computer-assisted cytologic diagnosis in pancreatic FNA: An application of neural
      networks to image analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy is an accurate method for the
      diagnosis of solid pancreatic masses. However, a significant number of cases
      still pose a diagnostic challenge. The authors have attempted to design a
      computer model to aid in the diagnosis of these biopsies. METHODS: Images were
      captured of cell clusters on ThinPrep slides from 75 pancreatic FNA cases (20
      malignant, 24 benign, and 31 atypical). A K-means clustering algorithm was used
      to segment the cell clusters into separable regions of interest before extracting
      features similar to those used for cytomorphologic assessment. A multilayer
      perceptron neural network (MNN) was trained and then tested for its ability to
      distinguish benign from malignant cases. RESULTS: A total of 277 images of cell
      clusters were obtained. K-means clustering identified 68,301 possible regions of
      interest overall. Features such as contour, perimeter, and area were found to be
      significantly different between malignant and benign images (P <.05). The MNN was
      100% accurate for benign and malignant categories. The model's predictions from
      the atypical data set were 77% accurate. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current
      study demonstrate that computer models can be used successfully to distinguish
      benign from malignant pancreatic cytology. The fact that the model can categorize
      atypical cases into benign or malignant with 77% accuracy highlights the great
      potential of this technology. Although further study is warranted to validate its
      clinical applications in pancreatic and perhaps other areas of cytology as well,
      the potential for improved patient outcomes using MNN for image analysis in
      pathology is significant. Cancer Cytopathol 2017;125:926-33. (c) 2017 American
      Cancer Society.

PMID- 28885767
TI  - Creating Oxidase-Peroxidase Fusion Enzymes as a Toolbox for Cascade Reactions.
AB  - A set of bifunctional oxidase-peroxidases has been prepared by fusing four
      distinct oxidases to a peroxidase. Although such fusion enzymes have not been
      observed in nature, they could be expressed and purified in good yields.
      Characterization revealed that the artificial enzymes retained the capability to
      bind the two required cofactors and were catalytically active as oxidase and
      peroxidase. Peroxidase fusions of alditol oxidase and chitooligosaccharide
      oxidase could be used for the selective detection of xylitol and cellobiose with
      a detection limit in the low-micromolar range. The peroxidase fusions of eugenol
      oxidase and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural oxidase could be used for dioxygen-driven,
      one-pot, two-step cascade reactions to convert vanillyl alcohol into divanillin
      and eugenol into lignin oligomers. The designed oxidase-peroxidase fusions
      represent attractive biocatalysts that allow efficient biocatalytic cascade
      oxidations that only require molecular oxygen as an oxidant.

PMID- 28885768
TI  - Characterization of the novel HLA-DRB1*13:241 allele by sequencing-based typing.
AB  - HLA-DRB1*13:241 differs from HLA-DRB1*13:02:01 by one nucleotide substitution at
      position 335.

PMID- 28885769
TI  - Water Splitting via Decoupled Photocatalytic Water Oxidation and Electrochemical
      Proton Reduction Mediated by Electron-Coupled-Proton Buffer.
AB  - Water splitting mediated by electron-coupled-proton buffer (ECPB) provides an
      efficient way to avoid gas mixing by separating oxygen evolution from hydrogen
      evolution in space and time. Though electrochemical and photoelectrochemcial
      water oxidation have been incorporated in such a two-step water splitting system,
      alternative ways to reduce the cost and energy input for decoupling two half
      reactions are desired. Herein, we show the feasibility of photocatalytic oxygen
      evolution in a powder system with BiVO4 as a photocatalyst and polyoxometalate H3
      PMo12 O40 as an electron and proton acceptor. The resulting reaction mixture was
      allowed to be directly used for the subsequent hydrogen evolution with the
      reduced H3 PMo12 O40 as electron and proton donors. Our system exhibits excellent
      stability in repeated oxygen and hydrogen evolution, which brings considerable
      convenience to decoupled water splitting.

PMID- 28885770
TI  - Room-temperature Synthesis of Amorphous Molybdenum Oxide Nanodots with Tunable
      Localized Surface Plasmon Resonances.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have recently emerged as a remarkable class
      of plasmonic alternative to conventional noble metals. However, tuning of their
      plasmonic resonances towards different wavelengths in the visible-light region
      with physical or chemical methods still remains challenging. In this work, we
      design a simple room-temperature chemical reaction route to synthesize amorphous
      molybdenum oxide (MoO3-x ) nanodots that exhibit strong localized surface plasmon
      resonances (LSPR) in the visible and near-infrared region. Moreover, tunable
      plasmon resonances can be achieved in a wide range with the changing surrounding
      solvent, and accordingly the photoelectrocatalytic activity can be optimized with
      the varying LSPR peaks. This work boosts the light-matter interaction at the
      nanoscale and could enable photodetectors, sensors, and photovoltaic devices in
      the future.

PMID- 28885771
TI  - Impact of donor age in donation after circulatory death liver transplantation: Is
      the cutoff "60" still of relevance?
AB  - Advanced donor age has been identified as a risk factor when combined with donor
      warm ischemia time (WIT), eg, in donation after circulatory death (DCD). In
      several countries, DCD livers older than 60 years are not considered suitable due
      to concerns related to poor graft function and development of ischemic
      cholangiopathy. In this study, we evaluate outcomes after DCD liver
      transplantation using grafts from donors older than 60 years. We analyzed
      outcomes after DCD liver transplantation (n = 315), comparing donors > 60 years
      (n = 93) and donors <= 60 years (n = 222) from our center between 2005 and 2015.
      End points included graft function and complications and patient and graft
      survival. Multivariate risk analysis was performed to define further key factors
      that predicted inferior outcome. Donor age at the cutoff 60 years failed to
      stratify patient and graft survival. The rate of vascular, biliary, and overall
      complications was comparably low in both cohorts, and the median comprehensive
      complication index was 42.7 points, independent from the donor age. Second, donor
      body mass index (BMI) above a threshold of 25 kg/m2 significantly impacted on
      graft and patient survival at any donor age, whereas donor WIT and cold ischemia
      times were not predictive for graft loss. In conclusion, older DCD donors can be
      successfully used for liver transplantation with good longterm outcomes when
      further risk factors are limited. Additional risk is transmitted by an increased
      donor BMI regardless of donor age. Liver Transplantation 24 352-362 2018 AASLD.

PMID- 28885773
TI  - Far-UV-Excited Luminescence of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers: Evidence for Diamonds in
      Space.
AB  - The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are among the most thoroughly
      investigated defects in solid-state matter; however, our understanding of their
      properties upon far-UV excitation of the host matrix is limited. This knowledge
      is crucial for the identification of NV as the carrier of extended red emission
      (ERE) bands detected in a wide range of astrophysical environments. Herein, we
      report a study on the photoluminescence spectra of NV-containing nanodiamonds
      excited with synchrotron radiation over the wavelength range of 125-350 nm. We
      observed, for the first time, an emission at 520-850 nm with a quantum yield
      greater than 20 %. Our results share multiple similarities with the ERE
      phenomena, suggesting that nanodiamonds are a common component of dust in space.

PMID- 28885772
TI  - Overt hepatic encephalopathy impairs learning on the EncephalApp stroop which is
      reversible after liver transplantation.
AB  - After an initial exposure, patients can develop test-taking/learning strategies
      called the "test sophistication effect." Patients with cirrhosis with prior overt
      hepatic encephalopathy (OHE) could have persistent learning impairments. The aim
      was to define learning/test sophistication on EncephalApp (downloadable
      application) in OHE patients compared with patients without prior overt hepatic
      encephalopathy (no-OHE) patients and controls cross-sectionally and
      longitudinally. The EncephalApp Stroop App consists of 2 sections: the easier
      "Off" run assesses psychomotor speed while the difficult "On" run assesses
      cognitive flexibility. For the cross-sectional analysis, outpatients with
      cirrhosis with/without controlled OHE and healthy controls underwent EncephalApp
      testing, which requires 5 Off and 5 On runs. We studied the difference in time
      required between completing trial 1 compared with trial 5 (delta 1-5) in both the
      On and Off runs in controls, all patients with cirrhosis, and between prior
      OHE/no-OHE patients with cirrhosis. For the longitudinal analyses, 2 groups of
      patients with cirrhosis were studied; 1 was administered the EncephalApp >= 2
      weeks apart, and the second was administered before and 6 months after liver
      transplantation. The study included 89 controls and 230 patients with cirrhosis
      (85 prior OHE; Model for End-Stage Liver Disease, 11) with similar age (64 versus
      61 years; P = 0.92). Patients with cirrhosis had impaired EncephalApp total times
      and impaired learning on the On runs compared with controls. OHE patients had
      worse EncephalApp times and learning with the On runs compared with no-OHE
      patients, which persisted in the longitudinal cohort. No differences in learning
      were seen in the Off runs. After transplant, there was restoration of learning
      capability with the On runs in the OHE patients. In conclusion, cognitive
      flexibility tested by the EncephalApp On runs improves over time in healthy
      controls and no-OHE but not prior OHE. Psychomotor speed remains similar over
      time. The learning impairment manifested by patients with cirrhosis with OHE is
      restored after transplant. Liver Transplantation 23 1396-1403 2017 AASLD.

PMID- 28885774
TI  - Small-for-size grafts increase recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma in liver
      transplantation beyond milan criteria.
AB  - Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has been reported to have high rates of
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence compared with deceased donor liver
      transplantation (DDLT). This has been assumed to be due to the frequent use of
      small-for-size grafts (SFSGs) in LDLT rather than DDLT, but the relationship
      between graft size and prognosis remains controversial. This study aimed to
      clarify the effect of SFSGs on the oncologic outcomes of patients with HCC who
      underwent LDLT. Between January 2005 and December 2015, 597 consecutive patients
      underwent LDLT. Among these patients, those with HCC who underwent LDLT were
      randomly matched at a 1:3 ratio (graft-to-recipient body weight ratio [GRWR] <
      0.8%:GRWR > 0.8%) according to propensity score. HCC recurrence and patient
      survival were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. In
      addition, stratified subgroup analysis based on the Milan criteria was performed.
      SFSG was defined as a GRWR < 0.8%. Using propensity score matching, 82 patients
      with GRWR < 0.8% and 246 patients with GRWR >= 0.8% were selected. For patients
      with HCC within the Milan criteria, no significant difference of HCC recurrence
      (P = 0.82) and patient survival (P = 0.95) was found based on GRWR. However, for
      patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria, 1-, 3-, and 5-year recurrence-free
      survival rates were 52.4%, 49.3%, and 49.3%, respectively, for patients with GRWR
      < 0.8%, and 76.5%, 68.3%, and 64.3%, respectively, for patients with GRWR >= 0.8%
      (P = 0.049). The former group exhibited poor patient survival rates (P = 0.047).
      In conclusion, for patients with HCC within the Milan criteria, no significant
      difference in oncologic outcomes was found based on liver graft size. However,
      among the patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria, SFSG recipients showed
      poor oncologic outcomes. Because extended criteria are frequently used in LDLT
      for HCC, a recipient's prognosis can be improved if a liver graft of appropriate
      size is carefully selected during donor selection. Liver Transplantation 24 35-43
      2018 AASLD.

PMID- 28885775
TI  - In vitro metabolism of the synthetic cannabinoids CUMYL-PINACA, 5F-CUMYL-PINACA,
      CUMYL-4CN-BINACA, 5F-CUMYL-P7AICA and CUMYL-4CN-B7AICA.
AB  - Synthetic cannabinoid consumption trends underlie fast changes and provide
      several challenges to clinical and forensic toxicologists. Due to their extensive
      metabolism, parent compounds are hardly detectable in urine. Therefore, knowledge
      of the metabolism of synthetic cannabinoids is essential to allow their detection
      in biological matrices. The aim of the present study was the elucidation of the
      metabolism of CUMYL-PINACA, 5F-CUMYL-PINACA, CUMYL-4CN-BINACA, 5F-CUMYL-P7AICA,
      and CUMYL-4CN-B7AICA with a focus on the analytical and interpretational
      differentiation of the compounds. Microsomal assay mixtures containing co
      substrates, 10 MUg/mL substrate and 1 mg/mL pooled human liver microsomes were
      incubated for 1 hour at 37 degrees C. Investigation of the metabolites was
      performed on a Thermo Fischer Ultimate 3000 UHPLC system coupled to a Sciex 6600
      QTOF System. Hydroxylation was observed to be a major biotransformation step for
      all 5 cumyl-derivatives, followed by dihydroxylation. For CUMYL-PINACA, a major
      metabolic pathway was hydroxylation at the pentyl moiety, followed by a second
      hydroxylation at that pentyl moiety or oxidation to ketone. A major metabolic
      pathway for the compounds containing a nitrile function was nitrile hydrolysis
      followed by carboxylation and further hydroxylation. For the fluorinated
      compounds, oxidative defluorination and carboxylation were abundant metabolic
      steps. Some of the metabolic transformations lead to structurally identical
      metabolites, which should not be used as marker for the intake of a particular
      parent compound. In addition, several constitutional isomers containing either an
      indazole or azaindole core structure were detected, which should be
      differentiated by retention time rather than by their mass spectra alone.

PMID- 28885776
TI  - Monitoring of transferrin isoforms in biological samples by capillary
      electrophoresis.
AB  - Work dealing with the monitoring of transferrin isoforms in human serum and other
      body fluids by capillary electrophoresis is reviewed. It comprises capillary zone
      electrophoresis and capillary isoelectric focusing efforts that led to the
      exploration and use of assays for the determination of carbohydrate-deficient
      transferrin as a marker for excessive alcohol intake, genetic variants of
      transferrin, congenital disorders of glycosylation and beta-2-transferrin, which
      is a marker for cerebrospinal fluid leakage. This paper provides insight into the
      development, specifications, strengths, weaknesses, and routine use of the
      currently known capillary electrophoresis based assays suitable to detect
      transferrin isoforms in body fluids. The achievements reached so far indicate
      that capillary zone electrophoresis is an attractive technology to monitor the
      molecular forms of transferrin in biological specimens as the assays do not
      require an elaborate sample pretreatment and thus can be fully automated for high
      throughput analyses on multicapillary instruments. Assays based on capillary
      isoelectric focusing are less attractive. They require immunoextraction of
      transferrin from the biological matrix and mobilization after focusing if
      instrumentation with a whole-column imaging detector is not available.
      Interactions of the carrier ampholytes with the iron of transferrin may prevent
      iron saturation and thus provide more complicated isoform patterns.

PMID- 28885777
TI  - Field-Effect Biosensors for On-Site Detection: Recent Advances and Promising
      Targets.
AB  - There is an explosive interest in the immediate and cost-effective analysis of
      field-collected biological samples, as many advanced biodetection tools are
      highly sensitive, yet immobile. On-site biosensors are portable and convenient
      sensors that provide detection results at the point of care. They are designed to
      secure precision in highly ionic and heterogeneous solutions with minimal
      hardware. Among various methods that are capable of such analysis, field-effect
      biosensors are promising candidates due to their unique sensitivity,
      manufacturing scalability, and integrability with computational circuitry. Recent
      developments in nanotechnological surface modification show promising results in
      sensing from blood, serum, and urine. This report gives a particular emphasis on
      the on-site efficacy of recently published field-effect biosensors, specifically,
      detection limits in physiological solutions, response times, and scalability. The
      survey of the properties and existing detection methods of four promising
      biotargets, exosomes, bacteria, viruses, and metabolites, aims at providing a
      roadmap for future field-effect and other on-site biosensors.

PMID- 28885779
TI  - The global challenge to improve the sexual and reproductive health of women
      affected by FGM/C.

PMID- 28885778
TI  - Histopathologic follow-up and HPV test results with HSIL Papanicolaou test
      results in China's largest academic women's hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer screening in China is largely limited to occasional
      opportunistic screening in urban centers. The current study reports
      histopathologic follow-up and human papillomavirus (HPV) results in women with
      high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) Papanicolaou (Pap) tests
      reported at the largest academic women's hospital in China and compares these
      findings with those of published Western studies among frequently screened women.
      METHODS: A retrospective cohort study documented HSIL Pap tests, patient age, HPV
      results, and histopathologic follow-up from 2011 through 2015 in the Obstetrics
      and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University (OGHFU) in Shanghai, China. Of
      886,122 Pap test results, 4269 (0.48%) reported HSIL. Histopathologic follow-up
      was available for 2351 cases and HPV results were available for 2092 cases.
      RESULTS: HSIL reporting rates increased with patient age from 0.16% at age <30
      years to 0.58% at ages 30 to 49 years and 0.75% at age >=50 years. HSIL rates
      were found to be significantly higher for women tested using liquid-based
      cytology (0.52%-0.55%) compared with conventional Pap tests (0.19%). Among 2351
      cases with histopathologic follow-up, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of type
      2/3 was diagnosed in 74.1% of cases and squamous cell carcinoma in 14.2% of
      cases. Squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed in 22.8% of patients aged >=50 years
      who underwent biopsy. HPV-positive HSIL rates using 3 different HPV tests ranged
      from 88.1% to 93.9%. CONCLUSIONS: At OGHFU, the finding of an increase in HSIL
      cytology rates with increasing patient age contrasted with a finding of
      decreasing HSIL rates with increasing age previously reported in regularly
      screened cotested patients in the United States. The increasing HSIL rates with
      older age and high rates of cervical cancer diagnoses noted at OGHFU appear to be
      best explained by the absence of consistent intraepithelial lesion ablation
      achievable with frequent screening and treatment. Cancer Cytopathol 2017;125:947
      53. (c) 2017 American Cancer Society.

PMID- 28885780
TI  - Vacancy-Rich Monolayer BiO2-x as a Highly Efficient UV, Visible, and Near
      Infrared Responsive Photocatalyst.
AB  - Vacancy-rich layered materials with good electron-transfer property are of great
      interest. Herein, a full-spectrum responsive vacancy-rich monolayer BiO2-x has
      been synthesized. The increased density of states at the conduction band (CB)
      minimum in the monolayer BiO2-x is responsible for the enhanced photon response
      and photo-absorption, which were confirmed by UV/Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance
      spectra (DRS) and photocurrent measurements. Compared to bulk BiO2-x , monolayer
      BiO2-x has exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance for rhodamine B and
      phenol removal under UV, visible, and near-infrared light (NIR) irradiation,
      which can be attributed to the vacancy VBi-O ''' as confirmed by the positron
      annihilation spectra. The presence of VBi-O ''' defects in monolayer BiO2-x
      promoted the separation of electrons and holes. This finding provides an atomic
      level understanding for developing highly efficient UV, visible, and NIR light
      responsive photocatalysts.

PMID- 28885781
TI  - Thermosensitive Hydrogel Containing Doxycycline Exerts Inhibitory Effects on
      Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Induced By Pancreatic Elastase in Mice.
AB  - Doxycycline (DOX) is reported to exert therapeutic effects against abdominal
      aortic aneurysm (AAA), a severe degenerative disease. In this study, a DOX
      hydrogel formulation of DOX/PECTgel is studied, and its phase transition behavior
      and in vitro release profiles are explored. In addition, the anti-AAA effects and
      bioavailability of DOX/PECTgel are evaluated in an elastase induced AAA mouse
      model. The results show that the phase transition temperature of 30% poly(e
      caprolactone-co-1,4,8-trioxa[4.6]spiro-9-undecanone) (PECT) solution is above 34 
      degrees C. In vitro release profiles of DOX/PECTgel indicate a fast release of
      DOX at the first two days, followed by a slow and sustained release for 14 d. In
      vivo single-dose single subcutaneous injection of DOX/PECTgel containing 8.4 or
      4.2 mg mL-1 DOX presents comparatively preventive effects on AAA, compared to
      intraperitoneal injections of DOX alone at a dose of 15 mg kg-1 for seven
      injections, while DOX bioavailability of the DOX/PECTgel treated groups is 1.39
      times or 1.19 times of the DOX alone treated group, respectively.

PMID- 28885782
TI  - Evaluation of Pulse-Width of Spinal Nerve Stimulation in a Rat Model of Bladder
      Micturition Reflex.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The spinal nerve stimulation (SNS) evoked motor threshold (Tmot )
      response across different pulse-widths (PWs) was first explored and a subset of
      selected stimulation PWs were further assessed with respect to bladder reflex
      contraction (BRC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In anesthetized female rats, wire
      electrodes were placed under each of the L6 spinal nerves to produce bilateral
      SNS. The relationship of Tmot response with PW was analyzed using a
      monoexponential nonlinear regression. A cannula was placed into the bladder via
      the urethra to ensure an isovolumetric bladder. Saline infusion induced BRC.
      RESULTS: The chronaxie of the Tmot -PW curve was 0.04 ms. The stimulation
      charges/energies (current * PW) associated with shorter PWs of 0.02, 0.03, and
      0.06 ms were significantly lower than those with longer PW (e.g., >0.15 ms). SNS
      (Tmot , 10 Hz) at selected PWs from 0.03 to 0.21 ms inhibited the frequency of
      BRCs. There were no significantly different attenuations among tested PWs. SNS of
      PWs of 0.03, 0.06, and 0.09 ms decreased bladder contraction frequency from 103
      +/- 3%, 100 +/- 4%, and 103 +/- 4% of controls, to 52 +/- 16% (n = 8, p = 0.02,
      paired t-test), 56 +/- 15% (n = 11, p = 0.02) and 40 +/- 19% (n = 10, p = 0.01),
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Effective PWs to produce bladder inhibitory effects in
      the rat appear much shorter than 0.21 ms typically used with sacral
      neuromodulation in practice. Potential battery savings manifested by shorter PW
      while maintaining equivalent efficacy would provide more efficient therapy
      delivery and increased longevity of the stimulator.

PMID- 28885783
TI  - Uterine balloon tamponade for the management of postpartum haemorrhage: a
      challenge and an opportunity for better evidence.

PMID- 28885784
TI  - Changes in Tonsil B Cell Phenotypes and EBV Receptor Expression in Children Under
      5-Years-Old.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Palatine tonsils are principally B cell organs that are the initial
      line of defense against many oral pathogens, as well as the site of infection for
      others. While the size of palatine tonsils changes greatly in the first five
      years of life, the cellular changes during this period are not well studied.
      Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is a common orally transmitted virus that infects
      tonsillar B cells. Naive B cells are thought to be the target of primary
      infection with EBV in vivo, suggesting that they are targeted by the virus. EBV
      enters B cells through CD21, but studies of older children and adults have not
      shown differences in surface CD21 between naive B cells and other tonsil B cell
      populations. METHODS: In this study, we used an 11-color flow cytometry panel to
      detail the changes in B cell subpopulations in human tonsils over the first five
      years of life from 33 healthy US children. RESULTS: We provide reference ranges
      for tonsil B cell subpopulations over this age range. We show that the frequency
      of naive tonsil B cells decreases over the early years of life, and that naive B
      cells expressed higher surface levels of CD21 relative to other tonsil B cell
      populations. CONCLUSIONS: We show that young children have a higher frequency of
      naive tonsil B cells, and importantly that these cells express increased surface
      EBV receptor, suggesting that young children have a larger pool of cells that can
      be infected by the virus. (c) 2017 International Clinical Cytometry Society.

PMID- 28885786
TI  - 3D Miniaturization of Human Organs for Drug Discovery.
AB  - "Engineered human organs" hold promises for predicting the effectiveness and
      accuracy of drug responses while reducing cost, time, and failure rates in
      clinical trials. Multiorgan human models utilize many aspects of currently
      available technologies including self-organized spherical 3D human organoids,
      microfabricated 3D human organ chips, and 3D bioprinted human organ constructs to
      mimic key structural and functional properties of human organs. They enable
      precise control of multicellular activities, extracellular matrix (ECM)
      compositions, spatial distributions of cells, architectural organizations of ECM,
      and environmental cues. Thus, engineered human organs can provide the
      microstructures and biological functions of target organs and advantageously
      substitute multiscaled drug-testing platforms including the current in vitro
      molecular assays, cell platforms, and in vivo models. This review provides an
      overview of advanced innovative designs based on the three main technologies used
      for organ construction leading to single and multiorgan systems useable for drug
      development. Current technological challenges and future perspectives are also
      discussed.

PMID- 28885785
TI  - Homogeneous Water Oxidation by Half-Sandwich Iridium(III) N-Heterocyclic Carbene
      Complexes with Pendant Hydroxy and Amino Groups.
AB  - Herein, we report three IrIII Cp* complexes with hydroxy- or amino-functionalized
      N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands that catalyze efficient water oxidation
      induced by addition of ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN). The pendant hydroxy or amino
      groups are very important for activity, and the complexes with heteroatom
      functionalized NHC ligands show up to 15 times higher rates of oxygen evolution
      in CAN-induced water oxidation than a reference IrIII Cp* complex without
      heteroatom functionalization. The formation of molecular high-valent Ir
      intermediates that are presumably involved in the rate-determining step for water
      oxidation is established by UV/Vis spectroscopy and ESI-MS under turnover
      conditions. The hydroxy groups on the NHC ligands, as well as chloride ligands on
      the iridium center are proposed to structurally stabilize the high-valent
      species, and thereby improve the catalytic activity. The IrIII complex with a
      hydroxy-functionalized NHC shows the highest catalytic activity with a TON of
      2500 obtained in 3 h and with >90 % yield relative to the amount of oxidant used.

PMID- 28885787
TI  - An Inexpensive, Point-of-Care Urine Test for Bladder Cancer in Patients
      Undergoing Hematuria Evaluation.
AB  - Although hematuria (blood in urine) is the most common symptom of bladder cancer,
      70-98% of hematuria cases are benign. These hematuria patients unnecessarily
      undergo costly, invasive, and expensive evaluation for bladder cancer. Therefore,
      there remains a need for noninvasive office-based tests that can rapidly and
      reliably rule out bladder cancer in patients undergoing hematuria evaluation.
      Herein, a clinical assay for matrix metalloproteinases ("Ammps") is presented,
      which generates a visual signal based on the collagenase activity (in urine of
      patients) on the Ammps substrates. Ammps substrates are generated by crosslinking
      gelatin with Fe(II) chelated alginate nanoparticles, which precipitate in urine
      samples. The cleavage of gelatin-conjugated alginate (Fe(II)) nanoparticles by
      collagenases generates free-floating alginate (Fe(II)) nanoparticles that
      participate in Fenton's reaction to generate a visual signal. In a pilot study of
      88 patients, Ammps had 100% sensitivity, 85% specificity, and a negative
      predictive value (NPV) of 100% for diagnosing bladder cancer. This high NPV can
      be useful in ruling out bladder cancer in patients referred for hematuria
      evaluation.

PMID- 28885788
TI  - 2016 ACS Governors Survey: Issues affecting surgical practice.

PMID- 28885789
TI  - Postoperative data reporting for global services.

PMID- 28885790
TI  - Coding for dialysis circuit interventions.

PMID- 28885791
TI  - RS3 -the Montana Rural Surgery Support System-is a model forsurgical care in
      rural CAHs.

PMID- 28885792
TI  - Training and networking opportunities for medical studentsat the ACS Clinical
      Congress.

PMID- 28885794
TI  - Politics and the president's gallbladder.

PMID- 28885793
TI  - Gastrectomy for cancer: What are the benefits of a minimally invasive approach?

PMID- 28885795
TI  - National Doctors' Day initiative highlights gratitude for mentors.

PMID- 28885796
TI  - Joint Commission releases data on challenging requirementsfor OBS practices.

PMID- 28885797
TI  - Using the NCDB to explore trends in cancer.

PMID- 28885798
TI  - J. Marion Sims, MD: A controversial legacy.

PMID- 28885799
TI  - Response from the author.

PMID- 28885800
TI  - Looking forward.

PMID- 28885802
TI  - Amusement park injuries are not amusing.

PMID- 28885803
TI  - Looking forward.

PMID- 28885804
TI  - Out of unspeakable tragedy comes progress in bleeding control.

PMID- 28885805
TI  - Bleeding control training: An opportunity for local volunteerism, community
      engagement, and peer education.

PMID- 28885806
TI  - New adult trauma center on Chicago's South Side will treat violence as a disease.

PMID- 28885807
TI  - Implementing World Health Assembly Resolution 68.15: National surgical,
      obstetric, and anesthesia strategic plan development--the Zambian experience.

PMID- 28885808
TI  - Domestic volunteerism: Dr. Freiwald brings surgical care to uninsured patients in
      San Diego.

PMID- 28885809
TI  - 2016 ACS Governors Survey: MACRA: Are surgeons ready?

PMID- 28885810
TI  - ACS CRP Dissemination and Implementation Committee issues call for participants
      in pilot project.
AB  - According to HHS, dissemination and implementation research is designed "to
      bridge the gap between public health, clinical research, andeveryday practice by
      building a knowledge base about how health information, interventions, and new
      clinical practices andpolicies are transmitted and translated for public health
      and health care service use in specific settings".

PMID- 28885811
TI  - New resources available for your personal and professional development.

PMID- 28885812
TI  - Time-outs and their role in improving safety and quality in surgery.

PMID- 28885813
TI  - Asleep at the wheel: Obstructive sleep apnea.
AB  - Left untreated, OSA can lead to hypertension, stroke, congestive heart failure,
      and atrial fibrillation and s associated with type 2diabetes and depression....
      OSA strikes people of any age, including infants, and is most commonly seen in
      overweight or obese menolder than 40 years of age.

PMID- 28885814
TI  - In memoriam: Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD, FACS, organ transplantation pioneer.

PMID- 28885815
TI  - CQGS releases preliminary standards for quality surgical care for older adults.

PMID- 28885816
TI  - New ACS surgical practice guidelines now include patient education.

PMID- 28885817
TI  - High Specific Power Dual-Metal-Ion Rechargeable Microbatteries Based on LiMn2O4
      and Zinc for Miniaturized Applications.
AB  - Miniaturized rechargeable batteries with high specific power are required for
      substitution of the large sized primary batteries currently prevalent in
      integrated systems since important implications in dimensions and power are
      expected in future miniaturized applications. Commercially available secondary
      microbatteries are based on lithium metal which suffers from several well-known
      safety and manufacturing issues and low specific power when compared to (super)
      capacitors. A high specific power and novel dual-metal-ion microbattery based on
      LiMn2O4, zinc, and an aqueous electrolyte is presented in this work. Specific
      power densities similar to the ones exhibited by typical electrochemical
      supercapacitors (3400 W kg-1) while maintaining specific energies in the range of
      typical Li-ion batteries are measured (~100 Wh kg-1). Excellent stability with
      very limited degradation (99.94% capacity retention per cycle) after 300 cycles
      is also presented. All of these features, together with the intrinsically safe
      nature of the technology, allow anticipation of this alternative micro power
      source to have high impact, particularly in the high demand field of newly
      miniaturized applications.

PMID- 28885818
TI  - Molecular Fin Effect from Heterogeneous Self-Assembled Monolayer Enhances Thermal
      Conductance across Hard-Soft Interfaces.
AB  - Thermal transport across hard-soft interfaces is critical to many modern
      applications, such as composite materials, thermal management in
      microelectronics, solar-thermal phase transition, and nanoparticle-assisted
      hyperthermia therapeutics. In this study, we use equilibrium molecular dynamics
      (EMD) simulations combined with the Green-Kubo method to study how molecularly
      heterogeneous structures of the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) affect the thermal
      transport across the interfaces between the SAM-functionalized gold and organic
      liquids (hexylamine, propylamine and hexane). We focus on a practically
      synthesizable heterogeneous SAM featuring alternating short and long molecular
      chains. Such a structure is found to improve the thermal conductance across the
      hard-soft interface by 46-68% compared to a homogeneous nonpolar SAM. Through a
      series of further simulations and analyses, it is found that the root reason for
      this enhancement is the penetration of the liquid molecules into the spaces
      between the long SAM molecule chains, which increase the effective contact area.
      Such an effect is similar to the fins used in macroscopic heat exchanger. This
      "molecular fin" structure from the heterogeneous SAM studied in this work
      provides a new general route for enhancing thermal transport across hard-soft
      material interfaces.

PMID- 28885819
TI  - Exchange Bias in the [CoO/Co/Pd]10 Antidot Large Area Arrays.
AB  - Magnetic nanostructures revealing exchange bias effect have gained a lot of
      interest in recent years due to their possible applications in modern devices
      with various functionalities. In this paper, we present our studies on patterned
      [CoO/Co/Pd]10 multilayer where ferromagnetic material is in a form of clusters,
      instead of being a continuous layer. The system was patterned using nanosphere
      lithography technique which resulted in creation of an assembly of well-ordered
      antidots or islands over a large substrate area. We found that the overall
      hysteresis loop of the films consists of hard and soft components. The hard
      component hysteresis loop exhibits a large exchange bias field up to -11 kOe. The
      patterning process causes a slight increase of the exchange field as the antidot
      radius rises. We also found that the material on edges of the structures gives
      rise to a soft unbiased magnetization component.

PMID- 28885821
TI  - Isotopic Characterization of Mercury Downstream of Historic Industrial
      Contamination in the South River, Virginia.
AB  - Historic point source mercury (Hg) contamination from industrial processes on the
      South River (Waynesboro, Virginia) ended decades ago, but elevated Hg
      concentrations persist in the river system. In an effort to better understand Hg
      sources, mobility, and transport in the South River, we analyzed total Hg (THg)
      concentrations and Hg stable isotope compositions of streambed sediments, stream
      bank soils, suspended particles, and filtered surface waters. Samples were
      collected along a longitudinal transect of the South River, starting upstream of
      the historic Hg contamination point-source and extending downstream to the
      confluence with the South Fork Shenandoah River. Analysis of the THg
      concentration and Hg isotopic composition of these environmental samples
      indicates that the regional background Hg source is isotopically distinct in both
      Delta199Hg and delta202Hg from Hg derived from the original source of
      contamination, allowing the tracing of contamination-sourced Hg throughout the
      study reach. Three distinct end-members are required to explain the Hg isotopic
      and concentration variation observed in the South River. A consistent negative
      offset in delta202Hg values (~0.280/00) was observed between Hg in the suspended
      particulate and dissolved phases, and this fractionation provides insight into
      the processes governing partitioning and transport of Hg in this contaminated
      river system.

PMID- 28885822
TI  - Three-Dimensional Cell Culture and Drug Testing in a Microfluidic Sidewall
      Attached Droplet Array.
AB  - Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture provides an effective way over conventional
      two-dimensional (2D) monolayer culture to more closely imitate the complex
      cellular organization, heterogeneity, and interactions as well as tissue
      microenvironments in vivo. Here we present a novel droplet-based 3D cell culture
      method by using droplet array attached on the sidewall of a PDMS piece. Such an
      arrangement not only avoids cells from adhering on the chip surface for achieving
      3D cell culture in nanoliter-scale droplets, but also facilitates performing
      multiple operations to cells in droplets, including cell suspension droplet
      generation, drug treatment, and cell staining with a capillary-based liquid
      handling system, as well as in situ observation and direct scanning with a
      confocal laser scanning microscope. We optimized the system by studying the
      effects of various conditions to cell culture including droplet volume, cell
      density and fabrication methods of the PDMS pieces. We have applied this system
      in the 3D culture of HepG2 cells and the stimulation testing of an anticancer
      drug, doxorubicin, to 3D cell spheroids.

PMID- 28885820
TI  - Strategies for Editing Virulent Staphylococcal Phages Using CRISPR-Cas10.
AB  - Staphylococci are prevalent skin-dwelling bacteria that are also leading causes
      of antibiotic-resistant infections. Viruses that infect and lyse these organisms
      (virulent staphylococcal phages) can be used as alternatives to conventional
      antibiotics and represent promising tools to eliminate or manipulate specific
      species in the microbiome. However, since over half their genes have unknown
      functions, virulent staphylococcal phages carry inherent risk to cause unknown
      downstream side effects. Further, their swift and destructive reproductive cycle
      make them intractable by current genetic engineering techniques. CRISPR-Cas10 is
      an elaborate prokaryotic immune system that employs small RNAs and a multisubunit
      protein complex to detect and destroy phages and other foreign nucleic acids.
      Some staphylococci naturally possess CRISPR-Cas10 systems, thus providing an
      attractive tool already installed in the host chromosome to harness for phage
      genome engineering. However, the efficiency of CRISPR-Cas10 immunity against
      virulent staphylococcal phages and corresponding utility as a tool to facilitate
      their genome editing has not been explored. Here, we show that the CRISPR-Cas10
      system native to Staphylococcus epidermidis exhibits robust immunity against
      diverse virulent staphylococcal phages. On the basis of this activity, a general
      two-step approach was developed to edit these phages that relies upon homologous
      recombination machinery encoded in the host. Variations of this approach to edit
      toxic phage genes and access phages that infect CRISPR-less staphylococci are
      also presented. This versatile set of genetic tools enables the systematic study
      of phage genes of unknown functions and the design of genetically defined phage
      based antimicrobials that can eliminate or manipulate specific Staphylococcus
      species.

PMID- 28885823
TI  - Carboxylated Fullerene at the Oil/Water Interface.
AB  - The self-assembly of carboxylated fullerene with poly(styrene-b-2-vinylpyridine)
      (PS-b-P2VP) with different molecular weights, poly-2-vinylpyridine, and amine
      terminated polystyrene, at the interface between toluene and water was
      investigated. For all values of the pH, the functionalized fullerene interacted
      with the polymers at the water/toluene interface, forming a nanoparticle network,
      reducing the interfacial tension. At pH values of 4.84 and 7.8, robust, elastic
      films were formed at the interface, such that hollow tubules could be formed in
      situ when an aqueous solution of the functionalized fullerene was jetted into a
      toluene solution of PS-b-P2VP at a pH of 4.84. With variation of the pH, the
      mechanical properties of the fullerene/polymer assemblies can be varied by tuning
      the strength of the interactions between the functionalized fullerenes and the PS
      b-P2VP.

PMID- 28885824
TI  - Structural Design of Two Fluorine-Beryllium Borates BaMBe2(BO3)2F2 (M = Mg, Ca)
      Containing Flexible Two-Dimensional [Be3B3O6F3]infinity Single Layers without
      Structural Instability Problems.
AB  - Molecular structural design is a compelling strategy to develop new compounds and
      optimize the crystal structure by atomic-scale manipulation. Herein, two fluorine
      beryllium borates, BaMgBe2(BO3)2F2 and BaCaBe2(BO3)2F2, have been rationally
      designed to overcome the structural instability problems of Sr2Be2B2O7 (SBBO).
      When relatively large Ba atoms were introduced, the [Be6B6O15]infinity double
      layers of SBBO were successfully broken, generating flexible [Be3B3O6F3]infinity
      single layers. Also, the strategy adopted in this work has many implications in
      understanding the structural chemistry and designing novel optical functional
      materials in a beryllium borate system.

PMID- 28885826
TI  - Applications of Flow Microreactors in Electrosynthetic Processes.
AB  - The fundamental advantages and potential benefits of flow microreactor technology
      include extremely large surface-to-volume ratios, precise control over
      temperature and residence time, extremely fast molecular diffusion, and increased
      safety during reactive processes. These advantages and benefits can be applied to
      a wide range of electrosynthetic techniques, and so the integration of flow
      microreactors with electrosynthesis has received significant research interest
      from both academia and industry. This review presents an up-to-date overview of
      electrosynthetic processes in continuous-flow microreactors. In addition, the
      advantages of continuous-flow electrochemistry are discussed, along with a
      thorough comparison of microreactor-based processes and conventional batch
      reaction systems.

PMID- 28885825
TI  - Nanoparticle Biokinetics in Mice and Nonhuman Primates.
AB  - Despite the preponderance of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) designed for
      theranostic applications, widespread clinical translation of these NPs lags
      behind. A better understanding of how NP pharmacokinetics vary between small and
      large animal models is needed to rapidly customize NPs for optimal performance in
      humans. Here we use noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track iron
      oxide NPs through a large number of organ systems in vivo to investigate NP
      biokinetics in both mice and nonhuman primates. We demonstrate that
      pharmacokinetics are similar between mice and macaques in the blood, liver,
      spleen, and muscle, but differ in the kidneys, brain, and bone marrow. Our study
      also demonstrates that full-body MRI is practical, rapid, and cost-effective for
      tracking NPs noninvasively with high spatiotemporal resolution. Our techniques
      using a nonhuman primate model may provide a platform for testing a range of NP
      formulations.

PMID- 28885827
TI  - Attachment Site Cysteine Thiol pKa Is a Key Driver for Site-Dependent Stability
      of THIOMAB Antibody-Drug Conjugates.
AB  - The incorporation of cysteines into antibodies by mutagenesis allows for the
      direct conjugation of small molecules to specific sites on the antibody via
      disulfide bonds. The stability of the disulfide bond linkage between the small
      molecule and the antibody is highly dependent on the location of the engineered
      cysteine in either the heavy chain (HC) or the light chain (LC) of the antibody.
      Here, we explore the basis for this site-dependent stability. We evaluated the in
      vivo efficacy and pharmacokinetics of five different cysteine mutants of
      trastuzumab conjugated to a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) via disulfide bonds. A
      significant correlation was observed between disulfide stability and efficacy for
      the conjugates. We hypothesized that the observed site-dependent stability of the
      disulfide-linked conjugates could be due to differences in the attachment site
      cysteine thiol pKa. We measured the cysteine thiol pKa using isothermal titration
      calorimetry (ITC) and found that the variants with the highest thiol pKa (LC
      K149C and HC A140C) were found to yield the conjugates with the greatest in vivo
      stability. Guided by homology modeling, we identified several mutations adjacent
      to LC K149C that reduced the cysteine thiol pKa and, thus, decreased the in vivo
      stability of the disulfide-linked PBD conjugated to LC K149C. We also present
      results suggesting that the high thiol pKa of LC K149C is responsible for the
      sustained circulation stability of LC K149C TDCs utilizing a maleimide-based
      linker. Taken together, our results provide evidence that the site-dependent
      stability of cys-engineered antibody-drug conjugates may be explained by
      interactions between the engineered cysteine and the local protein environment
      that serves to modulate the side-chain thiol pKa. The influence of cysteine thiol
      pKa on stability and efficacy offers a new parameter for the optimization of ADCs
      that utilize cysteine engineering.

PMID- 28885828
TI  - Multidrug Resistance Protein 4 (MRP4/ABCC4) Protects Cells from the Toxic Effects
      of Halobenzoquinones.
AB  - Halobenzoquinones (HBQs) are frequently detected disinfection byproducts (DBPs)
      in treated water. Recent studies have demonstrated that HBQs are highly cytotoxic
      and capable of inducing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
      depleting cellular glutathione (GSH). Multidrug resistance proteins (MRPs/ABCCs)
      are known to play a critical role in the elimination of numerous drugs,
      carcinogens, toxicants, and their conjugated metabolites. In general, little is
      known about the roles of transporters in DBP toxicity. Here, we hypothesize that
      MRPs may play roles in the detoxication of HBQs. To test this hypothesis, we used
      human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells stably expressing MRPs (MRP1, 3, 4, and
      5) and HEK293 cells with empty vector (HEK-V) to examine the comparative
      cytotoxicity of four HBQs: 2,6-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone (2,6-DCBQ), 2,6-dibromo
      1,4-benzoquinone (2,6-DBBQ), 2,6-dichloro-3-methyl-1,4-benzoquinone (DCMBQ), and
      2,3,6-trichloro-1,4-benzoquinone (TriCBQ). The cytotoxicity (IC50) of the four
      HBQs in HEK-MRP1, -MRP3, -MRP4, and -MRP5 cells and the control HEK-V cells
      clearly showed that MRP4 had the most significant effect on reducing the toxicity
      of the four HBQs. To further support MRP4-mediated detoxication of HBQs, we
      examined the HBQ-induced ROS levels in HEK-MRP4 and HEK-V cells. ROS levels were
      significantly reduced in HEK-MRP4 cells compared with HEK-V cells after HBQ
      treatment. Furthermore, it was found that MRP4-mediated detoxication of the HBQs
      was GSH dependent, as the cytotoxicity of the HBQs was increased in GSH-depleted
      HEK-MRP4 cells in comparison to HEK-MRP4 cells. The GSH-dependent protection of
      cells from HBQs supports the possibility of HBQ-GSH conjugate efflux by MRP4.
      This study demonstrates a role for MRP4 in cellular protection against HBQ DBP
      induced toxicity and oxidative stress.

PMID- 28885829
TI  - Membrane-Active Amphipathic Peptide WRL3 with in Vitro Antibiofilm Capability and
      in Vivo Efficacy in Treating Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Burn
      Wound Infections.
AB  - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become increasingly
      prevalent in hospitals, clinics, and the community. MRSA can cause significant
      and even lethal infections, especially in skin burn wounds. The currently
      available topical agents have largely failed to eliminate MRSA infections due to
      resistance. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new and effective approaches
      for treating MRSA. Here, we show that a novel engineered amphipathic peptide,
      WRL3 (WLRAFRRLVRRLARGLRR-NH2), exhibits potent antimicrobial activity against
      MRSA, even in the presence of various salts or serum. The cell selectivity of
      WRL3 was demonstrated by its ability to specifically eliminate MRSA cells over
      host cells in a coculture model. Additionally, WRL3 showed a synergistic effect
      against MRSA when combined with ceftriaxone and effectively inhibited sessile
      biofilm bacteria growth leading to a reduction in biomass. Fluorescent
      measurements and microscopic observations of live bacterial cells and artificial
      membranes revealed that WRL3 exerted its bactericidal activity possibly by
      destroying the bacterial membrane. In vivo studies indicate that WRL3 is able to
      control proliferation of MRSA in wound tissue and reduce bioburden and provides a
      more favorable environment for wound healing. Collectively, our data suggest that
      WRL3 has enormous potential as a novel antimicrobial agent for the treatment of
      clinical MRSA infections of skin burn wounds.

PMID- 28885830
TI  - Oligoprolines as Molecular Entities for Controlling Distance in Biological and
      Material Sciences.
AB  - Nature utilizes large biomolecules to fulfill tasks that require spatially well
      defined arrangements at the molecular level such as electron transfer, ligand
      receptor interactions, or catalysis. The creation of synthetic molecules that
      enable precise control over spacing and functionalization provides opportunities
      across diverse disciplines. Key requirements of functionalizable oligomeric
      scaffolds include the specific control of their molecular properties where the
      correct balance of flexibility and rigidity must be maintained in addition to the
      prerequisite of defined length. These molecules must ideally be equally
      applicable in aqueous and organic environments, they must be easy to synthesize
      in a controlled stepwise fashion, and they must be easily modified with a palette
      of chemical appendages having diverse functionalities. Oligoproline, a peptidic
      polymer comprised of repeating units of the amino acid proline, is an ideal
      platform to meet such challenges. Oligoproline derives its characteristic
      rigidity and well-defined secondary structure from the innate features of
      proline. It is the only naturally occurring amino acid that has its side-chain
      cyclized to its alpha-amino group, generating often-populated trans and cis
      conformers around the tertiary amide bonds formed in proline oligomers.
      Oligoprolines are widely applied to define distance on the molecular level as
      they are capable of serving as both a "molecular ruler" with a defined length and
      as a "molecular scaffold" with precisely located and predictably oriented
      substitutions along the polymeric backbone. Our investigations focus on the use
      of oligoproline as a molecular scaffold. Toward this end, we have investigated
      the role of solvent upon helical structure of oligoproline, and the effect that
      substituents on the pyrrolidine ring and the oligomer termini have on the
      stability of the helix. We have also further explored the molecular
      characteristics of oligoproline through spectroscopic and crystallographic
      methods. All of these structural insights laid the basis for implementation of
      oligoproline in materials science and chemical biology. Within this Account, we
      highlight the value of oligoprolines for applications in distinctly different
      research areas. Toward materials chemistry, we have utilized oligoprolines for
      the size-controlled generation of noble metal nanoparticles, and to probe the
      role of spatial preorganization of pi-systems for molecular self-assembly. Within
      the biological realm, we have applied oligoprolines to probe the role of distance
      on G-protein coupled receptor-mediated ligand uptake by cancerous cells and to
      investigate the effects of charge preorganization on the efficacy of cationic
      cell-penetrating peptides.

PMID- 28885832
TI  - Flattened Calixarene-like Cyclic BODIPY Array: A New Photosynthetic Antenna
      Model.
AB  - A cyclic BODIPY array, characterized by a rigid flattened calixarene-like
      conformation, acts as a photosynthetic antenna mimic. The system in question,
      triBODIPY, is a better antenna than the corresponding BF2-free ligand. On the
      basis of absorption spectral studies and supporting calculations, it is concluded
      that exciton coupling between the BODIPY subunits occurs readily. TriBODIPY
      supports a complex with Li+@C60 that bring an antenna-like light absorber into
      close proximity to an electronic acceptor without the need for linking spacers.
      As inferred from X-ray diffraction analyses of complexes between triBODIPY and
      C60, it is inferred that the fullerene complexes are stabilized via convex
      concave donor-acceptor interactions. Steady state absorption/fluorescence, time
      correlated single photon counting, and transient absorption measurements have
      allowed a complete characterization of the complexes in both the ground and
      excited states, including the host-guest recognition features, fluorescence
      quenching effects, and charge separation/recombination dynamics.

PMID- 28885831
TI  - Hybrid Surface Patterns Mimicking the Design of the Adhesive Toe Pad of Tree
      Frog.
AB  - Biological materials achieve directional reinforcement with oriented assemblies
      of anisotropic building blocks. One such example is the nanocomposite structure
      of keratinized epithelium on the toe pad of tree frogs, in which hexagonal arrays
      of (soft) epithelial cells are crossed by densely packed and oriented (hard)
      keratin nanofibrils. Here, a method is established to fabricate arrays of tree
      frog-inspired composite micropatterns composed of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
      micropillars embedded with polystyrene (PS) nanopillars. Adhesive and frictional
      studies of these synthetic materials reveal a benefit of the hierarchical and
      anisotropic design for both adhesion and friction, in particular, at high matrix
      fiber interfacial strengths. The presence of PS nanopillars alters the stress
      distribution at the contact interface of micropillars and therefore enhances the
      adhesion and friction of the composite micropattern. The results suggest a design
      principle for bioinspired structural adhesives, especially for wet environments.

PMID- 28885833
TI  - The Face of a Molecule.
AB  - Recent technological advances in mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy have
      enabled new approaches for the rapid and insightful profiling of natural product
      mixtures. MALDI-MS with the provision of biosynthetic heavy-isotope-labeled
      precursors can be a powerful method by which to interrogate a natural product
      metabolome and to gain insight into its unique constituents; this is illustrated
      herein by the detection, isolation, and characterization of cryptomaldamide.
      MS/MS-based Molecular Networks, facilitated by the Global Natural Products Social
      (GNPS) platform, is rapidly changing the way in which we dereplicate known
      natural products in mixtures, find new analogues in desired structure classes,
      and identify fundamentally new chemical entities. This method can be linked to
      genomic information to assist in genome-driven natural products discovery and is
      illustrated here with the characterization of the columbamides. Similarly,
      algorithmic interpretation of NMR data is facilitating the automatic
      identification or classification of new natural products. We developed such a
      tool named the Small Molecule Accurate Recognition Technology (SMART), which
      employs a convolutional neural network to classify HSQC spectra of organic
      molecules using pattern recognition principles. The discovery and rapid
      classification of several new peptides from a marine cyanobacterium as members of
      the viequeamide class provides an example of its utility in natural products
      research. These three illustrations represent different methods by which to look
      at the external features of a chemical substance and derive valuable insights
      into its identity or, as described herein, the "face of a molecule".

PMID- 28885834
TI  - Small Molecule Inhibitors Simultaneously Targeting Cancer Metabolism and
      Epigenetics: Discovery of Novel Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT)
      and Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) Dual Inhibitors.
AB  - Cancer metabolism and epigenetics are among the most intensely pursued research
      areas in anticancer drug discovery. Here we report the first small molecules that
      simultaneously inhibit nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) and histone
      deacetylase (HDAC), two important targets of cancer metabolism and epigenetics,
      respectively. Through iterative structure-based drug design, chemical synthesis,
      and biological assays, a highly potent dual NAMPT and HDAC inhibitor was
      successfully identified. Compound 35 possessed excellent and balanced activities
      against both NAMPT (IC50 = 31 nM) and HDAC1 (IC50 = 55 nM). It could effectively
      induce cell apoptosis and autophagy and ultimately led to cell death.
      Importantly, compound 35 showed excellent in vivo antitumor efficacy in the
      HCT116 xenograft model. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the feasibility
      of discovering an inhibitor targeting cancer metabolism and epigenetics and
      provides an efficient strategy for multitarget antitumor drug discovery.

PMID- 28885835
TI  - New Class of Anion-Accelerated Amino-Cope Rearrangements as Gateway to Diverse
      Chiral Structures.
AB  - We report useful new lithium-assisted asymmetric anion-accelerated amino-Cope
      rearrangement cascades. A strategic nitrogen atom chiral auxiliary serves three
      critical roles, by (1) enabling in situ assembly of the chiral 3-amino-1,5-diene
      precursor, (2) facilitating the rearrangement via a lithium enolate chelate, and
      (3) imparting its influence on consecutive inter- or intramolecular C-C or C-X
      bond-forming events via resulting chiral enamide intermediates or imine products.
      The mechanism of the amino-Cope rearrangement was explored with density
      functional theory. A stepwise dissociation-recombination mechanism was found to
      be favored. The stereochemistry of the chiral auxiliary determines the
      stereochemistry of the Cope product by influencing the orientation of the lithium
      dienolate and sulfinylimine fragments in the recombination step. These robust
      asymmetric anion-accelerated amino-Cope enabled cascades open the door for rapid
      and predictable assembly of complex chiral acyclic and cyclic nitrogen-containing
      motifs in one pot.

PMID- 28885836
TI  - Lipid Peroxidation and Cyclooxygenase Enzyme Inhibitory Compounds from Prangos
      haussknechtii.
AB  - Purification of extracts from Prangos haussknechtii Bioss afforded prenylated
      coumarins 1 and 2, monoterpenoid 3, amino acid derivative 4, and seven known
      compounds. Spectroscopic methods permitted establishment of the structures and
      relative configuration of these compounds. The pure isolates were tested for
      antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities using lipid peroxidation (LPO), 3
      (4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), and
      cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and -2) enzyme inhibitory assays. Compounds 1-4 inhibited
      LPO with IC50 values between 43 and 114 MUM and reduced MTT to formazan blue
      between 48 and 128 MUM. In anti-inflammatory assays using cyclooxygenase enzymes,
      COX-1 and -2, these compounds showed inhibition, with IC50 values ranging from 34
      to 56 MUM.

PMID- 28885837
TI  - Selective Derivatization of a Hexaphosphane from Functionalization of White
      Phosphorus.
AB  - The reaction of LGa (L = Dipp(4-(Dipp-imino)pent-2-en-2-yl)amide; Dipp: 2,6
      diisopropylphenyl) and white phosphorus was revisited. A plethora of
      unprecedented polyphosphanes in addition to the known monoinserted product LGaP4
      (1) are observed. An optimized synthesis of the hitherto unknown hexaphosphane
      (LGa)2P6 (3) is presented, and its subsequent selective derivatization with
      Bronsted acids, MeOTf, Ph2ECl (E = P, As), and NaOCP provides access to a wealth
      of functionalized hexa- and heptaphosphanes.

PMID- 28885838
TI  - Diastereoselective Ritter-like Reaction on Cyclic Trifluoromethylated N,O-Acetals
      Derived from l-Tartaric Acid.
AB  - Despite the presence of the highly electron-withdrawing fluorinated substituent,
      cyclic alpha-trifluoromethylated N-acyliminium ions were successfully generated
      from fluorinated O-acetyl-N,O-acetal l-tartaric acid derivatives. The addition of
      nitriles on these intermediates occurred with high to excellent syn
      diastereoselectivity and led, in most cases, to oxazolines and amides as single
      diastereomers. The diastereoselectivity of the addition and the nature of the
      reaction product depend on the substituents on the hydroxyl groups of the
      tartaric acid scaffold. This methodology gave access to enantiopure, highly
      functionalized 5-(trifluoromethyl)pyrrolidin-2-one derivatives, bearing the
      fluorinated substituent on a tetrasubstituted carbon.

PMID- 28885839
TI  - CO2 Stimuli-Responsive, Injectable Block Copolymer Hydrogels Cross-Linked by
      Discrete Organoplatinum(II) Metallacycles via Stepwise Post-Assembly
      Polymerization.
AB  - Supramolecular polymeric gels cross-linked by well-defined, discrete metal
      organic macrocycles (MOMs) or metal-organic cages have become a prevailing topic
      within the field of supramolecular self-assembly. However, the realization of
      supramolecular polymeric hydrogels cross-linked by discrete organometallic
      architectures with good biocompatibility is still a great challenge. Herein, we
      present the successful preparation of CO2 stimuli-responsive, injectable block
      copolymer hydrogels cross-linked by discrete organoplatinum(II) metallacycles.
      Through the combination of coordination-driven self-assembly and stepwise post
      assembly polymerization, star block copolymers (SBCPs) containing well-defined
      hexagonal metallacycles as cores were successfully prepared, which featured CO2
      stimuli-responsive properties including CO2-triggered morphology transition and
      CO2-induced thermoresponsive behavior. Interestingly, the resultant SBCPs were
      capable of forming supramolecular hydrogels with MOMs as junctions near
      physiological temperature, which allowed the realization of a reversible gel-to
      sol transformation through the removal and addition of CO2. More importantly, the
      resultant supramolecular hydrogels presented good cytocompatibility in vitro.
      Therefore, this study provides a new strategy for the construction of new "smart"
      supramolecular hydrogels with promising applications as biological materials.

PMID- 28885840
TI  - Chemical Synthesis of (RP)- and (SP)-[16O,17O,18O]Phosphoenol Pyruvate.
AB  - Enzymes and chirality are intimately associated. For their mechanisms to be
      studied, chiral substrates are needed as probes. Here, we report a concise
      synthesis of (RP)- and (SP)-[16O,17O,18O]phosphoenol pyruvate starting from
      enantiomerically pure (R)-2-chloro-1-phenylethanol, which was transformed into
      18O-labeled 3-methyl-1-phenylbutane-1,3-diol. The diol was reacted with
      tris(dimethylamino)phosphane and consecutively with H217O to yield a mixture of
      cyclic H-phosphonates labeled with 17O and 18O. They were silylated and subjected
      to a Perkow reaction with ethyl 3-chloropyruvate. Two protected
      [16O,17O,18O]phosphoenol pyruvates were formed and finally globally deprotected.
      Their configuration was reassessed by a known enzymatic test in combination with
      conversion of the formed d-glucose-6-phosphate into mixtures of labeled methyl d
      glucose-4,6-phosphates, which were analyzed by 31P NMR spectroscopy. The
      enzymatic test supported the configuration assigned to labeled stereogenic
      phosphorus atoms on the basis of synthesis.

PMID- 28885841
TI  - Tuning Product Selectivity for Aqueous CO2 Reduction with a Mn(bipyridine)-pyrene
      Catalyst Immobilized on a Carbon Nanotube Electrode.
AB  - The development of high-performance electrocatalytic systems for the controlled
      reduction of CO2 to value-added chemicals is a key goal in emerging renewable
      energy technologies. The lack of selective and scalable catalysts in aqueous
      solution currently hampers the implementation of such a process. Here, the
      assembly of a [MnBr(2,2'-bipyridine)(CO)3] complex anchored to a carbon nanotube
      electrode via a pyrene unit is reported. Immobilization of the molecular catalyst
      allows electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 under fully aqueous conditions with a
      catalytic onset overpotential of eta = 360 mV, and controlled potential
      electrolysis generated more than 1000 turnovers at eta = 550 mV. The product
      selectivity can be tuned by alteration of the catalyst loading on the nanotube
      surface. CO was observed as the main product at high catalyst loadings, whereas
      formate was the dominant CO2 reduction product at low catalyst loadings. Using UV
      vis and surface-sensitive IR spectroelectrochemical techniques, two different
      intermediates were identified as responsible for the change in selectivity of the
      heterogenized Mn catalyst. The formation of a dimeric Mn0 species at higher
      surface loading was shown to preferentially lead to CO formation, whereas at
      lower surface loading the electrochemical generation of a monomeric Mn-hydride is
      suggested to greatly enhance the production of formate. These results emphasize
      the advantages of integrating molecular catalysts onto electrode surfaces for
      enhancing catalytic activity while allowing excellent control and a deeper
      understanding of the catalytic mechanisms.

PMID- 28885842
TI  - Catalytic Activity Control via Crossover between Two Different Microstructures.
AB  - Metal nanocatalysts hold great promise for a wide range of heterogeneous
      catalytic reactions, while the optimization strategy of catalytic activity is
      largely restricted by particle size or shape control. Here, we demonstrate that a
      reversible microstructural control through the crossover between multiply twinned
      nanoparticle (MTP) and single crystal (SC) can be readily achieved by solvent
      post-treatment on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Polar solvents (e.g., water,
      methanol) direct the transformation from MTP to SC accompanied by the
      disappearance of twinning and stacking faults. A reverse transformation from SC
      to MTP is achieved in nonpolar solvent (e.g., toluene) mixed with thiol ligands.
      The transformation between two different microstructures is directly observed by
      in situ TEM and leads to a drastic modulation of catalytic activity toward the
      gas-phase selective oxidation of alcohols. On the basis of the combined
      experimental and theoretical investigations of alcohol chemisorption on these
      nanocatalysts, we propose that the exposure of {211}-like microfacets associated
      with twin boundaries and stack faults accounts for the strong chemisorption of
      alcohol molecules on MTP AuNPs and thus the exceptionally high catalytic
      activity.

PMID- 28885843
TI  - Theoretical Kinetics Analysis for H Atom Addition to 1,3-Butadiene and Related
      Reactions on the C4H7 Potential Energy Surface.
AB  - The oxidation chemistry of the simplest conjugated hydrocarbon, 1,3-butadiene,
      can provide a first step in understanding the role of polyunsaturated
      hydrocarbons in combustion and, in particular, an understanding of their
      contribution toward soot formation. On the basis of our previous work on propene
      and the butene isomers (1-, 2-, and isobutene), it was found that the reaction
      kinetics of H-atom addition to the C?C double bond plays a significant role in
      fuel consumption kinetics and influences the predictions of high-temperature
      ignition delay times, product species concentrations, and flame speed
      measurements. In this study, the rate constants and thermodynamic properties for
      H-atom addition to 1,3-butadiene and related reactions on the C4H7 potential
      energy surface have been calculated using two different series of quantum
      chemical methods and two different kinetic codes. Excellent agreement is obtained
      between the two different kinetics codes. The calculated results including zero
      point energies, single-point energies, rate constants, barrier heights, and
      thermochemistry are systematically compared among the two quantum chemical
      methods. 1-Methylallyl (C4H71-3) and 3-buten-1-yl (C4H71-4) radicals and C2H4 +
      C2H3 are found to be the most important channels and reactivity-promoting
      products, respectively. We calculated that terminal addition is dominant (>80%)
      compared to internal H-atom addition at all temperatures in the range 298-2000 K.
      However, this dominance decreases with increasing temperature. The calculated
      rate constants for the bimolecular reaction C4H6 + H -> products and C2H4 + C2H3 
      > products are in excellent agreement with both experimental and theoretical
      results from the literature. For selected C4 species, the calculated
      thermochemical values are also in good agreement with literature data. In
      addition, the rate constants for H atom abstraction by H atoms have also been
      calculated, and it is found that abstraction from the central carbon atoms is the
      dominant channel (>70%) at temperatures in the range of 298-2000 K. Finally, by
      incorporating our calculated rate constants for both H atom addition and
      abstraction into our recently developed 1,3-butadiene model, we show that laminar
      flame speed predictions are significantly improved, emphasizing the value of this
      study.

PMID- 28885844
TI  - Synthesis and C-H Functionalization Chemistry of Thiazole-Semicoronenediimides
      (TsCDIs) and -Coronenediimides (TCDIs).
AB  - Coronenediimide (CDI) derivatives have a planar structure, a reasonably high
      electron affinity, and a rigid and extended delocalized pi-system. Therefore,
      this core and variants thereof may be promising building blocks for the synthesis
      of electron transport materials. Herein, we have synthesized thiazole
      semicoronenediimides (TsCDIs) and -coronenediimides (TCDIs) by a two-step process
      from a perylenediimide (PDI) precursor. Conditions for C-H arylation and
      heteroarylation of the thiazole moiety of this core were developed and were
      successfully used for the synthesis of dimer, triad, and polymeric materials. The
      optical and electrochemical properties of these materials and their monomers were
      examined as a function of side-chain modification and pi-extension. With their
      broad optical absorption and low reduction potentials, these materials could be
      candidates as organic semiconductors for applications in OFETs and as
      nonfullerene acceptors.

PMID- 28885845
TI  - Near-Infrared Photoswitching of Azobenzenes under Physiological Conditions.
AB  - Biological tissue exhibits an absorbance minimum in the near-infrared between 700
      and 900 nm that permits deep penetration of light. Molecules that undergo
      photoisomerization in this bio-optical window are highly desirable as core
      structures for the development of photopharmaceuticals and as components of
      chemical-biological tools. We report the systematic design, synthesis, and
      testing of an azobenzene derivative tailored to undergo single-photon
      photoswitching with near-infrared light under physiological conditions. A fused
      dioxane ring and a methoxy substituent were used to place oxygen atoms in all
      four ortho positions, as well as two meta positions, relative to the azobenzene
      N?N double bond. This substitution pattern, together with a para pyrrolidine
      group, raises the pKa of the molecule so that it is protonated at physiological
      pH and absorbs at wavelengths >700 nm. This azobenzene derivative, termed DOM
      azo, is stable for months in neutral aqueous solutions, undergoes trans-to-cis
      photoswitching with 720 nm light, and thermally reverts to the stable trans
      isomer with a half-life near 1 s.

PMID- 28885846
TI  - Tip-Induced Switch of Germanene Atomic Structure.
AB  - A new germanene crystallographic structure is investigated by scanning tunnelling
      microscopy and density functional theory calculations. We found that germanene
      can crystallize in two stable but different structures when grown on Al(111) at
      the same temperature. These structures are evidenced in scanning tunnelling
      images by a honeycomb contrast and by a hexagonal contrast. These contrasts are
      relevant of a Ge network with one (hexagonal) or two (honeycomb) Ge atoms per
      unit cell shifted upward with respect to the other Ge atoms. These structures
      appear alternatively and can be turned on and off by a tip-induced process.

PMID- 28885848
TI  - Structure and Interfacial Tension of a Hard-Rod Fluid in Planar Confinement.
AB  - The structural properties and interfacial tension of a fluid of rodlike hard
      spherocylinder particles in contact with hard structureless flat walls are
      studied by means of Monte Carlo simulation. The calculated surface tension
      between the rod fluid and the substrate is characterized by a nonmonotonic trend
      as a function of the bulk concentration (density) over the range of isotropic
      bulk concentrations. As suggested by earlier theoretical studies, a surface
      ordering scenario is confirmed by our simulations: the local orientational order
      close to the wall changes from uniaxial to biaxial nematic when the bulk
      concentration reaches about 85% of the value at the onset of the isotropic
      nematic phase transition. The surface ordering coincides with a wetting
      transition whereby the hard wall is wetted by a nematic film. Accurate values of
      the fluid-solid surface tension, the adsorption, and the average particle-wall
      contact distance are reported (over a broad range of densities into the dense
      nematic region for the first time), which can serve as a useful benchmark for
      future theoretical and experimental studies on confined rod fluids. The
      simulation data are supplemented with predictions from second-virial density
      functional theory, which are in good qualitative agreement with the simulation
      results.

PMID- 28885847
TI  - Regulation of Reduced Folate Carrier (RFC) by Vitamin D Receptor at the Blood
      Brain Barrier.
AB  - Folates are essential for brain development and function. Folate transport in
      mammalian tissues is mediated by three major folate transport systems, i.e.,
      reduced folate carrier (RFC), proton-coupled folate transporter (PCFT), and
      folate receptor alpha (FRalpha), known to be regulated by ligand-activated
      nuclear receptors, such as vitamin D receptor (VDR). Folate uptake at the choroid
      plexus, which requires the actions of both FRalpha and PCFT, is critical to
      cerebral folate delivery. Inactivating FRalpha or PCFT mutations cause severe
      cerebral folate deficiency resulting in early childhood neurodegeneration. The
      objective of this study was to investigate the role of RFC in folate uptake at
      the level of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and its potential regulation by VDR.
      We detected robust expression of RFC in different in vitro BBB model systems,
      particularly in immortalized cultures of human cerebral microvascular endothelial
      cells (hCMEC/D3) and isolated mouse brain capillaries. [3H]-methotrexate uptake
      by hCMEC/D3 cells at pH 7.4 was inhibited by PT523 and pemetrexed, antifolates
      with high affinity for RFC. We also showed that activation of VDR through
      calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) exposure up-regulates RFC mRNA and protein
      expression as well as function in hCMEC/D3 cells and isolated mouse brain
      capillaries. We further demonstrated that RFC expression could be down-regulated
      by VDR-targeting siRNA, further confirming the role of VDR in the direct
      regulation of this folate transporter. Together, these data suggest that
      augmenting RFC functional expression could constitute a novel strategy for
      enhancing brain folate delivery for the treatment of neurometabolic disorders
      caused by loss of FRalpha or PCFT function.

PMID- 28885849
TI  - Design of Two-Dimensional Graphene-like Dirac Materials beta12-XBeB5 (X = H, F,
      Cl) from Non-graphene-like beta12-Borophene.
AB  - Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials and boron sheets have attracted intensive
      interest recently. However, 2D Dirac materials remain rare and difficult to be
      realized experimentally, and 2D boron sheets generally have high dynamical
      instability. Stimulated by the experimental observation of Dirac cones in
      nongraphene-like beta12 boron sheets and based on the understanding of boron
      sheet electronic organization, we theoretically design new 2D Dirac materials
      beta12-XBeB5 (X = H, F, Cl) with high stability. We confirm beta12-HBeB5 as the
      global energy minimum among its 2D allotropes based on global structure search
      methods, a strong indication of its experimental feasibility. Our designed beta12
      HBeB5 has not only a high Fermi velocity, but also a Dirac state very robust
      against extraordinary large tensile strains, an advantage for flexible
      electronics applications. Our work opens a new avenue to designing feasible 2D
      Dirac materials and stabilizing borophene sheets.

PMID- 28885850
TI  - Fast Surface Diffusion and Crystallization of Amorphous Griseofulvin.
AB  - Among molecular glasses, griseofulvin (GSF) is one of the fastest crystallizing.
      To understand this property, we have measured the surface diffusion in GSF using
      the method of surface grating decay. Surface diffusion in amorphous GSF is
      extremely fast, outpacing bulk diffusion by a factor of 108 at the glass
      transition temperature Tg (361 K). Among all molecular glasses studied (13 in
      all), GSF has the second fastest surface diffusion (to o-terphenyl) when compared
      at Tg. The GSF result fits the overall trend for molecular glasses without
      intermolecular hydrogen bonds, where surface diffusion systematically slows down
      with increasing molecular size. This result is particularly noteworthy because
      GSF has many hydrogen-bond acceptors but no donors, indicating that, so long as
      they do not participate in hydrogen bonding, the polar functional groups have a
      similar effect on surface diffusion as the nonpolar hydrocarbon groups. In
      contrast, the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds strongly inhibits
      surface diffusion. The surface crystal growth rate of amorphous GSF is nearly
      proportional to its surface diffusion coefficient, as noted for other systems,
      supporting the view that surface crystal growth is controlled by surface
      diffusion. In addition, the fast surface diffusion of GSF glasses explains the
      fast crystal growth along fracture surfaces and suggests a basis to understand
      fast crystal growth in the bulk through continuous creation of microcracks.

PMID- 28885851
TI  - Pyridine-Directed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of 1,1-Diarylalkenes.
AB  - Highly enantioselective pyridine-directed rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric
      hydrogenation of challenging 1,1-diarylalkenes is achieved by using
      [Rh(NBD)DuanPhos]BF4 as a precatalyst. Various types of 2-pyridine substituted
      1,1-diarylalkenes could be hydrogenated with good to excellent
      enantioselectivities, which provide an efficient route to the synthesis of
      pharmaceutically and biologically active compounds containing a 2-pyridyl ethane
      unit.

PMID- 28885852
TI  - Thermodynamic Anomalies in Stretched Water.
AB  - Via molecular dynamics simulations of the TIP4P/2005 water model, we study liquid
      water's anomalous behavior at large negative pressure produced through isochoric
      cooling. We find that isochores without a pressure minimum can display
      "reentrant" behavior whereby a system that cavitates upon cooling can then
      rehomogenize upon further cooling. This behavior is a consequence of the
      underlying density maximum along the spinodal, but its actual manifestation in
      simulations is strongly influenced by finite size effects. These observations
      suggest that water under strong hydrophilic confinement may display richer phase
      behavior than hitherto assumed. This also suggests that propensity toward
      cavitation does not always correlate with greater tension, contrary to the
      prevailing assumption for interpreting water stretching experiments. We also show
      that a maximum spinodal density in water results in a locus of maximum
      compressibility and a minimum speed of sound that are independent from any
      influence of a liquid-liquid critical point (LLCP). However, we demonstrate that
      structural signatures of a Widom line, which likely emanates from an LLCP at
      elevated pressure, extend to large negative pressure, but such signatures are
      only observed upon sampling water's underlying potential energy landscape, rather
      than the thermalized metastable liquid.

PMID- 28885853
TI  - Suppression of the Coffee-Ring Effect and Evaporation-Driven Disorder to Order
      Transition in Colloidal Droplets.
AB  - The formation of a ring-like deposit at the periphery of a drying colloidal
      droplet is a vexing problem in many applications. We show a complete suppression
      of such deposits when a droplet of aqueous colloidal suspension, deposited on a
      glass substrate coated with a thin layer of silicone oil, is evaporated. This
      coating prevents the periphery of the aqueous droplet from getting pinned to the
      substrate and helps in suppressing the ring formation. It also decreases the
      surface area of the droplet, thereby decreasing the evaporation rate. These two
      factors together, driving the colloidal particles slowly to the center of the
      droplet, contribute to form an ordered crystallite at the end of the evaporation
      process. Brownian dynamics simulations performed to study ordering in the
      aggregate show that the spherical colloidal particles form face-centered cubic
      structures. Experiments and simulations show that slow rates of droplet
      evaporation and smaller-sized colloidal particles further lead to high-quality
      ordered colloidal crystallites.

PMID- 28885854
TI  - Phenoxazine: A Privileged Scaffold for Radical-Trapping Antioxidants.
AB  - Diphenylamines are widely used to protect petroleum-derived products from
      autoxidation. Their efficacy as radical-trapping antioxidants (RTAs) relies on a
      balance of fast H-atom transfer kinetics and stability to one-electron oxidation
      by peroxidic species. Both H-atom transfer and one-electron oxidation are
      enhanced by substitution with electron-donating substituents, such as the S-atom
      in phenothiazines, another important class of RTA. Herein we report the results
      of our investigations of the RTA activity of the structurally related, but
      essentially ignored, phenoxazines. We find that the H-atom transfer reactivity of
      substituted phenoxazines follows an excellent Evans-Polanyi correlation spanning
      kinh = 4.5 * 106 M-1 s-1 and N-H BDE = 77.4 kcal mol-1 for 3-CN,7-NO2-phenoxazine
      to kinh = 6.6 * 108 M-1 s-1 and N-H BDE = 71.8 kcal mol-1 for 3,7-(OMe)2
      phenoxazine (37  degrees C). The reactivity of the latter compound is the
      greatest of any RTA ever reported and is likely to represent a reaction without
      an enthalpic barrier since log A for this reaction is likely ~8.5. The very high
      reactivity of most of the phenoxazines studied required the determination of
      their kinetic parameters by inhibited autoxidations in the presence of a very
      strong H-bonding cosolvent (DMSO), which slowed the observed rates by up to 2
      orders of magnitude by dynamically reducing the equilibrium concentration of
      (free) phenoxazine as an H-atom donor. Despite their remarkably high reactivity
      toward peroxyl radicals, the phenoxazines were found to be comparatively stable
      to one-electron oxidation relative to diphenylamines and phenothiazines (E
      degrees  ranging from 0.59 to 1.38 V vs NHE). Thus, phenoxazines with comparable
      oxidative stability to commonly used diphenylamine and phenothiazine RTAs had
      significantly greater reactivity (by up to 2 orders of magnitude). Computations
      suggest that this remarkable balance in H-atom transfer kinetics and stability to
      one-electron oxidation results from the ability of the bridging oxygen atom in
      phenoxazine to serve as both a pi-electron donor to stabilize the aminyl radical
      and sigma-electron acceptor to destabilize the aminyl radical cation. Perhaps
      most excitingly, phenoxazines have "non-classical" RTA activity, where they trap
      >2 peroxyl radicals each, at ambient temperatures.

PMID- 28885855
TI  - (Z)-Selective Hydrosilylation of Terminal Alkynes with HSiMe(OSiMe3)2 Catalyzed
      by a Ruthenium Complex Containing an N-Heterocyclic Carbene.
AB  - The N-heterocyclic-carbene-ligated ruthenium complex [RuHCl(CO)(H2IMes)(PCy3)]
      exhibits high catalytic activity for the (Z)-selective hydrosilylation of various
      terminal alkynes with 1,1,1,3,5,5,5-heptamethyltrisiloxane (HSiMe(OSiMe3)2). The
      stereoretentive derivatization of the (Z)-alkenylsiloxanes allows the synthesis
      of biologically active compounds, e.g. potent antitumor agents and inhibitors for
      induced-NO synthase.

PMID- 28885856
TI  - Spirometrically Confirmed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Worsens Long-Term
      Prognosis after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

PMID- 28885857
TI  - Exaggerated Increase in Pulmonary Artery Pressure during Exercise in Adults Born
      Preterm.

PMID- 28885858
TI  - The Latino Integrative Medical Group Visit as a Model for Pain Reduction in
      Underserved Spanish Speakers.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain is a common problem in the United States, one for which
      there is a dearth of effective treatments. Nonpharmacological options are a
      promising alternative, especially for Spanish-speaking Latinos. This pilot study
      would like to assess the feasibility of an adapted Integrative Medical Group
      Visit (IMGV) curriculum for a Spanish-speaking Latino chronic pain population.
      DESIGN AND INTERVENTION: We translated and adapted the curriculum of the IMGV for
      a Spanish-speaking Latino chronic pain population. We then tested the feasibility
      of using this model with two pilot groups (N = 19) using a pre-postdesign.
      SUBJECTS: This intervention was targeted for underserved Spanish-speaking Latino
      patients with chronic pain. SETTINGS/LOCATION: This study took place at a safety
      net academic teaching hospital, the Boston Medical Center, and at a community
      health center located in a majority Latino neighborhood, the East Boston
      Neighborhood Health Clinic. OUTCOME MEASURES: We used the validated Spanish
      translations of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System
      (PROMIS-29) (short version), Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8), and Perceived
      Stress Scale (PSS-10). We also gathered qualitative information through focus
      groups and in-depth interviews. RESULTS: Using PROMIS measures, there was a
      statistically significant reduction in pain interference (p = 0.01), fatigue (p =
      0.01), and depression (p = 0.01). Qualitative data also indicated the
      participants felt they benefited from the visits and having care in Spanish was
      unique. CONCLUSIONS: This model offers a promising nonpharmacological option for
      Spanish-speaking patients with chronic pain and could offer an alternative for
      addressing disparities for this population.

PMID- 28885859
TI  - Interventions Designed to Promote Exclusive Breastfeeding in High-Income
      Countries: A Systematic Review Update.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Worldwide, women seldom reach the recommended target of exclusive
      breastfeeding up to 6 months postpartum. The aim of the current study was to
      update a previously published review that presented a conceptual and
      methodological synthesis of interventions designed to promote exclusive
      breastfeeding up to 6 months in high-income countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      systematic search of leading databases was conducted for scholarly, peer
      reviewed, randomized controlled trials published from June 2013 to December 2016.
      Twelve new articles were identified as relevant; all were published in English
      and assessed exclusive breastfeeding with a follow-up period extending beyond 4
      months postpartum. Articles were analyzed for overall quality of evidence in
      regard to duration of exclusive breastfeeding, using the Grading and
      Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. RESULTS: A
      significant increase in the duration of exclusive breastfeeding was found in 4 of
      the 12 studies. All four successful interventions had long-duration postpartum
      programs, implemented by telephone, text message, or through a website. Some of
      the successful interventions also included prenatal education or in-hospital
      breastfeeding support. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this review update correspond
      closely with previous findings, in that all of the successful interventions had
      lengthy postnatal support or an education component. More studies assessed
      intervention fidelity than in the previous review; however, there was little
      discussion of maternal body-mass index. While a pattern of successful
      interventions is beginning to emerge, further research is needed to provide a
      robust evidence base to inform future interventions, particularly with overweight
      and obese women.

PMID- 28885860
TI  - Anti lingo 1 (opicinumab) a new monoclonal antibody tested in relapsing remitting
      multiple sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the
      central nervous system (CNS). The modern treatment era for MS witnessed a growing
      pool of drugs now available for use in clinical practice. These therapies work at
      different levels, however there is a lack of treatments acting on the
      neurodegenerative component or improving mechanism of repair. Areas covered: The
      latest knowledge about the pathophysiological changes occurring in MS have
      translated into novel treatments at different stages of development. Drugs for MS
      work mainly through modulating the inflammatory factors of the disease, but
      enhancing remyelination may be more successful in reducing long-term disability.
      Anti-LINGO-1 (opicinumab) is the first investigational product that achieved
      phase I trial with the aim of remyelination and axonal protection and/or repair
      in MS. Expert commentary: Over the past decade considerable strength has been
      applied to find more reliable strategies to improve myelin repair. The anti-LINGO
      1 trial showed that the drug is safe and tolerable. A future phase II trial will
      provide more insights regarding the compound. The greatest challenge for myelin
      repair therapies will be how to monitor their efficacy. Eventually research will
      need to focus on consistent tools to assess the grade of remyelination in vivo.

PMID- 28885861
TI  - Deuterated drugs; updates and obviousness analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The pharmacokinetics and/or toxicity of many known drugs can be
      modified by selective deuteration, an area of significant commercial interest and
      scientific and regulatory progress. Areas covered: This review firstly discusses
      recent developments in deuterated drugs including the FDA approval of
      deutetrabenazine. Secondly, it discusses 35 U.S.C. S103 'obviousness' as it
      relates to recent patent prosecution, and also to Inter Partes Review (IPR). IPR
      is a new post-award review of patentability under S102 or S103, two IPR petitions
      upon deuterated drugs have been instituted and included S103 arguments. Finally,
      an extended analysis of S103 obviousness based upon the practices of major
      pharmaceutical companies is provided, that supports rather late priority dates,
      while S102 is also discussed. Expert opinion: The total value of transactions
      involving deuterated drugs is close to $5 billion. While the importance of S103
      'obviousness' rejections remains in patent applications under current
      prosecution, IPR of issued patents is developing and will affect likely affect
      S103 interpretations in this area. However, patents are still issuing with later
      priority dates, and further litigation will likely occur.

PMID- 28885862
TI  - Volume and Tissue Composition Changes Measured with Dual-Energy X-Ray
      Absorptiometry in Melanoma-Related Limb Lymphedema.
AB  - : Abstracts Background: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate
      the volume, fat mass, and lean mass in both upper and lower limbs measured with
      dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in melanoma patients with melanoma-related
      limb lymphedema. METHODS AND RESULTS: Four hundred thirty-one patients who had
      undergone surgical treatment with wide local excision and unilateral axillary or
      inguinal sentinel lymph node biopsy and/or complete lymph node dissection
      participated in a survey, and they underwent clinical examination and
      measurements of their upper or lower limbs with DXA. Limb lymphedema was
      diagnosed on the basis of history and characteristic physical findings on the
      clinical examination. The inter-limb differences in volume, fat mass, and lean
      mass measured with DXA were categorized as none/mild, moderate, or severe
      according to reference values (taking handedness into account for the upper
      limbs). Of the 431 patients, 109 (25%) had clinical melanoma-related limb
      lymphedema corresponding to 23 (10%) who had undergone axillary nodal surgery and
      86 (45%) who had undergone inguinal nodal surgery. The majority of patients
      developed lymphedema within the first year (90%) after surgery, and the majority
      of lymphedemas were categorized as mild. The increase in the volume of limbs with
      lymphedema was primarily due to an increase in fat mass. CONCLUSION: There is a
      high prevalence of melanoma-related limb lymphedema. The increase in volume in
      the limb with lymphedema is primarily due to an increase in fat mass. This
      increase in fat mass in limbs with lymphedema is important for the understanding
      of the pathophysiology and may be important in the treatment of lymphedema.

PMID- 28885863
TI  - Long Noncoding RNA Bladder Cancer Associated Transcript 1 Promotes the
      Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer Through
      Sponging miR-144.
AB  - Nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a type of malignant tumor, accounting for
      80% of all lung cancer morbidity. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) BLACAT1 (bladder
      cancer associated transcript 1), also known as linc-UBC1, has been tested to be
      an oncogenic lncRNA in other cancers. However, the role of BLACAT1 in NSCLC is
      still unknown. In clinical study, BLACAT1 expression was significantly
      upregulated in 48 cases of NSCLC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues,
      especially in pathological TNM III samples. In NSCLC cells, BLACAT1 expression
      was also upregulated. Both in vivo and in vitro, BLACAT1 silencing transfected
      with si-BLACAT1 could suppress proliferation, migration, and invasion, and induce
      G0/G1 phase arrest. Bioinformatics methods and luciferase reporter assay revealed
      the close link within miR-144 and BLACAT1 3'-untranslated region (UTR).
      Furthermore, combining experiments of miR-144 and BLACAT1 indicated that miR-144
      could reverse the function of BLACAT1 on NSCLC cells' phenotype. Overall, this
      study reveals the overexpression of BLACAT1 in NSCLC tissue and cells, and
      discovers the oncogenic role of BLACAT1 in NSCLC genesis through sponging miR
      144, providing a potential biomarker for early detection and prognosis prediction
      of NSCLC.

PMID- 28885864
TI  - Examining Trauma and Readiness to Change among Women in a Community Re-Entry
      Program.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-occurring substance use
      disorders (SUDs) are common among women who are incarcerated. OBJECTIVE: The
      purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between trauma and
      readiness to change substance use behaviors. METHODS: This study used data from
      103 participants enrolled in a residential re-entry program for women with SUDs
      and trauma history. Women reporting clinically elevated Trauma Symptom Inventory
      (TSI) subscale scores were compared to those without elevated scores on the
      University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) readiness to change
      instrument. Primary analyses included t-tests and ANCOVA to control for age and
      ethnicity. RESULTS: In general, women with clinically elevated trauma scores also
      reported greater readiness to change. The analyses revealed significant
      differences on the URICA Readiness to Change scores between women who had
      elevated Defensive Avoidance and Impaired Self-Reference according to the TSI.
      Results approached significance for women who had elevated TSI subscale scores
      for Sexual Concerns and Dissociation. CONCLUSIONS: These results point to a need
      to further understand links between trauma and readiness to change, particularly,
      the role of posttraumatic growth and psychological distress. This study has
      implications for social workers and clinicians delivering evidence-based
      treatment. Women who had high trauma symptoms were more willing to address
      change. Findings also suggest a need to tailor interventions to include
      motivational components that are also trauma-informed.

PMID- 28885865
TI  - Changes in Insurance Coverage and Stage at Diagnosis Among Nonelderly Patients
      With Cancer After the Affordable Care Act.
AB  - Purpose To examine change in the percent uninsured and early-stage diagnosis
      among nonelderly patients with newly diagnosed cancer after the Affordable Care
      Act (ACA). Patients and Methods By using the National Cancer Data Base, we
      estimated absolute change (APC) and relative change in percent uninsured among
      patients with newly diagnosed cancer age 18 to 64 years between 2011 to the third
      quarter of 2013 (pre-ACA implementation) and the second to fourth quarter of 2014
      (post-ACA) in Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states by family income level.
      We also examined demographics-adjusted difference in differences in APC between
      Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states. We similarly examined changes in
      insurance and early-stage diagnosis for the 15 leading cancers in men and women
      (top 17 cancers total). Results Between the pre-ACA and post-ACA periods, percent
      uninsured among patients with newly diagnosed cancer decreased in all income
      categories in both Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states. However, the
      decrease was largest in low-income patients who resided in expansion states (9.6%
      to 3.6%; APC, -6.0%; 95% CI, -6.5% to -5.5%) versus their counterparts who
      resided in nonexpansion states (14.7% to 13.3%; APC, -1.4%; 95% CI, -2.0% to 
      0.7%), with an adjusted difference in differences of -3.3 (95% CI, -4.0 to -2.5).
      By cancer type, the largest decrease in percent uninsured occurred in patients
      with smoking- or infection-related cancers. A small but statistically significant
      shift was found toward early-stage diagnosis for colorectal, lung, female breast,
      and pancreatic cancer and melanoma in patients who resided in expansion states.
      Conclusion Percent uninsured among nonelderly patients with newly diagnosed
      cancer declined substantially after the ACA, especially among low-income people
      who resided in Medicaid expansion states. A trend toward early-stage diagnosis
      for select cancers in expansion states also was found. These results reinforce
      the importance of policies directed at providing affordable coverage to low
      income, vulnerable populations.

PMID- 28885866
TI  - Caspase inhibitors: a review of recently patented compounds (2013-2015).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although many caspase inhibitors have been patented, caspase
      inhibitors have not entered the market due to their toxicity and poor
      pharmacokinetic profile. Areas covered: In this article, we review patents (2013
      2015) for peptide and non-peptide caspase inhibitors and their compositions.
      Expert opinion: Noteworthy patents include a peptidic caspase-2 inhibitor for
      nasal administration and a peptidomimetic caspase-6 inhibitor that can be
      administered via several routes for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
      Furthermore, caspase-1 inhibitors for contact dermatitis and inflammation,
      cardiovascular diseases, and liver diseases and a caspase-3 inhibitor for
      cerebral stroke have been patented. Of particular interest is the novel use of
      tyrosine kinase inhibitors (sunitinib and its derivatives) for the prevention and
      treatment of age-related ocular diseases via inhibition of the caspase-3, dual
      leucine zipper kinase (DLK) and leucine zipper-bearing kinase (LZK) pathways.
      However, for effective clinical application of caspase inhibitors, novel peptidic
      and nonpeptidic caspase inhibitors with lower toxicity and improved efficacy
      should be developed via structural modifications, and further animal studies and
      preclinical and clinical trials are needed. In addition, the poor pharmacokinetic
      properties of classic caspase inhibitors may be improved by using advanced drug
      delivery systems that employ liposomes, polymers, and nanoparticles through
      effective administration routes.

PMID- 28885867
TI  - Clinical characteristics of recessive retinal degeneration due to mutations in
      the CDHR1 gene and a review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The clinical phenotype of patients presenting with autosomal
      recessive CDHR1-related retinopathy has not been well described. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This is a retrospective case series of patients presenting to a single
      institution. Clinical data, including age, visual acuity, dilated fundus exam,
      fundus photos, fundus autofluorescence (FAF), optical coherence tomography, full
      field electroretinograms (ERGs), and results of genetic testing, were collected.
      RESULTS: Four patients were identified to have biallelic mutations in the CDHR1
      gene. All four patients were found to have at least one c.783G>A (p.Pro261 = )
      mutation. A novel splice site mutation, c.152-2A>G, was identified in two
      patients. Patients became symptomatic between the fourth and sixth decades of
      life. Three patients presented initially with nyctalopia and peripheral visual
      field constriction, and one patient presented with simultaneous onset of
      photophobia and nyctalopia. The fundus appearance was characterized by macular
      atrophy with or without peripheral retinal pigment epithelium changes and
      arteriolar attenuation. FAF showed a hyperautofluorescent ring surrounding a
      central area of speckled hypoautofluorescence. Full-field electroretinography was
      available on three patients and showed decreased cone-and-rod responses.
      CONCLUSIONS: CDHR1-related retinal dystrophy should be considered in adult
      patients with a retinal dystrophy who present with symptoms of cone-and-rod
      dysfunction and macular atrophy on ophthalmoscopic examination.

PMID- 28885868
TI  - Evaluating the MoA/human relevance framework for F-344 rat liver epithelioid
      granulomas with mineral oil hydrocarbons.
AB  - Toxicology feeding studies of mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOHs), within the carbon
      number range C22-C28, results in species-specific epithelioid granulomas in the
      liver of F-344 rats but not in other rat strains, or species. While MOH has been
      detected, and some pathological effects have been shown to occur in other
      organs/tissues of F-344 rats and other rat strains/species, it is generally
      accepted that the effect of toxicological concern is species-specific
      inflammatory liver granuloma. As oil retention and other MOH-related nontoxic
      pathological changes in the liver are observed in humans, some have hypothesized
      that the potential for oil accumulation over a lifetime, through dietary sources,
      may predispose humans to similar liver effects as observed in F-344 rats. To
      address this concern, a mode of action/human relevance framework (MoA/HRF)
      analysis for MOH-induced epithelioid granuloma in the F-344 rat model was
      developed. The key events for the development of liver epithelioid granulomas
      were identified as increased MOH intestinal absorption, preferential tissue
      retention and ultimately formation of necrotic granulomas encased by infiltrating
      inflammatory lymphocytes. The hypothesized MoA was evaluated using the modified
      Bradford Hill considerations for causality and was considered to be established
      in the F-344 rodent model. However, key strain/species differences in the rate of
      intestinal absorption, tissue retention of MOH and inflammatory response to MOH
      in the liver were identified. Overall, the F-344 rat MoA was not considered to be
      relevant to humans, consistent with data showing no evidence for the formation of
      epithelioid granulomas with humans even in cases of massive ingestion of MOHs.

PMID- 28885869
TI  - Improving Student Engagement in Veterinary Business Studies.
AB  - Improving Student Engagement in Veterinary Business StudiesIn a densely packed
      veterinary curriculum, students may find it particularly challenging to engage in
      the less overtly clinical subjects, yet pressure from industry and an
      increasingly competitive employment market necessitate improved veterinary
      student education in business and management skills. We describe a curriculum
      intervention (formative reflective assignment) that optimizes workplace learning
      opportunities and aims to provide better student scaffolding for their in-context
      business learning. Students were asked to analyze a business practice they
      experienced during a period of extra-mural studies (external work placement).
      Following return to the college, they were then instructed to discuss their
      findings in their study group, and produce a group reflection on their learning.
      To better understand student engagement in this area, we analyzed individual and
      group components of the assignment. Thematic analysis revealed evidence of
      various depths of student engagement, and provided indications of the behaviors
      they used when engaging at different levels. Interactive and social practices
      (discussing business strategies with veterinary employees and student peers)
      appeared to facilitate student engagement, assist the perception of relevance of
      these skills, and encourage integration with other curriculum elements such as
      communication skills and clinical problem solving.

PMID- 28885870
TI  - A Natural Experiment on the Effect of Time Given for Quizzes on Veterinary
      Student Performance in a Required Principles of Anesthesia Course.
AB  - Assessments can cause significant distress in veterinary students and are listed
      as some of the greatest causes of academic stress. The purpose of this natural
      experiment was to determine if there is a relationship between amount of time
      given to complete quizzes and the students' score on the quiz. The Principles of
      Anesthesia course is required of all students. Quizzes are administered at the
      start of a class period and spaced throughout the course to cover 2-4 lectures
      per quiz. Once the allotted time has passed (3-6 minutes), students are notified
      they have 2 minutes to return the quiz to the instructor. To complete the quiz,
      students had 3 minutes in 2012 and 2013, 4 minutes in 2014, 5 minutes in 2015,
      and 6 minutes in 2016. The average quiz score was significantly lower with 3
      minutes than with 4 or 6 minutes. Students in the bottom quartile scored
      significantly higher with 4, 5, or 6 minutes than with 3 minutes. Students in the
      upper quartile scored significantly higher with 4 minutes than with 3 minutes and
      with 4 minutes than with 5 minutes. The time provided for students to complete a
      free-response quiz was not associated with student performance once a certain
      minimum time (4 minutes) was provided. Providing students an appropriate, but not
      excessive, amount of time to complete assessments will allow for appropriately
      applied assessments and preserve time dedicated to instruction.

PMID- 28885871
TI  - Using the Virtual World of Second Life in Veterinary Medicine: Student and
      Faculty Perceptions.
AB  - Virtual worlds are emerging technologies that can enhance student learning by
      encouraging active participation through simulation in immersive environments. At
      Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM), the virtual world of
      Second Life was piloted as an educational platform for first-semester students to
      practice clinical reasoning in a simulated veterinary clinical setting. Under the
      supervision of one facilitator, four groups of nine students met three times to
      process a clinical case using Second Life. In addition, three groups of four
      clinical faculty observed one Second Life meeting. Questionnaires using a 4-point
      Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree) and open-ended questions
      were used to assess student and clinical faculty perceptions of the Second Life
      platform. Perception scores of students (M=2.7, SD=0.7) and clinical faculty
      (M=2.7, SD=0.5) indicate that Second Life provides authentic and realistic
      learning experiences. In fact, students (M=3.4, SD=0.6) and clinical faculty
      (M=2.9, SD=1.0) indicate that Second Life should be offered to future students.
      Moreover, content analyses of open-ended responses from students and faculty
      support the use of Second Life based on reported advantages indicating that
      Second Life offers a novel and effective instructional method. Ultimately,
      results indicate that students and clinical faculty had positive educational
      experiences using Second Life, suggesting the need for further investigation into
      its application within the curriculum.

PMID- 28885872
TI  - Teaching Tip: Simulated Tumors as an Aid to Teaching Principles of Surgical
      Oncology.
AB  - Tumors of the skin and subcutaneous tissues are an important cause of morbidity
      and mortality in small animals. In many cases, surgical excision is an essential
      component of successful therapy and it should be performed in a specific way
      based on the type and grade of the tumor. Students require adequate training to
      develop both clinical decision-making skills and technical surgical skills, which
      we believe contribute to optimal clinical results. We have developed an
      inexpensive and simple technique that aims to replicate a naturally occurring
      subcutaneous tumor and allows trainees to plan and perform three common surgical
      procedures: incisional biopsy, marginal excision, and wide surgical excision.
      Artificial tumors were created by subcutaneous injection of a heated, oil-based
      solution that adhered to surrounding tissue as it solidified. Simulated masses
      were successfully created in all specimens. Many students performed the exercises
      with technical proficiency; however, some technical errors were identified and
      provided an opportunity to discuss the challenges of and solutions to several of
      these situations. This exercise may be a valuable addition to the veterinary
      curriculum, aiding student development of both technical skills and knowledge in
      the field of surgical oncology.

PMID- 28885873
TI  - Bovine Reproductive Palpation Training: Does the Cow Make a Difference?
AB  - Gaining experience and dexterity for trans-rectal cattle palpation requires
      substantial training. Simulation allows students to perform palpation without
      risks and to obtain feedback, but many believe live cattle palpation is
      essential. Limited research exists on the proper training method for live animal
      trans-rectal palpation. This study compared student improvement in laboratory
      palpation skills when assigned to the same cows versus choosing a cow at random.
      The hypothesis for the study was that students assigned the same cow, as compared
      to students choosing a cow at random, would be more accurate at palpation, would
      learn what structures are present on the ovaries and what size the reproductive
      tract measures, and would be able to follow the cyclicity of the cow. Cervical
      diameter, uterine tone, diameter of left and right uterine horns, and ovarian
      structures were recorded over time. Responses were compared to laboratory
      instructors' responses and Z-tests for proportions were used to test the
      differences in percentage correct at each time point for each palpation exercise.
      Overall the experiment showed that assigning students to certain cows will not
      improve their trans-rectal palpation training. However, asking students to
      identify specific landmarks with quantitative measurements did allow for more
      productive laboratory time and engaged students. The results of the present study
      also suggest that if there is limited time available for palpation instruction,
      choosing cows with behavior allowing easy handling is important to the
      educational process.

PMID- 28885874
TI  - Impact of Virtual Patients as Optional Learning Material in Veterinary
      Biochemistry Education.
AB  - Biochemistry and physiology teachers from veterinary faculties in Hannover,
      Budapest, and Lublin prepared innovative, computer-based, integrative clinical
      case scenarios as optional learning materials for teaching and learning in basic
      sciences. These learning materials were designed to enhance attention and
      increase interest and intrinsic motivation for learning, thus strengthening
      autonomous, active, and self-directed learning. We investigated learning progress
      and success by administering a pre-test before exposure to the virtual patients
      (vetVIP) cases, offered vetVIP cases alongside regular biochemistry courses, and
      then administered a complementary post-test. We analyzed improvement in cohort
      performance and level of confidence in rating questions. Results of the
      performance in biochemistry examinations in 2014, 2015, and 2016 were correlated
      with the use of and performance in vetVIP cases throughout biochemistry courses
      in Hannover. Surveys of students reflected that interactive cases helped them
      understand the relevance of basic sciences in veterinary education. Differences
      between identical pre- and post-tests revealed knowledge improvement (correct
      answers: +28% in Hannover, +9% in Lublin) and enhanced confidence in decision
      making ("I don't know" answers: -20% in Hannover, -7.5% in Lublin). High case
      usage and voluntary participation (use of vetVIP cases in Hannover and Lublin
      >70%, Budapest <1%; response rates in pre-test 72% and post-test 48%) indicated a
      good increase in motivation for the subject of biochemistry. Despite increased
      motivation, there was only a weak correlation between performance in final exams
      and performance in the vetVIP cases. Case-based e-learning could be extended and
      generated cases should be shared across veterinary faculties.

PMID- 28885875
TI  - Post-Traumatic Growth and Resilience in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer
      Patients: An Overview.
AB  - The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the literature on post
      traumatic growth (PTG) and resilience among adolescent and young adult (AYA)
      cancer patients. A literature search in Embase, PsychInfo, PubMed, Web of
      Science, Cochrane Library, and Cinahl was carried out. Thirteen articles met the
      pre-defined inclusion criteria. Qualitative interview studies showed that AYA
      cancer patients report PTG and resilience: PTG is described by AYA cancer
      patients in terms of benefit finding, including changing view of life and feeling
      stronger and more confident, whereas resilience is described as a balance of
      several factors, including stress and coping, goals, optimism, finding meaning,
      connection, and belonging. Quantitative studies showed that sociodemographic and
      clinical characteristics were not associated with PTG. Enduring stress was
      negatively, and social support positively, associated with PTG. Symptom distress
      and defensive coping were negatively and adaptive cognitive coping was positively
      associated with resilience. Both PTG and resilience were positively associated
      with satisfaction with life and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
      Resilience was found to be a mediator in the relationship between symptom
      distress and HRQoL. Two interventions aiming to promote resilience, a stress
      management and a therapeutic music video-intervention, were not successful in
      significantly increasing overall resilience. Most AYA cancer patients report at
      least some PTG or resilience. Correlates of PTG and resilience, including symptom
      distress, stress, coping, social support, and physical activity, provide further
      insight to improve the effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting these
      positive outcomes and potentially buffer negative outcomes.

PMID- 28885876
TI  - Subcutaneous Draining of Lower Extremity Edema in a Patient With Advanced Cancer
      Relieves Scrotal Swelling and Improves Mobility.

PMID- 28885877
TI  - In Response to "Why Burnout Is So Hard to Fix".

PMID- 28885878
TI  - Reply to S. Prince.

PMID- 28885879
TI  - Infusion Room-Based Transition to Practice Model for Teaching Cancer Systemic
      Therapy Management.
AB  - PURPOSE: Oncology training requirements mandate that fellows demonstrate
      competence in delivery of cancer therapeutics, understand clinical indications
      for treatment, and manage toxicities by completion of training. An academic
      training environment may hinder fellows' engagement in prescribing, monitoring,
      and adjusting cancer therapy; thus, trainees may complete their fellowship with
      limited experience in developing such critical skills. To provide hands-on
      experience in cancer systemic therapy management, we created a novel infusion
      room-based rotation in the final year of training; here we report the structure,
      logistics, and evaluation of this innovative program. METHODS: In 2004, The
      University of Florida Hematology Oncology Fellowship Program created an
      outpatient infusion room rotation called Transition to Practice (TTP). We
      surveyed 20 graduates of the program to assess the ability of the rotation to
      teach skills necessary for systemic therapy management and identify which
      fellowship rotations had an impact on their readiness to practice independently.
      RESULTS: Nineteen graduates completed the survey. TTP was rated highest for
      promoting independence in making decisions related to therapy and adjustment to
      the treatment plan. It was less valuable in teaching the financial aspects of
      cancer therapy encounters. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center continuity clinic
      and the TTP rotation were highly regarded for preparing graduates to practice
      oncology independently. CONCLUSION: We consider the TTP model an effective
      learning environment for oncology trainees to develop the essential skill set for
      managing cancer systemic therapy on the basis of this single-institution analysis
      of recent graduates. This model could be applied to training other oncology
      professionals, such as advanced practice providers, who are new to the field.

PMID- 28885880
TI  - Bilateral Adrenalectomy for Metastatic Esophageal Adenocarcinoma: A Case Report.

PMID- 28885883
TI  - ?

PMID- 28885882
TI  - ?

PMID- 28885884
TI  - [The internet-based anorexia nervosa-register for adolescent patients in
      Germany].

PMID- 28885885
TI  - ?

PMID- 28885886
TI  - ?

PMID- 28885887
TI  - ?

PMID- 28885888
TI  - Crossmodal processing of emotions in alcohol-dependence and Korsakoff syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Decoding emotional information from faces and voices is crucial for
      efficient interpersonal communication. Emotional decoding deficits have been
      found in alcohol-dependence (ALC), particularly in crossmodal situations (with
      simultaneous stimulations from different modalities), but are still underexplored
      in Korsakoff syndrome (KS). The aim of this study is to determine whether the
      continuity hypothesis, postulating a gradual worsening of cognitive and brain
      impairments from ALC to KS, is valid for emotional crossmodal processing.
      METHODS: Sixteen KS, 17 ALC and 19 matched healthy controls (CP) had to detect
      the emotion (anger or happiness) displayed by auditory, visual or crossmodal
      auditory-visual stimuli. Crossmodal stimuli were either emotionally congruent
      (leading to a facilitation effect, i.e. enhanced performance for crossmodal
      condition compared to unimodal ones) or incongruent (leading to an interference
      effect, i.e. decreased performance for crossmodal condition due to discordant
      information across modalities). Reaction times and accuracy were recorded.
      RESULTS: Crossmodal integration for congruent information was dampened only in
      ALC, while both ALC and KS demonstrated, compared to CP, decreased performance
      for decoding emotional facial expressions in the incongruent condition.
      CONCLUSIONS: The crossmodal integration appears impaired in ALC but preserved in
      KS. Both alcohol-related disorders present an increased interference effect.
      These results show the interest of more ecological designs, using crossmodal
      stimuli, to explore emotional decoding in alcohol-related disorders. They also
      suggest that the continuum hypothesis cannot be generalised to emotional decoding
      abilities.

PMID- 28885889
TI  - A Genetic Variant of ASCT2 Hampers In Vitro RNA Splicing and Correlates with
      Human Longevity.
AB  - Given the role of amino acid regulation for physiological and pathological cell
      proliferation, we investigated whether the variability of solute carrier family
      1, member 5 (SLC1A5, namely ASCT2), encoding for ASCT2 protein, a major glutamine
      transporter, is related to longevity. A total of 607 differently aged unrelated
      individuals, 351 very old subjects (>=85 years, range 85-106 years, mean age
      93.82 +/- 4.44 years) and 256 younger controls (<85 years, range 64-84 years,
      mean age 73.60 +/- 5.70 years) were analyzed. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms
      (SNPs) were selected by a tagging SNP approach prioritizing those most likely to
      be of functional relevance. Genotyping was carried out using iPLEX Gold
      Genotyping Assay (Sequenom MassARRAY), and a logistic regression analysis was
      used to examine the associations between genotypes and the longevity phenotype.
      Age-associated variants were predicted to be involved in the alteration of an
      exonic splicing enhancer (ESE) site by Human Splicing Finder (HSF) v.3. Minigene
      constructs containing the alleles associated with longevity allowed the
      assessment of the functional effects of the polymorphisms. Two polymorphisms were
      found associated with human longevity (rs3027958 and rs1644343). Indeed, the
      major alleles of both SNPs positively influence the probability to become long
      lived. In vitro assays suggested that the minor allele of rs3027958 alters an ESE
      site, thus inducing intron retention. We provide evidence about the functional
      role of intronic variants of the ASCT2 gene in hampering the splicing process,
      and the effect of these variants on survival, confirming the crucial role played
      by this amino acid transporter in modulating longevity.

PMID- 28885890
TI  - Qualitative Radiogenomics: Association between Oncotype DX Test Recurrence Score
      and BI-RADS Mammographic and Breast MR Imaging Features.
AB  - Purpose To evaluate the association between Breast Imaging Reporting and Data
      System (BI-RADS) mammographic and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging features and
      breast cancer recurrence risk in patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast
      cancer who underwent the Oncotype DX assay. Materials and Methods In this
      institutional review board-approved and HIPAA-compliant protocol, 408 patients
      diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 2004 and 2013 who underwent the
      Oncotype DX assay were identified. Mammographic and MR imaging features were
      retrospectively collected according to the BI-RADS lexicon. Linear regression
      assessed the association between imaging features and Oncotype DX test recurrence
      score (ODxRS), and post hoc pairwise comparisons assessed ODxRS means by using
      imaging features. Results Mammographic breast density was inversely associated
      with ODxRS (P <= .05). Average ODxRS for density category A was 24.4 and that for
      density category D was 16.5 (P < .02). Both indistinct mass margins and fine
      linear branching calcifications at mammography were significantly associated with
      higher ODxRS (P < .01 and P < .03, respectively). Masses with indistinct margins
      had an average ODxRS of 31.3, which significantly differed from the ODxRS of 18.5
      for all other mass margins (P < .01). The average ODxRS for fine linear branching
      calcifications was 29.6, whereas the ODxRS for all other suspicious calcification
      morphologies was 19.4 (P < .03). Average ODxRS was significantly higher for
      irregular mass margins at MR imaging compared with spiculated mass margins (24.0
      vs 17.6; P < .02). The presence of nonmass enhancement at MR imaging was
      associated with lower ODxRS than was its absence (16.4 vs 19.9; P < .05).
      Conclusion The BI-RADS features of mammographic breast density, calcification
      morphology, mass margins at mammography and MR imaging, and nonmass enhancement
      at MR imaging have the potential to serve as imaging biomarkers of breast cancer
      recurrence risk. Further prospective studies involving larger patient cohorts are
      needed to validate these preliminary findings. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental
      material is available for this article.

PMID- 28885891
TI  - Signal Enhancement of the Dentate Nucleus at Unenhanced MR Imaging after Very
      High Cumulative Doses of the Macrocyclic Gadolinium-based Contrast Agent
      Gadobutrol: An Observational Study.
AB  - Purpose To test for measurable visual enhancement of the dentate nucleus (DN) on
      unenhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images in a cohort of patients
      with a primary brain tumor who had not received linear gadolinium-based contrast
      agents (GBCAs) but had received many injections of macrocyclic GBCAs. Materials
      and Methods Seventeen patients with high-grade gliomas who had received 10-44
      administrations of the macrocyclic GBCA gadobutrol (0.1 mmol/kg of body weight)
      were retrospectively included in this regional ethics committee-approved study.
      Two neuroradiologists inspected T1-weighted MR images with optimized window
      settings to visualize small differences in contrast at the baseline and at the
      last examination for the presence of visual DN signal enhancement. Signal
      intensity (SI) in the DN was normalized to the SI of the pons, and a one-sample t
      test was used to test for differences between baseline normalized SI (nSI) in the
      DN (nSIDN) and the average change in nSIDN of all postbaseline MR imaging
      sessions (DeltanSIDNavg) or the change in nSIDN from baseline to the last MR
      imaging session (DeltanSIDN). Linear and quadratic correlation analyses were used
      to examine the association between the number of macrocyclic GBCA administrations
      and DeltanSIDN or DeltanSIDNavg. Results The mean +/- standard deviation number
      of macrocyclic GBCA administrations was 22.2 +/- 10.6 administered throughout 706
      days +/- 454. Visually appreciable signal enhancement was observed in two
      patients who had received 37 and 44 macrocyclic GBCA injections. Mean DeltanSIDN
      was greater than zero (0.03 +/- 0.05; P = .016), and there was a significant
      linear association between the number of macrocyclic GBCA injections and
      DeltanSIDN (r = 0.69, P = .002) and DeltanSIDNavg (r = 0.77, P < .001).
      Conclusion A small but statistically significant dose-dependent T1-weighted
      signal enhancement was observed in the DN after multiple macrocyclic GBCA
      injections. Visually appreciable enhancement in the DN was observed on contrast
      optimized images in two patients who had received 37 and 44 standard doses of
      macrocyclic GBCAs. (c) RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for
      this article.

PMID- 28885881
TI  - Durvalumab after Chemoradiotherapy in Stage III Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most patients with locally advanced, unresectable, non-small-cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC) have disease progression despite definitive chemoradiotherapy
      (chemotherapy plus concurrent radiation therapy). This phase 3 study compared the
      anti-programmed death ligand 1 antibody durvalumab as consolidation therapy with
      placebo in patients with stage III NSCLC who did not have disease progression
      after two or more cycles of platinum-based chemoradiotherapy. METHODS: We
      randomly assigned patients, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive durvalumab (at a dose of
      10 mg per kilogram of body weight intravenously) or placebo every 2 weeks for up
      to 12 months. The study drug was administered 1 to 42 days after the patients had
      received chemoradiotherapy. The coprimary end points were progression-free
      survival (as assessed by means of blinded independent central review) and overall
      survival (unplanned for the interim analysis). Secondary end points included 12
      month and 18-month progression-free survival rates, the objective response rate,
      the duration of response, the time to death or distant metastasis, and safety.
      RESULTS: Of 713 patients who underwent randomization, 709 received consolidation
      therapy (473 received durvalumab and 236 received placebo). The median
      progression-free survival from randomization was 16.8 months (95% confidence
      interval [CI], 13.0 to 18.1) with durvalumab versus 5.6 months (95% CI, 4.6 to
      7.8) with placebo (stratified hazard ratio for disease progression or death,
      0.52; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.65; P<0.001); the 12-month progression-free survival rate
      was 55.9% versus 35.3%, and the 18-month progression-free survival rate was 44.2%
      versus 27.0%. The response rate was higher with durvalumab than with placebo
      (28.4% vs. 16.0%; P<0.001), and the median duration of response was longer (72.8%
      vs. 46.8% of the patients had an ongoing response at 18 months). The median time
      to death or distant metastasis was longer with durvalumab than with placebo (23.2
      months vs. 14.6 months; P<0.001). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 29.9%
      of the patients who received durvalumab and 26.1% of those who received placebo;
      the most common adverse event of grade 3 or 4 was pneumonia (4.4% and 3.8%,
      respectively). A total of 15.4% of patients in the durvalumab group and 9.8% of
      those in the placebo group discontinued the study drug because of adverse events.
      CONCLUSIONS: Progression-free survival was significantly longer with durvalumab
      than with placebo. The secondary end points also favored durvalumab, and safety
      was similar between the groups. (Funded by AstraZeneca; PACIFIC
      ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02125461 .).

PMID- 28885892
TI  - Bridging the Gap in Implementation Science: Evaluating a Capacity-Building
      Program in Data Management, Analysis, Utilization, and Dissemination in Low- and
      Middle-Income Countries.
AB  - Building capacity in implementation science within health programs is dependent
      on training in theory and practice of epidemiology, statistics, and research in
      addition to high self-efficacy toward application of training. This article
      describes a training program providing technical assistance to more than 300
      health facilities in Kenya and Tanzania, its evaluation results, and its ability
      to improve participants' knowledge, competencies, and self-efficacy on data
      management, analysis, and dissemination among health care professionals. Two
      months prior to the training, participants (n = 98) were emailed a pre-course
      survey including 19 questions using a Likert-type response for planning the
      content of the workshop. Six to 12 weeks after the training, a post-course survey
      was emailed to all participants. Five different trainings were conducted
      indicating 5 participant cohorts. The questions posed involved course
      satisfaction, course impact on knowledge and skills, and self-efficacy in data
      analysis and utilization. Post-course survey results revealed that the
      participants had confidence in data analysis, which was significantly different
      from the pre-test results (0.05 alpha). Qualitative commentary complemented the
      findings of the impact of the workshop. Four manuscripts and 13 abstracts have
      been submitted post training. Results suggest that a short-term training program
      can achieve immediate gains in data and research self-efficacy among health care
      professionals. Although increasing self-efficacy is a necessary first step in
      developing skills, educators should engage in continuing education for
      sustainable dissemination practices. There is an urgent need to determine the
      current infrastructure to promote scientific dissemination. This will assist
      countries to produce better evidence to support their programs, policies, and
      overall health programs.

PMID- 28885894
TI  - Comparison of Self-Identified Minor-Attracted Persons Who Have and Have Not
      Successfully Refrained From Sexual Activity With Children.
AB  - The present study compares community-based minor-attracted persons (MAPs) with
      and without histories of sexual activity with children. MAP actors (N = 342) were
      significantly older than non-actors (N = 223), with longer duration of pedophilic
      attraction, more antisocial traits, greater attraction to boys, greater
      difficulty controlling their attraction, and more positive attitudes toward adult
      child sexual activity. Additionally, more MAP actors reported prior mental health
      treatment, nonsexual offenses, and childhood sexual and nonsexual abuse. Over a
      third of the whole sample reported chronic suicidal ideation. These findings
      support the existence of MAPs who successfully refrain from sexually engaging
      with children, identifying multiple protective and risk factors.

PMID- 28885893
TI  - Does Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition Relate to Accountable Care
      Organization Participation?
AB  - As of April 2015, less than 10% of Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable
      Care Organizations (MSSP ACOs) included Rural Health Clinics (RHCs). In order to
      understand why RHCs are not participating in this ACO model in greater numbers,
      this study examined the influence of several factors on ACO participation. Data
      for this study were collected via a survey distributed during the summers of
      2012, 2013, and 2014 to all RHCs in 9 states. This study had a cross-sectional
      design using survey research. The unit of analysis was the RHC; the total sample
      size was 178. This study found that those respondents who reported knowing very
      little about ACOs had the lowest "willingness to join an ACO" score and that the
      passage of time increased RHC willingness to join an ACO. Also, patient-centered
      medical home (PCMH) recognition was the most influential factor related to an
      RHC's adopting the ACO model. If ACO model adoption is to increase in rural
      areas, this study suggests that strategies would need to include methods for (1)
      targeting RHCs that have PCMH recognition; (2) increasing PCMH recognition in
      rural areas; and (3) increasing RHC knowledge about what an ACO is, how the model
      works, and why this model may benefit RHCs and other rural primary care
      providers.

PMID- 28885896
TI  - A Systematic Review of Electronic Mindfulness-Based Therapeutic Interventions for
      Weight, Weight-Related Behaviors, and Psychological Stress.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recent research indicates that mindfulness-based interventions are
      effective for stress, maladaptive weight-related behaviors, and weight loss.
      Little is presently known about their applicability and effectiveness when
      delivered electronically, including through Web-based and mobile device media.
      The primary aims of this review were to identify what types of electronic
      mindfulness-based interventions have been undertaken for stress, maladaptive
      weight-related behaviors, and weight loss, and to assess their overall
      effectiveness. METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, CINAHL,
      and Web of Science databases was undertaken in June 2016. RESULTS: A total of 21
      studies were identified that met inclusion criteria and were selected in the
      final review. Of these, 19 were mindfulness-based interventions for stress
      reduction. Two were Web-based mindful eating/intuitive eating interventions for
      weight. Only one electronic mindfulness-based study was identified that targeted
      both stress and maladaptive weight-related behaviors. Most electronic
      interventions were effective for stress reduction N = 14/19 (74%). There were
      insufficient electronic mindfulness-based interventions for weight to determine
      if they were effective or not. Additionally, no mobile mindfulness-based
      intervention was identified for weight or weight-related behaviors. CONCLUSION:
      Electronic mindfulness-based interventions through diverse media appear to be
      effective for stress reduction. More studies are needed that target weight and
      weight-related behaviors as well as studies that target both stress and weight.
      More randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assess mobile mindfulness-based
      apps are needed as we only identified four app trials for stress. Mobile
      mindfulness-based interventions for weight and weight-related behaviors are a
      future area of research novelty.

PMID- 28885895
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Comparative Trials Evaluating a Prophylactic Single-Use Negative
      Pressure Wound Therapy System for the Prevention of Surgical Site Complications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We report the first meta-analysis on the impact of prophylactic use
      of a specific design of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) device on surgical
      site complications. METHODS: Articles were identified in which the specific
      single-use NPWT device (PICO?, Smith & Nephew) was compared with standard care
      for surgical site infection (SSI), dehiscence, or length of stay (LOS). Risk
      ratio (RR) +/-95% confidence interval (CI) (SSI; dehiscence) or mean difference
      in LOS +/-95% CI was calculated using RevMan v5.3. RESULTS: There were 1863
      patients (2202 incisions) represented by 16 articles. Among 10 randomized
      studies, there was a significant reduction in SSI rate of 51% from 9.7% to 4.8%
      with NPWT intervention (RR 0.49 [95% CI 0.34-0.69] p < 0.0001). There were six
      observational studies assessing reduction in SSI rate of 67% from 22.5% to 7.4%
      with NPWT (RR 0. 32 [95% CI 0.18-0.55] p < 0.0001). Combining all 16 studies,
      there was a significant reduction in SSI of 58% from 12.5% to 5.2% with NPWT (RR
      0.43 [95% CI 0.32-0.57] p < 0.0001). Similar effects were seen irrespective of
      the kind of surgery (orthopedic, abdominal, colorectal, or cesarean section),
      although the numbers needed to treat (NNT) were lower in operations with higher
      frequencies of complications. There was a significant reduction in dehiscence
      from 17.4% to 12.8% with NPWT (RR 0.71 [95% CI 0.54-0.92] p < 0.01). The mean
      reduction in hospital LOS by NPWT was also significant (-0.47 days [95% CI -0.71
      to -0.23] p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The significant reduction in SSI, wound
      dehiscence, and LOS on the basis of pooled data from 16 studies shows a benefit
      of the PICO single-use NPWT system compared with standard care in closed surgical
      incisions.

PMID- 28885897
TI  - Personal Pornography Viewing and Sexual Satisfaction: A Quadratic Analysis.
AB  - Personal pornography viewing has been associated with lower sexual satisfaction
      in both experimental and observational research. The language used to hypothesize
      this relationship typically suggests that it is frequent viewing, rather than
      infrequent or only occasional viewing, that is responsible for any adverse
      effects. When the nature of the relationship between a predictor and a criterion
      depends on the levels of the predictor, a curvilinear relationship is indicated.
      Nevertheless, studies have assumed linearity in their analytical approach.
      Curvilinear relationships will go undetected unless they are specifically tested.
      This article presents results from a survey of approximately 1,500 U.S. adults.
      Quadratic analyses indicated a curvilinear relationship between personal
      pornography viewing and sexual satisfaction in the form of a predominately
      negative, concave downward curve. The nature of the curvilinearity did not differ
      as a function of participants' gender, relationship status, or religiosity. But
      the negative acceleration was slightly more pronounced for men than for women,
      for people not in a relationship than for people in a relationship, and for
      religious people than for nonreligious people. For all groups, negative simple
      slopes were present when viewing reached once a month or more. These results are
      correlational only. However, if an effects perspective were adopted, it would
      suggest that consuming pornography less than once a month has little or no impact
      on satisfaction, that reductions in satisfaction tend to initiate once viewing
      reaches once a month, and that additional increases in the frequency of viewing
      lead to disproportionately larger decrements in satisfaction.

PMID- 28885898
TI  - Antibiotic Prescribing Practices for Prevention of Surgical Site Infections in
      Australia: Increased Uptake of National Guidelines after Surveillance and
      Reporting and Impact on Infection Rates.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial prophylaxis is the single most effective intervention
      to reduce risk of surgical site infections (SSIs); however, prescribing practices
      should be aligned with accepted and recommended surgical antibiotic prophylaxis
      (SAP) regimens to be effective. As part of a comprehensive surveillance network,
      SAP data are collated and analyzed for compliance with recommendations. Results
      are reported to hospitals for quality improvement purposes. In this study,
      statewide results were analyzed to ascertain changes over time and whether
      improved compliance was associated with a reduction in risk for SSI. METHODS: A
      standardized tool for monitoring SAP and SSIs was used in Victorian healthcare
      facilities. For the current study, data submitted for the period 2003-2015 were
      analyzed. Compliance with national recommendations (Australian Therapeutic
      Guidelines-Antibiotic) was used as the reference standard for antibiotic
      selection, timing, and duration Results: A total of 144,075 surgical procedures
      were surveyed during the study period. During this period, the proportion of
      patients receiving antibiotic agents according to national guidelines increased.
      Across all surgical groups, the odds ratio (OR) for appropriate SAP choice
      increased by 13%/year. Greatest improvement was seen for colorectal procedures
      (19%/year), with the smallest change observed for cholecystectomy and cardiac
      operations (9%/year). The OR for receiving an antibiotic agent at the recommended
      time increased by 12%/year and the odds of the antibiotic agent being
      discontinued within 24 hours by 27%/year. Non-compliance with a recommended SAP
      agent and timing was associated with an increased risk of SSI across all
      procedure groups (OR 1.33, 95% confidence interval 1.24-1.43). CONCLUSION:
      Sustained improvements in prescribing practices for SAP have been demonstrated
      through a comprehensive surveillance and reporting system. Non-compliance with
      SAP guidelines is associated with an increased risk for SSI. Quality improvement
      programs must focus on uptake and implementation of evidence-based guidelines.

PMID- 28885899
TI  - Watson, the game is a foot...or a palm.

PMID- 28885900
TI  - Renal denervation: Are we on the right path?

PMID- 28885901
TI  - Bedside manners: How to deal with delirium.

PMID- 28885902
TI  - Measuring both serum amylase and lipase for acute pancreatitis lowers quality and
      raises cost.

PMID- 28885903
TI  - A minimally invasive treatment for early GI cancers.
AB  - Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) allows curative resection of early
      malignant gastrointestinal (GI) lesions, potentially avoiding open surgery.
      Unfortunately, awareness of this technique is low, and many patients undergo
      surgery without consideration of ESD. This article reviews the indications for
      ESD and its advantages and limitations, and guides internists in their approach
      to patients with early GI cancer.

PMID- 28885904
TI  - Reproductive planning for women after solid-organ transplant.
AB  - Women who receive transplants require contraception counseling because of the
      teratogenicity of immunosuppressant medications and the risks posed by pregnancy
      after transplant. Fortunately, pregnancy can succeed with careful planning and
      monitoring.

PMID- 28885905
TI  - Postoperative delirium in a 64-year-old woman.

PMID- 28885906
TI  - Another complication of cirrhosis.

PMID- 28885907
TI  - Antibiotic stewardship: Why we must, how we can.
AB  - Improving our antibiotic use is critical to the safety of our patients and the
      future of medicine. This can improve patient outcomes, save money, reduce
      resistance, and help prevent negative consequences such as Clostridium difficile
      infection. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is undertaking
      a nationwide effort to appropriately improve antibiotic use in inpatient and
      outpatient settings.

PMID- 28885908
TI  - Heartburn or heart attack? A mimic of MI.

PMID- 28885909
TI  - Palmar erythema as a sign of cancer.

PMID- 28885910
TI  - Metastatic pulmonary calcification and end-stage renal disease.

PMID- 28885911
TI  - Renal denervation: What happened, and why?
AB  - Despite promising results in initial trials, renal denervation failed to achieve
      its efficacy end points as a treatment for resistant hypertension in the
      SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial, the largest trial of this treatment to date (N Engl J Med
      2014; 370:1393-1401). Is renal denervation dead, or will future trials and newer
      technology revive it?

PMID- 28885912
TI  - To the Editor: Anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation.

PMID- 28885913
TI  - In Reply: Anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation.

PMID- 28885914
TI  - To the Editor: Cardiac mass: Tumor or thrombus?

PMID- 28885915
TI  - Nanosized Liposomes Containing Bile Salt: A Vesicular Nanocarrier for Enhancing
      Oral Bioavailability of BCS Class III Drug.
AB  - PURPOSE: Liposomes have been studied as a colloidal carrier in drug delivery
      systems, especially for oral administration. However, their low structural
      integrity in the gut is still a major shortcoming. Membrane disruptive effects of
      physiological bile salts in the small intestine result in premature drug release
      prior to intestinal absorption. Thus, we analyzed the stabilizing effect of
      sodium deoxycholate when incorporated into nano-sized liposomes. METHOD:
      Cefotaxime-loaded liposomes were prepared with different sodium deoxycholate
      concentrations (3.75- 30 mM) by rotary film evaporation followed by nano-size
      reduction. The physical integrity of liposomes was evaluated by monitoring
      cefotaxime leakage, particle sizes in different simulated physiological media.
      The oral bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of cefotaxime was assessed in rats
      (n = 6 per group) after single dose of drug-encapsulated in liposomes containing
      bile salt, drug in conventional liposomes, and cefotaxime solution (oral and
      intravenous). RESULTS: Simulated gastric fluid with low pH showed less effect on
      the stability of liposomes in comparison to media containing physiological bile
      salts.  Liposomes containing 15 mM sodium deoxycholate were most stable in size
      and retained the majority of encapsulated cefotaxime even in fed state of
      simulated intestinal fluid being the most destructive media. Pharmacokinetics
      data showed an increase in Cmax and AUC0-inf in the following order: cefotaxime
      solution < conventional liposomes < liposomes made with bile salts. The total
      oral bioavailability of cefotaxime in liposomes containing bile salt was found to
      be 5-times higher compared to cefotaxime solution and twice as much as in
      conventional liposomes. CONCLUSION: Incorporation of bile salts, initially used
      as membrane permeation enhancer, also acted as a stabilizer against physiological
      bile salts. The nano-sized liposomes containing sodium deoxycholate were able to
      reduce the leakage of encapsulated cefotaxime in the gut due to the improved
      vesicle stability and to enhance the oral bioavailability of acid-labile drugs up
      to 5-fold. 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- 28885916
TI  - Calcitriol Reverses Induced Expression of Efflux Proteins and Potentiates
      Cytotoxic Activity of Gemcitabine in Capan-2 Pancreatic Cancer Cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Efflux and influx proteins play a major role in chemo-resistance by
      affecting the net cellular uptake of anti-cancer drugs. Hence, alteration of the
      efflux and influx protein expression may result in variations of
      chemotherapeutics uptake and consequently cell death rate. The present study
      investigated the effects of pre-treatment of capan-2 pancreatic cancer cells with
      calcitriol, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) or
      silibinin on the induction of three major efflux proteins and the main
      gemcitabine influx protein. The influence of the pre-treatments on the net
      cellular uptake of gemcitabine, total ATPase activity, and cell death rate were
      also evaluated. METHODS: Capan-2 pancreatic cancer cells were pre-treated for 24
      h with calcitriol, BHT, BHA, or silibinin, followed by gemcitabine treatment. The
      concentration of gemcitabine was quantified using ultra-performance liquid
      chromatography (UPLC). Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was utilized
      in order to investigate the expression of the mRNAs. The expression of the
      proteins was assessed using western blotting. Measurement of the ATPase activity
      was conducted utilizing a colorimetric method and viability of the cells was
      determined using a luminescent cell viability assay. RESULTS: Protein expression
      studies showed that BHT, silibinin, and BHA increased expression of the efflux
      proteins and decreased the overall uptake of gemcitabine, whereas calcitriol
      significantly inhibited expression of the efflux proteins and increased
      gemcitabine uptake. Expression of specific mRNAs correlated reasonably well with
      the levels of corresponding proteins. Additionally, the expression of efflux
      proteins and ATPase activity were well correlated, signifying that the induced
      efflux proteins are functionally active. Moreover, pre-treatment with calcitriol
      resulted in a significant increase in cell death with gemcitabine treatment,
      whereas, BHA significantly reduced the cell death rate. On the other hand, pre
      treatment with BHT and silibinin had no significant effect on the cell death
      rate. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-treatment of the pancreatic cancer cells with calcitriol
      significantly increased gemcitabine cellular uptake and consequently decreased
      cell viability after treatment with gemcitabine, whereas BHA significantly
      reduced gemcitabine uptake and decreased cell death rate, which were at least
      partially attributed to the alteration of expression of efflux and influx
      proteins. 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- 28885918
TI  - Travelers' Diarrhea: An Update on the Incidence, Etiology, and Risk in Military
      Deployments and Similar Travel Populations.
AB  - Travelers' diarrhea (TD) has historically been a common illness among visitors to
      developing nations. Although recent studies indicate decreasing incidence of TD
      among short-term travelers, a systematic review of illness among long-term
      travelers, including deployed military personnel, has not been conducted in more
      than 10 years. We conducted a literature search of studies published between 2005
      and 2015 that evaluated TD in populations of deployed military personnel or
      similar long-term travelers (travel >=1 month) to developing nations. Our
      literature search identified 28 studies for inclusion. We found that the
      incidence of TD remained high (10% clinical incidence, 30% self-reported
      incidence), with variability depending on region of travel and similar rates in
      both military and civilian long-term travelers. Bacteria (Escherichia coli,
      Campylobacter, Shigella, and Salmonella species) were the most commonly
      identified enteropathogens. Fifty percent of affected individuals experienced
      lost ability to work and 5% required hospitalization. This systematic review
      demonstrates that among deployed military personnel and long-term travelers, TD
      remains a prevalent disease that can significantly impact individual readiness
      for duty. These data demonstrate that to maintain operational readiness among
      deployed personnel, a focus on vigilance for disease and early treatment of cases
      is vital.

PMID- 28885917
TI  - Preface: Guidelines for the Treatment of Travelers' Diarrhea in Deployed Military
      Personnel.
AB  - Diarrheal disease frequently affects military personnel deployed to developing
      countries, resulting in decreased job performance and potential negative impacts
      on military operational readiness. Travelers' diarrhea is a self-limiting
      illness; however, antibiotic treatment (with and without use of adjunct
      loperamide therapy) has been shown to significantly reduce clinical presentation
      of symptoms and duration of illness. Nonetheless, the choice of first-line
      antibiotics must be carefully considered as increasing resistance of enteric
      pathogens in endemic regions has rendered many first-line antibiotics ineffective
      (e.g., Campylobacter spp. are resistant to fluoroquinolones in Southeast Asia).
      Presently, there are no standardized recommendations for the treatment of
      travelers' diarrhea among deployed military personnel. Therefore, an expert panel
      was convened to develop evidence-based, consensus-driven guidelines that address
      key clinical issues related to self-treatment, antibiotic treatment for acute
      watery diarrhea and febrile diarrhea/dysentery, and diagnostics. These guidelines
      "Management of Acute Diarrheal Illness during Deployment" are published in this
      supplement along with articles reviewing the evidence-based data that supported
      their development.

PMID- 28885919
TI  - Diagnostics in a Forward Deployed Setting.
AB  - Current diagnostic methods for enteric pathogens include conventional/traditional
      microbiology, microscopy, enzyme immunoassay, automated identification platforms,
      and molecular methods. The choice of diagnostic test in the forward deployed
      military setting often depends on turnaround time, potential etiologic agents,
      costs, and laboratory capabilities. The military operational environment presents
      many challenges that impact the practicality and performance of even robust
      diagnostic platforms. With recent developments in diagnostic platforms and
      availability of high-performance multiplex molecular methods to pair with
      traditional culture and antibiotic susceptibility tests, there are more
      opportunities to gather information on the etiologic causes and clinical impacts
      of traveler's diarrhea, both in civilians and in deployed military populations.
      Nevertheless, further assessment of new test methods is warranted to determine
      field applicability in forward deployed military settings.

PMID- 28885920
TI  - Antibiotic Therapy for Acute Watery Diarrhea and Dysentery.
AB  - Diarrheal disease affects a large proportion of military personnel deployed to
      developing countries, resulting in decreased job performance and operational
      readiness. Travelers' diarrhea is self-limiting and generally resolves within 5
      days; however, antibiotic treatment significantly reduces symptom severity and
      duration of illness. Presently, azithromycin is the preferred first-line
      antibiotic for the treatment of acute watery diarrhea (single dose 500 mg), as
      well as for febrile diarrhea and dysentery (single dose 1,000 mg). Levofloxacin
      and ciprofloxacin are also options for acute watery diarrhea (single dose 500 mg
      and 750 mg, respectively) and febrile diarrhea/dysentery in areas with high rates
      of Shigella (500 mg once for 3 days [once daily with levofloxacin and twice daily
      with ciprofloxacin]), but are becoming less effective because of increasing
      fluoroquinolone resistance, particularly among Campylobacter spp. Another
      alternate for acute watery diarrhea is rifaximin (200 mg 3 times per day for 3
      days); however, it should not be used with invasive illness. Use of loperamide in
      combination with antibiotic treatment is also beneficial as it has been shown to
      further reduce gastrointestinal symptoms and duration of illness. Because of
      regional differences in the predominance of pathogens and resistance levels,
      choice of antibiotic should take travel destination into consideration.

PMID- 28885921
TI  - Acquisition of Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Organisms During Travel.
AB  - The rate of multidrug resistance has continued to increase worldwide, presenting
      clinicians with further challenges related to patient care. In this article, we
      review information related to the acquisition of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram
      negative organisms among travelers, including deployed personnel, as well as the
      potential impact on wound microbiology and travelers' diarrhea. Travel to Asia,
      experiencing travelers' diarrhea, and use of antibiotics, whereas abroad have
      been associated with an increased risk of acquiring MDR Enterobacteriaceae
      colonization. Acquisition of new pathogens (MDR and non-MDR) through travel may
      result in microbiome changes (both gastrointestinal and nongastrointestinal),
      which may lead to alterations in the gastrointestinal flora and antimicrobial
      resistance. Although the long-term impact of MDR Enterobacteriaceae is unknown,
      host colonization changes may occur, which could lead to infectious outcomes. In
      particular, a well-recognized complication is urinary tract infections (UTIs),
      whereas MDR wound infections, pneumonia, and travelers' diarrhea are also
      potential outcomes relevant to military health.

PMID- 28885924
TI  - Research on Health Effects of Low-Level Ionizing Radiation Exposure:
      Opportunities for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute.

PMID- 28885923
TI  - Implementation and Evaluation of Deployment Health Guidelines on Acute Diarrhea
      Management: A Medical Call to Arms.

PMID- 28885925
TI  - Military Global Health Engagement and Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation.

PMID- 28885922
TI  - Management of Acute Diarrheal Illness During Deployment: A Deployment Health
      Guideline and Expert Panel Report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute diarrheal illness during deployment causes significant
      morbidity and loss of duty days. Effective and timely treatment is needed to
      reduce individual, unit, and health system performance impacts. METHODS: This
      critical appraisal of the literature, as part of the development of expert
      consensus guidelines, asked several key questions related to self-care and
      healthcare-seeking behavior, antibiotics for self-treatment of travelers'
      diarrhea, what antibiotics/regimens should be considered for treatment of acute
      watery diarrhea and febrile diarrhea and/or dysentery, and when and what
      laboratory diagnostics should be used to support management of deployment-related
      travelers' diarrhea. Studies of acute diarrhea management in military and other
      travelers were assessed for relevance and quality. On the basis of this critical
      appraisal, guideline recommendations were developed and graded by the Expert
      Panel using good standards in clinical guideline development methodology.
      RESULTS: New definitions for defining the severity of diarrhea during deployment
      were established. A total of 13 graded recommendations on the topics of
      prophylaxis, therapy and diagnosis, and follow-up were developed. In addition,
      four non-graded consensus-based statements were adopted. CONCLUSIONS: Successful
      management of acute diarrheal illness during deployment requires action at the
      provider, population, and commander levels. Strong evidence supports that single
      dose antimicrobial therapy is effective in most cases of moderate to severe acute
      diarrheal illness during deployment. Further studies are needed to address gaps
      in available knowledge regarding optimal therapies for treatment, prevention, and
      laboratory testing of acute diarrheal illness.

PMID- 28885926
TI  - Operation Babylift: Delivering a Nameless Cargo to Freedom, Part II.

PMID- 28885927
TI  - Woman in War.

PMID- 28885928
TI  - PTSD and Risk of Suicide.

PMID- 28885929
TI  - The Relationship Between Emerging Adult Alcohol Consumption and Military
      Enlistment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use and abuse of alcohol among active duty personnel is well
      documented in the research literature. Over the last decade rates of heavy and
      excessive drinking within the military have increased significantly, coinciding
      with both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The heavy use
      of alcohol by military personnel can be attributed to multiple factors such as
      the psychosocial and environmental stressors of military life and is frequently
      linked to mental health issues, the transient nature of the armed forces, the
      number and length of deployments, and exposure to life-threatening situations in
      combat environments. However, it is also likely rates of heavy alcohol use in the
      military are influenced by the possibility that individuals who already drink
      heavily choose to enlist in the armed services. The purpose of the present study
      was to test the association between drinking in emerging adulthood and military
      enlistment in a nationally representative sample of participants. METHODS: Using
      data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add
      Health), we tested the relationship between alcohol consumption in emerging
      adulthood and military enlistment in a sample of young adults ages 24 to 32 (n =
      12,288). Results were stratified for men and women. FINDINGS: Results of the
      multivariate logistic regression models stratified by gender indicated male
      participants who reported consuming alcohol in the past year were more likely to
      join the military relative to nondrinkers after controlling for respondent age,
      race, and education. There were no significant associations between alcohol
      consumption and military enlistment for women. DISCUSSION: These findings
      demonstrate limited support for a relationship between alcohol consumption and
      military service. For men who drink, choosing military service may be influenced
      by the culture of drinking within the armed services. However, given the limited
      support found in the present study for a link between drinking in emerging
      adulthood and military service, the current high use of alcohol among active duty
      personnel is likely influenced by socialization processes within the military as
      well as from the stress of increased deployments to life-threatening combat
      situations. These results have important implications for informing policy and
      prevention programs within the armed services to improve both the short-term and
      long-term success of military service members.

PMID- 28885930
TI  - Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes: Impact on Weight, Quality of Life, and Psychiatric
      Symptoms in Veterans With Mental Illness.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Veterans with mental illness tend to have shorter life spans and
      suboptimal physical health because of a variety of factors. These factors include
      poor nutrition, being overweight, and smoking cigarettes. Nonphysical
      contributors that may affect quality of life are the stigma associated with
      mental illness, social difficulties, and spiritual crises. Current mental health
      treatment focuses primarily on the delivery of medication and evidence-based
      psychotherapies, which may not affect all the above areas of a Veteran's life as
      they focus primarily on improving psychological symptoms. Clinicians may find
      greater success using integrative, comprehensive, multifaceted programs to treat
      these problems spanning the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual
      domains. These pilot studies test an adjunctive, holistic, behavioral approach to
      treat mental illness. This pilot work explores the hypotheses that engagement in
      a greater number of therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLCs) leads to improvement in
      quality of life, reduction of psychiatric symptoms, and weight loss. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Institutional Review Boards for human subjects at the Veterans
      Affairs (VA) Greater Los Angeles and Long Beach Healthcare Systems approved pilot
      study activities at their sites. Pilot Study 1 was a prospective survey study of
      Veterans with mental illness, who gained weight on an atypical antipsychotic
      medication regimen, participating in a weight management study. At each session
      of the 1-year study, researchers asked a convenience sample of 55 Veterans in the
      treatment arm whether they engaged in each of the eight TLCs: exercise,
      nutrition/diet, stress management and relaxation, time in nature, relationships,
      service to others, religious or spiritual involvement, and recreation. Pilot
      Study 2 applied the TLC behavioral intervention and examined 19 Veterans with
      mental illness, who attended four classes about TLCs, received individual
      counseling over 9 weeks, and maintained journals to track TLC practice. Besides
      weekly journals, researchers also collected prospective data on quality of life,
      psychiatric symptoms, vitals, and anthropometric measurements. In both studies,
      investigators tested for main effects of the total number of TLCs practiced and
      study week using mixed-effects linear models with independent intercepts by
      participant. RESULTS: In Study 1, engagement in more TLC behaviors was
      significantly associated with higher ratings of quality of life, as well as
      greater weight loss for each additional type of TLC practiced. In Study 2, TLC
      practice increased significantly over 9 weeks, and was significantly associated
      with improvements in quality of life and diastolic blood pressure. CONCLUSION:
      Counseling Veterans to practice TLCs provides a holistic adjunct to current
      treatments for mental illness. TLCs may confer multiple benefits upon Veterans
      with mental illness, enhancing quality of life and well-being along with weight
      management efforts. As these were pilot studies, the samples sizes were
      relatively small and a control group was lacking. Our findings may have broader
      implications supporting a holistic approach in both primary and mental health
      care settings. Future research will expand this work to address its weaknesses
      and examine the cost differential between this holistic approach and traditional
      mental health treatment.

PMID- 28885931
TI  - Impact of Engagement in Exercise on Sleep Quality Among Veterans With
      Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise has beneficial effects for physical health outcomes and has
      also been shown to reduce the severity of psychological health symptoms. Recent
      studies have shown a potentially positive impact of exercise on posttraumatic
      stress disorder (PTSD). Prominent among those with PTSD, sleep disturbance and
      nightmares are among the top three PTSD symptoms commonly reported by treatment
      seeking Veterans. Regular physical exercise has been consistently associated with
      better sleep. This study utilized a longitudinal design to explore the
      relationship between exercise and sleep among Veterans with PTSD symptoms at
      baseline and one-year follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Veterans (n = 76) who
      served in support of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation
      New Dawn were recruited for this study. Correlations were assessed between PTSD
      symptoms, sleep, and engagement in exercise at each time point (baseline, one
      year follow-up). Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship
      between engagement in exercise at baseline and PTSD symptoms at one-year follow
      up, as well as sleep quality at one-year follow-up. Regression models controlled
      for demographic variables (age and gender), alcohol use, baseline PTSD symptoms,
      and baseline sleep quality. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses demonstrated
      that engagement in exercise at baseline was significantly associated with better
      sleep quality at one-year follow-up while controlling for age, gender, alcohol
      use, baseline PTSD symptoms, and baseline sleep quality (beta = -0.128, p <
      0.05). Multiple regression analyses examining the relationship between engagement
      in exercise at baseline and PTSD symptoms at one-year follow-up (controlling for
      age, gender, alcohol use, baseline PTSD symptoms, and baseline sleep quality) did
      not yield statistically significant results (beta = 0.053, p = 0.57). CONCLUSION:
      Results from the present study found that engagement in exercise at baseline was
      associated with better sleep quality at one-year follow-up. These findings were
      consistent with the current literature suggesting exercise can have a positive
      impact on sleep quality. Furthermore, our findings suggest that exercise could be
      considered as an adjunctive intervention for individuals with PTSD-particularly
      for those patients whose difficulties with sleep are predominant. Given that
      exercise is highly accessible and is embedded in the military culture, future
      research should examine the way in which exercise can be leveraged in PTSD
      treatment, specifically in ameliorating sleep difficulties. Exercise may also
      reap demonstrable public health benefits in multiple psychological and physical
      domains and reduce the psychiatric and medical morbidity and mortality associated
      with PTSD.

PMID- 28885932
TI  - Screening for Complicated Grief in a Military Mental Health Clinic.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bereavement is one of the most common and stressful life
      experiences one can endure. Typical grief reactions follow a course of recovery
      in which individuals come to terms with the loss and resume functioning within
      weeks to months. However, for some, grief remains indefinitely distressing.
      Complicated Grief (CG) refers to significant chronic impairment that stems from
      bereavement. Military service members experience myriad factors that likely
      increase their risk for developing CG. Such factors include unique bonds between
      service members, exposure to constant and extreme levels of stress, multiple
      losses, separation from family and loved ones, witnessing/learning about sudden
      violent and traumatic deaths, and handling human remains. The aim of this project
      was to explore the practicality and efficiency of screening for CG within a busy
      military mental health clinic, and also explore relationships between contextual
      variables related to a death that might be associated with screening positive for
      CG. MATERIALS AND METHODS: As part of a clinical needs assessment, patients from
      a single mental health clinic at Naval Medical Center San Diego completed a brief
      grief survey that asked if they experienced a death of a person close to them,
      collected metrics related to losses they have experienced and included validated
      screeners for CG (The Brief Grief Questionnaire [BGQ] and the Inventory for
      Complicated Grief [ICG]). No data concerning gender, age, marital status,
      socioeconomic status, diagnosis, or purpose of visit (i.e., initial or follow-up
      visit) were collected. Institutional review board approval was obtained. RESULTS:
      In our sample of service members presenting to an adult outpatient military
      mental health clinic, 43.5% reported having experienced a loss that still impacts
      them. Of that group, 61.7% screened positive on the BGQ, 59.2% screened positive
      on the ICG using a cutoff of 25, and 46.1% screened positive on the ICG using the
      cutoff of 30. These findings suggest that military service members seeking mental
      health treatment who endorsed experiencing a loss are at high risk for
      experiencing persisting, impairing grief. Additionally, patients who either lost
      a fellow service member and/or experienced loss while on deployment reported
      significantly higher scores on the BGQ or ICG than if they did not report those
      factors. Furthermore, correlations between total number of losses and ICG scores
      suggest that service members who experienced multiple losses may be more
      susceptible to CG symptoms. CONCLUSION: The findings from this preliminary
      investigation suggest that many service members receiving care in military mental
      health care are experiencing grief-related symptoms and distress, and a brief
      screen for grief can help capture many of those with grief related impairment.
      Research shows that CG needs to be directly targeted to treat its symptoms and
      associated impairment. We recommend that military mental health clinics consider
      adding some type of grief screener to their standard intake as well as making
      providers aware of the importance of monitoring potential grief reactions in
      their patients.

PMID- 28885933
TI  - A Qualitative Study of Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs in an
      Integrated Health Care System.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Despite strong incentives to use cardiac rehabilitation (CR),
      patient participation is low in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This is
      paradoxical given that VHA is an integrated health care system that offers a
      range of CR programs which should logically reduce barriers to access to CR
      participation. The purpose of this study was to better understand the contextual
      factors that influence patient participation in CR and how patients consider
      factors together when making decisions about CR participation. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Using a qualitative study design we examined patient and provider
      perceptions of CR across six VHA medical centers with high- and low-enrollment
      rates between December 2014 and October 2015. We conducted semistructured
      interviews with CR eligible patients who had both enrolled and not enrolled in CR
      (n = 16), cardiology providers who could refer patients to CR and CR staff who
      provided CR services (n = 15). Data were analyzed using grounded thematic
      techniques. RESULTS: We identified program and patient-specific factors related
      to CR participation. The four program factors were: program responsiveness to
      patient needs, CR schedule, specialized CR program equipment, and the CR program
      social environment. Program factors were primarily discussed by individuals
      associated with sites that had high CR enrollment rates. The patient-specific
      factor that promoted participation was patient perceptions of CR benefits.
      Disincentives to participation included competing conditions or obligations,
      logistical/cost challenges, convenience, and fear of exercise. CR participation
      entailed a complex process in which patients balanced factors that reinforced
      patient perceptions that CR was beneficial against factors that acted as
      disincentives to participation. CONCLUSIONS: CR participation was influenced by
      both program and patient factors. Patients weighed factors that fostered
      perceptions that CR was beneficial against factors that served as disincentives
      to CR participation when considering CR participation. High-enrollment sites may
      be better at countering disincentives to participate and/or improve patient
      perceptions of CR. Actionable ways to improve CR participation include
      encouraging providers to strongly and frequently endorse CR, educating patients
      about the importance and benefits of CR, emphasizing how exercises are
      individualized, supervised and monitored, educating patients about how CR is safe
      and effective, how CR offers peer support, and structuring CR programs to be
      responsive to patient needs in terms of duration, frequency, schedule, and
      location.

PMID- 28885934
TI  - Medical Encounters During a Joint Canadian/U.S. Exercise in the High Arctic
      (Exercise Arctic Ram).
AB  - The Arctic Ram Exercise was conducted in February 2016, near Resolute Bay on
      Cornwallis Island in Nunavut, Canada, to demonstrate the ability of the Canadian
      Armed Forces (CAF) to rapidly deploy to the arctic as an immediate response team.
      This report describes medical problems experienced by the 187 CAF and 28 U.S.
      forces involved in the exercise. Sixty-six airborne soldiers performed tactical
      static line jumps and linked up with soldiers on the ground for the exercise.
      Medical events were recorded by medics on the drop zone and by medical personnel
      at the Unit Medical Station in Resolute Bay. Average temperature during the
      exercise was -21 degrees C and wind chill was -44 degrees C. Two U.S. soldiers
      were injured in association with the jump and an additional 62 patients presented
      at the clinic during the exercise for an overall medical event incidence of 30%.
      The incidence of frostbite was 17%. At the end of the exercise, a physician
      actively examined CAF soldiers in one unit (n = 126) and found that 21% had
      experienced frostbite. The incidence of frostbite was high in this exercise
      compared to past cold-weather military operations, likely related to the very low
      temperatures and wind chills.

PMID- 28885935
TI  - Automated Bone Age Analysis with Lossy Image Files.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In our U.S. Department of Defense hospital system, pediatric
      endocrinology and radiology resources to evaluate bone age radiographs are
      limited. Our tertiary care center provides expert specialty support to remotely
      stationed beneficiaries at more than 30 Department of Defense medical facilities
      using a well-established, asynchronous, Health Insurance Portability and
      Accountability Act compliant system that allows for physician-to-physician
      teleconsultation. Up to 14% of these teleconsultations are for endocrinology
      assessment, many of which include bone age analysis. We sought to evaluate the
      feasibility of using an automated bone age analysis program using the file format
      most commonly provided to us, lossy JPEG image files saved at lower quality, to
      improve access to our consultation services. METHODS: All patients seen in the
      Tripler Army Medical Center pediatric endocrinology clinic, who were being
      evaluated for poor growth during the 2-month study period and who had a bone age
      film performed at Tripler Army Medical Center during that time, were eligible to
      have their deidentified bone age films analyzed. We imported lossy JPEG bone age
      image files from our hospital web viewer to BoneXpert, version 2.1, using a fully
      automated, custom built system that reconstructed each file's true resolution and
      then packaged the original image into a Digital Imaging and Communications in
      Medicine header. The original JPEG files were saved at 70% quality. Bone age
      readings were compared between our pediatric endocrinologists (ENDO), pediatric
      radiologists (RADS), and BoneXpert (BONE). Additionally, adult height prediction
      from ENDO and BONE were compared. FINDINGS: 35 bone age images were evaluated
      over a 2-month period. Most patients were being evaluated for idiopathic short
      stature or growth hormone deficiency. Analysis of variance showed no significant
      differences in mean bone age readings between the 3 groups (mean bone age reading
      = 9.0, 9.1, and 9.1 years for ENDO, RADS, and BONE, respectively, p = 0.827).
      Mean (SD) differences between physician and software bone age readings were -0.09
      (0.89) years (ENDO) and -0.03 (1.01) years (RADS). Mean difference for adult
      height predictions was only -0.2 cm (p = 0.806). DISCUSSION: Automated analysis
      of lossy JPEG files of bone age images using the BoneXpert software appears to be
      feasible and accurate. Larger studies are needed to validate these results.

PMID- 28885936
TI  - Vancomycin vs. Vancomycin/Piperacillin-Tazobactam-Associated Acute Kidney Injury
      in Noncritically Ill Patients at a Tertiary Care Military Treatment Facility.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Broad-spectrum antibiotics are often used as initial empiric therapy
      in patients at risk for infections by multidrug-resistant organisms. Emerging
      literature and anecdotal reports within Tripler Army Medical Center indicate an
      increased incidence of vancomycin-associated acute kidney injury when used in
      combination with piperacillin-tazobactam. This is a retrospective, single-center
      study comparing the incidence of acute kidney injury in noncritically ill
      patients receiving either vancomycin or vancomycin in combination with
      piperacillin-tazobactam in a 206-bed tertiary care military training facility.
      METHODS: Data were collected from electronic medical records between May 2012 and
      October 2014 and evaluated via multivariable logistic regression models. Patients
      included for analysis were 17 years of age and older, were admitted to
      medical/surgical wards, and received vancomycin or vancomycin in combination with
      piperacillin-tazobactam for at least 48 hours. A vancomycin trough level,
      baseline serum creatinine level, and at least two follow-up serum creatinine
      levels were required for inclusion. Patients were excluded if they were pregnant,
      admitted to an intensive care unit while on antimicrobial therapy, or their
      baseline serum creatinine was equal to or greater than 1.5 mg/dL. RESULTS: Of
      1,133 patients evaluated retrospectively, 455 were included for analysis. Of 202
      patients, 49 (24%) taking vancomycin in combination with piperacillin-tazobactam
      developed acute kidney injury in contrast to 28 of the 253 patients (11%) given
      vancomycin without piperacillin-tazobactam (unadjusted odds ratio 2.57 [95%
      confidence interval (CI) 1.55-4.28], p < 0.001). Dual therapy remained
      significant after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, concomitant
      nephrotoxic agents, and preexisting comorbid status as evaluated by Charlson
      comorbidity index (adjusted odds ratio 2.14 [95% CI 1.26-3.6], p = 0.005).
      Contrast administration (p < 0.001), fluoroquinolone administration (p < 0.001),
      and Charlson Comorbidity Index > 6 (p = 0.008) were also found to be independent
      risk factors for acute kidney injury. CONCLUSION: Significant increased incidence
      of nephrotoxicity was noted with vancomycin and piperacillin-tazobactam as
      compared to vancomycin within Tripler Army Medical Center. This finding
      influenced our institution's decision to add ceftaroline as a formulary agent in
      the treatment of skin and soft-tissue infections and further supported the need
      for rapid de-escalation of antibiotics within our military training facility.

PMID- 28885937
TI  - Utility of the Nanosphere Verigene in the Identification of Bacteremia Isolates
      From the Burn Intensive Care Unit.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The Nanosphere Verigene Blood Culture Nucleic Acid Tests allow
      pathogen and antimicrobial resistance marker identification within 2.5 hours of a
      positive blood culture. This study assessed the sensitivity of the Verigene among
      Burn Intensive Care Unit (BICU) isolates and acceleration to targeted antibiotic
      therapy. METHODS: Bacterial identifications from BICU patients with positive
      blood cultures over 8 months were compared using 2 different platforms, the
      Verigene Gram-positive and Gram-negative blood culture tests vs. the bioMerieux
      Vitek2 automated system. Turnaround times were compared, and Verigene sensitivity
      for identification and resistance marker detection was calculated. Antimicrobial
      stewardship was assessed by comparing date/time for empiric and targeted therapy
      to the Verigene result time. RESULTS: Forty-four isolates (29 target and 15
      nontarget) from 17 patients were included. The Verigene correctly identified 15
      of 17 Gram-negative (sensitivity 88.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI] [87.9,
      88.9]) and 8 of 12 Gram-positive target organisms (sensitivity 66.7%; 95% CI
      [66.3, 67.5]). None of the nontarget isolates were identified. There were no
      discordant identifications. Resistance marker identification by the Verigene was
      100% concordant with confirmatory testing. For 11 isolates with complete
      laboratory and clinical data, the median time between Verigene and final culture
      results was 59.3 hours (37.3, 102.2) and from Verigene results to targeted
      therapy was 62.2 hours (43.6, 66.2). DISCUSSION: Reasons for lower sensitivity
      than previously reported are unclear and, on the basis of this limited
      retrospective review, further study in the BICU population is needed. The
      Verigene appears useful for antimicrobial stewardship by accelerating the
      identification of blood isolates.

PMID- 28885938
TI  - Hidden Hearing Injury: The Emerging Science and Military Relevance of Cochlear
      Synaptopathy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The phenomenon recently described as "hidden hearing loss" was the
      subject of a meeting co-hosted by the Department of Defense Hearing Center of
      Excellence and MIT Lincoln Laboratory to consider the potential relevance of
      noise-related synaptopathic injury to military settings and performance, service
      related injury scenarios, and military medical priorities. Participants included
      approximately 50 researchers and subject matter experts from academic, federal,
      and military laboratories. Here we present a synthesis of discussion topics and
      concerns, as well as specific research objectives identified to develop
      militarily relevant knowledge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We consider findings from
      studies to date that have demonstrated cochlear synaptopathy and
      neurodegenerative processes apparently linked to noise exposure in animal models.
      We explore the potential relevance of these findings to the prediction and
      prevention of military hearing injuries, and to comorbid injuries in the
      neurological domain. RESULTS: Noise-induced cochlear synaptopathic injury is not
      detected by conventional audiometric assessment of threshold sensitivity. Animal
      studies suggest there may be a generous window of opportunity for intervention to
      mitigate or prevent cochlear neurodegenerative processes, e.g., by administration
      of neurotrophins or antioxidants. However, it is not yet known if the mechanisms
      that underlie "hidden hearing loss" also occur in human beings or, if so, how to
      identify them early, and how and when to intervene. CONCLUSION: Neurological
      injuries resulting from noise exposures via the auditory system have potentially
      significant implications for military Service Member performance, long-term
      Veteran health, and noise exposure standards. Mediated via auditory pathways,
      such injuries have possible relationship to clinical impairments including speech
      perception, and may be a largely overlooked contributor to cognitive symptoms
      associated with other military service-related injuries such as blast exposure
      and brain trauma. The potential health and performance consequences of noise
      induced cochlear synaptopathic injury are easily overlooked, especially if it is
      assumed that hearing threshold sensitivity loss is the major concern. There
      should be a renewed impetus to further characterize and model synaptopathic
      mechanisms of auditory injury; study its potential impact on human auditory
      function, cognition, and performance metrics of military relevance; and develop
      solutions for auditory protection (including noise dosimetry) and treatment if
      appropriate following noise or blast exposure in military scenarios. We identify
      specific problems, solution objectives, and research objectives. Recommended
      research calls for a multidisciplinary approach to address cochlear nerve
      synaptopathy, central (brain) dysfunction, noise exposure measurement and
      metrics, and clinical assessment.

PMID- 28885939
TI  - Outcomes From U.S. Military-Supported Overseas Training Rotations in Tropical
      Medicine and Global Health, 2006-2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 2006, the Division of Tropical Public Health at the Uniformed
      Services University (USU) has sponsored the Tropical Medicine Training Program
      (TMTP). Despite practice guidelines stating that global health education should
      include the collection and evaluation of data on the impact of the training
      experiences, no quantitative evaluation of program outcomes had previously
      occurred. The objective of this report was to evaluate TMTP outcomes to guide
      program improvement. METHODS: We developed an anonymous, web-based survey to
      assess program outcomes as part of routine program evaluation. The survey
      addressed four main areas of potential TMTP impact: (1) career engagement, (2)
      military service contributions, (3) scholarly activity, and (4) acquisition of
      knowledge and skills. In February 2016, we sent the survey electronically to 222
      program participants between Fiscal Years 2006 and 2015 who had e-mails available
      in DoD administrative systems. FINDINGS: Ninety-eight (44%) of these responded to
      the survey. TMTP demonstrated impact in several areas. Increased knowledge and
      skills were reported by 81% of trainees, and 70% reported increased interest in
      serving at military overseas medical research laboratories. Subsequent career
      engagement by trainees included seven assignments to overseas research
      laboratories, 71 military deployments, and 193 short-term military missions. The
      ability to achieve many of the desired outcomes was associated with time elapsed
      since completion of formal medical education, including 24% who were still
      enrolled in graduate medical education. DISCUSSION/IMPACT/RECOMMENDATIONS: The
      TMTP has improved the U.S. military's ability to perform surveillance for
      emerging tropical and infectious diseases and has contributed to force health
      protection and readiness. Although many of the outcomes, such as service in the
      overseas research laboratories and military deployments, are dependent on
      military service requirements, these results remain perhaps the most relevant
      ways that the TMTP meets global health requirements of the US military and the
      nation. Additional outcomes from this training are expected to accrue as these
      participants complete their medical postgraduate training programs.

PMID- 28885940
TI  - Collaborative Systems Biology Projects for the Military Medical Community.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This pilot study was conducted to examine, for the first time, the
      ongoing systems biology research and development projects within the laboratories
      and centers of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). The
      analysis has provided an understanding of the breadth of systems biology
      activities, resources, and collaborations across all USAMRMC subordinate
      laboratories. METHODS: The Systems Biology Collaboration Center at USAMRMC issued
      a survey regarding systems biology research projects to the eight U.S.-based
      USAMRMC laboratories and centers in August 2016. This survey included a data call
      worksheet to gather self-identified project and programmatic information. The
      general topics focused on the investigators and their projects, on the project's
      research areas, on omics and other large data types being collected and stored,
      on the analytical or computational tools being used, and on identifying
      intramural (i.e., USAMRMC) and extramural collaborations. RESULTS: Among seven of
      the eight laboratories, 62 unique systems biology studies were funded and active
      during the final quarter of fiscal year 2016. Of 29 preselected medical Research
      Task Areas, 20 were associated with these studies, some of which were applicable
      to two or more Research Task Areas. Overall, studies were categorized among six
      general types of objectives: biological mechanisms of disease, risk
      of/susceptibility to injury or disease, innate mechanisms of healing, diagnostic
      and prognostic biomarkers, and host/patient responses to vaccines, and
      therapeutic strategies including host responses to therapies. We identified eight
      types of omics studies and four types of study subjects. Studies were categorized
      on a scale of increasing complexity from single study subject/single omics
      technology studies (23/62) to studies integrating results across two study
      subject types and two or more omics technologies (13/62). Investigators at seven
      USAMRMC laboratories had collaborations with systems biology experts from 18
      extramural organizations and three other USAMRMC laboratories. Collaborators from
      six USAMRMC laboratories and 58 extramural organizations were identified who
      provided additional research expertise to these systems biology studies.
      CONCLUSIONS: At the end of fiscal year 2016, USAMRMC laboratories self-reported
      66 systems biology/computational biology studies (62 of which were unique) with
      25 intramural and 81 extramural collaborators. Nearly two-thirds were led by or
      in collaboration with the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research
      Center/Department of Defense Biotechnology High-Performance Computing Software
      Applications Institute and U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research.
      The most common study objective addressed biological mechanisms of disease. The
      most common types of Research Task Areas addressed infectious diseases (viral and
      bacterial) and chemical agents (environmental toxicant exposures, and traditional
      and emerging chemical threats). More than 40% of the studies (27/62) involved
      collaborations between the reporting USAMRMC laboratory and one other
      organization. Nearly half of the studies (30/62) involved collaborations between
      the reporting USAMRMC laboratory and at least two other organizations. These
      survey results indicate that USAMRMC laboratories are compliant with data-centric
      policy and guidance documents whose goals are to prevent redundancy and promote
      collaborations by sharing data and leveraging capabilities. These results also
      serve as a foundation to make recommendations for future systems biology research
      efforts.

PMID- 28885941
TI  - The Impact of Vaccine Refusal on Physician Office Visits During the Subsequent 12
      Months.
AB  - We hypothesized that families who are nonadherent to the routine vaccination
      schedule (RVS) present less frequently for physician visits. We conducted a
      retrospective chart review to compare the number of visits made over the
      subsequent 12-month period by families that refused the RVS versus those who were
      adherent. Subjects were aged 0 to 4 years, enrolled to Keller Army Hospital, and
      had a diagnosis indicating the RVS was refused. Age-matched controls, who were
      adherent to the RVS, were randomly chosen for each case. Subjects made
      significantly more total visits than CASES: 7 (interquartile range [IQR] = 1-20)
      versus 6 (IQR = 2-17), p = 0.0049. When each visit type was compared
      independently, there was no significant difference in the number of acute (p =
      0.494) or emergency department (p = 0.077) visits between groups. However,
      subjects who refused to follow the RVS made significantly fewer routine care
      visits during the 1-year follow-up period compared to those that adhered to the
      RVS (p < 0.001).

PMID- 28885942
TI  - Motivations for Weight Loss Among Active Duty Military Personnel.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Rates of overweight and obesity among Active Duty Military
      Personnel remain high despite fitness test requirements, negative consequences of
      fitness test failure, and emphasis on weight and appearance standards. Specific
      motivating factors for weight loss influence weight loss program interest and
      often differ by gender, race, ethnicity, or age. This study investigates the
      weight loss motivations endorsed by a diverse population of Active Duty Military
      Personnel initiating a behavioral weight loss study, to inform the development of
      future recruitment efforts and program development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Active
      Duty Military Personnel (n = 248) completed a 16-item questionnaire of weight
      loss motivations before initiating a behavioral weight loss study. We evaluated
      endorsement patterns by demographic characteristics (body mass index [BMI],
      gender, race, ethnicity, age, and military rank). Data collection for this study
      was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Wilford Hall Ambulatory
      Surgical Center and acknowledged by the Institutional Review Board of the
      University of Tennessee Health Science Center. RESULTS: Results indicated that
      improved physical health, improved fitness, improved quality of life, and to live
      long were endorsed as "very important" motivations by at least three-fourths of
      the sample. "To pass the fitness test" was endorsed less frequently as a "very
      important" motivation, by 69% of the sample. A greater proportion of women as
      compared to men endorsed being very motivated by improving mood/well-being,
      quality of life, physical mobility, job performance, appearance, and sex life, as
      well as fitting into clothes. Participants categorized in the "Other" racial
      group and African Americans more frequently endorsed motivations to improve
      fitness and physical strength when compared to Caucasians. Moreover, participants
      in the "Other" race category were significantly more likely to rate their ability
      to physically defend themselves, improve physical mobility, and improve
      interactions with friends as motivators. Participants who identified as Hispanic
      endorsed significantly higher frequency of being motivated to improve their
      ability to physically defend themselves, interactions with friends, physical
      mobility, and sex life compared to those who identified as non-Hispanic. A
      significantly lower percentage of officers of lower rank (i.e., O1-3) endorsed
      being motivated to improve their quality of life. Improving confidence was a
      significant motivator for younger and lower ranking enlisted personnel (i.e., E1
      4). Younger participants were also significantly more likely to want to improve
      their ability to physically defend themselves. CONCLUSION: We conclude that
      overweight and obese Military Personnel are motivated by various reasons to
      engage in weight loss, including their military physical fitness test. Findings
      may assist the development of recruitment efforts or motivationally focused
      intervention materials for weight loss interventions tailored for the diverse
      population of Active Duty Military Personnel.

PMID- 28885943
TI  - Systematic Review of Live Tissue Versus Simulation Education for Prehospital
      Trauma Providers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Advanced simulation capabilities have provided medical educators
      novel approaches for learners. Simulation has successfully replaced many aspects
      of medical education that previously used animal live-tissue training (LTT) for
      physician education. However, prehospital trauma providers, such as combat
      medics, currently used LTT to prepare for patient care. This use of LTT has
      sparked a debate about the optimal educational modality for this unique learner
      population. At this time, there is no clear evidence-based recommendation
      available to recommend either LTT or simulation as a superior modality. METHODS:
      The authors performed a systematic review of observational studies and randomized
      control trials (RCTs) to examine the use of LTT versus simulation in the trauma
      education of prehospital providers. The authors judged studies for inclusion and
      data abstraction independently and in duplicate, while also assessing quality and
      risk of bias. Since the literature demonstrated a heterogeneous background, no
      meta-analysis was performed. RESULTS: 12 studies met inclusion criteria: seven
      RCTs, four prospective cohorts, one cross-sectional study. Two of seven RCTs were
      presented as abstracts only. Ten of 12 studies were performed in a military
      setting, whereas two occurred in a civilian setting. Four studies used swine, two
      used goats, one used swine and goats, one used canines, and four did not specify
      the animal type. The authors used the Cochrane Collaboration tool to assess RCTs
      and found a considerable risk of bias. They used the Newcastle-Ottawa score to
      assess prospective cohorts (mean score of 5.75 +/- 0.5, range 1-9), and the cross
      sectional study (score 4, range 1-9). CONCLUSION: The existing literature
      provides limited, low-to-moderate quality outcome data. Evidence does not exist
      at this time to recommend either LTT or simulation as a superior educational
      modality for prehospital trauma care providers.

PMID- 28885944
TI  - The Value of Live Tissue Training for Combat Casualty Care: A Survey of Canadian
      Combat Medics With Battlefield Experience in Afghanistan.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The optimum method for training military personnel for combat
      casualty care is unknown. In particular, there is debate regarding the
      incremental benefit of live animal tissue training (LTT) over inanimate human
      patient simulators (HPSs). Although both LTT and HPS are currently used for
      predeployment training, the efficacy of these models has not been established.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Canadian Armed Forces combat medics, deployed to
      Afghanistan between 2006 and 2011, were surveyed retrospectively regarding their
      experience with combat casualty care and predeployment training. HPSs were used
      to prepare these combat medics for early rotations. In later years, personnel
      received a combination of training modalities including HPS and LTT, using
      anaesthetized porcine models in accordance with appropriate animal care
      standards. Among those deployed on multiple rotations, there was a cohort who was
      prepared for deployment using only HPS training, and who later were prepared
      using mixed-modality training, which included LTT. We asked these medics to
      compare their predeployment training using HPS only versus their mixed-modality
      training in how each training package prepared them for battlefield trauma care.
      RESULTS: Thirty-eight individuals responded, with 20 respondents deployed on
      multiple rotations. Respondents performed life-saving skills during 89% of the
      rotations. Self-perceived competence and preparedness were notably higher after
      incorporation of LTT than after HPS alone. Of 17 respondents deployed on both
      early and late rotations, the majority felt the latter training was more
      worthwhile. In addition, almost all individuals felt that LTT should be added to
      HPS training. Narrative comments described multiple benefits of adding LTT to
      other types of training. CONCLUSIONS: Among many experienced Canadian Armed
      Forces personnel, LTT is considered essential predeployment preparation.
      Individuals who experienced only HPS training before active duty on their first
      combat deployment reported feeling more competent on subsequent combat
      deployments after the addition of live tissue models. IMPACT: There has been a
      movement away from the use of LTT in preparing combat medics for deployment. This
      article suggests that we should reconsider any decision to completely exclude
      Live Tissue Training as part of our training plan for combat medics.
      RECOMMENDATIONS: Military medical organizations should consider judiciously
      incorporating LTT with human patient simulation training to prepare combat medics
      for treating battlefield trauma.

PMID- 28885945
TI  - Effect of Novel Continuing Medical Education Curriculum on Attitudes and
      Understanding of Primary Care Medicine for the Naval Surface Provider.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Naval Surface Forces provide care in austere environments with
      unique facility, personnel, and material limitations that can put the patient at
      risk without proper consideration of these circumstances. Tailored shipboard
      education currently exists but is greatly dependent on the time, preferences,
      expertise, and ability of a single teaching officer, allowing for significant
      variability in the level of training. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and
      twenty-two individuals were trained in 19 topics presented over 12 months through
      the Naval Surface Forces Pacific Command Medical Readiness Division to all
      surface providers on Naval Base San Diego. Participants completed pre- and post
      course assessments for each training session based on the objectives of the
      lesson, as well as reassessments and subjective course critiques every 3 months.
      RESULTS: Fifteen of 19 courses showed more than 20% improvement, with a range of
      improvement from 21 to 67%, and an average of 30% (95% confidence interval: 26.1
      33.8, p < 0.001). Short-term follow-up showed higher-than-baseline scores at 6-,
      9-, and 12-month follow-up; these were significantly higher than nonattendees (p
      = 0.003, 0.05, 0.004, respectively). Students who reported being either very
      confident or very confident and comfortable with teaching the content increased
      from 40.6% before the course to 60.8% after the course. Pre- (p = 0.02) and post-
      (p = 0.01) course level of confidence was directly correlated to students'
      assessment of the courses' applicability, with increasing level of confidence
      correlating to a perceived increase in applicability of the material. CONCLUSION:
      This study demonstrates improvement in Naval surface provider knowledge and
      attitudes in a variety of subject areas after implementation of a novel
      curriculum tailored specifically to address the unique considerations for
      practice at sea. Material was beneficial to all trainees despite significant
      differences in training background. Confidence gained as a result of the course
      was directly correlated to perceived relevance of the material, but not to
      educational background. Future work could investigate the use of curriculum in
      deployed providers and incorporation into current training of the OPNAVINST
      6400.1c, Appendix A.

PMID- 28885946
TI  - The Association Between Service Members' Participation in Humanitarian Aid and
      Disaster Relief and Mental Health Symptoms and Treatments.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: There is a scarcity of research establishing a relationship between
      mental illness and the U.S. military service members who participate in the field
      of military humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR). One of the few
      studies in this area showed that participation in military HA/DR was not
      associated with depressive symptoms, however, the study was limited by sample
      size. This study examined (1) the relationship between participation in military
      HA/DR and mental health symptoms and military stress and (2) the relationship
      between HA/DR and mental health treatment and therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Data from the 2011 Health Related Behaviors Survey was used. The analytic sample
      consisted of U.S. military service members who participated in HA/DR (the Haiti
      earthquake and Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf) (n = 573) compared to
      those who participated in non-HA/DR deployments from 2007 to 2011 (n = 986).
      Multivariate models were used to examine the relationship between the independent
      variables and dependent variables while controlling for a set of variables that
      may confound the relationship between the two. RESULTS: The logistic regression
      model found that participating in HA/DR deployments decreased the likelihood of
      service members reporting post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms by 3% (p
      < 0.1) and depressive symptoms by 1% (p < 0.05). Furthermore, participation
      decreased the likelihood of having a prescription for antidepressants during
      and/or 3 months after deployment by 1% (p < 0.05). Additional results showed that
      junior enlisted and senior enlisted members were more likely to report symptoms
      of PTSD than senior officers (p < 0.05). Marines were more likely to seek
      treatment and therapy for depression than U.S. Coastguard members (p < 0.1).
      CONCLUSION: Results showed that participation in HA/DR was associated with
      significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and the use of
      antidepressants by service members. Further research needs to understand the
      mechanism of these associations for better planning and implementation of HA/DR
      and delivery of care to service members who participate in these missions.

PMID- 28885947
TI  - Family Functioning Differences Across the Deployment Cycle in British Army
      Families: The Perceptions of Wives and Children.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Military deployment can have an adverse effect on a soldier's
      family, though little research has looked at these effects in a British sample.
      We investigated wives' of U.K.-serving soldiers perceptions of marital and family
      functioning, across three stages of the deployment cycle: currently deployed,
      postdeployment and predeployed, plus a nonmilitary comparison group. Uniquely,
      young (aged 3.5-11 years) children's perceptions of their family were also
      investigated, using the parent-child alliance (PCA) coding scheme of drawings of
      the family. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and twenty British military
      families of regular service personnel from the British Army's Royal Armoured
      Corps, were sent survey packs distributed with a monthly welfare office
      newsletter. Wives were asked to complete a series of self-report items, and the
      youngest child in the family between the ages of 3.5 and 11 years was asked to
      draw a picture of their family. Complete data were available for 78 military
      families, and an additional 34 nonmilitary families were recruited via
      opportunity sampling. RESULTS: Results indicated wives of currently deployed and
      recently returned personnel were less satisfied with their family and its
      communication, and children's pictures indicated higher levels of dysfunctional
      parent-child alliance, whereas predeployed families responded similarly to
      nonmilitary families. Marital satisfaction was similar across all groups except
      predeployed families who were significantly more satisfied. Nonmilitary and
      predeployed families showed balanced family functioning, and currently and
      recently deployed families demonstrated poor family functioning. In comparison to
      nonmilitary families, predeployed families showed a large "spike" in the rigidity
      subscale of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale IV. CONCLUSION:
      Wives' perceptions of family functioning, but not marital satisfaction, differed
      between the deployment groups. The results from the coded children's drawings
      correlated with the self-report measures from the wife/mother, indicating that
      children's drawings could be a useful approach when working with younger children
      in this area. It is tentatively suggested that the differences across deployment
      stage on family functioning could be mediated not only by communication
      difficulties between deployed personnel and their families, but also by its
      effect on the children in the family. Larger-scale longitudinal research is
      needed to investigate this further.

PMID- 28885948
TI  - Evaluating the Military Medical Evacuation Chain: Need for Expeditious Evacuation
      Out of Theater?
AB  - BACKGROUND: An important factor within the military medical logistical chain is
      the capability of expeditious evacuation from point of injury, through a Medical
      Treatment Facility, to the country of residence where highest level of care can
      be provided. Although many factors can relate to patient outcome, the evaluation
      of the medical evacuation chain related to long-term patient outcome can be
      important for investigating possibilities for performance improvement in this
      domain. This article aims to provide a means to evaluate the quality of care of
      the medical evacuation chain. METHODS: Repatriated service members from the
      Afghan theater between 2004 and 2014 were invited to participate in a survey
      concerning functional outcome and quality of life using Lower Extremity
      Functional Scale, Short Form health survey 36, and EuroQol-6D questionnaires.
      Possible associations between these outcomes were analyzed in respect to duration
      of medical evacuation from point of injury to arrival in the Dutch military
      hospital. The duration was dichotomized into within and after 72 hours. Ordinal
      regression was used to analyze a possible association with duration as a
      continuous variable. FINDINGS: Sixty percent (28/47) of battle casualties arrived
      in The Netherlands within 72 hours. For the nonbattle injury cohort this was 30%
      (7/23). Of those who became ill, 18% (5/28) was evacuated in 72 hours. No
      significant independent associations between interval duration and measured
      outcomes were found. CONCLUSION: Repatriated battle casualties had lower outcome
      scores compared to the disease nonbattle injured service members. Significant
      differences in functional outcome and quality of life with respect to evacuation
      duration were not found. Specialized tactical evacuation and en route care
      capability during strategic evacuation contributed to relative high standards of
      care. Combined with our results, this could implicate that delivery of the right
      care to the right patient at the right time is a justifiable paradigm. The main
      focus of the medical support organization is to offer the highest level of care
      per echelon as soon as possible in conjunction with facilitating maximum social
      support through expeditious evacuation out of theater. Further research using
      semistructured interviews among the direct circle around battle casualties,
      including caregivers, is needed to provide insight into these complex matters.

PMID- 28885949
TI  - Assessing Military Community Support: Relations Among Perceived Military
      Community Support, Child Psychosocial Adjustment, and Parent Psychosocial
      Adjustment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The emotional, cognitive, and behavioral health of the nearly two
      million children of military service members in the United States is important as
      these children play an integral role in the operational readiness of the armed
      forces. For example, when a service member's child experiences psychosocial
      difficulties, these difficulties often impact the service member's personal well
      being and ability to focus at work, impairing the service member's ability to
      focus on the mission. Although military service members and their families (e.g.,
      children and spouses) face many of the same stressors as their civilian
      counterparts, they also experience additional stressors related to being a
      military family, including frequent relocation, unpredictable schedule changes,
      short- and long-term family separation, and threats to service members' safety.
      Psychosocial functioning and resilience to stress may be influenced by a variety
      of factors. One important factor that influences parent and child functioning is
      community support. Community support may be especially important for military
      families because of the increased significance of social support during stress
      such as deployment and geographic relocation. Research is promising regarding the
      protective effects of community support in civilian populations. However, there
      is a comparable dearth in the literature regarding military families and no
      validated measures designed specifically to assess the construct of community
      support in military families. We therefore aimed to develop and examine a new
      measure, the Community Assessment of Military Perceived Support (CAMPS) and
      examine its potential relationship with the psychosocial functioning of military
      parents and their children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The CAMPS was developed and
      initially tested with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The CAMPS was
      then used to examine the relationships among perceived community support and
      child/parent psychosocial symptoms. This cross-sectional correlational study was
      conducted in a sample of military parents with children between the ages of 2 and
      18 years of age who completed an online, anonymous survey. RESULTS: One hundred
      and fifty-seven military parents completed the CAMPS. Internal consistency was
      excellent (alpha = 0.94). More community support as measured by the CAMPS was
      associated with fewer child and parent psychosocial symptoms (p < 0.01) and the
      relationship between perceived military community support and child well-being
      was mediated by parent well-being (95% confidence interval [-0.19, -0.04]).
      Together, parent psychosocial functioning and perceived military community
      support explained 24% of the variance in child psychosocial functioning.
      CONCLUSION: The CAMPS is an internally consistent measure that appears to be
      associated with military parent and child psychosocial functioning. Given the
      importance of military community support, the CAMPS may have potential as a tool
      for outcome research and program evaluation. Future research is required to
      validate the CAMPS in a larger, more diverse military sample. Moreover,
      longitudinal studies are needed to determine the directionality of the
      relationship between community military support and psychosocial functioning.

PMID- 28885950
TI  - Family Characteristics Associated With Child Maltreatment Across the Deployment
      Cycle of U.S. Army Soldiers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Soldier deployment can create a stressful environment for U.S. Army
      families with young children. Prior research has identified elevated rates of
      child maltreatment in the 6 months immediately following a soldier's return home
      from deployment. In this study, we longitudinally examine how other child- and
      family-level characteristics influence the relationship of deployment to risk for
      maltreatment of dependent children of U.S. Army soldiers. METHODS: We conducted a
      person-time analysis of substantiated reports and medical diagnoses of
      maltreatment among the 73,404 children of 56,087 U.S. Army soldiers with a single
      deployment between 2001 and 2007. Cox proportional hazard models estimated hazard
      rates of maltreatment across deployment periods and simultaneously considered
      main effects for other child- and family-level characteristics across periods.
      RESULTS: In adjusted models, maltreatment hazard was highest in the 6 months
      following deployment (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.63, p < 0.001). Children born
      prematurely or with early special needs independently had an increased risk for
      maltreatment across all periods (HR = 2.02, p < 0.001), as well as those children
      whose soldier-parent had been previously diagnosed with a mental illness (HR =
      1.68, p < 0.001). In models testing for effect modification, during the 6 months
      before deployment, children of female soldiers (HR = 2.22, p = 0.006) as well as
      children of soldiers with a mental health diagnosis (HR = 2.78, p = 0.001) were
      more likely to experience maltreatment, exceeding the risk at all other periods.
      CONCLUSIONS: Infants and children are at increased risk for maltreatment in the 6
      months following a parent's deployment, even after accounting for other known
      family- and child-level risk factors. However, the risk does not appear to be the
      same for all soldiers and their families in relation to deployment, particularly
      for female soldiers and those who had previously diagnosed mental health issues,
      for whom the risk appears most elevated before deployment. Accounting for the
      unique needs of high-risk families at different stages of a soldier's deployment
      cycle may allow the U.S. Army to better direct resources that prevent and address
      child maltreatment.

PMID- 28885951
TI  - Providers' Perspectives on Barriers and Facilitators to Connecting Women Veterans
      to Alcohol-Related Care From Primary Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unhealthy drinking is relatively common among women U.S. military
      Veterans. Primary care is often the setting where patients first come into
      contact with the health care system, and providers in this setting play a
      critical role in connecting unhealthy drinkers to appropriate care. Little is
      known about primary care providers' perspectives on factors that affect whether
      women Veterans presenting to primary care with unhealthy drinking connect to
      alcohol-related care. Understanding factors that affect whether patients connect
      to alcohol-related care may improve providers' ability to support women Veterans
      with unhealthy drinking get needed care. METHODS: This qualitative study used
      semi-structured interviews with 14 providers from two Veterans Administration
      Women's Health primary care clinics, including nurses, nurse practitioners,
      physicians' assistants, and physicians, and colocated mental health providers.
      The interviews were transcribed, and themes pertaining to providers' perspectives
      on barriers and facilitators to connecting women Veterans' with unhealthy
      drinking to alcohol-related care were identified through template analysis.
      FINDINGS: Primary care providers perceived numerous provider- and clinic-level
      factors as relevant to their ability to connect women Veterans to alcohol-related
      care. Barriers providers described were insufficient care resources, provider
      prioritization of alcohol-related care, insufficient knowledge of care options or
      the referral process among providers, time constraints during routine clinical
      visits, and the referral process for alcohol-related care. They also described
      resources available in primary care, primary care provider behaviors, and
      initiatives at the Veterans Administration as helpful. DISCUSSION: Although
      primary care providers are gatekeepers to specialty treatment services, ongoing
      education, and colocated mental health staff could help reduce barriers to these
      services, ultimately improving health outcomes for women Veterans and others with
      unhealthy drinking.

PMID- 28885952
TI  - Military Sexual Trauma in Female Veterans is Associated With Chronic Pain
      Conditions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the impact of MST on chronic pain conditions
      among female Veterans. The primary objective of this study was to compare the
      prevalence of chronic pain conditions among U.S. female veterans with a history
      of military sexual trauma (MST) to those without a history of MST. We anticipated
      that female Veterans with a history of MST would have higher associations with
      chronic pain conditions than the female Veterans without a history of MST.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a large-scale, retrospective study using the
      Veterans' Health Administration Corporate Data Warehouse with institutional
      approval (15-H175). International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision codes
      from the outpatient visits, outpatient problem lists, and inpatient discharge
      diagnoses were used to identify chronic pain diagnoses. Baseline demographic data
      including date of birth, self-identified race/ethnicity, and body mass index were
      obtained. Significant findings in the univariate analysis were then placed into a
      multivariable logistic regression model to adjust the effect of each predictor
      for the presence of others. Significance was set at p < 0.01 because of multiple
      comparisons made. RESULTS: For the entire cohort (516,950 women), 28.9% (149,540)
      were diagnosed with headaches, 18.3% (94,393) with chronic pelvic pain, 14.4%
      (74,216) with chronic back pain, 10.5% (54,302) with nonspecific joint pain, 9%
      (48,509) with fibromyalgia, 6.2% (32,037) with generalized abdominal pain, 4.2%
      (21,911) with irritable bowel syndrome, and 3.2% (16,309) with dyspareunia. Most
      women had more than one chronic pain diagnosis. At baseline, women with a history
      of MST were younger (63.3 +/- 15.9 vs. 67.4 +/- 17.9 years p < 0.001), heavier
      (29.5+/- 6.2 vs. 28.8 +/- 6.1 kg/m2 p < 0.001), smokers (49.3 vs. 38.8% p <
      0.001), and more likely to be non-Hispanic white (56.3 vs. 52.3% p < 0.001) than
      women without a history of MST. Women with a history of MST had more pain
      diagnoses than those without the history of MST (all p < 0.001). The adjusted
      odds ratio of women with history of MST presenting with any pain condition
      compared to a women without a history of MST was 1.26 (95% confidence interval
      1.24-1.28). In the multivariable model there remained an association between MST
      and chronic pain conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pelvic
      pain, back pain, chronic joint pain, fibromyalgia, dyspareunia, chronic abdominal
      pain, and headaches after adjusting for baseline differences in age, body mass
      index, smoking, and ethnicity. Importantly, drug abuse, and overdose were also
      associated with MST. CONCLUSION: A history of MST is associated with chronic pain
      diagnoses. Weaknesses of this study are those applicable to analyses of any
      retrospective database study. Specifically, the data are limited by the accuracy
      of physician coding and reporting. The strength of this study is that it
      represents a comprehensive, retrospective evaluation of potential sources for
      chronic pain within the female veteran population. In summary, we found that
      female veteran survivors of MST face an increased burden of chronic pain,
      including a broad range of pain conditions independent of the psychological
      effects of MST.

PMID- 28885953
TI  - Expanding the Understanding of Risk Behavior Associated With Homelessness Among
      Veterans.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: To advance large-scale efforts to end veteran homelessness, an
      understanding of factors that contribute to housing insecurity is necessary.
      Common risk behaviors (e.g., substance use and risky sexual practices) are
      associated with lengthier experiences of homelessness among the general homeless
      population, but less understood among homeless veterans. Additionally, whether
      emerging risk behaviors among veterans (e.g., sensation seeking and aggression)
      are associated with lengthy homeless experiences is unknown. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Data were drawn from a sample of Los Angeles County veterans surveyed
      using a mixed nonprobability sampling strategy, which included recruiting
      veterans via national and local veterans service organizations, college
      organizations, and social media campaigns. Measures aligning with factors of
      sensation seeking (reckless driving, gambling, suicidal ideation); substance use
      (alcohol misuse, tobacco use, driving while intoxicated); risky sexual practices
      (risking getting a sexually transmitted disease); and aggression (looking to
      start a fight) were tested in multivariate, multinomial logistic regression
      analyses to determine their association with varying lengths of homelessness in
      the past year (less than 1 month, 2-6 months, 6 months to 1 year). RESULTS:
      Risking getting a sexually transmitted disease, gambling, suicidal ideation,
      alcohol misuse, tobacco use, driving while intoxicated, and looking to start a
      fight were associated with 6 or more months of homelessness. Several indicators
      of risk were associated with brief periods of homelessness, including gambling
      and looking to start a fight. Although a clear exposure-response effect was not
      detected with risk behaviors, results suggested there may be some wavering of
      engagement in risk behaviors over time. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest sensation
      seeking and aggression risk behaviors should be included in risk assessments and
      prevention efforts along with substance use and risky sexual practices to reduce
      veterans' risk of becoming homeless and reducing risk of chronic homelessness.
      Further research is needed to understand the trajectory of these risk behaviors
      and the mechanisms that underlie the association between these risk behaviors and
      homelessness for veterans.

PMID- 28885954
TI  - Medical Evaluation Board for Mental Health Condition: U.S. Army Officer Medical
      Evaluation Board Data by Branch and Component.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A retrospective review of Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) data to
      determine the effect of career field or Army component on the relative risk for
      mental health (MH) related MEBs among Army Officers, may identify specific
      populations for enhanced screening before accession, or groups that may require
      targeted preventive resources during their careers. METHOD: 4 years' of data
      available on Army Officers from the Department of the Army's Electronic
      Disability Evaluation System database, contained specific information on the
      officers' physical profiles, career fields, and service component. This
      information was compared with a dataset provided by the Defense Manpower Data
      Center (DMDC), reporting documented force strength by career field and service
      component for the corresponding years, allowing for calculation and comparison of
      MEB and MH-MEB rates between Army components and between career fields. RESULTS:
      Significant differences in MEB and MH-MEB rates were found between Army
      components, but database gaps make this assessment uncertain. When comparing MEB
      and MH-MEB rates between career fields (regardless of service component), 9
      career fields had statistically significant higher risk rates of MEB and/or MH
      MEB, whereas 13 career fields showed significantly lower rates of MEB and/or MH
      MEB. CONCLUSION: Frequency of Army Officer MEBs and/or MH-MEBs were variable and
      career field dependent; the underlying causes of these variations warrant further
      research. The use of the Electronic Disability Evaluation System database for the
      Integrated Disability Evaluation System process is a rich source of data for in
      depth analysis, but the program itself and the procedures for its use need to be
      improved to obtain more complete information.

PMID- 28885955
TI  - Comparison of Clinical Features in a Population of Basic Military Trainees Versus
      the General Department of Defense Beneficiary Population Presenting With
      Influenza.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Upper respiratory tract infection (URI) is a well-documented cause
      of morbidity, extra expense, and lost training time among basic military trainees
      (BMTs). The goal of this study was to characterize the clinical presentation of
      influenza in the BMT population and to better understand how this presentation
      differs from that of the general Department of Defense (DoD) beneficiary
      population (non-BMTs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical and demographic data were
      collected in a prospective study that enrolled DoD beneficiaries presenting to
      medical treatment facilities in San Antonio, Texas, with URI symptoms between
      January 2005 and March 2011. Vital signs and symptom duration were collected at
      the time of enrollment along with basic demographic information. RESULTS: Among
      4,448 participants enrolled, 466 (10.5%) tested positive for influenza: 198 of
      3,103 BMTs (6.4%) vs. 268 of 1,345 non-BMTs (20%) (p < 0.01); 412 of 466 had
      complete data for nine symptom-related variables. BMTs were more likely to be
      Caucasian males and younger than non-BMTs. BMTs had a higher temperature at the
      time of presentation (101.5 degrees F vs. 100.5 degrees F, p < 0.01). BMTs
      presented less frequently than non-BMTs with chills (79.7% vs. 94.4%, p < 0.01),
      malaise (62.1% vs. 87.0%, p < 0.01), nausea (30.2% vs. 43.0%, p < 0.01), and
      vomiting (12.1% vs. 21.7%, p = 0.01). Multiple logistic regression analysis
      showed that BMTs were less likely to have the four symptoms compared to non-BMTs
      even after controlling for gender and age (chills: odds ratio [OR] = 0.3, 95%
      confidence interval [CI] = 0.1-0.6, p < 0.01; malaise: OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3
      0.8, p < 0.01; nausea: OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3-0.8, p < 0.01; vomiting: OR = 0.4,
      95% CI = 0.2-0.8, p < 0.01). Although there was no difference in the frequency of
      subjective fever between the two groups, reported duration of fever was
      significantly shorter in BMTs than non-BMTs: median of 1 day (range 0-10) vs. 2
      days (range 0-8) (p < 0.01). BMTs presented with a composite symptom index mean
      of 6.2 (standard deviation = 1.4) symptoms, whereas non-BMTs presented with a
      mean of 6.9 (standard deviation = 1.3) symptoms (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The
      pretest probability of a BMT presenting with URI symptoms having influenza is
      significantly lower than that for the general DoD beneficiary population. BMTs
      with influenza presented sooner, with higher fever, and with fewer overall
      symptoms than the general DoD beneficiary population. These differences are
      likely attributable to early reporting and response bias and less likely
      attributed to age. Military efforts to identify BMTs with suspected influenza
      infection early and to refer them for treatment promptly are efficacious.

PMID- 28885956
TI  - Combat Casualties and Severe Shock: Risk Factors for Death at Role 3 Military
      Facilities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although significant research has been conducted on combat casualties
      receiving blood products, there is limited data for the subpopulation presenting
      in shock. The purpose of this study was to evaluate combat casualties arriving to
      a role 3 facility with an initial systolic blood pressure (SBP) <= 90 in order to
      identify clinical characteristics and associations between presentation,
      transfusion therapy, and mortality outcomes. METHODS: The Department of Defense
      Trauma Registry was queried from 2001 to 2010 for trauma-related casualties who
      arrived at a role 3 combat surgical facility with a SBP <= 90. Transfers from
      role 2 facilities were excluded. Data captured included demographics, admission
      vital signs, laboratory values, blood products, and mortality. Relationships
      between admission physiology, blood product utilization, and mortality were
      developed. Independent associations between variables were determined by logistic
      regression analysis. RESULTS: 1,703 patients were identified who met our
      inclusion criteria and composite mortality was 23%. Mortality in those receiving
      a balanced transfusion ratio was 18% versus 27% (p < 0.0001). Hypotensive
      casualties who survived were significantly more likely to have a higher
      presenting Glasgow Coma Score (GCS), temperature, SBP, shock index, and pH. In
      addition, this group was also more likely to have a lower international
      normalized ratio, pCO2, and base deficit (p < 0.001). Age, heart rate, and pulse
      pressure were not significantly different between groups. Independent predictors
      of mortality included Injury Severity Score, presentation GCS, and initial pH
      value (p < 0.0001). In contrast, independent predictors of survival included
      those with above-knee amputation and a balanced transfusion (p < 0.0001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Combat casualties hypotensive on arrival to surgical facilities have
      a significant expected mortality. Those receiving balanced transfusions
      demonstrated improved survival. Of the five independent risk factors, pH, GCS,
      and the presence of above-knee amputation are typically available during initial
      evaluation. These factors may be helpful in determining resource allocation and
      mortality risk, especially in triage or mass casualty settings.

PMID- 28885957
TI  - Blunt Scrotal Trauma in Soldiers-Epidemiology and Outcome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Blunt scrotal trauma (BST) is common among soldiers but its
      incidence and outcome are unknown. The purpose of this study was to estimate the
      incidence, clinical findings, and outcome of BST in soldiers referred to a
      primary care field physician. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of
      soldiers in their military services who sustained BST and were evaluated by
      primary care field doctors over a 10-year period were reviewed. Anamnestic data,
      physical findings, primary care physician decisions, hospitalization, and surgery
      rates as well as final outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: The medical records of
      382,036 soldiers were reviewed and 668 cases (0.175%) of BST were identified. All
      patients complained of scrotal pain and 10% of dysuria. The most common physical
      findings included: scrotal tenderness (71.7%), scrotal edema (16.2%), and scrotal
      hematoma (4.8%). In 11.8% of the visits microhematuria was found in urine dip
      stick. A total of 243 patients (36.4%) were referred to emergency department, but
      only 9 (3.7%) were hospitalized. Of these, 3 patients underwent surgical
      exploration due to suspected testicular rupture in ultrasonography. Finally,
      testicular rupture was found only in 1 patient. This testis was sutured. In
      another patient testicular torsion was found and orchiectomy done. 168 patients
      (25.1%) developed prolonged scrotal pain lasting for more than 2 weeks after the
      trauma. CONCLUSIONS: Blunt testicular trauma is not an uncommon phenomenon among
      soldiers. Surgical intervention is rarely needed and in 99.6% of cases seen by
      general practitioners supportive management is suffice. The phenomenon of
      prolonged post-traumatic testicular pain, developing in a quarter of the patients
      after BST pain deserves more research.

PMID- 28885958
TI  - Repeat Hospitalizations Predict Mortality in Patients With Heart Failure.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Heart failure (HF) affects more than 5.1 million Americans and is
      projected to increase. Understanding the relationship between hospitalization and
      mortality can help to guide clinical management. The aim of the study is to
      evaluate the impact of repeat HF hospitalizations on all-cause mortality and to
      determine risk variables related to patient mortality. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Using administrative data from the Military Health System, a cohort of patients
      with an index admission for HF between 2007 and 2011 was identified. HF
      hospitalizations were defined as any hospital claim with an International
      Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnosis of 428.xx in the primary
      diagnosis field over the 7-year study period (2007-2013). Patients were
      subsequently categorized based on total number of HF hospitalizations. A
      multivariate Cox regression model, adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidities, was
      used to estimate hazard ratios. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were constructed
      based on the frequency of HF hospitalizations. RESULTS: Of the 51,286 patients
      admitted for HF, 54.7% were male with a mean (SD) age of 76.3 (10.8) years, and
      29,714 died during 135,211 person-years of follow-up. Mean survival time was 2.6,
      1.8, 1.5, and 1.3 years after the first, second, third, and fourth
      hospitalization, respectively. The mortality rate of patients at 30 days and 1
      year postindex HF hospitalization was 7.4% and 27.3%, respectively. A history of
      dementia and chronic kidney disease without dialysis decreased overall survival.
      CONCLUSIONS: Repeat HF hospitalizations remain a strong predictor of mortality
      for existing patients with HF. As a result, clinicians and patients can
      individualize the optimal treatment strategy and resources on the basis of the
      suspected prognosis.

PMID- 28885959
TI  - Statins and Musculoskeletal Conditions in U.S. Air Force Active Duty Service
      Members.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study examined the association of statin use and musculoskeletal
      conditions in statin users and nonusers within the population of U.S. Air Force
      active duty Service members in the military health care system. METHODS: The
      study was a retrospective cohort analysis of Service members between 2004 and
      2014 as identified from personnel data having physical fitness and cardiac risk
      data available and who were free of musculoskeletal diagnoses for 6 months before
      the study period. Based on pharmacy data, participants were divided into two
      groups: statin users (received a statin for at least 90 days) and nonusers (never
      received a statin throughout the study period). Using participants' baseline
      characteristics, a propensity score was generated and used to match statin users
      to nonusers in a 1:3 ratio. Conditional logistic regression was used to determine
      the odds ratio (OR) for a musculoskeletal injury. FINDINGS: A total of 123,138
      participants met study criteria (592 statin users and 122,546 nonusers). Of
      these, 516 statin users were propensity score matched to 1,548 nonusers. Among
      matched pairs, statin users had a higher OR (OR: 1.369; 95% confidence interval
      [CI]: 1.166-1.606) for musculoskeletal conditions. This association was driven by
      a higher frequency of back problems in statin users relative to nonusers. The
      number needed to be exposed for one additional person to be harmed was 20.104
      (95% CI: 10.326-232.711). DISCUSSION: Statin use was associated with an increased
      likelihood of musculoskeletal conditions in the population of U.S. Air Force
      active duty Service members. Further investigations should evaluate the
      contribution of duty-related physical requirements as well as the duration of
      musculoskeletal condition-associated duty limitations.

PMID- 28885960
TI  - International Classification of Disease Coding of Exertional Heat Illness in U.S.
      Army Soldiers.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The severity of exertional heat illnesses (EHI) ranges from
      relatively minor heat exhaustion to potentially life-threatening heat stroke.
      Epidemiological surveillance of the types of and trends in EHI incidence depends
      on application of the appropriate International Classification of Disease, 9th
      Revision (ICD-9) diagnostic code. However, data examining whether the appropriate
      EHI ICD-9 code is selected are lacking. The purpose of this study was to
      determine whether the appropriate ICD-9 code is selected in a cohort of EHI
      casualties. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chart reviews of 290 EHI casualties that
      occurred in U.S. Army soldiers from 2009 to 2012 were conducted. The ICD-9
      diagnostic code was extracted, as were the initial and peak values for aspartate
      transaminase, alanine transaminase, creatine kinase, and creatinine. Diagnostic
      criteria for heat injury and heat stroke include evidence of organ and/or tissue
      damage; 2 out of 3 of the following must have been met to be considered heat
      injury (ICD-9 code 992.8) or heat stroke (ICD-9 code 992.0): aspartate
      transaminase/ alanine transaminase fold increase >3, creatine kinase fold
      increase >5, and/or creatinine >=1.5mg/dL. Contingency tables were constructed
      from which sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value
      were calculated. RESULTS: The 290 cases in this cohort represent ~29% of all EHI
      at Fort Benning and ~6% of all EHI Army-wide during the study period. There were
      80 cases that met the laboratory diagnostic criteria for heat injury/stroke,
      however of those, 28 cases were diagnosed as an EHI other than heat injury/stroke
      (sensitivity = 0.65). 210 cases did not meet the laboratory diagnostic criteria,
      but 66 of those were incorrectly diagnosed as heat injury or heat stroke
      (specificity = 0.69). Positive and negative predictive values were 0.44 and 0.84,
      respectively. In total, the incorrect ICD-9 code was applied to 94 of 290 total
      cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that caution is warranted when examining
      epidemiological surveillance data on EHI severity, as there was disagreement
      between the laboratory data and the selected ICD-9 code in ~1/3 of all cases in
      this cohort. Of note is the lack of an ICD-9 or -10 code for heat injury; we
      recommend coding for heat exhaustion as the primary diagnosis and additional
      codes to capture the accompanying muscle, tissue, and/or organ damage.

PMID- 28885961
TI  - Effectiveness of Ice-Sheet Cooling Following Exertional Hyperthermia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The procedure of wrapping a heat casualty in ice-water soaked bed
      sheets to reduce core temperature has received little investigation, despite the
      practice and recommendation for its use in some military settings. Thus, the
      purpose of this study was to investigate the cooling efficacy of ice-sheet
      cooling (ISC) following exertional hyperthermia. METHODS: 13 (11 males, 2
      females) participants (age = 23 +/- 3 years, height = 176.5 +/- 10.3 cm, mass =
      78.6 +/- 15.3 kg, body fat = 19.6 +/- 8.6%, and body surface area = 1.95 +/- 0.22
      m2) volunteered to complete 2 randomized, crossover design trials on an outdoor
      recreation field (34.4 +/- 1.4 degrees C, 54.4 +/- 4.1% relative humidity). Each
      trial consisted of exercise (self-paced 400-m warm-up, 1,609-m run, and 100-m
      sprints) followed by 15 minutes of either lying supine in the shade with no
      treatment (control [CON]) or being treated with ice-water soaked sheets wrapped
      around their body (ISC). Physiological (rectal temperature [Tre], heart rate,
      mean-weighted skin temperature) and perceptual measures (thermal sensation,
      rating of perceived exertion) were assessed after each exercise protocol, every 3
      minutes during treatment, and every 5 minutes during recovery. FINDINGS: By
      design, there were no differences during exercise between ISC and CON for Tre (p
      = 0.16), skin temperature (p = 0.52), heart rate (p = 0.62), thermal sensation (p
      = 0.89), or rating of perceived exertion (p = 0.99). There were greater decreases
      in Tre at 3 (ISC 0.33 +/- 0.26 degrees C vs. CON 0.03 +/- 0.30 degrees C, p =
      0.01) and 6 minutes (ISC 0.47 +/- 0.27 degrees C vs. CON 0.30 +/- 0.19 degrees C,
      p = 0.05) of treatment; however, the overall rate of cooling was not different
      between trials (CON 0.05 +/- 0.02 degrees C/min vs. ISC 0.06 +/- 0.02 degrees
      C/min, p = 0.72). Skin temperature (Tsk) was significantly reduced from 3 minutes
      (ISC 34.4 +/- 1.7 degrees C vs. CON 36.6 +/- 0.5 degrees C, p = 0.007) through 15
      minutes (ISC 32.4 +/- 1.5 vs. CON 36.1 +/- 0.4 degrees C, p < 0.001) of
      treatment. There was a trend for lower heart rate with ISC (p = 0.051). Thermal
      sensation was reduced from 3 minutes of treatment (ISC 3.5 +/- 0.9 vs. CON 4.5 +/
      0.6, p = 0.002) through 15 minutes (ISC 2.8 +/- 1.0 vs. CON 3.9 +/- 0.4, p =
      0.005). DISCUSSION: ISC does not provide effective reduction in Tre following
      exertional hyperthermia compared to no treatment. However, perceptual benefits
      may warrant the use of ISC in settings where rapid reductions in core temperature
      are not a concern (i.e., recovery from exercise). Thus, clinicians should
      continue to utilize validated techniques (i.e., cold-water immersion) for the
      treatment of exertional heat illnesses.

PMID- 28885962
TI  - Cold Acclimation Does Not Alter Physiological or Perceptual Responses During
      Subsequent Exercise in the Heat.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Warfighters often train and conduct operations in cold
      environments. Specifically, military trainees and divers that are repeatedly
      exposed to cold water may experience inadvertent cold acclimatization, which
      results in body heat retention. These same warfighters can quickly switch between
      environments (cold to hot or hot to cold) given the nature of their work. This
      may present a risk of early onset of hyperthermia when cold-acclimatized
      warfighters are subsequently exposed to physiological insults that increase body
      temperature, such as exercise and heat stress. However, there is currently no
      evidence that suggests this is the case. The purpose of this work, therefore, is
      to determine what impact, if any, repeated immersion in cold water has on
      subsequent exercise in the heat. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve healthy subjects
      (values in mean +/- SD: age, 25.6 +/- 5.2 years; height, 174.0 +/- 8.9 cm;
      weight, 75.6 +/- 13.1 kg) voluntarily provided written informed consent in
      accordance with the San Diego State University Institutional Review Board. They
      first completed 120 minutes of moderate treadmill walking in 40 degrees C and 40%
      relative humidity. During this trial, subjects' physiological and perceptual
      responses were recorded. Twenty-four hours later, subjects began a cold
      acclimation protocol, which consisted of seven, 90-minute immersions in cold
      water (10 degrees C, water level to chest). Each immersion was also separated by
      24 hours. Subjects then repeated a subsequent trial of exercise in the heat 24
      hours after the final immersion of the cold acclimation protocol. RESULTS:
      Results from cold acclimation revealed no change in core temperature, a decrease
      in skin temperature, and attenuated shivering and lactate responses, which
      supports a successful insulative-hypothermic cold acclimation response. This type
      of cold acclimation response primarily results in heat retention with associated
      energy conservation. Findings for heat trials (pre-cold acclimation and post-cold
      acclimation) revealed no differences between trials for all measurements,
      suggesting that cold acclimation did not influence physiological or perceptual
      responses during exercise in the heat. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that
      military divers or trainees that are frequently exposed to cold water, and hence
      have the ability to experience cold acclimatization, will likely not be at
      greater risk of increased thermal strain when subsequently exposed to physical
      activity in hot environments. In this study, no physiological or perceptual
      differences were observed between trials before and after cold acclimation,
      suggesting that cold acclimation does not present a greater hyperthermia risk
      during subsequent exercise in the heat.

PMID- 28885963
TI  - Three-Year Analysis of Value and Utilization After Development of an Ultrasound
      Based Orthopedic Injection Clinic.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sonography is an effective method of diagnosing and treating
      musculoskeletal conditions, and the use of ultrasound has been shown to improve
      the accuracy, safety, and efficacy of both therapeutic and diagnostic injections.
      In 2012, we established an injection clinic at our institution to address our
      growing need for diagnostic and therapeutic injections. METHODS: We performed an
      analysis of value and utilization following the development of an orthopedic
      injection clinic. This included an evaluation of the cost of materials,
      equipment, and training required to develop and run the clinic, and an analysis
      of the services rendered and relative value units (RVUs) generated over 3 fiscal
      years (FYs). RESULTS: The cost to develop the clinic was $42,498.30. The cost to
      run the clinic thereafter was $16.90 to $21.60 per injection. By the end of FY
      2012, 60% of providers performed at least 1 injection under ultrasound guidance.
      Every successive year thereafter, 100% of providers were using ultrasound
      guidance. In FY 2012, we performed 738 injections, 5.4% used ultrasound guidance
      and generated a total of 1,786.36 RVUs. In FY 2013, we performed 1,814
      injections, 17.6% used ultrasound guidance, and generated a total of 7,224.5
      RVUs. In FY 2014, we performed 2,821 injections, 25.2% used ultrasound guidance,
      and generated 13,786.82 RVUs. RVUs generated solely from ultrasound guided
      injections were 463.2 (2012), 3,694 (2013), 8,221.8 (2014). Injection accuracy
      was at least 98%. Average time until injection was 0 days. CONCLUSION: The cost
      to start an injection clinic is modest, with the potential for large annual
      growth and early return on investment, and can generate significant revenue by
      recapturing RVUs that would otherwise be lost to outside referrals. Furthermore,
      it helps to increase clinic throughput, maximize services rendered during a
      single patient visit improving the overall quality of their encounter, expands
      the clinical practice of our midlevel providers, offloads clinical time for
      surgical providers, and can help expedite clinical decision making.

PMID- 28885964
TI  - Cervical Joint Position Sense in Hypobaric Conditions: A Randomized Double-Blind
      Controlled Trial.
AB  - : Well-adapted motor actions require intact and well-integrated information from
      all of the sensory systems, specifically the visual, vestibular, and
      somatosensory systems, including proprioception. Proprioception is involved in
      the sensorimotor control by providing the central nervous system with an updated
      body schema of the biomechanical and spatial properties of the body parts. With
      regard to the cervical spine, proprioceptive information from joint and muscle
      mechanoreceptors is integrated with vestibular and visual feedback to control
      head position, head orientation, and whole body posture. Postural control is
      highly complex and proprioception from joints is an important contributor to the
      system. Altitude has been used as a paradigm to study the mechanisms of postural
      control. Determining the mechanisms of postural control that are affected by
      moderate altitude is important as unpressurized aircrafts routinely operate at
      altitudes where hypoxia may be a concern. Deficits in motor performance arise
      when the reliance on proprioceptive feedback is abolished either experimentally
      or because of a disorder. As pilots require good neck motor control to counteract
      the weight of their head gear and proprioceptive information plays an important
      role in this process, the aim of this study was to determine if hypoxia at
      moderate altitudes would impair proprioception measured by joint position sense
      of the cervical spine in healthy subjects. METHODS: Thirty-six healthy subjects
      (Neck Disability Index < 5) volunteered to participate. Neck position sense was
      evaluated using a three-dimensional motion analyzer. To create the environment, a
      hypobaric chamber was used to simulate artificial moderate altitude. Head
      repositioning error was measured by asking the subject to perform a head-to
      neutral task after submaximal flexion-extension and right/left rotation
      movements, and a head-to-target task, in which the subjects had to return to a 30
      degrees  right and left rotation position. FINDINGS: Exposure to artificial acute
      moderate altitude of 7,000 feet had no significant effects on cervical joint
      position sense measured by head repositioning accuracy in healthy subjects.
      Discussion/impact/recommendations: Postural control mechanisms are very sensitive
      to acute mild hypoxia and have been recently investigated. Acute hypobaric
      hypoxia at moderate and high altitudes has a negative effect on postural control.
      However, which part of the postural system is affected has not yet been
      determined and proprioception has been little investigated. The results from this
      study highlighted that in healthy subjects with good cervical spine
      proprioception at baseline, artificial hypoxia induced by the simulation of
      moderate altitude does not increase head repositioning error. Further studies
      should investigate cervical joint position sense in real aircraft, at different
      altitudes and in a group of experienced helicopter pilots, to evaluate the impact
      of moderate altitude on cervical joint position sense in a different population.
      Conducting the same experiments in a population of pilots and in real flight
      conditions should be considered, since various factors such as the level of
      proprioception, head posture, type of movement, head load, muscle fatigue, flight
      altitude, and the length of flight time might influence the kinesthetic
      sensitivity.

PMID- 28885965
TI  - Olecranon Bursitis in a Military Population: Epidemiology and Evidence for
      Prolonged Morbidity in Combat Recruits.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Olecranon bursitis (OB) is a benign but disturbing condition that
      may adversely affect a military recruit's combat preparedness. This study was
      designed to assess incidence, risk factors, and associated medical burden of OB
      in the Israel Defense Forces. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective
      study drawing on medical records of all Israel Defense Forces soldiers diagnosed
      as having OB between 2005 and 2015. OB was classified as septic and
      noninfectious. Crude incidence rates and duty-specific incidence rates were
      calculated. Medical burden was defined by the number of physician visits,
      referrals to orthopedic specialist consultations, duration of symptoms, and
      duration of pharmaceutical treatment. Demographic and occupational information
      (age, sex, height, weight, socioeconomic status, country of origin, type of
      military service, time of presentation to medical services) was used to identify
      risk factors for septic bursitis and longer duration of symptoms. Statistical
      analysis was performed in R statistical software. Risk factors were evaluated
      using the Chi-square test for categorical variables and Pearson correlation
      coefficients were used for continuous variables. The study was approved by the
      Israeli Defense Force IRB. RESULTS: A total of 2,692 soldiers were diagnosed with
      OB during the study period. The crude annual incidence rate of OB was 29/100,000
      person-years (PY). Combat duty had an incidence of 97/100,000 PY, and noncombat
      duties had an incidence of 12/10,000 PY (p < 0.001). Female incidence
      (8.4/100,000 PY) was similar to male incidence (11/100,000 PY) in administrative
      duties (p = 0.54). More cases were diagnosed during summer and autumn than in
      other seasons (p = 0.016). Septic bursitis constituted 24% of all cases, was more
      frequent in combat soldiers (32%), and on average presented earlier in service
      than noninfectious OB (13 vs. 17 weeks since recruitment). The mean duration of
      symptoms was estimated at 17.58 weeks, with a mean of 1.75 physician visits per
      soldier. About 19% received a specialist referral. Origin from the former USSR
      was associated with a higher duration of symptoms (p = 0.012). CONCLUSION: Type
      of military service was the principal risk factor for OB, as indicated by a
      higher incidence of the disorder among combat compared to noncombat units,
      possibly the result of field training without protective gear and repetitive
      trauma to elbows. The greater number of diagnoses of OB during summer and autumn,
      when training is more intensive, support that explanation. Sex did not affect
      incidence of OB in administrative units. The medical burden appears to be
      relatively low, since most of the soldiers had only one physician visit. OB is
      highly prevalent in military compared to civilian populations. Outdoor training
      involving crawling is a probable explanation for the much higher rates among
      combat units and increased number of diagnoses during warm summer and autumn
      months. Prevention by use of protective gear seems to be the most promising
      intervention.

PMID- 28885966
TI  - The Effect of Anthropomorphic Test Device Lower Leg Surrogate Selection on Impact
      Mitigating System Evaluation in Low- and High-Rate Loading Conditions.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The lower legs are at risk of substantial injury during events such
      as frontal automotive crashes and antivehicular mine blasts. Loading to occupants
      can be assessed using an instrumented anthropomorphic test device (ATD), whose
      measurements can be compared to established injury criteria. NATO's AEP-55 STANAG
      4569 recognizes two surrogates for lower leg injury assessments from impacts with
      intruding floor pans resulting from underbelly blast loads; (1) the rigid Hybrid
      III instrumented lower leg, and; (2) the compliant MILitary Lower eXtremity (MIL
      LX). The established injury criterion for the Hybrid III leg specifies a maximum
      lower tibia compressive load of 5.4 kN, whereas the MIL-LX limit is 2.6 kN
      measured at the upper tibia for similar injury severity levels. The difference in
      compliance between the two legs could affect the evaluation of protection levels,
      resulting in an over- or under-estimation of the force attenuation of energy
      attenuating (EA) floor mats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The responses of the two
      lower leg surrogates were evaluated at impact velocities up to 12 m/s,
      representing floor intrusions during antivehicle mine blasts. An air cannon was
      used to accelerate a rigid or padded floor plate into the sole of the surrogate
      lower legs, loading them axially, in order to assess the protective capability of
      commercial EA floor mats. The peak load from the lower and upper load cells in
      the Hybrid III and MIL-LX legs were compared to identify at what point their
      respective injury criteria would be exceeded in both the padded and unpadded
      conditions. RESULTS: Comparisons of the surrogate legs' responses resulted in
      different evaluations of risk, with the Hybrid III leg exceeding its limit at an
      impact speed of 6.0 m/s, and the MIL-LX exceeding its limit at 5.5 m/s (for tests
      including an EA product). Furthermore, the inclusion of an EA mat had a greater
      relative protective effect on the Hybrid III than the MIL-LX leg, with padding
      reducing the force to 17 to 34% of the unpadded condition for the Hybrid III,
      versus 67 to 89% of the unpadded condition for the MIL-LX. The load reduction was
      found to be velocity dependent for both surrogates. CONCLUSION: These results
      indicate that the two surrogates are not equivalent in their assessment of
      protective capability. Therefore, the selection of ATD leg for testing of EA mats
      (and other protective devices) will influence the evaluation of these systems,
      and more robust metrics are required to identify which is the most appropriate
      surrogate for evaluating injury to the lower limb.

PMID- 28885967
TI  - Outcomes of Medializing Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy With Medial Reefing and Vastus
      Medialis Obliquus Advancement Coupled With Lateral Retinacular Z-Lengthening for
      Recurrent Patellar Instability.
AB  - PURPOSE: Patella-femoral dislocations, although rare, can result in functionally
      limiting symptoms and limited return to prior activity levels. The purpose of
      this study is to report outcomes of a three-in-one patellar realignment surgery
      for treatment of recurrent patellar instability in a young, active duty military
      population. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients
      who underwent our senior author's three-in-one patellar realignment surgery for
      recurrent patellar instability in the setting of underlying anatomic
      malalignment. Our primary outcome measure was the rate of recurrent instability.
      Secondary outcome measures included rate of return to full unrestricted active
      duty military service and the functional outcome scores. RESULTS: A total of 13
      patients with an average follow-up of 16 months were included in this study.
      During the follow-up period, there were no reported instability events (either
      dislocation or subluxation). Three (23%) patients were separated secondary to
      issues with their operative knee and two additional patients were no longer on
      active duty at time of final follow-up. Six patients had paired (pre- and
      postoperative) Single Assessment Numerical Evaluation scores which showed a
      statistically significant improvement (p < 0.05) between the median pre- and
      postoperative Single Assessment Numerical Evaluation scores of 45 and 85,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that the described patellar
      realignment procedure is effective at substantially reducing and possibly
      eliminating the symptoms of recurrent instability and allows a modest return to
      unrestricted active duty.

PMID- 28885968
TI  - Diagnosing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Among Afghanistan and Iraq
      Veterans: Veterans Affair's Concordance With Clinical Guidelines for Spirometry
      Administration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease (COPD) can slow disease progression. The Department of Veterans Affairs
      (VA)/Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG), established to
      improve patient outcomes, recommend the use of spirometry in the COPD diagnostic
      process. The aims of this study were to assess VA health care providers'
      performance related to CPG-recommended spirometry administration in the
      evaluation of newly diagnosed COPD among veterans, determine the patient
      characteristics that may influence the adherence rate, and compare VA concordance
      rates to those of other health plans. METHODS: Administrative health care data
      related to Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND)
      veterans was used to identify newly diagnosed COPD cases and the proportion of
      cases receiving spirometry. Cases were defined as veterans who had their first
      medical encounter with a coded diagnosis of COPD >= 6 months after their initial
      VA health care evaluation. The relationship between prediagnostic and comorbid
      conditions and the administration of CPG-concordant spirometry was examined using
      regression analyses. FINDINGS: Among the 923,646 OEF/OIF/OND veterans receiving
      VA health care between January 2002 and December 2014, 32,076 (3%) had a coded
      diagnosis of COPD. Among those, 22,156 (69%) were identified as newly diagnosed
      COPD cases; only 6,827 (31%) had CPG-concordant spirometry. Concordant spirometry
      was more likely to occur in veterans aged >=40. A pre-existing tobacco use
      disorder marginally changed the concordance rate. DISCUSSION: VA provider
      adherence to CPG-concordant spirometry would decrease the prevalence of false
      positive COPD cases and lead to more targeted disease treatment. Future research
      should focus on such cases by assessing the association between COPD diagnosis
      and bronchodilator responsiveness.

PMID- 28885969
TI  - The Use of the Abdominal Aortic and Junctional Tourniquet During Cardiopulmonary
      Resuscitation Following Traumatic Cardiac Arrest in Swine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is ineffective in
      treating traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA) following hemorrhagic shock despite fluid
      resuscitation. CPR adjuncts, including abdominal compressions and external
      counter pressure, have shown some success in laboratory settings. The Abdominal
      Aortic and Junctional Tourniquet (AAJT) is a device that occludes both venous and
      arterial blood at the level of the aortic bifurcation and likely increases
      thoracic pressure when applied to the abdomen. We developed a swine model of
      controlled hemorrhage to induce a state of TCA to test the ability of the AAJT to
      improve the efficacy of CPR. METHODS: Twelve splenectomized, Yorkshire, male
      swine (70-90 kg) were randomized into two groups: presence or absence of AAJT
      placement. Controlled hemorrhage was performed at a rate of 2 mL/kg/min until
      systolic blood pressure reached below 10 mm Hg (defined as cardiac arrest).
      Following 3 minutes of arrest, the animals underwent CPR using a mechanical
      compression device along with either the presence or absence of the AAJT.
      Concurrently, 5 units of whole blood (2,500 mL) were delivered through the
      jugular vein at 500 mL/min. Efficacy of CPR was assessed by analyzing rates of
      return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival. Blood pressure, carotid
      blood flow, and other hemodynamic values were also compared. FINDINGS: No
      significant differences between groups were observed before treatments. The
      controlled hemorrhage resulted in an average loss of 2,654 +/- 323 g of blood
      over 18.2 +/- 3.9 minutes. All animals that had a ROSC survived to the end of the
      1-hour observation period. Animals with AAJT survived 83% (5/6) compared to 17%
      (1/6) of animals without AAJT. Finally, blood pressure, carotid flow, mean
      pulmonary artery pressure, and end tidal carbon dioxide were all significantly
      different between groups at the end of the first 10-minute compression period.
      DISCUSSION/IMPACT/RECOMMENDATIONS: These results suggest that the AAJT could
      allow for increased CPR efficacy in cases of TCA when used in conjunction with
      rapid, massive blood transfusions.

PMID- 28885970
TI  - Essential Medications for Patients With Suspected or Confirmed Ebola Virus
      Disease in Resource-Limited Environments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In 2014, the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps
      deployed to Monrovia, Liberia, to operate a 25-bed Ebola treatment unit (ETU)
      constructed by the U.S. Military. The ETU was named the Monrovia Medical Unit
      (MMU) and was constructed from an U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Medical Support
      (EMEDS) unit with modifications on the basis of consultation from Medecins Sans
      Frontieres, the World Health Organization, and expert panels from the U.S.
      Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services. From November
      12, 2014, to April 30, 2015, 42 patients (18 confirmed Ebola virus disease [EVD]
      and 24 suspected EVD) from nine countries were treated by USPHS providers at the
      MMU. The medications used in the MMU were primarily procured from the EMEDS 25
      bed pharmacy cache. However, specific formulary additions were made for treatment
      of EVD. METHODS: Using the MMU pharmacy dispensing data, we compared and
      contrasted the medications used in the MMU with recommendations in published EVD
      treatment guidelines for austere settings. FINDINGS: After comparing and
      contrasting the MMU pharmacy dispensing data with publications with EVD
      medication recommendations applicable to resource-limited settings, 101
      medications were included in the USPHS Essential Medications for the Management
      of EVD List (EML) for an austere, isolated clinical environment.
      DISCUSSION/IMPACT/RECOMMENDATIONS: Because Ebola outbreaks often occur in remote
      areas, proactive planning, improved preparedness, and optimal patient care for
      EVD are needed, especially in the context of austere environments with a scarcity
      of resources. We developed the EML to assist in the planning for future Ebola
      outbreaks in a remote clinical environment and to provide a list of medications
      that have been used in an ETU. The EML is a comprehensive medication list that
      builds on the existing publications with EVD treatment recommendations applicable
      to supply-constrained clinical environments. As well, it is a resource for the
      provision of medications when evaluating donations, procurement, and may help
      inform estimates for product inventory requirements for an ETU. We hope the EML
      will improve readiness and enhance the capabilities of local and regional
      international responders.

PMID- 28885971
TI  - Fatal and Non-Fatal Electrocution Injuries at U.S. Marine Corps Forward Medical
      Facilities During Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Death from electrocution is rare and generally an accidental
      occurrence. In contrast to civilian patterns of electrocution injury, the
      military work environment suffers from a greater percentage of fatal high-voltage
      electrocutions. This study compared U.S. and international electrocution case
      fatality rates to rates among deployed military personnel presenting for care at
      expeditionary medical care facilities. We also sought to identify potential risk
      factors for fatal electrocution injury among deployed military personnel.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on electrocution
      injuries presenting to U.S. Marine Corps forward deployed medical facilities in
      Iraq and Afghanistan between January 2004 and December 2012. Descriptive
      statistics were used to describe the study population and compare fatal and
      nonfatal electrocutions. Fatality rates were reported in cases per 1,000,000
      people per year. RESULTS: A total of 38 patients were identified; all were males
      with a mean (SD) age of 25.3 (5.3) years. Most electrocutions occurred on base
      (68%), whereas a smaller number (21%) occurred while conducting operations
      outside of the base. A majority of fatal cases (80%) occurred while outside of
      base on foot or vehicle mounted patrol. The rate of fatal electrocutions among
      U.S. Marine Corps personnel during this period was 37 per 1,000,000 people per
      year, 7-fold higher than the international electrocution fatality rate of 5.4 per
      1,000,000 people per year and nearly three-fold above the U.S. utility and
      construction worker's fatality rate of 14 per 1,000,000 people per year.
      CONCLUSIONS: Electrocution injuries occurring during foot or vehicle mounted
      patrols seem to account for findings of higher case fatality rates among deployed
      military personnel than those found in international or high risk civilian
      occupational settings. Basic life support training for medical and nonmedical
      military personnel is critical to optimizing care delivered at the scene of these
      injuries.

PMID- 28885972
TI  - Use of Rifapentine and Isoniazid Directly Observed Therapy for the Treatment of
      Latent Tuberculosis Infection in a Military Clinic.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are 8.6 million cases of active tuberculosis (TB) worldwide,
      and an estimated one-third of the world population has latent tuberculosis
      infection (LTBI). In the United States, up to 80% of active cases may be caused
      by untreated reactivated latent infection. A case of TB can spread rapidly
      impacting the readiness of a unit. To prevent the development of TB, it is
      critical that active duty service members with LTBI complete treatment. The use
      of isoniazid (INH) and rifapentine (RPT) as a directly observed therapy (DOT)
      treatment option was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and
      Prevention in late 2011. Since then, there have been limited studies on the use
      of this treatment regimen in a civilian clinic setting and to our knowledge no
      studies within a military setting. METHODS: This study compares the completion
      rate of LTBI treatment in 2 military public health clinics, using a retrospective
      chart review of 179 subjects who attempted treatment with INH/RPT DOT and 186
      with the non-INH/RPT non-DOT regimen. FINDINGS: When compared to other LTBI
      regimens completed or attempted in this period, completion rates were higher in
      INH/RPT DOT regimens. The INH/RPT DOT treatment regimen allowed enough
      flexibility with completion between 11 and 16 weeks for active duty service
      members to increase completion to 94.6%, compared to 73% in the non-INH/RPT
      regimen. RECOMMENDATIONS: This project demonstrated the feasibility of INH/RPT
      DOT treatment within the military population resulting in a higher completion
      rate than the non-INH/RPT non-DOT regimen. The use of the INH/RPT DOT regimen
      should be considered for use in all military or similar populations.

PMID- 28885973
TI  - Hemorrhagic Stroke in a Young Healthy Male Following Use of Pre-Workout
      Supplement Animal Rage XL.
AB  - So-called "pre-workout" supplements are substances marketed as natural dietary
      supplements with claims of helping athletes achieve more focused and intense
      workouts. The use of such products remains popular among American youth as a
      whole, but is especially high among active duty service members. Supplements are
      minimally regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and unlike
      pharmaceuticals, supplements are often brought to market without any testing to
      show neither efficacy nor safety. Several case reports have documented serious
      adverse events and raise the question of whether supplement use was a causative
      factor. Reported events occurring after use of pre-workout supplements include,
      among others, ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction,
      hepatitis, and death. Here, we present the case of a healthy 25-year-old active
      duty male who experienced a bilateral cerebellar hemorrhagic stroke occurring
      shortly after taking a supplement named Animal Rage XL. Hemorrhagic stroke
      occurring in a healthy 25-year-old male with no risk factors is exceedingly rare.
      This is the first known case of stroke temporally associated with this particular
      supplement, which is currently available for purchase at military exchanges.
      Additionally, several of the active ingredients in this supplement have been
      shown to cause hypertension, tachycardia, and vasospasm. All of these effects
      could increase the likelihood and severity of a hemorrhagic stroke. The
      investigated ingredients in this abstract include beta-phenethylamine, creatine
      monophosphate, and caffeine.

PMID- 28885974
TI  - Melanoma in an Active Duty Marine.
AB  - Given that the majority of active duty service members are young and healthy,
      potentially malignant diagnoses such as skin cancer may be overlooked. Although
      melanoma accounts for only approximately 1% of skin cancers, it causes the
      greatest majority of skin cancer deaths. We present the case of a 27-year-old
      active duty Marine who presented with a hyperpigmented macule at his lateral neck
      that was a malignant melanoma in situ. This article reviews risk factors for the
      development of melanoma, offers guidelines for primary care providers, reviews
      resources for providers in a deployed or austere environment, offers
      recommendations for prevention and early diagnosis, and discusses follow up.

PMID- 28885976
TI  - Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment for Spray Irrigation of Dairy Manure Based
      on an Empirical Fate and Transport Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spray irrigation for land-applying livestock manure is increasing in
      the United States as farms become larger and economies of scale make manure
      irrigation affordable. Human health risks from exposure to zoonotic pathogens
      aerosolized during manure irrigation are not well understood. OBJECTIVES: We
      aimed to a) estimate human health risks due to aerosolized zoonotic pathogens
      downwind of spray-irrigated dairy manure; and b) determine which factors (e.g.,
      distance, weather conditions) have the greatest influence on risk estimates.
      METHODS: We sampled downwind air concentrations of manure-borne fecal indicators
      and zoonotic pathogens during 21 full-scale dairy manure irrigation events at
      three farms. We fit these data to hierarchical empirical models and used model
      outputs in a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) to estimate risk
      [probability of acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI)] for individuals exposed to
      spray-irrigated dairy manure containing Campylobacter jejuni, enterohemorrhagic
      Escherichia coli (EHEC), or Salmonella spp. RESULTS: Median risk estimates from
      Monte Carlo simulations ranged from 10-5 to 10-2 and decreased with distance from
      the source. Risk estimates for Salmonella or EHEC-related AGI were most sensitive
      to the assumed level of pathogen prevalence in dairy manure, while risk estimates
      for C. jejuni were not sensitive to any single variable. Airborne microbe
      concentrations were negatively associated with distance and positively associated
      with wind speed, both of which were retained in models as a significant predictor
      more often than relative humidity, solar irradiation, or temperature.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our model-based estimates suggest that reducing pathogen prevalence
      and concentration in source manure would reduce the risk of AGI from exposure to
      manure irrigation, and that increasing the distance from irrigated manure (i.e.,
      setbacks) and limiting irrigation to times of low wind speed may also reduce
      risk. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP283.

PMID- 28885975
TI  - Kinesin superfamily protein Kif26b links Wnt5a-Ror signaling to the control of
      cell and tissue behaviors in vertebrates.
AB  - Wnt5a-Ror signaling constitutes a developmental pathway crucial for embryonic
      tissue morphogenesis, reproduction and adult tissue regeneration, yet the
      molecular mechanisms by which the Wnt5a-Ror pathway mediates these processes are
      largely unknown. Using a proteomic screen, we identify the kinesin superfamily
      protein Kif26b as a downstream target of the Wnt5a-Ror pathway. Wnt5a-Ror,
      through a process independent of the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin-dependent
      pathway, regulates the cellular stability of Kif26b by inducing its degradation
      via the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Through this mechanism, Kif26b modulates the
      migratory behavior of cultured mesenchymal cells in a Wnt5a-dependent manner.
      Genetic perturbation of Kif26b function in vivo caused embryonic axis
      malformations and depletion of primordial germ cells in the developing gonad, two
      phenotypes characteristic of disrupted Wnt5a-Ror signaling. These findings
      indicate that Kif26b links Wnt5a-Ror signaling to the control of morphogenetic
      cell and tissue behaviors in vertebrates and reveal a new role for regulated
      proteolysis in noncanonical Wnt5a-Ror signal transduction.

PMID- 28885977
TI  - Estimated Effects of Future Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations on Protein Intake and
      the Risk of Protein Deficiency by Country and Region.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Crops grown under elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations (eCO2)
      contain less protein. Crops particularly affected include rice and wheat, which
      are primary sources of dietary protein for many countries. OBJECTIVES: We aimed
      to estimate global and country-specific risks of protein deficiency attributable
      to anthropogenic CO2 emissions by 2050. METHODS: To model per capita protein
      intake in countries around the world under eCO2, we first established the effect
      size of eCO2 on the protein concentration of edible portions of crops by
      performing a meta-analysis of published literature. We then estimated per-country
      protein intake under current and anticipated future eCO2 using global food
      balance sheets (FBS). We modeled protein intake distributions within countries
      using Gini coefficients, and we estimated those at risk of deficiency from
      estimated average protein requirements (EAR) weighted by population age
      structure. RESULTS: Under eCO2, rice, wheat, barley, and potato protein contents
      decreased by 7.6%, 7.8%, 14.1%, and 6.4%, respectively. Consequently, 18
      countries may lose >5% of their dietary protein, including India (5.3%). By 2050,
      assuming today's diets and levels of income inequality, an additional 1.6% or
      148.4 million of the world's population may be placed at risk of protein
      deficiency because of eCO2. In India, an additional 53 million people may become
      at risk. CONCLUSIONS: Anthropogenic CO2 emissions threaten the adequacy of
      protein intake worldwide. Elevated atmospheric CO2 may widen the disparity in
      protein intake within countries, with plant-based diets being the most
      vulnerable. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP41.

PMID- 28885978
TI  - In Vitro Evaluation of Mitochondrial Function and Estrogen Signaling in Cell
      Lines Exposed to the Antiseptic Cetylpyridinium Chloride.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quaternary ammonium salts (QUATS), such as cetylpyridinium chloride
      (CPC) and benzalkonium chloride (BAK), are frequently used in antiseptic
      formulations, including toothpastes, mouthwashes, lozenges, throat and nasal
      sprays, and as biocides. Although in a recent ruling, the U.S. Food and Drug
      Administration (FDA) banned CPC from certain products and requested more data on
      BAK's efficacy and safety profile, QUATS, in general, and CPC and BAK, in
      particular, continue to be used in personal health care, food, and pharmaceutical
      and cleaning industries. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess CPC's effects on
      mitochondrial toxicity and endocrine disruption in vitro. METHOD: Mitochondrial
      O2 consumption and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis rates of osteosarcoma
      cybrid cells were measured before and after CPC and BAK treatment. Antiestrogenic
      effects of the compounds were measured by a luciferase-based assay using
      recombinant human breast carcinoma cells (VM7Luc4E2, ERalpha-positive). RESULTS:
      CPC inhibited both mitochondrial O2 consumption [half maximal inhibitory
      concentration (IC50): 3.8MUM] and ATP synthesis (IC50: 0.9MUM), and additional
      findings supported inhibition of mitochondrial complex 1 as the underlying
      mechanism for these effects. In addition, CPC showed concentration-dependent
      antiestrogenic activity half maximal effective concentration [(EC50): 4.5MUM)].
      BAK, another antimicrobial QUATS that is structurally similar to CPC, and the
      pesticide rotenone, a known complex 1 inhibitor, also showed mitochondrial
      inhibitory and antiestrogenic effects. In all three cases, there was overlap of
      the antiestrogenic activity with the mitochondrial inhibitory activity.
      CONCLUSIONS: Mitochondrial inhibition in vitro occurred at a CPC concentration
      that may be relevant to human exposures. The antiestrogenic activity of CPC, BAK,
      rotenone, and triclosan may be related to their mitochondrial inhibitory
      activity. Our findings support the need for additional research on the
      mitochondrial inhibitory and antiestrogenic effects of QUATS, including CPC and
      BAK. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1404.

PMID- 28885980
TI  - Domain topology of human Rasal.
AB  - Rasal is a modular multi-domain protein of the GTPase-activating protein 1 (GAP1)
      family; its four known members, GAP1m, Rasal, GAP1IP4BP and Capri, have a Ras
      GTPase-activating domain (RasGAP). This domain supports the intrinsically slow
      GTPase activity of Ras by actively participating in the catalytic reaction. In
      the case of Rasal, GAP1IP4BP and Capri, their remaining domains are responsible
      for converting the RasGAP domains into dual Ras- and Rap-GAPs, via an
      incompletely understood mechanism. Although Rap proteins are small GTPase
      homologues of Ras, their catalytic residues are distinct, which reinforces the
      importance of determining the structure of full-length GAP1 family proteins. To
      date, these proteins have not been crystallized, and their size is not adequate
      for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or for high-resolution cryo-electron
      microscopy (cryoEM). Here we present the low resolution structure of full-length
      Rasal, obtained by negative staining electron microscopy, which allows us to
      propose a model of its domain topology. These results help to understand the role
      of the different domains in controlling the dual GAP activity of GAP1 family
      proteins.

PMID- 28885981
TI  - From surnames to linguistic and genetic diversity: five centuries of internal
      migrations in Spain.
AB  - In a previous study concerning 33,753 single Spanish surnames (considered as
      tokens) occurring 51,419,788 times we have shown that the present-day geography
      of contemporary surname variability in Spain still corresponds to the political
      geography of the country at the end of the Middle Ages. Here we reprocess the
      same database, by clustering surnames with Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) according
      to their geographic distribution, to identify the monophyletic surnames showing a
      geo-historical origin in one of the 47 provinces of continental Spain. They are
      25,714, and they occur 12,348,109 times, meaning that about 75% of the Spanish
      population bears a surname that had a polyphyletic origin. From monophyletic
      surnames we compute migration matrices accounting for the internal migrations
      that took place since five centuries ago, when Spanish surnames started to be
      patrilineally inherited. The mono/ polyphyletic classification we obtain fits
      ancient census data and is compatible with published molecular diversity of the Y
      chromosomes associated to selected Spanish surnames. Monophyletic surnames
      indicate that i) the provinces exhibiting a higher percentage of autochthonous
      surnames are also ii) those from which emigration corresponds to a local
      isolation-by-distance model of diffusion and iii) those that attracted a lower
      number of immigrants. These are also the provinces where languages other than
      Castilian are spoken. We suggest that demographic stability explains linguistic
      resilience, as people prefer to move to areas in which the linguistic variety is
      more similar to their own. So far the reciprocal influence of migration and
      language has been investigated at local scales, here we outline how to
      investigate it at national scales and for time-depths of centuries.

PMID- 28885979
TI  - Adaptation to Climate Change: A Comparative Analysis of Modeling Methods for Heat
      Related Mortality.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple methods are employed for modeling adaptation when projecting
      the impact of climate change on heat-related mortality. The sensitivity of
      impacts to each is unknown because they have never been systematically compared.
      In addition, little is known about the relative sensitivity of impacts to
      "adaptation uncertainty" (i.e., the inclusion/exclusion of adaptation modeling)
      relative to using multiple climate models and emissions scenarios. OBJECTIVES:
      This study had three aims: a) Compare the range in projected impacts that arises
      from using different adaptation modeling methods; b) compare the range in impacts
      that arises from adaptation uncertainty with ranges from using multiple climate
      models and emissions scenarios; c) recommend modeling method(s) to use in future
      impact assessments. METHODS: We estimated impacts for 2070-2099 for 14 European
      cities, applying six different methods for modeling adaptation; we also estimated
      impacts with five climate models run under two emissions scenarios to explore the
      relative effects of climate modeling and emissions uncertainty. RESULTS: The
      range of the difference (percent) in impacts between including and excluding
      adaptation, irrespective of climate modeling and emissions uncertainty, can be as
      low as 28% with one method and up to 103% with another (mean across 14 cities).
      In 13 of 14 cities, the ranges in projected impacts due to adaptation uncertainty
      are larger than those associated with climate modeling and emissions uncertainty.
      CONCLUSIONS: Researchers should carefully consider how to model adaptation
      because it is a source of uncertainty that can be greater than the uncertainty in
      emissions and climate modeling. We recommend absolute threshold shifts and
      reductions in slope. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP634.

PMID- 28885982
TI  - Anthropologists, Italians and "human races".

PMID- 28885983
TI  - Pure wurtzite GaP nanowires grown on zincblende GaP substrates by selective area
      vapor liquid solid epitaxy.
AB  - We report on the growth of single phase wurtzite (WZ) GaP nanowires (NWs) on GaP
      (111) B substrates by metal organic molecular beam epitaxy following the
      selective area vapor-liquid-solid (SA-VLS) approach. During the SA-VLS process,
      precursors are supplied directly to the NW sidewalls, and the short diffusion
      length of gallium (or its precursors) does not significantly limit axial growth.
      Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images reveal that no stacking faults are
      present along a 600 nm long NW. The lattice constants of the pure WZ GaP obtained
      from the TEM images agree with values determined previously by x-ray diffraction
      from non-pure NW ensembles.

PMID- 28885984
TI  - Investigation of the in-plane and out-of-plane electrical properties of metallic
      nanoparticles in dielectric matrix thin films elaborated by atomic layer
      deposition.
AB  - Pt nanoparticles in a Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> dielectric matrix thin films
      are elaborated by means of atomic layer deposition. These nanostructured thin
      films are integrated in vertical and planar test structures in order to assess
      both their in-plane and out-of-plane electrical properties. A shadow edge
      evaporation process is used to develop planar devices with electrode separation
      distances in the range of 30nm. Both vertical and planar test structures show a
      Poole-Frenkel conduction mechanism. Low trap energy levels (<0.1eV) are
      identified for the two test structures which indicates that the Pt islands
      themselves are not acting as traps in the PF mechanism. Furthermore, a more than
      three order of magnitude current density difference is observed between the two
      geometries. This electrical anisotropy is attributed to a large electron mobility
      difference in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions which can be related to
      different trap distributions in both directions.

PMID- 28885985
TI  - Synergetic effect of Sn addition and oxygen-deficient atmosphere to design active
      hematite photoelectrodes for light-induced water splitting.
AB  - This work describes a microwave-assisted hydrothermal conditions method to design
      pure and Sn-hematite photoelectrodes at different synthesis time with additional
      thermal treatment under air and N2 atmosphere. The hematite photoelectrode
      designed under N2 atmosphere and Sn deposited on its surface, which is
      represented by material synthesized at 4 hours exhibit the highest performance.
      Hence, the Sn-addition followed by high annealing temperature conducted at oxygen
      deficient atmosphere seems to create of oxygen vacancies and have prevented the
      dopant segregation to form SnO2 phase at the hematite crystal reducing its energy
      and suppressing the grain growth. The increased number of donor density provided
      by the oxygen vacancies (confirmed by X-ray photoelectron data) and a possible
      reduction in the grain boundary energy or hematite crystal interface might favor
      the charge separation and increase the electron transfer through the hematite
      into the back contact (FTO substrate). As consequence, the light-induced water
      oxidation reaction efficiency of Sn-hematite photoelectrode was significantly
      increased in comparison with pure ones, even though the vertical rod morphology
      was not preserved. This finding provides a novel insight on the intentional Sn
      addition revealing that the dopant segregation at the hematite crystal surface
      (or at the grain boundaries) could be the more relevant factor for developing
      active hematite photoelectrodes by increasing the electron mobility than the
      columnar morphology control.

PMID- 28885986
TI  - Estimation of baroreflex sensitivity by the bivariate phase rectified signal
      averaging method: a comparison with the phenylephrine method.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A novel technique to assess spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (BRS)
      by bivariate phase-rectified signal averaging (PRSA-BRS) has been recently
      proposed and its independent prognostic power demonstrated. This method, however,
      has never been compared with the phenyleprine test (Phe-BRS), commonly regarded
      as the reference method in clinical and research applications. APPROACH: In 192
      heart failure (HF) and 41 post-myocardial infarction (post-MI) patients we
      compared PRSA-BRS with Phe-BRS, assessing both association and agreement. MAIN
      RESULTS: Phe-BRS and PRSA-BRS were (mean  +/-  SD) 4.8  +/-  5.0 (range:  
      3.8,25.0) and 1.2  +/-  1.5 (-2.1,6.9) ms mmHg-1 in HF (p  <  0.0001), and 5.0 
      +/-  3.8 (-1.2,12.5) and 0.8  +/-  1.7 (-2.0,6.9) ms mmHg-1 in post-MI patients
      (p  =  0.001). Moderate association was observed (r  =  0.53, p  <  0.0001 and r 
      =  0.43, p  =  0.004 in HF and post-MI, respectively). The vast majority (86% in
      HF and 90% in post-MI) of PRSA-BRS measurements were smaller than corresponding
      Phe-BRS values. The difference between PRSA-BRS and Phe-BRS was strongly
      dependent on the magnitude of BRS, with a trend towards more negative differences
      as BRS increased. Negative PRSA-BRS values were observed in 15% of HF and in 37%
      of post-MI patients, whereas negative Phe-BRS values were observed in 8% of HF
      and 5% of post-MI patients. SIGNIFICANCE: Although the association with Phe-BRS
      suggests that PRSA-BRS contains relevant information about cardiac autonomic
      control and reflects the strength of the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex, the
      marked disagreement between the two measurements indicates that PRSA-BRS
      measurements cannot be taken as estimates of BRS. Many factors may account for
      the observed lack of agreement: the different physiological conditions under
      which Phe-BRS and PRSA-BRS are measured, the inclusion of non-baroreflex mediated
      components of RR-intervals in PRSA-BRS and some computational aspects related to
      the normalization of PRSA-BRS values.

PMID- 28885987
TI  - Theoretical and experimental comparison of lag-based and time-based exponential
      moving average models of QT hysteresis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In the electrocardiogram, adaptation of the QT interval to variations
      in heart rate is not instantaneous. Quantification of this hysteresis phenomenon
      relies on mathematical models describing the relation between the RR and QT time
      series. These models reproduce hysteresis through an effective RR interval
      computed as a linear combination of the history of past RR intervals. This filter
      depends on a time constant parameter that may be used as a biomarker. APPROACH:
      The most common hysteresis model is based on an autoregressive filter with an
      impulse response that decreases exponentially with the beat number (lag-based
      model). Recognizing that the QT time series is unevenly spaced, we propose two
      exponential moving average filters (time-based models) to define the effective RR
      interval: one with an impulse response that decreases exponentially with time in
      seconds, and one with a step response that relaxes exponentially with time in
      seconds. These two filters are neither linear nor time-invariant. Recurrence
      formulas are derived to enable efficient implementation. MAIN RESULTS:
      Application to clinical signals recorded during tilt table test, exercise and 24
      h Holter demonstrates that the three models perform similarly in terms of
      goodness-of-fit. When comparing the hysteresis time constant in two conditions
      with different heart rates, however, the time-based models are shown to reduce
      the bias on the hysteresis time constant caused by heart rate acceleration and
      deceleration. SIGNIFICANCE: Time-based models should be considered when
      intergroup differences in both heart rate and QT hysteresis are expected.

PMID- 28885988
TI  - Dapsone-induced severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions are strongly linked with
      HLA-B*13: 01 allele in the Thai population.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: A previous publication in Chinese leprosy patients showed that the
      HLA-B*13:01 allele is a strong genetic marker for dapsone-induced drug
      hypersensitivity reactions, however there are no data describing whether HLA
      B*13:01 is a valid marker for prediction of dapsone-induced drug hypersensitivity
      reactions in other ethnicities or nonleprosy patients. The aim of this study is
      to investigate whether there is an association between HLA genotypes and dapsone
      induced severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs) in Thai nonleprosy patients.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: HLA-B genotypes of 15 patients with dapsone-induced SCARs
      (11 drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms, 4 Stevens-Johnson
      syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis), 29 control patients, and 986 subjects from
      the general Thai population were determined by the reverse PCR sequence-specific
      oligonucleotides probe. RESULTS: The HLA-B*13:01 allele was significantly
      associated with dapsone-induced SCARs compared with dapsone-tolerant controls
      (odds ratio: 54.00, 95% confidence interval: 7.96-366.16, P=0.0001) and the
      general population (odds ratio: 26.11, 95% confidence interval: 7.27-93.75,
      P=0.0001). In addition, HLA-B*13:01 associated with dapsone-induced SJS-TEN (OR:
      40.50, 95% confidence interval: 2.78-591.01, P=0.0070) and DRESS (OR: 60.75, 95%
      confidence interval: 7.44-496.18, P=0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated
      an association between HLA-B*13:01 and dapsone-induced SCARs including Stevens
      Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis and drug reaction with eosinophilia
      and systemic symptoms in nonleprosy patients. Moreover, these results suggest
      that the HLA-B*13:01 allele may be a useful genetic marker for prediction of
      dapsone-induced SCARs in Thai and Han-Chinese populations.

PMID- 28885989
TI  - The role of health information technology in advancing care management and
      coordination in accountable care organizations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To be successful, accountable care organizations (ACOs) must
      effectively manage patient care. Health information technology (HIT) can support
      care delivery by providing various degrees of coordination. Few studies have
      examined the role of HIT functionalities or the role of different levels of
      coordination enabled by HIT on care management processes. PURPOSES: We examine
      HIT functionalities in ACOs, categorized by the level of coordination they enable
      in terms of information and work flow, to determine which specific HIT
      functionalities and levels of coordination are most strongly associated with care
      management processes. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Retrospective cross-sectional
      analysis was done using 2012 data from the National Survey of Accountable Care
      Organizations. HIT functionalities are categorized into coordination levels:
      information capture, the lowest level, which coordinates through standardization;
      information provision, which supports unidirectional activities; and information
      exchange, which reflects the highest level of coordination allowing for
      bidirectional exchange. The Care Management Process index (CMP index) includes 13
      questions about the extent to which care is planned, monitored, and supported by
      providers and patients. Multiple regressions adjusting for organizational and ACO
      contractual factors are used to assess relationships between HIT functionalities
      and the CMP index. FINDINGS: HIT functionality coordinating the most complex
      interdependences (information exchange) was associated with a 0.41 standard
      deviation change in the CMP index (beta = .41, p < .001), but the associations
      for information capture (beta = -.01, p = .97) and information provision (beta =
      .15, p = .48) functionalities were not significant. IMPLICATIONS: The current
      study has shed some light on the relationship between HIT and care management
      processes by specifying the coordination roles that HIT may play and, in
      particular, the importance of information exchange functionalities. Although
      these represent early findings, further research can help policy makers and
      clinical leaders understand how to prioritize HIT development given resource
      constraints.

PMID- 28885990
TI  - Financial performance, employee well-being, and client well-being in for-profit
      and not-for-profit nursing homes: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Expanding the opportunities for for-profit nursing home care is a
      central theme in the debate on the sustainable organization of the growing
      nursing home sector in Western countries. PURPOSES: We conducted a systematic
      review of the literature over the last 10 years in order to determine the broad
      impact of nursing home ownership in the United States. Our review has two main
      goals: (a) to find out which topics have been studied with regard to financial
      performance, employee well-being, and client well-being in relation to nursing
      home ownership and (b) to assess the conclusions related to these topics. The
      review results in two propositions on the interactions between financial
      performance, employee well-being, and client well-being as they relate to nursing
      home ownership. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Five search strategies plus inclusion and
      quality assessment criteria were applied to identify and select eligible studies.
      As a result, 50 studies were included in the review. Relevant findings were
      categorized as related to financial performance (profit margins, efficiency),
      employee well-being (staffing levels, turnover rates, job satisfaction, job
      benefits), or client well-being (care quality, hospitalization rates,
      lawsuits/complaints) and then analyzed based on common characteristics. FINDINGS:
      For-profit nursing homes tend to have better financial performance, but worse
      results with regard to employee well-being and client well-being, compared to not
      for-profit sector homes. We argue that the better financial performance of for
      profit nursing homes seems to be associated with worse employee and client well
      being. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: For policy makers considering the expansion of the
      for-profit sector in the nursing home industry, our findings suggest the need for
      a broad perspective, simultaneously weighing the potential benefits and drawbacks
      for the organization, its employees, and its clients.

PMID- 28885991
TI  - Chronic Diarrhea and Metabolic Acidosis Associated With Topiramate Use.

PMID- 28885993
TI  - Effect of E-OJ-01 on Cardiac Conditioning in Young Exercising Adults: A
      Randomized Controlled Trial: Erratum.

PMID- 28885992
TI  - Ursodiol-Associated Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation.

PMID- 28885994
TI  - Continuing Education for Nursing Contact Hours and CRNI(r) Recertification Units.

PMID- 28885996
TI  - Predesigned labels to prevent medication errors in hospitalized patients: a quasi
      experimental design study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our institution implemented the use of pre-designed labeling of
      intravenous drugs and fluids, administration routes and infusion pumps of to
      prevent medication errors. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of
      predesigned labeling in reducing medication errors in the preparation and
      administration stages of prescribed medication in patients hospitalized with
      invasive lines, and to characterize medication errors. METHODS: This is a
      pre/post intervention study. Pre-intervention group: invasively administered dose
      from July 1st to December 31st, 2014, using traditional labeling (adhesive paper
      handwritten note). Post-intervention group: dose administered from January 1st to
      June 30th, 2015, using predesigned labeling (labeling with preset data-adhesive
      labels, color- grouped by drugs, labels with colors for invasive lines). Outcome:
      medication errors in hospitalized patients, as measured with notification form
      and record electronics. Tabulation/analysis Stata-10, with descriptive
      statistics, hypotheses testing, estimating risk with 95% confidence. RESULTS: In
      the pre-intervention group, 5,819 doses of drugs were administered invasively in
      634 patients. Error rate of 1.4 x 1,000 administrations. The post-intervention
      group of 1088 doses comprised 8,585 patients with similar routes of
      administration. The error rate was 0.3 x 1,000 (p = 0.034). Patients receiving
      medication through an invasive route who did not use predesigned labeling had 4.6
      times more risk of medication error than those who had used predesigned labels
      (95% CI: 1.25 to 25.4). The adult critically ill patient unit had the highest
      proportion of medication errors. The most frequent error was wrong dose
      administration. 41.2% produced harm to the patient. CONCLUSIONS: The use of
      predesigned labeling in invasive lines reduces errors in medication in the last
      two phases: preparation and administration.

PMID- 28885995
TI  - Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Treatment Ameliorates Cognitive Impairment by
      Attenuating Arc Expression in Type 2 Diabetic Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has been reported to exert some
      beneficial effects on the central nervous system (CNS). However, the effect of
      GLP-1 on cognitive impairment associated with type 2 diabetes is not well known.
      This study investigated the effect of GLP-1 on ameliorating memory deficits in
      type 2 diabetic rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS Type 2 diabetic rats were induced by a
      high-sugar, high-fat diet, followed by streptozotocin (STZ) injection and then
      tested in the Morris Water Maze (MWM) 1 week after the induction of diabetes. The
      mRNA expression of Arc, APP, BACE1, and PS1 were determined by real-time
      quantitative PCR, and the Arc protein was analyzed by immunoblotting and
      immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Type 2 diabetic rats exhibited a significant
      decline in learning and memory in the MWM tests, but GLP-1 treatment was able to
      protect this decline and significantly improved learning ability and memory. The
      mRNA expression assays showed that GLP-1 treatment markedly reduced Arc, APP,
      BACE1, and PS1 expressions, which were elevated in the diabetic rats.
      Immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry results also confirmed that Arc protein
      increased in the hippocampus of diabetic rats, but was reduced after GLP-1
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that GLP-1 treatment improves
      learning and memory deficits in type 2 diabetic rats, and this effect is likely
      through the reduction of Arc expression in the hippocampus.

PMID- 28885997
TI  - Susac syndrome: the first case report in Peru.
AB  - Susac Syndrome is a rare entity, characterized by a triad of subacute
      encephalopathy, retinal artery occlusion and sensorineural hearing loss. It is
      more common in women and the age of onset fluctuates between 9-58 years of age.
      The pathogenesis is presented as microangiopathic changes at the cerebral,
      retinal and cochlear levels associated with an autoimmune mechanism. We present
      the case of a 31-year-old woman who started with a diffuse headache, puerile
      behavior, bradylalia and somnolence. As the disease progressed, she had auditory
      deficit and arterial obstruction of the right temporal retinal branch in retinal
      fluorescein angiography. Brain magnetic resonance showed rounded hyperintense
      lesions in the corpus callosum, periventricular region and cerebellum. This is
      the first reported case of Susac Syndrome in Peru, presented with the classic
      triad, which is an infrequent presentation. However, cases that show incomplete
      forms should be evaluated in a timely manner to initiate timely treatment and
      avoid irreversible consequences.

PMID- 28885998
TI  - Mortality trend of gallbladder cancer in Araucania Region, Chile, 2004-2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chile has the highest mortality rate for gallbladder cancer in the
      Andean region. The areas most affected by this cancer are found in southern
      Chile. OBJECTIVE: To describe the mortality rate trends for gallbladder cancer in
      the Araucania region between 2004 and 2014. METHODS: Ecological observational
      descriptive study. The cases were identified by the codes ICD-10: C-23. The
      population at risk was obtained from the projections of the National Institute of
      Statistics of Chile. The mortality rate was modeled using the Poisson regression
      method, including age, time, and interaction between the two variables. The
      annual percentage change (APC) was used as a summary measure. RESULTS: In 2014,
      the Araucania region had a standardized mortality rate of 10.36 per 100,000
      inhabitants, while in the country it was 6.13 per 100,000. At the country level,
      the temporal evolution of mortality due to gallbladder cancer presented an annual
      percentage change of 9.1% (incidence rate ratio = 0.91 p-value <0.05), while in
      Araucania the decrease was 7 % (incidence rate ratio = 0.93 p-value= 0.16), which
      is not statistically significant. The mortality rate was 2.68 times higher in
      women than in Araucania men (p-value <0.05), a result similar to that of the
      country. At the national level, the trend according to age group shows a decrease
      for all groups, being the one of greater magnitude in those people from 45 to 54
      years with an annual percent change of -5.36%, these results are not observed in
      the Araucania. CONCLUSIONS: Mortality from gallbladder cancer shows a decreasing
      trend in the period studied for the whole country; however, this is not so for
      the Araucania region, which maintains a higher mortality rate than that of the
      country.

PMID- 28886000
TI  - Inflammatory illness: Why the next wave of antidepressants may target the immune
      system.

PMID- 28885999
TI  - Weight change in older adults and mortality: the Multiethnic Cohort Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between weight change in older adults
      and mortality in a multiethnic population. METHODS: We performed a prospective
      analysis using data on weight change between the baseline (1993-1996) and the 10
      year follow-up (2003-2007) surveys in relation to subsequent mortality among 63
      040 participants in the Multiethnic Cohort Study in Hawaii and California. The
      participants were African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, Latino
      and white, aged 45-75 years at baseline, and did not report heart disease or
      cancer at either survey. RESULTS: During an average of 7.3 years of follow-up
      after the 10-year survey, 6623 deaths were identified. Compared with individuals
      whose weight remained stable (+/-2.5 kg), those who lost weight and those with
      the highest weight gain (>10 kg) were at increased risk of all-cause mortality,
      with the risks greater for the weight loss (hazard ratios (HR): 2.86; 95%
      confidence interval (95% CI): 2.62-3.11 for >10 kg) than the weight-gain group
      (HR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.11-1.41 for >10 kg), thus resulting in a reverse J-shaped
      curve. Japanese Americans and Latinos had stronger associations of weight loss
      >10 kg with mortality than did African Americans, Native Hawaiians and whites.
      The increase in risk with weight gain >10 kg was greater for older (?55 years at
      baseline) than younger individuals, whereas the increase in mortality associated
      with weight loss was greater for the normal weight (<25 kg m-2 at baseline)
      participants and never smokers, compared with overweight/obese persons and
      current smokers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm the association
      between weight change and a higher mortality in a healthy, multiethnic
      population, with higher risks for weight loss than weight gain. On the basis of
      these observations, public health recommendation should focus on the prevention
      of weight loss, as well as weight stability within the non-obese range, for
      middle-aged and older adults.

PMID- 28886001
TI  - SPOP tips the balance of BETs in cancer.

PMID- 28886002
TI  - Sex-specific disease-associated modules for depression.

PMID- 28886004
TI  - Uncovering cancer: How enlisting T cells can boost the power of immunotherapy.

PMID- 28886003
TI  - Functional precision cancer medicine-moving beyond pure genomics.
AB  - The essential job of precision medicine is to match the right drugs to the right
      patients. In cancer, precision medicine has been nearly synonymous with genomics.
      However, sobering recent studies have generally shown that most patients with
      cancer who receive genomic testing do not benefit from a genomic precision
      medicine strategy. Although some call the entire project of precision cancer
      medicine into question, I suggest instead that the tools employed must be
      broadened. Instead of relying exclusively on big data measurements of initial
      conditions, we should also acquire highly actionable functional information by
      perturbing-for example, with cancer therapies-viable primary tumor cells from
      patients with cancer.

PMID- 28886005
TI  - Correction: Breaking through: How researchers are gaining entry into barricaded
      bacteria.

PMID- 28886006
TI  - The enteric virome in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: ready for its
      close-up.

PMID- 28886008
TI  - Children first.

PMID- 28886009
TI  - Tau-mediated iron export prevents ferroptotic damage after ischemic stroke.
AB  - Functional failure of tau contributes to age-dependent, iron-mediated
      neurotoxicity, and as iron accumulates in ischemic stroke tissue, we hypothesized
      that tau failure may exaggerate ischemia-reperfusion-related toxicity. Indeed,
      unilateral, transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) suppressed
      hemispheric tau and increased iron levels in young (3-month-old) mice and rats.
      Wild-type mice were protected by iron-targeted interventions: ceruloplasmin and
      amyloid precursor protein ectodomain, as well as ferroptosis inhibitors. At this
      age, tau-knockout mice did not express elevated brain iron and were protected
      against hemispheric reperfusion injury following MCAO, indicating that tau
      suppression may prevent ferroptosis. However, the accelerated age-dependent brain
      iron accumulation that occurs in tau-knockout mice at 12 months of age negated
      the protective benefit of tau suppression against MCAO-induced focal cerebral
      ischemia-reperfusion injury. The protective benefit of tau knockout was revived
      in older mice by iron-targeting interventions. These findings introduce tau-iron
      interaction as a pleiotropic modulator of ferroptosis and ischemic stroke
      outcome.

PMID- 28886010
TI  - Mobility can promote the evolution of cooperation via emergent self-assortment
      dynamics.
AB  - The evolution of costly cooperation, where cooperators pay a personal cost to
      benefit others, requires that cooperators interact more frequently with other
      cooperators. This condition, called positive assortment, is known to occur in
      spatially-structured viscous populations, where individuals typically have low
      mobility and limited dispersal. However many social organisms across taxa, from
      cells and bacteria, to birds, fish and ungulates, are mobile, and live in
      populations with considerable inter-group mixing. In the absence of information
      regarding others' traits or conditional strategies, such mixing may inhibit
      assortment and limit the potential for cooperation to evolve. Here we employ
      spatially-explicit individual-based evolutionary simulations to incorporate costs
      and benefits of two coevolving costly traits: cooperative and local cohesive
      tendencies. We demonstrate that, despite possessing no information about others'
      traits or payoffs, mobility (via self-propulsion or environmental forcing)
      facilitates assortment of cooperators via a dynamically evolving difference in
      the cohesive tendencies of cooperators and defectors. We show analytically that
      this assortment can also be viewed in a multilevel selection framework, where
      selection for cooperation among emergent groups can overcome selection against
      cooperators within the groups. As a result of these dynamics, we find an
      oscillatory pattern of cooperation and defection that maintains cooperation even
      in the absence of well known mechanisms such as kin interactions, reciprocity,
      local dispersal or conditional strategies that require information on others'
      strategies or payoffs. Our results offer insights into differential adhesion
      based mechanisms for positive assortment and reveal the possibility of
      cooperative aggregations in dynamic fission-fusion populations.

PMID- 28886011
TI  - Correction: Correction: AKT Inhibitors Promote Cell Death in Cervical Cancer
      through Disruption of mTOR Signaling and Glucose Uptake.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107846.].

PMID- 28886007
TI  - Microglia emerge as central players in brain disease.
AB  - There has been an explosion of new findings recently giving us insights into the
      involvement of microglia in central nervous system (CNS) disorders. A host of new
      molecular tools and mouse models of disease are increasingly implicating this
      enigmatic type of nervous system cell as a key player in conditions ranging from
      neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism to neurodegenerative disorders such
      as Alzheimer's disease and chronic pain. Contemporaneously, diverse roles are
      emerging for microglia in the healthy brain, from sculpting developing neuronal
      circuits to guiding learning-associated plasticity. Understanding the
      physiological functions of these cells is crucial to determining their roles in
      disease. Here we focus on recent developments in our rapidly expanding
      understanding of the function, as well as the dysfunction, of microglia in
      disorders of the CNS.

PMID- 28886012
TI  - The adiponectin receptor AdipoR2 and its Caenorhabditis elegans homolog PAQR-2
      prevent membrane rigidification by exogenous saturated fatty acids.
AB  - Dietary fatty acids can be incorporated directly into phospholipids. This poses a
      specific challenge to cellular membranes since their composition, hence
      properties, could greatly vary with different diets. That vast variations in
      diets are tolerated therefore implies the existence of regulatory mechanisms that
      monitor and regulate membrane compositions. Here we show that the adiponectin
      receptor AdipoR2, and its C. elegans homolog PAQR-2, are essential to counter the
      membrane rigidifying effects of exogenously provided saturated fatty acids. In
      particular, we use dietary supplements or mutated E. coli as food, together with
      direct measurements of membrane fluidity and composition, to show that diets
      containing a high ratio of saturated to monounsaturated fatty acids cause
      membrane rigidity and lethality in the paqr-2 mutant. We also show that mammalian
      cells in which AdipoR2 has been knocked-down by siRNA are unable to prevent the
      membrane-rigidifying effects of palmitic acid. We conclude that the PAQR-2 and
      AdipoR2 proteins share an evolutionarily conserved function that maintains
      membrane fluidity in the presence of exogenous saturated fatty acids.

PMID- 28886013
TI  - Secondary bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance among tungiasis patients
      in Western, Kenya.
AB  - Tungiasis or jigger infestation is a parasitic disease caused by the female sand
      flea Tunga penetrans. Secondary infection of the lesions caused by this flea is
      common in endemic communities. This study sought to shed light on the bacterial
      pathogens causing secondary infections in tungiasis lesions and their
      susceptibility profiles to commonly prescribed antibiotics. Participants were
      recruited with the help of Community Health Workers. Swabs were taken from
      lesions which showed signs of secondary infection. Identification of suspected
      bacteria colonies was done by colony morphology, Gram staining, and biochemical
      tests. The Kirby Bauer disc diffusion test was used to determine the drug
      susceptibility profiles. Out of 37 participants, from whom swabs were collected,
      specimen were positive in 29 and 8 had no growth. From these, 10 different
      strains of bacteria were isolated. Two were Gram positive bacteria and they were,
      Staphylococcus epidermidis (38.3%) and Staphylococcus aureus (21.3%). Eight were
      Gram negative namely Enterobacter cloacae (8.5%), Proteus species (8.5%),
      Klebsiellla species (6.4%), Aeromonas sobria (4.3%), Citrobacter species (4.3%),
      Proteus mirabillis(4.3%), Enterobacter amnigenus (2.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae
      (2.1%). The methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolated were also resistant
      to clindamycin, kanamycin, erythromycin, nalidixic acid, trimethorprim
      sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline. All the Gram negative and Gram positive
      bacteria isolates were sensitive to gentamicin and norfloxacin drugs. Results
      from this study confirms the presence of resistant bacteria in tungiasis lesions
      hence highlighting the significance of secondary infection of the lesions in
      endemic communties. This therefore suggests that antimicrobial susceptibility
      testing may be considered to guide in identification of appropriate antibiotics
      and treatment therapy among tungiasis patients.

PMID- 28886015
TI  - Freezing during tapping tasks in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease and
      freezing of gait.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Parkinson's disease patients with freezing of gait also experience
      sudden motor blocks (freezing) during other repetitive motor tasks. We assessed
      the proportion of patients with advanced PD and freezing of gait who also
      displayed segmental "freezing" in tapping tasks. METHODS: Fifteen Parkinson's
      disease patients with freezing of gait were assessed. Freezing of gait was
      evaluated using a standardized gait trajectory with the usual triggers. Patients
      performed repetitive tapping movements (as described in the MDS-UPDRS task) with
      the hands or the feet in the presence or absence of a metronome set to 4 Hz.
      Movements were recorded with a video motion system. The primary endpoint was the
      occurrence of segmental freezing in these tapping tasks. The secondary endpoints
      were (i) the relationship between segmental episodic phenomena and FoG severity,
      and (ii) the reliability of the measurements. RESULTS: For the upper limbs,
      freezing was observed more frequently with a metronome (21% of trials) than
      without a metronome (5%). For the lower limbs, the incidence of freezing was
      higher than for the upper limbs, and was again observed more frequently in the
      presence of an auditory cue (47%) than in its absence (14%). CONCLUSION: Although
      freezing of the lower limbs was easily assessed during an MDS-UPDRS task with a
      metronome, it was not correlated with the severity of freezing of gait (as
      evaluated during a standardized gait trajectory). Only this latter was a reliable
      measurement in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28886014
TI  - Downregulation of autophagy is associated with severe ischemia-reperfusion
      induced acute kidney injury in overexpressing C-reactive protein mice.
AB  - C-reactive protein (CRP), was recently reported to be closely associated with
      poor renal function in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI), but whether CRP
      is pathogenic or a mere biomarker in AKI remains largely unclear. Impaired
      autophagy is known to exacerbate renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). We
      examined whether the pathogenic role of CRP in AKI is associated with reduction
      of autophagy. We mated transgenic rabbit CRP over-expressing mice (Tg-CRP) with
      two autophagy reporter mouse lines, Tg-GFP-LC3 mice (LC3) and Tg-RFP-GFP-LC3 mice
      (RG-LC3) respectively to generate Tg-CRP-GFP-LC3 mice (PLC3) and Tg-CRP-RFP-GFP
      LC3 mice (PRG-LC3). AKI was induced by IRI. Compared with LC3 mice, PLC3 mice
      developed more severe kidney damage after IRI. Renal tubules were isolated from
      LC3 mice at baseline for primary culture. OKP cells were transiently transfected
      with GFP-LC3 plasmid. CRP addition exacerbated lactate dehydrogenase release from
      both cell types. Immunoblots showed lower LC-3 II/I ratios and higher levels of
      p62, markers of reduced autophagy flux, in the kidneys of PLC3 mice compared to
      LC3 mice after IRI, and in primary cultured renal tubules and OKP cells treated
      with CRP and H2O2 compared to H2O2 alone. Immunohistochemistry showed much fewer
      LC-3 punctae, and electron microscopy showed fewer autophagosomes in kidneys of
      PLC3 mice compared to LC3 mice after IRI. Similarly, CRP addition reduced GFP-LC3
      punctae induced by H2O2 in primary cultured proximal tubules and in GFP-LC3
      plasmid transfected OKP cells. Rapamycin, an autophagy inducer, rescued impaired
      autophagy and reduced renal injury in vivo. In summary, it was suggested that CRP
      be more than mere biomarker in AKI, and render the kidney more susceptible to
      ischemic/oxidative injury, which is associated with down-regulating autophagy
      flux.

PMID- 28886016
TI  - Twelve-month contraceptive continuation among women initiating short- and long
      acting reversible contraceptives in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
AB  - CONTEXT: Despite the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services
      in the minimum standards of health care in humanitarian settings, access to SRH
      services, and especially to contraception, is often compromised in war. Very
      little is known about continuation and switching of contraceptive methods in
      these settings. An evaluation of a contraceptive services program in North Kivu,
      Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was conducted to measure 12-month
      contraceptive continuation by type of contraceptive method (short-acting or long
      acting). METHODS: A stratified systematic sample of women who initiated a
      contraceptive method 12-18 months prior to data collection was selected
      retrospectively from facility registers. A total of 548 women was interviewed
      about their contraceptive use: 304 who began a short-acting method (pills,
      injectables) and 244 who began a long-acting method (intra-uterine devices,
      implants). Key characteristics of short-acting method versus long-acting method
      acceptors were compared using chi-square statistics for categorical data and t
      tests for continuous data. Unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazard ratios
      were estimated to assess factors associated with discontinuation. RESULTS: At 12
      months, 81.6% women reported using their baseline contraceptive method
      continuously, with more long-acting than short-acting contraceptive acceptors
      (86.1% versus 78.0%, p = .02) continuing contraceptive use. Use of a short-acting
      method (Hazard ratio (HR) 1.74 [95%CI 1.13-2.67]) and desiring a child within two
      years (HR 2.58 [95%CI 1.45-4.54]) were associated with discontinuation within the
      first 12 months of use. The vast majority (88.3%) of women reported no prior
      contraceptive use. CONCLUSION: This is the first study of contraceptive
      continuation in a humanitarian setting. The high percentages of women continuing
      contraceptive use found here demonstrates that women will choose to initiate and
      continue use of their desired contraceptive method, even in a difficult, unstable
      and low contraceptive prevalence setting like North Kivu.

PMID- 28886017
TI  - B-cell phenotype and IgD-CD27- memory B cells are affected by TNF-inhibitors and
      tocilizumab treatment in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of TNF-inhibitors and/or the IL-6 receptor antagonist,
      tocilizumab, in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have pleiotropic effects that also
      involve circulating B-cells. The main goal of this study was to assess the effect
      of TNF-inhibitors and tocilizumab on B-cell phenotype and gene expression in RA.
      METHODS: Blood samples were collected from untreated early RA (ERA) patients,
      established RA patients under methotrexate treatment, established RA patients
      before and after treatment with TNF-inhibitors and tocilizumab, and healthy
      donors. B-cell subpopulations were characterized by flow cytometry and B-cell
      gene expression was analyzed by real-time PCR on isolated B-cells. Serum levels
      of BAFF, CXCL13 and sCD23 were determined by ELISA. RESULTS: The frequency of
      total CD19+ B cells in circulation was similar between controls and all RA
      groups, irrespective of treatment, but double negative (DN) IgD-CD27- memory B
      cells were significantly increased in ERA and established RA when compared to
      controls. Treatment with TNF-inhibitors and tocilizumab restored the frequency of
      IgD-CD27- B-cells to normal levels, but did not affect other B cell
      subpopulations. TACI, CD95, CD5, HLA-DR and TLR9 expression on B-cells
      significantly increased after treatment with either TNF-inhibitors and/ or
      tocilizumab, but no significant changes were observed in BAFF-R, BCMA, CD69,
      CD86, CXCR5, CD23, CD38 and IgM expression on B-cells when comparing baseline
      with post-treatment follow-ups. Alterations in B-cell gene expression of BAFF-R,
      TACI, TLR9, FcgammaRIIB, BCL-2, BLIMP-1 and beta2M were found in ERA and
      established RA patients, but no significant differences were observed after TNF
      inhibitors and tocilizumab treatment when comparing baseline and follow-ups.
      Serum levels of CXCL13, sCD23 and BAFF were not significantly affected by
      treatment with TNF-inhibitors and tocilizumab. CONCLUSIONS: In RA patients, the
      use of TNF-inhibitors and/ or tocilizumab treatment affects B-cell phenotype and
      IgD-CD27- memory B cells in circulation, but not B-cell gene expression levels.

PMID- 28886019
TI  - Testing students' e-learning via Facebook through Bayesian structural equation
      modeling.
AB  - Learning is an intentional activity, with several factors affecting students'
      intention to use new learning technology. Researchers have investigated
      technology acceptance in different contexts by developing various theories/models
      and testing them by a number of means. Although most theories/models developed
      have been examined through regression or structural equation modeling, Bayesian
      analysis offers more accurate data analysis results. To address this gap, the
      unified theory of acceptance and technology use in the context of e-learning via
      Facebook are re-examined in this study using Bayesian analysis. The data (S1
      Data) were collected from 170 students enrolled in a business statistics course
      at University of Malaya, Malaysia, and tested with the maximum likelihood and
      Bayesian approaches. The difference between the two methods' results indicates
      that performance expectancy and hedonic motivation are the strongest factors
      influencing the intention to use e-learning via Facebook. The Bayesian estimation
      model exhibited better data fit than the maximum likelihood estimator model. The
      results of the Bayesian and maximum likelihood estimator approaches are compared
      and the reasons for the result discrepancy are deliberated.

PMID- 28886018
TI  - Minimal important change and other measurement properties of the Oxford Elbow
      Score and the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand in patients with
      a simple elbow dislocation; validation study alongside the multicenter FuncSiE
      trial.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Validation study using data from a multicenter, randomized,
      clinical trial (RCT). OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the reliability, validity,
      responsiveness, and minimal important change (MIC) of the Dutch version of the
      Oxford Elbow Score (OES) and the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and
      Hand (Quick-DASH) in patients with a simple elbow dislocation. BACKGROUND:
      Patient-reported outcome measures are increasingly important for assessing
      outcome following elbow injuries, both in daily practice and in clinical
      research. However measurement properties of the OES and Quick-DASH in these
      patients are not fully known. METHODS: OES and Quick-DASH were completed four
      times until one year after trauma. Mayo Elbow Performance Index, pain (VAS),
      Short Form-36, and EuroQol-5D were completed for comparison. Data of a
      multicenter RCT (n = 100) were used. Internal consistency was determined using
      Cronbach's alpha. Construct and longitudinal validity were assessed by
      determining hypothesized strength of correlation between scores or changes in
      scores, respectively, of (sub)scales. Finally, floor and ceiling effects, MIC,
      and smallest detectable change (SDC) were determined. RESULTS: OES and Quick-DASH
      demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach alpha, 0.882 and 0.886,
      respectively). Construct validity and longitudinal validity of both scales were
      supported by >75% correctly hypothesized correlations. MIC and SDC were 8.2 and
      12.0 point for OES, respectively. For Quick-DASH, these values were 11.7 and
      25.0, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: OES and Quick-DASH are reliable, valid, and
      responsive instruments for evaluating elbow-related quality of life. The anchor
      based MIC was 8.2 points for OES and 11.7 for Quick-DASH.

PMID- 28886020
TI  - Low plasma cortisol and fecal cortisol metabolite measures as indicators of
      compromised welfare in domestic horses (Equus caballus).
AB  - The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to chronic stress is far
      from straight forward, particularly with regards to animal welfare. There are
      reports of no effect as well as both decreases and increases in cortisol after
      chronic stressors. Therefore, the first aim of the present study was to determine
      how measures of compromised welfare, such as chronic pain and haematological
      anomalies, related to cortisol levels in domestic horses (Equus caballus).
      Domestic horses are an informative model to investigate the impact of chronic
      stress (due to environment, pain, work, housing conditions...) on the HPA axis.
      The second aim was to determine whether levels of fecal cortisol metabolites
      (FCM) may be used as an indicator of welfare measures. The present study used
      fifty-nine horses (44 geldings and 15 mares), from three riding centres in
      Brittany, France. The primary findings show that horses whose welfare was clearly
      compromised (as indicated by an unusual ears backward position, presence of
      vertebral problems or haematological anomalies, e.g. anaemia) also had lower
      levels of both FCM and plasma cortisol. This work extends our previous findings
      showing that withdrawn postures, indicators of depressive-like behavior in
      horses, are associated with lower plasma cortisol levels. We also found that
      evening plasma cortisol levels positively correlated with FCM levels in horses.
      Future research aims to determine the extent to which factors of influence on
      welfare, such as living conditions (e.g. single stalls versus group housing in
      pasture or paddocks), early life factors, and human interaction, act as mediators
      of cortisol levels in horses.

PMID- 28886021
TI  - Complete genome sequences of two strains of Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue
      from Ghana, Africa: Identical genome sequences in samples isolated more than 7
      years apart.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue (TPE) is the causative agent of
      yaws, a multi-stage disease, endemic in tropical regions of Africa, Asia,
      Oceania, and South America. To date, four TPE strains have been completely
      sequenced including three TPE strains of human origin (Samoa D, CDC-2, and
      Gauthier) and one TPE strain (Fribourg-Blanc) isolated from a baboon. All TPE
      strains are highly similar to T. pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA) strains. The
      mutation rate in syphilis and related treponemes has not been experimentally
      determined yet. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Complete genomes of two TPE
      strains, CDC 2575 and Ghana-051, that infected patients in Ghana and were
      isolated in 1980 and 1988, respectively, were sequenced and analyzed. Both
      strains had identical consensus genome nucleotide sequences raising the question
      whether TPE CDC 2575 and Ghana-051 represent two different strains. Several lines
      of evidence support the fact that both strains represent independent samples
      including regions showing intrastrain heterogeneity (13 and 5 intrastrain
      heterogeneous sites in TPE Ghana-051 and TPE CDC 2575, respectively). Four of
      these heterogeneous sites were found in both genomes but the frequency of
      alternative alleles differed. The identical consensus genome sequences were used
      to estimate the upper limit of the yaws treponeme evolution rate, which was 4.1 x
      10-10 nucleotide changes per site per generation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The
      estimated upper limit for the mutation rate of TPE was slightly lower than the
      mutation rate of E. coli, which was determined during a long-term experiment.
      Given the known diversity between TPA and TPE genomes and the assumption that
      both TPA and TPE have a similar mutation rate, the most recent common ancestor of
      syphilis and yaws treponemes appears to be more than ten thousand years old and
      likely even older.

PMID- 28886022
TI  - FtsEX-mediated regulation of the final stages of cell division reveals
      morphogenetic plasticity in Caulobacter crescentus.
AB  - During its life cycle, Caulobacter crescentus undergoes a series of coordinated
      shape changes, including generation of a polar stalk and reshaping of the cell
      envelope to produce new daughter cells through the process of cytokinesis. The
      mechanisms by which these morphogenetic processes are coordinated in time and
      space remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that the conserved division
      complex FtsEX controls both the early and late stages of cytokinesis in C.
      crescentus, namely initiation of constriction and final cell separation.
      DeltaftsE cells display a striking phenotype: cells are chained, with skinny
      connections between cell bodies resulting from defects in inner membrane fusion
      and cell separation. Surprisingly, the thin connections in DeltaftsE cells share
      morphological and molecular features with C. crescentus stalks. Our data uncover
      unanticipated morphogenetic plasticity in C. crescentus, with loss of FtsE
      causing a stalk-like program to take over at failed division sites.

PMID- 28886023
TI  - Geographic patterns and environmental factors associated with human yellow fever
      presence in the Americas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the Americas, yellow fever virus transmission is a latent threat
      due to the proximity between urban and wild environments. Although yellow fever
      has nearly vanished from North and Central America, there are still 13 countries
      in the Americas considered endemic by the World Health Organization. Human cases
      usually occur as a result of the exposure to sylvatic yellow fever in tropical
      forested environments; but urban outbreaks reported during the last decade
      demonstrate that the risk in this environment still exists. The objective of this
      study was to identify spatial patterns and the relationship between key
      geographic and environmental factors with the distribution of yellow fever human
      cases in the Americas. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: An ecological study was
      carried out to analyze yellow fever human cases reported to the Pan American
      Health Organization from 2000 to 2014, aggregated by second administrative level
      subdivisions (counties). Presence of yellow fever by county was used as the
      outcome variable and eight geo-environmental factors were used as independent
      variables. Spatial analysis was performed to identify and examine natural
      settings per county. Subsequently, a multivariable logistic regression model was
      built. During the study period, 1,164 cases were reported in eight out of the 13
      endemic countries. Nearly 83.8% of these cases were concentrated in three
      countries: Peru (37.4%), Brazil (28.1%) and Colombia (18.4%); and distributed in
      57 states/provinces, specifically in 286 counties (3.4% of total counties).
      Yellow fever presence was significantly associated with altitude, rain, diversity
      of non-human primate hosts and temperature. A positive spatial autocorrelation
      revealed a clustered geographic pattern in 138/286 yellow fever positive counties
      (48.3%). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A clustered geographic pattern of yellow fever
      was identified mostly along the Andes eastern foothills. This risk map could
      support health policies in endemic countries. Geo-environmental factors
      associated with presence of yellow fever could help predict and adjust the limits
      of other risk areas of epidemiological concern.

PMID- 28886024
TI  - Clomiphene citrate effect in obese men with low serum testosterone treated with
      metformin due to dysmetabolic disorders: A randomized, double-blind, placebo
      controlled study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Low testosterone (T) levels are often found in obese men with impaired
      glucose tolerance (IGT) and overt type 2 diabetes (T2DM); however, the mechanisms
      underlying this condition and its correct therapy are still under debate.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of clomiphene citrate (CC) in increasing
      endogenous T levels in obese men with low serum T and with IGT or T2DM treated
      with metformin (MET). DESIGN: Cross-over, randomized, double-blind, placebo
      controlled study. METHODS: 24 obese men, aged 47.3 +/-. 6.3 (range 35-55 years),
      with low T level (<=3 ng/mL) and naive diagnosis of IGT or T2DM were included.
      Subjects were randomized to CC 25 mg/day or placebo (Plac) with MET 2 g/day for 3
      months. After a 6-week wash-out period, subjects were moved to the alternative
      arm for additional 3 months. Clinical evaluation and blood exams performed prior
      to and at the end of treatment. RESULTS: Of 24 randomized, 21 were evaluable,
      classified as IGT (n = 11) or T2DM (n = 10). Compared to baseline levels, T
      levels increased significantly after 3 months of CC treatment (3.03+/-0.80 to
      5.99+/-1.67 ng/mL P<0.001) but not after the Plac treatment (2.87+/-0.78 to
      3.09+/-0.84 ng/mL P<0.001 between the treatments). T changes were similar in IGT
      and T2DM subjects. Gonadotropins as well raised significantly after CC treatment
      (LH 3.83+/-1.45 to 8.53+/-6.40 mU/mL; FSH 4.84+/-1.67 to 10.15+/-5.08 mU/mL
      P<0.001 respectively), whereas no changes for LH (3.51+/-1.59 to 3.63+/-1.39
      mU/mL) but a smooth increased for FSH (4.61+/-2.49 to 5.39+/-2.65 mU/mL; P =
      0.004) were shown after Plac treatment (LH P = 0.001 and FSH P = 0.002 between
      treatments). Furthermore, fasting glucose (106.8+/-23.2 to 101.1+/-25.7 mg/dL; P
      = 0.004), insulin (19.3+/-12.1 to 15.6+/-10.1 MUU/mL; P = 0.010) and HOMA-IR
      (4.94+/-2.89 to 3.69+/-2.12; P = 0.001) decreased significantly during the CC
      treatment period, whereas no significant changes were observed in any of these
      parameters in the Plac treatment. CONCLUSIONS: A low dose of CC therapy was able
      to significantly increase serum T levels in all participants with mild
      modifications of clinical and metabolic parameters. TRIAL REGISTRATION: EudraCT
      2011-000439-10.

PMID- 28886025
TI  - Robust phase-retrieval-based X-ray tomography for morphological assessment of
      early hepatic echinococcosis infection in rats.
AB  - Propagation-based phase-contrast computed micro-tomography (PPCT) dominates the
      non-destructive, three-dimensional inner-structure measurement in synchrotron
      based biomedical research due to its simple experimental setup. To quantitatively
      visualize tiny density variations in soft tissues and organs closely related to
      early pathological morphology, an experimental study of synchrotron-based X-ray
      PPCT combined with generalized phase and attenuation duality (PAD) phase
      retrieval was implemented with the hepatic echinococcosis (HE) infection rat
      model at different stages. We quantitatively analyzed and evaluated the different
      pathological characterizations of hepatic echinococcosis during the development
      of this disease via our PAD-based PPCT and especially provided evidence that
      hepatic alveolar echinococcosis invades the liver tissue and spreads through
      blood flow systems with abundant blood supply in the early stage. Additionally,
      the infiltration of tiny vesicles in HE lesions can be clearly observed by our
      PAD-PPCT technique due to the striking contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and mass
      density resolution, which cannot be found by the medical imaging techniques, such
      as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound, in
      hospitals. The results demonstrated that our PAD-PPCT technique has a great
      potential for indicating the subtle structural information of pathological
      changes in soft biomedical specimens, especially helpful for the research of
      early micro-morphology of diseases.

PMID- 28886027
TI  - Evolutionary analysis and interaction prediction for protein-protein interaction
      network in geometric space.
AB  - Prediction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) remains a central task in systems
      biology. With more PPIs identified, forming PPI networks, it has become feasible
      and also imperative to study PPIs at the network level, such as evolutionary
      analysis of the networks, for better understanding of PPI networks and for more
      accurate prediction of pairwise PPIs by leveraging the information gained at the
      network level. In this work we developed a novel method that enables us to
      incorporate evolutionary information into geometric space to improve PPI
      prediction, which in turn can be used to select and evaluate various evolutionary
      models. The method is tested with cross-validation using human PPI network and
      yeast PPI network data. The results show that the accuracy of PPI prediction
      measured by ROC score is increased by up to 14.6%, as compared to a baseline
      without using evolutionary information. The results also indicate that our
      modified evolutionary model DANEOsf-combining a gene
      duplication/neofunctionalization model and scale-free model-has a better fitness
      and prediction efficacy for these two PPI networks. The improved PPI prediction
      performance may suggest that our DANEOsf evolutionary model can uncover the
      underlying evolutionary mechanism for these two PPI networks better than other
      tested models. Consequently, of particular importance is that our method offers
      an effective way to select evolutionary models that best capture the underlying
      evolutionary mechanisms, evaluating the fitness of evolutionary models from the
      perspective of PPI prediction on real PPI networks.

PMID- 28886026
TI  - Population FBA predicts metabolic phenotypes in yeast.
AB  - Using protein counts sampled from single cell proteomics distributions to
      constrain fluxes through a genome-scale model of metabolism, Population flux
      balance analysis (Population FBA) successfully described metabolic heterogeneity
      in a population of independent Escherichia coli cells growing in a defined
      medium. We extend the methodology to account for correlations in protein
      expression arising from the co-regulation of genes and apply it to study the
      growth of independent Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells in two different growth
      media. We find the partitioning of flux between fermentation and respiration
      predicted by our model agrees with recent 13C fluxomics experiments, and that our
      model largely recovers the Crabtree effect (the experimentally known bias among
      certain yeast species toward fermentation with the production of ethanol even in
      the presence of oxygen), while FBA without proteomics constraints predicts
      respirative metabolism almost exclusively. The comparisons to the 13C study
      showed improvement upon inclusion of the correlations and motivated a technique
      to systematically identify inconsistent kinetic parameters in the literature. The
      minor secretion fluxes for glycerol and acetate are underestimated by our method,
      which indicate a need for further refinements to the metabolic model. For yeast
      cells grown in synthetic defined (SD) medium, the calculated broad distribution
      of growth rates matches experimental observations from single cell studies, and
      we characterize several metabolic phenotypes within our modeled populations that
      make use of diverse pathways. Fast growing yeast cells are predicted to perform
      significant amount of respiration, use serine-glycine cycle and produce ethanol
      in mitochondria as opposed to slow growing cells. We use a genetic algorithm to
      determine the proteomics constraints necessary to reproduce the growth rate
      distributions seen experimentally. We find that a core set of 51 constraints are
      essential but that additional constraints are still necessary to recover the
      observed growth rate distribution in SD medium.

PMID- 28886028
TI  - Traits underlying community consequences of plant intra-specific diversity.
AB  - A plant's performance and interactions with other trophic levels are recorgnized
      to be contingent upon plant diversity and underlying associational dynamics, but
      far less is known about the plant traits driving such phenomena. We manipulated
      diversity in plant traits using pairs of plant and a substitutive design to
      elucidate the mechanisms underlying diversity effects operating at a fine spatial
      scale. Specifically, we measured the effects of diversity in sex (sexual
      monocultures vs. male and female genotypes together) and growth rate (growth rate
      monocultures vs. fast- and slow-growing genotypes together) on growth of the
      shrub Baccharis salicifolia and on above- and belowground consumers associated
      with this plant. We compared effects on associate abundance (# associates per
      plant) vs. density (# associates per kg plant biomass) to elucidate the
      mechanisms underlying diversity effects; effects on abundance but not density
      suggest diversity effects are mediated by resource abundance (i.e. plant biomass)
      alone, whereas effects on density suggest diversity effects are mediated by plant
      based heterogeneity or quality. Sexual diversity increased root growth but
      reduced the density (but not abundance) of the dietary generalist aphid Aphis
      gossypii and its associated aphid-tending ants, suggesting sex mixtures were of
      lower quality to this herbivore (e.g. via reduced plant quality), and that this
      effect indirectly influenced ants. Sexual diversity had no effect on the
      abundance or density of parasitoids attacking A. gossypii, the dietary specialist
      aphid Uroleucon macolai, or mycorrhizae. In contrast, growth rate diversity did
      not influence plant growth or any associates except for the dietary specialist
      aphid U. macolai, which increased in both abundance and density at high
      diversity, suggesting growth rate mixtures were of higher quality to this
      herbivore. These results highlight that plant associational and diversity effects
      on consumers are contingent upon the source of plant trait variation, and that
      the nature of such dynamics may vary both within and among trophic levels.

PMID- 28886029
TI  - Establishing baseline biodiversity data prior to hydroelectric dam construction
      to monitoring impacts to bats in the Brazilian Amazon.
AB  - The modification of Amazonian rivers by the construction of megaprojects of
      hydroelectric dams has widely increased over the last decade. Robust monitoring
      programs have been rarely conducted prior to the establishment of dams to measure
      to what extent the fauna, and its associated habitats may be affected by upcoming
      impacts. Using bats as models, we performed analyses throughout the area under
      the influence of the Santo Antonio hydroelectric dam, Southwestern Brazilian
      Amazonia before its construction to estimate how the fauna and its associated
      habitats would be affected by the upcoming impacts. We surveyed bats in 49 plots
      distributed along the areas going to be inundated by the dam and those remaining
      dry. As predictors for the species distribution, we tested the variables of
      vegetation structure and topography. Species composition largely differed between
      the dry plots and the plots located in areas that will be flooded, and this was
      strongly associated with the variables of forest basal area and elevation.
      Vegetation-related variables also had strong influence on the guilds
      distribution. The flooding of lower elevations areas is expected to negatively
      affect the species number and abundance of frugivorous species. In contrast, it
      is likely that animalivores will be less vulnerable to dam-induced flooding,
      since they were abundant in the areas not expect to be inundated. We urge for the
      implementation of studies to predict impacts caused by large hydroelectric dams,
      including tests of the influence of the local conditions that shape diversity to
      avoid massive losses of the biota, and to build preventive monitoring and
      management actions.

PMID- 28886030
TI  - Analysis of the whole transcriptome from gingivo-buccal squamous cell carcinoma
      reveals deregulated immune landscape and suggests targets for immunotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gingivo-buccal squamous cell carcinoma (GBSCC) is one of the most
      common oral cavity cancers in India with less than 50% patients surviving past 5
      years. Here, we report a whole transcriptome profile on a batch of GBSCC tumours
      with diverse tobacco usage habits. The study provides an entire landscape of
      altered expression with an emphasis on searching for targets with therapeutic
      potential. METHODS: Whole transcriptomes of 12 GBSCC tumours and adjacent normal
      tissues were sequenced and analysed to explore differential expression of genes.
      Expression changes were further compared with those in TCGA head and neck cohort
      (n = 263) data base and validated in an independent set of 10GBSCC samples.
      RESULTS: Differentially expressed genes (n = 2176) were used to cluster the
      patients based on their tobacco habits, resulting in 3 subgroups. Immune response
      was observed to be significantly aberrant, along with cell adhesion and lipid
      metabolism processes. Different modes of immune evasion were seen across 12
      tumours with up-regulation or consistent expression of CD47, unlike other immune
      evasion genes such as PDL1, FUT4, CTLA4 and BTLA which were downregulated in a
      few samples. Variation in infiltrating immune cell signatures across tumours also
      indicates heterogeneity in immune evasion strategies. A few actionable genes such
      as ITGA4, TGFB1 and PTGS1/COX1 were over expressed in most samples. CONCLUSION:
      This study found expression deregulation of key immune evasion genes, such as
      CD47 and PDL1, and reasserts their potential as effective immunotherapeutic
      targets for GBSCC, which requires further clinical studies. Present findings
      reiterate the idea of using transcriptome profiling to guide precision
      therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28886031
TI  - Can the tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini survive in the absence of the geomagnetic
      field?
AB  - Earth's geomagnetic field has undergone critical changes in the past. Studies on
      the influence of the magnetic field on Earth's organisms are crucial for the
      understanding of evolution of life on Earth and astrobiological considerations.
      Numerous studies conducted both on plants and animals confirmed the significant
      influence of the geomagnetic field on the metabolism of living organisms. Water
      bears (Tardigrada), which are a mong the most resistant animals due to their
      cryptobiotic abilities, show significant resistance to a number of environmental
      stressors, but the influence of the geomagnetic field on their fitness has not
      been addressed before. In our studies, we used eutardigrade Hypsibius dujardini
      to analyse whether isolation from the geomagnetic field had an effect on
      mortality. We found that Hypsibius dujardini specimens demonstrated relatively
      high mortality during anhydrobiosis, also in control groups exposed to the normal
      geomagnetic field. Moreover, similar mortality was observed in anhydrobiotic
      specimens isolated from the geomagnetic field. However, a significant difference
      was noted between tardigrade survival and the moment of their isolation from the
      geomagnetic field. In particular, tardigrade mortality substantially increased in
      absence of a magnetic field during the process of entering anhydrobiosis and
      returning to active life. Our results suggest that these processes rely on
      complex metabolic processes that are critically influenced by the geomagnetic
      field.

PMID- 28886032
TI  - Emergence phenology, uncertainty, and the evolution of migratory behavior in Anax
      junius (Odonata: Aeshnidae).
AB  - Mass migrations by Odonata, although less studied than those of Monarch
      butterflies and plague locusts, have provoked comment and study for many years.
      Relatively recently, increasing interest in dragonflies, supported by new
      technologies, has resulted in more detailed knowledge of the species involved,
      behavioral mechanisms, and geographic extent. In this paper we examine, in four
      independent but complementary studies, how larval habitat and emergence phenology
      interact with climate to shape the evolution of migratory strategy in Anax
      junius, a common species throughout much of the eastern United States and
      southern Canada. In brief, we argue that fish predation on larvae, coupled with
      the need for ample emergent vegetation for oviposition and adult eclosion,
      dictates that larval development and survival is optimal in ponds that are
      neither permanent nor extremely ephemeral. Coupled with annual variation in
      regional weather and winters in much of their range too cold for adult survival,
      conditions facing newly emerged A. junius may unpredictably favor either local
      reproduction or long-distance movement to more favorable areas. Both temperature
      and hydroperiod tend to favor local reproduction early in the adult activity
      period and migration later, so late emerging adults are more likely to migrate.
      No single pond is always predictably suitable or unsuitable, however, so
      ovipositing females also may spread the risk to their offspring by ovipositing at
      multiple sites that, for migrants, may be distributed over very long distances.

PMID- 28886033
TI  - Population structure of sea-type and lake-type sockeye salmon and kokanee in the
      Fraser River and Columbia River drainages.
AB  - Population structure of three ecotypes of Oncorhynchus nerka (sea-type Sockeye
      Salmon, lake-type Sockeye Salmon, and Kokanee) in the Fraser River and Columbia
      River drainages was examined with microsatellite variation, with the main focus
      as to whether Kokanee population structure within the Fraser River drainage
      suggested either a monophyletic or polyphyletic origin of the ecotype within the
      drainage. Variation at 14 microsatellite loci was surveyed for sea-type and lake
      type Sockeye Salmon and Kokanee sampled from 121 populations in the two river
      drainages. An index of genetic differentiation, FST, over all populations and
      loci was 0.087, with individual locus values ranging from 0.031 to 0.172.
      Standardized to an ecotype sample size of 275 individuals, the least genetically
      diverse ecotype was sea-type Sockeye Salmon with 203 alleles, whereas Kokanee
      displayed the greatest number of alleles (260 alleles), with lake-type Sockeye
      Salmon intermediate (241 alleles). Kokanee populations from the Columbia River
      drainage (Okanagan Lake, Kootenay Lake), the South Thompson River (a major Fraser
      River tributary) drainage populations, and the mid-Fraser River populations all
      clustered together in a neighbor-joining analysis, indicative of a monophyletic
      origin of the Kokanee ecotype in these regions, likely reflecting the origin of
      salmon radiating from a refuge after the last glaciation period. However,
      upstream of the mid-Fraser River populations, there were closer relationships
      between the lake-type Sockeye Salmon ecotype and the Kokanee ecotype, indicative
      of the Kokanee ecotype evolving independently from the lake-type Sockeye Salmon
      ecotype in parallel radiation. Kokanee population structure within the entire
      Fraser River drainage suggested a polyphyletic origin of the ecotype within the
      drainage. Studies employing geographically restricted population sampling may not
      outline accurately the phylogenetic history of salmonid ecotypes.

PMID- 28886034
TI  - Determinants of maternal near miss among women in public hospital maternity wards
      in Northern Ethiopia: A facility based case-control study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Ethiopia, 20,000 women die each year from complications related to
      pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum. For every woman that dies, 20 more
      experience injury, infection, disease, or disability. "Maternal near miss" (MNM),
      defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a woman who nearly dies, but
      survives a complication during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days of a
      termination, is a proxy indicator of maternal mortality and quality of obstetric
      care. In Ethiopia, few studies have examined MNM. This study aims to identify
      determinants of MNM among a small population of women in Tigray, Ethiopia.
      METHODS: Unmatched case-control study was conducted in hospitals in Tigray
      Region, Northern Ethiopia, from January 30-March 30, 2016. The sample included
      103 cases and 205 controls recruited from among women seeking obstetric care at
      six (6) public hospitals. Clients with life-threatening obstetric complications,
      including hemorrhage, hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, dystocia, infection,
      and anemia or clinical signs of severe anemia (in women without hemorrhage) were
      taken as cases and those with normal obstetric outcomes were controls. Cases were
      selected based on proportion to size allocation while systematic sampling was
      employed for controls. Binary and multiple variable logistic regression ("odds
      ratio") analyses were calculated at 95% CI. RESULTS: Roughly 90% of cases and
      controls were married and 25% experienced their first pregnancy before the age of
      16 years. About two-thirds of controls and 45.6% of cases had gestational ages
      between 37-41 weeks. Among cases, severe obstetric hemorrhage (44.7%),
      hypertensive disorders (38.8%), dystocia (17.5%), sepsis (9.7%) and severe anemia
      (2.9%) were leading causes of MNM. Histories of chronic maternal medical problems
      like hypertension, diabetes were reported in 55.3% of cases and 33.2% of
      controls. Women with no formal education [AOR = 3.2;95%CI:1.24, 8.12], being less
      than 16 years of age at first pregnancy [AOR = 2.5;95%CI:1.12,5.63], induced
      labor[AOR = 3.0; 95%CI:1.44, 6.17], history of cesarean section[AOR = 4.6; 95%
      CI: 1.98, 7.61] or chronic medical disorder[AOR = 3.5;95%CI:1.78, 6.93], and
      women who traveled more than 60 minutes before reaching their final place of
      care[AOR = 2.8;95% CI: 1.19,6.35] had higher odds of experiencing MNM.
      CONCLUSIONS: Macro-developments like increasing road and health facility access
      as well as expanding education will all help reduce MNM. Work should be continued
      to educate women and providers about common predictors of MNM like history of C
      section and chronic illness as well as teenage pregnancy. These efforts should be
      carried out at the facility, community, and individual levels. Targeted follow-up
      with women with history of chronic disease and C-section could also help reduce
      MNM.

PMID- 28886035
TI  - Temporal causal inference with stochastic audiovisual sequences.
AB  - Integration of sensory information across multiple senses is most likely to occur
      when signals are spatiotemporally coupled. Yet, recent research on audiovisual
      rate discrimination indicates that random sequences of light flashes and auditory
      clicks are integrated optimally regardless of temporal correlation. This may be
      due to 1) temporal averaging rendering temporal cues less effective; 2)
      difficulty extracting causal-inference cues from rapidly presented stimuli; or 3)
      task demands prompting integration without concern for the spatiotemporal
      relationship between the signals. We conducted a rate-discrimination task (Exp
      1), using slower, more random sequences than previous studies, and a separate
      causal-judgement task (Exp 2). Unisensory and multisensory rate-discrimination
      thresholds were measured in Exp 1 to assess the effects of temporal correlation
      and spatial congruence on integration. The performance of most subjects was
      indistinguishable from optimal for spatiotemporally coupled stimuli, and
      generally sub-optimal in other conditions, suggesting observers used a
      multisensory mechanism that is sensitive to both temporal and spatial causal
      inference cues. In Exp 2, subjects reported whether temporally uncorrelated (but
      spatially co-located) sequences were perceived as sharing a common source. A
      unified percept was affected by click-flash pattern similarity and the maximum
      temporal offset between individual clicks and flashes, but not on the proportion
      of synchronous click-flash pairs. A simulation analysis revealed that the
      stimulus-generation algorithms of previous studies is likely responsible for the
      observed integration of temporally independent sequences. By combining results
      from Exps 1 and 2, we found better rate-discrimination performance for sequences
      that are more likely to be integrated than those that are not. Our results
      support the principle that multisensory stimuli are optimally integrated when
      spatiotemporally coupled, and provide insight into the temporal features used for
      coupling in causal inference.

PMID- 28886036
TI  - Potential role of sirtuin 1 in Muller glial cells in mice choroidal
      neovascularization.
AB  - This study investigated the potential role of sirtuin 1 in Muller glial cells in
      choroidal neovascularization. In the in vitro study, primary Muller glial cells
      were cultured and treated with resveratrol, a sirtuin 1 activator. Glial
      fibrillary acidic protein expression and angiogenesis-related gene expression
      were examined using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and phagocytosis, as a
      marker of Muller glial cell function; in addition, a latex bead assay was used to
      analyze cell function. For the in vivo study, choroidal neovascularization was
      induced in C57BL/6 mice via laser photocoagulation, and resveratrol was
      administered intravitreally. Eyecup whole mounts were created to measure
      choroidal neovascularization volumes on day 7. Immunohistochemical analysis with
      anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein antibody was used to detect Muller glial
      cell activation in eyes with choroidal neovascularization on day 1, 3, 5, and 7
      after laser surgery. Resveratrol significantly promoted glial fibrillary acidic
      protein, anti-angiogenic factor, pigment epithelium-derived factor, and
      thrombospondin-1 expression in the cells as well as the phagocytic activities.
      Treatment of the choroidal neovascularization model with resveratrol resulted in
      early activation of Muller glial cells near choroidal neovascularization sites.
      Resveratrol-activated cells but not the controls migrated to the top of choroidal
      neovascularization sites and into the lesions from day 3. Resveratrol reduced the
      choroidal neovascularization size relative to controls. In conclusion, sirtuin 1
      activation in Muller glial cells suppressed the development of choroidal
      neovascularization, and therefore, might be a therapeutic option.

PMID- 28886037
TI  - Growing season carries stronger contributions to albedo dynamics on the Tibetan
      plateau.
AB  - The Tibetan Plateau has experienced higher-than-global-average climate warming in
      recent decades, resulting in many significant changes in ecosystem structure and
      function. Among them is albedo, which bridges the causes and consequences of land
      surface processes and climate. The plateau is covered by snow/ice and vegetation
      in the non-growing season (nGS) and growing season (GS), respectively. Based on
      the MODIS products, we investigated snow/ice cover and vegetation greenness in
      relation to the spatiotemporal changes of albedo on the Tibetan Plateau from 2000
      through 2013. A synchronous relationship was found between the change in GSNDVI
      and GSalbedo over time and across the Tibetan landscapes. We found that the
      annual average albedo had a decreasing trend, but that the albedo had slightly
      increased during the nGS and decreased during the GS. Across the landscapes, the
      nGSalbedo fluctuated in a synchronous pattern with snow/ice cover. Temporally,
      monthly snow/ice coverage also had a high correspondence with albedo, except in
      April and October. We detected clear dependencies of albedo on elevation. With
      the rise in altitude, the nGSalbedo decreased below 4000 m, but increased for
      elevations of 4500-5500 m. Above 5500 m, the nGSalbedo decreased, which was in
      accordance with the decreased amount of snow/ice coverage and the increased soil
      moisture on the plateau. More importantly, the decreasing albedo in the most
      recent decade appeared to be caused primarily by lowered growing season albedo.

PMID- 28886039
TI  - Infection prevention and control practice for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever-A
      multi-center cross-sectional survey in Eurasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a life threatening acute
      viral infection that presents significant risk of nosocomial transmission to
      healthcare workers. AIM: Evaluation of CCHF infection prevention and control
      (IP&C) practices in healthcare facilities that routinely manage CCHF cases in
      Eurasia. METHODS: A cross-sectional CCHF IP&C survey was designed and distributed
      to CCHF centers in 10 endemic Eurasian countries in 2016. RESULTS: Twenty-three
      responses were received from centers in Turkey, Pakistan, Russia, Georgia,
      Kosovo, Bulgaria, Oman, Iran, India and Kazakhstan. All units had dedicated
      isolation rooms for CCHF, with cohorting of confirmed cases in 15/23 centers and
      cohorting of suspect and confirmed cases in 9/23 centers. There was adequate
      personal protective equipment (PPE) in 22/23 facilities, with 21/23 facilities
      reporting routine use of PPE for CCHF patients. Adequate staffing levels to
      provide care reported in 14/23 locations. All centers reported having a high risk
      CCHFV nosocomial exposure in last five years, with 5 centers reporting more than
      5 exposures. Education was provided annually in most centers (13/23), with
      additional training requested in PPE use (11/23), PPE donning/doffing (12/23),
      environmental disinfection (12/23) and waste management (14/23). CONCLUSIONS:
      Staff and patient safety must be improved and healthcare associated CCHF exposure
      and transmission eliminated. Improvements are recommended in isolation capacity
      in healthcare facilities, use of PPE and maintenance of adequate staffing levels.
      We recommend further audit of IP&C practice at individual units in endemic areas,
      as part of national quality assurance programs.

PMID- 28886038
TI  - Diagnoses, infections and injuries in Northern Syrian children during the civil
      war: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The civil war in Syria including the deliberate targeting of
      healthcare services resulted in a complex humanitarian emergency, seriously
      affecting children's health. The objectives of this study are to document
      diagnoses and disease categories in Northern Syrian children after four years of
      conflict, and to document infectious diseases and injuries in this vulnerable
      population. METHODS: In a prospective cross-sectional observational sample study
      conducted in May 2015, healthcare workers registered demographics, comorbidities,
      and diagnoses (categorised according to the International Classification of
      Diseases version 10) in children visited at home and in internally displaced
      persons camps in four Syrian governorates. RESULTS: Of 1080 filled-out records,
      1002 were included. Children originated from Aleppo (41%), Idleb (36%), Hamah
      (15%) and Lattakia (8%). Median age was 6 years (0-15; IQR 3-11), 61% were boys,
      40% were younger than 5 years old. Children suffered from respiratory (29%),
      neurological (19%), digestive (17%), eye (5%) and skin (5%) diseases. Clinical
      malnutrition was seen in 4%, accidental injury in 3%, intentional injury in 1%,
      and mental disorders in 2%. Overall, 64% had features of infectious diseases (OR
      0.635; CI 0.605-0.665). Most common comorbidities were chronic respiratory
      diseases (14, malnutrition (5%), acute flaccid paralysis (5%), and epilepsy (4%).
      Logistic regression analysis indicated that the risk for children to have
      communicable diseases was higher in Aleppo than in Idleb (OR 1.7; CI 1.2-2.3),
      Hamah (OR 4.9; CI 3.3-7.5), or Lattakia (OR 5.5; CI 3.3-9.3). Children in Aleppo
      and Lattakia were more at risk to be injured than in Idleb (OR 5.6; CI 2.1-14.3),
      or in Hamah (OR 5.9; CI 1.4-25.6), but more often from intentional violence in
      Lattakia. Mental problems were more prominent in Hamah. CONCLUSIONS: Four years
      far in the conflict, 64% of the studied children in four Northern Syrian
      governorates suffer from infections, mostly from respiratory, neurological and
      digestive origin, while 4% was injured or victim of intentional aggression.
      Substandard living conditions and the lack of paediatric healthcare put Syrian
      children at risk for serious infections, epidemics and morbidity, and ask for
      urgent international humanitarian relief efforts.

PMID- 28886040
TI  - Residual volume/total lung capacity ratio confers limited additive significance
      to lung clearance index for assessment of adults with bronchiectasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mosaicism and hyperinflation are common pathophysiologic features of
      bronchiectasis. The magnitude of ventilation heterogeneity might have been
      affected by the degree of hyperinflation. Some studies have evaluated the
      discriminative performance of lung clearance index (LCI) in bronchiectasis
      patients, but the additive diagnostic value of hyperinflation metrics to LCI is
      unknown. OBJECTIVE: To compare LCI and the ratio of residual volume to total lung
      capacity (RV/TLC), along with the LCI normalized with RV/TLC, in terms of
      discriminative performance, correlation and concordance with clinical variables
      in adults with bronchiectasis. METHODS: Measurement items included chest high
      resolution computed tomography, multiple-breath nitrogen washout test,
      spirometry, and sputum culture. We analyzed bronchodilator responses by
      stratifying LCI and RV/TLC according to their median levels (LCIHigh/RV/TLCHigh,
      LCILow/RV/TLCHigh, LCIHigh/RV/TLCLow, and LCILow/RV/TLCLow). RESULTS: Data from
      127 adults with clinically stable bronchiectasis were analyzed. LCI had greater
      diagnostic value than RV/TLC in discriminating moderate-to-severe from mild
      bronchiectasis, had greater concordance in reflecting clinical characteristics
      (including the number of bronchiectatic lobes, radiological severity score, and
      the presence of cystic bronchiectasis). Normalization of LCI with RV/TLC did not
      contribute to greater discriminative performance or concordance with clinical
      variables. The LCI, before and after normalization with RV/TLC, correlated
      statistically with age, sex, HRCT score, Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization,
      cystic bronchiectasis, and ventilation heterogeneity (all P<0.05). Different
      bronchodilator responses were not significant among the four subgroups of
      bronchiectasis patients, including those with discordant LCI and RV/TLC levels.
      CONCLUSION: LCI is superior to RV/TLC for bronchiectasis assessment.
      Normalization with RV/TLC is not required. Stratification of LCI and RV/TLC is
      not associated with significantly different bronchodilator responses.

PMID- 28886041
TI  - Lower limb arterial calcification (LLAC) scores in patients with symptomatic
      peripheral arterial disease are associated with increased cardiac mortality and
      morbidity.
AB  - AIMS: The association of coronary arterial calcification with cardiovascular
      morbidity and mortality is well-recognized. Lower limb arterial calcification
      (LLAC) is common in PAD but its impact on subsequent health is poorly described.
      We aimed to determine the association between a LLAC score and subsequent
      cardiovascular events in patients with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease
      (PAD). METHODS: LLAC scoring, and the established Bollinger score, were derived
      from a database of unenhanced CT scans, from patients presenting with symptomatic
      PAD. We determined the association between these scores outcomes. The primary
      outcome was combined cardiac mortality and morbidity (CM/M) with a secondary
      outcome of all-cause mortality. RESULTS: 220 patients (66% male; median age 69
      years) were included with follow-up for a median 46 [IQR 31-64] months. Median
      total LLAC scores were higher in those patients suffering a primary outcome (6831
      vs. 1652; p = 0.012). Diabetes mellitus (p = 0.039), ischaemic heart disease (p =
      0.028), chronic kidney disease (p = 0.026) and all-cause mortality (p = 0.012)
      were more common in patients in the highest quartile of LLAC scores. The area
      under the curve of the receiver operator curve for the LLAC score was greater
      (0.929: 95% CI [0.884-0.974]) than for the Bollinger score (0.824: 95% CI [0.758
      0.890]) for the primary outcome. A LLAC score >= 4400 had the best diagnostic
      accuracy to determine the outcome measure. CONCLUSION: This is the largest study
      to investigate links between lower limb arterial calcification and cardiovascular
      events in symptomatic PAD. We describe a straightforward, reproducible, CT
      derived measure of calcification-the LLAC score.

PMID- 28886042
TI  - Domestication reduces alternative splicing expression variations in sorghum.
AB  - Domestication is known to strongly reduce genomic diversity through population
      bottlenecks. The resulting loss of polymorphism has been thoroughly documented in
      numerous cultivated species. Here we investigate the impact of domestication on
      the diversity of alternative transcript expressions using RNAseq data obtained on
      cultivated and wild sorghum accessions (ten accessions for each pool). In that
      aim, we focus on genes expressing two isoforms in sorghum and estimate the ratio
      between expression levels of those isoforms in each accession. Noticeably, for a
      given gene, one isoform can either be overexpressed or underexpressed in some
      wild accessions, whereas in the cultivated accessions, the balance between the
      two isoforms of the same gene appears to be much more homogenous. Indeed, we
      observe in sorghum significantly more variation in isoform expression balance
      among wild accessions than among domesticated accessions. The possibility exists
      that the loss of nucleotide diversity due to domestication could affect
      regulatory elements, controlling transcription or degradation of these isoforms.
      Impact on the isoform expression balance is discussed. As far as we know, this is
      the first time that the impact of domestication on transcript isoform balance has
      been studied at the genomic scale. This could pave the way towards the
      identification of key domestication genes with finely tuned isoform expressions
      in domesticated accessions while being highly variable in their wild relatives.

PMID- 28886043
TI  - Haplotype dependent association of rs7927894 (11q13.5) with atopic dermatitis and
      chronic allergic rhinitis: A study in ECAP cohort.
AB  - The T allele of rs7927894 (at 11q13.5) was associated with atopic dermatitis and
      other allergic diseases. Our purpose was to replicate the association with
      allergic phenotypes and explore the role of rs7927894 in predisposing to
      persistent allergic rhinitis and atopic asthma. We also wanted to explore if
      other SNPs at 11q13.5 contributed to effect of rs7927894. We studied patients
      with atopic dermatitis (N = 270), atopic asthma (N = 486), persistent allergic
      rhinitis (N = 589) and controls matched for age, sex and region (N = 540, N = 372
      and N = 1178, respectively). We found that rs7927894 T was associated with atopic
      dermatitis (OR = 1.39, CI: 1.12-1.73, P = 0.003) and independently with
      persistent allergic rhinitis (OR = 1.24, CI:1.07-1.43, P = 0.0043, Pcorrected =
      0.013) but not atopic asthma. Analysis of additional tagging SNPs (rs7930763,
      rs2513517, rs7125552) showed that effect of rs7927894 T was limited to haplotypes
      encoding G at rs7125552. In conclusion, rs7927894 T is associated not only with
      atopic dermatitis but also persistent allergic rhinitis. Since these effects are
      haplotype dependent rs7927894 alone does not account for the association between
      11q13.5 and atopic dermatitis/persistent allergic rhinitis.

PMID- 28886044
TI  - Genetic variants in CYP2B6 and CYP2A6 explain interindividual variation in
      efavirenz plasma concentrations of HIV-infected children with diverse ethnic
      origin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Approximately 2.6 million children live with HIV globally, and
      efavirenz (EFV) is one of the most widely used antiretroviral agents for HIV
      treatment in children and adults. There are concerns about the appropriateness of
      current EFV dosing and it has been discussed whether EFV dosing should be adapted
      according to genotype in children as suggested for adults. AIM: To investigate if
      pediatric EFV dosing should be guided by genetic variation in drug metabolizing
      enzymes rather than by body weight. METHOD: EFV plasma concentrations measured
      for clinical purposes from all children less than 18 years old at Karolinska
      University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, treated with EFV were collected
      retrospectively. They were genotyped for eleven polymorphisms in genes coding for
      drug-metabolizing enzymes and P-glycoprotein, of potential importance for EFV
      disposition. Data on country of origin, sex, age, weight, HIV RNA, viral
      resistance patterns, CD4 cells, adherence to treatment, subjective health status
      and adverse events were collected from their medical records. RESULTS: Thirty-six
      patients and 182 (mean 5 samples/patient) EFV plasma concentration measurements
      from children of African, Asian and Latin American origin were included. EFV
      plasma concentration varied 21-fold between measurements (n = 182) (0.85-19.3
      mg/L) and 9-fold measured as mean EFV plasma concentration across the subjects
      (1.55-13.4 mg/L). A multivariate mixed-effects restricted maximum likelihood
      regression model, including multiple gene polymorphisms, identified CYP2B6*6 T/T
      (p < 0.0005), CYP2B6*11 G/G (p < 0.0005), CYP2A6*9 A/C (p = 0.001) genotypes, age
      at treatment initiation (p = 0.002) and time from treatment initiation (p <
      0.0005) as independent factors significantly related to loge
      concentration/(dose/weight). The contribution of the model to the intra- and
      interindividual variation were 6 and 75%, respectively (Bryk/Raudenbush R-squared
      level). CONCLUSION: Genetic polymorphisms in CYP2B6 and CYP2A6 explained a
      significant proportion of variability in EFV plasma concentration in HIV-infected
      children in a multi-ethnic outpatient clinic. Knowledge about individual variants
      in key drug metabolizing enzyme genes could improve clinical safety and genotype
      directed dosing could achieve more predictable EFV plasma concentrations in HIV
      infected children.

PMID- 28886045
TI  - Maternal treatment with short-chain fatty acids modulates the intestinal
      microbiota and immunity and ameliorates type 1 diabetes in the offspring.
AB  - We recently hypothesized that the intestinal microbiota and the innate immune
      system play key roles in the mechanism of Kilham Rat Virus-induced type 1
      diabetes in the LEW1.WR1 rat. We used this animal model to test the hypothesis
      that maternal therapy with short-chain fatty acids can modulate the intestinal
      microbiota and reverse virus-induced proinflammatory responses and type 1
      diabetes in rat offspring. We observed that administration of short-chain fatty
      acids to rat breeders via drinking water prior to pregnancy and further treatment
      of the offspring with short-chain fatty acids after weaning led to disease
      amelioration. In contrast, rats that were administered short-chain fatty acids
      beginning at weaning were not protected from type 1 diabetes. Short-chain fatty
      acid therapy exerted a profound effect on the intestinal microbiome in the
      offspring reflected by a reduction and an increase in the abundances of
      Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes taxa, respectively, on day 5 post-infection, and
      reversed virus-induced alterations in certain bacterial taxa. Principal component
      analysis and permutation multivariate analysis of variance tests further revealed
      that short-chain fatty acids induce a distinct intestinal microbiota compared
      with uninfected animals or rats that receive the virus only. Short-chain fatty
      acids downregulated Kilham Rat Virus-induced proinflammatory responses in the
      intestine. Finally, short-chain fatty acids altered the B and T cell compartments
      in Peyer's patches. These data demonstrate that short-chain fatty acids can
      reshape the intestinal microbiota and prevent virus-induced islet autoimmunity
      and may therefore represent a useful therapeutic strategy for disease prevention.

PMID- 28886046
TI  - Effects of water avoidance stress on peripheral and central responses during
      bladder filling in the rat: A multidisciplinary approach to the study of urologic
      chronic pelvic pain syndrome (MAPP) research network study.
AB  - Stress plays a role in the exacerbation and possibly the development of
      functional lower urinary tract disorders. Chronic water avoidance stress (WAS) in
      rodents is a model with high construct and face validity to bladder
      hypersensitive syndromes, such as interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome
      (IC/BPS), characterized by urinary frequency and bladder hyperalgesia and
      heightened stress responsiveness. Given the overlap of the brain circuits
      involved in stress, anxiety, and micturition, we evaluated the effects chronic
      stress has on bladder function, as well as its effects on regional brain
      activation during bladder filling. Female Wistar-Kyoto rats were exposed to WAS
      (10 days) or sham paradigms. One day thereafter, cystometrograms were obtained
      during titrated bladder dilation, with visceromotor responses (VMR) recorded
      simultaneously. Cerebral perfusion was assessed during passive bladder distension
      (20-cmH2O) following intravenous administration of [14C]-iodoantipyrine. Regional
      cerebral blood flow was quantified by autoradiography and analyzed in 3
      dimensionally reconstructed brains with statistical parametric mapping. WAS
      animals compared to controls demonstrated a decreased pressure threshold and
      visceromotor threshold triggering the voiding phase. At 20-cmH2O, VMR was
      significantly greater in WAS animals compared to controls. WAS animals showed
      greater activation in cortical regions of the central micturition circuit,
      including the posterior cingulate, anterior retrosplenial, somatosensory,
      posterior insula, orbital, and anterior secondary ("supplementary") motor
      cortices, as well as in the thalamus, anterior hypothalamus, parabrachial and
      Barrington nuclei, and striatum. Seed analysis showed increased functional
      connectivity of WAS compared to control animals of the posterior cingulate cortex
      to the pontine parabrachial nucleus; of the Barrington nucleus to the anterior
      dorsal midline and ventrobasilar thalamus and somatosensory and retrosplenial
      cortices; and of the posterior insula to anterior secondary motor cortex. Our
      findings show a visceral hypersensitivity during bladder filling in WAS animals,
      as well as increased engagement of portions of the micturition circuit responsive
      to urgency, viscerosensory perception and its relay to motor regions coordinating
      imminent bladder contraction. Results are consistent with recent findings in
      patients with interstitial cystitis, suggesting that WAS may serve as an animal
      model to elucidate the mechanisms leading to viscerosensitive brain phenotypes in
      humans with IC/BPS.

PMID- 28886047
TI  - Optimal waist circumference threshold for diagnosing metabolic syndrome in
      African people living with HIV infection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The applicability of the internationally advocated cut-off points of
      waist circumference (WC) derived from Caucasians to diagnose metabolic syndrome
      (MS) in HIV-infected Africans is unknown. This study aimed to determine the
      optimal WC cutoffs for MS diagnosis in HIV-infected people receiving care at
      public healthcare facilities in the Western Cape Province in South Africa.
      METHODS: Data from 748 randomly selected participants (591 women), with a median
      age of 38 years, were analysed. The Youden's index and the top-left-point
      approaches were used to determine the optimal cutoffs of WC for predicting >=2
      non-adipose MS components. RESULTS: The two approaches generated the same WC cut
      off point in women, 92 cm (sensitivity 64%, specificity 64%) but different cut
      off points in men: 87 cm (sensitivity 48%, specificity 85%) based on the
      Younden's index and 83 cm (sensitivity 59%, specificity 74%) by the top-left
      point method. The advocated thresholds of 94 cm in men had low sensitivity (30%)
      but high specificity (92%) whereas 80 cm in women showed low specificity (32%)
      but high sensitivity (85%) for diagnosing MS in this sample. Most African
      specific cut-off points performed well, with 90 cm providing acceptable
      performance in both men (sensitivity 43%, specificity 88%) and women (sensitivity
      66%, specificity 59%). CONCLUSIONS: This study underlines the sub-optimal
      performance of internationally recommended WC thresholds for MS diagnosis in HIV
      infected Africans, and supports the need to revisit the guidelines on WC
      criterion in African population across the board. A single threshold of 90 cm for
      both genders would be a practical suggestion.

PMID- 28886048
TI  - A single-source photon source model of a linear accelerator for Monte Carlo dose
      calculation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To introduce a new method of deriving a virtual source model (VSM) of a
      linear accelerator photon beam from a phase space file (PSF) for Monte Carlo (MC)
      dose calculation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A PSF of a 6 MV photon beam was
      generated by simulating the interactions of primary electrons with the relevant
      geometries of a Synergy linear accelerator (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) and
      recording the particles that reach a plane 16 cm downstream the electron source.
      Probability distribution functions (PDFs) for particle positions and energies
      were derived from the analysis of the PSF. These PDFs were implemented in the VSM
      using inverse transform sampling. To model particle directions, the phase space
      plane was divided into a regular square grid. Each element of the grid
      corresponds to an area of 1 mm2 in the phase space plane. The average direction
      cosines, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) between photon energies and their
      direction cosines, as well as the PCC between the direction cosines were
      calculated for each grid element. Weighted polynomial surfaces were then fitted
      to these 2D data. The weights are used to correct for heteroscedasticity across
      the phase space bins. The directions of the particles created by the VSM were
      calculated from these fitted functions. The VSM was validated against the PSF by
      comparing the doses calculated by the two methods for different square field
      sizes. The comparisons were performed with profile and gamma analyses. RESULTS:
      The doses calculated with the PSF and VSM agree to within 3% /1 mm (>95% pixel
      pass rate) for the evaluated fields. CONCLUSION: A new method of deriving a
      virtual photon source model of a linear accelerator from a PSF file for MC dose
      calculation was developed. Validation results show that the doses calculated with
      the VSM and the PSF agree to within 3% /1 mm.

PMID- 28886049
TI  - Can public health reconcile profits and pandemics? An analysis of attitudes to
      commercial sector engagement in health policy and research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Public health's terms of engagement with unhealthy commodity
      industries (alcohol, tobacco and ultra-processed food and drinks) have become
      increasingly contested in policy and research. We sought to identify approaches
      that could attract consensus support within and across policy domains. METHODS:
      Using snowball sampling, we undertook an online survey of 335 health researchers,
      advocates and policymakers, in 40 countries, assessing responses to stated
      principles, claims and recommendations for engaging with unhealthy commodity
      industries in relation to key policy and research initiatives. RESULTS: Most
      respondents identified a fundamental conflict between industry interests and
      public health objectives for all three industries, with agreement greatest in
      relation to tobacco and weakest for food. This pattern was replicated across
      diverse questions regarding potential forms of engagement, including in rejecting
      voluntarism and partnership approaches to health policy. While awareness of
      tobacco industry tactics to influence policy and research was higher than for
      alcohol and food, most respondents rejected the view that the influence of the
      latter was less significant for public health. Proposals that health and research
      organisations should divest their funds attracted less support with respect to
      food, while restricting publication of industry-funded research in academic
      journals was the issue that most divided opinion. Respondents reported most
      difficulty in answering questions about the food industry. CONCLUSIONS: The
      strong consensus around restricting interactions with the tobacco industry
      supports increased implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
      Control's conflict of interest provisions. There is strong support for the
      extension of such practices to the alcohol industry, challenging current norms.
      More mixed responses indicate a need for greater clarity in defining the food
      industry, and for research analyzing links, similarities and differences across
      different types of unhealthy commodity producers. Partnership approaches to
      addressing non-communicable diseases seem incapable of attracting widespread
      support across public health, challenging practice in many contexts.

PMID- 28886050
TI  - Establishing contemporary trends in hepatitis B sero-epidemiology in an
      Indigenous population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indigenous populations globally are disproportionately affected by
      chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection however contemporary sero-prevalence
      data are often absent. In the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory
      (NT) of Australia the unique C4 sub-genotype of HBV universally circulates. There
      are no studies of the sero-prevalence, nor the impact of the vaccination program
      (which has a serotype mismatch compared to C4), at a population-wide level.
      METHODS: We examined all available HBV serology results obtained from the three
      main laboratories serving NT residents between 1991 and 2011. Data were linked
      with a NT government database to determine Indigenous status and the most recent
      test results for each individual were extracted as a cross-sectional database
      including 88,112 unique individuals. The primary aim was to obtain a contemporary
      estimate of HBsAg positivity for the NT by Indigenous status. RESULTS: Based on
      all tests from 2007-2011 (35,633 individuals), hepatitis B surface antigen
      (HBsAg) positivity was 3.40% (95%CI 3.19-3.61), being higher in Indigenous
      (6.08%[5.65%-6.53%]) than non-Indigenous (1.56%[1.38%-1.76%]) Australians,
      p<0.0001. Birth cohort analysis showed HBsAg positivity fell over time for
      Indigenous people, with this decrease commencing prior to universal infant
      vaccination (which commenced in 1990), with an ongoing but slower rate of decline
      since 1990, (0.23% decrease per year versus 0.17%). CONCLUSIONS: HBsAg positivity
      is high in the NT, particularly in the Indigenous population. HBsAg positivity
      has fallen over time but a substantial part of this decrease is due to factors
      other than the universal vaccination program.

PMID- 28886051
TI  - The mre11 A470 alleles influence the hereditability and the segregation of
      telosomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - Telomeres, the nucleoprotein complexes at the termini of linear chromosomes, are
      essential for the processes of end replication, end protection, and chromatin
      segregation. The Mre11 complex is involved in multiple cellular roles in DNA
      repair and structure in the regulation and function of telomere size homeostasis.
      In this study, we characterize yeast telomere chromatin structure, phenotypic
      heritability, and chromatin segregation in both wild-type [MRE11] and A470 motif
      alleles. MRE11 strains confer a telomere size of 300 base pairs of G+T irregular
      simple sequence repeats. This DNA and a portion of subtelomeric DNA is embedded
      in a telosome: a MNase-resistant non-nucleosomal particle. Chromatin
      immunoprecipitation shows a three to four-fold lower occupancy of Mre11A470T
      proteins than wild-type proteins in telosomes. Telosomes containing the
      Mre11A470T protein confer a greater resistance to MNase digestion than wild-type
      telosomes. The integration of a wild-type MRE11 allele into an ectopic locus in
      the genome of an mre11A470T mutant and the introduction of an mre11A470T allele
      at an ectopic site in a wild-type strain lead to unexpectedly differing results.
      In each case, the replicated sister chromatids inherit telosomes containing only
      the protein encoded by the genomic mre11 locus, even in the presence of protein
      encoded by the opposing ectopic allele. We hypothesize that the telosome
      segregates by a conservative mechanism. These data support a mechanism for the
      linkage between sister chromatid replication and maintenance of either identical
      mutant or identical wild-type telosomes after replication of sister chromatids.
      These data suggest the presence of an active mechanism for chromatin segregation
      in yeast.

PMID- 28886052
TI  - Comparison of clinical features and 3-month treatment response among three
      different choroidal thickness groups in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy.
AB  - Eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) were recently reported to have
      various choroidal thickness, and choroidal thickness might be associated with
      visual outcome in the treatment of many retinal disorders. The range of subfoveal
      choroidal thickness (SFCT), clinical features, and 3-month treatment response
      among three groups having different range of SFCT were investigated in PCV eyes.
      In 78 treatment-naive eyes with PCV, SFCT was measured using optical coherence
      tomography. Eyes were classified into thin, medium, and thick groups, using mean
      and one standard deviation of SFCT. Clinical features and imaging findings were
      compared among the three groups. Some eyes were treated with three consecutive
      monthly injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as an initial
      treatment. They were also classified into three thickness groups, and the short
      term post-treatment improvement in visual acuity and central retinal thickness
      were compared among groups. The mean SFCT was 271.9 +/- 135.6 MUm. Twelve, 53,
      and 13 eyes were classified into thin (<136.3 MUm), medium (136.3-407.5 MUm), and
      thick (>407.5 MUm) groups, respectively. The thin group showed older age, lower
      visual acuity, and a higher prevalence of fundus tessellation than the other two
      groups (P <0.05). In multiple linear regression analyses, baseline BCVA was
      correlated with baseline SFCT. Forty-six eyes completed three consecutive anti
      VEGF treatments. The thin group showed no visual improvement after treatment (P =
      0.141), unlike the other two groups showing visual improvement (P<0.05). Eyes
      with PCV have a broad range of SFCT, and PCV eyes with a thin choroid manifest
      worse visual function than eyes with a medium or thick choroid.

PMID- 28886053
TI  - Response of Korean pine's functional traits to geography and climate.
AB  - This study analyzed the characteristics of Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis)
      functional trait responses to geographic and climatic factors in the eastern
      region of Northeast China (41 degrees -48 degrees N) and the linear relationships
      among Korean pine functional traits, to explore this species' adaptability and
      ecological regulation strategies under different environmental conditions. Korean
      pine samples were collected from eight sites located at different latitudes, and
      the following factors were determined for each site: geographic factors-latitude,
      longitude, and altitude; temperature factors-mean annual temperature (MAT),
      growth season mean temperature (GST), and mean temperature of the coldest month
      (MTCM); and moisture factors-annual precipitation (AP), growth season
      precipitation (GSP), and potential evapotranspiration (PET). The Korean pine
      functional traits examined were specific leaf area (SLA), leaf thickness (LT),
      leaf dry matter content (LDMC), specific root length (SRL), leaf nitrogen content
      (LNC), leaf phosphorus content (LPC), root nitrogen content (RNC), and root
      phosphorus content (RPC). The results showed that Korean pine functional traits
      were significantly correlated to latitude, altitude, GST, MTCM, AP, GSP, and PET.
      Among the Korean pine functional traits, SLA showed significant linear
      relationships with LT, LDMC, LNC, LPC, and RPC, and LT showed significant linear
      relationships with LDMC, SRL, LNC, LPC, RNC, and RPC; the linear relationships
      between LNC, LPC, RNC, and RPC were also significant. In conclusion, Korean pine
      functional trait responses to latitude resulted in its adaptation to geographic
      and climatic factors. The main limiting factors were precipitation and
      evapotranspiration, followed by altitude, latitude, GST, and MTCM. The impacts of
      longitude and MAT were not obvious. Changes in precipitation and temperature were
      most responsible for the close correlation among Korean pine functional traits,
      reflecting its adaption to habitat variation.

PMID- 28886054
TI  - How much would each researcher receive if competitive government research funding
      were distributed equally among researchers?
AB  - Scientists are increasingly dissatisfied with funding systems that rely on peer
      assessment and, accordingly, have suggested several proposals for reform. One of
      these proposals is to distribute available funds equally among all qualified
      researchers, with no interference from peer review. Despite its numerous
      benefits, such egalitarian sharing faces the objection, among others, that it
      would lead to an unacceptable dilution of resources. The aim of the present paper
      is to assess this particular objection. We estimate (for the Netherlands, the
      U.S. and the U.K.) how much researchers would receive were they to get an equal
      share of the government budgets that are currently allocated through competitive
      peer assessment. For the Netherlands, we furthermore estimate what researchers
      would receive were we to differentiate between researchers working in low-cost,
      intermediate-cost and high-cost disciplines. Given these estimates, we then
      determine what researchers could afford in terms of PhD students, Postdocs,
      travel and equipment. According to our results, researchers could, on average,
      maintain current PhD student and Postdoc employment levels, and still have at
      their disposal a moderate (the U.K.) to considerable (the Netherlands, U.S.)
      budget for travel and equipment. This suggests that the worry that egalitarian
      sharing leads to unacceptable dilution of resources is unjustified. Indeed, our
      results strongly suggest that there is room for far more egalitarian distribution
      of funds than happens in the highly competitive funding schemes so prevalent
      today.

PMID- 28886055
TI  - Comparative analysis of the oral mucosae from rodents and non-rodents:
      Application to the nonclinical evaluation of sublingual immunotherapy products.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A comparative characterization of the oral mucosa in various animals
      is needed to identify the best animal model(s) for nonclinical evaluation of
      sublingual immunotherapy products. With this aim, we studied the histological
      characteristics and immune cell infiltrates of oral mucosae from common animal
      species. METHODS: Three oral regions (i.e. ventral surface of the tongue, mouth
      floor and cheek) obtained from eight animal species, including rodents (i.e.
      mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs) and non-rodents (i.e. rabbits, dogs, minipigs
      and monkeys) were characterized by histology and immunohistology in comparison
      with a human tongue. RESULTS: Rodents exhibit a thin keratinized epithelium with
      low epithelial extensions, whereas non-rodents, most particularly minipigs and
      monkeys, display a non-keratinized epithelium with larger rete ridges, similarly
      to humans. Glycogen-rich cells in the superficial epithelial layers are observed
      in samples from both minipigs, monkeys and humans. Comparable immune
      subpopulations detected in the 3 oral regions from rodent and non-rodent species
      include MHC-II+ antigen presenting cells, mostly CD163+ macrophages, located in
      the lamina propria (LP) and muscle tissue in the vicinity of resident CD3+CD4+ T
      cells. Limited numbers of mast cells are also detected in the LP and muscle
      tissue from all species. CONCLUSION: The oral mucosae of minipigs and monkeys are
      closest to that of humans, and the immune networks are quite similar between all
      rodents and non-rodents. Taking into account the ethical and logistical
      difficulties of performing research in the latter species, rodents and especially
      mice, should preferentially be used for pharmacodynamics/efficacy studies. Our
      data also support the use of minipigs to perform biodistribution and safety
      studies of sublingual immunotherapy products.

PMID- 28886056
TI  - Development and feasibility of Inlife: A pilot study of an online social support
      intervention for informal caregivers of people with dementia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers of individuals with dementia have an increased
      risk to face social isolation due to progression of the disease. Online social
      media interventions might offer a new opportunity to increase access to social
      support and enhance positive interactions and openness in dementia care networks.
      OBJECTIVE: This explorative pilot study describes (1) the development of an
      online social support intervention Inlife, and (2) the evaluation of the
      feasibility of this intervention and the measurements to assess its
      effectiveness. METHODS: The Medical Research Council (MRC) framework guided the
      development of the online social support intervention. This is a stepwise
      approach that integrates potential users' views with the development and
      validation of the program content. The program was developed by combining (1)
      individual caregiver interviews (n = 10), (2) focus group sessions with experts
      and web designers (n = 6), and (3) individual think-aloud tests (n = 2).
      Subsequently, a pilot study with informal caregivers was conducted (n = 25) to
      examine the program's feasibility and preliminary effectiveness. Online self
      report measures were completed at baseline and at four follow-up time points.
      RESULTS: In total, 23 participants completed the newly developed Inlife
      intervention. Despite the high number of low-active users (17/23, 73%), Inlife
      had a good feasibility score of 7.1 (range: 1-10). The Calendar and Timeline were
      used most frequently and contributed to better care coordination and positive
      interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Although the Inlife platform received a sufficient
      feasibility rating, the uptake was not optimal. Therefore, the Inlife platform
      was adapted to limit the number of low-active users and improve user
      friendliness. Recommendations for additional treatment adherence were provided.
      The development according to the MRC framework and the sufficient feasibility
      rating of Inlife formed the basis for a future effectiveness study.

PMID- 28886057
TI  - Principal component-based weighted indices and a framework to evaluate indices:
      Results from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 1996 to 2011.
AB  - Producing indices composed of multiple input variables has been embedded in some
      data processing and analytical methods. We aim to test the feasibility of
      creating data-driven indices by aggregating input variables according to
      principal component analysis (PCA) loadings. To validate the significance of both
      the theory-based and data-driven indices, we propose principles to review
      innovative indices. We generated weighted indices with the variables obtained in
      the first years of the two-year panels in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
      initiated between 1996 and 2011. Variables were weighted according to PCA
      loadings and summed. The statistical significance and residual deviance of each
      index to predict mortality in the second years was extracted from the results of
      discrete-time survival analyses. There were 237,832 surviving the first years of
      panels, represented 4.5 billion civilians in the United States, of which 0.62%
      (95% CI = 0.58% to 0.66%) died in the second years of the panels. Of all 134,689
      weighted indices, there were 40,803 significantly predicting mortality in the
      second years with or without the adjustment of age, sex and races. The
      significant indices in the both models could at most lead to 10,200 years of
      academic tenure for individual researchers publishing four indices per year or
      618.2 years of publishing for journals with annual volume of 66 articles. In
      conclusion, if aggregating information based on PCA loadings, there can be a
      large number of significant innovative indices composing input variables of
      various predictive powers. To justify the large quantities of innovative indices,
      we propose a reporting and review framework for novel indices based on the
      objectives to create indices, variable weighting, related outcomes and database
      characteristics. The indices selected by this framework could lead to a new genre
      of publications focusing on meaningful aggregation of information.

PMID- 28886058
TI  - Sparse trees and shrubs confers a high biodiversity to pastures: Case study on
      spiders from Transylvania.
AB  - The integration of food production and biodiversity conservation represents a key
      challenge for sustainability. Several studies suggest that even small structural
      elements in the landscape can make a substantial contribution to the overall
      biodiversity value of the agricultural landscapes. Pastures can have high
      biodiversity potential. However, their intensive and monofunctional use typically
      erodes its natural capital, including biodiversity. Here we address the
      ecological value of fine scale structural elements represented by sparsely
      scattered trees and shrubs for the spider communities in a moderately intensively
      grazed pasture in Transylvania, Eastern Europe. The pasture was grazed with
      sheep, cattle and buffalo (ca 1 Livestock Unit ha-1) and no chemical fertilizers
      were applied. Sampling sites covered the open pasture as well as the existing
      fine-scale heterogeneity created by scattered trees and shrub. 40 sampling
      locations each being represented by three 1 m2 quadrats were situated in a
      stratified design while assuring spatial independency of sampling locations. We
      identified 140 species of spiders, out of which 18 were red listed and four were
      new for the Romanian fauna. Spider species assemblages of open pasture, scattered
      trees, trees and shrubs and the forest edge were statistically distinct. Our
      study shows that sparsely scattered mature woody vegetation and shrubs
      substantially increases the ecological value of managed pastures. The structural
      complexity provided by scattered trees and shrubs makes possible the co
      occurrence of high spider diversity with a moderately high intensity grazing
      possible in this wood-pasture. Our results are in line with recent empirical
      research showing that sparse trees and shrubs increases the biodiversity
      potential of pastures managed for commodity production.

PMID- 28886059
TI  - Optimisation of a machine learning algorithm in human locomotion using principal
      component and discriminant function analyses.
AB  - Assessment methods in human locomotion often involve the description of
      normalised graphical profiles and/or the extraction of discrete variables. Whilst
      useful, these approaches may not represent the full complexity of gait data.
      Multivariate statistical methods, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and
      Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA), have been adopted since they have the
      potential to overcome these data handling issues. The aim of the current study
      was to develop and optimise a specific machine learning algorithm for processing
      human locomotion data. Twenty participants ran at a self-selected speed across a
      15m runway in barefoot and shod conditions. Ground reaction forces (BW) and
      kinematics were measured at 1000 Hz and 100 Hz, respectively from which joint
      angles ( degrees ), joint moments (N.m.kg-1) and joint powers (W.kg-1) for the
      hip, knee and ankle joints were calculated in all three anatomical planes. Using
      PCA and DFA, power spectra of the kinematic and kinetic variables were used as a
      training database for the development of a machine learning algorithm. All
      possible combinations of 10 out of 20 participants were explored to find the
      iteration of individuals that would optimise the machine learning algorithm. The
      results showed that the algorithm was able to successfully predict whether a
      participant ran shod or barefoot in 93.5% of cases. To the authors' knowledge,
      this is the first study to optimise the development of a machine learning
      algorithm.

PMID- 28886060
TI  - Benzene exposure is associated with cardiovascular disease risk.
AB  - Benzene is a ubiquitous, volatile pollutant present at high concentrations in
      toxins (e.g. tobacco smoke) known to increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
      Despite its prevalence, the cardiovascular effects of benzene have rarely been
      studied. Hence, we examined whether exposure to benzene is associated with
      increased CVD risk. The effects of benzene exposure in mice were assessed by
      direct inhalation, while the effects of benzene exposure in humans was assessed
      in 210 individuals with mild to high CVD risk by measuring urinary levels of the
      benzene metabolite trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA). Generalized linear models
      were used to assess the association between benzene exposure and CVD risk. Mice
      inhaling volatile benzene had significantly reduced levels of circulating
      angiogenic cells (Flk-1+/Sca-1+) as well as an increased levels of plasma low
      density lipoprotein (LDL) compared with control mice breathing filtered air. In
      the human cohort, urinary levels of t,t-MA were inversely associated several
      populations of circulating angiogenic cells (CD31+/34+/45+, CD31+/34+/45+/AC133-,
      CD34+/45+/AC133+). Although t,t-MA was not associated with plasma markers of
      inflammation or thrombosis, t,t-MA levels were higher in smokers and in
      individuals with dyslipidemia. In smokers, t,t-MA levels were positively
      associated with urinary metabolites of nicotine (cotinine) and acrolein (3
      hydroxymercapturic acid). Levels of t,t-MA were also associated with CVD risk as
      assessed using the Framingham Risk Score and this association was independent of
      smoking. Thus, benzene exposure is associated with increased CVD risk and
      deficits in circulating angiogenic cells in both smokers and non-smokers.

PMID- 28886062
TI  - Energy reserves mobilization: Strategies of three decapod species.
AB  - In food deprivation assays, several different responses have been observed in
      crustaceans. However, studying energy reserves utilization among more than one
      species during the same starvation period has not yet been performed,
      particularly to discern whether the responses are due to intrinsic and/or
      environmental factors. We hypothesize that decapod species with similar feeding
      habits have the same strategies in the use of energetic reserves during
      starvation, even though they inhabit different environments. The aim of this
      study was to compare the energy reserves mobilization of three decapods species
      (Cherax quadricarinatus, Palaemon argentinus and Munida gregaria) with similar
      feeding habits, exposed to similar food deprivation conditions. The crayfish,
      shrimp and squat-lobster were experimentally kept at continuous feeding or
      continuous starvation throughout 15 days. Every 3rd day, the midgut gland index
      (MGI), and the glycogen, lipid and protein contents were measured in the midgut
      gland (MG) and pleon muscle. Palaemon argentinus mobilized more reserves during
      starvation, followed by C. quadricarinatus, and the last M. gregaria. The starved
      shrimps presented low MGI, whereas MG showed a reduction in glycogen (from day 6
      to 15), lipid (from day 3 to 15), and protein levels (at day 9 and 15) while in
      their muscle, lipid reserves decreased at days 3 and 6. In C. quadricarinatus,
      the most affected parameters in the MG were MGI, glycogen (from day 6 to 15), and
      lipids (at day 12 and 15). In the MG of M. gregaria only the glycogen was reduced
      during fasting from 3 to 15 days. Even though the three studied species have
      similar feeding habitats, we found that their energetic profile utilization is
      different and it could be explained by the habitat, life span, temperature,
      organ/tissue, and metabolism of the species. Our results may be useful to
      understand the several different responses of crustaceans during starvation.

PMID- 28886061
TI  - Biophysical analysis of the effect of chemical modification by 4-oxononenal on
      the structure, stability, and function of binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP).
AB  - Binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP) is a molecular chaperone important for the
      folding of numerous proteins, which include millions of immunoglobulins in human
      body. It also plays a key role in the unfolded protein response (UPR) in the
      endoplasmic reticulum. Free radical generation is a common phenomenon that occurs
      in cells under healthy as well as under stress conditions such as ageing,
      inflammation, alcohol consumption, and smoking. These free radicals attack the
      cell membranes and generate highly reactive lipid peroxidation products such as 4
      oxononenal (4-ONE). BiP is a key protein that is modified by 4-ONE. In this
      study, we probed how such chemical modification affects the biophysical
      properties of BiP. Upon modification, BiP shows significant tertiary structural
      changes with no changes in its secondary structure. The protein loses its
      thermodynamic stability, particularly, that of the nucleotide binding domain
      (NBD) where ATP binds. In terms of function, the modified BiP completely loses
      its ATPase activity with decreased ATP binding affinity. However, modified BiP
      retains its immunoglobulin binding function and its chaperone activity of
      suppressing non-specific protein aggregation. These results indicate that 4-ONE
      modification can significantly affect the structure-function of key proteins such
      as BiP involved in cellular pathways, and provide a molecular basis for how
      chemical modifications can result in the failure of quality control mechanisms
      inside the cell.

PMID- 28886063
TI  - Movement evaluation of front crawl swimming: Technical skill versus aesthetic
      quality.
AB  - The study aim was to compare expert with non-expert swimmers' rating of the
      aesthetic and technical qualities of front crawl in video-taped recordings of
      swimmers with low, middle, and high level proficiency. The results suggest that:
      i) observers' experience affects their judgment: only the expert observers
      correctly rated the swimmers' proficiency level; ii) evaluation of movement
      (technical and aesthetic scores) is correlated with the level of skill as
      expressed in the kinematics of the observed action (swimming speed, stroke
      frequency, and stroke length); iii) expert and non-expert observers use different
      strategies to rate the aesthetic and technical qualities of movement: equating
      the technical skill with the aesthetic quality is a general rule non-expert
      observers follow in the evaluation of human movement.

PMID- 28886064
TI  - SEXCMD: Development and validation of sex marker sequences for whole-exome/genome
      and RNA sequencing.
AB  - Over the last decade, a large number of nucleotide sequences have been generated
      by next-generation sequencing technologies and deposited to public databases.
      However, most of these datasets do not specify the sex of individuals sampled
      because researchers typically ignore or hide this information. Male and female
      genomes in many species have distinctive sex chromosomes, XX/XY and ZW/ZZ, and
      expression levels of many sex-related genes differ between the sexes. Herein, we
      describe how to develop sex marker sequences from syntenic regions of sex
      chromosomes and use them to quickly identify the sex of individuals being
      analyzed. Array-based technologies routinely use either known sex markers or the
      B-allele frequency of X or Z chromosomes to deduce the sex of an individual. The
      same strategy has been used with whole-exome/genome sequence data; however, all
      reads must be aligned onto a reference genome to determine the B-allele frequency
      of the X or Z chromosomes. SEXCMD is a pipeline that can extract sex marker
      sequences from reference sex chromosomes and rapidly identify the sex of
      individuals from whole-exome/genome and RNA sequencing after training with a
      known dataset through a simple machine learning approach. The pipeline counts
      total numbers of hits from sex-specific marker sequences and identifies the sex
      of the individuals sampled based on the fact that XX/ZZ samples do not have Y or
      W chromosome hits. We have successfully validated our pipeline with mammalian
      (Homo sapiens; XY) and avian (Gallus gallus; ZW) genomes. Typical calculation
      time when applying SEXCMD to human whole-exome or RNA sequencing datasets is a
      few minutes, and analyzing human whole-genome datasets takes about 10 minutes.
      Another important application of SEXCMD is as a quality control measure to avoid
      mixing samples before bioinformatics analysis. SEXCMD comprises simple Python and
      R scripts and is freely available at https://github.com/lovemun/SEXCMD.

PMID- 28886065
TI  - Hepatitis C virus mediated chronic inflammation and tumorigenesis in the
      humanised immune system and liver mouse model.
AB  - Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by infection of the Hepatitis C virus
      (HCV). Many individuals infected by the virus are unable to resolve the viral
      infection and develop chronic hepatitis, which can lead to formation of liver
      cirrhosis and cancer. To understand better how initial HCV infections progress to
      chronic liver diseases, we characterised the long term pathogenic effects of HCV
      infections with the use of a humanised mouse model (HIL mice) we have previously
      established. Although HCV RNA could be detected in infected mice up to 9 weeks
      post infection, HCV infected mice developed increased incidences of liver
      fibrosis, granulomatous inflammation and tumour formation in the form of
      hepatocellular adenomas or hepatocellular carcinomas by 28 weeks post infection
      compared to uninfected mice. We also demonstrated that chronic liver inflammation
      in HCV infected mice was mediated by the human immune system, particularly by
      monocytes/macrophages and T cells which exhibited exhaustion phenotypes. In
      conclusion, HIL mice can recapitulate some of the clinical symptoms such as
      chronic inflammation, immune cell exhaustion and tumorigenesis seen in HCV
      patients. Our findings also suggest that persistence of HCV-associated liver
      disease appear to require initial infections of HCV and immune responses but not
      long term HCV viraemia.

PMID- 28886066
TI  - Colonic cytomegalovirus detection by mucosal PCR and antiviral therapy in
      ulcerative colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to identify the risk factors associated with colonic
      cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in ulcerative colitis (UC) and to compare the
      clinical course between antiviral therapy-treated and -untreated groups in
      mucosal CMV-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) -positive cases. METHODS: We
      retrospectively selected 46 UC patients (>15 years old) in active phase who
      underwent colonoscopy with biopsy and were analyzed for CMV infection by mucosal
      PCR between October 2011 and December 2015 at our institution. Colonic CMV in
      inflamed mucosa was detected using quantitative real-time PCR. The clinical
      course was evaluated, including need for drug therapy/surgery or drug therapy
      intensification. In addition, we evaluated the clinical course between CMV-DNA-
      cases and CMV-DNA+ cases with low viral load. RESULTS: At baseline, CMV-DNA+
      patients were significantly older, had higher endoscopic scores, and required
      higher corticosteroid doses during the past 4 weeks than CMV-DNA- patients (p<
      0.05). No significant differences were observed in disease duration, disease
      distribution, laboratory data, or use of other medication between CMV-DNA+ and
      CMV-DNA- patients. In the anti-CMV-treated group with a median (range) DNA load
      of 16,000 (9,000-36,400), 3patients achieved remission without additional UC
      therapy, 2 required additional UC therapy, and 1 required colectomy despite
      azathioprine and infliximab therapy. In the CMV-untreated group with a median
      (range) DNA load of 919 (157-5,480), all patients achieved remission with UC
      therapy alone. No significant difference was observed in the clinical course
      between CMV-DNA- cases and CMV-DNA+ cases with low viral loads. CONCLUSIONS:
      Aging, endoscopic UC activity, and corticosteroid dose predispose to colonic CMV
      infection, as determined by mucosal PCR, in UC. UC treatment without anti-CMV
      therapy may be warranted, particularly in patients with low-load CMV-DNA. Anti
      CMV therapy alone does not always achieve clinical response in UC even in cases
      with high-load PCR.

PMID- 28886067
TI  - A wireless soil moisture sensor powered by solar energy.
AB  - In a variety of agricultural activities, such as irrigation scheduling and
      nutrient management, soil water content is regarded as an essential parameter.
      Either power supply or long-distance cable is hardly available within field
      scale. For the necessity of monitoring soil water dynamics at field scale, this
      study presents a wireless soil moisture sensor based on the impedance transform
      of the frequency domain. The sensor system is powered by solar energy, and the
      data can be instantly transmitted by wireless communication. The sensor
      electrodes are embedded into the bottom of a supporting rod so that the sensor
      can measure soil water contents at different depths. An optimal design with time
      executing sequence is considered to reduce the energy consumption. The
      experimental results showed that the sensor is a promising tool for monitoring
      moisture in large-scale farmland using solar power and wireless communication.

PMID- 28886068
TI  - Analysis of simple sequence repeat (SSR) structure and sequence within Epichloe
      endophyte genomes reveals impacts on gene structure and insights into ancestral
      hybridization events.
AB  - Epichloe grass endophytes comprise a group of filamentous fungi of both sexual
      and asexual species. Known for the beneficial characteristics they endow upon
      their grass hosts, the identification of these endophyte species has been of
      great interest agronomically and scientifically. The use of simple sequence
      repeat loci and the variation in repeat elements has been used to rapidly
      identify endophyte species and strains, however, little is known of how the
      structure of repeat elements changes between species and strains, and where these
      repeat elements are located in the fungal genome. We report on an in-depth
      analysis of the structure and genomic location of the simple sequence repeat
      locus B10, commonly used for Epichloe endophyte species identification. The B10
      repeat was found to be located within an exon of a putative bZIP transcription
      factor, suggesting possible impacts on polypeptide sequence and thus protein
      function. Analysis of this repeat in the asexual endophyte hybrid Epichloe
      uncinata revealed that the structure of B10 alleles reflects the ancestral
      species that hybridized to give rise to this species. Understanding the structure
      and sequence of these simple sequence repeats provides a useful set of tools for
      readily distinguishing strains and for gaining insights into the ancestral
      species that have undergone hybridization events.

PMID- 28886069
TI  - Osmotic behaviour of human mesenchymal stem cells: Implications for
      cryopreservation.
AB  - Aimed at providing a contribution to the optimization of cryopreservation
      processes, the present work focuses on the osmotic behavior of human mesenchymal
      stem cells (hMSCs). Once isolated from the umbilical cord blood (UCB) of three
      different donors, hMSCs were characterized in terms of size distribution and
      their osmotic properties suitably evaluated through the exposure to hypertonic
      and isotonic aqueous solutions at three different temperatures. More
      specifically, inactive cell volume and cell permeability to water and di-methyl
      sulfoxide (DMSO) were measured, being cell size determined using impedance
      measurements under both equilibrium and dynamic conditions. Experimental findings
      indicate that positive cell volume excursions are limited by the apparent
      increase of inactive volume, which occurs during both the shrink-swell process
      following DMSO addition and the subsequent restoration of isotonic conditions in
      the presence of hypertonic solutions of impermeant or permeant solutes. Based on
      this evidence, hMSCs must be regarded as imperfect osmometers, and their osmotic
      behavior described within a scenario no longer compatible with the simple two
      parameter model usually utilized in the literature. In this respect, the
      activation of mechano-sensitive ion-channels seemingly represents a reasonable
      hypothesis for rationalizing the observed osmotic behavior of hMSCs from UCB.

PMID- 28886070
TI  - MicroRNA miR-301a is a novel cardiac regulator of Cofilin-2.
AB  - Calsarcin-1 deficient mice develop dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) phenotype in pure
      C57BL/6 genetic background (Cs1-ko) despite severe contractile dysfunction and
      robust activation of fetal gene program. Here we performed a microRNA microarray
      to identify the molecular causes of this cardiac phenotype that revealed the
      dysregulation of several microRNAs including miR-301a, which was highly
      downregulated in Cs1-ko mice compared to the wild-type littermates. Cofilin-2
      (Cfl2) was identified as one of the potential targets of miR-301a using
      prediction databases, which we validated by luciferase assay and mutation of
      predicted binding sites. Furthermore, expression of miR-301a contrastingly
      regulated Cfl2 expression levels in neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes
      (NRVCM). Along these lines, Cfl2 was significantly upregulated in Cs1-ko mice,
      indicating the physiological association between miR-301a and Cfl2 in vivo.
      Mechanistically, we found that Cfl2 activated serum response factor response
      element (SRF-RE) driven luciferase activity in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes and in
      C2C12 cells. Similarly, knockdown of miR301a activated, whereas, its
      overexpression inhibited the SRF-RE driven luciferase activity, further
      strengthening physiological interaction between miR-301a and Cfl2. Interestingly,
      the expression of SRF and its target genes was strikingly increased in Cs1-ko
      suggesting a possible in vivo correlation between expression levels of Cfl2/miR
      301a and SRF activation, which needs to be independently validated. In summary,
      our data demonstrates that miR-301a regulates Cofilin-2 in vitro in NRVCM, and in
      vivo in Cs1-ko mice. Our findings provide an additional and important layer of
      Cfl2 regulation, which we believe has an extended role in cardiac signal
      transduction and dilated cardiomyopathy presumably due to the reported
      involvement of Cfl2 in these mechanisms.

PMID- 28886071
TI  - Dynamics of the aortic annulus in 4D CT angiography for transcatheter aortic
      valve implantation patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a well-established
      treatment for patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. This procedure requires
      pre-operative planning by assessment of aortic dimensions on CT Angiography
      (CTA). It is well-known that the aortic root dimensions vary over the heart
      cycle. However, sizing is commonly performed at either mid-systole or end
      diastole only, which has resulted in an inadequate understanding of its full
      dynamic behavior. STUDY GOAL: We studied the variation in annulus measurements
      during the cardiac cycle and determined if this variation is dependent on the
      amount of calcification at the annulus. METHODS: We measured and compared aortic
      root annular dimensions and calcium volume in CTA acquisitions at 10 cardiac
      cycle phases in 51 aortic stenosis patients. Sub-group analysis was performed
      based on the volume of calcium by splitting the population into mildly and
      severely calcified valves subgroups. RESULTS: For most annulus measurements, the
      largest differences were found between 10% and 70 to 80% cardiac cycle phases.
      Mean difference (+/-standard deviation) in annular minimum diameter, maximum
      diameter, area, and aspect ratio between mid-systole and end-diastole phases were
      1.0 +/- 0.29 mm (p = 0.065), 0.30 +/- 0.24 mm (p = 0.7), 24.1 +/- 7.6 mm2 (p <
      0.001), and 0.041 +/- 0.012 (p = 0.039) respectively. Calcium volume measurements
      varied strongly during the cardiac cycle. The dynamic annulus area was behaving
      differently between mildly and severely calcified subgroups (p = 0.02).
      Furthermore, patients with severe aortic calcification were associated with
      larger annulus diameters. CONCLUSION: There is a significant variation of annulus
      area and calcium volume measurement during the cardiac cycle. In our
      measurements, only the dynamic variation of the annulus area is dependent on the
      severity of the aortic calcification. For TAVI candidates, the annulus area is
      significantly larger in mid-systole compared to end-diastole.

PMID- 28886072
TI  - Stakeholder perspectives for optimization of tuberculosis contact investigation
      in a high-burden setting.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Optimal tuberculosis contact investigation impacts TB prevention,
      timely case finding and linkage to care, however data on routine implementation
      in high burden contexts is limited. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a multi-method
      qualitative study based on individual interviews with TB patients, facility
      observations and focus group discussions with health workers (HWs) in 13 public
      health facilities, and key informant interviews with governmental and non
      governmental experts, we describe TB contact investigation in the context of an
      urban setting in Kenya and identify opportunities for optimization. RESULTS:
      Invitation of TB patients to bring close contacts by HWs was key for all patient
      decisions that led to contact screening in addition to patients' understanding of
      TB transmission and desire to avoid contacts suffering from TB. Sub-optimal HW
      enquiry of TB patients and contacts presenting at the facility were missed
      opportunities which stemmed from lack of standardized operational procedures,
      documentation tools and HW training. Stakeholders proposed provision of fast
      tracked and holistic health packages for contacts seeking TB screening, and
      sustainable government led funding for the requisite infrastructure and
      workforce. CONCLUSION: TB contact invitation by HWs leading to contact screening
      occurs in this context. Stakeholder perspectives inform the design of an
      operational framework for optimized delivery.

PMID- 28886073
TI  - Outcomes of patients with altered level of consciousness and abnormal
      electroencephalogram: A retrospective cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Nonconvulsive seizures (NCS) are frequent in hospitalized patients
      and may further aggravate injury in the already damaged brain, potentially
      worsening outcomes in encephalopathic patients. Therefore, both early seizure
      recognition and treatment have been advocated to prevent further neurological
      damage. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the main EEG patterns seen in patients with impaired
      consciousness and address the effect of treatment with antiepileptic drugs
      (AEDs), continuous intravenous anesthetic drugs (IVADs), or the combination of
      both, on outcomes. METHODS: This was a single center retrospective cohort study
      conducted in a private, tertiary care hospital. Consecutive adult patients with
      altered consciousness submitted to a routine EEG between January 2008 and
      February 2011 were included in this study. Based on EEG pattern, patients were
      assigned to one of three groups: Group Interictal Patterns (IP; EEG showing only
      interictal epileptiform discharges or triphasic waves), Group Rhythmic and
      Periodic Patterns (RPP; at least one EEG with rhythmic or periodic patterns), and
      Group Ictal (Ictal; at least one EEG showing ictal pattern). Groups were compared
      in terms of administered antiepileptic treatment and frequency of unfavorable
      outcomes (modified Rankin scale >=3 and in-hospital mortality). RESULTS: Two
      hundred and six patients (475 EEGs) were included in this analysis. Interictal
      pattern was observed in 35.4% (73/206) of patients, RPP in 53.4% (110/206) and
      ictal in 11.2% (23/206) of patients. Treatment with AEDs, IVADs or a combination
      of both was administered in half of the patients. While all Ictal group patients
      received treatment (AEDs or IVADs), only 24/73 (32.9%) IP group patients and
      55/108 (50.9%) RPP group patients were treated (p<0.001). Hospital length of stay
      (LOS) and frequency of unfavorable outcomes did not differ among the groups. In
      hospital mortality was higher in IVADs treated RPP patients compared to AEDs
      treated RPP patients [11/19 (57.9%) vs. 11/36 (30.6%) patients, respectively, p =
      0.049]. Hospital LOS, in-hospital mortality and frequency of unfavorable outcomes
      did not differ between Ictal patients treated exclusively with AEDs or IVADs.
      CONCLUSION: In patients with acute altered consciousness and abnormal routine
      EEG, antiepileptic treatment did not improve outcomes regardless of the presence
      of periodic, rhythmic or ictal EEG patterns.

PMID- 28886074
TI  - Unique transcriptomic response to sepsis is observed among patients of different
      age groups.
AB  - Sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially at the extremes of
      age. To understand the human age-specific transcriptomic response to sepsis, a
      multi-cohort, pooled analysis was conducted on adults, children, infants, and
      neonates with and without sepsis. Nine public whole-blood gene expression
      datasets (636 patients) were employed. Age impacted the transcriptomic host
      response to sepsis. Gene expression from septic neonates and adults was more
      dissimilar whereas infants and children were more similar. Neonates showed
      reductions in inflammatory recognition and signaling pathways compared to all
      other age groups. Likewise, adults demonstrated decreased pathogen sensing,
      inflammation, and myeloid cell function, as compared to children. This may help
      to explain the increased incidence of sepsis-related organ failure and death in
      adults. The number of dysregulated genes in septic patients was proportional to
      age and significantly differed among septic adults, children, infants, and
      neonates. Overall, children manifested a greater transcriptomic intensity to
      sepsis as compared to the other age groups. The transcriptomic magnitude for
      adults and neonates was dramatically reduced as compared to children and infants.
      These findings suggest that the transcriptomic response to sepsis is age
      dependent, and diagnostic and therapeutic efforts to identify and treat sepsis
      will have to consider age as an important variable.

PMID- 28886075
TI  - Incorporating abundance information and guiding variable selection for climate
      based ensemble forecasting of species' distributional shifts.
AB  - Ecological niche models (ENMs) have increasingly been used to estimate the
      potential effects of climate change on species' distributions worldwide.
      Recently, predictions of species abundance have also been obtained with such
      models, though knowledge about the climatic variables affecting species abundance
      is often lacking. To address this, we used a well-studied guild (temperate North
      American quail) and the Maxent modeling algorithm to compare model performance of
      three variable selection approaches: correlation/variable contribution (CVC),
      biological (i.e., variables known to affect species abundance), and random. We
      then applied the best approach to forecast potential distributions, under future
      climatic conditions, and analyze future potential distributions in light of
      available abundance data and presence-only occurrence data. To estimate species'
      distributional shifts we generated ensemble forecasts using four global
      circulation models, four representative concentration pathways, and two time
      periods (2050 and 2070). Furthermore, we present distributional shifts where 75%,
      90%, and 100% of our ensemble models agreed. The CVC variable selection approach
      outperformed our biological approach for four of the six species. Model
      projections indicated species-specific effects of climate change on future
      distributions of temperate North American quail. The Gambel's quail (Callipepla
      gambelii) was the only species predicted to gain area in climatic suitability
      across all three scenarios of ensemble model agreement. Conversely, the scaled
      quail (Callipepla squamata) was the only species predicted to lose area in
      climatic suitability across all three scenarios of ensemble model agreement. Our
      models projected future loss of areas for the northern bobwhite (Colinus
      virginianus) and scaled quail in portions of their distributions which are
      currently areas of high abundance. Climatic variables that influence local
      abundance may not always scale up to influence species' distributions. Special
      attention should be given to selecting variables for ENMs, and tests of model
      performance should be used to validate the choice of variables.

PMID- 28886076
TI  - Lower frequency of TLR9 variant associated with protection from breast cancer
      among African Americans.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is an innate immune system DNA-receptor
      that regulates tumor invasion and immunity in vitro. Low tumor TLR9 expression
      has been associated with poor survival in Caucasian patients with triple negative
      breast cancer (TNBC). African American (AA) patients with TNBC have worse
      prognosis than Caucasians but whether this is due to differences in tumor biology
      remains controversial. We studied the prognostic significance of tumor Toll like
      receptor-9 (TLR9) protein expression among African American (AA) triple negative
      breast cancer (TNBC) patients. Germline TLR9 variants in European Americans (EAs)
      and AAs were investigated, to determine their contribution to AA breast cancer
      risk. METHODS: TLR9 expression was studied with immunohistochemistry in archival
      tumors. Exome Variant Server and The Cancer Genome Atlas were used to determine
      the genetic variation in the general EA and AA populations, and AA breast cancer
      cases. Minor allele frequencies (MAFs) were compared between EAs (n = 4300), AAs
      (n = 2203), and/or AA breast cancer cases (n = 131). RESULTS: Thirty-two TLR9
      variants had a statistically significant MAF difference between general EAs and
      AAs. Twenty-one of them affect a CpG site. Rs352140, a variant previously
      associated with protection from breast cancer, is more common in EAs than AAs (p
      = 2.20E-16). EAs had more synonymous alleles, while AAs had more rare coding
      alleles. Similar analyses comparing AA breast cancer cases with AA controls did
      not reveal any variant class differences; however, three previously unreported
      TLR9 variants were associated with late onset breast cancer. Although not
      statistically significant, rs352140 was observed less frequently in AA cases
      compared to controls. Tumor TLR9 protein expression was not associated with
      prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor TLR9 expression is not associated with prognosis in
      AA TNBC. Significant differences were detected in TLR9 variant MAFs between EAs
      and AAs. They may affect TLR9 expression and function. Rs352140, which may
      protect from breast cancer, is 1.6 X more common among EAs. These findings call
      for a detailed analysis of the contribution of TLR9 to breast cancer
      pathophysiology and health disparities.

PMID- 28886077
TI  - Exploration of ethno-medicinal knowledge among rural communities of Pearl Valley;
      Rawalakot, District Poonch Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Medicinal plants are the basic source of health care in the Pearl
      Valley District Poonch, Azad Jammu, and Kashmir. The basic aim of present study
      was to record information about the use of plants in herbal preparation and
      quantification of recorded data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research was
      conducted with the null hypothesis that there was no differential distribution of
      knowledge among the communities between genders and among different age groups in
      the study area and across cultural medicinal uses of the plants are similar. To
      check these hypotheses information about medicinal plants was collected from 46
      laypeople and 18 herbalists by using an open ended and semistructured
      questionnaire. Different ethnobotanical indices were calculated in order to
      quantify the knowledge on the medicinal plants reported in the study. RESULTS:
      Our study recorded 136 species of medicinal plants belonging to 45 families with
      Asteraceae (14 species) as the dominant family of the area. Decoction (26
      species), juice and powder (24 species each) were most common methods of
      preparation. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that age and gender had the
      significant effect on both numbers of mentioned species and different uses. A
      number of known medicinal plants and the number of different uses (H: 38.51; p <
      0.001) differ significantly as indicated by Kruskal-Wallis tests. These results
      showed that the knowledge about the plant varies among different age groups,
      which were the first hypothesis of the present study. The highest use values
      (UVs) were reported for Berberis lyceum and Ajuga bracteosa (1.13 each) followed
      by Abies pindrow (1.03). Highest informant consensus factor (ICF) values were
      recorded for digestive system diseases (ICF = 0.90) and muscular and skeletal
      system diseases (ICF = 0.89). The value of Jaccarad index ranged from 6.11 to
      32.97 with an average value of 19.84, percentage of similarity was highest
      between study area and Pir Lasura National Park (34.62%). CONCLUSION: High
      similarity might be due to the fact that the communities living in these areas
      have same sociocultural values and have more opportunities to exchange their
      traditional knowledge. The present study provides practical evidence about the
      use of medicinal plants among the inhabitants of the Pearl Valley.

PMID- 28886078
TI  - MicroRNA-223 and microRNA-21 in peripheral blood B cells associated with
      progression of primary biliary cholangitis patients.
AB  - Recently, there is ample evidence suggesting the important role of microRNAs
      (miRNAs) in autoimmune diseases via modulating B cells function. Primary biliary
      cholangitis (PBC) is a progressive immune-mediated liver disease with unclear
      pathogenic mechanism. Whether the miRNA in peripheral B cells of PBC involve the
      mechanisms of pathology and progression is not known. The present study explores
      miRNA deregulation in peripheral B-cell of PBC from stage I to IV and healthy
      controls. Peripheral B cells were obtained from 72 PBC patients (stage I, n = 17;
      stage II, n = 23; stage III, n = 16; stage IV, n = 16) and 15 healthy controls.
      Initially, in a discovery study, miRNA array analysis was performed,
      subsequently, in a validation study, quantitative PCR was used to investigate
      miRNA expression profile in B cells of PBS patients compared to healthy controls.
      Based on bioinformatics analysis, we identified the potential biological
      processes and significant signaling pathways affected by these microRNAs, and
      generated the microRNA-gene network. The discovery study identified 558 miRNAs
      differentially expressed in B cells of PBC patients compared to controls.
      Interestingly, among all differentially expressed miRNAs, hsa-miR-223-3p and hsa
      miR-21-5p were the only miRNAs that showed consistent and significant down
      regulation from stage I to stage III of PBC. Bioinformatics showed that potential
      target genes of both miRNAs involved in migration, cell differentiation,
      apoptosis, and signal transduction pathways. In conclusion, our results suggest
      that the expression profiles of miRNA in peripheral B cells of PBC patients are
      closely associated with the disease progression, especially the down-regulation
      of hsa-miR-223-3p and hsa-miR-21-5p. Taken together, our study offers novel
      perspectives on the role of miRNAs in PBC pathogenesis.

PMID- 28886079
TI  - Associations between lower-limb muscle activation and knee flexion in post-stroke
      individuals: A study on the stance-to-swing phases of gait.
AB  - Reduced knee flexion is a leading feature of post-stroke gait, but the causes
      have not been well understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the
      relationship between the knee flexion and the lower-limb muscle activation within
      the stance-to-swing phases of gait cycle in the post-stroke hemiplegic patients.
      Ten stroke patients and 10 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects participated
      in the experiment. The lower-limb kinematic signals and the surface
      electromyography (sEMG) signals of the left and right rectus femoris (RF), biceps
      femoris (BF) and lateral gastrocnemius (GS) were recorded during walking. The
      angle range (AR) of knee flexion, the root mean square (RMS) and the mean
      frequency (MNF) of sEMG signals were calculated from the terminal stance (TSt) to
      the initial swing (ISw) phases of gait cycle. Stroke patients showed lower
      bilateral AR of knee flexion and lower RMS of GS on the paretic side, but higher
      MNF of RF on the non-paretic side compared with the controls. Within the stroke
      patients, significant differences were found between their paretic and non
      paretic limbs in the AR of knee flexion, as well as in the RMS and MNF of GS (p <
      0.05). Regression analysis showed that the RMS of BF, MNF of BF and MNF of GS
      explained 82.1% of variations in AR of knee flexion on paretic side (r2 = 0.821).
      But the RMS and MNF of all the muscles (including the RF, GS and BF) could
      explain 65.6% of AR of knee flexion variations on the non-paretic side (r2 =
      0.656), and 45.2% of variations for the healthy subjects (r2 = 0.452). The
      reduced knee flexion during gait was associated with altered magnitude and
      frequency of muscle contractions and with simplified muscle synergy in the post
      stroke hemiplegic patients. Identifying the muscles that are responsible for knee
      stiffness may facilitate improvement of rehabilitation strategy for post-stroke
      gait.

PMID- 28886080
TI  - Stalk formation of Brevundimonas and how it compares to Caulobacter crescentus.
AB  - The Caulobacter crescentus cell extension known as a stalk represents an unusual
      bacterial morphology. C. crescentus produces stalks under multiple nutrient
      conditions, but the length of the stalk is increased in response to phosphate
      starvation. However, the exact function of the stalk is not known, nor is it
      known how much stalk biogenesis or function is conserved with other stalked
      bacteria. Work presented here shows that many organisms in the Caulobacter genus
      and the next closest genus (Brevundimonas) generally do not synthesize stalks in
      the relatively-rich PYE growth medium, suggesting that the synthesis of a stalk
      under nutrient-rich conditions by C. crescentus may be the exception instead of
      the norm among its phylogenetic group. Brevundimonas subvibrioides can be induced
      to synthesize stalks by genetically mimicking phosphate starvation conditions,
      indicating stalk synthesis in this organism may be performed on an as-need basis.
      This mutation, however, does not appear to increase the incidence of holdfast
      synthesis. While B. subvibrioides stalks appear to be synthesized with the same
      polarity with respect to holdfast as C. crescentus stalks, evidence is presented
      that suggests B. subvibrioides may disassemble stalks when they are no longer
      needed. Many homologs of C. crescentus genes encoding stalk-associated proteins
      are absent in the B. subvibrioides genome, and B. subvibrioides PstA-GFP as well
      as C. crescentus StpX-GFP are able to enter the B. subvibrioides stalk
      compartment, calling into question the level of compartmentalization of the B.
      subvibrioides stalk. In summary, this work begins to address how much the C.
      crescentus model for this unusual morphological adaptation can be extended to
      related organisms.

PMID- 28886081
TI  - Orexin A affects HepG2 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells glucose metabolism
      via HIF-1alpha-dependent and -independent mechanism.
AB  - Orexins are hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate feeding, reward, wakefulness
      and energy homeostasis. The present study sought to characterize the involvement
      of orexin A in glucose metabolism in HepG2 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells,
      and investigated the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) in the
      response. HepG2 cells were exposed to different concentrations of orexin A (10-9
      to 10-7 M) in vitro, without or with the orexin receptor 1 (OX1R) inhibitor
      (SB334867), HIF-1alpha inhibitor (YC-1) or a combination of both inhibitors.
      Subsequently, OX1R, HIF-1alpha expression and localization, glucose uptake,
      glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) expression and ATP content were measured. We
      further investigated the intracellular fate of glucose by measuring the gene
      expression of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1), lactate dehydrogenase
      (LDHA) and pyruvate dehydrogenase B (PDHB), as well as metabolite levels
      including lactate generation and mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH)
      activity. The activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mammalian target
      of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway was also assessed. Our results showed that the
      expression of OX1R was predominantly located in the nucleus in HepG2 cells.
      Orexin A oxygen-independently promoted the mRNA and protein expression of HIF
      1alpha as well as its nuclear accumulation in HepG2 cells and the elevated HIF
      1alpha protein was associated, at least partly, with the activation of the
      PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Orexin A stimulated GLUT1 expression, glucose uptake as
      well as ATP generation in HepG2 cells via OX1R acting through the HIF-1alpha
      pathway. Moreover, orexin A inhibited LDHA, PDK1 expression and lactate
      production, stimulated PDHB expression and PDH enzyme activity independent of HIF
      1alpha. Our results indicated that orexin signaling facilitated the glucose flux
      into mitochondrial oxidative metabolism rather than glycolysis in HepG2 cells.
      These findings provide new insight into the regulation of glucose metabolism by
      orexin A in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

PMID- 28886082
TI  - Haloperidol induces pharmacoepigenetic response by modulating miRNA expression,
      global DNA methylation and expression profiles of methylation maintenance genes
      and genes involved in neurotransmission in neuronal cells.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Haloperidol has been extensively used in various psychiatric
      conditions. It has also been reported to induce severe side effects. We aimed to
      evaluate whether haloperidol can influence host methylome, and if so what are the
      possible mechanisms for it in neuronal cells. Impact on host methylome and miRNAs
      can have wide spread alterations in gene expression, which might possibly help in
      understanding how haloperidol may impact treatment response or induce side
      effects. METHODS: SK-N-SH, a neuroblasoma cell line was treated with haloperidol
      at 10MUm concentration for 24 hours and global DNA methylation was evaluated.
      Methylation at global level is maintained by methylation maintenance machinery
      and certain miRNAs. Therefore, the expression of methylation maintenance genes
      and their putative miRNA expression profiles were assessed. These global
      methylation alterations could result in gene expression changes. Therefore genes
      expressions for neurotransmitter receptors, regulators, ion channels and
      transporters were determined. Subsequently, we were also keen to identify a
      strong candidate miRNA based on biological and in-silico approach which can
      reflect on the pharmacoepigenetic trait of haloperidol and can also target the
      altered neuroscience panel of genes used in the study. RESULTS: Haloperidol
      induced increase in global DNA methylation which was found to be associated with
      corresponding increase in expression of various epigenetic modifiers that include
      DNMT1, DNMT3A, DNMT3B and MBD2. The expression of miR-29b that is known to
      putatively regulate the global methylation by modulating the expression of
      epigenetic modifiers was observed to be down regulated by haloperidol. In
      addition to miR-29b, miR-22 was also found to be downregulated by haloperidol
      treatment. Both these miRNA are known to putatively target several genes
      associated with various epigenetic modifiers, pharmacogenes and
      neurotransmission. Interestingly some of these putative target genes involved in
      neurotransmission were observed to be upregulated while CHRM2 gene expression was
      down regulated. CONCLUSIONS: Haloperidol can influence methylation traits thereby
      inducing a pharmacoepigenomic response, which seems to be regulated by DNMTs and
      their putative miRNA expression. Increased methylation seems to influence CHRM2
      gene expression while microRNA could influence neurotransmission, pharmacogene
      expression and methylation events. Altered expression of various therapeutically
      relevant genes and miRNA expression, could account for their role in therapeutic
      response or side effects.

PMID- 28886083
TI  - Nurse-led telephone-based follow-up of secondary prevention after acute coronary
      syndrome: One-year results from the randomized controlled NAILED-ACS trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Secondary prevention after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) could reduce
      morbidity and mortality, but guideline targets are seldom reached. We
      hypothesized that nurse-led telephone-based intervention would increase
      adherence. METHODS: The NAILED ACS trial is a prospective, controlled, randomized
      trial. Patients admitted for ACS at Ostersund hospital, Sweden, were randomized
      to usual follow-up by a general practitioner or a nurse-led intervention. The
      intervention comprised telephone follow-up after 1 month and then yearly with
      lifestyle counselling and titration of medications until reaching target values
      for LDL-C (<2.5 mmol/L) and blood pressure (BP; <140/90 mmHg) or set targets were
      deemed unachievable. This is a 12-month exploratory analysis of the intervention.
      RESULTS: A total of 768 patients (396 intervention, 372 control) completed the 12
      month follow-up. After titration at the 1-month follow-up, mean LDL-C was 0.38
      mmol/L (95% CI 0.28 to 0.48, p<0.05), mean systolic BP 7 mmHg (95% CI 4.5 to 9.2,
      p<0.05), and mean diastolic BP 4 mmHg (95% CI 2.4 to 4.1, p<0.05) lower in the
      intervention group. Target values for LDL-C and systolic BP were met by 94.1% and
      91.9% of intervention patients and 68.4% and 65.6% of controls (p<0.05). At 12
      months, mean LDL was 0.3 mmol/L (95% CI 0.1 to 0.4, p <0.05), systolic BP 1.5
      mmHg (95% CI -1.0 to 4.1, p = 0.24), and mean diastolic BP 2.1 mmHg (95% CI 0.6
      to 3.6, p <0.05) lower in the intervention group. Target values for LDL-C and
      systolic BP were met in 77.7% and 68.9% of intervention patients and 63.2% and
      63.7% of controls (p<0.05 and p = 0.125). CONCLUSION: Nurse-led telephone-based
      secondary prevention was significantly more efficient at improving LDL-C and
      diastolic BP levels than usual care. The effect of the intervention declined
      between 1 and 12 months. Further evaluation of the persistence to the
      intervention is needed.

PMID- 28886084
TI  - An in vitro simulation method for the tribological assessment of complete natural
      hip joints.
AB  - The use of hip joint simulators to evaluate the tribological performance of total
      hip replacements is widely reported in the literature, however, in vitro
      simulation studies investigating the tribology of the natural hip joint are
      limited with heterogeneous methodologies reported. An in vitro simulation system
      for the complete natural hip joint, enabling the acetabulum and femoral head to
      be positioned with different orientations whilst maintaining the correct joint
      centre of rotation, was successfully developed for this study. The efficacy of
      the simulation system was assessed by testing complete, matched natural porcine
      hip joints and porcine hip hemiarthroplasty joints in a pendulum friction
      simulator. The results showed evidence of biphasic lubrication, with a non-linear
      increase in friction being observed in both groups. Lower overall mean friction
      factor values in the complete natural joint group that increased at a lower rate
      over time, suggest that the exudation of fluid and transition to solid phase
      lubrication occurred more slowly in the complete natural hip joint compared to
      the hip hemiarthroplasty joint. It is envisaged that this methodology will be
      used to investigate morphological risk factors for developing hip osteoarthritis,
      as well as the effectiveness of early interventional treatments for degenerative
      hip disease.

PMID- 28886085
TI  - Meibomian gland features in a Norwegian cohort of patients with primary Sjogren's
      syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: To assess the tear film and meibomian gland (MG) features in a Norwegian
      cohort of patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) and in age- and gender
      matched control subjects. METHODS: Thirty-four female patients with pSS (age
      52.9+/-11.9 years) and 32 female control subjects (age 49.0+/-11.5 years) were
      recruited. After completion of Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire
      and McMonnies Dry Eye Questionaire, participants underwent measurements of tear
      osmolarity, tear break-up time (TBUT), ocular surface and corneal staining,
      Schirmer I test, corneal sensitivity, MG expressibility evaluations, and lid
      margin morphology examination using slitlamp microscopy. Non-contact infrared
      meibography images were assessed by computer-assisted analysis. The MG loss,
      calculated as (tarsal area-MG area)/tarsal area, was evaluated in both upper (UL)
      and lower lids (LL). RESULTS: Compared to the control group, pSS patients
      demonstrated higher MG loss in both UL (33.8+/-13.2% vs. 24.4+/-8.5%, p< 0.01)
      and LL (52.5+/-15.7% vs. 43.0+/-9.6%, p<0.05), as well as higher lid abnormality
      score (0.8+/-0.8 vs. 0.2+/-0.6, p< 0.01). Furthermore, pSS patients showed higher
      OSDI and McMonnies questionnaire scores, elevated osmolarity, shorter TBUT,
      shorter blink interval, less wetting in Schirmer I test, more ocular surface
      staining and more corneal staining. MG loss in UL correlated negatively with TBUT
      (r = -0.386, p = 0.029) in the pSS group, whereas MG loss in LL correlated
      negatively with TBUT (r = -0.380, p = 0.035) in the control group. CONCLUSIONS:
      Significantly elevated dry eye symptoms and signs were found in the pSS group
      compared with the control group, which might be attributed to both decreased
      aqueous tear production and increased tear evaporation.

PMID- 28886087
TI  - Hong Kong Hospital Authority resource efficiency evaluation: Via a novel DEA
      Malmquist model and Tobit regression model.
AB  - The Hospital Authority (HA) is a statutory body managing all the public hospitals
      and institutes in Hong Kong (HK). In recent decades, Hong Kong Hospital Authority
      (HKHA) has been making efforts to improve the healthcare services, but there
      still exist some problems like unfair resource allocation and poor management, as
      reported by the Hong Kong medical legislative committee. One critical consequence
      of these problems is low healthcare efficiency of hospitals, leading to low
      satisfaction among patients. Moreover, HKHA also suffers from the conflict
      between limited resource and growing demand. An effective evaluation of HA is
      important for resource planning and healthcare decision making. In this paper, we
      propose a two-phase method to evaluate HA efficiency for reducing healthcare
      expenditure and improving healthcare service. Specifically, in Phase I, we
      measure the HKHA efficiency changes from 2000 to 2013 by applying a novel DEA
      Malmquist index with undesirable factors. In Phase II, we further explore the
      impact of some exogenous factors (e.g., population density) on HKHA efficiency by
      Tobit regression model. Empirical results show that there are significant
      differences between the efficiencies of different hospitals and clusters. In
      particular, it is found that the public hospital serving in a richer district has
      a relatively lower efficiency. To a certain extent, this reflects the
      socioeconomic reality in HK that people with better economic condition prefers
      receiving higher quality service from the private hospitals.

PMID- 28886086
TI  - Xenon for tunnelling analysis of the efflux pump component OprN.
AB  - Tripartite efflux pumps are among the main actors responsible for antibiotics
      resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. In the last two decades, structural studies
      gave crucial information about the assembly interfaces and the mechanistic
      motions. Thus rigidifying the assembly seems to be an interesting way to hamper
      the drug efflux. In this context, xenon is a suitable probe for checking whether
      small ligands could act as conformational lockers by targeting hydrophobic
      cavities. Here we focus on OprN, the outer membrane channel of the MexEF efflux
      pump from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. After exposing OprN crystals to xenon gas
      pressure, 14 binding sites were observed using X-ray crystallography. These
      binding sites were unambiguously characterized in hydrophobic cavities of OprN.
      The major site is observed in the sensitive iris-like region gating the channel
      at the periplasmic side, built by the three key-residues Leu 405, Asp 109, and
      Arg 412. This arrangement defines along the tunnel axis a strong
      hydrophobic/polar gradient able to enhance the passive efflux mechanism of OprN.
      The other xenon atoms reveal strategic hydrophobic regions of the channel
      scaffold to target, with the aim to freeze the dynamic movements responsible of
      the open/close conformational equilibrium in OprN.

PMID- 28886088
TI  - An empirical research on relationships between subjective judgement, technology
      acceptance tendency and knowledge transfer.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among employees' usage
      intention pertaining to mobile information devices, focusing on subjective
      judgement, technology acceptance tendency, information sharing behavior and
      information transfer. A research model was established to verify several
      hypotheses. The research model based on integrated concepts of knowledge
      management and technology acceptance modeling. Participants were employees of
      enterprises in Taiwan, selected by combining snowball and convenience sampling.
      Data obtained from 779 e-surveys. Multiple-regression analysis was employed for
      hypothesis verification. The results indicate that perceived ease-of-use of
      mobile devices was affected by computer self-efficacy and computer playfulness
      directly; meanwhile, perceived ease-of-use directly affects perceived usefulness.
      In addition, perceived ease-of-use and perceived usefulness can predict
      information-sharing behavior in a positive manner, and impact knowledge transfer
      as well. Based on the research findings, it suggested that enterprises should
      utilize mobile information devices to create more contact with customers and
      enrich their service network. In addition, it is recommended that managers use
      mobile devices to transmit key information to their staff and that they use these
      devices for problem-solving and decision-making. Further, the staff's skills
      pertaining to the operation of mobile information devices and to fully implement
      their features are reinforced in order to inspire the users' knowledge transfer.
      Enhancing the playfulness of the interface is also important. In general, it is
      useful to promote knowledge transfer behavior within an organization by
      motivating members to share information and ideas via mobile information devices.
      In addition, a well-designed interface can facilitate employees' use of these
      devices.

PMID- 28886089
TI  - Drug exposure in register-based research-An expert-opinion based evaluation of
      methods.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In register-based pharmacoepidemiological studies, construction of
      drug exposure periods from drug purchases is a major methodological challenge.
      Various methods have been applied but their validity is rarely evaluated. Our
      objective was to conduct an expert-opinion based evaluation of the correctness of
      drug use periods produced by different methods. METHODS: Drug use periods were
      calculated with three fixed methods: time windows, assumption of one Defined
      Daily Dose (DDD) per day and one tablet per day, and with PRE2DUP that is based
      on modelling of individual drug purchasing behavior. Expert-opinion based
      evaluation was conducted with 200 randomly selected purchase histories of
      warfarin, bisoprolol, simvastatin, risperidone and mirtazapine in the MEDALZ-2005
      cohort (28,093 persons with Alzheimer's disease). Two experts reviewed purchase
      histories and judged which methods had joined correct purchases and gave correct
      duration for each of 1000 drug exposure periods. RESULTS: The evaluated
      correctness of drug use periods was 70-94% for PRE2DUP, and depending on grace
      periods and time window lengths 0-73% for tablet methods, 0-41% for DDD methods
      and 0-11% for time window methods. The highest rate of evaluated correct
      solutions for each method class were observed for 1 tablet per day with 180 days
      grace period (TAB_1_180, 43-73%), and 1 DDD per day with 180 days grace period (1
      41%). Time window methods produced at maximum only 11% correct solutions. The
      best performing fixed method TAB_1_180 reached highest correctness for
      simvastatin 73% (95% CI 65-81%) whereas 89% (95% CI 84-94%) of PRE2DUP periods
      were judged as correct. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows inaccuracy of fixed methods
      and the urgent need for new data-driven methods. In the expert-opinion based
      evaluation, the lowest error rates were observed with data-driven method PRE2DUP.

PMID- 28886090
TI  - Relation of accommodative microfluctuation with dry eye symptoms in short tear
      break-up time dry eye.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate accommodative microfluctuations (AMFs) and visual
      function in short tear break-up time (BUT)-type dry eye (DE) and non-DE subjects.
      METHODS: This prospective comparative study included 48 volunteers with DE
      symptoms (mean age 34.8 +/- 5.5 years, age range 25-42 years) and 73 without DE
      symptoms (mean age 30.6 +/- 4.7 years, age range 25-42 years). The eyes were
      divided into two groups: (1) DE group with DE symptoms and BUT <= 5 s and (2) non
      DE group without DE symptoms and BUT > 5 s. We excluded eyes with Schirmer score
      <= 5 mm and positive keratoconjunctival epithelial damage. Tear evaluation, AMF,
      and functional visual acuity (VA) examinations were performed. AMF parameters
      included total high-frequency component (HFC), HFC with low accommodation for the
      task of staring into the distance (HFC1), and HFC with high accommodation for
      deskwork (HFC2). Functional VA parameters included starting VA, functional VA,
      visual maintenance ratio, and blink frequency. RESULTS: A total of 33 and 34 eyes
      were categorized in the DE and non-DE groups, respectively. Mean blink frequency
      and HFC1 values were significantly higher in the DE group than they were in the
      non-DE group. CONCLUSIONS: DEs with symptoms showed abnormal AMF and visual
      function, which may be associated with DE symptoms.

PMID- 28886091
TI  - A study of the structural properties of sites modified by the O-linked 6-N
      acetylglucosamine transferase.
AB  - Protein O-GlcNAcylation (O-GlcNAc) is an essential post-translational
      modification (PTM) in higher eukaryotes. The O-linked beta-N-acetylglucosamine
      transferase (OGT), targets specific Serines and Threonines (S/T) in intracellular
      proteins. However, unlike phosphorylation, fewer than 25% of known O-GlcNAc sites
      match a clear sequence pattern. Accordingly, the three-dimensional structures of
      O-GlcNAc sites were characterised to investigate the role of structure in
      molecular recognition. From 1,584 O-GlcNAc sites in 620 proteins, 143 were mapped
      to protein structures determined by X-ray crystallography. The modified S/T were
      1.7 times more likely to be annotated in the REM465 field which defines missing
      residues in a protein structure, while 7 O-GlcNAc sites were solvent inaccessible
      and unlikely to be targeted by OGT. 132 sites with complete backbone atoms
      clustered into 10 groups, but these were indistinguishable from clusters from
      unmodified S/T. This suggests there is no prevalent three-dimensional motif for
      OGT recognition. Predicted features from the 620 proteins were compared to
      unmodified S/T in O-GlcNAcylated proteins and globular proteins. The Jpred4
      predicted secondary structure shows that modified S/T were more likely to be
      coils. 5/6 methods to predict intrinsic disorder indicated O-GlcNAcylated S/T to
      be significantly more disordered than unmodified S/T. Although the analysis did
      not find a pattern in the site three-dimensional structure, it revealed the
      residues around the modification site are likely to be disordered and suggests a
      potential role of secondary structure elements in OGT site recognition.

PMID- 28886092
TI  - Prediction of long-term outcomes of HIV-infected patients developing non-AIDS
      events using a multistate approach.
AB  - OBJETIVES: Outcomes of people living with HIV (PLWH) developing non-AIDS events
      (NAEs) remain poorly defined. We aimed to classify NAEs according to severity,
      and to describe clinical outcomes and prognostic factors after NAE occurrence
      using data from CoRIS, a large Spanish HIV cohort from 2004 to 2013. DESIGN:
      Prospective multicenter cohort study. METHODS: Using a multistate approach we
      estimated 3 transition probabilities: from alive and NAE-free to alive and NAE
      experienced ("NAE development"); from alive and NAE-experienced to death ("Death
      after NAE"); and from alive and NAE-free to death ("Death without NAE"). We
      analyzed the effect of different covariates, including demographic, immunologic
      and virologic data, on death or NAE development, based on estimates of hazard
      ratios (HR). We focused on the transition "Death after NAE". RESULTS: 8,789 PLWH
      were followed-up until death, cohort censoring or loss to follow-up. 792 first
      incident NAEs occurred in 9.01% PLWH (incidence rate 28.76; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 26.80-30.84, per 1000 patient-years). 112 (14.14%) NAE-experienced
      PLWH and 240 (2.73%) NAE-free PLWH died. Adjusted HR for the transition "Death
      after NAE" was 12.1 (95%CI, 4.90-29.89). There was a graded increase in the
      adjusted HRs for mortality according to NAE severity category: HR (95%CI), 4.02
      (2.45-6.57) for intermediate-severity; and 9.85 (5.45-17.81) for serious NAEs
      compared to low-severity NAEs. Male sex (HR 2.04; 95% CI, 1.11-3.84), age>50
      years (1.78, 1.08-2.94), hepatitis C-coinfection (2.52, 1.38-4.61), lower CD4
      cell count at cohort entry (HR 2.49; 95%CI 1.20-5.14 for CD4 cell count below 200
      and HR 2.16; 95%CI 1.01-4.66 for CD4 cell count between 200-350, both compared to
      CD4 cell count higher than 500) and concomitant CD4<200 cells/mL (2.22, 1.42
      3.44) were associated with death after NAE. CD4 count and HIV-1 RNA at
      engagement, previous AIDS and hepatitis C-coinfection predicted mortality in NAE
      free persons. CONCLUSION: NAEs, including low-severity events, increase
      prominently the risk for mortality in PLWH. Prognostic factors differ between NAE
      experienced and NAE-free persons. These findings should be taken into account in
      the clinical management of PLWH developing NAEs and may permit more targeted
      prevention efforts.

PMID- 28886094
TI  - Investigating the multivariate nature of NHL player performance with structural
      equation modeling.
AB  - Hockey is a complex and multifaceted game, yet many of the statistical tools used
      to evaluate performance are univariate. To garner a better understanding of
      hockey's multifaceted nature, two structural equation models (SEMs) assessing the
      interrelations between offense, defense, and possession were built from three
      seasons of NHL data. Overall, it was found that the concepts of offense, defense,
      and possession are best understood via a small constellation of measured
      variables, and that offense mediates the relationship between possession and
      defense such that higher levels of offense leads to poorer defensive performance.
      These findings are discussed within the context of ranking player performance.

PMID- 28886093
TI  - Comparison of risk classification between EndoPredict and MammaPrint in ER
      positive/HER2-negative primary invasive breast cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the concordance in risk classification between the
      EndoPredict and the MammaPrint scores obtained for the same cancer samples on 40
      estrogen-receptor positive/HER2-negative breast carcinomas. METHODS: Formalin
      fixed, paraffin-embedded invasive breast carcinoma tissues that were previously
      analyzed with MammaPrint as part of routine care of the patients, and were
      classified as high-risk (20 patients) and low-risk (20 patients), were selected
      to be analyzed by the EndoPredict assay, a second generation gene expression test
      that combines expression of 8 genes (EP score) with two clinicopathological
      variables (tumor size and nodal status, EPclin score). RESULTS: The EP score
      classified 15 patients as low-risk and 25 patients as high-risk. EPclin re
      classified 5 of the 25 EP high-risk patients into low-risk, resulting in a total
      of 20 high-risk and 20 low-risk tumors. EP score and MammaPrint score were
      significantly correlated (p = 0.008). Twelve of 20 samples classified as low-risk
      by MammaPrint were also low-risk by EP score (60%). 17 of 20 MammaPrint high-risk
      tumors were also high-risk by EP score. The overall concordance between EP score
      and MammaPrint was 72.5% (kappa = 0.45, (95% CI, 0.182 to 0.718)). EPclin score
      also correlated with MammaPrint results (p = 0.004). Discrepancies between both
      tests occurred in 10 cases: 5 MammaPrint low-risk patients were classified as
      EPclin high-risk and 5 high-risk MammaPrint were classified as low-risk by EPclin
      and overall concordance of 75% (kappa = 0.5, (95% CI, 0.232 to 0.768)).
      CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study demonstrates a limited concordance between
      MammaPrint and EndoPredict. Differences in results could be explained by the
      inclusion of different gene sets in each platform, the use of different
      methodology, and the inclusion of clinicopathological parameters, such as tumor
      size and nodal status, in the EndoPredict test.

PMID- 28886096
TI  - Success of a weight loss plan for overweight dogs: The results of an
      international weight loss study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Obesity is a global concern in dogs with an increasing prevalence,
      and effective weight loss solutions are required that work in different
      geographical regions. The main objective was to conduct an international, multi
      centre, weight loss trial to determine the efficacy of a dietary weight loss
      intervention in obese pet dogs. METHODS: A 3-month prospective observational
      cohort study of weight loss in 926 overweight dogs was conducted at 340
      veterinary practices in 27 countries. Commercially available dry or wet weight
      loss diets were used, with the initial energy allocation being 250-335 kJ/kg
      target body weight0.75/day (60-80 kcal/kg target body weight0.75/day) depending
      on sex and neuter status. The primary outcome measure was percentage weight loss;
      the main secondary outcomes were changes in activity, quality of life, and food
      seeking behaviour, which were subjectively determined from owner descriptions.
      RESULTS: At baseline, median (range) age was 74 (12 to 193) months and median
      body condition score was 8 (range 7-9). 896 of the 926 dogs (97%) lost weight,
      with mean weight loss being 11.4 +/-5.84%. Sexually intact dogs lost more weight
      than neutered dogs (P = 0.001), whilst female dogs lost more weight than male
      dogs (P = 0.007), with the difference being more pronounced in North and South
      American dogs (median [Q1, Q3]: female: 11.5% [8.5%, 14.5%]; male: 9.1% [6.3%,
      12.1%], P = 0.053) compared with those from Europe (female: 12.3% [8.9%, 14.9%];
      male: 10.9% [8.6%, 15.4%]). Finally, subjective scores for activity (P<0.001) and
      quality of life (P<0.001) increased sequentially, whilst scores for food-seeking
      behaviour decreased sequentially (P<0.001) during the study. CONCLUSION: This is
      the largest international multi-centre weight loss study conducted to date in
      obese dogs. Most dogs lost a clinically significant amount of weight, although
      there were notable differences between dogs of different sex, neuter status and
      in different geographical locations.

PMID- 28886095
TI  - Reduced Slc1a1 expression is associated with neuroinflammation and impaired
      sensorimotor gating and cognitive performance in mice: Implications for
      schizophrenia.
AB  - We previously reported a 84-Kb hemi-deletion copy number variant at the SLC1A1
      gene locus that reduces its expression and appeared causally linked to
      schizophrenia. In this report, we characterize the in vivo and in vitro
      consequences of reduced expression of Slc1a1 in mice. Heterozygous (HET) Slc1a1+/
      mice, which more closely model the hemi-deletion we found in human subjects,
      were examined in a series of behavioral, anatomical and biochemical assays.
      Knockout (KO) mice were also included in the behavioral studies for comparative
      purposes. Both HET and KO mice exhibited evidence of increased anxiety-like
      behavior, impaired working memory, decreased exploratory activity and impaired
      sensorimotor gating, but no changes in overall locomotor activity. The magnitude
      of changes was approximately equivalent in the HET and KO mice suggesting a
      dominant effect of the haploinsufficiency. Behavioral changes in the HET mice
      were accompanied by reduced thickness of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Whole
      transcriptome RNA-Seq analysis detected expression changes of genes and pathways
      involved in cytokine signaling and synaptic functions in both brain and blood.
      Moreover, the brains of Slc1a1+/- mice displayed elevated levels of oxidized
      glutathione, a trend for increased oxidative DNA damage, and significantly
      increased levels of cytokines. This latter finding was further supported by
      SLC1A1 knockdown and overexpression studies in differentiated human neuroblastoma
      cells, which led to decreased or increased cytokine expression, respectively.
      Taken together, our results suggest that partial loss of the Slc1a1 gene in mice
      causes haploinsufficiency associated with behavioral, histological and
      biochemical changes that reflect an altered redox state and may promote the
      expression of behavioral features and inflammatory states consistent with those
      observed in schizophrenia.

PMID- 28886097
TI  - Population genetics, community of parasites, and resistance to rodenticides in an
      urban brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) population.
AB  - Brown rats are one of the most widespread urban species worldwide. Despite the
      nuisances they induce and their potential role as a zoonotic reservoir, knowledge
      on urban rat populations remains scarce. The main purpose of this study was to
      characterize an urban brown rat population from Chanteraines park (Hauts-de
      Seine, France), with regards to haematology, population genetics, immunogenic
      diversity, resistance to anticoagulant rodenticides, and community of parasites.
      Haematological parameters were measured. Population genetics was investigated
      using 13 unlinked microsatellite loci. Immunogenic diversity was assessed for Mhc
      Drb. Frequency of the Y139F mutation (conferring resistance to rodenticides) and
      two linked microsatellites were studied, concurrently with the presence of
      anticoagulant residues in the liver. Combination of microscopy and molecular
      methods were used to investigate the occurrence of 25 parasites. Statistical
      approaches were used to explore multiple parasite relationships and model
      parasite occurrence. Eighty-six rats were caught. The first haematological data
      for a wild urban R. norvegicus population was reported. Genetic results suggested
      high genetic diversity and connectivity between Chanteraines rats and surrounding
      population(s). We found a high prevalence (55.8%) of the mutation Y139F and
      presence of rodenticide residues in 47.7% of the sampled individuals. The
      parasite species richness was high (16). Seven potential zoonotic pathogens were
      identified, together with a surprisingly high diversity of Leptospira species
      (4). Chanteraines rat population is not closed, allowing gene flow and making
      eradication programs challenging, particularly because rodenticide resistance is
      highly prevalent. Parasitological results showed that co-infection is more a rule
      than an exception. Furthermore, the presence of several potential zoonotic
      pathogens, of which four Leptospira species, in this urban rat population raised
      its role in the maintenance and spread of these pathogens. Our findings should
      stimulate future discussions about the development of a long-term rat-control
      management program in Chanteraines urban park.

PMID- 28886098
TI  - Molecular and biochemical responses of hypoxia exposure in Atlantic croaker
      collected from hypoxic regions in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
AB  - A major impact of global climate change has been the marked increase worldwide in
      the incidence of coastal hypoxia (dissolved oxygen, DO<2.0 mg l-1). However, the
      extent of hypoxia exposure to motile animals such as fish collected from hypoxic
      waters as well as their molecular and physiological responses to environmental
      hypoxia exposure are largely unknown. A suite of potential hypoxia exposure
      biomarkers was evaluated in Atlantic croaker collected from hypoxic and normoxic
      regions in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM), and in croaker after laboratory
      exposure to hypoxia (DO: 1.7 mg l-1). Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor
      alpha, hif-alpha; neuronal nitric oxide synthase, nNOS; and insulin-like growth
      factor binding protein, igfbp mRNAs and protein carbonyl (PC, an oxidative stress
      indicator) content were elevated several-fold in brain and liver tissues of
      croaker collected from nGOM hypoxic sites. All of these molecular and biochemical
      biomarkers were also upregulated ~3-10-fold in croaker brain and liver tissues
      within 1-2 days of hypoxia exposure in controlled laboratory experiments. These
      results suggest that hif-alphas, nNOS and igfbp-1 transcripts and PC contents are
      useful biomarkers of environmental hypoxia exposure and some of its physiological
      effects, making them important components for improved assessments of long-term
      impacts of environmental hypoxia on fish populations.

PMID- 28886099
TI  - Serial QuantiFERON-TB Gold testing in patients with psoriasis treated with
      ustekinumab.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is increasing concern about the risk of latent tuberculosis
      infection (LTBI) reactivation during the use of biologics for psoriasis. Although
      ustekinumab had been documented with low risk of tuberculosis, the long-term
      follow-up of LTBI as determined by QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-G) testing in
      patients treated with ustekinumab is limited. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to use
      serial QFT-G testing as a screening method for detecting LTBI in patients with
      psoriasis from an intermediate tuberculosis burden country. METHODS: This
      retrospective review investigated 134 psoriatic patients in whom ustekinumab was
      prescribed for at least one year between 2010 and 2016 in National Taiwan
      University Hospital. All patients underwent annular QFT-G testing during
      ustekinumab therapy. RESULTS: Among the 134 enrolled patients, baseline LTBI rate
      was 13.4% (18/134). Indeterminate QFT-G result was noted in 5.2% (7/134) of
      patients and 71.4% (5/7) of them turn to be QFT-G negative during the next
      testing. 81.3% (109/134) of patients had a negative QFT-G at baseline and the
      seroconversion rate was 7.3% (8/109) in the serial QFT-G. All the patients in the
      conversion group were referred to a pulmonologist for evaluation and 81.5%
      (22/27) of them underwent chemoprophylactic therapy while on ustekinumab. No
      active TB infection was noted during further follow-up with or without
      chemoprophylaxis. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that psoriatic patients
      receiving long-term ustekinumab therapy had a low QFT-G conversion rate (7.3%).
      The clinical significance of QFT-G conversion remains controversial and needs
      larger scale trials to investigate.

PMID- 28886100
TI  - Biomechanical evaluation of tibial bone adaptation after revision total knee
      arthroplasty: A comparison of different implant systems.
AB  - The best methods to manage tibial bone defects following total knee arthroplasty
      remain under debate. Different fixation systems exist to help surgeons
      reconstruct knee osseous bone loss (such as tantalum cones, cement, modular metal
      augments, autografts, allografts and porous metaphyseal sleeves) However, the
      effects of the various solutions on the long-term outcome remain unknown. In the
      present work, a bone remodeling mathematical model was used to predict bone
      remodeling after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) revision. Five different types of
      prostheses were analyzed: one with a straight stem; two with offset stems, with
      and without supplements; and two with sleeves, with and without stems.
      Alterations in tibia bone density distribution and implant Von Mises stresses
      were quantified. In all cases, the bone density decreased in the proximal
      epiphysis and medullary channels, and an increase in bone density was predicted
      in the diaphysis and around stem tips. The highest bone resorption was predicted
      for the offset prosthesis without the supplement, and the highest bone formation
      was computed for the straight stem. The highest Von Mises stress was obtained for
      the straight tibial stem, and the lowest was observed for the stemless
      metaphyseal sleeves prosthesis. The computational model predicted different
      behaviors among the five systems. We were able to demonstrate the importance of
      choosing an adequate revision system and that in silico models may help surgeons
      choose patient-specific treatments.

PMID- 28886101
TI  - High prevalence of gastric intestinal metaplasia detected by confocal laser
      endomicroscopy in Zambian adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) may increase the detection of
      gastric premalignant lesions, and facilitate targeted biopsies for histology. The
      study aim was to analyse premalignant lesions in Zambian adults using CLE.
      METHODS: Using CLE and histology we analysed the antral mucosa for gastric
      premalignant lesions in asymptomatic adults living with HIV and in HIV
      seronegative adults. Fasting gastric pH and the presence of Helicobacter pylori
      (H. pylori) were also evaluated. RESULTS: We enrolled 84 HIV seropositive
      participants (median age 43 years; 55 (65%) female), of whom 32 (38%) were anti
      retroviral therapy (ART)-naive. Also enrolled were 22 HIV seronegative controls
      (median age 39 years, 12 (55%) females). Hypochlorhydria was found in 48 (57%)
      HIV positive and 8 (38%) HIV negative controls (P = 0.14). Detection of gastric
      intestinal metaplasia (GIM) was higher (P = 0.007) using CLE (49, 54%) than
      histology (9, 9%) and, using CLE, GIM was similar between HIV positive (41, 60%)
      and negative groups (8, 36%; P = 0.08). Gastric luminal fluorescein leakage was
      significantly associated with the presence of GIM [OR 8.2; 95% CI 2.5-31,
      P<0.001]. CONCLUSION: CLE is useful for the detection of GIM, and luminal
      fluorescein leakage may represent a novel CLE marker for GIM. GIM is common in
      Zambian adults, and is highly prevalent irrespective of HIV infection or use of
      ART.

PMID- 28886102
TI  - Three-dimensional friction measurement during hip simulation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Wear of total hip replacements has been the focus of many studies.
      However, frictional effects, such as high loading on intramodular connections or
      the interface to the bone, as well as friction associated squeaking have recently
      increased interest about the amount of friction that is generated during daily
      activities. The aim of this study was thus to establish and validate a three
      dimensional friction setup under standardized conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A standard hip simulator was modified to allow for high precision measurements of
      small frictional effects in the hip during three-dimensional hip articulation.
      The setup was verified by an ideal hydrostatic bearing and validated with a
      static-load physical pendulum and an extension-flexion rotation with a dynamic
      load profile. Additionally, a pendulum model was proposed for screening
      measurement of frictional effects based on the damping behavior of the angular
      oscillation without the need for any force/moment transducer. Finally, three
      dimensional friction measurements have been realized for ceramic-on-polyethylene
      bearings of three different sizes (28, 36 and 40 mm). RESULTS: A precision of
      less than 0.2 Nm during three-dimensional friction measurements was reported,
      while increased frictional torque (resultant as well as taper torque) was
      measured for larger head diameters. These effects have been confirmed by simple
      pendulum tests and the theoretical model. A comparison with current literature
      about friction measurements is presented. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation of
      friction is able to provide more information about a field that has been
      dominated by the reduction of wear. It should be considered in future pre
      clinical testing protocols given by international organizations of
      standardization.

PMID- 28886103
TI  - Epigenetic regulation of human SOX3 gene expression during early phases of neural
      differentiation of NT2/D1 cells.
AB  - Sox3/SOX3 is one of the earliest neural markers in vertebrates. Together with the
      Sox1/SOX1 and Sox2/SOX2 genes it is implicated in the regulation of stem cell
      identity. In the present study, we performed the first analysis of epigenetic
      mechanisms (DNA methylation and histone marks) involved in the regulation of the
      human SOX3 gene expression during RA-induced neural differentiation of NT2/D1
      cells. We show that the promoter of the human SOX3 gene is extremely
      hypomethylated both in undifferentiated NT2/D1 cells and during the early phases
      of RA-induced neural differentiation. By employing chromatin immunoprecipitation,
      we analyze several histone modifications across different regions of the SOX3
      gene and their dynamics following initiation of differentiation. In the same
      timeframe we investigate profiles of selected histone marks on the promoters of
      human SOX1 and SOX2 genes. We demonstrate differences in histone signatures of
      SOX1, SOX2 and SOX3 genes. Considering the importance of SOXB1 genes in the
      process of neural differentiation, the present study contributes to a better
      understanding of epigenetic mechanisms implicated in the regulation of
      pluripotency maintenance and commitment towards the neural lineage.

PMID- 28886104
TI  - Availability, diversification and versatility explain human selection of
      introduced plants in Ecuadorian traditional medicine.
AB  - Globally, a majority of people use plants as a primary source of healthcare and
      introduced plants are increasingly discussed as medicine. Protecting this
      resource for human health depends upon understanding which plants are used and
      how use patterns will change over time. The increasing use of introduced plants
      in local pharmacopoeia has been explained by their greater abundance or
      accessibility (availability hypothesis), their ability to cure medical conditions
      that are not treated by native plants (diversification hypothesis), or as a
      result of the introduced plants' having many different simultaneous roles
      (versatility hypothesis). In order to describe the role of introduced plants in
      Ecuador, and to test these three hypotheses, we asked if introduced plants are
      over-represented in the Ecuadorian pharmacopoeia, and if their use as medicine is
      best explained by the introduced plants' greater availability, different
      therapeutic applications, or greater number of use categories. Drawing on 44,585
      plant-use entries, and the checklist of >17,000 species found in Ecuador, we used
      multi-model inference to test if more introduced plants are used as medicines in
      Ecuador than expected by chance, and examine the support for each of the three
      hypotheses above. We find nuanced support for all hypotheses. More introduced
      plants are utilized than would be expected by chance, which can be explained by
      geographic distribution, their strong association with cultivation,
      diversification (except with regard to introduced diseases), and therapeutic
      versatility, but not versatility of use categories. Introduced plants make a
      disproportionately high contribution to plant medicine in Ecuador. The strong
      association of cultivation with introduced medicinal plant use highlights the
      importance of the maintenance of human-mediated environments such as homegardens
      and agroforests for the provisioning of healthcare services.

PMID- 28886105
TI  - First complete female mitochondrial genome in four bivalve species genus Donax
      and their phylogenetic relationships within the Veneroida order.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Four species of the genus Donax (D. semistriatus, D. trunculus, D.
      variegatus and D. vittatus) are common on Iberian Peninsula coasts. Nevertheless,
      despite their economic importance and overexploitation, scarce genetic resources
      are available. In this work, we newly determined the complete mitochondrial
      genomes of these four representatives of the family Donacidae, with the aim of
      contributing to unveil phylogenetic relationships within the Veneroida order, and
      of developing genetic markers being useful in wedge clam identification and
      authentication, and aquaculture stock management. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The
      complete female mitochondrial genomes of the four species vary in size from
      17,044 to 17,365 bp, and encode 13 protein-coding genes (including the atp8
      gene), 2 rRNAs and 22 tRNAs, all located on the same strand. A long non-coding
      region was identified in each of the four Donax species between cob and cox2
      genes, presumably corresponding to the Control Region. The Bayesian and Maximum
      Likelihood phylogenetic analysis of the Veneroida order indicate that all four
      species of Donax form a single clade as a sister group of other bivalves within
      the Tellinoidea superfamily. However, although Tellinoidea is actually
      monophyletic, none of its families are monophyletic. CONCLUSIONS: Sequencing of
      complete mitochondrial genomes provides highly valuable information to establish
      the phylogenetic relationships within the Veneroida order. Furthermore, we
      provide here significant genetic resources for further research and conservation
      of this commercially important fishing resource.

PMID- 28886106
TI  - Hepatocellular carcinoma in elderly: Clinical characteristics, treatments and
      outcomes compared with younger adults.
AB  - The number of elderly patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is
      expected to increase. The present study aims to evaluate the role of age on
      treatments and outcome of HCC patients. 1530 patients firstly diagnosed with HCC
      were retrospectively included and classified as older (>=65 years, n = 318, 21%)
      and younger patients (<65 years, n = 1212, 79%). The two groups were compared
      with clinical characteristics, tumor burden, Barcelona Clinics Liver Cancer
      (BCLC) stage, treatments and long-term prognosis. Elderly patients were more HCV
      infected, had more diabetes, poorer performance status, and were less
      aggressively treated. The proportion of HCC within BCLC stage 0-A, B or C was
      similar between the two groups, but elderly patients were more presented with
      BCLC stage D. The overall survival of older patients was poorer compared to
      younger patients before and after propensity score matching. However, elderly
      patients were less often effectively treated with surgery and loco-regional
      therapies across different BCLC stages. After stratified by BCLC stages or
      treatments, older patients showed comparable long-term outcome to younger
      patients. Performance status, BCLC stages and effective treatments, rather than
      age, was independent factors determining prognosis in the whole cohort and only
      elderly patients by multivariate analysis. In conclusion, older could have
      comparable survival to younger patients within the same tumor stage or after
      similar treatments. Thus, equally active treatments should be encouraged to
      elderly patients.

PMID- 28886107
TI  - Self-rated health in Senegal: A comparison between urban and rural areas.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although the relationship between mortality and self-rated health
      has been demonstrated in sub-Saharan Africa, information in this area is
      rudimentary. In Senegal, no study has been undertaken comparing self-rated health
      between urban and rural areas. The objective of this study is therefore to
      compare self-rated health and its main predictors in Dakar and in a rural
      isolated area, Tessekere municipality, taking into account socio-demographic and
      economic factors, social relations, as well as measures of physical and mental
      health. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was carried out in 2015 on a population
      sample of 1000 individuals living in Dakar and 500 individuals living in the
      municipality of Tessekere, constructed using the quota method. Self-rated health,
      health variables, psychosocial, sociodemographic and economic characteristics
      were collected during face-to-face interviews. Statistical analyses used were Chi
      square tests and binary logistic regressions. RESULTS: Results show that self
      rated health in Senegalese urban area (Dakar) is better than in rural area
      (Tessekere), but the determinants of self-rated health partly differ between
      these two environments. Age and gender play a fundamental role in self-rated
      health as much in Dakar as in Tessekere but diabetes and social support play a
      role in self-rated health only in urban environment, whereas economic well-being
      is associated to self-rated health only in rural area. CONCLUSION: The analyses
      carried out in these two environments show that despite the existence of common
      determinants (age, gender, stress), the determinants for formulating an answer to
      the question of self-rated health differ. People's social and cultural
      environments thus play a fundamental role in the process of rating one's health
      and, in the short and long term, in the mortality rate.

PMID- 28886108
TI  - The potential role of genetic assimilation during maize domestication.
AB  - Domestication research has largely focused on identification of morphological and
      genetic differences between extant populations of crops and their wild relatives.
      Little attention has been paid to the potential effects of environment despite
      substantial known changes in climate from the time of domestication to modern
      day. In recent research, the exposure of teosinte (i.e., wild maize) to
      environments similar to the time of domestication, resulted in a plastic
      induction of domesticated phenotypes in teosinte. These results suggest that
      early agriculturalists may have selected for genetic mechanisms that cemented
      domestication phenotypes initially induced by a plastic response of teosinte to
      environment, a process known as genetic assimilation. To better understand this
      phenomenon and the potential role of environment in maize domestication, we
      examined differential gene expression in maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and teosinte
      (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) between past and present conditions. We identified a
      gene set of over 2000 loci showing a change in expression across environmental
      conditions in teosinte and invariance in maize. In fact, overall we observed both
      greater plasticity in gene expression and more substantial changes in co
      expressionnal networks in teosinte across environments when compared to maize.
      While these results suggest genetic assimilation played at least some role in
      domestication, genes showing expression patterns consistent with assimilation are
      not significantly enriched for previously identified domestication candidates,
      indicating assimilation did not have a genome-wide effect.

PMID- 28886109
TI  - Radon-induced lung cancer deaths may be overestimated due to failure to account
      for confounding by exposure to diesel engine exhaust in BEIR VI miner studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: EPA reported that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in
      the United States, killing 21,100 people per year. EPA relies on the BEIR VI
      models, based on an evaluation of radon exposure and lung cancer risk in studies
      of miners. But these models did not account for co-exposure to diesel exhaust, a
      known human carcinogen recently classified by IARC. It is probable then that a
      portion of the lung cancer deaths in the miner cohorts are originally
      attributable to the exposure to diesel rather than radon. OBJECTIVE: To re
      evaluate EPA's radon attributable lung cancer estimates accounting for diesel
      exposure information in the miner cohorts. METHODS: We used estimates of
      historical diesel concentrations, combined with diesel exposure-response
      functions, to estimate the risks of lung cancer attributable to diesel engine
      exhaust (DEE) exposure in the miner studies. We re-calculated the fatal lung
      cancer risk attributable to radon after accounting for risk from diesel and re
      estimated the number of U.S. deaths associated with radon in the U.S. using EPA's
      methodology. RESULTS: Considering the probable confounding with DEE exposure and
      using the same estimate of baseline mortality from 1989-91 that the EPA currently
      uses in their calculations, we estimate that radon-induced lung cancer deaths per
      year are 15,600 (95% CI: 14,300, 17,000)- 19,300 (95% CI: 18,800, 20,000) in the
      U.S. population, a reduction of 9%-26%. The death estimates would be 12,900
      15,900 using 2014 baseline vital statistics. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend further
      research on re-evaluating the health effects of exposure to radon that accounts
      for new information on diesel exhaust carcinogenicity in BEIR VI models, up-to
      date vital statistics and new epidemiological evidence from residential studies.

PMID- 28886110
TI  - Quality improvement of surface triangular mesh using a modified Laplacian
      smoothing approach avoiding intersection.
AB  - We present a systematic procedure to improve the qualities of triangular
      molecular surface meshes and at the same time preserve the manifoldness. The
      procedure utilizes an algorithm to remove redundant points having three or four
      valences and another algorithm to smooth the mesh using a modified version of
      Laplacian method without causing intersecting triangles. This approach can be
      effectively applied to any manifold surface meshes with arbitrary complex
      geometry. In this paper, the tested meshes are biomolecular surface meshes
      exhibiting typically highly irregular geometry. The results show that the
      qualities of the surface meshes are greatly improved and the manifoldness of the
      surface meshes are preserved. Compared with the original meshes, these improved
      molecular surface meshes can be directly applied to boundary element simulations
      and generation of body-fitted volume meshes using Tetgen. The procedure has been
      incorporated into our triangular molecular surface mesh generator, TMSmesh 2.0.
      It can be also used as a standalone program and works together with any other
      surface triangular mesh generator to obtain qualified manifold mesh. The package
      is downloadable at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5346169.v1 and can be run
      online at http://www.xyzgate.com.

PMID- 28886111
TI  - Evidence for an ancient whole genome duplication in the cycad lineage.
AB  - Contrary to the many whole genome duplication events recorded for angiosperms
      (flowering plants), whole genome duplications in gymnosperms (non-flowering seed
      plants) seem to be much rarer. Although ancient whole genome duplications have
      been reported for most gymnosperm lineages as well, some are still contested and
      need to be confirmed. For instance, data for ginkgo, but particularly cycads have
      remained inconclusive so far, likely due to the quality of the data available and
      flaws in the analysis. We extracted and sequenced RNA from both the cycad
      Encephalartos natalensis and Ginkgo biloba. This was followed by transcriptome
      assembly, after which these data were used to build paralog age distributions.
      Based on these distributions, we identified remnants of an ancient whole genome
      duplication in both cycads and ginkgo. The most parsimonious explanation would be
      that this whole genome duplication event was shared between both species and had
      occurred prior to their divergence, about 300 million years ago.

PMID- 28886112
TI  - Evaluating and implementing temporal, spatial, and spatio-temporal methods for
      outbreak detection in a local syndromic surveillance system.
AB  - The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has operated an
      emergency department syndromic surveillance system since 2001, using temporal and
      spatial scan statistics run on a daily basis for cluster detection. Since the
      system was originally implemented, a number of new methods have been proposed for
      use in cluster detection. We evaluated six temporal and four spatial/spatio
      temporal detection methods using syndromic surveillance data spiked with
      simulated injections. The algorithms were compared on several metrics, including
      sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, coherence, and timeliness.
      We also evaluated each method's implementation, programming time, run time, and
      the ease of use. Among the temporal methods, at a set specificity of 95%, a Holt
      Winters exponential smoother performed the best, detecting 19% of the simulated
      injects across all shapes and sizes, followed by an autoregressive moving average
      model (16%), a generalized linear model (15%), a modified version of the Early
      Aberration Reporting System's C2 algorithm (13%), a temporal scan statistic
      (11%), and a cumulative sum control chart (<2%). Of the spatial/spatio-temporal
      methods we tested, a spatial scan statistic detected 3% of all injects, a Bayes
      regression found 2%, and a generalized linear mixed model and a space-time
      permutation scan statistic detected none at a specificity of 95%. Positive
      predictive value was low (<7%) for all methods. Overall, the detection methods we
      tested did not perform well in identifying the temporal and spatial clusters of
      cases in the inject dataset. The spatial scan statistic, our current method for
      spatial cluster detection, performed slightly better than the other tested
      methods across different inject magnitudes and types. Furthermore, we found the
      scan statistics, as applied in the SaTScan software package, to be the easiest to
      program and implement for daily data analysis.

PMID- 28886113
TI  - The overlap between autistic spectrum conditions and borderline personality
      disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Both people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and borderline
      personality disorder (BPD) are significantly challenged in terms of understanding
      and responding to emotions and in interpersonal functioning. AIMS: To compare
      ASC, BPD, and comorbid patients in terms of autistic traits, empathy, and
      systemizing. METHODS: 624 ASC, 23 BPD, and 16 comorbid (ASC+BPD) patients, and
      2,081 neurotypical controls (NC) filled in the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the
      Empathy Quotient (EQ) and the Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R). RESULTS: On
      the AQ, the comorbid group scored higher than the ASC group, who in turn scored
      higher than the BPD group, who scored higher than controls. On the EQ, we found
      the comorbid and ASC groups scored lower than the BPD group, who were not
      different from controls. Finally, on the SQ-R, we found the ASC and BPD group
      both scored higher than controls. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to ASC, BPD patients have
      elevated autistic traits and a strong drive to systemize, suggesting an overlap
      between BPD and ASC.

PMID- 28886114
TI  - Delivery of mental health treatment to combat veterans with psychiatric diagnoses
      and TBI histories.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and mental health (MH) disorders are prevalent in
      combat veterans returning from Afghanistan and/or Iraq (hereafter referred to as
      returning veterans). Accurate estimates of service utilization for veterans with
      and without TBI exposure (referred to as TBI history) are imperative in order to
      provide high quality healthcare to returning veterans. We examined associations
      between TBI history and MH service utilization in a subsample of returning
      veterans who were newly diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
      depression, and/or anxiety in the 2010 fiscal year (N = 55,458). Data were
      extracted from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) National Patient Care
      Database. Veterans with MH diagnoses and TBI histories attended significantly
      more psychotherapy visits, (M = 8.32 visits, SD = 17.15) and were more likely to
      attend at least 8 psychotherapy visits, (15.7%) than veterans with MH diagnoses
      but no TBI history (M = 6.48 visits, SD = 12.12; 10.1% attended at least 8
      sessions). PTSD and TBI history, but not depression or anxiety, were associated
      with a greater number of psychotherapy visits when controlling for demographic
      and clinical variables. PTSD, anxiety, depression, and TBI history were
      associated with number of psychotropic medication-management visits. TBI history
      was related to greater MH service utilization, independent of MH diagnoses.
      Future research should examine what MH services are being utilized and if these
      services are helping veterans recover from their disorders.

PMID- 28886115
TI  - Androgen receptor-mediated downregulation of microRNA-221 and -222 in castration
      resistant prostate cancer.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in cancer formation and progression by
      suppressing the production of key functional proteins at the post-transcriptional
      level in a sequence-specific manner. While differential expression of miRNAs is
      widely observed in cancers including prostate cancer (PCa), how these miRNAs are
      transcriptionally regulated is largely unknown. MiRNA-221 and miRNA-222 (miR-221/
      222) are well-established oncogenes and overexpressed in breast, liver, pancreas,
      and lung cancer, but their expression and biological functions in PCa remain
      controversial. Both up and down regulation have been observed in patient samples.
      Specifically, studies have demonstrated miR-221/-222 function as oncogenes, and
      promote PCa cell proliferation and the development of castration-resistant
      prostate cancer (CRPC). However, the expression level of miR-221/-222 is
      downregulated in several miRNA expression profiling studies. In this study, we
      demonstrate miR-221/-222 are androgen receptor (AR)-repressed genes and reside in
      a long primary transcript (pri-miRNA). Derepression of miR-221/-222 after
      androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) may enhance PCa cell proliferation potential
      through promoting G1/S phase transition. This function is likely transient but
      important in the development of CRPC. Downregulation of miR-221/-222 subsequently
      occurs once AR activity is restored through AR overexpression in CRPC. Our
      findings shed light on the complexity of transcriptional regulation of miRNAs in
      PCa and suggest context-dependent targeting of oncogenic miRNAs.

PMID- 28886116
TI  - Treatment with the WNT5A-mimicking peptide Foxy-5 effectively reduces the
      metastatic spread of WNT5A-low prostate cancer cells in an orthotopic mouse
      model.
AB  - Prostate cancer patients with high WNT5A expression in their tumors have been
      shown to have more favorable prognosis than those with low WNT5A expression. This
      suggests that reconstitution of Wnt5a in low WNT5A-expressing tumors might be an
      attractive therapeutic approach. To explore this idea, we have in the present
      study used Foxy-5, a WNT5A mimicking peptide, to investigate its impact on
      primary tumor and metastasis in vivo and on prostate cancer cell viability,
      apoptosis and invasion in vitro. We used an in vivo orthotopic xenograft mouse
      model with metastatic luciferase-labeled WNT5A-low DU145 cells and metastatic
      luciferase-labeled WNT5A-high PC3prostate cancer cells. We provide here the first
      evidence that Foxy-5 significantly inhibits the initial metastatic dissemination
      of tumor cells to regional and distal lymph nodes by 90% and 75%, respectively.
      Importantly, this effect was seen only with the WNT5A-low DU145 cells and not
      with the WNT5A-high PC3 cells. The inhibiting effect in the DU145-based model
      occurred despite the fact that no effects were observed on primary tumor growth,
      apoptosis or proliferation. These findings are consistent with and supported by
      the in vitro data, where Foxy-5 specifically targets invasion without affecting
      apoptosis or viability of WNT5A-low prostate cancer cells. To conclude, our data
      indicate that the WNT5A-mimicking peptide Foxy-5, which has been recently used in
      a phase 1 clinical trial, is an attractive candidate for complimentary anti
      metastatic treatment of prostate cancer patients with tumors exhibiting absent or
      low WNT5A expression.

PMID- 28886117
TI  - Incidence of pancreatic cancer is dramatically increased by a high fat, high
      calorie diet in KrasG12D mice.
AB  - Epidemiologic data has linked obesity to a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, but
      the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. To allow for detailed
      mechanistic studies in a relevant model mimicking diet-induced obesity and
      pancreatic cancer, a high-fat, high-calorie diet (HFCD) was given to P48+/Cre;LSL
      KRASG12D (KC) mice carrying a pancreas-specific oncogenic Kras mutation. The mice
      were randomly allocated to a HFCD or control diet (CD). Cohorts were sacrificed
      at 3, 6, and 9 months and tissues were harvested for further analysis. Compared
      to CD-fed mice, HFCD-fed animals gained significantly more weight. Importantly,
      the cancer incidence was remarkably increased in HFCD-fed KC mice, particularly
      in male KC mice. In addition, KC mice fed the HFCD showed more extensive
      inflammation and fibrosis, and more advanced PanIN lesions in the pancreas,
      compared to age-matched CD-fed animals. Interestingly, we found that the HFCD
      reduced autophagic flux in PanIN lesions in KC mice. Further, exome sequencing of
      isolated murine PanIN lesions identified numerous genetic variants unique to the
      HFCD. These data underscore the role of sustained inflammation and dysregulated
      autophagy in diet-induced pancreatic cancer development and suggest that diet
      induced genetic alterations may contribute to this process. Our findings provide
      a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the obesity-cancer link in
      males and females, and will facilitate the development of interventions targeting
      obesity-associated pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28886118
TI  - In vivo experimental study of anterior cervical fusion using bioactive
      polyetheretherketone in a canine model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a widely accepted biomaterial,
      especially in the field of spinal surgery. However, PEEK is not able to directly
      integrate with bone tissue, due to its bioinertness. To overcome this drawback,
      various studies have described surface coating approaches aimed at increasing the
      bioactivity of PEEK surfaces. Among those, it has been shown that the recently
      developed sol-gel TiO2 coating could provide PEEK with the ability to bond with
      bone tissue in vivo without the use of a bone graft. OBJECTIVE: This in vivo
      experimental study using a canine model determined the efficacy of bioactive TiO2
      coated PEEK for anterior cervical fusion. METHODS: Sol-gel-derived TiO2 coating,
      which involves sandblasting and acid treatment, was used to give PEEK bone
      bonding ability. The cervical interbody spacer, which was designed to fit the
      disc space of a beagle, was fabricated using bioactive TiO2-coated PEEK. Both
      uncoated PEEK (control) and TiO2-coated PEEK spacers were implanted into the
      cervical intervertebral space of beagles (n = 5 for each type). After the 3-month
      survival period, interbody fusion success was evaluated based on MU-CT imaging,
      histology, and manual palpation analyses. RESULTS: Manual palpation analyses
      indicated a 60% (3/5 cases) fusion (no gap between bone and implants) rate for
      the TiO2-coated PEEK group, indicating clear advantage over the 0% (0/5 cases)
      fusion rate for the uncoated PEEK group. The bony fusion rate of the TiO2-coated
      PEEK group was 40% according to MUCT imaging; however, it was 0% of for the
      uncoated PEEK group. Additionally, the bone-implant contact ratio calculated
      using histomorphometry demonstrated a better contact ratio for the TiO2-coated
      PEEK group than for the uncoated PEEK group (mean, 32.6% vs 3.2%; p = 0.017).
      CONCLUSIONS: The TiO2-coated bioactive PEEK implant demonstrated better fusion
      rates and bone-bonding ability than did the uncoated PEEK implant in the canine
      anterior cervical fusion model. Bioactive PEEK, which has bone-bonding ability,
      could contribute to further improvements in clinical outcomes for spinal
      interbody fusion.

PMID- 28886119
TI  - Intimate partner violence-related hospitalizations in Appalachia and the non
      Appalachian United States.
AB  - The highly rural region of Appalachia faces considerable socioeconomic
      disadvantage and health disparities that are recognized risk factors for intimate
      partner violence (IPV). The objective of this study was to estimate the rate of
      IPV-related hospitalizations in Appalachia and the non-Appalachian United States
      for 2007-2011 and compare hospitalizations in each region by clinical and
      sociodemographic factors. Data on IPV-related hospitalizations were extracted
      from the State Inpatient Databases, which are part of the Healthcare Cost and
      Utilization Project. Hospitalization day, year, in-hospital mortality, length of
      stay, average and total hospital charges, sex, age, payer, urban-rural location,
      income, diagnoses and procedures were compared between Appalachian and non
      Appalachian counties. Poisson regression models were constructed to test
      differences in the rate of IPV-related hospitalizations between both regions.
      From 2007-2011, there were 7,385 hospitalizations related to IPV, with one-third
      (2,645) occurring in Appalachia. After adjusting for age and rurality,
      Appalachian counties had a 22% higher hospitalization rate than non-Appalachian
      counties (ARR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.14-1.31). Appalachian residents may be at
      increased risk for IPV and associated conditions. Exploring disparities in
      healthcare utilization and costs associated with IPV in Appalachia is critical
      for the development of programs to effectively target the needs of this
      population.

PMID- 28886121
TI  - Correction: Complete chloroplast genome sequence of common bermudagrass (Cynodon
      dactylon (L.) Pers.) and comparative analysis within the family Poaceae.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179055.].

PMID- 28886120
TI  - Chloride intracellular channel proteins respond to heat stress in Caenorhabditis
      elegans.
AB  - Chloride intracellular channel proteins (CLICs) are multi-functional proteins
      that are expressed in various cell types and differ in their subcellular
      location. Two CLIC homologs, EXL-1 (excretory canal abnormal like-1) and EXC-4
      (excretory canal abnormal- 4), are encoded in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome,
      providing an excellent model to study the functional diversification of CLIC
      proteins. EXC-4 functions in excretory canal formation during normal animal
      development. However, to date, the physiological function of EXL-1 remains
      largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that EXL-1 responds specifically
      to heat stress and translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in intestinal
      cells and body wall muscle cells under heat shock. In contrast, we do not observe
      EXC-4 nuclear translocation under heat shock. Full protein sequence analysis
      shows that EXL-1 bears a non-classic nuclear localization signal (NLS) that EXC-4
      is lacking. All mammalian CLIC members have a nuclear localization signal, with
      the exception of CLIC3. Our phylogenetic analysis of the CLIC gene families
      across various animal species demonstrates that the duplication of CLICs in
      protostomes and deuterostomes occurred independently and that the NLS was
      subsequently lost in amniotes and nematodes, suggesting convergent evolution. We
      also observe that EXL-1 nuclear translocation occurs in a timely ordered manner
      in the intestine, from posterior to anterior regions. Finally, we find that exl-1
      loss of function mutants are more susceptible to heat stress than wild-type
      animals, demonstrating functional relevance of the nuclear translocation. This
      research provides the first link between CLICs and environmental heat stress. We
      propose that C. elegans CLICs evolved to achieve different physiological
      functions through subcellular localization change and spatial separation in
      response to external or internal signals.

PMID- 28886122
TI  - Alteration of Endothelin 1, MCP-1 and Chromogranin A in patients with atrial
      fibrillation undergoing pulmonary vein isolation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The relation between arrhythmias and stress is known. The aim of our
      current study was to elucidate whether plasma levels of previously described
      stress parameters are altered in highly symptomatic patients with atrial
      fibrillation (AF) per se and in patients undergoing ablation therapy by pulmonary
      vein isolation (PVI). METHODS: 96 patients with AF undergoing PVI were recruited.
      Plasma levels of Endothelin-1 (ET-1), MCP-1 and Chromogranin-A (CGA) were
      measured before and three months after ablation completed with clinical follow-up
      with respect to AF recurrence. Additionally, we examined 40 healthy age- and sex
      matched volunteers as a reference. RESULTS: Symptomatic AF patients showed
      increased levels of ET-1 compared to healthy controls (2.62pg/ml vs. 1.57pg/ml;
      p<0.01). Baseline levels of ET-1 were higher in patients presenting with AF after
      PVI (2.96pg/ml vs. 2.57pg/ml;p = 0.02). The temporal comparison revealed
      decreased ET-1 levels in patients without (2.57pg/ml vs. 2.33pg/ml; p<0.01) and
      unchanged ET-1 levels in patients with AF after PVI. Baseline MCP-1 was increased
      in AF patients vs. controls (268pg/ml vs. 227 pg/ml; p = 0.03). Both groups, with
      and without AF after PVI, showed an increase of MCP-1 compared to baseline
      (268pg/ml vs. 349pg/ml;p<0.01; 281pg/ml vs. 355pg/ml;p = 0.03). CGA was lower in
      AF patients compared to healthy controls (13.8ng/ml vs. 25.6ng/ml;p<0.01). Over
      time patients without AF after PVI showed an increase of CGA (14.2ng/ml vs.
      20.7ng/ml;p<0.01). No change was observed in patients with AF after PVI.
      CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated dysregulated levels of ET-1, MCP-1 and CGA in
      symptomatic AF patients. We could demonstrate an association between ET-1 to
      presence or absence of AF. Furthermore, we could show that a decrease of ET-1 as
      well as an increase of CGA after PVI, representing a trend towards control cohort
      levels, were both associated with restoration of sinus rhythm. These results
      provide new insights into the role of stress-related biomarkers in AF and AF
      treatment by ablation therapy.

PMID- 28886123
TI  - Increased medial olivocochlear reflex strength in normal-hearing, noise-exposed
      humans.
AB  - Research suggests that college-aged adults are vulnerable to tinnitus and hearing
      loss due to exposure to traumatic levels of noise on a regular basis. Recent
      human studies have associated exposure to high noise exposure background (NEB,
      i.e., routine noise exposure) with the reduced cochlear output and impaired
      speech processing ability in subjects with clinically normal hearing sensitivity.
      While the relationship between NEB and the functions of the auditory afferent
      neurons are studied in the literature, little is known about the effects of NEB
      on functioning of the auditory efferent system. The objective of the present
      study was to investigate the relationship between medial olivocochlear reflex
      (MOCR) strength and NEB in subjects with clinically normal hearing sensitivity.
      It was hypothesized that subjects with high NEB would exhibit reduced afferent
      input to the MOCR circuit which would subsequently lead to reduced strength of
      the MOCR. In normal-hearing listeners, the study examined (1) the association
      between NEB and baseline click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs) and (2) the
      association between NEB and MOCR strength. The MOCR was measured using CEOAEs
      evoked by 60 dB pSPL linear clicks in a contralateral acoustic stimulation (CAS)
      off and CAS-on (a broadband noise at 60 dB SPL) condition. Participants with at
      least 6 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the CAS-off and CAS-on conditions were
      included for analysis. A normalized CEOAE inhibition index was calculated to
      express MOCR strength in a percentage value. NEB was estimated using a validated
      questionnaire. The results showed that NEB was not associated with the baseline
      CEOAE amplitude (r = -0.112, p = 0.586). Contrary to the hypothesis, MOCR
      strength was positively correlated with NEB (r = 0.557, p = 0.003). NEB remained
      a significant predictor of MOCR strength (beta = 2.98, t(19) = 3.474, p = 0.003)
      after the unstandardized coefficient was adjusted to control for effects of
      smoking, sound level tolerance (SLT) and tinnitus. These data provide evidence
      that MOCR strength is associated with NEB. The functional significance of
      increased MOCR strength is discussed.

PMID- 28886124
TI  - Identification and genomic comparison of temperate bacteriophages derived from
      emetic Bacillus cereus.
AB  - Cereulide-producing Bacillus cereus isolates can cause serious emetic (vomiting)
      syndrome and even acute lethality. As mobile genetic elements, the exploration of
      prophages derived from emetic B. cereus isolates will help in our understanding
      of the genetic diversity and evolution of these pathogens. In this study, five
      temperate phages derived from cereulide-producing B. cereus strains were induced,
      with four of them undergoing genomic sequencing. Sequencing revealed that they
      all belong to the Siphoviridae family, but presented in different forms in their
      hosts. PfNC7401 and PfIS075 have typical icosahedral heads, probably existing
      alone as phagemids in the host with self-replicating capability in the lysogenic
      state. PfEFR-4, PfEFR-5, and PfATCC7953 have elongated heads, with the genomes of
      the former two identified as linear dsDNA, which could be integrated into the
      host genome during the lysogenic state. Genomic comparison of the four phages
      with others also derived from emetic B. cereus isolates showed similar genome
      structures and core genes, thus displaying host spectrum specificity. In
      addition, phylogenic analysis based on the complete genome and conserved tail
      fiber proteins of 36 Bacillus species-derived phages confirmed that the phages
      derived from emetic B. cereus strains were highly similar. Furthermore, one
      endolysin LysPfEFR-4 was cloned and showed lytic activity against all tested
      emetic B. cereus strains and cross-lytic activity against some other pathogenic
      bacteria, implying a potential to control bacterial contamination in the food
      supply.

PMID- 28886125
TI  - Heterogeneous hybrid signcryption for multi-message and multi-receiver.
AB  - To achieve secure communication in heterogeneous cryptography systems, we present
      a heterogeneous hybrid signcryption scheme. The proposed scheme allows a sender
      in an identity-based cryptography system to send multi-message to multi-receiver
      in a certificateless cryptography system with different master keys. At the same
      time, all users are mapped to a distinct pseudo-identity for conditional identity
      privacy preservation. A trusted authority could trace the real identity when
      necessary. Compared with existing schemes, the proposed scheme is more practical
      for actual applications. In addition, the proposed scheme has
      indistinguishability against adaptive chosen ciphertext attacks and existential
      unforgeability against adaptive chosen message attacks under the random oracle
      model.

PMID- 28886126
TI  - Validation of the 18-gene classifier as a prognostic biomarker of distant
      metastasis in breast cancer.
AB  - We validated an 18-gene classifier (GC) initially developed to predict
      local/regional recurrence after mastectomy in estimating distant metastasis risk.
      The 18-gene scoring algorithm defines scores as: <21, low risk; >=21, high risk.
      Six hundred eighty-three patients with primary operable breast cancer and fresh
      frozen tumor tissues available were included. The primary outcome was the 5-year
      probability of freedom from distant metastasis (DMFP). Two external datasets were
      used to test the predictive accuracy of 18-GC. The 5-year rates of DMFP for
      patients classified as low-risk (n = 146, 21.7%) and high-risk (n = 537, 78.6%)
      were 96.2% (95% CI, 91.1%-98.8%) and 80.9% (74.6%-81.9%), respectively (median
      follow-up interval, 71.8 months). The 5-year rates of DMFP of the low-risk group
      in stage I (n = 62, 35.6%), stage II (n = 66, 20.1%), and stage III (n = 18,
      10.3%) were 100%, 94.2% (78.5%-98.5%), and 90.9% (50.8%-98.7%), respectively.
      Multivariate analysis revealed that 18-GC is an independent prognostic factor of
      distant metastasis (adjusted hazard ratio, 5.1; 95% CI, 1.8-14.1; p = 0.0017) for
      scores of >=21. External validation showed that the 5-year rate of DMFP in the
      low- and high-risk patients was 94.1% (82.9%-100%) and 80.3% (70.7%-89.9%, p =
      0.06) in a Singapore dataset, and 89.5% (81.9%-94.1%) and 73.6% (67.2%-79.0%, p =
      0.0039) in the GEO-GSE20685 dataset, respectively. In conclusion, 18-GC is a
      viable prognostic biomarker for breast cancer to estimate distant metastasis
      risk.

PMID- 28886128
TI  - Psychological distress, health protection, and sexual practices among young men
      who have sex with men: Using social action theory to guide HIV prevention
      efforts.
AB  - The present study addresses gaps in the literature related to theory development
      for young men who have sex with men (YMSM) sexual practices through the
      application and modification of Social Action Theory. Data come from the Healthy
      Young Men study (N = 526), which longitudinally tracked a diverse cohort of YMSM
      ages 18-24 to characterize risk and protective factors associated with drug use
      and sexual practices. Structural equation modeling examined the applicability of,
      and any necessary modifications to a YMSM-focused version of Social Action
      Theory. The final model displayed excellent fit (CFI = 0.955, TLI = 0.947, RMSEA
      = 0.037) and suggested concordance between social support and personal capacity
      for sexual health promotion. For YMSM, practicing health promotion and avoiding
      practices that may put them at risk for HIV was associated with both social
      isolation and psychological distress (beta = -0.372, t = -4.601, p<0.001);
      psychological distress is an internalized response to environmental and cognitive
      factors and sexual practices are an externalized response. Results point to the
      utility of Social Action Theory as a useful model for understanding sexual
      practices among YMSM, the application of which shows health protective sexual
      practices are a function of sociocognitive factors that are influenced by
      environmental contexts. Social Action Theory can help prevention scientists
      better address the needs of this vulnerable population.

PMID- 28886127
TI  - Genome-wide miRNA response to anacardic acid in breast cancer cells.
AB  - MicroRNAs are biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets for breast cancer.
      Anacardic acid (AnAc) is a dietary phenolic lipid that inhibits both MCF-7
      estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) positive and MDA-MB-231 triple negative breast
      cancer (TNBC) cell proliferation with IC50s of 13.5 and 35 MUM, respectively. To
      identify potential mediators of AnAc action in breast cancer, we profiled the
      genome-wide microRNA transcriptome (microRNAome) in these two cell lines altered
      by the AnAc 24:1n5 congener. Whole genome expression profiling (RNA-seq) and
      subsequent network analysis in MetaCore Gene Ontology (GO) algorithm was used to
      characterize the biological pathways altered by AnAc. In MCF-7 cells, 69 AnAc
      responsive miRNAs were identified, e.g., increased let-7a and reduced miR-584.
      Fewer, i.e., 37 AnAc-responsive miRNAs were identified in MDA-MB-231 cells, e.g.,
      decreased miR-23b and increased miR-1257. Only two miRNAs were increased by AnAc
      in both cell lines: miR-612 and miR-20b; however, opposite miRNA arm preference
      was noted: miR-20b-3p and miR-20b-5p were upregulated in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231,
      respectively. miR-20b-5p target EFNB2 transcript levels were reduced by AnAc in
      MDA-MB-231 cells. AnAc reduced miR-378g that targets VIM (vimentin) and VIM mRNA
      transcript expression was increased in AnAc-treated MCF-7 cells, suggesting a
      reciprocal relationship. The top three enriched GO terms for AnAc-treated MCF-7
      cells were B cell receptor signaling pathway and ribosomal large subunit
      biogenesis and S-adenosylmethionine metabolic process for AnAc-treated MDA-MB-231
      cells. The pathways modulated by these AnAc-regulated miRNAs suggest that key
      nodal molecules, e.g., Cyclin D1, MYC, c-FOS, PPARgamma, and SIN3, are targets of
      AnAc activity.

PMID- 28886129
TI  - Modulation of the endogenous omega-3 fatty acid and oxylipin profile in vivo-A
      comparison of the fat-1 transgenic mouse with C57BL/6 wildtype mice on an omega-3
      fatty acid enriched diet.
AB  - Dietary intervention and genetic fat-1 mice are two models for the investigation
      of effects associated with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3-PUFA). In
      order to assess their power to modulate the fatty acid and oxylipin pattern, we
      thoroughly compared fat-1 and wild-type C57BL/6 mice on a sunflower oil diet with
      wild-type mice on the same diet enriched with 1% EPA and 1% DHA for 0, 7, 14, 30
      and 45 days. Feeding led after 14-30 days to a high steady state of n3-PUFA in
      all tissues at the expense of n6-PUFAs. Levels of n3-PUFA achieved by feeding
      were higher compared to fat-1 mice, particularly for EPA (max. 1.7% in whole
      blood of fat-1 vs. 7.8% following feeding). Changes in PUFAs were reflected in
      most oxylipins in plasma, brain and colon: Compared to wild-type mice on a
      standard diet, arachidonic acid metabolites were overall decreased while EPA and
      DHA oxylipins increased with feeding more than in fat-1 mice. In plasma of n3
      PUFA fed animals, EPA and DHA metabolites from the lipoxygenase and cytochrome
      P450 pathways dominated over ARA derived counterparts.Fat-1 mice show n3-PUFA
      level which can be reached by dietary interventions, supporting the applicability
      of this model in n3-PUFA research. However, for specific questions, e.g. the role
      of EPA derived mediators or concentration dependent effects of (individual) PUFA,
      feeding studies are necessary.

PMID- 28886130
TI  - Improving the antiprotozoal effect of saponins in the rumen by combination with
      glycosidase inhibiting iminosugars or by modification of their chemical
      structure.
AB  - The antiprotozoal effect of saponins is transitory, as when saponins are
      deglycosylated to sapogenins by rumen microorganisms they become inactive. We
      hypothesised that the combination of saponins with glycosidase-inhibiting
      iminosugars might potentially increase the effectiveness of saponins over time by
      preventing their deglycosylation in the rumen. Alternatively, modifying the
      structure of the saponins by substituting the sugar moiety with other small polar
      residues might maintain their activity as the sugar substitute would not be
      enzymatically cleaved. The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the acute
      antiprotozoal effect and the stability of this effect over a 24 h incubation
      period using ivy saponins, a stevia extract rich in iminosugars, ivy saponins
      with stevia extract, and a chemically modified ivy saponin, hederagenin bis
      succinate (HBS). The effects on fermentation parameters and rumen bacterial
      communities were also studied. Ivy saponins with stevia and HBS had a greater
      antiprotozoal effect than ivy saponins, and this effect was maintained after 24 h
      of incubation (P<0.001). The combination of ivy and stevia extracts was more
      effective in shifting the fermentation pattern towards higher propionate (+39%)
      and lower butyrate (-32%) and lower ammonia concentration (-64%) than the
      extracts incubated separately. HBS caused a decrease in butyrate (-45%) and an
      increase in propionate (+43%) molar proportions. However, the decrease in ammonia
      concentration (-42%) observed in the presence of HBS was less than that caused by
      ivy saponins, either alone or with stevia. Whereas HBS and stevia impacted on
      bacterial population in terms of community structure, only HBS had an effect in
      terms of biodiversity (P<0.05). It was concluded that ivy saponins with stevia
      and the modified saponin HBS had a strong antiprotozoal effect, although they
      differed in their effects on fermentation parameters and bacteria communities.
      Ivy saponins combined with an iminosugar-rich stevia extract and/or HBS should be
      evaluated to determine their antiprotozoal effect in vivo.

PMID- 28886132
TI  - A global view of shifting cultivation: Recent, current, and future extent.
AB  - Mosaic landscapes under shifting cultivation, with their dynamic mix of managed
      and natural land covers, often fall through the cracks in remote sensing-based
      land cover and land use classifications, as these are unable to adequately
      capture such landscapes' dynamic nature and complex spectral and spatial
      signatures. But information about such landscapes is urgently needed to improve
      the outcomes of global earth system modelling and large-scale carbon and
      greenhouse gas accounting. This study combines existing global Landsat-based
      deforestation data covering the years 2000 to 2014 with very high-resolution
      satellite imagery to visually detect the specific spatio-temporal pattern of
      shifting cultivation at a one-degree cell resolution worldwide. The accuracy
      levels of our classification were high with an overall accuracy above 87%. We
      estimate the current global extent of shifting cultivation and compare it to
      other current global mapping endeavors as well as results of literature searches.
      Based on an expert survey, we make a first attempt at estimating past trends as
      well as possible future trends in the global distribution of shifting cultivation
      until the end of the 21st century. With 62% of the investigated one-degree cells
      in the humid and sub-humid tropics currently showing signs of shifting
      cultivation-the majority in the Americas (41%) and Africa (37%)-this form of
      cultivation remains widespread, and it would be wrong to speak of its general
      global demise in the last decades. We estimate that shifting cultivation
      landscapes currently cover roughly 280 million hectares worldwide, including both
      cultivated fields and fallows. While only an approximation, this estimate is
      clearly smaller than the areas mentioned in the literature which range up to
      1,000 million hectares. Based on our expert survey and historical trends we
      estimate a possible strong decrease in shifting cultivation over the next
      decades, raising issues of livelihood security and resilience among people
      currently depending on shifting cultivation.

PMID- 28886131
TI  - Histone deacetylase regulates insulin signaling via two pathways in pancreatic
      beta cells.
AB  - Recent studies demonstrated that insulin signaling plays important roles in the
      regulation of pancreatic beta cell mass, the reduction of which is known to be
      involved in the development of diabetes. However, the mechanism underlying the
      alteration of insulin signaling in pancreatic beta cells remains unclear. The
      involvement of epigenetic control in the onset of diabetes has also been
      reported. Thus, we analyzed the epigenetic control of insulin receptor substrate
      2 (IRS2) expression in the MIN6 mouse insulinoma cell line. We found concomitant
      IRS2 up-regulation and enhanced insulin signaling in MIN6 cells, which resulted
      in an increase in cell proliferation. The H3K9 acetylation status of the Irs2
      promoter was positively associated with IRS2 expression. Treatment of MIN6 cells
      with histone deacetylase inhibitors led to increased IRS2 expression, but this
      occurred in concert with low insulin signaling. We observed increased IRS2 lysine
      acetylation as a consequence of histone deacetylase inhibition, a modification
      that was coupled with a decrease in IRS2 tyrosine phosphorylation. These results
      suggest that insulin signaling in pancreatic beta cells is regulated by histone
      deacetylases through two novel pathways affecting IRS2: the epigenetic control of
      IRS2 expression by H3K9 promoter acetylation, and the regulation of IRS2 activity
      through protein modification. The identification of the histone deacetylase
      isoform(s) involved in these mechanisms would be a valuable approach for the
      treatment of type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28886133
TI  - Phylogeographic pattern suggests a general northeastward dispersal in the
      distribution of Machilus pauhoi in South China.
AB  - Machilus pauhoi Kanehira is an important timber species in China. A provenance
      trial was recently set up to evaluate the growth performance of trees from
      different localities, with the aim of designing seed transfer guidelines. Here,
      we tested twelve nuclear microsatellite markers derived from other species of the
      Lauraceae family and investigated population genetic structure in M. pauhoi. Both
      the number of observed alleles per locus (Na) and the polymorphic information
      content (PIC) significantly decreased against the latitude, but showed an
      insignificant decrease against the longitude. Heterozygosity (Ho) and gene
      diversity (h) exhibited a weak correlation with geographic location. Private
      alleles were present in multiple populations, and a moderate level of population
      genetic differentiation was detected (Gst = 0.1691). The joint pattern of genetic
      diversity (Na, PIC, Ho, and h) suggests that general northeastward dispersal led
      to the current distribution of M. pauhoi. Significant but weak effects of
      isolation-by-distance (IBD) occurred, implicating the mountain ranges as the
      major barrier to gene flow. Both STRUCTURE and hierarchical clustering analyses
      showed three distinct groups of populations related to the physical connectivity
      among mountain ranges. A priority in designing genetic conservation should be
      given to the populations at the southwest side of the species' distribution. This
      conservation strategy can also be combined with the pattern of adaptive genetic
      variation from the provenance trial for comprehensive genetic resource management
      of native M. pauhoi.

PMID- 28886134
TI  - Clinical utility of the modified Glasgow prognostic score in lung cancer: A meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To perform a meta-analysis of prospective and retrospective studies
      exploring the association of the modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) with
      overall survival (OS) in patients with lung cancer. METHODS: Relevant studies
      were identified by searching the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase and
      PubMed until April 16, 2017. We combined hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) to assess the correlation between mGPS and OS in patients with
      lung cancer. RESULTS: Eleven studies involving 5817 participants from several
      countries were included in the meta-analysis. In a pooled analysis of all
      studies, elevated mGPS predicted poorer OS (HR = 1.77; 95% CI: 1.35-2.31;
      P<0.05). Subgroup analyses stratified by mGPS showed that mGPS of 1 or 2 and
      mGPS>=1 were predictive of poorer OS and that the HR for mGPS of 2 (HR = 5.82;
      95% CI: 1.85-18.22; P = 0.003) was significantly greater than that for mGPS of 1
      (HR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.24-2.45; P = 0.001) and mGPS>=1 (HR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.14
      1.76; P = 0.002). Among patients undergoing surgery, elevated mGPS had a non
      significant correlation with reduced OS (HR = 2.48; 95% CI: 0.90-6.85; P =
      0.079), whereas the correlation was significant for patients receiving
      chemotherapy or other palliative treatment (HR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.31-2.30;
      P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that mGPS may have prognostic value
      in lung cancer, as we detected a significant association between elevated mGPS
      and poorer OS. The association between mGPS and poorer OS was non-significant
      among patients undergoing surgery, which may be attributable to lower tumor load.
      However, further studies are warranted to draw firm conclusions.

PMID- 28886136
TI  - Relationship between the number of family members and stress by gender: Cross
      sectional analysis of the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to gendered inequalities in the division of domestic work, women
      with paid employment and family caregiving responsibilities can feel extremely
      tired with general distress and depression. Therefore, the purpose of this study
      was to examine the association between the number of family members and stress
      level by gender among Korean adults using a nationally representative dataset.
      METHODS: We used a sample of 6,293 subjects aged 19 or older (3,629 female and
      2,264 male) from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey. A multivariable logistic regression analysis with sociodemographic and
      health-related characteristics was conducted. Because there were gender
      differences, a stratified analysis was performed for each gender. RESULTS: Age,
      number of family members, education level, occupational status, depression, self
      rated health status, and chronic diseases were found to have a significant
      association with stress level in the study subjects (p<0.05). The probability of
      perceiving stress increased among females from family with two members (OR
      1.521), three family members (OR 1.893), or four or more family members without
      spouse (OR 2.035) compared to those who live alone. CONCLUSION: We found that
      unmarried women are more likely to be stressed as the number of family members
      increases. Gender expectations giving women the main responsibility for domestic
      and care work may become a source of stress. Reconciliation of family and work
      remains women's responsibility in Korea. As family problems are recently becoming
      a big issue, our study shows the importance of considering gender difference in
      studies on stress according to family roles and functions.

PMID- 28886135
TI  - Differential regulation of innate immune cytokine production through
      pharmacological activation of Nuclear Factor-Erythroid-2-Related Factor 2 (NRF2)
      in burn patient immune cells and monocytes.
AB  - Burn patients suffer from immunological dysfunction for which there are currently
      no successful interventions. Similar to previous observations, we find that burn
      shock patients (>=15% Total Burn Surface Area (TBSA) injury) have elevated levels
      of the innate immune cytokines Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Monocyte Chemoattractant
      Protein-1 (MCP-1)/CC-motif Chemokine Ligand 2(CCL2) early after hospital
      admission (0-48 Hours Post-hospital Admission (HPA). Functional immune assays
      with patient Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) revealed that burn shock
      patients (>=15% TBSA) produced elevated levels of MCP-1/CCL2 after innate immune
      stimulation ex vivo relative to mild burn patients. Interestingly, treatment of
      patient PBMCs with the Nuclear Factor-Erythroid-2-Related Factor 2 (NRF2)
      agonist, CDDO-Me(bardoxolone methyl), reduced MCP-1 production but not IL-6 or
      Interleukin-10 (IL-10) secretion. In enriched monocytes from healthy donors, CDDO
      Me(bardoxolone methyl) also reduced LPS-induced MCP1/CCL2 production but did not
      alter IL-6 or IL-10 secretion. Similar immunomodulatory effects were observed
      with Compound 7, which activates the NRF2 pathway through a different and non
      covalent Mechanism Of Action (MOA). Hence, our findings with CDDO-Me(bardoxolone
      methyl) and Compound 7 are likely to reflect a generalizable aspect of NRF2
      activation. These observed effects were not specific to LPS-induced immune
      responses, as NRF2 activation also reduced MCP-1/CCL2 production after
      stimulation with IL-6. Pharmacological NRF2 activation reduced Mcp-1/Ccl2
      transcript accumulation without inhibiting either Il-6 or Il-10 transcript
      levels. Hence, we describe a novel aspect of NRF2 activation that may contribute
      to the beneficial effects of NRF2 agonists during disease. Our work also
      demonstrates that the NRF2 pathway is retained and can be modulated to regulate
      important immunomodulatory functions in burn patient immune cells.

PMID- 28886137
TI  - Fast sparse fractal image compression.
AB  - As a structure-based image compression technology, fractal image compression
      (FIC) has been applied not only in image coding but also in many important image
      processing algorithms. However, two main bottlenecks restrained the develop and
      application of FIC for a long time. First, the encoding phase of FIC is time
      consuming. Second, the quality of the reconstructed images for some images which
      have low structure-similarity is usually unacceptable. Based on the absolute
      value of Pearson's correlation coefficient (APCC), we had proposed an
      accelerating method to significantly speed up the encoding of FIC. In this paper,
      we make use of the sparse searching strategy to greatly improve the quality of
      the reconstructed images in FIC. We call it the sparse fractal image compression
      (SFIC). Furthermore, we combine both the APCC-based accelerating method and the
      sparse searching strategy to propose the fast sparse fractal image compression
      (FSFIC), which can effectively improve the two main bottlenecks of FIC. The
      experimental results show that the proposed algorithm greatly improves both the
      efficiency and effectiveness of FIC.

PMID- 28886138
TI  - Reproductive life history of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) from the U.S.
      Washington coast.
AB  - Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) is a marine groundfish that supports valuable
      fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean and holds promise for marine aquaculture.
      Limited information is available, however, about its reproductive biology. This
      study aimed to characterize the complete reproductive cycle, including seasonal
      changes in gonadal development (macroscopic and histological), plasma sex steroid
      levels (17beta-estradiol -E2-, and 11-ketotestosterone -11KT-), gonadosomatic and
      hepatosomatic indices (GSI, and HSI), and condition factor (K) of female and male
      sablefish captured off the Washington coast. Adult fish (209 females, 159 males)
      were caught by longline monthly from August 2012 to August 2013. Early signs of
      recruitment of ovarian follicles into secondary growth, indicated by oocytes
      containing small yolk granules and cortical alveoli, were first observed in
      March. Oogenesis progressed during spring and summer, and fully vitellogenic
      follicles were first observed in July. Vitellogenic growth was correlated with
      increases in plasma E2, GSI, HSI and K. Periovulatory females, indicated by fully
      grown oocytes with migrating germinal vesicles and hydrated oocytes, were found
      from November to February. At this stage, plasma E2 and GSI reached maximal
      levels. In males, proliferating cysts containing spermatocytes were first
      observed in April. Testicular development proceeded during spring and summer, a
      period during which all types of male germ cells were found. The first clusters
      of spermatozoa appeared in July, concomitant with a 5.2-fold increase in GSI.
      Spermiating males were observed from November to April; at this time, spermatids
      were absent or greatly reduced, and testis lobules were filled with spermatozoa.
      The highest levels of plasma 11KT were found in males at this stage. Postspawning
      ovaries and testes, and basal steroids levels were found in fish captured from
      February to April. These results suggest that sablefish in coastal Washington
      initiate their reproductive cycle in March/April and spawn primarily in
      January/February.

PMID- 28886139
TI  - Effect of pre-analytic variables on the reproducibility of qPCR relative telomere
      length measurement.
AB  - Telomeres, long nucleotide repeats and a protein complex at chromosome ends,
      shorten with each cell division and are susceptible to oxidative damage.
      Quantitative PCR (qPCR) is a widely-used technique to measure relative telomere
      length (RTL) in DNA samples but is challenging to optimize and significant lab-to
      lab variability has been reported. In this study, we evaluated factors that may
      contribute to qPCR RTL measurement variability including DNA extraction methods,
      methods used for removing potential residual PCR inhibitors, sample storage
      conditions, and sample location in the PCR plate. Our results show that the DNA
      extraction and purification techniques, as well as sample storage conditions
      introduce significant variability in qPCR RTL results. We did not find
      significant differences in results based on sample location in the PCR plate or
      qPCR instrument used. These data suggest that lack of reproducibility in
      published association studies of RTL could be, in part, due to methodological
      inconsistencies. This study illustrates the importance of uniform sample
      handling, from DNA extraction through data generation and analysis, in using qPCR
      to determine RTL.

PMID- 28886141
TI  - The impact of vehicle moving violations and freeway traffic flow on crash risk:
      An application of plugin development for microsimulation.
AB  - This paper presents the use of the Aimsun microsimulation program to simulate
      vehicle violating behaviors and observe their impact on road traffic crash risk.
      Plugins for violations of speeding, slow driving, and abrupt stopping were
      developed using Aimsun's API and SDK module. A safety analysis plugin for
      investigating probability of rear-end collisions was developed, and a method for
      analyzing collision risk is proposed. A Fuzzy C-mean Clustering algorithm was
      developed to identify high risk states in different road segments over time.
      Results of a simulation experiment based on the G15 Expressway in Shanghai showed
      that abrupt stopping had the greatest impact on increasing collision risk, and
      the impact of violations increased with traffic volume. The methodology allows
      for the evaluation and monitoring of risks, alerting of road hazards, and
      identification of hotspots, and could be applied to the operations of existing
      facilities or planning of future ones.

PMID- 28886140
TI  - Male-specific association of the FCGR2A His167Arg polymorphism with Kawasaki
      disease.
AB  - Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute systemic vasculitis that can potentially cause
      coronary artery aneurysms in some children. KD occurs approximately 1.5 times
      more frequently in males than in females. To identify sex-specific genetic
      variants that are involved in KD pathogenesis in children, we performed a sex
      stratified genome-wide association study (GWAS), using the Illumina HumanOmni1
      Quad BeadChip data (249 cases and 1,000 controls) and a replication study for the
      34 sex-specific candidate SNPs in an independent sample set (671 cases and 3,553
      controls). Male-specific associations were detected in three common variants:
      rs1801274 in FCGR2A [odds ratio (OR) = 1.40, P = 9.31 * 10-5], rs12516652 in
      SEMA6A (OR = 1.87, P = 3.12 * 10-4), and rs5771303 near IL17REL (OR = 1.57, P =
      2.53 * 10-5). The male-specific association of FCGR2A, but not SEMA6A and
      IL17REL, was also replicated in a Japanese population (OR = 1.74, P = 1.04 * 10-4
      in males vs. OR = 1.22, P = 0.191 in females). In a meta-analysis with 1,461
      cases and 5,302 controls, a very strong association of KD with the nonsynonymous
      SNP rs1801274 (p.His167Arg, previously assigned as p.His131Arg) in FCGR2A was
      confirmed in males (OR = 1.48, P = 1.43 * 10-7), but not in the females (OR =
      1.17, P = 0.055). The present study demonstrates that p.His167Arg, a KD
      associated FCGR2A variant, acts as a susceptibility gene in males only. Overall,
      the gender differences associated with FCGR2A in KD provide a new insight into KD
      susceptibility.

PMID- 28886142
TI  - Effects of ozone exposure on human epithelial adenocarcinoma and normal
      fibroblasts cells.
AB  - Previous studies show variable ozone cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in cell
      cultures, laboratory animals and humans directly exposed to tropospheric ozone.
      The aim of this study was therefore to investigate and compare the cyto and
      genotoxic effects of ozone using adenocarcinoma human alveolar basal epithelial
      cells A549 and normal human fibroblasts Hs27. A cell culture chamber with
      controlled atmosphere (a simulation reactor) was built to inject a flow of 120
      ppb of ozone, which is two times the threshold value for the protection of human
      health, fixed by the EU legislation. Cell proliferation was evaluated by a
      luminescent cell viability assay while we assessed the genotoxic potential of
      ozone by the induction of micronuclei as well as evaluating DNA strand breaks by
      the induction of micronuclei evaluated by means of the cytokinesis-block
      micronucleus (CBMN) assay as well as evaluating DNA strand breaks by Alkaline
      Comet Assay (CA) or Comet Assay. A549 cells viability decreases significantly at
      24 hours treatment with 120 ppb of O3 while at 48 hours and 72 hours O3 treated
      cells viability doesn't differ in respect to the control. However a significative
      decrease of A549 viability is shown at 72 hours vs. 48 hours in both treated and
      not-treated cells. The viability trend in the Hs27 cells did not show any
      significant changes in treated samples compared to the control in all conditions.
      The two genotoxicity biomarkers, the micronucleus and the comet tests, showed in
      both the cell types exposed to ozone, a significant increase in the number of
      micronuclei and in the tail DNA % in respect to the control even if at different
      times/cell type. Moreover, we found that O3 provokes genotoxic effects more
      evident in A549 cancer cells than in normal fibroblasts Hs27 ones. We applied a
      cell growth simulation model referred to ozone treated or not cell lines to
      confirm that the ozone exposure causes a slackening in the cells replication.

PMID- 28886143
TI  - Outbreak detection and evaluation of a school-based influenza-like-illness
      syndromic surveillance in Tianjin, China.
AB  - School-based influenza-like-illness (ILI) syndromic surveillance can be an
      important part of influenza community surveillance by providing early warnings
      for outbreaks and leading to a fast response. From September 2012 to December
      2014, syndromic surveillance of ILI was carried out in 4 county-level schools.
      The cumulative sum methods(CUSUM) was used to detect abnormal signals. A
      susceptible-exposed-infectious/asymptomatic-recovered (SEIAR) model was fit to
      the influenza outbreak without control measures and compared with the actual
      influenza outbreak to evaluate the effectiveness of early control efforts. The
      ILI incidence rates in 2014 (14.51%) was higher than the incidence in 2013
      (5.27%) and 2012 (3.59%). Ten school influenza outbreaks were detected by CUSUM.
      Each outbreak had high transmissibility with a median Runc of 4.62. The
      interventions in each outbreak had high effectiveness and all Rcon were 0. The
      early intervention had high effectiveness within the school-based ILI syndromic
      surveillance. Syndromic surveillance within schools can play an important role in
      controlling influenza outbreaks.

PMID- 28886146
TI  - Association between health literacy and patient experience of primary care
      attributes: A cross-sectional study in Japan.
AB  - Primary care is regarded as a setting that potentially mitigate patient health
      literacy (HL) related inequalities. However, there is a lack of evidence about
      influence of patient HL on the patients' perception of quality of primary care.
      We aimed to examine the association between HL and patient experience of primary
      care attributes. We conducted a cross-sectional survey, and sent questionnaires
      to adult residents who were randomly selected from a basic resident register in
      Yugawara Town, Kanagawa, Japan. We assessed HL using a 14-item Health Literacy
      Scale (HLS-14) and patient experience of primary care attributes using a Japanese
      version of Primary Care Assessment Tool (JPCAT), which comprises six domains:
      first contact, longitudinality, coordination, comprehensiveness (services
      available), comprehensiveness (services provided), and community orientation. We
      used a multivariable linear regression analyses to adjust individual covariates.
      Data were analyzed for 381 residents who had a usual source of care. After
      adjustment for patients' sociodemographic and health characteristics, patient HL
      was positively associated with the JPCAT total score (B = 4.49, 95% confidence
      interval: 0.27 to 8.65 for HLS-14 total score highest quartile, compared with the
      lowest quartile). Among primary care attributes, HL had significant associations
      with longitudinality and comprehensiveness (service provided). We found that HL
      was positively associated with patient experience of primary care attributes in
      Japanese people. Our findings indicated that greater efforts might be needed to
      improve patient-centered and tailored primary care to those with low HL.

PMID- 28886145
TI  - Application of a whole blood mycobacterial growth inhibition assay to study
      immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a high tuberculosis burden
      population.
AB  - The determinants of immunological protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      (M.tb) infection in humans are not known. Mycobacterial growth inhibition assays
      have potential utility as in vitro surrogates of in vivo immunological control of
      M.tb. We evaluated a whole blood growth inhibition assay in a setting with high
      burden of TB and aimed to identify immune responses that correlate with control
      of mycobacterial growth. We hypothesized that individuals with underlying M.tb
      infection will exhibit greater M.tb growth inhibition than uninfected individuals
      and that children aged 4 to 12 years, an age during which TB incidence is
      curiously low, will also exhibit greater M.tb growth inhibition than adolescents
      or adults. Neither M.tb infection status, age of the study participants, nor M.tb
      strain was associated with differential control of mycobacterial growth.
      Abundance and function of innate or T cell responses were also not associated
      with mycobacterial growth. Our data suggest that this assay does not provide a
      useful measure of age-associated differential host control of M.tb infection in a
      high TB burden setting. We propose that universally high levels of mycobacterial
      sensitization (through environmental non-tuberculous mycobacteria and/or
      universal BCG vaccination) in persons from high TB burden settings may impart
      broad inhibition of mycobacterial growth, irrespective of M.tb infection status.
      This sensitization may mask the augmentative effects of mycobacterial
      sensitization on M.tb growth inhibition that is typical in low burden settings.

PMID- 28886144
TI  - Pharmacological characterisation of S 47445, a novel positive allosteric
      modulator of AMPA receptors.
AB  - S 47445 is a novel positive allosteric modulator of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5
      methyl-4-isoxazole-propionic acid (AMPA) receptors (AMPA-PAM). S 47445 enhanced
      glutamate's action at AMPA receptors on human and rat receptors and was inactive
      at NMDA and kainate receptors. Potentiation did not differ among the different
      AMPA receptors subtypes (GluA1/2/4 flip and flop variants) (EC50 between 2.5-5.4
      MUM), except a higher EC50 value for GluA4 flop (0.7 MUM) and a greater amount of
      potentiation on GluA1 flop. A low concentration of S 47445 (0.1 MUM) decreased
      receptor response decay time of GluA1flop/GluA2flip AMPA receptors and increased
      the sensitivity to glutamate. Furthermore, S 47445 (0.1 and 0.3 MUM) in presence
      of repetitive glutamate pulses induced a progressive potentiation of the
      glutamate-evoked currents from the second pulse of glutamate confirming a rapid
      enhancing effect of S 47445 at low concentrations. The potentiating effect of S
      47445 (1 MUM) was concentration-dependently reversed by the selective AMPA
      receptor antagonist GYKI52466 demonstrating the selective modulatory effect of S
      47445 on AMPA receptors. Using an AMPA-kainate chimera approach, it was confirmed
      that S 47445 binds to the common binding pocket of AMPA-PAMs. S 47445 did not
      demonstrate neurotoxic effect against glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity in vitro,
      in contrast significantly protected rat cortical neurons at 10 MUM. S 47445 was
      shown to improve both episodic and spatial working memory in adult rodents at 0.3
      mg/kg, as measured in the natural forgetting condition of object recognition and
      T-maze tasks. Finally, no deleterious effect on spontaneous locomotion and
      general behavior was observed up to 1000 mg/kg of S 47445 given acutely in
      rodents, neither occurrence of convulsion or tremors. Collectively, these results
      indicate that S 47445 is a potent and selective AMPA-PAM presenting procognitive
      and potential neuroprotective properties. This drug is currently evaluated in
      clinical phase 2 studies in Alzheimer's disease and in Major Depressive Disorder.

PMID- 28886148
TI  - Balancing anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant responses in murine bone marrow
      derived macrophages.
AB  - RATIONALE: The underlying pathophysiology of bronchopulmonary dysplasia includes
      a macrophage-mediated host response orchestrated by anti-inflammatory peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) and anti-oxidant nuclear factor
      (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2). These have not yet been studied in
      combination. This study tested the hypothesis that combined inflammatory and
      oxidative stressors would interact and change PPARgamma- and Nrf2-regulated gene
      expression and antioxidant capacity. Therefore, we investigated the effect of
      dual stimulation with lipopolysaccharide and hyperoxia in murine bone marrow
      derived macrophages (BMDM). METHODS: Sub-confluent BMDM from wild-type C57BL/6J
      mice were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 1ug/mL for 2 hours followed by
      room air (21% oxygen) or hyperoxia (95% oxygen) for 24 hours. Taqman real time
      polymerase chain reaction gene expression assays, total antioxidant capacity
      assays, and Luminex assays were performed. RESULTS: Supernatants of cultured BMDM
      contained significant antioxidant capacity. In room air, LPS treatment decreased
      expression of PPARgamma and Nrf2, and increased expression of tumor necrosis
      factor-alpha and heme oxygenase-1; similar findings were observed under hyperoxic
      conditions. LPS treatment decreased cellular total antioxidant capacity in room
      air but not in hyperoxia. Increased expression of sulfiredoxin-1 in response to
      hyperoxia was not observed in LPS-treated cells. Dual stimulation with LPS
      treatment and exposure to hyperoxia did not have synergistic effects on gene
      expression. Cellular total antioxidant capacity was not changed by hyperoxia
      exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Our hypothesis was supported and we demonstrate an
      interaction between inflammatory and oxidative stressors in a model system of
      bronchopulmonary dysplasia pathogenesis. The protective anti-oxidant effect of
      cell culture media may have protected the cells from the most deleterious effects
      of hyperoxia.

PMID- 28886147
TI  - Detection of atypical network development patterns in children with autism
      spectrum disorder using magnetoencephalography.
AB  - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that involves
      developmental delays. It has been hypothesized that aberrant neural connectivity
      in ASD may cause atypical brain network development. Brain graphs not only
      describe the differences in brain networks between clinical and control groups,
      but also provide information about network development within each group. In the
      present study, graph indices of brain networks were estimated in children with
      ASD and in typically developing (TD) children using magnetoencephalography
      performed while the children viewed a cartoon video. We examined brain graphs
      from a developmental point of view, and compared the networks between children
      with ASD and TD children. Network development patterns (NDPs) were assessed by
      examining the association between the graph indices and the raw scores on the
      achievement scale or the age of the children. The ASD and TD groups exhibited
      different NDPs at both network and nodal levels. In the left frontal areas, the
      nodal degree and efficiency of the ASD group were negatively correlated with the
      achievement scores. Reduced network connections were observed in the temporal and
      posterior areas of TD children. These results suggested that the atypical network
      developmental trajectory in children with ASD is associated with the development
      score rather than age.

PMID- 28886149
TI  - Plasma sterols and depressive symptom severity in a population-based cohort.
AB  - Convergent evidence strongly suggests major depressive disorder is heterogeneous
      in its etiology and clinical characteristics. Depression biomarkers hold
      potential for identifying etiological subtypes, improving diagnostic accuracy,
      predicting treatment response, and personalization of treatment. Human plasma
      contains numerous sterols that have not been systematically studied. Changes in
      cholesterol concentrations have been implicated in suicide and depression,
      suggesting plasma sterols may be depression biomarkers. Here, we investigated
      associations between plasma levels of 34 sterols (measured by mass spectrometry)
      and scores on the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS
      SR16) scale in 3117 adult participants in the Dallas Heart Study, an ethnically
      diverse, population-based cohort. We built a random forest model using feature
      selection from a pool of 43 variables including demographics, general health
      indicators, and sterol concentrations. This model comprised 19 variables, 13 of
      which were sterol concentrations, and explained 15.5% of the variation in
      depressive symptoms. Desmosterol concentrations below the fifth percentile (1.9
      ng/mL, OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2-2.9) were significantly associated with depressive
      symptoms of at least moderate severity (QIDS-SR16 score >=10.5). This is the
      first study reporting a novel association between plasma concentrations
      cholesterol precursors and depressive symptom severity.

PMID- 28886150
TI  - Fluorescence study of freeze-drying as a method for support the interactions
      between hyaluronan and hydrophobic species.
AB  - A freeze-drying method enabling solubilization of hydrophobic species in aqueous
      solutions of native hyaluronan is described. The method is based on opening the
      access to supposed hydrophobic patches on hyaluronan by disturbing its massive
      hydration shell. Hydrophobic and/or polarity-sensitive fluorescence probes were
      used as hydrophobic models or indicators of interactions with hydrophobic
      patches. Fluorescence parameters specific to individual probes confirmed the
      efficiency of the freeze-drying method. This work is the first step in developing
      biocompatible and biodegradable carriers for hydrophobic drugs with targeted
      distribution of the active compound from native, chemically non-modified
      hyaluronan.

PMID- 28886151
TI  - Label-free quantitative 1H NMR spectroscopy to study low-affinity ligand-protein
      interactions in solution: A contribution to the mechanism of polyphenol-mediated
      astringency.
AB  - Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is well-established in assessing
      the binding affinity between low molecular weight ligands and proteins. However,
      conventional NMR-based binding assays are often limited to small proteins of high
      purity and may require elaborate isotopic labeling of one of the potential
      binding partners. As protein-polyphenol complexation is assumed to be a key event
      in polyphenol-mediated oral astringency, here we introduce a label-free, ligand
      focused 1H NMR titration assay to estimate binding affinities and characterize
      soluble complex formation between proteins and low molecular weight polyphenols.
      The method makes use of the effects of NMR line broadening due to protein-ligand
      interactions and quantitation of the non-bound ligand at varying protein
      concentrations by quantitative 1H NMR spectroscopy (qHNMR) using electronic
      reference to access in vivo concentration (ERETIC 2). This technique is applied
      to assess the interaction kinetics of selected astringent tasting polyphenols and
      purified mucin, a major lubricating glycoprotein of human saliva, as well as
      human whole saliva. The protein affinity values (BC50) obtained are subsequently
      correlated with the intrinsic mouth-puckering, astringent oral sensation imparted
      by these compounds. The quantitative NMR method is further exploited to study the
      effect of carboxymethyl cellulose, a candidate "anti-astringent" protein binding
      antagonist, on the polyphenol-protein interaction. Consequently, the NMR approach
      presented here proves to be a versatile tool to study the interactions between
      proteins and low-affinity ligands in solution and may find promising applications
      in the discovery of bioactives.

PMID- 28886152
TI  - Molecular cytogenetic identification of a novel wheat-Agropyron elongatum
      chromosome translocation line with powdery mildew resistance.
AB  - Agropyron elongatum (Host.) Neviski (synonym, Thinopyrum ponticum Podp., 2n = 70)
      has been used extensively as a valuable source for wheat breeding. Numerous
      chromosome fragments containing valuable genes have been successfully
      translocated into wheat from A. elongatum. However, reports on the transfer of
      powdery mildew resistance from A. elongatum to wheat are rare. In this study, a
      novel wheat-A. elongatum translocation line, 11-20-1, developed and selected from
      the progenies of a sequential cross between wheat varieties (Lankaoaizaoba, Keyu
      818 and BainongAK 58) and A. elongatum, was evaluated for disease resistance and
      characterized using molecular cytogenetic methods. Cytological observations
      indicated that 11-20-1 had 42 chromosomes and formed 21 bivalents at meiotic
      metaphase I. Genomic in situ hybridization analysis using whole genomic DNA from
      A. elongatum as a probe showed that the short arms of a pair of wheat chromosomes
      were replaced by a pair of A. elongatum chromosome arms. Fluorescence in situ
      hybridization, using wheat D chromosome specific sequence pAs1 as a probe,
      suggested that the replaced chromosome arms of 11-20-1 were 5DS. This was further
      confirmed by wheat SSR markers specific for 5DS. EST-SSR and EST-STS multiple
      loci markers confirmed that the introduced A. elongatum chromosome arms belonged
      to homoeologous group 5. Therefore, it was deduced that 11-20-1 was a wheat-A.
      elongatum T5DL?5AgS translocation line. Both resistance observation and molecular
      marker analyses using two specific markers (BE443538 and CD452608) of A.
      elongatum in a F2 population from a cross between line 11-20-1 and a susceptible
      cultivar Yannong 19 verified that the A. elongatum chromosomes were responsible
      for the powdery mildew resistance. This work suggests that 11-20-1 likely
      contains a novel resistance gene against powdery mildew. We expect this line to
      be useful for the genetic improvement of wheat.

PMID- 28886153
TI  - Tumor size and proliferative marker geminin rather than Ki67 expression levels
      significantly associated with maximum uptake of 18F-deoxyglucose levels on
      positron emission tomography for breast cancers.
AB  - It has been well established that maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for
      18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG
      PET/CT) is clinically useful for evaluating treatment efficacy as well as
      predicting prognosis of breast cancer patients. Although SUVmax reflects
      increased glucose uptake and metabolism possibly induced by activation of growth
      factor signaling or TP53 dysfunction, tumor characteristics of SUVmax-high breast
      cancers remain to be elucidated. For the present study, we used
      immunohistochemical staining to investigate expressions of phospho-ribosomal
      protein S6 (pS6, downstream molecule of phosphatidyl inositol 3
      kinase/Akt/mammalian target of the rapamycin/S6K pathway) and phosphor-p44/42
      mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK). Expression levels of TP53 and
      proliferative marker geminin as well as Ki67 were also examined by means of
      immunostaining in 163 invasive breast cancers. Cutoff values were set at 10% for
      pS6, 20% for pMAPK and TP53, and 4% for geminin. The SUVmax levels were
      significantly higher in the pS6-positive (p = 0.0173), TP53-positive (p = 0.0207)
      and geminin-high cancers (p<0.0001), but there was no significant association
      between pMAPK expression levels and SUVmax levels. Multivariable analysis showed
      that a high geminin level (odds ratio: 6.497, 95% confidence interval: 2.427
      19.202, p = 0.0001) and large tumor size (6.438, 2.224-20.946, p = 0.0005) were
      significantly and independently associated with SUVmax-high. Univariable but not
      multivariable analysis indicated that Ki67-high significantly correlated with
      SUVmax-high. Twenty of 23 (87.0%) breast cancers with tumor size >2cm and geminin
      high showed SUVmax-high, while only 6 of 49 (12.2%) breast cancers <=2cm in size
      and with low geminin levels were SUVmax-high. In conclusion, we could determine
      that breast cancers with a large tumor and a geminin-high rather than Ki67-high
      proliferative marker were significantly associated with high levels of SUVmax.
      These findings may signify that SUVmax reflects tumor characteristics with high
      proliferative activity but not activation of mTOR/S6K and MAPK pathways or
      increased glucose metabolism due to dysfunction of TP53.

PMID- 28886154
TI  - Validity and reliability of a novel 3D scanner for assessment of the shape and
      volume of amputees' residual limb models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Objective assessment methods to monitor residual limb volume
      following lower-limb amputation are required to enhance practitioner-led
      prosthetic fitting. Computer aided systems, including 3D scanners, present
      numerous advantages and the recent Artec Eva scanner, based on laser free
      technology, could potentially be an effective solution for monitoring residual
      limb volumes. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the validity and
      reliability of the Artec Eva scanner (practical measurement) against a high
      precision laser 3D scanner (criterion measurement) for the determination of
      residual limb model shape and volume. METHODS: Three observers completed three
      repeat assessments of ten residual limb models, using both the scanners. Validity
      of the Artec Eva scanner was assessed (mean percentage error <2%) and Bland
      Altman statistics were adopted to assess the agreement between the two scanners.
      Intra and inter-rater reliability (repeatability coefficient <5%) of the Artec
      Eva scanner was calculated for measuring indices of residual limb model volume
      and shape (i.e. residual limb cross sectional areas and perimeters). RESULTS:
      Residual limb model volumes ranged from 885 to 4399 ml. Mean percentage error of
      the Artec Eva scanner (validity) was 1.4% of the criterion volumes. Correlation
      coefficients between the Artec Eva and the Romer determined variables were higher
      than 0.9. Volume intra-rater and inter-rater reliability coefficients were 0.5%
      and 0.7%, respectively. Shape percentage maximal error was 2% at the distal end
      of the residual limb, with intra-rater reliability coefficients presenting the
      lowest errors (0.2%), both for cross sectional areas and perimeters of the
      residual limb models. CONCLUSION: The Artec Eva scanner is a valid and reliable
      method for assessing residual limb model shapes and volumes. While the method
      needs to be tested on human residual limbs and the results compared with the
      current system used in clinical practice, it has the potential to quantify shape
      and volume fluctuations with greater resolution.

PMID- 28886155
TI  - Coronary heart disease and risk for cognitive impairment or dementia: Systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Accumulating evidence suggests an association between coronary
      heart disease and risk for cognitive impairment or dementia, but no study has
      systematically reviewed this association. Therefore, we summarized the available
      evidence on the association between coronary heart disease and risk for cognitive
      impairment or dementia. METHODS: Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL were
      searched for all publications until 8th January 2016. Articles were included if
      they fulfilled the inclusion criteria: (1) myocardial infarction, angina pectoris
      or coronary heart disease (combination of both) as predictor variable; (2)
      cognition, cognitive impairment or dementia as outcome; (3) population-based
      study; (4) prospective (>=1 year follow-up), cross-sectional or case-control
      study design; (5) >=100 participants; and (6) aged >=45 years. Reference lists of
      publications and secondary literature were hand-searched for possible missing
      articles. Two reviewers independently screened all abstracts and extracted
      information from potential relevant full-text articles using a standardized data
      collection form. Study quality was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. We
      pooled estimates from the most fully adjusted model using random-effects meta
      analysis. RESULTS: We identified 6,132 abstracts, of which 24 studies were
      included. A meta-analysis of 10 prospective cohort studies showed that coronary
      heart disease was associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment or
      dementia (OR = 1.45, 95%CI = 1.21-1.74, p<0.001). Between-study heterogeneity was
      low (I2 = 25.7%, 95%CI = 0-64, p = 0.207). Similar significant associations were
      found in separate meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies for the individual
      predictors (myocardial infarction, angina pectoris). In contrast, meta-analyses
      of cross-sectional and case-control studies were inconclusive.
      CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: This meta-analysis suggests that coronary heart
      disease is prospectively associated with increased odds of developing cognitive
      impairment or dementia. Given the projected worldwide increase in the number of
      people affected by coronary heart disease and dementia, insight into causal
      mechanisms or common pathways underlying the heart-brain connection is needed.

PMID- 28886156
TI  - Loss of SPRR3 in ApoE-/- mice leads to atheroma vulnerability through Akt
      dependent and independent effects in VSMCs.
AB  - Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) represent important modulators of plaque
      stability in advanced lesions. We previously reported that loss of small proline
      rich repeat protein 3 (Sprr3), leads to VSMC apoptosis in a PI3K/Akt-dependent
      manner and accelerates lesion progression. Here, we investigated the role of
      Sprr3 in modulating plaque stability in hyperlipidemic ApoE-/- mice. We show that
      loss of Sprr3 increased necrotic core size and reduced cap collagen content of
      atheromas in brachiocephalic arteries with evidence of plaque rupture and
      development of intraluminal thrombi. Moreover, Sprr3-/-ApoE-/- mice developed
      advanced coronary artery lesions accompanied by intraplaque hemorrhage and left
      ventricle microinfarcts. SPRR3 is known to reduce VSMC survival in lesions by
      promoting their apoptosis. In addition, we demonstrated that Sprr3-/- VSMCs
      displayed reduced expression of procollagen in a PI3K/Akt dependent manner. SPRR3
      loss also increased MMP gelatinase activity in lesions, and increased MMP2
      expression, migration and contraction of VSMCs independently of PI3K/Akt.
      Consequently, Sprr3 represents the first described VSMC modulator of each of the
      critical features of cap stability, including VSMC numbers, collagen type I
      synthesis, and protease activity through Akt dependent and independent pathways.

PMID- 28886157
TI  - A new approach to keratoconus detection based on corneal morphogeometric
      analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To characterize corneal structural changes in keratoconus using a new
      morphogeometric approach and to evaluate its potential diagnostic ability.
      METHODS: Comparative study including 464 eyes of 464 patients (age, 16 and 72
      years) divided into two groups: control group (143 healthy eyes) and keratoconus
      group (321 keratoconus eyes). Topographic information (Sirius, CSO, Italy) was
      processed with SolidWorks v2012 and a solid model representing the geometry of
      each cornea was generated. The following parameters were defined: anterior (Aant)
      and posterior (Apost) corneal surface areas, area of the cornea within the
      sagittal plane passing through the Z axis and the apex (Aapexant, Aapexpost) and
      minimum thickness points (Amctant, Amctpost) of the anterior and posterior
      corneal surfaces, and average distance from the Z axis to the apex (Dapexant,
      Dapexpost) and minimum thickness points (Dmctant, Dmctpost) of both corneal
      surfaces. RESULTS: Significant differences among control and keratoconus group
      were found in Aapexant, Aapexpost, Amctant, Amctpost, Dapexant, Dapexpost (all
      p<0.001), Apost (p = 0.014), and Dmctpost (p = 0.035). Significant correlations
      in keratoconus group were found between Aant and Apost (r = 0.836), Amctant and
      Amctpost (r = 0.983), and Dmctant and Dmctpost (r = 0.954, all p<0.001). A
      logistic regression analysis revealed that the detection of keratoconus grade I
      (Amsler Krumeich) was related to Apost, Atot, Aapexant, Amctant, Amctpost,
      Dapexpost, Dmctant and Dmctpost (Hosmer-Lemeshow: p>0.05, R2 Nagelkerke: 0.926).
      The overall percentage of cases correctly classified by the model was 97.30%.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our morphogeometric approach based on the analysis of the cornea as
      a solid is useful for the characterization and detection of keratoconus.

PMID- 28886158
TI  - Correction: Insulin and diet-induced changes in the ubiquitin-modified proteome
      of rat liver.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174431.].

PMID- 28886159
TI  - Directional migration of mesenchymal stem cells under an SDF-1alpha gradient on a
      microfluidic device.
AB  - Homing of peripheral stem cells is regulated by one of the most representative
      homing factors, stromal cell-derived factor 1 alpha (SDF-1alpha), which
      specifically binds to the plasma membrane receptor CXCR4 of mesenchymal stem
      cells (MSCs) in order to initiate the signaling pathways that lead to directional
      migration and homing of stem cells. This complex homing process and directional
      migration of stem cells have been mimicked on a microfluidic device that is
      capable of generating a chemokine gradient within the collagen matrix and
      embedding endothelial cell (EC) monolayers to mimic blood vessels. On the
      microfluidic device, stem cells showed directional migration toward the higher
      concentration of SDF-1alpha, whereas treatment with the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100
      caused loss of directionality of stem cells. Furthermore, inhibition of stem
      cell's main migratory signaling pathways, Rho-ROCK and Rac pathways, caused
      blockage of actomyosin and lamellipodia formation, decreasing the migration
      distance but maintaining directionality. Stem cell homing regulated by SDF-1alpha
      caused directional migration of stem cells, while the migratory ability was
      affected by the activation of migration-related signaling pathways.

PMID- 28886161
TI  - A morphological and functional basis for maximum prey size in piscivorous fishes.
AB  - Fish predation is important in shaping populations and community structure in
      aquatic systems. These predator-prey interactions can be influenced by
      environmental, behavioural and morphological factors. Morphological constraints
      influence the feeding performance of species, and interspecific differences can
      thus affect patterns of resource use. For piscivorous fishes that swallow prey
      whole, feeding performance has traditionally been linked to three key
      morphological constraints: oral gape, pharyngeal gape, and the cleithral gape.
      However, other constraints may be important. We therefore examine 18 potential
      morphological constraints related to prey capture and processing, on four
      predatory species (Cephalopholis urodeta, Paracirrhites forsteri, Pterois
      volitans, Lates calcarifer). Aquarium-based experiments were then carried out to
      determine capture and processing behaviour and maximum prey size in two focal
      species, C. urodeta and P. forsteri. All four species showed a progressive
      decrease in gape measurements from anterior to posterior with oral gape >= buccal
      >= pharyngeal >= pectoral girdle >= esophagus >= stomach. C. urodeta was able to
      process prey with a maximum depth of 27% of the predators' standard length; for
      P. forsteri it was 20%. C. urodeta captured prey head-first in 79% of successful
      strikes. In P. forsteri head-first was 16.6%, mid-body 44.4%, and tail-first
      38.8%. Regardless of capture mode, prey were almost always swallowed head first
      and horizontally in both focal species. Most internal measurements appeared too
      small for prey to pass through. This may reflect the compressibility of prey,
      i.e. their ability to be dorsoventrally compressed during swallowing movements.
      Despite examining all known potential morphological constraints on prey size,
      horizontal maxillary oral gape in a mechanically stretched position appears to be
      the main morphological variable that is likely to affect maximum prey size and
      resource use by these predatory species.

PMID- 28886160
TI  - Effect of age on the diagnostic efficiency of HbA1c for diabetes in a Chinese
      middle-aged and elderly population: The Shanghai Changfeng Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) >=6.5% (or 48mmol/mol) has
      been recommended as a new diagnostic criterion for diabetes; however, limited
      literature is available regarding the effect of age on the HbA1c for diagnosing
      diabetes and the causes for this age effect remain unknown. In this study, we
      investigated whether and why age affects the diagnostic efficiency of HbA1c for
      diabetes in a community-based Chinese population. METHODS: In total, 4325
      participants without previously known diabetes were enrolled in this study.
      Participants were stratified by age. Receiver operating characteristic curve
      (ROC) was plotted for each age group and the area under the curve (AUC)
      represented the diagnostic efficiency of HbA1c for diabetes defined by the plasma
      glucose criteria. The area under the ROC curve in each one-year age group was
      defined as AUCage. Multiple regression analyses were performed to identify
      factors inducing the association between age and AUCage based on the changes in
      the beta and P values of age. RESULTS: The current threshold of HbA1c (>=6.5% or
      48mmol/mol) showed low sensitivity (35.6%) and high specificity (98.9%) in
      diagnosing diabetes. ROC curve analyses showed that the diagnostic efficiency of
      HbA1c in the >=75 years age group was significantly lower than that in the 45-54
      years age group (AUC: 0.755 vs. 0.878; P<0.001). Pearson correlation analysis
      showed that the AUCage of HbA1c was negatively correlated with age (r = -0.557, P
      = 0.001). When adjusting the red blood cell (RBC) count in the multiple
      regression model, the negative association between age and AUCage disappeared,
      with the regression coefficient of age reversed to 0.001 and the P value
      increased to 0.856. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic efficiency of HbA1c for diabetes
      decreased with aging, and this age effect was induced by the decreasing RBC count
      with age. HbA1c is unsuitable for diagnosing diabetes in elderly individuals
      because of their physiologically decreased RBC count.

PMID- 28886162
TI  - Inter-annual cascade effect on marine food web: A benthic pathway lagging
      nutrient supply to pelagic fish stock.
AB  - Currently, spatial and temporal changes in nutrients availability, marine
      planktonic, and fish communities are best described on a shorter than inter
      annual (seasonal) scale, primarily because the simultaneous year-to-year
      variations in physical, chemical, and biological parameters are very complex. The
      limited availability of time series datasets furnishing simultaneous evaluations
      of temperature, nutrients, plankton, and fish have limited our ability to
      describe and to predict variability related to short-term process, as species
      specific phenology and environmental seasonality. In the present study, we
      combine a computational time series analysis on a 15-year (1995-2009) weekly
      sampled time series (high-resolution long-term time series, 780 weeks) with an
      Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model to track non-seasonal changes in 10
      potentially related parameters: sea surface temperature, nutrient concentrations
      (NO2, NO3, NH4 and PO4), phytoplankton biomass (as in situ chlorophyll a
      biomass), meroplankton (barnacle and mussel larvae), and fish abundance (Mugil
      liza and Caranx latus). Our data demonstrate for the first time that highly
      intense and frequent upwelling years initiate a huge energy flux that is not
      fully transmitted through classical size-structured food web by bottom-up
      stimulus but through additional ontogenetic steps. A delayed inter-annual
      sequential effect from phytoplankton up to top predators as carnivorous fishes is
      expected if most of energy is trapped into benthic filter feeding organisms and
      their larval forms. These sequential events can explain major changes in
      ecosystem food web that were not predicted in previous short-term models.

PMID- 28886163
TI  - Effectiveness of a training program for police officers who come into contact
      with people with mental health problems: A pragmatic randomised controlled trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Police officers frequently come into contact with individuals with
      mental health problems. Specialist training in this area for police officers may
      improve how they respond to individuals with mental health problems; however,
      evidence to support this is sparse. This study evaluated the effectiveness of one
      bespoke mental health training package for frontline police officers relative to
      routine training. DESIGN: Pragmatic, two-armed cluster randomised controlled
      trial in one police force in England. Police stations in North Yorkshire were
      randomised with frontline police officers receiving either a bespoke mental
      health training package or routine training. The primary outcome was the number
      of incidents which resulted in a police response reported to the North Yorkshire
      Police control room up to six months after delivery of training. Secondary
      outcomes included: likelihood of incidents using Section 136 of the Mental Health
      Act; likelihood of incidents having a mental health tag applied; and number of
      individuals with a mental health warning marker involved in incidents. The
      appropriateness of mental health tags applied to a random sample of incidents was
      checked by an independent mental health professional. Routinely collected data
      were used. RESULTS: Twelve police stations were recruited and randomised
      (Intervention group n = 6; Control group n = 6), and 249 officers received the
      bespoke mental health training intervention. At follow-up, a median of 397
      incidents were assigned to trial stations in the intervention group, and 498 in
      the control group. There was no evidence of a difference in the number of
      incidents with a police response (adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.92, 95%
      CI 0.61 to 1.38, p = 0.69), or in the number of people with mental health warning
      markers involved in incidents (adjusted IRR 1.39, 95% CI 0.91 to 2.10, p = 0.13)
      between the intervention and control groups up to six months following the
      intervention; however, incidents assigned to stations in the intervention group
      were more likely to have a mental health tag applied to them than incidents
      assigned to control stations (adjusted odds ratio 1.41, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.71, p =
      0.001). The review of 100 incidents suggests that there may be incidents
      involving individuals with mental health issues that are not being recorded as
      such (Kappa coefficient 0.65). There was no statistically significant difference
      in the likelihood of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act being applied to an
      incident. CONCLUSIONS: The bespoke one day mental health training delivered to
      frontline officers by mental health professionals did not reduce the number of
      incidents reported to the police control room up to six months after its
      delivery; however training may have a positive effect on how the police record
      incidents involving individuals with mental health problems. Our trial has shown
      that conducting pragmatic trials within the police setting is feasible and
      acceptable. There is a wealth of routinely collected police data that can be
      utilised for research and further collaboration between police forces and
      academia is encouraged. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN (ISRCTN11685602). The authors
      confirm that all ongoing and related trials for this drug/intervention are
      registered.

PMID- 28886164
TI  - Variant genotyping with gap filling.
AB  - Although recent developments in DNA sequencing have allowed for great leaps in
      both the quality and quantity of genome assembly projects, de novo assemblies
      still lack the efficiency and accuracy required for studying genetic variation of
      individuals. Thus, efficient and accurate methods for calling and genotyping
      genetic variants are fundamental to studying the genomes of individuals. We study
      the problem of genotyping insertion variants. We assume that the location of the
      insertion is given, and the task is to find the insertion sequence. Insertions
      are the hardest structural variant to genotype, because the insertion sequence
      must be assembled from the reads, whereas genotyping other structural variants
      only requires transformations of the reference genome. The current methods for
      constructing insertion variants are mostly linked to variation calling methods
      and are only able to construct small insertions. A sub-problem in genome
      assembly, the gap filling problem, provides techniques that are readily
      applicable to insertion genotyping. Gap filling takes the context and length of a
      missing sequence in a genome assembly and attempts to assemble the intervening
      sequence. In this paper we show how tools and methods for gap filling can be used
      to assemble insertion variants by modeling the problem of insertion genotyping as
      filling gaps in the reference genome. We further give a general read filtering
      scheme to make the method scalable to large data sets. Our results show that gap
      filling methods are competitive against insertion genotyping tools. We further
      show that read filtering improves performance of insertion genotyping especially
      for long insertions. Our experiments show that on long insertions the new
      proposed method is the most accurate one, whereas on short insertions it has
      comparable performance as compared against existing tools.

PMID- 28886165
TI  - Low mother-to-child HIV transmission rate but high loss-to-follow-up among
      mothers and babies in Mandalay, Myanmar; a cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Loss-to-follow-up (LTFU) throughout the Prevention of Mother-To
      Child Transmission (PMTCT) cascade remains one of the major threats to the
      success of PMTCT programs. In this study, we aimed to determine the mother-to
      child transmission rate in a programmatic setting and to determine factors
      associated with LTFU among enrolled mothers and unfavorable outcomes among HIV
      exposed babies which includes being HIV positive, death and LTFU. METHODS: A
      retrospective cohort study reviewing routinely collected data in an Integrated
      HIV care program, Mandalay, Myanmar in June 2016.LTFU means mother/infant missing
      appointed visit for more than three months. RESULTS: Of 678 pregnant women
      enrolled in PMTCT program between March 2011 and June 2014, one stillbirth and
      607 live births were recorded in this cohort. Of 457 HIV-exposed babies with HIV
      test recorded at the end of the intervention, nine (2%) were HIV-positive.
      Pregnant women's and exposed-babies' LTFU rate was 7 per 1000 person-years, and
      10 per 1000 person-years respectively. PMTCT option B protocol was found to be
      significantly associate with maternal LTFU [adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR) 95% CI:
      3.52 (1.38-8.96)] when compare to mothers receiving option B+/lifelong
      antiretroviral therapy (ART). Weight <2.5 Kg at enrolment, receiving mixed
      feeding, vaginal delivery and option B PMTCT protocol were significantly
      associated with unfavorable outcomes among exposed babies [aHR(95% CI): 5.40
      (1.66-17.53), 5.91(1.68-20.84), 2.27 (1.22-4.22) and 2.33 (1.16-4.69)
      respectively]. CONCLUSION: Mother-to-child HIV transmission rate in this public
      hospital-based program was lower than the 5% national target, which indicates a
      successful PMTCT intervention. However, a high proportion of HIV-infected mothers
      and exposed babies LTFU was recorded. Lifelong ART provision to HIV-positive
      pregnant women was shown to reduce exposed babies' LTFU, death and transmission
      rate (unfavorable outcomes) in this setting. Lessons learned from this program
      could be used to inform policy and practice in the country, while the
      programmatic challenge of LTFU should be urgently addressed.

PMID- 28886167
TI  - Degradable transportation network with the addition of electric vehicles: Network
      equilibrium analysis.
AB  - Introducing electric vehicles (EVs) into urban transportation network brings
      higher requirement on travel time reliability and charging reliability.
      Specifically, it is believed that travel time reliability is a key factor
      influencing travelers' route choice. Meanwhile, due to the limited cruising
      range, EV drivers need to better learn about the required energy for the whole
      trip to make decisions about whether charging or not and where to charge (i.e.,
      charging reliability). Since EV energy consumption is highly related to travel
      speed, network uncertainty affects travel time and charging demand estimation
      significantly. Considering the network uncertainty resulted from link
      degradation, which influences the distribution of travel demand on transportation
      network and the energy demand on power network, this paper aims to develop a
      reliability-based network equilibrium framework for accommodating degradable road
      conditions with the addition of EVs. First, based on the link travel time
      distribution, the mean and variance of route travel time and monetary expenses
      related to energy consumption are deduced, respectively. And the charging time
      distribution of EVs with charging demand is also estimated. Then, a nested
      structure is considered to deal with the difference of route choice behavior
      derived by the different uncertainty degrees between the routes with and without
      degradable links. Given the expected generalized travel cost and a psychological
      safety margin, a traffic assignment model with the addition of EVs is formulated.
      Subsequently, a heuristic solution algorithm is developed to solve the proposed
      model. Finally, the effects of travelers' risk attitude, network degradation
      degree, and EV penetration rate on network performance are illustrated through an
      example network. The numerical results show that the difference of travelers'
      risk attitudes does have impact on the route choice, and the widespread adoption
      of EVs can cut down the total system travel cost effectively when the
      transportation network is more reliable.

PMID- 28886166
TI  - Assigning ecological roles to the populations belonging to a phenanthrene
      degrading bacterial consortium using omic approaches.
AB  - The present study describes the behavior of a natural phenanthrene-degrading
      consortium (CON), a synthetic consortium (constructed with isolated strains from
      CON) and an isolated strain form CON (Sphingobium sp. AM) in phenanthrene
      cultures to understand the interactions among the microorganisms present in the
      natural consortium during phenanthrene degradation as a sole carbon and energy
      source in liquid cultures. In the contaminant degradation assay, the defined
      consortium not only achieved a major phenanthrene degradation percentage (> 95%)
      but also showed a more efficient elimination of the intermediate metabolite. The
      opposite behavior occurred in the CON culture where the lowest phenanthrene
      degradation and the highest HNA accumulation were observed, which suggests the
      presence of positive and also negative interaction in CON. To consider the
      uncultured bacteria present in CON, a metagenomic library was constructed with
      total CON DNA. One of the resulting scaffolds (S1P3) was affiliated with the
      Betaproteobacteria class and resulted in a significant similarity with a genome
      fragment from Burkholderia sp. HB1 chromosome 1. A complete gene cluster, which
      is related to one of the lower pathways (meta-cleavage of catechol) involved in
      PAH degradation (ORF 31-43), mobile genetic elements and associated proteins, was
      found. These results suggest the presence of at least one other microorganism in
      CON besides Sphingobium sp. AM, which is capable of degrading PAH through the
      meta-cleavage pathway. Burkholderiales order was further found, along with
      Sphingomonadales order, by a metaproteomic approach, which indicated that both
      orders were metabolically active in CON. Our results show the presence of
      negative interactions between bacterial populations found in a natural consortium
      selected by enrichment techniques; moreover, the synthetic syntrophic processing
      chain with only one microorganism with the capability of degrading phenanthrene
      was more efficient in contaminant and intermediate metabolite degradation than a
      generalist strain (Sphingobium sp. AM).

PMID- 28886168
TI  - Unraveling the human salivary microbiome diversity in Indian populations.
AB  - The importance of studying the salivary microbiome has been highlighted for its
      connection to health and disease and as a potential tool for supplementing human
      genetic diversity studies. While the salivary microbiome has been studied in
      various world populations, Indian populations have not been examined. We
      therefore analyzed microbiome diversity in saliva samples from 92 volunteers from
      eight different sampling locations in India by amplifying and sequencing variable
      regions (V1 and V2) of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. The results showed immense
      bacterial richness in Indian populations; we identified 165 bacterial genera and
      785 unique Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), with substantial sharing among the
      populations. There were small, but significant correlations in the abundance of
      bacterial genera in sampling locations from the same geographic region. Most of
      the core OTUs detected were also observed previously in other populations, but
      Solobacterium spp., Lachnoanaerobaculum spp. and Alloprevotella spp. were
      observed to be a component of the saliva microbiome unique to Indian populations.
      Importantly, nine bacterial genera were observed that were not listed in the
      Human Oral Microbiome Database (HOMD). These results highlight the importance of
      analyzing underrepresented populations like those of India.

PMID- 28886169
TI  - Endogenous temporal attention in the absence of stimulus-driven cues emerges in
      the second year of life.
AB  - Anticipating both where and when an object will appear is a critical ability for
      adaptation. Research in the temporal domain in adults indicate that dissociable
      mechanisms relate to endogenous attention driven by the properties of the
      stimulus themselves (e.g. rhythmic, sequential, or trajectory cues) and driven by
      symbolic cues. In infancy, we know that the capacity to endogenously orient
      attention progressively develops through infancy. However, the above-mentioned
      distinction has not yet been explored since previous studies involved stimulus
      driven cues. The current study tested 12- and 15-month-olds in an adaptation of
      the anticipatory eye movement procedure to determine whether infants were able to
      anticipate a specific location and temporal interval predicted only by symbolic
      pre-cues. In the absence of stimulus-driven cues, results show that only 15-month
      olds could show anticipatory behavior based on the temporal information provided
      by the symbolic cues. Distinguishing stimulus-driven expectations from those
      driven by symbolic cues allowed dissecting more clearly the developmental
      progression of temporal endogenous attention.

PMID- 28886170
TI  - Homoarginine-A prognostic indicator in adolescents and adults with complex
      congenital heart disease?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Homoarginine (hArg) has been shown to be of prognostic value in
      patients with chronic left heart failure. The present study aims to assess the
      clinical utility and prognostic value of hArg levels in patients with complex
      congenital heart disease (CHD). METHODS: Plasma hArg levels were measured in 143
      patients with complex CHD and compared to clinical status, echocardiographic and
      laboratory parameters as well as the occurrence of adverse cardiac events.
      RESULTS: Median hArg levels were 1.5 MUmol/l in CHD patients as compared to 1.70
      MUmol/l in healthy controls (p = 0.051). Median hArg levels were lowest in
      patients with Fontan palliation (1.27 MUmol/l) and Eisenmenger physiology (0.99
      MUmol/l) and decreased with the severity of adverse cardiac events with lowest
      values found in patients prior to death or overt heart failure (0.89 MUmol/l).
      According to ROC analysis, the most important predictors of adverse cardiac
      events were hArg levels (AUC 0.837, p<0.001, CI 0.726-0.947), NYHA class (AUC
      0.800, p<0.001, CI 0.672-0.928) and NT-proBNP levels (AUC 0.780, p<0.001, CI
      0.669-0.891). The occurrence of overt heart failure or death due to progressive
      heart failure were best predicted by NYHA class (AUC 0.945, p<0.001, CI 0.898
      0.992), hArg levels (AUC 0.911, p<0.001, CI 0.850-0.971) and NT-proBNP levels
      (AUC 0.877, p<0.001, CI 0.791-0.962), respectively. CONCLUSION: In patients with
      complex CHD, hArg levels can predict adverse cardiac events as reliably as or
      even better than NT-proBNP levels and thus might be of prognostic value in this
      subset of patients.

PMID- 28886171
TI  - Positive predictive value and effectiveness of measles case-based surveillance in
      Uganda, 2012-2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Disease surveillance is a critical component in the control and
      elimination of vaccine preventable diseases. The Uganda National Expanded Program
      on Immunization strives to have a sensitive surveillance system within the
      Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) framework. We analyzed
      measles surveillance data to determine the effectiveness of the measles case
      based surveillance system and estimate its positive predictive value in order to
      inform policy and practice. METHODS: An IDSR alert was defined as >=1 suspected
      measles case reported by a district in a week, through the electronic Health
      Management Information System. We defined an alert in the measles case-based
      surveillance system (CBS) as >=1 suspected measles case with a blood sample
      collected for confirmation during the corresponding week in a particular
      district. Effectiveness of CBS was defined as having >=80% of IDSR alerts with a
      blood sample collected for laboratory confirmation. Positive predictive value was
      defined as the proportion of measles case-patients who also had a positive
      measles serological result (IgM +). We reviewed case-based surveillance data with
      laboratory confirmation and measles surveillance data from the electronic Health
      Management Information System from 2012-2015. RESULTS: A total of 6,974 suspected
      measles case-persons were investigated by the measles case-based surveillance
      between 2012 and 2015. Of these, 943 (14%) were measles specific IgM positive.
      The median age of measles case-persons between 2013 and 2015 was 4.0 years.
      Between 2013 and 2015, 72% of the IDSR alerts reported in the electronic Health
      Management Information System, had blood samples collected for laboratory
      confirmation. This was however less than the WHO recommended standard of >=80%.
      The PPV of CBS between 2013 and 2015 was 8.6%. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the
      effectiveness of measles case-based surveillance was sub-optimal, while the PPV
      showed that true measles cases have significantly reduced in Uganda. We
      recommended strengthening of case-based surveillance to ensure that all suspected
      measles cases have blood samples collected for laboratory confirmation to improve
      detection and ensure elimination by 2020.

PMID- 28886172
TI  - Use of alcohol and drugs with addiction potential among older women and men in a
      population-based study. The Nord-Trondelag Health Study 2006-2008 (HUNT3).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the consumption habits of older adults in
      Norway with respect to alcohol and the use of drugs with addiction potential,
      such as benzodiazepines, z-hypnotics and opioids, among regular drinkers. We
      studied the prevalence of self-reported consumption of alcohol on a regular basis
      in community-living older men and women (>= 65 years). Furthermore, we
      investigated the prevalence of dispensed prescribed drugs with addiction
      potential in older men and women who were regular drinkers. METHODS: We used data
      from the Nord-Trondelag Health Study 2006-2008 (HUNT3). Of 12,361 older adults in
      the HUNT3 study, 11,545 had answered the alcohol consumption item and were
      included in our study. Regular drinkers were defined as consuming alcohol one or
      more days a week. Data on dispensed drugs with addiction potential were drawn
      from the Norwegian Prescription Database. Addiction potential was defined as at
      least one prescription for benzodiazepines, z-hypnotics or opioids during one
      year for a minimum of two consecutive years. RESULTS: In total 28.2% of older
      Norwegian adults were regular drinkers. Men in the study were more likely to be
      regular drinkers than women. Drugs with addiction potential were used by 32.4% of
      participants, and were more commonly used by women. Nearly 12% of participants
      used benzodiazepines, 19% z-hypnotics and 12.4% opioids. Among regular drinkers,
      29% used drugs with addiction potential, which was also more common among women.
      Adjusted for age, gender and living situation, use of z-hypnotics was associated
      with regular alcohol intake, while use of opioids was associated with no regular
      alcohol intake. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of the use of drugs with addiction
      potential was high in a Norwegian population of older adults who reported regular
      consumption of alcohol. Strategies should be developed to reduce or prevent
      alcohol consumption among older adults who use drugs with addiction potential.

PMID- 28886173
TI  - Prevalence of self-reported comorbidities in HIV positive and HIV negative men
      who have sex with men over 55 years-The Australian Positive & Peers Longevity
      Evaluation Study (APPLES).
AB  - In Australia, almost half of HIV-positive people are now aged over 50 and are
      predominately gay and bisexual men (GBM). Compared to the general HIV-negative
      population, GBM engage more in behaviours that may increase the risk of age
      related comorbidities, including smoking, high alcohol consumption and
      recreational drug use. The objective of APPLES was to compare comorbidities and
      risk factors in HIV-positive older GBM with an appropriate control group of HIV
      negative GBM. We undertook a prospectively recruited cross-sectional sample of
      HIV-positive and HIV-negative GBM >= 55 years. Detailed data collection included
      clinic data, a health and lifestyle survey, and blood sample collection. We
      report key demographic, laboratory markers and self-reported comorbidities by HIV
      status. For selected comorbidities we also adjust HIV status a priori for age,
      smoking and body mass index. Over 16 months 228 HIV-positive and 218 HIV-negative
      men were recruited. Median age was 63 years (IQR: 59-67). Although more HIV
      positive men reported having ever smoked, smoking status was not statistically
      different between HIV positive and HIV negative men (p = 0.081). Greater alcohol
      use was reported by HIV-negative men (p = 0.002), and recreational drug use
      reported more often by HIV-positive men (p<0.001). After adjustment, HIV-positive
      men had significantly increased odds of diabetes (adjusted Odds ratio (aOR):
      1.97, p = 0.038), thrombosis (aOR: 3.08, p = 0.007), neuropathy (aOR: 34.6,
      P<0.001), and non-significantly increased odds for heart-disease (aOR: 1.71, p =
      0.077). In conclusion, HIV-positive GBM have significantly increased odds for key
      self-reported comorbidities. This study underscores the importance of an
      appropriate HIV-negative control group for more accurate evaluation of the risk
      and attribution of age-related comorbidities in HIV-positive people.

PMID- 28886174
TI  - Development of hop transcriptome to support research into host-viroid
      interactions.
AB  - Viroids, the smallest known pathogens, unable to encode any proteins, can cause
      severe diseases in their host plants. One of the proposed mechanisms of their
      pathogenicity includes silencing the host's genes via viroid-derived small RNAs,
      which are products of the host's immune response to the viroid's double stranded
      RNA. Humulus lupulus (hop) plants are hosts to several viroids; two of them, HLVd
      and CBCVd, are interesting models for studying host-viroid interactions, due to
      the symptomless infection of the former and severe stunting disease caused by the
      latter. To study these interactions, we constructed a deep hop NGS transcriptome
      based on 35 Gb paired-end sequencing data assembled into over 74 Mb of contigs.
      These transcripts were used for in-silico prediction of target transcripts of vd
      sRNA of the two aforementioned viroids, using two different software tools.
      Prediction models revealed that 1062 and 1387 hop transcripts share nucleotide
      similarities with HLVd- and CBCVd-derived small RNAs, respectively, so they could
      be silenced in an RNA interference process. Furthermore, we selected 17
      transcripts from 4 groups of targets involved in the metabolism of plant
      hormones, small RNA biogenesis, transcripts with high complementarity with viroid
      derived small RNAs and transcripts targeted by CBCVd-derived small RNAs with high
      cellular concentrations. Their expression was monitored by reverse transcription
      quantitative PCR performed using leaf, flower and cone samples. Additionally, the
      expression of 5 pathogenesis related genes was monitored. Expression analysis
      confirmed high expression levels of four pathogenesis related genes in leaves of
      HLVd and CBCVd infected hop plants. Expression fluctuations were observed for the
      majority of targets, with possible evidence of downregulation of GATA
      transcription factor by CBCVd- and of linoleate 13S-lipoxygenase by HLVd-derived
      small RNAs. These results provide a deep transcriptome of hop and the first
      insights into complex viroid-hop plant interactions.

PMID- 28886175
TI  - Cabozantinib versus everolimus, nivolumab, axitinib, sorafenib and best
      supportive care: A network meta-analysis of progression-free survival and overall
      survival in second line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Relative effect of therapies indicated for the treatment of advanced
      renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) after failure of first line treatment is currently
      not known. The objective of the present study is to evaluate progression-free
      survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of cabozantinib compared to everolimus,
      nivolumab, axitinib, sorafenib, and best supportive care (BSC) in aRCC patients
      who progressed after previous VEGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment.
      METHODOLOGY & FINDINGS: Systematic literature search identified 5 studies for
      inclusion in this analysis. The assessment of the proportional hazard (PH)
      assumption between the survival curves for different treatment arms in the
      identified studies showed that survival curves in two of the studies did not
      fulfil the PH assumption, making comparisons of constant hazard ratios (HRs)
      inappropriate. Consequently, a parametric survival network meta-analysis model
      was implemented with five families of functions being jointly fitted in a
      Bayesian framework to PFS, then OS, data on all treatments. The comparison relied
      on data digitized from the Kaplan-Meier curves of published studies, except for
      cabozantinib and its comparator everolimus where patient level data were
      available. This analysis applied a Bayesian fixed-effects network meta-analysis
      model to compare PFS and OS of cabozantinib versus its comparators. The log
      normal fixed-effects model displayed the best fit of data for both PFS and OS,
      and showed that patients on cabozantinib had a higher probability of longer PFS
      and OS than patients exposed to comparators. The survival advantage of
      cabozantinib increased over time for OS. For PFS the survival advantage reached
      its maximum at the end of the first year's treatment and then decreased over time
      to zero. CONCLUSION: With all five families of distributions, cabozantinib was
      superior to all its comparators with a higher probability of longer PFS and OS
      during the analyzed 3 years, except with the Gompertz model, where nivolumab was
      preferred after 24 months.

PMID- 28886176
TI  - Material wealth in 3D: Mapping multiple paths to prosperity in low- and middle-
      income countries.
AB  - Material wealth is a key factor shaping human development and well-being. Every
      year, hundreds of studies in social science and policy fields assess material
      wealth in low- and middle-income countries assuming that there is a single
      dimension by which households can move from poverty to prosperity. However, a one
      dimensional model may miss important kinds of prosperity, particularly in
      countries where traditional subsistence-based livelihoods coexist with modern
      cash economies. Using multiple correspondence analysis to analyze representative
      household data from six countries-Nepal, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania
      and Guatemala-across three world regions, we identify a number of independent
      dimension of wealth, each with a clear link to locally relevant pathways to
      success in cash and agricultural economies. In all cases, the first dimension
      identified by this approach replicates standard one-dimensional estimates and
      captures success in cash economies. The novel dimensions we identify reflect
      success in different agricultural sectors and are independently associated with
      key benchmarks of food security and human growth, such as adult body mass index
      and child height. The multidimensional models of wealth we describe here provide
      new opportunities for examining the causes and consequences of wealth inequality
      that go beyond success in cash economies, for tracing the emergence of hybrid
      pathways to prosperity, and for assessing how these different pathways to
      economic success carry different health risks and social opportunities.

PMID- 28886178
TI  - Ethics approval in applications for open-access clinical trial data: An analysis
      of researcher statements to clinicalstudydatarequest.com.
AB  - Although there are a number of online platforms for patient-level clinical trial
      data sharing from industry sponsors, they are not very harmonized regarding the
      role of local ethics approval in the research proposal review process. The first
      and largest of these platforms is ClinicalStudyDataRequest.com (CSDR), which
      includes over three thousand trials from thirteen sponsors including
      GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, and Bayer. CSDR asks applicants to
      state whether they have received ethics approval for their research proposal, but
      in most cases does not require that they submit evidence of approval. However,
      the website does require that applicants without ethical approval state the
      reason it was not required. In order to examine the perspectives of researchers
      on this topic, we coded every response to that question received by CSDR between
      June 2014 and February 2017. Of 111 applicants who stated they were exempt from
      ethics approval, 63% mentioned de-identification, 57% mentioned the use of
      existing data, 33% referred to local or jurisdictional regulations, and 20%
      referred to the approvals obtained by the original study. We conclude by
      examining the experience of CSDR within the broader context of the access
      mechanisms and policies currently being used by other data sharing platforms, and
      discuss how our findings might be used to help clinical trial data providers
      design clear and informative access documents.

PMID- 28886177
TI  - Inflammatory and non-inflammatory monocytes as novel prognostic biomarkers of
      survival in SOD1G93A mouse model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
AB  - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) has lately become a suitable scenario to
      study the interplay between the hematopoietic system and disease progression.
      Recent studies in C9orf72 null mice have demonstrated that C9orf72 is necessary
      for the normal function of myeloid cells. In this study, we aimed to analyze in
      depth the connection between the hematopoietic system and secondary lymphoid
      (spleen) and non-lymphoid (liver and skeletal muscle) organs and tissues along
      the disease progression in the transgenic SOD1G93A mice. Our findings suggested
      that the inflammatory response due to the neurodegeneration in this animal model
      affected all three organs and tissues, especially the liver and the skeletal
      muscle. However, the liver was able to compensate this inflammatory response by
      means of the action of non-inflammatory monocytes, while in the skeletal muscle
      inflammatory monocytes prompted a further inflammation process until the terminal
      state of the animals. Interestingly, in blood, a positive correlation was found
      between non-inflammatory monocytes and survival of the transgenic SOD1G93A mice,
      while the contrary (a negative correlation) was found in the case of inflammatory
      monocytes, supporting their potential role as biomarkers of disease progression
      and survival in this animal model. These findings could prompt future
      translational studies in ALS patients, promoting the identification of new
      reliable biomarkers of disease progression.

PMID- 28886179
TI  - Local overfishing may be avoided by examining parameters of a spatio-temporal
      model.
AB  - Spatial erosion of stock structure through local overfishing can lead to stock
      collapse because fish often prefer certain locations, and fisheries tend to focus
      on those locations. Fishery managers are challenged to maintain the integrity of
      the entire stock and require scientific approaches that provide them with sound
      advice. Here we propose a Bayesian hierarchical spatio-temporal modelling
      framework for fish abundance data to estimate key parameters that define spatial
      stock structure: persistence (similarity of spatial structure over time),
      connectivity (coherence of temporal pattern over space), and spatial variance
      (variation across the seascape). The consideration of these spatial parameters in
      the stock assessment process can help identify the erosion of structure and
      assist in preventing local overfishing. We use Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in
      eastern Canada as a case study an examine the behaviour of these parameters from
      the height of the fishery through its collapse. We identify clear signals in
      parameter behaviour under circumstances of destructive stock erosion as well as
      for recovery of spatial structure even when combined with a non-recovery in
      abundance. Further, our model reveals the spatial pattern of areas of high and
      low density persists over the 41 years of available data and identifies the
      remnant patches. Models of this sort are crucial to recovery plans if we are to
      identify and protect remaining sources of recolonization for Atlantic cod. Our
      method is immediately applicable to other exploited species.

PMID- 28886180
TI  - Health care utilization in general practice after HPV vaccination-A Danish
      nationwide register-based cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has increasingly been suspected
      of adverse effects in Denmark since 2013. By using consultations with the general
      practitioner (GP) as an indicator for morbidity, this study aims to examine the
      association between HPV vaccination and morbidity in girls in the Danish
      childhood immunization program. METHODS: The study is a nationwide register-based
      cohort study. Both the HPV and the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccines were
      offered to 12-year-old girls in Denmark in the study period (2008-2015).
      Therefore, both vaccines were included as exposures to allow differentiation
      between potential effects. This resulted in four exposure groups: HPV only
      vaccinated, HPV+MMR vaccinated, MMR only vaccinated, and Non-vaccinated girls.
      Outcomes were: daytime consultation rates and frequent GP attendance (> 7 annual
      GP consultations). We estimated consultation rates by negative binomial
      regressions analysis and frequent GP attendance by logistic regression analysis.
      Both analyses were stratified on the years 2008-2013 versus 2014. RESULTS: The
      study included 214,240 girls born in 1996-2002. All vaccinated groups consulted
      the GP more often than the non-vaccinated group, both before and after the
      vaccination. After the vaccination, an increase in consultations was observed for
      all three vaccinated groups; most distinct for girls vaccinated in 2014. For
      girls vaccinated before 2014, we found a slightly higher risk of frequent GP
      attendance after vaccination in the HPV only group compared to the non-vaccinated
      group, whereas in 2014, frequent GP attendance was seen for all three vaccinated
      groups; most substantial for the MMR only vaccinated group. CONCLUSION: In this
      study, no exclusive increase in health care utilization was detected after HPV
      vaccination. However, a general difference in the health care utilization pattern
      was found between vaccinated and non-vaccinated girls, which increased after the
      time of vaccination, primarily for girls vaccinated after 2013.

PMID- 28886182
TI  - Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence varies by cat breed.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread zoonotic parasite that is relevant for
      veterinary and public health. The domestic cat, the definitive host species with
      the largest worldwide population, has become evolutionarily and epidemiologically
      the most important host of T. gondii. The outcome of T. gondii infection is
      influenced by congenital and acquired host characteristics. We detected
      differences in T. gondii seroprevalence by cat breed in our previous studies. The
      aims of this study were to estimate T. gondii seroprevalence in selected domestic
      cat breeds, and to evaluate whether being of a certain breed is associated with
      T. gondii seropositivity, when the age and lifestyle of the cat are taken into
      account. The studied breeds were the Birman, British Shorthair, Burmese, Korat,
      Norwegian Forest Cat, Ocicat, Persian, and Siamese. Plasma samples were analyzed
      for the presence of immunoglobulin G antibodies against T. gondii with a
      commercial direct agglutination test at dilution 1:40. The samples were
      accompanied by owner-completed questionnaires that provided background data on
      the cats. Overall, 41.12% of the 1121 cats tested seropositive, and the
      seroprevalence increased with age. The Burmese had the lowest seroprevalence
      (18.82%) and the Persian had the highest (60.00%). According to the final
      multivariable logistic regression model, the odds to test seropositive were four
      to seven times higher in Birmans, Ocicats, Norwegian Forest Cats, and Persians
      when compared with the Burmese, while older age and receiving raw meat were also
      risk factors for T. gondii seropositivity. This study showed that T. gondii
      seroprevalence varies by cat breed and identified being of certain breeds, older
      age, and receiving raw meat as risk factors for seropositivity.

PMID- 28886181
TI  - Activation of endoplasmic reticulum stress response by enhanced polyamine
      catabolism is important in the mediation of cisplatin-induced acute kidney
      injury.
AB  - Cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity limits its use in many cancer patients. The
      expression of enzymes involved in polyamine catabolism, spermidine/spermine N1
      acetyltransferase (SSAT) and spermine oxidase (SMOX) increase in the kidneys of
      mice treated with cisplatin. We hypothesized that enhanced polyamine catabolism
      contributes to tissue damage in cisplatin acute kidney injury (AKI). Using gene
      knockout and chemical inhibitors, the role of polyamine catabolism in cisplatin
      AKI was examined. Deficiency of SSAT, SMOX or neutralization of the toxic
      products of polyamine degradation, H2O2 and aminopropanal, significantly
      diminished the severity of cisplatin AKI. In vitro studies demonstrated that the
      induction of SSAT and elevated polyamine catabolism in cells increases the
      phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2alpha (eIF2alpha)
      and enhances the expression of binding immunoglobulin protein BiP/GRP78) and
      CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP/GADD153). The increased
      expression of these endoplasmic reticulum stress response (ERSR) markers was
      accompanied by the activation of caspase-3. These results suggest that enhanced
      polyamine degradation in cisplatin AKI may lead to tubular damage through the
      induction of ERSR and the consequent onset of apoptosis. In support of the above,
      we show that the ablation of the SSAT or SMOX gene, as well as the neutralization
      of polyamine catabolism products modulate the onset of ERSR (e.g. lower BiP and
      CHOP) and apoptosis (e.g. reduced activated caspase-3). These studies indicate
      that enhanced polyamine catabolism and its toxic products are important mediators
      of ERSR and critical to the pathogenesis of cisplatin AKI.

PMID- 28886183
TI  - Effectiveness of tori line use to reduce seabird bycatch in pelagic longline
      fishing.
AB  - Industrial longline fisheries cause the death of large numbers of seabirds
      annually. Various mitigation measures have been proposed, including the use of
      tori lines. In this study the efficiency of a single tori line to reduce seabird
      bycatch was tested on pelagic longline vessels (25-37m length). Thirteen fishing
      trips were carried out in the area and season of the highest bycatch rates
      recorded in the southwest Atlantic (2009-2011). We deployed two treatments in
      random order: sets with a tori line and without a tori line (control treatment).
      The use of a tori line significantly reduced seabird bycatch rates. Forty three
      and seven birds were captured in the control (0.85 birds/1,000 hooks, n = 49
      sets) and in the tori line treatment (0.13 birds/1,000 hooks, n = 51 sets),
      respectively. In 47% of the latter sets the tori line broke either because of
      entanglement with the longline gear or by tension. This diminished the tori line
      effectiveness; five of the seven captures during sets where a tori line was
      deployed were following ruptures. Nine additional trips were conducted with a
      tori line that was modified to reduce entanglements (2012-2016). Seven
      entanglements were recorded in 73 longline sets. The chance of a rupture on these
      trips was 4% (95% c.l. = 1-18%) of that during 2009-2011. This work shows that
      the use of a tori line reduces seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries and
      is a practice suitable for medium size vessels (~25-40m length). Because the
      study area has historically very high bycatch rates at global level, this tori
      line design is potentially useful to reduce seabird bycatch in many medium size
      pelagic longline vessel fishing in the southern hemisphere.

PMID- 28886184
TI  - Retraction: miR-122 Regulates Tumorigenesis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma by
      Targeting AKT3.

PMID- 28886185
TI  - Clinical features and seasonality of parechovirus infection in an Asian
      subtropical city, Hong Kong.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of human parechovirus (HPeV) in Asia remains
      obscure. We elucidated the prevalence, seasonality, type distribution and
      clinical presentation of HPeV among children in Hong Kong. METHODS: A 24-month
      prospective study to detect HPeV in children <=36 months hospitalized for acute
      viral illnesses. RESULTS: 2.3% of the 3911 children examined had HPeV infection,
      with most (87.5%) concentrated in September-January (autumn-winter). 81.3% were
      HPeV1 and 12.5% were HPeV4, while HPeV3 was rare (2.5%). HPeV was a probable
      cause of the disease in 47.7% (42/88), mostly self-limiting including acute
      gastroenteritis, upper respiratory tract infection and maculopapular rash. A
      neonate developed severe sepsis-like illness with HPeV3 as the only pathogen
      detected. A high proportion (60.0%) of children coinfected with HPeV and other
      respiratory virus(es) had acute bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Six children with
      HPeV coinfections developed convulsion / pallid attack. Most rash illnesses
      exhibited a generalized maculopapular pattern involving the trunk and limbs, and
      were more likely associated with HPeV4 compared to other syndrome groups (36.4%
      vs. 3.1%, p = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: In Hong Kong, HPeV exhibits a clear
      seasonality (autumn-winter) and was found in a small proportion (2.3%) of young
      children (<=36 months) admitted with features of acute viral illnesses. The
      clinical presentation ranged from mild gastroenteritis, upper respiratory tract
      infection and febrile rash to convulsion and severe sepsis-like illness. HPeV3,
      which is reported to associate with more severe disease in neonates, is rare in
      Hong Kong. HPeV coinfection might associate with convulsion and aggravate other
      respiratory tract infections.

PMID- 28886186
TI  - The cardiac calsequestrin gene transcription is modulated at the promoter by NFAT
      and MEF-2 transcription factors.
AB  - Calsequestrin-2 (CASQ2) is the main Ca2+-binding protein inside the sarcoplasmic
      reticulum of cardiomyocytes. Previously, we demonstrated that MEF-2 and SRF
      binding sites within the human CASQ2 gene (hCASQ2) promoter region are functional
      in neonatal cardiomyocytes. In this work, we investigated if the calcineurin/NFAT
      pathway regulates hCASQ2 expression in neonatal cardiomyocytes. The inhibition of
      NFAT dephosphorylation with CsA or INCA-6, reduced both the luciferase activity
      of hCASQ2 promoter constructs (-3102/+176 bp and -288/+176 bp) and the CASQ2 mRNA
      levels in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Additionally, NFATc1 and NFATc3 over
      expressing neonatal cardiomyocytes showed a 2-3-fold increase in luciferase
      activity of both hCASQ2 promoter constructs, which was prevented by CsA
      treatment. Site-directed mutagenesis of the -133 bp MEF-2 binding site prevented
      trans-activation of hCASQ2 promoter constructs induced by NFAT overexpression.
      Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays revealed NFAT and MEF-2 enrichment
      within the -288 bp to +76 bp of the hCASQ2 gene promoter. Besides, a direct
      interaction between NFAT and MEF-2 proteins was demonstrated by protein co
      immunoprecipitation experiments. Taken together, these data demonstrate that NFAT
      interacts with MEF-2 bound to the -133 bp binding site at the hCASQ2 gene
      promoter. In conclusion, in this work, we demonstrate that the Ca2+
      calcineurin/NFAT pathway modulates the transcription of the hCASQ2 gene in
      neonatal cardiomyocytes.

PMID- 28886187
TI  - Evaluating the role of land cover and climate uncertainties in computing gross
      primary production in Hawaiian Island ecosystems.
AB  - Gross primary production (GPP) is the Earth's largest carbon flux into the
      terrestrial biosphere and plays a critical role in regulating atmospheric
      chemistry and global climate. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
      (MODIS)-MOD17 data product is a widely used remote sensing-based model that
      provides global estimates of spatiotemporal trends in GPP. When the MOD17
      algorithm is applied to regional scale heterogeneous landscapes, input data from
      coarse resolution land cover and climate products may increase uncertainty in GPP
      estimates, especially in high productivity tropical ecosystems. We examined the
      influence of using locally specific land cover and high-resolution local climate
      input data on MOD17 estimates of GPP for the State of Hawaii, a heterogeneous and
      discontinuous tropical landscape. Replacing the global land cover data input
      product (MOD12Q1) with Hawaii-specific land cover data reduced statewide GPP
      estimates by ~8%, primarily because the Hawaii-specific land cover map had less
      vegetated land area compared to the global land cover product. Replacing coarse
      resolution GMAO climate data with Hawaii-specific high-resolution climate data
      also reduced statewide GPP estimates by ~8% because of the higher spatial
      variability of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in the Hawaii-specific
      climate data. The combined use of both Hawaii-specific land cover and high
      resolution Hawaii climate data inputs reduced statewide GPP by ~16%, suggesting
      equal and independent influence on MOD17 GPP estimates. Our sensitivity analyses
      within a heterogeneous tropical landscape suggest that refined global land cover
      and climate data sets may contribute to an enhanced MOD17 product at a variety of
      spatial scales.

PMID- 28886189
TI  - Phylogeny of the infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in European aquaculture.
AB  - Infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN)-a highly lethal infectious salmonid
      disease-has caused substantial economic losses in the European production of
      rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) since the late 1980s. The causal agent of IHN
      is the IHN virus (IHNV) introduced from overseas. However, until today, its
      phylogeographic spread in Europe remains poorly understood. We therefore sought
      to elucidate this unresolved topic by using the largest ever compiled dataset of
      European IHNV isolates (E isolates) (193 GenBank E isolates and 100 isolates from
      this study) for the complete glycoprotein (G) gene sequence. Our results clearly
      revealed that the active trout trade has left its traces in the E phylogeny. For
      example, the spread by trade of IHNV-infected trout was apparently the cause for
      the exposure of the E lineage to different local scenarios of selection and
      genetic drift, and therefore has led to the split of this lineage into various
      subordinated lineages. Accordingly, we also found evidence for E isolates being
      mixed Europe-wide by cross-border introduction events. Moreover, there were
      indications that this propagation of the E lineage within Europe corresponded
      with an extensive and rapid spread event, already during or shortly after its
      formation. Finally, in accordance with the high substitution rate of IHNV
      determined by previous studies, our dataset indicates that the mean period of
      occurrence of a single E haplotype is typically not longer than one calendar
      year.

PMID- 28886188
TI  - Alkylation induced cerebellar degeneration dependent on Aag and Parp1 does not
      occur via previously established cell death mechanisms.
AB  - Alkylating agents are ubiquitous in our internal and external environments,
      causing DNA damage that contributes to mutations and cell death that can result
      in aging, tissue degeneration and cancer. Repair of methylated DNA bases occurs
      primarily through the base excision repair (BER) pathway, a multi-enzyme pathway
      initiated by the alkyladenine DNA glycosylase (Aag, also known as Mpg). Previous
      work demonstrated that mice treated with the alkylating agent methyl
      methanesulfonate (MMS) undergo cerebellar degeneration in an Aag-dependent
      manner, whereby increased BER initiation by Aag causes increased tissue damage
      that is dependent on activation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (Parp1). Here,
      we dissect the molecular mechanism of cerebellar granule neuron (CGN) sensitivity
      to MMS using primary ex vivo neuronal cultures. We first established a high
      throughput fluorescent imaging method to assess primary neuron sensitivity to
      treatment with DNA damaging agents. Next, we verified that the alkylation
      sensitivity of CGNs is an intrinsic phenotype that accurately recapitulates the
      in vivo dependency of alkylation-induced CGN cell death on Aag and Parp1
      activity. Finally, we show that MMS-induced CGN toxicity is independent of all
      the cellular events that have previously been associated with Parp-mediated
      toxicity, including mitochondrial depolarization, AIF translocation, calcium
      fluxes, and NAD+ consumption. We therefore believe that further investigation is
      needed to adequately describe all varieties of Parp-mediated cell death.

PMID- 28886190
TI  - Correlation among baseline variables yields non-uniformity of p-values.
AB  - A recent paper in Neurology used statistical techniques to investigate the
      integrity of the randomization in 33 clinical trials conducted by a group of
      investigators. Without justification, the approach assumed that there would be no
      impact of correlation among baseline variables. We investigated the impact of
      correlation on the conclusions of the approach in several large-scale simulation
      studies that replicated the sample sizes and baseline variables of the clinical
      trials in question and utilized proper randomization. Additionally, we considered
      scenarios with larger numbers of baseline variables. We found that, with even
      moderate correlation, there can be substantial inflation of the type I error of
      statistical tests of randomization integrity. This is also the case under no
      correlation, in the presence of some discrete baseline variables, with a large
      number of variables. Thus, statistical techniques for assessing randomization
      integrity should be applied with extreme caution given that very low p-values,
      which are taken as evidence against valid randomization, can arise even in the
      case of valid randomization, in the presence of correlation. More generally, the
      use of tests of goodness of fit to uniformity for the purpose of testing a global
      null hypothesis is not advisable in the presence of correlation.

PMID- 28886191
TI  - Clinical chemistry reference intervals of healthy adult populations in Gojjam
      Zones of Amhara National Regional State, Northwest Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Reference interval is crucial for disease screening, diagnosis,
      monitoring, progression and treatment efficacy. Due to lack of locally derived
      reference values for the parameters, clinicians use reference intervals derived
      from western population. But, studies conducted in different African countries
      have indicated differences between locally and western derived reference values.
      Different studies also indicated considerable variation in clinical chemistry
      reference intervals by several variables such as age, sex, geographical location,
      environment, lifestyle and genetic variation. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to
      determine the reference intervals of common clinical chemistry parameters of the
      community of Gojjam Zones, Northwest Ethiopia. METHOD: Population based cross
      sectional study was conducted from November 2015 to December 2016 in healthy
      adult populations of Gojjam zone. Data such as, medical history, physical
      examination and socio-demographic data were collected. In addition, laboratory
      investigations were undertaken to screen the population. Clinical chemistry
      parameters were measured using Mindray BS 200 clinical chemistry autoanalyzer as
      per the manufacturer's instructions. Descriptive statistics was used to calculate
      mean, median and 95th percentiles. Independent sample T-test and one way ANOVA
      were used to see association between variables. RESULTS: After careful screening
      of a total of 799 apparently healthy adults who were consented for this study,
      complete data from 446 (224 females and 222 males) were included for the
      analysis. The mean age of both the study participants was 28.8 years. Males had
      high (P<0.05) mean and 2.5th-97.5th percentile ranges of ALT, AST, ALP,
      creatinine and direct bilirubin. The reference intervals of amylase, LDH, total
      protein and total bilirubin were not significantly different between the two sex
      groups (P>0.05). Mean, median, 95% percentile values of AST, ALP, amylase, LDH,
      creatinine, total protein, total bilirubin, and direct bilirubin across all age
      groups of participants were similar (P>0.05). But, there was a significant
      difference in the value of ALT (P<0.05). The reference intervals of ALT, total
      protein and creatinine were significantly (P<0.05) high in people having monthly
      income >1500 ETB compared to those with low monthly income. Significant (P<0.05)
      higher values of the ALT, ALP and total protein were observed in people living in
      high land compared to low land residences. CONCLUSION: The study showed that some
      of the common clinical chemistry parameters reference intervals of healthy adults
      in Gojjam zones were higher than the reference intervals generated from developed
      countries. Therefore, strict adherence to the reference values generated in
      developed countries could lead to inappropriate diagnosis and treatment of
      patients. There was also variation of reference interval values based on climate,
      gender, age, monthly income and geographical locations. Therefore, further study
      is required to establish reference intervals for Ethiopian population.

PMID- 28886192
TI  - Influence of weight status on 24-hour urine composition in adults without
      urolithiasis: A nationwide study based on a Chinese Han population.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study sought to explore the influence of different body weight
      statuses on 24-hour urine compositions in adults without urolithiasis based on a
      nationwide study of a Chinese Han population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty-four
      hour urine samples from 584 Chinese Han adults without urolithiasis in six cities
      were analyzed. The participants were divided into four body weight status types
      according to their body mass indices (BMIs) according to WHO guidelines. The
      baseline characteristics and 24-hour urine compositions of the standard weight
      group were compared with those of the underweight, overweight and obese groups.
      The influences of different body weight statuses on the 24-hour urine
      compositions were explored using univariate and multivariate logistic
      regressions. RESULTS: The numbers of participants in the underweight, standard
      weight, overweight and obese status groups were 24, 376, 149 and 35,
      respectively. The overweight and obese groups suffered significantly higher risks
      of hypertension and diabetes mellitus than the standard weight group. In the
      univariate analyses, compared with the standard weight group, the overweight
      group had significantly higher levels of urine citrate (mean difference [MD] =
      0.51 mmol, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.15-0.87, P = 0.001), potassium (MD =
      6.63 mmol, 95% CI: 1.13-12.14, P = 0.01) and magnesium (MD = 0.38 mmol, 95% CI:
      0.08-0.69, P = 0.014). Significant increases in urine citrate (MD = 0.85 mmol,
      95% CI: 0.01-1.68, P = 0.046), magnesium (MD = 0.69 mmol, 95% CI: 0.13-1.25, P =
      0.016) and phosphate (MD = 2.28 mmol, 95% CI: 0.03-4.54, P = 0.047) were found in
      the obese group. No significant differences were detected between the standard
      weight and underweight groups. In the multivariate logistic regression analyses,
      we only observed significantly higher levels of urine potassium (odds ratio [OR]
      = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.00-1.04, P = 0.03) in the overweight group and phosphate (OR =
      1.32, 95% CI: 1.05-1.66, P = 0.018) in the obese group when compared with the
      standard weight group. CONCLUSIONS: Nonstone-forming adults with overweight or
      obese statuses were at higher risks of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Obese
      nonstone-formers might have a greater risk of urinary stone formation due to
      increased urinary phosphate excretion. Additionally, underweight status had no
      influence on 24-hour urine composition.

PMID- 28886193
TI  - Estimating the incidence of interstitial lung diseases in the Cree of Eeyou
      Istchee, northern Quebec.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the epidemiology of interstitial lung disease
      (ILD) amongst Canada's Indigenous populations. Clinicians working in Eeyou
      Istchee (the Cree territory of the James Bay region of Quebec, population 17,
      956) suspected that ILD was more common in this area. We sought to identify all
      prevalent and incident cases of ILD in Eeyou Istchee between 2006 and 2013, to
      describe characteristics of affected patients, distribution of subtypes, and
      estimate disease incidence. METHODS: Potential ILD cases amongst Eeyou Istchee
      residents were identified by searching hospitalization databases and lists of
      patients on long term home oxygen in the region's nine communities, and surveying
      physicians and nurses. Clinical, radiological and pathological data were
      reviewed. Potential cases were classified as 'Definite ILD' if an open lung
      biopsy demonstrated ILD or, in the absence of histopathologic confirmation, if
      their thoracic CT imaging was deemed consistent with ILD by a panel of two
      respirologists and a chest radiologist. Potential cases for whom CT images could
      not be retrieved for our review were not eligible for classification as Definite
      ILD, unless they had undergone open lung biopsy. The Definite ILD group was
      further categorized by subtype of ILD. For usual interstitial pneumonia and non
      specific interstitial pneumonitis patterns, we assumed cases were idiopathic in
      the absence of documentation of connective tissue disease or occupational
      exposures in the medical chart. For Definite ILD and the most common subtype, we
      calculated the average annual incidence rates, age-standardized to the province
      of Quebec, for 2006 to 2013, using a gamma distribution to calculate 95%
      confidence intervals. RESULTS: Of 167 potential cases, 52 were categorized as
      Definite ILD: 14 on the basis of histopathology and 38 on the basis of CT imaging
      alone. Six patients had a prior history of connective tissue disease. Information
      on occupation was recorded in the charts of 18/52 (35%) cases, and missing in the
      remainder. We found the most common subtype was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
      (27/52, 52%), followed by idiopathic non-specific interstitial pneumonia (13/52,
      25%), and secondary usual interstitial pneumonia associated with connective
      tissue diseases (5/52, 10%). The age-standardized annual incidence between 2006
      2013 was 80 per 100,000 person-years observed (PYO) for ILD, and 46 per 100,000
      PYO for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. INTERPRETATION: The incidence of ILD and
      of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Eeyou Istchee may be higher than rates
      reported in other populations; however, cautious interpretation is required due
      to the lack of histopathological confirmation in the majority of cases, and our
      reliance on chart review to exclude secondary causes. A prospective study of
      incident cases with standardized assessments to establish the types of ILD and to
      assess for potential causes could overcome some of the limitations of the present
      analysis. Studies evaluating ILD incidence and subtype distribution in other
      Indigenous populations would also be of interest.

PMID- 28886194
TI  - A new rabbit model of impaired wound healing in an X-ray-irradiated field.
AB  - Radiation is an important therapy for cancer with many benefits; however, its
      side effects, such as impaired wound healing, are a major problem. While many
      attempts have been made to overcome this particular disadvantage, there are few
      effective treatments for impaired wound healing in an X-ray-irradiated field. One
      reason for this deficiency is the lack of experimental models, especially animal
      models. We have previously reported a mouse model of impaired wound healing in
      which the irradiation area was restricted to the hindlimbs. In this mouse model,
      due to the size of the animal, a diameter of five millimeters was considered the
      largest wound size suitable for the model. In addition, the transplanted cells
      had to be harvested from other inbred animals. To investigate larger wounds and
      the impact of autologous specimen delivery, a rabbit model was developed. Rabbits
      were kept in a special apparatus to shield the body and hindlimbs while the
      irradiation field was exposed to radiation. Six weeks after irradiation, a 2 x 2
      cm, full-thickness skin defect was made inside the irradiation field. Then, the
      wound area was observed over time. The wound area after irradiation was larger
      than that without irradiation at all time points. Both angiogenesis and collagen
      formation were reduced. For further study, as an example of using this model, the
      effect of autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) was observed. Autologous PRP from
      peripheral blood (pb-PRP) and bone marrow aspirate (bm-PRP) was processed and
      injected into the wounds in the irradiated field. Two weeks later, the wounds
      treated with bm-PRP were significantly smaller than those treated with phosphate
      buffer vehicle controls. In contrast, the wounds treated with pb-PRP were not
      significantly different from the controls. This rabbit model is useful for
      investigating the mechanism of impaired wound healing in an X-ray-irradiated
      field.

PMID- 28886195
TI  - Effect of dragon fruit on glycemic control in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to systematically determine the effect
      of dragon fruit on glycemic control in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. METHODS:
      Electronic databases including MEDLINE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, Scopus,
      ScienceDirect(r), Proquest, Web of Science(r), LILACS, NAPRALERT, SciFinder,
      Clinicalkey, Herbmed, NCCIH and Google Scholar were searched from their earliest
      inception up to March 2017 for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which
      compared dragon fruit with placebo or no treatment in prediabetes or type 2
      diabetes. Clinicaltrials.gov, clinicaltrialresults.org, and ISRCTN registry were
      also searched. Personal contact with experts and historical search of related
      articles was undertaken. Outcome of interest were fasting plasma glucose (FPG)
      and 2 hours post-prandial glucose (2HPP). Study selection, data extraction and
      study quality assessment were performed independently by two investigators.
      Disagreements were resolved by a third reviewer. Treatment effect was estimated
      with mean difference (MD). Effect estimates were pooled using inverse-variance
      weighted method. Heterogeneity was assessed with the Q statistic and quantified
      with the I2 statistic. DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model was used when
      the Q-statistic was significant at the level of 0.1, otherwise a fixed-effects
      model was used. RESULTS: Among 401 studies identified from literature search, 4
      RCTs involving 36 prediabetes subjects and 109 type 2 diabetes patients were
      included in the analysis. In prediabetes, FPG reduction was significant with MD
      of -15.1 mg/dL (95% CI: -23.8 to -6.5 mg/dL, P-value = 0.0006). Meta-analysis in
      type 2 diabetes showed no effect of dragon fruit on FPG (MD -26.5 mg/dL, 95% CI: 
      72.6 mg/dL to 19.6 mg/dL) and in 2HPP (MD -30.5 mg/dL, 95% CI: -80.9 mg/dL to
      19.9 mg/dL). CONCLUSION: The available evidence in prediabetes is interesting.
      This will shed some light on diabetes prevention. The effect in T2DM was not
      significant. However, a trend towards greater blood glucose reduction with higher
      dose was observed.

PMID- 28886196
TI  - Fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction simulation of the aortic and mitral
      valves in a realistic 3D left ventricle model.
AB  - In this study, we present a fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI)
      framework that combines smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and nonlinear
      finite element (FE) method to investigate the coupled aortic and mitral valves
      structural response and the bulk intraventricular hemodynamics in a realistic
      left ventricle (LV) model during the entire cardiac cycle. The FSI model
      incorporates valve structures that consider native asymmetric leaflet geometries,
      anisotropic hyperelastic material models and human material properties.
      Comparison of FSI results with subject-specific echocardiography data
      demonstrates that the SPH-FE approach is able to quantitatively predict the
      opening and closing times of the valves, the mitral leaflet opening and closing
      angles, and the large-scale intraventricular flow phenomena with a reasonable
      agreement. Moreover, comparison of FSI results with a LV model without valves
      reveals substantial differences in the flow field. Peak systolic velocities
      obtained from the FSI model and the LV model without valves are 2.56 m/s and 1.16
      m/s, respectively, compared to the Doppler echo data of 2.17 m/s. The proposed
      SPH-FE FSI framework represents a further step towards modeling patient-specific
      coupled LV-valve dynamics, and has the potential to improve our understanding of
      cardiovascular physiology and to support professionals in clinical decision
      making.

PMID- 28886197
TI  - In vivo lineage tracing reveals Axin2-expressing, long-lived cortical thymic
      epithelial progenitors in the postnatal thymus.
AB  - In the thymus, cortical and medullary thymic epithelial cells (TECs) are
      instrumental for generating a repertoire of functional T cells. Hence, there has
      been much interest in the ontogeny of TECs. While medullary TEC (mTEC) and
      bipotent progenitors have been identified, the existence of a cortical TEC (cTEC)
      progenitor remains ambiguous. In this study, we used lineage tracing based on a
      target gene of the Wnt pathway, Axin2. We found that Axin2 initially labels cells
      in both the cortical and medullary compartments. Using Axin2-CreERT2 mice to
      track the fate of labelled cells, we identified long-lived cortical TEC
      progenitors that give rise to expanding clones and contribute to homeostasis in
      postnatal thymus. In contrast, no clonal expansion was found in the medullary or
      in the K5K8-double positive compartments. The identification of cTEC progenitors
      and their regulation by Wnt signaling have important implications for our
      understanding of thymus physiology during homeostasis and TEC-related disorders.

PMID- 28886198
TI  - TAT-mediated transduction of bacterial redox proteins generates a cytoprotective
      effect on neuronal cells.
AB  - Cell penetrating peptides, also known as protein transduction domains, have the
      capacity to ubiquitously cross cellular membranes carrying many different cargos
      with negligible cytotoxicity. As a result, they have emerged as a powerful tool
      for macromolecular delivery-based therapies. In this study, catalytically active
      bacterial Ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase (LepFNR) and Heme oxygenase (LepHO) fused to
      the HIV TAT-derived protein transduction peptide (TAT) were efficiently
      transduced to neuroblastoma SHSY-5Y cells. Proteins entered the cells through an
      endocytic pathway showing a time/concentration dependent mechanism that was
      clearly modulated by the nature of the cargo protein. Since ferredoxin-NADP+
      reductases and heme oxygenases have been implicated in mechanisms of oxidative
      stress defense, neuroblastoma cells simultaneously transduced with TAT-LepFNR and
      TAT-LepHO were challenged by H2O2 incubations to judge the cytoprotective power
      of these bacterial enzymes. Accumulation of reactive oxygen species was
      significantly reduced in these transduced neuronal cells. Moreover, measurements
      of metabolic viability, membrane integrity, and cell survival indicated that
      these cells showed a better tolerance to oxidative stress. Our results open the
      possibility for the application of transducible active redox proteins to overcome
      the damage elicited by oxidative stress in cells and tissues.

PMID- 28886199
TI  - Quantitative analysis and comparison of 3D morphology between viable and
      apoptotic MCF-7 breast cancer cells and characterization of nuclear
      fragmentation.
AB  - Morphological changes in apoptotic cells provide essential markers for defining
      and detection of apoptosis as a fundamental mechanism of cell death. Among these
      changes, the nuclear fragmentation and condensation have been regarded as the
      important markers but quantitative characterization of these changes is yet to be
      achieved. We have acquired confocal image stacks of 206 viable and apoptotic MCF
      7 cells stained by three fluorescent dyes. Three-dimensional (3D) parameters were
      extracted to quantify and compare their differences in morphology. To analyze
      nuclear fragmentation, a new method has been developed to determine clustering of
      nuclear voxels in the reconstructed cells due to fluorescence intensity changes
      in nuclei of apoptotic cells. The results of these studies reveal that the 3D
      morphological changes in cytoplasm and nuclear membranes in apoptotic cells
      provide sensitive targets for label-free detection and staging of apoptosis.
      Furthermore, the clustering analysis and morphological data on nuclear
      fragmentation are highly useful for derivation of optical cell models and
      simulation of diffraction images to investigate light scattering by early
      apoptotic cells, which can lead to future development of label-free and rapid
      methods of apoptosis assay based on cell morphology.

PMID- 28886200
TI  - Screening of transporters to improve xylodextrin utilization in the yeast
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - The economic production of cellulosic biofuel requires efficient and full
      utilization of all abundant carbohydrates naturally released from plant biomass
      by enzyme cocktails. Recently, we reconstituted the Neurospora crassa xylodextrin
      transport and consumption system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, enabling growth of
      yeast on xylodextrins aerobically. However, the consumption rate of xylodextrin
      requires improvement for industrial applications, including consumption in
      anaerobic conditions. As a first step in this improvement, we report analysis of
      orthologues of the N. crassa transporters CDT-1 and CDT-2. Transporter ST16 from
      Trichoderma virens enables faster aerobic growth of S. cerevisiae on xylodextrins
      compared to CDT-2. ST16 is a xylodextrin-specific transporter, and the xylobiose
      transport activity of ST16 is not inhibited by cellobiose. Other transporters
      identified in the screen also enable growth on xylodextrins including xylotriose.
      Taken together, these results indicate that multiple transporters might prove
      useful to improve xylodextrin utilization in S. cerevisiae. Efforts to use
      directed evolution to improve ST16 from a chromosomally-integrated copy were not
      successful, due to background growth of yeast on other carbon sources present in
      the selection medium. Future experiments will require increasing the baseline
      growth rate of the yeast population on xylodextrins, to ensure that the selective
      pressure exerted on xylodextrin transport can lead to isolation of improved
      xylodextrin transporters.

PMID- 28886201
TI  - Extrinsically derived TNF is primarily responsible for limiting antiviral CD8+ T
      cell response magnitude.
AB  - TNF is a pro-inflammatory cytokine produced by both lymphoid and non-lymphoid
      cells. As a consequence of the widespread expression of its receptors (TNFR1 and
      2), TNF plays a role in many important biological processes. In the context of
      influenza A virus (IAV) infection, TNF has variably been implicated in mediating
      immunopathology as well as suppression of the immune response. Although a number
      of cell types are able to produce TNF, the ability of CD8+ T cells to produce TNF
      following viral infection is a hallmark of their effector function. As such, the
      regulation and role of CD8+ T cell-derived TNF following viral infection is of
      great interest. Here, we show that the biphasic production of TNF by CD8+ T cells
      following in vitro stimulation corresponds to distinct patterns of epigenetic
      modifications. Further, we show that a global loss of TNF during IAV infection
      results in an augmentation of the peripheral virus-specific CD8+ T cell response.
      Subsequent adoptive transfer experiments demonstrated that this attenuation of
      the CD8+ T cell response was largely, but not exclusively, conferred by extrinsic
      TNF, with intrinsically-derived TNF making only modest contributions. In
      conclusion, TNF exerts an immunoregulatory role on CD8+ T cell responses
      following IAV infection, an effect that is largely mediated by extrinsically
      derived TNF.

PMID- 28886203
TI  - A Novel Method for Repeatable Failure Testing of Annulus Fibrosus.
AB  - Tears in the annulus fibrosus (AF) of the intervertebral disk can result in disk
      herniation and progressive degeneration. Understanding AF failure mechanics is
      important as research moves toward developing biological repair strategies for
      herniated disks. Unfortunately, failure mechanics of fiber-reinforced tissues,
      particularly tissues with fibers oriented off-axis from the applied load, is not
      well understood, partly due to the high variability in reported mechanical
      properties and a lack of standard techniques ensuring repeatable failure
      behavior. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the
      effectiveness of midlength (ML) notch geometries in producing repeatable and
      consistent tissue failure within the gauge region of AF mechanical test
      specimens. Finite element models (FEMs) representing several notch geometries
      were created to predict the location of bulk tissue failure using a local strain
      based criterion. FEM results were validated by experimentally testing a subset of
      the modeled specimen geometries. Mechanical testing data agreed with model
      predictions (~90% agreement), validating the model's predictive power. Two of the
      modified dog-bone geometries ("half" and "quarter") effectively ensured tissue
      failure at the ML for specimens oriented along the circumferential-radial and
      circumferential-axial directions. The variance of measured mechanical properties
      was significantly lower for notched samples that failed at the ML, suggesting
      that ML notch geometries result in more consistent and reliable data. In
      addition, the approach developed in this study provides a framework for
      evaluating failure properties of other fiber-reinforced tissues, such as tendons
      and meniscus.

PMID- 28886202
TI  - Fuchs' Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy and RNA Foci in Patients With Myotonic
      Dystrophy.
AB  - Purpose: The most common cause of Fuchs' endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) is
      an intronic CTG repeat expansion in TCF4. Expanded CUG repeat RNA colocalize with
      splicing factor, muscleblind-like 1 (MBNL1), in nuclear foci in endothelium as a
      molecular hallmark. Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a neuromuscular disorder
      caused by a CTG repeat expansion in the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of DMPK. In
      this study, we examine for RNA-MBNL1 foci in endothelial cells of FECD subjects
      with DM1, test the hypothesis that DM1 patients are at risk for FECD, and
      determine prevalence of TCF4 and DMPK expansions in a FECD cohort. Methods: Using
      FISH, we examined for nuclear RNA-MBNL1 foci in endothelial cells from FECD
      subjects with DM1. We examined 13 consecutive unrelated DM1 patients for FECD
      using slit-lamp and specular microscopy. We genotyped TCF4 and DMPK repeat
      polymorphisms in a FECD cohort of 317 probands using short-tandem repeat and
      triplet repeat-primed PCR assays. Results: We detected abundant nuclear RNA foci
      colocalizing with MBNL1 in endothelial cells of FECD subjects with DM1. Six of
      thirteen DM1 patients (46%) had slit-lamp and specular microscopic findings of
      FECD, compared to 4% disease prevalence (P = 5.5 * 10-6). As expected, 222 out of
      317 (70%) FECD probands harbored TCF4 expansion, while one subject harbored DMPK
      expansion without prior diagnosis of DM1. Conclusions: Our work suggests that DM1
      patients are at risk for FECD. DMPK mutations contribute to the genetic burden of
      FECD but are uncommon. We establish a connection between two repeat expansion
      disorders converging upon RNA-MBNL1 foci and FECD.

PMID- 28886204
TI  - Stress Analysis-Driven Design of Bilayered Scaffolds for Tissue-Engineered
      Vascular Grafts.
AB  - Continuing advances in the fabrication of scaffolds for tissue-engineered
      vascular grafts (TEVGs) are greatly expanding the scope of potential designs.
      Increasing recognition of the importance of local biomechanical cues for cell
      mediated neotissue formation, neovessel growth, and subsequent remodeling is
      similarly influencing the design process. This study examines directly the
      potential effects of different combinations of key geometric and material
      properties of polymeric scaffolds on the initial mechanical state of an implanted
      graft into which cells are seeded or migrate. Toward this end, we developed a
      bilayered computational model that accounts for layer-specific thickness and
      stiffness as well as the potential to be residually stressed during fabrication
      or to swell during implantation. We found that, for realistic ranges of parameter
      values, the circumferential stress that would be presented to seeded or
      infiltrating cells is typically much lower than ideal, often by an order of
      magnitude. Indeed, accounting for layer-specific intrinsic swelling resulting
      from hydrophilicity or residual stresses not relieved via annealing revealed
      potentially large compressive stresses, which could lead to unintended cell
      phenotypes and associated maladaptive growth or, in extreme cases, graft failure.
      Metrics of global hemodynamics were also found to be inversely related to markers
      of a favorable local mechanobiological environment, suggesting a tradeoff in
      designs that seek mechanical homeostasis at a single scale. These findings
      highlight the importance of the initial mechanical state in tissue engineering
      scaffold design and the utility of computational modeling in reducing the
      experimental search space for future graft development and testing.

PMID- 28886205
TI  - Placebo response and remission rates in randomised trials of induction and
      maintenance therapy for ulcerative colitis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is important to minimize placebo rates in randomised controlled
      trials (RCTs) to efficiently detect treatment differences between interventions.
      Historically, high placebo rates have been observed in clinical trials of
      ulcerative colitis (UC). A better understanding of factors influencing placebo
      rates may lead to more informed clinical trial design. OBJECTIVES: A systematic
      review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate placebo response and remission
      rates in RCTs evaluating UC treatments in adult patients. SEARCH METHODS:
      Electronic databases (i.e. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL) were searched from
      inception to 1 March 2017 with no language restrictions applied. Reference lists
      and conference proceedings of major gastroenterology meetings were also
      handsearched to identify additional studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: Placebo
      controlled RCTs of adult patients with UC treated with corticosteroids,
      aminosalicylates, immunosuppressives or biologics were eligible, provided
      enrolment and outcome assessment was conducted using the Ulcerative Colitis
      Disease Activity Index (UCDAI) or the Mayo Clinic Score. The minimum trial
      duration was two weeks for induction trials and four months maintenance trials.
      DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Pairs of authors independently determined study
      eligibility and extracted data with any disagreements resolved through consensus.
      Outcomes of interest included the proportion of patients with clinical response
      and remission. Trial characteristics such as the design, participant demographics
      and disease history, interventions, and enrolment and assessment criteria were
      also recorded. The methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated
      using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Pooled placebo response and remission rates
      and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using a binomial normal
      model for proportions. Induction of remission and maintenance studies were pooled
      separately. The impact of study-level characteristics on placebo response and
      remission rates was investigated using mixed-effects meta-regression analyses
      with logits of event rates as the outcome variables. An assessment of pooled
      placebo rates over time was conducted using a cumulative meta-analysis based on
      date of publication. Publication bias was examined using funnel plots. MAIN
      RESULTS: The screening process identified 61 included studies which encompass 58
      induction phases (5111 patients randomised to placebo) and 12 maintenance phases
      (1579 patients randomised to placebo). For induction trials, the pooled estimate
      of placebo response was 33% (95% CI 30% to 36%) while the pooled estimate of
      placebo remission was 12% (95% CI 9% to 15%). For maintenance trials, the pooled
      estimate of placebo response was 23% (95% CI 19% to 28%) while the pooled
      estimate of placebo remission was 17% (95% CI 10% to 27%).Studies enrolling
      patients with more active disease confirmed objectively by endoscopy were
      associated with significantly lower placebo remission and response rates than
      trials enrolling patients with less active disease (27% versus 4%, OR 2.60, 95%
      CI 1.25 to 5.42, P = 0.01 for UCDAI endoscopy sub score >=1 versus >= 2 for
      remission; and 27% versus 4%, OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.82, P = 0.02 for UCDAI
      endoscopy sub score greater than or equal to one versus greater than or equal to
      two for response). With respect to drug class, the lowest placebo response and
      remission rates were observed in trials evaluating corticosteroids (23%; 95% CI
      19 to 29%, and 5%; 95% CI 2 to 11%, respectively). Trials of biologics had the
      highest placebo response rate (35%; 95% CI 30 to 41%), while trials evaluating
      aminosalicylates had the highest placebo remission rate (18%; 95% CI 12 to 24%).
      Disease duration of greater than five years prior to enrolment was associated
      with a significantly lower placebo response rate compared to disease duration of
      less than or equal to five years (29% versus 47%, respectively; OR 0.54, 95% CI
      0.32 to 0.92, P = 0.02). The requirement of a minimum rectal bleeding score for
      study eligibility was associated with an increased placebo response rate compared
      to studies that did not use rectal bleeding for trial eligibility (37% versus
      32%, respectively; OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.82, P = 0.02). Finally, the time
      point of primary outcome assessment was found to be significantly associated with
      placebo remission rates such that every one week increment in endpoint assessment
      was associated with a 6% increase in the placebo remission rate (OR 1.06, 95% CI
      1.02 to 1.10, P = 0.01).Cumulative meta-analysis indicated a consistent increase
      in the placebo response rate from 1987 to 2007 (from 13% to 33%), although rates
      have remained constant from 2008 to 2015 (32% to 34%). Similarly, placebo
      remission rates increased from 1987 to 2007 (5% to 14%) but have remained
      constant from 2008 to 2015 (12 to 14%). On meta-regression, there were no
      statistically significant differences between the 1987-2007 and 2008-2015 point
      estimates for both response (P = 0.81) and remission (P = 0.32). AUTHORS'
      CONCLUSIONS: Placebo response and remission rates vary according to endoscopic
      disease severity and rectal bleeding score at trial entry, class of agent,
      disease duration, and the time point at which the primary outcome was measured.
      These observations have important implications for the design and conduct of
      future clinical trials in UC and will help researchers design trials, determine
      required sample sizes and also provide useful information about trial design
      features which should be considered when planning new trials.

PMID- 28886206
TI  - Inverse probability weighted Cox regression for doubly truncated data.
AB  - Doubly truncated data arise when event times are observed only if they fall
      within subject-specific, possibly random, intervals. While non-parametric methods
      for survivor function estimation using doubly truncated data have been
      intensively studied, only a few methods for fitting regression models have been
      suggested, and only for a limited number of covariates. In this article, we
      present a method to fit the Cox regression model to doubly truncated data with
      multiple discrete and continuous covariates, and describe how to implement it
      using existing software. The approach is used to study the association between
      candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms and age of onset of Parkinson's
      disease.

PMID- 28886207
TI  - The Biological Effects of Kambo: Is There a Relationship Between its
      Administration and Sudden Death?
AB  - Kambo is a substance obtained from the skin secretions of a frog, Phyllomedusa
      bicolor, popular in the Amazon region, which is administered via the transdermal
      route. We report a case of 42-year-old man found dead in his house. Near the
      corpse, a plastic box labeled as "Kambo sticks" was found. The man was a chronic
      consumer of Kambo and no previous pathology or genetic disease emerged in
      clinical history from the declaration of his general practitioner. Autopsy
      investigations and toxicological analysis were performed. The histopathological
      examination showed left ventricular hypertrophy. Toxicological screening was
      negative for ethanol and other drugs. Phyllocaerulein, phyllokinin, and
      deltorphin A were isolated from the Kambo sticks but, only deltorphin A was
      detected in blood sample. We describe the first forensic case of death associated
      with Kambo administration. We attempt to explain how its use could be related to
      the cause of sudden death in this case.

PMID- 28886209
TI  - Treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma by topical photodynamic therapy
      with fractionated 5-aminolaevulinic acid 20% vs. two-stage topical methyl
      aminolaevulinate: results of a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common type of skin cancer and
      incidence rates are increasing. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a frequently used
      treatment, especially for superficial BCC (sBCC). Two topical photosensitizing
      agents are currently used to treat sBCC, namely 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) and
      its ester, methyl aminolaevulinate (MAL). Previous research showed a high
      efficacy for ALA-PDT using a twofold fractionated illumination scheme in which
      two light fractions of 20 J cm-2 and 80 J cm-2 were delivered 4 h and 6 h after
      ALA application. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether twofold ALA-PDT is superior to
      conventional MAL-PDT for sBCC. METHODS: We performed a single-blind, randomized,
      multicentre trial in the Netherlands. RESULTS: Overall, 162 patients were
      randomized either to conventional MAL-PDT or twofold ALA-PDT. After 12 months, a
      total of six treatment failures occurred following ALA-PDT and 13 treatment
      failures occurred following MAL-PDT. The 12-month cumulative probability of
      remaining free from treatment failure was 92.3% [95% confidence interval (CI)
      (83.7-96.5)] for ALA-PDT and 83.4% (95% CI 73.1-90.0) for MAL-PDT (P = 0.091).
      CONCLUSIONS: The twofold ALA-PDT scheme resulted in fewer recurrences, although
      the difference between both treatment groups was not statistically significant.
      However, ALA-PDT resulted in higher pain scores and more post-treatment side
      effects compared with MAL-PDT.

PMID- 28886208
TI  - Interacting effects of unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity in
      the life history of the southern fulmar.
AB  - Individuals are heterogeneous in many ways. Some of these differences are
      incorporated as individual states (e.g. age, size, breeding status) in population
      models. However, substantial amounts of heterogeneity may remain unaccounted for,
      due to unmeasurable genetic, maternal or environmental factors. Such unobserved
      heterogeneity (UH) affects the behaviour of heterogeneous cohorts via intra
      cohort selection and contributes to inter-individual variance in demographic
      outcomes such as longevity and lifetime reproduction. Variance is also produced
      by individual stochasticity, due to random events in the life cycle of wild
      organisms, yet no study thus far has attempted to decompose the variance in
      demographic outcomes into contributions from UH and individual stochasticity for
      an animal population in the wild. We developed a stage-classified matrix
      population model for the southern fulmar breeding on Ile des Petrels, Antarctica.
      We applied multievent, multistate mark-recapture methods to estimate a finite
      mixture model accounting for UH in all vital rates and Markov chain methods to
      calculate demographic outcomes. Finally, we partitioned the variance in
      demographic outcomes into contributions from UH and individual stochasticity. We
      identify three UH groups, differing substantially in longevity, lifetime
      reproductive output, age at first reproduction and in the proportion of the life
      spent in each reproductive state. -14% of individuals at fledging have a delayed
      but high probability of recruitment and extended reproductive life span. -67% of
      individuals are less likely to reach adulthood, recruit late and skip breeding
      often but have the highest adult survival rate. -19% of individuals recruit early
      and attempt to breed often. They are likely to raise their offspring
      successfully, but experience a relatively short life span. Unobserved
      heterogeneity only explains a small fraction of the variances in longevity
      (5.9%), age at first reproduction (3.7%) and lifetime reproduction (22%). UH can
      affect the entire life cycle, including survival, development and reproductive
      rates, with consequences over the lifetime of individuals and impacts on cohort
      dynamics. The respective role of UH vs. individual stochasticity varies greatly
      among demographic outcomes. We discuss the implication of our finding for the
      gradient of life-history strategies observed among species and argue that
      individual differences should be accounted for in demographic studies of wild
      populations.

PMID- 28886210
TI  - Can the extent of heart rate reduction predict the clinical response of infantile
      haemangiomas to propranolol?

PMID- 28886211
TI  - Homogeneity study of proton and carbon ion scanning beams using combinations of
      different spot sizes and grid sizes.
AB  - PURPOSE: Different scanning ion beam delivery systems have different delivery
      accuracies, and the resulting delivery errors will affect field homogeneity. This
      study was performed to determine an appropriate combination of spot size (FWHM)
      and spot grid size (GS), which can provide homogenous dose distributions for both
      proton and carbon ion scanning beam radiotherapy. The combination of the two
      parameters is represented by a combination factor named n, which is the quotient
      of FWHM divided by GS. METHODS: Delivery uncertainties of our beam delivery
      system were analyzed using log files from the treatment of 28 patients. Square
      fields for different n values were simulated with and without considering the
      delivery uncertainties, and the homogeneity of these square fields was analyzed.
      All spots were located on a rectilinear grid with equal spacing in the x and y
      directions. In addition to the simulations, we performed experimental
      measurements using both protons and carbon ions. We selected six energy levels
      for both proton and carbon ions. For each energy level, we created six square
      field plans with different n values (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5). These plans were
      delivered and the field homogeneity was determined using a film measurement.
      RESULTS: The simulations demonstrated that under ideal condition (i.e., the
      delivery system has no delivery errors), the homogeneity is within 3% when n >=
      1.1. When delivery uncertainties were included in the simulation, the homogeneity
      is within 3% when n >= 2.3. For film measurements, homogeneity under 3% was
      achieved when n >= 2.5. CONCLUSION: A practical method to determine the
      appropriate combination of spot size and grid size is here presented. Considering
      the uncertainties of the beam delivery system, an n value of 2.5 is good enough
      to meet the lateral homogeneity requests in our center. The methods used here can
      be easily repeated in other particle therapy centers.

PMID- 28886212
TI  - Comparison of gadolinium nanoparticles and molecular contrast agents for
      radiation therapy-enhancement.
AB  - PURPOSE: Nanoparticles appear as a novel tool to enhance the effectiveness of
      radiotherapy in cancer treatments. Many parameters influence their efficacy, such
      as their size, concentration, composition, their cellular localization, as well
      as the photon source energy. The current Monte Carlo study aims at comparing the
      dose-enhancement in presence of gadolinium (Gd), either as isolated atoms or
      atoms clustered in nanoparticles (NPs), by investigating the role played by these
      physical parameters at the cellular and the nanometer scale. In parallel, in
      vitro assays were performed in presence of either the gadolinium contrast agent
      (GdCA) Magnevist(r) or ultrasmall gadolinium NPs (GdNPs, 3 nm) for comparison
      with the simulations. METHODS: PENELOPE Monte Carlo Code was used for in silico
      dose calculations. Monochromatic photon beams were used to calculate dose
      enhancements in different cell compartments and low-energy secondary electron
      spectra dependence with energy. Particular attention has been placed on the
      interplay between the X-ray beam energy, the Gd localization and its distance
      from cellular targets. Clonogenic assays were used to quantify F98 rat glioma
      cell survival after irradiation in the presence of GdNPs or GdCA, using
      monochromatic X-rays with energies in the 30 keV-80 keV range from a synchrotron
      and 1.25 MeV gamma photons from a cobalt-60 source. The simulations that
      correspond to the experimental conditions were compared with the experimental
      results. RESULTS: In silico, a highly heterogeneous and clustered Gd-atom
      distribution, a massive production of low energy electrons around GdNPs and an
      optimal X-ray beam energy, above the Gd K-edge, were key factors found to
      increase microscopic doses, which could potentially induce cell death. The
      different Gd localizations studied all resulted in a lower dose enhancement for
      the nucleus component than for cytoplasm or membrane compartments, with a maximum
      dose-enhancement factor (DEF) found at 65 keV and 58 keV, respectively. In vitro,
      radiosensitization was observed with GdNPs incubated 5 h with the cells (2.1 mg
      Gd/mL) at all energies. Experimental DEFs were found to be greater than
      computational DEFs but follow a similar trend with irradiation energy. However,
      an important radiosensitivity was observed experimentally with GdNPs at high
      energy (1.25 MeV), whereas no effect was expected from modeling. This effect was
      correlated with GdNPs incubation time. In vitro, GdCA provided no dose
      enhancement at 1.25 MeV energies, in agreement with computed data. CONCLUSIONS:
      These results provide a foundation on which to base optimizations of the physical
      parameters in Gd radiation-enhanced therapy. Strong evidence was provided that
      GdCA or GdNPs could both be used for radiation dose-enhancement therapy. There in
      vivo biological distribution, in the tumor volume and at the cellular scale, will
      be the key factor for providing large dose enhancements and determine their
      therapeutic efficacy.

PMID- 28886213
TI  - Prospective study of the effect of maternal body mass index on labor progress in
      nulliparous women in Egypt.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of maternal body mass index (BMI, calculated as
      weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) on labor progress
      in nulliparous women. METHODS: The present prospective cohort study enrolled
      primigravidae admitted to Kasr Al Ainy hospital, Cairo University, Egypt, during
      active labor between February 1, 2016, and February 28, 2017. Patients were
      classified into three equal groups using their BMI at admission: underweight
      (<18.5), normal weight (18.5-29.9), and obese (>=30). The primary outcome was the
      rate of cervical dilatation; secondary outcomes included the duration of the
      second stage of labor, neonatal delivery weight, and the mode of delivery.
      RESULTS: Among the 600 primigravidae enrolled (200 in each group), significant
      differences were recorded in the rates of cervical dilatation (P<0.001), and the
      duration of the active labor phase (P<0.001) and the whole of labor (P<0.001); in
      the obese group, the cervical dilatation rate was lowest and the durations of the
      active phase of labor and the whole of labor were longer. The incidence of
      intrapartum cesarean delivery (P<0.001) and neonatal delivery weight (P<0.001)
      also differed between the groups; both were highest in the obese group.
      CONCLUSIONS: Patterns in labor progress, including cervical dilatation rate and
      labor duration, differed among patients with different BMI. ClinicalTrials.gov:
      NCT02686073.

PMID- 28886214
TI  - Suicidal Decapitation by Hanging-A Population-based Study.
AB  - A prospective study was undertaken at Forensic Science SA over a 15-year period
      from July 2002 to June 2017 for all cases of adult (>18 years) suicidal hangings
      with decapitation. A total of 1446 cases of suicidal hangings were identified
      from a general population of approximately 1.5 million (1206 males-age range 18
      97 years, average 42.6; and 240 females-age range 18-96 years, average 40.1).
      Only three cases of decapitation were found, all from long-drop hangings; these
      consisted of three males (ages 32-55 years; average 45 years). Spinal
      transections had occurred between the first and second, second and third, and
      third and fourth cervical vertebrae, respectively. In this study, the number of
      suicidal hangings with decapitation represented only 0.2% of the total number of
      hangings. These events are therefore extremely rare, most likely due to most
      suicidal hangings occurring from relatively low levels in a domestic environment.

PMID- 28886215
TI  - Clinical, histological and immunohistochemical markers of resistance to methyl
      aminolaevulinate photodynamic therapy in Bowen disease.

PMID- 28886216
TI  - Identification of 1-(2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-5-yl)-2-(ethylamino)pentan-1-one (bk
      IVP) in a Seized Drug Exhibit.
AB  - To circumvent the law by evading regulation and obscuring their identities in
      routine analyses, numerous substituted cathinones have entered the illicit drug
      market. These compounds have been coined "bath salts" by users. In the described
      case, the laboratory received an unknown white powder for controlled substances
      identification. The sample could not be immediately identified using standard
      methods and procedures. Ultimately, the structure was elucidated using GC-MS,
      NMR, FTIR, GC-SPIR, UV, and color tests to be 1-(2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-5-yl)-2
      (ethylamino)pentan-1-one (bk-IVP), a cathinone analog with a rarely observed
      nonoxygenated bicyclic ring system. Features of spectra and chemical tests are
      reported that distinguish this class of cathinones from heterocyclic analogs.

PMID- 28886217
TI  - Analysis of restricted mean survival time for length-biased data.
AB  - In clinical studies with time-to-event outcomes, the restricted mean survival
      time (RMST) has attracted substantial attention as a summary measurement for its
      straightforward clinical interpretation. When the data are subject to length
      biased sampling, which is frequently encountered in observational cohort studies,
      existing methods to estimate the RMST are not applicable. In this article, we
      consider nonparametric and semiparametric regression methods to estimate the RMST
      under the setting of length-biased sampling. To assess the covariate effects on
      the RMST, a semiparametric regression model that directly relates the covariates
      and the RMST is assumed. Based on the model, we develop unbiased estimating
      equations to obtain consistent estimators of covariate effects by properly
      adjusting for informative censoring and length bias. Stochastic process theories
      are used to establish the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators. We
      investigate the finite sample performance through simulations and illustrate the
      methods by analyzing a prevalent cohort study of dementia in Canada.

PMID- 28886218
TI  - CRISPR/Cpf1 enables fast and simple genome editing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - Cpf1 represents a novel single RNA-guided CRISPR/Cas endonuclease system suitable
      for genome editing with distinct features compared with Cas9. We demonstrate the
      functionality of three Cpf1 orthologues - Acidaminococcus spp. BV3L6 (AsCpf1),
      Lachnospiraceae bacterium ND2006 (LbCpf1) and Francisella novicida U112 (FnCpf1) 
      for genome editing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These Cpf1-based systems enable
      fast and reliable introduction of donor DNA on the genome using a two-plasmid
      based editing approach together with linear donor DNA. LbCpf1 and FnCpf1
      displayed editing efficiencies comparable with the CRISPR/Cas9 system, whereas
      AsCpf1 editing efficiency was lower. Further characterization showed that AsCpf1
      and LbCpf1 displayed a preference for their cognate crRNA, while FnCpf1-mediated
      editing with similar efficiencies was observed using non-cognate crRNAs of AsCpf1
      and LbCpf1. In addition, multiplex genome editing using a single LbCpf1 crRNA
      array is shown to be functional in yeast. This work demonstrates that Cpf1
      broadens the genome editing toolbox available for Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (c)
      2017 The Authors. Yeast published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28886219
TI  - Comparison of outcomes of kidney transplantation from donation after brain death,
      donation after circulatory death, and donation after brain death followed by
      circulatory death donors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are three categories of deceased donors of kidney
      transplantation in China, donation after brain death (DBD), donation after
      circulatory death (DCD), and donation after brain death followed by circulatory
      death (DBCD) donors. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of kidney
      transplantation from these three categories of deceased donors. METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed 469 recipients who received deceased kidney
      transplantation in our hospital from February 2007 to June 2015. The recipients
      were divided into three groups according to the source of their donor kidneys:
      DBD, DCD, or DBCD. The primary endpoints were delayed graft function (DGF), graft
      loss, and patient death. RESULTS: The warm ischemia time was much longer in DCD
      group compared to DBCD group (18.4 minutes vs 12.9 minutes, P < .001). DGF rate
      was higher in DCD group than in DBD and DBCD groups (22.5% vs 10.2% and 13.8%,
      respectively, P = .021). Urinary leakage was much higher in DCD group (P = .049).
      Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that 1-, 2-, and 3-year patient survivals were all
      comparable among the three groups. CONCLUSION: DBCD kidney transplantation has
      lower incidences of DGF and urinary leakage than DCD kidney transplant. However,
      the overall patient and graft survival were comparable among DBD, DCD, and DBCD
      kidney transplantation.

PMID- 28886220
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effects of polyphenols in arthritis.
AB  - Polyphenols have been extensively investigated with regard to their antioxidant,
      anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulant properties in many inflammatory chronic
      conditions. The aim of this review is to summarise how these compounds can
      modulate the inflammatory pathways which characterise the most prevalent
      arthropathies including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and crystal-induced
      arthritis. Among polyphenols, epigallocatechin gallate, carnosol, hydroxytyrosol,
      curcumin, resveratrol, kaempferol and genistein have been the most widely
      investigated in arthritis. The most important results of the studies outlined in
      this article show how polyphenolic compounds are able to inhibit the expression
      and the release of a number of pro-inflammatory mediators and proteolytic
      enzymes, the activity of different transcriptional factors and the production of
      reactive oxygen species in vitro. Studies on animal models of rheumatoid
      arthritis, osteoarthritis and gout show interesting results in terms of reduced
      tissue damage, restored cartilage homeostasis, and decreased levels of uric acid,
      respectively. Despite the multiple protective effects of polyphenols, there are
      no dietary recommendations for patients affected by rheumatic diseases. Future
      studies, including intervention trials, should be conducted to determine the
      relevance of polyphenols consumption or supplementation in arthritis. (c) 2017
      Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28886221
TI  - An Improved Version of a Tool Mark Comparison Algorithm.
AB  - Chumbley et al. (2010) described a statistically based algorithm for comparing
      pairs of tool marks. They presented empirical evidence that the algorithm
      produces well-separated similarity score values for "matching" and "non-matching"
      pairs of tool marks. However, the algorithm has two substantial weaknesses.
      First, it is "uncalibrated" in the sense that error rates can be determined only
      through empirical investigation. Second, it relies on a randomized test and can
      lead to different similarity scores when the algorithm is repeatedly applied to
      the same pair of tool marks. We present an improved version of the procedure,
      which eliminates the randomized scores and yields more consistent and predictable
      error rate control. This is accomplished by replacement of a random sampling step
      from the original algorithm with a deterministic process. We demonstrate the
      improved algorithm and compare its performance to the original by applying to
      known "matching" and "non-matching" pairs of tool marks.

PMID- 28886222
TI  - Polyclonal hyperglobulinaemia and elevated acute-phase reactants in hidradenitis
      suppurativa.

PMID- 28886223
TI  - Open standing castration in Thoroughbred racehorses in Hong Kong: Prevalence and
      severity of complications 30 days post-castration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Complications following open standing castration (OSC) in
      Thoroughbred racehorses are well recognised but variation in their prevalence and
      severity between populations is not well documented. OBJECTIVES: To describe the
      prevalence and severity of complications in the 30 days following OSC. STUDY
      DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study of veterinary clinical records relating to
      horses that underwent OSC between July 2007 and July 2012. METHODS: Complications
      were graded on a severity score from N, no complications, to C3, severe
      complications. Additional data were accessed for each horse including age, import
      date, racing history, trainer and veterinarian performing the castration.
      Bacterial culture and antimicrobial sensitivities were performed on a limited
      number of castration wounds that became infected. RESULTS: In total, 250 horses
      were castrated in Hong Kong using the OSC technique over the period of the study.
      Sixty percent (150/250) of horses experienced some type of post-castration
      complication, with eight horses experiencing a severe (C3) complication requiring
      intensive veterinary treatment. Scrotal swelling, funiculitis and seroma
      formation were present in 70.0%, 36.7% and 24.7% of cases respectively. Most
      horses experiencing complications required wound reopening (87.3%; 131/150),
      and/or an extended course of first-line antimicrobials and/or nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory drugs (75/150; 50.0%). Eight horses had cultures submitted for
      bacterial sensitivity, with 17 bacterial isolates grown. In vitro, the bacteria
      cultured were sensitive to enrofloxacin (76%; 13/17) and ceftiofur (100%; 17/17).
      Resistance was detected to penicillin, gentamicin, oxytetracycline, metronidazole
      and trimethoprim-sulfadiazine. MAIN LIMITATIONS: Differences in post-castration
      management cannot be accounted for in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Complications
      following OSC in horses in Hong Kong were common. The majority were mild and were
      successfully treated using antimicrobials and simple wound management. Given the
      high rate of complications and antimicrobial usage identified in this study, a
      review of the technique is warranted.

PMID- 28886224
TI  - Variation in dermoscopic features of basal cell carcinoma as a function of
      anatomical location and pigmentation status.

PMID- 28886225
TI  - The Role of Forensic Botany in Solving a Case: Scientific Evidence on the
      Falsification of a Crime Scene.
AB  - Forensic botany can provide useful information for pathologists, particularly on
      crime scene investigation. We report the case of a man who arrived at the
      hospital and died shortly afterward. The body showed widespread electrical
      lesions. The statements of his brother and wife about the incident aroused a
      large amount of suspicion in the investigators. A crime scene investigation was
      carried out, along with a botanical morphological survey on small vegetations
      found on the corpse. An autopsy was also performed. Botanical analysis showed
      some samples of Xanthium spinosum, thus leading to the discovery of the
      falsification of the crime scene although the location of the true crime scene
      remained a mystery. The botanical analysis, along with circumstantial data and
      autopsy findings, led to the discovery of the real crime scene and became crucial
      as part of the legal evidence regarding the falsity of the statements made to
      investigators.

PMID- 28886226
TI  - A systematic review and meta-analysis on fetal ovarian cysts: impact of size,
      appearance and prenatal aspiration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to compare outcomes of ultrasound-guided
      aspiration of fetal ovarian cysts with conservative management. METHOD: A
      systematic review of MEDLINE and Web of Science included studies reporting
      outcomes (prenatal and postnatal torsion, spontaneous resolution and surgery) of
      fetuses with ovarian cysts. Subgroup analysis was performed according to cyst
      diameter at diagnosis and cysts >=40 mm. RESULTS: Ninety-two non-randomised
      studies reported on 380 cysts (324 observed and 56 aspirated in utero) in 365
      fetuses. All studies were case reports or series with high heterogeneity and risk
      of bias. The overall spontaneous resolution rate of conservatively managed cysts
      was 46%, yet decreased with increasing cyst size. Risk of prenatal ovarian
      torsion in conservatively managed cases depended on cyst size and was
      particularly important in the range 30 to 59 mm (15-34%). The rate of prenatal
      torsion in simple cysts >=40 mm was lower in aspirated than conservatively
      managed cysts (0% vs 10%, p = 0.03). Aspirated cysts had lower rates of postnatal
      surgery (7%) compared with conservatively managed cysts (49%, p < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: Cysts 30 to 59 mm were at highest risk of torsion. Simple cysts >40
      mm had lower rates of torsion when aspirated prenatally. Randomised studies and
      safety data are needed prior to routine prenatal ovarian cyst aspiration. (c)
      2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28886227
TI  - Lung transplantation in cystic fibrosis patients in Israel: The importance of
      ethnicity and nutritional status.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the characteristics that correlate with better outcomes
      after lung transplantation for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed the charts of all patients with CF who underwent lung
      transplantation between 1996 and 2014 at Rabin Medical Center, Israel. RESULTS:
      Fifty patients with CF underwent 55 lung transplantations. Eighteen patients
      (36%) died during the study period. Actuarial survival was 83%, 68%, 62%, and 39%
      at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively. Better survival correlated with: BMI at 6
      months and 1 year after transplantation (P = .002 and P = .003, respectively),
      ischemic time of less than 300 minutes (P = .023), absence of liver disease (P =
      .012), and Jewish compared to Arab ethnicity (P = .007). Freedom from
      bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) was 87%, 75%, and 72% at 1, 3, and 5
      years, respectively. BOS was more common and appeared earlier in the Arab than in
      the Jewish population (P = .012, P = .007). Additionally, prolonged time free of
      BOS correlated with male gender (P = .039), older age (P < .001), absence of
      liver disease (P = .012), and higher BMI 1 year after transplantation (P < .001).
      CONCLUSIONS: Clinically important determinants for survival include BMI pre- and
      1-year post-transplantation and improved freedom from BOS. Arab ethnicity
      correlated with higher incidence and earlier onset of BOS compared to Jewish
      ethnicity in Israel.

PMID- 28886228
TI  - The serum heavy/light chain immunoassay: A valuable tool for sensitive
      paraprotein assessment, risk, and disease monitoring in monoclonal gammopathies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The heavy/light chain (HLC)-immunoassay quantifies light chain types
      of each immunoglobulin class in patients with monoclonal gammopathies. METHODS:
      We assessed 147 consecutive patients with different forms and stages of plasma
      cell dyscrasias (PCD) who received standard tests (serum and urine protein
      electrophoresis [SPEP, UPEP], immunofixation [IFE], serum-free light chain
      [SFLC]), and HLC-immunoassay. Patients with multiple myeloma (MM, n = 102),
      smoldering MM (SMM, n = 5), monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance
      (MGUS, n = 28), and Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM, n = 12) were included.
      RESULTS: We verified a significant correlation between HLC- and standard
      monoclonal protein (mp)-parameters, and HLC-increases with higher disease stage
      and unfavorable remission status. In patients with difficult to quantify mp, more
      abnormal HLC- than SPEP-, immunoglobulin-, or SFLC-results were found. In WM, a
      pathological HLC kappa/lambda-ratio and M-component were observed in 95% and 58%,
      respectively. In 21/28 MGUS and 5/5 SMM patients, HLC kappa/lambda-ratios were
      abnormal. Testing different HLC cutoffs, patients with extreme HLC values showed
      impaired progression-free survival (PFS). CONCLUSIONS: Despite the fact that
      different PCD patients were included, the assessment of the HLC-immunoassay in
      MGUS, SMM, MM, and WM, our comparison with standard mp-assays, and relevant PFS
      differences may excite future applications, which should be confirmed in
      prospective multicenter trials.

PMID- 28886229
TI  - Structural insight into a partially unfolded state preceding aggregation in an
      intracellular lipid-binding protein.
AB  - Human ileal bile acid-binding protein (I-BABP) has a key role in the
      intracellular transport and metabolic targeting of bile salts. Similar to other
      members of the family of intracellular lipid-binding proteins (iLBPs), disorder
      order transitions and local unfolding processes are thought to mediate ligand
      entry and release in human I-BABP. To gain insight into the stability of various
      protein regions, the temperature response of human I-BABP was investigated using
      NMR, CD and fluorescence spectroscopy, as well as molecular dynamics (MD)
      simulations. A joint analysis of NMR thermal melting and relaxation dispersion
      data indicates a complex pattern of internal dynamics with a dominating single
      barrier and a likely presence of rapidly exchanging conformational substates on
      both sides of the barrier. Moreover, our residue-specific analysis uncovers a
      partially unfolded U* state in which part of the helical region with three
      proximate beta-strands contains a substantial amount of residual structure,
      whereas several segments of the C-terminal half exhibit a high susceptibility to
      temperature elevation. Cluster analysis of atomic temperature responses indicates
      a thermodynamic coupling between distant protein sites including the bottom of
      the beta-barrel, the E-F region and part of the helical cap. MD simulations up to
      1 MUs show correlated motions in the same protein regions and together with the
      NMR data suggest a role for the highly dynamic D-E turn and E-F region in the
      initiation of unfolding. The response of human I-BABP to temperature elevation is
      discussed in the context of the folding/unfolding behaviour of different members
      of the iLBP family.

PMID- 28886230
TI  - Lipoprotein particle concentration measured by nuclear magnetic resonance
      spectroscopy is associated with gestational age at delivery: a prospective cohort
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association between lipoprotein particle
      concentrations in pregnancy and gestational age at delivery. DESIGN: Prospective
      cohort study. SETTING: The study was conducted in the USA at the University of
      North Carolina. POPULATION: We assessed 715 women enrolled in the Pregnancy,
      Infection, and Nutrition study from 2001 to 2005. METHODS: Fasting blood was
      collected at two time points (<20 and 24-29 weeks of gestation). Nuclear magnetic
      resonance (NMR) quantified lipoprotein particle concentrations [low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), very-low density lipoprotein
      (VLDL)] and 10 subclasses of lipoproteins. Concentrations were assessed as
      continuous measures, with the exception of medium HDL which was classified as any
      or no detectable level, given its distribution. Cox proportional hazards models
      estimated hazard ratios (HR) for gestational age at delivery adjusting for
      covariates. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Gestational age at delivery, preterm birth
      (<37 weeks of gestation), and spontaneous preterm birth. RESULTS: At <20 weeks of
      gestation, three lipoproteins were associated with later gestational ages at
      delivery [large LDLNMR (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.96), total VLDLNMR (HR 0.77, 95%
      CI 0.61-0.98), and small VLDLNMR (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.62-0.98], whereas large
      VLDLNMR (HR 1.19, 95% CI 1.01-1.41) was associated with a greater hazard of
      earlier delivery. At 24-28 weeks of gestation, average VLDLNMR (HR 1.25, 95% CI
      1.03-1.51) and a detectable level of medium HDLNMR (HR 1.90, 95% CI 1.19-3.02)
      were associated with earlier gestational ages at delivery. CONCLUSION: In this
      sample of pregnant women, particle concentrations of VLDLNMR , LDLNMR , IDLNMR ,
      and HDLNMR were each independently associated with gestational age at delivery
      for all deliveries or spontaneous deliveries <37 weeks of gestation. These
      findings may help formulate hypotheses for future studies of the complex
      relationship between maternal lipoproteins and preterm birth. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT:
      Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy may identify lipoprotein particles
      associated with preterm delivery.

PMID- 28886231
TI  - Gadoxetic acid disodium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging outperformed
      multidetector computed tomography in diagnosing small hepatocellular carcinoma: A
      meta-analysis.
AB  - Early detection of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) lesions can improve
      longterm patient survival. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the
      diagnostic performance of gadoxetic acid disodium (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) and multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) was
      performed in diagnosing small HCCs measuring up to 2 cm (<=2 cm). Two
      investigators searched multiple databases for studies in which the performances
      of either Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI or MDCT were reported with sufficient data to
      construct 2 * 2 contingency tables for diagnosing HCCs up to 2 cm on a per-lesion
      or per-patient level. Diagnostic performances were quantitatively pooled by a
      bivariate random-effect model with further meta-regression and subgroup analyses.
      A total of 27 studies (14 on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI, 9 on MDCT, and 4 on both)
      were included, enrolling a total of 1735 patients on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI and
      1781 patients on MDCT. Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI demonstrated significantly higher
      overall sensitivity than did MDCT (0.96 versus 0.65; P < 0.01), without
      substantial loss of specificity (0.94 versus 0.98; P > 0.05). Area under the
      summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.97 with Gd-EOB-DTPA
      enhanced MRI and 0.85 with MDCT. Regarding Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI, sensitivity
      was significantly higher for studies from non-Asian countries than Asian
      countries (0.96 versus 0.93; P < 0.01), for retrospective studies than
      prospective studies (0.95 versus 0.91; P < 0.01), and for those with Gd-EOB-DTPA
      injection rate >= 1.5 mL/s than that of <1.5 mL/s (0.97 versus 0.90; P < 0.01).
      In conclusion, Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI demonstrated higher sensitivity and
      overall diagnostic accuracy than MDCT, and thus should be the preferred imaging
      modality for diagnosing small HCCs measuring up to 2 cm. Liver Transplantation 23
      1505-1518 2017 AASLD.

PMID- 28886232
TI  - What type of rigorous experiments are needed to investigate the impact of
      artificial light at night on individuals and populations?

PMID- 28886233
TI  - Mistrust of physicians in China: society, institution, and interaction as root
      causes.
AB  - Based on two years' ethnographic research on doctor-patient relations in urban
      China, this paper examines the causes of patients' mistrust of physicians. I
      identify the major factors at the societal, institutional, and interpersonal
      levels that lead to patients' mistrust of physicians. First, I set the context by
      describing the extent of mistrust at the societal level. Then, I investigate the
      institutional sources of mistrust. I argue that the financing mechanism of public
      hospitals and physicians' income structures are the most crucial factors in
      inducing patients' mistrust. Hospitals' heavy reliance on self-finance has
      basically caused public hospitals to run like private hospitals, resulting in
      blatant conflicts of interest between hospitals and patients. Related to this is
      physicians' reliance on bonuses and commissions as part of their regular incomes,
      which has inevitably resulted in overtreatment and, hence, mistrust from the
      patients. At the interpersonal level, I describe how individual physicians'
      attitudes toward and interaction with patients may also affect patients' sense of
      trust or mistrust in physicians. In conclusion, I discuss the ethical
      implications of the mistrust problem, and suggest changes at the institutional
      and interpersonal levels to mitigate the problem.

PMID- 28886235
TI  - In the search for a lead structure among series of potent and selective hydantoin
      5-HT7 R agents: The drug-likeness in vitro study.
AB  - Since the year 1993, when 5-HT7 receptor (5-HT7 R) was discovered, there is no
      selective 5-HT7 R ligand introduced to the pharmaceutical market. One out of the
      main reasons disqualifying the 5-HT7 R ligands is weak drugability properties,
      including metabolic instability or low permeability. This study is focused on the
      search of a lead compound by "drug-likeness" estimation of the first series of
      selective and potent 5-HT7 R ligands among 5-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-(2-hydroxy-3-(4
      aryl-piperazin-1-yl)propyl)-5-methylimidazolidine-2,4-dione derivatives (11-16).
      The most important drugability parameters, i.e., permeability, metabolic
      stability, and safety, have been evaluated. The main metabolic pathways were
      determined. The forced swim test (FST) in mice was performed as a primary in vivo
      assay for compound 13 and the reference 2. The experiments showed promising drug
      like properties for all ligands, with special attention to the benzhydryl
      (diphenylmethyl) derivative 13. The studies have also indicated in vivo activity
      of the compound 13 that was observed as a significant and specific antidepressant
      like activity in the FST. Taking into account the beneficial properties of 13,
      i.e., good drug-like parameters, the significant antagonistic action, high
      selectivity to 5-HT7 R, and its in vivo antidepressant-like activity, the
      compound should be considered as a new lead in the search for drugs acting on CNS
      via 5-HT7 receptor.

PMID- 28886236
TI  - Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia: Two malignant clones in a monoclonal disease?
      Molecular background and clinical reflection.
AB  - Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a complex disease characterized by
      apparent morphological heterogeneity within the malignant clonal cells
      representing a continuum of small lymphocytes, plasmacytoid lymphocytes, and
      plasma cells. At the molecular level, the neoplastic B cell-derived clone has
      undergone somatic hypermutation, but not isotype switching, and retains the
      capability of plasmacytic differentiation. Although by classical definition, WM
      is formed by monoclonal expansion, long-lived clonal B lymphocytes are of
      heterogeneous origin. Even more, according to current opinion, plasma cells also
      conform certain population with pathogenic and clinical significance. In this
      article, we review the recent advances in the WM clonal architecture, briefly
      describe B-cell development during which the molecular changes lead to the
      malignant transformation and mainly focus on differences between two principal B
      lineage clones, including analysis of their genome and transcriptome profiles, as
      well as immunophenotype features. We assume that the correct identification of a
      number of specific immunophenotypic molecular and expression alterations leading
      to proper aberrant clone detection can help to guide patient monitoring
      throughout treatment and successfully implement therapy strategies directed
      against both B- and plasma cell tumor WM clones.

PMID- 28886237
TI  - Synthesis, quality control, and bio-evaluation of 99m Tc-cyclophosphamide.
AB  - Cancer is found to be the leading cause of death worldwide characterized by
      uncontrolled cell division. Nuclear medicines imaging using radiopharmaceuticals
      have pronounced potential for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers.
      Cyclophosphamide (CPH) is an antineoplastic drug which targets selectively cancer
      cells. In the present work, labeling of CPH with Tc-99m is performed for
      diagnostic purpose, which gave labeling yield as high as 99% using 20 MUg SnCl2
      .2H2 O, 200 MUg of ligand at pH 7 for 10 min reaction time at room temperature.
      The characterization of the prepared complex was performed using ITLC,
      electrophoresis, and HPLC. In vitro stability was analyzed in the presence of
      human serum at 37 degrees C which has maximum value of 94 +/- 0.5. The
      biodistribution studies of 99m Tc-CPH were performed in normal and tumor bearing
      Swiss Webster mice. The high accumulation of 99m Tc-CPH was observed in liver and
      tumours respectively at 4 hr after injection. Biodistribution results revealed
      that 99m Tc-CPH may be a potential tumour diagnostic agent simultaneously with
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28886238
TI  - SIRT7 deacetylates DDB1 and suppresses the activity of the CRL4 E3 ligase
      complexes.
AB  - Cullin 4 (CUL4) and small ring finger protein ROC1 assemble to form E3 ubiquitin
      ligase (CRL4) complexes. CUL4 interacts with WD-40 proteins through the adaptor
      protein DNA damage-binding protein 1 (DDB1) to target substrates for
      ubiquitylation. Very little is known on how the CUL4 and DDB1 interaction is
      regulated. Here, we show that DDB1 is acetylated and acetylation promotes DDB1
      binding to CUL4. We also identify nucleolar sirtuin 7 (SIRT7) as a major
      deacetylase that negatively regulates DDB1-CUL4 interaction. Following inhibition
      of nucleolar function by actinomycin D or 5-fluorouracil treatment or knocking
      down the gene for the RNA polymerase I component UBF, SIRT7 is mobilized from the
      nucleolus to the nucleoplasm and promotes DDB1 deacetylation, leading to
      decreased DDB1-CUL4 association and CRL4 activity. This results in the
      accumulation or activation of CRL4 substrates including LATS1 and p73, which
      contribute to cell apoptosis induced by actinomycin D and 5-fluorouracil. Our
      study uncovers a novel regulation of CRL4 E3 ligase complexes.

PMID- 28886239
TI  - Terminal Alkyne Coupling on a Corrugated Noble Metal Surface: From Controlled
      Precursor Alignment to Selective Reactions.
AB  - Surface-templated covalent coupling of organic precursors currently emerges as a
      promising route to the atom-precise fabrication of low-dimensional carbon
      materials. Here, we investigate the adsorption and the coupling reactions of
      4,4''-diethynyl-1,1':4',1''-terphenyl on Au(110) under ultra-high vacuum
      conditions by using scanning tunneling microscopy combined with density
      functional theory and kinetic Monte Carlo calculations. Temperature treatment
      induces both 1,2,4-asymmetric cyclotrimerization and homocoupling, resulting in
      various reaction products, including a previously unreported, surface-templated H
      shaped pentamer. Our analysis of the temperature-dependent relative product
      abundances unravels that 1,2,4-trimerization and homocoupling proceed via
      identical intermediate species with the final products depending on the
      competition of coupling to a third monomer versus dehydrogenation. Our study
      sheds light on the control of coupling reactions by corrugated surfaces and
      annealing protocols.

PMID- 28886240
TI  - A review of diffusion MRI of typical white matter development from early
      childhood to young adulthood.
AB  - Understanding typical, healthy brain development provides a baseline from which
      to detect and characterize brain anomalies associated with various neurological
      or psychiatric disorders and diseases. Diffusion MRI is well suited to study
      white matter development, as it can virtually extract individual tracts and yield
      parameters that may reflect alterations in the underlying neural micro-structure
      (e.g. myelination, axon density, fiber coherence), though it is limited by its
      lack of specificity and other methodological concerns. This review summarizes the
      last decade of diffusion imaging studies of healthy white matter development
      spanning childhood to early adulthood (4-35 years). Conclusions about anatomical
      location, rates, and timing of white matter development with age are discussed,
      as well as the influence of image acquisition, analysis, age range/sample size,
      and statistical model. Despite methodological variability between studies, some
      consistent findings have emerged from the literature. Specifically, diffusion
      studies of neurodevelopment overwhelmingly demonstrate regionally varying
      increases of fractional anisotropy and decreases of mean diffusivity during
      childhood and adolescence, some of which continue into adulthood. While most
      studies use linear fits to model age-related changes, studies with sufficient
      sample sizes and age range provide clear evidence that white matter development
      (as indicated by diffusion) is non-linear. Several studies further suggest that
      maturation in association tracts with frontal-temporal connections continues
      later than commissural and projection tracts. The emerging contributions of more
      advanced diffusion methods are also discussed, as they may reveal new aspects of
      white matter development. Although non-specific, diffusion changes may reflect
      increases of myelination, axonal packing, and/or coherence with age that may be
      associated with changes in cognition.

PMID- 28886241
TI  - Mentha suaveolens Ehrh. Chemotypes in Eastern Iberian Peninsula: Essential Oil
      Variation and Relation with Ecological Factors.
AB  - Essential oil (EO) extracts coming from two representative populations of Mentha
      suaveolens Ehrh. subesp. suaveolens in Eastern Iberian Peninsula were analyzed by
      gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and flame ion detector. Plant
      sampling was carried out in the morning and evening in order to study diurnal
      variation in EO profiles. Likewise, leaves and inflorescences were analyzed
      separately. Two chemotypes corresponding to each one of the populations were
      identified, with piperitenone oxide (35.2 - 74.3%) and piperitone oxide (83.9 -
      91.3%), respectively, as major compounds. Once different chemotypes were
      identified, canonical correspondence analysis was employed to evaluate the effect
      of the bioclimatic and edaphic factors recorded in each location on the observed
      differences. Statistical analysis suggested that these chemotypes were closely
      related to specific environmental factors, mainly the bioclimatic ones.
      Concretely, piperitenone oxide chemotype can be associated to supramediterranean
      bioclimatic conditions and soils with major salinity and water field capacity. On
      the other hand, the most volatile fraction (hydrocarbon monoterpenes) reached its
      higher level in the morning; specifically, a noticeable amount of limonene was
      found in morning samples of flowers (4.8 - 10.6%). This fact can be related to
      ecological role of volatile compounds in order to attract pollinator insects.

PMID- 28886242
TI  - Synthesis of Size-Tunable CO2-Philic Imprinted Polymeric Particles (MIPs) for Low
      Pressure CO2 Capture Using Oil-in-Oil Suspension Polymerization.
AB  - Highly selective molecularly imprinted poly[acrylamide-co-(ethylene glycol
      dimethacrylate)] polymer particles (MIPs) for CO2 capture were synthesized by
      suspension polymerization via oil-in-oil emulsion. Creation of CO2-philic, amide
      decorated cavities in the polymer matrix led to a high affinity to CO2. At 0.15
      bar CO2 partial pressure, the CO2/N2 selectivity was 49 (corresponding to 91%
      purity of the gas stream after regeneration), and reached 97 at ultralow CO2
      partial pressures. The imprinted polymers showed considerably higher CO2 uptakes
      compared to their nonimprinted counterparts, and the maximum equilibrium CO2
      capture capacity of 1.1 mmol g-1 was achieved at 273 K. The heat of adsorption
      was below 32 kJ mol-1 and the temperature of onset of intense thermal degradation
      was 351-376  degrees C. An increase in monomer-to-cross-linker molar ratio in the
      dispersed phase up to 1:2.5 led to a higher affinity toward CO2 due to higher
      density of selective amide groups in the polymer network. MIPs are a promising
      option for industrial packed and fluidized bed CO2 capture systems due to large
      particles with a diameter up to 1200 MUm and irregular oblong shapes formed due
      to arrested coalescence during polymerization, occurring as a result of internal
      elasticity of the partially polymerized semisolid drops.

PMID- 28886243
TI  - Enantioselective Synthesis of 1,3-Disubstituted 1,3-Dihydroisobenzofurans via a
      Cascade Allylboration/Oxo-Michael Reaction of o-Formyl Chalcones Catalyzed by a
      Chiral Phosphoric Acid.
AB  - The first chiral Bronsted acid-catalyzed asymmetric cascade allylboration/oxo
      Michael reaction between o-formyl chalcones and allylboronate has been
      successfully discovered, which afforded chiral 1,3-disubstituted 1,3
      dihydroisobenzofurans with a yield, diastereoselective ratio (dr) and
      enantioselective excess (ee) up to 94%, 2.5:1, and 98%, respectively. In
      addition, 2,3-dienylboronic pinacol ester was also applied into this cascade
      reaction with good catalytic results.

PMID- 28886234
TI  - Validation of the MASK-rhinitis visual analogue scale on smartphone screens to
      assess allergic rhinitis control.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is a validated tool to assess control in
      allergic rhinitis patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to validate the
      use of VAS in the MASK-rhinitis (MACVIA-ARIA Sentinel NetworK for allergic
      rhinitis) app (Allergy Diary) on smartphones screens to evaluate allergic
      rhinitis symptoms and disease control. METHODS: Each user filled 4 different VAS
      measuring overall, nasal, ocular, and asthma symptoms at least once. Following
      COSMIN guidelines, we evaluated internal consistency, (Cronbach's alpha
      coefficient and test-retest), reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients),
      sensitivity, and acceptability of the MASK-Rhinitis VAS. RESULTS: Between 1
      August 2015 and 31 July 2016, the app was used 14 612 times in 15 countries. A
      total of 1225 users used it more than once, during the evaluated period. The tool
      resulted to be statistically satisfactory, showing excellent internal consistency
      (Cronbach's test > 0.84, test-retest > 0.7), reliability (>0.9), and
      acceptability. In addition, the tool had a good sensitivity when users (n = 521)
      answered the VAS twice in less than 3 hours. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      The MASK-rhinitis VAS is a reliable and valid tool to assess allergic control on
      smartphone screens, at the population level.

PMID- 28886244
TI  - Full Protein Sequence Redesign with an MMGBSA Energy Function.
AB  - Computational protein design aims to create proteins with novel properties. A key
      element is the energy or scoring function used to select the sequences and
      conformations. We study the performance of an "MMGBSA" energy function, which
      combines molecular mechanics terms, a generalized Born and surface area (GBSA)
      solvent model, with approximations that make the model pairwise additive. Our
      approach is implemented in the Proteus software. The use of a physics-based
      energy function ensures a certain model transferability and explanatory power. As
      a first test, we redesign the sequence of nine proteins, one position at a time,
      with the rest of the protein having its native sequence and crystallographic
      conformation. As a second test, all positions are designed together. The
      contributions of individual energy terms are evaluated, and various
      parametrizations are compared. We find that the GB term significantly improves
      the results compared to simple Coulomb electrostatics but is affected by pairwise
      decomposition errors when all positions are designed together. The SA term, with
      distinct energy coefficients for nonpolar and polar atoms, makes a decisive
      contribution to obtain realistic protein sequences and can partially compensate
      for the absence of a GB term. With the best GBSA protocol, we obtain nativelike
      protein cores and Superfamily recognition of almost all of our sequences.

PMID- 28886245
TI  - Triquinanes and Related Sesquiterpenes Revisited Computationally: Structure
      Corrections of Hirsutanols B and D, Hirsutenol E, Cucumin B, Antrodins C-E,
      Chondroterpenes A and H, Chondrosterins C and E, Dichrocephone A, and Pethybrene.
AB  - NMR data for 90+ natural sesquiterpenes possessing triquinane cores were examined
      with the help of a relatively fast parametric/DFT hybrid computational method,
      DU8+. Thirteen of these compounds, i.e., approximately 14% of the sample,
      required structure correction. This rate of misassignment is similar to the
      percentage of misassigned halogenated sesquiterpenes reported previously.

PMID- 28886246
TI  - An Anion-pi Interaction Strongly Stabilizes the beta-Sheet Protein WW.
AB  - Anions have long been known to engage in stabilizing interactions with electron
      deficient arenes. However, the precise nature and energetic contribution of anion
      pi interactions to protein stability remains a subject of debate. Here, we show
      that placing a negatively charged Asp in close proximity to electron-rich Phe in
      a reverse turn within the WW domain results in a favorable interaction that
      increases WW conformational stability by -1.3 kcal/mol.

PMID- 28886248
TI  - Application of real-time PCR (qPCR) for characterization of microbial populations
      and type of milk in dairy food products.
AB  - Dairy foods represent an important sector of the food market for their
      nutritional qualities and their organoleptic characteristics, which are often
      linked to tradition and to region. These products are typically protected by
      labels such as PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected
      Geographical Indication). Real-time PCR (qPCR) is a fundamental tool in "Food
      Genomics;" a discipline concerned with the residual DNA in food, which, alongside
      traditional physical and chemical methods, is frequently used to determine
      product safety, quality and authenticity. Compared to conventional or "end-point"
      PCR, qPCR incorporates continuous monitoring of reaction progress, thereby
      enabling quantification of target DNA. This review describes qPCR applications to
      the analysis of microbiota, and to the identification of the animal species
      source of milk from which dairy products have been made. These are important
      aspects for ensuring safety and authenticity. The various applications of qPCR
      are discussed, as well as advantages and disadvantages in comparison with other
      analytical methods.

PMID- 28886247
TI  - H-Ferritin Enriches the Curcumin Uptake and Improves the Therapeutic Efficacy in
      Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells.
AB  - Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive, invasive, and
      metastatic tumor. Although it is reported to be sensitive to cytotoxic
      chemotherapeutics, frequent relapse and chemoresistance often result in treatment
      failure. In this study, we developed a biomimetic nanodrug consisting of a self
      assembling variant (HFn) of human apoferritin loaded with curcumin. HFn nanocage
      improved the solubility, chemical stability, and bioavailability of curcumin,
      allowing us to reliably carry out several experiments in the attempt to establish
      the potential of this molecule as a therapeutic agent and elucidate the mechanism
      of action in TNBC. HFn biopolymer was designed to bind selectively to the TfR1
      receptor overexpressed in TNBC cells. HFn-curcumin (CFn) proved to be more
      effective in viability assays compared to the drug alone using MDA-MB-468 and MDA
      MB-231 cell lines, representative of basal and claudin-low TNBC subtypes,
      respectively. Cellular uptake of CFn was demonstrated by flow cytometry and label
      free confocal Raman imaging. CFn could act as a chemosensitizer enhancing the
      cytotoxic effect of doxorubicin by interfering with the activity of multidrug
      resistance transporters. In addition, CFn exhibited different cell cycle effects
      on these two TNBC cell lines, blocking MDA-MB-231 in G0/G1 phase, whereas MDA-MB
      468 accumulated in G2/M phase. CFn was able to inhibit the Akt phosphorylation,
      suggesting that the effect on the proliferation and cell cycle involved the
      alteration of PI3K/Akt pathway.

PMID- 28886249
TI  - Chronic 5-HT2 receptor blockade unmasks the role of 5-HT1F receptors in the
      inhibition of rat cardioaccelerator sympathetic outflow.
AB  - Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) inhibits the rat cardioaccelerator
      sympathetic outflow by 5-HT1B/1D/5 receptors. Because chronic blockade of
      sympatho-excitatory 5-HT2 receptors is beneficial in several cardiovascular
      pathologies, this study investigated whether sarpogrelate (a 5-HT2 receptor
      antagonist) alters the pharmacological profile of the above sympatho-inhibition.
      Rats were pretreated for 2 weeks with sarpogrelate in drinking water (30 mg/kg
      per day; sarpogrelate-treated group) or equivalent volumes of drinking water
      (control group). Animals were pithed and prepared for spinal stimulation (C7-T1)
      of the cardioaccelerator sympathetic outflow or for intravenous (i.v.) bolus
      injections of noradrenaline. Both procedures produced tachycardic responses
      remaining unaltered after saline. Continuous i.v. infusions of 5-HT induced a
      cardiac sympatho-inhibition that was mimicked by the 5-HT receptor agonists 5
      carboxamidotryptamine (5-CT; 5-HT1/5A), CP 93,129 (5-HT1B), or PNU 142633 (5
      HT1D), but not by indorenate (5-HT1A) in both groups; whereas LY344864 (5-HT1F)
      mimicked 5-HT only in sarpogrelate-treated rats. In sarpogrelate-treated animals,
      i.v. GR 127935 (310 MUg/kg; 5-HT1B/1D/1F receptor antagonist) attenuated 5-CT
      induced sympatho-inhibition and abolished LY344864-induced sympatho-inhibition;
      while GR 127935 plus SB 699551 (1 mg/kg; 5-HT5A receptor antagonist) abolished 5
      CT-induced inhibition. These results confirm the cardiac sympatho-inhibitory role
      of 5-HT1B, 5-HT1D, and 5-HT5A receptors in both groups; nevertheless,
      sarpogrelate treatment specifically unmasked a cardiac sympatho-inhibition
      mediated by 5-HT1F receptors.

PMID- 28886251
TI  - Iron influences on the Gut-Brain axis and development of type 2 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Microbiota/neuroendocrine interactions with health and disease are
      increasingly recognized. Main Body: Aging is associated with progressive iron
      storage and development of type 2 diabetes, which impacts on brain microstructure
      and function, mainly in obese subjects. Iron status is also mutually influencing
      the composition of the gut microbiota, which in turn may affect cognition through
      the gut-brain axis. Short Conclusion: In this article we update the possible role
      of iron in all these interactions.

PMID- 28886250
TI  - Dectin-2 Is a C-Type Lectin Receptor that Recognizes Pneumocystis and
      Participates in Innate Immune Responses.
AB  - Pneumocystis is an important fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening
      pneumonia in patients with AIDS and malignancy. Lung fungal pathogens are
      recognized by C-type lectin receptors (CLRs), which bind specific ligands and
      stimulate innate immune responses. The CLR Dectin-1 was previously shown to
      mediate immune responses to Pneumocystis spp. For this reason, we investigated a
      potential role for Dectin-2. Rats with Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) exhibited
      elevated Dectin-2 mRNA levels. Soluble Dectin-2 carbohydrate-recognition domain
      fusion protein showed binding to intact Pneumocystis carinii (Pc) and to native
      Pneumocystis major surface glycoprotein/glycoprotein A (Msg/gpA). RAW macrophage
      cells expressing V5-tagged Dectin-2 displayed enhanced binding to Pc and
      increased protein tyrosine phosphorylation. Furthermore, the binding of Pc to
      Dectin-2 resulted in Fc receptor-gamma-mediated intracellular signaling. Alveolar
      macrophages from Dectin-2-deficient mice (Dectin-2-/-) showed significant
      decreases in phospho-Syk activation after challenge with Pc cell wall components.
      Stimulation of Dectin-2-/- alveolar macrophages with Pc components showed
      significant decreases in the proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha.
      Finally, during infection with Pneumocystis murina, Dectin-2-/- mice displayed
      downregulated mRNA expression profiles of other CLRs implicated in fungal
      immunity. Although Dectin-2-/- alveolar macrophages had reduced proinflammatory
      cytokine release in vitro, Dectin-2-/- deficiency did not reduce the overall
      resistance of these mice in the PCP model, and organism burdens were
      statistically similar in the long-term immunocompromised and short-term
      immunocompetent PCP models. These results suggest that Dectin-2 participates in
      the initial innate immune signaling response to Pneumocystis, but its deficiency
      does not impair resistance to the organism.

PMID- 28886253
TI  - Female offspring born to obese and insulin-resistant dams are not at increased
      risk for obesity and metabolic dysfunction during early development.
AB  - The percentage of women who are obese at the time of conception or during
      pregnancy is increasing, with animal and human studies demonstrating that
      offspring born to obese dams or mothers are at increased risk for obesity and the
      metabolic syndrome. Our goal was to confirm in an experimental model of metabolic
      syndrome in the dam, whether the offspring would be at increased risk of obesity.
      Conversely, we observed that male offspring born to dams with metabolic syndrome
      had no alterations in their body mass profiles, whereas female offspring born to
      dams with metabolic syndrome were heavier at weaning, but exhibited no
      perturbations in energy metabolism. Moreover, they gained weight at a reduced
      rate versus female offspring born to healthy dams, and thus weighed less at study
      completion. Hence, our findings suggest that factors other than increased
      adiposity and insulin resistance during pregnancy are responsible for the
      increased risk of obesity in children born to obese mothers.

PMID- 28886252
TI  - Total Airway Count on Computed Tomography and the Risk of Chronic Obstructive
      Pulmonary Disease Progression. Findings from a Population-based Study.
AB  - RATIONALE: Studies of excised lungs show that significant airway attrition in the
      "quiet" zone occurs early in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
      OBJECTIVES: To determine if the total number of airways quantified in vivo using
      computed tomography (CT) reflects early airway-related disease changes and is
      associated with lung function decline independent of emphysema in COPD. METHODS:
      Participants in the multicenter, population-based, longitudinal CanCOLD (Canadian
      Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) study underwent inspiratory/expiratory CT at
      visit 1; spirometry was performed at four visits over 6 years. Emphysema was
      quantified as the CT inspiratory low-attenuation areas below -950 Hounsfield
      units. CT total airway count (TAC) was measured as well as airway inner diameter
      and wall area using anatomically equivalent airways. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: Participants included never-smokers (n = 286), smokers with normal
      spirometry at risk for COPD (n = 298), Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive
      Lung Disease (GOLD) I COPD (n = 361), and GOLD II COPD (n = 239). TAC was
      significantly reduced by 19% in both GOLD I and GOLD II compared with never
      smokers (P < 0.0001) and by 17% in both GOLD I and GOLD II compared with at-risk
      participants (P < 0.0001) after adjusting for low-attenuation areas below -950
      Hounsfield units. Further analysis revealed parent airways with missing daughter
      branches had reduced inner diameters (P < 0.0001) and thinner walls (P < 0.0001)
      compared with those without missing daughter branches. Among all CT measures, TAC
      had the greatest influence on FEV1 (P < 0.0001), FEV1/FVC (P < 0.0001), and
      bronchodilator responsiveness (P < 0.0001). TAC was independently associated with
      lung function decline (FEV1, P = 0.02; FEV1/FVC, P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: TAC may
      reflect the airway-related disease changes that accumulate in the "quiet" zone in
      early/mild COPD, indicating that TAC acquired with commercially available
      software across various CT platforms may be a biomarker to predict accelerated
      COPD progression.

PMID- 28886255
TI  - A Tribute to Section Editor Prof. Julio C. Voltarelli.

PMID- 28886254
TI  - The research progress in mechanism and influence of biosorption between lactic
      acid bacteria and Pb(II): A review.
AB  - Currently, due to high surface to volume ratio; large availability, rapid
      kinetics of adsorption and desorption and low cost, the exploitation of microbial
      biosorption of heavy metals is regarded as a reliable alternative compared to the
      conventional bioremediation approaches. In parallel with the increasing
      attractiveness of biosorption research, its pace of advance is also boosted. The
      barrier that prevent biosorption as an effective method from being applied into
      wastewater purification is listed, (1) There is not enough data on multi
      component biosorption, (2) It remains to be seen that physical-chemical
      characteristics of different biomasses. (3) Studies on surface modification of
      strains for enhancement of heavy metals removal efficiency is lack. And extensive
      literatures involving the mechanism and model of biosorption for particular metal
      and microbial strains are not available. The present literatures lack
      systematization, the theory on interaction between lactic acid bacteria and Pb is
      far from complete. Therefore, the review tries to give a comprehensive
      explanation about the mechanism of Pb removal from Lactic acid bacteria and
      provide a brief overview of distinction between biosorption and bioaccumulation,
      biosorption technology, highlight the underlying features of biosorption and the
      various affecting factors such as pH, dose required, initial concentration,
      temperature, and treatment performance as a reference. Biosorption mechanisms can
      be briefly generalized into several pathways, which are ion exchange,
      complexation, precipitation, reduction and chelation. Many views holds that
      complexation is the major absorption mechanisms of Pb. Biosorption mechanisms can
      be roughly classified as biosorption and bioaccumulation, which have great
      differences between each other. Biosorption is metabolism-independent but fast,
      while bioaccumulation is metabolism-dependent but slow. The slight advantages of
      the bioaccumulation are the metabolite (lactic acid), lactobacillus surface
      layers, enzymes and so on. Many factors can greatly affect adsorption process,
      different factors have different influence and the effects of pretreatment, pH
      and temperature are relatively greater. Desorption is not a fully reversible
      process of biosorption, but could not only achieve the goal of the recycle of
      microorganism, but also contribute to release of trace metal elements. Also the
      technologies for observation of biosorbents characterics and effect on the metal
      binding process are reviewed.

PMID- 28886256
TI  - Advances in Cardiovascular Cell Therapy.

PMID- 28886257
TI  - Prevalence and Causes of Visual Impairment in Fundong District, North West
      Cameroon: Results of a Population-Based Survey.
AB  - PURPOSE: To estimate the prevalence and causes of visual impairment in Fundong
      Health District, North West Cameroon. METHODS: A total of 51 clusters of 80
      people (all ages) were sampled with probability proportionate to size and compact
      segment sampling. Visual acuity (VA) was measured with a tumbling "E" chart. An
      ophthalmic nurse examined people with VA<6/18 in either eye. The presence of
      hearing and physical impairments were assessed using clinical examination, and
      self-reported visual problems using the Washington Group Short Set. RESULTS: In
      total, 4080 people were enumerated of whom 3567 were screened (response rate
      87%). The overall prevalence of visual impairment was 2.3% (95% CI 1.8-3.0%) and
      blindness was 0.6% (0.3-1.0%). The prevalence of both blindness and visual
      impairment increased rapidly with age, so that the vast majority of cases of
      visual impairment (84%) and blindness (82%) were in people aged 50+. Posterior
      segment disease and cataract were the main causes of blindness and visual
      impairment, with refractive error also an important cause of visual impairment.
      Cataract surgical coverage (proportion of all cataracts that had received
      surgery) was relatively high (87% of people at VA<6/60). Post-surgery outcomes
      were poor, with 31% of operated eyes having VA<6/60. Among the 82 people with
      visual impairment, 22% had a physical impairment or epilepsy and 30% had a
      hearing impairment. Self-reported difficulties in vision were relatively closely
      related to clinical measures of visual impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Ophthalmic
      programmes in Cameroon need to incorporate control of posterior segment diseases
      while also working to improve outcomes after cataract surgery.

PMID- 28886258
TI  - A questionnaire survey of general practitioners in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture
      for the Japanese Society of Hypertension Guidelines for the Management of
      Hypertension 2014.
AB  - To evaluate the Japanese Society of Hypertension Guidelines for the Management of
      Hypertension 2014 (JSH2014) among Japanese general practitioners (GPs), we used a
      questionnaire survey with 209 GPs from the Kanagawa Physicians Society. Overall,
      93.6% of GPs felt that the contents of the JSH2014 were useful. Based on the
      results showing that 81.8% of GPs instructed the measurement of blood pressure
      (BP) in the early morning at home to most patients, GP's acceptance of home BP
      methods and their penetration among patients with hypertension were considerably
      high. Regarding the number of home BP measurements, percentages for "one time,"
      "two times," "three times," and "as many times as the patient decides," were
      20.2%, 44.9%, 12.2%, and 22.9%, respectively; as such, no consensus was reached.
      Overall, 80.6% of GPs instructed most patients on sodium restriction; however,
      the content and method of restriction varied. Furthermore, 14.7% collected spot
      urine to assess salt intake. Many GPs respected the JSH2014 and faithfully
      adopted the guidelines during medical care. However, GPs did not necessarily
      agree with all guidelines. GPs sometimes selected the appropriate method for the
      individual patients and careful observations of how the guidelines affect actual
      clinical practice may lead to better medical care.

PMID- 28886259
TI  - Addition of dexmedetomidine to QX-314 enhances the onset and duration of sciatic
      nerve block in rats.
AB  - An experimental set-up was designed to observe whether adding dexmedetomidine to
      QX-314 would enhance the onset and duration of sensory and motor function in a
      rat sciatic nerve block model. Fifty-six Sprague-Dawley rats received unilateral
      sciatic nerve blocks with 0.2 mL of 35 mmol/L QX-314 alone, dexmedetomidine (5.3
      MUmol/L (1 MUg/kg), 26.4 MUmol/L (5 MUg/kg), 52.8 MUmol/L (10 MUg/kg)) alone, or
      a combination of the two. Thermal nociception and motor function were assessed by
      an investigator blinded to the drug treatment, and sciatic nerves and perineural
      tissues were harvested at 14 days after injection. In addition, we examined the
      effects of these solutions on compound action potentials in isolated frog sciatic
      nerves. Dexmedetomidine added to QX-314 enhanced the onset and duration of
      thermal nociception block and motor block (P < 0.05) without aggravating
      histopathological injuries. Furthermore, 52.8 MUmol/L dexmedetomidine added to 35
      mmol/L QX-314 showed less inflammation than QX-314 alone at 14 days (P = 0.003).
      Dexmedetomidine plus QX-314 was shown to dose-dependently reduce the compound
      action potentials relative to QX-314 alone (P < 0.05). It was concluded that co
      administration of QX-314 with a clinical dose of dexmedetomidine produced a
      synergistic anesthetic effect to enhance the effect of sciatic nerve block.

PMID- 28886260
TI  - Avoidable Waste in Ophthalmic Epidemiology: A Review of Blindness Prevalence
      Surveys in Low and Middle Income Countries 2000-2014.
AB  - PURPOSE: Sources of avoidable waste in ophthalmic epidemiology include
      duplication of effort, and survey reports remaining unpublished, gaining
      publication after a long delay, or being incomplete or of poor quality. The aim
      of this review was to assess these sources of avoidable waste by examining
      blindness prevalence surveys undertaken in low and middle income countries
      (LMICs) between 2000 and 2014. METHODS: On December 1, 2016 we searched MEDLINE,
      EMBASE and Web of Science databases for cross-sectional blindness prevalence
      surveys undertaken in LMICs between 2000 and 2014. All surveys listed on the
      Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) Repository website ("the
      Repository") were also considered. For each survey we assessed (1) availability
      of scientific publication, survey report, summary results tables and/or datasets;
      (2) time to publication from year of survey completion and journal attributes;
      (3) extent of blindness information reported; and (4) rigour when information was
      available from two sources (i.e. whether it matched). RESULTS: Of the 279
      included surveys (from 68 countries) 186 (67%) used RAAB methodology; 146 (52%)
      were published in a scientific journal, 57 (20%) were published in a journal and
      on the Repository, and 76 (27%) were on the Repository only (8% had tables; 19%
      had no information available beyond registration). Datasets were available for 50
      RAABs (18% of included surveys). Time to publication ranged from <1 to 11 years
      (mean, standard deviation 2.8 +/- 1.8 years). The extent of blindness information
      reported within studies varied (e.g. presenting and best-corrected, unilateral
      and bilateral); those with both a published report and Repository tables were
      most complete. For surveys published and with RAAB tables available,
      discrepancies were found in reporting of participant numbers (14% of studies) and
      blindness prevalence (15%). CONCLUSION: Strategies are needed to improve the
      availability, consistency, and quality of information reported from blindness
      prevalence surveys, and hence reduce avoidable waste.

PMID- 28886262
TI  - Effectiveness of antibiotic treatment in infertile patients with sterile
      leukocytospermia induced by tobacco use.
AB  - : Our study investigated whether antibiotic therapy in infertile tobacco users
      with sterile leukocytospermia and a history of former sexual transmitted disease
      (STD) has an advantage over cessation of smoking alone. For this study, 80 male
      infertile smokers were divided into two subgroups. The first group numbered 40
      patients treated with a two week course of doxycycline, 100 mg, twice daily,
      while the second group simply ceased smoking. A control group of 20 patients with
      chronic abacterial prostatitis (CPPS III a) were treated with the same antibiotic
      for two weeks. Patients from the first group exhibited significantly higher
      values in semen volume, total motility, and progressive motility of spermatozoa,
      when compared with the second group, two weeks post treatment. The latter two
      measures persisted during the 12 week follow up period. In both groups of
      patients, the correlation coefficient between the number of leukocytes and
      progressive motility was determined as statistically significant. However, in the
      control group the correlation was not statistically significant; however
      progressive motility, total motility, and vitality were significantly improved
      after a two week course of antibiotics. Our study implies that antibiotic
      treatment is perhaps effective in treating sterile leukocytospermia in smokers
      with a former STD and is a more effective treatment option in improving sperm
      parameters over smoking cessation alone. ABBREVIATIONS: STD: sexual transmitted
      disease; CPPS IIIa: chronic abacterial prostatitis; PSA: prostatic specific
      antigen; EPS: expressed prostatic secretion; WBC: white blood count; LUTS: lower
      urinary tract symptoms; PPMT: pre-massage and post-massage urine test; VAS:
      visual analogue scale.

PMID- 28886261
TI  - Syndecan-2 Attenuates Radiation-induced Pulmonary Fibrosis and Inhibits
      Fibroblast Activation by Regulating PI3K/Akt/ROCK Pathway via CD148.
AB  - Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis is a severe complication of patients treated
      with thoracic irradiation. We have previously shown that syndecan-2 reduces
      fibrosis by exerting alveolar epithelial cytoprotective effects. Here, we
      investigate whether syndecan-2 attenuates radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis by
      inhibiting fibroblast activation. C57BL/6 wild-type mice and transgenic mice that
      overexpress human syndecan-2 in alveolar macrophages were exposed to 14 Gy whole
      thoracic radiation. At 24 weeks after irradiation, lungs were collected for
      histological, protein, and mRNA evaluation of pulmonary fibrosis, profibrotic
      gene expression, and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) expression. Mouse lung
      fibroblasts were activated with transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 in the
      presence or absence of syndecan-2. Cell proliferation, migration, and gel
      contraction were assessed at different time points. Irradiation resulted in
      significantly increased mortality and pulmonary fibrosis in wild-type mice that
      was associated with elevated lung expression of TGF-beta1 downstream target genes
      and cell death compared with irradiated syndecan-2 transgenic mice. In mouse lung
      fibroblasts, syndecan-2 inhibited alpha-SMA expression, cell contraction,
      proliferation, and migration induced by TGF-beta1. Syndecan-2 attenuated
      phosphoinositide 3-kinase/serine/threonine kinase/Rho-associated coiled-coil
      kinase signaling and serum response factor binding to the alpha-SMA promoter.
      Syndecan-2 attenuates pulmonary fibrosis in mice exposed to radiation and
      inhibits TGF-beta1-induced fibroblast-myofibroblast differentiation, migration,
      and proliferation by down-regulating phosphoinositide 3-kinase/serine/threonine
      kinase/Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase signaling and blocking serum response
      factor binding to the alpha-SMA promoter via CD148. These findings suggest that
      syndecan-2 has potential as an antifibrotic therapy in radiation-induced lung
      fibrosis.

PMID- 28886263
TI  - Functional peptides derived from rice bran proteins.
AB  - Rice bran has been predominantly used in the feed industry, and only recently it
      has attracted greater attention in terms of human nutrition with increasing
      knowledge of its bioactivity. A growing interest is the analysis of
      physiologically active peptides derived from rice bran proteins. In this paper,
      the bioactivities of rice bran proteins hydrolysates and peptides are reviewed
      based on recent studies. These enzymatic hydrolysates and peptides exert various
      biological activities including antioxidant, antidiabetic, anticancer and
      inhibitory activity for angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), which may ultimately
      prevent certain chronic diseases. Nevertheless, these functionalities can be
      highly associated with their corresponding structural characteristics, in
      particular specific sequences and molecular weight distribution. This article may
      facilitate the expansion of the prospective applications of the bioactive
      peptides in a number of fields and provide some clues of the relationship between
      peptides structure and functionality for future research.

PMID- 28886264
TI  - Lack of asthma and rhinitis control in general practitioner-managed patients
      prescribed fixed-dose combination therapy in Australia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The first aim of the study (i) assess the current asthma status of
      general-practitioner-managed patients receiving regular fixed-dose combination
      inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting beta2 agonist (FDC ICS/LABA) therapy and
      (ii) explore patients' perceptions of asthma control and attitudes/behaviors
      regarding preventer inhaler use. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study
      of Australian adults with a current physician diagnosis of asthma receiving >=2
      prescriptions of FDC ICS/LABA therapy in the previous year, who were recruited
      through general practice to receive a structured in-depth asthma review between
      May 2012 and January 2014. Descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests for
      independence were used for associations across asthma control levels. RESULTS:
      Only 11.5% of the patients had controlled asthma based on guideline-defined
      criteria. Contrarily, 66.5% of the patients considered their asthma to be well
      controlled. Incidence of acute asthma exacerbations in the previous year was
      26.5% and 45.6% of the patients were without a diagnosis of rhinitis. Asthma
      medication use and inhaler technique were sub-optimal; only 41.0% of the
      preventer users reported everyday use. The side effects of medication were common
      and more frequently reported among uncontrolled and partially controlled
      patients. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed the extent to which asthma management
      needs to be improved in this patient cohort and the numerous unmet needs
      regarding the current state of asthma care. Not only there is a need for
      continuous education of patients, but also education of health care practitioners
      to better understand the way in which patient's perceptions impact on asthma
      management practices, incorporating these findings into clinical decision making.

PMID- 28886265
TI  - Microvesicles releasing by oral cancer cells enhance endothelial cell
      angiogenesis via Shh/RhoA signaling pathway.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the significance of hedgehog signaling
      pathway in association with clinicopathology parameters and its effect on
      angiogenesis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The expression of Sonic Hh
      (Shh) and Gli1 were done on primary tumors and metastatic lymph nodes in OSCC
      samples from 80 patients by immunohistochemical analysis. The western blot was
      used to examine the expression of Shh in OSCC cell lines and OSCC-derived
      microvesicles (MVs). The role of Shh carried by MVs to induce endothelial cell
      angiogenesis was further investigated by matrigel assay. Our results indicated
      that the expression of Shh was positive associated with microvesseldentisty(MVD),
      TNM stage, tumor recurrence and lymph node metastasis. Moreover, Shh and Gli1
      expression were higher in paired metastatic lymph nodes compared with expression
      of their primary tumors. The expression of Shh was abundant in Cal27, and present
      in SCC4, SCC9, and the amount of Shh protein in Cal27 targeting MVs was increased
      significantly than Cal27 cell group, up to ~ fifth-fold. The Cal27 derived MVs
      increased significantly angiogenesis of HUVECs in vitro, and this effect was
      blocked with exoenzyme C3 transferase (C3) and shRNA targeting RhoA by
      suppressing RhoA expression and activation. The data suggested that OSCC derived
      Shh carried by MVs may facilitate the tumor growth and modulate the preparation
      of a vascular network in primary tumor and/or premetastatic niche.

PMID- 28886266
TI  - Metastasis of esophageal small cell carcinoma to the appendix: A case report and
      literature review.
AB  - Primary small cell carcinoma (SCC) of the esophagus is characterized by high
      malignancy with a tendency to metastasize early through lymph and blood
      circulation. Metastasis of esophageal SCC frequently occurs to distant organs
      such as liver and lung. However, few cases of appendiceal metastasis have been
      reported. This paper first presents a pathologically confirmed case with
      metastasis of esophageal SCC to the appendix. This particular case highlights the
      importance of pathological diagnosis and provides new evidence of appendiceal
      metastasis from esophageal SCC.

PMID- 28886267
TI  - The effect of three novel feature extraction methods on the prediction of the
      subcellular localization of multi-site virus proteins.
AB  - Experimental methods play a crucial role in identifying the subcellular
      localization of proteins and building high-quality databases. However, more
      efficient, automated computational methods are required to predict the
      subcellular localization of proteins on a large scale. Various efficient feature
      extraction methods have been proposed to predict subcellular localization, but
      challenges remain. In this paper, three novel feature extraction methods are
      established to improve multi-site prediction. The first novel feature extraction
      method utilizes repetitive information via moving windows based on a dipeptide
      pseudo amino acid composition method (R-Dipeptide). The second novel feature
      extraction method utilizes the impact of each amino acid residue on its following
      residues based on pseudo amino acids (I-PseAAC). The third novel feature
      extraction method provides local information about protein sequences that
      reflects the strength of the physicochemical properties of residues (PseAAC2).
      The multi-label k-nearest neighbor algorithm (MLKNN) is used to predict the
      subcellular localization of multi-site virus proteins. The best overall accuracy
      values of R-Dipeptide, I-PseAAC, and PseAAC2 when applied to dataset S from Virus
      mPloc are 59.92%, 59.13%, and 57.94% respectively.

PMID- 28886268
TI  - Implanted hair-follicle-associated pluripotent (HAP) stem cells encapsulated in
      polyvinylidene fluoride membrane cylinders promote effective recovery of
      peripheral nerve injury.
AB  - Hair follicle-associated-pluripotent (HAP) stem cells are located in the bulge
      area of the hair follicle, express the stem-cell marker, nestin, and have been
      shown to differentiate to nerve cells, glial cells, keratinocytes, smooth muscle
      cells, cardiac muscle cells, and melanocytes. Transplanted HAP stem cells promote
      the recovery of peripheral nerve and spinal cord injuries and have the potential
      for heart regeneration as well. In the present study, we implanted mouse green
      fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing HAP stem-cell spheres encapsulated in
      polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-membrane cylinders into the severed sciatic nerve
      of immunocompetent and immunocompromised (nude) mice. Eight weeks after
      implantation, immunofluorescence staining showed that the HAP stem cells
      differentiated into neurons and glial cells. Fluorescence microscopy showed that
      the HAP stem cell hair spheres promoted rejoining of the sciatic nerve of both
      immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining
      showed that the severed scatic nerves had regenerated. Quantitative walking
      analysis showed that the transplanted mice recovered the ability to walk
      normally. HAP stem cells are readily accessible from everyone, do not form
      tumors, and can be cryopreserved without loss of differentiation potential. These
      results suggest that HAP stem cells may have greater potential than iPS or ES
      cells for regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28886269
TI  - Loss-of-Function GRHL3 Variants Detected in African Patients with Isolated Cleft
      Palate.
AB  - In contrast to the progress that has been made toward understanding the genetic
      etiology of cleft lip with or without cleft palate, relatively little is known
      about the genetic etiology for cleft palate only (CPO). A common coding variant
      of grainyhead like transcription factor 3 ( GRHL3) was recently shown to be
      associated with risk for CPO in Europeans. Mutations in this gene were also
      reported in families with Van der Woude syndrome. To identify rare mutations in
      GRHL3 that might explain the missing heritability for CPO, we sequenced GRHL3 in
      cases of CPO from Africa. We recruited participants from Ghana, Ethiopia, and
      Nigeria. This cohort included case-parent trios, cases and other family members,
      as well as controls. We sequenced exons of this gene in DNA from a total of 134
      nonsyndromic cases. When possible, we sequenced them in parents to identify de
      novo mutations. Five novel mutations were identified: 2 missense (c.497C>A;
      p.Pro166His and c.1229A>G; p.Asp410Gly), 1 splice site (c.1282A>C p.Ser428Arg), 1
      frameshift (c.470delC; p.Gly158Alafster55), and 1 nonsense (c.1677C>A;
      p.Tyr559Ter). These mutations were absent from 270 sequenced controls and from
      all public exome and whole genome databases, including the 1000 Genomes database
      (which includes data from Africa). However, 4 of the 5 mutations were present in
      unaffected mothers, indicating that their penetrance is incomplete.
      Interestingly, 1 mutation damaged a predicted sumoylation site, and another
      disrupted a predicted CK1 phosphorylation site. Overexpression assays in
      zebrafish and reporter assays in vitro indicated that 4 variants were
      functionally null or hypomorphic, while 1 was dominant negative. This study
      provides evidence that, as in Caucasian populations, mutations in GRHL3
      contribute to the risk of nonsyndromic CPO in the African population.

PMID- 28886270
TI  - Airway epithelial barrier dysfunction in the pathogenesis and prognosis of
      respiratory tract diseases in childhood and adulthood.
AB  - The lungs are in direct contact with the environment through the tubular
      structure that constitutes the airway. Starting from the nasal orifice, the
      airway is exposed to foreign particles including infectious agents, allergens,
      and other substances that can damage the airways. Therefore, the airway must have
      a functional epithelial barrier both in the upper and lower airways to protect
      against these threats. As with the skin, it is likely that the pathogenesis of
      respiratory diseases is a consequence of epithelial barrier defects in these
      airways. The characteristics of this system, starting from the beginning of life
      and extending into maturing and aging, determine the prognosis of respiratory
      diseases. In this article, we discuss the pathogenesis, clinical phenotype, and
      prognosis of respiratory diseases from newborns to adulthood in the context of
      epithelial barrier function and dysfunction.

PMID- 28886272
TI  - Expression of SESN1, UHRF1BP1, and miR-377-3p as prognostic markers in mutated
      TP53 squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
AB  - The tumor suppressor gene TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human
      papillomavirus (HPV)-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). It
      represents a known transcription factor that controls different microRNAs (miRNA)
      and target genes involved in the regulation of cellular stress, apoptosis and
      response to DNA damage. We used The Cancer Genome Atlas database to investigate
      the difference in transcriptome and proteome levels between mutated and wild-type
      TP53 HPV-negative HNSCC. Using different databases and an extensive literature
      review, we built the transcriptional and post-transcriptional network regulated
      by TP53. TP53 mutation was associated with poor overall survival in 203 HPV
      negative patients compared to 40 patients with TP53 wild-type tumors. Using the
      enrichment analysis, we found that UHRF1BP1 and SESN1 mRNA were linked to
      prognosis in the TP53 mutated group. This is also the case for miR-377-3p, an
      important miRNA regulator of SESN1. Our study shows that SESN1 mRNA, UHRF1BP11
      mRNA and miRNA-377-3p levels are prognostically relevant in HPV-negative HNSCC
      patients. This finding may help with patient stratification and the development
      of potential new therapeutic targets to treat patients with HNSCC.

PMID- 28886271
TI  - MicroRNA signature in the chemoprevention of functionally-enriched stem and
      progenitor pools (FESPP) by Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC).
AB  - PURPOSE: Many breast cancer patients use natural compounds in their battle
      against breast cancer. Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC(r)) is a cultured
      mushroom mycelium extract shown to favorably modulate the immune system and
      alleviate cancer burden. Cancer Stem cells (CSCs) are a subset of highly
      tumorigenic cancer cells that are thought to be responsible for recurrence. CSCs
      can be epigenetically regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs). We hypothesized that AHCC
      may influence CSCs by modulating tumor-suppressor or oncogenic miRNAs. METHODS:
      Functionally-enriched stem and progenitor pools (FESPP) were isolated in the form
      of mammospheres from MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and 4T1 cells, exposed to AHCC in both
      regular and primary culture from Balb/c mice, and analyzed by visual counting and
      flow cytometry. Cell motility was also observed in MDA-MB-231 cells. Profiling
      and RT-qPCR were performed to determine AHCC influence on miRNAs in MDA-MB-231
      mammospheres. Additionally, Balb/c mice were orally gavaged with AHCC, and tumor
      growth parameters and miR-335 expression were analyzed. MDA-MB-231 cells were
      transfected with miR-335 and analyzed by western blot. RESULTS: We demonstrated
      that AHCC reduced mammosphere growth in three cell lines and in primary culture,
      prevented cell migration, and upregulated miR-335 expression in MDA-MB-231 cells
      and mouse tumor samples. Among the differentially regulated miRNAs in CSCs, we
      focused on tumor suppressor miR-335, known to target extracellular matrix protein
      Tenascin C (TNC). TNC is involved in CSC immune evasion pathways. In MDA-MB-231,
      inhibition of miR-335 increased TNC protein expression. CONCLUSIONS: These
      results support that AHCC limits FESPP growth, partly by targeting miRNA
      pathways.

PMID- 28886273
TI  - PARPi potentiates with current conventional therapy in MLL leukemia.
AB  - Acute myeloid leukemias driven by MLL fusion proteins are commonly associated
      with poor prognosis and refractory treatment. Here, we provide evidence that
      olaparib can potentiate sensitivity of MLL leukemia cells to conventional
      chemotherapy and DNMT inhibitors offering new potential therapeutic strategies
      for MLL rearranged leukemias Using the primary mouse leukemia cells and human MLL
      AF9 leukemic cell line, we demonstrate that treatment of MLL-AF9 leukemic cells
      with DNMT inhibitors or chemotherapies in combination with olaparib results in
      significant reduction in colony formation or cell growth while the single agent
      treatments had little impacts. Combining olaparib with DNMT inhibitor induce cell
      cycle block and apoptosis. Furthermore, we observe a significant increase in
      proportion of cells with >10 gammaH2AX DNA damage foci and double stranded breaks
      when treated with DNMT inhibitors or chemotherapy agents in combination with
      olaparib, thus providing possible mechanistic insights for the synergism.

PMID- 28886274
TI  - The plant RNA polymerase II elongation complex: A hub coordinating transcript
      elongation and mRNA processing.
AB  - Characterisation of the Arabidopsis RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) elongation complex
      revealed an assembly of a conserved set of transcript elongation factors
      associated with chromatin remodellers, histone modifiers as well as with various
      pre-mRNA splicing and polyadenylation factors. Therefore, transcribing RNAPII
      streamlines the processes of mRNA synthesis and processing in plants.

PMID- 28886275
TI  - Preclinical rationale for combination of crizotinib with mitomycin C for the
      treatment of advanced colorectal cancer.
AB  - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United
      States. We analyzed 26 MSI-High and 558 non-MSI-High CRC tumors. BRCA2 mutations
      were highly enriched (50%) in MSI-High CRC. Immunohistochemistry showed that
      BRCA2-mutated MSI-High CRC had high c-MET (64%) expression compared with BRCA-WT
      (17%). We hypothesized a mechanistic link between BRCA2-deficiency and c-MET
      overexpression and synergistic interaction between drugs that treat BRCA
      deficient tumors (mitomycin C (MMC) or PARP inhibitors) and c-MET inhibitors
      (crizotinib). We tested CRC cell lines for sensitivity to MMC plus crizotinib or
      other drug combinations including PARP-inhibitors. Combined treatment of tumor
      cells with crizotinib and MMC led to increased apoptosis as compared with each
      drug alone. Additionally, combination treatment with increasing concentrations of
      both drugs demonstrated a synergistic anti-cancer effect (CI = 0.006-0.74).
      However, we found no evidence for c-MET upregulation upon effective BRCA2
      knockdown in tumor cells -/+DNA damage. Although we found no mechanistic link
      between BRCA2 deficiency and c-MET overexpression, c-MET is frequently
      overexpressed in CRC and BRCA2 is mutated especially in MSI-H CRC. The
      combination of crizotinib with MMC appeared synergistic regardless of MSI or
      BRCA2 status. Using an in-vivo CRC xenograft model we found reduced tumor growth
      with combined crizotinib and MMC therapy (p = 0.0088). Our preclinical results
      support clinical testing of the combination of MMC and crizotinib in advanced
      CRC. Targeting cell survival mediated by c-MET in combination with targeting DNA
      repair may be a reasonable strategy for therapy development in CRC or other
      cancers.

PMID- 28886277
TI  - A comparison of multiple imputation methods for incomplete longitudinal binary
      data.
AB  - Longitudinal binary data are commonly encountered in clinical trials. Multiple
      imputation is an approach for getting a valid estimation of treatment effects
      under an assumption of missing at random mechanism. Although there are a variety
      of multiple imputation methods for the longitudinal binary data, a limited number
      of researches have reported on relative performances of the methods. Moreover,
      when focusing on the treatment effect throughout a period that has often been
      used in clinical evaluations of specific disease areas, no definite
      investigations comparing the methods have been available. We conducted an
      extensive simulation study to examine comparative performances of six multiple
      imputation methods available in the SAS MI procedure for longitudinal binary
      data, where two endpoints of responder rates at a specified time point and
      throughout a period were assessed. The simulation study suggested that results
      from naive approaches of a single imputation with non-responders and a complete
      case analysis could be very sensitive against missing data. The multiple
      imputation methods using a monotone method and a full conditional specification
      with a logistic regression imputation model were recommended for obtaining
      unbiased and robust estimations of the treatment effect. The methods were
      illustrated with data from a mental health research.

PMID- 28886289
TI  - Optimization of saccharification potential of recombinant xylanase from Bacillus
      licheniformis.
AB  - Saccharification potential of xylanase enzyme cloned from Bacillus licheniformis
      into E. coli BL21 (DE3) was evaluated against plant biomass for the production of
      bioethanol. The expression of cloned gene was studied and conditions were
      optimized for its large scale production. The parameters effecting enzyme
      production were examined in a fermenter. Recombinant xylanase has the ability to
      breakdown birchwood xylan to release xylose as well as the potential to treat
      plant biomass, such as wheat straw, rice straw, and sugarcane bagass. The
      saccharification ability of this enzyme was optimized by studying various
      parameters. The maximum saccharification percentage (84%) was achieved when 20
      units of recombinant xylanase were used with 8% sugarcane bagass at 50 degrees C
      and 120 rpm after 6 hours of incubation. The results indicated that the
      bioconversion of natural biomass by recombinant xylanase into simple sugars can
      be used for biofuel (bioethanol) production. This process can replace the use of
      fossil fuels, and the use of bioethanol can significantly reduce the emission of
      toxic gases. Future directions regarding pre-treatment of cellulosic and
      hemicellulosic biomass and other processes that can reduce the cost and enhance
      the yield of biofuels are briefly discussed.

PMID- 28886276
TI  - Systems approach to the pharmacological actions of HDAC inhibitors reveals EP300
      activities and convergent mechanisms of regulation in diabetes.
AB  - Given the skyrocketing costs to develop new drugs, repositioning of approved
      drugs, such as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, may be a promising strategy
      to develop novel therapies. However, a gap exists in the understanding and
      advancement of these agents to meaningful translation for which new indications
      may emerge. To address this, we performed systems-level analyses of 33
      independent HDAC inhibitor microarray studies. Based on network analysis, we
      identified enrichment for pathways implicated in metabolic syndrome and diabetes
      (insulin receptor signaling, lipid metabolism, immunity and trafficking).
      Integration with ENCODE ChIP-seq datasets identified suppression of EP300 target
      genes implicated in diabetes. Experimental validation indicates reversal of
      diabetes-associated EP300 target genes in primary vascular endothelial cells
      derived from a diabetic individual following inhibition of HDACs (by SAHA),
      EP300, or EP300 knockdown. Our computational systems biology approach provides an
      adaptable framework for the prediction of novel therapeutics for existing
      disease.

PMID- 28886292
TI  - Prime Time for Pancreas and Islet Transplantation at the Turn of the Millennium.

PMID- 28886300
TI  - Cell Therapy 2000: Introduction.

PMID- 28886299
TI  - Successful Retroviral Gene Transfer of Simian Virus 40 T Antigen and Herpes
      Simplex Virus-Thymidine Kinase into Human Hepatocytes 1.
AB  - Current clinical reports have indicated that hepatocyte transplantation (HTX)
      could be used in patients with liver failure and in children with liver-based
      metabolic diseases. One of the major limiting factors of HTX is a serious
      shortage of donor livers for hepatocyte isolation. To address this issue, we
      immortalized adult human hepatocytes with a retroviral vector SSR#69 expressing
      the genes of simian virus 40 large T antigen and herpes simplex virus-thymidine
      kinase simultaneously. One of the resulting clones, NKNT-3, grew steadily in
      chemically defined serum-free medium without any obvious crisis and showed the
      gene expression of differentiated liver functions. Under the administration of 5
      MUM ganciclovir, NKNT-3 cells stopped proliferation and died in in vitro
      experiments. We have established a tightly regulated immortal human hepatocyte
      cell line. The cells could allow the need for immediate availability of
      consistent and functionally uniform cells in sufficient quantity and adequate
      quality.

PMID- 28886301
TI  - Acute Lethal Injury of Lung and Liver in Mice Transplanted with Ex Vivo-Expanded
      CTLs.
AB  - Clinical application of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) induced in vitro is
      extensively used for the treatment of viral infection and malignant diseases. We
      produced anti H-2d CTL in vitro from C57BL/6 (B6) splenocytes presensitized with
      (B6 * DBA/2) F1 (BDF1) splenocytes to establish a model system of CTL therapy.
      The specificity and cytotoxic activity were high enough (E/T ratio 1:1 = 38.8%)
      to induce graft versus host reaction. Though the total number of B6 splenocytes
      decreased by 0.27 during the 4 days of culture, the number of CD8+ lymphocytes
      increased 1.3-fold. When more than 5 * 106 cells of H-2d -reactive CTL were
      transplanted into BDF1 mice, mice died within 2 days postinduction. This lethal
      effect was not seen in the mice induced with ConA-stimulated T cells.
      Histological examination of the lungs and liver revealed massive infiltration of
      neutrophils in alveoli and the necrosis of hepatocytes. Therefore, this protocol
      was shown to be effective to produce alloantigen-specific CTLs and applicable to
      in vitro manipulation such as retrovirus-mediated gene transfer.

PMID- 28886302
TI  - Cre/loxP-Based Reversible Immortalization of Human Hepatocytes 1.
AB  - An ideal alternative to the primary human hepatocytes for hepatocyte
      transplantation would be to use a clonal cell line that grows economically in
      culture and exhibits the characteristics of differentiated, nontransformed
      hepatocytes following transplantation. The purpose of the present studies was to
      establish a reversibly immortalized human hepatocyte cell line. Human hepatocytes
      were immortalized with a retroviral vector SSR#69 expressing simian virus 40
      large T antigen (SV40Tag) gene flanked by a pair of loxP recombination targets.
      One of the resulting clones, NKNT-3, showed morphological characteristics of
      liver parenchymal cells and expressed the genes of differentiated liver
      functions. NKNT-3 cells offered unlimited availability. After an adenoviral
      delivery of Cre recombinase and subsequent differential selection, efficient
      removal of SV40Tag from NKNT-3 cells was performed. Here we represent that
      elimination of the retrovirally transferred SV40Tag gene can be excised by
      adenovirus-mediated site-specific recombination.

PMID- 28886303
TI  - Helicases as transcription termination factors: Different solutions for a common
      problem.
AB  - Helicases are enzymes that remodel nucleic acids or protein-nucleic acid
      complexes in an ATP-dependent manner. They are ubiquitous and can play many
      diverse functions related to the metabolism of nucleic acids. A few helicases
      from both the prokaryotic and the eukaryotic worlds have the ability to induce
      transcription termination. Here we discuss how the same biological function is
      achieved by different helicases with quite divergent structures and mechanisms of
      action.

PMID- 28886305
TI  - Sample size determination for the current strategy in oncology Phase 3 trials
      that tests progression-free survival and overall survival in a two-stage design
      framework.
AB  - The selection of progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS) as the
      most suitable primary endpoint (PE) in oncology Phase 3 trials is currently under
      intense debate. Because of substantial limitations in the single use of PFS (or
      OS) as the PE, trial designs that include PFS and OS as co-primary endpoints are
      attracting increasing interest. In this article, we report on the formulation of
      determining the sample size for a trial that sequentially tests PFS and OS by
      treating them as co-PEs. Using a three-component model of OS, the proposed method
      overcomes the drawbacks of an existing method that requires unreasonable
      assumption of the exponential distribution for OS, although the hazard function
      is nonconstant because effective subsequent therapy has prolonged postprogression
      survival in recent oncology trials. Alternative estimation method of hazard ratio
      for OS under a three-component mode is also discussed by checking the
      appropriateness of assuming proportionality of hazards for OS. In order to
      examine the performance of our proposed method, we performed three numerical
      studies using both simulated and actual data of cancer Phase 3 trials. We find
      that the proposed method preserves a prespecified target value of power with a
      feasible increment of trial scale.

PMID- 28886304
TI  - The roles of vasohibin and its family members: Beyond angiogenesis modulators.
AB  - Vasohibin-1 is an intrinsic angiogenesis inhibitor, and is expressed in
      endothelial cells via induction by pro-angiogenesis factors. It is known to
      inhibit several processes of angiogenesis, with different mechanisms from
      extrinsic angiogenesis inhibitors. Vasohibin-2 is mainly expressed by mononuclear
      cells which have been mobilized from bone marrow. It not only promotes
      angiogenesis, but also modulates the releases of FGF-2 and VEGF, which are the
      two major inducers for vasohibin1. Hypoxic environment induces the expression of
      hypoxia-inducible Factor 1alpha with a result of VEGF release nearly in all tumor
      cell lines and tissues. However, it has been observed that hypoxia reduces the
      inducible effects of VEGF on vasohibin, which indicates that a complicated
      mechanism exists in the angiogenesis. Vasohibin and its family members play
      important roles in both the physiological and pathological procedures, in
      contrary but complementary patterns. Furthermore, human aortic smooth muscle
      cells and fibroblast have also been detected to express vasohibin on a moderate
      to weak scale range. Recently, the results of an increasing number of studies in
      vivo have shown that vasohibin can also be detected in several cancers, and is
      associated with micro-vessel densities, histology grades, invasions, poor
      clinical features, metastasis, and dissemination in abdominal cavities, as well
      as EMT. In more recent reports, it has been confirmed that, along with being
      angiogenesis regulators, a variety of other roles have been associated with this
      family. The focus of this study was the upstream regulatory mechanisms of
      vasohibin expressions, and their role in regard to the downstream target proteins
      of vasohibin, especially in carcinoma. Vasohibin is considered to be an original
      angiogenesis inhibitor, and has a much broader significance in pathological
      processes. It can be taken as an independent prognostic factor, as well as a
      potential strategy for cancer therapy programs.

PMID- 28886306
TI  - LncRNA H19 contributes to Rh2-mediated MC3T3-E1cell proliferation by regulation
      of osteopontin.
AB  - 20(R)-ginsenoside Rh2 (Rh2) is one of the most active components of red ginseng,
      possessing the beneficial effects in cancer prevention and metabolic diseases.
      However, the detailed mechanisms that contribute to Rh2-mediated bone formation
      remain largely unknown. In this study, we assessed the expression of 17 long non
      coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in cultured MC3T3-E1 cells under Rh2 treatments. We found
      that lncRNA H19 was significantly increased in Rh2-treated MC3T3-E1 cells.
      Expression of lncRNA H19 was promoted in a dose- and time-dependent manner after
      Rh2 treatments. Increased expression of lncRNA H19 resulted in osteopontin (OPN)
      overexpression in Rh2-treated MC3T3-E1 cells. Furthermore, knockdown of lncRNA
      H19 by specific siRNAs significantly abolished the Rh2-mediated cell
      proliferation effects. Knockdown of lncRNA H19 also decreased both mRNA and
      protein levels of OPN in the Rh2-treated cells, which was accomplished by
      inhibiting histones H3 and H4 acetylation of OPN promoter. Importantly, OPN
      knockdown fully blocked Rh2 induced MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation. Our results
      suggest that lncRNA H19 is an important contributor to Rh2-mediated MC3T3-E1
      proliferation by regulation of OPN.

PMID- 28886307
TI  - Pleckstrin homology-like domain family B member 1 rs498872 polymorphism and
      glioma risk in Chinese Han population.
AB  - This case-control study aimed to investigate the association between PHLDB1
      rs498872 polymorphism and the risk of glioma in a Chinese Han population. A total
      of 210 patients and 235 controls were enrolled in this study. The CT genotype and
      TT genotype were significantly associated with the risk of glioma (OR=1.48, 95%CI
      1.00-2.19, P=0.05 and OR=2.40, 95%CI 1.06-4.10, P=0.03), respectively. In
      addition, T allele of PHLDB1 rs498872 polymorphism was significantly associated
      with an increased risk of glioma (OR=1.58, 95%CI 1.08-2.29, P=0.02). We also
      found that PHLDB1 rs498872 polymorphism was not associated with histology and
      tumor grade of glioma. In conclusion, this study found that PHLDB1 rs498872
      polymorphism was significantly associated with glioma risk in Chinese Han
      population.

PMID- 28886308
TI  - Contribution of polymorphisms in the LEP, LEPR and RETN genes on serum leptin and
      resistin levels in young adults from Mexico.
AB  - Polymorphisms in the LEP (G-2548A and A19G), LEPR (A326G, A668G and G3057A) and
      RETN (C-420G and G+62A) genes were documented according to their association with
      alterations in biochemical parameters such as glucose, insulin and lipid
      profiles, along with serum leptin and resistin concentrations. The aim of the
      study was to establish any contribution of the G-2548A and A19G polymorphisms of
      the LEP gene, the A326G, A668G and G3057A polymorphisms of the LEPR gene, and the
      C-420G and G+62A polymorphisms of the RETN gene to serum leptin and resistin
      levels in Mexican young adults. Clinical and biochemical variables, serum leptin
      and resistin levels, and genotype profiles were analysed in 66 Mexican young
      adults. Seven polymorphisms in the LEP, LEPR and RETN genes were genotyped using
      polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms analysis.
      Individuals carrying allele 3057A of the G3057A polymorphism in the LEPR gene
      showed significantly higher leptin concentrations than those bearing the genotype
      G/G (43.78 +/- 39.11 vs 28.20 +/- 14.12 ng/mL; p = 0.021). There were no
      associations of serum leptin or resistin levels according to the genotype of the
      other six analysed polymorphisms. Our results suggest that the allele 3057A of
      the LEPR G3057A polymorphism contributes to increased serum leptin levels in
      Mexican young adults.

PMID- 28886309
TI  - The correlation between Pax5 deletion and patients survival in Iranian children
      with precursor B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia.
AB  - Despite advances in treatment, children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
      still experience drug resistance and relapse. Several gene mutations are involved
      in the onset of this disease and resistance to therapy. The present study
      examines the incidence of IKZF1, CDKN2A/B, PAX5, EBF1, ETV6, BTG1, RB1, JAK2, and
      Xp22.33 gene deletions/duplications associated with pediatric ALL in Iran and
      investigates the possible effect of these mutations on drug resistance. Three
      year disease-free survival (3DFS) was evaluated for children diagnosed with
      Philadelphia negative precursor-B-cell ALL hospitalized at Sayed-al-Shohada
      Hospital, Isfahan-Iran, from January 2009 until December 2012. DNA was extracted
      from bone marrow slides, and ALL correlated gene deletions and duplications were
      measured using Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA) method.
      The correlation between gene mutations and 3DFS was then assessed. Among the nine
      aforementioned investigated genes, 63% of samples showed at least one gene
      mutation. At least two concomitant genomic mutations were observed in 42% of
      samples. Pax5 deletion was the most prevalent gene mutation observed in 45% of
      cases, and showed significant negative impact on response to treatment. CDKN2A/B
      (9p21.3) gene deletion, and ETV6 (12p13.2) gene duplication also demonstrated
      negative effect on patient survival and contributed to a worse prognosis if
      concomitant with Pax5 gene deletion. ALL patients with one of the gene deletions
      including Pax5  and CDKN2A/B (9p21.3) or ETV6 (12p13.2) gene duplication are
      classified as high-risk patients and need more intensified protocols of treatment
      to improve their chance of survival.

PMID- 28886310
TI  - Risk factors associated with oral and maxillofacial benign tumors: A case-control
      study.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the risk factors for oral and maxillofacial
      benign tumors (OMFBTs). A total of 138 patients diagnosed with OMFBTs between
      September 2010 and September 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical data
      including demographic characteristics, smoking and drinking status, dietary
      habit, oral hygiene and tumor related family history were collected and compared
      with 134 cases of healthy people who visited the hospital for physical
      examination during the same time. Logistic regression analysis was performed for
      multivariable regression analysis. OMFBTs was associated with smoking more than
      20 cigarettes per day, accumulated cigarette consumption more than 30,
      accumulated cigarette package consumption more than 1000, present smoking and
      drinking, passive smoking before 18 years old, initial smoking age more than 20
      years old and alcohol consumption more than 50 g/d (P < 0.05). Consumption of
      meat, fish, seafood, fruits and vitamin tablets were associated with lower risk
      of OMFBTs. Non-conditional logistic regression analyses indicated that the
      independent risk factors of OMFBTs included accumulated cigarette consumption,
      passive smoking before the age of 18, meat-free, fish-free, fruit-free, vitamin
      tablets-free, frequency of tooth brushing lower than once a day, not routinely
      attending oral examination, wearing denture and drinking alcohol (P < 0.05).
      Smoking and drinking should be discouraged in dental patients. Keeping a good
      dietary habit and routinely attending oral examination are highly encouraged.

PMID- 28886311
TI  - Effect of sucrose concentrations on Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni tissue culture and
      gene expression.
AB  - Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni is known as sweet plant which it contains a
      high level of steviol glycosides in the leaves.  This plant has been used from
      centuries ago as a sweetener for tea. One of the most important steviol
      glycosides is stevioside that is attractive for diabetic persons. Tissue culture
      is the only rapid process for the mass propagation of stevia. One of the most
      important factors in the medium is sucrose that is a necessary for plant growth.
      In the present study, we use nodal segments of the stem as explants in mediums
      with different sucrose concentration (50 mM, 100mM and 150mM). Several
      morphological traits were measured in a 28 day period. Results analysis showed a
      significant variation between treatments. The highest growth rate, rooting and
      leaf production was obtained in medium with 100mM sucrose. The correlation
      between measured traits was significant at the 0.01 level. To investigation of
      UGT74G1, UGT76G1, UGT85C2 and KS genes expression that are involved in the
      synthesis of SGs, RT- PCR was done with the housekeeping gene of as internal
      control. There were significant differences between all media. The results showed
      thatsucrose 100 mM containing media was more desirable than others for expression
      of UGT76G1 and UGT85C2 genes. Whereas, the best medium for expression of UGT74G1
      was sucrose 150 mM and sucrose 50 mM for KS gene. Totally, it seems that sucrose
      at a concentration of 100 mMprovides the best condition for stevia growth and
      steviol glycosides production.

PMID- 28886312
TI  - Differences in expression of serum protein in patients with psoriasis vulgaris
      and blood heat syndrome and healthy volunteers.
AB  - To explore the mechanism of psoriasis vulgaris (PV), serum protein expression
      profiles between PV patients with blood-heat syndrome and healthy volunteers were
      detected by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ). First,
      sera from 15 PV patients with blood-heat syndrome and 10 healthy volunteers were
      collected; then, serum proteins were separated and hydrolyzed by sodium dodecyl
      sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and a specific iTRAQ marker
      enzyme respectively after further purification and protein abundance treatment.
      Compared with the control group, differentially expressed proteins in PV patients
      with blood-heat syndrome were identified and analyzed by tandem mass
      spectrometry. A total of 787 proteins were identified and 718 proteins had a
      functional annotation with gene ontology (GO) by iTRAQ in the current study.
      Significant differences (P <0.05) and great differences (P <0.01) were found in
      681 proteins and 536 proteins respectively between the patient group and healthy
      group. ). Different protein expression profiles in serum existed between PV
      patients with blood-heat syndrome and healthy volunteers; the differences largely
      involved immune-related proteins and lipoproteins. The proteins specific for PV
      with blood-heat syndrome deserves further investigation.

PMID- 28886313
TI  - Susceptibility of herpes simplex virus type 1 to monoterpenes thymol, carvacrol,
      p-cymene and essential oils of Sinapis arvensis L., Lallemantia royleana Benth.
      and Pulicaria vulgaris Gaertn.
AB  - : In recent years, with increased the prevalence of viral infections and having
      no specific for  their treatment  and also the continuous appearance of resistant
      viral strains, the finding of novel antiviral agents is necessary. In this study,
      monoterpenes of thymol, carvacrol, p-cymene and essential oils from Sinapis
      arvensis L., Lallemantia royleana Benth. and Pulicaria vulgaris Gaertn. were
      screened for their inhibitory effect against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)
      in vitro on Vero cell line CCL-81-ATCC using a plaque reduction assay. The
      antiviral activity of three monoterpenes (thymol, carvacrol and p-cymene) and
      three essential oils were evaluated by cytotoxicity assay, direct plaque test. In
      addition, the modes of antiviral action of these compounds were investigated
      during the viral infection cycle. Results showed that the inhibitory
      concentrations (IC50) were determined at 0.002%, 0.037%, >0.1%, 0.035%, 0.018%
      and 0.001% for thymol, carvacrol, p-cymene, S. arvensis oil, L. royleana oil and
      P. vulgaris oil, respectively. A manifestly dose-dependent virucidal activity
      against HSV-1 could be exhibited for compounds tested. In order to determine the
      mode of the inhibitory effect, compounds were added at different stages during
      the viral infection cycle. At maximum noncytotoxic concentrations of the
      compounds, plaque formation was significantly reduced by more than 80% when HSV-1
      was preincubated with p-cymene. However, no inhibitory effect could be observed
      when the compounds were added to the cells prior to infection with HSV-1 or after
      the adsorption period. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that compounds affected
      HSV-1 mostly before adsorption and might interact with the viral envelope. Thymol
      exhibited a high selectivity index and seems to be a promising candidate for
      topical therapeutic application as antiviral agent for treatment of herpetic
      infections.

PMID- 28886314
TI  - Alterations on high HbF levels may be associated with KLF1 gene mutations.
AB  - The KLF1 gene synthesizes a transcription factor in the zinc finger structure
      that regulates the transcription of beta-, gamma-globin, and Foxm1 genes. This
      factor plays an important role in the erythropoiesis mechanism by modifying the
      chromatin structure and is involved in the regulation of transcription in the
      opening of the beta-globin gene. beta-globin gene expression could be disrupted
      by a mutation, which may be a possible cause of a disruption in regulation of the
      promotor of the beta-globin gene where the KLF1 transcription factor binds. This
      can lead to an inherited high fetal hemoglobin (HbF) ratio in people. Therefore,
      the main aim of this study was to determine the effects of KLF1 mutations on
      these high levels of HbF. In this study, in order to determine the relationship
      between the KLF1 mutations and the high HbF levels three exons along with the 5'
      UTR and 3'-UTR regions of the KLF1 gene were sequenced of 53 volunteers. In this
      study, 3 variations in the non-coding regions of the KLF1 gene were not
      associated with a high level of HbF. Five variations were detected in the second
      exon of KLF1 gene. One of these is a frame shift that occurs when GG bases are
      inserted between the 59-60 codons, and the other four variations occur as a base
      substitution variations.  No correlation was found between high HbF levels and
      neutral variants. Only polar-nonpolar amino acid changes were found at two
      points. At one of them, a significant drop in the high HbF levels was observed,
      while the other was observed to be high near to the critical limit. These
      findings suggested that variations in function of the KLF1 gene can alter the HbF
      levels.

PMID- 28886315
TI  - The protective effect of cinnamaldehyde on lipopolysaccharide induced acute lung
      injury in mice.
AB  - The study wasintended to examinethe protective effect of cinnamaldehyde (CM) on
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) mice model.The results
      of the investigation confirmed that, LPS induced inflammatory cytokines such as
      TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-13 and IL-1beta were significantly decreased by CM. CM also
      up-regulated level of IL-10. We found that CM significantly attenuated LPS
      induced TLR4 expression, NF-kappaB activation and MPO activity in the lung
      tissues. It markedly reduced lung wet/dry ratio, and improved typical and severe
      pathological changes including pulmonary edema in the LPS induced ALI mice.
      Moreover, CM significantly inhibited neutrophils, macrophages and total cell
      number in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). In our study, we noted that
      TLR4-NF-kappaB signaling pathway was involved in acute lung injury.The results
      revealed the protective effects of CM in LPS-induced ALI, through suppressionTLR4
      NF-kappaB signaling pathway. Our finding suggests that Cinnamaldehyde is a
      potential anti-inflammatory agent in treatment the acute lung injury.

PMID- 28886316
TI  - Is GDF5 gene promoter polymorphism +104T/C associated with osteoarthritis in the
      Eastern of Turkey population?
AB  - Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis. Genetic factors have
      been shown to play important roles in the etiology of OA. The gene growth
      differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) has been implicated in skeletal development and
      joint morphogenesis in human and mice. A functional single nucleotide
      polymorphism (SNP) +104T/C in the 5'-UTR of GDF5 (rs143383) was reported to be
      associated with osteoarthritis susceptibility in Han Chinese and Japanese
      populations. Our objective was to assess whether this SNP was also associated
      with OA in the Eastern Turkey population.A total of 172 cases including 95
      patients with idiopathic OA and 77 control cases were recruited into the study.
      DNA samples were extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes of all cases by
      using salting out method. The +104T/C polymorphism was genotyped by PCR-RFLP
      method. In terms of genotype comparison there wasn't any correlation between
      patient and control groups. Frequency of C allele was found to be higher in
      patient group than control group and statistical analysis showed a poor
      correlation in allele frequencies of the +104T/C SNP of GDF5 gene between cases
      and controls (p<0.05). Significant correlation between GDF5 and OA has been
      reported in Asian population, especially T alleles were found in higher
      frequencies and related to OA.  Our study did not confirm this association and
      also in term of T allele. Interestingly, we found higher frequency of C allele in
      patient group than control group and our results are compatible with the study
      carried out in Greek population.

PMID- 28886317
TI  - Potential of Laurencia obtusa as a substrate for the development of a probiotic
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - Laurencia obtusa (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) has tremendous nutritional value, being
      high in proteins, oligosaccharides, vitamins, essential minerals, and fatty
      acids, and it is a rich source of amino acids and trace elements. In this study,
      L. obtusa was extracted and subjected to phenolic, sugar and flavonoid
      analyses.The fatty acid, vitamin and phytosterol contents in Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae were evaluated when it was incubated with L. obtusa dry biomass. The
      fatty acids in the lipid extract were analysed after converting them into methyl
      esters using gas chromatography, and vitamin concentrations were measured using
      high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). According to the achieved results,
      the total fatty acid levels and vitamin contents of the S. cerevisiae prepared
      with algal extract increased at different rates. Our results showed that alpha
      tocopherol decreased in the group in which the S. cerevisiae was added the algal
      extract. When compared to the control group, ergesterol increased in the group in
      which L. obtusa extract was added. Additionally, when compared to the control
      group in which L. obtusa extract was added, stearic acid (18:0), oleic acid
      (18:1) and linoleic acid (18:2) increased in the other groups. Palmitoleic acid
      (16:1) increased in the L. obtusa culture medium, but palmitic acid decreased in
      the L. obtusa culture medium. In conclusion, it was determined that the L. obtusa
      extract added to the development medium of S. cerevisiae caused differences in
      the synthesis of some vitamins and fatty acids.

PMID- 28886318
TI  - New insights into the expression profile of MicroRNA-34c and P53 in infertile men
      spermatozoa and testicular tissue.
AB  - Spermatogenesis is proliferation and differentiation processes of stem
      spermatogonia into mature spermatozoa controlled by the genes responsible for
      transcription and post transcription levels. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are  the key
      factors during gene expression in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional
      regulation. They play main roles in regulation of early and late spermatogenesis,
      and reproduction. In this study, we investigate the role of miRNAs in infertile
      males.The patients were assigned to five groups based on semen analysis (n=55),
      including normozoospermic (N), moderate oligoasthenoteratozoospermic (MOAT),
      severe oligoasthenoteratozoospermic (SOAT), obstructive azoospermia (OA) and non
      obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Quantitative RT-PCR was recruited to study the
      expression of miR-34c and tumor suppressor p53 gene. In addition, malondialdehyde
      (MDA) and DNA fragmentation was measured. Network analysis was performed using
      Pathway Studio web tool (Elsevier). Our results revealed statistically
      significant increased expression of miR-34c in moderate
      oligoasthenoteratozoospermic, non-obstructive azoospermia and an increased
      expression of p53 in MOAT, SOAT and NOA males. Also, the percentage of DNA
      fragmentation and oxidative stress was significantly higher in infertile groups
      (MOAT and SOAT) than other groups. These findings provide a novel molecular
      mechanism of gene regulation during cell-cycle and apoptosis in sperm, which
      gives a new regulatory insight into male infertility in terms of molecular
      diagnosis.

PMID- 28886319
TI  - Morphokinetic analysis of human embryo development and its relationship to the
      female age: a retrospective time-lapse imaging study.
AB  - Time-lapse imaging technique has provided embryologists with a unique chance of
      studying the embryo morphokineticsto select the most viable embryos for
      implantation in the field of IVF (In vitro fertilization).The conventional method
      of morphological evaluations has proved that maternal age affects the human
      embryo quality. This retrospective study carried out at Islamabad Clinic Serving
      Infertile Couples, Islamabad, Pakistan mainly focuses on the effect of female age
      on human embryo morphokinetics. A total number of 200 patients undergoing ICSI
      treatment cycles at the clinic were selected for the study and divided into five
      age groups (< 26, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40, and > 40 years). Embryo culture was done
      at 37 degrees C, 6% CO2 and 5% oxygen for 5-6 days. Ten time-points were selected
      for kinetic analysis. The number of retrieved, matured, fertilized and cleaved
      oocytes showed highly significant difference (P<= 0.0001) when compared among
      different age groups. There was no significant difference in average
      morphokinetic time-points among young versus old women.Whereas timely cleaved
      embryos showed significant difference in tPNa i.e. time for pronuclear appearance
      (P<= 0.001), t4 and t5 i.e. time for 4 and 5-cell cleavage (P<= 0.05)among
      different age groups. The clinical pregnancy rates showed a decline with
      increasing age. These results indicate the effect of female age on time-lapse
      embryo morphokinetic parameters. In future the addition of time-lapse analysis in
      routine IVF can help to improve the success rate by selecting the most viable
      embryos for uterine transfer.

PMID- 28886320
TI  - Investigation of the irisin, preptin and adropin levels in the blood serum of
      Alburnus tarichi.
AB  - Irisin, preptin and adropin are three newly discovered peptides that play
      critical roles in regulating energy homeostasis in various vertebrates.The
      purposes of this study were to measure the serum concentrations of preptin,
      adropin and irisin in the Alburnus tarichi and to investigate the relationship of
      these peptides to the weight, gender and length of this the fish, which will
      provide useful information for future biotechnology purposes aimed at
      improvements in aquaculture production. This study used 12 adult A. tarichi (6
      female and 6 male) obtained from Van Lake (Van, Turkey). The serum irisin,
      preptin and adropin levels were measured using a commercially available enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit to determine correlations between the
      levels of these three hormones and fish body weight and length.  No statistically
      significant correlations were detected between the serum irisin, adropin and
      preptin levels and A. tarichi body weight (p = 0.921, r = -0.031; p = 0.08, r =
      0.519; p = 0.461, r = -0.235, respectively) or length (p = 0.901, r = -0.040; p =
      0.105, r = 0.490; p = 0.236, r = -0.369, respectively).Thus, serum levels of
      these hormones are independent of fish gender, body weight and length.

PMID- 28886321
TI  - Relationship between MCP1 (-2518A>G) gene variants and ovarian cancer in Turkish
      population.
AB  - The monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) gene polymorphism(-2518A>G)  in
      the regulatory region of the MCP-1 protein has been reported to be associated
      with cancer risk. In this study we aimed to investigate the relationship of MCP-1
      (-2518A>G) gene polymorphism and ovarian cancer. MCP-1 genotyping was performed
      using polymerase chain reaction from blood samples ofovarian cancer patient
      (n=56) and a control groups (n=52).There was a significant difference in MCP1 (
      2518A>G) genotypes between the patient and control groups (p=0.049; x2=6.042). AA
      carriers were significantly higher in the control group (p=0.014) whereas AG
      genotype and G allele carriers were significantly higher in the ovarian cancer
      group (p=0.029, p=0.014, respectively). This study suggests that MCP-1 (-2518A>G)
      AG genotype and G allele could be considered as risk factor for susceptibility to
      ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28886322
TI  - Carnosol inhibits Hedgehog signaling pathway in both LNCaP and DU145 prostate
      cancer cell lines.
AB  - To investigate the effect of carnosol on the Hedgehog (HH) signaling pathway in
      human hormone-dependent prostate cancer cell line LNCaP and hormone-independent
      prostate cancer cell line DU145. The expression levels of glioma-associated
      oncogene homolog 1 (Gli1) and Sonic hedgehog (Shh) in human prostate cancer
      tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. After treated with carnosol (0.25
      16 MUmol/L), the cell survival of LNCaP and DU145 cells were detected by MTT
      assay. The expression levels of Gli1 and Shh mRNA and protein in the two cells
      were detected by qRT-PCR and western blot, respectively. The apoptosis was
      determined by the caspase-3 activity assay. Results showed that Shh and Gli1 were
      upregulated in cancer tissues. The inhibitory effect of carnosol on cell survival
      was enhanced with concentration, suggesting both LNCaP and DU145 cells were
      sensitive to carnosol. The inhibitory effects of carnosol on Gli1 and Shh mRNAs
      in the hormone-dependent LNCaP prostate cancer cell was stronger than that in the
      hormone-independent DU145 prostate cancer cells. Carnosol downregulated the
      expression of Gli1 in nucleus, and Shh in cells. Greater carnosol concentration
      resulted in lower levels of Gli1 and Shh. Carnosol increased caspase-3 activity
      in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that carnosol promotes cell apoptosis.
      Thus, carnosol can inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of prostate
      cancer cells in vitro, and its mechanism might be associated with the inhibiting
      of HH signaling pathway. Although the inhibitory effect of carnosol on hormone
      dependent LNCaP prostate cancer cells is stronger than hormone-independent DU145
      prostate cancer cells, carnosol might be a potential drug for hormone-independent
      prostate cancer.

PMID- 28886323
TI  - Genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of Alternanthera Bettzickiana, an important
      ethno-medicinal plant.
AB  - The present study was carried out to investigate the mutagenic and cytotoxic
      potential of n-hexane and aqueous-methanolic whole plant extracts of
      Alternanthera bettzickiana. Aqueous-methanolic and n-hexane extracts of
      Alternanthera bettzickiana extracts were assessed for the mutagenic potential
      with Salmonella tester strains TA-100 and TA-102 in the presence and absence of
      the rodent enzyme activation system and cytotoxic potential was assessed by MTT
      assay. Aqueous-methanolic extract showed the presence of saponins, tannins,
      terpenoids, flavonoids and glycosides. However n-hexane extract revealed the
      presence of tannins and terpenoids only. It was found that a concentration as low
      as 15mg/mL of both extracts was more mutagenic to the TA 102 tester strain than
      TA-100. Hexane whole plant extract of Altenanthera bettzickiana was more
      mutagenic than aqueous-methanolic extract considering revertant colonies of TA
      100 strain. Aqueous-methanolic and n-hexane whole plant extracts of Altenanthera
      bettzickiana showed higher mutagenic potential in the presence of the enzyme
      activation system. Mutagenicity of aqueous-methanolic extract increased with an
      enzyme activation system in case of TA 100 whereas mutagenicity of n-hexane
      extract decreased in the presence of the enzyme activation system with TA 100 and
      TA 102 strains. Aqueous-methanolic and n-Hexane whole plant extracts of
      Alternanthera bettzickiana showed an IC-50 of 493 and 456 ug/mL in BHK-21 cells
      respectively. It can be concluded that Altenanthera bettzickiana exhibited
      mutagenic activity in a bacterial reverse mutation assay with and without enzyme
      activation systems. However, it showed limited cytotoxicity to BHK-21 cells.

PMID- 28886324
TI  - Atypical bacterial etiology of acute respiratory infections and clinical
      characterizations among Iranian children.
AB  - Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in children younger than 5 years of age are
      one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, particularly in developing
      countries. Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae are prevalent
      causative agents of ARIs, worldwide. We sought M. pneumoniae and C. pneumoniae in
      respiratory samples from Iranian children with ARIs.  From November 2014 to April
      2015, respiratory samples of 150 children aged 1 month to 15 years old were
      screened for presence of M. pneumoniae and C. pneumoniae. Polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR) and culture methods were used to detect these bacteria in
      respiratory samples in the form of throat swabs and nasopharyngeal aspirates. A
      questionnaire containing demographic and clinical information has been filled up
      for all participants in this study. Our obtained data showed that out of 150
      tested samples, 7 (4.7%) were PCR positive for M. pneumoniae and only one (0.7%)
      positive sample for C. pneumoniae was detected. However, none of the tested
      samples was detected M. pneumoniae using the bacterial culture method. All
      patients with ARIs due to M. pneumoniae showed up with sore throat and flu like
      symptoms. According to our data, PCR method is more sensitive than culture for
      detection of M. pneumoniae. With regards to our results, it appears that M.
      pneumoniae and especially C. pneumoniae were infrequent causative agents in our
      studied population.

PMID- 28886325
TI  - Nullification of aspirin induced gastrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity by prior
      administration of wheat germ oil in Mus musculus: histopathological,
      ultrastructural and molecular studies.
AB  - Aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid) is used worldwide to treat various inflammatory
      conditions and prevent cardiovascular disease, along with reducing the risk of
      cancer. However, administration of aspirin causes toxic effects, especially in
      the stomach and liver. Thus, our study examined the protective effect of wheat
      germ oil on aspirin-induced toxicity in the stomach and liver tissues of Swiss
      albino mice. Administration of wheat germ oil before aspirin has restored normal
      hepatic and gastric tissue architecture and DNA integrity has become better than
      that of a negative health control group compared with the aspirin only treated
      group. The elevated gastric nitric oxide content in the aspirin only treated
      group was significantly decreased by wheat germ oil prior administration as a
      result of reduced the expression of inducible nitric synthase and increased the
      expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase compared to their expression in
      the aspirin administered group. Wheat germ oil pre-administration significantly
      reduced the level of malondialdehyde, increased the level of glutathione and
      catalase and superoxide dismutase activities compared with those in aspirin only
      treated group. We conclude that wheat germ oil has a potential protective effect
      against aspirin induced gastro- and hepato-toxicity because of its free radical
      scavenging ability.

PMID- 28886326
TI  - miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism might be associated with coronary artery disease
      risk in Asians.
AB  - Recently, several studies reported the association between miR-146a rs2910164
      polymorphism and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. However, the results were
      inconclusive. We therefore did a meta-analysis to investigate this association.
      Electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, and China National Knowledge
      Infrastructure (CNKI) databases, were searched. The strength of association was
      assessed by calculating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Five
      eligible studies included in this meta-analysis. The total sample size of this
      meta-analysis was 1565 cases and 1541 controls. We found that miR-146a rs2910164
      polymorphism was significantly associated with an increased CAD risk (OR = 1.19;
      95% CI 1.07 - 1.32; P = 0.002). In the subgroup analysis by race, miR-146a
      rs2910164 polymorphism was significantly associated with an increased CAD risk in
      Asians (OR = 1.18; 95% CI 1.04 - 1.33; P = 0.008). However, we did not find
      significant result in Caucasians (OR = 1.22; 95% CI 0.86 - 1.74; P = 0.25). In
      the subgroup analysis by age, we found that miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism
      increased CAD risk in old population (OR = 1.22; 95% CI 1.09 - 1.38; P = 0.0008).
      In conclusion, this meta-analysis found that miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism was
      significantly associated with CAD risk.

PMID- 28886327
TI  - Association between platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and overall survival (OS)
      of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): A meta-analysis.
AB  - Some studies investigated the association between platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio
      (PLR) and the survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the results
      remained inconclusive. Thus, we performed this meta-analysis. Published studies
      were searched in PubMed and EMBASE. The strength of association was assessed by
      calculating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). In total, 6
      studies with 1446 HCC patients were included in this meta-analysis. HCC with
      higher PLR showed an increased death risk (OR = 1.59; 95%CI, 1.15-2.20; P <
      0.0001). However, the heterogeneity was high (I2=89.2%). When the study by Li et
      al. was excluded, the heterogeneity decreased (I2=20%). Further, the result was
      still positive (OR = 1.70; 95%CI, 1.42-2.04; P < 0.00001). In conclusion, this
      meta-analysis suggested that PLR was significantly associated with the OS of HCC.

PMID- 28886328
TI  - Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) I/D polymorphism is a risk factor of allergic
      rhinitis.
AB  - Some previous studies and meta-analysis investigated the association between ACE
      I/D polymorphism and allergic rhinitis risk. However, the results were
      conflicting. This meta-analysis, therefore, was performed to evaluate the
      association between ACE I/D polymorphism and allergic rhinitis risk. Online
      electronic databases (PubMed and EMBASE) were searched. The strength was
      evaluated by calculating the OR and 95% CI. Five studies were finally included in
      this meta-analysis. These studies included 681 cases and 629 controls. ACE I/D
      polymorphism was significantly associated with allergic rhinitis risk (OR = 1.17;
      95% CI 1.07 - 1.29; P = 0.001). In the subgroup analysis of race, Asians showed
      the increased allergic rhinitis risk (OR = 1.15; 95% CI 1.02 - 1.30; P = 0.03).
      In a stratified analysis by age, adults with ACE I/D polymorphism showed the
      increased allergic rhinitis risk (OR = 1.16; 95% CI 1.04 - 1.29; P = 0.006).
      However, children did not have the significantly increased allergic rhinitis risk
      (OR = 1.24; 95% CI 0.99 - 1.56; P = 0.06). In conclusion, this meta-analysis
      indicated that ACE I/D polymorphism was significantly associated with allergic
      rhinitis risk.

PMID- 28886329
TI  - A case of IgG4-related retroperitoneal fibrosis with multiple involvement.
AB  - To increase awareness of IgG4-related retroperitoneal fibrosis (IgG4-RRPF) and
      reduce clinical misdiagnosis. We report a 79-year-old man with multiple organs
      involvement of IgG4-RRPF, who developed right lower extremity edema, hemoptysis
      and fever. The abdomen computed tomography (CT) scan image showed lymph nodes
      enlargement. The positron emission tomography/CT scan image showed pancreatic
      malignancy with multiple nodal lymph node metastasis, lung fibroblast
      proliferation, and right lung apex bullae. The chest CT scan image showed
      pulmonary multiple lymph nodes with calcification in the mediastinum. Posterior
      peritoneum magnetic resonance imaging showed the body and tail of the pancreas
      parenchymatous mass. The serum IgG4 concentration was high. The fibrous
      connective tissue with IgG4-positive plasma cells infiltration in the left
      supraclavicular lymph node biopsy was found. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy showed
      diffuse alveolar hemorrhage, and the transbronchial lung biopsy found no cancer
      cells. The patient was treated with glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive agents.
      After 2 months treatment, the patient showed rapid improvement. This is a case of
      IgG4-RRPF with multiple organs involvement. Glucocorticoid is the first-line
      treatment.

PMID- 28886330
TI  - Cornelia de lange syndrome with thyroid agenesis of an indonesian patient.
AB  - Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLs), which is also called Brachmann de Lange
      syndrome, is a congenital disorder characterized by distinctive facial features,
      prenatal and postnatal growth deficiency, feeding difficulties, psychomotor
      delay, behavioral problems, and associated malformations that mainly involve the
      upper extremities. The prevalence ranges from 1:100,000 to as high as 1:10,000.
      Most cases (50-60%) were carried mutation in NIPBL gene. To our knowledge this is
      the first CdLs Indonesian case that reported with molecular analysis study. We
      present an 11 months old female Indonesian patient with classic CdLs with
      congenital hypothyroid. Genetics studies were performed in intron 1, exon 2, exon
      10 and exon 22 of NIPBL gene. Thyroid studies (T3, T4, TSH and thyroid scan) were
      performed. Low level of T3 and T4, and high level of TSH were observed. Thyroid
      agenesis was found in thyroid scan examination. We detected thyroid agenesis
      which has been never reported in CdLs patients. We could not find any mutation in
      intron 1, exon 2, exon 10 and exon 22 of NIPBL gene. Further genetics
      examinations were necessary whether there is mutation in other locus.

PMID- 28886331
TI  - Towards carborane-functionalised structures for the treatment of brain cancer.
AB  - Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a promising targeted
      chemoradiotherapeutic technique for the management of invasive brain tumors, such
      as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). A prerequisite for effective BNCT is the
      selective targeting of tumour cells with 10B-rich therapeutic moieties. To this
      end, polyhedral boranes, especially carboranes, have received considerable
      attention because they combine a high boron content with relative low toxicity
      and metabolic inertness. Here, we review progress in the molecular design of
      recently investigated carborane derivatives in light of the widely accepted
      performance requirements for effective BNCT.

PMID- 28886332
TI  - Evolving Models of Heterochromatin: From Foci to Liquid Droplets.
AB  - Two recent papers (Larson et al., 2017; Strom et al., 2017) in Nature propose
      that heterochromatic domains are organized into phase-separated liquid
      compartments. Here we highlight the main findings that support the liquid-like
      nature of HP1 domains and discuss their functional implications in gene silencing
      and genome organization.

PMID- 28886333
TI  - Mammalian Circadian Cogwheels Are Parts of Macromolecular Machines.
AB  - In this issue of Molecular Cell, two papers address the biochemical structure of
      a large protein complex containing components of the mammalian circadian clock
      (Aryal et al., 2017) and a mechanism rendering this molecular timekeeper
      temperature-compensated (Shinohara et al., 2017).

PMID- 28886334
TI  - New Insights into Genome Structure: Genes of a Feather Stick Together.
AB  - DNA structuring proteins such as CTCF facilitate DNA loop formation and are
      presumed to be among the major determinants of eukaryotic genome structure.
      Recent studies, including Rowley et al. (2017), suggest that gene activation and
      repression play fundamentally important roles in structuring the genome
      independently of CTCF.

PMID- 28886335
TI  - Macromolecular Assemblies of the Mammalian Circadian Clock.
AB  - The mammalian circadian clock is built on a feedback loop in which PER and CRY
      proteins repress their own transcription. We found that in mouse liver nuclei all
      three PERs, both CRYs, and Casein Kinase-1delta (CK1delta) are present together
      in an ~1.9-MDa repressor assembly that quantitatively incorporates its CLOCK
      BMAL1 transcription factor target. Prior to incorporation, CLOCK-BMAL1 exists in
      an ~750-kDa complex. Single-particle electron microscopy (EM) revealed nuclear
      PER complexes purified from mouse liver to be quasi-spherical ~40-nm structures.
      In the cytoplasm, PERs, CRYs, and CK1delta were distributed into several
      complexes of ~0.9-1.1 MDa that appear to constitute an assembly pathway regulated
      by GAPVD1, a cytoplasmic trafficking factor. Single-particle EM of two purified
      cytoplasmic PER complexes revealed ~20-nm and ~25-nm structures, respectively,
      characterized by flexibly tethered globular domains. Our results define the
      macromolecular assemblies comprising the circadian feedback loop and provide an
      initial structural view of endogenous eukaryotic clock machinery.

PMID- 28886336
TI  - Temperature-Sensitive Substrate and Product Binding Underlie Temperature
      Compensated Phosphorylation in the Clock.
AB  - Temperature compensation is a striking feature of the circadian clock. Here we
      investigate biochemical mechanisms underlying temperature-compensated, CKIdelta
      dependent multi-site phosphorylation in mammals. We identify two mechanisms for
      temperature-insensitive phosphorylation at higher temperature: lower substrate
      affinity to CKIdelta-ATP complex and higher product affinity to CKIdelta-ADP
      complex. Inhibitor screening of ADP-dependent phosphatase activity of CKIdelta
      identified aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) as a temperature-sensitive kinase
      activator. Docking simulation of ATA and mutagenesis experiment revealed
      K224D/K224E mutations in CKIdelta that impaired product binding and temperature
      compensated primed phosphorylation. Importantly, K224D mutation shortens
      behavioral circadian rhythms and changes the temperature dependency of SCN's
      circadian period. Interestingly, temperature-compensated phosphorylation was
      evolutionary conserved in yeast. Molecular dynamics simulation and X-ray
      crystallography demonstrate that an evolutionally conserved CKI-specific domain
      around K224 can provide a structural basis for temperature-sensitive substrate
      and product binding. Surprisingly, this domain can confer temperature
      compensation on a temperature-sensitive TTBK1. These findings suggest the
      temperature-sensitive substrate- and product-binding mechanisms underlie
      temperature compensation.

PMID- 28886338
TI  - Hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions and unplanned
      readmissions among Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer's disease and related
      dementias (ADRDs) may have more potentially avoidable hospitalizations and
      readmissions than people without dementia. These hospitalizations may be
      indicative of access barriers, problems in continuity of care, inefficient
      resource use, and poor patient outcomes. METHODS: We examined national frequency
      and costs of ambulatory care sensitive condition hospitalizations and unplanned,
      all-cause, and condition-specific 30-day readmissions in >2.7 million fee-for
      service ADRD patients using 2013 Medicare claims data. RESULTS: In 2013, 410,000
      Medicare ADRD patients had ambulatory care sensitive condition hospitalizations
      or unplanned 30-day readmissions costing $4.7 billion. One in 10 ADRD patients
      were hospitalized for a potentially avoidable condition. Almost one in five
      hospitalized ADRD patients had an unplanned 30-day readmission. Readmission rates
      were highest among ADRD patients initially hospitalized for heart failure (22%)
      and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (21%). DISCUSSION: Our findings may
      suggest potential deficiencies in ambulatory care and postdischarge care related
      to managing comorbidities among Medicare fee-for-service ADRD patients.

PMID- 28886337
TI  - Replication Fork Slowing and Reversal upon DNA Damage Require PCNA
      Polyubiquitination and ZRANB3 DNA Translocase Activity.
AB  - DNA damage tolerance during eukaryotic replication is orchestrated by PCNA
      ubiquitination. While monoubiquitination activates mutagenic translesion
      synthesis, polyubiquitination activates an error-free pathway, elusive in
      mammals, enabling damage bypass by template switching. Fork reversal is driven in
      vitro by multiple enzymes, including the DNA translocase ZRANB3, shown to bind
      polyubiquitinated PCNA. However, whether this interaction promotes fork
      remodeling and template switching in vivo was unknown. Here we show that damage
      induced fork reversal in mammalian cells requires PCNA ubiquitination, UBC13, and
      K63-linked polyubiquitin chains, previously involved in error-free damage
      tolerance. Fork reversal in vivo also requires ZRANB3 translocase activity and
      its interaction with polyubiquitinated PCNA, pinpointing ZRANB3 as a key effector
      of error-free DNA damage tolerance. Mutations affecting fork reversal also
      induced unrestrained fork progression and chromosomal breakage, suggesting fork
      remodeling as a global fork slowing and protection mechanism. Targeting these
      fork protection systems represents a promising strategy to potentiate cancer
      chemotherapy.

PMID- 28886339
TI  - Longitudinal Study of Insomnia Symptoms Among Women During Perimenopause.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of insomnia symptoms among women during
      perimenopause and to examine differences in self-reported insomnia symptoms at
      different stages of perimenopause over 10 years. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of
      self-reported sleep symptoms and clinical variables using 10 years of publicly
      available data from the Study of Women Across the Nation (SWAN). SETTING: The
      data set of women's insomnia symptoms was obtained from publicly available data
      from the SWAN. The parent study settings included Detroit, Michigan; Northern New
      Jersey; Los Angeles, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and
      Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS: Multiethnic midlife women with a mean age
      of 46 years (N = 3,302) categorized as pre- and perimenopausal at baseline.
      METHODS: Dependent variables included self-reported insomnia symptoms: difficulty
      falling asleep (sleep latency), wake after sleep onset, early morning awakenings,
      and sleep quality. Descriptive analysis was completed for each 1-year study
      interval. Repeated measures logistic regression was used to identify whether
      insomnia symptoms changed over time by stage of perimenopause. RESULTS: Insomnia
      symptoms were present in 31% to 42% of perimenopausal women at any 1-year study
      interval. Insomnia symptoms were more prevalent in the late stage of
      perimenopause than the early stage (p < .001). The odds of having any insomnia
      symptoms were 1.3 times greater for women in the late stage of perimenopause than
      in the early stage (95% confidence interval [1.2, 1.5], p < .001). CONCLUSION:
      Insomnia symptoms are prevalent in women transitioning to menopause, and stage of
      perimenopause may heighten the risk to develop symptoms of insomnia disorder,
      which is associated with negative cardiometabolic outcomes.

PMID- 28886340
TI  - Variant Interpretation: Functional Assays to the Rescue.
AB  - Classical genetic approaches for interpreting variants, such as case-control or
      co-segregation studies, require finding many individuals with each variant.
      Because the overwhelming majority of variants are present in only a few living
      humans, this strategy has clear limits. Fully realizing the clinical potential of
      genetics requires that we accurately infer pathogenicity even for rare or private
      variation. Many computational approaches to predicting variant effects have been
      developed, but they can identify only a small fraction of pathogenic variants
      with the high confidence that is required in the clinic. Experimentally measuring
      a variant's functional consequences can provide clearer guidance, but individual
      assays performed only after the discovery of the variant are both time and
      resource intensive. Here, we discuss how multiplex assays of variant effect
      (MAVEs) can be used to measure the functional consequences of all possible
      variants in disease-relevant loci for a variety of molecular and cellular
      phenotypes. The resulting large-scale functional data can be combined with
      machine learning and clinical knowledge for the development of "lookup tables" of
      accurate pathogenicity predictions. A coordinated effort to produce, analyze, and
      disseminate large-scale functional data generated by multiplex assays could be
      essential to addressing the variant-interpretation crisis.

PMID- 28886341
TI  - CDK10 Mutations in Humans and Mice Cause Severe Growth Retardation, Spine
      Malformations, and Developmental Delays.
AB  - In five separate families, we identified nine individuals affected by a
      previously unidentified syndrome characterized by growth retardation, spine
      malformation, facial dysmorphisms, and developmental delays. Using homozygosity
      mapping, array CGH, and exome sequencing, we uncovered bi-allelic loss-of
      function CDK10 mutations segregating with this disease. CDK10 is a protein kinase
      that partners with cyclin M to phosphorylate substrates such as ETS2 and PKN2 in
      order to modulate cellular growth. To validate and model the pathogenicity of
      these CDK10 germline mutations, we generated conditional-knockout mice.
      Homozygous Cdk10-knockout mice died postnatally with severe growth retardation,
      skeletal defects, and kidney and lung abnormalities, symptoms that partly
      resemble the disease's effect in humans. Fibroblasts derived from affected
      individuals and Cdk10-knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) proliferated
      normally; however, Cdk10-knockout MEFs developed longer cilia. Comparative
      transcriptomic analysis of mutant and wild-type mouse organs revealed lipid
      metabolic changes consistent with growth impairment and altered ciliogenesis in
      the absence of CDK10. Our results document the CDK10 loss-of-function phenotype
      and point to a function for CDK10 in transducing signals received at the primary
      cilia to sustain embryonic and postnatal development.

PMID- 28886342
TI  - A Genome-wide Association Study of Dupuytren Disease Reveals 17 Additional
      Variants Implicated in Fibrosis.
AB  - Individuals with Dupuytren disease (DD) are commonly seen by physicians and
      surgeons across multiple specialties. It is an increasingly common and disabling
      fibroproliferative disorder of the palmar fascia, which leads to flexion
      contractures of the digits, and is associated with other tissue-specific
      fibroses. DD affects between 5% and 25% of people of European descent and is the
      most common inherited disease of connective tissue. We undertook the largest GWAS
      to date in individuals with a surgically validated diagnosis of DD from the UK,
      with replication in British, Dutch, and German individuals. We validated
      association at all nine previously described signals and discovered 17 additional
      variants with p <= 5 * 10-8. As a proof of principle, we demonstrated correlation
      of the high-risk genotype at the statistically most strongly associated variant
      with decreased secretion of the soluble WNT-antagonist SFRP4, in surgical
      specimen-derived DD myofibroblasts. These results highlight important pathways
      involved in the pathogenesis of fibrosis, including WNT signaling, extracellular
      matrix modulation, and inflammation. In addition, many associated loci contain
      genes that were hitherto unrecognized as playing a role in fibrosis, opening up
      new avenues of research that may lead to novel treatments for DD and fibrosis
      more generally. DD represents an ideal human model disease for fibrosis research.

PMID- 28886343
TI  - Dominant Mutations in GRM1 Cause Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 44.
AB  - The metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluR1) is abundantly expressed in the
      mammalian central nervous system, where it regulates intracellular calcium
      homeostasis in response to excitatory signaling. Here, we describe heterozygous
      dominant mutations in GRM1, which encodes mGluR1, that are associated with
      distinct disease phenotypes: gain-of-function missense mutations, linked in two
      different families to adult-onset cerebellar ataxia, and a de novo truncation
      mutation resulting in a dominant-negative effect that is associated with juvenile
      onset ataxia and intellectual disability. Crucially, the gain-of-function
      mutations could be pharmacologically modulated in vitro using an existing FDA
      approved drug, Nitazoxanide, suggesting a possible avenue for treatment, which is
      currently unavailable for ataxias.

PMID- 28886344
TI  - A Recurrent Missense Mutation in ZP3 Causes Empty Follicle Syndrome and Female
      Infertility.
AB  - Empty follicle syndrome (EFS) is defined as the failure to aspirate oocytes from
      mature ovarian follicles during in vitro fertilization. Except for some cases
      caused by pharmacological or iatrogenic problems, the etiology of EFS remains
      enigmatic. In the present study, we describe a large family with a dominant
      inheritance pattern of female infertility characterized by recurrent EFS. Genome
      wide linkage analyses and whole-exome sequencing revealed a paternally
      transmitted heterozygous missense mutation of c.400 G>A (p.Ala134Thr) in zona
      pellucida glycoprotein 3 (ZP3). The same mutation was identified in an unrelated
      EFS pedigree. Haplotype analysis revealed that the disease allele of these two
      families came from different origins. Furthermore, in a cohort of 21 cases of
      EFS, two were also found to have the ZP3 c.400 G>A mutation. Immunofluorescence
      and histological analysis indicated that the oocytes of the EFS female had
      degenerated and lacked the zona pellucida (ZP). ZP3 is a major component of the
      ZP filament. When mutant ZP3 was co-expressed with wild-type ZP3, the interaction
      between wild-type ZP3 and ZP2 was markedly decreased as a result of the binding
      of wild-type ZP3 and mutant ZP3, via dominant negative inhibition. As a result,
      the assembly of ZP was impeded and the communication between cumulus cells and
      the oocyte was prevented, resulting in oocyte degeneration. These results
      identified a genetic basis for EFS and oocyte degeneration and, moreover, might
      pave the way for genetic diagnosis of infertile females with this phenotype.

PMID- 28886347
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28886346
TI  - In Memoriam-Lawrence Lumeng, MD: Researcher, Clinician, Leader, Mentor, Family
      Man, and Friend.

PMID- 28886348
TI  - Personalized Treatment of Vesicoureteral Reflux-Where are We Now?

PMID- 28886345
TI  - RAC1 Missense Mutations in Developmental Disorders with Diverse Phenotypes.
AB  - RAC1 is a widely studied Rho GTPase, a class of molecules that modulate numerous
      cellular functions essential for normal development. RAC1 is highly conserved
      across species and is under strict mutational constraint. We report seven
      individuals with distinct de novo missense RAC1 mutations and varying degrees of
      developmental delay, brain malformations, and additional phenotypes. Four
      individuals, each harboring one of c.53G>A (p.Cys18Tyr), c.116A>G (p.Asn39Ser),
      c.218C>T (p.Pro73Leu), and c.470G>A (p.Cys157Tyr) variants, were microcephalic,
      with head circumferences between -2.5 to -5 SD. In contrast, two individuals with
      c.151G>A (p.Val51Met) and c.151G>C (p.Val51Leu) alleles were macrocephalic with
      head circumferences of +4.16 and +4.5 SD. One individual harboring a c.190T>G
      (p.Tyr64Asp) allele had head circumference in the normal range. Collectively, we
      observed an extraordinary spread of ~10 SD of head circumferences orchestrated by
      distinct mutations in the same gene. In silico modeling, mouse fibroblasts
      spreading assays, and in vivo overexpression assays using zebrafish as a
      surrogate model demonstrated that the p.Cys18Tyr and p.Asn39Ser RAC1 variants
      function as dominant-negative alleles and result in microcephaly, reduced
      neuronal proliferation, and cerebellar abnormalities in vivo. Conversely, the
      p.Tyr64Asp substitution is constitutively active. The remaining mutations are
      probably weakly dominant negative or their effects are context dependent. These
      findings highlight the importance of RAC1 in neuronal development. Along with
      TRIO and HACE1, a sub-category of rare developmental disorders is emerging with
      RAC1 as the central player. We show that ultra-rare disorders caused by private,
      non-recurrent missense mutations that result in varying phenotypes are
      challenging to dissect, but can be delineated through focused international
      collaboration.

PMID- 28886350
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28886352
TI  - Benchmarking: An Effective Tool to Demystify the Academic Career.

PMID- 28886351
TI  - Does Dexamethasone Facilitate Neurosensory Function Regeneration After Zygomatic
      Fracture? A Randomized Controlled Trial.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study sought to clarify the rate of neurosensory disturbance (NSD)
      after zygomatic complex fractures in general, as well as the effect of
      perioperatively administered dexamethasone on neurosensory recovery. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: This was a single-blinded randomized study aiming to clarify the
      benefits of perioperative dexamethasone after surgery. The patients were randomly
      assigned either to receive dexamethasone (up to a total dose of 10 or 30 mg) or
      to act as control patients (no glucocorticoid treatment). The outcome variable
      was NSD, the presence of which was established when patients had any sensory
      disturbance of the infraorbital nerve. Other predictor variables included in the
      analysis were age, gender, time span from accident to surgery, surgical approach
      to the fracture line, and relation of the fracture to the infraorbital foramen.
      The statistical significance of associations was evaluated with chi2 tests.
      RESULTS: We included 64 patients in the analyses. Of the patients in the
      dexamethasone group (either 10 or 30 mg), 58.3% had NSD at 6 months
      postoperatively, whereas in the control group, 66.7% of the patients had NSD.
      This finding was not statistically significant (P = .565). At the 1-month
      interval, the patients without a fracture through the infraorbital foramen had
      less NSD (P = .009); this finding was not significant at 3 and 6 months
      postoperatively. Age, gender, injury mechanism, surgical approach, and time span
      from accident to surgery were not significant predictors of NSD. In total, 64.4%
      of the patients still had NSD at 6 months postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: This
      study showed no benefits of short-term, high-dose dexamethasone administration in
      the neurosensory recovery of patients with zygomatic complex fractures. The type
      of primary trauma is the main cause of NSD, but the precise predictors remain
      unknown.

PMID- 28886353
TI  - Initial Manifestation of Acquired Hemophilia A After a Routine Tooth Extraction.
      A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - Although surgical treatment of patients on anticoagulation regimens is common
      practice among oral and maxillofacial surgeons, unexpected and unknown
      coagulopathies can have devastating and catastrophic consequences for the most
      routine of procedures. Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is an extremely rare life
      threatening bleeding disorder characterized by autoantibodies directed against
      circulating coagulation factor VIII. The effects of AHA can produce catastrophic
      bleeding and hematomas. The effect of this uncontrolled hemorrhage after
      dentoalveolar surgery can mimic severe head and neck infection by causing
      dysphagia, odynophagia, and acute airway complications. This report describes the
      case of a 64-year-old woman who was diagnosed with AHA after routine extraction
      of the mandibular left third molar.

PMID- 28886354
TI  - Closed Approach for Horizontal Augmentation of the Maxilla.
AB  - The narrow ridge in the anterior maxilla often requires horizontal augmentation
      for ideal implant placement. This article reviews the historical use of a closed,
      tunnel approach to augment deficient alveolar ridges and describes its
      application for augmentation of the narrow ridge in the anterior maxilla. The use
      of a tunnel approach through a vertical incision in the unattached mucosa
      provides access to the ridge while maintaining crestal attachments without
      displacement of the crestal attached gingiva. This approach is atraumatic and
      provides excellent access for placement of graft material for ridge augmentation.

PMID- 28886355
TI  - The Cervicofacial Flap in Cheek Reconstruction: A Guide for Flap Design.
AB  - PURPOSE: The cervicofacial (CF) flap is a random-pattern flap that provides an
      excellent match for cheek reconstruction. The design of the CF flap varies
      between different cheek subunits. In this report, the authors review their
      experience with this flap and present a guide for flap design for different cheek
      subunits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who had cheek reconstruction were
      screened using the database of the surgical procedures from 2011 to 2016. Seventy
      four patients were identified. Data on patient demographics, diagnosis, defect
      type, and outcome were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who did not have a
      clear description of the defect or flap design were excluded from the study. The
      authors divided the cheek into 3 zones and created a guide for flap design for
      each zone. RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients with CF flap for cheek reconstruction
      met the inclusion criteria (21 male [75%] and 7 female [25%]; mean age, 57 yr;
      range, 8 to 88 yr). Fifty-seven percent had zone A defects, 18% had zone B1
      defects, 14% had zone B2 defects, and 11% had multiple-zone defects. Mean follow
      up was 4.6 months (0 to 17 months). Ninety-three percent had a successful
      outcome. Only 2 patients developed wound complications. CONCLUSION: The CF flap
      is a versatile flap that provides excellent skin color, thickness, and texture
      match in cheek reconstruction. Planning the flap design is essential to achieve a
      good outcome. The present algorithm provides a straightforward method to reliably
      design the CF flap for cheek reconstruction.

PMID- 28886356
TI  - African Americans in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: Factors Affecting Career
      Choice, Satisfaction, and Practice Patterns.
AB  - PURPOSE: There are few data available on the experience of minority surgeons in
      the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS). Therefore, the purpose of this
      study was to 1) explore factors that contribute to African Americans choosing OMS
      as a career, 2) examine satisfaction among minority oral and maxillofacial
      surgeons with the residency application and training process, 3) report on
      practice patterns among minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons, and 4) identify
      perceived bias for or against minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons in an
      attempt to aid the efforts of OMS residency organizations to foster diversity.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 19-item survey was sent to 80 OMS practitioners by use
      of information from the mailing list of the National Society of Oral and
      Maxillofacial Surgeons, an American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial
      Surgeons-affiliated organization. All surveys were sent by mail and were followed
      by a reminder mailing after 8 weeks. Responses returned within 16 weeks were
      accepted for analysis. RESULTS: Of the 80 mailed surveys, 41 were returned within
      the 16-week parameter, representing a return rate of 51%. Most of the minority
      surgeon respondents were married men with a mean age of 60 years who worked as
      private practitioners. Most respondents practiced on the eastern and western
      coasts of the United States. Exposure in dental school was the most important
      factor in selecting OMS as a specialty. Location and prestige were the most
      important factors in selecting a residency program. Most respondents reported
      that race did not affect the success of their application to a residency program
      and did not currently affect the success of their practice. However, 25 to 46% of
      participants experienced race-related harassment, and 48 to 55% of participants
      believed there was a bias against African Americans in OMS. CONCLUSIONS: Our data
      suggest that a substantial number of minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons
      subjectively perceive race-based bias in their career, although it does not
      appear to affect professional success.

PMID- 28886357
TI  - A Retrospective Volume Matched Analysis of the Submental Artery Island Pedicled
      Flap as Compared to the Forearm Free Flap: Is It a Good Alternative Choice for
      the Reconstruction of Defects of the Oral Cavity and Oropharynx?
AB  - PURPOSE: The submental artery island pedicled flap (SMIF) is an underused
      alternative for reconstruction of head and neck defects after tumor ablation. The
      purpose of this study was to perform a comparative evaluation of reconstructive
      outcomes based on surgical site and ablative defect volume in patients who
      underwent reconstruction with the SMIF versus the forearm free flap (FFF).
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of all patients with oral
      cavity and oropharyngeal defects reconstructed with the SMIF and a cohort of
      patients with similar volume defects reconstructed with the FFF were compared for
      oncologic safety and viability of equivalent reconstructive outcomes. All
      statistical comparisons were assessed by analysis of variance and Fisher exact
      test. RESULTS: Average age was 61.8 years in the SMIF group versus 57.9 years in
      the FFF group. The most common defect was located in the tongue, with squamous
      cell carcinoma being the most common pathology identified. Flap volumes were
      similar (SMIF, 38.79 cm3; FFF, 39.77 cm3). Significant comparative outcomes
      identified with SMIF versus FFF reconstruction included shorter anesthesia times
      (815 vs 1,209 minutes; P < .001), shorter operative times (653 vs 1,031 minutes;
      P < .001), and less blood loss (223 vs 398 mL; P = .04). Postoperative Eastern Co
      operative Oncology Group performance score increased more for the FFF than for
      the SMIF group (+0.33 vs + 1.25; P = .0019). Recipient site complication rates
      were lower for the FFF group (0.17 vs 0.42 per patient) but were not
      statistically relevant. There were equal rates of recurrence at the local
      surgical site and no differences in speech and swallowing function. Mean follow
      up was 15.5 months. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to compare the SMIF with
      the FFF for reconstruction of oral cavity defects based on ablative volume
      deficit. The SMIF is a viable surgical option compared with the FFF that can be
      considered oncologically safe in the N0 neck, allowing for an excellent esthetic
      reconstruction, with decreased operative time, hospital stay, and donor site
      morbidity.

PMID- 28886358
TI  - Open Sesame: Open Chromatin Regions Shed Light onto Non-coding Risk Variants.
AB  - Human genetics and stem cell biology have advanced neurobiology for
      neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell,
      Forrest et al. (2017) demonstrate that studying the landscape of open chromatin
      regions in stem cell-derived neurons helps functional interpretation of non
      coding genetic variants associated with these diseases.

PMID- 28886359
TI  - The TREX1 Dinosaur Bites the Brain through the LINE.
AB  - In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Thomas et al. (2017) define the nature of
      accumulated ssDNA present in the neuron and astrocyte cytoplasm of TREX1 mutated
      stem cell-derived organoids. Accumulated ssDNAs are derived from LINE-1
      endogenous retroelements, providing new clues as to the development of Aicardi
      Goutieres syndrome in the neural system.

PMID- 28886360
TI  - Putting Two Heads Together to Build a Better Brain.
AB  - 3D organoids enable in vitro human brain development models, but they have not
      yet recapitulated some essential features of brain circuit formation. Recently,
      several studies appearing in Nature, Nature Methods, and Cell Stem Cell generated
      fused organoid models of inhibitory and excitatory neuron development, which can
      now achieve functional circuit integration.

PMID- 28886361
TI  - Survival of the Fittest: Darwinian Selection Underpins Chemotherapy Resistance in
      AML.
AB  - Intratumor heterogeneity driving therapeutic resistance is a major challenge in
      cancer management. Recently in Nature, Shlush et al. (2017) provide a tour de
      force of genomics coupled to functional assays to demonstrate that resistance
      emerges from a pre-existing subpopulation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells
      with a stem cell transcription program.

PMID- 28886362
TI  - Hypothalamic Neurons Take Center Stage in the Neural Stem Cell Niche.
AB  - Neural stem cells (NSCs) are a heterogeneous population of cells that generate
      new neurons in adult animals. Recently in Science, Paul et al. (2017) show that
      hypothalamic neurons control activation of a subset of NSCs in response to
      feeding, providing insights into how physiological cues may influence stem cell
      activation.

PMID- 28886363
TI  - CRISPR: Established Editor of Human Embryos?
AB  - Off-target effects and mosaicism are major concerns for applying CRISPR-Cas9 to
      correct genetic mutations. A recent article in Nature by Ma et al. (2017) uses an
      elegant CRISPR-Cas9 approach that repairs a genetic mutation in human embryos
      with negligible mosaicism and no off-target effects, bringing this editing tool
      closer to clinical application.

PMID- 28886364
TI  - Synergistic Engineering: Organoids Meet Organs-on-a-Chip.
AB  - Organoid technology and organ-on-a-chip engineering have emerged as two distinct
      approaches for stem cell-derived 3D tissue preparation. Their strategic
      integration can address each approach's limitations and provide a path toward a
      superior, synergistic strategy of constructing tissues that will truly deliver on
      the promise of regenerative and precision medicine.

PMID- 28886365
TI  - Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques: Remaining Ethical Challenges.
AB  - Recent developments in the field of mitochondrial replacement technique (MRT)
      research and clinical practice have raised ethical concerns worldwide. We argue
      that the future use of MRTs requires a concerted effort among the global research
      and clinical community to implement and enforce responsible innovation and
      governance.

PMID- 28886368
TI  - ASCL1 Reorganizes Chromatin to Direct Neuronal Fate and Suppress Tumorigenicity
      of Glioblastoma Stem Cells.

PMID- 28886366
TI  - MicroRNAs Induce a Permissive Chromatin Environment that Enables Neuronal Subtype
      Specific Reprogramming of Adult Human Fibroblasts.
AB  - Directed reprogramming of human fibroblasts into fully differentiated neurons
      requires massive changes in epigenetic and transcriptional states. Induction of a
      chromatin environment permissive for acquiring neuronal subtype identity is
      therefore a major barrier to fate conversion. Here we show that the brain
      enriched miRNAs miR-9/9* and miR-124 (miR-9/9*-124) trigger reconfiguration of
      chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and mRNA expression to induce a default
      neuronal state. miR-9/9*-124-induced neurons (miNs) are functionally excitable
      and uncommitted toward specific subtypes but possess open chromatin at neuronal
      subtype-specific loci, suggesting that such identity can be imparted by
      additional lineage-specific transcription factors. Consistently, we show that
      ISL1 and LHX3 selectively drive conversion to a highly homogeneous population of
      human spinal cord motor neurons. This study shows that modular synergism between
      miRNAs and neuronal subtype-specific transcription factors can drive lineage
      specific neuronal reprogramming, providing a general platform for high-efficiency
      generation of distinct subtypes of human neurons.

PMID- 28886367
TI  - A Modular Platform for Differentiation of Human PSCs into All Major Ectodermal
      Lineages.
AB  - Directing the fate of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into different
      lineages requires variable starting conditions and components with undefined
      activities, introducing inconsistencies that confound reproducibility and
      assessment of specific perturbations. Here we introduce a simple, modular
      protocol for deriving the four main ectodermal lineages from hPSCs. By precisely
      varying FGF, BMP, WNT, and TGFbeta pathway activity in a minimal, chemically
      defined medium, we show parallel, robust, and reproducible derivation of
      neuroectoderm, neural crest (NC), cranial placode (CP), and non-neural ectoderm
      in multiple hPSC lines, on different substrates independently of cell density. We
      highlight the utility of this system by interrogating the role of TFAP2
      transcription factors in ectodermal differentiation, revealing the importance of
      TFAP2A in NC and CP specification, and performing a small-molecule screen that
      identified compounds that further enhance CP differentiation. This platform
      provides a simple stage for systematic derivation of the entire range of
      ectodermal cell types.

PMID- 28886369
TI  - Two hybrid Au-ZnO aggregates with different hierarchical structures: A comparable
      study in photocatalysis.
AB  - Two hierarchical ZnO micro/nano-materials have been prepared by a short-time
      (45min) hydrothermal reaction without any surfactants. The different morphologies
      have been characterized comprehensively by XRD, SEM, TEM and XPS technologies.
      The hierarchical micro- and nano-structures are respectively consisted by the
      subordinate nano-pieces and nano-hexagonal-rods. Under the illumination of the
      simulated solar light, the nano-piece-aggregate spends 40min to degrade the 98%
      of rhodamine 6G solution (10-5mol/L), whereas the nano-rod-aggregate only
      degrades the 78% of the solution in the same condition. Moreover, the
      photocatalytic performances of the two ZnO aggregates are significantly improved
      by loading with Au nanoparticles (NPs) in the same assembly process. The nano
      piece-aggregate decorated with the Au NPs spends 24min to decompose the rhodamine
      6G solution completely, while nano-rod-aggregate decorated with the Au NPs needs
      28min. The related photocatalytic mechanisms are proposed in this paper.

PMID- 28886370
TI  - Synthesis of iron and copper cluster-grafted zinc oxide nanorod with enhanced
      visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity.
AB  - Design of visible-light-responsive photocatalyst employing simple and cost
      effective method is of great importance from commercial point of view. Herein, we
      report the synthesis of visible-light-sensitive ubiquitous nanoclusters of
      Fe3+/Cu2+-grafted ZnO nanorod using impregnation technique, which showed
      excellent photocatalytic activity towards the decomposition of Rhodamine B (RhB),
      4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and paracetamol in aqueous suspension under atmospheric
      oxygen. Fe-grafted ZnO nanorod exhibited pronounced effect for the degradation of
      the above-mentioned pollutants compared to pure ZnO and Cu-grafted ZnO nanorod.
      The better activity could be due to the more positive redox potential of surface
      grafted Fe3+ species resulting in the generation of more hydroxyl radicals
      thereby, leading to higher photodegradation rate.

PMID- 28886371
TI  - One-pot fabrication of reduced graphene oxide supported dendritic core-shell
      gold@gold-palladium nanoflowers for glycerol oxidation.
AB  - Herein, a one-pot wet-chemical route was used to prepare well-defined dendritic
      core-shell gold@gold-palladium nanoflowers supported on reduced graphene oxide
      (Au@AuPd NFs/rGO), using 2, 4-dihydroxypyridine (2, 4-DHP) asa new stabilizer and
      structure-director. Their morphology, size, composition, and crystal structure
      were characterized by a set of characterization techniques. Control experiments
      demonstrated that the molar ratio of the metal precursors and the dosage of 2,4
      DHP play essential roles in this synthesis. The growth mechanism of dendritic
      core-shell Au@AuPd nanoflowers was investigated in details. The synthesized
      branched architectures exhibited enlarged electrochemically active surface area
      (ECSA), improved catalytic properties, enhanced stability and durability toward
      glycerol oxidation in alkaline media when compared to the home-made Au26Pd74
      nanocrystals (NCs)/rGO and Au78Pd22 NCs/rGO, along with commercially available
      Pd/C catalyst.

PMID- 28886372
TI  - Bismuth oxide decorated graphene oxide nanocomposites synthesized via
      sonochemical assisted hydrothermal method for adsorption of cationic organic
      dyes.
AB  - Bismuth oxide decorated graphene oxide (Bi2O3@GO) nanocomposites were
      successfully synthesized by sonochemical method followed by hydrothermal
      treatment. The structural, morphology/microstructure and functional groups were
      investigated through X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron
      Microscopy (FESEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Fourier Transform
      Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. In the FESEM and TEM studies, well
      dispersed Bi2O3 nanoparticles of size 3-5nm were found uniformly distributed
      throughout the surface and edges of GO sheets. The HRTEM measurements on the
      Bi2O3 nanoparticle decorated graphene oxide shows imaged lattice spacing of 3.2A
      corresponding to (111) plane of Bi2O3 which confirms the successful synthesis of
      bismuth oxide decorated graphene oxide (Bi2O3@GO) nanocomposite. The synthesized
      nanocomposite was employed for adsorption and removal of cationic organic dyes
      like RhB from industrial wastewater. The effect of various parameters, viz.,
      contact time, temperature, pH and amount of adsorbent on the adsorption
      capability as well as dye removal capacity of the adsorbent was studied in
      detail. Under optimized conditions, like, contact time (65min), amount of
      adsorbent (5mg), temperature (35 degrees ) and pH (4), the adsorption capacity of
      GO and Bi2O3@GO were recorded and the percentage of removal was found to be 64%
      and 80.7% for GO and Bi2O3@GO, respectively. The Bi2O3@GO nanocomposite shows
      higher adsorption capacity (320mg/g) as compare to only GO (224mg/g). The
      adsorption isotherm follows both the Temkin as well as Langmuir isotherm having
      heat of sorption 65.88 with Langmuir constant of 13.13 corresponding to the
      complete monolayer coverage of 387.44mg/g. The adsorption kinetics also follow,
      both pseudo first order and intraparticle diffusion model with adsorption
      capacity of 84.91mg/g and intra particle diffusion rate constant of 10.53mg/g
      min1/2 for Bi2O3@GO nanocomposites. Our results suggest that the prepared
      Bi2O3@GO nanocomposites possess potential application as high-performance
      renewable adsorbent for removal of toxic dyes from wastewater.

PMID- 28886373
TI  - Global strain field mapping of a particle-laden interface using digital image
      correlation.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: The ability to identify the stress-strain relations correctly is
      critical to understanding and modeling any rheological responses of an interface.
      Langmuir-Pockels (LP) trough is one of the most commonly used tools for studying
      an interface. Most, if not all, existing studies assume a 1D uniaxial compression
      during a LP-trough compression experiment. It is hypothesized that the
      deformation field is far more complex than what is typically assumed.
      EXPERIMENTS: To examine this hypothesis, we custom-built a glass-bottomed LP
      trough equipped with a camera to capture a series of optical images asa carbon
      nanotube (CNT)-laden interface is compressed. A digital image correlation (DIC)
      technique was then applied to the images to evaluate the global strain field
      during compression of the CNT laden interface. The DIC-corrected strain data were
      subsequently analyzed with the surface stress data to quantify the surface shear
      and dilatational moduli of the CNT-laden interface. FINDINGS: Our experimental
      findings clearly show, for the first time, the development of a non-uniform and
      complex 2D strain field during compression. The local strains were further
      quantified and compared with the usual assumption of 1D uniaxial compression.
      Although the compressive strain averaged over the whole trough area closely
      resembles the 1D uniaxial compression strain, the 1D compression assumption
      underestimates the local strain by about 36% at the center of the trough, where
      the surface stresses are measured. This is the first study in applying the DIC
      technique to map out the global strain field asa particle-laden interface is
      compressed. The method may also be applicable to other systems with similar
      optical texture, allowing the correct identification of stress-strain
      relationship of an interface.

PMID- 28886374
TI  - Seeing DNA Where It Lives.
AB  - It's the stuff of life, and we're fascinated by DNA and how it's packaged into
      chromatin and compacted into chromosomes. Advances in looking at chromatin
      organization in cells are letting us see this polymer, its packing, and its
      function with fresh eyes.

PMID- 28886375
TI  - Barbara McClintock's Final Years as Nobelist and Mentor: A Memoir.
AB  - September 2, 2017, marks the 25th year after the passing of Dr. Barbara
      McClintock, geneticist and recipient of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
      Medicine for her discovery of transposable elements in maize. This memoir focuses
      on the last years of her life-after the prize-and includes personal recollections
      of how she mentored young scientists and inspired the age of genetics,
      epigenetics, and genomics.

PMID- 28886376
TI  - Converting Cold into Hot Tumors by Combining Immunotherapies.
AB  - In a small phase Ib study in this issue of Cell, Ribas et al. report that the
      combination of intralesional injection of a modified human herpes simplex virus
      and systemic anti-PD-1 treatment resulted in a 62% response rate in patients with
      metastatic melanoma, accompanied by enhanced T cell infiltration in virus
      injected lesions.

PMID- 28886377
TI  - Crowd Control: E7 Conservation Is the Key to Cancer.
AB  - Several human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) oncoproteins contribute to cellular
      transformation in vitro. In this issue of Cell, Mirabello and colleagues use high
      throughput sequencing data to assess the diversity of HPV16 isolates from human
      patients. These data suggest that the E7 oncoprotein is the fundamental
      contributor to in vivo carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28886378
TI  - Eukaryotic Sexual Reproduction Evoked "with a Little Help from My Friends".
AB  - Bacteria and eukaryotes interact in many ways-from the microbiome that educates
      the mammalian immune system and enhances nutrition to relationships that are
      commensal, symbiotic, or parasitic. Now in an unexpected twist, King and
      colleagues have expanded the repertoire of prokaryotic influence over eukaryotic
      physiology to include mating.

PMID- 28886379
TI  - Putting p53 in Context.
AB  - TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer. Functionally, p53 is
      activated by a host of stress stimuli and, in turn, governs an exquisitely
      complex anti-proliferative transcriptional program that touches upon a
      bewildering array of biological responses. Despite the many unveiled facets of
      the p53 network, a clear appreciation of how and in what contexts p53 exerts its
      diverse effects remains unclear. How can we interpret p53's disparate activities
      and the consequences of its dysfunction to understand how cell type, mutation
      profile, and epigenetic cell state dictate outcomes, and how might we restore its
      tumor-suppressive activities in cancer?

PMID- 28886380
TI  - NF-kappaB c-Rel Is Crucial for the Regulatory T Cell Immune Checkpoint in Cancer.
AB  - Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a pivotal role in the inhibition of anti-tumor
      immune responses. Understanding the mechanisms governing Treg homeostasis may
      therefore be important for development of effective tumor immunotherapy. We have
      recently demonstrated a key role for the canonical nuclear factor kappaB (NF
      kappaB) subunits, p65 and c-Rel, in Treg identity and function. In this report,
      we show that NF-kappaB c-Rel ablation specifically impairs the generation and
      maintenance of the activated Treg (aTreg) subset, which is known to be enriched
      at sites of tumors. Using mouse models, we demonstrate that melanoma growth is
      drastically reduced in mice lacking c-Rel, but not p65, in Tregs. Moreover,
      chemical inhibition of c-Rel function delayed melanoma growth by impairing aTreg
      mediated immunosuppression and potentiated the effects of anti-PD-1
      immunotherapy. Our studies therefore establish inhibition of NF-kappaB c-Rel as a
      viable therapeutic approach for enhancing checkpoint-targeting immunotherapy
      protocols.

PMID- 28886381
TI  - Oncolytic Virotherapy Promotes Intratumoral T Cell Infiltration and Improves Anti
      PD-1 Immunotherapy.
AB  - Here we report a phase 1b clinical trial testing the impact of oncolytic
      virotherapy with talimogene laherparepvec on cytotoxic T cell infiltration and
      therapeutic efficacy of the anti-PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab. Twenty-one patients
      with advanced melanoma were treated with talimogene laherparepvec followed by
      combination therapy with pembrolizumab. Therapy was generally well tolerated,
      with fatigue, fevers, and chills as the most common adverse events. No dose
      limiting toxicities occurred. Confirmed objective response rate was 62%, with a
      complete response rate of 33% per immune-related response criteria. Patients who
      responded to combination therapy had increased CD8+ T cells, elevated PD-L1
      protein expression, as well as IFN-gamma gene expression on several cell subsets
      in tumors after talimogene laherparepvec treatment. Response to combination
      therapy did not appear to be associated with baseline CD8+ T cell infiltration or
      baseline IFN-gamma signature. These findings suggest that oncolytic virotherapy
      may improve the efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy by changing the tumor
      microenvironment. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

PMID- 28886382
TI  - Distinct Mesenchymal Lineages and Niches Promote Epithelial Self-Renewal and
      Myofibrogenesis in the Lung.
AB  - The lung is an architecturally complex organ comprising a heterogeneous mixture
      of various epithelial and mesenchymal lineages. We use single-cell RNA sequencing
      and signaling lineage reporters to generate a spatial and transcriptional map of
      the lung mesenchyme. We find that each mesenchymal lineage has a distinct spatial
      address and transcriptional profile leading to unique niche regulatory functions.
      The mesenchymal alveolar niche cell is Wnt responsive, expresses Pdgfralpha, and
      is critical for alveolar epithelial cell growth and self-renewal. In contrast,
      the Axin2+ myofibrogenic progenitor cell preferentially generates pathologically
      deleterious myofibroblasts after injury. Analysis of the secretome and receptome
      of the alveolar niche reveals functional pathways that mediate growth and self
      renewal of alveolar type 2 progenitor cells, including IL-6/Stat3, Bmp, and Fgf
      signaling. These studies define the cellular and molecular framework of lung
      mesenchymal niches and reveal the functional importance of developmental pathways
      in promoting self-renewal versus a pathological response to tissue injury.

PMID- 28886383
TI  - Anatomically and Functionally Distinct Lung Mesenchymal Populations Marked by
      Lgr5 and Lgr6.
AB  - The diversity of mesenchymal cell types in the lung that influence epithelial
      homeostasis and regeneration is poorly defined. We used genetic lineage tracing,
      single-cell RNA sequencing, and organoid culture approaches to show that Lgr5 and
      Lgr6, well-known markers of stem cells in epithelial tissues, are markers of
      mesenchymal cells in the adult lung. Lgr6+ cells comprise a subpopulation of
      smooth muscle cells surrounding airway epithelia and promote airway
      differentiation of epithelial progenitors via Wnt-Fgf10 cooperation. Genetic
      ablation of Lgr6+ cells impairs airway injury repair in vivo. Distinct Lgr5+
      cells are located in alveolar compartments and are sufficient to promote alveolar
      differentiation of epithelial progenitors through Wnt activation. Modulating Wnt
      activity altered differentiation outcomes specified by mesenchymal cells. This
      identification of region- and lineage-specific crosstalk between epithelium and
      their neighboring mesenchymal partners provides new understanding of how
      different cell types are maintained in the adult lung.

PMID- 28886384
TI  - HPV16 E7 Genetic Conservation Is Critical to Carcinogenesis.
AB  - Although most cervical human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) infections become
      undetectable within 1-2 years, persistent HPV16 causes half of all cervical
      cancers. We used a novel HPV whole-genome sequencing technique to evaluate an
      exceptionally large collection of 5,570 HPV16-infected case-control samples to
      determine whether viral genetic variation influences risk of cervical precancer
      and cancer. We observed thousands of unique HPV16 genomes; very few women shared
      the identical HPV16 sequence, which should stimulate a careful re-evaluation of
      the clinical implications of HPV mutation rates, transmission, clearance, and
      persistence. In case-control analyses, HPV16 in the controls had significantly
      more amino acid changing variants throughout the genome. Strikingly, E7 was
      devoid of variants in precancers/cancers compared to higher levels in the
      controls; we confirmed this in cancers from around the world. Strict conservation
      of the 98 amino acids of E7, which disrupts Rb function, is critical for HPV16
      carcinogenesis, presenting a highly specific target for etiologic and therapeutic
      research.

PMID- 28886387
TI  - Golgi-Resident Galphao Promotes Protrusive Membrane Dynamics.

PMID- 28886385
TI  - Combinatorial Signal Perception in the BMP Pathway.
AB  - The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway comprises multiple ligands
      and receptors that interact promiscuously with one another and typically appear
      in combinations. This feature is often explained in terms of redundancy and
      regulatory flexibility, but it has remained unclear what signal-processing
      capabilities it provides. Here, we show that the BMP pathway processes multi
      ligand inputs using a specific repertoire of computations, including ratiometric
      sensing, balance detection, and imbalance detection. These computations operate
      on the relative levels of different ligands and can arise directly from
      competitive receptor-ligand interactions. Furthermore, cells can select different
      computations to perform on the same ligand combination through expression of
      alternative sets of receptor variants. These results provide a direct signal
      processing role for promiscuous receptor-ligand interactions and establish
      operational principles for quantitatively controlling cells with BMP ligands.
      Similar principles could apply to other promiscuous signaling pathways.

PMID- 28886386
TI  - Lis1 Has Two Opposing Modes of Regulating Cytoplasmic Dynein.
AB  - Regulation is central to the functional versatility of cytoplasmic dynein, a
      motor involved in intracellular transport, cell division, and neurodevelopment.
      Previous work established that Lis1, a conserved regulator of dynein, binds to
      its motor domain and induces a tight microtubule-binding state in dynein. The
      work we present here-a combination of biochemistry, single-molecule assays, and
      cryoelectron microscopy-led to the surprising discovery that Lis1 has two
      opposing modes of regulating dynein, being capable of inducing both low and high
      affinity for the microtubule. We show that these opposing modes depend on the
      stoichiometry of Lis1 binding to dynein and that this stoichiometry is regulated
      by the nucleotide state of dynein's AAA3 domain. The low-affinity state requires
      Lis1 to also bind to dynein at a novel conserved site, mutation of which disrupts
      Lis1's function in vivo. We propose a new model for the regulation of dynein by
      Lis1.

PMID- 28886388
TI  - SnapShot: Connexins and Disease.
AB  - The connexin family of membrane proteins enable gap junction formation and
      homeostasis, supporting communication between adjacent cells. This SnapShot
      highlights mutations in different connexins associated with human pathologies and
      how they affect gap junction function.

PMID- 28886389
TI  - Localized constrictive pericarditis compressing and obstructing the right
      ventricular inflow tract due to a giant anterior calcified cardiac mass. A case
      report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Localized pericardial constriction is a rare form of constrictive
      pericarditis CP. Depending on the CP location, clinical presentation may be
      variable, including compression and obstruction of right ventricular inflow
      tract(RVIT), coronary obstruction, or pulmonary stenosis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 72
      year-old man presented a 2-year history of dyspnea and atrial fibrillation. A
      contrast enhanced angio computerized tomography clearly demonstrated a large
      spherical mass about 11*9*4cm in the anterior pericardium, presenting as a
      mediastinal tumor causing compression and obstruction of the RVIT. The patient
      underwent surgical procedure. The outer calcified layer of the pericardial mass
      was a thick layer of calcification surrounding an inner amorphous low density
      material. The inferior calcified layer of the pericardial mass which was
      extremely adherent with the epicardium, was carefully excised, without employment
      of cardiopulmonary bypass, from the aorta and pulmonary artery origin to the
      diaphragm and all areas between the right and left phrenic nerves. The final
      diagnosis was idiopathic CP. DISCUSSION: The clinical presentation was due to
      right ventricular free wall compression and obstruction of the RVIT by a giant
      calcified anterior cardiac mass. The differential diagnosis with other calcified
      masses in the anterior mediastinum such as teratoma, hemopericardium after blunt
      trauma and idiopathic or tuberculous CP should be considered. CONCLUSION: Herein
      we report a very rare case with localized CP causing compression and obstruction
      of RVIT due to a giant anterior calcified cardiac mass, treated successfully with
      pericardectomy. Careful dissection is mandatory for a successful procedure.

PMID- 28886390
TI  - Vascularized fibular graft as a surgical option for osteosarcoma of distal
      humerus: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Distal humerus is a very rare predilection site of osteosarcoma.
      Limb salvage surgery has widely replaced amputation for surgical treatment of
      most types of malignant bone sarcomas. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We presented a 42
      years old male with rapidly growing osteosarcoma on his right distal humerus.
      After induction chemotherapy, wide excision and reconstruction using free
      vascularized fibular graft followed with interpositional elbow arthroplasty
      technique was done. DISCUSSION: One of the option for surgical treatment for
      distal humerus osteosarcoma is limb salvage sugery with free vascularized fibular
      graft technique. Good functional outcome and no signs of local recurrence were
      found during 2,5 years follow up. CONCLUSION: Free vascularized fibular graft
      with interpositional elbow arthroplasty is a good option for management of bone
      sarcoma of distal humerus.

PMID- 28886391
TI  - Combined pancreatic and duodenal transection injury: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Combined pancreatic-duodenal injuries in blunt abdominal trauma are
      rare. These injuries are associated with high morbidity and mortality, and their
      emergent management is a challenge. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of
      combined complete pancreatic (through the neck) and duodenal (first part)
      transections in a 24-year-old male secondary to blunt abdominal trauma following
      a motor vehicle crash. The duodenal stumps were closed separately and a
      gastrojejunostomy performed for intestinal continuity. The transacted head of
      pancreas main duct was suture ligated and parenchyma was over sewn and buttressed
      with omentum. The edge of the body and tail pancreatic segment was freshened and
      an end to side pancreatico-jejunostomy was fashioned. A drain was left in situ.
      Post operatively the patient developed a pancreatic fistula which resolved with
      conservative management. After ten months of follow up the patient was well and
      showed no signs and symptoms of pancreatic insufficiency. DISCUSSION: Lengthy,
      complex procedures in pancreatic injuries have been associated with poor
      outcomes. Distal pancreatectomy or Whipple's procedure for trauma are viable
      options for complete pancreatic transections. But when there is concern that the
      residual proximal pancreatic tissue is inadequate to provide endocrine or
      exocrine function, preservation of the pancreatic tissue distal to the injury
      becomes an option. CONCLUSION: Combined pancreatic and duodenal injuries are rare
      and often fatal. Early identification, resuscitation and surgical intervention is
      warranted. Because of the large number of possible combinations of injuries to
      the pancreas and duodenum, no one form of therapy is appropriate for all
      patients.

PMID- 28886392
TI  - How do you define body image? Exploring conceptual gaps in understandings of body
      image at an exercise facility.
AB  - The definition of body image has evolved within research; however, less is known
      about the layperson's understanding of the construct. This study explored how
      members and student trainees of an exercise facility (designed for older adults,
      people with physical disability, and those with cardiac complications) defined
      body image. Nineteen participants completed a one-on-one interview, and seven of
      those participants took part in six additional focus group meetings. The
      following main themes were found: stereotypical assumptions about body image
      (e.g., it is solely a person's weight or merely a woman's issue), body image
      continua for positive and negative body image, degree of complexity of body image
      dimensions, broad considerations of body image (e.g., it is self-esteem), and
      limited knowledge about body image. These findings suggest a need for knowledge
      translation between researchers and the general public which informs future body
      image program design.

PMID- 28886393
TI  - Body checking is associated with weight- and body-related shame and weight- and
      body-related guilt among men and women.
AB  - This study examined whether body checking was a correlate of weight- and body
      related shame and guilt for men and women. Participants were 537 adults (386
      women) between the ages of 17 and 74 (Mage=28.29, SD=14.63). Preliminary analyses
      showed women reported significantly more body-checking (p<.001), weight- and body
      related shame (p<.001), and weight- and body-related guilt (p<.001) than men. In
      sex-stratified hierarchical linear regression models, body checking was
      significantly and positively associated with weight- and body-related shame
      (R2=.29 and .43, p<.001) and weight- and body-related guilt (R2=.34 and .45,
      p<.001) for men and women, respectively. Based on these findings, body checking
      is associated with negative weight- and body-related self-conscious emotions.
      Intervention and prevention efforts aimed at reducing negative weight- and body
      related self-conscious emotions should consider focusing on body checking for
      adult men and women.

PMID- 28886394
TI  - Challenging fat talk: An experimental investigation of reactions to body
      disparaging conversations.
AB  - Although "fat talk" is associated with increased eating disorder risk, the
      predictors of fat talk engagement and viable alternatives to these pervasive
      conversations remain unclear. The current experiment examined responses to fat
      talk versus feminist-oriented challenging fat talk scenarios. Undergraduate women
      (N=283) completed baseline questionnaires assessing body dissatisfaction, fat
      talk engagement, and positive impression management. One week later, they were
      randomized to view one of the two scenarios, followed by assessment of mood, fat
      talk engagement, social acceptability, and social likeability. Results indicated
      that the challenging fat talk vignette (versus the fat talk vignette) yielded
      less negative affect and fat talk and was perceived as more socially attractive
      with a more likeable target character. Baseline body dissatisfaction, baseline
      fat talk tendencies, and momentary negative affect predicted post-exposure fat
      talk engagement. Current findings highlight possibilities for implementing
      feminist language and psychoeducation in fat talk prevention efforts.

PMID- 28886396
TI  - Alcohol and depression: Evidence from the 2014 health survey for England.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A relatively large body of literature examines the association
      between depression and alcohol consumption, with evidence suggesting a
      bidirectional causal relationship. However, the endogeneity arising from this
      reverse causation has not been addressed in the literature. METHODS: Using data
      on 5828 respondents from the Health Survey for England (HSE), this study revisits
      the relationship between alcohol and depression and addresses the endogenous
      nature of this relationship. We use information on self-assessed depression, and
      control for endogeneity using the Lewbel two-staged least square (2SLS)
      estimation technique. RESULTS: We find that drinking alcohol promotes depression,
      and this is consistent across several measures of drinking behaviour including
      the amount of alcohol consumed, consumption intensity, alcohol dependence and
      risk of dependence. CONCLUSION: While drinking may be generally accepted and in
      the case of England, part of the culture, this has costs in terms of both
      physical and mental health that ought not to be ignored. While public policy has
      predominantly focused on the physical aspects of excessive alcohol consumption it
      is possible that these policies will also have a direct positive spillover in
      terms of the mental health costs, through the impact of lower alcohol consumption
      on quality of life and wellbeing.

PMID- 28886395
TI  - Individual, peer, and family factor modification of neighborhood-level effects on
      adolescent alcohol, cigarette, e-cigarette, and marijuana use.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neighborhood factors reported subjectively by residents and measured
      objectively at the census tract are both associated with adolescent alcohol,
      tobacco (cigarette and electronic cigarette), and other drug (marijuana) (ATOD)
      use. Less clear is how these neighborhood factors are longitudinally associated
      with each substance. Equivocal findings may be due to lack of consideration of
      individual, peer, and family effect modifiers, which could help adolescents
      overcome exposure to stressful neighborhood environments. METHODS: We used
      multivariate logistic regressions with interaction terms to test whether parental
      monitoring, resistance self-efficacy (RSE) and being around peers who use ATOD
      modified the association between four subjective and objective neighborhood
      measures and odds of using each substance measured one year later among 2539 high
      school students and college freshmen originally recruited from middle schools in
      Southern California. RESULTS: Census tract-level disadvantage was not
      longitudinally associated with ATOD use. However, perceptions of higher
      neighborhood disorganization, less social cohesion, and more neighborhood
      problems with alcohol and drug use were associated with higher odds of ATOD use.
      Higher RSE and weaker affiliations with peers who use ATOD consistently buffered
      negative effects of neighborhood disorganization and neighborhood problems with
      alcohol and drugs on past year ATOD use. CONCLUSIONS: Community-level programs
      that increase social cohesion among neighbors, neighborhood monitoring of deviant
      behaviors, and better policing of open drug selling may prevent ATOD use.
      Programs should also target RSE and minimize affiliations with peers who use
      ATOD, which could reduce the magnitude of the association with ATOD, even for
      adolescents living in the most at-risk neighborhoods.

PMID- 28886398
TI  - Perceptions of women on workloads in health facilities and its effect on maternal
      health care: A multi-site qualitative study in Nigeria.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: of the study was to explore women's perception of maternal health care
      providers' workload and its effects on the delivery of maternal healthcare in
      secondary and tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. RESEARCH DESIGN, SETTING,
      PARTICIPANTS: five focus groups discussions (FGDs) were conducted with women in
      each of eight secondary and tertiary hospitals in 8 States in four geo-political
      zones of the country. In all, 40 FGDs were held with women attending antenatal
      and post-natal clinics in the hospitals. We elicited information on women's
      perceptions of workloads of maternal health providers and the effects of the
      workloads on maternity care. The discussions were audio-taped and transcribed
      while thematic analysis was carried out using Atlas.ti computer software.
      FINDINGS: the majority of the participants submitted that the health providers
      are burdened with heavy workloads in the provision of maternal health care.
      Examples of heavy workload cited included complaints from health providers,
      evidence of stress and strain in care provision by providers and the sheer
      numbers of patients that are left unattended to in health facilities. Poor
      quality care, insufficient time to carry out necessary investigations on
      patients, and prolonged waiting time experienced by women in accessing care
      featured as consequences of heavy workload, with the secondary result that women
      are reluctant to seek care in the health facilities because of the belief that
      they would spend a long time in receiving care. KEY CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
      FOR PRACTICE: we conclude that women are concerned about heavy workloads
      experienced by healthcare providers and may partly account for the low
      utilization of referral health facilities for maternal health care in Nigeria.
      Efforts to address this problem should include purposeful human resource policy
      development, the development of incentives for health providers, and the proper
      re-organization of the health system.

PMID- 28886397
TI  - Directly alcohol-attributable mortality by industry and occupation in a Spanish
      Census cohort of economically active population.
AB  - AIMS: To assess disparities in directly alcohol-attributable (DAA) mortality by
      industry/occupation in Spain during 2002-2011 and the contribution of different
      socio-demographic factors, including socioeconomic position, to explain such
      disparity. METHODS: Nationwide cohort study covering 16 million economically
      active people living in Spain in 2001. Deaths at age 25-64 were analyzed.
      Subjects were classified by employment status, industry and occupation at
      baseline. Poisson regression models were built, calculating rate ratios (RRs)
      compared to all employees or those in the education sector. RESULTS: DAA
      mortality was much higher in the unemployed than in employees (Crude RR: 2.4; 95%
      CI: 2.3-2.6) and varied widely across industries/occupations. Crude RRs>3.0
      (p<0.05) compared to teachers were found in employees in extractive
      industries/fishing, agriculture/livestock, construction, catering/accommodation
      and protective services. Socio-demographic factors, especially age, gender and
      educational attainment contributed more to explain risk disparities than other
      factors or potential selection bias. However, after exhaustive sociodemographic
      adjustment, including education attainment and material wealth, a RR>1.33
      (p<0.05) remained in unemployed, catering/accommodation employees and unskilled
      construction workers. RRs were significantly larger in women than men (p<0.05)
      among mineworkers/fishworkers/sailors (RR=8.6 vs. 1.2) and drivers (RR=3.7 vs.
      1.0). CONCLUSIONS: The results could be extrapolated to all alcohol-attributable
      mortality since disparities for other strongly alcohol-related deaths, although
      smaller, were in the same direction. Given the wide occupational disparities in
      alcohol-attributable mortality, implementation of special measures to reduce this
      mortality in the highest risk groups is fully justified. Future research should
      better characterize the explanatory factors of disparities and their role in the
      causal chain.

PMID- 28886399
TI  - Effectiveness of a measure program to prevent admission hypothermia in very low
      birth weight preterm infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a thermoregulation bundle for
      preventing admission hypothermia in very low-birth weight preterm infants.
      METHODS: Interventional study with retrospective evaluation of data undertaken in
      a tertiary neonatal unit including all very low-birth weight preterm infants
      (<1500g) born at and admitted to the unit. Two periods were compared: before
      intervention (PI; 01/01/2012 to 02/28/2014_ and after intervention (PII;
      04/01/2014 to 11/30/2016). The intervention started in March 2014. At PI
      procedures in the delivery room were: placement in a crib with a radiant heat
      source, doors always closed, polyethylene body plastic bag, double cap (plastic
      and cotton mesh), room temperature between 24 to 27 degrees C and transport to
      neonatal unit in a pre-heated incubator (36-37.0 degrees C). At PII, there was a
      reinforcement on not opening the plastic bag during the entire resuscitation
      process, even at an advanced stage, and the anthropometric measures and routine
      care were performed in the neonatal unit. Maternal, delivery, and neonatal
      variables were compared. Admission hypothermia was considered when admission
      axillary temperature was <36.0 degrees C. Periodic results were shown to the team
      every six months and results were discussed. RESULTS: The incidence of admission
      hypothermia was reduced significantly in PII (37.2 vs. 14.2%, p<0.0001) and
      admission temperature medians were higher (36.1 vs. 36.5 degrees C, p<0.001). At
      PII, there was an increase in the number of infants transported with oxygen (49.5
      vs. 75.5%, p<0.0001). No differences were observed regarding birth weight and
      gestational age. CONCLUSION: There was a very important reduction in admission
      hypothermia incidence and a higher median admission temperature after continued
      protocol implementation.

PMID- 28886400
TI  - Breastfeeding increases microbial community resilience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Since the present group had already described the composition of the
      intestinal microbiota of Brazilian infants under low social economic level, the
      aim of the present study was to analyze the microbial community structure changes
      in this group of infants during their early life due to external factors.
      METHODS: Fecal samples were collected from 11 infants monthly during the first
      year of life. The infants were followed regarding clinical and diet information
      and characterized according to breastfeeding practices. DNA was extracted from
      fecal samples of each child and subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction -
      Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis. RESULTS: The results revealed a pattern
      of similarity between the time points for those who were on exclusive
      breastfeeding or predominant breastfeeding. Although there were changes in
      intensity and fluctuation of some bands, the Denaturing Gradient Gel
      Electrophoresis patterns in the one-year microbial analysis were stable for
      breastfeeding children. There was uninterrupted ecological succession despite the
      influence of external factors, such as complementary feeding and antibiotic
      administration, suggesting microbiota resilience. This was not observed for those
      children who had mixed feeding and introduction of solid food before the 5th
      month of life. CONCLUSION: These results suggested an intestinal microbiota
      pattern resilient to external forces, due to the probiotic and prebiotic effects
      of exclusive breastfeeding, reinforcing the importance of exclusive breastfeeding
      until the 6th month of life.

PMID- 28886401
TI  - Factors associated with breastfeeding maintenance for 12 months or more: a
      systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Synthesize the information about the factors associated with
      maintenance of breastfeeding for 12 months or more. DATA SOURCE: A systematic
      review was conducted in the Pubmed/Medline, Scielo, and Lilacs databases,
      including articles published in Portuguese or English since 2004 on the factors
      associated with breastfeeding maintenance for at least 12 months; review articles
      and those with qualitative design were excluded. The factors were organized into
      four levels, according to the chronological proximity to the outcome: distal,
      distal intermediate, proximal intermediate, and proximal; nationality and
      place/area of residence were considered contextual factors. SUMMARY OF DATA: 1174
      articles were identified, of which 19 were included in this review, comprising
      seven cohort studies and 12 cross-sectional studies. A total of 39 of the 75
      assessed factors were associated with the outcome at least once. The factors with
      the highest percentages of associations with maintenance of breastfeeding for 12
      months or more, considering the number of times they were tested were: children
      whose parents are the caregivers (100%), none type of maternal exposure to smoke
      (54%), children and/or parents are immigrants/foreigners (50%), live in urban
      areas (42.9%), older maternal age (40%), married women (37.5%), higher level of
      maternal education (31.3%), greater parity (30.8%), and lower income (30%).
      CONCLUSIONS: The maintenance of breastfeeding for 12 months or more is associated
      with multiple factors, emphasizing the contextual factors and those related to
      some maternal sociodemographic characteristics. Associations differ in effect and
      magnitude between the different populations studied.

PMID- 28886402
TI  - Identification and initial management of intoxication by alcohol and other drugs
      in the pediatric emergency room.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the screening, diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of
      intoxication by alcohol and other drugs in children and adolescents in the
      emergency scenario. DATA SOURCE: This was a narrative literature review. DATA
      SUMMARY: The detection of this problem in the emergency room can be a challenge,
      especially when its assessment is not standardized. The intentional and episodic
      use of large amounts of psychoactive substances by adolescents is a usual
      occurrence, and unintentional intoxication is more common in children younger
      than 12 years. The clinical picture in adolescents and children differs from that
      in adults and some particularities are important in the emergency scenario. After
      management of the acute condition, interventions targeting the adolescent at risk
      may be effective. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis and treatment of intoxication by
      alcohol and other drugs in adolescents and children in the emergency scenario
      requires a systematic evaluation of the use of these drugs. There are few
      specific treatments for intoxication, and the management comprehends support
      measures and management of related clinical complications.

PMID- 28886403
TI  - Increased MAPK1/3 Phosphorylation in Luminal Breast Cancer Related with PIK3CA
      Hotspot Mutations and Prognosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: While mutations in PIK3CA are most frequently (45%) detected in
      luminal breast cancer, downstream PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activation is
      predominantly observed in the basal subtype. The aim was to identify proteins
      activated in PIK3CA mutated luminal breast cancer and the clinical relevance of
      such a protein in breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Expression
      levels of 171 signaling pathway (phospho-)proteins established by The Cancer
      Genome Atlas (TCGA) using reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) were in silico
      examined in 361 breast cancers for their relation with PIK3CA status. MAPK1/3
      phosphorylation was evaluated with immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays
      (TMA) containing 721 primary breast cancer core biopsies to explore the
      relationship with metastasis-free survival. RESULTS: In silico analyses revealed
      increased phosphorylation of MAPK1/3, p38 and YAP, and decreased expression of
      p70S6K and 4E-BP1 in PIK3CA mutated compared to wild-type luminal breast cancer.
      Augmented MAPK1/3 phosphorylation was most significant, i.e. in luminal A for
      both PIK3CA exon 9 and 20 mutations and in luminal B for exon 9 mutations. In 290
      adjuvant systemic therapy naive lymph node negative (LNN) breast cancer patients
      with luminal cancer, high MAPK phosphorylation in nuclei (HR=0.49; 95% CI, 0.25
      0.95; P=.036) and in tumor cells (HR=0.37; 95% CI, 0.18-0.79; P=.010) was related
      with favorable metastasis-free survival in multivariate analyses including
      traditional prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: Enhanced MAPK1/3 phosphorylation in
      luminal breast cancer is related to PIK3CA exon-specific mutations and correlated
      with favorable prognosis especially when located in the nuclei of tumor cells.

PMID- 28886404
TI  - Graph-based composite local Bregman divergences on discrete sample spaces.
AB  - This paper develops a general framework of statistical inference on discrete
      sample spaces, on which a neighborhood system is defined by an undirected graph.
      The scoring rule is a measure of the goodness of fit for the model to observed
      samples, and we employ its localized version, local scoring rules, which does not
      require the normalization constant. We show that the local scoring rule is
      closely related to a discrepancy measure called composite local Bregman
      divergence. Then, we investigate the statistical consistency of local scoring
      rules in terms of the graphical structure of the sample space. Moreover, we
      propose a robust and computationally efficient estimator based on our framework.
      In numerical experiments, we investigate the relation between the neighborhood
      system and estimation accuracy. Also, we numerically evaluate the robustness of
      localized estimators.

PMID- 28886405
TI  - Emotional recognition of dynamic facial expressions before and after cochlear
      implantation in adults with progressive deafness.
AB  - Visual processing has been extensively explored in deaf subjects in the context
      of verbal communication, through the assessment of speech reading and sign
      language abilities. However, little is known about visual emotional processing in
      adult progressive deafness, and after cochlear implantation. The goal of our
      study was thus to assess the influence of acquired post-lingual progressive
      deafness on the recognition of dynamic facial emotions that were selected to
      express canonical fear, happiness, sadness, and anger. A total of 23 adults with
      post-lingual deafness separated into two groups; those assessed either before (n
      = 10) and those assessed after (n = 13) cochlear implantation (CI); and 13 normal
      hearing (NH) individuals participated in the current study. Participants were
      asked to rate the expression of the four cardinal emotions, and to evaluate both
      their emotional valence (unpleasant-pleasant) and arousal potential (relaxing
      stimulating). We found that patients with deafness were impaired in the
      recognition of sad faces, and that patients equipped with a CI were additionally
      impaired in the recognition of happiness and fear (but not anger). Relative to
      controls, all patients with deafness showed a deficit in perceiving arousal
      expressed in faces, while valence ratings remained unaffected. The current
      results show for the first time that acquired and progressive deafness is
      associated with a reduction of emotional sensitivity to visual stimuli. This
      negative impact of progressive deafness on the perception of dynamic facial cues
      for emotion recognition contrasts with the proficiency of deaf subjects with and
      without CIs in processing visual speech cues (Rouger et al., 2007; Strelnikov et
      al., 2009; Lazard and Giraud, 2017). Altogether these results suggest there to be
      a trade-off between the processing of linguistic and non-linguistic visual
      stimuli.

PMID- 28886406
TI  - An investigation of potential neural correlates of intrusive retrieval of
      distressing memories.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite the prevalence of intrusive memories across
      psychological disorders, little is known about the neural networks that underpin
      this form of memory. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      to identify neural circuits associated with the retrieval of intrusive memories.
      METHODS: Participants with moderate levels of anxiety (N = 30) underwent a cold
      pressor task to induce a physiological stress response, after which they viewed
      10 neutral and 10 negative film clips. In a method designed to induce intrusive
      memories, participants then completed an fMRI scan in which they viewed short (2
      s) depictions of neutral components from the original film clips. RESULTS: There
      were no significant differences in activations during intrusion and non-intrusion
      responses. Exploratory analyses comparing intrusive responses to neutral stimuli
      found the insula, inferior frontal gyrus, precuneus, right cerebellum and
      bilateral supplementary motor area were uniquely activated during experience of
      intrusions (compared to the neutral cue baseline), whereas no significant
      activations were in response to negative scenes that did not trigger intrusions.
      LIMITATIONS: This study did not compare the different neural processes implicated
      in intrusive and intentional emotional memories. The limited intrusions that
      could be elicited in the scanning environment restricted the number of trials
      that could be employed. CONCLUSIONS: Although no differences in neural
      activations were observed between intrusive and non-intrusive responses, the
      observation of precuneus involvement is consistent with models that propose that
      intrusive memories are impacted by the extent to which there is contextual
      integration of the relevant memories.

PMID- 28886408
TI  - The fate of distractors in working memory: No evidence for their active removal.
AB  - Not all the information processed in working memory (WM) must be retained. Due to
      the strict limitations of its capacity, the mechanisms that prevent WM from being
      cluttered and choked by no longer relevant information are of paramount
      importance. The present study tested the hypothesis put forward by the SOB-CS
      model of an active and attention-demanding mechanism that would remove no-longer
      relevant items from WM. Such a mechanism has been advocated to account for the
      well-known fact that, in complex span tasks, processing distractors at a slower
      pace results in better recall of memory items. According to the SOB-CS model,
      slow pace would free more time for removing distractors, thus alleviating the
      interference they create on target items. In direct contradiction with this
      hypothesis, a first experiment demonstrated that distractors are not less, but
      more accessible at the end of complex span task trials in which they have been
      processed at a slow rather than a fast pace. Using the repetition priming effect
      occurring in a lexical decision task inserted as processing component within a
      complex span task, a second experiment established that distractors processed at
      a slower pace do not elicit weaker, but stronger repetition priming effects,
      indicating that they have not been removed. Along with previous findings, the
      present study not only shows that there is no trace of distractor removal in the
      long term, in the short term, nor immediately after processing, but demonstrates
      that memory traces of distractors are stronger in situations assumed to involve a
      more complete removal by the SOB-CS model. These empirical evidence suggests that
      distractors are not actively removed from working memory after having been
      processed.

PMID- 28886407
TI  - Preparing for what might happen: An episodic specificity induction impacts the
      generation of alternative future events.
AB  - A critical adaptive feature of future thinking involves the ability to generate
      alternative versions of possible future events. However, little is known about
      the nature of the processes that support this ability. Here we examined whether
      an episodic specificity induction - brief training in recollecting details of a
      recent experience that selectively impacts tasks that draw on episodic retrieval 
      (1) boosts alternative event generation and (2) changes one's initial
      perceptions of negative future events. In Experiment 1, an episodic specificity
      induction significantly increased the number of alternative positive outcomes
      that participants generated to a series of standardized negative events, compared
      with a control induction not focused on episodic specificity. We also observed
      larger decreases in the perceived plausibility and negativity of the original
      events in the specificity condition, where participants generated more
      alternative outcomes, relative to the control condition. In Experiment 2, we
      replicated and extended these findings using a series of personalized negative
      events. Our findings support the idea that episodic memory processes are involved
      in generating alternative outcomes to anticipated future events, and that
      boosting the number of alternative outcomes is related to subsequent changes in
      the perceived plausibility and valence of the original events, which may have
      implications for psychological well-being.

PMID- 28886409
TI  - Relationships among grit, academic performance, perceived academic failure, and
      stress in associate degree students.
AB  - The present study examined the relationships among grit, academic performance,
      perceived academic failure, and stress levels of Hong Kong associate degree
      students using path analysis. Three hundred and forty-five students from a
      community college in Hong Kong voluntarily participated in the study. They
      completed a questionnaire that measured their grit (operationalized as interest
      and perseverance) and stress levels. The students also provided their actual
      academic performance and evaluated their perception of their academic performance
      as a success or a failure. The results of the path analysis showed that interest
      and perseverance were negatively associated with stress, and only perceived
      academic failure was positively associated with stress. These findings suggest
      that psychological appraisal and resources are more important antecedents of
      stress than objective negative events. Therefore, fostering students'
      psychological resilience may alleviate the stress experienced by associate degree
      students or college students in general.

PMID- 28886410
TI  - A methodology to design heuristics for model selection based on the
      characteristics of data: Application to investigate when the Negative Binomial
      Lindley (NB-L) is preferred over the Negative Binomial (NB).
AB  - Safety analysts usually use post-modeling methods, such as the Goodness-of-Fit
      statistics or the Likelihood Ratio Test, to decide between two or more
      competitive distributions or models. Such metrics require all competitive
      distributions to be fitted to the data before any comparisons can be
      accomplished. Given the continuous growth in introducing new statistical
      distributions, choosing the best one using such post-modeling methods is not a
      trivial task, in addition to all theoretical or numerical issues the analyst may
      face during the analysis. Furthermore, and most importantly, these measures or
      tests do not provide any intuitions into why a specific distribution (or model)
      is preferred over another (Goodness-of-Logic). This paper ponders into these
      issues by proposing a methodology to design heuristics for Model Selection based
      on the characteristics of data, in terms of descriptive summary statistics,
      before fitting the models. The proposed methodology employs two analytic tools:
      (1) Monte-Carlo Simulations and (2) Machine Learning Classifiers, to design easy
      heuristics to predict the label of the 'most-likely-true' distribution for
      analyzing data. The proposed methodology was applied to investigate when the
      recently introduced Negative Binomial Lindley (NB-L) distribution is preferred
      over the Negative Binomial (NB) distribution. Heuristics were designed to select
      the 'most-likely-true' distribution between these two distributions, given a set
      of prescribed summary statistics of data. The proposed heuristics were
      successfully compared against classical tests for several real or observed
      datasets. Not only they are easy to use and do not need any post-modeling inputs,
      but also, using these heuristics, the analyst can attain useful information about
      why the NB-L is preferred over the NB - or vice versa- when modeling data.

PMID- 28886411
TI  - A preliminary investigation of textile fibers in smothering scenarios and
      alternative legitimate activities.
AB  - Was this group of target fibers transferred during a criminal action? Is it
      possible that it was transferred during another legitimate activity? Acquiring
      knowledge about the activity, whether legitimate or criminal, leading to the
      transfer of a group of fibers is a recurring challenge encountered throughout the
      evidence interpretation process. Trace evidence such as fibers may assist with
      generating a reasoning of the activity which produced the trace, but this assumes
      that one already has a thorough understanding of the transfer phenomenon. How to
      generate and then use such relevant knowledge? What are the influencing
      parameters and which ones should (or can) be controlled? The present work focuses
      on homicides by smothering using a pillow and the transfer of fibers on the face
      of the victim in such events. A legitimate activity - represented by a night's
      sleep on a pillow - was also investigated since such legitimate, alternative
      explanations concerning the presence of fibers could likely be formulated by the
      suspect. The number and distribution of fibers transferred onto the victim's face
      in either scenario were investigated and interpreted using a Bayesian approach.
      Results showed that the shedding capacity of the pillowcase strongly impact the
      number of fibers recovered. The nature of the action, modus operandi and amount
      of friction could not be excluded in their influence on the transfer of fibers.
      Finally, likelihood ratios indicating the number of fibers recovered from the
      victim's face can provide relevant information by supporting either criminal or
      legitimate proposition (i.e., smothering or night's sleep scenario).

PMID- 28886412
TI  - Re-evaluation of acute erythroid leukemia according to the 2016 WHO
      classification.
AB  - In the recent update of WHO classification, the definition of myeloid neoplasms
      with erythroid predominance has been modified shifting the main criteria for
      calculating blast percentage from non-erythroid cells (NEC) to all nucleated
      marrow cells (ANC). Thus, the cases previously classified as erythroid/myeloid
      subtype of acute erythroid leukemia (AEL) based on the 2008 WHO will now be
      categorized either as myelodysplastic syndrome with excess blasts (MDS-EB) or
      acute myeloid leukemia, not otherwise specified (AML-NOS). However, the clinical
      significance of this new classification has not been demonstrated. Thus, we
      reviewed a leukemia database and reclassified 38 cases previously diagnosed as
      AEL, erythroid/myeloid subtype, with the consideration of 2016 revision criteria.
      Twenty seven (71%) of them had >20% blasts in NEC but less than 20% blasts in
      ANC, and 11 (29%) had >20% in both NEC and ANC. There was no significant
      difference in overall survivals (OS) among AEL, MDS-EB, and AML-NOS (non
      erythroid predominance, NEP). However, AML with myelodysplasia-related changes
      showed significant shorter OS than AEL, MDS-EB and AML-NOS (NEP). Our results
      indicate that in myeloid neoplasm with erythroid predominance, patients with >20%
      blasts, of either NEC or ANC, share similar clinical laboratory features and
      survival outcomes with AML-NOS.

PMID- 28886413
TI  - Maternal residential air pollution and placental imprinted gene expression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Maternal exposure to air pollution is associated with reduced fetal
      growth, but its relationship with expression of placental imprinted genes
      (important regulators of fetal growth) has not yet been studied. OBJECTIVES: To
      examine relationships between maternal residential air pollution and expression
      of placental imprinted genes in the Rhode Island Child Health Study (RICHS).
      METHODS: Women-infant pairs were enrolled following delivery between 2009 and
      2013. We geocoded maternal residential addresses at delivery, estimated daily
      levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5; n=355) and black carbon (BC; n=336)
      using spatial-temporal models, and estimated residential distance to nearest
      major roadway (n=355). Using linear regression models we investigated the
      associations between each exposure metric and expression of nine candidate genes
      previously associated with infant birthweight in RICHS, with secondary analyses
      of a panel of 108 imprinted genes expressed in the placenta. We also explored
      effect measure modification by infant sex. RESULTS: PM2.5 and BC were associated
      with altered expression for seven and one candidate genes, respectively,
      previously linked with birthweight in this cohort. Adjusting for multiple
      comparisons, we found that PM2.5 and BC were associated with changes in
      expression of 41 and 12 of 108 placental imprinted genes, respectively. Infant
      sex modified the association between PM2.5 and expression of CHD7 and between
      proximity to major roadways and expression of ZDBF2. CONCLUSIONS: We found that
      maternal exposure to residential PM2.5 and BC was associated with changes in
      placental imprinted gene expression, which suggests a plausible line of
      investigation of how air pollution affects fetal growth and development.

PMID- 28886415
TI  - Burden of higher lead exposure in African-Americans starts in utero and persists
      into childhood.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent public health lead crises in urban areas emphasize the need to
      better understand exposure to environmental toxicants, particularly in higher
      risk groups. Although African-American children have the highest prevalence of
      elevated blood lead levels in the United States, little is known about when this
      trajectory of disproportionate burden of lead exposure first emerges. OBJECTIVES:
      Using tooth-matrix biomarkers that directly measure fetal and early childhood
      metal levels, the primary goal of this study was to determine if there were
      racial disparities in lead levels during fetal development and early childhood.
      Manganese, an essential nutrient that modifies the neurotoxic effects of lead,
      was also measured. METHODS: Pregnant women served by the Henry Ford Health System
      and living in a predefined geographic area in and around Detroit, Michigan, were
      recruited during the second trimester or later into the Wayne County Health,
      Environment, Allergy and Asthma Longitudinal Study (WHEALS), a population-based
      birth cohort. Offspring born between September 2003 and December 2007 were
      studied in childhood. Child race was parent-reported. Lead and manganese during
      the second and third trimesters, early postnatal life (birth through age 1year)
      and early childhood (age 1 through time of tooth shedding, which ranges from 6 to
      12years) were measured via high-resolution microspatial mapping of dentin growth
      rings, a validated biomarker for prenatal and childhood metal exposure. RESULTS:
      African-American children (N=71) had 2.2 times higher lead levels in the second
      and third trimesters (both p<0.001) and 1.9 times higher lead levels postnatally
      in the first year of life (p=0.003) compared to white children (N=51). Lead
      levels in African-American children were also higher during childhood, but this
      effect was only marginally significant (p=0.066) and was attenuated after
      covariate adjustment. Additionally, we observed that African-American children
      had lower tooth-manganese levels during the third trimester (p=0.063) and
      postnatally (p=0.043), however these differences were attenuated after covariate
      adjustment. CONCLUSION: The disproportionate burden of lead exposure is
      vertically transmitted (i.e., mother-to-child) to African-American children
      before they are born and persists into early childhood. Our results suggest that
      testing women for lead during pregnancy (or in pre-conception planning), may be
      needed to identify the risk to their future offspring, particularly for African
      American women.

PMID- 28886414
TI  - Serum polychlorinated biphenyls and leukocyte telomere length in a highly-exposed
      population: The Anniston Community Health Survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Serum polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have previously been
      associated with longer leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in most, but not all, of
      the few previous studies. PCBs were produced in Anniston, Alabama from 1929 to
      1971 and participants of the Anniston Community Health Survey (ACHS) were highly
      exposed. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated serum levels of 35 PCBs and relative telomere
      length in 559 ACHS participants. METHODS: Relative LTL was measured in DNA
      extracted from blood clots. We assessed PCBs individually, grouped by
      chlorination, and summed PCBs. We used linear regression to assess the
      association between each PCB metric while adjusting for pertinent covariates.
      RESULTS: Serum PCBs were associated with longer LTL among white participants and
      the oldest age group of black participants. Among white participants, compared
      with those in the first quartile of sum PCBs those in the third quartile of sum
      PCBs had 8.09% longer relative LTL (95% CI: 1.99; 14.55) and those in the fourth
      had 7.58% longer relative LTL (95%CI: -0.01; 15.76) (p-quadratic=0.05). Among
      African American participants, serum PCBs were associated with longer relative
      LTL among those over age 64 only. Tests for interaction were not statistically
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a non-linear positive association between
      serum PCBs and LTL among white participants. Serum PCBs were associated with
      longer LTL in the oldest age group of African Americans. This association may
      provide insight into the cancers previously associated with exposure to PCBs,
      melanoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which have been associated with long LTL in
      previous studies.

PMID- 28886416
TI  - Long-term exposure to particulate matter, NO2 and the oxidative potential of
      particulates and diabetes prevalence in a large national health survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The evidence from observational epidemiological studies of a link
      between long-term air pollution exposure and diabetes prevalence and incidence is
      currently mixed. Some studies found the strongest associations of diabetes with
      fine particles, other studies with nitrogen dioxide and some studies found no
      associations. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to investigate associations between long
      term exposure to multiple air pollutants and diabetes prevalence in a large
      national survey in the Netherlands. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional
      analysis using the 2012 Dutch national health survey to investigate the
      associations between the 2009 annual average concentrations of multiple air
      pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, PM10-2.5, PM2.5 absorbance, OPDTT, OPESR and NO2) and
      diabetes prevalence, among 289,703 adults. Air pollution exposure was assessed by
      land use regression models. Diabetes was defined based on a combined measure of
      self-reported physician diagnosis and medication prescription from an external
      database. Using logistic regression, we adjusted for potential confounders,
      including neighborhood- and individual socio-economic status and lifestyle
      related risk factors such as smoking habits, alcohol consumption, physical
      activity and BMI. RESULTS: After adjustment for potential confounders, all
      pollutants (except PM2.5) were associated with diabetes prevalence. In two
      pollutant models, NO2 and OPDTT remained associated with increased diabetes
      prevalence. For NO2 and OPDTT, single-pollutant ORs per interquartile range were
      1.07 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.09) and 1.08 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.10), respectively. Stratified
      analysis showed no consistent effect modification by any of the included known
      diabetes risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term residential air pollution exposure
      was associated with diabetes prevalence in a large health survey in the
      Netherlands, strengthening the evidence of air pollution being an important
      diabetes risk factor. Most consistent associations were observed for NO2 and
      oxidative potential of PM2.5 measured by the DTT assay. The finding of an
      association with the oxidative potential of fine particles but not with PM2.5,
      suggests that particle composition may be important for a potential effect on
      diabetes.

PMID- 28886418
TI  - Chemically-induced photoreceptor degeneration and protection in mouse iPSC
      derived three-dimensional retinal organoids.
AB  - Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be differentiated into various
      tissues and cell types, have been used for clinical research and disease
      modeling. Self-organizing three-dimensional (3D) tissue engineering has been
      established within the past decade and enables researchers to obtain tissues and
      cells that almost mimic in vivo development. However, there are no reports of
      practical experimental procedures that reproduce photoreceptor degeneration. In
      this study, we induced photoreceptor cell death in mouse iPSC-derived 3D retinal
      organoids (3D-retinas) by 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT), which induces photoreceptor
      degeneration in mouse retinal explants, and then established a live-cell imaging
      system to measure degeneration-related properties. Furthermore, we quantified the
      protective effects of representative ophthalmic supplements for treating the
      photoreceptor degeneration. This drug evaluation system enables us to monitor
      drug effects in photoreceptor cells and could be useful for drug screening.

PMID- 28886417
TI  - Is long-term particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide air pollution associated
      with incident monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)? An
      analysis of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to air pollution activates the innate immune system and
      influences the adaptive immune system in experimental settings. We investigated
      the association of residential long-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) and
      NO2 air pollution with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)
      as a marker of adaptive immune system activation. METHODS: We used data from the
      baseline (2000-2003), 5-year (2006-2008) and 10-year (2011-2015) follow-up
      examinations of the German Heinz Nixdorf Recall cohort study of 4814 participants
      (45-75years). Residential exposure to PM size fractions and NO2 was estimated by
      land-use regression (ESCAPE-LUR, annual mean 2008/2009) and dispersion chemistry
      transport models (EURAD-CTM, 3-year mean at baseline). We used logistic
      regression to estimate the effects of air pollutants on incident MGUS, adjusting
      for age, sex, education, smoking status, physical activity, and BMI. As a non
      linear approach, we looked at quartiles (2-4) of the air pollutants in comparison
      to quartile 1. RESULTS: Of the 3949 participants with complete data, 100
      developed MGUS during the 10-year follow-up. In the main model, only PMcoarse was
      associated with incident MGUS (OR per IQR (1.9MUg/m3): 1.32, 95% CI 1.04-1.67).
      We further found positive associations between PM size fractions estimated by
      ESCAPE-LUR and incident MGUS by quartiles of exposure (OR Q4 vs Q1: PM2.5 2.03
      (1.08-3.80); PM10 1.97 (1.05-3.67); PMcoarse 1.98 (1.09-3.60)). CONCLUSIONS: Our
      results indicate that an association between long-term exposure to PM and MGUS
      may exist. Further epidemiologic studies are needed to corroborate this possible
      link.

PMID- 28886419
TI  - Mutation in an exonic splicing enhancer site causing chronic granulomatous
      disease.
AB  - In a male patient suffering from X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) we
      found a c.389G>T mutation in exon 5 of the CYBB gene. We have analyzed why 95% of
      the transcripts of this gene lacked exon 5, leading to a frameshift and premature
      termination codon. The mutation was located in a region comprising three putative
      exonic splicing enhancer binding sites, for SRSF1, SRFS2 and SRFS6, according to
      the ESEfinder Tool (http://rulai.cshl.edu/cgi-bin/tools/ESE3/esefinder.cgi). With
      the Analyser Splice Tool we calculated the probability of skipping of exon 5 in
      CYBB mRNA, and by means of Sroogle the number of putative binding motifs for
      splicing enhancer and splicing silencer proteins
      (http://astlab.tau.ac.il/index.php). These analyses clarify why this exon was
      skipped in the majority of the mRNA. The normally spliced transcript contains an
      amino acid change p.Arg130Leu. This poorly expressed transcript gives rise to a
      protein with low expression but presumably normal activity, leading to a
      respiratory burst activity in the patient's neutrophils of about 15% of normal.

PMID- 28886421
TI  - A method to describe inelastic gamma field distribution in neutron gamma density
      logging.
AB  - Pulsed neutron gamma density logging (NGD) is of great significance for
      radioprotection and density measurement in LWD, however, the current methods have
      difficulty in quantitative calculation and single factor analysis for the
      inelastic gamma field distribution. In order to clarify the NGD mechanism, a new
      method is developed to describe the inelastic gamma field distribution. Based on
      the fast-neutron scattering and gamma attenuation, the inelastic gamma field
      distribution is characterized by the inelastic scattering cross section, fast
      neutron scattering free path, formation density and other parameters. And the
      contribution of formation parameters on the field distribution is quantitatively
      analyzed. The results shows the contribution of density attenuation is opposite
      to that of inelastic scattering cross section and fast-neutron scattering free
      path. And as the detector-spacing increases, the density attenuation gradually
      plays a dominant role in the gamma field distribution, which means large detector
      spacing is more favorable for the density measurement. Besides, the relationship
      of density sensitivity and detector spacing was studied according to this gamma
      field distribution, therefore, the spacing of near and far gamma ray detector is
      determined. The research provides theoretical guidance for the tool parameter
      design and density determination of pulsed neutron gamma density logging
      technique.

PMID- 28886420
TI  - Discriminant validity, diagnostic utility, and parent-child agreement on the
      Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in treatment- and
      non-treatment-seeking youth.
AB  - The Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorder (SCARED) may be
      differentially sensitive to detecting specific or comorbid anxiety diagnoses in
      treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking youth. We assessed the SCARED's
      discriminant validity, diagnostic utility, and informant agreement using parent-
      and self-report from healthy and treatment-seeking anxious youth (Study 1, N=585)
      and from non-treatment-seeking anxious youth (Study 2, N=331) diagnosed with
      generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), or comorbid
      GAD+SAD. Among treatment-seeking youth, the SCARED showed good diagnostic utility
      and specificity, differentiating healthy, comorbid, and non-comorbid anxious
      youth. Child-parent agreement was modest: healthy child self-reports were higher
      than parent-reports whereas anxious child self-reports were similar or lower than
      parent-reports. Less consistent results emerged for diagnostic utility,
      specificity, and informant agreement among non-treatment-seeking youth. Given the
      number of non-treatment seeking anxious youth (N=33), generalizability of these
      findings may be limited. Together, results suggest informants may provide
      distinct information about children's anxiety symptoms.

PMID- 28886422
TI  - Initial evaluation of a 99mTc-cyclopentadienyltricarbonyl technetium complex as a
      potential 5-HT1A receptor imaging agent.

PMID- 28886423
TI  - Molecular Imaging of Colorectal Tumors by Targeting Colon Cancer Secreted Protein
      2 (CCSP-2).
AB  - A versatile biomarker for detecting colonic adenoma and colon cancer has yet to
      be developed. Colon cancer secreted protein-2 (CCSP-2) is a protein specifically
      expressed and secreted in colon adenomas and cancers. We developed a fluorescent
      imaging method based on CCSP-2 targeting for a more sensitive and specific
      detection of colorectal tumors. CCSP-2 expression was evaluated in human colon
      adenoma and colorectal specimens. Anti-CCSP-2 antibody was labeled with a near
      infrared fluorescent dye, FPR-675, and molecular imaging of surgical human
      colorectal tumors was performed. Immunohistochemistry identified CCSP-2
      expression in 87.0% of colorectal cancer specimens and 89.5% of colon adenoma
      specimens. Fluorescence imaging of surgical human colon specimens after spraying
      treatment with the probe permitted a clear distinction of cancer from paired
      normal colon tissue (target-to-background ratio, 4.09+/-0.42; P<.001). CCSP-2
      targeting imaging was also evaluated in patient-derived colon cancer xenograft
      mouse and liver metastasis murine models. CCSP-2-positive colon cancer xenografts
      and liver metastases were visualized by near-infrared fluorescence imaging after
      intravenous injection of the probe, which showed significantly higher
      fluorescence. Our results show that CCSP-2 is a promising marker for colorectal
      tumor detection in clinical settings and that a CCSP-2-targeting molecular
      imaging strategy might improve the diagnosis of colorectal tumors in metastatic
      or recurrent cancers and aid in early colonoscopic detection of premalignant
      lesions.

PMID- 28886424
TI  - Emotional and behavioural needs in children with specific language impairment and
      in children with autism spectrum disorder: The importance of pragmatic language
      impairment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Language problems may negatively affect children's behaviour and have
      detrimental effects on the development of peer-relations. AIMS: We investigated
      and compared emotional and behavioural profiles in children with SLI and in
      children with ASD aged 6-15 years and explored to what extent pragmatic language
      problems contributed to the emotional and behavioural needs (EBN) in these
      clinical groups. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: The ASD group consisted of 23 children
      (19 boys; 4 girls) and the SLI group consisted of 20 children (18 boys; 2 girls).
      In order to assess EBN and language abilities, the Strength and Difficulties
      Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Children's Communication Checklist -2 (CCC-2) were
      filled out by parents. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Our main findings were that although
      EBN was common in both groups; the children in the ASD group were significantly
      impaired relative to the children in the SLI group. However, in both groups
      pragmatic language problems were found to be significantly associated with EBN.
      IMPLICATIONS: A comprehensive assessment of EBN as well as pragmatic language
      abilities should be an integral part of the assessment procedure. Considering the
      substantial influence of pragmatic language abilities on social function and in
      resolving interpersonal conflicts with peers further development of therapy plans
      and interventions targeting pragmatics is strongly needed.

PMID- 28886425
TI  - Enhanced thymocyte apoptosis induced by maternal undernutrition in late gestation
      results in declined mature T cells in rat fetal thymus.
AB  - This study was designed to observe the effects of maternal food restriction (MFR)
      on the development of fetal thymus in different gestation periods. Timed pregnant
      rats were randomized into 3 groups: CN (free access to standard chow throughout
      gestation), MFR0-21 (50% MFR throughout gestation), MFR0-14 (50% MFR from
      gestational day (GD) 0 to GD14, early-mid gestation). Results showed that MFR
      during early-mid period had few impact on the fetal thymus and T cell
      subpopulations. However, MFR throughout gestation resulted in thymic atrophy,
      deceased frequency of both CD4+ and CD8+ single positive (SP) T cells and
      enhanced thymocyte apoptosis in fetus. Our results suggest the fetal thymus is
      more vulnerable to the adverse intrauterine environments in the late gestation
      period, and the decreased number of SP T cells could result from the enhanced
      thymocyte apoptosis.

PMID- 28886426
TI  - Synthesis, characterization and evaluation cytotoxic activity of silver
      nanoparticles synthesized by Chinese herbal Cornus officinalis via environment
      friendly approach.
AB  - Cornus officinalis has been widely used as a precious herb and as the tonic food
      to improve kidney function in China. Its fruits have been used in many
      traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions to treat kidney diseases, diabetes,
      cancer and shock. In this study, a new eco-friendly approach for green synthesis
      of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by using the fruits of Cornus officinalis aqueous
      extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The so-synthesized AgNPs showed
      quasi-spherical in shape with uniform dispersal and an average mean size of
      11.7nm. Water soluble biomolecules such as flavonoids and/or anthocyanins from
      the extract played important roles in the nanoparticles formation. The AgNPs
      displayed distinctive cytotoxicity activities against human prostate cancer (PC
      3) and human liver cancer (HepG2) cell lines. The results provided a low cost,
      nontoxic and eco-friendly approach for synthesizing metal nanoparticles to
      explore alternative anticancer agents on the way fighting against cancer in
      future.

PMID- 28886427
TI  - Tolerance to dichloroacetonitrile-induced neurotoxicity in streptozotocin-induced
      diabetic rats.
AB  - Diabetes mellitus has potential to alter the toxicity of hazardous chemicals.
      Dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN) is one of high-risk nitrogenous disinfection by
      products. This study evaluated the neurotoxicity of DCAN (11, 44 and 88mg/kg) in
      normoglycaemic and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats via orally for
      28days. STZ diabetes prolonged the median survival time and total lethal time
      after DCAN (88mg/kg) exposure when compared with that observed in normoglycaemic
      rats. DCAN altered motor activity and induced anxiety behaviour in normoglycaemic
      rats; but it did not exaggerate behavioural changes in STZ diabetic rats. DCAN 
      induced brain oxidative damage by compensatory increase glutathione content and
      decrease malonaldehyde levels; but it did not induce oxidative damage in diabetic
      rats. STZ diabetes slowed down the pathological pace of DCAN-induced brain
      mitochondrial dysfunction by decreasing reactive oxygen species and increasing
      cytochrome C oxidase activity. In conclusion, the present study indicated that
      STZ diabetic rats are resistant to DCAN-induced neurotoxicity at the dosage and
      with the dosage schedule in 28-day subacute toxicity test.

PMID- 28886428
TI  - Tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate induces senescence-like phenotype of hepatocytes
      via the p21Waf1/Cip1-Rb pathway in a p53-independent manner.
AB  - Tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) has been widely used as a plasticizer and
      flame retardant. TCEP as a potential carcinogen is often detected in the
      occupational and nature environments. To investigate effects of TCEP on human
      hepatocytes, we assessed cell growth rate, cellular membrane integrity,
      senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-Gal) activity and analyzed
      expression of regulators involved in the p53-p21Waf1/Cip1-Rb pathway in TCEP
      treated L02 cells. The results showed TCEP increased the percentage of SA-beta
      Gal positive cells, decreased IL-6 levels, down-regulated the regulators of
      p38MAPK-NF-kappaB pathways, but up-regulated the regulators of p21Waf1/Cip1-Rb
      pathway in L02 cells. Furthermore, we measured the SA-beta-Gal activity and
      expression of regulators involved in the p53-p21Waf1/Cip1-Rb pathway in L02-p53
      cells and p53-null Hep3B cells. Similar results were found in L02-p53 cells and
      Hep3B cells. The findings demonstrated that TCEP induced senescence-like growth
      arrest via the p21Waf1/Cip1-Rb pathway in a p53-independent manner, without
      activation of the IL-6/IL6R, p38MAPK-NF-kappaB pathways in hepatocytes.

PMID- 28886429
TI  - Pre-treatment with melatonin decreases abamectin induced toxicity in a nocturnal
      insect Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).
AB  - AIM: Oxidative stress is an important component of the mechanism of pesticide
      toxicity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the time-dependent
      melatonin effects against abamectin-induced oxidative stress in a S.litura model.
      Larvae were divided into 5 different groups; (1) control group,(2) Melatonin
      group (4.3*10-5M/100ml diet), (3) Abamectin group 1.5ml/L, (4) Pre-melatonin
      treated group (PM) (4.3*10-5M/100ml diet) before abamectin exposure 1.5ml/L, (5)
      Post-melatonin treated group (TM) after abamectin exposure. Melatonin was
      supplemented via artificial diet in PM and TM animals during 24h. MAIN METHODS:
      Midgut, fatbody, and hemolymph, were collected for the analysis of oxidative
      stress markers (Total ROS, GSH, nitrite, TBARS, LPO), antioxidant enzyme levels
      (SOD, GST, CAT, POX, APOX) in fifth instar larvae. Midgut damage was examined by
      using morphological analysis. KEY FINDINGS: Our results observed that ABA group
      showed significant changes (p<0.001) in the ROS and carbonyl content in midgut.
      The increase of antioxidant enzyme levels (SOD, CAT, POX, and APOX) in midgut was
      led by the continuous free radical scavenger cascade of melatonin. Significant
      (p<0.01) increases in CAT and APOX levels were seen in the fatbody of PM and TM
      treated insects. SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, the results of the study revealed
      that abamectin toxicity generates oxidative stress in the insect, while pre
      melatonin treatment reduces this damage due to its antioxidant properties,
      especially POX levels in midgut, fatbody, and hemolymph. Therefore, indoleamine
      can play a vital role curtailing the abamectin toxicity in time dependent manner
      in S.litura.

PMID- 28886430
TI  - Story grammar elements and causal relations in the narratives of Russian-Hebrew
      bilingual children with SLI and typical language development.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While there is general agreement regarding poor performance of
      children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) on microstructure measures of
      narrative production, findings on macrostructure are inconsistent. PURPOSE: The
      present study analyzed narrative abilities of Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschool
      children with and without SLI, with a particular focus on story grammar (SG)
      elements and causal relations, in order to identify macrostructure features which
      distinguish bilingual children with SLI from those with typical development.
      METHOD: Narratives were collected from 35 typically developing bilinguals (BiTD)
      and 14 bilinguals with SLI (BiSLI) in both Russian/L1 and Hebrew/L2 using a
      retelling procedure (LITMUS-Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives)
      (Gagarina, Klop, Kunnari, Tantele, Valimaa, Balciuniene, Bohnacker, & Walters,
      2012). Each story contained three episodes, and each episode introduced a
      different protagonist with explicitly stated Goals (G), Attempts (A) and Outcomes
      (O). Causal relations assessed included Enabling, Physical, Motivational, and
      Psychological relations, following Trabasso & Nickels (1992). Each Goal-Attempt
      Outcome (GAO) episode was examined for the use of SG elements and causal
      relations. RESULTS: Group differences emerged for both aspects of macrostructure.
      For causal relations, narratives of BiSLI children contained fewer Enabling and
      Physical relations, and differed qualitatively from those of BiTD children. For
      SG elements, BiSLI children referred to fewer SG elements than BiTD children in
      the first episode, but performed like BiTD children in the second and the third
      episodes. CONCLUSIONS: Story grammar elements in specific episodes along with
      Enabling and Physical causal relations distinguish the narratives of children
      with BiSLI from those with BiTD, which stresses the importance of examining wider
      array of macrostructure features in narratives.

PMID- 28886431
TI  - The effect of phonetic complexity on the speed of single-word productions in
      adults who do and do not stutter.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of phonetic
      complexity as measured by the Word Complexity Measure (WCM) on the speed of
      single-word production in adults who do (AWS, n=15) and do not stutter (AWNS,
      n=15). METHOD: Participants were required to name pictures of high versus low
      phonetic complexity and balanced for lexical properties. Speech reaction time was
      recorded from initial presentation of the picture to verbal response of
      participant for each word type. Accuracy and fluency were manually coded for each
      production. RESULTS: AWS named pictures significantly slower than AWNS, but there
      were no significant differences observed in response latency when producing word
      of high versus low phonetic complexity as measured by the WCM. CONCLUSION:
      Findings corroborate past research of overall slowed picture naming latencies in
      AWS, compared to AWNS. Findings conflict with data that suggest that the phonetic
      complexity of words uniquely compromises the speed of production in AWS. The
      potential interaction between lexical and phonetic factors on single-word
      production within each group are discussed.

PMID- 28886432
TI  - Traumatic lower extremity and lumbosacral peripheral nerve injuries in adults:
      Electrodiagnostic studies and patients symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) are relatively common pathologies in
      clinical practice. PNIs are rare in the lower extremity but have worse prognosis
      than those in the upper extremity. Electrodiagnostic studies could help better
      understanding PNIs. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the distribution of lower
      extremity PNI in traumatic patients in northwest of Iran. METHODS: In this
      prospective study, 74 patients (62 male and 12 female with mean age of 38.39 +/-
      14.42 years) with possible lower or lumbosacral peripheral nerve injury were
      studied. Patients' demographic information and physical examination findings were
      recorded. Electrodiagnostic investigations including electromyography and Nerve
      Conduction Study were performed for all subjects. RESULTS: Common chief
      complaints were pain and weakness. Impairment in the sensory function was present
      in 59.5% and muscle force reduction in 47.3%. PNIs were present in 23.0% and
      mostly were severe. Injuries in sciatic nerve were the most common PNIs (16.2%).
      Electrodiagnostic studies showed radiculopathy in 48.7% and plexopathy in 8.10%
      of cases. In 52 patients (70.3%), the physical examination findings were
      compatible with Electrodiagnostic studies. CONCLUSION: Not all patients
      presenting with traumatic injuries have lower extremity PNIs. Due to the nature
      of the trauma and the anatomical course of the nerves, sciatic nerve is more
      susceptible to traumatic injuries.

PMID- 28886433
TI  - Sudden death in a child caused by a giant cavernous hemangioma of the anterior
      mediastinum.
AB  - A 4-year-old girl who had been treated for asthma since the age of 2 years had a
      severe coughing fit and died suddenly. The patient had a history of occasional
      severe coughing fits, and these fits had been worsening in severity during the
      week before her death. Prior to death, she was taken to a clinician, and thymic
      hypertrophy was suspected based on chest X-ray findings. The clinician
      recommended that she visit a general hospital at a later date; however, she died
      that night. Postmortem radiology and autopsy revealed a large mass in the
      anterior mediastinum compressing the heart and airway, and no other findings
      attributable to sudden death were observed. Therefore, we concluded that the
      patient's death was attributable to acute respiratory and cardiac circulatory
      failure secondary to the pressure induced by the mass. Microscopically, the mass
      showed a cavernous structure composed of cystically dilated, thin-walled large
      vessels filled with blood. The final diagnosis was a cavernous hemangioma.
      Hemangiomas are the most common benign vascular anomalies seen in young children;
      however, mediastinal hemangiomas are rare and can cause life-threatening
      complications because of their size and location. Therefore, forensic
      pathologists should include hemangioma as a differential diagnosis in children
      with anterior mediastinal masses.

PMID- 28886434
TI  - Prediction of lysine crotonylation sites by incorporating the composition of k
      spaced amino acid pairs into Chou's general PseAAC.
AB  - As one of the most important and common histones post-translational
      modifications, crotonylation plays a key role in regulating various biological
      processes. The accurate identification of crotonylation sites is crucial to
      elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of crotonylation. In this study, a
      novel bioinformatics tool named CKSAAP_CrotSite is developed to predict
      crotonylation sites. The highlight of CKSAAP_CrotSite is to adopt the composition
      of k-spaced amino acid pairs as input encoding, and the support vector machine is
      employed as the classifier. As illustrated by jackknife test, CKSAAP_CrotSite
      achieves a promising performance with a Sensitivity of 92.45%, a Specificity of
      99.17%, an Accuracy of 98.11% and a Matthew's correlation coefficient of 0.9283,
      which is much better than those of the existing prediction methods. Feature
      analysis shows that some amino acid pairs such as 'KxG', 'KG' and 'PxP' may play
      an important role in the prediction of crotonylation sites. The results of
      analysis and prediction could offer useful information for elucidating the
      molecular mechanisms of crotonylation and related experimental validations. A
      user-friendly web-server for CKSAAP_CrotSite is available at
      123.206.31.171/CKSAAP_CrotSite/.

PMID- 28886435
TI  - Using WWC sanctioned rigorous methods to develop comparison groups for
      evaluation.
AB  - Evaluation of program impact in the field of education has been a controversial
      topic over the years. Although randomized control trials have great advantages in
      causal inference, they often raise ethical and economic concerns in practice. As
      an alternative, quasi-experimental designs may provide valid evidence of
      influence if they are well-designed. In this article, we presented an evaluation
      case of a district-wide early learning improvement program. To strike a balance
      between practicability and academic rigor, we developed comparison groups from
      multiple perspectives, and used a series of tests consistent with WWC 3.0
      standards to reach the most valid comparisons. Implications for evaluation
      practice were discussed.

PMID- 28886436
TI  - Devil is in the details: Using logic models to investigate program process.
AB  - Theory-based logic models are commonly developed as part of requirements for
      grant funding. As a tool to communicate complex social programs, theory based
      logic models are an effective visual communication. However, after initial
      development, theory based logic models are often abandoned and remain in their
      initial form despite changes in the program process. This paper examines the
      potential benefits of committing time and resources to revising the initial
      theory driven logic model and developing detailed logic models that describe key
      activities to accurately reflect the program and assist in effective program
      management. The authors use a funded special education teacher preparation
      program to exemplify the utility of drill down logic models. The paper concludes
      with lessons learned from the iterative revision process and suggests how the
      process can lead to more flexible and calibrated program management.

PMID- 28886437
TI  - Apple and blackcurrant polyphenol-rich drinks decrease postprandial glucose,
      insulin and incretin response to a high-carbohydrate meal in healthy men and
      women.
AB  - Postprandial glycemic responses to meals are inhibited by polyphenol-rich plant
      foods. Combinations of polyphenols may be particularly effective through
      complementary mechanisms. A randomized, controlled, double-blinded cross-over
      trial was conducted in healthy volunteers to test the hypothesis that apple and
      blackcurrant polyphenol-rich drinks would reduce postprandial blood glucose
      concentrations. Secondary outcomes included insulin and glucose-dependent
      insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) secretion. Twenty men (mean age 26 y, SD 8) and
      5 postmenopausal women (mean age 57 y, SD 3) consumed a placebo drink (CON) and 2
      polyphenol-rich drinks containing fruit extracts: either 1200 mg apple
      polyphenols (AE), or 600 mg apple polyphenols+600 mg blackcurrant anthocyanins
      (AE+BE), in random order with a starch and sucrose meal. Incremental areas under
      the curve (iAUC) for plasma glucose concentrations were lower following AE+BE
      over 0-30 and 0-120 min compared with CON; mean differences (95% CI) -32
      mmol/L.min (-41, -22, P<.0005) and -52 mmol/L min (-94, -9, P<.05), respectively.
      AE significantly reduced iAUC 0-30 min (mean difference -26 mmol/L min, -35, -18,
      P<.0005) compared with CON, but the difference over 120 min was not significant.
      Postprandial insulin, C-peptide and GIP concentrations were significantly reduced
      relative to CON. A dose response inhibition of glucose transport was demonstrated
      in Caco-2 cells, including total and GLUT-mediated transport, and SGLT1-mediated
      glucose transport was strongly inhibited at all doses in Xenopus oocytes,
      following 10 min incubation with 0.125-4 mg apple polyphenols/ml. In conclusion,
      ingestion of apple and blackcurrant polyphenols decreased postprandial glycemia,
      which may be partly related to inhibition of intestinal glucose transport.

PMID- 28886438
TI  - Daidzein down-regulates ubiquitin-specific protease 19 expression through
      estrogen receptor beta and increases skeletal muscle mass in young female mice.
AB  - Ubiquitin-specific protease 19 (USP19) is a key player in the negative regulation
      of muscle mass during muscle atrophy. Loss-of-function approaches demonstrate
      that 17beta-estradiol (E2) increases USP19 expression through estrogen receptor
      (ER) alpha and consequently decreases soleus muscle mass in young female mice
      under physiological conditions. Daidzein is one of the main isoflavones in soy,
      and activates ERbeta-dependent transcription. Here, we investigated the effects
      of daidzein on E2-increased USP19 expression and E2-decreased soleus muscle mass
      in young female mice. Daidzein stimulated the transcriptional activity of ERbeta
      in murine C2C12 cells and down-regulated USP19 expression. Consistently, daidzein
      inhibited E2-induced USP19 expression in a reporter activity using a functional
      half-estrogen response element (hERE) from Usp19. Daidzein inhibited E2-induced
      recruitment of ERalpha and promoted recruitment of ERbeta to the Usp19 hERE.
      Dietary daidzein down-regulated the expression of USP19 at the mRNA and protein
      levels and increased soleus muscle mass in female mice, but not in males. In
      soleus muscle from ovariectomized (OVX) female mice, dietary daidzein inhibited
      E2-increased USP19 mRNA expression and E2-decreased muscle mass. Furthermore, E2
      induced the recruitment of ERalpha and ERbeta to the hERE, whereas daidzein
      inhibited E2-induced recruitment of ERalpha, and enhanced E2-increased
      recruitment of ERbeta, to the Usp19 hERE. These results demonstrate that dietary
      daidzein decreases USP19 mRNA expression through ERbeta and increases soleus
      muscle mass in young female mice, but not in male mice, under physiological
      conditions.

PMID- 28886439
TI  - Chronic high-sucrose diet increases fibroblast growth factor 21 production and
      energy expenditure in mice.
AB  - Excess carbohydrate intake causes obesity in humans. On the other hand, acute
      administration of fructose, glucose or sucrose in experimental animals has been
      shown to increase the plasma concentration of anti-obesity hormones such as
      glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which
      contribute to reducing body weight. However, the secretion and action of GLP-1
      and FGF21 in mice chronically fed a high-sucrose diet has not been investigated.
      To address the role of anti-obesity hormones in response to increased sucrose
      intake, we analyzed mice fed a high-sucrose diet, a high-starch diet or a normal
      diet for 15 weeks. Mice fed a high-sucrose diet showed resistance to body weight
      gain, in comparison with mice fed a high-starch diet or control diet, due to
      increased energy expenditure. Plasma FGF21 levels were highest among the three
      groups in mice fed a high-sucrose diet, whereas no significant difference in GLP
      1 levels was observed. Expression levels of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1), FGF
      receptor 1c (FGFR1c) and beta-klotho (KLB) mRNA in brown adipose tissue were
      significantly increased in high sucrose-fed mice, suggesting increases in FGF21
      sensitivity and energy expenditure. Expression of carbohydrate responsive element
      binding protein (ChREBP) mRNA in liver and brown adipose tissue was also
      increased in high sucrose-fed mice. These results indicate that FGF21 production
      in liver and brown adipose tissue is increased in high-sucrose diet and
      participates in resistance to weight gain.

PMID- 28886440
TI  - Pills in paradise: Exploring international lifestyle and retirement migrants'
      perceptions of the pharmaceutical sector on Cozumel Island, Mexico.
AB  - International lifestyle and retirement migration is a growing phenomenon, yet
      little is known about migrants' experiences of health care in destination
      countries. This includes use of and access to pharmaceutical selling
      establishments. This article explores international lifestyle and retirement
      migrants' experiences and perceptions of the local pharmaceutical sector on
      Cozumel Island, Mexico. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured
      interviews (n = 26), finds that participants are concerned with accessibility,
      quality and communication within the island's pharmaceutical sector. Subsequent
      analysis suggests that these concerns arise through comparison with previous
      health care environments and that migrants attempt to remedy them by spatially
      reorganising their pharmacy engagements through practices which may contribute to
      adverse health outcomes.

PMID- 28886441
TI  - Place and recovery from alcohol dependence: A journey through photovoice.
AB  - It has been suggested that place, and interaction with the environment, may play
      a role in recovery from alcohol dependence. In this paper we report findings from
      a project that used an adapted photovoice methodology to better understand
      individuals' experience and perceptions of the role of place in recovery from
      alcohol dependence. Individuals attending a recovery cafe in central Scotland
      documented their environment and, in focus group settings, the individuals
      discussed and analysed their photographs. Here we report aspects of the
      environment, both therapeutic and risky, experienced by individuals negotiating
      the journey of dependence recovery. Elements of the natural environment were
      largely referred to as supportive and therapeutic, as were other more quotidian
      spaces, such as the home and cafe. The largest place-based risk faced by
      participants was the persistent availability and marketing of alcohol. The
      results demonstrate that the journey of recovery from alcohol dependence is
      contextually shaped, with place both supporting and hindering this journey.

PMID- 28886442
TI  - Four new cases of pediatric thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) with review of the
      molecular genetic basis, utilizing the newly published consensus nomenclature.
AB  - The majority of thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) in the pediatric population are
      due to post repair etiology (iatrogenic). Although rare, underlying inheritable
      disease and congenital cardiac anomalies represent the most common non-iatrogenic
      cause of TAA among patients in this age group (1-21 years of age). Herein, we
      present a case series of 9aortic aneurysms with varying underlying etiology. We
      discuss the molecular genetic basis of these syndromes in conjunction with the
      radiological findings and histological description utilizing the newly published
      consensus criteria article.

PMID- 28886444
TI  - Assessment of mental health status among school going adolescents in North East
      India: A cross sectional school based survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adolescent emotional responses and behaviors are often passed off as
      growth pangs and academic stress, thereby missing those that need deeper
      understanding and mental health interventions. AIM: The aim of the study is to
      understand mental health status among the school adolescents in Tezpur, Assam.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a cross sectional study that used
      convenience sampling in selection of the schools. A total of 10 schools were
      selected for the purpose of the study. 1403 Adolescents were selected for data
      analysis. Socio-Demographic Performa and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
      [SDQ] were administered to the participants. RESULTS: The results indicated that
      five predictors (gender, education, family type, academic performance, socio
      economic status in the family) explained 9.79% of the variance (F=5.040, P<0.000)
      in total difficulty levels: (Academic performance; beta=0.08; t=3.15; P=0.002)
      and (Socio economic status; beta=0.07, t=3.02, P=0.003). CONCLUSION: In the study
      less than one tenth of the participants have some mental health issues and this
      calls for concern. Schools should have standing operation procedures in place to
      periodically screen adolescents for mental health related issues.

PMID- 28886443
TI  - Antiplasmodial activities of dyes against Plasmodium falciparum asexual and
      sexual stages: Contrasted uptakes of triarylmethanes Brilliant green, Green S
      (E142), and Patent Blue V (E131) by erythrocytes.
AB  - The search for safe antimalarial compounds acting against asexual symptom
      responsible stages and sexual transmission-responsible forms of Plasmodium
      species is one of the major challenges in malaria elimination programs. So far,
      among current drugs approved for human use, only primaquine has transmission
      blocking activity. The discovery of small molecules targeting different
      Plasmodium falciparum life stages remains a priority in antimalarial drug
      research. In this context, several independent studies have recently reported
      antiplasmodial and transmission-blocking activities of commonly used stains, dyes
      and fluorescent probes against P. falciparum including chloroquine-resistant
      isolates. Herein we have studied the antimalarial activities of dyes with
      different scaffold and we report that the triarylmethane dye (TRAM) Brilliant
      green inhibits the growth of asexual stages (IC50 <= 2 MUM) and has
      exflagellation-blocking activity (IC50 <= 800 nM) against P. falciparum reference
      strains (3D7, 7G8) and chloroquine-resistant clinical isolate (Q206). In a second
      step we have investigated the antiplasmodial activities of two polysulfonated
      triarylmethane food dyes. Green S (E142) is weakly active against P. falciparum
      asexual stage (IC50 ? 17 MUM) whereas Patent Blue V (E131) is inactive in both
      antimalarial assays. By applying liquid chromatography techniques for the culture
      supernatant analysis after cell washings and lysis, we report the detection of
      Brilliant green in erythrocytes, the selective uptake of Green S (E142) by
      infected erythrocytes, whereas Patent Blue V (E131) could not be detected within
      non-infected and 3D7-infected erythrocytes. Overall, our results suggest that two
      polysulfonated food dyes might display different affinity with transporters or
      channels on infected RBC membrane.

PMID- 28886445
TI  - Unveiling the polarization of the multimode acoustic fields.
AB  - The spatial three dimensional variation of the polarization ellipse
      characterizing an elastic movement of the solid particles in the harmonically
      oscillating ultrasonic fields is studied. Such a variation comes into sight
      because of the interference of various elastic modes generated during the
      excitation and/or scattering of acoustic waves by the inhomogeneities located on
      the solid surface. In order to confirm this effect, an innovative method based on
      finite element approach is used showing a rule to find the form and orientation
      of the elastic polarization ellipse in general case. Polarization plane may have
      an arbitrary orientation in anisotropic crystals. The dispersive parameters of
      the spatially changeable ellipse of polarization in a substrate with perturbed
      boundary conditions depend on the polarization and on the relative complex-valued
      amplitudes of the partial elastic modes which contribute differently to the sum
      of acoustic fields at every point of analysis. Results of a detailed
      investigation of the mentioned effects in an interdigital transducer formed by
      aluminum electrodes on the ST-X cut of quartz substrate are presented.

PMID- 28886446
TI  - Interaction of zinc(II) with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug niflumic
      acid.
AB  - The reaction of ZnCl2 with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug niflumic acid
      (Hnif) resulted in the formation of complex [Zn(nif-O)2(MeOH)4], 1. When this
      reaction was performed in the presence of a N,N'-donor heterocyclic ligand such
      as 2,2'-bipyridine (bipy), 2,2'-bipyridylamine (bipyam), 1,10-phenanthroline
      (phen) and 2,2'-dipyridylketone oxime (Hpko), the complexes [Zn(nif
      O,O')(bipy)Cl], 2, [Zn(nif-O)(nif-O,O')2(bipyam)], 3, [Zn(nif-O,O')2(phen)], 4
      and [Zn(nif-O)2(Hpko-N,N')2], 5 were formed, respectively. The complexes were
      characterized by physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques and X-ray
      crystallography (for complexes 1-3). The complexes can scavenge 1,1-diphenyl
      picrylhydrazyl, 2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and
      hydroxyl radicals, may inhibit soybean lipoxygenase and are more active compounds
      than free Hnif. The interaction of the complexes with serum albumins was
      monitored by fluorescence emission spectroscopy and the corresponding binding
      constants were calculated. The affinity of the complexes with calf-thymus DNA was
      investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy, viscosity measurements and fluorescence
      emission spectroscopy for the competitive studies of the complexes with ethidium
      bromide revealing their interaction probably via intercalation.

PMID- 28886447
TI  - Early life experience contributes to the developmental programming of depressive
      like behaviour, neuroinflammation and oxidative stress.
AB  - This study used an animal model of depression induced by maternal care
      deprivation (MCD) to investigate whether depressive behaviour, neuroinflammation
      and oxidative stress were underlying factors in developmental programming after
      early life stress. At postnatal days (PND) 20, 30, 40, and 60, individual subsets
      of animals were evaluated in behavioural tests and then euthanized to assess
      cytokine levels and oxidative stress parameters in the prefrontal cortex (PFC),
      hippocampus and serum. The results showed that MCD did not induce behavioural
      changes at PND 30 and 40. However, at PND 20 and 60, the rats displayed a
      depressive-like behaviour in the forced swimming test, without changes in
      locomotor spontaneous activity. In the brain and serum, the levels of pro
      inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and
      tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)) were increased, and the anti
      inflammatory cytokine (interleukin-10) level was reduced throughout developmental
      programming (PND 20, 30, 40 and 60). Protein carbonyl levels increased in the
      brain at PND 30, 40 and 60. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was decreased
      during all developmental programming phases evaluated in the brain. Catalase
      (CAT) activity was decreased at PND 20, 40 and 60 in the brain. Our results
      revealed that "critical episodes" in early life stressful events are able to
      induce behavioural alterations that persist into adulthood and can stimulate
      inflammation and oxidative damage in both central and peripheral systems, which
      are required for distinct patterns of resilience against psychiatric disorders
      later in life.

PMID- 28886448
TI  - Exploring hepsin functional genetic variation association with disease specific
      protein expression in bipolar disorder: Applications of a proteomic informed
      genomic approach.
AB  - In a prior discovery study, increased levels of serum Growth Differentiation
      Factor 15 (GDF15), Hepsin (HPN), and Matrix Metalloproteinase-7 (MMP7) were
      observed in bipolar depressed patients vs controls. This exploratory post-hoc
      analysis applied a proteomic-informed genomic research strategy to study the
      potential functional role of these proteins in bipolar disorder (BP). Utilizing
      the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database to identify cis-acting blood
      expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTLs), five eQTL variants from the HPN
      gene were analyzed for association with BP cases using genotype data of cases
      from the discovery study (n = 58) versus healthy controls (n = 777). After
      adjusting for relevant covariates, we analyzed the relationship between these 5
      cis-eQTLs and HPN serum level in the BP cases. All 5 cis-eQTL minor alleles were
      significantly more frequent in BP cases vs controls [(rs62122114, OR = 1.6, p =
      0.02), (rs67003112, OR = 1.6, p = 0.02), (rs4997929, OR = 1.7, p = 0.01),
      (rs12610663, OR = 1.7, p = 0.01), (rs62122148, OR = 1.7, P = 0.01)]. The minor
      allele (A) in rs62122114 was significantly associated with increased serum HPN
      level in BP cases (Beta = 0.12, P = 0.049). However, this same minor allele was
      associated with reduced gene expression in GTEx controls. These exploratory
      analyses suggest that genetic variation in/near the gene encoding for hepsin
      protein may influence risk of bipolar disorder. This genetic variation, at least
      for the rs62122114-A allele, may have functional impact (i.e. differential
      expression) as evidenced by serum HPN protein expression. Although limited by
      small sample size, this study highlights the merits of proteomic informed
      functional genomic studies as a tool to investigate with greater precision the
      genetic risk of bipolar disorder and secondary relationships to protein
      expression recognizing, and encouraging in subsequent studies, high likelihood of
      epigenetic modification of genetic disease risk.

PMID- 28886450
TI  - Driving performance at lateral system limits during partially automated driving.
AB  - This study investigated driver performance during system limits of partially
      automated driving. Using a motion-based driving simulator, drivers encountered
      different situations in which a partially automated vehicle could no longer
      safely keep the lateral guidance. Drivers were distracted by a non-driving
      related task on a touch display or driving without an additional secondary task.
      While driving in partially automated mode drivers could either take their hands
      off the steering wheel for only a short period of time (10s, so-called 'Hands-on'
      variant) or for an extended period of time (120s, so-called 'Hands-off' variant).
      When the system limit was reached (e.g., when entering a work zone with temporary
      lines), the lateral vehicle control by the automation was suddenly discontinued
      and a take-over request was issued to the drivers. Regardless of the hands-off
      interval and the availability of a secondary task, all drivers managed the
      transition to manual driving safely. No lane exceedances were observed and the
      situations were rated as 'harmless' by the drivers. The lack of difference
      between the hands-off intervals can be partly attributed to the fact that most of
      the drivers kept contact to the steering wheel, even in the hands-off condition.
      Although all drivers were able to control the system limits, most of them could
      not explain why exactly the take-over request was issued. The average helpfulness
      of the take-over request was rated on an intermediate level. Consequently,
      providing drivers with information about the reason for a system limit can be
      recommended.

PMID- 28886449
TI  - Development and validation of the Questionnaire of Stressful Life Events (QSLE).
AB  - Stressful life events (SLEs) are important indicators prior to the onset of first
      episode psychosis (FEP). Although there are well-validated interviews and self
      reports for assessing SLE on proximate events, unfortunately there are no
      instruments to assess SLE covering an entire lifetime. This study includes
      detailed specific items of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood focused on the
      presence of SLE, emotional impact (stressfulness), and the age at which the event
      occurred. Our research describes 2 studies designed to develop and validate a new
      scale to assess SLE: the Questionnaire of Stressful Life Events (QSLE). In Study
      1, an over-inclusive item pool was generated based on review of group of experts
      at Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu and content validity was examined by an Expert
      Survey. The whole scale represents the content domain. In Study 2, item-level
      analyses revealed good distributional properties, intra-rater reliability, and
      convergent and discriminant validity. In the sensitivity and specificity
      analysis, 18 items had high relevance in the discriminability between patients
      with FEP and healthy controls. We note that there was an AUC of 0.676, indicating
      a good predictor. Using 7 as a cutoff to predict an individual as a patient would
      yield a sensitivity of 64.8% and a specificity of 65%. Overall, the QSLE
      displayed satisfactory psychometric characteristics in a Spanish population.
      These results suggest that QSLE gives us the opportunity to investigate
      childhood, adolescent, and adult life events by measuring the stress and age at
      the moment on a continuous scale.

PMID- 28886451
TI  - A comparative injury severity analysis of motorcycle at-fault crashes on rural
      and urban roadways in Alabama.
AB  - The research described in this paper explored the factors contributing to the
      injury severity resulting from the motorcycle at-fault accidents in rural and
      urban areas in Alabama. Given the occurrence of a motorcycle at-fault crash,
      random parameter logit models of injury severity (with possible outcomes of
      fatal, major, minor, and possible or no injury) were estimated. The estimated
      models identified a variety of statistically significant factors influencing the
      injury severities resulting from motorcycle at-fault crashes. According to these
      models, some variables were found to be significant only in one model (rural or
      urban) but not in the other one. For example, variables such as clear weather,
      young motorcyclists, and roadway without light were found significant only in the
      rural model. On the other hand, variables such as older female motorcyclists,
      horizontal curve and at intersection were found significant only in the urban
      model. In addition, some variables (such as, motorcyclists under influence of
      alcohol, non-usage of helmet, high speed roadways, etc.) were found significant
      in both models. Also, estimation findings showed that two parameters (clear
      weather and roadway without light) in the rural model and one parameter (on
      weekend) in the urban model could be modeled as random parameters indicating
      their varying influences on the injury severity due to unobserved effects. Based
      on the results obtained, this paper discusses the effects of different variables
      on injury severities resulting from rural and urban motorcycle at-fault crashes
      and their possible explanations.

PMID- 28886452
TI  - Underexpression of apoplastic polyamine oxidase improves thermotolerance in
      Nicotiana tabacum.
AB  - Polyamines (PAs) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), the product of PA oxidation by
      polyamine oxidase (PAO), are potential players affecting plant growth,
      development and responses to abiotic/biotic stresses. Genetically modified
      Nicotiana tabacum plants with altered PA/H2O2 homeostasis due to
      over/underexpression of the ZmPAO gene (S-ZmPAO/AS-ZmPAO, respectively) were
      assessed under heat stress (HS). Underexpression of ZmPAO correlates with
      increased thermotolerance of the photosynthetic machinery and improved biomass
      accumulation, accompanied by enhanced levels of the enzymatic and non-enzymatic
      antioxidants, whereas ZmPAO overexpressors exhibit significant impairment of
      thermotolerance. These data provide important clues on PA
      catabolism/H2O2/thermotolerance, which merit further exploitation.

PMID- 28886453
TI  - Patterns of low temperature induced accumulation of dehydrins in Rosaceae crops
      Evidence for post-translational modification in apple.
AB  - Important crop plants of Rosaceae family are often damaged during winter due to
      the lack of acclimation and cold hardiness. One of the cellular responses of
      plants to cold stress is the accumulation of dehydrin proteins. We studied the
      expression of dehydrins in several Rosaceae species during low temperature
      treatment in vitro. Microshoots of Pyrus communis, Malus*domestica, Fragaria
      vesca, Fragaria*ananassa, Prunus cerasus and Prunus avium cultivars were grown in
      low temperature conditions. Genotype -specific accumulation of dehydrins was
      detected by immunoblot analysis of the extracted proteins. Untargeted difference
      gel electrophoresis of Malus x domestica microshoots revealed an extensive
      accumulation of three dehydrins. In a protein phosphatase assay, MdDHN2 and
      MdDHN4, but not MdDHN6 proteins were found to be extensively phosphorylated. In
      terms of the amount of protein synthesized, dehydrins are a major protein-level
      adaptation mechanism to low temperature in M. x domestica. In addition to
      dehydrins, the induction of proteins involved in the response for oxidative
      stress were observed. Additionally, a Xero2 -like dehydrin of F. vesca was
      detected by difference gel electrophoresis and identified by nano LC-MS/MS.

PMID- 28886454
TI  - Effects of olive root warming on potassium transport and plant growth.
AB  - Young olive (Olea europaea L.) plants generated from seed were grown in liquid
      hydroponic medium exposing the roots system for 33days or 24h to high temperature
      (37 degrees C) while the aerial part to 25 degrees C aiming to determine the
      prolonged and immediate effects of root warming on K+(Rb+) transport in the root
      and consequently on plant growth. The exposition of the root system to 37 degrees
      C for 24h inhibited K+ (Rb+) transport from root to shoot having no effect on its
      uptake. However, when the root system was exposed permanently to 37 degrees C
      both the K+ (Rb+) uptake and translocation to the aerial part were inhibited as
      well as the growth in all plants organs. The ability of the root system to
      recover K+ (Rb+) uptake and transport capacity after being exposed to high
      temperature was also evaluated. Plants grown in a root medium at 37 degrees C for
      31days were transferred to another at 25 degrees C for 48 or 96h. The recovery of
      K+ (Rb+) root transport capacity after high root temperature was slow. Any signal
      of recovery was observed after 48h without stress: both potassium root uptake and
      subsequent transport to above organs were inhibited yet. Whereas 96h without
      stress led to restore potassium upward transport capacity although the uptake was
      partially inhibited yet. The results obtained in this study have shown that the
      root system of young olive plants is very sensitive to high temperature related
      to root potassium transport and growth of the plant. Taking into account the two
      processes involved in root potassium transport, the discharge of K+ to the xylem
      vessels was more affected than the uptake at the initial phase of high root
      temperature stress. However, it was the first process to be re-established during
      recovery. All this could explain the symptoms frequently observed in olive
      orchards when dry and high temperature spells occur: a reduction in shoots growth
      and leaves with low levels of potassium contents and dehydration symptoms.

PMID- 28886455
TI  - Development of an electrochemical immunosensor for the diagnostic testing of
      spotted fever using synthetic peptides.
AB  - Spotted fever is a rare acute and multisystemic febrile infectious disease with a
      mortality rate of >=50% without adequate antibiotic treatment, and in diagnosed
      and treated cases, of approximately 2.5%. Currently, the applied test to diagnose
      this disease is the indirect immunofluorescence reaction, however two samples of
      paired sera are necessary to confirm the diagnosis, since using only one sample
      may allow for confusion with cross reactions. OmpA is an outer membrane protein
      present in the R. rickettsia, the etiological agent of spotted fever, able to
      activate dendritic and macrophage cells. It also presents immunogenicity
      properties, and is considered a target for the development of diagnostic tests
      for spotted fever. In this context, an amperometric immunosensor was developed
      for the identification of sera antibodies (human IgG) from patients with spotted
      fever aimed at improving sensitivity and minimize sample volume. The development
      of the immunosensor was conducted using a synthetic peptide, derivative from the
      H6PGA4 R. rickettsia protein, homologous to OmpA. Amperometric responses were
      generated at -0.6 to 0.6V, at a scan rate of 0.025Vs-1 for 20 cycles, a limit of
      detection of approximately 10ngmL-1 for the synthetic peptides and 0.01ugmL-1 for
      the humam serum, a sensitivity of 2.59uA, adequate for the detection of spotted
      fever antibodies. The construction of this immunosensor, capable of identifying
      circulating antibodies in real time, can also be applied in the diagnosis of
      other infectious-parasitic diseases.

PMID- 28886457
TI  - Competition-derived FRET-switching cationic conjugated polymer-Ir(III) complex
      probe for thrombin detection.
AB  - A novel, label-free and convenient strategy for thrombin assay has been developed
      based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from a cationic
      conjugated polymer (CCP) to Ir(III) complex. The energy donor (CCP) and acceptor
      (Ir(III) complex) were taken into close proximity through pi-pi stacking
      interaction and electrostatic interaction, leading to the occurrence of FRET.
      However, the introduction of the thrombin aptamer upset the status and blocked
      the FRET process, but afterwards the reappearance of FRET phenomenon was
      confirmed by the special binding interaction between aptamer and thrombin, thus
      achieving the quantitative detection of thrombin. This assay could detect
      thrombin as low concentration as about 0.05pM and provided a highly specific
      selectivity among other nonspecific proteins. Moreover, the strategy may allow
      our platform to provide similar sensitivity toward different targets in an
      aptamer-structure-independent manner. Furthermore, the assay can be used to
      detect thrombin in diluted real urine or serum samples with a satisfactory
      recovery, implying its great potential for rapid detection of thrombin in the
      clinic.

PMID- 28886456
TI  - Broccoli-shaped biosensor hierarchy for electrochemical screening of
      noradrenaline in living cells.
AB  - Monitoring and determination of ultra-trace concentrations of monoamine
      neurotransmitter such as noradrenaline (NA) in living cells with simple,
      sensitive and selective assays are significantly interesting. We design NA
      electrode sensing system based on C-, N-doped NiO broccoli-like hierarchy (CNNB).
      The spherical broccoli-head umbrella architectures associated with nano-tubular
      arrangements enabled to tailor NA biosensor design. The homogenous doping and
      anisotropic dispersion of CN nanospheres along the entire NB head nanotubes lead
      to creating of abundant electroactive sites in the interior tubular vessels and
      outer surfaces for ultrasensitive detection of NA in living cells such as PC12.
      The CNNB biosensor electrodes showed efficient electrocatalytic activity,
      enhanced kinetics for electrooxidation of NA, and fast electron-transfer between
      electrode-electrolyte interface surfaces, enabling synergistic enhancement in
      sensitivity, and selectivity at a low-detectable concentration of ~ 6nM and
      reproducibility of broccoli-shaped NA-electrodes. The integrated CNNB biosensor
      electrodes showed evidence of monitoring and screening of NA released from PC12
      cells under K+ ion-extracellular stimulation process. The unique features of CNNB
      in terms of NA-selectivity among multi-competitive components, long-term
      stability during the detection of NA may open their practical, in-vitro
      application for extracellular monoamine neurotransmitters detection in living
      cells.

PMID- 28886458
TI  - A novel psychoanalytical approach: An electrochemical ligand-binding assay to
      screen antipsychotics.
AB  - Schizophrenia treatment may see a paradigm shift due to development of new
      atypical antipsychotic drugs (APDs), with better tolerability due to more
      selective dopamine (DA) receptor blockade. Monitoring of these APD candidates in
      biological fluids is of great importance to reduce the development cost, to
      clarify the mechanism of action and ultimately to support the demonstration of
      efficacy of these molecules. Electrochemical approaches have attracted great
      attention for monitoring DA and APD levels but none of the methods developed so
      far aimed to screen APD candidates. Herein, by this work, we propose for the
      first time an electrochemical ligand-binding approach for antipsychotic drug
      screening where competitive binding of a novel APD and DA to a dopamine D3
      receptor (D3R) was investigated by looking at electrochemical signals of DA and
      drug before and after D3R interaction. D3R peptide was incubated with DA and/or
      drug first and then changes in electrochemical oxidation signals of free DA and
      the drug was measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse
      voltammetry (DPV). Circular Dichroism spectroscopy was used to investigate the
      secondary structure of the peptide upon binding with either drug and/or DA.

PMID- 28886459
TI  - Inner filter with carbon quantum dots: A selective sensing platform for detection
      of hematin in human red cells.
AB  - Hematin plays a crucial role in various physiological functions, and the
      determination of hematin in complex biological matrixes is a significant but
      difficult issue. Considering the unique photophysical/photochemical properties of
      carbon quantum dots (CQDs) prepared with p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and ethanol,
      a new strategy for the design of fluorescent probes for hematin has been
      achieved. The proposed sensor array is fabricated based on the inner filter
      effect (IFE) between hematin and CQDs with phenomenon of selective fluorescence
      quenching of CQDs which results from the strong absorption of the excitation and
      emission spectrum of CQDs by hematin. The fluorescence quenching of CQDs is
      closely related to the amount of hematin and there is a good linear relationship
      over the range of 0.5-10MUM with a detection limit of 0.25MUM. What's more, the
      fluorescence assay has been successfully applied for hematin sensing in healthy
      human red cells showing this sensing assay has a great potential prospect for
      detection of hematin in the complex matrixes.

PMID- 28886461
TI  - Time-dependent effects of olanzapine treatment on the expression of histidine
      decarboxylase, H1 and H3 receptor in the rat brain: The roles in olanzapine
      induced obesity.
AB  - Antipsychotic treatment, particularly olanzapine and clozapine, induces severe
      obesity. The Histamine H1 receptor is considered to be an important contributor
      to olanzapine-induced obesity, however how olanzapine modulates the histaminergic
      system is not sufficiently understood. This study examined the effect of
      olanzapine on key molecules of the histaminergic system, including histidine
      decarboxylase (HDC), H1 receptor (H1R) and H3 receptor (H3R), in the brain at
      different stages of olanzapine-induced obesity. During short-term treatment (8
      day), olanzapine increased hypothalamic HDC mRNA expression and H1R binding in
      the arcuate nucleus (Arc) and ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH), without changing
      H3R binding density. HDC mRNA and Arc H1R binding were positively correlated with
      increased food intake, feeding efficiency and weight gain. When the treatment was
      extended to 16 and 36 days, H1R binding was increased not only in the
      hypothalamic Arc and VMH but also in the brainstem dorsal vagal complex (DVC).
      The H1R bindings in the Arc, VMH and DVC were positively correlated with weight
      gain induced by olanzapine treatment. However, the expression of HDC and H3R mRNA
      was not increased. These results suggest that olanzapine time-dependently
      modulates histamine neurotransmission, which suggested the different neuronal
      mechanisms underlying different stages of weight gain development. Treatment
      targeting the H1R may be effective for both short- and long-term olanzapine
      induced weight gain.

PMID- 28886460
TI  - Diurnal salivary cortisol and nativity/duration of residence in Latinos: The
      Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.
AB  - Latino immigrants have lower prevalence of depression, obesity and cardiovascular
      disease than US-born Latinos when they are recently arrived in the US, but this
      health advantage erodes with increasing duration of US residence. Cumulative
      exposure to psychosocial stress and its physiological sequelae may mediate the
      relationship between nativity and duration of US residence and poor health. We
      used data from Latino cohort study participants ages 45-84 to examine cross
      sectional (n=558) and longitudinal (n=248) associations between nativity and
      duration of US residence and features of the diurnal cortisol curve including:
      wake-up cortisol, cortisol awakening response (CAR, wake-up to 30min post
      awakening), early decline (30min to 2h post-awakening) and late decline (2h post
      awakening to bed time), wake-to-bed slope, and area under the curve (AUC). In
      cross-sectional analyses, US-born Latinos had higher wake-up cortisol than
      immigrants with fewer than 30 years of US residence. In the full sample, over 5
      years the CAR and early decline became flatter and AUC became larger. Over 5
      years, US-born Latinos had greater increases in wake-up cortisol and less
      pronounced flattening of the early diurnal cortisol decline than immigrants with
      fewer than 30 years of US residence. Immigrants with 30 or more years of US
      residence also had less pronounced flattening of the early decline relative to
      more recent immigrants, and also had a less pronounced increase in AUC. In sum,
      we saw limited cross-sectional evidence that US-born Latinos have more
      dysregulated cortisol than recently-arrived Latino immigrants, but over time US
      born Latinos had slower progression of cortisol dysregulation.

PMID- 28886462
TI  - Genetic polymorphism of thymidine kinase (TK) and DNA polymerase (pol) of
      clinical varicella-zoster virus (VZV) isolates collected over three decades.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genotypic resistance testing of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) strains
      to antivirals is of high relevance in immunocompromised patients with VZV
      reactivations unresponsive to therapy. However, the knowledge on mutations
      associated with natural gene polymorphism or resistance is limited. OBJECTIVES:
      To examine the genotype of the thymidine kinase (TK) and DNA polymerase (pol) of
      unselected clinical VZV isolates collected between 1984 and 2014 and to verify
      the phenotype related to novel amino acid (aa) substitutions. STUDY DESIGN: The
      TK and DNA pol genes of 169 VZV isolates were analyzed by amplification and
      sequencing. Sequences were compared to that of the reference strain Dumas. The
      phenotype to acyclovir and other antivirals was examined in isolates with novel
      aa substitutions using modified plaque reduction assay. RESULTS: In the TK of
      four strains, four different aa substitutions were detected, apart from the known
      change S288L that was present in all strains compared to Dumas. All four
      substitutions have hitherto not been described in the literature and were
      phenotypically classified as natural gene polymorphisms although two out of them
      (S51L, K186R) were localized in conserved gene centers. The DNA pol of 34
      isolates exhibited 19 different substitutions, 14 out of them were novel, and two
      (R753K, V777I) were within conserved gene regions. Again, these changes were
      characterized as natural gene polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: Non-synonymous
      mutations in VZV TK or DNA pol conferring natural gene polymorphism are rare
      events. Nevertheless, the phenotypic characterization of 18 novel polymorphisms
      can help to provide a better identification of resistance mutations.

PMID- 28886463
TI  - Treadmill based reference running data for healthy subjects is dependent on speed
      and morphological parameters.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To obtain spatiotemporal and dynamic running parameters of healthy
      participants and to identify relationships between running parameters, speed, and
      physical characteristics. METHOD: A dynamometric treadmill was used to collect
      running data among 417 asymptomatic subjects during speeds ranging from 10 to
      24km/h. Spatiotemporal and dynamic running parameters were calculated and
      measured. RESULTS: Results of the analyses showed that assessing running
      parameters is dependent on running speed. Body height correlated with stride
      length (r=0.5), cadence (r=-0.5) and plantar forefoot force (r=0.6). Body mass
      also had a strong relationship to plantar forefoot forces at 14 and 24km/h and
      plantar midfoot forces at 14 and 24km/h. CONCLUSION: This reference data base can
      be used in the kinematic and kinetic evaluation of running under a wide range of
      speeds.

PMID- 28886464
TI  - Muscle activity during backward and forward running with body weight support.
AB  - We investigated muscle activity during backward (BR) and forward (FR) running
      with body weight support (BWS). Ten participants completed BR and FR on a lower
      body positive pressure treadmill while selecting a preferred speed (PS) for
      different BWS conditions (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%BWS). Muscle activity from
      the rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), tibialis anterior (TA), and
      gastrocnemius (GA), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), preferred stride
      frequency (PSF), and PS were measured. Magnitude of muscle activity (BF, TA, and
      GA), RPE, PSF, and PS were not influenced by the interaction of direction and BWS
      (P>0.05). BF, TA, and GA were not different between directions (P>0.05) but were
      different between BWS conditions (P<0.01). RF was influenced by the interaction
      of direction and BWS (P<0.01). RF, BF, TA, and GA during BR were lower with
      increasing BWS. RF during BR was 59-86% higher than that of FR within BWS
      condition. RPE was lower with increasing BWS (P<0.001), regardless of direction
      of locomotion. PSF was lower and PS was higher during BR and FR with increasing
      BWS (both P<0.001). PSF during BR was 6-9% higher than that of FR. PS during BR
      was 24-31% lower than that of FR. These observations demonstrate that a change in
      BWS influences magnitude of muscle activity, PS, PSF, and RPE for both BR and FR.
      However, a change in direction of locomotion may not influence magnitude of
      muscle activity or RPE during running for a given BWS, even though muscle
      activity pattern, PS, and PSF were different between BR and FR.

PMID- 28886465
TI  - The interaction of pregnancy, substance use and mental illness on birthing
      outcomes in Australia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: this study aimed to (1) assess the prevalence, and demographic
      features of women with a history of mental illness during pregnancy and
      childbirth, (2) investigate maternal and perinatal outcomes in relation to mental
      illness and substance use, and (3) determine the effects of maternal
      characteristics, history of mental illness and substance use on birth outcomes.
      METHODS: the records of 22,193 pregnant women who gave birth at one tertiary
      level health service comprising three maternity settings in Victoria, Australia
      from 2009 to 2011 were reviewed.Univariate comparisons for socio-demographic and
      birthing outcome variables by substance use and mental illness category were
      performed. A multivariable logistic regression model was developed to examine the
      effects of maternal characteristics on birth outcomes. RESULTS: mental illness
      was recorded for 1.08/1,000 delivery hospitalisations.Mothers with a history of
      mental illness had a significantly higher proportion of babies born with low
      birth weight (OR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.64 -2.09) and low Apgar 1 scores<7 (OR = 1.47,
      95% CI 1.26 - 1.70).Differences in health behaviours were also noted between the
      two groups.Babies born to women with an illicit and poly substance use history
      reported an average birth weight at 2,951 (SD 777) grams compared to birth weight
      of approximately 3,300 g of smoking and alcohol user groups, as well as shorter
      gestational age and lower birth weight. There was a statistically significant
      interaction between the effects of mental illness and substance use on birth
      weight. This interaction effect was not significant for gestational age. Logistic
      regression showed the strongest predictor of reporting a premature birth and low
      birth weight was using substances, recording an odds ratio of 1.95 (95% CI 1.50
      2.53) and 2.73 (95% CI 2.15-3.47) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: mental health
      history should be highlighted as being a common morbidity and the increased risk
      of poorer birth outcomes especially when the women were also using substances,
      alcohol or tobacco should be acknowledged by the health practitioners.

PMID- 28886466
TI  - Beware of the gorilla: Effect of goal priming on inattentional blindness.
AB  - When people's attention is engaged in a visual task, they often are blind to
      unexpected events occurring in their environment. This phenomenon is known as
      inattentional blindness. In this study, we examine inattentional blindness with
      regard to goal priming, a technique allowing to unconsciously influence goal
      pursuit. After being primed with a detection goal, the name of the target to
      detect, or no prime, participants watched a short sequence in which they had to
      count passes made by basketball players. An unexpected event occurred during the
      video. Results indicated that when attentional demands of the monitoring task
      were moderate, goal priming improved the detection of the unexpected event.
      Implications for the understanding of nonconscious management of attention will
      be discussed.

PMID- 28886467
TI  - The relationship between fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional blindness
      in 7-to-14-year-old children.
AB  - Previous researches have shown that people with higher fluid intelligence are
      more likely to detect the unexpected stimuli. The current study systematically
      explored the relationship between fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional
      blindness in children. In Experiment 1, we measured one hundred and seventy-nine
      7-to-14-year-old children's fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional
      blindness. The results showed that fluid intelligence was negatively related to
      sustained inattentional blindness only in 7-to-8-year-old children. In Experiment
      2, we explored sustained inattentional blindness in sixty children with high
      Raven's scores. We found that compared with children who have average Raven's
      scores aged 11-to-12 years old, children with high Raven's scores were unable to
      better avoid sustained inattentional blindness. In general, this research implies
      that the relation between fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional
      blindness is weak. Fluid intelligence could predict sustained inattentional
      blindness only when children do not have enough perceptual capacities to complete
      the primary task.

PMID- 28886468
TI  - Do drives drive the train of thought?-Effects of hunger and sexual arousal on
      mind-wandering behavior.
AB  - Physiological needs that are currently unfulfilled are known to affect human
      cognition and behavior. The present study investigates whether and how the
      temporary activation of two primary physiological needs, namely hunger and sexual
      arousal, influence both the frequency and the contents of mind-wandering
      episodes. To induce hunger, one group of participants fasted for a minimum of
      five hours whereas another group of participants was exposed to audio material
      with explicit sexual content to provoke sexual arousal. Both groups as well as an
      additional control group, which had not received hunger instructions and had not
      been exposed to arousing material of any kind beforehand, performed a reading
      task during which mind wandering was assessed using a standard experience
      sampling method. Results showed that acute hunger but not elevated sexual arousal
      renders the occurrence of mind-wandering episodes more likely. Induction of both
      hunger and sexual arousal rendered the occurrence of need-related off-task
      thoughts more likely and changed time orientations of mind wandering. The present
      findings are well in line with the assumption that unfulfilled needs regularly
      achieve cognitive priority and extend the cognitive-priority idea to self
      generated thoughts.

PMID- 28886469
TI  - Phenomenological characteristics of autobiographical memory in Korsakoff's
      syndrome.
AB  - A body of research suggests compromise of autobiographical memory in Korsakoff's
      syndrome (KS). The present paper extends this literature by investigating the
      subjective experience of autobiographical recall in the syndrome. Patients with
      KS and controls were asked to retrieve autobiographical memories. After memory
      retrieval, participants were asked to rate phenomenological characteristics of
      their memories (i.e., reliving, back in time, remembering, realness, visual
      imagery, auditory imagery, language, emotion, rehearsal, importance, spatial
      recall and temporal recall). Analysis showed lower "Mean Phenomenological
      Experience" in the Korsakoff patients than in controls. However, the Korsakoff
      patients attributed relatively high emotional value and importance to their
      memories. Although our findings suggest compromised phenomenological reliving of
      autobiographical memory in patients with KS, affective characteristics such as
      emotion and importance are likely to play a main role in the subjective
      experience of the past in these patients.

PMID- 28886470
TI  - Exploring member perspectives on participation on child welfare Citizen Review
      Panels: A national study.
AB  - The year 2016 marked the 20th anniversary of the Child Abuse Prevention and
      Treatment Act (CAPTA) amendments (P.L. 104-235) that mandated Citizen Review
      Panels (CRPs). CRPs are citizen volunteer groups authorized by United States
      (U.S.) federal law to examine policies and procedures of state child welfare
      agencies. Despite the potential of CRPs to positively impact child welfare
      systems outcomes associated with child abuse and neglect, and the millions of
      dollars in resources allocated to these groups, there remains a dearth in the
      literature about CRPs. This exploratory study examined CRP member perceptions
      from across the United States. Researchers collected scaled survey data to
      examine member knowledge, engagement and assessment of panel influence and
      impact, membership composition, and meeting structure. Results revealed that
      panel members lack some knowledge related to the federal mandate guiding their
      work, and data suggest the need for panels to more adroitly recruit and retain
      members representative of the communities in which the panels are formed. After a
      brief review of background literature, this paper will explicate key results,
      discuss these findings, and identify salient practice, policy and research
      implications derived from the study.

PMID- 28886471
TI  - DNA damage by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin-induced p53-mediated apoptosis
      through activation of cytochrome P450/aryl hydrocarbon receptor.
AB  - 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) is a
      persistent and ubiquitous environmental contaminant that causes a wide variety of
      deleterious effects. In this study, the DNA damage and apoptotic activity induced
      by TCDD was examined using in silico and in vitro approaches. In silico study
      showed that conformational changes and energies involved in the binding of TCDD
      to cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) were crucial for its target proteins. Moreover,
      activated TCDD had high affinity to bind with aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR),
      with a binding energy of -564.7 Kcal/mol. Further, TCDD-CYP1B1 complex showed
      strong binding affinity for caspase 3, showing a binding energy of -518.5
      Kcal/mol, and the docking of caspase inhibitors in the complex showed weak
      interaction with low binding energy as compared to TCDD-CYP1B1 caspase complexes.
      Interestingly, TCDD-induced apoptosis was significantly suppressed in Ac-DEVD-CMK
      pretreated cells. The DNA damage activity of TCDD was quantified by comet tail
      formation and gamma-H2AX foci formation in HaCaT cells. The role of CYP1B1 and
      AhR in DNA damage and apoptosis was demonstrated, and clotrimazole as well as
      knockdown of CYP1B1 and AhR could inhibit TCDD activation and suppress DNA damage
      followed by apoptosis in HaCaT cells. Moreover, TCDD increased expression of p53
      and PUMA and our data showed that TCDD induced DNA damage followed by p53
      mediated apoptosis. This study highlights the critical role of CYP1B1 and AhR in
      TCDD activity and proposes that inhibition of these key molecules might serve as
      a potential therapeutic approach for treatment of allergy and cancer.

PMID- 28886472
TI  - Factor VII Tokushima (Cys22->Gly) is not gamma-carboxylated due to a disrupted
      gamma-carboxylase recognition site.

PMID- 28886473
TI  - Strategies for injury prevention in Brazilian football: Perceptions of
      physiotherapists and practices of premier league teams.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe the physiotherapists perceptions and the current
      practices for injury prevention in elite football (soccer) clubs in Brazil.
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Group of Science in Sports & Exercise,
      Federal University of Healthy Sciences of Porto Alegre (Brazil). PARTICIPANTS: 16
      of the 20 football clubs involved in the Brazilian premier league 2015. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: Physiotherapists answered a structured questionnaire. RESULTS:
      Most physiotherapists (~88%) were active in design, testing and application of
      prevention programs. Previous injury, muscle imbalance, fatigue, hydration,
      fitness, diet, sleep/rest and age were considered "very important" or "important"
      injury risk factors by all respondents. The methods most commonly used to detect
      athletes' injury risk were: monitoring of biochemical markers (100% of teams),
      isokinetic dynamometry (81%), questionnaires (75%), functional movement screen
      (56%), fleximetry (56%) and horizontal jump tests (50%). All clubs used strength
      training, functional training, core exercises and balance/proprioception
      exercises in their injury prevention program; and Nordic hamstring exercise and
      other eccentric exercises were used by 94% of clubs. "FIFA 11+" prevention
      program was adapted by 88% of clubs. CONCLUSION: Physiotherapists perceptions and
      current practices of injury prevention within Brazilian elite football clubs were
      similar to those employed in developed countries. There remains a gap between
      clinical practice and scientific evidence in high performance football.

PMID- 28886474
TI  - Functional connectivity of the hippocampus to the thalamocortical circuitry in an
      animal model of absence seizures.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Using the gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) rat model of absence seizures,
      this study investigated the functional connectivity of the hippocampus, thalamus
      and cerebral cortex before and during absence seizures. METHODS: Functional
      connectivity between the hippocampus, thalamus and sensory and motor cortecies,
      were examined by the temporal correlations of the resting state blood-oxygen
      level-dependent (BOLD) signal. Functional connectivity between these regions was
      calculated at baseline, 5min after saline injection, and at 5, 20 and 52min after
      GBL injection. This time interval spans the onset of behaviours including chewing
      and staring spells associated with GBL-induced absence seizures, along with the
      onset and suppression of spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs). RESULTS: Overall there
      was an increase in functional connectivity across most regions. The functional
      connectivity generally decreased over time and it returned to baseline 52min post
      GBL injection. Functional connectivity of the thalamus to the sensory and motor
      cortecies increased during absence seizure. The results revealed enhanced
      connectivity of the left dorsal hippocampus and the thalamus shortly after GBL
      injection, which coincided with the appearance of SWDs in this rat model.
      SIGNIFICANCE: Increased functional connectivity between the hippocampus and the
      thalamus suggests that the hippocampus participates in the GBL model of absence
      seizures. Involvement of the hippocampus during absence seizure has implications
      for studies into the mechanisms in cognitive impairments in patients with absence
      epilepsy.

PMID- 28886475
TI  - Accuracy of screening women at familial risk of breast cancer without a known
      gene mutation: Individual patient data meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Women with a strong family history of breast cancer (BC) and
      without a known gene mutation have an increased risk of developing BC. We aimed
      to investigate the accuracy of screening using annual mammography with or without
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for these women outside the general population
      screening program. METHODS: An individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis was
      conducted using IPD from six prospective screening trials that had included women
      at increased risk for BC: only women with a strong familial risk for BC and
      without a known gene mutation were included in this analysis. A generalised
      linear mixed model was applied to estimate and compare screening accuracy
      (sensitivity, specificity and predictive values) for annual mammography with or
      without MRI. RESULTS: There were 2226 women (median age: 41 years, interquartile
      range 35-47) with 7478 woman-years of follow-up, with a BC rate of 12 (95%
      confidence interval 9.3-14) in 1000 woman-years. Mammography screening had a
      sensitivity of 55% (standard error of mean [SE] 7.0) and a specificity of 94% (SE
      1.3). Screening with MRI alone had a sensitivity of 89% (SE 4.6) and a
      specificity of 83% (SE 2.8). Adding MRI to mammography increased sensitivity to
      98% (SE 1.8, P < 0.01 compared to mammography alone) but lowered specificity to
      79% (SE 2.7, P < 0.01 compared with mammography alone). CONCLUSION: In this
      population of women with strong familial BC risk but without a known gene
      mutation, in whom BC incidence was high both before and after age 50, adding MRI
      to mammography substantially increased screening sensitivity but also decreased
      its specificity.

PMID- 28886476
TI  - Phase I study of axitinib and everolimus in metastatic solid tumours and
      extension to metastatic renal cell carcinoma: Results of EVAX study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Anti-angiogenic and mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors have shown
      efficacy in solid tumours. Reported combination of both drugs was deemed to be
      too toxic. Due to a potential favourable safety profile of axitinib (AX), a phase
      I study combining everolimus (EV) and AX for solid tumours was explored.
      EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Patients (pts) with advanced cancers were enrolled in an
      escalation phase I study to investigate the safety of the combination.
      Pharmacokinetic profile and functional vascular imaging were performed. An
      extension to pts with naive metastatic renal cell carcinoma (MRCC) was explored.
      RESULTS: 15 pts were included over three different dose levels (DLs); DL 0: AX 3
      mg BID (twice daily)/EV 5 mg OD (once daily); DL 1: AX 5 mg BID/EV 5 mg OD and DL
      2: AX 5 mg BID/EV 10 mg OD for 28 d. One dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) was
      reported at DL 0: grade (Gr) III diarrhoea and one DLT at DL 2: Gr III asthenia.
      Three severe adverse events (AEs) in two pts were unexpected: jaw osteonecrosis,
      recurrent renal failure and cardiomyopathy. Maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was
      level 2. After 1st cycle, Gr III or Gr II AEs of interest were mainly asthenia,
      diarrhoea and anorexia. All pts but one showed tumour shrinkage. Partial
      responses (PRs) were seen in one pt with bladder carcinoma and in one pt in 1st
      line MRCC in the escalating phase. In the extension phase in naive MRCC treated
      at MTD, five pts had a PR and one pt had a prolonged stable disease. CONCLUSION:
      The recommended dose for phase II is AX 5 mg BID/EV 10 mg OD.

PMID- 28886477
TI  - Detection of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as a biomarker of oxidative damage
      in peripheral leukocyte DNA by UHPLC-MS/MS.
AB  - 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) is a widely-used biomarker of oxidative DNA
      damages. 8-OHdG in peripheral blood leukocyte is associated with mutation and
      cancer risk. The level of 8-OHdG in peripheral blood leukocytes can indicate a
      long-term response to oxidative stress rather than that in urine. Accurate
      identification and quantification of leukocyte 8-OHdG are essential for
      understanding its mechanism of formation, repair, and biological consequences. In
      this study, a fast and accurate ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem
      mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to detect 8
      OHdG in human peripheral leukocyte. DNA in blood samples were extracted and
      digested, then subjected onto UHPLC-MS/MS using an isocratic elution on a Zorbax
      Eclipse Plus C18 column (2.1*100mm, 1.8MUm). Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)
      mode was adopted by using [15N5]-8-OHdG as an internal standard. The assay was
      linear over the concentration range of 1.0-100nM with R2=0.999. The accuracy for
      spiked samples was 90.9%-94.8%, and the intra-day precision was within 3.7%. The
      limit of detection (LOD) is 0.30nM and limit of quantification (LOQ) is 1.0nM
      with 5MUl of sample injection. By the analysis of human leukocyte 8-OHdG (n=121)
      using the developed UHPLC-MS/MS method, it demonstrates that the level of
      leukocyte 8-OHdG of the cancer patients group (n=46) is significantly higher than
      that of the health control (n=75).

PMID- 28886478
TI  - Chaihu-Shu-Gan-San regulates phospholipids and bile acid metabolism against
      hepatic injury induced by chronic unpredictable stress in rat.
AB  - Chaihu-Shu-Gan-San (CSGS) is a famous classic traditional Chinese medicines (TCM)
      formula for treatment of liver stagnancy recorded in a famous book of traditional
      Chinese medicine, Jing Yue Quan Shu published in 1624. It has been extensively
      accepted as an antidepressant in China and its mechanism of action is still not
      clear. Previously we have found that hepatic injury happens in chronic
      unpredicted mild stress (CUMS). Thus, the protection of CSGS against hepatic
      injury induced by CUMS treatment was explored by metabonomics study and gene
      expression of the rat liver tissue. The results indicated that CSGS improved 8 of
      the 18 perturbed potential biomarkers in liver tissues of rats treated with CUMS,
      and involved in regulating phospholipids and bile acid metabolism against hepatic
      injury induced by CUMS in rat. The expressions of two apoptosis associated genes
      (Bcl-2 and Bax) and four genes (Pnpla6, Pla2g15, Baat and Gad1) related to the
      perturbed metabolic pathways were further investigated by quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Both metabonomics and studies of genetic
      influences on metabolites demonstrated that CSGS inhibited hepatocyte apoptosis,
      and regulated phospholipids and bile acid metabolism against hepatic injury
      induced by CUMS in rat. Exploring the protection of CSGS against hepatic injury
      related to depression further clarify the relationship between CUMS-induced
      depression and hepatic injury, and also provide a novel insight to understand the
      underlying antidepressive mechanism of CSGS.

PMID- 28886480
TI  - Intelligent visual localization of wireless capsule endoscopes enhanced by color
      information.
AB  - Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is performed with a miniature swallowable
      endoscope enabling the visualization of the whole gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
      One of the most challenging problems in WCE is the localization of the capsule
      endoscope (CE) within the GI lumen. Contemporary, radiation-free localization
      approaches are mainly based on the use of external sensors and transit time
      estimation techniques, with practically low localization accuracy. Latest
      advances for the solution of this problem include localization approaches based
      solely on visual information from the CE camera. In this paper we present a novel
      visual localization approach based on an intelligent, artificial neural network,
      architecture which implements a generic visual odometry (VO) framework capable of
      estimating the motion of the CE in physical units. Unlike the conventional,
      geometric, VO approaches, the proposed one is adaptive to the geometric model of
      the CE used; therefore, it does not require any prior knowledge about and its
      intrinsic parameters. Furthermore, it exploits color as a cue to increase
      localization accuracy and robustness. Experiments were performed using a robotic
      assisted setup providing ground truth information about the actual location of
      the CE. The lowest average localization error achieved is 2.70 +/- 1.62 cm, which
      is significantly lower than the error obtained with the geometric approach. This
      result constitutes a promising step towards the in-vivo application of VO, which
      will open new horizons for accurate local treatment, including drug infusion and
      surgical interventions.

PMID- 28886479
TI  - High sensitivity HPLC method for determination of the allysine concentration in
      tissue by use of a naphthol derivative.
AB  - Common to all fibrotic and metastatic diseases is the uncontrollable remodeling
      of tissue that leads to the accumulation of fibrous connective tissue components
      such as collagen and elastin. Build-up of fibrous tissue occurs through the cross
      linking of collagen or elastin monomers, which is initiated through the oxidation
      of lysine residues to form alpha-aminoadipic-delta-semialdehyde (allysine). To
      provide a measure of the extent of collagen oxidation in disease models of
      fibrosis or metastasis, a rapid, sensitive HPLC method was developed to quantify
      the amount of allysine present in tissue. Allysine was reacted with sodium 2
      naphthol-7-sulfonate under conditions typically applied for acid hydrolysis of
      tissues (6M HCl, 110 degrees C, 24h) to prepare AL-NP, a fluorescent bis-naphthol
      derivative of allysine. High performance liquid chromatography was applied for
      analysis of allysine content. Under optimal reaction and detection conditions,
      successful separation of AL-NP was achieved with excellent analytical performance
      attained. Good linear relationship (R2=0.994) between peak area and concentration
      for AL-NP was attained for 0.35-175pmol of analyte. A detection limit of 0.02pmol
      in the standard sample with a 20MUL injection was achieved for AL-NP, with
      satisfactory recovery from 88 to 100% determined. The method was applied in the
      quantification of allysine in healthy and fibrotic mouse lung tissue, with the
      fibrotic tissue showing a 2.5 fold increase in the content of allysine.

PMID- 28886482
TI  - Area-based cell colony surviving fraction evaluation: A novel fully automatic
      approach using general-purpose acquisition hardware.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current methodology for the Surviving Fraction (SF) measurement
      in clonogenic assay, which is a technique to study the anti-proliferative effect
      of treatments on cell cultures, involves manual counting of cell colony forming
      units. This procedure is operator-dependent and error-prone. Moreover, the
      identification of the exact colony number is often not feasible due to the high
      growth rate leading to the adjacent colony merging. As a matter of fact,
      conventional assessment does not deal with the colony size, which is generally
      correlated with the delivered radiation dose or the administered cytotoxic agent.
      METHOD: Considering that the Area Covered by Colony (ACC) is proportional to the
      colony number and size as well as to the growth rate, we propose a novel fully
      automatic approach exploiting Circle Hough Transform, to automatically detect the
      wells in the plate, and local adaptive thresholding, which calculates the
      percentage of ACC for the SF quantification. This measurement relies just on this
      covering percentage and does not consider the colony number, preventing
      inconsistencies due to intra- and inter-operator variability. RESULTS: To
      evaluate the accuracy of the proposed approach, we compared the SFs obtained by
      our automatic ACC-based method against the conventional counting procedure. The
      achieved results (r = 0.9791 and r = 0.9682 on MCF7 and MCF10A cells,
      respectively) showed values highly correlated with the measurements using the
      traditional approach based on colony number alone. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed
      computer-assisted methodology could be integrated in laboratory practice as an
      expert system for the SF evaluation in clonogenic assays.

PMID- 28886481
TI  - Identifying sleep spindles with multichannel EEG and classification optimization.
AB  - Researchers classify critical neural events during sleep called spindles that are
      related to memory consolidation using the method of scalp electroencephalography
      (EEG). Manual classification is time consuming and is susceptible to low inter
      rater agreement. This could be improved using an automated approach. This study
      presents an optimized filter based and thresholding (FBT) model to set up a
      baseline for comparison to evaluate machine learning models using naive features,
      such as raw signals, peak frequency, and dominant power. The FBT model allows us
      to formally define sleep spindles using signal processing but may miss examples
      most human scorers would agree are spindles. Machine learning methods in theory
      should be able to approach performance of human raters but they require a large
      quantity of scored data, proper feature representation, intensive feature
      engineering, and model selection. We evaluate both the FBT model and machine
      learning models with naive features. We show that the machine learning models
      derived from the FBT model improve classification performance. An automated
      approach designed for the current data was applied to the DREAMS dataset [1].
      With one of the expert's annotation as a gold standard, our pipeline yields an
      excellent sensitivity that is close to a second expert's scores and with the
      advantage that it can classify spindles based on multiple channels if more
      channels are available. More importantly, our pipeline could be modified as a
      guide to aid manual annotation of sleep spindles based on multiple channels
      quickly (6-10 s for processing a 40-min EEG recording), making spindle detection
      faster and more objective.

PMID- 28886483
TI  - A window-based time series feature extraction method.
AB  - This study proposes a robust similarity score-based time series feature
      extraction method that is termed as Window-based Time series Feature ExtraCtion
      (WTC). Specifically, WTC generates domain-interpretable results and involves
      significantly low computational complexity thereby rendering itself useful for
      densely sampled and populated time series datasets. In this study, WTC is applied
      to a proprietary action potential (AP) time series dataset on human
      cardiomyocytes and three precordial leads from a publicly available
      electrocardiogram (ECG) dataset. This is followed by comparing WTC in terms of
      predictive accuracy and computational complexity with shapelet transform and fast
      shapelet transform (which constitutes an accelerated variant of the shapelet
      transform). The results indicate that WTC achieves a slightly higher
      classification performance with significantly lower execution time when compared
      to its shapelet-based alternatives. With respect to its interpretable features,
      WTC has a potential to enable medical experts to explore definitive common trends
      in novel datasets.

PMID- 28886485
TI  - Development of an epitope-based vaccine inhibiting immune cells rolling and
      migration against atherosclerosis using in silico approaches.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by formation of
      pro-oxidative lipids in large and medium-sized vessels. Over the years, many
      treatments and drugs have entered the market to improve atherosclerosis and
      autoantigen-mediated active immunization is currently considered as a beneficial
      method. Therefore, this study was conducted to design a novel epitope-based
      vaccine against atherosclerosis employing CD99, CD81 and CD99L2 antigens. In this
      way, structural vaccinology approaches were used to design a novel multi-epitope
      vaccine against atherosclerosis. Six epitopes were predicted from CD99, CD81 and
      CD99L2 proteins. In addition, helper epitopes selected from Tetanus toxin
      fragment C (TTFrC)ion were applied to induce CD4+ helper T lymphocytes (HTLs)
      responses. Moreover, cholera toxin B (CTB) was employed as an adjuvant. Finally,
      EAAAK AND GPGPG sequences as linkers were considered to make a linkage between
      favorite peptide sequences. A multi-epitope construction was designed based on
      the predicted epitopes which was 270 residues in length. Further immunoinformatic
      analyses were carried out to assess physicochemical properties, secondary and
      tertiary structures, stability, intrinsic protein disorder, solubility, and
      allergenicity of this chimeric protein. Based on the obtained results, a soluble,
      and non-allergic protein with a molecular weight of 28.7kDa was designed. Further
      analyses revealed that the chimeric protein is a stable protein and the predicted
      epitopes indicated strong potential to induce B-cell and T-cell mediated immune
      response. Our immunoinformatic analyses revealed that the modeled multi-epitope
      vaccine had appropriate properties,which can properly stimulate the immune
      responses of both T and B cells.

PMID- 28886484
TI  - Augmentation of intracellular iron using iron sucrose enhances the toxicity of
      pharmacological ascorbate in colon cancer cells.
AB  - Pharmacological doses (> 1mM) of ascorbate (a.k.a., vitamin C) have been shown to
      selectively kill cancer cells through a mechanism that is dependent on the
      generation of H2O2 at doses that are safely achievable in humans using
      intravenous administration. The process by which ascorbate oxidizes to form H2O2
      is thought to be mediated catalytically by redox active metal ions such as iron
      (Fe). Because intravenous iron sucrose is often administered to colon cancer
      patients to help mitigate anemia, the current study assessed the ability of
      pharmacological ascorbate to kill colon cancer cells in the presence and absence
      of iron sucrose. In vitro survival assays showed that 10mM ascorbate exposure
      (2h) clonogenically inactivated 40-80% of exponentially growing colon cancer cell
      lines (HCT116 and HT29). When the H2O2 scavenging enzyme, catalase, was added to
      the media, or conditionally over-expressed using a doxycycline inducible vector,
      the toxicity of pharmacological ascorbate was significantly blunted. When colon
      cancer cells were treated in the presence or absence of 250uM iron sucrose, then
      rinsed, and treated with 10mM ascorbate, the cells demonstrated increased levels
      of labile iron that resulted in significantly increased clonogenic cell killing,
      compared to pharmacological ascorbate alone. Interestingly, when colon cancer
      cells were treated with iron sucrose for 1h and then 10mM ascorbate was added to
      the media in the continued presence of iron sucrose, there was no enhancement of
      toxicity despite similar increases in intracellular labile iron. The combination
      of iron chelators, deferoxamine and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid,
      significantly inhibited the toxicity of either ascorbate alone or ascorbate
      following iron sucrose. These observations support the hypothesis that increasing
      intracellular labile iron pools, using iron sucrose, can be used to increase the
      toxicity of pharmacological ascorbate in human colon cancer cells by a mechanism
      involving increased generation of H2O2.

PMID- 28886486
TI  - The seed to success: The role of seminal plasma in pregnancy.
AB  - A lack of immunologic tolerance of the mother toward her child and in
      placentation can result in early or late pregnancy complications, including
      implantation failure, miscarriage, preeclampsia, and fetal growth restriction.
      Seminal plasma has the potential of influencing the maternal immune system for
      acceptance of the semi-allogeneic fetus. Here we elaborate on studies which
      provide evidence that an optimal balance of pro-inflammatory and immunomodulatory
      factors is necessary for the induction of immunologic tolerance and the process
      of implantation and placentation. Seminal plasma is a source of immunological
      mediators at conception, which can influence the function of maternal immune
      cells. Identifying the relevant factors in seminal plasma and the mechanisms by
      which they affect the maternal reproductive tract in relation to pregnancy
      outcome is a challenge for future research.

PMID- 28886487
TI  - Numerical modeling of specimen geometry for quantitative energy dispersive X-ray
      spectroscopy.
AB  - Transmission electron microscopy specimens typically exhibit local distortion at
      thin foil edges, which can influence the absorption of X-rays for quantitative
      energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Here, we report a numerical, three
      dimensional approach to model the geometry of general specimens and its influence
      on quantification when using single and multiple detector configurations. As a
      function of specimen tilt, we show that the model correctly predicts the
      asymmetric nature of X-ray counts and ratios. When using a single detector, we
      show that complex specimen geometries can introduce significant uncertainty in
      EDS quantification. Further, we show that this uncertainty can be largely negated
      by collection with multiple detectors placed symmetrically about the sample such
      as the FEI Super-X configuration. Based on guidance provided by the model, we
      propose methods to reduce quantification error introduced by the sample shape.
      The source code is available at https://github.com/subangstrom/superAngle.

PMID- 28886488
TI  - Optimization of monochromated TEM for ultimate resolution imaging and ultrahigh
      resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy.
AB  - The performance of a monochromated transmission electron microscope with Wien
      type monochromator is optimized to achieve an extremely narrow energy spread of
      electron beam and an ultrahigh energy resolution with spectroscopy. The energy
      spread in the beam is improved by almost an order of magnitude as compared to
      specified values. The optimization involves both the monochromator and the
      electron energy loss detection system. We demonstrate boosted capability of
      optimized systems with respect to ultra-low loss EELS and sub-angstrom resolution
      imaging (in a combination with spherical aberration correction).

PMID- 28886490
TI  - Interleukin-6 in irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis
      of IL-6 (-G174C) and circulating IL-6 levels.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional
      gastrointestinal disorder which presents with abdominal pain and alterations of
      the bowel habits. The pathophysiology of IBS is not well-recognized. Low grade
      inflammation has been suggested as one of the underlying mechanisms of IBS.
      Variations in the circulating pro-inflammatory interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels and IL
      6 gene polymorphisms have been demonstrated in IBS. However, the results of
      published studies are not consistent, probably due to their small sample sizes.
      To address this inconsistency, we conducted the current systematic review and
      meta-analysis on serum/plasma IL-6 levels and IL-6 (-G174C; rs1800795) gene
      polymorphism in IBS. METHODS: PubMed was searched in July 2016. Case-control
      studies on serum/plasma IL-6 levels and IL-6 (-G174C) gene polymorphisms in IBS
      versus control were retrieved. The quality of studies was evaluated based on the
      modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) with 0 indicating the lowest and 9 as the
      highest score. Results were pooled using: (a) the standardized mean difference
      (SMD) for IL-6 levels which was considered statistically significant when the 0
      value was not within the 95% confidence interval (CI), or (b) odds ratio (OR; 95%
      CI) through converting and pooling the IL-6 (-G174C) genotypes and alleles data
      into individual 2*2 tables. Heterogeneity was assessed based on I2 values; where
      I2<=50% and I2>50% designated using fixed and random effect models, respectively.
      RESULTS: Circulating IL-6 levels are higher in IBS patients compared to controls
      (SMD: 2.40 [95%CI: 0.53-4.28]; p=0.01). Categorizing data based on IBS subtypes,
      showed that IL-6 level is significantly higher in diarrhea predominant IBS (IBS
      D) compared to control (SMD: 2.62 [95%CI: 0.29-4.95]; p=0.03), while it is
      comparable in constipation predominant IBS (IBS-C) and alternating IBS (IBS-A)
      patients with healthy controls. The meta-analysis of IL-6 (-G174C) polymorphism
      in IBS and based on IBS subtypes showed no difference in the distribution of
      genotypes or alleles compared to control. CONCLUSION: The higher IL-6 levels in
      IBS and more specifically in IBS-D suggests a pro-inflammatory phenotype in these
      patients, while this phenomenon is not supported by the polymorphism of IL-6 (
      G174C). Increased IL-6 in IBS might be an acquired phenomenon or mediated by
      other genotypes. Any potential association between gene polymorphisms and IL-6
      levels in IBS should be tested by assessing both IL-6 levels and IL-6 (-G174C)
      simultaneously in the same IBS subjects compared to their healthy controls.
      Categorizing patients based on their circulating IL-6 levels may introduce a new
      opportunity for personalized anti-inflammatory therapies of IBS.

PMID- 28886489
TI  - Increased plasma sCXCL16 levels may have a relationship with Th1/Th2 imbalance in
      primary immune thrombocytopenia.
AB  - Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is a disease of autoimmunity in which there
      are Th1/Th2 imbalance and disordered cytokine profiles. CXC chemokine ligand 16
      (CXCL16) was proved to implicate in some autoimmune diseases. Our research aimed
      to determine plasma soluble CXCL16 (sCXCL16) levels and its effects in ITP. We
      used ELISA to measure plasma sCXCL16, IFN-gamma and IL-4 and flow cytometry to
      determine expression of CXCR6 on lymphocyte subsets. We used real-time PCR to
      detect the CXCL16 and CXCR6 mRNA expression. Additionally, plasma sCXCL16, CXCL16
      and CXCR6 mRNA levels of 8 patients were monitored before and after treatment. We
      found that patients with active ITP had higher circulating sCXCL16 in plasma than
      healthy controls and patients in remission. Meanwhile, negative relationships
      between sCXCL16 and platelet count, IL-4 and positive relationships between
      sCXCL16 and IFN-gamma, IFN-gamma/IL-4 ratio were observed. Besides, expression of
      CXCR6 on lymphocyte subsets and mRNA levels of CXCL16 and CXCR6 were all
      increased in active ITP. Additionally, plasma sCXCL16 and IFN-gamma levels and
      CXCR6 mRNA expression were down-regulated after effective treatment compared with
      those before treatment. Thus, increased plasma sCXCL16 might be implicated in the
      pathogenesis of ITP and have a relationship with Th1/Th2 imbalance.

PMID- 28886491
TI  - Interleukin 34, from pathogenesis to clinical applications.
AB  - Interleukin-34 (IL-34) is a hematopoietic cytokine that was described for the
      first time in 2008 as a second ligand of CSF1R in addition to M-CSF. IL-34 and M
      CSF share no sequence homology, but have similar functions, affecting the biology
      of myeloid cell lineage. In contrast to M-CSF, IL-34 shows unique signaling and
      expression patterns. Physiologically, IL-34 expression is restricted to epidermis
      and CNS, acting as a regulator of Langerhans cells and microglia, respectively.
      However, IL-34 expression can be induced and regulated by NF-kappaB under
      pathological conditions. Importantly, growing evidence indicates a correlation
      between IL-34 and disease severity, chronicity and progression. In addition to
      its promising roles as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of disease, IL
      34 may also serve as a powerful target for therapeutic intervention. Here, we
      review the current knowledge regarding the emerging roles of IL-34 in disease,
      and focus on the clinical applications of IL-34 in medicine.

PMID- 28886492
TI  - The dynamics of prehospital/hospital care and modes of transport during civil
      conflict and terrorist incidents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prehospital and hospital care during incidents of mass violence and
      civil conflict involve a number of aspects that distinguish it from care during
      times of peace. We aimed to analyze the dynamics and outcomes of prehospital and
      hospital care during ongoing conflicts. STUDY DESIGN: Multicentric prospective
      observational study. METHOD: Patients enrolled in the study, which was conducted
      in Turkey, were all injured in armed conflict and taken to level 1 trauma
      centers. On admittance, patients were requested to complete a semistructured
      questionnaire containing questions on patient demographics, transport type,
      weapons used, injury severity score (ISS), and other incident-related factors. We
      analyzed patient outcomes (mortality, morbidity, complications, and length of
      hospital stay) and transfers of patients between hospitals. The present study
      evaluated the cases of 390 victims enrolled over a 9-month period and followed up
      for 6 months. RESULTS: The majority of patients were transported by ambulances (n
      = 334, 85.6%); other transport modes were helicopters (n = 32, 8.2%) and private
      vehicles (n = 24, 6.2%). Nearly half of patients (48.7%) did not benefit by
      changing hospitals. During transport to hospitals, 4.1% of the vehicles in the
      study were involved in accidents. Using multiple regression analysis, only ISS
      (odds ratio [OR]: 1.098, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.044-1.156) and the
      Glasgow Coma Scale (OR: 0.744, 95% CI: 0.639-0.866) were found to affect
      mortality. In Receiver-operator characteristic analysis, a cutoff value of 22.5
      for ISS had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 89.6% for mortality.
      CONCLUSIONS: Despite lower ISS values, patient outcomes were worse in terror
      incidents/civil conflicts. Transport modes did not significantly affect outcomes,
      whereas hospital transport was found to be inefficiently used.

PMID- 28886493
TI  - The elderly and falls: Factors associated with quality of life A cross-sectional
      study using large-scale national data in Korea.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the factors of fall injury and measuring the
      relationship between health-related quality of life in the elderly. METHODS: We
      analyzed the data on 38,627 persons of aged 65 years or older who have
      experienced falls drawn from the Korean Community Health Survey 2011. Binomial
      logistic regression analysis was performed with crude and adjusted odds ratios
      and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: It was found that sex (OR: 1.187), types
      of household (OR: 1.134), employment status (OR: 0.941), stress (OR: 1.260),
      comorbidities (OR: 1.308), and health-related quality of life were significantly
      related to falls among the elderly. Specifically, elderly women, greater stress,
      comorbidities, and poor health-related quality of life were strongly related to
      higher odds of falls. CONCLUSION: Health-related quality of life was
      significantly related with the risk of fall injuries in elderly households.
      Providing support for informal caregivers (e.g., friends or neighbors), not only
      family members could expect to positive effect.

PMID- 28886494
TI  - The elder physical abuse reflected in judicial authorities in Eskisehir.
AB  - AIM: Elder abuse is a health and human rights problem that may occur among every
      race and ethnic group all around the world. This study aims at describing all
      cases of physical abuse of elderly which have been reported to, and investigated
      by Eskisehir - a western city of Turkey. METHODS: Physical abuse incidents above
      65 years of age which were evaluated by the Eskisehir Council of Forensic
      Medicine for expert witness opinion during 5year period between 01.01.2010 and
      12.31.2014 are examined in this descriptive, cross-sectional study. RESULTS: 253
      cases are found and evaluated in the scope of the study. It is determined that
      all aggressors are the acquaintance of the victim, and for 114 cases (45.1%) the
      aggressor is the victim's son. It is found that only investigation procedures of
      cases are completed, but no protection and rehabilitation program has been
      issued. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, it is determined that elder victims are abused
      by family members and relatives who are mostly the care givers. It is seen that
      emergency physicians play a great role in the detection of abuse.

PMID- 28886495
TI  - Assessing the environmental impact of phenanthrene in different types of land use
      based on the binding characteristics with dissolved organic matter.
AB  - The binding characteristics of phenanthrene with dissolved organic matter (DOM)
      were studied by the excitation emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy with
      parallel factor analysis in four types of land use which derived from forest (F),
      meadow (M), cropland (C), and greenhouse (G). The results showed that the
      humification degree and binding characteristics of phenanthrene with DOM were
      distinct differences in the four soils. The binding capacities of humic-like
      components with phenanthrene were stronger than those of protein-like components.
      The log K derived from the Stern-Volmer equation significantly correlated with
      the humification degree of DOM (p < 0.05) in different types of land use.
      Besides, correlation analysis demonstrated that the potential binding index (Fk)
      obtained from the modified Stern-Volmer model was a more accurate parameter to
      describe the combination degree of DOM with phenanthrene than log K, which
      presented a decrease order of C > F > M > G. Therefore, the environmental impact
      of phenanthrene in different types of land use could be assessed deeply based on
      the Fk and DOM concentration.

PMID- 28886496
TI  - Convulsive status epilepticus in a quaternary hospital paediatric intensive care
      unit (PICU) in South Africa: An 8 year review.
AB  - PURPOSE: Convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) is associated with a high morbidity
      and mortality. This study aimed to describe the clinical profile, aetiology,
      neuroimaging and EEG findings as well as outcome of children with CSE in Sub
      Saharan Africa. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of electronic records
      of children with CSE admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) over
      an 8-year period from January 2007 to December 2014. RESULTS: Seventy six
      patients were admitted to the PICU with CSE and 55(72%) had refractory status
      epilepticus. The median age at presentation was 15 months (IQR 6-37 months). The
      main aetiologies were meningoencephalitis and gastroenteritis in 33(43%) and
      19(25%) patients respectively. The most frequently used antiepileptic drugs for
      CSE in PICU consisted of infusions of midazolam (96%) and thiopentone (22%).
      Neuroimaging findings were abnormal in 53(75%) patients with hypoxic changes in
      17 patients. On multivariable regression, the predictors of poor outcome included
      the use of more than 3 antiepileptic drugs in PICU(RR-1.41(1.12-1.78), p=0.003),
      duration of mechanical ventilation for more than 3days (RR 1.98(1.22-3.20),
      p=0.005) and abnormal neuroimaging findings (RR 3.21(1.53-6.72), p=0.002). The
      mortality rate was 24%(n=18). Persistent seizures or a new neurological deficit
      occurred in 58%(n=44). The main cause of mortality was CSE related diffuse
      cortical and brainstem injury. Predominant neurological sequelae were cerebral
      palsy and persistent epilepsy. CONCLUSION: The high burden of infection related
      CSE is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates in contrast to the
      rates in developed countries. This highlights the need for early recognition and
      treatment of underlying conditions.

PMID- 28886497
TI  - Development of a 2-h suicide prevention program for medical staff including
      nurses and medical residents: A two-center pilot trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Suicide is a crucial global health concern and effective suicide
      prevention has long been warranted. Mental illness, especially depression is the
      highest risk factor of suicide. Suicidal risk is increased in people not only
      with mental illness but also with physical illnesses, thus medical staff caring
      for physically-ill patients are also required to manage people with suicidal
      risk. In the present study, we evaluated our newly developed suicide intervention
      program among medical staff. METHODS: We developed a 2-h suicide intervention
      program for medical staff, based on the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), which had
      originally been developed for the general population. We conducted this program
      for 74 medical staff members from 2 hospitals. Changes in knowledge, perceived
      skills, and confidence in early intervention of depression and suicide-prevention
      were evaluated using self-reported questionnaires at 3 points; pre-program,
      immediately after the program, and 1 month after program. RESULTS: This suicide
      prevention program had significant effects on improving perceived skills and
      confidence especially among nurses and medical residents. These significant
      effects lasted even 1 month after the program. LIMITATIONS: Design was a single
      arm study with relatively small sample size and short-term follow up.
      CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that the major target of this effective
      program is nurses and medical residents. Future research is required to validate
      the effects of the program with control groups, and also to assess long-term
      effectiveness and actual reduction in suicide rates.

PMID- 28886498
TI  - The neurobiology of brain recovery from traumatic stress: A longitudinal DTI
      study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies demonstrated decreased brain microstructure
      integrity in people that were exposed to extreme life stress but did not meet
      posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic criteria. It is unclear how the
      brain recovers from traumatic stress in these trauma-exposed non-PTSD people
      (TENP). METHODS: Twenty-two TENP individuals were recruited from the most
      affected area of Wenchuan quake, and scanned twenty-five days after the quake and
      at a two-year follow-up. Tract-based spatial statistics was used to examine brain
      microstructure changes over the two years. Correlation analyses were conducted to
      investigate relationships between brain microstructure changes and both stress
      recovery and demographic factors. To assess DTI stability, fifteen healthy
      subjects were scanned twice in a year and analysed similarly. RESULTS:
      Significantly increased fractional anisotropy (FA) was found in the left
      posterior limb of internal capsule, left superior and posterior corona radiata
      (SCR and PCR), and left external capsule. The FA increase of these regions was
      primarily a result of radial diffusivity reduction. Recovery in symptoms was
      positively correlated with FA increase of SCR. Changes were related to
      participant age and sex. No DTI measures were changed for the healthy subjects.
      LIMITATIONS: Generalizability of the findings was constrained by the relatively
      small sample size. CONCLUSIONS: The TENP individuals showed a recovery from the
      trauma over the follow-up, and that was accompanied with increased brain
      microstructure integrity in fiber tracts primarily involving corticostriatal
      networks. These changes may contribute to the psychological resilience to a
      severe life stress that led to PTSD in quake victims. In particular,this study
      adds to Psychoradiology, which is a promising subspecialty for clinical radiology
      focusing on psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28886500
TI  - Peripheral proinflammatory cytokines in Chinese patients with generalised anxiety
      disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammatory responses and inflammatory cytokines have been
      implicated in the pathogenesis of affective disorders, particularly major
      depression. Given the limited evidence relating to the potential role of
      proinflammatory cytokines in generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), we aimed to
      examine peripheral proinflammatory cytokines in Chinese patients with GAD.
      METHODS: A case-controlled cross-sectional study design, with recruitment of 48
      patients with first episode GAD and 48 matched healthy controls. All participants
      completed measures of anxiety using well-established questionnaires, and serum
      levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured using multiplex technology.
      RESULTS: Serum levels of CRP, IL-1alpha, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, IFN-gamma, and
      GM-CSF were significantly higher in the GAD group in comparison to the control
      group (p < 0.05). Pearson correlation revealed significant positive correlations
      between anxiety measures and serum levels of CRP, IL-1alpha, IL-6, IL-8, IFN
      gamma, and GM-CSF (p < 0.05). LIMITATIONS: The cross-sectional study design does
      not permit definite conclusions on causal directions between inflammation and
      GAD. The study was limited to a panel of 8 cytokines and does not exclude the
      possibility of other important cytokines being involved. CONCLUSIONS: These
      findings indicate an elevated peripheral proinflammatory response, and provide
      further support for low grade inflammation in GAD. Further research may identify
      an 'inflammatory signature' for diagnosis and treatment response, and guide the
      search for novel pharmacological interventions.

PMID- 28886499
TI  - Increased reward-oriented impulsivity in older bipolar patients: A preliminary
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Impulsivity is a well-established trait of bipolar disorder (BD) that
      persists across mood phases. It is, however, still unknown whether, in BD,
      impulsivity remains stable or varies in intensity over the lifespan. This cross
      sectional study compared impulsive behavior in older euthymic BD patients and
      healthy individuals using a range of self-rating and behavioral measures of
      impulsivity. METHODS: 28 BD patients (56.07 +/- 4.08 years, 16 women) and 15
      healthy controls (HC; 55.1 +/- 3.95 years, 6 women) were administered the Barratt
      Impulsivity Scale (BIS) and selected tasks of the Cambridge Neuropsychological
      Test Automated Batter (CANTAB) reflecting impulsivity. Multivariate analysis of
      variance controlled for age compared impulsivity measures across BD and HC.
      RESULTS: BD patients displayed poor decision making, risk taking, and increased
      delay aversion. Other measures of impulsivity such as response inhibition,
      sustained cognitive control, and BIS scores were, overall, comparable between BD
      and HC. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary findings suggest that, in BD, aspects of
      impulsivity related to reward-based decision making persist into late adulthood.
      Large scale, longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the relationship of age
      to impulsivity over time, and explore the link between impulsivity and illness
      progression in elderly individuals with BD.

PMID- 28886501
TI  - Global grey matter volume in adult bipolar patients with and without lithium
      treatment: A meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The goal of this meta-analysis was to quantitatively summarize the
      evidence available on the differences in grey matter volume between lithium
      treated and lithium-free bipolar patients. METHODS: A systematic search was
      conducted in Cochrane Central, Embase, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO databases for
      original peer-reviewed journal articles that reported on global grey matter
      volume in lithium-medicated and lithium-free bipolar patients. Standard mean
      difference and Hedges' g were used to calculate effect size in a random-effects
      model. Risk of publication bias was assessed using Egger's test and quality of
      evidence was assessed using standard criteria. RESULTS: There were 15 studies
      with a total of 854 patients (368 lithium-medicated, 486 lithium-free) included
      in the meta-analysis. Global grey matter volume was significantly larger in
      lithium-treated bipolar patients compared to lithium-free patients (SMD: 0.17,
      95% CI: 0.01-0.33; z = 2.11, p = 0.035). Additionally, there was a difference in
      global grey matter volume between groups in studies that employed semi-automated
      segmentation methods (SMD: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.01-1.31; z = 1.99, p = 0.047), but no
      significant difference in studies that used fully-automated segmentation. No
      publication bias was detected (bias coefficient = - 0.65, p = 0.46). LIMITATIONS:
      Variability in imaging methods and lack of high-quality evidence limits the
      interpretation of the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that lithium-treated
      patients have a greater global grey matter volume than those who were lithium
      free. Further study of the relationship between lithium and grey matter volume
      may elucidate the therapeutic potential of lithium in conditions characterized by
      abnormal changes in brain structure.

PMID- 28886502
TI  - Nature-Based Solutions in the EU: Innovating with nature to address social,
      economic and environmental challenges.
AB  - Contemporary societies are facing a broad range of challenges, from pressures on
      human health and well-being to natural capital depletion, and the security of
      food, water and energy. These challenges are deeply intertwined with global
      processes, such as climate change and with local events such as natural
      disasters. The EU's research & innovation (R&I) policy is now seeking to address
      these challenges from a new perspective, with Nature-Based Solutions, and turn
      them into innovation opportunities that optimise the synergies between nature,
      society and the economy. Nature-Based Solutions can be an opportunity for
      innovation, and are here promoted by both policymakers and practitioners as a
      cost-effective way of creating a greener, more sustainable, and more competitive
      economy. Since 2013, the European Commission has devoted particular attention to
      Nature-Based Solutions through consultations and dialogues that sought to make
      the concept of these solutions more concrete and to define the concept's place
      within the spectrum of ecosystem-based approaches. In 2014, the Commission
      launched an expert group, which conducted further analysis, and made
      recommendations to help increase the use of Nature-Based Solutions and bring
      nature back into cities. In 2015, a survey was conducted on citizens' views and
      perceptions of 'Nature in Cities' to provide further insight for future work.
      Based on these elements and on results from running EU projects, the Commission
      has developed an R&I agenda for Nature-Based Solutions and has published targeted
      calls for proposals for large-scale demonstration projects in this field in 2016
      and 2017. Additional R&I actions at EU level that promote systemic Nature-Based
      Solutions and their benefits to cities and territories are planned with the aim
      to improve the implementation capacity and evidence base for deploying Nature
      Based Solutions and developing corresponding future markets. They are also
      expected to foster an interdisciplinary R&I and stakeholder community and the
      exchange of good practices in this field, as well as help shaping and
      implementing international R&I agendas on Nature-Based Solutions.

PMID- 28886503
TI  - Developing and testing transferability and feasibility of a model for educators
      using simulation-based learning - A European collaboration.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a pragmatic and often inconsistent approach of embedding
      simulation-based learning into nursing programmes. This paper details a European
      collaboration that designed a model for educator facilitation for educators
      utilizing simulation-based education. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study
      were to develop a model to educate the educators who deliver simulation-based
      learning and to test to which extent this model could be transferred to education
      providers in different national settings. METHODS: This model, its
      transferability and feasibility, was tested across three European countries.
      Educators from three Schools of Nursing participated in the study. Design-based
      Research was used as an overall methodology. Data were collected by the use of
      pre- and post-programme questionnaires and focus groups. RESULTS: The content of
      the NESTLED model is consistent with the needs of the participants. The testing
      also demonstrated that the model is transferable across-countries. Additionally,
      the participants' preferences regarding amount of time and pre-reading for the
      different sessions vary depending on the background and level of seniority of the
      individual participant. CONCLUSION: The testing of the NESTLED model demonstrated
      that participants gained confidence and knowledge from undertaking the programme.
      Delivering the NESTLED model across-countries was found to be feasible, but
      flexibility is required in terms of logistical delivery of the programme.

PMID- 28886504
TI  - Experiences of service users involved in recruitment for nursing courses: A
      phenomenological research study.
AB  - The aim of this study was to gain insight into service users' experiences of
      participating in recruitment for Adult, Mental Health and Child nursing studies
      at the authors' university; to establish potential motivations behind such
      participation; and to make suggestions for improved future practice. The
      involvement of service users in nurse education and recruitment has for some
      years been required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, but there is a dearth
      of publications on the meaning of that involvement to participating service
      users. It is hoped that this study will contribute to this body of knowledge. A
      phenomenological approach was selected, field-specific focus groups of service
      users being facilitated using a semi-structured interview format; these were
      audio recorded and transcribed. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
      Participation was subject to the service users having been involved in
      recruitment to nursing studies at the authors' university and the focus groups
      took place either at the university or at the child participants' school. Themes
      identified demonstrated largely positive experiences and a sense of meaningful
      involvement for all concerned. Findings indicated a close link between the values
      of the participants and those of the wider NHS, benefits to a sense of wellbeing
      and achievement, as well as the need for greater ownership of the recruitment
      process by service users. Potential lessons for academics wishing to promote
      greater service user involvement in student recruitment are articulated.

PMID- 28886505
TI  - A dual-responsive colorimetric and fluorescent chemosensor based on
      diketopyrrolopyrrole derivative for naked-eye detection of Fe3+ and its practical
      application.
AB  - A novel dual-responsive colorimetric and fluorescent chemosensor L based on
      diketopyrrolopyrrole derivative for Fe3+ detection was designed and synthesized.
      In presence of Fe3+, sensor L displayed strong colorimetric response as amaranth
      to rose pink and significant fluorescence enhancement and chromogenic change,
      which served as a naked-eye indicator by an obvious color change from purple to
      red. The binding constant for L-Fe3+ complex was found as 2.4*104 with the lower
      detection limit of 14.3nM. The sensing mechanism was investigated in detail by
      fluorescence measurements, IR and 1H NMR spectra. Sensor L for Fe3+ detection
      also exhibited high anti-interference performance, good reversibility, wide pH
      response range and instantaneous response time. Furthermore, the sensor L has
      been used to quantify Fe3+ ions in practical water samples with good recovery.

PMID- 28886506
TI  - Dual fluorescence of (E)-N-(4-(dimethylamino)benzylidene)-2H-1,2,4-triazol-3
      amine (DMABA-Amtr): A ground state perspective.
AB  - We present the absorption and fluorescence spectra of (E)-N-(4
      (dimethylamino)benzylidene)-2H-1,2,4-triazol-3-amine (DMABA-Amtr), an electron
      donor-pi-acceptor system. The molecule shows a single fluorescence emission band
      in non-polar solvents while dual emissions were observed in polar aprotic
      solvents. Although several researchers over the years provide different
      explanations for the mechanism of the phenomena, based on solvent assisted
      excited state geometry changes of such systems, it is still a matter of
      controversy since such systems are unique as they contradict Kasha's rule. The
      emission spectrum of the molecule shows strong dependence on solvent polarity and
      excitation wavelength. This observation together with a single iso-emissive point
      found in the area normalize emission spectra indicates the presence of two ground
      state equilibrium structures of the compound which are both fluorescent. Density
      functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent (TD-DFT) calculations also support the
      experimental findings.

PMID- 28886507
TI  - SERS study of surface plasmon resonance induced carrier movement in Au@Cu2O core
      shell nanoparticles.
AB  - A plasmon induced carrier movement enhanced mechanism of surface-enhanced Raman
      scattering (SERS) was investigated using a charge-transfer (CT) enhancement
      mechanism. Here, we designed a strategy to study SERS in Au@Cu2O nanoshell
      nanoparticles with different shell thicknesses. Among the plasmonically coupled
      nanostructures, Au spheres with Cu2O shells have been of special interest due to
      their ultrastrong electromagnetic fields and controllable carrier transfer
      properties, which are useful for SERS. Au@Cu2O nanoshell nanoparticles (NPs) with
      shell thicknesses of 48-56nm are synthesized that exhibit high SERS activity.
      This high activity originates from plasmonic-induced carrier transfer from
      Au@Cu2O to 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA). The CT transition from the valence band
      (VB) of Cu2O to the second excited pi-pi* transition of MBA, and is of b2
      electronic symmetry, which was enhanced significantly. The Herzberg-Teller
      selection rules were employed to predict the observed enhanced b2 symmetry modes.
      The system constructed in this study combines the long-range electromagnetic
      effect of Au NPs, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the Au@Cu2O
      nanoshell, and the CT contribution to assist in understanding the SERS mechanism
      based on LSPR-induced carrier movement in metal/semiconductor nanocomposites.

PMID- 28886508
TI  - Effects of clinico-pathological risk factors on in-vitro mechanical properties of
      human dilated ascending aorta.
AB  - Ascending aorta aneurysms (AsAA) are associated with a degeneration of the aortic
      wall tissue, which leads to changes in tissue mechanical properties. Risk factors
      for the development of the AsAA disease are recognized in patient age and gender,
      valve type, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking history, and a prior
      diagnosis of Marfan syndrome. The present study aims to assess how such clinico
      pathological factors can affect the mechanical properties of human dilated
      ascending aorta. Specimens of AsAA are excised from 68 patients who underwent
      elective AsAA surgical repair and stretched until rupture during the execution of
      uniaxial tensile tests. Experimental stress-stretch curves are used to determine
      tissue mechanical properties (stress and stretch at failure point and at
      transition point, low and high elastic modulus). Data are divided into groups
      according to region (anterior vs posterior), direction (circumferential vs
      longitudinal), and then according to age (young vs old), gender (male vs female),
      valve type (tricuspid aortic valve, TAV, vs bicuspid aortic valve, BAV), and
      presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and/or Marfan syndrome (yes/no).
      Moreover, data are grouped according to the critical value of body mass index
      (BMI), maximum AsAA diameter, and aortic stiffness index (ASI), respectively.
      Finally, a non-parametric statistical analysis is performed to find possible
      significant differences and correlations between mechanical properties and
      clinico-pathological data. Our results confirm the anisotropy and heterogeneity
      of the AsAA tissue and highlight that ageing and hypertension make the AsAA
      tissue weaker and less extensible, whereas the valve type affects the tissue
      strength with higher values in BAV than in TAV patients. No effects of gender,
      critical BMI, critical maximum AsAA diameter, critical ASI, smoking status, and
      presence of diabetes mellitus, and Marfan syndrome are evidenced.

PMID- 28886509
TI  - Acridone-pyrimidine hybrids- design, synthesis, cytotoxicity studies in resistant
      and sensitive cancer cells and molecular docking studies.
AB  - Hybrid systems of acridones with substituted pyrimidines were designed with an
      objective of discovering next generation anticancer agents targeting multiple
      mechanisms in the cancer cell. Hybrid compounds were synthesized by simple and
      convenient methods in the lab, characterized by NMR and Mass spectral methods and
      screened for cytotoxicity against A549 (lung), Hela (cervical), MCF7 (breast) and
      MDA-MB-231 (breast) cancer cell lines respectively. Evaluation of compounds for
      cell proliferation identified active compounds 11b, 11d and 11h against MCF7, MDA
      MB-231 and A549 cell lines. Further absorption titrations with CT-DNA and gel
      electrophoresis identified that hybrid molecules displayed anticancer activity
      partly by DNA intercalation. Also further results of western blotting assay with
      Akt kinase identified that hybrid compounds have the ability to inhibit the Akt
      kinase activity and induce apoptosis, with ABCC1 suggests that active compounds
      too have the ability to modulate multidrug resistance (MDR) associated with
      ABCC1/MRP1. Selective Akt1 kinase assay have identified 11a, 11b, 11d and 11h as
      potential inhibitors. Molecular docking studies identified the orientation and
      binding interactions at the active site of Akt1 and DNA. Compounds 12e and 12f
      have shown good cytotoxicity profile against lung cancer cell lines of sensitive
      and resistant type. Acute toxicity study of compound 12f at the dose of 5000
      mg/kg has identified no signs of clinical toxicity. Prediction of ADMET
      properties and oral toxicity of the drug likeness features of new hybrid systems
      were carried out using software's. This experimental data suggests that hybrid
      systems of acridone with substituted pyrimidines can be taken as a lead for the
      design of efficient inhibitors and active compounds which can be taken up for
      further studies.

PMID- 28886510
TI  - Polyamine-based analogs and conjugates as antikinetoplastid agents.
AB  - Naturally occurring polyamines: putrescine, spermidine and spermine are crucial
      for Kinetoplastid growth and persistence. These aliphatic polycations are either
      biosynthesized or internalized into Kinetoplastid by active transport. Impairing
      the polyamine metabolism using polyamine derivatives is an interesting path in
      the search of new antikinetoplastid chemotherapy. In the past 30 years, research
      interest in this field has been constantly expanding and recent results
      demonstrated that the discovery of a polyamine-based antikinetoplastid drug is
      undoubtedly possible. In this paper, all the polyamine derivatives previously
      described to present an antikinetoplastid activity are reported. This review is
      organized around three main parts which are diamine, triamine and tetramine
      derivatives. Each part includes the description of the series of molecules and,
      their in vitro and in vivo activity when available. Structure-activity
      relationships of these derivatives are discussed and the most promising
      structures for a positive outcome are eventually highlighted.

PMID- 28886511
TI  - Electrochemical nitric oxide biosensor based on amine-modified MoS2/graphene
      oxide/myoglobin hybrid.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) is one of the most important molecules in living things due to
      its role as a signaling molecule in influencing pathological and physiological
      mechanisms including neurotransmission. In this study, the electrochemical
      biosensor based on the amine-modified molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles (MoS2),
      graphene oxide (GO) and myoglobin (Mb) hybrid material (amine-modified MoS2/GO/Mb
      hybrid) is developed to achieve the accurate detection of NO with electrochemical
      signal improvement. For the first time, the synthesis of MoS2 accompanying the
      amine-modification of the surface of MoS2 is done to hybridize with GO
      efficiently through the short linkage. After the amine-modification of MoS2, it
      is enclosed with GO directly (amine-modified MoS2/GO). Then, Mb which can induce
      the reduction of NO is immobilized on the amine-modified MoS2/GO to fabricate the
      amine-modified MoS2/GO/Mb hybrid for NO detection. The prepared hybrid shows the
      signal improved redox properties relative to the result of the electrode prepared
      without hybrid. Furthermore, upon addition of NO, the electrode prepared with
      hybrid shows the improved amperometric response compared with that of the
      electrode without hybrid. This amine-modified MoS2/GO/Mb hybrid can be used in
      the development of the biosensor platform accompanying the electrochemical signal
      improvement and accurate detection of target materials.

PMID- 28886512
TI  - Physicochemical study of biomolecular interactions between lysosomotropic
      surfactants and bovine serum albumin.
AB  - The interactions between two cationic lysosomotropic surfactants (2
      dodecanoyloxyethyl)trimethylammonium bromide (DMM-11) and (2
      dodecanoyloxypropyl)trimethylammonium bromide (DMPM-11) with bovine serum albumin
      (BSA) in Hepes buffer (pH=7.4) were systematically studied by surface tension,
      fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and isothermal titration
      calorimetry (ITC). Furthermore, the size of the micellar aggregates and the
      polydispersity indexes of both cationic surfactants were studied by dynamic light
      scattering technique (DLS). The hydrodynamic radii, micellar volumes and
      aggregation numbers were calculated using a method based on density functional
      theory (DFT). The results showed that, in both cases, the surface tension was
      modified upon addition of BSA, and the critical micelle concentration (CMC)
      values of DMM-11 and DMPM-11 were higher in the presence of BSA. The fluorescence
      intensity of BSA decreased significantly as the concentration of both cationic
      surfactants increased and this effect was attributed to the formation of
      surfactant-BSA complexes. Synchronous fluorescence spectrometry showed the
      binding-induced conformational changes in BSA. Finally, CD and DLS results
      revealed the occurrence of changes in the secondary structure of the protein in
      the presence of both surfactants. In conclusion, understanding the interactions
      between lysosomotropic surfactants and BSA is required to explore their potential
      applications in medicine.

PMID- 28886513
TI  - Construction of genetically engineered M13K07 helper phage for simultaneous phage
      display of gold binding peptide 1 and nuclear matrix protein 22 ScFv antibody.
AB  - The most common techniques of antibody phage display are based on the use of M13
      filamentous bacteriophages. This study introduces a new genetically engineered
      M13K07 helper phage displaying multiple copies of a known gold binding peptide on
      p8 coat proteins. The recombinant helper phages were used to rescue a phagemid
      vector encoding the p3 coat protein fused to the nuclear matrix protein 22
      (NMP22) ScFv antibody. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis absorbance
      spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) with
      energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis revealed that the expression
      of gold binding peptide 1 (GBP1) on major coat protein p8 significantly enhances
      the gold-binding affinity of M13 phages. The recombinant bacteriophages at
      concentrations above 5*104 pfu/ml red-shifted the UV-vis absorbance spectra of
      gold nanoparticles (AuNPs); however, the surface plasmon resonance of gold
      nanoparticles was not changed by the wild type bacteriophages at concentrations
      up to 1012 pfu/ml. The phage ELISA assay demonstrated the high affinity binding
      of bifunctional bacteriophages to NMP22 antigen at concentrations of 105 and 106
      pfu/ml. Thus, the p3 end of the bifunctional bacteriophages would be able to bind
      to specific target antigen, while the AuNPs were assembled along the coat of
      virus for signal generation. Our results indicated that the complex of antigen
      bacteriophages lead to UV-vis spectral changes of AuNPs and NMP22 antigen in
      concentration range of 10-80MUg/ml can be detected by bifunctional bacteriophages
      at concentration of 104 pfu/ml. The ability of bifunctional bacteriophages to
      bind to antigen and generate signal at the same time, makes this approach
      applicable for identifying different antigens in immunoassay techniques.

PMID- 28886514
TI  - Fabrication of polymer matrix-free nanocomposites based on Angelica gigas Nakai
      extract and their application to breast cancer therapy.
AB  - Nanocomposites (NCs) based on the ethanol extract of Angelica gigas Nakai (AGN
      EtOH ext) were developed for breast cancer therapy. Polymer matrix-free nano
      sized particles based on the extract of natural product were fabricated using a
      modified emulsification-solvent evaporation method. Without the use of polymer
      matrix, toxicity can be minimized and the clinical application may be assured.
      AGN NCs with approximately 200nm mean diameter, narrow size distribution, and
      negative zeta potential were prepared in this study. Sustained release of
      decursin (D) and decursinol angelate (DA) (as major components of AGN) from AGN
      NCs was observed at pH 7.4. Cellular accumulation efficiency and intracellular
      distribution of AGN NCs were evaluated in MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma)
      cells. According to the results of antiproliferation assay in MCF-7 cells, IC50
      value of AGN NCs group (27.4+/-4.0MUg/mL) was lower than that of AGN EtOH ext
      group (75.3+/-13.7MUg/mL) (p<0.05). Also, the percentage of apoptotic events of
      AGN NCs group was significantly higher than that of AGN EtOH ext group (p<0.05).
      All these findings suggest that developed AGN NCs can be used as one of promising
      nanosystems for the therapy of breast cancers.

PMID- 28886515
TI  - Development and characterization of cores-shell poly(lactide-co-glycolide)
      chitosan microparticles for sustained release of GDNF.
AB  - The microencapsulation of bioactive neurotrophic factors in biodegradable
      poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microspheres has been a promising tool in the
      treatment of various nervous system disorders. However, challenges still exist;
      the PLGA burst drug release and acidic degradation products often limit clinical
      application. In this study, cores-shell PLGA-chitosan microparticles (MPs) were
      fabricated with a single shell of chitosan and multi-cores of PLGA using a re
      emulsification method. The glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was
      encapsulated at the PLGA cores of the cores-shell MPs. The cores-shell MPs
      prepared by different chitosan concentrations showed a rough surface, and the
      particle mean size varied between 32.3 and 45.2MUm. The fluorescence images
      indicated that Nile red-stained PLGA microspheres were uniformly distributed in
      the cores-shell MPs. Compared with PLGA microspheres, the cores-shell MPs were
      able to reduce the initial burst release of GDNF and neutralize the acidity of
      PLGA degradation products, which could be modulated by changing the chitosan
      concentrations. Further differentiation of PC12 cells toward a neuronal phenotype
      in vitro indicated that the cores-shell MPs were capable of maintaining the
      bioactivity of GDNF during preparation. Taken together, these findings highlight
      the possibility of using cores-shell PLGA-chitosan MPs for the sustained release
      of GDNF, which offers potential applications in nerve injury repair.

PMID- 28886516
TI  - Biodegradation behavior and modelling of soil burial effect on degradation rate
      of PLA blended with starch and wood flour.
AB  - The biodegradation behavior of Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) blended with starch and
      wood flour in outdoor soil was investigated comprehensively. As a result, starch
      provided a biological fuel for the growth of microorganisms in the soil which
      accelerated the degradation rate of PLA more obviously than wood flour. With the
      increase of starch content, the weight loss increased and the morphology
      exhibited more gullies and cavities. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
      analysis indicated that the variation of O/C ratio was controlled by starch
      biodegradation and PLA hydrolysis and they were a concomitant process. The
      mechanical strengths of all the blends showed similar trend and fitted a first
      order exponential decay model. The model is shown in good agreement with
      experimental results as the correlation coefficient is higher than 0.99, and the
      model can support an efficient method to estimate the durability of starch/wood
      flour/PLA blends.

PMID- 28886517
TI  - Tunable pH and redox-responsive drug release from curcumin conjugated gamma
      polyglutamic acid nanoparticles in cancer microenvironment.
AB  - Tunable pH and redox responsive polymer was prepared using gamma-polyglutamic
      acid (gamma-PGA) with linker 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA) (gamma-PGA_SH) via
      oxidation to obtain redox responsive disulfide (gamma-PGA_SS) backbone and adipic
      acid dihydrazide (ADH) (gamma-PGA_SS_ADH) with hydrazide functional group for pH
      responsiveness. Further curcumin (Cur) was conjugated through hydrazone bond of
      the gamma-PGA_SS_ADH via Schiff base reaction to obtain (gamma-PGA_SS_ADH_Cur).
      The prepared systems were characterized by Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Electrospray ionization quadrupole time
      of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-Qq-TOF-MS/MS) and Solid state nuclear magnetic
      resonance (SS NMR) techniques. gamma-PGA_SS_ADH_Cur formed self-assembled core
      shell nanoparticles (NPs) in existence of stabilized aqueous medium. gamma
      PGA_SS_ADH_Cur NPs maintained its stability in physiological condition. NPs
      tunable Cur release and cytotoxicity were observed for gamma-PGA_SS_ADH_Cur NPs
      in both acidic and redox conditions mimicking the cancer microenvironment. gamma
      PGA_SS_ADH_Cur NPs uptake study showed via endocytosis mechanism resulted in the
      lysosomal entrapment of these NPs within the cell. gamma-PGA_SS_ADH_Cur NPs
      exhibited a dual stimuli responsive drug delivery and can be used as a smart and
      potential drug delivery system in cancer microenvironment.

PMID- 28886518
TI  - Capillary electrophoresis study on the base-catalyzed formation of bioactive
      oxidized metabolites of 20-hydroxyecdysone.
AB  - A novel capillary electrophoretic method was developed for the analysis and
      monitoring of the base-catalyzed autoxidation of 20-hydroxyecdysone, a worldwide
      used non-hormonal anabolic food supplement. An effective separation of the
      starting material and its bioactive oxidized derivatives was achieved by using
      sulfobutyl-beta-cyclodextrin as selector at pH 11 and by fixing the separation
      voltage at +30kV. Only a dilution step was inserted before injecting the sample,
      taken from the crude reaction mixture, to the capillary electrophoresis
      instrument. The same alkaline pH was used for the analysis as for the reaction,
      unlike the previously reported HPLC study where sample neutralization was
      required prior to the measurement. Due to the very short analysis time (6min) in
      capillary electrophoresis, more frequent sampling and more detailed time scale
      analysis could be carried out. Furthermore, in contrast with the preceding HPLC
      results, the previously unobserved calonysterone could also be detected by
      capillary electrophoresis as a minor primary product. Our novel method
      demonstrated higher resolution than the one before. Baseline separation could be
      achieved and the resolution values were in the range of 1.9-7.0. The limit of
      detection was below 71MUg/ml, the relative standard deviation values of the
      migration time and peak area for intra- and inter-day precision were less than
      10%. The more precise, direct monitoring of the time dependency of the oxidation
      process is expected to have a significant impact on yield optimization
      initiatives to allow related pharmacological studies in the near future.

PMID- 28886519
TI  - Development and validation of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
      method for pharmacokinetic study of TM-53, a novel transcriptional coactivator
      with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) modulator.
AB  - Transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) is considered an
      attractive target for osteoporosis, obesity, and muscle regeneration. TM-53, a
      promising TAZ modulator, was recently introduced, and here, we developed a rapid,
      precise, and reliable analytical method for TM-53 and characterized its
      pharmacokinetic properties in rat plasma. The hybrid triple quadrupole/linear ion
      trap coupled to liquid chromatography method was developed and validated to
      quantify TM-53. Additionally, TM-53 concentrations in plasma were analyzed, and
      its pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by non-compartmental analysis.
      Multiple reaction monitoring at m/z 569.4->207.1 showed the most sensitive
      signals for TM-53, and the linear scope of the standard curve was between
      1.5ng/mL and 500ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions of the quality control
      samples were <15%, and their accuracies were ranged from 86.2% to 111.0%.
      Furthermore, the matrix effects, extraction recoveries, and process efficiencies
      of this analytical method for evaluating TM-53 in rat plasma were 99.1%, 99.9%,
      and 99.1% respectively. In short- and long-term stability studies, TM-53 showed
      good stability under frozen conditions, but TM-53 hydrolysis in the plasma matrix
      was observed following storage at room temperature. This analytical method was
      successfully applied for pharmacokinetic analysis of TM-53 in rat plasma and
      demonstrated excellent sensitivity, selectivity, precision, and accuracy. These
      data indicated that this method can be applied for further preclinical studies of
      TM-53.

PMID- 28886520
TI  - Development of a sensitive LC-MS/MS method for quantification of coniferyl
      ferulate and its metabolite coniferyl alcohol in rat plasma: Application to a
      pharmacokinetic study.
AB  - A rapid and simple LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the
      simultaneous determination of coniferyl ferulate (CF) and its metabolite
      coniferyl alcohol (CA) using bavachromene as an internal standard (IS). A TSQ
      Quantum Access mass spectrometer was operated under selected-reaction monitoring
      mode using negative electrospray ionization. Extraction with ether was used in
      sample preparation. The plasma samples were prepared and then chromatographed on
      a Phenomenex Luna C18 column (2.1mm*50mm, 1.7MUm; Torrance, USA) at 35 degrees C,
      using acetonitrile: water (65:35, v/v) in an isocratic mode at a flow rate of
      0.3mL/min. Method validation was performed as per the FDA guidelines and
      calibration curves showed good linearity over the concentration range of 2.5
      1000ng/mL for both CF and CA. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy
      were within the acceptable limits. The developed assay was successfully applied
      to a pharmacokinetic study of CA in rats.

PMID- 28886521
TI  - Permeability through the Caco-2 cell monolayer of 42 bioactive compounds in the
      TCM formula Gegen-Qinlian Decoction by liquid chromatography tandem mass
      spectrometry analysis.
AB  - Caco-2 cell monolayer model was used to evaluate the intestinal permeability of
      42 bioactive compounds in the famous traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula
      Gegen-Qinlian Decoction (GQD). These compounds include alkaloids, flavonoids and
      glycosides, triterpenoid saponins, and coumarins. Their transportations across
      the cell monolayers in the forms of herb extract and formula extract were
      monitored by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry
      (LC/MS/MS) analysis. Most alkaloids from Huang-Lian; flavonoid C-glycosides from
      Ge-Gen and Huang-Qin; O-glycosides from Ge-Gen, Huang-Qin and Gan-Cao; O
      glucuronides from Huang-Qin; and coumarins from Gan-Cao exhibited favorable
      permeability. Their PAB values were >1.05*10-5cm/s, and efflux ratios (ER,
      PBA/PAB) were<=1.0. In contrast, triterpenoid saponins showed poor permeability
      (PAB<=1.50*10-6cm/s, ER<=1.5), indicating a paracellular diffusion mechanism.
      Furthermore, GQD could remarkably improve the intestinal transport of alkaloids
      in Huang-Lian, flavonoid C-glycosides in Ge-Gen, as well as coumarins and
      flavonoid O-glycosides in Gan-Cao. These results indicate herb-herb interactions
      in GQD.

PMID- 28886523
TI  - A workflow for column interchangeability in liquid chromatography using modeling
      software and quality-by-design principles.
AB  - The goal of the present study was to develop a generic workflow to evaluate the
      chromatographic resolution in a large design space and easily find some
      replacement column for the method. To attain this objective from a limited number
      of initial experiments, modern LC modeling software (Drylab) was employed to
      study the behaviour of the compounds and visually compare the parts of design
      spaces obtained with different columns, where a given criterion of critical
      resolution is fullfilled. A zone of robust space can then easily be found by
      overlapping design spaces. By using 50*2.1mm columns packed with sub-2MUm fully
      porous particles (UHPLC), the resolution in the entire design space can be
      modeled on the basis of only 2-3h experimental work per column. To demonstrate
      the applicability of the developed procedure, amlodipine and its related
      pharmacopeia impurities were selected as a case study. It was demonstrated that
      two columns from different providers (Waters Acquity HSS C18, Thermo Hypersil
      Gold C18) can be interchanged, providing a sufficient resolution at the same
      working point and a high degree of robustness around this condition.

PMID- 28886524
TI  - Simultaneous quantification of arginine, alanine, methionine and cysteine amino
      acids in supplements using a novel bioelectro-nanosensor based on CdSe quantum
      dot/modified carbon nanotube hollow fiber pencil graphite electrode via Taguchi
      method.
AB  - A number of four amino acids have been simultaneously determined at CdSe quantum
      dot-modified/multi-walled carbon nanotube hollow fiber pencil graphite electrode
      in different bodybuilding supplements. CdSe quantum dots were synthesized and
      applied to construct a modified carbon nanotube hollow fiber pencil graphite
      electrode. FT-IR, TEM, XRD and EDAX methods were applied for characterization of
      the synthesized CdSe QDs. The electro-oxidation of arginine (Arg), alanine (Ala),
      methionine (Met) and cysteine (Cys) at the surface of the modified electrode was
      studied. Then the Taguchi's method was applied using MINITAB 17 software to find
      out the optimum conditions for the amino acids determination. Under the optimized
      conditions, the differential pulse (DP) voltammetric peak currents of Arg, Ala,
      Met and Cys increased linearly with their concentrations in the ranges of 0.287
      33670MUM and detection limits of 0.081, 0.158, 0.094 and 0.116MUM were obtained
      for them, respectively. Satisfactory results were achieved for calibration and
      validation sets. The prepared modified electrode represents a very good
      resolution between the voltammetric peaks of the four amino acids which makes it
      suitable for the detection of each in presence of others in real samples.

PMID- 28886522
TI  - Quantification of the antimalarial drug pyronaridine in whole blood using LC
      MS/MS - Increased sensitivity resulting from reduced non-specific binding.
AB  - Malaria is one of the most important parasitic diseases of man. The development
      of drug resistance in malaria parasites is an inevitable consequence of their
      widespread and often unregulated use. There is an urgent need for new and
      effective drugs. Pyronaridine is a known antimalarial drug that has received
      renewed interest as a partner drug in artemisinin-based combination therapy. To
      study its pharmacokinetic properties, particularly in field settings, it is
      necessary to develop and validate a robust, highly sensitive and accurate
      bioanalytical method for drug measurements in biological samples. We have
      developed a sensitive quantification method that covers a wide range of
      clinically relevant concentrations (1.5ng/mL to 882ng/mL) using a relatively low
      volume sample of 100MUL of whole blood. Total run time is 5min and precision is
      within +/-15% at all concentration levels. Pyronaridine was extracted on a weak
      cation exchange solid-phase column (SPE) and separated on a HALO RP amide fused
      core column using a gradient mobile phase of acetonitrile-ammonium formate and
      acetonitrile-methanol. Detection was performed using electrospray ionization and
      tandem mass spectrometry (positive ion mode with selected reaction monitoring).
      The developed method is suitable for implementation in high-throughput routine
      drug analysis, and was used to quantify pyronaridine accurately for up to 42days
      after a single oral dose in a drug-drug interaction study in healthy volunteers.

PMID- 28886525
TI  - Perillyl alcohol protects human renal tubular epithelial cells from
      hypoxia/reoxygenation injury via inhibition of ROS, endoplasmic reticulum stress
      and activation of PI3K/Akt/eNOS pathway.
AB  - Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury plays an essential role in renal
      transplantation, and represents a crucial risk factor for allograft dysfunction
      and acute renal failure. Modulation of oxidative stress is an effective
      therapeutic strategy for I/R injury. Perillyl alcohol (POH), a dietary
      monoterpene with antioxidant activity is found in a variety of plants. The study
      was carried out to investigate whether treatment of POH could reduce
      hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced injury. H/R induced significant injury in HK
      2 cells. H/R caused an increase in ROS level, apoptosis and ER stress. Meanwhile
      H/R also inhibited the cell viability and PI3K/Akt/eNOS signaling pathway.
      Pretreatment with POH prior to H/R improved cell viability, reduce ROS level, ER
      stress and apoptosis. Moreover, POH could also activate the PI3K/Akt/eNOS
      pathway. Therefore, POH may possess protective effects in H/R-induced cellular
      damage.

PMID- 28886526
TI  - Glycyrrhizic acid: A promising carrier material for anticancer therapy.
AB  - Drug delivery systems have become an integral part of anticancer drugs today.
      Design of novel drug carriers may lead to significant enhancement in
      antineoplastic therapy. Glycyrrhizic acid (GL), which is the most important
      active ingredient extracted from the licorice root shows great potential as a
      carrier material in this field. Recent studies have indicated that the
      combination of GL and first-line drugs had better therapeutic effects on cancers.
      GL showed a series of anti-cancer-related pharmacological activities, such as
      broad-spectrum anti-cancer ability, resistance to the tissue toxicity caused by
      chemotherapy and radiation, drug absorption enhancing effects and anti-multidrug
      resistance (MDR) mechanisms, as a carrier material in drug delivery systems. This
      review introduced the current research progress on pharmacological mechanisms of
      GL and development of GL-based drug carriers in anti-cancer field to provide
      basis for the application prospects of GL. The design of novel GL-based drug
      delivery systems will bring new opportunities and challenges to anti-cancer
      therapy.

PMID- 28886527
TI  - Cardioprotective effect of Malva sylvestris L. in myocardial ischemic/reprefused
      rats.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present investigation evaluated the cardioprotective effect of Malva
      sylvestris L. (MS) on myocardial ischemic/reperfusion (MI/R) in rats. METHODS:
      All animals were divided into four groups: the sham operated group,
      ischemia/reperfusion group (MI/R), and the MS (250 and 500mg/kg) treated groups,
      who received MS 250 and 500mg/kg intragastrically for 15 consecutive days,
      respectively. At the end of the protocol, concentrations of aspartate
      transaminase (AST), creatine kinase-MB fraction (CK-MB) and lactate dehydrogenase
      (LDH) were estimated in serum and the concentrations of other parameters, such as
      C-reactive protein, macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha (MIP-1alpha), and
      nitric oxide (NO) were also estimated in the blood. Tissue homogenate
      concentrations of inflammatory cytokines, such as tumour necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNF-alpha), interlukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-10 and IL-6 as well as oxidative
      stress parameters, such as lipid peroxidation, catalase, and superoxide dismutase
      were estimated in MI/R rats. RESULT: Significant decreases (p<0.01) in AST, LDH,
      and CK-MB levels were observed in the MS-treated group compared with those in the
      MI/R group. C-reactive protein and MIP-1alpha levels decreased in the MS-treated
      group compared with those in the MI/R group. Plasma NO level was significantly
      enhanced in the MS-treated group than in the MI/R group. Moreover, treatment with
      MS significantly reduced TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6 levels and increased IL-10
      levels in the MS group compared with the MI/R group. Treatment with MS also
      attenuated the altered oxidative stress parameters in MI/R rats. CONCLUSION: The
      present results indicate the cardioprotective effects of MS of reducing oxidative
      stress and the inflammatory response in MI/R rats.

PMID- 28886528
TI  - An increased expression of long non-coding RNA PANDAR promotes cell proliferation
      and inhibits cell apoptosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
AB  - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive
      malignancies worldwide. Emerging evidence indicates that aberrantly expressed
      long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) act as imperative roles in tumorigenesis and
      progression. PANDAR (promoter of CDKN1A antisense DNA damage activated RNA) is a
      novel lncRNA that contributes to the development of various cancers. However, its
      clinical significance and potential effects on PDAC remains unknown. In the
      present study, qRT-PCR was performed to explore the expression levels of PANDAR
      in PDAC tissues and corresponding non-tumor tissues, the correlation between
      PANDAR expression and clinicopathological characteristics was also analyzed. The
      functional roles of lncRNA PANDAR in PDAC cells were evaluated both in vitro and
      in vivo. The results indicated that PANDAR was aberrantly overexpressed in PDAC
      tissues and cell lines, and this overexpression was closely associated with tumor
      stage and vascular invasion in PDAC patients. Besides, silencing of PANDAR
      exerted tumor suppressive effect via reducing cell proliferation, colony-forming
      ability, inducing cell cycle G0/G1 arrest and apoptosis in PANC1 and Capan-2
      cells. Further in vivo study confirmed the oncogenesis role of PANDAR in PDAC
      cells. Overall, our findings may help to develop a potential therapeutic target
      for the patients with PDAC.

PMID- 28886529
TI  - Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors as therapeutic targets for heart
      failure.
AB  - Heart failure (HF) is a common clinical syndrome that affects more than 23
      million individuals worldwide. Despite the marked advances in its management, the
      mortality rates in HF patients have remained unacceptably high. Peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are nuclear transcription regulators,
      involved in the regulation of fatty acid and glucose metabolism. PPAR agonists
      are currently used for the treatment of type II diabetes mellitus and
      hyperlipidemia; however, their role as therapeutic agents for HF remains under
      investigation. Preclinical studies have shown that pharmacological modulation of
      PPARs can upregulate the expression of fatty acid oxidation genes in
      cardiomyocytes. Moreover, PPAR agonists were proven able to improve ventricular
      contractility and reduce cardiac remodelling in animal models through their anti
      inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-fibrotic, and anti-apoptotic activities. Whether
      these effects can be replicated in humans is yet to be proven. This article
      reviews the interactions of PPARs with the pathophysiological mechanisms of HF
      and how the pharmacological modulation of these receptors can be of benefit for
      HF patients.

PMID- 28886530
TI  - A novel ventricular restraint device (ASD) repetitively deliver Salvia
      miltiorrhiza to epicardium have good curative effects in heart failure
      management.
AB  - A novel ventricular restraint is the non-transplant surgical option for the
      management of an end-stage dilated heart failure (HF). To expand the therapeutic
      techniques we design a novel ventricular restraint device (ASD) which has the
      ability to deliver a therapeutic drug directly to the heart. We deliver a
      Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen Zhusheye) through
      active hydraulic ventricular support drug delivery system (ASD) and we
      hypothesize that it will show better results in HF management than the restraint
      device and drug alone. SD rats were selected and divided into five groups (n=6),
      Normal, HF, HF+SM (IV), HF+ASD, HF+ASD+SM groups respectively. Post myocardial
      infarction (MI), electrocardiography (ECG) showed abnormal heart function in all
      groups and HF+ASD+SM group showed a significant therapeutic improvement with
      respect to other treatment HF, HF+ASD, and HF+SM (IV) groups on day 30. The
      mechanical functions of the heart such as heart rate, LVEDP, and LVSP were
      brought to normal when treated with ASD+SM and show significant (P value<0.01)
      compared to other groups. BNP significantly declines in HF+ASD+SM group animals
      compared with other treatment groups. Masson's Trichrome staining was used to
      study histopathology of cardiac myocytes and quantification of fibrosis was
      assessed. The large blue fibrotic area was observed in HF, HF+ASD, and HF+SM (IV)
      groups while HF+ASD+SM showed negligible fibrotic myocyte at the end of study
      period (30days). This study proves that novel ASD device augments the therapeutic
      effect of the drug and delivers Salvia miltiorrhiza to the cardiomyocytes
      significantly as well as provides additional support to the dilated ventricle by
      the heart failure.

PMID- 28886531
TI  - Long non-coding RNA HOTTIP promotes hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition of malignant glioma by regulating the miR-101/ZEB1 axis.
AB  - Hypoxia is a universal characteristic of solid tumor and involving cancer
      metastasis via epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Long non-coding RNAs
      (lncRNAs) are known to regulate carcinogenesis and metastasis of various cancers.
      The aim of this study was to identify the function role of lncRNAs in the hypoxia
      induced EMT of malignant glioma. We used U87 and U251 cell lines were treated
      under hypoxia to induce EMT, then lncRNA microarray analyse was performed between
      U87-hypoxia and parental cell line. The relative expression of lncRNA and HIF
      1alpha were detected by qRT-PCR between glioma tissues without metastasis and
      that with metastasis. Hypoxia could induce EMT and increase HOTTIP expression in
      glioma cells. Among the different expressions of lncRNAs, HOTTIP was the most
      upregulated lncRNA in glioma cells treated by hypoxia. High levels of HOTTIP and
      HIF-1alpha were correlated with glioma metastasis and poor patient prognosis.
      Knockdown of HIF-1alpha and HOTTIP blocked hypoxia-induced EMT, and suppressed
      invasion and migration of glioma cells. Finally, HOTTIP sponged endogenous miR
      101 and inhibited its activity, which resulted in increased ZEB1 expression and
      promoted process of EMT. HIF-1alpha/HOTTIP/miR-101/ZEB1 axis plays essential role
      in hypoxia-induced EMT and metastasis of glioma, and HOTTIP may serve as a
      therapeutic target to reverse EMT and prevent glioma progression.

PMID- 28886532
TI  - Chemical characterization and sources of personal exposure to fine particulate
      matter (PM2.5) in the megacity of Guangzhou, China.
AB  - Concurrent ambient and personal measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
      were conducted in eight districts of Guangzhou during the winter of 2011.
      Personal-to-ambient (P-C) relationships of PM2.5 chemical components were
      determined and sources of personal PM2.5 exposures were evaluated using principal
      component analysis and a mixed-effects model. Water-soluble inorganic ions (e.g.,
      SO42-, NO3-, NH4+, C2O42-) and anhydrosugars (e.g., levoglucosan, mannosan)
      exhibited median personal-to-ambient (P/C) ratios < 1 accompanied by strong P-C
      correlations, indicating that these constituents in personal PM2.5 were
      significantly affected by ambient sources. Conversely, elemental carbon (EC) and
      calcium (Ca2+) showed median P/C ratios greater than unity, illustrating
      significant impact of local traffic, indoor sources, and/or personal activities
      on individual's exposure. SO42- displayed very low coefficient of divergence
      (COD) values coupled with strong P-C correlations, implying a uniform
      distribution of SO42- in the urban area of Guangzhou. EC, Ca2+, and levoglucosan
      were otherwise heterogeneously distributed across individuals in different
      districts. Regional air pollution (50.4 +/- 0.9%), traffic-related particles (8.6
      +/- 0.7%), dust-related particles (5.8 +/- 0.7%), and biomass burning emissions
      (2.0 +/- 0.2%) were moderate to high positive sources of personal PM2.5 exposure
      in Guangzhou. The observed positive and significant contribution of Ca2+ to
      personal PM2.5 exposure, highlighting indoor sources and/or personal activities,
      were driving factors determining personal exposure to dust-related particles.
      Considerable discrepancies (COD values ranging from 0.42 to 0.50) were shown
      between ambient concentrations and personal exposures, indicating caution should
      be taken when using ambient concentrations as proxies for personal exposures in
      epidemiological studies.

PMID- 28886533
TI  - Artificial light at night affects sleep behaviour differently in two closely
      related songbird species.
AB  - Artificial light at night (ALAN) or light pollution is an increasing and
      worldwide problem. There is growing concern that because of the disruption of
      natural light cycles, ALAN may pose serious risks for wildlife. While ALAN has
      been shown to affect many aspects of animal behaviour and physiology, few studies
      have experimentally studied whether individuals of different species in the wild
      respond differently to ALAN. Here, we investigated the effect of ALAN on sleep
      behaviour in two closely related songbird species inhabiting the same study area
      and roosting/breeding in similar nest boxes. We experimentally exposed free
      living great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) to artificial
      light inside their nest boxes and observed changes in their sleep behaviour
      compared to the previous night when the nest boxes were dark. In line with
      previous studies, sleep behaviour of both species did not differ under dark
      conditions. ALAN disrupted sleep in both great and blue tits. However, compared
      to blue tits, great tits showed more pronounced effects and more aspects of sleep
      were affected. Light exposed great tits entered the nest boxes and fell asleep
      later, woke up and exited the nest boxes earlier, and the total sleep amount and
      sleep percentage were reduced. By contrast, these changes in sleep behaviour were
      not found in light exposed blue tits. Our field experiment, using exactly the
      same light manipulation in both species, provides direct evidence that two
      closely related species respond differently to ALAN, while their sleep behaviour
      under dark conditions was similar. Our research suggests that findings for one
      species cannot necessarily be generalised to other species, even closely-related
      species. Furthermore, species-specific effects could have implications for
      community dynamics.

PMID- 28886534
TI  - Distribution of lead and mercury in Ontario peatlands.
AB  - While considerable attention has been given to the measurement of mercury (Hg)
      and lead (Pb) concentrations and accumulation in detailed peat cores in central
      Canada, the geographic distribution and density of sampling are generally
      limited. Here, we use the Ontario Peatland Inventory to examine broad patterns of
      Hg and Pb concentration with depth, based on 338 peat cores (containing >1500
      analyzed samples) from 127 bogs, fens and swamps located in southeastern,
      northeastern and northwestern sections of Ontario. Overall, Hg concentrations
      averaged 0.05 MUg g-1 and that of Pb averaged 10.8 MUg g-1. Maximum values in the
      top 50 cm of the profiles are 0.08 MUg g-1 and 26.2 MUg g-1 for Hg and Pb,
      respectively. The ratio between these values (surface) and the values from below
      100 cm (background), where peat likely accumulated before 1850 and industrial
      activities were limited, are 2.3 and 6.6 for Hg and Pb, respectively. The highest
      surface:background concentration ratios are generally found in the westernmost
      part of the province and in the southeast for Hg and around areas that are more
      heavily populated for Pb. Our results show that a vast amount of Hg and Pb are
      stored in Ontarian peatlands, although the spatial distribution of these stores
      varies. The rapid decomposition of peat in a changing climate could release these
      pollutants to the atmosphere.

PMID- 28886535
TI  - Groundwater assessment and environmental impact in the abandoned mine of Kettara
      (Morocco).
AB  - Many questions about the soil pollution due to mining activities have been
      analyzed by numerous methods which help to evaluate the dispersion of the
      Metallic Trace Elements (MTE) in the soil and stream sediments of the abandoned
      mine of Kettara (Morocco). The transport of these MTE could have an important
      role in the degradation of groundwater and the health of people who are living in
      the vicinity. The present paper aims to evaluate the groundwater samples from 15
      hydrogeological wells. This evaluation concerns the hydrogeological parameters,
      pH, Electrical conductivity, temperature and the groundwater level, and the
      geochemical assessment of Mg, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Cu, As, Se, Cd, Sb,
      Tl and Pb. Furthermore, the Metallic Trace Elements are transported in the
      saturated zone via the fractures network. The groundwater flow is from the north
      east to south-west. The spatial distribution of As, Fe, Zn and Mn is very
      heterogeneous, with high values observed in the north, upstream, of the mine
      site. This distribution is maybe related to: i) the existence of hydrogeological
      structures (dividing and drainage axes); ii) the individualization of the
      fractures network that affects the shaly lithostratigraphical formation; iii) the
      transport of the contaminants from the soil towards groundwater; and iv)
      interaction water/rocks. Some MTE anomalies are linked to the lithology and the
      fracturation system of the area. Therefore, the groundwater contamination by
      Arsenic is detected in the hydrogeological wells (E1 and E2). This pollution
      which is higher than guideline standards of Moroccan drinking water could affect
      the public health. The hydrogeological and geochemical investigations favor the
      geological origin (mafic rocks) of this contamination rather than mining
      activities.

PMID- 28886536
TI  - Response of soil microbial communities and microbial interactions to long-term
      heavy metal contamination.
AB  - Due to the persistence of metals in the ecosystem and their threat to all living
      organisms, effects of heavy metal on soil microbial communities were widely
      studied. However, little was known about the interactions among microorganisms in
      heavy metal-contaminated soils. In the present study, microbial communities in
      Non (CON), moderately (CL) and severely (CH) contaminated soils were investigated
      through high-throughput Illumina sequencing of 16s rRNA gene amplicons, and
      networks were constructed to show the interactions among microbes. Results showed
      that the microbial community composition was significantly, while the microbial
      diversity was not significantly affected by heavy metal contamination. Bacteria
      showed various response to heavy metals. Bacteria that positively correlated with
      Cd, e.g. Acidobacteria_Gp and Proteobacteria_thiobacillus, had more links between
      nodes and more positive interactions among microbes in CL- and CH-networks, while
      bacteria that negatively correlated with Cd, e.g. Longilinea, Gp2 and Gp4 had
      fewer network links and more negative interactions in CL and CH-networks. Unlike
      bacteria, members of the archaeal domain, i.e. phyla Crenarchaeota and
      Euryarchaeota, class Thermoprotei and order Thermoplasmatales showed only
      positive correlation with Cd and had more network interactions in CH-networks.
      The present study indicated that (i) the microbial community composition, as well
      as network interactions was shift to strengthen adaptability of microorganisms to
      heavy metal contamination, (ii) archaea were resistant to heavy metal
      contamination and may contribute to the adaption to heavy metals. It was proposed
      that the contribution might be achieved either by improving environment
      conditions or by cooperative interactions.

PMID- 28886537
TI  - A probabilistic approach to assess antibiotic resistance development risks in
      environmental compartments and its application to an intensive aquaculture
      production scenario.
AB  - Estimating antibiotic pollution and antibiotic resistance development risks in
      environmental compartments is important to design management strategies that
      advance our stewardship of antibiotics. In this study we propose a modelling
      approach to estimate the risk of antibiotic resistance development in
      environmental compartments and demonstrate its application in aquaculture
      production systems. We modelled exposure concentrations for 12 antibiotics used
      in Vietnamese Pangasius catfish production using the ERA-AQUA model. Minimum
      selective concentration (MSC) distributions that characterize the selective
      pressure of antibiotics on bacterial communities were derived from the European
      Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) Minimum Inhibitory
      Concentration dataset. The antibiotic resistance development risk (RDR) for each
      antibiotic was calculated as the probability that the antibiotic exposure
      distribution exceeds the MSC distribution representing the bacterial community.
      RDRs in pond sediments were nearly 100% for all antibiotics. Median RDR values in
      pond water were high for the majority of the antibiotics, with rifampicin,
      levofloxacin and ampicillin having highest values. In the effluent mixing area,
      RDRs were low for most antibiotics, with the exception of amoxicillin, ampicillin
      and trimethoprim, which presented moderate risks, and rifampicin and
      levofloxacin, which presented high risks. The RDR provides an efficient means to
      benchmark multiple antibiotics and treatment regimes in the initial phase of a
      risk assessment with regards to their potential to develop resistance in
      different environmental compartments, and can be used to derive resistance
      threshold concentrations.

PMID- 28886538
TI  - Groundwater vulnerability to climate change: A review of the assessment
      methodology.
AB  - Impacts of climate change on water resources, especially groundwater, can no
      longer be hidden. These impacts are further exacerbated under the integrated
      influence of climate variability, climate change and anthropogenic activities.
      The degree of impact varies according to geographical location and other factors
      leading systems and regions towards different levels of vulnerability. In the
      recent past, several attempts have been made in various regions across the globe
      to quantify the impacts and consequences of climate and non-climate factors in
      terms of vulnerability to groundwater resources. Firstly, this paper provides a
      structured review of the available literature, aiming to critically analyse and
      highlight the limitations and knowledge gaps involved in vulnerability (of
      groundwater to climate change) assessment methodologies. The effects of indicator
      choice and the importance of including composite indicators are then emphasised.
      A new integrated approach for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability to
      climate change is proposed to successfully address those limitations. This review
      concludes that the choice of indicator has a significant role in defining the
      reliability of computed results. The effect of an individual indicator is also
      apparent but the consideration of a combination (variety) of indicators may give
      more realistic results. Therefore, in future, depending upon the local conditions
      and scale of the study, indicators from various groups should be chosen.
      Furthermore, there are various assumptions involved in previous methodologies,
      which limit their scope by introducing uncertainty in the calculated results.
      These limitations can be overcome by implementing the proposed approach.

PMID- 28886539
TI  - Exposure to lead and mercury through breastfeeding during the first month of
      life: A CHECK cohort study.
AB  - Mercury and lead are naturally occurring toxicants and are responsible for
      various health issues including neurobehavioral and developmental disorders.
      Because of crucial synchronized developmental processes occurring at the early
      stage of life, infancy and childhood are considered as among the most susceptible
      windows to the exposure to these metals. Breastmilk is often the only source of
      nutrition during the first months of life. As breastmilk can be contaminated with
      these metals, breastfeeding may serve as a significant route of heavy metal
      exposure among infants. In order to understand current levels of exposure to
      mercury and lead through breastfeeding, and their associated risks, a total of
      157 lactating mothers were recruited from Children's Health and Environmental
      Chemicals of Korea (CHECK) cohort, and breastmilk samples were collected at 15
      and 30days after delivery (n=207). Mercury was detected from 100% of breastmilk
      with a median concentration of 0.59MUg/L, and lead was detected in 77% of the
      samples with a median at 4.71MUg/L. Higher concentrations of lead were found in
      the 30- day breastmilk than in the 15-day. Up to 45% of the breastmilk samples
      exceeded the normal range of the breastmilk lead suggested by WHO. Based on Monte
      Carlo simulation, about 71% of 15days old infants and 56% of 30days old infants
      were estimated at risk due to lead exposure through breastfeeding. Considering
      vulnerability of infants and well-known neurological toxicity of these metals,
      further studies to identify major exposure sources that contribute the lead
      concentration in breastmilk and health implication of early life stage exposure
      to lead among the breastfed infants are warranted.

PMID- 28886540
TI  - Paddy soil microbial communities driven by environment- and microbe-microbe
      interactions: A case study of elevation-resolved microbial communities in a rice
      terrace.
AB  - : Rice paddies are a significant source of the greenhouse gas methane, which
      mainly originates from microbial activity. Methane generation in anaerobic
      systems involves complex interactions of multiple functional microbial groups.
      Rice paddies installed in hilly terrain are often terraced, providing multiple
      quasi-independent plots differing primarily in their elevation up a hillside.
      This represents an excellent study site to explore the influence of environmental
      factors on microbial communities and interactions among microbial populations. In
      this study, we used a combination of geochemical analyses, high-throughput
      amplicon sequencing, and statistical methods to elucidate these interactions.
      Sulfate, total nitrogen, total iron, and total organic carbon were determined to
      be critical factors in steering the ecosystem composition and function. Sulfate
      reducing bacteria predominated in the rice terrace microbial communities, and
      Fe(III)-reducing and methane-oxidizing bacteria were abundant as well. Biotic
      interactions indicated by co-occurrence network analysis suggest mutualistic
      interactions among these three functional groups. Paddy-scale methane production
      may be affected by competition among methanogens and sulfate- and Fe(III)
      reducing bacteria, or by direct methane oxidation by methane-oxidizing bacteria.
      CAPSULE: Microbial communities were characterized in rice terrace. The
      environment- and microbe-microbe interactions indicated the mitigation of sulfate
      and Fe on methane production.

PMID- 28886541
TI  - Abiotic control of phytoplankton blooms in temperate coastal marine ecosystems: A
      case study in the South Atlantic Ocean.
AB  - Coastal waters of the South Atlantic Ocean (SAO) sustain one of the highest
      levels of production of the World's ocean, maintained by dense phytoplankton
      winter blooms that are dominated by large diatoms. These blooms have been
      associated to calm weather conditions that allow the formation of a shallow and
      well illuminated upper mixed layer. In Bahia Engano, a coastal site in Patagonia,
      Argentina (chosen as a model coastal ecosystem) winter blooms recurrently peaked
      on June and they were dominated almost entirely by the microplanktonic diatom
      Odontella aurita. However, during the year 2015, a new wind pattern was observed 
      with many days of northerly high-speed winds, deviating from the calm winter
      days observed during a reference period (2001-2014) used for comparison. We
      determined that this new wind pattern was the most important factor that affected
      the phytoplankton dynamics, precluding the initiation of a June bloom during 2015
      that instead occurred during late winter (August). Furthermore, the 2015 bloom
      had a higher proportion of nanoplanktonic cells (as compared to the reference
      period) and it was co-dominated by O. aurita and Thalassiossira spp. Other
      variables such as nutrient supply and incident solar radiation did not have an
      important role in limiting and/or initiating the June 2015 bloom, but temperature
      might have benefited the growth of small cells during August 2015. If these
      changes in the timing and/or the taxonomic composition of the bloom persist, they
      may have important consequences for the secondary production and economic
      services of the coastal SAO.

PMID- 28886542
TI  - Enhanced bioremediation of nutrient-amended, petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated
      soils over a cold-climate winter: The rate and extent of hydrocarbon
      biodegradation and microbial response in a pilot-scale biopile subjected to
      natural seasonal freeze-thaw temperatures.
AB  - A pilot-scale biopile field experiment for nutrient-amended petroleum
      contaminated fine-grained soils was performed over the winter at a cold-climate
      site. The rate and extent of hydrocarbon biodegradation and microbial responses
      were determined and corresponded to the on-site soil phase changes (from unfrozen
      to partially frozen, deeply frozen, and thawed) associated with natural seasonal
      freeze-thaw conditions. Treated and untreated biopiles were constructed (~3500kg
      each) on an open outdoor surface at a remediation facility in Saskatoon, Canada.
      The treated biopile received N-P-K-based nutrient and humate amendments before
      seasonal freezing. Real-time field monitoring indicated significant unfrozen
      water content in the treated and untreated biopiles throughout the freezing
      period, from the middle of November to early March. Unfrozen water was slightly
      more available in the treated biopile due to the aqueous nutrient supply. Soil
      CO2 production and O2 consumption in the treated biopile were generally greater
      than in the untreated biopile. Total removal percentages for F2 (>C10-C16), F3
      (>C16-C34), and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in the treated biopile were
      57, 58, and 58%, respectively, of which 26, 39, and 33% were removed during
      seasonal freezing and early thawing between November to early March. F3
      degradation largely occurred during freezing while F2 hydrocarbons were primarily
      removed during thawing. Biomarker-based hydrocarbon analyses confirmed enhanced
      biodegradation in the treated biopile during freezing. The soil treatment
      increased the first-order rate constants for F2, F3, and TPH degradation by a
      factor of 2 to 7 compared to the untreated biopile. Shifts in bacterial community
      appeared in both biopiles as the biopile soils seasonally froze and thawed.
      Increased alkB1 gene copy numbers in the treated biopile, especially in the
      partially thawed phase during early thawing, suggest extended hydrocarbon
      biodegradation to the seasonal freeze-thaw season, due to the nutrients supplied
      prior to seasonal freezing.

PMID- 28886543
TI  - Assessing river water quality using water quality index in Lake Taihu Basin,
      China.
AB  - Lake Taihu Basin, one of the most developed regions in China, has received
      considerable attention due to its severe pollution. Our study provides a clear
      understanding of the water quality in the rivers of Lake Taihu Basin based on
      basin-scale monitoring and a water quality index (WQI) method. From September
      2014 to January 2016, four samplings across four seasons were conducted at 96
      sites along main rivers. Fifteen parameters, including water temperature, pH,
      dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity, turbidity (tur), permanganate index (CODMn),
      total nitrogen, total phosphorus, ammonium (NH4-N), nitrite, nitrate (NO3-N),
      calcium, magnesium, chloride, and sulfate, were measured to calculate the WQI.
      The average WQI value during our study period was 59.33; consequently, the water
      quality was considered as generally "moderate". Significant differences in WQI
      values were detected among the 6 river systems, with better water quality in the
      Tiaoxi and Nanhe systems. The water quality presented distinct seasonal
      variation, with the highest WQI values in autumn, followed by spring and summer,
      and the lowest values in winter. The minimum WQI (WQImin), which was developed
      based on a stepwise linear regression analysis, consisted of five parameters: NH4
      N, CODMn, NO3-N, DO, and tur. The model exhibited excellent performance in
      representing the water quality in Lake Taihu Basin, especially when weights were
      fully considered. Our results are beneficial for water quality management and
      could be used for rapid and low-cost water quality evaluation in Lake Taihu
      Basin. Additionally, we suggest that weights of environmental parameters should
      be fully considered in water quality assessments when using the WQImin method.

PMID- 28886544
TI  - A new method for deriving trace gas emission inventories from satellite
      observations: The case of SO2 over China.
AB  - A method is developed that allows the construction of spatial emission
      inventories. The method is applied for anthropogenic SO2 over China (0.25 degrees
      *0.25 degrees ). The Enhancement Ratio Method (ERM) allows for the calculation of
      SO2 emissions using relationships between gridded satellite measurements of SO2
      and NO2 at low wind speeds, and satellite-based NOx emission estimates. Here, we
      derive SO2 emissions for five years (2007-2011). A large decrease of emissions
      during 2007-2009 and a modest increase between 2010 and 2011 is observed. The
      evolution of emissions over time calculated here is in general agreement with
      bottom-up inventories, although differences exist, not only between the current
      inventory and other inventories but also among the bottom up inventories
      themselves. The ERM-derived emissions are consistent, spatially and temporally,
      with existing inventories.

PMID- 28886545
TI  - Occurrence and distribution of marine natural organic pollutants: Lipophilic
      marine algal toxins in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, China.
AB  - For the first time, the composition, concentration and distribution
      characteristics of typical lipophilic marine algal toxins (LMATs) are
      investigated in surface seawater, suspended particulate matter (SPM) and
      sediments from the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, China. Pectenotoxin-2 (PTX2) and
      okadaic acid (OA) were detected in offshore surface seawater samples (n=67) of
      the Yellow and Bohai Seas, and PTX2 was found in higher concentrations than OA.
      The concentrations of PTX2 were between 0.49 and 14.14ng/L. OA, dinophysistoxin
      1(DTX1), PTX2 and gymnodimine (GYM) were detected in the nearshore surface
      seawater samples (n=20) of the Haizhou Bay of the Yellow Sea. OA concentrations
      were between 11.47 and 55.85ng/L. There was a large degree of variation in the
      concentrations of DTX1, from <limit of quantification (LOQ) up to 143.14ng/L. The
      nearshore surface seawater samples (n=13) obtained from the Longdao area of the
      Bohai Sea mainly contain OA (5.00-24.14ng/L) and DTX1 (1.52-49.39ng/L), with PTX2
      concentrations being less than the LOQ. Several LMATs were also detected both in
      the SPM and sediment samples of each study area. In summary, the LMAT composition
      and concentration levels in the surface seawater found in nearshore samples were
      substantially different from those of samples from the distant shore, which
      indicated the obvious regional characteristics of LMATs according to their
      spatial distribution in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea.

PMID- 28886546
TI  - Measuring urban tree loss dynamics across residential landscapes.
AB  - The spatial arrangement of urban vegetation depends on urban morphology and socio
      economic settings. Urban vegetation changes over time because of human
      management. Urban trees are removed due to hazard prevention or aesthetic
      preferences. Previous research attributed tree loss to decreases in canopy cover.
      However, this provides little information about location and structural
      characteristics of trees lost, as well as environmental and social factors
      affecting tree loss dynamics. This is particularly relevant in residential
      landscapes where access to residential parcels for field surveys is limited. We
      tested whether multi-temporal airborne LiDAR and multi-spectral imagery collected
      at a 5-year interval can be used to investigate urban tree loss dynamics across
      residential landscapes in Denver, CO and Milwaukee, WI, covering 400,705
      residential parcels in 444 census tracts. Position and stem height of trees lost
      were extracted from canopy height models calculated as the difference between
      final (year 5) and initial (year 0) vegetation height derived from LiDAR.
      Multivariate regression models were used to predict number and height of tree
      stems lost in residential parcels in each census tract based on urban
      morphological and socio-economic variables. A total of 28,427 stems were lost
      from residential parcels in Denver and Milwaukee over 5years. Overall, 7% of
      residential parcels lost one stem, averaging 90.87 stems per km2. Average stem
      height was 10.16m, though trees lost in Denver were taller compared to Milwaukee.
      The number of stems lost was higher in neighborhoods with higher canopy cover and
      developed before the 1970s. However, socio-economic characteristics had little
      effect on tree loss dynamics. The study provides a simple method for measuring
      urban tree loss dynamics within and across entire cities, and represents a
      further step toward high resolution assessments of the three-dimensional change
      of urban vegetation at large spatial scales.

PMID- 28886547
TI  - Sinks and sources: Assessing microplastic abundance in river sediment and deposit
      feeders in an Austral temperate urban river system.
AB  - Microplastics are important novel pollutants in freshwaters but their behaviour
      in river sediments is poorly understood due to the large amounts of coloured
      dissolved organic matter that impede sample processing. The present study aimed
      to 1.) estimate the microplastic pollution dynamics in an urban river system
      experiencing temporal differences in river flow, and 2.) investigate the
      potential use of chironomids as indicators of microplastic pollution levels in
      degraded freshwater environments. Microplastic levels were estimated from
      sediment and Chironomus spp. larvae collected from various sites along the
      Bloukrans River system, in the Eastern Cape South Africa during the summer and
      winter season. River flow, water depth, channel width, substrate embeddedness and
      sediment organic matter were simultaneously collected from each site. The winter
      season was characterised by elevated microplastic abundances, likely as a result
      of lower energy and increased sediment deposition associated with reduced river
      flow. In addition, results showed that particle distribution may be governed by
      various other external factors, such as substrate type and sediment organic
      matter. The study further highlighted that deposit feeders associated with the
      benthic river habitats, namely Chironomus spp. ingest microplastics and that the
      seasonal differences in sediment microplastic dynamics were reflected in
      chironomid microplastic abundance. There was a positive, though weakly
      significant relationship between deposit feeders and sediment suggesting that
      deposit feeders such as Chironomus spp. larvae could serve as an important
      indicator of microplastic loads within freshwater ecosystems.

PMID- 28886548
TI  - Investigating the impact of different sport trainings on particulate matter
      resuspension in a sport center using well-characterized reference instruments and
      a low-cost monitor.
AB  - The present study investigated the exposure of teenagers, adults, and students to
      PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10, particle number concentration at two sport facilities of
      Nazarbayev University including Gymnastics Hall and Multi-purpose Hall.
      Measurements were conducted during variety of sport training sessions including
      soccer, basketball, volleyball, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), boxing, table tennis,
      etc. A low-cost instrument, Dylos was employed to compare its performance against
      two TSI instruments. In overall, the Dylos showed acceptable peaks when the
      source of particle resuspension was present. However, no correlation was observed
      between Dylos data and Dusttrak fine and coarse particle data. The average PM2,5
      and PM10 concentrations were found to be below the WHO limits. The number of
      participants during the training sessions and sports involving balls including
      basketball, soccer and volleyball were the two factors responsible for the
      observed increased particle resuspension.

PMID- 28886549
TI  - Disparity of nitrate and nitrite in vivo in cancer villages as compared to other
      areas in Huai River Basin, China.
AB  - Saliva and Urine samples were collected for the study on how nitrate and nitrite
      concentration in human body may be related to the corresponding health risk in a
      high cancer incidence area. The study area includes three known cancer villages
      in Huai River basin, China. The results of analyzing collected sample show that
      there are higher levels of nitrate and nitrite concentration in human saliva and
      urine sample collected in the study area as compared to those collected in other
      areas. In addition, levels of nitrate and nitrite concentration in saliva and
      urine sample change significantly with the ages of sampled population. NO3
      concentrations in saliva and urine sample are the most outstanding among the
      middle-aged and elderly populations. It means that the middle-aged and elderly
      populations have relatively high vivo nitrate reductive transformation rates and
      they also have higher N-nitroso compounds synthesis risks in the studied cancer
      villages.

PMID- 28886550
TI  - Accelerated ciprofloxacin biodegradation in the presence of magnetite
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Ciprofloxacin (CIP) biodegradation was investigated using enrichments obtained in
      the presence of magnetite nanoparticles, CIP and human fecal sewage. CIP addition
      inhibited methanogenic activity and altered the bacterial community composition.
      The magnetite-supplemented enrichments significantly promoted CIP biodegradation,
      especially in the presence of 2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES). When BES was added,
      CIP biodegradation in the magnetite-supplemented enrichments was 67% higher than
      in the magnetite-unamended enrichments. Fe (II) concentrations were also
      significantly increased in the BES and magnetite-supplemented enrichments. This
      indicated that there might be a positive relationship of CIP biodegradation with
      microbial reduction of Fe (III) to Fe (II). As for the magnetite-supplemented
      enrichments, DNA-sequencing analysis revealed that Stenotrophomonas was the
      dominant genus, while Desulfovibrio became the dominant genus in the presence of
      BES. These two genera might be related to Fe (III) reduction in the magnetite.
      The findings provide a strategy for improving CIP biodegradation during waste
      treatment.

PMID- 28886551
TI  - Systematic review and meta-analysis of early life exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl)
      phthalate and obesity related outcomes in rodents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that the plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
      (DEHP) exerts obesogenic effects after pre- or perinatal exposure. OBJECTIVE: A
      systematic review with meta-analyses was conducted of early life exposure to
      DEHP, or its biologically active metabolite mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP),
      on the obesity related outcome measures body weight, fat (pad) weight,
      triglycerides, free fatty acids and leptin in experimental rodent studies.
      METHODS: The applied methodology was pre-specified in a rigorous protocol.
      Relevant articles were identified using PubMed and EMBASE and meta-analyses were
      performed using mean differences (MD) and random effects model when at least five
      studies could be included per outcome measure. Risk of bias and the quality of
      evidence was assessed using established methodologies. RESULTS: Overall, 31
      studies could be included and meta-analyses could be performed for body weight
      and fat weight. Early life exposure to DEHP was significantly associated with
      increased fat weight (MD = 0.02; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.03), while a non-significant
      association was estimated for body weight (MD = -0.14; 95% CI: -0.32, 0.04).
      There was substantial heterogeneity across studies and the information was
      insufficient to assess the risk of bias for most studies. No meta-analyses could
      be conducted for other outcome measures, because too few studies were available.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this systematic review indicate that early life
      exposure to DEHP is potentially associated with increased adiposity in rodents.
      More data is needed to strengthen the evidence base.

PMID- 28886552
TI  - Removal of NAPL from columns by oxidation, sparging, surfactant and thermal
      treatment.
AB  - In this paper, four treatment techniques commonly applied to Volatile Organic
      Compounds (VOC) removal from soil are compared in column experiments with pure
      sand containing a residual Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (L-NAPL) contamination.
      Oxidation is tested through the injection of Fenton reagent, with persulfate, and
      combined with sparging with the injection of ozone. Surfactant treatment was
      conducted at low flow rates with Tween(r)80. Sparging was conducted by air
      injection but at a low flow rate of 1 mL min-1. Finally several columns were
      thermally treated at a temperature of 80  degrees C. The results showed high
      removal (>90%) for all techniques used, although only thermal treatment on BTEX
      (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes) reached 100% efficiency. The main
      limiting factors of each technique were: (i) for oxidation, the solubility of the
      substance limited the removal; (ii) for surfactant both the solubility in the
      surfactant and the type of surfactant are important; (iii) for sparging, the main
      factors are contaminant vapor pressure and porous media grain size; (iv) for
      thermal treatment, the limitation arises from the contaminant vapor pressure and
      the medium hydraulic conductivity. A comparison with literature data shows that
      the results are consistent with most of the studies conducted on one technique.

PMID- 28886553
TI  - An impact of moss sample cleaning on uncertainty of analytical measurement and
      pattern profiles of rare earth elements.
AB  - The main source of rare earth elements (REE) in mosses is atmospheric deposition
      of particles. Sample treatment operations including shaking, rinsing or washing,
      which are made in a standard way on moss samples prior to chemical analysis, may
      lead to removing particles adsorbed onto their tissues. This in turn causes
      differences in REE concentrations in treated and untreated samples. For the
      present study, 27 combined moss samples were collected within three wooded areas
      and prepared for REE determinations by ICP-MS using both manual cleaning by
      shaking and triple rinsing with deionized water. Higher concentrations of REE
      were found in manually cleaned samples. The comparison of REE signatures and
      shale-normalized REE concentration patterns showed that the treatment procedure
      did not lead to fractionation of REE. All the samples were enriched in medium
      rare earth elements, and the deltaMREE factor remained practically unchanged
      after rinsing. Positive anomalies of Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Er and Yb were observed in
      both, manually cleaned and rinsed samples. For all the elements examined,
      analytical uncertainty was below 3.0% whereas sample preparation uncertainty
      computed with ANOVA, RANOVA, modified RANOVA and range statistics methods varied
      from 3.5 to 29.7%. In most cases the lowest srprep values were obtained with the
      modified RANOVA method.

PMID- 28886554
TI  - Dependence of toxicity of silver nanoparticles on Pseudomonas putida biofilm
      structure.
AB  - Susceptibility of biofilms with different physical structures to silver
      nanoparticles (AgNPs) was studied. Biofilms of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 were
      formed in batch conditions under different carbon sources (glucose, glutamic
      acid, and citrate), glucose concentrations (5 and 50 mM), and incubation
      temperatures (25 and 30  degrees C). The biofilms were observed using confocal
      laser scanning microscopy for their physical characteristics (biomass amount,
      thickness, biomass volume, surface to volume ratio, and roughness coefficient).
      The biofilms forming under different growth conditions exhibited different
      physical structures. The biofilm thickness and the roughness coefficient were
      found negatively and positively correlated with the biofilm susceptibility to
      AgNPs, respectively. The effect of AgNPs on biofilms was low (1-log reduction of
      cell number) when the biofilms had high biomass amount, high thickness, high
      biomass volume, low surface to volume ratio, and low roughness coefficient.
      Furthermore, the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) stripping process was
      applied to confirm the dependence of susceptibility to AgNPs on the structure of
      biofilm. After the EPS stripping process, the biofilms forming under different
      conditions showed reduction in thickness and biomass volume, and increases in
      surface to volume ratio and roughness coefficient, which led to more biofilm
      susceptibility to AgNPs. The results of this study suggest that controlling the
      growth conditions to alter the biofilm physical structure is a possible approach
      to reduce the impact of AgNPs on biofilms in engineered and natural systems.

PMID- 28886555
TI  - Effects of Fe(III) and quality of humic substances on As(V) distribution in
      freshwater: Use of ultrafiltration and Kohonen neural network.
AB  - Humic substances (HS) are ubiquitous organic compounds able to affect mobility
      and availability of arsenic (As) in aquatic systems. Although it is known that
      associations between HS and As occur mainly via iron (Fe)-cationic bridges, the
      behaviour and distribution of this metalloid in HS- and Fe-rich environments is
      still not fully understood. In this paper, the quality of HS from different
      rivers in Brazil and Germany and its influence on the behaviour of As(V) under
      different Fe(III) concentrations were investigated. HS were extracted from four
      different rivers (Cascatinha, Holtemme, Selke and Warme Bode), characterised and
      fractionated into different molecular weight sizes (10, 5 and 1 kDa).
      Complexation tests were performed using an ultrafiltration system and 1 kDa
      membranes. All data was analysed using the Kohonen neural network (SOM - Self
      organising maps). All samples, except Selke, exhibited similar results of free As
      (<1 kDa). The results suggested that associations between HS, Fe and As were
      dependent on nitrogen (N)-aromatic carbon (C), amount of sulphur (S) and the
      molecular size of the HS. Although all HS appeared to be similar after looking at
      most variables analysed, the SOM could discriminate them into three different
      groups. Characterisation of the HS indicated that they had terrestrial material
      (from C3 plants) as precursor material. Most of the As and Fe was distributed in
      the fractions of higher (>10 kDa) and lower (<1 kDa) size. HS quality is an
      important factor to take into account when studying the behaviour of As in HS
      rich environments.

PMID- 28886556
TI  - Developing an integrated 3D-hydrodynamic and emerging contaminant model for
      assessing water quality in a Yangtze Estuary Reservoir.
AB  - An integrated 3D-hydrodynamic and emerging contaminant model was developed for
      better understanding of the fate and transport of emerging contaminants in
      Qingcaosha Reservoir. The reservoir, which supplies drinking water for nearly
      half of Shanghai's population, is located in Yangtze Delta. The integrated model
      was built by Delft3D suite, a fully integrated multidimensional modeling
      software. Atrazine and Bisphenol A (BPA) were selected as two representative
      emerging contaminants for the study in this reservoir. The hydrodynamic model was
      calibrated and validated against observations from 2011 to 2015 while the
      integrated model was calibrated against observations from 2014 to 2015 and then
      applied to explore the potential risk of high atrazine concentrations in the
      reservoir driven by agriculture activities. Our results show that the model is
      capable of describing the spatial and temporal patterns of water temperature,
      salinity and the dynamic distributions of two representative emerging
      contaminants (i.e. atrazine and BPA) in the reservoir. The physical and
      biodegradation processes in this study were found to play a crucial role in
      determining the fate and transport of atrazine and BPA in the reservoir. The
      model also provides an insight into the potential risk of emerging contaminants
      and possible mitigation thresholds. The integrated approach can be a very useful
      tool to support policy-makers in the future management of Qingcaosha Reservoir.

PMID- 28886557
TI  - The phytoremediation potential of Plectranthus neochilus on 2,4
      dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and the role of antioxidant capacity in herbicide
      tolerance.
AB  - The possible phytoremediation capacity of Plectranthus neochilus (boldo) exposed
      to the commercial pesticide (Aminol) in soil and water through consecutive
      extractions (days interval) was evaluated. After the exposure period, tea leaves
      from the plant were analyzed in terms of the presence of 2,4-D, total antioxidant
      capacity (DPPH), concentration of total polyphenols and flavonoids for plants
      exposed to soil and water. In water, 2,4-D remained up to 67% in the 60 days of
      experiment in the control group, which provided the use of two treatment groups
      with the plant (one group of plants for 30 days and another group in the
      remaining 30 days in the same system), thus, a decontamination up to 49% of the
      2,4-D was obtained in this system with water. In both experiments (soil and
      water) the 2,4-D was not detected in tea leaves, the reduction of the antioxidant
      activity, polyphenols and flavonoids of plants exposed to the herbicide was also
      observed when compared to the non-exposed plants. In tea - plants in water - it
      was also possible to quantify the phenolic compounds and it was observed that in
      the group of plants of the first 30 days there was a decrease in caffeic acid and
      an increase in coumaric and ferulic acids, compared to the group of plants that
      were not exposed to 2,4-D. In the remaining 30 days with the new seedlings there
      was a decrease of the coumaric acid and an increase of the caffeic and ferulic
      acids.

PMID- 28886558
TI  - Glyphosate and AMPA passive sampling in freshwater using a microporous
      polyethylene diffusion sampler.
AB  - Glyphosate (PMG) is one of the most widely used herbicides with a reported 8.6
      million tons applied globally in 2016. Due to widespread use and limited
      understanding of long-term environmental impacts, it is expected that future
      monitoring requirements for PMG and its primary metabolite aminomethyl phosphonic
      acid (AMPA) in aquatic environments will increase, along with the need for low
      cost monitoring and risk assessment strategies. The aim of this study was to
      investigate a microporous polyethylene tube (MPT; 2-mm thickness, 17.6 cm2
      surface area, 35% porosity, 2.5 MUm pore size) as a diffusive layer for the
      passive sampling of PMG and AMPA. Levels of PMG and AMPA sorbed to MPT were low
      (Kmw close to 1 mL g-1), validating MPT as a diffusive layer. Uptake experiments
      were conducted first under controlled laboratory conditions (pH = 6.8, 6 days),
      followed by an in situ freshwater lake system deployment (pH = 7.3, 11 days). PMG
      and AMPA accumulated linearly (slope relative standard deviation < 6%) under
      laboratory conditions with sampling rates (Rs) of 18 and 25 mL d-1, respectively.
      PMG in situ Rs was 28 mL d-1, and was not different from the one found in the
      laboratory. AMPA was below the limit of quantification (LOQ, 1 ng mL-1) in grab
      water samples, but was detected (>LOQ) in all passive samplers. Results
      illustrate the gain in sensitivity provided by the passive sampling technique,
      and the applicability of the device developed for the passive sampling of PMG and
      AMPA.

PMID- 28886559
TI  - Sewage treatment effluents in Delhi: A key contributor of beta-lactam resistant
      bacteria and genes to the environment.
AB  - Rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance (AR) in developing countries is posing a
      greater health risk and increasing the global disease burden. Lack of access to
      safe drinking water, poor sanitation and inadequate sewage treatment facilities
      in these countries are fueling the problem associated with emergence of AR. Rapid
      proliferation of AR mediated by treated and untreated discharges from sewage
      treatment plants (STPs) is a prime public health concern. This study aims to
      understand the occurrence, fate, and routes of proliferation of carbapenem (KPC)
      and extended spectrum beta-lactam (ESBL) resistant bacteria, and selected
      resistant genes in the samples collected from different unit operations in 12
      STPs in New Delhi over two seasons. Strong correlation observed between faecal
      coliform levels and KPC (R = 0.95, p = 0.005, n = 60) and ESBL (R = 0.94, p =
      0.004, n = 60) resistant bacteria levels indicates possible association of
      resistant bacteria with faecal matter. Different unit operations in STPs proved
      inefficient in treating resistant bacteria and genes present in the wastewater.
      However, inclusion of tertiary treatment (chlorination) unit and anaerobic
      digester in the present STPs resulted in better removal of AR. Significant
      correlations between antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) and integron levels
      indicates a potential for higher rate of AR proliferation in the environment.
      Microbial culturing indicated the presence of clinically significant drug
      resistant pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca,
      Acinetobacter baumannii, Shigella dysentery and Aeromonas caviae in the STP
      effluents. The emergence and spread of resistant bacteria through STP effluents
      poses exposure risk for the residents of the city.

PMID- 28886560
TI  - Occurrence of nitrogenous and carbonaceous disinfection byproducts in drinking
      water distributed in Shenzhen, China.
AB  - A 12-month sampling program was conducted throughout a drinking water
      distribution system in Shenzhen and the data from 251 samples provide a
      comprehensive picture of the spatial and seasonal variability of 17 species
      disinfection by-products (DBPs) in a city with subtropical monsoon climate. The
      carbonaceous disinfection by-product (C-DBPs) included four trihalomethanes
      (THMs), three trihaloacetaldehydes (THAs) and two haloketones (HKs). Their median
      concentrations over the entire period were 19.9 MUg/L, 3.4 MUg/L and 1.4 MUg/L,
      respectively. The nitrogenous DBPs (N-DBPs) monitored were four haloacetonitriles
      (HANs) and four haloacetamides (HAcAms). Their median levels were 2.0 MUg/L and
      1.5 MUg/L, respectively. Low levels of brominated DBP species (bromine
      substitution factors <= 0.5) were observed. The BSF of each DBP class followed
      the trend: THMs ~ DHAcAms > DHANs > THAs. All the DBP concentrations showed clear
      seasonal variations with the highest average concentrations in spring.
      Correlation analyses showed that the THMs and CH levels in Shenzhen drinking
      water could be used as statistical indicators of the levels of unregulated N-DBPs
      (0.4 < r < 0.7, p < 0.5). The results supplement the database of DBP occurrence
      in drinking water in China, and provide an important reference data set for DBP
      occurrence in cities with a subtropical monsoon climate around the world.

PMID- 28886561
TI  - Zinc protects against cadmium-induced toxicity by regulating oxidative stress,
      ions homeostasis and protein synthesis.
AB  - The widespread environmental toxin cadmium (Cd) is associated with numerous human
      diseases. The essential trace element zinc (Zn) strongly counteracts Cd-induced
      toxicity; however, the mechanism is incompletely understood. Here, we conducted
      RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analyses to determine the global gene
      expression profiles of yeast cells exposed to Cd or Cd plus Zn. We identified 912
      Cd-induced and 627 Cd plus Zn-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs).
      Adding Zn during Cd exposure efficiently reversed the expression of 92.1% of Cd
      induced DEGs; that of 48.7% was entirely reversed. Gene Ontology, Cluster of
      Orthologous Group and KEGG Ontology analyses revealed that the response of yeasts
      to Cd or Cd plus Zn was mainly involved in metal-specific oxidative stress;
      energy production and conversion; ion homeostasis and ribosome biogenesis and
      translation. Exposure of yeasts to Cd plus Zn protected them from oxidative
      stress by efficiently inhibiting the expression of genes associated with Cd
      triggered oxidative stress and preventing the disruption of Fe- and Zn-ion
      homeostasis and reduced glutathione and partially restored mitochondrial membrane
      potential. Moreover, Zn reduced the intracellular level of Cd to prevent the
      replacement by Cd of elements required for antioxidant enzyme activity and to
      protect protein sulphydryl groups against oxidation by free radicals. Further, Zn
      inhibited the synthesis alterations of Cd-induced ribosomal proteins, S
      containing amino acids, S-rich proteins and antioxidant enzymes. Conversely, the
      investigation results of our study on the yeast model revealed that the Cd
      treated protective effects of Zn on Cd-induced toxicity might be partially
      protective.

PMID- 28886562
TI  - Support of supervised injection facilities by emergency physicians in Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite evidence supporting the implementation of supervised
      injection facilities (SIFs) by multiple stakeholders, no evaluation of emergency
      physicians' attitudes has ever been documented towards such facilities in Canada
      or internationally. The primary goal of our study was to determine the opinions
      and perceptions of emergency physicians regarding the implementation of SIFs in
      Canada. METHODS: We conducted a national electronic survey of staff and resident
      emergency physicians in Canada using an iteratively designed survey tool in
      consultation with content experts. Invitations to complete the survey were sent
      via email by the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. Inclusion criteria
      required respondents to have treated an adult patient in a Canadian emergency
      department within the preceding 6 months. The primary measure was the proportion
      of respondents who would support, not support or were unsure of supporting SIFs
      in their community with the secondary measure being the likelihood of respondents
      to refer patients to a SIF if available. RESULTS: We received 280 responses out
      of 1353 eligible physicians (20.7%), with the analysis conducted on 250 responses
      that met inclusion criteria (18.5%). The majority of respondents stated they
      would support the implementation of SIFs in their community (N=172; 74.5%) while
      10.8% (N=25) would not and 14.7% (N=34) did not know. The majority of respondents
      said they would refer their patients to SIFs (N=198; 84.6%), with 4.3% (N=10) who
      would not and 11.1% (N=26) who were unsure. CONCLUSION: The findings from our
      study demonstrate that the majority of emergency physician respondents in Canada
      support the implementation of such sites (74.5%) while 84.6% of respondents would
      refer patients from the emergency department to such sites if they did exist.
      Given that many Canadian cities are actively pursuing the creation of SIFs or
      imminently opening such sites, it appears that our sample population of emergency
      physicians would both support this approach and would utilize such facilities in
      an effort to improve patient-centered outcomes for this often marginalized
      population.

PMID- 28886563
TI  - Prenatal anxiety effects: A review.
AB  - This review is based on literature on prenatal anxiety effects that was found on
      Pubmed and PsycINFO for the years 2010-2016. Prenatal anxiety is thought to have
      distinct features, although it has been measured both by specific prenatal
      anxiety symptoms as well as by standardized anxiety scales. Its prevalence has
      ranged from 21 to 25% and it has been predicted by a number of pregnancy -
      related variables such as unintended pregnancy, demographic variables such as low
      acculturation and income and psychosocial factors including pessimism and partner
      tension. Prenatal anxiety effects on pregnancy include increased cortisol levels,
      pro-inflammatory cytokines, obstetric problems and cesarean section. Effects on
      the neonate include lower gestational age, prematurity, less insulin-like growth
      factor in cord blood, less exclusive breast-feeding and less self-regulation
      during the heelstick procedure. Prenatal anxiety effects continue into infancy
      and childhood both on physiological development and emotional/mental development.
      Among the physiological effects are lower vagal activity across the first two
      years, and lower immunity, more illnesses and reduced gray matter in childhood.
      Prenatal anxiety effects on emotional/mental development include greater negative
      emotionality and in infants, lower mental development scores and internalizing
      problems. Anxiety disorders occur during childhood and elevated cortisol and
      internalizing behaviors occur during adolescence. Interventions for prenatal
      anxiety are virtually nonexistent, although stroking (massaging) the infant has
      moderated the pregnancy - specific anxiety effects on internalizing behaviors in
      the offspring. The limitations of this literature include the homogeneity of
      samples, the frequent use of anxiety measures that are not specific to pregnancy,
      and the reliance on self-report. Nonetheless, the literature highlights the
      negative, long-term effects of prenatal anxiety and the need for screening and
      early interventions.

PMID- 28886564
TI  - Efficient photodecomposition of herbicide imazapyr over mesoporous Ga2O3-TiO2
      nanocomposites.
AB  - The unabated release of herbicide imazapyr into the soil and groundwater led to
      crop destruction and several pollution-related concerns. In this contribution,
      heterogeneous photocatalytic technique was employed utilizing mesoporous Ga2O3
      TiO2 nanocomposites for degrading imazapyr herbicide as a model pollutant
      molecule. Mesoporous Ga2O3-TiO2 nanocomposites with varied Ga2O3 contents (0
      5wt%) were synthesized through sol-gel process. XRD and Raman spectra exhibited
      extremely crystalline anatase TiO2 phase at low Ga2O3 content which gradually
      reduced with the increase of Ga2O3 content. TEM images display uniform TiO2
      particles (10+/-2nm) with mesoporous structure. The mesoporous TiO2 exhibits
      large surface areas of 167m2g-1, diminished to 108m2g-1 upon 5% Ga2O3
      incorporation, with tunable mesopore diameter in the range of 3-9nm. The
      photocatalytic efficiency of synthesized Ga2O3-TiO2 nanocomposites was assessed
      by degrading imazapyr herbicide and comparing with commercial photocatalyst UV
      100 and mesoporous Ga2O3 under UV illumination. 0.1% Ga2O3-TiO2 nanocomposite is
      considered the optimum photocatalyst, which degrades 98% of imazapyr herbicide
      within 180min. Also, the photodegradation rate of imazapyr using 0.1% Ga2O3-TiO2
      nanocomposite is nearly 10 and 3-fold higher than that of mesoporous Ga2O3 and UV
      100, respectively. The high photonic efficiency and long-term stability of the
      mesoporous Ga2O3-TiO2 nanocomposites are ascribed to its stronger oxidative
      capability in comparison with either mesoporous TiO2, Ga2O3 or commercial UV-100.

PMID- 28886565
TI  - Size-separated particle fractions of stainless steel welding fume particles - A
      multi-analytical characterization focusing on surface oxide speciation and
      release of hexavalent chromium.
AB  - Welding fume of stainless steels is potentially health hazardous. The aim of this
      study was to investigate the manganese (Mn) and chromium (Cr) speciation of
      welding fume particles and their extent of metal release relevant for an
      inhalation scenario, as a function of particle size, welding method (manual metal
      arc welding, metal arc welding using an active shielding gas), different
      electrodes (solid wires and flux-cored wires) and shielding gases, and base alloy
      (austenitic AISI 304L and duplex stainless steel LDX2101). Metal release
      investigations were performed in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.3, 37
      degrees , 24h. The particles were characterized by means of microscopic,
      spectroscopic, and electroanalytical methods. Cr was predominantly released from
      particles of the welding fume when exposed in PBS [3-96% of the total amount of
      Cr, of which up to 70% as Cr(VI)], followed by Mn, nickel, and iron. Duplex
      stainless steel welded with a flux-cored wire generated a welding fume that
      released most Cr(VI). Nano-sized particles released a significantly higher amount
      of nickel compared with micron-sized particle fractions. The welding fume did not
      contain any solitary known chromate compounds, but multi-elemental highly
      oxidized oxide(s) (iron, Cr, and Mn, possibly bismuth and silicon).

PMID- 28886566
TI  - Textile dye biodecolourization and ammonium removal over nitrite in aerobic
      granular sludge sequencing batch reactors.
AB  - Biodecolourization of azo dye and removal of ammonium by aerobic granular sludge
      (AGS) was investigated under different growth conditions. AGS not previously
      exposed to azo dye was able to effectively decolourize azo dye under anaerobic
      and microaerophilic conditions. Azo dye, total organic carbon and ammoniacal
      nitrogen removal efficiencies of 89-100%, 79-95% and 92-100%, respectively, were
      achieved in the AGS reactor operated for 80days under microaerophilic conditions.
      Removal of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus was not impacted by azo dye loading.
      Azo dye, organic carbon and ammonium were majorly removed in the anoxic period
      wherein bulk dissolved oxygen was ranged from 0.5 and <0.08mgL-1. Removal of
      60mgL-1 NH4+-N was associated only with smaller amounts of nitrite build-up
      (~5mgL-1 NO2--N) and negligible nitrate concentrations. Profiles of nitrogen
      compounds in individual sequencing batch reactor cycles supported the occurrence
      of ammonium removal over nitrite pathway. Bacterial community analysis showed
      enrichment of specific microorganisms capable of decolourizing azo dyes in the
      dye-decolourizing AGS. Dye decolourization and nutrient removal by AGS under
      microaerophilic conditions is a novel finding and can be further developed for
      treating textile wastewaters onsite or after dilution with sewage.

PMID- 28886567
TI  - Expanding the application scope of on-farm biopurification systems: Effect and
      removal of oxytetracycline in a biomixture.
AB  - Antibiotic-containing wastewaters produced in agricultural activities may depress
      the pesticide-degrading capacity of biomixtures contained in biopurification
      systems. This work aimed to assay the effect of oxytetracycline (OTC) on the
      removal of carbofuran (CFN) in an optimized biomixture, and to determine the
      capacity of the system to dissipate OTC. During co-application of CFN+OTC, CFN
      removal and its accelerated degradation were not negatively affected. Similarly,
      different doses of OTC (10-500mgkg-1) did not significantly affect CFN
      mineralization, and the process even exhibited a hormetic-like effect. Moreover,
      the biomixture was able to remove OTC with a half-life of 34.0 d. DGGE-cluster
      analyses indicated that fungal and bacterial communities remained relatively
      stable during OTC application and CFN+OTC co-application, with similarities of
      over 70% (bacteria) and 80% (fungi). Overall, these findings support the
      potential use of this matrix to discard OTC-containing wastewater in this system
      originally intended for CFN removal.

PMID- 28886568
TI  - Synergistic degradation of pyrene by five culturable bacteria in a mangrove
      sediment-derived bacterial consortium.
AB  - A pyrene-degrading microbial consortium was obtained after enrichment with
      mangrove sediment collected from Thailand. Five cultivable bacteria
      (Mycobacterium spp. PO1 and PO2, Novosphingobium pentaromativorans PY1,
      Ochrobactrum sp. PW1, and Bacillus sp. FW1) were successfully isolated from the
      consortium. Draft genomes of them showed that two different morphotypes of
      Mycobacterium (PO1 and PO2), possessed a complete gene set for pyrene
      degradation. PY1 contained genes for phthalate assimilation via protocatechuate,
      a central intermediate, by meta-cleavage pathway, and PW1 possessed genes for
      protocatechuate degradation via ortho-cleavage pathway. The occurrence of
      biosurfactant-producing genes in FW1 suggests the involvement in enhancing the
      pyrene bioavailability. Biotransformation experiments revealed that Mycobacterium
      completely degraded 100mgL-1 pyrene within six days, whereas no significant
      degradation was observed with the others. Notably, PY1 and PW1 exhibited higher
      activity for protocatechuate degradation than the others. The artificially
      reconstructed consortia containing Mycobacterium with the other three strains
      (PY1, PW1 and FW1) showed three-fold higher degradation rate for pyrene than the
      individual Mycobacterium. The enhanced pyrene biodegradation achieved in the
      consortium was due to the cooperative interaction of bacterial mixture. Our
      findings showing that synergistic degradation of pyrene in the consortium will
      facilitate the application of the defined bacterial consortium in bioremediation.

PMID- 28886569
TI  - DNA incision evaluation, binding investigation and biocidal screening of Cu(II),
      Ni(II) and Co(II) complexes with isoxazole Schiff bases.
AB  - Two new series of binary metal complexes [M(L1)2] and [M(L2)2] where, M=Cu(II),
      Ni(II) & Co(II) and L1=4-((3,4-dimethylisoxazol-5-ylimino)methyl)benzene-1,3
      diol; L2=2-((3,4-dimethylisoxazol-5-ylimino)methyl)-5-methoxyphenol were
      synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR, ESI
      mass, UV-Visible, magnetic moment, ESR, SEM and powder XRD studies. Based on
      these results, a square planar geometry is assigned for all the metal complexes
      where the Schiff base acts as uninegatively charged bidentate chelating agent via
      the hydroxyl oxygen and azomethine nitrogen atoms. DNA binding studies of all the
      complexes with calf thymus DNA have been comprehensively investigated using
      electronic absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence quenching and viscosity studies.
      The oxidative and photo cleavage affinity of metal complexes towards supercoiled
      pBR322 DNA has been ascertained by agarose gel electrophoresis assay. From the
      results, it is observed that all the metal complexes bind effectively to CT-DNA
      via an intercalative mode of binding and also cleave pBR322 DNA in a promising
      manner. Further the Cu(II) complexes have shown better binding and cleavage
      properties towards DNA. The antimicrobial activities of the Schiff bases and
      their metal complexes were studied on bacterial and fungal strains and the
      results denoted that the complexes are more potent than their Schiff base
      ligands.

PMID- 28886570
TI  - Daily light integral and day light quality: Potentials and pitfalls of nighttime
      UV treatments on cucumber powdery mildew.
AB  - Nighttime ultraviolet (UV) radiation, if applied properly, has a significant
      potential for management of powdery mildews in many crop species. In this study,
      the role of growth light duration, irradiance, a combination of both (daily light
      integral) and light spectral quality (blue or red) on the efficacy of UV
      treatments against powdery mildew caused by Podosphaera xanthii and the growth
      performance of cucumber plants was studied in growth chambers. Increasing daily
      light integral provided by high-pressure sodium lamps (HPS) decreased efficacy of
      nighttime UV treatments against P. xanthii, but it increased plant growth.
      Furthermore, the efficacy of nighttime UV decreased when day length was increased
      from 16 to 20h at a constant daily light integral. The efficacy of nighttime UV
      increased if red light was applied after UV treatment, showing the possibility of
      day length extension without reducing the effect of UV. Increasing the dose of
      blue light during daytime reduced the efficacy of nighttime UV in controlling the
      disease, whereas blue deficient growth light (<6% of blue) caused UV mediated
      curling of young leaves. Furthermore, application of blue light after nighttime
      UV reduced its disease control efficacy. This showed the importance of
      maintaining a minimum of blue light in the growth light before nighttime UV
      treatment. Findings from this study showed that optimization of nighttime UV for
      management of powdery mildew is dependent on the spectral composition of the
      photosynthetically active radiation.

PMID- 28886571
TI  - Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent
      perspectives.
AB  - This study investigated adolescent and parent reports of adolescent social media
      use and its relation to adolescent psychosocial adjustment. The sample consisted
      of 226 participants (113 parent-adolescent dyads) from throughout the United
      States, with adolescents (55 males, 51 females, 7 unreported) ranging from ages
      14 to 17. Parent and adolescent reports of the number of adolescents' social
      media accounts were moderately correlated with parent-reported DSM-5 symptoms of
      inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, ODD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as
      well as adolescent-reported fear of missing out (FoMO) and loneliness. Lastly,
      anxiety and depressive symptoms were highest among adolescents with a relatively
      high number of parent-reported social media accounts and relatively high FoMO.
      The implications of these findings and need for related longitudinal studies are
      discussed.

PMID- 28886572
TI  - Myristic acid in amniotic fluid produces appetitive responses in human newborns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A mixture of eight fatty acids (lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic
      acid, palmitoleic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, elaidic acid, and linoleic
      acid) that are contained in human amniotic fluid, colostrum, and milk produces
      appetitive responses in newborns, suggesting the existence of a transition of
      sensorial cues that guide newborns to the maternal breast. OBJECTIVE: To explore
      the ability of each of these eight fatty acids individually to produce appetitive
      responses in newborns. METHODS: The study included 12 healthy human newborns<24h
      after birth. Using a longitudinal design, cotton swabs that were impregnated with
      each of the eight fatty acids and control substances (i.e., vehicle, saline, and
      vanilla) were placed approximately 1cm from the newborns' nostrils for 30s.
      Positive responses that were suggestive of acceptance included appetitive
      movements (i.e., suckling) and sniffing that were directed toward the cotton
      swab. Lateral movements of the head away from the swab were considered negative
      responses. Remaining stationary with no changes in facial expressions was
      considered indifference. RESULTS: Compared with controls (i.e., vehicle, saline,
      and vanilla) and the other fatty acids tested, myristic acid produced the longest
      duration of positive facial responses (suckling and sniffing). No significant
      differences in negative facial responses were observed in response to the
      odoriferous stimuli. No reactions that were suggestive of disgust were observed.
      CONCLUSION: A complex combination of stimuli, including the odor of myristic
      acid, may integrate sensory cues that guide newborns to the maternal breast.

PMID- 28886573
TI  - Do restrictive omnibus immigration laws reduce enrollment in public health
      insurance by Latino citizen children? A comparative interrupted time series
      study.
AB  - In the United States, there is concern that recent state laws restricting
      undocumented immigrants' rights could threaten access to Medicaid and the
      Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for citizen children of immigrant
      parents. Of particular concern are omnibus immigration laws, state laws that
      include multiple provisions increasing immigration enforcement and restricting
      rights for undocumented immigrants. These laws could limit Medicaid/CHIP access
      for citizen children in immigrant families by creating misinformation about their
      eligibility and fostering fear and mistrust of government among immigrant
      parents. This study uses nationally-representative data from the National Health
      Interview Survey (2005-2014; n = 70,187) and comparative interrupted time series
      methods to assess whether passage of state omnibus immigration laws reduced
      access to Medicaid/CHIP for US citizen Latino children. We found that law passage
      did not reduce enrollment for children with noncitizen parents and actually
      resulted in temporary increases in coverage among Latino children with at least
      one citizen parent. These findings are surprising in light of prior research. We
      offer potential explanations for this finding and conclude with a call for future
      research to be expanded in three ways: 1) examine whether policy effects vary for
      children of undocumented parents, compared to children whose noncitizen parents
      are legally present; 2) examine the joint effects of immigration-related policies
      at different levels, from the city or county to the state to the federal; and 3)
      draw on the large social movements and political mobilization literature that
      describes when and how Latinos and immigrants push back against restrictive
      immigration laws.

PMID- 28886574
TI  - Comparative transcriptome analysis of fast twitch muscle and slow twitch muscle
      in Takifugu rubripes.
AB  - Fast twitch muscle and slow twitch muscle are two important organs of Takifugu
      rubripes. Both tissues are of ectodermic origin, and the differences between the
      two muscle fibers reflect the differences in their myofibril protein composition
      and molecular structure. In order to identify and characterize the gene
      expression profile in the two muscle fibers of T. rubripes, we generated 54
      million and 44 million clean reads from the fast twitch muscle and slow twitch
      muscle, respectively, using RNA-Seq and identified a total of 580 fast-muscle
      specific genes, 1533 slow-muscle-specific genes and 11,806 genes expressed by
      both muscles. Comparative transcriptome analysis of fast and slow twitch muscles
      allowed the identification of 1508 differentially expressed genes, of which 34
      myosin and 30 ubiquitin family genes were determined. These differentially
      expressed genes (DEGs) were also analyzed by Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto
      Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway. In addition, alternative
      splicing analysis was also performed. The generation of larger-scale
      transcriptomic data presented in this work would enrich the genetic resources of
      Takifugu rubripes, which could be valuable to comparative studies of muscles.

PMID- 28886575
TI  - Changing social norms: The impact of normative feedback included in motivational
      enhancement therapy on cannabis outcomes among heavy-using adolescents.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Heavy cannabis use is a problematic behavior, particularly among
      some adolescents. Adolescents are particularly prone to social influence. As
      such, injunctive norms (perceptions of others' approval of cannabis use) and
      descriptive norms (perception of frequency of others' cannabis use) influence
      cannabis behavior. Given that norms are not always accurate, motivational
      enhancement therapy aims to reduce cannabis use through normative feedback and
      correction of normative misconceptions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate
      the relationships between perceived norms (descriptive and injunctive) and
      cannabis-related outcomes (use, cannabis-related problems, and cannabis use
      disorder symptoms) in a heavy cannabis-using adolescent population receiving
      motivational enhancement therapy. METHODS: Heavy cannabis-using individuals
      (n=252, 68% male, mean age 13.38, 59% Caucasian) were recruited from six Seattle
      high schools for a motivational enhancement therapy-based intervention involving
      normative feedback. RESULTS: Participants perceived higher rates of cannabis use
      among close friends than other same age teens and reported a higher perception of
      approval for cannabis use from close friends as compared to perceived approval of
      other same aged peers. Personal approval and the perceived approval of other same
      age teens were reduced following the intervention but there was no evidence of
      change in normative perceptions for close friends following the normative
      feedback interventions. Changes in normative perceptions were related to
      decreases in cannabis use and -related outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest the
      importance of normative feedback in changing behavior in adolescent cannabis
      users, but also highlight the ongoing influence of close friends.

PMID- 28886576
TI  - Change in college students' perceived parental permissibility of alcohol use and
      its relation to college drinking.
AB  - College students who perceive their parents to hold permissive views about their
      alcohol use engage in heavier drinking. However, few studies have assessed
      perceived parental permissibility of alcohol use (PPP) longitudinally across the
      later college years, and few have assessed variation in changes in PPP and
      whether or not these changes differentially predict drinking. This study assessed
      whether PPP changed across college and used two approaches to determine whether
      PPP predicted binge drinking frequency and peak drinking. Data on college
      students' daily lives and risk behaviors were collected from 687 students (51%
      female) in a large university in the Northeast United States over four years.
      Perceived parental permissibility of alcohol use increased from the last year of
      high school through the third year of college with males reporting significantly
      higher PPP by the third year of college. From 12th grade through the third year
      of college, between-person differences in mean PPP were positively associated
      with binge drinking frequency and peak drinking, and patterns of PPP change
      differentially predicted both drinking outcomes through fourth year. These
      findings suggest that PPP is a dynamic construct that may evidence important
      developmental changes across college and the transition to adulthood. More
      broadly, the results indicate that aspects of the parent-child relationship
      continue to change after high school and may be important as they are linked with
      college student risk behaviors.

PMID- 28886577
TI  - What's the harm? Alcohol and marijuana use and perceived risks of unprotected sex
      among adolescents and young adults.
AB  - : The link between substance use and risky sexual behavior, particularly
      unprotected sex, among adolescents and young adults has been well established in
      the literature; however, less is known regarding how different patterns and types
      of substance use differentially relate to unprotected sex and perceived risks of
      unprotected sex. The current study examined perceived risks and unprotected sex
      among adolescents and young adults, and examined whether marijuana use, alcohol
      use, and dual marijuana and alcohol use were differentially linked to unprotected
      sex and perceived risks of unprotected sex. METHOD: A sample of N=144 adolescents
      and young adults (Mage=18.77, SDage=3.4, range: 12-25) completed self-report
      questionnaires regarding past month substance use, unprotected sex, and perceived
      risks of having unprotected sex. RESULTS: In a hierarchical logistic regression,
      only alcohol use was related to having unprotected sex at last intercourse
      (b=0.25, p<0.001). The second multinomial logistic regression showed that the
      interaction of alcohol and marijuana use was significantly related to lower
      levels of perceived risk of unprotected sex (moderate risk: b=0.06, p=0.04,
      OR=1.07; no/slight risk: b=0.07, p=0.03). CONCLUSION: While dual marijuana and
      alcohol use was related to lower perceived risk of unprotected sex, only alcohol
      use only was associated with a higher likelihood of unprotected sex.

PMID- 28886578
TI  - Extraction time and temperature affect the extraction efficiencies of coumarin
      and phenylpropanoids from Cinnamomum cassia bark using a microwave-assisted
      extraction method.
AB  - Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), an efficient extraction tool, was employed
      to extract a coumarin and five phenylpropanoids (cinnamic acid, cinnamyl alcohol,
      cinnamaldehyde, 2-hydroxycinnamadehyde, and 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde) from
      Cinnamomum cassia bark using water as the extraction solvent. Six marker
      compounds were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array
      detector using a validated analytical method. To investigate the influences of
      temperature and time on the extraction yields of the six marker compounds, the
      water extracts of C. cassia bark were prepared using a MAE method at six
      different extraction temperatures (70, 75, 80, 85, 90, and 95 degrees C) and
      times (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12min). Their influences were assessed by multiple
      regression analysis. The results obtained demonstrated that higher extraction
      temperature and longer extraction time positively affected coumarin and cinnamyl
      alcohol contents, but negatively affected extract contents of cinnamic acid,
      cinnamaldehyde and 2-hydroxycinnamaldehyde (all p-<0.05). The extraction of 2
      methoxycinnamaldehyde was affected by both positively and negatively by
      increasing temperature and time. These changes during MAE were assumed by the
      chemical natures of the marker compounds with various functional groups. In
      conclusion, temperature and times significantly affected the extraction
      efficiencies of a coumarin and five phenylpropanoids from C. cassia bark when a
      water-based MAE method was used. This study provides a novel approach to the
      preparation of the water extract of C. cassia bark using MAE.

PMID- 28886579
TI  - Development, validation, and clinical pharmacokinetic application of ultra
      performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method for
      simultaneously determining a novel recombinant hirudin derivative (Neorudin) and
      its active metabolite in human serum.
AB  - Recombinant Neorudin (EPR-hirudin, EH), a novel, low-bleeding anticoagulant
      fusion protein, has been developed as an inactive prodrug that is converted to an
      active metabolite, hirudin variant 2-Lys47 (HV2), at the thrombus site and is
      undergoing Phase I clinical trials in China. The goal of our present research was
      to establish a novel ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass
      spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for simultaneously quantifying EH and HV2 in
      human serum. Furthermore, the method was used in clinical pharmacokinetic study
      after validation. The stock and dilute working solutions were dissolved in
      methanol/water (1/1, v/v) to avoid their adsorption. The internal standard (IS)
      used, had a similar structure to that of EH. The serum sample pretreatment
      involved protein precipitation with methanol. The volume ratio of the
      precipitating solvent to the serum sample was 3:1 (300MUL methanol: 100MUL serum
      sample). The chromatographic separation was performed using a 300A C18 column
      using a multi-step gradient with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile:water
      containing 0.1% formic acid. The detection was carried out using an ESI source in
      the positive multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The within and between run
      precision were in the range of 3.5%-10.3% for EH and 3.3%-8.8% for HV2, and the
      accuracy of both EH and HV2 was between -4.6% and 2.1%. The extraction recoveries
      and matrix effect at three quality control (QC) levels for EH and HV2 were
      satisfactory. The stabilities of EH and HV2 during the storage, preparation, and
      analysis were confirmed, and the carryover also proved to be acceptable. This
      technique was efficiently used in Phase I clinical pharmacokinetic trials of EH
      following intravenous administration of 0.2mg/kg to healthy volunteers.

PMID- 28886580
TI  - A plasma metabonomic analysis on potential biomarker in pyrexia induced by three
      methods using ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with Fourier
      transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.
AB  - Pyrexia usually is a systemic pathological process that can lead to metabolic
      disorders. Metabonomics as a powerful tool not only can reveal the pathological
      mechanisms, but also can give insight into the progression of pyrexia from
      another angle. Thus, an ultra high performance liquid chromatography combined
      with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (UHPLC-FT-ICR
      MS) metabonomic approach was employed for the first time to investigate the
      plasma biochemical characteristics of pyrexia induced by three methods and to
      reveal subtle metabolic changes under the condition of pyrexia so as to explore
      its mechanism. The acquired metabolic data of the models were subjected to
      principal component analysis (PCA) for allowing the clear separation of the
      pyrexia rats from the control rats. Variable importance for project values (VIP)
      and Student's t-test were used to screen the significant metabolic changes caused
      by pyrexia. Fifty-two endogenous metabolites were identified and putatively
      identified as potential biomarkers primarily associated with phospholipid
      metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, fatty acid oxidation metabolism, fatty acid
      amides metabolism and amino acid metabolism, and related to bile acid
      biosynthesis and glycerolipid catabolism. LysoPC (14:0), LysoPC (18:3), LysoPC
      (20:4), LysoPC (16:0), phytosphingosine, Cer (d18:0/12:0), N-[(4E,8E)-1,3
      dihydroxyoctadeca-4,8-dien-2-yl]hexadecanamide, oleamide, fatty acid amide C22:1,
      tryptophan, acetylcarnitine, palmitoylcarnitine and stearoylcarnitine were
      considered as common potential biomarkers of pyrexia rats induced by three
      methods: Our results revealed that the UHPLC-FT-ICR-MS-based metabolomic method
      is helpful for finding new potential metabolic markers for pyrexia detection and
      offers a good perspective in pyrexia research.

PMID- 28886581
TI  - Skullcapflavone II attenuates ovalbumin-induced allergic rhinitis through the
      blocking of Th2 cytokine production and mast cell histamine release.
AB  - Allergic rhinitis is a common heterogeneous chronic upper airway disorder and is
      an IgE-mediated inflammation characterized by one or more nasal symptoms such as
      sneezing, itching, nasal discharge, rhinorrhea, post nasal drainage and nasal
      blockage. In the present study, the effects of skullcapflavone II (SCFII) on
      upper airway inflammation, Th2 cytokines, and NF-kappaB signaling in an ovalbumin
      (OVA)-induced allergic rhinitis (AR) murine model in vivo were investigated. OVA
      induced AR mice increased nasal symptoms, eosinophils and mast cells infiltration
      into nasal cavity, OVA-specific IgE/IgG1 and histamine in serum, Th2 cytokines
      including IL-13 and GATA3, and NF-kappaB signaling in NALF and lung homogenate.
      Interestingly, treatment of SCFII reduced the levels of OVA-specific IgE/IgG1 and
      histamine in serum, of Th2 cytokines and of NF-kappaB signaling in the NALF and
      the lung homogenate, and histopathological changes in the nasal tissue and the
      lung. Also, dexamethasone suppressed such increases. The results of this study
      suggested that SCFII may ameliorate allergic inflammation of upper airway in AR
      mice model by blocking the Th2 cytokine production, the NF-kappaB signal pathway
      and the mast cell histamine release. Taken together, we suggest that SCFII may be
      used as a therapeutic agent for patients with Th2-mediated or mast cell-mediated
      allergic diseases.

PMID- 28886582
TI  - Protective effects of ghrelin in ventilator-induced lung injury in rats.
AB  - Ghrelin has exhibited potent anti-inflammatory effects on various inflammatory
      diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential effects of
      ghrelin on a model of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) established in rats.
      Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: low volume
      ventilation (LV, Vt=8ml/kg) group, a VILI group (Vt=30ml/kg), and a VILI group
      pretreated with ghrelin (GH+VILI). For the LV group, for the VILI and GH+VILI
      groups, the same parameters were applied except the tidal volume was increased to
      40ml/kg. After 4h of MV, blood gas, lung elastance, and levels of inflammatory
      mediators, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6, IL
      1beta, and (MIP)-2 and total protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were
      analyzed. Myeloperoxidase (MPO), (TLR)-4, and NF-kappaB, were detected in lung
      tissues. Water content (wet-to-dry ratio) and lung morphology were also
      evaluated. The VILI group had a higher acute lung injury (ALI) score, wet weight
      to dry ratio, MPO activity, and concentrations of inflammatory mediators (TNF
      alpha, IL-6, IL-1beta, and MIP-2) in BALF, as well as higher levels of TLR4 and
      NF-kappaB expression than the LV group (P<0.05). All histopathologic ALI, the
      inflammatory profile, and pulmonary dynamics have been improved by ghrelin
      pretreatment (P<0.05). Ghrelin pretreatment also decreased TLR4 expression and NF
      kappaB activity compared with the VILI group (P<0.05). Ghrelin pretreatment
      attenuated VILI in rats by reducing MV-induced pulmonary inflammation and might
      represent a novel therapeutic candidate for protection against VILI.

PMID- 28886583
TI  - Protective effects of wogonin against disease progression in different hepatic
      pathological conditions.

PMID- 28886584
TI  - Human pulpal blood flow in different root formation stages measured with
      transmitted-light plethysmography.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the pulp vitality after traumatic injury, dentists often
      use pulp sensitivity tests, which can be ambiguous in young permanent teeth with
      incomplete root formation. Transmitted-light plethysmography (TLP) is a non
      invasive objective method that uses a 525-nm LED to detect blood volume change in
      the pulp. The present study aimed (1) to investigate pulpal blood flow with TLP
      and optical characteristics in healthy permanent maxillary incisors in different
      root formation stages, and (2) to assess the influences of body growth of the
      children and tooth color on the TLP amplitude. DESIGN: Seventy-eight fully
      erupted maxillary central incisors were divided into four groups, according to
      the root formation stages. Group 1: root with wide-open apex, Group 2: root
      completed in length with open apex, Group 3: root with half-closed apex, Group 4:
      root with complete formation. The TLP amplitude, optical density, electric pulp
      testing, and cervical tooth color measurements of each group were compared using
      a one-way analysis of variance followed by the Bonferroni method. The correlation
      between the weights/heights of children and TLP amplitudes was analyzed using
      Pearson coefficient. RESULTS: The TLP amplitude was significantly higher in Group
      3 than in the other groups. The amplitude was correlated with the weights/heights
      of children, but not with the tooth color. Optical density and electric
      sensitivity increased with tooth maturation. CONCLUSION: The amplitude of TLP and
      optical density may be affected by growth and development in children and
      indicate changes in the vascular dynamics of the pulp and hard tissue maturation
      during root formation stages.

PMID- 28886585
TI  - Human papillomavirus infection in oral potentially malignant disorders and
      cancer.
AB  - Human papillomavirus (HPV) infects keratinocytes in the mucosa or skin, and
      persistent infection with HPV may lead to premalignant lesions and invasive
      cancer, especially cervical cancer. It has also been hypothesized that HPV
      infection is an etiological factor of oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral
      precancerous disorders such as lichen planus, leukoplakia, and erythroplakia. A
      high percentage of HPV in oral lesions supports the possible viral contribution,
      but an association of HPV infection with these lesions remains to be established.
      The current paper will update the latest progress of HPV infection in several
      oral potentially malignant disorders and oral squamous cell carcinoma and discuss
      the impact of HPV infection on the progression of oral potentially malignant
      disorders.

PMID- 28886586
TI  - A murine Ig light chain transgene reveals IGKV3 gene contributions to anti
      collagen types IV and II specificities.
AB  - A subset of autoimmune diseases result from autoantibodies targeting epitopes on
      matrix collagen. The most extensively studied are anti-glomerular basement
      membrane glomerulonephritis (or its systemic counterpart Goodpasture's disease)
      that destroys kidneys and lungs, and rheumatoid arthritis that leads to disabling
      arthritis. Autoantibodies in these disorders bind evolutionarily conserved
      conformational epitopes on the noncollagenous domain 1 (NC1) of the alpha3 chain
      of type IV [alpha3(IV)NC1] collagen in glomerular and alveolar basement
      membranes, and on native or citrullinated type II collagen (CII) in joint
      cartilage, respectively. The genetic origins of pathogenic anti-collagen B cells
      in these diseases is unknown, but observations from murine models raise the
      possibility that they overlap despite distinct in vivo immunopathologies.
      Monoclonal autoantibodies isolated from mice immunized with alpha3(IV)NC1
      collagen or CII show a biased use of Ig light chains (LC) encoded by genes of the
      IGKV3 subgroup (previously Vk21 family), paired with diverse Ig heavy chains. To
      further explore this relationship and determine if a single murine IGKV3 LC
      independently predisposes to both anti-collagen responses, we generated a novel
      transgenic (Tg) C57BL/6 mouse that expresses a productively rearranged IGKV3
      encoded LC, termed mLCV3-Tg, in conjunction with endogenously rearranged Ig heavy
      chains. Tg mice are also genetically deficient in endogenous kappa chains to
      permit tracking of the mLCV3 transgene. We show that mLCV3-Tg mice are
      susceptible to humoral autoimmunity against both collagen chains. Anti
      alpha3(IV)NC1 collagen, but not anti-CII, mLCV3-encoded Ig are detected in serum
      of unmanipulated Tg mice, while Toll-like receptor ligands induce secretion of
      mLCV3-Tg autoantibodies of both collagen specificities from splenocytes ex vivo.
      This indicates developmental survival of mLCV3-Tg B cells reactive with each
      antigen, and is consistent with production of the two anti-collagen autoIg from
      distinct B cell populations. Reduced B cell numbers, low serum Ig kappa levels,
      low cell surface Ig kappa density, and abundant endogenous lambda chain
      expression suggest that subsets of IGKV3-encoded B cells are regulated in vivo by
      mechanisms that include deletion, anergy, and LC editing. These results support
      the notion that murine IGKV3 LCs contribute structural fitness to antigen binding
      sites that support diverse anti-collagen autoimmune responses, that these
      responses are regulated in vivo, and that these cells can nonetheless readily
      escape immune regulation.

PMID- 28886587
TI  - Distinct pattern of immune tolerance in dendritic cells treated with
      lipopolysaccharide or lipoteichoic acid.
AB  - Cytokine induction is often critical for the host defense during acute immune
      responses while, if not tightly regulated, it may cause an immunological
      pathology coincident with tissue damage. Despite the fact that gram-positive
      bacterial infection has become increasingly prevalent, immune modulation induced
      by lipoteichoic acid (LTA), the major cell wall component of gram-positive
      bacteria has not been studied thoroughly at the cellular level. In the current
      study, tolerance induction in mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs)
      treated with single or repeated stimulation of Staphylococcus aureus LTA was
      compared with those of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The results
      showed that repeated LTA stimulation significantly suppressed pro-inflammatory
      cytokine (TNF-alpha and IL-6) production in BMDCs, comparable to that of LPS, but
      with less extent, down-regulated IL-10 and enhanced the inhibitory molecule, LAG
      3-associated protein (LAP). Furthermore, we observed a sustained expression of
      unique negative regulators, Toll interacting protein (TOLLIP) and Indoleamine 2,3
      dioxygenase (IDO), in BMDCs treated with LTA. A transient hyporesponsiveness
      period appeared when DCs were treated repeatedly with LTA or LPS showing a
      distinctive pattern. Intriguingly, LPS exposure induced cross tolerance to LTA
      while LTA exposure did not to LPS, implicating that a distinct signaling
      components are involved in response to LTA. Collectively, a distinct immune
      regulation appeared to be responsible for the LPS- and LTA-induced tolerance on
      cytokine production, expression of surface markers and intracellular proteins.

PMID- 28886589
TI  - Role of FKBP51 in the modulation of the expression of the corticosteroid
      receptors in bovine thymus following glucocorticoid administration.
AB  - The aim of this work was to study the transcriptional effects of glucocorticoids
      on corticosteroid hormone receptors, prereceptors (11beta-hydroxysteroid
      dehydrogenase 1 and 2, 11beta-HSD1 and 2), and chaperones molecules regulating
      intracellular trafficking of the receptors (FKBP51 and FKBP52) in thymus of veal
      calves. Moreover, the expression of FKBP51 and FKBP52 gene were investigated in
      beef cattle thymus. In the cervical thymus of veal calves, dexamethasone
      administration in combination with estradiol decreased FKBP51 expression (P <
      0.01). The same treatment increased mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) (P < 0.01)
      and 11beta-HSD1 expression (P < 0.05) compared to control group in the cervical
      thymus of veal calves. The thoracic thymus of veal calves treated with
      dexamethasone and estradiol showed a decrease of FKBP51 (P < 0.05), FKBP52 (P <
      0.05), glucocorticoid receptor (P < 0.05), and MR expression (P < 0.05) compared
      to control group in the thoracic thymus of veal calves. The gene expression of
      FKBP51 decreased both in cervical (P < 0.01) and thoracic thymus (P < 0.01) of
      beef cattle treated with dexamethasone and estradiol. In addition, also
      prednisolone administration reduced FKBP51 expression in the cervical thymus (P <
      0.01) and in the thoracic thymus of beef cattle (P < 0.01). The gene expression
      of FKBP52 increased only in the cervical thymus following dexamethasone
      administration (P < 0.01). The decrease of FKBP51 gene expression in thymus could
      be a possible biomarker of illicit dexamethasone administration in bovine
      husbandry. Moreover, so far, an effective biomarker of prednisolone
      administration is not identified. In this context, the decrease of FKBP51 gene
      expression in thymus of beef cattle following prednisolone administration could
      play an important role in the indirect identification of animals illegally
      treated with prednisolone.

PMID- 28886588
TI  - Human beta-defensin 3 inhibits periodontitis development by suppressing
      inflammatory responses in macrophages.
AB  - Human beta-defensin 3 (hBD3) is a cationic peptide with immunomodulatory effects
      on both innate and acquired immune responses. Periodontitis, an inflammatory
      disease that extends deep into periodontal tissues, causes the loss of supporting
      structures around the tooth. The present study assessed the effects of hBD3 as a
      monotherapy for periodontitis in mice and explored its potential mechanism. In
      vivo, hBD3 inhibited the levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha,
      interleukin-6, and matrix metalloprotease-9 in periodontium exposed to
      Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.g) in a mouse periodontitis model; reduced osteoclast
      formation and lower alveolar bone loss were also observed. In addition, hBD3 was
      related to the expression of polarization signature molecules in circulating
      monocytes. In vitro, hBD3 notably suppressed the production of TNF-alpha and
      interleukin-6 in RAW 264.7 cells stimulated by the lipopolysaccharide of P.g.
      Moreover, hBD3 attenuated polarization of RAW 264.7 cells into the M1 phenotype,
      with reduced activation of nuclear factor-kappaB signal transduction. In
      conclusion, hBD3 exhibits potent anti-periodontitis properties both in vitro and
      in vivo, and this effect may be correlated to inhibition of the nuclear factor
      kappaB pathway and macrophage polarization.

PMID- 28886590
TI  - Corpora lutea in superovulated ewes fed different planes of nutrition.
AB  - The corpus luteum (CL) is an ovarian structure which is critical for the
      maintenance of reproductive cyclicity and pregnancy support. Diet and/or diet
      components may affect some luteal functions. FSH is widely used to induce
      multiple follicle development and superovulation. We hypothesized that FSH would
      affect luteal function in ewes fed different nutritional planes. Therefore, the
      aim of this study was to determine if FSH-treatment affects (1) ovulation rate;
      (2) CL weight; (3) cell proliferation; (4) vascularity; (5) expression of
      endothelial nitric oxide (eNOS) and soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) proteins; and
      (6) luteal and serum progesterone (P4) concentration in control (C), overfed (O),
      and underfed (U) ewes at the early- and mid-luteal phases. In addition, data
      generated from this study were compared to data obtained from nonsuperovulated
      sheep and described by Bass et al. Ewes were categorized by weight and randomly
      assigned into nutrition groups: C (2.14 Mcal/kg; n = 11), O (2xC; n = 12), and U
      (0.6xC; n = 11). Nutritional treatment was initiated 60 d prior to day 0 of the
      estrous cycle. Ewes were injected with FSH on day 13-15 of the first estrous
      cycle, and blood samples and ovaries were collected at early- and mid-luteal
      phases of the second estrous cycle. The number of CL/ewe was determined, and CL
      was dissected and weighed. CL was fixed for evaluation of expression of Ki67 (a
      proliferating cell marker), CD31 (an endothelial cell marker), and eNOS and sGC
      proteins using immunohistochemistry and image analysis. From day 0 until tissue
      collection, C maintained, O gained, and U lost body weight. The CL number was
      greater (P < 0.03) in C and O than U. Weights of CL, cell proliferation,
      vascularity, and eNOS but not sGC expression were greater (P < 0.001), and serum,
      but not luteal tissue, P4 concentrations tended to be greater (P = 0.09) at the
      early- than mid-luteal phase. Comparisons of CL measurements demonstrated greater
      (P < 0.01) cell proliferation and serum P4 concentration, but less vascularity at
      the early and mid-luteal phases, and less CL weight at the mid-luteal phase in
      superovulated than nonsuperovulated ewes; however, concentration of P4 in luteal
      tissues was similar in both groups. Thus, in superovulated ewes, luteal cell
      proliferation and vascularity, expression of eNOS, and serum P4 concentration
      depend on the stage of luteal development, but not diet. Comparison to control
      ewes demonstrated several differences and some similarities in luteal functions
      after FSH-induced superovulation.

PMID- 28886591
TI  - Predictors of early dropout in treatment for gambling disorder: The role of
      personality disorders and clinical syndromes.
AB  - Several treatment options for gambling disorder (GD) have been tested in recent
      years; however dropout levels still remain high. This study aims to evaluate
      whether the presence of psychiatric comorbidities predicts treatment outcome
      according to Millon's evolutionary theory, following a six-month therapy for GD.
      The role of severity, duration of the disorder, typology of gambling (mainly
      online or offline) and pharmacological treatment were also analysed. The
      recruitment included 194 pathological gamblers (PGs) to be compared with 78
      healthy controls (HCs). Psychological assessment included the South Oaks Gambling
      Screen and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III. The "treatment failure"
      group (n = 70) comprised PGs who prematurely dropped out of the treatment whereas
      the "abstinent group" (n = 124) included PGs who completed the treatment
      regardless of whether the outcome was successful or not. As expected, the
      presence of psychiatric comorbidities was highlighted as a significant predictor
      in dropping out of the therapy. Specifically negativistic personality disorder,
      antisocial personality disorder, drug dependence and PTSD were associated with
      early dropout. These variables were predictive of treatment outcome independently
      from the typology of gambling, severity, duration of the disorder and
      pharmacological treatment. Implications for psychological and psychiatric care
      are discussed.

PMID- 28886592
TI  - New Rodent Population Models May Inform Human Health Risk Assessment and
      Identification of Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Exposures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This paper provides an introduction for environmental health
      scientists to emerging population-based rodent resources. Mouse reference
      populations provide an opportunity to model environmental exposures and gene
      environment interactions in human disease and to inform human health risk
      assessment. OBJECTIVES: This review will describe several mouse populations for
      toxicity assessment, including older models such as the Mouse Diversity Panel
      (MDP), and newer models that include the Collaborative Cross (CC) and Diversity
      Outbred (DO) models. METHODS: This review will outline the features of the MDP,
      CC, and DO mouse models and will discuss published case studies investigating the
      use of these mouse population resources in each step of the risk assessment
      paradigm. DISCUSSION: These unique resources have the potential to be powerful
      tools for generating hypotheses related to gene-environment interplay in human
      disease, performing controlled exposure studies to understand the differential
      responses in humans for susceptibility or resistance to environmental exposures,
      and identifying gene variants that influence sensitivity to toxicity and disease
      states. CONCLUSIONS: These new resources offer substantial advances to classical
      toxicity testing paradigms by including genetically sensitive individuals that
      may inform toxicity risks for sensitive subpopulations. Both in vivo and
      complementary in vitro resources provide platforms with which to reduce
      uncertainty by providing population-level data around biological variability.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1274.

PMID- 28886593
TI  - Influence of Tetrabromobisphenol A, with or without Concurrent Triclosan, upon
      Bisphenol A and Estradiol Concentrations in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Humans are commonly exposed to multiple environmental chemicals,
      including tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA; a flame retardant), triclosan (an
      antimicrobial agent), and bisphenol A (BPA; polycarbonate plastics). These
      chemicals are readily absorbed and may interact with each other. OBJECTIVES: We
      sought to determine whether TBBPA, given alone or in combination with triclosan,
      can modulate the concentrations of BPA and 17beta-estradiol (E2). METHODS: Female
      and male CF-1 mice were each given a subcutaneous injection of 0-27mg TBBPA, with
      or without concurrent 0.33mg triclosan, followed by dietary administration of
      50MUg/kg body weight 14C-BPA. Radioactivity was measured in blood serum and
      tissues through liquid scintillation counting. In subsequent experiments, female
      and male CF-1 mice were each given a subcutaneous injection of 0 or 1mg TBBPA and
      E2 was measured in urine 2-12 h after injection. RESULTS: Doses as low as 1mg
      TBBPA significantly elevated 14C-BPA concentrations in the uterus and ovaries of
      females; in the testes, epididymides, vesicular-coagulating glands, and preputial
      glands of males; and in blood serum, heart, lungs, and kidneys of both sexes;
      urinary E2 concentrations were also elevated. Lower doses of TBBPA or triclosan
      that had no effects on their own elevated 14C-BPA concentrations when the two
      substances were given concurrently. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that TBBPA,
      triclosan, and BPA interact in vivo, consistent with evidence that TBBPA and
      triclosan inhibit enzymes that are critical for BPA and E2 metabolism.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1329.

PMID- 28886594
TI  - Elemental Sulfur Use and Associations with Pediatric Lung Function and
      Respiratory Symptoms in an Agricultural Community (California, USA).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elemental sulfur, "the oldest of all pesticides," is the most heavily
      used agricultural pesticide in California and Europe. Sulfur is considered
      relatively safe and is used in both conventional and organic farming systems.
      Adverse respiratory effects have been reported in applicators and animals, but
      the effect on residential populations, and especially on children living in
      proximity to fields treated with elemental sulfur, is not known. OBJECTIVES: We
      evaluated associations between residential proximity to elemental sulfur
      applications and respiratory symptoms and spirometry of children living in an
      agricultural community. METHODS: Participants were enrolled in the CHAMACOS
      longitudinal birth cohort. We collected respiratory symptomatology for 347
      children at 7 y of age and measured spirometry on a subset of 279. Of these,
      estimations of proximity to sulfur application and relevant covariate data were
      available for 237 and 205 children for whom we had symptomatology information and
      FEV1 measurements, respectively. Data from the California Pesticide Use Reporting
      System were used to estimate the amount of elemental sulfur applied within 0.5,
      1, and 3km of a child's residence during the week, month, and 12 mo prior to
      pulmonary evaluation. Regression models controlled for maternal smoking during
      pregnancy; season of birth; PM2.5 (particulate matter <=2.5mm in aerodynamic
      diameter); breast feeding duration; child's sex, age, and height; technician; and
      other covariates. RESULTS: Adverse associations with respiratory outcomes were
      found for sulfur applications within 0.5- and 1-km radii. Specifically, asthma
      medication usage and respiratory symptoms increased [OR=3.51; 95% confidence
      interval (CI): 1.50, 8.23, p=0.004; OR=2.09; 95% CI: 1.27, 3.46, p=0.004,
      respectively] and FEV1 decreased (beta=-0.143; 95% CI: -0.248, -0.039, p=0.008)
      per 10-fold increase in the estimated amount of sulfur used within 1 km of child
      residence during the year prior to pulmonary evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      suggests that elemental sulfur use, allowed in both organic and conventional
      farming, in close proximity to residential areas, may adversely affect children's
      respiratory health. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP528.

PMID- 28886595
TI  - Personal Care Product Use in Men and Urinary Concentrations of Select Phthalate
      Metabolites and Parabens: Results from the Environment And Reproductive Health
      (EARTH) Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Personal care products (PCPs) are exposure sources to phthalates and
      parabens; however, their contribution to men's exposure is understudied.
      OBJECTIVES: We examined the association between PCP use and urinary
      concentrations of phthalate metabolites and parabens in men. METHODS: In a
      prospective cohort, at multiple study visits, men self-reported their use of 14
      PCPs and provided a urine sample (2004-2015, Boston, MA). We measured urinary
      concentrations of 9 phthalate metabolites and methylparaben, propylparaben, and
      butylparaben. We estimated the covariate-adjusted percent change in urinary
      concentrations associated with PCP use using linear mixed and Tobit mixed
      regressions. We also estimated weights for each PCP in a weighted binary score
      regression and modeled the resulting composite weighted PCP use. RESULTS: Four
      hundred men contributed 1,037 urine samples (mean of 3/man). The largest percent
      increase in monoethyl phthalate (MEP) was associated with use of cologne/perfume
      (83%, p-value<0.01) and deodorant (74%, p-value<0.01). In contrast, the largest
      percent increase for parabens was associated with the use of suntan/sunblock
      lotion (66-156%) and hand/body lotion (79-147%). Increases in MEP and parabens
      were generally greater with PCP use within 6 h of urine collection. A subset of
      10 PCPs that were used within 6 h of urine collection contributed to at least 70%
      of the weighted score and predicted a 254-1,333% increase in MEP and parabens
      concentrations. Associations between PCP use and concentrations of the other
      phthalate metabolites were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: We
      identified 10 PCPs of relevance and demonstrated that their use within 6 h of
      urine collection strongly predicted MEP and paraben urinary concentrations.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1374.

PMID- 28886596
TI  - Assessing Exposure to Household Air Pollution: A Systematic Review and Pooled
      Analysis of Carbon Monoxide as a Surrogate Measure of Particulate Matter.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Household air pollution from solid fuel burning is a leading
      contributor to disease burden globally. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is
      thought to be responsible for many of these health impacts. A co-pollutant,
      carbon monoxide (CO) has been widely used as a surrogate measure of PM2.5 in
      studies of household air pollution. OBJECTIVE: The goal was to evaluate the
      validity of exposure to CO as a surrogate of exposure to PM2.5 in studies of
      household air pollution and the consistency of the PM2.5-CO relationship across
      different study settings and conditions. METHODS: We conducted a systematic
      review of studies with exposure and/or cooking area PM2.5 and CO measurements and
      assembled 2,048 PM2.5 and CO measurements from a subset of studies (18 cooking
      area studies and 9 personal exposure studies) retained in the systematic review.
      We conducted pooled multivariate analyses of PM2.5-CO associations, evaluating
      fuels, urbanicity, season, study, and CO methods as covariates and effect
      modifiers. RESULTS: We retained 61 of 70 studies for review, representing 27
      countries. Reported PM2.5-CO correlations (r) were lower for personal exposure
      (range: 0.22-0.97; median=0.57) than for cooking areas (range: 0.10-0.96;
      median=0.71). In the pooled analyses of personal exposure and cooking area
      concentrations, the variation in ln(CO) explained 13% and 48% of the variation in
      ln(PM2.5), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that exposure to CO is
      not a consistently valid surrogate measure of exposure to PM2.5. Studies
      measuring CO exposure as a surrogate measure of PM exposure should conduct local
      validation studies for different stove/fuel types and seasons.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP767.

PMID- 28886597
TI  - Pesticide Use and Age-Related Macular Degeneration in the Agricultural Health
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of
      blindness in developed countries. Few studies have investigated its relationship
      to environmental neurotoxicants. In previous cross-sectional studies, we found an
      association between pesticide use and self-reported retinal degeneration.
      OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the association of pesticide use with physician-confirmed
      incident AMD. METHODS: The Agricultural Health Study (AHS) is a prospective
      cohort of pesticide applicators and their spouses enrolled from 1993-1997 in Iowa
      and North Carolina. Cohort members reported lifetime use of 50 specific
      pesticides at enrollment. Self-reports of incident AMD during follow-up through
      2007 were confirmed by reports from participants' physicians and by independent
      evaluation of retinal photographs provided by the physicians. Confirmed cases
      (n=161) were compared with AHS cohort members without AMD (n=39,108). We
      estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by logistic
      regression with adjustment for age, gender, and smoking. RESULTS: AMD was
      associated with ever use of organochlorine [OR=2.7 (95% CI: 1.8, 4.0)] and
      organophosphate [OR=2.0 (95% CI: 1.3, 3.0)] insecticides and phenoxyacetate
      herbicides [OR=1.9 (95% CI: 1.2, 2.8)]. Specific pesticides consistently
      associated with AMD included chlordane, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT),
      malathion, and captan; others with notable but slightly less consistent
      associations were heptachlor, diazinon, phorate, 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic
      acid (2,4,5-T), and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Results were similar
      for men and women. Some specific pesticides were associated with both early- and
      late-stage AMD, but others were associated with only one stage. CONCLUSIONS:
      Exposures to specific pesticides may be modifiable risk factors for AMD.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP793.

PMID- 28886598
TI  - A Human Mixture Risk Assessment for Neurodevelopmental Toxicity Associated with
      Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers Used as Flame Retardants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The European Food Safety Authority recently concluded that the
      exposure of small children (1-3 y old) to brominated diphenyl ether (BDE)-99 may
      exceed acceptable levels defined in relation to neurodevelopmental toxicity in
      rodents. The flame retardant BDE-209 may release BDE-99 and other lower
      brominated BDEs through biotic and abiotic degradation, and all age groups are
      exposed not only to BDE-209 and -99 but also to a cocktail of BDE congeners with
      evidence of neurodevelopmental toxicity. The possible risks from combined
      exposures to these substances have not been evaluated. OBJECTIVES: We performed a
      congener-specific mixture risk assessment (MRA) of human exposure to combinations
      of BDE-209 and other BDEs based on estimated exposures via diet and dust intake
      and on measured levels in biologic samples. METHODS: We employed the Hazard Index
      (HI) method by using BDE congener-specific reference doses for neurodevelopmental
      toxicity. RESULTS: Our HI analysis suggests that combined exposures to
      polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) may exceed acceptable levels in
      breastfeeding infants (0-3 mo old) and in small children (1-3 y old), even for
      moderate (vs. high) exposure scenarios. Our estimates also suggest that
      acceptable levels of combined PBDEs may be exceeded in adults whose diets are
      high in fish. Small children had the highest combined exposures, with some
      estimated body burdens that were similar to body burdens associated with
      developmental neurotoxicity in rodents. CONCLUSIONS: Our estimates corroborate
      reports from several recent epidemiological studies of associations between PBDE
      exposures and neurobehavioral outcomes, and they support the inclusion of BDE-209
      in the persistent organic pollutant (POP) convention as well as the need for
      strategies to reduce exposures to PBDE mixtures, including maximum residue limits
      for PBDEs in food and measures for limiting the release of PBDEs from consumer
      waste. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP826.

PMID- 28886599
TI  - Associations between Greenness, Impervious Surface Area, and Nighttime Lights on
      Biomarkers of Vascular Aging in Chennai, India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: India is undergoing rapid urbanization with simultaneous increases in
      the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). As urban areas become home to an
      increasing share of the world's population, it is important to understand
      relationships between the built environment and progression towards CVD.
      OBJECTIVE: We assessed associations between multiple measures of the built
      environment and biomarkers of early vascular aging (EVA) in the Population Study
      of Urban, Rural and Semiurban Regions for the Detection of Endovascular Disease
      and Prevalence of Risk Factors and Holistic Intervention Study (PURSE-HIS) in
      Chennai, India. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 3,150 study
      participants. EVA biomarkers included systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP
      and DBP), central pulse pressure (cPP) and flow-mediated dilatation (FMD).
      Multiple approaches were used to assign residential exposure to factors of the
      built environment: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived
      normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), a measure of vegetation health and
      greenness; Landsat-derived impervious surface area (ISA); and Visible Infrared
      Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)-derived nighttime lights (NTL). Multivariable
      regression models were used to assess associations between each built environment
      measure and biomarkers of EVA, adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), cooking
      fuel type, energy intake, sex, physical activity, smoking, socioeconomic status,
      and stress. RESULTS: Residing in areas with higher ISA or NTL, or lower
      greenness, was significantly associated with elevated SBP, DBP, and cPP, and with
      lower FMD, adjusting for age, BMI, sex, smoking status, and other CVD risk
      factors. An interquartile range decrease in greenness had the largest increase in
      SBP [4.3 mmHg (95% CI: 2.9, 5.6)], DBP [1.2 mmHg (95% CI: 0.4, 2.0)] and cPP [3.1
      mmHg (95% CI: 2.0, 4.1)], and the largest decrease in FMD [-1.5% (95%CI: -2.2%, 
      0.9%]. CONCLUSION: Greenness, ISA, and NTL were associated with increased SBP,
      DBP, and cPP, and with reduced FMD, suggesting a possible additional EVA pathway
      for the relationship between urbanization and increased CVD prevalence in urban
      India. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP541.

PMID- 28886600
TI  - Outdoor Light at Night and Breast Cancer Incidence in the Nurses' Health Study
      II.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Animal and epidemiologic studies suggest that exposure to light at
      night (LAN) may disrupt circadian patterns and decrease nocturnal secretion of
      melatonin, which may disturb estrogen regulation, leading to increased breast
      cancer risk. OBJECTIVES: We examined the association between residential outdoor
      LAN and breast cancer incidence using data from the nationwide U.S.-based Nurses'
      Health Study II cohort. METHODS: We followed 109,672 women from 1989 through
      2013. Cumulative LAN exposure was estimated using time-varying satellite data for
      a composite of persistent nighttime illumination at ~1 km2 scale for each
      residence during follow-up. Incident invasive breast cancer cases were confirmed
      by medical record review. We used Cox proportional hazard models to calculate
      hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for
      anthropometric, reproductive, lifestyle, and socioeconomic risk factors. RESULTS:
      Over 2,187,425 person-years, we identified 3,549 incident breast cancer cases.
      Based on a fully adjusted model, the estimated HR for incident breast cancer with
      an interquartile range (IQR) (31.6 nW/cm2/sr) increase in cumulative average
      outdoor LAN was 1.05 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.11). An association between LAN and breast
      cancer appeared to be limited to women who were premenopausal at the time of a
      case [HR=1.07 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.14) based on 1,973 cases vs. HR=1.00 (95% CI:
      0.91, 1.09) based on 1,172 cases in postmenopausal women; p-interaction=0.08].
      The LAN-breast cancer association was observed only in past and current smokers
      at the end of follow-up [HR=1.00 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.07) based on 2,215 cases in
      never smokers; HR=1.10 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.19) based on 1,034 cases in past smokers
      vs. HR=1.21 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.37) for 300 cases in current smokers; p
      interaction=0.08]. CONCLUSIONS: Although further work is required to confirm our
      results and to clarify potential mechanisms, our findings suggest that exposure
      to residential outdoor light at night may contribute to invasive breast cancer
      risk. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP935.

PMID- 28886601
TI  - Ambient Air Pollution and Cancer Mortality in the Cancer Prevention Study II.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified both
      outdoor air pollution and airborne particulate matter as carcinogenic to humans
      (Group 1) for lung cancer. There may be associations with cancer at other sites;
      however, the epidemiological evidence is limited. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this
      study was to clarify whether ambient air pollution is associated with specific
      types of cancer other than lung cancer by examining associations of ambient air
      pollution with nonlung cancer death in the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II).
      METHODS: Analysis included 623,048 CPS-II participants who were followed for 22 y
      (1982-2004). Modeled estimates of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter
      <2.5um (PM2.5) (1999-2004), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (2006), and ozone (O3) (2002
      2004) concentrations were linked to the participant residence at enrollment. Cox
      proportional hazards models were used to estimate associations per each fifth
      percentile-mean increment with cancer mortality at 29 anatomic sites, adjusted
      for individual and ecological covariates. RESULTS: We observed 43,320 nonlung
      cancer deaths. PM2.5 was significantly positively associated with death from
      cancers of the kidney {adjusted hazard ratio (HR) per 4.4 MUg/m3=1.14 [95%
      confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.27]} and bladder [HR=1.13 (95% CI: 1.03,
      1.23)]. NO2 was positively associated with colorectal cancer mortality [HR per
      6.5 ppb=1.06 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.10). The results were similar in two-pollutant
      models including PM2.5 and NO2 and in three-pollutant models with O3. We observed
      no statistically significant positive associations with death from other types of
      cancer based on results from adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this
      large prospective study suggest that ambient air pollution was not associated
      with death from most nonlung cancers, but associations with kidney, bladder, and
      colorectal cancer death warrant further investigation.
      https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1249.

PMID- 28886603
TI  - Review of Epidemiological Studies of Drinking-Water Turbidity in Relation to
      Acute Gastrointestinal Illness.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Turbidity has been used as an indicator of microbiological
      contamination of drinking water in time-series studies attempting to discern the
      presence of waterborne gastrointestinal illness; however, the utility of
      turbidity as a proxy exposure measure has been questioned. OBJECTIVES: We
      conducted a review of epidemiological studies of the association between
      turbidity of drinking-water supplies and incidence of acute gastrointestinal
      illness (AGI), including a synthesis of the overall weight of evidence. Our goal
      was to evaluate the potential for causal inference from the studies. METHODS: We
      identified 14 studies on the topic (distinct by region, time period and/or
      population). We evaluated each study with regard to modeling approaches,
      potential biases, and the strength of evidence. We also considered consistencies
      and differences in the collective results. DISCUSSION: Positive associations
      between drinking-water turbidity and AGI incidence were found in different cities
      and time periods, and with both unfiltered and filtered supplies. There was some
      evidence for a stronger association at higher turbidity levels. The studies
      appeared to adequately adjust for confounding. There was fair consistency in the
      notable lags between turbidity measurement and AGI identification, which fell
      between 6 and 10 d in many studies. CONCLUSIONS: The observed associations
      suggest a detectable incidence of waterborne AGI from drinking water in the
      systems and time periods studied. However, some discrepant results indicate that
      the association may be context specific. Combining turbidity with seasonal and
      climatic factors, additional water quality measures, and treatment data may
      enhance predictive modeling in future studies. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1090.

PMID- 28886602
TI  - Heat Wave and Mortality: A Multicountry, Multicommunity Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined variation in the associations between heat
      waves and mortality in an international context. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to
      systematically examine the impacts of heat waves on mortality with lag effects
      internationally. METHODS: We collected daily data of temperature and mortality
      from 400 communities in 18 countries/regions and defined 12 types of heat waves
      by combining community-specific daily mean temperature >=90th, 92.5th, 95th, and
      97.5th percentiles of temperature with duration >=2, 3, and 4 d. We used time
      series analyses to estimate the community-specific heat wave-mortality relation
      over lags of 0-10 d. Then, we applied meta-analysis to pool heat wave effects at
      the country level for cumulative and lag effects for each type of heat wave
      definition. RESULTS: Heat waves of all definitions had significant cumulative
      associations with mortality in all countries, but varied by community. The higher
      the temperature threshold used to define heat waves, the higher heat wave
      associations on mortality. However, heat wave duration did not modify the
      impacts. The association between heat waves and mortality appeared acutely and
      lasted for 3 and 4 d. Heat waves had higher associations with mortality in
      moderate cold and moderate hot areas than cold and hot areas. There were no added
      effects of heat waves on mortality in all countries/regions, except for Brazil,
      Moldova, and Taiwan. Heat waves defined by daily mean and maximum temperatures
      produced similar heat wave-mortality associations, but not daily minimum
      temperature. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that high temperatures create a
      substantial health burden, and effects of high temperatures over consecutive days
      are similar to what would be experienced if high temperature days occurred
      independently. People living in moderate cold and moderate hot areas are more
      sensitive to heat waves than those living in cold and hot areas. Daily mean and
      maximum temperatures had similar ability to define heat waves rather than minimum
      temperature. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1026.

PMID- 28886604
TI  - The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network: A Model for Community-based
      Environmental Monitoring for Public Health Action.
AB  - SUMMARY: The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network (the Network) is a
      collaborative group of community, academic, nongovernmental, and government
      partners designed to fill the need for more detailed data on particulate matter
      in an area that often exceeds air quality standards. The Network employs a
      community-based environmental monitoring process in which the community and
      researchers have specific, well-defined roles as part of an equitable partnership
      that also includes shared decision-making to determine study direction, plan
      research protocols, and conduct project activities. The Network is currently
      producing real-time particulate matter data from 40 low-cost sensors throughout
      Imperial County, one of the largest community-based air networks in the United
      States. Establishment of a community-led air network involves engaging community
      members to be citizen-scientists in the monitoring, siting, and data collection
      process. Attention to technical issues regarding instrument calibration and
      validation and electronic transfer and storage of data is also essential.
      Finally, continued community health improvements will be predicated on
      facilitating community ownership and sustainability of the network after research
      funds have been expended. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1772

PMID- 28886605
TI  - Air Pollution and Risk of Parkinson's Disease in a Large Prospective Study of
      Men.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exposure to air pollution has been implicated in a number of adverse
      health outcomes, and the effect of particulate matter (PM) on the brain is
      beginning to be recognized. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to examine whether exposure to
      PM air pollution is related to risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the Health
      Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), a large prospective cohort of U.S. men.
      METHODS: We prospectively followed 50,352 men in the HPFS, a large prospective
      cohort of U.S. men, and identified 550 incident PD cases. Cumulative average
      exposure to various size fractions of PM [PM10 (<=10MUm microns in diameter),
      PM2.5 (<=2.5MUm in diameter), and PM2.5-10 (between 2.5 and 10MUm in diameter)]
      up to 2 years before the onset of PD was estimated using a spatiotemporal model
      by linking each participant's place of residence throughout the study with
      location-specific PM levels. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards
      models to independently estimate the risk of PD associated with each size
      fraction of PM. RESULTS: In models adjusted for age, smoking, region, and
      population density, we did not observe statistically significant associations
      between exposure to PM and PD risk. In analyses considering cumulative average PM
      exposure, the comparing the top to the bottom quintile of PM exposure was 0.85
      [95% confidence interval (CI): (0.63, 1.15)] for PM10, 0.97 [95% CI: (0.72,
      1.32)] for PM2.5, and 0.88 [95% CI: (0.64, 1.22)] for hazard ratio (HR) PM2.5-10.
      The results did not change markedly when restricted to men who did not move
      during the study or when stratified by smoking status or population density.
      CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found no evidence that exposure to air pollution
      is a risk factor for PD in men. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP259.

PMID- 28886606
TI  - High-Throughput Analysis of Ovarian Cycle Disruption by Mixtures of Aromatase
      Inhibitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Combining computational toxicology with ExpoCast exposure estimates
      and ToxCastTM assay data gives us access to predictions of human health risks
      stemming from exposures to chemical mixtures. OBJECTIVES: We explored, through
      mathematical modeling and simulations, the size of potential effects of random
      mixtures of aromatase inhibitors on the dynamics of women's menstrual cycles.
      METHODS: We simulated random exposures to millions of potential mixtures of 86
      aromatase inhibitors. A pharmacokinetic model of intake and disposition of the
      chemicals predicted their internal concentration as a function of time (up to 2
      y). A ToxCastTM aromatase assay provided concentration-inhibition relationships
      for each chemical. The resulting total aromatase inhibition was input to a
      mathematical model of the hormonal hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian control of
      ovulation in women. RESULTS: Above 10% inhibition of estradiol synthesis by
      aromatase inhibitors, noticeable (eventually reversible) effects on ovulation
      were predicted. Exposures to individual chemicals never led to such effects. In
      our best estimate, ~10% of the combined exposures simulated had mild to
      catastrophic impacts on ovulation. A lower bound on that figure, obtained using
      an optimistic exposure scenario, was 0.3%. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate
      the possibility to predict large-scale mixture effects for endocrine disrupters
      with a predictive toxicology approach that is suitable for high-throughput
      ranking and risk assessment. The size of the effects predicted is consistent with
      an increased risk of infertility in women from everyday exposures to our chemical
      environment. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP742.

PMID- 28886609
TI  - [The Hospital Emergency Plan: Important Tool for Disaster Preparedness].
AB  - Hospitals need to be prepared for any kind of disaster. The terrorist attacks and
      mass shootings that took place in Europe in recent years impressively
      demonstrated the capability of hospitals to manage such challenging and
      disastrous events. To be adequately prepared, the hospital emergency plan is a
      very important tool. In this article we describe the entire process of drafting
      the emergency plan. We discuss the theoretical background as well as different
      models of disaster planning and we give important practical hints and tips for
      those in charge of the hospital disaster planning.

PMID- 28886608
TI  - ?

PMID- 28886607
TI  - Impact of clinical registries on quality of patient care and clinical outcomes: A
      systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical quality registries (CQRs) are playing an increasingly
      important role in improving health outcomes and reducing health care costs. CQRs
      are established with the purpose of monitoring quality of care, providing
      feedback, benchmarking performance, describing pattern of treatment, reducing
      variation and as a tool for conducting research. OBJECTIVES: To synthesise the
      impact of clinical quality registries (CQRs) as an 'intervention' on (I)
      mortality/survival; (II) measures of outcome that reflect a process or outcome of
      health care; (III) health care utilisation; and (IV) healthcare-related costs.
      METHODS: The following electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE,
      CENTRAL, CINAHL and Google Scholar. In addition, a review of the grey literature
      and a reference check of citations and reference lists within articles was
      undertaken to identify relevant studies in English covering the period January
      1980 to December 2016. The PRISMA-P methodology, checklist and standard search
      strategy using pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and structured data
      extraction tools were used. Data on study design and methods, participant
      characteristics attributes of included registries and impact of the registry on
      outcome measures and/or processes of care were extracted. RESULTS: We identified
      30102 abstracts from which 75 full text articles were assessed and finally 17
      articles were selected for synthesis. Out of 17 studies, six focused on diabetes
      care, two on cardiac diseases, two on lung diseases and others on organ
      transplantations, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcer healing, surgical complications and
      kidney disease. The majority of studies were "before after" design (#11) followed
      by cohort design (#2), randomised controlled trial (#2), experimental non
      randomised study and one cross sectional comparison. The measures of impact of
      registries were multifarious and included change in processes of care, quality of
      care, treatment outcomes, adherence to guidelines and survival. Sixteen of 17
      studies demonstrated positive findings in their outcomes after implementation of
      the registry. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the large number of published articles using
      data derived from CQRs, few have rigorously evaluated the impact of the registry
      as an intervention on improving health outcomes. Those that have evaluated this
      impact have mostly found a positive impact on healthcare processes and outcomes.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42015017319.

PMID- 28886610
TI  - [Disaster Control and Civil Protection in Germany].
AB  - The train crash of Bad Aibling/Germany in February 2016 and the terrorist attacks
      of the recent years in Europe have demonstrated the urgent need to be prepared
      for such disastrous events. Disaster preparedness and disaster control are very
      important governmental duties, as are civil protection and civil defense. In
      Germany the responsibility for those tasks are divided between the 16 "Lander"
      and the Federation. While the Federation takes care of the civil protection and
      disaster assistance, the Lander are responsible for disaster control. The
      presented article focuses on these issues and gives valuable insights into the
      German system of disaster control and civil protection with a focus on health
      protection.

PMID- 28886611
TI  - [Mass casualty incident - special features of "threatening situations"].
AB  - Terrorist attacks or amok runs may cause "threatening situations" for emergency
      medical services (EMS), fire fighters and physicians. Cooperation with the police
      is of paramount importance. In order to minimize the risk to rescue personnel and
      affected persons, emergency medical care has to follow tactical principles. So,
      the strategy in such "threatening situations" is "Stop the bleeding and clear the
      scene". The police define three areas of danger: unsafe, partly safe and secure.
      Medical care in these areas follows the concept of Tactical Combat Casualty Care.
      While only police should act in the unsafe area, the EMS can operate in the
      partly safe area after appropriate arrangements. Safety may only be achieved in
      emergency departments, which have to be made to secure areas by certain
      measures.The task force "Tactical Medicine" of the Scientific Working Group
      Emergency Medicine of the German Association for Anesthesiology and Intensive
      Care describes in this article essential criteria for a coordinated approach in
      "threatening situations".

PMID- 28886612
TI  - [Remifentanil up2date - Part 2].
AB  - Remifentanil is a short-acting opioid of high analgetic potency and superior
      controllability. It is widely used in day-case surgery, procedural sedation, for
      reduction of recovery-times and obstetrics and whenever excellent controllability
      of opioid effects is needed. Especially in combination with propofol it is used
      for target controlled infusion (TCI). The second part of the article shows the
      differences between groups of patients regarding the use of remifentanil.

PMID- 28886613
TI  - [Acute Monkshood Intoxication Requiring Acute Resuscitation in Suicidal Intent].
AB  - We report about an acute monkshood intoxication requiring acute resuscitation in
      suicidal intent in a 56-year-old patient. The Blue Monkshood (Aconitum napellus)
      is considered to be the most toxic plant in Europe. All plant parts contain the
      highly toxic alkonoid aconitin. The lethal dose in adults is 2 - 6 mg.
      Intoxications are often fatal. Asymptomatic patients with suspected monkshood
      intoxication should also be monitored on an ICU. First signs of intoxication are
      paraesthesia in the mouth and throat area, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting and
      severe pain in skeletal muscle. Affected patients die within hours after
      ingestion due to respiratory distress and/or cardiac arrhythmia.The most
      important measure after oral ingestion is to achieve a rapid primary poison
      elimination clearance (in the case of awareness clear patients, trigger vomiting,
      otherwise gastric lavage under protective intubation) and the subsequent
      carbonation. A specific antidote is not available. The management of an
      intoxication consists primarily of the therapy of the rhythm disturbances in the
      form of magnesium and amiodarone.Strict adherence to protective measures (gloves,
      masks) must be strictly observed. A direct skin contact with plant parts is to be
      avoided as well as the potential contact with vomit or aspirate.

PMID- 28886614
TI  - ?

PMID- 28886615
TI  - ?

PMID- 28886616
TI  - Association of change in waist circumference and dyslipidaemia risk: The rural
      Chinese cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of change in waist circumference (WC)
      and incidence of dyslipidaemia in a cohort study of a rural Chinese population.
      METHODS: Change in WC (DeltaWC) was defined as the value at follow-up minus the
      corresponding value at baseline. Risk of dyslipidaemia associated with DeltaWC
      was assessed by odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals in a logistic regression
      model, and the odds ratios were transformed to relative risks (RRs). RESULTS:
      Among 7691 participants without dyslipidaemia at baseline, 3213 (41.78%) showed
      dyslipidaemia at 6 year follow-up. Risk of dyslipidaemia was decreased for
      participants with the first quartile of DeltaWC and normal baseline WC (adjusted
      RR [aRR] = 0.79 [95% confidence interval: 0.64-0.98]) and was increased with the
      fourth quartile of DeltaWC and male gender, age 18 to 30 years, age 31 to 50
      years, or normal baseline WC (aRR = 1.55 [1.19-2.03], 2.40 [1.16-4.95], 1.32
      [1.06-1.64], and 1.66 [1.35-2.04], respectively). The risk of dyslipidaemia
      increased with change in WC from normal at baseline to abnormal at follow-up for
      both genders (aRR = 1.88 [1.39-2.55] for men and 1.60 [1.30-1.97] for women) and
      decreased with abnormal baseline WC changed to normal WC for women (aRR = 0.61
      [0.45-0.83]). CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic change in waist circumference was closely
      related to the incidence of dyslipidaemia in a rural Chinese population. Waist
      circumference reduction could decrease dyslipidaemia risk, whereas WC increase
      may increase the risk. Interventions to control or reduce WC to within the normal
      range are important for early prevention of dyslipidaemia.

PMID- 28886617
TI  - Viscous effects in pelvic floor muscles during childbirth: A numerical study.
AB  - During vaginal delivery, women sustain stretching of their pelvic floor, risking
      tissue injury and adverse outcomes. Realistic numerical simulations of childbirth
      can help in the understanding of the pelvic floor mechanics and on the prevention
      of related disorders. In previous studies, biomechanical finite element
      simulations of a vaginal delivery have been performed disregarding the viscous
      effects present on all biological soft tissues. The inclusion of the viscoelastic
      behaviour is fundamental, since it allows to investigate rate-dependent
      responses. The present work uses a viscohyperelastic constitutive model to
      evaluate how the childbirth duration affects the efforts sustained by the pelvic
      floor during delivery. It was concluded that viscoelasticity adds a stiffness
      component that leads to higher forces comparing with the elastic response.
      Viscous solutions are rate dependent, and precipitous labours could be associated
      to higher efforts, while lower reaction forces were denoted for normal and
      prolonged labours, respectively. The existence of resting stages during labour
      demonstrated the capability of the tissue to relax and recover some of the
      initial properties, which helped to lower the forces and stresses involved. The
      present work represents a step further in achieving a robust non-invasive
      procedure, allowing to estimate how obstetrical factors influence labour and its
      outcomes.

PMID- 28886618
TI  - Bcl10 synergistically links CEACAM3 and TLR-dependent inflammatory signalling.
AB  - The neutrophil-specific innate immune receptor CEACAM3 functions as a decoy to
      capture Gram-negative pathogens, such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, that exploit
      CEACAM family members to adhere to the epithelium. Bacterial binding to CEACAM3
      results in their efficient engulfment and triggers activation of an nuclear
      factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kappaB)-dependent
      inflammatory response by human neutrophils. Herein, we report that CEACAM3 cross
      linking is not sufficient for induction of cytokine production and show that the
      inflammatory response induced by Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection is elicited by
      an integration of signals from CEACAM3 and toll-like receptors. Using neutrophils
      from a human CEACAM-expressing mouse line (CEABAC), we use a genetic approach to
      reveal a molecular bifurcation of the CEACAM3-mediated antimicrobial and
      inflammatory responses. Ex vivo experiments with CEABAC-Rac2-/- , CEABAC-Bcl10-/-
      , and CEABAC-Malt1-/- neutrophils indicate that these effectors are not necessary
      for gonococcal engulfment, yet all 3 effectors contribute to CEACAM3-mediated
      cytokine production. Interestingly, although Bcl10 and Malt1 are often
      inextricably linked, Bcl10 enabled synergy between toll-like receptor 4 and
      CEACAM3, whereas Malt1 did not. Together, these findings reveal an integration of
      the specific innate immune receptor CEACAM3 into the network of more conventional
      pattern recognition receptors, providing a mechanism by which the innate immune
      system can unleash its response to a relentless pathogen.

PMID- 28886619
TI  - 2017 ESC/EACTS Guidelines for the management of valvular heart disease.

PMID- 28886620
TI  - 2017 ESC Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Peripheral Arterial
      Diseases, in collaboration with the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS):
      Document covering atherosclerotic disease of extracranial carotid and vertebral,
      mesenteric, renal, upper and lower extremity arteriesEndorsed by: the European
      Stroke Organization (ESO)The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of
      Peripheral Arterial Diseases of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and of
      the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS).

PMID- 28886623
TI  - Near-IR Photoluminescence of C60.
AB  - We have observed that C60+ ions isolated in cryogenic matrices show distinct near
      IR photoluminescence upon excitation in the near-IR range. By contrast, UV
      photoexcitation does not lead to measurable luminescence. Near-IR C60+
      photoluminescence is a one-photon process. The emission is mainly concentrated in
      one band and corresponds to 2A1u <- 2E1g relaxation. We present experimental data
      for the Stokes shift, power, and temperature dependencies as well as the quantum
      efficiency of the photoluminescence. Our findings may be relevant for astronomy,
      considering recent unequivocal assignment of five diffuse interstellar bands to
      near-IR absorption bands of C60+.

PMID- 28886624
TI  - Nanobubbles: An Effective Way to Study Gas-Generating Catalysis on a Single
      Nanoparticle.
AB  - Gas-generating catalysis is important to many energy-related research fields,
      such as photocatalytic water splitting, water electrolysis, etc. The technique of
      single-nanoparticle catalysis is an effective way to search for highly active
      nanocatalysts and elucidate the reaction mechanism. However, gas-generating
      catalysis remains difficult to investigate at the single-nanoparticle level
      because product gases, such as H2 and O2, are difficult to detect on an
      individual nanoparticle. Here, we successfully find that nanobubbles can be used
      to study the gas-generating catalysis, i.e., H2 generation from formic acid
      dehydrogenation on a single Pd-Ag nanoplate, with a high time resolution (50 ms)
      via dark-field microscopy. The research reveals that the nanobubble evolution
      process includes nucleation time and lifetime. The nucleation rate of nanobubbles
      is proportional to the catalytic activity of a single nanocatalyst. The
      relationship between the catalytic activity and the nucleation rate is
      quantitatively described by a mathematical model, which shows that an onset
      reaction rate (ronset) exists for the generation of nanobubbles on a single Pd-Ag
      nanoplate. The research also reveals that a Pd-Ag nanoplate with larger size
      usually has a higher activity. However, some large-sized ones still have low
      activities, indicating the size of the Pd-Ag nanoplate is not the only key factor
      for the activity. Notablely, further research shows that Pd content is the key
      factor for the activity of single Pd-Ag nanoplates with similar size. The
      methodology and knowledge acquired from this research are also applicable to
      other important gas-generating catalysis reactions at the single-nanoparticle
      level.

PMID- 28886625
TI  - Complete active space configuration interaction from state-averaged configuration
      interaction singles natural orbitals: Analytic first derivatives and derivative
      coupling vectors.
AB  - A new complete active space configuration interaction (CASCI) method was recently
      introduced that uses state-averaged natural orbitals from the configuration
      interaction singles method (configuration interaction singles natural orbital
      CASCI, CISNO-CASCI). This method has been shown to perform as well or better than
      state-averaged complete active space self-consistent field for a variety of
      systems. However, further development and testing of this method have been
      limited by the lack of available analytic first derivatives of the CISNO-CASCI
      energy as well as the derivative coupling between electronic states. In the
      present work, we present a Lagrangian-based formulation of these derivatives as
      well as a highly efficient implementation of the resulting equations accelerated
      with graphical processing units. We demonstrate that the CISNO-CASCI method is
      practical for dynamical simulations of photochemical processes in molecular
      systems containing hundreds of atoms.

PMID- 28886621
TI  - 2017 ESC Guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients
      presenting with ST-segment elevation: The Task Force for the management of acute
      myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation of the
      European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

PMID- 28886622
TI  - 2017 ESC focused update on dual antiplatelet therapy in coronary artery disease
      developed in collaboration with EACTS: The Task Force for dual antiplatelet
      therapy in coronary artery disease of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)
      and of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS).

PMID- 28886626
TI  - Observation of the de Vries behavior in SmA* phase of a liquid crystal using
      polarised Raman scattering and infrared spectroscopy.
AB  - Two approaches exist in the literature for describing the orientational
      distribution function (ODF) of the molecular directors in SmA* phase of liquid
      crystals, though several models are recently proposed in the literature for
      explaining the de Vries behaviour. These ODFs correspond to either the
      conventional unimodal arrangements of molecular directors arising from the mean
      field theory that leads to the broad or sugar-loaf like distribution or to the
      "diffuse-cone-shaped" type distribution proposed by de Vries. The hypothesis by
      de Vries provides for a realistic explanation as to how at a molecular level, a
      first-order SmA* to SmC* transition can occur where the uniform molecular
      director azimuthal distributions condense to values lying within a narrow range
      of angles; finally these condense to a single value while at the same time
      ensuring a little or no concomitant shrinkage in the layer spacing. The azimuthal
      distribution of the in-layer directors is probed using IR and polarized Raman
      spectroscopic techniques. The latter allows us to obtain the ODF and the various
      order parameters for the uniaxial and the biaxial phases. Based on the results of
      these measurements, we conclude that the "cone-shaped" (or volcano-shaped) de
      Vries type of distribution can most preferably describe SmA* where "a first-order
      phase transition from SmA* to SmC*" and a low layer shrinkage can both be easily
      explained.

PMID- 28886627
TI  - CO2 adsorption on the copper surfaces: van der Waals density functional and TPD
      studies.
AB  - We investigated the adsorption of CO2 on the flat, stepped, and kinked copper
      surfaces from density functional theory calculations as well as the temperature
      programmed desorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Several exchange
      correlation functionals have been considered to characterize CO2 adsorption on
      the copper surfaces. We used the van der Waals density functionals (vdW-DFs),
      i.e., the original vdW-DF (vdW-DF1), optB86b-vdW, and rev-vdW-DF2, as well as the
      Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) with dispersion correction (PBE-D2). We have found
      that vdW-DF1 and rev-vdW-DF2 functionals slightly underestimate the adsorption
      energy, while PBE-D2 and optB86b-vdW functionals give better agreement with the
      experimental estimation for CO2 on Cu(111). The calculated CO2 adsorption
      energies on the flat, stepped, and kinked Cu surfaces are 20-27 kJ/mol, which are
      compatible with the general notion of physisorbed species on solid surfaces. Our
      results provide a useful insight into appropriate vdW functionals for further
      investigation of related CO2 activation on Cu surfaces such as methanol synthesis
      and higher alcohol production.

PMID- 28886628
TI  - Thermodynamic responses of electronic systems.
AB  - We present how the framework of the temperature-dependent chemical reactivity
      theory can describe the panorama of different types of interactions between an
      electronic system and external reagents. The key reactivity indicators are
      responses of an appropriate state function (like the energy or grand potential)
      to the variables that determine the state of the system (like the number of
      electrons/chemical potential, external potential, and temperature). We also
      consider the response of the average electron density to appropriate
      perturbations. We present computable formulas for these reactivity indicators and
      discuss their chemical utility for describing electronic, electrostatic, and
      thermal changes associated with chemical processes.

PMID- 28886629
TI  - Testing the nature of reaction coordinate describing interaction of H2 with
      carbonyl carbon, activated by Lewis acid complexation, and the Lewis basic
      solvent: A Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics study with explicit solvent.
AB  - Using Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD), we explore the nature of
      interactions between H2 and the activated carbonyl carbon, C(carbonyl), of the
      acetone-B(C6F5)3 adduct surrounded by an explicit solvent (1,4-dioxane). BOMD
      simulations at finite (non-zero) temperature with an explicit solvent produced
      long-lasting instances of significant vibrational perturbation of the H-H bond
      and H2-polarization at C(carbonyl). As far as the characteristics of H2 are
      concerned, the dynamical transient state approximates the transition-state of the
      heterolytic H2-cleavage. The culprit is the concerted interactions of H2 with
      C(carbonyl) and a number of Lewis basic solvent molecules-i.e., the concerted
      C(carbonyl)?H2?solvent interactions. On one hand, the results presented herein
      complement the mechanistic insight gained from our recent transition-state
      calculations, reported separately from this article. But on the other hand, we
      now indicate that an idea of the sufficiency of just one simple reaction
      coordinate in solution-phase reactions can be too simplistic and misleading. This
      article goes in the footsteps of the rapidly strengthening approach of
      investigating molecular interactions in large molecular systems via
      "computational experimentation" employing, primarily, ab initio molecular
      dynamics describing reactants-interaction without constraints of the preordained
      reaction coordinate and/or foreknowledge of the sampling order parameters.

PMID- 28886630
TI  - Dissipative particle dynamics: Systematic parametrization using water-octanol
      partition coefficients.
AB  - We present a systematic, top-down, thermodynamic parametrization scheme for
      dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) using water-octanol partition coefficients,
      supplemented by water-octanol phase equilibria and pure liquid phase density
      data. We demonstrate the feasibility of computing the required partition
      coefficients in DPD using brute-force simulation, within an adaptive semi
      automatic staged optimization scheme. We test the methodology by fitting to
      experimental partition coefficient data for twenty one small molecules in five
      classes comprising alcohols and poly-alcohols, amines, ethers and simple
      aromatics, and alkanes (i.e., hexane). Finally, we illustrate the transferability
      of a subset of the determined parameters by calculating the critical micelle
      concentrations and mean aggregation numbers of selected alkyl ethoxylate
      surfactants, in good agreement with reported experimental values.

PMID- 28886631
TI  - Colloidal motion under the action of a thermophoretic force.
AB  - We present thermophoretic measurements in aqueous suspensions of three different
      polystyrene (PS) particles of varying negative charge, size, and surface coating.
      Our measurement technique is based on the observation of the colloidal steady
      state distribution using conventional bright-field microscopy, which avoids
      undesirable effects such as laser-induced convection or local heating. We find
      that the colloids with the weakest zeta potential exhibit the strongest
      thermophoretic effect, suggesting that the Soret coefficient has a more intricate
      dependence on surface functionality than predicted by existing theoretical
      approaches. We also study the relaxation of the colloids to steady-state and
      propose a model to quantify the relaxation speed, based on the time evolution of
      the colloidal center of mass. Our observations are well described by this model
      and show that the relaxation speed tends to increase with the magnitude of the
      thermophoretic force.

PMID- 28886632
TI  - Efficient molecular density functional theory using generalized spherical
      harmonics expansions.
AB  - We show that generalized spherical harmonics are well suited for representing the
      space and orientation molecular density in the resolution of the molecular
      density functional theory. We consider the common system made of a rigid solute
      of arbitrary complexity immersed in a molecular solvent, both represented by
      molecules with interacting atomic sites and classical force fields. The molecular
      solvent density rho(r,Omega) around the solute is a function of the position
      r=(x,y,z) and of the three Euler angles Omega=(theta,phi,psi) describing the
      solvent orientation. The standard density functional, equivalent to the
      hypernetted-chain closure for the solute-solvent correlations in the liquid
      theory, is minimized with respect to rho(r,Omega). The up-to-now very expensive
      angular convolution products are advantageously replaced by simple products
      between projections onto generalized spherical harmonics. The dramatic gain in
      speed of resolution enables to explore in a systematic way molecular solutes of
      up to nanometric sizes in arbitrary solvents and to calculate their solvation
      free energy and associated microscopic solvent structure in at most a few
      minutes. We finally illustrate the formalism by tackling the solvation of
      molecules of various complexities in water.

PMID- 28886633
TI  - IR spectroscopic study of the displacement of an SF6 monolayer on graphite by Xe.
AB  - We report a study of displacement by xenon of a monolayer of sulphur hexafluoride
      initially condensed on a graphite surface. Earlier work showed that, below 112 K,
      Xe displaces SF6 almost completely in a first-order transition. Working at higher
      temperatures, we show that this system has a simple eutectic-like phase diagram,
      at least for SF6 not too dilute. In our experiment, both adsorbates are in
      equilibrium with their respective vapors in a cold cell. In our infrared
      reflection-absorption spectroscopy measurements, the SF6 coverage on the surface
      is monitored by the frequency shift due to dynamic dipole coupling of the
      collective mode of the strong SF6 nu3 vibrational resonance. Simulations relate
      this frequency shift to the SF6 areal density. Below T ~ 134 K, with increasing
      Xe pressure, a small amount Xe dissolves in the solid SF6 monolayer preceding its
      displacement by a solid predominantly Xe monolayer in a first-order transition.
      Above 134 K, there is a weaker first-order transition to a mixed liquid
      monolayer, followed by continuous increase in Xe concentration. If the initial
      SF6 monolayer is near its melting line, the melting transition on adding Xe
      appears to become continuous.

PMID- 28886634
TI  - Coherent multi-dimensional spectroscopy at optical frequencies in a single beam
      with optical readout.
AB  - Ultrafast coherent multi-dimensional spectroscopies form a powerful set of
      techniques to unravel complex processes, ranging from light-harvesting, chemical
      exchange in biological systems to many-body interactions in quantum-confined
      materials. Yet these spectroscopies remain complex to implement at the high
      frequencies of vibrational and electronic transitions, thereby limiting their
      widespread use. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of two-dimensional
      spectroscopy at optical frequencies in a single beam. Femtosecond optical pulses
      are spectrally broadened to a relevant bandwidth and subsequently shaped into
      phase coherent pulse trains. By suitably modulating the phases of the pulses
      within the beam, we show that it is possible to directly read out the relevant
      optical signals. This work shows that one needs neither complex beam geometries
      nor complex detection schemes in order to measure two-dimensional spectra at
      optical frequencies. Our setup provides not only a simplified experimental design
      over standard two-dimensional spectrometers but its optical readout also enables
      novel applications in microscopy.

PMID- 28886635
TI  - Weak hydrogen bond topology in 1,1-difluoroethane dimer: A rotational study.
AB  - The rotational spectrum of the 1,1-difluoroethane dimer has been investigated by
      pulsed-jet Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy. Two most stable isomers have
      been detected, which are both stabilized by a network of three C-H?F-C weak
      hydrogen bonds: in the most stable isomer, two difluoromethyl C-H groups and one
      methyl C-H group act as the weak proton donors whilst in the second isomer, two
      methyl C-H groups and one difluoromethyl C-H group act as the weak proton donors.
      For the global minimum, the measurements have also been extended to its four 13C
      isotopologues in natural abundance, allowing a precise, although partial,
      structural determination. Relative intensity measurements on a set of MUa-type
      transitions allowed estimating the relative population ratio of the two isomers
      as NI/NII ~ 6/1 in the pulsed jet, indicating a much larger energy gap between
      these two isomers than that expected from ab initio calculation, consistent with
      the result from pseudo-diatomic dissociation energies estimation.

PMID- 28886636
TI  - Communication: Molecular near-infrared transitions determined with sub-kHz
      accuracy.
AB  - Precise molecular transition frequencies are needed in various studies including
      the test of fundamental physics. Two well isolated ro-vibrational transitions of
      12C16O at 1.57 MUm, R(9) and R(10) in the second overtone band, were measured by
      a comb-locked cavity ring-down spectrometer. Despite the weakness of the lines
      (Einstein coefficient A?0.008 s-1), Lamb-dip spectra were recorded with a signal
      to-noise ratio over 1000, and the line positions were determined to be 191 360
      212 761.1 and 191 440 612 662.2 kHz, respectively, with an uncertainty of 0.5 kHz
      (deltanu/nu=2.6*10-12). The present work demonstrates the possibility to explore
      extensive molecular lines in the near-infrared with sub-kHz accuracy.

PMID- 28886637
TI  - Ro-vibronic transition intensities for triatomic molecules from the exact kinetic
      energy operator; electronic spectrum for the C 1B2 <- X 1A1 transition in SO2.
AB  - A procedure for calculating ro-vibronic transition intensities for triatomic
      molecules within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is reported. Ro-vibrational
      energy levels and wavefunctions are obtained with the DVR3D suite, which solves
      the nuclear motion problem with an exact kinetic energy operator. Absolute
      transition intensities are calculated both with the Franck-Condon approximation
      and with a full transition dipole moment surface. The theoretical scheme is
      tested on C 1B2 <- X 1A1 ro-vibronic transitions of SO2. Ab initio potential
      energy and dipole moment surfaces are generated for this purpose. The calculated
      ro-vibronic transition intensities and cross sections are compared with the
      available experimental and theoretical data.

PMID- 28886638
TI  - Dynamic Kerr effect in a strong uniform AC electric field for interacting polar
      and polarizable molecules in the mean field approximation.
AB  - Analytical formulas for the electric birefringence response of interacting polar
      and anisotropically polarizable molecules due to a uniform alternating electric
      field are derived using Berne's forced rotational diffusion model [B. J. Berne,
      J. Chem. Phys. 62, 1154 (1975)] in the nonlinear version described by Warchol and
      Vaughan [J. Chem. Phys. 71, 502 (1979)]. It is found for noninteracting molecules
      that the signal consists of a frequency-dependent DC component superimposed on an
      oscillatory part with a frequency twice that of the AC driving field. However,
      unlike noninteracting molecules, the AC part strongly deviates from its dilute
      counterpart. This suggests a possible way of motivating new experimental studies
      of intermolecular interactions involving electro-optical methods and
      complementary nonlinear dielectric relaxation experiments.

PMID- 28886639
TI  - Internal energy dependence of the photodissociation dynamics of O3- using
      cryogenic photoelectron-photofragment coincidence spectroscopy.
AB  - Photoelectron-photofragment coincidence (PPC) spectra of ozonide, O3-, were
      measured at 388 nm (Ehnu = 3.20 eV) using a newly constructed cryogenic octopole
      accumulation trap coupled to a PPC spectrometer. The photoelectron spectra reveal
      three processes consisting of a stable photodetachment channel, and two distinct
      photodissociation pathways yielding (1) O2 + O- or (2) O + O2-. The first
      photodissociation pathway is observed in the PPC spectra by photodetachment of
      the O- product by a second photon, and produces electronically excited
      O2(1Deltag). The O2- product of the second photodissociation pathway undergoes
      autodetachment for O2-(2Pig, v" > 4), a process greatly enhanced by vibrational
      excitation of the precursor O3-. Cooling anions thermalized at 300 K to <17 K in
      a cryogenic octopole accumulation trap essentially turns off this autodetachment
      pathway. The product kinetic energy distribution in coincidence with the
      autodetached electrons from O2-(v" = 4) exhibits resolved features consistent
      with bend (nu2), asymmetric stretch (nu3) and a stretching combination band (nu1
      + nu3) in the intermediate electronic state, illustrating the insights that can
      be gained from kinematically complete measurements. These results are discussed
      in the context of the low-lying excited states of O3-.

PMID- 28886640
TI  - Communication: Microphase equilibrium and assembly dynamics.
AB  - Despite many attempts, ordered equilibrium microphases have yet to be obtained in
      experimental colloidal suspensions. The recent computation of the equilibrium
      phase diagram of a microscopic, particle-based microphase former [Zhuang et al.,
      Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 098301 (2016)] has nonetheless found such mesoscale
      assemblies to be thermodynamically stable. Here, we consider their equilibrium
      and assembly dynamics. At intermediate densities above the order-disorder
      transition, we identify four different dynamical regimes and the structural
      changes that underlie the dynamical crossovers from one disordered regime to the
      next. Below the order-disorder transition, we also find that periodic lamellae
      are the most dynamically accessible of the periodic microphases. Our analysis
      thus offers a comprehensive view of the dynamics of disordered microphases and a
      route to the assembly of periodic microphases in a putative well-controlled,
      experimental system.

PMID- 28886641
TI  - Length and sequence relaxation of copolymers under recombination reactions.
AB  - We describe the kinetics and thermodynamics of copolymers undergoing
      recombination reactions, which are important for prebiotic chemistry. We use two
      approaches: the first one, based on chemical rate equations and the mass-action
      law describes the infinite size limit, while the second one, based on the
      chemical master equation, describes systems of finite size. We compare the
      predictions of both approaches for the relaxation of thermodynamic quantities
      towards equilibrium. We find that for some choice of initial conditions, the
      entropy of the sequence distribution can be lowered at the expense of increasing
      the entropy of the length distribution. We consider mainly energetically neutral
      reactions, except for one simple case of non-neutral reactions.

PMID- 28886642
TI  - Microscopic flow around a diffusing particle.
AB  - We report here on the computation of the microscopic flow induced by the motion
      of a small tagged particle in a fluid from molecular dynamic simulations. It is
      found that the hydrodynamical Stokes solution with slip boundary conditions is
      recovered at only a few diameters away from the tagged particle. However,
      fluctuations of the diffusing particle itself induce a renormalization of the
      bath viscosity and, more strikingly, an apparent violation of the non
      penetrability of the particles in the laboratory frame. The expected zero normal
      velocity at contact is satisfied only in the particle frame, or for heavy
      particles. Further evidence of this generalized boundary condition is given by
      the evaluation of the flow in a granular gas using data from particle tracking
      experiments.

PMID- 28886643
TI  - A surface-hopping method for semiclassical calculations of cross sections for
      radiative association with electronic transitions.
AB  - A semiclassical method based on surface-hopping techniques is developed to model
      the dynamics of radiative association with electronic transitions. It can be
      proven that this method is an extension of the established semiclassical formula
      used in the characterization of diatomic molecule-formation. Our method is tested
      for diatomic molecules. It gives the same cross sections as the former
      semiclassical formula but, contrary to the former method, it allows us to follow
      the fate of the trajectories after the emission of a photon. This means that we
      can characterize the rovibrational states of the stabilized molecules. Using
      semiclassical quantization, we can obtain quantum state-resolved cross sections
      or emission spectra for the radiative association process. The calculated
      semiclassical state-resolved spectra show general agreement with the result of
      quantum mechanical perturbation theory. Furthermore, our surface-hopping model is
      not only applicable for the description of radiative association but it can be
      used for semiclassical characterization of any molecular process where
      spontaneous emission occurs.

PMID- 28886644
TI  - Knotting probability of self-avoiding polygons under a topological constraint.
AB  - We define the knotting probability of a knot K by the probability for a random
      polygon or self-avoiding polygon (SAP) of N segments having the knot type K. We
      show fundamental and generic properties of the knotting probability particularly
      its dependence on the excluded volume. We investigate them for the SAP consisting
      of hard cylindrical segments of unit length and radius rex. For various prime and
      composite knots, we numerically show that a compact formula describes the
      knotting probabilities for the cylindrical SAP as a function of segment number N
      and radius rex. It connects the small-N to the large-N behavior and even to
      lattice knots in the case of large values of radius. As the excluded volume
      increases, the maximum of the knotting probability decreases for prime knots
      except for the trefoil knot. If it is large, the trefoil knot and its descendants
      are dominant among the nontrivial knots in the SAP. From the factorization
      property of the knotting probability, we derive a sum rule among the estimates of
      a fitting parameter for all prime knots, which suggests the local knot picture
      and the dominance of the trefoil knot in the case of large excluded volumes. Here
      we remark that the cylindrical SAP gives a model of circular DNA which is
      negatively charged and semiflexible, where radius rex corresponds to the
      screening length.

PMID- 28886645
TI  - A multi-state coarse grained modeling approach for an intrinsically disordered
      peptide.
AB  - Many proteins display a marginally stable tertiary structure, which can be
      altered via external stimuli. Since a majority of coarse grained (CG) models are
      aimed at structure prediction, their success for an intrinsically disordered
      peptide's conformational space with marginal stability and sensitivity to
      external stimuli cannot be taken for granted. In this study, by using the
      LKalpha14 peptide as a test system, we demonstrate a bottom-up approach for
      constructing a multi-state CG model, which can capture the conformational
      behavior of this peptide in three distinct environments with a unique set of
      interaction parameters. LKalpha14 is disordered in dilute solutions; however, it
      strictly adopts the alpha-helix conformation upon aggregation or when in contact
      with a hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface. Our bottom-up approach combines a
      generic base model, that is unbiased for any particular secondary structure, with
      nonbonded interactions which represent hydrogen bonds, electrostatics, and
      hydrophobic forces. We demonstrate that by using carefully designed all atom
      potential of mean force calculations from all three states of interest, one can
      get a balanced representation of the nonbonded interactions. Our CG model behaves
      intrinsically disordered in bulk water, folds into an alpha-helix in the presence
      of an interface or a neighboring peptide, and is stable as a tetrameric unit,
      successfully reproducing the all atom molecular dynamics simulations and
      experimental results.

PMID- 28886646
TI  - Communication: Effect of density on the physical aging of pressure-densified
      polymethylmethacrylate.
AB  - The rate of physical aging of glassy polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), followed from
      the change in the secondary relaxation with aging, is found to be independent of
      the density, the latter controlled by the pressure during glass formation. Thus,
      the aging behavior of the secondary relaxation is the same whether the glass is
      more compacted or less dense than the corresponding equilibrium liquid. This
      equivalence in aging of glasses formed under different pressures indicates that
      local packing is the dominant variable governing the glassy dynamics. The fact
      that pressure densification yields different glass structures is at odds with a
      model for non-associated materials having dynamic properties exhibited by PMMA,
      such as density scaling of the relaxation time and isochronal superposition of
      the relaxation dispersion.

PMID- 28886647
TI  - Signatures of vibronic coupling in two-dimensional electronic-vibrational and
      vibrational-electronic spectroscopies.
AB  - Two-Dimensional Electronic-Vibrational (2D EV) spectroscopy and Two-Dimensional
      Vibrational-Electronic (2D VE) spectroscopy are new coherent four-wave mixing
      spectroscopies that utilize both electronically resonant and vibrationally
      resonant field-matter interactions to elucidate couplings between electronic and
      vibrational degrees of freedom. A system Hamiltonian is developed here to lay a
      foundation for interpreting the 2D EV and 2D VE signals that arise from a
      vibronically coupled molecular system in the condensed phase. A molecular system
      consisting of one anharmonic vibration and two electronic states is modeled.
      Equilibrium displacement of the vibrational coordinate and vibrational frequency
      shifts upon excitation to the first electronic excited state are included in our
      Hamiltonian through linear and quadratic vibronic coupling terms. We explicitly
      consider the nuclear dependence of the electronic transition dipole moment and
      demonstrate that these spectroscopies are sensitive to non-Condon effects. A
      series of simulations of 2D EV and 2D VE spectra obtained by varying parameters
      of the system, system-bath, and interaction Hamiltonians demonstrate that one of
      the following conditions must be met to observe signals: (1) non-zero linear
      and/or quadratic vibronic coupling in the electronic excited state, (2)
      vibrational-coordinate dependence of the electronic transition dipole moment, or
      (3) electronic-state-dependent vibrational dephasing dynamics. We explore how
      these vibronic interactions are manifested in the positions, amplitudes, and line
      shapes of the peaks in 2D EV and 2D VE spectroscopies.

PMID- 28886649
TI  - Erratum: "Intense fluorescence of Au20" [J. Chem. Phys. 147, 074301 (2017)].

PMID- 28886650
TI  - A general variational approach for computing rovibrational resonances of
      polyatomic molecules. Application to the weakly bound H2He+ and H2?CO systems.
AB  - The quasi-variational quantum chemical protocol and code GENIUSH [E. Matyus et
      al., J. Chem. Phys. 130, 134112 (2009) and C. Fabri et al., J. Chem. Phys. 134,
      074105 (2011)] has been augmented with the complex absorbing potential (CAP)
      technique, yielding a method for the determination of rovibrational resonance
      states. Due to the effective implementation of the CAP technique within GENIUSH,
      the GENIUSH-CAP code is a powerful tool for the study of important dynamical
      features of arbitrary-sized molecular systems with arbitrary composition above
      their first dissociation limit. The GENIUSH-CAP code has been tested and
      validated on the H2He+ cation: the computed resonance energies and lifetimes are
      compared to those obtained with a previously developed triatomic rovibrational
      resonance-computing code, D2FOPI-CCS [T. Szidarovszky and A. G. Csaszar Mol.
      Phys. 111, 2131 (2013)], utilizing the complex coordinate scaling method. A
      unique feature of the GENIUSH-CAP protocol is that it allows the simple
      implementation of reduced-dimensional dynamical models. To prove this, resonance
      energies and lifetimes of the H2?CO van der Waals complex have been computed
      utilizing a four-dimensional model (freezing the two monomer stretches), and a
      related potential energy surface, of the complex.

PMID- 28886648
TI  - Critical size dependence of domain formation observed in coarse-grained
      simulations of bilayers composed of ternary lipid mixtures.
AB  - Model cellular membranes are known to form micro- and macroscale lipid domains
      dependent on molecular composition. The formation of macroscopic lipid domains by
      lipid mixtures has been the subject of many simulation investigations. We present
      a critical study of system size impact on lipid domain phase separation into
      liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered macroscale domains in ternary lipid
      mixtures. In the popular di-C16:0 PC:di-C18:2 PC:cholesterol at 35:35:30 ratio
      mixture, we find systems with a minimum of 1480 lipids to be necessary for the
      formation of macroscopic phase separated domains and systems of 10 000 lipids to
      achieve structurally converged conformations similar to the thermodynamic limit.
      To understand these results and predict the behavior of any mixture forming two
      phases, we develop and investigate an analytical Flory-Huggins model which is
      recursively validated using simulation and experimental data. We find that micro-
      and macroscale domains can coexist in ternary mixtures. Additionally, we analyze
      the distributions of specific lipid-lipid interactions in each phase,
      characterizing domain structures proposed based on past experimental studies.
      These findings offer guidance in selecting appropriate system sizes for the study
      of phase separations and provide new insights into the nature of domain structure
      for a popular ternary lipid mixture.

PMID- 28886651
TI  - Comparison of exciplex generation under optical and X-ray excitation.
AB  - Exciplex generation under optical and X-ray excitation in identical conditions is
      experimentally compared using a specially chosen model donor-acceptor system,
      anthracene (electron acceptor) and N,N-dimethylaniline (electron donor) in non
      polar solution, and the results are analyzed and interpreted based on
      analytically calculated luminescence quantum yields. Calculations are performed
      on the basis of kinetic equations for multistage schemes of bulk exciplex
      production reaction under optical excitation and combination of bulk and geminate
      reactions of radical ion pairs under X-ray excitation. These results explain the
      earlier experimentally found difference in the ratio of the quantum yields of
      exciplexes and excited electron acceptors (exciplex generation efficiency) and
      the corresponding change in the exciplex generation efficiency under X
      irradiation as compared to the reaction under optical excitation.

PMID- 28886652
TI  - Linear and nonlinear frequency- and time-domain spectroscopy with multiple
      frequency combs.
AB  - Two techniques that employ equally spaced trains of optical pulses to map an
      optical high frequency into a low frequency modulation of the signal that can be
      detected in real time are compared. The development of phase-stable optical
      frequency combs has opened up new avenues to metrology and spectroscopy. The
      ability to generate a series of frequency spikes with precisely controlled
      separation permits a fast, highly accurate sampling of the material response.
      Recently, pairs of frequency combs with slightly different repetition rates have
      been utilized to down-convert material susceptibilities from the optical to
      microwave regime where they can be recorded in real time. We show how this one
      dimensional dual comb technique can be extended to multiple dimensions by using
      several combs. We demonstrate how nonlinear susceptibilities can be quickly
      acquired using this technique. In a second class of techniques, sequences of
      ultrafast mode locked laser pulses are used to recover pathways of interactions
      contributing to nonlinear susceptibilities by using a photo-acoustic modulation
      varying along the sequences. We show that these techniques can be viewed as a
      time-domain analog of the multiple frequency comb scheme.

PMID- 28886653
TI  - A coherent discrete variable representation method on a sphere.
AB  - The coherent discrete variable representation (ZDVR) has been extended for
      constructing a multidimensional potential-optimized DVR basis on a sphere. In
      order to deal with the non-constant Jacobian in spherical angles, two direct
      product primitive basis methods are proposed so that the original ZDVR technique
      can be properly implemented. The method has been demonstrated by computing the
      lowest states of a two-dimensional (2D) vibrational model. Results show that the
      extended ZDVR method gives accurate eigenvalues and exponential convergence with
      increasing ZDVR basis size.

PMID- 28886654
TI  - Low-energy electron-induced dissociation in gas-phase nicotine, pyridine, and
      methyl-pyrrolidine.
AB  - Dissociative electron attachment to nicotine, pyridine, and N-methyl-pyrrolidine
      was studied in the gas phase in order to assess their stability with respect to
      low-energy electron interactions. Anion yield curves for different products at
      electron energies ranging from zero to 15 eV were measured, and the molecular
      fragmentation pathways were proposed. Nicotine does not form a stable parent
      anion or a dehydrogenated anion, contrary to other biological systems. However,
      we have observed complex dissociation pathways involving fragmentation at the
      pyrrolidine side accompanied by isomerization mechanisms. Combining structure
      optimization and enthalpy calculations, performed with the Gaussian09 package,
      with the comparison with a deuterium-labeled N-methyl-d3-pyrrolidine allowed for
      the determination of the fragmentation pathways. In contrast to nicotine and N
      methylpyrrolidine, the dominant pathway in dissociative electron attachment to
      pyridine is the loss of hydrogen, leading to the formation of an [M-H]- anion.
      The presented results provide important new information about the stability of
      nicotine and its constituent parts and contribute to a better understanding of
      the fragmentation mechanisms and their effects on the biological environment.

PMID- 28886655
TI  - Investigation of the ozone formation reaction pathway: Comparisons of full
      configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo and fixed-node diffusion Monte
      Carlo with contracted and uncontracted MRCI.
AB  - The association/dissociation reaction path for ozone (O2 + O <-> O3) is
      notoriously difficult to describe accurately using ab initio electronic structure
      theory, due to the importance of both strong and dynamic electron correlations.
      Experimentally, spectroscopic studies of the highest lying recorded vibrational
      states combined with the observed negative temperature dependence of the kinetics
      of oxygen isotope exchange reactions confirm that the reaction is barrierless,
      consistent with the latest potential energy surfaces. Previously reported
      potentials based on Davidson-corrected internally contracted multireference
      configuration interaction (MRCI) suffer from a spurious reef feature in the
      entrance channel even when extrapolated towards the complete basis set limit.
      Here, we report an analysis of comparisons between a variety of electronic
      structure methods including internally contracted and uncontracted MRCI (with and
      without Davidson corrections), as well as full configuration interaction quantum
      Monte Carlo, fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo, and density matrix renormalization
      group.

PMID- 28886657
TI  - Transferable coarse-grained model for perfluorosulfonic acid polymer membranes.
AB  - Perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymer membranes are widely used as proton
      exchange membranes. Because the structure of the aqueous domain within the PFSA
      membrane is expected to directly influence proton conductance, many coarse
      grained (CG) simulation studies have been performed to investigate the membrane
      morphology; these studies mostly used phenomenological models, such as
      dissipative particle dynamics. However, a chemically accurate CG model is
      required to investigate the morphology in realistic membranes and to provide a
      concrete molecular design. Here, we attempt to construct a predictive CG model
      for the structure and morphology of PFSA membranes that is compatible with the
      Sinoda-DeVane-Klein (SDK) CG water model [Shinoda et al., Mol. Simul. 33, 27
      (2007)]. First, we extended the parameter set for the SDK CG force field to
      examine a hydrated PFSA membrane based on thermodynamic and structural data from
      experiments and all-atom (AA) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. However, a
      noticeable degradation of the morphology motivated us to improve the structural
      properties by using the iterative Boltzmann inversion (IBI) approach. Thus, we
      explored a possible combination of the SDK and IBI approaches to describe the
      nonbonded interaction. The hybrid SDK/IBI model improved the structural issues of
      SDK, showing a better agreement with AA-MD in the radial distribution functions.
      The hybrid SDK/IBI model was determined to reasonably reproduce both the
      thermodynamic and structural properties of the PFSA membrane for all examined
      water contents. In addition, the model demonstrated good transferability and has
      considerable potential for application to realistic long-chained PFSA membranes.

PMID- 28886656
TI  - Multisequence algorithm for coarse-grained biomolecular simulations: Exploring
      the sequence-structure relationship of proteins.
AB  - We consider a generalized-ensemble algorithm for coarse-grained simulations of
      biomolecules which allows the thermodynamic behavior of two or more sequences to
      be determined in a single multisequence run. By carrying out a random walk in
      sequence space, the method also enhances conformational sampling. Escape from
      local energy minima is accelerated by visiting sequences for which the minima are
      more shallow or absent. We test the method on an intermediate-resolution coarse
      grained model for protein folding with 3 amino acid types and explore the
      potential for a large-scale coverage of sequence space by applying the method to
      sets of more than 1000 sequences. The resulting thermodynamic data are used to
      analyze the structures and stability properties of sequences covering the space
      between folds with different secondary structures.

PMID- 28886658
TI  - Communication: Hypothetical ultralow-density ice polymorphs.
AB  - More than 300 kinds of porous ice structures derived from zeolite frameworks and
      space fullerenes are examined using classical molecular dynamics simulations. It
      is found that a hypothetical zeolitic ice phase is less dense and more stable
      than the sparse ice structures reported by Huang et al. [Chem. Phys. Lett. 671,
      186 (2017)]. In association with the zeolitic ice structure, even less dense
      structures, "aeroices," are proposed. It is found that aeroices are the most
      stable solid phases of water near the absolute zero temperature under negative
      pressure.

PMID- 28886659
TI  - Coarsening and aging of lattice polymers: Influence of bond fluctuations.
AB  - We present results for the nonequilibrium dynamics of collapse for a model
      flexible homopolymer on simple cubic lattices with fixed and fluctuating bonds
      between the monomers. Results from our Monte Carlo simulations show that,
      phenomenologically, the sequence of events observed during the collapse are
      independent of the bond criterion. While the growth of the clusters (of monomers)
      at different temperatures exhibits a non-universal power-law behavior when the
      bonds are fixed, the introduction of fluctuations in the bonds by considering the
      existence of diagonal bonds produces a temperature independent growth, which can
      be described by a universal nonequilibrium finite-size scaling function with a
      non-universal metric factor. We also examine the related aging phenomenon, probed
      by a suitable two-time density-density autocorrelation function showing a simple
      power-law scaling with respect to the growing cluster size. Unlike the cluster
      growth exponent alphac, the nonequilibrium autocorrelation exponent lambdaC
      governing the aging during the collapse, however, is independent of the bond type
      and strictly follows the bounds proposed by Majumder and Janke [Phys. Rev. E 93,
      032506 (2016)] at all temperatures.

PMID- 28886660
TI  - A multi-plate velocity-map imaging design for high-resolution photoelectron
      spectroscopy.
AB  - A velocity map imaging (VMI) setup consisting of multiple electrodes with three
      adjustable voltage parameters, designed for slow electron velocity map imaging
      applications, is presented. The motivations for this design are discussed in
      terms of parameters that influence the VMI resolution and functionality.
      Particularly, this VMI has two tunable potentials used to adjust for optimal
      focus, yielding good VMI focus across a relatively large energy range. It also
      allows for larger interaction volumes without significant sacrifice to the
      resolution via a smaller electric gradient at the interaction region. All the
      electrodes in this VMI have the same dimensions for practicality and flexibility,
      allowing for relatively easy modifications to suit different experimental needs.
      We have coupled this VMI to a cryogenic ion trap mass spectrometer that has a
      flexible source design. The performance is demonstrated with the photoelectron
      spectra of S- and CS2-. The latter has a long vibrational progression in the
      ground state, and the temperature dependence of the vibronic features is probed
      by changing the temperature of the ion trap.

PMID- 28886661
TI  - Comment on: Excessive daytime sleepiness in chronic migraine and chronic tension
      type headache from the general population.

PMID- 28886662
TI  - Comment on: Relationship between serum levels of VIP, but not of CGRP, and
      cranial autonomic parasympathetic symptoms: A study in chronic migraine patients.

PMID- 28886663
TI  - Comment on: Role of adipocytokines in the pathophysiology of migraine: A cross
      sectional study.

PMID- 28886664
TI  - Effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure in the
      Department of Veterans Affairs.
AB  - Objective This study evaluated the effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy
      and prolonged exposure in conditions reflective of current clinical practice
      within the Veterans Health Administration. Method This study involved a
      retrospective review of 2030 charts. A total of 750 veterans from 10 U.S. states
      who received cognitive processing therapy or prolonged exposure in individual
      psychotherapy were included in the study (participants in cognitive processing
      therapy, N = 376; participants in prolonged exposure, N = 374). The main
      dependent variable was self-reported posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms as
      measured by total scores on the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist. The
      study used multilevel modeling to evaluate the absolute and relative
      effectiveness of both treatments and determine the relationship between patient
      level variables and total Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist scores during
      treatment. Results Cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure were
      equally effective at reducing total Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist
      scores. Veterans who completed therapy reported significantly larger reductions
      in the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist than patients who did not complete
      therapy. There were no significant differences in the improvement of
      posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms with respect to age and three
      racial/ethnic groups (Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic). Conclusions
      Cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure were shown to be effective in
      conditions highly reflective of clinical practice and with a highly diverse
      sample of veterans. Challenges related to dropout from trauma focused therapy
      should continue to be researched.

PMID- 28886665
TI  - Development of carpal tunnel syndrome after repair of the median nerve in the
      distal forearm.

PMID- 28886666
TI  - The diagnostic accuracy of 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging for detecting root
      avulsions in traumatic adult brachial plexus injuries.
AB  - : Identification of root avulsions is of critical importance in traumatic
      brachial plexus injuries because it alters the reconstruction and prognosis. Pre
      operative magnetic resonance imaging is gaining popularity, but there is limited
      and conflicting data on its diagnostic accuracy for root avulsion. This cohort
      study describes consecutive patients requiring brachial plexus exploration
      following trauma between 2008 and 2016. The index test was magnetic resonance
      imaging at 1.5 Tesla and the reference test was operative exploration of the
      supraclavicular plexus. Complete data from 29 males was available. The diagnostic
      accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging for root avulsion(s) of C5-T1 was 79%. The
      diagnostic accuracy of a pseudomeningocoele as a surrogate marker of root
      avulsion(s) of C5-T1 was 68%. We conclude that pseudomeningocoles were not a
      reliable sign of root avulsion and magnetic resonance imaging has modest
      diagnostic accuracy for root avulsions in the context of adult traumatic brachial
      plexus injuries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

PMID- 28886667
TI  - The effect of screw trajectory for the reduction and association of the scaphoid
      and lunate (RASL) procedure: a biomechanical analysis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine if screw placement in the reduction
      and association of the scaphoid and the lunate (RASL) procedure affected the
      ability of the scapholunate joint to withstand force. After completely disrupting
      of the scapholunate ligament in 29 fresh-frozen cadaveric wrists, we placed the
      RASL screw either distal or proximal to the lateral aspect of the dorsal ridge of
      the scaphoid and into the dorsal or volar aspect of the lunate. Specimens were
      subjected to repeated cycles of transcarpal axial force, mimicking clenched-fist
      loading, until failure. Screw placement distal to the lateral aspect of the
      dorsal scaphoid ridge was significantly associated with failure when examined
      manually, radiographically (1.8 vs. 0.5 mm) and using real-time motion capture
      (diastasis: 1.6 vs. 0.4 mm; Euler angle: 4.5  degrees  vs. 0.8  degrees ). The
      lateral aspect of the dorsal ridge is a reliable radiographic landmark on the
      scaphoid and provides surgeons with a convenient starting point to achieve the
      most biomechanically stable RASL construct, and, therefore, enhances the
      potential for an optimal clinical outcome.

PMID- 28886668
TI  - Conceptual origins, current practice, and views of wide awake hand surgery.
AB  - This article reviews historical background, essential practice principles, and
      the new emerging area of wide awake hand surgery. It outlines the reasons that
      wide awake, local anaesthesia, no tourniquet surgery has emerged so quickly in
      the last 10 years over the world. I explain the origin of the concepts and some
      of the challenges of getting the technique accepted; in particular, the debunking
      of the myth of epinephrine danger in the finger. I review the most recent
      developments in several operations in this rapidly changing field of the
      tourniquet-free approach. Finally, this review includes speculations on the
      future of this technique.

PMID- 28886669
TI  - Canadian Practice Guidelines for Comprehensive Community Treatment for
      Schizophrenia and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to identify the features and
      components of a comprehensive system of services for people living with
      schizophrenia. A comprehensive system was conceived as one that served the full
      range of people with schizophrenia and was designed with consideration of the
      incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia. The system should provide access to
      the full range of evidence-based services, should be recovery oriented, and
      should provide patient-centred care. METHOD: A systematic search was conducted
      for published guidelines for schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
      The guidelines were rated by at least 2 raters, and recommendations adopted were
      primarily drawn from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2014)
      Guideline on Psychosis and Schizophrenia in adults and the Scottish
      Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guidelines on management of schizophrenia.
      RESULTS: The recommendations adapted for Canada cover the range of services
      required to provide comprehensive services. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive services
      for people with schizophrenia can be organized and delivered to improve the
      quality of life of people with schizophrenia and their carers. The services need
      to be organized in a system that provides access to those who need them.

PMID- 28886670
TI  - Canadian Treatment Guidelines on Psychosocial Treatment of Schizophrenia in
      Children and Youth.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A panel of experts, including researchers, clinicians and people with
      lived experience, was brought together to develop the new Canadian schizophrenia
      guidelines for the psychosocial treatment of children and youth with
      schizophrenia or psychotic disorders. METHOD: The ADAPTE process, which relies on
      adapting existing high-quality guidelines, was used. Existing guidelines for
      children and youth (mostly from the National Institute for Health and Care
      Excellence [NICE]), as well as CPA adult guidelines, were reviewed and discussed
      in terms of their adaptability to the Canadian context and their level of
      recommendation for children and youth. New treatments were also considered when
      recent meta-analyses suggested their usefulness. RESULTS: The children and youth
      psychosocial guidelines include many cross-sectional recommendations in terms of
      clinical and interpersonal skills needed to work with this clientele, setting and
      collaboration issues and needed adaptations for specific subpopulations. In terms
      of specific treatments, the treatments most strongly recommended are family
      intervention and cognitive behavior therapy. Also recommended, although with
      different degrees of support, are supported employment/supported education
      programs, patient education, cognitive remediation, and social skills training.
      Novel and upcoming psychosocial treatments are also briefly discussed.
      CONCLUSION: These novel Canadian guidelines for the psychosocial treatment of
      children and youth with schizophrenia or psychotic disorders report evidence
      based treatments as well as important considerations for providers who work with
      this clientele. More studies with children and youth with schizophrenia and
      psychotic disorders are warranted. If followed, these guidelines should
      facilitate the recovery of children and youth with schizophrenia or psychotic
      disorders as well as the recovery of their families.

PMID- 28886671
TI  - Canadian Schizophrenia Guidelines: Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders
      with Coexisting Substance Use Disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Persons with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders frequently
      have coexisting substance use disorders that require modifications to treatment
      approaches for best outcomes. The objectives of this review were to identify
      evidence-based practices best practices that improve outcomes for individuals
      with schizophrenia and substance used disorders. METHOD: We reviewed guidelines
      that were published in the last 5 years and that included systematic reviews or
      meta-analyses. Most of our recommendations came from 2 publications from the
      National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): the 2011 guidance
      titled Coexisting Severe Mental Illness (Psychosis) and Substance Misuse:
      Assessment and Management in Healthcare Settings and the 2014 guidance titled
      Psychosis and Schizophrenia in Adults: Prevention and Management. We placed these
      recommendations into the Canadian context to create this guideline. RESULTS:
      Evidence supports the inclusion of individuals with coexisting substance use
      disorders in first-episode psychosis programs. The programs should integrate
      psychosis and substance use treatments, emphasizing ongoing monitoring of both
      substance use and patterns and symptoms. The best outcomes are achieved with
      combined use of antipsychotic medications and addiction-based psychosocial
      interventions. However, limited evidence is available to recommend using one
      antipsychotic medication over another or one psychosocial intervention over
      another for persons with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders with
      coexisting substance use disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Treating persons who have
      schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders with coexisting substance use
      disorders can present clinical challenges, but modifications in practice can help
      engage and retain people in treatment, where significant improvements over time
      can be expected.

PMID- 28886672
TI  - Purification of Body and Soul for the Next Journey. Practices Surrounding Death
      and Dying Among Muslim Women.
AB  - This study aims, first, to compare normative Islamic practices toward death and
      dying and actual practices of Moroccan Muslim women. Second, it seeks to compare
      the views and practices of middle-aged and elderly women. Qualitative empirical
      research was conducted with 30 middle-aged and elderly Moroccan Muslim women
      living in Antwerp (Belgium) and with 15 experts in the field. Our study shows
      that religious beliefs and worldview have a great impact on Muslims' practices
      surrounding death and dying. More specifically, practices are strongly shaped by
      their eschatological beliefs. The rituals are perceived as preparations for the
      hereafter, entailing purification of both soul and body, and demonstrate the
      belief in a continued existence of the soul. We found striking similarities
      between our participants' views and normative Islamic views. We did not find a
      more secular understanding of death and dying among the middle-aged women.

PMID- 28886674
TI  - Cancer Caregivers' Preparedness for Loss and Bereavement Outcomes: Do Preloss
      Caregiver Attributes Matter?
AB  - Past studies examining the relationship between preparedness for loss and
      bereavement outcomes among caregivers of spouses/partners with life-limiting
      illness did not adequately account for preloss caregiver attributes that could
      potentially confound the relationship. Using a sample of spouse/partner cancer
      caregivers ( N = 226), we examined how preloss caregiver attributes were
      associated with how prepared one felt for loss and their role in the relationship
      between preparedness and later bereavement outcomes. Nearly half reported they
      were not emotionally prepared, and 35% were not prepared for the practical
      challenges associated with the loss. Although attributes such as depression,
      anxiety, competence in daily activities, and financial adequacy were associated
      with both preparedness and bereavement outcomes, regression analyses revealed
      that preparedness remained the strongest predictor in all models. We suggest that
      early interventions enhancing caregivers' preparedness for loss may hold
      considerable promise for improved bereavement outcome.

PMID- 28886675
TI  - Self-Criticism and Depressive Symptoms: Mediating Role of Self-Compassion.
AB  - Self-compassion is gaining recognition as a resilience factor with implications
      for positive mental health. This study investigated the role of self-compassion
      in alleviating the effect of self-criticism on depressive symptoms. Participants
      were 147 urban, low-income African Americans with a recent suicide attempt. They
      were administered measures of self-criticism, depressive symptoms, and self
      compassion. Results from this cross-sectional investigation showed that self
      criticism was positively associated with depressive symptoms and negatively
      associated with self-compassion, and self-compassion was negatively associated
      with depressive symptoms. Bootstrapping analysis revealed that self-compassion
      mediated the self-criticism-depressive symptoms link, suggesting that self
      compassion ameliorates the negative impact of self-criticism on depressive
      symptoms. Our findings suggest that low-income African Americans with recent
      suicide attempt histories may benefit from interventions that focus on enhancing
      self-compassion. These results also highlight self-compassion as a positive trait
      with promise to improve people's quality of life and suggest that self-compassion
      focused interventions are consistent with a positive psychology framework.

PMID- 28886676
TI  - Validity, reliability and minimal detectable change of the balance evaluation
      systems test (BESTest), mini-BESTest and brief-BESTest in patients with end-stage
      renal disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study determined the validity, test-retest reliability and minimal
      detectable change of the balance evaluation systems test (BESTest), mini-balance
      evaluation systems test (Mini-BESTest) and brief-balance evaluation systems test
      (Brief-BESTest) in patients with end-stage renal disease. METHODS: A cross
      sectional study with 74 patients with end-stage renal disease (male 66.2%; 63.9
      +/- 15.1 years old) was conducted. Participants were asked to report the number
      of falls during the previous 12 months and to complete the activity-specific
      balance confidence (ABC) scale. The BESTest was administered, and the Mini
      BESTest and Brief-BESTest scores were computed based on the BESTest performance.
      Validity was assessed by correlating balance tests with each other and with the
      ABC scale. Test-retest relative reliability and agreement were explored with the
      intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) equation (2,1) and the Bland and Altman
      method. Minimal detectable changes at the 95% confidence level were established.
      RESULTS: Balance test scores were significantly correlated with each other
      (spearman's correlation = 0.89-0.92) and with the ABC scale (spearman's
      correlation = 0.49-0.59). Balance tests presented high test-retest reliability
      (ICC = 0.84-0.94), with no evidence of bias. Minimal detectable change values
      were 10.8 (expressed as a percentage 13.5%), 5.3 (23.7%) and 5.6 (34%) points for
      the BESTest, Mini-BESTest and Brief-BESTest, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: All tests
      are valid and reliable to assess balance in patients with end-stage renal
      disease. Nevertheless, based on the minimal detectable changes found, BESTest and
      Mini-BESTest may be the most recommended tests for this specific population.
      Implications for Rehabilitation Balance evaluation systems test (BESTest), mini
      balance evaluation systems test (Mini-BESTest) and brief-balance evaluation
      systems test (Brief-BESTest) are reliable and valid in patients with end stage
      renal disease (ESRD). The minimal detectable changes of 10.8 for the BESTest, 5.3
      for the Mini-BESTest and 5.6 for the Brief-BESTest can be used by clinicians to
      identify a true change in balance over time or in response to interventions.
      Based on the minimal detectable changes found, BESTest and Mini-BESTest may be
      the most recommended; and the selection of one of them may be based on time and
      equipment availability.

PMID- 28886677
TI  - Unplanned return to operating room after endovascular repair of abdominal aortic
      aneurysm (EVAR) is associated with increased risk of hospital readmission.
AB  - Objectives Hospital readmissions after surgical operations are considered serious
      events. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) consider surgical readmissions as
      preventable and hold hospitals responsible for them. Endovascular abdominal
      aortic aneurysm (EVAR) has become the first line modality of treatment for
      suitable patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The purpose of this study
      is to retrospectively review the factors associated with hospital readmission
      after EVAR. Methods The 2013 EVAR targeted American College of Surgeons (ACS
      NSQIP) database and generalized 2013 general and vascular surgery ACS-NSQIP
      participant use files were used for this study. Patient, diagnosis, and procedure
      characteristics of patients undergoing EVAR surgery were assessed. Multivariate
      logistic regression analysis was used to determine independent risk factors for
      hospital readmission within 30 days after surgery. Results A total of 2277
      patients (81% males, 19% females) underwent EVAR operations in the year 2013.
      Indications for operations included: asymptomatic large diameter (79%),
      symptomatic (5.7%), rupture without hypotension (4.3%), and rupture with
      hypotension (2.8%). Among these patients, 178 (7.8%) were readmitted to the
      hospital within 30 days after surgery. About 53% of all readmissions were within
      two weeks after the discharge. Risk factors, associated with readmission
      included: body mass index (per 5-units, OR 1.23, CI 1.06-1.42, p < 0.05), days
      from admission to operation (per 1 day, OR 1.26, CI 1.12-1.41, p < 0.05), prior
      abdominal aortic surgery (OR 1.60, CI 1.10-2.31, p < 0.05), urinary tract
      infection (OR 5.93, CI 2.09-16.88, p < 0.05), superficial surgical site infection
      (OR 6.57, CI 2.53-17.09, p < 0.05), unplanned return to the operating room (OR
      11.29, CI 6.29-20.28, p < 0.05), myocardial infarction (OR 11.30, CI 4.42-28.89,
      p < 0.05), deep venous thrombosis (OR 11.52, CI 2.89-45.86, p < 0.05 and deep
      incisional surgical site infection (OR 38.0, CI 2.87-373.56, p < 0.05). Risk of
      readmission for patients with presence of all these seven factors was 99.9%.
      Conclusions Readmission after EVAR is a serious occurrence. Various factors
      predispose a patient at a high risk for readmission. Unplanned return to
      operating room after EVAR is associated with a 11-fold increase in hospital
      readmission.

PMID- 28886678
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28886679
TI  - Microbial Expansins.
AB  - Expansins are small proteins that loosen plant cell walls and cellulosic
      materials without lytic activity. First discovered in plants, expansin genes are
      found in the genomes of numerous bacteria and fungi that interact with plants in
      pathogenic and mutualistic patterns, as well as in microbes that feed on plant
      debris. Horizontal gene transfer from plants to microbes and between microbes
      accounts for expansins' irregular taxonomic distribution. Expansins facilitate
      plant colonization by Bacillus, Clavibacter, and Trichoderma species, a list
      likely to grow as knowledge of microbial expansin function deepens. Studies have
      documented a synergistic action of expansins for cellulose digestion by
      cellulases, but only rarely to an extent that is commercially relevant.
      Expansins' biophysical actions remain enigmatic because of limited understanding
      of cell wall structure. Deeper understanding of microbial expansins may lead to
      novel approaches for biomass deconstruction and biocontrol of plant diseases.

PMID- 28886681
TI  - Molecular Evolution of Antifungal Drug Resistance.
AB  - The fungal pathogens Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus
      fumigatus have transitioned from a rare curiosity to a leading cause of human
      mortality. The management of infections caused by these organisms is intimately
      dependent on the efficacy of antifungal agents; however, fungi that are resistant
      to these treatments are regularly isolated in the clinic, impeding our ability to
      control infections. Given the significant impact fungal pathogens have on human
      health, it is imperative to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern
      antifungal drug resistance. This review describes our current knowledge of the
      mechanisms by which antifungal drug resistance evolves in experimental
      populations and clinical settings. We explore current antifungal treatment
      options and discuss promising strategies to impede the evolution of drug
      resistance. By tackling antifungal drug resistance as an evolutionary problem,
      there is potential to improve the utility of current treatments and accelerate
      the development of novel therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28886680
TI  - Outer Membrane Biogenesis.
AB  - The hallmark of gram-negative bacteria and organelles such as mitochondria and
      chloroplasts is the presence of an outer membrane. In bacteria such as
      Escherichia coli, the outer membrane is a unique asymmetric lipid bilayer with
      lipopolysaccharide in the outer leaflet. Integral transmembrane proteins assume a
      beta-barrel structure, and their assembly is catalyzed by the heteropentameric
      Bam complex containing the outer membrane protein BamA and four lipoproteins,
      BamB-E. How the Bam complex assembles a great diversity of outer membrane
      proteins into a membrane without an obvious energy source is a particularly
      challenging problem, because folding intermediates are predicted to be unstable
      in either an aqueous or a hydrophobic environment. Two models have been put
      forward: the budding model, based largely on structural data, and the BamA
      assisted model, based on genetic and biochemical studies. Here we offer a
      critical discussion of the pros and cons of each.

PMID- 28886682
TI  - Copper Acquisition and Utilization in Fungi.
AB  - Fungal cells colonize and proliferate in distinct niches, from soil and plants to
      diverse tissues in human hosts. Consequently, fungi are challenged with the goal
      of obtaining nutrients while simultaneously elaborating robust regulatory
      mechanisms to cope with a range of availability of nutrients, from scarcity to
      excess. Copper is essential for life but also potentially toxic. In this review
      we describe the sophisticated homeostatic mechanisms by which fungi acquire,
      utilize, and control this biochemically versatile trace element. Fungal
      pathogens, which can occupy distinct host tissues that have their own intrinsic
      requirements for copper homeostasis, have evolved mechanisms to acquire copper to
      successfully colonize the host, disseminate to other tissues, and combat host
      copper bombardment mechanisms that would otherwise mitigate virulence.

PMID- 28886683
TI  - Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Drug Resistance, Mouse Models, and Vaccine Development.
AB  - Gonorrhea, an obligate human infection, is on the rise worldwide and gonococcal
      strains resistant to many antibiotics are emerging. Appropriate antimicrobial
      treatment and prevention, including effective vaccines, are urgently needed. To
      guide investigation, an experimental model of genital tract infection has been
      developed in female mice to study mechanisms by which Neisseria gonorrhoeae
      evades host-derived antimicrobial factors and to identify protective and
      immunosuppressive pathways. Refinements of the animal model have also improved
      its use as a surrogate host of human infection and accelerated the testing of
      novel therapeutic and prophylactic compounds against gonococcal infection.
      Reviewed herein are the (a) history of antibiotic usage and resistance against
      gonorrhea and the consequences of resistance mechanisms that may increase
      gonococcal fitness and therefore the potential for spread, (b) use of gonococcal
      infection in the animal model system to study mechanisms of pathogenesis and host
      defenses, and

PMID- 28886684
TI  - Elongation Factor P and the Control of Translation Elongation.
AB  - Elongation factor P (EF-P) binds to ribosomes requiring assistance with the
      formation of oligo-prolines. In order for EF-P to associate with paused
      ribosomes, certain tRNAs with specific d-arm residues must be present in the
      peptidyl site, e.g., tRNAPro. Once EF-P is accommodated into the ribosome and
      bound to Pro-tRNAPro, productive synthesis of the peptide bond occurs. The
      underlying mechanism by which EF-P facilitates this reaction seems to have
      entropic origins. Maximal activity of EF-P requires a posttranslational
      modification in Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus subtilis.
      Each of these modifications is distinct and ligated onto its respective EF-P
      through entirely convergent means. Here we review the facets of translation
      elongation that are controlled by EF-P, with a particular focus on the purpose
      behind the many different modifications of EF-P.

PMID- 28886686
TI  - A Life in Bacillus subtilis Signal Transduction.
AB  - This is a tale of how technology drove the discovery of the molecular basis for
      signal transduction in the initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis and in
      bacterial two-component systems. It progresses from genetics to cloning and
      sequencing to biochemistry to structural biology to an understanding of how
      proteins evolve interaction specificity and to identification of interaction
      surfaces by statistical physics. This is about how the people in my laboratory
      accomplished this feat; without them little would have been done.

PMID- 28886687
TI  - "Fleaing" the Plague: Adaptations of Yersinia pestis to Its Insect Vector That
      Lead to Transmission.
AB  - Interest in arthropod-borne pathogens focuses primarily on how they cause disease
      in humans. How they produce a transmissible infection in their arthropod host is
      just as critical to their life cycle, however. Yersinia pestis adopts a unique
      life stage in the digestive tract of its flea vector, characterized by rapid
      formation of a bacterial biofilm that is enveloped in a complex extracellular
      polymeric substance. Localization and adherence of the biofilm to the flea
      foregut is essential for transmission. Here, we review the molecular and genetic
      mechanisms of these processes and present a comparative evaluation and updated
      model of two related transmission mechanisms.

PMID- 28886685
TI  - Bacterial Cell Size: Multifactorial and Multifaceted.
AB  - How cells establish, maintain, and modulate size has always been an area of great
      interest and fascination. Until recently, technical limitations curtailed our
      ability to understand the molecular basis of bacterial cell size control. In the
      past decade, advances in microfluidics, imaging, and high-throughput single-cell
      analysis, however, have led to a flurry of work revealing size to be a highly
      complex trait involving the integration of three core aspects of bacterial
      physiology: metabolism, growth, and cell cycle progression.

PMID- 28886688
TI  - Regulating Bacterial Virulence with RNA.
AB  - Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) regulating virulence have been identified in most
      pathogens. This review discusses RNA-mediated mechanisms exploited by bacterial
      pathogens to successfully infect and colonize their hosts. It discusses the most
      representative RNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms employed by two intracellular
      [Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S.
      Typhimurium)] and two extracellular (Vibrio cholerae and Staphylococcus aureus)
      bacterial pathogens. We review the RNA-mediated regulators (e.g., thermosensors,
      riboswitches, cis- and trans-encoded RNAs) used for adaptation to the specific
      niches colonized by these bacteria (intestine, blood, or the intracellular
      environment, for example) in the framework of the specific pathophysiological
      aspects of the diseases caused by these microorganisms. A critical discussion of
      the newest findings in the field of bacterial ncRNAs shows how examples in model
      pathogens could pave the way for the discovery of new mechanisms in other
      medically important bacterial pathogens.

PMID- 28886689
TI  - Predator Versus Pathogen: How Does Predatory Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus Interface
      with the Challenges of Killing Gram-Negative Pathogens in a Host Setting?
AB  - Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a small deltaproteobacterial predator that has
      evolved to invade, reseal, kill, and digest other gram-negative bacteria in soils
      and water environments. It has a broad host range and kills many antibiotic
      resistant, clinical pathogens in vitro, a potentially useful capability if it
      could be translated to a clinical setting. We review relevant mechanisms of B.
      bacteriovorus predation and the physiological properties that would influence its
      survival in a mammalian host. Bacterial pathogens increasingly display
      conventional antibiotic resistance by expressing and varying surface and soluble
      biomolecules. Predators coevolved alongside prey bacteria and so encode diverse
      predatory enzymes that are hard for pathogens to resist by simple mutation.
      Predators do not replicate outside pathogens and thus express few transport
      proteins and thus few surface epitopes for host immune recognition. We explain
      these features, relating them to the potential of predatory bacteria as cellular
      medicines.

PMID- 28886692
TI  - Supernumerary phantom limb in a patient with basal ganglia hemorrhage - a case
      report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Supernumerary phantom limb (SPL) is a rare neurologic phenomenon, in
      which a patient misperceives an extra limb in addition to the original set of
      limbs. We report a case of SPL in a patient with a right basal ganglia hemorrhage
      and review the previous literature about this peculiar phenomenon. CASE
      PRESENTATION: Two days after the event of a right basal ganglia hemorrhage, a 78
      year-old male reported a phantom arm protruding from his left shoulder. He could
      not see or touch the phantom arm but he felt the presence of an addition arm
      lateral to his paretic arm. Pain or sensory discomfort were absent in either the
      paretic arm or the phantom arm. He stated that he could intentionally move the
      phantom arm independent of his paretic arm. The examination showed that the
      passive movement of his paretic arm did not elicit any movement of his phantom
      arm. We diagnosed the SPL as a complication of the hypertensive basal ganglia
      hemorrhage and treated him with anti-hypertensive medications. His phantom arm
      persisted for 3 weeks, and it gradually faded away. CONCLUSION: SPL had been
      reported as a rare complication of various types of cerebral lesions. Right
      hemispheric lesions were most frequently associated with the SPL. Considering the
      intentional movement of the phantom arm, we deduced that the SPL might result
      from the impairment of the sensory feedback system for both internal body image
      and motor movement.

PMID- 28886691
TI  - Impaired response of the bronchial epithelium to inflammation characterizes
      severe equine asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Severe equine asthma is a naturally occurring lung inflammatory
      disease of mature animals characterized by neutrophilic inflammation,
      bronchoconstriction, mucus hypersecretion and airway remodeling. Exacerbations
      are triggered by inhalation of dust and microbial components. Affected animals
      eventually are unable of aerobic performance. In this study transcriptomic
      differences between asthmatic and non-asthmatic animals in the response of the
      bronchial epithelium to an inhaled challenge were determined. RESULTS: Paired
      endobronchial biopsies were obtained pre- and post-challenge from asthmatic and
      non-asthmatic animals. The transcriptome, determined by RNA-seq and analyzed with
      edgeR, contained 111 genes differentially expressed (DE) after challenge between
      horses with and without asthma, and 81 of these were upregulated. Genes involved
      in neutrophil migration and activation were in central location in interaction
      networks, and related gene ontology terms were significantly overrepresented.
      Relative abundance of specific gene products as determined by
      immunohistochemistry was correlated with differential gene expression. Gene sets
      involved in neutrophil chemotaxis, immune and inflammatory response, secretion,
      blood coagulation and apoptosis were overrepresented among up-regulated genes,
      while the rhythmic process gene set was overrepresented among down-regulated
      genes. MMP1, IL8, TLR4 and MMP9 appeared to be the most important proteins in
      connecting the STRING protein network of DE genes. CONCLUSIONS: Several
      differentially expressed genes and networks in horses with asthma also contribute
      to human asthma, highlighting similarities between severe human adult and equine
      asthma. Neutrophil activation by the bronchial epithelium is suggested as the
      trigger of the inflammatory cascade in equine asthma, followed by epithelial
      injury and impaired repair and differentiation. Circadian rhythm dysregulation
      and the sonic Hedgehog pathway were identified as potential novel contributory
      factors in equine asthma.

PMID- 28886693
TI  - Erratum to: the link between adjacent codon pairs and mRNA stability.

PMID- 28886690
TI  - Transcriptome profiling of antiviral immune and dietary fatty acid dependent
      responses of Atlantic salmon macrophage-like cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to the limited availability and high cost of fish oil in the face
      of increasing aquaculture production, there is a need to reduce usage of fish oil
      in aquafeeds without compromising farm fish health. Therefore, the present study
      was conducted to determine if different levels of vegetable and fish oils can
      alter antiviral responses of salmon macrophage-like cells (MLCs). Atlantic salmon
      (Salmo salar) were fed diets containing 7.4% (FO7) or 5.1% (FO5) fish oil. These
      diets were designed to be relatively low in EPA + DHA (i.e. FO7: 1.41% and FO5:
      1%), but near the requirement level, and resulting in comparable growth.
      Vegetable oil (i.e. rapeseed oil) was used to balance fish oil in experimental
      diets. After a 16-week feeding trial, MLCs isolated from fish in these dietary
      groups were stimulated by a viral mimic (dsRNA: pIC) for 6 h (qPCR assay) and 24
      h (microarray and qPCR assays). RESULTS: The fatty acid composition of head
      kidney leukocytes varied between the two dietary groups (e.g. higher 20:5n-3 in
      the FO7 group). Following microarray assays using a 44K salmonid platform, Rank
      Products (RP) analysis showed 14 and 54 differentially expressed probes (DEP)
      (PFP < 0.05) between the two diets in control and pIC groups (FO5 vs. FO7),
      respectively. Nonetheless, Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM, FDR < 0.05)
      identified only one DEP between pIC groups of the two diets. Moreover, we
      identified a large number (i.e. 890 DEP in FO7 and 1128 DEP in FO5 overlapping
      between SAM and RP) of pIC-responsive transcripts, and several of them were
      involved in TLR-/RLR-dependent and cytokine-mediated pathways. The microarray
      results were validated as significantly differentially expressed by qPCR assays
      for 2 out of 9 diet-responsive transcripts and for all of the 35 selected pIC
      responsive transcripts. CONCLUSION: Fatty acid-binding protein adipocyte (fabp4)
      and proteasome subunit beta type-8 (psmb8) were significantly up- and down
      regulated, respectively, in the MLCs of fish fed the diet with a lower level of
      fish oil, suggesting that they are important diet-responsive, immune-related
      biomarkers for future studies. Although the different levels of dietary fish and
      vegetable oils involved in this study affected the expression of some
      transcripts, the immune-related pathways and functions activated by the antiviral
      response of salmon MLCs in both groups were comparable overall. Moreover, the
      qPCR revealed transcripts responding early to pIC (e.g. lgp2, map3k8, socs1,
      dusp5 and cflar) and time-responsive transcripts (e.g. scarb1-a, csf1r, traf5a,
      cd80 and ctsf) in salmon MLCs. The present study provides a comprehensive picture
      of the putative molecular pathways (e.g. RLR-, TLR-, MAPK- and IFN-associated
      pathways) activated by the antiviral response of salmon MLCs.

PMID- 28886694
TI  - Comparative transcriptome analysis of cotton fiber development of Upland cotton
      (Gossypium hirsutum) and Chromosome Segment Substitution Lines from G. hirsutum *
      G. barbadense.
AB  - BACKGROUND: How to develop new cotton varieties possessing high yield traits of
      Upland cotton and superior fiber quality traits of Sea Island cotton remains a
      key task for cotton breeders and researchers. While multiple attempts bring in
      little significant progresses, the development of Chromosome Segment Substitution
      Lines (CSSLs) from Gossypium barbadense in G. hirsutum background provided ideal
      materials for aforementioned breeding purposes in upland cotton improvement.
      Based on the excellent fiber performance and relatively clear chromosome
      substitution segments information identified by Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR)
      markers, two CSSLs, MBI9915 and MBI9749, together with the recurrent parent
      CCRI36 were chosen to conduct transcriptome sequencing during the development
      stages of fiber elongation and Secondary Cell Wall (SCW) synthesis (from 10DPA
      and 28DPA), aiming at revealing the mechanism of fiber development and the
      potential contribution of chromosome substitution segments from Sea Island cotton
      to fiber development of Upland cotton. RESULTS: In total, 15 RNA-seq libraries
      were constructed and sequenced separately, generating 705.433 million clean reads
      with mean GC content of 45.13% and average Q30 of 90.26%. Through multiple
      comparisons between libraries, 1801 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were
      identified, of which the 902 up-regulated DEGs were mainly involved in cell wall
      organization and response to oxidative stress and auxin, while the 898 down
      regulated ones participated in translation, regulation of transcription, DNA
      templated and cytoplasmic translation based on GO annotation and KEGG enrichment
      analysis. Subsequently, STEM software was performed to explicate the temporal
      expression pattern of DEGs. Two peroxidases and four flavonoid pathway-related
      genes were identified in the "oxidation-reduction process", which could play a
      role in fiber development and quality formation. Finally, the reliability of RNA
      seq data was validated by quantitative real-time PCR of randomly selected 20
      genes. CONCLUSIONS: The present report focuses on the similarities and
      differences of transcriptome profiles between the two CSSLs and the recurrent
      parent CCRI36 and provides novel insights into the molecular mechanism of fiber
      development, and into further exploration of the feasible contribution of G.
      barbadense substitution segments to fiber quality formation, which will lay solid
      foundation for simultaneously improving fiber yield and quality of upland cotton
      through CSSLs.

PMID- 28886695
TI  - Cerebral microvascular dysfunction in metabolic syndrome is exacerbated by
      ischemia-reperfusion injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with an increased risk of
      cerebrovascular diseases, including cerebral ischemia. Microvascular dysfunction
      is an important feature underlying the pathophysiology of cerebrovascular
      diseases. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impacts of ischemia and
      reperfusion (IR) injury on the cerebral microvascular function of rats with high
      fat diet-induced MetS. RESULTS: We examined Wistar rats fed a high-fat diet (HFD)
      or normal diet (CTL) for 20 weeks underwent 30 min of bilateral carotid artery
      occlusion followed by 1 h of reperfusion (IR) or sham surgery. Microvascular
      blood flow was evaluated on the parietal cortex surface through a cranial window
      by laser speckle contrast imaging, functional capillary density, endothelial
      function and endothelial-leukocyte interactions by intravital videomicroscopy.
      Lipid peroxidation was assessed by TBARs analysis, the expression of oxidative
      enzymes and inflammatory markers in the brain tissue was analyzed by real-time
      PCR. The cerebral IR in MetS animals induced a functional capillary rarefaction
      (HFD IR 117 +/- 17 vs. CTL IR 224 +/- 35 capillary/mm2; p < 0.05), blunted the
      endothelial response to acetylcholine (HFD IR -16.93% vs. CTL IR 16.19% from
      baseline inner diameter p < 0.05) and increased the endothelial-leukocyte
      interactions in the venules in the brain. The impact of ischemia on the cerebral
      microvascular blood flow was worsened in MetS animals, with a marked reduction of
      cerebral blood flow, exposing brain tissue to a higher state of hypoxia.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that during ischemia and reperfusion,
      animals with MetS are more susceptible to alterations in the cerebral
      microcirculation involving endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress events.

PMID- 28886696
TI  - Inhibition of PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway sensitizes endometrial cancer cell lines to
      PARP inhibitors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phosphatase and Tensin homolog (PTEN) is a tumor suppressor gene.
      Loss of its function is the most frequent genetic alteration in endometrioid
      endometrial cancers (70-80%) and high grade tumors (90%). We assessed the
      sensitivity of endometrial cancer cell lines to PARP inhibitors (olaparib and BMN
      673) and a PI3K inhibitor (BKM-120), alone or in combination, in the context of
      their PTEN mutation status. We also highlighted a direct pathway linking PTEN to
      DNA repair. METHODS: Using endometrial cancer cellular models with known PTEN
      status, we evaluated their homologous recombination (HR) functionality by RAD51
      foci formation assay. The 50% Inhibitory concentration (IC50) of PI3K and PARP
      inhibitors in these cells was assessed, and western blotting was performed to
      determine the expression of proteins involved in the PI3K/mTOR pathway. Moreover,
      we explored the interaction between RAD51 and PI3K/mTOR by immunofluorescence.
      Next, the combination effect of PI3K and PARP inhibitors on cell proliferation
      was evaluated by a clonogenic assay. RESULTS: Cells with mutated PTEN showed over
      activation of the PI3K/mTOR pathway. These cells were more sensitive to PARP
      inhibition compared to PTEN wild-type cells. In addition, PI3K inhibitor
      treatment reduced RAD51 foci formation in PTEN mutated cells, and sensitized
      these cells to PARP inhibitor. CONCLUSION: Targeting both PARP and PI3K might
      lead to improved personalized therapeutic approaches in endometrial cancer
      patients with PTEN mutations. Understanding the complex interaction of PTEN
      mutations with DNA repair in endometrial cancer will help to better select
      patients that are likely to respond to some of the new and costly targeted
      therapies.

PMID- 28886697
TI  - Correlates of alcohol consumption among Germans in the second half of life.
      Results of a population-based observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have investigated the predictors of alcohol
      consumption behavior among adolescents and young adults. However, the body of
      evidence about the relationship between in particular psychological factors and
      alcohol consumption among individuals in the second half of life is still
      limited. Hence, we aimed at identifying factors associated with alcohol
      consumption among individuals aged 40 and above, especially focusing on
      psychological correlates. METHODS: Data were derived from a population-based
      sample of community-dwelling individuals aged 40 to 95 years (n = 7820) in
      Germany. Alcohol consumption was rated as 'never' (never drinkers), 'rarer than
      once a month', 'one to three times a month', 'once a week', 'several times a
      week' (occasional drinkers), and 'daily' (daily drinkers). Socio-economic
      factors, the illness level and physical activity were considered as possible
      determinants of alcohol consumption. In addition, positive and negative affect,
      life satisfaction, optimism, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-regulation were
      included as psychological factors. Multinomial regressions were used to identify
      factors associated with drinking behavior. RESULTS: 12.0% of the individuals were
      daily drinkers, 76.5% were occasional drinkers, and 11.5% of the individuals
      never drank alcohol. After adjusting for various potential confounders,
      multinomial logistic regressions revealed that, compared with never drinking,
      occasional and daily drinking were positively associated with a decreased
      loneliness, a higher life satisfaction, a higher positive affect, a higher
      optimism, a higher self-efficacy (occasional drinkers), a higher self-esteem, and
      less perceived stress. In addition, occasional and daily drinking were positively
      associated with less physical illnesses, male gender, and income as compared with
      never drinking. CONCLUSIONS: The current study extends the existing literature on
      alcohol consumption behavior by new insights of correlates of drinking behavior
      among individuals in the second half of life. Since interventions are available
      to address this risk factor, this might help to identify individuals with
      increased alcohol consumption.

PMID- 28886698
TI  - Screening for anxiety and depression: reassessing the utility of the Zung scales.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While the gold standard for the diagnosis of mental disorders remains
      the structured clinical interview, self-report measures continue to play an
      important role in screening and measuring progress, as well as being frequently
      employed in research studies. Two widely-used self-report measures in the area of
      depression and anxiety are Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Self
      Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS). However, considerable confusion exists in their
      application, with clinical cut-offs often applied incorrectly. This study re
      examines the credentials of the Zung scales by comparing them with the Depression
      Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) in terms of their ability to predict clinical
      diagnoses of anxiety and depression made using the Patient Health Questionnaire
      (PHQ). METHOD: A total sample of 376 adults, of whom 87 reported being in receipt
      of psychological treatment, completed the two-page version of the PHQ relating to
      depression and anxiety, together with the SDS, the SAS and the DASS. RESULTS:
      Overall, although the respective DASS scales emerged as marginally stronger
      predictors of PHQ diagnoses of anxiety and depression, the Zung indices performed
      more than acceptably in comparison. The DASS also had an advantage in
      discriminative ability. Using the current recommended cut-offs for all scales,
      the DASS has the edge on specificity, while the Zung scales are superior in terms
      of sensitivity. There are grounds to consider making the Zung cut-offs more
      conservative, and doing this would produce comparable numbers of 'Misses' and
      'False Positives' to those obtained with the DASS. CONCLUSIONS: Given these
      promising results, further research is justified to assess the Zung scales
      ability against full clinical diagnoses and to further explore optimum cut-off
      levels.

PMID- 28886699
TI  - Research on advanced intervention using novel bone marrOW stem cell (RAINBOW): a
      study protocol for a phase I, open-label, uncontrolled, dose-response trial of
      autologous bone marrow stromal cell transplantation in patients with acute
      ischemic stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability, and despite
      intensive research, few treatment options exist. However, a recent breakthrough
      in cell therapy is expected to reverse the neurological sequelae of stroke.
      Although some pioneer studies on the use of cell therapy for treating stroke have
      been reported, certain problems remain unsolved. Recent studies have demonstrated
      that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have therapeutic potential against stroke.
      We investigated the use of autologous BMSC transplantation as a next-generation
      cell therapy for treating stroke. In this article, we introduce the protocol of a
      new clinical trial, the Research on Advanced Intervention using Novel Bone marrOW
      stem cell (RAINBOW). METHODS/DESIGN: RAINBOW is a phase 1, open-label,
      uncontrolled, dose-response study, with the primary aim to determine the safety
      of the autologous BMSC product HUNS001-01 when administered to patients with
      acute ischemic stroke. Estimated enrollment is 6-10 patients suffering from
      moderate to severe neurological deficits. Approximately 50 mL of the bone marrow
      is extracted from the iliac bone of each patient 15 days or later from the onset.
      BMSCs are cultured with allogeneic human platelet lysate (PL) as a substitute for
      fetal calf serum and are labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide for cell
      tracking using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). HUNS001-01 is stereotactically
      administered around the area of infarction in the subacute phase. Each patient
      will be administered a dose of 20 or 50 million cells. Neurological scoring, MRI
      for cell tracking, 18F-fuorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, and 123I
      Iomazenil single-photon emission computed tomography will be performed for 1 year
      after the administration. DISCUSSION: This is a first-in-human trial for HUNS001
      01 to the patients with acute ischemic stroke. We expect that intraparenchymal
      injection can be a more favorable method for cell delivery to the lesion and
      improvement of the motor function than intravenous infusion. Moreover, it is
      expected that the bio-imaging techniques can clarify the therapeutic mechanisms.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered at The University Hospital Medical
      Information Network on February 22, 2017 (UNIN ID: UMIN000026130 ). The findings
      of this trial will be disseminated to patients and through peer-reviewed
      publications and international presentations.

PMID- 28886700
TI  - Internal limiting membrane peeling and gas tamponade for myopic foveoschisis: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myopic foveoschisis (MF) is among the leading causes of visual loss
      in high myopia. However, it remains controversial whether internal limiting
      membrane (ILM) peeling or gas tamponade is necessary treatment option for MF.
      METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, WANFANG DATA and VIP databases were
      systematically reviewed. Outcome indicators were myopic foveoschisis resolution
      rate, visual acuity improvement and postoperative complications. RESULTS: Nine
      studies that included 239 eyes were selected. The proportion of resolution of
      foveoschisis was higher in ILM peeling group than non-ILM peeling group (OR =
      2.15, 95% CI: 1.06-4.35; P = 0.03). The proportion of postoperative complications
      was higher in Tamponade group than non-Tamponade group (OR = 10.81, 95% CI: 1.26
      93.02; P = 0.03). However, the proportion of visual acuity improvement (OR =
      1.63, 95% CI: 0.56-4.80; P = 0.37) between ILM peeling group and non-ILM peeling
      group and the proportion of resolution of foveoschisis (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 0.76
      4.28; P = 0.18) between Tamponade group and non-Tamponade group were similar.
      CONCLUSIONS: Vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling could contribute
      to better resolution of myopic foveoschisis than non-peeling, however it does not
      significantly influence the proportion of visual acuity improvement and
      postoperative complications. Vitrectomy with gas tamponade is associated with
      more complications than non-tamponade and does not significantly influence the
      proportion of visual acuity improvement and resolution of myopic foveoschisis.

PMID- 28886702
TI  - Safety and effectiveness of oral misoprostol for induction of labour in a
      resource-limited setting: a dose escalation study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oral misoprostol as an induction of labour (IOL) agent is rapidly
      gaining popularity in resource-limited settings because it is cheap, stable at
      ambient temperatures, and logistically easier to administer compared to
      dinoprostone and oxytocin. We aim to investigate the safety and effectiveness of
      a regimen of oral misoprostol in Papua New Guinean women undergoing IOL. METHODS:
      As part of a prospective dose escalation study conducted at Modilon Hospital in
      Papua New Guinea, women with a singleton pregnancy in cephalic presentation and
      an unfavourable cervix who gave written informed consent were administered oral
      misoprostol, commencing at 25mcg once every 2 h for 4 doses and increased to
      50mcg once every 2 h for 8 doses within 24 h. The primary outcomes studied were
      i) the proportion of women delivering within 24 h of oral misoprostol
      administration, and ii) rates of maternal and perinatal severe adverse events.
      RESULTS: Of 6167 labour ward screened admissions, 209 women (3%) fulfilled the
      study inclusion criteria and underwent IOL. Overall, 74% (155/209 [95% confidence
      interval 67.6-79.9]) delivered within 24 h. Most women (90%; 188/209; 95% CI
      [84.9-93.5]) delivered vaginally with 86% (180/209) having a good outcome for
      both the mother and baby. Of the 10% (21/209) who failed IOL and underwent
      caesarean section, a significant proportion of their babies were admitted to
      special-care nursery compared to babies delivered vaginally (20/21 [95%] versus
      8/188 [4%]; Fisher Exact test P < 0.001), but their perinatal mortality rate was
      not significantly higher (1/21 [5%] versus 2/188 [1%]; P = 0.30). The only
      maternal death was not study related and occurred in a patient with post-partum
      haemorrhage, 15 h post-delivery. CONCLUSION: The oral misoprostol regimen for IOL
      described in the present study is safe, effective and logistically feasible to
      administer in a resource-limited setting.

PMID- 28886701
TI  - The loss-of-function disease-mutation G301R in the Na+/K+-ATPase alpha2 isoform
      decreases lesion volume and improves functional outcome after acute spinal cord
      injury in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Na+/K+-ATPases are transmembrane ion pumps important for
      maintenance of ion gradients across the plasma membrane that serve to support
      multiple cellular functions, such as membrane potentials, regulation of cellular
      volume and pH, and co-transport of signaling transmitters in all animal cells.
      The alpha2Na+/K+-ATPase subunit isoform is predominantly expressed in astrocytes,
      which us the sharp Na+-gradient maintained by the sodium pump necessary for
      astroglial metabolism. Prolonged ischemia induces an elevation of [Na+]i,
      decreased ATP levels and intracellular pH owing to anaerobic metabolism and
      lactate accumulation. During ischemia, Na+/K+-ATPase-related functions will
      naturally increase the energy demand of the Na+/K+-ATPase ion pump. However, the
      role of the alpha2Na+/K+-ATPase in contusion injury to the spinal cord remains
      unknown. We used mice heterozygous mice for the loss-of-function disease-mutation
      G301R in the Atp1a2 gene (alpha 2+/G301R ) to study the effect of reduced
      alpha2Na+/K+-ATPase expression in a moderate contusion spinal cord injury (SCI)
      model. RESULTS: We found that alpha 2+/G301R mice display significantly improved
      functional recovery and decreased lesion volume compared to littermate controls
      (alpha 2+/+ ) 7 days after SCI. The protein level of the alpha1 isoform was
      significantly increased, in contrast to the alpha3 isoform that significantly
      decreased 3 days after SCI in both alpha 2+/G301R and alpha 2+/+ mice. The level
      of the alpha2 isoform was significantly decreased in alpha 2+/G301R mice both
      under naive conditions and 3 days after SCI compared to alpha 2+/+ mice. We found
      no differences in astroglial aquaporin 4 levels and no changes in the expression
      of chemokines (CCL2, CCL5 and CXCL1) and cytokines (TNF, IL-6, IL-1beta, IL-10
      and IL-5) between genotypes, just as no apparent differences were observed in
      location and activation of CD45 and F4/80 positive microglia and infiltrating
      leukocytes. CONCLUSION: Our proof of concept study demonstrates that reduced
      expression of the alpha2 isoform in the spinal cord is protective following SCI.
      Importantly, the BMS and lesion volume were assessed at 7 days after SCI, and
      longer time points after SCI were not evaluated. However, the alpha2 isoform is a
      potential possible target of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of SCI.

PMID- 28886703
TI  - Factors associated with foot ulceration and amputation in adults on dialysis: a
      cross-sectional observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adults on dialysis are at increased risk of foot ulceration, which
      commonly precedes more serious lower limb complications, including amputation.
      Limited data exist regarding the prevalence and factors associated with foot
      disease in this population. Hence, this study set out to investigate factors
      associated with foot ulceration and amputation in a dialysis cohort. METHODS:
      This study presents a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a multi
      center prospective cohort study. We recruited 450 adults with end-stage renal
      disease on dialysis from multiple satellite and home-therapy dialysis units in
      Melbourne, Australia from January to December 2014. Data collection consisted of
      a participant interview, medical record review, health-status questionnaire and
      non-invasive foot examination. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to
      evaluate associations between screened variables and study outcomes. RESULTS:
      Mean age was 67.5 (SD, 13.2) years, 64.7% were male, 94% were on hemodialysis,
      median dialysis duration was 36.9 (IQR, 16.6 to 70.1) months, and 50.2% had
      diabetes. There was a high prevalence of previous ulceration (21.6%) and
      amputation (10.2%), 10% had current foot ulceration, and 50% had neuropathy
      and/or peripheral arterial disease. Factors associated with foot ulceration were
      previous amputation (OR, 10.19), peripheral arterial disease (OR, 6.16) and serum
      albumin (OR, 0.87); whereas previous and/or current ulceration (OR, 167.24 and
      7.49, respectively) and foot deformity (OR, 15.28) were associated with
      amputation. CONCLUSIONS: Dialysis patients have a high burden of lower limb
      complications. There are markedly higher risks of foot ulceration and/or
      amputation in those with previous and/or current ulceration, previous amputation,
      peripheral arterial disease, lower serum albumin, and foot deformity. Although
      not a major risk factor, diabetes in men was an important effect modifier for
      risk of ulceration.

PMID- 28886704
TI  - Differentiated transcriptional signatures in the maize landraces of Chiapas,
      Mexico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Landrace farmers are the keepers of crops locally adapted to the
      environments where they are cultivated. Patterns of diversity across the genome
      can provide signals of past evolution in the face of abiotic and biotic change.
      Understanding this rich genetic resource is imperative especially since diversity
      can provide agricultural security as climate continues to shift. RESULTS: Here we
      employ RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to understand the role that conditions that vary
      across a landscape may have played in shaping genetic diversity in the maize
      landraces of Chiapas, Mexico. We collected landraces from three distinct
      elevational zones and planted them in a midland common garden. Early season leaf
      tissue was collected for RNA-seq and we performed weighted gene co-expression
      network analysis (WGCNA). We then used association analysis between landrace co
      expression module expression values and environmental parameters of landrace
      origin to elucidate genes and gene networks potentially shaped by environmental
      factors along our study gradient. Elevation of landrace origin affected the
      transcriptome profiles. Two co-expression modules were highly correlated with
      temperature parameters of landrace origin and queries into their 'hub' genes
      suggested that temperature may have led to differentiation among landraces in
      hormone biosynthesis/signaling and abiotic and biotic stress responses. We
      identified several 'hub' transcription factors and kinases as candidates for the
      regulation of these responses. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that natural
      selection may influence the transcriptomes of crop landraces along an elevational
      gradient in a major diversity center, and provide a foundation for exploring the
      genetic basis of local adaptation. While we cannot rule out the role of neutral
      evolutionary forces in the patterns we have identified, combining whole
      transcriptome sequencing technologies, established bioinformatics techniques, and
      common garden experimentation can powerfully elucidate structure of adaptive
      diversity across a varied landscape. Ultimately, gaining such understanding can
      facilitate the conservation and strategic utilization of crop genetic diversity
      in a time of climate change.

PMID- 28886705
TI  - Cognitive function in very old men does not correlate to biomarkers of
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain displays atrophy with amyloid-beta
      (Abeta) and tau deposition, whereas decreased Abeta42 and increased tau are
      measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The aim of this study was to relate
      cognitive performance to the degree of brain atrophy, CSF biomarker levels and
      neuropathology in a cohort of aged men. METHODS: Fifty-eight 86-92-year-old men
      from the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM) cohort underwent
      cognitive testing, brain computed tomography and lumbar puncture. Atrophy was
      graded with established scales. Concentrations of CSF Abeta42, t-tau and p-tau
      were measured by ELISA. Thirteen brains were examined post mortem. RESULTS: Forty
      six of the individuals were considered non-demented, whereas twelve were
      diagnosed with dementia, either at baseline (n = 4) or during follow-up (n = 8).
      When comparing subjects with and without dementia, there were no differences in
      the degree of atrophy, although the mini mental state examination (MMSE) scoring
      correlated weakly with the degree of medial temporal atrophy (MTA) (p = 0.04).
      Moreover, the CSF biomarker levels did not differ significantly between healthy
      (n = 27) and demented (n = 8) subjects (median values 715 vs 472 pg/ml for
      Abeta42, 414 vs 427 pg/ml for t-tau and 63 vs 60 pg/ml for p-tau). Similarly,
      there were no differences in the biomarker levels between individuals with mild
      (n = 24) and severe (n = 11) MTA (median values 643 vs 715 pg/ml for Abeta42, 441
      vs 401 pg/ml for t-tau and 64 vs 53 pg/ml for p-tau). Finally, the
      neuropathological changes did not correlate with any of the other measures.
      CONCLUSION: In this cohort of aged men only a weak correlation could be seen
      between cognitive performance and MTA, whereas the various neuroradiological,
      biochemical and neuropathological measures did not correlate with each other.
      Thus, AD biomarkers seem to be less informative in subjects of an advanced age.

PMID- 28886706
TI  - Can Randall's plug composed of calcium oxalate form via the free particle
      mechanism?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The likelihood of a Randall's plug composed of calcium oxalate
      monohydrate (COM) forming by the free particle mechanism in a model of kidney
      with a structure recently described by Robertson was examined at the most
      favourable conditions for the considered mechanism. METHODS: The Robertson model
      of the kidney is used in the following development. The classical theory of
      crystallization was used for calculations. RESULTS: Initial COM nuclei were
      assumed to form at the beginning of the ascending loop of Henle where the
      supersaturation with respect to COM has been shown to reach the threshold level
      for spontaneous nucleation. Nucleation proceeds by a heterogeneous mechanism. The
      formed particles are transported in the nephron by a laminar flow of liquid with
      a parabolic velocity profile. Particles travel with a velocity dependent on their
      position in the cross-section of the nephron assumed to be straight tubule with
      smooth walls and without any sharp bends and kinks. These particles move faster
      with time as they grow as a result of being surrounded by the supersaturated
      liquid. Individual COM particles (crystals) can reach maximum diameter of 5.2 *
      10-6 m, i.e. 5.2 MUm, at the opening of the CD and would thus always be washed
      out of the CD into the calyx regardless of the orientation of the CD.
      Agglomeration of COM crystals forms a fractal object with an apparent density
      lower than the density of solid COM. The agglomerate that can block the beginning
      of the CD is composed of more crystals than are available even during
      crystaluria. Moreover the settling velocity of agglomerate blocking the opening
      of the CD is lower than the liquid flow and thus such agglomerate would be washed
      out even from upward-draining CD. CONCLUSIONS: The free particle mechanism may be
      responsible for the formation of a Randall's plug composed by COM only in
      specific infrequent cases such as an abnormal structure of kidney. Majority of
      incidences of Randall's plug development by COM are caused by mechanism different
      from the free particle mechanism.

PMID- 28886708
TI  - Cancer heterogeneity: converting a limitation into a source of biologic
      information.
AB  - Analysis of spatial and temporal genetic heterogeneity in human cancers has
      revealed that somatic cancer evolution in most cancers is not a simple linear
      process composed of a few sequential steps of mutation acquisitions and clonal
      expansions. Parallel evolution has been observed in many early human cancers
      resulting in genetic heterogeneity as well as multilineage progression. Moreover,
      aneuploidy as well as structural chromosomal aberrations seems to be acquired in
      a non-linear, punctuated mode where most aberrations occur at early stages of
      somatic cancer evolution. At later stages, the cancer genomes seem to get
      stabilized and acquire only few additional rearrangements. While parallel
      evolution suggests positive selection of driver mutations at early stages of
      somatic cancer evolution, stabilization of structural aberrations at later stages
      suggests that negative selection takes effect when cancer cells progressively
      lose their tolerance towards additional mutation acquisition. Mixing of
      genetically heterogeneous subclones in cancer samples reduces sensitivity of
      mutation detection. Moreover, driver mutations present only in a fraction of
      cancer cells are more likely to be mistaken for passenger mutations. Therefore,
      genetic heterogeneity may be considered a limitation negatively affecting
      detection sensitivity of driver mutations. On the other hand, identification of
      subclones and subclone lineages in human cancers may lead to a more profound
      understanding of the selective forces which shape somatic cancer evolution in
      human cancers. Identification of parallel evolution by analyzing spatial
      heterogeneity may hint to driver mutations which might represent additional
      therapeutic targets besides driver mutations present in a monoclonal state.
      Likewise, stabilization of cancer genomes which can be identified by analyzing
      temporal genetic heterogeneity might hint to genes and pathways which have become
      essential for survival of cancer cell lineages at later stages of cancer
      evolution. These genes and pathways might also constitute patient specific
      therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28886709
TI  - Improving the production of applied health research findings: insights from a
      qualitative study of operational research.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Knowledge produced through applied health research is often of a form
      not readily accessible to or actionable by policymakers and practitioners, which
      hinders its implementation. Our aim was to identify research activities that can
      support the production of knowledge tailored to inform policy and practice. To do
      this, we studied an operational research approach to improving the production of
      applied health research findings. METHODS: A 2-year qualitative study was
      conducted of the operational research contribution to a multidisciplinary applied
      health research project that was successful in rapidly informing national policy.
      Semi-structured interviews (n = 20) were conducted with all members of the
      project's research team and advisory group (patient and health professional
      representatives and academics). These were augmented by participant (> 150 h) and
      non-participant (> 15 h) observations focusing on the process and experience of
      attempting to support knowledge production. Data were analysed thematically using
      QSR NVivo software. RESULTS: Operational research performed a knowledge mediation
      role shaped by a problem-focused approach and an intent to perform those tasks
      necessary to producing readily implementable knowledge but outwith the remit of
      other disciplinary strands of the project. Three characteristics of the role were
      found to support this: engaging and incorporating different perspectives to
      improve services by capturing a range of health professional and patient views
      alongside quantitative and qualitative research evidence; rendering data
      meaningful by creating and presenting evidence in forms that are accessible to
      and engage different audiences, enabling them to make sense of it for practical
      use; and maintaining perceived objectivity and rigour by establishing
      credibility, perceived neutrality and confidence in the robustness of the
      research in order to unite diverse professionals in thinking creatively about
      system-wide service improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Our study contributes useful
      empirical insights about knowledge mediation activities within multidisciplinary
      applied health research projects that support the generation of accessible,
      practice-relevant and actionable knowledge. Incorporating such activities, or a
      dedicated role, for mediating knowledge production within such projects could
      help to enhance the uptake of research findings into routine healthcare and
      warrants further consideration.

PMID- 28886710
TI  - Travel patterns and demographic characteristics of malaria cases in Swaziland,
      2010-2014.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As Swaziland progresses towards national malaria elimination, the
      importation of parasites into receptive areas becomes increasingly important.
      Imported infections have the potential to instigate local transmission and
      sustain local parasite reservoirs. METHODS: Travel histories from Swaziland's
      routine surveillance data from January 2010 to June 2014 were extracted and
      analysed. The travel patterns and demographics of rapid diagnostic test (RDT)
      confirmed positive cases identified through passive and reactive case detection
      (RACD) were analysed and compared to those found to be negative through RACD.
      RESULTS: Of 1517 confirmed cases identified through passive surveillance, 67%
      reported travel history. A large proportion of positive cases reported domestic
      or international travel history (65%) compared to negative cases (10%). The
      primary risk factor for malaria infection in Swaziland was shown to be travel,
      more specifically international travel to Mozambique by 25- to 44-year old males,
      who spent on average 28 nights away. Maputo City, Inhambane and Gaza districts
      were the most likely travel destinations in Mozambique, and 96% of RDT-positive
      international travellers were either Swazi (52%) or Mozambican (44%) nationals,
      with Swazis being more likely to test negative. All international travellers were
      unlikely to have a bed net at home or use protection of any type while
      travelling. Additionally, paths of transmission, important border crossings and
      means of transport were identified. CONCLUSION: Results from this analysis can be
      used to direct national and well as cross-border targeting of interventions, over
      space, time and by sub-population. The results also highlight that collaboration
      between neighbouring countries is needed to tackle the importation of malaria at
      the regional level.

PMID- 28886707
TI  - Health outcomes of non-nutritive sweeteners: analysis of the research landscape.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Food products containing non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) instead of
      sugar have become increasingly popular in the last decades. Their appeal is
      obviously related to their calorie-free sweet taste. However, with the dramatic
      increase in their consumption, it is reasonable and timely to evaluate their
      potential health benefits and, more importantly, potential adverse effects. The
      main aim of this scoping review was to map the evidence about health outcomes
      possibly associated with regular NNS consumption by examining the extent, range,
      and nature of research activity in this area. METHODS: We systematically searched
      Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane CENTRAL databases for studies on NNSs
      (artificial sweeteners or natural, non-caloric sweeteners, either used
      individually or in combination) using text terms with appropriate truncation and
      relevant indexing terms. All human studies investigating any health outcomes of a
      NNS intervention or exposure were eligible for inclusion. No studies were
      excluded based on language, study design or methodological quality. Data for each
      health outcome were summarized in tabular form and were discussed narratively.
      RESULTS: Finally, we included 372 studies in our scoping review, comprising 15
      systematic reviews, 155 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 23 non-randomized
      controlled trials, 57 cohort studies, 52 case-control studies, 28 cross sectional
      studies and 42 case series/case reports. In healthy subjects, appetite and short
      term food intake, risk of cancer, risk of diabetes, risk of dental caries, weight
      gain and risk of obesity are the most investigated health outcomes. Overall there
      is no conclusive evidence for beneficial and harmful effects on those outcomes.
      Numerous health outcomes including headaches, depression, behavioral and
      cognitive effects, neurological effects, risk of preterm delivery, cardiovascular
      effects or risk of chronic kidney disease were investigated in fewer studies and
      further research is needed. In subjects with diabetes and hypertension, the
      evidence regarding health outcomes of NNS use is also inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS:
      This scoping review identifies the needs for future research to address the
      numerous evidence gaps related to health effects of NNSs use.It also specifies
      the research questions and areas where a systematic review with meta-analyses is
      required for the proper evaluation of health outcomes associated to regular NNSs
      consumption.

PMID- 28886711
TI  - Structure and functional impact of seed region variant in MIR-499 gene family in
      bronchial asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Small non-coding RNAs (microRNAs) have been evolved to master
      numerous cellular processes. Genetic variants within microRNA seed region might
      influence microRNA biogenesis and function. The study aimed at determining the
      role of microRNA-499 (MIR-499) gene family polymorphism as a marker for
      susceptibility and progression of bronchial asthma and to analyze the structural
      and functional impact of rs3746444 within the seed region. METHODS: Genotyping
      for 192 participants (96 patients and 96 controls) in the discovery phase and 319
      subjects (115 patients and 204 controls) in the replication phase was performed
      via Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction technology. Patients underwent the
      methacholine challenge test and biochemical analysis. Gene structural and
      functional analysis, target prediction, annotation clustering, and pathway
      enrichment analysis were executed. Predicted functional effect of rs37464443 SNP
      was analyzed. RESULTS: miR-499 gene family is highly implicated in inflammation
      related signaling pathways. Rs374644 (A > G) in MIR499A and MIR499B within the
      seed region could disrupt target genes and create new genes. The G variant was
      associated with high risk of developing asthma under all genetic association
      models (G versus A: OR = 3.27, 95% CI = 2.53-4.22; GG versus AA: OR = 9.52, 95%
      CI = 5.61-16.5; AG versus AA: OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.24-3.46; GG + AG versus AA:
      OR = 4.43, 95% CI = 2.88-6.82). GG genotype was associated with poor pre
      bronchodilator FEV1 (p = 0.047) and the worst bronchodilator response after
      Salbutamol inhalation, represented in low peaked expiratory flow rate (p =
      0.035). CONCLUSIONS: miR-499 rs3746444 (A > G) polymorphism was associated with
      asthma susceptibility and bronchodilator response in Egyptian children and
      adolescents. Further functional analysis is warranted to develop more specific
      theranostic agents for selecting targeted therapy.

PMID- 28886712
TI  - The effect of alphacypermethrin-treated mesh protection against African horse
      sickness virus vectors on jet stall microclimate, clinical variables and faecal
      glucocorticoid metabolites of horses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: African horse sickness (AHS) is of importance to health and
      international trade in horses worldwide. During export from and transit through
      AHS endemic countries or zones, physical and chemical measures to protect horses
      from the vectors of AHS virus (AHSV) are recommended by the World Organization
      for Animal Health. Protection of containerized air transport systems for horses
      (jet stalls) with alphacypermethrin insecticide-treated high density polyethylene
      mesh is effective in reducing the Culicoides midge vector attack rate. In order
      to determine the effect of this mesh on jet stall ventilation and horse welfare
      under temperate climatic conditions, jet stall microclimate, clinical variables
      and faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) levels of 12 horses were monitored
      during overnight housing in either a treated or untreated stall in two blocks of
      a 2 * 3 randomized crossover design. RESULTS: Temperature difference between the
      treated stall and outside was significantly higher than the difference between
      the untreated stall and outside at 1/15 time points only (P = 0.045, r = 0.70).
      Relative humidity (RH) difference between the treated stall and outside did not
      differ from the untreated stall and outside. Temperature and RH in the treated
      stall were highly and significantly correlated with outside temperature (r =
      0.96, P < 0.001) and RH (r = 0.95, P < 0.001), respectively. No significant
      differences were detected between rectal temperatures, pulse and respiratory
      rates of horses in the treated stall compared to the untreated stall. Mean FGM
      concentrations for horses housed in the treated stall peaked earlier (24 h) and
      at a higher concentration than horses housed in the untreated stall (48 h), but
      were not significantly different from baseline. No significant difference was
      detected in FGM concentrations when the treated and untreated stall groups were
      compared at individual time points up to 72 h after exiting the jet stall.
      CONCLUSIONS: Alphacypermethrin-treated HDPE mesh could be used under temperate
      climatic conditions to protect horses in jet stalls against AHSV vectors, without
      compromising jet stall microclimate and horse welfare.

PMID- 28886713
TI  - Increased activated regulatory T cells proportion correlate with the severity of
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are crucial in maintaining immune
      tolerance and immune homeostasis, but their role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
      (IPF) is unclear. This study was designed to explore the role of Tregs in IPF.
      METHODS: Percentages of Tregs and their subpopulations in peripheral blood (PB)
      and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples were determined by flow cytometry in 29
      patients with IPF, 19 patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome-related
      interstitial pneumonia (pSS-IP), and 23 healthy controls (HCs). RESULTS: In
      peripheral blood, no difference was found in CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Treg percentages
      among patients with IPF, pSS-IP, or HCs. However, activated Treg (aTreg)
      fractions among CD4+ T cells increased significantly in IPF compared with pSS-IP
      or HCs. Being consistent with the result from the PB, aTreg fractions among CD4+
      T cells in IPF also increased significantly compared with pSS-IP or HCs,
      accompanied by increased fraction III compared with HCs in BAL. IPF patients had
      lower levels of resting Tregs (rTregs) from the thymus than did HCs, whereas
      aTreg levels originating from the thymus did not significantly differ from HCs.
      Both rTregs and aTregs proliferated in IPF, with aTregs being more proliferative
      than rTregs. Both rTregs and aTregs significantly inhibited proliferation of CD4+
      T lymphocytes in vitro. The percentage of aTregs was correlated negatively with
      predicted diffusing capacity values for carbon monoxide and positively with GAP
      index in IPF. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed the imbalance between subpopulations
      of Tregs in IPF. Increased aTregs proportion in the peripheral blood correlated
      inversely with disease severity.

PMID- 28886714
TI  - The oxylipin and endocannabidome responses in acute phase Plasmodium falciparum
      malaria in children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oxylipins and endocannabinoids are low molecular weight bioactive
      lipids that are crucial for initiation and resolution of inflammation during
      microbial infections. Metabolic complications in malaria are recognized
      contributors to severe and fatal malaria, but the impact of malaria infection on
      the production of small lipid derived signalling molecules is unknown. Knowledge
      of immunoregulatory patterns of these molecules in malaria is of great value for
      better understanding of the disease and improvement of treatment regimes, since
      the action of these classes of molecules is directly connected to the
      inflammatory response of the organism. METHODS: Detection of oxylipins and
      endocannabinoids from plasma samples from forty children with uncomplicated and
      severe malaria as well as twenty controls was done after solid phase extraction
      followed by chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. The stable isotope
      dilution method was used for compound quantification. Data analysis was done with
      multivariate (principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal partial least
      squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA(r)) and univariate approaches (receiver
      operating characteristic (ROC) curves, t tests, correlation analysis). RESULTS:
      Forty different oxylipin and thirteen endocannabinoid metabolites were detected
      in the studied samples, with one oxylipin (thromboxane B2, TXB2) in significantly
      lower levels and four endocannabinoids (OEA, PEA, DEA and EPEA) at significantly
      higher levels in infected individuals as compared to controls according to t test
      analysis with Bonferroni correction. Three oxylipins (13-HODE, 9-HODE and 13-oxo
      ODE) were higher in severe compared to uncomplicated malaria cases according to
      the results from multivariate analysis. Observed changes in oxylipin levels can
      be connected to activation of cytochrome P450 (CYP) and 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX)
      metabolic pathways in malaria infected individuals compared to controls, and
      related to increased levels of all linoleic acid oxylipins in severe patients
      compared to uncomplicated ones. The endocannabinoids were extremely responsive to
      malaria infection with majority of this class of molecules found at higher levels
      in infected individuals compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: It was possible to
      detect oxylipin and endocannabinoid molecules that can be potential biomarkers
      for differentiation between malaria infected individuals and controls and between
      different classes of malaria. Metabolic pathways that could be targeted towards
      an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of malaria were also pinpointed.

PMID- 28886716
TI  - Intralobar pulmonary sequestration displayed as localized emphysema on computed
      tomography image.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pulmonary sequestration is a relatively rare condition in which a
      systemic artery supplies blood to an abnormal lung tissue and the normal
      connection with the bronchial tree is absent. It can be displayed as various
      signs on the computed tomography image, but emphysema is extremely rare. CASE
      PRESENTATION: We describe the case of a 35-year-old man with intralobar pulmonary
      sequestration that appeared as localized emphysema on the computed tomography
      image. The 3-D reconstruction revealed the presence of an anomalous feeding
      artery and the absence of normal connection with the bronchial tree. CONCLUSION:
      We presumed that it was a type between "anomalous systemic arterial supply to the
      normal lung" and the common type of pulmonary sequestration. Common pulmonary
      lobectomy was performed and the patient recovered well.

PMID- 28886715
TI  - Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma: potential molecular therapeutic
      target for HIV-1-associated brain inflammation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the use of combination antiretroviral therapy for the
      treatment of HIV-1 infection, cognitive impairments remain prevalent due to
      persistent viral replication and associated brain inflammation. Primary cellular
      targets of HIV-1 in the brain are macrophages, microglia, and to a certain extent
      astrocytes which in response to infection release inflammatory markers, viral
      proteins [i.e., glycoprotein 120 (gp120)] and exhibit impaired glutamate uptake.
      Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are members of the nuclear
      receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors. Compelling
      evidence suggests that PPARgamma exerts anti-inflammatory properties in
      neurological disorders. The goal of this study was to examine the role of
      PPARgamma in the context of HIV-1ADA gp120-induced inflammation in vitro, in
      primary cultures of rat astrocytes and microglia, and in vivo, in a rodent model
      of HIV-1ADA gp120-associated brain inflammation. METHODS: Primary mixed cultures
      of rat astrocytes and microglia were treated with PPARgamma agonists
      (rosiglitazone or pioglitazone) and exposed to HIV-1ADA gp120. Inflammatory
      cytokines and indicator of oxidative stress response (TNFalpha, IL-1beta, iNOS)
      were measured using qPCR, and glutamate transporter (GLT-1) was quantified by
      immunoblotting. In vivo, rats were administered an intracerebroventricular
      injection of HIV-1ADA gp120 and an intraperitoneal injection of PPARgamma agonist
      (rosiglitazone) or co-administration with PPARgamma antagonist (GW9662). qPCR and
      immunoblotting analyses were applied to measure inflammatory markers, GLT-1 and
      PPARgamma. RESULTS: In primary mixed cultures of rat astrocytes and microglia,
      HIV-1ADA gp120 exposure resulted in a significant elevation of inflammatory
      markers and a decrease in GLT-1 expression which were significantly attenuated
      with rosiglitazone or pioglitazone treatment. Similarly, in vivo, treatment with
      rosiglitazone reversed the gp120-mediated inflammatory response and
      downregulation of GLT-1. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the anti-inflammatory
      effects of PPARgamma agonist rosiglitazone were mediated through inhibition of NF
      kappaB. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that gp120 can induce an inflammatory
      response and decrease expression of GLT-1 in the brain in vitro and in vivo. We
      have also successfully shown that these effects can be reversed by treatment with
      PPARgamma agonists, rosiglitazone or pioglitazone. Together our data suggest that
      targeting PPARgamma signaling may provide an option for preventing/treating HIV
      associated brain inflammation.

PMID- 28886717
TI  - The association between dietary protein intake and colorectal cancer risk: a meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Association between dietary protein intake and colorectal cancer risk
      has not been fully quantified, while the results were controversial. This study
      aimed to evaluate the role of protein intake in the development of colorectal
      cancer. METHODS: PUBMED and EMBASE were searched up to December 2016. Two
      independent reviewers independently extracted data from eligible studies.
      Relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was pooled using random
      effects model to estimate the result. Besides, publication bias and sensitivity
      analysis were conducted. RESULTS: Thirteen articles involving 21 studies
      comprising 8187 cases were included in this report. The pooled RR of colorectal
      cancer was 1.006 (95% CI = 0.857-1.179) indicating that there is no significant
      association between dietary protein intake and colorectal cancer risk.
      Furthermore, the pooled RRs for colon cancer and rectum cancer were 1.135(95% CI
      = 0.871-1.480) and 0.773(95% CI = 0.538-1.111), respectively, with the highest
      category of dietary protein intake. The association was not significant either in
      subgroup analysis of study design, protein type (animal protein or vegetable
      protein), sex, and or geographic locations. CONCLUSIONS: The present study
      indicated that the highest category compared to the lowest category of protein
      intake had no significant association on colorectal cancer risk. Dose-response
      analysis was not conducted due to limited information provided. Therefore, more
      studies with large cases and participants as well as detailed amounts of dietary
      protein intake are wanted to confirm this result.

PMID- 28886718
TI  - Repositioning drugs for traumatic brain injury - N-acetyl cysteine and
      Phenserine.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and
      mortality of both young adults of less than 45 years of age and the elderly, and
      contributes to about 30% of all injury deaths in the United States of America.
      Whereas there has been a significant improvement in our understanding of the
      mechanism that underpin the primary and secondary stages of damage associated
      with a TBI incident, to date however, this knowledge has not translated into the
      development of effective new pharmacological TBI treatment strategies. Prior
      experimental and clinical studies of drugs working via a single mechanism only
      may have failed to address the full range of pathologies that lead to the
      neuronal loss and cognitive impairment evident in TBI and other disorders. The
      present review focuses on two drugs with the potential to benefit multiple
      pathways considered important in TBI. Notably, both agents have already been
      developed into human studies for other conditions, and thus have the potential to
      be rapidly repositioned as TBI therapies. The first is N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)
      that is currently used in over the counter medications for its anti-inflammatory
      properties. The second is (-)-phenserine ((-)-Phen) that was originally developed
      as an experimental Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug. We briefly review background
      information about TBI and subsequently review literature suggesting that NAC and
      (-)-Phen may be useful therapeutic approaches for TBI, for which there are no
      currently approved drugs.

PMID- 28886719
TI  - Self-reported eating rate is associated with weight status in a Dutch population:
      a validation study and a cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Observational studies performed in Asian populations suggest that
      eating rate is related to BMI. This paper investigates the association between
      self-reported eating rate (SRER) and body mass index (BMI) in a Dutch population,
      after having validated SRER against actual eating rate. METHODS: Two studies were
      performed; a validation and a cross-sectional study. In the validation study SRER
      (i.e., 'slow', 'average', or 'fast') was obtained from 57 participants (men/women
      = 16/41, age: mean +/- SD = 22.6 +/- 2.8 yrs., BMI: mean +/- SD = 22.1 +/- 2.8
      kg/m2) and in these participants actual eating rate was measured for three food
      products. Using analysis of variance the association between SRER and actual
      eating rate was studied. The association between SRER and BMI was investigated in
      cross-sectional data from the NQplus cohort (i.e., 1473 Dutch adults; men/women =
      741/732, age: mean +/- SD = 54.6 +/- 11.7 yrs., BMI: mean +/- SD = 25.9 +/- 4.0
      kg/m2) using (multiple) linear regression analysis. RESULTS: In the validation
      study actual eating rate increased proportionally with SRER (for all three food
      products P < 0.01). In the cross-sectional study SRER was positively associated
      with BMI in both men and women (P = 0.03 and P < 0.001, respectively). Self
      reported fast-eating women had a 1.13 kg/m2 (95% CI 0.43, 1.84) higher BMI
      compared to average-speed-eating women, after adjusting for confounders. This was
      not the case in men; self-reported fast-eating men had a 0.29 kg/m2 (95% CI 
      0.22, 0.80) higher BMI compared to average-speed-eating men, after adjusting for
      confounders. CONCLUSIONS: These studies show that self-reported eating rate
      reflects actual eating rate on a group-level, and that a high self-reported
      eating rate is associated with a higher BMI in this Dutch population.

PMID- 28886720
TI  - Development of an electrooculogram-based eye-computer interface for communication
      of individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Electrooculogram (EOG) can be used to continuously track eye
      movements and can thus be considered as an alternative to conventional camera
      based eye trackers. Although many EOG-based eye tracking systems have been
      studied with the ultimate goal of providing a new way of communication for
      individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), most of them were tested
      with healthy people only. In this paper, we investigated the feasibility of EOG
      based eye-writing as a new mode of communication for individuals with ALS.
      METHODS: We developed an EOG-based eye-writing system and tested this system with
      18 healthy participants and three participants with ALS. We also applied a new
      method for removing crosstalk between horizontal and vertical EOG components. All
      study participants were asked to eye-write specially designed patterns of 10
      Arabic numbers three times after a short practice session. RESULTS: Our system
      achieved a mean recognition rates of 95.93% for healthy participants and showed
      recognition rates of 95.00%, 66.67%, and 93.33% for the three participants with
      ALS. The low recognition rates in one of the participants with ALS was mainly due
      to miswritten letters, the number of which decreased as the experiment proceeded.
      CONCLUSION: Our proposed eye-writing system is a feasible human-computer
      interface (HCI) tool for enabling practical communication of individuals with
      ALS.

PMID- 28886721
TI  - Sex and gender considerations in transplantation research: protocol for a scoping
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite the growing appreciation of the importance of sex and gender
      considerations in transplantation research, there is currently no framework or
      good practice guidelines for the appropriate handling of sex and gender issues in
      human allotransplantation research. METHODS: We will conduct a scoping review to
      synthesize the evidence on how matters of sex and gender have been handled in
      human allotransplantation research. We will survey the literature discussing sex
      and gender in relation to transplantation, including adult and pediatric
      patients, hematopoietic and solid organ transplant recipients as well as organ
      donors. We will search MEDLINE and Embase for literature discussing sex and
      gender in relation to transplantation. Two reviewers will independently evaluate
      the eligibility of all identified titles and abstracts for inclusion in the full
      text review, as well as data extraction. Descriptive data and information on how
      sex and gender have been considered in human transplantation research will be
      reported. DISCUSSION: This scoping review will be an important stepping stone
      towards the development of good practice guidelines on study design and analysis
      considerations when handling sex and gender issues in human transplantation
      research. This scoping review can also help identify methodological issues that
      restrict the translation of transplantation research findings into clinical
      practice related to underestimation of sex/gender differences. This review will
      ultimately identify major gaps, inform donor-recipient selection, guide
      personalized interventions, and prioritize research recommendations in human
      transplantation research.

PMID- 28886722
TI  - Tridax procumbens flavonoids: a prospective bioactive compound increased
      osteoblast differentiation and trabecular bone formation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Tridax procumbens extracts (TPE) are known for their ethno
      medicinal properties to increase osteogenic functioning in mesenchymal stem
      cells. Recently, we found that the T. procumbens flavonoids (TPF) significantly
      suppressed the RANKL-induced osteoclasts differentiation and bone resorption. The
      TPF also promoted osteoblasts differentiation and bone formation demonstrated by
      increasing bone formation markers in cultured mouse primary osteoblasts. However,
      the effects of the TPF on in vivo bone formation remain unclear. In this study,
      we investigated the effects of the TPF on in vivo bone formation, injected the
      TPF (20 mg/kg) twice a day in the low calcium diet mice and killed them after 21
      day. Radiographic and histomorphometric analyses were performed on the dissected
      bones to determine the anabolic effects of the TPF. RESULTS: Bone mineral density
      and bone mineral content of the TPF-treated mice were significantly increased
      compared to the control mice. Bone formation-related indices like osteoblast
      number, osteoblast surface, bone volume, mineralizing surface, mineral apposition
      rate and bone formation rate were significantly increased in the TPF-treated mice
      compared to the control mice. CONCLUSION: Our findings point towards the
      stimulation of bone formation by TPF, suggested that the TPF could be a potential
      natural anabolic agent to treat patients with bone loss-associated diseases such
      as osteoporosis.

PMID- 28886723
TI  - Pancreatic injury in children: a case report and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Trauma is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in the pediatric
      population. Blunt trauma to the abdomen accounts for the majority of abdominal
      injuries in children. Pancreatic injury, although uncommon (2 to 9%), is the
      fourth most common solid organ injury. Unlike other solid organ injuries,
      pancreatic trauma may be subtle and difficult to diagnose. Computed tomography
      currently is the imaging modality of choice. As the incidence of pancreatic
      injury in children sustaining blunt abdominal trauma is low, management remains a
      challenge. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a 7-year-old Bahraini boy who sustained
      blunt trauma to his abdomen. He presented with abdominal pain and vomiting. His
      examination revealed abdominal distension and an epigastric bruise. Contrast
      enhanced computed tomography reported grade III liver injury, grade I bilateral
      renal injury, a suspicion of splenic injury, and a grade III to IV pancreatic
      injury. He was admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and was treated
      conservatively. Because he was stable, he was discharged to the surgical ward at
      day 3. At day 18 he developed a pancreatic pseudocyst that was aspirated and
      recurred at day 25 when a pigtail catheter was inserted. He was kept on total
      parenteral nutrition through a peripherally inserted central catheter. The
      pigtail catheter was removed on day 36 and a low fat diet was started by day 44.
      He was discharged home at day 55 in good health. Out-patient follow-up and serial
      abdominal ultrasound showed resolution of the cyst and normalization of blood
      tests. CONCLUSION: Non-operative management of pancreatic injury is effective and
      safe in hemodynamically stable patients with no other indication for surgery.

PMID- 28886724
TI  - Composition of Anopheles mosquitoes, their blood-meal hosts, and Plasmodium
      falciparum infection rates in three islands with disparate bed net coverage in
      Lake Victoria, Kenya.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Small islands serve as potential malaria reservoirs through which new
      infections might come to the mainland and may be important targets in malaria
      elimination efforts. This study investigated malaria vector species diversity,
      blood-meal hosts, Plasmodium infection rates, and long-lasting insecticidal net
      (LLIN) coverage on Mageta, Magare and Ngodhe Islands of Lake Victoria in western
      Kenya, a region where extensive vector control is implemented on the mainland.
      RESULTS: From trapping for six consecutive nights per month (November 2012 to
      March 2015) using CDC light traps, pyrethrum spray catches and backpack
      aspiration, 1868 Anopheles mosquitoes were collected. Based on their cytochrome
      oxidase I (COI) and intergenic spacer region PCR and sequencing, Anopheles
      gambiae s.l. (68.52%), Anopheles coustani (19.81%) and Anopheles funestus s.l.
      (11.67%) mosquitoes were differentiated. The mean abundance of Anopheles
      mosquitoes per building per trap was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in Mageta
      than in Magare and Ngodhe. Mageta was also the most populated island (n = 6487)
      with low LLIN coverage of 62.35% compared to Ngodhe (n = 484; 88.31%) and Magare
      (n = 250; 98.59%). Overall, 416 (22.27%) engorged Anopheles mosquitoes were
      analysed, of which 41 tested positive for Plasmodium falciparum infection by high
      resolution melting (HRM) analysis of 18S rRNA and cytochrome b PCR products.
      Plasmodium falciparum infection rates were 10.00, 11.76, 0, and 18.75% among
      blood-fed An. gambiae s.s. (n = 320), Anopheles arabiensis (n = 51), An. funestus
      s.s. (n = 29), and An. coustani (n = 16), respectively. Based on HRM analysis of
      vertebrate cytochrome b, 16S rRNA and COI PCR products, humans (72.36%) were the
      prominent blood-meal hosts of malaria vectors, but 20.91% of blood-meals were
      from non-human vertebrate hosts. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate high
      Plasmodium infection rates among the primary malaria vectors An. gambiae s.s. and
      An. arabiensis, as well as in An. coustani for the first time in the region, and
      that non-human blood-meal sources play an important role in their ecology.
      Further, the higher Anopheles mosquito abundances on the only low LLIN coverage
      island of Mageta suggests that high LLIN coverage has been effective in reducing
      malaria vector populations on Magare and Ngodhe Islands.

PMID- 28886726
TI  - Overviews of systematic reviews: great promise, greater challenge.
AB  - The proliferation of systematic reviews and escalating demand from policy makers
      has driven a newer form of evidence synthesis-overviews of systematic reviews.
      Systematic Reviews are publishing a special thematic series on overviews and are
      encouraging submissions on the development and evaluation of methods for this
      review type. The authors' of this editorial introduce the series by considering
      challenges that arise when conducting an overview and what methods guidance is
      available. They emphasise the importance of evaluating overview methods to
      understand the trade-offs of using different approaches and propose that a more
      systematic and coordinated approach to methods development would be beneficial.
      Finally, they consider the potential for overviews to drive improvements in the
      conduct and reporting of systematic reviews.

PMID- 28886725
TI  - Is it a supplementary benefit to use anti-inflammatory agents in the treatment of
      type 2 diabetes?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate an independent correlation
      between high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and glycated haemoglobin
      (HbA1c) on one side and between hs-CRP and arterial pressure in well glucose
      controlled type 2 diabetics on the other side. RESULTS: The mean of HbA1c was
      6.37% in this study and 70.10% of participants had an HbA1c less than 7%. A
      positive correlation between hs-CRP and HbA1c was found in the current study (r =
      0.232; P = 0.043) and we observed a decrease of 0.79% of HbA1c of the
      participants when their hs-CRP was less than 1 mg/l compared to that of the
      participants who had hs-CRP more than 1 mg/l (5.75 +/- 1.25% VS 6.54 +/- 1.42% P
      value = 0.04 Student). No correlation was found between hs-CRP and arterial
      pressure in this study. These results could justify the perspective use of anti
      inflammatory drugs in the management of T2D. However the presence of participants
      with HbA1c levels greater than 7% makes plausible the influence of confounding
      factors on the observed correlations.

PMID- 28886727
TI  - Antibody responses to P. falciparum blood stage antigens and incidence of
      clinical malaria in children living in endemic area in Burkina Faso.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High parasite-specific antibody levels are generally associated with
      low susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. This has been supported by
      several studies in which clinical malaria cases of P. falciparum malaria were
      reported to be associated with low antibody avidities. This study was conducted
      to evaluate the role of age, malaria transmission intensity and incidence of
      clinical malaria in the induction of protective humoral immune response against
      P. falciparum malaria in children living in Burkina Faso. METHODS: We combined
      levels of IgG and IgG subclasses responses to P. falciparum antigens: Merozoite
      Surface Protein 3 (MSP3), Merozoite Surface Protein 2a (MSP2a), Merozoite Surface
      Protein 2b (MSP2b), Glutamate Rich Protein R0 (GLURP R0) and Glutamate Rich
      Protein R2 (GLURP R2) in plasma samples from 325 children under five (05) years
      with age, malaria transmission season and malaria incidence. RESULTS: We notice
      higher prevalence of P. falciparum infection in low transmission season compared
      to high malaria transmission season. While, parasite density was lower in low
      transmission than high transmission season. IgG against all antigens investigated
      increased with age. High levels of IgG and IgG subclasses to all tested antigens
      except for GLURP R2 were associated with the intensity of malaria transmission.
      IgG to MSP3, MSP2b, GLURP R2 and GLURP R0 were associated with low incidence of
      malaria. All IgG subclasses were associated with low incidence of P. falciparum
      malaria, but these associations were stronger for cytophilic IgGs. CONCLUSIONS:
      On the basis of the data presented in this study, we conclude that the induction
      of humoral immune response to tested malaria antigens is related to age,
      transmission season level and incidence of clinical malaria.

PMID- 28886728
TI  - Correlation of cord blood telomere length with birth weight.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intrauterine growth restriction affects 3% of newborns; and the
      lightest 10% of whom are classified as small for gestational age (SGA). These low
      birth weight newborns are at increased risk of neonatal morbidity such as hypoxia
      and hypoglycaemia. In later life, they are at higher risk of several age-related
      diseases such as cardiovascular and metabolic disorders and dementia. As having
      short telomeres is also associated with these diseases, we tested if these
      newborns might already start with shorter telomeres at birth. FINDINGS: Relative
      telomere lengths were determined using quantitative real-time PCR in cord blood
      samples from 195 newborns of Chinese ancestry. Based on the telomere length
      normalised to a single copy gene and a reference DNA sample as internal control,
      we found statistically significant correlations between relative telomere length
      and both unadjusted and gestational age-adjusted birth weight, with the lighter
      newborns having shorter telomeres. The SGA birth weight group comprising the
      bottom 10% of the samples also had the shortest telomeres compared to the medium
      and heaviest birth weight groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that there is
      reduction of cord blood telomere length for newborns with lower birth weight.

PMID- 28886729
TI  - Evaluation of Xpert MTB/RIF testing for rapid diagnosis of childhood pulmonary
      tuberculosis in children by Xpert MTB/RIF testing of stool samples in a low
      resource setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Children with tuberculosis (TB) remain underdiagnosed due to
      difficulty in testing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. We
      evaluated the Xpert MTB/RIF assay for respiratory and stool testing in children
      for pulmonary TB through a cross-sectional study at tertiary care facilities in
      Karachi, Pakistan. Fifty children aged 0-15 years screened by a modified Kenneth
      Jones (KJ) score were included. Mycobacterial culture of respiratory samples was
      the microbiological standard against stool Xpert TB results. All positive TB
      cases were compared against a treatment response standard (TRS). RESULTS: Twelve
      study subjects were diagnosed by Xpert TB and nine by MTB culture. Compared with
      culture [gastric aspirates (GA)/sputum (spm)], stool Xpert TB had a sensitivity
      of 88.9% (95% CI 50.7-99.4) and a specificity of 95% (95% CI 81.8-99.1). Xpert TB
      stool versus GA/spm had sensitivity of 81.8% (95% CI 47.8-96.8) and specificity
      of 94.7% (95% CI 84.6-99.9). We found good agreement (kappa scores of >0.8)
      between stool Xpert, GA/spm Xpert and GA/spm culture. Stool Xpert PPV and NPV
      against TRS was 100 and 82.1% respectively. Stool Xpert TB is a relatively easy
      option for diagnosis for pulmonary childhood TB in a high burden low-resource
      setting.

PMID- 28886730
TI  - Annexin A2 contributes to cisplatin resistance by activation of JNK-p53 pathway
      in non-small cell lung cancer cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Development of resistance to therapy continues to be a serious
      clinical problem in lung cancer management. We previously identified that Annexin
      A2 is significantly up-regulated in cisplatin-resistant non-small cell lung
      cancer (NSCLC) A549/DDP cells. However, the exact function and molecular
      mechanism of Annexin A2 in cisplatin resistance of NSCLCs has not been
      determined. METHODS: Western blot and qRT-PCR were performed to analyze the
      protein and mRNA level of indicated molecules, respectively. Immunohistochemistry
      was performed to analyze the expression of Annexin A2 in NSCLC tissue samples.
      MTS assay, Colony formation assays, AnnexinV/PI apoptosis assay, Luciferase
      Reporter Assay, Chromatin-immunoprecipitation, and nude mice xenograft assay were
      used to visualize the function of Annexin A2 on cisplatin resistance. RESULTS:
      Our results demonstrated that knockdown of Annexin A2 increased cisplatin
      sensitivity of cisplatin-resistant A549/DDP cells both in vitro and in vivo,
      whereas overexpression of Annexin A2 increased cisplatin resistance of A549, H460
      and H1650 cells. Moreover, we found that Annexin A2 enhanced cisplatin resistance
      via inhibition of cisplatin-induced cell apoptosis. Our studies showed that
      Annexin A2 suppressed the expression of p53 through activation of JNK/c-Jun
      signaling, which in turn resulted in a decrease in the expression of p53
      regulated apoptotic genes p21, GADD45 and BAX, as well as p53-dependent cell
      apoptosis. Furthermore, we found that in NSCLC cases that Annexin A2 is highly
      expressed; it is positively correlated with a poor prognosis, as well as
      correlated with short disease-free survival for patients who received
      chemotherapy after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggested that Annexin A2
      induces cisplatin resistance of NSCLCs via regulation of JNK/c-Jun/p53 signaling,
      and provided an evidence that blockade of Annexin A2 could serve as a novel
      therapeutic approach for overcoming drug resistance in NSCLCs.

PMID- 28886731
TI  - Effects of bacitracin methylene disalicylate and diet change on gastrointestinal
      integrity and endotoxin permeability in the duodenum of broiler chicken.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of bacitracin methylene disalicylate (BMD) and
      feed changes on gastrointestinal integrity, endotoxin permeability, and
      morphometric parameters in the duodenum of broilers. RESULTS: Birds were raised
      on a starter diet without growth promoting antibiotics for 31 days then switched
      to a grower diet. Four of the pens including 50 g/ton of BMD while 4 pens
      remained antibiotic free. Eight birds per treatment were sampled prior to the
      feed change and at 3 and 7 days following the feed change. Gastrointestinal
      integrity and endotoxin permeability in the duodenum were determined using a
      modified Ussing Chamber and an adjacent section fixed in 10% formalin for
      morphometric analysis. Data were analyzed using Proc Glimmix of SAS with the
      model fitting BMD treatment, time, and the interaction of BMD treatment and time
      as fixed effects. Intestinal integrity increased at d 3 and 7 compared to prior
      to the feed change and addition of BMD (P > 0.001) and villus height was
      decreased with BMD supplementation (P = 0.049). All other tested effects similar
      (P > 0.1). In conclusion, the practice of changing feed had a greater effect on
      intestinal health than addition of BMD. However, the factors driving these
      differences 42 are unclear.

PMID- 28886732
TI  - Optimized protocol for whole organ decellularization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The idea of tissue decellularization to gain matrices for tissue
      engineering is promising. The aim of the present study is to establish a safe and
      reproducible protocol for solid tissue decellularization that prevents the
      architecture of the matrix with the inherent vascular network. METHODS: The study
      was performed in rat kidneys which were decellularized by a SDS-based perfusion
      protocol. Perfusion time and SDS concentration were systematically changed to
      obtain the shortest and most gentle protocol that leads to complete
      decellularization. RESULTS: We investigated kinetics of protein elution,
      decellularization success, and remaining cell toxicity. This resulted in a
      reproducible protocol, leading to safe decellularization with prevention of the
      inherent vascular network, without remaining detectable cell toxicity. The
      established protocol leads to solid tissue decellularization in only 7 h, which
      is by far shorter than the previously published methods. CONCLUSION: The
      established technique has the potential to become a relevant platform technology
      for tissue engineering of solid tissues. It provides a solution for the yet
      unsolved problem of vascularization.

PMID- 28886734
TI  - Promoting physical activity in worksite settings: results of a German pilot study
      of the online intervention Healingo fit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Worldwide, one third of the adult population is insufficiently
      physically active. This fact has led to a strong demand for public health
      initiatives. Given the mixed evidence on the effectiveness of worksite
      interventions promoting physical activity (PA), a pedometer-based and gamified
      intervention, Healingo Fit, was developed and evaluated over a period of six
      weeks. METHODS: The effectiveness of Healingo Fit was evaluated as part of a
      randomized controlled trial (RCT) with two measurement points involving employees
      of an automobile manufacturer. Direct health promotion outcomes were assessed
      using self-developed items on PA knowledge, the HAPA brief scales and the
      exercise self-efficacy scale. IPAQ short version was used to assess different
      forms of PA behavior. Intervention effects were identified using a two-way
      analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements. RESULTS: A total of 144
      participants took part in the study (intervention group = 80, control group =
      64). The results of the ANOVA show significant interaction effects (group x time)
      for health promotion outcomes (knowledge, intention, and self-efficacy), with
      medium to high effect sizes. In the health behavior related outcomes, there were
      significant improvements, with large effect sizes for low levels of PA, but not
      for moderate and high PA. Walking time increased by 125 min/week in the
      intervention group, corresponding to a percentage increase of 30% compared to
      baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Pedometer-based interventions using gamification elements
      can have positive effects not only on health promotion parameters but can also
      lead to an increase in PA behavior. The online format of Healingo Fit is suitable
      for reaching large numbers of people and achieving population effects. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS): DRKS00006105 , date of
      registration: 2017-03-24.

PMID- 28886733
TI  - Radix Puerariae and Fructus Crataegi mixture inhibits renal injury in type 2
      diabetes via decreasing of AKT/PI3K.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radix puerariae (RP) is a herbal medicines for diabetes, mainly
      because of anti-oxidative, insulin resistance and hypoglycemic effect. Fructus
      crataegi (FC) also possesses strong antioxidant activity in vitro. This study
      focused on the effects of herbal mixture of RP and FC (RPFC) on renal protection
      through a diabetic rat model. METHODS: Type 2 Diabetic model was established with
      high fat diet followed by injecting rats a low dose of STZ (25 mg/kg body
      weight). Rats were randomly divided into five groups: normal, high fat diet,
      diabetes mellitus, high fat diet plus RPFC prevention, and RPFC prevention before
      diabetes mellitus. RPFC was given to rats daily by intragastric gavage. The blood
      bio-chemical index and renal pathological changes were examined. The later
      includes hematoxylin and eosin staining, periodic acid schiff staining, and
      Masson trichrome staining. Protein levels of were determined by Western blot and
      immunohistochemical staining. mRNA levels were detected by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Rats
      prevented with RPFC resulted in decreasing blood glucose with corresponding
      vehicle treated rats. Glomerulus mesangial matrix expansion, renal capsule
      constriction, and renal tubular epithelial cell edema were less severe following
      RPFC prevention. Moreover, RPFC prevention reduced protein levels of PI3K, AKT,
      alpha-SMA and collagen IV in the kidney of diabetic rats. CONCLUSION: Combined
      prevention with RPFC may inhibit the PI3K/AKT pathway in the kidney, thereby
      prevent renal injury in diabetic rats.

PMID- 28886735
TI  - Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) 9:
      conceptualising disinvestment in the local healthcare setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This is the ninth in a series of papers reporting a program of
      Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) in a
      local healthcare setting. The disinvestment literature has broadened considerably
      over the past decade; however there is a significant gap regarding systematic,
      integrated, organisation-wide approaches. This debate paper presents a discussion
      of the conceptual aspects of disinvestment from the local perspective.
      DISCUSSION: Four themes are discussed: Terminology and concepts, Motivation and
      purpose, Relationships with other healthcare improvement paradigms, and
      Challenges to disinvestment. There are multiple definitions for disinvestment,
      multiple concepts underpin the definitions and multiple alternative terms convey
      these concepts; some definitions overlap and some are mutually exclusive; and
      there are systematic discrepancies in use between the research and practice
      settings. Many authors suggest that the term 'disinvestment' should be avoided
      due to perceived negative connotations and propose that the concept be considered
      alongside investment in the context of all resource allocation decisions and
      approached from the perspective of optimising health care. This may provide
      motivation for change, reduce disincentives and avoid some of the ethical
      dilemmas inherent in other disinvestment approaches. The impetus and rationale
      for disinvestment activities are likely to affect all aspects of the process from
      identification and prioritisation through to implementation and evaluation but
      have not been widely discussed. A need for mechanisms, frameworks, methods and
      tools for disinvestment is reported. However there are several health improvement
      paradigms with mature frameworks and validated methods and tools that are widely
      used and well-accepted in local health services that already undertake
      disinvestment-type activities and could be expanded and built upon. The nature of
      disinvestment brings some particular challenges for policy-makers, managers,
      health professionals and researchers. There is little evidence of successful
      implementation of 'disinvestment' projects in the local setting, however
      initiatives to remove or replace technologies and practices have been
      successfully achieved through evidence-based practice, quality and safety
      activities, and health service improvement programs. CONCLUSIONS: These findings
      suggest that the construct of 'disinvestment' may be problematic at the local
      level. A new definition and two potential approaches to disinvestment are
      proposed to stimulate further research and discussion.

PMID- 28886736
TI  - What do we know about the needs and challenges of health systems? A scoping
      review of the international literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While there is an extensive literature on Health System (HS)
      strengthening and on the performance of specific HSs, there are few exhaustive
      syntheses of the challenges HSs are facing worldwide. This paper reports the
      findings of a scoping review aiming to classify the challenges of HSs
      investigated in the scientific literature. Specifically, it determines the kind
      of research conducted on HS challenges, where it was performed, in which health
      sectors and on which populations. It also identifies the types of challenge
      described the most and how they varied across countries. METHODS: We searched 8
      databases to identify scientific papers published in English, French and Italian
      between January 2000 and April 2016 that addressed HS needs and challenges. The
      challenges reported in the articles were classified using van Olmen et al.'s
      dynamic HS framework. Countries were classified using the Human Development Index
      (HDI). Our analyses relied on descriptive statistics and qualitative content
      analysis. RESULTS: 292 articles were included in our scoping review. 33.6% of
      these articles were empirical studies and 60.1% were specific to countries
      falling within the very high HDI category, in particular the United States. The
      most frequently researched sectors were mental health (41%), infectious diseases
      (12%) and primary care (11%). The most frequently studied target populations
      included elderly people (23%), people living in remote or poor areas (21%),
      visible or ethnic minorities (15%), and children and adolescents (15%). The most
      frequently reported challenges related to human resources (22%), leadership and
      governance (21%) and health service delivery (24%). While health service delivery
      challenges were more often examined in countries within the very high HDI
      category, human resources challenges attracted more attention within the low HDI
      category. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review provides a quantitative description of
      the available evidence on HS challenges and a qualitative exploration of the
      dynamic relationships that HS components entertain. While health services
      research is increasingly concerned about the way HSs can adopt innovations,
      little is known about the system-level challenges that innovations should address
      in the first place. Within this perspective, four key lessons are drawn as well
      as three knowledge gaps.

PMID- 28886737
TI  - Students as anatomy near-peer teachers: a double-edged sword for an ancient
      skill.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A near-peer instructors (NPI) program was designed for 1st year
      medical students who successfully finished the Anatomy course, in order to
      develop their didactic ability and teaching skills, mostly for cadaver
      dissection. METHODS: Graduates of the training program were administered a
      voluntary survey at the end of the program, annually. Best graduates of the
      training program were offered a NPI position in the next academic year. They were
      evaluated by the first-year students, at the end of the Anatomy block. RESULTS:
      In a debriefing questionnaire at the end of the NPI training, on the five-point
      Likert scale (1 = lowest to 5 = highest), the overall rating ranged from 3.63 in
      2013 to 3.71 in 2015. Learning prosection and anatomy demonstration skills scored
      on average from 4.30 to 4.36, respectively. The NPIs were then evaluated by first
      year students at the end of the next year's Anatomy block. On the Likert scale,
      the average score of NPIs ranged from 4.10 in 2014 to 4.75 in 2016, on the par
      with the general satisfaction score for the professional preclinical teachers
      during the same period (which ranged from 3.80 to 4.26). CONCLUSIONS: It is
      suggested that students as near-peer instructors can make a valuable contribution
      to the teaching faculty, especially in a new medical school.

PMID- 28886738
TI  - Gaps in care for patients with memory deficits after stroke: views of healthcare
      providers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stroke is a common cause of physical disability but is also strongly
      associated with cognitive impairment and a risk for future dementia. Despite
      national clinical guidelines, the service provided for stroke survivors with
      cognitive and memory difficulties varies across localities. This study critically
      evaluated the views of healthcare professionals about barriers and facilitators
      to their care. METHODS: Seventeen semi-structured individual interviews were
      conducted by a single interviewer with both primary and secondary care clinicians
      in regular contact with stroke-survivors. This included stroke medicine
      specialists, specialist nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists,
      general practitioners and primary care nurses. Topics included individual
      experiences of the current care offered to patients with cognitive impairment,
      assessment processes and inter-professional communication. Interviews were audio
      recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were thematically analysed and
      themes grouped into broad categories to facilitate interpretation. RESULTS: Data
      analysis identified four key themes as barriers to optimal care for stroke
      survivors with memory difficulties: 1) Less focus on memory and cognition in post
      stroke care; 2) Difficulties bringing up memory and cognitive problems post
      stroke; 3) Lack of clarity in current services; and, 4) Assumptions made by
      healthcare professionals introducing gaps in care. Facilitators included stronger
      links between primary and secondary care in addition to information provision at
      all stages of care. CONCLUSIONS: The care provided by stroke services is
      dominated by physical impairments. Clinicians are unsure who should take
      responsibility for follow-up of patients with cognitive problems. This is made
      even more difficult by the lack of experience in assessment and stigma
      surrounding potential diagnoses associated with these deficits. Service
      development should focus on increased cohesiveness between hospital and community
      care to create a clear care pathway for post-stroke cognitive impairment.

PMID- 28886739
TI  - An Australian general practice based strategy to improve chronic disease
      prevention, and its impact on patient reported outcomes: evaluation of the
      preventive evidence into practice cluster randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Implementing evidence-based chronic disease prevention with a
      practice-wide population is challenging in primary care. METHODS: PEP
      Intervention practices received education, clinical audit and feedback and
      practice facilitation. Patients (40-69 years) without chronic disease from trial
      and control practices were invited to participate in baseline and 12 month follow
      up questionnaires. Patient-recalled receipt of GP services and referral, and the
      proportion of patients at risk were compared over time and between intervention
      and control groups. Mean difference in BMI, diet and physical activity between
      baseline and follow up were calculated and compared using a paired t-test. Change
      in the proportion of patients meeting the definition for physical activity diet
      and weight risk was calculated using McNemar's test and multilevel analysis was
      used to determine the effect of the intervention on follow-up scores. RESULTS:
      Five hundred eighty nine patients completed both questionnaires. No significant
      changes were found in the proportion of patients reporting a BP, cholesterol,
      glucose or weight check in either group. Less than one in six at-risk patients
      reported receiving lifestyle advice or referral at baseline with little change at
      follow up. More intervention patients reported attempts to improve their diet and
      reduce weight. Mean score improved for diet in the intervention group (p = 0.04)
      but self-reported BMI and PA risk did not significantly change in either group.
      There was no significant change in the proportion of patients who reported being
      at-risk for diet, PA or weight, and no changes in PA, diet and BMI in multilevel
      linear regression adjusted for patient age, sex, practice size and state. There
      was good fidelity to the intervention but practices varied in their capacity to
      address changes. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of measurable effect within this trial may
      be attributable to the complexities around behaviour change and/or system change.
      This trial highlights some of the challenges in providing suitable chronic
      disease preventive interventions which are both scalable to whole practice
      populations and meet the needs of diverse practice structures. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR):
      ACTRN12612000578808 (29/5/2012). This trial registration is retrospective as our
      first patient returned their consent on the 21/5/2012. Patient recruitment was
      ongoing until 31/10/2012.

PMID- 28886741
TI  - Taurine and tea polyphenols combination ameliorate nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
      in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progressive form of
      nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, for which there is currently no safe and
      effective drug for therapy. In this study, we explored the effects of taurine,
      tea polyphenols (TPs), or a combination thereof, on NASH rats. METHODS: Rats were
      divided into a normal group, a high-fat diet induced model group and a treatment
      group (including taurine, TPs, or taurine + TPs treatment for 8 weeks). Twelve
      weeks later, all rats were sacrificed, and serum transaminase, lipid and
      lipopolysaccharide levels and hepatic oxidative stress levels were determined.
      Histological changes were evaluated. RESULTS: In NASH rats, hepatocyte damage,
      lipid disturbance, oxidative stress and elevated lipopolysaccharide levels were
      confirmed. Taurine treatment alleviated hepatocyte damage and oxidative stress.
      TPs treatment improved lipid metabolism and increased hepatic antioxidant
      activity. The therapeutic effects of taurine + TPs treatment on hepatocyte
      damage, lipid disturbance, and oxidative stress were superior to those of taurine
      and TPs treatment, respectively. Taurine, TPs and their combination all decreased
      serum lipopolysaccharide levels in NASH rats, but the combination of the
      compounds caused these levels to decrease more significantly than taurine or TPs
      treatment alone. CONCLUSION: Taurine combined with TPs treatment could relieve
      NASH by alleviating hepatocyte damage, decreasing oxidative stress and improving
      lipid metabolism and gut flora disturbance partly. Taurine and TPs combination
      may act as a new effective medicine for treating NASH patients.

PMID- 28886740
TI  - Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) 10:
      operationalising disinvestment in a conceptual framework for resource allocation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This is the tenth in a series of papers reporting a program of
      Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) in a
      local healthcare setting. After more than a decade of research, there is little
      published evidence of active and successful disinvestment. The paucity of
      frameworks, methods and tools is reported to be a factor in the lack of success.
      However there are clear and consistent messages in the literature that can be
      used to inform development of a framework for operationalising disinvestment.
      This paper, along with the conceptual review of disinvestment in Paper 9 of this
      series, aims to integrate the findings of the SHARE Program with the existing
      disinvestment literature to address the lack of information regarding systematic
      organisation-wide approaches to disinvestment at the local health service level.
      DISCUSSION: A framework for disinvestment in a local healthcare setting is
      proposed. Definitions for essential terms and key concepts underpinning the
      framework have been made explicit to address the lack of consistent terminology.
      Given the negative connotations of the word 'disinvestment' and the problems
      inherent in considering disinvestment in isolation, the basis for the proposed
      framework is 'resource allocation' to address the spectrum of decision-making
      from investment to disinvestment. The focus is positive: optimising healthcare,
      improving health outcomes, using resources effectively. The framework is based on
      three components: a program for decision-making, projects to implement decisions
      and evaluate outcomes, and research to understand and improve the program and
      project activities. The program consists of principles for decision-making and
      settings that provide opportunities to introduce systematic prompts and triggers
      to initiate disinvestment. The projects follow the steps in the disinvestment
      process. Potential methods and tools are presented, however the framework does
      not stipulate project design or conduct; allowing application of any theories,
      methods or tools at each step. Barriers are discussed and examples illustrating
      constituent elements are provided. CONCLUSIONS: The framework can be employed at
      network, institutional, departmental, ward or committee level. It is proposed as
      an organisation-wide application, embedded within existing systems and processes,
      which can be responsive to needs and priorities at the level of implementation.
      It can be used in policy, management or clinical contexts.

PMID- 28886742
TI  - Patient involvement in the development of patient-reported outcome measures: The
      developers' perspective.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used in
      health care. To capture the patient's perspective, patient involvement in PROM
      development is needed. As earlier research showed varying degrees of patient
      involvement in PROM development, this study aimed to investigate why PROM
      developers do or do not involve patients, how patients can be successfully
      involved and what the negative aspects and benefits of patient involvement are.
      METHODS: PROM developers who, according to an earlier scoping review, involved
      patients in at least two phases of PROM development or did not involve patients
      at all, were contacted for a telephone interview. The interviews were recorded,
      transcribed and analysed using a general inductive approach. RESULTS: From the
      PROM developers who involved patients, 21 developers were interviewed and three
      answered questions via e-mail. Most developers considered patient involvement
      necessary to create a valid questionnaire and relied on guidelines, personal
      experience and practical considerations for choosing a qualitative method.
      Negative aspects of patient involvement were mainly time investment and budget
      impact. One developer who did not involve patients was interviewed. Two
      developers sent back answers via e-mail. These developers did not involve
      patients because of limited resources or because no benefits were expected.
      CONCLUSION: Although PROM developers agree that patient involvement is necessary,
      a lack of resources can be a stumbling block. Most developers rely on guidelines,
      personal experience or practical considerations for choosing a qualitative
      method. Although this may be a good place to start, to optimize patient
      involvement developers should explicitly think about which methods would suit
      their study.

PMID- 28886743
TI  - Fatal poisonings in Northern Finland: causes, incidence, and rural-urban
      differences.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this study we evaluate differences between rural and urban areas
      in the causes and incidence of fatal poisonings. METHODS: Data from all fatal
      poisonings that occurred in Northern Finland from 2007 to 2011 were retrieved
      from Cause of Death Registry death certificates provided by Statistics Finland.
      The demographics and causes of fatalities were compared between rural and urban
      areas. Incidences were calculated based on the population data. RESULTS: There
      were a total of 684 fatal poisonings during the study period and 57.9% (n = 396)
      occurred in the urban population. Ethanol was the most common primary poisoning
      agent in cases of fatal poisoning, accounting for 47.5% of cases in urban areas
      and 68.1% in rural areas (P < 0.001). Fatal poisonings caused by psychoactive
      pharmaceutical products and opioids were more common in urban areas (28.3%
      compared to 18.0%, P < 0.001). The crude incidence of fatal poisonings in the
      study area was 18.8 (17.4-20.2) per 100,000 inhabitants per year and there was no
      difference in incidence between urban and rural areas. In the youngest age group
      (15 to 24 years), the incidence of fatal poisonings observed in urban areas was
      two times higher than that in rural areas. DISCUSSION: Higher rate of fatal
      ethanol poisonings in rural areas could be linked to higher alcohol consumption
      in rural areas and also differences in drinking behaviour. Higher incidence of
      poisoning suicides in urban areas could be due to availability of different toxic
      agents as a suicidal method. Preventive measures could be key in reducing the
      number of fatal poisonings in both areas, as most of the fatal poisonings still
      occur outside hospital. CONCLUSION: There was a higher rate of fatal ethanol
      poisoning in rural areas and higher rate of fatal poisoning related to
      psychoactive pharmaceutical products and opioids in urban areas. There were twice
      as many fatal poisonings in the youngest age group (15-24 years) in urban areas
      compared to rural areas, and suicide was more common in urban areas.

PMID- 28886744
TI  - Identification of high-confidence RNA regulatory elements by combinatorial
      classification of RNA-protein binding sites.
AB  - Crosslinking immunoprecipitation sequencing (CLIP-seq) technologies have enabled
      researchers to characterize transcriptome-wide binding sites of RNA-binding
      protein (RBP) with high resolution. We apply a soft-clustering method, RBPgroup,
      to various CLIP-seq datasets to group together RBPs that specifically bind the
      same RNA sites. Such combinatorial clustering of RBPs helps interpret CLIP-seq
      data and suggests functional RNA regulatory elements. Furthermore, we validate
      two RBP-RBP interactions in cell lines. Our approach links proteins and RNA
      motifs known to possess similar biochemical and cellular properties and can, when
      used in conjunction with additional experimental data, identify high-confidence
      RBP groups and their associated RNA regulatory elements.

PMID- 28886746
TI  - Prevalence of antibodies to Brucella species in commercial raw bovine milk in
      Southwestern Uganda.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The purpose and objective of this research was to explore the
      prevalence of antibodies against Brucella species in raw milk samples collected
      in Southwestern Uganda, one of the biggest milk producing regions in the Country.
      We hypothesized that there is a high level of antibodies in milk samples from
      this region. This builds more evidence to other studies in the region on the
      level contamination of raw milk. RESULTS: A total of 185 raw milk samples,
      collected from dairy farms and factories in southwestern region, were tested for
      antibodies to Brucella spp. using the milk ring test (MRT) and indirect Enzyme
      Linked Immunosorbent Assay (i-ELISA).We found a prevalence of 26.5% (49/185) by
      the two methods. This is related to previous reports in the region and adds more
      evidence on the need for further investigations to confirm the source of these
      antibodies and their relationship with disease in milk producing animals.

PMID- 28886745
TI  - Bayesian dose selection design for a binary outcome using restricted response
      adaptive randomization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In phase II trials, the most efficacious dose is usually not known.
      Moreover, given limited resources, it is difficult to robustly identify a dose
      while also testing for a signal of efficacy that would support a phase III trial.
      Recent designs have sought to be more efficient by exploring multiple doses
      through the use of adaptive strategies. However, the added flexibility may
      potentially increase the risk of making incorrect assumptions and reduce the
      total amount of information available across the dose range as a function of
      imbalanced sample size. METHODS: To balance these challenges, a novel placebo
      controlled design is presented in which a restricted Bayesian response adaptive
      randomization (RAR) is used to allocate a majority of subjects to the optimal
      dose of active drug, defined as the dose with the lowest probability of poor
      outcome. However, the allocation between subjects who receive active drug or
      placebo is held constant to retain the maximum possible power for a hypothesis
      test of overall efficacy comparing the optimal dose to placebo. The design
      properties and optimization of the design are presented in the context of a phase
      II trial for subarachnoid hemorrhage. RESULTS: For a fixed total sample size, a
      trade-off exists between the ability to select the optimal dose and the
      probability of rejecting the null hypothesis. This relationship is modified by
      the allocation ratio between active and control subjects, the choice of RAR
      algorithm, and the number of subjects allocated to an initial fixed allocation
      period. While a responsive RAR algorithm improves the ability to select the
      correct dose, there is an increased risk of assigning more subjects to a worse
      arm as a function of ephemeral trends in the data. A subarachnoid treatment trial
      is used to illustrate how this design can be customized for specific objectives
      and available data. CONCLUSIONS: Bayesian adaptive designs are a flexible
      approach to addressing multiple questions surrounding the optimal dose for
      treatment efficacy within the context of limited resources. While the design is
      general enough to apply to many situations, future work is needed to address
      interim analyses and the incorporation of models for dose response.

PMID- 28886747
TI  - Women's views and experiences of two alternative consent pathways for
      participation in a preterm intrapartum trial: a qualitative study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Cord Pilot Trial compared alternative policies for timing of cord
      clamping at very preterm birth at eight UK hospitals. In addition to standard
      written consent, an oral assent pathway was developed for use when birth was
      imminent. The aim of this study was to explore women's views and experiences of
      two alternative consent pathways to participate in the Cord Pilot Trial. METHODS:
      We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. A total of 179
      participants in the Cord Pilot Trial were sent a postal invitation to take part
      in interviews. Women who agreed were interviewed in person or by telephone to
      explore their experiences of two consent pathways for a preterm intrapartum
      trial. Data were analysed using inductive systematic thematic analysis. RESULTS:
      Twenty-three women who gave either written consent (n = 18) or oral assent
      followed by written consent (n = 5) to participate in the trial were interviewed.
      Five themes were identified: (1) understanding of the implications of
      randomisation, (2) importance of staff offering participation, (3) information
      about the trial and time to consider participation, (4) trial secondary in
      women's minds and (5) reasons for agreeing to take part in the trial. Experiences
      were similar for the two consent pathways. Women recruited by the oral assent
      pathway reported being given less information about the trial but felt it was
      sufficient to make a decision regarding participation. There were gaps in women's
      understanding of the trial and intervention, regardless of the consent pathway.
      CONCLUSIONS: Overall, women were positive about their experiences of being
      invited to participate in the trial. The oral assent pathway seems an acceptable
      option for women if the intervention is low-risk and time is limited. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN21456601 . Registered on 28 February 2013.

PMID- 28886748
TI  - ErbB3 drives mammary epithelial survival and differentiation during pregnancy and
      lactation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During pregnancy, as the mammary gland prepares for synthesis and
      delivery of milk to newborns, a luminal mammary epithelial cell (MEC)
      subpopulation proliferates rapidly in response to systemic hormonal cues that
      activate STAT5A. While the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB4 is required for STAT5A
      activation in MECs during pregnancy, it is unclear how ErbB3, a heterodimeric
      partner of ErbB4 and activator of phosphatidyl inositol-3 kinase (PI3K)
      signaling, contributes to lactogenic expansion of the mammary gland. METHODS: We
      assessed mRNA expression levels by expression microarray of mouse mammary glands
      harvested throughout pregnancy and lactation. To study the role of ErbB3 in
      mammary gland lactogenesis, we used transgenic mice expressing WAP-driven Cre
      recombinase to generate a mouse model in which conditional ErbB3 ablation
      occurred specifically in alveolar mammary epithelial cells (aMECs). RESULTS:
      Profiling of RNA from mouse MECs isolated throughout pregnancy revealed robust
      Erbb3 induction during mid-to-late pregnancy, a time point when aMECs proliferate
      rapidly and undergo differentiation to support milk production. Litters nursed by
      ErbB3 KO dams weighed significantly less when compared to litters nursed by ErbB3
      WT dams. Further analysis revealed substantially reduced epithelial content,
      decreased aMEC proliferation, and increased aMEC cell death during late
      pregnancy. Consistent with the potent ability of ErbB3 to activate cell survival
      through the PI3K/Akt pathway, we found impaired Akt phosphorylation in ErbB3 KO
      samples, as well as impaired expression of STAT5A, a master regulator of
      lactogenesis. Constitutively active Akt rescued cell survival in ErbB3-depleted
      aMECs, but failed to restore STAT5A expression or activity. Interestingly,
      defects in growth and survival of ErbB3 KO aMECs as well as Akt phosphorylation,
      STAT5A activity, and expression of milk-encoding genes observed in ErbB3 KO MECs
      progressively improved between late pregnancy and lactation day 5. We found a
      compensatory upregulation of ErbB4 activity in ErbB3 KO mammary glands. Enforced
      ErbB4 expression alleviated the consequences of ErbB3 ablation in aMECs, while
      combined ablation of both ErbB3 and ErbB4 exaggerated the phenotype. CONCLUSIONS:
      These studies demonstrate that ErbB3, like ErbB4, enhances lactogenic expansion
      and differentiation of the mammary gland during pregnancy, through activation of
      Akt and STAT5A, two targets crucial for lactation.

PMID- 28886749
TI  - Bacterial microbiota associated with Rhipicephalus sanguineus (s.l.) ticks from
      France, Senegal and Arizona.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ticks of the group Rhipicephalus sanguineus (sensu lato) are
      distributed worldwide and are major pathogen vectors of both dogs and humans.
      Previous phylogenetic reconstructions have suggested the existence of two main
      lineages within this group, "Tropical" and "Temperate". Symbiotic interactions
      contribute to vector development, survival, reproduction and competence. The
      diversity of microbial communities associated with different populations of R.
      sanguineus (s.l.) remains poorly characterized, however, this knowledge will aid
      in future studies of hosts-microbiota-pathogen interactions. To gain insight into
      the bacterial communities associated with R. sanguineus (s.l.) ticks, 40
      specimens from France, Senegal and Arizona were analyzed by high-throughput 16S
      amplicon sequencing. All tick specimens were taxonomically classified using the
      mitochondrial 12S rDNA gene, which provides sufficient phylogenetic resolution to
      discriminate different lineages of R. sanguineus. RESULTS: Rhipicephalus
      sanguineus (s.l.) samples from Senegal belonged to the "Tropical" lineage,
      samples from France belonged to the "Temperate" lineage, whereas both lineages
      were identified in samples from Arizona. Regardless of origin, each bacterial
      microbiota was dominated by three genera: Coxiella, Rickettsia and Bacillus.
      Rickettsia and Coxiella were the two main genera found in females whereas males
      had a higher proportion of Bacillus. Significant differences of relative
      abundances were evidenced between specimens from different geographical origins.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights differences in the microbiota composition
      within R. sanguineus (s.l.) specimens from different genotypes, genders and
      geographical origins. This knowledge will help in future studies of the symbiotic
      interactions, biology and vector competence of the R. sanguineus (s.l.) complex.

PMID- 28886750
TI  - Evidence-based gene models for structural and functional annotations of the oil
      palm genome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Oil palm is an important source of edible oil. The importance of the
      crop, as well as its long breeding cycle (10-12 years) has led to the sequencing
      of its genome in 2013 to pave the way for genomics-guided breeding. Nevertheless,
      the first set of gene predictions, although useful, had many fragmented genes.
      Classification and characterization of genes associated with traits of interest,
      such as those for fatty acid biosynthesis and disease resistance, were also
      limited. Lipid-, especially fatty acid (FA)-related genes are of particular
      interest for the oil palm as they specify oil yields and quality. This paper
      presents the characterization of the oil palm genome using different gene
      prediction methods and comparative genomics analysis, identification of FA
      biosynthesis and disease resistance genes, and the development of an annotation
      database and bioinformatics tools. RESULTS: Using two independent gene-prediction
      pipelines, Fgenesh++ and Seqping, 26,059 oil palm genes with transcriptome and
      RefSeq support were identified from the oil palm genome. These coding regions of
      the genome have a characteristic broad distribution of GC3 (fraction of cytosine
      and guanine in the third position of a codon) with over half the GC3-rich genes
      (GC3 >= 0.75286) being intronless. In comparison, only one-seventh of the oil
      palm genes identified are intronless. Using comparative genomics analysis,
      characterization of conserved domains and active sites, and expression analysis,
      42 key genes involved in FA biosynthesis in oil palm were identified. For three
      of them, namely EgFABF, EgFABH and EgFAD3, segmental duplication events were
      detected. Our analysis also identified 210 candidate resistance genes in six
      classes, grouped by their protein domain structures. CONCLUSIONS: We present an
      accurate and comprehensive annotation of the oil palm genome, focusing on
      analysis of important categories of genes (GC3-rich and intronless), as well as
      those associated with important functions, such as FA biosynthesis and disease
      resistance. The study demonstrated the advantages of having an integrated
      approach to gene prediction and developed a computational framework for combining
      multiple genome annotations. These results, available in the oil palm annotation
      database ( http://palmxplore.mpob.gov.my ), will provide important resources for
      studies on the genomes of oil palm and related crops. REVIEWERS: This article was
      reviewed by Alexander Kel, Igor Rogozin, and Vladimir A. Kuznetsov.

PMID- 28886751
TI  - Uva-ursi extract and ibuprofen as alternative treatments of adult female urinary
      tract infection (ATAFUTI): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women with acute uncomplicated urine infection are usually treated
      with antibiotics. One trial has demonstrated that delayed antibiotic treatment
      offered without symptom relief results in a modest reduction in antibiotic use.
      There is some evidence that ibuprofen provides symptom relief and reduces
      antibiotic use. Uva-ursi, a herbal product, has a traditional use for urinary
      infection symptom relief. We set out to test: in adult women with suspected UTI
      who accept the delayed prescription strategy: Do NSAIDs or uva-ursi (a herbal
      product) provide relief from urinary symptoms and reduce antibiotic use.
      METHODS/DESIGN: Adult women with suspected urinary tract infection presenting to
      primary care will be randomised using a factorial trial design in which patients
      will be randomised to one of two interventions as below: Group 1 - Uva-ursi +
      advice to take ibuprofen Group 2 - Placebo + advice to take ibuprofen Group 3 -
      Uva-ursi + no advice to take ibuprofen Group 4 - Placebo + no advice to take
      ibuprofen Patients and physicians will be blinded to the randomised group for the
      herb. The main outcome is symptom severity at days 2-4 recorded in a validated,
      self-report diary used in previous studies. Secondary outcomes include antibiotic
      use and symptom duration. In total the trial will require 328 patients in order
      to achieve at least 90% power for the primary endpoint and 80% for the secondary
      endpoint. In accordance with CONSORT guidelines all comparative analyses will be
      conducted on an intention-to-treat basis using SPSS or similar package.
      DISCUSSION: The outcomes from this trial have the potential to modify the current
      approach to the management of acute urinary symptoms with less dependence on the
      use of antibiotics. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry, ID: ISRCTN43397016 .
      Registered on 11 February 2015.

PMID- 28886752
TI  - Protocol for the management of psychiatric patients with psychomotor agitation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psychomotor agitation (PMA) is a state of motor restlessness and
      mental tension that requires prompt recognition, appropriate assessment and
      management to minimize anxiety for the patient and reduce the risk for escalation
      to aggression and violence. Standardized and applicable protocols and algorithms
      can assist healthcare providers to identify patients at risk of PMA, achieve
      timely diagnosis and implement minimally invasive management strategies to ensure
      patient and staff safety and resolution of the episode. METHODS: Spanish experts
      in PMA from different disciplines (psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses)
      convened in Barcelona for a meeting in April 2016. Based on recently issued
      international consensus guidelines on the standard of care for psychiatric
      patients with PMA, the meeting provided the opportunity to address the
      complexities in the assessment and management of PMA from different perspectives.
      The attendees worked towards producing a consensus for a unified approach to PMA
      according to the local standards of care and current local legislations. The
      draft protocol developed was reviewed and ratified by all members of the panel
      prior to its presentation to the Catalan Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health,
      the Spanish Society of Biological Psychiatry (SEPB) and the Spanish Network
      Centre for Research in Mental Health (CIBERSAM) for input. The final protocol and
      algorithms were then submitted to these organizations for endorsement. RESULTS:
      The protocol presented here provides guidance on the appropriate selection and
      use of pharmacological agents (inhaled/oral/IM), seclusion, and physical
      restraint for psychiatric patients suspected of or presenting with PMA. The
      protocol is applicable within the Spanish healthcare system. Implementation of
      the protocol and the constituent algorithms described here should ensure the best
      standard of care of patients at risk of PMA. Episodes of PMA could be identified
      earlier in their clinical course and patients could be managed in the least
      invasive and coercive manner, ensuring their own safety and that of others around
      them. CONCLUSION: Establishing specialized teams in agitation and providing them
      with continued training on the identification of agitation, patient management
      and therapeutic alternatives might reduce the burden of PMA for both the patient
      and the healthcare system.

PMID- 28886753
TI  - Depletion of adult neurogenesis exacerbates cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's
      disease by compromising hippocampal inhibition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The molecular mechanism underlying progressive memory loss in
      Alzheimer's disease is poorly understood. Neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus
      is a dynamic process that continuously changes the dentate gyrus and is important
      for hippocampal plasticity, learning and memory. However, whether impairments in
      neurogenesis affect the hippocampal circuitry in a way that leads to memory
      deficits characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is unknown. Controversial results
      in that regard were reported in transgenic mouse models of amyloidosis. METHODS:
      Here, we conditionally ablated adult neurogenesis in APPswe/PS1DeltaE9 mice by
      crossing these with mice expressing nestin-driven thymidine kinase (delta-HSV
      TK). RESULTS: These animals show impairment in performance in contextual
      conditioning and pattern separation tasks following depletion of neurogenesis.
      Importantly, these deficits were not observed in age-matched APPswe/PS1DeltaE9 or
      delta-HSV-TK mice alone. Furthermore, we show that cognitive deficits were
      accompanied by the upregulation of hyperphosphorylated tau in the hippocampus and
      in immature neurons specifically. Interestingly, we observed upregulation of the
      immediate early gene Zif268 (Egr-1) in the dentate gyrus, CA1 and CA3 regions of
      the hippocampus following learning in the neurogenesis-depleted delta-HSV-TK
      mice. This may suggest overactivation of hippocampal neurons in these areas
      following depletion of neurogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: These results imply that
      neurogenesis plays an important role in the regulation of inhibitory circuitry of
      the hippocampus. This study suggests that deficits in adult neurogenesis may
      contribute to cognitive impairments, tau hyperphosphorylation in new neurons and
      compromised hippocampal circuitry in Alzheimer's disease.

PMID- 28886755
TI  - Revisiting Coiled Flocculator Performance for Particle Aggregation.
AB  - This work summarizes recent studies evaluating the torsion and curvature
      parameters in flocculation efficiency using a hydraulic plug flow flocculator
      known as a Flocs Generator Reactor (FGR). Colloidal Fe(OH)3 and coal particles
      were used as suspension models and a cationic polyacrylamide was used for the
      flocculation. The effectiveness of the aggregation process (in the distinct
      curvature and torsion parameters, and hydrodynamic conditions) was evaluated by
      the settling rate of the Fe(OH)3 flocs, and flocs size by photographic analysis.
      As a result of curvature, a secondary flow is induced and the profiles of the
      flow quantities differ from those for a straight pipe. Results showed that the
      differences in the flocculator design influences the Fe(OH)3 flocs size and
      settling rates, reaching values of about 13 and 4 m/h, for the coiled and
      straight pipes respectively. Coal flocs generation was also shown to be dependent
      on the flocculator design and shear rate. Results showed that turbulent kinetic
      energy increases because of curvature when the torsion parameter is kept constant
      (pitch close to zero), enhancing the flocs formation.

PMID- 28886754
TI  - On-farm biosecurity practices and causes of preweaning mortality in Canadian
      commercial mink kits.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mink are an important animal commodity group in Canada and excessive
      kit mortality represents a significant loss to production. National biosecurity
      standards have been developed for Canadian mink farms, but it is unclear how well
      these standards have been implemented as there are no studies correlating
      management practices of mink producers with causes of death in mink kits. To that
      end, we surveyed Ontario mink producers on their biosecurity and management
      practices and conducted almost 5660 post mortem examinations on found-dead,
      preweaned kits to characterize mink farm biosecurity practices and causes of
      death in preweaned kits. RESULTS: We found that very few biosecurity and
      management practices were uniformly used by producers, despite good awareness of
      appropriate practices. Use of personal protective equipment was implemented by
      fewer than 50% of respondents, while control of mink shed access, disinfection of
      feed containers after use, and use of a rodent control program were the only
      practices implemented by greater than 70% of respondents. Only 18% of producers
      reported regular use of antimicrobials in feed or water, although 91% stated they
      used antimicrobials for treatment of bacterial diseases on a regular basis. On
      post mortem examination, no gross abnormalities were noted in 71% of the kits,
      45% were thought to be stillborn or aborted, 27% had some form of abnormal fluid
      distribution in the body, and 2% had a congenital malformation. A subset of 69
      gastrointestinal tract samples was submitted for bacterial culture, of which 45
      samples yielded sufficient growth. Most interesting was the identification of
      Salmonella enterica serovar Heidelberg in 11% of samples. CONCLUSIONS: The
      results of this study will provide a benchmark for Canadian mink producers and
      their veterinarians, defining the areas to which greater attention should be
      given to ensure more rigorous biosecurity practices are in place. Ultimately,
      these improvements in practices may contribute to increased mink production and
      animal well-being.

PMID- 28886756
TI  - A New Platform for Profiling Degradation-Related Impurities Via Exploiting the
      Opportunities Offered by Ion-Selective Electrodes: Determination of Both
      Diatrizoate Sodium and Its Cytotoxic Degradation Product.
AB  - Although the ultimate goal of administering active pharmaceutical ingredients
      (APIs) is to save countless lives, the presence of impurities and/or degradation
      products in APIs or formulations may cause harmful physiological effects. Today,
      impurity profiling (i.e., the identity as well as the quantity of impurity in a
      pharmaceutical) is receiving critical attention from regulatory authorities.
      Despite the predominant use of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods over
      electrochemical methods for impurity profiling of APIs, this work investigates
      the opportunities offered by electroanalytical methods, particularly, ion
      selective electrodes (ISEs), for profiling degradation-related impurities (DRIs)
      compared with conventional spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. For a
      meaningful comparison, diatrizoate sodium (DTA) was chosen as the anionic X-ray
      contrast agent based on its susceptibility to deacetylation into its cytotoxic
      and mutagenic degradation product, 3,5-diamino-2,4,6 triiodobenzoic acid (DTB).
      This cationic diamino compound can be also detected as an impurity in the final
      product because it is used as a synthetic precursor for the synthesis of DTA. In
      this study, four novel sensitive and selective sensors for the determination of
      both DTA and its cytotoxic degradation products are presented. Sensors I and II
      were developed for the determination of the anionic drug, DTA, and sensors III
      and IV were developed for the determination of the cationic cytotoxic impurity.
      The use of these novel sensors not only provides a stability-indicating method
      for the selective determination of DTA in the presence of its degradation
      product, but also permits DRI profiling. Moreover, a great advantage of these
      proposed ISE systems is their higher sensitivity for the quantification of DTB
      relative to other spectroscopic and chromatographic methods, so it can measure
      trace amounts of DTB impurities in DTA bulk powder and pharmaceutical formulation
      without a need for preliminary separation.

PMID- 28886757
TI  - Differentiation of Bovine, Porcine, and Fish Gelatins by Attenuated Total
      Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIRS) Coupled with
      Pattern Recognition.
AB  - Bovine, porcine, and fish gelatins have been differentiated based on their
      spectra collected by attenuated total reflectance FTIR spectroscopy (ATR-FTIRS)
      coupled with pattern recognition. Three tree-based classification methods, a
      fuzzy rule-building expert system (FuRES), support vector machine classification
      trees (SVMTreeG and SVMTreeH), and one reference model, super partial least
      squares discriminant analysis (sPLS-DA), were evaluated with and without two
      preprocessing techniques, namely standard normal variate (SNV) and principal
      component orthogonal signal correction (PC-OSC). Validation of these methods was
      obtained with 95% confidence intervals with 10 bootstraps and 4 Latin partitions
      (10:4). The ATR-FTIR spectra were used with four different ranges: full spectra
      (4000-650 cm-1), fingerprint region (1731-650 cm-1), specified spectra (4000-800
      cm-1), and narrow fingerprint region (1731-800 cm-1). Classification rates for
      the methods were improved with SNV and PC-OSC when they were used separately or
      together. The highest classification rates were obtained from the narrow
      fingerprint region with SNV and PC-OSC at 97.4 +/- 1.6% for FuRES, 100 +/- 0% for
      sPLS-DA, and 99.3 +/- 0.5% for both SVMTreeG and SVMTreeH. ATR-FTIRS combined
      with pattern recognition is a potential analytical technique for differentiating
      the sources of bovine, porcine, and fish gelatins with fast and reliable results.

PMID- 28886758
TI  - Evaluation of beclomethasone dipropionate (80 and 160 micrograms/day) delivered
      via a breath-actuated inhaler for persistent asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Breath-actuated inhalers (BAI) may simplify the delivery of inhaled
      medications compared with other devices. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and
      safety of beclomethasone dipropionate BAI versus matching placebo in adolescent
      and adult patients with persistent asthma. METHODS: This phase III, 12-week,
      double-blind study enrolled patients with asthma aged >=12 years who were
      previously treated with a stable dose of inhaled corticosteroid or
      noncorticosteroid therapy. After a run-in period of 14 to 21 days, patients were
      randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to beclomethasone dipropionate BAI 80 or 160
      micrograms/day (40 or 80 micrograms twice daily) or placebo BAI. The primary end
      point was the standardized baseline-adjusted trough morning forced expiratory
      volume in 1 second (FEV1) area under the effect curve from time 0 to 12 weeks
      (AUEC[0-12 weeks]). Secondary end points included peak expiratory flow, rescue
      medication use, asthma symptoms, and the time to withdrawal due to meeting
      predefined criteria for worsening asthma. Additional end points evaluated quality
      of life, instructions for use, and safety. RESULTS: The full analysis and the
      safety sets included 270 and 273 patients, respectively. Patients who received
      beclomethasone dipropionate BAI 80 or 160 micrograms/day had significant
      improvements in FEV1 AUEC(0-12 weeks) versus placebo (p <= 0.001). Improvements
      in secondary end points were also apparent in patients who received
      beclomethasone dipropionate BAI 80 or 160 micrograms/day compared with placebo.
      Patients who received beclomethasone dipropionate BAI 80 or 160 micrograms/day
      had greater increases in Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire scores versus
      placebo patients at week 12. Of 98 patients who participated in the instructions
      for-use substudy, 87 (88.8%) used the inhaler successfully on their first
      attempt. Treatment was generally safe and well tolerated. CONCLUSION:
      Beclomethasone dipropionate BAI 80 and 160 micrograms/day were effective and well
      accepted treatments in patients with asthma, with safety comparable to
      beclomethasone dipropionate delivered via a metered-dose inhaler.Clinical trial
      NCT02040779, <ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link
      type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov">www.clinicaltrials.gov</ext
      link>.

PMID- 28886759
TI  - Epigenetic Regulation of the Kappa Opioid Receptor by Child Abuse.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Experiences of abuse and neglect during childhood are major
      predictors of the emergence of depressive and suicidal behaviors throughout life.
      The underlying biological mechanisms, however, remain poorly understood. Here, we
      focused on the opioid system as a potential brain substrate mediating these
      effects. METHODS: Postmortem samples from three brain structures regulating
      social bonds and emotions were analyzed. Groups were constituted of depressed
      individuals who died by suicide, with or without a history of severe child abuse,
      and of psychiatrically healthy control subjects. Expression of opioid peptides
      and receptors was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction. DNA
      methylation, a major epigenetic mark, was investigated using targeted bisulfite
      sequencing and characterized at functional level using in vitro reporter assays.
      Finally, oxidative bisulfite sequencing was used to differentiate methylation and
      hydroxymethylation of DNA. RESULTS: A history of child abuse specifically
      associated in the anterior insula with a downregulation of the kappa opioid
      receptor (Kappa), as well as decreased DNA methylation in the second intron of
      the Kappa gene. In vitro assays further showed that this intron functions as a
      genomic enhancer where glucocorticoid receptor binding regulates Kappa
      expression, unraveling a new mechanism mediating the well-established
      interactions between endogenous opioids and stress. Finally, results showed that
      child abuse is associated in the Kappa intron with a selective reduction in
      levels of DNA hydroxymethylation, likely mediating the observed downregulation of
      the receptor. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, our findings uncover new facets of Kappa
      physiology, whereby this receptor may be epigenetically regulated by stressful
      experiences, in particular as a function of early social life.

PMID- 28886760
TI  - Network Mechanisms of Clinical Response to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in
      Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy can
      modulate pathological neural network functional connectivity in major depressive
      disorder (MDD). Posttraumatic stress disorder is often comorbid with MDD, and
      symptoms of both disorders can be alleviated with TMS therapy. This is the first
      study to evaluate TMS-associated changes in connectivity in patients with
      comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and MDD. METHODS: Resting-state functional
      connectivity magnetic resonance imaging was acquired before and after TMS therapy
      in 33 adult outpatients in a prospective open trial. TMS at 5 Hz was delivered,
      in up to 40 daily sessions, to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Analyses
      used a priori seeds relevant to TMS, posttraumatic stress disorder, or MDD
      (subgenual anterior cingulate cortex [sgACC], left dorsolateral prefrontal
      cortex, hippocampus, and basolateral amygdala) to identify imaging predictors of
      response and to evaluate clinically relevant changes in connectivity after TMS,
      followed by leave-one-out cross-validation. Imaging results were explored using
      data-driven multivoxel pattern activation. RESULTS: More negative pretreatment
      connectivity between the sgACC and the default mode network predicted clinical
      improvement, as did more positive amygdala-to-ventromedial prefrontal cortex
      connectivity. After TMS, symptom reduction was associated with reduced
      connectivity between the sgACC and the default mode network, left dorsolateral
      prefrontal cortex, and insula, and reduced connectivity between the hippocampus
      and the salience network. Multivoxel pattern activation confirmed seed-based
      predictors and correlates of treatment outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These results
      highlight the central role of the sgACC, default mode network, and salience
      network as predictors of TMS response and suggest their involvement in mechanisms
      of action. Furthermore, this work indicates that there may be network-based
      biomarkers of clinical response relevant to these commonly comorbid disorders.

PMID- 28886761
TI  - Corrigendum to "Shared decision making in contraceptive counseling"
      [Contraception (2017) 95:452-455].

PMID- 28886762
TI  - The Tooth: Its Structure and Properties.
AB  - This article provides a brief review of recent investigations concerning the
      structure and properties of the tooth. The last decade has brought a greater
      emphasis on the durability of the tooth, an improved understanding of the fatigue
      and fracture behavior of the principal tissues, and their importance to tooth
      failures. The primary contributions to tooth durability are discussed, including
      the process of placing a restoration, the impact of aging, and challenges posed
      by the oral environment. The significance of these findings to the dental
      community and their importance to the pursuit of lifelong oral health are
      highlighted.

PMID- 28886763
TI  - Bioactive Dental Composites and Bonding Agents Having Remineralizing and
      Antibacterial Characteristics.
AB  - Current dental restorative materials are typically inert and replace missing
      tooth structures. This article reviews efforts in the development of a new
      generation of bioactive materials designed to not only replace the missing tooth
      volume but also possess therapeutic functions. Composites and bonding agents with
      remineralizing and antibacterial characteristics have shown promise in replacing
      lost minerals, inhibiting recurrent caries, neutralizing acids, repelling
      proteins, and suppressing biofilms and acid production. Furthermore, they have
      demonstrated a low cytotoxicity similar to current resins, with additional
      benefits to protect the dental pulp and promote tertiary dentin formation. This
      new class of bioactive materials shows promise in reversing lesions and
      inhibiting caries.

PMID- 28886765
TI  - An Overview of Dental Adhesive Systems and the Dynamic Tooth-Adhesive Interface.
AB  - From the conception of resin-enamel adhesion to today's contemporary dental
      adhesive systems, clinicians are no longer afraid of exploring the many
      advantages brought by adhesive restorative concepts. To maximize the performance
      of adhesive-based restorative procedures, practitioners must be familiar with the
      mechanism of adhesion, clinical indications, proper handling, the inherent
      limitations of the materials and the biological challenges. This review provides
      an overview of the current status of restorative dental adhesives, their
      mechanism of adhesion, mechanisms of degradation of dental adhesive interfaces,
      how to maximize performance, and future trends in adhesive dentistry.

PMID- 28886764
TI  - Advanced Scaffolds for Dental Pulp and Periodontal Regeneration.
AB  - No current therapy promotes root canal disinfection and regeneration of the pulp
      dentin complex in cases of pulp necrosis. Antibiotic pastes used to eradicate
      canal infection negatively affect stem cell survival. Three-dimensional easy-to
      fit antibiotic-eluting nanofibers, combined with injectable scaffolds, enriched
      or not with stem cells and/or growth factors, may increase the likelihood of
      achieving predictable dental pulp regeneration. Periodontitis is an aggressive
      disease that impairs the integrity of tooth-supporting structures and may lead to
      tooth loss. The latest advances in membrane biomodification to endow needed
      functionalities and technologies to engineer patient-specific
      membranes/constructs to amplify periodontal regeneration are presented.

PMID- 28886767
TI  - Light Curing in Dentistry.
AB  - The ability to light cure resins 'on demand' in the mouth has revolutionized
      dentistry. However, there is a widespread lack of understanding of what is
      required for successful light curing in the mouth. Most instructions simply tell
      the user to 'light cure for xx seconds' without describing any of the nuances of
      how to successfully light cure a resin. This article provides a brief description
      of light curing. At the end, some recommendations are made to help when
      purchasing a curing light and how to improve the use of the curing light.

PMID- 28886766
TI  - Polymer-Based Direct Filling Materials.
AB  - After a brief review of current restorative materials and classifications, this
      article discusses the latest developments in polymer-based direct filling
      materials, with emphasis on products and studies available in the last 10 years.
      This will include the more recent bulk fill composites and self-adhesive
      materials, for which clinical evidence of success, albeit somewhat limited, is
      already available. The article also introduces the latest cutting edge research
      topics on new materials for composite restorations, and an outlook for the future
      of how those may help to improve the service life of dental composite
      restorations.

PMID- 28886768
TI  - Dental Impression Materials and Techniques.
AB  - Dental impression making is the process of creating a negative form of the teeth
      and oral tissues, into which gypsum or other die materials can be processed to
      create working analogues. Contemporary dentistry generates new information every
      year and digital dentistry is becoming established and influential. Although
      dentists should stay abreast of new technologies, some of the conventional
      materials and time-tested techniques remain widely used. It is important to
      review the impression-making process to ensure that practitioners have up-to-date
      information about how to safely and effectively capture the exact form of the
      oral tissues to provide optimal patient management.

PMID- 28886770
TI  - Dental Cements for Luting and Bonding Restorations: Self-Adhesive Resin Cements.
AB  - Self-adhesive resin cements combine easy application of conventional luting
      materials with improved mechanical properties and bonding capability of resin
      cements. The presence of functional acidic monomers, dual cure setting mechanism,
      and fillers capable of neutralizing the initial low pH of the cement are
      essential elements of the material and should be understood when selecting the
      ideal luting material for each clinical situation. This article addresses the
      most relevant aspects of self-adhesive resin cements and their potential impact
      on clinical performance. Although few clinical studies are available to establish
      solid clinical evidence, the information presented provides clinical guidance in
      the dynamic environment of material development.

PMID- 28886769
TI  - Dental Ceramics for Restoration and Metal Veneering.
AB  - A survey of the development of dental ceramics is presented to provide a better
      understanding of the rationale behind the development and clinical indications of
      each class of ceramic material. Knowledge of the composition, microstructure, and
      properties of a material is critical for selecting the right material for
      specific applications. The key to successful ceramic restorations rests on
      material selection, manufacturing technique, and restoration design, including
      the balancing of several factors such as residual stresses, tooth contact
      conditions, tooth size and shape, elastic modulus of the adhesives and tooth
      structure, and surface state.

PMID- 28886772
TI  - Dental Implants.
AB  - Systematic reviews of literature over the period between 2008 and 2017 are
      discussed regarding clinical evidence for the factors affecting survival and
      failure of dental implants. The factors addressed include publication bias, tooth
      location, insertion torque, collar design, implant-abutment connection design,
      implant length, implant width, bone augmentation, platform switching, surface
      roughness, implant coatings, and the use of ceramic materials in the implant body
      and abutment.

PMID- 28886773
TI  - Biomaterials for Oral Health.

PMID- 28886774
TI  - [Back to the future].

PMID- 28886775
TI  - The history of electrocardiography.

PMID- 28886776
TI  - Cuff Pressure Confusion: Solutions Are Abundant.

PMID- 28886771
TI  - Biomaterials for Craniofacial Bone Regeneration.
AB  - Functional reconstruction of craniofacial defects is a major clinical challenge
      in craniofacial sciences. The advent of biomaterials is a potential alternative
      to standard autologous/allogenic grafting procedures to achieve clinically
      successful bone regeneration. This article discusses various classes of
      biomaterials currently used in craniofacial reconstruction. Also reviewed are
      clinical applications of biomaterials as delivery agents for sustained release of
      stem cells, genes, and growth factors. Recent promising advancements in 3D
      printing and bioprinting techniques that seem to be promising for future clinical
      treatments for craniofacial reconstruction are covered. Relevant topics in the
      bone regeneration literature exemplifying the potential of biomaterials to repair
      bone defects are highlighted.

PMID- 28886777
TI  - Pulmonary Edema After Near Hanging: An Insight.

PMID- 28886779
TI  - Teaching: Tips and Costs.

PMID- 28886780
TI  - Vehicular Manslaughter.

PMID- 28886784
TI  - Development of a New Infusion Protocol for Austere Trauma Resuscitations.
AB  - Intravenous fluid therapy for hemorrhagic shock has undergone enormous changes
      since it was first conducted almost 200 years ago. In the past 40 years
      especially, practices have dramatically changed with regards to fluid
      resuscitation. In pre-hospital, combat, austere, and rural emergency medicine the
      stakes are especially high to deliver an effective and logical resuscitation
      fluid strategy to a patient that is suffering from hemorrhagic shock. This
      article follows a prior article published in July 2014. It highlights the
      development of new cutting edge intravenous therapy regimens that maximize
      hemodynamic outcomes that can be effected by those providers that care for
      injured patients without the benefit of ample resources.

PMID- 28886785
TI  - Reducing Door-in Door-out Intervals in Helicopter ST-segment Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction Interhospital Transfers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many health systems rely on helicopter EMS (HEMS) to transfer ST
      elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients for percutaneous coronary
      intervention (PCI) to a hospital with a catheterization laboratory. Mortality
      rates increase with the time to reperfusion, so reducing delays is imperative.
      For interhospital STEMI transfers, the time spent in the initial hospital from
      arrival until departure (door-in to door-out interval or DIDO) should be
      minimized. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a series of process improvements
      to reduce DIDO intervals for STEMI patients transferred via a hospital based HEMS
      program. METHODS: Changes made to the STEMI transfer protocol in March 2011 were:
      (a) allowing transferring facilities to request HEMS before identifying an
      accepting cardiologist or hospital, with one hospital serving as a default PCI
      center in the case of delays, (b) limiting continuous infusions to those
      absolutely necessary for the transfer flights and (c) training flight crews to
      minimize time at bedside. Trained dual abstractors conducted structured medical
      record reviews for all STEMI patients 18 years and older, transferred to a PCI
      facility by HEMS from March 2011 to December 2012. Discrepancies were
      adjudicated. We compared DIDO intervals to a historical control cohort from 2007.
      We used the Mann-Whitney U test to compare times, and calculated differences with
      95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Of 244 patients identified, six were excluded
      due to incomplete data. The historical cohort included 179 cases. Mean age was 59
      (SD 14) years, 81% were white and 66% male. There were no differences in patient
      characteristics or door to EKG times between the cohorts. Median door-in to door
      out interval decreased from 83 minutes (IQR 43) to 68 minutes (IQR 31)
      (difference 15 minutes, 95% CI 8 to 21, P <.0001). EKG to HEMS request decreased
      21 minutes (95% CI 17 to 25, P <.0001), and HEMS ground time decreased 3 minutes
      (95% CI 2 to 4, P <.0001). There was a 32% absolute increase in the proportion of
      patients with EKG to helicopter request interval <35 minutes (83% vs 51%,
      difference 32%, 95% CI 24% to 41%, P <.0001). CONCLUSION: HEMS-focused process
      improvements can significantly reduce the DIDO interval times for STEMI patients
      transferred for PCI.

PMID- 28886786
TI  - Infusion Pump in UH60L/M Flight in Afghanistan: Why Failures Occur.
AB  - The ALARIS MSIII Infusion Pump (CareFusion, San Diego, CA) uses 3 separate alarms
      designed to prevent air emboli: "check air sensor," "air in lower tubing," and
      "air in line." It is assumed that ambient pressure changes cause air emboli that
      lead to pump failure although evidence to support this is limited. In this small
      study, the MSIII proved to be highly resilient and able to maintain function even
      after large repetitive emboli. Although unproven, it is more likely that these
      alarms are usually caused by loosening of the intravenous tubing within the
      pump's collar. This disjointing of the tubing and the ultrasonic sensor can be
      perceived as an air embolus leading to severe consequences. If the user attempts
      the clear air function, the pump will not resume function. Problems such as this
      may have been related to at least 1 reported patient death. More research is
      needed to determine the cause of these alarms and determine the exact cause.
      Patient safety can potentially be improved at all levels including manufacturer
      modifications and operator training. It seems reasonable that the manufacturer
      should design a mode ("transport mode") that allows the pump to function even
      with air emboli.

PMID- 28886787
TI  - Evaluation of Intensive Care Unit Ventilators at Altitude.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Devices may forgo US military air worthiness and safety testing in
      an attempt to expedite the availability of critical assets such as mechanical
      ventilators with a waiver for one-time use in extenuating circumstances. METHODS:
      We evaluated two Intensive Care Unit (ICU) level ventilators: Drager Evita XL and
      Puritan Bennett (PB) 840 in an altitude chamber at sea level and altitudes of
      8,000 and 16,000 feet. RESULTS: Altitude affected delivered tidal volumes (VTs)
      in volume control mode (VCV) and Pressure Regulated Volume Controlled (PRVC) mode
      at altitude with the Evita XL but the differences were not considered clinically
      important with the PB 840. Sixty-seven percent of the VTs were outside the ASTM
      standard of +/- 10% of set VT with the Evita XL at altitude. CONCLUSION: The PB
      840 did not deliver VTs that were larger than the ASTM standard up to an altitude
      of 16,000 feet while the majority of the delivered VTs with the Darger XL were
      greater than the ASTM standard. This could present a patient safety issue.
      Caregivers must be aware of the capabilities and limitations of ICU ventilators
      when utilized in a hypobaric environment in order to provide safe care.

PMID- 28886788
TI  - Logistical Concerns for Prehospital Blood Product Use by Air Medical Services.
AB  - Over the past few decades, reports have described favorable results from
      transfusion of blood products in helicopter EMS (HEMS). Nevertheless, the
      initiation of a HEMS transfusion program requires consideration of many factors,
      some unique to each clinical site. This paper describes our experience developing
      a HEMS transfusion program in an urban non-hospital based HEMS program with a
      history of long transport times. When considering blood use away from the
      hospital, major consideration must be given to safe storage and monitoring of
      blood products both on the ground and while in flight. PRBCs have been shown to
      generally be resilient to helicopter transit and have a prolonged storage
      duration. Transfusion of other blood products, such as plasma, involves
      additional challenges but has been achieved by some HEMS sites. Flight protocols
      should be developed addressing when and how many blood products should be
      transported, potentially considering patient factors, scene factors, and the
      regional availability of blood products during interfacility transport. Quality
      assurance and documentation protocols must also be developed for blood product
      use in flight. In our center's experience, we have so far transfused a limited
      number of patients with generally good results. Patient outcomes are described as
      below.

PMID- 28886789
TI  - Air Repatriation With a Medium-sized Pneumothorax Without Thoracic Tube: A
      Special Case of a Repatriation Accompanied by an Experienced Surgeon.
AB  - We report on the repatriation of a 28-year old female from Germany, who was
      involved in a serious bus accident and was transported to the nearest hospital in
      Oruro, Bolivia. CT scans and x-rays performed in this hospital demonstrated a
      complete pneumothorax right. Thorax drainage was inserted, which was removed
      after 5 days. Since the hospital refused to acknowledge the presence of a
      residual middle-sized pneumothorax on the repatriation day and did not want to
      insert another tube, the decision was made to repatriate the patient on
      commercial flight back home to Germany without a thoracic tube.

PMID- 28886790
TI  - Hemodynamic Deterioration in Lateral Compression Pelvic Fracture After
      Prehospital Pelvic Circumferential Compression Device Application.
AB  - Increased fracture displacement has previously been described with the
      application of pelvic circumferential compression devices (PCCDs) in patients
      with lateral compression-type pelvic fracture. We describe the first reported
      case of hemodynamic deterioration temporally associated with the prehospital
      application of a PCCD in a patient with a complex acetabular fracture with medial
      displacement of the femoral head. Active hemorrhage from a site adjacent to the
      acetabular fracture was subsequently demonstrated on angiography. Caution in the
      application of PCCDs to patients with lateral compression-type fractures is
      warranted.

PMID- 28886791
TI  - Foraminal enlargement with rotatory system increases postoperative pain up to 2
      days in patients with necrotic teeth and apical lesions.

PMID- 28886792
TI  - Antibiotic prophylaxis probably reduces the risk of developing bacteremia in
      patients at risk of developing infective endocarditis who are undergoing dental
      extractions.

PMID- 28886793
TI  - Scalloped implant-abutment connections appear to have similar implant survival
      rates as flat implant-abutment connections but may be associated with greater
      marginal bone loss.

PMID- 28886794
TI  - No trustworthy evidence about the effectiveness of laser therapy or ibuprofen to
      minimize pain during orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances owing to major
      limitations in the process to conduct a systematic review.

PMID- 28886795
TI  - Use of definitive abutments may result in very small marginal bone-level change
      compared with use of provisional abutments in patients undergoing implant
      placement.

PMID- 28886796
TI  - Mandibular third molars increase the risk of developing angle fractures in
      patients with mandibular fractures.

PMID- 28886797
TI  - Clinical Diagnosis of Skin Cancer: Enhancing Inspection and Early Recognition.
AB  - The annual incidence rate for melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer continues to
      rise and morbidity and deaths from skin cancer are increasing. Despite advances
      in therapeutics, the factors that most impact prognosis remain early recognition
      and removal of neoplasms before deep invasion or metastatic disease can occur.
      There are numerous public health and screening initiatives that have been
      introduced to help recognize disease earlier and to increase patients' awareness
      of signs or changes of lesions that may represent skin cancers. Early recognition
      and removal of suspicious lesions remains critical in significantly reducing
      morbidity and mortality associated with skin cancers.

PMID- 28886799
TI  - Mole Mapping for Management of Pigmented Skin Lesions.
AB  - Identifying new or changing melanocytic lesions, particularly in patients with
      numerous or atypical nevi, can be challenging. Total-body photography and
      sequential digital dermoscopy imaging, together known as digital follow-up, are 2
      prominent forms of noninvasive imaging technology used in mole mapping that have
      been found to improve diagnostic accuracy, detect earlier-stage melanomas, and
      reduce costs. Digital follow-up, in combination with direct-to-consumer
      applications and teledermatology, is already revolutionizing the ways in which
      physicians and patients participate in melanoma surveillance and will likely
      continue to enhance early detection efforts.

PMID- 28886798
TI  - Enhancing Skin Cancer Diagnosis with Dermoscopy.
AB  - Dermoscopy increases the sensitivity for skin cancer detection, decreases the
      number of benign lesions biopsied for each malignant diagnosis, and enables the
      diagnosis of thinner melanomas compared with naked eye examination. Multiple meta
      analyses have identified that dermoscopy improves the diagnostic accuracy for
      melanoma when compared with naked eye examination. In addition, studies have
      established that dermoscopy can aid in the detection of keratinocyte carcinomas.
      Dermoscopy triage algorithms have been developed to help novices decide when a
      biopsy or a referral is most appropriate. In this article, the authors illustrate
      the dermoscopic features that assist in identifying melanoma and keratinocyte
      carcinomas.

PMID- 28886800
TI  - Temporal Image Comparison (Serial Imaging) in Assessing Pigmented Lesions.
AB  - The large-scale deployment of low-cost, noninvasive mechanisms of early detection
      are needed to reduce the melanoma burden. A serial 2-step system could power mass
      screening efforts serving the uninsured and underinsured as well as the rural and
      remote US counties where melanoma mortality is doubled for lack of access to
      dermatologists. Furthermore, serial melanoma screening strategies, serial total
      body photography and serial digital dermatoscopy imaging may be performed as a
      telehealth service, and thus would be available in any location that can support
      activity compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
      and has appropriate bandwidth.

PMID- 28886801
TI  - Noninvasive Technologies for the Diagnosis of Cutaneous Melanoma.
AB  - Multispectral analysis devices assess pigmented lesion disorganization at
      different levels using variable wavelengths of light. Computerized algorithms
      measure morphologic disorganization of the pigmented skin lesion. Aggregated data
      of 855 participants investigating the influence of multispectral digital skin
      lesion analysis (MSDSLA) on practitioner decisions to biopsy pigmented skin
      lesions revealed the overall sensitivity for detection of melanoma improved from
      70% to 88%. Participant specificity increased from 52% to 58% after MSDSLA. Five
      studies using spectrophotometric intracutaneous analysis scope to evaluate
      suspicious pigmented skin lesions demonstrated an overall sensitivity and
      specificity of 85% and 81%, respectively, for the detection of melanoma.

PMID- 28886802
TI  - Using Reflectance Confocal Microscopy in Skin Cancer Diagnosis.
AB  - Biopsy and histologic evaluation have been the gold standard to diagnose skin
      tumors. Reflectance confocal microcopy (RCM) is a noninvasive, innovative
      diagnostic technique that enables visualization of different skin layers at an
      almost histologic resolution. RCM has been proven beneficial in management of
      various cutaneous lesions. This article highlights the clinical significance and
      future of RCM to diagnose common skin cancers. However, RCM cannot replace
      currently standard histopathologic diagnosis. More studies are required to better
      compare the sensitivity and specificity of skin cancer diagnosis using RCM.

PMID- 28886803
TI  - Optical Coherence Tomography in the Diagnosis of Skin Cancer.
AB  - Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has emerged as a novel noninvasive imaging
      device that allows for the real-time, in vivo, cross-sectional imaging of skin
      morphology. OCT has increased imaging depth and field of view compared with
      reflectance confocal microscopy, at the cost of decreased cellular resolution.
      Frequency domain OCT, dynamic OCT (D-OCT), and high-definition OCT (HD-OCT) are
      useful in the diagnosis, treatment planning, and treatment monitoring of
      nonmelanoma skin cancers. Research is currently underway to assess the
      utilization of these devices in distinguishing between malignant and benign
      melanocytic lesions based on vascular patterns on D-OCT and cellular information
      on HD-OCT.

PMID- 28886804
TI  - Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy in Skin Cancer Diagnosis.
AB  - Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a noninvasive method that aims to help
      diagnose skin cancer. The EIS device consists of a handheld probe with a
      disposable electrode that is applied directly on the skin and uses electrical
      impendence differences to differentiate between normal and abnormal skin lesions.
      The EIS algorithm is best used on lesions that are deemed clinically or
      dermoscopically suspicious and has a high sensitivity in detecting malignant
      melanoma. The greatest usefulness of EIS is achieved in conjunction with a
      physician who has experience with this modality and excellent training in the
      clinical detection of suspicious lesions.

PMID- 28886805
TI  - Using Raman Spectroscopy to Detect and Diagnose Skin Cancer In Vivo.
AB  - Raman spectroscopy provides a noninvasive bedside tool that captures unique
      optical signals via molecular vibrations in tissue samples. Raman theory was
      discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, but it was not until the
      past few decades that it has been used to differentiate skin neoplasms. We
      provide a brief description of Raman spectroscopy for in vivo skin cancer
      diagnosis, including the physical principles underlying Raman spectroscopy, its
      advantages, typical spectra of skin pathologies, and its clinical application for
      aiding skin cancer diagnosis.

PMID- 28886806
TI  - High-Frequency Ultrasound Examination in the Diagnosis of Skin Cancer.
AB  - Ultrasound above 14 MHz images epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissues in
      real time. Tumor depth is ascertained with B-mode. Three-dimensional imaging
      depicts nonpalpable, in-transit, and satellite lesions. Doppler blood flow
      technologies measure tumor neovascularity and map vascular structures. Three
      dimensional Doppler histogram reconstruction measures tumor aggression and
      metastatic potential proportional to the percentage of malignant vessels.
      Subcutaneous investigation reveals nonpalpable metastatic disease and nodal basin
      lymphadenopathy. Adjacent nerves may be studied. Preservation of the fat-fascia
      border refines surgical staging of deeper malignancies. Image-guided biopsy is
      facilitated. Treatment under image guidance is optimized with radiation and
      various photo and thermal technologies.

PMID- 28886807
TI  - Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Imaging for Skin Cancer Diagnosis.
AB  - Mass spectrometry imaging can be successfully used for skin cancer diagnosis,
      particularly for the diagnosis of challenging melanocytic lesions. This method
      analyzes proteins within benign and malignant melanocytic tumor cells and, based
      on their differences, which constitute a unique molecular signature of 5 to 20
      proteins, can render a diagnosis of benign nevus versus malignant melanoma. Mass
      spectrometry imaging may assist in the differentiation between metastases and
      nevi as well as between proliferative nodules in nevi and melanoma arising in a
      nevus. In the difficult area of atypical Spitzoid neoplasms, mass spectrometry
      diagnosis can predict clinical outcome better than histopathology.

PMID- 28886808
TI  - Assessing Skin Cancer Using Epidermal Genetic Information Retrieved by Adhesive
      Patch Skin Surface Sampling.
AB  - The detection of melanoma can be challenging. Many patients have clinically
      equivocal lesions in cosmetically sensitive areas or have multiple suspicious
      lesions. Epidermal genetic information retrieval is a noninvasive diagnostic
      method involving the application of adhesive tape onto the skin's surface to
      recover genomic material from the epidermis. This genomic material can then be
      used in assays to determine gene expression profiles. Studies have shown the
      potential of this technology to aid clinicians in differentiating between
      melanomas and nevi. Although this technology is not meant to replace a biopsy, it
      can help guide the decision whether to biopsy.

PMID- 28886809
TI  - Detection of Genetic Aberrations in the Assessment and Prognosis of Melanoma.
AB  - The assessment of melanoma by light microscopy with hematoxylin-eosin staining
      remains an often subjective process. However, there are additional diagnostic
      measures that may be of utility, such as immunohistochemical staining and genetic
      evaluation. Adjunctive genetic assessment to augment the diagnosis of melanoma
      includes comparative genomic hybridization or fluorescent in situ hybridization
      to assess for gains or losses in genetic material, or gene expression profiling
      in some form, to ascertain the expression of genes associated with malignancy.
      Although these techniques may bolster the dermatopathologic assessment of
      melanoma, none of them, at the present time, are singularly diagnostic.
      Additional developments in the genetic assessment and prognostication of melanoma
      are anticipated.

PMID- 28886810
TI  - Assessing Genetic Expression Profiles in Melanoma Diagnosis.
AB  - Most melanocytic tumors can be characterized as a benign nevus or a melanoma by a
      trained pathologist using traditional histopathological methods. However, a
      minority demonstrates ambiguous features and continues to be a diagnostic
      challenge. Genetic expression profiling (GEP) assays have been developed in an
      effort to resolve this dilemma. These assays measure mRNA levels of specified
      genes using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction
      technology. The development of GEP assays, methodology, challenges associated
      with GEP validation and testing, and the suitability of a currently available GEP
      test for clinical use are reviewed.

PMID- 28886811
TI  - Assessing Genetic Expression Profiles in Melanoma Prognosis.
AB  - A 31-genetic expression profile (31-GEP) test (DecisionDx-Melanoma, Castle
      Biosciences Inc, Friendswood, TX, USA) was developed as a diagnostic test to
      assist physicians in the management of cutaneous malignant melanoma. Based on a
      patient's primary tumor expression levels of a panel of genes (28 discriminating
      genes and 3 control genes), a lesion is classified as "low risk" (class 1) or
      "high risk" (class 2) for metastasis. Studies evaluating the clinical utility and
      impact of the 31-GEP test showed it positively influenced clinical management and
      patient care, as clinicians incorporated the additional data to modify their
      clinical recommendations in a risk-appropriate manner.

PMID- 28886812
TI  - Smartphone-Based Applications for Skin Monitoring and Melanoma Detection.
AB  - With the advancement of mobile technologies, smartphone applications (apps) have
      become widely available and gained increasing attention as a novel tool to
      deliver dermatologic care. This article presents a review of various apps for
      skin monitoring and melanoma detection and a discussion of current limitations in
      the field of dermatology. Concerns regarding quality, transparency, and
      reliability have emerged because there are currently no established quality
      standards or regulatory oversight of mobile medical apps. Only a few apps have
      been evaluated clinically. Further research is needed to evaluate the utility and
      efficacy of smartphone apps in skin cancer screening and early melanoma
      detection.

PMID- 28886813
TI  - Teledermatology Applications in Skin Cancer Diagnosis.
AB  - Teledermatology has drawn interest in the dermatologic community, because it
      allows for earlier detection of skin cancer in patients with poor access to
      health care. Using a combination of dermoscopy and digital photography,
      teledermatology has demonstrated acceptable concordance with face-to-face
      clinical diagnoses in multiple settings for pigmented skin lesions. Additional
      studies on using teledermatology to assess nonpigmented skin lesions are needed.
      Future advances in mobile teledermatology may help make this technology more
      widespread and affordable. Although teledermatology is not a replacement for
      regular total body skin examinations, it is a useful tool to significantly reduce
      the burden of dermatologic malignancies.

PMID- 28886815
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28886814
TI  - Integrating Skin Cancer-Related Technologies into Clinical Practice.
AB  - Early diagnosis and treatment of melanoma improve survival. New technologies are
      emerging that may augment the diagnosis, assessment, and management of melanoma
      but penetrance into everyday practice is low. In the current health care climate,
      greater emphasis will be placed on the incorporation of technology for clinically
      suspicious pigmented lesions to facilitate better, more cost-effective
      management.

PMID- 28886816
TI  - The Importance of Early Recognition of Skin Cancer.

PMID- 28886817
TI  - Women in Sport: Historical Perspectives.
AB  - The history of women in sport in America was shaped by Victorian ideals and other
      belief systems prevalent during the nineteenth century. Medical experts of that
      era believed that intense exercise and competition could cause women to become
      masculine, threaten their ability to bear children, and create other reproductive
      health complications. Consequently, sport for women was reserved for upper-class
      women until the mid-twentieth century. Title IX of the Education Amendments had a
      significant and lasting impact on sport in America. Today, girls and women are
      enjoying sport at the interscholastic, intercollegiate, and professional levels
      comparable with their male counterparts.

PMID- 28886818
TI  - Cardiovascular Considerations in the Female Athlete.
AB  - Over several decades, much has been learned about the diverse physical impacts of
      exercise. Those who excel, such as elite athletes, have physiologic differences
      compared with the general population. There is a growing body of data suggesting
      that gender may play a role in these adaptations. Further, certain cardiac
      conditions may exhibit a gender predilection. This article explains the
      particular cardiac nuances of the female athlete.

PMID- 28886819
TI  - Nutritional Aspects of the Female Athlete.
AB  - Athletes have specific needs based on sex, size, sport, exercise intensity,
      duration of activity, phase of training, and the season in which the sport is
      played. Nutritionally, the female athlete is unique, with needs that may vary
      based on hormonal fluctuations related to the menstrual cycle. This article
      provides an overview of the distinct nutritional needs and concerns of the
      physically active female, including energy availability, macronutrient needs,
      micronutrient needs, hydration, supplements, and other nutritional issues.
      Although there is some research focusing specifically on the female athlete and
      her exceptional nutritional concerns, further gender-specific exploration is
      needed in all areas.

PMID- 28886820
TI  - Gastrointestinal Conditions in the Female Athlete.
AB  - Exercise can have significant effects on gastrointestinal diseases. Regular,
      moderate exercise can impart beneficial effects for the intestinal microbiome,
      irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, and inflammatory bowel disease. High-intensity
      training or prolonged endurance training, on the other hand, can have negative
      effects on these same entities. Female athletes report a higher prevalence of
      irritable bowel syndrome and celiac disease, and furthermore, have
      gastrointestinal symptoms modulated by the menstrual cycle. Management of
      gastrointestinal problems in the athletic population is widespread and includes
      training adjustments, dietary measures, and medicine management of symptoms.

PMID- 28886822
TI  - Osteopenia and Osteoporosis in Female Athletes.
AB  - Disorders of bone density are especially prevalent among athletic women. The
      severity of bone loss ranges from osteopenia to frank osteoporosis. In female
      athletes, a higher incidence of osteoporosis is due to a decreased rate of bone
      accretion in youth, often as a result of hormonal deficiency and/or excessive
      exercise. Low bone mass poses a particular challenge for athletes because it
      predisposes to stress-related bone injuries and increases the risk of
      osteoporosis and insufficiency fractures with aging. This article reviews the
      pathophysiology of bone thinning in premenopausal and postmenopausal women, the
      impact of exercise, and the treatment options presently available.

PMID- 28886823
TI  - Update on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rupture and Care in the Female Athlete.
AB  - As female athlete sports participation has continued to increase, the rate of
      anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture in female athletes has also increased.
      Individualized, patient-specific treatment is crucial to achieving optimal
      outcomes; ACL reconstruction must accurately restore native ACL anatomy and
      address any concomitant injury to secondary stabilizers. Rehabilitation programs
      should target hip, core, and trunk neuromuscular control; allow adequate time for
      graft ligamentization; and address the psychosocial needs of the athlete.

PMID- 28886824
TI  - Sport Concussion and the Female Athlete.
AB  - Sport concussion (SC) has emerged as a major health concern in the medical
      community and general public owing to increased research and media attention,
      which has primarily focused on male athletes. Female athletes have an equal, if
      not increased, susceptibility to SC. An ever-growing body of research continues
      to compare male and female athletes in terms of SC before and after an injury.
      Clinicians must be cognizant of this literature to make evidence-based clinical
      decision when providing care to female athletes and discern between dated and/or
      unsupported claims in terms of SC.

PMID- 28886821
TI  - Female Athlete Triad: Future Directions for Energy Availability and Eating
      Disorder Research and Practice.
AB  - Despite more than 3 decades of research on the Female Athlete Triad, research
      gaps remain. Although low energy availability (EA) is the key etiologic factor in
      the Triad and the pathways to low EA are varied, its effects can be modified by
      several factors. Accurate screening, diagnosis, and treatment of disordered
      eating are a challenge; however, recent techniques combined with novel
      educational and behavior interventions prove promising. Recently published
      practice-based guidelines have helped to translate Triad science and should
      improve as they are refined. This article identifies the current state of
      research and distinguishes areas that require further investigation.

PMID- 28886825
TI  - Exercise in Pregnancy.
AB  - Routine exercise should be recommended to healthy pregnant women after
      consultation with an obstetric provider. Even pregnant women who have not been
      exercising regularly can gradually increase their exercise during pregnancy.
      Regular exercise during pregnancy promotes overall wellness and helps maintain
      appropriate gestational weight gain and appropriate fetal weight gain. Exercise
      in pregnancy may also reduce hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and gestational
      diabetes, and may be associated with shorter first stage of labor and decreased
      risk for cesarean section. Exercise in pregnancy is safe for pregnant women and
      their fetuses and can have multiple health benefits.

PMID- 28886826
TI  - Foreword.

PMID- 28886827
TI  - The Female Athlete.

PMID- 28886828
TI  - ?

PMID- 28886829
TI  - ?

PMID- 28886830
TI  - [An overview of transition from child to adult psychiatry].
AB  - The transition from child to adult psychiatry is a fundamental stage in an
      individual's development and in the care pathway of teenagers with mental health
      problems. The organisation of adult care is very different from that provided to
      children. There is often a lack of support provided to patients as they make the
      transition between these two systems, despite it being essential. Local
      initiatives must be developed to rethink this particularly vulnerable period.

PMID- 28886831
TI  - [From the perinatal period to adolescence: the three stages of coordination].
AB  - The need for coordinated organisation between infant-child psychiatry and adult
      psychiatry is highlighted through key periods, with the aid of a clinical case:
      the perinatal period and the hospitalisation of a mother with her child; the
      psychiatric support of the unwell mother and that of her daughter; then the
      transition for the 16-year-old teenager towards adult psychiatry. Taking into
      consideration the mother-child bond is essential and requires collaborative care
      projects, the creation of opportunities for joint reflection and organisation,
      and the acknowledgement that internal institutional divisions exist which are too
      often denied.

PMID- 28886832
TI  - [Towards a partnership-based care approach to adolescence].
AB  - The transition from child psychiatry to adult psychiatry is difficult. The need
      to reinforce this 'bridge' between the services is clear. A system focused on the
      assessment and orientation of adolescents, set up a year ago by Lille-Metropole
      public mental health service, aims to favour collaboration on a local level
      between the different players from the social, medical and educational sector
      working with young people aged between 12 and 21 in order to facilitate this
      transition.

PMID- 28886833
TI  - [Linking up medico-social care and psychiatry for adolescents with an
      intellectual disability].
AB  - The medical-educational institute in Quimperle caters for teenagers aged between
      13 and 16. While its missions are centred on the construction of a project and
      the provision of on-going and effective support for the young users, there are
      sometimes major difficulties relating to the links to be established with
      psychiatry. Young people with mental health conditions require shared and
      collective care. Three clinical cases reflect the successes and failures of this
      cross-disciplinary approach.

PMID- 28886834
TI  - [Joris or the story of a programmed break].
AB  - The case of Joris, a young patient with an atypical clinical presentation,
      highlights the malaise present in our institutions. In this situation, the
      passage from paedopsychiatry to adult psychiatry could only end in alienation.
      This case study provides a basis to explore the clinical and institutional
      cogwheel of a transitional period that is often difficult.

PMID- 28886835
TI  - [Alex, an example of a successful transition to adult psychiatry].
AB  - A successful transition between child psychiatry and adult psychiatry is the
      result of a joint project. To ensure the continuity of the adolescent's care, the
      two protagonists need a common and constructive clinical interpretation, and a
      shared understanding of the problems, without which the transition will be
      difficult. The story of Alex, a young teenager cared for since early childhood,
      illustrates the communication methods which must be put in place.

PMID- 28886836
TI  - [Occupational therapy: benefit of early intervention in the manic phase].
AB  - When people experiencing a manic episode arrive in hospital, restrictive measures
      are often put in place. The priority is to avoid all sources of stimulation,
      especially anything likely to activate the patient. The prescribing of
      occupational therapy sessions in a well-defined framework may however be
      appropriate at an early stage in the care. Aside from its effect on the
      therapeutic alliance, occupational therapy can help on the cognitive and temporal
      level, increasing awareness of the condition and engagement in the care.

PMID- 28886837
TI  - [Benefit of mortality and morbidity reviews in psychiatry].
AB  - A mortality and morbidity (M&M) review consists in analysing, collectively and
      retrospectively, the cases of patients whose evolution has been marked by a
      complication or death. This analysis must question whether such an outcome could
      have been avoided, making it possible to identify the causes and correct the
      factors having contributed to its occurrence. After a presentation of the
      methodological and organisational principles, as well as the M&M reviews carried
      out in France, attention is turned to those performed in psychiatry and
      identifying the main perspectives for the discipline.

PMID- 28886838
TI  - ?

PMID- 28886840
TI  - Cryptogenic Stroke and Patent Foramen Ovale Risk Assessment.
AB  - Stroke is a devastating condition. It is the fifth leading cause of death in the
      United States, and a leading cause of serious long-term disability. Stroke occurs
      at any age. Younger patients tend to have strokes of undetermined cause, termed
      cryptogenic. Herein, the authors describe the classification of stroke cause; the
      risk of recurrent cryptogenic stroke with patent foramen ovale (PFO); a risk
      assessment model to stratify incidental versus a pathogenic PFO in patients
      presenting with stroke; and patient selection for device occluder therapy in the
      context of the long-term follow-up of the RESPECT randomized clinical trial.

PMID- 28886841
TI  - Identification and Quantification of Patent Foramen Ovale-Mediated Shunts:
      Echocardiography and Transcranial Doppler.
AB  - Once deemed benign, patent foramen ovale (PFO)-mediated right-to-left shunting
      has now been linked to stroke, migraine, and hypoxemia. Contrast transesophageal
      echocardiography is considered the standard technique for identifying a PFO,
      allowing visualization of the atrial septal anatomy and differentiation from non
      PFO right-to-left shunts. Transthoracic echocardiography is the most common
      method for PFO imaging, being cost-effective, but has the lowest sensitivity.
      Transcranial Doppler is highly sensitive but is unable to differentiate cardiac
      from pulmonary shunts; it is the best method to quantitate shunt severity, being
      more sensitive than transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography so is our
      preferred screening method for PFO.

PMID- 28886839
TI  - Analysis of Common Eligibility Criteria of Randomized Controlled Trials in Newly
      Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma Patients and Extrapolating Outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The performance of multiple myeloma (MM) therapies in a general
      patient population and specific eligibility criteria that might limit enrollment
      into randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have not been evaluated in depth. This
      study aimed to determine if improvements seen with MM therapies in RCTs are
      reflected in the general patient population and to identify eligibility criteria
      that can be modified to increase enrollment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Connect MM
      Registry is a prospective observational cohort study of patients with newly
      diagnosed MM (NDMM) in the United States. Using common RCT exclusion criteria
      collected from 16 published studies, patients in the registry were categorized
      according to their eligibility for inclusion in RCTs. RESULTS: On the basis of
      common criteria, 563 of 1406 of registry patients (40.0%) are ineligible for
      RCTs. Criteria leading to exclusion included M-protein <= 1.0 g/dL (25.2%),
      creatinine > 2.5 mg/dL (13.9%), low absolute neutrophil count (10.0%), and low
      hemoglobin (9.6%). Significantly more RCT-ineligible versus RCT-eligible patients
      had hypercalcemia (11.0% vs. 5.5%), elevated creatinine levels (38.9% vs. 6.2%),
      low hemoglobin levels (59.5% vs. 39.5%), or International Staging System stage
      III disease (40.1% vs. 22.1%; P < .001 for all comparisons). RCT-ineligible
      patients had a lower 3-year survival rate than RCT-eligible patients (63% vs.
      70%). The incidence of serious adverse events was similar between groups.
      CONCLUSION: Of patients with NDMM enrolled in the Connect MM Registry, 40% are
      ineligible for RCTs. This study provides insight into potential modifications of
      standard eligibility criteria that can lead to improved RCT design and
      accelerated enrollment.

PMID- 28886842
TI  - Imaging Assessment of the Interatrial Septum for Transcatheter Atrial Septal
      Defect and Patent Foramen Ovale Closure.
AB  - Transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects and patent foramen ovale has
      become increasingly common with advances in device and imaging technology. The
      percutaneous approach is now the preferred method of closure when anatomically
      suitable. Two-dimensional and 3-dimensional echocardiography determines anatomic
      suitability by characterizing the interatrial defect and its surrounding
      structures, and is critical for intraprocedural guidance and postprocedure follow
      up. This article provides an overview of interatrial anatomy as it pertains to
      interventional considerations and discusses the transthoracic, transesophageal,
      and intracardiac echocardiographic modalities used for periprocedural and
      intraprocedural imaging of the interatrial septum.

PMID- 28886843
TI  - Current Dataset for Patent Foramen Ovale Closure in Cryptogenic Stroke:
      Randomized Clinical Trials and Observational Studies.
AB  - Approximately one-third of all strokes have no apparent cause. A patent foramen
      ovale (PFO) is present in as many as 60% of these patients with cryptogenic
      strokes, which is significantly more frequent than that of the general
      population. The presumed biologic mechanisms of ischemic stroke in the setting of
      a PFO are paradoxic embolism from the peripheral venous system through this
      interatrial shunt or embolism from in situ thrombosis. In this review, the
      authors summarize and critically assess the contemporary studies evaluating the
      efficacy and safety of PFO closure for prevention of recurrent cryptogenic
      strokes.

PMID- 28886844
TI  - Patent Foramen Ovale and Migraine Headache.
AB  - Migraine headache is a common and debilitating disease that has a demonstrable
      association with the presence of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in multiple case
      series. Closure of PFO has been performed to try to treat migraine with aura,
      with variable results. Although early trials suggested benefit to PFO closure,
      these were of poor quality, and subsequent randomized trials have failed to yield
      positive results. This article discusses the evidence of an association with PFO
      and migraine headache, and the trials that have so far been performed to assess
      the benefits of closure.

PMID- 28886845
TI  - Patent Foramen Ovale Closure for Hypoxemia.
AB  - A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a common anatomic finding in 20% of the normal
      population. Significant hypoxemia can occur in circumstances in which hemodynamic
      or anatomic changes predispose to increased right-to-left intra-atrial shunting.
      The subsequent hypoxemia produces substantial dyspnea that may affect the
      patient's quality of life, independent of underlying pulmonary disease. Profound
      hypoxemia caused by right-to-left shunt across the interatrial septum usually
      responds to percutaneous PFO closure. An important impediment to successful
      treatment is the lack of awareness of the potential role of a PFO in this
      condition.

PMID- 28886846
TI  - Transcatheter Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale: Devices and Technique.
AB  - Transcatheter closure of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) reduces the risk of
      recurrent cryptogenic stroke compared with medical therapy. PFO closure is a
      prophylactic procedure, and will not provide the patient with symptomatic
      improvement, except in cases of hypoxemia due to right-to-left shunt or possibly
      migraine headaches. Therefore, appropriate patient selection is critical, and
      procedural safety is paramount. Herein, we review key characteristics of the
      devices currently available for transcatheter PFO closure within the United
      States, and highlight key technical aspects of the PFO closure procedure that
      will maximize procedural success.

PMID- 28886847
TI  - Transcatheter Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale.

PMID- 28886848
TI  - Preparing a Systematic Review for the American Journal of Ophthalmology: Updated
      Guidance.

PMID- 28886849
TI  - The Best and the Brightest.

PMID- 28886850
TI  - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Versus Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement
      in Lower-Surgical-Risk Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
AB  - Respiratory complications are a major factor contributing to postoperative
      morbidity and mortality, especially in patients with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD). Our objective was to compare the rate of respiratory
      complications in patients with COPD with severe aortic stenosis who underwent
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) versus surgical aortic valve
      replacement (SAVR). Low-to-intermediate surgical-risk patients with moderate or
      severe COPD who underwent TAVI or SAVR at 2 tertiary centers were included in
      this study. COPD was defined by the Global Initiative for Chronic Lung Disease
      classification. The primary end point was the 30-day composite of respiratory
      mortality, prolonged ventilation (>24 hours), the need for reintubation for
      respiratory causes, tracheostomy, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia,
      or pneumothorax. The inverse probability of treatment weighting was determined to
      reduce baseline imbalance between the 2 groups. A total of 321 patients (mean age
      72.4 +/- 9.3 years old, 74.5% male, mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted
      risk of mortality 3.8 +/- 1.9%, mean forced expiratory volume 1: 59 +/- 13%) were
      included in the analysis. TAVI was performed in 122 patients, whereas 199
      underwent SAVR. There were no differences between the 2 groups regarding the
      composite respiratory primary end point (SAVR 10.6%, TAVR 7.4%, adjusted odds
      ratio 0.57, 95% confidence interval 0.20 to 1.65, p = 0.30). Transfemoral TAVI
      without general anesthesia (28 patients) was associated with the lowest rate of
      respiratory complications (3.6%). Among patients with moderate or severe COPD at
      low-to-intermediate surgical risk, TAVI patients had a similar rate of 30-day
      major pulmonary complications compared with SAVR patients despite a higher
      baseline risk profile. Future studies should further investigate whether TAVI is
      associated with reduced respiratory complications, comparing transfemoral TAVI
      recipients treated with local anesthesia with their SAVR counterparts.

PMID- 28886851
TI  - Meta-Analysis of Comparison of 5-Year Outcomes of Percutaneous Coronary
      Intervention Versus Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in Patients With Unprotected
      Left Main Coronary Artery in the Era of Drug-eluting Stents.
AB  - Patients with unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA) disease are
      increasingly being treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using
      drug-eluting stents (DES), but long-term outcomes comparing PCI with coronary
      artery bypass grafting (CABG) remain limited. We performed aggregate data meta
      analyses of clinical outcomes (all-cause death, nonfatal myocardial infarction,
      stroke, repeat revascularization, cardiac death, and major adverse cardiac and
      cerebrovascular events) in studies comparing 5-year outcomes of PCI with DES
      versus CABG in patients with ULMCA disease. A comprehensive literature search
      (January 1, 2003 to December 10, 2016) identified 9 studies (6,637 patients).
      Effect size for individual clinical outcomes was estimated using odds ratio (OR)
      with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a random effects model. At 5 years, PCI
      with DES was associated with equivalent cardiac (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.62 to 1.46)
      and all-cause mortality (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.33), lower rates of stroke (OR
      0.50, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.84), and higher rates of repeat revascularization (OR
      2.52, 95% CI 1.63 to 3.91); compared with CABG, major adverse cardiac and
      cerebrovascular events showed a trend favoring CABG but did not reach statistical
      significance (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.54). In conclusion, for ULMCA disease,
      PCI can be considered as a comparably effective and yet less invasive alternative
      to CABG given the comparable long-term mortality and lower incidences of stroke.

PMID- 28886852
TI  - Prevalence of Hypertension in Professional Drivers (from the RACER-ABPM Study).
AB  - Professional drivers are a group exposed to many cardiovascular risk factors.
      Nonsystematic working hours, stress, low physical activity, and unhealthy dietary
      habits are common among professional drivers. These translate into high risk of
      cardiovascular disease. The aim of the current analysis was to establish the
      prevalence of arterial hypertension in a group of continuous professional
      drivers. The RACER (Risk of Adverse Cardiovascular Events among professional
      dRivers in Poland) study is a prospective study focused on assessing
      cardiovascular risk factors in professional drivers. Patients included in the
      study were screened for the classical and nonclassical cardiovascular risk
      factors and had an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) performed. Of the
      RACER study population, 144 drivers were included into the RACER-ABPM study. Of
      this group 135 (95.7%) were male at mean age of 50.2 +/- 9.3 years, with mean
      body mass index of 32.3 +/- 3.0 kg/m2. In 21.3% of patients, family history of
      cardiovascular disease was noted, 28.1% were current smokers, and 2.9% had
      diabetes mellitus. Arterial hypertension was previously diagnosed in 39 patients
      (27.9%). In ABPM, the mean 24-hour blood pressure (BP) values were 130.3 +/- 14.3
      and 80.9 +/- 9.9 for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively, and 46.1% of
      patients could be categorized as dippers. Based on the ABPM results, arterial
      hypertension was diagnosed in 104 of patients (73.8%). Patients with hypertension
      tend to be more often male and have a family history of cardiovascular disease.
      In conclusion, arterial hypertension is highly prevalent in professional drivers.
      Also abnormal day-to-night BP value patterns are often seen in this group.

PMID- 28886853
TI  - Comparison of Efficacy and Safety of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in
      Patients With Bicuspid Versus Tricuspid Aortic Valves.
AB  - Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) stenosis has been considered a contraindication to
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The aim of this study is to
      compare the efficacy and safety of TAVI in patients with BAV with those with
      tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) using balloon-expandable and self-expanding
      transcatheter heart valves. This retrospective study included 823 consecutive
      patients with severe, symptomatic aortic valve stenosis undergoing TAVI in 2
      institutions, Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital (Dallas, TX) and The Heart
      Hospital Baylor Plano (Plano, TX), from January 2012 to February 2016. Efficacy
      was evaluated by postprocedural valve function as mean gradient, peak velocity,
      effective orifice area, and >=moderate paravalvular leak. Safety end points
      included all-cause 30-day and 1-year mortality, immediate postprocedural
      mortality and 30-day cardiovascular mortality, procedural success, pacemaker
      implantation, and procedural complications. Of the 823 included patients, 735 had
      TAV and 77 had BAV. Baseline characteristics were similar between the 2 groups.
      Procedural success was high in both BAV and TAV (98.7% vs 99.1%, p = ns). There
      were no significant differences between groups in valve hemodynamics after TAVI,
      pacemaker implantation rate, or procedural complications. There were no
      differences regarding immediate postprocedural mortality (BAV vs TAV, 1.1% vs
      0.8%, p = ns), nor 30-day cardiovascular mortality (3.4% vs 2.3%, p = ns). All
      cause mortality at 30 days (3.4% vs 3.1%, p = ns) and 1-year (8.5% vs 10.5%) were
      similar. Patients with BAV showed similar procedural and clinical outcomes to
      patients with TAV. Therefore, TAVI appears to be a safe and effective procedure
      for patients with BAVs as well as those with TAVs.

PMID- 28886854
TI  - Impact of Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Mortality in Black Male Veterans With
      Resistant Systemic Hypertension.
AB  - Patients with resistant systemic hypertension have poorer outcomes than
      nonresistant hypertensives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
      association between cardiorespiratory fitness and all-cause mortality in black
      male Veterans with resistant systemic hypertension. Patients were identified from
      a cohort undergoing exercise tolerance test at the department of Veterans Affairs
      Medical Center in Washington, DC. Patients were divided into 4 cardiorespiratory
      fitness categories based on age-specific peak metabolic equivalents achieved on a
      standard Bruce protocol. Multivariate Cox models were used to estimate hazard
      ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause mortality across
      all fitness categories. A total of 1,276 patients out of 9,068 hypertensives had
      resistant hypertension defined as systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure >140
      and/or >90 mm Hg, respectively, on 3 antihypertensive medications, one of which
      was a diuretic or use of >4 antihypertensive medications. During a follow-up of
      9.5 +/- 4.2 years, an inverse association was observed between cardiorespiratory
      fitness and all-cause mortality in patients with resistant hypertension. Compared
      with the least-fit group, mortality was reduced by 21% in the low-fit group (HR
      0.79, CI 0.60 to 1.05; p value: 0.280), 36% in the moderate-fit group (HR 0.64,
      CI 0.48 to 0.87; p value 0.001), and 62% in the high-fit group (HR 0.38, CI 0.25
      to 0.56; p value <0.001). In conclusion, an inverse association was observed
      between the level of cardiorespiratory fitness and all-cause mortality in
      patients with resistant systemic hypertension. Compared with the least-fit
      referent group, the high-fit group had a significant 62% lower risk of all-cause
      mortality.

PMID- 28886855
TI  - Effect of Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation on Heart Failure Readmission Rates.
AB  - Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) cause numerous hospital
      admissions. We investigated if AF increases readmissions in patients with HF and
      whether AF ablation alters readmissions for HF exacerbations. The 2013 Nationwide
      Readmissions Database was analyzed for all-cause 90-day readmissions, after
      discharge for HF exacerbation. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare hazard
      rates for readmissions due to HF exacerbation, after recent ablation versus no
      ablation. There were 885,270 admissions for HF exacerbation of which 364,447 had
      coexisting AF. All-cause 90-day readmission rates were higher in patients with HF
      with coexisting AF versus those without AF (41.4% vs 37.6%, p <0.0001).
      Associated factors increasing all-cause 90-day readmissions after ablation in
      patients without HF were female (odds ratio [OR] 1.44, p <0.001), complication of
      ablation (OR 1.44, p = 0.022), coronary artery disease (OR 1.56, p <0.001),
      chronic lung disease (OR 1.74, p <0.001), and malnutrition (OR 10.33, p <0.001).
      These factors were not significant for patients with HF. HF was not a significant
      risk factor for complications of ablation (adjusted OR 0.82, 95% confidence
      interval 0.57 to 1.18). Patients who underwent ablation versus patients who were
      discharged after HF exacerbation without ablation had a lower rate and length of
      stay for the 90-day readmission episode, due to HF exacerbation (27.5% vs 41.4%,
      p <0.0001, and 5.58 days vs 6.60 days, p = 0.031, respectively). In conclusion,
      AF increased 90-day readmissions in patients with HF, and ablation for AF in
      patients with HF was associated with reduced frequency, length of stay, and
      readmissions without an increase in complication rates.

PMID- 28886856
TI  - Outcome of Patients Receiving Thrombolytic Therapy While on Rivaroxaban for
      Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation (from Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct Factor
      Xa Inhibition Compared With Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke and
      Embolism Trial in Atrial Fibrillation).
AB  - The safety of intravenous thrombolysis in patients taking rivaroxaban has not
      been well established. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of all patients
      who received thrombolytic therapy in the Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct
      Factor Xa Inhibition Compared With Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke
      and Embolism Trial in Atrial Fibrillation (ROCKET AF). A review of medical and
      adverse event records for patients receiving thrombolytic therapy while enrolled
      in ROCKET AF was performed to determine their baseline characteristics,
      indications for thrombolysis, and type of agent used. Safety end points were 30
      day post-thrombolytic rates of stroke, bleeding, and mortality. A total of 28
      patients in ROCKET AF received thrombolytic therapy, with 19 patients on
      rivaroxaban and 9 patients on warfarin. Ischemic stroke was the most common
      indication for thrombolysis (n = 10), and alteplase was the most commonly used
      fibrinolytic agent (n = 14). Of the 19 patients in the rivaroxaban group, there
      were 2 nonfatal bleeding events and 2 deaths, mostly occurring when thrombolytic
      therapy was administered within 48 hours of the last rivaroxaban dose. Of the 9
      patients in the warfarin group, there was 1 nonfatal bleeding event and 3 deaths,
      most occurring when thrombolytic therapy was administered outside of 48 hours
      from the last warfarin dose. In conclusion, these observations suggest that
      careful assessment of the time since the last dose may be of clinical
      significance in patients on novel oral anticoagulants who require emergent
      thrombolysis.

PMID- 28886857
TI  - Impact of National Health Checkup Service on Hard Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular
      Disease Events and All-Cause Mortality in the General Population.
AB  - Whether health checkups favorably impact the occurrence of atherosclerotic
      cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and all-cause mortality in the general population
      remains in debate. We investigated further the impact of health checkups on hard
      ASCVD events and all-cause mortality. We compared the occurrence of hard ASCVD
      events and all-cause deaths for 4 years starting in 2010 between participants who
      used the National Health Checkup Service (NHCS) more than twice and
      nonparticipants who never used the NHCS from 2006 to 2009. From the 342,594
      survivors aged 40 to 69 years old in 2006 listed in the National Health Insurance
      Service-National Sample Cohort, a total of 55,275 pairs were selected by
      propensity matching. Hard ASCVD events were defined as the composite of
      myocardial infarction and stroke. In the 55,275 matched pairs, we found a
      significant association between the use of the NHCS and the reduction in hard
      ASCVD events (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.84, 95% confidence interval 0.76 to 0.92,
      p <0.001) and all-cause deaths (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.50, 95% confidence
      interval 0.45 to 0.55, p <0.001). The participants had more medical care,
      including outpatient care and hospitalizations, and took more hypertension and
      dyslipidemia medications, whereas hospitalizations for more than 60 days were
      significantly more frequent in the nonparticipants. In the subgroup analysis, the
      reduction in hard ASCVD events for NHCS participants was significantly greater in
      patients without a previous history of dyslipidemia or who did not have
      outpatient care. In conclusion, the use of the NHCS was significantly associated
      with reduced hard ASCVD events and all-cause mortality in the general population.

PMID- 28886859
TI  - Static-dynamic hybrid communication scheduling and control co-design for
      networked control systems.
AB  - In this paper, the static-dynamic hybrid communication scheduling and control co
      design is proposed for the networked control systems (NCSs) to solve the capacity
      limitation of the wireless communication network. The analytical most regular
      binary sequences (MRBSs) are used as the communication scheduling function for
      NCSs. When the communication conflicts yielded in the binary sequence MRBSs, a
      dynamic scheduling strategy is proposed to on-line reallocate the medium access
      status for each plant. Under such static-dynamic hybrid scheduling policy, plants
      in NCSs are described as the non-uniform sampled-control systems, whose
      controller have a group of controller gains and switch according to the sampling
      interval yielded by the binary sequence. A useful communication scheduling and
      control co-design framework is proposed for the NCSs to simultaneously decide the
      controller gains and the parameters used to generate the communication sequences
      MRBS. Numerical example and realistic example are respectively given to
      demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed co-design method.

PMID- 28886860
TI  - Primary Headache Disorders Part I- Migraine and the Trigeminal Autonomic
      Cephalalgias.
AB  - In Primary Headache Disorders, Part 1, we discuss three of the primary headache
      disorders using the headache definitions from ICHD-III (Beta): Migraine, with and
      without aura; its pathophysiology and treatment are discussed. We then discuss
      the Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias (TACs), including Cluster Headache and
      Hemicrania Continua, two more primary headache disorders, as well as the other
      TAC Headaches. We discuss pathophysiology as well as diagnosis, treatment, and
      pharmacotherapeutic management of these headache diatheses.

PMID- 28886861
TI  - Primary Headache Disorders- Part 2: Tension-type headache and medication overuse
      headache.
AB  - In Part 2 of Primary Headache disorders, we discuss the fourth Primary Headache
      Disorder, Tension-Type Headache (TTHA). We are again using the ICHD-III (Beta)
      definitions of such headaches, taking into consideration episodic and chronic
      TTHA, as well as the presence or absence of pericranial muscle tenderness. We
      discuss the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapeutic treatment of TTHA, and the
      aspects of the Myofascial Pain Syndrome that enhance and help the development of
      TTHA. We then discuss Medication Overuse Headache (MOH), itself a Secondary
      headache disorder, but one that is extremely important as it assists with the
      chronification of both migraine and TTHA. Finally we discuss how to manage and
      treat those patients with MOH. Chronic migraine, which is TTHA, Migraine as well
      as, in many patients, MOH, is discussed along with the treatment of this
      multifaceted disorder.

PMID- 28886862
TI  - Understanding positive immigrant youth adaptation in the context of
      multiculturalism.
AB  - This commentary highlights some of the strengths of the papers in this special
      issue focusing on how they advance acculturation research; how they link
      immigrant youth research with positive youth development and how they provide
      some insights into understanding how immigrant youth thrive in their adoptive
      societies. The commentary takes as its point of departure the prototypical
      research question for immigrant youth research within the perspective of positive
      youth development and the ultimate goals of acculturation research, i.e., to (i)
      promote positive psychological acculturation and the well-being of individuals
      and (ii) the attainment of harmonious intercultural relations among all groups in
      contact, and argues that the four papers fall short in addressing the second
      goal. The second goal is subsequently linked to multiculturalism and suggest that
      to do full justice to the prototypical research question, more attention should
      be directed to incorporating indicators of multiculturalism in acculturation
      research.

PMID- 28886863
TI  - Critical role of mammalian target of rapamycin for IL-10 dendritic cell induction
      by a flagellin A conjugate in preventing allergic sensitization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fusion proteins incorporating the Toll-like receptor 5 ligand
      flagellin are currently undergoing clinical trials as vaccine candidates for many
      diseases. OBJECTIVE: We studied the mechanisms of immune modulation by a
      flagellin:allergen fusion protein containing the Toll-like receptor 5 ligand
      flagellin A from Listeria monocytogenes and the birch pollen allergen Bet v 1
      (recombinant flagellin A [rFlaA]:Betv1). METHODS: BALB/c mice were vaccinated
      with rFlaA:Betv1 in an experimental Bet v 1 sensitization model. Myeloid
      dendritic cells (mDCs) were differentiated from mouse bone marrow, and PBMCs were
      isolated from subjects with birch pollen allergy. Cells were stimulated with
      equimolar amounts of rFlaA, rBet v 1, rFlaA plus rBet v 1, or the rFlaA:Betv1
      conjugate and analyzed for cell activation, cytokine secretion, and metabolic
      state. RESULTS: rFlaA:Betv1 displayed strong immune-modulating properties both in
      vivo and in vitro, as characterized by secretion of both proinflammatory and anti
      inflammatory cytokines from murine mDCs and PBMCs from patients with birch
      allergy. rFlaA:Betv1 suppressed TH2 responses from Bet v 1-specific CD4+ T cells
      and prevented allergic sensitization in a mouse allergy model. Aggregation of
      rFlaA:Betv1 resulted in stronger protein uptake accompanied by an increased
      resistance to microsomal digestion. Remarkably, rFlaA:Betv1 induced activation of
      mammalian target of rapamycin, which increased the metabolic activity of the
      stimulated mDCs. rFlaA:Betv1-mediated IL-10 secretion, but not proinflammatory
      cytokine secretion, was inhibited by rapamycin in mDCs. CONCLUSION: These results
      provide evidence that mammalian target of rapamycin is a key player involved in
      prevention of TH2 responses by flagellin A conjugate vaccines.

PMID- 28886864
TI  - Analysis of the cranio-cervical curvatures in subjects with migraine with and
      without neck pain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the differences in head and cervical spine alignment
      between subjects with migraine and healthy people. DESIGN: A cross-sectional,
      observational study. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty subjects with migraine and 50 matched
      healthy controls. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The presence of neck pain and neck pain
      related disability was assessed. Four angles (high cervical angle, low cervical
      angle, atlas plane angle and cervical lordosis Cobb angle) as well as four
      distances (anterior translation distance, C0 to C1 distance, C2 to C7 posterior
      translation and hyoid triangle) were calculated using digitalised radiographs and
      analysed using K-Pacs(r) software. RESULTS: Subjects with migraine reported a
      longer history of neck pain symptoms, and higher pain intensity and neck-pain
      related disability than controls (P<0.01). Patients exhibited a smaller anterior
      translation distance (mean difference: 4.9mm, 95% confidence interval 1.8 to 8.8;
      P<0.001) and hyoid triangle (difference: 3.0mm, 95% confidence interval 1.0 to
      5.0; P=0.02) than healthy controls. When the presence or the absence of neck pain
      was included in the analysis, the differences did not change. Differences in
      anterior translation and hyoid triangle distances were considered clinically
      relevant for subjects with migraine suffering from neck pain. CONCLUSION:
      Subjects with migraine exhibited straightening of cervical lordosis curvature.
      The presence of neck pain did not influence head posture in subjects with and
      without migraine.

PMID- 28886858
TI  - Trends and Impact of Door-to-Balloon Time on Clinical Outcomes in Patients Aged
      <75, 75 to 84, and >=85 Years With ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
AB  - Guidelines strongly recommend patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) receive timely mechanical reperfusion, defined as door-to-balloon time
      (DTBT) <=90 minutes. The impact of timely reperfusion on clinical outcomes in
      patients aged 75-84 and >=85 years is uncertain. We analysed 2,972 consecutive
      STEMI patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention from the
      Melbourne Interventional Group Registry (2005-2014). Patients aged <75 years were
      included in the younger group, those aged 75-84 years were in the elderly group
      and those >=85 years were in the very elderly group. The primary endpoints were
      12-month mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). 2,307 (77.6%)
      patients were <75 years (mean age 59 +/- 9 years), 495 (16.7%) were 75-84 years
      and 170 (5.7%) were >=85 years. There has been a significant decrease in DTBT
      over 10 years in younger and elderly patients (p-for-trend <0.01 and 0.03) with a
      trend in the very elderly (p-for-trend 0.08). Compared to younger and elderly
      patients, the very elderly had higher 12-month mortality (3.6% vs 10.7% vs.
      29.4%; p = 0.001) and MACE (10.8% vs 20.6% vs 33.5%; p = 0.001). DTBT <=90
      minutes was associated with improved outcomes on univariate analysis but was not
      an independent predictor of improved 12-month mortality (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.54
      1.31) or MACE (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.67-1.16). In conclusion, over a 10-year period,
      there was an improvement in DTBT in patients aged <75 years and 75-84 years
      however DTBT <=90 minutes was not an independent predictor of 12-month outcomes.
      Thus assessing whether patients aged >=85 years are suitable for invasive
      management does not necessarily translate to worse clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28886865
TI  - Updated reliability and normative values for the standing heel-rise test in
      healthy adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The heel-rise test is used to assess the strength and endurance of
      the plantar flexors in everyday clinical practice. However, several factors may
      affect outcomes, including sex, age, body mass index and activity level. The aims
      of this study were to revisit the reliability and normative values of this test,
      and establish normative equations accounting for several factors. DESIGN: Cross
      sectional observational study with test-retest. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS:
      Volunteers (n=566, age 20 to 81 years). INTERVENTIONS: Subjects performed single
      legged heel rises to fatigue, standing on a 10 degrees  incline, once on each
      leg. A subset of subjects (n=32) repeated the test 1 week later. Reliability was
      quantified using intraclass (ICC) correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots
      {mean difference [95% limits of agreement (LOA)]}, whereas the impact of sex,
      age, body mass index and activity level on the number of heel rises was
      determined using non-parametric regression models. RESULTS: The test showed
      excellent reliability (ICC=1.0 right leg, 1.0 left leg), with mean between-day
      differences in the total number of heel-rise repetitions of 0.2 (95% LOA -6.2 to
      6.5) and 0.1 (95% LOA -6.1 to 6.2) for right and left legs, respectively.
      Overall, males completed more repetitions than females (median 24 vs 21).
      However, older females (age >60years) outperformed older males. According to the
      model, younger males with higher activity levels can complete the most heel
      rises. CONCLUSIONS: The heel-rise test is highly reliable. The regression models
      herein can be employed by clinicians to evaluate the outcomes of heel-rise tests
      of individuals against a comparable normative population.

PMID- 28886866
TI  - Genetics, hormonal influences, and preterm birth.
AB  - Prematurity is a devastating disease with high neonatal morbidity and mortality
      based on gestational age at birth. Genetic and hormonal signals impact directly
      on the maternal predisposition to preterm birth or sudden onset of myometrial
      contractility. Candidate gene or genome-wide approaches are beginning to identify
      potential variants for women at risk for premature delivery or increased
      responsiveness to hormonal signals including progesterone. However, a majority of
      these studies have not yielded definitive results to allow for at this stage for
      development of personalized therapy.

PMID- 28886867
TI  - Experiences of vulnerability and uncertainty during the Iraq and Afghanistan
      wars: Stories of wounded service members and the nurses who cared for them.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The findings reported in this paper were derived from a secondary
      analysis of selected data from a large clinical knowledge study designed to
      document the experiential learning of military and federal nurses caring for
      critically wounded service members (WSMs) of their experience of care from point
      of injury in the combat zone through their rehabilitation. FINDINGS: This article
      describes a picture of vulnerability and uncertainty in both WSMs and their
      nurses throughout the health care continuum. The concepts of vulnerability and
      uncertainty had distinct meanings for each group. In many cases, nurses who were
      deployed revealed a dual encounter with the vulnerability of war along with
      personal uncertainty about themselves and their patients. DISCUSSION: To support
      optimized health care of WSMs and the well-being of caregivers, health care
      professionals and policy makers must understand the effects and dynamics of
      serving in a warzone.

PMID- 28886868
TI  - Sharper angle, higher risk? The effect of cutting angle on knee mechanics in
      invasion sport athletes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cutting is an important skill in team-sports, but unfortunately is
      also related to non-contact ACL injuries. The purpose was to examine knee
      kinetics and kinematics at different cutting angles. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 13
      males and 16 females performed cuts at different angles (45 degrees , 90 degrees
      , 135 degrees  and 180 degrees ) at maximum speed. 3D kinematics and kinetics
      were collected. To determine differences across cutting angles (45 degrees , 90
      degrees , 135 degrees  and 180 degrees ) and sex (female, male), a 4*2 repeated
      measures ANOVA was conducted followed by post hoc comparisons (Bonferroni) with
      alpha level set at alpha<=0.05a priori. RESULTS: At all cutting angles, males
      showed greater knee flexion angles than females (p<0.01). Also, where males
      performed all cutting angles with no differences in the amount of knee flexion 
      42.53 degrees +/-8.95 degrees , females decreased their knee flexion angle from 
      40.6 degrees +/-7.2 degrees  when cutting at 45 degrees  to -36.81 degrees +/
      9.10 degrees  when cutting at 90 degrees , 135 degrees  and 180 degrees 
      (p<0.01). Knee flexion moment decreased for both sexes when cutting towards
      sharper angles (p<0.05). At 90 degrees , 135 degrees  and 180 degrees , males
      showed greater knee valgus moments than females. For both sexes, knee valgus
      moment increased towards the sharper cutting angles and then stabilized compared
      to the 45 degrees  cutting angle (p<0.01). Both females and males showed smaller
      vGRF when cutting to sharper angles (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded
      that different cutting angles demand different knee kinematics and kinetics.
      Sharper cutting angles place the knee more at risk. However, females and males
      handle this differently, which has implications for injury prevention.

PMID- 28886870
TI  - Children and young people's views on institutional safety: It's not just because
      we're little.
AB  - The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual
      Abuse has set in motion a number of systemic and organizational approaches to
      identify and respond to child sexual abuse. These include increased child abuse
      awareness, developing and enhancing child-safe organizational cultures and
      policies and more thorough screening and supervision of staff in child and youth
      serving organizations. Although these advances should be applauded, many of the
      concerns that children and young people have raised about interpersonal safety
      have not been fully addressed. There is therefore a risk that children's
      physical, relational, generational, and organizational powerlessness are
      reinforced through child-safe practices that restrict their meaningful
      participation, ignore their agency and capacity and fail to respond to their felt
      safety needs or wishes. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative
      research project conducted with 121 Australian children and young people and
      presents their perspectives on issues of vulnerability and the ways that they
      would like adults and institutions to respond to their safety concerns. The value
      of adult-child alliances, of formal mechanisms that are child-friendly and
      accessible and having external agencies monitor and review institutional
      strategies to preventing harm are discussed.

PMID- 28886869
TI  - Immunohistochemical study of arginases 1 and 2 in the olfactory bulbs of the
      Korean roe deer, Capreolus pygargus.
AB  - Arginases are enzymes of the urea cycle that catalyze the hydrolysis of l
      arginine to ornithine and urea. The enzymes are core components of the arginine
      ornithine-glutamate-gamma-amino butyric acid pathway of the central nervous
      system. In the present study, we immunohistochemically determined the
      localization of arginase 1 and 2 in the olfactory bulb (OB) of the roe dear
      (Capreolus pygargus). Reverse transcription PCR revealed that the mRNAs encoding
      both arginase 1 and 2 were expressed in the OB. Arginase 1 was localized to
      olfactory nerve axons, calcitonin gene-related peptide-positive mitral/tufted
      cells (excitatory neurons), and glutamate acid decarboxylase 65/67-immunopositive
      periglomerular cells of the main olfactory bulb. The arginase 2
      immunoreactivities in the OB tissues were similar to those of arginase 1.
      Furthermore, both arginases were detected in the accessory olfactory bulb. These
      findings suggest that both arginase 1 and 2 are potentially associated with
      excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter activities in animal OBs, including
      those of the roe deer.

PMID- 28886872
TI  - [Benefits of volumetric to facial rejuvenation. Part 1: Fat grafting].
AB  - For a number of years, a volumetric approach using autologous fat injection has
      been implemented to improve cosmetic outcome in face-lift procedures and to
      achieve lasting rejuvenation. Autologous fat as filling tissue has been used in
      plastic surgery since the late 19th century, but has only recently been
      associated to face lift procedures. The interest of the association lies on the
      one hand in the pathophysiology of facial aging, involving skin sag and loss of
      volume, and on the other hand in the tissue induction properties of grafted fat,
      "rejuvenating" the injected area. The strict methodology consisting in
      harvesting, treating then injecting an autologous fat graft is known as
      LipoStructure(r) or lipofilling. We here describe the technique overall, then
      region by region. It is now well known and seems simple, effective and
      reproducible, but is nevertheless delicate. For each individual, it is necessary
      to restore a harmonious face with well-distributed volumes. By associating
      volumetric to the face lift procedure, the plastic surgeon plays a new role:
      instead of being a tailor, cutting away excess skin, he or she becomes a
      sculptor, remodeling the face to restore the harmony of youth.

PMID- 28886871
TI  - DAF in diabetic patients is subject to glycation/inactivation at its active site
      residues.
AB  - Decay accelerating factor (DAF or CD55) is a cell associated C3 and C5 convertase
      regulator originally described in terms of protection of self-cells from systemic
      complement but now known to modulate adaptive T cell responses. It is expressed
      on all cell types. We investigated whether nonenzymatic glycation could impair
      its function and potentially be relevant to complications of diabetes mellitus
      and other conditions that result in nonenzymatic glycation including cancer,
      Alzheimer's disease, and aging. Immunoblots of affinity-purified DAF from
      erythrocytes of patients with diabetes showed pentosidine, glyoxal-AGEs,
      carboxymethyllysine, and argpyrimidine. HPLC/MS analyses of glucose modified DAF
      localized the sites of AGE modifications to K125 adjacent to K126, K127 at the
      junction of CCPs2-3 and spatially near R96, and R100, all identified as being
      critical for DAF's function. Functional analyses of glucose or ribose treated DAF
      protein showed profound loss of its regulatory activity. The data argue that de
      regulated activation of systemic complement and de-regulated activation of T
      cells and leukocytes could result from non-enzymatic glycation of DAF.

PMID- 28886874
TI  - Welcome to the New Age. Claude Bernard's "Introduction to the Study of
      Experimental Medicine" and the Shift of Medical Thought Towards Science: 150
      Years Later.

PMID- 28886873
TI  - Estimation of air-to-grass mass interception factors for iodine.
AB  - Air-to-grass mass interception factors for radionuclide are important basic input
      parameter for the estimation of radiation dose to the public around a nuclear
      power plant. In this paper, we present the determination of air-to- grass mass
      interception factors for iodine using a 2 m * 2 m * 2 m (l * b * h) size
      environmental chamber. The temperature, humidity, and rainfall inside the
      environmental chamber was controlled to required values to simulate different
      environmental conditions. Grass (Pennisetum purpureum, Schum), grown in pots, was
      kept inside the environmental chamber and stable iodine in elemental form was
      sublimed quickly inside the chamber to simulate an accidental release of iodine
      to the environment. The concentration of iodine in the air was measured
      periodically by drawing air through a bubbling setup, containing 1% sodium
      carbonate solution. The mass interception factor for dry deposition varied in the
      range of 0.25-7.7 m2 kg-1 with mean value of 2.2 m2 kg-1 with respect to fresh
      weight of grass, and that due to wet deposition varied in the range of 0.6-4.8 m2
      kg-1 with mean value of 2.3 m2 kg-1. The mass interception factor was inversely
      correlated with the total iodine deposited through dry deposition as well as with
      the rainfall.

PMID- 28886875
TI  - NF-kappaB Participates in the Stem Cell Phenotype of Ovarian Cancer Cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: NF-kappaB is a transcription factor involved in cancer stem cells
      maintenance of many tumors. Little is known about the specific stem-associated
      upstream regulators of this pathway in ovarian cancer. The Aim of the study was
      to analyze the role of the canonical and non-canonical NF-kappaB pathways in stem
      cells of ovarian cancer cell lines. METHODS: Stem cells were isolated using
      sorting cytometry. Western blot and RT-PCR were used to quantify protein and
      messenger RNA levels. Loss and gain of function assays were performed using
      siRNAs and dominant-negative proteins, respectively. NF-kappaB binding activity
      was measured with a reporter gene assay. The stem phenotype was estimated with
      clonogenic assays using soft agar, colony formation, ovospheres formation and in
      vivo tumorigenicity assays. RESULTS: The CD44+ subpopulation of SKOV3 ovarian
      cancer cell line presented higher mRNA levels of key stemness genes, an increased
      tumorigenic capacity and higher expression of the RelA, RelB and IKKalpha. When
      the canonical pathway was inhibited by means of a dominant-negative version of
      IkBalpha, the stem cell population was reduced, as shown by a reduced CD44+
      subpopulation, a decrease in the expression of the stemness genes and a reduction
      of the stem phenotype. In addition, IKKalpha, the main upstream non-canonical
      kinase, was highly expressed in the CSC population. Accordingly, when IKKalpha
      was inhibited using shRNAs, the expression of the stemness genes was reduced.
      CONCLUSIONS: This report is the first to show the importance of several elements
      of both NF-kappaB pathway in maintaining the ovarian cancer stem cell population.

PMID- 28886876
TI  - Reply to Letter to the Editor Re: "Ultrasound Findings on Hands and Wrists of
      Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Relationship with Physical
      Examination".

PMID- 28886877
TI  - Functional sustainability of periphytic biofilms in organic matter and Cu2+
      removal during prolonged exposure to TiO2 nanoparticles.
AB  - Responses of microbial communities to nanotoxicity in aquatic ecosystems are
      largely unknown, particularly with respect to relationship between community
      dynamics and functions. Here, periphytic biofilms were selected as a model of
      species-rich microbial communities to elucidate their responses when exposed to
      titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs). Especially, the relationships between
      the functions (e.g. organic matter and Cu2+ removal) and community dynamics after
      long-term exposure to TiO2-NPs were assessed systematically. After 5days exposure
      to TiO2-NPs (5mgL-1), periphytic biofilms showed sustainable functions in
      pollutant removal and strong plasticity in defensing the toxic disturbance of
      TiO2-NPs, including photosynthesis and carbon metabolic diversity. The
      sustainable pollutant removal functions of periphytic biofilms were attributed to
      their functional redundancy. Specifically, periphytic biofilms altered their
      composition with cyanobacteria, Sphingobacteriia and Spirochaetes being the newly
      dominant taxa, and changed the carbon substrate utilization pattern to maintain
      high photosynthesis and metabolic rates. Moreover, extracellular polymeric
      substances (EPS) especially proteins were overproduced to bind the NPs and
      thereby reduce the nanotoxicity. The information obtained in this study may
      greatly help to understand the interactions between microbial community dynamics
      and function under NPs exposure conditions and functional redundancy is an
      important mechanism of periphytic biofilms to maintain sustainable functions.

PMID- 28886878
TI  - Divergently expressed gene identification and interaction prediction of long
      noncoding RNA and mRNA involved in duck reproduction.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and divergently expressed genes exist widely in
      different tissues of mammals and birds, in which they are involved in various
      biological processes. However, there is limited information on their role in the
      regulation of normal biological processes during differentiation, development,
      and reproduction in birds. In this study, whole transcriptome strand-specific RNA
      sequencing of the ovary from young ducks (60days), first-laying ducks (160days),
      and old ducks, i.e., ducks that stopped laying eggs (490days) was performed. The
      lncRNAs and mRNAs from these ducks were systematically analyzed and identified by
      duck genome sequencing in the three study groups. The transcriptome from the duck
      ovary comprised 15,011 protein-coding genes and 2905 lncRNAs; all the lncRNAs
      were identified as novel long noncoding transcripts. The comparison of
      transcriptome data from different study groups identified 2240 divergent
      transcription genes and 135 divergently expressed lncRNAs, which differed among
      the groups; most of them were significantly downregulated with age. Among the
      divergent genes, 38 genes were related to the reproductive process and 6 genes
      were upregulated. Further prediction analysis revealed that 52 lncRNAs were
      closely correlated with divergent reproductive mRNAs. More importantly, 6
      remarkable lncRNAs were correlated significantly with the conversion of the ovary
      in different phases. Our results aid in the understanding of the divergent
      transcriptome of duck ovary in different phases and the underlying mechanisms
      that drive the specificity of protein-coding genes and lncRNAs in duck ovary.

PMID- 28886879
TI  - Analysis of putative biomarkers of undifferentiated spermatogonia in dog testis.
AB  - Spermatogenesis begins after puberty and continues throughout a male's life, and
      is regulated by spermatogonial stem cells in the seminiferous tubules. Markers of
      male germ cells, including undifferentiated spermatogonia to fully developed
      spermatozoa have been identified in rodents, but not in dogs. In this study, to
      characterize the markers of undifferentiated spermatogonia, histological and
      immunohistochemical analyses were performed on pre-pubertal (1-month-old), early
      pubertal (4-month-old), and post-pubertal (7-month-old) dog testes. Expression of
      chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3
      (IGFBP3), LIN28, and Sal-like protein 4 (SALL4) genes was confirmed by
      immunohistochemical analysis. In pre-pubertal and early pubertal dog testes,
      CXCR4, IGFBP4, and LIN28 genes were expressed in undifferentiated spermatogonia,
      whereas the SALL4 gene was not expressed in the pre-pubertal stage. In adult dog
      testes, CXCR4 and IGFBP3 gene expression was detected in undifferentiated
      spermatogonia and co-localized with protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5) near the
      basement membrane of the seminiferous tubules. The LIN28 and SALL4 genes were
      expressed in synaptonemal complex protein 3-positive spermatocytes. The CXCR4 and
      IGFBP3 gene expression is conserved among other species, while LIN28 and SALL4
      gene expression varies. Based on results of the present study, it is suggested
      that undifferentiated spermatogonia markers detected in other species are
      conserved in dogs. These results may facilitate further studies of the cellular
      mechanisms of spermatogenesis in dogs.

PMID- 28886880
TI  - Choice of technological change for China's low-carbon development: Evidence from
      three urban agglomerations.
AB  - China's three urban agglomerations, namely, "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei", "Yangtze
      River Delta", and "Pearl River Delta", are the most developed regions in China.
      These agglomerations are also expected to play a leading role in China's low
      carbon development. Energy-saving and carbon-free technological changes play key
      roles in the low-carbon development transformation of these regions. This study
      investigates the elasticities of the output and substitution of factors, and the
      biased technological change in the three urban agglomerations based on the
      stochastic frontier analysis with a translog production function. The results
      indicate that the economic growth of the three urban agglomerations is mainly
      driven by the increase in capital stock caused by investment, energy shortage,
      and environmental degradation. The relationship between electricity input and
      carbon dioxide emissions is affected by power generation and economic cycles and
      transforms from complementarity to substitution. However, this relationship
      varies among regions. Technological change is conducive to electricity saving,
      but it does not present an emission-reduction effect.

PMID- 28886881
TI  - PAHs accelerate the propagation of antibiotic resistance genes in coastal water
      microbial community.
AB  - Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been regarded as emerging contaminants
      and have attracted growing attention owing to their widespread presence in the
      environment. In addition to the well-documented selective pressure of
      antibiotics, ARGs have also become prevalent because of anthropogenic impacts.
      Coastal habitats are located between terrestrial and marine ecosystems, which are
      a hotspot for anthropogenic impacts. Excessive accumulation of polycyclic
      aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has posed a serious threat to coastal habitats, but
      no information is available on the effect of PAHs on antibiotic resistance in the
      microbial community of coastal environments. In this study, the effect of two
      typical PAHs, naphthalene and phenanthrene, on antibiotic resistance propagation
      was investigated in a coastal microbial community. The results indicated that the
      presence of 100 mg/L of naphthalene or 10 mg/L of phenanthrene significantly
      enhanced the abundance of class I integrase gene (intI1), sulfanilamide
      resistance gene (sulI), and aminoglycosides resistance gene (aadA2) in the
      microbial community. Horizontal gene transfer experiment demonstrated that
      increased abundance of ARGs was primarily a result of conjugative transfer
      mediated by class I integrons. These findings provided direct evidence that
      coastal microbial community exposed to PAHs might have resulted in the
      dissemination of ARGs and implied that a more comprehensive risk assessment of
      PAHs to natural ecosystems and public health is necessary.

PMID- 28886882
TI  - Insights into defective serological memory after acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
      treatment: The role of the plasma cell survival niche, memory B-cells and gut
      microbiota in vaccine responses.
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common type of cancer in
      children, accounting for approximately 25% of childhood cancer cases. As a result
      of effective treatments over the past decades, paediatric ALL mortality has been
      greatly reduced. Chemotherapy, however, has a range of harmful side effects
      including the loss of protective antibodies against vaccine-preventable diseases.
      Since ALL survivors have an increased risk of health problems including organ
      insufficiencies, acquired vaccine-preventable infections subsequent to clinical
      remission could become life threatening to these individuals. This review will
      summarize clinical findings regarding defective humoral immunity in ALL
      survivors, identify current knowledge gaps and highlight mechanisms related to
      deficiencies in the B-cell compartment important for serological memory. Further,
      we illuminate the emerging evidence for a relationship between chemotherapy and
      gut microbiota, which could play an important role in vaccine responses and the
      shaping of a young immune system subjected to maturation and recovery.

PMID- 28886883
TI  - Alternative splicing of telomerase catalytic subunit hTERT generated by apoptotic
      endonuclease EndoG induces human CD4+ T cell death.
AB  - Telomerase activity is regulated by alternative splicing of its catalytic subunit
      human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA. Induction of a non-active
      spliced hTERT leads to inhibition of telomerase activity. However, very little is
      known about the mechanism of hTERT mRNA alternative splicing. The aim of this
      study was to determine the role of the apoptotic endonuclease EndoG in
      alternative splicing of hTERT and telomerase activity. A strong correlation was
      identified between EndoG expression levels and hTERT splice variants in human
      CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. Overexpression of EndoG in CD4+ T cells down
      regulated the expression of the active full-length hTERT variant and up-regulated
      expression of the non-active spliced variant. A reduction in full-length hTERT
      transcripts down-regulated telomerase activity. Long-term in vitro cultivation of
      EndoG-overexpressing CD4+ T cells led to dramatically shortened telomeres,
      conversion of cells into a replicative senescence state, and activation of the
      BCL2/BAX-associated apoptotic pathway finally leading to cell death. These data
      indicated the participation of EndoG in alternative mRNA splicing of the
      telomerase catalytic subunit hTERT, regulation of telomerase activity and
      determination of cell fate.

PMID- 28886884
TI  - Diffusion lengths and partition coefficients of 131mXe and 85Kr in Makrofol N and
      Makrofol DE polycarbonates.
AB  - This work presents the results of an experimental study of the Makrofol(r) N and
      Makrofol(r) DE polycarbonate foils absorption properties of 85Kr and 131mXe. The
      diffusion lengths of 85Kr and 131mXe in both types of foils are determined. The
      partition coefficients of 85Kr from air and water and that of 131mXe from air in
      Makrofol(r) N are determined. The partition coefficients of 85Kr from water and
      131mXe from air in Makrofol(r) DE are also determined. The parameters are
      determined for T = 22 degrees C and allow for the full characterization of
      sorption and desorption of 85Kr and 131mXe in the foils at this temperature. The
      results from this study highlight the remarkable absorption ability of
      Makrofol(r) and especially of the Makrofol(r) N foil and show that it surpasses
      the Makrofol DE(r) foil not only as a Rn absorber, but also as Kr and Xe
      absorber.

PMID- 28886885
TI  - Segmentation of the right ventricle in four chamber cine cardiac MR images using
      polar dynamic programming.
AB  - The four chamber plane is currently underutilized in the right ventricular
      segmentation community. Four chamber information can be useful to determine
      ventricular short axis stacks and provide a rough estimate of the right ventricle
      in short axis stacks. In this study, we develop and test a semi-automated
      technique for segmenting the right ventricle in four chamber cine cardiac
      magnetic resonance images. The three techniques that use minimum cost path
      algorithms were used. The algorithms are: Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm
      (Dijkstra), an A* algorithm that uses length, curvature and torsion into an
      active contour model (ALCT), and a variation of polar dynamic programming (PDP).
      The techniques are evaluated against the expert traces using 175 cardiac images
      from 7 patients. The evaluation first looks at mutual overlap metrics and then
      focuses on clinical measures such as fractional area change (FAC). The mean
      mutual overlap between the physician's traces ranged from 0.85 to 0.88. Using as
      reference physician 1's landmarks and traces (i.e., comparing the traces from
      physician 1 to the semi-automated segmentation using physician 1's landmarks),
      the PDP algorithm has a mean mutual overlap of 0.8970 compared to 0.8912 for ALCT
      and 0.8879 for Dijkstra. The mean mutual overlap between the BP regions generated
      by physician 1 and physician 2 landmarks are 0.9674, 0.9605 and 0.9531 for PDP,
      ALCT and Dijkstra, respectively. The FAC correlation coefficient between the
      physician's traces ranged from 0.73 to 0.93.

PMID- 28886886
TI  - Are changes in excitability in the hippocampus of adult male rats induced by
      prenatal methamphetamine exposure or stress?
AB  - Prenatal stress and drug exposure induce permanent alterations of the brain. Even
      though different brain structures are involved, alterations almost always refer
      to the hippocampus. The aim of this study was to investigate the excitability of
      hippocampal slices in low-magnesium epilepsy model of prenatally methamphetamine
      (MA, 5mg/kg sc.) or saline (sc., stress model) exposed animals in adult male
      rats. The second aim was to investigate, if a low dose of MA (1ml/kgs.c.)
      administered in adulthood changes the hippocampal activity of these animals.
      Adult Wistar male rats were divided into groups according to their prenatal
      treatment (C - naive control; Sa - saline; MA - MA administration). One half of
      the animals was treated with a challenge dose of MA (1mg/kg sc.) 45min before
      hippocampal slices were cut. The activity of 350MU thick transversal slices of
      CA1 hippocampi was recorded (latencies of the first epileptiform discharge and
      the regular epileptiform activity) and evaluated in ACSF with low-magnesium
      concentration. Effects of prenatal exposure: The highest excitability was found
      in the Sa (prenatally stressed) group in respect to C and MA groups. This group
      developed also the highest number of seizure-like events. In addition, the
      prenatally MA treated group had also higher excitability than C group. Effects of
      the MA challenge dose: The challenge dose decreased the excitability of
      prenatally SA- exposed group. To conclude, even a mild prenatal stress
      significantly increases hippocampal excitability in adulthood and a challenge
      dose of MA is able to dampen it.

PMID- 28886887
TI  - Making medicine; producing pleasure: A critical examination of medicinal cannabis
      policy and law in Victoria, Australia.
AB  - Several jurisdictions around the world have introduced policies and laws allowing
      for the legal use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes. However, there has been
      little critical discussion of how the object of 'medicinal cannabis' is enacted
      in policy and practice. Informed by Carol Bacchi's poststructuralist approach to
      policy analysis and the work of science and technology studies scholars, this
      paper seeks to problematise the object of 'medicinal cannabis' and examine how it
      is constituted through governing practices. In particular, we consider how the
      making of the object of 'medicinal cannabis' might constrain or enact discourses
      of pleasure. As a case example, we take the Victorian Law Reform Commission's
      review of law reform options to allow people in the Australian state of Victoria
      to be treated with medicinal cannabis. Through analysis of this case example, we
      find that although 'medicinal cannabis' is constituted as a thoroughly medical
      object, it is also constituted as unique. We argue that medicinal cannabis is
      enacted in part through the production of another object (so-called 'recreational
      cannabis') and the social and political meanings attached to both. Although both
      'substances' are constituted as distinct, 'medicinal cannabis' relies on the
      'absent presence' of 'recreational cannabis' to define and shape what it is.
      However, we find that contained within this rendering of 'medicinal cannabis' are
      complex enactments of health and wellbeing, which open up discourses of pleasure.
      'Medicinal cannabis' appears to challenge the idea that the effects of 'medicine'
      cannot be understood in terms of pleasure. As such, the making of 'medicinal
      cannabis' as a medical object, and its invocation of broad notions of health and
      wellbeing, expand the ways in which drug effects can be acknowledged, including
      pleasurable and desirable effects, helping us to think differently about both
      medicine and other forms of drug use.

PMID- 28886888
TI  - Thinking with pleasure: Experimenting with drugs and drug research.
AB  - Within the field of drug and alcohol studies, researchers think about pleasure or
      against it; we analyse, consider, investigate, invoke or ignore it. The
      philosophically inclined may think of pleasure or write on it, but in each of
      these scenarios pleasure is kept at an arm's length while the researcher appears
      to remain unmoved - detached observers, objective scientists, conceptual experts,
      program directors, sharp critics, policy advocates - sober judges whose
      sovereignty is secured by the formal conventions of positivist research,
      established theory, institutional authority and/or disciplinary knowledge. This
      paper asks what happens when pleasure is allowed to emerge as a constitutive
      element in the relations of drug and alcohol research. What happens when we
      conceive our work as thinking with pleasure, rather than simply researching
      pleasure or thinking about it? I return to the later work of Foucault, reading it
      alongside conceptions of the experiment drawn from Science and Technology
      Studies, arguing that both the pleasures of drug consumption and drug research
      might be conceived more generatively as mutually implicated in events.

PMID- 28886889
TI  - Anti-influenza activity of diazaadamantanes combined with monoterpene moieties.
AB  - The antiviral activity of several diaza-adamantanes containing monoterpenoid
      moieties against a rimantadine-resistant strain of the influenza A/Puerto
      Rico/8/34 (H1N1) virus was studied. Hetero-adamantanes containing monoterpene
      moieties at the aminal position of the heterocycle were found to exhibit lower
      activity compared to compounds with a diaza-adamantane fragment and a monoterpene
      moiety linked via an amino group at the 6-position of the hetero-adamantane ring.
      The highest selectivity index (a ratio of the 50% cytotoxic concentration to the
      50% inhibitory concentration) out of 30 was observed for compound 8d, which
      contains a citronellal monoterpenoid moiety. Diaza-adamantane 8d was superior to
      its adamantane-containing analog 5 both in its anti-influenza activity and
      selectivity. Furthermore, 8d has more balanced physicochemical properties than 5,
      making the former a more promising drug candidate. Modelling these compounds
      against an influenza virus M2 ion channel predicted plausible binding modes to
      both the wild-type and the mutant (S31N).

PMID- 28886890
TI  - Deficit of entropy modulation of the EEG in schizophrenia associated to cognitive
      performance and symptoms. A replication study.
AB  - Spectral entropy (SE) is a measurement from information theory field that
      provides an estimation of EEG regularity and may be useful as a summary of its
      spectral properties. Previous studies using small samples reported a deficit of
      EEG entropy modulation in schizophrenia during cognitive activity. The present
      study is aimed at replicating this finding in a larger sample, to explore its
      cognitive and clinical correlates and to discard antipsychotic treatment as the
      main source of that deficit. We included 64 schizophrenia patients (21 first
      episodes, FE) and 65 healthy controls. We computed SE during performance of an
      odd-ball paradigm, at the windows prior (-300 to 0ms) and following (150 to
      450ms) stimulus presentation. Modulation of SE was defined as the difference
      between post- and pre-stimulus windows. In comparison to controls, patients
      showed a deficit of SE modulation over frontal and central regions, also shown by
      FE patients. Baseline SE did not differ between patients and controls. Modulation
      deficit was directly associated with cognitive deficits and negative symptoms,
      and inversely with positive symptoms. SE modulation was not related to
      antipsychotic doses. Patients also showed a smaller change of median frequency
      (i.e., smaller slowing of oscillatory activity) of the EEG from pre- to post
      stimulus windows. These results support that a deficit of fast modulation
      contributes to cognitive deficits and symptoms in schizophrenia patients.

PMID- 28886891
TI  - Gliadin-related antibodies in schizophrenia.

PMID- 28886892
TI  - The Atlantic divide in coronary heart disease: Epidemiology and patient care in
      the US and Portugal.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: We aimed to compare access to new health
      technologies to treat coronary heart disease (CHD) in the health systems of
      Portugal and the US, characterizing the needs of the populations and the
      resources available. METHODS: We reviewed data for 2000 and 2010 on epidemiologic
      profiles of CHD and on health care available to patients. Thirty health
      technologies (16 medical devices and 14 drugs) introduced during the period 1980
      2015 were identified by interventional cardiologists. Approval and marketing
      dates were compared between countries. RESULTS: Relative to the US, Portugal has
      lower risk profiles and less than half the hospitalizations per capita, but fewer
      centers per capita provide catheterization and cardiothoracic surgery services.
      More than 70% of drugs were available sooner in the US, whereas 12 out of 16
      medical devices were approved earlier in Portugal. Nevertheless, at least five of
      these devices were adopted first or diffused faster in the US. Mortality due to
      CHD and myocardial infarction (MI) was lower in Portugal (CHD: 72.8 vs. 168 and
      MI: 48.7 vs. 54.1 in Portugal and the US, respectively; age- and gender-adjusted
      deaths per 100000 population, 2010); but only CHD deaths exhibited a
      statistically significant difference between the countries. CONCLUSIONS:
      Differences in regulatory mechanisms and price regulations have a significant
      impact on the types of health technologies available in the two countries.
      However, other factors may influence their adoption and diffusion, and this
      appears to have a greater impact on mortality, due to acute conditions.

PMID- 28886893
TI  - The action of anti-inflammatory agents in healthy temporomandibular joint
      synovial tissues is sex-dependent.
AB  - This study evaluated the effects of dexamethasone, parecoxib, and glucosamine on
      cartilage thickness and cytokine levels in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
      Forty-eight rats (24 female, 24 male) were assigned to four treatments
      administered once daily for 7 days: control (saline intramuscularly), parecoxib
      (0.3mg/kg intramuscularly), dexamethasone (0.1mg/kg intramuscularly), and
      glucosamine (80mg/kg orally). The thickness of TMJ cartilage and levels of four
      cytokines were measured. Median cartilage thickness was higher in males than in
      females in the control (253.2 vs. 240.4MUm, P=0.0036), parecoxib (227.3 vs.
      192.1MUm, P<0.0001), and dexamethasone (227.1 vs. 170.5MUm, P=0.017) groups, but
      was lower in males in the glucosamine group (214.5 vs. 239.6MUm, P=0.0001). IL
      1beta was not detected. Median IL-1alpha levels differed between males and
      females in the parecoxib group (0.08 vs. 0.04ng/ml, P=0.0055), but not in the
      control (0.07 vs. 0.06ng/ml), dexamethasone (0.06 vs. 0.04ng/ml), or glucosamine
      (0.08ng/ml vs. 0.06ng/ml) groups (all P>0.05). Only dexamethasone induced lower
      IL-6 levels in males than in females (median 4.6 vs. 2.1ng/ml, P=0.0044). Median
      TNF-alpha levels did not differ between males and females in the control (0.07
      vs. 0.05ng/ml) or parecoxib (0.07 vs. 0.05ng/ml) groups (both P>0.05), but
      dexamethasone (0.09 vs. 0.05ng/ml, P=0.0002) and glucosamine (0.09 vs. 0.07ng/ml,
      P=0.0259) induced higher TNF-alpha levels in females. Thus, the effects of the
      three treatments on the levels of cytokines and thickness of condylar cartilage
      were sex-dependent.

PMID- 28886894
TI  - Satisfaction with facial profile aesthetics: are norms overrated?
AB  - This study aimed to explore to what extent adults perceive deviations from the
      norm of a balanced profile with normal occlusion as reducing satisfaction with
      facial appearance and having a psychosocial impact. This cross-sectional study
      included 225 Caucasian subjects (64% women) aged 18-42 years. Their facial
      profiles were analyzed photogrammetrically and they were classified into three
      categories: within, below, or above the standard range for the Croatian
      population with a normal occlusion. Psychosocial issues were assessed by self
      reported satisfaction with facial appearance and domains from the Orthognathic
      Quality of Life Questionnaire: social aspects of dentofacial aesthetics (SA),
      facial aesthetics concern (FA), and awareness of dentofacial aesthetics (AW). Men
      with a concave profile were less satisfied with their faces than those with a
      flat or convex profile (P<0.05). A reduced upper lip height in men resulted in a
      lower level of satisfaction and increased FA score, when compared to men with a
      normal or increased upper lip height (P<0.05). In women, a reduced middle third
      of the face increased AW (P=0.045). Deviations from a well-balanced facial
      profile, as well as the morphology of the nose and lip, do not increase
      psychosocial issues to a great extent. The range of acceptable facial
      characteristics is evidently much broader than the norms.

PMID- 28886895
TI  - Comments on prospective study of metabolic syndrome as a mortality marker in
      chronic coronary heart disease patients.

PMID- 28886896
TI  - The Ire1 Twist that Links Proteostatic with Lipostatic Control of the Endoplasmic
      Reticulum.
AB  - The unfolded protein response (UPR) governs homeostasis of both luminal content
      and membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In Molecular Cell, Halbleib et
      al. identified how a twist in the juxta-membrane amphipathic helix of the UPR
      transducer Ire1 in yeast is essential for responding to both proteostatic and
      lipostatic ER stress.

PMID- 28886897
TI  - Low adherence to antidepressants is associated with increased mortality following
      stroke: A large nationally representative cohort study.
AB  - Post stroke depression is common and pervasive. In the general population, there
      has been some controversy that antidepressant (AD) medication is associated with
      premature mortality. Data is still lacking regarding the association between
      adherence to antidepressants (AD) and all-cause mortality. In this retrospective
      analysis of a population-based cohort of patients, 32,361 post-stroke patients
      who purchased at least one AD were followed for all-cause mortality over 4-years.
      Adherence to AD was measured as a ratio between dispensed and prescribed
      durations and was modeled as: non-adherence (<20%, n=8619), poor (20-50%,
      n=5108), moderate (50-80%, n=5656), and good (>80%, n=12,978) adherence.
      Multivariable survival analyses, adjusted for demographic and clinical variables
      including physical comorbidities known to influence mortality, were conducted.
      Unadjusted mortality rates were 16.5%, 20.2%, 22.2% and 23.7% in those classified
      as non-adherent, poor, moderate and good adherence respectively (chi2=174.6,
      p<0.0001). In the adjusted model, the non-adherent and poor adherence groups had
      significantly increased mortality Hazard Ratios (HR) of 1.25 (95% CI: 1.17-1.33)
      and 1.17 (95% CI: 1.09-1.26) respectively compared to the good adherence group.
      This nationally representative data suggests that poor adherence to AD is
      associated with increased all-cause mortality among people who had a stroke.
      Given our findings and the high prevalence of anxiety and depression along with
      AD effectiveness, efforts to promote AD adherence in this population may be
      warranted in clinical practice.

PMID- 28886898
TI  - The differential organogenesis and functionality of two liver-draining lymph
      nodes in mice.
AB  - The liver is an immunological organ. However, fundamental knowledge concerning
      liver-draining lymph nodes (LNs), which have been newly identified in mice as the
      portal and celiac LNs, is still lacking. Here, we revealed that the portal LN and
      celiac LN drain liver lymph through different lymphatic vessels. Although both
      the portal LN and celiac LN possess typical structures, they have different cell
      compositions. Interestingly, these two LNs form at different times during fetal
      development. Moreover, the organogenesis of the celiac LN, but not the portal LN,
      is controlled by the transcription factor NFIL3. Furthermore, the portal LN and
      celiac LN also perform different functions. The celiac LN is the predominant site
      of liver antiviral immune responses, whereas the portal LN functions in the in
      situ induction of dietary antigen-specific regulatory T cells. In conclusion, the
      portal LN and celiac LN are two independent liver-draining LNs with different
      organogenesis histories and separate functions in maintaining immune homeostasis
      in the liver.

PMID- 28886900
TI  - Clinical and imaging differences between neonates and children with pyriform
      sinus fistula: which is preferred for diagnosis, computed tomography, or barium
      esophagography?
AB  - PURPOSE: Pyriform sinus fistula (PSF) is very rare. It is difficult to make an
      accurate diagnosis preoperatively. The aim of this study is to summarize the
      characteristics of clinical and radiologic presentations in neonates and children
      with PSF and to assess which examination is more helpful for diagnosis. METHODS:
      A retrospective review was performed in 29 patients with PSF at a single center
      from January 2013 to September 2016. The clinical presentation, computed
      tomography (CT) scan/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and barium esophagogram
      were evaluated between neonates and children. RESULTS: This study comprised 14
      neonates and 15 children. Neonatal patients presented with cervical cyst,
      dyspnea, and stridor. However, the most common presentations of children were
      recurrent neck abscess and thyroiditis. All the neonates and 12 the children
      underwent CT scan/MRI, which showed the characteristic air pocket in the cervical
      lesion of 11 (78.6%) neonates and 4 (33.3%) children. The positive rates of
      barium esophagography in the neonates and children were 27.3% and 86.7%,
      respectively, the difference of which was statistically significant. CONCLUSION:
      To obtain an accurate diagnosis of PSF, the differences in clinical and
      radiologic presentation suggest that CT scan/MRI is preferred for neonates, and
      barium esophagography is preferred for children. CT scans performed immediately
      after barium swallow improve the positive rate.

PMID- 28886899
TI  - Frailty and subclinical coronary atherosclerosis: The Multicenter AIDS Cohort
      Study (MACS).
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Frailty and cardiovascular disease share many risk factors.
      We evaluated whether frailty is independently associated with subclinical
      coronary atherosclerosis and whether any relationships differ by HIV-serostatus.
      METHODS: We studied 976 [62% HIV-infected] male participants of the Multicenter
      AIDS Cohort Study who underwent assessment of frailty and non-contrast cardiac CT
      scanning; of these, 747 men also underwent coronary CT angiography (CCTA).
      Frailty was defined as having >=3 of 5 of the following: weakness, slowness,
      weight loss, exhaustion, and low physical activity. Coronary artery calcium (CAC)
      was assessed by non-contrast CT, and total plaque score (TPS), mixed plaque score
      (MPS), and non-calcified plaque score (NCPS) by CCTA. Multivariable-adjusted
      regression was used to assess the cross-sectional associations between frailty
      and subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. RESULTS: Mean (SD) age of participants
      was 54 (7) years; 31% were black. Frailty existed in 7.5% and 14.3% of HIV
      uninfected and HIV-infected men, respectively. After adjustment for demographics,
      frailty was significantly associated with prevalence of any CAC (CAC>0), any
      plaque (TPS>0), and mixed plaque (MPS>0) in HIV-uninfected but not in HIV
      infected men (p-interactionHIV<0.05 for all). Among HIV-uninfected men, after
      adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors, frailty was significantly associated
      only with CAC>0 [Prevalence Ratio 1.27 (95%CI 1.02, 1.59)] and TPS>0 [1.19 (1.06,
      1.35)]. No association was found for NCPS. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty was independently
      associated with subclinical coronary atherosclerosis among HIV-uninfected men,
      but not among HIV-infected men. Further work is needed to ascertain mechanisms
      underlying these differences and whether interventions that improve frailty (i.e.
      strength training) can improve cardiovascular outcomes.

PMID- 28886902
TI  - Measuring stability of cognitive impairment in inpatients with schizophrenia with
      alternate forms of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment during acute
      hospitalization.
AB  - Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia. Measuring the stability
      of cognitive impairment is important for further understanding of this disorder.
      The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) has been demonstrated to be a brief and
      effective screening tool in detecting cognitive impairment in patients with
      schizophrenia. It has alternative versions designed for longitudinal settings.
      The current study retrospectively analyzed the total and subscores of two
      versions of the MoCA, administered to a group of inpatients with severe
      schizophrenia at admission and discharge, to measure their cognitive stability
      during hospitalization. The results revealed that the test-retest reliability
      coefficient of the MoCA had good reliability, suggesting the two alternative
      versions of the MoCA are reliable measurements for assessing cognitive impairment
      repeatedly in patients with schizophrenia. The paired-samples t-test showed that
      the overall cognitive impairment of patients measured by two forms of the MoCA
      remained stable during acute hospital stay and across symptom changes.
      Furthermore, the results showed that patients' cognitive stability was not
      related to their symptom/illness severity improvement, age, education, or length
      of stay.

PMID- 28886901
TI  - Perceptual abnormalities in clinical high risk youth and the role of trauma,
      cannabis use and anxiety.
AB  - Recent research suggests that perceptual abnormalities are a group of diverse
      experiences, which have been associated with trauma, cannabis use, and anxiety.
      Of the attenuated psychotic symptoms that are present in youth at clinical high
      risk (CHR) of psychosis, perceptual abnormalities tend to be one of the most
      frequently endorsed symptoms. However, very few studies have explored perceptual
      abnormalities and their relationships with the above environmental and affective
      factors in a CHR sample. Four hundred and forty-one CHR individuals who met
      criteria for attenuated psychotic symptom syndrome (APSS) determined by the
      Structured Interview for Psychosis-risk Syndromes (SIPS) were assessed on the
      content of their perceptual abnormalities, early traumatic experience, cannabis
      use and self-reported anxiety. Logistic regression analyses suggested that both
      simple auditory and simple visual perceptual abnormalities were more likely to be
      reported by CHR who had early traumatic experiences, who are current cannabis
      users, and who have higher levels of anxiety. Multiple regression analysis
      revealed that only trauma and anxiety were independent predictors of both simple
      auditory and simple visual perceptual abnormalities. It is possible that
      examining subtypes of perceptual abnormalities in CHR leads to an improved
      understanding of the prevalence of such symptoms.

PMID- 28886903
TI  - The relationships of current suicidal ideation with inflammatory markers and
      heart rate variability in unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder.
AB  - Studies investigating inflammatory status and autonomic functioning
      simultaneously in depressed patients with current suicidal ideation (SI) are
      lacking. We recruited 58 unmedicated depressed patients with current SI but
      without lifetime history of suicidal behavior, as well as 61 equally depressed
      patients without lifetime history of SI or suicidal behavior. We measured serum
      cortisol, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation
      rate (ESR), and autonomic functioning evaluated by frequency-domain measures of
      heart rate variability (HRV). The intensity of current SI was rated with the
      Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Chronic psychological stress was assessed
      using the Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Patients with
      current SI showed higher hs-CRP and ESR but lower variance (total HRV), low
      frequency (LF), and high frequency (HF) HRV than those without lifetime history
      of SI. We found no differences in cortisol levels and PSS scores. The intensity
      of current SI was negatively correlated with variance, LF, and HF but positively
      correlated with hs-CRP. Our results help improve the understanding of the
      relationships among current SI, inflammation, and autonomic functioning in
      depressed patients. The combined use of inflammatory markers and HRV indices may
      one day be applied in predicting and monitoring patients' suicide risk.

PMID- 28886904
TI  - Searching for suicide-related information on Chinese websites.
AB  - Growing concerns about cyber-suicide have prompted many studies on suicide
      information available on the web. However, very few studies have considered non
      English websites. We aimed to analyze online suicide-related information accessed
      through Chinese-language websites. We used Taiwan's two most popular search
      engines (Google and Yahoo) to explore the results returned from six suicide
      related search terms in March 2016. The first three pages listing the results
      from each search were analyzed and rated based on the attitude towards suicide
      (pro-suicide, anti-suicide, neutral/mixed, not a suicide site, or error).
      Comparisons across different search terms were also performed. In all, 375 linked
      webpages were included; 16.3% of the webpages were pro-suicide and 41.3% were
      anti-suicide. The majority of the pro-suicide sites were user-generated webpages
      (96.7%). Searches using the keywords 'ways to kill yourself' (31.7%) and
      'painless suicide' (28.3%) generated much larger numbers of harmful webpages than
      the term 'suicide' (4.3%). We conclude that collaborative efforts with internet
      service providers and search engines to improve the ranking of anti-suicide
      webpages and websites and implement online suicide reporting guidelines are
      highly encouraged.

PMID- 28886905
TI  - Group differences in pain interference, psychiatric disorders, and general
      medical conditions among Hispanics and whites in the U.S. general population.
AB  - The cross-sectional retrospective study examined whether ethnicity moderates
      relationships between pain interference and both psychopathology and general
      medical conditions among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white adults. Participants
      comprised 32,574 (14% Hispanic; 86% white) National Epidemiologic Survey on
      Alcohol and Related Conditions respondents. While Hispanic respondents were less
      likely than white respondents to report severe pain interference (11.4% vs.
      11.9%) or moderate pain interference (5.7% vs. 7.8%), and were more likely to
      report no or low pain interference (82.9% vs. 80.3%), the magnitude of these
      ethnic group differences was relatively small. Pain interference was associated
      with multiple past-year Axis-I psychiatric disorders and general medical
      conditions in both Hispanic and white respondents. Stronger relationships were
      observed in Hispanic compared to white respondents between moderate pain
      interference and any heart condition, tachycardia, and hypertension, and between
      severe pain interference and any mood disorder. Stronger relationships were
      observed in white compared to Hispanic respondents between severe pain
      interference and both social phobia and any stomach condition. Differences
      between Hispanic and white respondents on the prevalence of pain interference and
      on the strength of the associations between pain interference and specific
      psychiatric disorders and general medical conditions underscore the complexity of
      ethnic health disparities and suggest the importance of further study of
      underlying mechanisms.

PMID- 28886906
TI  - Nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine: great science, but will it save lives?

PMID- 28886908
TI  - DNA Sensing across the Tree of Life.
AB  - From plants to mammals, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) specifically
      recognize DNA, as a potential marker of either infection or damage. These
      receptors play critical roles in inflammation, immunity, and pathogen resistance.
      Importantly, given the ubiquity of DNA, its sensing must be tightly regulated.
      DNA localization plays a key role in recognition, as highlighted by Toll-like
      receptor 9 (TLR9) in the endosomal compartment and cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)
      and absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) in the cytoplasm. Sequence and structure also
      enhance recognition across species. Evidence in plants supports the sensing of
      extracellular DNA by PRRs, leading to calcium-dependent signaling, although no
      receptor has been definitively identified yet. Here, we review the shared and
      distinct features of DNA sensors, and their physiological functions, across the
      tree of life.

PMID- 28886909
TI  - Quantitative susceptibility mapping differentiates between parkinsonian
      disorders.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: It is often challenging to clinically distinguish between
      Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive
      supranuclear palsy (PSP). Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is an
      accurate indirect method for estimating brain iron levels in vivo. This method
      has yet to be applied in atypical parkinsonism. We aimed to investigate
      differences in brain iron accumulation parkinsonian disorders and healthy
      controls using QSM. METHODS: 15 patients with PSP, 11 patients with MSA, 62
      patients with PD and 14 healthy controls were included in the study and their
      phase and magnitude data from susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance imaging
      were retrospectively analyzed with an in-house pipeline to create susceptibility
      maps. Two-way ANCOVA were used to assess group differences. Pairwise comparisons
      within the ANCOVA were corrected for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Red nucleus
      susceptibility was higher in PSP compared with PD (p < 0.001), MSA (p < 0.001)
      and controls (p < 0.001), which separated PSP from these groups with areas under
      receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.97, 0.75 and 0.98 respectively. PSP
      showed higher globus pallidus susceptibility compared with PD (p < 0.001), MSA (p
      = 0.006) and controls (p < 0.001). Putamen susceptibility was higher in MSA than
      in PD (p = 0.022) and controls (p = 0.026). Substantia nigra susceptibility was
      increased in PD compared to controls (p = 0.030). CONCLUSION: We show that all
      studied parkinsonian disorders have increased susceptibility subcortically,
      reflecting distinct topographical patterns of abnormal brain iron accumulation.
      QSM, particularly of the red nucleus, is a promising biomarker in differentiating
      parkinsonian disorders, and would be interesting to study longitudinally for
      monitoring disease progression and treatment effects.

PMID- 28886910
TI  - Challenges towards Revitalizing Hemp: A Multifaceted Crop.
AB  - Hemp has been an important crop throughout human history for food, fiber, and
      medicine. Despite significant progress made by the international research
      community, the basic biology of hemp plants remains insufficiently understood.
      Clear objectives are needed to guide future research. As a semi-domesticated
      plant, hemp has many desirable traits that require improvement, including
      eliminating seed shattering, enhancing the quantity and quality of stem fiber,
      and increasing the accumulation of phytocannabinoids. Methods to manipulate the
      sex of hemp plants will also be important for optimizing yields of seed, fiber,
      and cannabinoids. Currently, research into trait improvement is hindered by the
      lack of molecular techniques adapted to hemp. Here we review how addressing these
      limitations will help advance our knowledge of plant biology and enable us to
      fully domesticate and maximize the agronomic potential of this promising crop.

PMID- 28886907
TI  - Final efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety analyses of a nine-valent human
      papillomavirus vaccine in women aged 16-26 years: a randomised, double-blind
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary analyses of a study in young women aged 16-26 years showed
      efficacy of the nine-valent human papillomavirus (9vHPV; HPV 6, 11, 16, 18, 31,
      33, 45, 52, and 58) vaccine against infections and disease related to HPV 31, 33,
      45, 52, and 58, and non-inferior HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 antibody responses when
      compared with quadrivalent HPV (qHPV; HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18) vaccine. We aimed to
      report efficacy of the 9vHPV vaccine for up to 6 years following first
      administration and antibody responses over 5 years. METHODS: We undertook this
      randomised, double-blind, efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety study of the 9vHPV
      vaccine study at 105 study sites in 18 countries. Women aged 16-26 years old who
      were healthy, with no history of abnormal cervical cytology, no previous abnormal
      cervical biopsy results, and no more than four lifetime sexual partners were
      randomly assigned (1:1) by central randomisation and block sizes of 2 and 2 to
      receive three intramuscular injections over 6 months of 9vHPV or qHPV (control)
      vaccine. All participants, study investigators, and study site personnel,
      laboratory staff, members of the sponsor's study team, and members of the
      adjudication pathology panel were masked to vaccination groups. The primary
      outcomes were incidence of high-grade cervical disease (cervical intraepithelial
      neoplasia grade 2 or 3, adenocarcinoma in situ, invasive cervical carcinoma),
      vulvar disease (vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2/3, vulvar cancer), and
      vaginal disease (vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2/3, vaginal cancer)
      related to HPV 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 and non-inferiority (excluding a decrease
      of 1.5 times) of anti-HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 geometric mean titres (GMT). Tissue
      samples were adjudicated for histopathology diagnosis and tested for HPV DNA.
      Serum antibody responses were assessed by competitive Luminex immunoassay. The
      primary evaluation of efficacy was a superiority analysis in the per-protocol
      efficacy population, supportive efficacy was analysed in the modified intention
      to-treat population, and the primary evaluation of immunogenicity was a non
      inferiority analysis. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number
      NCT00543543. FINDINGS: Between Sept 26, 2007, and Dec 18, 2009, we recruited and
      randomly assigned 14 215 participants to receive 9vHPV (n=7106) or qHPV (n=7109)
      vaccine. In the per-protocol population, the incidence of high-grade cervical,
      vulvar and vaginal disease related to HPV 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 was 0.5 cases
      per 10 000 person-years in the 9vHPV and 19.0 cases per 10 000 person-years in
      the qHPV groups, representing 97.4% efficacy (95% CI 85.0-99.9). HPV 6, 11, 16,
      and 18 GMTs were non-inferior in the 9vHPV versus qHPV group from month 1 to 3
      years after vaccination. No clinically meaningful differences in serious adverse
      events were noted between the study groups. 11 participants died during the study
      follow-up period (six in the 9vHPV vaccine group and five in the qHPV vaccine
      group); none of the deaths were considered vaccine-related. INTERPRETATION: The
      9vHPV vaccine prevents infection, cytological abnormalities, high-grade lesions,
      and cervical procedures related to HPV 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58. Both the 9vHPV
      vaccine and qHPV vaccine had a similar immunogenicity profile with respect to HPV
      6, 11, 16, and 18. Vaccine efficacy was sustained for up to 6 years. The 9vHPV
      vaccine could potentially provide broader coverage and prevent 90% of cervical
      cancer cases worldwide. FUNDING: Merck & Co, Inc.

PMID- 28886911
TI  - Type-B ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORs Directly Activate WUSCHEL.
AB  - The WUSCHEL (WUS) gene is necessary for the maintenance of stem cells in the
      shoot apical meristem. Four recent reports show that cytokinin responsive type-B
      ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORs (ARRs) directly activate WUS expression,
      providing a long-awaited explanation for how cytokinin influences the maintenance
      of the stem cell niche.

PMID- 28886912
TI  - Divergence in How Genetic Pathways Respond to Environments.
AB  - An upstream gene in the pathway that induces flowering in response to cold has
      been identified. The gene, RVR1, occurs in several plant lineages and operates in
      a pathway that exhibits functional divergence across development and across taxa.
      Such divergence can provide insight into how genetic pathways evolve.

PMID- 28886913
TI  - Mucus plugging in allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis: Implication of the
      eosinophil DNA traps.

PMID- 28886914
TI  - Mapping eutrophication risk from climate change: Future phosphorus concentrations
      in English rivers.
AB  - Climate change is expected to increase eutrophication risk in rivers yet few
      studies identify the timescale or spatial extent of such impacts. Phosphorus
      concentration, considered the primary driver of eutrophication risk in English
      rivers, may increase through reduced dilution particularly if river flows are
      lower in summer. Detailed models can indicate change in catchment phosphorus
      concentrations but targeted support for mitigation measures requires a national
      scale evaluation of risk. In this study, a load apportionment model is used to
      describe the current relationship between flow and total reactive phosphorus
      (TRP) at 115 river sites across England. These relationships are used to estimate
      TRP concentrations for the 2050s under 11 climate change driven scenarios of
      future river flows and under scenarios of both current and higher levels of
      sewage treatment. National maps of change indicate a small but inconsistent
      increase in annual average TRP concentrations with a greater change in summer.
      Reducing the TRP concentration of final sewage effluent to 0.5mg/L P for all
      upstream sewage treatment works was inadequate to meet existing P standards
      required through the EU Water Framework Directive, indicating that more needs to
      be done, including efforts to reduce diffuse pollution.

PMID- 28886915
TI  - Immune failure reveals vulnerability of populations exposed to pollution in the
      bioindicator species Hediste diversicolor.
AB  - Human activities on the shoreline generate a growing pollution, creating
      deleterious habitats in coastal zones. Some species nevertheless succeed in such
      harsh milieus, raising the question of their tolerance to environmental stress.
      The annelid Hediste diversicolor lives buried in the sediments, directly exposed
      to contaminants trapped in the mud. After verifying the similarity of their
      genetic contexts, we compared reproductive output and individual immune
      resistance measures of populations living in polluted vs. 'clean' sediments, and
      related these assessments with measures of phthalates and metal pollution, and
      associated toxicity indices. Chemical analyses predicted no toxicity to the local
      infauna, and phenological studies evidenced no direct cost of living in noxious
      habitats. However, populations exposed to pollutants showed a significantly
      reduced survival upon infection with a local pathogen. Surprisingly,
      physiological studies evidenced a basal overinflammatory state in the most
      exposed populations. This over-activated baseline immune phenotype likely
      generates self-damage leading to enhanced immune cell death rate and immune
      failure. Monitoring the immune status of individual worms living in anthropic
      areas could thus be used as a reliable source of information regarding the actual
      health of wild populations.

PMID- 28886916
TI  - Annual variations of total and fractionated chlorophyll and phytoplankton groups
      in the Gulf of Cadiz.
AB  - Chlorophyll and phytoplankton distribution and concentration in the Gulf of Cadiz
      were studied during 2014 and 2015. In both years the highest chlorophyll
      concentrations are found at coastal stations during spring. Pico- and
      nanophytoplankton are the main contributors to total chlorophyll, with highest
      concentrations at the outer limit of the continental shelf. Microphytoplankton is
      responsible for most of the inshore chlorophyll. Picophytoplankton was analyzed
      to determine density, biomass and distribution. Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus
      show differences in distribution depending on distance from the coast and depth.
      Our results suggest temperature and consequent water stratification seem to be
      the main factors determining deep fluorescence maxima (DFM), mainly formed by
      picophytoplankton, especially Prochlorococcus. Pigment identification assisted by
      CHEMTAX analysis was carried out to analyze relative concentrations of larger
      phytoplankton.

PMID- 28886917
TI  - Effects of the phthalate exposure during three gestation periods on birth weight
      and their gender differences: A birth cohort study in China.
AB  - Phthalate has been widely used as a type of plasticiser in various consuming
      products in daily life. Recent studies have suggested that prenatal phthalate
      exposure may have adverse effects on fetal development. We aimed to identify the
      effects of in utero phthalate exposure on birth weight (BW). We evaluated a birth
      cohort comprising 3474 pregnant women and their single infants; 3103, 2975 and
      2838 urine samples were collected in the first, second and third trimesters,
      respectively. Phthalate metabolites included monomethyl phthalate (MMP),
      monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MBP), monobenzyl phthalate
      (MBzP), mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate
      (MEHHP), and mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxylhexyl) phthalate (MEOHP), which were
      analysed in the urine by using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass
      spectrometry. Mixed linear model was used in the statistical analysis. Generally,
      MMP and MEP exposure during pregnancy was associated with decreased birth weight
      of infants (MMP, beta=-12.192, p=0.009; MEP, beta=-11.876, p=0.014). Hierarchical
      analysis found that MMP and MEOHP exposure was associated with decreased infants'
      birth weight only in low birth weight groups (MMP, beta=-42.538, p=0.005; MEOHP,
      beta=-63.224, p=0.008); MEHP and MEHHP exposure was associated with decreased
      infants' birth weight in both low birth weight group (MEHP, beta=-42.348,
      p=0.035; MEHHP, beta=-50.485, p=0.006) and high birth weight group (MEHP, beta=
      16.580, p=0.034; MEHHP, beta=-18.009, p=0.040), MBP and MEHP exposure were
      associated with increased infants' birth weight in male NBW group (MBP,
      beta=10.438, p=0.039; MEHP, beta=13.223, p=0.017). Moreover, the effect has sex
      difference. The reduction of birth weight associated with MEHP and MEOHP exposure
      was stronger in male infants, while MMP and MEP exposure was more significant in
      female infants.

PMID- 28886918
TI  - Complementary and alternative therapies for restless legs syndrome: An evidence
      based systematic review.
AB  - Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is defined as an irresistible urge to move the legs,
      which is usually accompanied by paresthesias or dysesthesias at least twice
      weekly, and affects 2%-4% of adults in Europe and North America. This systematic
      review assesses the current complementary and alternative options for RLS and the
      potential benefits of those treatments on sleep quality, mood disorder, and
      quality of life. A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Web of
      Science databases was conducted. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criterion,
      which included the use of the international RLS study group criteria.
      Complementary and alternative therapies have been found to be effective in both
      primary and secondary RLS. The severity of primary RLS symptoms can be
      significantly ameliorated by exercise training, transcutaneous spinal direct
      current stimulation, pneumatic compression devices, light therapy, repetitive
      transcranial magnetic stimulation, and acupuncture. Pneumatic compression devices
      and yoga also improve RLS-related disorders. Exercise training is highly
      efficacious in the reduction of symptom severity in uremic RLS and related
      effects such as poor quality of life. Endovenous laser ablation may be a good
      choice for patients with concurrent RLS and superficial venous insufficiency.

PMID- 28886919
TI  - Kinetic and equilibrium based fractionation study of Pb in continental shelf
      sediment of India.
AB  - Two independent analytical methods (kinetic and sequential extraction protocols)
      were used to understand the distribution, stability, and lability of Pb-sediment
      complexes in Indian continental shelf. The concentrations of sedimentary Pb
      varied from 12.0+/-0.6 to 30.4+/-0.1mg.kg-1 and 15.9+/-0.3 to 36.7+/-0.4mg.kg-1
      in the western and eastern shelf of India respectively. The kinetic extraction
      study showed that higher proportion of labile Pb-complexes were present in the
      eastern shelf sediments (~24% of total Pb) than the western shelf sediments (~14%
      of total Pb). The sedimentary organic matter was found to regulate lability of
      sedimentary Pb complexes. The sequential extraction study suggested that Fe/Mn
      oxyhydroxide were the primary hosting phase for labile Pb complexes. This study
      showed that water soluble, exchangeable, carbonate/bicarbonate-Pb complexes in
      the sediments was labile. This study provides a better physicochemical
      description of stability or lability of Pb complexes in the coastal sediment of
      India.

PMID- 28886920
TI  - Recovering microplastics from marine samples: A review of current practices.
AB  - An important component of microplastic research is development of reproducible
      methods for microplastic recovery and characterization. Presented is a review of
      the literature comparing microplastic separation and identification methodologies
      from seawater, sediment and marine organisms. The efficiency of methods was
      examined, including processing time, recovery rates, and potential destruction of
      microplastics. Visual examination and acid digestion were the most common
      separation methods for seawater samples and organisms, while density flotation
      was the primary method for sediment. Few studies reported recovery rates, or
      investigated the physical or chemical impact on plastics. This knowledge gap may
      lead to misidentification of plastic or unreliable pollution estimates. Further
      investigation of the impact chemical treatments have on plastic is warranted.
      Factors, i.e. biomass loading, recovery rates, and chemical compatibility, must
      be considered to allow for appropriate methodology. Standardizing this will
      contribute to efficient sample processing, and allow for direct comparison of
      microplastic contamination across environments.

PMID- 28886921
TI  - Concomitance of oligotrophy and low grazing pressure is essential for the
      resilience of Mediterranean subtidal forests.
AB  - The study aimed at investigating factors influencing the recovery of the canopy
      seaweed Cystoseira brachycarpa. A manipulative experiment was done to test if in
      barren patches the recovery of Cystoseira I) is enhanced by the removal of the
      urchins, II) is prevented by eutrophication, III) depends on the time of patch
      clearance and IV) decreases with the distance from Cystoseira bed edge within the
      barren patch. The effects of the same factors on the structure of the macroalgal
      assemblage were also tested. Cystoseira recovered abundantly only in clearings
      where nutrients were not added and urchins were removed. Furthermore, Cystoseira
      recovered irrespectively of the time the patches were cleared and the distance
      from the canopy edge. This study showed that the lack of sea urchins at
      oligotrophic conditions was essential for Cystoseira brachycarpa recruitment,
      providing evidence that interacting constraints are involved in the recovery of
      Cystoseira beds.

PMID- 28886922
TI  - Lumbar pseudo-tail associated with dermal sinus - A case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lumbosacral and coccygeal skin covered appendages are a rare
      malformation, considered human-tails. CASE REPORT: The authors describe the case
      of a full term newborn girl with lumbar skin appendage and a normal neurologic
      examination. The magnetic resonance of the spine revealed a dermal sinus
      continuous with the skin appendage and with extension into to the spinal canal.
      Due to the infection risk, a surgery was performed on the third day of life, with
      dermal sinus ligation and appendage removal. At 12 months of follow-up the girl
      has a normal neurologic examination. CONCLUSIONS: With the description of this
      case the authors aim to emphasize that although rare, lumbar skin appendages can
      be associated with spinal dysraphism and other lesions, requiring extensive work
      up and long-term surveillance.

PMID- 28886923
TI  - The effect of 12-month participation in osteogenic and non-osteogenic sports on
      bone development in adolescent male athletes. The PRO-BONE study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Research investigating the longitudinal effects of the most popular
      sports on bone development in adolescent males is scarce. The aim is to
      investigate the effect of 12-month participation in osteogenic and non-osteogenic
      sports on bone development. DESIGN: A 12-month study was conducted in adolescent
      males involved in football, swimming and cycling and compared with an active
      control group. METHODS: 116 adolescent males (13.1+/-0.1years at baseline): 37
      footballers, 37 swimmers, 28 cyclists and 14 active controls were followed for 12
      months. Bone mineral content (BMC) was measured by dual-energy X-ray
      absorptiometry, and bone stiffness was measured by quantitative ultrasound. Bone
      outcomes at 12 months were adjusted for baseline bone status, age, height, lean
      mass and moderate to vigorous physical activity. RESULTS: Footballers had higher
      improvement in adjusted BMC at the total body, total hip, shaft, Ward's triangle,
      legs and bone stiffness compared to cyclists (6.3-8.0%). Footballers had
      significantly higher adjusted BMC at total body, shaft and legs compared to
      swimmers (5.4-5.6%). There was no significant difference between swimmers and
      cyclists for any bone outcomes. Swimming and cycling participation resulted in
      non-significant lower bone development at most sites of the skeleton compared to
      controls (-4.3 to -0.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Football participation induces
      significantly greater improvements in BMC and bone stiffness over 12 months
      compared to cycling and swimming. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN17982776.

PMID- 28886924
TI  - Cryptic Female Choice Revisited: A Response to Firman et al.

PMID- 28886925
TI  - The NCDR ICD Registry: A Foundation for Quality Improvement.

PMID- 28886927
TI  - Suitability of cardiac resynchronisation therapy in patients with Fontan
      circulation and congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is a well-recognised
      treatment in systolic heart failure. There is limited evidence in congenital
      patients with univentricular hearts or systemic right ventricles. In 2014
      PACES/HRS published a consensus statement recommending CRT if ventricular
      ejection fraction (EF)<=35%, QRS duration>=150ms (with RBBB in systemic RV), NYHA
      II-IV and ventricular dilatation. The incidence of patients meeting these
      criteria in whom CRT is possible is not known. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of
      203 patients with a univentricular Fontan circulation and 55 patients with ccTGA
      under specialist ACHD care. RESULTS: Univentricular functional data was available
      for 194 (96%), 10 (5%) having EF<=35%. QRS duration was available for 190 (94%)
      and was >=150ms in five (3%). EF data was available for 54 (98%) ccTGA patients,
      and was <=35% in 6 (11%). QRS duration was >=150ms in 13 (26%). Only four
      patients fulfilled recommendations and two received CRT. CONCLUSIONS: Only a
      small proportion of patients with single ventricles or ccTGA meet the criteria
      for CRT. In many of these patients there are significant anatomical barriers to
      CRT which limit its use in this population. The decision to implant CRT in
      complex ACHD requires discussion in a combined ACHD electrophysiology surgical
      multidisciplinary meeting and close collaboration with patients.

PMID- 28886926
TI  - 2017 Focused Update of the 2016 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on the Role
      of Non-Statin Therapies for LDL-Cholesterol Lowering in the Management of
      Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk: A Report of the American College of
      Cardiology Task Force on Expert Consensus Decision Pathways.
AB  - In 2016, the American College of Cardiology published the first expert consensus
      decision pathway (ECDP) on the role of non-statin therapies for low-density
      lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol lowering in the management of atherosclerotic
      cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk. Since the publication of that document,
      additional evidence and perspectives have emerged from randomized clinical trials
      and other sources, particularly considering the longer-term efficacy and safety
      of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors in secondary
      prevention of ASCVD. Most notably, the FOURIER (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes
      Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects with Elevated Risk) trial and SPIRE-1
      and -2 (Studies of PCSK9 Inhibition and the Reduction of Vascular Events),
      assessing evolocumab and bococizumab, respectively, have published final results
      of cardiovascular outcomes trials in patients with clinical ASCVD and in a
      smaller number of high-risk primary prevention patients. In addition, further
      evidence on the types of patients most likely to benefit from the use of
      ezetimibe in addition to statin therapy after acute coronary syndrome has been
      published. Based on results from these important analyses, the ECDP writing
      committee judged that it would be desirable to provide a focused update to help
      guide clinicians more clearly on decision making regarding the use of ezetimibe
      and PCSK9 inhibitors in patients with clinical ASCVD with or without
      comorbidities. In the following summary table, changes from the 2016 ECDP to the
      2017 ECDP Focused Update are highlighted, and a brief rationale is provided. The
      content of the full document has been changed accordingly, with more extensive
      and detailed guidance regarding decision making provided both in the text and in
      the updated algorithms. Revised recommendations are provided for patients with
      clinical ASCVD with or without comorbidities on statin therapy for secondary
      prevention. The ECDP writing committee judged that these new data did not warrant
      changes to the decision pathways and algorithms regarding the use of ezetimibe or
      PCSK9 inhibitors in primary prevention patients with LDL-C <190 mg/dL with or
      without diabetes mellitus or patients without ASCVD and LDL-C >=190 mg/dL not due
      to secondary causes. Based on feedback and further deliberation, the ECDP writing
      committee down-graded recommendations regarding bile acid sequestrant use,
      recommending bile acid sequestrants only as optional secondary agents for
      consideration in patients intolerant to ezetimibe. For clarification, the writing
      committee has also included new information on diagnostic categories of
      heterozygous and homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, based on clinical
      criteria with and without genetic testing. Other changes to the original document
      were kept to a minimum to provide consistent guidance to clinicians, unless there
      was a compelling reason or new evidence, in which case justification is provided.

PMID- 28886928
TI  - Geographic atrophy: Etiopathogenesis and current therapies.
AB  - Geographic atrophy is characterized by severe visual deficit whose etiology and
      pathophysiology are yet to be elucidated. As a working hypothesis, oxidative
      damage could trigger a chronic inflammation in Bruch's membrane-RPE
      choriocapillaris complex, mostly due to complement pathway overactivation. Some
      individuals with mutations in the complement system and other factors have
      diminished capacity in the modulation of the inflammatory response, which results
      in cell damage and waste accumulation. This accumulation of intracellular and
      extracellular waste products manifests as drusen and pigmentary changes that
      precede the atrophy of photoreceptors, RPE, choriocapillaris with an ischemic
      process with decreased choroid flow. All these processes can be detected as
      tomographic findings and autofluorescence signals that are useful in the
      evaluation of patients with atrophic AMD, which helps to establish an
      individualized prognosis. Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and therapies that
      decrease the accumulation of toxins for the preservation of the RPE cells and
      photoreceptors are being investigated in order to slow down the progression of
      this disease.

PMID- 28886929
TI  - Indocyanine green angiography in anterior scleritis.

PMID- 28886930
TI  - Valsalva petaloid maculopathy.

PMID- 28886931
TI  - OCT angiography in solitary astrocitic hamartoma.

PMID- 28886932
TI  - Human immunodeficiency virus-associated giant conjunctival Kaposi's sarcoma:
      complete remission with antiretroviral therapy and systemic chemotherapy.
AB  - CASE REPORT: A 35-year-old male patient with a large unilateral haemorrhagic
      conjunctival tumour lesion and another contralateral haemorrhagic conjunctival
      flat lesion associated with violaceous cutaneous macules on the extremities and
      angiomatous lesions in the upper gastrointestinal tract as initial clinical
      manifestation of HIV-related immunodeficiency. Cutaneous, gastric mucosal and
      conjunctival biopsy was consistent with Kaposi's sarcoma with complete remission
      after highly active antiretroviral therapy and systemic chemotherapy. CONCLUSION:
      HIV-related conjunctival Kaposi's sarcoma, even a large one, can have a good
      response to antiretroviral therapy and systemic chemotherapy without any
      additional topical eye treatment.

PMID- 28886933
TI  - Characterization of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae field strains antigenically
      related to the 3-6-8-15 group from diseased pigs in Japan and Argentina.
AB  - The objectives of this study were to determine the serovar of a collection of
      Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae strains within the 3-6-8-15 cross-reacting group
      and to analyze their phenotypic and genetic properties. Based on the serological
      tests, forty-seven field strains of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae isolated from
      lungs with pleuropneumonia lesions in Japan and Argentina were found to be
      serovars belonging to the 3-6-8-15 cross-reacting group. By using a capsule loci
      based PCR, twenty-nine (96.7%) and one (3.3%) from Japan were identified as
      serovars 15 and 8, respectively, whereas seventeen (100%) from Argentina were
      identified as serovar 8. The findings suggested that serovars 8 and 15 were
      prevalent within the 3-6-8-15 cross-reacting group, in Argentina and Japan,
      respectively. Phenotypic analyses revealed that the protein patterns observed on
      SDS-PAGE and the lipopolysaccharide antigen detected by immunoblotting of the
      reference and field strains of serovars 8 and 15 were similar to each other.
      Genetic (16S rDNA, apxIIA, apxIIIA, cps, cpx genes, apx and omlA patterns)
      analyses revealed that the apxIIA and apxIIIA genes of the field strains of
      serovars 8 and 15 were similar to those of the reference strains of serovars 3,
      4, 6, 8 and 15. The results obtained in the present study may be useful for the
      development of more effective vaccines against disease caused by A.
      pleuropneumoniae by including the homologous antigens to the most prevalent
      serovars in specific geographical areas.

PMID- 28886934
TI  - Transglutaminase 6 antibodies in gluten neuropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: TG6 antibodies have been shown to be a marker of gluten ataxia but
      their presence in the context of other neurological manifestations of gluten
      sensitivity has not been explored. We investigated the presence of TG6 antibodies
      in gluten neuropathy (GN), defined as as an otherwise idiopathic peripheral
      neuropathy associated with serological markers of gluten sensitivity (one or more
      of antigliadin IgG and/or IgA, endomysial and transglutaminase-2 antibodies).
      METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Sheffield Institute of
      Gluten Related Diseases, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK. Blood samples
      were collected whilst the patients were on a gluten containing diet. Duodenal
      biopsies were performed to establish the presence of enteropathy. RESULTS: Twenty
      eight patients were recruited (mean age 62.5+/-13.7 years). Fifteen (53.6%) had
      sensory ganglionopathy, 12 (42.9%) had symmetrical axonal neuropathy and 1 had
      mononeuritis multiplex. The prevalence of TG6 antibodies was 14 of 28 (50%)
      compared to 4% in the healthy population. TG6 antibodies were found in 5/15
      (33.3%) patients with sensory ganglionopathy and in 8/12 (66.7%) with symmetrical
      axonal neuropathy. Twenty-four patients underwent duodenal biopsy 11 (45.8%) of
      which had enteropathy. The prevalence of TG6 was not significantly different when
      comparing those with or without enteropathy. CONCLUSIONS: We found a high
      prevalence of antibodies against TG6 in patients with GN. This suggests that TG6
      involvement is not confined to the central nervous system. The role of
      transglutaminase 6 in peripheral nerve function remains to be determined but TG6
      antibodies may be helpful in the diagnosis of GN.

PMID- 28886935
TI  - Examination of Nondesignated Preliminary Surgery Residents Recruited Since the
      Inception of Supplementary Offer and Acceptance Program: Lessons Learned From a
      Large Academic Program.
AB  - PURPOSE: The majority of surgery programs roster non-designated preliminary (NDP)
      residents. We and others have reported on the success of NDP resident mentoring
      with regard to categorical position placement. Lacking is a focus on the
      candidates themselves and differences based on initial career of choice. METHODS:
      NDP residents' files since the institution of SOAP were reviewed for
      demographics, initial career choice, financial burden, region of medical school
      of origin, application and interview history, and pre-screen interview candidate
      score (high score of 22 - data includes USMLE scores, major clerkship grades, and
      AOA) used for categorical recruitment. RESULTS: From 2012-16 79 NDP residents
      have been recruited at UCDenver (82% via SOAP). Median age was 28 years, majority
      were single (73%), and male (82%). Thirty percent belonged to an under
      represented minority group. Mean debt was $156,000 but 20% owe over $250,000. 90%
      attended US medical schools with 65% from the NRMP "South" region. 86% were
      recruited as fourth year students. NDPs were categorized as failing to match in
      general surgery (38%), surgical subspecialties (47%), or other (15%). NDPs
      applied to median of 68 programs (range 7-200) and granted a median of 8
      interviews (range 0-24). NDPs had a mean pre-screening interview score of 13 out
      of 22 and only 9% would have met the standard threshold to obtain a categorical
      surgery interview. There were no differences in pre-screening scores in the three
      groups. 95% NDPs (excluding present year) successfully completed their R1 year
      (three resigned - one obtained a general surgery spot mid-year and two after
      matching in non-general surgery fields). 68% NDPs placed in categorical positions
      after the R1 year. The placement was better for the surgical subspecialty group
      compared to the other two. CONCLUSIONS: The bias is that due to a more
      competitive applicant pool recruiting NDPs from surgical subspecialties would be
      optimal. However, those unmatched surgical subspecialty candidates are no better
      academically than the unmatched general surgery group, often have career
      interests that do not always align with scheduled rotations, and may not feel
      compelled to complete the year if they match. They place minimally better when
      accounting for those unmatched general surgery NDP R1s continuing as NDP R2s.
      Ultimately the success in a non-designated preliminary R1 surgery program is
      alignment of clinical educational opportunities with the needs of the trainee.

PMID- 28886936
TI  - Quantification of piperazine in chicken and pig tissues by gas chromatography
      electron ionization tandem mass spectrometry employing pre-column derivatization
      with acetic anhydride.
AB  - This paper describes a novel method that combines acetic anhydride derivatization
      with gas chromatography-electron ionization tandem mass spectrometry (GC
      EI/MS/MS) for the sensitive and selective determination of piperazine in chicken
      and pig tissues. Samples were extracted using an accelerated solvent extraction
      (ASE) apparatus, purified by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and derivatized with
      acetic anhydride. This optimized method was validated according to the
      requirements defined by the European Union and the Food and Drug Administration.
      At the limit of quantification (LOQ) spiked levels of 50.0, 100.0, 500.0, 1000.0
      and 2000.0MUg/kg, the average recoveries of piperazine in chicken and pig tissues
      were 77.46-96.26%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.55-6.64%. The
      intra-day RSDs were 1.39-5.92%, and the inter-day RSDs were 2.24-8.39%. The
      limits of detection (LODs) and the LOQs were 1.4-1.6MUg/kg and 4.8-5.2MUg/kg,
      respectively. The decision limits (CCalpha) were 102.02-105.17MUg/kg, and the
      detection capabilities (CCbeta) were 104.03-109.09MUg/kg. Finally, the new
      approach was verified for the quantitative determination of piperazine in 30
      commercial chicken and pig tissues from local supermarkets.

PMID- 28886938
TI  - Enantioselective determination of (R)-zopiclone and (S)-zopiclone (eszopiclone)
      in human hair by micropulverized extraction and chiral liquid chromatography/high
      resolution mass spectrometry.
AB  - Zopiclone and its (S)-enantiomer (eszopiclone) are commonly prescribed for
      insomnia. Despite the high demand for enantioselective differentiation, the
      chiral analysis of zopiclone in hair has not been reported. In this study, a
      method for the enantioselective quantification of zopiclone in human hair was
      developed. The extraction medium and duration were optimized using real
      eszopiclone-positive hair samples. Specifically, micropulverized extraction with
      3.0M ammonium phosphate buffer (pH 8.4) involving salting-out assisted liquid
      liquid extraction with acetonitrile was utilized to minimize the degradation of
      zopiclone and for rapid and facile operation. On the other hand, recovery of the
      conventional solid-liquid extraction involved overnight soaking in 3.0M ammonium
      phosphate buffer (pH 8.4) was only 0.58+/-0.12% of the maximum recovery achieved
      by the present method due to the decomposition in the phosphate buffer. An
      excellent chiral separation (Rs=5.0) was achieved using a chiral stationary phase
      comprising cellulose tris(3,5-dichlorophenylcarbamate) and a volatile mobile
      phase of 10mM ammonium carbonate (pH 8.0)-acetonitrile (25:75, v/v). Detection
      was carried out using liquid chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry
      (LC/HRMS) with electrospray ionization. A Q Exactive mass spectrometer equipped
      with a quadrupole-Orbitrap analyzer was used for detection. The concentration of
      0.50pg/mg was defined as the lowest limit of quantification using 5mg of hair
      sample. Using the developed approach, the concentration of eszopiclone in hair
      after a single 2-mg dose was found to be 441pg/mg, which was higher than all the
      reported values regarding a single administration of zopiclone. After daily
      administration of racemic zopiclone (3.75mg/day), the concentrations of (R)
      enantiomer and (S)-enantiomer in the black hair were 5.30-8.31ng/mg and 7.96
      12.8ng/mg, respectively, and the concentration of the (S)-enantiomer was always
      higher than that of the (R)-enantiomer due to the enantioselective difference in
      the pharmacokinetics.

PMID- 28886937
TI  - Studies of drug interactions with alpha1-acid glycoprotein by using on-line
      immunoextraction and high-performance affinity chromatography.
AB  - A method that combined on-line immunoextraction with high-performance affinity
      chromatography was developed to examine the binding of drugs with alpha1-acid
      glycoprotein (AGP). Affinity microcolumns containing immobilized polyclonal anti
      AGP antibodies were developed that had a capture efficiency of up to 98.4% for
      AGP and a binding capacity of 0.72nmol AGP when using a 20mm*2.1mm i.d.
      microcolumn. These microcolumns were employed in various formats to examine the
      binding of drugs to normal AGP and AGP that had been adsorbed from serum samples
      for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Drugs that were screened in
      zonal elution experiments for their overall binding to these types of AGP
      included chlorpromazine, disopyramide, imipramine, propranolol, and warfarin.
      Most of these drugs showed an increase in their binding to the AGP from SLE serum
      when compared to normal AGP (i.e., an increase of 13-76%); however, disopyramide
      gave a 21-25% decrease in retention when the same AGP samples were compared.
      Frontal analysis was used to further evaluate the binding of disopyramide and
      imipramine to these forms of AGP. Both drugs gave a good fit to a model that
      involved a combination of saturable and non-saturable interactions with AGP.
      Changes in the non-saturable interactions accounted for most of variations seen
      in the binding of disopyramide and imipramine with the AGP samples. The methods
      used in this study could be adapted for use in personalized medicine and the
      study of other proteins or drugs using aqueous mixtures or clinical samples.

PMID- 28886939
TI  - Development of an on-line mixed-mode gel liquid chromatography*reversed phase
      liquid chromatography method for separation of water extract from Flos Carthami.
AB  - A novel on-line comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC)
      method by coupling mixed-mode gel liquid chromatography (MMG-LC) with reversed
      phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was developed. A mixture of 17 reference
      compounds was used to study the separation mechanism. A crude water extract of
      Flos Carthami was applied to evaluate the performance of the novel 2D-LC system.
      In the first dimension, the extract was eluted with a gradient of water/methanol
      over a cross-linked dextran gel Sephadex LH-20 column. Meanwhile, the advantages
      of size exclusion, reversed phase partition and adsorption separation mechanism
      were exploited before further on-line reversed phase purification on the second
      dimension. This novel on-line mixed-mode Sephadex LH-20*RPLC method provided
      higher peak resolution, sample processing ability (2.5mg) and better
      orthogonality (72.9%) versus RPLC*RPLC and hydrophilic interaction liquid
      chromatography (HILIC)*RPLC. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      report of a mixed-mode Sephadex LH-20*RPLC separation method with successful
      applications in on-line mode, which might be beneficial for harvesting targets
      from complicated medicinal plants.

PMID- 28886940
TI  - Incidence of bifid uvula and its relationship to submucous cleft palate and a
      family history of oral cleft in the Brazilian population.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Bifid uvula is a frequently observed anomaly in the general
      population and can be regarded as a marker for submucous cleft palate. OBJECTIVE:
      In this study aimed to determine the frequency of bifid uvula and submucous cleft
      palate and their relationship with oral clefts in a Brazilian population.
      METHODS: We conducted a transversal, descriptive and quantitative study of 1206
      children between August 2014 and December 2015. A clinical examination of the
      children was conducted by means of inspection of the oral cavity with the aid of
      a tongue depressor and directed light. After the clinical examination in
      children, parents answered a questionnaire with questions about basic demographic
      information and their family history of oral clefts in their first-degree
      relatives. After application of the questionnaires, the information collected was
      archived in a database and analyzed by the statistical program SPSS(r) version
      19.0, by applying Chi-Square tests. Values with p<0.05 were considered
      statistically significant. RESULTS: Of the 1206 children included in this study,
      608 (50.40%) were female and 598 (49.60%) were male (p=0.773). The average age of
      children was 3.75 years (standard deviation+/-3.78 years). Of the 1206 children
      studied, 6 (0.5%) presented with bifid uvula. Submucosal cleft palate was not
      found in any child. When the family histories of children were examined for the
      presence of nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or cleft palate, no first degree relatives
      presented with the congenital anomaly. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that the
      incidence of bifid uvula and submucous cleft palate in this population was quite
      similar to previously reported incidence rates. Our study suggests an
      intensification of new reviews, with broader and diverse populations, seeking to
      associate the occurrence of bifid uvula, submucous cleft palate and oral clefts.

PMID- 28886941
TI  - Should functional renal scans be obtained prior to upper abdominal IMRT for
      pancreatic cancer?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Upper abdominal irradiation for pancreatic cancer is administered in
      close proximity to the radiation-sensitive kidneys. There is difficulty in
      defining dose-volume parameters to predict late renal toxicity after partial
      kidney irradiation. Less than 10% of the general population is estimated to have
      asymmetrical kidney function; however, there are no studies that examine this in
      patients with pancreatic cancer. The primary purpose of this study was to
      determine the prevalence of asymmetrical kidney function in patients with
      pancreatic cancer. A secondary aim was to determine if asymmetrical kidney
      function was associated with abnormal laboratory values or kidney size on
      computed tomography scans. Finally, we aimed to develop recommendations for when
      a functional renal scan in patients with pancreatic cancer should be ordered.
      METHODS AND MATERIALS: We performed a retrospective review of patients with
      resectable, borderline resectable, and locally advanced pancreatic cancer who
      received abdominal radiation therapy and had preradiation functional renal scans
      between 2009 and 2015. Asymmetrical kidney function was defined as a difference
      between the 2 kidneys that was >=60%/40% on a functional renal scan. Serum
      studies (blood urea nitrogen [BUN], creatinine [Cr], and glomerular filtration
      rate [GFR]) and abdominal computed tomography scans were routinely obtained
      before simulation. RESULTS: Of the 204 patients examined, 23 (11.2%) had
      asymmetrical kidney function that was identified on preradiation functional renal
      scans. Elevated Cr or BUN, a GFR <60, or a medical history that suggested
      abnormal renal function were not significantly associated with asymmetrical
      kidney function. Only 6 of 23 patients (26%) with asymmetrical kidney function
      had a notable difference in kidney size. CONCLUSIONS: In our series,
      approximately 11% of patients with pancreatic cancer have asymmetrical kidney
      function that was not identified by kidney size, serum BUN, Cr, GFR, or a
      significant medical history. These data suggest that in cases in which renal
      radiation doses exceed a V18 of 20% to 30% or there is concern about baseline
      renal function, a functional renal scan should be considered.

PMID- 28886942
TI  - Remitting infections due to community-acquired Panton-Valentine leukocidin
      producing Staphylococcus aureus in the Milan area.
AB  - One of the most important Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors is Panton
      Valentine leukocidin (PVL). We describe an outbreak of recurrent cutaneous PVL
      infections in different members of three family clusters. Molecular
      investigations were performed to confirm the presence of the mecA and PVL genes
      and to assign the SCCmec type, sequence type (ST) and clonal relatedness. A
      strain of PVL-producing methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was responsible
      for infection in two related families (A and B), and a third family (C) was
      infected with PVL-producing methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). Molecular
      investigations revealed the same clone of community-acquired (CA)-MRSA, PVL
      positive ST8, and SCCmec IV in families A and B and CA-MSSA PVL positive ST15 in
      family C. S. aureus PVL may give rise to recurrent uncontrolled infections that
      are difficult to eradicate, and close family contacts are at high risk for
      transmission.

PMID- 28886943
TI  - Short- and long-term protective efficacy against clade 2.3.4.4 H5N2 highly
      pathogenic avian influenza virus following prime-boost vaccination in turkeys.
AB  - Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) infections are frequently
      associated with systemic disease and high mortality in domestic poultry,
      particularly in chickens and turkeys. Clade 2.3.4.4 represents a genetic cluster
      within the Asian HPAIV H5 Goose/Guangdong lineage that has transmitted through
      migratory birds and spread throughout the world. In 2014, clade 2.3.4.4 strains
      entered the U.S. via the Pacific flyway, reassorted with local strains of the
      North American lineage, and produced novel HPAIV strains of the H5N1, H5N2, and
      H5N8 subtypes. By 2015, the H5N2 HPAIVs disseminated eastwards within the
      continental U.S. and Canada and infected commercial poultry, causing the largest
      animal health outbreak in recent history in the U.S. The outbreak was controlled
      by traditional mass depopulation methods, but the outbreak was of such magnitude
      that it led to the consideration of alternative control measures, including
      vaccination. In this regard, little information is available on the long-term
      protection of turkeys vaccinated against avian influenza. In this report, a
      vaccination study was carried out in turkeys using 3 prime-boost approaches with
      a combination of 2 different vaccines, an alphavirus-based replicon vaccine and
      an adjuvanted-inactivated reverse genetics vaccine. Vaccine efficacy was assessed
      at 6 and 16weeks of age following challenge with a prototypic novel clade 2.3.4.4
      H5N2 HPAIV. All three vaccines protocols were protective with significantly
      reduced virus shedding and mortality after challenge at 6weeks of age. In
      contrast, significant variations were seen in 16-week old turkeys after
      challenge: priming with the alphavirus-based replicon followed by boost with the
      adjuvanted-inactivated vaccine conferred the best protection, whereas the
      alphavirus-based replicon vaccine given twice provided the least protection. Our
      study highlights the importance of studying not only different vaccine platforms
      but also vaccination strategies to maximize protection against HPAIV especially
      with regards to the longevity of vaccine-induced immune response.

PMID- 28886944
TI  - Attitudes towards Zika screening and vaccination acceptability among pregnant
      women in Malaysia.
AB  - The aim of this study was to examine the willingness of pregnant women to have
      prenatal screening for the Zika virus (ZIKV). Secondly, the study also assessed
      the acceptability of a hypothetical Zika vaccination and its association with the
      health belief model (HBM) constructs. A cross-sectional study was conducted from
      4th October to 11th November 2016, among pregnant women who attended antenatal
      care at the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The
      majority (81.8%) was willing to be tested for ZIKV and 78% felt that their spouse
      would be willing to be tested for ZIKV. A total of 94% expressed a willingness to
      receive a Zika vaccination if available. The participants expressed high
      perceived benefits of a ZIKV vaccination. Although many have a high perception of
      the severity of ZIKV, the proportion with a strong perception of their
      susceptibility to ZIKV was low. In the multivariate analysis of all the HBM
      constructs, cue-to-action, namely physician recommendation (odds ratio
      [OR]=2.288; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.093-4.793) and recommendation from
      friends or relatives (OR=4.030; 95% CI 1.694-9.587), were significantly
      associated with a willingness to be vaccinated against ZIKV. The favourable
      response to a Zika vaccination implies that more research attention has to be
      given to develop a vaccine against ZIKV. Should the vaccine be available in the
      future, publicity and healthcare providers would play a vital role in ensuring
      vaccine uptake among pregnant women.

PMID- 28886945
TI  - Cost of a measles outbreak in a remote island economy: 2014 Federated States of
      Micronesia measles outbreak.
AB  - After 20years with no reported measles cases, on May 15, 2014 the Centers for
      Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified of two cases testing positive
      for measles-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies in the Federated States of
      Micronesia (FSM). Under the Compact of Free Association, FSM receives
      immunization funding and technical support from the United States (US) domestic
      vaccination program managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
      (CDC). In a collaborative effort, public health officials and volunteers from FSM
      and the US government worked to respond and contain the measles outbreak through
      an emergency mass vaccination campaign, contact tracing, and other outbreak
      investigation activities. Contributions were also made by United Nations
      Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO). Total
      costs incurred as a result of the outbreak were nearly $4,000,000; approximately
      $10,000 per case. Direct medical costs (~$141,000) were incurred in the treatment
      of those individuals infected, as well as lost productivity of the infected and
      informal caregivers (~$250,000) and costs to contain the outbreak (~$3.5
      million). We assessed the economic burden of the 2014 measles outbreak to FSM, as
      well as the economic responsibilities of the US. Although the US paid the
      majority of total costs of the outbreak (~67%), examining each country's costs
      relative to their respective economy illustrates a far greater burden to FSM. We
      demonstrate that while FSM was heavily assisted by the US in responding to the
      2014 Measles Outbreak, the outbreak significantly impacted their economy. FSM's
      economic burden from the outbreak is approximately equivalent to their entire
      2016 Fiscal Year budget dedicated to education.

PMID- 28886946
TI  - Postmarketing safety surveillance of trivalent recombinant influenza vaccine:
      Reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
AB  - On January 16, 2013, the Food and Drug Administration approved recombinant
      hemagglutinin influenza vaccine (RIV3) (Spodoptera frugiperda cell line;
      Flublok), which is the first completely egg-free flu vaccine licensed in the
      United States. To improve our understanding of the safety profile of this
      vaccine, we reviewed and summarized reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event
      Reporting System (VAERS) following RIV3. Through June 30, 2016, VAERS received 88
      reports. Allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, were the most common type of
      adverse event. Based on medical review, 10 cases met the Brighton Collaboration
      case definition of anaphylaxis, 21 reports described allergic reactions other
      than anaphylaxis, and 11 reports described signs and symptoms that suggested
      hypersensitivity. Other adverse events included injection site reactions,
      fatigue, myalgia, headache, and fever. The occurrence of anaphylaxis and other
      allergic reactions in some individuals may reflect an underlying predisposition
      to atopy that may manifest itself after an exposure to any drug or vaccine, and
      it does not necessarily suggest a causal relationship with the unique
      constituents that are specific to the vaccine product administered. Further
      research may elucidate the mechanism of allergic reactions following influenza
      vaccination: it is possible that egg proteins and influenza hemagglutinin play
      little or no role. Vaccination remains the single best defense against influenza
      and its complications. The information summarized here may enable policy makers,
      health officials, clinicians, and patients to make a more informed decision
      regarding vaccination strategies.

PMID- 28886947
TI  - Using campaigns to improve perceptions of the value of adult vaccination in the
      United States: Health communication considerations and insights.
AB  - Vaccines have much relevance and promise for improving adult health in the United
      States, but to date, overall use and uptake remain far below desired levels. Many
      adults have not received recommended vaccinations and many healthcare providers
      do not strongly and actively encourage their use with patients. This has led some
      public health and medical experts to conclude that adult vaccines are severely
      undervalued by the U.S. public and healthcare providers and to call for campaigns
      and communication-based efforts to foster increased appreciation, and in turn,
      higher adult immunization rates. A narrative integrative review that draws upon
      the vaccine valuation and health communication literatures is used to develop a
      framework to guide campaign and communication-based efforts to improve public,
      provider, and policymakers' assessment of the value of adult vaccination. The
      review does this by: (1) distinguishing social psychological value from economic
      value; (2) identifying the implications of social psychological value
      considerations for adult vaccination-related communication campaigns; and (3)
      using five core health communication considerations to illustrate how social
      psychological notions of value can be integrated into campaigns or communication
      that are intended to improve adult vaccination value perceptions and assessments,
      and in turn, motivate greater support for and uptake of recommended adult
      vaccines.

PMID- 28886948
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28886949
TI  - Low antigen dose formulated in CAF09 adjuvant Favours a cytotoxic T-cell response
      following intraperitoneal immunization in Gottingen minipigs.
AB  - The relationship between the antigen dose and the quality of an immune response
      generated upon immunization is poorly understood. However, findings show that the
      immune system is indeed influenced by the antigen dose; hence underlining the
      importance of correctly determining which dose to use in order to generate a
      certain type of immune response. To investigate this area further, we used
      Gottingen minipigs asan animal model especially due to the similar body size and
      high degree of immunome similarity between humans and pigs. In this study, we
      show that both a humoral and a cell-mediated immune (CMI) response can be
      generated following intraperitoneal immunization with tetanus toxoid (TT)
      formulated in the CAF09 liposomal adjuvant. Importantly, a low antigen dose
      induced more TT-specific polyfunctional T cells, whereas antigen-specific IgG
      production was observed upon high-dose immunization. Independent of antigen dose,
      intraperitoneal administration of antigen increased the amount of TT-specific
      cytotoxic CD8beta+ T cells within the cytokine-producing T-cell pool when
      compared to the non-cytokine producing T-cell compartment. Taken together, these
      results demonstrate that a full protein formulated in the CAF09 adjuvant and
      administered to pigs via the intraperitoneal route effectively generates a
      cytotoxic T-cell response. Moreover, we confirm the inverse relationship between
      the antigen dose and the induction of polyfunctional T cells in a large animal
      model. These finding can have implications for the design of upcoming vaccine
      trials aiming at establishing a cytotoxic T-cell response.

PMID- 28886950
TI  - Influence of thermo-mechanical cycling on porcelain bonding to cobalt-chromium
      and titanium dental alloys fabricated by casting, milling, and selective laser
      melting.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim has been to determine the effect of thermo-mechanical cycling on
      shear-bond-strength (SBS) of dental porcelain to Co-Cr and Ti-based alloys
      fabricated by casting, computer-numerical-controlled milling, and selective-laser
      melting (SLM). METHODS: Seven groups (n=22/group) of metal cylinders were
      fabricated by casting (Co-Cr and commercially pure-cpTi), milling (Co-Cr, cpTi,
      Ti-6Al-4V) or by SLM (Co-Cr and Ti-6Al-4V) and abraded with airborne-particles.
      The average surface roughness (Ra) was determined for each group. Dental
      porcelain was applied and each metal-ceramic combination was divided into two
      subgroups - stored in deionized water (24-h, 37 degrees C), or subjected to both
      thermal (6000-cycles, between 5 and 60 degrees C) and mechanical cycling (105
      cycles, 60N-load). SBS test-values and failure modes were recorded. Metal-ceramic
      interfaces were analyzed with a focused-ion-beam/scanning-electron-microscope
      (FIB/SEM) and energy-dispersive-spectroscopy (EDS). The elastic properties of the
      respective metal and ceramic materials were evaluated by instrumented-indentation
      testing. The oxide thickness on intact Ti-based substrates was measured with
      Auger-electron-spectroscopy (AES). Data were analyzed using ANOVA, Tukey's HSD
      and t-tests (alpha=0.05). RESULTS: The SBS-means differed according to the metal
      ceramic combination (p<0.0005) and to the fatigue conditions (p<0.0005). The
      failure modes and interface analyses suggest better porcelain adherence to Co-Cr
      than to Ti-based alloys. Values of Ra were dependent on the metal substrate
      (p<0.0005). Ti-based substrates were not covered with thick oxide layers
      following digital fabrication. CONCLUSIONS: Ti-based alloys are more susceptible
      than Co-Cr to reduction of porcelain bond strength following thermo-mechanical
      cycling. The porcelain bond strength to Ti-based alloys is affected by the
      applied metal processing technology.

PMID- 28886951
TI  - Strength comparison of anterior teeth restored with ceramic endocrowns vs custom
      made post and cores.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to compare strength of the anterior teeth
      restored with ceramic endocrowns versus custom-made post and core. METHODS: The
      investigation used the finite element analysis. Three 3-D models of maxillary
      central incisor were created: model A-tooth restored with metal post and core
      with ceramic crown; model B-tooth with leucite ceramic endocrown; model C-tooth
      with lithium disilicate ceramic endocrown. Each model was subjected to a 100N
      force applied at a distance of 5mm from the incisal edge, at the angle of 130
      degrees  to the long axis of the tooth. The modified von Mises failure criterion
      was used to evaluate the strength of the dentin, ceramic and resin cement, and
      Huber-Mises-Hencky failure criterion for cast alloy. Contact stresses in the
      cement-tissue adhesive interface were calculated. RESULTS: The lowest stresses
      occurred in the anterior tooth restored with custom post and core (model A). The
      mvM stress of 47.5MPa concentrated in leucite ceramic endocrown (model B) and its
      value was close to the tensile strength of this material. The maximal mvM
      stresses in the lithium disilicate ceramic endocrown (model C) were 4 times lower
      than tensile strength of this material. In all cases contact stresses in the
      adhesive interface under restorations did not exceed the resin cement bond
      strength to dentin. CONCLUSIONS: Leucite ceramic endocrowns in incisors may
      fracture during physiological loading. Endocrowns made of lithium disilicate
      ceramic are resistant to failure. Posts and prosthetic crowns are still
      recommended for anterior teeth restorations.

PMID- 28886952
TI  - Clinical manifestations of candidemia caused by uncommon Candida species and
      antifungal susceptibility of the isolates in a regional hospital in Taiwan, 2007
      2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study investigated clinical manifestations of
      candidemia caused by uncommon Candida species and antifungal susceptibility of
      the isolates in a regional hospital in Taiwan. METHODS: The uncommon Candida
      species was initially defined as Candida species other than C. albicans, C.
      tropicalis, C. glabrata complex, C. parapsilosis complex and C. krusei. All
      uncommon Candida isolates were identified and confirmed by molecular methods. In
      vitro susceptibility testing of the uncommon Candida species to nine antifungal
      agents was conducted using the broth microdilution method with the Sensititre
      YeastOne (SYO) system (Trek Diagnostic Systems, Ltd., East Grimstead, UK).
      RESULTS: Twenty-one patients, comprising 11 males and 10 females with a median
      age of 69 years, were recruited. Cancer (n = 11) was the most common underlying
      disease, 19 (90.5%) cases had prior antibiotic exposure, and only two patients
      had prior antifungal use. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 38.1% (n =
      8). C. guilliermondii (n = 11) was the most common pathogen, followed by C.
      curvata (n = 3). C. guilliermondii isolates exhibited relatively high rates of
      azole minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) above epidemiological cut-off
      values (ECVs), whereas C. pelliculosa and C. lusitaniae isolates all remained
      susceptible to azoles. All three C. curvata isolates had high caspofungin (>8
      mg/L) and fluconazole MICs (8 mg/L) and could be defined as multidrug-resistant.
      CONCLUSIONS: Uncommon Candida species frequently exhibit high rates of non
      susceptibility to antifungals. Identification of all Candida isolates at the
      species level from blood samples is of value for treatment.

PMID- 28886953
TI  - Activating or Inhibiting Nrf2?
AB  - Activating nuclear factor erythroid 2 (NF-E2)-related factor (Nrf2) is a widely
      recognized strategy for combating oxidative-stress-induced diseases. However,
      Nrf2 activation does not always bring advantageous effects. Therefore, before
      performing Nrf2-targeted therapy, we must pinpoint whether Nrf2 should be
      activated or inhibited.

PMID- 28886954
TI  - A systematic checklist approach to immunosuppression risk management: An audit of
      practice at two clinical neuroimmunology centers.
AB  - There is no consensus approach to safety screening for immune intervention in
      clinical neuroimmunology. An immunosuppression risk evaluation checklist was used
      as an audit tool to assess real-world immunosuppression risk management and
      formulate recommendations for quality improvements in patient safety. Ninety-nine
      patients from two centres with 27 non-MS diagnoses were included. An average of
      1.9 comorbidities with the potential to adversely impact morbidity and mortality
      associated with immunosuppression were identified. Diabetes and smoking were the
      most common, however a range of rarer but potentially life-threatening co-morbid
      disorders in the context of immunosuppression were identified. Inadequate
      documentation of risk mitigation tasks was common at 40.1% of total tasks across
      both cohorts. A routine, systematic immunosuppression checklist approach should
      be considered to improve immunosuppression risk management in clinical
      neuroimmunology practice.

PMID- 28886955
TI  - Successful combined targeting of B- and plasma cells in treatment refractory anti
      NMDAR encephalitis.
AB  - We describe an extremely severe case of therapy refractory NMDA receptor
      encephalitis (NMDAe) in a 26-year-old woman. After rituximab, bilateral
      oophorectomy, repeated cycles of high dose methylprednisolone and plasma
      exchange, she received repeated cyclophosphamide, tocilizumab (interleukin-6
      inhibitor) and finally bortezomib (plasma cell depleting drug) leading to
      remission after 204days in intensive care. Two years after disease onset her
      cognitive functions are still affected, but slowly improving and the cerebral
      atrophy has been partly reversed. The cerebrospinal fluid biomarker profile
      suggests an early synaptic/dendritic process, with subsequent neuroaxonal
      degeneration motivating aggressive treatment early on.

PMID- 28886956
TI  - Sepsis biomarkers reprofiling to predict stroke-associated infections.
AB  - We aimed to evaluate the usefulness of sepsis biomarkers to predict stroke
      associated infections. Soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1
      (sTREM-1), mid-regional pro-adrenomedullin (MR-proADM), presepsin (sCD14), and
      soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), were explored in
      125 blood samples collected at different time-points. At baseline, MR-proADM was
      an independent predictor of infection [>0.94pg/mL, OR=3.63 (1.16-11.33),
      p=0.026], as well as suPAR at 24h [>2185.8pg/mL, OR=5.81 (1.05-32.26), p=0.044].
      Both MR-proADM and suPAR were raised in patients with infections throughout the
      first week after stroke. These results are especially relevant for MR-proADM
      given its early elevation, which would allow early preventive interventions.

PMID- 28886957
TI  - Differential vulnerability of hippocampal subfields and anteroposterior
      hippocampal subregions in healthy cognitive aging.
AB  - In the present study, we investigated whether hippocampal subfields (cornu
      ammonis 1-3, dentate gyrus, and subiculum) and anteroposterior hippocampal
      subregions (head, body, and tail) follow the same trajectory with age using
      structural magnetic resonance imaging. We recruited 129 healthy volunteers, aged
      18-85 years. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired on a 4.7T
      system. Hippocampal subfields and subregions were manually segmented using
      reliable volumetric protocols. We found that all effects of age on the
      hippocampal volumes were nonlinear and were mainly found in the hippocampal body,
      while the hippocampal head and the tail volumes were not associated with age. The
      total subiculum and the total dentate gyrus volumes were associated with age,
      while the total cornu ammonis 1-3 was not. Significant associations with age for
      the cornu ammonis 1-3 and the dentate gyrus volumes were present only in the
      hippocampal body, while the subiculum volumes were associated with age throughout
      the entire hippocampus. Subiculum volumes were more negatively related to age in
      men than in women.

PMID- 28886958
TI  - Use of psychoactive substances in prison: Results of a study in the Lyon-Corbas
      prison, France.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In prison, in 2012, according to various sources, from 4 to
      56% of the European inmate population used psychoactive substances (PAS). The aim
      of our study was to describe PAS consumption during incarceration in the prison
      of Lyon-Corbas, France. METHOD: A transversal descriptive study was conducted
      between September 23rd and September 27th 2013 among all inmates of this prison.
      We used an anonymous self-administered questionnaire, distributed at lunchtime
      and collected, the same day, at dinnertime, by the mental health service
      personnel. RESULTS: Among 785 inmates present at the time of the study in the
      prison of Lyon-Corbas, 710 were included and the response rate was 64.4% (95% CI
      [60.8-67.8]). Among 457 responding inmates, 16.4% (95% CI [13.2-20.0]) reported
      no PAS consumption. Among 382 consumers, 74.4% (95% CI [69.8-78.5]) used tobacco,
      36.8% (95% CI [32.2-41.8]) cannabis, 30.4% (95% CI [25.9-35.1]) alcohol, 7.7%
      (95% CI [5.2-10.6]) heroin and 10.3% (95% CI [7.5-13.6]) cocaine. Furthermore,
      15% of consumers had started PAS consumption during their incarceration. Among
      consumers of at least one PAS other than tobacco, cannabis and alcohol, the way
      of consumption was sniff for 60.0% (95% CI [48.5-70.2]) and injection for 31.0%
      (95% CI [21.6-42.1]). Use of several PAS at the same time and sharing sniffing
      and/or injection paraphernalia were other risky behaviors observed; 12% (95% CI
      [5.8-20.4]) of drug injectors declared using chlorine to sterilize their
      injection paraphernalia. CONCLUSION: Our study provides worrying data about PAS
      consumption in prison. The measures of prohibition do not prevent this
      consumption. There is even an initiation of consumption of PAS for 15% of the
      first-time incarcerated inmates. This finding should encourage public authorities
      to facilitate access of inmates to the care structures in prisons, to improve
      drug use prevention and care programs and to develop activities (sports,
      cultural, educational and vocational).

PMID- 28886959
TI  - [The psychiatric hospital discharge database (RIM-P): An essential tool for the
      surveillance of hospitalization after a suicide attempt].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidemiological surveillance of suicide attempts is essential for
      monitoring indicator trends in the evaluation of prevention actions. As part of
      this surveillance, analysis of data from hospitalization for suicide attempts is
      particularly useful. METHODS: For the first time, data from two national hospital
      discharge databases, the "Programme de medicalisation des systemes d'information
      en medecine, chirurgie, obstetrique" (PMSI-MCO) and the " Recueil d'information
      medicalise en psychiatrie" (RIM-P) have been analyzed jointly. All patients aged
      10 or more hospitalized in 2012 in medicine, surgery or psychiatry departments in
      metropolitan France have were included. RESULTS: Through 2012, 89,072 patients
      (62% females and 38% males) totalized 134,051 hospital stays following a suicide
      attempt, with 93.4% (n=83,196) in medicine or surgery wards and 32.1% (n=28,594)
      in psychiatry wards (solely or transferred after a stay in medicine or surgery).
      However, among the patients transferred to psychiatry after hospitalization in
      medicine or surgery for suicide attempt, 82.4% had no suicide attempt code noted
      at their discharge from psychiatry. One or more psychiatric diagnoses were
      observed in 75% of the patients hospitalized for suicide attempt. The most common
      diagnoses in men and in women were mood disorders (46%), particularly depression
      (42%; 44% in women and 38% in men). Mental disorders related to alcohol use were
      noted in more than a quarter of the patients, more frequently in men (37%) than
      in women (21%). Some diagnoses were rarely noted in medicine or surgery, such as
      anxiety disorders and disorders of adult personality and behavior. CONCLUSION:
      Improvement of the epidemiological surveillance of suicide attempts requires a
      systematic coding of hospitalizations in psychiatry as well as in medicine and
      surgery. Data from hospitalization in psychiatry yield a more precise
      identification of psychiatric co-morbidities associated with suicide attempts.
      The frequent presence of mental problems associated with suicide attempts should
      encourage clinicians to search for these symptoms systematically as soon as
      possible after admission of the patient.

PMID- 28886961
TI  - A feasibility study of using advanced external beam techniques to create a
      vaginal cuff brachytherapy-like endometrial boost plan.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of using advanced
      external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) planning techniques for creating plans
      that could be used as a possible alternative for high-dose rate (HDR) vaginal
      cuff brachytherapy (VCBT) boost in treating endometrial cancer. The computed
      tomography (CT) images of a total of 4 female patients who had endometrial cancer
      treated with HDR-VCBT were selected for this study. A typical HDR-VCBT target
      volume, 0.5-cm-thick shell volume around the cylinder applicator in the
      prescribed treatment length was contoured and used as the planning target volume
      (PTV) in both the HDR VCBT and the EBRT VCBT-like plans. HDR-VCBT plans were made
      based on the clinical protocol, 6 Gy given at the cylinder surface. The EBRT
      plans were generated using either a 7-field intensity-modulated radiation therapy
      (IMRT) or a 2-arc volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) techniques for
      different cylinder sizes and treatment lengths, with the prescription dose of 5
      Gy. Organs at risk (OARs) such as bladder, femoral heads, rectum, and sigmoid
      were also contoured and used in dosimetric evaluations. Dose-to-target metrics
      included mean dose, the dose covering 90% of target volume (D90) and the
      percentage of target volume covered by 90% of prescription dose (V90 or V13.5
      Gy). Dose to OAR metrics included the maximum dose received by 0.1 cc (D0.1cc),
      1.0 cc (D1.0cc), and 2.0 cc (D2.0cc) of OARs. These metrics were calculated and
      compared between all techniques. After the EBRT plans were normalized to achieve
      a comparable mean dose to target as HDR-VCBT, the EBRT plans were found to have
      superior target coverage and increased dose homogeneity compared with HDR-VCBT.
      V90s of EBRT plans were 95%, compared with 50% to 58% of the HDR plans. However,
      D0.1cc, D1.0cc, and D2.0cc of OARs were 2% to 38% lower in HDR-VCBT than in EBRT.
      Although HDR-VCBT plans demonstrated superior normal tissue sparing, both EBRT
      and HDR-VCBT plans produce plans that met clinical dose constraints on normal
      tissues. Advanced EBRT techniques such as IMRT and VMAT are capable of making
      plans, which closely resemble HDR-VCBT. Although the doses of OARs are greater in
      EBRT than in HDR-VCBT, the prescription dose coverage and dose homogeneity of the
      EBRT plans are greater than that of HDR-VCBT plans at the similar mean dose, and
      the OAR dose is still acceptable with EBRT plans. The detailed dosimetric
      approaches are provided in the study.

PMID- 28886960
TI  - [Indoor air quality and parents of asthmatic children practices].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indoor air pollution can worsen asthma in children. Better knowledge
      of factors determining parents' reception of recommendations to limit pollution
      of indoor air in the homes of asthmatic children would be helpful to improve
      implementation. METHOD: A descriptive study evaluating practices known to have an
      impact on the quality of air in homes was conducted among parents of asthmatic
      children aged 3 to 16 years. From May to September 2013, parents answered
      anonymous self-administered questionnaires in waiting rooms of generalist
      practitioners, in the Nantes University pneumology pediatric outpatient clinic,
      and as part of therapeutic education sessions conducted by the Asthma-44 Network.
      RESULTS: There were 190 exploitable questionnaires: 88.2% of parents reported
      never smoking in the home; 48.4% used home fragrance in the living room at least
      once a week; 77.8% opened their children's bedroom windows more than 10minutes at
      least once a day; 32.6% used several cleaning products or bleach once or twice a
      week. Good practices concerning smoking in housing were applied less in homes
      where the child was monitored only by a general practitioner (OR=0.08; CI[0.02
      0.34]). Good practices on the use of perfume were statistically linked to having
      an intermediate level occupation (OR=2.31; CI[1.01-5.32]) and being followed by
      the university hospital, by the asthma network or by a general practitioner if
      the child had already consulted a pneumo-pediatrician or an allergist (OR=0.24;
      CI[0.07-0.81]). Good ventilation practices forchildren's bedrooms were
      statistically linked to residing in a rural rather than urban setting (OR=4.72;
      CI[1.0-22.16]). CONCLUSION: Practices observed in parents of asthmatic children
      differ little from those of the general population. Recommendations on how to
      limit sources of chemical pollutants, with the exception of smoking, are still
      poorly applied. Specialist consultations and specific training for general
      practitioners should improve the penetration of public health messages to this
      vulnerable population.

PMID- 28886962
TI  - Endoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease: advances in disease management.

PMID- 28886963
TI  - Current High-Intensity Drinking Among Eighth and Tenth Grade Students in the U.S.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study assessed the prevalence of current high-intensity
      drinking (i.e., having ten or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks) among
      national samples of U.S. eighth and tenth grade students (at modal ages 14 and 16
      years, respectively). METHODS: Data on high-intensity drinking were provided by
      10,210 students participating in the nationally representative Monitoring the
      Future study in 2016, and analyzed in 2016-2017. Prevalence levels and
      interactions between grade and key covariates were estimated using procedures
      that adjusted for the Monitoring the Future study's complex sampling design.
      RESULTS: Approximately 2% of adolescents reported current high-intensity
      drinking, with significant differences by grade (1.2% of eighth graders; 3.1% of
      tenth graders) and gender (1.7% female; 2.3% male). High-intensity drinking was
      significantly higher among eighth and tenth grade students who reported any
      cigarette or marijuana use than among students who reported never using either
      substance. CONCLUSIONS: A meaningful percentage of young adolescents in the U.S.
      engage in high-intensity drinking.

PMID- 28886965
TI  - Circadian and economic factors affect food acquisition in rats restricted to
      discrete feeding opportunities.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to examine aspects of operant behavior-modeled
      economic choice for food in rats in closed economy protocols in which food is
      available for only a few discrete times per daily 23-h session, designed to
      emulate clustering of human food intake into meals. In the first experiment, rats
      performed lever press responses for food pellets in an ascending series of ratios
      or fixed unit prices (FUP) when food was available for four 40-min food
      opportunities (FO) per day. Daily intake at low FUP was comparable to ad libitum
      intakes. Intake declined as FUP increased and was not distributed equally among
      the four FOs. In particular, the last FO of a session (occurring at about lights
      on in a 12:12cycle) was the smallest, even when total intake was low due to the
      response requirement at high FUP. Within FOs, satiation was evident at low FUPs
      by a decrease in rate of intake across a 40min FO; at high FUPs responding was
      evenly distributed. In the second experiment, rats had a choice of responding on
      two levers for either intermittent inexpensive (II; low FUP according to a four
      FO schedule) or costly continuous (CC; 20-fold higher FUP but available
      throughout 23-h sessions) food. Most (73%) of the rats consistently chose almost
      all of their food from the II source. Further, as the timing of the four II FOs
      were changed relative to the light: dark Zeitgeber, the time of the smallest meal
      changed such that the smallest meal (s) were during the light period regardless
      of ordinal position within a session. These data are discussed in terms of
      economic and Zeitgeber effects on consumption when food is available
      intermittently, and are contrasted with results from comparable protocols in
      mice.

PMID- 28886964
TI  - Prevalence and Trends in Lifetime Obesity in the U.S., 1988-2014.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Estimates of obesity prevalence based on current BMI are an
      important but incomplete indicator of the total effects of obesity on a
      population. METHODS: In this study, data on current BMI and maximum BMI were used
      to estimate prevalence and trends in lifetime obesity status, defined using the
      categories never (maximum BMI <=30 kg/m2), former (maximum BMI >=30 kg/m2 and
      current BMI <=30 kg/m2), and current obesity (current BMI >=30 kg/m2). Prevalence
      was estimated for the period 2013-2014 and trends for the period 1988-2014 using
      data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Predictors of
      lifetime weight status and the association between lifetime weight categories and
      prevalent disease status were also investigated using multivariable regression.
      RESULTS: A total of 50.8% of American males and 51.6% of American females were
      ever obese in 2013-2014. The prevalence of lifetime obesity exceeded the
      prevalence of current obesity by amounts that were greater for males and for
      older persons. The gap between the two prevalence values has risen over time. By
      2013-2014, a total of 22.0% of individuals who were not currently obese had
      formerly been obese. For each of eight diseases considered, prevalence was higher
      among the formerly obese than among the never obese. CONCLUSIONS: A larger
      fraction of the population is affected by obesity and its health consequences
      than is suggested in prior studies based on current BMI alone. Weight history
      should be incorporated into routine health surveillance of the obesity epidemic
      for a full accounting of the effects of obesity on the U.S. POPULATION: 

PMID- 28886966
TI  - Monitoring training load and fatigue in soccer players with physiological
      markers.
AB  - The quantification and monitoring of training load (TL) has been the topic of
      many scientific works in the last fifteen years. TL monitoring helps coaches to
      individually prescribe, follow-up, analyse, adjust and programme training
      sessions. In particular, the aim of the present review was to provide a critical
      literature report regarding different physiological markers of TL monitoring,
      particularly in soccer, as the load is specific to individual sports. Therefore,
      the interests and limitations of heart rate (HR), HR variability (HRV) and
      biochemical variables (blood, urinary and hormonal variations) were analysed,
      with a special focus on daily measures (before, during and after training) and
      monitoring throughout a whole season. It appears that the most relevant markers
      were the resting HR before training, HR reserve during training, HRV during rest
      days, blood lactate, and blood and salivary immunological status in follow-ups
      throughout the season. Urinary markers indicative of the players' hydration
      status also deserve attention. However, these objective markers should be
      considered with a subjective marker of TL such as the rating of perceived
      exertion to give a more precise quantification of TL and its perception. Future
      research could be directed towards urinary marker analysis and the analysis of
      specific markers of TL, which could be related to injury occurrence and to
      performance during competition.

PMID- 28886968
TI  - [Neuromyelitis optica with anti-MOG antibodies: A case report].

PMID- 28886969
TI  - [A case of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy in a black African patient].

PMID- 28886967
TI  - Class I HDACs control a JIP1-dependent pathway for kinesin-microtubule binding in
      cardiomyocytes.
AB  - Class I histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors block hypertrophy and fibrosis of
      the heart by suppressing pathological signaling and gene expression programs in
      cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts. The impact of HDAC inhibition in unstressed
      cardiac cells remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that treatment of
      cultured cardiomyocytes with small molecule HDAC inhibitors leads to dramatic
      induction of c-Jun amino-terminal kinase (JNK)-interacting protein-1 (JIP1) mRNA
      and protein expression. In contrast to prior findings, elevated levels of
      endogenous JIP1 in cardiomyocytes failed to significantly alter JNK signaling or
      cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Instead, HDAC inhibitor-mediated induction of JIP1 was
      required to stimulate expression of the kinesin heavy chain family member, KIF5A.
      We provide evidence for an HDAC-dependent regulatory circuit that promotes
      formation of JIP1:KIF5A:microtubule complexes that regulate intracellular
      transport of cargo such as autophagosomes. These findings define a novel role for
      class I HDACs in the control of the JIP1/kinesin axis in cardiomyocytes, and
      suggest that HDAC inhibitors could be used to alter microtubule transport in the
      heart.

PMID- 28886970
TI  - [Proptosis as presenting sign of Fahr's syndrome].

PMID- 28886971
TI  - TRAF6: A player in CVB3-induced myocarditis?
AB  - Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is an important inducer of myocarditis, which, in
      susceptible individuals, can chronify and eventually lead to the development of
      dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. The respective mechanisms are not
      completely understood. Here, we analyzed expression of the TRAF6 gene, encoding
      TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6), a signal transduction scaffold protein
      that acts downstream of cytokine receptors, in heart tissue of susceptible and
      non-susceptible mouse strains. We found that after infection, TRAF6 expression
      was upregulated in both non-susceptible C57BL/6 wildtype and susceptible A.BY/SnJ
      and C57BL/6-TLR3 (-/-) mice, however, to different degrees. In infected HeLa
      cells, we also found moderately elevated TRAF6 levels after infection, in
      addition, activity of the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB),
      which can be activated downstream of TRAF6, was strongly enhanced in infected
      cells. To functionally analyze the role of TRAF6 with regard to infection
      progression, TRAF6 expression was knocked down in cultured HeLa cells using
      specific siRNAs. We found that reduction of TRAF6 expression had no effect on
      NFkappaB activation in response to infection. Taken together, our data suggest
      that CVB3 infection enhances TRAF6 levels, however, this induction might not be
      necessary for infection-induced NFkappaB activation.

PMID- 28886972
TI  - Benzene metabolite hydroquinone induces apoptosis of bone marrow mononuclear
      cells through inhibition of beta-catenin signaling.
AB  - The Akt/glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta)/beta-catenin signaling pathway
      has been shown to play an important role in hematopoiesis, and hematopoietic
      cells are sensitive targets for benzene-induced hematotoxicity. We therefore
      hypothesized that dysregulation of the Akt/GSK-3beta/beta-catenin signaling was
      associated with benzene-induced hematotoxicity. Here, we showed that hydroquinone
      (HQ), a major metabolite of benzene in humans, significantly inhibited cell
      viability and colony formation while inducing apoptosis of human bone marrow
      mononuclear cells in vitro. Interestingly, we found that HQ inhibited the Akt
      affected beta-catenin signaling by activation of GSK-3beta, resulting in
      downregulation of beta-catenin and its targets Cyclin D1 and Survivin. HQ blocked
      nuclear translocation of beta-catenin and lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 (LEF
      1), and importantly, HQ also reduced the interaction of beta-catenin and LEF-1 in
      the nucleus. As expected, blockage of GSK-3beta activity with a GSK-3beta
      inhibitor lithium chloride (LiCl) or activation of Akt signaling with an Akt
      agonist insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) could inhibit HQ-induced activation
      of GSK-3beta as well as hematotoxicity. Taken together, our results suggest that
      HQ-induced hematotoxicity in bone marrow mononuclear cells is associated with
      dysregulation of Akt/GSK-3beta/beta-catenin signaling due to the dissociation of
      beta-catenin/LEF-1 complex, and LiCl and IGF-1 may be two potential agents to
      ameliorate HQ-induced hematotoxicity.

PMID- 28886973
TI  - Vocal Tract Morphology in Inhaling Singing: Characteristics During Vowel
      Production-A Case Study in a Professional Singer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A professional singer produced various vowels on a comfortable
      loudness and pitch in an inspiratory and expiratory phonation manner. The present
      study investigates the morphological differences and tries to find a link with
      the acoustical characteristics. OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesize that
      features, constantly present over all vowels, characterize inhaling phonation and
      that the formant frequencies reflect the morphological findings. STUDY DESIGN: A
      prospective case study was carried out. METHODS: A female singer uttered the
      vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ in a supine position under magnetic resonance
      imaging, on a comfortable loudness and pitch, in both inhaling and exhaling
      manner. The exact same parameters as in previous reports were measured (1-3).
      Acoustical analysis was performed with Praat. RESULTS: Wilcoxon directional
      testing demonstrates a statistically significant difference in (1) the distance
      between the lips, (2) the antero-posterior tongue diameter, (3) the distance
      between the lips and the tip of the tongue, (4) the distance between the
      epiglottis and the posterior pharyngeal wall, (5) the narrowing of the subglottic
      space, and (6) the oropharyngeal and the hypopharyngeal areas. Acoustical
      analysis reveals slightly more noise and irregularity during reverse phonation.
      The central frequency of F0 and F1 is identical, whereas that of F2 and F3
      increases, and that of F4 varies. CONCLUSIONS: A smaller mouth opening, a
      narrowing of the subglottic space, a larger supralaryngeal inlet, and a smaller
      antero-posterior tongue diameter can be considered as morphological
      characteristics for reverse phonation. Acoustically, reverse phonation discretely
      contains more noise and perturbation. The formant frequency distribution concurs
      with a mouth narrowing and pharyngeal widening during inhaling.

PMID- 28886974
TI  - Informational needs during active surveillance for prostate cancer: A qualitative
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand the informational needs during active surveillance (AS)
      for prostate cancer from the perspectives of patients and providers. METHODS: We
      conducted seven focus groups with 37 AS patients in two urban clinical settings,
      and 24 semi-structured interviews with a national sample of providers.
      Transcripts were analyzed using applied thematic analysis, and themes were
      organized using descriptive matrix analyses. RESULTS: We identified six themes
      related to informational needs during AS: 1) more information on prostate cancer
      (biopsy features, prognosis), 2) more information on active surveillance
      (difference from watchful waiting, testing protocol), 3) more information on
      alternative management options (complementary medicine, lifestyle modification),
      4) greater variety of resources (multiple formats, targeting different
      audiences), 5) more social support and interaction, and 6) verified integrity of
      information (trusted, multidisciplinary and secure). CONCLUSIONS: Patients and
      providers described numerous drawbacks to existing prostate cancer resources and
      a variety of unmet needs including information on prognosis, AS testing
      protocols, and lifestyle modification. They also expressed a need for different
      types of resources, including interaction and unbiased information. PRACTICAL
      IMPLICATIONS: These results are useful to inform the design of future resources
      for men undergoing AS.

PMID- 28886975
TI  - A review on technological options of waste to energy for effective management of
      municipal solid waste.
AB  - Approximately one-fourth population across the world rely on traditional fuels
      (kerosene, natural gas, biomass residue, firewood, coal, animal dung, etc.) for
      domestic use despite significant socioeconomic and technological development.
      Fossil fuel reserves are being exploited at a very fast rate to meet the
      increasing energy demands, so there is a need to find alternative sources of
      energy before all the fossil fuel reserves are depleted. Waste to energy (WTE)
      can be considered as a potential alternative source of energy, which is
      economically viable and environmentally sustainable. The present study reviewed
      the current global scenario of WTE technological options (incineration,
      pyrolysis, gasification, anaerobic digestion, and landfilling with gas recovery)
      for effective energy recovery and the challenges faced by developed and
      developing countries. This review will provide a framework for evaluating WTE
      technological options based on case studies of developed and developing
      countries. Unsanitary landfilling is the most commonly practiced waste disposal
      option in the developing countries. However, developed countries have realised
      the potential of WTE technologies for effective municipal solid waste management
      (MSWM). This review will help the policy makers and the implementing authorities
      involved in MSWM to understand the current status, challenges and barriers for
      effective management of municipal solid waste. This review concluded WTE as a
      potential renewable source of energy, which will partly meet the energy demand
      and ensure effective MSWM.

PMID- 28886976
TI  - The degradation processes of refractory substances in nanofiltration concentrated
      leachate using micro-ozonation.
AB  - Concentrated leachate (CL) is the byproduct of leachate treated by the membrane
      separation unit after bio-treatment processes, and contains many humic-like
      substances. Ozonation processes were applied and optimized for the further
      removal of those refractory matters in this work. Micro-bubble ozonation (MB-O3)
      possessed the best performance, and 76.0% and 69.9% of COD and TOC were found to
      be removed under the optimum conditions with ozone dosage of 2.4g/L, initial pH
      of 9 and reaction time of 120min. The reaction rate k in MB-O3 was 0.0104min-1,
      three times higher than that in normal O3. The percentages of humic acid and
      fulvic acid in CL decreased from 24.1% to 14.3% and 49.6% to 25.0%, while that of
      HyI substances increased from 26.3% to 60.7%, which was also found in the
      fraction of <2000Da, with the occupied percentage increased from 0 to 63.0%. The
      humic acid-like substances might be transformed to matters with carbonyl and
      carboxyl group, since a continuous blue-shift was observed from Em/Ex 475/390 to
      410/325nm. MB-O3 could be a promising method for the advanced treatment of CL.

PMID- 28886977
TI  - An optimization model for collection, haul, transfer, treatment and disposal of
      infectious medical waste: Application to a Greek region.
AB  - The objective of this work was to develop an optimization model to minimize the
      cost of a collection, haul, transfer, treatment and disposal system for
      infectious medical waste (IMW). The model calculates the optimum locations of the
      treatment facilities and transfer stations, their design capacities (t/d), the
      number and capacities of all waste collection, transport and transfer vehicles
      and their optimum transport path and the minimum IMW management system cost.
      Waste production nodes (hospitals, healthcare centers, peripheral health offices,
      private clinics and physicians in private practice) and their IMW production
      rates were specified and used as model inputs. The candidate locations of the
      treatment facilities, transfer stations and sanitary landfills were designated,
      using a GIS-based methodology. Specifically, Mapinfo software with exclusion
      criteria for non-appropriate areas was used for siting candidate locations for
      the construction of the treatment plant and calculating the distance and travel
      time of all possible vehicle routes. The objective function was a non-linear
      equation, which minimized the total collection, transport, treatment and disposal
      cost. Total cost comprised capital and operation costs for: (1) treatment plant,
      (2) waste transfer stations, (3) waste transport and transfer vehicles and (4)
      waste collection bins and hospital boxes. Binary variables were used to decide
      whether a treatment plant and/or a transfer station should be constructed and
      whether a collection route between two or more nodes should be followed.
      Microsoft excel software was used as installation platform of the optimization
      model. For the execution of the optimization routine, two completely different
      software were used and the results were compared, thus, resulting in higher
      reliability and validity of the results. The first software was Evolver, which is
      based on the use of genetic algorithms. The second one was Crystal Ball, which is
      based on Monte Carlo simulation. The model was applied to the Region of East
      Macedonia - Thrace in Greece. The optimum solution resulted in one treatment
      plant located in the sanitary landfill area of Chrysoupolis, required no transfer
      stations and had a total management cost of 38,800 ?/month or 809 ?/t. If a
      treatment plant is sited in the most eastern part of the Region, i.e., the
      industrial area of Alexandroupolis, the optimum solution would result in a
      transfer station of 23 m3, located near Kavala General Hospital, and a total cost
      of 39,800 ?/month or 831 ?/t. A sensitivity analysis was conducted and two
      alternative scenarios were optimized. In the first scenario, a 15% rise in fuel
      cost and in the second scenario a 25% rise in IMW production were considered. At
      the end, a cost calculation in ?/t/km for every type of vehicle used for haul and
      transfer was conducted. Also, the cost of the whole system was itemized and
      calculated in ?/t/km and ?/t. The results showed that the higher percentage of
      the total cost was due to the construction of the treatment plant.

PMID- 28886978
TI  - Nursing Home Residents with Dementia and Very Frequent Agitation: A Particular
      Group.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although many nursing home residents with dementia show agitation,
      hardly any literature is published about very frequent agitation. The WAALBED-III
      study focuses on the 2-week prevalence and correlates of very frequent agitation
      in these residents. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using combined data of four
      studies. SETTING: One hundred nineteen dementia special care units in twenty-six
      nursing homes in The Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand seventy-four
      residents with dementia. MEASUREMENTS: We operationally defined very frequent
      agitation as having a score of 6 (several times a day) or 7 (several times an
      hour) on at least five items of the Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI)
      combined with a CMAI total score above the 90th percentile. To assess the
      association of demographic and behavioral characteristics with very frequent
      agitation, we performed a multivariate multilevel logistic regression analysis.
      RESULTS: The 2-week prevalence of very frequent agitation was 7.4% (95% CI: 6.374
      8.634). Correlates for very frequent agitation were age (OR: 0.967, 95% CI: 0.942
      0.992), dementia severity (GDS 6 = OR: 3.636, 95% CI: 1.929-6.875; GDS 7 = OR:
      2.951, 95% CI: 1.321-6.588), delusions (OR: 2.480, 95% CI: 1.555-3.956), anxiety
      (OR: 1.904, 95% CI: 1.259-2.881), euphoria (OR: 3.712, 95% CI: 2.171-6.337) and
      irritability (OR: 4.411, 95% CI: 2.854-6.816). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge,
      this study is the first to report prevalence data and correlates about nursing
      home residents with very frequent agitation. We found several correlated factors
      for very frequent agitation. Still, further research is needed for a better
      understanding of the behavior of this group, and to identify good treatment
      options.

PMID- 28886979
TI  - Development of a Prediction Model for Diagnosis of Acute Poisoning in Patients
      with Altered Mental Status and Absent History of Alcohol/Drug Ingestion.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of acute poisoning in patients with altered mental status
      and absent history is a challenging diagnostic problem in clinical practice.
      OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were to develop a simple clinical tool to
      stratify risk of acute poisoning in patients with altered mental states and no
      history of alcohol/drug ingestion, and develop a prediction model using initial
      observations from which a simple risk score could be derived. METHODS: The study
      was carried out on non-trauma patients aged 15 years and older admitted with
      altered mental states and no history of alcohol or drug ingestion. Univariate
      analysis and logistic regression were carried out and a score was derived and
      validated. RESULTS: There were 607 patients included, with mean age of 60.3 years
      and 54% were male. The regression model performed moderately well on both the
      training and validation sets with areas under the receiver operating
      characteristic curve of 0.834 and 0.844, respectively. The risk score correlated
      with the regression model (R2 = 0.969). At cutoff thresholds of 20% for the model
      and 2 for the score, sensitivity and specificity of the regression model (67.6%
      and 85.6%) and the score (67.6% and 85.4%) were moderate, while positive
      predictive values were low (43.4%) and negative predictive values were high
      (94.2%) for both the regression model and the score. CONCLUSIONS: A prediction
      model with a derived risk score was developed with a high negative predictive
      value and may have potential in assessing risk of poisoning in altered mental
      status and may have value in a prehospital environment or at triage.

PMID- 28886980
TI  - [Dose constraints to organs at risk for conformational and stereotactic
      radiotherapy: Small bowel and duodenum].
AB  - Radiotherapy of abdominopelvic primary or secondary lesions in conformational or
      stereotactic techniques is in full development. The small bowel is highly
      sensitive to irradiation and is the main organ at risk limiting prescription
      doses. This literature review aims to define the dose constraints to the small
      bowel and the duodenum in conformational and stereotactic body radiotherapy. The
      small bowel including the duodenum, jejunum and ileum is delineated on the
      simulation scanner. The radio-induced intestinal toxicities are acute related to
      the cellular depopulation of the intestinal mucosa, and late of more complex
      pathophysiology associating depletion in stem cells, microangiopathy, chronic
      inflammation and fibrosis. The main predictive factor of intestinal toxicity is
      the dose-volume ratio. In conformational radiotherapy, the dose constraints to
      the duodenum are: V25Gy<45% and V35Gy<20%. The jejunum and ileum dose constraints
      are for delineation by intestinal loop or peritoneal cavity respectively:
      V15Gy<275mL or V15Gy<830mL and V45Gy<150mL. In stereotactic body radiotherapy,
      small bowel dose constraints depend on fractionation and are defined on a small
      volume and on a maximum dose at one point. Intestinal toxicity is also dependent
      on factors intrinsic to the patient and radiosensitizers such as targeted
      therapies or chemotherapies. With the development of new techniques allowing dose
      escalation on the tumour and the development of inverse planning, the definition
      of dose constraints to the small bowel is essential for current practice.

PMID- 28886982
TI  - Management of Epilepsy Due to Hypothalamic Hamartomas.
AB  - A hypothalamic hamartoma consists of hyperplastic heterotopic tissue growing in a
      disorganized fashion. These lesions occur in about one per 50,000 to 100,000
      people. Hypothalamic hamartomas can cause intrinsic epileptogenesis leading to
      gelastic seizures. Surrounding cortical structures may also develop secondary
      epileptogenesis. Persistent seizures caused by hypothalamic hamartomas can be
      debilitating and result in significant cognitive and behavioral impairment. Early
      recognition and treatment is important in controlling seizures and in preventing
      further cognitive deterioration. Some patients experience improved cognition and
      behavior following early treatment, suggesting that hypothalamic hamartomas
      represent a reversible epileptic encephalopathy. The outcome of epilepsy
      associated with these lesions has significantly evolved with the availability of
      new treatment techniques and an improved understanding of its pathogenesis.
      Increasing evidence supporting the role of hypothalamic hamartomas as a cause of
      gelastic seizures and secondary epileptogenesis has led to more frequent use of
      surgery as the definitive treatment. Several minimally invasive procedures have
      been devised, including neuroendoscopic approaches and different stereotactic
      radio and laser ablation techniques. Each of these techniques can lead to unique
      adverse events. We review the various classification schemes used to characterize
      hypothalamic hamartomas and the recommended surgical approaches for each subtype.
      We also review the literature for currently available treatment modalities and
      compare their efficacy in controlling seizures and their safety profiles.

PMID- 28886981
TI  - [Lung dose constraints for normo-fractionated radiotherapy and for stereotactic
      body radiation therapy].
AB  - Radiation-induced lung disease (RILD) is common after radiation therapy and
      represents cornerstone toxicities after treatment of thoracic malignancies. From
      a review of literature, the objective of this article was to summarize clinical
      and non-clinical parameters associated with the risk of RILD in the settings of
      normo-fractionated radiotherapy and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).
      For the treatment of lung cancers with a normo-fractionated treatment, the mean
      lung dose (MLD) should be below 15-20Gy. For a thoracic SBRT, V20Gy<10% and
      MLD<6Gy are recommended. One should pay attention to central tumors and respect
      specific dose constraints to the bronchial tree. The recent technological
      improvements may represent an encouraging way to decrease lung toxicities.
      Finally, our team developed a calculator in order to predict the risk of
      radiation pneumonitis.

PMID- 28886983
TI  - Organic degradation potential of a TiO2/H2O2/UV-vis system for dental
      applications.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The combination of TiO2 and H2O2 under light activation constitutes a
      promising method for disinfection of dental prosthetics and implants, due to
      production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The aim of this work was to
      investigate the organic degradation ability of TiO2 particles in combination with
      H2O2 and under light activation utilizing the organic dye rhodamine B (RhB).
      METHODS: Five different types of TiO2 particles, consisting of anatase, rutile,
      or a mixture of these crystalline phases, were combined with H2O2 and RhB, and
      subsequently exposed to UV (365nm) or visible (405nm) light at an irradiance of
      2.1mW/cm2. RESULTS: It was found that rutile in combination with low
      concentrations of H2O2 (1.0-3.5mM) resulted in a degradation of RhB of 96% and
      77% after 10min exposure to 365nm and 405nm light, respectively, which was the
      highest degradation of all test groups. Control measurements performed without
      light irradiation or irradiation at 470nm, or without TiO2 particles resulted in
      little or no degradation of RhB. CONCLUSIONS: Low H2O2 concentrations (1.0mM
      3.5mM) and visible light (405nm) used in combination with rutile TiO2 particles
      showed the highest RhB degradation capacity. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A combination
      of TiO2 particles and H2O2 exposed to low energy UV or high energy visible light
      has an organic degradation capability that could be utilized in applications to
      kill or inactivate bacteria on medical devices such as dental implants for
      treatment against, e.g., peri-implantitis.

PMID- 28886984
TI  - The role of gap junctions in the C. elegans connectome.

PMID- 28886985
TI  - Pannexin-1 channels in epilepsy.
AB  - Pannexin-1 (Panx1) expression is raised in several animal seizure models and in
      resected human epileptic brain tissue, suggesting relevance to epilepsy. Multiple
      factors that are characteristic of seizures are thought to regulate Panx1 channel
      opening, including elevated levels of extracellular K+. Panx1, when open, 1)
      releases ATP, glutamate, and other metabolites into the extracellular medium, and
      2) may depolarize the membrane due to a channel reversal potential around 0mV.
      Resultant ATP release from stimulated Panx1 can activate purinergic receptors,
      including P2X7 receptors. Glutamate and other signaling molecules released by
      Panx1 opening may have both excitatory and inhibitory actions on seizure
      generation. This review examines the critical and complex roles of Panx1 channels
      in epilepsy, which could provide a basis for future therapeutics.

PMID- 28886986
TI  - Role of Connexin and Pannexin containing channels in HIV infection and NeuroAIDS.
AB  - Neuron-Glia crosstalk is essential for efficient synaptic communication, cell
      growth and differentiation, neuronal activity, neurotransmitter recycling, and
      brain immune response. The master regulators of this neuron-glia communication
      are connexin containing Gap Junctions (GJs) and Hemichannels (HCs) as well as
      pannexin HCs. However, the role of these channels under pathological conditions,
      especially in infectious diseases is still in exploratory stages. Human
      Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV) is one such infectious agent that takes advantage
      of the host intercellular communication systems, GJs and HCs, to exacerbate viral
      pathogenesis in the brain in spite of the antiretroviral therapy effectively
      controlling viral replication in the periphery. Although most infectious agents
      lead to total "shutdown" of gap junctional communication in parenchymal cells,
      HIV infection maintains and "hijacks" GJs and HCs to enable few infected cells to
      spread toxic intracellular agents to neighboring uninfected cells aggravating
      viral neuropathology even in the absence of viral replication. In this mini
      review, we present a comprehensive overview of the role of GJs and HCs in
      augmenting HIV neuropathogenesis.

PMID- 28886987
TI  - Consequences of the natural retinoid/retinoid X receptor ligands action in human
      breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cell line: Focus on functional proteomics.
AB  - The main intention of this study was the investigation of impact of natural
      biologically active ligands of nuclear retinoid/retinoid X receptors (all-trans
      and 9-cis retinoic acid) on proteomic pattern in human estrogen receptor negative
      breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. For this purpose, proteomic strategies based
      on bottom-up method were applied. The total cell proteins were extracted
      utilizing a commercially Radio-Immunoprecipitation Assay (RIPA) buffer and
      separated on 2D sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D SDS
      PAGE). The proteins were subsequently digested in-gel by trypsin and their
      characterization was achieved by MALDI-TOF/TOF. By employing PDQuestTM software,
      we identified more than 50 proteins affected by retinoic acid isomers. For more
      information, 9 proteins which are associated with tumor process were selected. We
      determined that derivatives of retinoic acid led to significantly reduced level
      of proteins belonging to metabolic pathway (e.g. glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate
      dehydrogenase or pyruvate kinase 2) or to other cellular processes as apoptosis,
      regulation of transcription process or epithelial-mesenchymal transition (e.g.
      annexins, nucleoside diphosphate kinase B, vimentin). On the other hand all-trans
      retinoic acid treatment indicates up-regulated effect for heterogeneous nuclear
      ribonucleoprotein A2/B1.

PMID- 28886988
TI  - Perinatal ciclosporin A exposure elicits sex-related cardiac dysfunction and
      inflammation in the rat progeny.
AB  - Ciclosporin A (CSA) has been identified with harmful cardiotoxicity but little,
      if any, is known about the influence of perinatal exposure upon the cardiac
      function of the progeny. The present work examines the premise that perinatal
      contact with CSA undermines the cardiac function of sexually mature rats.
      Administration of CSA (15mg/kg/day sc) to pregnant rats from day 6 of conception
      till weaning led to a decrease in gradient of the end-systolic pressure-volume
      relationship by a factor of ten for male progeny and a factor of two for female
      progeny. Perinatally CSA-exposed male, but not female, progeny also demonstrated
      significantly increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, along with
      significantly increased JT interval and a tendency towards increased QTc
      interval, indicating delayed left ventricular (LV) repolarization and perhaps
      arrhythmogenesis. Conversely, female, but not male, progeny exposed perinatally
      to CSA showed a delay in atrioventricular (AV) conduction, as demonstrated by
      significantly prolonged P duration and a tendency towards increased PR interval.
      CSA increased serum tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) and decreased serum
      adiponectin levels and cardiac adiponectin receptor expression in male progeny,
      in contrast to no effects in female progeny. Signs of improved oxidative state
      (decreased 8-isoprostane and increased catalase activity) appeared only in CSA
      exposed female rats. Moreover, cardiac muscle degeneration and pyknosis was more
      observed in male than in female rats. In brief, the sex plays a key role in
      determining the extent of the deterioration in functional and inflammatory states
      of the heart that follow perinatal CSA exposure in rats.

PMID- 28886989
TI  - Factors Associated with Contralateral Deep Venous Thrombosis after Iliocaval
      Venous Stenting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of iliac venous obstructions occur on the left side, and
      endovascular therapy has become the first line treatment for this condition. A
      left common iliac venous stent will protrude into the inferior vena cava (IVC) to
      some extent, thereby covering the contralateral common iliac vein (CIV) outflow.
      This may increase the risk of thrombosis of the contralateral iliac vein. The aim
      of this paper was to determine the rate of, and factors associated with,
      contralateral lower limb venous thrombosis after stenting, and to evaluate the
      results of salvage revascularisation. METHODS: A total of 376 patients (102 from
      UCH, Galway, Ireland, 2008-16, and 274 from, CHU Nord, Marseille, France, 2000
      15) with symptomatic acute or chronic left iliocaval venous obstruction were
      retrospectively evaluated. Either duplex ultrasound scanning (DUS) or computed
      tomographic venography (CTV) was used for pre- and post-operative imaging. Data
      were collected from the PACS system (IMPAX, Agfa, BE) of the Radiology
      Department, UCH, Galway, and from the electronic medical records of Vascular
      Surgery department, CHU Nord, Marseille. RESULTS: The median age of stented
      patients was 46 (range 15-86 years), 80% were female (301/376). Following left
      CIV stent placement, 10 patients later presented with a right (contralateral)
      iliac deep venous thrombosis (DVT) resulting in a cumulative incidence of
      contralateral DVT of 4% according to Kaplan-Meier analysis. Acute DVT (p=.001),
      non-compliance with the prescribed 6 months anticoagulation (p = 0.05), pre
      operative contralateral internal iliac vein (IIV) thrombosis (p = 0.001), and pre
      existing IVC filter placement (p = 0.003) were all statistically significantly
      associated with contralateral DVT. All patients with symptomatic contralateral
      iliac DVT underwent clot removal in the acute phase. The primary patency of these
      limbs was 100% at 3 years. CONCLUSION: Stent placement across the iliocaval
      confluence from the left CIV is associated with a low but definite rate of
      contralateral iliac vein thrombosis. Acute DVT, pre-operative contralateral IIV
      thrombosis, pre-existing IVC filters, and anticoagulation non-compliance are
      significant risk factors.

PMID- 28886990
TI  - Comparison of traditional diabetes risk scores and HbA1c to predict type 2
      diabetes mellitus in a population based cohort study.
AB  - AIMS: Compare performances of diabetes risk scores and glycated hemoglobin
      (HbA1c) to estimate the risk of incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in
      Northeast Germany. METHODS: We studied 2916 subjects (20 to 81years) from the
      Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) in a 5-year follow-up period. Diabetes risk
      scores included the Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA)
      base model, the Danish diabetes risk score and the Data from the Epidemiological
      Study on the Insulin Resistance syndrome (D.E.S.I.R) clinical risk score. We
      assessed the performance of each of the diabetes risk scores and the HbA1c for 5
      year risk of T2DM by the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve
      (AUC) and calibration plots. RESULTS: In SHIP, the incidence of T2DM was 5.4%
      (n=157) in the 5-year follow-up period. Diabetes risk scores and HbA1c achieved
      AUCs ranging from 0.76 for the D.E.S.I.R. clinical risk score to 0.82 for the
      KORA base model. For diabetes risk scores, the discriminative ability was lower
      for the age group 55 to 74years. For HbA1c, the discriminative ability also
      decreased for the group 55 to 74years while it was stable in the age group 30 to
      64years old. CONCLUSIONS: All diabetes risk scores and the HbA1c showed a good
      prediction for the risk of T2DM in SHIP. Which model or biomarker should be used
      is driven by its context of use, e.g. the practicability, implementation of
      interventions and availability of measurement.

PMID- 28886992
TI  - Study on the Effect of Irbesartan on Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence in Kumamoto:
      Atrial Fibrillation Suppression Trial (SILK study).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Experimental studies suggest that angiotensin II-receptor blockers
      can influence atrial remodeling and may prevent atrial fibrillation (AF).
      Therefore, we hypothesized that irbesartan may prevent the recurrence of AF
      following either catheter ablation or electrical cardioversion of AF. METHODS:
      Study on the Effect of Irbesartan on Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence in Kumamoto
      (SILK study) is a prospective, multicenter, randomized, and open-label
      comparative evaluation of the effects of irbesartan and amlodipine on AF
      recurrence in hypertensive patients with AF who are scheduled to undergo catheter
      ablation or electrical cardioversion of AF. The primary end point was either AF
      or atrial tachycardia (AT) recurrence. AF/AT recurrence was evaluated for 6
      months using 24-h Holter electrocardiogram and portable electrocardiogram. The
      secondary endpoints included the change in blood pressure, the interval from the
      procedure to the first AF/AT recurrence, cardiovascular events, left atrial
      diameter (LAD), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and changes in the
      biomarkers [brain natriuretic polypeptide (BNP), high-sensitivity C-reactive
      protein (hs-CRP), urinary albumin/creatinine]. RESULTS: The study enrolled 98
      patients (irbesartan; n=47, amlodipine; n=51). The recurrence of AF/AT was
      observed in 8 patients (17.0%) in the irbesartan group and in 10 patients (19.6%)
      in the amlodipine group. There was no significant difference in the AF/AT
      recurrence between the irbesartan and amlodipine groups. Blood pressure decreased
      similarly in both groups. There were no significant differences between the two
      groups as regards to the interval from the procedure to the first AF/AT
      recurrence, occurrence of cardiovascular events, changes in LAD and LVEF. BNP and
      urinary albumin/creatinine significantly decreased similarly in both groups, but
      no significant difference was found in hs-CRP between the two groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: In hypertensive patients with AF, treatment with irbesartan did not
      have any advantage over amlodipine in the reduction of AF/AT recurrence after
      catheter ablation or electrical cardioversion.

PMID- 28886991
TI  - Molecular mechanisms of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Potential role for 12
      lipoxygenase.
AB  - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a spectrum of pathologies associated
      with fat accumulation in the liver. NAFLD is the most common cause of liver
      disease in the United States, affecting up to a third of the general population.
      It is commonly associated with features of metabolic syndrome, particularly
      insulin resistance. NAFLD shares the basic pathogenic mechanisms with obesity and
      insulin resistance, such as mitochondrial, oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum
      stress. Lipoxygenases catalyze the conversion of poly-unsaturated fatty acids in
      the plasma membrane-mainly arachidonic acid and linoleic acid-to produce oxidized
      pro-inflammatory lipid intermediates. 12-Lipoxygenase (12-LOX) has been studied
      extensively in setting of inflammation and insulin resistance. As insulin
      resistance is closely associated with development of NAFLD, the role of 12-LOX in
      pathogenesis of NAFLD has received increasing attention in recent years. In this
      review we discuss the role of 12-LOX in NAFLD pathogenesis and its potential role
      in emerging new therapeutics.

PMID- 28886994
TI  - Successful Treatment of Residual Curvature in Peyronie Disease in Men Previously
      Treated With Intralesional Collagenase Clostridium Histolyticum.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the success and feasibility of surgically correcting
      residual curvature after intralesional collagenase clostridium histolyticum (CCH)
      for the treatment of Peyronie disease (PD). METHODS: We performed a retrospective
      analysis of patients who had intralesional CCH treatment for PD and who
      subsequently underwent penile plication (PP), plaque incision and grafting (PIG),
      or inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP) placement. RESULTS: Ten men who underwent
      PP, PIG, or IPP for the treatment of residual curvature after intralesional CCH
      were identified. Six patients underwent PP; 1 patient underwent PIG; and 3
      patients underwent IPP with ancillary straightening maneuvers. The mean time from
      the last CCH injection to surgical correction was 150.9 days, or 5 months. The
      mean pre-CCH curvature was 67 degrees and the mean post-CCH curvature was 51
      degrees. Eight of 10 patients had no residual curvature after surgical treatment.
      The mean postprocedure curvature was 4.5 degrees. The mean operative time was
      72.1 minutes. The mean estimated blood loss was 20 mL. Increased fibrosis with
      increased surgical difficulty was noted in 3 (all <6 months post CCH treatment)
      of 10 patients. No postoperative complications were noted. CONCLUSION: The
      surgical treatment of PD after intralesional CCH is safe and effective. If
      surgery is considered, this should be performed at least 6 months after the last
      CCH injection, given the potential for an increased inflammatory reaction in this
      area.

PMID- 28886993
TI  - Smoking and risk of atrial fibrillation in the REasons for Geographic And Racial
      Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether smoking increases the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF)
      remains debatable due to inconsistent reports. METHODS: We examined the
      association between smoking and incident AF in 11,047 participants from the
      REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study, one of
      the largest biracial, population-based cohort studies in the USA. Baseline (2003
      2007) cigarette smoking status and amount (pack-years) were self-reported.
      Incident AF was determined by electrocardiography and history of a prior
      physician diagnosis at a follow-up examination conducted after a median of 10.6
      years. RESULTS: During follow-up, 954 incident AF cases were identified; 9.5% in
      smokers vs. 7.8% in non-smokers; p<0.001. In a model adjusted for socio
      demographics, smoking (ever vs. never) was associated with a 15% increased risk
      of AF [OR (95%CI): 1.15(1.00, 1.31)], but this association was no longer
      significant after further adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors [OR (95%
      CI): 1.12 (0.97, 1.29)]. However, heterogeneities in the association were
      observed among subgroups; the association was stronger in young vs. old
      participants [OR (95%CI): 1.31 (1.03, 1.67) vs. 0.99 (0.83-1.18) respectively;
      interaction p-value=0.005] and in those with vs. without prior cardiovascular
      disease [OR (95%CI): 1.18 (0.90, 1.56) vs. 1.06 (0.90, 1.25) respectively;
      interaction p-value 0.0307]. Also, the association was significant in blacks but
      not in whites [OR (95%CI): 1.51 (1.12, 2.05) vs. 0.99 (0.84, 1.16),
      respectively], but the interaction p-value did not reach statistical significance
      (interaction p-value=0.65). CONCLUSIONS: The association between smoking and AF
      is possibly mediated by a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in
      smokers, but there is marked heterogeneity in the strength of this association
      among subgroups which may explain the conflicting results in prior studies.

PMID- 28886995
TI  - Improving oral bioavailability of cyclic peptides by N-methylation.
AB  - The renaissance of peptides in pharmaceutical industry results from their
      importance in many biological functions. However, low metabolic stability and the
      lack of oral availability of most peptides is a certain limitation. Whereas
      metabolic instability may be often overcome by development of small cyclic
      peptides containing d-amino acids, the very low oral availability of most
      peptides is a serious limitation for some medicinal applications. The situation
      is complicated because a twofold optimization - biological activity and oral
      availability - is required to overcome this problem. Moreover, most simple
      "rules" for achieving oral availability are not general and are applicable only
      to limited cases. Many structural modifications for increasing biological
      activities and metabolic stabilities of cyclic peptides have been described, of
      which N-alkylation is probably the most common. This mini-review focuses on the
      effects of N-methylation of cyclic peptides in strategies to optimize
      bioavailabilities.

PMID- 28886996
TI  - A prodrug design for improved oral absorption and reduced hepatic interaction.
AB  - A series of estradiol-17-beta esters of N-(p-sulfomylbenzamide)-amino acids were
      prepared and evaluated for systemic and hepatic estrogenic activity after oral
      administration in ovariectomized rats. The alkyl substitution at nitrogen of
      amino acids such as proline or N-methyl-alanine produced compounds that exhibit
      potent oral activity. The proline analog (EC508) was further evaluated along with
      17beta-estradiol (E2) and ethinyl-estradiol (EE) and compared their effects on
      the uterus, angiotensin and HDL-cholesterol after oral administration to
      ovariectomized female rats. Orally administered EC508 produced systemic
      estrogenic activity 10 times greater than EE and a 100 times higher activity than
      E2 with no influence on levels of angiotensin and HDL-cholesterol, whereas EE and
      E2 reduced the HDL-cholesterol and increased the angiotensine plasma levels.
      EC508 might offer significant advantages in indications like fertility control
      and HRT based on its high oral bioavailability and lack of hepatic estrogenicity.

PMID- 28886997
TI  - Analysis of the binding sites of vitamin D 1alpha-hydroxylase (CYP27B1) and
      vitamin D 24-hydroxylase (CYP24A1) for the design of selective CYP24A1
      inhibitors: Homology modelling, molecular dynamics simulations and identification
      of key binding requirements.
AB  - A homology model of human CYP27B1 was built using MOE and was further optimised
      by molecular dynamics simulations of the hCYP27B1 homology model and a hCYP27B1
      SDZ-88357 complex. Docking results from the hCYP27B1-SDZ-88357 complex showed
      amino acids Arg107, Asn387 and Asp320 have an important role in binding
      interaction, with Asp320 part of the important acid-alcohol pair situated in the
      I-helix with the conserved sequence (A/G) GX (E/D) (T/S), which assumes an
      essential role in the binding of an oxygen molecule for catalysis. Additional
      docking experiments with selective hCYP27B1 or hCYP24A1 inhibitors using both the
      hCYP27B1 model and a triple mutant hCYP24A1 model provided further support for
      the importance of H-bonding interactions with the three identified active site
      amino acids. To confirm the role of Arg107, Asn387 and Asp320 in the active site
      of hCYP27B1 compounds were designed that would form H-bonding interactions, as
      determined from docking experiments with the hCYP27B1 model. Subsequent synthesis
      and CYP24A1 and CYP27B1 enzyme assays of the designed compounds 1a and 1b showed
      a~5-fold selectivity for CYP27B1 confirming the importance of Asp320 in
      particular and also Asn387 and Arg107 as important amino acids for CYP27B1
      inhibitory activity.

PMID- 28886998
TI  - Propolis reversed cigarette smoke-induced emphysema through macrophage
      alternative activation independent of Nrf2.
AB  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an incurable and progressive
      disease. Emphysema is the principal manifestation of COPD, and the main cause of
      this condition is cigarette smoke (CS). Natural products have shown antioxidant
      and anti-inflammatory properties that can prevent acute lung inflammation and
      emphysema, but there are few reports in the literature regarding therapeutic
      approaches to emphysema. We hypothesized that supplementation with natural
      extracts would repair lung damage in emphysema caused by CS exposure. Mice were
      exposed to 60days of CS and then treated or not with three different natural
      extracts (mate tea, grape and propolis) orally for additional 60days.
      Histological analysis revealed significant improvements in lung
      histoarchitecture, with recovery of alveolar spaces in all groups treated with
      natural extracts. Propolis was also able to recovery alveolar septa and elastic
      fibers. Propolis also increased MMP-2 and decreased MMP-12 expression, favoring
      the process of tissue repair. Additionally, propolis recruited leukocytes,
      including macrophages, without ROS release. These findings led us to investigate
      the profile of these macrophages, and we showed that propolis could promote
      macrophage alternative activation, thus increasing the number of arginase
      positive cells and IL-10 levels and favoring an anti-inflammatory
      microenvironment. We further investigated the participation of Nrf2 in lung
      repair, but no Nrf2 translocation to the nucleus was observed in lung cells.
      Proteins and enzymes related to Nrf2 were not altered, other than NQO1, which
      seemed to be activated by propolis in a Nrf2-independent manner. Finally,
      propolis downregulated IGF1 expression. In conclusion, propolis promoted lung
      repair in a mouse emphysema model via macrophage polarization from M1 to M2 in
      parallel to the downregulation of IGF1 expression in a Nrf2-independent manner.

PMID- 28886999
TI  - Advances in macrocyclic peptide-based antibiotics.
AB  - Macrocyclic peptide-based natural products have provided powerful new antibiotic
      drugs, drug candidates, and scaffolds for medicinal chemists as a source of
      inspiration to design novel antibiotics. While most of those natural products are
      active mainly against Gram-positive pathogens, novel macrocyclic peptide-based
      compounds have recently been described, which exhibit potent and specific
      activity against some of the most problematic Gram-negative ESKAPE pathogens.
      This mini-review gives an up-date on recent developments.

PMID- 28887000
TI  - Development of sulfonamides incorporating phenylacrylamido functionalities as
      carbonic anhydrase isoforms I, II, IX and XII inhibitors.
AB  - A series of novel sulfonamides incorporating phenylacrylamido functionalities
      were synthesized and investigated for the inhibition of the metalloenzyme
      carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1). The physiologically and pharmacologically
      relevant human (h) isoforms hCA I and II (cytosolic isozymes), as well as the
      transmembrane tumor-associated hCA IX and XII were included in the study. These
      compounds showed low nanomolar or sub-nanomolar inhibition constants against hCA
      II (KIs in the range of 0.50-50.5nM), hCA IX (KIs of 1.8-228.5nM), and hCA XII
      (KIs of 3.5-96.2nM) being less effective as inhibitors of the off target isoform
      hCA I. A detailed structure-activity relationship study demonstrates that the
      nature and position of substituents present on the aromatic part of the scaffold
      strongly influence the inhibition of CA isoforms. As hCA II, IX and XII are
      involved in pathologies such as glaucoma and hypoxic, and metastatic tumors,
      compounds of the type reported in this work may be useful preclinical candidates.

PMID- 28887001
TI  - Major findings and recent advances in virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccines.
AB  - Virus-like particles (VLPs) have made giant strides in the field of vaccinology
      over the last three decades. VLPs constitute versatile tools in vaccine
      development due to their favourable immunological characteristics such as their
      size, repetitive surface geometry, ability to induce both innate and adaptive
      immune responses as well as being safe templates with favourable economics.
      Several VLP-based vaccines are commercially available including vaccines against
      Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) such as Cervarix(r), Gardasil(r) & Gardasil9(r) and
      Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) including the 3rd generation Sci-B-VacTM. In addition,
      the first licensed malaria-VLP-based vaccine MosquirixTM has been recently
      approved by the European regulators. Several other VLP-based vaccines are
      currently undergoing preclinical and clinical development. This review summarizes
      some of the major findings and recent advances in VLP-based vaccine development
      and technologies and outlines general principles that may be harnessed for
      induction of targeted immune responses.

PMID- 28887002
TI  - Optimized efflux assay for the NorA multidrug efflux pump in Staphylococcus
      aureus.
AB  - Real-time fluorescent efflux assays are commonly used for measuring the efflux of
      bacterial pumps. Here we describe an optimized protocol for the NorA efflux pump
      in S. aureus using DiOC3 instead of ethidium bromide. Glucose and sodium formate
      were tested as energy carriers. This novel method is fast and reproducible.

PMID- 28887003
TI  - Effects of acupuncture at the ST-36 point on muscle sympathetic nerve activity
      and blood pressure in normal adults.
AB  - The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of acupuncture on post
      ganglionic muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) in humans. MSNA was measured
      in 8 healthy adult males by microneurography evaluation of the left peroneal
      nerve. Blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were simultaneously recorded. MSNA
      was evaluated as the burst rate, with total MSNA, BP and HR normalized to their
      respective baseline values. After 10min of rest in the supine position,
      acupuncture was applied to the right ST-36 point in the tibialis anterior muscle
      for 15min, with recovery then monitored over a 20-min period. While the burst
      rate and total MSNA remained constant throughout the study, there was a
      significant decrease in BP during the real but not sham acupuncture procedure
      (p<0.05). HR did not significantly change throughout the study. The results rule
      out the role of MSNA in the BP fall during acupuncture at the ST-36 point, and
      suggest possible involvement of other factors in the fall of BP.

PMID- 28887004
TI  - [Mycological profile of hand onychomycosis amongs "Garba" sellers in Abidjan
      (Cote d'Ivoire)].
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and the fungi
      involved in onychomycosis located on fingers in Abidjan. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      This study includes the sellers of cooked cassava semolina served with fried tuna
      fish called "garba". Fines squames specimen was processed with 30% KOH for a
      direct microscope examination. Serous collection were done in physiological
      serum. Part of the original sample was cultured on Sabouraud medium with
      antibiotics (chloramphenicol, actidione). Species distribution and antifungal
      susceptibility by the technique on agar were noted. RESULTS: A total of 205 male
      sellers were involved. The Onychomycosis prevalence was 6.3%; (95% CI : 3.6
      10.3). Five species of yeasts were identified. Candida spp were the most frequent
      (84.6%) and Candida albicans represented 30.8% of isolated yeasts. Trichosporon
      cutaneum were isolated in two case (15.4%). Susceptibility for amphotericin-B was
      92.3% contrary to 5-fluorocytosine 30.8%. The subjects aged between 15 to 24
      (69.2%), with a higher seniority (84.6%) and illiterate (69.2%) were the most
      affected. The main risk factors of fungal infections were the presence of
      previous fingernail onychomycosis (P<0.0001) and the frequent fingernail cutting
      (P=0.0009). CONCLUSION: Onychomycosis caused by yeast is infrequent among "garba"
      sellers in Abidjan. The main fungi involved in fingernail onychomycosis were
      Candida species. It is nevertheless necessary to implement sensitization for them
      on contributing factors.

PMID- 28887005
TI  - [Fungal aetiologies and contributing factors of interdigital tinea pedis among
      policemen in Abidjan (Ivory Coast)].
AB  - AIM OF THE STUDY: Fungal interdigital tinea pedis are poorly documented in Ivory
      Coast. This study aimed to determine the distribution of fungal species and
      contributing factors of the disease among policemen in Abidjan. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Our cross-sectional study was carried out at the police school in
      Abidjan. Our patients consisted of symptomatic or non-symptomatic police
      students. Samples of scales or serosities taken from inter-toes spaces were
      examinated with KOH mount and cultured on Sabouraud-chloramphenicol and Sabouraud
      chloramphenicol-actidione media. The method of identification depended on the
      observed fungus. RESULTS: Among the 303 police students with clinical lesions of
      the inter-toe folds, 233 (76.9%; IC 95%=71.9-81.4) had a positive diagnosis after
      mycological examination. Lesions were predominantly located in the 3rd and 4th
      interdigital plantar spaces, with desquamation (100%) followed by maceration
      (82.5%) as the predominant functional sign. Dermatophytes accounted for 86.3% of
      the strains isolated with as majority species : Trichophyton interdigitale
      (40.3%), Microsporum langeronii (30.0%) and Trichophyton rubrum (15.5%). Yeasts
      accounted for 13.7% of the strains with Candida albicans (7.7%) as the most found
      species. The duration at the police school (P=0.004) and the practice of sports
      activities (P=0.0001) were statistically associated with the occurrence of the
      disease. CONCLUSION: A good hygiene of feet would reduce the incidence of the
      disease among the defense and security forces. Also, investigations for the
      influence of the seasons in the occurrence of interdigital tinea pedis will allow
      a better understand of epidemiology of this dermatomycosis.

PMID- 28887006
TI  - A 3-month safety and efficacy study of travoprost 0.004% ophthalmic solution
      compared with timolol in pediatric patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate efficacy and safety of travoprost in pediatric patients with
      ocular hypertension or glaucoma and demonstrate its noninferiority to timolol.
      METHODS: Patients aged 2 months to <18 years with glaucoma or ocular hypertension
      were randomized to receive travoprost (0.004%) or timolol eye drops (0.25% for
      patients aged 2 months to <3 years and 0.5% for patients >=3 years old) for 3
      months in this double-masked, parallel-group study. Intraocular pressure (IOP)
      was measured and patients were evaluated at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, and 3 months after
      treatment. Change in IOP from baseline to 3 months was the primary endpoint, and
      the test of noninferiority was based on a margin of +3.0 mm Hg using the 95% 2
      sided confidence interval of the mean change. RESULTS: Of 157 patients included
      (mean age, 9.6 years), 77 received travoprost and 75 timolol. All patients
      experienced a significant reduction in IOP in the study eye at 3 months: the mean
      IOP change from baseline was -5.4 mm Hg for travoprost; -5.3 mm Hg, for timolol.
      The mean difference between travoprost and timolol at month 3 was -0.1 mm Hg (95%
      CI, -1.5 to 1.4 mm Hg). The most common treatment-related adverse events for the
      travoprost group were ocular hyperemia and eyelash growth. No serious adverse
      events were reported. CONCLUSIONS: This study found travoprost to be noninferior
      to timolol in lowering IOP in patients with pediatric glaucoma or ocular
      hypertension. Travoprost was well-tolerated, and no treatment-related systemic
      adverse events were reported.

PMID- 28887007
TI  - Yersinia pestis detection by loop-mediated isothermal amplification combined with
      magnetic bead capture of DNA.
AB  - We developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the
      detection of Y. pestis by targeting the 3a sequence on chromosome. All 11 species
      of the genus Yersinia were used to evaluate the specificity of LAMP and PCR,
      demonstrating that the primers had a high level of specificity. The sensitivity
      of LAMP or PCR was 2.3 or 23CFU for pure culture, whereas 2.3*104 or 2.3*106CFU
      for simulated spleen and lung samples. For simulated liver samples, the
      sensitivity of LAMP was 2.3*106CFU, but PCR was negative at the level of
      2.3*107CFU. After simulated spleen and lung samples were treated with magnetic
      beads, the sensitivity of LAMP or PCR was 2.3*103 or 2.3*106CFU, whereas 2.3*105
      or 2.3*107CFU for magnetic bead-treated liver samples. These results indicated
      that some components in the tissues could inhibit LAMP and PCR, and liver tissue
      samples had a stronger inhibition to LAMP and PCR than spleen and lung tissue
      samples. LAMP has a higher sensitivity than PCR, and magnetic bead capture of
      DNAs could remarkably increase the sensitivity of LAMP. LAMP is a simple, rapid
      and sensitive assay suitable for application in the field or poverty areas.

PMID- 28887009
TI  - Addressing quantification of "turbulence" in the "political replacement effect":
      Comment on "Modeling human behavior in economics and social science" by Marina
      Dolfin, Leone Leonida, and Nisrine Outada.

PMID- 28887008
TI  - Physiological response of Cucurbita pepo var. pepo mycorrhized by Sonoran desert
      native arbuscular fungi to drought and salinity stresses.
AB  - Plants response to symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) under water
      stress is important to agriculture. Under abiotic stress conditions native fungi
      are more effective than exotics in improving plant growth and water status.
      Mycorrhization efficiency is related to soil fungi development and energy cost
      benefit ratio. In this study, we assessed the effect on growth, water status and
      energy metabolism of Cucurbita pepo var. pepo when inoculated with native AMF
      from the Sonoran desert Mexico (mixed isolate and field consortium), and compared
      with an exotic species from a temperate region, under drought, low and high
      salinity conditions. Dry weights, leaf water content, water and osmotic
      potentials, construction costs, photochemistry and mycorrhization features were
      quantified. Under drought and low salinity conditions, the mixed isolate
      increased plant growth and leaf water content. Leaf water potential was increased
      only by the field consortium under drought conditions (0.5-0.9MPa). Under high
      salinity, the field consortium increased aerial dry weight (more than 1g) and
      osmotic potential (0.54MPa), as compared to non-mycorrhized controls. Plants
      inoculated with native AMF, which supposedly diminish the effects of stress,
      exhibited low construction costs, increased photochemical capacity, and grew
      larger external mycelia in comparison to the exotic inoculum.

PMID- 28887010
TI  - Improved Performance of Adjunctive Ultrasonography After Mammography Screening
      for Breast Cancer Among Chinese Females.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Until now, no studies have investigated whether women other than
      those with dense breasts are suitable for adjunctive ultrasonography after
      negative mammography, and investigated whether all women with negative
      mammography are suitable for adjunctive ultrasonography. METHODS: Based on the
      Multi-modality Independent Screening Trial in China, a total of 31,918 women aged
      45 to 65 years underwent both ultrasonography and mammography. Physicians
      performed ultrasonography and mammography separately and were blinded to each
      other's findings until their interpretations had been recorded. For both
      ultrasonography and mammography, suspicious results and those highly suggestive
      of a malignancy were confirmed by pathologic examination, whereas other results
      were confirmed by 1-year follow-up after initial screening. RESULTS: Based on
      Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADS) assessments, 84 (84.8%) of 99
      cancers were identified on mammography (detection rate, 2.6/1000), and 61 (61.6%)
      of 99 cancers were identified on ultrasonography (detection rate, 1.9/1000).
      Integrated mammography with ultrasonography identified 94 (95.0%) of 99 cancers,
      with an increment of 11.9% in cancer detection rate (from 2.6/1000 to 2.9/1000)
      (P < .05). Moreover, among women with BIRADS 3, adjunctive ultrasonography
      detected no cancers. All 10 additional cancers detected by adjunctive
      ultrasonography were from women with BIRADS 0 to 2, at a cost of 207 women with
      false positives. Additionally, dense breasts and benign breast disease were
      significantly associated with positive ultrasonography after BIRADS 0 to 2 (all P
      values < .05). CONCLUSIONS: After negative mammography, adjunctive
      ultrasonography should only be recommended for BIRADS 0 to 2 but not BIRADS 3,
      especially for women with dense breasts or benign breast disease.

PMID- 28887011
TI  - Cell therapies for Chagas disease.
AB  - In this review of cell therapies in Chagas disease, we cover aspects related to
      the disease, its treatment and world demographics, before proceeding to describe
      the preclinical and clinical trials performed using cell therapies in the search
      for an alternative therapy for the most severe and lethal form of this disease,
      chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28887012
TI  - Chronic maladaptive pain in cats: A review of current and future drug treatment
      options.
AB  - Despite our increasing understanding of the pathophysiology underlying chronic or
      maladaptive pain, there is a significant gap in our ability to diagnose and treat
      the condition in domestic cats. Newer techniques being used to identify
      abnormalities in pain processing in the cat include validated owner
      questionnaires, measurement of movement and activity, and measurement of sensory
      thresholds and somatomotor responses. While some data are available evaluating
      possible therapeutics for the treatment of chronic pain in the cat, most data are
      limited to normal cats. This review details our current understanding of chronic
      or maladaptive pain, techniques for the detection and measurement of the
      condition and the associated central nervous changes, as well as an overview of
      the data evaluating potential therapeutics in cats.

PMID- 28887013
TI  - Morphine exposure and maternal deprivation during the early postnatal period
      alter neuromotor development and nerve growth factor levels.
AB  - The objective of this study was to verify whether repeated morphine
      administration and maternal deprivation in early life alter neurobehavioral
      development and central nerve growth factor (NGF) levels. A total of 58 male
      Wistar rat pups were used in our study. From postnatal day 1 (P1), litters were
      daily deprived of their mother for 3h; this was continued for the first 10days of
      life. Animals were divided into 5 groups: total control (C), did not receive any
      intervention; saline (S), received saline solution; morphine (M), received
      morphine; deprived-saline group (DS), were subjected to maternal deprivation and
      received saline solution; and deprived-morphine (DM), were subjected to maternal
      deprivation and received morphine. From P8, newborns received subcutaneous (s.c.)
      injections of morphine or saline (5MUg) once daily for 7days. Righting reflex,
      negative geotaxis and gait were chosen as postural parameters to evaluate
      neuromotor reflexes. In the righting reflex test, a delay in the development of
      animals was evidenced in the M group. Performance of negative geotaxis was slower
      in the M and DM groups. In the gait test, all groups showed a daily improvement
      in performance in terms of locomotion frequency. An increased frequency of
      rearing was observed in the M, DS, and DM groups from P16 to P20. The DM group
      presented an increase in NGF levels in the brainstem. An increase in cerebral
      cortex NGF levels in the M, DS, and DM groups was observed as well. Our results
      suggest that changes in environmental conditions and the disruption of mother
      infant interactions during the neonatal period can produce changes in the
      neurobiology, physiology, and emotional behavior of rats. This finding has
      important implications for the maternal-neonate interaction needed for normal
      brain development in newborns.

PMID- 28887014
TI  - Osiris9a is a major component of silk fiber in lepidopteran insects.
AB  - In a previous high-throughput proteomics study, it was found that the silkworm
      cocoon contains hundreds of complex proteins, many of which have unknown
      functions, in addition to fibroins, sericins, and some protease inhibitors.
      Osiris was one of the proteins with no known function. In this study, we
      identified the Osiris gene family members and constructed a phylogenetic tree
      based on the sequences from different species. Our results indicate that the
      Osiris9 gene subfamily contains six members; it is specifically expressed in
      lepidopteran insects and has evolved by gene duplication. An Osiris gene family
      member from Bombyx mori was designated as BmOsiris9a (BmOsi9a) on the basis of
      its homology to Drosophila melanogaster Osiris9. The expression pattern of
      BmOsi9a showed that it was highly expressed only in the middle silk gland of
      silkworm larvae, similar to Sericin1 (Ser1). BmOsi9a was visualized as two bands
      in western blot analysis, implying that it probably undergoes post-translational
      modifications. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that BmOsi9a was
      synthesized and secreted into the lumen of the middle silk gland, and was
      localized in the sericin layer in the silk fiber. BmOsi9a was found in the silk
      fibers of not only three Bombycidae species, viz. B. mori, B. mandarina, and B.
      huttoni, but also in the fibers collected from Saturniidae species, including
      Antheraea assama, Antheraea mylitta, and Samia cynthia. Although the exact
      biological function of Osi9a in the silk fibers is unknown, our results are
      important because they demonstrate that Osi9a is a common structural component of
      silk fiber and is expressed widely among the silk-producing Bombycidae and
      Saturniidae insects. Our results should help in understanding the role of Osi9a
      in silk fibers.

PMID- 28887015
TI  - Bedaquiline or delamanid for rifampin-resistant tuberculosis?

PMID- 28887017
TI  - Establishment and activity of the D quadrant organizer in the marine gastropod
      Crepidula fornicata.
AB  - During development in metazoan embryos, the fundamental embryonic axes are
      established by organizing centers that influence the fates of nearby cells. Among
      the spiralians, a large and diverse branch of protostome metazoans, studies have
      shown that an organizer sets up the dorsal-ventral axis, which arises from one of
      the four basic cell quadrants during development (the dorsal, D quadrant).
      Studies in a few species have also revealed variation in terms of how and when
      the D quadrant and the organizer are established. In some species the D quadrant
      is specified conditionally, via cell-cell interactions, while in others it is
      specified autonomously, via asymmetric cell divisions (such as those involving
      the formation of polar lobes). The third quartet macromere (3D) typically serves
      as the spiralian organizer; however, other cells born earlier or later in the D
      quadrant lineage can serve as the organizer, such as the 2d micromere in the
      annelid Capitella teleta or the 4d micromere in the mollusc Crepidula fornicata.
      Here we present work carried out in the snail C. fornicata to show that
      establishment of a single D quadrant appears to rely on a combination of both
      autonomous (via inheritance of the polar lobe) and conditional mechanisms
      (involving induction via the progeny of the first quartet micromeres). Through
      systematic ablation of cells, we show that D quadrant identity is established
      between 5th and 6th cleavage stages, as it is in other spiralians that use
      conditional specification. Subsequently, following the next cell cycle, organizer
      activity takes place soon after the birth of the 4d micromere. Therefore, unlike
      the case in other spiralians that use conditional specification, the
      specification of the D quadrant and the activity of the dorso-ventral organizer
      are temporally and spatially uncoupled. We also present data on organizer
      function in naturally-occurring and experimentally-induced twin embryos, which
      possess multiple D quadrants. We show that supernumerary D quadrants can arise in
      C. fornicata (either spontaneously or following polar lobe removal); when
      multiple D quadrants are present these do not exhibit effective organizer
      activity. We conclude that the polar lobe is not required for D quadrant
      specification, though it could play a role in effective organizer activity. We
      also tested whether the inheritance of the small polar lobe by the D quadrant is
      associated with the ability to laterally inhibit neighboring quadrants by direct
      contact in order to normally prevent supernumerary organizers from arising.
      Finally, we discuss the variation of spiralian organizers in a phylogenetic
      context.

PMID- 28887016
TI  - Myotome adaptability confers developmental robustness to somitic myogenesis in
      response to fibre number alteration.
AB  - Balancing the number of stem cells and their progeny is crucial for tissue
      development and repair. Here we examine how cell numbers and overall muscle size
      are tightly regulated during zebrafish somitic muscle development. Muscle
      stem/precursor cell (MPCs) expressing Pax7 are initially located in the
      dermomyotome (DM) external cell layer, adopt a highly stereotypical distribution
      and thereafter a proportion of MPCs migrate into the myotome. Regional variations
      in the proliferation and terminal differentiation of MPCs contribute to growth of
      the myotome. To probe the robustness of muscle size control and spatiotemporal
      regulation of MPCs, we compared the behaviour of wild type (wt) MPCs with those
      in mutant zebrafish that lack the muscle regulatory factor Myod. Myodfh261
      mutants form one third fewer multinucleate fast muscle fibres than wt and show a
      significant expansion of the Pax7+ MPC population in the DM. Subsequently,
      myodfh261 mutant fibres generate more cytoplasm per nucleus, leading to recovery
      of muscle bulk. In addition, relative to wt siblings, there is an increased
      number of MPCs in myodfh261 mutants and these migrate prematurely into the
      myotome, differentiate and contribute to the hypertrophy of existing fibres.
      Thus, homeostatic reduction of the excess MPCs returns their number to normal
      levels, but fibre numbers remain low. The GSK3 antagonist BIO prevents MPC
      migration into the deep myotome, suggesting that canonical Wnt pathway activation
      maintains the DM in zebrafish, as in amniotes. BIO does not, however, block
      recovery of the myodfh261 mutant myotome, indicating that homeostasis acts on
      fibre intrinsic growth to maintain muscle bulk. The findings suggest the
      existence of a critical window for early fast fibre formation followed by a
      period in which homeostatic mechanisms regulate myotome growth by controlling
      fibre size. The feedback controls we reveal in muscle help explain the extremely
      precise grading of myotome size along the body axis irrespective of fish size,
      nutrition and genetic variation and may form a paradigm for wider matching of
      organ size.

PMID- 28887019
TI  - Are We Still Prescribing Opioids for Osteoarthritis?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. These
      medications continue to be used to manage pain associated with osteoarthritis,
      despite mounting evidence questioning the benefits. The rate at which opioids are
      prescribed for osteoarthritis is largely unknown. We sought to identify rates of
      opioid prescriptions for osteoarthritis and identify factors associated with
      higher rates of prescribing. METHODS: We queried the Humana, Inc. administrative
      claims database from 2007 to 2014. Patients with osteoarthritis were identified
      using International Classification of Diseases 9th Revision codes and classified
      as having hip, knee, or any joint osteoarthritis. Claims data were reviewed to
      identify opioid prescriptions associated with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
      Rates of prescribing were trended over time and stratified by sex, age, and
      geographic region. RESULTS: From 2007 to 2014, 17.0% of patients with any joint
      osteoarthritis, 13.4% of patients with hip osteoarthritis, and 15.9% with knee
      osteoarthritis were prescribed an opioid for their condition. Yearly rates of
      prescription were fairly stable over this period. Patients in the South had the
      highest odds of opioid prescription, while those in the Northeast had the lowest.
      Patients <=49 years old were more likely to receive a prescription than those
      >=50 years old. CONCLUSION: This study provides important epidemiologic data
      about the use of opioids for osteoarthritis. Despite increasing evidence calling
      proposed benefits into question and increasing awareness of risks of opioids,
      prescribing rates remained stable between 2007 and 2014. This provides important
      baseline data as we work to combat excessive and inappropriate opioid use within
      the United States.

PMID- 28887018
TI  - DPP9 enzyme activity controls survival of mouse migratory tongue muscle
      progenitors and its absence leads to neonatal lethality due to suckling defect.
AB  - Dipeptidyl peptidase 9 (DPP9) is an intracellular N-terminal post-proline
      cleaving enzyme whose physiological function remains largely unknown. We
      investigated the role of DPP9 enzyme in vivo by characterizing knock-in mice
      expressing a catalytically inactive mutant form of DPP9 (S729A; DPP9ki/ki mice).
      We show that DPP9ki/ki mice die within 12-18h after birth. The neonatal lethality
      can be rescued by manual feeding, indicating that a suckling defect is the
      primary cause of neonatal lethality. The suckling defect results from
      microglossia, and is characterized by abnormal formation of intrinsic muscles at
      the distal tongue. In DPP9ki/ki mice, the number of occipital somite-derived
      migratory muscle progenitors, forming distal tongue intrinsic muscles, is reduced
      due to increased apoptosis. In contrast, intrinsic muscles of the proximal tongue
      and extrinsic tongue muscles, which derive from head mesoderm, develop normally
      in DPP9ki/ki mice. Thus, lack of DPP9 activity in mice leads to impaired tongue
      development, suckling defect and subsequent neonatal lethality due to impaired
      survival of a specific subset of migratory tongue muscle progenitors.

PMID- 28887020
TI  - Narcotic Use and Total Knee Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the United States is in the midst of a narcotic epidemic,
      risk factors for use and the impact of perioperative narcotic use on total knee
      arthroplasty (TKA) outcomes is ill-defined. METHODS: A national database was
      queried for patients who underwent primary TKA from 2007 to 2015. Patients taking
      narcotics in the preoperative, and for a prolonged period of time
      postoperatively, were identified. The risk factors for prolonged narcotic use
      were analyzed with a regression analysis, in addition to evaluating preoperative
      and prolonged postoperative use as independent risk factors for short-term and
      long-term complications. RESULTS: In total, 113,337 patients met inclusion
      criteria, of which 31,733 patients were prescribed narcotics preoperatively and
      35,770 patients were prescribed narcotics more than 3 months postoperatively.
      There are several independent risk factors for prolonged narcotic use
      postoperatively, the most significant being the number of narcotic prescriptions
      prescribed preoperatively. Preoperative narcotic use was independently associated
      with an increased risk of emergency room visits, readmission, infection,
      stiffness, and aseptic revision. Prolonged postoperative use was also associated
      with significantly increased rates of infection, stiffness, and aseptic revision.
      CONCLUSION: Preoperative and prolonged narcotic use following TKA was associated
      with an increased risk of short-term and long-term complications following TKA.
      The liberal use of narcotics in the perioperative period should be considered a
      modifiable risk factor when considering elective TKA.

PMID- 28887021
TI  - Improving Value in Total Joint Arthroplasty: A Comprehensive Patient Education
      and Management Program Decreases Discharge to Post-Acute Care Facilities and Post
      Operative Complications.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A step-by-step approach to creating a comprehensive patient
      education, expectation, and management program is described with the aim of
      reducing discharges to post-acute care centers (PACs) following total joint
      arthroplasty (TJA). We hypothesized that by lowering discharges to PACs,
      readmissions and reoperations would also decrease. METHODS: Following the
      implementation of a multi-faceted patient education and management program, we
      retrospectively reviewed 927 TJAs who underwent surgery 12 months before (n =
      465) and after (n = 462) the program was implemented. To assess the exposure of
      the pathway on discharge disposition as well as institutional 30-day and 90-day
      readmissions and reoperations, a modified Poisson regression was used. RESULTS:
      There was a 20% absolute reduction in discharges to PACs (<0.001). The frequency
      of 30-day readmissions was greater in patients who underwent TJA before
      implementation (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]
      1.01-3.69). The risk for 90-day readmissions (IRR 1.70, 95% CI 1.20-2.40) and
      reoperations (IRR 1.67, 95% CI 1.12-2.53) was greater prior to implementation.
      Discharge to PACs was associated with 2.4 and 3.10 times greater risk for 30-day
      readmissions (95% CI 1.28-4.56) and 30-day reoperations (95% CI 1.40-7.0),
      respectively. Patients discharged to PACs were also at greater risk for both 90
      day readmissions (IRR 1.59, 95% CI 1.08-2.32) and 90-day reoperations (IRR 1.75,
      95% CI 1.12-2.73). CONCLUSION: Our program led to a reduction in the number of
      patients being discharged to PACs following TJA, while also demonstrating a
      reduction in readmission and reoperations. Additionally, discharge to these
      facilities was an independent risk factor for these complications.

PMID- 28887022
TI  - Additive Influence of Hip Offset and Leg Length Reconstruction on Postoperative
      Improvement in Clinical Outcome After Total Hip Arthroplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a lack of prospective studies investigating the additive
      effect of both acetabular and femoral reconstruction parameters on the functional
      outcome following total hip arthroplasty (THA). METHODS: The aim of this
      prospective cohort study was to determine the combined influence of hip geometry
      reconstruction and component positioning on the clinical outcome following
      primary THA for unilateral osteoarthritis. We prospectively assessed the clinical
      outcome and radiographic parameters for hip geometry reconstruction, component
      position, and orientation using validated measurements for the operated hip
      compared to the contralateral native hip in a consecutive series of 113 patients
      with primary unilateral cementless THA. The correlation of reconstruction
      parameters was investigated using a multivariate polynomial regression model for
      the dependent variable DeltaHHS (difference between the Harris hip scores
      preoperatively and 2.0-4.8 years postoperatively). Target zones for hip
      reconstruction and component positioning were investigated for an association
      with superior clinical outcome. RESULTS: The regression model demonstrated a
      significant correlation for the DeltaHHS and both hip offset (HO) reconstruction
      and leg length difference. Patients with accurate to slightly increased HO
      reconstruction combined with balanced leg length demonstrated a significantly
      higher DeltaHHS than patients outside this zone (HO: 5 +/- 5 and LLD: 0 +/-5 mm,
      P = .029). This finding could be confirmed for 2 enlarged zones (zone 1: HO, 7.5
      +/- 7.5 and LLD, 2.5 +/- 7.5 mm, P = .028; zone 2: HO, 7.5 +/- 7.5 and LLD, 7.5
      +/- 7.5 mm, P = .007). CONCLUSION: HO and leg length reconstruction demonstrated
      an additive effect on clinical outcome and surgeons should aim for high accuracy
      in the reconstruction of both factors.

PMID- 28887023
TI  - Chronic Kidney Diseases Among Patients Undergoing Elective Arthroplasty: Risk
      Groups and the Value of Serum Creatinine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In arthroplasty clinics, we tend to evaluate patient's kidney
      function looking at serum creatinine (SCr), while estimated glomerular filtration
      rate (eGFR) is recommended. We reported the prevalence of chronic kidney disease
      (CKD; eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2) in different patient groups and investigated
      whether CKD is missed by evaluation based on SCr. METHODS: Preoperative SCr
      values were used to calculate eGFR in 20,575 consecutive hip or knee
      arthroplasties. RESULTS: Prevalence of CKD was 9%-12%. It was higher among older
      women, knee arthroplasty patients, and patients with hypertension, diabetes, or
      coronary disease. Using SCr instead of eGFR leads to missing CKD in up to 7% of
      the cases. In older women and older patients with body mass index <25 kg/m2, half
      of CKD cases were missed. CONCLUSION: Use of eGFR instead of SCr to detect CKD
      more accurately is recommended.

PMID- 28887024
TI  - Are Trends in Total Hip Arthroplasty Bearing Surface Continuing to Change? 2007
      2015 Usage in a Large Database Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bearing surface issues related to trunnionosis or metal-on-metal
      (MoM) articulations have likely impacted recent trends in bearing surface choice.
      The purpose of this study is to evaluate trends in total hip arthroplasty (THA)
      bearing surface use, including 2015 data, with respect to the date of operation
      and patient demographics. METHODS: The Humana dataset was reviewed from 2007
      through 2015 to analyze bearing surface usage in primary THA. Four bearing
      surface types were identified by International Classification of Disease, 10th
      Revision codes and trended throughout the years: metal-on-polyethylene (MoP),
      ceramic-on-ceramic (CoC), ceramic-on-polyethylene (CoP), and MoM. Prevalence was
      analyzed as a function of age and sex. RESULTS: Of the 28,504 primary THA
      procedures, the most commonly used bearing was MoP (46.1%), followed by CoP
      (33.2%), MoM (17.1%), and ceramic-on-ceramic (3.6%). The use of CoP bearings
      significantly increased from 6.4% in 2007 to 52.0% in 2015, while MoM bearings
      decreased during this period. MoP bearings decreased over 2012-2015 (P < .001).
      CoP usage decreased with age, while MoP bearings increased with a transition
      occurring at 65-69 years of age. Women were more likely to receive MoP bearings
      (odds ratio [OR] 1.2), while men were more likely to receive MoM and CoP bearings
      (OR 1.1). Multivariate logistic regression showed age to be an independent
      predictor of bearing surface choice with patients 65 and older more likely to
      receive MoP bearings (OR 3.2). CONCLUSION: Bearing surface choice in primary THA
      has changed tremendously from 2007 to 2015. MoM bearing use has decreased as a
      result of adverse effects. Age continues to remain a significant factor in
      bearing surface choice.

PMID- 28887025
TI  - Tryptone-stabilized gold nanoparticles target tubulin and inhibit cell viability
      by inducing an unusual form of cell cycle arrest.
AB  - Gold nanoparticles have been investigated extensively for their molecular
      mechanisms of action and anticancer potential. We report a novel, tubulin
      targeted antiproliferative mechanism of action of tryptone-stabilized gold
      nanoparticles (TsAuNPs). TsAuNPs, synthesized using HAuCl4.3H2O and tryptone and
      characterized by a variety of spectroscopic methods and transmission electron
      microscopy, were found to be inhibitory to viability of human pancreatic (PANC
      1), cervical (HeLa), and breast (MDA-MB-231) cancer cell lines in a concentration
      dependent manner, with highest efficacy against PANC-1 cells. The particles
      strongly inhibited the clonogenic propagation of PANC-1 cells. TsAuNPs-mediated
      inhibition of cell viability involved an unusual mode of cell cycle arrest
      (arrest at both G0/G1 phase and S-phase) followed by apoptosis. In vitro, TsAuNPs
      bound purified tubulin, competitively inhibited anilinonaphthalene sulfonate
      binding to tubulin, and suppressed tubulin assembly. In cells, tubulin-TsAuNPs
      interactions were manifested as a disrupted microtubule network, defective
      reassembly of cold-disassembled microtubules, and induction of tubulin
      acetylation. Our data indicate that TsAuNPs inhibit cell viability by inducing
      differential cell cycle arrest possibly through disrupted dynamicity of cellular
      microtubules.

PMID- 28887026
TI  - Beyond Read-Counts: Ribo-seq Data Analysis to Understand the Functions of the
      Transcriptome.
AB  - By mapping the positions of millions of translating ribosomes in the cell,
      ribosome profiling (Ribo-seq) has established its role as a powerful tool to
      study gene expression. Several laboratories have introduced modifications to the
      experimental protocol and expanded the repertoire of biochemical methods to study
      translation transcriptome-wide. However, the diversity of protocols highlights a
      need for standardization. At the same time, different computational analysis
      strategies have used Ribo-seq data to identify the set of translated sequences
      with high confidence. In this review we present an overview of such
      methodologies, outlining their assumptions, data requirements, and availability.
      At the interface between RNA and proteins, Ribo-seq can complement data from
      multiple omics approaches, zooming in on the central role of translation in the
      molecular cell.

PMID- 28887027
TI  - Accurate eGFR reporting for children without anthropometric data.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Reporting estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) instead of
      serum concentrations is advised in current guidelines. Most creatinine-based eGFR
      equations for children require height, a parameter not readily available to
      laboratories. Combining height-dependent creatinine- and cystatin C-based eGFR
      improves performance. Recently, a height-independent creatinine-based eGFR
      equation has been developed. AIM: To compare the combination of height
      independent creatinine- and cystatin C-based equations with a combination of
      equations using anthropometric data. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 408
      pediatric inulin clearance studies with simultaneous height, creatinine, cystatin
      C and urea measurements. eGFR calculation using the recalibrated Schwartzcrea
      (height-dependent), FASage (height-independent) and the Schwartzcys equation. The
      means (Schwartzcrea+Schwartzcys)/2 and (FASage+Schwartzcys)/2 were compared with
      the CKiD3 equation incorporating cystatin C, creatinine, urea, height and gender
      in terms of %prediction error and accuracy. RESULTS: All three single parameter
      equations performed similarly (P30 accuracy around 80%). (FASage+Schwartzcys)/2
      (P30 89.2%) and (Schwartzcrea+Schwartzcys)/2 (P30 89.0%), performed comparably to
      CKiD3 (P30 90.0%). If the difference between the creatinine- and the cystatine C
      based eGFR was <40%, P30 accuracy of the mean exceeded 90%. CONCLUSION: Combining
      the height-independent FASage and SchwartzCys equations substantially improves
      accuracy and performs comparably to height-dependent equations. This allows
      laboratories to directly report eGFR in children.

PMID- 28887028
TI  - FVIIa-antithrombin levels in early and late preeclampsia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia (PE) is associated with a hypercoagulability state.
      According to the gestational age (GA) at the onset of the disease, PE has been
      classified as early (GA<34weeks) and late (GA>=34weeks). It has been admitted
      that early PE is associated with ischemic placental lesions, while in late PE an
      adequate or slightly impaired placentation occurs, which suggests that the two
      clinical forms have distinct etiology. Tissue factor (TF) binds and activates
      plasma factor VII triggering the coagulation. The inhibitor antithrombin (AT),
      along with tissue factor pathway inhibitor, acts as an inhibitor of the FVIIa-TF
      pathway. Once the TF-FVIIa complex is formed, the binding and transfer of FVIIa
      to AT is facilitated and FVIIa activity is inhibited. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the
      FVIIa-AT complex levels in pregnant women with early and late severe PE (sPE), in
      order to verify if this biomarker can be useful for discriminating the two forms
      of the disease. METHODS: We evaluated 26 pregnant with severe early PE and 19
      pregnant with severe late PE. FVIIa-AT levels were measured by STACLOT(r)
      (Diagnostica Stago). Statistical analysis was done by Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS:
      Increased FVIIa-AT levels were found in early sPE [148.4pM (137.1)] compared to
      late sPE [95.9pM (66.5)] (P=0.046), which suggests a higher pro-coagulant state
      when PE onset occurs before 34weeks of gestation. CONCLUSION: These pioneer data
      allow inferring the relevance of FVIIa-AT as a device for early sPE diagnosis.
      However, the clinical relevance of FVIIa-AT complex surely needs to be fully
      clarified.

PMID- 28887029
TI  - Urocortins: Actions in health and heart failure.
AB  - The urocortins (Ucns), endogenous peptides belonging to the corticotropin
      releasing factor (CRF) family, are increasingly recognized as having diverse and
      important multi-system functions, especially within the cardiovascular system.
      The biological actions of the three Ucns (Ucn1, Ucn2, Ucn3) are mediated via G
      protein-coupled CRF receptors, with both peptides and receptors widely
      distributed throughout tissues and organs contributing to pressure/volume
      homeostasis including the heart, vasculature, kidneys and adrenals. The Ucns
      activate a variety of signaling cascades in cardiomyocytes, vascular smooth
      muscle cells and endothelial cells including, but not limited to, adenyl
      cyclase/cAMP and several kinase pathways, with downstream effects comprising
      vasodilation, augmented cardiac contractility, and protection against hypoxic
      injury. Increasing evidence suggests the Ucns may be clinically significant
      molecules in the pathogenesis, treatment and/or management of several conditions,
      with some of the most compelling data demonstrating a therapeutic potential for
      the peptides in the setting of heart failure. Circulating levels of the Ucns are
      elevated in this setting, and antagonism of the endogenous peptides exacerbates
      manifestations of the syndrome in animal models. All three Ucns exert salutary
      hemodynamic, neurohormonal and renal effects in experimental heart failure and
      recent clinical trials have demonstrated hemodynamic benefits of Ucn2
      administration.

PMID- 28887030
TI  - Association of Picky Eating With Weight Status and Dietary Quality Among Low
      Income Preschoolers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Picky eating is common in children. Few studies have examined
      predictors of picky eating, and the association of picky eating with weight
      status and dietary quality is inconsistent in the literature. We aimed to
      identify predictors of picky eating and to test the association of picky eating
      with child body mass index z-score (BMIz), dietary quality, and micronutrient
      intake. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a
      randomized controlled trial to prevent obesity among 506 preschoolers attending
      Head Start. Parents completed questionnaires to assess picky eating and child
      temperament. Three 24-hour dietary recalls were collected to assess dietary
      intake. Multivariate regression models assessed child, parent, and family
      predictors of picky eating; additional models tested adjusted associations of
      picky eating with child BMIz, dietary quality (measured using the Healthy Eating
      Index-2010), and micronutrient intake. RESULTS: Picky eating was predicted by
      male sex, older child age, and more difficult temperament but not race/ethnicity,
      maternal body mass index, maternal depressive symptoms, household food
      insecurity, or single parent home. Picky eating was not associated with child
      BMIz or micronutrient deficiencies; it was inversely associated with total
      Healthy Eating Index-2010 score and servings of whole fruit, total vegetables,
      greens and beans, and total protein foods. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric providers
      should support parents in expanding the number of healthy foods the child eats to
      improve dietary quality, but reassure parents that picky eating is not associated
      with children's weight status or micronutrient deficiencies.

PMID- 28887031
TI  - The C. elegans mRNA decapping enzyme shapes morphology of cilia.
AB  - Cilia and flagella are evolutionarily conserved organelles that protrude from
      cell surfaces. Most cilia and flagella are single rod-shaped but some cilia show
      a variety of shapes. For example, human airway epithelial cells are
      multiciliated, flagella of crayfish spermatozoon are star-like shaped, and fruit
      fly spermatozoon extends long flagella. In Caenorhabditis elegans, cilia display
      morphological diversity of shapes (single, dual rod-type and wing-like and highly
      branched shapes). Here we show that DCAP-1 and DCAP-2, which are the homologues
      of mammalian DCP1 and DCP2 mRNA decapping enzymes, respectively, are involved in
      formation of dual rod-type and wing-like shaped cilia in C. elegans. mRNA
      decapping enzyme catalyzes hydrolysis of 5' cap structure of mRNA, which leads to
      degradation of mRNA. Rescue experiments showed that DCAP-2 acts not in glial
      cells surrounding cilia but in neurons. This is the first evidence to demonstrate
      that mRNA decapping is involved in ciliary shape formation.

PMID- 28887032
TI  - Electrostatic differences: A possible source for the functional differences
      between MCF7 and brain microtubules.
AB  - Recent studies suggested a link between diversity of beta tubulin isotypes in
      microtubule structures and the regulatory roles that they play not only on
      microtubules' intrinsic dynamic, but also on the translocation characteristics of
      some of the molecular motors along microtubules. Remarkably, unlike porcine brain
      microtubules, MCF7 microtubules are structured from a different beta tubulin
      distribution. These types of cancer microtubules show a relatively stable and
      slow dynamic. In addition, the translocation parameters of some molecular motors
      are distinctly different along MCF7 as compared to those parameters on brain
      microtubules. It is known that the diversity of beta tubulin isotypes differ
      predominantly in the specifications and the electric charge of their carboxy
      terminal tails. A key question is to identify whether the negative electrostatic
      charge of tubulin isotypes and, consequently, microtubules, can potentially be
      considered as one of the sources of functional differences in MCF7 vs. brain
      microtubules. We tested this possibility experimentally by monitoring the electro
      orientation of these two types of microtubules inside a uniform electric field.
      Through this evaluation, we quantified and compared the average normalized
      polarization coefficient of MCF7 vs. Porcine brain microtubules. The higher value
      obtained for the polarization of MCF7 microtubules, which is associated to the
      higher negative charge of these types of microtubules, is significant as it can
      further explain the slow intrinsic dynamic that has been recently reported for
      single MCF7 microtubules in vitro. Furthermore, it can be potentially considered
      as a factor that can directly impact the translocation parameters of some
      molecular motors along MCF7 microtubules, by altering the mutual electrostatic
      interactions between microtubules and molecular motors.

PMID- 28887033
TI  - Long-term exposure to PM2.5 lowers influenza virus resistance via down-regulating
      pulmonary macrophage Kdm6a and mediates histones modification in IL-6 and IFN
      beta promoter regions.
AB  - Atmospheric particulates, especially PM2.5, not only damage the respiratory
      system, but also play important roles in pulmonary immunity. China is influenced
      by atmospheric diffusion conditions, industrial manufacturers, and heating and
      discharging. PM2.5 levels in the air rise substantially in the winter, which is
      also a period of flu high-incidence. Although an epidemiological link exists
      between PM2.5 and flu, we do not understand how long-term PM2.5 inhalation
      affects pulmonary immunity and the influenza virus response. Our study has
      prepared an in vivo PM2.5 mouse pharyngeal wall drop-in model and has found that
      PM2.5 exposure leads to mouse inflammatory injuries and furthers influenza A
      infection. Our results suggest that short-term exposure to PM2.5 significantly
      enhances the survival rate of influenza A-contaminated mice, while long-term
      PM2.5 inhalation lowers the capacity of pulmonary macrophages to secrete IL-6 and
      IFN-beta. A disorder in the pulmonary innate defense system results in increased
      death rates following influenza infection. On a macromolecular level, this
      mechamism involves Kdm6a down-regulation after long-term exposure to PM 2.5 and a
      resultant increase in H3K4 and H3K9 methylation in IL-6 and IFN-beta promoter
      regions. In summary, PM2.5 causes injuries of lung tissue cells and downregulates
      immune defense mechanisms in the lung.

PMID- 28887034
TI  - A novel gene, cilia flagella associated protein 44, encoding an enzyme cleaving
      FtsZ and tubulin contributes to the regulation of secretory pathway.
AB  - We identified a novel gene, encoding the central region of the cilia and flagella
      associated protein 44 (Cfap44), that regulates trafficking of cellular components
      and morphology via the cleavage of cellular proteins (particularly beta-tubulin).
      Although Cfap44 is registered in GenBank, the functions of both the central part
      and full-length protein are unknown except for a polymorphism associated with
      proprotein convertase 9 activity, the third gene of familiar hyper
      cholesterolemia. In mice and humans, both unspliced and spliced RNAs were
      transcribed, and the spliced form was predominantly transcribed in the brain and
      embryonic tissues. In transfectants carrying this gene, various cellular
      processes such as cell division, transport of cellular components, and
      proteolytic processing of several proteins were found to be affected. The
      cleavage of beta-tubulin was observed. A bacterial tubulin homolog, cell division
      protein FtsZ, was also cleaved in vivo and in vitro by the spliced form of Cfap44
      product. Furthermore, the unspliced form showed proteolytic activity with low
      substrate specificity. Various biological activities of Cfap44 may be due to a
      direct effect of cleavage of beta-tubulin inhibiting microtubule formation, or an
      indirect effect with the cross-recognition of the cleavage site between beta
      tubulin and other molecules.

PMID- 28887035
TI  - Detergent-resistant oligomeric Leptosphaeria rhodopsin is a promising bio
      nanomaterial and an alternative to bacteriorhodopsin.
AB  - Bacteriorhodopsin has attracted remarkable attention as a photoactive bio
      nanomaterial in the last decades. However, its instability in the presence of
      detergents has restricted the extent to which bacteriorhodopsin may be applied.
      In this study, we investigated the oligomerization of a eukaryotic light-driven
      H+-pump, Leptosphaeria rhodopsin, using circular dichroism spectroscopy and other
      biophysical and biochemical methods. Our findings revealed that Leptosphaeria
      rhodopsin assembled into oligomers in the cell membrane and also in 0.05% DDM
      detergent micelles. Moreover, unlike bacteriorhodopsin in purple membrane,
      Leptosphaeria rhodopsin retained its oligomeric structure in 1% Triton X-100 and
      demonstrated strong resistance to other common detergents. A maximal photocurrent
      density of ~85 nA/cm2 was consistently generated, which was substantially larger
      than that of solubilized bacteriorhodopsin (~10 nA/cm2). Therefore, oligomeric
      Leptosphaeria rhodopsin may be a promising bio-nanomaterial, and an alternative
      to bacteriorhodopsin, especially with the use of detergents.

PMID- 28887036
TI  - Autocrine STIP1 signaling promotes tumor growth and is associated with disease
      outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - Stress-induced phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1) is an adaptor protein that bridges
      between HSP70 and HSP90 folding and a secretory protein which regulates malignant
      cell growth. However, the role of STIP1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains
      unknown. Here, we found high expression of STIP1 in tumors was associated with
      worse overall survival (41.3 vs 62.7 months, P < 0.001) in 231 HCC patients.
      STIP1 was overexpressed in HCC tissues compared to adjacent non-tumor liver
      tissue (64.9% vs 4.0% P < 0.001), and serum STIP1 levels of HCC patients were
      elevated compared to healthy controls (P < 0.001). Mechanistically, STIP1
      promoted HCC growth through PI3K-AKT-dependent anti-apoptotic pathway. STIP1
      mediated cell growth in an autocrine fashion, which could be suppressed either by
      neutralizing extracellular STIP1 or by knocking down intracellular STIP1. In
      xenograft mouse model, knockdown of STIP1 significantly reduced tumor growth (P <
      0.001). In conclusion, STIP1 is upregulated in HCC and associated with poor
      clinical prognosis. Blocking STIP1 activity suppresses HCC cell growth, providing
      the rationale for STIP1 as a potential therapeutic target in HCC.

PMID- 28887037
TI  - Cholecalciterol cholesterol emulsion attenuates experimental autoimmune
      myocarditis in mice via inhibition of the pyroptosis signaling pathway.
AB  - 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and its analog (paricalcitol) have beneficial effects on
      multiple systems and diseases, including myocarditis. However, the therapeutic
      effect of cholecalciterol cholesterol emulsion (CCE) on myocarditis and the role
      of pyroptosis in the progress of myocarditis have not been determined. The
      objective of this study was to investigate the effect of CCE on experimental
      autoimmune myocarditis and its underlying mechanisms. The ratio of heart weight
      to body weight was decreased after CCE treatment compared with vehicle-treated
      controls. In addition, CCE improved the general status of mice, suppressed
      myocardial apoptosis, and inhibited the pyroptosis signaling pathway. Therefore,
      CCE can ameliorate experimental autoimmune myocarditis by downregulating the
      pyroptosis signaling pathway.

PMID- 28887038
TI  - Resveratrol protects against mitochondrial dysfunction through autophagy
      activation in human nucleus pulposus cells.
AB  - Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is closely related with aging, whereas
      mitochondrial damage is a common feature of aging that results in cell apoptosis.
      Resveratrol (RES) is a natural antioxidant that protects against mitochondrial
      dysfunction in various cells. This study aimed to investigate the protective role
      of RES against mitochondrial dysfunction and human nucleus pulposus cell (NPC)
      apoptosis. We found that mitochondrial dysfunction and NPC apoptosis could be
      induced under oxidative stress by 100 MUmol/l of H2O2. However, RES tended to
      attenuate the H2O2-mediated cytotoxicity. Therefore, autophagic state was
      evaluated in NPCs to further reveal the underlying mechanism. Results showed that
      RES reversed the impaired autophagy induced by H2O2, and this increased
      autophagic flux was confirmed by the addition of bafilomycin A1. Moreover,
      pretreatment with 3-methyladenine showed that the potential mechanism of RES to
      prevent deteriorating mitochondrial function and cell apoptosis was related to
      autophagy activation. Furthermore, MRI and histological detection were employed
      to provide more solid evidence that RES injection in an IVDD rabbit model
      effectively retards the degenerative process of the intervertebral discs in vivo.
      In summary, these results suggested that RES could alleviate mitochondrial
      dysfunction and cell apoptosis under oxidative stress and may delay the
      progression of disc degeneration, whose mechanism is associated with an
      advantageous role of autophagy induced by RES.

PMID- 28887039
TI  - Activation of the HMGB1-RAGE axis upregulates TH expression in dopaminergic
      neurons via JNK phosphorylation.
AB  - The derangement of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity reduces dopamine synthesis
      and is implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. However, the
      extracellular modulator and intracellular regulatory mechanisms of TH have yet to
      be identified. Recently, high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) was reported to be
      actively secreted from glial cells and is regarded as a mediator of dopaminergic
      neuronal loss. However, the mechanism for how HMGB1 affects TH expression,
      particularly through the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE), has
      not yet been investigated. We found that recombinant HMGB1 (rHMGB1) upregulates
      TH mRNA expression via simultaneous activation of JNK phosphorylation, and this
      induction of TH expression is blocked by inhibitors of RAGE and JNK. To
      investigate how TH expression levels change through the HMGB1-RAGE axis as a
      result of MPP+ toxicity, we co-treated SN4741 dopaminergic cells with MPP+ and
      rHMGB1. rHMGB1 blocked the reduction of TH mRNA following MPP+ treatment without
      altering cell survival rates. Our results suggest that HMGB1 upregulates TH
      expression to maintain dopaminergic neuronal function via activating RAGE, which
      is dependent on JNK phosphorylation.

PMID- 28887040
TI  - Roles of antibodies to influenza A virus hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, and M2e in
      conferring cross protection.
AB  - Although neuraminidase (NA) is the second major viral glycoprotein of influenza
      virus, its immune mechanism as a vaccine target has been less considered. Here we
      compared the properties of antibodies and the efficacy of cross protection by N1
      and N2 NA proteins, inactivated split influenza vaccines (split), and tandem
      repeat extracellular domain M2 on virus-like particles (M2e5x VLP). Anti-NA
      immune sera could confer better cross-protection against multiple heterologous
      influenza viruses correlating with NA inhibition activity compared to split
      vaccine immune sera. Whereas split vaccine was superior to NA in conferring
      homologous protection. NA and M2e immune sera each showed comparable survival
      protection. Protective efficacy by NA immune sera was lower in Fc receptor common
      gamma-chain deficient mice but comparable in C3 complement deficient mice
      compared to that in wild type mice, suggesting a role of Fc receptor in NA
      immunity.

PMID- 28887041
TI  - Partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection in a dog.
AB  - A 2-year-old male intact Belgian Malinois was presented for exercise intolerance.
      A grade III/VI left basilar systolic murmur was detected. Echocardiography
      revealed moderate right atrial and ventricular dilation and increased pulmonic
      outflow velocity. Thoracic radiographs showed right heart enlargement and a
      dilated caudal vena cava. In addition, on the left lateral projection, an
      enlarged aberrant right cranial pulmonary lobar vein was suspected to be
      diverging ventrally from the course of the right cranial lobar bronchus and
      inserting more ventrally than normal in the region of the right atrium. A left-to
      right pulmonary vascular shunt was suspected, and the patient underwent further
      diagnostics under general anesthesia. An agitated saline study was positive,
      suggestive of a concurrent right to left shunt. A right heart catheterization was
      performed. Angiography was inconclusive. Oximetry testing revealed an increase in
      oxygen saturation within the right atrium at the level of the caudal cava
      supportive of a left-to-right shunt in this region. Computed tomography
      angiography revealed a large single pulmonary vein that anomalously entered into
      the caudolateral aspect of the right atrium (left-to-right shunt) and was
      suspicious for a small arteriovenous malformation between the right caudal
      pulmonary artery and the right pulmonary vein returning to the left atrium (right
      to left shunt). The patient was diagnosed with a partial anomalous pulmonary
      venous connection and a possible arteriovenous malformation.

PMID- 28887042
TI  - Hinokitiol copper complex inhibits proteasomal deubiquitination and induces
      paraptosis-like cell death in human cancer cells.
AB  - The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) plays a central role in the regulation of
      proteins that control cell growth and apoptosis and has therefore become an
      important target for anticancer therapy. Several constitutive subunits of the 19S
      proteasome display deubiquitinase (DUB) activity, suggesting that ubiquitin
      modification of proteins is dynamically regulated. Our study and others have
      shown that metal complexes, such as copper complexes, can induce cancer cell
      apoptosis through inhibiting 19S proteasome-associated DUBs and/or 20S proteasome
      activity. In this study, we found that (1) Hinokitiol copper complex (HK-Cu)
      induces striking accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins in A549 and K562 cells
      (2) HK-Cu potently inhibits the activity of the 19S proteasomal DUBs much more
      effectively than it does to the chymotrypsin-like activity of the 20S proteasome
      (3) HK-Cu effectively induces caspase-independent and paraptosis-like cell death
      in A549 and K562 cells, and (4) HK-Cu-induced cell death depends on ATF4
      assosiated ER stress but is apparently not related to ROS generation. Altogether,
      these data indicate that HK-Cu can inhibit the activity of the 19S proteasomal
      DUBs and induce paraptosis-like cell death, representing a new drug candidate for
      cancer treatment.

PMID- 28887043
TI  - Planar bile acids in health and disease.
AB  - Bile acids are the amphipathic primary end-products of cholesterol metabolism
      that aid in digestion as well as participate in signal transduction in several
      hepatic and enteric pathways. Despite the reputation of bile acids as signaling
      molecules implicated in disease states such as cancer and diabetes, there remain
      numerous bile acid species that are weakly characterized in either physiological
      or pathological conditions. This review presents one such group: the flat or
      planar bile acids, a set of bile acids found in humans during infancy and
      occurring again during certain diseases. As their name implies, these molecules
      are structurally distinct from the typical human bile acids, retaining the planar
      structure of their cholesterol predecessor instead of bending or twisting at the
      A ring. This review defines these species of bile acids in detail and describes
      their presence in infancy, gestation, and in disease. The large gaps in research
      regarding the flat bile acids are highlighted and all available experimental
      knowledge collected as far as 60years ago is summarized. Further, the potential
      for these molecules as endogenous biomarkers of liver disease and injury is
      discussed. Finally, the flat bile salts found in humans are compared to the
      ancestral and evolutionary older bile salts, which similarly have a flat
      steroidal structure, as mechanisms of flat bile acid biosynthesis are explored.

PMID- 28887044
TI  - Biochemical and biophysical properties of positively supercoiled DNA.
AB  - In this paper we successfully developed a procedure to generate the (+)
      supercoiled (sc) plasmid DNA template pZXX6 in the milligram range. With the
      availability of the (+) sc DNA, we are able to characterize and compare certain
      biochemical and biophysical properties of (+) sc, (-) sc, and relaxed (rx) DNA
      molecules using different techniques, such as UV melting, circular dichroism, and
      fluorescence spectrometry. Our results show that (+) sc, (-) sc, and rx DNA
      templates can only be partially melted due to the fact that these DNA templates
      are closed circular DNA molecules and the two DNA strands cannot be completely
      separated upon denaturation at high temperatures. We also find that the
      fluorescence intensity of a DNA-binding dye SYTO12 upon binding to the (-) sc DNA
      is significantly higher than that of its binding to the (+) sc DNA. This unique
      property may be used to differentiate the (-) sc DNA from the (+) sc DNA.
      Additionally, we demonstrate that E. coli topoisomerase I cannot relax the (+) sc
      DNA. In contrast, E. coli DNA gyrase can efficiently convert the (+) sc DNA to
      the (-) sc DNA. Furthermore, our dialysis competition assays show that DNA
      intercalators prefer binding to the (-) sc DNA.

PMID- 28887045
TI  - The molten-globule residual structure is critical for reflavination of glucose
      oxidase.
AB  - Glucose oxidase (GOX) is a homodimeric glycoprotein with tightly bound one
      molecule of FAD cofactor per monomer of the protein. GOX has numerous
      applications, but the preparation of biotechnologically interesting GOX sensors
      requires a removal of the native FAD cofactor. This process often leads to
      unwanted irreversible deflavination and, as a consequence, to the low enzyme
      recovery. Molecular mechanisms of reversible reflavination are poorly understood;
      our current knowledge is based only on empiric rules, which is clearly
      insufficient for further development. To develop conceptual understanding of
      flavin-binding competent states, we studied the effect of deflavination protocols
      on conformational properties of GOX. After deflavination, the apoform assembles
      into soluble oligomers with nearly native-like holoform secondary structure but
      largely destabilized tertiary structure presumambly due to the packing density
      defects around the vacant flavin binding site. The reflavination is cooperative
      but not fully efficient; after the binding the flavin cofactor, the protein
      directly disassembles into native homodimers while the fraction of oligomers
      remains irreversibly inactivated. Importantly, the effect of Hofmeister salts on
      the conformational properties of GOX and reflavination efficiency indicates that
      the native-like residual tertiary structure in the molten-globule states
      favorably supports the reflavination and minimizes the inactivated oligomers. We
      interpret our results by combining the ligand-induced changes in quaternary
      structure with salt-sensitive, non-equilibrated conformational selection model.
      In summary, our work provides the very first steps toward molecular understanding
      the complexity of the GOX reflavination mechanism.

PMID- 28887046
TI  - Effect of amino acids near the RGD sequence on binding activities between
      alphaIIbbeta3 integrin and fibrinogen in the presence of RGD-containing synthetic
      peptides from elegantin and angustatin.
AB  - Elegantin and angustatin, which were isolated from the snake venoms of
      Protobothrops elegans and Dendroaspis angusticeps, markedly inhibit binding
      between platelet integrins and fibrinogen via the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence.
      Angustatin, which is a three-finger toxin containing the RGD sequence, inhibits
      platelet aggregation almost ten times more strongly than disintegrin isolated
      from the venoms of Viperidae and Crotalidae. The RGD sequences of both
      polypeptides are located at the top of hairpin loops, and the composition of the
      RGD loop is very important for binding to integrin. We investigated the effects
      of synthetic RGD loop peptides from angustatin and elegantin on ADP- or collagen
      induced platelet aggregation and alphaIIbbeta3-fibrinogen binding. Synthetic
      angustatin (PRGDMP)-type peptides inhibited platelet aggregation more strongly
      than elegantin (ARGDDX)-type peptides. In particular, the cyclic angustatin
      peptide (CPRGDMPC) inhibited ADP- and collagen-induced platelet aggregation at
      least 10-50 times more strongly than the other peptides. The cyclic angustatin
      peptide (CPRGDMPC) was also the strongest inhibitor of binding between
      alphaIIbbeta3 and fibrinogen, the IC50 of this peptide was approximately 2.58MUM.
      Regarding the inhibition of binding between alphaIIbbeta3 and fibrinogen,
      CPRGDMPC demonstrated a stronger inhibitory and more stable effect in the
      presence of Mg2+ than in the presence of Ca2+.

PMID- 28887047
TI  - Peptides from frog skin with potential for development into agents for Type 2
      diabetes therapy.
AB  - Several frog skin peptides, first identified as result of their antimicrobial or
      immunomodulatory activities, have subsequently been shown to stimulate insulin
      release both in vitro and in vivo and so show potential for development into
      incretin-based drugs for treatment of patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
      However, their therapeutic potential as anti-diabetic agents is not confined to
      this activity as certain frog skin-derived peptides, such as magainin-AM2 and CPF
      SE1 and analogs of hymenochirin-1B, tigerinin-1R, and esculentin-2CHa, have been
      shown to increase insulin sensitivity, promote beta-cell proliferation, suppress
      pancreatic and circulating glucagon concentrations, improve the lipid profile,
      and selectively alter expression of genes involved in insulin secretion and
      action in mice with diet-induced obesity, insulin resistance and impaired glucose
      tolerance. This review assesses the therapeutic possibilities of peptides from
      frogs belonging to the Pipidae, Dicroglossidae, and Ranidae families, focusing
      upon work that has been carried out since 2014.

PMID- 28887048
TI  - Nursing Staff's Perceptions of Quality of Care for Children in Emergency
      Departments-High Respect, Low Resources.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe the quality of care for children in emergency departments
      (ED) as perceived by the nursing staff, and to compare the quality of care for
      children in a pediatric ED and in a general ED and to identify care quality
      factors that predict nursing staff's satisfaction with pediatric care in an ED.
      DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey study was performed using the 41
      item Children Revised Humane Caring Scale (CRHCS) to collect data (n=147) from
      acute hospitals' pediatric EDs and general EDs in November 2015. The data were
      analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. RESULTS:
      Nurses evaluated the quality of professional practice to be high. Children were
      treated in a respectful and friendly fashion, and received help when needed. The
      nurses perceived a lack of human resources in the studied EDs. Nurses in
      pediatric EDs gave more positive evaluations of the quality of care for children
      than nurses in general EDs. Positive assessments of professional practice,
      interdisciplinary collaboration and human resources by nursing staff predicted
      higher satisfaction with the quality of ED care for children. CONCLUSIONS: The
      quality of children's care seemed to be higher in the pediatric ED than in the
      general ED. Key predictors of quality in children's care are professional
      practices of nursing staff, interdisciplinary collaboration and adequate human
      resources. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: In EDs, children should be treated by nursing
      staff and facilities designated for them. Pediatric nursing and teamwork skills
      should be maintained in the training of nurses.

PMID- 28887049
TI  - An FDA oncology analysis of CD3 bispecific constructs and first-in-human dose
      selection.
AB  - We retrospectively examined the nonclinical studies conducted with 17 CD3
      bispecific constructs in support of first-in-human (FIH) trials in oncology. We
      also collected information on the design of dose-finding clinical trials.
      Sponsors have used different MABEL approaches for FIH dose selection. To better
      assess acceptable approaches, FIH doses were computed from nonclinical studies
      and compared to the maximum tolerated doses (MTDs) in patients, to the highest
      human doses (HHDs) when an MTD was not identified, or to the recommended human
      dose (RHD) for blinatumomab. We concluded that approaches based on receptor
      occupancy, highest non-severely toxic dose, or no-observed adverse effect level
      are not acceptable for selecting the FIH dose as they resulted in doses close to
      or above the MTDs, HHDs, or the RHD. A FIH dose corresponding to 10%-30%
      pharmacologic activity (PA) was an acceptable approach. A FIH dose corresponding
      to 50% PA was acceptable for all except one construct, potentially due to its
      biological or structural properties. The most common toxicities in animals and
      patients were those related to cytokine release. Doses were better tolerated when
      intra-animal or intra-patient dose escalation was used. Exposing naive patients
      to an MTD achieved with intra-patient dose escalation design may be unsafe.

PMID- 28887052
TI  - Comparing long-acting reversible contraception insertion rates in women with
      Medicaid vs. private insurance in a clinic with a two-visit protocol.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether women with Medicaid are less likely to
      receive long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) in a clinic requiring two
      visits for insertion. STUDY DESIGN: LARC insertion and pregnancy rates were
      compared among women with Medicaid vs. private insurance, along with other
      predictors, in a retrospective chart review (N=447). RESULTS: Univariately, fewer
      women with Medicaid vs. private insurance received LARC (66% vs. 79%, p<.01) and
      more become pregnant (18% vs. 6%, p<.001). Significant multivariate predictors of
      not receiving LARC were being unmarried and postpartum, both of which were
      associated with having Medicaid. CONCLUSION: Women with Medicaid are less likely
      than women with private insurance to have a requested LARC device inserted when a
      clinic requires two visits for insertion.

PMID- 28887050
TI  - Genome Engineering for Personalized Arthritis Therapeutics.
AB  - Arthritis represents a family of complex joint pathologies responsible for the
      majority of musculoskeletal conditions. Nearly all diseases within this family,
      including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and juvenile idiopathic
      arthritis, are chronic conditions with few or no disease-modifying therapeutics
      available. Advances in genome engineering technology, most recently with CRISPR
      Cas9, have revolutionized our ability to interrogate and validate genetic and
      epigenetic elements associated with chronic diseases such as arthritis. These
      technologies, together with cell reprogramming methods, including the use of
      induced pluripotent stem cells, provide a platform for human disease modeling. We
      summarize new evidence from genome-wide association studies and genomics that
      substantiates a genetic basis for arthritis pathogenesis. We also review the
      potential contributions of genome engineering in the development of new arthritis
      therapeutics.

PMID- 28887053
TI  - Modeling the impact of novel male contraceptive methods on reductions in
      unintended pregnancies in Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We modeled the potential impact of novel male contraceptive methods on
      averting unintended pregnancies in the United States, South Africa, and Nigeria.
      STUDY DESIGN: We used an established methodology for calculating the number of
      couple-years of protection provided by a given contraceptive method mix. We
      compared a "current scenario" (reflecting current use of existing methods in each
      country) against "future scenarios," (reflecting whether a male oral pill or a
      reversible vas occlusion was introduced) in order to estimate the impact on
      unintended pregnancies averted. Where possible, we based our assumptions on
      acceptability data from studies on uptake of novel male contraceptive methods.
      RESULTS: Assuming that only 10% of interested men would take up a novel male
      method and that users would comprise both switchers (from existing methods) and
      brand-new users of contraception, the model estimated that introducing the male
      pill or reversible vas occlusion would decrease unintended pregnancies by 3.5% to
      5.2% in the United States, by 3.2% to 5% in South Africa, and by 30.4% to 38% in
      Nigeria. Alternative model scenarios are presented assuming uptake as high as 15%
      and as low as 5% in each location. Model results were sensitive to assumptions
      regarding novel method uptake and proportion of switchers vs. new users.
      CONCLUSION: Even under conservative assumptions, the introduction of a male pill
      or temporary vas occlusion could meaningfully contribute to averting unintended
      pregnancies in a variety of contexts, especially in settings where current use of
      contraception is low. IMPLICATIONS: Novel male contraceptives could play a
      meaningful role in averting unintended pregnancies in a variety of contexts. The
      potential impact is especially great in settings where current use of
      contraception is low and if novel methods can attract new contraceptive users.

PMID- 28887054
TI  - HLA-DPB1 matching in unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplantation program
      contributes to a higher incidence of disease relapse.
AB  - The impact of patient/donor matching for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1 and -DQB1 genes in
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is well-recognized, but typing for
      additional genes, such as HLA-DPB1, is still controversial. Based on defined T
      cell epitope (TCE) groups, all HLA-DPB1 mismatches can be classified as
      permissive or non-permissive. In this retrospective study we analysed 82 patient
      matched unrelated donor (MUD) pairs who underwent HSCT, and explored the impact
      of HLA-DPB1 matches, permissive and non-permissive mismatches on transplantation
      outcomes. Patient-MUD pairs matched for HLA-DPB1 alleles in univariate analysis
      were associated with a significantly higher incidence of disease relapse compared
      to pairs who were permissive/non-permissive HLA-DPB1 mismatched according to the
      TCE3 and TCE4 algorithms (P=0.025 and P=0.026, respectively), although the
      significance was lost in multivariate analysis. The analysis did not reveal any
      significant influence of HLA-DPB1 alleles on overall survival (OS), non-relapse
      mortality (NRM) or graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) incidence. In conclusion, our
      study presents evidence that HLA-DPB1 matching influenced the relapse rate in
      patients after HSCT so the HLA-DPB1 alleles should be implemented in the MUD
      search algorithm as a transplantation determinant.

PMID- 28887051
TI  - Precision Oncology: The Road Ahead.
AB  - Current efforts in precision oncology largely focus on the benefit of genomics
      guided therapy. Yet, advances in sequencing techniques provide an unprecedented
      view of the complex genetic and nongenetic heterogeneity within individual
      tumors. Herein, we outline the benefits of integrating genomic and transcriptomic
      analyses for advanced precision oncology. We summarize relevant computational
      approaches to detect novel drivers and genetic vulnerabilities, suitable for
      therapeutic exploration. Clinically relevant platforms to functionally test
      predicted drugs/drug combinations for individual patients are reviewed. Finally,
      we highlight the technological advances in single cell analysis of tumor
      specimens. These may ultimately lead to the development of next-generation cancer
      drugs, capable of tackling the hurdles imposed by genetic and phenotypic
      heterogeneity on current anticancer therapies.

PMID- 28887055
TI  - How to control an intracellular proteolytic system: Coordinated regulatory
      switches in the mycobacterial Pup-proteasome system.
AB  - Intracellular proteolysis is critical for the proper functioning of all cells,
      owing to its involvement in a wide range of processes. Because of the destructive
      nature of protein degradation, intracellular proteolysis is restricted by control
      mechanisms at almost every step of the proteolytic process. Understanding the
      coordination of such mechanisms is a challenging task, especially in systems as
      complex as the eukaryotic ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). In comparison, the
      bacterial analog of the UPS, the Pup-proteasome system (PPS) is much simpler and,
      therefore, allows for insight into the control of a proteolytic system. This
      review integrates available information to present a coherent picture of what is
      known of PPS regulatory switches and describes how these switches act in concert
      to enforce regulation at the system level. Finally, open questions regarding PPS
      regulation are discussed, providing readers with a sense of what lies ahead in
      the field.

PMID- 28887057
TI  - PPARgamma agonists: Potential treatments for exudative age-related macular
      degeneration.
AB  - Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) characterizes the progression of exudative age
      related macular degeneration (AMD) with the deterioration in the central vision.
      Vascular inflammation, and overproduction of inflammatory cytokines, growth
      factors and aberrant endothelial cell migration, initiate defective blood vessel
      proliferation in exudative AMD. CNV formation is initiated by the interplay
      between inflammation, the hallmark of exudative AMD, and the activation of
      WNT/beta-catenin pathway. Upregulation of WNT/beta-catenin pathway involves
      activation of PI3K/Akt pathway and then the Warburg effect to produce lactate.
      Lactate production generates VEGF expression and then participates to the
      initiation of CNV in exudative AMD. WNT/beta-catenin pathway and PPARgamma act in
      an opposite manner in several diseases. We focus this review on the interplay
      between PPARgamma and canonical WNT/beta-catenin pathway and the anti
      inflammatory role of PPARgamma in exudative AMD. In exudative AMD, PPARgamma
      agonists downregulate inflammation and the WNT/beta-catenin pathway. PPARgamma
      agonists can appear as promising treatment against the initiation and the
      progression of CNV in exudative AMD.

PMID- 28887056
TI  - Quantification of volume and lipid filling of intracellular vesicles carrying the
      ABCA3 transporter.
AB  - The ABCA3 lipid transporter is located in the limiting membrane of lamellar
      bodies (LBs) in type-II-pneumocytes. Mutations within the ABCA3 gene may
      functionally impair the transporter, causing lung diseases in newborns, children
      and adults. Assays to quantify volume and lipid filling of the LBs on the level
      of the vesicular structures and thereby assess the function of ABCA3 are still
      lacking. In the present study human influenza haemagglutinin- (HA-) tagged wild
      type and mutant ABCA3 proteins were stably expressed in lung A549 cells.
      Fluorescently-labelled TopFluor phosphatidylcholine (TopF-PC) incorporated in
      surfactant-like liposomes was delivered to the cells and visualized by confocal
      microscopy. Subsequently, a comprehensive image analysis method was applied to
      quantify volume and fluorescence intensity of TopF-PC in ABCA3-HA-positive
      vesicles. TopF-PC accumulated within the vesicles in a time and concentration
      dependent manner, whereas the volume remained unchanged, suggesting active
      transport into preformed ABCA3 containing vesicles. Furthermore, this finding was
      supported by a decrease of the fluorescence intensity within the vesicles when
      either the ATPase of the transporter was inhibited by vanadate, or when a disease
      causing mutation (K1388N) close to the ABCA3-nucleotide binding domain 2 was
      introduced. Conversely, a mutation (E292V) located in the first cytoplasmic loop
      of ABCA3 did not significantly affect lipid transport, but rather resulted in
      smaller vesicles. In addition to these findings, the assay used in this work for
      analysing the PC-lipid transport into ABCA3 positive vesicles will be useful to
      screen for compounds susceptible to restore function in mutated ABCA3 protein.

PMID- 28887059
TI  - Toll-like receptor 2 and its roles in immune responses against Legionella
      pneumophila.
AB  - Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is an intracellular bacterium which can
      be survived in the human macrophages phagosomes. The infectious agent is cleared
      in some cases and survived in others. The main mechanisms responsible for
      survival of L. pneumophila are yet to be clarified. It has been reported that
      innate immunity plays key roles in limitation and also eradication of bacterial
      infections. Toll like receptor 2 (TLR2) is an important cell membrane receptor
      which recognizes a wide range of bacterial antigens entitled pathogen associated
      molecular patterns (PAMPs). The aim of the current review article is to present
      recent data regarding the roles of TLR2 in induction of immune responses and
      consequently eradication of L. pneumophila. Additionally, the main mechanisms
      used by L. pneumophila to overcome TLR2 dependent immune responses are discussed
      in this review article.

PMID- 28887058
TI  - Does resistance exercise performed during dialysis modulate Nrf2 and NF-kappaB in
      patients with chronic kidney disease?
AB  - Studies have shown that nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) can be
      modulated by physical exercise. However, the impact of resistance exercise has
      never been investigated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aim of
      this study was to evaluate the effects of resistance exercise programs on the
      expression of transcription factors Nrf2 and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) in
      CKD patients on hemodialysis (HD). Patients on an HD program were randomly
      assigned to an exercise group of 25 patients (54.5% women, aged 45.7+/-15.2years
      and time on dialysis=71.2+/-45.5months) or a control group of 19 patients who had
      no exercise intervention (61.5% women, aged 42.5+/-13.5years and time on
      dialysis=70.1+/-49.9months). A strength exercise program was performed 3 times a
      week during the HD sessions. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and
      processed for the expression of Nrf2 and NF-kappaB by quantitative real-time
      polymerase chain reaction 3months before and after the exercise program. Using an
      enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx)
      as well as the products of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and nitric oxide
      (NO) were assessed. Nrf2 expression (ranging from 0.86+/-0.4 to 1.76+/-0.8) and
      GPx activity were significantly increased after exercise intervention. In the
      exercise group, no difference in the levels of NO was observed; however, there
      was a significant reduction in the control group. In conclusion, these data
      suggest that resistance exercises seem to be capable of inducing Nrf2 activation
      in CKD patients on HD.

PMID- 28887060
TI  - Ethnicity in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Possibilities for Novel Phenotypes
      in the Age of Personalized Medicine.
AB  - In the past decade and a half, the introduction of new therapeutic agents has
      revolutionized the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). These new
      treatment options have improved the quality of life and survival in PAH. With an
      armamentarium of options available, the identification of unique phenotypes can
      help practitioners choose tailored treatment regimens. Experts in other
      cardiovascular diseases, such as congestive heart failure and hypertension, have
      recommended race-specific treatments in their fields based on data highlighting
      variations in response to therapies. With this perspective, we review evidence
      supporting the hypothesis that ethnicity or race plays an important role in the
      management of PAH. Preliminary research suggests that races/ethnicities have
      differences in the presentation and outcome of PAH and could respond to PAH
      specific medications with varying efficacy. Genetic, physiological, and anatomic
      differences exist between races, particularly regarding the structure and
      function of the right ventricle. Unfortunately, clinical trials have not
      adequately included minorities, and registry data often omit inclusion of this
      demographic information. Further studies are needed to characterize the role that
      ethnicity plays in the prevalence, presentation, outcomes, and optimal treatment
      of PAH.

PMID- 28887061
TI  - Advances in Audio-Based Systems to Monitor Patient Adherence and Inhaler Drug
      Delivery.
AB  - Hundreds of millions of people worldwide have asthma and COPD. Current
      medications to control these chronic respiratory diseases can be administered
      using inhaler devices, such as the pressurized metered dose inhaler and the dry
      powder inhaler. Provided that they are used as prescribed, inhalers can improve
      patient clinical outcomes and quality of life. Poor patient inhaler adherence
      (both time of use and user technique) is, however, a major clinical concern and
      is associated with poor disease control, increased hospital admissions, and
      increased mortality rates, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
      There are currently limited methods available to health-care professionals to
      objectively and remotely monitor patient inhaler adherence. This review describes
      recent sensor-based technologies that use audio-based approaches that show
      promising opportunities for monitoring inhaler adherence in clinical practice.
      This review discusses how one form of sensor-based technology, audio-based
      monitoring systems, can provide clinically pertinent information regarding
      patient inhaler use over the course of treatment. Audio-based monitoring can
      provide health-care professionals with quantitative measurements of the drug
      delivery of inhalers, signifying a clear clinical advantage over other methods of
      assessment. Furthermore, objective audio-based adherence measures can improve the
      predictability of patient outcomes to treatment compared with current standard
      methods of adherence assessment used in clinical practice. Objective feedback on
      patient inhaler adherence can be used to personalize treatment to the patient,
      which may enhance precision medicine in the treatment of chronic respiratory
      diseases.

PMID- 28887063
TI  - The 50kDa metalloproteinase TvMP50 is a zinc-mediated Trichomonas vaginalis
      virulence factor.
AB  - Trichomonas vaginalis is a protozoan parasite that can adapt to the
      trichomonicidal Zn2+ concentrations of the male urogenital tract
      microenvironment. This adaptation is mediated by molecular mechanisms, including
      proteinase expression, that are regulated by cations such as Zn2+. Herein, we
      characterized the previously identified 50kDa metalloproteinase aminopeptidase P
      (M24 family) member TvMP50 as a new Zn2+-mediated parasite virulence factor.
      Quantitative RT-PCR and indirect immunofluorescence assays corroborated the
      positive regulation of both mp50 gene expression and native TvMP50 protein
      overexpression in the cytoplasm and secretion products of parasites grown in the
      presence of Zn2+. Furthermore, this active metalloproteinase was characterized as
      a new virulence factor by assaying cytotoxicity toward prostatic DU145 cell
      monolayers as well as the inhibition of parasite and secreted soluble protein
      proteolytic activity in the 50kDa proteolytic region by the specific
      metalloproteinase inhibitor 1,10-phenanthroline and the chelating agents EDTA and
      EGTA. Parasite and secreted soluble protein cytotoxicity toward DU145 cells were
      reduced by treatment with an alpha-rTvMP50 polyclonal antibody. Our results show
      that the metalloproteinase TvMP50 is a new virulence factor modulated by Zn2+,
      which is present during male trichomoniasis, possibly explaining T. vaginalis
      survival even within the adverse conditions of the male urogenital
      microenvironment.

PMID- 28887064
TI  - Top-down modulation of alpha power and pattern similarity for threatening
      representations in visual short-term memory.
AB  - Recent studies have shown that top-down attention biases task-relevant
      representations in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Accumulating evidence has
      also revealed the modulatory effects of emotional arousal on attentional
      processing. However, it remains unclear how top-down attention interacts with
      emotional memoranda in VSTM. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms of
      alpha oscillations and their spatiotemporal characteristics that underlie top
      down attention to threatening representations during VSTM maintenance with
      electroencephalography. Participants were instructed to remember a threatening
      object and a neutral object in a cued variant delayed response task.
      Retrospective cues (retro-cues) were presented to direct attention to the
      hemifield of a threatening object (i.e., cue-to-threat trials) or a neutral
      object (i.e., cue-to-neutral trials) during a retention interval prior to the
      probe test. We found a significant retro-cue-related alpha lateralisation over
      posterior regions during VSTM maintenance. The novel finding was that the
      magnitude of alpha lateralisation was greater for cue-to-threat objects compared
      to cue-to-neutral ones. These results indicated that directing attention towards
      threatening representations compared to neutral representations could result in
      greater regulation of alpha activity contralateral to the cued hemifield.
      Importantly, we estimated the spatiotemporal pattern similarity in alpha activity
      and found significantly higher similarity indexes for the posterior regions
      relative to the anterior regions and for the cue-to-threat objects relative to
      cue-to-neutral objects over the posterior regions. Together, our findings
      provided the oscillatory evidence of greater top-down modulations of alpha
      lateralisation and spatiotemporal pattern similarity for attending to threatening
      representations in VSTM.

PMID- 28887062
TI  - Diaphragm Dysfunction in Critical Illness.
AB  - The diaphragm is the major muscle of inspiration, and its function is critical
      for optimal respiration. Diaphragmatic failure has long been recognized as a
      major contributor to death in a variety of systemic neuromuscular disorders. More
      recently, it is increasingly apparent that diaphragm dysfunction is present in a
      high percentage of critically ill patients and is associated with increased
      morbidity and mortality. In these patients, diaphragm weakness is thought to
      develop from disuse secondary to ventilator-induced diaphragm inactivity and as a
      consequence of the effects of systemic inflammation, including sepsis. This form
      of critical illness-acquired diaphragm dysfunction impairs the ability of the
      respiratory pump to compensate for an increased respiratory workload due to lung
      injury and fluid overload, leading to sustained respiratory failure and death.
      This review examines the presentation, causes, consequences, diagnosis, and
      treatment of disorders that result in acquired diaphragm dysfunction during
      critical illness.

PMID- 28887065
TI  - Pulmonary function and thoracic deformities in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis 27
      years or longer after spinal fusion with Harrington instrument.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to conduct an investigation into spinal
      fusion with Harrington instrument (HI) in patients with adolescent idiopathic
      scoliosis (AIS) and to survey pulmonary function and thoracic deformity outcomes
      many years after surgery. METHODS: Subjects comprised 194 patients diagnosed with
      AIS and treated with spinal fusion using HI between 1968 and 1987. Patients who
      gave their informed consent were subjected to a complete standing spine X-ray,
      chest CT, and pulmonary function tests. Eighteen patients were eligible for
      inclusion. Mean age at the time of follow-up was 49.9 years and the mean duration
      of follow-up was 35.3 years. CT axial image was used at the apex of the main
      thoracic curve. Apical vertebral rotation was determined from RA sag measured by
      the method of Aaro et al. Thoracic cage deformities were measured as follows: Rib
      hump index (RHi) according to the method of Aaro et al. and posterior
      hemithoracic symmetry ratio (PHSr) according to the method of Campbell et al.
      RESULTS: Pulmonary function tests revealed mean forced vital capacity (FVC) of
      2.28 (range: 1.00-3.04) L and mean %FVC of 83.5% (range: 35.6%-117.8%).
      Restrictive ventilation disorder with %FVC <80% was seen in 5 patients (27.7%).
      %FVC had strong negative correlations with RA sag (r = -0.798), RHi (r = -0.820,
      p < 0.001), PHSr (r = -0.705), and proximal thoracic curve (r = -0.721). Main
      thoracic curve (r = -0.674) and apical vertebral rotation of thoracic curve (r = 
      0.685) showed moderate negative correlations. Multiple regression analysis
      revealed RHi was a most significant factor on %FVC. CONCLUSIONS: In AIS patients
      examined 27 years or longer after surgery, restrictive ventilation defects were
      observed in 27.7%. Factors aggravating %FVC were large rib humps and large
      vertebral rotations. Three-dimensional correction of the spine and thoracic cage
      deformities is vital in order to avoid pulmonary function impairment many years
      after surgery.

PMID- 28887066
TI  - Neoadjuvant chemoradiation is associated with improved overall survival in older
      patients with esophageal cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to characterize outcomes associated with
      neoadjuvant chemoradiation prior to esophagectomy, compared to esophagectomy
      alone, in older patients with esophageal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      conducted an observational cohort study in patients >=70years with locally
      advanced esophageal cancer undergoing esophagectomy +/- neoadjuvant
      chemoradiation between 2006 and 2012 using the National Cancer Database. A Cox
      proportional hazards model with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW)
      using the propensity score was developed to assess the association between
      trimodality therapy and overall survival. Perioperative complications and
      pathologic outcomes associated with trimodality therapy were identified with
      multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: 1364 patients were included; the mean
      age was 75 (range 70-90). 904 (66%) were treated with trimodality therapy and 460
      (34%) were treated with esophagectomy alone. On IPTW Cox analysis, neoadjuvant
      chemoradiation was associated with improved overall survival (HR=0.76, 95%CI
      [0.70-0.82], p<=0.001). Further, trimodality therapy was associated with lower
      rates of margin-positive resection (5% vs. 18%; OR=0.26, 95%CI [0.18-0.37],
      p<0.001) and in 18% of trimodality patients, there was no detectable tumor at
      surgery. 90-day mortality rates were not statistically different (14% vs. 12%;
      OR=0.99, 95%CI [0.73-1.36], p=0.22). Neoadjuvant chemoradiation was associated
      with lower 30-day readmission rates (5% vs. 8%; OR=0.48, 95%CI [0.31-0.73],
      p=0.004) and shorter surgical hospital stay (median 10 vs. 12days, p<0.001)
      compared to esophagectomy alone. CONCLUSION: In older patients with esophageal
      cancer, trimodality therapy, compared to esophagectomy alone, is associated with
      improved overall survival and favorable pathologic and perioperative outcomes.
      Further studies are needed to identify which older patients are most suitable for
      trimodality therapy.

PMID- 28887067
TI  - Rush to the fire: FGF21 extinguishes metabolic stress, metaflammation and tissue
      damage.
AB  - FGF21 is a master regulator of homeostasis of local and systemic lipid, glucose
      and energy metabolism. Since its discovery a decade ago, significant progress has
      been made in understanding the basic molecular, cellular and physiological
      mechanisms underlying its metabolic roles, and characterizing its beneficial
      pharmacological activities and possible pathological roles in obesity, diabetes,
      dyslipidemia, fatty liver disease and their collateral complications and tissue
      damage. Under basal or normal conditions, FGF21 appears to play a dispensable
      role in metabolism. However, in response to a variety of cellular and metabolic
      stress, FGF21 is significantly upregulated to serve as a potent catabolic factor
      leading to the clearance of excessive lipids and glucose, and therefore,
      antagonizes metabolic and energy imbalance in a negative fashion. Furthermore,
      FGF21 treatment ameliorates tissue damage resulted from the harmful effects of
      metabolic abnormalities, which often ensue an oxidative, pro-inflammatory,
      inflammatory and/or immune stress state, the so-called metaflammation. Most
      notably, studies focusing on the liver, pancreas, cardio-vasculature and kidney
      have revealed its significant protective effects against the structural and
      functional damages induced by the obese, diabetic or other abnormal metabolic
      conditions. In this review, we will summarize the current progress on the roles
      of FGF21 against metaflammation and metabolic tissue damage.

PMID- 28887068
TI  - The rationale, design, and methods of a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate
      the effectiveness of collaborative telecare in preserving function among patients
      with late stage cancer and hematologic conditions.
AB  - Disablement affects over 40% of patients with advanced stage cancer, devastates
      their quality of life (QoL), and increases their healthcare costs. Proactively
      treating the causes of disablement; physical impairments, pain, and immobility,
      can prolong functional independence, improve QoL and, potentially, reduce
      utilization. However rehabilitation service delivery models are reactive in
      nature and focus on catastrophic rather than incipient disability. A validated
      collaborative approach, the Three Component Model (TCM), optimizes important
      clinical outcomes and may provide an ideal framework to overcome barriers to
      proactively integrating rehabilitation into cancer care. A novel expansion of the
      TCM that targets disablement by engaging local physical therapists to address
      physical impairments and immobility, the TCM-Rehabilitation Services (TCM-RS),
      benefits and is well received by patients. However, its effectiveness has not
      been rigorously assessed. The 3-arm randomized COllaborative Care to Preserve
      PErformance in Cancer (COPE) Trial compared: 1) enhanced usual care, 2)
      rehabilitation services targeting physical impairments and immobility via the TCM
      RS, and 3) TCM-RS plus conventional TCM pain management TCM-RS+Pain. Of the 516
      participants, those randomized to arms 2 and 3 underwent an initial 4-week
      intervention period and were then followed for 6months with remote monitoring and
      monthly telephone calls. The trial's primary outcome, functional status, and
      secondary outcomes were assessed at baseline, 3, and 6months. Utilization was
      abstracted from clinical records. By estimating the effectiveness and cost
      utility implications of the TCM-RS and TCM-RS+Pain, COPE will inform future
      delivery research, practice and policy in the means to reduce disablement in
      chronically diseased populations.

PMID- 28887069
TI  - Better Respiratory Education and Treatment Help Empower (BREATHE) study:
      Methodology and baseline characteristics of a randomized controlled trial testing
      a transitional care program to improve patient-centered care delivery among
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a leading cause of
      hospitalizations. Interventional studies focusing on the hospital-to-home
      transition for COPD patients are few. In the BREATHE (Better Respiratory
      Education and Treatment Help Empower) study, we developed and tested a patient
      and family-centered transitional care program that helps prepare hospitalized
      COPD patients and their family caregivers to manage COPD at home. METHODS: In the
      study's initial phase, we co-developed the BREATHE transitional care program with
      COPD patients, family-caregivers, and stakeholders. The program offers tailored
      services to address individual patients' needs and priorities at the hospital and
      for 3months post discharge. We tested the program in a single-blinded RCT with
      240 COPD patients who were randomized to receive the program or 'usual care'.
      Program participants were offered the opportunity to invite a family caregiver,
      if available, to enroll with them into the study. The primary outcomes were the
      combined number of COPD-related hospitalizations and Emergency Department (ED)
      visits per participant at 6months post discharge, and the change in health
      related quality of life over the 6months study period. Other measures include
      'all cause' hospitalizations and ED visits; patient activation; self-efficacy;
      and, self-care behaviors. DISCUSSION: Unlike 1month transitional care programs
      that focus on patients' post-acute care needs, the BREATHE program helps
      hospitalized COPD patients manage the post discharge period as well as prepare
      them for long term self-management of COPD. If proven effective, this program may
      offer a timely solution for hospitals in their attempts to reduce COPD
      rehospitalizations.

PMID- 28887070
TI  - Decreased serum sodium levels predict symptomatic vasospasm in patients with
      subarachnoid hemorrhage.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Symptomatic vasospasm is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in
      subarachnoid hemorrhage patients. Hyponatremia and dehydration due to natriuresis
      after subarachnoid hemorrhage are related to symptomatic vasospasm. Therefore,
      most institutions are currently targeting euvolemia and eunatremia in
      subarachnoid hemorrhage patients to avoid complications. We retrospectively
      investigated the predictors of symptomatic vasospasm with respect to water and
      sodium homeostasis, while maintaining euvolemia and eunatremia after subarachnoid
      hemorrhage. METHODS: We monitored changes in serum sodium levels, serum
      osmolarity, daily sodium intake, daily urine volume, and daily water balance for
      14days after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Outcomes were assessed using the modified
      Rankin scale at 1month after subarachnoid hemorrhage. RESULTS: Among 97 patients,
      27 (27.8%) had symptomatic vasospasm. Patients with symptomatic vasospasm were
      older than those without symptomatic vasospasm; the occurrence of symptomatic
      vasospasm affected outcomes. Serum sodium levels were sequentially significantly
      decreased, but within the normal range from 1day before the occurrence of
      symptomatic vasospasm. Serum osmolarity of the spasm group was lower than that of
      the non-spasm group. CONCLUSIONS: Symptomatic vasospasm occurs more often in
      older patients and affects outcomes. A decrease in serum sodium levels occurs a
      day before symptomatic vasospasm. This observation may help predict symptomatic
      vasospasm.

PMID- 28887071
TI  - Pathological crying induced by deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus
      in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - We report on a patient with deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic
      nucleus (STN) for Parkinson's disease (PD) who developed pathologic crying (PC)
      immediately postoperatively. A spread of DBS current to adjacent cortico-ponto
      cerebellar pathways might be responsible. In contrast to the few cases published
      previously, there was no pre-existing additional lesion that would have favoured
      occurrence of PC. Treating physicians should be aware of DBS-induced PC.

PMID- 28887072
TI  - Minimum Clinically Important Difference of Montreal Cognitive Assessment in
      aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage patients.
AB  - Cognitive impairment is a major factor contributing to poor functional outcome
      after subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by a ruptured cerebral aneurysm (aSAH).
      Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) has been shown to be superior to the Mini
      Mental State Examination in screening for cognitive domain deficit and
      correlating to functional outcome in aSAH patients. The aim of the current study
      was to determine the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score change that was
      associated with change of health in general in an aSAH patient cohort. We
      recruited aSAH patients from a regional neurosurgical center over a 3-year
      period. Patient assessments including MoCA and global rating of change (GRoC)
      were carried out at at 3 and 12months after aSAH. Anchor-based and distribution
      based approaches were adopted to calculate the Minimum Clinically Important
      Difference (MID). One hundred and seventy-five aSAH patients completed both 3
      month and 1-year assessments and consented for participation. Employing the
      distribution-based approach for the 3-month and 1-year MoCA scores, the MID
      estimates equated to a change of 2.0 and 1.1 respectively. Employing the anchor
      based approach (with GRoC), the MID estimate of MoCA (median, IQR) was 2, 1-4. In
      conclusion, we found that the MID of MoCA score associated with change of health
      in general in aSAH patients was 2. The MID provides guidance for future clinical
      trial design targeting on cognitive dysfunction after aSAH.

PMID- 28887073
TI  - Bilateral suboccipital approach for a giant vertebral artery aneurysm.
AB  - Giant thrombosed aneurysms of the vertebral artery (VA) are difficult to treat.
      Moreover, marked tortuosity of the parent VA complicates determination of the
      surgical approach. We report the case of a 71-year-old male patient who presented
      with gait disturbance. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a giant thrombosed
      aneurysm of approximately 4cm in diameter located in the ventral region and to
      the right of the medulla oblongata. Computed tomography angiography showed that
      the right VA had extreme tortuosity, and that the VA union was in contact with
      the left 7th and 8th cranial nerves. Given that the aneurysm was thrombosed and
      causing a mass effect, we sought to trap it. In this case, because of the
      tortuous VA, intravascular team considered intravascular therapy to be too
      difficult. We made a question mark-shaped skin incision and used a wide bilateral
      suboccipital approach. The VA proximal to the aneurysm was occluded with an
      aneurysm clip using an approach from the right of the brainstem, while the VA
      distal to the aneurysm was occluded using a lateral suboccipital approach. When
      the VA and basilar artery are atherosclerotic and extremely tortuous, the distal
      and proximal aspects of the aneurysm can exist on both sides of the midline. In
      difficult cases such as that reported here, in which a giant VA aneurysm exceeded
      the midline of the anterior surface of the medulla, we believe that it is useful
      to employ a bilateral approach from both sides of the brainstem.

PMID- 28887074
TI  - Paediatric aneurysms - Review of endovascular treatment strategies.
AB  - Paediatric aneurysms are rare and represent the end result of a variety of
      different pathological mechanisms. They have a varied presentation and features
      that are distinct from their adult counterparts. The appropriate management of
      these aneurysms requires a multi-disciplinary team approach and detailed analysis
      to deal with the underlying pathology. This can involve the use of coils,
      adjunctive devices such as neck-bridging devices, flow diverters and liquid
      embolic agents, as well as microsurgical clipping. In this paper we discuss the
      different types of aneurysms that can present in the paediatric population and
      present cases that highlight the entire spectrum of paediatric aneurysmal disease
      and the different treatment options currently available. Treatment of paediatric
      intracranial aneurysms requires individualized strategies.

PMID- 28887075
TI  - Role of cathepsin K in the development of chronic subdural hematoma.
AB  - Despite extensive investigations, the process of development of chronic subdural
      hematoma (CSDH) is not known. The present study aims to investigate CSDH by
      measuring biomarkers in it, gas analysis, and immunohistochemical examination. A
      total of 42 patients with symptomatic CSDH who underwent burr-hole drainage were
      enrolled. Intraoperatively, hematoma fluid and peripheral venous blood (PVCSDH)
      were simultaneously collected. As controls, peripheral venous blood (PVControl)
      and intracranial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected from other subjects
      during other surgeries. CatK, lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase (PGDS), and
      cystatin C (CysC) present in these specimens were measured using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay. Data obtained were statistically analyzed after age
      correction. In 15 patients, gas analysis was performed for CSDH and PVCSDH.
      Furthermore, immunohistochemical examination for the outer membrane was performed
      for four patients. CatK, PGDS, and CysC levels were markedly elevated in the CSF
      and CSDH. CatK levels in PVCSDH were significantly higher than in PVControl
      (P<0.0001). In contrast, CysC levels in PVCSDH were significantly lower than in
      PVControl (P=0.004). The gas analysis revealed that the internal environment of
      CSDH is characterized by marked hypoxia, hypoglycemia, and lactic acidosis.
      Furthermore, the outer membrane consistently showed a diffuse staining for CatK.
      Based on these, CatK was thought to play a role in the development of CSDH, with
      the levels in peripheral venous blood elevated in patients with CSDH.

PMID- 28887077
TI  - Use of subdural drain for chronic subdural haematoma? A 4-year multi-centre
      observational study of 302 cases.

PMID- 28887076
TI  - Microstructural mechanisms of analgesia in percutaneous cervical cordotomy
      revealed by diffusion tensor imaging.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the potential of diffusion tensor
      imaging (DTI) to reveal structural mechanisms underlying spinal ablative
      procedures, including percutaneous radiofrequency cordotomy (PRFC). PRFC is a
      surgical procedure that produces analgesia through focal ablation of the lateral
      spinothalamic tract (STT), thereby interrupting the flow of pain information from
      the periphery to the brain. To date, studies regarding mechanisms of analgesia
      after PRFC have been limited to postmortem cadaveric dissection and histology.
      However, with recent advances in DTI, the opportunity has arisen to study the STT
      non-invasively in vivo. In this technical note, an individual with successful
      pain relief following unilateral STT PRFC was examined using DTI, with the
      contralateral STT serving as an internal control. PRFC substantially reduced
      rostrocaudal directional DTI signal in the STT from the lesion in the cervical
      spinal cord through the pons and mesencephalon. Our findings confirm that focal
      ablation and anterograde degeneration accompany the analgesic effects of PRFC. In
      vivo imaging of the STT with DTI may contribute to surgical targeting for PRFC
      procedures, better understanding of the therapeutic and untoward effects of PRFC,
      and a deeper understanding of spinothalamic contributions to nociception.

PMID- 28887078
TI  - Management of residual subdural hematoma after burr-hole evacuation. The role of
      fluid therapy and review of the literature.
AB  - A vast amount of literature has been published investigating the factors
      associated to the recurrence of a chronic subdural hematoma (SDH). However,
      little exists in the literature about the best medical management of the residual
      SDH in order to prevent the recurrence. Moreover only few studies quantitatively
      assess clinical and radiological outcomes of residual post-operative SDH. In this
      study, to our knowledge, we report the first series of chronic SDH with a
      quantitative outcomes analysis of the effects of fluid therapy on residual post
      operative SDH. Moreover we discuss the pertinent literature. We reviewed clinical
      and outcome data of 39 patients (44 SDH; 12 F, 27 M) submitted to a burr-hole
      evacuation of a SDH. The mean age was 76.97+/-7.77years. All patients had a
      minimum 3-month follow-up (FU). Post-operatively, an intravenous saline solution
      was started in all cases (2000ml in 24h) and administered for 3days. Then an oral
      hydration with 2l per day of water was started and continued as outpatients.
      Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), SDH volume and
      midline shift were evaluated pre-operatively, post-operatively and at FU. We
      found a statistically significant improvement of post-operative and at FU GCS and
      KPS compared to the pre-operative. SDH volume and midline shift were also
      statistically significant reduced in the post-operative and at FU. No
      complication occurred. Only 1 patient required a reoperation at 3months FU for
      neurological worsening. Oral fluid therapy is a safe and effective treatment for
      residual SDH.

PMID- 28887079
TI  - Measuring the validation of assessing the non-dominant-hand function by ALSFRS-r
      in Chinese ALS patients.
AB  - ALSFRS-r is a widely accepted rating scale for measuring the global function of
      Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients, but we found some limitations of
      ALSFRS-r in assessing the function of non-dominant hand in Chinese ALS patients.
      We reviewed 95 ALS patients who expressed upper-limb symptoms at first visit and
      analyzed the ALSFRS-r score and subscale. In both upper limb involved patients,
      the ALSFRS-r had no difference between dominant-hand and non-dominant-hand onset
      groups (39.15+/-5.55 vs 38.0+/-5.91, p=0.477). But in only one upper limb
      involved patients, the ALSFRS-r score in non-dominant-hand onset patients was
      higher than dominant-hand onset patients (43.94+/-3.44 vs 40.87+/-4.42, p<0.05),
      especially in item of handwriting, cutting food and handing utensils (3.56+/-0.89
      vs 2.2+/-1.27 p=0.001, 3.44+/-1.03 vs 1.8+/-1.21 p=0.000). When the item of
      cutting food and handing utensils was replaced by using food bowl and chopsticks
      to assess the function of non-dominant-hand, the modified ALSFRS-r score was
      significantly lower than original ALSFRS-r (43.94+/-3.44 vs 42.88+/-3.07
      p=0.001), the progression rate was slower (0.81+/-0.63 vs 0.64+/-0.63, p=0.001).
      So, for Chinese ALS patients, using food bowl and chopsticks should replace the
      item of cutting food and handling utensils to assess the non-dominant-hand
      function, especially in non-dominant-hand onset patients.

PMID- 28887080
TI  - A rare case of metastatic extramammary Paget disease of the spine and review of
      the literature.
AB  - Extramammary Paget disease is an intraepithelial neoplasm affecting cells rich in
      apocrine glands-often located in the vulvar, scrotal, or perianal region. It
      typically affects older patients, between the ages of 50 and 80years old, and is
      most often limited to the epidermis. A 47-year-old Asian male first presented
      with enlargement of the right inguinal lymph node. A subsequent biopsy revealed
      extrammamary Paget disease of the scrotum. The patient eventually developed
      significant worsening back pain with bilateral lower extremity numbness and
      weakness three months later. Imaging demonstrated a pathologic compression
      fracture of the L4 vertebral body with metastatic epidural spinal cord
      compression. The patient underwent surgical decompression of the spine with
      bilateral L4 laminectomy, resection of epidural tumor, and pedicle screw fixation
      from L2 to S1. Surgical pathology demonstrated metastatic adenocarcinoma
      consistent with extramammary Paget disease. Although two other case reports have
      described spinal metastases from extramammary Paget disease, to the author's
      knowledge, this represents the first report of surgical decompression and fusion
      for extramammary Paget disease of the spine.

PMID- 28887081
TI  - Ultrasound for the assessment of distal shunt malfunction in adults with internal
      ventricular shunts.
AB  - Shunts that are used for the treatment of hydrocephalus have a propensity towards
      malfunction, however, diagnosing a shunt malfunction can sometimes be a
      challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether ultrasound
      technology can be safely and effectively used to assess for distal shunt
      malfunction. This was a prospective cohort study at a single institution.
      Eighteen adult patients that received a radionuclide shunt patency study also
      underwent an ultrasound shunt patency study. Ultrasound with Doppler technology
      was used to visualize flow through the shunt tubing following manual compression
      of the shunt reservoir. A peak flow speed was recorded and the results were
      compared to the results of the radionuclide shunt patency study. A Receiver
      Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve comparing the ultrasound to the radionuclide
      shunt patency study was generated, revealing an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of
      0.95 (95% CI: 0.84-1.00). The ultrasound test performed maximally with a cutoff
      speed of <=10cm/s as the criteria for malfunction, with a sensitivity of 100.00%,
      specificity of 90.91%, accuracy of 94.44%, positive likelihood ratio of 11.000
      and negative likelihood ratio of 0.000 using the radionuclide study results as
      criteria for comparison. Overall, ultrasound has the potential to be a safe,
      quick, available and cost-effective screening test for patients with suspected
      distal shunt malfunction. The high sensitivity of the test makes it an attractive
      option for use as a screening method that could potentially reduce the number of
      cases requiring radionuclide shunt patency study.

PMID- 28887082
TI  - Clinical outcomes after craniotomy for unruptured intracranial aneurysm in
      patients with coronary artery disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) patients receiving antiplatelet agents
      occasionally undergo craniotomy. We aimed to clarify clinical outcomes after
      craniotomy for unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA) in patients with CAD. We
      also aimed to identify the possible predictive factors for morbidity and surgical
      complications in patients on antiplatelet treatment. METHODS: We retrospectively
      analyzed 401 consecutive patients who had undergone craniotomy for UIA at our
      institution between January 2006 and December 2016. Forty-three patients (10.7%)
      received antiplatelet agents during the perioperative period. The underlying
      reasons for antiplatelet treatment were CAD in 12 patients and other diseases in
      31 patients. RESULTS: Severe morbidity and intracranial hemorrhage occurred more
      commonly and symptomatic brain infarction occurred less frequently in patients
      with CAD compared to patients with other underlying diseases (16.7% versus 3.2%,
      16.7% versus 9.7%, and 8.3% versus 16.1%, respectively), though differences
      between the two groups were not significant. Univariate analysis revealed that a
      low preoperative baseline platelet count was significantly correlated with the
      occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage (cutoff value, 16.5*104/uL; odds ratio
      (OR), 46.67; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.88-561.95; p=0.0005), and a high
      baseline platelet count tended to correlate with severe morbidity (cutoff value,
      29.8*104/uL; OR, 11.33; 95% CI, 0.88-145.52; p=0.0550). CONCLUSIONS: Our results
      suggest that surgical complications and clinical outcomes after craniotomy may
      depend on the underlying reason for antiplatelet treatment. Moreover, a
      preoperative platelet count can be useful in predicting the occurrence of
      intracranial hemorrhage and severe morbidity after craniotomy in patients
      receiving antiplatelet agents.

PMID- 28887083
TI  - PRES leading to the diagnosis of McArdle disease.
AB  - A 35year-old male developed myalgias after moving furniture and was hospitalized
      with acute renal failure and rhabdomyolysis requiring hemodialysis. He then had
      several generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Brain MRI showed findings of posterior
      reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). Interval history revealed easy
      fatigability and exercise-induced myalgias in childhood but no preceding history
      of urine discoloration. Quadriceps biopsy showed absent muscle myophosphorylase
      reactivity consistent with the diagnosis of McArdle disease. With supportive care
      he improved and the PRES resolved. This case represents an extreme in the
      spectrum of complications that can occur in McArdle disease, including downstream
      central nervous system involvement and highlights the importance of early
      recognition and aggressive management of rhabdomyolysis.

PMID- 28887084
TI  - Tethered growth factors on biocompatible scaffolds improve stemness of cultured
      rat and human neural stem cells and growth of oligodendrocyte progenitors.
AB  - Currently, there is no widely accepted technique to efficiently and reproducibly
      grow stem and progenitor cells in vitro. Stem cells require contact with
      extracellular matrices as well as signals from growth factors to proliferate and
      to retain their stemness. We have shown a novel tissue culture platform (StemTrix
      cultureware) that transforms standard tissue culture plasticware into a multi
      functional chitosan-based scaffold that supports the expansion of neural stem
      cells. The StemTrix scaffold is comprised of chitosan with immobilized heparin
      which in turn tethers heparin-binding growth factors. The scaffold is also coated
      with an adhesive ECM protein. Here we demonstrate that fibronectin or the RGD
      peptide contained in fibronectin are equally effective in promoting the adhesion,
      viability and growth of rat and human neural stem cells. When FGF-2 and heparin
      binding EGF are tethered to the StemTrix cultureware neural stem cells grow ~3
      times faster and remain in a more primitive state as determined by both Western
      Blot and gene expression analyses. Another important feature of this new culture
      platform is that the NSCs remain in a primitive and proliferative state for 4days
      without refreshing the culture medium or providing new growth factors, which
      represents a 20-fold extension of FGF-2's biological activity vs when it is
      freely soluble in the medium. To test the utility of this scaffold for
      propagating other types of stem cells and progenitors we tethered platelet
      derived growth factor (PDGF) and FGF-2 alone and in combination to the scaffold
      and tested the efficacy of this platform to maintain primary oligodendrocyte
      progenitors or the CG-4 cell line in a primitive state. Oligodendrocyte
      progenitors plated onto this multifunctional film proliferated for at least 3days
      without providing soluble growth factors while inhibiting the expression of the
      differentiation marker myelin-basic protein. Oligodendrocyte progenitors
      proliferated 3 times more rapidly than cells maintained on fibronectin-coated
      culture substrates in culture medium supplemented with soluble FGF-2 and PDGF.
      Finally, we show that StemTrix cultureware can be produced using clinical grade
      components, providing users with a fully defined platform suitable for clinical
      use that maintains stem cells or progenitors in a more uniform and primitive
      state.

PMID- 28887085
TI  - Visualizing omics and clinical data: Which challenges for dealing with their
      variety?
AB  - Life sciences are currently going through a great number of transformations
      raised by the in-going revolution in high-throughput technologies for the
      acquisition of data. The integration of their high dimensionality, ranging from
      omics to clinical data, is becoming one of the most challenging stages. It
      involves inter-disciplinary developments with the aim to move towards an enhanced
      understanding of human physiology for caring purposes. Biologists,
      bioinformaticians, physicians and other experts related to the healthcare domain
      have to accompany each step of the analysis process in order to investigate and
      expertise these various data. In this perspective, methods related to information
      visualization are gaining increasing attention within life sciences. The
      softwares based on these methods are now well recognized to facilitate expert
      users' success in carrying out their data analysis tasks. This article aims at
      reviewing the current methods and techniques dedicated to information
      visualisation and their current use in software development related to omics
      or/and clinical data.

PMID- 28887086
TI  - The effects of cinnamon supplementation on blood lipid concentrations: A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cinnamon is a rich botanical source of polyphenols, whose positive
      effects on blood lipid concentrations have been hypothesized, but have not been
      conclusively studied. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to systematically
      review and evaluate the effect of administration of cinnamon on blood lipid
      concentrations. METHODS: We assessed 13 randomized controlled trials with 750
      participants investigating the effect of cinnamon supplementation on blood lipid
      concentrations. A meta-analysis was performed using random effect models, with
      weighted mean differences (WMDs; with 95% confidence interval [CI]) for endpoints
      calculated using a random effects model. RESULTS: No statistically significant
      effect of cinnamon was observed on blood low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL
      C; WMD: -0.16 mmol/L [-6.19 mg/dL], 95% CI: -0.35, 0.03 [-13.53, 1.16], P = .10)
      and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; WMD: 0.05 mmol/L [1.92 mg/dL],
      95% CI: -0.03, 0.12 [-0.03, 4.64], P = .21) concentrations. However, a
      statistically significant reduction in blood triglycerides (WMD: -0.27 mmol/L [
      23.91 mg/dL], 95% CI: -0.39, -0.14 [-34.54, -12.40], P < .01) and total
      cholesterol concentrations (WMD: -0.36 mmol/L [-13.92 mg/dL], 95% CI: -0.63, 
      0.09 [-24.36, -3.48], P < .01) was observed. HDL-C was significantly elevated
      after the omission of 1 study (WMD: 0.04 mmol/L [1.54 mg/dL], 95% CI: 0.03, 0.06
      [1.16, 2.32], P < .01) during our sensitivity analysis. A meta-regression
      analysis was conducted, and no significant association was found between changes
      in lipid parameters and cinnamon dose. In contrast, changes in blood levels of
      total cholesterol (slope: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.16; P < .01), LDL-C (slope: 0.05;
      95% CI: 0.001, 0.10; P = .05) and triglycerides (slope: 0.06; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.09;
      P < .01) were significantly and positively associated with the duration of
      supplementation. No statistically significant association was found between blood
      HDL-C changes and duration of supplementation. CONCLUSION: Cinnamon
      supplementation significantly reduced blood triglycerides and total cholesterol
      concentrations without any significant effect on LDL-C and HDL-C.

PMID- 28887087
TI  - A systematic study of the sensitivity of partial volume correction methods for
      the quantification of perfusion from pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling
      MRI.
AB  - Arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI is a non-invasive technique for the
      quantification of cerebral perfusion, and pseudo-continuous arterial spin
      labeling (PCASL) has been recommended as the standard implementation by a recent
      consensus of the community. Due to the low spatial resolution of ASL images,
      perfusion quantification is biased by partial volume effects. Consequently,
      several partial volume correction (PVEc) methods have been developed to reduce
      the bias in gray matter (GM) perfusion quantification. The efficacy of these
      methods relies on both the quality of the ASL data and the accuracy of partial
      volume estimates. Here we systematically investigate the sensitivity of different
      PVEc methods to variability in both the ASL data and partial volume estimates
      using simulated PCASL data and in vivo PCASL data from a reproducibility study.
      We examined the PVEc methods in two ways: the ability to preserve spatial details
      and the accuracy of GM perfusion estimation. Judging by the root-mean-square
      error (RMSE) between simulated and estimated GM CBF, the spatially regularized
      method was superior in preserving spatial details compared to the linear
      regression method (RMSE of 1.2 vs 5.1 in simulation of GM CBF with short scale
      spatial variations). The linear regression method was generally less sensitive
      than the spatially regularized method to noise in data and errors in the partial
      volume estimates (RMSE 6.3 vs 23.4 for SNR = 5 simulated data), but this could be
      attributed to the greater smoothing introduced by the method. Analysis of a
      healthy cohort dataset indicates that PVEc, using either method, improves the
      repeatability of perfusion quantification (within-subject coefficient of
      variation reduced by 5% after PVEc).

PMID- 28887088
TI  - Impact of the heart rate on the shape of the cardiac response function.
AB  - There is limited understanding about how heart rate (HR) influences the blood
      oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal. While the mechanism by which respiration
      induces fluctuation in the BOLD signal is relatively well understood, the
      mechanisms regarding the HR remains unclear. The application of canonical cardiac
      response function (CRF), or subject-specific CRF, is an effective method for
      creating nuisance regressors, which can be used to remove cardiac-induced
      fluctuations in the BOLD signal. However, the relationship between physiological
      parameters and the characteristics of the CRF has not been systematically
      investigated. In the present investigation, we studied the relationship between
      the variations in mean HR and the shape of the cardiac response function in 84
      healthy subjects with a wide range of HR lying between 47 and 97 beats per minute
      (bpm). Three groups (n = 28) were created based on the subject's mean HR. We
      demonstrated that the HR plays an important role in determining the shape of the
      CRFs. We also observed that the canonical CRF explains more variance in subjects
      with a slow HR, than in subjects exhibiting faster HR. We found that the amount
      of explained variance significantly increased in each group when a group-specific
      CRF was used. In a further analysis, we found two forms of a CRF, which explain a
      considerable amount of variance in subjects with a mean HR below and above 68
      bpm. The shape of the CRF in subjects below 68 bpm is characterized by a shape
      similar to the canonical CRF, while in subjects with a HR above 68 bpm a well
      defined second maximum was identified around 17 s. Thus, in the present study, we
      provide evidence for the necessity to use mean HR-based CRFs, rather than one
      canonical CRF, in order to optimally describe the interaction between BOLD and HR
      signal in subjects with varying heart rates.

PMID- 28887089
TI  - Steviol, an aglycone of steviol glycoside sweeteners, interacts with the pregnane
      X (PXR) and aryl hydrocarbon (AHR) receptors in detoxification regulation.
AB  - Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a herb known for the high content of natural
      sweeteners in its leaves. Its main secondary metabolite stevioside is used as non
      caloric sweetener. No information, however, is available on whether stevioside or
      steviol interact with drug-metabolizing enzymes and pose the potential risk of
      food-drug interactions. Similarly, data are lacking on the interactions of
      steviol and stevioside with key nuclear receptors controlling the expression of
      the main drug metabolizing enzymes. We studied the interactions of steviol and
      stevioside with the pregnane X (PXR), vitamin D (VDR), constitutive androstane
      (CAR), farnesoid X (FXR), glucocorticoid (GR) and aryl hydrocarbon (AHR)
      receptors, which control expression of genes of xenobiotic metabolism. In
      addition, the inhibitory activities of steviol and stevioside towards the major
      cytochrome P450 enzymes CYP3A4, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, CYP1A2 and CYP2B6 were evaluated
      in vitro. We found that steviol moderately activated the PXR and AHR, resulting
      in the induction of their target genes including CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 in primary
      human hepatocytes. A weak inhibition of CYP3A4 and CYP2C9 with steviol was also
      found. Our results provide mechanistic data indicating that stevioside and stevia
      sweeteners may have the potential to induce food-drug interactions, a finding
      that warrants future prospective clinical investigation.

PMID- 28887090
TI  - Vitamin C partially prevents reproductive damage in adult male rats exposed to
      rosuvastatin during prepuberty.
AB  - Pediatric obesity is closely associated with dyslipidemias and environmental
      factors, such as diet and lack of physical exercises, which may alter lipid
      profile in children. Rosuvastatin decreases serum total cholesterol and
      triglycerides concentrations. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) plays an important role
      on sperm integrity and fertility. Juvenile male rats were distributed into six
      experimental groups that received saline solution 0.9%, 3 or 10 mg/kg/day of
      rosuvastatin, 150 mg/day of ascorbic acid, or 3 or 10 mg/kg/day of rosuvastatin
      co-administered with 150 mg/day of ascorbic acid from PND23 until PND53 and then
      the rats were maintained until sexual maturity. Rosuvastatin-exposed groups
      showed lower sperm quality, androgen depletion and germ cell death. Ascorbic acid
      was capable to prevent partially the reproductive adverse effects provoked by
      rosuvastatin. In conclusion, prepubertal exposure to rosuvastatin provokes long
      term reproductive damages at sexual maturity and ascorbic acid supplementation at
      prepuberty may be a preventive mode against these reproductive adverse effects.

PMID- 28887092
TI  - Maternal cadmium exposure and impact on foetal gene expression through
      methylation changes.
AB  - Cadmium (Cd) exposure is not easily avoidable; it is a common contaminant found
      in many food sources, accumulates throughout life and, in high doses, is a
      significant health hazard for humans. Women are highly vulnerable to Cd because
      of their relatively higher absorption rate than men. High levels of Cd
      accumulated in the mother could potentially cause harm to both the mother and new
      born child. The foetal genome is vulnerable to external signals; Cd partially
      crosses the placental barrier and can impact on foetal development, potentially,
      through epigenetic mechanisms causing changes to foetal gene expression. This
      review explores current research on Cd induced methylation changes to maternal
      and foetal genomes. Cd is significantly associated with differential methylation
      of both maternal and foetal genomes. Some studies have described infant sex
      specific changes in DNA methylation in association with maternal Cd burden.
      However, research on methylation changes to the foetal genome due to prenatal Cd
      exposure is scarce. More research is required to explore the impact of maternal
      Cd accumulation on differential methylation of the foetal genome.

PMID- 28887091
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, 4-isopropyl-2-methoxy-1
      methylbenzene, CAS Registry Number 6379-73-3.

PMID- 28887093
TI  - Repeated restraint stress increases seizure susceptibility by activation of
      hippocampal endoplasmic reticulum stress.
AB  - A growing body of evidence suggests that stress triggers a variety of
      pathophysiological responses. Recent studies show that stress produces enduring
      effects on structure and function of hippocampus, which is one of the most
      important structures involved in epilepsy. In the present study, we determined
      the effect of repeated restraint stress exposure on the susceptibility of
      pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures and the possible mechanisms involved
      using a rodent model. Our results show that mice subjected to repeated restraint
      stress exhibited shorter latency to PTZ-induced tonic-clonic seizures and higher
      seizure severity, suggesting chronic restraint stress increases seizure
      susceptibility. Following repeated restraint stress, we observed an increased
      level of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress as well as oxidative stress in the
      hippocampus. Moreover, our results show that chronic restraint stress exposure
      causes neuron loss in the hippocampus. Inhibition of ER stress with chemical
      chaperone, tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), however, protects against chronic
      restraint stress-induced neuron loss, suggesting repeated restraint stress
      induced neuronal degeneration is dependent on ER stress activation. On the other
      hand, inhibition of ER stress with TUDCA suppresses restraint stress-induced
      seizure susceptibility. Taken together, these results indicate that repeated
      restraint stress increases seizure susceptibility by activation of hippocampal ER
      stress and ER stress mediated oxidative stress and neurodegeneration. Thus,
      attenuating ER stress may serve as a potential therapeutic strategy targeted to
      block stress-induced seizure activities.

PMID- 28887094
TI  - Salvianolic Acids for Injection (SAFI) promotes functional recovery and
      neurogenesis via sonic hedgehog pathway after stroke in mice.
AB  - There is a pressing need of developing approaches for delayed post-stroke therapy
      for patients who fail to receive thrombolysis within the narrow time window.
      Neuroprotection of Salvianolic Acids for Injection (SAFI) for cerebral ischemia
      reperfusion injury in acute phase has been well documented. The current study was
      to determine the influence of SAFI at the subacute phase after stroke in mice,
      and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Adult male C57BL/6 mice were
      subjected to permanent occlusion of the distal middle cerebral artery (dMCAO),
      followed by daily intraperitoneal injection of SAFI 24 h after stroke for 14
      days. Motor behavior was measured by neurological function evaluations weekly,
      and proliferation, migration, survival and differentiation of neural progenitor
      cells (NPCs) were examined with immunohistochemistry. Sonic hedgehog (Shh)
      inhibitor cyclopamine (CYC) was injected to determine the involvement of Shh
      pathway in the therapeutic effects of SAFI. The results showed that SAFI led to
      dramatic brain functional improvement, elevated NPCs proliferation, and prompted
      long-term survival of newborn neurons in the subventricular zone (SVZ). Up
      regulation of Shh, Ptch and nuclear translocation of Gli1 were observed in the
      peri-infarct region, accompanied with robust production of Brain derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and Nerve growth factor (NGF). Simultaneous
      administration with CYC strikingly attenuated the beneficial outcomes of SAFI as
      well as abolished SAFI induced BDNF and NGF production. Collectively, our study
      demonstrated SAFI significantly promoted long-term functional recovery and
      neurogenesis, which might be dependent on Shh signaling mediated BDNF and NGF
      production. Therefore, SAFI might serve as a potential clinically translatable
      therapy during recovery stage after stroke.

PMID- 28887095
TI  - Psychological distress in patients undergoing surgery for urological cancer: A
      single centre cross-sectional study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Interest in the disease-specific psychological well-being of patients
      with cancer has increased, and it has been estimated that less than half of all
      patients with cancer are properly identified and subsequently treated for anxiety
      or depression. The aim of this study is to evaluate psychological distress in uro
      oncological patients undergoing different surgeries: radical cystectomy, radical
      prostatectomy, radical nephrectomy, or transurethral resection (TUR) before the
      surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study in
      consecutively enrolled patients with bladder, kidney, or prostate cancer,
      scheduled for surgery. Demographic data, socioeconomic status, education level,
      and diagnoses were recorded. Patients with a previous diagnosis of depression or
      anxiety were excluded. We evaluated the level of clinically meaningful depression
      and anxiety assessed by 2 tools: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS;
      score >=8 presence of anxiety and depression; score >=11 clinical anxiety and
      depression) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). To determine variables
      related to depression and anxiety among the demographic variables, logistic
      regression analyses were conducted, with P<0.05 considered as statistically
      significant. RESULTS: A total of 207 patients were recruited, completed the
      questionnaires and were included in the study. Patients presented a mean age of
      70.8 (+/-10.8) years, 89% were males (n = 184) and 19% of patients presented
      previous cancer. The majority of patients underwent surgery for bladder tumors
      (60.4%) and the most common type of surgery was TUR. The most frequent procedures
      were performed for bladder tumors (60.4%), being TUR the most common type of
      surgery (52.7%) followed by radical prostatectomy (24.6%). Mean STAI-State score
      was 19.3 (+/-10.3), and mean STAI-Trait score was 18.4 (+/-11.9) points. Clinical
      levels of anxiety and depression (HADS >= 11 points) were found in 19 (9.8%) and
      7 (3.6%) cases. And HADS anxiety 8 to 10 points was present in 14.5% (n = 28) and
      HADS depression 8 to 10 points in 5.7% (n = 11) of the sample, representing
      presence of psychological distress. Female patients showed a higher level of
      anxiety and STAI-Trait compared to males. CONCLUSION: The present results show
      that our patients had lower levels of anxiety and depression than those described
      in the literature. Sex, tumor type, and surgical approach were significantly
      related to psychological distress in patients undergoing surgery for urological
      cancer. Females and patients with kidney tumor and patients undergoing radical
      nephrectomy presented higher levels of anxiety. Patients with radical cystectomy
      showed a higher level of STAI-State compared with other surgeries.

PMID- 28887096
TI  - Predicting local failure after radical cystectomy in patients with bladder
      cancer: Implications for the selection of candidates at adjuvant radiation
      therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate incidence and predictors of local failure (LF) after
      radical cystectomy (RC) due to bladder cancer. METHODS: We focused on 1,112
      patients treated with RC, between 1990 and 2012, at a single center. LF was
      defined as imaging evidence of recurrence in the pelvic soft tissues or nodes
      below the aortic bifurcation at least 3 months before the detection of distant
      metastases. Competing risk analyses tested the relationship between clinical and
      pathological factors and the risk to develop LF. Regression tree analysis
      stratified patients into risk-groups based on their characteristics and the
      corresponding LF rate. RESULTS: Overall, 50 (4.5%) patients developed LF during a
      median follow-up period of 62 (35-92) months. On univariable competing risk
      regression analyses, pathological T stage (pT4 vs. pT3; hazard ratio [HR] = 2.55,
      P = 0.003), soft tissue surgical margin (STSM; HR = 2.95, P = 0.005), and variant
      histology (HR = 1.79, P = 0.03) were associated with an increased risk of
      developing LF. The cohort was stratified into 4 risk groups: very low (<=pT3a
      disease and pure urothelial histology), low (<=pT3a disease and variant
      histology), intermediate (pT4 disease), and high (positive STSM). CONCLUSIONS: LF
      is an important event in RC patients. We developed a new risk model based on
      bladder cancer characteristics. Our findings could help with the identification
      of the best candidate for consideration of adjuvant radiotherapy.

PMID- 28887097
TI  - Second-line systemic therapy in metastatic renal-cell carcinoma: A review.
AB  - Treatment in metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC) has evolved tremendously in
      the last decade. The development of newer targeted agents, like vascular
      endothelial growth factor inhibitors and immunotherapy have changed the treatment
      paradigm in mRCC patients. Axitinib and everolimus have been used extensively in
      patients who progressed on prior antiangiogenic therapy. The newer agents
      including nivolumab, cabozantinib, and lenvatinib in combination with everolimus
      have all demonstrated overall survival benefit over everolimus. However, with
      multiple treatment options, optimal choice and sequencing becomes challenging.
      This article provides an overview of different therapeutic options available as
      second-line treatment in patients with mRCC along with future directions.

PMID- 28887098
TI  - Investigation of a new pH-responsive nanoparticulate pore former for controlled
      release enteric coating with improved processability and stability.
AB  - Water-soluble polymers are often used as pore formers to tailor permeability of
      film-forming hydrophobic polymers on coated dosage forms. However, their addition
      to a coating formulation could significantly increase the viscosity thus making
      the coating process difficult. Moreover, the dissolution of pore formers after
      oral administration could compromise film integrity resulting in undesirable,
      inconsistent release profiles. Therefore, a non-leaching, pH-responsive
      nanoparticulate pore former is proposed herein to preserve film integrity and
      maintain pH-dependent permeability. Poly(methacrylic acid)-polysorbate 80-grafted
      starch terpolymer nanoparticles (TPNs) were incorporated within an ethylcellulose
      (EC) film (TPN-EC) by casting or spray coating. TPNs at 10%wt (pore former level)
      only increased viscosity of EC coating suspension slightly while conventional
      pore formers increased the viscosity by 490-11,700%. Negligible leaching of TPNs
      led to superior mechanical properties of TPN-EC films compared to Eudragit(r) L
      EC films. As pH increased from 1.2 to 6.8, TPN-EC films with 10% pore former
      level exhibited an 8-fold higher diltiazem permeability compared to Eudragit(r) L
      EC films. The pH-dependent drug release kinetics of diltiazem HCl beads coated
      with TPN-EC films was tunable by adjusting the pore former level. These results
      suggest that the TPNs are promising pH-sensitive nanoparticulate pore formers in
      EC-coated dosage forms.

PMID- 28887100
TI  - Verification of post-chemotherapeutic clearance of Theileria equi through
      concordance of nested PCR and immunoblot.
AB  - Certain countries including the United States remain non-endemic for particular
      infectious diseases such as equine piroplasmosis through import restrictions and
      surveillance. Endemic regions often employ premunition as the primary method to
      control disease, however in non-endemic countries, chemosterilization combined
      with methods to confirm parasite elimination are required to maintain disease
      free status. The ability of imidocarb diproprionate (ID) to clear persistent
      Theileria equi infection from infected horses has been shown through the
      inability of treated horses to transmit via blood transfer. However, the common
      lengthy persistence of anti-T. equi antibody causes regulatory tests such as
      cELISA or IFA to remain positive for extended periods. Persistence of positive
      testing creates challenges for regulatory veterinary medicine and international
      trade. Concordance between nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) targeting the
      ema1 gene and immunoblotting (IB) measuring declination in anti-EMA1 and anti
      EMA2 antibody were used to verify clearance of T. equi from 179 ID-treated
      horses. These data support the use of IB to demonstrate declining anti-EMA1 and
      EMA2 titers in T. equi-infected horses subsequent to successful ID treatment.
      Such data provide concordant support to a negative nPCR and allow for a more
      timely determination of effective ID clearance of T. equi. The post ID treatment
      results indicate that while nPCR was consistently negative by 14 days and cELISA
      generally remained positive after 1 year, immunoblot was on average negative
      after 4 months and 100% in agreement with nPCR.

PMID- 28887099
TI  - Enhancing biopharmaceutical performance of an anticancer drug by long chain PUFA
      based self-nanoemulsifying lipidic nanomicellar systems.
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) long chain
      glyceride (LCG) enriched self-nanoemulsifying lipidic nanomicelles systems
      (SNELS) for augmenting lymphatic uptake and enhancing oral bioavailability of
      docetaxel and compare its biopharmaceutical performance with a medium-chain fatty
      acid glyceride (MCG) SNELS. Equilibrium solubility and pseudo ternary phase
      studies facilitated the selection of suitable LCG and MCG. The critical material
      attributes (CMAs) and critical process parameters (CPPs) were earmarked using
      Placket-Burman Design (PBD) and Fractional Factorial Design (FFD) for LCG- and
      MCG-SNELS respectively, and nano micelles were subsequently optimized using I-
      and D-optimal designs. Desirability function unearthed the optimized SNELS with
      Temul <5min, Dnm <100nm, Rel15min >85% and Perm45min >75%. The SNELS demonstrated
      efficient biocompatibility and energy dependent cellular uptake, reduced P-gp
      efflux and increased permeability using bi-directional Caco-2 model. Optimal PUFA
      enriched LCG-SNELS exhibited distinctly superior permeability and absorption
      parameters during ex vivo permeation, in situ single pass intestinal perfusion,
      lymphatic uptake and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies over MCG-SNELS.

PMID- 28887101
TI  - Molecular, epidemiological, haematological and biochemical evaluation in
      asymptomatic Theileria annulata infected cattle from an endemic region in Spain.
AB  - Mediterranean theileriosis is one of the most fatal theilerioses, with
      considerable economic impact on livestock production. The potential consequences
      of asymptomatic infection on the animal's health and on the epidemiology in
      endemic regions are still unclear. The objectives of this study were to determine
      the molecular prevalence of T. annulata in a representative population of
      asymptomatic cattle in extensive management in Madrid, Central Spain, an area
      where practitioners frequently report cases of clinical theileriosis, and to
      evaluate the existence of associations between infection by this pathogen and
      haematological, biochemical and epidemiological data. T. annulata DNA was
      detected in 22.4% of the study population. The age was statistically associated
      with T. annulata prevalence rates, with a higher prevalence in cows older than 8
      years (26.1%). Introduction of new cattle to the farm, grazing on pastures with
      other herds of cattle and previous history of clinical cases were statistically
      related to a higher prevalence of T. annulata infection. Herds with more than one
      ectoparasiticide treatment per year and that used more than one drug had
      significantly lower prevalences of infection with T. annulata. The location of
      farms in areas with a mean temperature higher than 17.1 degrees C and mean
      altitude lower than 962m was statistically associated with the presence of T.
      annulata. In our study, the mean values of haematological parameters were within
      the normal adult range, but it is noteworthy that some T. annulata-infected
      animals presented low values for red blood cell parameters.

PMID- 28887102
TI  - Molecular detection of vector-borne pathogens in Greek cats.
AB  - Infectious diseases have been increasingly recognized in cats worldwide. The
      objective of this study was the molecular investigation of the prevalence of
      selected pathogens in healthy and sick cats from Greece, a country highly endemic
      for several canine vector-borne pathogens. Blood and/or bone marrow samples from
      50 clinically healthy and 50 sick adult (>1 year-old) cats were retrospectively
      examined for the amplification of Bartonella spp., haemoplasmas, Ehrlichia spp.,
      Anaplasma spp., Babesia spp., and Cytauxzoon spp. DNA. Overall, 14.9% of the cats
      were found to be infected or co-infected by haemoplasmas, including Candidatus
      Mycoplasma haemominutum and M. haemofelis. In addition, 8.5% of the cats were
      infected by Bartonella henselae, Bartonella clarridgeiae or Bartonella koehlerae.
      In contrast, DNA of Ehrlichia spp., Anaplasma spp., Babesia spp. and Cytauxzoon
      spp. was not amplified from the blood or bone marrow of any cat. There was no
      significant difference in either haemoplasma or Bartonella infection rates when
      comparing healthy and sick cats. This study represents the first description of
      Bartonella koehlerae in Greek cats.

PMID- 28887103
TI  - Unusual glycosylation of proteins: Beyond the universal sequon and other amino
      acids.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Glycosylation of proteins is the most common, multifaceted co- and
      post-translational modification responsible for many biological processes and
      cellular functions. Significant alterations and aberrations of these processes
      are related to various pathological conditions, and often turn out to be disease
      biomarkers. Conventional N-glycosylation occurs through the recognition of the
      consensus sequon, asparagine (Asn)-X-serine (Ser)/threonine (Thr), where X is any
      amino acid except for proline, with N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) as the first
      glycosidic linkage. Usually, O-glycosylation adds a glycan to the hydroxyl group
      of Ser or Thr beginning with N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc). SCOPE OF REVIEW:
      Protein glycosylation is further governed by additional diversifications in
      sequon and structure, which are yet to be fully explored. This review mainly
      focuses on the occurrence of N-glycosylation in non-consensus motifs, where
      Ser/Thr at the +2 position is substituted by other amino acids. Additionally, N
      glycosylation is also observed in other amide/amine group-containing amino acids.
      Similarly, O-glycosylation occurs at hydroxyl group-containing amino acids other
      than serine/threonine. The neighbouring amino acids and local structural features
      around the potential glycosylation site also play a significant role in
      determining the extent of glycosylation. All of these phenomena that yield
      glycosylation at the atypical sites are reported in a variety of biological
      systems, including different pathological conditions. CONCLUSION AND
      SIGNIFICANCE: Therefore, the discovery of more novel sequence patterns for N- and
      O-glycosylation may help in understanding the functions of complex biological
      processes and cellular functions. Taken together, all these information provided
      in this review would be helpful for the biological readers.

PMID- 28887104
TI  - Should we consider day-2 and day-3 embryo morphology before day-5 transfer when
      blastocysts reach a similar good quality?
AB  - Clinical outcomes of 291 day-5 blastocyst transfers carried out between January
      2012 and March 2016 were retrospectively compared according to their quality at
      day 2 and 3. Inclusion criteria were female age younger than 37 years; first or
      second IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle; quality of the transferred
      blastocyst: blastocoele B3 or higher; inner-cell-mass A/B; trophectoderm A/B; and
      known implantation outcome for each transferred blastocyst. Blastocysts were
      classified into good-quality and poor-quality embryo groups at day 2 and 3.
      Implantation (38.7% versus 41.4), clinical pregnancy (40.3% versus 45.9%),
      miscarriage (22.2% versus 26.7%;) and live birth rates (37.4% versus 38.8%) were
      comparable in day 2 good and poor-quality embryo groups. No signficiant
      differences in morphology of transferred blastocysts at day 3 were found.
      Multivariable analysis highlighted that poor or good embryo quality at day 2 and
      day 3 were not predictive of the implantation of good-quality blastocysts (at day
      2: adjusted odds ratio = 0.82 CI 95% 0.49 to 1.38; at day 3: adjusted odds ratio
      = 1.39; CI 95% 0.77 to 2.52). Good-quality blastocyst transfer should, therefore,
      be carried out irrespective of embryo quality at cleavage stage, as it may not
      compromise success rates in a good-prognosis population.

PMID- 28887105
TI  - The significance of polymorphism and expression of oestrogen metabolism-related
      genes in Chinese women with premature ovarian insufficiency.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate whether polymorphism and expression of
      CYP17, CYP1A1, COMT and SULT1A1 affected the risk of idiopathic primary ovarian
      insufficiency (POI) in Chinese women. DNA sequencing and real-time PCR were used
      to detect these genes in 132 cases of idiopathic POI and 132 normal women. A
      significant increase in the C allele of CYP17 (rs743572) polymorphism was
      observed in women with POI compared with controls (PFDR = 0.046). A significant
      decrease was observed in the C allele of CYP1A1 (rs4646903) in women with POI
      compared with controls (PFDR = 0.004). The A allele of COMT (rs4680) polymorphism
      was more frequent in women with POI compared with controls (PFDR = 0.029). The
      genotypic frequency of SULT1A1 (rs9282861) was not significantly different
      between the two groups. For the relative expression of CYP17 and COMT were
      statistically significant (both PFDR = 0.066), with false discovery rate
      controlled at 0.1. No significant difference was observed in the RNA levels of
      CYP1A1 and SULT1A1 between the two groups. The frequency of expression of the
      CYP17 T/C variant tended to be higher and the A allele of COMT polymorphism
      together with down-regulation of its mRNA expression may be more frequent in
      Chinese women with idiopathic POI.

PMID- 28887106
TI  - Review the 'peer review'.
AB  - Peer review has been the main form of appraisal of scientific knowledge for over
      a century. In essence, this process involves the evaluation of a scientific
      finding by independent experts prior to its dissemination to the scientific
      community, in an attempt to ensure that both the research and conclusions meet
      the necessary standards regarding quality, accuracy, relevance and novelty.
      However, although 'peer review' is considered the current gold standard, it is
      far from perfect. A focus on the methodology of an article and reviewers'
      training are key messages for the scientific community. Guidelines on how to
      review an article are needed and may help reviewers deal with this difficult
      process.

PMID- 28887107
TI  - Efficacy of Systemic Treatments of Psoriasis on Pruritus: A Systemic Literature
      Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - In the course of the last 30 years, several studies have clearly documented that
      pruritus is a very frequent symptom of psoriasis and its impact on the patients'
      quality of life. The variety of available systemic treatments for psoriasis is
      increasing rapidly. Our objective was to assess their efficacy on pruritus based
      on a systematic literature review. A systematic literature search was performed
      using PubMed and Trip Database (from January 1990 to September 2016) to find
      published clinical trials for the treatments of psoriasis, and then a meta
      analysis was performed. Among 516 articles identified, 35 studies were retained
      in the systematic review. At baseline, the high prevalence of pruritus (80-100%)
      was confirmed. The meta-analysis included 13 trials using a 0 to 10 itch scale
      and highlighted that all treatments evaluated reduced pruritus. Anti-IL-17, JAK
      inhibitors, adalimumab, and apremilast were all shown to be effective in reducing
      pruritus in psoriasis with variable effect size magnitudes. Our systematic review
      highlights that systemic treatments, including UVB phototherapy, improve pruritus
      in psoriasis but that it is not necessarily correlated with lesion recovering.
      Nonetheless, these results must be displayed carefully because there are so many
      variable endpoints in different studies.

PMID- 28887108
TI  - Approach for the Derivation of Melanocytes from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.
AB  - Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have the ability to differentiate into
      multiple cell types in the body and have an unlimited growth potential. However,
      iPS cell-derived melanocytes produced by existing protocols have significant
      limitations in developing novel strategies for regenerative medicine and cell
      therapies of pigmentation disorders in humans because they involve culture in
      media containing fetal bovine serum and nonphysiological agents. In this study,
      we established an in vitro approach to generate iPS cell-derived human
      melanocytes that have higher proliferation rates and increased melanin production
      compared with melanocytes prepared by previously reported approaches.
      Importantly, our iPS cell-derived human melanocytes are prepared in fetal bovine
      serum-free culture conditions that do not contain any nonphysiological agents. We
      designed two original methods, transferring black colonies by pipette and
      recovering black cell pellets from centrifuged medium, and numerous human iPS
      cell-derived melanocytes proliferated in gelatinous dishes coated with Matrigel
      after 12 days. We also succeeded in inducing melanin pigmentation in the nude
      mouse skin in vivo using those human iPS cell-derived melanocytes. We propose
      that this method using iPS cells established from T cells in the blood of normal
      human volunteers could be applied clinically to develop regenerative medicine and
      cell therapies for various forms of human pigmentation disorders.

PMID- 28887109
TI  - Early Identification of Patients With Acute Decompensated Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interventions to reduce readmissions after acute heart failure
      hospitalization require early identification of patients. The purpose of this
      study was to develop and test accuracies of various approaches to identify
      patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) with the use of data
      derived from the electronic health record. METHODS AND RESULTS: We included
      37,229 hospitalizations of adult patients at a single hospital during 2013-2015.
      We developed 4 algorithms to identify hospitalization with a principal discharge
      diagnosis of ADHF: 1) presence of 1 of 3 clinical characteristics, 2) logistic
      regression of 31 structured data elements, 3) machine learning with unstructured
      data, and 4) machine learning with the use of both structured and unstructured
      data. In data validation, algorithm 1 had a sensitivity of 0.98 and positive
      predictive value (PPV) of 0.14 for ADHF. Algorithm 2 had an area under the
      receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.96, and both machine learning
      algorithms had AUCs of 0.99. Based on a brief survey of 3 providers who perform
      chart review for ADHF, we estimated that providers spent 8.6 minutes per chart
      review; using this this parameter, we estimated that providers would spend 61.4,
      57.3, 28.7, and 25.3 minutes on secondary chart review for each case of ADHF if
      initial screening were done with algorithms 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Machine learning algorithms with unstructured notes had the best
      performance for identification of ADHF and can improve provider efficiency for
      delivery of quality improvement interventions.

PMID- 28887110
TI  - Percutaneous Decommissioning of Left Ventricular Assist Device.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The left ventricular assist device (LVAD) has revolutionised our
      treatment of advanced stage heart failure, giving debilitated patients a new
      lease on life. A small proportion of these LVAD patients can be bridged-to
      recovery. The identification of these patients and decision to wean, however, can
      be challenging. METHODS: The need to fully explant the device upon recovery has
      evolved to a minimalist approach aiming to avoid injury to the 'recovered' heart.
      A review of the evolution of explant strategies was performed to guide our
      decision to wean the LVAD in our early experience. RESULTS: Between 2009 and
      2014, two patients in our series of 69 LVAD implants (2.9%) were successfully
      weaned off their LVADs. The second patient had a minimal access implantation of
      his HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD, Medtronic Inc, Framingham, MA,
      USA). His clinical variables and minimalist weaning strategy are described.
      CONCLUSIONS: A case of LVAD decommissioning by thrombosis of the outflow graft,
      using percutaneous Amplatzer Vascular Plug II (St. Jude Medical, St. Paul, MN,
      USA) without surgery is reported.

PMID- 28887111
TI  - Impairment of gill structural integrity by manganese deficiency or excess related
      to induction of oxidative damage, apoptosis and dysfunction of the physical
      barrier as regulated by NF-kappaB, caspase and Nrf2 signaling in fish.
AB  - This study is for the first time to explore the possible effects of dietary
      manganese (Mn) on structural integrity and the related signaling in the gills of
      fish. Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) were fed with six diets containing
      graded levels of Mn [3.65-27.86 mg Mn/kg diet] for 8 weeks. The results firstly
      demonstrated that Mn deficiency aggravated inflammation indicated by up
      regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor alpha,
      interleukin 8, and interleukin 1beta mRNA levels) and down-regulation of anti
      inflammatory cytokines (interleukin 10, transforming growth factor-beta1) mRNA
      levels, which might be partially related to the up-regulation of nuclear factor
      kappa B (NF-kappaB p65) and down-regulation of nuclear inhibitor factor
      kappaBalpha (ikappaBalpha) mRNA levels in the gills of fish. Meanwhile, Mn
      deficiency caused DNA fragmentation, which might be partially associated with the
      up-regulation of the apoptosis signaling (caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9) in
      the gills of fish. Furthermore, Mn deficiency-caused apoptosis might be partly
      related to the increases of oxidative damage that indicated by increases of lipid
      peroxidation and protein oxidation, and decreases of antioxidant enzyme
      activities [included Mn superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione
      peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione-S-transferase
      (GST)]. However, Mn deficiency only down-regulated MnSOD and GST mRNA levels,
      which might be partially related to the up-regulation of NF-E2-related factor-2
      (Nrf2) inhibitor (Keap1), and only down-regulated the gene expression of claudin
      b and claudin-15 to disrupt the TJ in the gills of fish. Excessive Mn led to
      negative effects on partial parameters studied in the gills of fish. The optimal
      levels of Mn based on protecting against ROS, MDA and PC in the gills of grass
      carp were 17.04, 16.86 and 21.20 mg/kg diet, respectively. Collectively, Mn
      deficiency or excess could cause inflammation, apoptosis, antioxidant system
      disruption and change tight junction protein (claudin-b and claudin-15)
      transcription abundances, which might be partially related to the NF-kappaB p65,
      caspase-(3,8,9) and Nrf2 signaling, in the gills of fish.

PMID- 28887112
TI  - Protein and lipid interactions - Modulating CFTR trafficking and rescue.
AB  - Different levels of CFTR regulation in the cell contribute to a stringent control
      of chloride secretion in epithelia. Tuning of chloride transport is achieved by
      modulating CFTR biogenesis, exit from the endoplasmic reticulum, trafficking,
      membrane stability and channel activity. In this short review, we summarize
      recent findings identifying interactions with other proteins - directly or
      through membrane lipids - and briefly discuss how these observations can provide
      clues to the design of better therapeutic approaches.

PMID- 28887113
TI  - Primary (Month-6) Outcomes of the STOP-Uveitis Study: Evaluating the Safety,
      Tolerability, and Efficacy of Tocilizumab in Patients With Noninfectious Uveitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report the primary endpoint analyses of the safety and efficacy of 2
      different doses of intravenous (IV) infusions of tocilizumab (TCZ), an IL-6
      inhibitor, in eyes with noninfectious intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, or
      panuveitis. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled, multicenter clinical trial. METHODS:
      STOP-Uveitis is a randomized, open-label safety, efficacy, and bioactivity
      clinical trial conducted at 5 clinical centers across the United States. The
      study evaluated the role of TCZ in patients with noninfectious uveitis (NIU).
      Thirty-seven patients with NIU were randomized into one of 2 treatment groups in
      a ratio of 1:1. Group 1 received IV infusions of 4 mg/kg TCZ and group 2 received
      IV infusions of 8 mg/kg TCZ. Infusions were given every 4 weeks in both groups
      until month 6 (primary endpoint). Primary outcome measure was incidence and
      severity of systemic and ocular adverse events through month 6. Secondary outcome
      measures included mean change in visual acuity (VA), vitreous haze (VH), and
      central macular thickness (CMT) at month 6. RESULTS: A total of 37 patients were
      randomized in the study. At month 6, 43.5% of patients who had the potential for
      a 2-step decrease in VH demonstrated a 2-step decrease (40% in Group 1 and 46.1%
      in Group 2). Mean change in CMT was -83.88 +/- 136.1 MUm at month 6 (-131.5 +/-
      41.56 MUm in Group 1 and -38.92 +/- 13.7 MUm in Group 2). Mean change in VA was
      +8.22 +/- 11.83 ETDRS letters at month 6 (10.9 +/- 14.6 in Group 1 and 5.5 +/-
      7.8 in Group 2). Repeated infusions of TCZ were well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS:
      Repeated IV administrations of TCZ are well tolerated. TCZ (both 4 and 8 mg/kg)
      is effective in improving VA and reducing VH and CMT in eyes with noninfectious
      intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, and panuveitis.

PMID- 28887114
TI  - Cataract Surgery From 1918 to the Present and Future-Just Imagine!
AB  - PURPOSE: To review the history of cataract surgery over the past 100 years, and
      to offer predictions about new developments that may occur during the next 50
      years. DESIGN: Interpretive essay. METHODS: Review of historical literature and
      author experiences pertaining to cataract surgery, with commentary and
      perspective. RESULTS: By this time, cataract surgery has advanced to the point
      that Kelman's introduction of phacoemulsification and use of intraocular lenses
      (IOLs), both very controversial when initially introduced, have become state of
      the art. Outpatient surgery, minimally limited mobility, sutureless incisions,
      and topical anesthesia also have become key components of standard treatment. The
      author envisions availability of medications for nuclear sclerosis and
      presbyopia, expansion of lens surgery for refractive purposes with postsurgical
      adjustment and unprecedented precision, increased mechanization of lens removal
      with emphasis on uncomplicated surgery rather than refractive precision, and
      accommodating IOLs all becoming standard. CONCLUSIONS: Acknowledging and
      appreciating the past contributions of pioneers in cataract surgery is vital to
      understanding the development of today's clinical care. Clues as to the future do
      help give us a possible scenario worthy of such conjecture.

PMID- 28887116
TI  - Residual Angle Closure One Year After Laser Peripheral Iridotomy in Primary Angle
      Closure Suspects.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the incidence and baseline clinical and anterior segment
      optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) predictors associated with residual angle
      closure as assessed by gonioscopy 1 year after laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI)
      in primary angle closure suspects (PACS). DESIGN: Subanalysis of randomized
      controlled trial data. METHODS: AS-OCT images from 181 PACS subjects >=50 years
      of age were analyzed using customized software before and 1 year after LPI. Other
      parameters assessed were intraocular pressure (IOP) and axial length (Axl).
      Residual angle closure was defined as the inability to see the posterior
      trabecular meshwork for at least 2 quadrants on gonioscopy after LPI.
      Multivariate regression analysis determined the baseline predictors of residual
      angle closure 1 year after LPI. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 62.4
      (standard deviation 9.9) years. The majority were female (137, 75.7%) and Chinese
      (174, 96.1%). At 1 year post LPI, 148 (81.8%) subjects had gonioscopic residual
      angle closure. Univariate analysis showed that baseline Axl, anterior chamber
      area, anterior chamber volume, angle opening distance at 750 MUm from the scleral
      spur, and angle recess area were smaller while baseline lens vault and iris
      curvature were larger in residual angle closure subjects (all P < .05).
      Multivariate analysis revealed that baseline iris volume (B = -0.08, P = .035)
      and baseline IOP (B = 0.23, P = .032) were predictors for residual angle closure.
      CONCLUSIONS: One year after LPI, >80% of PACS had gonioscopic residual angle
      closure. Greater baseline iris volume and higher IOP at baseline are independent
      risk factors for residual gonioscopic angle closure.

PMID- 28887117
TI  - Analysis of Cytokine Levels in Tears and Clinical Correlations After Intense
      Pulsed Light Treating Meibomian Gland Dysfunction.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the change from baseline of inflammatory markers in tears
      of dry eye disease (DED) subjects owing to meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)
      after intense pulsed light (IPL) treatment and meibomian gland expression (MGE)
      compared to sham treatment, and the correlations with ocular surface parameters.
      DESIGN: Randomized, double-masked, controlled study. METHODS: Those randomized
      into the active treatment arm received 3 consecutive treatments (14~16 J/cm2)
      approximately 4 weeks apart in the periocular region. Control eyes received 3
      treatments in the same intervals of 0 J/cm2. Tear samples in all eyes were
      collected and analyzed at baseline, week 12, and/or week 4 for interleukin (IL)
      17A, IL-6, and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). The correlations between cytokines and
      ocular surface parameters were analyzed before and after IPL treatment. RESULTS:
      All of the inflammatory markers declined in value compared to baselines. IL-17A
      and IL-6 showed statistically significant decreases compared to sham treatment at
      each measured time point. PGE2 showed statistically significant decreases
      compared to sham at week 12. Results showed that the expressions of IL-17A and IL
      6 correlated well with ocular surface parameters of the lower eyelid before IPL.
      The changed values of IL-6 and PGE2 in tears correlated with the changed values
      of partial ocular surface parameters after IPL treatment in study eyes,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest that IPL can significantly
      reduce inflammatory markers in tears of patients suffering with DED owing to MGD
      after IPL treatment. These findings indicate that IL-17A and IL-6 play roles in
      the pathogenesis of DED owing to MGD, and the reduction of the inflammatory
      factors is consistent with the improvement of partial clinical symptoms and
      signs.

PMID- 28887115
TI  - Blau Syndrome-Associated Uveitis: Preliminary Results From an International
      Prospective Interventional Case Series.
AB  - PURPOSE: Provide baseline and preliminary follow-up results in a 5-year
      longitudinal study of Blau syndrome. DESIGN: Multicenter, prospective
      interventional case series. METHODS: Baseline data from 50 patients from 25
      centers worldwide, and follow-up data for patients followed 1, 2, or 3 years at
      the end of study enrollment. Ophthalmic data were collected at baseline and
      yearly visits by means of a standardized collection form. RESULTS: Median age at
      onset of eye disease was 60 months and duration of eye disease at baseline 145
      months. At baseline 38 patients (78%) had uveitis, which was bilateral in 37
      (97%). Eight patients (21%) had moderate to severe visual impairment. Panuveitis
      was found in 38 eyes (51%), with characteristic multifocal choroidal infiltrates
      in 29 eyes (39%). Optic disc pallor in 9 eyes (12%) and peripapillary nodules in
      9 eyes (12%) were the commonest signs of optic nerve involvement. Active anterior
      chamber inflammation was noted in 30 eyes (40%) at baseline and in 16 (34%), 17
      (57%), and 11 (61%) eyes at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. Panuveitis was
      associated with longer disease duration. At baseline, 56 eyes (75%) were on
      topical corticosteroids. Twenty-six patients (68%) received a combination of
      systemic corticosteroids and immunomodulatory therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Blau uveitis
      is characterized by progressive panuveitis with multifocal choroiditis, resulting
      in severe ocular morbidity despite continuous systemic and local immunomodulatory
      therapy. The frequency and severity of Blau uveitis highlight the need for close
      ophthalmologic surveillance as well as a search for more effective therapies.

PMID- 28887118
TI  - Trabecular Meshwork Height in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Versus Primary Angle
      Closure Glaucoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine if trabecular meshwork (TM) height differs between primary
      open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) eyes.
      DESIGN: Prospective, cross-sectional clinical study. METHODS: Adult patients were
      consecutively recruited from glaucoma clinics at the University of California,
      San Francisco, from January 2012 to July 2015. Images were obtained from spectral
      domain optical coherence tomography (Cirrus OCT; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc, Dublin,
      California, USA). Univariate and multivariate linear mixed models comparing TM
      height and glaucoma type were performed to assess the relationship between TM
      height and glaucoma subtype. Mixed-effects regression was used to adjust for the
      use of both eyes in some subjects. RESULTS: The study included 260 eyes from 161
      subjects, composed of 61 men and 100 women. Mean age was 70 years (SD 11.77).
      There were 199 eyes (123 patients) in the POAG group and 61 eyes (38 patients) in
      the PACG group. Mean TM heights in the POAG and PACG groups were 812 +/- 13 MUm
      and 732 +/- 27 MUm, respectively, and the difference was significant in
      univariate analysis (P = .004) and in multivariate analysis (beta = -88.7 [24.05
      153.5]; P = .008). CONCLUSION: In this clinic-based population, trabecular
      meshwork height is shorter in PACG patients compared to POAG patients. This
      finding may provide insight into the pathophysiology of angle closure and provide
      assistance in future diagnosis, prevention, and management of the angle-closure
      spectrum of disorders.

PMID- 28887119
TI  - Respiratory syncytial virus associated hospitalizations in children with
      congenital diaphragmatic hernia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To evaluate the risk of RSV infection in infants and children with
      congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) over two consecutive RSV seasons. METHODS:
      Retrospective, single-center cohort study from southern Austria including infants
      with CDH born between 1993 and 2012. Infants were retrieved by searching via ICD
      10 codes Q79.0 and Q79.1 and by using a local electronic database. Children were
      followed over 2 years of life including at least two consecutive RSV seasons
      (November to April). We also defined a group of hypothetical RSV infections with
      the following criteria: 70% of the admissions due to a respiratory infection
      (diagnosis of bronchiolitis and/or LRI score >=3) during the RSV seasons over the
      first 2 years of life, when no test for RSV was performed. RESULTS: Twenty-nine
      of 45 infants with CDH comprised the study population (6 were lost to follow-up
      and 10 died) of whom 9 (31%) exhibited 17 hospitalizations due to respiratory
      illness. Two hospitalized infants (6.9% of the study population) tested RSV
      positive, one during the first and the other during the second RSV season. Nine
      of 29 infants (31%) had documentation of palivizumab prophylaxis, none (0%) had
      proven RSV hospitalization compared to 1 of 20 (5%) without prophylaxis during
      the first RSV season (p = 0.256). Including the hypothetical cases, we calculated
      0 of 9 (0%) in the palivizumab group and 4 of 20 (20%) in the group without
      prophylaxis (p = 0.079). CONCLUSIONS: We found a moderate rate of proven RSV
      hospitalizations in infants with CDH, and palivizumab prophylaxis led to a non
      significant reduction of proven and hypothesized RSV hospitalizations.

PMID- 28887120
TI  - Increased expression of interleukin-21 along colorectal adenoma-carcinoma
      sequence and its predicating significance in patients with sporadic colorectal
      cancer.
AB  - The role and significance of interleukin (IL)-21 in the development of sporadic
      CRC have not been well defined. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate
      the dynamics of the IL-21 along colorectal adenoma-carcinoma sequence and to
      evaluate the impact of IL-21 on clinicopathological parameters and CRC prognosis.
      The real-time PCR results showed that the level of IL-21 in adenomas (n=50) and
      sporadic CRC (n=50) were significantly higher than that in normal controls
      (n=18), which were predominately observed in the adenoma/CRC stroma. Analysis
      revealed that IL-21 level was correlated with the overall survival time in CRC
      patients. Double immunofluorescence observations confirmed that IL-21 positive
      cells were mostly natural killer cells and T lymphocytes in the tumor stroma.
      These results indicate that significant increased IL-21 expression present within
      the adenoma/CRC microenvironment might have a potential predicating significance
      for survival time in patients with CRC.

PMID- 28887121
TI  - Discovery of human scFvs that cross-neutralize the toxic effects of B.
      jararacussu and C. d. terrificus venoms.
AB  - Accidents involving venomous snakes are a public health problem worldwide,
      causing a large number of deaths per year. In Brazil, the majority of accidents
      are caused by the Bothrops and Crotalus genera, which are responsible for
      approximately 80% of severe envenoming cases. The cross-neutralization of snake
      venoms by antibodies is an important issue for development of more effective
      treatments. Our group has previously reported the construction of human
      monoclonal antibody fragments towards Bothrops jararacussu and Crotalus durissus
      terrificus' venoms. This study aimed to select human single-chain variable
      fragments (scFvs) that recognize both bothropic and crotalic crude venoms
      following venoms neutralizing capacity in vitro and in vivo. The cross-reactivity
      of Cro-Bothrumabs were demonstrated by ELISA and in vitro and in vivo experiments
      showed that a combination of scFvs neutralizes in vitro toxic activities (e.g.
      indirect hemolysis and plasma-clotting) of crotalic and bothropic venoms as well
      as prolonged survival time of envenomed animals. Our results may contribute to
      the development of the first human polyvalent antivenom against Bothrops
      jararacussu and Crotalus durissus terrificus venoms, overcoming some undesirable
      effects caused by conventional serotherapy.

PMID- 28887122
TI  - Blastocystis subtypes detected in long-tailed macaques in Thailand-Further
      evidence of cryptic host specificity.
AB  - Blastocystis is an enteric parasitic protist with a widespread distribution in a
      variety of human and non-human hosts and supposedly a source of zoonotic
      transmission. This study aimed to determine the frequency and distribution of
      Blastocystis subtypes in free-ranging Macaca fascicularis (long-tailed macaques,
      LTMs) in Thailand. A total of 628 faecal samples were collected from free-ranging
      LTMs inhabiting fourteen tourist attraction sites in Thailand. Fresh faecal
      samples were individually cultured in Jones' medium, and Blastocystis-positive
      samples were subtyped using nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA)
      sequencing. Two hundred and sixty-three (41.87%) samples were positive by
      culture, and 197 and 154 were successfully SSU rDNA-amplified and sequenced,
      respectively. Three subtypes (ST1, ST2, and ST3) comprising 19 alleles were
      observed. ST3 was the most common subtype detected (36.55%), followed by ST2 and
      ST1 (24.37% and 17.26%, respectively). Some subtype alleles not previously
      observed were identified. A couple of strains appeared similar to those found in
      humans as evidenced by SSU rDNA allelic profiles, while further evidence of
      cryptic host specificity emerged. This study provides the first data on
      Blastocystis subtypes in non-human primates in Thailand and confirms the trend
      observed in other Old-World countries with regard to the colonization rate and
      subtype distribution.

PMID- 28887123
TI  - Third record of Rhodnius amazonicus and comparative study with R. pictipes
      (Hemiptera, Reduviidae, Triatominae).
AB  - Rhodnius amazonicus Almeida et al. (1973) is a triatomine of rare occurrence.
      This species was found for the third time in Breves city, Para state, Brazil.
      Morphometric and morphological studies were carried out on one male and one
      female. Lent and Wygodzinsky (1979) considered this species as a synonym of R.
      pictipes, until its revalidation after 23 years by Berenger and Pluot-Sigwalt
      (2002). Considering the synonym mentioned above, a comparative study between
      these two species was performed in order to report the third encounter of this
      species, and increase the number of morphological characters that distinguish R.
      amazonicus from R. pictipes. The dorsal side of the head, the dorsal and ventral
      portions of the thorax, the dorsal, ventral and posterior sides of the female
      genitalia, eggs and the median process of the pygophore were examined by scanning
      electronic microscopy (SEM). The head, thorax, abdomen and egg parameters of
      these two species were also measured. The identification of characters on the
      head, stridulatory sulcus, mesosternum, metasternum, scutellum, process of
      urotergite I, external female genitalia, pygophore and eggs made the distinction
      between R. amazonicus and R. pictipes possible. This study has shown the new
      characters recorded and described for the first time for R. amazonicus and R.
      pictipes by SEM here made it possible to confirm the morphological separation
      between these two species. The morphometric analysis also confirmed that the
      above two taxa are different at specific level.

PMID- 28887124
TI  - Impaired insulin signaling upon loss of ovarian function is associated with a
      reduction of tristetraprolin and an increased stabilization of chemokine in
      adipose tissue.
AB  - Loss of ovarian function can activate inflammation and lead to insulin resistance
      (IR). IR is also a core feature of obesity and obesity-associated metabolic
      dysfunction. Tristetraprolin/zinc finger protein 36 (TTP) interferes with TNF
      alpha production by destabilizing TNF-alpha mRNA, and mice deficient in TTP
      develop a complex syndrome of inflammatory disease (Carballo et al., 1998; Taylor
      et al., 1999). We hypothesized that ovariectomy (OVX) might also prime
      inflammation by reducing tristetraprolin/zinc finger protein 36 (TTP) levels. We
      used a mouse OVX model to study impaired insulin signaling due to loss of ovarian
      function by evaluating Akt activity upon insulin stimulus. Impaired insulin
      signaling was initially detected in adipose tissue (AT) at 4 weeks after OVX, and
      then spread to liver and muscle, finally resulting in systemic IR at 12 weeks
      after OVX. OVX decreased TTP protein levels and increased adipocyte size,
      oxidative stress, chemokine expression and fat mass in AT by 4 weeks after
      surgery. TTP deficiency due to TTP gene deletion induced aberrant insulin
      signaling and increased chemokine expression and macrophage numbers in AT but did
      not increase adipocyte size, oxidative stress, or fat mass, suggesting that it
      promotes insulin signaling by decreasing AT inflammation independent of oxidative
      stress and adiposity. OVX, like TTP deficiency, increased the stability of
      chemokine transcripts as assessed from their half-lives. Our data indicate that
      the impaired insulin signaling resulting from OVX is due to an OVX-induced
      reduction of TTP and the resulting stabilization of inflammatory chemokines.

PMID- 28887125
TI  - Initiatives to Achieve Excellence in the Care of Acute Coronary Syndrome.
      Response.

PMID- 28887126
TI  - Introduction: The European Association of Epilepsy Centers (EAEC).

PMID- 28887127
TI  - The Epilepsy-Center Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany.

PMID- 28887128
TI  - Introduction to the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) platform and its
      newly elected president Martin Brodie.

PMID- 28887129
TI  - Disulfiram is a slow-binding partial noncompetitive inhibitor of 20S proteasome
      activity.
AB  - The alcohol abuse drug disulfiram has also been shown to exhibit potent cell
      growth inhibitory and anticancer activity. While a number of cellular and animal
      studies have suggested that disulfiram exhibits its anticancer activity through
      interaction with the proteasome, direct evidence for inhibition of proteasome
      activity is lacking. In this study we show that disulfiram potently inhibits the
      chymotrypsin-like activity of purified human 20S proteasome at low micromolar
      pharmacological concentrations. The enzyme progress curves displayed
      characteristics of a slow-binding reaction, similar to that observed for the FDA
      approved proteasomal-targeted anticancer drugs bortezomib and carfilzomib. The
      apparent second order rate constant for reaction with 20s proteasome that was
      derived from an analysis of the progress curves was about 250-fold smaller than
      for bortezomib and carfilzomib. The concentration dependence of the enzyme
      kinetics was consistent with partial noncompetitive inhibition, whereby the
      putative disulfiram-proteasome adduct retains, partial but decreased enzyme
      activity. Disulfiram, which is known to have a high affinity for protein thiols,
      likely reacted with a non-critical cysteine residue, and not at the proteasome
      substrate binding site.

PMID- 28887130
TI  - Gender-specific impairment of in vitro sinoatrial node chronotropic responses and
      of myocardial ischemia tolerance in rats exposed prenatally to betamethasone.
AB  - Excessive fetal glucocorticoid exposure has been linked to increased
      susceptibility to hypertension and cardiac diseases in the adult life, a process
      called fetal programming. The cardiac contribution to the hypertensive phenotype
      of glucocorticoid-programmed progeny is less known, therefore, we investigated in
      vitro cardiac functional parameters from rats exposed in utero to betamethasone.
      Pregnant Wistar rats received vehicle (VEH) or betamethasone (BET, 0.1mg/kg,
      i.m.) at gestational days 12, 13, 18 and 19. Male and female offspring were
      killed at post-natal day 30 and the right atrium (RA) was isolated to in vitro
      evaluation of drug-induced chronotropic responses. Additionally, whole hearts
      were retrograde-perfused in a Langendorff apparatus and infarct size in response
      to in vitro ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) protocol was evaluated. Male and female
      progeny from BET-exposed pregnant rats had reduced birth weight, a hallmark of
      fetal programming. Male BET-progeny had increased basal RA rate, impaired
      chronotropic responses to noradrenaline and adenosine, and increased myocardial
      damage to I/R. Though a 12-fold reduction in the negative chronotropic responses
      to adenosine, the effects of non-metabolisable adenosine receptor agonists 5'-(N
      ethylcarboxamido)adenosine or 2-Chloro-adenosine were not different between VEH-
      and BET-exposed male rats. BET-exposed female offspring presented no cardiac
      dysfunction. Prenatal BET exposure engenders male-specific impairment of
      sinoatrial node function and on myocardial ischemia tolerance resulting, at least
      in part, from an increased adenosine metabolism in the heart. In light of the
      importance of adenosine in the cardiac physiology our results suggest a link
      between reduced adenosinergic signaling and the cardiac dysfunctions observed in
      glucocorticoid-induced fetal programming.

PMID- 28887131
TI  - Prostacyclin mimetics afford protection against lipopolysaccharide/d
      galactosamine-induced acute liver injury in mice.
AB  - Prostacyclin (PGI2) serves as a protective, anti-inflammatory mediator and PGI2
      mimetics may be useful as a hepatoprotective agent. We examined whether two PGI2
      mimetics, ONO-1301 and beraprost, are beneficial in acute liver injury and
      attempted to delineate the possible mechanism underlying the hepatoprotective
      effect. Acute liver injury was induced by lipopolysaccharide/d-galactosamine
      (LPS/GalN) in mice. Mice were given an intraperitoneal injection of PGI2 mimetics
      1h before LPS/GalN challenge. Both ONO-1301 and beraprost significantly declined
      the LPS/GalN-induced increase in serum aminotransferase activity. ONO-1301 and,
      to a lesser extent, beraprost inhibited hepatic gene expression levels of pro
      inflammatory cytokines, which were sharply elevated by LPS/GalN. The
      hepatoprotective effects of ONO-1301, to a lesser extent, of beraprost were also
      supported by liver histopathological examinations. The PGI2 receptor antagonist
      CAY10441 abrogated their hepatoprotective effects. The mechanisms behind the
      benefit of PGI2 mimetics in reducing LPS/GalN-induced liver injury involved, in
      part, their suppressive effects on increased generation of reactive oxygen
      species (ROS), since their ability to prevent LPS/GalN-induced hepatic apoptosis
      was mimicked by the antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine. They significantly
      diminished LPS/GalN-induced activation of signal transducers and activators of
      transcription 3 (STAT3) in liver tissues, an effect which was highly associated
      with their hepatoprotective effects. We indicate that IP receptor activation with
      PGI2 mimetics can rescue the damage in the liver induced by LPS/GalN by
      undermining activation of STAT3 and leading to a lower production of ROS. Our
      findings point to PGI2 mimetics, especially ONO-1301, as a potential novel
      therapeutic modality for the treatment of acute liver injury.

PMID- 28887132
TI  - Structure and diversity of human dendritic spines evidenced by a new three
      dimensional reconstruction procedure for Golgi staining and light microscopy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Different approaches aim to unravel detailed morphological features
      of neural cells. Dendritic spines are multifunctional units that reflect cellular
      connectivity, synaptic strength and plasticity. NEW METHOD: A novel three
      dimensional (3D) reconstruction procedure is introduced for visualization of
      dendritic spines from human postmortem brain tissue using brightfield microscopy.
      The segmentation model was based on thresholding the intensity values of the
      dendritic spine image along 'z' stacks. We used median filtering and removed
      false positives. Fine adjustments during image processing confirmed that the
      reconstructed image of the spines corresponded to the actual original data.
      RESULTS: Examples are shown for the cortical amygdaloid nucleus and the CA3
      hippocampal area. Structure of spine heads and necks was evaluated at different
      angles. Our 3D reconstruction images display dendritic spines either isolated or
      in clusters, in a continuum of shapes and sizes, from simple to more elaborated
      forms, including the presence of spinule and complex 'thorny excrescences'.
      COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: The procedure has the advantages already
      described for the adapted "single-section" Golgi method, since it provides
      suitable results using human brains fixed in formalin for long time, is
      relatively easy, requires minimal equipment, and uses an algorithm for 3D
      reconstruction that provides high quality images and more precise morphological
      data. CONCLUSION: The procedure described here allows the reliable visualization
      and study of human dendritic spines with broad applications for normal controls
      and pathological studies.

PMID- 28887133
TI  - Potential of insulin nanoparticle formulations for oral delivery and diabetes
      treatment.
AB  - Nanoparticles have demonstrated significant advancements in potential oral
      delivery of insulin. In this publication, we review the current status of
      polymeric, inorganic and solid-lipid nanoparticles designed for oral
      administration of insulin. Firstly, the structure and physiological function of
      insulin are examined. Then, the efficiency and shortcomings of insulin
      nanoparticle are discussed. These include the susceptibility to digestive enzyme
      degradation, instability in the acidic pH environment, poor mucus diffusion and
      inadequate permeation through the gastrointestinal epithelium. In order to
      optimise the nanocarriers, the following considerations, including polymer
      nature, surface charge, size, polydispersity index and morphology of
      nanoparticles, have to be taken into account. Some novel designs such as chitosan
      based glucose-responsive nanoparticles, layer by layer technique-based
      nanoparticles and zwitterion nanoparticles are being adopted to overcome the
      physiological challenges. The review ends with some future directions and
      challenges to be addressed for the success of oral delivery of insulin-loaded
      nanoparticle formulation.

PMID- 28887135
TI  - Progress in brain targeting drug delivery system by nasal route.
AB  - : The blood-brain barrier (BBB) restricts the transport of potential therapeutic
      moieties to the brain. Direct targeting the brain via olfactory and trigeminal
      neural pathways by passing the BBB has gained an important consideration for
      delivery of wide range of therapeutics to brain. Intranasal route of
      transportation directly delivers the drugs to brain without systemic absorption,
      thus avoiding the side effects and enhancing the efficacy of neurotherapeutics.
      Over the last several decades, different drug delivery systems (DDSs) have been
      studied for targeting the brain by the nasal route. Novel DDSs such as
      nanoparticles (NPs), liposomes and polymeric micelles have gained potential as
      useful tools for targeting the brain without toxicity in nasal mucosa and central
      nervous system (CNS). Complex geometry of the nasal cavity presented a big
      challenge to effective delivery of drugs beyond the nasal valve. Recently,
      pharmaceutical firms utilized latest and emerging nasal drug delivery
      technologies to overcome these barriers. This review aims to describe the latest
      development of brain targeted DDSs via nasal administration. CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS
      STUDIED IN THIS ARTICLE: Carbopol 934p (PubChem CID: 6581) Carboxy
      methylcellulose (PubChem CID: 24748) Penetratin (PubChem CID: 101111470) Poly
      lactic-co-glycolic acid (PubChem CID: 23111554) Tween 80 (PubChem CID: 5284448).

PMID- 28887134
TI  - Decreased non-specific adhesivity, receptor targeted (DART) nanoparticles exhibit
      improved dispersion, cellular uptake, and tumor retention in invasive gliomas.
AB  - The most common and deadly form of primary brain cancer, glioblastoma (GBM), is
      characterized by significant intratumoral heterogeneity, microvascular
      proliferation, immune system suppression, and brain tissue invasion. Delivering
      effective and sustained treatments to the invasive GBM cells intermixed with
      functioning neural elements is a major goal of advanced therapeutic systems for
      brain cancer. Previously, we investigated the nanoparticle characteristics that
      enable targeting of invasive GBM cells. This revealed the importance of
      minimizing non-specific binding within the relatively adhesive, 'sticky'
      microenvironment of the brain and brain tumors in particular. We refer to such
      nanoformulations with decreased non-specific adhesivity and receptor targeting as
      'DART' therapeutics. In this work, we applied this information toward the design
      and characterization of biodegradable nanocarriers, and in vivo testing in
      orthotopic experimental gliomas. We formulated particulate nanocarriers using
      poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and PLGA-polyethylene glycol (PLGA-PEG)
      polymers to generate sub-100nm nanoparticles with minimal binding to
      extracellular brain components and strong binding to the Fn14 receptor - an
      upregulated, conserved component in invasive GBM. Multiple particle tracking in
      brain tissue slices and in vivo testing in orthotopic murine malignant glioma
      revealed preserved nanoparticle diffusivity and increased uptake in brain tumor
      cells. These combined characteristics also resulted in longer retention of the
      DART nanoparticles within the orthotopic tumors compared to non-targeted
      versions. Taken together, these results and nanoparticle design considerations
      offer promising new methods to optimize therapeutic nanocarriers for improving
      drug delivery and treatment for invasive brain tumors.

PMID- 28887136
TI  - Non-covalent formulation of active principles with dendrimers: Current state-of
      the-art and prospects for further development.
AB  - During the last three decades, dendrimers, nano-sized highly-branched fractal
      like symmetrical macromolecules, have been intensively studied as promising
      candidates for application as drug-delivery carriers. Among other important
      characteristics arising from their unique and highly-controlled architecture,
      size and surface properties, the possibility of hosting guest molecules in
      internal voids represents a key advantage underlying the potential of dendrimers
      as non-covalent drug-encapsulating agents. The impressive amount of accumulating
      experimental results to date allows researchers to identify the most important
      and promising theoretical and practical aspects of the use of dendrimers for this
      purpose. This review covers the main factors, phenomena, and mechanisms involved
      in this drug-vectorization approach, including mechanisms of non-covalent
      dendrimer-drug association, dendrimer-dendrimer interactions, as well as
      biological properties relevant to the host dendrimers. A discussion is then
      provided to illustrate some successful existing formulation strategies as well as
      to propose some new possible ones to optimize further development of the field.

PMID- 28887137
TI  - Effects of a high level of illumination before sleep at night on chorioretinal
      thickness and ocular biometry.
AB  - The choroid is affected by many factors. One of the factors, change in
      illumination has been suggested to influence choroidal thickness. However, the
      effects of bright light before sleep at night on the human eye are not well
      established. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a high
      level of illumination in the evening on ocular measurements. Twenty-seven men
      with myopia spent seven consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory. During the
      first two nights, subjects were exposed to light at 150 lux between 20:00 and
      midnight. Then, for five consecutive nights, they were exposed to ambient light
      at 1000 lux between 20:00 and midnight. Ocular parameters and their diurnal
      variations were compared between the two periods and the effects of a high level
      of illumination were analyzed. After subjects were exposed to 1000 lux of
      illumination, axial length increased with borderline significance (p = 0.064).
      Macular volume and retinal thickness did not change. However, subfoveal choroidal
      thickness after exposure to 1000 lux of illumination (245.37 +/- 52.84 MUm) was
      significantly lower than that after 150 lux of illumination (268.00 +/- 57.10
      MUm), (p < 0.001). Significant diurnal variations were found in mean keratometry
      (p = 0.039), intraocular pressure (IOP, p = 0.003), ocular perfusion pressure
      (OPP, p < 0.0001), macular volume (p = 0.019), and subfoveal choroidal thickness
      (p < 0.0001). A high level of illumination had significant effects on only IOP
      and OPP (p = 0.027 and 0.017, respectively). Bright light exposure before sleep
      at an intensity as high as 1000 lux reduced subfoveal choroidal thickness in
      healthy young men. In conclusion, diurnal variation in choroidal thickness can be
      affected by bright light exposure before sleep.

PMID- 28887138
TI  - The role of phacoemulsification in glaucoma therapy: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - Cataract extraction is a safe and effective surgery that has been performed in
      its modern form for several decades. Many studies have noted that cataract
      extraction could also have a clinically significant role in the control of
      comorbid glaucoma. Lens extraction decreases the pressure within the eye, and
      intraocular pressure (IOP) is the only controllable risk factor in glaucoma
      proven to be effective. A systematic analysis of current evidence is needed to
      establish strong practice patterns and identify areas where further research is
      required. We performed systematic review and meta-analysis of the clinical data
      to estimate the net effect of cataract surgery on IOP. A total of 37 treatment
      arms from 32 different studies from January 1997 to January 2017 were included.
      IOP reduction was highly correlated across follow-up periods. For angle-closure
      glaucoma, results showed an IOP decrease of -6.4 mmHg (95% CI: -9.4 to -3.4) at
      final follow-up (12 months and longer). For the open-angle glaucoma group, there
      was an overall IOP change of -2.7 mmHg (95% CI -3.7 to -1.7) from baseline. For
      pseudoexfoliation glaucoma further research is needed to reach an adequate
      evidence-based conclusion. The influence of inherent sources of bias, including
      loss to follow-up, washout and medication use, and lack of a control group, was
      evaluated numerically. These sources of bias pulled the IOP estimate in opposite
      directions and are therefore unlikely to affect the main conclusions
      substantially. Future prospective clinical trials, including other outcomes such
      as quality of life, clinical severity information, and cost-effectiveness
      analysis, are needed to determine the role of phacoemulsification alone within
      the glaucoma treatment algorithm.

PMID- 28887139
TI  - Reducing the Variability of Medicaid Coverage Policies for Pregnant Women.

PMID- 28887141
TI  - Epilogue: Western science, reductionism and eastern perspectives.

PMID- 28887142
TI  - Marriages of mathematics and physics: A challenge for biology.
AB  - The human attempts to access, measure and organize physical phenomena have led to
      a manifold construction of mathematical and physical spaces. We will survey the
      evolution of geometries from Euclid to the Algebraic Geometry of the 20th
      century. The role of Persian/Arabic Algebra in this transition and its Western
      symbolic development is emphasized. In this relation, we will also discuss
      changes in the ontological attitudes toward mathematics and its applications.
      Historically, the encounter of geometric and algebraic perspectives enriched the
      mathematical practices and their foundations. Yet, the collapse of Euclidean
      certitudes, of over 2300 years, and the crisis in the mathematical analysis of
      the 19th century, led to the exclusion of "geometric judgments" from the
      foundations of Mathematics. After the success and the limits of the logico-formal
      analysis, it is necessary to broaden our foundational tools and re-examine the
      interactions with natural sciences. In particular, the way the geometric and
      algebraic approaches organize knowledge is analyzed as a cross-disciplinary and
      cross-cultural issue and will be examined in Mathematical Physics and Biology. We
      finally discuss how the current notions of mathematical (phase) "space" should be
      revisited for the purposes of life sciences.

PMID- 28887143
TI  - Mind-life continuity: A qualitative study of conscious experience.
AB  - There are two fundamental models to understanding the phenomenon of natural life.
      One is the computational model, which is based on the symbolic thinking paradigm.
      The other is the biological organism model. The common difficulty attributed to
      these paradigms is that their reductive tools allow the phenomenological aspects
      of experience to remain hidden behind yes/no responses (behavioral tests), or
      brain 'pictures' (neuroimaging). Hence, one of the problems regards how to
      overcome methodological difficulties towards a non-reductive investigation of
      conscious experience. It is our aim in this paper to show how cooperation between
      Eastern and Western traditions may shed light for a non-reductive study of mind
      and life. This study focuses on the first-person experience associated with
      cognitive and mental events. We studied phenomenal data as a crucial fact for the
      domain of living beings, which, we expect, can provide the ground for a
      subsequent third-person study. The intervention with Jhana meditation, and its
      qualitative assessment, provided us with experiential profiles based upon
      subjects' evaluations of their own conscious experiences. The overall results
      should move towards an integrated or global perspective on mind where neither
      experience nor external mechanisms have the final word.

PMID- 28887140
TI  - Envisioning Women-Centered HIV Care: Perspectives from Women Living with HIV in
      Canada.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women comprise nearly one-quarter of people living with human
      immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Canada. Compared with men, women living with HIV
      experience inequities in HIV care and health outcomes, prompting a need for
      gendered and tailored approaches to HIV care. METHOD: Peer and academic
      researchers from the Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort
      Study conducted focus groups to understand women's experience of seeking care,
      with the purpose of identifying key characteristics that define a women-centered
      approach to HIV care. Eleven focus groups were conducted with 77 women living
      with HIV across Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, Canada. RESULTS: Women
      envisioned three central characteristics of women-centered HIV care, including i)
      coordinated and integrated services that address both HIV and women's health care
      priorities, and protect against exclusion from care due to HIV-related stigma,
      ii) care that recognizes and responds to structural barriers that limit women's
      access to care, such as violence, poverty, motherhood, HIV-related stigma, and
      challenges to safe disclosure, and iii) care that fosters peer support and peer
      leadership in its design and delivery to honor the diversity of women's
      experiences, overcome women's isolation, and prioritize women's ownership over
      the decisions that affect their lives. CONCLUSION: Despite advances in HIV
      treatment and care, the current care landscape is inadequate to meet women's
      comprehensive care needs. A women-centered approach to HIV care, as envisioned by
      women living with HIV, is central to guiding policy and practice to improve care
      and outcomes for women living with HIV in Canada.

PMID- 28887144
TI  - Sheaf theoretic formulation for consciousness and qualia and relationship to the
      idealism of non-dual philosophies.
AB  - Questions about the nature of reality, whether Consciousness is the fundamental
      reality in the universe, and what is Consciousness itself, have no answer in
      systems that assume an external reality independent of Consciousness. Ultimately,
      the ontological foundation of such systems is the absolute division of subject
      and object. We advocate instead what we consider to be an approach that is in
      agreement with the foundation of quantum reality, which is based on Ramanuja's
      version of Vedanta philosophy and non-dual Kashmir Saivism. Quantum mechanics
      opened the door to consciousness, but it cannot account for consciousness.
      However, the quantum measurement problem implies that we cannot remove subjective
      experience from the practice of science. It is then appropriate to seek
      mathematical formalisms for the workings of consciousness that don't rely on
      specific interpretations of quantum mechanics. Temporal topos provides such a
      framework. In the theory of temporal topos, which we outline here, the difference
      between a subject and an object involves the direction of a morphism in a
      category. We also note that in the dual category, the direction of the morphism
      is in the opposite direction compared with the original direction of the original
      category. The resulting formalism provides powerful ways to address consciousness
      and qualia, beyond attempts to account for consciousness through physical
      theories. We also discuss the implications of the mathematics presented here for
      the convergence of science and non-dualist philosophies, as an emerging science
      of Consciousness, that may bring out the underlying unity of physics, life and
      mind.

PMID- 28887145
TI  - Role of an estradiol regulatory factor-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD) in
      Toxoplasma gondii infection and pathogenicity.
AB  - Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan parasite that infects most species of warm
      blooded animals, including humans, and causes abortions and severe damage to the
      fetal central nervous system. During pregnancy, the prevalence of toxoplasmosis
      increases throughout the second and third quarter of gestation, while the
      hormones progesterone and estradiol simultaneously increase. Thus, it has been
      suggested that these hormones could affect parasite reproduction. This study was
      mainly focused on an estradiol regulatory factor-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase
      (HSD) gene in T. gondii. Our data showed that estradiol promoted Pru (Type II)
      and VEG (Type III) infection and thus significantly contributed to the
      pathogenicity of T. gondii in mice. Subsequently, we found that this phenomenon
      may relate to the interplay of T. gondii and estradiol. We reported that
      estradiol can enter T. gondii tachyzoites. Bioinformatics analysis showed that T.
      gondii may have a residual estradiol metabolism-related gene HSD. To verify the
      gene function, HEK293T cells were transiently transfected with Tg-HSD and gene
      expression was induced. Then, HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography)
      analysis showed that Tg-HSD can efficiently transform estrone into estradiol.
      Moreover, Tg-HSD -overexpressing parasites showed significantly enhanced
      pathogenicity and upregulation of estradiol levels in mice. In conclusion,
      estradiol can promote T. gondii infection in vitro and in vivo, and this may be
      related to its Tg- HSD gene.

PMID- 28887146
TI  - Analysing the effect of multiple sclerosis on vitamin D related biochemical
      markers of bone remodelling.
AB  - The Irish population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency during the winter months,
      but the secular trend over the past 40 years is for marked improvement. Multiple
      sclerosis (MS) is common in Ireland with a latitudinal pattern favouring highest
      incidence in northern regions; MS is linked strongly with vitamin D status as a
      causal factor. We sought firstly to study the relationship between vitamin D
      status and vitamin D-related bone biochemistry, and secondly to evaluate if MS
      had an independent effect on vitamin D related markers of bone remodelling. Using
      a case-control design of 165 pairs (MS patient and matched control) residing in
      three different geographic regions during winter months, we measured serum 25
      hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), parathyroid hormone (PTH), C-terminal telopeptide of
      type I collagen (CTX) and total procollagen type I amino-terminal propeptide
      (PINP). Given the paired case-control design, associations were explored using
      mixed-effects linear regression analysis with the patient-control pair as a
      random effect and after log transformation of 25OHD. A two-way interaction effect
      was tested for vitamin D status (25OHD <30nmol/L) and the presence of MS on PTH,
      CTX, and PINP. In the total group, just over one-third (34.5%) had 25OHD
      <30nmol/L. PTH was elevated in 7.6%. CTX was not elevated in any case, and PINP
      was elevated in 4.5%. On mixed-effects linear regression analysis after adjusting
      for confounders (age, sex, renal function, and serum albumin), we demonstrated
      the principal determinant of 25OHD was geographical location (p<0.001), of PTH
      was 25OHD (p<0.001), of CTX was PTH (p<0.001), and of PINP was PTH (p<0.001). MS
      did not have an independent effect on PTH (p=0.921), CTX (p=0.912), or PINP
      (p=0.495). As regards an interaction effect, the presence of MS and 25OHD
      <30nmol/L was not significant but tended towards having lower PTH (p=0.207). In
      conclusion, in Ireland in winter only a minority had any abnormality in the
      secondary indices of vitamin D deficiency, and MS had no independent effect on
      parathyroid status or bone remodelling activity.

PMID- 28887147
TI  - Both ligand and VDR expression levels critically determine the effect of
      1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D3 on osteoblast differentiation.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D) through
      vitamin D receptor (VDR) signalling has both catabolic and anabolic effects on
      osteoblast differentiation. However, the mechanism of these differential effects
      by 1,25D is not fully understood. In this study, mice with three different
      genetic backgrounds, representing a normal VDR level (wild-type, WT), VDR over
      expression specifically in mature osteoblasts (ObVDR-B6) and global VDR knockout
      (VDRKO), were utilised to generate primary osteoblast-like cultures to further
      elucidate the effects of 1,25D on osteoblast differentiation. Our data confirm
      the importance of VDR in the late stage of osteogenic differentiation and also
      for the expression of factors critical for osteoblastic support of osteoclast
      formation. This study also demonstrates the differential effects of a
      pharmacological level of 1,25D (1nM) on the expression of osteogenic
      differentiation markers, including Ocn and Sost, depending on the relative level
      of VDR. Our findings suggest that 1,25D plays an inhibitory role in matrix
      mineralisation, possibly through the modulation of the tissue non-specific
      alkaline phosphatase to ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 axis,
      in a VDR level-dependent manner. We conclude that the relative VDR level and the
      1,25D availability to cells, are important co-determinants for whether 1,25D
      plays a promoting or suppressive role in osteoblast-mediated osteogenic activity.

PMID- 28887148
TI  - Objective choice of phylogeographic models.
AB  - Phylogeography seeks to discover the evolutionary processes that have given rise
      to organismal and genetic diversity. This requires explicit hypotheses (i.e.,
      models) to be evaluated with genetic data in order to identify those hypotheses
      that best explain the data. In recent years, advancements in the model-based
      tools used to estimate phylogeographic parameters of interest such as gene flow,
      divergence time, and relationships among groups have been made. However, given
      the complexity of these models, available methods can typically only compare a
      handful of possible hypotheses, requiring researchers to specify in advance the
      small set of models to consider. Without formal quantitative approaches to model
      selection, researchers must rely on their intuition to formulate the model space
      to be explored. We explore the adequacy of intuitive choices made by researchers
      during the process of data analysis by reanalyzing 20 empirical phylogeographic
      datasets using PHRAPL, an objective tool for phylogeographic model selection. We
      show that the best models for most datasets include both gene flow and population
      divergence parameters, and that species tree methods (which do not consider gene
      flow) tend to be overly simplistic for many phylogeographic systems. Objective
      approaches to phylogeographic model selection offer an important complement to
      researcher intuition.

PMID- 28887149
TI  - Transcriptome and target DNA enrichment sequence data provide new insights into
      the phylogeny of vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata: Vespidae).
AB  - The wasp family Vespidae comprises more than 5000 described species which
      represent life history strategies ranging from solitary and presocial to eusocial
      and socially parasitic. The phylogenetic relationships of the major vespid wasp
      lineages (i.e., subfamilies and tribes) have been investigated repeatedly by
      analyzing behavioral and morphological traits as well as nucleotide sequences of
      few selected genes with largely incongruent results. Here we reconstruct their
      phylogenetic relationships using a phylogenomic approach. We sequenced the
      transcriptomes of 24 vespid wasp and eight outgroup species and exploited the
      transcript sequences for design of probes for enriching 913 single-copy protein
      coding genes to complement the transcriptome data with nucleotide sequence data
      from additional 25 ethanol-preserved vespid species. Results from phylogenetic
      analyses of the combined sequence data revealed the eusocial subfamily
      Stenogastrinae to be the sister group of all remaining Vespidae, while the
      subfamily Eumeninae turned out to be paraphyletic. Of the three currently
      recognized eumenine tribes, Odynerini is paraphyletic with respect to Eumenini,
      and Zethini is paraphyletic with respect to Polistinae and Vespinae. Our results
      are in conflict with the current tribal subdivision of Eumeninae and thus, we
      suggest granting subfamily rank to the two major clades of "Zethini":
      Raphiglossinae and Zethinae. Overall, our findings corroborate the hypothesis of
      two independent origins of eusociality in vespid wasps and suggest a single
      origin of using masticated and salivated plant material for building nests by
      Raphiglossinae, Zethinae, Polistinae, and Vespinae. The inferred phylogenetic
      relationships and the open access vespid wasp target DNA enrichment probes will
      provide a valuable tool for future comparative studies on species of the family
      Vespidae, including their genomes, life styles, evolution of sociality, and co
      evolution with other organisms.

PMID- 28887150
TI  - Geography and past climate changes have shaped the evolution of a widespread
      lizard from the Chilean hotspot.
AB  - The complex orogenic history and structure of Southern South America, coupled
      with Pleistocene glacial cycles, have generated paleoclimatic and environmental
      changes that influenced the spatial distribution and genetic composition of
      natural populations. Despite the increased number of phylogeographic studies in
      this region and given the frequent idiosyncratic phylogeographic patterns, there
      is still the need to focus research especially on species that are currently
      distributed within a wide range of bioclimatic regimes, and that historically
      have been subject to contrasting scenarios. Liolaemus tenuis is a widely
      distributed lizard species inhabiting latitudinally in almost 1000km through
      central and southern Chile. Here we describe the geographical patterns of genetic
      variation and lineage diversification within L. tenuis, and their association
      with geography and Pleistocene glaciations, using sequences from one
      mitochondrial and two nuclear genes, and five microsatellite loci, and covering
      most of the species distributional range. Our results revealed a high diversity
      both within and among populations, as well as two phylogeographic breaks, which
      are consistent with two of the larger rivers of central Chile, the Maipo and
      Biobio Rivers. Liolaemus tenuis is characterized by several allopatric lineages,
      especially in its north and central range, which suggest a history of multiple
      vicariance processes. Conversely, populations found in the southern range, south
      of the Biobio River, show signatures of recent decreases in effective population
      sizes, coupled with recent range expansions and secondary contact. Niche
      "envelope" data are consistent with patterns of genetic variation; both suggest a
      history of discontinuous areas of relatively stable populations throughout all of
      the distribution of L. tenuis. These data are also consistent with higher
      probabilities of habitat suitability north of the Maipo River (ca. 33 degrees S),
      in both coastal areas and the "Intermediate Depression" between 34 degrees  and
      37 degrees S, as well as in the southern Coastal Cordillera between the Biobio
      and Araucania regions. Interestingly, both molecular and niche envelope modeling
      data suggest that some populations may have persisted in fragmented refugia in
      Andean valleys, within the limits of the ice sheet. Finally, our results suggest
      that several populations of L. tenuis colonized glaciated regions from refugial
      areas in lowlands and coastal regions, and in the southern distribution, historic
      migration events would have occurred from refugial areas within the limits of the
      ice sheet.

PMID- 28887152
TI  - Cerebral oximetry leading up to cardiac arrest: A marker of the impact of mean
      arterial pressure on the brain, but not time of death.

PMID- 28887151
TI  - Altered synaptobrevin-II trafficking in neurons expressing a synaptophysin
      mutation associated with a severe neurodevelopmental disorder.
AB  - Following exocytosis, synaptic vesicles (SVs) have to be reformed with the
      correct complement of proteins in the correct stoichiometry to ensure continued
      neurotransmission. Synaptophysin is a highly abundant, integral SV protein
      necessary for the efficient retrieval of the SV SNARE protein, synaptobrevin II
      (sybII). However the molecular mechanism underpinning synaptophysin-dependent
      sybII retrieval is still unclear. We recently identified a male patient with
      severe intellectual disability, hypotonia, epilepsy and callosal agenesis who has
      a point mutation in the juxtamembrane region of the fourth transmembrane domain
      of synaptophysin (T198I). This mutation had no effect on the activity-dependent
      retrieval of synaptophysin that was tagged with the genetically-encoded pH
      sensitive reporter (pHluorin) in synaptophysin knockout hippocampal cultures.
      This suggested the mutant has no global effect on SV endocytosis, which was
      confirmed when retrieval of a different SV cargo (the glutamate transporter
      vGLUT1) was examined. However neurons expressing this T198I mutant did display
      impaired activity-dependent sybII retrieval, similar to that observed in
      synaptophysin knockout neurons. Interestingly this impairment did not result in
      an increased stranding of sybII at the plasma membrane. Screening of known human
      synaptophysin mutations revealed a similar presynaptic phenotype between T198I
      and a mutation found in X-linked intellectual disability. Thus this novel human
      synaptophysin mutation has revealed that aberrant retrieval and increased plasma
      membrane localisation of SV cargo can be decoupled in human disease.

PMID- 28887154
TI  - Comparing the effects of two distinct eccentric modalities to traditional
      resistance training in resistance trained, higher functioning older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effects of eccentric resistance exercise are of interest in the
      older adult cohort, but to our knowledge, there is no research on the relative
      effects of different eccentric modalities on a range of outcomes in higher
      functioning, resistance trained older adults. METHODS: 33 resistance-trained
      older adults (aged 67+/-4.5years) were randomized into one of three supervised
      training groups: traditional (TRE), eccentric only (ERE) or eccentrically biased
      resistance exercise (EBRE) on a 45 degrees , plate-loaded leg press machine.
      Participants trained twice per week with maximal strength, functional capacity,
      body composition and blood biomarkers measured before and after the eight-week
      intervention. RESULTS: Both eccentric and concentric strength, and important
      functional tasks for independent living significantly improved independent of
      group. Body composition and blood biomarkers were found to significantly improve
      in the EBRE group only however, no statistical differences were found between
      groups. CONCLUSION: Compared to traditional resistance training, the two
      eccentric modalities investigated here were equally effective for improvements in
      maximum muscular strength, functional capacity, body composition and metabolic
      biomarkers. When training the resistance trained older adult, very heavy
      isoinertial external loads (at least 70% of one repetition maximum) are effective
      irrespective of contraction mode. With heavy strength training, resistance
      trained older adults can continue to expect improvements in health and function.

PMID- 28887153
TI  - The Eya phosphatase: Its unique role in cancer.
AB  - The Eya proteins were originally identified as essential transcriptional co
      activators of the Six family of homeoproteins. Subsequently, the highly conserved
      C-terminal domains of the Eya proteins were discovered to act as a Mg2+-dependent
      Tyr phosphatases, making Eyas the first transcriptional activators to harbor
      intrinsic phosphatase activity. Only two direct targets of the Eya Tyr
      phosphatase have been identified: H2AX, whose dephosphorylation directs cells to
      the DNA repair instead of the apoptotic pathway upon DNA damage, and ERbeta,
      whose dephosphorylation inhibits its anti-tumor transcriptional activity. The Eya
      Tyr phosphatase mediates breast cancer cell transformation, migration, invasion,
      as well as metastasis, through targets not yet identified. Intriguingly, the N
      terminal domain of Eya contains a separate Ser/Thr phosphatase activity
      implicated in innate immunity and in regulating c-Myc stability. Thus, Eya
      proteins are highly complex, containing two separable phosphatase domains and a
      transcriptional activation domain, thereby influencing tumor progression through
      multiple mechanisms.

PMID- 28887155
TI  - Corrigendum to 'Jack Nicholson: A Reel and Real-Life Contribution to
      Neurosciences' [World Neurosurgery 101 (2017) 718-721].

PMID- 28887156
TI  - The association between FOXP3 gene variations and autism: True or false positive?

PMID- 28887157
TI  - Effect of a single nucleotide polymorphism in the growth hormone secretagogue
      receptor (GHSR) gene on growth rate in pigs.
AB  - The growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) gene controls growth hormone (GH)
      release by inducing a strong stimulatory effect on the endogenous ligand,
      ghrelin. In this study, we examined the possible role of GHSR in the growth
      traits of four pig breeds, namely Tibetan pigs (n=45), Diannan small-eared pigs
      (n=40), Yorkshire pigs (n=45), and New Huai pigs (n=122). Single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in these pigs were identified by polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR) sequencing and genotyping was performed using PCR-restriction fragment
      length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLPs). A SNP (C/A) named C-1595A (the "C" allele),
      which is located 1595bp upstream of the initiation codon of the GHSR gene, was
      found at a higher frequency in the fast-growing Yorkshire pigs than in the slow
      growing Tibetan and Diannan small-eared pigs. In preliminary assays, the C-1595A
      genotype was found to be associated with growth traits in New Huai pigs.
      Quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting assays were used to measure the
      levels of GHSR1a, a functionally active form of the GHSR protein, in the tissues
      of the growth axis. The estimated levels of mRNA and protein in pituitary and
      liver tissues were significantly higher in Yorkshire pigs than in Diannan small
      eared or Tibetan pigs (P<0.05). The results indicated that GHSR had a positive
      influence on the growth rate of pigs and suggested that the C-1595A SNP could be
      of value as a molecular marker for improving the production performance of pig
      breeds.

PMID- 28887158
TI  - Lack of association of CASC8 rs1447295 with colorectal cancer in Iranian
      population: A multicenter case-control study.
AB  - Several studies reported the potential role of the rs1447295 polymorphism in
      susceptibility to cancer. This variant located in the cancer susceptibility
      candidate 8 (CASC8) is a long noncoding RNA (lnRNA) gene and does not code
      protein. LnRNA transcripts play a potential regulatory role in the expression of
      key genes involved in multiple cellular pathways, including cell cycle,
      pluripotency, and immune response. The aim of this study is to evaluate this
      association with colorectal cancer (CRC) in a large case-control study of the
      Iranian population. After extraction of genomic DNA by the standard protocols,
      the rs1447295 was genotyped in 2416 subjects (46% patients). Results of this case
      control demonstrated no significant association between the rs1447295
      polymorphism and risk of CRC or its characteristics under allele or alternative
      genotype models. In conclusion, it is unlikely that the rs1447295 polymorphism is
      a risk variant for the development of CRC in Iranian population.

PMID- 28887159
TI  - Integrative analysis of DNA methylation and mRNA expression during
      differentiation of umbilical cord blood derived mononuclear cells to endothelial
      cells.
AB  - Differentiation of umbilical cord blood derived mononuclear cells to endothelial
      cells is accompanied by massive changes in gene expression. Although methylation
      and demethylation of DNA likely play crucial roles in regulating gene expression,
      their interplay during differentiation remains elusive. To address this question,
      we performed deep sequencing of DNA methylation and mRNA expression to profile
      global changes in promoter methylation and gene expression during differentiation
      from mononuclear cells to outgrowing cells. We identified 61 downregulated genes
      with hypermethylation, including CD74, VAV1, TLR8, and NCF4, as well as 21
      upregulated genes with hypomethylation, including ECSCR, MCAM, PGF, and ARHGEF15.
      Interestingly, gene ontology analysis showed that downregulated genes with
      hypermethylation were enriched in immune-related functions, and upregulated genes
      with hypomethylation were enriched in the developmental process and angiogenesis,
      indicating the important roles of DNA methylation in regulating differentiation.
      We performed polymerase chain reaction analyses and bisulfite sequencing of
      representative genes (CD74, VAV1, ECSCR, and MCAM) to verify the negative
      correlation between DNA methylation and gene expression. Further, inhibition of
      DNA methyltransferase and demethylase activities using 5'-aza-dc and shRNAs,
      specific for TET1 and TET2 mRNAs, respectively, revealed that DNA methylation was
      the main regulator of the reversible expression of functionally important genes.
      Collectively, our findings implicate DNA methylation as a critical regulator of
      gene expression during umbilical cord blood derived mononuclear cells to
      endothelial cell differentiation.

PMID- 28887160
TI  - Silencing of the pentose phosphate pathway genes influences DNA replication in
      human fibroblasts.
AB  - Previous reports and our recently published data indicated that some enzymes of
      glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle can affect the genome replication
      process by changing either the efficiency or timing of DNA synthesis in human
      normal cells. Both these pathways are connected with the pentose phosphate
      pathway (PPP pathway). The PPP pathway supports cell growth by generating energy
      and precursors for nucleotides and amino acids. Therefore, we asked if silencing
      of genes coding for enzymes involved in the pentose phosphate pathway may also
      affect the control of DNA replication in human fibroblasts. Particular genes
      coding for PPP pathway enzymes were partially silenced with specific siRNAs. Such
      cells remained viable. We found that silencing of the H6PD, PRPS1, RPE genes
      caused less efficient enterance to the S phase and decrease in efficiency of DNA
      synthesis. On the other hand, in cells treated with siRNA against G6PD, RBKS and
      TALDO genes, the fraction of cells entering the S phase was increased. However,
      only in the case of G6PD and TALDO, the ratio of BrdU incorporation to DNA was
      significantly changed. The presented results together with our previously
      published studies illustrate the complexity of the influence of genes coding for
      central carbon metabolism on the control of DNA replication in human fibroblasts,
      and indicate which of them are especially important in this process.

PMID- 28887161
TI  - Loss of discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) via CpG methylation during EMT in
      epithelial ovarian cancer.
AB  - Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) can be stratified according to the stages of
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here, we aim to identify tyrosine
      kinases (TKs) in EOC that correlate with the EMT subtypes. By gene expression
      microarray, we analyzed the expression levels of tyrosine kinases in EOC cell
      lines in correlation with EMT. Among the candidate TKs identified, DDR1 was
      expressed mainly in EOC cells with an Epithelial phenotype. Its expression was
      validated by qPCR, ELISA and western blotting. Using Infinium HumanMethylation27K
      BeadChip array and pyrosequencing, we further analyzed the CpG methylation levels
      at the DDR1 promoter in EOC cells and found that the CpG methylation levels of
      DDR1 promoter correlated negatively with the expression of DDR1 along the EMT
      spectrum. Therefore, EMT stratification could be a potential biomarker to predict
      patient response to DDR1-targeting drugs.

PMID- 28887162
TI  - Extrinsic nerves are not involved in branchial 5-HT dynamics or pulsatile urea
      excretion in Gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta.
AB  - Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta) can switch from continuously excreting ammonia as
      their primary nitrogenous waste to excreting predominantly urea in distinct
      pulses. Previous studies have shown that the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) is
      involved in controlling this process, but it is unknown if 5-HT availability is
      under central nervous control or if the 5-HT signal originates from a peripheral
      source. Following up on a previous study, cranial nerves IX (glossopharyngeal)
      and X (vagus) were sectioned to further characterize their role in controlling
      pulsatile urea excretion and 5-HT release within the gill. In contrast to an
      earlier study, nerve sectioning did not result in a change in urea pulse
      frequency. Total urea excretion, average pulse size, total nitrogen excretion,
      and percent ureotely were reduced the first day post-surgery in nerve-sectioned
      fish but recovered by 72h post-surgery. Nerve sectioning also had no effect on
      toadfish urea transporter (tUT), 5-HT transporter (SERT), or 5-HT2A receptor mRNA
      expression or 5-HT and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) abundance in the gill,
      all of which were found consistently across the three gill arches except 5-HIAA,
      which was undetectable in the first gill arch. Our findings indicate that the
      central nervous system does not directly control pulsatile urea excretion or
      local changes in gill 5-HT and 5-HIAA abundance.

PMID- 28887163
TI  - Reply to: "Insufficient accuracy of computed tomography-based portal pressure
      assessment in hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis: An analysis of data from CHESS
      1601 trial".

PMID- 28887164
TI  - Type A viral hepatitis: A summary and update on the molecular virology,
      epidemiology, pathogenesis and prevention.
AB  - Although epidemic jaundice was well known to physicians of antiquity, it is only
      in recent years that medical science has begun to unravel the origins of
      hepatitis A virus (HAV) and the unique pathobiology underlying acute hepatitis A
      in humans. Improvements in sanitation and the successful development of highly
      efficacious vaccines have markedly reduced the worldwide prevalence and incidence
      of this enterically-transmitted infection over the past quarter century, yet the
      virus persists in vulnerable populations and remains a common cause of food-borne
      disease outbreaks in economically-advantaged societies. Reductions in the
      prevalence of HAV have led to increases in the median age at which infection
      occurs, often resulting in more severe disease in affected persons and
      paradoxical increases in disease burden in some developing nations. Here, we
      summarize recent advances in the molecular virology of HAV, an atypical member of
      the Picornaviridae family, survey what is known of the pathogenesis of hepatitis
      A in humans and the host-pathogen interactions that typify the infection, and
      review medical and public health aspects of immunisation and disease prevention.

PMID- 28887165
TI  - Insufficient accuracy of computed tomography-based portal pressure assessment in
      hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis: An analysis of data from CHESS-1601 trial.

PMID- 28887166
TI  - Dusp14 protects against hepatic ischaemia-reperfusion injury via Tak1
      suppression.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatic ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is characterised by
      severe inflammation and extensive cell death. Multiple signalling pathways,
      including NF-kappaB and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/c-Jun NH2
      terminal kinase (JNK), have important roles in this process. Identifying the
      unknown critical regulators of these signalling pathways could provide potential
      targets for therapeutic application. Dual-specificity phosphatase 14 (DUSP14)
      acts as a negative regulator of NF-kappaB signalling. However, its function in
      hepatic I/R injury is unknown. METHODS: Hepatocyte-specific Dusp14 knockout (HKO)
      and transgenic (TG) mice were subjected to hepatic I/R surgery to examine Dusp14
      function in vivo. Primary hepatocytes isolated from Dusp14-HKO and Dusp14-TG mice
      were cultured and subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation insult in vitro.
      Inflammatory cytokine production was measured using quantitative reverse
      transcription PCR and ELISA. Liver damage was analysed using histopathology. Co
      immunoprecipitation and pull-down assays followed by Western blot were performed
      to detect Dusp14 and transforming growth factor (Tgf)-beta-activated kinase 1
      (Tak1) interactions. RESULTS: Dusp14 was significantly downregulated in liver
      tissues from liver transplantation patients and mice subjected to hepatic I/R
      surgery. Dusp14-HKO and Dusp14-TG mouse models demonstrated that Dusp14 reduced
      cell death, ameliorated inflammation, and promoted hepatocyte proliferation
      and/or regeneration. Dusp14 also suppressed NF-kappaB and MAPK signalling via a
      physical interaction with Tak1, leading to its subsequent inhibition. Tak1
      inhibition by 5Z-7-ox abolished Dusp14 function in vivo, indicating that TAK1 is
      required for Dusp14 function in hepatic I/R injury. Finally, mutant Dusp14 lost
      the ability to bind Tak1 and failed to protect against hepatic I/R injury.
      CONCLUSIONS: Dusp14 is a protective factor in hepatic I/R injury, and the Dusp14
      Tak1-Jnk1/2 regulatory axis is important for the pathogenesis of hepatic I/R
      injury. Modulation of this axis could be a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent
      or interfere with this pathological process. LAY SUMMARY: Reductions in the level
      of the protein Dusp14 are closely associated with liver damage caused by
      inadequate blood supply followed by restoration of blood flow to the liver.
      Dusp14 protects against liver damage by suppressing the activity of Tak1.
      Targeting Dusp14 could be a strategy for prevention and treatment of this
      disease.

PMID- 28887167
TI  - Identification of Slug and SOX7 as transcriptional repressors binding to the
      hepatitis B virus core promoter.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: The Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) may gain entry into non-liver
      cells but does not actively replicate in them. We investigated the possibility
      that these cells possess mechanisms that block HBV core promoter (HBVCP)
      transcription, specifically absent in liver cells, which together with other
      liver-specific mechanisms, such as sodium-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide
      mediated entry, enable liver cells to effectively produce HBV. METHODS: Liver and
      non-liver cell lines were screened for their capacity to activate the HBVCP and
      synthesize pre-genomic RNA (pgRNA). Transcription regulators differentially
      expressed between cells with active or inactive HBVCP were determined by human
      transcriptome array. Slug (SNAI2) and SRY-related HMG box 7 (SOX7)
      transcriptional repressors were identified and shown to bind specifically to the
      HBVCP by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. The resultant inhibitory effect on
      HBVCP transcription was validated using luciferase reporter and assays for pgRNA,
      HBcAg and cccDNA accumulation in cells with HBV replicon and HBV infection
      models. To further confirm their specific activity, short peptide mimetics
      generated from Slug zinc-finger domains and SOX7 HMG-box were generated. RESULTS:
      The HBVCP was found to be active in liver and selected non-liver cells. These
      cells have low/negligible expression of Slug and SOX7, which inhibit HBVCP
      transcription specifically by binding at the pgRNA initiator site and
      competitively displacing hepatocyte nuclear factor 4alpha, respectively.
      Overexpression of Slug and/or SOX7 specifically reduced HBVCP transcription,
      significantly diminishing pgRNA synthesis, HBcAg and cccDNA accumulation in HBV
      infected primary human hepatocytes. Similar results were obtained with Slug and
      SOX7 stapled peptides individually, which were even more potent in combination.
      CONCLUSIONS: Slug and SOX7 are transcriptional repressors that bind specifically
      to the HBVCP. Their absence or weak expression in liver cells contribute to the
      favorable host environment for the active and efficient production of HBV. LAY
      SUMMARY: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication occurs efficiently in human liver
      because of the specificity of viral uptake receptors and presence of numerous
      liver-enriched transcription activators. Herein, we show that the specific lack
      of transcriptional inhibitory mechanisms in liver cells also contribute to
      effective HBV production. HBV replication is kept low in non-liver cells as
      transcriptional repressors Slug and SRY-related HMG box 7 (SOX7) actively bind to
      the transcriptional initiator and displace transcription activators,
      respectively, within the HBV core promoter.

PMID- 28887168
TI  - HCV eradication induced by direct-acting antiviral agents reduces the risk of
      hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: It is unclear whether direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment
      induced sustained virologic response (SVR) reduces the risk of hepatocellular
      carcinoma (HCC) in patients with HCV infection. Therefore, in the current study,
      our aim was to determine the impact of DAA-induced SVR on HCC risk. METHODS: We
      identified 62,354 patients who initiated antiviral treatment in the Veterans
      Affairs (VA) national healthcare system from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2015,
      including 35,871 (58%) interferon (IFN)-only regimens, 4,535 (7.2%) DAA + IFN
      regimens, and 21,948 (35%) DAA-only regimens. We retrospectively followed
      patients until 15 June 2017 to identify incident cases of HCC. We used Cox
      proportional hazards regression to determine the association between SVR and HCC
      risk or between type of antiviral regimen (DAA-only vs. DAA + IFN vs. IFN-only)
      and HCC risk. RESULTS: We identified 3,271 incident cases of HCC diagnosed at
      least 180 days after initiation of antiviral treatment during a mean follow-up of
      6.1 years. The incidence of HCC was highest in patients with cirrhosis and
      treatment failure (3.25 per 100 patient-years), followed by cirrhosis and SVR
      (1.97), no cirrhosis and treatment failure (0.87), and no cirrhosis and SVR
      (0.24). SVR was associated with a significantly decreased risk of HCC in
      multivariable models irrespective of whether the antiviral treatment was DAA-only
      (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 0.29; 95% CI 0.23-0.37), DAA + IFN (AHR 0.48; 95% CI
      0.32-0.73) or IFN-only (AHR 0.32; 95% CI 0.28-0.37). Receipt of a DAA-only or DAA
      + IFN regimen was not associated with increased HCC risk compared with receipt of
      an IFN-only regimen. CONCLUSIONS: DAA-induced SVR is associated with a 71%
      reduction in HCC risk. Treatment with DAAs is not associated with increased HCC
      risk compared with treatment with IFN. LAY SUMMARY: It was unclear whether direct
      acting antiviral treatment-induced sustained virologic response reduces the risk
      of liver cancer in patients with HCV infection. We demonstrated that eradication
      of HCV infection with direct-acting antiviral agents reduces the risk of liver
      cancer by 71%.

PMID- 28887169
TI  - In vitro and in vivo exploration of palmitic acid from Synechococcus elongatus as
      an antibiofilm agent on the survival of Artemia franciscana against virulent
      vibrios.
AB  - Biofilm formation of Vibrio spp. has been demonstrated as a potentially important
      mechanism contributing antibiotic treatment failure in aquaculture. In the
      present study, the effect of palmitic acid (PA) identified from Synechococcus
      elongatus was assessed for the inhibition of quorum sensing (QS) regulated
      biofilm formation in aquatic bacterial pathogens. The biofilm inhibitory
      concentration (BIC) of PA against Vibrio spp. was found to be 100ugml-1. In this
      concentration, PA exhibited a significant inhibition in biofilm biomass of Vibrio
      harveyi MTCC 3438, V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802, V. vulnificus MTCC 1145 and V.
      alginolyticus ATCC 17749 without hindering their planktonic growth. Also, PA
      displayed gradual decrease in bioluminescence production of V. harveyi. The
      results of extracellular polymeric substances quantification, microbial adhesion
      to hydrocarbons and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FT-IR) analyses
      suggested that PA positively interferes with the initial adhesion stages of
      biofilm formation. In addition, confocal and scanning electron microscopic
      analysis substantiates the antibiofilm efficacy of the PA. The transcriptomic
      analysis revealed the down-regulation of QS mediated response regulator genes
      expression in V. harveyi. Concomitantly, PA reduced the intestinal colonization
      of vibrios in brine shrimp larvae and thereby attenuates the biofilm assemblage
      and its associated virulence. In vivo studies using brine shrimp larvae
      manifested the reduction in adherence and virulence, which prompts further
      investigation about the potential of PA for the treatment of vibriosis.

PMID- 28887170
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of antitumor, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity
      of novel deoxycholic acid derivatives bearing aryl- or hetarylsulfanyl moieties
      at the C-3 position.
AB  - Novel deoxycholic acid (DCA) derivatives were stereoselectively synthesised with 
      OH and -CH2SR moieties at the C-3 position, where R was a substituted aryl [2
      aminophenyl (8) or 4-chlorophenyl (9)] or hetaryl [1-methylimidazolyl (5), 1,2,4
      triazolyl (6), 5-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazolyl (7), pyridinyl (10) or pyrimidinyl
      (11)]. These compounds were prepared in good yields from the C-3beta-epoxy
      derivative 2 in the epoxide ring-opening reaction by S-nucleophiles. These
      derivatives were evaluated for their in vitro anti-proliferation activity in a
      panel of tumor cell lines. Data showed that: (i) heterocycle-containing
      derivatives displayed higher cytotoxicity profiles than the parent molecule; (ii)
      heterocyclic substituents were more preferable than aryl moieties for enhancing
      anti-proliferation activity; (iii) the sensitivity of tumor cell lines to
      analysed compounds decreased in the following order: HuTu-80 (duodenal
      carcinoma)>KB-3-1 (cervical carcinoma)>HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma)>MH-22a
      (hepatoma); (iv) compounds 5, 6 and 11 exhibited a high cytotoxic selectivity
      index (HuTu-80: SI>7.7, 38.5 and 12.0, respectively). Compounds 2 and 6-8
      markedly inhibited NO synthesis by interferon gamma-induced macrophages.
      Screening for anti-inflammatory activity of these derivatives in vivo showed
      their high potency on histamine- (5, 10) and formalin- (2, 10, 11) induced paw
      edema models.

PMID- 28887171
TI  - Some observations on solasodine reactivity.
AB  - This article presents new transformations of solasodine - a representative
      steroid alkaloid sapogenin from the Solanum family. Oxidation of N,O-diacetylated
      solasodine with either NaNO2/BF3.Et2O or t-BuONO/BF3.Et2O resulted in partial
      degradation of the side chain to (20S)-3beta-acetoxypregn-5-ene-20,16beta
      carbolactone (vespertilin acetate). The same starting compound when treated with
      TMSOTf afforded the corresponding pseudosapogenin after aqueous work-up. However,
      when the crude reaction mixture was directly subjected to purification on a
      silica gel column, efficient autoxidation to pregna-5,16-dien-3beta-ol-20-one
      acetate was observed. One-step synthesis of this important drug intermediate from
      spirosolan alkaloids may be potentially exploited for large-scale production of
      steroid hormones.

PMID- 28887172
TI  - Synthesis and in vitro anticancer activity of 23(23')E-benzylidenespirostanols
      derived from steroid sapogenins.
AB  - Benzylidenespirostanols were prepared by two-step synthesis including BF3.Et2O
      catalyzed aldol condensation of several acetylated steroid sapogenins with
      benzaldehyde followed by saponification. The obtained compounds showed moderate
      cytotoxicity against three cancer cell lines (T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line
      CEM, breast carcinoma cell line MCF7 and cervical carcinoma cell line HeLa) and
      normal human fibroblasts (BJ). The most active of the five tested substances was
      3c (lowest IC50 for MCF7 cells 19.9+/-0.1uM) without any selectivity towards
      human cancer and normal cells, respectively.

PMID- 28887173
TI  - Adsorption effects of the doping relevant peptides Insulin Lispro, Synachten, TB
      500 and GHRP 5.
AB  - The tendency of peptides to adsorb to surfaces can raise a concern in variety of
      analytical fields where the qualitative/quantitative measurement of low
      concentration analytes (ng/mL-pg/mL) is required. To demonstrate the importance
      of using the optimal glassware/plasticware, four doping relevant model peptides
      (GHRP 5, TB-500, Insulin Lispro, Synachten) were chosen and their recovery from
      various surfaces were evaluated. Our experiments showed that choosing expensive
      consumables with low-bind characteristics is not beneficial in all cases. A
      careful selection of the consumables based on the evaluation of the
      physico/chemical features of the peptide is recommended.

PMID- 28887174
TI  - Gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry offers advantages for urinary
      steroids analysis.
AB  - Gas chromatography mass spectrometry has been the lynchpin of clinical assessment
      of steroid profiles for ~3 decades. The improvements in assay performance offered
      by tandem mass spectrometry were assessed. Across the spectrum of glucocorticoid
      and androgen analytes tested, limits of detection and quantitation were ~20 fold
      lower with triple than single quadrupole systems, but the more noticeable
      improvement was that signal to noise was substantially improved and the linear
      range wider. These benefits allowed more reliable and concomitant measurement of
      steroids with substantially different abundances and in smaller volumes of urine.

PMID- 28887175
TI  - Epigenetics in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy in children. ALL
      arises from the malignant transformation of progenitor B- and T-cells in the bone
      marrow into leukemic cells, but the mechanisms underlying this transformation are
      not well understood. Recent technical advances and decreasing costs of methods
      for high-throughput DNA sequencing and SNP genotyping have stimulated systematic
      studies of the epigenetic changes in leukemic cells from pediatric ALL patients.
      The results emerging from these studies are increasing our understanding of the
      epigenetic component of leukemogenesis and have demonstrated the potential of DNA
      methylation as a biomarker for lineage and subtype classification,
      prognostication, and disease progression in ALL. In this review, we provide a
      concise examination of the epigenetic studies in ALL, with a focus on DNA
      methylation and mutations perturbing genes involved in chromatin modification,
      and discuss the future role of epigenetic analyses in research and clinical
      management of ALL.

PMID- 28887176
TI  - Ecoacoustic codes and ecological complexity.
AB  - Multi-layer communication and sensing network assures the exchange of relevant
      information between animals and their umwelten, imparting complexity to the
      ecological systems. Individual soniferous species, the acoustic community, and
      soundscape are the three main operational levels that comprise this multi-layer
      network. Acoustic adaptation and acoustic niche are two more important mechanisms
      that regulate the acoustic performances at the first level while the acoustic
      community model explains the complexity of the interspecific acoustic network at
      the second level. Acoustic habitat and ecoacoustic events are two of the most
      relevant mechanisms that operate at the third level. The exchange of ecoacoustic
      information on each of these levels is assured by ecoacoustic codes. At the level
      of individual sonifeorus species, a dyadic intraspecific exchange of information
      is established between an emitter and a receiver. Ecoacoustic codes discriminate,
      identify, and label specific signals that pertain to the theme, variation, motif
      repetition, and intensity of signals. At the acoustic community level, a
      voluntarily or involuntarily communication is established between networks of
      interspecific emitters and receivers. Ecoacoustic codes at this level transmit
      information (e.g., recognition of predators, location of food sources,
      availability and location of refuges) between one species and the acoustically
      interacting community and impart cohesion to interspecific assemblages. At the
      soundscape level, acoustic information is transferred from a mosaic of
      geophonies, biophonies, and technophonies to different species that discriminate
      meaningful ecoacoustic events and their temporal dynamics during habitat
      selection processes. Ecoacoustic codes at this level operate on a limited set of
      signals from the environmental acoustic dynamic that are heterogeneous in time
      and space, and these codes are interpreted differently according to the species
      during habitat selection and the completion of phenological cycles. The process
      of ecoacoustic coding can be interpreted according to the eco-field theory, which
      describes the procedures utilized by a receiver to intercept and optimize
      acoustic information. The acoustic codes may be detected and identified using
      mathematical models that simulate their performances. The Acoustic Complexity
      Indices are an appropriate tool to investigate the acoustic codes in action on
      all three levels. Ecoacoustic codes are powerful agencies used by sound-adapted
      species to cope with environmental novelties, and their efficiency may represent
      an important divide between whether a species perpetuates or becomes extinct.

PMID- 28887177
TI  - A step into the RNA world: Conditional analysis of hydrogel formation of
      adenosine 5'-monophosphate induced by cyanuric acid.
AB  - Nucleotide polymerization occurs by the nucleophilic attack of 3'-oxygen of the
      3'-terminal nucleotide on the alpha-phosphorus of the incoming nucleotide 5'
      triphosphate. The pi-stacking of mononucleotides is an important factor for
      prebiotic RNA polymerization in terms of attaining the proximity of two reacting
      moieties. Adenosine and adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) are known to form
      hydrogel in the presence of cyanuric acid at neutral pH. However, we observed
      that other canonical ribonucleotides did not gel under the same condition. The pi
      stacking-induced hydrogel formation of AMP was destroyed at pH 2.0, suggesting
      that the protonation of N at position 1 of adenine abolished hydrogen bonding
      with the NH of cyanuric acid and resulted in the deformation of the hexad of
      adenine and cyanuric acid. A liquid-like gel was formed in the case of adenosine
      with cyanuric acid and boric acid, whereas AMP caused the formation of a solid
      gel, implying that the negative charge inherent to AMP prevented the formation of
      esters of boric acid with the cis-diols of ribose. Cyanuric acid-driven
      oligomerizations of AMP might have been the first crucial event in the foundation
      of the RNA world.

PMID- 28887178
TI  - Assessing standards used to review online health information.

PMID- 28887179
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28887180
TI  - Gray matter volume showed dynamic alterations in methamphetamine users at 6 and
      12months abstinence: A longitudinal voxel-based morphometry study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated brain gray matter reduction in
      methamphetamine (MA) users; however, little is known about longitudinal brain
      structural alternations during abstinence. METHOD: Brain volumes were compared
      among 30 MA-dependent patients (average 6.3years of drug use) at 6months'
      abstinence and 27 drug-naive controls by voxel-based morphometry. A longitudinal
      analysis of MA subjects was performed from 6 to 12months' abstinence, and
      multiple regression analyses were performed between drug use patterns and gray
      matter volumes (GMV) at 6months' abstinence. RESULTS: Compared with drug-naive
      subjects, subjects with 6months' abstinent of MA showed significantly lower GMV
      in the precentral gyrus, caudate head, fusiform gyrus, and cerebellum. Compared
      to 6months' abstinence, GMV was greater in the cerebellum and lower in the
      cingulate gyrus at 12months' abstinence. Accumulated years of MA use negatively
      correlated with GMV in the right superior frontal gyrus, the right superior
      temporal cortex, and the right caudate nucleus (significant at the whole brain
      level, p<0.001; FWE cluster-corrected p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The present study
      suggested that heavy MA users' GMV could show dynamic alterations in different
      brain regions at different time lengths of abstinence.

PMID- 28887181
TI  - Treatment resistant schizophrenia and neurological soft signs may converge on the
      same pathology: Evidence from explanatory analysis on clinical,
      psychopathological, and cognitive variables.
AB  - Here, we investigated neurological soft signs (NSSs) in treatment resistant
      schizophrenia (TRS) vs treatment responder schizophrenia (SZ) patients. TRS is a
      severe condition, affecting approximately one-third of schizophrenia patients and
      representing a relevant clinical challenge. NSSs are neurological abnormalities
      reportedly described in schizophrenia patients and linked to dysregulated network
      connections. We explored the possibility that NSSs may be: i) more severe in TRS
      patients; ii) differentially associated to clinical/cognitive variables in TRS vs
      SZ; iii) predictive of having TRS. In addition, we evaluated whether diagnosis
      may mediate NSSs associations with the above-mentioned variables. Consecutive
      patients with schizophrenia diagnosis underwent stringent assessment for TRS
      diagnosis. Demographics and clinical variables were recorded. Psychopathology (by
      Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, PANSS), cognitive performances, and NSSs
      (by Neurological Evaluation Scale, NES) were tested. TRS had higher scores than
      SZ patients in total NES score and in almost all NES subscales, even after
      correction for duration of illness and antipsychotic dose (ANCOVA, p<0.05). NSSs
      significantly correlated with multiple clinical, psychopathological, and
      cognitive variables (above all: duration of disease and negative symptoms) in TRS
      but not in SZ patients. Two-way ANOVA showed NSS-x-diagnosis interaction in
      determining outcomes on multiple cognitive performances, but not in other
      clinical variables. However, simple main effect analysis detected a significant
      relationship between high severity NSSs and TRS diagnosis on multiple clinical
      and cognitive outcomes. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that diagnosis
      was among a discrete number of predictors yielding significant increases in
      variance explained on NES total, Sensory Integration and Other Signs subscales'
      scores. NSSs, together with antipsychotic dose and disease severity, were found
      to be significantly predictive of TRS diagnosis in a binary logistic regression
      model. These results suggest a stringent association between NSSs and TRS
      diagnosis, and may imply that NSSs association with clinical, psychopathological,
      and cognitive variables may be in part mediated by TRS diagnosis.

PMID- 28887183
TI  - Electrical stimulation of the hippocampal fimbria facilitates neuronal nitric
      oxide synthase activity in the medial shell of the rat nucleus accumbens:
      Modulation by dopamine D1 and D2 receptor activation.
AB  - The medial shell region of the nucleus accumbens (msNAc) is a key center for the
      regulation of goal-directed behavior and is likely to be dysfunctional in
      neuropsychiatric disorders such as addiction, depression and schizophrenia.
      Nitric oxide (NO)-producing interneurons in the msNAc are potently modulated by
      dopamine (DA) and may play an important role in synaptic integration in msNAc
      networks. In this study, neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) activity was measured in
      anesthetized rats using amperometric microsensors implanted into the msNAc or via
      histochemical techniques. In amperometric studies, NO oxidation current was
      recorded prior to and during electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral fimbria.
      Fimbria stimulation elicited a frequency and intensity-dependent increase in
      msNAc NO efflux which was attenuated by systemic administration of the nNOS
      inhibitor NG-propyl-l-arginine. Parallel studies using NADPH-diaphorase
      histochemistry to assay nNOS activity produced highly complementary outcomes.
      Moreover, systemic administration of either a DA D1 receptor agonist or a DA D2
      receptor antagonist potentiated nNOS activity in the msNAc elicited by fimbria
      stimulation. These observations demonstrate for the first time that NO synthesis
      in nNOS expressing interneurons in the msNAc is facilitated by robust activation
      of hippocampal afferents in a manner that is differentially modulated by DA D1
      and D2 receptor activation.

PMID- 28887184
TI  - Chronic fluoxetine administration enhances synaptic plasticity and increases
      functional dynamics in hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses.
AB  - Recent studies demonstrate that chronic administration of the widely used
      antidepressant fluoxetine (FLX) promotes neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and
      synaptic plasticity in the adult hippocampus, cortex and amygdala. However, the
      mechanisms underlying these effects and how are they related to the clinical
      antidepressant efficacy are still poorly understood. We show here that chronic
      FLX administration decreases hippocampus-associated neophobia in naive mice. In
      parallel, electrophysiological recordings in hippocampal CA3-CA1 circuitry
      revealed that the FLX treatment resulted in increased short- and long-term
      plasticity likely attributed to changes in presynaptic function. These changes
      were accompanied by enhancement in the expression of proteins related to
      vesicular trafficking and release, namely synaptophysin, synaptotagmin 1, MUNC 18
      and syntaxin 1. Thus, chronic FLX administration is associated with enhanced
      synaptic dynamics atypical of mature CA1 synapses, elevated hippocampal
      plasticity, improved hippocampus-dependent behavior as well as altered expression
      of synaptic proteins regulating neurotransmitter trafficking and release. The
      results support the idea that antidepressants can promote neuronal plasticity and
      show that they can increase the functional dynamic range and information
      processing in synaptic circuitries.

PMID- 28887185
TI  - Role of monoaminergic systems and ambient temperature in bath salts constituent
      3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV)-elicited hyperthermia and locomotor
      stimulation in mice.
AB  - 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a common constituent of illicit bath
      salts products, and in vitro studies implicate monoamine transporters as
      mediators of its pharmacological effects. Locomotor and thermoregulatory effects
      of MDPV depend on ambient temperature, so the current studies aimed to gauge the
      involvement of dopamine (DA), norepinephrine (NE), and serotonin (5-HT) in MDPV
      induced locomotor stimulation and hyperthermia in the mouse at different ambient
      temperatures. Mice were pretreated with the selective 5-HT-reuptake inhibitor
      fluoxetine (3 mg/kg), the NE-reuptake inhibitor desipramine (3 mg/kg), the DA
      reuptake inhibitor bupropion (10 mg/kg), or saline, followed by 10 mg/kg MDPV
      while thermoregulation and locomotor activity were monitored via radiotelemetry.
      In other studies, mice were pretreated for three days with saline, 100 mg/kg of
      the tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor para-chlorophenylalanine (p-CPA), or 100
      mg/kg of the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (alpha
      MPT) before receiving 10 mg/kg MDPV on the fourth day. All manipulations were
      conducted at both 20  degrees C and 28  degrees C ambient temperatures. MDPV
      increased locomotor activity under both ambient conditions and modestly increased
      core body temperature at 20  degrees C; however, neither pretreatment with
      monoamine reuptake inhibitors nor monoamine synthesis inhibitors significantly
      altered these effects. At 28  degrees C, MDPV induced a more pronounced
      hyperthermic effect which was attenuated by bupropion, desipramine, or fluoxetine
      pretreatment, but not by the monoamine synthesis inhibitors. These results
      suggest that MDPV may have a more complex pharmacological profile than suggested
      by in vitro studies, perhaps extending beyond interactions with monoamine
      transporters. A more thorough binding profile of MDPV at various brain
      recognition sites should be developed. This article is part of the Special Issue
      entitled 'Designer Drugs and Legal Highs.'

PMID- 28887186
TI  - To test or not to test? Laboratory support for the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis:
      a position paper of ESGBOR, the ESCMID study group for Lyme borreliosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a tick-borne infection caused by Borrelia
      burgdorferi sensu lato. The most frequent clinical manifestations are erythema
      migrans and Lyme neuroborreliosis. Currently, a large volume of diagnostic
      testing for LB is reported, whereas the incidence of clinically relevant disease
      manifestations is low. This indicates overuse of diagnostic testing for LB with
      implications for patient care and cost-effective health management. AIM: The
      recommendations provided in this review are intended to support both the clinical
      diagnosis and initiatives for a more rational use of laboratory testing in
      patients with clinically suspected LB. SOURCES: This is a narrative review
      combining various aspects of the clinical and laboratory diagnosis with an
      educational purpose. The literature search was based on existing systematic
      reviews, national and international guidelines and supplemented with specific
      citations. IMPLICATIONS: The main recommendations according to current European
      case definitions for LB are as follows. Typical erythema migrans should be
      diagnosed clinically and does not require laboratory testing. The diagnosis of
      Lyme neuroborreliosis requires laboratory investigation of the spinal fluid
      including intrathecal antibody production, and the remaining disease
      manifestations require testing for serum antibodies to B. burgdorferi. Testing
      individuals with non-specific subjective symptoms is not recommended, because of
      a low positive predictive value.

PMID- 28887182
TI  - Behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying habitual and compulsive drug seeking.
AB  - Addiction is characterized by compulsive drug use despite negative consequences.
      Here we review studies that indicate that compulsive drug use, and in particular
      punishment resistance in animal models of addiction, is related to impaired
      cortical control over habitual behavior. In humans and animals, instrumental
      behavior is supported by goal-directed and habitual systems that rely on distinct
      corticostriatal networks. Chronic exposure to addictive drugs or stress has been
      shown to bias instrumental response strategies toward habit learning, and impair
      prefrontal cortical (PFC) control over responding. Moreover, recent work has
      implicated prelimbic PFC hypofunction in the punishment resistance that has been
      observed in a subset of animals with an extended history of cocaine self
      administration. This may be related to a broader role for prelimbic PFC in
      mediating adaptive responding and behavioral flexibility, including exerting goal
      directed control over behavior. We hypothesize that impaired cortical control and
      reduced flexibility between habitual and goal-directed systems may be critically
      involved in the development of maladaptive, compulsive drug use.

PMID- 28887187
TI  - Different chemical groups modification on the surface of chitosan nonwoven
      dressing and the hemostatic properties.
AB  - The hemostatic properties of surface modified chitosan nonwoven had been
      investigated. The succinyl groups, carboxymethyl groups and quaternary ammonium
      groups were introduced into the surface of chitosan nonwoven (obtained NSCS, CMCS
      and TMCS nonwoven, respectively). For blood clotting, absorbance value (0.105+/
      0.03) of NSCS1 nonwoven was the smallest (CS 0.307+/-0.002, NSCS2 0.148+/-0.002,
      CMCS1 0.195+/-0.02, CMCS2 0.233+/-0.001, TMCS1 0.191+/-0.002, TMCS2 0.345+/
      0.002), which indicated the stronger hemostatic potential. For platelet
      aggregation, adenosine diphosphate agonist was added to induce the nonwoven to
      adhered platelets. The aggregation of platelet with TMCS2 nonwoven was highest
      (10.97+/-0.16%). Further research of blood coagulation mechanism was discussed,
      which indicated NSCS and CMCS nonwoven could activate the intrinsic pathway of
      coagulation to accelerate blood coagulation. NSCS1 nonwoven showed the shortest
      hemostatic time (147+/-3.7s) and the lowest blood loss (0.23+/-0.05g) in a rabbit
      ear artery injury model. These results demonstrated that these surface modified
      chitosan nonwoven dressings could use as a promising hemostatic intervention,
      especially NSCS nonwoven dressing.

PMID- 28887188
TI  - An extremely thermostable maltogenic amylase from Staphylothermus marinus:
      Bacillus expression of the gene and its application in genistin glycosylation.
AB  - The most extremely thermostable maltogenic amylase (SMMA) from archaeon
      Staphylothermus marinus has many potential applications in food processing. To
      ensure safety of microbial origin, a recombinant plasmid containing the enzymic
      gene and a constitutive promoter AmyR2 was constructed, and then transformed into
      a GRAS microorganism Bacillus subtilis. The purified SMMA from the liquid
      cultures of Bacillus has a specific activity of 66.96U/mg, two times more than
      that from Escherichia coli. SMMA was further employed to catalyze the genistion
      glycosylation using gamma-CD as both glucosyl donors and solubilizer.
      Glycosylated genistins with one to four additional alpha-glucosyls and a molar
      percentage of 69.87% in genistin reaction mixture were identified and quantified
      by HPLC-UV-MS. The glycosylated genistins at 0.2-1.2mM showed an enhanced DPPH
      free radical scavenging capacity. To our knowledge, this is the first report on
      the Bacillus expression of archaeal maltogenic amylase.

PMID- 28887189
TI  - Fluorescence spectroscopic analysis of the interaction of papain and bromelain
      with l-ascorbic acid, alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene and astaxanthin.
AB  - In this study, the interaction between four classic dietary antioxidants
      (including l-ascorbic acid, alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene and astaxanthin) and
      papain/bromelain was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. The results show
      that the quenching mechanisms are all static quenching at lower concentrations of
      antioxidants, but at higher concentrations of antioxidants, predominantly by the
      "sphere of action" quenching mechanisms. The binding processes of the four
      antioxidants to papain/bromelain are all synergistically driven by enthalpy and
      entropy, and the major driving forces are electrostatic effect and hydrophobic
      interactions. The binding constants of papain/bromelain with the four
      antioxidants are in the following order as: astaxanthin-papain >beta-carotene
      papain > astaxanthin-bromelain >l-ascorbic acid-papain >l-ascorbic acid-bromelain
      >beta-carotene-bromelain >alpha-tocopherol-papain >alpha-tocopherol-bromelain.
      Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy shows the interaction between l-ascorbic
      acid/beta-carotene/astaxanthin and papain/bromelain decreases the hydrophobicity
      of the microenvironment of tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Tyr) residues. The
      hydrophobicity of Trp is increased while the hydrophility of Tyr is increased in
      the presence of alpha-tocopherol.

PMID- 28887190
TI  - Rapid detection of fifteen known soybean viruses by dot-immunobinding assay.
AB  - A dot-immunobinding assay (DIBA) was optimized and used successfully for the
      rapid detection of 15 known viruses [Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), Bean pod mottle
      virus (BPMV), Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV), Cowpea mild mottle virus (CPMMV),
      Cowpea severe mosaic virus (CPSMV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Peanut mottle
      virus (PeMoV), Peanut stunt virus (PSV), Southern bean mosaic virus (SBMV),
      Soybean dwarf virus (SbDV), Soybean mosaic virus (SMV), Soybean vein necrosis
      virus (SVNV), Tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV), Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV), and
      Tobacco streak virus (TSV)] infecting soybean plants in Oklahoma. More than 1000
      leaf samples were collected in approximately 100 commercial soybean fields in 24
      counties of Oklahoma, during the 2012-2013 growing seasons. All samples were
      tested by DIBA using polyclonal antibodies of the above 15 plant viruses.
      Thirteen viruses were detected, and 8 of them were reported for the first time in
      soybean crops of Oklahoma. The highest average incidence was recorded for PeMoV
      (13.5%) followed by SVNV (6.9%), TSV (6.4%), BYMV, (4.5%), and TRSV (3.9%), while
      the remaining seven viruses were detected in less than 2% of the samples tested.
      The DIBA was quick, and economical to screen more than 1000 samples against 15
      known plant viruses in a very short time.

PMID- 28887191
TI  - Factors influencing participation in colorectal cancer screening programs in
      Spain.
AB  - To analyze the sociodemographic and organizational factors influencing
      participation in population-based colorectal cancer screening programs (CRCSP) in
      Spain, a retrospective study was conducted in a cohort of people invited to
      participate in the first 3 screening rounds of 6 CRCSP from 2000 to 2012. Mixed
      logistic regression models were used to analyze the relationship between
      sociodemographic and organizational factors, such as the type of fecal occult
      blood test (FOBT) used and the FOBT delivery type. The analysis was performed
      separately in groups (Initial screening-first invitation, Subsequent invitation
      for previous never-responders, Subsequent invitation-regular, Subsequent
      invitation-irregular intervals). The results showed that, in the Initial
      screening-first invitation group, participation was higher in women than in men
      in all age groups (OR 1.05 in persons aged 50-59years and OR 1.12 in those aged
      60-69years). Participation was also higher when no action was required to receive
      the FOBT kit, independently of the type of screening (Initial screening-first
      invitation [OR 2.24], Subsequent invitation for previous never-responders [OR
      2.14], Subsequent invitation-regular [OR 2.03], Subsequent invitation-irregular
      intervals [OR 9.38]) and when quantitative rather than qualitative immunological
      FOBT (FIT) was offered (Initial screening-first invitation [OR 0.70], Subsequent
      invitation for previous never-responders [OR 0.12], Subsequent invitation-regular
      [OR 0.20]) or guaiac testing (Initial screening-first invitation [OR 0.81],
      Subsequent invitation for previous never-responders [OR 0.88], Subsequent
      invitation-regular [OR 0.73]). In conclusion, the results of this study show that
      screening participation could be enhanced by inclusion of the FOBT kit with the
      screening invitation and the use of the quantitative FIT.

PMID- 28887192
TI  - Integrating smartphone technology, social support and the outdoor physical
      environment to improve fitness among adults at risk of, or diagnosed with, Type 2
      Diabetes: Findings from the 'eCoFit' randomized controlled trial.
AB  - The risk and prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) has dramatically increased over
      the past decade. The aim of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate a
      physical activity intervention to improve aerobic and muscular fitness among
      adults at risk of, or diagnosed with T2D. A 20-week, assessor blinded, parallel
      group randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted at the University of
      Newcastle (June-December 2015). Adults were randomized to the intervention (n=42)
      or wait-list control group (n=42). The theory-based intervention included: Phase
      1 (weeks 1-10) integrated group sessions (outdoor physical activity and cognitive
      mentoring), and the eCoFit smartphone application (app). Phase 2 (weeks 11-20)
      only included the eCoFit app. Participants were assessed at baseline, 10weeks and
      20weeks. Linear mixed models (intention-to-treat) were used to determine group-by
      time interactions at 10weeks (primary time-point) and 20weeks for the primary
      outcomes. Several secondary outcomes were also assessed. After 10weeks,
      significant group-by-time effects were observed for aerobic fitness
      (4.5mL/kg/min; 95% CI [1.3, 7.7], d=0.68) and muscular fitness (lower body) (3.4
      reps, 95% CI [2.7, 4.2], d=1.45). Intervention effects for secondary outcomes
      included significant increased physical activity (1330steps/week), improved upper
      body muscular fitness (5 reps; arm-curl test), improved functionality (-1.8s;
      timed-up and go test) reduced waist circumference (2.8cm) and systolic blood
      pressure (-10.4mmHg). After 20weeks, significant effects were observed for lower
      body muscular fitness and health outcomes. eCoFit is an innovative lifestyle
      intervention which integrates smartphone technology, social support, and the
      outdoor environment to improve aerobic and muscular fitness.

PMID- 28887193
TI  - Variability in self-rated health trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood
      by demographic factors.
AB  - Self-rated health (SRH) is a robust measure of general health status and an
      indicator of where and when to target disease prevention efforts-especially in
      adolescent populations when clinical endpoints are rare. This study's purpose was
      to model SRH trajectories from ages 13 to 31 and identify whether and when
      differences between demographic groups emerge. We employed a conditional latent
      growth model of SRH in December 2016 using a nationally representative sample of
      11,512 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult
      Health data collected in 1994-2008. The average SRH trajectory is curvilinear:
      SRH increases until age 21 and then decreases. This trajectory contains
      significant between-individual variability in the intercept and linear slope.
      Males and self-identified non-Hispanic Blacks had higher SRH at age 13 but
      experienced steeper linear declines than their demographic counterparts.
      Individuals who grew up in households without two parents and whose parents did
      not graduate college had consistently lower SRH compared to those living in
      households with two parents and whose parents graduated college. Self-rated
      health is not stable over the span of early adolescence to young adulthood;
      demographic factors account for differences in individual variability around the
      starting point and overtime changes in SRH. Because these differences are
      apparent as early as age 13years, prevention efforts targeting demographic-based
      disparities should occur early in life.

PMID- 28887194
TI  - Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha is involved in isoflurane-induced blood-brain
      barrier disruption in aged rats model of POCD.
AB  - Prolonged exposure to inhaled anesthetics may lead to postoperative cognitive
      dysfunction (POCD). Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms are not known.
      Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) and its target gene vascular
      endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were shown to be activated by inhaled
      anesthetics. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of HIF-1alpha
      in isoflurane-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and resultant
      cognitive impairment. After a 4-h exposure to 1.5% isoflurane in 20-month-old
      rats, increases in vascular permeability, and disrupted BBB ultrastructure were
      accompanied by the degradation of tight junction proteins occludin and collagen
      type IV in brain blood vessels. Increases in HIF-1alpha and VEGF proteins and
      activation of MMP-2 in the hippocampus were also observed in the hippocamp of
      isoflurane-exposed rats compared with control rats. Pharmacological inhibition of
      HIF-1alpha activation by 3-(5'-hydroxymethyl-2'-furyl)-1-benzylindazole (YC-1)
      markedly suppressed the expression of HIF-1alpha, VEGF and MMP-2, and mitigated
      the severity of BBB disruption.YC-1 pretreatment also significantly attenuated
      isoflurane-induced cognitive deficits in the Morris water maze task. Overall, our
      results demonstrate that hippocampal HIF-1alpha/VEGF signaling seems to be the
      upstream mechanism of isoflurane-induced cognitive impairment, and provides
      apotential preventive and therapeutic target for POCD.

PMID- 28887195
TI  - Pharmacological activation of the Nrf2 pathway by 3H-1, 2-dithiole-3-thione is
      neuroprotective in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease.
AB  - Accumulating evidence suggests that oxidative stress induced by beta-amyloid
      (Abeta) is implicated in the pathlogical progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
      3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thione (D3T), the simplest compound of the sulfur-containing
      dithiolethiones, has been proved to be a strongly active antioxidant factor by
      regulation of the nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Previous study
      reported that D3T confers protection to AD cell model in vitro, however, the
      neuroprotective effect of D3T in the AD mammalian model is unknown. In the
      present study, we aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of D3T in the
      Tg2576 AD mouse model and investigate the mechanisms underlying its beneficial
      effects. We showed that intraperitoneal administration of D3T significantly
      alleviated cognitive deficits in AD mice and dramatically decreased insoluble
      Abeta level and oxidative stress. Further mechanistic studies revealed that D3T
      significantly promoted hippocampal neurogenesis, and up-regulated levels of
      silent information regulator 1 (Sirt1), Nrf2 and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1).
      Moreover, the positive effect of D3T on behavioral performance of AD mice was
      markedly attenuated by inhibition of the Sirt1/Nrf2 pathway by the antagonist
      EX527. In summary, our studies on a mouse AD model indicate that D3T could serve
      as a potential therapeutic agent for this devastating disease.

PMID- 28887196
TI  - Enhanced expression of heme oxygenase-1 in the locus coeruleus can be associated
      with anxiolytic-like effects.
AB  - Some researchers have shown that carbon monoxide (CO) plays a role in emotional
      behavior modulation through intracellular 3'-5'-guanosine monophosphate
      mechanisms in the locus coeruleus (LC). In fact, the LC region has a high
      expression of the heme-oxygenase (HO) enzymes, which are responsible for the
      production of CO. However, the physiological mechanism by which the HO-CO pathway
      participates in the modulation of emotional responses in the LC still needs
      clarification. This study evaluates whether a systemic intraperitoneal treatment
      is able to alter behavioral responses (in the elevated plus-maze and the light
      dark box test) and the expression of the HO-1 and HO-2 enzymes in the LC. The
      tested treatments are acute (3h before) or chronic (twice daily for 10days) and
      with a carbon monoxide releaser (tricarbonyldichlororuthenium [II] dimer, or CORM
      2) or with a HO-1 inducer compound (cobalt protoporphyrin IX, CoPP). The results
      for the elevated plus-maze show that CO-for both acute or chronic administration
      of either drug-ncreased the number of entries into the open arms and the
      percentage of time spent in the open arms. Regarding the light-dark box test,
      chronic treatment with either drug increased the time spent in the light
      compartment. Additionally, treatment with CORM-2 or CoPP, either acutely or
      chronically, increased HO-1 enzyme expression in the LC cells. This study shows
      that systemic CO treatment can promote an anxiolytic-like effect and the
      expression of HO-1 enzymes in LC cells.

PMID- 28887197
TI  - Reduction in open field activity in the absence of memory deficits in the AppNL-G
      F knock-in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - The recent development of knock-in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease provides
      distinct advantages over traditional transgenic mouse models that rely on over
      expression of amyloid precursor protein. Two such knock-in models that have
      recently been widely adopted by Alzheimer's researchers are the AppNL-F and AppNL
      G-F mice. This study aimed to further characterise the behavioural phenotype and
      amyloid plaque distribution of AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F (C57BL/6J background) mice at six
      months of age. An attempt to replicate a previous study that observed deficits in
      working memory in the Y-maze, showed no difference between AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F and
      wild-type mice. Further assessment of these mice using the novel object
      recognition test and Morris water maze also revealed no differences between AppNL
      G-F/NL-G-F and wild-type mice. Despite a lack of demonstrated cognitive deficits,
      we report a reduction in locomotor/exploratory activity in an open field.
      Histological examination of AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice showed widespread distribution
      of amyloid plaques at this age. We conclude that whilst at six-months of age,
      memory deficits are not sufficiently robust to be replicated in varying
      environments, amyloid plaque burden is significant in AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F knock-in
      brain.

PMID- 28887198
TI  - Mindfulness and dynamic functional neural connectivity in children and
      adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interventions that promote mindfulness consistently show salutary
      effects on cognition and emotional wellbeing in adults, and more recently, in
      children and adolescents. However, we lack understanding of the neurobiological
      mechanisms underlying mindfulness in youth that should allow for more judicious
      application of these interventions in clinical and educational settings. METHODS:
      Using multi-echo multi-band fMRI, we examined dynamic (i.e., time-varying) and
      conventional static resting-state connectivity between core neurocognitive
      networks (i.e., salience/emotion, default mode, central executive) in 42 children
      and adolescents (ages 6-17). RESULTS: We found that trait mindfulness in youth
      relates to dynamic but not static resting-state connectivity. Specifically, more
      mindful youth transitioned more between brain states over the course of the scan,
      spent overall less time in a certain connectivity state, and showed a state
      specific reduction in connectivity between salience/emotion and central executive
      networks. The number of state transitions mediated the link between higher
      mindfulness and lower anxiety, providing new insights into potential neural
      mechanisms underlying benefits of mindfulness on psychological health in youth.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide new evidence that mindfulness in youth relates
      to functional neural dynamics and interactions between neurocognitive networks,
      over time.

PMID- 28887199
TI  - Temporal evolution of polymyxin B-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clones
      recovered from blood cultures in a teaching hospital during a 7-year period.
AB  - The polymyxins have become one of the last resorts to treat serious infections
      caused by KPC-2-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae worldwide. However, the increase
      of polymyxin consumption has favored the emergence of resistance to these
      compounds. In this study, we observed an increase in polymyxin B resistance rates
      from 0 to 30.6% among 224 K. pneumoniae isolates recovered from blood cultures
      between 2009 and 2015. Only gentamicin, tigecycline and fosfomycin remained
      active against the polymyxin B-resistant K. pneumoniae (PMB-R-KPN) isolates,
      which were classified as extensively drug-resistant (XDR; 83.3%), multidrug
      resistant (MDR; 13.9%), or pan-drug resistant (2.8%). Most PMB-R-KPN clones
      belonged to CC258 (ST11, ST258, ST340, and ST437). A C7/ST258 XDR clone carrying
      distinct resistance determinants (blaSHV-11, blaTEM-1, blaCTX-M-15, blaCTX-M-14,
      blaKPC-2, and rmtB-1) was introduced in 2014. Twelve of 36 PMB-R-KPN isolates
      showed disruption of mgrB. No mcr-1-positive isolate was found. The rapid
      detection of PMB-R-KPN isolates allied to implementation of effective infection
      control measures are of crucial importance to avoid the dissemination of high
      risk PMB-R-KPN clones.

PMID- 28887200
TI  - Purification and characterisation of a novel antistaphylococcal peptide (ASP-1)
      from Bacillus sp. URID 12.1.
AB  - A strong antistaphylococcal peptide (ASP-1) from Bacillus subtilis URID 12.1
      strain that is active against cefoxitin- and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
      aureus clinical isolates was purified to homogeneity by solvent extraction,
      silica gel-based adsorption chromatography and reversed-phase high-performance
      liquid chromatography. The peptide sequence of ASP-1 as determined by MALDI
      TOF/MS and ESI-FTICR-MS was acetylated Phe-Thr-Ala-Val-Dhb-Phe-Ile/Leu. The
      peptide was further analysed by alkaline hydrolysis, ESI-Q-TOF-MS and an ion
      mobility assay, which detected the presence of a lactone ring in the intact
      peptide and a cyclic nature, subsequently revealing the linearised peptide
      sequence as acPhe-Leu-Phe-Thr-Val-Ala-Dhb. Based on the molecular mass (804.5
      Da), peptide sequence and amino acid composition, ASP-1 was identified as a
      lactone ring-containing peptide similar to TL-119, a poorly studied cyclic
      depsipeptide. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed its predominantly random
      structure in aqueous solution and its beta-sheet conformation in methanol.
      Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the purified peptide against S.
      aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) ranged from 2 ug/mL to 64
      ug/mL. At sub-MICs and 1* MIC, ASP-1 showed a strong antibiofilm characteristic.
      ASP-1 at a concentration of 128 ug/mL did not show haemolytic activity, and no
      cytotoxicity was observed against hepatic carcinoma and breast carcinoma cell
      lines at the same concentration. Peptide ASP-1 with anti-MRSA and antibiofilm
      abilities and non-haemolytic and non-cytotoxic properties has not been reported
      previously. These findings suggest that it may serve as a lead molecule for
      developing alternative topical antibacterial agents.

PMID- 28887201
TI  - Reactive oxygen species: a novel antimicrobial.
AB  - The main solution to the global antibiotic resistance crisis is to reduce the
      volume of antibiotic use in medicine, agriculture and the environment. However,
      there is also a pressing need for novel antimicrobials. Despite much rhetoric,
      there are few entirely novel agents in development. One such therapy to reach
      clinical use is an agent using Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), oxygen radicals, as
      an antimicrobial mechanism. ROS can be delivered to the site of infection in
      various formats. ROS are highly antimicrobial against Gram-positive and Gram
      negative bacteria, viruses and fungi. They also prevent and break down biofilm.
      These functions make ROS potentially highly suitable for chronic inflammatory
      conditions, where antibiotics are frequently overused and relatively ineffective,
      including: chronic wounds, ulcers and burns; chronic rhinosinusitis, chronic
      bronchitis, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis and ventilated airways; recurrent
      cystitis; and prosthetic device infection. ROS could have an important role in
      infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship. Much clinical investigation
      remains to be delivered on ROS therapy, but in vitro work on infection models and
      early clinical evaluations are extremely promising.

PMID- 28887202
TI  - Hospital sewage water: a reservoir for variants of New Delhi metallo-beta
      lactamase (NDM)- and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing
      Enterobacteriaceae.
AB  - New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM)-producing Enterobacteriaceae have become a
      threat to public health. Hospital sewage is generally unexplored, having the
      potential to harbour bacteria causing healthcare-associated infections. Hence,
      this study was initiated to monitor NDM-producing Enterobacteriaceae in hospital
      sewage water. A total of 32 isolates with blaNDM variants were detected in
      hospital sewage water, including 17 Escherichia coli, 8 Citrobacter freundii, 4
      Shigella boydii, 2 Citrobacter braakii and 1 Citrobacter farmeri, showing
      resistance to all antibiotics except colistin. All 32 isolates carried blaNDM (9
      blaNDM-1, 11 blaNDM-4, 10 blaNDM-5 and 2 blaNDM-7), 24 isolates carried blaCMY
      variants (1 blaCMY-2, 3 blaCMY-4, 5 blaCMY-6, 11 blaCMY-42, 2 blaCMY-86 and 2
      blaCMY-139), 20 isolates carried blaOXA-type (17 blaOXA-1 and 3 blaOXA-48), 19
      isolates carried blaCTX-M and 9 isolates carried ampC on conjugative plasmids of
      IncFIA, IncFIB, IncFIC, IncP, IncY, IncHI1 and IncI1 types. In E. coli,
      coexistence of blaNDM-1 with blaCMY-6 and blaCMY-139, of blaNDM-4 with blaCMY-6,
      blaCMY-42 and blaCMY-86, of blaNDM-5 with blaCMY-6 and blaCMY-42, and of blaNDM-7
      with blaCMY-6 was observed. NDM-5-producing S. boydii and NDM-7-producing C.
      freundii were identified as well as detection of an association of blaNDM-4 and
      blaOXA-48 in C. braakii and C. farmeri. A class 1 integron was also found on a
      plasmid. ISAba125 and bleomycin genes were found surrounding all blaNDM variants.
      The emergence and dissemination of blaNDM variants in hospital sewage water is a
      matter of concern, creating an endemic scenario leading to the level of an
      outbreak.

PMID- 28887203
TI  - Clinical relevance of metronidazole and peripheral neuropathy: a systematic
      review of the literature.
AB  - The objective of this paper was to review and evaluate the literature on
      metronidazole-associated peripheral neuropathy and determine the relevance in
      clinical practice. MEDLINE/PubMed, EBSCO, and Google Scholar were searched
      through February 2017 using the search terms metronidazole and peripheral
      neuropathy, or polyneuropathy, or paresthesia, or neurotoxicity. Relevant case
      reports, retrospective studies, surveys, and review articles were included.
      Bibliographies of all relevant articles were reviewed for additional sources.
      Overall, metronidazole is generally well tolerated, but serious neurotoxicity,
      including peripheral neuropathy, has been reported. The overall incidence of
      peripheral neuropathy associated with metronidazole is unknown. Our review found
      36 case reports (40 unique patients) of metronidazole-associated peripheral
      neuropathy, with most cases (31/40) receiving a >42 g total (>4 weeks) of
      therapy. In addition, we reviewed 13 clinical studies and found varying rates of
      peripheral neuropathy from 0 to 50%. Within these clinical studies, we found a
      higher incidence of peripheral neuropathy in patients receiving >42 g total (>4
      weeks) of metronidazole compared with those patients receiving <=42 g total
      (17.9% vs. 1.7%). Nearly all patients had complete resolution of symptoms. In
      conclusion, peripheral neuropathy is rare in patients who receive <=42 g total of
      metronidazole. Patients who receive higher total doses may be at higher risk of
      peripheral neuropathy, but symptoms resolve after discontinuation of therapy in
      most patients. Antimicrobial stewardship programs may consider use of antibiotic
      combinations that include metronidazole over broad-spectrum alternatives when
      treating with <=42 g total of the drug (<=4 weeks).

PMID- 28887204
TI  - Structural determinants in ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants explain improved
      cholesterol metabolism despite low HDL levels.
AB  - Twenty Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I) variants are responsible for a systemic
      hereditary amyloidosis in which protein fibrils can accumulate in different
      organs, leading to their failure. Several ApoA-I amyloidogenic mutations are also
      associated with hypoalphalipoproteinemia, low ApoA-I and high-density lipoprotein
      (HDL)-cholesterol plasma levels; however, subjects affected by ApoA-I-related
      amyloidosis do not show a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The
      structural features, the lipid binding properties and the functionality of four
      ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants were therefore inspected in order to clarify the
      paradox observed in the clinical phenotype of the affected subjects. Our results
      show that ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants are characterized by a different
      oligomerization pattern and that the position of the mutation in the ApoA-I
      sequence affects the molecular structure of the formed HDL particles. Although
      lipidation increases ApoA-I proteins stability, all the amyloidogenic variants
      analyzed show a lower affinity for lipids, both in vitro and in ex vivo mouse
      serum. Interestingly, the lower efficiency at forming HDL particles is
      compensated by a higher efficiency at catalysing cholesterol efflux from
      macrophages. The decreased affinity of ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants for lipids,
      together with the increased efficiency in the cholesterol efflux process, could
      explain why, despite the unfavourable lipid profile, patients affected by ApoA-I
      related amyloidosis do not show a higher CVD risk.

PMID- 28887205
TI  - Approaches and techniques to characterize cancer metabolism in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - Cancer metabolism is wired to sustain uncontrollable cell proliferation and
      ensure cell survival. Given the multitude of available approaches to study
      metabolic alterations it remains a challenging task to select the most
      appropriate method. In this mini-review we describe how cancer metabolism can be
      studied in vitro and in vivo providing an overview of available approaches and
      techniques, discussing their advantages and drawbacks and guiding through
      selection of an appropriate method to address particular research needs. This
      work is particularly intended to those cancer researchers who are new in the
      field but want to investigate metabolic alterations in their cancer model
      systems.

PMID- 28887206
TI  - Reproducibility and relative stability in magnetic resonance imaging indices of
      tumor vascular physiology over a period of 24h in a rat 9L gliosarcoma model.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective was to study temporal changes in tumor vascular
      physiological indices in a period of 24h in a 9L gliosarcoma rat model. METHODS:
      Fischer-344 rats (N=14) were orthotopically implanted with 9L cells. At 2weeks
      post-implantation, they were imaged twice in a 24h interval using dynamic
      contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Data-driven model
      selection-based analysis was used to segment tumor regions with varying vascular
      permeability characteristics. The region with the maximum number of estimable
      parameters of vascular kinetics was chosen for comparison across the two time
      points. It provided estimates of three parameters for an MR contrast agent
      (MRCA): i) plasma volume (vp), ii) forward volumetric transfer constant (Ktrans)
      and interstitial volume fraction (ve, ratio of Ktrans to reverse transfer
      constant, kep). In addition, MRCA extracellular distribution volume (VD) was
      estimated in the tumor and its borders, along with tumor blood flow (TBF) and
      peritumoral MRCA flux. Descriptors of parametric distributions were compared
      between the two times. Tumor extent was examined by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)
      staining. Picrosirus red staining of secreted collagen was performed as an
      additional index for 9L cells. RESULTS: Test-retest differences between
      population summaries for any parameter were not significant (paired t and
      Wilcoxon signed rank tests). Bland-Altman plots showed no apparent trends between
      the differences and averages of the test-retest measures for all indices. The
      intraclass correlation coefficients showed moderate to almost perfect
      reproducibility for all of the parameters, except vp. H&E staining showed tumor
      infiltration in parenchyma, perivascular space and white matter tracts. Collagen
      staining was observed along the outer edges of main tumor mass. CONCLUSION: The
      data suggest the relative stability of these MR indices of tumor microenvironment
      over a 24h duration in this gliosarcoma model.

PMID- 28887207
TI  - Extent of size, shape and systolic variability of the left ventricular outflow
      tract in aortic stenosis determined by phase-contrast MRI.
AB  - PURPOSE: Left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) dimensions are important for
      calculation of aortic valve areas and planning of valve repair. Mostly, LVOT
      areas are calculated from echocardiographic longitudinal measurements with the
      assumption of a round shape. Here, orthogonal phase contrast (PC) MRI with
      dynamic assessment of LVOT was compared to standard longitudinal cine MRI and 2D
      echocardiography. METHODS: In 19 patients with aortic stenosis (5 female; 69+/
      10years), LVOT areas were determined on orthogonal PC images, either by
      planimetry (Aplan) or by two-diameter measurement (Aellip). Data were analyzed in
      early, middle and late systole (t1/t2/t3). Additionally, standard diameter-based
      calculation (A3CV) of LVOT on longitudinal three-chamber view (3CV) MRI images
      and 2D echocardiography was performed. RESULTS: Calculated PC LVOT areas strongly
      correlated to planimetry (r=0.95; p<0.001) with almost identical areas (Aplan
      5.1+/-1.1cm2 vs. Aellip 5.3+/-1.0cm2). In PC changes of LVOT-eccentricity during
      systole were most pronounced in late systole (t1 vs. t3plan -7.4+/-18%). Cine 3CV
      calculation resulted in lower LVOT areas compared to Aplan (A3CV 3.7+/-0.9cm2;
      p<0.001), yet correlating to Aplan (r=0.66; p=0.002). 3CV LVOT areas correlated
      to echocardiography (r=0.56; p=0.014). CONCLUSIONS: Calculated LVOT areas seem to
      be sufficient for daily routine. Compared to the orthogonal view, standard long
      axis 3CV underestimates the LVOT size and overestimates the systolic reduction of
      LVOT-size. Systolic changes are most pronounced in late systole.

PMID- 28887208
TI  - Proteomic comparison of three clinical diarrhoeagenic drug-resistant Escherichia
      coli isolates grown on CHROMagarTMSTEC media.
AB  - : Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and enteropathogenic Escherichia
      coli (EPEC) are key diarrhoea-causing foodborne pathogens. We used proteomics to
      characterize the virulence and antimicrobial resistance protein profiles of three
      clinical pathogenic E. coli isolates (two EPEC [one resistant to ciprofloxacin]
      and one STEC) cultured on CHROMagarTMSTEC solid media after minimal laboratory
      passage. We identified 4767 unique peptides from 1630 protein group across all
      three clinical E. coli strains. Label-free proteomic analysis allowed the
      identification of virulence and drug resistance proteins that were unique to each
      of the clinical isolates compared in this study. The B subunit of Shiga toxin,
      ToxB, was uniquely detected in the STEC strain while several other virulence
      factors including SheA, OmpF, OmpC and OmpX were significantly more abundant in
      the STEC strain. The ciprofloxacin resistant EPEC isolate possessed reduced
      levels of key virulence proteins compared to the ciprofloxacin susceptible EPEC
      and STEC strains. Parallel reaction monitoring assays validated the presence of
      biologically relevant proteins across biologically-replicated cultures.
      Propagation of clinical isolates on a relevant solid medium followed by mass
      spectrometry analysis represents a convenient means to quantify virulence factors
      and drug resistance determinants that might otherwise be lost through extensive
      in vitro passage in enteropathogenic bacteria. SIGNIFICANCE: Through the use of
      quantitative proteomics, we have characterized the virulence and antimicrobial
      resistance attributes of three clinically isolated, pathogenic E. coli strains
      cultured on solid media. Our results provide new, quantitative data on the
      expressed proteomes of these tellurite-resistant, diarrhoeagenic E. coli strains
      and reveal a subset of antimicrobial resistance and virulence proteins that are
      differentially abundant between these clinical strains. Our quantitative
      proteomics-based approach should thus have applicability in microbiological
      diagnostic labs for the identification of pathogenic/drug resistant E. coli in
      the future.

PMID- 28887209
TI  - Thyroid-associated orbitopathy and tears: A proteomics study.
AB  - : To date, Thyroid-Associated Orbitopathy (TAO), an autoimmune inflammatory
      disease affecting the eye, remains poorly characterised and its diagnosis
      challenging. The aim of this study was to investigate the tears of the TAO
      patients in order to identify potential biomarkers. Two independent quantitative
      Tandem Mass TagTM 6-plex experiments were done. After in-solution digestion and
      isoelectric fractionation, the 12 fractions were analysed with a LTQ Orbitrap
      Velos coupled to a liquid chromatography. Raw files were searched against Swiss
      Prot-AC database using Proteome Discoverer software, with a false discovery rate
      of 1% at peptide and protein levels. The differential proteins were then verified
      using orthogonal approaches in independent patients. Globally, 712 tear proteins
      were quantified with 2 unique peptides. Interestingly, cystatin c (TAO/controls
      ratio: 1.53), alpha-1 antichymotrypsin (ratio: 1.70) and retinal dehydrogenase
      (ratio: 0.68), displaying differential levels in the tears of TAO patients using
      proteomics experiments emerged as highly promising biomarkers after verification.
      In conclusion, this proteomics study supports the idea that tears reflect
      biological modifications occurring in a disease context and can therefore be a
      promising fluid for biomarker discovery. Moreover, our study identified three
      candidates that could in the future open new avenues in the diagnosis of TAO
      disease. SIGNIFICANCE: Thyroid associated orbitopathy (TAO) is the most common
      disease affecting the orbit. Moreover, the later, severe stages of the disease
      can be sight threating [1]. On the other hand, the early sign and symptoms can be
      mistaken with other ocular pathologies [2]. Here we explore the modification of
      the tear content of the TAO patients using proteomics strategies and we proposed
      three new biomarker candidates, which could allow the early diagnosis of the
      disease and prompt action to prevent more severe stages. Moreover, our findings
      could also help to better understand the pathophysiology of the disease.

PMID- 28887210
TI  - Can half-marathon affect overall health? The yin-yang of sport.
AB  - : Physical activity improves overall health and counteracts metabolic
      pathologies. Adipose tissue and bone are important key targets of exercise; the
      prevalence of diseases associated with suboptimal physical activity levels has
      increased in recent times as a result of lifestyle changes. Mesenchymal stem
      cells (MSCs) differentiation in either osteogenic or adipogenic lineage is
      regulated by many factors. Particularly, the expression of master genes such as
      RUNX2 and PPARgamma2 is essential for MSC commitment to osteogenic or adipogenic
      differentiation, respectively. Besides various positive effects on health, some
      authors have reported stressful outcomes as a consequence of endurance in
      physical activity. We looked for further clues about MSCs differentiation and
      serum proteins modulation studying the effects of half marathon in runners by
      means of gene expression analyses and a proteomic approach. Our results
      demonstrated an increase in osteogenic commitment and a reduction in adipogenic
      commitment of MSCs. In addition, for the first time we have analyzed the
      proteomic profile changes in runners after half-marathon activity in order to
      survey the related systemic adjustments. The shotgun proteomic approach,
      performed through the immuno-depletion of the 14 most abundant serum proteins,
      allowed the identification of 23 modulated proteins after the half marathon.
      Interestingly, proteomic data showed the activation of both inflammatory response
      and detoxification process. Moreover, the involvement of pathways associated to
      immune response, lipid transport and coagulation, was elicited. Notably, positive
      and negative effects may be strictly linked. Data are available via
      ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD006704. SIGNIFICANCE: We describe gene
      expression and proteomic studies aiming to an in-depth understanding of half
      marathon effects on bone and adipogenic differentiation as well as biological
      phenomena involved in sport activity. We believe that this novel approach
      suggests the physical effects on overall health and show the different pathways
      involved during half marathon. Contents of the paper have not been published or
      submitted for publication elsewhere. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

PMID- 28887212
TI  - Nanoscale mapping of refractive index by using scattering-type scanning near
      field optical microscopy.
AB  - We present a novel method for nanoscale reconstruction of complex refractive
      index by using scattering-type Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (s-SNOM).
      Our method relies on correlating s-SNOM experimental image data with
      computational data obtained through simulation of the classical oscillating point
      dipole model. This results in assigning a certain dielectric function for every
      pixel of the s-SNOM images, which further results in nanoscale mapping of the
      refractive index. This method is employed on human erythrocytes to demonstrate
      the approach in a biologically relevant manner. The presented results advance the
      current knowledge on the capabilities of s-SNOM to extract quantitative
      information with nanoscale resolution from optical data sets with biological
      application.

PMID- 28887211
TI  - Gold nanoparticles in injectable calcium phosphate cement enhance osteogenic
      differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells.
AB  - In this study, a novel calcium phosphate cement containing gold nanoparticles
      (GNP-CPC) was developed. Its osteogenic induction ability on human dental pulp
      stem cells (hDPSCs) was investigated for the first time. The incorporation of
      GNPs improved hDPSCs behavior on CPC, including better cell adhesion (about 2
      fold increase in cell spreading) and proliferation, and enhanced osteogenic
      differentiation (about 2-3-fold increase at 14 days). GNPs endow CPC with micro
      nano-structure, thus improving surface properties for cell adhesion and
      subsequent behaviors. In addition, GNPs released from GNP-CPC were internalized
      by hDPSCs, as verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thus enhancing
      cell functions. The culture media containing GNPs enhanced the cellular
      activities of hDPSCs. This result was consistent with and supported the
      osteogenic induction results of GNP-CPC. In conclusion, GNP-CPC significantly
      enhanced the osteogenic functions of hDPSCs. GNPs are promising to modify CPC
      with nanotopography and work as bioactive additives thus enhance bone
      regeneration.

PMID- 28887213
TI  - Bivalent mucosal peptide vaccines administered using the LCP carrier system
      stimulate protective immune responses against Streptococcus pyogenes infection.
AB  - Despite the broad knowledge about the pathogenicity of Streptococcus pyogenes
      there is still a controversy about the correlate of protection in GAS infections.
      We aimed in further improving the immune responses stimulated against GAS
      comparing different vaccine formulations including bis-(3',5')-cyclic dimeric
      adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP) and BPPCysMPEG, a derivative of the macrophage
      activating lipopeptide (MALP-2), as adjuvants, respectively, to be administered
      with and without the universal T helper cell epitope P25 along with the optimized
      B cell epitope J14 of the M protein and B and T cell epitopes of SfbI.
      Lipopeptide based nano carrier systems (LCP) were used for efficient antigen
      delivery across the mucosal barrier. The stimulated immune responses were
      efficient in protecting mice against a respiratory challenge with a lethal dose
      of a heterologous S. pyogenes strain. Moreover, combination of the LCP based
      peptide vaccine with c-di-AMP allowed reduction of antigen dose at the same time
      maintaining vaccine efficacy.

PMID- 28887214
TI  - Trypanocidal activity of polysaccharide extract from Genipa americana leaves.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The parts of the Genipa americana (Rubiaceae)
      tree, also known as "jenipapo" or "jenipapeiro", has been used in traditional
      Medicine in parasitic and bacterial infections. Thus, the experimental evolution
      of the antiparasitic activity of polysaccharide extracts from Genipa americana
      leaves, and correlation with antiparasitic and popular use is important. AIM OF
      THE STUDY: To evaluate the effect of polysaccharide extract obtained from Genipa
      americana leaves on all Trypanosoma cruzi (Y strain: benznidazole-resistant)
      developmental forms, a protozoan that causes Chagas' disease. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: An extract rich in polysaccharides was obtained from the leaves of
      Genipa americana (GaEPL) by associating depigmentation in methanol followed by
      extraction of polysaccharides in NaOH and precipitation with ethanol.
      Cytotoxicity to mammalian cells (LLC-MK2) was determined using an MTT assay.
      Antiparasitic activity was evaluated against epimastigote, trypomastigote and
      amastigote forms of T. cruzi. Cell-death mechanism was determined in epimastigote
      forms by flow cytometry analysis after FITC-annexin V (Ax), 7-AAD, and H2DCFDA
      staining. Striking morphological changes were observed by scanning electron
      microscope. RESULTS: GaEPL (6.5% yield; 54.6% total carbohydrate; 21.1% uronic
      acid and 12% protein), inhibited all T. cruzi developmental forms, epimastigotes
      after periods of 24h (IC50 = 740 +/- 0.075ug/mL), 48h (IC50 = 710 +/- 0.053ug/mL)
      and 72h (IC50 = 870 +/- 0.052ug/mL) of incubation; trypomastigotes (IC50 = 470 +/
      0.082ug/mL) after periods of 24h and intracellular amastigotes (IC50/2 = 235 or
      IC50 = 470ug/mL) after periods of 24 and 48h of incubation, with no toxicity on
      LLC-MK2 cells at the used concentrations. Analysis of the possible action
      mechanism in the parasites suggested cell death by necrosis with the involvement
      of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
      confirmed T. cruzi death by necrosis. CONCLUSIONS: GaEPL showed significant
      activity against the epimastigote, trypomastigote and amastigote forms of T.
      cruzi, strain Y, suggesting cell death by necrosis with involvement of reactive
      oxygen species.

PMID- 28887215
TI  - Antiprotozoal activity of medicinal plants used by Iquitos-Nauta road communities
      in Loreto (Peru).
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: In the Peruvian Amazon, the use of medicinal
      plants is a common practice. However, there is few documented information about
      the practical aspects of their use and few scientific validation. The starting
      point for this work was a set of interviews of people living in rural communities
      from the Peruvian Amazon about their uses of plants. Protozoan diseases are a
      public health issue in the Amazonian communities, who partly cope with it by
      using traditional remedies. Validation of these traditional practices contributes
      to public health care efficiency and may help identify new antiprotozoal
      compounds. AIMS OF STUDY: to inventory and validate the use of medicinal plants
      by rural people of Loreto region. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rural mestizos were
      interviewed about traditional medication of parasite infections with medicinal
      plants. Ethnopharmacological surveys were undertaken in two villages along
      Iquitos-Nauta road (Loreto region, Peru), namely 13 de Febrero and El Dorado
      communities. Forty-six plants were collected according to their traditional use
      for the treatment of parasitic diseases, 50 ethanolic extracts (different parts
      for some of the plants) were tested in vitro on Plasmodium falciparum (3D7
      sensitive strain and W2 chloroquine resistant strain), Leishmania donovani LV9
      strain and Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. Cytotoxic assessment (HUVEC cells) of
      the active extracts was performed. Two of the most active plants were submitted
      to preliminary bioguided fractionation to ascertain and explore their activities.
      RESULTS: From the initial plants list, 10 were found to be active on P.
      falciparum, 15 on L. donovani and 2 on the three parasites. The ethanolic extract
      from Costus curvibracteatus (Costaceae) leaves and Grias neuberthii
      (Lecythidaceae) bark showed strong in vitro activity on P. falciparum (sensitive
      and resistant strain) and L. donovani and moderate activity on T. brucei
      gambiense. CONCLUSIONS: The Amazonian forest communities in Peru represents a
      source of knowledge on the use of medicinal plants. In this work, several
      extracts with antiprotozoal activity were identified. This work contributes to
      validate some traditional uses and opens subsequent investigations on active
      compounds isolation and identification.

PMID- 28887216
TI  - Phytochemistry, pharmacology, quality control and future research of Forsythia
      suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl: A review.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Forsythiae Fructus (called Lianqiao in Chinese),
      the fruit of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl, is utilized as a common
      traditional medicine in China, Japan and Korea. It is traditionally used to treat
      pyrexia, inflammation, gonorrhea, carbuncle and erysipelas. Depending on the
      different harvest time, Forsythiae Fructus can be classified into two forms,
      namely Qingqiao and Laoqiao. The greenish fruits that start to ripen are
      collected as Qingqiao, while the yellow fruits that are fully ripe are collected
      as Laoqiao. Both are applied to medical use. This review aims to provide a
      systematic summary of F. suspensa (Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl) and to
      reveal the correlation between the traditional uses and pharmacological
      activities so as to offer inspiration for future research. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      All corresponding information about F. suspensa was searched by Scifinder and
      obtained from scientific databases including Springer, Science Direct, Wiley,
      Pubmed and China Knowledge Resource Integrated (CNKI). Local dissertations and
      books were searched as well. RESULTS: According to classical Chinese herbal texts
      and Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Forsythiae Fructus dominantly displays heat-clearing
      and detoxifying effects in TCM prescriptions. In modern research, more than 230
      compounds were separated and identified from F. suspensa. 211 Of them were
      isolated from fruits. Lignans and phenylethanoid glycosides are considered as the
      characteristic and active constituents of this herb, such as forsythiaside,
      phillyrin, rutin and phillygenin. They exhibited anti-inflammatory, antioxidant,
      antibacterial, anti-virus, anti-cancer and anti-allergy effects, etc. Currently,
      there is no report on the toxicity of Forsythiae Fructus, despite slight toxicity
      of forsythiaside reported in local publications. Compared to Laoqiao, Qingqiao
      contains higher levels of forsythiaside, forsythoside C, cornoside, rutin,
      phillyrin, gallic acid and chlorogenic acid and lower levels of rengyol, beta
      glucose and S-suspensaside methyl ether. CONCLUSION: Heat-clearing actions of
      Forsythiae Fructus are based on the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties
      of lignans and phenylethanoid glycosides. Detoxifying effects attribute to the
      antibacterial, antiviral and anti-cancer activities of Forsythiae Fructus. And
      traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) characteristics of Forsythiae Fructus (bitter
      flavor, slightly cold nature and lung meridian) supported its strong anti
      inflammatory effects. In addition, the remarkable anti-inflammatory and
      antioxidant capacities of Forsythiae Fructus contribute to its anti-cancer and
      neuroprotective activities. The higher proportion of lignans and phenylethanoid
      glycosides in Qingqiao than Laoqiao might explain the better antioxidant ability
      of Qingqiao and more frequent uses of Qingqiao in TCM prescriptions. For future
      research, more in vivo experiments and clinical studies are encouraged to further
      clarify the relation between traditional uses and modern applications. Regarding
      to Qingqiao and Laoqiao, they remain to be differentiated by all-round quality
      control methods, and the chemical compositions and clinical effects between them
      should be compared.

PMID- 28887217
TI  - Transcriptional factors Eaf1/2 inhibit endoderm and mesoderm formation via
      suppressing TGF-beta signaling.
AB  - Eaf family genes act in multiple cellular responses such as tumor suppression and
      embryonic development. In our previous work, Eaf1/2 was found to modulate
      convergence and extension (C&E) movements and pattern the embryonic anterior
      posterior axis during zebrafish embryogenesis. Here, we found that loss-of
      function of eaf1/2 caused expanded mesoderm and endoderm in zebrafish embryos and
      led to the recovery of endoderm specification in TGF-beta factor-mzoeptz257
      mutants, while gain-of-function of eaf1/2 induced reduced mesoderm and endoderm.
      Analyses of gene expression profiles in Eaf deleted or over-expressed mammalian
      cells indicated that the roles of Eaf1 and Eaf2 in inhibiting TGF-beta signals
      were conserved from fish to mammals. By taking advantages of TGF-beta reporters,
      eaf1/2-fused engrailed proteins, and P53M214K mutant, we revealed that Eaf1 and
      Eaf2 might suppress TGF-beta transduction by synergistically inhibiting none-P53
      and P53-required TGF-beta signaling. Furthermore, Eaf1/2 might co-localize and
      interact with TGF-beta transcriptional factors in the transcriptional complex as
      repressors to target and suppress TGF-beta signaling activity. Our study unveiled
      a previously unrecognized link of Eaf1/2 genes with TGF-beta and P53 in
      vertebrates and demonstrated a conservation of TGF-beta suppression activity for
      Eaf1/2 family genes from fish to mammals, which might shed some light on the
      molecular mechanistic basis of Eaf1 and Eaf2 in tumor suppression.

PMID- 28887218
TI  - The histone lysine methyltransferase Ezh2 is required for maintenance of the
      intestine integrity and for caudal fin regeneration in zebrafish.
AB  - The histone lysine methyltransferase EZH2, as part of the Polycomb Repressive
      Complex 2 (PRC2), mediates H3K27me3 methylation which is involved in gene
      expression program repression. Through its action, EZH2 controls cell-fate
      decisions during the development and the differentiation processes. Here, we
      report the generation and the characterization of an ezh2-deficient zebrafish
      line. In contrast to its essential role in mouse early development, loss of ezh2
      function does not affect zebrafish gastrulation. Ezh2 zebrafish mutants present a
      normal body plan but die at around 12 dpf with defects in the intestine wall, due
      to enhanced cell death. Thus, ezh2-deficient zebrafish can initiate
      differentiation toward the different developmental lineages but fail to maintain
      the intestinal homeostasis. Expression studies revealed that ezh2 mRNAs are
      maternally deposited. Then, ezh2 is ubiquitously expressed in the anterior part
      of the embryos at 24 hpf, but its expression becomes restricted to specific
      regions at later developmental stages. Pharmacological inhibition of Ezh2 showed
      that maternal Ezh2 products contribute to early development but are dispensable
      to body plan formation. In addition, ezh2-deficient mutants fail to properly
      regenerate their spinal cord after caudal fin transection suggesting that Ezh2
      and H3K27me3 methylation might also be involved in the process of regeneration in
      zebrafish.

PMID- 28887219
TI  - Novel freeze-dried DDA and TPGS liposomes are suitable for nasal delivery of
      vaccine.
AB  - There is a pressing need for effective needle-free vaccines that are stable
      enough for use in the developing world and stockpiling. The inclusion of the
      cationic lipid DDA and the PEG-containing moiety TPGS into liposomes has the
      potential to improve mucosal delivery. The aim of this study was to develop
      stable lyophilized cationic liposomes based on these materials suitable for nasal
      antigen delivery. Liposomes containing DDA and TPGS were developed. Size and zeta
      potential measurements, ex vivo, CLSM cell penetration study and cell viability
      investigations were made. Preliminary immunisation and stability studies using
      ovalbumin were performed. The liposomes exhibited suitable size and charge for
      permeation across nasal mucosa. DDA and TPGS increased tissue permeation in ex
      vivo studies and cell uptake with good cell viability. The liposomes improved
      immune response both locally and vaginally when compared to i.m administration or
      control liposomes delivered nasally. Additionally, the lyophilized products
      demonstrated good stability in terms of Tg, size and antigen retention. This
      study has shown that the novel liposomes have potential for development as a
      mucosal vaccine delivery system. Furthermore, the stability of the lyophilized
      liposomes offers potential additional benefits in terms of thermal stability over
      liquid formats.

PMID- 28887221
TI  - Modelling the primary drying step for the determination of the optimal dynamic
      heating pad temperature in a continuous pharmaceutical freeze-drying process for
      unit doses.
AB  - In the pharmaceutical industry, traditional freeze-drying of unit doses is a
      batch-wise process associated with many disadvantages. To overcome these
      disadvantages and to guarantee a uniform product quality and high process
      efficiency, a continuous freeze-drying process is developed and evaluated. The
      main differences between the proposed continuous freeze-drying process and
      traditional freeze-drying can be found firstly in the freezing step during which
      the vials are rotated around their longitudinal axis (spin freezing), and
      secondly in the drying step during which the energy for sublimation and
      desorption is provided through the vial wall by conduction via an electrical
      heating pad. To obtain a more efficient drying process, the energy transfer has
      to be optimised without exceeding the product and process limits (e.g. cake
      collapse, choked flow). Therefore, a mechanistic model describing primary drying
      during continuous lyophilisation of unit doses based on conduction via heating
      pads was developed allowing the prediction of the optimal dynamic power input and
      temperature output of the electric heating pads. The model was verified by
      experimentally testing the optimal dynamic primary drying conditions calculated
      for a model formulation. The primary drying endpoint of the model formulation was
      determined via in-line NIR spectroscopy. This endpoint was then compared with the
      predicted model based endpoint. The mean ratio between the experimental and model
      based predicted drying time for six verification runs was 1.05+/-0.07, indicating
      a good accordance between the model and the experimental data.

PMID- 28887220
TI  - Enhanced glioma therapy by synergistic inhibition of autophagy and tyrosine
      kinase activity.
AB  - Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation pathway that acts as a cytoprotective
      mechanism causing treatment resistance in various cancer cells. Recent studies
      showed that hydroxychloroquine can inhibit the latter step of autophagy and
      therefore enhance the anti-glioma efficiency of ZD6474, a tyrosine kinase
      inhibitor. However, the nonselective distribution of ZD6474 in vivo and the low
      penetrating ability of hydroxychloroquine when crossing the blood-brain barrier
      restrict their clinical use in glioma therapy. Here we coencapsulated ZD6474 and
      hydroxychloroquine into R6dGR peptide-modified liposomes (R6dGR-Lip) which can
      specifically recognize both integrin alphavbeta3 and neuropilin-1 receptors that
      are highly expressed on the endothelial cells and glioma cells. R6dGR
      significantly enhanced the brain targeting and overcame the blood-brain barrier.
      Our results confirmed that loading hydroxychloroquine into R6dGR-Lip blocked
      autophagic flux more efficiently than free hydroxychloroquine in glioma cells and
      significantly sensitized glioma cells to ZD6474-induced cell death in vitro and
      in vivo. The coencapsulated R6dGR-modified liposomes (ZD6474/HCQ-R6dGR-Lip)
      prolonged the medium survival time of intracranial C6 glioma bearing mice by 1.2
      fold compared with ZD6474-R6dGR-Lip, 1.5-fold compared with free ZD6474/HCQ, and
      1.8-fold compared with free ZD6474, exhibiting a synergistic therapeutic effect.
      Therefore, ZD6474/HCQ-R6dGR-Lip is presented as a potential strategy which could
      be further used for efficient anti-glioma therapy.

PMID- 28887223
TI  - Efficacy of erythrosine and cyanidin-3-glucoside mediated photodynamic therapy on
      Porphyromonas gingivalis biofilms using green light laser.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the efficacy of
      erythrosine and cyanidin-3-glucoside as photosensitizers in PDT for the
      elimination of Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) biofilms. METHODS: P.
      gingivalis biofilms were prepared from a chronic periodontitis subject.
      Erythrosine and cyanidin-3-glucoside were prepared and randomly allocated as
      follows: 110, 220, 330, and 440MUM erythrosine; 101, 202, 303, and 404MUM
      anthocyanin; and 440MUM erythrosine+404MUM cyanidin-3-glucoside. There were 18
      PDT experimental groups (non-irradiated/irradiated with a 532-nm green light
      diode laser at 1.29J/cm2 for 60s). The 3 controls were grouped as follows:
      biofilms exposed to the photosensitizers alone, biofilms exposed to the laser
      alone, and biofilms exposed to 0.12% chlorhexidine. All sample groups were
      cultured at 1, 3 and 6h after PDT and incubated in an anaerobic chamber at 37
      degrees C for 4days. The surviving fraction was calculated from the log10 CFU/ml.
      The 330 and 440MUM erythrosine and the 440MUM erythrosine+404MUM cyanidin-3
      glucoside were mixed with spin traps (TEMPO, DMPO), and the electron spin
      resonance spectra were evaluated. RESULTS: The log10 CFU/ml measurements showed
      that the PDT groups with 330MUM or 440MUM erythrosine and 440MUM
      erythrosine+404MUM cyanidin-3-glucoside had statistically significant differences
      from the other groups (one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's multiple comparison test, p
      value<=0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PDT using 330MUM erythrosine, 440MUM erythrosine or
      440MUM erythrosine+404MUM cyanidin-3-glucoside irradiated with the laser more
      effectively inhibited P. gingivalis in biofilms.

PMID- 28887222
TI  - Contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging can predict vascular-targeted photodynamic
      therapy induced tumor necrosis in small animals.
AB  - AIMS: To evaluate the accuracy of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for
      monitoring tumor necrosis following WST-11 vascular targeted photodynamic therapy
      (VTP) using imaging-pathology correlation. METHODS: Renal adenocarcinoma cells
      were injected into the hindlimb of 13 BalB/c mice resulting in tumors ranging
      from 9.8 to 194.3mm3. US guidance was used to place a laser fiber into the tumor,
      and VTP was performed. CEUS was performed prior to animal sacrifice, 24h post
      VTP. Whole tumors were extracted for histopathologic analysis using H&E and TUNEL
      staining. Pathology samples corresponding to the CEUS imaging plane were prepared
      in order to compare the size and extents of tumor necrosis. RESULTS: Tumor
      necrosis following VTP appeared as a central region of non-enhancement on CEUS,
      while viable tumor appeared as patchy regions of enhancement in the tumor
      periphery. The region of tumor necrosis measured in mean 66% and 64.8% of total
      tumor area on CEUS and pathology respectively (p=0.2). The size and location of
      the necrosis on CEUS images and pathology samples were found correlative with no
      inter-observer difference (weighted kappa of 0.771 and 0.823, respectively).
      CONCLUSION: CEUS allows accurate monitoring of VTP induced tumor necrosis in a
      small animal model.

PMID- 28887224
TI  - The zebrafish as a promising tool for modeling human brain disorders: A review
      based upon an IBNS Symposium.
AB  - The zebrafish represents an excellent compromise between system complexity and
      practical simplicity, features that make it useful for modeling and mechanistic
      analysis of complex brain disorders. Also promising are screens for psychoactive
      drugs with effects on larval and adult zebrafish behavior. This review, based
      upon a recent symposium held at the 2016 IBNS Congress, provides different
      perspectives on how the zebrafish may be utilized to advance research into human
      central nervous system disorders. It starts with a discussion on an important
      bottleneck in zebrafish research, measuring the behavior of this species
      (specifically shoaling), and continues with examples on research on autism
      spectrum disorder in larval zebrafish, on screening natural products for
      compounds with psychoactive properties in adult zebrafish, and on the development
      of a zebrafish model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. By providing
      information on a broad spectrum of brain disorders, experimental methods, and
      scientific approaches using both larval and adult zebrafish, the review is
      intended to showcase this underutilized laboratory species for behavioral
      neuroscience and psychopharmacology research.

PMID- 28887225
TI  - Substance P and neurotensin in the limbic system: Their roles in reinforcement
      and memory consolidation.
AB  - Substance P (SP) and neurotensin (NT) are neuropeptides isolated in the periphery
      and in the central nervous system. They are involved in various regulatory
      processes in the gastrointestinal tract, in the circulatory and respiratory
      systems, kidney and endocrine system. In addition to the peripheral effects, SP
      and NT act as neurotransmitters and neuromodulators in the central nervous
      system, regulating various behavioural actions, such as general and motor
      activity, pain, food and water intake, anxiety, reward/reinforcement and memory
      consolidation. In the limbic system SPergic and NTergic pathways, terminals and
      related receptors have been identified. According to several data of literature
      and to our recently published results, SP and NT have rewarding/reinforcing
      effects and facilitate memory consolidation in various limbic regions. In this
      report evidences are provided about the interaction of these neuropeptides with
      dopaminergic and acetylcholinergic systems. A hypothesis is presented that
      rewarding/reinforcing effects of SP and NT develop by modulating the
      mesencephalic dopaminergic system, while their mnemonic effects are mediated via
      the mesencephalic dopaminergic and the basal forebrain cholinergic systems.

PMID- 28887226
TI  - Reconciling the different faces of hippocampal theta: The role of theta
      oscillations in cognitive, emotional and innate behaviors.
AB  - The theta oscillation (5-10Hz) is a prominent behavior-specific brain rhythm.
      This review summarizes studies showing the multifaceted role of theta rhythm in
      cognitive functions, including spatial coding, time coding and memory,
      exploratory locomotion and anxiety-related behaviors. We describe how activity of
      hippocampal theta rhythm generators - medial septum, nucleus incertus and
      entorhinal cortex, links theta with specific behaviors. We review evidence for
      functions of the theta-rhythmic signaling to subcortical targets, including
      lateral septum. Further, we describe functional associations of theta oscillation
      properties - phase, frequency and amplitude - with memory, locomotion and
      anxiety, and outline how manipulations of these features, using optogenetics or
      pharmacology, affect associative and innate behaviors. We discuss work linking
      cognition to the slope of the theta frequency to running speed regression, and
      emotion-sensitivity (anxiolysis) to its y-intercept. Finally, we describe
      parallel emergence of theta oscillations, theta-mediated neuronal activity and
      behaviors during development. This review highlights a complex interplay of
      neuronal circuits and synchronization features, which enables an adaptive
      regulation of multiple behaviors by theta-rhythmic signaling.

PMID- 28887227
TI  - Probabilistic language models in cognitive neuroscience: Promises and pitfalls.
AB  - Cognitive neuroscientists of language comprehension study how neural computations
      relate to cognitive computations during comprehension. On the cognitive part of
      the equation, it is important that the computations and processing complexity are
      explicitly defined. Probabilistic language models can be used to give a
      computationally explicit account of language complexity during comprehension.
      Whereas such models have so far predominantly been evaluated against behavioral
      data, only recently have the models been used to explain neurobiological signals.
      Measures obtained from these models emphasize the probabilistic, information
      processing view of language understanding and provide a set of tools that can be
      used for testing neural hypotheses about language comprehension. Here, we provide
      a cursory review of the theoretical foundations and example neuroimaging studies
      employing probabilistic language models. We highlight the advantages and
      potential pitfalls of this approach and indicate avenues for future research.

PMID- 28887229
TI  - MAPK activation patterns of AT1R and CB1R in SHR versus Wistar astrocytes:
      Evidence of CB1R hypofunction and crosstalk between AT1R and CB1R.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Angiotensin (Ang) II and cannabinoids regulate physiologically
      relevant astroglial functions via receptor-mediated activation of Mitogen
      activated protein kinases (MAPKs). In this study, we investigated the
      consequences of astroglial Ang II type 1 receptor (AT1R) and Cannabinoid type 1
      receptor (CB1R) activation, alone and in combination, on MAPK activation in the
      presence and absence of hypertensive states. In addition, we also investigated a
      novel unidirectional crosstalk mechanism between AT1R and CB1R, that involves PKC
      mediated phosphorylation of CB1R. METHODS: Astrocytes were isolated from the
      brainstem and cerebellum of Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and
      normotensive Wistar rats. The cells were treated with either 100nM Ang II or 10nM
      Arachidonyl-2'-chloroethylamide (ACEA), both alone and in combination, for
      varying time periods, and the extent of phosphorylation of MAPKs, ERK and p38,
      and the phosphorylated forms of CB1R (p-CB1R), were measured using western
      blotting. RESULTS: Ang II treatment resulted in a greater activation of MAPKs in
      SHR brainstem astrocytes, but not SHR cerebellar astrocytes when compared to
      Wistar rats. ACEA-mediated MAPK activation was significantly lower in brainstem
      astrocytes of SHRs when compared to Wistar rats. ACEA negatively modulates AT1R
      mediated MAPK activation in both cerebellar and brainstem astrocytes of both
      models. The effect however was diminished in brainstem astrocytes. Ang II caused
      a significant increase in phosphorylation of CB1R in cerebellar astrocytes, while
      its effect was diminished in brainstem astrocytes of both models. CONCLUSION:
      Both Ang II and ACEA-induced MAPK activation were significantly altered in SHR
      astrocytes when compared to Wistar astrocytes. A possible reduction in CB1R
      functionality, coupled with a hyperfunctional AT1R in the brainstem, could well
      be significant factors in the development of hypertensive states. AT1R-mediated
      phosphorylation of CB1R could be critical for impaired cerebellar development
      characterized by a hyperactive RAS.

PMID- 28887228
TI  - Leaf proteomics of drought-sensitive and -tolerant genotypes of fennel.
AB  - Fennel is attracted attention as a useful resource as researching medicinal plant
      for drought tolerance. To elucidate the response mechanism in drought-sensitive
      and -tolerant genotypes of fennel leaf, a gel-free/label-free proteomic technique
      was used. Fifty-day-old plants were subjected to drought stress for 60days. The
      relative water and proline contents were decreased and increased in sensitive
      genotypes, respectively; however, they were not a big change in tolerant
      genotypes. Photosynthesis was decreased in the sensitive genotypes under drought;
      however, it was increased in the tolerant genotype. In both drought-sensitive and
      -tolerant genotypes, proteins related to protein metabolism and cell organization
      were predominately affected under drought stress. The abundance of
      phosphoribulokinase and phosphoglycerate kinase enzymes were decreased and
      increased in drought-sensitive and -tolerant genotypes, respectively; however,
      the abundance of RuBisCO and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase enzymes
      were increased and decreased in drought-sensitive and -tolerant genotypes,
      respectively. Under drought stress, the abundance of glycolysis-related proteins
      was decreased in sensitive genotypes; however, they were increased in tolerance
      genotypes. Commonly changed proteins with polyethylene glycol fractionation such
      as cobalamin-independent methionine synthase were decreased and increased in
      drought-sensitive and -tolerant genotypes, respectively. These results suggest
      that cobalamin-independent methionine synthetase is involved in the tolerance of
      drought-tolerant fennel leaf under drought stress.

PMID- 28887230
TI  - Multiparticulate system combining taste masking and immediate release properties
      for the aversive compound praziquantel.
AB  - The taste of pharmaceuticals is of particular importance as it highly affects the
      compliance of patients, especially for patient groups like children. In view of
      oral solid dosage forms, various taste masking techniques can be applied
      encapsulating the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to prevent the
      interaction with the taste buds. Despite a delayed drug release in saliva, an
      immediate drug release in gastrointestinal media is desirable for efficient drug
      absorption. This combinatory approach is of particular interest for poorly
      soluble drugs still demonstrating an aversive, bitter taste, e.g. praziquantel
      (PZQ). It is an anthelmintic drug of current importance for adults and children
      as it is the recommended therapy against schistosomiasis. First, a small scale
      screen was conducted to identify the most suitable polymer for a combinatorial
      approach of taste masking and immediate release for PZQ. Among various PZQ
      polymer combinations Eudragit(r) E PO was chosen. Second, multiparticulate
      systems utilizing extrusion and spray-drying were generated comprising PZQ,
      Eudragit(r) E PO and a lipid as an additional taste masking agent. Spray-dried
      powders and ground extrudates showed as expected strong differences in terms of
      particle size distribution and morphological characteristics of the encapsulated
      PZQ. DSC and XRPD studies revealed the formation of an amorphous solid dispersion
      of PZQ after spray-drying in contrast to ground extrudates. This could be
      correlated to drug release studies. All formulations were subjected to non-sink
      dissolution studies in simulated salivary (SSF), gastric (spSGF) and intestinal
      (FaSSIF) media. Ground extrudates provided an efficient delayed release in SSF
      and immediate release and supersaturation in spSGF and FaSSIF for PZQ. Spray
      dried powders revealed fast solubility kinetics and up to 5-fold supersaturation
      in biorelevant media, contrary to a taste masking effect. Moreover, XRPD-patterns
      of spray-dried powders after storage detected recrystallized PZQ resulting in
      varied dissolution profiles. Solid lipid extrusion combined with Eudragit(r) E PO
      enabled a promising taste masking of PZQ in SSF through encapsulation of the
      crystalline PZQ and further, a fast and reproducible dissolution in simulated
      gastric and intestinal media.

PMID- 28887231
TI  - Therapeutic activity of superoxide dismutase-containing enzymosomes on rat liver
      ischaemia-reperfusion injury followed by magnetic resonance microscopy.
AB  - Liver ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) may occur during hepatic surgery and is
      unavoidable in liver transplantation. Superoxide dismutase enzymosomes (SOD
      enzymosomes), liposomes where SOD is at the liposomal surface expressing
      enzymatic activity in intact form without the need of liposomal disruption, were
      developed with the aim of having a better insight into its antioxidant
      therapeutic outcome in IRI. We also aimed at validating magnetic resonance
      microscopy (MRM) at 7T as a tool to follow IRI. SOD-enzymosomes were
      characterized and tested in a rat ischaemia-reperfusion model and the therapeutic
      outcome was compared with conventional long circulating SOD liposomes and free
      SOD using biochemical liver injury biomarkers, histology and MRM. MRM results
      correlated with those obtained using classical biochemical biomarkers of liver
      injury and liver histology. Moreover, MRM images suggested that the therapeutic
      efficacy of both SOD liposomal formulations used was related to prevention of
      peripheral biliary ductular damage and disrupted vascular architecture.
      Therefore, MRM at 7T is a useful technique to follow IRI. SOD-enzymosomes were
      more effective than conventional liposomes in reducing liver ischaemia
      reperfusion injury and this may be due to a short therapeutic window.

PMID- 28887232
TI  - Dry powder inhalers: An overview of the in vitro dissolution methodologies and
      their correlation with the biopharmaceutical aspects of the drug products.
AB  - In vitro dissolution testing is routinely used in the development of
      pharmaceutical products. Whilst the dissolution testing methods are well
      established and standardized for oral dosage forms, i.e. tablets and capsules,
      there are no pharmacopoeia methods or regulatory requirements for testing the
      dissolution of orally inhaled powders. Despite this, a wide variety of
      dissolution testing methods for orally inhaled powders has been developed and
      their bio-relevance has been evaluated. This review provides an overview of the
      in vitro dissolution methodologies for dry inhalation products, with particular
      emphasis on dry powder inhalers, where the dissolution behavior of the respirable
      particles can have a role on duration and absorption of the drug. Dissolution
      mechanisms of respirable particles as well as kinetic models have been presented.
      A more recent biorelevant dissolution set-ups and media for studying inhalation
      biopharmaceutics were also reviewed. In addition, factors affecting interplay
      between dissolution and absorption of deposited particles in the context of
      biopharmaceutical considerations of inhalation products were examined.

PMID- 28887233
TI  - Methotrexate pharmacogenetics in Uruguayan adults with hematological malignant
      diseases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individual variability is among the causes of toxicity and
      interruption of treatment in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and severe non
      Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients under protocols including Methotrexate (MTX): 2,4
      diamino-N10-methyl propyl-glutamic acid. METHODS: 41 Uruguayan patients were
      recruited. Gene polymorphisms involved in MTX pathway were analyzed and their
      association with treatment toxicities and outcome was evaluated. RESULTS:
      Genotype distribution and allele frequency were determined for SLC19A1 G80A,
      MTHFR C677T and A1298C, TYMS 28bp copy number variation, SLCO1B1 T521C, DHFR C
      1610G/T, DHFR C-680A, DHFR A-317G and DHFR 19bp indel. Multivariate analysis
      showed that DHFR-1610G/T (OR=0.107, p=0.018) and MTHFR677T alleles (OR=0.12,
      p=0.026) had a strong protective effect against hematologic toxicity, while DHFR
      1610CC genotype increased this toxicity (OR=9, p=0.045). No more associations
      were found. CONCLUSIONS: The associations found between gene polymorphisms and
      toxicities in this small cohort are encouraging for a more extensive research to
      gain a better dose individualization in adult ALL and NHL patients. Besides,
      genotype distribution showed to be different from other populations, reinforcing
      the idea that genotype data from other populations should not be extrapolated to
      ours.

PMID- 28887234
TI  - Vaginal semisolid products: Technological performance considering physiologic
      parameters.
AB  - Vaginal semisolid products are frequently used to treat vaginal infections and
      atrophy-related symptoms of menopause. Formulations composition and the methods
      for their characterization, especially those developed concerning the target
      epithelia, are key tools to predict in vivo results at early stages of product
      development. However, recent studies on this subject have been almost exclusively
      focused on anti-HIV preparations. The aim of this work consists on improving
      traditional characterization methods by using physiological parameters in order
      to construct predictive tools to characterize a new ideal vaginal semisolid
      formulation whatever target it may have. Ten vaginal antimicrobial and hormonal
      products already available in the market were studied (Gino-Canesten(r),
      Sertopic(r), Dermofix(r), Gyno-pevaryl(r), Lomexin(r), Gino Travogen(r), Dalacin
      V(r), Ovestin(r), Blissel(r), Colpotrophine(r)). Furthermore, Universal Placebo
      gel and Replens(r) were used for comparison. Products were characterized in terms
      of: pH and buffering capacity in a vaginal fluid simulant (VFS); osmolality -
      directly and upon dilution in VFS; textural parameters (firmness, adhesiveness
      and bioadhesion) using vaginal ex vivo porcine epithelium; and viscosity
      (including VFS dilution at 37 degrees C and after administration on an ex vivo
      model). Interestingly, the majority of the tested commercial vaginal formulations
      did not present technological characteristics close to the ideal ones when tested
      under target biological conditions. The inclusion of such methodologic
      adaptations is expected to optimize cost-efficiency of new formulations
      development by predicting efficacy and safety profiles at early stages of product
      development.

PMID- 28887235
TI  - Impact of N-methylation of the substance P 1-7 amide on anti-allodynic effect in
      mice after peripheral administration.
AB  - Substance P 1-7 (SP1-7, Arg1-Pro2-Lys3-Pro4-Gln5-Gln6-Phe7) is the major
      bioactive metabolite formed after proteolytic degradation of the tachykinin
      substance P (SP). This heptapeptide often opposes the effects of the mother
      peptide. Hence, SP1-7 is having anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and anti
      hyperalgesic effects in experimental models. Despite all encouraging properties
      of SP1-7 its exact mode of action has not yet been elucidated which has hampered
      further development of this heptapeptide in drug discovery. Contrary to SP that
      mediates its biological activity via the NK-1 receptor, the N-terminal fragment
      SP1-7 acts through an unknown target that is distinct from all known opioid and
      tachykinin receptors. The SP1-7 amide 1 (Arg1-Pro2-Lys3-Pro4-Gln5-Gln6-Phe7-NH2)
      was previously shown to be superior to the endogenous SP1-7 in all experimental
      pain models where the two compounds were compared. Herein, we report that N
      methylation scan of the backbone of the SP1-7 amide (1) results in peptides that
      are significantly less prone to undergo proteolysis in plasma from both mouse and
      human. However, with the two exceptions of the [MeLys3]SP1-7 amide (3) and the
      [MeGln5]SP1-7 amide (4), the peptides with a methyl group attached to the
      backbone are devoid of significant anti-allodynic effects after peripheral
      administration in the spared nerve injury (SNI) mouse model of neuropathic pain.
      It is suggested that the N-methylation does not allow these peptides to form the
      accurate bioactive conformations or interactions required for efficient binding
      to the macromolecular target. The importance of intact N-terminal Arg1 and C
      terminal Phe7, anticipated to serve as address and message residues,
      respectively, for achieving the anti-allodynic effect is emphasized. Notably, the
      three heptapeptides: the SP1-7 amide (1), the [MeLys3]SP1-7 amide (3) amide and
      the [MeGln5]SP1-7 amide (4) are all considerably more effective in the SNI mouse
      model than gabapentin that is widely used in the clinic for treatment of
      neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28887236
TI  - Iatrogenic Major Venous Injury Is Associated with Increased Morbidity of Aortic
      Reconstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major venous injury during open aortic reconstruction though uncommon
      often result in sudden and massive blood loss resulting in increased morbidity
      and mortality. This study details the etiology, management, and outcome of such
      injuries. METHODS: A retrospective review of 945 patients (1981-2017) undergoing
      aortic reconstruction from 2 midsized (350 bed each) teaching hospitals was
      conducted. Seven hundred twenty-three patients (76.5%) underwent open abdominal
      aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair/iliac aneurysm repair, 222 patients (23.5%)
      underwent aortofemoral grafting (AFG). Patients sustaining major venous injury
      (sudden loss of more than 500 mL of blood) during major aortic reconstruction
      were studied. The number of units of packed red blood cells transfused, location
      of injured vessel, type of repair, postoperative morbidity, and mortality were
      collected in our vascular registry on a continuous basis. All patients identified
      with iliac vein/inferior vena cava/femoral vein injury had follow-up noninvasive
      venous examination of the lower extremities. RESULTS: Eighteen major venous
      injuries (1.9%) occurred during aortic reconstruction in 17 patients (1 patient
      had 2 major venous injuries): IVC (n = 4), iliac vein (n = 10), left renal vein
      (n = 4, this includes a posterior retroaortic renal vein injury n = 1). Of the 18
      major venous injuries, 7 occurred during open AAA repair for ruptured AAA and
      another 9 occurred during repair of intact AAA (P = 0.001), 2 venous injuries
      occurred after AFG, and 1 after primary AFG (P = 0.05). Using multivariate
      regression analysis, periarterial inflammation had significant association with
      major venous injury (P < 0.001). The presence of associated iliac aneurysm with
      abdominal aortic aneurysm also increased the incidence of major venous injury
      during AAA surgery (P = 0.05). Two patients (11.8%) died, one from uncontrolled
      bleeding due to tear of right common iliac vein during ruptured AAA repair and
      second patient from disseminated intravascular complication following repair of
      ruptured AAA. Intraoperative transfusion requirements were 3-28 units, (median 8
      units). Three of 9 (33%) surviving patients developed iliofemoral venous
      thrombosis following repair of iliac/femoral vein injury. CONCLUSIONS: Major
      venous injury during aortic reconstructions occurs more commonly during the
      repair of ruptured AAA and redo AFG. Following repair of iliac/femoral vein
      injury, surveillance for possible deep venous thrombosis by duplex imaging should
      be considered.

PMID- 28887237
TI  - Successful Use of Nellix and Endovascular Aortic Sealing Technology for Treatment
      of Aortic Rupture in a Porcine Model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endovascular aortic sealing (EVAS) represents a recent transformation
      in approach for treatment of aortic aneurysms. Initial reporting has shown that
      EVAS using the Nellix device is safe with similar complication rates to standard
      endovascular aortic repair (EVAR). What remains unknown is how EVAS technology
      will behave in the ruptured setting. The purpose of this report is to discuss how
      EVAS system and endobag technology behave when deployed in a porcine model of
      aortic rupture. METHODS: A controlled left retroperitoneal rupture was created in
      20 large swine. Following rupture, an EVAS system was deployed across the rupture
      site to seal the area. The primary end point was seal from ongoing hemorrhage.
      Other parameters were examined to include endobag extravasation, aortic wall
      pressure measurements and device behavior in a live tissue model. RESULTS: Of the
      EVAS systems used, 15 Nellix (Endologix, Irvine, CA) devices and 5 novel EVAS
      systems were used. Of the correctly deployed devices, 100% sealed the rupture (n
      = 19). One device was deployed above the rupture site, and seal was not achieved
      secondary to malpositioning. Endobag extravasation was seen with an average
      protrusion of 7.7 mm. No other areas of aortic injury were noted secondary to
      endobag trauma. Pressure recording from behind the endobag indicates loss of
      pulsatile flow to the aortic wall with polymer curing. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular
      aortic sealing for rupture is feasible and performs well in a porcine model of
      aortic rupture. Polymer extravasation is seen and may be controllable by the
      implanter. Once the polymer has cured, pulsatile aortic wall pressure is no
      longer present. EVAS represents an emerging technology for treatment of aortic
      rupture.

PMID- 28887238
TI  - Emergent Carotid Stent Removal after Carotid Stent Thrombosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute carotid stent thrombosis in patients undergoing CAS is a
      relatively rare and potentially devastating complication influencing
      significantly the quality of life. With the increasing use of stenting in
      clinical practice, it is expected to represent a more often encountered
      complication for physicians performing CAS. Emergent removal of the thrombosed
      stent and endarterectomy is indicated when the intrastent thrombosis is not
      associated with intracranial carotid branch thrombosis. METHODS: The technique
      and its peculiarities and tip and tricks of this carotid operation have not been
      described meticulously. We describe the steps of the surgical technique in
      detail, and we analyze crucial issues associated with the technique. RESULTS: We
      have performed this emergency operation in 2 patients with acute early stroke
      after CAS. Both patients presented recovery of their previous neurologic deficits
      and had uneventful postoperative course. CONCLUSIONS: We illustrate the technique
      of emergent removal of the thrombosed stent after CAS. If carotid stent
      thrombosis with no distal extension is documented post procedurally, emergency
      stent removal and endarterectomy is the preferred strategy. Special care should
      be taken to avoid risk of clot dislocation and consequent cerebral embolization
      during the surgical exposure of the carotid bifurcation and placement of the
      vascular clamps.

PMID- 28887239
TI  - Atorvastatin Protects Kidney from Remote Reperfusion Injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a need to find an effective treatment against reperfusion
      injury. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the capacity of the ischemic
      postconditioning and statin to prevent renal reperfusion injury. DESIGN AND
      SETTING: An experimental study developed at Universidade Anhanguera-Uniderp.
      METHODS: A total of 41 Wistar rats were distributed into 5 groups: ischemia and
      reperfusion (I/R), ischemic postconditioning (IPC), postconditioning + statin
      (IPC + S), statin (S), and sham. In the sham group, the infrarenal abdominal
      aorta was dissected and isolated; all others were submitted to aortic clamping
      for 70 min (ischemia) and posterior removal of the clamp (reperfusion, 70 min).
      In the IPC and IPC + S groups, postconditioning was performed in ischemia and
      reperfusion phases by 4 cycles of reperfusion and ischemia lasting 30 sec each.
      In the IPC + S and S groups, preceding the surgical procedure, atorvastatin was
      administered 3.4 mg/day for 7 days by gavage. After the procedure, the left
      kidney was removed for histological study. RESULTS: The mean renal lesion was 4
      in the I/R group, 2.44 in the IPC group, 1.22 in the IPC + S group, 1.11 in the S
      group, and 1 in the sham group. The I/R group had a higher degree of tissue
      injury when compared to the others (P < 0.001) and the IPC + S and S groups
      improved protection against IPC alone (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Ischemic
      postconditioning and atorvastatin can minimize renal remote reperfusion injury.

PMID- 28887240
TI  - Temporal Trends, Determinants, and Outcomes of Inpatient versus Outpatient
      Arteriovenous Fistula Operations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: As high healthcare costs are increasing scrutinized, a movement
      toward reducing patient hospital admissions and lengths of stay has emerged,
      particularly for operations that may be performed safely in the outpatient
      setting. Our aim is to describe recent temporal trends in the proportion of
      dialysis access procedures performed on an inpatient versus outpatient basis and
      to determine the effects of these changes on perioperative morbidity and
      mortality. METHODS: The 2005-2008 American College of Surgeons National Surgical
      Quality Improvement Program database was queried for all primary arteriovenous
      fistula (AVF) procedures using current procedural terminology codes. Changes in
      the proportions of inpatient versus outpatient operations performed by year, as
      well as the associated 30-day postoperative morbidity and mortality, were
      analyzed using univariable statistics and multivariable logistic regression.
      RESULTS: Two thousand nine hundred fifty AVF procedures were performed over the
      study period. Overall, 71.7% (n = 2,114) were performed on an outpatient basis.
      Inpatient procedures were associated with higher 30-day morbidity (10.5% vs.
      4.5%) and mortality (2.8% vs. 0.7%) than outpatient procedures (both, P < 0.001).
      There was a significant increase in the proportion of procedures performed on an
      outpatient basis over time (2005: 56% vs. 2008: 75%; P < 0.001). There were no
      changes in postoperative morbidity or mortality for inpatient or outpatient AVF
      over time (P >= 0.36). Independent determinants of having an inpatient procedure
      included younger age (OR 0.99), increasing ASA class (ASA IV OR 1.56), congestive
      heart failure (OR 3.32), recent ascites (OR 3.25), poor functional status (OR
      3.22), the presence of an open wound (OR 1.91), and recent sepsis (OR 6.06) (all,
      P < 0.01). Acute renal failure (OR 2.60) and current dialysis (OR 1.44) were also
      predictive (P < 0.001). After correcting for baseline differences between groups,
      the adjusted OR for both morbidity (aOR 1.93, 95% CI 1.38-2.69) and mortality
      (aOR 2.85, 95% CI 1.36-5.95) remained significantly higher for inpatient versus
      outpatient AVF. CONCLUSIONS: Dialysis access operations are increasingly being
      performed on an outpatient basis, with stable perioperative outcomes. Inpatient
      procedures are associated with worse outcomes, likely because they are reserved
      for patients with acute illnesses, serious comorbidities, and poor functional
      status. Overall, for appropriately selected patients, the movement toward
      performing more elective dialysis access operations on an outpatient basis is
      associated with acceptable outcomes.

PMID- 28887241
TI  - Noninvasive Peripheral Artery Disease Screening Tools: A Deficient Knowledge
      among French Vascular Residents from 4 Medical Schools.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ankle-brachial index (ABI) at rest, postexercise ABI, and toe
      brachial index (TBI) are essential diagnostic tools recommended for peripheral
      artery disease (PAD) diagnosis. Our study investigates the level of knowledge on
      these 3 tests among vascular medicine residents from 4 French medical schools in
      France. METHODS: We included 19 vascular medicine residents in a cross-sectional
      study. During an annual obligatory seminar, all residents accepted to fill 3
      questionnaires concerning knowledge about these 3 tests. RESULTS: All residents
      accepted to fill 3 questionnaires. None of the residents correctly knows how to
      perform all pressure measurements (ABI, postexercise ABI, and TBI). Two residents
      had the knowledge to perform the whole ABI at rest procedure, whereas no resident
      had the knowledge to perform neither the postexercise ABI (P = 0.48) nor the TBI
      (P = 0.48). Twelve residents correctly completed the question regarding the
      interpretation of ABI at rest, whereas 2 correctly completed the postexercise ABI
      question (P = 0.001) and 4 the TBI question (P = 0.02). The number of residents
      who have performed more than 20 measurements is higher regarding ABI at rest than
      postexercise ABI and TBI (84%, 5%, and 37% respectively; P < 0.001 and P = 0.006
      respectively) and significantly less often in postexercise ABI than TBI (5% vs.
      37%; P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows for the first time that residents'
      knowledge of pressure measurements (resting-ABI, postexercise ABI, and TBI) of 4
      French medical school are insufficient although the importance of pressure
      measurement has been strongly highlighted by the newly released PAD guidelines
      (2016) for PAD diagnosis.

PMID- 28887242
TI  - Rapid Methods for Routine Frailty Assessment during Vascular Surgery Clinic
      Visits.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty assessment can help vascular surgeons predict perioperative
      risk and long-term mortality for their patients. Unfortunately, comprehensive
      frailty assessments take too long to integrate into clinic workflow. This study
      was designed to evaluate 2 rapid methods for assessing frailty during vascular
      clinics-a short patient-reported survey and a provider-reported frailty scale.
      METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 159 patients presenting to an academic medical
      center vascular surgery clinic between May and November 2016. Patients underwent
      frailty assessment using 2 rapid methods: (1) the Frail Nondisabled (FiND) survey
      (5 questions) and (2) the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS; 9-point scale from robust
      to severely frail). These were followed by administering the Fried Index, a
      validated frailty assessment method with 5 measures (weight loss, exhaustion,
      grip strength, walking speed, and activity level). The correlation between Fried
      scores (reference standard) with frailty diagnoses derived from FiND and CFS was
      analyzed using the Spearman-rank test, Cohen's kappa, sensitivity/specificity
      tests, and receiver operating curves. RESULTS: The evaluated cohort included 87
      (55%) females, a mean age of 61 years, 126 (79%) preoperative patients, and 32
      (20%) categorized as frail using the Fried Index criteria. The FiND survey was
      very sensitive (91%) but less specific for diagnosing frailty. In comparison, the
      CFS was highly specific (96%) for diagnosing frailty and exhibited high inter
      rater reliability between surgeon and medical assistant scores (kappa: 0.79; 95%
      CI: 0.72-0.87; P < 0.001). There was moderate correlation between frailty
      assigned using the Fried Index and the CFS (rho: 0.41-0.44). CONCLUSIONS: Frailty
      can be quickly and effectively assessed during vascular surgery clinic using a
      combination of patient-reported (FiND) and provider-reported (CFS) methods to
      improve diagnostic accuracy. Implementing routine frailty assessment into clinic
      workflow can be a valuable tool for risk prediction and surgical decision-making.

PMID- 28887243
TI  - Superior 3-Year Value of Open and Endovascular Repair of Abdominal Aortic
      Aneurysm with High-Volume Providers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Conflicting literature exists regarding resource utilization for
      cardiovascular care when stratified by provider volume. This study investigates
      the differences in value of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair by high- and
      low-volume providers. The hypothesis of this study is that high-volume providers
      will provide superior value AAA repairs when compared to low-volume providers.
      METHODS: Using the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System
      database and its linked death database, patients undergoing intact open and
      endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) were identified over a 10-year period. Charge
      data were normalized to year 2016 dollars and the data stratified by repair
      modality and annual surgeon volume. Univariate technique was used to compare the
      2 groups over a 3-year follow-up period. RESULTS: Nine hundred eleven surgeons
      performed open AAA repairs and 615 performed EVAR. For both repair modalities,
      and despite a patient population with more vascular risk factors, the cumulative
      adjusted charge for all aneurysm-related care was significantly less for high
      volume providers than low-volume providers. The calculated 3-year value-patient
      life years per cumulative charge-was also superior for high-volume providers
      compared to low-volume providers. This difference in charge and value persisted
      after propensity score matching for race, sex, insurance status, and common
      vascular comorbidities including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and a history of
      smoking. CONCLUSIONS: High-volume surgeons performing repair of aortic aneurysms
      provide superior value when compared to low-volume providers. The improved value
      margin is driven by both lower charge and improved survival, despite an increased
      incidence of cardiovascular comorbidities. This study adds support for the
      regionalization of care for patients with aortic aneurysm.

PMID- 28887244
TI  - External Validation of a Rapid Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Score.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Rapid Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Score (RrAAAS) was
      developed from Vascular Study Group of New England (VSGNE) data (649 ruptured
      abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) patients, repaired both open and
      endovascularly), using preoperative age, creatinine, and blood pressure. This
      study validates that model using the larger National Vascular Quality Initiative
      (VQI) data set and compares its performance to previous models. METHODS: The VQI
      registry was queried for patients undergoing rAAA repair from 2006 to 2016. The
      performance of our original model, RrAAAS, was tested on this data set excluding
      VSGNE patients (VQI minus VSGNE), and its performance was then compared to the
      performance of the Glasgow Aneurysm Score (GAS) and Edinburgh Ruptured Aneurysm
      Score (ERAS). RESULTS: VQI contained 2,704 eligible patients, of which 715 had
      been contributed by VSGNE. The discrimination of RrAAAS was similar to GAS or
      ERAS (area under a receiver operator characteristic curve = 0.66). Neither GAS
      nor ERAS provides a direct prediction of mortality; observed mortality in the VQI
      minus VSGNE cohort tended to be somewhat lower than predictions of the original
      RrAAAS. A recalibrated equation predicting the percent mortality was Mortality
      (%) = 16 + 12*(age > 76) + 8*(creatinine > 1.5) + 20*(systolic blood pressure <
      70). CONCLUSIONS: The previously described RrAAAS has similar discrimination as
      the GAS and ERAS, is easier to obtain in an emergency setting, and has been
      recalibrated to reflect the experience of a large national sample. The RrAAAS
      could be useful for clinicians caring for these patients and could be used for
      risk adjustment when comparing regional differences in mortality associated with
      rAAA repair.

PMID- 28887245
TI  - A Pulsatile Fresh Frozen Human Cadaver Circulation Model for Endovascular
      Training: A Trial of Face Validity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The authors have published their design of a pulsatile fresh frozen
      human cadaver circulation model (PHCM) for endovascular training the face
      validity of the PHCM for training endovascular practitioners was subsequently
      assessed. METHODS: Twelve endovascular clinicians performed the same 2 procedures
      (catheterization of the left renal artery and left subclavian artery) on PHCM and
      Simbionix angiomentor virtual reality simulator (SVR). They were randomized to
      begin on either the PHCM or SVR. A pretrial questionnaire determined
      participants' endovascular experience. After training, participants rated
      statements relating to their experience on a numerical scale from 1 to 5, with 1
      representing the strongest agreement with the statement. RESULTS: When
      participants were asked to compare the realism of training modalities with live
      patients, PHCM scored significantly higher than SVR on statements regarding
      "realism of vascular access" (P = 0.002), "guide-wire manipulation" (P = 0.001),
      and "vessel catheterization" (P = 0.004). Candidates again favored PHCM as "a
      valuable learning exercise" (P = 0.016) and strongly favored PHCM as a "useful
      training model" compared to SVR (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first
      published trial in world literature to assess the validity of a PHCM for training
      endovascular practitioners. The PHCM demonstrates good face validity when
      compared to both real patients and the SVR model and holds exciting potential.

PMID- 28887246
TI  - Novel Morphological Features for Prediction of Distal Thoracic Aortic Enlargement
      after Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair of DeBakey IIIb Aortic Dissection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identifying the risk factors predisposing to aortic enlargement after
      thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) is needed for DeBakey IIIb aortic
      dissection. The aim of the study is to assess the novel morphological features
      for DeBakey IIIb aortic dissection in predicting distal thoracic aortic
      enlargement after TEVAR. METHODS: Sixty-seven patients who underwent TEVAR for
      DeBakey IIIb aortic dissection between January 2011 and December 2013 at our
      center were divided based on preoperative computer tomography angiography (CTA)
      features into 3 groups: I (n = 27) and III (n = 9), with true and false lumen,
      respectively, coursing closely along thoracic vertebral bodies and II, spiral
      configuration (n = 31). Distal thoracic aortic enlargement was determined using
      preoperative and postoperative CTA images. RESULTS: At median 12.2 (interquartile
      range, 4.3-26.6) months, 12 patients developed distal thoracic aortic
      enlargement, with estimated cumulative incidence tending to increase from
      categories I to III (P for trend < 0.01). Categories II and III versus I had more
      frequently concave location of primary entry tear (P < 0.01), larger dissection
      length and height index (L/Hi) (P = 0.05), and greater number of abdominal small
      branches involved preoperatively (P = 0.03), with otherwise similar baseline
      characteristics; and significantly greater total aortic diameter increase and
      lower false lumen regression up to 24 months, and lower true lumen expansion up
      to 12 months. In multivariable regression analysis, categories II and III were
      independently associated with distal thoracic aortic enlargement (hazard ratio,
      19.95 [95% confidence interval, 2.14-186.09]; 41.23 [3.61-470.22], respectively)
      after adjustment for Society of Vascular Surgery score, preoperative maximum
      total aortic diameter, L/Hi, and number of abdominal small branches involved
      preoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: The CTA-based morphological features described in
      this study might improve preoperative risk stratification of DeBakey IIIb aortic
      dissection, with categories II and III having higher risk of distal thoracic
      aortic enlargement after TEVAR.

PMID- 28887247
TI  - Rare Presentation of a Syphilitic Aneurysm of the Infrarenal Aorta with Contained
      Rupture.
AB  - We report, to our knowledge, the first case of a rare syphilitic infrarenal
      aortouniiliac aneurysm with contained rupture that presented with midepigastric
      abdominal pain. Review of the patient's medical history revealed untreated
      syphilis and poorly treated congestive heart failure. Given his comorbidities,
      the patient was treated with an emergent endovascular aneurysm repair. His 30-day
      postoperative recovery period was uneventful, and follow-up imaging revealed
      complete resolution of the aneurysms. Syphilitic infrarenal aortic aneurysm is
      currently considered a rare entity in this era of antibiotics. The present
      article provides a brief case report and short review of literature pertaining to
      syphilitic aortic aneurysms.

PMID- 28887248
TI  - Positive Impact of an Aortic Center Designation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In January 2015, we created a multidisciplinary Aortic Center with
      the collaboration of Vascular Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Interventional Radiology,
      Anesthesia and Hospital Administration. We report the initial success of creating
      a Comprehensive Aortic Center. METHODS: All aortic procedures performed from
      January 1, 2015 until December 31, 2016 were entered into a prospectively
      collected database and compared with available data for 2014. Primary outcomes
      included the number of all aortic related procedures, transfer acceptance rate,
      transfer time, and proportion of elective/emergent referrals. RESULTS: The Aortic
      Center included 5 vascular surgeons, 2 cardiac surgeons, and 2 interventional
      radiologists. Workflow processes were implemented to streamline patient transfers
      as well as physician and operating room notification. Total aortic volume
      increased significantly from 162 to 261 patients. This reflected an overall 59%
      (P = 0.0167) increase in all aorta-related procedures. We had a 65% overall
      increase in transfer requests with 156% increase in acceptance of referrals and
      136% drop in transfer denials (P < 0.0001). Emergent abdominal aortic cases
      accounted for 17% (n = 45) of our total aortic volume in 2015. The average
      transfer time from request to arrival decreased from 515 to 352 min, although
      this change was not statistically significant. We did see a significant increase
      in the use of air-transfers for aortic patients (P = 0.0041). Factorial analysis
      showed that time for transfer was affected only by air-transfer use, regardless
      of the year the patient was transferred. Transfer volume and volume of aortic
      related procedures remained stable in 2016. CONCLUSIONS: Designation as a
      comprehensive Aortic Center with implementation of strategic workflow systems and
      a culture of "no refusal of transfers" resulted in a significant increase in
      aortic volume for both emergent and elective aortic cases. Case volumes increased
      for all specialties involved in the center. Improvements in transfer center and
      emergency medical services communication demonstrated a trend toward more
      efficient transfer times. These increases and improvements were sustainable for 2
      years after this designation.

PMID- 28887249
TI  - Chronic Nonatherosclerotic Occlusive Popliteal Artery Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The outcomes of revascularization of nonatherosclerotic occlusive
      popliteal artery disease are unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was
      to analyze the outcomes of recanalization of nonatherosclerotic occlusive
      popliteal artery disease, the results of which would be useful in creating
      surgical strategies for such cases. METHODS: From January 2000 to December 2015,
      a total of 22 patients with nonatherosclerotic occlusive popliteal artery disease
      underwent open surgical repair. We retrospectively analyzed the data of these
      patients. Thrombectomy with angioplasty on the occluded popliteal artery, graft
      interposition, and bypass surgery were conducted for revascularization of the
      affected region. We analyzed the overall primary patency rate, type of graft, and
      surgical approach. Furthermore, we compared the primary patency rate after
      surgical treatment. RESULTS: Of 22 patients, 3 (13.6%) had cystic adventitial
      disease, 16 (72.7%) had popliteal artery entrapment syndrome, and 3 (13.6%) were
      diagnosed as having thromboangiitis obliterans. Five patients (22.7%) underwent
      thrombectomy with patch angioplasty, 8 (36.3%) underwent bypass surgery, and 9
      (40.9%) underwent graft interposition of the popliteal artery. All graft
      interpositions and thrombectomies with patch angioplasty were performed through a
      posterior approach, whereas all bypass surgeries were performed through a medial
      approach except in 1 case. The mean follow-up period was 54.95 +/- 42.99 months.
      The overall primary patency rate at 1, 3, and 10 years was 100%, 86.9%, and
      69.5%, respectively. In the bypass group, the primary patency rate at 1, 3, and
      10 years was 100%, 66.7%, and 44.4%, respectively. In the other groups, the
      primary patency rate was 100% during the follow-up period. The difference in
      primary patency rate was statistically significant (P <= 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The
      result of surgical treatment for nonatherosclerotic occlusive popliteal artery
      disease was better than that of atherosclerotic popliteal artery disease. Direct
      popliteal artery reconstruction, such as graft interposition or thrombectomy with
      patch angioplasty, showed better short- and long-term patency than did bypass
      surgery.

PMID- 28887250
TI  - Analysis of Patients Undergoing Major Lower Extremity Amputation in the Vascular
      Quality Initiative.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite an aggressive climate of limb salvage and revascularization,
      7% of patients with peripheral artery disease undergo major lower extremity
      amputation (LEA). The purpose of this study was to describe the current
      demographics and early outcomes of patients undergoing major LEA in the Vascular
      Quality Initiative (VQI). METHODS: The VQI amputation registry was reviewed to
      identify patients who underwent major LEAs. Patient factors, limb
      characteristics, procedure type, and intraoperative variables were analyzed by
      the level of amputation. Factors associated with amputation level, 30-day
      complications, and mortality were analyzed using chi-squared analysis for
      significance with associated P values. Propensity score adjustment was used to
      balance statistically significant differences observed in subject characteristics
      by amputation level for the associated relative risk of a given outcome. RESULTS:
      Between 2013 and 2015, 2,939 major LEAs were recorded in the VQI amputation
      registry. The ratio of below-knee to above-knee amputation (BKA:AKA) was 1.29:1.
      The mean age was 66 years, 64% were male, 84% lived at home before admission, and
      68% were ambulatory. Comorbidities included diabetes (67%), coronary artery
      disease (32%), end-stage renal disease (22%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary
      disease (23%). The mean preoperative ankle-brachial index (ABI) was 0.78.
      Overall, 43% had a history of prior ipsilateral revascularization. Indications
      for amputation were ischemic rest pain or tissue loss (58%), uncontrolled
      infection (31%), acute ischemia (9%), and neuropathic tissue loss (2%). The
      overall perioperative complication rate was 15%, 25% were discharged home, and
      the 30-day mortality was 5%. Patients who received an AKA versus BKA were more
      likely to be female (40.61% vs. 31.70%), more than age 70 (48.79% vs. 32.55%),
      underweight (18.63% vs. 9.18%), nonambulatory (40.22% vs. 25.18%), have an ABI
      <0.6 (58.00% vs. 45.26%), and carry nonprivate insurance (77.40% vs. 69.08%) (all
      P < 0.001). Patients undergoing AKA were less likely to have 30-day postoperative
      complications (12.24% vs. 17.87%) but had higher 30-day mortality (6.70% vs.
      3.09%) than BKA patients (all P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In the VQI registry, major
      LEA was performed predominantly for ischemic rest pain and tissue loss with a
      BKA:AKA ratio of 1.29:1. Patients undergoing AKA versus BKA were older, had lower
      ABI, lower rates of 30-day postoperative complications but higher rates of 30-day
      mortality. This registry offers an important real-world resource for studies
      pertaining to vascular surgery patients undergoing major lower extremity
      amputation.

PMID- 28887251
TI  - Metabolic Syndrome but not Obesity Adversely Affects Outcomes after Open
      Aortoiliac Bypass Surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although the incident risk of peripheral artery disease increases in
      patients with metabolic syndrome, several authors report favorable outcomes in
      obese patients after arterial bypass surgery. We examine the effect of the so
      called "obesity paradox" and metabolic syndrome on outcomes after open aortoiliac
      bypass surgery. METHODS: We identified patients between 2004 and 2015 who had
      open surgical bypass for aortoiliac occlusive disease. We excluded patients with
      endovascular repair and those treated primarily for aneurysmal disease. Variables
      that were analyzed included preoperative medical history, Trans-Atlantic Inter
      Society Consensus Document on Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease II
      classification, Rutherford classification, intra-operative, and postoperative
      outcomes. Metabolic syndrome was defined by World Health Organization criteria:
      diabetes and 2 or more of dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity (body mass
      index > 30 kg/m2). Data were analyzed by stratified Kaplan-Meier and multiple Cox
      regression for outcomes including long-term mortality and reintervention rate.
      RESULTS: There were 154 open bypass surgery patients during the study period with
      a median age of 60 years (interquartile range [IQR] 53-68), median glomerular
      filtration rate 76.1 mL/min (IQR 54-102), and 58% female prevalence. In all, 53
      patients had metabolic syndrome (4%), and 14 patients (9%) were obese but did not
      have metabolic syndrome. Primary bypass graft patency was 89.0 +/- 2.7% at 1 year
      and 77.4 +/- 4.1% at 5 years and was not significantly different between
      metabolic syndrome, obese, and nonmetabolic syndrome patients. Reintervention
      rate for the entire cohort was 25.3 +/- 3.7% at 1 year and 40.6 +/- 4.7% at 5
      years. In those with and without metabolic syndrome, reintervention rate at 1 and
      5 years was 33.0 +/- 6.8% vs. 21.1 +/- 4.2% and 56.1 +/- 7.9% vs. 30.7 +/- 5.4%,
      respectively (log-rank P = 0.003). In multivariable analyses, metabolic syndrome
      (hazard ratio [HR] 1.8, P = 0.036) and critical limb ischemia (CLI) (HR: 3.2, P =
      0.001) were the only independent predictors of reintervention. Neither obesity
      nor the individual components comprising metabolic syndrome was a risk for
      reintervention. Multivariate analysis demonstrated age, female gender, CLI, and
      nonobesity as the independent risk factors for long-term mortality. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our study supports the "obesity paradox" that obesity by itself is not a risk
      factor for reintervention and was a protective factor for mortality after open
      aortoiliac bypass surgery. Bypass graft patency and major amputation rates were
      not affected. Although the individual components do not predispose to worse
      outcome, metabolic syndrome is a constellation of factors that, together, are
      associated with adverse events.

PMID- 28887252
TI  - Correlation of Intraluminal Thrombus Deposition, Biomechanics, and Hemodynamics
      with Surface Growth and Rupture in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm-Application in a
      Clinical Paradigm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The natural history of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) can be
      investigated through longitudinal evaluation of localized aneurysm
      characteristics exploiting clinical images. The major challenge is to identify
      corresponding regions between follow-ups. We have recently developed an algorithm
      (VascForm) based on nonrigid registration that can obtain surface correspondence
      and quantify surface growth distribution. METHODS: A ruptured AAA with an initial
      computed tomography scan 2 years ago was studied. Following 3-dimensional
      reconstruction of outer wall and luminal surfaces, the wall/thrombus thickness
      was obtained. Wall stress distribution was computed with finite element analysis,
      and computational fluid dynamics simulation was performed. VascForm was applied
      and allowed for the ruptured wall site to be traced back to the initial wall
      surface and be correlated with local initial intraluminal thrombus thickness,
      wall stress, and hemodynamic parameters. It also allowed for the quantification
      of wall surface growth based on surface element growth. RESULTS: Rupture occurred
      at the posterolateral side. Initial wall surface growth was in most regions 40%.
      However, a large section of the posterior wall presented 110% growth. Initial
      thrombus deposition was more prevalent anteriorly, and a posterior thrombus-free
      isle was present. Peak wall stress (initial and follow-up) occurred at AAA neck.
      Nonrigid registration revealed that rupture originated from the vicinity of the
      initial thrombus-free isle. Furthermore, rupture occurred at the wall region with
      the largest growth (110%). No clear correlation between hemodynamics and rupture
      site could be identified. CONCLUSIONS: High local surface growth correlates with
      rupture site and could therefore potentially become a marker of rupture risk. The
      ongoing application of this methodology to a large cohort of AAA patients will
      focus on identifying characteristic features of AAA regions that present high
      surface growth in follow-up evaluations, to assist in improved rupture risk
      estimation.

PMID- 28887254
TI  - Factors Affecting Patency following Successful Percutaneous Intervention for
      Dysfunctional Hemodialysis Vascular Access.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the patency following initial
      successful percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for untreated
      dysfunctional hemodialysis vascular access and to identify predictors of PTA
      durability. METHODS: This retrospective observational study included data of 132
      consecutive initial PTA of hemodialysis vascular access in 126 patients who
      showed immediate technical and clinical success and had at least 1 year of follow
      up data. RESULTS: The mean duration of primary and secondary patency post-PTA was
      16 and 27 months, respectively. On multivariate adjusted Cox regression analysis,
      dyslipidemia (P < 0.001), use of insulin (P = 0.016), and arteriovenous graft
      (AVG) (P = 0.016) were significantly associated with shorter primary patency.
      Dyslipidemia (P < 0.001), use of antiplatelet medication (P = 0.013), and failed
      vascular access (P = 0.004) were significant predictors of secondary patency
      loss. Use of statin was the only clinical variable associated with increased
      primary and secondary patency (P < 0.001). According to a subgroup analysis on
      the type of vascular access and dysfunction, primary and secondary patency rates
      were significantly higher in the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and failing vascular
      access groups than AVG and failed vascular access groups, respectively. Early
      dysfunction (within 6 months) was significantly higher in the AVG and failed
      vascular access groups after initial PTA, but there was no significant difference
      after multiple PTAs. CONCLUSIONS: Post-PTA primary and secondary patency rates
      were significantly higher with AVF and failing vascular access. The use of statin
      was associated with increased primary and secondary patency after initial
      successful PTA in this study.

PMID- 28887253
TI  - Comparison of Ultrasound-Guided Thrombin Injection of Iatrogenic Pseudoaneurysms
      Based on Neck Dimension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-guided thrombin injection (UGTI) of femoral artery
      pseudoaneurysms after endovascular procedures is an effective therapy. There is
      controversy in the literature regarding injecting pseudoaneurysms with short
      and/or wide necks. This article reports our experience in UGTI of pseudoaneurysms
      in 1 hospital regarding the efficacy of this treatment in all pseudoaneurysms
      regardless of the size of the necks. METHODS: A retrospective review of 46
      patients diagnosed between 2011 and 2016 with groin pseudoaneurysms using
      established duplex ultrasound criteria. Mean age was 68 years (range 27-87). Ten
      pseudoaneurysms thrombosed spontaneously, 5 were thrombosed by ultrasound-guided
      compression, and 2 were treated surgically due to disqualifying criteria. In this
      retrospective review, we analyzed the remaining 29 pseudoaneurysms regarding the
      dimensions of their neck lengths and outcomes after attempting thrombin
      injection. RESULTS: The mean aneurysm neck length and width were 1.03 +/- 0.9 cm
      and 0.30 +/- 0.1 cm, respectively. All 29 patients were evaluated with respect to
      pseudoaneurysm size, neck length, neck width, and complexity. Successful
      treatment of 29 pseudoaneurysms (2 external iliac, 20 common femoral, 2 deep
      femoral, and 5 superficial femoral) with UGTI was achieved without complications
      in 100% of the cases, regardless of pseudoaneurysm size, neck dimensions, or
      complexity. Anticoagulation status did not affect the efficacy of the procedure.
      Nine of the 29 pseudoaneurysms (31.0%) had neck length less than 0.5 cm.
      CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the safety and efficacy of UGTI in treating
      iatrogenic pseudoaneurysm in 29 of 29 patients, even in patients with
      pseudoaneurysm with short neck lengths. Our experiences support injecting all
      pseudoaneurysms irrespective of dimension.

PMID- 28887255
TI  - Forced-Air Warming in Patients Undergoing Endovascular Procedures: Comparison
      between 2 Thermal Blanket Models.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency between 2
      thermal blanket models: the upper blanket and the underbody blanket in patient
      heating and hypothermia prevention during endovascular surgery. METHODS: Fifty
      patients, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 2-4, receiving
      endovascular surgery repair of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm or lower limb
      angioplasty by endovascular technique were studied. Primary outcome was to
      determine which forced-air blanket is more warming effective during the
      surgeries. Age, type of surgery, gender, body mass index, surgery duration, and
      initial patient temperature were analyzed to determine possible hypothermia
      association as secondary outcomes. Patients were randomized and split into 2
      groups based on blanket model. All patients received general anesthesia, and
      temperature was obtained by an esophageal thermometer inserted after tracheal
      intubation and registered at intervals of 15 min until extubation. RESULTS:
      Groups significantly differed in body temperature (P = 0.006) and hypothermia
      occurrence (P = 0.020). The underbody blanket group hada higher ratio of
      hypothermic patients and a lower average temperature at the end of surgery. The
      average temperature after 60 min in the underbody blanket group was lower than
      the upper blanket group,although this difference was only significant after 150
      min (P = 0.020). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that upper thermal blanket is more
      effective thanunderbody thermal blanket in patient warming and hypothermia
      prevention during endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair and lower limb
      angioplasty after 150 min of anesthetic-surgical time duration.

PMID- 28887256
TI  - Remote Ischemic Preconditioning Decreases the Magnitude of Hepatic Ischemia
      Reperfusion Injury on a Swine Model of Supraceliac Aortic Cross-Clamping.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temporary hepatic ischemia is inevitable during open aortic surgery
      when supraceliac clamping is necessary, as in thoracoabdominal or pararenal
      aneurysms. Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) has been described as a
      potential protective means against ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in various
      tissues including the liver. The aim of this experimental study was to detect the
      effect of RIPC on liver IRI in a model of supraceliac aortic cross-clamping.
      METHODS: An animal study was performed. Four groups of 6 swines each were
      examined: the control (sham) group, the ischemia-reperfusion (IR) group, and 2
      remote ischemic preconditioning groups (RIPC I and RIPC II group). In the IR
      group, the animals underwent a complete cessation of the splanchnic arterial
      circulation for 30 min by a concomitant occlusion of the supraceliac and the
      infrarenal aorta. In the RIPC groups, a remote preconditioning was applied before
      the splanchnic ischemia. This consisted of a temporary occlusion of the
      infrarenal aorta for 15 min followed by 15 min of reperfusion (RIPC I group), and
      3 cycles of 5 min similar ischemia, followed by 5 min of reperfusion each (RIPC
      II group). All animals were followed for 24 hr after the ischemia (reperfusion
      period). The liver ischemia-reperfusion injury was assessed by examining specific
      serum biomarkers indicating the magnitude of metabolic injury from selective
      blood samples of the hepatic circulation. In particular, the following parameters
      were examined: C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor a,
      ferritin, and L-arginine. RESULTS: All parameters were affected in the IR group
      as compared to the sham group. Both RIPC groups developed a less serious change
      as compared to the IR group, in all examined parameters. CONCLUSIONS: In an
      animal study of splanchnic ischemia produced in a way to this produced during a
      supraceliac aortic aneurysm open repair, the remote ischemic preconditioning
      seemed to attenuate the effect of hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury. CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE: Remote ischemic preconditioning produced with short bouts of ischemia
      of the lower body by temporary clamping of the infrarenal aorta might be used as
      a means of decreasing the detrimental effects of hepatic ischemia-reperfusion
      injury after supraceliac aortic cross-clamping. This was found in a swine model
      of suprarenal AAA open repair by studying the variance of certain biological
      biomarkers in selective blood samples retrieved from the hepatic vein.

PMID- 28887257
TI  - A Rare Presentation of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm-Renal Pelvis Rupture Due to
      Compression.
AB  - Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are usually asymptomatic. The compressive
      effects of internal iliac aneurysms are well described in the literature;
      however, we report what we believe to be the first case of rupture of the renal
      pelvis caused by compression by an infrarenal AAA. We describe the subsequent
      management and briefly review the literature.

PMID- 28887258
TI  - Severe Acute Type B Aortic Dissection Complicated by Acute Pancreatitis: A Case
      Report.
AB  - A 52-year-old man presented with sudden abdominal pain and intermittent vomiting.
      The patient underwent contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan and was
      diagnosed with an acute type B aortic dissection involving the celiac trunk
      superior mesenteric artery and extending to the renal artery. The patient was
      treated with thoracic endovascular aortic repair. After the procedure, the
      patient still complained of left upper abdomen abdominal pain, and an abdominal
      mass was detected on physical examination. Imaging revealed a 15-cm cystic lesion
      involving the pancreatic tail and serum amylase measured at 556 U/L. A definitive
      diagnosis of severe acute pancreatitis was made. The patient was treated with
      injection of somatostatin, ultrasound-guided puncture drainage, and jejunal
      nutrition tube placement. The patient was discharged with symptom free after 30
      days and well recovered in subsequent follow-up 12 months later.

PMID- 28887259
TI  - Morphometric Assessment as a Predictor of Outcome in Older Vascular Surgery
      Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Frailty is a recognized predictor of poor outcome in patients
      undergoing surgical intervention. Frailty is intricately linked with body
      morphology, which can be evaluated using morphometric assessment via computerized
      tomographic (CT) imaging. We aimed to assess the predictive power of such
      objective assessments in a broad cohort of vascular surgical patients. METHODS: A
      consecutive series of patients aged over 65 years admitted to a vascular unit,
      who had undergone CT imaging of the abdomen, were analyzed. Demographic and
      patient-specific data were collated alongside admission relevant information.
      Outcomes included mortality, length of stay, health care-related costs, and
      discharge destination. Images were analyzed for 4 morphometric measurements: (1)
      psoas muscle area, (2) mean psoas density, (3) subcutaneous fat depth, and (4)
      intra-abdominal fat depth, all taken at the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra.
      RESULTS: Two hundred and ten patients were initially analyzed. Forty-four
      patients had significant retroperitoneal and abdominal abnormalities that limited
      appropriate CT analysis. Decreased subcutaneous fat depth was significantly
      associated with mortality, readmission within 12 months, and increased cost of
      health care (P < 0.01, adjusted for confounders). Psoas muscle area was
      significantly associated with readmission-free survival. CONCLUSIONS:
      Morphometric analysis predicts poorer outcome in a broad cohort of vascular
      surgery patients. Such assessment is likely to enhance patient counseling
      regarding individual risk as well as enhancing the ability to undertake risk
      modified surgical audit.

PMID- 28887260
TI  - The Use of Smart Phone Thermal Imaging for Assessment of Peripheral Perfusion in
      Vascular Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a reliable method to evaluate extremity
      perfusion but can be prohibitive to obtain secondary to patient discomfort or
      extremity trauma. This study investigates smart phone-based forward looking
      infrared imaging to assess peripheral perfusion using thermal ABI (tABI).
      METHODS: ABIs were measured by a certified vascular laboratory. Thermographs of
      each extremity (hands/feet) were obtained, and maximum surface temperature was
      recorded. tABI was calculated by dividing the lower extremity (LE) temperature by
      the upper extremity (UE). ABI and tABI were compared using Pearson's correlation
      and Bland-Altman plot. RESULTS: Twenty-three patients (45 limbs) had ABI's and
      thermographs recorded on the same day. Median ABI was 0.89 (range 0.33-1.46, IQR
      0.4). Median LE temperature was 83.0 degrees F (range 60.7-96.9 degrees F, IQR
      14.1). Median UE temperature was 91.2 degrees F (range 81.9-94.6 degrees F, IQR
      3.4). Median tABI was 0.93 (range 0.33-1.4, IQR 0.2). Positive correlation was
      seen between ABI and tABI with Pearson analysis (r = 0.83, P < 0.0001) and Bland
      Altman plot (bias -0.01, LOA -0.13 to -0.12). CONCLUSIONS: Thermal imaging
      correlates with ABI in the evaluation of extremity perfusion. Smart phone-based
      FLIR can be used to determine peripheral perfusion in clinical settings where ABI
      is difficult to obtain.

PMID- 28887261
TI  - Stenting of Subclavian Artery True and False Aneurysms: A Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Aneurysms of the subclavian artery are usually the result of trauma,
      atherosclerosis, or thoracic outlet syndrome. Until the 90s, open surgical repair
      was considered the only therapeutic choice, exhibiting high complication rates.
      Since the first report of endovascular repair of subclavian aneurysms in 1991,
      promising results have been published. The aim of this review was to summarize
      all available data on subclavian artery (SA) true and false aneurysm stenting to
      reach conclusions regarding morbidity, mortality, and other procedure-related
      characteristics. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with
      the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis
      guidelines. Eligible studies were sought in the Medline (PubMed),
      ClinicalTrials.gov, and Cochrane library-Cochrane Central Register of Controlled
      Trials (CENTRAL) databases through February 2017 using the following MeSH terms:
      "endovascular", "hybrid", "aneurysm", "pseudo-aneurysm", "pseudo-aneurysm",
      "false aneurysm", "arterial injury", "subclavian artery", "axillo-subclavian,"
      and "axillosubclavian artery". The reference lists of eligible articles and
      pertinent reviews were screened for potential relevant studies. RESULTS: Seventy
      three studies encompassing data on 142 patients who underwent endovascular or
      hybrid SA aneurysm repair were deemed eligible. One hundred forty-seven stents
      and stent grafts were used. Median age of all patients was 56 years, and males
      comprised 46% of the study sample. Trauma was the most common mechanism of
      injury. Pulsatile mass or hematoma was the most frequent presenting sign.
      Pseudoaneurysms were the most frequent type of aneurysms, followed by true
      aneurysms. Most authors used self-expanding polytetrafluoroethylene-covered
      stents. Access was obtained by either brachial, femoral, or both arteries.
      Through-and-through technique was also used in angulated vessels. All-cause
      mortality was 10.6%, slightly higher to that already reported in literature and
      lower to the respective rate of the open repair. Reintervention rate was 8.5%
      despite the high 15.5% complication rate. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular SA aneurysm
      repair is a technically feasible technique, useful in both elective and emergency
      cases. Although preliminary results quote its safety and efficacy, larger cohort
      studies are warranted to elucidate its benefit in treating SA aneurysms.

PMID- 28887262
TI  - Late Rupture of a Totally Thrombosed Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: A Case Report and
      Literature Review.
AB  - Chronic totally thrombosed abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) comprise a rare
      medical situation, with only a few cases reported in literature. Optimal
      management has been controversial, although an early risk for rupture is present.
      Therefore, we present a rare case of late rupture in a patient with a totally
      thrombosed AAA, and we discuss proper treatment.

PMID- 28887263
TI  - Changes in Geometry and Cardiac Deformation of the Thoracic Aorta after Thoracic
      Endovascular Aortic Repair.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) has dramatically expanded
      treatment options for patients with thoracic aortic pathology. The interaction
      between endografts and the dynamic anatomy of the thoracic aorta is not well
      characterized for repetitive physiologic stressors and subsequent issues related
      to long-term durability. Through three-dimensional (3D) modeling we sought to
      quantify cardiac-induced aortic deformation before and after TEVAR to assess the
      impact of endografts on dynamic aortic anatomy. METHODS: Eight patients with
      acute (n = 4) or chronic (n = 3) type B dissections, or chronic arch aneurysm (n
      = 1), underwent TEVAR with a single (n = 5) or multiple (n = 3) Gore C-TAG(s).
      Cardiac-resolved thoracic CT images were acquired pre- and post-TEVAR. 3D models
      of thoracic aorta and branch vessels were constructed in systole and diastole.
      Axial length, mean, and peak curvature of the ascending aorta, arch, and stented
      lumens were computed from the aortic lumen centerline, delineated with branch
      vessel landmarks. Cardiac-induced deformation was computed from mid-diastole to
      end-systole. RESULTS: Pre-TEVAR, there were no significant cardiac-induced
      changes for aortic axial length or mean curvature. Post-TEVAR, the ascending
      aorta increased in axial length (2.7 +/- 3.1%, P < 0.05) and decreased in mean
      curvature (0.38 +/- 0.05 -> 0.36 +/- 0.05 cm-1, P < 0.05) from diastole to
      systole. From pre- to post-TEVAR, axial length change increased in the ascending
      aorta (P < 0.02), mean curvature decreased in the arch and stented aorta (P <
      0.03), and peak curvature decreased in the stented aorta (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:
      TEVAR for a range of indications not only causes direct geometric changes to the
      stented aorta but also results in dynamic changes to the ascending and stented
      aorta. In our cohort, endograft placement straightens the stented aorta and mutes
      cardiac-induced bending due to longitudinal stiffness. This is compensated by
      greater length and curvature changes from diastole to systole in the ascending
      aorta, relative to pre-TEVAR.

PMID- 28887264
TI  - Toe Pressures are Superior to Duplex Parameters in Predicting Wound Healing
      following Toe and Foot Amputations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: No criteria, including preamputation vascular diagnostic thresholds,
      have been established to reliably predict healing versus nonhealing following
      minor lower extremity amputations. Thus, the goal of our study was to identify
      clinical factors, including noninvasive vascular laboratory measures, associated
      with wound healing following toe, forefoot, and midfoot amputations. METHODS: We
      retrospectively examined records of patients receiving elective toe, forefoot, or
      midfoot amputation at our institution over a 5-year span (2010-2015). A total of
      333 amputations received noninvasive vascular assessment of the lower extremity
      preamputation and follow-up at 90 days postamputation. Multivariate binomial
      logistic regression was used to identify variables predicting wound healing as
      defined as the absence of reamputation due to wound breakdown. RESULTS: Wound
      healing occurred in 81% of amputations. A total of 23 (7%) patients required
      revisions of the foot while 39 (12%) patients required major amputations by 90
      days. Chi-squared analysis found that toe pressure at or above the value of 47 mm
      Hg (P = 0.04), bi/triphasic anterior tibial (P = 0.01), and posterior tibial
      artery (P = 0.01) waveforms were associated with wound healing. When these
      diagnostic parameters were examined in the presence of confounders (increasing
      age, chronic kidney disease, and concomitant revascularization), only toe
      pressure >= 47 mm Hg predicted amputation site healing (odds ratio: 3.1 [95% CI:
      1.0-9.4], P = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Preamputation toe pressures of 47 mm Hg and
      above are associated with wound healing. No other noninvasive vascular studies
      predicted wound healing in the presence of confounders. Thus, toe pressures may
      assist in clinical decision-making and should be routinely obtained
      preamputation.

PMID- 28887265
TI  - Modified Staple Aneurysmorrhaphy for Treating Arteriovenous Fistula-Related
      Venous Aneurysms.
AB  - Autogenous arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) are the preferred access for
      hemodialysis. AVF occasionally develop venous aneurysms, and we report a modified
      staple aneurysmorrhaphy technique for treatment. Briefly, the lateral wall of the
      venous aneurysm is dissected and a longitudinal staple resection performed.
      Adjunct procedures include inflow banding and outflow venous angioplasty with
      possible stenting. In this initial experience, 20 aneurysms were resected in 17
      patients. The average AVF age at time of repair was 5.8 years. Sixteen of 17 AVF
      remained patent, and there were no recurrences or mortalities. One patient had a
      loss of thrill intraoperatively after stapling and was successfully treated with
      cephalic vein embolectomy. All AVF were cannulated for dialysis immediately
      following the procedure. The average follow-up period was 12.5 months. Given the
      benefits of uninterrupted fistula use and avoidance of temporary catheter
      placement, this technique is a promising therapy for arteriovenous fistula
      related venous aneurysms.

PMID- 28887266
TI  - Use of V-POSSUM and E-PASS Scores to Predict Acute Kidney Injury after Elective
      Open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Surgery.

PMID- 28887267
TI  - Patterns and Outcomes of Care in Children With Advanced Heart Disease Receiving
      Palliative Care Consultation.
AB  - CONTEXT: Although access to subspecialty pediatric palliative care (PPC) is
      increasing, little is known about the role of PPC for children with advanced
      heart disease (AHD). OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine
      features of subspecialty PPC involvement for children with AHD. METHODS: This is
      a retrospective single-institution medical record review of patients with a
      primary diagnosis of AHD for whom the PPC team was initially consulted between
      2011 and 2016. RESULTS: Among 201 patients, 87% had congenital/structural heart
      disease, the remainder having acquired/nonstructural heart disease. Median age at
      initial PPC consultation was 7.7 months (range 1 day-28.8 years). Of the 92
      patients who were alive at data collection, 73% had received initial consultation
      over one year before. Most common indications for consultation were goals of care
      (80%) and psychosocial support (54%). At initial consultation, most families
      (67%) expressed that their primary goal was for their child to live as long and
      as comfortably as possible. Among deceased patients (n = 109), median time from
      initial consultation to death was 33 days (range 1 day-3.6 years), and children
      whose families expressed that their primary goal was for their child to live as
      comfortably as possible were less likely to die in the intensive care unit (P =
      0.03) and more likely to die in the setting of comfort care or withdrawal of life
      sustaining interventions (P = 0.008). CONCLUSION: PPC involvement for children
      with AHD focuses on goals of care and psychosocial support. Findings suggest that
      PPC involvement at end of life supports goal-concordant care. Further research is
      needed to clarify the impact of PPC on patient outcomes.

PMID- 28887268
TI  - Association of Advance Directives Completion With the Utilization of Life
      Sustaining Treatments During the End-of-Life Care in Older Patients.
AB  - CONTEXT: Evidence is mixed regarding the impact of advance directives (ADs) on
      the utilization of end-of-life treatments. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the
      effect of AD on the utilization of end-of-life treatments during the last month
      of life in older patients. METHODS: Taipei City Hospital initiated an advance
      care planning program to promote AD for admitted patients in 2015. This
      prospective study recruited deceased older patients who completed advance care
      planning communication between 2015 and 2016. Multiple logistic regression was
      used to determine the association of AD completion with utilization of life
      sustaining treatments. RESULTS: Of 1307 deceased older patients, overall mean age
      was 84.1 years and 78.7% of the subjects had AD completion. During the study
      follow-up period, 31 older patients received life-sustaining treatments during
      the last month of life, including 17 patients (1.7%) with AD completion and 14
      patients (5.0%) without AD completion. After adjusting for the sociodemographic
      factors and co-morbidities, older patients with AD completion were less likely to
      receive life-sustaining treatments during the last month of life (adjusted odds
      ratio [AOR] = 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.16-0.67). Considering type of
      life-sustaining treatments, AD completion was associated with a lower likelihood
      of receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (AOR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.06-0.70) as
      well as intubation and mechanical ventilation support (AOR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.14
      0.70) during the last month of life in older patients. CONCLUSION: AD completion
      was associated with a lower likelihood of receiving life-sustaining treatments
      during the last month of life in older patients. These findings support the
      continued use of AD in older population.

PMID- 28887269
TI  - Which Physicians' Behaviors on Death Pronouncement Affect Family-Perceived
      Physician Compassion? A Randomized, Scripted, Video-Vignette Study.
AB  - CONTEXT: Although the death of a loved one is a devastating family event, little
      is known about which behaviors positively affect families' perceptions on death
      pronouncements. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the
      effect of a compassionate death pronouncement on participant-perceived physician
      compassion, trust in physicians, and emotions. METHODS: In this randomized, video
      vignette study, 92 people (>=50 years) in Tokyo metropolitan area viewed two
      videos of death pronouncements by an on-call physician with or without compassion
      enhanced behaviors, including five components: waiting until the families calm
      themselves down, explaining that the physician has received a sign-out about
      information of the patient's condition, performing examination respectfully,
      ascertaining the time of death with a wristwatch (vs. smartphone), and reassuring
      the families that the patient did not experience pain. Main outcomes were
      physician compassion score, trust in physician, and emotions. RESULTS: After
      viewing the video with compassion-enhanced behaviors compared with the video
      without them, participants assigned significantly lower compassion scores
      (reflecting higher physician compassion) (mean 26.2 vs. 36.4, F = 33.1, P <
      0.001); higher trust in physician (5.10 vs. 3.00, F = 39.7, P < 0.001); and lower
      scores for anger (2.49 vs. 3.78, F = 18.0, P < 0.001), sadness (3.42 vs. 3.85, F
      = 11.8, P = 0.001), fear (1.93 vs. 2.55, F = 15.8, P < 0.001), and disgust (2.45
      vs. 3.71, F = 19.4, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: To convey compassion on death
      pronouncement, we recommend that physicians initiate prompt examination, explain
      that the physician has received a sign-out, perform examination respectfully,
      ascertain the time of death with a wristwatch, and reassure the families that the
      patient did not experience pain.

PMID- 28887270
TI  - Temporal Trends Between 2010 and 2015 in Intensity of Care at End-of-Life for
      Patients With Chronic Illness: Influence of Age Under vs. Over 65 Years.
AB  - CONTEXT: Recent analyses of Medicare data show decreases over time in intensity
      of end-of-life care. Few studies exist regarding trends in intensity of end-of
      life care for those under 65 years of age. OBJECTIVES: To examine recent temporal
      trends in place of death, and both hospital and intensive care unit (ICU)
      utilization, for age-stratified decedents with chronic, life-limiting diagnoses
      (<65 vs. >=65 years) who received care in a large healthcare system. METHODS:
      Retrospective cohort using death certificates and electronic health records for
      22,068 patients with chronic illnesses who died between 2010 and 2015. We
      examined utilization overall and stratified by age using multiple regression.
      RESULTS: The proportion of deaths at home did not change, but hospital admissions
      in the last 30 days of life decreased significantly from 2010 to 2015 (hospital b
      = -0.026; CI = -0.041, -0.012). ICU admissions in the last 30 days also declined
      over time for the full sample and for patients aged 65 years or older (overall b
      = -0.023; CI = -0.039, -0.007), but was not significant for younger decedents.
      Length of stay (LOS) did not decrease for those using the hospital or ICU.
      CONCLUSION: From 2010 to 2015, we observed a decrease in hospital admissions for
      all age groups and in ICU admissions for those over 65 years. As there were no
      changes in the proportion of patients with chronic illness who died at home nor
      in hospital or ICU LOS in the last 30 days, hospital and ICU admissions in the
      last 30 days may be a more responsive quality metric than site of death or LOS
      for palliative care interventions.

PMID- 28887272
TI  - Establishing benchmarks for the volume-outcome relationship for common lumbar
      spine surgical procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: The importance of surgeon volume as a quality measure has
      been defined for a number of surgical specialties. Meaningful procedural volume
      benchmarks have not been established, however, particularly with respect to
      lumbar spine surgery. PURPOSE: We aimed to establish surgeon volume benchmarks
      for the performance of four common lumbar spine surgical procedures (discectomy,
      decompression, lumbar interbody fusion, and lumbar posterolateral fusion). STUDY
      DESIGN: A retrospective review of data in the Florida Statewide Inpatient Dataset
      (2011-2014) was carried out. PATIENT SAMPLE: Patients who underwent one of the
      four lumbar spine surgical procedures under study comprised the study sample.
      OUTCOME MEASURE: The development of a complication or hospital readmission within
      90 days of the surgical procedure was the surgical outcome. METHODS: For each
      specific procedure, individual surgeon volume was separately plotted against the
      number of complications and readmissions in a spline analysis that adjusted for
      co-variates. Spline cut-points were used to create a categorical variable of
      procedure volume for each individual procedure. Log-binomial regression analysis
      was then separately performed using the categorical volume-outcome metric for
      each individual procedure and for the outcomes of 90-day complications and 90-day
      readmissions. RESULTS: In all, 187,185 spine surgical procedures met inclusion
      criteria, performed by 5,514 different surgeons at 178 hospitals. Spline analysis
      determined that the procedure volume cut-point was 25 for decompressions, 40 for
      discectomy, 43 for interbody fusion, and 35 for posterolateral fusions. For
      surgeons who failed to meet the volume metric, there was a 63% increase in the
      risk of complications following decompressions, a 56% increase in the risk of
      complications following discectomy, a 15% increase in the risk of complications
      following lumbar interbody fusions, and a 47% increase in the risk of
      complications following posterolateral fusions. Findings were similar for
      readmission measures. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this work allow us to identify
      meaningful volume-based benchmarks for the performance of common lumbar spine
      surgical procedures including decompression, discectomy, and fusion-based
      procedures. Based on our determinations, readily achievable goals for individual
      surgeons would approximate an average of four discectomy and lumbar interbody
      fusion procedures per month, three posterolateral lumbar fusions per month, and
      at least one decompression surgery every other week.

PMID- 28887271
TI  - Comparing the Palliative Care Needs of Patients With Hematologic and Solid
      Malignancies.
AB  - CONTEXT: Hematologic cancer patients use palliative care services less frequently
      than their solid tumor counterparts. Prior work suggests that these patients have
      a sizable symptom burden, but comparisons between hematologic and solid tumor
      patients near the end of life are limited. OBJECTIVES: To compare unmet symptom
      needs in a cohort of hematologic and solid tumor patients referred to specialty
      palliative care services. METHODS: Using a novel data registry of initial
      palliative care encounters, we performed a cross-sectional analysis of cancer
      patients receiving care across 17 sites within the Global Palliative Care Quality
      Alliance. We compared clinically-significant symptoms (rated as four or greater
      in severity) between hematologic and solid tumor patients and performed
      multivariate logistic regression analyses examining the relationship between
      symptom burden and tumor type. RESULTS: We identified 1235 cancer patients, 108
      of which had hematologic malignancies. Pain, dyspnea, nausea, and anorexia burden
      were as high among patients with hematologic as those with solid malignancies.
      Blood cancer patients had higher rates of clinically-significant tiredness (51%
      vs. 42%; P = 0.03) than solid tumor patients. Finally, blood cancer patients had
      greater odds of being tired (odds ratio 2.19; CI 1.22-3.91) and drowsy (odds
      ratio 1.81; CI 1.07-3.07) than solid tumor patients independent of age, gender,
      race, and performance status. CONCLUSIONS: Hematologic and solid tumor patients
      have significant symptom burden at time of referral to palliative care services.
      Blood cancer patients may have unique concerns warranting targeted attention,
      including substantial drowsiness and tiredness. Our findings suggest a need to
      optimize palliative care usage in the hematologic cancer population.

PMID- 28887273
TI  - Use of the "dual construct" for the management of complex spinal reconstructions.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Surgical management of complex spinal reconstructions remains
      a clinical challenge, as pseudoarthrosis with subsequent rod breakage can occur.
      Increased rod density in the form of "satellite" or "outrigger" rods have been
      described; however, rod-fracture above or below satellite rods persist and can
      result in dissociation of the construct, loss of correction, and recurrence of
      deformity. The use of four distinct and mechanically independent rods (dual
      construct) reduces this concern. Since the original case description in 2006,
      there have been no other studies that use the dual construct for the surgical
      management of complex spinal reconstructions. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study
      is to review the long-term experience and surgical technique using the dual
      construct, and to present our complications, rod fracture rates, and outcomes for
      the surgical management of complex spinal reconstructions. STUDY DESIGN: This
      study used a surgical technique with case series outcomes. PATIENT SAMPLE:
      Patients were from a single-institute who underwent dual construct between 2010
      and 2014 and who were available for 2-year follow-up. OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Radiographic and functional outcomes, complications, rod fracture rates, and
      revision surgery rates were the outcome measures. METHODS: A retrospective review
      was conducted from a single institution between 2010 and 2014, with a subsequent
      2-year follow-up period. Extensive review of patients' medical record,
      radiographs, and advanced imaging where available was performed. Medical record
      was evaluated for patient demographics, surgical procedure, and complications.
      Radiographic measurements included presence or absence of implant failure and
      proximal junctional kyphosis or distal junctional kyphosis. RESULTS: A total of
      36 patients underwent surgical reconstruction. The average estimated blood loss
      was 1,856 cc (range, 400-4,000 cc). The average length of stay was 7.3 days
      (range, 4-22 days). Clinical follow-up reported 21 patients (58.3%) with no or
      minimal pain. There were six deaths during the follow-up unrelated to the index
      procedure. Radiographic follow-up revealed three patients (8.3%) with rod
      fracture; one patient with one rod fracture, and two patients with two rod
      fractures. No patient had three or all four rod fractures. There were no screw
      fractures. None of the patients with rod fractures required revision surgery.
      CONCLUSIONS: The biggest advantage of the dual construct is that rod breakage,
      although uncommon, is typically minimal, or asymptomatic, and more importantly
      does not result in loss of alignment, and therefore has not required revision
      surgery. The dual construct approach is a safe alternative to traditional two-rod
      constructs, with encouraging outcomes at follow-up.

PMID- 28887274
TI  - The qualitative grading of muscle fat infiltration in whiplash using fat and
      water magnetic resonance imaging.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: The development of muscle fat infiltration (MFI) in the neck
      muscles is associated with poor functional recovery following whiplash injury.
      Custom software and time-consuming manual segmentation of magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) is required for quantitative analysis and presents as a barrier for
      clinical translation. PURPOSE: The purpose of this work was to establish a
      qualitative MRI measure for MFI and evaluate its ability to differentiate between
      individuals with severe whiplash-associated disorder (WAD), mild or moderate WAD,
      and healthy controls. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: This is a cross-sectional study.
      PATIENT SAMPLE: Thirty-one subjects with WAD and 31 age- and sex-matched controls
      were recruited from an ongoing randomized controlled trial. OUTCOME MEASURES: The
      cervical multifidus was visually identified and segmented into eighths in the
      axial fat/water images (C4-C7). Muscle fat infiltration was assessed on a visual
      scale: 0 for no or marginal MFI, 1 for light MFI, and 2 for distinct MFI. The
      participants with WAD were divided in two groups: mild or moderate and severe
      based on Neck Disability Index % scores. METHODS: The mean regional MFI was
      compared between the healthy controls and each of the WAD groups using the Mann
      Whitney U test. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses were carried out
      to evaluate the validity of the qualitative method. RESULTS: Twenty (65%)
      patients had mild or moderate disability and 11 (35%) were considered severe.
      Inter- and intra-rater reliability was excellent when grading was averaged by
      level or when frequency of grade II was considered. Statistically significant
      differences (p<.05) in regional MFI were particularly notable between the severe
      WAD group and healthy controls. The ROC curve, based on detection of distinct
      MFI, showed an area-under-the curve of 0.768 (95% confidence interval 0.59-0.94)
      for discrimination of WAD participants. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results
      suggest a qualitative MRI measure for MFI is reliable and valid, and may prove
      useful toward the classification of WAD in radiology practice.

PMID- 28887275
TI  - FFA4 (GPR120) as a fatty acid sensor involved in appetite control, insulin
      sensitivity and inflammation regulation.
AB  - Unsaturated long-chain fatty acids have been suggested to be beneficial in the
      context of cardiovascular disorders based in epidemiologic studies conducted in
      Greenland and Mediterranean. DHA and EPA are omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids
      that are plentiful in fish oil, and oleic acid is an omega-9 monounsaturated
      fatty acid, rich in olive oil. Dietary intake of these unsaturated long-chain
      fatty acids have been associated with insulin sensitivity and weight loss, which
      contrasts with the impairment of insulin sensitivity and weight gain associated
      with high intakes of saturated long-chain fatty acids. The recent discovery that
      free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFA4, also known as GPR120) acts as a sensor for
      unsaturated long-chain fatty acids started to unveil the molecular mechanisms
      underlying the beneficial functions played by these unsaturated long-chain fatty
      acids in various physiological processes, which include the secretions of
      gastrointestinal peptide hormones and glucose homeostasis. In this review, the
      physiological roles and therapeutic significance of FFA4 in appetite control,
      insulin sensitization, and inflammation reduction are discussed in relation to
      obesity and type 2 diabetes from pharmacological viewpoints.

PMID- 28887276
TI  - Moyamoya Vasculopathy in PHACE Syndrome: Six New Cases and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: PHACE syndrome (Posterior fossa malformations, large cervicofacial
      infantile Hemangiomas, Arterial anomalies, aortic coarctation and Cardiac
      abnormalities, and Eye abnormalities) is a neurocutaneous disorder including
      posterior fossa malformations, hemangiomas, arterial lesions, cardiac defects,
      and eye abnormalities. PHACE arteriopathies may be progressive and recently have
      been categorized based on the risk of acute ischemic stroke, increasing attention
      to the potentially devastating consequences of cerebrovascular complications in
      this syndrome. In contrast, the natural history of arteriopathy in PHACE syndrome
      remains poorly understood. At the moment, there are no established surgical
      guidelines for high-risk vasculopathies, including quasi-moyamoya, in this
      syndrome. CASE DESCRIPTION: We described the clinicoradiologic features of a
      small series of 6 patients with PHACE syndrome and quasi-moyamoya (5 female, age
      range 4 months to 12 years), focusing on the clinical course and surgical outcome
      of 3 children who were treated with encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis and
      encephalomyosynangiosis. In addition, we reviewed the radiologic, clinical, and
      surgical aspects of moyamoya vasculopathy in PHACE syndrome, providing
      information on 15 additional published cases. CONCLUSIONS: Although the natural
      history of arteriopathy in PHACE syndrome is poorly understood, patients with
      high-risk vasculopathies, such as quasi-moyamoya disease, may benefit of
      revascularization by using encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis and
      encephalomyosynangiosis.

PMID- 28887277
TI  - Single-Step Resection of an Intraosseous Meningioma and Cranial Reconstruction:
      Technical Note.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Simultaneous tumor resection and cranial reconstruction can be a
      challenging task. Surgical navigation is an indispensable tool in making this
      single-step procedure possible. In this technical note, we describe a new
      technique for this procedure to ensure a precise resection and optimal fit of the
      implant in a patient with an intraosseous meningioma. METHODS: We generated a 3
      dimensional (3D) model of the patient's skull based on a computed tomography scan
      and created a digital "resection line" object using 3D Studio Max 2016 software.
      Based on this object, the patient-specific implant was generated and printed with
      a 3D printer. Before surgery, the digital object was transferred to the
      neuronavigation system to enable a navigated resection of the lesion to ensure
      maximum precision. During surgery, the craniotomy was performed, and the custom
      made implant was fitted in a single step. RESULTS: The planned resection was
      achieved, and the implant could be fitted without need for further adjustments to
      the resection border. CONCLUSIONS: We provide a simple technique to digitally
      define a planned resection site and create a custom-made implant using
      specialized software and 3D printing to enable single-step resection of a skull
      lesion and cranial reconstruction, thereby reducing surgical time and costs and
      ensuring a good cosmetic result.

PMID- 28887278
TI  - Comparison of Unilateral and Bilateral Craniotomy for the Treatment of Bilateral
      Middle Cerebral Artery Aneurysms: Anatomic and Clinical Parameters and Surgical
      Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare 2 craniotomy approaches (unilateral and bilateral) in terms
      of anatomic and clinical parameters and surgical outcomes. METHODS: Between
      January 2011 and December 2014, 19 patients with bilateral unruptured middle
      cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysm were treated with unilateral craniotomy (group 1),
      and 10 patients were treated with bilateral mini-craniotomy (group 2). We
      compared demographic data, characteristics of aneurysms, radiologic and clinical
      parameters, postoperative complications, and surgical outcomes between the 2
      groups. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences in aneurysm
      characteristics were found between the 2 groups. Radiologic parameters did not
      have any influence on surgical outcomes or the incidence of postoperative
      complications. Group 1 had a higher incidence of olfactory dysfunction (11 of 19;
      58%) and residual neck at the contralateral aneurysm (10 of 19; 53%), whereas no
      patients in group 2 had olfactory dysfunction or residual neck at the
      contralateral aneurysm. All patients in group 2 had good surgical outcomes
      (modified Rankin scale score 0). The length of hospital stay was similar in the 2
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral mini-craniotomy for the treatment of bilateral MCA
      aneurysms was associated with better surgical outcomes and fewer complications.
      Bilateral mini-craniotomy does not require as much retraction of the frontal lobe
      to apply a clip completely at the contralateral aneurysm. Therefore, it
      represents a safe and effective therapeutic option for unruptured bilateral MCA
      aneurysms.

PMID- 28887279
TI  - Sacral-Alar-Iliac Fixation in Children with Neuromuscular Scoliosis: Minimum 5
      Year Follow-Up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the 5-year outcomes of children with neuromuscular
      scoliosis treated with sacral-alar-iliac screws. METHODS: We reviewed clinical
      and radiographic records of patients aged <=18 years treated by 1 pediatric
      orthopedic surgeon for neuromuscular scoliosis with spinal fusion using sacral
      alar-iliac pelvic anchors. Thirty-eight patients with a minimum 5-year
      radiographic follow-up (mean, 6.0 +/- 1.2 years) were studied. The mean patient
      age was 13 +/- 2.0 years, and 47% were female. The mean number of levels fused
      was 18 +/- 0.7. Two-thirds (66%) of the patients were diagnosed with cerebral
      palsy. RESULTS: Between the preoperative period and final follow-up, the patients
      exhibited a mean correction of the major coronal curve of 79% (preoperative, 85
      degrees  to final, 18 degrees ) and a mean 57% correction of the pelvic obliquity
      (preoperative, 16 degrees  to final, 7 degrees ). Patients maintained the
      correction of mean pelvic obliquity from the early postoperative period (6
      degrees ) to final follow-up (7 degrees ). Preoperatively, 76% of the patients
      had a pelvic obliquity of >10 degrees , compared with 26% of patients
      postoperatively. There were no cases of neurologic or vascular complications or
      pseudarthrosis. Radiographs revealed bilateral sacral-alar-iliac screw lucency in
      8 patients; 4 of these patients had deep wound infections, and the other 4 were
      asymptomatic. Unilateral screw fracture was found in 1 patient with an 8-mm
      diameter screw (1.3%; 1 of 76 screws); the patient was observed and remained
      asymptomatic. There were no cases of set screw displacement, screw back-out, or
      rod dislodgement. CONCLUSIONS: Sacral-alar-iliac screws are safe and effective
      pelvic anchors for use in children with neuromuscular scoliosis.

PMID- 28887280
TI  - Transsphenoidal Surgery for Mixed Pituitary Gangliocytoma-Adenomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most sellar gangliocytomas are discovered with a concurrent pituitary
      adenoma, also known as a mixed gangliocytoma-adenoma (MGA). MGAs are rare, with
      fewer than 100 cases reported in the literature to date and only 1 previously
      documented surgical series. Because MGAs are radiologically indistinguishable
      from pituitary adenomas, they are often diagnosed after surgery. Combined with
      the paucity of clinical outcome data for these tumors, this makes their diagnosis
      and management challenging. Here we describe the clinical presentation and
      outcomes of 10 individuals who were diagnosed with a MGA at a single institution.
      METHODS: This retrospective case series study included patients diagnosed with a
      combined sellar MGA between 1993 and 2016. RESULTS: This series comprised 10
      patients, mean age of 44 years (range, 28-63 years) diagnosed with an MGA. The
      mean tumor size was 1.6 cm (range, 0.4-2.4 cm). Five patients presented with
      acromegaly, and 1 patient had recurrent Cushing disease. Transsphenoidal surgery
      was performed in all cases, and gross total resection was achieved in 7 patients
      (70%). Histologically, 9 of the 10 MGAs were identified as mixed somatotroph
      adenoma-gangliocytomas. The median duration of follow-up was 74 months (range, 2
      180 months). Following adjuvant treatment (n = 3), all patients with acromegaly
      (n = 4) achieved biochemical remission, and no patient experienced recurrence of
      the pituitary tumor with a median radiographic follow-up of 48 months.
      CONCLUSIONS: MGAs are often associated with a hypersecretory adenoma.
      Transsphenoidal surgery is well tolerated by most patients, and when performed in
      combination with adjuvant therapy, a low rate of recurrence and reversal of
      preoperative endocrinopathy can be expected.

PMID- 28887281
TI  - Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak Rhinorrhea after Systemic Erlotinib Chemotherapy for
      Metastatic Lung Cancer: A Familiar Problem from an Unfamiliar Culprit.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea after medical therapy for
      pituitary prolactinoma is a rare but well-described phenomenon. To our knowledge,
      no CSF leaks have been reported after targeted medical treatment of pituitary or
      anterior skull base metastases. We report this unusual case to raise awareness of
      spontaneous CSF leaks in the setting of skull base metastatic disease. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 66-year-old woman presented with epidermal growth factor receptor
      mutant stage IV adenocarcinoma of the lung. Headache workup revealed a large
      sellar and clival lesion consistent with metastatic disease. Systemic erlotinib
      chemotherapy was initiated with a robust positive response. Approximately 1 week
      after chemotherapy initiation, the patient noted clear discharge from the right
      nostril. Her oncologist first diagnosed her with allergic rhinitis, but she
      presented with meningitis 4 days after diagnosis of CSF leak and was admitted for
      intravenous antibiotics and definitive repair of a CSF leak via an endoscopic
      endonasal approach. An erosion of bone and dura was found at the dorsum sellae
      where tumor had regressed due to the chemotherapy. A multilayer skull base repair
      was made uneventfully, and she recovered fully with no leakage seen at 2-month
      follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: All members of the treatment team should be aware of this
      possibility of CSF leak after initiation of systemic chemotherapy and tumor
      regression and urgently refer patients for repair if a leak should develop before
      the development of meningitis.

PMID- 28887282
TI  - Anterior Lumbar Corpectomy with Expandable Titanium Cage Reconstruction: A Case
      Series of 42 Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Burst fractures involve the anterior and middle columns with an
      intact posterior column. Deforming forces are magnified at areas of transition,
      making the thoracolumbar junction highly susceptible to injury. METHODS: This is
      a retrospective review of 42 consecutive patients who underwent single-level
      anterior lumbar corpectomy using an obelisc expandable titanium cage and lateral
      fixation for traumatic lumbar burst fractures. RESULTS: Myelopathy and sensory
      dysfunction were the most frequent neurologic deficits initially, occurring in 16
      (38%) and 15 (36%) patients, respectively, which both decreased to 5 (13%). At
      follow-up, 26 patients (68%) were able to ambulate independently. No patient had
      significant cage displacement or needed cage replacement. Subsidence was minimal
      in 32 of 39 patients (82%). There were no hardware infections or surgical site
      infections. Options for stabilization include posterior instrumentation and
      fusion, anterior corpectomy with interbody fusion, and combination procedures. We
      believe anterior stabilization is superior because the aim is structural
      restoration of anterior and middle columns. The aim of posterior fixation is to
      replace the posterior tension band, which is not affected. There are 3 major
      surgical components to consider. First is anterior versus posterior decompression
      of the spinal canal. Second is the choice of autograft or titanium graft. Third
      is whether to stabilize posteriorly or anterolateral. CONCLUSIONS: Anterior
      corpectomy with an expandable titanium cage and lateral rod fixation is safe and
      effective with minimal complications. It is a viable alternative to posterior
      decompression and instrumentation.

PMID- 28887283
TI  - Endoscopic Transsphenoidal Approach for Acromegaly with Remission Rates in 401
      Patients: 2010 Consensus Criteria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transsphenoidal surgery is the first-choice treatment for acromegaly.
      Postoperative remission is an important predictor of outcome. Various factors
      have been described as markers of remission: preoperative mean growth hormone
      (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels, cavernous sinus invasion, tumor
      size, extrapseudocapsular resection, and experience of the surgeon. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 401 patients underwent 432 endoscopic transsphenoidal
      surgeries between August 1997 and June 2016 at the Pituitary Research Centre of
      Kocaeli University. The remission rates were evaluated according to the 2010
      consensus criteria using preoperative and postoperative data including overall
      remission, cavernous sinus invasiveness, extrapseudocapsular resection, resection
      rate, and preoperative and postoperative GH levels. RESULTS: Total resection was
      performed in 311 (77.56%) of 401 patients according to early (24-hour)
      postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Overall, remission was achieved in 273
      (68.1%) of 401 patients. Remission was achieved in 186 (63.3%) of 294 patients
      with macroadenomas, 87 (81.3%) of 107 patients with microadenomas, and 35 (40.7%)
      of 86 patients with cavernous sinus invasion. Remission was seen in 21 (75%) of
      28 patients who underwent pseudocapsular resection. According to preoperative GH
      levels, remission was achieved in 205 (72.4%) of 273 patients with GH levels
      below 20 ng/mL but decreased to 11 (37.9%) of 29 patients with GH levels over 60
      ng/mL. There was, conversely, a very strongly significant correlation with
      cavernous sinus invasion (P < 0.001; r: -0.953) and also a very strongly
      significant correlation with extrapseudocapsular resection (P < 0.001; r: 0.810).
      However, remission was very weakly but reversely significantly correlated with
      adenoma size and volume. CONCLUSION: The most significant factors for remission
      are cavernous sinus invasion and extrapseudocapsular resection. Higher remission
      rates can be achieved with the removal of small remnants by meticulous sweeping
      and by total resection. Preoperative and postoperative GH levels are predictive
      of remission.

PMID- 28887284
TI  - Quantitative Comparison of Three Endoscopic Approaches to the Parasellar Region:
      Laboratory Investigation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal and contralateral sublabial
      transmaxillary approaches are used for approaching parasellar lesions. The aim of
      this anatomical study was to compare endoscopic endonasal uninostril and
      binostril (contralateral) and contralateral sublabial transmaxillary approaches
      via a quantitative analysis of exposure limits and instrument working avenues.
      METHODS: Six formalin-fixed silicone-injected adult cadaveric heads (12 sides)
      were studied. The surgical working area, depth of the surgical corridor, angle of
      attack, and surgical freedom were measured and compared for the 3 approaches.
      RESULTS: The endoscopic binostril endonasal approach to the parasellar area
      provided greater surgical freedom in the opticocarotid recess (OCR) and superior
      orbital fissure (SOF) compared with that of the uninostril endonasal approach
      (OCR, P < 0.01; SOF, P = 0.01) and the contralateral sublabial transmaxillary
      approach (OCR, P = 0.01; SOF, P = 0.03). The horizontal and vertical angles of
      attack with the binostril endonasal approach also were greater than those of the
      uninostril approach (OCR, P <= 0.05; SOF, P <= 0.01) and the contralateral
      transmaxillary approach (OCR, P <= 0.01; SOF, P <= 0.01). However, the
      contralateral sublabial transmaxillary approach provided more lateral exposure
      than the uninostril or binostril endonasal approach to the parasellar area, and
      it enabled a shorter surgical trajectory to the contralateral parasellar area (P
      < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: An anatomical comparison of the 3 endoscopic approaches to
      the parasellar area showed that the binostril approach provides greater exposure
      and freedom for instrument manipulation. The contralateral transmaxillary route
      provided a more lateral view, increasing exposure on average by 48%, with shorter
      surgical depth; however, surgical freedom was inferior to that of the binostril
      approach.

PMID- 28887285
TI  - The Occipital Artery as an Alternative Donor for Low-Flow Bypass to Anterior
      Circulation After Internal Carotid Artery Occlusion Failure prior to Exenteration
      for an Atypical Cavernous Sinus Meningioma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In skull base tumors involving the cavernous sinus, indications for
      aggressive resection are sparse and must be carefully examined because of their
      invasiveness. With careful evaluation, techniques including internal carotid
      artery sacrifice with or without extracranial-intracranial bypass may still be an
      option in some cases. Moreover, previous surgery with the sacrifice of potential
      donor vessels requires adjusting the revascularization strategy. We describe an
      occipital artery-middle cerebral artery bypass before skull base tumor resection.
      CASE DESCRIPTION: A 47-year-old woman with a recurrent cavernous sinus meningioma
      was referred to our department. Because of tumor recurrence after radiotherapy
      and its rapid progression, radical resection, including part of the cavernous
      sinus, was planned. A balloon test occlusion was performed and showed good
      tolerance. An endovascular internal carotid artery occlusion was performed. The
      patient eventually experienced motor deficits and aphasia after surgery.
      Therefore, bypass surgery using an occipital artery-middle cerebral artery
      anastomosis was performed. The patient showed no exacerbation of symptoms after
      bypass surgery and subsequently underwent tumor resection. CONCLUSIONS: The
      reliability of balloon test occlusion in the management of giant aneurysms may
      not be similarly applicable to skull base tumors. If hypoperfusion symptoms occur
      after occlusion of the internal carotid artery, a surgical revascularization
      procedure should be considered because of the risk of ischemic stroke following
      tumor resection. For patients whose superficial temporal artery is not available,
      the occipital artery can be a valuable alternative donor for low-flow bypass.

PMID- 28887287
TI  - Characterization of simvastatin acid uptake by organic anion transporting
      polypeptide 3A1 (OATP3A1) and influence of drug-drug interaction.
AB  - Human organic anion transporting polypeptide 3A1 (OATP3A1) is predominately
      expressed in the heart. The ability of OATP3A1 to transport statins into
      cardiomyocytes is unknown, although other OATPs are known to mediate the uptake
      of statin drugs in liver. The pleiotropic effects and uptake of simvastatin acid
      were analyzed in primary human cardiomyocytes and HEK293 cells transfected with
      the OATP3A1 gene. Treatment with simvastatin acid reduced indoxyl sulfate
      mediated reactive oxygen species and modulated OATP3A1 expression in
      cardiomyocytes and HEK293 cells transfected with the OATP3A1 gene. We observed a
      pH-dependent effect on OATP3A1 uptake, with more efficient simvastatin acid
      uptake at pH5.5 in HEK293 cells transfected with the OATP3A1 gene. The Michaelis
      Menten constant (Km) for simvastatin acid uptake by OATP3A1 was 0.017+/-0.002MUM
      and the Vmax was 0.995+/-0.027fmol/min/105 cells. Uptake of simvastatin acid was
      significantly increased by known (benzylpenicillin and estrone-3-sulfate) and
      potential (indoxyl sulfate and cyclosporine) substrates of OATP3A1. In
      conclusion, the presence of OATP3A1 in cardiomyocytes suggests that this
      transporter may modulate the exposure of cardiac tissue to simvastatin acid due
      to its enrichment in cardiomyocytes. Increases in uptake of simvastatin acid by
      OATP3A1 when combined with OATP substrates suggest the potential for drug-drug
      interactions that could influence clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28887286
TI  - Why Does the Health-Related Quality of Life in Idiopathic Normal-Pressure
      Hydrocephalus Fail to Improve Despite the Favorable Clinical Outcome?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Occasionally, a favorable clinical disease-specific outcome does not
      reflect into improved generic health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients
      with idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) at 1 year after the
      installation of a cerebrospinal fluid shunt. Our aim was to identify factors
      causing this discrepancy. METHODS: The 1-year HRQoL outcomes of 141 patients with
      iNPH were evaluated with the generic 15D instrument, in which the minimum
      clinically important change/difference on the 0-1 scale has been estimated to be
      +/-0.015. A 12-point iNPH grading scale (iNPHGS) was used as a clinical disease
      specific outcome measure, in which a 1-point decrease is considered to be
      clinically important. We identified 29 (21%) patients with iNPH from our
      prospective study whose HRQoL deteriorated or remained the same despite of a
      favorable iNPHGS outcome. We analyzed this discrepancy using patients' clinical
      variables and characteristics. RESULTS: Multivariate binary logistic regression
      analysis indicated that a greater (worse) iNPHGS score at baseline (adjusted odds
      ratio [OR], 1.7; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-2.3; P < 0.001), comorbid
      chronic pulmonary disease (40% vs. 20%; adjusted OR 17.8; 95% CI 3.6-89.9; P <
      0.001), and any comorbid nonmetastatic tumor (62% vs. 17%; adjusted OR 11.5; 95%
      CI 1.5-85.3; P = 0.017) predicted discrepancy between iNPHGS and 15D outcomes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Frail patients suffering from certain pre-existing comorbidities may
      not experience improvement in generic HRQoL despite of a favorable clinical
      disease-specific response. Acknowledging the comorbidity burden of the patient
      may help clinicians and the patients to understand the conflict between patient
      reported and clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28887288
TI  - Development of a quantitative cytotoxicity assay using mouse lymphoma TK cells.
AB  - We describe a new, quantitative, cytotoxicity method using mouse lymphoma L5178Y
      thymidine kinase+/- (TK) suspension cells for medical device safety assessment
      that has equivalent sensitivity, and greater efficiency compared to the colony
      formation assay (CFA) using adherent V79-4 cells. Assays were carried out in 24
      well plates. TK cells were seeded on concave side of six types of contact lenses
      and cell growth rate after 72h determined using the Vi-Cell XR. Five of six
      contact lenses studied demonstrated the same results between the TK and the CFA
      methods. One lens showed a difference between the CFA and TK suspension cell
      methods (79% colony formation rate vs. 17% cell growth rate). Although colony
      size is not a CFA test criterion, colonies were smaller than control indicating a
      cytotoxic effect that is reflected in the TK suspension cell assay which measures
      cell number. The mouse lymphoma TK suspension cell assay performs as well as the
      CFA direct contact method with distinct advantages. This quantitative, automated
      method is not susceptible to mechanical damage from test materials, does not
      depend on cell adherence to test materials and represents a valuable tool to
      evaluate medical device cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28887289
TI  - Baseline resistance and cross-resistance among fluoroquinolones in multidrug
      resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates at a national reference laboratory
      in India.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Pre-existing fluoroquinolone (FQ) resistance in multidrug-resistant
      tuberculosis (MDR TB) patients is a major threat in treating MDR-TB. This study
      was conducted to assess the percentage of FQ resistance among MDR-TB patients and
      to determine whether there is complete cross-resistance between FQs [ofloxacin
      (OFX), levofloxacin (LVX) and moxifloxacin (MXF)] used as second-line drugs in
      MDR-TB treatment. METHODS: Among 879 MDR-TB suspects tested, 68 were confirmed to
      be MDR-TB and rifampicin (RIF) monoresistant. Suspects were further analysed for
      FQ resistance by drug susceptibility testing (DST) using Mycobacterium Growth
      Indicator Tube (MGIT). Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined
      for OFX, LVX and MXF. RESULTS: Of 879 MDR-TB suspects, RIF resistance was
      observed in 70 patients (8.0%), among which pre-existing FQ resistance was
      detected in 32%. Moreover, 88% of isolates exhibited a similar DST pattern for
      all three FQs tested. Cross-resistance among FQs was not complete in eight
      isolates; the MIC of MXF was found to be much lower than the MICs of OFX and LVX.
      CONCLUSIONS: A huge proportion of MDR-TB strains (32%) exhibiting OFX resistance
      prior to treatment with second-line anti-TB drugs raises major concern. Detection
      of baseline drug resistance in TB patients helps in reducing the transmission of
      drug-resistant TB. The OFX MIC was higher than its critical concentration,
      indicating the prevalence of baseline resistance to FQs owing to irrational use
      of these drugs.

PMID- 28887290
TI  - Individual feedback to reduce inappropriate antimicrobial prescriptions for
      treating acute upper respiratory infections in an outpatient setting of a Thai
      university hospital.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Excessive use of antimicrobial agents for acute upper respiratory
      infections (URIs) is one of the most common problems in clinical practice.
      Interventions are required to reduce antimicrobial overuse in these common
      infections. METHODS: During a 9-month study period (June 2014-February 2015), a
      quasi-experimental (pre-/post-) study was conducted among internal medicine
      residents and fellows in an outpatient setting of Siriraj Hospital, Thailand. The
      aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of individual feedback to
      reduce inappropriate antimicrobial prescriptions for treating URIs. The
      administrative ICD-10 database was used to identify index physicians with at
      least one outpatient experience of URI. Data on antimicrobial prescriptions were
      extracted from the hospital pharmacy database. A confidential letter and SMS were
      sent to all index physicians about the extent of antimicrobial therapy they
      prescribed for treating URIs during the pre-intervention period. RESULTS: The
      proportion of antimicrobial use among the index encounters showed a significant
      reduction from 34.7% in the pre-intervention period to 26.1% in the post
      intervention period (P=0.02). Segmented logistic regression analysis confirmed
      the significant impact of the intervention on reducing antimicrobial
      prescriptions (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: This integrated intervention is simple and
      non-labour intensive and may therefore be used sustainably in resource-limited
      settings.

PMID- 28887291
TI  - Molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial susceptibility of methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus isolates in Xiangyang, China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a public health
      problem worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial
      susceptibility and molecular epidemiological characteristics of MRSA strains in
      Xiangyang, China, during 2012-2014. METHODS: Eighty non-duplicate S. aureus
      isolates from clinical specimens were collected from four tertiary hospitals.
      MRSA strains were identified and were tested for antibacterial susceptibility.
      Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, pulsed-field gel
      electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and staphylococcal
      protein A (spa) typing were performed to explore molecular characteristics.
      RESULTS: Among the 80 S. aureus isolates, 43 MRSA (53.8%) were detected. MRSA
      strains exhibited resistance against non-beta-lactam antibiotics to varying
      degrees. SCCmec type III was the predominant type (39/43; 90.7%), and the
      remainder were SCCmec type IVa (4/43; 9.3%). Thirteen MLST types were found,
      mainly ST239 (12/43; 27.9%) and ST59 (7/43; 16.3%). Fifteen spa types were found,
      mainly t437 (13/43; 30.2%) and t030 (6/43; 14.0%). PFGE grouped the 43 MRSA
      isolates into five types. SCCmecIII-ST239-t030/t632 and SCCmecIII-ST59/ST338-t437
      were the dominant epidemic clones in this region. ST239-t030/t632/t037 was the
      epidemic clone with the most serious drug resistance. CONCLUSIONS: This region
      presented a high MRSA rate and the MRSA isolates demonstrated strong
      antimicrobial resistance. The existence of four strains of community-acquired
      MRSA (SCCmec type IVa) indicated the dissemination of MRSA strains from the
      community to hospitals. The epidemic situation and drug resistance of MRSA should
      be regularly monitored. Effective measures should be adopted to prevent and
      control the occurrence of infection in hospitals.

PMID- 28887292
TI  - Protocol for Usability Testing and Validation of the ISO Draft International
      Standard 19223 for Lung Ventilators.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinicians, such as respiratory therapists and physicians, are often
      required to set up pieces of medical equipment that use inconsistent terminology.
      Current lung ventilator terminology that is used by different manufacturers
      contributes to the risk of usage errors, and in turn the risk of ventilator
      associated lung injuries and other conditions. Human factors and communication
      issues are often associated with ventilator-related sentinel events, and
      inconsistent ventilator terminology compounds these issues. This paper describes
      our proposed protocol, which will be implemented at the University of Waterloo,
      Canada when this project is externally funded. OBJECTIVE: We propose to determine
      whether a standardized vocabulary improves the ease of use, safety, and utility
      as it relates to the usability of medical devices, compared to legacy medical
      devices from multiple manufacturers, which use different terms. METHODS: We
      hypothesize that usage errors by clinicians will be lower when standardization is
      consistently applied by all manufacturers. The proposed study will experimentally
      examine the impact of standardized nomenclature on performance declines in the
      use of an unfamiliar ventilator product in clinically relevant scenarios.
      Participants will be respiratory therapy practitioners and trainees, and we
      propose studying approximately 60 participants. RESULTS: The work reported here
      is in the proposal phase. Once the protocol is implemented, we will report the
      results in a follow-up paper. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed study will help us better
      understand the effects of standardization on medical device usability. The study
      will also help identify any terms in the International Organization for
      Standardization (ISO) Draft International Standard (DIS) 19223 that may be
      associated with recurrent errors. Amendments to the standard will be proposed if
      recurrent errors are identified. This report contributes a protocol that can be
      used to assess the effect of standardization in any given domain that involves
      equipment, multiple manufacturers, inconsistent vocabulary, symbology, audio
      tones, or patterns in interface navigation. Second, the protocol can be used to
      experimentally evaluate the ISO DIS 19223 for its effectiveness, as researchers
      around the world may wish to conduct such tests and compare results.

PMID- 28887294
TI  - Impact of At-Home Telemonitoring on Health Services Expenditure and Hospital
      Admissions in Patients With Chronic Conditions: Before and After Control
      Intervention Analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Telemonitoring is becoming increasingly important for the management
      of patients with chronic conditions, especially in countries with large distances
      such as Australia. However, despite large national investments in health
      information technology, little policy work has been undertaken in Australia in
      deploying telehealth in the home as a solution to the increasing demands and
      costs of managing chronic disease. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this trial was to
      evaluate the impact of introducing at-home telemonitoring to patients living with
      chronic conditions on health care expenditure, number of admissions to hospital,
      and length of stay (LOS). METHODS: A before and after control intervention
      analysis model was adopted whereby at each location patients were selected from a
      list of eligible patients living with a range of chronic conditions. Each test
      patient was case matched with at least one control patient. Test patients were
      supplied with a telehealth vital signs monitor and were remotely managed by a
      trained clinical care coordinator, while control patients continued to receive
      usual care. A total of 100 test patients and 137 control patients were analyzed.
      Primary health care benefits provided to Australian patients were investigated
      for the trial cohort. Time series data were analyzed using linear regression and
      analysis of covariance for a period of 3 years before the intervention and 1 year
      after. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between test and control
      patients at baseline. Test patients were monitored for an average of 276 days
      with 75% of patients monitored for more than 6 months. Test patients 1 year after
      the start of their intervention showed a 46.3% reduction in rate of predicted
      medical expenditure, a 25.5% reduction in the rate of predicted pharmaceutical
      expenditure, a 53.2% reduction in the rate of predicted unscheduled admission to
      hospital, a 67.9% reduction in the predicted rate of LOS when admitted to
      hospital, and a reduction in mortality of between 41.3% and 44.5% relative to
      control patients. Control patients did not demonstrate any significant change in
      their predicted trajectory for any of the above variables. CONCLUSIONS: At-home
      telemonitoring of chronically ill patients showed a statistically robust positive
      impact increasing over time on health care expenditure, number of admissions to
      hospital, and LOS as well as a reduction in mortality. TRIAL REGISTRATION:
      Retrospectively registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trial
      Registry ACTRN12613000635763;
      https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=364030 (Archived
      by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6sxqjkJHW).

PMID- 28887293
TI  - Influence of Fear of Pain and Coping Strategies on Health-Related Quality of Life
      and Patient-Anticipated Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Pain: Cross-Sectional
      Study Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fear of pain and coping strategies are emotional-behavioral responses
      to pain and are known to play an important role in the development and
      maintenance of pain. It is highly likely that fear of pain and coping strategies
      influence each other, potentially affecting the course of chronic pain. To our
      knowledge, the relationship between pain, fear of pain and coping strategies, and
      how they influence patient-anticipated outcomes and health-related quality of
      life, have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to test
      (1) if both fear of pain and/or coping strategies are sufficient causes for
      maintaining pain; and (2) whether fear of pain influences coping strategies and
      pain intensity. The study will also examine the impact of fear of pain and coping
      strategies on health-related quality of life and patient-anticipated outcomes.
      METHODS: The cross-sectional study will be conducted using an online survey. The
      Fear of Pain Questionnaire-III (FPQ-III), the Brief Coping Inventory (COPE), and
      EuroQoL-5d (EQ-5D) validated questionnaires will be used to collect data.
      Information pertaining to demographic factors, pain-related factors, and patient
      anticipated outcomes will also be collected. The study has ethics approval from
      the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Adelaide. Study
      participants will be individuals aged 18 years and above who are experiencing
      chronic pain (ie, pain lasting more than 6 months). Effect measure modification
      technique (EMMM) will be used to examine if fear of pain acts as a moderator or
      mediator between coping strategies and pain. Simple and multinomial logistic
      regression analysis will be used to examine the effect of fear of pain and coping
      strategies on health-related quality of life and patient-anticipated outcomes.
      RESULTS: Recruitment began July 2017 and it is anticipated that data collection
      will be completed by October 2017. Findings from this study will help to extend
      our understanding of fear of pain and coping strategies, their interaction, and
      their impact on health-related quality of life and patient-anticipated outcomes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Fear of pain and coping strategies have significant influence on the
      experience of chronic pain and its course. This study will help enhance our
      understanding of the relationship between fear of pain and coping strategies,
      which may help in developing patient-centered care practices.

PMID- 28887296
TI  - An Exploration of Changes in the Measurement of Mammography in the National
      Health Interview Survey.
AB  - Background: Using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), we examined the
      effect of question wording on estimates of past-year mammography among
      racially/ethnically diverse women ages 40-49 and 50-74 without a history of
      breast cancer.Methods: Data from one-part ("Have you had a mammogram during the
      past 12 months?") and two-part ("Have you ever had a mammogram"; "When did you
      have your most recent mammogram?") mammography history questions administered in
      the 2008, 2011, and 2013 NHIS were analyzed. chi2 tests provided estimates of
      changes in mammography when question wording was either the same (two-part
      question) or differed (two-part question followed by one-part question) in the
      two survey years compared. Crosstabulations and regression models assessed the
      type, extent, and correlates of inconsistent responses to the two questions in
      2013.Results: Reports of past-year mammography were slightly higher in years when
      the one-part question was asked than when the two-part question was asked. Nearly
      10% of women provided inconsistent responses to the two questions asked in 2013.
      Black women ages 50 to 74 [adjusted OR (aOR), 1.50; 95% confidence interval (CI),
      1.16-1.93] and women ages 40-49 in poor health (aOR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.09-4.52) had
      higher odds of inconsistent responses; women without a usual source of care had
      lower odds (40-49: aOR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.21-0.85; 50-74: aOR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.24
      0.74).Conclusions: Self-reports of mammography are sensitive to question wording.
      Researchers should use equivalent questions that have been designed to minimize
      response biases such as telescoping and social desirability.Impact: Trend
      analyses relying on differently worded questions may be misleading and conceal
      disparities. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(11); 1611-8. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28887295
TI  - Photoaging Mobile Apps in School-Based Melanoma Prevention: Pilot Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Around 90% of melanomas are caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV)
      radiation and are therefore eminently preventable. Tanning behavior is mostly
      initiated in early adolescence, often with the belief that it increases
      attractiveness; the problems related to malignant melanoma and other skin cancers
      are too far in the future to fathom. Given the substantial amount of time
      children and adolescents spend in schools, as well as with their mobile phones,
      addressing melanoma prevention via both of these ways is crucial. However, no
      school-based intervention using mobile apps has been evaluated to date. We
      recently released a photoaging mobile app, in which a selfie is altered to
      predict future appearance dependent on UV protection behavior and skin type.
      OBJECTIVE: In this pilot study, we aimed to use mobile phone technology to
      improve school-based melanoma prevention and measure its preliminary success in
      different subgroups of students with regard to their UV protection behavior,
      Fitzpatrick skin type and age. METHODS: We implemented a free photoaging mobile
      phone app (Sunface) in 2 German secondary schools via a method called mirroring.
      We "mirrored" the students' altered 3-dimensional (3D) selfies reacting to touch
      on mobile phones or tablets via a projector in front of their whole grade. Using
      an anonymous questionnaire capturing sociodemographic data as well as risk
      factors for melanoma we then measured their perceptions of the intervention on a
      5-point Likert scale among 205 students of both sexes aged 13-19 years (median 15
      years). RESULTS: We measured more than 60% agreement in both items that measured
      motivation to reduce UV exposure and only 12.5% disagreement: 126 (63.0%) agreed
      or strongly agreed that their 3D selfie motivated them to avoid using a tanning
      bed, and 124 (61.7%) to increase use of sun protection. However, only 25 (12.5%)
      disagreed with both items. The perceived effect on motivation was increased in
      participants with Fitzpatrick skin types 1-2 in both tanning bed avoidance (n=74,
      71.8% agreement in skin types 1-2 vs n=50, 53.8% agreement in skin types 3-6) and
      increased use of sun protection (n=70, 68.0% agreement in skin types 1-2 vs n=52,
      55.3% agreement in skin types 3-6), and also positively correlated with higher
      age. CONCLUSIONS: We present a novel way of integrating photoaging in school
      based melanoma prevention that affects the students' peer group, considers the
      predictors of UV exposure in accordance with the theory of planned behavior, and
      is particularly effective in changing behavioral predictors in fair-skinned
      adolescents (Fitzpatrick skin types 1-2). Further research is required to
      evaluate the intervention's prospective effects on adolescents of various
      cultural backgrounds.

PMID- 28887297
TI  - Defining Optimal Triage Strategies for hrHPV Screen-Positive Women-An Evaluation
      of HPV 16/18 Genotyping, Cytology, and p16/Ki-67 Cytoimmunochemistry.
AB  - Background: Several options for the triage of high-risk HPV screen-positive
      (hrHPV+) women were assessed.Methods: This study incorporated CIN2+ cases and
      controls, all of whom tested hrHPV+ and whose results of liquid-based cytology
      (LBC), HPV16/18 genotyping, and p16/Ki67 cytoimmunochemistry were available.
      Sensitivity and specificity for the CIN2+ of these triage tests were
      evaluated.Results: Absolute sensitivities of HPV 16/18 typing, LBC, and p16/Ki-67
      cytoimmunochemistry for CIN2+ detection were 61.7%, 68.3%, and 85.0% for women
      with hrHPV+ clinician-taken samples. Respective specificities were 70.5%, 89.1%,
      and 76.7%. The absolute accuracy of the triage tests was similar for women with a
      hrHPV+ self-sample. P16/Ki-67 cyto-immunochemistry was significantly more
      sensitive than LBC although significantly less specific.Conclusions: All three
      single-test triage options, if positive, exceed the threshold of 20% risk at
      which colposcopy would be indicated. However, none of them conferred a post-test
      probability of CIN2+ <2%; which would permit routine recall. P16/Ki-67
      cytoimmunochemistry on HPV16/18 negative women had a post-test probability of
      CIN2+ of 1.7% and 0.6% if also LBC negative.Impact: This is one of the few
      studies to directly compare the performance of triage strategies of hrHPV+ women,
      in isolation and combinations. It is the only study assessing triage strategies
      in women who test hrHPV+ in self-taken vaginal samples. A combined triage option
      that incorporated HPV 16/18 typing prior to p16/ki-67 cytoimmunochemistry in HPV
      16/18-negative women yielded a post-test probability of CIN2+ of >20%, whereas
      women who tested negative had a probability of CIN2+ of <2%. Cancer Epidemiol
      Biomarkers Prev; 26(11); 1629-35. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28887298
TI  - Tougher charging regime for "overseas" patients.

PMID- 28887299
TI  - The problem with US website for collecting adverse events after vaccination is
      resolved.

PMID- 28887300
TI  - Rules for NHS compensation are to change again after costs spiral.

PMID- 28887301
TI  - The phospholipase PNPLA7 functions as a lysophosphatidylcholine hydrolase and
      interacts with lipid droplets through its catalytic domain.
AB  - Mammalian patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing proteins (PNPLAs) are
      lipid-metabolizing enzymes with essential roles in energy metabolism, skin
      barrier development, and brain function. A detailed annotation of enzymatic
      activities and structure-function relationships remains an important prerequisite
      to understand PNPLA functions in (patho-)physiology, for example, in disorders
      such as neutral lipid storage disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and
      neurodegenerative syndromes. In this study, we characterized the structural
      features controlling the subcellular localization and enzymatic activity of
      PNPLA7, a poorly annotated phospholipase linked to insulin signaling and energy
      metabolism. We show that PNPLA7 is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) transmembrane
      protein that specifically promotes hydrolysis of lysophosphatidylcholine in
      mammalian cells. We found that transmembrane and regulatory domains in the PNPLA7
      N-terminal region cooperate to regulate ER targeting but are dispensable for
      substrate hydrolysis. Enzymatic activity is instead mediated by the C-terminal
      domain, which maintains full catalytic competence even in the absence of N
      terminal regions. Upon elevated fatty acid flux, the catalytic domain targets
      cellular lipid droplets and promotes interactions of PNPLA7 with these organelles
      in response to increased cAMP levels. We conclude that PNPLA7 acts as an ER
      anchored lysophosphatidylcholine hydrolase that is composed of specific
      functional domains mediating catalytic activity, subcellular positioning, and
      interactions with cellular organelles. Our study provides critical structural
      insights into an evolutionarily conserved class of phospholipid-metabolizing
      enzymes.

PMID- 28887302
TI  - Mechanisms of zinc binding to the solute-binding protein AztC and transfer from
      the metallochaperone AztD.
AB  - Bacteria can acquire the essential metal zinc from extremely zinc-limited
      environments by using ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. These transporters
      are critical virulence factors, relying on specific and high-affinity binding of
      zinc by a periplasmic solute-binding protein (SBP). As such, the mechanisms of
      zinc binding and release among bacterial SBPs are of considerable interest as
      antibacterial drug targets. Zinc SBPs are characterized by a flexible loop near
      the high-affinity zinc-binding site. The function of this structure is not always
      clear, and its flexibility has thus far prevented structural characterization by
      X-ray crystallography. Here, we present intact structures for the zinc-specific
      SBP AztC from the bacterium Paracoccus denitrificans in the zinc-bound and apo
      states. A comparison of these structures revealed that zinc loss prompts
      significant structural rearrangements, mediated by the formation of a sodium
      binding site in the apo-structure. We further show that the AztC flexible loop
      has no impact on zinc-binding affinity, stoichiometry, or protein structure, yet
      is essential for zinc transfer from the metallochaperone AztD. We also found that
      3 His residues in the loop appear to temporarily coordinate zinc and then convey
      it to the high-affinity binding site. Thus, mutation of any of these residues to
      Ala abrogated zinc transfer from AztD. Our structural and mechanistic findings
      conclusively identify a role for the AztC flexible loop in zinc acquisition from
      the metallochaperone AztD, yielding critical insights into metal binding by AztC
      from both solution and AztD. These proteins are highly conserved in human
      pathogens, making this work potentially useful for the development of novel
      antibiotics.

PMID- 28887303
TI  - Dynamic nuclear polarization facilitates monitoring of pyruvate metabolism in
      Trypanosoma brucei.
AB  - Dynamic nuclear polarization provides sensitivity improvements that make NMR a
      viable method for following metabolic conversions in real time. There are now
      many in vivo applications to animal systems and even to diagnosis of human
      disease. However, application to microbial systems is rare. Here we demonstrate
      its application to the pathogenic protozoan, Trypanosoma brucei, using
      hyperpolarized 13C1 pyruvate as a substrate and compare the parasite metabolism
      with that of commonly cultured mammalian cell lines, HEK-293 and Hep-G2.
      Metabolic differences between insect and bloodstream forms of T. brucei were also
      investigated. Significant differences are noted with respect to lactate, alanine,
      and CO2 production. Conversion of pyruvate to CO2 in the T. brucei bloodstream
      form provides new support for the presence of an active pyruvate dehydrogenase in
      this stage.

PMID- 28887304
TI  - Allostery between two binding sites in the ion channel subunit TRIP8b confers
      binding specificity to HCN channels.
AB  - Tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domains are ubiquitous structural motifs that
      mediate protein-protein interactions. For example, the TPR domains in the
      peroxisomal import receptor PEX5 enable binding to a range of type 1 peroxisomal
      targeting signal motifs. A homolog of PEX5, tetratricopeptide repeat-containing
      Rab8b-interacting protein (TRIP8b), binds to and functions as an auxiliary
      subunit of hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide (HCN)-gated channels.
      Given the similarity between TRIP8b and PEX5, this difference in function raises
      the question of what mechanism accounts for their binding specificity. In this
      report, we found that the cyclic nucleotide-binding domain and the C terminus of
      the HCN channel are critical for conferring specificity to TRIP8b binding. We
      show that TRIP8b binds the HCN cyclic nucleotide-binding domain through a 37
      residue domain and the HCN C terminus through the TPR domains. Using a
      combination of fluorescence polarization- and co-immunoprecipitation-based
      assays, we establish that binding at either site increases affinity at the other.
      Thus, allosteric coupling of the TRIP8b TPR domains both promotes binding to HCN
      channels and limits binding to type 1 peroxisomal targeting signal substrates.
      These results raise the possibility that other TPR domains may be similarly
      influenced by allosteric mechanisms as a general feature of protein-protein
      interactions.

PMID- 28887305
TI  - Structural analyses of the Haemophilus influenzae peptidoglycan synthase
      activator LpoA suggest multiple conformations in solution.
AB  - In many Gram-negative bacteria, the peptidoglycan synthase PBP1A requires the
      outer membrane lipoprotein LpoA for constructing a functional peptidoglycan
      required for bacterial viability. Previously, we have shown that the C-terminal
      domain of Haemophilus influenzae LpoA (HiLpoA) has a highly conserved, putative
      substrate-binding cleft between two alpha/beta lobes. Here, we report a 2.0 A
      resolution crystal structure of the HiLpoA N-terminal domain. Two subdomains
      contain tetratricopeptide-like motifs that form a concave groove, but their
      relative orientation differs by ~45 degrees  from that observed in an NMR
      structure of the Escherichia coli LpoA N domain. We also determined three 2.0-2.8
      A resolution crystal structures containing four independent full-length HiLpoA
      molecules. In contrast to an elongated model previously suggested for E. coli
      LpoA, each HiLpoA formed a U-shaped structure with a different C-domain
      orientation. This resulted from both N-domain twisting and rotation of the C
      domain (up to 30 degrees ) at the end of the relatively immobile interdomain
      linker. Moreover, a previously predicted hinge between the lobes of the LpoA C
      domain exhibited variations of up to 12 degrees . Small-angle X-ray scattering
      data revealed excellent agreement with a model calculated by normal mode analysis
      from one of the full-length HiLpoA molecules but even better agreement with an
      ensemble of this molecule and two of the partially extended normal mode analysis
      predicted models. The different LpoA structures helped explain how an outer
      membrane-anchored LpoA can either withdraw from or extend toward the inner
      membrane-bound PBP1A through peptidoglycan gaps and hence regulate the synthesis
      of peptidoglycan necessary for bacterial viability.

PMID- 28887306
TI  - The long noncoding RNA PCAT-1 links the microRNA miR-215 to oncogene CRKL
      mediated signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma.
AB  - The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) PCAT-1 resides in the chromosome 8q24 cancer
      risk locus and acts as a vital oncogene during tumorigenesis and progression.
      However, how PCAT-1 is post-transcriptionally regulated, for example, by small
      ncRNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) is largely unknown. Here, we report how miRNAs
      regulate PCAT-1 expression and also investigate the biological significance of
      this regulation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We found that miR-215, a P53
      inducible miRNA, is a key regulator of PCAT-1 expression in HCC and identified an
      interaction between miR-215 and PCAT-1 in dual luciferase reporter gene assays.
      We also found that post-transcriptional silencing of PCAT-1 by miR-215 or PCAT-1
      siRNAs significantly inhibited proliferation of HCC cells and, conversely, that
      inhibition of endogenous miR-215 up-regulated PCAT-1 expression and promoted cell
      viability. The tumor-suppressing role of miR-215 was further confirmed in an in
      vivo mouse HCC xenograft model. Of note, gene profiling assays suggested that the
      kinase CRK-like proto-oncogene, adaptor protein (CRKL), is a potential downstream
      target of the miR-215-PCAT-1 axis in HCC, and we demonstrated that CRKL silencing
      significantly suppresses cell proliferation. Taken together and considering the
      essential role of CRKL in cancer cells, we propose that the TP53-miR-215-PCAT-1
      CRKL axis might represent an important regulatory pathway in HCC. In summary, our
      results highlight the involvement of several ncRNAs in HCC and thus provide
      critical insights into the molecular pathways operating in this malignancy.

PMID- 28887308
TI  - Uncovering human METTL12 as a mitochondrial methyltransferase that modulates
      citrate synthase activity through metabolite-sensitive lysine methylation.
AB  - Lysine methylation is an important and much-studied posttranslational
      modification of nuclear and cytosolic proteins but is present also in
      mitochondria. However, the responsible mitochondrial lysine-specific
      methyltransferases (KMTs) remain largely elusive. Here, we investigated METTL12,
      a mitochondrial human S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet)-dependent methyltransferase
      and found it to methylate a single protein in mitochondrial extracts, identified
      as citrate synthase (CS). Using several in vitro and in vivo approaches, we
      demonstrated that METTL12 methylates CS on Lys-395, which is localized in the CS
      active site. Interestingly, the METTL12-mediated methylation inhibited CS
      activity and was blocked by the CS substrate oxaloacetate. Moreover, METTL12 was
      strongly inhibited by the reaction product S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy). In
      summary, we have uncovered a novel human mitochondrial KMT that introduces a
      methyl modification into a metabolic enzyme and whose activity can be modulated
      by metabolic cues. Based on the established naming nomenclature for similar
      enzymes, we suggest that METTL12 be renamed CS-KMT (gene name CSKMT).

PMID- 28887307
TI  - Dynamic feature of mitotic arrest deficient 2-like protein 2 (MAD2L2) and
      structural basis for its interaction with chromosome alignment-maintaining
      phosphoprotein (CAMP).
AB  - Mitotic arrest deficient 2-like protein 2 (MAD2L2), also termed MAD2B or REV7, is
      involved in multiple cellular functions including translesion DNA synthesis
      (TLS), signal transduction, transcription, and mitotic events. MAD2L2 interacts
      with chromosome alignment-maintaining phosphoprotein (CAMP), a kinetochore
      microtubule attachment protein in mitotic cells, presumably through a novel "WK"
      motif in CAMP. Structures of MAD2L2 in complex with binding regions of the TLS
      proteins REV3 and REV1 have revealed that MAD2L2 has two faces for protein
      protein interactions that are regulated by its C-terminal region; however, the
      mechanisms underlying the MAD2L2-CAMP interaction and the mitotic role of MAD2L2
      remain unknown. Here we have determined the structures of human MAD2L2 in complex
      with a CAMP fragment in two crystal forms. The overall structure of the MAD2L2
      CAMP complex in both crystal forms was essentially similar to that of the MAD2L2
      REV3 complex. However, the residue interactions between MAD2L2 and CAMP were
      strikingly different from those in the MAD2L2-REV3 complex. Furthermore,
      structure-based interaction analyses revealed an unprecedented mechanism
      involving CAMP's WK motif. Surprisingly, in one of the crystal forms, the MAD2L2
      CAMP complex formed a dimeric structure in which the C-terminal region of MAD2L2
      was swapped and adopted an immature structure. The structure provides direct
      evidence for the dynamic nature of MAD2L2 structure, which in turn may have
      implications for the protein-protein interaction mechanism and the multiple
      functions of this protein. This work is the first structural study of MAD2L2
      aside from its role in TLS and might pave the way to clarify MAD2L2's function in
      mitosis.

PMID- 28887309
TI  - Phosphorylation of the oncogenic transcription factor ERG in prostate cells
      dissociates polycomb repressive complex 2, allowing target gene activation.
AB  - In ~50% of prostate cancers, chromosomal rearrangements cause the fusion of the
      promoter and 5'-UTR of the androgen-regulated TMPRSS2 (transmembrane protease,
      serine 2) gene to the open reading frame of ERG, encoding an ETS family
      transcription factor. This fusion results in expression of full-length or N
      terminally truncated ERG protein in prostate epithelia. ERG is not expressed in
      normal prostate epithelia, but when expressed, it promotes tumorigenesis via
      altered gene expression, stimulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cellular
      migration/invasion, and transformation. However, limited knowledge about the
      molecular mechanisms of ERG function in prostate cells has hampered efforts to
      therapeutically target ERG. ERK-mediated phosphorylation of ERG is required for
      ERG functions in prostate cells, but the reason for this requirement is unknown.
      Here, we report a mechanism whereby ERK-mediated phosphorylation of ERG at one
      serine residue causes a conformational change that allows ERK phosphorylation at
      a second serine residue, Ser-96. We found that the Ser-96 phosphorylation
      resulted in dissociation of EZH2 and SUZ12, components of polycomb repressive
      complex 2 (PRC2), transcriptional activation of ERG target genes, and increased
      cell migration. Conversely, loss of ERG phosphorylation at Ser-96 resulted in
      recruitment of EZH2 across the ERG-cistrome and a genome-wide loss of ERG
      mediated transcriptional activation and cell migration. In conclusion, our
      findings have identified critical molecular mechanisms involving ERK-mediated ERG
      activation that could be exploited for therapeutic intervention in ERG-positive
      prostate cancers.

PMID- 28887310
TI  - Histone deacetylase 6 inhibition reduces cysts by decreasing cAMP and Ca2+ in
      knock-out mouse models of polycystic kidney disease.
AB  - Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is associated with
      progressive enlargement of multiple renal cysts, often leading to renal failure
      that cannot be prevented by a current treatment. Two proteins encoded by two
      genes are associated with ADPKD: PC1 (pkd1), primarily a signaling molecule, and
      PC2 (pkd2), a Ca2+ channel. Dysregulation of cAMP signaling is central to ADPKD,
      but the molecular mechanism is unresolved. Here, we studied the role of histone
      deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) in regulating cyst growth to test the possibility that
      inhibiting HDAC6 might help manage ADPKD. Chemical inhibition of HDAC6 reduced
      cyst growth in PC1-knock-out mice. In proximal tubule-derived, PC1-knock-out
      cells, adenylyl cyclase 6 and 3 (AC6 and -3) are both expressed. AC6 protein
      expression was higher in cells lacking PC1, compared with control cells
      containing PC1. Intracellular Ca2+ was higher in PC1-knock-out cells than in
      control cells. HDAC inhibition caused a drop in intracellular Ca2+ and increased
      ATP-simulated Ca2+ release. HDAC6 inhibition reduced the release of Ca2+ from the
      endoplasmic reticulum induced by thapsigargin, an inhibitor of endoplasmic
      reticulum Ca2+-ATPase. HDAC6 inhibition and treatment of cells with the
      intracellular Ca2+ chelator 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic
      acid tetrakis(acetoxymethyl ester) reduced cAMP levels in PC1-knock-out cells.
      Finally, the calmodulin inhibitors W-7 and W-13 reduced cAMP levels, and W-7
      reduced cyst growth, suggesting that AC3 is involved in cyst growth regulated by
      HDAC6. We conclude that HDAC6 inhibition reduces cell growth primarily by
      reducing intracellular cAMP and Ca2+ levels. Our results provide potential
      therapeutic targets that may be useful as treatments for ADPKD.

PMID- 28887311
TI  - Severe Hypoglycemia-Induced Fatal Cardiac Arrhythmias Are Augmented by Diabetes
      and Attenuated by Recurrent Hypoglycemia.
AB  - We previously demonstrated that insulin-mediated severe hypoglycemia induces
      lethal cardiac arrhythmias. However, whether chronic diabetes and insulin
      deficiency exacerbates, and whether recurrent antecedent hypoglycemia
      ameliorates, susceptibility to arrhythmias remains unknown. Thus, adult Sprague
      Dawley rats were randomized into four groups: 1) nondiabetic (NONDIAB), 2)
      streptozotocin-induced insulin deficiency (STZ), 3) STZ with antecedent recurrent
      (3 days) hypoglycemia (~40-45 mg/dL, 90 min) (STZ+RH), and 4) insulin-treated STZ
      (STZ+Ins). Following treatment protocols, all rats underwent hyperinsulinemic
      (0.2 units ? kg-1 ? min-1), severe hypoglycemic (10-15 mg/dL) clamps for 3 h with
      continuous electrocardiographic recordings. During matched nadirs of severe
      hypoglycemia, rats in the STZ+RH group required a 1.7-fold higher glucose
      infusion rate than those in the STZ group, consistent with the blunted
      epinephrine response. Second-degree heart block was increased 12- and 6.8-fold in
      the STZ and STZ+Ins groups, respectively, compared with the NONDIAB group, yet
      this decreased 5.4-fold in the STZ+RH group compared with the STZ group.
      Incidence of third-degree heart block in the STZ+RH group was 5.6%, 7.8-fold less
      than the incidence in the STZ group (44%). Mortality due to severe hypoglycemia
      was 5% in the STZ+RH group, 6.2-fold less than that in the STZ group (31%). In
      summary, severe hypoglycemia-induced cardiac arrhythmias were increased by
      insulin deficiency and diabetes and reduced by antecedent recurrent hypoglycemia.
      In this model, recurrent moderate hypoglycemia reduced fatal severe hypoglycemia
      induced cardiac arrhythmias.

PMID- 28887313
TI  - Celebrating 35 Years of the AJNR: September 1982 edition.

PMID- 28887312
TI  - Increased Lipolysis, Diminished Adipose Tissue Insulin Sensitivity, and Impaired
      beta-Cell Function Relative to Adipose Tissue Insulin Sensitivity in Obese Youth
      With Impaired Glucose Tolerance.
AB  - Despite evidence of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction in glucose
      metabolism in youth with prediabetes, the relationship between adipose tissue
      insulin sensitivity (ATIS) and beta-cell function remains unknown. We
      investigated whole-body lipolysis, ATIS, and beta-cell function relative to ATIS
      (adipose disposition index [DI]) in obese youth with impaired glucose tolerance
      (IGT) versus normal glucose tolerance (NGT). Whole-body lipolysis (glycerol
      appearance rate [GlyRa], [2H5]glycerol at baseline and during a hyperinsulinemic
      euglycemic clamp), lipid oxidation (indirect calorimetry), insulin secretion (2-h
      hyperglycemic clamp), and body composition (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry)
      were examined. Adipose DI was calculated as ATIS: (1/GlyRa * fasting insulin) *
      first-phase insulin secretion. Despite similar percent body fat, youth with IGT
      versus NGT had higher GlyRa, lower ATIS at baseline and during hyperinsulinemia,
      and higher lipid oxidation. Adipose DI was ~43% lower in youth with IGT and
      correlated positively with glucose DI. The lower ATIS and diminished adipose DI
      in IGT versus NGT is in line with the compromised glucose metabolism reflected in
      impaired beta-cell function relative to peripheral insulin resistance. We
      conclude that youth with IGT manifest a global decline in insulin sensitivity,
      including impaired insulin action in suppressing lipolysis and lipid oxidation,
      accompanied by beta-cell dysfunction in fat and glucose metabolism, enhancing
      their risk of type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28887314
TI  - Novo Nordisk pays $58.7m to settle claims of mis-selling liraglutide.

PMID- 28887316
TI  - Prognostic Value of Aortic Stiffness in Patients After ST-Elevation Myocardial
      Infarction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: High aortic stiffness has been shown to be a strong predictor of
      morbidity and mortality in the general population and several patient cohorts.
      However, in patients after ST-elevation myocardial infarction, the prognostic
      value of high aortic stiffness is unknown so far. METHODS AND RESULTS: This
      prospective observational study included 160 consecutive patients with first
      acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) was
      measured 2 (interquartile range 2-4 days) days after infarction using cardiac
      magnetic resonance imaging. The primary end point was defined as a composite end
      point of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) comprising
      death, nonfatal myocardial reinfarction, new congestive heart failure, and
      stroke. During a median follow-up of 1.2 years (interquartile range 1.0-3.1
      years), 19 (12%) MACCE events occurred. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a
      significantly lower MACCE-free survival in patients with high PWV (PWV >7.3 m/s,
      log-rank P=0.003). Multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed PWV >7.3 m/s to
      be an independent predictor of MACCE after adjustment for age, sex, mean blood
      pressure, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels, presence of
      multivessel disease, and left ventricular stroke volume (hazard ratios >=3.5; 95%
      confidence interval 1.4-13.3; all P<=0.018). In reclassification analysis the
      addition of PWV to a risk model comprising major clinical prognostic parameters
      led to a net reclassification improvement of 0.11 (95% confidence interval 0.06
      0.17; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Increased aortic stiffness is an independent
      predictor of MACCE after acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Moreover, the
      assessment of aortic stiffness in addition to classical risk factors
      significantly improved early risk stratification.

PMID- 28887315
TI  - Inorganic Nitrate in Angina Study: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled
      Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In this double-blind randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial,
      we investigated whether oral sodium nitrate, when added to existing background
      medication, reduces exertional ischemia in patients with angina. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: Seventy patients with stable angina, positive electrocardiogram
      treadmill test, and either angiographic or functional test evidence of
      significant ischemic heart disease were randomized to receive oral treatment with
      either placebo or sodium nitrate (600 mg; 7 mmol) for 7 to 10 days, followed by a
      2-week washout period before crossing over to the other treatment (n=34 placebo
      nitrate, n=36 nitrate-placebo). At baseline and at the end of each treatment,
      patients underwent modified Bruce electrocardiogram treadmill test, modified
      Seattle Questionnaire, and subgroups were investigated with dobutamine stress,
      echocardiogram, and blood tests. The primary outcome was time to 1 mm ST
      depression on electrocardiogram treadmill test. Compared with placebo, inorganic
      nitrate treatment tended to increase the primary outcome exercise time to 1 mm ST
      segment depression (645.6 [603.1, 688.0] seconds versus 661.2 [6183, 704.0]
      seconds, P=0.10) and significantly increased total exercise time (744.4 [702.4,
      786.4] seconds versus 760.9 [719.5, 802.2] seconds, P=0.04; mean [95% confidence
      interval]). Nitrate treatment robustly increased plasma nitrate (18.3 [15.2,
      21.5] versus 297.6 [218.4, 376.8] MUmol/L, P<0.0001) and almost doubled
      circulating nitrite concentrations (346 [285, 405] versus 552 [398, 706] nmol/L,
      P=0.003; placebo versus nitrate treatment). Other secondary outcomes were not
      significantly altered by the intervention. Patients on antacid medication
      appeared to benefit less from nitrate supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: Sodium
      nitrate treatment may confer a modest exercise capacity benefit in patients with
      chronic angina who are taking other background medication. CLINICAL TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier:
      NCT02078921. EudraCT number: 2012-000196-17.

PMID- 28887317
TI  - Biomarker-Stratified Phase III Clinical Trials: Enhancement with a Subgroup
      Focused Sequential Design.
AB  - Among various design approaches to phase III clinical trials with a predictive
      biomarker, the marker-stratified all-comers design is advantageous because it
      allows for establishing the utility of both treatment and biomarker, but it is
      often criticized for requiring large sample sizes, as the design includes both
      marker-positive and marker-negative patients. In this article, we propose a
      simple but flexible subgroup-focused design for marker-stratified trials that
      allow both sequential assessment across marker-defined subgroups and adaptive
      subgroup selection while retaining an assessment using the entire patient cohort
      at the final analysis stage, possibly using established marker-based multiple
      testing procedures. Numerical evaluations indicate that the proposed marker
      stratified design has a robustness property in preserving statistical power for
      detecting various profiles of treatment effects across the subgroups while
      effectively reducing the number of randomized patients in the marker-negative
      subgroup with presumably limited treatment efficacy. In contrast, the traditional
      all-comers and sequential enrichment designs could suffer from low statistical
      power for some possible profiles of treatment effects. The latter also needs long
      study durations and a large number of marker-screened patients. We also provide
      an application to SWOG S0819, a trial to assess the role of cetuximab in treating
      non-small cell lung cancers. These evaluations indicate that the proposed
      subgroup-focused approach can enhance the efficiency of the marker-stratified
      design for definitive evaluation of treatment and biomarker in phase III clinical
      trials. Clin Cancer Res; 24(5); 994-1001. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28887318
TI  - UbcD1 regulates Hedgehog signaling by directly modulating Ci ubiquitination and
      processing.
AB  - The Hh pathway controls many morphogenetic processes in metazoans and plays
      important roles in numerous pathologies and in cancer. Hh signaling is mediated
      by the activity of the Gli/Ci family of transcription factors. Several studies in
      Drosophila have shown that ubiquitination by the ubiquitin E3 ligases Slimb and
      Rdx(Hib) plays a crucial role in controlling Ci stability dependent on the levels
      of Hh signals. If Hh levels are low, Slimb adds K11- and K48-linked poly
      ubiquitin chains on Ci resulting in partial degradation. Ubiquitin E2 enzymes are
      pivotal in determining the topologies of ubiquitin chains. However, which E2
      enzymes participate in the selective ubiquitination-degradation of Ci remains
      elusive. Here, we find that the E2 enzyme UbcD1 negatively regulates Hh signaling
      activity in Drosophila wing disks. Genetic and biochemical analyses in wing disks
      and in cultured cells reveal that UbcD1 directly controls Ci stability.
      Interestingly, UbcD1 is found to be selectively involved in Slimb-mediated Ci
      degradation. Finally, we show that the homologs of UbcD1 play a conserved role in
      modulating Hh signaling in vertebrates.

PMID- 28887319
TI  - Cold stress-induced ferroptosis involves the ASK1-p38 pathway.
AB  - A wide variety of cell death mechanisms, such as ferroptosis, have been proposed
      in mammalian cells, and the classification of cell death attracts global
      attention because each type of cell death has the potential to play causative
      roles in specific diseases. However, the precise molecular mechanisms leading to
      cell death are poorly understood, particularly in ferroptosis. Here, we show that
      continuous severe cold stress induces ferroptosis and the ASK1-p38 MAPK pathway
      in multiple cell lines. The activation of the ASK1-p38 pathway is mediated by
      critical determinants of ferroptosis: MEK activity, iron ions, and lipid
      peroxide. The chemical compound erastin, a potent ferroptosis inducer, also
      activates the ASK1-p38 axis downstream of lipid peroxide accumulation and leads
      to ASK1-dependent cell death in a cell type-specific manner. These lines of
      evidence provide mechanistic insight into ferroptosis, a type of regulated
      necrosis.

PMID- 28887320
TI  - p53 gain-of-function mutations increase Cdc7-dependent replication initiation.
AB  - Cancer-associated p53 missense mutants confer gain of function (GOF) and promote
      tumorigenesis by regulating crucial signaling pathways. However, the role of GOF
      mutant p53 in regulating DNA replication, a commonly altered pathway in cancer,
      is less explored. Here, we show that enhanced Cdc7-dependent replication
      initiation enables mutant p53 to confer oncogenic phenotypes. We demonstrate that
      mutant p53 cooperates with the oncogenic transcription factor Myb in vivo and
      transactivates Cdc7 in cancer cells. Moreover, mutant p53 cells exhibit enhanced
      levels of Dbf4, promoting the activity of Cdc7/Dbf4 complex. Chromatin enrichment
      of replication initiation factors and subsequent increase in origin firing
      confirm increased Cdc7-dependent replication initiation in mutant p53 cells.
      Further, knockdown of CDC7 significantly abrogates mutant p53-driven cancer
      phenotypes in vitro and in vivo Importantly, high CDC7 expression significantly
      correlates with p53 mutational status and predicts poor clinical outcome in lung
      adenocarcinoma patients. Collectively, this study highlights a novel functional
      interaction between mutant p53 and the DNA replication pathway in cancer cells.
      We propose that increased Cdc7-dependent replication initiation is a hallmark of
      p53 gain-of-function mutations.

PMID- 28887321
TI  - LncRNA-PAGBC acts as a microRNA sponge and promotes gallbladder tumorigenesis.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play roles in the development and progression of
      many cancers; however, the contributions of lncRNAs to human gallbladder cancer
      (GBC) remain largely unknown. In this study, we identify a group of
      differentially expressed lncRNAs in human GBC tissues, including prognosis
      associated gallbladder cancer lncRNA (lncRNA-PAGBC), which we find to be an
      independent prognostic marker in GBC Functional analysis indicates that lncRNA
      PAGBC promotes tumour growth and metastasis of GBC cells. More importantly, as a
      competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA), lncRNA-PAGBC competitively binds to the
      tumour suppressive microRNAs miR-133b and miR-511. This competitive role of
      lncRNA-PAGBC is required for its ability to promote tumour growth and metastasis
      and to activate the AKT/mTOR pathway. Moreover, lncRNA-PAGBC interacts with
      polyadenylate binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1) and is stabilized by this
      interaction. This work provides novel insight on the molecular pathogenesis of
      GBC.

PMID- 28887324
TI  - Exercise-Induced Catecholamines Activate the Hippo Tumor Suppressor Pathway to
      Reduce Risks of Breast Cancer Development.
AB  - Strong epidemiologic evidence documents the protective effect of physical
      activity on breast cancer risk, recurrence, and mortality, but the underlying
      mechanisms remain to be identified. Using human exercise-conditioned serum for
      breast cancer cell incubation studies and murine exercise interventions, we aimed
      to identify exercise factors and signaling pathways involved in the exercise
      dependent suppression of breast cancer. Exercise-conditioned serum from both
      women with breast cancer (n = 20) and healthy women (n = 7) decreased MCF-7
      (hormone-sensitive) and MDA-MB-231 (hormone-insensitive) breast cancer cell
      viability in vitro by 11% to 19% and reduced tumorigenesis by 50% when
      preincubated MCF-7 breast cancer cells were inoculated into NMRI-Foxn1nu mice.
      This exercise-mediated suppression of cell viability and tumor formation was
      completely blunted by blockade of beta-adrenergic signaling in MCF-7 cells,
      indicating that catecholamines were the responsible exercise factors. Both
      epinephrine (EPI) and norepinephrine (NE) could directly inhibit breast cancer
      cell viability, as well as tumor growth in vivo EPI and NE activate the tumor
      suppressor Hippo signaling pathway, and the suppressive effect of exercise
      conditioned serum was found to be mediated through phosphorylation and
      cytoplasmic retention of YAP and reduced expression of downstream target genes,
      for example, ANKRD1 and CTGF. In parallel, tumor-bearing mice with access to
      running wheels showed reduced growth of MCF-7 (-36%, P < 0.05) and MDA-MB-231 (
      66%, P < 0.01) tumors and, for the MCF-7 tumor, increased regulation of the Hippo
      signaling pathway. Taken together, our findings offer a mechanistic explanation
      for exercise-dependent suppression of breast cancer cell growth. Cancer Res;
      77(18); 4894-904. (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28887322
TI  - Kinesin-2 motors adapt their stepping behavior for processive transport on
      axonemes and microtubules.
AB  - Two structurally distinct filamentous tracks, namely singlet microtubules in the
      cytoplasm and axonemes in the cilium, serve as railroads for long-range transport
      processes in vivo In all organisms studied so far, the kinesin-2 family is
      essential for long-range transport on axonemes. Intriguingly, in higher
      eukaryotes, kinesin-2 has been adapted to work on microtubules in the cytoplasm
      as well. Here, we show that heterodimeric kinesin-2 motors distinguish between
      axonemes and microtubules. Unlike canonical kinesin-1, kinesin-2 takes
      directional, off-axis steps on microtubules, but it resumes a straight path when
      walking on the axonemes. The inherent ability of kinesin-2 to side-track on the
      microtubule lattice restricts the motor to one side of the doublet microtubule in
      axonemes. The mechanistic features revealed here provide a molecular explanation
      for the previously observed partitioning of oppositely moving intraflagellar
      transport trains to the A- and B-tubules of the same doublet microtubule. Our
      results offer first mechanistic insights into why nature may have co-evolved the
      heterodimeric kinesin-2 with the ciliary machinery to work on the specialized
      axonemal surface for two-way traffic.

PMID- 28887326
TI  - Interferon-tau and fertility in ruminants.
AB  - Establishment of pregnancy in domestic ruminants includes pregnancy recognition
      signalling by the conceptus, implantation and placentation. Despite the high
      fertilisation success rate in ruminants, a significant amount of embryo loss
      occurs, primarily during early gestation. Interferon-tau (IFNT), a type I
      interferon that is exclusively secreted by the cells of the trophectoderm of the
      ruminant conceptus, has been recognised as the primary agent for maternal
      recognition of pregnancy in ruminants. It produces its antiluteolytic effect on
      the corpus luteum by inhibiting the expression of oxytocin receptors in the
      uterine epithelial cells, which prevents pulsatile, luteolytic secretion of
      prostaglandin F2alpha by the uterine endometrium. While the importance of IFNT in
      maternal recognition of pregnancy and prevention of luteolysis in ruminants is
      unequivocal, important questions, for example, relating to the threshold level of
      IFNT required for pregnancy maintenance, remain unanswered. This paper reviews
      data linking IFNT with measures of fertility in ruminants.

PMID- 28887325
TI  - At least 20% donor myeloid chimerism is necessary to reverse the sickle phenotype
      after allogeneic HSCT.
AB  - Novel curative therapies using genetic transfer of normal globin-producing genes
      into autologous hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are in clinical trials for
      patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). The percentage of transferred globin
      necessary to cure SCD is currently not known. In the setting of allogeneic
      nonmyeloablative HSC transplants (HSCTs), stable mixed chimerism is sufficient to
      reverse the disease. We regularly monitored 67 patients after HSCT. After
      initially robust engraftment, 3 of these patients experienced declining donor
      myeloid chimerism (DMC) levels with eventual return of disease. From this we
      discovered that 20% DMC is necessary to reverse the sickle phenotype. We
      subsequently developed a mathematical model to test the hypothesis that the
      percentage of DMC necessary is determined solely by differences between donor and
      recipient red blood cell (RBC) survival times. In our model, the required 20% DMC
      can be entirely explained by the large differences between donor and recipient
      RBC survival times. Our model predicts that the requisite DMC and therefore
      necessary level of transferred globin is lowest in patients with the highest
      reticulocyte counts and concomitantly shortened RBC lifespans.

PMID- 28887323
TI  - ATG5 Mediates a Positive Feedback Loop between Wnt Signaling and Autophagy in
      Melanoma.
AB  - Autophagy mediates resistance to various anticancer agents. In melanoma,
      resistance to targeted therapy has been linked to expression of Wnt5A, an
      intrinsic inhibitor of beta-catenin, which also promotes invasion. In this study,
      we assessed the interplay between Wnt5A and autophagy by combining expression
      studies in human clinical biopsies with functional analyses in cell lines and
      mouse models. Melanoma cells with high Wnt5A and low beta-catenin displayed
      increased basal autophagy. Genetic blockade of autophagy revealed an unexpected
      feedback loop whereby knocking down the autophagy factor ATG5 in Wnt5Ahigh cells
      decreased Wnt5A and increased beta-catenin. To define the physiologic relevance
      of this loop, melanoma cells with different Wnt status were treated in vitro and
      in vivo with the potent lysosomotropic compound Lys05. Wnt5Ahigh cells were less
      sensitive to Lys05 and could be reverted by inducing beta-catenin activity. Our
      results suggest the efficacy of autophagy inhibitors might be improved by taking
      the Wnt signature of melanoma cells into account. Cancer Res; 77(21); 5873-85.
      (c)2017 AACR.

PMID- 28887328
TI  - Experimental evolution in photoautotrophic microorganisms as a means of enhancing
      chloroplast functions.
AB  - The term 'experimental evolution' refers to short-term evolutionary experiments
      with microorganisms under controlled conditions in which selection is expected to
      occur. In combination with whole-genome sequencing and genetic engineering, the
      method has become a powerful tool to study evolutionary mechanisms and engineer
      new microbial variants. It has been most extensively used in the model species
      Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but more recently photosynthetic
      microorganisms have been subjected to experimental evolution. In such assays,
      strains were generated that had become more tolerant to certain abiotic
      environmental factors or evolved new traits during co-propagation with other
      organisms. These strains were viable under conditions that were lethal to the non
      adapted progenitor and in a few cases, the causative mutations were identified.
      Because cyanobacteria like Synechocystis or green algae like Chlamydomonas
      reinhardtii share many features with crop plants - which are not amenable to such
      experiments - experimental evolution with photosynthetic microorganisms has the
      potential to identify novel targets for improving the capacity of plants to
      acclimate to environmental change. Here, I provide a survey of the experiments
      performed so far in cyanobacteria and green algae, focusing on Synechocystis and
      C. reinhardtii, and discuss the promise and the challenges of such approaches.

PMID- 28887327
TI  - Uterine flushings from women treated with levonorgestrel affect sperm
      functionality in vitro.
AB  - Levonorgestrel (LNG), a synthetic 19 nor-testosterone derivative, is widely used
      for emergency contraception. It is well known that LNG prevents ovulation only
      when given prior to the surge of serum luteinizing hormone (LH) during the
      periovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle. This observation suggests that LNG,
      given its contraceptive efficacy, has additional effects other than those
      affecting ovulation. In this study, we have evaluated the effects on human sperm
      functionality of uterine flushings (UF) obtained from women at day LH + 1 of a
      control cycle (CTR-LH + 1) and after receiving LNG (LNG-LH + 1) two days before
      the surge of LH. Human sperm from normozoospermic donors were incubated with UF
      and protein tyrosine phosphorylation, sperm motility, acrosome reaction as well
      as zona pellucida (ZP) binding capacity were assessed. A significant decrease in
      total motility and tyrosine phosphorylation accompanied by an increase on
      spontaneous acrosome reaction was observed when sperm were incubated in the
      presence of LNG-LH + 1. None of these effects were mimicked by purified
      glycodelin A (GdA). Moreover, the addition of UF obtained during the
      periovulatory phase from LNG-treated women or the presence of purified GdA
      significantly decreased sperm-ZP binding. The data were compatible with changes
      affecting sperm capacitation, motility and interaction with the ZP. These results
      may offer evidence on additional mechanisms of action of LNG as an emergency
      contraceptive.

PMID- 28887329
TI  - The Abdication of King Edward VIII: a study of estrangement between an adult son
      and elderly mother.
AB  - In this article the Abdication of King Edward VIII of Great Britain and his
      estrangement from the dowager Queen Mary are reconsidered as prototypes of
      intergenerational conflict arising from a collision of values between an adult
      child and an elderly mother. Historical materials on the Abdication and other
      respected secondary sources, including biographies of key individuals, were
      consulted, and the limited sociological and clinical literature on estrangement
      between elderly parents and adult children was referenced. Although estrangement
      was perpetuated by the rigid and incompatible positions taken up by both the
      former king and his widowed mother, the elderly Queen Mary, it was the latter who
      suffered the greater emotional consequences of the permanent separation that
      followed the Abdication. Most accounts of the Abdication have put forward views
      of the conflict of values at its centre that emphasise the vulnerability of the
      elderly mother. The clinical narrative supports a characterisation of
      estrangement as a subtype of bereavement with particular relevance to the
      geriatric population.

PMID- 28887330
TI  - Age- and strain-related aberrant Ca2+ release is associated with sudden cardiac
      death in the ACTC E99K mouse model of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, particularly young adults, can die
      from arrhythmia, but the mechanism underlying abnormal rhythm formation remains
      unknown. C57Bl6 * CBA/Ca mice carrying a cardiac actin ( ACTC) E99K (Glu99Lys)
      mutation reproduce many aspects of human hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, including
      increased myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity and sudden death in a proportion (up to
      40%) of young (28-40 day old) animals. We studied the hearts of transgenic (TG;
      ACTC E99K) mice and their non-TG (NTG) littermates when they were in their
      vulnerable period (28-40 days old) and when they were adult (8-12 wk old).
      Ventricular myocytes were isolated from the hearts of TG and NTG mice at these
      two time points. We also examined the hearts of mice that died suddenly (SCD).
      SCD animals had approximately four times more collagen compared with age-matched
      NTG mice, yet myocyte cell size was normal. Young TG mice had double the collagen
      content of NTG mice. Contraction and Ca2+ transients were greater in cells from
      young TG mice compared with their NTG littermates but not in cells from adult
      mice (TG or NTG). Cells from young TG mice had a greater propensity for Ca2+
      waves than NTG littermates, and, despite similar sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+
      content, a proportion of these cells had larger Ca2+ spark mass. We found that
      the probability of SCD in young TG mice was increased when the mutation was
      expressed in animals with a CBA/Ca2+ background and almost eliminated in mice
      bred on a C57Bl6 background. The latter TG mice had normal cellular Ca2+
      homeostasis. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Mice with the actin Glu99Lys hypertrophic
      cardiomyopathy mutation ( ACTC E99K) are prone to sudden cardiac death around 40
      days, associated with increased Ca2+ transients, spark mass, and fibrosis.
      However, adult survivors have normal Ca2+ transients and spark density
      accompanied by hypertrophy. Penetrance of the sudden cardiac death phenotype
      depends on the genetic background of the mouse. Listen to this article's
      corresponding podcast at http://ajpheart.podbean.com/e/calcium-regulation-in-e99k
      mouse-heart/ .

PMID- 28887332
TI  - The cerebrocardiovascular response to periodic squat-stand maneuvers in healthy
      subjects: a time-domain analysis.
AB  - Squat-stand maneuvers (SSMs) have been used to improve the coherence of transfer
      function analysis (TFA) estimates during the assessment of dynamic cerebral
      autoregulation (dCA). There is a need to understand the influence of peripheral
      changes resulting from SSMs on cerebral blood flow, which might confound
      estimates of dCA. Healthy subjects ( n = 29) underwent recordings at rest (5-min
      standing) and 15 SSMs (0.05 Hz). Heart rate (three-lead ECG), end-tidal CO2
      (capnography), blood pressure (Finometer), cerebral blood velocity (CBV;
      transcranial Doppler, middle cerebral artery), and the angle of the thigh (tilt
      sensor) were measured continuously. The response of CBV to SSMs was decomposed
      into the relative contributions of mean arterial pressure (MAP), resistance-area
      product (RAP), and critical closing pressure (CrCP). Upon squatting, a rise in
      MAP (83.6 +/- 21.1% contribution) was followed by increased CBV. A dCA response
      could be detected, determined by adjustments in RAP and CrCP (left hemisphere)
      with peak contributions of 24.8 +/- 12.7% and 27.4 +/- 22.8%, respectively, at
      different times during SSMs. No interhemispheric differences were detected.
      During standing, the contributions of MAP, RAP, and CrCP changed considerably. In
      conclusion, the changes of CBV subcomponents during repeated SSMs indicate a
      complex response of CBV to SSMs that can only be partially explained by myogenic
      mechanisms. More work is needed to clarify the potential contribution of other
      cofactors, such as breath-to-breath changes in Pco2, heart rate, stroke volume,
      and the neurogenic component of dCA. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Here, we describe the
      different contributions to the cerebral blood flow response after squat-stand
      maneuvers. Furthermore, we demonstrate the complex interaction of peripheral and
      cerebral parameters for the first time. Moreover, we show that the cerebral blood
      velocity response to squatting is likely to include a significant metabolic
      component.

PMID- 28887331
TI  - Shock and lethality with anthrax edema toxin in rats are associated with reduced
      arterial responsiveness to phenylephrine and are reversed with adefovir.
AB  - Although edema toxin (ETx) and lethal toxin (LTx) contribute to Bacillus
      anthracis shock and lethality, the mechanisms underlying their cardiovascular
      effects are unclear. We have previously shown that ETx but not LTx inhibited
      phenylephrine-stimulated contraction of aortic rings prepared from healthy rats
      and that adefovir, a selective inhibitor of ETx cAMP production, blocked this
      effect. Here, we examined arterial function in rats that received 24-h ETx or LTx
      infusions. Compared with control rats, ETx reduced mean arterial pressure (MAP)
      and survival over 48 h (P <= 0.0003) and increased plasma cAMP at 4, 24, and 48 h
      (P < 0.0001) and nitric oxide (NO) at 24 and 48 h (P <= 0.01). Compared with
      control animals, at 24- and 48-h phenylephrine stimulation of aortic rings from
      ETx animals produced decreased maximal contractile force (MCF; P = 0.05 and
      0.006) and in vivo phenylephrine infusion in ETx animals produced decreased
      proportional increases in MAP (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.05). In ETx-treated animals,
      compared with placebo-treated animals, adefovir treatment prevented all lethality
      (P = 0.01), increased MAP (P <= 0.0001), decreased plasma and aortic tissue cAMP
      at 24 and 48 h, respectively (P <= 0.03), and plasma NO at both times (P <=
      0.004), and increased phenylephrine-stimulated increases in MCF in aortic rings
      and MAP in vivo at 48 h (P = 0.02). LTx decreased MAP and survival also, but it
      did not alter the response to phenylephrine of MCF in aortic rings prepared from
      LTx animals or of MAP in vivo. In conclusion, in rats, hypotension and lethality
      are associated with reduced arterial contractile function with ETx but not LTx
      and adefovir improves ETx-induced hypotension and lethality.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The
      most important aspects of the present study are the findings that 1) in vivo
      challenge with anthrax edema but not lethal toxin depresses arterial contractile
      function measured both ex vivo and in vivo and 2) adefovir inhibits the effects
      of edema toxin on arterial hypotension and improves survival with lethal dose of
      edema toxin challenge.

PMID- 28887334
TI  - New Oregon law lets pharmacists prescribe formulary drugs, devices.

PMID- 28887335
TI  - FDA approves short-course hepatitis C product.

PMID- 28887333
TI  - Rapid estrogen receptor-alpha signaling mediated by ERK activation regulates
      vascular tone in male and ovary-intact female mice.
AB  - Estrogen has been shown to affect vascular reactivity. Here, we assessed the
      estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha) dependency of estrogenic effects on
      vasorelaxation via a rapid nongenomic pathway in both male and ovary-intact
      female mice. We compared the effect of a primary estrogen, 17beta-estradiol (E2)
      or 4,4',4"-(4-propyl-[1H]pyrazole-1,3,5-triyl)tris-phenol (PPT; selective ERalpha
      agonist). We found that E2 and PPT induced greater aortic relaxation in female
      mice than in male mice, indicating ERalpha mediation, which was further validated
      by using ERalpha antagonism. Treatment with 1,3-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4-methyl-5
      [4-(2-piperidinylethoxy)phenol]-1H-pyrazole dihydrochloride (MPP dihydrochloride;
      ERalpha antagonist) attenuated PPT-mediated vessel relaxation in both sexes.
      ERalpha-mediated vessel relaxation was further validated by the absence of
      significant PPT-mediated relaxation in aortas isolated from ERalpha knockout
      mice. Treatment with a specific ERK inhibitor, PD-98059, reduced E2-induced
      vessel relaxation in both sexes but to a lesser extent in female mice.
      Furthermore, PD-98059 prevented PPT-induced vessel relaxation in both sexes. Both
      E2 and PPT treatment activated ERK as early as 5-10 min, which was attenuated by
      PD-98059 in aortic tissue, cultured primary vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs),
      and endothelial cells (ECs). Aortic rings denuded of endothelium showed no
      differences in vessel relaxation after E2 or PPT treatment, implicating a role of
      ECs in the observed sex differences. Here, our results are unique to show
      estrogen-stimulated rapid ERalpha signaling mediated by ERK activation in aortic
      tissue, as well as VSMCs and ECs in vitro, in regulating vascular function by
      using side-by-side comparisons in male and ovary-intact female mice in response
      to E2 or PPT. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Here, we assessed the estrogen receptor-alpha
      dependency of estrogenic effects in vasorelaxation of both male and ovary-intact
      female mice by performing side-by-side comparisons. Also, we describe the
      connection between estrogen-stimulated rapid estrogen receptor-alpha signaling
      and downstream ERK activation in regulating vascular function in male and ovary
      intact female mice.

PMID- 28887336
TI  - In Spain, zoo animals boost drug adherence for young children.

PMID- 28887338
TI  - Asthma clinics combine pediatric care, pharmacy student education.

PMID- 28887339
TI  - Population health management: Challenges and opportunities for pharmacy.

PMID- 28887340
TI  - Population health management and the pharmacist's role.

PMID- 28887341
TI  - Rationale for postgraduate year 2 residencies in ambulatory care.

PMID- 28887342
TI  - Population health management: Review of concepts and definitions.
AB  - PURPOSE: The terms population health, population health improvement, and
      population health management are discussed. SUMMARY: A key concept in defining
      population health activities is clearly delineating the population(s) of focus.
      The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI's) Triple Aim Initiative uses the
      term population health management to describe the work by healthcare
      organizations to improve outcomes for individual patients to maximize population
      health. The National Academy of Medicine favors the term population health
      improvement and uses this term to describe work to identify and improve aspects
      of or contributors to population health, expanding the focus beyond traditional
      healthcare delivery systems. As organizations like IHI and the National Academy
      of Medicine continue to focus on population health, the terms and definitions
      used to describe these activities will continue to evolve. CONCLUSION: The use of
      consistent, clear definitions for population health activities is critical to the
      practice of pharmacy and healthcare delivery.

PMID- 28887343
TI  - Population health and medicine: Policy and financial drivers.
AB  - PURPOSE: The financial and policy levers of population health and potential
      opportunities for pharmacists are described. SUMMARY: Three long-standing
      problems drive the focus on population health: (1) the United States suffers far
      worse population health outcomes compared with those of other developed nations
      that spend significantly less on healthcare, (2) the U.S. healthcare system's
      focus on "sick care" fails to address upstream prevention and population health
      improvement, and (3) financial incentives for healthcare delivery are poorly
      aligned with improvements in population health outcomes. The Patient Protection
      and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) was arguably the first major healthcare
      legislation since 1965 and had 3 main strategies for improving population health:
      expand health insurance coverage, control healthcare costs, and improve the
      healthcare delivery system. Federal and state legislation as well as Medicare and
      Medicaid financing strategies have designated mechanisms to reward advances in
      population outcomes since the passage of the ACA. States are responsible for many
      of the factors that affect population health, and a bipartisan effort that builds
      upon state and federal collaboration will likely be needed to implement the
      necessary health policy initiative. Population health issues affect productivity
      in the United States; conversely, improvements in population health may increase
      productivity, helping to offset the rising federal debt. Employers are in a
      position to improve population health and consequently help reduce the federal
      debt by addressing lifestyle, chronic disease, poverty, and inequality. National
      pharmacy organizations, regulatory bodies, and journal editors need to
      collectively agree to a threshold of quality and rigor for publication and
      endorsement. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of the policy and financial drivers of
      population health may both support pharmacists' efforts to improve population
      outcomes and identify opportunities for professional advancement.

PMID- 28887344
TI  - Medication therapy disease management: Geisinger's approach to population health
      management.
AB  - PURPOSE: Pharmacists' involvement in a population health initiative focused on
      chronic disease management is described. SUMMARY: Geisinger Health System has
      cultivated a culture of innovation in population health management, as
      highlighted by its ambulatory care pharmacy program, the Medication Therapy
      Disease Management (MTDM) program. Initiated in 1996, the MTDM program leverages
      pharmacists' pharmacotherapy expertise to optimize care and improve outcomes.
      MTDM program pharmacists are trained and credentialed to manage over 16
      conditions, including atrial fibrillation (AF) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Over
      a 15-year period, Geisinger Health Plan (GHP)-insured patients with AF whose
      warfarin therapy was managed by the MTDM program had, on average, 18% fewer
      emergency department (ED) visits and 18% fewer hospitalizations per year than GHP
      enrollees with AF who did not receive MTDM services, with 23% lower annual total
      care costs. Over a 2-year period, GHP-insured patients with MS whose
      pharmacotherapy was managed by pharmacists averaged 28% fewer annual ED visits
      than non-pharmacist-managed patients; however, the mean annual total care cost
      was 21% higher among MTDM clinic patients. CONCLUSION: The Geisinger MTDM program
      has evolved over 20 years from a single pharmacist-run anticoagulation clinic
      into a large program focused on managing the health of an ever-growing
      population. Initial challenges in integrating pharmacists into the Geisinger
      patient care framework as clinical experts were overcome by demonstrating the
      MTDM program's positive impact on patient outcomes.

PMID- 28887345
TI  - Design and implementation of population-based specialty care programs.
AB  - PURPOSE: The development, implementation, and scaling of 3 population-based
      specialty care programs in a large integrated healthcare system are reviewed, and
      the role of clinical pharmacy services in ensuring safe, effective, and
      affordable care is highlighted. SUMMARY: The Kaiser Permanente (KP) integrated
      healthcare delivery model allows for rapid development and expansion of
      innovative population management programs involving pharmacy services. Clinical
      pharmacists have assumed integral roles in improving the safety and effectiveness
      of high-complexity, high-cost care for specialty populations. These roles require
      an appropriate practice scope and are supported by an advanced electronic health
      record with disease registries and electronic surveillance tools for care-gap
      identification. The 3 specialty population programs described were implemented to
      address variation or unrecognized gaps in care for at-risk specialty populations.
      The Home Phototherapy Program has leveraged internal partnerships with clinical
      pharmacists to improve access to cost-effective nonpharmacologic interventions
      for psoriasis and other skin disorders. The Multiple Sclerosis Care Program has
      incorporated clinical pharmacists into neurology care in order to apply clinical
      guidelines in a systematic manner. The KP SureNet program has used clinical
      pharmacists and data analytics to identify opportunities to prevent drug-related
      adverse outcomes and ensure timely follow-up. CONCLUSION: Specialty care programs
      improve quality, cost outcomes, and the patient experience by appropriating
      resources to provide systematic and targeted care to high-risk patients. KP
      leverages an integration of people, processes, and technology to develop and
      scale population-based specialty care.

PMID- 28887346
TI  - Leveraging electronic medical record data for population health management in the
      Veterans Health Administration: Successes and lessons learned.
AB  - PURPOSE: The process and operational elements to establish a population health
      program using electronic medical record data in a Veterans Health Administration
      region are described. SUMMARY: Pharmacists are uniquely qualified to assume
      important roles in population health through the use of their clinical knowledge,
      assisted by electronic tools that consolidate and report patient-specific data
      for clinical care. Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 21 has developed
      300 dashboards and reports to improve the quality, safety, and value of
      healthcare to veterans. Within a group of specialty task forces, physicians,
      nurses, and pharmacists assist in the design and development of evidence-based
      tools to leverage timely electronic health information into metrics, benchmarks,
      and targets to assist with goal achievement. Examples of programs designed to
      improve care in 3 areas were selected for further description and review of
      outcomes. Population health improvement using Healthcare Effectiveness Data and
      Information Set and hepatitis C metrics were used to describe populations that
      may have an indication for evidence-based care but are not receiving it.
      Deprescribing efforts are described, as are medication safety monitoring efforts
      to prevent potential adverse events known to be associated with therapy.
      CONCLUSION: Quality, safety, and value outcomes are the measures of success for
      population health programs in VISN 21. Data-rich project dashboards and reports
      are developed by pharmacist data analysts and implemented and used by teams of
      clinicians who provide continuous feedback and support to improve population
      health. The use of task forces, metrics, benchmarks, targets, and teams is
      instrumental in the successful application of these tools.

PMID- 28887347
TI  - Pharmacists supporting population health in patient-centered medical homes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The integral role of pharmacists in supporting population health
      initiatives in the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model of care is
      described. SUMMARY: Population health initiatives focus on the health outcomes of
      a group of patients; in the PCMH model, such groups of patients, known as panels,
      may be defined as patients assigned to a care team or provider. The basic
      characteristics of the PCMH model include physician-led, team-based practice;
      coordinated and integrated care within the PCMH and in the patient's community;
      provision of safe, evidence-based, high-quality care; incorporation of health
      information technology and continuous quality improvement strategies into panel
      identification, documentation, and care processes; improved access to care (e.g.,
      through expanded scheduling and innovative communication methods); and value
      based payments for participating healthcare professionals. Pharmacists can assist
      in management of patient panels to help achieve quality and performance metrics
      through activities typically including comprehensive medication reviews,
      identification of medication-related problems, and development of care plans and
      individualized treatment goals. Pharmacists practicing in PCMH settings focus on
      evaluating and optimizing medication regimens, including therapy initiation and
      dosage adjustment, to achieve targeted therapeutic outcomes and prevent adverse
      events. Pharmacists' role in population health management varies according to the
      PCMH characteristics and setting. CONCLUSION: Pharmacists support population
      health in the PCMH by improving medication use, quality, and safety. Pharmacists'
      impact on PCMH quality measures and health outcomes of their patient panels
      should continue to be evaluated.

PMID- 28887348
TI  - Population health management in a small health system: Impact of controlled
      substance stewardship in a patient-centered medical home.
AB  - PURPOSE: The success of a patient-centered medical home in providing population
      health management (PHM) services through controlled substance stewardship is
      described. SUMMARY: In 2013, Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC), in Bangor,
      Maine, was fully engulfed in the prescription opioid crisis. At PCHC, patients'
      opioid doses were startlingly high. Within the organization, measures to ensure
      that prescriptions were being used as prescribed, and not diverted, were
      underutilized. PCHC responded to these challenges by developing a comprehensive
      approach to controlled substance stewardship, defined as a coordinated effort to
      promote the appropriate use of controlled substances, improve patient outcomes,
      reduce misuse and abuse, and decrease patient morbidity and mortality attributed
      to these high-risk medications. Since the establishment of the program, over
      1,300 patient reviews have been conducted. During this time, the number of PCHC
      patients receiving chronic opioids has decreased by 67.2% and continues to drop,
      with a corresponding 65.6% decrease in the number of patients receiving
      benzodiazepines. Premature deaths were reviewed to identify associations with
      opioids prescribed at the time of death, which revealed a decline of 50% between
      2013 and 2015. Since program inception, the reviews conducted based on internal
      quality-improvement reports have been expanded to include patients on
      combinations of opioids and benzodiazepines, high-dose opioids, and carisoprodol.
      CONCLUSION: Systematic approaches addressing areas of critical need in high-risk
      populations are integral to PHM efforts in small health systems. The pharmacy
      team can serve a unique role in identifying, developing, and implementing key PHM
      services. Coupled with strategic community partnerships, successful PHM
      integration can assist in the financial survival of small health systems.

PMID- 28887349
TI  - Population health management: An independent physician organization approach.
AB  - PURPOSE: The role of clinical pharmacists and their impact on population health
      and value-based contracts within a multidisciplinary care management team are
      described. SUMMARY: The Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association
      (GRIPA) has promoted high-quality, value-based care since its foundation 20 years
      ago. One of several ways that GRIPA enables its physicians to succeed in shared
      savings agreements is by providing a community-based multidisciplinary care
      management team. The multidisciplinary team's primary goal is to help physicians
      manage the care of their most costly and complex patients. In addition, clinical
      pharmacists concentrate on lowering the amount of money spent on medications. The
      outcome goals for this team include (1) reducing hospitalizations, emergency room
      visits, and the use of unnecessary or inappropriate medications and (2) improving
      medication adherence and other measurable outcomes. Care management provided by
      clinical pharmacists for patients meeting GRIPA's high-risk criteria (>=2
      inpatient or >=3 emergency room visits in the 12 months before care management
      engagement) between 2013 and August 2015 resulted in a 42% decrease in 30-day
      readmissions, a 45% decrease in hospital admissions, a 16% decrease in emergency
      room visits, and a 20% decrease in annual medical charges. Through individualized
      pharmacy reviews and a unique approach to managing high-cost drugs, the clinical
      pharmacists at GRIPA have been successful in reducing hospitalizations and
      emergency room visits as well as promoting appropriate use of medications while
      reducing pharmacy waste. CONCLUSION: As part of a multidisciplinary team,
      clinical pharmacists are able to optimize medication use and engage patients and
      physicians to reduce medical and medication costs for contracted patients.

PMID- 28887350
TI  - Institutional care paths: Development, implementation, and evaluation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Cleveland Clinic experience with care paths, including their
      creation and implementation, challenges overcome during development and testing,
      and outcomes of selected care path evaluations, is described. SUMMARY: Care paths
      are tools to assist healthcare professionals in practicing evidence-based
      medicine. The Cleveland Clinic health system has implemented or is developing
      approximately 100 care paths, including care paths designed to optimize
      management of sepsis and septic shock and to promote timely use of i.v. tissue
      plasminogen activator and correct dosing of antithrombotics and statins in
      patients with stroke. Key steps in successful care path initiatives include (1)
      identifying key stakeholders, (2) achieving stakeholder consensus on a
      standardized approach to disease or condition management, (3) cultivating
      provider awareness of care paths, (4) incorporating care path tools into the
      electronic health record and workflow processes, and (5) securing the resources
      to develop, implement, and maintain care paths. Electronic health records
      facilitate the use of and adherence to care paths. After care path
      implementation, revisions are typically needed due to unexpected issues not
      initially identified and to optimize care path features and support resources for
      clinical practice. Ongoing evaluation is required to determine whether an
      implemented care path is producing the intended patient and quality performance
      outcomes. CONCLUSION: Care paths provide a standardized approach to treatment or
      prevention of a disease or condition, reducing unnecessary variability and
      expense while promoting optimal, cost-effective patient care.

PMID- 28887351
TI  - Using predictive analytics and big data to optimize pharmaceutical outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: The steps involved, the resources needed, and the challenges associated
      with applying predictive analytics in healthcare are described, with a review of
      successful applications of predictive analytics in implementing population health
      management interventions that target medication-related patient outcomes.
      SUMMARY: In healthcare, the term big data typically refers to large quantities of
      electronic health record, administrative claims, and clinical trial data as well
      as data collected from smartphone applications, wearable devices, social media,
      and personal genomics services; predictive analytics refers to innovative methods
      of analysis developed to overcome challenges associated with big data, including
      a variety of statistical techniques ranging from predictive modeling to machine
      learning to data mining. Predictive analytics using big data have been applied
      successfully in several areas of medication management, such as in the
      identification of complex patients or those at highest risk for medication
      noncompliance or adverse effects. Because predictive analytics can be used in
      predicting different outcomes, they can provide pharmacists with a better
      understanding of the risks for specific medication-related problems that each
      patient faces. This information will enable pharmacists to deliver interventions
      tailored to patients' needs. In order to take full advantage of these benefits,
      however, clinicians will have to understand the basics of big data and predictive
      analytics. CONCLUSION: Predictive analytics that leverage big data will become an
      indispensable tool for clinicians in mapping interventions and improving patient
      outcomes.

PMID- 28887352
TI  - A Single Amino Acid Substitution in the Third Transmembrane Region Has Opposite
      Impacts on the Selectivity of the Parasiticides Fluralaner and Ivermectin for
      Ligand-Gated Chloride Channels.
AB  - Fluralaner (Bravecto) is a recently marketed isoxazoline ectoparasiticide. This
      compound potently inhibits GABA-gated chloride channels (GABACls) and less
      potently glutamate-gated chloride channels (GluCls) in insects. The mechanism
      underlying this selectivity is unknown. Therefore, we sought to identify the
      amino acid residues causing the low potency of fluralaner toward GluCls. We
      examined the fluralaner sensitivity of mutant housefly (Musca domestica) GluCls
      in which amino acid residues in the transmembrane subunit interface were replaced
      with the positionally equivalent amino acids of Musca GABACls. Of these amino
      acids, substitution of an amino acid (Leu315) in the third transmembrane region
      (TM3) with an aromatic amino acid dramatically enhanced the potency of fluralaner
      in the GluCls. In stark contrast to the enhancement of fluralaner potency, this
      mutation eliminated the activation of currents and the potentiation but not the
      antagonism of glutamate responses that are otherwise all elicited by the
      macrolide parasiticide ivermectin (IVM). Our findings indicate that the amino
      acid Leu315 in Musca GluCls plays significant roles in determining the
      selectivity of fluralaner and IVM for these channels. Given the high sequence
      similarity of TM3, this may hold true more widely for the GluCls and GABACls of
      other insect species.

PMID- 28887358
TI  - First-Ever CAR T-cell Therapy Approved in U.S.
AB  - The first chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, tisagenlecleucel, received
      FDA approval for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell
      precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia who haven't responded to standard therapy
      or who have relapsed at least twice.

PMID- 28887359
TI  - Wearing humanism on your sleeve.

PMID- 28887353
TI  - A Nucleus-Localized Long Non-Coding RNA Enhances Drought and Salt Stress
      Tolerance.
AB  - Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) affect gene expression through a wide range of
      mechanisms and are considered as important regulators in many essential
      biological processes. A large number of lncRNA transcripts have been predicted or
      identified in plants in recent years. However, the biological functions for most
      of them are still unknown. In this study, we identified an Arabidopsis
      (Arabidopsis thaliana) lncRNA, DROUGHT INDUCED lncRNA (DRIR), as a novel positive
      regulator of the plant response to drought and salt stress. DRIR was expressed at
      a low level under nonstress conditions but can be significantly activated by
      drought and salt stress as well as by abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. We
      identified a T-DNA insertion mutant, drirD , which had higher expression of the
      DRIR gene than the wild-type plants. The drirD mutant exhibits increased
      tolerance to drought and salt stress. Overexpressing DRIR in Arabidopsis also
      increased tolerance to drought and salt stress of the transgenic plants. The
      drirD mutant and the overexpressing seedlings are more sensitive to ABA than the
      wild type in stomata closure and seedling growth. Genome-wide transcriptome
      analysis demonstrated that the expression of a large number of genes was altered
      in drirD and the overexpressing plants. These include genes involved in ABA
      signaling, water transport, and other stress-relief processes. Our study reveals
      a mechanism whereby DRIR regulates the plant response to abiotic stress by
      modulating the expression of a series of genes involved in the stress response.

PMID- 28887361
TI  - Technical Considerations on Phase Mapping for Identification of Atrial Reentrant
      Activity in Direct- and Inverse-Computed Electrograms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Phase mapping has become a broadly used technique to identify atrial
      reentrant circuits for ablative therapy guidance. This work studies the phase
      mapping process and how the signal nature and its filtering affect the reentrant
      pattern characterization in electrogram (EGM), body surface potential mapping,
      and electrocardiographic imaging signals. METHODS AND RESULTS: EGM, body surface
      potential mapping, and electrocardiographic imaging phase maps were obtained from
      17 simulations of atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and focal atrial
      tachycardia. Reentrant activity was identified by singularity point recognition
      in raw signals and in signals after narrow band-pass filtering at the highest
      dominant frequency (HDF). Reentrant activity was dominantly present in the EGM
      recordings only for atrial fibrillation and some atrial flutter propagations
      patterns, and HDF filtering allowed increasing the reentrant activity detection
      from 60% to 70% of time in atrial fibrillation in unipolar recordings and from 0%
      to 62% in bipolar. In body surface potential mapping maps, HDF filtering
      increased from 10% to 90% the sensitivity, although provoked a residual false
      reentrant activity ~30% of time. In electrocardiographic imaging, HDF filtering
      allowed to increase <=100% the time with detected rotors, although provoked the
      apparition of false rotors during 100% of time. Nevertheless, raw
      electrocardiographic imaging phase maps presented reentrant activity just in
      atrial fibrillation recordings accounting for ~80% of time. CONCLUSIONS: Rotor
      identification is accurate and sensitive and does not require additional signal
      processing in measured or noninvasively computed unipolar EGMs. Bipolar EGMs and
      body surface potential mapping do require HDF filtering to detect rotors at the
      expense of a decreased specificity.

PMID- 28887360
TI  - Initial Clinical Experience With a New Automated Antitachycardia Pacing
      Algorithm: Feasibility and Safety in an Ambulatory Patient Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Antitachycardia pacing (ATP) in implantable cardioverter
      defibrillators (ICD) decreases patient shock burden but has recognized
      limitations. A new automated ATP (AATP) based on electrophysiological first
      principles was designed. The study objective was to assess the feasibility and
      safety of AATP in ambulatory ICD patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Enrolled patients
      had dual chamber or cardiac resynchronization therapy ICDs, history of >=1 ICD
      treated ventricular tachycardias (VT)/ventricular fibrillation episode, or a
      recorded, sustained monomorphic VT. Detection was set to ventricular fibrillation
      number of intervals to detect=24/32, VT number of intervals to detect>=16, and a
      fast VT zone of 240 to 320 ms. AATP prescribed the components and delivery of
      successive ATP sequences in real time, using the same settings for all patients.
      ICD datalogs were uploaded every ~3 months, at unscheduled visits, exit, and
      death. Episodes and adverse events were adjudicated by separate committees.
      Results were adjusted (generalized estimating equations) for multiple episodes.
      AATP was downloaded into the ICDs of 144 patients (121 men), aged 67.4+/-11.9
      years, left ventricular ejection fraction 33.1+/-13.6% (n=137), and treated 1626
      episodes in 49 patients during 14.5+/-5.1 months of follow-up. Datalogs permitted
      adjudication of 702 episodes, including 669 sustained monomorphic VT, 20
      polymorphic VT, 10 supraventricular tachycardia, and 3 malsensing episodes. AATP
      terminated 39 of 69 (59% adjusted) sustained monomorphic VT in the fast VT zone,
      509 of 590 (85% adjusted) in the VT zone, and 6 of 10 in the ventricular
      fibrillation zone. No supraventricular tachycardias converted to VT or
      ventricular fibrillation. No anomalous AATP behavior was observed. CONCLUSIONS:
      The new AATP algorithm safely generated ATP sequences and controlled therapy
      progression in all zones without need for individualized programing.

PMID- 28887362
TI  - Resolving Bipolar Electrogram Voltages During Atrial Fibrillation Using Omnipolar
      Mapping.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Low-voltage-guided substrate modification is an emerging strategy in
      atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. A major limitation to contemporary bipolar
      electrogram (EGM) analysis in AF is the resultant lower peak-to-peak voltage
      (Vpp) from variations in wavefront direction relative to electrode orientation
      and from fractionation and collision events. We aim to compare bipole Vpp with
      novel omnipolar peak-to-peak voltages (Vmax) in sinus rhythm (SR) and AF. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: A high-density fixed multielectrode plaque was placed on the
      epicardial surface of the left atrium in dogs. Horizontal and vertical
      orientation bipolar EGMs, followed by omnipolar EGMs, were obtained and compared
      in both SR and AF. Bipole orientation has significant impact on bipolar EGM
      voltages obtained during SR and AF. In SR, vertical values were on average 66+/
      119% larger than horizontal (P=0.004). In AF, vertical values were on average
      31+/-96% larger than horizontal (P=0.07). Omnipole Vmax values were 99.9+/-125%
      larger than both horizontal (99.9+/-125%; P<0.001) and vertical (41+/-78%;
      P<0.0001) in SR and larger than both horizontal (76+/-109%; P<0.001) and vertical
      (52+/-70%; P value <0.0001) in AF. Vector field analysis of AF wavefronts
      demonstrates that omnipolar EGMs can account for collision and fractionation and
      record EGM voltages unaffected by these events. CONCLUSIONS: Omnipolar EGMs can
      extract maximal voltages from AF signals which are not influenced by directional
      factors, collision or fractionation, compared with contemporary bipolar
      techniques.

PMID- 28887364
TI  - Optimizing Antitachycardia Pacing: Back to the Roots.

PMID- 28887363
TI  - Rotors: How Do We Know When They Are Real?

PMID- 28887365
TI  - Omnipolar Mapping: A Method to Improve the Fidelity of Voltage Mapping to Guide
      Substrate-Based Atrial Fibrillation Ablation?

PMID- 28887366
TI  - Clearance Prediction Methodology Needs Fundamental Improvement: Trends Common to
      Rat and Human Hepatocytes/Microsomes and Implications for Experimental
      Methodology.
AB  - Although prediction of clearance using hepatocytes and liver microsomes has long
      played a decisive role in drug discovery, it is widely acknowledged that reliably
      accurate prediction is not yet achievable despite the predominance of hepatically
      cleared drugs. Physiologically mechanistic methodology tends to underpredict
      clearance by several fold, and empirical correction of this bias is confounded by
      imprecision across drugs. Understanding the causes of prediction uncertainty has
      been slow, possibly reflecting poor resolution of variables associated with donor
      source and experimental methods, particularly for the human situation. It has
      been reported that among published human hepatocyte predictions there was a
      tendency for underprediction to increase with increasing in vivo intrinsic
      clearance, suggesting an inherent limitation using this particular system. This
      implied an artifactual rate limitation in vitro, although preparative effects on
      cell stability and performance were not yet resolved from assay design
      limitations. Here, to resolve these issues further, we present an up-to-date and
      comprehensive examination of predictions from published rat as well as human
      studies (where n = 128 and 101 hepatocytes and n = 71 and 83 microsomes,
      respectively) to assess system performance more independently. We report a clear
      trend of increasing underprediction with increasing in vivo intrinsic clearance,
      which is similar both between species and between in vitro systems. Hence, prior
      concerns arising specifically from human in vitro systems may be unfounded and
      the focus of investigation in the future should be to minimize the potential in
      vitro assay limitations common to whole cells and subcellular fractions.

PMID- 28887367
TI  - Tfr cells lack IL-2Ralpha but express decoy IL-1R2 and IL-1Ra and suppress the IL
      1-dependent activation of Tfh cells.
AB  - Follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells from lymph node germinal centers control
      follicular helper T (Tfh) cell-dependent B cell activation. These scarce cells,
      often described and purified as CD25+ cells, are thought to be derived from
      thymic regulatory T (Treg) cells. However, we observed that mouse Tfr cells do
      not respond to interleukin-2 (IL-2), unlike Treg cells. Stringent
      immunophenotyping based on B cell lymphoma 6 (Bcl6), programmed cell death
      protein 1 (PD-1), and CXCR5 expression revealed that Tfr cells are actually CD25
      , in mice and humans. Moreover, Tfr cell characterization based only on CXCR5 and
      PD-1 high expression without excluding CD25+ cells resulted in contamination with
      Treg cells. Transcriptome studies of CD4+CXCR5+PD-1+Bcl6+Foxp3+CD25- Tfr cells
      revealed that they express the IL-1 decoy receptor IL-1R2 and the IL-1 receptor
      antagonist IL-1Ra, whereas Tfh cells express the IL-1R1 agonist receptor. IL-1
      treatment expanded Tfh cells in vivo and activated their production of IL-4 and
      IL-21 in vitro. Tfr cells suppressed the IL-1-induced activation of Tfh cells as
      efficiently as the IL-1 receptor antagonist Anakinra. Altogether, these results
      reveal an IL-1 axis in the Tfh cell control of B cell responses and an IL-2/IL-1
      dichotomy for Treg cell control of effector T cells versus Tfr cell control of
      Tfh cells.

PMID- 28887368
TI  - Segment-specific responses of intestinal epithelium transcriptome to in-feed
      antibiotics in pigs.
AB  - Despite widespread use of antibiotics for treatment of human diseases and
      promotion of growth of agricultural animals, our understanding of their effects
      on the host is still very limited. We used a model in which pigs were fed with or
      without a cocktail of antibiotics and found, based on the denaturing gradient gel
      electrophoresis (DGGE) patterns, that the fecal bacteria from the treatment and
      control animals were distinct. Furthermore, the total bacterial population in the
      feces tended to be decreased by the antibiotic treatment (P = 0.07), and the
      counts of Lactobacillus and Clostridium XIVa were significantly reduced (P <
      0.05). To explore the effects of antibiotics on host intestinal epithelium, we
      assessed gene expression profiles of the jejunum and ileum and their response to
      antibiotic administration. The results indicate that in-feed antibiotics
      increased expression of genes involved in immune functions in both the jejunum
      and ileum, some of which were clustered in the coexpression network. Gene
      ontology terms of metabolic processes were altered predominantly in the jejunum
      but not in the ileum. Notably, antibiotics diminished intestinal segment-specific
      transcriptional changes, especially for genes associated with metabolic
      functions. This study reveals segment-specific responses of host intestinal
      epithelium to in-feed antibiotics, which can be a valuable resource for
      deciphering antibiotic-microbiota-host interactions.

PMID- 28887369
TI  - Genetic mechanisms of human hypertension and their implications for blood
      pressure physiology.
AB  - Hypertension, or elevated blood pressure, constitutes a major public health
      burden that affects more than 1 billion people worldwide and contributes to ~9
      million deaths annually. Hereditary factors are thought to contribute to up to
      50% of interindividual blood pressure variability. Blood pressure in the general
      population approximately shows a normal distribution and is thought to be a
      polygenic trait. In rare cases, early-onset hypertension or hypotension are
      inherited as Mendelian traits. The identification of the underlying Mendelian
      genes and variants has contributed to our understanding of the physiology of
      blood pressure regulation, emphasizing renal salt handling and the renin
      angiotensin aldosterone system as players in the determination of blood pressure.
      Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed more than 100 variants that
      are associated with blood pressure, typically with small effect sizes, which
      cumulatively explain ~3.5% of blood pressure trait variability. Several GWAS
      associations point to a role of the vasculature in the pathogenesis of
      hypertension. Despite these advances, the majority of the genetic contributors to
      blood pressure regulation are currently unknown; whether large-scale exome or
      genome sequencing studies will unravel these factors remains to be determined.

PMID- 28887370
TI  - Genome reprogramming in Saccharomyces cerevisiae upon nonylphenol exposure.
AB  - Bioaccumulative environmental estrogen, nonylphenol (NP; 4-nonylphenol), is
      widely used as a nonionic surfactant and can affect human health. Since genomes
      of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and higher eukaryotes share many structural and
      functional similarities, we investigated subcellular effects of NP on S.
      cerevisiae BY4742 cells by analyzing genome-wide transcriptional profiles. We
      examined effects of low (1 mg/l; <15% cell number reduction) and high (5 mg/l;
      >65% cell number reduction) inhibitory concentration exposures for 120 or 180
      min. After 120 and 180 min of 1 mg/l NP exposure, 187 (63 downregulated, 124
      upregulated) and 103 genes (56 downregulated, 47 upregulated), respectively, were
      differentially expressed. Similarly, 678 (168 repressed, 510 induced) and 688
      genes (215 repressed, 473 induced) were differentially expressed in cells exposed
      to 5 mg/l NP for 120 and 180 min, respectively. Only 15 downregulated and 63
      upregulated genes were common between low and high NP inhibitory concentration
      exposure for 120 min, whereas 16 downregulated and 31 upregulated genes were
      common after the 180-min exposure. Several processes/pathways were prominently
      affected by either low or high inhibitory concentration exposure, while certain
      processes were affected by both inhibitory concentrations, including ion
      transport, response to chemicals, transmembrane transport, cellular amino acids,
      and carbohydrate metabolism. While minimal expression changes were observed with
      low inhibitory concentration exposure, 5 mg/l NP treatment induced substantial
      expression changes in genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, cell wall
      biogenesis, ribosomal biogenesis, and RNA processing, and encoding heat shock
      proteins and ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes. Collectively, these results provide
      considerable information on effects of NP at the molecular level.

PMID- 28887372
TI  - The apolipoprotein C-III (Gln38Lys) variant associated with human
      hypertriglyceridemia is a gain-of-function mutation.
AB  - Recent cell culture and animal studies have suggested that expression of human
      apo C-III in the liver has a profound impact on the triacylglycerol (TAG)-rich
      VLDL1 production under lipid-rich conditions. The apoC-III Gln38Lys variant was
      identified in subjects of Mexican origin with moderate hypertriglyceridemia. We
      postulated that Gln38Lys (C3QK), being a gain-of-function mutation, promotes
      hepatic VLDL1 assembly/secretion. To test this hypothesis, we expressed C3QK in
      McA-RH7777 cells and apoc3-null mice to contrast its effect with WT apoC-III
      (C3WT). In both model systems, C3QK expression increased the secretion of VLDL1
      TAG (by 230%) under lipid-rich conditions. Metabolic labeling experiments with
      C3QK cells showed an increase in de novo lipogenesis (DNL). Fasting plasma
      concentration of TAG, cholesterol, cholesteryl ester, and FA were increased in
      C3QK mice as compared with C3WT mice. Liver of C3QK mice also displayed an
      increase in DNL and expression of lipogenic genes as compared with that in C3WT
      mice. These results suggest that C3QK variant is a gain-of-function mutation that
      can stimulate VLDL1 production, through enhanced DNL.

PMID- 28887373
TI  - Optical coherence tomography identifies outer retina thinning in frontotemporal
      degeneration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Whereas Alzheimer disease (AD) is associated with inner retina
      thinning visualized by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), we
      sought to determine if the retina has a distinguishing biomarker for
      frontotemporal degeneration (FTD). METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, we
      examined retinal structure in 38 consecutively enrolled patients with FTD and 44
      controls using a standard SD-OCT protocol. Retinal layers were segmented with the
      Iowa Reference Algorithm. Subgroups of highly predictive molecular pathology
      (tauopathy, TAR DNA-binding protein 43, unknown) were determined by clinical
      criteria, genetic markers, and a CSF biomarker (total tau: beta-amyloid) to
      exclude presumed AD. We excluded eyes with poor image quality or confounding
      diseases. SD-OCT measures of patients (n = 46 eyes) and controls (n = 69 eyes)
      were compared using a generalized linear model accounting for intereye
      correlation, and correlations between retinal layer thicknesses and Mini-Mental
      State Examination (MMSE) were evaluated. RESULTS: Adjusting for age, sex, and
      race, patients with FTD had a thinner outer retina than controls (132 vs 142 MUm,
      p = 0.004). Patients with FTD also had a thinner outer nuclear layer (ONL) (88.5
      vs 97.9 MUm, p = 0.003) and ellipsoid zone (EZ) (14.5 vs 15.1 MUm, p = 0.009)
      than controls, but had similar thicknesses for inner retinal layers. The outer
      retina thickness of patients correlated with MMSE (Spearman r = 0.44, p = 0.03).
      The highly predictive tauopathy subgroup (n = 31 eyes) also had a thinner ONL
      (88.7 vs 97.4 MUm, p = 0.01) and EZ (14.4 vs 15.1 MUm, p = 0.01) than controls.
      CONCLUSIONS: FTD is associated with outer retina thinning, and this thinning
      correlates with disease severity.

PMID- 28887371
TI  - Germline genetic variants with implications for disease risk and therapeutic
      outcomes.
AB  - Genetic testing has multiple clinical applications including disease risk
      assessment, diagnosis, and pharmacogenomics. Pharmacogenomics can be utilized to
      predict whether a pharmacologic therapy will be effective or to identify patients
      at risk for treatment-related toxicity. Although genetic tests are typically
      ordered for a distinct clinical purpose, the genetic variants that are found may
      have additional implications for either disease or pharmacology. This review will
      address multiple examples of germline genetic variants that are informative for
      both disease and pharmacogenomics. The discussed relationships are diverse. Some
      of the agents are targeted for the disease-causing genetic variant, while others,
      although not targeted therapies, have implications for the disease they are used
      to treat. It is also possible that the disease implications of a genetic variant
      are unrelated to the pharmacogenomic implications. Some of these examples are
      considered clinically actionable pharmacogenes, with evidence-based,
      pharmacologic treatment recommendations, while others are still investigative as
      areas for additional research. It is important that clinicians are aware of both
      the disease and pharmacogenomic associations of these germline genetic variants
      to ensure patients are receiving comprehensive personalized care.

PMID- 28887374
TI  - REM sleep behavior disorder is related to enteric neuropathology in Parkinson
      disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) in Parkinson
      disease (PD) is associated with lesions and dysfunctions of the autonomic nervous
      system by evaluating enteric phosphorylated alpha-synuclein histopathology (PASH)
      and permeability. METHODS: A total of 45 patients with PD were included in this
      cross-sectional study. RBD was diagnosed on the basis of a standardized clinical
      interview and confirmed by polysomnography. For each patient, 5 biopsies were
      taken at the junction between the sigmoid and descending colon during the course
      of a rectosigmoidoscopy. For the detection of enteric PASH, 2 colonic biopsies
      were analyzed by immunohistochemistry with antibodies against phosphorylated
      alpha-synuclein and PGP9.5 in 43 patients (2 patients were excluded because only
      1 biopsy was available). The paracellular permeability and transcellular
      permeability were evaluated by measuring sulfonic acid and horseradish peroxidase
      flux, respectively, in the 3 remaining biopsies mounted in Ussing chambers.
      RESULTS: Enteric PASH was more frequent in the subgroup of patients with PD with
      RBD compared to patients without RBD (18 of 28, 64.3%, vs 2 of 15, 13.3%,
      respectively, p < 0.01). No differences were observed in intestinal permeability
      between patients with PD with and without RBD. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with PD and
      RBD have a greater frequency of synuclein pathology in the enteric nervous
      system, suggesting that RBD is associated with widespread synuclein
      neuropathology.

PMID- 28887376
TI  - Smoking cessation and secondary stroke prevention.

PMID- 28887377
TI  - Outcome after stroke thrombolysis in patients >80 years treated within 3 hours vs
      >3-4.5 hours.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine outcomes and risks of IV thrombolysis (IVT) in patients
      with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) >80 years of age within 3 hours compared to >3
      to 4.5 hours recorded in the Safe Implementation of Treatment in Stroke (SITS)
      International Stroke Thrombolysis Registry. METHODS: A total of 14,240 (year 2003
      2015) patients >80 years of age with AIS were treated with IVT <=4.5 hours of
      stroke onset (3,558 in >3-4.5 hours). Of these, 8,658 (2,157 in >3-4.5 hours)
      were treated otherwise according to the European Summary of Product
      Characteristics (EU SmPC) criteria for alteplase. Outcomes were 3-month
      functional independence (modified Rankin Scale score 0-2), mortality, and
      symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH)/SITS. Results were compared between
      the groups treated in >3 to 4.5 and <=3 hours. RESULTS: Median age was 84 years;
      61% were female in both groups. Median NIH Stroke Scale score was 12 vs 14 in the
      >3- to 4.5- and <=3-hour group, respectively. Three-month functional independence
      was 34% vs 35% (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.69
      0.89, p < 0.001); mortality was 31% vs 32% (aOR 1.10, 95% CI 0.97-1.25, p =
      0.13); and SICH/SITS was 2.7% vs 1.6% (aOR 1.72, 95% CI 1.25-2.35, p = 0.001). In
      EU SmPC-compliant patients, 3-month functional independence was 36 vs 37% (aOR
      0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.92, p = 0.002), mortality was 29% vs 29.6% (aOR 1.10, 95% CI
      0.95-1.28, p = 0.20), and SICH/SITS was 2.7% vs 1.6% (aOR 1.62, 95% CI 1.12-2.34,
      p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In this observational study, unselected patients >80
      years of age treated with IVT after 3 hours vs earlier had a slightly higher rate
      of SICH and similar unadjusted functional outcome but poorer adjusted outcome.
      The absolute difference between the treatment groups is small, and elderly
      patients should not be denied IVT in the later time window solely because of age
      without other contraindications.

PMID- 28887375
TI  - CSF inflammatory response after intraventricular hemorrhage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the temporal pattern and relevant associations of CSF
      inflammatory measures after intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). METHODS: We
      analyzed prospectively collected CSF cell counts and protein and glucose levels
      from participants in the Clot Lysis Evaluation of Accelerated Resolution of IVH
      phase III (CLEAR III) trial. Corrected leukocyte count and cell index were
      calculated to adjust for CSF leukocytes attributable to circulating blood. Data
      were chronologically plotted. CSF inflammatory measures (daily, mean, median,
      maximum, and cases with highest quartile response) were correlated with initial
      IVH volume, IVH clearance rate, thrombolytic treatment, bacterial infection, and
      adjudicated clinical outcome at 30 and 180 days. RESULTS: A total of 11,376 data
      points of CSF results from 464 trial participants were analyzed. Measures of CSF
      inflammatory response evolved during the resolution of IVH. This was
      significantly more pronounced with initial IVH volume exceeding 20 mL.
      Intraventricular alteplase was associated with a significantly augmented
      inflammatory response compared to saline, even after correcting for initial IVH
      volume. There was an association but nonpredictive correlation of CSF
      inflammation measures with culture-positive CSF bacterial infection. None of the
      CSF inflammatory measures, including cases with upper quartile inflammatory
      response, was associated with a significant detrimental effect on 30 or 180 days
      functional outcome or mortality after multivariate adjustment for measures of
      disease severity. CONCLUSIONS: Aseptic CSF inflammation after IVH is primarily
      dependent on the volume of initial bleed. Thrombolysis intensifies the
      inflammatory response, with no apparent detrimental effect on clinical outcome.
      CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: NCT00784134.

PMID- 28887379
TI  - A Comprehensive, Open-source Platform for Mass Spectrometry-based Glycoproteomics
      Data Analysis.
AB  - Glycosylation is among the most abundant and diverse protein post-translational
      modifications (PTMs) identified to date. The structural analysis of this PTM is
      challenging because of the diverse monosaccharides which are not conserved among
      organisms, the branched nature of glycans, their isomeric structures, and
      heterogeneity in the glycan distribution at a given site. Glycoproteomics
      experiments have adopted the traditional high-throughput LC-MSn proteomics
      workflow to analyze site-specific glycosylation. However, comprehensive
      computational platforms for data analyses are scarce. To address this limitation,
      we present a comprehensive, open-source, modular software for glycoproteomics
      data analysis called GlycoPAT (GlycoProteomics Analysis Toolbox; freely available
      from www.VirtualGlycome.org/glycopat). The program includes three major advances:
      (1) "SmallGlyPep," a minimal linear representation of glycopeptides for MSn data
      analysis. This format allows facile serial fragmentation of both the peptide
      backbone and PTM at one or more locations. (2) A novel scoring scheme based on
      calculation of the "Ensemble Score (ES)," a measure that scores and rank-orders
      MS/MS spectrum for N- and O-linked glycopeptides using cross-correlation and
      probability based analyses. (3) A false discovery rate (FDR) calculation scheme
      where decoy glycopeptides are created by simultaneously scrambling the amino acid
      sequence and by introducing artificial monosaccharides by perturbing the original
      sugar mass. Parallel computing facilities and user-friendly GUIs (Graphical User
      Interfaces) are also provided. GlycoPAT is used to catalogue site-specific
      glycosylation on simple glycoproteins, standard protein mixtures and human plasma
      cryoprecipitate samples in three common MS/MS fragmentation modes: CID, HCD and
      ETD. It is also used to identify 960 unique glycopeptides in cell lysates from
      prostate cancer cells. The results show that the simultaneous consideration of
      peptide and glycan fragmentation is necessary for high quality MSn spectrum
      annotation in CID and HCD fragmentation modes. Additionally, they confirm the
      suitability of GlycoPAT to analyze shotgun glycoproteomics data.

PMID- 28887380
TI  - Proteomic Signature Reveals Modulation of Human Macrophage Polarization and
      Functions Under Differing Environmental Oxygen Conditions.
AB  - Macrophages are innate immune cells which can react to a large number of
      environmental stimuli thanks to a high degree of plasticity. These cells are
      involved in a variety of tissue functions in homeostasis, and they play essential
      roles in pathological contexts. Macrophages' activation state, which determines
      their functional orientation, is strongly influenced by the cellular environment.
      A large body of macrophage literature is devoted to better defining polarizations
      from a molecular viewpoint. It is now accepted that a multidimensional model of
      polarization is needed to grasp the broad phenotype repertoire controlled by
      environmental signals. The study presented here aimed, among other goals, to
      provide a molecular signature of various polarizations in human macrophages at
      the protein level to better define the different macrophage activation states. To
      study the proteome in human monocyte-derived macrophages as a function of their
      polarization state, we used a label-free quantification approach on in-gel
      fractionated and LysC/Trypsin digested proteins. In total, 5102 proteins were
      identified and quantified for all polarization states. New polarization-specific
      markers were identified and validated. Because oxygen tension is an important
      environmental parameter in tissues, we explored how environmental oxygen tension,
      at either atmospheric composition (18.6% O2) or "tissue normoxia" (3% O2),
      affected our classification of macrophage polarization. The comparative results
      revealed new polarization-specific makers which suggest that environmental oxygen
      levels should be taken into account when characterizing macrophage activation
      states. The proteomic screen revealed various polarization-specific proteins and
      oxygen sensors in human macrophages. One example is arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase
      (ALOX15), an IL4/IL13 polarization-specific protein, which was upregulated under
      low oxygen conditions and is associated with an increase in the rate of
      phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. These results illustrate the need to consider
      physicochemical parameters like oxygen level when studying macrophage
      polarization, so as to correctly assess their functions in tissue.

PMID- 28887381
TI  - Global Analysis of Membrane-associated Protein Oligomerization Using Protein
      Correlation Profiling.
AB  - Membrane-associated proteins are required for essential processes like transport,
      organelle biogenesis, and signaling. Many are expected to function as part of an
      oligomeric protein complex. However, membrane-associated proteins are challenging
      to work with, and large-scale data sets on the oligomerization state of this
      important class of proteins is missing. Here we combined cell fractionation of
      Arabidopsis leaves with nondenaturing detergent solubilization and LC/MS-based
      profiling of size exclusion chromatography fractions to measure the apparent
      masses of >1350 membrane-associated proteins. Our method identified proteins from
      all of the major organelles, with more than 50% of them predicted to be part of a
      stable complex. The plasma membrane was the most highly enriched in large protein
      complexes compared with other organelles. Hundreds of novel protein complexes
      were identified. Over 150 proteins had a complicated localization pattern, and
      were clearly partitioned between cytosolic and membrane-associated pools. A
      subset of these dual localized proteins had oligomerization states that differed
      based on localization. Our data set is an important resource for the community
      that includes new functionally relevant data for membrane-localized protein
      complexes that could not be predicted based on sequence alone. Our method enables
      the analysis of protein complex localization and dynamics, and is a first step in
      the development of a method in which LC/MS profile data can be used to predict
      the composition of membrane-associated protein complexes.

PMID- 28887382
TI  - Identification of a Novel Salmonella Type III Effector by Quantitative Secretome
      Profiling.
AB  - Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is arguably one of the most studied
      bacterial pathogens and successful infection requires the delivery of its
      virulence factors (effectors) directly into host cells via the type III secretion
      systems (T3SSs). Central to Salmonella pathogenesis, these effector proteins have
      been subjected to extensive studies over the years. Nevertheless, whether
      additional effectors exist remains unclear. Here we report the identification of
      a novel Salmonella T3SS effector STM1239 (which we renamed SopF) via quantitative
      secretome profiling. Immunoblotting and beta-lactamase reporter assays confirmed
      the secretion and translocation of SopF in a T3SS-dependent manner. Moreover,
      ectopic expression of SopF caused significant toxicity in yeast cells.
      Importantly, genetic ablation of sopF led to Salmonella strains defective in
      intracellular replication within macrophages and the mutant were also markedly
      attenuated in a mouse model of infection. Our study underscores the use of
      quantitative secretome profiling in identifying novel virulence factors for
      bacterial pathogens.

PMID- 28887378
TI  - Smoking cessation and outcome after ischemic stroke or TIA.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess whether smoking cessation after an ischemic stroke or TIA
      improves outcomes compared to continued smoking. METHODS: We conducted a
      prospective observational cohort study of 3,876 nondiabetic men and women
      enrolled in the Insulin Resistance Intervention After Stroke (IRIS) trial who
      were randomized to pioglitazone or placebo within 180 days of a qualifying stroke
      or TIA and followed up for a median of 4.8 years. A tobacco use history was
      obtained at baseline and updated during annual interviews. The primary outcome,
      which was not prespecified in the IRIS protocol, was recurrent stroke, myocardial
      infarction (MI), or death. Cox regression models were used to assess the
      differences in stroke, MI, and death after 4.8 years, with correction for
      adjustment variables prespecified in the IRIS trial: age, sex, stroke (vs TIA) as
      index event, history of stroke, history of hypertension, history of coronary
      artery disease, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures. RESULTS: At the time
      of their index event, 1,072 (28%) patients were current smokers. By the time of
      randomization, 450 (42%) patients had quit smoking. Among quitters, the 5-year
      risk of stroke, MI, or death was 15.7% compared to 22.6% for patients who
      continued to smoke (adjusted hazard ratio 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.48
      0.90). CONCLUSION: Cessation of cigarette smoking after an ischemic stroke or TIA
      was associated with significant health benefits over 4.8 years in the IRIS trial
      cohort.

PMID- 28887383
TI  - AtSPX1 affects the AtPHR1-DNA-binding equilibrium by binding monomeric AtPHR1 in
      solution.
AB  - Phosphorus is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and is deficient in
      ~50% of agricultural soils. The transcription factor phosphate starvation
      response 1 (PHR1) plays a central role in regulating the expression of a subset
      of phosphate starvation-induced (PSI) genes through binding to a cis-acting DNA
      element termed P1BS (PHR1-binding sequences). In Arabidopsis and rice, activity
      of AtPHR1/OsPHR2 is regulated in part by their downstream target SPX (Syg1,
      Pho81, Xpr1) proteins through protein-protein interaction. Here, we provide
      kinetic and affinity data for interaction between AtPHR1 and P1BS sites. Using
      surface plasmon resonance, a tandem P1BS sequence showed ~50-fold higher affinity
      for MBPAtdPHR1 (a fusion protein comprising the DNA-binding domain and coiled
      coil domain of AtPHR1 fused to maltose-binding protein) than a single site. The
      affinity difference was largely reflected in a much slower dissociation rate from
      the 2* P1BS-binding site, suggesting an important role for protein co
      operativity. Injection of AtSPX1 in the presence of phosphate or inositol
      hexakisphosphate (InsP6) failed to alter the MBPAtdPHR1-P1BS dissociation rate,
      while pre-mixing of these two proteins in the presence of either 5 mM Pi or 500
      uM InsP6 resulted in a much lower DNA-binding signal from MBPAtdPHR1. These data
      suggest that, in the Pi-restored condition, AtSPX1 can bind to monomeric AtPHR1
      in solution and therefore regulate PSI gene expression by tuning the AtPHR1-DNA
      binding equilibrium. This Pi-dependent regulation of AtPHR1-DNA-binding
      equilibrium also generates a negative feedback loop on the expression of AtSPX1
      itself, providing a tight control of PSI gene expression.

PMID- 28887384
TI  - Constitutive activation of p46JNK2 is indispensable for C/EBPdelta induction in
      the initial stage of adipogenic differentiation.
AB  - Adipogenic differentiation plays a vital role in energy homeostasis and endocrine
      system. Several transcription factors, including peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor gamma 2 and CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) alpha,
      beta, and delta, are important for the process, whereas the stage-specific
      intracellular signal transduction regulating the onset of adipogenesis remains
      enigmatic. Here, we explored the functional role of c-jun N-terminal kinases
      (JNKs) in adipogenic differentiation using in vitro differentiation models of 3T3
      L1 cells and primary adipo-progenitor cells. JNK inactivation with either a
      pharmacological inhibitor or JNK2-specific siRNA suppressed adipogenic
      differentiation, characterized by decreased lipid droplet appearance and the down
      regulation of Adiponectin, fatty acid protein 4 (Fabp4), Pparg2, and C/ebpa
      expressions. Conversely, increased adipogenesis was observed by the inducible
      overexpression of p46JNK2 (JNK2-1), whereas it was not observed by that of
      p54JNK2 (JNK2-2), indicating a distinct role of p46JNK2. The essential role of
      JNK appears restricted to the early stage of adipogenic differentiation, as JNK
      inhibition in the later stages did not influence adipogenesis. Indeed, JNK
      phosphorylation was significantly induced at the onset of adipogenic
      differentiation. As for the transcription factors involved in early adipogenesis,
      JNK inactivation significantly inhibited the induction of C/ebpd, but not C/ebpb,
      during the initial stage of adipogenic differentiation. JNK activation increased
      C/ebpd mRNA and protein expression through the induction and phosphorylation of
      activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2) that binds to a responsive element
      within the C/ebpd gene promoter region. Taken together, these data indicate that
      constitutive JNK activity is specifically required for the initial stage
      differentiation events of adipocytes.

PMID- 28887385
TI  - Prior Learning of Relevant Nonaversive Information Is a Boundary Condition for
      Avoidance Memory Reconsolidation in the Rat Hippocampus.
AB  - Reactivated memories can be modified during reconsolidation, making this process
      a potential therapeutic target for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental
      illness characterized by the recurring avoidance of situations that evoke trauma
      related fears. However, avoidance memory reconsolidation depends on a set of
      still loosely defined boundary conditions, limiting the translational value of
      basic research. In particular, the involvement of the hippocampus in fear
      motivated avoidance memory reconsolidation remains controversial. Combining
      behavioral and electrophysiological analyses in male Wistar rats, we found that
      previous learning of relevant nonaversive information is essential to elicit the
      participation of the hippocampus in avoidance memory reconsolidation, which is
      associated with an increase in theta- and gamma-oscillation power and cross
      frequency coupling in dorsal CA1 during reactivation of the avoidance response.
      Our results indicate that the hippocampus is involved in memory reconsolidation
      only when reactivation results in contradictory representations regarding the
      consequences of avoidance and suggest that robust nesting of hippocampal theta
      gamma rhythms at the time of retrieval is a specific reconsolidation
      marker.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is
      characterized by maladaptive avoidance responses to stimuli or behaviors that
      represent or bear resemblance to some aspect of a traumatic experience.
      Disruption of reconsolidation, the process by which reactivated memories become
      susceptible to modifications, is a promising approach for treating PTSD patients.
      However, much of what is known about fear-motivated avoidance memory
      reconsolidation derives from studies based on fear conditioning instead of
      avoidance-learning paradigms. Using a step-down inhibitory avoidance task in
      rats, we found that the hippocampus is involved in memory reconsolidation only
      when the animals acquired the avoidance response in an environment that they had
      previously learned as safe and showed that increased theta- and gamma-oscillation
      coupling during reactivation is an electrophysiological signature of this
      process.

PMID- 28887386
TI  - Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Restricts Small Dye Iontophoresis Entry into
      Central Neurons.
AB  - Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) loss causes Fragile X syndrome (FXS),
      a major disorder characterized by autism, intellectual disability, hyperactivity,
      and seizures. FMRP is both an RNA- and channel-binding regulator, with critical
      roles in neural circuit formation and function. However, it remains unclear how
      these FMRP activities relate to each other and how dysfunction in their absence
      underlies FXS neurological symptoms. In testing circuit level defects in the
      Drosophila FXS model, we discovered a completely unexpected and highly robust
      neuronal dye iontophoresis phenotype in the well mapped giant fiber (GF) circuit.
      Controlled dye injection into the GF interneuron results in a dramatic increase
      in dye uptake in neurons lacking FMRP. Transgenic wild-type FMRP reintroduction
      rescues the mutant defect, demonstrating a specific FMRP requirement. This
      phenotype affects only small dyes, but is independent of dye charge polarity.
      Surprisingly, the elevated dye iontophoresis persists in shaking B mutants that
      eliminate gap junctions and dye coupling among GF circuit neurons. We therefore
      used a wide range of manipulations to investigate the dye uptake defect,
      including timed injection series, pharmacology and ion replacement, and
      optogenetic activity studies. The results show that FMRP strongly limits the rate
      of dye entry via a cytosolic mechanism. This study reveals an unexpected new
      phenotype in a physical property of central neurons lacking FMRP that could
      underlie aspects of FXS disruption of neural function.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT FXS
      is a leading heritable cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum
      disorders. Although researchers established the causal link with FMRP loss >;25
      years ago, studies continue to reveal diverse FMRP functions. The Drosophila FXS
      model is key to discovering new FMRP roles, because of its genetic malleability
      and individually identified neuron maps. Taking advantage of a well characterized
      Drosophila neural circuit, we discovered that neurons lacking FMRP take up
      dramatically more current-injected small dye. After examining many neuronal
      properties, we determined that this dye defect is cytoplasmic and occurs due to a
      highly elevated dye iontophoresis rate. We also report several new factors
      affecting neuron dye uptake. Understanding how FMRP regulates iontophoresis
      should reveal new molecular factors underpinning FXS dysfunction.

PMID- 28887387
TI  - Neural Architecture of Selective Stopping Strategies: Distinct Brain Activity
      Patterns Are Associated with Attentional Capture But Not with Outright Stopping.
AB  - In stimulus-selective stop-signal tasks, the salient stop signal needs
      attentional processing before genuine response inhibition is completed.
      Differential prefrontal involvement in attentional capture and response
      inhibition has been linked to the right inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and
      ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), respectively. Recently, it has been
      suggested that stimulus-selective stopping may be accomplished by the following
      different strategies: individuals may selectively inhibit their response only
      upon detecting a stop signal (independent discriminate then stop strategy) or
      unselectively whenever detecting a stop or attentional capture signal (stop then
      discriminate strategy). Alternatively, the discrimination process of the critical
      signal (stop vs attentional capture signal) may interact with the go process
      (dependent discriminate then stop strategy). Those different strategies might
      differentially involve attention- and stopping-related processes that might be
      implemented by divergent neural networks. This should lead to divergent
      activation patterns and, if disregarded, interfere with analyses in neuroimaging
      studies. To clarify this crucial issue, we studied 87 human participants of both
      sexes during a stimulus-selective stop-signal task and performed strategy
      dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses. We found that,
      regardless of the strategy applied, outright stopping displayed indistinguishable
      brain activation patterns. However, during attentional capture different
      strategies resulted in divergent neural activation patterns with variable
      activation of right IFJ and bilateral VLPFC. In conclusion, the neural network
      involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous and independent of strategy, while
      different strategies impact on attention-related processes and underlying neural
      network usage. Strategic differences should therefore be taken into account
      particularly when studying attention-related processes in stimulus-selective
      stopping.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dissociating inhibition from attention has been a
      major challenge for the cognitive neuroscience of executive functions. Selective
      stopping tasks have been instrumental in addressing this question. However,
      recent theoretical, cognitive and behavioral research suggests that different
      strategies are applied in successful execution of the task. The underlying
      strategy-dependent neural networks might differ substantially. Here, we show
      evidence that, regardless of the strategy used, the neural network involved in
      outright stopping is ubiquitous. However, significant differences can only be
      found in the attention-related processes underlying those different strategies.
      Thus, when studying attentional processing of salient stop signals, strategic
      differences should be considered. In contrast, the neural networks implementing
      outright stopping seem less or not at all affected by strategic differences.

PMID- 28887388
TI  - Minocycline in Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage: An Early Phase Randomized Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Minocycline is under investigation as a neurovascular
      protective agent for stroke. This study evaluated the pharmacokinetic, anti
      inflammatory, and safety profile of minocycline after intracerebral hemorrhage.
      METHODS: This study was a single-site, randomized controlled trial of minocycline
      conducted from 2013 to 2016. Adults >=18 years with primary intracerebral
      hemorrhage who could have study drug administered within 24 hours of onset were
      included. Patients received 400 mg of intravenous minocycline, followed by 400 mg
      minocycline oral daily for 4 days. Serum concentrations of minocycline after the
      last oral dose and biomarkers were sampled to determine the peak concentration,
      half-life, and anti-inflammatory profile. RESULTS: A total of 16 consecutive
      eligible patients were enrolled, with 8 randomized to minocycline. Although the
      literature supports a time to peak concentration (Tmax) of 1 hour for oral
      minocycline, the Tmax was estimated to be at least 6 hours in this cohort. The
      elimination half-life (available on 7 patients) was 17.5 hours (SD+/-3.5). No
      differences were observed in inflammatory biomarkers, hematoma volume, or
      perihematomal edema. Concentrations remained at neuroprotective levels (>3 mg/L)
      throughout the dosing interval in 5 of 7 patients. CONCLUSIONS: In intracerebral
      hemorrhage, a 400 mg dose of minocycline was safe and achieved neuroprotective
      serum concentrations. However, oral administration led to delayed absorption in
      these critically ill patients and should not be used when rapid, high
      concentrations are desired. Given the safety and pharmacokinetic profile of
      minocycline in intracerebral hemorrhage and promising data in the treatment of
      ischemic stroke, intravenous minocycline is an excellent candidate for a
      prehospital treatment trial. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL:
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01805895.

PMID- 28887389
TI  - Response by Jadhav et al to Letter Regarding Article, "Interfacility Transfer
      Directly to the Neuroangiography Suite in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients
      Undergoing Thrombectomy".

PMID- 28887390
TI  - Response by Aigner et al to Letter Regarding Article, "Contribution of
      Established Stroke Risk Factors to the Burden of Stroke in Young Adults".

PMID- 28887391
TI  - Direct Mechanical Thrombectomy Versus Combined Intravenous and Mechanical
      Thrombectomy in Large-Artery Anterior Circulation Stroke: A Topical Review.

PMID- 28887392
TI  - Response by Lee and Ovbiagele to Letter Regarding Article, "Antiplatelet Regimen
      for Patients With Breakthrough Strokes While on Aspirin: A Systematic Review and
      Meta-Analysis".

PMID- 28887394
TI  - Letter by Braillon Regarding Article, "Contribution of Established Stroke Risk
      Factors to the Burden of Stroke in Young Adults".

PMID- 28887393
TI  - White Matter Hyperintensity Volume and Outcome of Mechanical Thrombectomy With
      Stentriever in Acute Ischemic Stroke.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Finding of white matter hyperintensity (WMH) has been
      associated with an increased risk of parenchymal hematoma and poor clinical
      outcomes after mechanical thrombectomy using old-generation endovascular devices.
      Currently, no data exist with regard to the risk of mechanical thrombectomy using
      stentriever devices in patients with significant WMH. We hypothesized that WMH
      volume will not affect the hemorrhagic and clinical outcome in patients with
      acute ischemic stroke undergoing thrombectomy using new-generation devices.
      METHODS: A retrospective cohort of consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients >18
      year-old receiving mechanical thrombectomy with stentriever devices at a single
      academic center was examined. WMH volume was assessed by a semiautomated
      volumetric analysis on T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery-magnetic resonance
      imaging. Outcomes included the rate of any intracerebral hemorrhage, 90-day
      modified Rankin Score (mRS), the rate of good outcome (discharge mRS <=2), and
      the rate of successful reperfusion (thrombolysis in cerebral ischemia score 2b or
      3). RESULTS: Between June 2012 and December 2015, 56 patients with acute ischemic
      stroke met the study criteria. Median WMH volume was 6.76 cm3 (4.84-16.09 cm3).
      Increasing WMH volume did not significantly affect the odds of good outcome (odds
      ratio [OR], 0.811; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.456-1.442), intracerebral
      hemorrhage (OR, 1.055; 95% CI, 0.595-1.871), parenchymal hematoma (OR, 0.353; 95%
      CI, 0.061-2.057), successful recanalization (OR, 1.295; 95% CI, 0.704-2.383), or
      death (OR, 1.583; 95% CI, 0.84-2.98). CONCLUSIONS: Mechanical thrombectomy using
      stentrievers seems to be safe in selected patients with acute ischemic stroke
      with large vessel occlusion, nonwithstanding the severity of WMH burden in this
      population. Larger prospective studies are warranted to validate these findings.

PMID- 28887395
TI  - Letter by Lederer et al Regarding Article, "Interfacility Transfer Directly to
      the Neuroangiography Suite in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Undergoing
      Thrombectomy".

PMID- 28887397
TI  - Letter by Spence Regarding Article, "Antiplatelet Regimen for Patients With
      Breakthrough Strokes While on Aspirin: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis".

PMID- 28887396
TI  - Influence of Penumbral Reperfusion on Clinical Outcome Depends on Baseline
      Ischemic Core Volume.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In alteplase-treated patients with acute ischemic stroke,
      we investigated the relationship between penumbral reperfusion at 24 hours and
      clinical outcomes, with and without adjustment for baseline ischemic core volume.
      METHODS: Data were collected from consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients with
      baseline and follow-up perfusion imaging presenting to hospital within 4.5 hours
      of symptom onset at 7 hospitals. Logistic regression models were used for
      predicting the effect of the reperfused penumbral volume on the dichotomized
      modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 90 days and improvement of National Institutes of
      Health Stroke Scale at 24 hours, both adjusted for baseline ischemic core volume.
      RESULTS: This study included 1507 patients. Reperfused penumbral volume had
      moderate ability to predict 90-day mRS 0 to 1 (area under the curve, 0.77; R2,
      0.28; P<0.0001). However, after adjusting for baseline ischemic core volume, the
      reperfused penumbral volume was a strong predictor of good functional outcome
      (area under the curve, 0.946; R2, 0.55; P<0.0001). For every 1% increase in
      penumbral reperfusion, the odds of achieving mRS 0 to 1 at day 90 increased by
      7.4%. Improvement in acute 24-hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was
      also significantly related to the degree of reperfused penumbra (R2, 0.31;
      P<0.0001). This association was again stronger after adjustment for baseline
      ischemic core volume (R2, 0.41; P<0.0001). For each 1% of penumbra that was
      reperfused, the 24-hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale decreased by
      0.069 compared with baseline. CONCLUSIONS: In patients treated with alteplase,
      the extent of the penumbra that is reperfused is a powerful predictor of early
      and late clinical outcomes, particularly when baseline ischemic core is taken
      into account.

PMID- 28887398
TI  - 64CuCl2 PET/CT in Prostate Cancer Relapse.
AB  - Our objective was to evaluate the biodistribution, kinetics, and radiation
      dosimetry of 64CuCl2 in humans and to assess the ability of 64CuCl2 PET/CT to
      detect prostate cancer (PCa) recurrence in patients with biochemical relapse.
      Methods: We prospectively evaluated 50 PCa patients with biochemical relapse
      after surgery or external-beam radiation therapy. All patients underwent 64CuCl2
      PET/CT, 18F-choline PET/CT, and multiparametric MRI within 15 d of each other.
      Experienced readers interpreted the images, and the detection rate (DR) of each
      imaging modality was calculated. Histopathology, when available; clinical or
      laboratory response; and multidisciplinary follow-up were used to confirm the
      site of disease. In parallel, biodistribution, kinetics of the lesions, and
      radiation dosimetry of 64CuCl2 were evaluated. Results: From a dosimetric point
      of view, an administered dose of 200 MBq for 64CuCl2 translated into a 5.7-mSv
      effective dose. Unlike 18F-choline, 64CuCl2 was not excreted or accumulated in
      the urinary tract, thus allowing thorough pelvic exploration. The maximum 64CuCl2
      uptake at the sites of PCa relapse was observed 1 h after tracer injection. In
      our cohort, 64CuCl2 PET/CT proved positive in 41 of 50 patients, with an overall
      DR of 82%. The DRs of 18F-choline PET/CT and multiparametric MRI were 56% and
      74%, respectively. The difference between the DRs of 64CuCl2 PET/CT and 18F
      choline PET/CT was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Interestingly, on
      considering prostate-specific antigen (PSA) value, 64CuCl2 PET/CT had a higher DR
      than 18F-choline PET/CT in patients with a PSA of less than 1 ng/mL. Conclusion:
      The biodistribution of 64CuCl2 is more suitable than that of 18F-choline for
      exploring the pelvis and prostatic bed. The 64CuCl2 effective dose is like those
      of other established PET tracers. In patients with biochemical relapse and a low
      PSA level, 64CuCl2 PET/CT shows a significantly higher DR than 18F-choline
      PET/CT.

PMID- 28887400
TI  - RADAR Dose Estimate Report: A Compendium of Radiopharmaceutical Dose Estimates
      Based on OLINDA/EXM Version 2.0.
AB  - A compendium of about 100 radiopharmaceuticals, based on the OLINDA/EXM version
      2.0 software, is presented. A new generation of voxel-based, realistic human
      computational phantoms developed by the RADAR committee of the Society of Nuclear
      Medicine and Molecular Imaging, based on 2007 recommendations of the
      International Commission on Radiological Protection, was used to develop the dose
      estimates, and the most recent biokinetic models were used as well. These
      estimates will be made available in electronic form and can be modified and
      updated as models are changed and as new radiopharmaceuticals are added.

PMID- 28887399
TI  - Validation of Postinduction Curie Scores in High-Risk Neuroblastoma: A Children's
      Oncology Group and SIOPEN Group Report on SIOPEN/HR-NBL1.
AB  - A semiquantitative 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) scoring method (the
      Curie score, or CS) was previously examined in the Children's Oncology Group
      (COG) high-risk neuroblastoma trial, COG A3973, with a postinduction CS of more
      than 2 being associated with poor event-free survival (EFS). The validation of
      the CS in an independent dataset, International Society of Paediatric Oncology
      European Neuroblastoma/High-Risk Neuroblastoma 1 (SIOPEN/HR-NBL1), is now
      reported. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 123I-MIBG scans obtained from
      patients who had been prospectively enrolled in SIOPEN/HR-NBL1 was performed. All
      patients exhibited 123I-MIBG-avid, International Neuroblastoma Staging System
      stage 4 neuroblastoma. 123I-MIBG scans were evaluated at 2 time points, diagnosis
      (n = 345) and postinduction (n = 330), before consolidation myeloablative
      therapy. Scans of 10 anatomic regions were evaluated, with each region being
      scored 0-3 on the basis of disease extent and a cumulative CS generated. Cut
      points for outcome analysis were identified by Youden methodology. CSs from
      patients enrolled in COG A3973 were used for comparison. Results: The optimal cut
      point for CS at diagnosis was 12 in SIOPEN/HR-NBL1, with a significant outcome
      difference by CS noted (5-y EFS, 43.0% +/- 5.7% [CS <= 12] vs. 21.4% +/- 3.6% [CS
      > 12], P < 0.0001). The optimal CS cut point after induction was 2 in SIOPEN/HR
      NBL1, with a postinduction CS of more than 2 being associated with an inferior
      outcome (5-y EFS, 39.2% +/- 4.7% [CS <= 2] vs. 16.4% +/- 4.2% [CS > 2], P <
      0.0001). The postinduction CS maintained independent statistical significance in
      Cox models when adjusted for the covariates of age and MYCN gene copy number.
      Conclusion: The prognostic significance of postinduction CSs has now been
      validated in an independent cohort of patients (SIOPEN/HR-NBL1), with a
      postinduction CS of more than 2 being associated with an inferior outcome in 2
      independent large, cooperative group trials.

PMID- 28887401
TI  - Proposal for a Structured Reporting System for Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen
      Targeted PET Imaging: PSMA-RADS Version 1.0.

PMID- 28887403
TI  - The functions of Reelin in membrane trafficking and cytoskeletal dynamics:
      implications for neuronal migration, polarization and differentiation.
AB  - Reelin is a large extracellular matrix protein with relevant roles in mammalian
      central nervous system including neurogenesis, neuronal polarization and
      migration during development; and synaptic plasticity with its implications in
      learning and memory, in the adult. Dysfunctions in reelin signaling are
      associated with brain lamination defects such as lissencephaly, but also with
      neuropsychiatric diseases like autism, schizophrenia and depression as well with
      neurodegeneration. Reelin signaling involves a core pathway that activates upon
      reelin binding to its receptors, particularly ApoER2 (apolipoprotein E receptor
      2)/LRP8 (low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8) and very low-density
      lipoprotein receptor, followed by Src/Fyn-mediated phosphorylation of the adaptor
      protein Dab1 (Disabled-1). Phosphorylated Dab1 (pDab1) is a hub in the signaling
      cascade, from which several other downstream pathways diverge reflecting the
      different roles of reelin. Many of these pathways affect the dynamics of the
      actin and microtubular cytoskeleton, as well as membrane trafficking through the
      regulation of the activity of small GTPases, including the Rho and Rap families
      and molecules involved in cell polarity. The complexity of reelin functions is
      reflected by the fact that, even now, the precise mode of action of this
      signaling cascade in vivo at the cellular and molecular levels remains unclear.
      This review addresses and discusses in detail the participation of reelin in the
      processes underlying neurogenesis, neuronal migration in the cerebral cortex and
      the hippocampus; and the polarization, differentiation and maturation processes
      that neurons experiment in order to be functional in the adult brain. In vivo and
      in vitro evidence is presented in order to facilitate a better understanding of
      this fascinating system.

PMID- 28887404
TI  - Flowering Versus Runnering: Uncovering the Protein Behind a Trait That Matters in
      Strawberry.

PMID- 28887402
TI  - Detection of long repeat expansions from PCR-free whole-genome sequence data.
AB  - Identifying large expansions of short tandem repeats (STRs), such as those that
      cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and fragile X syndrome, is challenging
      for short-read whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. A solution to this problem is
      an important step toward integrating WGS into precision medicine. We developed a
      software tool called ExpansionHunter that, using PCR-free WGS short-read data,
      can genotype repeats at the locus of interest, even if the expanded repeat is
      larger than the read length. We applied our algorithm to WGS data from 3001 ALS
      patients who have been tested for the presence of the C9orf72 repeat expansion
      with repeat-primed PCR (RP-PCR). Compared against this truth data,
      ExpansionHunter correctly classified all (212/212, 95% CI [0.98, 1.00]) of the
      expanded samples as either expansions (208) or potential expansions (4).
      Additionally, 99.9% (2786/2789, 95% CI [0.997, 1.00]) of the wild-type samples
      were correctly classified as wild type by this method with the remaining three
      samples identified as possible expansions. We further applied our algorithm to a
      set of 152 samples in which every sample had one of eight different pathogenic
      repeat expansions, including those associated with fragile X syndrome,
      Friedreich's ataxia, and Huntington's disease, and correctly flagged all but one
      of the known repeat expansions. Thus, ExpansionHunter can be used to accurately
      detect known pathogenic repeat expansions and provides researchers with a tool
      that can be used to identify new pathogenic repeat expansions.

PMID- 28887405
TI  - Phosphorylation of Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase Is Essential for Maximal and
      Sustained Dark CO2 Fixation and Core Circadian Clock Operation in the Obligate
      Crassulacean Acid Metabolism Species Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi.
AB  - Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PPC; EC 4.1.1.31) catalyzes primary nocturnal
      CO2 fixation in Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) species. CAM PPC is regulated
      posttranslationally by a circadian clock-controlled protein kinase called
      phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase kinase (PPCK). PPCK phosphorylates PPC during the
      dark period, reducing its sensitivity to feedback inhibition by malate and thus
      enhancing nocturnal CO2 fixation to stored malate. Here, we report the generation
      and characterization of transgenic RNAi lines of the obligate CAM species
      Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi with reduced levels of KfPPCK1 transcripts. Plants with
      reduced or no detectable dark phosphorylation of PPC displayed up to a 66%
      reduction in total dark period CO2 fixation. These perturbations paralleled
      reduced malate accumulation at dawn and decreased nocturnal starch turnover. Loss
      of oscillations in the transcript abundance of KfPPCK1 was accompanied by a loss
      of oscillations in the transcript abundance of many core circadian clock genes,
      suggesting that perturbing the only known link between CAM and the circadian
      clock feeds back to perturb the central circadian clock itself. This work shows
      that clock control of KfPPCK1 prolongs the activity of PPC throughout the dark
      period in K. fedtschenkoi, optimizing CAM-associated dark CO2 fixation, malate
      accumulation, CAM productivity, and core circadian clock robustness.

PMID- 28887407
TI  - Erratum. Cardiovascular Disease and Type 2 Diabetes: Has the Dawn of a New Era
      Arrived? Diabetes Care 2017;40:813-820.

PMID- 28887406
TI  - Maize NPF6 Proteins Are Homologs of Arabidopsis CHL1 That Are Selective for Both
      Nitrate and Chloride.
AB  - Nitrate uptake by plant cells requires both high- and low-affinity transport
      activities. Arabidopsis thaliana nitrate transporter 1/peptide transporter family
      (NPF) 6.3 is a dual-affinity plasma membrane transport protein that has both high
      and low-affinity functions. At-NPF6.3 imports and senses nitrate and is
      regulated by phosphorylation at Thr-101 (T101). A detailed functional analysis of
      two maize (Zea mays) homologs of At-NPF6.3 (Zm-NPF6.6 and Zm-NPF6.4) showed that
      Zm-NPF6.6 was a pH-dependent nonbiphasic high-affinity nitrate-specific transport
      protein. By contrast, maize NPF6.4 was a low-affinity nitrate transporter with
      efflux activity. When supplied chloride, NPF6.4 switched to a high-affinity
      chloride selective transporter, while NPF6.6 had only a low-affinity chloride
      transport activity. Structural predictions identified a nitrate binding His
      (H362) in NPF6.6 but not in NPF6.4. Mutation of NPF6.4 Tyr-370 to His (Y370H)
      resulted in saturable high-affinity nitrate transport activity and nitrate
      selectivity. Loss of H362 in NPF6.6 (H362Y) eliminated both nitrate and chloride
      transport. Furthermore, alterations to Thr-104, a conserved phosphorylation site
      in NPF6.6, resulted in a similar high-affinity nitrate transport activity with
      increased Km, whereas equivalent changes in NPF6.4 (T106) disrupted high-affinity
      chloride transport activity. NPF6 proteins exhibit different substrate
      specificity in plants and regulate nitrate transport affinity/selectivity using a
      conserved His residue.

PMID- 28887408
TI  - Erratum. Application of Zone Model Predictive Control Artificial Pancreas During
      Extended Use of Infusion Set and Sensor: A Randomized Crossover-Controlled Home
      Use Trial. Diabetes Care 2017;40:1096-1102.

PMID- 28887409
TI  - Longitudinal Change in Fasting Blood Glucose and Myocardial Infarction Risk in a
      Population Without Diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the change in fasting blood glucose (FBG) during repeated
      assessments over time and its potential impact on the risk of developing
      myocardial infarction (MI). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This prospective cohort
      study included 68,297 participants without diabetes (mean age 49 years) who were
      free of MI, stroke, and cancer prior to or in 2010 (baseline of the current
      analysis). FBG concentrations were measured in 2006, 2008, and 2010. The FBG
      trajectories during 2006-2010, the primary exposure of the current study, were
      identified by latent mixture modeling. Incident MI cases were confirmed via
      review of medical records by cardiologists. RESULTS: We identified five discrete
      FBG trajectories according to FBG range and changing pattern over time: elevated
      stable (n = 3,877), elevated-decreasing (n = 7,060), moderate-increasing (n =
      10,298), moderate-stable (n = 40,352), and low-stable (n = 6,710). During 4 years
      of follow-up, we documented 283 incident MI cases. Relative to the moderate
      stable pattern (FBG ranged from 4.9 to 5.1 mmol/L), adjusted hazard ratios (HRs)
      were 1.53 (95% CI 1.04, 2.26) for the elevated-stable pattern (FBG ranged from
      6.1 to 6.3 mmol/L) and HR 0.61 (95% CI 0.38, 0.98) for the elevated-decreasing
      pattern (FBG decreased from 6.0 to 5.4 mmol/L), after adjustment for potential
      confounders such as age, sex, lifestyle factors, obesity, medical history, blood
      pressure, blood lipids, and C-reactive protein. Consistently, cumulative average
      and increasing rate of FBG during 2006-2010, but not a single baseline FBG,
      predicted future risk of MI. CONCLUSIONS: We found that discrete FBG trajectories
      were significantly associated with subsequent risk of MI in individuals without
      diabetes. These observations suggest that long-term trajectories of FBG may be
      important for risk prediction of MI and possibly other macrovascular diseases.

PMID- 28887410
TI  - A coarse-grained computational model of the nuclear pore complex predicts Phe-Gly
      nucleoporin dynamics.
AB  - The phenylalanine-glycine-repeat nucleoporins (FG-Nups), which occupy the lumen
      of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), are critical for transport between the nucleus
      and cytosol. Although NPCs differ in composition across species, they are largely
      conserved in organization and function. Transport through the pore is on the
      millisecond timescale. Here, to explore the dynamics of nucleoporins on this
      timescale, we use coarse-grained computational simulations. These simulations
      generate predictions that can be experimentally tested to distinguish between
      proposed mechanisms of transport. Our model reflects the conserved structure of
      the NPC, in which FG-Nup filaments extend into the lumen and anchor along the
      interior of the channel. The lengths of the filaments in our model are based on
      the known characteristics of yeast FG-Nups. The FG-repeat sites also bind to each
      other, and we vary this association over several orders of magnitude and run 100
      ms simulations for each value. The autocorrelation functions of the orientation
      of the simulated FG-Nups are compared with in vivo anisotropy data. We observe
      that FG-Nups reptate back and forth through the NPC at timescales commensurate
      with experimental measurements of the speed of cargo transport through the NPC.
      Our results are consistent with models of transport where FG-Nup filaments are
      free to move across the central channel of the NPC, possibly informing how cargo
      might transverse the NPC.

PMID- 28887411
TI  - Age-related pacemaker deterioration is due to impaired intracellular and membrane
      mechanisms: Insights from numerical modeling.
AB  - Age-related deterioration of pacemaker function has been documented in mammals,
      including humans. In aged isolated sinoatrial node tissues and cells, reduction
      in the spontaneous action potential (AP) firing rate was associated with
      deterioration of intracellular and membrane mechanisms; however, their relative
      contribution to age-associated deficient pacemaker function is not known.
      Interestingly, pharmacological interventions that increase posttranslation
      modification signaling activities can restore the basal and maximal AP firing
      rate, but the identities of the protein targets responsible for AP firing rate
      restoration are not known. Here, we developed a numerical model that simulates
      the function of a single mouse pacemaker cell. In addition to describing membrane
      and intracellular mechanisms, the model includes descriptions of autonomic
      receptor activation pathways and posttranslation modification signaling cascades.
      The numerical model shows that age-related deterioration of pacemaker function is
      related to impaired intracellular and membrane mechanisms: HCN4, T-type channels,
      and phospholamban functions, as well as the node connecting these mechanisms,
      i.e., intracellular Ca2+ and posttranslation modification signaling. To explain
      the restored maximal beating rate in response to maximal phosphodiesterase (PDE)
      inhibition, autonomic receptor stimulation, or infused cyclic adenosine
      monophosphate (cAMP), the model predicts that phospholamban phosphorylation by
      protein kinase A (PKA) and HCN4 sensitivity to cAMP are altered in advanced age.
      Moreover, alteration in PKA and cAMP sensitivity can also explain age-reduced
      sensitivity to PDE inhibition and autonomic receptor stimulation. Finally, the
      numerical model suggests two pharmacological approaches and one gene manipulation
      method to restore the basal beating rate of aged pacemaker cells to that of
      normal adult cells. In conclusion, our numerical model shows that impaired
      membrane and intracellular mechanisms and the nodes that couple them can lead to
      deteriorated pacemaker function. By increasing posttranslation modification
      signaling, the deteriorated basal and maximal age-associated beating rate can be
      restored to adult levels.

PMID- 28887412
TI  - Enzymatic modules of the SAGA chromatin-modifying complex play distinct roles in
      Drosophila gene expression and development.
AB  - The Spt-Ada-Gcn5-acetyltransferase (SAGA) chromatin-modifying complex is a
      transcriptional coactivator that contains four different modules of subunits. The
      intact SAGA complex has been well characterized for its function in transcription
      regulation and development. However, little is known about the roles of
      individual modules within SAGA and whether they have any SAGA-independent
      functions. Here we demonstrate that the two enzymatic modules of Drosophila SAGA
      are differently required in oogenesis. Loss of the histone acetyltransferase
      (HAT) activity blocks oogenesis, while loss of the H2B deubiquitinase (DUB)
      activity does not. However, the DUB module regulates a subset of genes in early
      embryogenesis, and loss of the DUB subunits causes defects in embryogenesis. ChIP
      seq (chromatin immunoprecipitation [ChIP] combined with high-throughput
      sequencing) analysis revealed that both the DUB and HAT modules bind most SAGA
      target genes even though many of these targets do not require the DUB module for
      expression. Furthermore, we found that the DUB module can bind to chromatin and
      regulate transcription independently of the HAT module. Our results suggest that
      the DUB module has functions within SAGA and independent functions.

PMID- 28887413
TI  - Dynamic assembly and activation of estrogen receptor alpha enhancers through
      coregulator switching.
AB  - Although many features of active transcriptional enhancers have been defined by
      genomic assays, we lack a clear understanding of the order of events leading to
      enhancer formation and activation as well as the dynamics of coregulator
      interactions within the enhancer complex. Here, we used selective loss- or gain
      of-function mutants of estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) to define two distinct
      phases of ligand-dependent enhancer formation. In the first phase (0-20 min),
      p300 is recruited to ERalpha by Mediator as well as p300's acetylhistone-binding
      bromodomain to promote initial enhancer formation, which is not competent for
      sustained activation. In the second phase (20-45 min), p300 is recruited to
      ERalpha by steroid receptor coregulators (SRCs) for enhancer maturation and
      maintenance. Successful transition between these two phases ("coregulator
      switching") is required for proper enhancer function. Failure to recruit p300
      during either phase leads to abortive enhancer formation and a lack of target
      gene expression. Our results reveal an ordered and cooperative assembly of
      ERalpha enhancers requiring functional interplay among p300, Mediator, and SRCs,
      which has implications for hormone-dependent gene regulation in breast cancers.
      More broadly, our results demonstrate the unexpectedly dynamic nature of
      coregulator interactions within enhancer complexes, which are likely to be a
      defining feature of all enhancers.

PMID- 28887414
TI  - Progressive polarity loss and luminal collapse disrupt tissue organization in
      carcinoma.
AB  - Epithelial cancers (carcinoma) account for 80%-90% of all cancers. The
      development of carcinoma is associated with disrupted epithelial organization and
      solid ductal structures. The mechanisms underlying the morphological development
      of carcinoma are poorly understood, but it is thought that loss of cell polarity
      is an early event. Here we report the characterization of the development of
      human breast lesions leading to carcinoma. We identified a unique mechanism that
      generates solid ducts in carcinoma through progressive loss of polarity and
      collapse of the luminal architecture. This program initiates with asymmetric
      divisions of polarized cells that generate a stratified epithelium containing
      both polarized and depolarized cells. Stratified regions form cords that
      penetrate into the lumen, subdividing it into polarized secondary lumina. The
      secondary lumina then collapse with a concomitant decrease in RhoA and myosin II
      activity at the apical membrane and ultimately lose apical-basal polarity. By
      restoring RhoA activity in mice, ducts maintained lumen and cell polarity.
      Notably, disrupted tissue architecture through luminal collapse was reversible,
      and ducts with a lumen were re-established after oncogene suppression in vivo.
      This reveals a novel and common mechanism that contributes to carcinoma
      development by progressively disrupting cell and tissue organization.

PMID- 28887415
TI  - Inactivation of Human Norovirus Genogroups I and II and Surrogates by Free
      Chlorine in Postharvest Leafy Green Wash Water.
AB  - Human noroviruses (hNoVs) are a known public health concern associated with the
      consumption of leafy green vegetables. While a number of studies have
      investigated pathogen reduction on the surfaces of leafy greens during the
      postharvest washing process, there remains a paucity of data on the level of
      treatment needed to inactivate viruses in the wash water, which is critical for
      preventing cross-contamination. The objective of this study was to quantify the
      susceptibility of hNoV genotype I (GI), hNoV GII, murine norovirus (MNV), and
      bacteriophage MS2 to free chlorine in whole leaf, chopped romaine, and shredded
      iceberg lettuce industrial leafy green wash waters, each sampled three times over
      a 4-month period. A suite of kinetic inactivation models was fit to the viral
      reduction data to aid in quantification of concentration-time (CT) values.
      Results indicate that 3-log10 infectivity reduction was achieved at CT values of
      less than 0.2 mg . min/liter for MNV and 2.5 mg . min/liter for MS2 in all wash
      water types. CT values for 2-log10 molecular reduction of hNoV GI in whole leaf
      and chopped romaine wash waters were 1.5 and 0.9 mg . min/liter, respectively.
      For hNoV GII, CT values were 13.0 and 7.5 mg . min/liter, respectively. In
      shredded iceberg wash water, 3-log10 molecular reduction was not observed for any
      virus over the time course of experiments. These findings demonstrate that
      noroviruses may exhibit genogroup-dependent resistance to free chlorine and
      emphasize the importance of distinguishing between genogroups in hNoV persistence
      studies.IMPORTANCE Postharvest washing of millions of pounds of leafy greens is
      performed daily in industrial processing facilities with the intention of
      removing dirt, debris, and pathogenic microorganisms prior to packaging. Modest
      inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms (less than 2 log10) is known to occur
      on the surfaces of leafy greens during washing. Therefore, the primary purpose of
      the sanitizing agent is to maintain microbial quality of postharvest processing
      water in order to limit cross-contamination. This study modeled viral
      inactivation data and quantified the free-chlorine CT values that processing
      facilities must meet in order to achieve the desired level of hNoV GI and GII
      reduction. Disinfection experiments were conducted in industrial leafy green wash
      water collected from a full-scale fresh produce processing facility in the United
      States, and hNoV GI and GII results were compared with surrogate molecular and
      infectivity data.

PMID- 28887416
TI  - Identifying the Active Microbiome Associated with Roots and Rhizosphere Soil of
      Oilseed Rape.
AB  - RNA stable isotope probing and high-throughput sequencing were used to
      characterize the active microbiomes of bacteria and fungi colonizing the roots
      and rhizosphere soil of oilseed rape to identify taxa assimilating plant-derived
      carbon following 13CO2 labeling. Root- and rhizosphere soil-associated
      communities of both bacteria and fungi differed from each other, and there were
      highly significant differences between their DNA- and RNA-based community
      profiles. Verrucomicrobia, Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria,
      Gemmatimonadetes, Actinobacteria, and Chloroflexi were the most active bacterial
      phyla in the rhizosphere soil. Bacteroidetes were more active in roots. The most
      abundant bacterial genera were well represented in both the 13C- and 12C-RNA
      fractions, while the fungal taxa were more differentiated. Streptomyces,
      Rhizobium, and Flavobacterium were dominant in roots, whereas Rhodoplanes and
      Sphingomonas (Kaistobacter) were dominant in rhizosphere soil. "Candidatus
      Nitrososphaera" was enriched in 13C in rhizosphere soil. Olpidium and Dendryphion
      were abundant in the 12C-RNA fraction of roots; Clonostachys was abundant in both
      roots and rhizosphere soil and heavily 13C enriched. Cryptococcus was dominant in
      rhizosphere soil and less abundant, but was 13C enriched in roots. The patterns
      of colonization and C acquisition revealed in this study assist in identifying
      microbial taxa that may be superior competitors for plant-derived carbon in the
      rhizosphere of Brassica napusIMPORTANCE This microbiome study characterizes the
      active bacteria and fungi colonizing the roots and rhizosphere soil of Brassica
      napus using high-throughput sequencing and RNA-stable isotope probing. It
      identifies taxa assimilating plant-derived carbon following 13CO2 labeling and
      compares these with other less active groups not incorporating a plant
      assimilate. Brassica napus is an economically and globally important oilseed
      crop, cultivated for edible oil, biofuel production, and phytoextraction of heavy
      metals; however, it is susceptible to several diseases. The identification of the
      fungal and bacterial species successfully competing for plant-derived carbon,
      enabling them to colonize the roots and rhizosphere soil of this plant, should
      enable the identification of microorganisms that can be evaluated in more
      detailed functional studies and ultimately be used to improve plant health and
      productivity in sustainable agriculture.

PMID- 28887417
TI  - High substrate uptake rates empower Vibrio natriegens as production host for
      industrial biotechnology.
AB  - The productivity of industrial fermentation processes is essentially limited by
      the biomass specific substrate consumption rate (qS) of the applied microbial
      production system. Since qS depends on the growth rate (MU), we highlight the
      potential of the fastest growing non-pathogenic bacterium, Vibrio natriegens, as
      novel candidate for future biotechnological processes. V. natriegens grows
      rapidly in BHIN complex medium with a MU of up to 4.43 h-1 (doubling time of 9.4
      min) as well as in minimal medium supplemented with various industrially relevant
      substrates. Bioreactor cultivations in minimal medium with glucose showed that V.
      natriegens possesses an exceptionally high qS under aerobic (3.90 +/- 0.08 g g-1
      h-1) and anaerobic (7.81 +/- 0.71 g g-1 h-1) conditions. Fermentations with
      resting cells of genetically engineered V. natriegens under anaerobic conditions
      yielded an overall volumetric productivity of 0.56 +/- 0.10 g alanine L-1 min-1
      (i.e. 34 g L-1 h-1). These inherent properties render V. natriegens a promising
      new microbial platform for future industrial fermentation processes operating
      with high productivity.Importance Low conversion rates are one major challenge to
      realize microbial fermentation processes for the production of commodities
      operating competitively to existing petrochemical approaches. For this reason, we
      screened for a novel platform organism possessing superior characteristics to
      traditionally employed microbial systems. We identified the fast growing Vibrio
      natriegens which exhibits a versatile metabolism and shows striking growth and
      conversion rates, as a solid candidate to reach outstanding productivities. Due
      to these inherent characteristics V. natriegens can speed up common laboratory
      routines, is suitable for already existing production procedures, and forms an
      excellent foundation to engineer next generation bioprocesses.

PMID- 28887418
TI  - Chitinase Expression in Listeria monocytogenes Is Influenced by lmo0327, Which
      Encodes an Internalin-Like Protein.
AB  - The chitinolytic system of Listeria monocytogenes thus far comprises two
      chitinases, ChiA and ChiB, and a lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase, Lmo2467. The
      role of the system in the bacterium appears to be pleiotropic, as besides
      mediating the hydrolysis of chitin, the second most ubiquitous carbohydrate in
      nature, the chitinases have been deemed important for the colonization of
      unicellular molds, as well as mammalian hosts. To identify additional components
      of the chitinolytic system, we screened a transposon mutant library for mutants
      exhibiting impaired chitin hydrolysis. The screening yielded a mutant with a
      transposon insertion in a locus corresponding to lmo0327 of the EGD-e strain.
      lmo0327 encodes a large (1,349 amino acids [aa]) cell wall-associated protein
      that has been proposed to possess murein hydrolase activity. The single
      inactivation of lmo0327, as well as of lmo0325 that codes for a putative
      transcriptional regulator functionally related to lmo0327, led to an almost
      complete abolishment of chitinolytic activity. The effect could be traced at the
      transcriptional level, as both chiA and chiB transcripts were dramatically
      decreased in the lmo0327 mutant. In accordance with that, we could barely detect
      ChiA and ChiB in the culture supernatants of the mutant strain. Our results
      provide new information regarding the function of the lmo0325-lmo0327 locus in L.
      monocytogenes and link it to the expression of chitinolytic activity.IMPORTANCE
      Many bacteria from terrestrial and marine environments express chitinase
      activities enabling them to utilize chitin as the sole source of carbon and
      nitrogen. Interestingly, several bacterial chitinases may also be involved in
      host pathogenesis. For example, in the important foodborne pathogen Listeria
      monocytogenes, the chitinases ChiA and ChiB and the lytic polysaccharide
      monooxygenase Lmo2467 are implicated in chitin assimilation but also act as
      virulence factors during the infection of mammalian hosts. Therefore, it is
      important to identify their regulators and induction cues to understand how the
      different roles of the chitinolytic system are controlled and mediated. Here, we
      provide evidence for the importance of lmo0327 and lmo0325, encoding a putative
      internalin/autolysin and a putative transcriptional activator, respectively, in
      the efficient expression of chitinase activity in L. monocytogenes and thereby
      provide new information regarding the function of the lmo0325-lmo0327 locus.

PMID- 28887419
TI  - Oxidative Stressors Modify the Response of Streptococcus mutans to Its Competence
      Signal Peptides.
AB  - The dental caries pathogen Streptococcus mutans is continually exposed to several
      types of stress in the oral biofilm environment. Oxidative stress generated by
      reactive oxygen species has a major impact on the establishment, persistence, and
      virulence of S. mutans Here, we combined fluorescent reporter-promoter fusions
      with single-cell imaging to study the effects of reactive oxygen species on
      activation of genetic competence in S. mutans Exposure to paraquat, which
      generates superoxide anion, produced a qualitatively different effect on
      activation of expression of the gene for the master competence regulator, ComX,
      than did treatment with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which can yield hydroxyl
      radical. Paraquat suppressed peptide-mediated induction of comX in a progressive
      and cumulative fashion, whereas the response to H2O2 displayed a strong threshold
      behavior. Low concentrations of H2O2 had little effect on induction of comX or
      the bacteriocin gene cipB, but expression of these genes declined sharply if
      extracellular H2O2 exceeded a threshold concentration. These effects were not due
      to decreased reporter gene fluorescence. Two different threshold concentrations
      were observed in the response to H2O2, depending on the gene promoter that was
      analyzed and the pathway by which the competence regulon was stimulated. The
      results show that paraquat and H2O2 affect the S. mutans competence signaling
      pathway differently, and that some portions of the competence signaling pathway
      are more sensitive to oxidative stress than others.IMPORTANCEStreptococcus mutans
      inhabits the oral biofilm, where it plays an important role in the development of
      dental caries. Environmental stresses such as oxidative stress influence the
      growth of S. mutans and its important virulence-associated behaviors, such as
      genetic competence. S. mutans competence development is a complex behavior that
      involves two different signaling peptides and can exhibit cell-to-cell
      heterogeneity. Although oxidative stress is known to influence S. mutans
      competence, it is not understood how oxidative stress interacts with the peptide
      signaling or affects heterogeneity. In this study, we used fluorescent reporters
      to probe the effect of reactive oxygen species on competence signaling at the
      single-cell level. Our data show that different reactive oxygen species have
      different effects on S. mutans competence, and that some portions of the
      signaling pathway are more acutely sensitive to oxidative stress than others.

PMID- 28887420
TI  - Flexibility-Rigidity Coordination of the Dense Exopolysaccharide Matrix in
      Terrestrial Cyanobacteria Acclimated to Periodic Desiccation.
AB  - A dense exopolysaccharide (EPS) matrix is crucial for cyanobacterial survival in
      terrestrial xeric environments, in which cyanobacteria undergo frequent expansion
      and shrinkage processes during environmental desiccation-rehydration cycles.
      However, it is unclear how terrestrial cyanobacteria coordinate the structural
      dynamics of the EPS matrix upon expansion and shrinkage to avoid potential
      mechanical stress while benefiting from the matrix. In the present study, we
      sought to answer this question by investigating the gene expression, protein
      dynamics, enzymatic characteristics, and biological roles of WspA, an abundantly
      secreted protein, in the representative terrestrial cyanobacterium Nostoc
      flagelliforme The results demonstrated that WspA is a novel beta-galactosidase
      that facilitates softening of the EPS matrix by breaking the polysaccharide
      backbone under substantial moisture or facilitates the thickening and relinkage
      of the broken matrix during the drying process, and thus these regulations are
      well correlated with moisture availability or desiccation-rehydration cycles.
      This coordination of flexibility and rigidity of the cyanobacterial extracellular
      matrix may contribute to a favorable balance of cell growth and stress resistance
      in xeric environments.IMPORTANCE How the exopolysaccharide matrix is dynamically
      coordinated by exoproteins to cope with frequent expansion and shrinkage
      processes in terrestrial colonial cyanobacteria remains unclear. Here we
      elucidated the biochemical identity and biological roles of a dominant exoprotein
      in these regulation processes. Our study thus gained insight into this regulative
      mechanism in cyanobacteria to combat periodic desiccation. In addition, the
      filamentous drought-adapted cyanobacterium Nostoc flagelliforme serves as an
      ideal model for us to explore this issue in this study.

PMID- 28887421
TI  - Impact of "Raised Without Antibiotics" Beef Cattle Production Practices On
      Occurrences of Antimicrobial Resistance.
AB  - The specific antimicrobial resistance (AMR) decreases that can be expected from
      reducing antimicrobial (AM) use in United States (US) beef production have not
      been defined. To address this data gap, feces were recovered from 36 lots of
      "raised without antibiotics" (RWA) and 36 lots of "conventional" (CONV) beef
      cattle. Samples (N = 719) were collected during harvest and distributed over a
      year. AMR was assessed by: i) culture of six AM-resistant bacteria (ARB); ii)
      qPCR for 10 AMR genes (ARGs); iii) an qPCR array of 84 ARGs; and iv) metagenomic
      sequencing. Generally, AMR levels were similar, but some were higher in CONV. The
      prevalence of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant (3GCr) Escherichia coli
      was marginally different between production systems (47.5 % CONV, 34.8% RWA, P =
      0.04), but the seasonal effect (92.8% summer, 48.3% winter, P < 0.01) was
      greater. Erythromycin-resistant (ERYr) Enterococcus spp. concentrations
      significantly differed between production systems (CONV = 1.91 log10 CFU/g, RWA =
      0.73 log10 CFU/g, P < 0.01). Levels of aadA1, ant(6)-I, blaACI, erm(A), erm(B),
      erm(C), erm(F), erm(Q), tet(A), tet(B), tet(M), and tet(X) ARGs were higher (P <
      0.05) in CONV. Aggregate abundances of all 43 ARGs detected by metagenomic
      sequencing and the aggregate abundances of ARGs in the aminoglycoside, beta
      lactam, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLSB), and tetracycline AM classes
      did not differ (log2 fold change < 1.0) between CONV and RWA. These results
      suggest that further reductions of AM use in US beef cattle production may not
      yield significant AMR reductions beyond MLSB and tetracycline
      resistance.IMPORTANCE The majority of AM use in the US is for food-animal
      production, leading to concerns that typical AM use patterns during CONV beef
      cattle production in the US contribute broadly to AMR occurrence. In the present
      study, levels of AMR were generally similar between CONV and RWA cattle. Only a
      limited number of modest AMR increases were observed in CONV, primarily involving
      MLSB and tetracycline resistance. Macrolides (tylosin) and tetracyclines
      (chlortetracycline) are administered in-feed for relatively long durations to
      reduce liver abscesses. To ensure judicious AM use, the animal health, economic,
      and AMR impacts of shorter duration in-feed administration of these AMs should be
      examined. However, given the modest AMR reductions observed, further reductions
      of AM use in US beef cattle production may not yield significant AMR reductions
      beyond MLSB and tetracycline resistance.

PMID- 28887423
TI  - Forensic human identification using skin microbiomes.
AB  - The human microbiome contributes significantly to the genetic content of the
      human body. Genetic and environmental factors help shape the microbiome, and as
      such, the microbiome can be unique to an individual. Previous studies have
      demonstrated the potential to use microbiome profiling for forensic applications,
      however a method has yet to identify stable features of skin microbiomes that
      produce high classification accuracies for samples collected over reasonably long
      time intervals. A novel approach is described to classify skin microbiomes to
      their donors by comparing two features types, Propionibacterium acnes pangenome
      presence/absence features and nucleotide diversities of stable clade-specific
      markers. Supervised learning was used to attribute skin microbiomes from 14 skin
      body sites from 12 healthy individuals sampled at three time points over a >2.5
      year period with accuracies up to 100% for three body sites. Feature selection
      identified a reduced subset of markers from each body site that are highly
      individualizing, identifying 187 markers from 12 clades. Classification
      accuracies were compared in a formal model testing framework, and the results of
      this indicate that learners trained on nucleotide diversity perform significantly
      better than those trained on presence/absence encodings. This study used
      supervised learning to identify individuals with high accuracy and associated
      stable features from skin microbiomes over a period of up to almost 3 years.
      These selected features provide a preliminary marker panel for future development
      of a robust and reproducible method for skin microbiome profiling for forensic
      human identification.Importance A novel approach is described to attribute skin
      microbiomes, collected over a period of >2.5 years, to their individual hosts
      with a high degree of accuracy. Nucleotide diversities of stable clade-specific
      markers with supervised learning was used to classify skin microbiomes from a
      particular individual with up to 100% classification accuracy for three body
      sites. Attribute selection was used to identify 187 genetic markers from 12
      clades which provide the greatest differentiation of individual skin microbiomes
      from 14 skin sites. This study performs skin microbiome profiling from a
      supervised learning approach and obtains high classification accuracy for samples
      collected from individuals over a relatively long time period for potential
      application to forensic human identification.

PMID- 28887422
TI  - Glycolytic Functions Are Conserved in the Genome of the Wine Yeast Hanseniaspora
      uvarum, and Pyruvate Kinase Limits Its Capacity for Alcoholic Fermentation.
AB  - Hanseniaspora uvarum (anamorph Kloeckera apiculata) is a predominant yeast on
      wine grapes and other fruits and has a strong influence on wine quality, even
      when Saccharomyces cerevisiae starter cultures are employed. In this work, we
      sequenced and annotated approximately 93% of the H. uvarum genome. Southern and
      synteny analyses were employed to construct a map of the seven chromosomes
      present in a type strain. Comparative determinations of specific enzyme
      activities within the fermentative pathway in H. uvarum and S. cerevisiae
      indicated that the reduced capacity of the former yeast for ethanol production is
      caused primarily by an ~10-fold-lower activity of the key glycolytic enzyme
      pyruvate kinase. The heterologous expression of the encoding gene, H. uvarumPYK1
      (HuPYK1), and two genes encoding the phosphofructokinase subunits, HuPFK1 and
      HuPFK2, in the respective deletion mutants of S. cerevisiae confirmed their
      functional homology.IMPORTANCEHanseniaspora uvarum is a predominant yeast species
      on grapes and other fruits. It contributes significantly to the production of
      desired as well as unfavorable aroma compounds and thus determines the quality of
      the final product, especially wine. Despite this obvious importance, knowledge on
      its genetics is scarce. As a basis for targeted metabolic modifications, here we
      provide the results of a genomic sequencing approach, including the annotation of
      3,010 protein-encoding genes, e.g., those encoding the entire sugar fermentation
      pathway, key components of stress response signaling pathways, and enzymes
      catalyzing the production of aroma compounds. Comparative analyses suggest that
      the low fermentative capacity of H. uvarum compared to that of Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae can be attributed to low pyruvate kinase activity. The data reported
      here are expected to aid in establishing H. uvarum as a non-Saccharomyces yeast
      in starter cultures for wine and cider fermentations.

PMID- 28887425
TI  - To what extent and why adolescents do or do not support future tobacco control
      measures: a multimethod study in the Netherlands.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In the Netherlands, the adoption of new tobacco control measures is
      needed to further reduce rates of adolescent smoking. Adolescents' support for
      future measures could increase the likelihood of adoption as this provides
      political leverage for tobacco control advocates. There is, however, scant
      evidence about to what extent and why adolescents support future measures. We
      therefore assessed adolescents' support for a range of future measures and
      explored the criteria that adolescents use to underpin their support. METHODS: A
      mixed-method design involved surveys and group interviews with fourth-year
      students (predominantly 15-16 years). The survey, completed by 345 adolescents,
      included statements about future tobacco control measures and a smoke-free future
      where nobody starts or continues smoking. Thereafter, 15 adolescents participated
      in five group interviews to discuss their support for future measures. RESULTS:
      The survey showed that adolescents generally support a smoke-free future. They
      expressed most support for product measures, mixed support for smoke-free areas,
      ambivalent support for price increases and least support for sales restrictions.
      The group interviews revealed that differences in support were explained by
      adolescents' criteria that future measures should: have the potential to be
      effective, not violate individuals' right to smoke, protect children from pro
      smoking social influences and protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke.
      CONCLUSION: Adolescents' high support for a smoke-free future does not lead to
      categorical support for any measure. Addressing the underlying criteria may
      increase adolescents' support and therewith provide political leverage for the
      adoption of future measures.

PMID- 28887424
TI  - Acyl-Homoserine Lactone Production in Nitrifying Bacteria of the Genera
      Nitrosospira, Nitrobacter, and Nitrospira Identified via a Survey of Putative
      Quorum-Sensing Genes.
AB  - The genomes of many bacteria that participate in nitrogen cycling through the
      process of nitrification contain putative genes associated with acyl-homoserine
      lactone (AHL) quorum sensing (QS). AHL QS or bacterial cell-cell signaling is a
      method of bacterial communication and gene regulation and may be involved in
      nitrogen oxide fluxes or other important phenotypes in nitrifying bacteria. Here,
      we carried out a broad survey of AHL production in nitrifying bacteria in three
      steps. First, we analyzed the evolutionary history of AHL synthase and AHL
      receptor homologs in sequenced genomes and metagenomes of nitrifying bacteria to
      identify AHL synthase homologs in ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) of the genus
      Nitrosospira and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) of the genera Nitrococcus,
      Nitrobacter, and Nitrospira Next, we screened cultures of both AOB and NOB with
      uncharacterized AHL synthase genes and AHL synthase-negative nitrifiers by a
      bioassay. Our results suggest that an AHL synthase gene is required for, but does
      not guarantee, cell density-dependent AHL production under the conditions tested.
      Finally, we utilized mass spectrometry to identify the AHLs produced by the AOB
      Nitrosospira multiformis and Nitrosospira briensis and the NOB Nitrobacter
      vulgaris and Nitrospira moscoviensis as N-decanoyl-l-homoserine lactone (C10
      HSL), N-3-hydroxy-tetradecanoyl-l-homoserine lactone (3-OH-C14-HSL), a
      monounsaturated AHL (C10:1-HSL), and N-octanoyl-l-homoserine lactone (C8-HSL),
      respectively. Our survey expands the list of AHL-producing nitrifiers to include
      a representative of Nitrospira lineage II and suggests that AHL production is
      widespread in nitrifying bacteria.IMPORTANCE Nitrification, the aerobic oxidation
      of ammonia to nitrate via nitrite by nitrifying microorganisms, plays an
      important role in environmental nitrogen cycling from agricultural fertilization
      to wastewater treatment. The genomes of many nitrifying bacteria contain genes
      associated with bacterial cell-cell signaling or quorum sensing (QS). QS is a
      method of bacterial communication and gene regulation that is well studied in
      bacterial pathogens, but less is known about QS in environmental systems. Our
      previous work suggested that QS might be involved in the regulation of nitrogen
      oxide gas production during nitrite metabolism. This study characterized putative
      QS signals produced by different genera and species of nitrifiers. Our work lays
      the foundation for future experiments investigating communication between
      nitrifying bacteria, the purpose of QS in these microorganisms, and the
      manipulation of QS during nitrification.

PMID- 28887426
TI  - E-cigarettes and youth smoking: be alert but not alarmed.

PMID- 28887427
TI  - Tobacco industry tactics in preparing for menthol ban.

PMID- 28887428
TI  - Impact of plain packaging of cigarettes on the risk perception of Uruguayan
      smokers: an experimental study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uruguay, a South American country of 3.4 million inhabitants that has
      already banned tobacco advertising, prohibited such terms as light, mild and low
      tar and required graphic warnings covering 80% of cigarette packs, is considering
      the imposition of plain, standardised packaging. METHODS: We conducted an
      experimental choice-based conjoint analysis of the impact of alternative
      cigarette package designs on the risk perceptions of 180 adult current Uruguayan
      smokers. We compared plain packaging, with a standardised brand description and
      the dark brown background colour required on Australian cigarette packages, to
      two controls: the current package design with distinctive brand elements and
      colours; and a modified package design, with distinctive brand elements and the
      dark brown background colour. Graphic warnings were also varied. RESULTS: Plain
      packaging significantly reduced the probability of perceiving the stimulus
      cigarettes as less harmful in comparison to the current package design (OR 0.398,
      95% CI 0.333 to 0.476, p<0.001) and the modified package design (OR 0.729, 95% CI
      0.626 to 0.849, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Plain packaging enhanced the perceived
      risk of cigarette products even in a highly regulated setting such as Uruguay.
      Both the elimination of distinctive brand elements and the use of Australia's
      dark brown background colour contributed to the observed effect.

PMID- 28887430
TI  - The Role of Leukocyte-Associated Ig-like Receptor-1 in Suppressing Collagen
      Induced Arthritis.
AB  - Several observations implicate a critical role for T cell dysregulation as a
      central problem in rheumatoid arthritis. We investigated a mechanism for
      suppressing T cell activation by stimulating a natural inhibitory receptor called
      leukocyte-associated Ig-like receptor-1 (LAIR-1). The collagen-induced arthritis
      (CIA) model and DR-1 transgenic mice were used to study the importance of LAIR-1
      in autoimmune arthritis. Splenocytes from wild-type or LAIR-1-/- mice were
      stimulated with soluble anti-CD3 Ab in the presence or absence of alpha1(II) and
      supernatants were collected for cytokine analysis. B6.DR1 mice were immunized
      with type II collagen/CFA to induce arthritis and were treated with either the
      stimulatory mAb to LAIR-1 or a hamster IgG control. Finally, B6.DR1/LAIR-1-/- and
      B6.DR1/LAIR-1+/+ mice were challenged for CIA and mean severity scores were
      recorded thrice weekly. Using splenocytes or purified CD4+ cells that were
      sufficient in LAIR-1, CD3-induced cytokine secretion was significantly suppressed
      in the presence of collagen, whereas LAIR-1-deficient splenocytes had no
      attenuation. Treatment with a stimulatory mAb to LAIR-1 also significantly
      attenuated CIA in the LAIR+/+ mice. When B6.DR1/LAIR-1-/- mice were immunized
      with type II collagen they developed more severe arthritis and had a greater
      percentage of affected limbs than the wild-type mice. These data demonstrate that
      collagen can suppress the T cell cytokine response through the action of LAIR-1.
      Treatment with stimulating LAIR-1 Abs suppresses CIA whereas B6.DR1/LAIR-1-/-
      mice develop more severe arthritis than wild-type controls. These data suggest
      that LAIR-1 may be a potential therapeutic target for suppressing rheumatoid
      arthritis.

PMID- 28887429
TI  - NFM Cross-Reactivity to MOG Does Not Expand a Critical Threshold Level of High
      Affinity T Cells Necessary for Onset of Demyelinating Disease.
AB  - Of interest to the etiology of demyelinating autoimmune disease is the potential
      to aberrantly activate CD4+ T cells due to cross-recognition of multiple self
      epitopes such as has been suggested for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein
      epitope 35-55 (MOG35-55) and neurofilament medium protein epitope 15-35 (NFM15
      35). NFM15-35 is immunogenic in C57BL/6 mice but fails to induce demyelinating
      disease by polyclonal T cells despite having the same TCR contact residues as
      MOG35-55, a known encephalitogenic Ag. Despite reported cross-reactivity with MOG
      specific T cells, the polyclonal response to NFM15-35 did not expand threshold
      numbers of MOG38-49 tetramer-positive T cells. Furthermore, NFM lacked functional
      synergy with MOG to promote experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis because NFM
      deficient synonymous with knockout mice developed an identical disease course to
      wild-type mice after challenge with MOG35-55 Single-cell analysis of
      encephalitogenic T cells using the peptide:MHC monomer-based two-dimensional
      micropipette adhesion frequency assay confirmed that NFM was not a critical Ag
      driving demyelinating disease because NFM18-30-specific T cells in the CNS were
      predominantly reactive to MOG38-49 The absence of NFM contribution to disease
      allowed mapping of the amino acids required for encephalitogenicity and expansion
      of high-affinity, MOG-specific T cells that defined the polyclonal response.
      Alterations of N-terminal residues outside of the NFM15-35 core nonamer promoted
      expansion of high-affinity, MOG38-49 tetramer-positive T cells and promoted
      consistent experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis induction, unlike mice
      challenged with NFM15-35 Although NFM15-35 is immunogenic and cross-reactive with
      MOG at the polyclonal level, it fails to expand a threshold level of
      encephalitogenic, high-affinity MOG-specific T cells.

PMID- 28887432
TI  - Maternal Pregravid Obesity Remodels the DNA Methylation Landscape of Cord Blood
      Monocytes Disrupting Their Inflammatory Program.
AB  - Prepregnancy maternal obesity is associated with adverse outcomes for the
      offspring, including increased incidence of neonatal bacterial sepsis and
      necrotizing enterocolitis. We recently reported that umbilical cord blood (UCB)
      monocytes from babies born to obese mothers generate a reduced IL-6/TNF-alpha
      response to TLR 1/2 and 4 ligands compared to those collected from lean mothers.
      These observations suggest altered development of the offspring's immune system,
      which in turn results in dysregulated function. We therefore investigated
      transcriptional and epigenetic differences within UCB monocytes stratified by
      prepregnancy maternal body mass index. We show that UCB monocytes from babies
      born to obese mothers generate a dampened response to LPS stimulation compared
      with those born to lean mothers, at the level of secreted immune mediators and
      transcription. Because gene expression profiles of resting UCB monocytes from
      both groups were comparable, we next investigated the role of epigenetic
      differences. Indeed, we detected stark differences in methylation levels within
      promoters and regulatory regions of genes involved in TLR signaling in resting
      UCB monocytes. Interestingly, the DNA methylation status of resting cells was
      highly predictive of transcriptional changes post-LPS stimulation, suggesting
      that cytosine methylation is one of the dominant mechanisms driving functional
      inadequacy in UCB monocytes obtained from babies born to obese mothers. These
      data highlight a potentially critical role of maternal pregravid obesity
      associated epigenetic changes in influencing the function of an offspring's
      monocytes at birth. These findings further our understanding of mechanisms that
      explain the increased risk of infection in neonates born to mothers with high
      prepregnancy body mass index.

PMID- 28887431
TI  - Neutrophil-Derived Cytosolic PLA2alpha Contributes to Bacterial-Induced
      Neutrophil Transepithelial Migration.
AB  - Eicosanoids are a group of bioactive lipids that are shown to be important
      mediators of neutrophilic inflammation; selective targeting of their function
      confers therapeutic benefit in a number of diseases. Neutrophilic airway
      diseases, including cystic fibrosis, are characterized by excessive neutrophil
      infiltration into the airspace. Understanding the role of eicosanoids in this
      process may reveal novel therapeutic targets. The eicosanoid hepoxilin A3 is a
      pathogen-elicited epithelial-produced neutrophil chemoattractant that directs
      transepithelial migration in response to infection. Following hepoxilin A3-driven
      transepithelial migration, neutrophil chemotaxis is amplified through neutrophil
      production of a second eicosanoid, leukotriene B4 (LTB4). The rate-limiting step
      of eicosanoid generation is the liberation of arachidonic acid by phospholipase
      A2, and the cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2)alpha isoform has been specifically
      shown to direct LTB4 synthesis in certain contexts. Whether cPLA2alpha is
      directly responsible for neutrophil synthesis of LTB4 in the context of
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced neutrophil transepithelial migration has not been
      explored. Human and mouse neutrophil-epithelial cocultures were used to evaluate
      the role of neutrophil-derived cPLA2alpha in infection-induced transepithelial
      signaling by pharmacological and genetic approaches. Primary human airway basal
      stem cell-derived epithelial cultures and micro-optical coherence tomography, a
      new imaging modality that captures two- and three-dimensional real-time dynamics
      of neutrophil transepithelial migration, were applied. Evidence from these
      studies suggests that cPLA2alpha expressed by neutrophils, but not epithelial
      cells, plays a significant role in infection-induced neutrophil transepithelial
      migration by mediating LTB4 synthesis during migration, which serves to amplify
      the magnitude of neutrophil recruitment in response to epithelial infection.

PMID- 28887434
TI  - Exosomes from uninfected cells activate transcription of latent HIV-1.

PMID- 28887433
TI  - The Neurobeachin-like 2 Protein Regulates Mast Cell Homeostasis.
AB  - The neurobeachin-like 2 protein (Nbeal2) belongs to the family of beige and
      Chediak-Higashi (BEACH) domain proteins. Loss-of-function mutations in the human
      NBEAL2 gene or Nbeal2 deficiency in mice cause gray platelet syndrome, a bleeding
      disorder characterized by macrothrombocytopenia, splenomegaly, and paucity of
      alpha-granules in megakaryocytes and platelets. We found that in mast cells,
      Nbeal2 regulates the activation of the Shp1-STAT5 signaling axis and the
      composition of the c-Kit/STAT signalosome. Furthermore, Nbeal2 mediates granule
      formation and restricts the expression of the transcription factors, IRF8, GATA2,
      and MITF as well as of the cell-cycle inhibitor p27, which are essential for mast
      cell differentiation, proliferation, and cytokine production. These data
      demonstrate the relevance of Nbeal2 in mast cells above and beyond granule
      biosynthesis.

PMID- 28887435
TI  - Potential dual function of PQ-loop proteins such as cystinosin.

PMID- 28887436
TI  - When Escherichia coli doesn't fit the mold: A pertussis-like toxin with altered
      specificity.
AB  - Bacterial toxins introduce protein modifications such as ADP-ribosylation to
      manipulate host cell signaling and physiology. Several general mechanisms for
      toxin function have been established, but the extent to which previously
      uncharacterized toxins utilize these mechanisms is unknown. A study of an
      Escherichia coli pertussis-like toxin demonstrates that this protein acts on a
      known toxin substrate but displays distinct and dual chemoselectivity, suggesting
      this E. coli pertussis-like toxin may serve as a unique tool to study G-protein
      signaling in eukaryotic cells.

PMID- 28887437
TI  - Cell-cell adhesion accounts for the different orientation of columnar and
      hepatocytic cell divisions.
AB  - Mitotic spindle alignment with the basal or substrate-contacting domain ensures
      that dividing epithelial cells remain in the plane of the monolayer. Spindle
      orientation with respect to the substratum is established in metaphase coincident
      with maximal cell rounding, which enables unobstructed spindle rotation.
      Misaligned metaphase spindles are believed to result in divisions in which one
      daughter loses contact with the basal lamina. Here we describe a rescue mechanism
      that drives substrate-parallel spindle alignment of quasi-diagonal metaphase
      spindles in anaphase. It requires a Rho- and E-cadherin adhesion-dependent,
      substrate-parallel contractile actin belt at the apex that governs anaphase cell
      flattening. In contrast to monolayered Madin-Darby canine kidney cells,
      hepatocytic epithelial cells, which typically feature tilted metaphase spindles,
      lack this anaphase flattening mechanism and as a consequence maintain their
      spindle tilt through cytokinesis. This results in out-of-monolayer divisions,
      which we propose contribute to the stratified organization of hepatocyte cords in
      vivo.

PMID- 28887439
TI  - Overexpression of Acyl-CoA Ligase 4 (ACSL4) in Patients with Hepatocellular
      Carcinoma and its Prognosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND Recently, accumulating studies have found that ACSL4 dysregulation is
      related to a great number of malignant tumors. The purpose of the present study
      was to explore the relationship between ACSL4 expression level and clinical
      prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS The
      Oncomine and TCGA databases were used to predict the expression of ACSL4 mRNA in
      HCC and its association with HCC prognosis. Further, immunohistochemistry was
      performed to verify the ACSL4 protein expression in 116 paired HCC and adjacent
      normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier and cox analysis were performed to validate the
      correlation between ACSL4 expression and HCC prognosis. RESULTS We first used the
      Oncomine database to find that ACSL4 mRNA expression level was significantly
      higher in HCC tissues than that in normal tissues (p all <0.001). The results
      were consistent with those in the TCGA database. Then, immunohistochemical
      results demonstrated that the ACSL4 positive expression rate was 70.7% in HCC
      tissues. ACSL4 differential expression level was significantly related to
      Edmondson grade (p=0.010), AFP (p=0.001) and TNM stage (p=0.012). Survival
      analysis revealed that both overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS)
      time were remarkably reduced in HCC patients with ACSL4 high expression (p=0.001
      and 0.000, respectively). Moreover, Cox multivariate analysis demonstrated that
      ACSL4 expression was the only independent prognostic factor for both OS and DFS
      (both p values=0.001). CONCLUSIONS Taken together, our study demonstrated that
      ACSL4 was overexpressed in HCC, and it will be a new potential therapeutic target
      for HCC as an independent adverse prognostic parameter.

PMID- 28887438
TI  - Silencing of retrotransposons by SETDB1 inhibits the interferon response in acute
      myeloid leukemia.
AB  - A propensity for rewiring genetic and epigenetic regulatory networks, thus
      enabling sustained cell proliferation, suppression of apoptosis, and the ability
      to evade the immune system, is vital to cancer cell propagation. An increased
      understanding of how this is achieved is critical for identifying or improving
      therapeutic interventions. In this study, using acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
      human cell lines and a custom CRISPR/Cas9 screening platform, we identify the
      H3K9 methyltransferase SETDB1 as a novel, negative regulator of innate immunity.
      SETDB1 is overexpressed in many cancers, and loss of this gene in AML cells
      triggers desilencing of retrotransposable elements that leads to the production
      of double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). This is coincident with induction of a type I
      interferon response and apoptosis through the dsRNA-sensing pathway.
      Collectively, our findings establish a unique gene regulatory axis that cancer
      cells can exploit to circumvent the immune system.

PMID- 28887440
TI  - A global Staphylococcus aureus proteome resource applied to the in vivo
      characterization of host-pathogen interactions.
AB  - Data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry promises higher performance in
      terms of quantification and reproducibility compared to data-dependent
      acquisition mass spectrometry methods. To enable high-accuracy quantification of
      Staphylococcus aureus proteins, we have developed a global ion library for data
      independent acquisition approaches employing high-resolution time of flight or
      Orbitrap instruments for this human pathogen. We applied this ion library
      resource to investigate the time-resolved adaptation of S. aureus to the
      intracellular niche in human bronchial epithelial cells and in a murine pneumonia
      model. In epithelial cells, abundance changes for more than 400 S. aureus
      proteins were quantified, revealing, e.g., the precise temporal regulation of the
      SigB-dependent stress response and differential regulation of translation,
      fermentation, and amino acid biosynthesis. Using an in vivo murine pneumonia
      model, our data-independent acquisition quantification analysis revealed for the
      first time the in vivo proteome adaptation of S. aureus. From approximately 2.15
      * 105  S. aureus cells, 578 proteins were identified. Increased abundance of
      proteins required for oxidative stress response, amino acid biosynthesis, and
      fermentation together with decreased abundance of ribosomal proteins and
      nucleotide reductase NrdEF was observed in post-infection samples compared to the
      pre-infection state.

PMID- 28887441
TI  - HIV-1-mediated insertional activation of STAT5B and BACH2 trigger viral reservoir
      in T regulatory cells.
AB  - HIV-1 insertions targeting BACH2 or MLK2 are enriched and persist for decades in
      hematopoietic cells from patients under combination antiretroviral therapy.
      However, it is unclear how these insertions provide such selective advantage to
      infected cell clones. Here, we show that in 30/87 (34%) patients under
      combination antiretroviral therapy, BACH2, and STAT5B are activated by insertions
      triggering the formation of mRNAs that contain viral sequences fused by splicing
      to their first protein-coding exon. These chimeric mRNAs, predicted to express
      full-length proteins, are enriched in T regulatory and T central memory cells,
      but not in other T lymphocyte subsets or monocytes. Overexpression of BACH2 or
      STAT5B in primary T regulatory cells increases their proliferation and survival
      without compromising their function. Hence, we provide evidence that HIV-1
      mediated insertional activation of BACH2 and STAT5B favor the persistence of a
      viral reservoir in T regulatory cells in patients under combination
      antiretroviral therapy.HIV insertions in hematopoietic cells are enriched in
      BACH2 or MLK2 genes, but the selective advantages conferred are unknown. Here,
      the authors show that BACH2 and additionally STAT5B are activated by viral
      insertions, generating chimeric mRNAs specifically enriched in T regulatory cells
      favoring their persistence.

PMID- 28887443
TI  - Role of interfacial mode coupling of optical phonons on thermal boundary
      conductance.
AB  - We investigate the influence of optical phonon coupling across interfaces
      comprised of different materials with varying crystallographic orientations on
      the overall thermal boundary conductance. We show that for interfaces formed
      between a fcc solid and a L10 solid (where L10 solids exhibit alternating atomic
      layers in certain orientations), coupling between acoustic phonons in the fcc
      crystal and optical phonons on the L10-side of the interface leads to a highly
      anisotropic thermal boundary conductance, where optical phonons can considerably
      enhance the conductance in a preferred crystallographic orientation of the
      layered solid. We attribute this in part to directionally dependent group
      velocities of optical phonons in the different crystallographic directions. For
      interfaces comprised of materials exhibiting diamond cubic crystal structures,
      higher conductances are observed for interfaces where there is a better overlap
      of acoustic phonons on either side of the interface, whereas, acoustic phonons
      directly coupling with high frequency optical phonons is shown to lower the
      overall conductance, especially at high temperatures where anharmonic
      interactions become important. Unique to the interfaces formed between the
      materials with diamond cubic crystal structures studied in this work, the
      presence of localized interfacial optical modes mediate thermal conductance
      across these interfaces.

PMID- 28887442
TI  - Targeting Deficiencies in the TLR5 Mediated Vaginal Response to Treat Female
      Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection.
AB  - The identification of the host defence peptides as target effectors in the innate
      defence of the uro-genital tract creates new translational possibilities for
      immunomodulatory therapies, specifically vaginal therapies to treat women
      suffering from rUTI, particularly those carrying the TLR5_C1174T SNP. Urinary
      tract infections (UTIs) are a microbial disease reported worldwide. Women are
      particularly susceptible with many suffering debilitating recurrent (r)
      infections. Treatment is by antibiotics, but such therapy is linked to antibiotic
      resistance and re-infection. This study explored the innate protective mechanisms
      of the urogenital tract with the aim of boosting such defences therapeutically.
      Modelling UTIs in vitro, human vaginal and bladder epithelial cells were
      challenged with uropathogenic Escherichia coli (CFT073) and microbial PAMPs
      including flagellin, LPS and peptidoglycan. Flagellin functioning via the
      TLR5/NFkappaB pathway was identified as the key UPEC virulence factor causing a
      significant increase (P < 0.05) in the production of the host-defence peptide
      (HDP), BD2. BD2-depleted urine samples from bladder infected mice supported
      increased UPEC growth, strengthening the significance of the HDPs in protecting
      the urogenital tissues from infection. Clinically, vaginal-douche BD2
      concentrations were reduced (p < 0.05) in women suffering rUTIs, compared to age
      matched healthy controls with concentrations further decreased (p < 0.05) in a
      TLR5392Stop SNP rUTI subgroup. Topical vaginal estrogen treatment increased (p <
      0.001) BD2 concentrations in all women, including those carrying the SNP. These
      data identify therapeutic and antibiotic sparing roles for vaginal
      immunomodulatory agents that specifically target HDP induction, facilitate
      bacterial killing and disrupt the UPEC infection cycle.

PMID- 28887444
TI  - Insulin, glucagon and somatostatin stores in the pancreas of subjects with type-2
      diabetes and their lean and obese non-diabetic controls.
AB  - In type-2 diabetes, both insufficient insulin and excessive glucagon secretion
      contribute to hyperglycemia. We compared insulin, glucagon and somatostatin
      stores in pancreas obtained at autopsy of 20 lean and 19 obese non-diabetic (ND),
      and 18 type-2 diabetic (T2D) subjects. From concentrations and pancreas weight,
      total content of hormones was calculated. Insulin content was 35% lower in T2D
      than ND subjects (7.4 versus 11.3 mg), whereas glucagon content was similar (0.76
      versus 0.81 mg). The higher ratio of glucagon/insulin contents in T2D was thus
      explained by the decrease in insulin. With increasing BMI of ND subjects, insulin
      and glucagon contents respectively tended to increase and decrease, resulting in
      a lower glucagon/insulin ratio in obesity. With aging, insulin and glucagon
      contents did not significantly change in ND subjects but declined in T2D
      subjects, without association with the duration of diabetes or type of treatment.
      The somatostatin content was lower in T2D than ND subjects (0.027 versus 0.038
      mg), but ratios somatostatin/insulin and somatostatin/glucagon were not
      different. In conclusion, insulin stores are about 1/3 lower in T2D than ND
      subjects, whereas glucagon stores are unchanged. Abnormal secretion of each
      hormone in type-2 diabetes cannot be attributed to major alterations in their
      pancreatic reserves.

PMID- 28887446
TI  - Effects of Host-rock Fracturing on Elastic-deformation Source Models of Volcano
      Deflation.
AB  - Volcanoes commonly inflate or deflate during episodes of unrest or eruption.
      Continuum mechanics models that assume linear elastic deformation of the Earth's
      crust are routinely used to invert the observed ground motions. The source(s) of
      deformation in such models are generally interpreted in terms of magma bodies or
      pathways, and thus form a basis for hazard assessment and mitigation. Using
      discontinuum mechanics models, we show how host-rock fracturing (i.e. non-elastic
      deformation) during drainage of a magma body can progressively change the shape
      and depth of an elastic-deformation source. We argue that this effect explains
      the marked spatio-temporal changes in source model attributes inferred for the
      March-April 2007 eruption of Piton de la Fournaise volcano, La Reunion. We find
      that pronounced deflation-related host-rock fracturing can: (1) yield inclined
      source model geometries for a horizontal magma body; (2) cause significant upward
      migration of an elastic-deformation source, leading to underestimation of the
      true magma body depth and potentially to a misinterpretation of ascending magma;
      and (3) at least partly explain underestimation by elastic-deformation sources of
      changes in sub-surface magma volume.

PMID- 28887445
TI  - Usb1 controls U6 snRNP assembly through evolutionarily divergent cyclic
      phosphodiesterase activities.
AB  - U6 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) biogenesis is essential for
      spliceosome assembly, but not well understood. Here, we report structures of the
      U6 RNA processing enzyme Usb1 from yeast and a substrate analog bound complex
      from humans. Unlike the human ortholog, we show that yeast Usb1 has cyclic
      phosphodiesterase activity that leaves a terminal 3' phosphate which prevents
      overprocessing. Usb1 processing of U6 RNA dramatically alters its affinity for
      cognate RNA-binding proteins. We reconstitute the post-transcriptional assembly
      of yeast U6 snRNP in vitro, which occurs through a complex series of handoffs
      involving 10 proteins (Lhp1, Prp24, Usb1 and Lsm2-8) and anti-cooperative
      interactions between Prp24 and Lhp1. We propose a model for U6 snRNP assembly
      that explains how evolutionarily divergent and seemingly antagonistic proteins
      cooperate to protect and chaperone the nascent snRNA during its journey to the
      spliceosome.The mechanism of U6 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP)
      biogenesis is not well understood. Here the authors characterize the enzymatic
      activities and structures of yeast and human U6 RNA processing enzyme Usb1,
      reconstitute post-transcriptional assembly of yeast U6 snRNP in vitro, and
      propose a model for U6 snRNP assembly.

PMID- 28887447
TI  - interleukin-11 induces and maintains progenitors of different cell lineages
      during Xenopus tadpole tail regeneration.
AB  - Unlike mammals, Xenopus laevis tadpoles possess high ability to regenerate their
      lost organs. In amphibians, the main source of regenerated tissues is lineage
      restricted tissue stem cells, but the mechanisms underlying induction,
      maintenance and differentiation of these stem/progenitor cells in the
      regenerating organs are poorly understood. We previously reported that
      interleukin-11 (il-11) is highly expressed in the proliferating cells of
      regenerating Xenopus tadpole tails. Here, we show that il-11 knockdown (KD)
      shortens the regenerated tail length, and the phenotype is rescued by forced-il
      11-expression in the KD tadpoles. Moreover, marker genes for undifferentiated
      notochord, muscle, and sensory neurons are downregulated in the KD tadpoles, and
      the forced-il-11-expression in intact tadpole tails induces expression of these
      marker genes. Our findings demonstrate that il-11 is necessary for organ
      regeneration, and suggest that IL-11 plays a key role in the induction and
      maintenance of undifferentiated progenitors across cell lineages during Xenopus
      tail regeneration. Xenopus laevis tadpoles have maintained their ability to
      regenerate various organs. Here, the authors show that interleukin-11 is
      necessary for organ regeneration, by inducing and maintaining undifferentiated
      progenitors across cell lineages during Xenopus tail regeneration.

PMID- 28887448
TI  - Remarkable preservation of terpenoids and record of volatile signalling in plant
      animal interactions from Miocene amber.
AB  - Plants produce and release a large array of volatile organic compounds that play
      many ecological functions. These volatile plant metabolites serve as pollinator
      attractants, herbivore and pathogen repellents and protect plants from abiotic
      stresses. To date, the geological evolution of these organic compounds remains
      unknown. The preservation potential of these metabolites in the fossil record is
      very poor due to their low boiling points. Here we report a series of volatile
      sesquiterpenoids, including delta-elemene, alpha-copaene, beta-elemene, beta
      caryophyllene, alpha-humulene, germacrene D, delta-cadiene and spathunenol, from
      early Miocene (~17 million year) amber from eastern India. The survival of these
      unaltered bioterpenoids can be attributed to the existence of extraordinary
      taphonomic conditions conducive to the preservation of volatile biomolecules
      through deep time. Furthermore, the occurrence of these volatiles in the early
      Miocene amber suggests that the plants from this period had evolved metabolic
      pathways to synthesize these organic molecules to play an active role in forest
      ecology, especially in plant-animal interactions.

PMID- 28887449
TI  - Realization of tunable artificial synapse and memory based on amorphous oxide
      semiconductor transistor.
AB  - Recently, advanced designs and materials emerge to study biologically inspired
      neuromorphic circuit, such as oxide semiconductor devices. The existence of
      mobile ions in the oxide semiconductors could be somewhat regarded to be similar
      with the case of the ions movements among the neurons and synapses in the brain.
      Most of the previous studies focus on the spike time, pulse number and material
      species: however, a quantitative modeling is still needed to study the voltage
      dependence of the relaxation process of synaptic devices. Here, the gate pulse
      stimulated currents of oxide semiconductor devices have been employed to mimic
      and investigate artificial synapses functions. The modeling for relaxation
      process of important synaptic behaviors, excitatory post-synaptic current (EPSC),
      has been updated as a stretched-exponential function with voltage factors in a
      more quantitative way. This quantitative modeling investigation of representative
      synaptic transmission bias impacts would help to better simulate, realize and
      thus control neuromorphic computing.

PMID- 28887450
TI  - Effects of low concentrations of erythromycin, penicillin, and virginiamycin on
      bacterial resistance development in vitro.
AB  - Distillers grains are co-products of the corn ethanol industry widely used in
      animal feed. We examined the effects of erythromycin, penicillin, and
      virginiamycin at low concentrations reflective of those detected in distillers
      grains on bacterial resistance selection. At 0.1 ug/ml erythromycin, macrolide
      resistant mutants were induced in one Campylobacter coli and one Enterococcus
      faecium strain, while these strains plus three additional C. coli, one additional
      E. faecium, and one C. jejuni also developed resistance when exposed to 0.25
      ug/ml erythromycin. At 0.5 ug/ml erythromycin, a total of eight strains (four
      Campylobacter and four Enterococcus) obtained macrolide-resistant mutants,
      including two strains from each genus that were not selected at lower
      erythromycin concentrations. For penicillin, three of five E. faecium strains but
      none of five Enterococcus faecalis strains consistently developed resistance at
      all three selection concentrations. Virginiamycin at two M1:S1 ratios did not
      induce resistance development in four out of five E. faecium strains; however,
      increased resistance was observed in the fifth one under 0.25 and 0.5 ug/ml
      virginiamycin selections. Although not yet tested in vivo, these findings suggest
      a potential risk of stimulating bacterial resistance development in the animal
      gut when distillers grains containing certain antibiotic residues are used in
      animal feed.

PMID- 28887451
TI  - Evolution of protein-coupled RNA dynamics during hierarchical assembly of
      ribosomal complexes.
AB  - Assembly of 30S ribosomes involves the hierarchical addition of ribosomal
      proteins that progressively stabilize the folded 16S rRNA. Here, we use three
      color single molecule FRET to show how combinations of ribosomal proteins uS4,
      uS17 and bS20 in the 16S 5' domain enable the recruitment of protein bS16, the
      next protein to join the complex. Analysis of real-time bS16 binding events shows
      that bS16 binds both native and non-native forms of the rRNA. The native rRNA
      conformation is increasingly favored after bS16 binds, explaining how bS16 drives
      later steps of 30S assembly. Chemical footprinting and molecular dynamics
      simulations show that each ribosomal protein switches the 16S conformation and
      dampens fluctuations at the interface between rRNA subdomains where bS16 binds.
      The results suggest that specific protein-induced changes in the rRNA dynamics
      underlie the hierarchy of 30S assembly and simplify the search for the native
      ribosome structure.Ribosomes assemble through the hierarchical addition of
      proteins to a ribosomal RNA scaffold. Here the authors use three-color single
      molecule FRET to show how the dynamics of the rRNA dictate the order in which
      multiple proteins assemble on the 5' domain of the E. coli 16S rRNA.

PMID- 28887452
TI  - Scalable carbon dioxide electroreduction coupled to carbonylation chemistry.
AB  - Significant efforts have been devoted over the last few years to develop
      efficient molecular electrocatalysts for the electrochemical reduction of carbon
      dioxide to carbon monoxide, the latter being an industrially important feedstock
      for the synthesis of bulk and fine chemicals. Whereas these efforts primarily
      focus on this formal oxygen abstraction step, there are no reports on the
      exploitation of the chemistry for scalable applications in carbonylation
      reactions. Here we describe the design and application of an inexpensive and user
      friendly electrochemical set-up combined with the two-chamber technology for
      performing Pd-catalysed carbonylation reactions including amino- and
      alkoxycarbonylations, as well as carbonylative Sonogashira and Suzuki couplings
      with near stoichiometric carbon monoxide. The combined two-reaction process
      allows for milligram to gram synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant compounds.
      Moreover, this technology can be adapted to the use of atmospheric carbon
      dioxide.Electroreduction of CO2 to CO is a potential valorisation pathway of
      carbon dioxide for fine chemicals production. Here, the authors show a user
      friendly device that couples CO2 electroreduction with carbonylation chemistry
      for up to gram scale synthesis of pharmaceuticals even under atmospheric CO2.

PMID- 28887453
TI  - Hyaluronic acid based extracellular matrix regulates surface expression of GluN2B
      containing NMDA receptors.
AB  - Cortical areas of the juvenile rodent brain display a high degree of structural
      and functional plasticity, which disappears later in development. Coincident with
      the decline of plasticity 1) the hyaluronic acid-based extracellular matrix (ECM)
      of the brain, which stabilizes synapses and neuronal circuit is formed and 2) N
      methyl-D-aspartate subtype of ionotropic glutamate receptors (NMDARs) implied in
      synaptic plasticity switch from mainly GluN2B to GluN2A subunit-containing
      receptors. Here we tested the hypothesis that ECM influences the NMDAR subunit
      composition in dissociated neuronal cultures. Experimental removal of ECM using
      hyaluronidase induced an increase in surface expression of GluN2B. This was due
      to decreased endocytosis of surface GluNB-containing receptors. We further found
      a reduction in phosphorylation at Tyr1472, which negatively regulates their
      binding to the endocytotic AP2 complex. We propose that maturation of ECM could
      induce switch in NMDAR composition necessary for normal adult synaptic plasticity
      and that increased expression of GluN2B contributes to rejuvenation of plasticity
      after ECM removal in vivo.

PMID- 28887454
TI  - The intestinal phosphate transporter NaPi-IIb (Slc34a2) is required to protect
      bone during dietary phosphate restriction.
AB  - NaPi-IIb/Slc34a2 is a Na+-dependent phosphate transporter that accounts for the
      majority of active phosphate transport into intestinal epithelial cells. Its
      abundance is regulated by dietary phosphate, being high during dietary phosphate
      restriction. Intestinal ablation of NaPi-IIb in mice leads to increased fecal
      excretion of phosphate, which is compensated by enhanced renal reabsorption. Here
      we compared the adaptation to dietary phosphate of wild type (WT) and NaPi-IIb-/-
      mice. High phosphate diet (HPD) increased fecal and urinary excretion of
      phosphate in both groups, though NaPi-IIb-/- mice still showed lower urinary
      excretion than WT. In both genotypes low dietary phosphate (LDP) resulted in
      reduced fecal excretion and almost undetectable urinary excretion of phosphate.
      Consistently, the expression of renal cotransporters after prolonged LDP was
      similar in both groups. Plasma phosphate declined more rapidly in NaPi-IIb-/-
      mice upon LDP, though both genotypes had comparable levels of 1,25(OH)2vitamin
      D3, parathyroid hormone and fibroblast growth factor 23. Instead, NaPi-IIb-/-
      mice fed LDP had exacerbated hypercalciuria, higher urinary excretion of
      corticosterone and deoxypyridinoline, lower bone mineral density and higher
      number of osteoclasts. These data suggest that during dietary phosphate
      restriction NaPi-IIb-mediated intestinal absorption prevents excessive
      demineralization of bone as an alternative source of phosphate.

PMID- 28887455
TI  - Neonicotinoids act like endocrine disrupting chemicals in newly-emerged bees and
      winter bees.
AB  - Accumulating evidence suggests that neonicotinoids may have long-term adverse
      effects on bee health, yet our understanding of how this could occur is
      incomplete. Pesticides can act as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in
      animals providing characteristic multiphasic dose-response curves and non-lethal
      endpoints in toxicity studies. However, it is not known if neonicotinoids act as
      EDCs in bees. To address this issue, we performed oral acute and chronic toxicity
      studies including concentrations recorded in nectar and pollen, applying
      acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam to bumble bees, honey
      bees and leafcutter bees, the three most common bee species managed for
      pollination. In acute toxicity studies, late-onset symptoms, such as ataxia, were
      recorded as non-lethal endpoints for all three bee species. Clothianidin and
      thiamethoxam produced biphasic dose-response curves for all three bee species.
      Clothianidin and thiamethoxam were extremely toxic to winter worker honey bees
      prior to brood production in spring, making this the most sensitive bee stage
      identified to date. Chronic exposure to field-realistic levels of neonicotinoids
      reduced bee survival and caused significant late-onset symptoms for all three bee
      species. Given these findings, neonicotinoid risk should be reevaluated to
      address the EDC-like behavior and the sensitivity of winter worker honey bees.

PMID- 28887456
TI  - Demonstration of a beam loaded nanocoulomb-class laser wakefield accelerator.
AB  - Laser-plasma wakefield accelerators have seen tremendous progress, now capable of
      producing quasi-monoenergetic electron beams in the GeV energy range with few
      femtoseconds bunch duration. Scaling these accelerators to the nanocoulomb range
      would yield hundreds of kiloamperes peak current and stimulate the next
      generation of radiation sources covering high-field THz, high-brightness X-ray
      and gamma-ray sources, compact free-electron lasers and laboratory-size beam
      driven plasma accelerators. However, accelerators generating such currents
      operate in the beam loading regime where the accelerating field is strongly
      modified by the self-fields of the injected bunch, potentially deteriorating key
      beam parameters. Here we demonstrate that, if appropriately controlled, the beam
      loading effect can be employed to improve the accelerator's performance. Self
      truncated ionization injection enables loading of unprecedented charges of ~0.5
      nC within a mono-energetic peak. As the energy balance is reached, we show that
      the accelerator operates at the theoretically predicted optimal loading condition
      and the final energy spread is minimized.Higher beam quality and stability are
      desired in laser-plasma accelerators for their applications in compact light
      sources. Here the authors demonstrate in laser plasma wakefield electron
      acceleration that the beam loading effect can be employed to improve beam quality
      by controlling the beam charge.

PMID- 28887457
TI  - Spinal miRNA-124 regulates synaptopodin and nociception in an animal model of
      bone cancer pain.
AB  - Strong breakthrough pain is one of the most disabling symptoms of cancer since it
      affects up to 90% of cancer patients and is often refractory to treatments.
      Alteration in gene expression is a known mechanism of cancer pain in which
      microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of non-coding regulatory RNAs, play a crucial role.
      Here, in a mouse model of cancer pain, we show that miR-124 is down-regulated in
      the spinal cord, the first relay of the pain signal to the brain. Using in vitro
      and in vivo approaches, we demonstrate that miR-124 is an endogenous and specific
      inhibitor of synaptopodin (Synpo), a key protein for synaptic transmission. In
      addition, we demonstrate that Synpo is a key component of the nociceptive
      pathways. Interestingly, miR-124 was down-regulated in the spinal cord in cancer
      pain conditions, leading to an up-regulation of Synpo. Furthermore, intrathecal
      injections of miR-124 mimics in cancerous mice normalized Synpo expression and
      completely alleviated cancer pain in the early phase of the cancer. Finally, miR
      124 was also down-regulated in the cerebrospinal fluid of cancer patients who
      developed pain, suggesting that miR-124 could be an efficient analgesic drug to
      treat cancer pain patients.

PMID- 28887458
TI  - Increased 15-PGDH expression leads to dysregulated resolution responses in
      stromal cells from patients with chronic tendinopathy.
AB  - The mechanisms underpinning the failure of inflammation to resolve in diseased
      musculoskeletal soft tissues are unknown. Herein, we studied bioactive lipid
      mediator (LM) profiles of tendon-derived stromal cells isolated from healthy
      donors and patients with chronic tendinopathy. Interleukin(IL)-1beta treatment
      markedly induced prostaglandin biosynthesis in diseased compared to healthy
      tendon cells, and up regulated the formation of several pro-resolving mediators
      including 15-epi-LXA4 and MaR1. Incubation of IL-1beta stimulated healthy tendon
      cells with 15-epi-LXA4 or MaR1 down-regulated PGE2 and PGD2 production. When
      these mediators were incubated with diseased cells, we only found a modest down
      regulation in prostanoid concentrations, whereas it led to significant decreases
      in IL-6 and Podoplanin expression. In diseased tendon cells, we also found
      increased 15-Prostaglandin Dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) expression as well as
      increased concentrations of both 15-epi-LXA4 and MaR1 further metabolites, 15-oxo
      LXA4 and 14-oxo-MaR1. Inhibition of 15-PGDH using either indomethacin or SW033291
      significantly reduced the further conversion of 15-epi-LXA4 and MaR1 and
      regulated expression of IL-6, PDPN and STAT-1. Taken together these results
      suggest that chronic inflammation in musculoskeletal soft tissues may result from
      dysregulated LM-SPM production, and that inhibition of 15-PGDH activity together
      with promoting resolution using SPM represents a novel therapeutic strategy to
      resolve chronic tendon inflammation.

PMID- 28887459
TI  - The unexpected role of bioaerosols in the Oxidative Potential of PM.
AB  - Bioaerosols represent up to 15-25% of PM by mass, but there is currently no
      assessment of their impact on Oxidative Potential (OP), or capacity of
      particulate matter (PM) to produce damaging oxidative reactions in the human
      lungs. Here, the OP of selected bioaerosols (bacteria cells vs fungal spores) was
      assessed through the cell-free DTT assay. Results show that bioaerosols induce
      Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) production, varying along the microorganism type,
      species, and concentration. Fungal spores show up to 10 times more ROS generation
      than bacterial cells. At the highest concentrations, fungal spores present as
      much oxidative reactivity as the most redox-active airborne chemicals (Copper,
      Naphtoquinone). Moreover, bioaerosols substantially influence OP of ambient PM
      and that of its chemical constituents: in presence of A. fumigatus spores, the OP
      of Cu/NQ is increased by a factor of 2 to 5, whereas, 104 and 105  S. epidermidis
      bacterial cells.mL-1 halves the OP of Cu/NQ. Finally, viable and gamma-rays
      killed model bioaerosols present similar oxidative reactivity, suggesting a
      metabolism-independent cellular mechanism. These results reveal the importance of
      bioaerosols for PM reactivity. PM toxicity can be modified due to bioaerosols
      contribution or by their ability to modulate the OP of toxic chemicals present in
      PM.

PMID- 28887461
TI  - On the consistency of seismically imaged lower mantle slabs.
AB  - The geoscience community is increasingly utilizing seismic tomography to
      interpret mantle heterogeneity and its links to past tectonic and geodynamic
      processes. To assess the robustness and distribution of positive seismic
      anomalies, inferred as subducted slabs, we create a set of vote maps for the
      lower mantle with 14 global P-wave or S-wave tomography models. Based on a depth
      dependent threshold metric, an average of 20% of any given tomography model depth
      is identified as a potential slab. However, upon combining the 14 models, the
      most consistent positive wavespeed features are identified by an increasing vote
      count. An overall peak in the most robust anomalies is found between 1000-1400 km
      depth, followed by a decline to a minimum around 2000 km. While this trend could
      reflect reduced tomographic resolution in the middle mantle, we show that it may
      alternatively relate to real changes in the time-dependent subduction flux and/or
      a mid-lower mantle viscosity increase. An apparent secondary peak in agreement
      below 2500 km depth may reflect the degree-two lower mantle slow seismic
      structures. Vote maps illustrate the potential shortcomings of using a limited
      number or type of tomography models and slab threshold criteria.

PMID- 28887462
TI  - Evaluating strategies for reversing CRISPR-Cas9 gene drives.
AB  - A gene drive biases inheritance of a gene so that it increases in frequency
      within a population even when the gene confers no fitness benefit. There has been
      renewed interest in environmental releases of engineered gene drives due to
      recent proof of principle experiments with the CRISPR-Cas9 system as a drive
      mechanism. Release of modified organisms, however, is controversial, especially
      when the drive mechanism could theoretically alter all individuals of a species.
      Thus, it is desirable to have countermeasures to reverse a drive if a problem
      arises. Several genetic mechanisms for limiting or eliminating gene drives have
      been proposed and/or developed, including synthetic resistance, reversal drives,
      and immunizing reversal drives. While predictions about efficacy of these
      mechanisms have been optimistic, we lack detailed analyses of their expected
      dynamics. We develop a discrete time model for population genetics of a drive and
      proposed genetic countermeasures. Efficacy of drive reversal varies between
      countermeasures. For some parameter values, the model predicts unexpected
      behavior including polymorphic equilibria and oscillatory dynamics. The timing
      and number of released individuals containing a genetic countermeasure can
      substantially impact outcomes. The choice among countermeasures by researchers
      and regulators will depend on specific goals and population parameters of target
      populations.

PMID- 28887460
TI  - Novel selective, potent naphthyl TRPM8 antagonists identified through a combined
      ligand- and structure-based virtual screening approach.
AB  - Transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8), a nonselective cation channel,
      is the predominant mammalian cold temperature thermosensor and it is activated by
      cold temperatures and cooling compounds, such as menthol and icilin. Because of
      its role in cold allodynia, cold hyperalgesia and painful syndromes TRPM8
      antagonists are currently being pursued as potential therapeutic agents for the
      treatment of pain hypersensitivity. Recently TRPM8 has been found in subsets of
      bladder sensory nerve fibres, providing an opportunity to understand and treat
      chronic hypersensitivity. However, most of the known TRPM8 inhibitors lack
      selectivity, and only three selective compounds have reached clinical trials to
      date. Here, we applied two virtual screening strategies to find new, clinics
      suitable, TRPM8 inhibitors. This strategy enabled us to identify naphthyl
      derivatives as a novel class of potent and selective TRPM8 inhibitors. Further
      characterization of the pharmacologic properties of the most potent compound
      identified, compound 1, confirmed that it is a selective, competitive antagonist
      inhibitor of TRPM8. Compound 1 also proved itself active in a overreactive
      bladder model in vivo. Thus, the novel naphthyl derivative compound identified
      here could be optimized for clinical treatment of pain hypersensitivity in
      bladder disorders but also in different other pathologies.

PMID- 28887463
TI  - Functional Characterization of Two Elongases of Very Long-Chain Fatty Acid from
      Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae).
AB  - The elongases of very long chain fatty acid (ELOVL or ELO) are essential in the
      biosynthesis of fatty acids longer than C14. Here, two ELO full-length cDNAs
      (TmELO1, TmELO2) from the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) were isolated and
      the functions were characterized. The open reading frame (ORF) lengths of TmELO1
      and TmELO2 were 1005 bp and 972 bp, respectively and the corresponding peptide
      sequences each contained several conserved motifs including the histidine-box
      motif HXXHH. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated high similarity with the ELO of
      Tribolium castaneum and Drosophila melanogaster. Both TmELO genes were expressed
      at various levels in eggs, 1st and 2nd instar larvae, mature larvae, pupae, male
      and female adults. Injection of dsTmELO1 but not dsTmELO2 RNA into mature larvae
      significantly increased mortality although RNAi did not produce any obvious
      changes in the fatty acid composition in the survivors. Heterologous expression
      of TmELO genes in yeast revealed that TmELO1 and TmELO2 function to synthesize
      long chain and very long chain fatty acids.

PMID- 28887464
TI  - RNAseq revealed the important gene pathways controlling adaptive mechanisms under
      waterlogged stress in maize.
AB  - Waterlogging causes yield penalty in maize-growing countries of subtropical
      regions. Transcriptome analysis of the roots of a tolerant inbred HKI1105 using
      RNA sequencing revealed 21,364 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under
      waterlogged stress condition. These 21,364 DEGs are known to regulate important
      pathways including energy-production, programmed cell death (PCD), aerenchyma
      formation, and ethylene responsiveness. High up-regulation of invertase (49-fold)
      and hexokinase (36-fold) in roots explained the ATP requirement in waterlogging
      condition. Also, high up-regulation of expansins (42-fold), plant aspartic
      protease A3 (19-fold), polygalacturonases (16-fold), respiratory burst oxidase
      homolog (12-fold), and hydrolases (11-fold) explained the PCD of root cortical
      cells followed by the formation of aerenchyma tissue during waterlogging stress.
      We hypothesized that the oxygen transfer in waterlogged roots is promoted by a
      cross-talk of fermentative, metabolic, and glycolytic pathways that generate ATPs
      for PCD and aerenchyma formation in root cortical cells. SNPs were mapped to the
      DEGs regulating aerenchyma formation (12), ethylene-responsive factors (11), and
      glycolysis (4) under stress. RNAseq derived SNPs can be used in selection
      approaches to breed tolerant hybrids. Overall, this investigation provided
      significant evidence of genes operating in the adaptive traits such as ethylene
      production and aerenchyma formation to cope-up the waterlogging stress.

PMID- 28887465
TI  - Host immune status-specific production of gliotoxin and bis-methyl-gliotoxin
      during invasive aspergillosis in mice.
AB  - Delayed diagnosis in invasive aspergillosis (IA) contributes to its high
      mortality. Gliotoxin (GT) and bis-methyl-gliotoxin (bmGT) are secondary
      metabolites produced by Aspergillus during invasive, hyphal growth and may prove
      diagnostically useful. Because IA pathophysiology and GT's role in virulence vary
      depending on the underlying host immune status, we hypothesized that GT and bmGT
      production in vivo may differ in three mouse models of IA that mimic human
      disease. We defined temporal kinetics of GT and bmGT in serum, bronchoalveolar
      lavage fluid (BALF) and lungs of A. fumigatus-infected chronic granulomatous
      disease (CGD), hydrocortisone-treated, and neutropenic mice. We harvested lungs
      for assessment of fungal burden, histology and GT/bmGT biosynthetic genes' mRNA
      induction. GT levels were higher in neutropenic versus CGD or steroid-treated
      lungs. bmGT was persistently detected only in CGD lungs. GT, but not bmGT, was
      detected in 71% of sera and 50% of BALF of neutropenic mice; neither was detected
      in serum/BALF of CGD or steroid-treated mice. Enrichment of GT in Aspergillus
      infected neutropenic lung correlated with fungal burden and hyphal length but not
      induction of GT biosynthetic genes. In summary, GT is detectable in mouse lungs,
      serum and BALF during neutropenic IA, suggesting that GT may be useful to
      diagnose IA in neutropenic patients.

PMID- 28887467
TI  - Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate.
AB  - Amazon discharges a large volume of freshwater into the ocean, yet its impact on
      climate is largely unknown. Climate projections show that a warmer northern
      tropical Atlantic Ocean together with a warmer equatorial Pacific lead to extreme
      droughts in the Amazonia, considerably reducing the Amazon runoff. Here we
      present results from coupled model simulations and observations on the climatic
      response to a significant reduction in Amazon runoff into the Atlantic Ocean.
      Climate model simulation without Amazon runoff resulted in cooler equatorial
      Atlantic, weakening the Hadley cell and thereby the atmospheric meridional cells.
      Consequently, the extratropical westerlies turned weaker, leading to prevalent
      negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) like climate, similar to the observed
      anomalies during Amazon drought years. This study reaffirms that spatial
      signature of NAO is in part driven by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in
      the tropical Atlantic. Winters of northern Europe and eastern Canada turned
      cooler and drier whereas southern Europe and the eastern United States
      experienced warmer and wetter winters without Amazon runoff. Significant warming
      over the Arctic reduced the local sea-ice extent and enhanced the high latitude
      river runoff. More importantly, our simulations caution against extreme
      exploitation of rivers for its far-reaching consequences on climate.

PMID- 28887466
TI  - HPLC-based quantification of bacterial housekeeping nucleotides and alarmone
      messengers ppGpp and pppGpp.
AB  - Here we describe an HPLC-based method to quantify bacterial housekeeping
      nucleotides and the signaling messengers ppGpp and pppGpp. We have replicated and
      tested several previously reported HPLC-based approaches and assembled a method
      that can process 50 samples in three days, thus making kinetically resolved
      experiments feasible. The method combines cell harvesting by rapid filtration,
      followed by acid extraction, freeze-drying with chromatographic separation. We
      use a combination of C18 IPRP-HPLC (GMP unresolved and co-migrating with IMP; GDP
      and GTP; AMP, ADP and ATP; CTP; UTP) and SAX-HPLC in isocratic mode (ppGpp and
      pppGpp) with UV detection. The approach is applicable to bacteria without the
      requirement of metabolic labelling with 32P-labelled radioactive precursors. We
      applied our method to quantify nucleotide pools in Escherichia coli BW25113 K12
      strain both throughout the growth curve and during acute stringent response
      induced by mupirocin. While ppGpp and pppGpp levels vary drastically (40- and >=8
      fold, respectively) these changes are decoupled from the quotients of the
      housekeeping pool and guanosine and adenosine housekeeping nucleotides:
      NTP/NDP/NMP ratio remains stable at 6/1/0.3 during both normal batch culture
      growth and upon acute amino acid starvation.

PMID- 28887468
TI  - The network of plants volatile organic compounds.
AB  - Plants emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) is involved in a wide class
      of ecological functions, as VOCs play a crucial role in plants interactions with
      biotic and abiotic factors. Accordingly, they vary widely across species and
      underpin differences in ecological strategy. In this paper, VOCs spontaneously
      emitted by 109 plant species (belonging to 56 different families) have been
      qualitatively and quantitatively analysed in order to provide an alternative
      classification of plants species. In particular, by using bipartite networks
      methodology from Complex Network Theory, and through the application of community
      detection algorithms, we show that is possible to classify species according to
      chemical classes such as terpenes and sulfur compounds. Such complex network
      analysis allows to uncover hidden plants relationships related to their
      evolutionary and adaptation to the environment story.

PMID- 28887469
TI  - Analysis of mutual couplings in a concentric circular ring plasmonic optical
      antenna array.
AB  - In this paper, we report the analysis of a concentric circular ring plasmonic
      optical antenna (POA) array using a simple lumped coupled circuit (LCC) model.
      The currents in the circular rings of the POA array and their mutual couplings
      are analyzed using the LCC model. The results agree well with the numerical
      simulation using CST's Microwave Studio(r). The LCC model reveals the mutual
      couplings between the antenna rings. It is found that the mutual couplings are
      not only between the adjacent antenna rings, but also involve their second (2nd)
      nearest or farther neighbors. Since the near-fields of the optical antennas are
      related to the currents in the optical antennas, the LCC model provides a useful
      tool for the analysis of the near-field and their mutual interactions in the
      circular ring POA array.

PMID- 28887471
TI  - Spatially encoded fast single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy with full field
      of-view.
AB  - We report a simple single-molecule fluorescence imaging method that increases the
      temporal resolution of any type of array detector by >5-fold with full field-of
      view. We spread single-molecule spots to adjacent pixels by rotating a mirror in
      the detection path during the exposure time of a single frame, which encodes
      temporal information into the spatial domain. Our approach allowed us to monitor
      fast blinking of an organic dye, the dissociation kinetics of very short DNA and
      conformational changes of biomolecules with much improved temporal resolution
      than the conventional method. Our technique is useful when a large field-of-view
      is required, for example, in the case of weakly interacting biomolecules or
      cellular imaging.

PMID- 28887470
TI  - Direct measurement of individual phonon lifetimes in the clathrate compound
      Ba7.81Ge40.67Au5.33.
AB  - Engineering lattice thermal conductivity requires to control the heat carried by
      atomic vibration waves, the phonons. The key parameter for quantifying it is the
      phonon lifetime, limiting the travelling distance, whose determination is however
      at the limits of instrumental capabilities. Here, we show the achievement of a
      direct quantitative measurement of phonon lifetimes in a single crystal of the
      clathrate Ba7.81Ge40.67Au5.33, renowned for its puzzling 'glass-like' thermal
      conductivity. Surprisingly, thermal transport is dominated by acoustic phonons
      with long lifetimes, travelling over distances of 10 to 100 nm as their wave
      vector goes from 0.3 to 0.1 A-1. Considering only low-energy acoustic phonons,
      and their observed lifetime, leads to a calculated thermal conductivity very
      close to the experimental one. Our results challenge the current picture of
      thermal transport in clathrates, underlining the inability of state-of-the-art
      simulations to reproduce the experimental data, thus representing a crucial
      experimental input for theoretical developments.Phonon lifetime is a fundamental
      parameter of thermal transport however its determination is challenging. Using
      inelastic neutron scattering and the neutron resonant spin-echo technique, Lory
      et al. determine the acoustic phonon lifetime in a single crystal of clathrate
      Ba7.81Ge40.67Au5.33.

PMID- 28887472
TI  - Radial arrangement of apical adhesive sites promotes contact self-alignment of
      fruits in Commicarpus plants (Nyctaginaceae).
AB  - Fruits of the plants from the genus Commicarpus (Nyctaginaceae) use their
      adhesive properties for dispersal. They can readily stick to various surfaces
      including skin, fur, and feathers of potential dispersal vectors using the
      secretion provided by the set of glands arranged radially at the distal end of
      the cut-cone-shaped fruit. Field observations show that this particular geometry
      promotes self-alignment of the fruit to various surfaces after initial contact
      just by one gland is established. Such self-alignment in turn leads to an
      increase of the number of contacting points and to the enhancement of adhesive
      contact area. Here, we study this particular geometry from a theoretical point of
      view, by probing adhesion ability of geometries having from 2 to 7 radially
      distributed attachment points. The results show that the radial arrangement
      provides rapid alignment to the surface. The robust adhesion can be reached
      already at 5 adhesive points and their further increase does not substantially
      improve the performance. This study is important not only for our understanding
      of the functional morphology of biological adhesive systems, but also for the
      development of technical self-aligning adhesive devices.

PMID- 28887473
TI  - Complete sequence-based pathway analysis by differential on-chip DNA and RNA
      extraction from a single cell.
AB  - We demonstrate on-chip, differential DNA and RNA extraction from a single cell
      using a microfluidic chip and a two-stage lysis protocol. This method enables
      direct use of the whole extract, without additional washing steps, reducing
      sample loss. Using this method, the tumor driving pathway in individual cells
      from a colorectal cancer cell line was determined by applying a Bayesian
      computational pathway model to sequences obtained from the RNA fraction of a
      single cell and, the mutations driving the pathway were determined by analyzing
      sequences obtained from the DNA fraction of the same single cell. This combined
      functional and mutational pathway assessment of a single cell could be of
      significant value for dissecting cellular heterogeneity in tumors and analyzing
      single circulating tumor cells.

PMID- 28887474
TI  - Body Fat Distribution and the Risk of Incident Metabolic Syndrome: A Longitudinal
      Cohort Study.
AB  - The effect of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT)
      area on metabolic syndrome (MS) has been debated. We aimed to evaluate the
      effects of VAT and SAT on the incidence of MS and its components in a large and
      apparently healthy Asian population. We performed a longitudinal cohort study of
      1,964 subjects who received health screenings over a 5-year follow-up period; 317
      incidents of MS (16.1%) were observed during a median follow-up of 4.5 years. The
      VAT area was significantly associated with a higher incidence of MS; the adjusted
      HR for incident MS per 1 SD of VAT was 1.50 (95% CI 1.29-1.74), and the adjusted
      HR of the 5th VAT quintile compared with the 1st quintile was 3.73 (95% CI 2.22
      6.28). However, the SAT area was not associated with incident MS. Although the
      VAT area was longitudinally associated with the incidence of each component of
      MS, the SAT area was inversely associated with the risk of high blood pressure,
      fasting blood sugar, and triglycerides, with marginal significance. In
      conclusion, the VAT area is longitudinally associated with an increased risk of
      incident MS, while SAT may have a protective effect against the incidence of
      individual MS components.

PMID- 28887475
TI  - Noble UV protective agent for Bacillus thuringiensis based on a combination of
      graphene oxide and olive oil.
AB  - The focus of this study is investigating the performance of graphene oxide (GO)
      in the protective effect of olive oil on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) after being
      exposed to UV radiations. Biological pesticides Bt subsp. Kurstaki is one of the
      most important biological control agents. We compared the protective effect of
      two UV protectant; GO and olive oil and also the combination of both, on the
      stability of the formulation of Bt after exposure to UV radiations. Spore
      viability was measured for protective effect and bioassay test was performed on
      the formulations of Bt. The combination of GO and olive oil revealed the highest
      viabilities of 50.62% after 96 h exposure to UV radiation, while viabilities of
      free spore, olive oil formulation and GO formulation were 32.54%, 37.19%,and
      45.20%, respectively. The mortality of irradiated combination formulation on
      second-instar larvae Ephestia Kuehniella was 68.89%, while the same parameter for
      free spore, olive oil formulation and GO formulation were 40%, 46.66%,and 56%,
      respectively.

PMID- 28887476
TI  - The C-terminal residue of phage Vp16 PDF, the smallest peptide deformylase, acts
      as an offset element locking the active conformation.
AB  - Prokaryotic proteins must be deformylated before the removal of their first
      methionine. Peptide deformylase (PDF) is indispensable and guarantees this
      mechanism. Recent metagenomics studies revealed new idiosyncratic PDF forms as
      the most abundant family of viral sequences. Little is known regarding these
      viral PDFs, including the capacity of the corresponding encoded proteins to
      ensure deformylase activity. We provide here the first evidence that viral PDFs,
      including the shortest PDF identified to date, Vp16 PDF, display deformylase
      activity in vivo, despite the absence of the key ribosome-interacting C-terminal
      region. Moreover, characterization of phage Vp16 PDF underscores unexpected
      structural and molecular features with the C-terminal Isoleucine residue
      significantly contributing to deformylase activity both in vitro and in vivo.
      This residue fully compensates for the absence of the usual long C-domain. Taken
      together, these data elucidate an unexpected mechanism of enzyme natural
      evolution and adaptation within viral sequences.

PMID- 28887477
TI  - Neuropilin-1 is upregulated by Wnt/beta-catenin signaling and is important for
      mammary stem cells.
AB  - Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is instrumental for the development of mammary gland
      and the properties of mammary stem cells (MaSCs). The Wnt signaling downstream
      effectors that engage in regulating MaSCs have not been extensively studied.
      Here, we report that Neuropilin-1 (Nrp1) expression is induced by Wnt/beta
      catenin signaling in MaSCs, and its function is critical for the activity of
      MaSCs. Nrp1 is particularly expressed in MaSCs that are marked by the expression
      of Protein C Receptor (Procr). Knockdown of Nrp1 by shRNA diminishes MaSCs' in
      vitro colony formation and in vivo mammary gland reconstitution ability. Similar
      results are seen when antagonizing Nrp1 using a dominant negative peptide. In
      genetic experiments, deletion of Nrp1 results in delay of mammary development. In
      addition, knockdown of Nrp1 inhibits MMTV-Wnt1 tumor growth in xenograft. Our
      data demonstrate that Nrp1 is critical for mammary development and tumorigenesis,
      revealing new insights into MaSC regulation and targeting stem cells in treatment
      of breast cancer.

PMID- 28887478
TI  - Stat3 as a potential therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multi-factorial disease characterized by chronic
      inflammation and destruction of multiple joints. To date, various biologic
      treatments for RA such as anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha antibodies have been
      developed; however, mechanisms underlying RA development remain unclear and
      targeted therapy for this condition has not been established. Here, we provide
      evidence that signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3) promotes
      inflammation and joint erosion in a mouse model of arthritis. Stat3 global KO
      mice show early embryonic lethality; thus, we generated viable Stat3 conditional
      knockout adult mice and found that they were significantly resistant to collagen
      induced arthritis (CIA), the most common RA model, compared with controls. We
      then used an in vitro culture system to screen ninety-six existing drugs to
      select Stat3 inhibitors and selected five candidate inhibitors. Among them, three
      significantly inhibited development of arthritis and joint erosion in CIA wild
      type mice. These findings suggest that Stat3 inhibitors may serve as promising
      drugs for RA therapy.

PMID- 28887479
TI  - Field-Effect Transistor Biosensor for Rapid Detection of Ebola Antigen.
AB  - The Ebola virus transmits a highly contagious, frequently fatal human disease for
      which there is no specific antiviral treatment. Therefore, rapid, accurate, and
      early diagnosis of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is critical to public health
      containment efforts, particularly in developing countries where resources are few
      and EVD is endemic. We have developed a reduced graphene oxide-based field-effect
      transistor method for real-time detection of the Ebola virus antigen. This method
      uses the attractive semiconductor characteristics of graphene-based material, and
      instantaneously yields highly sensitive and specific detection of Ebola
      glycoprotein. The feasibility of this method for clinical application in point-of
      care technology is evaluated using Ebola glycoprotein suspended in diluted PBS
      buffer, human serum, and plasma. These results demonstrate the successful
      fabrication of a promising field-effect transistor biosensor for EVD diagnosis.

PMID- 28887480
TI  - Deep Neural Network Probabilistic Decoder for Stabilizer Codes.
AB  - Neural networks can efficiently encode the probability distribution of errors in
      an error correcting code. Moreover, these distributions can be conditioned on the
      syndromes of the corresponding errors. This paves a path forward for a decoder
      that employs a neural network to calculate the conditional distribution, then
      sample from the distribution - the sample will be the predicted error for the
      given syndrome. We present an implementation of such an algorithm that can be
      applied to any stabilizer code. Testing it on the toric code, it has higher
      threshold than a number of known decoders thanks to naturally finding the most
      probable error and accounting for correlations between errors.

PMID- 28887481
TI  - Glycosylation-dependent galectin-1/neuropilin-1 interactions promote liver
      fibrosis through activation of TGF-beta- and PDGF-like signals in hepatic
      stellate cells.
AB  - Concomitant expressions of glycan-binding proteins and their bound glycans
      regulate many pathophysiologic processes, but this issue has not been addressed
      in liver fibrosis. Activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) is a rate-limiting
      step in liver fibrosis and is an important target for liver fibrosis therapy. We
      previously reported that galectin (Gal)-1, a beta-galactoside-binding protein,
      regulates myofibroblast homeostasis in oral carcinoma and wound healing, but the
      role of Gal-1 in HSC migration and activation is unclear. Herein, we report that
      Gal-1 and its bound glycans were highly expressed in fibrotic livers and
      activated HSCs. The cell-surface glycome of activated HSCs facilitated Gal-1
      binding, which upon recognition of the N-glycans on neuropilin (NRP)-1, activated
      platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)- and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta
      like signals to promote HSC migration and activation. In addition, blocking
      endogenous Gal-1 expression suppressed PDGF- and TGF-beta1-induced signaling,
      migration, and gene expression in HSCs. Methionine and choline-deficient diet
      (MCD)-induced collagen deposition and HSC activation were attenuated in Gal-1
      null mice compared to wild-type mice. In summary, we concluded that glycosylation
      dependent Gal-1/NRP-1 interactions activate TGF-beta and PDGF-like signaling to
      promote the migration and activation of HSCs. Therefore, targeting Gal-1/NRP-1
      interactions could be developed into liver fibrosis therapy.

PMID- 28887482
TI  - Preliminary evidence of olfactory signals of women's fertility increasing social
      avoidance behavior towards women in pair-bonded men.
AB  - Previous studies suggest that women's body odor is perceived as more attractive
      during ovulation and that exposure to women's chemical signals of high fertility
      leads to increased mating motivation. Given that pair-bonded men react
      differently than single men to unfamiliar women, we investigated whether women's
      chemical signals of fertility influence approach behavior among pair-bonded and
      single men. In the first experiment, men performed the Comfortable Interpersonal
      Distance task while exposed to body odor samples from women who were ovulating
      and from the same women during their luteal phase. We found that in the presence
      of the body odor from ovulation, pair-bonded, but not single men, maintained
      greater distance from different protagonists, particularly from women. In a
      second experiment we exposed men to women's body odors while they rated the
      attractiveness and beauty of women's faces. Although the ratings of women's
      beauty did not differ across odor conditions, when the pair-bonded men were
      exposed to the high fertility odor they rated highly attractive women as less
      sexually attractive. The results suggest that exposure to fertility cues from
      unfamiliar women may trigger social avoidance in pair-bonded men, an outcome that
      may result from identifying such cues as threats to their relationship.

PMID- 28887483
TI  - Responses of plant species diversity and soil physical-chemical-microbial
      properties to Phragmites australis invasion along a density gradient.
AB  - The invasion of ecosystems by strongly colonising plants such as Phragmites
      australis is viewed as one of the greatest threats to plant diversity and soil
      properties. This study compared a range of diversity measures including soil
      properties and mycorrhizal potential under different degrees of Phragmites
      density among three populations in coastal wetland, Victoria, Australia. Species
      richness, evenness and Shanon-Wiener index had significantly higher values in low
      degree of Phragmites density in all populations. Higher densities had the lowest
      diversity, with Shannon-Wiener index = 0 and Simpson's index = 1 indicating its
      mono-specificity. Significant alterations in soil properties associated with
      different degrees of Phragmites density were noticed. These had interactive
      effects (population * density) on water content, dehydrogenase activity,
      microbial biomass (C, N and P) but not on pH, electrical conductivity, phenolics,
      organic carbon, and spore density. Furthermore, the study elucidated decrease of
      competitive abilities of native plants, by interfering with formation of
      mycorrhizal associations and biomass. Overall, our results suggest that
      significant ecological alterations in vegetation and soil variables (including
      mycorrhizal potential) were strongly dependent on Phragmites density. Such
      changes may lead to an important role in process of Phragmites invasion through
      disruption of functional relationships amongst those variables.

PMID- 28887484
TI  - Differential degeneration of the ACTAGT sequence among Salmonella: a reflection
      of distinct nucleotide amelioration patterns during bacterial divergence.
AB  - When bacteria diverge, they need to adapt to the new environments, such as new
      hosts or different tissues of the same host, by accumulating beneficial genomic
      variations, but a general scenario is unknown due to the lack of appropriate
      methods. Here we profiled the ACTAGT sequence and its degenerated forms (i.e.,
      hexa-nucleotide sequences with one of the six nucleotides different from ACTAGT)
      in Salmonella to estimate the nucleotide amelioration processes of bacterial
      genomes. ACTAGT was mostly located in coding sequences but was also found in
      several intergenic regions, with its degenerated forms widely scattered
      throughout the bacterial genomes. We speculated that the distribution of ACTAGT
      and its degenerated forms might be lineage-specific as a consequence of different
      selection pressures imposed on ACTAGT at different genomic locations (in genes or
      intergenic regions) among different Salmonella lineages. To validate this
      speculation, we modelled the secondary structures of the ACTAGT-containing
      sequences conserved across Salmonella and many other enteric bacteria. Compared
      to ACTAGT at conserved regions, the degenerated forms were distributed throughout
      the bacterial genomes, with the degeneration patterns being highly similar among
      bacteria of the same phylogenetic lineage but radically different across
      different lineages. This finding demonstrates biased amelioration under distinct
      selection pressures among the bacteria and provides insights into genomic
      evolution during bacterial divergence.

PMID- 28887485
TI  - Direct comparison of performance of single nucleotide variant calling in human
      genome with alignment-based and assembly-based approaches.
AB  - Complementary to reference-based variant detection, recent studies revealed that
      many novel variants could be detected with de novo assembled genomes. To evaluate
      the effect of reads coverage and the accuracy of assembly-based variant calling,
      we simulated short reads containing more than 3 million of single nucleotide
      variants (SNVs) from the whole human genome and compared the efficiency of SNV
      calling between the assembly-based and alignment-based calling approaches. We
      assessed the quality of the assembled contig and found that a minimum of 30X
      coverage of short reads was needed to ensure reliable SNV calling and to generate
      assembled contigs with a good coverage of genome and genes. In addition, we
      observed that the assembly-based approach had a much lower recall rate and
      precision comparing to the alignment-based approach that would recover 99% of
      imputed SNVs. We observed similar results with experimental reads for NA24385, an
      individual whose germline variants were well characterized. Although there are
      additional values for SNVs detection, the assembly-based approach would have
      great risk of false discovery of novel SNVs. Further improvement of de novo
      assembly algorithms are needed in order to warrant a good completeness of genome
      with haplotype resolved and high fidelity of assembled sequences.

PMID- 28887486
TI  - Propagation of superconducting coherence via chiral quantum-Hall edge channels.
AB  - Recently, there has been significant interest in superconducting coherence via
      chiral quantum-Hall (QH) edge channels at an interface between a two-dimensional
      normal conductor and a superconductor (N-S) in a strong transverse magnetic
      field. In the field range where the superconductivity and the QH state coexist,
      the coherent confinement of electron- and hole-like quasiparticles by the
      interplay of Andreev reflection and the QH effect leads to the formation of
      Andreev edge states (AES) along the N-S interface. Here, we report the electrical
      conductance characteristics via the AES formed in graphene-superconductor hybrid
      systems in a three-terminal configuration. This measurement configuration,
      involving the QH edge states outside a graphene-S interface, allows the detection
      of the longitudinal and QH conductance separately, excluding the bulk
      contribution. Convincing evidence for the superconducting coherence and its
      propagation via the chiral QH edge channels is provided by the conductance
      enhancement on both the upstream and the downstream sides of the superconducting
      electrode as well as in bias spectroscopy results below the superconducting
      critical temperature. Propagation of superconducting coherence via QH edge states
      was more evident as more edge channels participate in the Andreev process for
      high filling factors with reduced valley-mixing scattering.

PMID- 28887489
TI  - Hardware emulation of stochastic p-bits for invertible logic.
AB  - The common feature of nearly all logic and memory devices is that they make use
      of stable units to represent 0's and 1's. A completely different paradigm is
      based on three-terminal stochastic units which could be called "p-bits", where
      the output is a random telegraphic signal continuously fluctuating between 0 and
      1 with a tunable mean. p-bits can be interconnected to receive weighted
      contributions from others in a network, and these weighted contributions can be
      chosen to not only solve problems of optimization and inference but also to
      implement precise Boolean functions in an inverted mode. This inverted operation
      of Boolean gates is particularly striking: They provide inputs consistent to a
      given output along with unique outputs to a given set of inputs. The existing
      demonstrations of accurate invertible logic are intriguing, but will these
      striking properties observed in computer simulations carry over to hardware
      implementations? This paper uses individual micro controllers to emulate p-bits,
      and we present results for a 4-bit ripple carry adder with 48 p-bits and a 4-bit
      multiplier with 46 p-bits working in inverted mode as a factorizer. Our results
      constitute a first step towards implementing p-bits with nano devices, like
      stochastic Magnetic Tunnel Junctions.

PMID- 28887488
TI  - The Chemical Form of Metal Species Released from Corroded Taper Junctions of Hip
      Implants: Synchrotron Analysis of Patient Tissue.
AB  - The mechanisms of metal release from the articulation at the head cup bearing and
      the tapered junctions of orthopaedic hip implants are known to differ and the
      debris generated varies in size, shape and volume. Significantly less metal is
      lost from the taper junction between Cobalt-Chromium-Molybdenum (CoCrMo) and
      Titanium (Ti) components (fretting-corrosion dominant mechanism), when compared
      to the CoCrMo bearing surfaces (wear-corrosion dominant mechanism). Corrosion
      particles from the taper junction can lead to Adverse Reactions to Metal Debris
      (ARMD) similar to those seen with CoCrMo bearings. We used synchrotron methods to
      understand the modes underlying clinically significant tissue reactions to Co, Cr
      and Ti by analysing viable peri-prosthetic tissue. Cr was present as Cr2O3 in the
      corroded group in addition to CrPO4 found in the metal-on-metal (MoM) group.
      Interestingly, Ti was present as TiO2 in an amorphous rather than rutile or
      anatase physical form. The metal species were co-localized in the same micron
      scale particles as result of corrosion processes and in one cell type, the
      phagocytes. This work gives new insights into the degradation products from metal
      devices as well as guidance for toxicological studies in humans.

PMID- 28887487
TI  - TrkB-enhancer facilitates functional recovery after traumatic brain injury.
AB  - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a key player in regulating synaptic
      strength and learning, is dysregulated following traumatic brain injury (TBI),
      suggesting that stimulation of BDNF signaling pathways may facilitate functional
      recovery. This study investigates whether CN2097, a peptidomimetic ligand which
      targets the synaptic scaffold protein, postsynaptic density protein 95, to
      enhance downstream signaling of tropomyosin-related kinase B, a receptor for
      BDNF, can improve neurological function after TBI. Moderate to severe TBI elicits
      neuroinflammation and c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, which is
      associated with memory deficits. Here we demonstrate that CN2097 significantly
      reduces the post-traumatic synthesis of proinflammatory mediators and inhibits
      the post-traumatic activation of JNK in a rodent model of TBI. The recordings of
      field excitatory post-synaptic potentials in the hippocampal CA1 subfield
      demonstrate that TBI inhibits the expression of long-term potentiation (LTP)
      evoked by high-frequency stimulation of Schaffer collaterals, and that CN2097
      attenuates this LTP impairment. Lastly, we demonstrate that CN2097 significantly
      improves the complex auditory processing deficits, which are impaired after
      injury. The multifunctionality of CN2097 strongly suggests that CN2097 could be
      highly efficacious in targeting complex secondary injury processes resulting from
      neurotrauma.

PMID- 28887490
TI  - Organic-Silica Interactions in Saline: Elucidating the Structural Influence of
      Calcium in Low-Salinity Enhanced Oil Recovery.
AB  - Enhanced oil recovery using low-salinity solutions to sweep sandstone reservoirs
      is a widely-practiced strategy. The mechanisms governing this remain unresolved.
      Here, we elucidate the role of Ca2+ by combining chemical force microscopy (CFM)
      and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We probe the influence of electrolyte
      composition and concentration on the adsorption of a representative molecule,
      positively-charged alkylammonium, at the aqueous electrolyte/silica interface,
      for four electrolytes: NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2. CFM reveals stronger adhesion
      on silica in CaCl2 compared with the other electrolytes, and shows a
      concentration-dependent adhesion not observed for the other electrolytes. Using
      MD simulations, we model the electrolytes at a negatively-charged amorphous
      silica substrate and predict the adsorption of methylammonium. Our simulations
      reveal four classes of surface adsorption site, where the prevalence of these
      sites depends only on CaCl2 concentration. The sites relevant to strong adhesion
      feature the O- silica site and Ca2+ in the presence of associated Cl-, which gain
      prevalence at higher CaCl2 concentration. Our simulations also predict the
      adhesion force profile to be distinct for CaCl2 compared with the other
      electrolytes. Together, these analyses explain our experimental data. Our
      findings indicate in general how silica wettability may be manipulated by
      electrolyte concentration.

PMID- 28887491
TI  - The Aging of the Social Mind - Differential Effects on Components of Social
      Understanding.
AB  - Research in younger adults dissociates cognitive from affective facets of social
      information processing, rather than promoting a monolithic view of social
      intelligence. An influential theory on adult development suggests differential
      effects of aging on cognitive and affective functions. However, this dissociation
      has not been directly tested in the social domain. Employing a newly developed
      naturalistic paradigm that disentangles facets of the social mind within an
      individual, we show multi-directionality of age-related differences.
      Specifically, components of the socio-cognitive route - Theory of Mind and
      metacognition - are impaired in older relative to younger adults. Nevertheless,
      these social capacities are still less affected by aging than factual reasoning
      and metacognition regarding non-social content. Importantly, the socio-affective
      route is well-functioning, with no decline in empathy and elevated compassion in
      the elderly. These findings contribute to an integrated theory of age-related
      change in social functioning and inform interventions tailored to specifically
      reinstate socio-cognitive skills in old age.

PMID- 28887492
TI  - Freeform fabrication of tissue-simulating phantom for potential use of surgical
      planning in conjoined twins separation surgery.
AB  - Preoperative assessment of tissue anatomy and accurate surgical planning is
      crucial in conjoined twin separation surgery. We developed a new method that
      combines three-dimensional (3D) printing, assembling, and casting to produce
      anatomic models of high fidelity for surgical planning. The related anatomic
      features of the conjoined twins were captured by computed tomography (CT),
      classified as five organ groups, and reconstructed as five computer models. Among
      these organ groups, the skeleton was produced by fused deposition modeling (FDM)
      using acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene. For the other four organ groups, shell
      molds were prepared by FDM and cast with silica gel to simulate soft tissues,
      with contrast enhancement pigments added to simulate different CT and visual
      contrasts. The produced models were assembled, positioned firmly within a 3D
      printed shell mold simulating the skin boundary, and cast with transparent silica
      gel. The produced phantom was subject to further CT scan in comparison with that
      of the patient data for fidelity evaluation. Further data analysis showed that
      the produced model reassembled the geometric features of the original CT data
      with an overall mean deviation of less than 2 mm, indicating the clinical
      potential to use this method for surgical planning in conjoined twin separation
      surgery.

PMID- 28887493
TI  - Molecular characterization of cell-free eccDNAs in human plasma.
AB  - Extrachromosomal circular DNAs (eccDNAs) have been reported in most eukaryotes.
      However, little is known about the cell-free eccDNA profiles in circulating
      system such as blood. To characterize plasma cell-free eccDNAs, we performed
      sequencing analysis in 26 libraries from three blood donors and negative
      controls. We identified thousands of unique plasma eccDNAs in the three subjects.
      We observed proportional eccDNA increase with initial DNA input. The detected
      eccDNAs were also associated with circular DNA enrichment efficiency. Increasing
      the sequencing depth in an additional sample identified many more eccDNAs with
      highly heterogenous molecular structure. Size distribution of eccDNAs varied
      significantly from 31 bp to 19,989 bp. We found significantly higher GC content
      in smaller eccDNAs (<500 bp) than the larger ones (>500 bp) (p < 0.01). We also
      found an enrichment of eccDNAs at exons and 3'UTR (enrichment folds from 1.36 to
      3.1) as well as the DNase hypersensitive sites (1.58-2.42 fold), H3K4Me1 (1.23
      1.42 fold) and H3K27Ac (1.33-1.62 fold) marks. Junction sequence analysis
      suggested fundamental role of nonhomologous end joining mechanism during eccDNA
      formation. Further characterization of the extracellular eccDNAs in peripheral
      blood will facilitate understanding of their molecular mechanisms and potential
      clinical utilities.

PMID- 28887494
TI  - Sulfonolipids as novel metabolite markers of Alistipes and Odoribacter affected
      by high-fat diets.
AB  - The gut microbiota generates a huge pool of unknown metabolites, and their
      identification and characterization is a key challenge in metabolomics. However,
      there are still gaps on the studies of gut microbiota and their chemical
      structures. In this investigation, an unusual class of bacterial sulfonolipids
      (SLs) is detected in mouse cecum, which was originally found in environmental
      microbes. We have performed a detailed molecular level characterization of this
      class of lipids by combining high-resolution mass spectrometry and liquid
      chromatography analysis. Eighteen SLs that differ in their capnoid and fatty acid
      chain compositions were identified. The SL called "sulfobacin B" was isolated,
      characterized, and was significantly increased in mice fed with high-fat diets.
      To reveal bacterial producers of SLs, metagenome analysis was acquired and only
      two bacterial genera, i.e., Alistipes and Odoribacter, were revealed to be
      responsible for their production. This knowledge enables explaining a part of the
      molecular complexity introduced by microbes to the mammalian gastrointestinal
      tract and can be used as chemotaxonomic evidence in gut microbiota.

PMID- 28887496
TI  - Differential gene expression profiling linked to tumor progression of splenic
      marginal zone lymphoma.
AB  - The genetic events that lead to aggressive transformation of cases of splenic
      marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) after the chronic clinical stage have not been well
      understood. We aimed to find candidate genes associated with aggressive features
      of SMZL. We have successfully established two SMZL cell lines, designated SL-15
      and SL-22, derived from the same patient's tumor clone in chronic and aggressive
      phases, respectively. Microarray analysis identified cell cycle-associated genes
      specifically PLK1-as the most significantly upregulated in primary aggressive
      SMZL cells compared with cells from chronic phase. EPHA4 and MS4A1 (CD20) were
      found to be downregulated dramatically. These gene expression patterns were
      reproduced in both cell lines. Genetic knockdown of PLK1 resulted in inhibition
      of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis in SL-22 cells, which expressed
      higher levels of PLK1 than SL-15 cells. SL-22 cells needed higher concentrations
      of chemical PLK1 inhibitors to achieve greater effects. In addition, we found
      homozygous deletion of the MS4A1 gene as a newly identified molecular mechanism
      of CD20-negative conversion. Our findings are expected to stimulate further
      studies on whether PLK1 could be a potential therapeutic target for this tumor.
      Furthermore, cases with CD20-negatively converted lymphomas should be screened
      for the genomic loss of MS4A1.

PMID- 28887495
TI  - Integration of deep transcriptome and proteome analyses of salicylic acid
      regulation high temperature stress in Ulva prolifera.
AB  - To investigate changes in transcript and relative protein levels in response to
      salicylic acid regulation of the thermotolerance in U. prolifera, complementary
      transcriptome and proteome analyses were performed with U. prolifera grown at 35 
      degrees C (UpHT) and with the addition of SA at high temperature (UpSHT). At mRNA
      level,12,296 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained from the
      comparison of UpSHT with UpHT. iTRAQ-labeling proteome analysis showed that a
      total of 4,449 proteins were identified and reliably quantified. At mRNA level,
      the up-regulated genes involved in antioxidant activity were
      thioredoxin,peroxiredoxin,FeSOD, glutathione peroxidase, partion catalase and
      MnSOD. The down-regulated genes were ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione S
      transferase, catalase and MnSOD. In addition, the DEGs involved in plant signal
      transduction pathway (such as auxin response factors, BRI1 and JAZ) were down
      regulated. At protein level, the up-regulated proteins involved in carbon
      fixation and the down-regulated protein mainly were polyubiquitin, ascorbate
      peroxidase. The expression of Ca2+-binding protein, heat shock protein and
      photosynthesis-related proteins, EDS1 were also significantly regulated both at
      mRNA and protein level. The results indicated that SA alleviated the high
      temperature stimulus through partion antioxidant related proteins up-regulated,
      JA signal pathway enchanced, Ca2+-binding proteins, photosynthesis-related
      proteins significantly changed, antioxidant enzyme activities increased and
      photosynthesis index changed.

PMID- 28887497
TI  - Interaction between G-Quadruplex and Zinc Cationic Porphyrin: The Role of the
      Axial Water.
AB  - The interaction of ligands with G-quadruplexes has attracted considerable
      attention due to its importance in molecular recognition and anticancer drugs
      design. Here, we utilize triplet excited state as a sensitive reporter to study
      the binding interaction of zinc cationic porphyrin (ZnTMPyP4) with three G
      quadruplexes, AG3(T2AG3)3, (G4T4G4)2, and (TG4T)4. By monitoring the triplet
      decay dynamics of ZnTMPyP4 with transient absorption spectroscopy, the coexisted
      binding modes via pi-pi stacking of porphyrin macrocycle and the G-quartets are
      allowed to be identified quantitatively, which involve intercalation (25% and
      36%) versus end-stacking (75% and 64%) for AG3(T2AG3)3 and (G4T4G4)2, and end
      stacking (23%) versus partial intercalation (77%) for (TG4T)4. It is shown that
      the steric hindrance of the axial water decreases greatly the percentage of
      intercalation. Further, a rapid assessment of binding stoichiometry is fulfilled
      by measuring the triplet decay dynamics under various [G-quadruplex]/[ZnTMPyP4]
      ratios. The binding stoichiometric ratios of G-quadruplex/ZnTMPyP4 are 1:2 for
      AG3(T2AG3)3, 1:1 for (G4T4G4)2, and 1:2 for (TG4T)4, which agree well with
      results obtained by the conventional method of continuous variation analysis.
      These results reveal a clear scenario of G-quadruplex/ZnTMPyP4 interaction and
      provide mechanistic insights for the application of anticancer drug designs using
      G-quadruplex as target.

PMID- 28887498
TI  - New Insight into the Concept of Carbonization Degree in Synthesis of Carbon Dots
      to Achieve Facile Smartphone Based Sensing Platform.
AB  - Direct pyrolysis of citric acid (CA) has been proved to be a facile bottom-up
      technique for making pristine carbon dots (CD) with homogenous size distribution.
      However, limited reports are available on systematic optimization of
      carbonization degree. In this investigation, pyrolysis temperatures between 160 
      degrees C and 220  degrees C were studied, based on CA thermal decomposition
      path, using various heating durations. The effect of the formation of more
      carbonized carbon particles (MCCPs), as the major byproduct of this method, on
      photoluminescence properties of CDs was also considered. The NaOH amount that
      neutralizes the solution and the effect of dilution on the emission intensity,
      were introduced as simple and accessible factors for monitoring carbonization
      degree, and an estimate of MCCP/CD ratio, respectively. The results show that the
      CDs fabricated at 160  degrees C, 50 minutes attain almost twice higher quantum
      yield (QY) of 29% than highest QY reported based on pyrolysis of CA. The so
      prepared CDs can be employed as excellent candidates for turn-off sensing. As a
      proof of concept, detection limit of 50 nM for Hg2+ was achieved using a facile
      and inexpensive smartphone set-up that is able to quantify and compare
      fluorescent intensity in several samples simultaneously.

PMID- 28887499
TI  - Transcription factors NRF2 and HSF1 have opposing functions in autophagy.
AB  - Autophagy plays a critical role in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis by
      degrading proteins, lipids and organelles. Autophagy is activated in response to
      stress, but its regulation in the context of other stress response pathways, such
      as those mediated by heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) and nuclear factor-erythroid 2
      p45-related factor 2 (NRF2), is not well understood. We found that the Michael
      acceptor bis(2-hydoxybenzylidene)acetone (HBB2), a dual activator of NRF2 and
      HSF1, protects against the development of UV irradiation-mediated cutaneous
      squamous cell carcinoma in mice. We further show that HBB2 is an inducer of
      autophagy. In cells, HBB2 increases the levels of the autophagy-cargo protein
      p62/sequestosome 1, and the lipidated form of microtubule-associated protein
      light chain 3 isoform B. Activation of autophagy by HBB2 is impaired in NRF2
      deficient cells, which have reduced autophagic flux and low basal and induced
      levels of p62. Conversely, HSF1-deficient cells have increased autophagic flux
      under both basal as well as HBB2-induced conditions, accompanied by increased p62
      levels. Our findings suggest that NRF2 and HSF1 have opposing roles during
      autophagy, and illustrate the existence of tight mechanistic links between the
      cellular stress responses.

PMID- 28887500
TI  - MicroRNA Profiling Reveals Distinct Profiles for Tissue-Derived and Cultured
      Endothelial Cells.
AB  - Endothelial plasticity enables the cells to switch their phenotype according to
      the surrounding vascular microenvironment. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding
      RNAs that control endothelial plasticity. The objective of this study was to
      investigate the differences in miRNA profiles of tissue-derived cells and
      cultured endothelial cells. To this end, miRNA expression was profiled from
      freshly isolated tissue-derived human vascular endothelial cells and endothelial
      cells cultured until cellular senescence using miRNA sequencing. In addition, the
      data was searched for putative novel endothelial miRNAs and miRNA isoforms. The
      data analysis revealed a striking change in endothelial miRNA profile as the
      cells adapted from tissue to cell culture environment and the overall miRNA
      expression decreased significantly in cultured compared to tissue-derived
      endothelial cells. In addition to changes in mechanosensitive miRNA expression,
      alterations in senescence-associated and endothelial-to-mesenchymal-transition
      associated miRNAs were observed in aging cells. Collectively, the data
      illustrates the adaptability of endothelial cell miRNA expression that mirrors
      prevailing cellular environment.

PMID- 28887501
TI  - Voluntary liquorice ingestion increases blood pressure via increased volume load,
      elevated peripheral arterial resistance, and decreased aortic compliance.
AB  - We investigated the haemodynamic effects of two-week liquorice exposure
      (glycyrrhizin dose 290-370 mg/day) in 22 healthy volunteers during orthostatic
      challenge. Haemodynamics were recorded during passive 10-minute head-up tilt
      using radial pulse wave analysis, whole-body impedance cardiography, and spectral
      analysis of heart rate variability. Thirty age-matched healthy subjects served as
      controls. Liquorice ingestion elevated radial systolic (p < 0.001) and diastolic
      (p = 0.018) blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance (p = 0.037). During
      orthostatic challenge, heart rate increased less after the liquorice versus
      control diet (p = 0.003) and low frequency power of heart rate variability
      decreased within the liquorice group (p = 0.034). Liquorice intake increased
      central pulse pressure (p < 0.001) and augmentation index (p = 0.002) supine and
      upright, but in the upright position the elevation of augmentation index was
      accentuated (p = 0.007). Liquorice diet also increased extracellular fluid volume
      (p = 0.024) and aortic to popliteal pulse wave velocity (p = 0.027), and aortic
      characteristic impedance in the upright position (p = 0.002). To conclude, in
      addition to increased extracellular fluid volume and large arterial stiffness,
      two weeks of liquorice ingestion elevated systemic vascular resistance and
      augmentation index. Measurements performed at rest may underestimate the
      haemodynamic effects of liquorice ingestion, as enhanced central wave reflection
      and reduced chronotropic response were especially observed in the upright
      position.

PMID- 28887502
TI  - Synergies between Urban Heat Island and Heat Waves in Athens (Greece), during an
      extremely hot summer (2012).
AB  - Heat waves (HWs) are recognized as a serious threat for human health worldwide,
      with urban areas being more vulnerable due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect
      and population density. Yet, in the climate change context, HWs are becoming more
      frequent, stronger and longer, which, coupled with intensifying urbanization
      exacerbates thermal risk for urban residents. Despite the profound impact of this
      global phenomenon there is no clear consensus so far on possible synergies
      between UHIs and HWs. The study sheds light on the complex synergies between UHIs
      and HWs focusing on coastal sites. A quite challenging period comprising five HW
      episodes during summer 2012 in Athens (Greece) was selected for analysis. A
      positive feedback between UHIs and HWs was found, with intensification of the
      average UHI magnitude by up to 3.5  degrees C during HWs, compared to summer
      background conditions. Our results contribute significantly to understanding
      synergies between UHIs and HWs that may strongly increase thermal risk in cities
      and vulnerability of urban population.

PMID- 28887503
TI  - Stretchable conductive elastomer for wireless wearable communication
      applications.
AB  - Wearable devices have provided noninvasive and continuous monitoring of
      physiological parameters in healthcare applications. However, for the comfortable
      applications of wearable devices on human body, two key requirements are to
      replace conventional bulky devices into soft and deformable ones and to have
      wireless wearable communication. In this paper we present a simple, low-cost and
      highly efficient all-elastomeric conductor that can be used in a soft radio
      frequency (RF) transmission line and antenna. We show a stretchable transmission
      line and two stretchable antennas fabricated with conventional screen printing.
      The stretchable conductor used in this fabrication method, which is a mixture of
      Ag and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), can be stretched at high strains while
      maintaining a high conductivity, low attenuation and feasible radiation
      performance. The measured conductivity of the stretchable conductor reaches 1000
      S/cm. Additionally, the highly conductive printed Ag-PDMS is utilized to
      construct transmission lines and antennas. The performance of these stretchable
      components, especially under different conditions of bending, stretching and
      twisting, are experimentally examined in common wireless-communication frequency
      bands. Our results demonstrate that printed Ag-PDMS enabled RF passive components
      have the desired property and quality for wireless wearable communication
      applications, which would provide new opportunities for wearable healthcare
      electronics.

PMID- 28887504
TI  - Macrophages unlock progression of breast cancer cells experiencing matrigel
      segregation in transplantation models.
AB  - Basement membrane matrix proteins, such as matrigel, are able to improve the
      efficiency of tumour transplantation. This assay represents the gold standard to
      measure tumour initiation potential in vivo of a limited number of cancer cells.
      However, in culture conditions, matrigel directly signals to cancer cells
      altering their phenotype. We here investigate how matrigel influences the tumour
      reconstitution dynamics of breast cancer cells in vivo. This is particularly
      relevant in the setting of limiting dilution assay where cells are transplanted
      in a relatively high amount of Matrigel. We show that matrigel initially induces
      a normalized growth of transplanted MMTV-PyMT breast tumours cells. This occurs
      in the context of a matrigel-segregation effect where cancer cells are
      transiently isolated from host tissue. We identify macrophages as gatekeepers of
      the cancer-host cell interaction: depriving transplants from macrophages locked
      cancer cells in this isolated environment where they fail to form tumours despite
      retaining their intrinsic tumorigenic potential. This is a decisive proof of
      concept that cancer cells' malignant behaviour can be dominated by their
      microenvironment. Moreover, considering that diverse breast cancer cells are
      differently subjected to a segregation effect, this needs to be considered when
      comparing tumour initiation potential of different cancer cells.

PMID- 28887505
TI  - Impaired fibrinolysis and lower levels of plasma alpha2-macroglobulin are
      associated with an increased risk of severe asthma exacerbations.
AB  - Recently we have reported that asthma is associated with enhanced plasma thrombin
      formation, impaired fibrinolysis and platelet activation. In the present study we
      investigated whether described prothrombotic blood alterations might predispose
      to thromboembolic events or asthma exacerbations. In 164 adult asthmatics we
      assessed clinical events during 3-year follow-up and analyzed their associations
      with measured at baseline prothrombotic blood parameters. Data were obtained from
      157 (95.7%) of the asthma patients. We documented 198 severe asthma exacerbations
      (64/year), which occurred in 53 subjects (34%). These patients were older (p =
      0.004), had worse asthma control (p = 0.02) and lower spirometry values (p =
      0.01), at baseline. Interestingly, this subgroup had longer clot lysis time
      (CLT), as well as lower alpha2-macroglobulin (p = 0.038 and p = 0.04,
      respectively, after adjustment for potential confounders). Increased CLT and
      lower alpha2-macroglobulin were demonstrated as independent predictors of asthma
      exacerbation in multiple regression model. Moreover, we documented two episodes
      of deep vein thrombosis (1.3%), and eight acute coronary syndromes (5.1%).
      Patients who experienced thromboembolic events (n = 10, 6.4%, 2.1%/year) had
      lower alpha2-macroglobulin (p = 0.04), without differences in efficiency of
      fibrinolysis and thrombin generation. Impaired fibrinolysis and lower levels of
      alpha2-macroglobulin might predispose to a higher rate of asthma exacerbations,
      suggesting new links between disturbed hemostasis and asthma.

PMID- 28887506
TI  - Introduced ascidians harbor highly diverse and host-specific symbiotic microbial
      assemblages.
AB  - Many ascidian species have experienced worldwide introductions, exhibiting
      remarkable success in crossing geographic borders and adapting to local
      environmental conditions. To investigate the potential role of microbial
      symbionts in these introductions, we examined the microbial communities of three
      ascidian species common in North Carolina harbors. Replicate samples of the
      globally introduced species Distaplia bermudensis, Polyandrocarpa anguinea, and
      P. zorritensis (n = 5), and ambient seawater (n = 4), were collected in
      Wrightsville Beach, NC. Microbial communities were characterized by next
      generation (Illumina) sequencing of partial (V4) 16S rRNA gene sequences.
      Ascidians hosted diverse symbiont communities, consisting of 5,696 unique
      microbial OTUs (at 97% sequenced identity) from 47 bacterial and three archaeal
      phyla. Permutational multivariate analyses of variance revealed clear
      differentiation of ascidian symbionts compared to seawater bacterioplankton, and
      distinct microbial communities inhabiting each ascidian species. 103 universal
      core OTUs (present in all ascidian replicates) were identified, including taxa
      previously described in marine invertebrate microbiomes with possible links to
      ammonia-oxidization, denitrification, pathogenesis, and heavy-metal processing.
      These results suggest ascidian microbial symbionts exhibit a high degree of host
      specificity, forming intimate associations that may contribute to host adaptation
      to new environments via expanded tolerance thresholds and enhanced holobiont
      function.

PMID- 28887507
TI  - Carnosic acid prevents dextran sulfate sodium-induced acute colitis associated
      with the regulation of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway.
AB  - Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs)
      with high prevalence in humans. Carnosic acid (CA) has been reported to possess
      antioxidative properties; however, its role in IBDs has not been determined. In
      the present study, we found that CA significantly prevented the loss of body
      weight and shortening of colon length in acute colitis induced by dextran sodium
      sulfate (DSS). Pronounced infiltration of immune cells and a loss of crypt
      architecture and goblet cells were ameliorated by CA. CA significantly decreased
      the activity of MPO and infiltration of F4/80+ macrophages in the colon. DSS
      induced pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNA and protein levels in the colon were also
      attenuated by CA. CA decreased the activation of p65 and c-Jun signalling. CA
      inhibited DSS-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation by reducing caspase 1
      activity. In addition, CA increased the level of Nrf2 and prevented the
      degradation of Nrf2 via ubiquitination by blocking the interaction between
      Cullin3 and Keap1, which resulted in the decrease of Nrf2 target genes. Finally,
      GSH levels and SOD activity were increased after CA treatment, while MDA and iNOS
      levels were significantly reduced. Taken together, our data showed that CA may be
      useful as a potential therapeutic candidate for IBDs.

PMID- 28887508
TI  - Lattice light sheet imaging of membrane nanotubes between human breast cancer
      cells in culture and in brain metastases.
AB  - Membrane nanotubes are cytosolic protrusions with diameters <1 um that extend
      between cells separated by tens of um. They mediate several forms of
      intercellular communication and are upregulated in diverse diseases. Difficulties
      in visualizing and studying nanotubes within intact tissues have, however,
      prompted skepticism regarding their in vivo relevance, and most studies have been
      confined to cell culture systems. Here, we introduce lattice-light sheet imaging
      of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells genetically engineered to brightly
      express membrane-targeted GFP as a promising approach to visualize membrane
      nanotubes in vitro and in situ. We demonstrate that cultured cells form multiple
      nanotubes that mediate intercellular communication of Ca2+ signals and actively
      traffic GFP-tagged membrane vesicles along their length. Furthermore, we directly
      visualize nanotubes in situ, interconnecting breast cancer cells in live acute
      brain slices from an experimental mouse model of breast cancer brain metastasis.
      This amenable experimental system should facilitate the transition of the study
      of intercellular communication by membrane nanotubes from cell culture to the
      whole animal.

PMID- 28887509
TI  - Optimal stress and deformation partition in gradient materials for better
      strength and tensile ductility: A numerical investigation.
AB  - Inspired by recent progress in developing gradient materials with excellent
      performances, here we report a systematic finite-element based investigation to
      show how the strength and tensile ductility of gradient crystalline metals depend
      on their microstructure characteristics. We reveal that the yielding strength of
      polycrystalline metals with gradient grain size can be significantly enhanced at
      no reduction in ductility. By employing a representative 3D voronoi gradient
      sample, we demonstrate that the redistribution of stress and deformation in the
      gradient structure - stronger grains carry more load and ductile ones share more
      deformation - accounts for the realized optimal property in strength and
      ductility. In addition, the hardenability of the ductile domain is beneficial to
      circumvent pre-mature plastic instability in gradient samples.

PMID- 28887510
TI  - MiRNA-target network analysis identifies potential biomarkers for Traditional
      Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome development evaluation in hepatitis B caused
      liver cirrhosis.
AB  - Hepatitis B is one of most etiologies of Liver cirrhosis in China, and clinically
      lacks the effective strategy for Hepatitis B caused cirrhosis (HBC) therapy. As a
      complementary and alternative medicine, Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) has
      special therapeutic effects for HBC. Here, we focus on the evolution process of
      HBC TCM syndromes, which was from Excessive (Liver-Gallbladder Dampness-Heat
      Syndrome, LGDHS) to Deficient (Liver-Kidney Deficiency Syndrome, LKYDS) via
      Excessive-Deficient syndrome (Liver-Depression and Spleen-Deficiency Syndrome,
      LDSDS). Using R package, 16 miRNAs in LGDHS/Normal, 48 miRNAs in LDSDS/LGDHS, and
      16 miRNAs in LKYDS/LDSDS were identified, respectively. The miRNA-target networks
      show that the LDSDS was most stability and complicated. Subsequently, 4 kernel
      miRNAs with LGDHS-LDSDS process, and 5 kernel miRNAs with LDSDS-LKYDS process
      were screened. Using RT-qPCR data, p1 (hsa-miR-17-3p, -377-3p, -410-3p and -495)
      and p2 miRNA panel (hsa-miR-377-3p, -410-3p, -27a-3p, 149-5p and 940) were
      identified by Logistic Regression Model, which clearly improve the accuracy of
      TCM syndrome classification. The rebuilt miRNA-target network shows that the
      LDSDS is a critical point and might determine the evolution directions of HBC TCM
      syndrome. This study suggests that the identified kernel miRNAs act as potential
      biomarkers and benefit to evaluate the evolution tendency of HBC TCM syndromes.

PMID- 28887511
TI  - Hemoglobin level, a prognostic factor for nasal extranodal natural killer/T-cell
      lymphoma patients from stage I to IV: A validated prognostic nomogram.
AB  - Although nasal extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (nasal ENKL) shares some
      prognostic factors with other lymphomas, seldom studies had explored the
      prognostic value of hemoglobin. The ENKL cases in stage I-IV during 2000 to 2015
      were collected from two medical centers (group A, n = 192), and were randomly
      divided into the group B (n = 155) and C (n = 37). Although the significant
      factors identified by the univariate analysis differed between the group A and B,
      the multivariate Cox regression indicated the same factors. C-index of the model
      was slightly better than Yang's, but its integrated Brier score (IBS) was
      obviously lower than Yang's both in the group A and B. Additionally, minimal
      depth of random survival forest (RSF) classifier confirmed that the prognostic
      ability of hemoglobin was better than age both in the group A and B. In the
      calibration of the nomogram, the predicted 3-year or 5-year OS of our nomogram
      well agreed with the corresponding actual OS. In conclusion, Hemoglobin is a
      prognostic factor for nasal ENKL patients in stage I - IV, and integrating it
      into a validated prognostic nomogram, whose generalization error is the smallest
      among the evaluated models, can be used to predict the patients' outcome.

PMID- 28887512
TI  - LNA effects on DNA binding and conformation: from single strand to duplex and
      triplex structures.
AB  - The anti-gene strategy is based on sequence-specific recognition of double-strand
      DNA by triplex forming (TFOs) or DNA strand invading oligonucleotides to modulate
      gene expression. To be efficient, the oligonucleotides (ONs) should target DNA
      selectively, with high affinity. Here we combined hybridization analysis and
      electrophoretic mobility shift assay with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to
      better understand the underlying structural features of modified ONs in
      stabilizing duplex- and triplex structures. Particularly, we investigated the
      role played by the position and number of locked nucleic acid (LNA) substitutions
      in the ON when targeting a c-MYC or FXN (Frataxin) sequence. We found that LNA
      containing single strand TFOs are conformationally pre-organized for major groove
      binding. Reduced content of LNA at consecutive positions at the 3'-end of a TFO
      destabilizes the triplex structure, whereas the presence of Twisted Intercalating
      Nucleic Acid (TINA) at the 3'-end of the TFO increases the rate and extent of
      triplex formation. A triplex-specific intercalating benzoquinoquinoxaline (BQQ)
      compound highly stabilizes LNA-containing triplex structures. Moreover, LNA
      substitution in the duplex pyrimidine strand alters the double helix structure,
      affecting x-displacement, slide and twist favoring triplex formation through
      enhanced TFO major groove accommodation. Collectively, these findings should
      facilitate the design of potent anti-gene ONs.

PMID- 28887513
TI  - Coherent diffractive imaging of single helium nanodroplets with a high harmonic
      generation source.
AB  - Coherent diffractive imaging of individual free nanoparticles has opened routes
      for the in situ analysis of their transient structural, optical, and electronic
      properties. So far, single-shot single-particle diffraction was assumed to be
      feasible only at extreme ultraviolet and X-ray free-electron lasers, restricting
      this research field to large-scale facilities. Here we demonstrate single-shot
      imaging of isolated helium nanodroplets using extreme ultraviolet pulses from a
      femtosecond-laser-driven high harmonic source. We obtain bright wide-angle
      scattering patterns, that allow us to uniquely identify hitherto unresolved
      prolate shapes of superfluid helium droplets. Our results mark the advent of
      single-shot gas-phase nanoscopy with lab-based short-wavelength pulses and pave
      the way to ultrafast coherent diffractive imaging with phase-controlled
      multicolor fields and attosecond pulses.Diffraction imaging studies of free
      individual nanoparticles have so far been restricted to XUV and X-ray free -
      electron laser facilities. Here the authors demonstrate the possibility of using
      table-top XUV laser sources to image prolate shapes of superfluid helium
      droplets.

PMID- 28887514
TI  - Dormant 5-lipoxygenase in inflammatory macrophages is triggered by exogenous
      arachidonic acid.
AB  - The differentiation of resident tissue macrophages from embryonic precursors and
      that of inflammatory macrophages from bone marrow cells leads to macrophage
      heterogeneity. Further plasticity is displayed through their ability to be
      polarized as subtypes M1 and M2 in a cell culture microenvironment. However, the
      detailed regulation of eicosanoid production and its involvement in macrophage
      biology remains unclear. Using a lipidomics approach, we demonstrated that
      eicosanoid production profiles between bone marrow-derived (BMDM) and peritoneal
      macrophages differed drastically. In polarized BMDMs, M1 and M2 phenotypes were
      distinguished by thromboxane B2, prostaglandin (PG) E2, and PGD2 production, in
      addition to lysophospholipid acyltransferase activity. Although Alox5 expression
      and the presence of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) protein in BMDMs was observed, the
      absence of leukotrienes production reflected an impairment in 5-LO activity,
      which could be triggered by addition of exogenous arachidonic acid (AA). The BMDM
      5-LO regulatory mechanism was not responsive to PGE2/cAMP pathway modulation;
      however, treatment to reduce glutathione peroxidase activity increased 5-LO
      metabolite production after AA stimulation. Understanding the relationship
      between the eicosanoids pathway and macrophage biology may offer novel strategies
      for macrophage-associated disease therapy.

PMID- 28887516
TI  - Linking primary producer diversity and food quality effects on herbivores: A
      biochemical perspective.
AB  - Biodiversity can strongly influence trophic interactions. The nutritional quality
      of prey communities and how it is related to the prey diversity is suspected to
      be a major driver of biodiversity effects. As consumer growth can be co-limited
      by the supply of several biochemical components, biochemically diverse prey
      communities should promote consumer growth. Yet, there is no clear consensus on
      how prey specific diversity is linked to community biochemical diversity since
      previous studies have considered only single nutritional quality traits. Here, we
      demonstrate that phytoplankton biochemical traits (fatty acids and sterols) can
      to a large extent explain Daphnia magna growth and its apparent dependence on
      phytoplankton species diversity. We find strong correlative evidence between
      phytoplankton species diversity, biochemical diversity, and growth. The
      relationship between species diversity and growth was partially explained by the
      fact that in many communities Daphnia was co-limited by long chained
      polyunsaturated fatty acids and sterols, which was driven by different prey taxa.
      We suggest that biochemical diversity is a good proxy for the presence of high
      food quality taxa, and a careful consideration of the distribution of the
      different biochemical traits among species is necessary before concluding about
      causal links between species diversity and consumer performance.

PMID- 28887515
TI  - Sacral Neuromodulation for Refractory Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial
      Cystitis: a Global Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is a common debilitating
      disease and there has not been consistently effective treatment. We aimed to
      evaluate all available literature regarding the efficacy and safety of sacral
      neuromodulation (SNM) for refractory BPS/IC. A comprehensive search of Pubmed,
      Web of Science and Cochrane Library through May 2016 was conducted. A total of 17
      studies enrolling 583 patients were identified. Pooled analyses demonstrated that
      SNM was associated with great reduction in pelvic pain (weighted mean difference
      [WMD] -3.99; 95% confidence interval [CI] -5.22 to -2.76; p < 0.00001),
      Interstitial Cystitis Problem and Symptom Index scores (WMD -6.34; 95% CI -9.57
      to -3.10; p = 0.0001; and WMD -7.17; 95% CI -9.90 to -4.45; p < 0.00001,
      respectively), daytime frequency (WMD -7.45; 95% CI -9.68 to -5.22; p < 0.00001),
      nocturia (WMD -3.01; 95% CI -3.56 to -2.45; p < 0.00001), voids per 24 hours (WMD
      -9.32; 95% CI -10.90 to -7.74; p < 0.00001) and urgency (WMD -1.08; 95% CI -1.79
      to -0.37; p = 0.003) as well as significant improvement in average voided volume
      (WMD 95.16 ml; 95% CI 63.64 to 126.69; p < 0.0001). The pooled treatment success
      rate was 84% (95% CI 76% to 91%). SNM-related adverse events were minimal.
      Current evidence indicates that SNM might be effective and safe for treating
      refractory BPS/IC.

PMID- 28887517
TI  - Densification of the interlayer spacing governs the nanomechanical properties of
      calcium-silicate-hydrate.
AB  - Calciuam-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) is the principal binding phase in modern
      concrete. Molecular simulations imply that its nanoscale stiffness is 'defect
      driven', i.e., dominated by crystallographic defects such as bridging site
      vacancies in its silicate chains. However, experimental validation of this result
      is difficult due to the hierarchically porous nature of C-S-H down to nanometers.
      Here, we integrate high pressure X-ray diffraction and atomistic simulations to
      correlate the anisotropic deformation of nanocrystalline C-S-H to its atomic
      scale structure, which is changed by varying the Ca-to-Si molar ratio. Contrary
      to the 'defect-driven' hypothesis, we clearly observe stiffening of C-S-H with
      increasing Ca/Si in the range 0.8 <= Ca/Si <= 1.3, despite increasing numbers of
      vacancies in its silicate chains. The deformation of these chains along the b
      axis occurs mainly through tilting of the Si-O-Si dihedral angle rather than
      shortening of the Si-O bond, and consequently there is no correlation between the
      incompressibilities of the a- and b-axes and the Ca/Si. On the contrary, the
      intrinsic stiffness of C-S-H solid is inversely correlated with the thickness of
      its interlayer space. This work provides direct experimental evidence to conduct
      more realistic modelling of C-S-H-based cementitious material.

PMID- 28887519
TI  - Decoding the Morphological Differences between Himalayan Glacial and Fluvial
      Landscapes Using Multifractal Analysis.
AB  - Himalayas is the home to nearly 10,000 glaciers which are mostly located at high
      and inaccessible region. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) can be effective in the
      study of these glaciers. This paper aims at providing an automated distinction of
      glacial and fluvial morphologies using multifractal technique. We have studied
      the variation of elevation profile of Glacial and Fluvial landscapes using
      Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA). Glacial landscapes reveal
      more complex structure compared to the fluvial landscapes as indicated by fractal
      parameters degree of multifractality, asymmetry index.

PMID- 28887518
TI  - Monitoring storage induced changes in the platelet proteome employing label free
      quantitative mass spectrometry.
AB  - Shelf life of platelet concentrates is limited to 5-7 days due to loss of
      platelet function during storage, commonly referred to as the platelet storage
      lesion (PSL). To get more insight into the development of the PSL, we used label
      free quantitative mass spectrometry to identify changes in the platelet proteome
      during storage. In total 2501 proteins were accurately quantified in 3 biological
      replicates on at least 1 of the 7 different time-points analyzed. Significant
      changes in levels of 21 proteins were observed over time. Gene ontology
      enrichment analysis of these proteins revealed that the majority of this set was
      involved in platelet degranulation, secretion and regulated exocytosis. Twelve of
      these proteins have been shown to reside in alpha-granules. Upon prolonged
      storage (13-16 days) elevated levels of alpha-2-macroglobulin, glycogenin and Ig
      MU chain C region were identified. Taken together this study identifies novel
      markers for monitoring of the PSL that may potentially also be used for the
      detection of "young" and "old" platelets in the circulation.

PMID- 28887520
TI  - The life-span trajectory of visual perception of 3D objects.
AB  - Deriving a 3D structural representation of an object from its 2D input is one of
      the great challenges for the visual system and yet, this type of representation
      is critical for the successful recognition of and interaction with objects.
      Perhaps reflecting the importance of this computation, infants have some
      sensitivity to 3D structural information, and this sensitivity is, at least,
      partially preserved in the elderly population. To map precisely the life-span
      trajectory of this key visual computation, in a series of experiments, we
      compared the performance of observers from ages 4 to 86 years on displays of
      objects that either obey or violate possible 3D structure. The major findings
      indicate that the ability to derive fine-grained 3D object representations
      emerges after a prolonged developmental trajectory and is contingent on the
      explicit processing of depth information even in late childhood. In contrast, the
      sensitivity to object 3D structure remains stable even through late adulthood
      despite the overall reduction in perceptual competence. Together, these results
      uncover the developmental process of an important perceptual skill, revealing
      that the initial, coarse sensitivity to 3D information is refined, automatized
      and retained over the lifespan.

PMID- 28887521
TI  - Sex differences in the C57BL/6 model of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.
AB  - Globally, tuberculosis (Tb) notification data show a male-to-female ratio of 1.7
      and higher, but the underlying reasons for the male bias remain elusive. Despite
      the well-known gender bias in human pulmonary Tb, a majority of experimental
      animal studies either do not separate and analyze data by sex or do not report
      the sex of their subjects at all. In the present study, we report increased male
      susceptibility in one of the most commonly used mouse models for Tb, C57BL/6
      mice. Our study revealed that disease progression upon aerosol infection with
      Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) was accelerated in males resulting in increased
      morbidity and mortality compared to females. Elevated Mtb loads in males were
      associated with an early exaggerated pulmonary inflammatory response which likely
      was detrimental to the host, as reflected by exacerbated pathology and increased
      mortality. Our data emphasis the urgent need to include and separately analyze
      both sexes in future animal studies of Tb in order to appreciate the differences
      in immune responses and disease pathogenesis between males and females.

PMID- 28887522
TI  - Urban PM2.5 exacerbates allergic inflammation in the murine lung via a
      TLR2/TLR4/MyD88-signaling pathway.
AB  - Nevertheless its mechanism has not been well explained yet, PM2.5 is recognized
      to exacerbate asthma. In the present study, the roles of toll-like receptor (TLR)
      2, TLR4 and MyD88, in exacerbation of allergen-induced lung eosinophilia caused
      by urban PM2.5 was investigated. TLR2-, TLR4-, MyD88-deficient and WT BALB/c mice
      were intratracheally challenged with PM2.5 +/- ovalbumin (OVA) four times at 2
      week intervals. PM2.5 increased neutrophil numbers and KC in bronchoalveolar
      lavage fluid and caused slight peribronchiolar inflammation in WT mice. However,
      these changes were attenuated, but not completely suppressed in gene-deficient
      mice, especially in MyD88-/- mice. In WT mice, PM2.5 + OVA exacerbated OVA
      related lung eosinophilia. This exacerbation includes increase of IL-5, IL-13,
      eotaxin and MCP-3; infiltration of eosinophils into the airway submucosa;
      proliferation of goblet cells in the airway epithelium; and the production of
      antigen-specific IgE and IgG1 in serum. All these effects were stronger in TLR2-/
      mice than in TLR4-/- mice. In MyD88-/- mice, this pro-inflammatory mediator
      inducing ability was considerably weak and lung pathology was negligible. These
      results suggest that urban PM2.5 may exacerbate allergic inflammation in the
      murine lung via a TLR2/TLR4/MyD88-signaling pathway. PM2.5-bound trace microbial
      elements, such as lipopolysaccharide may be a strong candidate for exacerbation
      of murine lung eosinophilia.

PMID- 28887523
TI  - The Role of High Frequency Ultrasonography in Diagnosis of Acute Closed Mallet
      Finger Injury.
AB  - To evaluate the role of high frequency ultrasonography in diagnosis of acute
      closed mallet finger injury. 36 patients diagnosed with mallet finger were
      included in this study. All patients underwent ultrasonography, magnetic
      resonance imaging(MRI) and X-ray examinations. A new kind of classification of
      acute mallet finger injury based on ultrasonography findings was described. The
      difference in terms of extensor tendon injury and bony fragment identification
      ability among the three types of examinations were described respectively. Either
      an injury of extensor digital tendon or an avulsion fracture of distal phalangeal
      base was identified clearly on ultrasonography. Among the 36 cases, avulsion
      fracture of the distal phalangeal base was found without extensor tendon rupture
      in Type A, complete rupture of the extensor tendon was found without avulsion
      fracture in Type B, and contusion of the extensor tendon was found in Type C.
      Compared with X-ray, ultrasonography and MRI could show the extensor tendon
      injury clearly. While compared with MRI, ultrasonography and X-ray was more
      sensitive in showing bony fragment. High frequency ultrasonography could be an
      accurate, reliable, and non-invasive diagnostic imaging method in diagnosis of
      acute close mallet finger injury.

PMID- 28887524
TI  - Selective uptake of epidermal growth factor-conjugated gold nanoparticle (EGF
      GNP) facilitates non-thermal plasma (NTP)-mediated cell death.
AB  - Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma (NTP) has been shown to induce cell death
      in various mammalian cancer cells. Accumulated evidence also shows that NTP could
      be clinically used in cancer therapy. However, the current NTP-based applications
      lack target specificity. Here, a novel method in NTP-mediated cancer therapeutics
      was described with enhanced target specificity by treating EGF (epidermal growth
      factor)-conjugated GNP (gold nanoparticle). The treatment with EGF-conjugated GNP
      complex, followed by NTP irradiation showed selective apoptosis of cells having
      receptor-mediated endocytosis. NTP triggered gamma-H2AX elevation which is a
      typical response elicited by DNA damage. These results suggest that EGF
      conjugated GNP functions as an important adjuvant which gives target specificity
      in applications of conventional plasma therapy.

PMID- 28887525
TI  - MIER3 suppresses colorectal cancer progression by down-regulating Sp1, inhibiting
      epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
AB  - Mesoderm induction early response 1, family member 3 (MIER3) has recently been
      identified as a potential cancer susceptibility gene. However, the expression
      pattern and the role of MIER3 in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) have
      not yet been well characterized. Here, we reported that MIER3 was significantly
      reduced in human primary colorectal cancer and was associated with CRC metastasis
      and poor prognosis. Moreover, the up-regulation of MIER3 expression significantly
      inhibited CRC cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and repressed
      tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. In contrast, down-regulation of MIER3 could
      promote the aggressive behaviors of CRC cells. Furthermore, our study showed that
      MIER3 inhibited cell proliferation and invasion partially via reduction of Sp1
      and subsequent suppression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In
      conclusion, our data suggested that MIER3 plays a potential tumor suppressor role
      in CRC progression and may be a potentially valuable clinical prognostic marker
      of this disease.

PMID- 28887526
TI  - Thin zeolite laminates for rapid and energy-efficient carbon capture.
AB  - Thin, binder-less zeolite NaX laminates, with thicknesses ranging between 310 to
      750 MUm and widths exceeding 50 mm and biaxial tensile strength in excess of 3
      MPa, were produced by pulsed current processing. The NaX laminates displayed a
      high CO2 adsorption capacity and high binary CO2-over-N2 and CO2-over-CH4
      selectivity, suitable for CO2 capture from flue gas and upgrading of raw biogas.
      The thin laminates displayed a rapid CO2 uptake; NaX laminates with a thickness
      of 310 MUm were saturated to 40% of their CO2 capacity within 24 seconds. The
      structured laminates of 310 MUm thickness and 50 mm thickness would offer low
      pressure drop and efficient carbon capture performance in a laminate-based swing
      adsorption technology.

PMID- 28887527
TI  - Pan-genome analysis of Bacillus for microbiome profiling.
AB  - Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technology allow for in-depth
      studies on microbial genomes and their communities. While multiple strains of the
      same species could display genomic variations with different gene contents in
      diverse habitats and hosts, the essential functions for a specific species are
      conserved as core genes that are shared among strains. We have comprehensively
      analyzed 238 strains of five different Bacillus species to identify the
      properties of core and strain-specific genes. Core and strain-specific genes in
      each Bacillus species show significant differences in their functions and genomic
      signatures. Using the core genes defined in this study, we have precisely
      identified the Bacillus species that exist in food microbiomes. Without resorting
      to culture-based whole genome sequencing, an unexpectedly large portion of the
      core genes, 98.22% of core genes in B. amyloliquefaciens and 97.77% of B.
      subtilis, were reconstructed from the microbiome. We have performed a pan-genome
      analysis on the core gene data of multiple Bacillus species to investigate the
      Bacillus species in food microbiome. Our findings provide a comprehensive genetic
      landscape of the Bacillus species, which is also consistent with previous studies
      on a limited number of strains and species. Analysis based on comprehensive core
      genes should thus serve as a powerful profiling tool to better understand major
      constituents in fermented food microbiomes.

PMID- 28887529
TI  - Production of high-resolution forest-ecosite maps based on model predictions of
      soil moisture and nutrient regimes over a large forested area.
AB  - Forest ecosite reflects the local site conditions that are meaningful to forest
      productivity as well as basic ecological functions. Field assessments of
      vegetation and soil types are often used to identify forest ecosites. However,
      the production of high-resolution ecosite maps for large areas from interpolating
      field data is difficult because of high spatial variation and associated costs
      and time requirements. Indices of soil moisture and nutrient regimes (i.e., SMR
      and SNR) introduced in this study reflect the combined effects of biogeochemical
      and topographic factors on forest growth. The objective of this research is to
      present a method for creating high-resolution forest ecosite maps based on
      computer-generated predictions of SMR and SNR for an area in Atlantic Canada
      covering about 4.3 * 106 hectares (ha) of forestland. Field data from 1,507
      forest ecosystem classification plots were used to assess the accuracy of the
      ecosite maps produced. Using model predictions of SMR and SNR alone, ecosite maps
      were 61 and 59% correct in identifying 10 Acadian- and Maritime-Boreal-region
      ecosite types, respectively. This method provides an operational framework for
      the production of high-resolution maps of forest ecosites over large areas
      without the need for data from expensive, supplementary field surveys.

PMID- 28887528
TI  - Transcriptional analysis of genes involved in competitive nodulation in
      Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens at the presence of soybean root exudates.
AB  - Nodulation competition is a key factor that limits symbiotic nitrogen fixation
      between rhizobia and their host legumes. Soybean root exudates (SREs) are thought
      to act as signals that influence Bradyrhizobium ability to colonize roots and to
      survive in the rhizosphere, and thus they act as a key determinant of nodulation
      competitiveness. In order to find the competitiveness-related genes in B.
      diazoefficiens, the transcriptome of two SREs treated B. diazoefficiens with
      completely different nodulation abilities (B. diazoefficiens 4534 and B.
      diazoefficiens 4222) were sequenced and compared. In SREs treated strain 4534
      (SREs-4534), 253 unigenes were up-regulated and 204 unigenes were down-regulated.
      In SREs treated strain 4534 (SREs-4222), the numbers of up- and down-regulated
      unigenes were 108 and 185, respectively. There were considerable differences
      between the SREs-4534 and SREs-4222 gene expression profiles. Some differentially
      expressed genes are associated with a two-component system (i.g., nodW, phyR
      sigmaEcfG), bacterial chemotaxis (i.g., cheA, unigene04832), ABC transport
      proteins (i.g., unigene02212), IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) metabolism (i.g., nthA,
      nthB), and metabolic fitness (i.g., put.), which may explain the higher
      nodulation competitiveness of B. diazoefficiens in the rhizosphere. Our results
      provide a comprehensive transcriptomic resource for SREs treated B.
      diazoefficiens and will facilitate further studies on competitiveness-related
      genes in B. diazoefficiens.

PMID- 28887530
TI  - Persistence of a stage-structured food-web.
AB  - Contrary to a theoretical prediction, natural communities comprise many
      interacting species, thereby developing complex ecosystems. Earlier theoretical
      studies assumed that each component species within an ecological network has a
      simple life history, despite the fact that the interaction partners of many
      species, such as their predators and resources, change during the developmental
      stages. This poses an open question on the effect of life history complexity on
      the dynamics of communities. Here using a food web model, I showed that species
      with a stage-structured life cycle greatly changes the relationship between
      community complexity and persistence. Without stage-structured species, an
      increase in species diversity and interaction links decreases the community
      persistence, whereas in the presence of stage-structured species, community
      complexity can increase the community persistence. Therefore, life history
      complexity may be a key element of biodiversity that is self-maintaining.

PMID- 28887531
TI  - Homogeneity and High Concordance of ALK Translocation in Primary Lung
      Adenocarcinoma and Paired Lymph Node Metastasis.
AB  - Translocation of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene is an important
      determinator for the response to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in non-small
      cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The existence of genetic heterogeneity will
      affect the results of molecular testing, especially in biopsy samples from
      primary or metastatic sites of patients with advanced stage NSCLC. We intended to
      explore the heterogeneity of ALK gene translocation in excision specimens and to
      examine the existence of discordance of ALK status between primary tumours and
      corresponding lymph node metastases. A total of 106 ALK positive lung
      adenocarcinoma cases were collected for assessment of intratumour heterogeneity
      of ALK gene translocation, which were stained by the fully automated Ventana ALK
      D5F3 immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis. In addition, the ALK gene
      translocations were evaluated in a series of 53 primary tumours and their paired
      lymph node metastases using ALK D5F3 IHC staining. The concordance rate between
      primary tumours and paired metastatic lymph nodes was 100%. ALK status was
      homogeneous in lung adenocarcinoma samples and was generally stable during
      metastasis. Therefore, ALK gene translocation can be measured reliably in
      material from either primary or metastatic tumours in lung adenocarcinoma
      patients.

PMID- 28887532
TI  - Nano-Integrated Suspended Polymeric Microfluidics (SPMF) Platform for Ultra
      Sensitive Bio-Molecular Recognition of Bovine Growth Hormones.
AB  - The development of sensitive platforms for the detection of biomolecules
      recognition is an extremely important problem in clinical diagnostics. In
      microcantilever (MC) transducers, surface-stress is induced upon bimolecular
      interaction which is translated into MC deflection. This paper presents a cost
      effective and ultra-sensitive MC-based biosensing platform. To address these
      goals, the need for costly high-resolution read-out system has been eliminated by
      reducing the cantilever compliance through developing a polymer-based cantilever.
      Furthermore a microfluidic system has been integrated with the MC in order to
      enhance sensitivity and response time and to reduce analytes consumption. Gold
      nanoparticles (AuNPs) are synthesized on the surface of suspended microfluidics
      as the selective layer for biomolecule immobilization. The biosensing results
      show significant improvement in the sensitivity of the proposed platform compared
      with available silicon MC biosensor. A detection limit of 2 ng/ml (100pM) is
      obtained for the detection of bovine growth hormones. The results validated
      successful application of suspended polymeric microfluidics (SPMF) as the next
      generation of biosensing platforms which could enable femtomolar (fM)
      biomolecular recognition detection.

PMID- 28887533
TI  - Creation and Initial Characterization of Isogenic Helicobacter pylori CagA EPIYA
      Variants Reveals Differential Activation of Host Cell Signaling Pathways.
AB  - The polymorphic CagA toxin is associated with Helicobacter pylori-induced
      disease. Previous data generated using non-isogenic strains and transfection
      models suggest that variation surrounding the C-terminal Glu-Pro-Ile-Tyr-Ala
      (EPIYA) motifs as well as the number of EPIYA motifs influence disease outcome.
      To investigate potential CagA-mediated effects on host cell signaling, we
      constructed and characterized a large panel of isogenic H. pylori strains that
      differ primarily in the CagA EPIYA region. The number of EPIYA-C motifs or the
      presence of an EPIYA-D motif impacted early changes in host cell elongation;
      however, the degree of elongation was comparable across all strains at later time
      points. In contrast, the strain carrying the EPIYA-D motif induced more IL-8
      secretion than any other EPIYA type, and a single EPIYA-C motif induced
      comparable IL-8 secretion as isolates carrying multiple EPIYA-C alleles. Similar
      levels of ERK1/2 activation were induced by all strains carrying a functional
      CagA allele. Together, our data suggest that polymorphism in the CagA C-terminus
      is responsible for differential alterations in some, but not all, host cell
      signaling pathways. Notably, our results differ from non-isogenic strain studies,
      thus highlighting the importance of using isogenic strains to study the role of
      CagA toxin polymorphism in gastric cancer development.

PMID- 28887534
TI  - Phylogeographic studies of schizothoracine fishes on the central Qinghai-Tibet
      Plateau reveal the highest known glacial microrefugia.
AB  - Pleistocene climatic oscillations have greatly influenced the evolutionary
      history and distribution pattern of most extant species. However, their effects
      on species on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) are not well understood. To
      investigate the effects of past climatic shifts, particularly the Last Glacial
      Maximum (LGM), on plateau fish, we analysed the phylogeographic structure and
      demographic history of five closely related taxa of the subfamily
      Schizothoracinae, a representative endemic taxon of the QTP, from nine endorheic
      lakes on the central QTP and three peripheral exorheic rivers using the
      mitochondrial control region (D-loop) sequence and 12 microsatellite (SSR)
      markers. Phylogram from D-loop haplotypes revealed two well-supported lineages
      (North and South) separated by the Tanggula Mountains. The results from the D
      loop and SSR revealed that endorheic populations possess high genetic diversity
      and a unique genetic structure. The most recent demographic expansion occurred
      post-LGM for most endorheic populations and in the last interglacial period for
      Siling Co and all exorheic populations. Phylogeographic structure, together with
      species distribution modelling, supports the scenario of multiple glacial refugia
      on the QTP during the LGM and suggests that Siling Co (4540 m asl) is a cryptic
      glacial microrefugia for plateau fish, which would be the highest glacial
      microrefugia known.

PMID- 28887535
TI  - Metabolic stress-induced cardiomyopathy is caused by mitochondrial dysfunction
      due to attenuated Erk5 signaling.
AB  - The prevalence of cardiomyopathy from metabolic stress has increased
      dramatically; however, its molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we show
      that extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 5 (Erk5) is lost in the hearts
      of obese/diabetic animal models and that cardiac-specific deletion of Erk5 in
      mice (Erk5-CKO) leads to dampened cardiac contractility and mitochondrial
      abnormalities with repressed fuel oxidation and oxidative damage upon high fat
      diet (HFD). Erk5 regulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma
      co-activator-1alpha (Pgc-1alpha) is critical for cardiac mitochondrial functions.
      More specifically, we show that Gp91phox activation of calpain-1 degrades Erk5 in
      free fatty acid (FFA)-stressed cardiomyocytes, whereas the prevention of Erk5
      loss by blocking Gp91phox or calpain-1 rescues mitochondrial functions.
      Similarly, adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9)-mediated restoration of Erk5
      expression in Erk5-CKO hearts prevents cardiomyopathy. These findings suggest
      that maintaining Erk5 integrity has therapeutic potential for treating metabolic
      stress-induced cardiomyopathy.The mechanistic link between metabolic stress and
      associated cardiomyopathy is unknown. Here the authors show that high fat diet
      causes calpain-1-dependent degradation of ERK5 leading to mitochondrial
      dysfunction, suggesting the maintenance of cardiac ERK5 as a therapeutic approach
      for cardiomyopathy prevention and/or treatment.

PMID- 28887536
TI  - Efficiency of newly formulated camptothecin with beta-cyclodextrin-EDTA-Fe3O4
      nanoparticle-conjugated nanocarriers as an anti-colon cancer (HT29) drug.
AB  - Camptothecin (CPT) is an anti-cancer drug that effectively treats various
      cancers, including colon cancer. However, poor solubility and other drawbacks
      have restricted its chemotherapeutic potential. To overcome these restrictions,
      CPT was encapsulated in CEF (cyclodextrin-EDTA-FE3O4), a composite nanoparticle
      of magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4), and beta-cyclodextrin was cross-linked with
      ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). This formulation improved CPT's
      solubility and bioavailability for cancer cells. The use of magnetically
      responsive anti-cancer formulation is highly advantageous in cancer chemotherapy.
      The chemical characterisation of CPT-CEF was studied here. The ability of this
      nano-compound to induce apoptosis in HT29 colon cancer cells and A549 lung cancer
      cells was evaluated. The dose-dependent cytotoxicity of CPT-CEF was shown using
      MTT. Propidium iodide and Annexin V staining, mitochondrial membrane
      depolarisation (JC-1 dye), and caspase-3 activity were assayed to detect
      apoptosis in CPT-CEF-treated cancer cells. Cell cycle analysis also showed G1
      phase arrest, which indicated possible synergistic effects of the nano-carrier.
      These study results show that CPT-CEF causes a dose-dependent cell viability
      reduction in HT29 and A549 cells and induces apoptosis in colon cancer cells via
      caspase-3 activation. These data strongly suggest that CPT could be used as a
      major nanocarrier for CPT to effectively treat colon cancer.

PMID- 28887537
TI  - LNGFR targets the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and promotes the osteogenic
      differentiation in rat ectomesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - Considerable evidence has shown that the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway is involved in
      osteogenic differentiation in various stem cells. However, the role of Wnt/beta
      catenin pathway in regulating the osteogenic differentiation of rat
      ectomesenchymal stem cells (EMSCs), which are considered to be the progenitors of
      dental mesenchymal stem cells, remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrated
      that nuclear beta-catenin was upregulated during EMSC osteogenic differentiation.
      The Wnt signalling inhibitor IWR-1-endo inhibited EMSC osteogenic
      differentiation, while the Wnt signalling agonist SKL2001 promoted it. Moreover,
      nuclear beta-catenin was further upregulated by the overexpression of low
      affinity nerve growth factor receptor (LNGFR) during EMSC osteogenic
      differentiation. Further experiments demonstrated that LNGFR overexpression
      enhanced EMSC osteogenic differentiation, while LNGFR silencing decreased it.
      Additionally, IWR-1-endo attenuated LNGFR-enhanced EMSC osteogenic
      differentiation. Collectively, our data reveal that LNGFR targets the Wnt/beta
      catenin pathway and positively regulates EMSC osteogenic differentiation,
      suggesting that Wnt/beta-catenin pathway may be involved in the development of
      teeth and that the targeting Wnt/beta-catenin pathway may have great potential
      for applications in dental tissue engineering regeneration.

PMID- 28887538
TI  - Melt fluxing to elevate the forming ability of Al-based bulk metallic glasses.
AB  - Salt-fluxing treatment is an effective technique to improve the glass-forming
      ability (GFA) of bulk metallic glass (BMG)-forming melts, as demonstrated before
      in Pd- and Fe-based systems. However, it has been challenging to develop similar
      fluxing protocol for more reactive melts, such as Al-rich BMG-forming systems.
      Here we design new fluxing agents, from a thermodynamics perspective that takes
      into account combined effects of physical absorption and chemical absorption
      (reaction) between the fluxing agents and oxide inclusions. MgCl2-CaCl2 composite
      salts were selected, and their fluxing effects were systematically studied on an
      Al86Ni6.75Co2.25Y3.25La1.75 alloy, the best BMG-forming composition reported thus
      far for Al-rich alloy systems. The oxygen content was found to continuously
      decrease in the master alloy with increasing cycles of salt-fluxing treatment,
      with chlorate products on the surface suggesting concurrent physical absorption
      and chemical reaction. The fluxing treatment developed has enabled a record
      critical size (diameter) of 2.5 mm for Al-based BMGs. Our finding is thus an
      advance in developing highly desirable Al-based BMGs, and also provides guidance
      for designing processing protocol to produce larger-sized BMGs in other reactive
      systems.

PMID- 28887539
TI  - Neurogenetic plasticity and sex influence the link between corticolimbic
      structural connectivity and trait anxiety.
AB  - Corticolimbic pathways connecting the amygdala and ventral prefrontal cortex
      (vPFC) are linked with trait anxiety, but it remains unclear what potential
      genetic moderators contribute to this association. We sought to address this by
      examining the inter-individual variability in neuroplasticity as modeled by a
      functional polymorphism (rs6265) in the human gene for brain derived neurotrophic
      factor (BDNF). Amygdala-vPFC pathway fractional anisotropy (FA) from 669
      diffusion magnetic resonance images was used to examine associations with trait
      anxiety as a function of rs6265 genotype. We first replicated the inverse
      correlation between trait anxiety and amygdala-vPFC pathway FA in women.
      Furthermore, we found a moderating influence of rs6265 genotype such that the
      association between trait anxiety and right amygdala-vPFC pathway FA was
      strongest in women carrying the Met allele, which is linked with decreased
      activity-dependent neuroplasticity. Results indicate that the microstructural
      integrity of pathways supporting communication between the amygdala and vPFC help
      shape the expression of trait anxiety in women, and that this association is
      further modulated by genetically driven variability in neuroplasticity.

PMID- 28887540
TI  - Interleukin-22 level is negatively correlated with neutrophil recruitment in the
      lungs in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia model.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major threat for immune-compromised patients.
      Bacterial pneumonia can induce uncontrolled and massive neutrophil recruitment
      ultimately leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome and epithelium damage.
      Interleukin-22 plays a central role in the protection of the epithelium. In this
      study, we aimed to evaluate the role of interleukin-22 and its soluble receptor
      IL-22BP in an acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia model in mice. In this
      model, we noted a transient increase of IL-22 during Pseudomonas aeruginosa
      challenge. Using an antibody-based approach, we demonstrated that IL-22
      neutralisation led to increased susceptibility to infection and to lung damage
      correlated with an increase in neutrophil accumulation in the lungs. On the
      contrary, rIL-22 administration or IL-22BP neutralisation led to a decrease in
      mouse susceptibility and lung damage associated with a decrease in neutrophil
      accumulation. This study demonstrated that the IL-22/IL-22BP system plays a major
      role during Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia by moderating neutrophil
      accumulation in the lungs that ultimately leads to epithelium protection.

PMID- 28887541
TI  - Evaluation of single-cell genomics to address evolutionary questions using three
      SAGs of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis.
AB  - Single-cell genomics (SCG) appeared as a powerful technique to get genomic
      information from uncultured organisms. However, SCG techniques suffer from biases
      at the whole genome amplification step that can lead to extremely variable
      numbers of genome recovery (5-100%). Thus, it is unclear how useful can SCG be to
      address evolutionary questions on uncultured microbial eukaryotes. To provide
      some insights into this, we here analysed 3 single-cell amplified genomes (SAGs)
      of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis, whose genome is known. Our results
      show that each SAG has a different, independent bias, yielding different levels
      of genome recovery for each cell (6-36%). Genes often appear fragmented and are
      split into more genes during annotation. Thus, analyses of gene gain and losses,
      gene architectures, synteny and other genomic features can not be addressed with
      a single SAG. However, the recovery of phylogenetically-informative protein
      domains can be up to 55%. This means SAG data can be used to perform accurate
      phylogenomic analyses. Finally, we also confirm that the co-assembly of several
      SAGs improves the general genomic recovery. Overall, our data show that, besides
      important current limitations, SAGs can still provide interesting and novel
      insights from poorly-known, uncultured organisms.

PMID- 28887542
TI  - Genome-wide analysis of health-related biomarkers in the UK Household
      Longitudinal Study reveals novel associations.
AB  - Serum biomarker levels are associated with the risk of complex diseases. Here, we
      aimed to gain insights into the genetic architecture of biomarker traits which
      can reflect health status. We performed genome-wide association analyses for
      twenty serum biomarkers involved in organ function and reproductive health. 9,961
      individuals from the UK Household Longitudinal Study were genotyped using the
      Illumina HumanCoreExome array and variants imputed to the 1000 Genomes Project
      and UK10K haplotypes. We establish a polygenic heritability for all biomarkers,
      confirm associations of fifty-four established loci, and identify five novel,
      replicating associations at genome-wide significance. A low-frequency variant,
      rs28929474, (beta = 0.04, P = 2 * 10-10) was associated with levels of alanine
      transaminase, an indicator of liver damage. The variant is located in the gene
      encoding serine protease inhibitor, low levels of which are associated with alpha
      1 antitrypsin deficiency which leads to liver disease. We identified novel
      associations (rs78900934, beta = 0.05, P = 6 * 10-12; rs2911280, beta = 0.09, P =
      6 * 10-10) for dihydroepiandrosterone sulphate, a precursor to major sex
      hormones, and for glycated haemoglobin (rs12819124, beta = -0.03, P = 4 * 10-9;
      rs761772, beta = 0.05, P = 5 * 10-9). rs12819124 is nominally associated with
      risk of type 2 diabetes. Our study offers insights into the genetic architecture
      of well-known and less well-studied biomarkers.

PMID- 28887543
TI  - The Oxidative State of Cysteine Thiol 144 Regulates the SIRT6 Glucose Homeostat.
AB  - Control of glucose homeostasis plays a critical role in health and lifespan and
      its dysregulation contributes to inflammation, cancer and aging. NAD + dependent
      Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) is a glucose homeostasis regulator in animals and humans and
      its regulation at the molecular level is unknown. Here, we report that a cysteine
      thiol redox sensor contributes to the role of SIRT6 in controlling glucose
      homeostasis. Sulfenylation of SIRT6 occurs in THP1 cells and primary human
      promonocytes during inflammation and in splenocytes from mice with sepsis.
      Inhibiting xanthine oxidase, a major reactive oxygen species (ROS) contributor
      during acute inflammation, reduces sulfenylation of SIRT6, glucose transporter
      Glut1 expression, glucose uptake, and glycolysis. A block in glycolysis
      associated with monocyte deactivation by endotoxin, a process contributing to
      immunometabolic paralysis in human and mouse sepsis monocytes, can be reversed by
      increasing H2O2 and sulfenylating SIRT6. Mutation analysis of SIRT6 Cys144, which
      lies in its phylogenetically conserved zinc-associated Cys-X-X-Cys motif near the
      catalytic domain of the protein, decreases SIRT6 deacetylase activity and
      promotes glycolysis. These results suggest that direct and reversible cysteine
      thiol 144 may play a functional role in SIRT6-dependent control over monocyte
      glycolysis, an important determinant of effector innate immune responses.

PMID- 28887544
TI  - Analysis of bacterial and fungal communities in Marcha and Thiat, traditionally
      prepared amylolytic starters of India.
AB  - Marcha and thiat are traditionally prepared amylolytic starters use for
      production of various ethnic alcoholic beverages in Sikkim and Meghalaya states
      in India. In the present study we have tried to investigate the bacterial and
      fungal community composition of marcha and thiat by using high throughput
      sequencing. Characterization of bacterial community depicts phylum Proteobacteria
      is the most dominant in both marcha (91.4%) and thiat (53.8%), followed by
      Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. Estimates of fungal community composition showed
      Ascomycota as the dominant phylum. Presence of Zygomycota in marcha distinguishes
      it from the thiat. The results of NGS analysis revealed dominance of yeasts in
      marcha whereas molds out numbers in case of thiat. This is the first report on
      microbial communities of traditionally prepared amylolytic starters of India
      using high throughput sequencing.

PMID- 28887545
TI  - Human-to-human closed-loop control based on brain-to-brain interface and muscle
      to-muscle interface.
AB  - Novel communication techniques have always been fascinating for humankind. This
      pilot study presents an approach to human interaction by combining direct brain
      to-brain interface (BBI) and muscle-to-muscle interface (MMI) in a closed-loop
      pattern. In this system, artificial paths (data flows) functionally connect
      natural paths (nerves). The intention from one subject (sender) is recognized
      using electroencephalography (EEG) based brain-computer interface (BCI), which is
      sent out to trigger transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the other subject
      (receiver) and induce hand motion; meanwhile TMS results in a significant change
      on the motor evoked potentials (MEP) recorded by electromyography (EMG) of the
      receiver's arm, which triggers functional electrical stimulation (FES) applied to
      the sender's arm and generates hand motion. Human-controlled loop and automatic
      control loop experiments were performed with 6 pairs of healthy subjects to
      evaluate the performance of the introduced mechanism. The results indicated that
      response accuracy during human-controlled experiments was 85% which demonstrates
      the feasibility of the proposed method. During the automatic control test, two
      subjects could accomplish repetitive and reciprocal hand motion control up to 85
      times consecutively.

PMID- 28887546
TI  - Metabolomics differences between silkworms (Bombyx mori) reared on fresh mulberry
      (Morus) leaves or artificial diets.
AB  - Silkworms (Bombyx mori) reared on artificial diets have great potential
      applications in sericulture. However, the mechanisms underlying the enhancement
      of metabolic utilization by altering silkworm nutrition are unclear. The aim of
      this study was to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the poor development
      and low silk protein synthesis efficiency of silkworms fed artificial diets.
      After multi-generational selection of the ingestive behavior of silkworms to
      artificial diets, we obtained two strains, one of which developed well and
      another in which almost all its larvae starved to death on the artificial diets.
      Subsequently, we analyzed the metabolomics of larval hemolymph by gas
      chromatography/liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the results showed
      that vitamins were in critically short supply, whereas the nitrogen metabolic end
      product of urea and uric acid were enriched substantially, in the hemolymph of
      the silkworms reared on the artificial diets. Meanwhile, amino acid metabolic
      disorders, as well as downregulation of carbohydrate metabolism, energy
      metabolism, and lipid metabolism, co-occurred. Furthermore, 10 male-dominant
      metabolites and 27 diet-related metabolites that differed between male and female
      silkworms were identified. These findings provide important insights into the
      regulation of silkworm metabolism and silk protein synthesis when silkworms adapt
      to an artificial diet.

PMID- 28887547
TI  - Uncovering the effect of low-frequency static magnetic field on tendon-derived
      cells: from mechanosensing to tenogenesis.
AB  - Magnetotherapy has been receiving increased attention as an attractive strategy
      for modulating cell physiology directly at the site of injury, thereby providing
      the medical community with a safe and non-invasive therapy. Yet, how magnetic
      field influences tendon cells both at the cellular and molecular levels remains
      unclear. Thus, the influence of a low-frequency static magnetic field (2 Hz, 350
      mT) on human tendon-derived cells was studied using different exposure times (4
      and 8 h; short-term studies) and different regimens of exposure to an 8h-period
      of magnetic stimulation (continuous, every 24 h or every 48 h; long-term
      studies). Herein, 8 h stimulation in short-term studies significantly upregulated
      the expression of tendon-associated genes SCX, COL1A1, TNC and DCN (p < 0.05) and
      altered intracellular Ca2+ levels (p < 0.05). Additionally, every 24 h regimen of
      stimulation significantly upregulated COL1A1, COL3A1 and TNC at day 14 in
      comparison to control (p < 0.05), whereas continuous exposure differentially
      regulated the release of the immunomodulatory cytokines IL-1beta and IL-10 (p <
      0.001) but only at day 7 in comparison to controls. Altogether, these results
      provide new insights on how low-frequency static magnetic field fine-tune the
      behaviour of tendon cells according to the magnetic settings used, which we
      foresee to represent an interesting candidate to guide tendon regeneration.

PMID- 28887548
TI  - Label-free and real-time monitoring of single cell attachment on template
      stripped plasmonic nano-holes.
AB  - Leveraging microfluidics and nano-plasmonics, we present in this paper a new
      method employing a micro-nano-device that is capable of monitoring the dynamic
      cell-substrate attachment process at single cell level in real time without
      labeling. The micro-nano-device essentially has a gold thin film as the substrate
      perforated with periodic, near-cm2-area, template-stripped nano-holes, which
      generate plasmonic extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) with a high
      sensitivity to refractive index changes at the metal-dielectric interface. Using
      this device, we successfully demonstrated label-free and real-time monitoring of
      the dynamic cell attachment process for single mouse embryonic stem cell (C3H10)
      and human tumor cell (HeLa) by collecting EOT spectrum data during 3-hour on-chip
      culture. We further collected the EOT spectral shift data at the start and end
      points of measurement during 3-hour on-chip culture for 50 C3H10 and 50 HeLa
      cells, respectively. The experiment results show that the single cell attachment
      process of both HeLa and C3H10 cells follow the logistic retarded growth model,
      but with different kinetic parameters. Variations in spectral shift during the
      same culture period across single cells present new evidence for cell
      heterogeneity. The micro-nano-device provides a new, label-free, real-time, and
      sensitive, platform to investigate the cell adhesion kinetics at single cell
      level.

PMID- 28887549
TI  - SATB2/beta-catenin/TCF-LEF pathway induces cellular transformation by generating
      cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer.
AB  - Recent studies have demonstrated the involvement of colorectal cancer (CRC) stem
      cells (CSC) in transformation, cancer progression and metastasis. The main goal
      of this paper was to examine the molecular mechanisms by which SATB2 induced
      malignant transformation of colorectal epithelial cells. SATB2 induced malignant
      transformation and these transformed cells gained the characteristics of CSCs by
      expressing stem cell markers (CD44, CD133, LGR5 and DCLK1) and transcription
      factors (c-Myc, Nanog and Sox2). Overexpression of SATB2 in normal colorectal
      epithelial cells increased cell motility, migration and invasion, which were
      associated with an increase in N-cadherin and Zeb1, and decrease in E-cadherin
      expression. SATB2 overexpression also upregulated XIAP and cyclin D1, suggesting
      its role in cell survival and cell cycle. Furthermore, the expression of SATB2
      was positively correlated with beta-catenin expression in CRC. In contrary,
      depletion of SATB2 inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, cell motility
      and expression of beta-catenin, Snail, Slug, Zeb1 and N-cadherin, and upregulated
      E-cadherin. Furthermore, SATB2 silencing inhibited the expression of stem cell
      markers, pluripotency maintaining transcription factors, cell cycle and cell
      proliferation/survival genes and TCF/LEF targets. Finally, beta-catenin/TCF-LEF
      pathway mediated the biological effects of SATB2 in CSCs. These studies support
      the role of SATB2/beta-catenin/TCF-LEF pathway in transformation and
      carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28887550
TI  - Identification of immunity-related genes in Plutella xylostella in response to
      fungal peptide destruxin A: RNA-Seq and DGE analysis.
AB  - Plutella xylostella has become the major lepidopteran pest of Brassica owing to
      its strong ability of resistance development to a wide range of insecticides.
      Destruxin A, a mycotoxin of entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae, has
      broad-spectrum insecticidal effects. However, the interaction mechanism of
      destruxin A with the immune system of P. xylostella at genomic level is still not
      well understood. Here, we identified 129 immunity-related genes, including
      pattern recognition receptors, signal modulators, few members of main immune
      pathways (Toll, Imd, and JAK/STAT), and immune effectors in P. xylostella in
      response to destruxin A at three different time courses (2 h, 4 h, and 6 h). It
      is worthy to mention that the immunity-related differentially expressed genes
      (DEGs) analysis exhibited 30, 78, and 72 up-regulated and 17, 13, and 6 down
      regulated genes in P. xylostella after destruxin A injection at 2 h, 4 h, and 6
      h, respectively, compared to control. Interestingly, our results revealed that
      the expression of antimicrobial peptides that play a vital role in insect immune
      system was up-regulated after the injection of destruxin A. Our findings provide
      a detailed information on immunity-related DEGs and reveal the potential of P.
      xylostella to limit the infection of fungal peptide destruxin A by increasing the
      activity of antimicrobial peptides.

PMID- 28887551
TI  - Graphene Improves the Biocompatibility of Polyacrylamide Hydrogels: 3D Polymeric
      Scaffolds for Neuronal Growth.
AB  - In tissue engineering strategies, the design of scaffolds based on nanostructures
      is a subject undergoing intense research: nanomaterials may affect the scaffolds
      properties, including their ability to interact with cells favouring cell growth
      and improving tissue performance. Hydrogels are synthetic materials widely used
      to obtain realistic tissue constructs, as they resemble living tissues. Here,
      different hydrogels with varying content of graphene, are synthesised by in situ
      radical polymerization of acrylamide in aqueous graphene dispersions. Hydrogels
      are characterised focusing on the contribution of the nanomaterial to the polymer
      network. Our results suggest that graphene is not a mere embedded nanomaterial
      within the hydrogels, rather it represents an intrinsic component of these
      networks, with a specific role in the emergence of these structures. Moreover, a
      hybrid hydrogel with a graphene concentration of only 0.2 mg mL-1 is used to
      support the growth of cultured brain cells and the development of synaptic
      activity, in view of exploiting these novel materials to engineer the neural
      interface of brain devices of the future. The main conclusion of this work is
      that graphene plays an important role in improving the biocompatibility of
      polyacrylamide hydrogels, allowing neuronal adhesion.

PMID- 28887552
TI  - Formaldehyde Hemiacetal Sampling, Recovery, and Quantification from Electronic
      Cigarette Aerosols.
AB  - The electronic cigarette solvents propylene glycol and glycerol are known to
      produce toxic byproducts such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein.
      However, the aerosol toxin yield depends upon a variety of chemical and physical
      variables. The formaldehyde hemiacetals derived from these solvents were reported
      as major electronic cigarette aerosol components by us in 2015. In the study
      described herein, the formaldehyde hemiacetals were found at higher levels than
      those of free formaldehyde via an orthogonal sample collection protocol. In
      addition, the common aldehyde collection methods for electronic cigarettes, such
      as impingers and sorbent tubes containing DNPH, significantly underestimate the
      levels of formaldehyde. The reason for this is that formaldehyde hemiacetals
      follow other reaction pathways, such as the formation of a less reactive full
      cyclic acetal catalyzed by the acidity of the DNPH solution and the silica. We
      found that formaldehyde hemiacetals are a considerable fraction of the total
      formaldehyde produced in electronic cigarette that cannot be determined
      accurately by DNPH derivatization methods. Although the health effects of the
      hemiacetals are not yet known, they warrant further investigation.

PMID- 28887553
TI  - Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations.
AB  - Elasmobranch fishes are among a broad range of taxa believed to gain positional
      information and navigate using the earth's magnetic field, yet in sharks, much
      remains uncertain regarding the sensory receptors and pathways involved, or the
      exact nature of perceived stimuli. Captive sandbar sharks, Carcharhinus plumbeus
      were conditioned to respond to presentation of a magnetic stimulus by seeking out
      a target in anticipation of reward (food). Sharks in the study demonstrated
      strong responses to magnetic stimuli, making significantly more approaches to the
      target (p = < 0.01) during stimulus activation (S+) than before or after
      activation (S-). Sharks exposed to reversible magnetosensory impairment were less
      capable of discriminating changes to the local magnetic field, with no difference
      seen in approaches to the target under the S+ and S- conditions (p = 0.375). We
      provide quantified detection and discrimination thresholds of magnetic stimuli
      presented, and quantify associated transient electrical artefacts. We show that
      the likelihood of such artefacts serving as the stimulus for observed behavioural
      responses was low. These impairment experiments support hypotheses that magnetic
      field perception in sharks is not solely performed via the electrosensory system,
      and that putative magnetoreceptor structures may be located in the naso-olfactory
      capsules of sharks.

PMID- 28887554
TI  - Near-optimal integration of facial form and motion.
AB  - Human perception consists of the continuous integration of sensory cues
      pertaining to the same object. While it has been fairly well shown that humans
      use an optimal strategy when integrating low-level cues proportional to their
      relative reliability, the integration processes underlying high-level perception
      are much less understood. Here we investigate cue integration in a complex high
      level perceptual system, the human face processing system. We tested cue
      integration of facial form and motion in an identity categorization task and
      found that an optimal model could successfully predict subjects' identity
      choices. Our results suggest that optimal cue integration may be implemented
      across different levels of the visual processing hierarchy.

PMID- 28887555
TI  - Monitoring the colonization and infection of legume nodules by Micromonospora in
      co-inoculation experiments with rhizobia.
AB  - The discovery that the actinobacterium Micromonospora inhabits nitrogen-fixing
      nodules raised questions as to its potential ecological role. The capacity of two
      Micromonospora strains to infect legumes other than their original host, Lupinus
      angustifolius, was investigated using Medicago and Trifolium as test plants.
      Compatible rhizobial strains were used for coinoculation of the plants because
      Micromonospora itself does not induce nodulation. Over 50% of nodules from each
      legume housed Micromonospora, and using 16S rRNA gene sequence identification, we
      verified that the reisolated strains corresponded to the microorganisms
      inoculated. Entry of the bacteria and colonization of the plant hosts were
      monitored using a GFP-tagged Lupac 08 mutant together with rhizobia, and by using
      immunogold labeling. Strain Lupac 08 was localized in plant tissues, confirming
      its capacity to enter and colonize all hosts. Based on studying three different
      plants, our results support a non-specific relationship between Micromonospora
      and legumes. Micromonospora Lupac 08, originally isolated from Lupinus re-enters
      root tissue, but only when coinoculated with the corresponding rhizobia. The
      ability of Micromonospora to infect and colonize different legume species and
      function as a potential plant-growth promoting bacterium is relevant because this
      microbe enhances the symbiosis without interfering with the host and its
      nodulating and nitrogen-fixing microbes.

PMID- 28887556
TI  - Biodegradation of gentamicin by bacterial consortia AMQD4 in synthetic medium and
      raw gentamicin sewage.
AB  - Gentamicin, a broad spectrum antibiotic of the aminoglycoside class, is widely
      used for disease prevention of human beings as well as animals. Nowadays the
      environmental issue caused by the disposal of wastes containing gentamicin
      attracts increasing attention. In this study, a gentamicin degrading bacterial
      consortia named AMQD4, including Providencia vermicola, Brevundimonas diminuta,
      Alcaligenes sp. and Acinetobacter, was isolated from biosolids produced during
      gentamicin production for the removal of gentamicin in the environment. The
      component and structure of gentamicin have a great influence on its degradation
      and gentamicin C1a and gentamicin C2a were more prone to being degraded. AMQD4
      could maintain relatively high gentamicin removal efficiency under a wide range
      of pH, especially in an alkaline condition. In addition, AMQD4 could remove 56.8%
      and 47.7% of gentamicin in unsterilized and sterilized sewage in a lab-scale
      experiment, respectively. And among the isolates in AMQD4, Brevundimonas diminuta
      BZC3 performed the highest gentamicin degradation about 50%. It was speculated
      that aac3iia was the gentamicin degradation gene and the main degradation product
      was 3'-acetylgentamicin. Our results suggest that AMQD4 and Brevundimonas
      diminuta BZC3 could be important candidates to the list of superior microbes for
      bioremediation of antibiotic pollution.

PMID- 28887557
TI  - Identification of Purple Acid Phosphatases in Chickpea and Potential Roles of
      CaPAP7 in Seed Phytate Accumulation.
AB  - Purple acid phosphatases (PAPs) play important roles in phosphate (Pi)
      acquisition and utilization. These PAPs hydrolyze organic Phosphorus (P)
      containing compounds in rhizosphere as well as inside the plant cell. However,
      roles of PAPs in one of the most widely cultivated legumes, chickpea (Cicer
      arietnum L.), have not been unraveled so far. In the present study, we identified
      25 putative PAPs in chickpea (CaPAPs) which possess functional PAP motifs and
      domains. Differential regulation of CaPAPs under different nutrient deficiencies
      revealed their roles under multiple nutrient stresses including Pi deficiency.
      Interestingly, most of the CaPAPs were prominently expressed in flowers and young
      pods indicating their roles in flower and seed development. Association mapping
      of SNPs underlying CaPAPs with seed traits revealed significant association of
      low Pi inducible CaPAP7 with seed weight and phytate content. Biochemical
      characterization of recombinant CaPAP7 established it to be a functional acid
      phosphatase with highest activity on most abundant organic-P substrate, phytate.
      Exogenous application of recombinant CaPAP7 enhanced biomass and Pi content of
      Arabidopsis seedlings supplemented with phytate as sole P source. Taken together,
      our results uncover the PAPs in chickpea and potential roles of CaPAP7 in seed
      phytate accumulation.

PMID- 28887558
TI  - Dramatically Enhanced Superconductivity in Elemental Bismuth from Excitonic
      Fluctuation Exchange.
AB  - Motivated by the remarkable discovery of superconductivity in elemental Bismuth
      at ambient pressure, we study its normal state in detail using a combination of
      tight-binding (TB) band-structure supplemented by dynamical mean-field theory
      (DMFT). We show that a two-fluid model composed of preformed and dynamically
      fluctuating excitons coupled to a tiny number of carriers provides a unified
      rationalization of a range of ill-understood normal state spectral and transport
      data. Based on these, we propose that resonant scattering involving a very low
      density of renormalized carriers and the excitonic liquid drives logarithmic
      enhancement of vertex corrections, boosting superconductivity in Bi. A
      confirmatory test for our proposal would be the experimental verification of an
      excitonic semiconductor with electronic nematicity as a 'competing order' on
      inducing a semi-metal-to semiconductor transition in Bi by an external
      perturbation like pressure.

PMID- 28887559
TI  - Delayed hypersensitivity to nanosecond pulsed electric field in electroporated
      cells.
AB  - We demonstrate that conditioning of mammalian cells by electroporation with
      nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) facilitates their response to the next
      nsPEF treatment. The experiments were designed to unambiguously separate the
      electroporation-induced sensitization and desensitization effects.
      Electroporation was achieved by bursts of 300-ns, 9 kV/cm pulses (50 Hz, n = 3
      100) and quantified by propidium dye uptake within 11 min after the nsPEF
      exposure. We observed either sensitization to nsPEF or no change (when the
      conditioning was either too weak or too intense, or when the wait time after
      conditioning was too short). Within studied limits, conditioning never caused
      desensitization. With settings optimal for sensitization, the second nsPEF
      treatment became 2.5 times (25  degrees C) or even 6 times (37  degrees C) more
      effective than the same nsPEF treatment delivered without conditioning. The
      minimum wait time required for sensitization development was 30 s, with still
      longer delays increasing the effect. We show that the delayed hypersensitivity
      was not mediated by either cell swelling or oxidative effect of the conditioning
      treatment; biological mechanisms underlying the delayed electrosensitization
      remain to be elucidated. Optimizing nsPEF delivery protocols to induce
      sensitization can reduce the dose and adverse side effects of diverse medical
      treatments which require multiple pulse applications.

PMID- 28887560
TI  - Simulation of head and neck cancer oxygenation and doubling time in a 4D cellular
      model with angiogenesis.
AB  - Tumor oxygenation has been correlated with treatment outcome for radiotherapy. In
      this work, the dependence of tumor oxygenation on tumor vascularity and blood
      oxygenation was determined quantitatively in a 4D stochastic computational model
      of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumor growth and angiogenesis.
      Additionally, the impacts of the tumor oxygenation and the cancer stem cell (CSC)
      symmetric division probability on the tumor volume doubling time and the
      proportion of CSCs in the tumor were also quantified. Clinically relevant
      vascularities and blood oxygenations for HNSCC yielded tumor oxygenations in
      agreement with clinical data for HNSCC. The doubling time varied by a factor of 3
      from well oxygenated tumors to the most severely hypoxic tumors of HNSCC. To
      obtain the doubling times and CSC proportions clinically observed in HNSCC, the
      model predicts a CSC symmetric division probability of approximately 2% before
      treatment. To obtain the doubling times clinically observed during treatment when
      accelerated repopulation is occurring, the model predicts a CSC symmetric
      division probability of approximately 50%, which also results in CSC proportions
      of 30-35% during this time.

PMID- 28887561
TI  - Enhancement of extinction memory by pharmacological and behavioral interventions
      targeted to its reactivation.
AB  - Extinction is a process that involves new learning that inhibits the expression
      of previously acquired memories. Although temporarily effective, extinction does
      not erase an original fear association. Since the extinction trace tends to fade
      over time, the original memory can resurge. On the other hand, strengthening
      effects have been described in several reconsolidation studies using different
      behavioral and pharmacological manipulations. In order to know whether an
      extinction memory can be strengthened by reactivation-based interventions in the
      contextual fear conditioning task, we began by replicating the classic phenomenon
      of spontaneous recovery to show that brief reexposure sessions can prevent the
      decay of the extinction trace over time in a long-lasting way. This fear
      attenuation was shown to depend both on L-type calcium channels and protein
      synthesis, which suggests a reconsolidation process behind the reactivation
      induced strengthening effect. The extinction trace was also susceptible to
      enhancement by a post-reactivation infusion of a memory-enhancing drug (NaB),
      which was also able to prevent rapid fear reacquisition (savings). These findings
      point to new reactivation-based approaches able to strengthen an extinction
      memory to promote its persistence. The constructive interactions between
      extinction and reconsolidation may represent a promising novel approach in the
      realm of fear-related disorder treatments.

PMID- 28887562
TI  - Metformin Improves Endothelial Function and Reduces Blood Pressure in Diabetic
      Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Independent from Glycemia Control: Comparison to
      Vildagliptin.
AB  - Metformin confers vascular benefits beyond glycemia control, possibly via
      pleiotropic effects on endothelial function. In type-1-diabetes-mellitus (T1DM
      )patients metformin improved flow-mediated dilation but also increased
      prostaglandin(PG)-F2alpha, a known endothelial-contracting factor. To explain
      this paradoxical finding we hypothesized that metformin increased endothelial
      vasodilator mediators (e.g. NO and EDHF) to an even larger extent. Spontaneously
      hypertensive-rats (SHR) display impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation (EDR)
      involving contractile PGs. EDR was studied in isolated SHR aortas and the
      involvement of PGs, NO and EDHF assessed. 12-week metformin 300 mg/kg/day
      improved EDR by up-regulation of NO and particularly EDHF; it also reduced blood
      pressure and increased plasma sulphide levels (a proxy for H2S, a possible
      mediator of EDHF). These effects persisted in SHR with streptozotocin (STZ)
      induced T1DM. Vildagliptin (10 mg/kg/day), targeting the incretin axis by
      increasing GLP-1, also reduced blood pressure and improved EDR in SHR aortas,
      mainly via the inhibition of contractile PGs, but not in STZ-SHR. Neither
      metformin nor vildagliptin altered blood glucose or HbA1c. In conclusion,
      metformin reduced blood pressure and improved EDR in SHR aorta via up-regulation
      of NO and particularly EDHF, an effect that was independent from glycemia control
      and maintained during T1DM. A comparison to vildagliptin did not support effects
      of metformin mediated by GLP-1.

PMID- 28887563
TI  - The most active Cu facet for low-temperature water gas shift reaction.
AB  - Identification of the active site is important in developing rational design
      strategies for solid catalysts but is seriously blocked by their structural
      complexity. Here, we use uniform Cu nanocrystals synthesized by a morphology
      preserved reduction of corresponding uniform Cu2O nanocrystals in order to
      identify the most active Cu facet for low-temperature water gas shift (WGS)
      reaction. Cu cubes enclosed with {100} facets are very active in catalyzing the
      WGS reaction up to 548 K while Cu octahedra enclosed with {111} facets are
      inactive. The Cu-Cu suboxide (CuxO, x >= 10) interface of Cu(100) surface is the
      active site on which all elementary surface reactions within the catalytic cycle
      proceed smoothly. However, the formate intermediate was found stable at the Cu
      CuxO interface of Cu(111) surface with consequent accumulation and poisoning of
      the surface at low temperatures. Thereafter, Cu cubes-supported ZnO catalysts are
      successfully developed with extremely high activity in low-temperature WGS
      reaction.Nanocrystals display a variety of facets with different catalytic
      activity. Here the authors identify the most active facet of copper nanocrystals
      relevant to the low-temperature water gas shift reaction and further design zinc
      oxide-copper nanocubes with exceptionally high catalytic activity.

PMID- 28887565
TI  - Rapid synthesis and decoration of reduced graphene oxide with gold nanoparticles
      by thermostable peptides for memory device and photothermal applications.
AB  - This article presents novel, rapid, and environmentally benign synthesis method
      for one-step reduction and decoration of graphene oxide with gold nanoparticles
      (NAuNPs) by using thermostable antimicrobial nisin peptides to form a gold
      nanoparticles-reduced graphene oxide (NAu-rGO) nanocomposite. The formed
      composite material was characterized by UV/Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction,
      Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field emission scanning
      electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR
      TEM). HR-TEM analysis revealed the formation of spherical AuNPs of 5-30 nm in
      size on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets. A non-volatile-memory device was
      prepared based on a solution-processed ZnO thin-film transistor fabricated by
      inserting the NAu-rGO nanocomposite in the gate dielectric stack as a charge
      trapping medium. The transfer characteristic of the ZnO thin-film transistor
      memory device showed large clockwise hysteresis behaviour because of charge
      carrier trapping in the NAu-rGO nanocomposite. Under positive and negative bias
      conditions, clear positive and negative threshold voltage shifts occurred, which
      were attributed to charge carrier trapping and de-trapping in the ZnO/NAu
      rGO/SiO2 structure. Also, the photothermal effect of the NAu-rGO nanocomposites
      on MCF7 breast cancer cells caused inhibition of ~80% cells after irradiation
      with infrared light (0.5 W cm-2) for 5 min.

PMID- 28887564
TI  - Inhibition of Y1 receptor signaling improves islet transplant outcome.
AB  - Failure to secrete sufficient quantities of insulin is a pathological feature of
      type-1 and type-2 diabetes, and also reduces the success of islet cell
      transplantation. Here we demonstrate that Y1 receptor signaling inhibits insulin
      release in beta-cells, and show that this can be pharmacologically exploited to
      boost insulin secretion. Transplanting islets with Y1 receptor deficiency
      accelerates the normalization of hyperglycemia in chemically induced diabetic
      recipient mice, which can also be achieved by short-term pharmacological blockade
      of Y1 receptors in transplanted mouse and human islets. Furthermore, treatment of
      non-obese diabetic mice with a Y1 receptor antagonist delays the onset of
      diabetes. Mechanistically, Y1 receptor signaling inhibits the production of cAMP
      in islets, which via CREB mediated pathways results in the down-regulation of
      several key enzymes in glycolysis and ATP production. Thus, manipulating Y1
      receptor signaling in beta-cells offers a unique therapeutic opportunity for
      correcting insulin deficiency as it occurs in the pathological state of type-1
      diabetes as well as during islet transplantation.Islet transplantation is
      considered one of the potential treatments for T1DM but limited islet survival
      and their impaired function pose limitations to this approach. Here Loh et al.
      show that the Y1 receptor is expressed in beta- cells and inhibition of its
      signalling, both genetic and pharmacological, improves mouse and human islet
      function.

PMID- 28887566
TI  - The syntactic organization of pasta-eating and the structure of reach movements
      in the head-fixed mouse.
AB  - Mice are adept in the use of their hands for activities such as feeding, which
      has led to their use in investigations of the neural basis of skilled-movements.
      We describe the syntactic organization of pasta-eating and the structure of hand
      movements used for pasta manipulation by the head-fixed mouse. An ethogram of
      mice consuming pieces of spaghetti reveals that they eat in bite/chew bouts. A
      bout begins with pasta lifted to the mouth and then manipulated with hand
      movements into a preferred orientation for biting. Manipulation involves many
      hand release-reach movements, each with a similar structure. A hand is advanced
      from a digit closed and flexed (collect) position to a digit extended and open
      position (overgrasp) and then to a digit closed and flexed (grasp) position.
      Reach distance, hand shaping, and grasp patterns featuring precision grasps or
      whole hand grasps are related. To bite, mice display hand preference and
      asymmetric grasps; one hand (guide grasp) directs food into the mouth and the
      other stabilizes the pasta for biting. When chewing after biting, the hands hold
      the pasta in a symmetric resting position. Pasta-eating is organized and features
      structured hand movements and so lends itself to the neural investigation of
      skilled-movements.

PMID- 28887567
TI  - Signatures of the Kondo effect in VSe2.
AB  - VSe2 is a transition metal dichaclogenide which has a charge- density wave
      transition that has been well studied. We report on a low-temperature upturn in
      the resistivity and, at temperatures below this resistivity minimum, an unusual
      magnetoresistance which is negative at low fields and positive at higher fields,
      in single crystals of VSe2. The negative magnetoresistance has a parabolic
      dependence on the magnetic field and shows little angular dependence. The
      magnetoresistance at temperatures above the resistivity minimum is always
      positive. We interpret these results as signatures of the Kondo effect in VSe2.
      An upturn in the susceptibility indicates the presence of interlayer V ions which
      can provide the localized magnetic moments required for scattering the conduction
      electrons in the Kondo effect. The low-temperature behaviour of the heat
      capacity, including a high value of gamma, along with a deviation from a Curie
      Weiss law observed in the low-temperature magnetic susceptibility, are consistent
      with the presence of magnetic interactions between the paramagnetic interlayer V
      ions and a Kondo screening of these V moments.

PMID- 28887568
TI  - The Arabidopsis MTP8 transporter determines the localization of manganese and
      iron in seeds.
AB  - Understanding how seeds obtain and store nutrients is key to developing crops
      with higher agronomic and nutritional value. We have uncovered unique patterns of
      micronutrient localization in seeds using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (SXRF).
      Although all four members of the Arabidopsis thaliana Mn-CDF family can transport
      Mn, here we show that only mtp8-2 has an altered Mn distribution pattern in
      seeds. In an mtp8-2 mutant, Mn no longer accumulates in hypocotyl cortex cells
      and sub-epidermal cells of the embryonic cotyledons, but rather accumulates with
      Fe in the cells surrounding the vasculature, a pattern previously shown to be
      determined by the vacuolar transporter VIT1. We also show that MTP8, unlike the
      other three Mn-CDF family members, can transport Fe and is responsible for
      localization of Fe to the same cells that store Mn. When both the VIT1 and MTP8
      transporters are non-functional, there is no accumulation of Fe or Mn in specific
      cell types; rather these elements are distributed amongst all cell types in the
      seed. Disruption of the putative Fe binding sites in MTP8 resulted in loss of
      ability to transport Fe but did not affect the ability to transport Mn.

PMID- 28887569
TI  - Spatial features of synaptic adaptation affecting learning performance.
AB  - Recent studies have proposed that the diffusion of messenger molecules, such as
      monoamines, can mediate the plastic adaptation of synapses in supervised learning
      of neural networks. Based on these findings we developed a model for neural
      learning, where the signal for plastic adaptation is assumed to propagate through
      the extracellular space. We investigate the conditions allowing learning of
      Boolean rules in a neural network. Even fully excitatory networks show very good
      learning performances. Moreover, the investigation of the plastic adaptation
      features optimizing the performance suggests that learning is very sensitive to
      the extent of the plastic adaptation and the spatial range of synaptic
      connections.

PMID- 28887571
TI  - EUROSPINE 2017 Dublin, Ireland, 11-13 October.

PMID- 28887572
TI  - EUROSPINE Meetings 2017: e-Poster Abstracts.

PMID- 28887570
TI  - The salivary microbiome is consistent between subjects and resistant to impacts
      of short-term hospitalization.
AB  - In recent years, a growing amount of research has begun to focus on the oral
      microbiome due to its links with health and systemic disease. The oral microbiome
      has numerous advantages that make it particularly useful for clinical studies,
      including non-invasive collection, temporal stability, and lower complexity
      relative to other niches, such as the gut. Despite recent discoveries made in
      this area, it is unknown how the oral microbiome responds to short-term
      hospitalization. Previous studies have demonstrated that the gut microbiome is
      extremely sensitive to short-term hospitalization and that these changes are
      associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Here, we present a
      comprehensive pipeline for reliable bedside collection, sequencing, and analysis
      of the human salivary microbiome. We also develop a novel oral-specific mock
      community for pipeline validation. Using our methodology, we analyzed the
      salivary microbiomes of patients before and during hospitalization or
      azithromycin treatment to profile impacts on this community. Our findings
      indicate that azithromycin alters the diversity and taxonomic composition of the
      salivary microbiome; however, we also found that short-term hospitalization does
      not impact the richness or structure of this community, suggesting that the oral
      cavity may be less susceptible to dysbiosis during short-term hospitalization.

PMID- 28887574
TI  - EUROSPINE 2017 Scientific Programme Quick Fire presentations.

PMID- 28887573
TI  - Index: Abstracts EUROSPINE 2017 Dublin, Ireland, 11-13 October.

PMID- 28887575
TI  - Contents: EUROSPINE 2017 Dublin, Ireland, 11-13 October.

PMID- 28887578
TI  - [Topical antiseptic agents].
AB  - Topical therapy is an important domain in the treatment of dermatological
      diseases in the 21st century. Because multiresistant bacteria are becoming an
      increasing issue in medical care of chronic diseases, it is important to develop
      appropriate therapeutic management for acute and chronic dermatoses. The current
      discussion about the skin microbiota shows the importance of preserving the
      resident skin flora. There is a need for alternatives to topical antibiotics, e.
      g. topical antiseptics, which should be safe, fast, and effective but not
      allergenic or toxic. Even with frequent and prolonged application it is important
      that they do not develop a resistance. This article focusses on the use of
      antiseptics for medical indications. Mechanisms of action, tolerability, maximum
      concentrations, and possible contraindications are discussed and examples of
      extemporaneous antiseptic preparations are provided.

PMID- 28887579
TI  - [Impact factor and reader satisfaction].

PMID- 28887577
TI  - Periostin and its interacting proteins in the construction of extracellular
      architectures.
AB  - Periostin is a matricellular protein that is composed of a multi-domain structure
      with an amino-terminal EMI domain, a tandem repeat of four FAS 1 domains, and a
      carboxyl-terminal domain. These distinct domains have been demonstrated to bind
      to many proteins including extracellular matrix proteins (Collagen type I and V,
      fibronectin, tenascin, and laminin), matricellular proteins (CCN3 and betaig-h3),
      and enzymes that catalyze covalent crosslinking between extracellular matrix
      proteins (lysyl oxidase and BMP-1). Adjacent binding sites on periostin have been
      suggested to put the interacting proteins in close proximity, promoting
      intermolecular interactions between each protein, and leading to their assembly
      into extracellular architectures. These extracellular architectures determine the
      mechanochemical properties of connective tissues, in which periostin plays an
      important role in physiological homeostasis and disease progression. In this
      review, we introduce the proteins that interact with periostin, and discuss how
      the multi-domain structure of periostin functions as a scaffold for the assembly
      of interacting proteins, and how it underlies construction of highly
      sophisticated extracellular architectures.

PMID- 28887580
TI  - Removal of Two High Molecular Weight PAHs from Soils with Different Water
      Content.
AB  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as benz[a]anthracene (BA) and
      dibenz[a,h]anthracene (DBA), which are considered toxic, are frequently found in
      contaminated soils in Mexico. A laboratory-scale study monitored the degradation
      of the mixture of these two PAHs in three soils from different Mexican states
      (Tabasco, Morelos and Veracruz), each with different organic matter content,
      particle size distribution and incubated under different water content
      conditions. The hydrocarbons were extracted using microwave digestion and
      quantified by GC/MS. The removal of the PAHs, the growth of aerobic bacteria and
      microbial activity were determined in soil samples with and without a bacterial
      growth inhibitor (HgCl2). The conclusion is that more than 90% of both
      contaminants was removed from the three soils, independently of the soil water
      content or the application of a bacterial growth inhibitor. Biological properties
      of the soils showed changes at the end of the experiment, but the results of the
      removal of PAHs were similar in the three soils.

PMID- 28887582
TI  - Decline of rheumatologic care of nursing home residents with rheumatoid
      arthritis.

PMID- 28887581
TI  - Multiple skeletal muscle metastases revealing a cardiac intimal sarcoma.
AB  - We report the case of a 59-year-old female with progressive bilateral painful
      swelling of the thighs. MRI revealed multiple intramuscular necrotic masses with
      similar morphologic patterns. Whole-body CT and 18-FDG PET-CT scans demonstrated
      additional hypermetabolic muscular masses and a lobulated lesion within the left
      atrial cavity. As biopsy of a muscular mass was compatible with a poorly
      differentiated sarcoma with MDM2 oncogene amplification, two diagnoses were
      discussed: a dedifferentiated liposarcoma with muscle and heart metastases or a
      primary cardiac sarcoma, mainly a cardiac intimal sarcoma, with muscular
      metastases, which was finally confirmed by array-comparative genomic
      hybridization (aCGH) in a sarcoma reference center. This case emphasizes the
      potential for intimal sarcoma to disseminate in skeletal muscle prior to any
      other organ and the need for a genomic approach in addition to classical
      radiopathologic analyses to distinguish primary from secondary locations facing
      simultaneous tumors of the heart and skeletal muscles with MDM2 amplification.

PMID- 28887583
TI  - MiR-608 regulating the expression of ribonucleotide reductase M1 and cytidine
      deaminase is repressed through induced gemcitabine chemoresistance in pancreatic
      cancer cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Gemcitabine resistance is the main problem in pancreatic adenocarcinoma
      patients. Hence, we aimed to identify the correlation between expression of RRM1
      and CDA as the resistance genes and their predicted targeting miR-608 in the
      resistant pancreatic cancer cell lines to gemcitabine. METHODS: Dual luciferase
      assay was performed to determine whether both RRM1 and CDA are targeted by miR
      608 in 293T and pancreatic cancer cell lines. AsPC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cell lines
      became gradually resistant to gemcitabine by exposing to the increasing doses of
      gemcitabine. After RNA and miRNAs extraction and cDNA conversion, the expressions
      of RRM1, CDA and miR-608 in all cell lines were studied by quantitative PCR. Pre
      miR-608 transfection to the cell lines was done by calcium phosphate method. MTT
      assay was performed for analyzing the chemo sensitivity of different cell lines
      to gemcitabine. RESULTS: Luciferase assays showed that miR-608 targeted RRM1 and
      CDA genes in 293T, AsPC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cell lines. Compared to parental cell
      line, resistant MIA PaCa-2 and AsPC-1 cells demonstrated increased expression of
      RRM1 and CDA. On the other hand the expression of miR-608 in resistant MIA PaCa-2
      and AsPC-1 cells was lower than parental cells. Furthermore, transfection of MIA
      PaCa-2 and AsPC-1 cells by miR-608 lead to decreased expression of RRM1 and CDA
      and lowered viability of the cells in comparison with scrambled microRNA
      transfected cells. CONCLUSION: During resistance induction in pancreatic cancer
      cells, miR-608 which is targeting RRM1 and CDA is downregulated which leads to
      upregulation of these genes.

PMID- 28887584
TI  - Ocular perfusion pressure control during pars plana vitrectomy: testing a novel
      device.
AB  - PURPOSE: To study the efficacy of a novel device intended to control infusion
      pressure based on mean ocular perfusion pressure (MOPP) during pars plana
      vitrectomy (PPV). METHODS: An arm blood pressure cuff connected to a vitrectomy
      machine calculated mean arterial pressure (MAP), while a pressure sensor close to
      the infusion trocar measured intraocular pressure (IOP). MOPP was calculated in
      real time in 36 consecutive patients undergoing PPV, who were divided into two
      groups. The device lowered IOP every time that calculated MOPP fell below 30 mmHg
      in the Control ON group (18 patients), while no action was taken in the Control
      OFF group (18 patients). RESULTS: Baseline IOP and blood pressure were similar
      between groups. The Control ON group had significantly lower average
      intraoperative IOP (30.5 +/- 2.1 vs. 35.9 +/- 6.9 mmHg; p = 0.002) and higher
      MOPP (56.4 +/- 5.9 vs. 49.7 +/- 6.1 mmHg) than the Control OFF group. The Control
      ON group also spent less time at MOPP < 10 mmHg and < 30 mmHg: 0 vs. 3.40 +/-
      2.38 min (p < 0.001) and 9.91 +/- 7.15 vs. 16.13 +/- 8.12 min (p = 0.02),
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The MOPP control device effectively maintained lower
      IOP and higher MOPP throughout surgery. It also helped avoid dangerous IOP peaks
      and MOPP dips, allowing patients to spend less time at MOPP of < 10 and < 30
      mmHg.

PMID- 28887585
TI  - Biomechanical properties and cellular biocompatibility of 3D printed tracheal
      graft.
AB  - The goals of our study were to evaluate the biomechanical properties and cellular
      biocompatibility of 3D printed tracheal graft fabricated by polycaprolactone
      (PCL). Compared with native tracheal patch, there was a significant increase in
      maximum stress and elastic modulus for 3DP tracheal graft (p < 0.05). BMSCs were
      co-cultured under four different conditions to investigate cytotoxicity of the
      graft: (1) co-cultured with normal culture medium, as blank control; (2) co
      cultured with perfluoropropylene, as negative control; (3) co-cultured with 3DP
      tracheal graft; and (4) co-cultured with polyvinyl chloride, as positive control.
      Moreover, the results of SRB assay showed that compared with blank and negative
      control group, there was no significant difference in the cell proliferation of
      3DP tracheal graft group for 21 days (p > 0.05). These results revealed that 3DP
      tracheal graft in our study has favorable cellular biocompatibility and
      biomechanical properties, and, therefore, will be a promising alternative for
      tissue-engineered trachea.

PMID- 28887586
TI  - Increased genomic prediction accuracy in wheat breeding using a large Australian
      panel.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Genomic prediction accuracy within a large panel was found to be
      substantially higher than that previously observed in smaller populations, and
      also higher than QTL-based prediction. In recent years, genomic selection for
      wheat breeding has been widely studied, but this has typically been restricted to
      population sizes under 1000 individuals. To assess its efficacy in germplasm
      representative of commercial breeding programmes, we used a panel of 10,375
      Australian wheat breeding lines to investigate the accuracy of genomic prediction
      for grain yield, physical grain quality and other physiological traits. To
      achieve this, the complete panel was phenotyped in a dedicated field trial and
      genotyped using a custom AxiomTM Affymetrix SNP array. A high-quality consensus
      map was also constructed, allowing the linkage disequilibrium present in the
      germplasm to be investigated. Using the complete SNP array, genomic prediction
      accuracies were found to be substantially higher than those previously observed
      in smaller populations and also more accurate compared to prediction approaches
      using a finite number of selected quantitative trait loci. Multi-trait genetic
      correlations were also assessed at an additive and residual genetic level,
      identifying a negative genetic correlation between grain yield and protein as
      well as a positive genetic correlation between grain size and test weight.

PMID- 28887587
TI  - A deletion of the gene encoding amino aldehyde dehydrogenase enhances the "pandan
      like" aroma of winter melon (Benincasa hispida) and is a functional marker for
      the development of the aroma.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: The gene conferring a "pandan-like" aroma of winter melon was
      identified. The sequence variation (804-bp deletion) found in the gene was used
      as the target for functional marker development. Winter melon (Benincasa
      hispida), a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, is a commonly consumed vegetable
      in Asian countries that is popular for its nutritional and medicinal value. A
      "pandan-like" aroma, which is economically important in crops including rice and
      soybean, is rarely found in most commercial varieties of winter melon, but is
      present in some landraces. This aroma is a value-added potential trait in
      breeding winter melon with a higher economic value. In this study, we confirmed
      that the aroma of winter melon is due to the potent volatile compound 2-acetyl-1
      pyrroline (2AP) as previously identified in other plants. Based on an analysis of
      public transcriptome data, BhAMADH encoding an aminoaldehyde dehydrogenase
      (AMADH) was identified as a candidate gene conferring aroma of winter melon. A
      sequence comparison of BhAMADH between the aromatic and non-aromatic accessions
      revealed an 804-bp deletion encompassing exons 11-13 in the aromatic accession.
      The deletion caused several premature stop codons and could result in a truncated
      protein with a length of only 208 amino acids compared with 503 amino acids in
      the normal protein. A functional marker was successfully developed based on the
      804-bp deletion and validated in 237 F2 progenies. A perfect association of the
      marker genotypes and aroma phenotypes indicates that BhAMADH is the major gene
      conferring the aroma. The recently developed functional marker could be
      efficiently used in breeding programs for the aroma trait in winter melon.

PMID- 28887588
TI  - Exploring Institutional Mechanisms for Scientific Input into the Management Cycle
      of the National Protected Area Network of Peru: Gaps and Opportunities.
AB  - Understanding how to improve decision makers' use of scientific information
      across their different scales of management is a core challenge for narrowing the
      gap between science and conservation practice. Here, we present a study conducted
      in collaboration with decision makers that aims to explore the functionality of
      the mechanisms for scientific input within the institutional setting of the
      National Protected Area Network of Peru. First, we analyzed institutional
      mechanisms to assess the scientific information recorded by decision makers.
      Second, we developed two workshops involving scientists, decision makers and
      social actors to identify barriers to evidence-based conservation practice.
      Third, we administered 482 questionnaires to stakeholders to explore social
      perceptions of the role of science and the willingness to collaborate in the
      governance of protected areas. The results revealed that (1) the institutional
      mechanisms did not effectively promote the compilation and application of
      scientific knowledge for conservation practice; (2) six important barriers
      hindered scientific input in management decisions; and (3) stakeholders showed
      positive perceptions about the involvement of scientists in protected areas and
      expressed their willingness to collaborate in conservation practice. This
      collaborative research helped to (1) identify gaps and opportunities that should
      be addressed for increasing the effectiveness of the institutional mechanisms and
      (2) support institutional changes integrating science-based strategies for
      strengthening scientific input in decision-making. These insights provide a
      useful contextual orientation for scholars and decision makers interested in
      conducting empirical research to connect scientific inputs with operational
      aspects of the management cycle in other institutional settings around the world.

PMID- 28887589
TI  - Assessment of CT dose to the fetus and pregnant female patient using patient
      specific computational models.
AB  - PURPOSE: This work provides detailed estimates of the foetal dose from diagnostic
      CT imaging of pregnant patients to enable the assessment of the diagnostic
      benefits considering the associated radiation risks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To
      produce realistic biological and physical representations of pregnant patients
      and the embedded foetus, we developed a methodology for construction of patient
      specific voxel-based computational phantoms based on existing standardised hybrid
      computational pregnant female phantoms. We estimated the maternal absorbed dose
      and foetal organ dose for 30 pregnant patients referred to the emergency unit of
      Geneva University Hospital for abdominal CT scans. RESULTS: The effective dose to
      the mother varied from 1.1 mSv to 2.0 mSv with an average of 1.6 mSv, while
      commercial dose-tracking software reported an average effective dose of 1.9 mSv
      (range 1.7-2.3 mSv). The foetal dose normalised to CTDIvol varies between 0.85
      and 1.63 with an average of 1.17. CONCLUSION: The methodology for construction of
      personalised computational models can be exploited to estimate the patient
      specific radiation dose from CT imaging procedures. Likewise, the dosimetric data
      can be used for assessment of the radiation risks to pregnant patients and the
      foetus from various CT scanning protocols, thus guiding the decision-making
      process. KEY POINTS: * In CT examinations, the absorbed dose is non-uniformly
      distributed within foetal organs. * This work reports, for the first time,
      estimates of foetal organ-level dose. * The foetal brain and skeleton doses
      present significant correlation with gestational age. * The conceptus dose
      normalised to CTDI vol varies between 0.85 and 1.63. * The developed methodology
      is adequate for patient-specific CT radiation dosimetry.

PMID- 28887590
TI  - Transcriptome and phytohormone analysis reveals a comprehensive phytohormone and
      pathogen defence response in pear self-/cross-pollination.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Candidate genes were identified and the role of phytohormones such
      as JA-Me and ABA in the synthesis of S-RNase was emphasized in pear self
      incompatibility. Self-incompatibility (SI) occurs widely in flowering plants as
      an intraspecific reproductive barrier. This phenomenon promotes variation within
      species, but for some species such as Pyrus, SI is a nuisance rather than a
      benefit in agricultural production. Although many studies have been conducted on
      SI in pears, its mechanism remains unclear. In this study, high-throughput
      Illumina RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to identify SI-related genes in pear
      styles. Using transcriptome comparisons, differentially expressed genes of
      unpollinated (UP), cross-pollinated (CP), and self-pollinated (SP) styles were
      identified after 48 h. A total of 1796 and 1890 genes were identified in DSC (UP
      vs. CP) and DSI (UP vs. SP), respectively. KEGG analysis revealed that genes
      involved in the "plant hormone signal transduction pathway" and "plant-pathogen
      interaction pathway" were significantly enriched in DSI (UP vs. SP) compared to
      those in DSC (UP vs. CP). The expression level of S-glycoprotein ribonuclease (S
      RNase) was dramatically reduced in cross-pollinated (CP) styles. To better
      understand the relationship between the expression patterns of S-RNase and two
      major KEGG pathways, the concentrations of phytohormones were measured, and the
      expression pattern of S-RNase was analysed using qRT-PCR. Our results demonstrate
      that methyl jasmonate and abscisic acid may enhance the expression level of S
      RNase, and pollination can affect the synthesis of methyl jasmonate and abscisic
      acid in pear styles. Overall, this study is a global transcriptome analysis of SI
      in pear. A relationship between self-rejection, plant hormones, and pathogen
      defence was shown in pear.

PMID- 28887591
TI  - Emergent Macrophytes Support Zooplankton in a Shallow Tropical Lake: A Basis for
      Wetland Conservation.
AB  - Understanding the biodiversity value of littoral zones of lakes is a priority for
      aquatic biodiversity conservation. However, less emphasis has been given to the
      littoral part of tropical African lakes, with many of the previous researches
      focusing only on the open water side. The aim of the present study was,
      therefore, to investigate the impact of the littoral zone of a shallow freshwater
      tropical lake (Ziway, Ethiopia), dominated by two emergent macrophytes, on
      zooplankton community structure. We hypothesized that the wetland vegetation
      serves as a preferred microhabitat for zooplankton communities. A lake with
      substantial coverage of emergent macrophytes was monitored monthly from January
      to August, 2016. The monitoring included the measurements of physical, chemical,
      and biological parameters. Sampling sites were selected to represent areas of the
      macrophyte vegetation (Typha latifolia and Phragmites australis) and the open
      water part of the lake. Sites with macrophyte vegetation were found to be the
      home of more dense and diverse zooplankton community. However, during the period
      of high vegetation loss, the density of crustacean zooplankton showed significant
      reduction within the patches of macrophytes. From biodiversity conservation
      perspective, it was concluded that the preservation of such small areas of
      macrophytes covering the littoral zone of lakes could be as important as
      protecting the whole lake. However, the rapid degradation of wetland vegetation
      by human activities is a real threat to the lake ecosystem. In the not-too-far
      future, it could displace and evict riparian vegetation and the biota it
      supports.

PMID- 28887592
TI  - The (Surprising) Impact of Televised Antidepressant Direct-to-Consumer
      Advertising on the Stigmatization of Mental Illness.
AB  - This study tests the effect of pharmaceutical Direct-to-Consumer Advertising
      (DTCA) for antidepressants on perceived stigma surrounding mental disorders. We
      randomly assigned participants into one of three experimental conditions:
      antidepressant DTCA with portrayals of discrimination, cognitive separation, and
      stereotyping (DCSS), antidepressant DTCA without these representations, or a no
      exposure control. Contrary to study hypotheses, participants who viewed ads
      containing portrayals of DCSS were significantly less likely to want to socially
      distance themselves from those with mental illnesses than those assigned to the
      no-exposure control condition, even when controlling for demographics and
      personal experience with mental illness. We discuss plausible explanations for
      the unexpected pattern of effects and resulting implications for future research
      on the topic.

PMID- 28887594
TI  - Do long telomeres affect cellular fitness?
AB  - Telomeres protect the chromosome ends and maintain the genome stability; they,
      therefore, play important roles in aging and cancer. Despite the wide variability
      in telomere length among eukaryotes, in all telomerase-expressing cells telomere
      length is strictly controlled within a very narrow range. In humans, telomeres
      shorten with age, and it has been proposed that telomere shortening may play a
      causal role in aging. Using yeast strains with genetically or physiologically
      generated differences in telomere length, we have explored the question of
      whether having long telomeres affects telomere function and fitness or cellular
      lifespan. We found no effect of long telomeres on vegetative cell division,
      meiosis, or in cellular lifespan. No positive or negative effect on fitness was
      observed either under stressful conditions.

PMID- 28887595
TI  - Spectral, Electrochemical and Computational Investigations of Binding of n-(4
      Hydroxyphenyl)-imidazole with p-Sulfonatocalix[4]arene.
AB  - The interaction of n-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-imidazole with p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene is
      studied using fluorescence technique. The quenching of fluorescence intensity
      explains the efficiency of binding via binding constant and quenching constant.
      The excited state lifetime of n-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-imidazole is decreased upon
      interaction with p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene. The cyclic voltametric studies
      emphasized the interaction of n-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-imidazole with p
      sulfonatocalix[4]arene. Quantum chemical calculations are carried out to study
      the interactions as well as charge transfer between the host and the guest upon
      complexation. The simulations revealed that the n-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-imidazole
      interacts with p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene with horizontal orientation with in the p
      sulfonatocalix[4]arene cavity.

PMID- 28887593
TI  - v-SNARE function in chromaffin cells.
AB  - Vesicle fusion is elementary for intracellular trafficking and release of signal
      molecules, thus providing the basis for diverse forms of intercellular
      communication like hormonal regulation or synaptic transmission. A detailed
      characterization of the mechanisms underlying exocytosis is key to understand how
      the nervous system integrates information and generates appropriate responses to
      stimuli. The machinery for vesicular release employs common molecular players in
      different model systems including neuronal and neuroendocrine cells, in
      particular members of the SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor
      attachment protein receptors) protein family, Sec1/Munc18-like proteins, and
      other accessory factors. To achieve temporal precision and speed, excitable cells
      utilize specialized regulatory proteins like synaptotagmin and complexin, whose
      interplay putatively synchronizes vesicle fusion and enhances stimulus-secretion
      coupling. In this review, we aim to highlight recent progress and emerging views
      on the molecular mechanisms, by which constitutively forming SNAREpins are
      organized in functional, tightly regulated units for synchronized release.
      Specifically, we will focus on the role of vesicle associated membrane proteins,
      also referred to as vesicular SNAREs, in fusion and rapid cargo discharge. We
      will further discuss the functions of SNARE regulators during exocytosis and
      focus on chromaffin cell as a model system of choice that allows for detailed
      structure-function analyses and direct measurements of vesicle fusion under
      precise control of intracellular [Ca]i.

PMID- 28887596
TI  - Cross-cultural adaptation and measurement properties of generic and cancer
      related patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for use with cancer patients in
      Brazil: a systematic review.
AB  - PURPOSE: This systematic review (1) identifies the current generic and cancer
      related patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) that have been cross-culturally
      adapted to Brazilian Portuguese and applied to cancer patients and (2) critically
      evaluates their cross-cultural adaptation (CCA) and measurement properties.
      METHODS: Seven databases were searched for articles regarding the translation and
      evaluation of measurement properties of generic and cancer-related PROMs cross
      culturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese that are applied in adult (>=18 years
      old) cancer patients. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed
      using the COSMIN checklist. RESULTS: The bibliographic search retrieved 1674
      hits, of which seven studies analysing eight instruments were included in this
      review. Data on the interpretability of scores were poorly reported. Overall, the
      quality of the CCA process was inconsistent throughout the studies. None of the
      included studies performed a cross-cultural validation. The evidence concerning
      the quality of measurement properties is limited by poor or fair methodological
      quality. Moreover, limited information regarding measurement properties was
      provided within the included papers. CONCLUSIONS: This review aids the selection
      process of Brazilian Portuguese PROMs for use in cancer patients. After
      acknowledging the methodological caveats and strengths of each tool, our opinion
      is that for quality of life and symptoms assessment the adapted FACT-G version
      and the ESAS could be recommended, respectively. Future research should rely on
      the already accepted standards of CCA and validation studies.

PMID- 28887598
TI  - Removal of Anabaena spiroides by potassium permanganate pre-oxidation: effect on
      photosynthetic capacity and molecular weight distribution.
AB  - Bench scale tests were conducted to investigate the effect of potassium
      permanganate pre-oxidation on the photosynthetic activity and molecular weight
      distribution of Anabaena spiroides. Different concentrations of potassium
      permanganate were added into the suspension of Anabaena spiroides, one of the
      dominant algae in water bloom, and after pre-oxidation of permanganate for 1 h,
      the results show that the removal rate significantly increases by 33.99~36.35%
      compared to direct coagulation. Then, the algal characteristics, including
      photosynthetic ability, the changes in extracellular organic matter three
      dimensional fluorescence, and the distribution of molecular weight were conducted
      and the results show that along with increasing concentration of potassium
      permanganate, the photosynthetic ability of algae decreases, more extracellular
      organic matter is secreted, and large molecular weight matter (humic-like and
      fulvic-like substances) are generated. Therefore, this study demonstrates that
      potassium permanganate could be used in addressing the algae-rich water.

PMID- 28887597
TI  - SALL4 suppresses PTEN expression to promote glioma cell proliferation via
      PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.
AB  - Spalt-like transcription factor 4 (SALL4), a oncogene, is known to participate in
      multiple carcinomas, and is up-regulated in glioma. However, its actual role and
      underlying mechanisms in the development of glioma remain unclear. The present
      study explored the molecular functions of SALL4 in promoting cell proliferation
      in glioma. The expression level of SALL4 in 69 human glioma samples and six non
      tumor brain tissues was determined using real-time polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR). Then, we transfected U87 and U251 cell lines with siRNA, and assessed
      cellular proliferation and cell cycle to understand the function of SALL4, and
      the relationship between SALL4, PTEN and PI3K/AKT pathway. PCR confirmed that the
      expression of SALL4 was higher in the glioma samples than non-tumor brain
      tissues. Cellular growth and proliferation were dramatically reduced following
      inhibition of SALL4 expression. Western blot showed increase in PTEN expression
      when SALL4 was silenced, which in turn depressed the activation of PI3K/AKT
      pathway, suggesting that PTEN was a downstream target of SALL4 in glioma
      development. Therefore, SALL4 could act as a proto-oncogene by regulating the
      PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, thereby facilitating proliferation of glioma
      cells.

PMID- 28887599
TI  - Uptake of AV-1451 in meningiomas.
AB  - AIM: AV-1451 is an imaging agent labeled with the positron-emitting radiolabel
      Fluorine-18. 18F-AV-1451 binds paired helical filament tau (PHF-tau), a pathology
      related to Alzheimer's disease. In our study of AV-1451 uptake in the brains of
      cognitively normal subjects, we noted a case of a meningioma with visually
      significant uptake of AV-1451. OBJECTIVE: We initiated the present retrospective
      study to further examine cases of meningioma that underwent AV-1451 imaging.
      METHODS: We searched the patient records of 650 patients who had undergone AV
      1451 at our institution for the keyword "meningioma" to identify potential cases.
      PET/CT and MRI results were visually reviewed and semi-quantitative analysis of
      PET was performed. A paired student's t test was run between background and tumor
      standard uptake values. Fisher's exact test was used to examine the association
      between AV-1451 uptake and presence of calcifications on CT. RESULTS: We
      identified 12 cases of meningioma, 58% (7/12) of which demonstrated uptake
      greater than background using both visual analysis and tumor-to-normal cortex
      ratios (T/N + 1.90 +/- 0.83). The paired student's t test revealed no
      statistically significant difference between background and tumor standard uptake
      values (p = 0.09); however, cases with a T/N ratio greater than one showed
      statistically higher uptake in tumor tissue (p = 0.01). A significant association
      was noted between AV-1451 uptake and presence of calcifications (p = 0.01).
      CONCLUSION: AV-1451 PET imaging should be reviewed concurrently with anatomic
      imaging to prevent misleading interpretations of PHF-tau distribution due to
      meningiomas.

PMID- 28887600
TI  - Strong, sudden cooling alleviates the inflammatory responses in heat-stressed
      dairy cows based on iTRAQ proteomic analysis.
AB  - This study was designed to investigate the effects of sudden cooling on the
      physiological responses of 12 heat-stressed Holstein dairy cows using an isobaric
      tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) labeling approach. Plasma
      samples were collected from these cows during heat stress (HS), and after strong,
      sudden cooling in the summer (16 days later). We compared plasma proteomic data
      before and after sudden cooling to identify the differentially abundant proteins.
      The results showed that sudden cooling in summer effectively alleviated the
      negative consequences of HS on body temperature and production variables.
      Expressions of plasma hemoglobin alpha and hemoglobin beta were upregulated,
      whereas lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) and haptoglobin were
      downregulated in this process. The increase of hemoglobin after cooling may
      improve oxygen transport and alleviate the rise in respiration rates in heat
      stressed dairy cows. The decrease of LBP and haptoglobin suggests that the
      inflammatory responses caused by HS are relieved after cooling. Our findings
      provide new insight into the physiological changes that occur when heat-stressed
      dairy cows experience strong, sudden cooling.

PMID- 28887601
TI  - Is there a role for epithelial-mesenchymal transition in adrenocortical tumors?
AB  - PURPOSE: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a biological dynamic process
      by which epithelial cells lose their epithelial phenotype and acquire mesenchymal
      invasive and migratory characteristics. This has been postulated as an essential
      step during cancer progression and metastasis. Although this is well described in
      other tumors, the role of EMT in adrenocortical tumors (ACT) has yet to be
      addressed. METHODS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of EMT
      markers e-cadherin, vimentin, and fibronectin, along with EMT-transcription
      factors (EMT-TFs), TWIST1, SIP1, and SNAIL in 24 adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC),
      19 adrenocortical adenomas (ACA), 27 childhood-onset adrenocortical tumors (CAT),
      and 12 normal adrenal glands. The association of EMT and EMT-TFs with clinical
      outcomes and pathology features were also evaluated. RESULTS: Cytoplasmic
      vimentin expression was increased among CAT samples when compared to ACC, ACA,
      and normal adrenal samples (p < 0.001). There was no difference in e-cadherin and
      fibronectin expression observed between groups. Nuclear and cytoplasmic
      expression of TWIST1 and SIP1 was stronger in CAT and ACC vs. ACA and normal
      tissue samples (all, p < 0.05). ACT, regardless of classification, exhibited
      increased SNAIL expression when compared to normal tissue (p < 0.05). A
      significant correlation was observed between vimentin and TWIST1 (r s = 0.44, p <
      0.001); SIP1 (r s = 0.51, p < 0.001); and SNAIL (r s = 0.23, p < 0.05). TWIST1
      and SIP1 expressions demonstrated a significant correlation (r s = 0.56, p <
      0.001). High SIP1 expression was associated with a lower survival rate among ACC
      cases (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Vimentin, TWIST1, and SIP1 expressions are
      increased in aggressive ACT. Therefore, EMT may play a relevant role in adrenal
      tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28887602
TI  - Correlation between immunohistochemical staining of CEACAM1 and
      clinicopathological findings in oral pre-neoplastic lesions and squamous cell
      carcinoma.
AB  - Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity represents the sixth most common
      cancer worldwide and it is often preceded by pre-neoplastic lesions. Sometimes it
      is still difficult for pathologists to make objective differential diagnoses only
      on histological characteristics. Tumorigenesis is accompanied by altered
      expression of cell adhesion molecules, like carcinoembryonic antigen cell
      adhesion molecule (CEACAM)1. We wanted to investigative CEACAM1 in oral
      dysplastic lesions, carcinoma in situ (CIS) and oral squamous cell carcinoma
      (OSCC). We examined immunohistochemical CEACAM1 expression in 50 OSCC, 30 oral
      CIS and 40 pre-neoplastic lesions and assessed its correlation with clinical and
      pathological parameters. CEACAM1 was not expressed in normal mucosa,
      significantly expressed in CIS while it was negative in all the dysplastic
      lesions. In OSCC, high CEACAM1 expression was associated with tumor grade and
      inversely correlated with both overall and disease-specific 5-year survival. We
      showed that CEACAM1 expression is very dynamic: absent in dysplastic lesions, up
      regulated in CIS and OSCC. We suggest that CEACAM1 could be a prognostic marker
      of OSCC and oral CIS. Our most important finding was that it could help
      pathologists diagnosing oral carcinoma in situ.

PMID- 28887604
TI  - Correspondence to "Role of neutrophil to lymphocyte and monocyte to lymphocyte
      ratios in the diagnosis of bacterial infection in patients with fever".

PMID- 28887603
TI  - Molecular Signature of Tumors with Monoallelic 13q14 Deletion: a Case Series of
      Spindle Cell Lipoma and Genetically-Related Tumors Demonstrating a Link Between
      FOXO1 Status and p38 MAPK Pathway.
AB  - Spindle cell/pleomorphic lipomas (SCLs), cellular angiofibromas (CAFs) and
      mammary-type myofibroblastomas (MFBs) are rare benign mesenchymal tumors with
      monoallelic 13q14 deletion. They are predicted to have a common pathogenic
      mechanism due to shared similar histological and immunohistochemical features;
      however, pathological consequences of monoallelic 13q14 deletion remain unknown.
      We previously reported a CAF case with monoallelic 13q14 deletion in which the
      tumor expressed decreased levels of FOXO1 and RB1, both of which were encoded in
      13q14, and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. We further
      demonstrated the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK)
      pathway induced by oxidative stress. We hypothesized that SCLs, CAFs and MFBs
      would share common molecular signatures involving FOXO1, ROS and p38 MAPK and
      that their expression patterns were different from those tumors without
      monoallelic 13q14 deletion such as solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs). We compared
      the expression levels of FOXO1, RB1, ROS markers and several signal transduction
      factors between SCLs and SFTs. SCLs expressed decreased levels of FOXO1 and RB1,
      whereas SFTs showed no change. Both tumor types exhibited increased markers of
      ROS; however, nuclear localization of phosphorylated p38 was significantly more
      frequent in SCLs than that in SFTs, suggesting p38 MAPK activation by oxidative
      stress. SFTs showed lower p38 MAPK activity and higher beta-catenin expression,
      implying that oxidative stress was caused by increased cellular proliferation
      stress. Finally, CAFs and MFBs showed changes similar to those observed in SCLs.
      Overall, tumors with monoallelic 13q14 deletion showed shared molecular
      signatures that might be associated with pathogenesis.

PMID- 28887605
TI  - The Possible Protective Effect of Marital Status in Quality of Life Among Elders
      in a U.S.-Mexico Border City.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine how marital status may have an impact
      on quality of life in a group of older adults living in a U.S.-Mexico border
      city. Two-hundred and seventy-six older adults completed the Spanish version of
      the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment, composed of four
      domains: physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and
      environment. Participants answered a measure of sociodemographic variables. In
      the psychological health component of quality of life, single and married older
      adults had the highest scores as compared to widowed and divorced. Similarly,
      married older adults had the highest quality of life in social relationships.
      Marital status may play an important role when analyzing quality of life among
      older adults, this study suggests that being married may offer a protective
      mechanism against depressive symptoms and therefore against mental illnesses
      during late adulthood.

PMID- 28887606
TI  - MiR-221/222 promote chemoresistance to cisplatin in ovarian cancer cells by
      targeting PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.
AB  - Cisplatin resistance is one of the main limitations in the treatment of ovarian
      cancer, and its mechanism has not been fully understood. The objectives of this
      study were to determine the role of miR-221/222 and its underlying mechanism in
      chemoresistance of ovarian cancer. We demonstrated that miR-221/222 expression
      levels were higher in A2780/CP cells compared with A2780 S cells. An in vitro
      cell viability assay showed that downregulation of miR-221/222 sensitized
      A2780/CP cells to cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity. Moreover, we found that
      knockdown of miR-221/222 by its specific inhibitors promoted the cisplatin
      induced apoptosis in A2780/CP cells. Using bioinformatic analysis and luciferase
      reporter assay, miR-221/222 were found to directly target PTEN. Moreover,
      knockdown of miR-221/222 in A2780/CP cells significantly upregulated PTEN and
      downregulated PI3KCA and p-Akt expression. In conclusion, our results
      demonstrated that miR-221/222 induced cisplatin resistance by targeting PTEN
      mediated PI3K/Akt pathway in A2780/CP cells, suggesting that miR
      221/222/PTEN/PI3K/Akt may be a promising prognostic and therapeutic target to
      overcome cisplatin resistance and treat ovarian cancer in the future.

PMID- 28887607
TI  - Respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants and risk of epilepsy in a Danish
      cohort.
AB  - Infant respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS) may be complicated by intracerebral
      hemorrhage, a known trigger of epilepsy. However, few data exist on long term
      epilepsy risk following IRDS. We therefore examined the association between IRDS
      in preterm infants and childhood epilepsy. We conducted a population-based cohort
      study using individual-level data linkage among nationwide registries. All
      infants born at 32-36 weeks of gestation in 1978-2009 were identified in the
      Medical Birth Registry. We identified children with IRDS and those with epilepsy
      using the Danish National Patient Registry. We computed the cumulative incidence
      of epilepsy with follow-up from birth until epilepsy, emigration, death, age 15,
      or December 31, 2014. We used Cox's regression analysis to compute hazard ratios
      comparing children with and without IRDS, adjusting for sex, birth year,
      gestational age, multiplicity, major malformations, and maternal age. We
      identified 95,026 infants, of whom 6426 (6.8%) had IRDS. The cumulative incidence
      of epilepsy was 3.4% by age 15 in children with IRDS and 2.1% in children without
      IRDS. The adjusted hazard ratio of epilepsy among children with IRDS compared to
      those without was 1.4 (95% CI 1.2-1.6). When we restricted the IRDS cohort to
      children with no simultaneous morbidities that had clinical symptoms overlapping
      with IRDS, the overall adjusted HR was 1.1 (95% CI 0.9-1.4). In children born
      preterm at 32-36 weeks' gestation, IRDS was associated with increased risk of
      childhood epilepsy.

PMID- 28887608
TI  - Erratum to: Interactive Effects of Prenatal Antidepressant Exposure and Likely
      Gene Disrupting Mutations on the Severity of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PMID- 28887609
TI  - Post-Synthetic Modification Nanoscale Metal-Organic Frameworks for Targeted Drug
      Delivery in Cancer Cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great potentials as drug
      delivery carriers, but the conventional methods for MOFs synthesis limited their
      use in biomedicine. The aim of this study was engineered tumor-targeted zinc
      nanoscale MOFs encapsulating chemotherapy drug. METHODS: We employed post
      synthetic modification to construct tumor cell-targeted nanoscale zinc MOFs
      (nanoMOFs) functionalized with folate as the targeting ligand that binds
      specifically to folate receptors on tumor cells. The cytoctoxicity of drug-loaded
      nanoMOFs was measured by MTT assay. The cell target was tested by cell compete
      assay. RESULTS: The successful synthesis of folate-targeted nanoMOFs was
      confirmed by FTIR, 1H-NMR and ESI-MS analysis. In the drug loading test, the zinc
      nanoMOFs functionalized with folate quickly adsorbed up to 24 wt % 5-fluorouracil
      (5-FU) without causing obvious changes in the supramolecular crystalline
      organization of the material. The in vitro drug release profile of this nanoMOFs
      in phosphate buffered saline exhibited a biphasic pattern. The drug sustained
      release is the effect mainly of diffusion of 5-FU molecules, while the
      degradation of the carrier itself plays a minor role in this process. The drug
      loaded nanoMOFs showed a stronger cytotoxicity than free 5-FU against three
      cancer cell lines in vitro with a distinct selectivity between folate receptors
      positive and negative cells. CONCLUSIONS: These results encourage further in vivo
      studies of this nanoMOFs as candidates for tumor-targeted, sustained-release
      delivery of chemotherapeutic agents.

PMID- 28887610
TI  - Exploring the concept of patient centred communication for the pharmacy practice.
AB  - Background Patient centred communication can improve pharmaceutical care, but is
      not well described for pharmacists. Aim of the review To provide a comprehensive
      and accessible overview of the concept of patient centred communication for the
      pharmacy practice. Method A scoping review and thematic analysis was undertaken
      to synthesize the extracted data and present it in a model. Results Literature
      search and selection resulted in eighteen articles. Thematic analysis of the
      extracted data led to five categories regarding patient centred communication.
      Two categories refer to phases of a pharmaceutical consultation: (1) shared
      problem defining and (2) shared decision making; three refer to underlying
      concepts and assumptions about patient centredness regarding (3) the patient, (4)
      the pharmacist and (5) the therapeutic relation. The categories were modelled in
      the so called Utrecht's Model for Patient centred communication in the Pharmacy.
      Conclusion Although there might be barriers to implement patient centred
      communication in the pharmacy, the concept of patient centred communication as
      described in the literature is relevant for the pharmacy practice.

PMID- 28887611
TI  - Toxicity, uptake, and accumulation of nano and bulk cerium oxide particles in
      Artemia salina.
AB  - Although the toxicological impact of metal oxide nanoparticles has been studied
      for the last few decades on aquatic organisms, the exact mechanism of action is
      still unclear. The fate, behavior, and biological activity of nanoparticles are
      dependent on physicochemical factors like size, shape, surface area, and
      stability in the medium. This study deals with the effect of nano and bulk CeO2
      particles on marine microcrustacean, Artemia salina. The primary size was found
      to be 15 +/- 3.5 and 582 +/- 50 nm for nano and bulk CeO2 (TEM), respectively.
      The colloidal stability and sedimentation assays showed rapid aggregation of bulk
      particles in seawater. Both the sizes of CeO2 particles inhibited the hatching
      rate of brine shrimp cyst. Nano CeO2 was found to be more toxic to A. salina (48
      h LC50 38.0 mg/L) when compared to bulk CeO2 (48 h LC50 92.2 mg/L). Nano CeO2
      treated A. salina showed higher oxidative stress (ROS) than those treated with
      the bulk form. The reduction in the antioxidant activity indicated an increase in
      oxidative stress in the cells. Higher acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) was
      observed upon exposure to nano and bulk CeO2 particles. The uptake and
      accumulation of CeO2 particles were increased with respect to the concentration
      and particle size. Thus, the above results revealed that nano CeO2 was more
      lethal to A. salina as compared to bulk particles.

PMID- 28887612
TI  - Effect of acute exposure to PFOA on mouse liver cells in vivo and in vitro.
AB  - Increasingly, epidemiological evidences indicate chemosynthetic perfluorooctanoic
      acid (PFOA), an environmental pollutant, induces potential adverse effect on
      human health after long-term exposure. However, less study has been performed for
      assessment of acute effect of PFOA exposure on metabolic homeostasis. In
      experimental designs, PFOA-exposed liver cells in vivo and in vitro were used to
      discuss underlying mechanism related to PFOA-induced metabolic dysfunction. In
      serological tests, PFOA-exposed mice showed increased treads of liver functional
      enzymes in alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and total
      bilirubin (T-BIL), trypsinase, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and
      insulin, while blood glucose, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and
      glucagon levels were reduced. In histocytological observations, PFOA-exposed
      liver showed visible cytoplasmic vesicles, and intact pancreatic islets were
      observed in PFOA-exposed pancreas. Additionally, increased insulin-positive cells
      and reduced glucagon-positive cells were detected in PFOA-exposed islets. As
      shown in immunoassays, PFOA-exposed liver resulted in elevations of cluster of
      differentiation 36 (CD36)-labeled cells and CD36 protein. In mouse liver cell
      study, PFOA-exposed cells showed increased cell apoptotic count, and increased
      phosphorylated levels of Bcl-2 and Bad in the cells. Furthermore, PFOA-exposed
      liver cells exhibited elevations of CD36-labeled cells and CD36 protein. Taken
      together, the present data demonstrate that acute exposure to PFOA-impaired liver
      function is associated with inducting CD36 expression and apoptosis, as well as
      disrupting key hormones in the pancreas.

PMID- 28887613
TI  - Theoretical method for evaluation of therapeutic effects and adverse effects of
      epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors in clinical
      treatment.
AB  - Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) are used
      for non-small cell lung cancer patients with an EGFR gene mutation. However, skin
      disorders are known as adverse events. In the present study, we investigated
      whether EGFR-TK occupancy is useful as an index for assessing clinical efficacy
      and adverse events for the proper use and development of EGFR-TKIs. Average
      binding occupancies (Phi ss) of EGFR-TKIs, gefitinib and erlotinib, for the EGFR
      TK of cancer or skin cells were calculated. The relationships of Phi ss with
      response rate (RR) or frequency of rash were analyzed using the ternary complex
      model. Then, the relationships between the dose of EGFR-TKIs and RR or frequency
      of rash were examined. Gefitinib showed a greater difference for Phi ss value for
      both wild-type and mutant EGFR as compared to erlotinib at usual dose. The RR
      increased in a nonlinear manner rapidly rising when Phi ss exceeded 95%. It was
      thought that a very high Phi ss value might be needed to obtain the therapeutic
      effect of EGFR-TKIs. Meanwhile, the frequency of rash increased in a linear
      manner along with elevation of Phi ss. It was shown that the K d ratio (K d for
      mutant/K d for wild type) was less than 0.001, when the high RR and low frequency
      of rash were obtained simultaneously. The results showed that the therapeutic
      effects and skin disorder can be assessed by using Phi ss. Furthermore, it is
      likely that a proper choice of drug and dose can be made by using Phi ss in EGFR
      TKI therapy.

PMID- 28887615
TI  - [Reconsideration of radiosurgery for resection cavities following complete
      resection of 1-3 brain metastases].

PMID- 28887616
TI  - Amitriptyline plays important roles in modifying the ovarian morphology and
      improving its functions in rats with estradiol valerate-induced polycystic ovary.
AB  - Previous studies demonstrated that depression is more prevalent in women with
      polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In this study, we aimed to determine whether
      amitriptyline (AMT), an antidepressant drug, plays a role in preventing PCOS. The
      results showed that AMT modified ovarian morphology improved the ovarian
      functions and estrus cycle in estradiol valerate (EV)-induced polycystic ovary
      (PCO). AMT restored the levels of estradiol (E2), testosterone (T) and
      progesterone (P4) to normal, and elevated the level of luteinizing hormone (LH)
      in EV-induced PCO. No significant changes in follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)
      levels were observed in rats with EV or AMT treatment. The restoration of
      norepinephrine (NE) level was detected in rats with EV-induced PCO. AMT also
      altered the expression levels of steroidogenesis genes and beta2-adrenoceptor
      (beta2-AR) in EV-induced PCO. Our data revealed that AMT improves the ovarian
      morphology and modifies ovarian expression of beta2-AR and steroidogenesis genes
      in rats with EV-induced rat PCO. Our data provide support for the hypothesis that
      AMT is considered as a candidate drug for preventing and treating PCOS along with
      depression.

PMID- 28887614
TI  - The pro-fibrotic connective tissue growth factor (CTGF/CCN2) correlates with the
      number of necrotic-regenerative foci in dystrophic muscle.
AB  - Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF/CCN2) has strong inflammatory and
      profibrotic activities. Its expression is enhanced in skeletal muscular
      dystrophies such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a myopathy characterized
      by exacerbated inflammation and fibrosis. In dystrophic tissue, necrotic
      regenerative foci, myofibroblasts, newly-regenerated muscle fibers and necrosis
      all occur simultaneously. To determine if CCN2 is involved in the appearance of
      the foci, we studied their presence and characteristics in mdx mice (DMD mouse
      model) compared to mdx mice hemizygous for CCN2 (mdx-Ccn2+/-). We used laser
      capture microdissection followed by gene expression and immunofluorescence
      analyses to investigate fibrotic, inflammation and regeneration markers in
      damaged and non-damaged areas in mdx and mdx-Ccn2+/- skeletal muscle. Mdx mice
      foci express elevated mRNAs levels of transforming growth factor type beta,
      collagen, fibronectin, the myofribroblast marker alpha-SMA, and the myogenic
      transcription factor myogenin. Mdx foci also show elevated levels of MCP-1 and CD
      68 positive cells, indicating that CCN2 could be inducing an inflammatory
      response. We found a significant reduction in the number of foci in mdx-Ccn2+/-
      mice muscle. Fibrotic and inflammatory markers were also decreased in these foci.
      We did not observe any difference in Pax7 mRNA levels, a marker for satellite
      cells, in mdx mice compared to mdx-Ccn2+/- mice. Thus, CCN2 appears to be
      involved in the fibrotic response as well as in the inflammatory response in the
      dystrophic skeletal muscle.

PMID- 28887617
TI  - FDG PET/CT appearance of local osteosarcoma recurrences in pediatric patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteosarcoma is the most common pediatric malignant bone tumor,
      frequently surgically managed with limb salvage rather than amputation. Local
      recurrences are seen in up to 9% of osteosarcoma patients, with CT and MRI
      imaging often limited by metal artifacts. OBJECTIVE: To describe the [F-18]2
      fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT appearance of local osteosarcoma recurrences
      with correlation to findings on other imaging modalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      A retrospective review of pediatric osteosarcoma patients imaged with FDG PET/CT
      was performed in patients with pathologically proven local recurrences. FDG
      PET/CT findings were reviewed and correlated with available comparison imaging
      studies. RESULTS: Ten local osteosarcoma recurrences in eight pediatric
      osteosarcoma patients were imaged with FDG PET/CT. All eight patients had a local
      recurrence after limb salvage; two patients had a second local recurrence after
      amputation. All local recurrences were seen with FDG PET/CT, demonstrating solid
      (n=5) or peripheral/nodular (n=5) FDG uptake patterns. Maximum standard uptake
      values (SUVs) ranged from 3.0 to 15.7. In five recurrences imaged with FDG PET/CT
      and MRI, MRI was limited or nondiagnostic in three. In four recurrences imaged
      with FDG PET/CT and bone scan, the bone scan was negative in three. CONCLUSION:
      Local osteosarcoma recurrences are well visualized by FDG PET/CT, demonstrating
      either solid or peripheral/nodular FDG uptake with a wide range of maximum SUVs.
      FDG PET/CT demonstrates the full extent of local recurrences, while MRI can be
      limited by artifact from metallic hardware. PET/CT appears to be more sensitive
      than bone scan in detecting local osteosarcoma recurrences.

PMID- 28887618
TI  - Diagnostic value of 3D time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography for
      detecting intracranial aneurysm: a meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: This meta-analysis is to comprehensively evaluate the diagnostic
      performance of three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography
      (3D-TOF-MRA) for detecting intracranial aneurysm (IA). METHODS: PubMed, Embase,
      Web of Science, and the Cochrane library were systematically searched for
      retrieving eligible studies. Study inclusion, data extraction, and risk of bias
      assessment were performed by two researchers independently. Pooled sensitivity
      (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood
      ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC) were
      calculated to assess the diagnostic value. In addition, heterogeneity and
      subgroup analysis were carried out. RESULTS: In total, 18 studies comprising 3463
      patients were selected. The results of 3D-TOF-MRA for diagnosing IA were SEN 0.89
      (95% CI 0.82-0.94), SPE 0.94 (0.86-0.97), PLR 13.79 (5.92-32.12), NLR 0.11 (0.07
      0.19), DOR 121.90 (38.81-382.94), and AUC 0.96 (0.94-0.98), respectively. In the
      subgroup analysis, studies without subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) tend to perform
      statistical significantly better (P < 0.05) in detecting IAs than studies with
      SAH 0.99 (0.98-1.00) vs. 0.89 (0.86-0.91). The diagnostic value of studies with a
      two-image reconstruction method was higher than studies with only one image
      reconstruction method: 0.99 (0.98-1.00) vs. 0.91 (0.89-0.94) with P < 0.05. The
      3D-TOF-MRA had better SEN in aneurysms > 3 mm than the aneurysms <= 3 mm in
      diameter: 0.89 (0.87-0.92) vs. 0.78 (0.71-0.84) with P < 0.05. CONCLUSION: This
      study demonstrated that 3D-TOF-MRA has an excellent diagnostic performance for
      the overall assessment of IA and may serve as an alternative for further patient
      management with IA.

PMID- 28887619
TI  - [Psychodynamics in organisation and cooperation of child and adolescents
      institutions].
AB  - According to underlying law (Krankenanstaltengesetz) the internal structure of
      Departments of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) represents a matrix
      structure, defining formal roles and tasks of the personel. In contrast, external
      cooperation is defined in several different laws. Furthermore, patients and their
      systems are exhibiting a high tensional potential. These different influences can
      cause more or less severe enmeshments. Thus, during the treatment of this
      patients it is necessary to take into account the possibility of these
      enmeshments. It should be answered by special forms of care of the relationship
      between professionals and families. These special forms of relational care can be
      delivered by clear organizational structures and must undergo reflective
      processes on a regular basis. The planning and delivery of those structures is
      clearly seen as a central responsibility of the management of a CAP-Department.

PMID- 28887620
TI  - Bilateral parotid gland hemorrhage after intravenous thrombolysis for stroke
      treatment.

PMID- 28887621
TI  - Comparison of Prescribing Practices with Direct Acting Oral Anticoagulant
      Protocols.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The goal of anticoagulation management programs is to prevent
      thrombosis while minimizing the risks of hemorrhage. Direct acting oral
      anticoagulants (DOACs) selectively inhibit coagulation proteins to inhibit
      thrombosis. Previous studies suggest patient monitoring and education provided
      through anticoagulation services enhance adherence and decrease adverse outcomes
      in patients receiving DOAC therapy. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were
      to describe DOAC prescribing adherence to anticoagulation service protocols and
      to observe whether enrollment in an anticoagulation service resulted in greater
      prescribing adherence to DOAC protocols. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study
      evaluated all initial prescriptions of apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban at
      Marshfield Clinic from 19 October 2010 to 21 August 2014. Three algorithms
      analyzed patient and prescription data extracted from the organization's
      electronic health record and classified prescriptions as per protocol or not per
      protocol. The algorithms classified not per protocol prescriptions as off-label
      indication, renal impairment [estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <30
      ml/min], hepatic impairment (rivaroxaban and apixaban), advanced age >74 years
      (dabigatran), dose too low, or dose too high. The analysis assessed whether
      enrollment in the Marshfield Clinic Anticoagulation Service DOAC monitoring
      process was associated with increased adherence to protocols. RESULTS: In
      aggregate, 72% of apixaban prescriptions, 52% of dabigatran prescriptions, and
      70% of rivaroxaban prescriptions were per protocol. Off-label indications and
      dosage too low were the most common not per protocol reasons for apixaban and
      rivaroxaban prescriptions. Age >=75 years and off-label indication were the most
      common not per protocol reasons for dabigatran prescriptions. Enrollment in the
      anticoagulation service process was not associated with increased adherence to
      protocols. CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of DOAC prescriptions did not
      adhere to protocol expectations. While enrollment in DOAC management through the
      Marshfield Clinic Anticoagulation Service was not associated with increased
      adherence to protocols, opportunities exist to optimize DOAC prescribing.
      Defining ideal DOAC management requires additional research.

PMID- 28887624
TI  - China in action: national strategies to combat against emerging infectious
      diseases.

PMID- 28887622
TI  - Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT): Europe's first multicenter post-market
      clinical follow-up study validating the quality in clinical routine.
AB  - PURPOSE: Non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for the determination of fetal
      aneuploidies from maternal blood are firmly established in clinical routine. For
      the first time, the accuracy of an NIPT for the determination of trisomies 21, 18
      and 13 in singleton pregnancies was assessed by means of a prospective German
      wide multicenter post-market clinical follow-up study, to reliably evaluate the
      quality in clinical routine. METHODS: The study covered the indications for
      testing, the test results, the rate of invasive diagnostics and the pregnancy
      outcome. 2232 cases were tested for trisomy 21. Of these, 1946 cases were
      additionally examined for trisomy 18 and 13. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity
      for trisomy 21 (43/43) and for trisomy 13 (2/2) were 100%, for trisomy 18 the
      sensitivity was 80% (4/5) with a specificity of 99.8%. Three false-positive
      results for trisomy 18 were observed (FPR 0.15%). The no-call rate was 0.5%. In
      this subgroup, 27.3% (3/11) aneuploidies were diagnosed. The rate of invasive
      procedures was 2.6%. CONCLUSION: NIPT provides a very high quality for the fetal
      trisomies 21, 13 and 18 in clinical routine. The results support the
      recommendation that NIPT should be offered after genetic counseling and only in
      conjunction with a qualified ultrasound examination.

PMID- 28887625
TI  - Overexpressed BRH1, a RING finger gene, alters rosette leaf shape in Arabidopsis
      thaliana.
AB  - Leaves are the most important plant parts for photosynthesis and respiration.
      Many genes are involved in determining leaf shape; however, little is known about
      the effects of brassinosteroid (BR) signaling-pathway genes on the development of
      leaf shape. Here, the brassinosteroid-responsive RING-H2 (BRH1) gene, which is
      suppressed by 24-epi-brassinolide treatment, was isolated from Arabidopsis
      thaliana. The amino acid sequence contained a highly conserved RING finger
      domain. In a phylogenetic analysis, BRH1 clustered closely with GLYMA11G02470.1.
      The leaves of brh1 mutant plants were not much different to those of the wild
      type, while transgenic plants with high BRH1 expression levels had rounder
      rosette leaves. Mutants of the BR synthesis pathway also had a similar round leaf
      phenotype, and greater BRH1 expression levels. Moreover, the related marker genes
      KNAT1, AtHB13 and ROT4, which are known to control leaf shape, altered
      transcriptional levels in both transgenic BRH1 and BR-synthesis mutant lines.
      Thus, BRH1 may be involved in the BR signaling pathway and regulate the growth
      and development of rosette leaves. Research on BRH1 may prove valuable for
      understanding the regulatory mechanism of leaf shape and improving the leaf
      shapes of ornamental plants.

PMID- 28887627
TI  - [Sepsis masquerading as delirium].
AB  - A previously healthy 60-year-old patient presented to the emergency department
      with severe headache, altered personality and fever. He was treated for bacterial
      meningitis with delirium of unknown cause but presumed to be due to alcohol
      withdrawal. Despite receiving the antibiotic therapy regimen recommended for
      bacterial meningitis the patient's condition rapidly deteriorated with profound
      delirium and tachypnea. The intensivist who was consulted immediately suspected
      sepsis-associated organ failure and admitted the patient to the intensive care
      unit (ICU). The blood culture was positive for Listeria. After 10 days the
      patient could be discharged from the ICU and ultimately recovered completely. In
      patients presenting with unexplained delirium or altered personality the
      suspicion of septic encephalopathy should always be considered. They should be
      admitted to the ICU and sepsis treatment should be initiated without delay.

PMID- 28887626
TI  - Probability differently modulating the effects of reward and punishment on
      visuomotor adaptation.
AB  - Recent human motor learning studies revealed that punishment seemingly
      accelerated motor learning but reward enhanced consolidation of motor memory. It
      is not evident how intrinsic properties of reward and punishment modulate the
      potentially dissociable effects of reward and punishment on motor learning and
      motor memory. It is also not clear what causes the dissociation of the effects of
      reward and punishment. By manipulating probability of distribution, a critical
      property of reward and punishment, the present study demonstrated that
      probability had distinct modulation on the effects of reward and punishment in
      adapting to a sudden visual rotation and consolidation of the adaptation memory.
      Specifically, two probabilities of monetary reward and punishment distribution,
      50 and 100%, were applied during young adult participants adapting to a sudden
      visual rotation. Punishment and reward showed distinct effects on motor
      adaptation and motor memory. The group that received punishments in 100% of the
      adaptation trials adapted significantly faster than the other three groups, but
      the group that received rewards in 100% of the adaptation trials showed marked
      savings in re-adapting to the same rotation. In addition, the group that received
      punishments in 50% of the adaptation trials that were randomly selected also had
      savings in re-adapting to the same rotation. Sensitivity to sensory prediction
      error or difference in explicit process induced by reward and punishment may
      likely contribute to the distinct effects of reward and punishment.

PMID- 28887628
TI  - Development of a set of PCR markers specific to Aegilops longissima chromosome
      arms and application in breeding a translocation line.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Transcriptome data were used to develop 134 Aegilops longissima
      specific PCR markers and their comparative maps were constructed by contrasting
      with the homologous genes in the wheat B genome. Three wheat- Ae. longissima
      1BL.1S l S translocation lines were identified using the correspondence markers.
      Aegilops longissima is an important wild species of common wheat that harbors
      many genes that can be used to improve various traits of common wheat (Triticum
      aestivum L.). To efficiently transfer the traits conferred by these Ae.
      longissima genes into wheat, we sequenced the whole expression transcript of Ae.
      longissima. Using the transcriptome data, we developed 134 specific polymerase
      chain reaction markers located on the 14 chromosome arms of Ae. longissima. These
      novel molecular markers were assigned to specific chromosome locations based on a
      comparison with the homologous genes in the B genome of wheat. Annotation of
      these genes showed that most had functions related to metabolic processes,
      hydrolase activity, or catalytic activity. Additionally, we used these markers to
      identify three wheat-Ae. longissima 1BL.1SlS translocation lines in somatic
      variation populations resulting from a cross between wheat cultivar Westonia and
      a wheat-Ae. longissima substitution line 1Sl(1B). The translocation lines had
      several low molecular weight glutenin subunits encoding genes beneficial to flour
      processing quality that came from Ae. longissima 1SlS. The three translocation
      lines were also confirmed by genomic in situ hybridization. These translocation
      lines will be further evaluated for potential quality improvement of bread-making
      properties of wheat.

PMID- 28887629
TI  - MicroRNA-143 promotes cardiac ischemia-mediated mitochondrial impairment by the
      inhibition of protein kinase Cepsilon.
AB  - The cardioprotection of protein kinase Cepsilon (PKCepsilon) against myocardial
      infarction (MI) mediated by its anti-apoptotic property and underlying mechanism
      of targeted regulation by microRNA (miRNA) are not established. MI-induced
      injury, PKCepsilon expression, and targeted regulation of miRNA-143 (miR-143) to
      PKCepsilon have been evaluated using animal MI and cellular hypoxic models
      conjugated with series of state-of-art molecular techniques. The results
      demonstrated that PKCepsilon significantly downregulated along with increased
      infarcted area and apoptotic and necrotic damage in MI model, and the targeted
      relationship and potential binding profile were established between miR-143 and
      PKCepsilon. Both in vivo and in vitro ischemic tests showed that miR-143 induced
      apoptosis and necrosis, which was reversed by antagomiR-143 or AMO-143. The
      upregulation of miR-143 by transfection of miR-143 in vitro also induced cell
      loss, and this effect of miR-143 was completely reversed by co-transfection of
      miR-143 with AMO-143. The identically deleterious action of miR-143 on
      mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP synthesis was also observed in both
      animal MI and cellular hypoxic models, as well as miR-143 overexpressed models
      and converted by either antagomiR or AMO. Importantly, overexpression of miR-143
      downregulated PKCepsilon in all tested models and this downregulation was
      reversed in the presence of antagomiR or AMO. The direct targeted regulation of
      miR-143 on PKCepsilon was confirmed by luciferase reporter and miRNA-masking
      tests. In conclusion, MI-mediated upregulation of miR-143 inhibits PKCepsilon
      expression and consequently interference with the cardioprotection of PKCepsilon
      to mitochondrial, and leads to mitochondrial membrane potential dissipation and
      myocardial death eventually.

PMID- 28887630
TI  - NCB5OR Deficiency in the Cerebellum and Midbrain Leads to Dehydration and
      Alterations in Thirst Response, Fasted Feeding Behavior, and Voluntary Exercise
      in Mice.
AB  - Cytosolic NADH-cytochrome-b5-oxidoreductase (NCB5OR) is ubiquitously expressed in
      animal tissues. We have previously reported that global ablation of NCB5OR in
      mice results in early-onset lean diabetes with decreased serum leptin levels and
      increased metabolic and feeding activities. The conditional deletion of NCB5OR in
      the mouse cerebellum and midbrain (conditional knock out, CKO mice) results in
      local iron dyshomeostasis and altered locomotor activity. It has been established
      that lesion to or removal of the cerebellum leads to changes in nutrient
      organization, visceral response, feeding behavior, and body weight. This study
      assessed whether loss of NCB5OR in the cerebellum and midbrain altered feeding or
      metabolic activity and had an effect on serum T3, cortisol, prolactin, and leptin
      levels. Metabolic cage data revealed that 16 week old male CKO mice had elevated
      respiratory quotients and decreased respiratory water expulsion, decreased
      voluntary exercise, and altered feeding and drinking behavior compared to wild
      type littermate controls. Most notably, male CKO mice displayed higher
      consumption of food during refeeding after a 48-h fast. Echo MRI revealed normal
      body composition but decreased total water content and hydration ratios in CKO
      mice. Increased serum osmolality measurements confirmed the dehydration status of
      male CKO mice. Serum leptin levels were significantly elevated in male CKO mice
      while prolactin, T3, and cortisol levels remain unchanged relative to wild-type
      controls, consistent with elevated transcript levels for leptin receptors (short
      form) in the male CKO mouse cerebellum. Taken together, these findings suggest
      altered feeding response post starvation as a result of NCB5OR deficiency in the
      cerebellum.

PMID- 28887631
TI  - The efficient removal of thallium from sintering flue gas desulfurization
      wastewater in ferrous metallurgy using emulsion liquid membrane.
AB  - The removal of thallium ions in flue gas desulfurization wastewater from ferrous
      metallurgic industry was studied by emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) method using 2
      ethylhexyl phosphoric acid-2-ethylhexyl ester (P507) as carrier, aviation
      kerosene (AK) as organic solvent, polyisobutylene succinimide (T154) as
      surfactant, polyisobutylene (PIB) as additive, and sulfuric acid as internal
      reagent. Some important influence parameters such as concentrations of carrier,
      surfactant and stripping agent, agitation speed, extraction time, volume ratios
      of feed solution to emulsion phase and internal phase to membrane phase, and
      their effects on the removal efficiency of Tl in the ELM process were
      investigated and optimized. Under the optimum operating conditions of 2% of
      carrier, 5% of surfactant, 0.5 M of stripping agent, 350 rpm of agitation speed,
      12.5:1 of volume ratio of feed solution to emulsion phase, and 3:1 volume ratio
      of membrane to internal phase, the maximum extraction efficiency of thallium
      reached 99.76% within 15-min reaction time. The ICP-MS analysis indicated that
      the thallium concentration in treated wastewater was below 5 MUg/L and could meet
      the emission standard demand for industrial wastewater enacted by the local
      government of Hunan province of China. Meanwhile, the extraction of impurity ions
      calcium and magnesium in the ELM system was investigated. The result showed that
      an acidic environment would be in favor of the removal of Tl from calcium and
      magnesium contained in wastewater. Graphical abstract ?.

PMID- 28887632
TI  - Multipeptide-coupled nanoparticles induce tolerance in 'humanised' HLA-transgenic
      mice and inhibit diabetogenic CD8+ T cell responses in type 1 diabetes.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Induction of antigen-specific immunological tolerance may
      provide an attractive immunotherapy in the NOD mouse model but the conditions
      that lead to the successful translation to human type 1 diabetes are limited. In
      this study, we covalently linked 500 nm carboxylated polystyrene beads (PSB) with
      a mixture of immunodominant HLA-A*02:01-restricted epitopes (peptides-PSB) that
      may have high clinical relevance in humans as they promote immune tolerance; we
      then investigated the effect of the nanoparticle-peptide complexes on T cell
      tolerance. METHODS: PSB-coupled mixtures of HLA-A*02:01-restricted epitopes were
      administered to HHD II mice via intravenous injection. The effects on delaying
      the course of the disease were verified in NOD.beta2m null HHD mice. The
      diabetogenic HLA-A*02:01-restricted cytotoxic lymphocyte (CTL) responses to
      treatment with peptides-PSB were validated in individuals with type 1 diabetes.
      RESULTS: We showed that peptides-PSB could induce antigen-specific tolerance in
      HHD II mice. The protective immunological mechanisms were mediated through the
      function of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells, suppressive T cell activation and T
      cell anergy. Furthermore, the peptides-PSB induced an activation and accumulation
      of regulatory T cells and CD11c+ dendritic cells through a rapid production of
      CD169+ macrophage-derived C-C motif chemokine 22 (CCL22). Peptides-PSB also
      prevented diabetes in 'humanised' NOD.beta2m null HHD mice and suppressed
      pathogenic CTL responses in people with type 1 diabetes.
      CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our findings demonstrate for the first time the
      potential for using multipeptide-PSB complexes to induce T cell tolerance and
      halt the autoimmune process. These findings represent a promising platform for an
      antigen-specific tolerance strategy in type 1 diabetes and highlight a mechanism
      through which metallophilic macrophages mediate the early cell-cell interactions
      required for peptides-PSB-induced immune tolerance.

PMID- 28887634
TI  - CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing of the filamentous fungi: the state of the art.
AB  - In recent years, a variety of genetic tools have been developed and applied to
      various filamentous fungi, which are widely applied in agriculture and the food
      industry. However, the low efficiency of gene targeting has for many years
      hampered studies on functional genomics in this important group of
      microorganisms. The emergence of CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology has
      sparked a revolution in genetic research due to its high efficiency, versatility,
      and easy operation and opened the door for the discovery and exploitation of many
      new natural products. Although the application of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in
      filamentous fungi is still in its infancy compared to its common use in E. coli,
      yeasts, and mammals, the deep development of this system will certainly drive the
      exploitation of fungal diversity. In this review, we summarize the research
      progress on CRISPR/Cas9 systems in filamentous fungi and finally highlight
      further prospects in this area.

PMID- 28887633
TI  - Periostin in inflammation and allergy.
AB  - We found for the first time that IL-4 and IL-13, signature type 2 cytokines, are
      able to induce periostin expression. We and others have subsequently shown that
      periostin is highly expressed in chronic inflammatory diseases-asthma, atopic
      dermatitis, eosinophilc chronic sinusitis/chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal
      polyp, and allergic conjunctivitis-and that periostin plays important roles in
      the pathogenesis of these diseases. The epithelial/mesenchymal interaction via
      periostin is important for the onset of allergic inflammation, in which periostin
      derived from fibroblasts acts on epithelial cells or fibroblasts, activating
      their NF-kappaB. Moreover, the immune cell/non-immune cell interaction via
      periostin may be also involved. Now the significance of periostin has been
      expanded into other inflammatory or fibrotic diseases such as scleroderma and
      pulmonary fibrosis. The cross-talk of periostin with TGF-beta or pro-inflammatory
      cytokines is important for the underlying mechanism of these diseases. Because of
      its pathogenic importance and broad expression, diagnostics or therapeutic drugs
      can be potentially developed to target periostin as a means of treating these
      diseases.

PMID- 28887635
TI  - The Prognostic Impact of Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) in Intrahepatic
      Cholangiocarcinoma Following Curative Hepatectomy: A Retrospective Single
      Institution Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several studies have examined controlling nutritional status (CONUT),
      which is one of the useful biomarkers for predicting patients' prognosis
      following cancer treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of
      CONUT as a postoperative prognostic marker in patients with intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) following curative hepatectomy. METHODS: We
      retrospectively analyzed 71 patients who underwent curative hepatectomy for ICC
      between May 2002 and November 2016. Patients were divided into two groups
      according to their preoperative CONUT score (i.e., CONUT ? 2 or CONUT < 2).
      RESULTS: The number of patients assigned to the normal, mild, moderate, or severe
      malnutrition groups was 40, 28, two, and one, respectively. The high CONUT group
      (CONUT ? 2) consisted of 31 patients (43.7%) and had a poor prognosis with regard
      to overall survival (OS) (p = 0.0149). A high CONUT score is also identified as
      one of the independent predictors of poor prognosis in OS (hazard ratio 3.02; 95%
      confidence interval 1.4-6.8; p = 0.007). However, in the current study, a high
      CONUT score was not associated with postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo
      classification ? III or more). CONCLUSIONS: CONUT may be useful for the
      preoperative assessment of prognosis in patients with ICC who have undergone
      curative hepatectomy.

PMID- 28887636
TI  - MiR-184 Retarded the Proliferation, Invasiveness and Migration of Glioblastoma
      Cells by Repressing Stanniocalcin-2.
AB  - To investigate the repression of miR-184 on Stanniocalcin-2 (STC2) and how this
      axis affects the propagation, invasiveness and migration ability of glioblastoma
      cells. RT-PCR was employed to determine the miR-184 and STC2 mRNA expression both
      in tissues and cells. Western blot was employed to determine the protein
      expression levels. The cells were transfected via lipofection. MTT, colony
      formation, invasion and scratch healing assays were conducted to study the
      propagation, invasiveness and migratory ability of glioblastoma cells,
      respectively. The dual luciferase reporter gene assay was conducted to determine
      whether miR-184 could directly bind to STC2 mRNA 3'UTR. MiR-184 was under
      expressed whereas STC2 was over-expressed in glioblastoma tissues and cell line.
      The up-regulation of miR-184 significantly suppressed the propagation, migratory
      ability and invasion of glioblastoma cells, whereas the over-expression of STC2
      restored this effect. MiR-184 was confirmed to directly target STC2. MiR-184
      could retard the propagation, invasiveness and migratory ability of glioblastoma
      cells by suppressing STC2.

PMID- 28887637
TI  - Epigenetic regulation in cell senescence.
AB  - Cell senescence, which is an irreversible state of cell proliferative arrest, has
      emerged as a potentially important contributor to tissue dysfunction and
      organismal ageing. Cell senescence is triggered by a variety of senescence
      stressors, which affect gene expression and multiple signalling pathways that
      give rise to various senescence phenotypes. Epigenetic mechanisms, as critical
      regulators of chromosomal architecture and gene expression, have added an extra
      dimension to the molecular mechanisms of cell senescence. Cell senescence is
      accompanied by changes in DNA methylation, histone-associated epigenetic
      processes, chromatin remodelling and ncRNA expression. Those senescence
      associated epigenetic alterations interact with the senescence regulatory
      programme networks and lead to various cell senescence phenotypes. This review
      provides a comprehensive overview of epigenetic changes and their effects on cell
      senescence. The differences in epigenetic alterations among different types of
      senescence are also discussed. Furthermore, we summarise the interactions among
      different epigenetic mechanisms during cell senescence and analyse the
      possibility of using epigenetic signatures as biomarkers and therapeutic targets
      for the treatment of senescence-associated diseases.

PMID- 28887638
TI  - A new strategy to sustained release of ocular drugs by one-step drug-loaded
      microcapsule manufacturing in hydrogel punctal plugs.
AB  - PURPOSE: To design an injectable hyaluronate (HA)-based hydrogel system that
      contains drug-loaded microcapsules as resorbable plugs to deliver ocular drugs.
      METHODS: In-situ drug-loaded, core-shell-structured chitosan (CS)@HA
      microcapsules were fabricated via HA hydrosol collecting in electrospun bead-rich
      CS fibers under continuous stirring. An injectable and cytocompatible hydrogel
      system with different degrees of chemical crosslinking maintained viscoelastic
      and sustained drug release for a long-term period of time at body temperature in
      vitro. RESULTS: With the addition of adipic dihydrazide (ADH) or 1-Ethyl-3-(3
      dimethyllaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDCI), HA hydrosols transited
      from liquid to solid state at the gel point, with the G'/G" ratio varying between
      1.43 and 5.32 as a function of crosslinker concentration in the hydrogel phase.
      Ofloxacin (OFL) release from the mechanically mixed hydrosol system (CS-HA-A0-E0)
      and the micro-encapsulated hydrosol formulation (CS@HA-A0-E0) were respectively
      over 80% and 51% of the total drug load leaching out within 24 h. As for the drug
      mixed hydrogel systems with low (CS-HA-A0.06-E0.15) and high (CS-HA-A0.06-E0.30)
      crosslinking density, the OFL release rate reached 38.5 and 46.6% respectively,
      while the micro-encapsulated hydrogel systems with low (CS@HA-A0.06-E0.15) and
      high (CS@HA-A0.6-E0.30) showed only (11.9 +/- 2.7)% and (17.4 +/- 3.5)% drug
      release respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A one-step in-situ drug-capsulizing method is
      developed to fabricate a resorbable hydrogel punctal plug with extended drug
      release. The chemistry of the crosslinking reaction involves the formation of
      highly biocompatible HA derivatives. Thus, the hydrogel can be used directly in
      the tear drainage canalicular system.

PMID- 28887639
TI  - A Double-Blinded Randomized Clinical Study on the Therapeutic Effect of
      Gastrografin in Prolonged Postoperative Ileus After Elective Colorectal Surgery:
      Reply.

PMID- 28887640
TI  - Clinical and instrumental evaluation of two different regimens of tranexamic acid
      in total hip arthroplasty: a single-centre, prospective, randomized study with 80
      patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: The use of tranexamic acid (TXA) in total hip arthroplasty (THA) can
      significantly reduce blood losses with many clinical and economical advantages.
      However, no consensus has been reached regarding the optimal regimen for TXA
      administration. The aim of this study is to analyse and compare the haemostatic
      effect of two different intravenous (IV) regimens of TXA. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      We planned a single-centre, prospective, randomized study including 80 patients
      who underwent primary unilateral minimally invasive THA because of a hip
      osteoarthritic degeneration. We divided patients into two groups: the G10 group
      received two IV doses of 10 mg/kg of TXA, and the G20 group received two doses of
      20 mg/kg. RESULTS: No significant differences in mean minimum levels of Hb and
      HcT stratified by days after surgery were uncovered between the two groups
      despite the use of two different dosages of TXA. Also the mean blood volume loss
      was statistically similar between two groups. No differences were also observed
      regarding the occurrence of adverse effects. CONCLUSIONS: In two IV bolus
      regimens of TXA administration, the use of a dose of 10 or 20 mg/kg provides
      statistically similar results in blood loss sparing. Therefore, the use of two 10
      mg/kg doses could be considered more advisable in order to reduce the potential
      thromboembolic risks related to this drug.

PMID- 28887641
TI  - Interference effects of transcranial direct current stimulation over the right
      frontal cortex and adrenergic system on conditioned fear.
AB  - RATIONALE: The effects of pharmacological interventions on fear memory have
      widely been studied, but there are very few studies about the effects of brain
      electrical stimulation on fear memory function. OBJECTIVE: Therefore, our aim was
      to determine whether anodal/cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation
      (tDCS) over the right frontal cortex would modify propranolol-induced contextual
      and auditory fear memory deficits, before or after training. METHODS: The adult
      NMRI male mice were randomly assigned into three groups: the sham group, the
      anodal tDCS group, and the cathodal tDCS group. Fear memories were evaluated
      using a classical fear conditioning apparatus. RESULTS: While the anodal
      stimulation did not affect fear retrieval, post-training cathodal stimulation
      improved fear memory retrieval. Regardless of when propranolol (0.1 mg/kg) was
      administered, it impaired fear memory retrieval. However, when anodal stimulation
      and propranolol were applied prior to the training, contextual fear memory
      retrieval was increased and auditory fear memory was reversed. An enhanced
      contextual retrieval was also observed when propranolol was administered prior to
      the training and stimulation occurred after the training. Only when the
      stimulation occurred prior to the training and propranolol was administered after
      the training was there a selective improvement in contextual fear memory
      retrieval, leaving the auditory fear memory retrieval impaired. Interestingly,
      cathodal stimulation improved the effects of propranolol on auditory fear memory
      only when it occurred prior to the training. CONCLUSION: The results highlight
      possible improving effects for anodal/cathodal tDCS on propranolol-induced
      deficits on fear memories. The timing of the interventions related to the
      specific phases of memory formation is important in modulating fear behaviors.

PMID- 28887642
TI  - Evaluation of the Functional Capacity of NK Cells of Melanoma Patients in an In
      Vitro Model of NK Cell Contact with K562 and FemX Tumor Cell Lines.
AB  - NK cells of metastatic melanoma (MM) patients display impaired function, making
      them incapable to mount an effective antitumor response. In this study, we
      evaluated immunophenotypic characteristics and functional capacity of CD3-CD16+
      NK cells of MM patients in an in vitro model based on NK cell contact with an NK
      sensitive, K562, and a tumor-specific, melanoma FemX tumor cell line. Although
      our results indicate similar NK cell antitumor cytotoxic potential of MM patients
      in contact with both cell lines based on the expression of CD107a degranulation
      marker, there is a discrepancy in NK cell IFNgamma production, as it is not
      significantly induced by FemX tumor cells, found to be, contrary to K562, HLA
      class I positive. Furthermore, we show NKG2D receptor downregulation by K562
      tumor cell line, only. This may result from the obtained higher gene expression
      of TGFbeta and VEGFA growth factors in K562 tumor cells that can negatively
      regulate NKG2D expression. Additionally, aside from postcontact downmodulation of
      activating CD16 receptor, there are no significant changes in the expression of
      CD161, CD158a, and CD158b NK cell receptors. Therefore, the applied in vitro
      model shows that, compared to the full NK cell functional capacity of MM patients
      displayed in a tumor-sensitive setting represented by contact with K562 cells,
      tumor-specific melanoma setting provided by FemX tumor cells leads to reduced NK
      functional potential. The obtained insight into NK cell capacity may be of use
      for evaluation of the state of disease and can help in selecting effective
      immunotherapeutic agents for MM patients.

PMID- 28887643
TI  - Clinical predictors of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in nosocomial
      and healthcare-associated pneumonia: a multicenter, matched case-control study.
AB  - The situations in which coverage for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
      (MRSA) in the empirical treatment of nosocomial pneumonia (NP) or severe
      healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) is needed are poorly defined, particularly
      outside intensive care units (ICUs). Our aim was to characterize if the risk of
      MRSA NP/HCAP can be defined by clinical variables. We designed an observational,
      retrospective, multicenter, case-control study to analyze the association between
      defined clinical variables and risk of MRSA NP/HCAP in non-ICU patients using
      conditional multivariable logistic regression. Cases and controls (1:2) with
      microbiological diagnosis were included. Controls were matched for hospital, type
      of pneumonia (NP or HCAP), and date of isolation. A total of 140 cases (77 NP and
      63 HCAP) and 280 controls were studied. The variables associated with the risk of
      MRSA pneumonia were: (i) respiratory infection/colonization caused by MRSA in the
      previous year [odds ratio (OR) 14.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.13-53.13, p
      < 0.001]; (ii) hospitalization in the previous 90 days (OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.21
      4.81, p = 0.012); and (iii) age (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.001-1.05, p = 0.040). The area
      under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the multivariable
      model was 0.72 (95% CI 0.66-0.78). The multivariate model had a sensitivity of
      74.5% (95% CI 65.3-83.6), a specificity of 63.3% (95% CI 56.0-70.6), a positive
      predictive value of 52.5% (95% CI 43.9-61.2), and a negative predictive value of
      82.0% (95% CI 75.3-88.8) for the observed data. Clinical predictors of MRSA
      NP/HCAP can be used to define a low-risk population in whom coverage against MRSA
      may not be needed.

PMID- 28887644
TI  - Habitat fragmentation leads to reduced pollinator visitation, fruit production
      and recruitment in urban mangrove forests.
AB  - Mangrove forests worldwide undergo anthropogenic fragmentation that may threaten
      their existence, and yet there have been few tests of the effects of
      fragmentation on demographic processes critical for mangrove regeneration.
      Predicting the effects of habitat fragmentation on mangroves is problematic as
      pollinators may move more freely across water than terrestrial habitat, and
      propagules can be widely dispersed by water. Here, within each of two estuaries,
      we compared pollinator diversity and activity, reproductive effort and output,
      and rates of recruitment for sets of three large (>1500 trees), medium (300-500)
      and small (<50) stands. As predicted, most measures of reproductive activity and
      success were inversely related to stand size with large stands typically
      producing significantly more and larger fruit, and significantly more seedlings.
      Most strikingly, we found the effect of fragmentation on the abundance of
      pollinators (honeybees), the production and quality of fruit and the survival
      rate of seedlings to be similar, showing significant reduction of recruitment in
      small stands. This study provides the first rigorous evidence that recruitment of
      mangroves, like for many terrestrial plants, is negatively impacted by habitat
      fragmentation. From a management perspective, we argue that in the short term our
      data imply the importance of conserving the largest possible stands. However,
      additional work is needed to determine (1) the proportion of recruits within
      small stands that originate within large stands, (2) how seedling performance
      varies with fruit size and genotype, and (3) how seedling size and performance
      vary with the abundance and diversity of pollen.

PMID- 28887645
TI  - Pitfalls in soft tissue sarcoma imaging: chronic expanding hematomas.
AB  - Solid or nodular enhancement is typical of soft tissue sarcomas although high
      grade soft tissue sarcomas and those with internal hemorrhage often appear
      heterogeneous with areas of nonenhancement and solid or nodular enhancement.
      These MRI findings often prompt an orthopedic oncology referral, a biopsy or
      surgery. However, not all masses with these imaging findings are malignant. We
      report the multimodality imaging findings of two surgically proven chronic
      expanding hematomas (CEH) with imaging features that mimicked sarcomas. A third
      case of nonenhancing CEH of the lower extremity is also presented as a
      comparison. It is important that in the correct clinical scenario with typical
      imaging findings, the differential diagnosis of a chronic expanding hematoma be
      included in the workup of these patients. An image-guided biopsy of nodular
      tissue within such masses that proves to be negative for malignancy should not
      necessarily be considered discordant. A correct diagnosis may prevent a morbid
      unnecessary surgery and may indicate the need for a conservative noninvasive
      follow-up with imaging.

PMID- 28887646
TI  - Cancer in First Nations people living in British Columbia, Canada: an analysis of
      incidence and survival from 1993 to 2010.
AB  - BACKGROUND: For First Nations (FN) peoples living in British Columbia (BC),
      little is known regarding cancer in the population. The aim of this study was to
      explore cancer incidence and survival in the FN population of BC and compare it
      to the non-FN population. METHODS: All new cancers diagnosed from 1993 to 2010
      were linked to the First Nations Client File (FNCF). Age-standardized incidence
      rates (ASIR) and rate ratios, and 1- and 5-year cause-specific survival estimates
      and hazard ratios were calculated. Follow-up end date for survival was December
      31, 2011 and follow-up time was censored at a maximum of 15 years. RESULTS: ASIR
      of colorectal cancer (male SRR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.25-1.61; female SRR = 1.21, 95%
      CI 1.06-1.38) and cervical cancer (SRR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.45-2.33) were higher
      overall in FN residents in BC, compared to non-FN residents. Incidence rates of
      almost all other cancers were generally similar or lower in FN populations
      overall and by sex, age, and period categories, compared to non-FN residents.
      Trends in ASIR over time were similar except for lung (increasing for FN,
      decreasing for non-FN) and colorectal cancers (increasing for FN, decreasing for
      non-FN). Conversely, survival rates were generally lower for FN, with differences
      evident for some cancer sites at 1 year following diagnosis. CONCLUSION: FN
      people living in BC face unique cancer issues compared to non-FN people. Higher
      incidence and lower survival associated with certain cancer types require further
      research to look into the likely multifaceted basis for these findings.

PMID- 28887647
TI  - A Comparative Evaluation Study of Growth Conditions for Culturing the Isolates of
      Campylobacter spp.
AB  - Campylobacter is one of the leading causes of foodborne travelers' diarrhea
      worldwide. Although a large number cases of campylobacteriosis go undiagnosed or
      unreported, it is considered as the second most common foodborne illness in the
      USA affecting over 1.3 million individuals every year. Of various Campylobacter
      species, C. jejuni, C. coli, and C. lari have been accounted for causing more
      than 99% of human infections. Thus, there is a need to have efficient isolation
      method to protect public health on food safety and monitoring the burden of
      campylobacteriosis. Nevertheless, it is a challenging task as the exposure of
      environmental stress during isolation process makes Campylobacter species less
      culturable. Sixteen Campylobacter spp. were used to evaluate the current
      protocols used in Campylobacter isolation. For optimal recovery, a range of
      growth media (Bolton, Columbia, Muller Hinton, CVA Campy and mCCDA), incubation
      temperatures, and additional supplements (including antibiotics) were tested.
      Blood agars without antibiotics were sufficient for the initial recovery.
      Afterward, the isolates could grow on agars without any supplements, and in some
      cases growth was observed in the presence of antibiotics. Incubation at 37 
      degrees C was found to be the optimal temperature for the recovery and the growth
      of most species. Additionally, a food adulteration study was also carried out by
      artificially contaminating three food matrices that included egg, milk, and
      infant cereal, with two isolates of C. jejuni and C. coli. Results of this study
      should provide the insight for culturing and isolation of Campylobacter from food
      and other sources.

PMID- 28887648
TI  - Evaluation of donor site morbidity after medial triceps brachii free flap for
      lower limb reconstruction.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The medial head of the triceps brachii muscle (MTB)-free flap is an
      attractive solution to cover small-to-medium defects of the lower limb. This
      muscular head has no well-identified function, suggesting minimal impact of its
      removal on elbow mobility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and
      reliability of the harvest procedure and the functional and cosmetic morbidity of
      this donor site. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four consecutive MTB-free flaps
      were performed for reconstructive surgery of the lower limb between 2011 and
      2015. Patients and their records were retrospectively examined. Functional
      results were evaluated by assessing elbow extension strength using a dynamometer
      and with a QuickDASH questionnaire. Cosmetic results were assessed using the
      POSAS observer and patient scales. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients were followed up
      postoperatively for an average of 33.9 [min 12-max 59] months. No major
      complication (in particular, no ulnar or radial nerve injury) occurred during
      harvest. No patient complained of elbow pain or reduction in strength. Elbow
      extension was complete in all patients and the mean strength was calculated at 89
      [61.1-112.5] % of the opposite arm. The POSAS scale scored an average 8.6 [7-21]
      for the observer and 10 [7-26] for the patient. Cosmetic results using the POSAS
      scale were satisfactory in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Objective evaluation of
      patients who underwent an MTB-free flap for limb reconstruction shows no impact
      of the harvesting procedure on elbow extension. Patient satisfaction with the
      donor site was high. From this retrospective study, it appears that this surgery
      is safe, aesthetically acceptable, and has minimal impact on donor site elbow
      function.

PMID- 28887649
TI  - Metal Concentrations and Responses of Chironomid Larvae Exposed to Thailand Pulp
      and Paper Mill Effluent.
AB  - Pulp and paper mills (PPM) may discharge insufficiently treated waste into rivers
      and give rise to serious effects with aquatic life. This study investigated the
      biological response of the chironomid (Chironomus javanus, Kieffer) when exposed
      to PPM effluent. Effluent concentrations of BOD, COD, TKN, TS, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn
      were high. Cd and Cr concentrations in chironomid were the most accumulated.
      Whole effluent toxicity on the chironomid test organism was significant as
      expressed by the percent survival and decreased with increasing concentration.
      Highest dry weight, head capsule and length of the chironomid test organism
      corresponded to 100% effluent at a specific time. Effect of dilution was assessed
      by using glutathione S-transferase activity on chironomid and corresponded to
      6.25% effluent during 48-96 h which was significantly increased in the
      chironomid. The results showed that the chironomid was sensitive to PPM effluent
      and toxicity tests can be used for assessing the effect of effluent on aquatic
      species.

PMID- 28887650
TI  - Microbial diversity of the Tibetan tick Haemaphysalis tibetensis (Acari:
      Ixodidae).
AB  - The Tibetan tick Haemaphysalis tibetensis is widely distributed in the Tibetan
      Plateau, and is recognized as one of the primary parasites affecting domestic and
      wild animals. No information is available on its microbial diversity. In the
      current study, the microbiomes in H. tibetensis were explored using Illumina
      MiSeq sequencing. Results indicate that a total of 28 phyla and 38 genera were
      characterized from this tick, and most of the microbes were classified in the
      phylum Proteobacteria. Female and male H. tibetensis harbored similar composition
      of the microbes, with dominant bacteria from the genus Coxiella accounting for
      87.5 and 66.5% in females and males, respectively. The abundance of bacteria
      belonging to the genus Rickettsia in females and males was 6.9 and 23.7%,
      respectively. These findings may help understand the relationship between this
      tick and its symbiontic microorganisms.

PMID- 28887652
TI  - Disruption of adenylyl cyclase type 5 mimics exercise training.
AB  - Exercise training is key to healthful longevity. Since exercise training
      compliance is difficult, it would be useful to have a therapeutic substitute that
      mimicked exercise training. We compared the effects of exercise training in wild
      type (WT) littermates with adenylyl cyclase type 5 knock out (AC5 KO) mice, a
      model of enhanced exercise performance. Exercise performance, measured by maximal
      distance and work to exhaustion, was increased in exercise-trained WT to levels
      already attained in untrained AC5 KO. Exercise training in AC5 KO further
      enhanced their exercise performance. The key difference in untrained AC5 KO and
      exercise-trained WT was the beta-adrenergic receptor signaling, which was
      decreased in untrained AC5 KO compared to untrained WT but was increased in WT
      with exercise training. Despite this key difference, untrained AC5 KO and
      exercise-trained WT mice shared similar gene expression, determined by deep
      sequencing, in their gastrocnemius muscle with 183 genes commonly up or down
      regulated, mainly involving muscle contraction, metabolism and mitochondrial
      function. The SIRT1/PGC-1alpha pathway partially mediated the enhanced exercise
      in both AC5 KO and exercise-trained WT mice, as reflected in the reduced exercise
      responses after administering a SIRT1 inhibitor, but did not abolish the enhanced
      exercise performance in the AC5 KO compared to untrained WT. Increasing oxidative
      stress with paraquat attenuated exercise performance more in untrained WT than
      untrained AC5 KO, reflecting the augmented oxidative stress protection in AC5 KO.
      Blocking nitric oxide actually reduced the enhanced exercise performance in
      untrained AC5 KO and trained WT to levels below untrained WT, demonstrating the
      importance of this mechanism. These results suggest that AC5 KO mice, without
      exercise training, share similar mechanisms responsible for enhanced exercise
      capacity with chronic exercise training, most importantly increased nitric oxide,
      and demonstrate more reserve with the addition of exercise training. A novel
      feature of the enhanced exercise performance in untrained AC5 KO mice is their
      decreased sympathetic tone, which is also beneficial to patients with
      cardiovascular disease.

PMID- 28887651
TI  - A cell culture model for investigation of synapse influenceability: epigenetics,
      expression and function of gene targets important for synapse formation and
      preservation in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells differentiated by retinoic acid.
AB  - SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells are frequently used for different neuronal cell
      culture models. As there is no "gold-standard", miscellaneous protocols exist to
      differentiate these cells into a neuronal cell type. Here, the aim was to find a
      differentiation condition making cells suitable for investigation of
      influenceability of synapses by environmental conditions in pharmacologic
      experiments. For this purpose, effects on synapse molecules should be somehow
      rateable and cells should be usable for functional analysis like calcium imaging.
      A system like this is desirable for example in basic research concerning
      schizophrenia, depression, autism or neurodegeneration as synaptic plasticity and
      neuronal maturation are known to have a significant impact in these diseases.
      Cells grown on laminin-coated glass cover slips and treated with 50 uM retinoic
      acid (RA) turned out to show most convincing morphological signs of neuronal
      differentiation and attached strongly to the ground, thereby also fulfilling
      preconditions for functional analysis. Systematic characterisation of this
      differentiation condition in comparison to non-treated controls revealed lower
      methylation rates and higher expression of most candidate molecules relevant for
      formation, preservation and function of synapses as well as differential
      function. In conclusion, this combination of differentiation strategy and markers
      seems to be a suitable system to estimate synapse modifications in basic research
      as it could help to identify possible dedifferentiating effects. To our
      knowledge, differentiation of SH-SY5Y has not been described as systematic before
      regarding comprehensiveness of the set of investigated synapse molecules and
      coverage of applied methods spanning from epigenetics to protein function.
      Furthermore, this is the first time that SH-SY5Y cells were differentiated on
      glass cover slips to an extent making them suitable for investigation of synapse
      molecules as part of stable intercellular connections in downstream functional
      analyses.

PMID- 28887653
TI  - Rodent herbivory differentially affects mortality rates of 14 native plant
      species with contrasting life history and growth form traits.
AB  - Ecosystems are transformed by changes in disturbance regimes including wildfire
      and herbivory. Rodent consumers can have strong top-down effects on plant
      community assembly through seed predation, but their impacts on post-germination
      seedling establishment via seedling herbivory need better characterization,
      particularly in deserts. To test the legacy effects of fire history, and native
      rodent consumers on seedling establishment, we evaluated factorial combinations
      of experimental exclusion of rodents and fire history (burned vs. unburned) on
      seedling survival of 14 native plant species that vary in their life history
      strategies and growth form in the Mojave Desert. Seedlings were placed into the
      experimental plots, and seedling survival was monitored daily for 8 days. The
      legacy effects of fire history had minimal effects on seedling survival, but
      rodent exclusion, year, and their interaction were strongly significant. Seedling
      survival rates were nearly sixfold greater in rodent exclusion plots compared to
      control plots in 2012 (53 vs. 9%) and 17-fold greater in 2013 (17 vs. 1%). The
      dramatic increase in seedling mortality from 2012 to 2013 was likely driven by an
      increase in rodent abundance and an outbreak of grasshoppers that appears to have
      intensified the rodent effect. There was strong variability in plant species
      survival in response to rodent herbivory with annual plants and forb species
      showing lower survival than perennial plants and shrub species. These results
      indicate that rodent consumers can strongly regulate seedling survival of native
      plant species with potentially strong regulatory effects on plant community
      development.

PMID- 28887654
TI  - [Critical consideration of ipsilateral axillary recurrence after breast
      conservative surgery and the protective effect of whole breast radiotherapy].

PMID- 28887656
TI  - IUGA terminology and standardization: creating and using this expanding resource.

PMID- 28887655
TI  - Freezing shortens the lifetime of DNA molecules under tension.
AB  - DNA samples are commonly frozen for storage. However, freezing can compromise the
      integrity of DNA molecules. Considering the wide applications of DNA molecules in
      nanotechnology, changes to DNA integrity at the molecular level may cause
      undesirable outcomes. However, the effects of freezing on DNA integrity have not
      been fully explored. To investigate the impact of freezing on DNA integrity,
      samples of frozen and non-frozen bacteriophage lambda DNA were studied using
      optical tweezers. Tension (5-35 pN) was applied to DNA molecules to mimic
      mechanical interactions between DNA and other biomolecules. The integrity of the
      DNA molecules was evaluated by measuring the time taken for single DNA molecules
      to break under tension. Mean lifetimes were determined by maximum likelihood
      estimates and variances were obtained through bootstrapping simulations. Under 5
      pN of force, the mean lifetime of frozen samples is 44.3 min with 95% confidence
      interval (CI) between 36.7 min and 53.6 min while the mean lifetime of non-frozen
      samples is 133.2 min (95% CI: 97.8-190.1 min). Under 15 pN of force, the mean
      lifetimes are 10.8 min (95% CI: 7.6-12.6 min) and 78.5 min (95% CI: 58.1-108.9
      min). The lifetimes of frozen DNA molecules are significantly reduced, implying
      that freezing compromises DNA integrity. Moreover, we found that the reduced DNA
      structural integrity cannot be restored using regular ligation process. These
      results indicate that freezing can alter the structural integrity of the DNA
      molecules.

PMID- 28887657
TI  - Fine mapping of the soybean aphid-resistance genes Rag6 and Rag3c from Glycine
      soja 85-32.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Rag6 and Rag3c were delimited to a 49-kb interval on chromosome 8
      and a 150-kb interval on chromosome 16, respectively. Structural variants in the
      exons of candidate genes were identified. The soybean aphid, an invasive species,
      has significantly threatened soybean production in North America since 2000. Host
      plant resistance is known as an ideal management strategy for aphids. Two novel
      aphid-resistance loci, Rag6 and Rag3c, from Glycine soja 85-32, were previously
      detected in a 10.5-cM interval on chromosome 8 and a 7.5-cM interval on
      chromosome 16, respectively. Defining the exact genomic position of these two
      genes is critical for improving the effectiveness of marker-assisted selection
      for aphid resistance and for identification of the functional genes. To pinpoint
      the locations of Rag6 and Rag3c, four populations segregating for Rag6 and Rag3c
      were used to fine map these two genes. The availability of the Illumina Infinium
      SoySNP50K/8K iSelect BeadChip, combined with single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
      markers discovered through the whole-genome re-sequencing of E12901, facilitated
      the fine mapping process. Rag6 was refined to a 49-kb interval on chromosome 8
      with four candidate genes, including three clustered nucleotide-binding site
      leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) genes and an amine oxidase encoding gene. Rag3c was
      refined to a 150-kb interval on chromosome 16 with 11 candidate genes, two of
      which are a LRR gene and a lipase gene. Moreover, by sequencing the whole-genome
      exome-capture of the resistant source (E12901), structural variants were
      identified in the exons of the candidate genes of Rag6 and Rag3c. The closely
      linked SNP markers and the candidate gene information presented in this study
      will be significant resources for integrating Rag6 and Rag3c into elite cultivars
      and for future functional genetics studies.

PMID- 28887658
TI  - Genetic dissection of grain traits in Yamadanishiki, an excellent sake-brewing
      rice cultivar.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: The grain traits of Yamadanishiki, an excellent sake-brewing rice
      cultivar in Japan, are governed by multiple QTLs, namely, a total of 42 QTLs
      including six major QTLs. Japanese rice wine (sake) is produced using brewing
      rice (Oryza sativa L.) that carries traits desirable for sake-brewing, such as a
      larger grain size and higher white-core expression rate (WCE) compared to cooking
      rice cultivars. However, the genetic basis for these traits in brewing rice
      cultivars is still unclear. We performed analyses of quantitative trait locus
      (QTL) of grain and days to heading over 3 years on populations derived from
      crosses between Koshihikari, a cooking rice, and Yamadanishiki, an excellent sake
      brewing rice. A total of 42 QTLs were detected for the grain traits, and the
      Yamadanishiki alleles at 16 QTLs contributed to larger grain size. Two major QTLs
      essential for regulating both 100-grain weight (GWt) and grain width (GWh) were
      harbored in the same regions on chromosomes 5 and 10. An interaction was noted
      between the environment and the QTL associated with WCE on chromosome 6, which
      was detected in two of 3 years. In addition, two QTLs for WCE on chromosomes 3
      and 10 overlapped with the QTLs for GWt and GWh, suggesting that QTLs associated
      with grain size also play an important role in the formation of white-core.
      Despite differences in the rate of grain growth in both Koshihikari and
      Yamadanishiki across 2 years, the WCE in Yamadanishiki remained consistent, thus
      demonstrating that the formation of white-core does not depend on grain filling
      speed. These data can be informative for programs involved in breeding better
      cooking and brewing rice cultivars.

PMID- 28887659
TI  - Ligand-biased ensemble receptor docking (LigBEnD): a hybrid ligand/receptor
      structure-based approach.
AB  - Ligand docking to flexible protein molecules can be efficiently carried out
      through ensemble docking to multiple protein conformations, either from
      experimental X-ray structures or from in silico simulations. The success of
      ensemble docking often requires the careful selection of complementary protein
      conformations, through docking and scoring of known co-crystallized ligands.
      False positives, in which a ligand in a wrong pose achieves a better docking
      score than that of native pose, arise as additional protein conformations are
      added. In the current study, we developed a new ligand-biased ensemble receptor
      docking method and composite scoring function which combine the use of ligand
      based atomic property field (APF) method with receptor structure-based docking.
      This method helps us to correctly dock 30 out of 36 ligands presented by the D3R
      docking challenge. For the six mis-docked ligands, the cognate receptor
      structures prove to be too different from the 40 available experimental Pocketome
      conformations used for docking and could be identified only by receptor sampling
      beyond experimentally explored conformational subspace.

PMID- 28887660
TI  - Urinary interleukin 22 binding protein as a marker of lupus nephritis in Egyptian
      children with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus.
AB  - Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is a multi-system autoimmune
      inflammatory disease. Generally, 60% of patients will develop lupus nephritis
      (LN); thus, early recognition and treatment is associated with better outcome.
      Interleukin 22 (IL-22) is involved in tissue inflammation and is regulated by
      interleukin 22 binding protein (IL-22BP). This study aimed to use IL-22BP as a
      non-invasive marker for disease activity in JSLE and LN. This is a cross
      sectional study conducted on 82 subjects: 51 JSLE patients and 31 healthy
      controls of matched age and gender. Urinary IL-22BP was measured using enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay, and its level was correlated with different clinical
      and laboratory data in JSLE as well as Systemic Lupus Erythematous Disease
      Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2k), renal SLEDAI-2k, and Systemic Lupus
      International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) renal activity score which were used
      to assess overall disease and renal activity. Our results showed that urinary IL
      22BP level was significantly higher in JSLE patients with mean level of 4.13 +/-
      1.10, as compared to controls 1.63 +/- 0.61 (P value < 0.001); also, patients
      with active LN had urinary levels of IL-22BP (5.47 +/- 1.03) higher than patients
      with active JSLE without LN (4.23 +/- 0.72) and patients with non-active JSLE/LN
      (3.5 +/- 0.65) with a highly significant P value < 0.001. There was a positive
      correlation with SLEDAI-2k, renal SLEDAI, and renal activity scores (P < 0.001).
      Urinary IL-22BP may be used as a non-invasive marker for assessment of disease
      activity in children with JSLE and LN.

PMID- 28887661
TI  - Widening the spectrum of deletions and molecular mechanisms underlying alpha
      thalassemia.
AB  - Inherited deletions of alpha-globin genes and/or their upstream regulatory
      elements (MCSs) give rise to alpha-thalassemia, an autosomal recessive microcytic
      hypochromic anemia. In this study, multiplex ligation-dependent probe
      amplification performed with commercial and synthetic engineered probes, Gap-PCR,
      and DNA sequencing were used to characterize lesions in the sub-telomeric region
      of the short arm of chromosome 16, possibly explaining the alpha-thalassemia/HbH
      disease phenotype in ten patients. We have found six different deletions, in
      heterozygosity, ranging from approximately 3.3 to 323 kb, two of them not
      previously described. The deletions fall into two categories: one includes
      deletions which totally remove the alpha-globin gene cluster, whereas the other
      includes deletions removing only the distal regulatory elements and keeping the
      alpha-globin genes structurally intact. An indel was observed in one patient
      involving the loss of the MCS-R2 and the insertion of 39 bp originated from a
      complex rearrangement spanning the deletion breakpoints. Finally, in another
      case, no alpha-globin gene cluster deletion was found and the patient revealed to
      be a very unusual case of acquired alpha-thalassemia-myelodysplastic syndrome.
      This study further illustrates the diversity of genomic lesions and underlying
      molecular mechanisms leading to alpha-thalassemia.

PMID- 28887663
TI  - Presumptive diagnosis of multinodular vacuolating tumor: "more than meets the
      eye!"

PMID- 28887662
TI  - Coronary artery assessment using self-navigated free-breathing radial whole-heart
      magnetic resonance angiography in patients with congenital heart disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a self-navigated free-breathing three-dimensional
      (SNFB3D) radial whole-heart MRA technique for assessment of main coronary
      arteries (CAs) and side branches in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD).
      METHODS: SNFB3D-MRA datasets of 109 patients (20.1+/-11.8 years) were included.
      Three readers assessed the depiction of CA segments, diagnostic confidence in
      determining CA dominance, overall image quality and the ability to freeze cardiac
      and respiratory motion. Vessel sharpness was quantitatively measured. RESULTS:
      The percentages of cases with excellent CA depiction were as follows (mean
      score): left main, 92.6 % (1.92); left anterior descending (LAD), 88.3 % (1.88);
      right (RCA), 87.8 % (1.85); left circumflex, 82.8 % (1.82); posterior descending,
      50.2 % (1.50) and first diagonal, 39.8 % (1.39). High diagnostic confidence for
      the assessment of CA dominance was achieved in 56.2 % of MRA examinations (mean
      score, 1.56). Cardiac motion freezing (mean score, 2.18; Pearson's r=0.73,
      P<0.029) affected image quality more than respiratory motion freezing (mean
      score, 2.20; r=0.58, P<0.029). Mean quantitative vessel sharpness of the internal
      thoracic artery, RCA and LAD were 53.1, 52.5 and 48.7 %, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Most SNFB3D-MRA examinations allow for excellent depiction of the
      main CAs in young CHD patients; visualisation of side branches remains limited.
      KEY POINTS: * Self-navigated free-breathing three-dimensional magnetic resonance
      angiography (SNFB3D-MRA) sufficiently visualises coronary arteries (CAs). *
      Depiction of main CAs in patients with congenital heart disease is excellent. *
      Visualisation of CA side branches using SNFB3D-MRA is limited. * SNFB3D-MRA image
      quality is especially correlated to cardiac motion freezing ability.

PMID- 28887664
TI  - South Asian men have lower expression of IFN signalling genes in white adipose
      tissue and skeletal muscle compared with white men.

PMID- 28887665
TI  - Impact of radiation technique, radiation fraction dose, and total cisplatin dose
      on hearing : Retrospective analysis of 29 medulloblastoma patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the incidence and degree of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL)
      resulting from different radiation techniques, fractionation dose, mean cochlear
      radiation dose (Dmean), and total cisplatin dose. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In all,
      29 children with medulloblastoma (58 ears) with subclinical pretreatment hearing
      thresholds participated. Radiotherapy (RT) and cisplatin had been applied
      sequentially according to the HIT MED Guidance. Audiological outcomes up to the
      latest follow-up (median 2.6 years) were compared. RESULTS: Bilateral high
      frequency SNHL was observed in 26 patients (90%). No significant differences were
      found in mean hearing threshold between left and right ears at any frequency. A
      significantly better audiological outcome (p < 0.05) was found after tomotherapy
      at the 6 kHz bone-conduction threshold (BCT) and left-sided 8 kHz air-conduction
      threshold (ACT) than after a combined radiotherapy technique (CT). Fraction dose
      was not found to have any impact on the incidence, degree, and time-to-onset of
      SNHL. Patients treated with CT had a greater risk of SNHL at high frequencies
      than tomotherapy patients even though Dmean was similar. Increase in severity of
      SNHL was seen when the total cisplatin dose reached above 210 mg/m2, with the
      highest abnormal level found 8-12 months after RT regardless of radiation
      technique or fraction dose. CONCLUSION: The cochlear radiation dose should be
      kept as low as possible in patients who receive simultaneous cisplatin-based
      chemotherapy. The risk of clinically relevant HL was shown when Dmean exceeds 45
      Gy independent of radiation technique or radiation regime. Cisplatin ototoxicity
      was shown to have a dose-dependent effect on bilateral SNHL, which was more
      pronounced in higher frequencies.

PMID- 28887666
TI  - The potential of multi-compound nanoparticles to bypass drug resistance in
      cancer.
AB  - PURPOSE: The therapeutic efficacy of conventional chemotherapy against several
      solid tumors is generally limited and this is often due to the development of
      resistance or poor delivery of the drugs to the tumor. Mechanisms of resistance
      may vary between cancer types. However, with current development of genetic
      analyses, imaging, and novel delivery systems, we may be able to characterize and
      bypass resistance, e.g., by inhibition of the right target at the tumor site.
      Therefore, combined drug treatments, where one drug will revert or obstruct the
      development of resistance and the other will concurrently kill the cancer cell,
      are rational solutions. However, drug exposure of one drug will defer greatly
      from the other due to their physicochemical properties. In this sense, multi
      compound nanoparticles are an excellent modality to equalize drug exposure, i.e.,
      one common physicochemical profile. In this review, we will discuss novel
      approaches that employ nanoparticle technology that addresses specific mechanisms
      of resistance in cancer. METHODS: The PubMed literature was consulted and
      reviewed. RESULTS: Nanoparticle technology is emerging as a dexterous solution
      that may address several forms of resistance in cancer. For instance, we discuss
      advances that address mechanisms of resistance with multi-compound nanoparticles
      which co-deliver chemotherapeutics with an anti-resistance agent. Promising anti
      resistance agents are (1) targeted in vivo gene silencing methods aimed to
      disrupt key resistance gene expression or (2) protein kinase inhibitors to
      disrupt key resistance pathways or (3) efflux pumps inhibitors to limit drug
      cellular efflux.

PMID- 28887667
TI  - APE1 modulates cellular responses to organophosphate pesticide-induced oxidative
      damage in non-small cell lung carcinoma A549 cells.
AB  - Monocrotophos (MCP) and chlorpyrifos (CP) are widely used organophosphate
      pesticides (OPPs), speculated to be linked with human pathologies including
      cancer. Owing to the fact that lung cells are most vulnerable to the
      environmental toxins, the development and progression of lung cancer can be
      caused by the exposure of OPPs. The present study investigates the oxidative DNA
      damage response evoked by MCP and CP in human non-small cell lung carcinoma A549
      cells. A549 cells were exposed to MCP and CP; cytotoxicity and reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) generation were measured to select the non-toxic dose. In order to
      establish whether MCP and CP can initiate the DNA repair and cell survival
      signalling pathways in A549 cells, qRT-PCR and Western blotting techniques were
      used to investigate the mRNA and protein expression levels of DNA base excision
      repair (BER)-pathway enzymes and transcription factors (TFs) involved in cell
      survival mechanisms. A significant increase in cell viability and ROS generation
      was observed when exposed to low and moderate doses of MCP and CP at different
      time points (24, 48 and 72 h) studied. A549 cells displayed a dose-dependent
      accumulation of apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites after 24 h exposure to MCP
      advocating for the activation of AP endonuclease-mediated DNA BER-pathway.
      Cellular responses to MCP- and CP-induced oxidative stress resulted in an
      imbalance in the mRNA and protein expression of BER-pathway enzymes, viz. PARP1,
      OGG1, APE1, XRCC1, DNA pol beta and DNA ligase III alpha at different time
      points. The treatment of OPPs resulted in the upregulation of TFs, viz. Nrf2, c
      jun, phospho-c-jun and inducible nitric oxide synthase. Immunofluorescent
      confocal imaging of A549 cells indicated that MCP and CP induces the
      translocation of APE1 within the cytoplasm at an early 6 h time point, whereas it
      promotes nuclear localization after 24 h of treatment, which suggests that APE1
      subcellular distribution is dynamically regulated in response to OPP-induced
      oxidative stress. Furthermore, nuclear colocalization of APE1 and the TF c-jun
      was observed in response to the treatment of CP and MCP for different time points
      in A549 cells. Therefore, in this study we demonstrate that MCP- and CP-induced
      oxidative stress alters APE1-dependent BER-pathway and also mediates cell
      survival signalling mechanisms via APE1 regulation, thereby promoting lung cancer
      cell survival and proliferation.

PMID- 28887668
TI  - Low body mass index correlates with low left ventricular mass index in patients
      with severe anorexia nervosa.
AB  - The patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) are known to be associated with high
      mortality, but the actual causes of death are still undefined. We tested the
      hypothesis that AN patients had cardiac disorders, including left ventricular
      (LV) dysfunction and LV atrophy. This study is a cross-sectional study at St.
      Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo. We analyzed 13 female inpatients with AN.
      We assessed cardiac function and heart volume in AN by echocardiography, LV
      ejection fraction (LVEF), LV mass, and LV mass index (LVMI). We assessed the
      correlations between body mass index (BMI) and heart volume (LV mass and LVMI).
      The mean age and BMI were 34.8 +/- 11.2 years and 15.5 +/- 3.1 kg/m2,
      respectively. There was no patient with mitral valve prolapse, but 3 patients had
      trivial to small amount of pericardial effusion. The mean LVEF was 67.7 +/- 6.5%,
      and 12 out of 13 patients had normal LVEF. Their LV mass (89.0 +/- 27.3 g) and
      LVMI (66.3 +/- 16.4 g/m2) were small. BMI positively correlated with LVMI (r =
      0.58, p = 0.040), as well as LV mass (r = 0.74, p = 0.004). Lower BMI reflects
      lower LVMI, as well as smaller LV mass. These issues suggest that heart volume is
      initially decreased in severe AN conditions. Low LVMI could be a good marker of
      severity of AN.

PMID- 28887669
TI  - Association of Cannabis, Stimulant, and Alcohol use with Mortality Prognosis
      Among HIV-Infected Men.
AB  - Questionnaires over a 9-year study period (2002-2010) were used to characterize
      cannabis, stimulant, and alcohol use among 3099 HIV-infected men participating in
      the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) to determine whether use of these
      substances is associated with changes in the VACS Index, a validated prognostic
      indicator for all-cause mortality. At baseline, 18% of participants reported no
      substance use in the past year, 24% lower risk alcohol use only, 18% unhealthy
      alcohol use only, 15% cannabis use (with or without alcohol), and 24% stimulant
      use (with or without alcohol or cannabis). In adjusted longitudinal analyses,
      cannabis use [beta = -0.97 (95% CI -1.93, 0.00), p = 0.048] was not associated
      with mortality risk, while stimulant use [1.08 (0.16, 2.00), p = 0.021] was
      associated with an increased mortality risk, compared to lower risk alcohol use.
      Our findings show no evidence of a negative effect of cannabis use on mortality
      risk, while stimulant use was associated with increased mortality risk among HIV
      infected men. Interventions to reduce stimulant use in this patient population
      may reduce mortality.

PMID- 28887670
TI  - Comparison of Two Endovascular Steerable Robotic Catheters for Percutaneous Robot
      Assisted Fibroid Embolization.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare outcomes of percutaneous robot-assisted uterine fibroid
      embolization (UFE) using two different endovascular robotic catheters. METHODS:
      Twenty-one patients with a symptomatic uterine fibroid were prospectively
      enrolled in a single-center study to be treated with a percutaneous robot
      assisted embolization using the Magellan system. Fourteen patients were treated
      using a first generation steerable robotic catheter, version 1.0 (group 1), and
      seven were treated using the new version 1.1 (group 2). Demographic, pathologic,
      and procedural variables were recorded. Dose Area Product (DAP) and physician
      equivalent doses were registered for each procedure. Procedural related
      complications and clinical midterm outcomes were also evaluated. RESULTS:
      Successful robot-assisted UFE was obtained in eight patients (57.1%) in group 1
      and 7 patients (100%) in group 2 (p = 0.01). A successful robot-assisted
      catheterization of the internal iliac artery anterior branch was performed in all
      patients of both groups. Median selective target vessel catheterization time was
      21.0 +/- 12.8 vs 13.4 +/- 7 min (p = 0.04) and total fluoroscopy time was 30.3 +/
      11.2 vs 19.3 +/- 5.9 min, respectively, in group 1 and 2. Mean DAP decreased
      from 18472.6 +/- 15622 to 5469.1 +/- 4461.0 cGy.cm2 (p = 0.04). All patients
      obtained a symptoms relief at 6 months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Robot-assisted
      uterine fibroid embolization is safe and effective. New version of steerable
      robotic catheter allows performing a faster procedure without related adverse
      events compared to old version.

PMID- 28887671
TI  - Histamine 2 receptor antagonism elicits protection against doxorubicin-induced
      cardiotoxicity in rodent model.
AB  - Doxorubicin (DOX), an anthracycline-based antibiotic, is regularly used in the
      management of carcinomas, and haematological malignancies have been downplayed in
      chemotherapy because of its ability to induce dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
      Dexrazoxane is approved to combat the cardiotoxicity, but limited by its adverse
      effects. Redox imbalance and reactive oxygen species generation plays major role
      in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. Histamine, known to mediate various cardiovascular
      effects, but nevertheless the role of histamine or its receptors in DOX-induced
      DCM is remained obscure. Hence, this study is aimed to examine the effect of
      Famotidine (FAM), a H2 receptor antagonist on DOX-induced DCM in Wistar rats.
      Myocardial antioxidant status, stress and apoptosis markers, myocardial
      morphology and function were evaluated as the end points. Treatment with FAM has
      alleviated DOX doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity by reducing oxidative and
      nitrosative stress evident from lipid peroxidation and total nitrate-to-nitrite
      ratio, and enhanced the activity of super oxide dismutase. Cardiac stress markers
      like LDH and Na+-K+ATPase activities as well as CK-MB and Cardiac troponin levels
      were reduced by FAM treatment. It also normalised the myocardial function as
      assessed by 2D echocardiography and myocardial index. Treatment imparted anti
      apoptotic effect as evident from decrease in myocardial caspase 3 and 9 activity
      and cleaved PARP expression. Effect of FAM is found to be comparable to the
      standard ACE inhibitor Captopril (CAP). The results from this study collectively
      suggest H2 receptor antagonism as a novel therapeutic strategy to impart
      biochemical, structural and functional improvement indicating its cardio
      protective activity.

PMID- 28887672
TI  - The impact of sustained hot weather on risk of acute work-related injury in
      Melbourne, Australia.
AB  - It has been reported that weather-related high ambient temperature is associated
      with an increased risk of work-related injury. Understanding this relationship is
      important because work-related injuries are a major public health problem, and
      because projected climate changes will potentially expose workers to hot days,
      including consecutive hot days, more often. The aim of this study was to quantify
      the impact of exposure to sustained periods of hot weather on work-related injury
      risk for workers in Melbourne, Australia. A time-stratified case crossover study
      design was utilised to examine the association between two and three consecutive
      days and two and three consecutive nights of hot weather and the risk of work
      related injury, using definitions of hot weather ranging from the 60th to the
      95th percentile of daily maximum and minimum temperatures for the Melbourne
      metropolitan area, 2002-2012. Workers' compensation claim data was used to
      identify cases of acute work-related injury. Overall, two and three consecutive
      days of hot weather were associated with an increased risk of injury, with this
      effect becoming apparent at a daily maximum temperature of 27.6  degrees C (70th
      percentile). Three consecutive days of high but not extreme temperatures were
      associated with the strongest effect, with a 15% increased risk of injury (odds
      ratio 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.30) observed when daily maximum
      temperature was >=33.3  degrees C (90th percentile) for three consecutive days,
      compared to when it was not. At a threshold of 35.5  degrees C (95th percentile),
      there was no significant association between temperature and injury for either
      two or three consecutive days of heat. These findings suggest that warnings to
      minimise harm to workers from hot weather should be given, and prevention
      protocol initiated, when consecutive warm days of temperatures lower than extreme
      heat temperatures are forecast, and well before the upper ranges of ambient
      daytime temperatures are reached.

PMID- 28887673
TI  - [Intraocular pressure after implantation of an ICL with aquaport : Development of
      intraocular pressure after implantation of an ICL (model V4c) with aquaport
      without iridotomy].
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The latest version of the intraocular lens (ICL V4c)
      has a central hole (aquaport) that avoids a pupillary block. Due to this laser
      iridotomy or intraoperative surgical peripheral iridectomy are no longer
      required. In this study, we examined the intraocular pressure (IOP) after
      implantation of the ICL with aquaport, with special reference to the development
      of a possible pupillary block glaucoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective
      non-randomized study included 87 eyes from 46 patients (consecutive case series).
      These patients had the ICL model V4c (without a laser iridotomy or peripheral
      iridectomy) implanted between January 2013 and October 2014. The preoperative IOP
      values were compared with the postoperative values 1-2 h, 1 day, 1 week and 1
      month after implantation. RESULTS: The median intraocular pressure was 14 +/- 2
      mm Hg before implantation of the ICL, palpatory normotensive 1-2 h after
      implantation, 13 +/- 3 mm Hg 1 day after implantation, 15 +/- 3 mm Hg 1 week
      after implantation and 16 +/- 4 mm Hg 1 month after implantation (a slight
      statistically significant increase of the intraocular pressure, p < 0.05). In 2
      patients there was a steroid response in both eyes with IOP reaching up to a
      maximum of 28 mm Hg. There were no peaks of intraocular pressure due to a
      pupillary block. CONCLUSION: It is possible to implant the latest ICL V4c with a
      central hole (Aquaport) without a laser iridotomy or peripheral iridectomy or
      development of a pupillary block.

PMID- 28887674
TI  - Robot-Assisted Transaxillary Thyroidectomy (RATT): A Series Appraisal of More
      than 250 Cases from Europe.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Robot-assisted transaxillary thyroidectomy (RATT) is widely accepted
      in Asian countries. However, concerns regarding the balance between its real
      advantages and safety and cost have been raised by North American authorities. In
      Europe, assessments have been limited by small numbers since now. The purpose
      here is to report a large European experience with RATT. METHODS: A retrospective
      analysis was conducted of 257 patients who underwent RATT for nodular disease
      between February 2012 and September 2016. Data collected included patient
      demographics, diagnosis, ultrasound-estimated mean thyroid volume and nodule
      size, type of resection, operative time, postoperative pain and morbidity, and
      the hospital length of stay. Pain was assessed by visual analog scale score 12 h
      postoperatively (on the first postoperative day, before discharge). Feasibility,
      effectiveness, and safety were the outcomes of interest. Follow-up of thyroid
      carcinoma patients was carried out measuring thyroglobulin levels and ultrasound
      examination (median follow-up 24 months (6-48 months)). First control after 12
      months and successively once a year. RESULTS: There were 253 women and 4 men,
      with a mean age of 37.3 years. Indications included benign disease in 116,
      papillary carcinoma in 56, and indeterminate nodule in 85. Mean thyroid volume
      was 16.8 mL, and nodule size was 25.3 mm. A hemithyroidectomy was performed in
      138 patients and total thyroidectomy in 118. The mean operative time was 77.5 min
      for the former and 99.7 min for the latter. One conversion was required.
      Complications included transient hypoparathyroidism in 7/118 (total
      thyroidectomy) patients (5.9%), transient vocal fold palsy in 3/257 (1.1%), 1
      delayed tracheal injury (0.4%), and 3 postoperative hematoma (1.1%). Mean visual
      analog scale score was 1.79, and the mean length of stay was 1.6 days for
      hemithyroidectomy and 1.9 days for total thyroidectomy. CONCLUSION: RATT is safe
      and effective and could serve as a viable treatment modality in selected cases.

PMID- 28887675
TI  - How Bad Is Aluminum Exposure to Reproductive Parameters in Rats?
AB  - Aluminum (Al) is the most widely distributed metal in the environment and is
      extensively used in human daily life without any known biological function. It is
      known that exposure to high concentrations of Al impacts negatively on serum
      testosterone levels, testicular histomorphometry, and sperm parameters; however,
      no information is available about the effects of low exposure levels on
      reproduction. International organizations have established the Al concentration
      tolerated in drinking water as 3.35 * 10-4 mg/kg. Therefore, we aimed to compare
      the effects of long-term exposure to low and high concentrations of Al on male
      reproductive functions, focusing on testis, epididymis, and sperm parameters.
      Adult Wistar rats were exposed to aluminum chloride (AlCl3) at 6.7 * 10-5, 3.35 *
      10-4, 10, and 40 mg/kg for 112 days by gavage. Al-exposed animals presented low
      values of testis and epididymis weight, and serum testosterone levels when
      compared to controls. The stereology of Leydig cells, epididymis
      histomorphometry, sperm motility, and structural integrity of sperm membranes
      changed depending on the Al concentration. In regard to epididymis
      histomorphometry, the initial segment and caput regions were more affected by Al
      exposure than distal regions. Otherwise, the histology of testis and epididymis
      did not alter after the Al exposure, as well as sperm morphology. In summary, we
      concluded that the consequences of Al exposure at low levels were as negative as
      high levels on reproductive parameters, suggesting adverse impact on male
      fertility.

PMID- 28887676
TI  - Learning Curve Characteristics for Caesarean Section Among Associate Clinicians:
      A Prospective Study from Sierra Leone.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In response to the high maternal mortality ratio, Sierra Leone has
      adopted an associate clinician postgraduate surgical task-sharing training
      programme. Little is known about learning curve characteristics for caesarean
      sections among associate clinicians. The aim of this study is to evaluate the
      number of caesarean sections needed to be performed by associate clinicians until
      there is no further significant reduction in operation time. METHODS: This
      prospective study evaluates the first 50 caesarean sections performed by trainees
      between January 2011 and June 2016. Primary outcome was total operating time in
      minutes (incision to suturing time). Secondary outcomes were length of hospital
      stay, surgical site infections, estimated operative bloodloss and in-hospital
      postoperative mortality. RESULTS: A total of 1174 caesarean sections performed by
      24 trainees were analysed. Total operation time significantly reduced during the
      first 15 operations from mean (SD) operation time 72 (27)-51 (18) min after 15
      procedures (p < 0.001). Estimated bloodloss did not significantly vary among the
      first 50 caesarean sections. Surgical site infections were reported in 3.7% of
      the operations, which was higher during the first 15 operations (6.8%) compared
      to the following 35 operations (2.3%). Length of stay reduced from median (range)
      9 (2-39)-6 (2-127) days after 15 operations, but there was no reduction in
      maternal mortality. CONCLUSION: While gaining experience, the operation time of
      associate clinicians significantly reduced during the first 15 caesarean
      sections. Estimated bloodloss is not related to trainees experience.

PMID- 28887678
TI  - Reply to Dijemeni et al.'s comments concerning: "The comparability of drug
      induced sedation classification systems".

PMID- 28887677
TI  - Evolutionary and functional characterization of leucoanthocyanidin reductases
      from Camellia sinensis.
AB  - MAIN CONCLUSION: LARs promoted the biosynthesis of catechin monomers and
      inhibited their polymerization. The accumulation of catechin monomers and
      polymers was increased by up-regulating the expression of NtLAR and NtANR s in
      CsMYB5b transgenic tobacco. Tea is rich in polyphenolic compounds, and catechins
      are the major polyphenols in tea. The biosynthesis of polyphenols is closely
      related to the expression of the leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR) and
      anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) genes. In this paper, an evolutionary analysis and
      functional characterization of three CsLARs were performed. The phylogenetic tree
      showed that plant LARs could be grouped into three, including gymnosperms,
      monocotyledons and dicotyledons (clusters I and II). The eighth amino acid
      residue in a conserved LAR-specific motif is changeable due to a transversion (G 
      > T) and transition (G -> C) that occur in the corresponding codon. Therefore,
      plant LARs can be classified as G-type, A-type and S-type LARs due to this
      variable amino acid residue. Although (2R, 3S)-trans-flavan-3-ols were the
      products of recombinant CsLARs proteins expressed in Escherichia coli, both (2R,
      3S)-trans and (2R, 3R)-cis-flavan-3-ols were detected in tobacco overexpressing
      CsLARs. However, a butanol/HCl hydrolysis assay indicated that overexpression of
      the CsLARs caused a decrease in polymerized catechins. A hybridization experiment
      with CsLARc + AtPAP1 also showed that no polymers other than epicatechin,
      catechin and glycoside were detected, although the accumulation of anthocyanins
      was markedly decreased. CsMYB5b promoted the biosynthesis of both flavan-3-ols
      and proanthocyanidins (PAs). Therefore, LARs promoted the biosynthesis of
      catechin monomers and inhibited their polymerization. The accumulation of
      catechin monomers and polymers was increased by up-regulating the expression of
      the NtLAR and NtANRs in CsMYB5b transgenic tobacco.

PMID- 28887679
TI  - Microbiological studies of hot springs in India: a review.
AB  - The earliest microbiological studies on hot springs in India date from 2003, a
      much later date compared to global attention in this striking field of study. As
      of today, 28 out of 400 geothermal springs have been explored following both
      culturable and non-culturable approaches. The temperatures and pH of the springs
      are 37-99  degrees C and 6.8-10, respectively. Several studies have been
      performed on the description of novel genera and species, characterization of
      different bio-resources, metagenomics of hot spring microbiome and whole genome
      analysis of few isolates. 17 strains representing novel species and many
      thermostable enzymes, including lipase, protease, chitinase, amylase, etc. with
      potential biotechnological applications have been reported by several authors.
      Influence of physico-chemical conditions, especially that of temperature, on
      shaping the hot spring microbiome has been established by metagenomic
      investigations. Bacteria are the predominant life forms in all the springs with
      an abundance of phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Thermi,
      Bacteroidetes, Deinococcus-Thermus and Chloroflexi. In this review, we have
      discussed the findings on all microbiological studies that have been carried out
      to date, on the 28 hot springs. Further, the possibilities of extrapolating these
      studies for practical applications and environmental impact assessment towards
      protection of natural ecosystem of hot springs have also been discussed.

PMID- 28887680
TI  - Cervical vertebroplasty under sedoanalgesia using combined ultrasonography and
      fluoroscopy guidance: a novel technique.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this report was to describe a case using combined USG and
      fluoroscopy for cervical VP via a percutaneous route under sedoanalgesia.
      METHODS: A 70-year-old male patient had severe neck pain for 6 weeks because of
      metastatic mass lesions in C6. After the decision to VP, the patient was placed
      on the operating table and 2 mg midazolam and 75 ug fentanyl were administered
      for conscious sedation. Localisation of the carotid artery, internal jugular
      vein, and trachea had been determined with USG. 3 mL of 2% lidocaine was
      infiltrated after proceeding a needle from the axis of the trochar to the C6
      vertebra corpus. The trochar entered into the vertebra corpus between the carotid
      artery and trachea right-antero-laterally under C-arm and USG guidance. 6 mL of
      PMMA was injected into this field. Then C6 VP procedure had been completed
      without complications. RESULTS: This case has three differences from studies in
      the literature. First, cervical VP was conducted under sedoanalgesia. The second
      important feature of this case is that cervical VP was performed via a
      percutaneous route. A third important feature of this case is that it was
      performed under USG guidance for the first time in the literature. CONCLUSION: We
      consider that the combined use of C-arm fluoroscopy and USG should improve
      success rates and prevent vascular and neural injuries and dura perforation.

PMID- 28887682
TI  - Opacification of the C-flex 570C intraocular lens after sulcus fixation.
AB  - PURPOSE: To report a case of diffuse intraocular lens (IOL) opacification in a
      patient who started complaining of blurred vision in his left eye over the course
      of three years after having phacoemulsification surgery combined with capsular
      bag fixation of a C-flex 570C IOL. The IOL had been repositioned in the ciliary
      sulcus following its subluxation. METHOD: An IOL exchange was performed, and the
      explanted IOL was sent for histopathological analysis. RESULTS: Scanning electron
      microscopy identified multiple crystalline-like deposits on both sides of the
      IOL. The optic was more extensively involved than the haptics. Energy-dispersive
      X-ray spectroscopy confirmed the predominance of calcium within the deposits.
      CONCLUSIONS: The breakdown of the blood-aqueous barrier seems to be a key
      component of this calcification process. Ciliary sulcus fixation is not a
      suitable option for C-flex 570C IOLs.

PMID- 28887681
TI  - Pediatric spine imaging post scoliosis surgery.
AB  - Many orthopedic articles describe advances in surgical techniques and implants
      used in pediatric scoliosis surgery. However, even though postoperative spine
      imaging constitutes a large portion of outpatient musculoskeletal pediatric
      radiology, few, if any, radiology articles discuss this topic. There has been
      interval advancement over the last decades of the orthopedic procedures used in
      the treatment of spinal scoliosis in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. The
      goal of treatment in these patients is to stop the progression of the curve by
      blocking the spinal growth and correcting the deformity as much as possible. To
      that end, the authors in this paper discuss postoperative imaging findings of
      Harrington rods, Luque rods, Luque-Galveston implants and segmental spinal fusion
      systems. Regarding early onset scoliosis, the guiding principles used for
      adolescent idiopathic scoliosis do not apply to a growing spine because they
      would impede lung development. As a result, other devices have been developed to
      correct the curve and to allow spinal growth. These include spine-based growing
      rods, vertically expandable prosthetic titanium rods (requiring repetitive
      surgeries) and magnetically controlled growing rods (with a magnetic
      locking/unlocking system). Other more recent systems are Shilla and thoracoscopic
      anterior vertebral body tethering, which allow guided growth of the spine without
      repetitive interventions. In this paper, we review the radiologic appearances of
      different orthopedic implants and techniques used to treat adolescent idiopathic
      scoliosis and early onset scoliosis. Moreover, we present the imaging findings of
      the most frequent postoperative complications.

PMID- 28887683
TI  - Lethal outcome after pelvic salvage radiotherapy in a patient with prostate
      cancer due to increased radiosensitivity : Case report and literature review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In general, late side effects after salvage radiotherapy (RT) for
      prostate cancer are below 10%. Patients with impaired DNA repair ability and
      genetic instability can have significantly increased reactions after RT. CASE,
      CLINICAL FOLLOW-UP, AND EXAMINATION: We present a patient who experienced severe
      side effects after additive RT for prostate cancer and died from the
      complications 25 months after RT. Imaging (MR) is shown as well as three-color
      fluorescence in situ hybridization. The blood sample testing revealed that
      radiosensitivity was increased by 35-55%. We undertook a review of the literature
      to give an overview over the tests established that are currently considered
      useful. CONCLUSION: This case highlights that the identification of patients with
      increased radiosensitivity is an important task in radiation protection. Groups
      of patients who should be screened have to be found and corresponding research
      facilities have to be set up.

PMID- 28887686
TI  - The effect of stimulus frequency, spectrum, duration, and location on temporal
      order judgment thresholds: distribution analysis.
AB  - The present study aimed to examine whether the judgments of temporal order are
      made by the same "central processor" regardless of the characteristics of the
      sound stimuli. The influence of stimulus parameters (e.g., frequency, spectrum,
      duration, location) on auditory temporal order judgment (TOJ) thresholds was
      tested in seven groups with a total of 192 participants received two-tone
      sequences of different: frequencies (3 groups); spectrum widths, via a pure tone
      and a Gaussian noise burst (1 group); durations (2 groups); or locations, via
      asynchronous presentation to each ear (1 group). No difference in the mean
      rankings of TOJ thresholds was found for frequency, spectrum, and location
      parameters. TOJ thresholds for the duration condition, however, were
      significantly longer than for any of the other conditions. Notably, the threshold
      distributions for all the parameters (frequency, spectrum, duration, location)
      differed in shape. These findings raise the question as to whether we can rely
      upon the mean or median threshold as truly representative of TOJ threshold data.
      Furthermore, the data suggest that temporal order judgments for the different
      stimulus parameters are processed differently. The differences observed when
      analyzing the data with central tendency measures, as compared to analyzing the
      threshold distributions, may explain some of the mixed results reported in the
      literature on the mechanisms involved in temporal processing of different
      parameters. Stimulus parameters influence TOJ threshold distributions and
      response patterns, and may provide additional cues, beyond the standard temporal
      cue inherent in the TOJ procedure, by which participants may judge the order of
      the stimuli.

PMID- 28887685
TI  - Isolation of a fungus Pencicillium sp. with zinc tolerance and its mechanism of
      resistance.
AB  - A zinc (Zn)-tolerant fungus, designated BC109-2, was isolated from rhizosphere
      soil and was identified as Penicillium janthinellum BC109-2 based on ITS sequence
      analysis. To understand its Zn tolerance mechanisms, a series of studies was
      carried out addressing the subcellular distribution of Zn, its chemical forms,
      and the antioxidant system (superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase,
      glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, reduced glutathione, oxidized
      glutathione and malondialdehyde) of the fungus. The maximum level of resistance
      to Zn for strain BC109-2 is 2100 mg L-1. The Zn contents and percentages of cell
      wall and soluble fraction increased with increasing Zn concentration in the
      medium, which indicated extracellular accumulation/precipitation and vacuolar
      compartmentation mechanism might play significant role in the detoxificating
      process. The proportion of inactive forms of Zn was higher in the fungus, which
      indicated that BC109-2 mainly formed inactive Zn and stored it in the cell walls
      and vacuoles to decrease Zn toxicity. Furthermore, changes in antioxidant enzyme
      activities at various concentrations of Zn showed that the addition of Zn could
      cause oxidative stress in the fungal cells and that antioxidant enzymes in fungi
      played important roles in resistance to Zn toxicity. Moreover, the high level of
      lipid peroxidation showed that the protective effects of the antioxidant system
      were not sufficient at the high concentrations of Zn even though the antioxidant
      enzyme activity levels were very high. The purpose of this work is to figure out
      the heavy metal tolerance mechanisms of microorganisms in soil and the microbial
      isolate could be potentially used in bioremediation of Zn-contaminated
      environments.

PMID- 28887684
TI  - Plant-Based Nutrition: An Essential Component of Cardiovascular Disease
      Prevention and Management.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review aims to summarize and discuss the role of plant
      based nutrition as an adjunct to the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
      Discussion of nutrition and the benefits of a plant-based diet should be
      highlighted during healthcare provider visits as an essential part of the overall
      CVD prevention and management care plan. RECENT FINDINGS: Evidence from
      prospective cohort studies indicates that a high consumption of predominantly
      plant-based foods, such as fruit and vegetables, nuts, and whole grains, is
      associated with a significantly lower risk of CVD. The protective effects of
      these foods are likely mediated through their multiple beneficial nutrients,
      including mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidant
      vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, fiber, and plant protein. In addition,
      minimizing intake of animal proteins has been shown to decrease the prevalence of
      CVD risk factors. Substantial evidence indicates that plant-based diets can play
      an important role in preventing and treating CVD and its risk factors. Such diets
      deserve more emphasis in dietary recommendations.

PMID- 28887687
TI  - Kaiso is highly expressed in TNBC tissues of women of African ancestry compared
      to Caucasian women.
AB  - PURPOSE: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is most prevalent in young women of
      African ancestry (WAA) compared to women of other ethnicities. Recent studies
      found a correlation between high expression of the transcription factor Kaiso,
      TNBC aggressiveness, and ethnicity. However, little is known about Kaiso
      expression and localization patterns in TNBC tissues of WAA. Herein, we analyze
      Kaiso expression patterns in TNBC tissues of African (Nigerian), Caribbean
      (Barbados), African American (AA), and Caucasian American (CA) women. METHODS:
      Formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded (FFPE) TNBC tissue blocks from Nigeria and
      Barbados were utilized to construct a Nigerian/Barbadian tissue microarray (NB
      TMA). This NB-TMA and a commercially available TMA comprising AA and CA TNBC
      tissues (AA-CA-YTMA) were subjected to immunohistochemistry to assess Kaiso
      expression and subcellular localization patterns, and correlate Kaiso expression
      with TNBC clinical features. RESULTS: Nigerian and Barbadian women in our study
      were diagnosed with TNBC at a younger age than AA and CA women. Nuclear and
      cytoplasmic Kaiso expression was observed in all tissues analyzed. Analysis of
      Kaiso expression in the NB-TMA and AA-CA-YTMA revealed that nuclear Kaiso H
      scores were significantly higher in Nigerian, Barbadian, and AA women compared
      with CA women. However, there was no statistically significant difference in
      nuclear Kaiso expression between Nigerian versus Barbadian women, or Barbadian
      versus AA women. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of nuclear Kaiso expression were
      detected in patients with a higher degree of African heritage compared to their
      Caucasian counterparts, suggesting a role for Kaiso in TNBC racial disparity.

PMID- 28887688
TI  - Adenoid hypertrophy in children and allergic rhinitis.

PMID- 28887690
TI  - Cervical sagittal alignment after different anterior discectomy procedures for
      single-level cervical degenerative disc disease: randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of anterior cervical discectomy without fusion (ACD), ACD
      with fusion by stand-alone cage (ACDF) or with arthroplasty (ACDA) on cervical
      sagittal alignment is not known and is the subject of this study. METHODS: A
      total of 142 adult patients with single-level cervical disease were at random
      allocated to different procedures: ACD (45), ACDF (47) and ACDA (50). Upright
      cervical spine radiographs were obtained. Angles of the involved angle and the
      angle between C2 and C7 were determined. RESULTS: After a mean follow-up of 25.4
      +/- 18.4 months, the angles of the involved level comparing ACD with ACDA and ACD
      with ACDF were different, reaching statistical significance. However, the angle
      between C2 and C7 did not differ between groups or between preoperative values
      and at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Irrespective of the technique used for anterior
      cervical discectomy for single-level degenerative disc disease, the alignment of
      the cervical spine is unaltered.

PMID- 28887691
TI  - Relationships among leaf functional traits, litter traits, and mass loss during
      early phases of leaf litter decomposition in 12 woody plant species.
AB  - Litter 'quality' or decomposability has historically been estimated through
      measuring chemical attributes, such as concentrations of nitrogen or 'lignin'.
      More recently, foliar functional traits, which may incorporate indications of the
      physical structures of tissues, have been found to correlate with litter mass
      loss rates. However, these traits may not be adequate to predict early rates of
      mass loss, in which two factors are crucial: the amount of material quickly lost
      through leaching, and the ease of access of decomposer organisms to the more
      labile tissues in the interior of the litter. We investigated relationships among
      physical and chemical traits in foliage and litter of 12 species native to
      British Columbia and then observed how these traits related to mass loss during
      the first 3 months (Phase I) and between 3 and 12 months (Phase II). Novel traits
      measured in this study include cuticle thickness, litter leaching loss, and
      litter water uptake. Foliar and litter traits both co-varied along spectra, but
      several chemical traits, such as nitrogen concentration, changed from foliage to
      litter, i.e., during senescence. Phase I mass loss was best predicted by leaching
      loss and traits relating to leaching, such as cuticle thickness and specific leaf
      area. Phase II mass loss was predicted by traits that may relate to decomposer
      access and activity, such as leaf dry matter content and foliar nitrogen.
      Physical traits predicted mass loss as well or better than chemical traits,
      suggesting that physical characteristics of litter are important in determining
      early rates of decomposition.

PMID- 28887692
TI  - Molecular and biochemical evidence on the protective role of ellagic acid and
      silybin against oxidative stress-induced cellular aging.
AB  - Aging is a natural process in living organisms that is defined by some molecular
      and cellular changes with time. Various causes such as mitochondrial DNA
      aberrations, aggregation of proteins, telomere shortening, and oxidative stress
      have an influential role in aging of the cells. Natural antioxidants are
      compounds that are potent to protect the body from detrimental effects of
      molecules such as free radicals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti
      aging properties of ellagic acid (EA) and silybin (SIL), as natural antioxidant
      compounds on rat embryonic fibroblast (REF) cells. These cells were pre-incubated
      with EA and SIL, thereafter were exposed to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Then, the
      cell viability, SA-beta-GAL activity, distribution of cell cycle, NF-kappaB, and
      mitochondrial complex I, II/IV enzyme activity were measured. The results of this
      study revealed the protective effects of EA and SIL in H2O2-treated REF cells,
      which confirm the previous achieved data on antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
      characteristics of EA and SIL against H2O2 in the treated REF cells. However,
      more new in vivo experiments are required to discover the anti-aging effects and
      mechanism of action of such compounds.

PMID- 28887693
TI  - Staying cool or staying safe in a human-dominated landscape: which is more
      relevant for brown bears?
AB  - Pigeon et al. (2016) Staying cool in a changing landscape: the influence of
      maximum daily ambient temperature on grizzly bear habitat selection. Oecologia
      181:1101. doi: 10.1007/s00442-016-3630-5 analyzed the effect of ambient
      temperature on the habitat selection of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Alberta,
      Canada. They concluded that temperature played a significant role in bear habitat
      selection and that it was unlikely that human activity introduced biases to the
      habitat selection of bears. However, Pigeon et al. did not consider variables
      related to human activities in their analyses. They also misinterpreted previous
      research that has accounted for temperature in the habitat selection of brown
      bears. There is much literature published on the negative effects of human
      disturbance on wildlife in general and on bears in particular. Downplaying the
      role of human disturbance could have important negative consequences if, in fact,
      human disturbance were a more important factor than thermoregulation. Indeed,
      dismissing the importance of human influence, in the face of contradictory
      evidence, could tempt managers to disregard an important factor that is difficult
      and often unpopular to deal with in their conservation plans.

PMID- 28887694
TI  - Contribution of auditory P300 test to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment
      in Parkinson's disease.
AB  - Abnormalities in auditory P300 test have been observed in patients with
      Parkinson's disease (PD). We aimed to investigate whether or not additional
      electrophysiological tests assist in making the clinical diagnosis of mild
      cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD-MCI), and we evaluated P300
      changes in patients with non-demented PD and analyzed the correlation between the
      cognitive features and P300 changes. Twenty patients with PD who had been
      diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI group) according to the Movement
      Disorder Society (MDS) 2012 PD-MCI level II criteria, 21 patients with PD without
      cognitive impairment (PD-Normal group), and 20 control subjects (control group)
      who were neurologically normal were examined by the standard auditory oddball
      paradigm. The N100, P200, N200, and P300 latencies and N100-P200, P200-N200, and
      N200-P300 amplitudes were measured and analyzed. P300 latencies recorded from Fz,
      Cz, and Pz and N200 latency recorded from Fz were significantly longer in the PD
      MCI group than in the PD-Normal and the control group (respectively p < 0.001, p
      = 0.041). P300 amplitude recorded from Fz was significantly lower in PD-MCI group
      than those in the other groups (p = 0.038). While P300 was obtained in all
      patients in the PD-Normal and the control group, it was lost in 35% of PD-MCI
      patients. The results show that P300 provides a diagnostic tool for detecting
      PDMCI. We suggest that P300 prolongation and loss of P300 potential could be used
      as supportive parameter in the diagnosis of PD-MCI.

PMID- 28887695
TI  - A "NIRS" death experience: a reduction in cortical oxygenation by time-resolved
      near-infrared spectroscopy preceding cardiac arrest.
AB  - Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used effectively post-cardiac-arrest
      to gauge adequacy of resuscitation and predict the likelihood of achieving a
      return of spontaneous circulation. However, preempting hemodynamic collapse is
      preferable to achieving ROSC through advanced cardiac life support. Minimizing
      "time down" without end-organ perfusion has always been a central pillar of ACLS.
      In many critically ill patients there is a prolonged phase of end-organ
      hypoperfusion preceding loss of palpable pulses and initiation of ACLS. Due to
      the relative infrequency of in-hospital cardiac arrest, NIRS has not previously
      evaluated the period immediately prior to hemodynamic collapse. Here we report a
      young man who suffered a pulseless electrical activity (PEA) arrest while
      cortical oxygenation was monitored using time-resolved near-infrared
      spectroscopy. The onset of cortical deoxygenation preceded the loss of palpable
      pulses by 15 min, suggesting that TRS-NIRS monitoring might provide a means of
      preempting PEA arrest. Our experience with this patient represents a promising
      new direction for continuous NIRS monitoring and has the potential to not only
      predict clinical outcomes, but affect them to the patient's benefit as well.

PMID- 28887697
TI  - Meta-analysis: diagnostic accuracy of antibody against peptidylarginine deiminase
      4 by ELISA for rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - The antibody against peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) 4 is a biomarker that might
      be helpful in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We aim to estimate the
      diagnostic value of anti-PAD4 antibody for RA by meta-analysis. We searched
      PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus for studies
      published in any languages in March 1, 2017 that evaluated the diagnostic
      accuracy of the anti-PAD4 antibody for the diagnosis of RA. The articles that
      detected the anti-PAD4 antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and
      used healthy donors or patients without arthritis or arthralgia as controls were
      included for meta-analysis. The articles were assessed by Quality Assessment of
      Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. A bivariate mixed-effects model was used to
      summarize the diagnostic indexes from eight eligible studies. The pooled
      sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios for anti
      PAD4 antibody were 38% (95% CI 30.0-46.0%), 96% (95% CI 93.0-98.0%), 8.96 (95% CI
      5.00-16.05), and 0.65 (95% CI 0.57-0.74), respectively. The summary diagnostic
      odds ratios were 13.74 (95% CI 7.23-26.09), and the area under the summary
      receiver operator characteristic curve was 86% (95% CI 83-89%). Anti-PAD4
      antibody detected by ELISA shows a high value in the diagnosis of RA with high
      specificity, but relatively low sensitivity.

PMID- 28887696
TI  - Lessons from single-cell transcriptome analysis of oxygen-sensing cells.
AB  - The advent of single-cell RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology has enabled
      transcriptome profiling of individual cells. Comprehensive gene expression
      analysis at the single-cell level has proven to be effective in characterizing
      the most fundamental aspects of cellular function and identity. This unbiased
      approach is revolutionary for small and/or heterogeneous tissues like oxygen
      sensing cells in identifying key molecules. Here, we review the major methods of
      current single-cell RNA-Seq technology. We discuss how this technology has
      advanced the understanding of oxygen-sensing glomus cells in the carotid body and
      helped uncover novel oxygen-sensing cells and mechanisms in the mice olfactory
      system. We conclude by providing our perspective on future single-cell RNA-Seq
      research directed at oxygen-sensing cells.

PMID- 28887698
TI  - The Effect of Salts in Promoting Specific and Competitive Interactions between
      Zinc Finger Proteins and Metals.
AB  - Specific protein-metal interactions (PMIs) fulfill essential functions in cells
      and organic bodies, and activation of these functions in vivo are mostly
      modulated by the complex environmental factors, including pH value, small
      biomolecules, and salts. Specifically, the role of salts in promoting specific
      PMIs and their competition among various metals has remained untapped mainly due
      to the difficulty to distinguish nonspecific PMIs from specific PMIs by classic
      spectroscopic techniques. Herein, we report Hofmeister salts differentially
      promote the specific PMIs by combining nanoelectrospray ionization mass
      spectrometry and spectroscopic techniques (fluorescence measurement and circular
      dichroism). Furthermore, to explore the influence of salts in competitive binding
      between metalloproteins and various metals, we designed a series of competitive
      experiments and applied to a well-defined model system, the competitive binding
      of zinc (II) and arsenic (III) to holo-promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML).
      These experiments not only provided new insights at the molecular scale as
      complementary to previous NMR and spectroscopic results, but also deduced the
      relative binding ability between zinc finger proteins and metals at the molecular
      scale, which avoids the mass spectrometric titration-based determination of
      binding constants that is frequently affected and often degraded by variable
      solution conditions including salt contents. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28887699
TI  - Lifestyle Intervention Has to Be Part of the Strategy in Kidney Transplant
      Candidate with Obesity.

PMID- 28887700
TI  - Lack of evidence of a relationship between magnetic resonance signal intensity
      changes in the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus, and repeated administrations
      of gadoterate meglumine in children.

PMID- 28887701
TI  - Morphological and molecular identification of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus
      in Nigeria, West Africa: a threat to livestock health.
AB  - The cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus was first reported in West
      Africa in Ivory Coast, in 2007. Since then it has made an aggressive eastward
      advancement having been reported in four other West African countries: Mali,
      Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin. We herein report the first molecular identification
      of this tick species in Nigeria, West Africa, and highlight the threat it poses
      to livestock health. A nation-wide tick survey was conducted in 12 out of 36
      states across the various agro ecological zones of Nigeria over a 1 year period
      (April 2014-March 2015). In total 1498 ticks belonging to three genera collected
      from cattle were morphologically identified. Overall, Amblyomma species
      constituted the highest percentage of sampled ticks, 50.2% (752/1498), followed
      by Rhipicephalus (including the subgenus Boophilus) species, 29.4% (440/1498) and
      Hyalomma species, 20.4% (306/1498). The presence of Rh. (B.) microplus was
      identified morphologically from four out of the 12 states. This finding was
      confirmed for the first time in Nigeria using a molecular method targeting the
      ITS-2 region of the ticks in three of the 12 states. This study ascertained the
      presence of Rh. (B.) microplus in Nigeria in addition to a broad variety of
      cattle tick species, most of which are of veterinary importance. The implication
      of this finding is that there may be additional economic burden to livestock
      farmers due to increased cost of tick control occasioned by the acaricide
      resistance by this tick species widely reported from different climes.
      Additionally, there may be a potential upsurge in incidence of hemoparasitic
      infections in cattle leading to increased morbidity, cost of treatment and
      mortalities.

PMID- 28887702
TI  - Necroptosis may be a novel mechanism for cardiomyocyte death in acute
      myocarditis.
AB  - In this study, we investigated the roles of RIP1/RIP3 mediated cardiomyocyte
      necroptosis in CVB3-induced acute myocarditis. Serum concentrations of creatinine
      kinase (CK), CK-MB, and cardiac troponin I were detected using a Hitachi
      Automatic Biochemical Analyzer in a mouse model of acute VMC. Histological
      changes in cardiac tissue were observed by light microscope and expression levels
      of RIP1/RIP3 in the cardiac tissue were detected via Western blot and
      immunohistochemistry. The data showed that RIP1/RIP3 was highly expressed in
      cardiomyocytes in the acute VMC mouse model and that the necroptosis pathway
      specific blocker, Nec-1, dramatically reduced the myocardial damage by
      downregulating the expression of RIP1/RIP3. These findings provide evidence that
      necroptosis plays a significant role in cardiomyocyte death and it is a major
      pathway for cell death in acute VMC. Blocking the necroptosis pathway may serve
      as a new therapeutic option for the treatment of acute viral myocarditis.

PMID- 28887703
TI  - Examining the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence Type and Timing on Pre-exposure
      Prophylaxis Awareness, Interest, and Coercion.
AB  - Previous research suggests that intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated
      with acceptability of and adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). However,
      very few studies have examined whether the type (i.e., physical, sexual, and
      psychological IPV) and timing (i.e., lifetime, past-year) of IPV experiences
      differentially relate to PrEP awareness, interest, and perceived PrEP coercion.
      Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine associations between
      lifetime and past-year physical, sexual, and psychological IPV experiences on
      PrEP awareness, interest, and perceived PrEP coercion. Data were collected from
      an online survey administered to 210 women and men. Past-year physical IPV
      experiences (AOR 4.53, 95% CI 1.85, 11.11) were significantly associated with
      being interested in using PrEP. Lifetime sexual (AOR 3.69, 95% CI 1.62, 8.40),
      psychological IPV (AOR 4.70, 95% CI 1.01, 21.89), and past-year sexual IPV
      experiences (AOR 3.01, 95% CI 1.10, 8.27) were also significantly associated with
      believing a recent partner would attempt to control the participant's use of
      PrEP, if she or he were currently using it. Understanding that engaging in PrEP
      care is influenced differently by the type and timing of IPV has potential
      implications for PrEP candidacy guidelines and interventions.

PMID- 28887704
TI  - [Indication and limitations of meniscus replacement].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Meniscal lesions are among the most important musculoskeletal
      disorders and are the most common indication for knee joint arthroplasty.
      However, the structural integrity and function is rarely retained, and a loss of
      tissue results. Thus, there is a huge demand for meniscal replacement options.
      CURRENT PROCEDURES: Autografts were used in the past but did not fulfill
      expectations. Meniscus allografts have been developed to be a viable treatment
      option. However, availability is limited and evidence of a long-term
      chondroprotective effect scarce. Artificial scaffolds made from either collagen
      or PCU foam are available, which aid the regeneration of meniscal tissue and are
      rather intended as a partial replacement with an intact peripheral rim. Those
      implants thus have a limited spectrum of indication. While they seem to be
      symptomatically effective, it remains unclear whether they can reduce secondary
      cartilage damage. Newer developments aim at a permanent replacement of lost
      meniscal tissue. LIMITATIONS: In summary, there is currently no meniscal
      replacement available for a broad range of indications and with a solid
      scientific foundation. Prophylactic use should be limited to cases with a high
      chance of progression to osteoarthritis, like a lateral total meniscectomy.
      Otherwise meniscal replacement should be considered in younger, symptomatic
      patients with mild to moderate secondary changes. Potential causes of the initial
      meniscal injury like instability or deformities should be carefully assessed and
      addressed. In many cases, osteotomy might be a viable alternative to meniscus
      replacement.

PMID- 28887705
TI  - Population data and mutation rates of 20 autosomal STR loci in a Chinese Han
      population from Yunnan Province, Southwest China.
AB  - The genetic polymorphisms of 20 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci included
      in the PowerPlex(r) 21 kit were evaluated from 2068 unrelated, healthy
      individuals from the Chinese Han population of Yunnan Province in southwest
      China. All of the loci reached Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These loci were
      examined to determine allele frequencies and forensic statistical parameters. The
      genetic relationships among the Yunnan Han and other Chinese populations were
      also estimated. The combined discrimination power and probability of excluding
      paternity of the 20 STR loci were 0.99999999999999999999999126 and 0.999999975,
      respectively. In addition, mutation rates from 4363 parentage cases (2215 trios
      and 2148 duos) were investigated in this study. A total of 164 mutations were
      observed in 6578 meioses from the 20 loci. The highest mutation rate was observed
      in D12S391 (0.30%), and the lowest mutation rates were observed in D13S317
      (0.03%) and TPOX (0.03%). The average mutation rate for the 20 loci was estimated
      to be 1.246 * 10-3 per meiosis. The mutations were primarily single-step and
      paternal mutations.

PMID- 28887706
TI  - Computational study on acetophenone in amorphous polyethylene.
AB  - Polyethylene (PE) is widely used as an electrical insulating material.
      Acetophenone (AP) is a major residue in PE and is considered one of the causes of
      insulation deterioration. However, the physicochemical explanation of the
      influence of AP is still unknown. Therefore, in the present study, the behavior
      of AP molecules in amorphous PE was investigated using molecular dynamics (MD)
      simulations and quantum chemical calculation. First, the basic properties of the
      AP molecule were evaluated from the viewpoint of molecular electrostatic
      potential (MEP), molecular orbitals, and energy levels. Subsequently, an
      amorphous PE system containing AP molecules was studied using MD simulations. The
      results clearly indicate that AP does not greatly change the density and radius
      of gyration of amorphous PE. Quantum computations were performed using a part of
      the structure obtained from the MD simulations, suggesting that AP acts as a trap
      site in amorphous PE. It was also revealed that under the external electric
      field, the total density of state (DOS) changes with a dependence on the applied
      direction. Results of these calculations help in explaining previous experimental
      results.

PMID- 28887707
TI  - Correlations Between Patient-Reported Dysphagia Screening and Penetration
      Aspiration Scores in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Post-oncological Treatment.
AB  - Dysphagia is a common and severe toxicity after oncological treatment of head and
      neck cancer (HNC). The study aim was to investigate relationships between patient
      reported dysphagia and clinically measured swallowing function in HNC after
      modern curative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy to identify possible
      alarm symptoms for clinically manifest dysphagia. Patients with tumors of the
      tonsil, base of tongue, hypopharynx, and larynx treated in 2007-2015 were
      assessed for dysphagia post-treatment by telephone interview and videofluoroscopy
      (VFS). A study-specific categorized symptom score was used to determine patient
      reported dysphagia (DESdC = presence of Drinking, Eating, Swallowing
      difficulties, and Coughing when eating/drinking (any combination); scores between
      0 and 4 with 0 = no symptom); the penetration-aspiration scale (PAS) to determine
      swallowing function by VFS. Swallowing difficulties were defined as DESdC >= 1
      and PAS >= 2. Relationships between clinically relevant cut-offs for DESdC and
      PAS were determined by Pearson's correlation coefficient (Pr). Swallowing
      difficulties according to DESdC were reported by 89% of the patients and
      according to PAS by 60% at a median of 7 months post-treatment. Averaged
      correlations between DESdC score 1/2/3/4 and PAS were 0.16/0.10/0.27/0.18. Almost
      one in two patients with DESdC score >=3 had severe swallowing difficulties
      according to PAS. Correlations between individual DESdC:s were highest for
      swallowing and eating (Pr = 0.53) and lowest for swallowing and coughing (Pr =
      0.11). Our data suggest that if a patient reports having swallowing difficulties,
      it is likely that he or she also has eating difficulties but not necessarily
      coughing problems when eating/drinking. However, if all these three symptoms are
      reported, it is likely that the patient will present with moderate or severe
      impaired swallowing function according to PAS and thus should be referred for
      further evaluation and treatment.

PMID- 28887708
TI  - Long-term clinical results of acute myocardial infarction at the left main trunk
      requiring percutaneous cardiopulmonary support.
AB  - The clinical results of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at the
      left main trunk (LMT) remain unclear, especially in cases requiring percutaneous
      cardiopulmonary support (PCPS). Twenty seven cases of AMI at the LMT requiring
      emergent PCPS were retrospectively investigated. These 27 patients were aged 44
      83 years (65.6 +/- 8.6 years) and 20 (81.5%) were men. Peak creatine kinase (CK)
      leakage ranged from 538 to 34,010 IU/l (13,553 +/- 7656 IU/l). Eight (29.6%)
      patients were discharged without mechanical support. Ten (37.0%) patients
      underwent left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, five of whom with
      preoperative organ failure could not survive more than 6 months after
      implantation. The other nine (33.3%) patients died of low output syndrome or
      brain damage. The overall survival rates were 53.7, 41.3, 33.0, and 28.3% at 3
      months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed
      that Killip class 3/4 at hospital arrival was an independent risk factor for
      hospital mortality (odds ratio 20.4). Patients with more than 5 days of PCPS
      support period (n = 6), >= 4 h to revascularization (n = 6) or maximum CK leakage
      >=20,000 IU/dl (n = 3) were not associated with successful PCPS or IABP weaning.
      The long-term clinical outcomes of patients with LMT disease requiring PCPS is
      devastating. Rapid cardiopulmonary resuscitation and coronary revascularization
      and timely insertion of LVAD before the onset of complications might lead to
      better survival.

PMID- 28887709
TI  - Mapping and comparative proteomic analysis of the starch biosynthetic pathway in
      rice by 2D PAGE/MS.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Our results not only provide a comprehensive overview of the starch
      biosynthetic pathway in the developing endosperm but also reveal some important
      protein markers that regulate the synthesis of starch. In human diets, rice
      (Oryza sativa L.) is an important source of starch, a substantial amount of which
      is accumulated in developing endosperm. A better understanding of the complicated
      pathways involved in starch biosynthesis is needed to improve the yield and
      quality of rice and other cereal crops through breeding. One pure line rice
      mutant, SA0419, was induced from a wild-type rice, TNG67, by sodium azide
      mutagenesis; therefore, TNG67 and SA0419 share the same genetic background.
      SA0419 is, however, a unique glutinous rice with a lower amylose content (8%)
      than that of TNG67 (20%), and the grains of SA0419 develop earlier and faster
      than those of TNG67. In this study, we used a comparative proteomic analysis to
      identify the differentially expressed proteins that may explain the differences
      in starch biosynthesis and the characteristics of TNG67 and SA0419. A gel-based
      proteomic approach was applied to profile the expressed proteome in the
      developing endosperm of these two rice varieties by nano-LC/MS/MS. Several over
      expressed proteins were found in SA0419, such as plastidial ADP-glucose
      pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), phosphoglucomutase (PGM), pyrophosphate-fructose 6
      phosphate 1-phosphotransferase (PFP), 6-phosphofructokinase (PFK), pyruvate
      phosphate dikinase (PPDK), starch branching enzymes (SBE) and starch debranching
      enzyme (SDBE), with those proteins mainly being involved in the pathways of
      starch metabolism and PPDK-mediated gluconeogenesis. Those over-expressed enzymes
      may contribute to the relatively early development, similar starch accumulation
      and rapid grain filling of SA0419 as compared with TNG67. This study provides a
      detailed biochemical description of starch biosynthesis and related information
      regarding a unique starch mutant that may assist future research efforts to
      improve the yield and quality of grain and starch in rice through breeding.

PMID- 28887710
TI  - Increased mortality in patients with adrenal incidentalomas and autonomous
      cortisol secretion: a 13-year retrospective study from one center.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare long-term outcomes in patients with adrenal incidentalomas
      (AIs) with the response to a 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test (DST).
      METHODS: Consecutive patients with "non-functional" AIs (n = 365) were examined.
      Patients with overt hormone excess, adrenocortical cancer and known malignancy
      had been excluded. Patients were classified to normal cortisol secretion group (n
      = 204, DST <= 50 nmol/l), possible autonomous cortisol secretion group (n = 128,
      DST 51-138 nmol/l) and autonomous cortisol secretion group (n = 33, DST >= 138
      nmol/l). RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients (10.1%) deceased during the follow-up
      period (5.2 +/- 2.3 years): 16(7.8%) in the non-secreting group (time from
      diagnosis to death: 3.9 +/- 2.9 years), 15 in the possible autonomous cortisol
      secretion group (11.7%, 3.2 +/- 1.8 years) and 6 in the autonomous cortisol
      secretion group (18.2%, 2.3 +/- 1.5 years), respectively (P = 0.019).
      Multivariate analysis only found significant association with age and the tumour
      size but if cortisol levels post-DST were analysed as a continuous variable it
      was significant as well. All deaths in autonomous cortisol secretion group were
      due to cancer not related to adrenal glands. Hypertension, cardiovascular disease
      and medications were more common in the possible and autonomous cortisol
      secretion group, especially in the former. More bilateral AIs and larger AI size
      were found in the two latter groups. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with autonomous
      cortisol secretion had higher mortality than those with non-functioning AIs
      though cortisol levels post-DST as a continuous variable, age and tumour size
      were better predictor of mortality. Cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis
      medication seemed more prevalent in the possible and autonomous cortisol
      secretion groups, especially in the former.

PMID- 28887711
TI  - In vitro remodeling and structural characterization of degradable polymer
      scaffold-based tissue-engineered vascular grafts using optical coherence
      tomography.
AB  - Non-destructive imaging strategies to monitor long-term cultures is essential for
      vascular engineering. The goal of this study is to investigate whether optical
      coherence tomography (OCT) can be a suitable approach to monitor the long-term
      remodeling process of biodegradable polymeric scaffold-based tissue-engineered
      vascular grafts (TEVG) after pulsatile stimulation and to observe polymeric
      scaffold degradation during bioreactor cultivation. In the present study, a
      perfusion system driven by a ventricular assist device was provided for a three
      dimensional culture system as a pulsatile force. We characterized the structural
      features of wall thickness and polyglycolic acid degradation based on optical
      signal attenuation using catheter-based OCT. Scanning electron microscopy
      confirmed morphological changes. Also, polymer degradation and the detection of
      different types of collagen was visualized after 4 weeks of culture by means of
      polarized microscopy. Findings on OCT imaging correlated with those on
      histological examination and revealed the effects of pulsatile stimulation on the
      development of engineered vessels. This finding demonstrated that real-time
      imaging with OCT may be a promising tool for monitoring the growth and remodeling
      characterization of TEVG and provide a basis to promote the ideal and long-term
      culture of vascular tissue engineering.

PMID- 28887712
TI  - Higher incidence of pancreatic fistula in laparoscopic gastrectomy. Real-world
      evidence from a nationwide prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (LDG) is becoming the standard
      procedure for gastric cancer. However, supporting evidence thus far has been
      derived primarily from randomized control trials conducted by centers of
      excellence. In the present study we used the National Clinical Database (NCD) in
      Japan to prospectively accumulate data from diverse types of hospitals and
      examine whether LDG is a safe and valid standard procedure. METHODS: From the
      NCD, 169 institutions were selected to form a cohort that was considered to be
      representative of Japan. From August 2014 to July 2015, 5288 patients who
      underwent LDG were registered prospectively, and clinical data were acquired
      through the NCD. To compare surgical outcomes between open distal gastrectomy
      (ODG) and LDG, we adjusted for confounding factors using propensity score
      matching, ultimately retrieving data from 1067 patients in each group. RESULTS:
      There were no significant differences in the number of in-hospital deaths in the
      ODG and LDG groups (3/1067 vs. 6/1067; P = 0.51) or in the number of reoperations
      (20/1067 vs. 29/1067; P = 0.19). However, the length of hospital stay was
      significantly shorter in the LDG. Although wound infection and dehiscence were
      more common in the ODG group, LDG was more often associated with grade B or
      higher pancreatic fistulas. CONCLUSION: The safety and minimal invasiveness of
      LDG were confirmed in the present Japanese nationwide survey. However, care must
      be taken to prevent the formation of pancreatic fistulas with LDG, and further
      improvements in surgical quality are warranted in this regard.

PMID- 28887713
TI  - Determinants of slow flow following stent implantation in intravascular
      ultrasound-guided primary percutaneous coronary intervention.
AB  - Slow flow is a serious complication in primary percutaneous coronary intervention
      (PCI) and is associated with poor clinical outcomes. Intravascular ultrasound
      (IVUS)-guided PCI may improve clinical outcomes after drug-eluting stent
      implantation. The purpose of this study was to seek the factors of slow flow
      following stent implantation, including factors related to IVUS-guided primary
      PCI. The study population consisted of 339 ST-elevation myocardial infarction
      patients, who underwent stent deployment with IVUS. During PCI, 56 patients
      (16.5%) had transient or permanent slow flow. Multivariate logistic regression
      analysis showed age (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.07, P = 0.01), low attenuation plaque
      on IVUS (OR 3.38, 95% CI 1.70-6.72, P = 0.001), initial Thrombolysis In
      Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade 2 (vs. TIMI 0: OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.20-0.99,
      P = 0.046), and the ratio of stent diameter to vessel diameter (per 0.1 increase:
      OR 2.63, 95% CI 1.84-3.77, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with slow
      flow. A ratio of stent diameter to vessel diameter of 0.71 had an 80.4%
      sensitivity and 56.9% specificity to predict slow flow. There was no significant
      difference in ischemic-driven target vessel revascularization between the modest
      stent expansion (ratio of stent diameter to vessel diameter <0.71) and aggressive
      stent expansion (ratio of stent diameter to vessel diameter >=0.71) strategies.
      Unlike other variables, the ratio of stent diameter to vessel diameter was the
      only modifiable factor. The modest stent expansion strategy should be considered
      to prevent slow flow following stent implantation in IVUS-guided primary PCI.

PMID- 28887714
TI  - Is it time for one-step nucleic acid amplification (OSNA) in colorectal cancer? A
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is prognostic in colorectal cancer (CRC).
      However, evaluation by routine haematoxylin and eosin histology (HE) limits nodal
      examination and is subjective. Missed LNMs from tissue allocation bias (TAB)
      might under-stage disease, leading to under-treatment. One-step nucleic acid
      amplification (OSNA) for CK19 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), a marker of LNM,
      analyses the whole node. The aim of the present systematic review and meta
      analysis was to assess recent studies on OSNA versus HE and its implications for
      CRC staging and treatment. METHODS: Databases including OVID, Medline and Google
      Scholar were searched for OSNA, LNM and CRC. Study results were pooled using a
      random-effects model. Summary receiver operator curves (SROC) assessed OSNA's
      performance in detecting LNM when compared to routine HE histology. RESULTS: Five
      case-control studies analysing 4080 nodes from 622 patients were included. The
      summary estimates of pooled results for OSNA were sensitivity 0.90 [95%
      confidence interval (CI) 0.86-0.93], specificity 0.94 (95% CI 0.93-0.95) and
      diagnostic odds ratio 179.5 (CI 58.35-552.2, p < 0.0001). The SROC curve
      indicated a maximum joint sensitivity and specificity of 0.88 and area under the
      curve of 0.94, p < 0.0001. On average, 5.4% HE-negative nodes were upstaged by
      OSNA. CONCLUSIONS: OSNA is as good as routine HE. It may avoid TAB and offer a
      more objective and standardised assay of LNM. However, for upstaging, its
      usefulness as an adjunct to HE or superiority to HE requires further assessment
      of the benefits, if any, of adjuvant therapy in patients upstaged by OSNA.

PMID- 28887715
TI  - Tissue microarray analysis for epithelial membrane protein-2 as a novel biomarker
      for gliomas.
AB  - Epithelial membrane protein-2 (EMP2) expression is noted in many human cancers.
      We evaluated EMP2 as a biomarker in gliomas. A large tissue microarray of lower
      grade glioma (WHO grades II-III, n = 19 patients) and glioblastoma (GBM) (WHO
      grade IV, n = 50 patients) was stained for EMP2. EMP2 expression was dichotomized
      to low or high expression scores and correlated with clinical data. The mean EMP2
      expression was 1.68 in lower grade gliomas versus 2.20 in GBMs (P = 0.01). The
      percentage of samples with high EMP2 expression was greater in GBMs than lower
      grade gliomas (90.0 vs. 52.6%, P = 0.001). No significant difference was found
      between median survival among patients with GBM tumors exhibiting high EMP2
      expression and survival of those with low EMP2 expression (8.38 vs. 10.98 months,
      P = 0.39). However, EMP2 expression >=2 correlated with decreased survival (r = 
      0.39, P = 0.001). The EMP2 expression level also correlated with Ki-67 positivity
      (r = 0.34, P = 0.008). The mortality hazard ratio for GBM patients with EMP2
      score of 3 or higher was 1.92 (CI 0.69-5.30). Our findings suggest that elevated
      EMP2 expression is associated with GBM. With other biomarkers, EMP2 may have use
      as a molecular target for the diagnosis and treatment of gliomas.

PMID- 28887716
TI  - Inhibitory effect and molecular mechanism of mesenchymal stem cells on NSCLC
      cells.
AB  - Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still the main threat of cancer-associated
      death. Current treatment of NSCLC has limited effectiveness, and unfortunately,
      the prognosis of NSCLC remains poor. Therefore, a novel strategy for cancer
      therapy is urgently needed. Stem cell therapy has significant potential for
      cancer treatment. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with capacity for self-renewal
      and differentiation into various cells types exhibit the feature of homing to
      tumor site and immunosuppression, have been explored as a new treatment for
      various cancers. Studies revealed that the broad repertoire of trophic factors
      secreted by MSCs extensively involved in the interplay between MSCs and tumor
      cells. In this study, we confirmed that MSCs do have the paracrine effect on
      proliferation and migration of NSCLC cells (A549, NCI-H460, and SK-MES-1). Co
      culture system and conditioned medium experiments results showed that soluble
      factors secreted by MSCs inhibited the proliferation of NSCLC cells in vitro. The
      scratch assay showed that conditioned medium of MSCs could suppress the migration
      of NSCLC cells in vitro. Western blot results showed that the expression of
      proteins relevant to cell proliferation, anti-apoptosis, and migration was
      remarkably decreased via MAPK/eIF4E signaling pathway. We speculated that soluble
      factors secreted by MSCs might be responsible for inhibitory mechanism of NSCLC
      cells. By Human Gene Expression Microarray Assay and recombinant Vascular
      Endothelial Growth Factor 165 (VEGF165) neutralizing experiment, we verified that
      VEGF might be responsible for the down-regulation of proteins related to cell
      proliferation, anti-apoptosis, and migration by suppressing translation
      initiation factor eIF4E via MAPK signaling pathway. Taken together, our study
      demonstrated that a possible trophic factor secreted by MSCs could manipulate
      translation initiation of NSCLC cells via MAPK signaling pathway, and
      significantly affect the fate of tumor cells, which will be a new strategy for
      cancer therapy.

PMID- 28887717
TI  - Prognostic importance of temozolomide-induced neutropenia in glioblastoma, IDH
      wildtype patients.
AB  - Standard treatment for patients with primary glioblastoma (GBM) includes surgery,
      radiotherapy, and concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ). Recent reports
      have demonstrated that TMZ-induced myelosuppression correlates with survival in
      patients with GBM. However, those results were evaluated before the 2016 revision
      of the World Health Organization classification. This study examined whether
      myelosuppression during concomitant TMZ phase correlates with prognosis in GBM,
      IDH-wildtype patients. We examined circulating blood cell counts in 50 patients
      with GBM, IDH-wildtype who received the standard treatment protocol between
      August 2005 and November 2015. We assessed relationships between rates of
      decrease in blood cells (white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils, lymphocytes, red
      blood cells, and platelets) during the concomitant TMZ phase and overall survival
      (OS) using univariate and multivariate analyses including other
      clinicopathological factors (age, sex, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), extent
      of resection, O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) status). Log-rank
      testing revealed that age, KPS, extent of resection, MGMT status, and decrease
      rates of WBC, neutrophils, and platelets correlated significantly with OS. On
      multivariate analysis, age, MGMT status, and decrease rate of neutrophils
      correlated significantly with OS. Patients with a >= 40% decrease in neutrophils
      showed significantly longer OS than those with < 40% (hazard ratio = 2.815; 95%
      confidence interval = 1.177-7.038; P = 0.0196). A decrease of >= 40% in
      neutrophils represents a predictor of good prognosis for GBM, IDH-wildtype. Blood
      cell counts during the concomitant TMZ phase can help predict OS in patients with
      GBM, IDH-wildtype receiving the standard treatment protocol.

PMID- 28887718
TI  - Measurement of hemodynamic changes with the axial flow blood pump installed in
      descending aorta.
AB  - We have developed various axial flow blood pumps to realize the concept of the
      Valvo pump, and we have studied hemodynamic changes under cardiac assistance
      using an axial flow blood pump in series with the natural heart. In this study,
      we measured hemodynamic changes of not only systemic circulation but also
      cerebral circulation and coronary circulation under cardiac support using our
      latest axial flow blood pump placed in the descending aorta in an acute animal
      experiment. The axial flow blood pump was installed at the thoracic descending
      aorta through a left thoracotomy of a goat (43.8 kg, female). When the pump was
      on, the aortic pressure and aortic flow downstream of the pump increased with
      preservation of pulsatilities. The pressure drop upstream of the pump caused
      reduction of afterload pressure, and it may lead to reduction of left ventricular
      wall stress. However, cerebral blood flow and coronary blood flow were decreased
      when the pump was on. The axial flow blood pump enables more effective blood
      perfusion into systemic circulation, but it has the potential risk of blood
      perfusion disturbance into cerebral circulation and coronary circulation. The
      results indicate that the position before the coronary ostia might be suitable
      for implantation of the axial flow blood pump in series with the natural heart to
      avoid blood perfusion disturbances.

PMID- 28887719
TI  - Protective effects of carbenoxolone, an 11beta-HSD1 inhibitor, against chemical
      induced dry eye syndrome.
AB  - Dry eye syndrome (DES) is a disorder of the eye due to tear deficiency or
      excessive evaporation that causes damage to the eye and is associated with
      discomfort and dryness. 11beta-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11beta-HSD1) is an
      enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol. Recently, 11beta-HSD1
      has been expressed in human and rodent eyes and has been recognized as a target
      of glaucoma. In this study, the therapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms of
      topical carbenoxolone, an 11beta-HSD1 inhibitor, were investigated in
      benzalkonium chloride (BAC)-treated human conjunctival epithelial cells and a rat
      DES model. In the in vitro study, carbenoxolone dose-dependently inhibited cell
      death and 11beta-HSD1 activity in BAC-treated human conjunctival epithelial
      cells. For the in vivo study, carbenoxolone or a solvent was administered to the
      BAC-induced DES model twice daily. BAC-treated rat eyes showed significant
      increases in ocular surface damage, a reduction of tears, decrease corneal
      thickness, corneal basement membrane destruction, apoptosis in the conjunctival
      epithelium, and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha and IL-6) and
      11beta-HSD1. These effects of BAC were reversed by topical carbenoxolone
      treatment. These results demonstrate that carbenoxolone can prevent DES by
      inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine expression and cell death of the corneal and
      conjunctival epithelium via inhibition of both 11beta-HSD1 activity and
      expression in the eyes of BAC-treated rats. It is suggested that topical 11beta
      HSD1 inhibitors may provide a new therapeutic window in the prevention and/or
      treatment of DES.

PMID- 28887720
TI  - Early Folic Acid Supplement Initiation and Risk of Adverse Early Childhood
      Respiratory Health: A Population-based Study.
AB  - Objectives Folate plays a vital role in biologic functions yet women often do not
      meet the recommended dietary intake in pregnancy. It has been suggested that high
      folic acid intake during pregnancy may increase the risk of respiratory diseases
      in offspring. However, findings from observational studies in human populations
      are inconclusive. Methods In this population-based study, we collected self
      reported folic acid and prenatal vitamin supplement use during pregnancy 3-6
      months postpartum from mothers in Los Angeles whose children were born in 2003.
      Supplement initiation was based on whichever supplement, either folic acid or
      prenatal supplements, the women initiated first. In a 2006 follow-up survey,
      approximately 50% of women were re-contacted to gather information on the child's
      respiratory health, including symptoms and diagnoses, at approximately 3.5 years
      of age. Results Overall, timing of folic acid supplement initiation was not
      associated with wheeze or lower respiratory tract infection, even after
      accounting for preterm births and censoring at follow-up. However, children born
      to mothers with a history of atopy (hay fever, eczema or asthma) who initiate
      folic acid supplements in late pregnancy, compared to first trimester initiators,
      have 1.67 (95% CI 1.12, 2.49) times the risk of wheeze in the first 3 years of
      life and 1.88 (95% CI 1.05, 3.34) times the risk of wheeze in the past year. No
      association was found among children of non-atopic mothers. Conclusions These
      findings suggest that early folic acid or prenatal supplementation among atopic
      women may be important to prevent wheeze among offspring.

PMID- 28887721
TI  - Narrow implants (2.75 and 3.25 mm diameter) supporting a fixed splinted
      prostheses in posterior regions of mandible: one-year results from a prospective
      cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Can multiple splinted narrow-diameter implants be used as definitive
      implants in patients with insufficient bone ridge thickness in posterior regions
      of the mandible? With this aim, we evaluated their outcomes in this set up to 1
      year after loading. METHODS: Forty-two patients with a mean age of 61.3 years old
      (range 49-73) in need of fixed prosthetic implant-supported rehabilitations in
      the posterior region of the mandible, presenting a thin alveolar crest, were
      selected. One hundred twenty-four narrow-diameter implants (2.75 and 3.25 mm
      diameter) were placed and splinted with a bridge. One implant for each missing
      tooth was requested to be inserted. Outcomes measured were implant survival,
      complications, and marginal bone level changes up to 1 year after loading.
      RESULTS: At the 12-month follow-up, three implants failed. Two 2.75 mm diameter
      implants and one 3.2 mm diameter implant failed. The implant survival rate was
      97.6%. Peri-implant bone resorption was 0.20 mm (CI 95% 0.14: 0.26) after 6
      months and 0.47 mm (CI 95% 0.29; 0.65) after 12 months of loading, not different
      between 2.75 and 3.25 mm diameter groups (p = 0.786). Of the 42 cases, three had
      an episode of peri-implant mucositis (7.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Within the limits of
      this study, preliminary short-term data (1 year post-loading) suggested that
      narrow-diameter implants (2.75 to 3.25 mm) can be successfully used as a
      minimally invasive alternative to horizontal bone augmentation in the posterior
      mandible. However, larger and longer follow-ups of 5 years or more are needed.

PMID- 28887722
TI  - Dental anomalies in pediatric patients with familial adenomatous polyposis.
AB  - Familial adenomatous polyposis patients often present with non-malignant extra
      intestinal manifestations which include dental anomalies that may be evident
      prior to the appearance of the colonic adenomas. The aims of this study were to
      describe the prevalence and type of dental anomalies and the relationships
      between gene mutations and dental anomalies in these patients. Twenty-two
      pediatric familial adenomatous polyposis patients and 46 controls, who were age
      and gender matched participated. Familial adenomatous polyposis patient's had a
      dental examination with panoramic radiograph and medical record review for age at
      diagnosis, the presence of the adenomatous polyposis coli gene mutation, and
      determination of other extra-intestinal manifestations on the body. The control
      group was identified from a retrospective chart review and selected if there was
      a current panoramic radiograph. The only significant difference between familial
      adenomatous polyposis patients and controls were the presence of jaw osteomas and
      sclerosis (p = .0001). Patients with a mutation in, or upstream of codon 1309 had
      a higher frequency of osteomas (77.8%) and jaw-bone sclerosis (44.4%), and 77% of
      these had at least one dental anomaly. This preliminary study showed an
      association between a genetic variant at, or upstream of codon 1309, and
      radiographic dental anomalies.

PMID- 28887723
TI  - Endoscopic Doppler Ultrasound Probe: Useful in the Management of Gastric Varices?

PMID- 28887724
TI  - Reviewers should have known better.

PMID- 28887725
TI  - Recombinant flagellin-PAL fusion protein of Legionella pneumophila induced cell
      mediated and protective immunity against bacteremia in BALB/c mice.
AB  - We report a new recombinant fusion protein composed of full-length Legionella
      pneumophila flagellin A and peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein (PAL), rFLA-PAL,
      capable of inducing protective immunity against L. pneumophila. The recombinant
      protein was over expressed in Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3) using pET-28a
      (+) expression vector (pET28a-flaA-pal) and purified by Ni2+ exchange
      chromatography. Immunological properties of rFLA-PAL were assessed in a mouse
      model. Female BALB/c mice, immunized with rFLA-PAL, exhibited a rapid increase in
      serum antibody concentration against each of its protein portions. Furthermore, a
      strong activation of both innate and adaptive cell-mediated immunity was observed
      as indicated by antigen-specific splenocyte proliferation, IFN-gamma and IL-12
      production, and early production of TNF-alpha in the serum and in splenocyte
      cultures which were separately assessed against PAL and FLA. BALB/c mice were
      challenged with a lethal dose of L. pneumophila intravenously. In a 10-days
      follow-up after intravenous lethal challenge with L. pneumophila, a 100% survival
      rate was observed for mice immunized with rFLA-PAL, same as for those immunized
      with a sublethal dose of L. pneumophila. Based on the potent immune responses
      observed in mice immunized with rFLA-PAL, this recombinant fusion protein could
      be a potential vaccine candidate against the intracellular pathogen L.
      pneumophila.

PMID- 28887726
TI  - Long-Term Follow-Up of Desmoid Fibromatosis Treated with PF-03084014, an Oral
      Gamma Secretase Inhibitor.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Desmoid fibromatosis is a fibroblastic neoplasm driven by aberrations
      within the WNT pathway, exhibiting mutations in beta-catenin or APC. We review
      the long-term follow-up of patients in a phase I study treated with an oral gamma
      secretase inhibitor, PF-03084014. METHODS: PF-03084014 was administered orally at
      doses ranging from 20 to 330 mg twice daily. Tumor assessments were performed
      using computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (CT/MRI) within 4 weeks of
      study entry, and every other cycle through cycle 9. After cycle 9, patients were
      evaluated as clinically indicated. RESULTS: Seven patients with desmoid
      fibromatosis were treated between December 2009 and December 2016 at the
      University of Colorado. Five patients (71.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 29.0
      96.3%) achieved a partial response (PR), with a mean time to achieving response
      of 11.9 months (95% CI 2.5-21.4 months). All patients who achieved a PR continue
      to maintain responses between 47.9 and 73+ months. Four patients stopped
      treatment yet remain free of progression between 11 and 53+ months. One patient
      had PFS of 42+ months, with a 17% decrease in the target lesion. A biopsy
      performed at the end of the study showed decreased tumoral cellularity compared
      with previous biopsies. Effective treatment doses ranged from 80 to 330 mg
      administered orally twice daily. CONCLUSIONS: PF-03084014 was effective in
      treating desmoid tumors, with an objective response rate of 71.4% (95% CI 29.0
      96.3%) in this small cohort of patients. PF-03084014 exhibits promising activity,
      even at relatively low doses (80 mg twice daily), with high tolerability leading
      to prolonged disease control even after therapy discontinuation.

PMID- 28887728
TI  - Comment on: "Nominal Mass?" by Athula B. Attygalle and Julius Pavlov, J. Am. Soc.
      Mass Spectrom. 28, 1737-1738 (2017).

PMID- 28887727
TI  - Predictors of primary lung cancer in a solitary pulmonary lesion after a previous
      malignancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A solitary pulmonary lesion in patients with a history of malignancy
      may be either primary lung cancer or a metastatic lung tumor or benign nodule. We
      retrospectively examined the preoperative predictive factors for determining the
      type of pathology. METHODS: We used an exact logistic regression analysis to
      identify radiological and clinical predictors of primary lung cancer. The study
      included 187 patients who underwent pulmonary resection for a solitary pulmonary
      lesion and had received previous treatment for a malignancy. RESULTS: There were
      107 patients with primary lung cancer, 74 with metastatic lung tumors, and 6 with
      benign lesions. The previous malignancy included colorectal cancer in 71
      patients. A disease-free interval exceeding 5 years and ground-glass opacity were
      found in 27.0% (20/74) and 1.4% (1/74) of metastatic lung tumors, respectively.
      Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that spiculation [adjusted
      odds ratio (a-OR), 1.74; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09-2.86], pleural
      indentation (a-OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.24-3.29), and ground-glass opacity (a-OR 5.28,
      95% CI 2.61-13.1) on high-resolution computed tomography, maximum standardized
      uptake value (a-OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.29), current and former smokers (a-OR
      1.96, 95% CI 1.21-3.30), and previous malignancy other than colorectal cancer (a
      OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.26-3.37) were associated with primary lung cancer. CONCLUSIONS:
      A combination of radiological findings, smoking history, and type of previous
      malignancy can improve the ability to predict primary lung cancer in the presence
      of a solitary pulmonary lesion that appears after previous treatment for a
      malignancy.

PMID- 28887729
TI  - Intestinal microbiome-gut-brain axis and irritable bowel syndrome.
AB  - Psychological comorbidity is highly present in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
      Recent research points to a role of intestinal microbiota in visceral
      hypersensitivity, anxiety, and depression. Increased disease reactivity to
      psychological stress has been described too. A few clinical studies have
      attempted to identify features of dysbiosis in IBS. While animal studies revealed
      strong associations between stress and gut microbiota, studies in humans are
      rare. This review covers the most important studies on intestinal microbial
      correlates of psychological and clinical features in IBS, including stress,
      anxiety, and depression.

PMID- 28887730
TI  - An exploration of the reflow technique for the fabrication of an in vitro
      microvascular system to study occlusive clots.
AB  - Embolic ischemia and pulmonary embolism are health emergencies that arise when a
      particle such as a blood clot occludes a smaller blood vessel in the brain or the
      lungs, and restricts flow of blood downstream of the vessel. In this work, the
      reflow technique (Wang et al. Biomed. Microdevices 2007, 9, 657) was adapted to
      produce a microchannel network that mimics the occlusion process. The technique
      was first revisited and a simple geometrical model was developed to
      quantitatively explain the shapes of the resulting microchannels for different
      reflow parameters. A critical modification was introduced to the reflow protocol
      to fabricate nearly circular microchannels of different diameters from the same
      master, which is not possible with the traditional reflow technique. To simulate
      the phenomenon of occlusion by clots, a microchannel network with three
      generations of branches with different diameters and branching angles was
      fabricated, into which fibrin clots were introduced. At low constant pressure
      drop (DeltaP), a clot blocked a branch entrance only partially, while at higher
      DeltaP, the branch was completely blocked. Instances of simultaneous blocking of
      multiple channels by clots, and the consequent changes in the flow rates in the
      unblocked branches of the network, were also monitored. This work provides the
      framework for a systematic study of the distribution of clots in a network, and
      the rate of dissolution of embolic clots upon the introduction of a thrombolytic
      drug into the network.

PMID- 28887731
TI  - Are Indigenous Determinants of Health Associated with Self-Reported Health
      Professional-Diagnosed Anxiety Disorders Among Canadian First Nations Adults?:
      Findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey.
AB  - We estimated the prevalence of self-reported health professional-diagnosed
      anxiety disorders among Canadian First Nations adults living off-reserve, and
      assessed the relationship between anxiety disorders and Indigenous determinants
      of health (Status Indian, residential school attendance, knowledge of Indigenous
      language, and participation in traditional activities) using the 2012 Aboriginal
      Peoples Survey. Multivariable logistic regression models were performed using
      bootstrap weights. The prevalence of anxiety disorders was 14.5% among off
      reserve First Nations adults. There was an increased odds of anxiety disorders
      among those participating in traditional activities compared to their
      counterparts (aOR 1.46, 95% CI 1.12-1.90). No association was found between
      anxiety disorders and other Indigenous determinants of health. There is a high
      prevalence of self-reported anxiety among First Nations adults living off
      reserve. However, further studies are warranted to identify and assess the role
      of Indigenous determinants of health for anxiety disorders and other prevalent
      mental health conditions in this population.

PMID- 28887732
TI  - Clinical outcomes of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with volumetric modulated arc
      therapy in patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical results of
      concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT)
      for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with
      stage II-IVB NPC who received CCRT with VMAT between 2010 and 2014 were included
      in this study. The planned dose was 70 Gy in 35 fractions. RESULTS: Twenty
      patients aged between 28 and 85 years (median 60 years) were assessed. With a
      median follow-up time of 47 months, the 3-year overall survival and progression
      free survival rates were 85 and 65%, respectively. The 3-year local, regional and
      distant control rates were 78, 88 and 79%, respectively. At 0, 3, 6 and 12 months
      from CCRT, 19, 6, 3, and 1 patients had grade 2 dry mouth, respectively. No cases
      of grade 3 or worse dry mouth were observed. The severity of dry mouth was
      downgraded from grade 2 to grade 0 or 1 significantly earlier in younger patients
      (<70 years, p = 0.02) or patients in whom the mean dose to one parotid gland was
      lower (<26 Gy, p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Our clinical results regarding CCRT with
      VMAT for NPC patients showed favorable survival rates while maintaining organ
      function.

PMID- 28887733
TI  - Computational design of bio-inspired carnosine-based HOBr antioxidants.
AB  - During a respiratory burst the enzyme myeloperoxidase generates significant
      amounts of hypohalous acids (HOX, X = Cl and Br) in order to inflict oxidative
      damage upon invading pathogens. However, excessive production of these potent
      oxidants is associated with numerous inflammatory diseases. It has been suggested
      that the endogenous antioxidant carnosine is an effective HOCl scavenger. Recent
      computational and experimental studies suggested that an intramolecular Cl+
      transfer from the imidazole ring to the terminal amine might play an important
      role in the antioxidant activity of carnosine. Based on high-level ab initio
      calculations, we propose a similar reaction mechanism for the intramolecular Br+
      transfer in carnosine. These results suggest that carnosine may be an effective
      HOBr scavenger. On the basis of the proposed reaction mechanism, we proceed to
      design systems that share similar structural features to carnosine but with
      enhanced HOX scavenging capabilities for X = Cl and Br. We find that (i)
      elongating the beta-alanyl-glycyl side chain by one carbon reduces the reaction
      barriers by up to 44%, and (ii) substituting the imidazole ring with strong
      electron-donating groups reduces the reaction barriers by similar amounts. We
      also show that the above structural and electronic effects are largely additive.
      In an antioxidant candidate that involves both of these effects the reaction
      barriers are reduced by 71%.

PMID- 28887734
TI  - Mating of natural Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for improved glucose
      fermentation and lignocellulosic inhibitor tolerance.
AB  - Natural Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates from vineyards in the Western Cape,
      South Africa were evaluated for ethanol production in industrial conditions
      associated with the production of second-generation biofuels. The strains
      displayed high phenotypic diversity including the ability to grow at 45  degrees
      C and in the presence of 20% (v/v) ethanol, strain YI13. Strains HR4 and YI30
      were inhibitor-tolerant under aerobic and oxygen-limited conditions,
      respectively. Spore-to-spore hybridization generated progeny that displayed
      heterosis, including increased ethanol productivity and improved growth in the
      presence of a synthetic inhibitor cocktail. Hybrid strains HR4/YI30#6 and
      V3/YI30#6 were able to grow at a high salt concentration (2 mol/L NaCl) with
      V3/YI30#6 also able to grow at a high temperature (45  degrees C). Strains
      HR4/YI30#1 and #3 were inhibitor-tolerant, with strain HR4/YI30#3 having similar
      productivity (0.36 +/- 0.0036 g/L per h) as the superior parental strain, YI30
      (0.35 +/- 0.0058 g/L per h). This study indicates that natural S. cerevisiae
      strains display phenotypic variation and heterosis can be achieved through spore
      to-spore hybridization. Several of the phenotypes (temperature-, osmo-, and
      inhibitor tolerance) displayed by both the natural strains and the generated
      progeny were at the maximum conditions reported for S. cerevisiae strains.

PMID- 28887735
TI  - An automated sampling importance resampling procedure for estimating parameter
      uncertainty.
AB  - Quantifying the uncertainty around endpoints used for decision-making in drug
      development is essential. In nonlinear mixed-effects models (NLMEM) analysis,
      this uncertainty is derived from the uncertainty around model parameters.
      Different methods to assess parameter uncertainty exist, but scrutiny towards
      their adequacy is low. In a previous publication, sampling importance resampling
      (SIR) was proposed as a fast and assumption-light method for the estimation of
      parameter uncertainty. A non-iterative implementation of SIR proved adequate for
      a set of simple NLMEM, but the choice of SIR settings remained an issue. This
      issue was alleviated in the present work through the development of an automated,
      iterative SIR procedure. The new procedure was tested on 25 real data examples
      covering a wide range of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic NLMEM featuring
      continuous and categorical endpoints, with up to 39 estimated parameters and
      varying data richness. SIR led to appropriate results after 3 iterations on
      average. SIR was also compared with the covariance matrix, bootstrap and
      stochastic simulations and estimations (SSE). SIR was about 10 times faster than
      the bootstrap. SIR led to relative standard errors similar to the covariance
      matrix and SSE. SIR parameter 95% confidence intervals also displayed similar
      asymmetry to SSE. In conclusion, the automated SIR procedure was successfully
      applied over a large variety of cases, and its user-friendly implementation in
      the PsN program enables an efficient estimation of parameter uncertainty in
      NLMEM.

PMID- 28887736
TI  - A comparison among three different apheretic techniques for treatment of
      hyperbilirubinemia.
AB  - Liver failure is associated to high mortality due to the accumulation of protein
      bound metabolites, such as bilirubin, not removed by conventional hemodialysis.
      Different methods can efficiently remove them, such as the molecular adsorbent
      recirculating system (MARS), plasma exchange (PEX), and bilirubin or plasma
      adsorption perfusion (PAP). No direct comparison exists between MARS, PEX and
      PAP, and current guidelines do not specify which method (and when) to use. We
      have retrospectively evaluated MARS, PEX and PAP in their effectiveness in
      lowering plasma bilirubin concentration, and their effects on liver and kidney
      function. A total of 98 patients have been recruited, which comprised 68 patients
      treated with PAP (177 sessions), 16 patients with PEX (41 sessions) and 11
      patients with MARS (21 sessions). Bilirubin, creatinine, liver enzymes were
      analyzed before and after the first treatment with each technique. The three
      methods did not differ for bilirubin lowering efficiency, with MARS showing only
      slightly less effective reductions. Finally, the three techniques did not differ
      in the amount of change of cholinesterase, but a lower reduction in AST was found
      using PAP. Our retrospective observation is one of the largest case series of
      hepatic failure treated with bilirubin absorption. The choice of the technique
      cannot be based on the desired reduction in bilirubin concentration. Based on
      costs and duration of treatment, we suggest that PAP could be considered as a
      first-line approach. In case of kidney involvement, MARS remains a valuable
      option.

PMID- 28887737
TI  - Child with Vomiting.
AB  - Vomiting is a common problem in children for which parents seek health care
      consultation. It has a varied etiology encompassing many organ systems, ranging
      from a benign physiological behavior to a life-threatening systemic disease. Most
      often, it is benign and self-limiting. Infections within and outside the
      gastrointestinal tract are the commonest causes. A good history and meticulous
      physical examination can discern the cause and help in delineating the benign
      cause from the sinister. Red flags include unstable vital signs, acidotic
      breathing, presence of bile or blood stained vomitus, features of
      gastrointestinal (GI) obstruction, encephalopathy and papilledema. Blood
      pressure, hydration status, careful abdominal examination including genitalia and
      hernial orifices and fundus form important components of the physical
      examination. Signs of GI obstruction should prompt an abdominal X-ray and
      surgical consultation. Recognition and treatment of the underlying cause is
      important. Mere symptomatic treatment may delay specific diagnosis and therapy.
      If the cause is not apparent after initial assessment, observation and/or
      admission would be appropriate. Vomiting may need symptomatic relief with
      antiemetics, if it is persistent and impedes oral intake. Domperidone and
      ondansetron are the commonly used antiemetics. Since most causes are benign,
      parental reassurance with or without symptomatic treatment may suffice.

PMID- 28887738
TI  - Ripe Banana Flour as a Source of Antioxidants in Layer and Sponge Cakes.
AB  - About one-fifth of all bananas harvested become culls that are normally disposed
      of improperly. However, ripe banana pulp contains significant amounts of fibre
      and polyphenol compounds as well as a high content of simple sugars (61.06 g/100
      g), making it suitable for sucrose replacement in bakery products. This work
      studied the feasibility of incorporating ripe banana flour (20 and 40% of
      replacement) in cake formulation. Physical, nutritional and sensory attributes of
      sponge and layer cakes were evaluated. The inclusion of ripe banana flour
      generally led to an increased batter consistency that hindered cake expansion,
      resulting in a slightly lower specific volume and higher hardness. This effect
      was minimised in layer cakes where differences in volume were only evident with
      the higher level of replacement. The lower volume and higher hardness contributed
      to the decline of the acceptability observed in the sensory test. Unlike physical
      attributes, the banana flour inclusion significantly improved the nutritional
      properties of the cakes, bringing about an enhancement in dietary fibre,
      polyphenols and antioxidant capacity (up to a three-fold improvement in
      antioxidant capacity performance). Therefore, results showed that sugar
      replacement by ripe banana flour enhanced the nutritional properties of cakes,
      but attention should be paid to its inclusion level.

PMID- 28887739
TI  - An evaluation of a handheld spectroradiometer for the near real-time measurement
      of cyanobacteria for bloom management purposes.
AB  - A commercially available handheld spectroradiometer, the WISP-3, was assessed as
      a tool for monitoring freshwater cyanobacterial blooms for management purposes.
      Three small eutrophic urban ponds which displayed considerable within-pond and
      between-pond variability in water quality and cyanobacterial community
      composition were used as trial sites. On-board algorithms provide field
      measurements of phycocyanin (CPC) and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) from surface
      reflectance spectra measured by the instrument. These were compared with
      laboratory measurements. Although significant but weak relationships were found
      between WISP-3 measured CPC and cyanobacterial biovolume measurements and WISP-3
      and laboratory Chl-a measurements, there was considerable scatter in the data due
      likely to error in both WISP-3 and laboratory measurements. The relationships
      generally differed only slightly between ponds, indicating that different
      cyanobacterial communities had little effect on the pigment retrievals of the
      WISP-3. The on-board algorithms need appropriate modification for local
      conditions, posing a problem if it is to be used extensively across water bodies
      with differing optical properties. Although suffering a range of other
      limitations, the WISP-3 has a potential as a rapid screening tool for preliminary
      risk assessment of cyanobacterial blooms. However, such field assessment would
      still require adequate support by sampling and laboratory-based analysis.

PMID- 28887740
TI  - Editor's Comments.

PMID- 28887741
TI  - Effects of Lectins on initial attachment of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans.
AB  - Oral bacteria initiate biofilm formation by attaching to tooth surfaces via an
      interaction of a lectin-like bacterial protein with carbohydrate chains on the
      pellicle. This study aimed to find naturally derived lectins that inhibit the
      initial attachment of a cariogenic bacterial species, Streptococcus mutans (S.
      mutans), to carbohydrate chains in saliva in vitro. Seventy kinds of lectins were
      screened for candidate motifs that inhibit the attachment of S. mutans ATCC 25175
      to a saliva-coated culture plate. The inhibitory effect of the lectins on
      attachment of the S. mutans to the plates was quantified by crystal violet
      staining, and the biofilm was observed under a scanning electron microscope
      (SEM). Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis was performed to examine the
      binding of S. mutans to carbohydrate chains and the binding of candidate lectins
      to carbohydrate chains, respectively. Moreover, binding assay between the
      biotinylated-lectins and the saliva components was conducted to measure the
      lectin binding. Lectins recognizing a salivary carbohydrate chain, Galbeta1
      3GalNAc, inhibited the binding of S. mutans to the plate. In particular, Agaricus
      bisporus agglutinin (ABA) markedly inhibited the binding. This inhibition was
      confirmed by SEM observation. SPR analysis indicated that S. mutans strongly
      binds to Galbeta1-3GalNAc, and ABA binds to Galbeta1-3GalNAc. Finally, the
      biotinylated Galbeta1-3GalNAc-binding lectins including ABA demonstrated marked
      binding to the saliva components. These results suggest that ABA lectin inhibited
      the attachment of S. mutans to Galbeta1-3GalNAc in saliva and ABA can be useful
      as a potent inhibitor for initial attachment of oral bacteria and biofilm
      formation.

PMID- 28887742
TI  - Efficacy of ganglionated plexi ablation in addition to pulmonary vein isolation
      for paroxysmal versus persistent atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis of
      randomized controlled clinical trials.
AB  - PURPOSE: Adjunctive ganglionated plexi (GP) ablation may improve success rates
      for treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) when combined with pulmonary vein (PV)
      isolation. Existing meta-analyses on GP ablation have included observational
      studies and have not incorporated more recent randomized clinical trial data.
      Moreover, the impact of AF subtype (paroxysmal vs. persistent) on outcomes of GP
      ablation has not been well established. METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing GP ablation + pulmonary vein (PV)
      isolation versus PV isolation alone according to the subtype of AF. The primary
      endpoint was freedom from sustained AF or atrial tachyarrhythmia (AT) after a
      single procedure. RESULTS: Across four RCTs, 718 patients (358 and 360 that
      underwent GP ablation + PV isolation [intervention] vs. PV isolation alone
      [control], respectively) were included in the study. Mean left atrial size and
      left ventricular ejection fraction were 45.7 mm and 54.8%, respectively. Among
      paroxysmal AF patients, GP ablation was linked to significantly higher freedom
      from AT/AF (75.8 vs. 60.0% for the intervention vs. control arms respectively; OR
      [95% CI]: 2.22 [1.36-3.61], P = 0.001). Among persistent AF patients, GP ablation
      was associated with a non-significant trend towards higher rates of freedom from
      AT/AF (54.7 vs. 43.3% for the intervention vs. control arms respectively; OR [95%
      CI]: 1.55 [0.96-2.52], P = 0.08). In all cases, heterogeneity was found to be low
      (I 2 of 32% or lower). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to PV isolation alone, GP ablation +
      PV isolation is associated with better outcomes in patients with paroxysmal AF
      and without significant structural heart disease.

PMID- 28887743
TI  - New Colorimetric and Fluorometric Fluoride Ion Probe Based on Anthra[1,9
      cd]pyrazol-6(2H)-one.
AB  - New colorimetric and fluorometric fluoride ion probe, anthra[1,9-cd]pyrazol-
      6(2H)-one (1), was synthesized by one-step condensation. The probe 1 shows F-
      selective color change from colorless to pink and appearance of red fluorescence.
      The fluorescence quantum yield of free probe 1 in DMSO was calculated to be 0.03.
      After addition of 15 equiv. of F-, its fluorescence quantum yield can be
      increased to 0.37. The analytical detection limit for F- was 2.8 * 10- 7 M. 1H
      NMR analysis and DFT calculation show that the F--induced colorimetric and
      fluorometric responses of 1 are driven by deprotonation process. Graphical
      Abstract.

PMID- 28887744
TI  - MicroRNA-203 suppresses proliferation in liver cancer associated with PIK3CA, p38
      MAPK, c-Jun, and GSK3 signaling.
AB  - Primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) is a leading cause of cancer
      related deaths, and alternative ways to treat this disease are urgently needed.
      In recent years, novel approaches to cancer treatment have been based on
      microRNAs, small non-coding RNA molecules that play a crucial role in cancer
      progression by regulating gene expression. Overexpression of some microRNAs has
      shown therapeutic potential, but whether or not this was the case for microRNA
      203 (miR-203) in liver cancer was unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was
      to investigate the effect of miR-203 overexpression in liver cancer and explore
      the related mechanisms. Liver cancer cells from the HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines
      were transfected with either miR-203 mimics or negative control RNA, and then the
      cells were subjected to cell viability, cell proliferation, and Western blotting
      assays. As a result of microRNA-203 overexpression, HepG2 and Hep3B cell
      viability and cell proliferation significantly declined. Furthermore, microRNA
      203 overexpression led to inhibited expression of phosphatidylinositol-4,5
      bisphosphate 3-kinase (PIK3)/protein kinase B (Akt), c-Jun, and p38 mitogen
      activated protein kinases (p38 MAPK), and restored glycogen synthase kinase 3
      (GSK 3) activity in HepG2 cells. Our results suggest that c-Jun, p38 MAPK,
      PIK3CA/Akt, and GSK3 signaling involved in the effect of miR-203 on the
      proliferation of HCC cells.

PMID- 28887745
TI  - Modeling Human Mortality from All Diseases in the Five Most Populated Countries
      of the European Union.
AB  - Age affects mortality from diseases differently than it affects mortality from
      external causes, such as accidents. Exclusion of the latter leads to the "all
      diseases" category. The age trajectories of mortality from all diseases are
      studied in the five most populated countries of the EU, and the shape of these
      156 age trajectories is investigated in detail. The arithmetic mean of ages where
      mortality reaches a minimal value is 8.47 years with a 95% confidence interval of
      [8.08, 8.85] years. Two simple deterministic models fit the age trajectories on
      the two sides of the mortality minimum. The inverse relationship is valid in all
      cases prior to this mortality minimum and death rates exactly decreased to three
      thousandths of its original size during the first 3000 days. After the mortality
      minimum, the standard Gompertz model fits the data in 63 cases, and the Gompertz
      model extended by a small quadratic element fits the remaining 93 cases. This
      analysis indicates that the exponential increase begins before the age of 15
      years and that it is overshadowed by non-biological causes. Therefore, the
      existence of a mechanism switching that would explain the exponential increase in
      mortality after the age of 35 years is unlikely.

PMID- 28887746
TI  - Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis from EEG signals using nonlinear methods.
AB  - EEG signals have essential and important information about the brain and neural
      diseases. The main purpose of this study is classifying two groups of healthy
      volunteers and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients using nonlinear features of EEG
      signals while performing cognitive tasks. EEG signals were recorded when users
      were doing two different attentional tasks. One of the tasks was based on
      detecting a desired change in color luminance and the other task was based on
      detecting a desired change in direction of motion. EEG signals were analyzed in
      two ways: EEG signals analysis without rhythms decomposition and EEG sub-bands
      analysis. After recording and preprocessing, time delay embedding method was used
      for state space reconstruction; embedding parameters were determined for original
      signals and their sub-bands. Afterwards nonlinear methods were used in feature
      extraction phase. To reduce the feature dimension, scalar feature selections were
      done by using T-test and Bhattacharyya criteria. Then, the data were classified
      using linear support vector machines (SVM) and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) method.
      The best combination of the criteria and classifiers was determined for each task
      by comparing performances. For both tasks, the best results were achieved by
      using T-test criterion and SVM classifier. For the direction-based and the color
      luminance-based tasks, maximum classification performances were 93.08 and 79.79%
      respectively which were reached by using optimal set of features. Our results
      show that the nonlinear dynamic features of EEG signals seem to be useful and
      effective in MS diseases diagnosis.

PMID- 28887747
TI  - Reliability and Validity of the Work and Well-Being Inventory (WBI) for
      Employees.
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this study is to measure the psychometric properties of
      the Work and Wellbeing Inventory (WBI) (in Dutch: VAR-2), a screening tool that
      is used within occupational health care and rehabilitation. Our research question
      focused on the reliability and validity of this inventory. Methods Over the years
      seven different samples of workers, patients and sick listed workers varying in
      size between 89 and 912 participants (total: 2514), were used to measure the test
      retest reliability, the internal consistency, the construct and concurrent
      validity, and the criterion and predictive validity. Results The 13 scales
      displayed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The constructive
      validity of the WBI could clearly be demonstrated in both patients and healthy
      workers. Confirmative factor analyses revealed a CFI >.90 for all scales. The
      depression scale predicted future work absenteeism (>6 weeks) because of a common
      mental disorder in healthy workers. The job strain scale and the illness behavior
      scale predicted long term absenteeism (>3 months) in workers with short-term
      absenteeism. The illness behavior scale moderately predicted return to work in
      rehab patients attending an intensive multidisciplinary program. Conclusions The
      WBI is a valid and reliable tool for occupational health practitioners to screen
      for risk factors for prolonged or future sickness absence. With this tool they
      will have reliable indications for further advice and interventions to restore
      the work ability.

PMID- 28887748
TI  - Hypolipidemic Activity of Camellia euphlebia Flower Extract in High-fat-fed Mice.
AB  - Camellia euphlebia (family, Theaceae) has been used for the prevention and
      treatment of cardiovascular diseases in Southern China. However, there has been
      no report on the hypolipidemic activity of Camellia euphlebia flower. This study
      evaluated the hypolipidemic activity of different preparation of Camellia
      euphlebia flower extracts using in vivo models. Mice intragastrically
      administered aqueous extract at 400 mg/kg dose or ethanol extract at 100 and 400
      mg/kg doses of Camellia euphlebia flower for 28 days exhibited significant
      decreases in the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol, while displaying increased level of high-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol in the serum. The Camellia euphlebia flower extracts also
      improved the antioxidant ability of hyperlipidemic mice as well as protecting the
      animals against liver damage by lowering the level of glutamic-pyruvic
      transaminase activity. Furthermore, 400 mg/kg ethanol extract effectively down
      regulated the mRNA levels of fatty acid synthase, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA
      reductase and glycerol-3-phosphate acyl transferase, suggesting that Camellia
      euphlebia flower extract may potentially inhibit lipid accumulation in the liver
      by regulating the expression of fatty acid synthase, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl
      CoA reductase and glycerol-3-phosphate acyl transferase. These results provided
      support for the potential hypolipidemic activity of Camellia euphlebia flower and
      could partly explain the basis of using Camellia euphlebia for the treatment of
      hyperlipidemia.

PMID- 28887749
TI  - Perceived medication adherence barriers mediating effects between
      gastrointestinal symptoms and health-related quality of life in pediatric
      inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to investigate the mediating effects of
      patient-perceived medication adherence barriers in the relationship between
      gastrointestinal symptoms and generic health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in
      adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The secondary objective
      explored patient health communication and gastrointestinal worry as additional
      mediators with medication adherence barriers in a serial multiple mediator model.
      METHODS: The Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM Gastrointestinal Symptoms,
      Medicines, Communication, Gastrointestinal Worry, and Generic Core Scales were
      completed in a 9-site study by 172 adolescents with IBD. Gastrointestinal
      Symptoms Scales measuring stomach pain, constipation, or diarrhea and perceived
      medication adherence barriers were tested for bivariate and multivariate linear
      associations with HRQOL. Mediational analyses were conducted to test the
      hypothesized mediating effects of perceived medication adherence barriers as an
      intervening variable between gastrointestinal symptoms and HRQOL. RESULTS: The
      predictive effects of gastrointestinal symptoms on HRQOL were mediated in part by
      perceived medication adherence barriers. Patient health communication was a
      significant additional mediator. In predictive analytics models utilizing
      multiple regression analyses, demographic variables, gastrointestinal symptoms
      (stomach pain, constipation, or diarrhea), and perceived medication adherence
      barriers significantly accounted for 45, 38, and 29 percent of the variance in
      HRQOL (all Ps < 0.001), respectively, demonstrating large effect sizes.
      CONCLUSIONS: Perceived medication adherence barriers explain in part the effects
      of gastrointestinal symptoms on HRQOL in adolescents with IBD. Patient health
      communication to healthcare providers and significant others further explain the
      mechanism in the relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms, perceived
      medication adherence barriers, and HRQOL.

PMID- 28887751
TI  - HIV Prevention Among Women Who Use Substances And Report Sex Work: Risk Groups
      Identified Among South African Women.
AB  - : This cross-sectional study presents baseline data from women (n = 641) in a
      community-based randomized trial in Pretoria, South Africa. Women were eligible
      if they reported recent alcohol or other drug (AOD) use and condomless sex.
      Latent class analyses were conducted separately for those who reported sex work
      and those who did not. Among those who reported sex work, a Risky Sex class (n =
      72, 28%) and Low Sexual Risk class (n = 190, 73%) emerged. Those in the Risky Sex
      class were more likely to report that their last episode of sexual intercourse
      was with their boyfriend (vs. a client/other partner) compared with the Low
      Sexual Risk class (p < 0.001). Among participants who did not report sex work, a
      Drug-Using, Violence-Exposed, and Impaired Sex class (n = 53; 14%) and Risky Sex
      and Moderate Drinking class (n = 326; 86%) emerged. The findings suggest that
      interventions for women who engage in sex work should promote safer sexual
      behavior and empowerment with main partners. Women who use AODs, experience
      physical or sexual violence, and have impaired sex may be a key population at
      risk for HIV and should be considered for tailored behavioral interventions in
      conjunction with South Africa's plan to disseminate HIV prevention methods to
      vulnerable women. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov registration
      NCT01497405.

PMID- 28887750
TI  - Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy for Chronic HCV Infection Results in Liver
      Stiffness Regression Over 12 Months Post-treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver fibrosis stage determines risk of morbidity and mortality from
      chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Prior data have shown long-term
      reversal of liver fibrosis, measured by vibration-controlled transient
      elastography (VCTE), in patients successfully treated with interferon-based
      therapies. AIM: Our study sought to determine the effect of treatment with modern
      HCV direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy on noninvasive liver fibrosis
      measurements. METHODS: A total of 70 patients had VCTE-based liver stiffness
      measurement (LSM) taken before treatment, directly after treatment completion,
      and at least 12 months after completion of DAA therapy. Our primary outcome was a
      >30% improvement in VCTE score at the end of follow-up, relative to baseline.
      RESULTS: The sustained virologic response rate in our cohort was 95.7%. In our
      cohort, 34 (48.6%) met the primary outcome. Those who had baseline elevated
      alanine aminotransferase (OR 3.27; 95% CI 1.13-9.47) and genotype 1 (OR 14.63;
      95% CI 1.70-125.83) had higher odds of meeting that outcome, and this remained
      significant after adjusting for age, baseline body mass index, gender, baseline
      elevated alkaline phosphatase levels, treatment experience, liver transplant
      status, smoking, and baseline liver stiffness. CONCLUSION: Treatment of chronic
      HCV with modern DAA therapy was associated with a significant improvement in LSM
      by VCTE measurement, suggesting possible early improvement in liver fibrosis
      along with resolution of inflammation over the first year after treatment
      completion.

PMID- 28887752
TI  - Comparison of Antipyretic Efficacy of Intravenous (IV) Acetaminophen versus Oral
      (PO) Acetaminophen in the Management of Fever in Children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the dynamics of the onset of antipyretic efficacy of
      intravenous (IV) acetaminophen vs. oral (PO) acetaminophen in the management of
      fever in children. METHODS: This observational single-dose study was conducted at
      Department of Pedriatrics, Army Hospital (Research and Referral), a
      multispecialty tertiary care center in New Delhi in fever patients to assess the
      antipyretic efficacy of IV acetaminophen 15 mg/kg/dose vs. PO acetaminophen 15
      mg/kg/dose over 6 h. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either IV
      acetaminophen (n = 200) or PO acetaminophen (n = 200). RESULTS: Demographics and
      baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups and were normally
      distributed. Allergic reaction was found in 7 (3.5%) patients in IV acetaminophen
      group and was absent in PO acetaminophen group. Onset of constipation and dry
      mouth was found in 8 patients (4%) in IV acetaminophen group and was absent in PO
      acetaminophen group. Additional dose was required in 6 patients (3%) in
      intravenous acetaminophen group and 10 patients (5%) in oral acetaminophen group
      respectively. Statistically significant differences in the rate of fall in
      temperature through 180 min were observed in favor of the IV acetaminophen group
      when compared to those receiving PO acetaminophen. CONCLUSIONS: A single dose of
      intravenous acetaminophen is safe and effective in reducing fever where patients
      are unable to tolerate oral administration or when rapid reduction of temperature
      is desirable.

PMID- 28887753
TI  - Can an Infusion of Federal Funds Result in Sustainable Projects? An Evaluation of
      Suicide Prevention Programs.
AB  - Our study evaluated the sustainability of programs in early cohorts of the
      Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Act suicide prevention initiative, a major
      source of federal funding for youth suicide prevention among states, tribes, and
      institutions of higher education. We sought to: (1) determine whether suicide
      prevention activities initiated with federal support continued after funding
      ended, and (2) identify factors associated with sustainment. Thirty-three sites
      between 1 and 4 years beyond the end of their GLS grant participated in a
      retrospective online survey assessing their level of suicide prevention activity
      1 year before, during (during-GLS), and 1 year after funding (after-GLS). We
      found that, on average, sites experienced a 6% decrease in their overall level of
      activity from during- to after-GLS. Twenty-two (67% of responding sites)
      exhibited either an increase in activity level or no more than a 10% decline from
      during- to after-GLS periods. After-GLS scores for the 11 remaining sites
      declined between 11 and 30% from their during-GLS levels. We conducted semi
      structured follow-up interviews with 13 sites that successfully continued their
      activities to explore factors associated with sustainability. Our findings
      indicate that program actions in the during-GLS period associated with
      sustainability included: maintaining a sustainability mindset, developing and
      nurturing partnerships and relationships, embedding services in parent
      organizations, pursuing new and diversified funding, and implementing cost
      reduction efficiencies. Actions in the after-GLS period associated with
      sustainability included: obtaining funding from other sources, reconfiguring, and
      maintaining continuous leadership.

PMID- 28887754
TI  - Lichen-derived caperatic acid and physodic acid inhibit Wnt signaling in
      colorectal cancer cells.
AB  - Lichens are a source of secondary metabolites which possess important biological
      activities, including antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and
      cytotoxic effects. The anticancer activity of lichens was shown in many types of
      tumors, including colorectal cancers (CRC). Several studies revealed that the
      application of lichen extracts diminished the proliferation of CRC cells and
      induced apoptosis. Colon carcinogenesis is associated with aberrations in Wnt
      signaling. Elevated transcriptional activity of beta-catenin induces cell
      survival, proliferation, and migration. Thus, the inhibition of Wnt signaling is
      a promising therapeutic strategy in colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was
      the evaluation of the effects of lichen-derived depsides (atranorin, lecanoric
      acid, squamatic acid) and depsidones (physodic acid, salazinic acid) and a poly
      carboxylic fatty acid-caperatic acid, on Wnt signaling in HCT116 and DLD-1
      colorectal cancer cell lines. HCT116 cells were more sensitive to the modulatory
      effects of the compounds. PKF118-310, which was used as a reference beta-catenin
      inhibitor, dose-dependently reduced the expression of the classical beta-catenin
      target gene-Axin2 in both cell lines. Lecanoric acid slightly reduced Axin2
      expression in HCT116 cells while caperatic acid tended to reduce Axin2 expression
      in both cell lines. Physodic acid much more potently decreased Axin2 expression
      in HCT116 cells than in DLD-1 cells. Physodic acid and caperatic acid also
      diminished the expression of survivin and MMP7 in a cell line and time-dependent
      manner. None of the compounds affected the nuclear translocation of beta-catenin.
      This is the first report showing the ability of caperatic acid and physodic acid
      to modulate beta-catenin-dependent transcription.

PMID- 28887756
TI  - Development of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Rating of Treatment Intensity
      (PNORTI).
AB  - Measures of treatment intensity for childhood cancer are needed in research in
      order to control for variability in treatments. Existing measures of treatment
      intensity for childhood cancers do not reflect the complexities of treatment
      protocols for central nervous system (CNS) tumors. This paper describes the
      development of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Rating of Treatment Intensity
      (PNORTI). PNORTI development occurred in three phases. Phase 1: five experts in
      pediatric neuro-oncology created a 5-point scale of treatment intensity and 42
      pediatric neuro-oncology providers completed a three-part online questionnaire to
      evaluate the classification system and apply the rating system to 16 sample
      patients. Validity was determined by respondents classifying therapy modalities
      into intensity levels. Inter-rater reliability was calculated from ratings of the
      16 sample patients. Phase 2: three experts revised the PNORTI based on survey
      results and 18 pediatric neuro-oncology providers evaluated the classification
      system. Phase 3: ten experts in pediatric neuro-oncology refined and finalized
      the PNORTI and rated 10 sample patients using the PNORTI. Agreement between
      median ratings of the survey respondents and criterion raters for chemotherapy
      intensity (r's = .82 and 1.0) and overall treatment intensity level (r's = .91
      and .94) were high in Phases 1 and 2. Inter-rater reliability also was very high
      when using the PNORTI to classify the 16 sample patients in Phase 1 (median
      agreement of r = .93 and rICC = .99) and the 10 sample patients in Phase 3
      (median agreement of r = .92 and rICC = .98). The PNORTI is a valid and reliable
      method for classifying the intensity of different treatment modalities used in
      pediatric neuro-oncology.

PMID- 28887757
TI  - Survival in idursulfase-treated and untreated patients with mucopolysaccharidosis
      type II: data from the Hunter Outcome Survey (HOS).
AB  - Mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II; Hunter syndrome; OMIM 309900) is a life
      limiting, multisystemic disease with varying presentation and severity. Enzyme
      replacement therapy with intravenous idursulfase (EC 3.1.6.13) has been available
      since 2006. Data from the Hunter Outcome Survey (July 2016) were used to compare
      survival in idursulfase-treated (n = 800) and untreated (n = 95) male patients
      followed prospectively in this multinational, observational registry. Median age
      at symptom onset was similar for the treated and untreated groups (1.6 and 1.5
      years, respectively), as was median age at diagnosis (3.3 and 3.2 years) and the
      proportion of patients with cognitive impairment (58.0%; 57.9%). The proportion
      of idursulfase-treated patients differed according to geographical region.
      Overall, 124/800 (15.5%) treated and 28/95 (29.5%) untreated patients had died.
      Respiratory failure was the most common cause of death (treated, 43/124 [34.7%];
      untreated, 10/28 [35.7%]). Median survival (95% confidence interval [CI]) was
      33.0 (30.4, 38.4) years in treated patients and 21.2 (16.1, 31.5) years in
      untreated patients; median follow-up time from birth to death or last visit was
      13.0 and 15.1 years, respectively. A Cox model adjusted for treatment status,
      cognitive impairment, region and age at diagnosis indicated a 54% lower risk of
      death in treated compared with untreated patients: hazard ratio (HR), 0.46 (95%
      CI: 0.29, 0.72). Patients with cognitive impairment had nearly a fivefold higher
      risk of death than those without (HR, 4.84 [3.13, 7.47]). This analysis in a
      large population of patients with MPS II indicates for the first time that
      idursulfase treatment is associated with increased survival.

PMID- 28887758
TI  - Perceived Sodium Reduction Barriers Among Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease:
      Which Barriers Are Important and Which Patients Experience Barriers?
AB  - PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to assess the importance of perceived
      sodium reduction barriers among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and
      identify associated sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors. METHOD:
      A total of 156 patients with CKD completed a questionnaire assessing sodium
      reduction barriers (18 self-formulated items), depressive symptoms (Beck
      Depression Inventory), perceived autonomy support (Modified Health Care Climate
      Questionnaire), and self-efficacy (Partners in Health Questionnaire). Factor
      analysis was used to identify barrier domains. Correlation coefficients were
      computed to examine relationships between barrier domains and patient
      characteristics. RESULTS: Nine barrier domains were identified. Barriers
      perceived as important were as follows: high sodium content in products, lack of
      sodium feedback, lack of goal setting and discussing strategies for sodium
      reduction, and not experiencing CKD-related symptoms (mean scores > 3.0 on 5
      point scales, ranging from 1 'no barrier' to 5 'very important barrier'). Other
      barriers (knowledge, attitude, coping skills when eating out, and professional
      support) were rated as moderately important (rated around midpoint), and the
      barrier 'intrinsic motivation' was rated as somewhat important (mean score =
      1.9). Sodium reduction barrier domains were not associated with gender and kidney
      function, but were associated with age, level of education, number of
      comorbidities, perceived autonomy support, depressive symptoms, and self-efficacy
      (range r = 0.17-0.35). Patients with lower self-efficacy and perceived autonomy
      support scores experienced most sodium reduction barriers. CONCLUSION: Patients
      with CKD experience multiple important sodium reduction barriers and could
      benefit from support strategies that target various sodium reduction barriers and
      strengthen beliefs regarding self-efficacy and autonomy support. Additionally,
      environmental interventions should be implemented to reduce sodium levels in
      processed foods.

PMID- 28887755
TI  - Prokinetics in the Management of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The goal of this review is to review the current status of
      prokinetics and to place it in historical context. Impaired motility and thus
      propulsion have long been thought to play important roles in the pathogenesis of
      a number of gastrointestinal disorders including gastroesophageal reflux disease
      (GERD), gastroparesis, chronic idiopathic pseudo-obstruction, and constipation.
      Historically, disordered motility was also thought to contribute to a number of
      functional gastrointestinal disorders such as functional dyspepsia (FD) and
      irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). RECENT FINDINGS: As we learn more of the
      pathophysiology of FD, IBS, GERD, constipation, and gastroparesis, the
      limitations of a therapeutic strategy based on the stimulation of motility (i.e.,
      the use of a prokinetic) have become apparent and the disappointments of the past
      explained. The development of prokinetic drugs has also been hampered by the non
      selective nature of many of the agents studied to date which resulted in some
      unexpected side effects. There is still an unmet need for an effective and safe
      prokinetic, but drug development in this area must be mindful of the challenges
      of the area and the need for selectivity for a given target receptor.

PMID- 28887759
TI  - Factors Contributing to Chronic Ankle Instability: A Systematic Review and Meta
      Analysis of Systematic Reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many factors are thought to contribute to chronic ankle instability
      (CAI). Multiple systematic reviews have synthesised the available evidence to
      identify the primary contributing factors. However, readers are now faced with
      several systematic reviews that present conflicting findings. OBJECTIVE: The aim
      of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to establish the statistical
      significance and effect size of primary factors contributing to CAI and to
      identify likely reasons for inconsistencies in the literature. METHODS: Relevant
      health databases were searched: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus and SPORTDiscus.
      Systematic reviews were included if they answered a focused research question,
      clearly defined the search strategy criteria and study selection/inclusion and
      completed a comprehensive search of the literature. Included reviews needed to be
      published in a peer-reviewed journal and needed to review observational studies
      of factors and/or characteristics of persons with CAI, with or without meta
      analysis. There was no language restriction. Studies using a non-systematic
      review methodology (e.g. primary studies and narrative reviews) were excluded.
      Methodological quality of systematic reviews was assessed using the modified R
      AMSTAR tool. Meta-analysis on included primary studies was performed. RESULTS:
      Only 17% of primary studies measured a clearly defined CAI population. There is
      strong evidence to support the contribution of dynamic balance, peroneal reaction
      time and eversion strength deficits and moderate evidence for proprioception and
      static balance deficits to non-specific ankle instability. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence
      from previous systematic reviews does not accurately reflect the CAI population.
      For treatment of non-specific ankle instability, clinicians should focus on
      dynamic balance, reaction time and strength deficits; however, these findings may
      not be translated to the CAI population. Research should be updated with an
      adequately controlled CAI population. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO
      2016, CRD42016032592.

PMID- 28887760
TI  - Sialadenoma Papilliferum: Analysis of Seven New Cases and Review of the
      Literature.
AB  - Sialadenoma papilliferum (SP) is a rare benign salivary gland neoplasm that
      comprises from 0.4 to 1.2% of all salivary gland tumors. The tumor is so named
      because of its microscopic resemblance to the syringocystadenoma papilliferum, an
      uncommon benign tumor of sweat gland origin. The purpose of this paper is to
      report the clinical and microscopic features of seven new cases of SP and combine
      them with cases previously reported in the English language literature to further
      define this unusual lesion. Combining our cases with acceptable cases from the
      literature, the palate (especially the hard palate) was the most common site,
      with 80% of the cases occurring in this location. Other locations in decreasing
      order were buccal mucosa, upper lip, retromolar pad, and parotid gland. Age at
      diagnosis ranged from 18 to 87 years with a peak in the 6th decade and an average
      age of 56.4 years. Microscopically, the lesions demonstrated a papillary surface
      morphology, and the papillary projections varied from long and pointed to short
      and blunted. The supporting connective tissue contained a variable number of
      convoluted ductal structures, which often fused with the overlying surface
      epithelium. The ductal structures exhibited papillary infoldings and were lined
      by a double layer of epithelium consisting of basal cell layer and a luminal
      layer of cuboidal-to-columnar ductal cells. Immunohistochemical reactivity with
      p63 and p40 indicated that the basal cell layer was comprised predominantly of
      neoplastic myoepithelial cells. The luminal cells were immunoreactive with
      epithelial membrane antigen characteristic of ductal cell differentiation.
      Conservative surgical treatment was accomplished in most cases and appears to be
      adequate treatment as only two recurrences were documented. Several case reports
      of purported malignant transformation in SP have been reported in the literature,
      but in our opinion, there is insufficient evidence in the publications to
      unequivocally determine whether any of the malignancies truly originated within a
      pre-existing SP.

PMID- 28887761
TI  - Textural features and SUV-based variables assessed by dual time point 18F-FDG
      PET/CT in locally advanced breast cancer.
AB  - AIM: To study the influence of dual time point 18F-FDG PET/CT in textural
      features and SUV-based variables and their relation among them. METHODS: Fifty
      six patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) were prospectively
      included. All of them underwent a standard 18F-FDG PET/CT (PET-1) and a delayed
      acquisition (PET-2). After segmentation, SUV variables (SUVmax, SUVmean, and
      SUVpeak), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were
      obtained. Eighteen three-dimensional (3D) textural measures were computed
      including: run-length matrices (RLM) features, co-occurrence matrices (CM)
      features, and energies. Differences between all PET-derived variables obtained in
      PET-1 and PET-2 were studied. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between
      the SUV-based parameters and MTV obtained in the dual time point PET/CT, with
      higher values of SUV-based variables and lower MTV in the PET-2 with respect to
      the PET-1. In relation with the textural parameters obtained in dual time point
      acquisition, significant differences were found for the short run emphasis, low
      gray-level run emphasis, short run high gray-level emphasis, run percentage, long
      run emphasis, gray-level non-uniformity, homogeneity, and dissimilarity. Textural
      variables showed relations with MTV and TLG. CONCLUSION: Significant differences
      of textural features were found in dual time point 18F-FDG PET/CT. Thus, a
      dynamic behavior of metabolic characteristics should be expected, with higher
      heterogeneity in delayed PET acquisition compared with the standard PET. A
      greater heterogeneity was found in bigger tumors.

PMID- 28887762
TI  - Evolution of the Staging System in Breast Cancer.

PMID- 28887763
TI  - Population-level intervention and information collection in dynamic healthcare
      policy.
AB  - We develop a general framework for optimal health policy design in a dynamic
      setting. We consider a hypothetical medical intervention for a cohort of patients
      where one parameter varies across cohorts with imperfectly observable linear
      dynamics. We seek to identify the optimal time to change the current health
      intervention policy and the optimal time to collect decision-relevant
      information. We formulate this problem as a discrete-time, infinite-horizon
      Markov decision process and we establish structural properties in terms of first
      and second-order monotonicity. We demonstrate that it is generally optimal to
      delay information acquisition until an effect on decisions is sufficiently
      likely. We apply this framework to the evaluation of hepatitis C virus (HCV)
      screening in the general population determining which birth cohorts to screen for
      HCV and when to collect information about HCV prevalence.

PMID- 28887764
TI  - Humanitarianism in surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: Humanitarianism is by definition a moral of kindness, benevolence and
      sympathy extended to all human beings. In our view as surgeons working in
      underserved countries, humanitarianism means performing the best operation in the
      best possible circumstances with high income country (HIC) results and training
      in-country surgeons to do the same. Hernia Repair for the Underserved (HRFU), a
      not for profit organization, is developing a long term public health initiative
      for hernia surgery in Western Hemisphere countries. We report the progress of
      HRFUs methods to render humanitarian care. METHODS: In a collaborative effort,
      Creighton University and the Institute for Latin American Concern developed an
      outpatient surgery site for hernia surgery in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Based
      on this experience, we developed a sustainable care model by recruiting American
      and European Hernia Society expert surgeons, staff members they recommended,
      building relationships with local and industry partners, and selecting local
      surgeons to be trained in mesh hernioplasty. HRFU then extended the care model to
      other Western Hemisphere countries. RESULTS: Between 2004 and 2015, the HRFU
      elective hernia morbidity and mortality rates for 2052 hernia operations were 0.7
      and 0%, respectively. This is consistent with outcomes from HICs and confirms the
      feasibility of a public health initiative based on the principles of the
      Preferential Option for the Poor. CONCLUSIONS: HRFU has recorded HIC morbidity
      and mortality rates for hernia surgery in low and middle income countries and has
      initiated a new surgical training model for sustainability of effect.

PMID- 28887765
TI  - Heartbeat detection in multimodal physiological signals using signal quality
      assessment based on sample entropy.
AB  - This paper presents a novel technique to identify heartbeats in multimodal data
      using electrocardiogram (ECG) and arterial blood pressure (ABP) signals. Multiple
      physiological signals such as ECG, ABP, and Respiration are often recorded in
      parallel from the activity of heart. These signals generally possess related
      information as they are generated by the same physical system. The ECG and ABP
      correspond to the same phenomenon of contraction and relaxation activity of
      heart. Multiple signals acquired from various sensors are generally processed
      independently, thus discarding the information from other measurements. In the
      estimation of heart rate and heart rate variability, the R peaks are generally
      identified from ECG signal. Efficient detection of R-peaks in electrocardiogram
      (ECG) is a key component in the estimation of clinically relevant parameters from
      ECG. However, when the signal is severely affected by undesired artifacts, this
      becomes a challenging task. Sometimes in clinical environment, other
      physiological signals reflecting the cardiac activity such as ABP signal are also
      acquired simultaneously. Under the availability of such multimodal signals, the
      accuracy of R peak detection methods can be improved using sensor-fusion
      techniques. In the proposed method, the sample entropy (SampEn) is used as a
      metric for assessing the noise content in the physiological signal and the R
      peaks in ECG and the systolic peaks in ABP signals are fused together to enhance
      the efficiency of heartbeat detection. The proposed method was evaluated on the
      100 records from the computing in cardiology challenge 2014 training data set.
      The performance parameters are: sensitivity (Se) and positive predictivity (PPV).
      The unimodal R peaks detector achieved: Se gross = 99.40%, PPV gross = 99.29%, Se
      average = 99.37%, PPV average = 99.29%. Similarly unimodal BP delineator achieved
      Se gross = 99.93%, PPV gross = 99.99%, Se average = 99.93%, PPV average = 99.99%
      whereas, the proposed multimodal beat detector achieved: Se gross = 99.65%, PPV
      gross = 99.91%, Se average = 99.68%, PPV average = 99.91%.

PMID- 28887766
TI  - Short-term effects of passive mobilization on the sublingual microcirculation and
      on the systemic circulation in patients with septic shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Active mobilization is not possible in patients under deep sedation
      and unable to follow commands. In this scenario, passive therapy is an
      interesting alternative. However, in patients with septic shock, passive
      mobilization may have risks related to increased oxygen consumption. Our
      objective was to evaluate the impact of passive mobilization on sublingual
      microcirculation and systemic hemodynamics in patients with septic shock.
      METHODS: We included patients who were older than 18 years, who presented with
      septic shock, and who were under sedation and mechanical ventilation. Passive
      exercise was applied for 20 min with 30 repetitions per minute. Systemic
      hemodynamic and microcirculatory variables were compared before (T0) and up to 10
      min after (T1) passive exercise. p values <0.05 were considered significant.
      RESULTS: We included 35 patients (median age [IQR 25-75%]: 68 [49.0-78.0] years;
      mean (+/-SD) Simplified Acute Physiologic Score (SAPS) 3 score: 66.7 +/- 12.1;
      median [IQR 25-75%] Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score: 9 [7.0
      12.0]). After passive mobilization, there was a slight but significant increase
      in proportion of perfused vessels (PPV) (T0 [IQR 25-75%]: 78.2 [70.9-81.9%]; T1
      [IQR 25-75%]: 80.0 [75.2-85.1] %; p = 0.029), without any change in other
      microcirculatory variables. There was a reduction in heart rate (HR) (T0 (mean +/
      SD): 95.6 +/- 22.0 bpm; T1 (mean +/- SD): 93.8 +/- 22.0 bpm; p < 0.040) and body
      temperature (T0 (mean +/- SD): 36.9 +/- 1.1  degrees C; T1 (mean +/- SD): 36.7 +/
      1.2  degrees C; p < 0.002) with no change in other systemic hemodynamic
      variables. There was no significant correlation between PPV variation and HR (r =
      -0.010, p = 0.955), cardiac index (r = 0.218, p = 0.215) or mean arterial
      pressure (r = 0.276, p = 0.109) variation. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with septic
      shock after the initial phase of hemodynamic resuscitation, passive exercise is
      not associated with relevant changes in sublingual microcirculation or systemic
      hemodynamics.

PMID- 28887768
TI  - Population Model of Quorum Sensing with Multiple Parallel Pathways.
AB  - Quorum sensing (QS) is a bacterial communication mechanism that uses signal
      receptor binding to regulate gene expression based on cell density, resulting in
      group behaviors such as biofilm formation, bioluminescence and stress response.
      In certain bacterial species such as Vibrio harveyi, several parallel QS
      signaling pathways drive a single phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle, which
      in turn regulates QS target genes. In this paper, we investigate the possible
      role of parallel signaling pathways by developing a mathematical model of QS in
      V. harveyi at both the single-cell and population levels. First we explore how
      signal integration may be achieved at the single-cell level, and how different
      model parameters influence the process. We then consider two examples of signal
      integration at the population level: a one-population model responding to two
      environmental cues (cell density and mass transfer), and a two-population model
      with distinct cell densities. In each case, we use contraction analysis to reduce
      the population model to an effective single-cell model.

PMID- 28887767
TI  - Management of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We review the current evidence for medical and surgical
      treatments of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). RECENT FINDINGS:
      Therapy with hemostatic agents (e.g. factor VIIa and tranexamic acid) if started
      early after bleeding onset may reduce hematoma expansion, but their clinical
      effectiveness has not been shown. Rapid anticoagulation reversal with prothrombin
      concentrates (PCC) plus vitamin K is the first choice in vitamin K antagonist
      related ICH. In ICH related to dabigatran, anticoagulation can be rapidly
      reversed with idarucizumab. PCC are recommended for ICH related to FXa
      inhibitors, whereas specific reversal agents are not yet approved. While awaiting
      ongoing trials studying minimally invasive approaches or hemicraniectomy, the
      role of surgery in ICH remains to be defined. Therapies targeting downstream
      molecular cascades in order to prevent secondary neuronal damage are promising,
      but the complexity and multi-phased nature of ICH pathophysiology is challenging.
      Finally, in addition to blood pressure control, antithrombotic prevention after
      ICH has to consider the risk of recurrent bleeding as well as the risk of
      ischemic events. Treatment of acute ICH remains challenging, and many promising
      interventions for acute ICH await further evidence from trials.

PMID- 28887769
TI  - alpha-Synuclein Interacts with Lipoproteins in Plasma.
AB  - Parkinson's disease (PD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder
      characterized by dopaminergic neural cell death in the substantia nigra of the
      brain and alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) accumulation in Lewy bodies. alpha-Syn can
      be detected in blood and is a potential biomarker for PD. It has been shown
      recently that alpha-syn can pass through the blood-brain barrier (BBB), but the
      mechanism is not yet understood. We hypothesized that alpha-syn could interact
      with lipoproteins, and in association with these particles, could pass through
      the BBB. Here, we show that apoE, apoJ, and apoA1, but not apoB, were co
      immunocaptured along with alpha-syn from human blood plasma, suggesting that
      alpha-syn is associated with high-density lipoproteins (HDL). This association
      was also supported by experiments involving western blotting of plasma fractions
      separated by gel filtration, which revealed that alpha-syn was found in fractions
      identified as HDL. Interestingly, we could also detect alpha-syn and ApoJ in the
      intermediate fraction between HDL and LDL, referred to as lipoprotein (a)
      (Lp(a)), which has an important role in cholesterol metabolism. Overall, the
      results provide best support for the hypothesis that alpha-syn interacts with
      HDL, and this has potential implications for transport of alpha-syn from the
      brain to peripheral blood, across the BBB.

PMID- 28887771
TI  - Antimalarial drugs available in the city Cabinda (Angola) in 2016.
AB  - Antimalarial drug offerings in the city of Cabinda (Angola) were assessed during
      the fourth quarter of 2016. Combinations of artemisinin with other effective
      antimalarial drugs were available free of charge in public health centres,
      theoretically after a biological validation of the diagnosis of a malaria attack.
      Private pharmacies offered many products without medical prescription, most of
      them being ACT (Artemisinin Combined Therapy) but some being Artemisia
      derivatives alone. The cost of treatment for a presumptive attack varied from 14
      to 44 ?. The diversity of antimalarial drugs and of their dosages makes it
      difficult for sellers to provide appropriate recommendations for their use. In
      the informal sector, sellers offered the same products at similar prices as the
      formal sector but with the option of purchasing only a part of the treatment.
      Analgesics and herbal medicine not validated as antimalarial drugs were also
      available.

PMID- 28887770
TI  - Optimization of 1H decoupling eliminates sideband artifacts in 3D TROSY-based
      triple resonance experiments.
AB  - TROSY-based triple resonance experiments are essential for protein backbone
      assignment of large biomolecular systems by solution NMR spectroscopy. In a
      survey of the current Bruker pulse sequence library for TROSY-based experiments
      we found that several sequences were plagued by artifacts that affect spectral
      quality and hamper data analysis. Specifically, these experiments produce
      sidebands in the 13C(t 1) dimension with inverted phase corresponding to 1HN
      resonance frequencies, with approximately 5% intensity of the parent 13C
      crosspeaks. These artifacts originate from the modulation of the 1HN frequency
      onto the resonance frequency of 13Calpha and/or 13Cbeta and are due to 180
      degrees  pulses imperfections used for 1H decoupling during the 13C(t 1)
      evolution period. These sidebands can become severe for CAi, CAi-1 and/or CBi,
      CBi-1 correlation experiments such as TROSY-HNCACB. Here, we implement three
      alternative decoupling strategies that suppress these artifacts and, depending on
      the scheme employed, boost the sensitivity up to 14% on Bruker spectrometers. A
      class of comparable Agilent/Varian pulse sequences that use WALTZ16 1H decoupling
      can also be improved by this method resulting in up to 60-80% increase in
      sensitivity.

PMID- 28887772
TI  - Fortuitous Detection of cmy-2 and dha-1 from ESBL-producing Escherichia coli in
      Senegal.
AB  - Cephalosporinases, which are naturally present in some enterobacterial species,
      can be mobilized by transposons, migrate to plasmids, and spread into other
      species such as Escherichia coli. The aim of this study was to characterize genes
      responsible for the production of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) in E.
      coli isolates from urinary origin isolated in two hospitals in Senegal. Thus, a
      fortuitous discovery of plasmidic cephalosporinase in two isolates was noted. One
      of the isolates produced dha-1 associated with ESBL CTX-M-14, the other produced
      cmy-2, ESBL CTXM-15, tem-1 penicillinase, and oxa-1. This confirms the
      circulation of multidrug-resistant bacteria producing plasmidic cephalosporinase
      in Senegal. However, a large study is needed to better understand the prevalence
      and the nature of the genes involved.

PMID- 28887773
TI  - Percutaneous embolization of a colonic fistula using n-butyl-2 cyanoacrylate
      (Histoacryl(r)).

PMID- 28887774
TI  - Social Inequality, Life Course Transitions, and Adolescent Development:
      Introduction to the Special Issue.
AB  - Conceptualizing adolescent development within a life course framework that links
      the perspectives on social inequality and early life course transitions has
      largely been absent from previous research. Such a conceptual model is needed,
      however, in order to understand how the individual development of agentic
      capacities and the opportunities and constraints inherent in the social contexts
      of growing up interact and jointly affect young people's trajectories across the
      adolescent life stage. We present the corner stones of the conceptual "trident"
      of social inequality, life course transitions, and adolescent development and
      identify three major themes the eleven contributions to this special issue
      address within this conceptual framework: social and individual prerequisites and
      consequences of coping with life course transitions; intergenerational
      transmission belts of social inequality; socialization of agency in and outside
      the family home. These three themes exemplify the great analytical potential
      inherent in this framework.

PMID- 28887775
TI  - Imaging cardiac innervation in amyloidosis.
AB  - Cardiac amyloidosis is a form of restrictive cardiomyopathy resulting in heart
      failure and potential risk on arrhythmia, due to amyloid infiltration of the
      nerve conduction system and the myocardial tissue. The prognosis in this
      progressive disease is poor, probably due the development of cardiac arrhythmias.
      Early detection of cardiac sympathetic innervation disturbances has become of
      major clinical interest, because its occurrence and severity limits the choice of
      treatment. The use of iodine-123 labelled metaiodobenzylguanidine ([I-123]MIBG),
      a chemical modified analogue of norepinephrine, is well established in patients
      with heart failure and plays an important role in evaluation of sympathetic
      innervation in cardiac amyloidosis. [I-123]MIBG is stored in vesicles in the
      sympathetic nerve terminals and is not catabolized like norepinephrine. Decreased
      heart-to-mediastinum ratios on late planar images and increased wash-out rates
      indicate cardiac sympathetic denervation and are associated with poor prognosis.
      Single photon emission computed tomography provides additional information and
      has advantages for evaluating abnormalities in regional distribution in the
      myocardium. [I-123]MIBG is mainly useful in patients with hereditary and wild
      type ATTR cardiac amyloidosis, not in AA and AL amyloidosis. The potential role
      of positron emission tomography for cardiac sympathetic innervation in
      amyloidosis has not yet been identified.

PMID- 28887776
TI  - Does hypodontia of primary canines result in delayed dental development?

PMID- 28887777
TI  - Global RNA association with the transcriptionally active chromosome of
      chloroplasts.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Processed chloroplast RNAs are co-enriched with preparations of the
      chloroplast transcriptionally active chromosome. Chloroplast genomes are
      organized as a polyploid DNA-protein structure called the nucleoid.
      Transcriptionally active chloroplast DNA together with tightly bound protein
      factors can be purified by gel filtration as a functional entity called the
      transcriptionally active chromosome (TAC). Previous proteomics analyses of
      nucleoids and of TACs demonstrated a considerable overlap in protein composition
      including RNA binding proteins. Therefore the RNA content of TAC preparations
      from Nicotiana tabacum was determined using whole genome tiling arrays. A large
      number of chloroplast RNAs was found to be associated with the TAC. The pattern
      of RNAs attached to the TAC consists of RNAs produced by different chloroplast
      RNA polymerases and differs from the pattern of RNA found in input controls. An
      analysis of RNA splicing and RNA editing of selected RNA species demonstrated
      that TAC-associated RNAs are processed to a similar extent as the RNA in input
      controls. Thus, TAC fractions contain a specific subset of the processed
      chloroplast transcriptome.

PMID- 28887779
TI  - Assessment of flexible bronchoscopic intubation through the AuraGainTM laryngeal
      mask versus a slit Guedel tube.

PMID- 28887778
TI  - Mapping sites of reef vulnerability along lagoons of Lakshadweep archipelago,
      Indian Ocean.
AB  - Tissue degradation and mediated mortality have turned into a major threat to
      coral reef systems around the world. Detailed knowledge on interactions of prime
      biological factors that mediate tissue loss and mortality is of paramount
      importance in understanding the prevailing reef health scenario and to trial
      management actions. In the present study, a series of benthic surveys were
      conducted in Lakshadweep islands to understand the interactions of plausible
      biological factors in causing tissue loss and mediated mortality. Interactions of
      biological scenarios were prioritized using hierarchical regression analysis. The
      hierarchical regression model analysis revealed black band disease (beta = 0.59;
      p < 0.001) and algal interactions (beta = 0.48; p < 0.001) as the major factors
      responsible for tissue-loss-mediated coral mortality in the region. The
      observations from the hierarchical analysis were used to derive vulnerability
      maps based on weighted overlay analysis. The vulnerability mapping revealed that
      lagoon of Kalpeni Island is very highly vulnerable to coral degradation with
      683.5 ha followed by Kavaratti (70.2 ha), Bangaram (70 ha), and Amini (47 ha).
      Chethalath and Agatti lagoons were inferred as low vulnerable sites where coral
      reefs can sustain. The vulnerability maps derived can be used as a baseline
      observation to identify areas of very high vulnerability and specific stressor
      prevalent in those sites. This will be helpful in defining stressor and site
      specific management plans.

PMID- 28887780
TI  - Skin Cancer-Sun Knowledge and Sun Protection Behaviors of Liver Transplant
      Recipients in Turkey.
AB  - The aim of this study was to compare liver transplant recipients (LTRs) with the
      general population regarding their knowledge of skin cancer, sun health, sun
      protection behaviors, and affecting factors. This cross-sectional study was
      conducted in Turkey between March 2016 and September 2016 with 104 LTRs and 100
      participants from the general population group (GPG). The mean age of the LTRs
      was 53.2 +/- 11.8 and that of the GPG was 42.7 +/- 14.5. The LTRs' skin cancer
      and sun knowledge were significantly lower than in the GPG, but there was no
      difference between the two groups in terms of their sun protection behavior
      scores. The most commonly used sun protection behaviors of LTRs were not being
      outside and not sunbathing between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., wearing clothing that
      covers the skin, and avoiding the solarium. Behaviors commonly practiced by the
      GPG were wearing sunglasses, wearing sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 15
      or higher before going outside, wearing sunscreen at the beach, while swimming or
      doing physical activity outside, and reapplying it every 2 h. Results of our
      study will contribute to the development of education and training programs for
      LTRs on skin cancer. The results also demonstrated the importance of practicing
      adequate sun protection behaviors which will certainly impact their future
      health.

PMID- 28887781
TI  - Antiapoptotic effects of caspase inhibitors on H2O2-treated lung cancer cells
      concerning oxidative stress and GSH.
AB  - Exogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) induces oxidative stress and apoptosis in
      cancer cells. This study evaluated the antiapoptotic effects of pan-caspase and
      caspase-3, -8, or -9 inhibitors on H2O2-treated Calu-6 and A549 lung cancer cells
      in relation to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione (GSH). Treatment
      with 50-500 MUM H2O2 inhibited the growth of Calu-6 and A549 cells at 24 h and
      induced apoptosis in these cells. All the tested caspase inhibitors significantly
      prevented cell death in H2O2-treated lung cancer cells. H2O2 increased
      intracellular ROS levels, including that of O 2.- , at 1 and 24 h. It also
      increased the activity of catalase but decreased the activity of SOD. In
      addition, H2O2 triggered GSH deletion in Calu-6 and A549 cells at 24 h. It
      reduced GSH levels in Calu-6 cells at 1 h but increased them at 24 h. Caspase
      inhibitors decreased O 2.- levels in H2O2-treated Calu-6 cells at 1 h and these
      inhibitors decreased ROS levels, including that of O 2.- , in H2O2-treated A549
      cells at 24 h. Caspase inhibitors partially attenuated GSH depletion in H2O2
      treated A549 cells and increased GSH levels in these cells at 24 h. However, the
      inhibitors did not affect GSH deletion and levels in Calu-6 cells at 24 h. In
      conclusion, H2O2 induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in Calu-6 and A549 cells,
      which was accompanied by increases in ROS and GSH depletion. The antiapoptotic
      effects of caspase inhibitors were somewhat related to the suppression of H2O2
      induced oxidative stress and GSH depletion.

PMID- 28887782
TI  - Development of ACRODAT(r), a new software medical device to assess disease
      activity in patients with acromegaly.
AB  - PURPOSE: Despite availability of multimodal treatment options for acromegaly,
      achievement of long-term disease control is suboptimal in a significant number of
      patients. Furthermore, disease control as defined by biochemical normalization
      may not always show concordance with disease-related symptoms or patient's
      perceived quality of life. We developed and validated a tool to measure disease
      activity in acromegaly to support decision-making in clinical practice. METHODS:
      An international expert panel (n = 10) convened to define the most critical
      indicators of disease activity. Patient scenarios were constructed based on these
      chosen parameters. Subsequently, a panel of 21 renowned endocrinologists at
      pituitary centers (Europe and Canada) categorized each scenario as stable, mild,
      or significant disease activity in an online validation study. RESULTS: From
      expert opinion, five parameters emerged as the best overall indicators to
      evaluate disease activity: insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) level, tumor
      status, presence of comorbidities (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep
      apnea), symptoms, and health-related quality of life. In the validation study,
      IGF-I and tumor status became the predominant parameters selected for
      classification of patients with moderate or severe disease activity. If IGF-I
      level was <=1.2x upper limit of normal and tumor size not significantly
      increased, the remaining three parameters contributed to the decision in a
      compensatory manner. CONCLUSION: The validation study underlined IGF-I and tumor
      status for routine clinical decision-making, whereas patient-oriented outcome
      measures received less medical attention. An Acromegaly Disease Activity Tool
      (ACRODAT) is in development that might assist clinicians towards a more holistic
      approach to patient management in acromegaly.

PMID- 28887783
TI  - A novel integration of spectral-domain optical-coherence-tomography and laser
      ablation system for precision treatment.
AB  - PURPOSE: Complete resection of diseased lesions reduces the recurrence of cancer,
      making it critical for surgical treatment. However, precisely resecting residual
      tumors is a challenge during operation. A novel integrated spectral-domain
      optical-coherence-tomography (SD-OCT) and laser-ablation therapy system for soft
      biological-tissue resection is proposed. This is a prototype optical integrated
      diagnosis and therapeutic system as well as an optical theranostics system.
      METHODS: We develop an optical theranostics system, which integrates SD-OCT, a
      laser-ablation unit, and an automatic scanning platform. The SD-OCT image of
      biological tissue provides an intuitive and clear view for intraoperative
      diagnosis and monitoring in real time. The effect of laser ablation is analyzed
      using a quantitative mathematical model. The automatic endoscopic scanning
      platform combines an endoscopic probe and an SD-OCT sample arm to provide optical
      theranostic scanning motion. An optical fiber and a charge-coupled device camera
      are integrated into the endoscopic probe, allowing detection and coupling of the
      OCT-aiming beam and laser spots. RESULTS: The integrated diagnostic and
      therapeutic system combines SD-OCT imaging and laser-ablation modules with an
      automatic scanning platform. OCT imaging, laser-ablation treatment, and the
      integration and control of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were evaluated
      by performing phantom experiments. Furthermore, SD-OCT-guided laser ablation
      provided precision laser ablation and resection for the malignant lesions in soft
      biological-tissue-lesion surgery. The results demonstrated that the appropriate
      laser-radiation power and duration time were 10 W and 10 s, respectively. In the
      laser-ablation evaluation experiment, the error reached approximately 0.1 mm.
      Another validation experiment was performed to obtain OCT images of the pre- and
      post-ablated craters of ex vivo porcine brainstem. CONCLUSION: We propose an
      optical integrated diagnosis and therapeutic system. The primary experimental
      results show the high efficiency and feasibility of our theranostics system,
      which is promising for realizing accurate resection of tumors in vivo and in situ
      in the future.

PMID- 28887784
TI  - Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in a patient with a TSC1 variant: case report and
      review of the literature.
AB  - The majority of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) are sporadic while 10
      15% are attributable to one of several familial cancer syndromes. Hereditary
      forms are more commonly associated with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type I and
      von Hippel Lindau Syndrome. However, patients with Tuberous sclerosis complex
      also have an increased incidence of PNETs. More often this has been reported in
      patients with TSC2 variants. In this case report, we summarize the literature
      regarding PNETs associated with Tuberous sclerosis complex, as well as present a
      case of a patient with a TSC1 variant and a PNET. This case highlights the
      association of TSC1 gene variants with these tumors and emphasizes the importance
      of considering such diagnoses in this patient population.

PMID- 28887786
TI  - Assessing Psycho-social Barriers to Rehabilitation in Injured Workers with
      Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Development and Item Properties of the Yellow Flag
      Questionnaire (YFQ).
AB  - Purpose To develop a multidimensional scale to asses psychosocial beliefs-the
      Yellow Flag Questionnaire (YFQ)-aimed at guiding interventions for workers with
      chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. Methods Phase 1 consisted of item selection
      based on literature search, item development and expert consensus rounds. In
      phase 2, items were reduced with calculating a quality-score per item, using
      structure equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis on data from 666
      workers. In phase 3, Cronbach's alpha, and Pearson correlations coefficients were
      computed to compare YFQ with disability, anxiety, depression and self-efficacy
      and the YFQ score based on data from 253 injured workers. Regressions of YFQ
      total score on disability, anxiety, depression and self-efficacy were calculated.
      Results After phase 1, the YFQ included 116 items and 15 domains. Further
      reductions of items in phase 2 by applying the item quality criteria reduced the
      total to 48 items. Phase factor analysis with structural equation modeling
      confirmed 32 items in seven domains: activity, work, emotions, harm & blame,
      diagnosis beliefs, co-morbidity and control. Cronbach alpha was 0.91 for the
      total score, between 0.49 and 0.81 for the 7 distinct scores of each domain,
      respectively. Correlations between YFQ total score ranged with disability,
      anxiety, depression and self-efficacy was .58, .66, .73, -.51, respectively.
      After controlling for age and gender the YFQ total score explained between R2 27%
      and R2 53% variance of disability, anxiety, depression and self-efficacy.
      Conclusions The YFQ, a multidimensional screening scale is recommended for use to
      assess psychosocial beliefs of workers with chronic MSK pain. Further evaluation
      of the measurement properties such as the test-retest reliability, responsiveness
      and prognostic validity is warranted.

PMID- 28887785
TI  - Bioplausible multiscale filtering in retino-cortical processing as a mechanism in
      perceptual grouping.
AB  - Why does our visual system fail to reconstruct reality, when we look at certain
      patterns? Where do Geometrical illusions start to emerge in the visual pathway?
      How far should we take computational models of vision with the same visual
      ability to detect illusions as we do? This study addresses these questions, by
      focusing on a specific underlying neural mechanism involved in our visual
      experiences that affects our final perception. Among many types of visual
      illusion, 'Geometrical' and, in particular, 'Tilt Illusions' are rather
      important, being characterized by misperception of geometric patterns involving
      lines and tiles in combination with contrasting orientation, size or position.
      Over the last decade, many new neurophysiological experiments have led to new
      insights as to how, when and where retinal processing takes place, and the
      encoding nature of the retinal representation that is sent to the cortex for
      further processing. Based on these neurobiological discoveries, we provide
      computer simulation evidence from modelling retinal ganglion cells responses to
      some complex Tilt Illusions, suggesting that the emergence of tilt in these
      illusions is partially related to the interaction of multiscale visual processing
      performed in the retina. The output of our low-level filtering model is presented
      for several types of Tilt Illusion, predicting that the final tilt percept arises
      from multiple-scale processing of the Differences of Gaussians and the perceptual
      interaction of foreground and background elements. The model is a variation of
      classical receptive field implementation for simple cells in early stages of
      vision with the scales tuned to the object/texture sizes in the pattern. Our
      results suggest that this model has a high potential in revealing the underlying
      mechanism connecting low-level filtering approaches to mid- and high-level
      explanations such as 'Anchoring theory' and 'Perceptual grouping'.

PMID- 28887787
TI  - Pneumococcal Vaccines - How Many Serotypes are Enough?
AB  - Streptococcus pneumoniae causes meningitis, pneumonia, septicemia, arthritis,
      sinusitis and otitis media specially in children and over 65 y age groups. It
      contributes significantly to under-five mortality and morbidity worldwide as well
      as in India. Use of pneumococcal vaccine seems to be the most effective measure
      to decrease the disease burden and reduction of under-five mortality. Many
      countries have already included Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCV) in their
      National Immunization Programmes (NIP). Government of India has announced
      recently to include PCV13 in NIP in a phased manner. Superiority of a vaccine
      over the other depends upon serotype coverage, vaccine efficacy, cost
      effectiveness and safety profile. These facts will be discussed for the vaccines
      available in India. Further research is warranted to know the disease burden and
      develop vaccines to have more serotype coverage.

PMID- 28887788
TI  - The Clinical and Serological Profile of Pediatric Dengue.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To classify suspected dengue into dengue, dengue with warning signs
      and severe dengue, based on clinical features as per the revised WHO guidelines
      with special emphasis on serology. METHODS: It was a prospective cross-sectional
      study for five years from 2011-2016 in a tertiary care medical college hospital
      in Bangalore. All cases of fever of three to five days duration with symptoms
      like dengue were enrolled for the study. They were categorized into three groups
      as per the Revised WHO 2012 criteria. Laboratory parameters, serology, ultrasound
      abdomen and X-ray were done in almost all patients. Data was analysed by SPSS
      software, version 16, and different groups were compared with Chi square test.
      RESULTS: Five hundred sixty eight children were diagnosed to have dengue fever;
      4.2% of the sample belonged to infancy. Majority were in the age group of 5-10 y
      (42.6%). Fever and flushing were present in majority of the children.
      Gastrointestinal bleed was more commonly seen in the severe dengue group. Dengue
      nonstructural protein antigen (NS1Ag) was positive in 78%, immunoglobulin M (IgM)
      in 15.8% and immunoglobulin G (IgG) in 14.6%. Children with IgG had more
      complications, though not statistically significant. Mortality was reported in
      1.2%. Dengue serology helped to confirm the diagnosis, however did not help in
      patient management. CONCLUSIONS: There is a considerable overlap in the
      symptomatology of dengue with warning signs and severe dengue. More studies are
      required on the severity and type of response to treatment in infants and obese
      adoloscents with severe dengue.

PMID- 28887789
TI  - Deaths from Opioid Overdosing: Implications of Coroners' Inquest Reports 2008
      2012 and Annual Rise in Opioid Prescription Rates: A Population-Based Cohort
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In the late 1990s multiple physicians and advocacy organizations
      promoted increased use of opioids for the treatment of acute, chronic and cancer
      pain. There has been an exponential growth in opioid prescribing in the last 20
      years in the United States of America, in Australia, and in other developed
      Western countries. There are negative consequences associated with the liberal
      use of opioids. The primary aim of this population-based cohort study is to
      investigate the opioid-related death rate in New Zealand between 1 January 2008
      and 31 December 2012. The secondary aims of this cohort study are: (1) to compare
      the opioid-related death rate per population in New Zealand in 2001/2002 with
      that between 2011/2012; (2) to investigate the number of opioid prescriptions in
      New Zealand between 2001 and 2012; (3) to compare the opioid-related death rate
      per population in New Zealand between 2001 and 2012 with the number of opioid
      prescriptions in New Zealand between 2001 and 2012. METHODS: Permission to access
      records from the Coronial Services Office in Wellington for 2008-2012 was
      acquired. Permission to access records for prescriptions containing opioids (dose
      and formulation) was obtained from the Pharmaceutical Collection. RESULTS: The
      rate of opioid-related deaths in New Zealand has increased by 33% from 2001 to
      2012. More than half of the opioid-related deaths between 2008 and 2012 were
      unintentional opioid overdoses. Opioid analgesic deaths were most likely due to
      methadone, morphine and codeine prescribed by healthcare professionals. That 179
      of these opioid-related deaths between 2008 and 2012 were unintentional opioid
      overdoses, and thus could have been avoided, is tragic. This study shows that
      there was a steady annual increases in opioid prescriptions in New Zealand from
      2001 to 2012. This rise in opioid analgesic deaths was associated with the
      increases in the numbers of opioid prescriptions. CONCLUSION: A multifaceted
      national public health approach is needed to bring together the various
      stakeholders involved with pain management, opioid dependence, opioid
      availability and opioid diversion. There needs to be a targeted approach to
      educate current and future medical practitioners regarding the appropriate use of
      opioid prescriptions for the management of pain, as well as a strengthening of
      primary, secondary and tertiary resources to support medical practitioners
      managing their patients who suffer with pain.

PMID- 28887791
TI  - Pearls: The Mobile Segment in Sarcoma Resections.

PMID- 28887790
TI  - Polyspecificity of Anti-lipid A Antibodies and Its Relevance to the Development
      of Autoimmunity.
AB  - The process of natural selection favours germ-line gene segments that encode CDRs
      that have the ability to recognize a range of structurally related antigens. This
      presents an immunological advantage to the host, as it can confer protection
      against a common pathogen and still cope with new or changing antigens. Cross
      reactive and polyspecific antibodies also play a central role in autoimmune
      responses, and a link has been shown to exist between auto-reactive B cells and
      certain bacterial infections. Bacterial DNA, lipids, and carbohydrates have been
      implicated in the progression of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus
      erythematosus. As well, reports of anti-lipid A antibody polyspecificity towards
      single-stranded DNA together with the observed sequence homology amongst isolated
      auto- and anti-lipid A antibodies has prompted further study of this phenomenon.
      Though the lipid A epitope appears cryptic during Gram-negative bacterial
      infection, there have been several reported instances of lipid A-specific
      antibodies isolated from human sera, some of which have exhibited polyspecificity
      for single stranded DNA. In such cases, the breakdown of negative selection
      through polyspecificity can have the unfortunate consequence of autoimmune
      disease. This review summarizes current knowledge regarding such antibodies and
      emphasizes the features of S1-15, A6, and S55-5, anti-lipid A antibodies whose
      structures were recently determined by X-ray crystallography.

PMID- 28887792
TI  - Liver Failure as the Presentation of Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency in a
      13-Month-Old Female.
AB  - Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) is an X-linked urea cycle disorder
      with variable expressivity in heterozygous females. While liver function testing
      is often abnormal in patients with OTCD, liver failure is uncommon on
      presentation. A 13-month-old female with no significant past medical history
      presented with irritability, right arm weakness, and decreased appetite. Initial
      workup revealed hepatic dysfunction with an INR of 3.4, ammonia level of 75
      MUmol/L, and abnormal brain MRI with gyral edema with restricted diffusion, and
      patchy signal abnormality in basal ganglia. The MRI findings led to a putative
      diagnosis of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis prompting corticosteroid
      treatment. As steroid treatment was begun, she developed significant
      hepatocellular dysfunction with ALT 2,222 U/L, AST 630 U/L, prolonged INR, and
      elevated ammonia (213 MUmol/L). Neurologic signs resolved and her ammonia level
      decreased (43 MUmol/L) without further intervention; however, she had ongoing
      acute liver failure with coagulopathy and episodic irritability, managed as
      seronegative autoimmune hepatitis with partial response to corticosteroid
      therapy. At 18 months of age she presented with severe irritability with markedly
      increased ammonia (417 MUmol/L). Plasma amino acids obtained several days prior
      to this acute episode demonstrated elevation in glutamine (2,725 MUmol/L) and
      alanine (1,459 MUmol/L). Biochemical testing demonstrated elevation of urine
      orotic acid (>240.6 mmol/mol creatinine). Genetic testing confirmed a
      heterozygous nonsense mutation in the OTC gene (c.958C>T, R320X). After treatment
      with ammonia scavengers and a protein-restricted diet, hepatic function
      normalized and irritability resolved. The diagnosis of a urea cycle disorder
      should be considered in patients with unexplained hepatic dysfunction.

PMID- 28887793
TI  - ALG13-CDG with Infantile Spasms in a Male Patient Due to a De Novo ALG13 Gene
      Mutation.
AB  - A boy presented at the age of 3.5 months with a developmental delay. He developed
      infantile spasms with hypsarrhytmia on EEG 1 month later. Additional symptoms
      were delayed visual development, asymmetrical hearing loss, hypotonia, and
      choreoathetoid movements. He also had some dysmorphic features and was vulnerable
      for infections. He was treated successively with vigabatrin, prednisolone,
      valproic acid, nitrazepam, and lamotrigine without a lasting clinical effect, but
      showed a treatment response to levetiracetam. Cerebral MRI showed hypoplasia of
      the corpus callosum and a mild delay in myelination. Further investigations
      including metabolic screening and glycosylation studies by transferrin
      isoelectric focusing were all considered to be normal. Whole-exome sequencing
      identified a de novo mutation in the ALG13 gene (c.320A>G, p.(Asn107Ser)).
      Mutations in this gene, which is located on the X-chromosome, are associated with
      congenital disorders of glycosylation type I (CDG-I). Mass spectrometric analysis
      of transferrin showed minor glycosylation abnormalities. The c.320A>G mutation in
      ALG13 has until now only been described in girls and was thought to be lethal for
      boys. All girls with this specific mutation presented with a similar phenotype of
      developmental delay and severe early onset epilepsy. In two girls glycosylation
      studies were performed which showed a normal glycosylation pattern. This is the
      first boy presenting with an epileptic encephalopathy caused by the c.320A>G
      mutation in the ALG13 gene. Since glycosylation studies are near-normal in
      patients with this mutation, the diagnosis of ALG13-CDG can be missed if genetic
      studies are not performed.

PMID- 28887794
TI  - In reply: Assessing flexible bronchoscopic intubation through the AuraGainTM
      laryngeal mask versus a slit Guedel tube.

PMID- 28887795
TI  - Social anxiety and attentional biases: A top-down contribution?
AB  - Selective attention toward threatening facial expressions has been found to
      precipitate and maintain symptoms of social anxiety. However, the automaticity of
      this bias is under debate. In the present study, we aimed to test whether top
      down (controlled) engagement and disengagement of attention toward threatening
      faces is associated with social anxiety. This was examined by testing the impact
      of a secondary working memory (WM) load on attentional biases. In a variation of
      the dot-probe task, participants' attention was initially cued to the left or
      right of fixation before an upright face paired with an inverted face was
      presented (displaying a disgust or neutral expression), and participants
      responded to a subsequently presented probe. The task was performed under no
      load, low-load (one-digit memory task), and high-load (six-digit memory task)
      conditions. Social anxiety was not found to be associated with delayed
      disengagement from threat. However, surprisingly, high social anxiety was
      associated with an engagement bias away from threat, whereas low social anxiety
      was associated with a bias toward threat. These results were unaffected by the WM
      load manipulation. This indicates that engagement with threatening facial
      expressions has minimal contributions from top-down mechanisms, since it is
      likely that orienting to facial expressions occurs relatively automatically.

PMID- 28887798
TI  - Processing language in face-to-face conversation: Questions with gestures get
      faster responses.
AB  - The home of human language use is face-to-face interaction, a context in which
      communicative exchanges are characterised not only by bodily signals accompanying
      what is being said but also by a pattern of alternating turns at talk. This
      transition between turns is astonishingly fast-typically a mere 200-ms elapse
      between a current and a next speaker's contribution-meaning that comprehending,
      producing, and coordinating conversational contributions in time is a significant
      challenge. This begs the question of whether the additional information carried
      by bodily signals facilitates or hinders language processing in this time
      pressured environment. We present analyses of multimodal conversations revealing
      that bodily signals appear to profoundly influence language processing in
      interaction: Questions accompanied by gestures lead to shorter turn transition
      times-that is, to faster responses-than questions without gestures, and responses
      come earlier when gestures end before compared to after the question turn has
      ended. These findings hold even after taking into account prosodic patterns and
      other visual signals, such as gaze. The empirical findings presented here provide
      a first glimpse of the role of the body in the psycholinguistic processes
      underpinning human communication.

PMID- 28887797
TI  - Cell-shaped silicon-on-insulator microdosimeters: characterization and response
      to 239PuBe irradiations.
AB  - This work tested the feasibility of a silicon-on-insulator microdosimeter, which
      mimics the size and shape of specific cells within the human body, to determine
      dose equivalent from neutron irradiation. The microdosimeters were analyzed in
      terms of their basic diode characteristics, i.e., leakage current as a function
      of bias voltage. Lineal energy spectra were acquired using two different
      converter layers placed atop the microdosimeter: a tissue-substitute converter
      made from high-density polyethylene, and a boron converter consisting of epoxy
      coated with boron powder. The spectra were then converted into absorbed dose and
      dose equivalent. Experimental results were compared to Monte Carlo simulations of
      the neutron irradiations, revealing good agreement. Uncertainty in the dose
      equivalent determinations was 7.5% when using the cell-shaped microdosimeter with
      the tissue-substitute converter and 13.1% when using the boron converter. This
      work confirmed that the SOI approach to cell-mimicking microdosimetry is
      feasible.

PMID- 28887799
TI  - Study of polar organic compounds in airborne particulate matter of a coastal
      urban city.
AB  - Two classes of polar organic compounds, dicarboxylic acids (DCAs) and
      sugars/sugar anhydrides (S/SAs), were measured in airborne particulate matter in
      the area of Thessaloniki, northern Greece. The target compounds were measured
      simultaneously in two particle fractions PM10 and PM2.5 during cold and warm
      periods by employing extraction in an ultrasonic bath with a mixture of MeOH/DCM
      (1:2 v/v), derivatization with BSTFA-TMCS and GC-MS for analysis. At both
      fractions, phthalic was the predominant carboxylic acid during cold season and a
      ketoglutaric acid in warm season, followed by maleic and malic. Levoglucosan was
      the dominant sugar anhydride during the cold and arabitol during the warm season.
      In total, the distribution of DCAs seemed to favor the PM2.5 particle fraction,
      probably due to anthropogenic emissions and photochemical formation. The relative
      contribution of DCAs to PM2.5 fraction was 0.9-3.2% in cold and 0.9-7.0% in warm
      period. Regarding S/SAs, levoglucosan was also predominantly distributed in fine
      particles, with relative contribution to this fraction 0.1-6.3% in cold and
      <0.65% in warm season, suggesting impact of biomass burning emissions. In
      contrast, arabitol, fructose, and glucose were mainly found in coarse fraction,
      possibly due to their biogenic origin. Negative correlation of target compounds
      with temperature and total solar radiation suggested the contribution of seasonal
      dependant local sources. Positive relationship with NO and NO2 oxidants and
      relative humidity showed secondary formation of polar compounds or enhanced gas
      to-particle conversion.

PMID- 28887796
TI  - Enabling Work: Occupational Therapy Interventions for Persons with Occupational
      Injuries and Diseases: A Scoping Review.
AB  - Purpose This review aims to map the scope of published research on occupational
      therapy (OT) interventions and pertinent work and work-related outcomes for
      persons with occupational injuries and diseases. Methods The scoping review
      adapted Arksey and O'Malley's framework. Six electronic databases were searched.
      Ancestral search was also done on five systematic reviews. The search was
      conducted from September 2015 to October 2015. Interventions and outcomes were
      coded using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and
      Health Core Set for Vocational Rehabilitation to plot trends. Results Forty-six
      articles were included in the review. The top five intervention approaches
      included: acquiring skills (12.27%), health services, systems, and policies
      (10.43%), products and technology for employment (9.20%), handling stress and
      other psychological demands (7.98%), and apprenticeship (6.74%). The top five
      outcomes targeted included: remunerative employment (15.71%); sensation of pain
      (10.99%); emotional functions (5.76%); handling stress and other psychological
      demands (5.76%); economic self-sufficiency (4.71%); muscle endurance functions
      (4.71%); exercise tolerance functions (4.71%); undertaking multiple tasks
      (4.19%); acquiring, keeping, and terminating a job (4.19%); and looking after
      one's health (4.19%). Conclusion The trend in interventions show the use of
      activities and environment facilitators which are attuned to the conceptual
      nature of OT. Furthermore, the trend in outcomes show that there is substantial
      evidence that supports the use of OT to target work. This review may provide a
      platform for collaboration with other professionals and also help identify
      research directions to strengthen the evidence base for OT in work-related
      practice.

PMID- 28887800
TI  - Acipensericola glacialis n. sp. (Digenea: Aporocotylidae) from heart of lake
      sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque (Acipenseriformes: Acipenseridae) in the
      Great Lakes Basin, Lake Winnebago System, USA.
AB  - Acipensericola glacialis n. sp. infects the heart of lake sturgeon, Acipenser
      fulvescens (Rafinesque), in the Lake Winnebago System and differs from its only
      congener, Acipensericola petersoni Bullard, Snyder, Jensen & Overstreet, 2008, by
      having a dendritic intestine, deeply-lobed testes, a post-ovarian ootype, and a
      common genital pore that is medial to the dextral caecum. Acipensericola
      petersoni has a non-dendritic intestine, testes that are not deeply lobed, an
      ootype that is at level of the ovary (ventral to the ovary), and a common genital
      pore that is dorsal to the dextral caecum. Comparison of the large (28S) and
      small (18S) sub-unit ribosomal DNA and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2)
      regions between specimens of A. glacialis n. sp. and A. petersoni revealed 13 (of
      1,621 nt; 99.2% similarity in the 28S), 8 (of 1,841 nt; 99.9% similarity in the
      18S), and 11 (of 442 nt; 97.5% similarity in the ITS2) nucleotide differences.
      Collectively, these results comprise an unexpectedly high degree of morphological
      and molecular similarity given the geographical (Mississippi River Basin vs Great
      Lakes Basin) and phylogenetic (Polyodontidae vs Acipenseridae) separation of
      these hosts but seemingly did not reject a previous hypothesis concerning lake
      sturgeon dispersal from the Mississippi Refugium following the Wisconsin
      glaciation ~18,000 years ago. The new species is the first nominal blood fluke
      described from a sturgeon.

PMID- 28887801
TI  - Population Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Analysis of Belimumab Administered
      Subcutaneously in Healthy Volunteers and Patients with Systemic Lupus
      Erythematosus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intravenous belimumab 10 mg/kg every 4 weeks is indicated in patients
      with active, autoantibody-positive systemic lupus erythematosus receiving
      standard systemic lupus erythematosus care. Subcutaneous 200-mg weekly
      administration, which may prove more convenient for patients and improve
      adherence, is currently under investigation. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this
      study was to characterize the population pharmacokinetics and exposure-efficacy
      response of subcutaneous belimumab in a pooled analysis of pharmacokinetic data
      [phase I: BEL114448 (NCT01583530) and BEL116119 (NCT01516450) in healthy subjects
      (n = 134); phase III: BEL112341 (NCT01484496) in adults with systemic lupus
      erythematosus (n = 554)] and pharmacodynamic data [BEL112341 in adults with
      systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 833)]. METHODS: Non-linear mixed-effects
      modeling (NONMEM(r)) was used to develop a population pharmacokinetic model and
      perform a covariate analysis. Subsequently, exploratory exposure-response
      analysis and logistic regression modeling was performed based on the individual
      parameter estimates of the population pharmacokinetic model. RESULTS: Population
      pharmacokinetic parameters for subcutaneous belimumab were consistent with those
      for intravenous belimumab and other immunoglobulin G1 monoclonal antibodies.
      Pharmacokinetic parameters and subcutaneous belimumab exposure were consistent
      between healthy subjects and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and no
      evidence for target-mediated disposition of belimumab was found. Subcutaneous
      belimumab steady-state exposure was achieved after ~11 weeks; subcutaneous
      belimumab steady-state minimum concentration exceeded that of intravenous
      belimumab after <4 weeks, and average steady-state concentration was similar to
      that achieved following intravenous administration. In patients with moderate-to
      severe systemic lupus erythematosus, subcutaneous belimumab 200 mg once weekly
      plus standard of care significantly improved the systemic lupus erythematosus
      responder index. However, at this dose, the systemic lupus erythematosus
      responder index response was not significantly associated with belimumab exposure
      concentrations. CONCLUSION: The analysis demonstrates that a 200-mg once-weekly
      dose of belimumab is appropriate for subcutaneous administration in patients with
      systemic lupus erythematosus and that no dose adjustments are required for adult
      patients to maintain efficacy and safety.

PMID- 28887802
TI  - Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Hedgehog Pathway in the Treatment of Basal Cell
      Carcinoma of the Skin.
AB  - Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common type of skin cancer, with rising
      incidence rates primarily attributed to an aging population and ultraviolet
      radiation exposure. While the majority of BCCs are localized and respond to
      standard therapies, a very small minority of these tumors become locally
      destructive or metastasize. These advanced BCCs may not be amenable to localized
      treatment with surgery and/or radiation therapy. Most BCCs result from mutations
      in key receptors in the Hedgehog (HH) signaling pathway. As a result,
      identification of drugs that inhibit the receptor Smoothened (SMO) in the HH
      pathway has resulted in novel therapeutic approaches to treating patients with
      advanced BCC. These HH-pathway inhibiting medications have shown efficacy in
      clinical trials, and two medications, vismodegib and sonidegib, have received FDA
      approval. However, several limitations of these drugs have been identified,
      including treatment-limiting adverse events, drug resistance, and the formation
      of additional malignancies. This paper aims to summarize the clinical trials
      leading to the approval of SMO inhibitors, as well as reviewing potential
      mechanisms driving tumor resistance and the formation of cutaneous squamous cell
      carcinomas. Strategies to overcome some of these challenges, including the
      development of drugs that inhibit other downstream targets in the HH pathway, are
      the subject of ongoing clinical trials.

PMID- 28887803
TI  - Psychosis in Spinocerebellar Ataxias: a Case Series and Study of Tyrosine
      Hydroxylase in Substantia Nigra.
AB  - Spinocerebellar ataxias are a genetically heterogeneous group of degenerative
      diseases typically characterized by progressive ataxia and to various degrees,
      neuropathy, amyotrophy, and ocular abnormalities. There is increasing evidence
      for non-motor manifestations associated with cerebellar syndromes including
      cognitive and psychiatric features. We studied a retrospective clinical case
      series of eight subjects with spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) 2, 3, 7, and 17, all
      displaying features of psychosis, and also measured tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)
      staining of the substantia nigra (SN) at autopsy, among four of the subjects. We
      hypothesized that increased dopamine production in the SN may underlie the
      pathophysiology of psychosis in SCAs, given evidence of increased dopamine
      production in the SN in schizophrenia, as measured by TH staining. We analyzed
      differences in TH staining between the SCA psychosis cohort (n = 4), a
      heterogeneous ataxic cohort without psychosis (n = 22), and non-diseased age- and
      sex-matched control group (n = 12). SCA subjects with psychosis did not differ
      significantly in TH staining versus ataxic cases without psychosis. There was,
      however, increased TH staining in the ataxic cohort with and without psychosis (n
      = 26), compared to non-diseased controls (n = 12). Psychotic features were
      similar across subjects, with the presence of delusions, paranoia, and auditory
      hallucinations. Our findings are preliminary because of small numbers of subjects
      and variable neuropathology; however, they suggest that psychosis is a clinical
      feature of SCAs and may be under-recognized. While the underlying pathophysiology
      remains to be fully established, it may be related to extra-cerebellar pathology,
      including a possible propensity for increased dopamine activity in the SN.

PMID- 28887804
TI  - Identification of major quantitative trait loci for root diameter in synthetic
      hexaploid wheat under phosphorus-deficient conditions.
AB  - Synthetic hexaploid wheat (SHW) possesses numerous genes for resistance to
      stress, including phosphorus (P) deficiency. Root diameter (RDM) plays an
      important role in P-deficiency tolerance, but information related to SHW is still
      limited. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the genetic
      architecture of RDM in SHW under P-deficient conditions. To this end, we measured
      the RDM of 138 F9 recombinant inbred lines derived from an F2 population of a
      synthetic hexaploid wheat line (SHW-L1) and a common wheat line (Chuanmai32)
      under two P conditions, P sufficiency (PS) and P deficiency (PD), and mapped
      quantitative trait loci (QTL) for RDM using an enriched high-density genetic map,
      containing 120,370 single nucleotide polymorphisms, 733 diversity arrays
      technology markers, and 119 simple sequence repeats. We identified seven RDM QTL
      for P-deficiency tolerance that individually explained 11-14.7% of the phenotypic
      variation. Five putative candidate genes involved in root composition, energy
      supply, and defense response were predicted. Overall, our results provided
      essential information for cloning genes related to P-deficiency tolerance in
      common wheat that might help in breeding P-deficiency-tolerant wheat cultivars.

PMID- 28887805
TI  - Quantitative analysis of effects of hemodynamic stress on temporal variations of
      cardiac phases in models of human carotid bulbs.
AB  - In this study, we evaluated the hemodynamics of carotid artery models with
      carotid bulbs of various sizes using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the
      Fluent CFD software. The oscillatory shear index (OSI) and flow velocity
      distribution were evaluated in carotid models without a carotid bulb and with
      carotid bulbs of known geometry (major axis of 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 mm; carotid
      bifurcation angle of 50 degrees ). Furthermore, the diameters of the common
      carotid artery, the external carotid artery, and the internal carotid artery were
      defined as 7.2, 4.0, and 4.5 mm, respectively. The accuracy of the CFD analysis
      in this study was verified using a flow phantom and measuring velocities with
      phase-contrast cine magnetic resonance imaging. The CFD parameters were defined
      as follows: rigid and no-slip walls, pulsatile flow, and 0 Pa of peripheral
      pressure. The OSI in the carotid bulb tended to show a high value during the
      expansion of the carotid bulb (maximum and minimum OSI: 0.11 +/- 0.08 at d bulb:
      14 mm; 0.0013 +/- 0.0011 at no bulb), and the region of high OSI expanded with
      the expansion of the carotid bulb. The flow separated near the carotid bulb, and
      the flow deceleration expanded downstream as the size of the bulb increased.
      These findings suggest that the size of the carotid bulbs contributed to the OSI
      because the larger bulbs exhibited higher OSI values. The relation between the
      OSI and the carotid bulb size could serve as a risk indicator for
      atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28887806
TI  - Erratum to: Lapatinib access into normal brain and brain metastases in patients
      with Her-2 overexpressing breast cancer.

PMID- 28887807
TI  - Feasibility of multiplane microtransoesophageal echocardiographic guidance in
      structural heart disease transcatheter interventions in adults.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Structural heart interventions are guided by transoesophageal or
      intracardiac echocardiography (TEE/ICE). MicroTEE, developed for paediatric
      purposes, is smaller and therefore less invasive and traumatic, avoiding the need
      for general anaesthesia. We aimed to show feasibility of procedural guidance by
      comparing image quality of microTEE with standard TEE and ICE during adult
      transcatheter interventions, and assess the accuracy in obtaining left atrial
      appendage (LAA) measurements between the microTEE probe and standard TEE. METHODS
      AND RESULTS: We prospectively included 49 patients (20 women, 64 +/- 18 years).
      Intraprocedural images were obtained by using the microTEE probe and standard (2D
      and 3D) TEE (LAA closure, MitraClip implantation) or ICE (interatrial
      communication closure, transseptal puncture for left atrial ablation). Two
      echocardiographers independently assessed image quality from 1 (excellent) to 4
      (poor) and performed LAA measurements. Use of microTEE was not related to
      significant discomfort. Image quality obtained with the microTEE probe was lower
      than with standard TEE (2 [1-2] vs. 1 [1-2]; p = 0.04) and comparable with ICE
      images (2 [1-2] vs. 2 [1-2], p = 0.13). MicroTEE showed a wider field of view
      than ICE. LAA measurements on images obtained by microTEE were strongly
      associated with standard TEE. CONCLUSIONS: MicroTEE seems feasible for guidance
      during transcatheter heart interventions in adults. MicroTEE imaging offers a
      wider field of view than ICE, and its accuracy is comparable with TEE. In
      transcatheter interventions performed under conscious sedation, microTEE might be
      a viable and advantageous alternative to standard TEE or ICE.

PMID- 28887808
TI  - Comparison of reference values for immune recovery between event-free patients
      receiving haploidentical allografts and those receiving human leukocyte antigen
      matched sibling donor allografts.
AB  - To establish optimal reference values for recovered immune cell subsets, we
      prospectively investigated post-transplant immune reconstitution (IR) in 144
      patients who received allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo- SCT) and
      without showing any of the following events: poor graft function, grades II-IV
      acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), serious chronic GVHD, serious bacterial
      infection, invasive fungal infection, or relapse or death in the first year after
      transplantation. IR was rapid in monocytes, intermediate in lymphocytes, CD3+
      Tcells, CD8+ T cells, and CD19+ B cells, and very slow in CD4+ T cells in the
      entire patient cohort. Immune recovery was generally faster under HLA-matched
      sibling donor transplantation than under haploidentical transplantation. Results
      suggest that patients with an IR comparable to the reference values display
      superior survival, and the levels of recovery in immune cells need not reach
      those in healthy donor in the first year after transplantation.We suggest that
      data from this recipient cohort should be used as reference values for post
      transplant immune cell counts in patients receiving HSCT.

PMID- 28887809
TI  - Effect of comprehensive therapy based on Chinese medicine patterns on self
      efficacy and effectiveness satisfaction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of comprehensive therapy based on Chinese
      medicine (CM) patterns on self-efficacy and satisfaction with its effectiveness
      in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: A total
      of 216 patients were randomly divided into the trial group (n =108) and the
      control group (n =108) based on the stratified and block randomization design.
      Patients in the trial group were treated with conventional Western medicine
      combined with Bufei Jianpi Granules (), Bufei Yishen Granules (), and Yiqi Zishen
      Granules () according to the CM patterns respectively, and patients in the
      control group were treated with conventional Western medicine. The COPD Self
      Efficacy Scale (CSES) and the Effectiveness Satisfaction Questionnaire for COPD
      (ESQ-COPD) were employed in a 6-month treatment and in further 6 month follow-up
      visit. RESULTS: Among the 216 patients, 191 patients (97 in the trial group and
      94 in the control group) fully completed the study. After 12-month treatment and
      follow-up, the mean scores of the trial group all continued to increase over
      time, which were significantly higher than those of the control group (P <0.05),
      and the improvement in the following trial group domain: negative affect domain
      (12.13%), intense emotional arousal domain (12.21%), physical exertion domain
      (11.72%), weather/environmental domain (13.77%), behavioral risk domain (7.67%)
      and total score (10.65%). The trial group also exhibited significantly higher
      mean scores in the ESQ-COPD (P <0.05) and the improvement in the following
      domain: capacity for life and work domain (30.59%), clinical symptoms domain
      (53.52%), effect of therapy domain (35.95%), convenience of therapy domain
      (35.54%), and whole effect domain (52.47%). CONCLUSIONS: Bufei Jianpi Granules,
      Bufei Yishen Granules and Yiqi Zishen Granules can improve the self-efficacy and
      satisfaction of COPD patients.

PMID- 28887811
TI  - Great ape gestures: intentional communication with a rich set of innate signals.
AB  - Great apes give gestures deliberately and voluntarily, in order to influence
      particular target audiences, whose direction of attention they take into account
      when choosing which type of gesture to use. These facts make the study of ape
      gesture directly relevant to understanding the evolutionary precursors of human
      language; here we present an assessment of ape gesture from that perspective,
      focusing on the work of the "St Andrews Group" of researchers. Intended meanings
      of ape gestures are relatively few and simple. As with human words, ape gestures
      often have several distinct meanings, which are effectively disambiguated by
      behavioural context. Compared to the signalling of most other animals, great ape
      gestural repertoires are large. Because of this, and the relatively small number
      of intended meanings they achieve, ape gestures are redundant, with extensive
      overlaps in meaning. The great majority of gestures are innate, in the sense that
      the species' biological inheritance includes the potential to develop each
      gestural form and use it for a specific range of purposes. Moreover, the
      phylogenetic origin of many gestures is relatively old, since gestures are
      extensively shared between different genera in the great ape family. Acquisition
      of an adult repertoire is a process of first exploring the innate species
      potential for many gestures and then gradual restriction to a final (active)
      repertoire that is much smaller. No evidence of syntactic structure has yet been
      detected.

PMID- 28887810
TI  - Advantages of Chinese Medicine for Patients with Acquired Immunodeficiency
      Syndrome in Rural Central China.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of Chinese medicine (CM) on mortality and
      quality of life (QOL) of acquired immunodefificiency syndrome (AIDS) patients
      treated with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). METHODS: A random sample of
      AIDS patients enrolled in the National Chinese Medicine Treatment Trial Program
      (NCMTP) that met the inclusion criteria was included in this study. NCMTP
      patients were included as the CM+cART group, and those not in the NCMTP were
      included as the cART group. Survival from September 2004 to September 2012 was
      analyzed by retrospective cohort study. QOL was analyzed by cross-sectional
      study. RESULTS: The retrospective cohort study included 528 AIDS patients, 322 in
      the CM+cART group and 206 in the cART group. After 8 years, the mortality in the
      CM+cART group was 3.3/100 person-years, which was lower than the cART group of
      5.3/100 person-years (P<0.05). The hazard ratio (HR) for mortality in the cART
      group was 1.6 times that of the CM+cART group by Cox proportional hazard model
      analysis. After controlling for gender, age, marital status, education, and CD4+
      T-cell count, the HR was 1.9 times higher in the cART group compared with the
      CM+cART group (P<0.05). The cross-sectional study investigated 275 AIDS patients.
      The mean scores of all QOL domains except spirituality/personal beliefs were
      higher in the CM+cART group than in the cART group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For
      AIDS patients, CM could help to prolong life, decrease mortality, and improve
      QOL. However, there were limitations in the study, so prospective studies should
      be carried out to confifirm our primary results.

PMID- 28887812
TI  - A comprehensive approach to evaluating and classifying sun-protective clothing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: National standards for clothing designed to protect the wearer from
      the harmful effects of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) have been implemented in
      Australia/New Zealand, Europe and the U.S.A. Industry standards reflect the need
      to protect the skin by covering a considerable proportion of the potentially
      exposed body surface area (BSA) and by reducing UVR-transmission through fabric
      (the Ultraviolet Protection Factor; UPF). OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to
      develop a new index for rating sun-protective clothing that incorporates the BSA
      coverage of the garment in addition to the UPF of the fabric. METHODS: A
      mannequin model was fixed to an optical bench and marked with horizontal lines at
      1-cm intervals. An algorithm (the Garment Protector Factor; GPF) was developed
      based on the number of lines visible on the clothed vs. unclothed mannequin and
      the UPF of the garment textile. This data was collected in 2015/16 and analysed
      in 2016. RESULTS: The GPF weights fabric UPF by BSA coverage above the minimum
      required by international sun-protective clothing standards for upper-body, lower
      body and full-body garments. The GPF increases with BSA coverage of the garment
      and fabric UPF. Three nominal categories are proposed for the GPF: 0 <= GPF < 3
      for garments that 'meet' minimum standards; 3 <= GPF < 6 for garments providing
      'good' sun protection; and GPF >= 6 indicating 'excellent' protection.
      CONCLUSIONS: Adoption of the proposed rating scheme should encourage
      manufacturers to design sun-protective garments that exceed the minimum standard
      for BSA coverage, with positive implications for skin cancer prevention, consumer
      education and sun-protection awareness.

PMID- 28887813
TI  - Progression of care among women who use a midwife for prenatal care: Who remains
      in midwife care?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prenatal care provided by midwives provides a safe and cost-effective
      alternative to care provided by physicians. However, no studies have evaluated
      the frequency of women who leave midwifery care, in a hospital setting. Our study
      objectives were to measure the frequency of transfers of care to physicians, to
      describe the sociodemographic and pregnancy-related characteristics of women who
      transferred to the care of a physician during prenatal care and at delivery, and
      to assess correlates of these transfers. METHODS: We used electronic medical
      records to perform a retrospective cohort study of women who delivered at The
      Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC) and had at least one
      prenatal care visit within OSUWMC's network. We report descriptive findings,
      using proportions and means with standard deviations. We used logistic
      regression, with Firth's bias correction as necessary, to assess correlates of
      transferring to a physician during prenatal care and at delivery. RESULTS: Most
      women who initiated prenatal care with a midwife remained in midwifery care
      throughout delivery, with 4.7% transferring to a physician during prenatal care,
      and an additional 21.4% transferring to a physician during delivery. After
      adjusting for pregnancy-related factors, the black race was statistically
      significantly associated with leaving midwifery care during prenatal care
      (adjusted odds ratio AOR 3.0 [95% CI 1.4-6.6]) and delivery (AOR 2.5 [95% CI 1.5
      4.3]). CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that most women remain in midwifery care
      throughout pregnancy, but raise important questions with respect to the possible
      role that race has in pregnancy care.

PMID- 28887814
TI  - Construction and application of an electrochemical biosensor based on an
      endotoxin aptamer.
AB  - An electrochemical biosensor that used an aptamer as a biological element was
      constructed to detect endotoxin. Biolayer interferometry was used to obtain the
      affinity constant of an aptamer for lipopolysaccharide, which had an equilibrium
      dissociation constant of 22.9 nM. The amine-terminated aptamer was then assembled
      on a gold electrode surface using 3-mercaptopropionic acid as an intermediate
      linker. The modification of the gold electrode was confirmed by cyclic
      voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. In the range of 0.001-1
      EU/mL, the increase in electron transfer resistance of the biosensor was linear
      with the logarithmic value of the endotoxin concentration. The constructed
      biosensor exhibits sensitivity and a low limit of detection.

PMID- 28887815
TI  - Systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of interventions for people
      with Type 1 diabetes mellitus and disordered eating.
AB  - AIM: To examine the types of interventions currently available for people with
      Type 1 diabetes mellitus and their effectiveness. BACKGROUND: The prevalence of
      disordered eating in people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus is twice that in their
      counterparts without diabetes, and is associated with worse biomedical outcomes
      and greater mortality. METHODS: Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library,
      PubMed and OpenGrey databases were searched up to August 2016 to identify studies
      on interventions in people with Type 1 diabetes-associated disordered eating. For
      the systematic review, intervention components were identified and their
      effectiveness was examined. For the meta-analysis, the pooled effect sizes of
      glycaemic control (HbA1c ) between pre- and post-treatment in treatment and
      comparison groups were calculated using a random effects model. RESULTS: Of 91
      abstracts reviewed, six studies met the inclusion criteria, of which three had
      appropriate data for the meta-analysis (n = 118). The pooled effect size was 
      0.21 95% CI (-0.58 to 0.16; where negative values represent an improvement in
      HbA1c levels), indicating no statistically significant improvement in the
      treatment group compared with comparison group. Inpatient therapy appeared to be
      the most effective treatment, and this had multiple components including
      cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoeducation and family therapy. CONCLUSION:
      Limited or no improvement in glycaemic control and disordered eating symptoms was
      observed in people with Type 1 diabetes-associated disordered eating who were
      receiving currently available interventions. The present review suggests that
      developing an intensive intervention with a joint focus on both disordered eating
      and diabetes management is needed for this complex patient group.

PMID- 28887816
TI  - The little things that run: a general scaling of invertebrate exploratory speed
      with body mass.
AB  - Speed is a key trait of animal movement, and while much is already known about
      vertebrate speed and how it scales with body mass, studies on invertebrates are
      sparse, especially across diverse taxonomic groups. Here, we used automated image
      based tracking to characterize the exploratory (voluntary) speed of 173
      invertebrates comprising 57 species across six taxonomic groups (Arachnida,
      Chilopoda, Diplopoda, Entognatha, Insecta, Malacostraca) and four feeding types
      (carnivore, detritivore, herbivore, omnivore). Across all individuals,
      exploratory speed (mm/s) scaled with body mass (g) following a power-law
      relationship with a scaling exponent of 0.19 +/- 0.04 (mean +/- SE) and an
      intercept of 14.33 +/- 1.2. These parameters varied substantially with taxonomic
      group and feeding type. For the first time, we provide general empirically
      derived allometric scaling relationships of exploratory speed across broad
      taxonomic groups of invertebrates. As exploratory speed drives key components of
      species interactions, such as encounter and attack rates, or competition, our
      study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of individual movement in
      population and community level processes.

PMID- 28887817
TI  - Modulation of hERG potassium channels by a novel small molecule activator.

PMID- 28887818
TI  - Monitoring UV-induced signalling pathways in an ex vivo skin organ culture model
      using phospho-antibody array.
AB  - We investigated UV-induced signalling in an ex vivo skin organ culture model
      using phospho-antibody array. Phosphorylation modulations were analysed in time
      course experiments following exposure to solar-simulated UV and validated by
      Western blot analyses. We found that UV induced P-p38 and its substrates, P
      ERK1/2 and P-AKT, which were previously shown to be upregulated by UV in cultured
      keratinocytes and in vivo human skin. This indicates that phospho-antibody array
      applied to ex vivo skin organ culture is a relevant experimental system to
      investigate signalling events following perturbations. As the identified proteins
      are components of pathways implicated in skin tumorigenesis, UV-exposed skin
      organ culture model could be used to investigate the effect on these pathways of
      NMSC cancer drug candidates. In addition, we found that phospho-HCK is induced
      upon UV exposure, producing a new candidate for future studies investigating its
      role in the skin response to UV and UV-induced carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28887819
TI  - Climate Change, Global Health, and Nursing Scholarship.

PMID- 28887820
TI  - The epidemiology of mandibular fractures in Caracas, Venezuela: Incidence and its
      combination patterns.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: As reported in the literature by several authors, there is a
      great variation between countries in terms of etiology and patterns of mandibular
      fractures. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of mandibular
      fractures at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit, "Dr. Domingo Luciani"
      Hospital, Venezuela, during the period January 2010 to March 2013. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted to assess the etiology of trauma,
      age group, gender, anatomic distribution of injury, and combination patterns by
      reviewing patients records. RESULTS: There were 334 patients with 522 mandibular
      fractures averaging 1.56 fractures per patient. Eighty-five percent of the
      patients were males with an overall male: female ratio of 6.15:1. The highest
      occurrence of trauma was in the 20-29 years (43.4%) age group. The etiology most
      frequently observed was motorcycle traffic accidents in 94 patients (28.1%), and
      the parasymphysis region was the most common location with 144 (27.6%) fractures.
      Almost half (48.8%) of the injuries were combined mandibular fractures with 29
      different combinations, and the most common was a mandibular body fracture +
      parasymphysis fracture (22.1%). CONCLUSION: Mandibular fracture is a common
      facial injury with variable incidence and etiology across gender and age range.
      The findings of this study are similar to other studies and provide important
      clinical information that will assist in the treatment planning of these types of
      injuries.

PMID- 28887821
TI  - SERPINA1 and MAN1B1 polymorphisms are not linked to severe liver disease in a
      French cohort of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency children.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Fifteen to twenty percent of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
      patients (A1ATD) have a severe liver outcome (portal hypertension - PHT) during
      childhood. Since they all share the same ZZSERPINA1 genotype and that
      environmental factors such as alcohol cannot be advanced, the presence of
      modifier genes is now well recognized. SNPs located on the SERPINA1 and MAN1B1
      genes have already been tested in very few studies with contradictory or not
      replicated results. METHODS: Our genotype-phenotype correlation study, performed
      on 92 ZZ children, aimed at determining once and for all if SERPINA1 and MAN1B1
      polymorphisms may be implied in the onset of PHT. To do so, we also performed for
      the first time a complete haplotype reconstruction for data analysis. RESULTS:
      The two genetic associations with severe liver disease that had been suspected
      previously (one SNP for SERPINA1 and another for MAN1B1) were not confirmed in
      our cohort. Moreover, the haplotype analysis identified only one major genetic
      background for the SERPINA1 Z-allele, allowing us to exclude the presence of a
      frequent modifier SNP within. For MAN1B1, four major haplotypes were identified
      but the prevalence of PHT did not significantly differ between them. CONCLUSION:
      We conclude that genetic polymorphisms in these two genes probably do not
      influence the onset of severe liver disease in A1ATD.

PMID- 28887822
TI  - Paracrine crosstalk between endothelial cells and melanocytes through clusterin
      to inhibit pigmentation.
AB  - Cutaneous vasculature systems play a role in regulating skin pigmentation. We
      analysed RNA sequencing data to identify novel antimelanogenic factors secreted
      from endothelial cells and found that one of the secreted factors, clusterin, is
      highly expressed by HDMECs. To investigate the paracrine effect of clusterin from
      HDMECs on the regulation of melanogenesis, HDMECs were infected with clusterin or
      sh-clusterin lentivirus and the HDMEC-derived conditioned media were used to
      treat normal human melanocytes. It was found that HDMEC-derived clusterin
      inhibits melanogenesis through MITF/tyrosinase downregulation. The findings here
      suggest that HDMECs secrete copious amounts of clusterin and that the clusterin
      is a factor contributing to the inhibitory effect of endothelial cells on
      melanogenesis via paracrine crosstalk between endothelial cells and melanocytes.

PMID- 28887823
TI  - Variation of the epidermal expression of glucocorticoid receptor-beta as
      potential predictive marker of bullous pemphigoid outcome.
AB  - Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune subepidermal blistering
      disease in Western countries. Although topical and/or systemic glucocorticoids
      treatment efficacy is widely recognized, up to 30% of patients with BP may
      undergo a relapse during the first year of treatment. We investigated the protein
      expression of the total glucocorticoid receptor and GRbeta isoform in the skin
      biopsy specimens from patients with BP and wondered whether such investigation at
      baseline provided a tool to predict disease outcome. Total GR and GRbeta protein
      expressions were detected by immunohistochemistry at baseline on 12 patients who
      later relapse and 11 patients who remained on remission in comparison with 14
      control patients. The expression of GRbeta in the epidermis of patients with BP
      who later relapse was significantly higher than that in the epidermis of patients
      with BP controlled upon corticosteroid treatment, which was also higher than
      control patients. Thus, our results suggest that increased protein expression of
      GRbeta in skin epithelial cells is predictive of reduced steroid treatment
      efficacy, and therefore of increased risk of disease relapse in patients with BP.

PMID- 28887824
TI  - Structural proteins of the dermal-epidermal junction targeted by autoantibodies
      in pemphigoid diseases.
AB  - The dermal-epidermal junction consists of a network of several interacting
      structural proteins that strengthen adhesion and mediate signalling events. This
      structural network consists of hemidesmosomal-anchoring filament complexes
      connecting the basal keratinocytes to the basement membrane. The anchoring
      filaments in turn interact with the anchoring fibrils to attach the basement
      membrane to the underlying dermis. Several of these structural proteins are
      recognized by autoantibodies in pemphigoid diseases, a heterogeneous group of
      clinically and immunopathologically diverse entities. Targeted proteins include
      the two intracellular plakins, plectin isoform 1a and BP230 (also called bullous
      pemphigoid antigen (BPAG) 1 isoform e (BPAG1e)). Plectin 1a and BP230 are
      connected to the intermediate filaments and to the cell surface receptor
      alpha6beta4 integrin, which in turn is connected to laminin 332, a component of
      the anchoring filaments. Further essential adhesion proteins are BP180, a
      transmembrane protein, laminin gamma1 and type VII collagen. Latter protein is
      the major constituent of the anchoring fibrils. Mutations in the corresponding
      genes of these adhesion molecules lead to inherited epidermolysis bullosa
      emphasizing the importance of these proteins for the integrity of the dermal
      epidermal junction. This review will provide an overview on the structure and
      function of the proteins situated in the dermal-epidermal junction targeted by
      autoantibodies.

PMID- 28887825
TI  - Performance of a multi leaf collimator system for MR-guided radiation therapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate and characterize the
      performance of a Multi Leaf Collimator (MLC) designed for Cobalt-60 based MR
      guided radiation therapy system in a 0.35 T magnetic field. METHODS: The MLC
      design and unique assembly features in the ViewRay MRIdian system were first
      reviewed. The RF cage shielding of MLC motor and cables were evaluated using ACR
      phantoms with real-time imaging and quantified by signal-to-noise ratio. The
      dosimetric characterizations, including the leaf transmission, leaf penumbra,
      tongue-and-groove effect, were investigated using radiosensitive films. The
      output factor of MLC-defined fields was measured with ionization chambers for
      both symmetric fields from 2.1 * 2.1 cm2 to 27.3 * 27.3 cm2 and asymmetric fields
      from 10.5 * 10.5 cm2 to 10.5 * 2.0 cm2 . Multi leaf collimator (MLC) positional
      accuracy was assessed by delivering either a picket fence (PF) style pattern on
      radiochromic films with wire-jig phantom or double and triple-rectangular
      patterns on ArcCheck-MR (Sun Nuclear, Melbourne, FL, USA) with gamma analysis as
      the pass/fail indicator. Leaf speed tests were performed to assess the capability
      of full range leaf travel within manufacture's specifications. Multi leaf
      collimator plan delivery reproducibility was tested by repeatedly delivering both
      open fields and fields with irregular shaped segments over 1-month period.
      RESULTS: Comparable SNRs within 4% were observed for MLC moving and stationary
      plans on vendor-reconstructed images, and the direct k-space reconstructed images
      showed that the three SNRs are within 1%. The maximum leaf transmission for all
      three MLCs was less than 0.35% and the average leakage was 0.153 +/- 0.006%,
      0.151 +/- 0.008%, and 0.159 +/- 0.015% for head 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Both
      the leaf edge and leaf end penumbra showed comparable values within 0.05 cm, and
      the measured values are within 0.1 cm with TPS values. The leaf edge TG effect
      indicated 10% underdose and the leaf end TG showed a shifted dose distribution
      with 0.3 cm offset. The leaf positioning test showed a 0.2 cm accuracy in the PF
      style test, and a gamma passing rate above 96% was observed with a 3%/2 mm
      criteria when comparing the measured double/triple-rectangular pattern fluence
      with TPS calculated fluence. The average leaf speed when executing the test plan
      fell in a range from 1.86 to 1.95 cm/s. The measured and TPS calculated output
      factors were within 2% for squared fields and within 3% for rectangular fields.
      The reproducibility test showed the deviation of output factors were well within
      2% for square fields and the gamma passing rate within 1.5% for fields with
      irregular segments. The Monte Carlo predicted output factors were within 2%
      compared to TPS values. 15 out of the 16 IMRT plans have gamma passing rate more
      than 98% compared to the TPS fluence with an average passing rate of 99.1 +/-
      0.6%. CONCLUSION: The MRIdian MLC has a good RF noise shielding design, low
      radiation leakage, good positioning accuracy, comparable TG effect, and can be
      modeled by an independent Monte Carlo calculation platform.

PMID- 28887826
TI  - Job contenders: roles of the beta-barrel assembly machinery and the translocation
      and assembly module in autotransporter secretion.
AB  - In Gram-negative bacteria, autotransporters secrete effector protein domains that
      are linked to virulence. Although they were once thought to be simple and
      autonomous secretion machines, mounting evidence reveals that multiple factors of
      the bacterial envelope are necessary for autotransporter assembly. Secretion
      across the outer membrane of their soluble effector "passenger domain" is
      promoted by the assembly of an outer membrane-spanning "beta-barrel domain". Both
      reactions require BamA, an essential component of the beta-barrel assembly
      machinery (BAM complex) that catalyzes the final reaction step by which outer
      membrane proteins are integrated into the lipid bilayer. A large amount of data
      generated in the last decade has shed key insights onto the mechanistic
      coordination of autotransporter beta-barrel domain assembly and passenger domain
      secretion. These results, together with the recently solved structures of the BAM
      complex, offer an unprecedented opportunity to discuss a detailed model of
      autotransporter assembly. Importantly, some autotransporters benefit from the
      presence of an additional machinery, the translocation and assembly module (TAM),
      a two-membrane spanning complex, which contains a BamA-homologous subunit.
      Although it remains unclear how the BAM complex and the TAM cooperate, it is
      evident that multiple preparatory steps are necessary for efficient
      autotransporter biogenesis.

PMID- 28887827
TI  - A universal parameterized gradient-based method for photon beam field size
      determination.
AB  - PURPOSE: To propose a universal, parameterized gradient-based method (PGM) for
      radiation field size determination. METHODS: The PGM locates the beam profile's
      edge by parameterizing its penumbra region with a modified sigmoid function where
      the inflection point can be determined in a closed form. The parametrization was
      validated with filter-flattened (FF), flattening-filter-free (FFF) and wedged
      profiles measured on two Elekta linac models (Synergy and Versa HD). Gamma
      analysis with the delta dose function set to zero was used to quantitatively
      assess the parameterization accuracy. Field sizes of FF beams were calculated
      with the PGM and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) methods for comparison. To
      assess the consistency of the PGM and the FWHM method with geometric scaling
      across different depths, the calculated field size at a reference depth was
      scaled to other depths and compared with the field sizes calculated from the
      measured profiles. The method was also validated against a maximum-slope method
      (MSM) with wedge and FFF profiles. We also evaluated the robustness of the three
      methods with respect to measurement noise, varying scanning step sizes, detector
      characteristics, and beam energy/modality. RESULTS: Small distance-to-agreement
      (0.02 +/- 0.02 mm) between the measured and parameterized penumbra region was
      observed for all profiles. The differences between the field sizes calculated
      with the FWHM method and the PGM were consistent (0.9 +/- 0.3 mm), with the FWHM
      method yielding larger values. With geometrical scaling, the PGM and the FWHM
      method produced maximum differences of 0.26 and 1.16 mm, respectively. For wedge
      and FFF beams, the mean differences relative to FF fields were 0.15 +/- 0.09 mm
      and 0.57 +/- 0.91 mm for the PGM and the MSM, respectively. The PGM was also
      found to produce more consistent results than the FWHM method and the MSM when
      measurement noise, scanning step size, detector characteristics, and beam
      energy/modality changed. CONCLUSION: The proposed PGM is universally applicable
      to all beam modalities (FF, wedge and FFF) for accurate field size determination.
      Compared to the FWHM and the MSM, it is more robust to variations in measurement
      condition and detection system.

PMID- 28887828
TI  - Opportunities for Students to Prescribe: An Evaluation of 185 Consultations in
      the Student-run Cardiovascular Risk Management Programme.
AB  - Involving students in cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) could offer patients
      a structured CVRM programme and students a valuable learning opportunity. We
      describe and evaluate a student-run CVRM programme that was set up to offer
      primary prevention to patients with known risk factors in a general
      practitioner's practice. During a consultation, two undergraduate medical
      students assessed the patients' actual risk and formulated a CVRM plan, which
      they discussed with the patient after approval by a GP. After the consultations,
      patients were asked to complete evaluation/feedback questionnaires. From December
      2014 to December 2015, 185 consultations were carried out by 46 students.
      Feedback questionnaires of 153 consultations were returned, in which patient
      satisfaction was 8.43 (1-10, min-max). The cardiovascular risk of 95 patients was
      determined, and in >50% patients, it was 'high'. Participating students and GPs
      were enthusiastic about the (pharmacotherapy) learning opportunities and improved
      CVRM care while contributing to real patient care in this CVRM programme.

PMID- 28887829
TI  - Using Public Data for Comparative Proteome Analysis in Precision Medicine
      Programs.
AB  - PURPOSE: Maximizing the clinical utility of information obtained in longitudinal
      precision medicine programs would benefit from robust comparative analyses to
      known information to assess biological features of patient material toward
      identifying the underlying features driving their disease phenotype. Herein, the
      potential for utilizing publically deposited mass-spectrometry-based proteomics
      data to perform inter-study comparisons of cell-line or tumor-tissue materials is
      investigated. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: To investigate the robustness of comparison
      between MS-based proteomics studies carried out with different methodologies,
      deposited data representative of label-free (MS1) and isobaric tagging (MS2 and
      MS3 quantification) are utilized. RESULTS: In-depth quantitative proteomics data
      acquired from analysis of ovarian cancer cell lines revealed the robust
      recapitulation of observable gene expression dynamics between individual studies
      carried out using significantly different methodologies. The observed signatures
      enable robust inter-study clustering of cell line samples. In addition, the
      ability to classify and cluster tumor samples based on observed gene expression
      trends when using a single patient sample is established. With this analysis,
      relevant gene expression dynamics are obtained from a single patient tumor, in
      the context of a precision medicine analysis, by leveraging a large cohort of
      repository data as a comparator. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Together,
      these data establish the potential for state-of-the-art MS-based proteomics data
      to serve as resources for robust comparative analyses in precision medicine
      applications.

PMID- 28887830
TI  - Atom-Transfer Radical Addition to Unactivated Alkenes by using Heterogeneous
      Visible-Light Photocatalysis.
AB  - Heterogeneous visible-light photocatalysis represents an important route toward
      the development of sustainable organic synthesis. In this study visible light
      induced, heavy metal-free atom-transfer radical addition to unactivated terminal
      olefins is carried out by using the combination of heterogeneous titanium dioxide
      as photocatalyst and a hypervalent iodine(III) reagent as co-initiator. The
      reaction can be applied to a range of substrates with good functional-group
      tolerance under very mild conditions. In addition to a number of commonly used
      atom-transfer reagents, the relatively challenging chloroform is also suitable.

PMID- 28887831
TI  - Quality improvement in rhinology.

PMID- 28887832
TI  - Extracellular vesicles from oral squamous carcinoma cells display pro- and anti
      angiogenic properties.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A new intercellular communication mode established by neoplastic
      cells and tumor microenvironment components is based on extracellular vesicles
      (EVs). However, the biological effects of the EVs released by tumor cells on
      angiogenesis are not completely understood. Here, we aimed to understand the
      biological effects of EVs isolated from two cell lines of oral squamous cell
      carcinoma (OSCC) (SCC15 and HSC3) on endothelial cell tubulogenesis. METHODS:
      OSCC-derived EVs were isolated with a polymer-based precipitation method,
      quantified using nanoparticle tracking analysis and verified for EV markers by
      dot blot. Functional assays were performed to assess the angiogenic potential of
      the OSCC-derived EVs. RESULTS: The results showed that EVs derived from both cell
      lines displayed typical spherical-shaped morphology and expressed the EV markers
      CD63 and Annexin II. Although the average particle concentration and size were
      quite similar, SCC15-derived EVs promoted a pronounced tubular formation
      associated with significant migration and apoptosis rates of the endothelial
      cells, whereas EVs derived from HSC3 cells inhibited significantly endothelial
      cell tubulogenesis and proliferation. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study
      reveal that EVs derived from different OSCC cell lines by a polymer-based
      precipitation method promote pro- or anti-angiogenic effects.

PMID- 28887833
TI  - Gas-Phase Synthesis of the Elusive Cyclooctatetraenyl Radical (C8 H7 ) via
      Triplet Aromatic Cyclooctatetraene (C8 H8 ) and Non-Aromatic Cyclooctatriene (C8
      H8 ) Intermediates.
AB  - The 1,2,4,7-cyclooctatetraenyl radical (C8 H7 ) has been synthesized for the very
      first time via the bimolecular gas-phase reaction of ground-state carbon atoms
      with 1,3,5-cycloheptatriene (C7 H8 ) on the triplet surface under single
      collision conditions. The barrier-less route to the cyclic 1,2,4,7
      cyclooctatetraenyl radical accesses exotic reaction intermediates on the triplet
      surface, which cannot be synthesized via classical organic chemistry methods: the
      triplet non-aromatic 2,4,6-cyclooctatriene (C8 H8 ) and the triplet aromatic
      1,3,5,7-cyclooctatetraene (C8 H8 ). Our approach provides a clean gas-phase
      synthesis of this hitherto elusive cyclic radical species 1,2,4,7
      cyclooctatetraenyl via a single-collision event and opens up a versatile,
      unconventional path to access this previously largely obscure class of
      cyclooctatetraenyl radicals, which have been impossible to access through
      classical synthetic methods.

PMID- 28887834
TI  - Comparison of anatomic and non-anatomic hepatic resection for hepatocellular
      carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to compare the prognostic impact of
      anatomic resection (AR) versus non-anatomic resection (NAR) on patient survival
      after resection of a single hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: To control
      for confounding variable distributions, a 1-to-1 propensity score match was
      applied to compare the outcomes of AR and NAR. Among 710 patients with a primary,
      solitary HCC of <5.0 cm in diameter that was resectable by either AR or NAR from
      2003 to 2007 in Japan and Korea, 355 patients underwent NAR and 355 underwent AR
      of at least one section with complete removal of the portal territory containing
      the tumor. RESULTS: Overall survival (OS) was better in the AR than NAR group
      (hazard ratio 1.67, 95% confidence interval 1.28-2.19, P < 0.001) while disease
      free survival showed no significant difference. Significantly fewer patients in
      the AR than NAR group developed intrahepatic HCC recurrence and multiple
      intrahepatic recurrences. Patients with poorly differentiated HCC who underwent
      AR had improved disease-free survival and OS. CONCLUSIONS: Anatomic resection
      decreases the risk of tumor recurrence and improves OS in patients with a
      primary, solitary HCC of <5.0 cm in diameter.

PMID- 28887835
TI  - Prenatal attitudes toward vaginal delivery and actual delivery mode: Variation by
      race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Researchers documenting persistent racial/ethnic and socioeconomic
      status disparities in chances of cesarean delivery have speculated that women's
      birth attitudes and preferences may partially explain these differences, but no
      studies have directly tested this hypothesis. We examined whether women's
      prenatal attitudes toward vaginal delivery differed by race/ethnicity or
      socioeconomic status, and whether attitudes were differently related to delivery
      mode depending on race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status. METHODS: Data were from
      the First Baby Study, a cohort of 3006 women who gave birth to a first baby in
      Pennsylvania between 2009 and 2011. We used regression models to examine (1)
      predictors of prenatal attitudes toward vaginal delivery, and (2) the association
      between prenatal attitudes and actual delivery mode. To assess moderation, we
      estimated models adding interaction terms. RESULTS: Prenatal attitudes toward
      vaginal delivery were not associated with race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
      Positive attitudes toward vaginal delivery were associated with lower odds of
      cesarean delivery (AOR=0.60, P < .001). However, vaginal delivery attitudes were
      only related to delivery mode among women who were white, highly educated, and
      privately insured. CONCLUSIONS: There are racial/ethnic differences in chances of
      cesarean delivery, and these differences are not explained by birth attitudes.
      Furthermore, our findings suggest that white and high-socioeconomic status women
      may be more able to realize their preferences in childbirth.

PMID- 28887836
TI  - A novel method for quantification of beam's-eye-view tumor tracking performance.
AB  - PURPOSE: In-treatment imaging using an electronic portal imaging device (EPID)
      can be used to confirm patient and tumor positioning. Real-time tumor tracking
      performance using current digital megavolt (MV) imagers is hindered by poor image
      quality. Novel EPID designs may help to improve quantum noise response, while
      also preserving the high spatial resolution of the current clinical detector.
      Recently investigated EPID design improvements include but are not limited to
      multi-layer imager (MLI) architecture, thick crystalline and amorphous
      scintillators, and phosphor pixilation and focusing. The goal of the present
      study was to provide a method of quantitating improvement in tracking performance
      as well as to reveal the physical underpinnings of detector design that impact
      tracking quality. The study employs a generalizable ideal observer methodology
      for the quantification of tumor tracking performance. The analysis is applied to
      study both the effect of increasing scintillator thickness on a standard, single
      layer imager (SLI) design as well as the effect of MLI architecture on tracking
      performance. METHODS: The present study uses the ideal observer signal-to-noise
      ratio (d') as a surrogate for tracking performance. We employ functions which
      model clinically relevant tasks and generalized frequency-domain imaging metrics
      to connect image quality with tumor tracking. A detection task for relevant
      Cartesian shapes (i.e., spheres and cylinders) was used to quantitate
      trackability of cases employing fiducial markers. Automated lung tumor tracking
      algorithms often leverage the differences in benign and malignant lung tissue
      textures. These types of algorithms (e.g., soft-tissue localization - STiL) were
      simulated by designing a discrimination task, which quantifies the
      differentiation of tissue textures, measured experimentally and fit as a power
      law in trend (with exponent beta) using a cohort of MV images of patient lungs.
      The modeled MTF and NPS were used to investigate the effect of scintillator
      thickness and MLI architecture on tumor tracking performance. RESULTS:
      Quantification of MV images of lung tissue as an inverse power-law with respect
      to frequency yields exponent values of beta = 3.11 and 3.29 for benign and
      malignant tissues, respectively. Tracking performance with and without fiducials
      was found to be generally limited by quantum noise, a factor dominated by quantum
      detective efficiency (QDE). For generic SLI construction, increasing the
      scintillator thickness (gadolinium oxysulfide - GOS) from a standard 290 MUm to
      1720 MUm reduces noise to about 10%. However, 81% of this reduction is
      appreciated between 290 and 1000 MUm. In comparing MLI and SLI detectors of
      equivalent individual GOS layer thickness, the improvement in noise is equal to
      the number of layers in the detector (i.e., 4) with almost no difference in MTF.
      Further, improvement in tracking performance was slightly less than the square
      root of the reduction in noise, approximately 84-90%. In comparing an MLI
      detector with an SLI with a GOS scintillator of equivalent total thickness,
      improvement in object detectability is approximately 34-39%. CONCLUSIONS: We have
      presented a novel method for quantification of tumor tracking quality and have
      applied this model to evaluate the performance of SLI and MLI EPID designs. We
      showed that improved tracking quality is primarily limited by improvements in
      NPS. When compared to very thick scintillator SLI, employing MLI architecture
      exhibits the same gains in QDE, but by mitigating the effect of optical Swank
      noise, results in more dramatic improvements in tracking performance.

PMID- 28887837
TI  - Characterization of proton pencil beam scanning and passive beam using a high
      spatial resolution solid-state microdosimeter.
AB  - PURPOSE: This work aims to characterize a proton pencil beam scanning (PBS) and
      passive double scattering (DS) systems as well as to measure parameters relevant
      to the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the beam using a silicon on
      insulator (SOI) microdosimeter with well-defined 3D sensitive volumes (SV). The
      dose equivalent downstream and laterally outside of a clinical PBS treatment
      field was assessed and compared to that of a DS beam. METHODS: A novel silicon
      microdosimeter with well-defined 3D SVs was used in this study. It was connected
      to low noise electronics, allowing for detection of lineal energies as low as
      0.15 keV/MUm. The microdosimeter was placed at various depths in a water phantom
      along the central axis of the proton beam, and at the distal part of the spread
      out Bragg peak (SOBP) in 0.5 mm increments. The RBE values of the pristine Bragg
      peak (BP) and SOBP were derived using the measured microdosimetric lineal energy
      spectra as inputs to the modified microdosimetric kinetic model (MKM). Geant4
      simulations were performed in order to verify the calculated depth-dose
      distribution from the treatment planning system (TPS) and to compare the
      simulated dose-mean lineal energy to the experimental results. RESULTS: For a 131
      MeV PBS spot (124.6 mm R90 range in water), the measured dose-mean lineal energy
      yD- increased from 2 keV/MUm at the entrance to 8 keV/MUm in the BP, with a
      maximum value of 10 keV/MUm at the distal edge. The derived RBE distribution for
      the PBS beam slowly increased from 0.97 +/- 0.14 at the entrance to 1.04 +/- 0.09
      proximal to the BP, then to 1.1 +/- 0.08 in the BP, and steeply rose to 1.57 +/-
      0.19 at the distal part of the BP. The RBE distribution for the DS SOBP beam was
      approximately 0.96 +/- 0.16 to 1.01 +/- 0.16 at shallow depths, and 1.01 +/- 0.16
      to 1.28 +/- 0.17 within the SOBP. The RBE significantly increased from 1.29 +/-
      0.17 to 1.43 +/- 0.18 at the distal edge of the SOBP. CONCLUSIONS: The SOI
      microdosimeter with its well-defined 3D SV has applicability in characterizing
      proton radiation fields and can measure relevant physical parameters to model the
      RBE with submillimeter spatial resolution. It has been shown that for a physical
      dose of 1.82 Gy at the BP, the derived RBE based on the MKM model increased from
      1.14 to 1.6 in the BP and its distal part. Good agreement was observed between
      the experimental and simulation results, confirming the potential application of
      SOI microdosimeter with 3D SV for quality assurance in proton therapy.

PMID- 28887838
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy of optical coherence tomography inter-eye percentage
      difference for optic neuritis in multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Multiple sclerosis-associated optic neuritis (MSON)
      causes atrophy of the inner retinal layers, which can be quantified by optical
      coherence tomography. It has been suggested that the inter-eye percentage
      difference (IEPD) of atrophy may be of diagnostic value in MSON. METHODS: This
      was a prospective, cross-sectional study in patients with multiple sclerosis and
      healthy controls (HCs). Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography of both eyes
      was performed, followed by automated retinal layer segmentation of the peri
      papillary retinal nerve fibre layer (pRNFL) and macular ganglion cell and inner
      plexiform layer (mGCIPL). Receiver operator characteristics curves were plotted
      and the area under the curve was calculated for group comparisons of the IEPD of
      the pRNFL and mGCIPL. RESULTS: There were 39 patients with bilateral MSON, 62
      patients with unilateral MSON, 106 patients without MSON and 63 HCs. Diagnostic
      accuracy (area under the curve) of the IEPD was 0.73-0.86 for the pRNFL and 0.75
      0.94 for the mGCIPL. The diagnostic sensitivity of the mGCIPL IEPD was 70% with a
      specificity of 97% for distinguishing unilateral MSON from HCs. For the
      comparison of bilateral MSON with HCs, sensitivity was 86% with a specificity of
      97%. CONCLUSIONS: The IEPD of the pRNFL, and more particularly the IEPD of the
      mGCIPL, is a useful diagnostic measure for MSON. The IEPD is a dimensionless unit
      and may therefore contribute to overcome device and proprietary segmentation
      algorithm limitations.

PMID- 28887839
TI  - Anti-inflammatory effect of astaxanthin in phthalic anhydride-induced atopic
      dermatitis animal model.
AB  - In this study, we investigated anti-dermatitic effects of astaxanthin (AST) in
      phthalic anhydride (PA)-induced atopic dermatitis (AD) animal model as well as in
      vitro model. AD-like lesion was induced by the topical application of 5% PA to
      the dorsal skin or ear of Hos:HR-1 mouse. After AD induction, 100 MUL of 1 mg/mL
      and 2 mg/mL of AST (10 MUg or 20 MUg/cm2 ) was spread on the dorsum of ear or
      back skin three times a week for four weeks. We evaluated dermatitis severity,
      histopathological changes and changes in protein expression by Western blotting
      for inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and nuclear
      factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activity. We also measured tumor necrosis factor-alpha
      (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and
      immunoglobulin E (IgE) concentration in the blood of AD mice by enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assay (ELISA). AST treatment attenuated the development of PA
      induced AD. Histological analysis showed that AST inhibited hyperkeratosis, mast
      cells and infiltration of inflammatory cells. AST treatment inhibited expression
      of iNOS and COX-2, and NF-kappaB activity as well as release of TNF-alpha, IL
      1beta, IL-6 and IgE. In addition, AST (5, 10 and 20 MUM) potently inhibited
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (1 MUg/mL)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production,
      expression of iNOS and COX-2 and NF-kappaB DNA binding activities in RAW 264.7
      macrophage cells. Our data demonstrated that AST could be a promising agent for
      AD by inhibition of NF-kappaB signalling.

PMID- 28887840
TI  - Pre-clinical evaluation of N-acetylcysteine reveals side effects in the mdx mouse
      model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
AB  - KEY POINTS: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle wasting disease
      associated with increased inflammation and oxidative stress. The antioxidant N
      acetylcysteine (NAC) has been proposed as a therapeutic intervention for DMD
      boys, but potential adverse effects of NAC have not been widely investigated. We
      used young (6 weeks old) growing mdx mice to investigate the capacity of NAC
      supplementation (2% in drinking water for 6 weeks) to improve dystrophic muscle
      function and to explore broader systemic effects of NAC treatment. NAC treatment
      improved normalised measures of muscle function, and decreased inflammation and
      oxidative stress, but significantly reduced body weight gain, muscle weight and
      liver weight. Unexpected significant adverse effects of NAC on body and muscle
      weights indicate that interpretation of muscle function based on normalised force
      measures should be made with caution and careful consideration is needed when
      proposing the use of NAC as a therapeutic treatment for young DMD boys. ABSTRACT:
      Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal X-linked muscle wasting disease
      characterised by severe muscle weakness, necrosis, inflammation and oxidative
      stress. The antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been proposed as a potential
      therapeutic intervention for DMD boys. We investigated the capacity of NAC to
      improve dystrophic muscle function in the mdx mouse model of DMD. Young (6 weeks
      old) mdx and non-dystrophic C57 mice receiving 2% NAC in drinking water for 6
      weeks were compared with untreated mice. Grip strength and body weight were
      measured weekly, before the 12 week old mice were anaesthetised and extensor
      digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were excised for functional analysis and tissues
      were sampled for biochemical analyses. Compared to untreated mice, the mean (SD)
      normalised grip strength was significantly greater in NAC-treated mdx [3.13
      (0.58) vs 4.87 (0.78) g body weight (bw)-1 ; P < 0.001] and C57 mice [3.90 (0.32)
      vs 5.32 (0.60) g bw-1 ; P < 0.001]. Maximum specific force was significantly
      greater in NAC-treated mdx muscles [9.80 (2.27) vs 13.07 (3.37) N cm-2 ; P =
      0.038]. Increased force in mdx mice was associated with reduced thiol oxidation
      and inflammation in fast muscles, and increased citrate synthase activity in slow
      muscle. Importantly, NAC significantly impaired body weight gain in both strains
      of young growing mice, and reduced liver weight in C57 mice and muscle weight in
      mdx mice. These potentially adverse effects of NAC emphasise the need for caution
      when interpreting improvements in muscle function based on normalised force
      measures, and that careful consideration be given to these effects when proposing
      NAC as a potential treatment for young DMD boys.

PMID- 28887841
TI  - Evidence for a contributory role of a xenogeneic immune response in experimental
      epidermolysis bullosa acquisita.
AB  - Autoimmune diseases affect a large fraction of the population in Western
      countries. To elucidate the underlying causes, autoantibody transfer-induced
      mouse models have been established that greatly contributed to the understanding
      of the pathophysiology of these diseases. However, the role of a potentially co
      occurring murine xenogeneic immune response to commonly utilized rabbit anti
      mouse IgG remains poorly understood. Using the established rabbit anti-mouse type
      VII collagen (COL7) IgG-induced mouse model of the mucocutaneous blistering
      disorder epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA), we found in this study a profound
      T- and B-cell response along with an altered cytokine expression profile in
      draining lymph nodes of mice injected with the xenogeneic IgG. This was
      associated with the formation of circulating and skin-bound mouse anti-rabbit IgG
      in wild-type but not CD154-deficient or B-cell-deficient JHT mice challenged with
      pathogenic rabbit IgG. Development of EBA skin lesions was attenuated in the two
      mouse strains lacking a B-cell response at later observation time points, but was
      not affected in mice treated with the T-cell trafficking blocker FTY720.
      Collectively, our results implicate a host's xenoreactive immune response to
      rabbit anti-mouse COL7 IgG, a confounding effect that may contribute to immune
      complex-driven inflammation and tissue damage in this antibody transfer-induced
      EBA mouse model, especially at later time points. In this regard, it may be
      recommended to finish the evaluation of results obtained by experiments employing
      antibody-transferred mouse models within the first 2 weeks after the pathogenic
      antibody injection.

PMID- 28887842
TI  - Seasonally-induced alterations of some facial signs in Caucasian women and their
      changes induced by a daily application of a photo-protective product.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: These were two-fold: (i) to assess the possible changes in some
      facial signs induced in a 6-month period by the periodical shift from winter to
      summer in Caucasian women and (ii) to appraise the preventive effects of a strong
      photo-protective product. METHODS: The facial signs of two cohorts of French
      women (N= 40 and 42), of comparable ages were graded between winter to summer.
      One group was left unprotected whereas the other daily applied a strong photo
      protective product for 6 months. Facial signs (structural and pigmentation
      related) were graded in blind by a panel of 12 experts from photographs taken
      under standard conditions. A global and focused analysis of the skin colour or
      dark spots, when present, was carried out through spectro-radiometry under
      diffuse and standardized visible light, using the L*, a*, b* referential system.
      RESULTS: The unprotected group showed significant changes in summer as compared
      to winter on 10 facial signs (two-third of the studied signs) that presented an
      increased severity, of variable respective amplitude. Five signs among the 10
      were particularly and significantly affected by the seasonal transition, of an
      amplitude above the precision of the grading scale. Three of these five signs
      concerned structural elements (wrinkles), the two others being related to
      vascular disorders (redness). These season-induced alterations appear efficiently
      reduced in the photo-protected group. The colour of the facial skin then appears
      more homogeneous, less red, less dull, all criteria being quantified by the L*,
      a*, b* referential system. The comparison with a previous work carried out on
      Chinese women, through a similar protocol, shows that the photo-protective
      product brings, in Caucasian women, a more important effect upon structural and
      vascular features than upon pigmentation disorders, inversely to the results
      previously observed in Chinese women. CONCLUSION: The alterations in some facial
      signs occurring in a 6-month period between winter and summer are confirmed in
      Caucasian women, mostly related to structural (wrinkles) and vascular elements.
      Such changes appear alleviated or prevented by daily applications of a strong sun
      photo-protective product.

PMID- 28887844
TI  - House dust mite allergens Der f and Der p induce IL-31 production by blood
      derived T cells from atopic dermatitis patients.
AB  - Aero-allergens, such as house dust mite (HDM), have been suggested to play a role
      in the initiation of atopic dermatitis (AD)-related skin inflammation. Here, we
      analysed the proliferation and the cytokine expression of blood-derived T cells
      from AD and healthy individuals upon HDM-allergen stimulation. The proliferating
      cells from healthy individuals and AD patients had a significantly different,
      distinct cytokine profile: in AD blood, we found increased frequencies of HDM
      reactive IL-31-producing T cells, as well as a decreased Th1/Th2 and Tc1/Tc2
      ratio, suggesting that allergen-specific T cells in blood of chronic AD patients
      are subject to pre-existent Th2-Tc2 and "Th31-Tc31" programming.

PMID- 28887845
TI  - Contemporary Issues in Women's Health.

PMID- 28887843
TI  - Determinants of HDL Cholesterol Efflux Capacity after Virgin Olive Oil Ingestion:
      Interrelationships with Fluidity of HDL Monolayer.
AB  - SCOPE: Cholesterol efflux capacity of HDL (CEC) is inversely associated with
      cardiovascular risk. HDL composition, fluidity, oxidation, and size are related
      with CEC. We aimed to assess which HDL parameters were CEC determinants after
      virgin olive oil (VOO) ingestion. METHODS AND RESULTS: Post-hoc analyses from the
      VOHF study, a crossover intervention with three types of VOO. We assessed the
      relationship of 3-week changes in HDL-related variables after intervention
      periods with independence of the type of VOO. After univariate analyses, mixed
      linear models were fitted with variables related with CEC and fluidity. Fluidity
      and Apolipoprotein (Apo)A-I content in HDL was directly associated, and HDL
      oxidative status inversely, with CEC. A reduction in free cholesterol, an
      increase in triglycerides in HDL, and a decrease in small HDL particle number or
      an increase in HDL mean size, were associated to HDL fluidity. CONCLUSIONS: HDL
      fluidity, ApoA-I concentration, and oxidative status are major determinants for
      CEC after VOO. The impact on CEC of changes in free cholesterol and triglycerides
      in HDL, and those of small HDL or HDL mean size, could be mechanistically linked
      through HDL fluidity. Our work points out novel therapeutic targets to improve
      HDL functionality in humans through nutritional or pharmacological interventions.

PMID- 28887846
TI  - Mutations in KARS cause early-onset hearing loss and leukoencephalopathy:
      Potential pathogenic mechanism.
AB  - Leukoencephalopathies are a broad class of common neurologic deterioration for
      which the etiology remains unsolved in many cases. In a Chinese Han family
      segregated with sensorineural hearing loss and leukoencephalopathy, candidate
      pathogenic variants were identified by targeted next-generation sequencing of 144
      genes associated with deafness and 108 genes with leukoencephalopathy. Novel
      compound heterozygous mutations p.R477H and p.P505S were identified in KARS,
      which encodes lysyl-tRNA synthetase (LysRS), as the only candidate causative
      variants. These two mutations were functionally characterized by enzymatic
      assays, immunofluorescence, circular dichroism analysis, and gel filtration
      chromatography. Despite no alteration in the dimer-tetramer oligomerization and
      cellular distribution by either mutation, the protein structure was notably
      influenced by the R477H mutation, which subsequently released the protein from
      the multiple-synthetase complex (MSC). Mutant LysRSs with the R477H and P505S
      mutations had decreased tRNALys aminoacylation and displayed a cumulative effect
      when introduced simultaneously. Our studies showed that mutations in KARS lead to
      a newly defined subtype of leukoencephalopathy associated with sensorineural
      hearing impairment. The combined effect of reduced aminoacylation and release of
      LysRS from the MSC likely underlies the pathogenesis of the KARS mutations
      identified in this study.

PMID- 28887847
TI  - Fournier's gangrene in a man on empagliflozin for treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SLGT2) inhibitors has been associated
      with an increased risk of genital infections secondary to increased glycosuria.
      CASE REPORT: We report a case of a 41-year-old man with type 2 diabetes treated
      with empagliflozin and metformin who presented with scrotal swelling. He
      described multiple preceding episodes of genital thrush for which he self
      administered over-the-counter anti-fungal treatment. On examination, he was
      afebrile and hemodynamically stable. Perineal examination revealed grossly
      swollen and indurated scrotum with bilateral inguinal lymphadenopathy.
      Investigations showed elevated inflammatory markers and HbA1c of 99 mmol/mol
      (11.2%). Computed tomography revealed features consistent with Fournier's
      gangrene. He underwent emergency exploration and debridement under anaesthetic
      with a later return to theatre for further exploration, washout and application
      of a vacuum dressing. He then received a split skin graft to his perineum. He
      required a 2-week course of intravenous antibiotics and was discharged home on
      oral antibiotics. Empagliflozin was ceased on admission and he was commenced on a
      basal bolus insulin regimen for glycaemic optimisation. CONCLUSION: There is a
      wide clinical spectrum of genital infections associated with SGLT2 inhibitors
      with most being generally mild and easily treated. However, risk factors such as
      diabetes, obesity, immunosuppressed states, smoking, alcohol abuse and end-stage
      renal or liver failure may increase the risk of potentially more severe
      infections such as Fournier's gangrene. Timely cessation of SGLT2 inhibitors in
      individuals with multiple risk factors may help prevent progression to more
      severe genital infections.

PMID- 28887848
TI  - A numerical classification system for cleft lip and palate in the dog.
AB  - An easy-to-use classification that enables an accurate record of canine cleft lip
      and palate is fundamental for effective communication between professionals and
      researchers and optimal use of published information. Here we present how a
      classification system for human cleft lip and palate can be used to register
      spontaneous cases in dogs, highlighting its advantages. This system is based on
      four topographic areas with a numerical representation of the severity of the
      cleft in each area. The use of spontaneous cases has the advantage of providing
      clefts that are naturally similar to their human counterparts for surgical,
      genetic and genomic studies and, furthermore, will reduce the need for
      experimental models of this condition.

PMID- 28887849
TI  - Extended Ladder-Type Benzo[k]tetraphene-Derived Oligomers.
AB  - Well-defined, fused-ring aromatic oligomers represent promising candidates for
      the fundamental understanding and application of advanced carbon-rich materials,
      though bottom-up synthesis and structure-property correlation of these compounds
      remain challenging. In this work, an efficient synthetic route was employed to
      construct extended benzo[k]tetraphene-derived oligomers with up to 13 fused
      rings. The molecular and electronic structures of these compounds were clearly
      elucidated. Precise correlation of molecular sizes and crystallization dynamics
      was established, thus demonstrating the pivotal balance between intermolecular
      interaction and molecular mobility for optimized processing of highly ordered
      solids of these extended conjugated molecules.

PMID- 28887850
TI  - Wear profile of canal wall surfaces and bond strength of endodontic sealers after
      in situ acid challenge.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the wear of root wall surfaces, the bond strength of sealers to
      dentine and the demineralization around root filling materials after canals were
      exposed to acid challenge in situ. METHODOLOGY: Eighty-seven roots of mandibular
      incisors were selected. Thirty-two were used in the laboratory bond strength
      study (n = 8), and 55 in the in situ study (n = 11). Root canals were prepared
      biomechanically and then filled with gutta-percha and AH Plus, MTA Fillapex,
      Sealapex or Endofill. For 14 days, 11 participants used intra-oral devices with
      five sterilized roots (four experimental and one control - only canal prepared).
      Drops of sucrose were dripped onto roots allowing the accumulation of biofilm on
      canal surfaces. Roots were removed, sectioned and analysed for the following:
      bond strength of filling material using a push-out test and also wear profile and
      dentine demineralization using confocal microscopy. Bond strength (MPa) was
      evaluated by two-way anova and Tukey test (alpha = 0.05), and wear profile was
      assessed by Kruskal-Wallis and t-tests (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: AH Plus had the
      highest bond strength values. Intermediate results were found in roots with MTA
      Fillapex and Endofill, whilst Sealapex had inferior results (P < 0.05). No
      significant differences were found amongst root thirds (P > 0.05). For wear
      profile, samples were associated with degradation of the filling materials after
      exposure to the oral environment (P < 0.05). Roots had signs of demineralization
      around the filling material when Sealapex and Endofill were used. CONCLUSIONS:
      Sealers were not able to prevent degradation of the adhesive interface and
      dentine. AH Plus and MTA Fillapex had superior bond strength to dentine and less
      intense demineralization around the root filling.

PMID- 28887851
TI  - Comparison of four extraction methods for analysis of volatile hop-derived aroma
      compounds in beer.
AB  - The volatile organic compound profile in beer is derived from hops, malt, yeast,
      and interactions between the ingredients, making it very diverse and complex. Due
      to the range and diversity of the volatile organic compounds present, the choice
      of the extraction method is extremely important for optimal sensitivity and
      selectivity. This study compared four extraction methods for hop-derived
      compounds in beer late hopped with Nelson Sauvin. Extraction capacity and
      variation were compared for headspace solid-phase micro extraction, stir bar
      sorptive extraction, headspace sorptive extraction, and solvent-assisted flavor
      evaporation. Generally, stir bar sorptive extraction was better suited for acids,
      headspace sorptive extraction for esters and aldehydes, while headspace solid
      phase microextraction was less sensitive overall, extracting 40% fewer compounds.
      Solvent-assisted flavor evaporation with dichloromethane was not suitable for the
      extraction of hop-derived volatile organic compounds in beer, as the profile was
      strongly skewed towards alcohols and acids. Overall, headspace sorptive
      extraction is found to be best suited, closely followed by stir bar sorptive
      extraction.

PMID- 28887852
TI  - CD8+ lineage dendritic cells determine adaptive immune responses to inflammasome
      activation upon sterile skin injury.
AB  - The molecular links between sterile inflammation and induction of adaptive
      immunity have not been fully identified. Here, we examine how damage-associated
      molecular patterns (DAMPs), as opposed to pathogen-associated molecules (PAMPs),
      regulate the immune response to non-self-antigens presented at the site of a
      physical injury. Heat applied briefly to the skin invokes sterile inflammation,
      characterized by local cell death and caspase-1 activation without demonstrably
      disrupting skin integrity. Co-delivery of ovalbumin (OVA) with heat injury
      induces OVA-specific CD8+ T-cell responses, and this is dependent on caspase-1
      activation and MyD88 signalling. Using Id2flox/flox-CD11cCre+ mice, we
      demonstrate that CD8+ lineage DCs are required to induce OVA-specific CD8+ T-cell
      responses following heat injury. Consistent with this observation, intradermal
      administration of CD8+ lineage DCs but not CD11b+ lineage DCs restores priming of
      CD8+ T-cell responses in Casp-1-/- mice. Thus, we conclude that a sterile injury
      induces CD8+ T-cell immune responses to local antigen through caspase-1
      activation and requires CD8+ lineage DCs, a finding of significance for
      immunotherapy and for the pathogenesis of autoimmunity.

PMID- 28887853
TI  - Neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying bariatric surgery: Insights from human
      studies and animal models.
AB  - Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and, to date, bariatric surgery remains
      the only effective treatment for morbid obesity in terms of its capacity to
      achieve durable weight loss. Bariatric surgery procedures, including Roux-en-Y
      gastric bypass (RYGB), adjustable gastric banding (AGB) and sleeve gastrectomy
      (SG), have been the primary procedures conducted over the past decade, with SG
      increasing in popularity over the past 5 years at the expense of both RYGB and
      AGB. Although these procedures were initially proposed to function via
      restrictive or malabsorptive mechanisms, it is now clear that profound
      physiological changes underlie the metabolic improvements in patients who undergo
      bariatric surgery. Data generated in human patients and animal models highlight
      the rapid and sustained changes in gut hormones that coincide with these
      procedures. Furthermore, recent studies highlight the involvement of the nervous
      system, specifically the vagus nerve, in mediating the reduction in appetite and
      food intake following bariatric surgery. What is unclear is where these pathways
      converge and interact within the gut-brain axis and whether vagally-mediated
      circuits are sufficient to drive the metabolic sequalae following bariatric
      surgery.

PMID- 28887854
TI  - Human tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 improved wound healing in diabetes
      through its anti-apoptotic effect.
AB  - Impaired wound healing accompanies severe cell apoptosis in diabetic patients.
      Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) was known to have effects on
      promoting growth and anti-apoptosis for cells. We aimed to determine the actual
      levels of TIMP-1 and cell apoptosis in: (i) the biopsies of diabetic and non
      diabetic foot tissue and (ii) the human fibroblasts with or without treatments of
      advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). Next, we aimed to determine the improved
      levels of cell apoptosis and wound healing after the treatments of either active
      protein of TIMP-1 or in vivo expression of gene therapy vector-mediated TIMP-1 in
      both the human fibroblasts and the animal model of diabetic rats. The levels of
      TIMP-1 were significantly reduced in diabetic skin tissues and in AGEs-treated
      fibroblasts. Both AGEs-treated cells were effectively protected from apoptosis by
      active protein of TIMP-1 at appropriate dose level. So did the induced in vivo
      TIMP-1 expression after gene delivery. Similar effects were also found on the
      significant improvement of impaired wound healing in diabetic rats. We concluded
      that TIMP-1 improved wound healing through its anti-apoptotic effect. Treatments
      with either active protein TIMP-1 or TIMP-1 gene therapy delivered in local wound
      sites may be used as a strategy for accelerating diabetic wound healing.

PMID- 28887855
TI  - Effects of Anhydrous Lanolin versus Breast Milk Combined with a Breast Shell for
      the Treatment of Nipple Trauma and Pain During Breastfeeding: A Randomized
      Clinical Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of anhydrous
      lanolin with the effect of breast milk combined with a breast shell for treatment
      of nipple trauma and pain during breastfeeding. METHODS: A randomized clinical
      trial was conducted in a maternity ward in a hospital accredited as a Baby
      Friendly Hospital located in the middle-western region of Brazil. Breastfeeding
      women with obvious nipple trauma were randomized into 2 groups. In both groups,
      breastfeeding education was conducted. For up to 10 days, in Group 1, anhydrous
      lanolin was applied daily after each breastfeeding session, whereas in Group 2,
      breast milk combined with a breast shell was applied. Trauma was assessed using
      the Nipple Trauma Score, and pain was assessed using a numerical scale and
      sensory descriptors from the McGill Questionnaire. RESULTS: One hundred women
      participated, with 50 women in each of the 2 groups. The healing of nipple trauma
      was faster in the group treated with breast milk combined with a breast shell,
      starting on the third day of intervention (P = .032). The intensity of pain was
      lower in the group treated with breast milk combined with a breast shell starting
      on the fifth day of treatment (P = .008). The use of anhydrous lanolin had a
      progressively reduced treatment efficacy, with values of 86.4% on the third day
      (95% confidence interval [CI], -4.5%-98.2%), 58.3% on the fifth day (95% CI,
      20.1%-78.3%), 48.1% on the seventh day (95% CI, 20.1%-66.2%), and 26.9.% on the
      tenth day (95% CI, 6.4%-43%) of intervention. The resolution of nipple trauma was
      significantly associated with the use of the nipple shell on all intervention
      days. DISCUSSION: The intervention with breast milk combined with a breast shell
      was more effective than anhydrous lanolin for the treatment of nipple trauma and
      pain in breastfeeding women. This treatment should be encouraged among
      breastfeeding women to promote healing and reduce pain.

PMID- 28887857
TI  - Development of a patient-specific atrial phantom model for planning and training
      of inter-atrial interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Several authors have presented cardiac phantoms to mimic the
      particularities of the heart, making it suitable for medical training and
      surgical planning. Although the initial models were mainly focused on the
      ventricles, personalized phantoms of the atria were recently presented. However,
      such models are typically rigid, the atrial wall is not realistic and they are
      not compatible with ultrasound (US), being sub-optimal for planning/training of
      several interventions. METHODS: In this work, we propose a strategy to construct
      a patient-specific atrial model. Specifically, the target anatomy is generated
      using a computed tomography (CT) dataset and then constructed using a mold-cast
      approach. An accurate representation of the inter-atrial wall (IAS) was ensured
      during the model generation, allowing its application for IAS interventions. Two
      phantoms were constructed using different flexible materials (silicone and
      polyvinyl alcohol cryogel, PVA-C), which were then compared to assess their
      appropriateness for US acquisition and for the generation of complex anatomies.
      RESULTS: Two experiments were set up to validate the proposed methodology. First,
      the accuracy of the manufacturing approach was assessed through the comparison
      between a post-production CT and the virtual references. The results proved that
      the silicone-based model was more accurate than the PVA-C-based one, with an
      error of 1.68 +/- 0.79, 1.36 +/- 0.94, 1.45 +/- 0.77 mm for the left (LA) and
      right atria (RA) and IAS, respectively. Second, an US acquisition of each model
      was performed and the obtained images quantitatively and qualitatively assessed.
      Both models showed a similar performance in terms of visual evaluation, with an
      easy detection of the LA, RA, and the IAS. Furthermore, a moderate accuracy was
      obtained between the atrial surfaces extracted from the US and the ideal
      reference, and again a superior performance of the silicone-based model against
      the PVA-C phantom was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed strategy proved to be
      accurate and feasible for the correct generation of complex personalized atrial
      models.

PMID- 28887858
TI  - Liver transplantation equity: Supply, demand, and access.

PMID- 28887856
TI  - Cassava brown streak disease: historical timeline, current knowledge and future
      prospects.
AB  - Cassava is the second most important staple food crop in terms of per capita
      calories consumed in Africa and holds potential for climate change adaptation.
      Unfortunately, productivity in East and Central Africa is severely constrained by
      two viral diseases: cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak disease
      (CBSD). CBSD was first reported in 1936 from northeast Tanzania. For
      approximately 70 years, CBSD was restricted to coastal East Africa and so had a
      relatively low impact on food security compared with CMD. However, at the turn of
      the 21st century, CBSD re-emerged further inland, in areas around Lake Victoria,
      and it has since spread through many East and Central African countries, causing
      high yield losses and jeopardizing the food security of subsistence farmers. This
      recent re-emergence has attracted intense scientific interest, with studies
      shedding light on CBSD viral epidemiology, sequence diversity, host interactions
      and potential sources of resistance within the cassava genome. This review
      reflects on 80 years of CBSD research history (1936-2016) with a timeline of key
      events. We provide insights into current CBSD knowledge, management efforts and
      future prospects for improved understanding needed to underpin effective control
      and mitigation of impacts on food security.

PMID- 28887859
TI  - Association between mode of delivery and astigmatism in preschool children.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether mode of delivery has any impact on astigmatism.
      METHODS: This case-control study was performed in the Department of Ophthalmology
      in 2015. Exposure was mode of delivery [vaginal delivery (VD) or caesarean
      section (CS), which here included both elective and emergency CS]. Outcome was
      astigmatism (>=2.5 D), which was determined by cycloplegic refraction. Odds
      ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were computed to assess the
      associations between mode of delivery and astigmatism from logistic regression
      models. RESULTS: Of the 659 children studied here (341 boys; mean age, 4.37
      years), 440 were born by CS and 219 by VD. The incidence of severe astigmatism
      (>=2.5 D) in the CS and VD groups was 22.06% and 13.24%, respectively. Children
      delivered by CS had a 77.9% higher risk of severe astigmatism compared with
      vaginally delivered children (OR = 1.779; 95% CI, 1.121 to 2.824). After dividing
      CS into elective CS and emergency CS, children delivered by elective CS had an
      87.3% increased risk of severe astigmatism (OR = 1.873; 95% CI, 1.157 to 3.032),
      but children delivered by emergency CS did not differ from vaginally delivered
      children. In addition, the children whose mothers had histories of breastfeeding
      had a 44.6% lower risk of severe astigmatism than children whose mother did not
      breastfeed them (OR = 0.554, 95% CI, 0.335-0.914). CONCLUSION: Birth by CS,
      especially elective CS, increases the risk of severe astigmatism (>=2.50 D) in
      childhood.

PMID- 28887860
TI  - Regulation of radial glial process growth by glutamate via mGluR5/TRPC3 and
      neuregulin/ErbB4.
AB  - Radial glial cells play an essential role through their function as guides for
      neuronal migration during development. Disruption of metabotropic glutamate
      receptor 5 (mGluR5) function retards the growth of radial glial processes in
      vitro. Neuregulins (NRG) are activated by proteolytic cleavage and regulate
      (radial) glial maintenance via ErbB3/ErbB4 receptors. We show here that blocking
      ErbB4 disrupts radial process extension. Soluble NRG acting on ErbB4 receptors is
      able to promote radial process extension in particular where process elongation
      has been impeded by blockade of mGluR5, the nonselective cation channel canonical
      transient receptor potential 3 (TRPC3), or matrix metalloproteases (MMP). NRG
      does not restore retarded process growth caused by ErbB4 blockade. Stimulation of
      muscarinic receptors restores process elongation due to mGluR5 blockade but not
      that caused by TRPC3, MMP or ErbB4 blockade suggesting that muscarinic receptors
      can replace mGluR5 with respect to radial process extension. Additionally,
      NRG/ErbB4 causes Ca2+ mobilization in a population of cells through cooperation
      with ErbB1 receptors. Our results indicate that mGluR5 promotes radial process
      growth via NRG activation by a mechanism involving TRPC3 channels and MMPs. Thus
      neurotransmitters acting on G-protein coupled receptors could play a central role
      in the maintenance of the radial glial scaffold through activation of NRG/ErbB4
      signaling.

PMID- 28887861
TI  - Ultrasound-Guided Intratumoral Radiofrequency Ablation Coagulation to Facilitate
      Meningioma Resection: Preliminary Experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the feasibility and safety of
      intratumoral radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in meningioma resection. METHODS: This
      study was approved by the Xijing Ethics Committee, and informed consent was
      obtained from all of the patients. Thirteen patients with meningiomas were
      recruited in the Neurosurgery Department of Xijing Hospital. These patients were
      treated with intratumoral RFA and surgery. We also chose 13 patients with
      meningiomas treated with traditional surgery as the control group. Two
      dimensional ultrasound, color Doppler flow imaging, contrast-enhanced ultrasound,
      and magnetic resonance imaging were used to identify the location, border, and
      blood supply of the meningiomas preoperatively and to assess the therapeutic
      effect intraoperatively. Finally, the meningiomas were dissected and removed by
      surgery. RESULTS: All procedures were technically successful without serious
      complications. Intraoperative ultrasound was able to provide a clear display of
      the location, shape, size, and boundary of the tumor and its relationship with
      other tissues and reveal the vascular distribution in and around the tumors. With
      intratumoral RFA, coagulative necrosis was induced, and the meningiomas became
      hard in texture with a decreased blood supply. Blood loss was significantly lower
      in the RFA group versus control group (320.0 +/- 24.8 versus 390.4 +/- 36.8 mL; P
      < .001). The RFA group spent fewer days in the hospital (6.0 +/- 0.9 versus 7.0
      +/- 1.2 days; P = .022). However, the surgical time of the RFA group was
      relatively longer (3.5 +/- 0.5 versus 3.0 +/- 0.3 hours, P = .007). CONCLUSIONS:
      The application of intratumoral RFA in meningioma resection is effective and
      safe. It may be a useful adjunct for meningioma treatment.

PMID- 28887862
TI  - Systolic blood pressure targets, diastolic J curve and cuff artefact in blood
      pressure measurement: a note of caution.

PMID- 28887863
TI  - Fate of transplanted lungs is controlled by immune cells encounter within
      pulmonary allografts.

PMID- 28887864
TI  - Oral-maxillofacial trauma of a geriatric population in a super-ageing country.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: World population has been ageing, and oral-maxillofacial trauma
      of geriatric population is expected to increase. The aim of this study was to
      analyse the characteristic features of oral-maxillofacial trauma in the geriatric
      population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from 127 patients aged 65 years old or
      older, who were treated for oral-maxillofacial trauma at the Department of Oral
      and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hirosaki University, from 2000 to 2014, were
      retrospectively analysed. The data from 292 patients aged 20-64 years were used
      as a comparison. RESULTS: Oral-maxillofacial trauma in the geriatric population
      had been increasing over 15-year period. The male to female ratio was 1.05:1 in
      the older group and 2.3:1 in the younger group. In the older group, 117 patients
      (92.1%) had one or more underlying systemic diseases, and 16 (12.6%) had suffered
      injuries in association with acute medical disorders. The most common injuries in
      the older group were bone fractures (46.5%). The ratio of fractures in the older
      group was lower than in the younger group (69.2%). Trauma in the older group most
      frequently occurred because of falls from a standing height or lower (52.0%), and
      the mandible was the most common site of fracture (74.6%). A conservative form of
      treatment for maxillofacial fractures was most commonly (86.4%) chosen for the
      older group, whilst surgical treatment was most commonly in the younger group
      (55.0%). CONCLUSION: Oral-maxillofacial trauma in the geriatric population shows
      characteristic features in terms of aetiology, patterns and treatment modalities.

PMID- 28887865
TI  - Platelet-rich plasma, the ultimate secret for youthful skin elixir and hair
      growth triggering.
AB  - The clinical application of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is based on the increase
      in the concentration of growth factors that are released from alpha-granule of
      the concentrated platelets and in the secretion of proteins which are able to
      capitalize on the healing process at the cellular level. It has been invented to
      restore the natural beauty by starting the natural rejuvenation process of the
      skin and aiming to make it function as a younger one and to keep the skin
      youthful and maintain it. Besides that, it is also emerged to include hairs as a
      new injectable procedure to enable stimulating hair growth locally and topically;
      preventing its fall; improving hair shaft, hair stem, and its caliber; increasing
      its shine, vitality, and pliability; and declining hair splitting and breakage.
      Thus, youth is in your blood as it has a magical power imposed in the platelet
      factors. There is, however, no standardization of the techniques besides
      insufficient description of the adopted procedures. Not long, autologous platelet
      rich plasma (PRP) has surfaced strongly in diverse medical specialties including
      plastic, wound healing and diabetic ulcers, orthopedic, trauma, ocular surgery,
      dry eye for eyelid injection, urology for urinary incontinence, sexual wellness,
      cutaneous surgery, sport medicine, dentistry and dermatology, and aesthetic
      applications. PRP proved to promote wound healing and aid in facelift, volumetric
      skin, skin rejuvenation, regeneration, and reconstruction; improve wrinkling;
      stimulate hair growth; increase hair follicle viability and its survival rate;
      prevent apoptosis; increase and prolong the anagen hair growth stage; and delay
      the progression to catagen hair cycle stage with increased density in hair loss
      and hair transplantation. The aims of this extensive review were to cover all PRP
      application aspects that are carried out in aesthetic dermatology and to assess
      the literature on platelet-rich plasma outcomes on main aesthetic practices of
      general dermatology. A literature review was conducted by searching through
      PubMed, Biomedical Library database, Google Scholar, and Research Gate for the
      terms PRP, platelet-rich plasma, platelet-rich fibrin matrix, platelet
      preparations, platelet application therapy, platelet growth factors, platelet
      facial, platelet facial rejuvenation, platelet hairs, and platelet wound healing,
      from inception till 2017, and they were combined using Boolean operators. All
      those retrieved articles in English language were looked at and explored
      thoroughly.

PMID- 28887866
TI  - A Monte Carlo evaluation of masked visual analysis in response-guided versus
      fixed-criteria multiple-baseline designs.
AB  - We developed masked visual analysis (MVA) as a structured complement to
      traditional visual analysis. The purpose of the present investigation was to
      compare the effects of computer-simulated MVA of a four-case multiple-baseline
      (MB) design in which the phase lengths are determined by an ongoing visual
      analysis (i.e., response-guided) versus those in which the phase lengths are
      established a priori (i.e., fixed criteria). We observed an acceptably low
      probability (less than .05) of false detection of treatment effects. The
      probability of correctly detecting a true effect frequently exceeded .80 and was
      higher when: (a) the masked visual analyst extended phases based on an ongoing
      visual analysis, (b) the effects were larger, (c) the effects were more immediate
      and abrupt, and (d) the effects of random and extraneous error factors were
      simpler. Our findings indicate that MVA is a valuable combined methodological and
      data-analysis tool for single-case intervention researchers.

PMID- 28887867
TI  - Pushing the haystack aside for efficient gene targeting in human cells.
AB  - Gene targeting, i.e., the disruption of a specific gene via homologous
      recombination, is one of the key techniques to study gene function. However,
      researchers have faced the difficulty that, in human cells, the frequency of
      correct targeted integration is quite low compared to non-targeted (or random)
      integration. Adachi and colleagues investigated the factors that influence the
      ratio of targeted integration to non-targeted integration.

PMID- 28887868
TI  - Scientific career paths - part II.
AB  - In the second part of our Words of Advice on science careers, we bring you the
      perspectives of established scientists who enjoy successful, fulfilling careers
      in academia, the patent office and a publishing company. We also get the thoughts
      of a PhD student on her internship at The FEBS Journal's Editorial Office. Get
      inspired by these scientists and trace your own path towards a rewarding science
      career.

PMID- 28887870
TI  - Activation of NLRP3 signalling accelerates skin wound healing.
AB  - The process of skin wound healing involves the following three steps:
      inflammation, tissue formation and tissue remodelling. These optimal steps are
      required for the development of normal wound healing. Recent reports demonstrated
      that inflammasomes are involved in the innate immune response. In the present
      study, we examined whether the activation of inflammasomes affects the process of
      skin wound repair. The skin wound repair model was established using wild-type
      (WT), NACHT, LRR and PYD domains-containing protein 3 (NALP3) knockout (KO) and
      ASC-KO mice. The wounds were observed every other day, and changes in wound size
      over time were calculated using photography. Wound repair in NALP3-KO and ASC-KO
      mice was significantly impaired compared with WT mice. Isoliquiritigenin, an
      inhibitor of NALP3, decreased the rate of wound repair in WT mice. mRNA
      expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the wound sites of NALP3-KO mice was
      markedly decreased compared with WT mice. Treatment with adenosine triphosphate
      (ATP), a ligand of NALP3, upregulated the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory
      cytokines at the wound site and accelerated wound healing in the WT mice. Scratch
      assay revealed that ATP accelerated wound closure in mouse embryonic fibroblasts
      from WT mice but not from NALP3-KO mice. In conclusion, the present study
      demonstrated that NALP3 pathway activation is involved in wound repair, and the
      topical use of ATP may be useful as an effective treatment for accelerating wound
      healing.

PMID- 28887872
TI  - Pressure injuries in people with darker skin tones: A literature review.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: In this article, we aimed to explore the literature to
      ascertain what research evidence exists in relation to the identification of
      pressure injuries in people with dark skin tones. BACKGROUND: Pressure injuries
      development has been widely researched and documented; however, much of this work
      does not address ethnicity or race and assumes Caucasian-ness. Thus, the
      perceptions of people with dark skin tones and the influence of skin pigmentation
      on identification and management of pressure injuries is under examined. DESIGN:
      Literature review. METHODS: A comprehensive electronic database search was
      undertaken of PubMed, Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature,
      Cochrane and British Nursing Index (BNI) between 1990-July 2016. Alongside the
      electronic data, journals, books, papers from conferences, relevant national and
      international organisations and reference lists were also used to help source key
      studies. RESULTS: A search of the literature revealed 11 relevant articles. The
      foci of studies included the following: risk of sustaining a pressure injuries
      based on skin tones, identification of pressure injuries amongst people with dark
      skin tones, pressure injuries and place of care and socio-economic impact on
      pressure injuries development. Overall, findings indicate that people with darker
      skin tones are more likely to develop higher stage pressure injuries. Reasons for
      this are not fully elucidated; however, it may be associated with current skin
      assessment protocols being less effective for people who have darker skin tones
      resulting in early damage arising from pressure not being recognised. CONCLUSION:
      From the literature reviewed, it can be seen that there is a lack of guidance and
      evidence, and people with darker skin tones are more likely in comparison with
      people presenting as Caucasian to develop higher stage pressure injuries.
      RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The current literature suggests a need for
      researchers and clinicians to consider skin tone variances rather than ethnicity
      when exploring comprehensive skin assessment.

PMID- 28887871
TI  - The hypothalamic regulation of metabolic adaptations to exercise.
AB  - Our modern lifestyle is characterised by easy access to nutrient dense foods
      combined with limited physical activity. A sedentary lifestyle is one of several
      factors that have contributed to the global obesity epidemic and it also
      predisposes to chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
      Although many studies have focused on the benefits of exercise in peripheral
      tissues, the contributions of the central nervous system to these exercise
      induced metabolic adaptations are relatively unknown. The present review
      highlights the role of the ventromedial hypothalamus in regulating the metabolic
      response to exercise.

PMID- 28887873
TI  - The Translational Science Benefits Model: A New Framework for Assessing the
      Health and Societal Benefits of Clinical and Translational Sciences.
AB  - We report the development of the Translational Science Benefits Model (TSBM), a
      framework designed to support institutional assessment of clinical and
      translational research outcomes to measure clinical and community health impacts
      beyond bibliometric measures. The TSBM includes 30 specific and potentially
      measurable indicators that reflect benefits that accrue from clinical and
      translational science research such as products, system characteristics, or
      activities. Development of the TSBM was based on literature review, a modified
      Delphi method, and in-house expert panel feedback. Three case studies illustrate
      the feasibility and face validity of the TSBM for identification of clinical and
      community health impacts that result from translational science activities.
      Future plans for the TSBM include further pilot testing and a resource library
      that will be freely available for evaluators, translational scientists, and
      academic institutions who wish to implement the TSBM framework in their own
      evaluation efforts.

PMID- 28887875
TI  - Fast subsurface fingerprint imaging with full-field optical coherence tomography
      system equipped with a silicon camera.
AB  - Images recorded below the surface of a finger can have more details and be of
      higher quality than the conventional surface fingerprint images. This is
      particularly true when the quality of the surface fingerprints is compromised by,
      for example, moisture or surface damage. However, there is an unmet need for an
      inexpensive fingerprint sensor that is able to acquire high-quality images deep
      below the surface in short time. To this end, we report on a cost-effective full
      field optical coherent tomography system comprised of a silicon camera and a
      powerful near-infrared LED light source. The system, for example, is able to
      record 1.7  cm*1.7  cmen face images in 0.12 s with the spatial sampling rate of
      2116 dots per inch and the sensitivity of 93 dB. We show that the system can be
      used to image internal fingerprints and sweat ducts with good contrast. Finally,
      to demonstrate its biometric performance, we acquired subsurface fingerprint
      images from 240 individual fingers and estimated the equal-error-rate to be
      ~0.8%. The developed instrument could also be used in other en face deep-tissue
      imaging applications because of its high sensitivity, such as in vivo skin
      imaging.

PMID- 28887874
TI  - Small-molecule inhibition of MuRF1 attenuates skeletal muscle atrophy and
      dysfunction in cardiac cachexia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Muscle ring finger 1 (MuRF1) is a muscle-specific ubiquitin E3 ligase
      activated during clinical conditions associated with skeletal muscle wasting.
      Yet, there remains a paucity of therapeutic interventions that directly inhibit
      MuRF1 function, particularly in vivo. The current study, therefore, developed a
      novel compound targeting the central coiled coil domain of MuRF1 to inhibit
      muscle wasting in cardiac cachexia. METHODS: We identified small molecules that
      interfere with the MuRF1-titin interaction from a 130 000 compound screen based
      on Alpha Technology. A subset of nine prioritized compounds were synthesized and
      administrated during conditions of muscle wasting, that is, to C2C12 muscle cells
      treated with dexamethasone and to mice treated with monocrotaline to induce
      cardiac cachexia. RESULTS: The nine selected compounds inhibited MuRF1-titin
      complexation with IC50 values <25 MUM, of which three were found to also inhibit
      MuRF1 E3 ligase activity, with one further showing low toxicity on cultured
      myotubes. This last compound, EMBL chemical core ID#704946, also prevented
      atrophy in myotubes induced by dexamethasone and attenuated fibre atrophy and
      contractile dysfunction in mice during cardiac cachexia. Proteomic and western
      blot analyses showed that stress pathways were attenuated by ID#704946 treatment,
      including down-regulation of MuRF1 and normalization of proteins associated with
      apoptosis (BAX) and protein synthesis (elF2B-delta). Furthermore, actin
      ubiquitinylation and proteasome activity was attenuated. CONCLUSIONS: We
      identified a novel compound directed to MuRF1's central myofibrillar protein
      recognition domain. This compound attenuated in vivo muscle wasting and
      contractile dysfunction in cardiac cachexia by protecting de novo protein
      synthesis and by down-regulating apoptosis and ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent
      proteolysis.

PMID- 28887876
TI  - Cell-specific gain modulation by synaptically released zinc in cortical circuits
      of audition.
AB  - In many excitatory synapses, mobile zinc is found within glutamatergic vesicles
      and is coreleased with glutamate. Ex vivo studies established that synaptically
      released (synaptic) zinc inhibits excitatory neurotransmission at lower
      frequencies of synaptic activity but enhances steady state synaptic responses
      during higher frequencies of activity. However, it remains unknown how synaptic
      zinc affects neuronal processing in vivo. Here, we imaged the sound-evoked
      neuronal activity of the primary auditory cortex in awake mice. We discovered
      that synaptic zinc enhanced the gain of sound-evoked responses in CaMKII
      expressing principal neurons, but it reduced the gain of parvalbumin- and
      somatostatin-expressing interneurons. This modulation was sound intensity
      dependent and, in part, NMDA receptor-independent. By establishing a previously
      unknown link between synaptic zinc and gain control of auditory cortical
      processing, our findings advance understanding about cortical synaptic mechanisms
      and create a new framework for approaching and interpreting the role of the
      auditory cortex in sound processing.

PMID- 28887877
TI  - Epidemiological and ecological determinants of Zika virus transmission in an
      urban setting.
AB  - The Zika virus has emerged as a global public health concern. Its rapid
      geographic expansion is attributed to the success of Aedes mosquito vectors, but
      local epidemiological drivers are still poorly understood. Feira de Santana
      played a pivotal role in the Chikungunya epidemic in Brazil and was one of the
      first urban centres to report Zika infections. Using a climate-driven
      transmission model and notified Zika case data, we show that a low observation
      rate and high vectorial capacity translated into a significant attack rate during
      the 2015 outbreak, with a subsequent decline in 2016 and fade-out in 2017 due to
      herd-immunity. We find a potential Zika-related, low risk for microcephaly per
      pregnancy, but with significant public health impact given high attack rates. The
      balance between the loss of herd-immunity and viral re-importation will dictate
      future transmission potential of Zika in this urban setting.

PMID- 28887879
TI  - Orbital floor fracture repair: the endonasal approach.
AB  - To avoid the dangers associated with lower eyelid approaches to the orbital floor
      and to improve visualization, we propose an endoscopic procedure for orbital
      floor fracture reduction and osteosynthesis using endonasal access via the medial
      maxillary sinus wall. The technique of endoscopic, endonasal transantral surgery
      is described, together with a retrospective analysis of 17 patients who had
      undergone this surgical procedure in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology,
      University of Regensburg, between July 2013 and June 2016. Fractures without
      infraorbital margin involvement were successfully repaired and enophthalmos
      and/or diplopia were corrected in all cases. The endonasal approach described
      here allows orbital floor fractures to be repaired without injury to the eyelid
      apparatus. Visualization, in particular across the orbital floor as far as the
      palatine process, appears to be superior to that achieved with other approaches.
      The increased time required for the procedure and the difficulties of
      manipulation within a confined space are offset by rapid wound healing without
      ocular swelling and a minimal risk of complications.

PMID- 28887878
TI  - Simultaneous activation of parallel sensory pathways promotes a grooming sequence
      in Drosophila.
AB  - A central model that describes how behavioral sequences are produced features a
      neural architecture that readies different movements simultaneously, and a
      mechanism where prioritized suppression between the movements determines their
      sequential performance. We previously described a model whereby suppression
      drives a Drosophila grooming sequence that is induced by simultaneous activation
      of different sensory pathways that each elicit a distinct movement (Seeds et al.,
      2014). Here, we confirm this model using transgenic expression to identify and
      optogenetically activate sensory neurons that elicit specific grooming movements.
      Simultaneous activation of different sensory pathways elicits a grooming sequence
      that resembles the naturally induced sequence. Moreover, the sequence proceeds
      after the sensory excitation is terminated, indicating that a persistent trace of
      this excitation induces the next grooming movement once the previous one is
      performed. This reveals a mechanism whereby parallel sensory inputs can be
      integrated and stored to elicit a delayed and sequential grooming response.

PMID- 28887880
TI  - Allergy rhinitis: similarities and differences between children and adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a highly prevalent disease worldwide.
      Although a number of studies have described AR, no studies compared children and
      adult AR populations. The objective was to compare the AR characteristics between
      two AR cohorts of children and adults. METHODS: Two AR cohorts (children and
      adults) from Spain were studied through observational cross-sectional multicentre
      studies. AR was classified based on classical (allergen exposure), original (o
      ARIA), and modified (m-ARIA) ARIA criteria. AR was evaluated by Total 4-Symptoms
      Score (T4SS), and disease severity by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS, 0-100 mm). AR
      comorbidities were also evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 5,405 patients (1,275
      children, 4,130 adults) were studied. According to symptoms duration,
      intermittent AR was more frequent in children than in adults. Using o-ARIA
      severity, more children than adults had moderate/severe AR while, using m-ARIA,
      more children than adults had severe AR. T4SS was higher in adults than in
      children. Moreover, VAS was also higher in adults than in children. In addition,
      asthma atopic dermatitis and conjunctivitis were more associated to children than
      adults with AR, the frequency of this comorbidities increasing according to
      higher severity. CONCLUSIONS: AR in children was more intermittent, severe, with
      less symptoms but with more comorbidities than in adults. These results suggest
      AR has similarities but also significant differences between children and adults.

PMID- 28887881
TI  - Rapid development of bilateral necroses of the upper extremity.

PMID- 28887882
TI  - Homogeneous processing in the striatal direct and indirect pathways: single body
      part sensitive type IIb neurons may express either dopamine receptor D1 or D2.
AB  - Striatal medium spiny projection neurons (MSNs) output through two diverging
      circuits, the 'direct and indirect pathways' which originate from minimally
      overlapping populations of MSNs expressing either the dopamine receptor D1 or the
      dopamine receptor D2. One modern theory of direct and indirect pathway function
      proposes that activation of direct pathway MSNs facilitates output of desired
      motor programs, while activation of indirect pathway MSNs inhibits competing
      motor programs. A separate theory suggests that coordinated timing or synchrony
      of the direct and indirect pathways is critical for the execution of refined
      movements. These hypotheses are made testable by a common type of striatal neuron
      known as type IIb MSNs. Clusters of these MSNs exhibit phasic increases in firing
      rate related to sensorimotor activity of single body parts. If these MSNs were to
      reside in only the direct pathway, evidence would be provided that D1 MSNs are
      'motor program' specific, which would lend credence to the 'competing motor
      programs' hypothesis. However, if type IIb MSNs reside in both pathways, evidence
      would be provided for the 'coordinated timing or synchrony' hypothesis. Our
      results show that type IIb neurons may express either D1 or D2. This evidence
      supports the theory that the coordinated timing or synchrony of the direct and
      indirect pathways is critical for refined movements. We also propose a model in
      which the direct and indirect pathways act as a differentiator circuit, providing
      a possible mechanism by which coordinated activity of D1 and D2 neurons may
      output meaningful somatosensorimotor information to downstream structures.

PMID- 28887883
TI  - Early screening and prevention of preterm pre-eclampsia with aspirin: time for
      clinical implementation.

PMID- 28887884
TI  - Clear cell sarcoma-like tumor of the gastrointestinal tract: A
      clinicopathological review.

PMID- 28887886
TI  - Unusually recalcitrant reticular skin lesions in a young woman.

PMID- 28887887
TI  - Evaluating the essential role of RONS in vivo in exercised human muscle.

PMID- 28887885
TI  - Unveiling neural coupling within the sensorimotor system: directionality and
      nonlinearity.
AB  - Neural coupling between the central nervous system and the periphery is essential
      for the neural control of movement. Corticomuscular coherence is a popular linear
      technique to assess synchronised oscillatory activity in the sensorimotor system.
      This oscillatory coupling originates from ascending somatosensory feedback and
      descending motor commands. However, corticomuscular coherence cannot separate
      this bidirectionality. Furthermore, the sensorimotor system is nonlinear,
      resulting in cross-frequency coupling. Cross-frequency oscillations cannot be
      assessed nor exploited by linear measures. Here, we emphasise the need of novel
      coupling measures, which provide directionality and acknowledge nonlinearity, to
      unveil neural coupling in the sensorimotor system. We highlight recent advances
      in the field and argue that assessing directionality and nonlinearity of neural
      coupling will break new ground in the study of the control of movement in healthy
      and neurologically impaired individuals.

PMID- 28887888
TI  - Neurocognitive Impairment: Addressing Couple and Family Challenges.
AB  - Conditions involving neurocognitive impairment pose enormous challenges to
      couples and families. However, research and practice tend to focus narrowly on
      immediate issues for individual caregivers and their dyadic relationship with the
      affected member. A broad family systems approach with attention to family
      processes over time is needed in training, practice, and research. In this paper,
      Rolland's Family Systems Illness model provides a guiding framework to consider
      the interaction of different psychosocial types of neurocognitive conditions and
      their evolution over time with individual, couple, and family life-course
      development. Discussion addresses key family and couple issues with mild-to
      severe cognitive impairment and progressive dementias, including: communication,
      multigenerational legacies, threatened future neurocognitive disability,
      ambiguous loss, decisional capacity, reaching limits, placement decisions, issues
      for adult children and spousal caregivers, and the transformation of intimate
      bonds. Principles and guidelines are offered to help couples and families master
      complex challenges, deepen bonds, and forge positive pathways ahead.

PMID- 28887889
TI  - The genetic basis for most patients with pustular skin disease remains elusive.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rare variants in the genes IL36RN, CARD14 and AP1S3 have been
      identified to cause or contribute to pustular skin diseases, primarily
      generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP). OBJECTIVES: To better understand the
      disease relevance of these genes, we screened our cohorts of patients with
      pustular skin diseases [primarily GPP and palmoplantar pustular psoriasis (PPP)]
      for coding changes in these three genes. Carriers of single heterozygous IL36RN
      mutations were screened for a second mutation in IL36RN. METHODS: Coding exons of
      IL36RN, CARD14 and AP1S3 were sequenced in 67 patients - 61 with GPP, two with
      acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis and four with acrodermatitis continua
      of Hallopeau. We screened IL36RN and AP1S3 for intragenic copy-number variants
      and 258 patients with PPP for coding changes in AP1S3. Eleven heterozygous IL36RN
      mutations carriers were analysed for a second noncoding IL36RN mutation. Genotype
      phenotype correlations in carriers/noncarriers of IL36RN mutations were assessed
      within the GPP cohort. RESULTS: The majority of patients (GPP, 64%) did not carry
      rare variants in any of the three genes. Biallelic and monoallelic IL36RN
      mutations were identified in 15 and five patients with GPP, respectively.
      Noncoding rare IL36RN variants were not identified in heterozygous carriers. The
      only significant genotype-phenotype correlation observed for IL36RN mutation
      carriers was early age at disease onset. Additional rare CARD14 or AP1S3 variants
      were identified in 15% of IL36RN mutation carriers. CONCLUSIONS: The
      identification of IL36RN mutation carriers harbouring additional rare variants in
      CARD14 or AP1S3 indicates a more complex mode of inheritance of pustular
      psoriasis. Our results suggest that, in heterozygous IL36RN mutation carriers,
      there are additional disease-causing genetic factors outside IL36RN.

PMID- 28887890
TI  - Optimization of capillary zone electrophoresis for charge heterogeneity testing
      of biopharmaceuticals using enhanced method development principles.
AB  - CZE is a well-established technique for charge heterogeneity testing of
      biopharmaceuticals. It is based on the differences between the ratios of net
      charge and hydrodynamic radius. In an extensive intercompany study, it was
      recently shown that CZE is very robust and can be easily implemented in labs that
      did not perform it before. However, individual characteristics of some examined
      proteins resulted in suboptimal resolution. Therefore, enhanced method
      development principles were applied here to investigate possibilities for further
      method optimization. For this purpose, a high number of different method
      parameters was evaluated with the aim to improve CZE separation. For the relevant
      parameters, design of experiments (DoE) models were generated and optimized in
      several ways for different sets of responses like resolution, peak width and
      number of peaks. In spite of product specific DoE optimization it was found that
      the resulting combination of optimized parameters did result in significant
      improvement of separation for 13 out of 16 different antibodies and other
      molecule formats. These results clearly demonstrate generic applicability of the
      optimized CZE method. Adaptation to individual molecular properties may sometimes
      still be required in order to achieve optimal separation but the set screws
      discussed in this study [mainly pH, identity of the polymer additive (HPC versus
      HPMC) and the concentrations of additives like acetonitrile, butanolamine and
      TETA] are expected to significantly reduce the effort for specific optimization.

PMID- 28887891
TI  - The involvement of centralized and distributed processes in sub-second time
      interval adaptation: an ERP investigation of apparent motion.
AB  - Accumulating evidence suggests that the timing of brief stationary sounds affects
      visual motion perception. Recent studies have shown that auditory time interval
      can alter apparent motion perception not only through concurrent stimulation but
      also through brief adaptation. The adaptation after-effects for auditory time
      intervals was found to be similar to those for visual time intervals, suggesting
      the involvement of a central timing mechanism. To understand the nature of
      cortical processes underlying such after-effects, we adapted observers to
      different time intervals using either brief sounds or visual flashes and examined
      the evoked activity to the subsequently presented visual apparent motion. Both
      auditory and visual time interval adaptation led to significant changes in the
      ERPs elicited by the apparent motion. However, the changes induced by each
      modality were in the opposite direction. Also, they mainly occurred in different
      time windows and clustered over distinct scalp sites. The effects of auditory
      time interval adaptation were centred over parietal and parieto-central
      electrodes while the visual adaptation effects were mostly over occipital and
      parieto-occipital regions. Moreover, the changes were much more salient when
      sounds were used during the adaptation phase. Taken together, our findings within
      the context of visual motion point to auditory dominance in the temporal domain
      and highlight the distinct nature of the sensory processes involved in auditory
      and visual time interval adaptation.

PMID- 28887892
TI  - Recoupling in Mid-Life and Beyond: From Love at Last to Not So Fast.
AB  - Divorce rates have dropped in the United States, except for couples over 50 where
      they are rising steeply, along with rates of late-life recoupling. Both
      stepcouples and their young adult and adult children in new older stepfamilies
      are often surprised to find themselves facing many of the same challenges that
      younger stepfamilies do. Some challenges are even intensified by the decades-long
      relationships and additional layers of extended family that come with recoupling
      after mid-life. Stepfamilies formed in later life must also negotiate decisions
      about estate planning and elder care among stakeholders who often have sharply
      divergent agendas before there is time to establish trusting relationships. This
      article describes the "normal" challenges facing stepcouples who come together
      over age 50. It provides evidence-informed guidance for therapists in meeting
      these challenges on three levels of clinical work: Psychoeducational,
      Interpersonal, and Intrapsychic/Intergenerational. As in younger stepfamilies,
      "family therapy" must usually begin in subsystems-often the adult stepcouple and
      parent-adult child. The article then describes a particularly fraught subgroup of
      recouplers: over-50 fathers and their new partners, where the dad's young adult
      or adult daughter is very unhappy with his new relationship. In these latter
      stepfamilies, father-daughter repair must precede stepfamily bonding.
      Stepfamilies that are preceded by a partner's death and those that begin with
      affairs are also discussed. Finally, some "easy wrong turns" for therapists are
      described.

PMID- 28887894
TI  - Interobserver Variation in the Diagnosis of Neurologic Abnormalities in the
      Horse.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) relies
      heavily on the clinical examination. The accurate identification of neurologic
      signs during a clinical examination is critical to the interpretation of
      laboratory results. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the level of agreement between
      board-certified veterinary internists when performing neurologic examinations in
      horses. ANIMALS: Ninety-seven horses admitted to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital
      at The Ohio State University from December 1997 to June 1998. METHODS: A
      prospective epidemiologic research design was used. Horses enrolled in the study
      were examined by the internist responsible for care of the horse, and later by an
      internist who was not aware of the presenting complaint or other patient history.
      Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and kappa (K) statistics were
      calculated to assess interobserver agreement. RESULTS: Ninety-seven horses were
      enrolled in the study. Overall, examiners, also referred to as observers, agreed
      that 60/97 (61.9%) were clinically abnormal, 21/97 (21.6%) were clinically
      normal, and the status of 16/97 (16.5%) of horses was contested. There was
      complete agreement among the examiners with regard to cranial nerve signs and
      involuntary movements. Disagreement involving severity of clinical signs occurred
      in 31 horses, and 25 of those horses (80.6%) were considered either normal or
      mildly affected by the primary observer. When examining the results of all paired
      clinical examinations for 11 different categories, there was wide variability in
      the results. When examiners rated the presence or absence of any neurologic
      abnormalities, lameness, or ataxia, the agreement among observers was either good
      or excellent for 80% of horses. When assessing truncal sway, the agreement among
      observers was good or excellent for 60% of the horses. When examining the horses
      for asymmetry of deficits, agreement was either good or excellent for 40% of the
      horses. Agreement among observers was excellent or good for only 20% of the
      horses when assessing muscle atrophy, spasticity (hypermetria), and overall
      assessment of the severity of neurologic abnormalities. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL
      IMPORTANCE: This study underscores the subjectivity of the neurologic examination
      and demonstrates a reasonable level of agreement that may be achieved when
      different clinicians examine the same horse.

PMID- 28887895
TI  - Impact of climate change on vector transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas,
      1909) in North America.
AB  - Climate change can influence the geographical range of the ecological niche of
      pathogens by altering biotic interactions with vectors and reservoirs. The
      distributions of 20 epidemiologically important triatomine species in North
      America were modelled, comparing the genetic algorithm for rule-set prediction
      (GARP) and maximum entropy (MaxEnt), with or without topographical variables.
      Potential shifts in transmission niche for Trypanosoma cruzi (Trypanosomatida:
      Trypanosomatidae) (Chagas, 1909) were analysed for 2050 and 2070 in
      Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5. There were no
      significant quantitative range differences between the GARP and MaxEnt models,
      but GARP models best represented known distributions for most species [partial
      receiver operating characteristic (ROC) > 1]; elevation was an important variable
      contributing to the ecological niche model (ENM). There was little difference
      between niche breadth projections for RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5; the majority of
      species shifted significantly in both periods. Those species with the greatest
      current distribution range are expected to have the greatest shifts. Positional
      changes in the centroid, although reduced for most species, were associated with
      latitude. A significant increase or decrease in mean niche elevation is expected
      principally for Neotropical 1 species. The impact of climate change will be
      specific to each species, its biogeographical region and its latitude. North
      American triatomines with the greatest current distribution ranges (Nearctic 2
      and Nearctic/Neotropical) will have the greatest future distribution shifts.
      Significant shifts (increases or decreases) in mean elevation over time are
      projected principally for the Neotropical species with the broadest current
      distributions. Changes in the vector exposure threat to the human population were
      significant for both future periods, with a 1.48% increase for urban populations
      and a 1.76% increase for rural populations in 2050.

PMID- 28887893
TI  - Trial-by-trial co-variation of pre-stimulus EEG alpha power and visuospatial bias
      reflects a mixture of stochastic and deterministic effects.
AB  - Human perception of perithreshold stimuli critically depends on oscillatory EEG
      activity prior to stimulus onset. However, it remains unclear exactly which
      aspects of perception are shaped by this pre-stimulus activity and what role
      stochastic (trial-by-trial) variability plays in driving these relationships. We
      employed a novel jackknife approach to link single-trial variability in
      oscillatory activity to psychometric measures from a task that requires judgement
      of the relative length of two line segments (the landmark task). The results
      provide evidence that pre-stimulus alpha fluctuations influence perceptual bias.
      Importantly, a mediation analysis showed that this relationship is partially
      driven by long-term (deterministic) alpha changes over time, highlighting the
      need to account for sources of trial-by-trial variability when interpreting EEG
      predictors of perception. These results provide fundamental insight into the
      nature of the effects of ongoing oscillatory activity on perception. The
      jackknife approach we implemented may serve to identify and investigate neural
      signatures of perceptual relevance in more detail.

PMID- 28887896
TI  - Lesion evidence for a critical role of left posterior but not frontal areas in
      alpha-beta power decreases during context-driven word production.
AB  - Different frequency bands in the electroencephalogram are postulated to support
      distinct language functions. Studies have suggested that alpha-beta power
      decreases may index word-retrieval processes. In context-driven word retrieval,
      participants hear lead-in sentences that either constrain the final word ('He
      locked the door with the') or not ('She walked in here with the'). The last word
      is shown as a picture to be named. Previous studies have consistently found alpha
      beta power decreases prior to picture onset for constrained relative to
      unconstrained sentences, localised to the left lateral-temporal and lateral
      frontal lobes. However, the relative contribution of temporal versus frontal
      areas to alpha-beta power decreases is unknown. We recorded the
      electroencephalogram from patients with stroke lesions encompassing the left
      lateral-temporal and inferior-parietal regions or left-lateral frontal lobe and
      from matched controls. Individual participant analyses revealed a behavioural
      sentence context facilitation effect in all participants, except for in the two
      patients with extensive lesions to temporal and inferior parietal lobes. We
      replicated the alpha-beta power decreases prior to picture onset in all
      participants, except for in the two same patients with extensive posterior
      lesions. Thus, whereas posterior lesions eliminated the behavioural and
      oscillatory context effect, frontal lesions did not. Hierarchical clustering
      analyses of all patients' lesion profiles, and behavioural and
      electrophysiological effects identified those two patients as having a unique
      combination of lesion distribution and context effects. These results indicate a
      critical role for the left lateral-temporal and inferior parietal lobes, but not
      frontal cortex, in generating the alpha-beta power decreases underlying context
      driven word production.

PMID- 28887898
TI  - Beta-band oscillations during passive listening to metronome sounds reflect
      improved timing representation after short-term musical training in healthy older
      adults.
AB  - Sub-second time intervals in musical rhythms provide predictive cues about future
      events to performers and listeners through an internalized representation of
      timing. While the acuity of automatic, sub-second timing as well as cognitively
      controlled, supra-second timing declines with ageing, musical experts are less
      affected. This study investigated the influence of piano training on temporal
      processing abilities in older adults using behavioural and neuronal correlates.
      We hypothesized that neuroplastic changes in beta networks, caused by training in
      sensorimotor coordination with timing processing, can be assessed even in the
      absence of movement. Behavioural performance of internal timing stability was
      assessed with synchronization-continuation finger-tapping paradigms.
      Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded from older adults before and after one
      month of one-on-one training. For neural measures of automatic timing processing,
      we focused on beta oscillations (13-30 Hz) during passive listening to metronome
      beats. Periodic beta-band modulations in older adults before training were
      similar to previous findings in young listeners at a beat interval of 800 ms.
      After training, behavioural performance for continuation tapping was improved and
      accompanied by an increased range of beat-induced beta modulation, compared to
      participants who did not receive training. Beta changes were observed in the
      caudate, auditory, sensorimotor and premotor cortices, parietal lobe, cerebellum
      and medial prefrontal cortex, suggesting that increased resources are involved in
      timing processing and goal-oriented monitoring as well as reward-based
      sensorimotor learning.

PMID- 28887897
TI  - Opportunistic Invasive Cutaneous Fungal Infections Associated with Administration
      of Cyclosporine to Dogs with Immune-mediated Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opportunistic invasive fungal infections (OIFIs) occur in dogs
      administered immunosuppressive medications. However, the epidemiology of OIFIs
      among dogs undergoing immunosuppressive treatment is poorly understood. The aims
      of this study were to (1) estimate the incidence of OIFIs among dogs diagnosed
      with certain immune-mediated diseases and treated with immunosuppressive drugs,
      and (2) determine if administration of particular drug(s) was a risk factor for
      OIFIs. HYPOTHESIS: Dogs receiving cyclosporine treatment (alone or as part of a
      multidrug protocol) are at higher risk of developing OIFIs. ANIMALS: One hundred
      and thirteen client-owned dogs diagnosed with select immune-mediated diseases: 42
      with IMHA, 29 with ITP, 34 with IMPA, and 8 with Evans syndrome. METHODS:
      Retrospective cohort study. Medical records of dogs presenting to the Texas A&M
      University, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital between January 2008 and
      December 2015, and treated for 1 or more of IMHA, IMPA, ITP, or Evans syndrome
      were retrospectively reviewed. Dogs that did not develop an OIFI were excluded if
      they died, were euthanized, or were lost to follow-up within 120 days of
      initiation of immunosuppressive treatment. RESULTS: Fifteen dogs of 113 (13%)
      were diagnosed with an OIFI based on 1 or more of cytology, culture, or
      histopathology. The odds of developing an OIFI were greater among dogs that were
      treated with cyclosporine (OR = 7.1, P = 0.017; 95% CI, 1.5-34.4) and among male
      dogs (OR = 5.1, P = 0.018; 95% CI, 1.4-17.9). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL
      IMPORTANCE: OIFIs were significantly more likely in male dogs and those receiving
      cyclosporine. It is important to consider OIFIs as a potential complication of
      immunosuppressive treatment, particularly cyclosporine.

PMID- 28887900
TI  - Atypical brain responses to auditory spatial cues in adults with autism spectrum
      disorder.
AB  - The auditory processing atypicalities experienced by many individuals on the
      autism spectrum disorder might be understood in terms of difficulties parsing the
      sound energy arriving at the ears into discrete auditory 'objects'. Here, we
      asked whether autistic adults are able to make use of two important spatial cues
      to auditory object formation - the relative timing and amplitude of sound energy
      at the left and right ears. Using electroencephalography, we measured the brain
      responses of 15 autistic adults and 15 age- and verbal-IQ-matched control
      participants as they listened to dichotic pitch stimuli - white noise stimuli in
      which interaural timing or amplitude differences applied to a narrow frequency
      band of noise typically lead to the perception of a pitch sound that is spatially
      segregated from the noise. Responses were contrasted with those to stimuli in
      which timing and amplitude cues were removed. Consistent with our previous
      studies, autistic adults failed to show a significant object-related negativity
      (ORN) for timing-based pitch, although their ORN was not significantly smaller
      than that of the control group. Autistic participants did show an ORN to
      amplitude cues, indicating that they do not experience a general impairment in
      auditory object formation. However, their P400 response - thought to indicate the
      later attention-dependent aspects of auditory object formation - was missing.
      These findings provide further evidence of atypical auditory object processing in
      autism with potential implications for understanding the perceptual and
      communication difficulties associated with the condition.

PMID- 28887899
TI  - The anterior insula bidirectionally modulates cost-benefit decision-making on a
      rodent gambling task.
AB  - Deficits in cost-benefit decision-making, as assessed in the Iowa Gambling Task
      (IGT), are commonly observed in neuropsychiatric disorders such as addiction.
      There is considerable variation in the maximization of rewards on such tasks,
      both in the general population and in rodent models, suggesting individual
      differences in decision-making may represent a key endophenotype for
      vulnerability to neuropsychiatric disorders. Increasing evidence suggests that
      the insular cortex, which is involved in interoception and emotional processes in
      humans, may be a key neural locus in the control of decision-making processes.
      However, the extent to which the insula contributes to individual differences in
      cost-benefit decision-making remains unknown. Using male Sprague Dawley rats, we
      first assessed individual differences in the performance over the course of a
      single session on a rodent analogue of the IGT (rGT). Rats were matched for their
      ability to maximize reward and received bilateral excitotoxic or sham lesions of
      the anterior insula cortex (AIC). Animals were subsequently challenged on a
      second rGT session with altered contingencies. Finally, animals were also
      assessed for instrumental conditioning and reversal learning. AIC lesions
      produced bidirectional alterations on rGT performance; rats that had performed
      optimally prior to surgery subsequently showed impairments, and animals that had
      performed poorly showed improvements in comparison with sham-operated controls.
      These bidirectional effects were not attributable to alterations in behavioural
      flexibility or in motivation. These data suggest that the recruitment of the AIC
      during decision-making may be state-dependent and help guide response selection
      towards subjectively favourable options.

PMID- 28887901
TI  - Meta-analysis of accuracy of intraocular lens power calculation formulas in short
      eyes.
AB  - IMPORTANCE: Intraocular lens (IOL) power selection is a critical factor affecting
      visual outcome after IOL implantation in short eyes. Many formulas have been
      developed to achieve a precise prediction of the IOL power. However, controversy
      regarding the accuracy remains. BACKGROUND: To investigate the accuracy of
      different IOL power calculation formulas in short eyes. DESIGN: Meta-analysis.
      PARTICIPANTS: Patients with the axial length of eyes less than 22 mm from
      previously reported studies. METHODS: A comprehensive search in Pubmed, EMBASE,
      Cochrane Data Base of Systematic Reviews and the Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials was conducted by October 2016. We assessed the methodological
      quality using a modified QUADAS-2 tool and performed analysis on weighted mean
      differences of mean absolute errors (MAE) among different formulas. MAIN OUTCOMES
      MEASURES: The between-group difference of MAE was evaluated with weighted mean
      difference and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Ten observational studies,
      involving 1161 eyes, were enrolled to compare six formulas: Haigis, Holladay 2,
      Hoffer Q, Holladay 1, SRK/T and SRK II. Among them, the Holladay 2 introduced the
      smallest overall MAE (0.496D) without statistical significance. The difference of
      MAE is statistically significant between Haigis and Hoffer Q (mean difference = 
      0.07D, P = 0.003), Haigis and SRK/T (mean difference = -0.07D, P = 0.009), Haigis
      and SRK II (mean difference = -0.41D, P = 0.01). For publication bias and small
      study effect, neither funnel plot nor egger's test detected statistical finding.
      CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: The overall evidence from the studies confirmed the
      superiority of Haigis over Hoffer Q, SRK/T and SRK II in prediction IOL power in
      short eyes.

PMID- 28887903
TI  - Catalytic Asymmetric Mannich Reaction with N-Carbamoyl Imine Surrogates of
      Formaldehyde and Glyoxylate.
AB  - N,O-acetals (NOAcs) were developed as bench stable surrogates for N-carbamoyl,
      (Boc, Cbz and Fmoc) formaldehyde and glyoxylate imines in asymmetric Mannich
      reactions. The NOAcs can be directly utilized in the chiral primary amine
      catalyzed Mannich reactions of both acyclic and cyclic beta-ketocarbonyls with
      high yields and excellent stereoselectivity. The current reaction offers a
      straightforward approach in the asymmetric synthesis of alpha- or beta-amino
      carbonyls bearing chiral quaternary centers in a practical and highly
      stereocontrolled manner.

PMID- 28887902
TI  - Atropinic (anticholinergic) burden in antipsychotic-treated patients.
AB  - Antipsychotic drugs possess side atropinic (anticholinergic) properties that may
      induce several adverse drug reactions (ADRs), such as memory loss or cognitive
      impairment. The aim of this study was to investigate anticholinergic burden in
      patients treated with antipsychotic drugs. All ADR reports including at least one
      antipsychotic and registered between 2000 and 2015 in the Midi-Pyrenees
      PharmacoVigilance Database were extracted and analyzed using the Anticholinergic
      Duran's list. The primary objective of this cross-sectional study was to
      calculate anticholinergic burden in antipsychotic-treated patients; the secondary
      one was to investigate associated factors. Among the 1948 reports, the average
      number of atropinic drugs per report was 2.4 +/- 1.4. At least one atropinic drug
      was found in 59.4% of reports (1158), in addition to antipsychotic drugs. The
      mean anticholinergic burden per report was 3.9 +/- 2.9. A value >=3 was found in
      61.7% of the reports. A significant association between anticholinergic burden,
      age, and male gender of patients was found. The mean value of anticholinergic
      burden remained stable during the study period. This study showed high values of
      anticholinergic burden in patients receiving antipsychotics. Thus, considering
      the potential noxious clinical impact of atropinic properties on cognitive
      functions, an appropriate approach should be used to reduce prescription of
      antipsychotics with a high anticholinergic burden but also coprescription of
      other frequently associated atropinic drugs, such as antiparkinsonians, H1
      antihistamines, or imipraminic antidepressants in these patients.

PMID- 28887904
TI  - Thirty first annual symposium on etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of
      Parkinson disease and other movement disorders: Presented by the Parkinson study
      group, huntington study group, dystonia study group, tourette syndrome study
      group, cooperative ataxia group, and tremor research group.

PMID- 28887906
TI  - Sphingosine-1-phosphate and renal vasoconstriction.

PMID- 28887908
TI  - Top scorers of 2015.

PMID- 28887907
TI  - Characterization of Wild Blueberry Polyphenols Bioavailability and Kinetic
      Profile in Plasma over 24-h Period in Human Subjects.
AB  - SCOPE: Understanding the metabolic fate of polyphenols from plant foods can aid
      in developing dietary recommendations that maximize their health benefits. Wild
      blueberries (WBB) provide a distinctive composition of dietary anthocyanins and
      chlorogenic acid (CGA). METHODS AND RESULTS: This is a single blind, randomized,
      two-arm crossover controlled study. Human subjects ingested a WBB beverage (25 g
      freeze dried WBB powder) or placebo beverage with a meal and plasma was collected
      over 24 h. Anthocyanins, CGA and their metabolites were characterized and
      quantified in beverages and in plasma using targeted and non-targeted mass
      analyses. Bioavailability of WBB anthocyanins and 3-CGA was 1.1 and 0.2%,
      respectively. Parent anthocyanins and 3-CGA peaked ~2 h post ingestion, while
      phase II metabolites, including glucuronide conjugates of peonidin, delphinidin,
      cyanidin and petunidin peaked ~ 2.6, 6.3, 7 and 8.8 h, respectively. Phenolic
      acids (metabolites) peaked between 0.5 and 24 h. Biphasic responses were evident
      suggesting preferential enterohepatic recycling for some compounds. CONCLUSION:
      The data indicate bioavailability of early and late phase WBB metabolites peaking
      at different times during the 24 h period, which may be important for maximizing
      their biological activity.

PMID- 28887909
TI  - Fluorescence Lifetime and UV-Vis Spectroscopy to Evaluate the Interactions
      Between Quercetin and Its Yeast Microcapsule.
AB  - Quercetin is a fragile bioactive compound. Several works have tried to preserve
      it by encapsulation but the form of encapsulation (mono- or supra-molecular
      structure, tautomeric form), though important for stability and bioavailability,
      remains unknown. The present work aims at developing a fluorescence lifetime
      technique to evaluate the structure of quercetin during encapsulation in a vector
      capsule that has already proven efficiency, yeast cells. Molecular stabilization
      was observed during a 4-month storage period. The time-correlated single-photon
      counting (TCSPC) technique was used to evaluate the interaction between quercetin
      molecules and the yeast capsule. The various tautomeric forms, as identified by
      UV-Vis spectroscopy, result in various lifetimes in TCSPC, although they varied
      also with the buffer environment. Quercetin in buffer exhibited a three-to-four
      longer long-time after 24 h (changing from 6-7 to 18-23 ns), suggesting an
      aggregation of molecules. In yeast microcapsules, the long-time population
      exhibited a longer lifetime (around 27 ns) from the beginning and concerned about
      20% of molecules compared to dispersed quercetin. This shows that lifetime
      analysis can show the monomolecular instability of quercetin in buffer and the
      presence of interactions between quercetin molecules and their microcapsules.

PMID- 28887910
TI  - Robust Multi-Objective Global Optimization of Stochastic Processes With a Case
      Study in Gradient Elution Chromatography.
AB  - A novel algorithm for robust multi-objective process optimization under
      stochastic variability of environmental variables is introduced and applied to a
      case study in gradient elution chromatography. Process variability is accounted
      for by simultaneously optimizing several scenarios with random but fixed values
      of the environmental variables. These iterative optimizations are synchronized by
      planning the same experiments for all scenarios. Experiments are designed by
      maximizing the cumulative expected hypervolume improvement as predicted by
      several Gaussian process regression models. A straightforward method is presented
      for estimating the expected Pareto front and its variability based on the
      resulting data that maintains traceability of the corresponding process
      parameters. This information is required for robust process optimization, that
      is, determination of Pareto optimal processes that fulfil specific minimal
      criteria with a certain confidence. The presented algorithm can generally be
      applied to both in silico and wet lab experiments but involves an increased
      experimental effort as compared to the deterministic case.

PMID- 28887911
TI  - Deep capillary plexus impairment in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus with
      no signs of diabetic retinopathy revealed using optical coherence tomography
      angiography.

PMID- 28887912
TI  - Safety Profile of Good Manufacturing Practice Manufactured Interferon gamma
      Primed Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells for Clinical Trials.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are widely studied by both academia and
      industry for a broad array of clinical indications. The collective body of data
      provides compelling evidence of the clinical safety of MSC therapy. However,
      generally accepted proof of therapeutic efficacy has not yet been reported. In an
      effort to generate a more effective therapeutic cell product, investigators are
      focused on modifying MSC processing protocols to enhance the intrinsic biologic
      activity. Here, we report a Good Manufacturing Practice-compliant two-step MSC
      manufacturing protocol to generate MSCs or interferon gamma (IFNgamma) primed
      MSCs which allows freshly expanded cells to be infused in patients on a
      predetermined schedule. This protocol eliminates the need to infuse
      cryopreserved, just thawed cells which may reduce the immune modulatory activity.
      Moreover, using (IFNgamma) as a prototypic cytokine, we demonstrate the
      feasibility of priming the cells with any biologic agent. We then characterized
      MSCs and IFNgamma primed MSCs prepared with our protocol, by karyotype, in vitro
      potential for malignant transformation, biodistribution, effect on engraftment of
      transplanted hematopoietic cells, and in vivo toxicity in immune deficient mice
      including a complete post-mortem examination. We found no evidence of toxicity
      attributable to the MSC or IFNgamma primed MSCs. Our data suggest that the
      clinical risk of infusing MSCs or IFNgamma primed MSCs produced by our two-step
      protocol is not greater than MSCs currently in practice. While actual proof of
      safety requires phase I clinical trials, our data support the use of either cell
      product in new clinical studies. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1868
      1879.

PMID- 28887913
TI  - Preface: Nanoformulations for combination or cascade anticancer therapy.

PMID- 28887905
TI  - Past, present, and future of Parkinson's disease: A special essay on the 200th
      Anniversary of the Shaking Palsy.
AB  - This article reviews and summarizes 200 years of Parkinson's disease. It
      comprises a relevant history of Dr. James Parkinson's himself and what he
      described accurately and what he missed from today's perspective. Parkinson's
      disease today is understood as a multietiological condition with uncertain
      etiopathogenesis. Many advances have occurred regarding pathophysiology and
      symptomatic treatments, but critically important issues are still pending
      resolution. Among the latter, the need to modify disease progression is
      undoubtedly a priority. In sum, this multiple-author article, prepared to
      commemorate the bicentenary of the shaking palsy, provides a historical state-of
      the-art account of what has been achieved, the current situation, and how to
      progress toward resolving Parkinson's disease. (c) 2017 International Parkinson
      and Movement Disorder Society.

PMID- 28887914
TI  - Curcumin attenuates the scurfy-induced immune disorder, a model of IPEX syndrome,
      with inhibiting Th1/Th2/Th17 responses in mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Immunodysregulation polyendocrinopathy enteropathy X-linked syndrome
      (IPEX) is a lethal autoimmune disease caused by mutations in the Foxp3 gene
      scurfin (scurfy). Immunosuppressive therapy for IPEX patients has been generally
      ineffective and has caused severe side effects, however curcumin has shown immune
      regulation properties for inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis,
      psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel diseases without side effects. OBJECTIVE: The
      aim of this study was to investigate whether curcumin would attenuate symptoms of
      IPEX in mouse model and would prolong its survival period. METHODS: C57BL/6 mice
      were separated into scurfy or wild-type litter mate groups by genotyping, and
      each group subsequently was separated into 2 subgroups that were fed a 1%
      curcumin containing or normal diet from the last day of breast-feeding. After
      weaning, pups were fed either a 1% curcumin containing or normal diet until all
      scurfy mice die for survival data. To elucidate immune cell proportions in spleen
      and lymph nodes, cells were analyzed by flowcytometry. Cellular cytokine
      production was accessed to investigate the effects of curcumin in T cell
      differentiation in vitro. RESULTS: Scurfy mice fed a 1% curcumin diet survived
      4.0-fold longer compared to scurfy (92.5 days) mice fed a normal diet (23 days).
      A curcumin diet decreased all of the Th1/Th2/Th17 cell populations and attenuated
      diverse symptoms such as splenomegaly in scurfy mice. In vitro experiments showed
      that curcumin treatment directly decreased the Th1/Th2/Th17 cytokine production
      of IFN-gamma, IL-4, and IL-17A in CD4+ T cells. CONCLUSIONS: Curcumin diet
      attenuated the scurfy-induced immune disorder, a model of IPEX syndrome, by
      inhibiting Th1/Th2/Th17 responses in mice. These results have implications for
      improving clinical therapy for patients with IPEX and other T cell related
      autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28887915
TI  - Hepatoprotective naphthalene diglucoside from Neanotis wightiana aerial parts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Neanotis wightiana (Wall. ex Wight & Arn) W.H. Lewis has been used in
      traditional medicine in India for the treatment of liver disorders. In fact, this
      plant is frequently used by the local people of Tripura for the treatment of
      liver disorder problems. In previous study on this plant we have isolated a
      hepatoprotective saponin, neanoside A. PURPOSE: Evaluation of in vivo
      hepatoprotective effects of isolated compounds from N. wightiana aerial parts on
      serum hepatic-biomarkers in CCl4- induced hepatotoxicity in rats to validate the
      traditional use of the plant. STUDY DESIGN: This study was designed to isolate
      more hepatoprotective compounds from N. wightiana aerial parts and evaluate their
      in vivo hepatoprotective activity in animal model. METHODS: The phytochemicals
      from the polar n-butanol fraction of methanolic extract of N. wightiana aerial
      parts were isolated by repeated column chromatography over Diaion HP-20 and
      silica gel. Among the isolated three compounds, two were known triterpenoids,
      ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. The new compound was named neanoside B and its
      structure was established as naphthalene diglucoside 1 on the basis of extensive
      spectroscopic (including 2D NMR) analysis. Furthermore, the hepatoprotective
      activity of 1 was evaluated on CCl4 -induced hepatic injured rats by oral
      administration at three doses (5, 10 mg and 20 mg/kg) for 7 d and the assay of
      serum hepatic injury marker enzymes, SGPT, SGOT, ALP and bilirubin contents and
      histopathological changes of injured liver tissue after 7 d The herbal
      hepatoprotective drug, silymarin (100 mg/kg) was as positive control. RESULTS:
      The structure of the new compound, neanoside B (1) was elucidated as 1,4
      dihydroxy-2-(methoxymethyl)naphthalen-3-yl-methyl-3-beta-d-glucopyranosyl-(1->6)
      beta-d-glucopyranoside on the basis of extensive spectroscopic (including 2D-NMR)
      and chemical studies. The compound 1 exhibited significant in vivo
      hepatoprotective effect at the tested doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg bw in CCl4
      induced hepatotoxicity in rats. In a dose-dependent manner, 1 normalized the
      elevated levels of hepatic injury marker enzymes, serum glutamic oxaloacetic
      transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), alkaline
      phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin and ameliorated the damage of liver tissue
      by reducing the necrosis and vacuoles. Possibly compound 1 ameliorated the
      hepatic damage in hepatotoxic rats by improving the antioxidant status. The
      higher dose (20 mg/kg) showed more hepatoprotective effect by reducing the
      elevated levels of SGPT, SGOT, ALP and bilirubin content to 388.5 +/- 2.156,
      160.7 +/- 3.00, 198.6 +/- 4.562 and 0.652 +/- 0.036 IU/ml, respectively, compared
      to the levels in the control group (583.2 +/- 6.922, 324.6 +/- 4.711, 263.9 +/-
      4.939 and 1.533 +/- 0.042 IU/ml, respectively) and the effect was comparable to
      that of the positive control silymarin (100 mg/kg bw) (389.4 +/- 6.348, 167.9 +/-
      4.289, 203.3 +/- 4.448 and 0.816 +/- 0.030 IU/ml, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      This study indicated that isolated neanoside B (1) from Neanotis wightiana could
      be a potential drug in liver disorders. Further study in pharmacokinetics and
      long-term toxicity of compound 1 is requested for its clinical setting as
      effective drug in liver disorders.

PMID- 28887916
TI  - Angelica polysaccharides inhibit the growth and promote the apoptosis of U251
      glioma cells in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Angelica sinensis (Oliv) Diels (Apiaceae) is a traditional medicine
      that has been used for more than 2000 years in China. It exhibits various
      therapeutic effects including neuroprotective, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory,
      and immunomodulatory activities. Angelica polysaccharides (APs), bioactive
      constituents of Angelica have been shown to be responsible for these effects;
      however, the utility of APs for the treatment of glioma and their mechanism of
      action remain to be elucidated. PURPOSE: In this study, we investigated the
      inhibitory effects of APs on a glioma cell line and their molecular mechanism of
      action. STUDY DESIGN: U251 cells were utilized to confirm the effects of APs on
      glioma. METHODS: The human glioblastoma cell line U251 was utilized for both in
      vitro and in vivo models, in which we tested the effects of APs. Flow cytometry,
      gene expression analysis, western blotting, and MTT assays were used to elucidate
      the effects of APs on cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis. RESULTS: The
      results demonstrated that APs significantly inhibited the growth and
      proliferation of U251 cells and induced their apoptosis. Furthermore, APs
      effectively reduced the expression of several cell cycle regulators: cyclins D1,
      B, and E. The apoptosis suppressor protein Bcl-2 was also downregulated, and the
      expression of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and cleaved-caspase-3 increased.
      Additionally, APs inhibited the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta signaling
      pathway and stimulated the expression of E-cadherin, thus prohibiting cell
      growth. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the results indicate that APs attenuate the
      tumorigenicity of glioma cells and promote their apoptosis by suppressing the TGF
      beta signaling pathway. The present study therefore provides evidence of the
      inhibitory effects of APs against glioma progression, and proposes their
      potential application as alternative therapeutic agents for glioma.

PMID- 28887917
TI  - Hepatoprotective effects of Yulangsan flavone against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)
      induced hepatic fibrosis in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Yulangsan flavone (YLSF) was extracted from the root of Millettia
      pulchra Kurz var-laxior (Dunn) Z. Wei, which has been widely used for liver
      disease treatment in the Guangxi province of China. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The study
      was conducted to demonstrate the hepatoprotective effects of YLSF against CCl4
      induced hepatic fibrosis in rats, meanwhile revealing the potential mechanism.
      STUDY DESIGN: Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats of both sexes were randomly divided into
      two groups: hepatic fibrosis group and normal control (NC) group. The rats in the
      hepatic fibrosis group were given 1 ml/kg 50% CCl4 (1:1 mixed with peanut oil),
      while those in the NC group were given 1 ml/kg normal saline (NS), both via
      intragastric administration. The established experimental rat model from the
      hepatic fibrosis group was confirmed by pathological inspection and randomly
      divided into five groups: three YLSF groups (20 mg/kg, 40 mg/kg and 80 mg/kg), a
      colchicine group (0.20 mg/kg) and a model group (10 ml/kg NS). All rats were
      treated with corresponding drugs or NS once a day for four consecutive weeks.
      Twenty-four hours after the last administration, blood serum and hepatic tissue
      were collected. METHODS: The activities of ALT and AST in the serum and the
      levels of SOD, MDA, GSH and GSH-Px in hepatic tissue were analysed, the indexes
      of liver, spleen and thymus were counted, the degree of hepatic injury was
      examined using HE and Masson staining, and the mRNA expression of Col-1, TIMP-1
      and TGF-beta1 in hepatic tissues was detected. RESULTS: Compared with the model
      group, experimental results showed that YLSF and colchicine could reduce the
      levels of AST, ALT and MDA, increase the levels of SOD, GSH and GSH-Px, enhance
      rat survivability, decrease the liver, spleen and thymus index, significantly
      lessen collagen deposition and tissue damage and down-regulate the mRNA
      expression of Col-1, TIMP-1 and TGF-beta1. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that
      YLSF has a certain curative effect on rats with liver fibrosis induced by CCl4,
      and its mechanism may include attenuating free radicals, inhibiting lipid
      peroxidation and accelerating extracellular matrix degradation by down-regulating
      expression of related genes.

PMID- 28887918
TI  - Hepatoprotective and hypoglycemic effects of a tannin rich extract from Ximenia
      americana var. caffra root.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver diseases and diabetes are serious health disorders associated
      with oxidative stress and ageing. Some plant polyphenols can lower the risk of
      these diseases. PURPOSE: We investigated the phytochemical profiling of a root
      extract from Ximenia americana var. caffra using HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS. The
      antioxidant activities in vitro were investigated. The hepatoprotective
      activities were studied in rat models with d-galactosamine (d-GaIN)-induced
      hepatotoxicity and the antidiabetic activities in STZ-diabetic rats were also
      investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS was used to identify
      plant phenolics. The antioxidant activities in vitro were determined using DPPH
      and FRAP assays. The in vivo hepatoprotective activities were determined for d
      GaIN-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. We determined the liver markers alanine
      aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and gamma
      glutamyltransferase (GGT), liver peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA),
      glutathione content (GSH), albumin and total bilirubin concentration. The
      histopathological changes in rat liver were also studied. The antidiabetic
      activities were also investigated in STZ-diabetic rats and serum glucose, serum
      insulin hormone, and lipid peroxides were determined. RESULTS: The root extract
      is rich in tannins with 20 compounds including a series of stereoisomers of
      (epi)catechin, (epi)catechin-(epi)catechin, (epi)catechin-(epi)catechin
      (epi)catechin, and their galloyl esters. Promising antioxidant potential was
      observed in vitro in DPPH assay with EC50 of 6.5 ug extract / 26 ug raw material
      and in FRAP assay with 19.54 mM FeSO4 compared with ascorbic acid (EC50 of 2.92
      ug/ml) and quercetin (FeSO4 24.04 mM/mg), respectively. Significant reduction of
      serologic enzymatic markers and hepatic oxidative stress markers such as ALT,
      AST, MDA, GGT, and total bilirubin, as well as elevation of GSH and albumin were
      observed in rats with d-galactosamine-induced liver damage treated with the
      extract. These findings agree with a histopathological examination suggesting a
      hepatoprotective potential for the root extract. The root extract can mediate an
      antidiabetic effect by reducing elevated blood glucose and serum lipid peroxides
      levels and by increasing insulin in STZ-diabetic rats by -107, -31.1, +11.3%,
      respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the tannin-rich
      extract from Ximenia americana var. caffra could be an interesting candidate for
      the treatment of several health disorders associated with oxidative stress such
      as hepatocellular injury and diabetes.

PMID- 28887919
TI  - Cassia tora Linn.: A boon to Alzheimer's disease for its anti-amyloidogenic and
      cholinergic activities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Drug discovery from natural products as alternatives for Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) is a current trend. For which plant is an alternative for searching
      potential molecule for treating AD. Availability of Cassia tora as weed and
      abundance in nature makes it as potential source. Many plants group under
      Leguminosae family has potential medicinal property of which Cassia tora is an
      appropriate choice, to know potency against AD. Etiology of AD is described by
      senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The Abeta42 has key major role in
      forming plaques by forming structures like protobirils, oligomers and final
      fibrilar like structures. Even at in vitro conditions, the peptides have a
      fibrilar like structure, which was exploited to preliminary screening of natural
      sources that may be effective in treating AD. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: The design of
      the study was to unravel the potential medicinal property of Cassia tora for its
      antioxidant, cholinergic and aggregation inhibition activity. STUDY DESIGN: We
      evidenced that the methanol (MeOH), n-hexane (n-hex), petroleum ether (PE) and
      aqueous (aq) extracts from the leaves of Cassia tora (C. tora) were investigated
      for their inhibitory activity against acetylcholinesterase (AChE),
      butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and anti-amyloidogenic assays. The antioxidant
      effect using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, total
      phenolic and flavonoid contents of the extracts were determined using Folin
      Ciocaltaeu's and aluminum chloride (AlCl3) reagents, respectively. RESULTS: The
      methanol extract of C. tora exerted the highest inhibition against AChE (55.38 +/
      2.28%) and BChE inhibition (50.02 +/- 0.79%) at 100ug/ml concentration. The
      methanol extract was also found more active in the antioxidant test. The
      aggregation kinetics was monitored using thioflavin-T (ThT) assay and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique. CONCLUSION: The results showed
      that C. tora methanol extract is able to inhibit the Abeta42 aggregation from
      monomers and oligomers and also able to dis-aggregate the pre-formed fibrils. The
      study provides an insight on finding new natural products for AD therapeutics.

PMID- 28887920
TI  - Isolation of natural products with anti-ageing activity from the fruits of
      Platanus orientalis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ageing is defined as the time-dependent decline of functional
      capacity and stress resistance resulting in increased morbidity and mortality.
      HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE: Reportedly, these effects can be delayed by mild genetic or
      pharmacological activation of the main modules of the proteostasis network. STUDY
      DESIGN-METHODS: By employing advanced phytochemical methods we isolated natural
      products from the fruits of Platanus orientalis and studied (via a bio-guided
      approach) their effects in Drosophila flies, as well as in normal human
      fibroblasts. RESULTS: We report herein that dietary administration in Drosophila
      flies of a phenolics-enriched methanol extract from the fruits of Platanus
      orientalis exerted antioxidant effects; activated proteostatic mechanisms and
      mildly extended flies' longevity. We then isolated the two major compounds of the
      extract, namely Platanoside and Tiliroside and found that enrichment of the total
      extract with these compounds decreased oxidative stress and (in the case of the
      Tiliroside enriched extract) activated proteostatic mechanisms. Administration of
      purified Tiliroside in flies activated proteostatic genes, enhanced proteasome
      and lysosomal-cathepsin activities and decreased tissues' oxidative load;
      moreover, it delayed the rate of age-related decrease in flies' locomotion
      activity and increased flies' longevity. Notably, Tiliroside also activated
      proteasome in normal human fibroblasts and delayed progression of cellular
      senescence indicating that it may also impact on human cells rate of senescence.
      CONCLUSION: Our presented findings highlight the potential anti-ageing activity
      of naturals products derived from the fruits of P. orientalis.

PMID- 28887921
TI  - Cytotoxicity and mode of action of a naturally occurring naphthoquinone, 2-acetyl
      7-methoxynaphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-quinone towards multi-factorial drug-resistant
      cancer cells.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Malignacies are still a major public concern worldwide and despite
      the intensive search of new chemotherapeutic agents, treatment still remains a
      challenging issue. The present study was designed to evaluate the cytotoxicity of
      2-acetyl-7-methoxynaphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-quinone (AMNQ) isolated from the bark
      of Milletia versicolor towards a panel of drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant
      (MDR) cancer cell lines. METHODS: The resazurin reduction assay was used to
      evaluate the cytotoxicity of AMNQ against 9 drug-sensitive and multidrug
      resistant (MDR) cancer cell lines. Cell cycle, mitochondrial membrane potential
      (MMP) and levels of reactive oxygen species were all analyzed by flow cytometry.
      RESULTS: Following resazurin assay, the naphthoquinone AMNQ displayed IC50 values
      ranging from 0.79 uM (against HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cells) to 3.26 uM (against
      MDA-MB231/BCRP breast cancer cells) on 9 tested cancer cell lines, whilst
      doxorubicin showed IC50 values ranging from 0.40 uM (against CCRF-CEM leukemia
      cells) to 91.37 uM (against CEM/ADR5000 leukemia cells). IC50 values below 1 uM
      were recorded with AMNQ towards CCRF-CEM cells (0.57 uM), U87MG.DeltaEGFR
      gliobastoma multiforme cells (0.96 uM cells) and HepG2 cells (0.76 uM). Compared
      to its corresponding sensitive cell lines U87MG, sensitivity was observed in
      epidermal growth factor receptor-transfected U87MG.DeltaEGFR cells to AMNQ. MMP
      was found to be the main mode of action of induction of apoptosis by AMNQ.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this work demonstrate the cytotoxicity of AMNQ
      towards various types of cancer cell lines, including MDR phenotypes. AMNQ is a
      potential antiproliferative natural compound that deserves more investigations to
      develop novel cytotoxic drugs against sensitive and MDR cancers.

PMID- 28887922
TI  - Gramine inhibits angiogenesis and induces apoptosis via modulation of TGF-beta
      signalling in 7,12 dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) induced hamster buccal pouch
      carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and its receptors are
      considered as a novel target in cancer chemotherapy. Gramine, an indole alkaloid,
      possesses various pharmacological properties including antiproliferative and
      anticancer. However, the anti-angiogenic property remains unexplored. PURPOSE:
      The present study was designed to evaluate the anti-angiogenic and apoptosis
      induction properties of gramine through inhibiting TGF-beta on DMBA induced oral
      squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in the hamster buccal pouch (HBP). METHODS: The
      effects of gramine on TGF-beta signalling in DMBA induced carcinogenic events
      such as angiogenesis and apoptosis were analysed by studying the mRNA expression
      using RT-PCR, protein expression by western blot and histopathological analysis
      using haematoxylin and eosin (H & E) staining. RESULTS: Gramine significantly
      inhibited phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of Smad2 and Smad4 by
      blocking activity of the TGFbeta-RII, RI and activation of inhibitory Smad7.
      Gramine inhibited angiogenic markers such as MMP-2, MMP-9, HIF-1alpha, VEGF, and
      VEGF-R2 as well as increased TIMP-2 expression. Furthermore, gramine induced
      apoptosis in DMBA induced tumour bearing animals by up regulating the pro
      apoptotic proteins Bax, cytochrome C, apaf-1, caspase-9 caspase-3 and PARP.
      CONCLUSION: In this study, we clearly demonstrated that gramine treatment
      diminishes angiogenesis and induces apoptosis in hamster buccal pouch (HBP)
      carcinogenesis by modulating TGF-beta signals.

PMID- 28887923
TI  - Anti-adipogenesis mechanism of pterostilbene through the activation of heme
      oxygenase-1 in 3T3-L1 cells.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pterostilbene is a stilbenoid and major compound and has diverse
      biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory.
      However, it has not been shown whether pterostilbene affects the mitotic clonal
      expansion during adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells. PURPOSE: In the present study, we
      aimed to demonstrate the detailed mechanism of pterostilbene on anti-adipogenesis
      in 3T3-L1 cells. METHODS: Preadipocytes were converted to adipocytes through
      treatment with MDI (IBMX; 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, DEX; dexamethasone,
      insulin) in 3T3-L1 cells. Oil Red O staining was performed to measure
      intracellular lipid accumulation. Western blot analysis was conducted to analyze
      protein expressions. RESULTS: Our results showed that pterostilbene decreased the
      lipid accumulation compared to MDI-induced differentiation, using Oil Red O
      staining. Next, we found that pterostilbene suppressed the expression of
      C/EBPalpha, PPARgamma, and aP2 as well as the mitotic clonal expansion-associated
      proteins CHOP10 and C/EBPbeta, by western blot analysis. Our results indicated
      that pterostilbene may repress adipocyte differentiation through the activation
      of HO-1 expression prior to entering into the mitotic clonal expansion in 3T3-L1
      cells. RNA interference was used to determine whether HO-1 acts as a regulator of
      CHOP10. CONCLUSION: Our results revealed that pterostilbene induced HO-1
      expression which acts as a regulator of CHOP10. Together, we demonstrated that
      pterostilbene suppresses the initiation of mitotic clonal expansion via up
      regulation of HO-1 expression during adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells.

PMID- 28887924
TI  - In memoriam Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. mult. Fritz H. Kemper (1927-2017).

PMID- 28887925
TI  - Introduction to Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - Renewed interest in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support of
      critically ill patients has led to a large expansion of its use across the world.
      This article reviews the long history of ECMO and introduces the early pioneers.
      The idea of team planning and team work is introduced in this article. There is
      an emphasis on understanding that ECMO care varies across institutions but is
      slowly growing to more uniform protocols.

PMID- 28887926
TI  - Developing an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Program.
AB  - The development of a successful extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
      program requires an institutional commitment and the multidisciplinary
      cooperation of trained specialty personnel from nursing, internal medicine,
      anesthesiology, pulmonology, emergency medicine, critical care, and surgery and
      often pediatrics as well. The specialized training necessary to cultivate an
      integrated team capable of providing life-saving ECMO cannot be underestimated.
      The development of a successful ECMO program is best suited to a tertiary medical
      center that is centrally/regionally located and capable of financially supporting
      the level of expertise required as well as managing the program's overall cost
      effectiveness.

PMID- 28887928
TI  - Management Strategies for Severe Respiratory Failure: As Extracorporeal Membrane
      Oxygenation Is Being Considered.
AB  - Pulmonary and critical care physicians must be facile in recognition and
      management of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Part of
      the current critical care knowledge base must include an understanding of how
      extracorporeal membrane oxygenation fits into the paradigm of ARDS management
      without using it as a "salvage therapy." This article provides a basic
      understanding of the evolution of ARDS to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome,
      recognizing benefits and limits of rescue therapies, indications and
      contraindications of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and coordination of
      care for severe respiratory failure.

PMID- 28887929
TI  - Vascular Complications in Extracoporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a rescue therapy in patients
      with severe cardiopulmonary failure. Often, cannulation is done emergently and
      the femoral vessels are most readily accessible for venous and arterial access.
      Unfortunately, complications with arterial femoral access can lead to devastating
      complications, primarily related to limb ischemia. A coordinated protocol of
      diligent limb examination by trained intensive care unit staff, near infrared
      spectroscopy monitoring of limbs, and placement of a distal perfusion catheter at
      the time of femoral cannulation or when signs of ischemia develop, can lead to
      successful limb salvage.

PMID- 28887927
TI  - Cardiac Support: Emphasis on Venoarterial ECMO.
AB  - Major advances have been made in mechanical circulatory support in recent years.
      Venoarterial (VA) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) provides both
      pulmonary and circulatory support for critically ill patients with hemodynamic
      compromise, serving as a bridge to recovery or definitive therapy in the form of
      transplant or a durable ventricular assist device. In the past, VA ECMO support
      was used in cases of cardiogenic shock or failure to wean from cardiopulmonary
      bypass; however, the technology is now being applied to an ever-expanding list of
      conditions, including massive pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, drug overdose,
      and hypothermia.

PMID- 28887930
TI  - Pediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - Extracorporeal life support is a modified form of cardiopulmonary bypass.
      Experience in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has come largely from
      the neonatal population. Most centers have transitioned the ECMO pumps from
      roller pumps to centrifugal technology. Modes of support include venovenous for
      respiratory support and venoarterial for cardiac support. "Awake" ECMO is the
      trend with extubation and tracheostomy on the rise. Fluid overload is common and
      managed with diuretics or hemofiltration. Nutrition is important and provided
      enterally or via total parenteral nutrition. Overall survival for pediatric
      cardiac and respiratory ECMO has remained at approximately 50% to 60%.

PMID- 28887931
TI  - Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Management: Techniques to Liberate from
      Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation and Manage Post-Intensive Care Unit Issues.
AB  - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a life-saving technique when
      patients require pulmonary and/or cardiac support for days to weeks for recovery,
      bridge to decision, or transplantation. Due to complications associated with
      ECMO, it is best to stay on ECMO as little time as necessary. Foremost is weaning
      from ECMO, but the post-ECMO period recapitulates the entire field of critical
      care. Identified issues include (1) potential for systemic inflammatory response
      syndrome post-decannulation; (2) post-ECMO complications, such as deep vein
      thrombosis, wounds, renal failure, and stroke; (3) delirium; (4) posttraumatic
      stress disorder; (5) rehabilitation; and (6) end of life.

PMID- 28887932
TI  - Issues in the Intensive Care Unit for Patients with Extracorporeal Membrane
      Oxygenation.
AB  - The care of patients on extracorporeal corporeal oxygenation support takes a
      coordinated effort among the team of nurses, midlevel providers, perfusionists,
      respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and physicians. Attention on the details of
      the circuitry and its interactions with the patient, the resolution of the
      disease process and the ongoing plan of care, and unique issues in the intensive
      care unit are crucial for success.

PMID- 28887933
TI  - Staffing, Equipment, Monitoring Considerations for Extracorporeal Membrane
      Oxygenation.
AB  - Although the reasons for the recent growth in adult extracorporeal membrane
      oxygenation (ECMO) are multifactorial, much of the success may be attributed to
      the development of well-trained staff and the technological innovations in
      equipment and monitoring devices used during extracorporeal support. In this
      article, the authors discuss general educational formats for the ECMO bedside
      provider, staffing support models, and devices designed to best meet the needs of
      the patient while simultaneously ensuring the proper delivery of ECMO-related
      care.

PMID- 28887934
TI  - Transport While on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support.
AB  - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support for severe acute respiratory
      failure has been increasing. Evidence suggests that higher volume centers have
      better outcomes, leading to a need for specialized ECMO transport teams. The
      inherent nature of the prehospital environment adds an additional layer of
      complexity; however, the experience of multiple centers has demonstrated that
      cannulating and transporting a patient on ECMO can be performed safely. The
      purpose of this review article is to discuss the state of knowledge with respect
      to ECMO transport with special emphasis given to how to actually undertake such
      complex transports.

PMID- 28887935
TI  - Medication Complications in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
AB  - The need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy is a marker of
      disease severity for which multiple medications are required. The therapy causes
      physiologic changes that impact drug pharmacokinetics. These changes can lead to
      exposure-driven decreases in efficacy or increased incidence of side effects. The
      pharmacokinetic changes are drug specific and largely undefined for most drugs.
      We review available drug dosing data and provide guidance for use in the ECMO
      patient population.

PMID- 28887936
TI  - Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

PMID- 28887937
TI  - Mars science laboratory radiation assessment detector (MSL/RAD) modeling workshop
      proceedings.

PMID- 28887938
TI  - Measurements of the neutral particle spectra on Mars by MSL/RAD from 2015-11-15
      to 2016-01-15.
AB  - The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), onboard the Mars Science Laboratory
      (MSL) rover Curiosity, has been measuring the energetic charged and neutral
      particles and the radiation dose rate on the surface of Mars since the landing of
      the rover in August 2012. In contrast to charged particles, neutral particles
      (neutrons and gamma-rays) are measured indirectly: the energy deposition spectra
      produced by neutral particles are complex convolutions of the incident particle
      spectra with the detector response functions. An inversion technique has been
      developed and applied to jointly unfold the deposited energy spectra measured in
      two scintillators of different types (CsI for high gamma detection efficiency,
      and plastic for neutrons) to obtain the neutron and gamma-ray spectra. This
      result is important for determining the biological impact of the Martian surface
      radiation contributed by neutrons, which interact with materials differently from
      the charged particles. These first in-situ measurements on Mars provide (1) an
      important reference for assessing the radiation-associated health risks for
      future manned missions to the red planet and (2) an experimental input for
      validating the particle transport codes used to model the radiation environments
      within spacecraft or on the surface of planets. Here we present neutral particle
      spectra as well as the corresponding dose and dose equivalent rates derived from
      RAD measurement during a period (November 15, 2015 to January 15, 2016) for which
      the surface particle spectra have been simulated via different transport models.

PMID- 28887939
TI  - The radiation environment on the surface of Mars - Summary of model calculations
      and comparison to RAD data.
AB  - The radiation environment at the Martian surface is, apart from occasional solar
      energetic particle events, dominated by galactic cosmic radiation, secondary
      particles produced in their interaction with the Martian atmosphere and albedo
      particles from the Martian regolith. The highly energetic primary cosmic
      radiation consists mainly of fully ionized nuclei creating a complex radiation
      field at the Martian surface. This complex field, its formation and its potential
      health risk posed to astronauts on future manned missions to Mars can only be
      fully understood using a combination of measurements and model calculations. In
      this work the outcome of a workshop held in June 2016 in Boulder, CO, USA is
      presented: experimental results from the Radiation Assessment Detector of the
      Mars Science Laboratory are compared to model results from GEANT4, HETC-HEDS,
      HZETRN, MCNP6, and PHITS. Charged and neutral particle spectra and dose rates
      measured between 15 November 2015 and 15 January 2016 and model results
      calculated for this time period are investigated.

PMID- 28887940
TI  - Evaluation of HZETRN on the Martian surface: Sensitivity tests and model results.
AB  - The Mars Science Laboratory Radiation Assessment Detector (MSLRAD) is providing
      continuous measurements of dose, dose equivalent, and particle flux on the
      surface of Mars. These measurements have been highly useful in validating
      environmental and radiation transport models that will be heavily relied upon for
      future deep space missions. In this work, the HZETRN code is utilized to estimate
      radiation quantities of interest on the Martian surface. A description of the
      modeling approach used with HZETRN is given along with the various input models
      and parameters used to define the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environment and
      Martian geometry. Sensitivity tests are performed to gauge the impact of varying
      several input factors on quantities being compared to MSLRAD data. Results from
      these tests provide context for inter-code comparisons presented in a companion
      paper within this issue. It is found that details of the regolith and atmospheric
      composition have a minimal impact on surface flux, dose, and dose equivalent.
      Details of the density variation within the atmosphere and uncertainties
      associated with specifying the vertical atmospheric thickness are also found to
      have minimal impact. Two widely used GCR models are used as input into HZETRN and
      it is found that the associated surface quantities are within several percent of
      each other.

PMID- 28887941
TI  - The charged particle radiation environment on Mars measured by MSL/RAD from
      November 15, 2015 to January 15, 2016.
AB  - The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on board the Mars Science Laboratory
      (MSL) Curiosity rover has been measuring the radiation environment in Gale crater
      on Mars since August, 2012. These first in-situ measurements provide an important
      data set for assessing the radiation-associated health risks for future manned
      missions to Mars. Mainly, the radiation field on the Martian surface stems from
      Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and secondary particles created by the GCRs'
      interactions with the Martian atmosphere and soil. RAD is capable of measuring
      differential particle fluxes for lower-energy ions and isotopes of hydrogen and
      helium (up to hundreds of MeV/nuc). Additionally, RAD also measures integral
      particle fluxes for higher energies of these ions. Besides providing insight on
      the current Martian radiation environment, these fluxes also present an essential
      input for particle transport codes that are used to model the radiation to be
      encountered during future manned missions to Mars. Comparing simulation results
      with actual ground-truth measurements helps to validate these transport codes and
      identify potential areas of improvements in the underlying physics of these
      codes. At the First Mars Radiation Modeling Workshop (June 2016 in Boulder, CO),
      different groups of modelers were asked to calculate the Martian surface
      radiation environment for the time of November 15, 2015 to January 15, 2016.
      These model results can then be compared with in-situ measurements of MSL/RAD
      conducted during the same time frame. In this publication, we focus on presenting
      the charged particle fluxes measured by RAD between November 15, 2015 and January
      15, 2016, providing the necessary data set for the comparison to model outputs
      from the modeling workshop. We also compare the fluxes to initial GCR
      intensities, as well as to RAD measurements from an earlier time period (August
      2012 to January 2013). Furthermore, we describe how changes and updates in RAD on
      board processing and the on ground analysis tools effect and improve the flux
      calculations. An in-depth comparison of modeling results from the workshop and
      RAD fluxes of this publication is presented elsewhere in this issue (Matthia et
      al., 2017).

PMID- 28887942
TI  - Radiation transport simulation of the Martian GCR surface flux and dose
      estimation using spherical geometry in PHITS compared to MSL-RAD measurements.
AB  - Planetary bodies and spacecraft are predominantly exposed to isotropic radiation
      environments that are subject to transport and interaction in various material
      compositions and geometries. Specifically, the Martian surface radiation
      environment is composed of galactic cosmic radiation, secondary particles
      produced by their interaction with the Martian atmosphere, albedo particles from
      the Martian regolith and occasional solar particle events. Despite this complex
      physical environment with potentially significant locational and geometric
      dependencies, computational resources often limit radiation environment
      calculations to a one-dimensional or slab geometry specification. To better
      account for Martian geometry, spherical volumes with respective Martian material
      densities are adopted in this model. This physical description is modeled with
      the PHITS radiation transport code and compared to a portion of measurements from
      the Radiation Assessment Detector of the Mars Science Laboratory. Particle
      spectra measured between 15 November 2015 and 15 January 2016 and PHITS model
      results calculated for this time period are compared. Results indicate good
      agreement between simulated dose rates, proton, neutron and gamma spectra. This
      work was originally presented at the 1st Mars Space Radiation Modeling Workshop
      held in 2016 in Boulder, CO.

PMID- 28887943
TI  - Simulation of the GCR spectrum in the Mars curiosity rover's RAD detector using
      MCNP6.
AB  - The paper presents results from MCNP6 simulations of galactic cosmic ray (GCR)
      propagation down through the Martian atmosphere to the surface and comparison
      with RAD measurements made there. This effort is part of a collaborative modeling
      workshop for space radiation hosted by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). All
      modeling teams were tasked with simulating the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) spectrum
      through the Martian atmosphere and the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on
      board the Curiosity rover. The detector had two separate particle acceptance
      angles, 4pi and 30  degrees  off zenith. All ions with Z = 1 through Z = 28 were
      tracked in both scenarios while some additional secondary particles were only
      tracked in the 4pi cases. The MCNP6 4pi absorbed dose rate was 307.3 +/- 1.3
      uGy/day while RAD measured 233 uGy/day. Using the ICRP-60 dose equivalent
      conversion factors built into MCNP6, the simulated 4pi dose equivalent rate was
      found to be 473.1 +/- 2.4 uSv/day while RAD reported 710 uSv/day.

PMID- 28887944
TI  - A calculation of the radiation environment on the Martian surface.
AB  - In this work, the radiation environment on the Martian surface, as produced by
      galactic cosmic radiation incident on the atmosphere, is modeled using the Monte
      Carlo radiation transport code, High Energy Transport Code-Human Exploration and
      Development in Space (HETC-HEDS). This work is performed in participation of the
      2016 Mars Space Radiation Modeling Workshop held in Boulder, CO, and is part of a
      larger collaborative effort to study the radiation environment on the surface of
      Mars. Calculated fluxes for neutrons, protons, deuterons, tritons, helions, alpha
      particles, and heavier ions up to Fe are compared with measurements taken by
      Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument aboard the Mars Science Laboratory
      over a period of 2 months. The degree of agreement between measured and
      calculated surface flux values over the limited energy range of the measurements
      is found to vary significantly depending on the particle species or group.
      However, in many cases the fluxes predicted by HETC-HEDS fall well within the
      experimental uncertainty. The calculated results for alpha particles and the
      heavy ion groups Z = 3-5, Z = 6-8, Z = 9-13 and Z > 24 are in the best agreement,
      each with an average relative difference from measured data of less than 40%.
      Predictions for neutrons, protons, deuterons, tritons, Helium-3, and the heavy
      ion group Z = 14-24 have differences from the measurements, in some cases,
      greater than 50%. Future updates to the secondary light particle production
      methods in the nuclear model within HETC-HEDS are expected to improve light ion
      flux predictions.

PMID- 28887945
TI  - The radiation environment on the surface of Mars - Numerical calculations of the
      galactic component with GEANT4/PLANETOCOSMICS.
AB  - Galactic cosmic radiation and secondary particles produced in the interaction
      with the atmosphere lead to a complex radiation field on the Martian surface. A
      workshop ("1st Mars Space Radiation Modeling Workshop") organized by the MSL-RAD
      science team was held in June 2016 in Boulder with the goal to compare models
      capable to predict this radiation field with each other and measurements from the
      RAD instrument onboard the curiosity rover taken between November 15, 2015 and
      January 15, 2016. In this work the results of PLANETOCOSMICS/GEANT4 contributed
      to the workshop are presented. Calculated secondary particle spectra on the
      Martian surface are investigated and the radiation field's directionality of the
      different particles in dependence on the energy is discussed. Omnidirectional
      particle fluxes are used in combination with fluence to dose conversion factors
      to calculate absorbed dose rates and dose equivalent rates in a slab of tissue.

PMID- 28887946
TI  - Comparing HZETRN, SHIELD, FLUKA and GEANT transport codes.
AB  - For the first time, the American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation
      transport codes, HZETRN and SHIELD respectively, are directly compared to each
      other. Calculations are presented for Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) minimum Hydrogen,
      Oxygen and Iron projectiles incident on a uniform Aluminum cylinder of varying
      thickness. Comparisons are made for the flux spectra of neutrons, light ions (Z<=
      2), heavy ions (Z> 2) and pions emitted from the back of the Aluminum cylinder.
      In order to provide more benchmark comparisons, some calculations with the GEANT
      and FLUKA transport codes are also shown.

PMID- 28887947
TI  - Therapeutic pipeline for atopic dermatitis: End of the drought?
AB  - Until the past year, our therapeutic armamentarium for treating atopic dermatitis
      (AD) was still primarily topical corticosteroids and, for more severe disease,
      systemic immunosuppressants. The pipeline of more targeted topical and systemic
      therapies is expanding based on our growing understanding of the mechanism for AD
      and is particularly focused on suppressing the skewed immune activation. Most
      agents are in phase 2 clinical trials. Crisaborole, a topical phosphodiesterase 4
      (PDE4) inhibitor, became available in late 2016 in the United States for mild-to
      moderate AD, with other PDE4 inhibitors, an agonist of the aryl hydrocarbon
      receptor, Janus kinase inhibitors, and commensal organisms also in trials for
      topical application. The first highly effective mAb for AD, dupilumab, targets
      the IL-4/IL-13 receptor and was approved in early 2017 in the United States for
      moderate-to-severe adult AD. Other biologics similarly inhibit TH2 cytokines
      (thymic stromal lymphopoietin, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and the itch-specific cytokine
      IL-31 and their receptors) or TH22/TH17 cytokines, levels of which are increased
      in lesional skin. Orally administered small-molecule inhibitors that suppress
      inflammation (targeting chemoattractant receptor-homologous molecules expressed
      on TH2 lymphocytes, PDE4, the histamine 4 receptor, and Janus kinase) or
      specifically itching (eg, NK1R inhibitors) are also being studied. Comparing
      biomarkers with individual responses to experimental agents will help to
      determine subphenotypes within AD that predict prognosis and treatment responses.

PMID- 28887950
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28887948
TI  - Psoriasis pathogenesis and the development of novel targeted immune therapies.
AB  - Psoriasis is caused by a complex interplay between the immune system, psoriasis
      associated susceptibility loci, autoantigens, and multiple environmental factors.
      Over the last 2 decades, research has unequivocally shown that psoriasis
      represents a bona fide T cell-mediated disease primarily driven by pathogenic T
      cells that produce high levels of IL-17 in response to IL-23. The discovery of
      the central role for the IL-23/type 17 T-cell axis in the development of
      psoriasis has led to a major paradigm shift in the pathogenic model for this
      condition. The activation and upregulation of IL-17 in prepsoriatic skin produces
      a "feed forward" inflammatory response in keratinocytes that is self-amplifying
      and drives the development of mature psoriatic plaques by inducing epidermal
      hyperplasia, epidermal cell proliferation, and recruitment of leukocyte subsets
      into the skin. Clinical trial data for mAbs against IL-17 signaling (secukinumab,
      ixekizumab, and brodalumab) and newer IL-23p19 antagonists (tildrakizumab,
      guselkumab, and risankizumab) underscore the central role of these cytokines as
      predominant drivers of psoriatic disease. Currently, we are witnessing a
      translational revolution in the treatment and management of psoriasis. Emerging
      bispecific antibodies offer the potential for even better disease control,
      whereas small-molecule drugs offer future alternatives to the use of biologics
      and less costly long-term disease management.

PMID- 28887951
TI  - Injectable hyaluronan-methylcellulose composite hydrogel crosslinked by
      polyethylene glycol for central nervous system tissue engineering.
AB  - Spontaneous recovery ability of central nerves has inspired researchers to focus
      on tissue engineering techniques, especially scaffolds. To obtain a material with
      an appropriate degrading rate, an injectable composite hydrogel HAMC consisting
      of hyaluronic acid and methylcellulose was prepared using polyethylene glycol as
      a cross linker in this study. HAMC combined the advantages of two components to
      be fast-gelling, injectable, degradable, biocompatible, and it was able to meet
      some special shape requirement for injured tissue by in-situ forming. Moreover,
      due to the crosslinking effects polyethylene glycol brought to methylcellulose,
      the rheological properties and stability of HAMC were greatly improved, which
      could prolong the residence time of this hydrogel effectively. Cell viability
      results showed HAMC was cytocompatible for further applications in vivo, and
      would be a promising choice for neural tissue engineering in the future.

PMID- 28887952
TI  - Evaluating adhesion and alignment of dental pulp stem cells to a spider silk
      substrate for tissue engineering applications.
AB  - A proposed source of stem cells for nerve regeneration are dental pulp stem cells
      (DPSCs), based on their close embryonic origin to neurons and the ease with which
      DPSCs can be obtained from a donor. This study evaluated the response of human
      DPSCs to spider dragline silk fibers, a potential substrate material for tissue
      regeneration. The DPSCs' morphology and spread pattern were characterized after
      these cells were plated onto Nephila clavipes dragline fibers in media. In
      addition, the responses of two other well established cell lines, osteoblasts
      (7F2s), and fibroblasts (3T3s), were also studied under identical conditions. The
      inclusion of 3T3s and 7F2s in this study allowed for both direct comparisons to
      prior published work and a qualitative comparison to the morphology of the DPSCs.
      After twelve days, the DPSCs exhibited greater relative alignment and adherence
      to the spider dragline fibers than the 3T3s and 7F2s. The impact of a common
      sterilization method (ultraviolet light) on the spider dragline fiber surface and
      subsequent cell response to this modified surface was also characterized.
      Exposure of the silk to ultraviolet light did not have a measureable effect on
      cell alignment, but it did eliminate bacterial growth and changed fiber surface
      roughness. Spiders' exposure to stressful environments did not have an effect on
      silk to impair cell alignment or adhesion. Synthetic recombinant protein silk did
      not act as a substrate for cell adhesion or alignment but hydrogels with similar
      composition supported cell attachment, growth and proliferation. In all cases,
      natural drawn spider silk acted as an effective substrate for cellular adhesion
      and alignment of DPSCs and could be used in neural differentiation applications.

PMID- 28887953
TI  - Synthesis and biological evaluation of an anticancer drug delivery system: Poly(l
      gamma-glutamyl-l-carbocisteine)-paclitaxel nanoconjugate.
AB  - This study is intended to develop and evaluate a novel, highly water-soluble
      polymer drug conjugate poly(l-gamma-glutamyl-l-carbocisteine)-paclitaxel (PGSC
      PTX) which can trigger drug release in tumor acidic microenvironment and improve
      the therapeutic index of paclitaxel (PTX). PGSC-PTX is formed by introducing an
      additional carbocisteine into each glutamic side chain of poly(l-glutamic acid)
      paclitaxel (PGA-PTX) conjugate. PGSC-PTX self-assembles into nanoparticles, whose
      size remains in the range of 15-20nm. PGSC-PTX demonstrated sensitive to pH and
      released PTX rapidly in low pH. PGSC-PTX shows significant in vitro cytotoxicity
      to NH460 cancer cell line, which has less toxic and side effect of than PTX.
      Meanwhile, the hemolytic test indicated that the nanoparticles could be used for
      intravenous injection. It was concluded that the maximum tolerated dose of PGSC
      PTX achieved to be 250mg PTX/kg, which is extremely maximum tolerated providing a
      significant foundation in the clinical research.

PMID- 28887954
TI  - Fabrication, self-assembly and biomedical applications of luminescent sodium
      hyaluronate with aggregation-induced emission feature.
AB  - Organic dyes with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) feature have recently
      attracted much research attention for biomedical applications due to their
      inimitable optical superiority. Although many reports have demonstrated for
      fabricating AIE-active nanoprobes, the synthesis of AIE-active natural polymers
      is still very limited. In this work, fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs)
      with AIE feature have been prepared through formation of Schiff base interaction
      between amino-terminated AIE dye (PhE) and oxidation sodium hyaluronate (OSH).
      The final copolymers (denoted as PhE-OSH) were characterized by means of 1H
      nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy,
      fluorescent spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The potential of
      using PhE-OSH in biomedical applications were examined by cell viability assay as
      well as confocal imaging capability. Results suggested that PhE can facilely
      conjugate with OSH through formation of Schiff base. The synthesized PhE-OSH FONs
      exhibited well dispersibility in aqueous solution, small size, strong
      fluorescence and good biocompatibility. Taken together, we developed a novel
      strategy for fabrication of AIE-active FONs, which showed great potential for
      biomedical applications.

PMID- 28887955
TI  - Engineered electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL)/octacalcium phosphate (OCP)
      scaffold for bone tissue engineering.
AB  - The main challenge in bone tissue engineering is to find suitable biological
      substitutes which act as scaffolds. Hence, in this work, a novel scaffold
      composed of octacalcium phosphate (OCP) particles fabricated by co-precipitation
      method and polycaprolactone (PCL) using electrospinning technique was introduced.
      The electrospun scaffolds were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, DSC and TGA
      analysis. The mechanical properties of the composite scaffolds including maximum
      tensile stress, strain at break and Young modulus were measured. The bioactivity
      of the scaffolds was determined by soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF). The
      osteoblast human G-292 cells were seeded on the scaffold's surface for in vitro
      studies including cell culture and MTT assay. The FTIR and XRD results showed
      that OCP component has an appropriate incorporation into the polymeric PCL
      matrix. The SEM analysis exhibited a significant reduction in the fiber size
      thanks to the OCP. The results of tensile test confirmed that the PCL/OCP
      composite introduced suitable mechanical properties. Furthermore, the OCP
      particles led to form hydroxyapatite layer on the scaffold's surface in the
      vicinity of SBF solution. The obtained results from the MTT assay described that
      OCP particles have a positive impact on the growth of the osteoblast human G-292
      cells on the scaffolds. Overall, aforesaid features of the PCL/OCP composite
      scaffold make it a great candidate for the bone tissue engineering application.

PMID- 28887956
TI  - Layer-by-layer assembled biopolymer microcapsule with separate layer cavities
      generated by gas-liquid microfluidic approach.
AB  - In this work, a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled biopolymer microcapsule with
      separate layer cavities is generated by a novel and convenient gas-liquid
      microfluidic approach. This approach exhibits combined advantages of microfluidic
      approach and LbL assembly method, and it can straightforwardly build LbL
      assembled capsules in mild aqueous environments at room temperature. In
      particular, using this approach we can build the polyelectrolyte multilayer
      capsule with favorable cavities in each layer, and without the need for organic
      solvent, emulsifying agent, or sacrificial template. Various components (e.g.,
      drugs, proteins, fluorescent dyes, and nanoparticles) can be respectively
      encapsulated in the separate layer cavities of the LbL-assembled capsules.
      Moreover, the encapsulated capsules present the ability as colorimetric sensors,
      and they also exhibit the interesting release behavior. Therefore, the LbL
      assembled biopolymer capsule is a promising candidate for biomedical applications
      in targeted delivery, controlled release, and bio-detection.

PMID- 28887957
TI  - Accelerated healing of full thickness dermal wounds by macroporous waterborne
      polyurethane-chitosan hydrogel scaffolds.
AB  - Wound healing is a dynamic process wherein cells, and macromolecules work in
      consonance to facilitate tissue regeneration and restore tissue integrity. In the
      case of full-thickness (FT) wounds, healing requires additional support from
      native or synthetic matrices to aid tissue regeneration. In particular, a matrix
      with optimum hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance which will undergo adequate swelling
      as well as reduce bacterial adhesion has remained elusive. In the present study,
      polyurethane diol dispersion (PUD) and the anti-bacterial chitosan (Chn) were
      blended in different ratios which self-organized to form macroporous hydrogel
      scaffolds (MHS) at room temperature on drying. SEM and AFM micrographs revealed
      the macroporosity on top and fracture surfaces of the MHS. FTIR spectra revealed
      the intermolecular as well as intra-molecular hydrogen bonding interactions
      between the two polymers responsible for phase separation, which was also
      observed by micrographs of blend solutions during the drying process. The effect
      of phase separation on mechanical properties and in vitro degradation
      (hydrolytic, enzymatic and pH dependent) of MHS were studied and found to be
      suitable for wound healing. In vitro cytocompatibility was demonstrated by the
      proliferation of primary rat fibroblast cells on MHS. Selected MHS was subjected
      to in vivo FT wound healing study in Wistar rats and compared with an analogous
      polyurethane containing commercial dressing i.e. TegadermTM. The MHS-treated
      wounds demonstrated accelerated healing with increased wound contraction, higher
      collagen synthesis, and vascularization in wound area compared to TegadermTM.
      Thus, it is concluded that the developed MHS is a promising candidate for
      application as FT wound healing dressings.

PMID- 28887959
TI  - alpha-TCP cements prepared by syringe-foaming: Influence of Na2HPO4 and
      surfactant concentration.
AB  - The lack of intrinsic open porosity in calcium phosphate cements slows down the
      resorption rate and bone ingrowth when implanted In Vivo. In this study,
      macroporous structures were obtained by mixing alpha-TCP cement with a foamed
      liquid phase containing different concentrations of sodium hydrogen phosphate and
      a nonionic surfactant. The cement paste was prepared by hand mixing in a novel
      system of two syringes connected by a tube. Two different liquid to powder (L/P)
      ratios were used to prepare the cement paste. The cement samples showed open
      macropores with diameters>100MUm. The specimens prepared with lower L/P ratio
      showed smaller porosity, macroporosity and pore size distribution. The cohesion
      of the cement paste in liquid solutions was assessed by adding 2wt% sodium
      alginate to the liquid phase. This study suggests that the final macrostructure
      of the foamed cements can be controlled by varying the phosphate and surfactant
      concentrations in the liquid phase and the L/P ratio.

PMID- 28887958
TI  - Photoelastic analysis of mandibular full-arch implant-supported fixed dentures
      made with different bar materials and manufacturing techniques.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the stress distribution of mandibular full dentures supported
      with implants according to the bar materials and manufacturing techniques using a
      qualitative photoelastic analysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An acrylic master model
      simulating the mandibular arch was fabricated with four Morse taper implant
      analogs of 4.5*6mm. Four different bars were manufactured according to different
      material and techniques: fiber-reinforced resin (G1, Trinia, CAD/CAM),
      commercially pure titanium (G2, cpTi, CAD/CAM), cobalt-chromium (G3, Co-Cr,
      CAD/CAM) and cobalt-chromium (G4, Co-Cr, conventional cast). Standard clinical
      and laboratory procedures were used by an experienced dental technician to
      fabricate 4 mandibular implant-supported dentures. The photoelastic model was
      created based on the acrylic master model. A load simulation (150N) was performed
      in total occlusion against the antagonist. RESULTS: Dentures with fiber
      reinforced resin bar (G1) exhibited better stress distribution. Dentures with
      machined Co-Cr bar (G3) exhibited the worst standard of stress distribution, with
      an overload on the distal part of the posteriors implants, followed by dentures
      with cast Co-Cr bar (G4) and machined cpTi bar (G2). CONCLUSION: The fiber
      reinforced resin bar exhibited an adequate stress distribution and can serve as a
      viable alternative for oral rehabilitation with mandibular full dentures
      supported with implants. Moreover, the use of the G1 group offered advantages
      including reduced weight and less possible overload to the implants components,
      leading to the preservation of the support structure.

PMID- 28887960
TI  - Electrochemical preparation and characterization of PNIPAM-HAp scaffolds for bone
      tissue engineering.
AB  - In the last decade, a variety of methods for fabrication of three-dimensional
      biomimetic scaffolds based on hydrogels have been developed for tissue
      engineering. However, many methods require the use of catalysts which compromises
      the biocompatibility of the scaffolds. The electrochemical polymerization (ECP)
      of acrylic monomers has received an increased attention in recent years due to
      its versatility in the production of highly biocompatible coatings for the
      electrodes used in medical devices. The main aim of this work was the use of ECP
      as scaffold fabrication technique to produce highly porous poly(N
      isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)/hydroxyapatite (HAp) composite for bone tissue
      regeneration. The prepared PNIPAM-HAp porous scaffolds were characterized by SEM,
      FTIR, water swelling, porosity measurements and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
      techniques. FTIR indicates that ECP promotes a successful conversion of NIPAM to
      PNIPAM. The water swelling and porosity were shown to be controlled by the HAp
      content in PNIPAM-HAp scaffolds. The PNIPAM-HAp scaffolds exhibited no
      cytotoxicity to MG63 cells, showing that ECP are potentially useful for the
      production of PNIPAM-HAp scaffolds. To address the osteomyelitis, a significant
      complication in orthopedic surgeries, PNIPAM-HAp scaffolds were loaded with the
      antibiotic oxacillin. The oxacillin release and the bacterial killing activity of
      the released oxacillin from PNIPAM-HAp against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa were
      demonstrated. These observations demonstrate that ECP are promising technique for
      the production of non-toxic, biocompatible PNIPAM-HAp scaffolds for tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28887961
TI  - Biopolymers/poly(epsilon-caprolactone)/polyethylenimine functionalized nano
      hydroxyapatite hybrid cryogel: Synthesis, characterization and application in
      gene delivery.
AB  - Nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAp), surface functionalized with linear polyethylenimine
      (LPEI), was used for the preparation of biocomposites in combination with
      biopolymers and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), by cryogelation technique, to
      yield biomimetic scaffolds with controlled interconnected macroporosity,
      mechanical stability, and predictable degradation behavior. The structural
      characteristics, swelling and degradation behavior of hydroxyapatite and
      hydroxyapatite/beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) filled matrices were
      investigated as compared to the corresponding naked polymer 3D system. It was
      found that the homogeneity and cohesivity of the composite are significantly
      dependent on the size and amount of the included inorganic particles, which are
      thus determining the structural parameters. Surface modification with LPEI and
      nanodimensions favored the nHAp integration in the organic matrix, with
      preferential location along protein fibers, while beta-TCP microparticles induced
      an increased disorder in the hybrid system. The biocomposite including nHAp only
      was further investigated targeting biomedical uses, and proved to be non
      cytotoxic and capable of acting as gene-activated matrix (GAM). It allowed
      sustained delivery over time (until 22days) of embedded PEI25-pDNA polyplexes at
      high levels of transgene expression, while insuring a decrease in cytotoxicity as
      compared to polyplexes alone. Experimental data recommend such biocomposite as an
      attractive material for regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28887963
TI  - Facile-one pot-green synthesis, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and
      antiplatelet activities of lignin capped silver nanoparticles: A promising
      therapeutic agent.
AB  - The current work portrays the green synthesis of Lignin Capped Silver
      Nanoparticles (LCSN) and their antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and
      antiplatelet potential. The LCSN was synthesized in water using a carbohydrate
      based polymer 'lignin' as the reducing and capping agents. The peak at 406nm
      (lambdamax) in the UV-Vis., spectrum and EDX analysis confirmed 1.68% (w/w) of
      silver was found to be loaded on lignin. The characteristic sharp peaks appeared
      in the PXRD spectrum showed fcc crystalline structure LCSN. SEM and TEM images
      indicated that the spherical Ag-NPs were well dispersed on lignin with an average
      particle size of ~10-15nm. LCSN showed antibacterial and antifungal activity
      against human pathogens S. aureus, E. coli and A. niger and the percentage of
      zone of inhibition was found to be 10%, 12% and 80% respectively. Further, LCSN
      was evaluated for antioxidant potential using DPPH scavenging assay,
      interestingly it showed antioxidant activity and the percentage against positive
      control vitamin C was found to be 70%. Furthermore, LCSN did not interfere in
      plasma coagulation; however, it found to inhibit agonist ADP induced platelet
      aggregation of human platelet rich plasma. The observed inhibition was found to
      be 37% and the calculated IC50 value was found to be 9mg/mL. LCSN did not lyses
      RBC membrane when assayed hemolytic activity suggesting its non-toxic nature.

PMID- 28887964
TI  - In vitro co-culture of epithelial cells and smooth muscle cells on aligned
      nanofibrous scaffolds.
AB  - Esophagus is a complex, hollow organ consisting of epithelial cells in the inner
      mucosal layer and smooth muscle cells in the outer muscle layer. In the present
      study, we have evaluated the in vitro co-culture of epithelial cells and smooth
      muscle cells on the aligned nanofibrous scaffold made of PHBV, PHBV-gelatin, PCL
      and PCL-gelatin developed through electrospinning using rotating drum collector.
      Epithelial cells were labeled with cell tracker green while the smooth muscle
      cells were labeled with cell tracker red. Labeled cells were seeded on the
      aligned nanofibers matrices and tracked using laser scanning confocal microscopy.
      The results demonstrate that both epithelial and smooth muscle cells attach,
      extend, and proliferate over these nanofibrous matrices. Confocal z-sectioning
      shows that epithelial and smooth muscle cells tend to separate into two distinct
      layers on a single nanofiber system mimicking the in vivo anatomy. Cell viability
      assay showed that both types of cells are viable and also interact with each
      other. The functional gene expression of respective cell types demonstrates that
      both epithelial and smooth muscle cells are phenotypically as well as
      functionally active when they were co-cultured. Thus the study highlighted that
      aligned nanofibrous scaffolds could be potential alternative graft for esophageal
      tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28887962
TI  - A simple, compact, low-cost, highly efficient thermometer based on green
      fluorescence of Er3+/Yb3+-codoped NaYF4 microcrystals.
AB  - We developed a highly efficient optical thermometer based on intensity ratio of
      upconversion green fluorescence of Er3+/Yb3+-codoped NaYF4 microcrystals. The
      sensor consists simply of a 980nm laser diode, one narrow-band interference
      filter, two lenses, one Si-photocell and one multimeter, while being without use
      of spectrometer and additional electronics. The device not only has a simple,
      compact structure (hence a low cost), but also displays highly efficient sensing
      performance, characterized by large signal-to-noise ratio due to strong
      fluorescence intensity, high thermal resolution and sensitivity, which have the
      values 1.3K and 1.24*10-2K-1, respectively, at the physiological temperature
      310K. The excellent sensing performance of the device was further confirmed by
      the results of the measurements repeated using a spectrometer. The thermometer is
      highly generalized that can be applied to other luminescent materials, and shows
      great potential for the physiological temperature sensing in biological tissues
      and cells.

PMID- 28887965
TI  - Preparation, characterization and anti-colitis activity of curcumin-asafoetida
      complex encapsulated in turmeric nanofiber.
AB  - Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a main form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
      Asafoetida (ASF) and turmeric have traditionally been used for the treatment of
      various inflammatory diseases, including UC, because ASF is rich in sulfur
      compounds and turmeric contains curcumin (CUR). Turmeric nanofiber (TNF), the
      modified cell wall component of turmeric is considered to play important role in
      the human diet, health and can be used as a carrier agent to encapsulate
      bioactive components. A novel gut health product (GHP) was formulated by
      encapsulation of ASF and CUR complex onto TNF. The GHP was characterized by UPLC,
      GC-MS, FTIR, XRD, SEM with EDS and DSC studies. GHP was evaluated for anti
      colitis activity in a rat model of 5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induced UC.
      Treatment with GHP significantly attenuated the disease activity index, colitis
      score, histopathological changes and myeloperoxidase activity. GHP has
      significant protective effects against DSS induced colitis.

PMID- 28887966
TI  - Core-shell structured polypyrrole/mesoporous SiO2 nanocomposite capped with
      graphene quantum dots as gatekeeper for irradiation-controlled release of
      methotrexate.
AB  - A core-shell structured nanocomposite of polypyrrole/mesoporous SiO2 (PPy/mSiO2)
      is rationally designed as the nanocarrier for methotrexate (MTX), a
      chemotherapeutic drug for cancer treatment. Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are
      introduced to the outer surface of PPy/mSiO2, and it functions as a gatekeeper
      for the loaded MTX through the formation of H-bonds with the functionalized
      mSiO2. In the proposed nanocarrier for MTX, the mesopores in mSiO2 are beneficial
      for the accommodation of MTX, resulting in enhanced encapsulation capacity of the
      nanocarrier; on the other hand, PPy can effectively convert the near-infrared
      (NIR) light to heat. Under the irradiation of NIR light, the H-bonds between GQDs
      and mSiO2 are broken due to the gradually increased temperature, and therefore
      the GQDs cap is removed and consequently the encapsulated MTX is released from
      the nanocarrier. In this study, NIR irradiation-controlled drug delivery is
      achieved successfully owing to the synergistic effects of PPy, mSiO2 and GQDs,
      which opens a new window for the construction of smart drug delivery systems.

PMID- 28887967
TI  - Efficient synthesis of highly fluorescent carbon dots by microreactor method and
      their application in Fe3+ ion detection.
AB  - Rapidly obtaining strong photoluminescence (PL) of carbon dots with high
      stability is crucial in all practical applications of carbon dots, such as cell
      imaging and biological detection. In this study, we proposed a rapid, continuous
      carbon dots synthesis technique by using a microreactor method. By taking
      advantage of the microreactor, we were able to rapidly synthesized CDs at a large
      scale in less than 5min, and a high quantum yield of 60.1% was achieved. This
      method is faster and more efficient than most of the previously reported methods.
      To explore the relationship between the microreactor structure and CDs PL
      properties, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were carried out. The results show the surface
      functional groups and element contents influence the PL emission. Subsequent ion
      detection experiments indicated that CDs are very suitable for use as nanoprobes
      for Fe3+ ion detection, and the lowest detection limit for Fe3+ is 0.239MUM,
      which is superior to many other research studies. This rapid and simple synthesis
      method will not only aid the development of the quantum dots industrialization
      but also provide a powerful and portable tool for the rapid and continuous online
      synthesis of quantum dots supporting their application in cell imaging and safety
      detection.

PMID- 28887968
TI  - Polyethyleneimine grafted short halloysite nanotubes for gene delivery.
AB  - Inorganic nanoparticles have attracted much attentions in gene delivery because
      of their desirable characteristics including low toxicity, well-controlled
      characteristics, high gene delivery efficiency, and multi-functionalities. Here,
      natural occurred halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were developed as a novel non-viral
      gene vector. To increase the efficiency of endocytosis, HNTs were firstly
      shortened into an appropriate size (~200nm). Then polyethyleneimine (PEI) was
      grafted onto HNTs to bind green fluorescence protein (GFP) labeled pDNA. The
      structure and physical-chemical properties of PEI grafted HNTs (PEI-g-HNTs) were
      characterized by various methods. PEI-g-HNTs show lower cytotoxicity than PEI.
      PEI-g-HNTs are positively charged and can bind DNA tightly at designed N/P ratio
      from 5:1 to 40:1. PEI-g-HNTs/pDNA complexes show much higher transfection
      efficiency towards both 293T and HeLa cells compared with PEI/pDNA complexes at
      the equivalent N/P ratio. The transfection efficiencies of PEI-g-HNTs/pDNA
      complex towards HeLa cell can reach to 44.4% at N/P ratio of 20. PEI-g-HNTs/pDNA
      complexes possess a higher GFP protein expression than PEI/pDNA from simple
      western immunoblots. So, PEI-g-HNTs are potential gene vectors with good
      biocompatibility and high transfection efficiency, which have promising
      applications in cancer gene therapy.

PMID- 28887969
TI  - Viability of HEK 293 cells on poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) biosynthesized from
      a mutant Azotobacter vinelandii strain. Cast film and electrospun scaffolds.
AB  - Sterilization, cytotoxicity and cell viability are essential properties defining
      a material for medical applications and these characteristics were investigated
      for poly(beta-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) of 230kDa obtained by bacterial synthesis
      from a mutant strain of Azotobacter vinelandii. Cell viability was investigated
      for two types of PHB scaffolds, solution cast films and non-woven electrospun
      fibrous membranes, and the efficiency was compared against a culture dish. The
      biosynthesized PHB was sterilized by ultraviolet radiation and autoclave, it was
      found that the thermal properties and intrinsic viscosity remained unchanged
      indicating that the sterilization methods did not degrade the polymer. Sterilized
      scaffolds were then seeded with human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cells to
      evaluate the cytotoxic response. The cell viability of these cells was evaluated
      for up to six days, and the results showed that the cell morphology was normal,
      with no cytotoxic effects. The films and electrospun membranes exhibited over 95%
      cell viability whereas the viability in culture dishes reached only ca. 90%. The
      electrospun membrane, however, exhibited significantly higher cell density than
      the cast film suggesting that the fibrous morphology enables better nutrients
      transfer. The results indicate that the biosynthesized PHB stands UV and
      autoclave sterilization methods, it is biocompatible and non-toxic for cell
      growth of human cell lines. Furthermore, cell culture for up to 18 days showed
      that 62% and 90% of mass was lost for the film and fibrous electrospun scaffold,
      respectively. This is a favorable outcome for use in tissue engineering where
      material degradation, as tissue regenerates, is desirable.

PMID- 28887971
TI  - 808nm light triggered black TiO2 nanoparticles for killing of bladder cancer
      cells.
AB  - The black TiO2 nanoparticles are synthesized via a facile calcination method
      combined with an in-situ controllable solid-state reaction approach. The results
      indicate that the photocatalyst with a narrow band gap of ~2.32 eV extends the
      photoresponse to visible light and near infrared region. And thus more reactive
      oxygen species can be obtained to induce the cell-killing under 808 nm light
      triggering. The as-obtained black TiO2 nanoparticles exhibiting low toxicity,
      good biocompatibility and high anticancer effect in vitro, is demonstrated as
      efficient photosensitizers for phototherapy to kill the bladder cancer cells.
      These findings suggest that the facile synthetic black TiO2 nanomaterials will
      have broad application in biomedicine.

PMID- 28887970
TI  - Fabrication and characterization of nanofibers of honey/poly(1,4-cyclohexane
      dimethylene isosorbide trephthalate) by electrospinning.
AB  - We report the fabrication of novel nanofibers using naturally occurring
      antimicrobial honey incorporated in poly(1,4-cyclohexane dimethylene isosorbide
      trephthalate) (PICT) for the potential wound dressing applications. We fabricated
      PICT/honey using three blend ratios 90:10, 85:15 and 80:20 respectively.
      Morphology of PICT nanofibers and PICT/honey nanofibers was observed under
      Scanning Electron Microscope and it showed bead-free nanofibers. Fourier
      Transform Infrared Spectroscope was used to confirm the presence of honey in PICT
      electrospun nanofibers. Tensile strength of PICT/honey nanofibers was slightly
      reduced with variation in effect of elongation. Water contact angle measurements
      were done with the static contact angle by a contact angle meter, which showed
      that hydrophobicity was decreased by adding the honey. The XPS spectra showed
      that honey was present in the PICT/honey nanofibers. The release behavior of
      honey was investigated by UV-visible Spectrophotometer. The release was complete
      in 15min and the maximum release of honey was 72mg/L in 10min. Therefore,
      PICT/honey nanofibers having 15% concentration of honey are suitable for good
      elastic behavior and tensile strength as compared to other concentrations of
      honey.

PMID- 28887972
TI  - Dual targeting hyaluronic acid - RGD mesoporous silica coated gold nanorods for
      chemo-photothermal cancer therapy.
AB  - This work reports a multifunctional nanoplatform (GNRs@mSiO2-HA-RGD) by
      conjugating targeting ligand hyaluronic acid (HA) and RGD with mesoporous silica
      coated gold nanorods (GNRs@mSiO2) for dual-targeted chemo-photothermal therapy.
      Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was used as the model drug to investigate the
      drug loading, in vitro drug release profiles and cell evaluation. The
      nanoplatform has demonstrated a good photothermal effect and excellent drug
      loading capacity of about 20.16%. It also had pH-enzyme sensitive and NIR
      triggered drug release properties. Cellular uptake experiment results indicated
      that DOX-GNRs@mSiO2-HA-RGD can be dual-targeted to ovarian cancer cells via CD44
      and integrin receptor mediated endocytosis pathway. Cytotoxicity experiments
      demonstrated that combined therapy exhibited a better therapy effect compared to
      that of single chemotherapy or photothermal therapy. Our study demonstrates that
      DOX-GNRs@mSiO2-HA-RGD may be a new promising dual-targeted delivery system for
      chemo-photothermal therapy.

PMID- 28887973
TI  - Controlled release of a hydrophilic drug from electrospun amyloid-like protein
      blend nanofibers.
AB  - In this study, a controlled drug release platform, amyloid-like bovine serum
      albumin (AL-BSA) with ampicillin sodium salt (amp), was developed. To develop
      this platform, 5%, 10%, and 20% (w/w) ratios of amp:BSA were used with
      electrospinning to prepare nanofibers with average diameters of 132+/-69, 159+/
      60, and 179+/-42nm, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
      demonstrated that AL-BSA could entrap large amounts of drug inside the
      nanofibers, which was attributed to the antimicrobial activity of the released
      drug against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The amount of drug
      released was measured by UV-VIS spectrophotometry. The nanofibrous matrix of the
      electrospun membrane showed controlled release behavior in all samples. The
      transport mechanism was Fickian for the low ratio of amp:BSA (5% w:w). When the
      drug ratio was increased to >10% (w:w), thicker fiber structures formed,
      suggesting that the drug traveled a longer distance to reach the fiber surface;
      thus, the mechanism of transport shifted from Fickian to non-Fickian.

PMID- 28887974
TI  - Mechanical properties and osteogenic activity of poly(l-lactide) fibrous membrane
      synergistically enhanced by chitosan nanofibers and polydopamine layer.
AB  - To synergistically improve the mechanical properties and osteogenic activity of
      electrospinning poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) membrane, chitosan (CS) nanofibers were
      firstly introduced to prepare sub-micro and nanofibers interpenetrated PLLA/CS
      membrane, which was further surface modified with a polydopamine (PDA) layer to
      obtain PLLA/CS-PDA. Surface morphology, porosity, surface area and hydrophilicity
      of the obtained fibrous membranes were studied in detail. As compared to pure
      PLLA, the significant increase in the mechanical properties of the PLLA/CS, and
      especially of the PLLA/CS-PDA, was confirmed by tensile testing both in dry and
      wet states. Cells culture results indicated that both the PLLA/CS and PLLA/CS-PDA
      membranes, especially the latter, were more beneficial to adhesion, spreading and
      proliferation, as well as up-regulating alkaline phosphate activity and calcium
      deposition of MC3T3-E1 cells than PLLA membrane. Results suggested there was a
      synergistic effect of the CS nanofibers and PDA layer on the mechanical
      properties and osteogenic activity of PLLA membrane.

PMID- 28887975
TI  - Synthesis of silk fibroin-g-PAA composite using H2O2-HRP and characterization of
      the in situ biomimetic mineralization behavior.
AB  - Silk fibroin (SF) as a bioactive protein can offer growth substrates for
      hydroxyapatite (HAp) deposition. In the current work, graft copolymerization of
      acrylic acid (AA) onto fibroin chains was carried out using hydrogen peroxide
      horseradish peroxidase (H2O2-HRP) catalytic system, SF-g-polyacrylic acid (PAA)
      membranes was prepared subsequently, followed by in situ biomimetic
      mineralization in the Ca/P solutions, aiming at promoting the deposition of HAp
      and endowing the fibroin-based biocomposite with enhanced bioactivity. Meanwhile,
      p-hydroxyphenylacetamide (PHAD) and methyl acrylate (MA), as the model compounds
      of tyrosine residues in SF and vinyl monomer were used to disclose the mechanism
      of graft copolymerization. The data from FTIR and SEC chromatograms indicated
      that vinyl monomer was successfully graft copolymerized with SF during H2O2-HRP
      treatment. According to the results of XRD, SEM patterns and EDS-Mapping, mineral
      phases on the surfaces of SF-g-PAA membranes were detected after different cycles
      of biomimetic mineralization, and the mechanical property of SF-g-PAA/HAp
      membrane was noticeably improved. Cell viability and adhesion assays revealed
      that the composite of SF-g-PAA/HAp exhibited acceptable biocompatibility and
      outstanding adhesion property. The present work provides a novel method for
      preparation of the fibroin-based biomaterial for bone tissue engineering.

PMID- 28887976
TI  - Nanoclay cross-linked semi-IPN silk sericin/poly(NIPAm/LMSH) nanocomposite
      hydrogel: An outstanding antibacterial wound dressing.
AB  - High antibacterial and skin-like hydrogels have always been the perfect wound
      dressing for human to protect wound from infection. Here, based on silk sericin,
      we design a series of nanoclay lithium magnesium silicate hydrate (LMSH) cross
      linked semi-IPN sericin/poly(NIPAm/LMSH) (HSP) nanocomposite hydrogels and
      demonstrate advantages in serving as antibacterial wound dressing in comparison
      with gauze. Firstly, the effect of mass ratios of sericin/(sericin+NIPAm) upon
      pore structure, feasibility of mechanics and gas permeability of HSP
      nanocomposite hydrogels were evaluated. Then, the relationship between
      nanocomposite hydrogel and histological/antimicrobial properties was
      systematically analyzed. It was found that, the introduction of sericin increased
      internal pore size, leading to obvious transition from honeycomb to layered
      structure. Furthermore, as mass ratio of sericin/(sericin+NIPAm) is 20%, the
      wound healing area treated with nanocomposite hydrogels at 6th day reached up to
      83%, 3 times of gauze, and almost recovered at 13th day. Especially,
      antibacterial mechanism can be thought to be the results that the macromolecular
      sericin embedded in the nanocomposite hydrogel adsorbed bacteria by charge
      interaction and micromolecular sericin dissociating out from nanocomposite
      hydrogels can be adsorbed onto bacteria.

PMID- 28887977
TI  - Magnetic electrospun short nanofibers wrapped graphene oxide as a promising
      biomaterials for guiding cellular behavior.
AB  - Magnetic particles show extremely wide application prospects in the biomedical
      field, particularly in the success of cellular manipulation, drug delivery
      systems, magnetic hyperthermia and NRI contrast enhancement. Graphene oxide with
      functional groups has a promising biological effect. In this work, we develop
      magnetic short-fibers wrapped graphene oxide for guiding cellular behavior with
      the aid of high-speed shear of nanofibers fabricated through electrospinning
      technique. The diameter and the length of short-fibers are about 300nm and 80MUm,
      respectively. The short-fibers exhibit superior magnetic properties (saturation
      magnetization value: 50.33emu/g), which has a strong response appearance to the
      NdFeB magnet. SEM images and laser confocal images display that there has an
      extremely tight adhesion between the short-fibers wrapped graphene oxide and
      cells. The control of cell-fibers structure behavior can be realized by applying
      external magnet. The results may provide an attractive perspective on the
      treatment of disease with magnetic field.

PMID- 28887978
TI  - Neuro-differentiated Ntera2 cancer stem cells encapsulated in alginate beads:
      First evidence of biological functionality.
AB  - The present communication investigates an application of alginate encapsulation
      technology to the differentiation of the embryonic cancer stem NTera2 cells (NT2)
      into dopamine-producing cells. The encapsulation of cells in polymeric beads
      allows their immune isolation and makes them eligible for transplantation, thus
      representing a promising biotech tool for the delivery of biologically active
      compounds to the brain. The polysaccharide alginate is one of the most commonly
      used material for this procedure since it is well tolerated by various tissues,
      including the brain. Two different initial cell concentrations (i.e. 0.5*106/ml
      and 1.0*106/ml) were tested, in order to identify which one could better reflect
      the homogeneous cell distribution into the alginate beads and guarantee a good
      cell viability at different times of culture. As evidenced, the higher number of
      cells promoted the formation of clusters resulting in a better interaction among
      encapsulated cells and the subsequent promotion of mitotic activity. The
      distribution of alive/dead cells into the alginate beads was verified and
      followed at different time points through the fluorescein diacetate/propidium
      iodide (FDA/PI) staining, confirming the presence of living neuronal positive
      cells, as determined from fluorescence microscopy imaging. The functionality of
      the encapsulated NT2 cells was confirmed by their dopamine production capability
      as assessed by UV-Vis spectrophotometric analysis and by liquid chromatography
      mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The NT2/microspheres system can be considered a
      groundbreaking experimental procedure, a functionally active platform, able to
      produce and release dopamine, and thus potentially exploitable for therapy in
      Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28887979
TI  - Antibacterial zinc oxide hybrid with gelatin coating.
AB  - ZnO has been widely investigated as important biomaterials and antibacterial
      materials. However, the aggregation of nanoparticles and its potential toxicity
      may hinder its final application. Herein, biocompatible gelatin chains were
      grafted on the surface of ZnO via mussel inspired method to prevent the
      aggregation of the ZnO nanoparticles. The in vitro test showed that the gelatin
      can greatly improve the biocompatibility of ZnO, while the antibacterial
      properties of ZnO against both E. coli and S. aureus were maintained.

PMID- 28887980
TI  - Development and characterization of miltefosine-loaded polymeric micelles for
      cancer treatment.
AB  - Miltefosine presents antineoplastic activity but high hemolytic potential. Its
      use in cancer has been limited to treating cutaneous metastasis of breast cancer.
      To decrease hemolytic potential, we developed a formulation of miltefosine-loaded
      polymeric micelles (PM) of the copolymer Pluronic-F127. A central composite
      design was applied and the analysis of variance showed that the optimum level of
      hydrodynamic diameter and polydispersity index predicted by the model and
      experimentally confirmed were 29nm and 0.105, respectively. Thermal analyses
      confirmed that miltefosine was molecularly dispersed within PM. Pluronic-F127 PM
      with miltefosine 80MUM presented a significant reduction of hemolytic effect
      (80%, p<0.05) in comparison to free drug. In vitro assays against HeLa carcinoma
      cells demonstrated similar cytotoxicity to free miltefosine and PM. Our results
      suggest that, by lowering hemolytic potential, miltefosine-loaded Pluronic-F127
      PM a promising alternative to broaden this drug use in cancer therapy, as well as
      of other alkylphosphocholines.

PMID- 28887981
TI  - Design and fabrication of auxetic PCL nanofiber membranes for biomedical
      applications.
AB  - The main objective of this study was to fabricate poly (epsilon-caprolactone)
      (PCL)-based auxetic nanofiber membranes and characterize them for their
      mechanical and physicochemical properties. As a first step, the PCL nanofibers
      were fabricated by electrospinning with two different thicknesses of 40MUm
      (called PCL thin membrane) and 180MUm (called PCL thick membrane). In the second
      step, they were tailored into auxetic patterns using femtosecond laser cut
      technique. The physicochemical and mechanical properties of the auxetic nanofiber
      membranes were studied and compared with the conventional electrospun PCL
      nanofibers (non-auxetic nanofiber membranes) as a control. The results showed
      that there were no significant changes observed among them in terms of their
      chemical functionality and thermal property. However, there was a notable
      difference observed in the mechanical properties. For instance, the thin auxetic
      nanofiber membrane showed the magnitude of elongation almost ten times higher
      than the control, which clearly demonstrates the high flexibility of auxetic
      nanofiber membranes. This is because that the auxetic nanofiber membranes have
      lesser rigidity than the control nanofibers under the same load which could be
      due to the rotational motion of the auxetic structures. The major finding of this
      study is that the auxetic PCL nanofiber membranes are highly flexible (10-fold
      higher elongation capacity than the conventional PCL nanofibers) and have tunable
      mechanical properties. Therefore, the auxetic PCL nanofiber membranes may serve
      as a potent material in various biomedical applications, in particular, tissue
      engineering where scaffolds with mechanical cues play a major role.

PMID- 28887982
TI  - The negative effect of silica nanoparticles on adipogenic differentiation of
      human mesenchymal stem cells.
AB  - Nanoparticles have drawn much attention for a wide variety of applications in
      biomedical and bioengineering fields. The combined use of nanoparticles and human
      mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
      requires more knowledge of the influence of nanoparticles on cell viability and
      differentiation potential of hMSCs. The objective of this study is to investigate
      the in vitro uptake of silica nanoparticles (silica NPs) and their effect on
      adipogenic differentiation of hMSCs. After exposure of hMSCs to silica NPs, the
      uptake and localization of silica NPs were assessed using transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The adipogenic
      differentiation potential of hMSCs was examined by analyzing the formation and
      accumulation of lipids droplets, triglyceride (TG) content and the expression of
      adipogenic marker genes/proteins. The results showed that silica NPs did not
      affect the cell viability but significantly decreased the differentiation of
      hMSCs to adipocytes. These findings improve the understanding of the influence of
      silica NPs on adipogenic differentiation of hMSCs and will provide a reference
      for the applications of silica NPs in biomedical and bioengineering fields.

PMID- 28887983
TI  - Effect of pores formation process and oxygen plasma treatment to hydroxyapatite
      formation on bioactive PEEK prepared by incorporation of precursor of apatite.
AB  - When bioinert substrates with fine-sized pores are immersed in a simulated body
      fluid (SBF) and the pH value or the temperature is increased, fine particles of
      calcium phosphate, which the authors denoted as 'precursor of apatite' (PrA), are
      formed in the pores. By this method, hydroxyapatite formation ability can be
      provided to various kinds of bioinert materials. In this study, the authors
      studied fabrication methods of bioactive PEEK by using the above-mentioned
      process. First, the fine-sized pores were formed on the surface of the PEEK
      substrate by H2SO4 treatment. Next, to provide hydrophilic property to the PEEK,
      the surfaces of the PEEK were treated with O2 plasma. Finally, PrA were formed in
      the pores by the above-mentioned process, which is denoted as 'Alkaline SBF'
      treatment, and the bioactive PEEK was obtained. By immersing in SBF with the
      physiological condition, hydroxyapatite formation was induced on the whole
      surface of the substrate within 1day. The formation of PrA directly contributed
      to hydroxyapatite formation ability. By applying the O2 plasma treatment,
      hydroxyapatite formation was uniformly performed on the whole surface of the
      substrate. The H2SO4 treatment contributed to a considerable enhancement of
      adhesive strength of the formed hydroxyapatite layer formed in SBF because of the
      increase of surface areas of the substrate. As a comparative study, the
      sandblasting method was applied as the pores formation process instead of the
      H2SO4 treatment. Although hydroxyapatite formation was provided also in this
      case, however, the adhesion of the formed hydroxyapatite layer to the substrate
      was not sufficient even if the O2 plasma treatment was conducted. This result
      indicates that the fine-sized pores should be formed on the whole surface of the
      substrate uniformly to achieve high adhesive strength of the hydroxyapatite
      layer. Therefore, it is considered that the H2SO4 treatment before the O2 plasma
      and the 'Alkaline SBF' treatment is an important factor to achieve high adhesive
      strength of hydroxyapatite layer to the PEEK substrate. This material is expected
      to be a candidate for next-generation implant materials with high bioactivity.

PMID- 28887984
TI  - Electrospun gelatin/sodium bicarbonate and poly(lactide-co-epsilon
      caprolactone)/sodium bicarbonate nanofibers as drug delivery systems.
AB  - In this work, we report electrospun nanofibers made of model hydrophobic
      (poly(lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone); PLCL) and hydrophilic (gelatin) polymers.
      We explored the effect on drug release of the incorporation of sodium bicarbonate
      (SB) into these fibers, using the potent antibacterial agent ciprofloxacin as a
      model drug. The fibers prepared are smooth and have relatively uniform diameters
      lying between ca. 600 and 850nm. The presence of ciprofloxacin in the fibers was
      confirmed using IR spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction showed the drug to be
      incorporated into the fibers in the amorphous form. In vitro drug release studies
      revealed that, as expected, more rapid drug release was seen with gelatin fibers
      than those made of PLCL, and a greater final release percentage was obtained. The
      inclusion of SB in the gelatin fibers imparts them with pH sensitivity:
      gelatin/SB fibers showed faster release at pH5 than pH7.4, while fibers without
      SB gave the same release profiles at both pHs. The PLCL fibers have no pH
      sensitivity, even when SB was included, as a result of their hydrophobic
      structure precluding the ingress of solvent. In vitro cell culture studies showed
      that all the fibers are able to promote cell proliferation. The ciprofloxacin
      loaded fibers are effective in inhibiting Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus
      aureus growth in antibacterial tests. Thus, the gelatin-based fibers can be used
      as pH-responsive drug delivery systems, with potential applications for instance
      in the treatment of tumor resection sites. Should these become infected, the pH
      would drop, resulting in ciprofloxacin being released and the infection halted.

PMID- 28887985
TI  - Cerium oxide nanoparticle-containing poly (epsilon-caprolactone)/gelatin
      electrospun film as a potential wound dressing material: In vitro and in vivo
      evaluation.
AB  - In the present study, cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles were incorporated into
      poly (epsilon-caprolactone)/gelatin films in order to develop a potential wound
      dressing material. The wound dressings were prepared by electrospinning of poly
      (epsilon-caprolactone)/gelatin (1:1 (w/w)) solutions containing 1.50%, 3% and 6%
      (w/w) CeO2 nanoparticles. The electrospun films were evaluated regarding their
      morphology, contact angle, water-uptake capacity, water vapor transmission rate,
      tensile strength and cellular response. The film containing 1.50% CeO2
      nanoparticles was chosen as the optimal dressing for the in vivo study on full
      thickness excisional wounds of rats. The study showed that after 2weeks, the
      wounds treated with the CeO2 nanoparticle-containing dressing achieved a
      significant closure to nearly 100% compared with the sterile gauze with the
      nearly 63% of wound closure. Our results provided evidence supporting the
      possible applicability of CeO2 nanoparticle-containing wound dressing for a
      successful wound treatment.

PMID- 28887986
TI  - Biomineralized diamond-like carbon films with incorporated titanium dioxide
      nanoparticles improved bioactivity properties and reduced biofilm formation.
AB  - Recently, the development of coatings to protect biomedical alloys from
      oxidation, passivation and to reduce the ability for a bacterial biofilm to form
      after implantation has emerged. Diamond-like carbon films are commonly used for
      implanted medical due to their physical and chemical characteristics, showing
      good interactions with the biological environment. However, these properties can
      be significantly improved when titanium dioxide nanoparticles are included,
      especially to enhance the bactericidal properties of the films. So far, the
      deposition of hydroxyapatite on the film surface has been studied in order to
      improve biocompatibility and bioactive behavior. Herein, we developed a new route
      to obtain a homogeneous and crystalline apatite coating on diamond-like carbon
      films grown on 304 biomedical stainless steel and evaluated its antibacterial
      effect. For this purpose, films containing two different concentrations of
      titanium dioxide (0.1 and 0.3g/L) were obtained by chemical vapor deposition. To
      obtain the apatite layer, the samples were soaked in simulated body fluid
      solution for up to 21days. The antibacterial activity of the films was evaluated
      by bacterial eradication tests using Staphylococcus aureus biofilm. Scanning
      electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman scattering spectroscopy, and
      goniometry showed that homogeneous, crystalline, and hydrophilic apatite films
      were formed independently of the titanium dioxide concentration. Interestingly,
      the diamond-like films containing titanium dioxide and hydroxyapatite reduced the
      biofilm formation compared to controls. A synergism between hydroxyapatite and
      titanium dioxide that provided an antimicrobial effect against opportunistic
      pathogens was clearly observed.

PMID- 28887987
TI  - In situ cross-linking carbodiimide-modified chitosan hydrogel for postoperative
      adhesion prevention in a rat model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative intra-abdominal adhesion often causes many
      complications. Chitosan fluid has been used in clinic to prevent intra-abdominal
      adhesion. However, fluid can be easily diluted and cannot stay on the wound site.
      As hydrogel is able to form stable physical barrier to separate injured tissues,
      we developed a chitosan hydrogel for better prevention of intra-abdominal
      adhesion in this study. METHODS: We synthesized a carbodiimide-derivatized
      chitosan gelatin (cd-CS-gelatin) hydrogel and investigated its rheological
      properties. A rat model was used to compare the anti-adhesion effect of chitosan
      hydrogel and fluid. The wounds were created with damage of the underlying muscle
      of the abdominal wall and the serosal layer of the cecum. They were coated with
      chitosan fluid or cd-CS-gelatin hydrogel. At day 14 after surgery, the animals
      were euthanized and intra-abdominal adhesion was assessed. RESULTS: The cd-CS
      gelatin hydrogel solidified within 3min after the mixing of the reagents. The
      cecum-abdomen adhesion occurred in all rats without anti-adhesion treatment. The
      application of cd-CS-gelatin significantly reduced the adhesion rate from 100% to
      50%, compared the chitosan fluid only to 88%. The decrease of adhesion breaking
      strength also manifested that cd-CS-gelatin was more effective than chitosan
      fluid to reduce postsurgical intra-abdominal adhesion formation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Chitosan hydrogel is more effective than chitosan fluid to prevent postoperative
      cecum-abdomen adhesion. It indicates that hydrogel could be a more promising
      state than liquid to prevent postoperative intra-abdominal adhesion.

PMID- 28887988
TI  - Enhanced bovine serum albumin absorption on the N-hydroxysuccinimide activated
      graphene oxide and its corresponding cell affinity.
AB  - By successively reacting with N-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethylcarbodiimide
      hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), the carboxyl on the graphene
      oxide (GO) surface was successfully activated into NHS active ester. In this
      study, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was selected as a model protein, used for
      studying the protein absorption capacity of the NHS activated GO (GO-EDC-NHS).
      Approximately 12.75mg of BSA could be covalent bonded onto the GO-EDC-NHS surface
      (BSA-CB-GO), whereas only 6.83mg of BSA physical absorbed onto the GO surface
      (BSA-NB-GO). With a 168h of phosphate buffer saline (PBS) soaking, the BSA
      accumulative desorption ratio, which was accordingly assigned to the BSA-NB-GO
      and the BSA-CB-GO, was separately 29.91wt% and 2.95wt%. Consequently, it proved
      GO-EDC-NHS exhibited more stable and stronger BSA absorption capacity. As
      compared to the mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (mBMSCs) cultivated on
      the BSA-NB-GO surface, the immunofluorescence staining images showed that more
      vinculins and integrin alpha5 were visible in the mBMSCs cultivated on the BSA-CB
      GO surface, they also produced more distinct stress fibers and actin-containing
      microfilaments. In summary, BSA-CB-GO possesses an excellent cell affinity, which
      can be considered as a promising functional material used for promoting the bone
      remodeling.

PMID- 28887989
TI  - Biomimetic microenvironment complexity to redress the balance between
      biodegradation and de novo matrix synthesis during early phase of vascular tissue
      engineering.
AB  - Physiological functionality of a tissue engineered vascular construct depends on
      the phenotype of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) cultured into the scaffold and
      mechanical robust of the construct relies on two simultaneous mechanisms
      including scaffold biodegradation and de novo matrix synthesis by SMCs which both
      can be influenced by scaffold properties and culture condition. Our focus in this
      study was to provide an appropriate environmental condition within tissue
      engineering context to meet foregoing requisites for a successful vascular
      regeneration. To this end, SMCs seeded onto electrospun Tecophilic/gelatin
      (TP(70)/gel(30)) scaffolds were subjected to orbital shear stress. Given the
      improvement in mechanical properties of dynamically stimulated cell-seeded
      constructs after a span of 10days, effect of fluctuating shear stress on scaffold
      biodegradation and SMC behavior was investigated. Compared to static condition,
      SMCs proliferated more rapidly and concomitantly built up greater collagen
      content in response to dynamic culture, suggesting a reasonable balance between
      scaffold biodegradation and matrix turnover for maintaining the structural
      integrity and mechanical support to seeded cells during early phase of vascular
      tissue engineering. Despite higher proliferation of SMCs under dynamic condition,
      cells preserved nearly spindle like morphology and contractile protein expression
      likely thanks to composition of the scaffold.

PMID- 28887990
TI  - Synthesis and characterization of magnetite nanoparticles having different cover
      layer and investigation of cover layer effect on the adsorption of lysozyme and
      bovine serum albumin.
AB  - In this study, differently coated superparamagnetic Fe3O4 (magnetite)
      nanoparticles were synthesized, characterized and used for lysozyme (Ly) and
      bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption. SiO2, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene
      were used for covering the readily synthesized magnetite nanoparticles to
      elucidate the effect of cover layer on the protein adsorption kinetics and
      capacities of nanostructure. XRD, FTIR, AFM, SEM, VSM and fluorescence
      measurements were used for the characterization of the samples and investigating
      the adsorption kinetics of Ly and BSA by these nanoparticles. The average
      particle size of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles are approximately found as 10nm and VSM
      measurement shows that the Fe3O4 particles have superparamagnetic behavior with
      no hysteresis and remnant. The adsorption kinetic of proteins on nanosized
      material is followed via fluorescence method. All the nanostructures with
      different cover layers obey pseudo first order kinetics and SiO2 coated
      nanoparticles show the fastest kinetics and capabilities for Ly and BSA
      adsorption.

PMID- 28887991
TI  - Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles modified with
      dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and their distribution in the brain after
      injection in the rat substantia nigra.
AB  - The subcellular distributions of nanoparticles in the brain are important for
      their biological application. We synthesized and characterized the
      superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) modified with poly (ethylene
      glycol) (PEG) and polyethylenimine (PEI) (PEG/PEI-SPIONs), and with
      dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) (DMPC-SPIONs). The nanoparticles were
      unilaterally injected into the left substantia nigra of rat brains. The
      distributions of the nanoparticles in the left brains of the rats were examined
      by ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer) and TEM
      (transmission electron microscopy) at 24h after the injection. Iron was found in
      the olfactory bulb, temporal lobe, frontal cortex, thalamus and brain stem at 24h
      after the injection of DMPC-SPIONs and PEG/PEI-SPIONs. In the rat substantia
      nigra, most DMPC-SPIONs were distributed in and on the myelin sheath around axons
      or on cell membranes, some were in cells. As a comparison, less iron was found in
      the rat brains at 24h after the injection of PEG/PEI-SPIONs. Our experiments
      suggest DMPC modification on SPIONs be a safe and effective method for increasing
      SPIONs distribution on the cell membranes. This work is encouraging for further
      study on using DMPC-SPIONs for efficient drug delivery or for deep brain
      stimulation of neurons in a magnetic field.

PMID- 28887992
TI  - Electrospun vein grafts with high cell infiltration for vascular tissue
      engineering.
AB  - Demand is increasing for functional small-diameter vascular grafts (diameter<6mm)
      for clinical arterial replacement. In the present study, we develop a bilayer
      poly(epsilon-caprolactone, PCL) fibrous vascular graft consisting of a thin
      internal layer made of longitudinally aligned fibers and a relatively thick
      highly porous external layer. The internal layer provides a scaffold with the
      necessary mechanical strength and enhances the growth of endothelial cells,
      whereas the external layer enhances cell motility through the scaffold bulk. The
      biocompatibility and biological performance of bilayer fibrous scaffolds are
      evaluated by in vivo experiments, molecular biology, and histology studies. Our
      bilayer scaffolds demonstrate much better fiber alignment and higher porosity
      than do normal electrospun vascular grafts with randomly distributed fibers. The
      results suggest that the proposed grafts can overcome limitations owing to the
      inadequate porosity, small pores, and poor cell infiltration of scaffolds
      fabricated by conventional electrospinning. The unique structure of bilayer
      scaffolds is satisfactory and promotes cell proliferation, collagen-fiber
      deposition, and ingrowth of smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells in vivo.
      The results of this study illustrate the strong potential of such bilayer fibrous
      scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering and regeneration.

PMID- 28887993
TI  - A facile one-pot Mannich reaction for the construction of fluorescent polymeric
      nanoparticles with aggregation-induced emission feature and their biological
      imaging.
AB  - Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) have recently attracted great attention as one of
      the most important tools for the construction of various organic compounds in
      modern organic chemistry. In this work, we introduced an efficient one-pot
      strategy to successfully fabricate the fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles (FPNs)
      with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristic via the conjugation of
      hyperbranched polyamino compound polyethyleneimine (PEI), AIE dye (named as PhE
      OH) and paraformaldehyde (PF) through a Mannich reaction. The final amphiphilies
      (PEI-PF-PhE) can self-assemble into micelles in aqueous solution. We demonstrated
      PEI-PF-PhE FPNs showed high water dispersity, intense orange-yellow fluorescence,
      excellent photostability, low toxicity and high cell imaging performance. As
      compared with other construction strategies, the one-pot Mannich reaction
      possesses a number of advantages, such as simplicity, atom economy, high
      efficiency and multifunctional potential. Combined with the remarkable properties
      of the AIE-active FPNs and the one-pot Mannich reaction, we could expect that the
      strategy developed in this work should be a useful tool for construction of
      various AIE-active functional materials for biomedical applications.

PMID- 28887994
TI  - Luminomagnetic Eu3+- and Dy3+-doped hydroxyapatite for multimodal imaging.
AB  - Multimodal imaging has recently attracted much attention due to the advantageous
      combination of different imaging modalities, like photoluminescence (PL) and
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the present study, luminescent and magnetic
      hydroxyapatites (HAp) were prepared via doping with europium (Eu3+) and
      dysprosium (Dy3+), respectively. Co-doping of Eu3+ and Dy3+ was used to combine
      the desired physical properties. Both lanthanide ions were successfully
      incorporated in the HAp crystal lattice, where they preferentially occupied
      calcium(I) sites. While Eu-doped HAp (Eu:HAp) exhibits dopant concentration
      dependent persistent PL properties, Dy-doped HAp (Dy:HAp) shows paramagnetic
      behavior due to the high magnetic moment of Dy3+. Co-doped HAp (Eu:Dy:HAp)
      nanoparticles combine both properties in one single crystal. Remarkably,
      multimodal co-doped HAp features enhanced PL properties due to an energy transfer
      from Dy3+ sensitizer to Eu3+ activator ions. Eu:Dy:HAp exhibits strong transverse
      relaxation effects with a maximum transverse relaxivity of 83.3L/(mmol.s). Due to
      their tunable PL, magnetic properties and cytocompatibility Eu:-, Dy:- and
      Eu:Dy:HAp represent promising biocompatible ceramic materials for luminescence
      imaging that simultaneously may serve as a contrast agent for MRI in permanent
      implants or functional coatings.

PMID- 28887995
TI  - Supramolecular assemblies of alkane functionalized polyethylene glycol copolymers
      for drug delivery.
AB  - Surfactants are commonly used drug carriers, however, there is a lack of
      understanding regarding the relationship between drug loading, drug release
      kinetics, and cell internalization with the physicochemical properties of the
      drug carriers, preventing rational design. The effects of altering hydrophobic
      and hydrophilic chain lengths on a poly[poly-(oxyethylene)-oxy-5
      hydroxyisophthaloyl] (Ppeg) platform for delivering hydrophobic drugs was
      examined. The synthesized polymers were characterized by nuclear magnetic
      resonance spectroscopy (NMR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential.
      The resulting polymer particles were able to form micelles in aqueous solution
      and encapsulate pyrene, a highly hydrophobic model drug, with a loading capacity
      up to 8wt%, corresponding to a 50% loading efficiency. The ability to sustain
      drug release from these micelles over several days was also observed. RAW 264.7
      macrophage uptake of the micelles was measured quantitatively and was found to be
      substantially higher than internalization of the unencapsulated drug. The loading
      capacity of the drug in the various micelles did not correlate with the
      internalization of the particles into the cells. Factorial analysis was used to
      develop predictive equations for drug loading, drug release kinetics, and cell
      internalization. These models were validated with newly synthesized compounds.

PMID- 28887997
TI  - Electrochemical dopamine sensor based on P-doped graphene: Highly active metal
      free catalyst and metal catalyst support.
AB  - Heteroatom doping is an effective strategy to enhance the catalytic activity of
      graphene and its hybrid materials. Despite a growing interest of P-doped graphene
      (P-G) in energy storage/generation applications, P-G has rarely been investigated
      for electrochemical sensing. Herein, we reported the employment of P-G as both
      metal-free catalyst and metal catalyst support for electrochemical detection of
      dopamine (DA). As a metal-free catalyst, P-G exhibited prominent DA sensing
      performances due to the important role of P doping in improving the
      electrocatalytic activity of graphene toward DA oxidation. Furthermore, P-G could
      be an efficient supporting material for loading Au nanoparticles, and resulting
      Au/P-G hybrid showed a dramatically enhanced electrocatalytic activity and
      extraordinary sensing performances with a wide linear range of 0.1-180MUM and a
      low detection limit of 0.002MUM. All these results demonstrated that P-G might be
      a very promising electrode material for electrochemical sensor applications.

PMID- 28887996
TI  - PEGylated stereocomplex polylactide coating of stent for upregulated
      biocompatibility and drug storage.
AB  - Treatment of coronary heart disease by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCT)
      is usually limited to the high restenosis rate after implantation of bare-metal
      stent. To solve the problem, the coating of PEGylated stereocomplex poly(l
      lactide) (PEG-cPLA) was utilized on the surface modification of stainless steel
      (SS) sheet. Specifically, the 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES)-modified
      methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(d-lactide) (mPEG-PDLA) was grafted onto the
      surface of hydroxylated SS sheet through coupling reaction, and poly(l-lactide)
      poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(l-lactide) (PLLA-PEG-PLLA) was coated onto the surface
      through stereocomplex interaction between DLA and LLA units. The increase of
      contact angle firstly confirmed the changes of surface composition and
      hydrophilicity for the PEG-scPLA-modified SS sheet. The decreased fibrinogen
      adsorption, down-regulated platelet activation, and improved adhesion of human
      umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) indicated the excellent
      biocompatibility of PEG-scPLA-modified SS sheet. In addition, the drug loading
      capability of SS sheet was greatly upregulated through the formation of scPLA
      coating on the surface, where fluorescein (FLU) was chosen as a model molecule.
      Overall, the surface modification of SS sheet with PEG-scPLA could enhance the
      comprehensive performances, such as biocompatibility and drug loading capability,
      demonstrating that PEG-scPLA is a promising coating of coronary stent for PCT.

PMID- 28887998
TI  - Novel poly(epsilon-caprolactone)/gelatin wound dressings prepared by emulsion
      electrospinning with controlled release capacity of Ketoprofen anti-inflammatory
      drug.
AB  - In the present study, a single and binary Ketoprofen-loaded mats of ultrathin
      fibers were developed by electrospinning and their physical properties and drug
      release capacity was analyzed. The single mat was prepared by solution
      electrospinning of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) with Ketoprofen at a weight
      ratio of 5wt%. This Ketoprofen-containing PCL solution was also used as the oil
      phase in a 7:3 (wt/wt) emulsion with gelatin dissolved in acidified water. The
      resultant stable oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion of PCL-in-gelatin, also containing
      Ketoprofen at 5wt%, was electrospun to produce the binary mat. Cross-linking
      process was performed by means of glutaraldehyde vapor on the electrospun binary
      mat to prevent dissolution of the hydrophilic gelatin phase. The performed
      characterization indicated that Ketoprofen was successfully embedded in the
      single and binary electrospun mats, i.e. PCL and PCL/gelatin, and both mats
      showed high hydrophobicity but poor thermal resistance. In vitro release studies
      interestingly revealed that, in comparison to the single PCL electrospun mat, the
      binary PCL/gelatin mat significantly hindered Ketoprofen burst release and
      exhibited a sustained release capacity of the drug for up to 4days. In addition,
      the electrospun Ketoprofen-loaded mats showed enhanced attachment and
      proliferation of L929 mouse fibroblast cells, presenting the binary mat the
      highest cell growth yield due to its improved porosity. The here-developed
      electrospun materials clearly show a great deal of potential as novel wound
      dressings with an outstanding controlled capacity to release drugs.

PMID- 28887999
TI  - Preferential killing of bacterial cells by hybrid carbon nanotube-MnO2
      nanocomposite synthesized by novel microwave assisted processing.
AB  - We present a comprehensive study on the enhanced effect of CNT addition on the
      structural, optical, morphological and antibacterial properties of CNT-MnO2
      nanocomposite synthesized by microwave assisted processing. X-ray diffraction
      pattern of the hybrid CNT/MnO2 nanocomposite revealed the shifting of highly
      oriented MnO2 preferential planes. SEM images show porous MnO2 nanospheres
      uniformly and discretely attached on the walls of carbon nanotube network.
      Significant variation in the peak shape and IR absorption intensity with CNT
      addition, indicate the interaction of CNT ions with MnO2 nanoparticles. Optical
      studies reveal a decrease in energy band gap caused by a significative reduction
      of electron-hole recombination in manganese activated CNT nanocomposite favouring
      photocatalytic activity. The antibacterial activity of pure MnO2 and the CNT/MnO2
      hybrid was investigated by using both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria as
      test organisms. The hybrid nanocomposite revealed higher antibacterial activity
      compared with pure MnO2 nanoparticles, due to reduced particle size and high
      specific surface area of CNT. Also, compared to Gram positive bacteria, Gram
      negative bacteria shows enhanced antibacterial activity due to the improved
      particle surface reactivity to visible light through effective charge transfer
      between MnO2 and CNT content of the nanopowder synthesized through microwave
      processing. Owing to the high surface area, large inner volume and other
      important physico-chemical properties, the antibacterial activity of carbon-based
      nanocomposites may interestingly be studied in the near future.

PMID- 28888000
TI  - pH and redox dual stimulate-responsive nanocarriers based on hyaluronic acid
      coated mesoporous silica for targeted drug delivery.
AB  - In this work, we developed a drug-conjugated nanocarrier with "zero premature
      release" property for actively targeted drug delivery. The pH and redox dual
      responsive nanocarrier was fabricated based on hyaluronic acid (HA) modified the
      mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). Doxorubicin (DOX) was conjugated to MSNs
      via hydrazone bonds, which can be cleaved in tumor tissue (acidic conditions). To
      improve specific cellular uptake and stability of nanocarriers, HA was equipped
      with an outer shell on the nanoparticle surface via a disulfide crosslinker.
      Stimulus-induced release of the DOX was studied in the different pH and GSH,
      which showed the embedded DOX can be controlled release from MSN channels. The
      dual-triggered drug release system provides an efficient targeted drug delivery
      system into the cytosol of cancer cells. The results of flow cytometry and
      confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) showed that the HA-functionalized DOX
      conjugated nanoparticles presented much better cellular uptake and higher
      cytotoxicity to tumor cells. This drug delivery system has great potential for
      tumor-trigged drug release for cancer therapy.

PMID- 28888001
TI  - A targeted nanocarrier based on polyspermine for the effective delivery of
      methotrexate in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
AB  - Antitumor efficacy of methotrexate (MTX) is seriously limited due to its poor
      water solubility, nonspecific tumor distribution and low bioavailability. To
      overcome these obstacles, polyspermine (PSP) conjugated with MTX and folic acid
      (FA) as a novel targeted prodrug was designed and has been successfully
      synthesized using the amidation reaction. The strong hydrophilic properties of
      PSP made MTX well dispersed in water and the cellular uptake study indicated that
      the presence of FA enhanced uptake of the FA-PSP-MTX in folate receptor (FR) over
      expressing human nasopharyngeal carcinoma HNE-1 cells. 1H NMR spectra and UV-Vis
      spectral analysis were carried out to confirm the MTX and FA content in FA-PSP
      MTX, respectively. In CCK-8 assay and apoptosis analysis, the prodrug showed
      significantly enhanced anticancer efficacy than free MTX in HNE-1 cells. These
      results suggested that the prodrug has the potential for targeted delivery of MTX
      into cancer cells to improve its anti-tumor efficacy.

PMID- 28888002
TI  - Construction of multifunctional porous silica nanocarriers for pH/enzyme
      responsive drug release.
AB  - pH/enzyme-responsive nanocarriers based on porous silica (pSiO2) nanospheres
      (NSs) were developed for controlled release of drug. The pSiO2 NSs present
      uniform spheres and have an average diameter of 100nm. The pSiO2 NSs with high
      specific surface area (835m2.g-1) and the pore volume (1.24cm3.g-1) are suitable
      for drug loading and the loading capacity reaches to 29% for amoxicillin (AMX)
      model drug. In this system, protocatechuic acid (PCA) and L-glutamic acid (Glu)
      as linkers were grafting onto the surface of pSiO2 NSs to conjugate the capping
      lids. Acid-decomposable ZnO quantum dots (QDs) were introduced to block the
      partial pores of pSiO2 via amido bonds, which could act as gates and fluorescence
      probes. To minimize the premature release, hyaluronic acid (HA) was further
      coating on the outer surface of pSiO2, which would be degraded by over-expressed
      hyaluronidase (Hyal-1) in the tumor microenvironment. The controlled release of
      the drug from the ZnO/HA-gated delivery system was realized by the acidic
      dissolution of ZnO QDs and enzymatic hydrolysis of HA. The obtained ZnO/HA-gated
      pSiO2 delivery system would achieve minimized premature release and responsive
      release under a physiological environment.

PMID- 28888004
TI  - Cardiomyocyte coculture on layered fibrous scaffolds assembled from
      micropatterned electrospun mats.
AB  - Challenges remain in engineering cardiac tissues with functional and
      morphological properties similar to those of native myocardium. In the current
      study, micropatterned fibrous mats are obtained by deposition of electrospun
      fibers on lithographic collectors to reproduce the anisotropic structure of
      myocardium, and carbon nanotubes are included in fibers to provide conductivities
      at the same level of cardiac muscles. The patterned mats are assembled layer-by
      layer into patterned scaffolds for coculture of primary cardiomyocytes (CMs) with
      cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) and endothelial cells (ECs). CMs are organized along
      the fibers with clear cardiac strips of sarcomeric alpha-actinin and belt-like
      connexin-43, showing strong cellular extraction forces and intercellular
      communications. Compared with square and rectangle patterns, honeycomb (Hc)
      patterned scaffolds shows higher ultimate tensile strength and strain to failure.
      The finite element analysis indicates no apparent stress concentration under
      stress application in the two orthogonal directions. The Hc-patterned coculture
      demonstrates significantly higher CM viabilities, deeper penetrations of cells
      into scaffolds, stronger expression of troponin I, connexin-43 and sarcomeric
      alpha-actinin by CMs and more abundant formations of capillary-like networks by
      ECs than other scaffolds. CMs on Hc-patterned scaffolds display spontaneous
      beating rates at 101+/-12times/min after coculture for 5days and remain
      synchronously beating at 94+/-8times/min after 15days, which is close to those of
      adult and neonatal rats. The layered and patterned coculture strategy achieves
      the spatial arrangement of multiple types of cells and vascularization potential,
      providing a biomimetic strategy for engineering functional cardiac patches in
      vitro.

PMID- 28888003
TI  - Cross-linked branched polyethylenimine used as a nitric oxide donor for prolonged
      nitric oxide release.
AB  - In order to prolong NO release and enhance the antibacterial effect, N-Carboxy
      propionyl chitosan sodium (CPCS) was cross-linked to branched polyethylenimine
      (bPEI) (CPCS-bPEI) and used as a NO donor. The CPCS-bPEI has been successfully
      synthesized at different molar ratios of CPCS to bPEI, followed with the reaction
      with NO gas under a parr high-pressure reactor to yield CPCS-bPEI-NO. Successful
      preparation of CPCS-bPEI-NO was confirmed by elemental analysis, FITR and SEM.
      The effective release of NO was determined by in vitro release. The antibacterial
      assay showed that CPCS-bPEI-NO can effectively inhibit Gram-negative Escherichia
      coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). We found that
      the NO loading amount and antibacterial effect can be adjusted by the molar ratio
      of CPCS to bPEI, and there was no significant toxicity of CPCS-bPEI-NO,
      suggesting that it may serve as an ideal antimicrobial agent.

PMID- 28888005
TI  - Synthesis, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of powder metallurgy
      processed Fe/Mg2Si composites for biodegradable implant applications.
AB  - Recently, Fe and Fe-based alloys have shown their potential as degradable
      materials for biomedical applications. Nevertheless, the slow corrosion rate
      limits their performance in certain situations. The shift to iron matrix
      composites represents a possible approach, not only to improve the mechanical
      properties, but also to accelerate and tune the corrosion rate in a physiological
      environment. In this work, Fe-based composites reinforced by Mg2Si particles were
      proposed. The initial powders were prepared by different combinations of mixing
      and milling processes, and finally consolidated by hot rolling. The influence of
      the microstructure on mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of Fe/Mg2Si
      was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used
      for the assessment of the composite structure. Tensile and hardness tests were
      performed to characterize the mechanical properties. Potentiodynamic and static
      corrosion tests were carried out to investigate the corrosion behavior in a
      pseudo-physiological environment. Samples with smaller Mg2Si particles showed a
      more homogenous distribution of the reinforcement. Yield and ultimate tensile
      strength increased when compared to those of pure Fe (from 400MPa and 416MPa to
      523MPa and 630MPa, respectively). Electrochemical measurements and immersion
      tests indicated that the addition of Mg2Si could increase the corrosion rate of
      Fe even twice (from 0.14 to 0.28mm.year-1). It was found that the preparation
      method of the initial composite powders played a major role in the corrosion
      process as well as in the corrosion mechanism of the final composite.

PMID- 28888006
TI  - Chitosan membrane dressings toughened by glycerol to load antibacterial drugs for
      wound healing.
AB  - Transparent and flexible chitosan-based membranes containing antibacterial drugs
      were prepared through a casting/solvent evaporation method from suspension of
      chitosan floccule. To enhance mechanical properties, glycerin was incorporated
      into the floccule suspension to conjugate chitosan as a plasticizer. The
      mechanism of membrane formation is attributed to inter- and intro-hydrogen
      bonding between chitosan and glycerol molecules. The results showed that
      incorporation of glycerol has a significant influence on the properties of the
      chitosan membranes. With the increase of glycerol content, the tensile strength,
      swelling rate, water vapor permeability and wettability of membranes were
      significantly improved. In vitro enzymatic degradation revealed that the chitosan
      membrane had long-term stability regardless of the glycerol content. To enhance
      antibacterial properties, tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) and silver sulfadiazine
      (AgSD), representing the water-soluble and water-insoluble drug models, were
      integrated into the membranes, respectively. The results of controlled-release
      efficacy and inhibition zone indicate that the glycerol toughened chitosan
      membranes containing drugs have a promising future in treatment of bacterial
      infection as wound dressing.

PMID- 28888007
TI  - Nano-calcium phosphate bone cement based on Si-stabilized alpha-tricalcium
      phosphate with improved mechanical properties.
AB  - This study aimed to develop nano-calcium phosphate cement (nCPC) and evaluate the
      effect of nanosized precursors on mechanical, physical and handling properties
      (injectability and setting time) as well as conversion rate of nano-reactants
      into nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA). In this study, while alpha tricalcium phosphate
      (alpha-TCP, 98wt%) and HA (2wt%) were applied as the powder phase, 2.5wt% NaH2PO4
      solution was used as liquid phase of cement. Before nano-CPC preparation, Si
      stabilized alpha-TCP nanopowder with particle size of 10+/-3.6nm was firstly
      synthesized in a two-step process of sol-gel followed by mechanical alloying.
      Moreover, HA nanopowder with particle size of 32+/-3.6nm was synthesized using
      sol-gel process. Our results revealed that after 3days of immersion in ringer's
      solution, reactants almost completely converted to nHA. Moreover, the initial and
      final setting time of nano-CPC was obtained 6.3+/-2.1min and 14.3+/-4.0min,
      respectively. Furthermore, injectability of this formulation was reached 87.90+/
      2.60%. In addition, our results confirmed that the compressive strength and
      modulus of nano-CPC enhanced with increasing immersion time in ringer's solution
      from 9.50+/-1.27MPa and 0.38+/-0.07GPa (at 1day) to 18.70+/-2.23MPa and 0.57+/
      0.15GPa (at 5days), respectively. Finally, in order to evaluate cellular
      responses to nano-CPC, MG63 cells were cultured on it and cell morphology and
      cytotoxicity were evaluated. Results revealed that nano-CPC enhanced
      proliferation and spreading of osteoblast like cells compared to control (tissue
      culture plate) which could be due to both appropriate physical and chemical
      properties of nano-CPC which stimulate cell proliferation. Our findings suggest
      the formation of an injectable nano-CPC with appropriate mechanical, physical and
      degradation rate which can potentially utilized for filling bone defects.

PMID- 28888008
TI  - Injectable methotrexate loaded polycaprolactone microspheres: Physicochemical
      characterization, biocompatibility, and hemocompatibility evaluation.
AB  - In this study, bare polycaprolactone microspheres (PCL MPs) and methotrexate
      (MTX) loaded PCL microspheres (MTX-PCL MPs) have been developed by oil-in-water
      emulsion solvent evaporation method using hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as
      an emulsifier. Encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of methotrexate were
      found to be 51.28%+/-0.52 and 2.8%+/-0.06 respectively. Environmental scanning
      electron microscopy showed the PCL MPs and MTX-PCL MPs to have a spherical shape
      and smooth surface morphology. The mean size of microspheres (23MUm) was found
      within injectability criteria. High-Resolution X-ray diffraction of microspheres
      revealed that PCL retained its semi-crystalline nature after processing in
      microspheres, but the drug looses its crystallinity. Fourier transmittance
      infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetry analysis of the microspheres indicated
      that no physicochemical modification occurred. In vitro, MTX release study from
      MTX-PCL MPs in phosphate buffer saline (pH7.4) showed controlled release profile
      and only 31% of MTX released in 306h. The microspheres in lyophilized form are
      physicochemically stable for 8months. Furthermore, L929 cells treated with
      microspheres showed cell viability >80%. The different concentrations of
      microspheres found hemocompatible and did not affect the biconcave shape of red
      blood cells (RBCs). The physiochemical and biological evaluation of microspheres
      suggests their further use for drug delivery application.

PMID- 28888009
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of the cytotoxic and anti-proliferative properties of
      ZnO quantum dots against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells.
AB  - Current trends in therapeutic research are the application of nanomaterial
      carriers for cancer therapy. One such molecule, ZnO, originally used in diagnosis
      and as a drug carrier, is gaining importance for its biological properties. Here,
      we report for the first time, the scope of ZnO QDs for enhanced cytotoxicity
      against MCF-7 and metastatic MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. Unlike other
      ZnO nanostructures, ZnO QDs are dispersed and small sized (8-10nm) which is
      believed to greatly increase the cellular uptake. Furthermore, the acidic tumor
      microenvironment attracts ZnO QDs enhancing targeted therapy while leaving normal
      cells less affected. Results from MTT assay demonstrated that ZnO QDs induced
      cytotoxicity to MCF-7 and metastatic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells at very low
      concentrations (10 and 15MUg/ml) as compared to other reported ZnO
      nanostructures. HEK-293 cells showed less toxicity at these concentrations.
      Confocal microscope images from DAPI staining and TUNEL assay demonstrated that
      ZnO QDs induced nuclear fragmentation and apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. FACS
      results suggested ZnO QDs treatment induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase
      in these cells. ZnO QDs drastically decreased the proliferation and migration of
      MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 as seen from the results of the clonogenic and wound healing
      assays respectively. Furthermore, our data suggested that ZnO QDs regulated
      apoptosis via Bax and Bcl-2 proteins as validated by immunofluorescence and
      western blot. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that these ultra-small
      sized ZnO QDs destabilize cancer cells by using its acidic tumor microenvironment
      thereby inducing apoptosis and controlling the cell proliferation and migration
      at low dosages.

PMID- 28888010
TI  - Decoration of gold nanoparticles with thiolated pH-responsive polymeric (PEG-b
      p(2-dimethylamio ethyl methacrylate-co-itaconic acid) shell: A novel platform for
      targeting of anticancer agent.
AB  - The aim of this study was to design and develop a new pH-responsive nano-platform
      for controlled and targeted delivery of anticancer drugs. Engineering of pH
      responsive nanocarriers was prepared via decoration of gold nanoparticles (NPs)
      by thiolated (methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly((2-dimethylamino) ethyl
      methacrylate-co-itaconic acid) (mPEG-b-p(DMAEMA-co-IA) copolymer and fully
      characterized by various techniques and subsequently used for loading and
      targeted delivery of anticancer agent, methotrexate (MTX). By conjugation of MTX
      with the amino groups of polymeric shell of gold NPs (with the high loading
      capacity of 31%), since MTX is also the target ligand of folate receptors, the
      targeted performance of NPs examined through the cell uptake study. The results
      indicated that MTX-loaded NPs showed 1.3 times more cell internalization than MTX
      free NPs. Cell cytotoxicity studies pointed out ~1.5 and 3 times higher cell
      cytotoxicity after 24h for MTX-loaded nanoparticles than MTX in MTT assay and
      cell cycle arrest experiments, respectively. Additionally, mPEG was used as the
      outer shell of NPs which caused the long-term dispersibility of the NPs even
      under high ionic strength. The in-vitro pH-triggered drug release of MTX showed
      that MTX released more than three times in simulated cancerous tissue (40 degrees
      C, pH5.3) than physiologic condition (37 degrees C, pH7.4) during 48h. The
      results of various experiments determined that the developed smart nanocarrier
      proposed as a promising nanocarrier for active and passive targeting of anionic
      anti-cancer agents such as MTX.

PMID- 28888011
TI  - Surface PEGylation of mesoporous silica materials via surface-initiated chain
      transfer free radical polymerization: Characterization and controlled drug
      release.
AB  - As a new type of mesoporous silica materials with large pore diameter (pore size
      between 2 and 50nm) and high specific surface areas, SBA-15 has been widely
      explored for different applications especially in the biomedical fields. The
      surface modification of SBA-15 with functional polymers has demonstrated to be an
      effective way for improving its properties and performance. In this work, we
      reported the preparation of PEGylated SBA-15 polymer composites through surface
      initiated chain transfer free radical polymerization for the first time. The
      thiol group was first introduced on SBA-15 via co-condensation with gamma
      mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS), that were utilized to initiate the chain
      transfer free radical polymerization using poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether
      methacrylate (PEGMA) and itaconic acid (IA) as the monomers. The successful
      modification of SBA-15 with poly(PEGMA-co-IA) copolymers was evidenced by a
      series of characterization techniques, including 1H NMR, FT-IR, TGA and XPS. The
      final SBA-15-SH- poly(PEGMA-co-IA) composites display well water dispersity and
      high loading capability towards cisplatin (CDDP) owing to the introduction of
      hydrophilic PEGMA and carboxyl groups. Furthermore, the CDDP could be released
      from SBA-15-SH-poly(PEGMA-co-IA)-CDDP complexes in a pH dependent behavior,
      suggesting the potential controlled drug delivery of SBA-15-SH-poly(PEGMA-co-IA).
      More importantly, the strategy should be also useful for fabrication of many
      other functional materials for biomedical applications owing to the advantages of
      SBA-15 and well monomer adoptability of chain transfer free radical
      polymerization.

PMID- 28888012
TI  - Characterization and degradation study of chitosan-siloxane hybrid microspheres
      synthesized using a microfluidic approach.
AB  - Chitosan microspheres can address challenges associated with poor bioavailability
      or unsustained drug release when used as drug delivery systems thanks to their
      mucoadhesiveness, which allows the drug dosage to be retained in the
      gastrointestinal track for extended periods. Chitosan-3
      glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane-beta-glycerophosphate (chitosan-GPTMS-beta-GP)
      hybrid microspheres were synthetized through sol-gel processing using a
      microfluidic approach. Microspheres with uniform spherical shapes and sizes of
      approximately 650MUm were obtained. The microstructures of the microspheres
      consisted of four different siloxane structures. The degradation behaviors of the
      hybrid microspheres were examined under acidic pH conditions mimicking those
      found in the gastrointestinal track. Microspheres with different GPTMS molar
      ratios were incubated under several pH conditions for 2weeks. The microspheres
      incubated at pH7.4 extended the lowest weight loss (27%-32%), whereas those
      incubated at pH1.7 and pH5.4 showed greater weight losses of 43-59% and 69-77%,
      respectively. The inhibition of the degradation at low pH was dependent on the
      siloxane network in the chitosan matrix. Phosphate was mostly released in early
      stages, and the released amount of silicon was dependent on the composition.
      GPTMS was released with a chitosan chain via the hydrolysis of a chitosan
      molecule. The pelargonidin was incorporated in the microspheres and the slow
      releasing was observed at acidic condition. The resistance of these hybrid
      microspheres to low-pH conditions for longer than a full digestion cycle is
      promising for gastrointestinal drug delivery applications.

PMID- 28888013
TI  - Novel tetraphenylethylene diol amphiphile with aggregation-induced emission: self
      assembly, cell imaging and tagging property.
AB  - In this study, we reported a novel tetraphenylethylene diol amphiphile (2) with
      aggregation-induced emission property which self-assembled to form unique 3D
      cubic superstructure. This TPE amphiphile with strong bluish green emission
      exhibited high biocompatibility and improved cellular uptake. Moreover, this
      highly fluorescent molecule was conjugated with gold nanoparticles and used as a
      fluorescent tagging agent. Altogether, results supported the cell-imaging and
      fluorescent tagging properties of tetraphenylethylene diol amphiphile.

PMID- 28888014
TI  - Development and evaluation of thymol-chitosan hydrogels with antimicrobial
      antioxidant activity for oral local delivery.
AB  - Nowadays, the research of innovative drug delivery devices is focused on the
      design of multiple drug delivery systems, the prevention of drug side effects and
      the reduction of dosing intervals. Particularly, new mucosal delivery systems for
      antimicrobials, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs has a growing
      development, regards to the avoidance of side effects, easy administration and a
      suitable drug concentration in the mucosa. In this work, chitosan hydrogels are
      evaluated as a biodegradable scaffold and as a bioactive agent carrier of an
      antioxidant-antimicrobial compound called thymol. Throughout the study, swelling
      behavior, viscoelastic properties and thermal analysis are highlighted to present
      its advantages for a biomedical application. Furthermore, the in vitro results
      obtained indicate that thymol-chitosan hydrogels are biocompatible when exposed
      to [3T3] fibroblasts, exhibit antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus
      aureus and Streptococcus mutans for 72h and antioxidant activity for 24h. These
      are desirable properties for a mucosal delivery system for an antimicrobial
      antioxidant dual therapy for periodontal disease.

PMID- 28888015
TI  - Functionalization of titanium dioxide nanotubes with biomolecules for biomedical
      applications.
AB  - Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are extensively used in the manufacture of implants
      because they have biocompatibility. The production of a nanostructured surface
      can be achieved by means of titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNTs) which can have
      dimensions equivalent to the nanometric components of human bone, in addition to
      increasing the efficiency of such implants. The search is ongoing for ways to
      improve the performance of these TNTs in terms of their functionalization through
      coating these nanotubular matrices with biomolecules. The biocompatibility of the
      functionalized TNTs can be improved by promoting rapid osseointegration, by
      preventing the adhesion of bacteria on such surfaces and/or by promoting a more
      sustained local release of drugs that are loaded into such TNTs. In addition to
      the implants, these nanotubular matrices have been used in the manufacture of
      high-performance biosensors capable of immobilizing principally enzymes on their
      surfaces, which has possible use in disease diagnosis. The objective of this
      review is to show the main techniques of immobilization of biomolecules in TNTs,
      evidencing the most recent applications of bioactive molecules that have been
      functionalized in the nanotubular matrices for use in implants and biosensors.
      This surveillance also proposes a new class of biomolecules that can be used to
      functionalize these nanostructured surfaces, lectins.

PMID- 28888016
TI  - Albumin based versatile multifunctional nanocarriers for cancer therapy:
      Fabrication, surface modification, multimodal therapeutics and imaging
      approaches.
AB  - Albumin is a versatile protein used as a carrier system for cancer therapeutics.
      As a carrier it can provide tumor specificity, reduce drug related toxicity,
      maintain therapeutic concentration of the active moiety like drug, gene, peptide,
      protein etc. for long period of time and also reduce drug related toxicities.
      Apart from cancer therapy, it is also utilized in the imaging and multimodal
      therapy of cancer. This review highlights the important properties, structure and
      types of albumin based nanocarriers with regards to their use for cancer
      targeting. It also provides brief discussion on methods of preparation of these
      nanocarriers and their surface modification. Applications of albumin nanocarriers
      for cancer therapy, gene delivery, imaging, phototherapy and multimodal therapy
      have also been discussed. This review also provides brief discussion about
      albumin based marketed nano formulations and those under clinical trials.

PMID- 28888017
TI  - Corrigendum to "ice-templating of anisotropic structures with high permeability"
      [Mater. Sci. Eng. C 76 (2017) 628-636].

PMID- 28888018
TI  - Preparation and characterization of photocured poly (epsilon-caprolactone)
      diacrylate/poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate/chitosan for photopolymerization
      type 3D printing tissue engineering scaffold application.
AB  - Because of its biocompatible, biodegradable and antimicrobial properties,
      chitosan is an attractive biomaterial for use in tissue engineering scaffolds.
      This work builds on previous research by incorporating 95% DD chitosan into a
      visible-light curable resin which is compatible with a digital light processing
      (DLPTM) projection additive manufacturing (3D printing) system. Different
      concentrations of chitosan were added to a poly (epsilon-caprolactone)
      diacrylate/poly (ethylene glycol)-diacrylate baseline resin and the samples were
      extensively characterized. Thermal and mechanical analysis conformed to
      established scaffold requirements. L929 cells were cultured on the photo
      crosslinked films and MTT assays were performed at 1, 3, and 5days to assess
      cytocompatibility of the resins. Data and SEM images verified a correlation
      between the concentration of chitosan in the photocurable resin and the adhesion,
      proliferation, and viability of cell cultures. Finally, the processability of the
      resins with the dynamic masking DLP system was demonstrated by constructing multi
      layer scaffolds with actual measurements that were consistent with the CAD
      models. These findings encourage the use of chitosan as an additive in visible
      light curable resins to improve desired properties in tissue engineering
      scaffolds.

PMID- 28888019
TI  - In-vivo characterization of a 3D hybrid scaffold based on PCL/decellularized
      aorta for tracheal tissue engineering.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: As common treatments for long tracheal stenosis are associated with
      several limitations, tracheal tissue engineering is considered as an alternative
      treatment. AIM OF STUDY: This study aimed at preparing a hybrid scaffold, based
      on biologic and synthetic materials for tracheal tissue engineering. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Three electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds, namely E1 (pure
      PCL), E2 (collagen-coated PCL) and E3 (PCL blended with collagen) were prepared.
      Allogeneic aorta was harvested and decellularized. A biodegradable PCL stent was
      fabricated and inserted into the aorta to prevent its collapse. RESULT: Scaffold
      characterization results revealed that the 2-h swelling ratio of E2 was
      significantly higher than those of E1 and E3. In the first 3months, E2 and E3
      exhibited almost equal degradabilities (significantly higher than that of E1).
      Moreover, tensile strengths of all samples were comparable with those of human
      trachea. Using rabbit's adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AMSCs) and
      primary chondrocytes, E3 exhibited the highest levels of GAG release within
      21days as well as collagen II and aggrecan expression. Fot the next step, AMSC
      chondrocyte co-culture seeded scaffold was sutured to the acellular aorta,
      implanted into rabbits' muscle, and finally harvested after 4weeks of follow up.
      CONCLUSION: Harvested structures were totally viable due to the angiogenesis
      created by the muscle. H&E and alcian blue staining results revealed the presence
      of chondrocytes in the structure and GAG in the produced extracellular matrix.
      Since tracheal replacement using biologic and synthetic scaffolds usually results
      in tracheal collapse or granulation formation, a hybrid construct may provide the
      required rigidity and biocompatibility for the substitute.

PMID- 28888020
TI  - Biocompatible beta-SrHPO4 clusters with dandelion-like structure as an
      alternative drug carrier.
AB  - Recent researches about calcium phosphate (CaP) biomaterials used as drug
      delivery systems are focusing on the better understanding of the microenvironment
      around the implant-host tissue interface, with the aim to provide a bone response
      in pathological ones. Towards the improvement of the osteogenic potential of CaP
      drug carriers, dandelion-like beta-SrHPO4 clusters (Phi10-20MUm) has been
      prepared by a homogeneous precipitation method under the hydrolysis of carbamide.
      Adhesion, spreading, proliferation, osteogenic differentiation and mRNA
      expression of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) mediated by beta-SrHPO4
      clusters were investigated. Highly osteoconductive and biodegradable octacalcium
      phosphate with similar structure was employed as the control. By contrast, beta
      SrHPO4 clusters exhibited remarkably better affinity, enhanced proliferation and
      osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs, providing a promising alternative bioactive
      bone substitute and drug carrier for tissue repair. With the unique dandelion
      like microstructure, we believe that our as-prepared material will open up new
      avenues for applicability of CaP drug delivery systems in the near future.

PMID- 28888021
TI  - Simultaneous monitoring of single cell and of micro-organ activity by PEDOT:PSS
      covered multi-electrode arrays.
AB  - Continuous and long-term monitoring of cellular and micro-organ activity is
      required for new insights into physiology and novel technologies such as Organs
      on-Chip. Moreover, recent advances in stem cell technology and especially in the
      field of diabetes call for non-invasive approaches in quality testing of the
      large quantities of surrogate pancreatic islets to be generated. Electrical
      activity of such a micro-organ results in single cell action potentials (APs) of
      high frequency and in low frequency changes in local field potentials (slow
      potentials or SPs), reflecting coupled cell activity and overall organ
      physiology. Each of them is indicative of different physiological stages in islet
      activation. Action potentials in islets are of small amplitude and very difficult
      to detect. The use of PEDOT:PSS to coat metal electrodes is expected to reduce
      noise and results in a frequency-dependent change in impedance, as shown here.
      Whereas detection of high-frequency APs improves, low frequency SPs are less well
      detected which is, however, an acceptable trade off in view of the strong
      amplitude of SPs. Using a dedicated software, recorded APs and SPs can be
      automatically diagnosed and analyzed. Concomitant capture of the two signals will
      considerably increase the diagnostic power of monitoring islets and islet
      surrogates in fundamental research as well as drug screening or the use of islets
      as biosensors.

PMID- 28888022
TI  - Effective induction of death in mesothelioma cells with magnetite nanoparticles
      under an alternating magnetic field.
AB  - With the objective of finding an avenue for development of magnetic hyperthermia
      as an effective mesothelioma treatment, the influence of heating by magnetite
      nanoparticles (MNPs) with a diameter of ~40nm, which were incorporated into cells
      and then subjected to AC magnetic field, on induction of cell death was
      investigated in all three histological subtypes of human mesothelioma cells
      (i.e., epithelioid NCI-H28, sarcomatoid NCI-H2052, and biphasic MSTO-211H cells).
      Cellular uptake of MNPs was observed in all cell types, but the amount of MNPs
      incorporated per cell into MSTO-211H cells was smaller than in NCI-H28 and NCI
      H2052 cells. On the other hand, cell death induced by cellular uptake of MNPs was
      observed specifically in MSTO-211H cells. Hence, when cells are heated by
      intracellular MNPs under AC magnetic field, a high degree of cell mortality in
      NCI-H28 and NCI-H2052 cells is induced by the temperature increase derived from
      the high amount of intracellular MNPs, but the combination of intracellular
      heating and cell-type-specific toxicity of MNPs induced high rates of cell death
      in MSTO-211H cells even at a lower temperature. Almost all of the heated cells
      were dead after 24-h incubation at 37 degrees C in all histological subtypes.
      Additionally, higher mortalities were observed in all three types of mesothelioma
      cells after MNPs-heating, as compared to the heating with a thermostatic bath.
      Herein, the significance of cellular uptake of MNPs for effectively inducing cell
      death in mesothelioma has been demonstrated in vitro.

PMID- 28888023
TI  - Innovative micro-textured hydroxyapatite and poly(l-lactic)-acid polymer
      composite film as a flexible, corrosion resistant, biocompatible, and bioactive
      coating for Mg implants.
AB  - The utility of a novel ceramic/polymer-composite coating with a micro-textured
      microstructure that would significantly enhance the functions of biodegradable Mg
      implants is demonstrated here. To accomplish this, bioactive hydroxyapatite (HA)
      micro-dots can be created by immersing a Mg implant with a micro-patterned
      photoresist surface in an aqueous solution containing calcium and phosphate ions.
      The HA micro-dots can then be surrounded by a flexible poly(l-lactic)-acid (PLLA)
      polymer using spin coating to form a HA/PLLA micro-textured coating layer. The
      HA/PLLA micro-textured coating layer showed an excellent corrosion resistance
      when it was immersed in a simulated body fluid (SBF) solution and good
      biocompatibility, which was assessed by in vitro cell tests. In addition, the
      HA/PLLA micro-textured coating layer had high deformation ability, where no
      apparent changes in the coating layer were observed even after a 5% elongation,
      which would be unobtainable using HA and PLLA coating layers; furthermore, this
      allowed the mechanically-strained Mg implant with the HA/PLLA micro-textured
      coating layer to preserve its excellent corrosion resistance and biocompatibility
      in vitro.

PMID- 28888024
TI  - Airflow and symptom outcomes between allergic and non-allergic rhinitis patients
      from turbinoplasty.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inferior turbinate procedures are applied to relieve medically
      refractory nasal obstruction. However, the nature of congestion differs between
      allergic(AR) and non-allergic rhinitis(NAR). This study compares surgical
      outcomes between AR and NAR patients. METHODOLOGY: A case-control study of
      patients undergoing turbinate with or without septoplasty surgery for nasal
      obstruction was performed. Patient reported outcomes were: nasal obstruction,
      global nasal function(GNF), and sino-nasal outcome test(SNOT-22) with rhinitis,
      facial symptom, sleep and psychological sub-scores. Nasal peak inspiratory
      flow(NPIF) assessed nasal airflow. Measurements were obtained preoperatively and
      3 months postoperatively. RESULTS: 190 patients were assessed. AR had worse
      obstruction and worse GNF. All outcomes improved post-surgery; nasal obstruction,
      GNF, SNOT-22, rhinitis-symptoms, facial-symptoms, sleep-function, psychological
      function and NPIF. GNF improvement was greater in AR. NPIF improvement was
      similar between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Both AR and NAR patients gained benefit from
      surgery to relieve nasal obstruction. AR patients demonstrate greater improvement
      in GNF score but allergy management may contribute to this.

PMID- 28888025
TI  - Comparison of different endoscopic scoring systems in patients with chronic
      rhinosinusitis: reliability, validity, responsiveness and correlation.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have proposed various endoscopic scoring systems to
      assess disease severity of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). However,
      those assessments have not been validated. This study was designed to assess the
      Modified Lund - Kennedy (MLK) and the discharge, inflammation, and polyps/oedema
      (DIP) endoscopic scoring systems in patients with CRS. METHODS: A prospective
      study including 144 patients who underwent functional endoscopic sinus surgery
      (FESS). All participants were asked to finish SNOT-22, Lund-Mackay CT score and
      endoscopic examination evaluations before surgery and at 6 months after surgery.
      Endoscopic examination videos were evaluated using 3 scoring systems by two
      blinded rhinologists. The scores were compared in terms of responsiveness,
      validity, reliability and correlation with other scores. RESULTS: The MLK and DIP
      endoscopic scoring systems showed high test-retest reliability and inter-rater
      reliability. All endoscopic scoring systems showed significant differences
      between the scores recorded at each time point (all P lower than 0.90 when
      compared with the Lund - Kennedy (LK) endoscopic scoring system and showed a
      statistically significant difference in discriminant validity between symptomless
      and symptomatic cases. The MLK and DIP systems showed high correlations with
      other subject assessments and no correlation with SNOT-22. CONCLUSION: MLK and
      DIP exhibit substantial responsiveness, validity and reliability. MLK and DIP may
      be well suited for clinical and research use.

PMID- 28888026
TI  - Regional recurrence in a case series of patients with carcinoma of the nasal
      cavity - therapeutic implications.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Surgery is the primary treatment option for squamous cell
      carcinomas of the nasal cavity (NCSCC). Nodal involvement is rare at the time of
      initial diagnosis, and the role of diagnostic neck dissection as well as
      potential adjuvant irradiation of the neck remains controversial. The objective
      of this study was to assess the oncologic outcomes of patients with NCSCC with
      special emphasis on cervical lymph node treatment and recurrence. METHODS: 37
      previously untreated patients were included in this study. Demographic data,
      tumor characteristics, therapeutic management, and clinical outcome were
      analyzed. RESULTS: Patients with advanced stage tumors were slightly
      overrepresented in this study and overall 3-year disease-free survival was 63%. A
      surgical treatment approach was pursued in 89% (n=33) of patients. After total
      rhinectomy, there were no cases of local recurrence. Overall, 12% (n=4) of all
      surgically treated patients developed local recurrence. While in 45% of patients
      (n=15), neck dissection was performed at the time of tumor resection, initial
      lymph node metastasis was histologically confirmed in only 6% (n=2) of surgically
      treated patients. Cervical lymph node recurrence occurred in 18% (n=6) of
      patients, predominantly those with advanced stage tumors, despite prior treatment
      of the neck. CONCLUSION: Excellent local control is achievable for patients with
      NCSCC, especially with radical tumor resection. While cervical lymph node
      metastasis is rare at the time of diagnosis, regional lymph node recurrence needs
      to be taken into consideration when planning therapy and follow-up. Multimodal
      treatment of the neck may be required for patients with advanced stage tumors.

PMID- 28888027
TI  - Dermatopathic lymphadenopathy with Langerhans cell chimerism in graft-versus-host
      disease of the skin.
AB  - Dermatopathic lymphadenopathy (DL) is well-known in inflammatory skin disease;
      however, it has not been reported in graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after
      allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Here, we report 2 cases of DL in patients
      with acute GvHD of the skin and demonstrate complete donor chimerism of
      Langerhans cells within the lymph nodes.

PMID- 28888028
TI  - Effect of reduced-intensity conditioning and the risk of late-onset non
      infectious pulmonary complications in pediatric patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Late-onset non-infectious pulmonary complications (LONIPCs) contribute
      to higher morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
      transplantation (allo-HSCT). Therefore, we investigated the risk factors of
      LONIPCs in pediatric patients. METHOD: Between 2001 and 2011, 74 pediatric
      patients (range, 7 months to 22.7 years old; median 6.5 years old), including 29
      with a primary immunodeficiency, underwent 80 allo-HSCTs at our institution.
      Sixty-seven patients who survived more than 3 months after allo-HSCT were
      analyzed retrospectively. The median follow-up period was 1 973 days (range, 126
      5 145 days). RESULTS: Nine patients (13.4%) developed LONIPCs between 90 and 3
      578 days after allo-HSCT. A myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen and chronic
      GVHD were determined as significant risk factors of LONIPCs. None of 18 patients
      who received the reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen developed LONIPCs,
      although there was no difference in overall survival between the MAC and RIC
      regimen. Notably, two immunodeficient patients who received busulfan-based MAC
      regimen under 2 years old developed LONIPC with no history of chronic GVHD after
      5 years and 10 years from SCT, respectively, suggesting the direct toxicity of
      busulfan. CONCLUSION: Our study's findings indicate that the RIC regimen reduces
      the risk of LONIPCs in pediatric patients.

PMID- 28888031
TI  - Disconnection of hippocampal networks contributes to memory dysfunction in
      individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - A deficit in declarative memory function is common among individuals with
      temporal lobe epilepsy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship
      between the volume of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex along with the
      surrounding parahippocampal white matter and memory performance in those with
      temporal lobe epilepsy. T1 weighted MRI scans were acquired using a 3-D pulse
      sequence in 50 individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy. Hippocampal and
      entorhinal cortex volumes were derived by manually tracing consecutive coronal
      slices aligned perpendicular to the long axis of the hippocampus. In addition,
      parahippocampal white matter volumes were determined using voxel based
      morphometry. Finally, declarative memory was assessed using immediate and delayed
      verbal and visual memory tests from the Wechsler Memory Scale third edition.
      Significant correlations were seen between right and left hippocampal volumes and
      delayed verbal memory test scores. In addition, left parahippocampal white matter
      showed positive correlations with immediate and delayed verbal and visual recall.
      Furthermore, regression models found that the right hippocampus and left
      parahippocampal white matter were the best predictors of immediate and delayed
      verbal and visual memory performance. These results show that a decrease in white
      matter fibers projecting to the hippocampus may cause a disruption of incoming
      multi-modal sensory information, contributing to the memory decline seen in
      individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy.

PMID- 28888029
TI  - Expression of DNA repair genes is important molecular findings in CD34 +  stem
      cells of myelodysplastic syndrome.

PMID- 28888030
TI  - Increased sign-tracking behavior in adolescent rats.
AB  - An autoshaping procedure was used to test the notion that conditioned stimuli
      (CSs) gain greater incentive salience during adolescence than young adulthood
      under conditions of social isolation rearing and food restriction. Rats were
      single-housed and placed on food restriction during 10 daily training sessions in
      which a lever (CS+ ) was presented then followed immediately by a food
      unconditioned stimulus (US). A second lever (CS- ) was presented on intermixed
      trials and was not reinforced. Despite the fact that food delivery was not
      contingent on the rats' behavior, all rats exhibited behaviors directed towards
      the lever (i.e., sign-tracking). In the adolescent group, the rate of lever
      pressing and the percentage of trials with a lever press were higher than in
      young adults. Initially, group differences were observed when rats were retrained
      when the adolescents had reached young adulthood. These findings support the
      hypothesis that cues that come to predict reward become imbued with excessive
      motivational value in adolescents, perhaps contributing to the hyper
      responsiveness to reward-related stimuli typically observed during this period of
      development.

PMID- 28888032
TI  - Close but no cigar: Spatial precision deficits following medial temporal lobe
      lesions provide novel insight into theoretical models of navigation and memory.
AB  - : Increasing evidence suggests that the human hippocampus contributes to a range
      of different behaviors, including episodic memory, language, short-term memory,
      and navigation. A novel theoretical framework, the Precision and Binding Model,
      accounts for these phenomenon by describing a role for the hippocampus in high
      resolution, complex binding. Other theories like Cognitive Map Theory, in
      contrast, predict a specific role for the hippocampus in allocentric navigation,
      while Declarative Memory Theory predicts a specific role in delay-dependent
      conscious memory. Navigation provides a unique venue for testing these
      predictions, with past results from research with humans providing inconsistent
      findings regarding the role of the human hippocampus in spatial navigation. Here,
      we tested five patients with lesions primarily restricted to the hippocampus and
      those extending out into the surrounding medial temporal lobe cortex on a virtual
      water maze task. Consistent with the Precision and Binding Model, we found
      partially intact allocentric memory in all patients, with impairments in the
      spatial precision of their searches for a hidden target. We found similar
      impairments at both immediate and delayed testing. Our findings are consistent
      with the Precision and Binding Model of hippocampal function, arguing for its
      role across domains in high-resolution, complex binding. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT:
      Remembering goal locations in one's environment is a critical skill for survival.
      How this information is represented in the brain is still not fully understood,
      but is believed to rely in some capacity on structures in the medial temporal
      lobe. Contradictory findings from studies of both humans and animals have been
      difficult to reconcile with regard to the role of the MTL, specifically the
      hippocampus. By assessing impairments observed during navigation to a goal in
      patients with medial temporal lobe damage we can better understand the role these
      structures play in such behavior. Utilizing virtual reality and novel analysis
      techniques, we have more precisely assessed the impact that medial temporal lobe
      damage has on spatial memory and navigation.

PMID- 28888033
TI  - Modulation of gammadelta T-cell activation by neutrophil elastase.
AB  - gammadelta T cells are non-conventional, innate-like T cells, characterized by a
      restricted T-cell receptor repertoire. They participate in protective immunity
      responses against extracellular and intracellular pathogens, tumour surveillance,
      modulation of innate and adaptive immune responses, tissue healing, epithelial
      cell maintenance and regulation of physiological organ function. In this study,
      we investigated the role of neutrophils during the activation of human blood
      gammadelta T cells through CD3 molecules. We found that the up-regulation of CD69
      expression, and the production of interferon-gamma and tumour necrosis factor
      alpha induced by anti-CD3 antibodies was potentiated by neutrophils. We found
      that inhibition of caspase-1 and neutralization of interleukin-18 did not affect
      neutrophil-mediated modulation. By contrast, the treatment with serine protease
      inhibitors prevented the potentiation of gammadelta T-cell activation induced by
      neutrophils. Moreover, the addition of elastase to gammadelta T-cell culture
      increased their stimulation, and the treatment of neutrophils with elastase
      inhibitor prevented the effect of neutrophils on gammadelta T-cell activation.
      Furthermore, we demonstrated that the effect of elastase on gammadelta T cells
      was mediated through the protease-activated receptor, PAR1, because the
      inhibition of this receptor with a specific antagonist, RWJ56110, abrogated the
      effect of neutrophils on gammadelta T-cell activation.

PMID- 28888035
TI  - Analysis of earthworm sublethal toxic responses to atrazine exposure using 1 H
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics.
AB  - Atrazine toxicity to earthworms is still not fully understood, particularly at
      sublethal concentrations. Because of the ubiquity of atrazine in the environment,
      it is imperative to understand the impacts of atrazine presence to soil-dwelling
      organisms. To examine this in detail, we used 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance
      (NMR)-based metabolomics to elucidate earthworm (Eisenia fetida) responses after
      48 h of atrazine exposure in contact tests. Earthworms were exposed to 4
      sublethal concentrations of 362.4, 181.2, 90.6, and 45.3 ng/cm2 , which
      correspond to 1/8th, 1/16th, 1/32nd, and 1/64th of the median lethal
      concentration (LC50) values, respectively. After exposure, polar metabolites were
      isolated from earthworm tissues and analyzed using 1 H NMR spectroscopy.
      Sublethal atrazine exposure induced a nonmonotonic response with respect to
      exposure concentration and caused an overall suppression in earthworm metabolism.
      Maltose, fumarate, malate, threonine/lactate, adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP),
      betaine, scyllo-inositol, glutamate, arginine, and glutamine were the metabolites
      identified as most sensitive to atrazine exposure. These observed fluctuations in
      the metabolic profile suggest that atrazine reduced ATP synthesis and negatively
      impacted the health of earthworms after acute sublethal exposure. Our study also
      demonstrates the utility of NMR-based metabolomics for the basic assessment of
      sublethal toxicity, which can then be used for more targeted approaches with
      other molecular techniques. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:473-480. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28888034
TI  - Blunting of estrogen modulation of cardiac cellular chymase/RAS activity and
      function in SHR.
AB  - The relatively low efficacy of ACE-inhibitors in the treatment of heart failure
      in women after estrogen loss may be due to their inability to reach the
      intracellular sites at which angiotensin (Ang) II is generated and/or the
      existence of cell-specific mechanisms in which ACE is not the essential
      processing pathway for Ang II formation. We compared the metabolic pathway for
      Ang II formation in freshly isolated myocytes (CMs) and non-myocytes (NCMs) in
      cardiac membranes extracted from hearts of gonadal-intact and ovariectomized
      (OVX) adult WKY and SHR rats. Plasma Ang II levels were higher in WKY vs. SHR
      (strain effect: WKY: 62 +/- 6 pg/ml vs. SHR: 42 +/- 9 pg/ml; p < 0.01),
      independent of OVX. The enzymatic activities of chymase, ACE, and ACE2 were
      higher in NCMs versus CMs, irrespective of whether assays were performed in
      cardiac membranes from WKY or SHR or in the presence or absence of OVX. E2
      depletion increased chymase activity, but not ACE activity, in both CMs and NCMs.
      Moreover, cardiac myocyte chymase activity associated with diastolic function in
      WKYs and cardiac structure in SHRs while no relevant functional and structural
      relationships between the classic enzymatic pathway of Ang II formation by ACE or
      the counter-regulatory Ang-(1-7) forming path from Ang II via ACE2 were apparent.
      The significance of these novel findings is that targeted cell-specific chymase
      rather than ACE inhibition may have a greater benefit in the management of HF in
      women after menopause.

PMID- 28888036
TI  - Exploring the interaction between Mycobacterium tuberculosis enolase and human
      plasminogen using computational methods and experimental techniques.
AB  - Surface localized microbial enolases' binding with human plasminogen has been
      increasingly proven to have an important role in initial infection cycle of
      several human pathogens. Likewise, surface localized Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      (Mtb) enolase also binds to human plasminogen, and this interaction may entail
      crucial consequences for granuloma stability. The current study is the first
      attempt to explore the plasminogen interacting residues of enolase from Mtb.
      Beginning with the structural modeling of Mtb enolase, the binding pose of Mtb
      enolase and human plasminogen was predicted using protein-protein docking
      simulations. The binding pose revealed the interface region with interacting
      residues and molecular interactions. Next, the interacting residues were refined
      and ranked by using various criteria. Finally, the selected interacting residues
      were tested experimentally for their involvement in plasminogen binding. The two
      consecutive lysine residues, Lys-193 and Lys-194, turned out to be active
      residues for plasminogen binding. These residues when substituted for alanine
      along with the most active residue Lys-429, that is, the triple mutant (K193A +
      K194A + K429A) Mtb enolase, exhibited 40% reduction in plasminogen binding. It is
      worth noting that Mtb enolase lost nearly half of the plasminogen binding
      activity with only three simultaneous substitutions, without any significant
      secondary structure perturbation. Further, the sequence comparison between Mtb
      and human enolase isoforms suggests the possibility of selective targeting of Mtb
      enolase to obstruct binding of human plasminogen.

PMID- 28888038
TI  - Influence of littoral periphyton on whole-lake metabolism relates to littoral
      vegetation in humic lakes.
AB  - The role of littoral habitats in lake metabolism has been underrated, especially
      in humic lakes, based on an assumption of low benthic primary production (PP) due
      to low light penetration into water. This assumption has been challenged by
      recent recognition of littoral epiphyton dominance of whole-lake PP in a small
      highly humic lake and of epiphyton as an important basal food source for humic
      lake biota. However, as these studies have mostly concerned single lakes, there
      is a need to test their wider generality. We studied the whole-lake PP and
      community respiration (CR) in eight small humic lakes in southern Finland during
      July 2015 using 14 C incorporation to measure pelagic PP and the changes in
      dissolved inorganic carbon in light and dark in situ incubations to measure CR
      and littoral PP by epiphyton. Changes in O2 concentration in both pelagic and
      littoral surface water were measured periodically from each lake and,
      additionally, continuously with a data logger from one lake during the study
      period. The results revealed that the littoral dominated whole-lake net primary
      production (NPP) in five of the eight lakes, which was supported by observed O2
      supersaturation in the littoral surface water in most of the lakes. Calculated
      pelagic:littoral ratios by area correlated negatively with both littoral NPP and
      littoral contribution to whole-lake NPP. Moreover, there was a significant
      positive relationship between littoral proportion of whole-lake NPP and the
      fraction of lake surface area covered by littoral aquatic vegetation. This
      demonstrates that increased aquatic littoral vegetation cover increases the
      overall importance of the littoral to whole-lake PP in highly humic lakes.
      Littoral NPP also correlated strongly with littoral O2 saturation, and the
      continuously measured O2 revealed substantial temporal variation in O2
      saturation, particularly in the littoral zone. Whole-lake gross primary
      production:community respiration (GPP:CR) ratios revealed that accounting for
      littoral metabolism produced a marked shift towards lake metabolic balance,
      although all the eight lakes remained net heterotrophic. This study emphasizes
      that littoral metabolism needs to be accounted for when estimating whole-lake C
      fluxes in all lakes, even in highly colored humic waters.

PMID- 28888037
TI  - MYC drives overexpression of telomerase RNA (hTR/TERC) in prostate cancer.
AB  - Telomerase consists of at least two essential elements, an RNA component hTR or
      TERC that contains the template for telomere DNA addition and a catalytic reverse
      transcriptase (TERT). While expression of TERT has been considered the key rate
      limiting component for telomerase activity, increasing evidence suggests an
      important role for the regulation of TERC in telomere maintenance and perhaps
      other functions in human cancer. By using three orthogonal methods including
      RNAseq, RT-qPCR, and an analytically validated chromogenic RNA in situ
      hybridization assay, we report consistent overexpression of TERC in prostate
      cancer. This overexpression occurs at the precursor stage (e.g. high-grade
      prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia or PIN) and persists throughout all stages of
      disease progression. Levels of TERC correlate with levels of MYC (a known driver
      of prostate cancer) in clinical samples and we also show the following: forced
      reductions of MYC result in decreased TERC levels in eight cancer cell lines
      (prostate, lung, breast, and colorectal); forced overexpression of MYC in PCa
      cell lines, and in the mouse prostate, results in increased TERC levels; human
      TERC promoter activity is decreased after MYC silencing; and MYC occupies the
      TERC locus as assessed by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). Finally, we show
      that knockdown of TERC by siRNA results in reduced proliferation of prostate
      cancer cell lines. These studies indicate that TERC is consistently overexpressed
      in all stages of prostatic adenocarcinoma and that its expression is regulated by
      MYC. These findings nominate TERC as a novel prostate cancer biomarker and
      therapeutic target. Copyright (c) 2017 Pathological Society of Great Britain and
      Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28888039
TI  - Role of ALDH1 in the prognosis of esophageal cancer and its relationship with
      tumor microenvironment.
AB  - Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) is associated with tumorigenesis, and
      significantly increased in cancer stem-like cells. In the present study, the role
      of ALDH1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) was investigated. We
      retrospectively analyzed the clinical outcomes of 148 ESCC and examined its
      correlation with ALDH1 levels. Furthermore, we preformed cellular and animal
      experiments to investigate the role of ALDH1 in tumor progression and
      microenvironment. Our data revealed that ALDH1 staining was positively linked to
      a higher clinical stage, higher loco-regional failure rate, and shorter survival
      time. Furthermore, there was a positive link between ALDH1 expression and IL-6
      signaling according to the data of clinical specimens and cellular experiments.
      Using animal model, ALDH1-positive tumors were associated with aggressive tumor
      growth, increased IL-6, augmented epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and
      activation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Blockade of COX-2
      attenuated the aggressive tumor growth of ALDH1-positive cancer cells. In
      conclusion, our findings suggested that ALDH1 played an important role in tumor
      aggressiveness and associated with a tumor-promoting microenvironment in
      esophageal cancer. Directly targeting ALDH1 or using a COX-2 inhibitor could be a
      promising strategy for the treatment of ESCC.

PMID- 28888040
TI  - Phenotypic variation of an ALK-positive large-cell neuroendocrine lung carcinoma
      with carcinoid morphology during treatment with ALK inhibitors.

PMID- 28888042
TI  - Effect of a multinutrient intervention after ischemic stroke in female C57Bl/6
      mice.
AB  - Stroke can affect females very differently from males, and therefore preclinical
      research on underlying mechanisms and the effects of interventions should not be
      restricted to male subjects, and treatment strategies for stroke should be
      tailored to benefit both sexes. Previously, we demonstrated that a multinutrient
      intervention (Fortasyn) improved impairments after ischemic stroke induction in
      male C57Bl/6 mice, but the therapeutic potential of this dietary treatment
      remained to be investigated in females. We now induced a transient middle
      cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo) in C57Bl/6 female mice and immediately after
      surgery switched to either Fortasyn or an isocaloric Control diet. The stroke
      females performed several behavioral and motor tasks before and after tMCAo and
      were scanned in an 11.7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to assess
      brain perfusion, integrity, and functional connectivity. To assess brain
      plasticity, inflammation, and vascular integrity, immunohistochemistry was
      performed after killing of the mice. We found that the multinutrient intervention
      had diverse effects on the stroke-induced impairments in females. Similar to
      previous observations in male stroke mice, brain integrity, sensorimotor
      integration and neurogenesis benefitted from Fortasyn, but impairments in
      activity and motor skills were not improved in female stroke mice. Overall,
      Fortasyn effects in the female stroke mice seem more modest in comparison to
      previously investigated male stroke mice. We suggest that with further
      optimization of treatment protocols more information on the efficacy of specific
      interventions in stroked females can be gathered. This in turn will help with the
      development of (gender-specific) treatment regimens for cerebrovascular diseases
      such as stroke. This article is part of the Special Issue "Vascular Dementia".

PMID- 28888041
TI  - Supplementation with the Methyl Donor Betaine Prevents Congenital Defects Induced
      by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite decades of public education about dire consequences of
      prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), drinking alcohol during pregnancy remains
      prevalent. As high as 40% of live-born infants exposed to alcohol during
      gestation and diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome have congenital heart defects
      that can be life-threatening. In animal models, the methyl donor betaine, found
      in foods such as wheat bran, quinoa, beets, and spinach, ameliorated
      neurobehavioral deficits associated with PAE, but effects on heart development
      are unknown. METHODS: Previously, we modeled a binge drinking episode during the
      first trimester in avian embryos. Here, we investigated whether betaine could
      prevent adverse effects of alcohol on heart development. Embryos exposed to
      ethanol (EtOH) with and without an optimal dose of betaine (5 MUM) were analyzed
      at late developmental stages. Cardiac morphology parameters were rapidly analyzed
      and quantified using optical coherence tomography. DNA methylation at early
      stages was detected by immunofluorescent staining for 5-methylcytosine in
      sections of embryos treated with EtOH or cotreated with betaine. RESULTS:
      Compared to EtOH-exposed embryos, betaine-supplemented embryos had higher late
      stage survival rates and fewer gross head and body defects than seen after
      alcohol exposure alone. Betaine also reduced the incidence of late-stage cardiac
      defects such as absent vessels, abnormal atrioventricular (AV) valves, and
      hypertrophic ventricles. Furthermore, betaine cotreatment brought measurements of
      great vessel diameters, interventricular septum thickness, and AV leaflet volumes
      in betaine-supplemented embryos close to control values. Early-stage 5
      methycytosine staining revealed that DNA methylation levels were reduced by EtOH
      exposure and normalized by co-administration with betaine. CONCLUSIONS: This is
      the first study demonstrating efficacy of the methyl donor betaine in alleviating
      cardiac defects associated with PAE. These findings highlight the therapeutic
      potential of low-concentration betaine doses in mitigating PAE-induced birth
      defects and have implications for prenatal nutrition policies, especially for
      women who may not be responsive to folate supplementation.

PMID- 28888043
TI  - SIRT1 deacetylates KLF4 to activate Claudin-5 transcription in ovarian cancer
      cells.
AB  - Malignant cancers are distinguished from more benign forms of cancers by enhanced
      ability to disseminate. A number of factors aid the migration and invasion of
      malignant cancer cells. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which greatly
      facilitates the dissemination of cancer cells, is characterized by the loss of
      epithelial markers and the acquisition of mesenchymal markers thereby rendering
      the cells more migratory and invasive. We have previously shown that the class
      III lysine deacetylase SIRT1 plays a critical role curbing the metastasis of
      ovarian cancer cells partly by blocking EMT. Here we investigated the mechanism
      by which SIRT1 regulates the transcription of Claudin 5 (CLDN5), an epithelial
      marker gene, in ovarian cancer cells. SIRT1 activation or over-expression up
      regulated CLDN5 expression while SIRT1 inhibition or depletion down-regulated
      CLDN5 expression. SIRT1 interacted with and deacetylated Kruppel-like factor 4
      (KLF4), a known transcriptional activator for CLDN5. Deacetylation by SIRT1
      promoted nuclear accumulation of KLF4 and enhanced the binding of KLF4 to the
      CLDN5 promoter in the nucleus. SIRT1-mediated up-regulation of CLDN5 was
      abrogated in the absence of KLF4. In accordance, KLF4 depletion by siRNA rendered
      ovarian cancer cells more migratory and invasive despite of SIRT1 activation or
      over-expression. In conclusion, our data suggest that SIRT1 activates CLDN5
      transcription by deacetylating and potentiating KLF4.

PMID- 28888044
TI  - Novel mutations in Thai patients with glanzmann thrombasthenia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) is an autosomal recessive platelet
      disorder, caused by defects of the platelet integrin alphaIIbbeta3 (GPIIb/IIIa)
      resulting from pathogenic mutations in either ITGA2B or ITGB3. It is
      characterized by spontaneous mucocutaneous bleeding. The molecular features of GT
      in Thailand have not been identified. This study aimed to determine the clinical
      and molecular features of unrelated Thai patients with GT. METHODS: Four patients
      with clinically suspected GT were recruited at the Division of Pediatric
      Hematology/Oncology, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. The diagnosis was
      based on clinical and hematological parameters as well as genetic analysis. Whole
      exome sequencing (WES) was performed in all cases. RESULTS: Of the four patients
      studied, the median age at first suspicion of GT was 2.5 years. All presented
      with severe bleeding symptoms (WHO bleeding scale 3). Flow cytometry to assess
      the surface GPIIb/IIIa complex showed reduced expression. By WES, we successfully
      identified seven mutant alleles in ITGA2B. One alteration, the c.2915dup
      (p.Leu973Alafs*63), was detected in two unrelated families. One patient was
      homozygous for the c.617T>A (p.Val206Asp). Of the five different mutations, three
      have never been previously described. These include a missense, c.617T>A
      (p.Val206Asp), a deletion, c.1524_1533del (p.Gln508Hisfs*3), and a nonsense,
      c.2344C>T (p.Arg782Ter). CONCLUSION: This study reported three novel mutations
      expanding the genotypic spectrum of ITGA2B causing GT.

PMID- 28888045
TI  - Tracking pyrethroid toxicity in surface water samples: Exposure dynamics and
      toxicity identification tools for laboratory tests with Hyalella azteca
      (Amphipoda).
AB  - Pyrethroid insecticides are commonly used in pest control and are present at
      toxic concentrations in surface waters of agricultural and urban areas worldwide.
      Monitoring is challenging as a result of their high hydrophobicity and low
      toxicity thresholds, which often fall below the analytical methods detection
      limits (MDLs). Standard daphnid bioassays used in surface water monitoring are
      not sensitive enough to protect more susceptible invertebrate species such as the
      amphipod Hyalella azteca and chemical loss during toxicity testing is of concern.
      In the present study, we quantified toxicity loss during storage and testing,
      using both natural and synthetic water, and presented a tool to enhance toxic
      signal strength for improved sensitivity of H. azteca toxicity tests. The average
      half-life during storage in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) cubitainers (Fisher
      Scientific) at 4  degrees C of 5 pyrethroids (permethrin, bifenthrin, lambda
      cyhalothrin, cyfluthrin, and esfenvalerate) and one organophosphate
      (chlorpyrifos; used as reference) was 1.4 d, and piperonyl butoxide (PBO) proved
      an effective tool to potentiate toxicity. We conclude that toxicity tests on
      ambient water samples containing these hydrophobic insecticides are likely to
      underestimate toxicity present in the field, and mimic short pulse rather than
      continuous exposures. Where these chemicals are of concern, the addition of PBO
      during testing can yield valuable information on their presence or absence.
      Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:462-472. (c) 2017 SETAC.

PMID- 28888046
TI  - Gap junctional intercellular communication in adipose-derived stromal/stem cells
      is cell density-dependent and positively impacts adipogenic differentiation.
AB  - Adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) represent a widely used cell source
      with multi-lineage differentiation capacity in approaches for tissue engineering
      and regenerative medicine. Despite the multitude of literature on their
      differentiation capacity, little is reported about the physiological properties
      contributing to and controlling the process of lineage differentiation. Direct
      intercellular communication between adjacent cells via gap junctions has been
      shown to modulate differentiation processes in other cell types, with connexin 43
      (Cx43) being the most abundant isoform of the gap junction-forming connexins.
      Thus, in the present study we focused on the expression of Cx43 and gap
      junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) in human ASCs, and its significance
      for adipogenic differentiation of these cells. Cx43 expression in ASCs was
      demonstrated histologically and on the gene and protein expression level, and was
      shown to be greatly positively influenced by cell seeding density. Functionality
      of gap junctions was proven by dye transfer analysis in growth medium. Adipogenic
      differentiation of ASCs was shown to be also distinctly elevated at higher cell
      seeding densities. Inhibition of GJIC by 18alpha-glycyrrhetinic acid (AGA)
      significantly compromised adipogenic differentiation, as demonstrated by
      histology, triglyceride quantification, and adipogenic marker gene expression.
      Flow cytometry analysis showed a lower proportion of cells undergoing
      adipogenesis when GJIC was inhibited, further indicating the importance of GJIC
      in the differentiation process. Altogether, this study demonstrates the impact of
      direct cell-cell communication via gap junctions on the adipogenic
      differentiation process of ASCs, and may contribute to further integrate direct
      intercellular crosstalk in rationales for tissue engineering approaches.

PMID- 28888048
TI  - Involvement of nutrients and nutritional mediators in mitochondrial 3-hydroxy-3
      methylglutaryl-CoA synthase gene expression.
AB  - Mitochondrial 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) synthase (HMGCS2)
      catalyses the first step of ketogenesis and is critical in various metabolic
      conditions. Several nutrient molecules were able to differentially modulate
      HMGCS2 expression levels. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6, n-3),
      eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5, n-3), arachidonic acid (AA, C20:4, n-6), and
      glucose increased HMGCS2 mRNA and protein levels in HepG2 hepatoma cells, while
      fructose decreased them. The effect of n-6 AA resulted significantly higher than
      that of n-3 PUFA, but when combined all these molecules were far less efficient.
      Insulin reduced HMGCS2 mRNA and protein levels in HepG2 cells, even when treated
      with PUFA and monosaccharides. Several nuclear receptors and transcription
      factors are involved in HMGCS2 expression regulation. While peroxysome
      proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPAR-alpha) agonist WY14643 increased
      HMGCS2 expression, this treatment was unable to affect PUFA-mediated regulation
      of HMGCS2 expression. Forkhead box O1 (FoxO1) inhibitor AS1842856 reduced HMGCS2
      expression and suppressed induction promoted by fatty acids. Cells treatment with
      liver X receptor alpha (LXRalpha) agonist T0901317 reduced HMGCS2 mRNA,
      indicating a role for this transcription factor as suppressor of HMGCS2 gene.
      Previous observations already indicated HMGCS2 expression as possible nutrition
      status reference: our results show that several nutrients as well as specific
      nutritional related hormonal conditions are able to affect significantly HMGCS2
      gene expression, indicating a relevant role for PUFA, which are mostly derived
      from nutritional intake. These insights into mechanisms of its regulation,
      specifically through nutrients commonly associated with disease risk, indicate
      HMGCS2 expression as possible reference marker of metabolic and nutritional
      status.

PMID- 28888047
TI  - Toddler hand preference trajectories predict 3-year language outcome.
AB  - A growing body of work suggests that early motor experience affects development
      in unexpected domains. In the current study, children's hand preference for role
      differentiated bimanual manipulation (RDBM) was measured at monthly intervals
      from 18 to 24 months of age (N = 90). At 3 years of age, children's language
      ability was assessed using the Preschool Language Scales 5th edition (PLSTM-5).
      Three distinct RDBM hand preference trajectories were identified using latent
      class growth analysis: (1) children with a left hand preference but a moderate
      amount of right hand use; (2) children with a right hand preference but a
      moderate amount of left hand use; and (3) children with a right hand preference
      and only a mild amount of left hand use. Stability over time within all three
      trajectories indicated that children did not change hand use patterns from 18 to
      24 months. Children with the greatest amount of preferred (i.e., right) hand use
      demonstrated higher expressive language scores compared to children in both
      trajectories with moderate levels of non-preferred hand use. Children with the
      greatest amount of right hand use also had higher scores for receptive language
      compared to children with a right hand preference but moderate left hand use.
      Results support that consistency in handedness as measured by the amount of
      preferred hand use is related to distal language outcomes in development.

PMID- 28888049
TI  - Interindividual differences in the intraindividual association of competence and
      well-being: Combining experimental and intensive longitudinal designs.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to assess whether people differ in the
      degree to which their well-being is affected by fulfillment of the need for
      competence. Specifically, we want to examine (a) whether interindividual
      differences in the within-person coupling of competence satisfaction and well
      being (competence satisfaction effect) and of competence dissatisfaction and well
      being (competence dissatisfaction effect) exist, and (b) whether these
      differences moderate the effects of an experimentally induced frustration of the
      need for competence. METHOD: A daily diary study (N = 89) and a laboratory based
      experiment (N = 150) were conducted to investigate interindividual differences in
      need effects. In a third study, participants of an additional daily diary study
      (N = 129) were subsequently subjected to an experimental frustration of the need
      for competence. RESULTS: Including interindividual differences in the within
      person coupling of need fulfillment and well-being improved model fit
      significantly, indicating that there were statistically meaningful
      interindividual differences in need effects. The interaction of competence
      satisfaction effect and competence dissatisfaction effect moderated the effect of
      an experimental competence frustration on negative affect. CONCLUSION: Results
      show that interindividual differences in the association of competence
      fulfillment and well-being are a matter of degree, but not quality. They also
      support the claim that need satisfaction and dissatisfaction are more than
      psychometric opposites.

PMID- 28888050
TI  - Significance of perivascular tumour cells defined by CD109 expression in
      progression of glioma.
AB  - In the progression of glioma, tumour cells often exploit the perivascular
      microenvironment to promote their survival and resistance to conventional
      therapies. Some of these cells are considered to be brain tumour stem cells
      (BTSCs); however, the molecular nature of perivascular tumour cells has not been
      specifically clarified because of the complexity of glioma. Here, we identified
      CD109, a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein and regulator of multiple
      signalling pathways, as a critical regulator of the progression of lower-grade
      glioma (World Health Organization grade II/III) by clinicopathological and whole
      genome sequencing analysis of tissues from human glioma. The importance of CD109
      positive perivascular tumour cells was confirmed not only in human lower-grade
      glioma tissues but also in a mouse model that recapitulated human glioma.
      Intriguingly, BTSCs isolated from mouse glioma expressed high levels of CD109.
      CD109-positive BTSCs exerted a proliferative effect on differentiated glioma
      cells treated with temozolomide. These data reveal the significance of tumour
      cells that populate perivascular regions during glioma progression, and indicate
      that CD109 is a potential therapeutic target for the disease. Copyright (c) 2017
      Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley &
      Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28888051
TI  - Orthogonal fitness benefits of nitrogen and ants for nitrogen-limited plants in
      the presence of herbivores.
AB  - Predictable effects of resource availability on plant growth-defense strategies
      provide a unifying theme in theories of direct anti-herbivore defense, but it is
      less clear how resource availability modulates plant indirect defense. Ant-plant
      hemipteran interactions produce mutualistic trophic cascades when hemipteran
      tending ants reduce total herbivory, and these interactions are a key component
      of plant indirect defense in most terrestrial ecosystems. Here we conducted an
      experiment to test how ant-plant-hemipteran interactions depend on nitrogen (N)
      availability by manipulating the presence of ants and aphids under different N
      fertilization treatments. Ants increased plant flowering success by decreasing
      the densities of herbivores, and the effects of ants on folivores were positively
      related to the density of aphids. Unexpectedly, N fertilization produced no
      changes in plant N concentrations. Plants grown in higher N grew and flowered
      more, but aphid honeydew chemistry stayed the same, and neither the density of
      aphids nor the rate of ant attraction per aphid changed with N addition. The
      positive effects of ants and N addition on plant fitness were thus independent of
      one another. We conclude that N was the plant's limiting nutrient and propose
      that addition of the limiting nutrient is unlikely to alter the strength of
      mutualistic trophic cascades.

PMID- 28888052
TI  - MiR-21-Mediated Suppression of Smad7 Induces TGFbeta1 and Can Be Inhibited by
      Activation of Nrf2 in Alcohol-Treated Lung Fibroblasts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We previously demonstrated that chronic alcohol ingestion augments
      TGFbeta1 expression in the lung fibroblast and increases the risk of
      fibroproliferative disrepair in a mouse model of acute lung injury. The effect of
      alcohol on TGFbeta1 is mitigated by treatment with sulforaphane (SFP), which can
      activate nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2). However, the
      mechanisms by which alcohol amplifies, or SFP attenuates, TGFbeta1 expression in
      the fibroblast are not known. MicroRNA (miR)-21 has been shown to inhibit Smad7,
      a TGFbeta1 signaling inhibitor. In this study, we hypothesized that alcohol
      augments TGFbeta1 expression through up-regulation of miR-21, which subsequently
      inhibits Smad7. METHODS: Primary mouse lung fibroblasts were cultured +/- alcohol
      +/- SFP and assessed for gene expression of miR-21, and gene and/or protein
      expression of Nrf2, Nrf2-regulated antioxidant enzymes, Smad7, STAT3, and
      TGFbeta1. NIH 3T3 fibroblasts were transfected with a miR-21 inhibitor and
      cultured +/- alcohol. alpha-SMA, Smad7, and TGFbeta1 protein expression were then
      assessed. In parallel, NIH 3T3 lung fibroblasts were transfected with Nrf2
      silencing RNA (siRNA) and cultured +/- alcohol +/- SFP. Gene expression of miR
      21, Nrf2, Smad7, and TGFbeta1 was assessed. RESULTS: MiR-21 gene expression was
      increased by 12-fold at 48 hours, and Smad7 gene expression and protein
      expression were reduced by ~30% in alcohol-treated fibroblasts. In parallel,
      inhibition of miR-21 attenuated alcohol-mediated decrease in Smad7 and increase
      in TGFbeta1 and alpha-SMA protein expression. Treatment with SFP mitigated the
      effect of alcohol on miR-21, Smad7 and total and phosphorylated STAT3, and
      restored Nrf2-regulated antioxidant gene expression. Silencing of Nrf2 prevented
      the effect of SFP on miR-21, Smad7, and TGFbeta1 gene expression in alcohol
      treated NIH 3T3 fibroblasts. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol treatment increases TGFbeta1 in
      fibroblasts, at least in part, through augmentation of miR-21, which then
      inhibits Smad7 expression. These effects can be attenuated by activation of Nrf2
      with SFP.

PMID- 28888053
TI  - Mesenchymal Stem Cells Overexpressing Interleukin-35 Propagate Immunosuppressive
      Effects in Mice.
AB  - To explore generation of interleukin (IL)-35-expressing mouse adipocyte-derived
      mesenchymal stem cells (Ad-MSCs) using lentiviral vector and their potential
      immunosuppressive effects in mice. Ad-MSCs were isolated and cultured in vitro
      and transfected with a lentivirus vector for overexpression of the therapeutic
      murine IL-35 gene. IL-35 expression in transfected MSCs (IL-35-MSCs) was
      quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The lymphocytes subsets
      after one-way mixed lymphocyte culture and in vivo intravenous transplantation
      were analysed by flow cytometry to evaluate the immunosuppressive effects of IL
      35-MSCs. ELISA was performed to examine IL-10, IL-17A and IL-35 expression in
      lymphocyte culture. Mouse Ad-MSCs were isolated and cultured. IL-35 was expressed
      in the MSC supernatant and serum after IL-35 transduction into Ad-MSCs by
      lentiviral vector transfection in vitro and in vivo. The percentage of CD4+ CD25+
      T regulatory (Treg) cells in mice treated with IL-35-MSCs significantly
      increased. IL-35-MSCs upregulated the CD4+ CD25+ Treg cells in the allogeneic
      mixed lymphocyte reaction system, and lowered the percentage of CD4+ T cells
      compared with the other two control groups (P < 0.01). IL-17A expression
      significantly decreased and IL-10 expression significantly increased in IL-35
      MSCs and MSCs when compared by ELISA to the control groups (P < 0.01). IL-35
      transduced Ad-MSCs in vivo can enhance proliferation of CD4+ CD25+ Treg cells and
      suppress the function of effector T cells such as T helper (Th) 1, Th2 and Th17
      cells and may reduce the development of allograft rejection. Our data suggest
      that transduced Ad-MSCs overexpressing IL-35 may provide a useful approach for
      basic research on cell-based immunotolerance therapy for inducing transplantation
      tolerance.

PMID- 28888054
TI  - Maternal salivary testosterone in pregnancy and fetal neuromaturation.
AB  - Testosterone exposure during pregnancy has been hypothesized as a mechanism for
      sex differences in brain and behavioral development observed in the postnatal
      period. The current study documents the natural history of maternal salivary
      testosterone from 18 weeks gestation of pregnancy to 6 months postpartum, and
      investigates associations with fetal heart rate, motor activity, and their
      integration. Findings indicate maternal salivary testosterone increases with
      advancing gestation though no differences by fetal sex were detected. High intra
      individual stability in prenatal testosterone levels extend into the postnatal
      period, particularly for pregnancies with male fetuses. With respect to fetal
      development, by 36 weeks gestation higher maternal prenatal salivary testosterone
      was significantly associated with faster fetal heart rate and less optimal
      somatic-cardiac integration. Measurement of testosterone in saliva is a useful
      tool for repeated-measures studies of hormonal concomitants of pregnancy.
      Moreover, higher maternal testosterone levels are associated with modest
      interference to fetal neurobehavioral development.

PMID- 28888056
TI  - Comparison of genome-wide analysis techniques to DNA methylation analysis in
      human cancer.
AB  - DNA methylation was the first epigenetic modification to be detected in human
      cancers with specific relation to aberrant gene expression. Herein, DNA
      methylation analysis explains how epigenetic patterns affect gene expression
      level. Hypermethylation at tumor suppressor gene loci leads to increased
      tumorigenesis due to tumor suppressor gene silencing, whereas global
      hypomethylation of CpG islands (CGIs) is followed by genomic instability and
      aberrant activation of multiple oncogenes. Therefore, characterization of the
      genes which silenced or activated epigenetically in human tumor cells can improve
      our understanding of cancer biology. Different genome-wide methodologies are
      applied to evaluate methylation status. Various commonly conducted techniques for
      this evaluation are reviewed in this paper. We provided comparative description
      of the procedures, advantages, and drawbacks of genome-wide DNA methylation
      analysis methods and biological applications, to give information on selecting
      the appropriate method for different methylation studies.

PMID- 28888055
TI  - Evaluation of loading parameters for murine axial tibial loading: Stimulating
      cortical bone formation while reducing loading duration.
AB  - Classic studies in bone mechanobiology have established the importance of loading
      parameters on the anabolic response. Most of these early studies were done using
      loading methods not currently in favor, and using non-murine species. Our
      objective was to re-examine the effects of several loading parameters on the
      response of cortical bone using the contemporary murine axial tibial compression
      model. We subjected tibias of 5-month old, female C57Bl/6 mice to cyclic (4 Hz)
      mechanical loading and examined bone formation responses using dynamic and static
      histomorphometry. First, using a reference protocol of 1,200 cycles/day, 5
      days/week for 2 weeks, we confirmed the significant influence of peak strain
      magnitude on periosteal mineralizing surface (Ps.MS/BS) and bone formation rate
      (Ps.BFR/BS) (p < 0.05, ANOVA). There was a significant induction of periosteal
      lamellar bone at a lower threshold of approx. -1,000 MUepsilon and a transition
      from lamellar-woven bone near -2,000 MUepsilon. In contrast, on the endocortical
      surface, bone formation indices did not exhibit a load magnitude-dependent
      response and no incidence of woven bone. Next, we found that reducing daily cycle
      number from 1,200 to 300 to 60 did not diminish the bone formation response (p >
      0.05). On the other hand, reducing the daily frequency of loading from 5
      consecutive days/week to 3 alternate days/week significantly diminished the
      periosteal response, from a loading-induced increase in Ps.MS/BS of 38% (loaded
      vs. control) for 5 days/week to only 15% for 3 days/week (p < 0.05). Finally, we
      determined that reducing the study duration from 2 to 1 weeks of loading did not
      affect bone formation outcomes. In conclusion, cyclic loading to -1,800 MUepsilon
      peak strain, at 4 Hz and 60 cycles/day for 5 consecutive days (1 week) induces an
      increase in periosteal lamellar bone formation with minimal incidence of woven
      bone in 5-month-old C57Bl/6 female mice. Our results provide a basis for
      reduction of loading duration (daily cycles and study length) without loss of
      anabolic effect as measured by dynamic histomorphometry. (c) 2017 Orthopaedic
      Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:682-691,
      2018.

PMID- 28888057
TI  - Glucocorticoid treatment earlier in childhood and adolescence show dose-response
      associations with diurnal cortisol levels.
AB  - Heightened levels of glucocorticoids in children and adolescents have previously
      been linked to prolonged changes in the diurnal regulation of the stress-hormone
      cortisol, a glucocorticoid regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis
      (HPA-axis). To address this question, we examined the salivary cortisol awakening
      response (CAR) and daily cortisol output in 36 children and adolescents (25
      girls/11 boys) aged 7-16 years previously treated with glucocorticoids for
      nephrotic syndrome or rheumatic disorder and 36 healthy controls. Patients and
      controls did not significantly differ in the CAR or diurnal cortisol output;
      however, sex-dependent group differences were observed. Specifically, female
      patients had a higher CAR relative to female controls, while male patients had
      higher daily cortisol levels compared to male controls. Notably, CAR in female
      patients and daily cortisol levels in male patients showed a positive linear
      relationship with the mean daily glucocorticoid doses administered during
      treatment. The observed dose-response associations suggest that glucocorticoid
      therapy during childhood and adolescence might trigger long-term changes in HPA
      axis regulation, which may differ for males and females.

PMID- 28888058
TI  - Increased Expression of Programmed Cell Death-1 in Regulatory T Cells of Patients
      with Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: An Observational Clinical Study.
AB  - While regulatory T cells (Tregs) constitutively express programmed cell death-1
      (PD-1), the role of PD-1 expression in Tregs of patients with sepsis remains
      unclear. Thus, we determined PD-1 expression in Tregs from the peripheral blood
      of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. Seventy-eight patients with
      severe sepsis and 40 with septic shock, as well as 21 healthy subjects, were
      enrolled in this study. The percentage of peripheral blood PD-1+ Tregs, as well
      as absolute Treg counts, were compared between these three groups. PD-1
      expression in Tregs and absolute Treg counts were also compared between survivors
      and non-survivors in patients with sepsis. PD-1 expression in Tregs increased in
      patients with sepsis compared to healthy controls. Conversely, absolute Treg
      counts were significantly decreased in patients with sepsis compared to healthy
      controls; patients with septic shock had the lowest absolute Treg counts. Among
      patients with sepsis, survivors had lower levels of PD-1 expression in Tregs, as
      well as higher absolute Treg counts, than non-survivors. Additionally, the
      percentage of PD-1+ Tregs correlated positively with lactate levels as well as
      the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and Sequential Organ
      Failure Assessment scores in patients with sepsis. PD-1 was upregulated in Tregs
      of patients with sepsis and may indicate a state of immune dysfunction.
      Overexpression of PD-1 in Tregs was associated with more severe sepsis as well as
      poor outcomes.

PMID- 28888059
TI  - Levetiracetam-induced rhabdomyolysis: Analysis of reports from the Food and Drug
      Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System database.

PMID- 28888060
TI  - Unidirectional growth of heavy meromyosin clusters along actin filaments revealed
      by real-time fluorescence microscopy.
AB  - Heavy meromyosin (HMM) forms clusters along actin filaments under low ATP
      concentrations. Here, we observed the growth of HMM clusters under low
      concentrations of ATP in real time using fluorescence microscopy. When actin
      filaments were loosely immobilized on positively charged lipid bilayers, clusters
      of HMM-GFP were readily formed. Time-lapse observation revealed that the clusters
      grew unidirectionally. When we used a mixture of actin filaments and copolymers
      of actin and acto-S1dC, a chimeric protein of actin and the myosin motor domain,
      HMM-GFP preferentially formed clusters along the copolymers. We thus suggest that
      binding of myosin motors carrying ADP and Pi induces unidirectional
      conformational changes in actin filaments and allosterically recruits more myosin
      binding. In contrast, when actin filaments and copolymers were anchored to glass
      substrate via stable biotin-avidin linkage, higher concentrations of HMM-GFP were
      required to form clusters than on the lipid bilayer. Moreover, actin filaments
      and copolymers were not discriminated regarding preferential cluster formation.
      This is presumably because the myosin-induced cooperative conformational changes
      in actin filaments involve changes in the helical twist. Consistent with this,
      cofilin clusters, which supertwist the helix, were readily formed along loosely
      immobilized actin filaments, but not along those anchored via biotin-avidin
      linkage.

PMID- 28888061
TI  - Gabapentin enacarbil, pregabalin and rotigotine are equally effective in restless
      legs syndrome: a comparative meta-analysis.
AB  - To synthesize evidence from available randomized controlled trials (RCT) to
      compare the efficacies of dopaminergic drugs (pramipexole, ropinirole and
      rotigotine) and alpha-2-delta ligands (gabapentin enacarbil and pregabalin) for
      the treatment of restless legs syndrome (RLS). We searched PubMed for all
      eligible RCTs. Network meta-analysis using frequentist methodology with random
      effect models was performed for mean changes in scores on the International RLS
      Study Group Rating Scale (IRLS) and for responder rates on Clinical Global
      Impressions-Improvement (CGI-I); analyzed as odds ratio (OR). Network meta
      analysis of mean changes in IRLS data from 35 studies with 7333 participants
      showed that all treatments, in specific gabapentin enacarbil, followed by
      pregabalin and rotigotine were superior to placebo [mean reduction in IRLS
      scores: -5.31 (-6.74 to -3.87), -5.20 (-6.91 to -3.49), 5.17 (3.73-6.61),
      respectively] but there were no significant differences between active
      treatments. Network meta-analysis of 5137 participants from 24 studies showed
      that gabapentin enacarbil and rotigotine were associated with the highest CGI-I
      response rates [ORs: 5.68; (95% CI, 4.14-7.21); and 4.68 (2.87-6.49), compared to
      placebo, respectively]. No significant inter-treatment differences exist, except
      for that between gabapentin enacarbil and ropinirole. Based on IRLS scores and
      CGI-I response rates, while gabapentin enacarbil, pregabalin and rotigotine stand
      out as the most efficacious of all examined drugs, it is noteworthy that no
      significant inter-treatment differences exist, except for that between gabapentin
      enacarbil and ropiniriole (for CGI-I response rates).

PMID- 28888062
TI  - Epigenetic regulation - contribution to herbicide resistance in weeds?
AB  - Continuous use of herbicides has resulted in the evolution of resistance to all
      major herbicide modes of action worldwide. Besides the well-documented cases of
      newly acquired resistance through genetic changes, epigenetic regulation may also
      contribute to herbicide resistance in weeds. Epigenetics involves processes that
      modify the expression of specific genetic elements without changes in the DNA
      sequence, and play an important role in re-programming gene expression.
      Epigenetic modifications can be induced spontaneously, genetically or
      environmentally. Stress-induced epigenetic changes are normally reverted soon
      after stress exposure, although in specific cases they can also be carried over
      multiple generations, thereby having a selective benefit. Here, we provide an
      overview of the basis of epigenetic regulation in plants and discuss the possible
      effect of epigenetic changes on herbicide resistance. The understanding of these
      epigenetic changes would add a new perspective to our knowledge of environmental
      and management stresses and their effects on the evolution of herbicide
      resistance in weeds. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28888063
TI  - SUMO co-expression modifies KV 11.1 channel activity.
AB  - AIM: The voltage-gated potassium channel KV 11.1 is the molecular basis for the
      IKr current, which plays an important role in cardiac physiology. Its malfunction
      is associated with both inherited and acquired cardiac arrhythmias. Native
      currents differ from those in experimental models, suggesting additional
      regulatory mechanisms. We hypothesized that the post-translational modification
      sumoylation fine-tunes channel activity. METHODS: The functional effects of
      sumoylation on KV 11.1 were addressed by employing two-electrode voltage-clamp
      (TEVC) experiments in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Site-directed mutagenesis enabled a
      further analysis of the SUMO-target amino acids. We assessed protein expression
      levels and used confocal imaging for localization studies. RESULTS: Co-expression
      with Ubc9 and SUMO alters the electrophysiological properties of KV 11.1 leading
      to a decrease in steady-state current amplitude largely due to faster
      inactivation and alteration of deactivation kinetics. We identified three lysines
      (K21, K93 and K116) in the PAS domain as the putative SUMO-targets. CONCLUSION:
      This study indicates KV 11.1 as a sumoylation target and offers three main
      targets: K21, K93, and K116. Furthermore, it proposes an underlying mechanism for
      the observed kinetic impact of the PAS domain.

PMID- 28888064
TI  - The cytopathology of Actinomyces, Nocardia, and their mimickers.
AB  - Nocardia species and Actinomyces species are 2 of the most commonly diagnosed
      filamentous bacteria in routine cytopathology practice. These genera share many
      overlapping cytomorphologic features, including their thin, beaded, branching,
      Gram-positive, GMS-positive filamentous structures that fragment at their
      peripheries into bacillary- and coccoid-appearing forms. Features that help
      distinguish between these 2 microorganisms include the width of their filamentous
      structures, the angles at which they branch, and their ability or lack thereof to
      retain a modified acid-fast stain. In addition to cytomorphologic overlap,
      overlap in clinical presentation is frequent with pulmonary and mucocutaneous
      presentations seen in both. Differentiating between Nocardia and Actinomyces is
      essential because patients with these infections require different approaches to
      medical management. Both antibiotic susceptibilities and the need for early
      surgical intervention as part of the treatment plan vary greatly among these 2
      groups. This review focuses on the clinical presentation, cytomorphology and
      staining characteristics that can be useful in identifying and distinguishing
      between Nocardia and Actinomyces infections, as well as their mimickers.

PMID- 28888065
TI  - Synthesizing value-added products from methane by a new Methylomonas.
AB  - AIMS: Methane and methanol are potential carbon sources of industrial micro
      organisms in addition to crop-derived bio-carbon sources. Methanotrophs that can
      utilize these simple, stable and large amounts chemicals are expected to be
      developed into 'cell factories' for the production of specific chemicals. In this
      study, a methanotroph that can synthesize lycopene, C30 carotenoid and
      exopolysaccharides (EPS) with relative better performances from C1 substrates was
      isolated, and its performances were evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS: The isolated
      strain was identified as Methylomonas sp. ZR1 based on 16S rRNA sequence
      analysis. Its maximum specific growth rate achieved 0.200 h-1 under flask culture
      conditions, and 0.386 h-1 in bubble column reactors. ZR1 was able to utilize 35 g
      l-1 of methanol and even exhibited slight growth in the presence of 40 g l-1 of
      methanol. Furthermore, ZR1 was proved to synthesize lycopene (C40 carotenoids)
      besides the C30 carotenoids through HPLC-DAD and HPLC-MS/MS analysis methods. Its
      carotenoid extracts exhibited excellent antioxidative activities measured by the
      ABTS+ method. Plenty of polysaccharides were also synthesized by ZR1, the
      components of the polysaccharides were identified as glucose, mannose and
      galactose with a proportion of 1 : 2 : 1 by GC-MS, and its yield achieved 0.13 g
      g-1 cell dry weight. CONCLUSIONS: The isolated strain has great potential for the
      production of value-added bioproducts from C1 compounds because of its excellent
      C1 substrate utilizing abilities and its abilities to naturally synthesize
      lycopene, C30 carotenoids and EPS. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: In this
      study, we isolated a fast-growing methanotroph, its C1 carbon substrate utilizing
      ability is excellent in comparison with reported methanotrophs. Furthermore,
      besides polysaccharides and C30 carotenoids which were commonly synthesized by
      methanotrophs, our findings suggested that C40 lycopene could also be naturally
      synthesized from methane by methanotrophs.

PMID- 28888066
TI  - The interactions between gut microbiota and entomopathogenic fungi: a potential
      approach for biological control of Blattella germanica (L.).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana mainly infect insects
      through the cuticle; gut infection occasionally occurs. Micro-organisms existing
      in the gut may play a crucial role in the evolution and ecology of host defenses
      against fungal pathogens. To evaluate whether the gut bacteria participate in
      antifungal activity, and to determine their role in host protection, the
      interactions between gut bacteria and M. anisopliae and the diversity of gut
      microbiota in cockroaches were studied. RESULTS: An oral feeding test showed that
      the mortality of conventional cockroaches was significantly lower than that of
      germ-free cockroaches; both gut homogenates and aqueous fecal extracts showed
      antifungal activity, but the samples from germ-free cockroaches did not. Twenty
      two bacterial strains with antifungal activity and siderophore-producing ability
      were isolated from the gut and feces of cockroaches. Using high-throughput
      sequencing techniques, a total of 23 different phyla and 212 genera were
      detected. The composition of the microbiota of the hindgut was vastly different
      from those of the foregut and midgut; higher diversity and abundance of
      Bacteroides and Pseudomonas were found in the hindgut. CONCLUSION: The gut
      microbiota of German cockroaches may play a critical role in protecting
      cockroaches from fungal invasion and colonization. Removing certain bacteria from
      the B. germanica microbiota may facilitate microbial control using fungal
      pathogens. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

PMID- 28888067
TI  - Injectable thermosensitive alginate/beta-tricalcium phosphate/aspirin hydrogels
      for bone augmentation.
AB  - In this study, an injectable and thermo-sensitive alginate/beta-tricalcium
      phosphate hydrogel (TSAH/beta-TCP) was prepared for aspirin release to a bone
      defect. Aspirin was dissolved into a mixture of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
      (PNIPAAm), an aminated alginate-g-PNIPAAm co-polymer, and beta-TCP powders.
      Scanning electron microscopy showed that TSAH/beta-TCP had an interconnected
      porous microstructure with a porosity of 86.78%. The cross-linked hydrogel
      released approximately 40% of the aspirin in the first 3 days and then slowly
      released the remainder. At a low concentration (<=100 MUg/mL), aspirin did not
      promote cell proliferation, but enhanced the alkaline phosphatase activity, and
      osteocalcin (OCN) and collagen I expression of human bone marrow-derived
      mesenchymal stem cells. The TSAH/beta-TCP/aspirin hydrogel was injected into the
      periosteum of the rat cranial bone, and its in vivo bone-forming ability was
      evaluated at 12 weeks. A bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2)-loaded TSAH/beta
      TCP hydrogel was injected as a control. Micro-computed tomography showed that the
      percentage of mineralized tissue in the TSAH/beta-TCP/BMP-2 and TSAH/beta
      TCP/aspirin groups were similar and significantly higher than that in the
      TSAH/beta-TCP group. Immunohistochemical staining showed considerable expression
      of OCN, especially in the TSAH/beta-TCP/BMP-2 and TSAH/beta-TCP/aspirin groups.
      These results suggest that the injectable TSAH/beta-TCP/aspirin hydrogel has
      great potential for bone regeneration. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed
      Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1739-1751, 2018.

PMID- 28888068
TI  - Thymic enteric type adenocarcinoma: A case report with cytological features.
AB  - Primary thymic adenocarcinoma is an extremely rare tumor, and thymic enteric type
      adenocarcinoma has recently been proposed as a distinct pathological entity.
      Herein, we report the first cytological description of thymic enteric type
      adenocarcinoma. A 29-year-old Japanese female without a significant past medical
      history was found to have an abnormal chest shadow. Chest computed tomography
      demonstrated a well-circumscribed tumor in the anterior mediastinum, and
      thymectomy was performed. The Papanicolaou staining of the touch smear of the
      resected tumor demonstrated tightly cohesive epithelial cell clusters in a
      necrotic background. These cells were cuboidal to columnar in shape and had large
      round to oval nuclei with conspicuous nucleoli. Some of these neoplastic cells
      had intracytoplasmic mucin. Immunocytochemically, the neoplastic cells were
      positive for cytokeratin 20 and CDX-2. Histopathological study revealed tubular
      and papillotubular neoplastic growth composed of cuboidal to columnar neoplastic
      cells that contained large round to oval nuclei. Some of the neoplastic cells had
      intracytoplasmic mucin. Immunohistochemical study confirmed the expression of
      cytokeratin 20 and CDX-2. The final diagnosis of thymic enteric type
      adenocarcinoma was made. The cytological and immunocytochemical features of this
      case led to a diagnosis of enteric type adenocarcinoma. However, these features
      alone cannot be differentiated from a metastatic adenocarcinoma arising from the
      gastrointestinal tract. Cytological examination of a fine-needle aspiration of
      the mediastinal tumor has been reported to be useful in making a diagnosis.
      Therefore, an awareness of this new pathological entity is important for
      differentiating a thymic tumor from a metastatic carcinoma in the thymus.

PMID- 28888069
TI  - A novel missense mutation in AIFM1 results in axonal polyneuropathy and
      misassembly of OXPHOS complexes.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Apoptosis-inducing factor mitochondrion-associated-1
      (AIFM1) in mitochondria has captured a great deal of attention due to its well
      described function in apoptosis. Mutations in AIFM1 have resulted in multiple
      clinical phenotypes, including X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4. These
      syndromes usually involve multiple locations within the nervous system and/or
      multiple organs. This study describes a novel missense mutation in AIFM1 and its
      associated peripheral nerve disease. METHODS: Patients with AIFM1 mutation were
      characterized clinically, electrophysiologically, genetically and by magnetic
      resonance imaging. The fibroblasts were isolated from the patients to study
      mitochondrial OXPHOS complexes. RESULTS: We identified a family with a novel
      missense mutation (Phe210Leu) in AIFM1 who developed an isolated late-onset
      axonal polyneuropathy in which the central nervous system and other organs were
      spared. Interestingly, this Phe210Leu mutation resulted in abnormal assembly of
      mitochondrial complex I and III, and failed to disrupt AIFM1 binding with
      mitochondrial intermembrane space import and assembly protein 40 (MIA40) in the
      patients' cells. Deficiency of either AIFM1 or MIA40 is known to impair the
      assembly of mitochondrial complex I and IV. However, levels of both AIFM1 and
      MIA40 were unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Phe210Leu mutation in AIFM1 induces an axonal
      polyneuropathy that might be contributed by the misassembly of mitochondrial
      complex I and III. This misassembly appears to be independent of the traditional
      mechanism via AIFM1/MIA40 deficiency.

PMID- 28888070
TI  - Using Virtual Reality Simulation Environments to Assess Competence for Emergency
      Medicine Learners.
AB  - Immersive learning environments that use virtual simulation (VS) technology are
      increasingly relevant as medical learners train in an environment of restricted
      clinical training hours and a heightened focus on patient safety. We conducted a
      consensus process with a breakout group of the 2017 Academic Emergency Medicine
      Consensus Conference "Catalyzing System Change Through Health Care Simulation:
      Systems, Competency, and Outcomes." This group examined the current uses of VS in
      training and assessment, including limitations and challenges in implementing VS
      into medical education curricula. We discuss the role of virtual environments in
      formative and summative assessment. Finally, we offer recommended areas of focus
      for future research examining VS technology for assessment, including high-stakes
      assessment in medical education. Specifically, we discuss needs for determination
      of areas of focus for VS training and assessment, development and exploration of
      virtual platforms, automated feedback within such platforms, and evaluation of
      effectiveness and validity of VS education.

PMID- 28888071
TI  - The effect of ventricular assist device-associated biomaterials on human blood
      leukocytes.
AB  - Ventricular assist devices (VADs) are an effective bridging or destination
      therapy for patients with advanced stage heart failure. These devices remain
      susceptible to adverse events including infection, bleeding, and thrombus; events
      linked to the foreign body response. Therefore, the biocompatibility of all
      biomaterials used is crucial to the success of medical devices. Biomaterials
      common in VADs-DLC: diamond-like carbon coated stainless steel; Sap: single
      crystal sapphire; SiN: silicon nitride; Ti: titanium alloy; and ZTA: zirconia
      toughened alumina-were tested for their biocompatibility through incubation with
      whole human blood for 2 h with mild agitation. Blood was then removed and used
      for: complete cell counts; leukocyte activation and death, and the production of
      key inflammatory cytokines. All were compared to time 0 and an un-exposed 2 h
      sample. Monocyte numbers were lower after exposure to DLC, SiN, and ZTA and
      monocytes showed evidence of activation with DLC, Sap, and SiN. Neutrophils and
      lymphocytes were unaffected. This approach allows comprehensive analysis of the
      potential blood damaging effects of biomaterials. Monocyte activation by DLC,
      Sap, ZTA, and SiN warrants further investigation linking effects on this cell
      type to unfavorable inflammatory/thrombogenic responses to VADs and other blood
      handling devices. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B:
      Appl Biomater, 106B: 1730-1738, 2018.

PMID- 28888072
TI  - Characterization of isolated amyloid myopathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Amyloid myopathy frequently occurs in the setting of
      systemic amyloidosis and less commonly in isolation (isolated amyloid myopathy).
      Anoctaminopathy-5 and dysferlinopathy were recently recognized as causes of
      isolated amyloid myopathy. The present study aimed to characterize the isolated
      amyloid myopathy and to compare it with amyloid myopathy associated with systemic
      amyloidosis. METHODS: We searched the Muscle Laboratory database to identify
      patients with pathologically confirmed amyloid myopathy seen in neurology clinics
      between January 1998 and September 2016. Patients with monoclonal gammopathy,
      peripheral neuropathy, organomegaly or symptoms or pathologic evidence of amyloid
      deposition outside skeletal muscle were classified as having systemic amyloidosis
      associated myopathy. RESULTS: Fifty-two patients were identified, including 14
      with isolated amyloid myopathy (eight anoctaminopathy-5, two dysferlinopathy and
      four genetically unknown) and 38 with systemic amyloidosis (32 immunoglobulin
      light-chain amyloidosis, four familial amyloid polyneuropathy and two senile
      systemic amyloidosis). Compared with patients with systemic amyloidosis, patients
      with isolated amyloid myopathy had a younger age of onset (median, 41.5 vs. 65
      years), no dysphagia (0% vs. 26%) or weight loss (0% vs. 26%), but more frequent
      calf atrophy (57% vs. 0%), small collections of inflammatory cells on muscle
      biopsy (43% vs. 0%) and asymptomatic hyperCKemia at onset (21% vs. 0%). All
      patients with isolated amyloid myopathy had creatine kinase (CK) values >2.5
      times the upper limit of normal. CONCLUSIONS: Isolated amyloid myopathy accounts
      for 27% of patients with amyloid myopathy, mostly due to anoctaminopathy-5. There
      are various clinical and laboratory parameters that can help to differentiate
      isolated amyloid myopathy from systemic amyloidosis.

PMID- 28888074
TI  - Early recovery of circulating immature B cells in B-lymphoblastic leukemia
      patients after CD19 targeted CAR T cell therapy: A pitfall for minimal residual
      disease detection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: CD19-targeted chimeric-antigen receptor-modified T-cells (CAR-T) are
      promising in the treatment of refractory B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).
      Minimal residual disease (MRD) detection by multicolor flow cytometry (FCM) is
      critical to distinguish B-ALL MRD from regenerating, non-neoplastic B-cell
      populations. METHODS: FCM was performed on samples from 9 patients with B-ALL
      treated with CAR-T. RESULTS: All 9 patients showed response to CAR-T.
      Additionally, FCM revealed circulating CD10 + B cells, potentially mimicking MRD.
      Circulating CD10+ B-cells were detected in blood from 3 days to 3 months after
      CAR-T, comprising 73% (median) of B-cells (52-83%, 95%CI). They expressed CD19,
      CD10, CD20, bright CD9, CD22, CD24, moderate CD38 and dim CD58, but were CD34 (
      ), with bright CD45 and polyclonal surface light chain immunoglobulin (sIg)
      expression. A similar CD10 + B-cell subpopulation was detected by marrow FCM,
      amidst abundant B-cell precursors. CONCLUSIONS: These circulating CD10 + B-cells
      are compatible with immature B-cells, and are a reflection of B-cell recovery
      within the marrow. They are immunophenotypically distinguishable from residual B
      ALL. Expression of light chain sIg and key surface antigens characterizing
      regenerating B-cell precursors can distinguish immature B-cells from B-ALL MRD
      and prevent misdiagnosis. (c) 2017 International Clinical Cytometry Society.

PMID- 28888073
TI  - Selective decline of neurotrophin and neurotrophin receptor genes within CA1
      pyramidal neurons and hippocampus proper: Correlation with cognitive performance
      and neuropathology in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons, a major component of the medial temporal lobe
      memory circuit, are selectively vulnerable during the progression of Alzheimer's
      disease (AD). The cellular mechanism(s) underlying degeneration of these neurons
      and the relationship to cognitive performance remains largely undefined. Here, we
      profiled neurotrophin and neurotrophin receptor gene expression within
      microdissected CA1 neurons along with regional hippocampal dissections from
      subjects who died with a clinical diagnosis of no cognitive impairment (NCI),
      mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or AD using laser capture microdissection (LCM),
      custom-designed microarray analysis, and qPCR of CA1 subregional dissections.
      Gene expression levels were correlated with cognitive test scores and AD
      neuropathology criteria. We found a significant downregulation of several
      neurotrophin genes (e.g., Gdnf, Ngfb, and Ntf4) in CA1 pyramidal neurons in MCI
      compared to NCI and AD subjects. In addition, the neurotrophin receptor
      transcripts TrkB and TrkC were decreased in MCI and AD compared to NCI. Regional
      hippocampal dissections also revealed select neurotrophic gene dysfunction
      providing evidence for vulnerability within the hippocampus proper during the
      progression of dementia. Downregulation of several neurotrophins of the NGF
      family and cognate neurotrophin receptor (TrkA, TrkB, and TrkC) genes correlated
      with antemortem cognitive measures including the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), a
      composite global cognitive score (GCS), and Episodic, Semantic, and Working
      Memory, Perceptual Speed, and Visuospatial domains. Significant correlations were
      found between select neurotrophic expression downregulation and neuritic plaques
      (NPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), but not diffuse plaques (DPs). These
      data suggest that dysfunction of neurotrophin signaling complexes have profound
      negative sequelae within vulnerable hippocampal cell types, which play a role in
      mnemonic and executive dysfunction during the progression of AD.

PMID- 28888075
TI  - Intravenous thrombolysis for patients with in-hospital stroke onset: propensity
      matched analysis from the Safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke-East
      registry.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Recent cross-sectional study data suggest that
      intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) in patients with in-hospital stroke (IHS) onset is
      associated with unfavorable functional outcomes at hospital discharge and in
      hospital mortality compared to patients with out-of-hospital stroke (OHS) onset
      treated with IVT. We sought to compare outcomes between IVT-treated patients with
      IHS and OHS by analysing propensity-score-matched data from the Safe
      Implementation of Treatments in Stroke-East registry. METHODS: We compared the
      following outcomes for all propensity-score-matched patients: (i) symptomatic
      intracranial hemorrhage defined with the safe implementation of thrombolysis in
      stroke-monitoring study criteria, (ii) favorable functional outcome defined as a
      modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 0-1 at 3 months, (iii) functional
      independence defined as an mRS score of 0-2 at 3 months and (iv) 3-month
      mortality. RESULTS: Out of a total of 19 077 IVT-treated patients with acute
      ischaemic stroke, 196 patients with IHS were matched to 5124 patients with OHS,
      with no differences in all baseline characteristics (P > 0.1). Patients with IHS
      had longer door-to-needle [90 (interquartile range, IQR, 60-140) vs. 65 (IQR, 47
      95) min, P < 0.001] and door-to-imaging [40 (IQR, 20-90) vs. 24 (IQR, 15-35) min,
      P < 0.001] times compared with patients with OHS. No differences were detected in
      the rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (1.6% vs. 1.9%, P = 0.756),
      favorable functional outcome (46.4% vs. 42.3%, P = 0.257), functional
      independence (60.7% vs. 60.0%, P = 0.447) and mortality (14.3% vs. 15.1%, P =
      0.764). The distribution of 3-month mRS scores was similar in the two groups (P =
      0.273). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underline the safety and efficacy of IVT for
      IHS. They also underscore the potential of reducing in-hospital delays for timely
      tissue plasminogen activator delivery in patients with IHS.

PMID- 28888076
TI  - A Contribution to the Morphology and Phylogeny of Chlamydodon, with Three New
      Species from China (Ciliophora, Cyrtophoria).
AB  - Three new cyrtophorian ciliates isolated from coastal areas of China were
      described based on morphological and genetic data. The Chlamydodon mnemosyne-like
      species Chlamydodon similis sp. n. differs from its congeners mainly by its
      number of somatic kineties. Chlamydodon oligochaetus sp. n. is distinguished from
      its congeners mainly by having fewer somatic kineties, and/or an elongated body
      shape. Chlamydodon crassidens sp. n. is characterized mainly by an inverted
      triangular body shape, a posteriorly interrupted cross-striated band (5-6 MUm
      wide), and a large cytostome. Moreover, we provided small-subunit (SSU) rDNA
      sequences of C. similis sp. n. and C. oligochaetus sp. n. Maximum likelihood (ML)
      and Bayesian inference (BI) consistently placed C. similis sp. n. as a sister to
      C. paramnemosyne, but showed different branching position of C. oligochaetus sp.
      n., which may be due to a low taxon sampling in the Chlamydodontidae and/or an
      insufficient resolution of the marker gene at species level.

PMID- 28888077
TI  - MicroRNA-214-3p: A link between autophagy and endothelial cell dysfunction in
      atherosclerosis.
AB  - AIM: Endothelial cell injury assumes a fundamental part in the pathogenesis of
      atherosclerosis, and endothelial cell autophagy has protective effects on the
      development of atherosclerosis, although the underlying molecular regulation
      mechanism is indistinct. This study aimed to investigate whether microRNA-214-3p
      (miR-214-3p) is involved in the endothelial cell autophagy regulation of
      atherosclerosis. METHODS: We utilized ApoE-/- mice provided with a high-fat diet
      (HFD) as atherosclerosis model. We analysed the level of miR-214-3p and the
      levels of autophagy-related protein 5 (ATG5) and autophagy-related protein 12
      (ATG12) in the purified CD31+ endothelial cells from mouse aorta. Bioinformatics
      analysis and a dual-luciferase reporter assay were performed to confirm the
      binding target of miR-214-3p. In vitro study, human umbilical vein endothelial
      cells (HUVECs) were transfected with miR-214-3p mimics/inhibitor and stimulated
      with 100 MUg/mL oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) for 12 hours to
      initiate a stress-repairing autophagic process. RESULTS: In mouse models, we
      identified an inverse correlation between miR-214-3p, ATG5 and ATG12. We observed
      that in young HUVECs, ox-LDL-initiated autophagy was repressed by miR-214-3p
      overexpression, as evaluated by autophagic protein analysis, microtubule
      associated protein 1 light chain 3B-II (LC3B-II) immunofluorescence assay and
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Also, miR-214-3p promoted ox-LDL
      accumulation in HUVECs and THP-1 monocyte adhesion. Conversely, in old HUVECs,
      suppression of miR-214-3p preserved the ability to initiate a protective
      autophagy reaction to the ox-LDL stimulation. CONCLUSION: miR-214-3p regulates ox
      LDL-initiated autophagy in HUVECs by directly targeting the 3'UTR of ATG5 and may
      have a suitable role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28888078
TI  - Healing of soft tissue lacerations in diabetic-induced rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIM: Prevalence and incidence of diabetes are increasing and many
      dental trauma patients today have diabetes. The implications of delayed wound
      healing, associated with diabetes mellitus, on oral mucosal wound healing have
      not been investigated extensively. The aim of this study was to investigate the
      implications of diabetes mellitus on the cellular, vascular, and fibroblastic
      changes induced by laceration on the oral mucosa of Wistar rats. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Sixteen female Wistar rats were randomly assigned into two groups: 1.
      Experimental Streptozotocin-induced diabetic group (8 rats). 2. Control group (8
      rats). A standardized laceration injury was induced from the corner of the mouth
      to the mid-check penetrating through dermal and oral mucosal contaminated by
      saliva. Samples were taken from the rats after sacrificing them on days 1,3,7,
      and 10. Inflammation was evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. Two
      investigators evaluated samples in a blinded manner. RESULTS: Histology reports
      indicated delayed wound healing patterns in diabetic rats through days 1, 3, 7,
      and 10 when compared to controls. Inflammation was also noted to be consistently
      present more often in diabetic rats. Furthermore, polymorphonuclear cell count
      was consistently higher in diabetic rats. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that
      oral mucosa wound healing is delayed in diabetic Wistar rats compared to non
      diabetic rats in terms of wound closure, angiogenesis, and polymorphonuclear
      cells number. Furthermore, it is also suggested that wound healing is impaired
      both in the early and late stages of soft tissue wound healing.

PMID- 28888079
TI  - Bioabsorbable nerve conduits coated with induced pluripotent stem cell-derived
      neurospheres enhance axonal regeneration in sciatic nerve defects in aged mice.
AB  - Aging influences peripheral nerve regeneration. Nevertheless, most basic research
      of bioabsorbable nerve conduits including commercial products have been performed
      in very young animals. Results from these studies may not provide information
      about axonal regeneration in aged tissue, because young nerve tissue holds
      sufficient endogenous potential for axonal regeneration. The clinical target age
      for nerve conduit application is most likely going to increase with a rapidly
      growing elderly population. In the present study, we examined axonal regeneration
      after sciatic nerve defects in aged and young mice. 5-mm sciatic nerve defects in
      young (6 weeks old) and aged (92 weeks old) mice were reconstructed using nerve
      conduits (composed of a poly lactide and caprolactone) or autografts. In
      addition, in aged mice, sciatic nerve defects were reconstructed using nerve
      conduits coated with mouse induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSc)-derived
      neurospheres. Using electrophysiological and histological techniques, we
      demonstrated axonal regeneration was significantly less effective in aged than in
      young mice both for nerve conduits and for nerve autografts. However, despite the
      low regenerative capacity of the peripheral nerve in aged mice, axonal
      regeneration significantly increased when nerve conduits coated with iPSc-derived
      neurospheres, rather than nerve conduits alone, were used. The present study
      shows that aging negatively affects peripheral nerve regeneration based on nerve
      conduits in mice. However, axonal regeneration using nerve conduits was improved
      when supportive iPSc-derived neurospheres were added in the aged mice. We propose
      that tissue-engineered bioabsorbable nerve conduits in combination with iPSc
      derived neurospheres hold therapeutic potential both in young and elderly
      patients. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl
      Biomater, 106B: 1752-1758, 2018.

PMID- 28888081
TI  - Study of the sleep quality and psychological state of patients with hepatitis B
      liver cirrhosis.
AB  - AIM: We aimed to investigate sleep quality, mild hepatic encephalopathy, anxiety,
      and depression in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis by using a variety of
      scales and questionnaires. METHOD: A cohort of 341 patients with hepatitis B
      liver cirrhosis were categorized by Child-Pugh grading (A, B, and C) in this
      cross-sectional study. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Number Connection
      Test-A (NCT-A), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) evaluated the
      questionnaires and statistically analyzed the intrinsic correlation. The control
      group included 50 healthy individuals. Of 341 patients, 213 had a PSQI index >5
      points. RESULTS: The PSQI, NCT-A, anxiety scale (HAD [a]), and depression scale
      (HAD [d]) of the patients were significantly different. The NCT-A-positive
      patients revealed 214 cases of possible minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE)
      during a preliminary screening of patients. The PSQI score of NCT-A-positive
      patients was significantly elevated compared to NCT-A-negative patients (P <
      0.001). HAD (a) and HAD (d) were significantly different between the NCT-A
      positive and NCT-A-negative groups (P = 0.002 and P = 0.006, respectively).
      Univariate Pearson's correlation analysis found that NCT-A and HAD (a) were
      positively correlated with PSQI (P < 0.001 and P = 0.045, respectively); however,
      Child-Pugh score and HAD (d) were not correlated with PSQI (P = 0.061 and P =
      0.059, respectively). CONCLUSION: These results indicated that patients with
      hepatitis B liver cirrhosis have a disturbed sleep, which might be an MHE
      symptom, further causing considerable anxiety. Thus, the evaluation of sleep
      quality and psychological state of patients with hepatitis B liver cirrhosis
      necessitates further investigation to guide positive intervention.

PMID- 28888080
TI  - Tokyo Guidelines 2018: management strategies for gallbladder drainage in patients
      with acute cholecystitis (with videos).
AB  - Since the publication of the Tokyo Guidelines in 2007 and their revision in 2013,
      appropriate management for acute cholecystitis has been more clearly established.
      Since the last revision, several manuscripts, especially for alternative
      endoscopic techniques, have been reported; therefore, additional evaluation and
      refinement of the 2013 Guidelines is required. We describe a standard drainage
      method for surgically high-risk patients with acute cholecystitis and the latest
      developed endoscopic gallbladder drainage techniques described in the updated
      Tokyo Guidelines 2018 (TG18). Our study confirmed that percutaneous transhepatic
      gallbladder drainage should be considered the first alternative to surgical
      intervention in surgically high-risk patients with acute cholecystitis. Also,
      endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage or endoscopic ultrasound-guided
      gallbladder drainage can be considered in high-volume institutes by skilled
      endoscopists. In the endoscopic transpapillary approach, either endoscopic naso
      gallbladder drainage or gallbladder stenting can be considered for gallbladder
      drainage. We also introduce special techniques and the latest outcomes of
      endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage studies. Free full articles and
      mobile app of TG18 are available at:
      http://www.jshbps.jp/modules/en/index.php?content_id=47. Related clinical
      questions and references are also included.

PMID- 28888082
TI  - How can the Perioperative Surgical Home be applied to pediatric anesthesia
      practice?

PMID- 28888083
TI  - An antero-lateral approach to ultrasound-guided lumbar plexus block in supine
      position combined with quadratus lumborum block using single-needle insertion for
      pediatric hip surgery.

PMID- 28888085
TI  - Performance of different prostate specific antibodies in the cytological
      diagnosis of metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma (metPA) in cytology
      specimens can be challenging and frequently requires the use of
      immunohistochemistry (IHC). Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and NKX3.1
      have emerged as promising IHC markers to determine prostatic origin of metPA in
      surgical specimens. Our goal is to evaluate the performance of PSMA and NKX3.1
      and compare them with those of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate
      specific alkaline phosphatase (PSAP) in the cytological diagnosis of metPA
      MATERIALS: Cytology specimens from patients with a history of prostate
      adenocarcinoma at our institution between January 01, 2005 and December 31, 2015
      were retrieved. IHC stains were performed on the cell blocks. In addition to the
      staining pattern and intensity, the sensitivity, and specificity of PSMA and
      NKX3.1 were assessed and compared to those of PSA and PSAP markers. RESULTS: A
      total of 56 cytology cases were retrieved with the following diagnoses: 13 metPA,
      37 metastatic carcinomas from other origins, 4 rare atypical cells, and 2 benign.
      Additional 9 cases were re-classified as metPA based on positive PSMA and/or
      NKX3.1 immunostains. In our cohort of 22 cases of metPA, 18 were positive for
      PSMA (82%), 15 for NKX3.1 (68%), 9 for PSA (41%), and 9 for PSAP (41%). PSMA and
      NKX3.1 were negative in all 6 cases of metastatic carcinoma of nonprostate origin
      (specificity 100%). PSMA demonstrated strong membranous staining pattern, and
      NKX3.1 exhibited moderate nuclear staining pattern. CONCLUSION: Because of their
      higher sensitivity and specificity, PSMA and NKX3.1 are valuable surrogate
      markers for metPA in cytology specimens, when compared with PSA and PSAP markers.

PMID- 28888086
TI  - Stability of routine biochemical analytes in whole blood and plasma/serum: focus
      on potassium stability from lithium heparin.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Blood specimens are transported from clinical departments to the
      biochemistry laboratory by hospital courier service, sometimes over long
      distances. The aim of this study was to assess the stability of common
      biochemical analytes in venous blood under our routine transport conditions and
      to evaluate analyte stability after prompt or delayed centrifugation. METHODS: We
      investigated pre- and postanalytical contributions of 32 biochemical analytes in
      plasma and serum samples from 10 patients (healthy adults and patients from
      intensive care units). Differences in analyte concentrations between baseline
      (T0) and different time intervals (2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 h) following storage
      after prompt and delayed centrifugation were reported. Evaluation was against the
      total change limit as described by Oddoze et al. (Oddoze C, Lombard E, Portugal
      H. Stability study of 81 analytes in human whole blood, in serum and in plasma.
      Clin Biochem 2012;45:464-9). RESULTS: The majority of analytes were stable with
      delayed separation up to 12 h, except for potassium, C-peptide, osteocalcin,
      parathyroid hormone (PTH), bicarbonate and LDH. After prompt centrifugation and
      storage at 4 degrees C, stability was greatly increased up to 48 h for most
      analytes. LDH and bicarbonate had the lowest stability after centrifugation;
      therefore, no reanalysis of these analytes in a centrifuged tube can be allowed.
      CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of analyte stability is crucial to interpret biological
      analysis with confidence. However, centrifugation prior to transport is time
      consuming, and the transfer of plasma or serum from a primary tube to a secondary
      tube increases the risk of preanalytical errors. For analytes that are stable in
      whole blood for 24 h or more, it seems that there is no benefit to centrifuge
      before transport.

PMID- 28888088
TI  - Possible modulation of PPAR-gamma cascade against depression caused by
      neuropathic pain in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sciatic nerve ligation causes neuropathic pain with chronic
      constriction injury (CCI). However, there is no published report on the effect of
      pioglitazone as an antidepressant in the treatment of depression induced by
      neuropathic pain with CCI in rats. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      effect of pioglitazone as an antidepressant by targeting oxidative stress by the
      peripheral neuropathic pain model using the CCI of the sciatic nerve. METHODS:
      Behavioral studies were carried out to measure thermal hyperalgesia and cold
      allodynia as markers of neuropathic pain and force swim test for depression.
      These were followed by estimation of biochemical parameters which include lipid
      peroxidation (LPO), reduced glutathione, catalase, nitrite and superoxide
      dismutase (SOD) in the rat brains as a measure of oxidative stress. We
      administered two intraperitoneal doses of pioglitazone (4.5 and 9.0 mg/kg, i.p.)
      to the treated group for 28 consecutive days from the day of injury and
      behavioral as well as biochemical evaluations were performed. RESULTS: The
      results suggested that the administration of pioglitazone significantly countered
      the neuropathic pain induced depression as interpreted through elevated pain
      threshold of tactile allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia followed by decreased
      immobility time in the 9.0 mg/kg dose group. CONCLUSIONS: It may be concluded
      that the oxidative stress plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of
      neuropathic pain and depression as evidenced by the behavioral studies and the
      changes in the levels of lipid peroxidase, nitrite, catalase, and glutathione and
      SOD.

PMID- 28888087
TI  - Modulation of transforming growth factor-beta/follistatin signaling and white
      adipose browning: therapeutic implications for obesity related disorders.
AB  - Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of diabetes, insulin
      resistance, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease and other related metabolic
      conditions. Obesity develops from perturbations in overall cellular bioenergetics
      when energy intake chronically exceeds total energy expenditure. Lifestyle
      interventions based on reducing total energy uptake and increasing activities
      including exercise have proved ineffective in the prevention and treatment of
      obesity because of poor adherence to such interventions for an extended period of
      time. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has an extraordinary metabolic capacity to burn
      excess stored energy and holds great promise in combating obesity and related
      diseases. This unique ability to nullify the effects of extra energy intake of
      these specialized tissues has provided attractive perspectives for the
      therapeutic potential of BAT in humans. Browning of white adipose tissue by
      promoting the expression and activity of key mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1
      (UCP1) represents an exciting new strategy to combat obesity via enhanced energy
      dissipation. Members of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)
      superfamily including myostatin and follistatin have recently been demonstrated
      to play a key role in regulating white adipose browning both in in-vitro and in
      vivo animal models and thereby present attractive avenues for exploring the
      therapeutic potential for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic
      diseases.

PMID- 28888089
TI  - Antidiabetic potential of polyphenolic-rich fraction of Tamarindus indica seed
      coat in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tamarindus is a monotypic genus and belongs to the subfamily
      Caesalpinioideae of the family Leguminosae (Fabaceae), Tamarindus indica L.,
      commonly known as Tamarind tree is one of the most important multipurpose
      tropical fruit tree species in the India, Sudan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and entire
      subcontinent. METHODS: Hydroethanolic seed coat extract of Tamarindus indica
      (HETI) was assessed for presence of phytoconstituents and selection of optimum
      dose through acute and sub acute toxicity study. The single and multidose (14
      days) study were conducted to evaluate antidiabetic potential of HETI in alloxan
      induced rats via determine of blood glucose level, body weight, hematological
      profile, extra-pancreatic glucose utilization of isolated rat hemi-diaphragm as
      well as histopathology of rat pancreas. RESULTS: Phytochemical analysis of HETI
      showed the presence of polyphenol like flavonoids. Single and multidose of HETI
      significantly (p<0.05; p<0.001) reduced blood glucose level in normoglycaemic,
      glucose loaded and alloxan induced hyperglycaemic animals. HETI exerts the
      protective effect on pancreatic beta-cells as per results obtained from
      histopathology of animals. Moreover, HETI increased glucose uptake in isolated
      rat hemi-diaphragm and prevents decrease in body weight along with recovery of
      altered hematological parameters. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed that HETI have
      potent hypoglycaemic action by virtue of its phytoconstituents and it can be used
      as a herbal medicine for diabetes.

PMID- 28888090
TI  - Type 3 renal tubular acidosis associated with growth hormone deficiency.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We identified two boys with type 3 renal tubular acidosis (RTA) and
      growth hormone deficiency and we sought to differentiate them from children with
      classic type 1 distal RTA. METHODS: We reviewed all children <6 years of age with
      RTA referred over a 13-year period and compared the growth response to alkali
      therapy in these two boys and in 28 children with only type 1 distal RTA.
      RESULTS: All children with type 1 RTA reached the 5th percentile or higher on CDC
      growth charts within 2 years of alkali therapy. Their mean height standard
      deviation score (SDS) improved from -1.4 to -0.6 SDS and their mean mid-parental
      height (MPH) SDS improved from -0.6 to 0 SDS after 2 years. In contrast, the boys
      with growth hormone deficiency had a height SDS of -1.4 and -2.4 SDS after 2
      years of alkali and the MPH SDS were both -2.6 SDS after 2 years of alkali
      therapy. Growth hormone therapy accelerated their growth to normal levels and led
      to long-term correction of RTA. CONCLUSIONS: A child with type 1 RTA whose height
      response after 2 years of alkali therapy is inadequate should undergo provocative
      growth hormone testing.

PMID- 28888091
TI  - Body weight misperception and health-related factors among Iranian children and
      adolescents: the CASPIAN-V study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Along with increased prevalence of obesity, body weight misperception
      has also increased among adolescents. This study aims to evaluate the proportion
      of weight misperception among Iranian children and adolescents and its
      association with some health-related factors. METHODS: Data were collected from
      14,440 Iranian students, aged 7-18 years, who participated in the national school
      based surveillance program (CASPIAN-V). The students' anthropometric indices and
      blood pressure were measured using standardized methods, and valid questionnaires
      were used to assess their weight perception, eating patterns, physical activity
      and sedentary behaviors. According to agreements between the real weight and self
      perceived weight status, participants were classified as underestimated, accurate
      and overestimated weight. RESULTS: The rates of underestimated, accurate and
      overestimated weight were 30.8%, 40.8% and 28.4%, respectively. In comparison
      with the accurate-weight group, both the underestimated- and overestimated-weight
      groups were less likely to have daily consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
      (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.74-0.93 and OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.34-0.44, respectively),
      sweets (OR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.73-0.90 and OR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.61-0.76,
      respectively) and salty snacks (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.66-0.92 and OR: 0.30, 95% CI:
      0.24-0.38, respectively). In the overestimated-weight group, the odds of daily
      intake of fast food decreased by 67% and the odds of low physical activity
      declined by 38% in comparison with the accurate-weight group. CONCLUSIONS: Weight
      misperception had a high prevalence among Iranian children and adolescents and is
      associated with their dietary patterns and physical activity behaviors. Suitable
      education programs need to be developed to correct the children and adolescents'
      insight about their weight status.

PMID- 28888092
TI  - Neurodevelopmental outcome at the age of 4 years according to the planned mode of
      delivery in term breech presentation: a nationwide, population-based record
      linkage study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate whether a trial of planned vaginal breech labor affects
      neurologic development in children. METHODS: This is a nationwide, Finnish,
      population-based record linkage study. An odds ratio with 95% confidence
      intervals was used to estimate the relative risk that a child delivered by
      planned vaginal breech labor would be diagnosed with adverse neurodevelopmental
      outcome (cerebral palsy, epilepsy, intellectual disability, sensor neural
      developmental outcome, hyperactivity, speech and language problems) at the age of
      4 years. The reference group were children born by planned cesarean section.
      RESULTS: During a study period of 7 years, 8374 infants were delivered in breech
      position. Among them, 3907 (46.7%) had an attempted labor and 4467 (53.3%)
      infants were delivered by planned cesarean section. There were no differences in
      the neurodevelopmental outcome. In the planned vaginal labor group, 133 (3.4%)
      children had an abnormal neurodevelopmental outcome at the age of 4 years
      compared to 142 (3.2%) in the planned cesarean section group. CONCLUSION: The
      absolute risk of abnormal neurological outcome in breech deliveries at term was
      low, regardless of planned mode of birth. Planned vaginal breech labor did not
      increase the risk for abnormal neurological outcome compared to planned cesarean
      section.

PMID- 28888093
TI  - Models used in the study of traumatic brain injury.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a contemporary health problem and a leading cause
      of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Survivors of TBI frequently experience
      disabling long-term changes in cognition, sensorimotor function, and personality.
      A crucial step in understanding TBI and providing better treatment has been the
      use of models to mimic the event under controlled conditions. Here, we describe
      the known head injury models, which can be classified as whole animal (in vivo),
      in vitro, and mathematical models. We will also review the ways in which these
      models have advanced the knowledge of TBI.

PMID- 28888094
TI  - Low-Dose Scanning Technology Combined with Low-Concentration Contrast Material in
      Renal Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA): A Preliminary Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND This study is to investigate the feasibility of low iodine
      concentration contrast material (CM) combined with low tube voltage and adaptive
      statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) in renal computed tomography
      angiography (CTA). MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 136 patients were enrolled in
      this prospective trial, and randomly divided into two groups: group A (n=68) and
      group B (n=68). Group A received 120-kVp and iopromide (370 mg/mL) with filtered
      back projection (FBP) reconstruction, and group B received 100-kVp and iodixanol
      (270 mg/mL) with ASIR 40% (ASIR40). An equal iodine dose (300 mg/kg body weight)
      and the same iodine delivery rate (1,500 mg I/s) were given to all patients.
      Density, image noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio
      (CNR) were measured, and the image quality and visualization of renal arteries
      were scored. Dose-length product (DLP) and CT dose index volume (CTDIvol) were
      recorded, and effective doses (ED) were calculated. RESULTS There was no
      significant difference in image noise between groups A and B (p>0.05). The vessel
      attenuation, SNR, and CNR were significantly higher in group B than group A (all
      p<0.05). The subjective image quality and visualization of renal artery branches
      were similar in these two groups (p>0.05). Compared with group A, the CTDIvol,
      DLP, and ED in group B were decreased by 38.58%, 37.24%, and 37.24%, respectively
      (p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS Compared with 120-kVp with FBP reconstruction, the
      protocol of 100-kVp with ASIRP40 reconstruction provided high-quality renal CTA
      results, which allowed for reduced iodine concentration and decreased radiation
      dose.

PMID- 28888096
TI  - Exploration of thioxothiazolidinone-sulfonate conjugates as a new class of
      aldehyde/aldose reductase inhibitors: A synthetic and computational
      investigation.
AB  - In the present study, the pharmacophore integration methodology provided an
      efficient access to a new library of thioxothiazolidinone-sulfonate conjugates
      (8a-r) from easily available synthetic precursors. The approach was excellently
      high yielding with flexible structural sites for chemical modifications. The
      designed hybrid scaffolds were assessed for aldehyde/aldose reductase inhibition
      activities. The results for the in vitro bioassays were promising with the
      identification of compound 8e as the lead and selective candidate for ALR2
      inhibition with an IC50 value of 0.468+/-0.003uMas compared to 3.1+/-0.2uM for
      the standard (sorbinil), whereas compound 8o demonstrated high inhibitory potency
      for both ALR2 and ALR1 enzymes. Molecular modeling analysis of the potent
      compounds provided further insight into the biological properties where detailed
      binding mode analysis revealed that the conjugates (8a-r) were found stabilized
      in the active site of the enzymes through the development of a number of
      interactions with catalytic residues.

PMID- 28888095
TI  - Magnesium therapy improves outcome in Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis by
      altering pneumolysin pore formation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of
      bacterial meningitis in adults and is characterized by high lethality and
      substantial cognitive disabilities in survivors. Here, we have studied the
      capacity of an established therapeutic agent, magnesium, to improve survival in
      pneumococcal meningitis by modulating the neurological effects of the major
      pneumococcal pathogenic factor, pneumolysin. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: We used mixed
      primary glial and acute brain slice cultures, pneumolysin injection in infant
      rats, a mouse meningitis model and complementary approaches such as Western blot,
      a black lipid bilayer conductance assay and live imaging of primary glial cells.
      KEY RESULTS: Treatment with therapeutic concentrations of magnesium chloride (500
      mg.kg-1 in animals and 2 mM in cultures) prevented pneumolysin-induced brain
      swelling and tissue remodelling both in brain slices and in animal models. In
      contrast to other divalent ions, which diminish the membrane binding of
      pneumolysin in non-therapeutic concentrations, magnesium delayed toxin-driven
      pore formation without affecting its membrane binding or the conductance profile
      of its pores. Finally, magnesium prolonged the survival and improved clinical
      condition of mice with pneumococcal meningitis, in the absence of antibiotic
      treatment. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Magnesium is a well-established and safe
      therapeutic agent that has demonstrated capacity for attenuating pneumolysin
      triggered pathogenic effects on the brain. The improved animal survival and
      clinical condition in the meningitis model identifies magnesium as a promising
      candidate for adjunctive treatment of pneumococcal meningitis, together with
      antibiotic therapy.

PMID- 28888097
TI  - N-Sulfamoylphenyl- and N-sulfamoylphenyl-N-thiazolyl-beta-alanines and their
      derivatives as inhibitors of human carbonic anhydrases.
AB  - A series of N-substituted and N,N-disubstituted beta-amino acids and their
      derivatives bearing benzenesulfonamide moiety were designed and synthesized in
      search of compounds that would be high-affinity and selective inhibitors of human
      carbonic anhydrases (CA). There are 12 catalytically active human CA isoforms,
      the cytosolic CA I, CA II, CA III, CA VII, and CA XIII, secreted CA VI, the
      mitochondrial CA VA and CA VB, membrane-associated CA IV, and transmembrane CA
      IX, CA XII, and CA XIV. The di-bromo meta-substituted compounds exhibited low
      nanomolar dissociation constants and over 10-fold selectivity for mitochondrial
      isozyme CA VB, implicated in diseases of the central nervous system and obesity.
      These compounds can be used for further development as inhibitors of significant
      binding affinity and selectivity towards CA VB isozyme.

PMID- 28888098
TI  - Wave propagation through a flexoelectric piezoelectric slab sandwiched by two
      piezoelectric half-spaces.
AB  - Reflection and transmission of plane waves through a flexoelectric piezoelectric
      slab sandwiched by two piezoelectric half-spaces are studied in this paper. The
      secular equations in the flexoelectric piezoelectric material are first derived
      from the general governing equation. Different from the classical piezoelectric
      medium, there are five kinds of coupled elastic waves in the piezoelectric
      material with the microstructure effects taken into consideration. The state
      vectors are obtained by the summation of contributions from all possible partial
      waves. The state transfer equation of flexoelectric piezoelectric slab is derived
      from the motion equation by the reduction of order, and the transfer matrix of
      flexoelectric piezoelectric slab is obtained by solving the state transfer
      equation. By using the continuous conditions at the interface and the approach of
      partition matrix, we get the resultant algebraic equations in term of the
      transfer matrix from which the reflection and transmission coefficients can be
      calculated. The amplitude ratios and further the energy flux ratios of various
      waves are evaluated numerically. The numerical results are shown graphically and
      are validated by the energy conservation law. Based on these numerical results,
      the influences of two characteristic lengths of microstructure and the
      flexoelectric coefficients on the wave propagation are discussed.

PMID- 28888099
TI  - Polydrug use and its association with drug treatment outcomes among primary
      heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine users.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Polydrug use may challenge effective treatment for substance use
      disorders. We evaluate whether secondary substance use modifies the association
      between treatment and primary drug use among primary heroin, cocaine and
      methamphetamine (MA) users. METHODS: Data were obtained from prospective cohort
      studies on people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) in California, USA. Using repeated
      monthly data on self-reported secondary substance use (heroin, cocaine, MA,
      alcohol or marijuana; >=1day in a month), primary drug use (>=1day in a month),
      and treatment participation, collected via timeline follow-back, we fitted
      generalized linear mixed multiple regression models controlling for potential
      confounders to examine the interactions between treatment and secondary substance
      use on the odds of primary heroin, cocaine and MA use, respectively. RESULTS:
      Included in our study were 587 primary heroin, 444 primary MA, and 501 primary
      cocaine users, with a median of 32.4, 13.3 and 18.9 years of follow-up,
      respectively. In the absence of secondary substance use, treatment was strongly
      associated with decreased odds of primary drug use (adjusted odds ratios (aORs):
      0.25, 95% CI: 0.24, 0.27, 0.07 (0.06, 0.08), and 0.07 (0.07, 0.09)) for primary
      heroin, MA, and cocaine users, respectively. Secondary substance use of any kind
      moderated these associations (0.82 (0.78, 0.87), 0.25 (0.21, 0.30) and 0.53
      (0.45, 0.61), respectively), and these findings were consistent for each type of
      secondary substance considered. Moreover, we observed different associations in
      terms of direction and magnitude between secondary substance use and primary drug
      use during off-treatment periods across substance types. CONCLUSION: This study
      demonstrates secondary substance use moderates the temporal associations between
      treatment and primary drug use among primary heroin, MA and cocaine users.
      Disparate patterns of polydrug use require careful measurement and analysis to
      inform targeted treatment for polydrug users.

PMID- 28888101
TI  - What's New in SCLC? A Review.
AB  - A few years ago the answer to the question in the title of this review would have
      been, "unfortunately not much" or even "nothing", likely eliciting knowing nods
      of agreement from oncologists. For the last 3 decades, SCLC has been notorious
      for its lack of progress, as drug after drug, over 60 of them, in fact, including
      inhibitors of VEGF, IGFR, mTOR, EGFR and HGF has failed and fallen by the wayside
      due to little or no impact on PFS or OS, while SCLC's cousin, NSCLC, has notched
      success after success with a spate of targeted treatment and immunotherapy
      regulatory approvals. However, a paradigm shift or, more appropriately, a
      'paradigm nudge' is quietly underway in extensive stage SCLC with a series of
      agents that in early clinical trials have shown the potential to 'lift the curse'
      in SCLC, heretofore referred to as "a graveyard for drug development". These
      agents, constituting the "best of what's new" in SCLC, and discussed in this
      review following a brief overview of the classification, epidemiology, prognosis
      and current treatment of SCLC, include checkpoint inhibitors, antibody-drug
      conjugates, PARP inhibitors, epigenetic inhibitor/innate immune activator, and an
      inhibitor of RNA polymerase II. Compared to NSCLC, the therapeutic options are
      still limited but with one or more successes to build momentum and drive long
      overdue R&D and clinical investment the hope is that the approval floodgates may
      finally open.

PMID- 28888100
TI  - Chk1 Inhibitor SCH900776 Effectively Potentiates the Cytotoxic Effects of
      Platinum-Based Chemotherapeutic Drugs in Human Colon Cancer Cells.
AB  - Although Chk1 kinase inhibitors are currently under clinical investigation as
      effective cancer cell sensitizers to the cytotoxic effects of numerous
      chemotherapeutics, there is still a considerable uncertainty regarding their role
      in modulation of anticancer potential of platinum-based drugs. Here we newly
      demonstrate the ability of one of the most specific Chk1 inhibitors, SCH900776
      (MK-8776), to enhance human colon cancer cell sensitivity to the cytotoxic
      effects of platinum(II) cisplatin and platinum(IV)- LA-12 complexes. The combined
      treatment with SCH900776 and cisplatin or LA-12 results in apparent increase in
      G1/S phase-related apoptosis, stimulation of mitotic slippage, and senescence of
      HCT116 cells. We further show that the cancer cell response to the drug
      combinations is significantly affected by the p21, p53, and PTEN status. In
      contrast to their wt counterparts, the p53- or p21-deficient cells treated with
      SCH900776 and cisplatin or LA-12 enter mitosis and become polyploid, and the
      senescence phenotype is strongly suppressed. While the cell death induced by
      SCH900776 and cisplatin or LA-12 is significantly delayed in the absence of p53,
      the anticancer action of the drug combinations is significantly accelerated in
      p21-deficient cells, which is associated with stimulation of apoptosis beyond
      G2/M cell cycle phase. We also show that cooperative killing action of the drug
      combinations in HCT116 cells is facilitated in the absence of PTEN. Our results
      indicate that SCH900776 may act as an important modulator of cytotoxic response
      triggered by platinum-based drugs in colon cancer cells.

PMID- 28888102
TI  - A new mechanism of resistance to ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors in a BCR-ABL1
      positive cell line.
AB  - Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) constitute the frontline treatment for chronic
      myeloid leukemia patients. Dasatinib, a second-generation TKI, was developed to
      overcome TKI resistances. However, dasatinib resistances are also described but
      remain less characterized. To mimic in vivo acquired dasatinib resistance, the
      BCR-ABL1-positive cell line K562 was transiently treated with a pharmacological
      concentration of dasatinib, for a short time in the presence of stem cell factor.
      A dasatinib resistant counterpart (K562 RES) was developed. Investigation of
      resistance mechanisms using kinase substrate arrays revealed that FYN was
      overactivated in K562 RES. The FYN inhibitor KX2-391 cooperated with dasatinib to
      block K562 RES proliferation. Cell tracking experiments showed that activated FYN
      support cell proliferation independently of BCR-ABL1 in K562 RES cells. Moreover,
      the MEK-ERK pathway was found hyper-phosphorylated in K562 RES cells even in the
      presence of dasatinib. Actually, ERK1/2 activity supported viability in K562 RES
      only in the absence of BCR-ABL1 activity. Finally, BCR-ABL1 and MEK inhibitor
      combination was sufficient to induce cell death even in non-proliferating
      resistant cells. Considering the conditions used to generate this dasatinib
      resistant cell line, such a resistance mechanism could be found in dasatinib
      treated patients. Consequently, it is valuable to know that inhibition of the MEK
      ERK1/2 axis can overcome this resistance.

PMID- 28888103
TI  - Using CRISPR-Cas systems as antimicrobials.
AB  - Although CRISPR-Cas systems naturally evolved to provide adaptive immunity in
      bacteria and archaea, Cas nucleases can be co-opted to target chromosomal
      sequences rather than invasive genetic elements. Although genome editing is the
      primary outcome of self-targeting using CRISPR-based technologies in eukaryotes,
      self-targeting by CRISPR is typically lethal in bacteria. Here, we discuss how
      DNA damage introduced by Cas nucleases in bacteria can efficiently and
      specifically lead to plasmid curing or drive cell death. Specifically, we discuss
      how various CRISPR-Cas systems can be engineered and delivered using phages or
      phagemids as vectors. These principles establish CRISPR-Cas systems as potent and
      programmable antimicrobials, and open new avenues for the development of CRISPR
      based tools for selective removal of bacterial pathogens and precise microbiome
      composition alteration.

PMID- 28888104
TI  - Effects of ultraviolet light emitting diodes (LEDs) on microbial and enzyme
      inactivation of apple juice.
AB  - In this study, the effects of Ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) on the
      inactivation of E. coli K12 (ATCC 25253), an indicator organism of E. coli
      O157:H7, and polyphneoloxidase (PPO) in cloudy apple juice (CAJ) were
      investigated. The clear (AJ) and cloudy apple juice were exposed to UV rays for
      40min by using a UV device composed of four UV-LEDs with peak emissions at 254
      and 280nm and coupled emissions as follows: 254/365, 254/405, 280/365, 280/405
      and 254/280/365/405nm. UV-LEDs at 254nm achieved 1.6+/-0.1 log10 CFU/mL
      inactivation of E. coli K12 at UV dose of 707.2mJ/cm2. The highest inactivation
      of E. coli K12 (2.0+/-0.1log10 CFU/mL and 2.0+/-0.4log10CFU/mL) was achieved when
      the cloudy apple juice was treated with both 280nm and 280/365nm UV-LEDs. For
      clear apple juice the highest inactivation 4.4log10CFU/mL obtained for E. coli
      K12 was achieved using 4 lamps emitting light at 280nm for 40min exposure time.
      For the same treatment time, the experiments using a combination of lamps
      emitting light at 280 and 365nm (2lamp/2lamp) were resulted in 3.9+/
      0.2log10CFU/mL reductions. UV-A and UV-C rays in combination showed a better
      inactivation effect on PPO than UV-C rays used separately. Residual activity of
      PPO in CAJ was reduced to 32.58% when treated with UV-LED in combination of UV-C
      (280nm) and UV-A (365nm) rays. Additionally, the total color change (DeltaE) of
      CAJ subjected to combined UV-LED irradiation at 280/365nm was the lowest compared
      to other studied processing conditions. This study provides key implications for
      the future application of UV-LEDs to fruit juice pasteurization.

PMID- 28888105
TI  - CryoEM structures of spliceosomal complexes reveal the molecular mechanism of pre
      mRNA splicing.
AB  - The spliceosome is an intricate molecular machine which catalyses the removal of
      introns from eukaryotic mRNA precursors by two trans-esterification reactions
      (branching and exon ligation) to produce mature mRNA with uninterrupted protein
      coding sequences. The structures of the spliceosome in several key states
      determined by electron cryo-microscopy have greatly advanced our understanding of
      its molecular mechanism. The catalytic RNA core is formed during the activation
      of the fully assembled B to Bact complex and remains largely unchanged throughout
      the splicing cycle. RNA helicases and step specific factors regulate docking and
      undocking of the substrates (branch site and 3' splice site) to the single RNA
      based active site to catalyse the two trans-esterification reactions.

PMID- 28888106
TI  - Stereo-vision three-dimensional reconstruction of curvilinear structures imaged
      with a TEM.
AB  - Deriving accurate three-dimensional (3-D) structural information of materials at
      the nanometre level is often crucial for understanding their properties.
      Tomography in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful technique that
      provides such information. It is however demanding and sometimes inapplicable, as
      it requires the acquisition of multiple images within a large tilt arc and hence
      prolonged exposure to electrons. In some cases, prior knowledge about the
      structure can tremendously simplify the 3-D reconstruction if incorporated
      adequately. Here, a novel algorithm is presented that is able to produce a full 3
      D reconstruction of curvilinear structures from stereo pair of TEM images
      acquired within a small tilt range that spans from only a few to tens of degrees.
      Reliability of the algorithm is demonstrated through reconstruction of a model 3
      D object from its simulated projections, and is compared with that of
      conventional tomography. This method is experimentally demonstrated for the 3-D
      visualization of dislocation arrangements in a deformed metallic micro-pillar.

PMID- 28888107
TI  - Comparison of dislocation characterization by electron channeling contrast
      imaging and cross-correlation electron backscattered diffraction.
AB  - In this work, the relative capabilities and limitations of electron channeling
      contrast imaging (ECCI) and cross-correlation electron backscattered diffraction
      (CC-EBSD) have been assessed by studying the dislocation distributions resulting
      from nanoindentation in body centered cubic Ta. Qualitative comparison reveals
      very similar dislocation distributions between the CC-EBSD mapped GNDs and the
      ECC imaged dislocations. Approximate dislocation densities determined from ECC
      images compare well to those determined by CC-EBSD. Nevertheless, close
      examination reveals subtle differences in the details of the distributions mapped
      by these two approaches. The details of the dislocation Burgers vectors and line
      directions determined by ECCI have been compared to those determined using CC
      EBSD and reveal good agreement.

PMID- 28888108
TI  - Analytical modeling of electron energy loss spectroscopy of graphene: Ab initio
      study versus extended hydrodynamic model.
AB  - We present an analytical modeling of the electron energy loss (EEL) spectroscopy
      data for free-standing graphene obtained by scanning transmission electron
      microscope. The probability density for energy loss of fast electrons traversing
      graphene under normal incidence is evaluated using an optical approximation based
      on the conductivity of graphene given in the local, i.e., frequency-dependent
      form derived by both a two-dimensional, two-fluid extended hydrodynamic (eHD)
      model and an ab initio method. We compare the results for the real and imaginary
      parts of the optical conductivity in graphene obtained by these two methods. The
      calculated probability density is directly compared with the EEL spectra from
      three independent experiments and we find very good agreement, especially in the
      case of the eHD model. Furthermore, we point out that the subtraction of the zero
      loss peak from the experimental EEL spectra has a strong influence on the
      analytical model for the EEL spectroscopy data.

PMID- 28888109
TI  - Biomechanical compensations of the trunk and lower extremities during stepping
      tasks after unilateral transtibial amputation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Lower extremity movement compensations following transtibial
      amputation are well-documented and are likely influenced by trunk posture and
      movement. However, the biomechanical compensations of the trunk and lower
      extremities, especially during high-demand tasks such as step ascent and descent,
      remain unclear. METHODS: Kinematic and kinetic data were collected during step
      ascent and descent tasks for three groups of individuals: diabetic/transtibial
      amputation, diabetic, and healthy. An ANCOVA was used to compare peak trunk, hip
      and knee joint angles and moments in the sagittal and frontal planes between
      groups. Paired t-tests were used to compare peak joint angles and moments between
      amputated and intact limbs of the diabetic/transtibial amputation group.
      FINDINGS: During step ascent and descent, the transtibial amputation group
      exhibited greater trunk forward flexion and lateral flexion compared to the other
      two groups (P<0.016), which resulted in greater low back moments and asymmetric
      loading patterns in the lower extremity joints. The diabetic group exhibited
      similar knee joint loading patterns compared to the amputation group (P<0.016),
      during step descent. INTERPRETATION: This study highlights the biomechanical
      compensations of the trunk and lower extremities in individuals with dysvascular
      transtibial amputation, by identifying low back, hip, and knee joint moment
      patterns unique to transtibial amputation during stepping tasks. In addition, the
      results suggest that some movement compensations may be confounded by the
      presence of diabetes and precede limb amputation. The increased and asymmetrical
      loading patterns identified may predispose individuals with transtibial
      amputation to the development of secondary pain conditions, such as low back pain
      or osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28888110
TI  - Association of toll-like receptor polymorphisms with susceptibility to
      chikungunya virus infection.
AB  - Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection leads to activation of innate immune response
      by triggering Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathways resulting in elevated cytokines
      and type-I interferon levels. Genetic variations of these genes may influence
      human CHIKV-susceptibility and disease progression. Present study aimed to
      identify role of TLR polymorphisms in CHIKV-susceptibility and their association
      with cytokines and clinical symptoms. This is the first study illustrating
      certain genotypes of TLR-7 and TLR-8 SNPs viz. CT(p = 0.002)]; rs3853839[GC(p <
      0.001), CC(p = 0.039)] and rs3764879[GC(p < 0.001)] were considerably associated
      with CHIKV susceptibility. Increased risk of CHIKV infection among male patients
      with CC-genotype (rs179010) (p = 0.028) and female patients with GT-genotype
      (rs5741880) (p = 0.019) was observed. Significant higher IFN-alpha (P = 0.002)
      levels among chikungunya TNF-alpha (P = 0.034) patients was reported. Chikungunya
      patients with rs179010-CC genotype showed significantly high IFN-alpha level(p =
      0.003). Thus, these TLR variants might act as potential prognostic biomarkers for
      predicting CHIKV susceptibility among uninfected individuals.

PMID- 28888112
TI  - Isolate fitness and tissue-tropism determine superinfection success.
AB  - The mechanism of cross-protection, the deliberate infection of plants with a
      "mild" virus isolate to protect against "severe" isolates, has long been a topic
      of debate. In our model system, Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), this appears to be
      genotype-specific superinfection-exclusion, suggesting a simple recipe for cross
      protection. However, this concept failed in field trials, which led us to examine
      the process of superinfection-exclusion more closely. We found that exclusion
      relies on the relative fitness of the primary versus the challenge isolates, and
      the host infected, and that significant differences in superinfection success
      could occur between isolates that differ by as few as 3 nucleotides. Furthermore,
      we found that exclusion was not uniform throughout the plant, but was tissue
      specific. These data suggest that cross-protection is not a simple like-for-like
      process but a complex interaction between the primary and challenge isolates and
      the host.

PMID- 28888111
TI  - An influenza A virus (H7N9) anti-neuraminidase monoclonal antibody protects mice
      from morbidity without interfering with the development of protective immunity to
      subsequent homologous challenge.
AB  - The emergence of A(H7N9) virus strains with resistance to neuraminidase (NA)
      inhibitors highlights a critical need to discover new countermeasures for
      treatment of A(H7N9) virus-infected patients. We previously described an anti-NA
      mAb (3c10-3) that has prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy in mice lethally
      challenged with A(H7N9) virus when delivered intraperitoneally (i.p.). Here we
      show that intrananasal (i.n.) administration of 3c10-3 protects 100% of mice from
      mortality when treated 24h post-challenge and further characterize the protective
      efficacy of 3c10-3 using a nonlethal A(H7N9) challenge model. Administration of
      3c10-3 i.p. 24h prior to challenge resulted in a significant decrease in viral
      lung titers and deep sequencing analysis indicated that treatment did not
      consistently select for viral variants in NA. Furthermore, prophylactic
      administration of 3c10-3 did not inhibit the development of protective immunity
      to subsequent homologous virus re-challenge. Taken together, 3c10-3 highlights
      the potential use of anti-NA mAb to mitigate influenza virus infection.

PMID- 28888113
TI  - Tissue-engineered human 3D model of bladder cancer for invasion study and drug
      discovery.
AB  - The tumour microenvironment is critical to both the initiation and maintenance of
      tumorigenesis. Reconstitution of the microenvironment is a major challenge for in
      vitro cancer models. Indeed, conventional 2D culture systems cannot replicate the
      complexity, diversity and dynamic nature of the tumour microenvironment. In this
      study, we have developed a 3D endotheliazed vesical equivalent by using tissue
      engineering from primary human cells in which non-invasive or invasive bladder
      cancer (BCa) cell lines, cultured as compact spheroids, were incorporated.
      Invasive BCa cells cross the basement membrane and invade the stromal compartment
      whereas non-invasive BCa cells are confined to the urothelium. Our 3D BCa model
      could be used as a reliable model for assessing drug responses, potentially
      reducing or partially replacing animal experiments, and thus should have
      applications in the identification of novel targets as well as toxicological
      evaluation of anti-cancer therapies.

PMID- 28888114
TI  - Carotid stiffness, extra-media thickness and visceral adiposity in young adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Carotid extra-media thickness (EMT) encompasses arterial
      adventitia and perivascular adipose tissue (PAT). Adventitial remodeling and PAT
      may contribute independently to functional (stiffness) and structural
      (remodeling) changes in artery wall properties. Visceral adiposity may contribute
      to PAT, thereby affecting artery stiffness. We investigated the relationships
      between carotid artery stiffness, EMT, and visceral adiposity in young, healthy
      individuals. METHODS: 135 healthy males (20 +/- 2 yr, body mass index [BMI] 24.8
      +/- 3.3 kg/m2) underwent anthropometric and vascular measures on two separate
      days. Visceral adiposity was assessed using waist circumference and sagittal
      abdominal diameter (SAD). Brachial and carotid systolic, diastolic, and pulsatile
      (PP) blood pressures were assessed using an oscillometric cuff and applanation
      tonometry, respectively. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and EMT were
      assessed using Doppler ultrasound. Carotid artery stiffness was calculated as
      beta-stiffness and calibrated to carotid pressures. RESULTS: Separate stepwise
      multiple regression models demonstrated that carotid PP (beta = 0.205) and EMT
      (beta = 0.267) accounted for 12.6% of variance in beta-stiffness, while carotid
      PP (beta = 0.195) and SAD (beta = 0.226) accounted for 10.5% of variance in EMT
      (p < 0.05). Mediation analyses revealed carotid PP partially mediated the
      relationship between a) EMT and beta-stiffness, and b) SAD and EMT (p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: Carotid PP and EMT, but not IMT, are related to carotid beta
      stiffness. Carotid PP and visceral adiposity (SAD) are related to EMT. Carotid PP
      partially mediates the association between a) EMT and carotid beta-stiffness, and
      b) SAD and EMT. Our findings suggest visceral adiposity may detrimentally affect
      subclinical markers of cardiovascular disease risk (carotid PP, EMT) and
      contribute to artery stiffness.

PMID- 28888115
TI  - Influence of a Roundup formulation on glyphosate effects on steroidogenesis and
      proliferation of bovine granulosa cells in vitro.
AB  - Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl-glycine) is a non-selective systemic herbicide
      widely used worldwide. The purpose of this study is to determine if glyphosate
      alone (GLPH) or in formulation with Roundup (G-RU) can affect granulosa cell
      proliferation and steroid production. Four experiments were conducted. In Exp. 1,
      10 and 300 MUg/mL of GLPH had no effect (P > 0.05) on cell numbers, estradiol or
      progesterone production, whereas 10 and 300 MUg/mL of G-RU dramatically decreased
      (P < 0.05) cell numbers and estradiol and progesterone production. In Exp. 2, G
      RU at 0.1 MUg/mL had no significant effect whereas G-RU at 10 MUg/mL decreased (P
      < 0.05) GC numbers, progesterone and estradiol production. In the absence of IGF1
      but presence of FSH, 1 MUg/mL of G-RU decreased (P < 0.05) estradiol production,
      whereas in the presence of IGF1 and FSH, 1 MUg/mL of G-RU increased (P < 0.05)
      cell numbers, progesterone and estradiol production. In Exp. 3, IGF1
      significantly increased cell numbers (by 2.8-fold) and estradiol (by 17.8-fold)
      and progesterone (by 6.1-fold) production. GLPH at 10 MUg/mL alone had no
      significant effect on FSH-induced (i.e., basal) or FSH plus IGF1-induced cell
      numbers, estradiol or progesterone production. However, G-RU at 10 MUg/mL
      significantly inhibited FSH plus IGF1-induced cell numbers, estradiol and
      progesterone production by 65%-91%. In Exp. 4, 48 h treatment of G-RU had no
      significant effect on viability of attached cells. In conclusion, the present
      studies demonstrate that GLPH and particularly G-RU may have the potential to
      impair reproductive function in cattle.

PMID- 28888116
TI  - Comprehensive review on toxicity of persistent organic pollutants from petroleum
      refinery waste and their degradation by microorganisms.
AB  - Control and prevention of environmental pollution has become a worldwide issue of
      concern. Aromatic hydrocarbons including benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene
      (BTEX) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are persistent organic pollutants
      (POPs), released into the environment mainly by exploration activities of
      petroleum industry. These pollutants are mutagenic, carcinogenic, immunotoxic and
      teratogenic to lower and higher forms of life i.e. microorganisms to humans.
      According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and United
      States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is
      carcinogenic in laboratory animals and humans. Aromatic hydrocarbons are highly
      lipid soluble and thus readily absorbed from environment in gastrointestinal
      tract of mammals. Treatment and remediation of petroleum refinery waste have been
      shown either to reduce or to eliminate genotoxicity of these pollutants.
      Bioremediation by using microorganisms to treat this waste is showing a promising
      technology as it is safe and cost-effective option among various technologies
      tested. The main aim of this review is to provide contemporary information on
      variety of aromatic hydrocarbons present in crude oil (with special focus to mono
      and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons), exposure routes and their adverse effects on
      humans. This review also provides a synthesis of scientific literature on
      remediation technologies available for aromatic hydrocarbons, knowledge gaps and
      future research developments in this field.

PMID- 28888117
TI  - Biotransformation, antioxidant and histopathological biomarker responses to
      contaminants in European and American yellow eels from the Gironde and St.
      Lawrence estuaries.
AB  - Since the early 1980s, populations of American (Anguilla rostrata) and European
      eels (Anguilla anguilla) have suffered a sharp decline. The causes of their
      decline are likely multifactorial and include chemical pollution. A field study
      was conducted in eight sites varying in organic and metal contamination along the
      St. Lawrence (Eastern Canada) and Gironde (France) systems to investigate the
      relationships among contaminants, biological characteristics and
      biotransformation, antioxidant and histopathological biomarkers in eels from both
      species. For A. rostrata, no major influences of persistent organic contaminants
      on biomarkers were identified. For A. anguilla, eels from the most contaminated
      site expressed higher surface of MelanoMacrophage Centers (MMCs) and eels from
      another contaminated site expressed higher amount of spleen lipofuscin pigment.
      These two histopathological biomarkers were also associated with aging. Compared
      to eels from the cleanest French site, higher hepatic catalase activity and
      density of MMC in eels from contaminated sites was related to higher
      concentration of organic (DDT and metabolites, sum of PCBs, sum of PBDEs) and
      inorganic (Hg and Cd) contaminants. In both species, a higher deposition of
      spleen hemosiderin pigment was measured in eels from the most brackish sites
      compared to eels living in freshwater environments. Our results suggest an
      association between higher hemosiderin pigment and metal contamination (As for A.
      anguilla and Pb for A. rostrata). Parasitism by A. crassus was observed in
      European eels from freshwater sites but not in eels from brackish habitats.
      Overall, contamination may pose a greater risk for the health of European
      compared to American eels.

PMID- 28888118
TI  - Electrical energy per order and current efficiency for electrochemical oxidation
      of p-chlorobenzoic acid with boron-doped diamond anode.
AB  - Electrochemical oxidation (EO) is an advanced oxidation process for water
      treatment to mineralize organic contaminants. While proven to degrade a range of
      emerging pollutants in water, less attention has been given to quantify the
      effect of operational variables such applied current density and pollutant
      concentration on efficiency and energy requirements. Particular figures of merit
      were mineralization current efficiency (MCE) and electrical energy per order
      (EEO). Linear increases of applied current exponentially decreased the MCE due to
      the enhancement of undesired parasitic reactions that consumed generated hydroxyl
      radical. EEO values ranged from 39.3 to 331.8 kW h m-3 order-1. Increasing the
      applied current also enhanced the EEO due to the transition from kinetics limited
      by current to kinetics limited by mass transfer. Further increases in current did
      not influence the removal rate, but it raised the EEO requirement. The EEO
      requirement diminished when decreasing initial pollutant loading with the
      increase of the apparent kinetic rate because of the relative availability of
      oxidant per pollutant molecule in solution at a defined current. Oxidation by
      products released were identified, and a plausible degradative pathway has been
      suggested.

PMID- 28888119
TI  - Multiple-endpoints gene alteration-based (MEGA) assay: A toxicogenomics approach
      for water quality assessment of wastewater effluents.
AB  - Wastewater effluents contain a significant number of toxic contaminants, which,
      even at low concentrations, display a wide variety of toxic actions. In this
      study, we developed a multiple-endpoints gene alteration-based (MEGA) assay, a
      real-time PCR-based transcriptomic analysis, to assess the water quality of
      wastewater effluents for human health risk assessment and management. Twenty-one
      genes from the human hepatoblastoma cell line (HepG2), covering the basic health
      relevant stress responses such as response to xenobiotics, genotoxicity, and
      cytotoxicity, were selected and incorporated into the MEGA assay. The genes
      related to the p53-mediated DNA damage response and cytochrome P450 were selected
      as markers for genotoxicity and response to xenobiotics, respectively.
      Additionally, the genes that were dose-dependently regulated by exposure to the
      wastewater effluents were chosen as markers for cytotoxicity. The alterations in
      the expression of an individual gene, induced by exposure to the wastewater
      effluents, were evaluated by real-time PCR and the results were validated by
      genotoxicity (e.g., comet assay) and cell-based cytotoxicity tests. In summary,
      the MEGA assay is a real-time PCR-based assay that targets cellular responses to
      contaminants present in wastewater effluents at the transcriptional level; it is
      rapid, cost-effective, and high-throughput and can thus complement any chemical
      analysis for water quality assessment and management.

PMID- 28888120
TI  - Impact of pyrene and cadmium co-contamination on prokaryotic community in coastal
      sediment microcosms.
AB  - Acute ecological impacts of co-contamination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
      (PAHs) and heavy metals on diversity and composition of coastal benthic
      prokaryotes were unclear. We took pyrene (Pyr) and cadmium (Cd) as the
      representatives and mimicked an eight-week exposure of moderate and high levels
      of Pyr, Cd and their mixtures. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was used to
      investigate interaction of the contaminants in temporal succession of
      prokaryotes. Generally, concentrations of Pyr and HCl-extractable Cd in the
      sediments were stable over time. Effects and interaction of Pyr and Cd on
      prokaryotic alpha-diversity were temporally- and dose-dependent with a decreasing
      trend in richness and Shannon index under various contamination regimes,
      particularly in the single-Cd contaminated groups at the early stage. Temporal
      variability and Pyr-induced pattern in prokaryotic composition were observed.
      However, Pyr and Cd showed a persistent interaction in prokaryotic composition
      after 7 days, altering successional trajectories of communities. The communities
      under Pyr contamination regardless of Cd could be at a developing stage for an
      active PAH-degrading community with appearance of a pioneer Cycloclasticus
      phylotype, persistently showing a strong correlation with Pyr level. The
      associations of phylotypes and Cd level were short-lived and weak, corresponding
      to the overall resistance of prokaryotic composition to Cd. In the high
      throughput sequencing era, using microcosm experiment, we renewed the knowledge
      about how prokaryotes vary in terms of alpha-diversity, composition and specific
      taxa in response to co-contamination of model contaminants at a temporal scale.

PMID- 28888121
TI  - Occurrence, distribution, ecological and resistance risks of antibiotics in
      surface water of finfish and shellfish aquaculture in Bangladesh.
AB  - The present study for the first time reports the occurrence, distribution,
      ecological and resistance risks of antibiotics in the surface water of freshwater
      finfish and brackish water shellfish aquaculture in Bangladesh. Among the nine
      targets, seven antibiotics were detected in finfish aquaculture, whereas four in
      shellfish aquaculture. The concentrations (ranges) and overall detection
      frequency of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) (nd-20.02 ng L-1 and 73%), trimethoprim (TMP)
      (nd-41.67 ng L-1 and 60%), tylosin (TYL) (nd-39.34 ng L-1 and 60%), sulfadiazine
      (SDZ) (nd-17.97 ng L-1 and 53%), sulfamethazine (SMT) (nd-11.71 ng L-1 and 33%),
      sulfamethizole (SMZ) (nd-10.81 ng L-1 and 40%) and penicillin G (PC_G) (nd-7.83
      ng L-1, 7%) were found in finfish aquaculture. In case of shellfish aquaculture,
      the concentrations (ranges) and overall detection frequency were for SMX (nd
      16.77 ng L-1 and 67%), TMP (nd-11.39 ng L-1 and 20%), TYL (nd-0.16 ng L-1 and
      20%) and erythromycin-H2O (ERY-H2O) (nd-3.91 ng L-1 and 20%). The present
      findings revealed that finfish aquaculture is more contaminated with the higher
      numbers and concentrations of antibiotics. The preliminary ecological and
      resistance risks assessment showed that the calculated risk quotients (RQs) were
      lower than one (RQs<1) for all the detected antibiotics in both aquaculture.
      Preliminary ecological and resistance risks assessment revealed that there were
      no adverse ecological and resistance risks, however, our study suggests that it
      is imperative to pay due attention to monitor the antibiotics contamination in
      rapid growing aquaculture sector of Bangladesh for the reduction of potential
      risks of antibiotics on aquatic organisms as well as human health.

PMID- 28888122
TI  - Interferon-tau induced gene expression in bovine hepatocytes during early
      pregnancy.
AB  - Interferon-tau (IFNtau) is the conceptus derived specific early pregnancy signal
      in bovidae. Locally, IFNtau induces an IFNtau specific gene expression (ISG) in
      endometrial cells and by this it averts luteolysis of the corpus luteum (CL) by
      suppressing prostaglandin production. Moreover, it was shown that IFNtau also
      induces ISG in the liver in pregnant sheep and in liver biopsies from Holstein
      Friesian heifers on Day 18 of pregnancy. The objective of the present study was
      to confirm increased hepatic ISG in vivo on Day 18 of pregnancy and to prove if
      hepatocytes and not non-parenchymal cells react to IFNtau by using
      immunohistochemistry and primary bovine hepatocytes stimulated in vitro with
      recombinant bovine IFNtau. For the animal experiment, Angus heifers (n = 12) were
      cycle synchronized and the Day of ovulation (Day 0) was defined by ovarian
      ultrasonography and verified by progesterone < 0.1 ng/ml. Heifers were
      artificially inseminated either with sperm (n = 9) or with seminal plasma (mock
      control, n = 3). Early pregnancy was defined and detected by progesterone and
      pregnancy associated glycoprotein (PAG) concentration in blood before and after
      induced luteolysis by a PGF-injection on Day 21 in n = 3 inseminated heifers. A
      liver biopsy was taken on Day 18 for the analysis of gene (ISG 15, MX 1, MX 2 and
      OAS 1) and protein (OAS1) expression using qPCR and immunohistochemistry,
      respectively. Primary bovine hepatocytes were collected from bull liver using a
      two-step collagenase perfusion, cultured short-term in a monolayer and stimulated
      with IFNtau. Thereafter, gene expression was measured by qPCR. In liver biopsies
      obtained from pregnant heifers ISG was numerically higher expressed compared to
      biopsies from non-pregnant heifers. Furthermore, the OAS 1 protein expression was
      localized in hepatocytes on Day 18 of pregnancy. In vitro, primary bovine
      hepatocytes showed an increased mRNA expression of ISG after IFNtau stimulation.
      In conclusion, the findings confirm that IFNtau induces ISG in the parenchymal
      part of the liver in early pregnancy of cattle.

PMID- 28888123
TI  - The effect of imidazolium based ionic liquids on wheat and barley germination and
      growth: Influence of length and oxygen functionalization of alkyl side chain.
AB  - In this work five different imidazolium based ionic liquids, namely: 1-(2
      oxybutyl)-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C2OC2mIm][Cl]; 1-(2-oxypropyl)-3
      methylimidazolium chloride, [C1OC2mIm][Cl]; 1-(3-hydroxypropyl)-3
      ethylimidazolium chloride, [OHC3eIm][Cl]; 1-(3-hydroxypropyl)-3-methylimidazolium
      chloride, [OHC3mIm][Cl]; 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium chloride,
      [OHC2mIm][Cl], together with commercial 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride,
      [bmim][Cl] and synthesized protic imidazolium chloride, [Im][Cl], were prepared
      and their toxicity examined towards wheat and barley germination and growth.
      Introduction of the polar groups (in the form of hydroxyde and/or ether group) in
      the alkyl side chain of the imidazolium cation and their influence on the
      reduction of the ionic liquid's toxicity is demonstrated. The results indicate
      that toxicity of oxygen functionalized ILs is significantly lower against wheat
      comparing to non-functionalized analogues. In the case of barley, influence on
      germination follow the same trend as in the case of wheat, but for seedlings
      growth different trend is observed with more pronounced toxicity of ether
      functionalized ILs. From these results it was also shown that alkylation in the
      position N-3 atom of the imidazole significantly reduces toxicity of cation.

PMID- 28888124
TI  - Sperm viability assessment in marine invertebrates by fluorescent staining and
      spectrofluorimetry: A promising tool for assessing marine pollution impact.
AB  - The viability of spermatozoa is a crucial parameter to evaluate their quality
      that is an important issue in ecotoxicological studies. Here, a new method has
      been developed to rapidly determine the viability of spermatozoa in three marine
      invertebrates: the ascidian Ciona intestinalis, the sea urchin Paracentrotus
      lividus and the mollusc Mytilus galloprovincialis. This method employed the dual
      DNA fluorescent staining coupled with spectrofluorimetric analysis. The dual
      fluorescent staining used the SYBR-14 stained live spermatozoa and propidium
      iodide stained degenerated cells that had lost membrane integrity. Stain uptake
      was assessed by confocal microscopy and then the percentage of live and dead
      spermatozoa was quantified by spectrofluorimetric analysis. The microscopic
      examination revealed three populations of spermatozoa: living-SYBR-14 stained,
      dead-PI stained, and dying-doubly stained spermatozoa. The fluorescence emission
      peak values recorded in a spectrofluorimeter provide the portion of live and dead
      spermatozoa showing a significant negative correlation. The stain combination was
      further validated using known ratios of live and dead spermatozoa. The present
      study demonstrated that the dual DNA staining with SYBR-14 and propidium iodide
      was effective in assessing viability of spermatozoa in marine invertebrates and
      that spectrofluorimetric analysis can be successfully employed to evaluate the
      percentage of live and dead spermatozoa. The method develop herein is simple,
      accurate, rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective, so it could be a useful tool by
      which marine pollutants may be screened for spermiotoxicity.

PMID- 28888125
TI  - Interactive effects of microcystin and ammonia on the reproductive performance
      and phenotypic traits of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus.
AB  - Elevated microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and ammonia (NH3-N) concentrations co-occur
      during the degradation of Microcystis blooms, and are toxic to aquatic organisms.
      The freshwater rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus, was exposed to mixtures of MC-LR
      (0, 10, 30, and 100ugL-1) and NH3-N (0, 270, and 540ugL-1) to assess the combined
      effects of the two toxicants on reproductive performance and phenotype traits.
      Single solutions of MC-LR (100ugL-1) and NH3-N (540ugL-1) had negative effects on
      rotifer reproductive timing and fecundity. Pre- and post-reproductive periods
      fluctuated with MC-LR and NH3-N concentrations, while reproductive period and
      total offspring per female were reduced in mixtures of MC-LR and NH3-N (p <
      0.05). Grazing rate of rotifers decreased with grazing time and concentrations of
      the two toxicants (p < 0.001). MC-LR in combination with NH3-N had negative
      effects on swimming speed and body length but positively stimulated
      posterolateral spine development (p < 0.001). MC-LR and NH3-N had synergetic
      interactive effects on pre-reproductive period, reproductive period, total
      offspring per female, grazing rate, swimming speed, and body length (p < 0.05).
      In contrast, these effects were antagonistic on post-reproductive period and
      posterolateral spine length (p > 0.05). These results indicate that MC-LR and NH3
      N act synergistically and antagonistically in causing toxicity to B. calyciflorus
      regarding reproductive performance and the formation of defensive phenotypes.

PMID- 28888126
TI  - Rural-urban disparities in unmet long-term care needs in China: The role of the
      hukou status.
AB  - This article studies rural-urban disparities in unmet long-term care (LTC) needs
      in China. Firstly, it investigates the prevalence of unmet LTC needs for three
      populations which differ according to the extent of LTC needs. Secondly, it
      examines the impact of having rural or urban hukou registration status and rural
      or urban residence. The analysis is based on the China Health and Retirement
      Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2013. The broadly, intermediately and narrowly
      defined LTC population comprises, respectively, 3,682, 1002 and 446 functionally
      disabled people aged 45 and older. The role of hukou status and rural/urban
      residence on unmet needs are examined by applying four logistic regression models
      for each population. We find that rural hukou holders are significantly more
      likely to have unmet needs in all three populations regardless of their
      residency. With narrower definitions of the population in need of care, the
      effects of rural hukou status on unmet needs strengthen. In contrast to earlier
      studies, our results indicate that it is hukou status rather than place of
      residence which exacerbates rural-urban disparities in unmet LTC needs. Reducing
      unmet LTC needs and existing rural-urban disparities therefore requires not only
      more universal LTC coverage, but also a reduction of the specific access barriers
      arising from the hukou system.

PMID- 28888127
TI  - Environmental injustice and sexual minority health disparities: A national study
      of inequitable health risks from air pollution among same-sex partners.
AB  - Air pollution is deleterious to human health, and numerous studies have
      documented racial and socioeconomic inequities in air pollution exposures.
      Despite the marginalized status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
      populations, no national studies have examined if they experience inequitable
      exposures to air pollution. This cross-sectional study investigated inequities in
      the exposure of same-sex partner households to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in
      the US. We examined cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs across 71,207 census
      tracts using National Air Toxics Assessment and US Census data. We calculated
      population-weighted mean cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs for same-sex
      male, same-sex female and heterosexual partner households. We used generalized
      estimating equations (GEEs) to examine multivariate associations between
      sociodemographics and health risks from HAPs, while focusing on inequities based
      on the tract composition of same-sex, same-sex male and same-sex female partners.
      We found that mean cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs for same-sex partners
      are 12.3% and 23.8% greater, respectively, than for heterosexual partners. GEEs
      adjusting for racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status, population density, urban
      location, and geographic clustering show that living in census tracts with high
      (vs. low) proportions of same-sex partners is associated with significantly
      greater cancer and respiratory risks from HAPs, and that living in same-sex male
      partner enclaves is associated with greater risks than living in same-sex female
      partner enclaves. Results suggest that some health disparities experienced by
      LGBT populations (e.g. cancer, asthma) may be compounded by environmental
      exposures. Findings highlight the need to extend the conceptual framework for
      explaining LGBT health disparities beyond psycho-behavioral mechanisms
      translating social stress into illness to include environmental mechanisms.
      Because psycho-behavioral and environmental factors may together exacerbate
      health disparities, we call for a shift toward interdisciplinary research on LGBT
      health that takes into account cumulative risks, including the role of
      environmental exposures.

PMID- 28888128
TI  - When knowledge activated from memory intrudes on probabilistic inferences from
      description - the case of stereotypes.
AB  - To make decisions in probabilistic inference tasks, individuals integrate
      relevant information partly in an automatic manner. Thereby, potentially
      irrelevant stimuli that are additionally presented can intrude on the decision
      process (e.g., Sollner, Broder, Glockner, & Betsch, 2014). We investigate whether
      such an intrusion effect can also be caused by potentially irrelevant or even
      misleading knowledge activated from memory. In four studies that combine a
      standard information board paradigm from decision research with a standard
      manipulation from social psychology, we investigate the case of stereotypes and
      demonstrate that stereotype knowledge can yield intrusion biases in probabilistic
      inferences from description. The magnitude of these biases increases with
      stereotype accessibility and decreases with a clarification of the rational
      solution.

PMID- 28888130
TI  - Chiral supramolecular order revealed during the formation of calf thymus and
      phage DNA crystals.
AB  - The control of DNA packaging has been reported to be dependent on an ordered
      liquid-crystalline state. However, the textural characteristics that are typical
      of crystals and that resemble mesophases have not been reported for highly
      polymerized or even shorter types of DNA filaments under in vitro conditions that
      favor crystallization. Because DNA crystals are expected to exhibit particular
      textural optical anisotropies, pure and highly polymerized calf thymus DNA and
      simpler lambda phage DNA were crystallized from solution drops and were analyzed
      using high-performance polarization microscopy with and without differential
      interference contrast (DIC) optics. Both types of DNA formed crystals that
      exhibited chiral supramolecular textures resembling the twist-grain boundary
      (TGB) columnar mesophases described for liquid crystals and exhibited intrinsic
      negative birefringence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
      observation using polarization/interference optics of pure DNA crystals that have
      TGB columnar mesophase-like textural characteristics. A comparison of the
      crystals formed from the highly polymerized calf thymus DNA and those formed from
      the shorter phage DNA strands revealed textural differences. Compared to the
      phage DNA crystals, the crystals of highly polymerized thymus DNA exhibited a
      more intertwisted columnar distribution and a fibrous texture between their
      columnar structures. In addition, a form birefringence phenomenon was detected
      only in the thymus DNA crystals. These characteristics are presumed to reflect
      the higher level of supramolecular order, self-assembly and chirality in highly
      polymerized calf thymus DNA crystals relative to that of crystals formed from the
      simpler, shorter, lambda phage DNA. The higher-order supramolecular organization
      revealed here for in vitro DNA preparations raises the possibility that this
      structure could also occur, possibly to a smaller degree, during DNA self
      aggregation under specific in vivo conditions. Whether the DNA crystal properties
      presently described play a role in the establishment of higher-order levels of
      hierarchical chromatin structure and consequently in chromatin physiology, should
      be further investigated.

PMID- 28888129
TI  - Leveraging blood and tissue CD4+ T cell heterogeneity at the single cell level to
      identify mechanisms of disease in rheumatoid arthritis.
AB  - CD4+ T cells have been long known to play an important role in the pathogenesis
      of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the specific cell populations and states that
      drive the disease have been challenging to identify with low dimensional single
      cell data and bulk assays. The advent of high dimensional single cell
      technologies-like single cell RNA-seq or mass cytometry-has offered promise to
      defining key populations, but brings new methodological and statistical
      challenges. Recent single cell profiling studies have revealed a broad diversity
      of cell types among CD4+ T cells, identifying novel populations that are expanded
      or altered in RA. Here, we will review recent findings on CD4+ T cell
      heterogeneity and RA that have come from single cell profiling studies and
      discuss the best practices for conducting these studies.

PMID- 28888131
TI  - Health of newly arrived immigrants in Canada and the United States: Differential
      selection on health.
AB  - Canada and the U.S. are two major immigrant-receiving countries characterized by
      different immigration policies and health care systems. The present study
      examines whether immigrant health selection, or the "healthy immigrant effect",
      differs by destination and what factors may account for differences in immigrant
      health selection. We use 12 years of U.S. National Health Interview Survey and
      Canadian Community Health Survey data to compare the risks of overweight/obesity
      and chronic health conditions among new immigrants in the two countries. Results
      suggest a more positive health selection of immigrants to Canada than the U.S.
      Specifically, newly arrived U.S. immigrants are more likely to be overweight or
      obese and have serious chronic health conditions than their Canadian
      counterparts. The difference in overweight/obesity was explained by differences
      in source regions and educational levels of immigrants across the two countries.
      But this is not the case for serious chronic conditions. These results suggest
      that immigration-related policies can potentially shape immigrant health
      selection.

PMID- 28888132
TI  - Entropy factor for randomness quantification in neuronal data.
AB  - A novel measure of neural spike train randomness, an entropy factor, is proposed.
      It is based on the Shannon entropy of the number of spikes in a time window and
      can be seen as an analogy to the Fano factor. Theoretical properties of the new
      measure are studied for equilibrium renewal processes and further illustrated on
      gamma and inverse Gaussian probability distributions of interspike intervals.
      Finally, the entropy factor is evaluated from the experimental records of
      spontaneous activity in macaque primary visual cortex and compared to its
      theoretical behavior deduced for the renewal process models. Both theoretical and
      experimental results show substantial differences between the Fano and entropy
      factors. Rather paradoxically, an increase in the variability of spike count is
      often accompanied by an increase of its predictability, as evidenced by the
      entropy factor.

PMID- 28888134
TI  - Organizations of food redistribution and rescue.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Food insecurity affects 13.4% of the USA population, despite the fact
      that 30-40% of all food is deposited in a landfill. Food rescue nutrition is the
      process of redistribution of surplus food to the impoverished. The aim of this
      study is to document the extent of involvement of organizations in food rescue
      nutrition. STUDY DESIGN: In this cross-sectional study, a survey about
      organizations involved in food rescue nutrition was developed, validated, and
      then tested. METHOD: Directors of 100 organizations involved in food rescue
      nutrition from eight Southwestern States in the USA participated in this
      research. RESULTS: These organizations provided an average of 2 million kg of
      food to more than 40,000 clients each month. Food assistance programs had an
      average of eight workers and 3081 volunteers. In addition to food, these
      organizations provided other services such as clothing, clinical, and childcare.
      The agencies encountered several challenges, including lack of resources that
      resulted in reducing food portions and turning away clients. CONCLUSIONS: The
      extent of involvement of community-based programs in food rescue nutrition was
      strong in eight Southwestern states in the USA. Organizations involved in food
      redistribution helped alleviate food insecurity in their clients. Sustainability
      of these charitable networks was dependent on availability of resources and
      sufficient volunteers. Health professionals should encourage these organizations
      by providing support through donations of time, money, and/or food.

PMID- 28888133
TI  - Rhesus monkeys for a nonhuman primate model of cytomegalovirus infections.
AB  - Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the leading opportunistic viral infection in
      solid organ transplant patients and is the most common congenitally transmitted
      pathogen worldwide. Despite the significant burden of disease HCMV causes in
      immunosuppressed patients and infected newborns, there are no licensed
      preventative vaccines or effective immunotherapeutic treatments for HCMV, largely
      due to our incomplete understanding of the immune correlates of protection
      against HCMV infection and disease. Though CMV species-specificity imposes an
      additional challenge in defining a suitable animal model for HCMV, nonhuman
      primate (NHP) CMVs are the most genetically related to HCMV. In this review, we
      discuss the advantages and applicability of rhesus monkey models for studying
      HCMV infections and pathogenesis and ultimately informing vaccine development.

PMID- 28888135
TI  - STRSeq: A catalog of sequence diversity at human identification Short Tandem
      Repeat loci.
AB  - The STR Sequencing Project (STRSeq) was initiated to facilitate the description
      of sequence-based alleles at the Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci targeted in human
      identification assays. This international collaborative effort, which has been
      endorsed by the ISFG DNA Commission, provides a framework for communication among
      laboratories. The initial data used to populate the project are the aggregate
      alleles observed in targeted sequencing studies across four laboratories:
      National Institute of Standards and Technology (N=1786), Kings College London
      (N=1043), University of North Texas Health Sciences Center (N=839), and
      University of Santiago de Compostela (N=944), for a total of 4612 individuals.
      STRSeq data are maintained as GenBank records at the U.S. National Center for
      Biotechnology Information (NCBI), which participates in a daily data exchange
      with the DNA DataBank of Japan (DDBJ) and the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA).
      Each GenBank record contains the observed sequence of a STR region, annotation
      ("bracketing") of the repeat region and flanking region polymorphisms,
      information regarding the sequencing assay and data quality, and backward
      compatible length-based allele designation. STRSeq GenBank records are organized
      within a BioProject at NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/380127),
      which is sub-divided into: commonly used autosomal STRs, alternate autosomal
      STRs, Y-chromosomal STRs, and X-chromosomal STRs. Each of these categories is
      further divided into locus-specific BioProjects. The BioProject hierarchy
      facilitates access to the GenBank records by browsing, BLAST searching, or ftp
      download. Future plans include user interface tools at strseq.nist.gov, a pathway
      for submission of additional allele records by laboratories performing population
      sample sequencing and interaction with the STRidER web portal for quality control
      (http://strider.online).

PMID- 28888136
TI  - Activating attachment representations during memory retrieval modulates intrusive
      traumatic memories.
AB  - Although priming mental representations of attachment security reduces arousal,
      research has not examined the effect of attachment on the retrieval of
      emotionally arousing memories. This study investigated the effect of priming
      attachment security on the retrieval of emotional memories. Seventy-five
      participants viewed negative and neutral images, and two days later received
      either an attachment prime or a control prime immediately prior to free recall of
      the images. Two days later, participants reported how frequently they experienced
      intrusions of the negative images. The attachment group had less distress, and
      reported fewer subsequent intrusions than the control group. Attachment style
      moderated these effects such that individuals with an avoidant attachment style
      were not impacted by the attachment prime. These findings suggest that priming
      attachment security decreases distress during memory reactivation, and this may
      reduce subsequent intrusive memories.

PMID- 28888137
TI  - Independent self-construal mediates the association between CYP19A1 gene variant
      and subjective well-being.
AB  - Testosterone and estrogen are involved in self-related behavioral dispositions
      and experiences of subjective well-being. In this study, we investigated to what
      extent the aromatase (CYP19A1) gene, which encodes an enzyme in converting
      testosterone into estrogen, contributes to subjective well-being and in another
      self-related disposition: independent and interdependent self-construal. In study
      1, a meta-analysis showed that the GG genotype of CYP19A1 (a G/A substitution at
      Val80, rs700518) was associated with higher testosterone and lower estradiol. In
      study 2, an empirical study of individuals with the GG (n=115), AG (n=286) and AA
      (n=193) genotypes indicated that individuals with the GG genotype exhibited
      higher independent self-construal and higher subjective well-being. The
      association between the GG genotype of CYP19A1 Val80 and subjective well-being
      was mediated by the independent self-construal. Our findings reinforce the idea
      that personality traits such as independent self-construal explain the link
      between genetic variant and subjective well-being.

PMID- 28888138
TI  - Personality disorder is an excess risk factor for physical multimorbidity among
      women with mental state disorders.
AB  - We examined whether mental state disorders (lifetime mood, anxiety, eating,
      substance misuse) with comorbid personality disorder are associated with physical
      multimorbidity in a population-based sample of women. Mental state and
      personality disorders were assessed using semi-structured diagnostic interviews.
      Clinical measures were performed and medical conditions, medication use and
      lifestyle factors were documented by questionnaire. Mental state disorders were
      associated with higher odds of physical multimorbidity; risk was especially high
      for those with comorbid personality disorder. These findings suggest that mental
      state and physical comorbidity might be worsened by the additional comorbidity of
      personality disorder.

PMID- 28888140
TI  - Difficult extubation of an electromyographic endotracheal tube in an underweight
      patient.

PMID- 28888139
TI  - TET proteins in natural and induced differentiation.
AB  - The ten-eleven-translocation (TET) proteins oxidize 5-methylcytosine in DNA.
      Alterations in TET protein function have been linked to cancer, but TETs have
      also been observed to influence many cell differentiation processes. Here we
      review recent work assessing the contribution of TET proteins to natural and
      induced differentiation. Altogether these analyses have helped characterize how
      TETs and their enzymatic products influence DNA methylation patterns, regulatory
      element activity, DNA binding protein specificity and gene expression.

PMID- 28888141
TI  - Chest wall rigidity due to high dose sugammadex.

PMID- 28888142
TI  - Interrelationships between electrical, mechanical and hydration properties of
      cortical bone.
AB  - Interrelationship between electrical and mechanical properties of cortical bone
      and the role of bone composition in this interrelationship are not
      comprehensively investigated to date. This study aimed to investigate
      associations of electrical properties (i.e., specific impedance, dielectric
      constant, and conductivity) with mechanical properties (i.e., toughness, strength
      and elastic modulus) of wet and sequentially dehydrated cortical bone. Bovine
      cortical bone samples (N = 24) were subjected to three-point bending test. A
      sequential heat treatment protocol ensued to tease out contributions of unbound
      water and bound water. Demineralization was performed to understand contributions
      of organic matrix and the mineral phase to the electrical properties of cortical
      bone. Raman-spectroscopy based water measurement was used to investigate
      involvement of collagen- and mineral-bound water in the electrical properties.
      Our results showed statistically significant correlations between electrical and
      mechanical properties of cortical bone. Toughness and ultimate strength were
      negatively correlated with impedance and positively correlated with conductivity
      and dielectric constant. The highest correlations between electrical and
      mechanical properties of cortical bone were typically found at the frequencies of
      0.2, 0.5 and 1MHz. The electrical properties of bone changed significantly as a
      result of sequential dehydration, indicating that unbound and bound water
      compartments are the key determinants of the electrical properties. Comparison of
      porosity matched bone samples with high and low amount of bound water showed that
      bound water compartments may have an independent role in determining electrical
      properties of cortical bone. Furthermore, the results indicated that collagen and
      mineral-bound water may contribute differentially to the electrical properties of
      a bone. In the overall, our results suggest that electrical properties of
      cortical bone may be used to assess bone toughness and strength, and also
      underline the necessity for developing techniques to measure these electrical
      properties in vivo.

PMID- 28888143
TI  - Synthetic zwitterionic polysaccharides.
AB  - Zwitterionic polysaccharides (ZPSs) are a unique class of polysaccharides that
      are capable of eliciting a T-cell response after being processed by antigen
      presenting cells and presented on MHC II molecules. In addition, they have also
      been shown to be potent stimulators of the innate arm of the immune system. To
      unravel the molecular details of their remarkable immunological activity, various
      synthetic approaches to assemble fragments towards these polysaccharides have
      been reported. This review describes these efforts, illustrating the immense
      challenges presented by these inspiring structures.

PMID- 28888144
TI  - Previously undescribed fridooleanenes and oxygenated labdanes from the brown
      seaweed Sargassum wightii and their protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B inhibitory
      activity.
AB  - Previously undescribed fridooleanene triterpenoids 2alpha-hydroxy-(28,29)-frido
      olean-12(13), 21(22)-dien-20-propyl-21-hex-4'(Z)-enoate, 2alpha-hydroxy-(28,29)
      frido-olean-12(13), 21(22)-dien-20-prop-2(E)-en-21-butanoate and oxygenated
      labdane diterpenoids 2alpha-hydroxy-8(17), (12E), 14-labdatriene, 3beta, 6beta,
      13alpha-tri hydroxy 8(17), 12E, 14-labdatriene were purified from the ethyl
      acetate-methanol and dichloromethane fractions of the air-dried thalli of
      Sargassum wightii (Sargassaceae), a brown seaweed collected from the Gulf-of
      Mannar of Penninsular India. Inhibitory potential of Delta12 oleanenes towards
      protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B, the critical regulator of insulin-receptor
      activity were found to be significantly greater (IC50 0.1 * 10-2 and 0.09 * 10-2
      mg/mL, respectively) than the standard sodium metavanadate (IC50 0.31 * 10-2
      mg/mL). Fridooleanene triterpenoids displayed greater antioxidant activities
      (IC50DPPH 0.16-0.18 mg/mL) than the commercially available antioxidants,
      butylated hydroxytoluene and alpha-tocopherol (IC50DPPH 0.25 and 0.63 mg/mL,
      respectively). In general, the oxygenated labdane diterpenoids displayed
      significantly lesser antioxidant and tyrosine phosphatase-1B inhibitory
      properties than those exhibited by the fridooleanenes. Bioactivities of the
      titled compounds were primarily determined by the electronic and lipophilic
      parameters and not by the steric descriptors. Molecular docking simulations and
      kinetic studies were employed to describe the tyrosine phosphatase-1B inhibitory
      mechanism. The previously undescribed fridooleanene triterpenoids might be used
      as potential anti-hyperglycaemic pharmacophore leads to reduce the risk of
      elevated postprandial glucose levels.

PMID- 28888145
TI  - NMR-based identification of the major bioactive molecules from an Italian
      cultivar of Lycium barbarum.
AB  - Lycium barbarum (Solanaceae), long known to the traditional Chinese medicine
      because of its many health-promoting effects, has of late spread widely across
      the Western hemisphere, mainly on account of the nutritional richness in
      vitamins, minerals and antioxidant metabolites of its fruits. Data on bioactive
      metabolites from fruits and leaves, which are commonly consumed in soups and
      salads, are scarce and sometimes even contradictory. By means of NMR, the present
      study identified the specialised products contained in an Italian cultivar of L.
      barbarum. Kaempeferol, caffeic acid, 3,4,5-trihydroxycinnamic acid and 5
      hydroxyferulic acid were found in fresh fruits; rutin and chlorogenic acid were
      detected in leaves and flowers; also, a previously undescribed N,N
      dicaffeoylspermidine derivative was identified in flowers, while N
      feruloyltyramine derivatives, for which interesting anti-inflammatory properties
      have been reported, turned out to be the major bioactive molecules in stems. The
      plethora of the detected bioactive molecules amplifies the nutraceutical value of
      berries and leaves and prompts the exploitation of L. barbarum flowers and pruned
      stems as sources of beneficial compounds.

PMID- 28888146
TI  - Is there much discrepancy between glycated hemoglobin and glycated albumin?

PMID- 28888147
TI  - Overweight, hyperglycemia and tobacco use are modifiable risk factors for onset
      of retinopathy 9 and 17years after the diagnosis of diabetes - A retrospective
      observational nation-wide cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to estimate the risk for diabetic
      retinopathy (DR) and to identify risk factors. We investigated a nationwide
      population-based cohort with diabetes diagnosed at age 15-34years. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Of 794 patients registered 1987-1988 in the Diabetes Incidence Study in
      Sweden (DISS) 444 (56%) patients with retinal photos available for classification
      of retinopathy participated in a follow-up study 15-19 (median 17) years after
      diagnosis. Mean age was 42.3+/-5.7years, BMI 26.1+/-4.1kg/m2, 62% were male and
      91% had type 1 diabetes. A sub-study was performed in 367 patients with retinal
      photos from both the 9 and 17year follow up and the risk for development of
      retinopathy between 9 and 17years of follow up was calculated. RESULTS: After
      median 17years 324/444 (73%, 67% of T1D and 71% of T2D), had developed any DR but
      only 5.4% proliferative DR. Male sex increased the risk of developing retinopathy
      (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2-2.9). In the sub-study obesity (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.04-1.4),
      hyperglycemia (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.6-3.8) and tobacco use (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.1-7.3)
      predicted onset of retinopathy between 9 and 17years after diagnosis of diabetes.
      CONCLUSION: The number of patients with severe retinopathy after 17years of
      diabetes disease was small. The risk of developing retinopathy with onset between
      9 and 17years after diagnosis of diabetes was strongly associated to modifiable
      risk factors such as glycemic control, obesity and tobacco use.

PMID- 28888148
TI  - Hypoglycemia awareness among insulin-treated patients with diabetes in Malaysia:
      A cohort subanalysis of the HAT study.
AB  - AIMS: The present Malaysian cohort analysis determined the prevalence of
      hypoglycemia among patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) or type 2
      diabetes mellitus (T2DM) attending primary care- or hospital-based diabetes
      clinics in Malaysia and their awareness of the symptoms of hypoglycemia. METHODS:
      The Hypoglycemia Assessment Tool (HAT) study was a non-interventional, 6-month
      retrospective and 4-week prospective analysis of hypoglycemic events in 24
      countries, using self-assessment questionnaires and diaries among patients with
      T1DM/T2DM aged >=18years, using insulin for >12months. This report focuses on
      prospective data, as they are less prone to recall bias. RESULTS: There were 1153
      participants in the Malaysian cohort (114 T1DM; 1039 T2DM). In the prospective
      period, 50.4% and 33.4% of patients reported >=1 hypoglycemic events, with
      estimated rates of 20.3 and 13.1 events per patient-year of exposure in patients
      with T1DM and T2DM, respectively. 24.8% and 16.1% of patients with T1DM or T2DM,
      respectively, reported >=1 nocturnal hypoglycemic event. The majority of patients
      (96.5%, T1DM; 91.8%, T2DM) knew what hypoglycemia was prior to the study.
      Impaired awareness was present in 48.0% (T1DM) and 36.9% (T2DM) of patients. In
      the prospective period, 50% of patients with T1DM or T2DM consulted a doctor or
      nurse following a hypoglycemia episode. CONCLUSIONS: Half of patients with T1DM
      and a third of patients with T2DM reported >=1 hypoglycemic event during the
      prospective period. Although the majority of patients knew the typical features
      of hypoglycemia, many reported impaired ability to recognize symptoms in real
      life. The present findings highlight the importance of patient education and
      physician awareness in dealing with hypoglycemia, in particular the burden of
      hypoglycemic unawareness. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: This trial was registered at
      www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01696266 on 26 September 2012.

PMID- 28888149
TI  - The impact of alcohol policies on alcohol-attributable diseases in Taiwan-A
      population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Taiwan has some of the strictest alcohol-related driving laws in the
      world. However, its laws continue to be toughened to reduce the ever-increasing
      social cost of alcohol-related harm. AIM: This study assumes that alcohol-related
      driving laws show a spillover effect such that behavioral changes originally
      meant to apply behind the wheel come to affect drinking behavior in other
      contexts. The effects of alcohol driving laws and taxes on alcohol-related
      morbidity are assessed; incidence rates of alcohol-attributable diseases (AAD)
      serve as our measure of morbidity. METHODS: Monthly incidence rates of alcohol
      attributable diseases were calculated with data from the National Health
      Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) from 1996 to 2011. These rates were then
      submitted to intervention analyses using Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated
      Moving Average models (ARIMA) with multivariate adaptive regression splines
      (MARS). ARIMA is well-suited to time series analysis while MARS helps fit the
      regression model to the cubic curvature form of the irregular AAD incidence rates
      of hospitalization (AIRH). RESULTS: Alcoholic liver disease, alcohol abuse and
      dependence syndrome, and alcohol psychoses were the most common AADs in Taiwan.
      Compared to women, men had a higher incidence of AADs and their AIRH were more
      responsive to changes in the laws governing permissible blood alcohol. The
      adoption of tougher blood alcohol content (BAC) laws had significant effects on
      AADs, controlling for overall consumption of alcoholic beverages. CONCLUSION:
      Blood alcohol level laws and alcohol taxation effectively reduced alcohol
      attributable morbidities with the exception of alcohol dependence and abuse, a
      disease to which middle-aged, lower income people are particularly susceptible.
      Attention should be focused on this cohort to protect this vulnerable population.

PMID- 28888150
TI  - Gender differences in trajectories of alcohol use from ages 13 to 33 across
      Latina/o ethnic groups.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Research examining alcohol use trajectories among Latina/os is
      scarce. Further, prior findings on alcohol use by ethnic group and gender is
      mixed. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a.) to examine developmental
      trajectories for two types of alcohol (drunkenness and heavy drinking) use across
      four Latina/o ethnic groups (Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Central/South American, and
      Mexican Americans) and, (b.) to examine the role of gender and ethnicity in
      developmental trajectories of drunkenness and heavy drinking among Latina/os.
      METHODS: Data were drawn from Waves I-IV of the National Longitudinal Study of
      Adolescent to Adult Health. The sample consisted of 1670 Latina/os that were
      followed from adolescence into adulthood. Multi-level logistic regression models
      were used to estimate drunkenness and heavy drinking trajectories and
      trajectories by gender. RESULTS: indicate that, for all four ethnic groups
      examined, the probability of drunkenness and heavy drinking gradually increased
      in adolescence, peaked in "emerging adulthood", and decreased as they
      transitioned into adulthood. Findings also show divergent age trajectories by
      gender, but patterns varied across ethnicity and alcohol use outcome.
      CONCLUSIONS: Key findings from this study demonstrate that among Latina/os, there
      are critical developmental periods for reported drunkenness and heavy drinking in
      the last 12 months, and that ethnicity and gender play substantial roles in the
      development of hazardous alcohol use over the life course.

PMID- 28888151
TI  - Evaluation of the AC-OK mental health and substance abuse screening measure in an
      international sample of Latino immigrants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early detection and intervention in primary care is integral to
      behavioral health. Valid, practical screening assessments are scarce,
      particularly for non-English speaking populations. We address this need by
      evaluating the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the AC-OK Screen
      for Co-occurring Disorders for first and second generation immigrant Latinos in
      Massachusetts, USA, and Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. METHODS: 567 Latino
      participants were recruited in waiting areas of clinics or by referral from
      Primary Care, Mental Health, Substance Use, and HIV Treatment Clinics, as well as
      Community Agencies. We use confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the factor
      structure, correlation analysis to examine concurrent and discriminant validity,
      and receiver operating curves (ROC) to determine the ability of the AC-OK to
      approximate a composite of established instruments designed to measure
      depression, generalized anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms,
      alcohol, and drugs (including benzodiazepines) as external criteria. RESULTS: The
      original two factor structure was replicated in samples of Latino respondents in
      the US and Spain. Correlations with other measures followed the expected pattern.
      In both the US and Spain, ROC analyses suggested that the AC-OK scale was an
      adequate approximation to other specific measures of mental health (ROC=0.90) and
      substance abuse problems (ROC=0.83). CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the AC
      OK Screen has good to excellent psychometric properties in both its subscales.
      These findings are robust across sites, gender, and type of clinic. We recommend
      its use for clinical research and for routine screening at treatment centers.

PMID- 28888152
TI  - Altered functional connectivity to stressful stimuli in prenatally cocaine
      exposed adolescents.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) is linked to addiction and obesity
      vulnerability. Neural responses to stressful and appetitive cues in adolescents
      with PCE versus those without have been differentially linked to substance-use
      initiation. However, no prior studies have assessed cue-reactivity responses
      among PCE adolescents using a connectivity-based approach. METHODS: Twenty-two
      PCE and 22 non-prenatally drug-exposed (NDE) age-, sex-, IQ- and BMI-matched
      adolescents participated in individualized guided imagery with appetitive
      (favorite-food), stressful and neutral-relaxing cue scripts during functional
      magnetic resonance imaging. Subjective favorite-food craving scores were
      collected before and after script exposure. A data-driven voxel-wise intrinsic
      connectivity distribution analysis was used to identify between-group differences
      and examine relationships with craving scores. RESULTS: A group-by-cue
      interaction effect identified a parietal lobe cluster where PCE versus NDE
      adolescents showed less connectivity during stressful and more connectivity
      during neutral-relaxing conditions. Follow-up seed-based connectivity analyses
      revealed that, among PCE adolescents, the parietal seed was positively connected
      to inferior parietal and sensory areas and negatively connected to corticolimbic
      during both stress and neutral-relaxing conditions. For NDE, greater parietal
      connectivity to parietal, cingulate and sensory areas and lesser parietal
      connectivity to medial prefrontal areas were found during stress compared to
      neutral-relaxing cueing. Craving scores inversely correlated with corticolimbic
      connectivity in PCE, but not NDE adolescents, during the favorite-food condition.
      CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this first data-driven intrinsic connectivity analysis
      of PCE influences on adolescent brain function indicate differences relating to
      PCE status and craving. These findings provide insight into the developmental
      impact of in utero drug exposure.

PMID- 28888153
TI  - Life events and alcohol use disorder clinical course: Modeling the dynamic
      association.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite over 35 years of study, the relationship between life events
      (LEs) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment outcome lacks consistent empirical
      support, which may be due to a lack of theoretically driven designs and
      corresponding statistical analyses. The purpose of this study was to elucidate
      the LEs-AUD treatment outcome relationship by statistically modeling the dynamic
      relationship between negative LEs and alcohol use post-treatment, as it is
      conceptualized within the dynamic model of relapse. METHODS: Existing
      longitudinal data from 417 AUD treatment-seeking adults were randomly assigned to
      two demographically comparable samples. One sample (N=208) was used to estimate a
      series of dynamic bivariate latent change score models that differentially relate
      latent indicators of distal and proximal negative LEs (i.e., events subjectively
      rated as negative) and percent heavy drinking days across 12 months. Cross
      validation was conducted on the second sample (N=209). RESULTS: Findings
      indicated that distal negative LEs were positively associated with a greater
      increase in negative LEs, but not heavy drinking, over the subsequent 12 months.
      Proximal negative LEs were significantly associated with subsequent increases in
      heavy drinking, though heavy drinking was not a determinant of change in negative
      LEs. These findings were cross-validated with the second sample. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study provides initial justification for the further study of the LEs
      alcohol use relationship as it is described in the dynamic model of relapse.

PMID- 28888154
TI  - Factors associated with an evidence-based measure of implementation for the
      Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An evidence-based measure of implementation (EBMI) is an
      implementation outcome measure shown to have predictive validity with one or more
      future-measured constructs of importance. The current study sought to identify
      correlates and predictors of an EBMI called procedure exposure. Garner et al.
      (2016) found procedure exposure to be an EBMI for the Adolescent Community
      Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA). METHODS: The dataset included 76 community-based
      substance use treatment organizations located across the United States.
      Organizational-level regression analyses, which were framed within the context of
      Chaudoir et al. (2013) framework for predicting implementation outcomes, were
      used to examine predictors of A-CRA procedure exposure RESULTS: The Washington
      Circle's treatment initiation performance measure (B=5.05 [SE=1.60], p=0.002), as
      well as session exposure (B=0.18 [SE=0.06], p=0.003), were significant predictors
      of A-CRA procedure exposure in the backward stepwise regression analysis
      (Adjusted R-square=0.55). The Washington Circle's treatment engagement
      performance measure (B=7.93 [SE=0.77], p<0.001), as well as time-to-proficiency
      (B=-0.04 [SE=0.02], p=0.02), each had significant bivariate relationships with A
      CRA procedure exposure but were not retained in the final model. CONCLUSIONS:
      Organizations implementing A-CRA are encouraged to make the following high
      priorities: (a) scheduling and completing a subsequent treatment session within
      14days of their index session (treatment initiation) and (b) providing a targeted
      number of treatment sessions to each client (session exposure). To the extent
      organizations do this, they may be more likely to achieve higher levels of A-CRA
      procedure exposure.

PMID- 28888155
TI  - Pupil response and attention skills in Down syndrome.
AB  - Down syndrome (DS) is characterized by attentional problems. Little is known
      about the neural correlates of attention problems in DS due to difficulties in
      evaluation. Pupil dilation, associated with an increase in cognitive load and
      locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system activity in humans, is a neurophysiological
      measurement that may help to characterize such problems. The aim of this research
      was to investigate the link between a phasic pupil dilation response and target
      detection in people with DS, as compared with a control group with typical
      development (TD) matched by mental age. Participants performed an "oddball" task
      by means of an eye-tracker and a series of neuropsychological tests. Although the
      DS and control group demonstrated similar attentional skills and behavioral
      performance, the participants with DS showed greater pupil dilation. This result
      suggests that people with DS expend extra cognitive effort to achieve performance
      similar to those with TD. This finding is discussed in light of the attentional
      process in DS and the reliability of pupil dilation measurement in the study of
      attention and other cognitive processes in DS.

PMID- 28888156
TI  - Exploring the oxygen supply and demand framework as a learning tool in
      undergraduate nursing education.
AB  - In nursing education, physiological concepts are typically presented within a
      body 'systems' framework yet learners are often challenged to apply this
      knowledge in the holistic and functional manner needed for effective clinical
      decision-making and safe patient care. A nursing faculty addressed this learning
      challenge by developing an advanced organizer as a conceptual and integrative
      learning tool to support learners in diverse learning environments and practice
      settings. A mixed methods research study was conducted that explored the
      effectiveness of the Oxygen Supply and Demand Framework as a learning tool in
      undergraduate nursing education. A pretest/post-test assessment and reflective
      journal were used to gather data. Findings indicated the Oxygen Supply and Demand
      Framework guided the development of pattern recognition and thinking processes
      and supported knowledge development, knowledge application and clinical decision
      making. The Oxygen Supply and Demand Framework supports undergraduate students
      learning to provide safe and effective nursing care.

PMID- 28888157
TI  - Nursing students' evaluation of a new feedback and reflection tool for use in
      high-fidelity simulation - Formative assessment of clinical skills. A descriptive
      quantitative research design.
AB  - : Clinical skills training is an important part of nurses' education programmes.
      Clinical skills are complex. A common understanding of what characterizes
      clinical skills and learning outcomes needs to be established. The aim of the
      study was to develop and evaluate a new reflection and feedback tool for
      formative assessment. The study has a descriptive quantitative design. 129
      students participated who were at the end of the first year of a Bachelor degree
      in nursing. After highfidelity simulation, data were collected using a
      questionnaire with 19 closed-ended and 2 open-ended questions. The tool
      stimulated peer assessment, and enabled students to be more thorough in what to
      assess as an observer in clinical skills. The tool provided a structure for
      selfassessment and made visible items that are important to be aware of in
      clinical skills. CONCLUSIONS: This article adds to simulation literature and
      provides a tool that is useful in enhancing peer learning, which is essential for
      nurses in practice. The tool has potential for enabling students to learn about
      reflection and developing skills for guiding others in practice after they have
      graduated.

PMID- 28888158
TI  - Predicting motorcycle crash injury severity using weather data and alternative
      Bayesian multivariate crash frequency models.
AB  - Motorcycle crashes constitute a very high proportion of the overall motor vehicle
      fatalities in the United States, and many studies have examined the influential
      factors under various conditions. However, research on the impact of weather
      conditions on the motorcycle crash severity is not well documented. In this
      study, we examined the impact of weather conditions on motorcycle crash injuries
      at four different severity levels using San Francisco motorcycle crash injury
      data. Five models were developed using Full Bayesian formulation accounting for
      different correlations commonly seen in crash data and then compared for fitness
      and performance. Results indicate that the models with serial and severity
      variations of parameters had superior fit, and the capability of accurate crash
      prediction. The inferences from the parameter estimates from the five models
      were: an increase in the air temperature reduced the possibility of a fatal crash
      but had a reverse impact on crashes of other severity levels; humidity in air was
      not observed to have a predictable or strong impact on crashes; the occurrence of
      rainfall decreased the possibility of crashes for all severity levels.
      Transportation agencies might benefit from the research results to improve road
      safety by providing motorcyclists with information regarding the risk of certain
      crash severity levels for special weather conditions.

PMID- 28888159
TI  - Reduction of liver tumerogenic effect of N-nitrosodiethylamine by treatment with
      gamma-oryzanol in Balb/C mice.
AB  - In recent years, naturally occurring phytochemicals with antioxidant capacity
      have generated surmount interest in their therapeutic usage against a wide range
      of pathological and toxicological conditions. The present study was designed to
      evaluate potential of gamma-oryzanol (OZ), a bio-active natural antioxidant
      against hepatocellular carcinoma effect of the carcinogen N-nitrosodiethylamine
      in Balb/c mice. OZ inhibited the proliferation of Hep-3B cell line in
      concentration dependent manner. Administration of OZ to N-nitrosodiethylamine
      induced Balb/c mice for 16 and 32 weeks showed reduction in levels of liver
      injury markers, restored the levels of liver tumor markers, suppressed the
      hepatic nodular incidence and multiplicity, and favorably modulated the liver
      antioxidant status in a time dependent manner. Histologically, no obvious signs
      of neoplasia in the liver tissues were observed in OZ supplemented rats with N
      nitrosodiethylamine induced liver tumerogenesis. OZ was found to be effective for
      reduction of N-nitrosodiethylamine induced hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28888160
TI  - Nicotiana benthamiana Matrix Metalloprotease 1 (NMMP1) gene confers disease
      resistance to Phytophthora infestans in tobacco and potato plants.
AB  - We previously isolated Nicotiana benthamiana matrix metalloprotease 1 (NMMP1)
      from tobacco leaves. The NMMP1 gene encodes a highly conserved, Zn-containing
      catalytic protease domain that functions as a factor in the plant's defense
      against bacterial pathogens. Expression of NMMP1 was strongly induced during
      interactions between tobacco and one of its pathogens, Phytophthora infestans. To
      elucidate the role of the NMMP1 in defense of N. benthamiana against fungal
      pathogens, we performed gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies. NMMP1
      overexpressing plants had stronger resistance responses against P. infestans
      infections than control plants, while silencing of NMMP1 resulted in greater
      susceptibility of the plants to the pathogen. This greater susceptibility
      correlated with fewer NMMP1 transcripts than the non-silenced control. We also
      examined cell death as a measure of disease. The amount of cell death induced by
      the necrosis-inducing P. infestans protein 1, PiNPP1, was dependent on NMMP1 in
      N. benthamiana. Potato plants overexpressing NMMP1 also had enhanced disease
      resistance against P. infestans. RT-PCR analysis of these transgenic potato
      plants revealed constitutive up-regulation of the potato defense gene NbPR5.
      NMMP1-overexpressing potato plants were taller and produced heavier tubers than
      control plants. We suggest a role for NMMP1in pathogen defense and development.

PMID- 28888161
TI  - Glyphosate-induced oxidative stress in Arabidopsis thaliana affecting peroxisomal
      metabolism and triggers activity in the oxidative phase of the pentose phosphate
      pathway (OxPPP) involved in NADPH generation.
AB  - Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide used worldwide. In susceptible
      plants, glyphosate affects the shikimate pathway and reduces aromatic amino acid
      synthesis. Using Arabidopsis seedlings grown in the presence of 20MUM glyphosate,
      we analyzed H2O2, ascorbate, glutathione (GSH) and protein oxidation content as
      well as antioxidant catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate
      glutathione cycle enzyme activity. We also examined the principal NADPH
      generating system components, including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
      (G6PDH), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGDH), NADP-malic enzyme (NADP-ME)
      and NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase (NADP-ICDH). Glyphosate caused a drastic
      reduction in growth parameters and an increase in protein oxidation. The
      herbicide also resulted in an overall increase in GSH content, antioxidant enzyme
      activity (catalase and all enzymatic components of the ascorbate-glutathione
      cycle) in addition to the two oxidative phase enzymes, G6PDH and 6PGDH, in the
      pentose phosphate pathway involved in NADPH generation. In this study, we provide
      new evidence on the participation of G6PDH and 6PGDH in the response to oxidative
      stress induced by glyphosate in Arabidopsis, in which peroxisomal enzymes, such
      as catalase and glycolate oxidase, are positively affected. We suggest that the
      NADPH provided by the oxidative phase of the pentose phosphate pathway (OxPPP)
      should serve to maintain glutathione reductase (GR) activity, thus preserving and
      regenerating the intracellular GSH pool under glyphosate-induced stress. It is
      particularly remarkable that the 6PGDH activity was unaffected by pro-oxidant and
      nitrating molecules such as H202, nitric oxide or peroxynitrite.

PMID- 28888162
TI  - Improved short-term drought response of transgenic rice over-expressing maize C4
      phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase via calcium signal cascade.
AB  - To understand the link between long-term drought tolerance and short-term drought
      responses in plants, transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) plants over-expressing the
      maize C4-pepc gene encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PC) and wild-type
      (WT) rice plants were subjected to PEG 6000 treatments to simulate drought
      stress. Compared with WT, PC had the higher survival rate and net photosynthetic
      rate after 16days of drought treatment, and had higher relative water content in
      leaves after 2h of drought treatment as well, conferring drought tolerance. WT
      accumulated higher amounts of malondialdehyde, superoxide radicals, and H2O2 than
      PC under the 2-h PEG 6000 treatment, indicating greater damages in WT. Results
      from pretreatments with a Ca2+ chelator and/or antagonist showed that the
      regulation of the early drought response in PC was Ca2+-dependent. The NO and
      H2O2 levels in PC lines were also up-regulated via Ca2+ signals, indicating that
      Ca2+ in PC lines also reacted upstream of NO and H2O2. 2-h drought treatment
      increased the transcripts of CPK9 and CPK4 in PC via positive up-regulation of
      Ca2+. The transcripts of NAC6 [NACs (NAM, ATAF1, ATAF2, and CUC2)] and bZIP60
      (basic leucine zipper, bZIP) were up-regulated, but those of DREB2B (dehydration
      responsive element-binding protein, DREB) were down-regulated, both via Ca2+
      signals in PC. PEPC activity, expressions of C4-pepc, and the antioxidant enzyme
      activities in PC lines were up-regulated via Ca2+. These results indicated that
      Ca2+ signals in PC lines can up-regulate the NAC6 and bZIP60 and the downstream
      targets for early drought responses, conferring drought tolerance for the long
      term.

PMID- 28888163
TI  - Overexpression of GhDof1 improved salt and cold tolerance and seed oil content in
      Gossypium hirsutum.
AB  - A homologous GhDof1, which belongs to a large family of plant-specific
      transcription factor DOF, was isolated from Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum
      L.). GhDof1 protein was located in the nucleus of onion epidermal cells, the core
      domain of transcriptional activity existed in the C-terminal, and the activity
      elements of GhDof1 promoter existed in the regions of -645~ -469bp and -286~ 
      132bp of transcriptional start codon. GhDof1 constitutively expressed in leaves,
      roots and stems, accumulated highest in leaves. The salinity and cold treatments
      induced GhDof1 transcript accumulation. The GhDof1-overexpressed cotton showed
      significantly higher salt and cold tolerance over the wild-type plants. Under
      salt stress, the root growth of overexpressed GhDof1 lines was promoted. The
      expression levels of stress-responsive genes, GhP5CS, GhSOD and GhMYB, were
      differently up-regulated in transgenic lines. Oil contents increased in some
      transgenic plants, and protein contents reduced compared with transformed
      receptor. These results suggested that GhDof1 was a functional transcription
      factor for improving the abiotic tolerance and seed oil content in Upland cotton.

PMID- 28888164
TI  - Retooling microorganisms for the fermentative production of alcohols.
AB  - Bioengineering and synthetic biology approaches have revolutionised the field of
      biotechnology, enabling the introduction of non-native and de novo pathways for
      biofuels production. This 'retooling' of microorganisms is also applied to the
      utilisation of mixed carbon components derived from lignocellulosic biomass, a
      major technical barrier for the development of economically viable fermentations.
      This review will discuss recent advances in microorganism engineering for
      efficient production of alcohols from waste biomass. These advances span the
      introduction of new pathways to alcohols, host modifications for more cost
      effective utilisation of lignocellulosic waste and modifications of existing
      pathways for generating new fuel additives.

PMID- 28888165
TI  - Microbial production of alka(e)ne biofuels.

PMID- 28888166
TI  - Sub-lethal effects of waterborne exposure to copper nanoparticles compared to
      copper sulphate on the shore crab (Carcinus maenas).
AB  - The toxicity of soluble copper (Cu) to marine organisms is reasonably well
      described. However, the hazard of Cu engineered nanomaterial (ENMs) is poorly
      understood. The aim of the present study was to compare the toxicity of Cu ENMs
      to Cu as CuSO4 in the shore crab, Carcinus maenas. The crabs were exposed via the
      water using a semi-static approach to 0.2 or 1mgL-1 of Cu ENMs or 1mgL-1 of Cu as
      CuSO4. Gills, hepatopancreas, chela muscle and haemolymph were collected at days
      0, 4 and 7 for the body burden of Cu, histology and biochemical analysis
      [thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and total glutathione (GSH)].
      Nominal exposure concentrations of both the ENMs and the metal salt were
      maintained at over 80% in each treatment throughout the experiment. By day 7, 54%
      mortality was recorded in the 1mgL-1 CuSO4 treatment, compared to just 21% in the
      1mgL-1 Cu ENM-exposed crabs. The target organs for Cu accumulation were similar
      for both forms of Cu with highest concentrations in the gills, particularly the
      posterior gills; followed by the hepatopancreas, and with the lowest
      concentrations in the chela muscle. No changes were observed in the osmolarity of
      the haemolymph (ANOVA, P>0.05). TBARS were measured as an indicator of lipid
      peroxidation and showed the greatest change in the anterior and posterior gills
      and hepatopancreas of animals exposed to 1mgL-1 Cu ENMs (ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis,
      P<0.05). No statistically significant changes in total GSH were observed (ANOVA,
      P>0.05; n=6 crabs per treatment). Histological analysis revealed organ injuries
      in all treatments. The types of pathologies observed in the Cu ENM treatments
      were broadly similar to those of the Cu as CuSO4 treatment. Overall, the target
      organs and Cu accumulation from Cu ENMs were comparable to that following
      exposure to Cu as CuSO4, and although there were some differences in the sub
      lethal effects, the metal salt was more acutely toxic.

PMID- 28888167
TI  - Protective effect of 5, 7-dihydroxyflavone on brain of rats exposed to acrylamide
      or gamma-radiation.
AB  - 5, 7-Dihydroxyflavone (DHF), a natural plant flavonoid, have shown a variety of
      beneficial effects. Neurotoxic effects of acrylamide (ACR) or gamma irradiation
      (IR) have been established in humans and animals. The current study was designed
      to evaluate whether DHF could restrain ACR or IR induced neurotoxicity in rats
      and to explore the underlying mechanisms. The study was carried out by
      investigating some biochemical and biophysical parameters as well as
      histopathological examination. The daily oral administration of ACR (25mg/kg
      b.wt.) for 21days or exposure to single dose of IR (5Gy) induced brain damage
      throughout the significant decrease in catecholamine contents and brain derived
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in brain tissue with a concomitant significant
      decrease in serum activity of creatinine kinase-BB. Moreover, the brain levels of
      MDA and beta-amyloid and activities of acetylcholinesterase and caspase-3 were
      remarkably augmented in ACR-induced rats. Additionally, the electrical properties
      of erythrocytes membrane were significantly disturbed. The administration of DHF
      (50mg/kg b.wt. daily for 21day) to rats exposed to either ACR or IR significantly
      reversed the alteration in all studied parameters. Histopathological
      investigation of brain tissues supported the neuroprotective effect of DHF on
      brain. From the obtained data, it can be concluded that the DHF has
      neuroprotective effect against ACR or IR induced-neurotoxicity.

PMID- 28888168
TI  - Triazine-based covalent organic frameworks for photodynamic inactivation of
      bacteria as type-II photosensitizers.
AB  - With the increase of antibiotic resistances in microorganisms, photodynamic
      inactivation (PDI) as a clinically proven antibacterial therapy is gaining
      increasing attention in recent years due to its high efficacy. Herein, we
      reported two covalent organic frameworks (COFs) materials, namely COFs-Trif-Benz
      and COF-SDU1, as effective type-II photosensitizers for photodynamic inactivation
      of bacteria. COFs-Trif-Benz and COF-SDU1 are synthesized through a facile
      solvothermal reaction between tri-(4-formacylphenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (trif) and
      benzidine or p-phenylenediamine with high yield. Their highly ordered and porous
      structures were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, solid
      state 13C CP/MAS NMR spectrum, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Brunauer
      Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses. The electronic absorption spectra and
      electrochemical experiments revealed that the extensive pi-conjugation over COFs
      Trif-Benz and COF-SDU1 greatly enhance their absorbance capability for visible
      light and make them have a lower band gap. The photocatalytic antibacterial assay
      was studied against both Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Gram
      negative Escherichia coli O86:B7 (E. coli O86) bacteria. Two materials can kill
      more than 90% bacteria at concentrations of 100MUgmL-1 after 60-90min of
      illumination. Thus, both COFs are effective photosensitizers. Mechanism
      investigation revealed the antibacterial characteristics of the COFs-Trif-Benz
      and COF-SDU1 can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) by energy transfer to
      molecular oxygen (3O2) to produce a highly reactive singlet oxygen (1O2). Hence,
      the two materials during the photodynamic were mainly via mechanism type II.

PMID- 28888169
TI  - Green synthesis of Si-incorporated hydroxyapatite using sodium metasilicate as
      silicon precursor and in vitro antibiotic release studies.
AB  - The aim of the current study is to synthesize nanosized silicon incorporated HAp
      (Si-HAP) using sodium metasilicate as the silicon source. The sol-gel derived
      samples were further subjected to microwave irradiation. Incorporation of Si into
      HAp did not alter the HAp phase, as confirmed by the X-ray diffraction analysis
      (XRD). Moreover, variation in the lattice parameters of the Si-incorporated HAp
      indicates that Si is substituted into the HAp lattice. The decrease in the
      intensity of the peaks attributed to hydroxyl groups, which appeared in the FTIR
      and Raman spectra of Si-HAp, further confirms the Si substitution in HAp
      lattices. The silicon incorporation enhanced the nanorods length by 70%, when
      compared to that of pure HAp. Microwave irradiation improved the crystallinity of
      Si-HAp when compared to as-synthesized Si-HAp samples. As-synthesized Si
      incorporated HAp sample showed an intense blue emission under UV excitation.
      Microwave irradiation reduced the intensity of blue emission and exhibited red
      shift due to the reduction of defects in the Si-HAp crystal. The morphological
      change from rod to spherical and ribbon-like forms was observed with an increase
      in silicon content. Further, Si-HAp exhibited better bioactivity and low
      dissolution rate. Initially there was a burst release of amoxicillin from all the
      samples, subsequently it followed a sustained release. The microwave-irradiated
      HAp showed extended period of sustained release than that of as-synthesized HAp
      and Si-HAp. Similarly, the microwave-irradiated Si-incorporated samples exhibited
      prolonged drug release, as compared to that of the as-synthesized samples. Hence,
      Si-HAp is rapidly synthesized by a simple and cost effective method without
      inducing any additional phases, as compared to the conventional sintering
      process. This study provides a new insight into the rapid green synthesis of Si
      HAp. Si-HAp could emerge as a promising material for the bone tissue replacement
      and as a drug delivery system.

PMID- 28888170
TI  - CorteXpert: A model-based method for automatic renal cortex segmentation.
AB  - This paper introduces a model-based approach for a fully automatic delineation of
      kidney and cortex tissue from contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scans. The proposed
      framework, named CorteXpert, consists of two new strategies for kidney tissue
      delineation: cortex model adaptation and non-uniform graph search. CorteXpert was
      validated on a clinical data set of 58 CT scans using the cross-validation
      evaluation strategy. The experimental results indicated the state-of-the-art
      segmentation accuracies (as dice coefficient): 97.86% +/- 2.41% and 97.48% +/-
      3.18% for kidney and renal cortex delineations, respectively.

PMID- 28888171
TI  - Discriminative confidence estimation for probabilistic multi-atlas label fusion.
AB  - Quantitative neuroimaging analyses often rely on the accurate segmentation of
      anatomical brain structures. In contrast to manual segmentation, automatic
      methods offer reproducible outputs and provide scalability to study large
      databases. Among existing approaches, multi-atlas segmentation has recently shown
      to yield state-of-the-art performance in automatic segmentation of brain images.
      It consists in propagating the labelmaps from a set of atlases to the anatomy of
      a target image using image registration, and then fusing these multiple warped
      labelmaps into a consensus segmentation on the target image. Accurately
      estimating the contribution of each atlas labelmap to the final segmentation is a
      critical step for the success of multi-atlas segmentation. Common approaches to
      label fusion either rely on local patch similarity, probabilistic statistical
      frameworks or a combination of both. In this work, we propose a probabilistic
      label fusion framework based on atlas label confidences computed at each voxel of
      the structure of interest. Maximum likelihood atlas confidences are estimated
      using a supervised approach, explicitly modeling the relationship between local
      image appearances and segmentation errors produced by each of the atlases. We
      evaluate different spatial pooling strategies for modeling local segmentation
      errors. We also present a novel type of label-dependent appearance features based
      on atlas labelmaps that are used during confidence estimation to increase the
      accuracy of our label fusion. Our approach is evaluated on the segmentation of
      seven subcortical brain structures from the MICCAI 2013 SATA Challenge dataset
      and the hippocampi from the ADNI dataset. Overall, our results indicate that the
      proposed label fusion framework achieves superior performance to state-of-the-art
      approaches in the majority of the evaluated brain structures and shows more
      robustness to registration errors.

PMID- 28888172
TI  - Simultaneous extraction of propofol and propofol glucuronide from hair followed
      by validated LC-MS/MS analyses.
AB  - Besides its clinical application, the anaesthetic agent propofol is being
      increasingly misused, mostly by healthcare professionals, and its abuse potential
      gained worldwide attention after the tragic death of Michael Jackson in 2009. Due
      to the short duration of its narcotic effects, propofol abuse is especially easy
      to hide compared with the use of other recreational drugs. However, propofol
      possesses a very narrow therapeutic window between the desired effect and
      potentially fatal toxicity, making abuse of the drug extremely dangerous even in
      experienced physicians. Consequently, it is important that forensic laboratories
      possess a sensitive and specific method for the detection of chronic propofol
      abuse. We present a simple, fast and reliable method to simultaneously extract
      propofol and its main metabolite propofol glucuronide from hair, followed by
      sensitive LC-MS/MS analyses, allowing to determine a chronic propofol abuse.
      Difficulties regarding the detection of propofol using LC-MS/MS were solved by
      using a derivatization reaction with 2-fluoro-1-methylpyridinium-p-toluene
      sulfonate and triethylamine. Reliability of extraction method and subsequent LC
      MS/MS analyses was confirmed under consideration of the validation parameters
      selectivity, linearity, accuracy and precision, analytical limits, processed
      sample stability, matrix effects and recovery. Appropriate quantification
      (LLOQ=10pg/mg hair) and detection limits (3.6pg/mg hair for propofol and 7.8
      pg/mg hair for propofol glucuronide) could be achieved, enabling to detect even
      small amounts of both analytes. Applicability of the method was confirmed by
      analysis of three human hair samples from deceased with suspicion of chronic
      propofol abuse.

PMID- 28888174
TI  - Repetitive negative thinking and suicide: a burgeoning literature with need for
      further exploration.
AB  - Extant research has found a significant overlap between various repetitive
      negative thinking (RNT) patterns, such as rumination and worry, across different
      affective disorders implicating that the process of repetitive negative thinking
      is likely trans-diagnostic. Furthermore, RNT patterns at the core of psychiatric
      disorders associated with suicide (e.g., rumination and worry) have been found to
      be associated with suicide even after accounting for the disorder. A synthesis of
      existing literature on repetitive negative thoughts suggest that following
      negative emotional experiences, RNTs may lead to a sense of entrapment and
      hopelessness that may contribute to the onset of suicidal ideation and then
      facilitate the transition from thinking about suicide to making a suicide attempt
      by increasing an individual's capability for suicide through repetitive exposure
      to violent thoughts and imagery associated with suicide.

PMID- 28888173
TI  - LC-MS/MS assay for the quantitation of the ATR kinase inhibitor VX-970 in human
      plasma.
AB  - DNA damaging chemotherapy and radiation are widely used standard-of-care
      modalities for the treatment of cancer. Nevertheless, the outcome for many
      patients remains poor and this may be attributed, at least in part, to highly
      effective DNA repair mechanisms. Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated and Rad3-related
      (ATR) is a key regulator of the DNA-damage response (DDR) that orchestrates the
      repair of damaged replication forks. ATR is a serine/threonine protein kinase and
      ATR kinase inhibitors potentiate chemotherapy and radiation. The ATR kinase
      inhibitor VX-970 (NSC 780162) is in clinical development in combination with
      primary cytotoxic agents and as a monotherapy for tumors harboring specific
      mutations. We have developed and validated an LC-MS/MS assay for the sensitive,
      accurate and precise quantitation of VX-970 in human plasma. A dilute-and-shoot
      method was used to precipitate proteins followed by chromatographic separation
      with a Phenomenex Polar-RP 80A (4MUm, 50*2mm) column and a gradient acetonitrile
      water mobile phase containing 0.1% formic acid from a 50MUL sample volume.
      Detection was achieved using an API 4000 mass spectrometer using electrospray
      positive ionization mode. The assay was linear from 3 to 5,000ng/mL, proved to be
      accurate (94.6-104.2%) and precise (<8.4% CV), and fulfilled criteria from the
      FDA guidance for bioanalytical method validation. This LC-MS/MS assay will be a
      crucial tool in defining the clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacology of VX-970
      as it progresses through clinical development.

PMID- 28888175
TI  - Solitary drinking is associated with specific alcohol problems in emerging
      adults.
AB  - Hazardous drinking in emerging adulthood is associated with multiple domains of
      alcohol problems, which range in type and severity. Alcohol problems at the
      severe end of the spectrum (e.g., impaired control) may be early warning signs of
      alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among emerging adults. However, given the emphasis
      in the literature on predictors of overall problem risk, we still know very
      little about predictors of these specific (and severe) domains of alcohol
      problems in emerging adults. Many emerging adults drink at social events (e.g.,
      parties), but an estimated 15% engage in solitary drinking. Solitary drinking - a
      developmentally atypical behavior in emerging adulthood - may be especially
      risky. Data suggests that frequent solitary drinking may reflect a loss of
      control over drinking, leading to hazardous use and subsequent problems.
      Accordingly, we expected that frequent solitary drinking among emerging adults
      would predict severe alcohol problems that map onto diagnostic criteria for AUDs
      and these effects would be mediated by hazardous alcohol use. Undergraduates
      (N=118) completed self-report measures as a part of a larger study on motivation
      and alcohol use. As predicted, path analysis showed that solitary drinking
      positively predicted hazardous alcohol use, and this in turn predicted severe
      alcohol problems associated with diagnostic criteria for AUDs, particularly risky
      behaviors and blackout drinking. Solitary drinking also positively predicted less
      severe problems of diminished self-perception and poor self-care through
      hazardous use. Though comparatively smaller, some indirect effects were observed
      from social drinking (at parties, but not at bars) to alcohol problems, via
      hazardous alcohol use. Overall, our results suggest that solitary drinking is
      particularly harmful in emerging adulthood.

PMID- 28888176
TI  - Novel mechanisms in immune tolerance to allergens during natural allergen
      exposure and allergen-specific immunotherapy.
AB  - Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) has been used for more than 100 years as a
      clinical tolerance-inducing and immune tolerance-inducing therapy for allergic
      diseases and represents a potentially curative method of treatment. AIT functions
      through multiple mechanisms including early desensitization of basophils and mast
      cells, regulating T-cell and B-cell responses, changing antibody isotypes, and
      decreasing activation, mediator release and affected tissue migration of
      eosinophils, basophils, and mast cells. Similar molecular and cellular mechanisms
      have been observed in subcutaneous AIT, sublingual AIT and peptide immunotherapy
      as well as natural tolerance to high doses of allergen exposure in beekeepers and
      cat owners.

PMID- 28888177
TI  - A label-free cardiac biomarker immunosensor based on phase-shifted microfiber
      Bragg grating.
AB  - Fiber optics evanescent field based biosensor is an excellent candidate for label
      free detection of cardiac biomarkers which is of great importance in rapid,
      early, and accurate diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In this
      paper, we report a compact and sensitive cardiac troponin I (cTn-I) immunosensor
      based on the phase-shifted microfiber Bragg grating probe which is
      functionalized. The fine reflective signal induced by the phase shift in
      modulation significantly improves the spectral resolution, enabling the ability
      of the sensor in perceiving an ultra-small refractive index change due to the
      specific capture of the cTn-I antigens. In buffer, a log-linear sensing range
      from 0.1 to 10ng/mL and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.03ng/mL (predicted to be
      as low as 10.8pg/mL) are obtained. Furthermore, with good specificity, the sensor
      can be applied in test of cTn-I in human serum samples. The proposed sensor
      presents superiorities such as improved integratability and portability, easy
      fabrication and operation, and intrinsic compatibility to the fiber-optic
      network, and thus has a promising prospect in "point-of-care" test for cardiac
      biomarkers and preclinical diagnosis.

PMID- 28888178
TI  - Novel amine-functionalized iron trimesates with enhanced peroxidase-like activity
      and their applications for the fluorescent assay of choline and acetylcholine.
AB  - We herein describe novel amine-grafted metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a
      promising alternative to natural peroxidase enzyme and their applications for a
      fluorescent assay of choline (Cho) and acetylcholine (ACh). Among diverse amine
      functionalized MOFs, N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-1,4-butanediamine (TMBDA)
      functionalized MIL-100(Fe) (TMBDA-MIL-100(Fe)) exhibited the highest peroxidase
      activity by developing intense fluorescence from Amplex UltraRed (AUR) in the
      presence of H2O2, which was presumably due to the synergetic effect of the
      enhanced negative potential and precisely controlled molecular size of the
      grafted diamine. Based on the excellent peroxidase-like activity of TMBDA-MIL
      100(Fe), choline and ACh were reliably determined down to 0.027 and 0.036uM,
      respectively. Furthermore, practical applicability of this strategy was
      successfully demonstrated by detecting choline and ACh in spiked samples of milk
      and serum, respectively. This work highlights the advantages of amine-grafted
      MOFs for the preparation of biomimetic catalysts, extending their scope to
      biosensor applications.

PMID- 28888179
TI  - A novel immunosensor based on excessively tilted fiber grating coated with gold
      nanospheres improves the detection limit of Newcastle disease virus.
AB  - A novel immunosensor for detecting Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was developed
      using excessively tilted fiber grating (Ex-TFG) coated with gold nanospheres
      (AuNs). AuNs were coated on the Ex-TFG surface via Au-S bonds using 3
      mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS), and the activated staphylococcal protein
      A (SPA) was linked to AuNs by covalent bonds via cysteamine. AuNs greatly
      enhanced the impact of the analyte on the fiber cladding mode through the local
      surface Plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect, thus improving the detection limit and
      sensitivity of the immunosensor. Meanwhile, SPA enhanced the bioactivity of anti
      NDV monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), thus promoting the effectiveness of specific
      binding events on the fiber surface. Immunoassays were performed by monitoring
      the resonance wavelength shift of the proposed sensor under NDV samples
      containing different particle amounts. Specificity was assessed, and clinical
      tests for NDV were performed by contrast experiments. Experimental results showed
      that the detection limit for NDV was about 5~10 times improved compared to that
      of reference Ex-TFG without AuN treatment. Moreover, the novel biosensor was
      reusable and could potentially be applied in clinic.

PMID- 28888180
TI  - Density of tubal ring vascularization: A new marker for prediction of success of
      medical treatment in tubal ectopic pregnancy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy has been facilitated especially by
      the use of Doppler ultrasonography. In previous studies the presence of peri
      trophoblastic blood flow by Doppler ultrasound and the detection of a low
      resistance, high-velocity flow pattern were defined as specific signs for
      trophoblastic tissue. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of
      Doppler ultrasonography in the prediction of treatment success in tubal
      pregnancies being treated with single dose conservative methotrexate. STUDY
      DESIGN: A total of 104 patients with non-ruptured ectopic pregnancy who were
      hemodynamically stable and eligible for methotrexate treatment were included in
      the study. The spectral wave form of the mass was classified according to the
      vascularization density by Power Doppler. It was defined as Grade 1, 2 and 3,
      respectively. All patients received a single 50mg/m2 dose of systemic
      methotrexate. Serum beta-hCG levels were measured on the 4th and 7th days of
      treatment. The treatment was considered unsuccessful in patients without a
      decrease of 15% or more in the serum beta-hCG levels between days 0 and 7.
      RESULTS: Twenty-four patients with grade I vascularity, 11 patients with grade II
      vascularity and 13 patients with grade III vascularity were referred as Group I,
      II and III, respectively, according to the degree of adnexal vascularity assessed
      by Doppler ultrasonography. Overall success rate of MTX treatment was found to be
      72.9%. The response rates to systemic MTX treatment in cases with Grade I, II and
      III ectopic pregnancy mass vascularization were found to be 58.3%, 81.8% and
      92.3%, respectively. Comparison of the groups' treatment responses revealed a
      linear-by-linear correlation with the Chi-square test. Increased vascularization
      grade of ectopic pregnancy was associated with a higher likelihood of responding
      to MTX treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Detection of the vascularization grade with
      Doppler ultrasound could be considered a remarkable parameter in predicting
      treatment success considering its ease of utilization and low cost.

PMID- 28888181
TI  - External validation of preexisting first trimester preeclampsia prediction
      models.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To validate the increasing number of prognostic models being developed
      for preeclampsia using our own prospective study. STUDY DESIGN: A systematic
      review of literature that assessed biomarkers, uterine artery Doppler and
      maternal characteristics in the first trimester for the prediction of
      preeclampsia was performed and models selected based on predefined criteria.
      Validation was performed by applying the regression coefficients that were
      published in the different derivation studies to our cohort. We assessed the
      models discrimination ability and calibration. RESULTS: Twenty models were
      identified for validation. The discrimination ability observed in derivation
      studies (Area Under the Curves) ranged from 0.70 to 0.96 when these models were
      validated against the validation cohort, these AUC varied importantly, ranging
      from 0.504 to 0.833. Comparing Area Under the Curves obtained in the derivation
      study to those in the validation cohort we found statistically significant
      differences in several studies. CONCLUSION: There currently isn't a definitive
      prediction model with adequate ability to discriminate for preeclampsia, which
      performs as well when applied to a different population and can differentiate
      well between the highest and lowest risk groups within the tested population. The
      pre-existing large number of models limits the value of further model development
      and future research should be focussed on further attempts to validate existing
      models and assessing whether implementation of these improves patient care.

PMID- 28888182
TI  - Instrumentation for cryogenic magic angle spinning dynamic nuclear polarization
      using 90L of liquid nitrogen per day.
AB  - Cryogenic sample temperatures can enhance NMR sensitivity by extending spin
      relaxation times to improve dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) and by increasing
      Boltzmann spin polarization. We have developed an efficient heat exchanger with a
      liquid nitrogen consumption rate of only 90L per day to perform magic-angle
      spinning (MAS) DNP experiments below 85K. In this heat exchanger implementation,
      cold exhaust gas from the NMR probe is returned to the outer portion of a
      counterflow coil within an intermediate cooling stage to improve cooling
      efficiency of the spinning and variable temperature gases. The heat exchange
      within the counterflow coil is calculated with computational fluid dynamics to
      optimize the heat transfer. Experimental results using the novel counterflow heat
      exchanger demonstrate MAS DNP signal enhancements of 328+/-3 at 81+/-2K, and
      276+/-4 at 105+/-2K.

PMID- 28888183
TI  - Periodic population codes: From a single circular variable to higher dimensions,
      multiple nested scales, and conceptual spaces.
AB  - Across the nervous system, neurons often encode circular stimuli using tuning
      curves that are not sine or cosine functions, but that belong to the richer class
      of von Mises functions, which are periodic variants of Gaussians. For a
      population of neurons encoding a single circular variable with such canonical
      tuning curves, computing a simple population vector is the optimal read-out of
      the most likely stimulus. We argue that the advantages of population vector read
      outs are so compelling that even the neural representation of the outside world's
      flat Euclidean geometry is curled up into a torus (a circle times a circle),
      creating the hexagonal activity patterns of mammalian grid cells. Here, the
      circular scale is not set a priori, so the nervous system can use multiple scales
      and gain fields to overcome the ambiguity inherent in periodic representations of
      linear variables. We review the experimental evidence for this framework and
      discuss its testable predictions and generalizations to more abstract grid-like
      neural representations.

PMID- 28888184
TI  - Early prosocial development across cultures.
AB  - Human prosociality is ubiquitous, even though it may be manifested differently
      across cultures. Low cost helping and sharing emerge early in development, and at
      similar levels, across cultures having vastly different sociocultural niches.
      Developmental trajectories for costly sharing diverge across cultures around
      middle childhood, in line with differences in the sociocultural niches that
      children experience. Cultural developmental research has focussed primarily on
      the emergence and development of prosocial behaviour, and would benefit from an
      examination of the interplay between psychological (cognitive, motivational) and
      sociocultural (norms, developmental niche) foundations over ontogeny.

PMID- 28888186
TI  - Acquired body marks: A mode of identification in Forensics.
AB  - Each individual regardless of sex, age and caste has a particular identification
      mark present on their body. This study is mainly an attempt to understand the
      distribution pattern of different types of acquired body marks present on the
      body which can be used as a marker for individual identification in Forensics.
      Data was collected by means of observation, interview schedule and interviews
      from 160 individuals of 6 multi-caste villages of Udaipur in Rajasthan, India. A
      wide variation was observed in the distribution patterns of various acquired body
      marks. Scars were the most prevalent (87.5%) followed by body piercing (66%),
      occupational marks (38.5%), tattoo marks (27.5%) and body deformity (5%). There
      is a strong association between sex of an individual and presence of tattoo and
      occupational marks. Type of occupation is associated with the presence of scar
      and occupational marks. Age also has its influence on the presence and type of -
      tattoo and occupational marks. This wide variation in the distribution of
      acquired body marks based on sex, age, educational status, occupation, religion
      etc. of an individual need to be considered and included as a method of
      identification of unknown in Forensic Science.

PMID- 28888185
TI  - Helicobacter pylori serological biomarkers of gastric cancer risk in the MCC
      Spain case-control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the main risk factors for non
      cardia gastric cancer. However, only a minority of infected persons develop the
      disease. This study aims at identifying H. pylori related serological biomarkers
      of risk for gastric cancer. METHODS: Incident gastric cancer cases and population
      controls (age, sex and region frequency-matched) from the MCC-Spain multicase
      control Study were included. Seroreactivities against 16H. pylori proteins were
      determined using multiplex serology. Infection was defined as seropositivity
      against>=4 proteins. Relation of serological results to non-cardia and cardia
      gastric cancer was assessed using multivariable mixed logistic regression and
      principal components analysis. RESULTS: Seroprevalence was 88% among 2071
      controls, 95% among 202 non-cardia gastric cancer cases (OR=1.9 (95% CI: 1.0
      3.6)) and 85% among 62 cardia cancer cases (OR=0.5 (95% CI: 0.3-1.1)). In
      infected subjects, seropositivity for UreA, HP231, NapA and Cagdelta was
      associated with lower non-cardia gastric cancer risk, while seropositivity for
      CagA and VacA was associated with higher risk. Seropositivity for CagA and
      seronegativity for Cagdelta maintained the association after additional
      adjustment by serostatus of significant proteins. We identified two antibody
      reactivity patterns: the "virulent-pattern", related to a threefold higher risk
      of non-cardia gastric cancer and the "non-virulent pattern", related to a 60%
      decreased risk (4th vs. first quartile). CONCLUSIONS: In our population, people
      seropositive for H. pylori were characterized by two patterns of antibody
      reactivity against H. pylori proteins: 1) Combined high seroreactivity against
      several proteins, associated with a lower non-cardia gastric cancer risk, and 2)
      High seroreactivity against CagA and VacA, associated with an increased risk.

PMID- 28888187
TI  - Effect of tank diameter on thermal behavior of gasoline and diesel storage tanks
      fires.
AB  - Studies on fire behavior are extremely important as they contribute in a
      firefighting situation or even to avoid such hazard. Experimental studies of fire
      in real scale are unfeasible, implying that reduced-scale experiments must be
      performed, and results extrapolated to the range of interest. This research aims
      to experimentally study the fire behavior in tanks of 0.04m, 0.20m, 0.40m, 0.80m
      and 4.28m diameter, burning regular gasoline or diesel oil S-500. The following
      parameters were here obtained: burning rates, burning velocities, heat release
      rates, flame heights, and temperature distributions adjacent to the tank. Such
      parameters were obtained for each tank diameter with the purpose of correlating
      the results and understanding the relationship of each parameter for the
      different geometrical scale of the tanks. Asymptotic results for larger tanks
      were found as (regular gasoline and diesel oil S-500, respectively): burning
      rates 0.050kg/(m2s) and 0.031kg/(m2s), burning velocities 4.0mm/min and
      2.5mm/min, heat release rates per unit area 2200kW/m2 and 1500kW/m2, normalized
      averaged flame heights (Hi/D, where Hi is the average flame height, D is the tank
      diameter) 0.9 and 0.8. Maximum temperatures for gasoline pools were higher than
      for diesel oil pools, and temperature gradients close to the tanks were also
      higher for the former fuel. The behavior of the maximum temperature was
      correlated as a function of the tank diameter, the heat release rate of each fuel
      and the dimensionless distance from the tank.

PMID- 28888189
TI  - A new three-dimensional bis(benzimidazole)-based cadmium(II) coordination
      polymer.
AB  - A new coordination polymer (CP), formulated as [Cd(L)(DCTP)]n (1) (L=1,1'-(1,4
      butanediyl)bis(2-methylbenzimidazole), H2DCTP=2,5-dichloroterephthalic acid), was
      synthesized under hydrothermal conditions and the performance as luminescent
      probe was also investigated. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction reveals CP 1 is a
      3D 3-fold interpenetrated dia network with large well-defined pores. It is found
      that CP 1 revealed highly sensitive luminescence sensing for Fe3+ ions in
      acetonitrile solution with a high quenching efficiency of KSV=2541.238L.mol-1 and
      a low detection limit of 3.2MUM (S/N=3). Moreover, the photocatalytic efficiency
      of 1 for degradation of methylene blue could reach 82.8% after 135min. Therefore,
      this coordination polymer could be viewed as multifunctional material for
      selectively sensing Fe3+ ions and effectively degrading dyes.

PMID- 28888188
TI  - Effect of extracellular electron shuttles on arsenic-mobilizing activities in
      soil microbial communities.
AB  - Microbially mediated arsenate (As(V)) and Fe(III) reduction play important roles
      in arsenic (As) cycling in nature. Extracellular electron shuttles can impact
      microbial Fe(III) reduction, yet little is known about their effects on microbial
      As mobilization in soils. In this study, microcosm experiments consisting of an
      As-contaminated soil and microbial communities obtained from several pristine
      soils were conducted, and the effects of electron shuttles on As mobilization
      were determined. Anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS) and riboflavin (RF) were
      chosen as common exogenous and biogenic electron shuttles, respectively, and both
      compounds significantly enhanced reductive dissolution of As and Fe. Accumulation
      of Fe(II)-bearing minerals was also observed, which may lead to re-immobilization
      of As after prolonged incubation. Interestingly, Firmicutes-related bacteria
      became predominant in all microcosms, but their compositions at the lower
      taxonomic level were different in each microcosm. Putative respiratory As(V)
      reductase gene (arrA) analysis revealed that bacteria closely related to a
      Clostridia group, especially those including the genera Desulfitobacterium and
      Desulfosporosinus, might play significant roles in As mobilization. These results
      indicate that the natural soil microbial community can use electron shuttles for
      enhanced mobilization of As; the use of this type of system is potentially
      advantageous for bioremediation of As-contaminated soils.

PMID- 28888190
TI  - Study of hydrogen bonding in ethanol-water binary solutions by Raman
      spectroscopy.
AB  - Raman spectra of ethanol-water binary solutions have been observed at room
      temperature and atmospheric pressure. We find that with increasing ethanol
      concentration, the symmetric and asymmetric OH stretching vibrational mode (3286
      and 3434cm-1) of water are shifted to lower frequency and the weak shoulder peak
      at 3615cm-1 (free OH) disappears. These results indicate that ethanol strengthens
      hydrogen bonds in water. Simultaneously, our experiment shows that Raman shifts
      of ethanol reverses when the volume ratio of ethanol and the overall solution is
      0.2, which demonstrates that ethanol-water structure undergoes a phase
      transition.

PMID- 28888191
TI  - The effect of glycation on bovine serum albumin conformation and ligand binding
      properties with regard to gliclazide.
AB  - Albumin, the major serum protein, plays a variety of functions, including binding
      and transporting endogenous and exogenous ligands. Its molecular structure is
      sensitive to different environmental modifiers, among which glucose is one of the
      most significant. In vivo albumin glycation occurs under physiological
      conditions, but it is increased in diabetes. Since bovine serum albumin (BSA) may
      serve as a model protein in in vitro experiments, we aimed to investigate the
      impact of glucose-mediated BSA glycation on the binding capacity towards
      gliclazide, as well as the ability of this drug to prevent glycation of the BSA
      molecule. To reflect normo- and hyperglycemia, the conditions of the glycation
      process were established. Structural changes of albumin after interaction with
      gliclazide (0-14MUM) were determined using fluorescence quenching and circular
      dichroism spectroscopy. Moreover, thermodynamic parameters as well as energy
      transfer parameters were determined. Calculated Stern-Volmer quenching constants,
      as well as binding constants for the BSA-gliclazide complex, were lower for the
      glycated form of albumin than for the unmodified protein. The largest, over 2
      fold, decrease in values of binding parameters was observed for the sample with
      30mM of glucose, reflecting the poorly controlled diabetic state, which indicates
      that the degree of glycation had a critical influence on binding with gliclazide.
      In contrast to significant changes in the tertiary structure of BSA upon binding
      with gliclazide, only slight changes in the secondary structure were observed,
      which was reflected by about a 3% decrease of the alpha-helix content of glycated
      BSA (regardless of glucose concentration) in comparison to unmodified BSA. The
      presence of gliclazide during glycation did not affect its progress. The results
      of this study indicate that glycation significantly changed the binding ability
      of BSA towards gliclazide and the scale of these changes depended on glucose
      concentration. It may have a direct impact on the free drug fraction and its
      pharmacokinetic behavior, including the risk of hypoglycemic episodes or
      unexpected interactions with other ligands. The use of BSA in examining binding
      effects upon glycation seems to be good model for preliminary research and may be
      used to identify a potential drug response in a diabetic state.

PMID- 28888192
TI  - What counts in preschool number knowledge? A Bayes factor analytic approach
      toward theoretical model development.
AB  - Preschool children vary tremendously in their numerical knowledge, and these
      individual differences strongly predict later mathematics achievement. To better
      understand the sources of these individual differences, we measured a variety of
      cognitive and linguistic abilities motivated by previous literature to be
      important and then analyzed which combination of these variables best explained
      individual differences in actual number knowledge. Through various data-driven
      Bayesian model comparison and selection strategies on competing multiple
      regression models, our analyses identified five variables of unique importance to
      explaining individual differences in preschool children's symbolic number
      knowledge: knowledge of the count list, nonverbal approximate numerical ability,
      working memory, executive conflict processing, and knowledge of letters and
      words. Furthermore, our analyses revealed that knowledge of the count list,
      likely a proxy for explicit practice or experience with numbers, and nonverbal
      approximate numerical ability were much more important to explaining individual
      differences in number knowledge than general cognitive and language abilities.
      These findings suggest that children use a diverse set of number-specific,
      general cognitive, and language abilities to learn about symbolic numbers, but
      the contribution of number-specific abilities may overshadow that of more general
      cognitive abilities in the learning process.

PMID- 28888193
TI  - Children's perception of action boundaries and how it affects their climbing
      behavior.
AB  - There are some concerns that children today may be less calibrated to their
      action capabilities because of the "risk-free" culture that has proliferated
      during recent decades. This study investigated the extent to which judgments of
      reaching affordances presented in different directions (i.e., overhead, diagonal,
      and horizontal) are related to children's climbing behavior on a climbing wall. A
      sample of 30 schoolchildren from 6 to 11years old (20 boys and 10 girls)
      estimated maximum reach and grasp distances and subsequently attempted to climb
      across an indoor climbing wall. Children who perceived the extents of their reach
      more accurately completed the climb more often and more quickly. Judgments in the
      primary directions of climbing locomotion (horizontal and diagonal) were better
      predictors of success than vertical judgments. Judgments about whether objects
      are reachable and graspable are complex and influenced by various dynamic factors
      (including perceptual-motor calibration), and as such different levels of
      accuracy are likely in different reaching directions. It appears that young
      children are relatively sensitive to their action boundaries for climbing and,
      therefore, may be able to make informed decisions themselves about whether a
      surface is climbable.

PMID- 28888194
TI  - Visual scanning of male and female bodies in infancy.
AB  - This study addressed the development of attention to information that is socially
      relevant to adults by examining infants' (N=64) scanning patterns of male and
      female bodies. Infants exhibited systematic attention to regions associated with
      sex-related scanning by adults, with 3.5- and 6.5-month-olds looking longer at
      the torsos of females than of males and looking longer at the legs of males than
      of females. However, this pattern of looking was not found when infants were
      tested on headless bodies in Experiment 2, suggesting that infants' differential
      gaze pattern in Experiment 1 was not due to low-level stimulus features, such as
      clothing, and also indicating that facial/head information is necessary for
      infants to exhibit sex-specific scanning. We discuss implications for models of
      face and body knowledge development.

PMID- 28888195
TI  - Children's and adults' understanding of death: Cognitive, parental, and
      experiential influences.
AB  - This study explored the development of understanding of death in a sample of 4-
      to 11-year-old British children and adults (N=136). It also investigated four
      sets of possible influences on this development: parents' religion and spiritual
      beliefs, cognitive ability, socioeconomic status, and experience of illness and
      death. Participants were interviewed using the "death concept" interview that
      explores understanding of the subcomponents of inevitability, universality,
      irreversibility, cessation, and causality of death. Children understood key
      aspects of death from as early as 4 or 5years, and with age their explanations of
      inevitability, universality, and causality became increasingly biological.
      Understanding of irreversibility and the cessation of mental and physical
      processes also emerged during early childhood, but by 10years many children's
      explanations reflected not an improved biological understanding but rather the
      coexistence of apparently contradictory biological and supernatural ideas
      religious, spiritual, or metaphysical. Evidence for these coexistent beliefs was
      more prevalent in older children than in younger children and was associated with
      their parents' religious and spiritual beliefs. Socioeconomic status was partly
      related to children's biological ideas, whereas cognitive ability and experience
      of illness and death played less important roles. There was no evidence for
      coexistent thinking among adults, only a clear distinction between biological
      explanations about death and supernatural explanations about the afterlife.

PMID- 28888196
TI  - The impact of prenatal exposure to air pollution on childhood wheezing and
      asthma: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There has been no clear consensus about whether
      prenatal exposure to air pollution contributes to the development of wheezing and
      asthma in children. We conducted a systematic review to analyze the association
      between exposure to different pollutants during pregnancy and the development of
      childhood wheezing and asthma. METHODS: We systematically reviewed
      epidemiological studies published through June 6, 2017 available in the MEDLINE
      and Web of Science databases. We included studies that examined the association
      between prenatal exposure to any air pollutants except tobacco smoke and the
      incidence or prevalence of "wheezing" or "asthma" from birth to 14 years of age.
      We extracted key characteristics of each included study using a template of
      predefined data items. We used the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklists
      to assess the validity of each included study. We conducted overall and subgroup
      meta-analyses for each summary exposure-outcome association. Pooled odds ratios
      (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by using a random effects
      model. RESULTS: Eighteen studies met our eligibility criteria. There was notable
      variability in exposure assessment methods. The overall random effects risk
      estimates (95% CI) of different pollutants were 1.04 (0.94-1.15) aromatic
      hydrocarbons (PAH), 1.04 (1.01-1.07) NO2, 1.4 (0.97-2.03) PM2.5 for childhood
      wheeze and 1.07 (1.01-1.14) NO2, 1 (0.97-1.03) PM2.5, 1.02 (0.98-1.07) SO2, 1.08
      (1.05-1.12) PM10 for childhood asthma. Minimal heterogeneity was seen for PAH and
      SO2, while some heterogeneity was observed for PM10, PM2.5 and NO2. CONCLUSIONS:
      The overall and subgroup risk estimates from the meta-analyses showed
      statistically significant associations between prenatal exposures to NO2, SO2,
      and PM10 and the risk of wheezing and asthma development in childhood. There is
      insufficient evidence to show an effect of prenatal exposure to BC, CO, and O3 on
      childhood wheezing and asthma. Further studies are needed to examine the
      individual compounds' effects.

PMID- 28888197
TI  - Does a lag-structure of temperature confound air pollution-lag-response relation?
      Simulation and application in 7 major cities, Korea (1998-2013).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temperature must be controlled when estimating the associations of
      short-term exposure to air pollution and mortality. Given that multi-country
      studies have implied temperature has lagged effects, we aim to explore
      confounding by temperature-lag-response and investigate PM10-lag-mortality
      relation in 7 cities, Korea. METHODS: In a simulation study, we compared the
      performance of different methods to control for: the same day temperature, a
      lagged temperature and distributed lags of temperature. In a real data study, we
      explored PM10-lag-mortality relation in 7 cities using these different methods.
      RESULTS: We confirmed that a model with insufficient control of temperature
      offers a biased estimate of PM10 risk. The degree of bias was from -82% to 95% in
      simulation settings. A real data study shows estimates among different models by
      temperature adjustments and PM10 lag variables ranging from -0.3% to 0.4%
      increase in the risk of all-cause mortality, with a 10MUg/m3 increase in PM10.
      Controlling for temperature as distributed lags for 21 days provided 0.25% (95%
      CI: 0.1, 0.4) increase in the risk of all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: A lag
      structure of temperature can confound the air pollution-lag-response relation.
      Temperature-lag-response relation should be evaluated when estimating air
      pollution-lag-response relation. As a corollary, air pollution and temperature
      risk in mortality can be estimated using the same regression model.

PMID- 28888198
TI  - Effects of NO2 exposure on daily mortality in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent reports have suggested that air pollution mixtures represented
      by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) may have effects on human health, which are independent
      from those of particulate matter mass. We evaluate the association between NO2
      and daily mortality among elderly using one- and multipollutant models. METHODS:
      This study was a daily time series of non-accidental and cause-specific mortality
      among the elderly living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 2000 and 2011. Effects of
      NO2, particulate matter smaller than 10um (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone
      (O3) were estimated in Poisson generalized additive models. The single lag effect
      at lags 0 and 1 days and the cumulative effect from 0 to lag 10 days were
      evaluated in one-, two-, three- and four-pollutant models. The cumulative risk
      index (CRI) recently proposed to analyze associations with health of multiple
      correlated pollutants was additionally estimated for each multipollutant model.
      RESULTS: An association between NO2, PM10, CO and O3 exposures and non-accidental
      and cause-specific deaths was found in one-pollutant models. NO2 effects remained
      significant in multipollutant models for non-accidental and circulatory deaths.
      The estimated CRIs suggested that circulatory deaths were mainly associated with
      NO2, and respiratory deaths mainly with CO and O3, regardless the lag. For non
      accidental deaths, multipollutant models were associated with the highest CRI,
      with the main pollutants depending on the chosen lag. CONCLUSIONS: The results
      suggest that air pollution mixtures represented by NO2 have an effect on non
      accidental and circulatory mortality, which is independent from PM10, CO and O3.
      The CRI was always larger than the risks associated with single pollutants.

PMID- 28888199
TI  - Chlorambucil labelled with the phenosafranin scaffold as a new chemotherapeutic
      for imaging and cancer treatment.
AB  - Here we report the first of the phenosafranin-chlorambucil conjugate as a new
      type of a chemotherapeutic agent suitable for dual detection methods
      (spectrophotometric and fluorescence) in imaging systems and cancer treatment.
      The synthetic cationic dye (3,7-diamino-5-phenylphenazinium chloride) is used as
      a fluorescent light-triggered scaffold that acts as a carrier for an anti-cancer
      drug. The chlorambucil was attached covalently via amide bonds to the
      bifunctional fluorophore, which facilitates tracking with visible light. Our
      studies revealed that the new photosensitive compound exhibits improved intrinsic
      activity in vitro in HeLa cells culture experiments; thus it could be a potential
      anti-cancer candidate in theranostic drug-delivery systems. In light of the
      urgent need for in vivo monitoring of the biodistribution of anti-cancer drugs,
      this strategy for the synthesis of innovative conjugates based on the
      phenosafranin backbone offers a promising possibility for drug control in anti
      cancer therapy and diagnosis. This aspect makes the phenosafranin-chlorambucil
      conjugate unique among currently available biomarkers.

PMID- 28888200
TI  - Emulsification efficacy of Quillaja saponins at very low concentration: Model
      development and role of alcohols.
AB  - The present study aims at quantifying interfacial coverage of a biosurfactant
      (Quillaja saponins) and understanding the impact of flavor and fragrance alcohols
      on emulsification efficacy of the biosurfactant in a surfactant-oil-matrix
      system. Emulsions were prepared using limonene, alkanes (C8, C12, and C16) or
      limonene  alcohol (linalool and C6C10 alcohols) mixtures at different ratios as
      oil phase stabilized by Quillaja saponins at very low concentrations (0.005-0.05%
      w/w). Droplet size was measured and size distributions were numerized to
      determine surface and volume average droplet diameters of bimodal emulsions.
      Using a model developed in the present study, Quillaja saponins showed an
      interfacial coverage of 5.0*106cm2/g and a head surface of 1.37nm2 with a lay-on
      configuration at interface. The model proved to discriminate between surface
      active (alcohols) and non-active (alkanes) compounds. The apparent interfacial
      coverage of saponins increased linearly with increasing alcohol concentration.
      The type of alcohol (terpene alcohol vs. medium chain alcohols) and alcohol chain
      length (C6C10) showed little impact on emulsification efficacy of Quillaja
      saponins. The molar ratio of heptanol to saponin at interface increased from 0 to
      8.6 corresponding to 0-30% w/w heptanol in limonene. This study revealed that the
      distribution of alcohol at interface was mainly driven by partitioning in the
      surfactant-oil-matrix system. The practical implication of the present study is
      to enhance emulsification efficacy of Quillaja Saponins at very low concentration
      by incorporating surface active compounds, i.e. flavor or fragrance alcohols.

PMID- 28888201
TI  - TGF-beta1 presenting enzymatically cross-linked injectable hydrogels for improved
      chondrogenesis.
AB  - In this work, we developed a novel enzymatically cross-linked injectable hydrogel
      composed of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), sulfated carboxymethyl cellulose
      (sCMC) and gelatin for delivery of infrapatellar fat pad derived MSCs and
      articular chondrocytes to a cartilage defect site while enabling TGF-beta1
      mediated chondrogenesis. The sCMC component in the hydrogel served the purpose of
      mimicking heparan sulfate and thus enabled strong binding with TGF-beta1 and its
      consequential long term presentation to the encapsulated cells. We demonstrated
      that amongst CMC/sCMC/gelatin hydrogels cross-linked with 1 and 2mM H2O2, the
      latter demonstrated significantly higher compressive modulus and supported better
      in vitro cartilage formation. Thereafter, we explored the utility of this system
      to present TGF-beta1 to encapsulated cells for prolonged time period. It was
      observed that these hydrogels could sequester >90% of encapsulated TGF-beta1 for
      at least 4 weeks. The encapsulated TGF-beta1 was shown to be bioactive and
      supported significantly better cell survival over control hydrogels. Further, the
      TGF loaded hydrogels demonstrated good sulfated GAG and collagen deposition which
      was higher than control hydrogels and comparable to those treated with soluble
      TGF-beta1 through media. Interestingly, incorporation of TGF-beta1 in hydrogels
      not only enhanced the expression and deposition of hyaline cartilage markers, but
      it also significantly reduced the deposition of fibrocartilage and hypertrophy
      markers. Overall, it was concluded that TGF-beta1 immobilized CMC/sCMC/gelatin
      injectable hydrogels encapsulated with IFP MSCs and ACs present a promising, cost
      effective and easily translatable strategy for cartilage tissue engineering.

PMID- 28888204
TI  - Electrokinetic treatment of high saline petrochemical wastewater: Evaluation and
      scale-up.
AB  - High total dissolved solids (TDS) wastewater containing high amounts of organics
      with toxic and recalcitrant characteristics is a major concern in some
      petrochemical industries. This study was designed to evaluate a novel
      electrokinetic process for chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. The removal of
      COD was carried out in some batch experiments in lab scale and effect of
      experimental factors such as the pH, current intensity, time, electrodes
      distances and TDS on the COD removal was evaluated. Also scale-up of the process
      was done in order to evaluate energy consumption. The obtained findings indicated
      that best conditions for COD removal were achieved in pH 5, current intensity of
      0.5 A and electrodes distance of 2 cm. Pseudo-first-order kinetic model with rate
      constant of 0.0093 min-1 and significant coefficient of correlation (R2) 0.948
      was the best fitted with experimental results. Energy consumption was 32 KWh.m-3
      while 80 fold scaling up the reactor resulted in lower energy consumption of 2.1
      KWh.m-3. Biodegradability improvement confirmed by BOD5/COD, average oxidation
      state (AOS) and carbon oxidation state (COS) indicators, Also GC chromatogram of
      the raw and treated wastewater showed removal and/or degradation of recalcitrant
      organics to more degradable and simpler compounds.

PMID- 28888202
TI  - Iron accumulation in senescent cells is coupled with impaired ferritinophagy and
      inhibition of ferroptosis.
AB  - Cellular senescence is characterised by the irreversible arrest of proliferation,
      a pro-inflammatory secretory phenotype and evasion of programmed cell death
      mechanisms. We report that senescence alters cellular iron acquisition and
      storage and also impedes iron-mediated cell death pathways. Senescent cells,
      regardless of stimuli (irradiation, replicative or oncogenic), accumulate vast
      amounts of intracellular iron (up to 30-fold) with concomitant changes in the
      levels of iron homeostasis proteins. For instance, ferritin (iron storage) levels
      provided a robust biomarker of cellular senescence, for associated iron
      accumulation and for resistance to iron-induced toxicity. Cellular senescence
      preceded iron accumulation and was not perturbed by sustained iron chelation
      (deferiprone). Iron accumulation in senescent cells was driven by impaired
      ferritinophagy, a lysosomal process that promotes ferritin degradation and
      ferroptosis. Lysosomal dysfunction in senescent cells was confirmed through
      several markers, including the build-up of microtubule-associated protein light
      chain 3 (LC3-II) in autophagosomes. Impaired ferritin degradation explains the
      iron accumulation phenotype of senescent cells, whereby iron is effectively
      trapped in ferritin creating a perceived cellular deficiency. Accordingly,
      senescent cells were highly resistant to ferroptosis. Promoting ferritin
      degradation by using the autophagy activator rapamycin averted the iron
      accumulation phenotype of senescent cells, preventing the increase of TfR1,
      ferritin and intracellular iron, but failed to re-sensitize these cells to
      ferroptosis. Finally, the enrichment of senescent cells in mouse ageing hepatic
      tissue was found to accompany iron accumulation, an elevation in ferritin and
      mirrored our observations using cultured senescent cells.

PMID- 28888203
TI  - Role of glutathione biosynthesis in endothelial dysfunction and fibrosis.
AB  - Glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis is essential for cellular redox homeostasis and
      antioxidant defense. The rate-limiting step requires glutamate-cysteine ligase
      (GCL), which is composed of the catalytic (GCLc) and the modulatory (GCLm)
      subunits. To evaluate the contribution of GCLc to endothelial function we
      generated an endothelial-specific Gclc haplo-insufficient mouse model (Gclc e/+
      mice). In murine lung endothelial cells (MLEC) derived from these mice we
      observed a 50% reduction in GCLc levels compared to lung fibroblasts from the
      same mice. MLEC obtained from haplo-insufficient mice showed significant
      reduction in GSH levels as well as increased basal and stimulated ROS levels,
      reduced phosphorylation of eNOS (Ser 1177) and increased eNOS S
      glutathionylation, compared to MLEC from wild type (WT) mice. Studies in
      mesenteric arteries demonstrated impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation in
      Gclc(e/+) male mice, which was corrected by pre-incubation with GSH-ethyl-ester
      and BH4. To study the contribution of endothelial GSH synthesis to renal fibrosis
      we employed the unilateral ureteral obstruction model in WT and Gclc(e/+) mice.
      We observed that obstructed kidneys from Gclc(e/+) mice exhibited increased
      deposition of fibrotic markers and reduced Nrf2 levels. We conclude that the
      preservation of endothelial GSH biosynthesis is not only critical for endothelial
      function but also in anti-fibrotic responses.

PMID- 28888205
TI  - Measuring geomorphological vulnerability on beaches using a set of indicators
      (GVI): A tool for management.
AB  - A system of indicators has been developed to evaluate beach geomorphological
      vulnerability (GVI) through: intrinsic susceptibility, the agents that model
      them, and their ability to remain stable over time. The method is applied to 34
      beaches on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) that experience different levels
      and conditions of human occupation, marine incidence, landforms and sediments,
      and spatial evolution that have been recorded since 1960. In contrast with other
      studies, the analysis of these dimensions (and their relationships) allows a
      diagnosis of the geomorphology of the beaches with an integrated approach. The
      results illustrate the numerous causes that generate geomorphological
      vulnerability, such as wave intensity, the presence of dikes or breakwaters,
      coastline variations, the absence of foredunes and embryonic dunes, the width of
      the intertidal zone, or the absence of beachrocks or lavic stones outcropping
      onto the shore. These variables combine and operate differently in five defined
      groups of beaches with different management needs. The most vulnerable ones were
      those with strong marine incidence, which require maintenance of their landforms
      in order to guarantee their stability. The opposite situation is found in beaches
      with little impact from anthropic and marine components. These beaches are less
      vulnerable since they have moderate susceptibility and high resilience. Their
      management requirements consist of soft measures since they have a strong
      geomorphological robustness. In this context, the proposed indicator system is a
      potentially relevant contribution to the management of beaches, especially for
      those that are under threat.

PMID- 28888206
TI  - Riverine discharges to Chesapeake Bay: Analysis of long-term (1927-2014) records
      and implications for future flows in the Chesapeake Bay basin.
AB  - The Chesapeake Bay (CB) basin is under a total maximum daily load (TMDL) mandate
      to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the bay. Identifying shifts
      in the hydro-climatic regime may help explain observed trends in water quality.
      To identify potential shifts, hydrologic data (1927-2014) for 27 watersheds in
      the CB basin were analyzed to determine the relationships among long-term
      precipitation and stream discharge trends. The amount, frequency, and intensity
      of precipitation increased from 1910 to 1996 in the eastern U.S., with the
      observed increases greater in the northeastern U.S. than the southeastern U.S.
      The CB watershed spans the north-to-south gradient in precipitation increases,
      and hydrologic differences have been observed in watersheds north relative to
      watersheds south of the Pennsylvania-Maryland (PA-MD) border. Time series of
      monthly mean precipitation data specific to each of 27 watersheds were derived
      from the Precipitation-elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM)
      dataset, and monthly mean stream-discharge data were obtained from U.S.
      Geological Survey streamgage records. All annual precipitation trend slopes in
      the 18 watersheds north of the PA-MD border were greater than or equal to those
      of the nine south of that border. The magnitude of the trend slopes for 1927-2014
      in both precipitation and discharge decreased in a north-to-south pattern.
      Distributions of the monthly precipitation and discharge datasets were assembled
      into percentiles for each year for each watershed. Multivariate correlation of
      precipitation and discharge within percentiles among the groups of northern and
      southern watersheds indicated only weak associations. Regional-scale average
      behaviors of trends in the distribution of precipitation and discharge annual
      percentiles differed between the northern and southern watersheds. In general,
      the linkage between precipitation and discharge was weak, with the linkage weaker
      in the northern watersheds compared to those in the south. On the basis of simple
      linear regression, 26 of the 27 watersheds are projected to have higher annual
      mean discharge in 2025, the target date for implementation of the TMDL for the CB
      basin.

PMID- 28888207
TI  - Acute changes of hip joint range of motion using selected clinical stretching
      procedures: A randomized crossover study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hip adductor flexibility and strength is an important component of
      athletic performance and many activities of daily living. Little research has
      been done on the acute effects of a single session of stretching on hip abduction
      range of motion (ROM). OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare 3
      clinical stretching procedures against passive static stretching and control on
      ROM and peak isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). DESIGN: Using a
      randomized crossover study design, a total of 40 participants (20 male and 20
      female) who had reduced hip adductor muscle length attended a familiarization
      session and 5 testing sessions on non-consecutive days. METHOD: Following the
      warm-up and pre-intervention measures of ROM and MVC, participants were randomly
      assigned 1 of 3 clinical stretching procedures (modified lunge, multidirectional,
      and joint mobilization) or a static stretch or control condition. Post
      intervention measures of ROM and MVC were taken immediately following completion
      of the assigned condition. RESULTS: An ANOVA using a repeated measure design with
      the change score was conducted. All interventions resulted in small but
      statistically significant (p < 0.05) increases (1.0 degrees -1.7 degrees ) in ROM
      with no inter-condition differences except one. Multidirectional stretching was
      greater than control (p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that a single
      session of stretching has only a minimal effect on acute changes of hip abduction
      ROM. Although hip abduction is a frontal plane motion, to effectively increase
      the extensibility of the structures that limit abduction, integrating multi
      planar stretches may be indicated.

PMID- 28888208
TI  - Prophetic medicine as potential functional food elements in the intervention of
      cancer: A review.
AB  - Amounting scientific evidences have revealed the antitumor, antimetastatic,
      antiangiogenic, antiproliferative, chemopreventive and neo-adjuvant efficacy of
      Prophetic Medicine in various in vitro, in vivo and clinical cancer models.
      Prophetic Medicine includes plants, dietary materials or spices that were used as
      remedy recipes and nutrition by the great Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) to
      treat various ailments. Prophetic medicine is the total authentic Hadith narrated
      by the Prophet (PBUH) in relation to medicine, whether Qur'anic verses or
      honourable Prophetic Hadith. The ability of functional foods from Prophetic
      Medicine to modulate various signalling pathways and multidrug resistance
      conferring proteins with low side-effects exemplify their great potential as neo
      adjuvants and/or chemotherapeutics. The present review aims to provide the
      collective in vitro, in vivo, clinical and epidemiology information of Prophetic
      Medicines, and their bioactive constituents and molecular mechanisms as potential
      functional foods for the management of cancer.

PMID- 28888209
TI  - Development of 1,3,4-oxadiazole thione based novel anticancer agents: Design,
      synthesis and in-vitro studies.
AB  - A series of new 1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione analogues (3a to 3o) have been
      designed, synthesized and evaluated for their anticancer activity. Four different
      cancerous cell lines viz. HeLa (cervical), U-87 (glioblastoma), Panc (pancreatic)
      and MCF-7 (breast) were used to assess the potency of the synthesized compounds
      as anticancer agents. Among them 3i and 3j showed promising cytotoxicity against
      HeLa cell line. Further, 3i and 3j successfully inhibited cell cycle progression
      and displayed cell death in HeLa cells via apoptosis as visualized by Annexin V
      APC and DNA fragmentation assay. 3i and 3j induced caspase-3 activation, PARP
      cleavage, increase in expression of proapoptotic protein Bax and decrease in the
      expression of antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2. Also, 3i and 3j induced overexpression
      of p21 and decreased expression of cyclin B1 indicating the arrest of cells in G2
      M phase of the cell cycle. Therefore, new lead compounds are being suggested
      having anticancer activity through cell cycle inhibition and apoptosis.

PMID- 28888210
TI  - Antibody-cytokine fusion proteins for improving efficacy and safety of cancer
      therapy.
AB  - Cytokines are key players in the regulation of immune responses both in
      physiological and pathological states. A number of cytokines have been evaluated
      in clinical trials and shown promising results in the treatment of different
      malignancies. Despite this, the clinical application of these molecules may be
      plagued by undesirable side effects The development of recombinant antibody
      cytokine fusion proteins, which offer a means for target delivery of cytokines
      toward the tumor site, has significantly improved the therapeutic index of these
      immunomodulatory molecules. Selective tumor localization is provided by the
      monoclonal antibody component of the fusion protein that binds to the molecules
      present on the surface of tumor cells or accumulated preferentially in the
      diseased site. In this manner, the cytokine element is specifically located at
      the tumor site and can stimulate immune cells with appropriate cytokine
      receptors. Over the recent years, several antibody-cytokine fusion proteins have
      been developed with the capacity to target a wide variety of cancers whose
      application, in some cases, has led to complete rejection of the tumor. These
      findings support the notion that antibody-cytokine fusion proteins represent huge
      potential for cancer therapy. This review presents an overview of the advances
      made in the field of targeted cytokine delivery, which is made possible by
      genetically engineering antibody-cytokine fusion proteins.

PMID- 28888211
TI  - MDR1 polymorphisms affect the outcome of Chinese multiple myeloma patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To illustrate the association of MDR1 (Multidrug Resistance 1)
      polymorphisms at loci 1236, 2677, 3435 and the prognosis of multiple myeloma (MM)
      in Jiangsu population. METHODS: A total of 129 MM patients were recruited from
      Jiangsu Province, China. The DNA was extracted from white blood cells (WBC) of
      peripheral blood and was amplified by polymerase chain reaction-allele specific
      primers (PCR-ASP). MDR1 polymorphisms at 3 loci were analyzed by electrophoresis
      followed by photograph or DNA direct sequencing. The association between the MDR1
      and clinical outcomes were calculated by Graphpad and SPSS. RESULTS: MDR1 alleles
      at locus C1236T with T had significant lower calcium level in MM patients
      compared with C. The genotype CT had a significantly prolonged progress free
      survival (PFS) compared genotype CC at locus C1236T (median time: 48 months vs.
      28 months, respectively; p=0.0062; HR=0.21; 95%CI0.061-0.715) while patients
      carrying T allele (CT and TT) at locus C3435T had a longer PFS than patients
      without T allele (CC) (median time: 60 months vs. 29 months, respectively;
      p=0.038; HR=0.508; 95%CI 0.264-0.978). And a borderline significance was found in
      haplotype at loci 2677-3435 and PFS. No significant findings were revealed
      between OS and MDR1 polymorphisms. CONCLUSION: MDR1 polymorphisms could affect
      the prognosis of multiple myeloma whereas more samples and a longer follow-up are
      also needed.

PMID- 28888212
TI  - Reducing N2O and NO emissions while sustaining crop productivity in a Chinese
      vegetable-cereal double cropping system.
AB  - High nitrogen (N) inputs in Chinese vegetable and cereal productions played key
      roles in increasing crop yields. However, emissions of the potent greenhouse gas
      nitrous oxide (N2O) and atmospheric pollutant nitric oxide (NO) increased too.
      For lowering the environmental costs of crop production, it is essential to
      optimize N strategies to maintain high crop productivity, while reducing the
      associated N losses. We performed a 2 year-round field study regarding the effect
      of different combinations of poultry manure and chemical N fertilizers on crop
      yields, N use efficiency (NUE) and N2O and NO fluxes from a Welsh onion-winter
      wheat system in the North China Plain. Annual N2O and NO emissions averaged 1.14
      3.82 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (or 5.54-13.06 g N kg-1 N uptake) and 0.57-1.87 kg N ha-1 yr
      1 (or 2.78-6.38 g N kg-1 N uptake) over all treatments, respectively. Both N2O
      and NO emissions increased linearly with increasing total N inputs, and the mean
      annual direct emission factors (EFd) were 0.39% for N2O and 0.19% for NO.
      Interestingly, the EFd for chemical N fertilizers (N2O: 0.42-0.48%; NO: 0.07
      0.11%) was significantly lower than for manure N (N2O: 1.35%; NO: 0.76%).
      Besides, a negative power relationship between yield-scaled N2O, NO or N2O + NO
      emissions and NUE was observed, suggesting that improving NUE in crop production
      is crucial for increasing crop yields while decreasing nitrogenous gas release.
      Compared to the current farmers' fertilization rate, alternative practices with
      reduced chemical N fertilizers increased NUE and decreased annual N2O + NO
      emissions substantially, while crop yields remained unaffected. As a result,
      annual yield-scaled N2O + NO emissions were reduced by > 20%. Our study shows
      that a reduction of current application rates of chemical N fertilizers by 30-50%
      does not affect crop productivity, while at the same time N2O and NO emissions
      would be reduced significantly.

PMID- 28888213
TI  - Occurrence, fate and transformation of emerging contaminants in water: An
      overarching review of the field.
AB  - Many of the products and drugs used commonly contain chemical components which
      may persist through sewage treatment works (STW) and eventually enter the aquatic
      environment as parent compounds, metabolites, or transformation products.
      Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and other emerging
      contaminants (ECs) have been detected in waters (typically ng/L) as well as more
      recently bound to sediment and plastic particles (typically ng/g). Despite
      significant advancement of knowledge since the late 1990s, the fate of these
      contaminants/transformation products once introduced into the aquatic environment
      remains relatively unresolved. This review provides a unique focus on the fate of
      seven major groups of PPCPs/ECs in the aquatic environment, which is frequently
      not found in similar works which are often compound or topic-specific and limited
      in background knowledge. Key findings include: a) some replacements for
      regulation precluded/banned chemicals may be similarly persistent in the
      environment as those they replace, b) the adsorption of potentially bioactive
      chemicals to micro- and nanoplastics is a significant topic with risks to aquatic
      organisms potentially greater than previously thought, and c) micro-/nanoplastics
      are likely to remain of significant concern for centuries after regulatory
      limitations on their use become active due to the slow degradation of macro
      plastics into smaller components. An interdisciplinary perspective on recent
      advances in the field is presented here in a unique way which highlights both the
      principle science and direction of research needed to elucidate the fate and
      transport patterns of aquatic PPCPs/ECs. Unlike similar reviews, which are often
      topic-specific, here we aim to present an overarching review of the field with
      focus on the occurrence, transformation and fate of emerging contaminants.
      Environmental presence of seven major classes of contaminants (analygesics,
      antibiotics, antineoplastics, beta-blockers, perfluorinated compounds, personal
      care products and plasticisers), factors affecting contaminant fate, association
      with plastic micro-/nanoparticles and photochemical transformation are
      comprehensively evaluated.

PMID- 28888214
TI  - Catching new targets in metabolic disease with a zebrafish.
AB  - Traditionally, the development of novel therapeutics for metabolic diseases has
      relied mainly on high-throughput screening using biochemical or cell-based
      assays. While this approach represents a driving force in drug discovery, there
      is also a need to perform large-scale screens without disrupting inter-organ
      communication and tissue architecture, essential components for understanding the
      complexity of metabolic regulation and the identification of small molecules with
      appropriate biological activities in vivo. Hence, the zebrafish Danio rerio is
      gaining popularity in metabolic research and drug discovery, as this animal model
      allows screening of small molecules in the context of the whole-organism.
      Moreover, the zebrafish exhibits conserved function of the pancreas, liver and
      adipose tissue, which can be leveraged to identify novel targets in metabolic
      regulation, as well as to study the role of conserved genes associated with the
      risk of metabolic diseases in humans. Here we highlight recent advances in the
      identification of targets in metabolic regulation using the zebrafish as a model.

PMID- 28888215
TI  - The role of presurgical EEG parameters and of reoperation for seizure outcome in
      temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - PURPOSE: After surgery for intractable mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE)
      seizures recur in 30-40%. One predictor for seizure recurrence is the
      distribution of seizure onset and interictal epileptiform discharges (IED). Our
      study focused on lateralization and extent of epileptiform activity regarding
      postoperative seizure persistence and the effect of reoperation. METHODS: This
      study comprises 426 consecutive patients operated for intractable mTLE. Impact of
      preoperative seizure onset and IED on the persistence of seizures and results of
      reoperation were analyzed. RESULTS: One year after surgery, 27% of patients with
      mTLE experienced persistent seizures (Engel II-IV). Preoperative bilateral
      seizure onset in EEG was predictive for postoperative seizure recurrence (Engel
      II-IV: 64%). Seizure foci and IED exceeding the temporal lobe in the ipsilateral
      hemisphere were not found to be associated with worse seizure outcome (Engel I:
      72% and 75%) compared to patients with seizure foci confined to the ipsilateral
      temporal lobe (Engel I: 75% and 76%). Moreover, IED exceeding the affected
      temporal lobe in the ipsilateral hemisphere or even bilateral IED did not
      negatively affect seizure freedom if seizure onset was strictly limited to the
      affected temporal lobe (Engel I: 85% and 65%, respectively). 60% of patients
      reoperated in the ipsilateral temporal lobe for persistent seizures became
      seizure free. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative bilateral ictal foci are a negative
      predictor for seizure outcome. Contrarily, IED exceeding the affected temporal
      lobe in the ipsilateral hemisphere or even bilateral IED had favorable seizure
      outcome if seizure onset is strictly limited to the affected temporal lobe.
      Reoperation for seizure persistence constitutes a promising therapeutic option.

PMID- 28888216
TI  - Vitamin B Derivative (Nicotinamide)Appears to Reduce Skin Cancer Risk.
AB  - Nicotinamide, an amide form of vitamin B3, has shown the potential to treat a
      variety of dermatological conditions, including acne, rosacea, and atopic
      dermatitis. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of nicotinamide, in both
      topical and oral forms, as a chemopreventive agent against skin cancer. Its anti
      carcinogenic role may be due to its ability to enhance DNA repair and prevent
      ultraviolet (UV)-induced immunosuppression, which is known to contribute to the
      progression of pre-malignant lesions. Furthermore, nicotinamide is a precursor of
      essential coenzymes for many important reactions in the body, including the
      production of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). NAD is a key coenzyme in
      the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which transports chemical energy
      within cells. Therefore, nicotinamide plays a significant role in supporting
      energy-dependent cellular processes, including DNA repair.

PMID- 28888217
TI  - Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors: Cutaneous Side Effects and Their
      Management.
AB  - Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors are part of an emerging class
      of anticancer medicines known as "targeted therapy," which target pathways more
      specific to neoplastic proliferation than traditional chemotherapeutic agents.
      Adverse effects of such treatments are thought to be less severe, but can still
      be significant. Because EGFR is preferentially expressed in epithelial tissues,
      including the skin and hair follicle, cutaneous side effects of these agents are
      quite common. Not only can these toxicities severely affect patients' quality of
      life, but in some specific instances, they can be associated with increased
      response to therapy. It is of paramount importance that clinicians familiarize
      themselves with and understand the basic management of the range of cutaneous
      adverse effects caused by these drugs.

PMID- 28888218
TI  - Impact of non-adherence on the safety and efficacy of uric acid-lowering
      therapies in the treatment of gout.
AB  - AIMS: Dual-urate-lowering therapy (ULT) with xanthine oxidase inhibitor and
      uricosuric medications is a treatment option for severe gout. Uricosuric agents
      can cause hyperuricosuria, a risk factor for nephrolithiasis and acute uric acid
      nephropathy. The aims of the present study were to simulate the relationship
      between suboptimal drug adherence and efficacy, and to quantify the risk of
      hyperuricosuria in gout patients receiving mono- and dual-ULTs. METHODS: The
      impact of poor medication adherence was studied using two-compartment
      pharmacokinetic (PK) models based on published evidence, and a semi-mechanistic
      four-compartment pharmacodynamic (PD) model. The PKPD model was used to simulate
      mono and dual-ULT in gout patients with either under-excretion (lowered
      clearance) or overproduction of uric acid, with suboptimal adherence modelled as
      either a single drug holiday of increasing duration or doses taken at random.
      RESULTS: Simulation results showed a surge in urinary uric acid occurring when
      dosing is restarted following missed doses. For under-excreters taking a 20-day
      drug holiday, the addition of 200 mg (or 400 mg) lesinurad to 80 mg febuxostat
      increased the percentage of patients experiencing hyperuricosuria from 0% to 1.4%
      (or 3.1%). In overproducers, restarting ULTs following drug holidays of more than
      5 days leads to over 60% of patients experiencing hyperuricosuria. CONCLUSIONS:
      Suboptimal medication adherence may compromise the safety and efficacy of mono-
      and dual-ULTs, especially in patients with gout resulting from an overproduction
      of uric acid. Clinicians and pharmacists should consider counselling patients
      with respect to the risks associated with partial adherence, and offer
      interventions to improve adherence or tailor treatments, where appropriate.

PMID- 28888219
TI  - Factor Xa inhibition by rivaroxaban in the trough steady state can significantly
      reduce thrombin generation.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of the present study was to demonstrate evidence of reduced
      thrombin generation at the trough plasma rivaroxaban concentration. METHODS: A
      single-centre, prospective, nonrandomized, drug-intervention, self-controlled
      study was conducted in 51 anticoagulation therapy-naive patients with nonvalvular
      atrial fibrillation. Plasma rivaroxaban concentration was measured by liquid
      chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and the anti-factor Xa
      chromogenic assay. Partial thrombin time (PT), protein C activity, and protein S
      antigen, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 (F1 + 2), D-dimer, thrombomodulin (TM),
      thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1)
      and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) levels were also measured at the
      trough steady state after 4 weeks of rivaroxaban treatment and compared with
      baseline. RESULTS: Plasma concentrations obtained by the LC-MS/MS and anti-Xa
      assays were correlated (r = 0.841, P < 0.001). The mean concentration of
      rivaroxaban at the trough steady state was 23.6 ng ml-1 , at which F1 + 2, TAT
      and D-dimer had decreased from the baseline values (P < 0.0001, P = 0.029 and P <
      0.005, respectively). PT was prolonged (+0.59 s, P < 0.0001). TFPI increased from
      baseline to the trough steady state in the first to third quartile groups (+0.79
      pg ml-1 , P = 0.048). By contrast, PAI-1, protein C activity, protein S antigen
      and TM remained within the normal range at the trough steady state. CONCLUSIONS:
      Residual plasma rivaroxaban at the trough steady state may explain the
      antithrombin effect of rivaroxaban in patients with nonvalvular atrial
      fibrillation.

PMID- 28888221
TI  - Transcatheter aortic valve-in-valve implantation of a CoreValve in a JenaValve
      prosthesis: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation has become an accepted
      treatment modality for inoperable or high-risk surgical patients with symptomatic
      severe aortic stenosis. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 70-year-old
      white man who was treated for severe symptomatic aortic regurgitation using
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation from the apical approach. Because of
      recurrent cardiac decompensation 4 weeks after implantation he underwent the
      implantation of a left ventricular assist device system. A year later
      echocardiography showed a severe transvalvular central insufficiency. Our heart
      team decided to choose a valve-in-valve approach while reducing the flow rate of
      left ventricular assist device to minimum and pacing with a frequency of 140
      beats/minute. There was an excellent result and our patient is doing well with no
      relevant insufficiency of the aortic valve at 12-month follow-up. CONCLUSION:
      This is the first report about a successful treatment of a stenotic JenaValve
      using a CoreValve Evolut R; the use of a CoreValve Evolut R prosthesis may be an
      optimal option for valve-in-valve procedures.

PMID- 28888220
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of multiple doses of co-crystal of tramadol-celecoxib: findings
      from a four-way randomized open-label phase I clinical trial.
AB  - AIM: We compared the pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles of co-crystal of tramadol
      celecoxib (CTC) vs. each reference product (alone and in open combination) after
      single (first dose) and multiple dosing. METHODS: Healthy adults aged 18-50 years
      received, under fasted conditions, 15 twice-daily doses of the following
      treatments (separated by >=14-day washout): 200 mg immediate-release (IR) CTC
      (equivalent to 88 mg tramadol and 112 mg celecoxib; treatment 1); 100 mg IR
      tramadol (treatment 2), 100 mg celecoxib (treatment 3); and 100 mg IR tramadol
      and 100 mg celecoxib (treatment 4). The treatment sequence was assigned by
      computer-generated randomization. PK parameters were calculated using non
      compartmental analysis. Parameters for CTC were adjusted according to reference
      product dose. RESULTS: A total of 30 subjects (20 males, mean age 35 years) were
      included. Multiple-dose tramadol PK parameters for treatments 1, 2 and 4,
      respectively, were 551, 632 and 661 ng ml-1 [mean maximum plasma concentration
      (Cmax )]; 4796, 4990 and 5284 ng h ml-1 (area under the plasma concentration-time
      curve over the dosing interval at steady state); and 3.0, 2.0 and 2.0 h (median
      time to Cmax at steady state). For treatments 1, 3 and 4, multiple-dose celecoxib
      PK parameters were 445, 536 and 396 ng ml-1 ; 2803, 3366 and 2897 ng h ml-1 ; and
      2.0, 2.0 and 3.0 h. Single-dose findings were consistent with multiple-dose data.
      Types of adverse events were consistent with known reference product safety
      profiles. CONCLUSION: After single (first dose) and multiple dosing, PK
      parameters for each active pharmaceutical ingredient in CTC were modified by co
      crystallization compared with reference products alone or in open combination.

PMID- 28888222
TI  - Primary hyperparathyroidism caused by enormous unilateral water-clear cell
      parathyroid hyperplasia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parathyroid water-clear cell hyperplasia (WCCH) and water-clear cell
      adenoma (WCCA) are rare causes of primary hyperparathyroidism. The frequency of
      WCCH seems to be less than 1% of all primary hyperplasia. CASE PRESENTATION: We
      report a 53-year-old woman with a large unilateral water clear cell parathyroid
      hyperplasia associated with primary hyperparathyroidism and severe osteoporosis.
      Ultrasonography showed a 5.4 cm multilobulated hypoechoic well defined mass
      localized in the lower half of the left thyroid lobe. Technetium sestamibi
      scanning showed a persistent very large area of increased activity possibly
      corresponding to a left inferior double parathyroid adenoma. At surgery, two
      large merged lobulated parathyroid glands were removed from the left superior and
      inferior aspects of the adjacent thyroid extending to the sub-clavicular area.
      Histopathology showed polygonal hyperplastic vacuolated cells with abundant water
      clear cytoplasm. The lesion had lack of capsule or rim of parathyroid tissue and
      immunohistochemistry was positive for PTH staining. These findings were
      consistent with diffused water clear cell hyperplasia. After parathyroidectomy,
      iPTH and calcium levels dropped immediately. CONCLUSION: The clinical
      presentation of the patients with water clear cells parathyroid content and
      hyperparathyroidism is indistinguishable from that of the more common causes of
      primary hyperparathyroidism of adenoma or hyperplasia and the diagnosis is made
      only on pathological examination. In conclusion, the distinction of water clear
      cell hyperplasia from water clear cell adenoma can be challenging in many cases,
      although clinically significant as far as treatment and follow-up.

PMID- 28888223
TI  - Assessment of transition readiness in adolescents and young adults with chronic
      health conditions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transition from pediatric to adult health care is a vulnerable period
      for adolescents and young adults. Challenges include paucity of validated
      measures to assess patients' transition readiness. We evaluated the Transition
      Readiness Assessment Questionnaire (TRAQ) in adolescents and young adults with
      rheumatic, gastrointestinal, and endocrine disorders. We examined whether
      baseline TRAQ scores and other demographic variables predicted transition to
      adult care over a three year follow up period. METHODS: In this descriptive study
      at a single institution, eighty-nine adolescents at a single pediatric academic
      medical center completed demographic and medical history surveys and the TRAQ and
      were followed over 3 years by telephone interview to determine whether they had
      transitioned to adult subspecialty care. Transition was defined as attending at
      least one adult subspecialty appointment. Multivariable logistic regression and
      Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to determine whether TRAQ
      scores predicted time to transition. RESULTS: Of the participants, 56% had
      rheumatic, 21% endocrine, and 23% gastrointestinal conditions. The TRAQ self
      management domain score was not significantly associated with age, gender,
      socioeconomic status, or specialty. The TRAQ self-advocacy score increased with
      age. Baseline TRAQ scores did not predict transition or time to transition over
      three years. CONCLUSION: In this cohort of adolescents and young adults who were
      16 to 23 years of age at enrollment, 48% transitioned to adult care over three
      years of follow up. Nearly half reported not discussing transition with provider
      or seeing provider independently for part of visit. Older age but not other
      demographic variables nor baseline TRAQ score predicted transition or time to
      transition to an adult subspecialty provider; however, a there was a trend
      towards shorter time to transition with the highest quartile TRAQ scores.

PMID- 28888224
TI  - Long-term patient reported outcomes following radiation therapy for oropharyngeal
      cancer: cross-sectional assessment of a prospective symptom survey in patients
      >=65 years old.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Given the potential for older patients to experience exaggerated
      toxicity and symptoms, this study was performed to characterize patient reported
      outcomes in older patients following definitive radiation therapy (RT) for
      oropharyngeal cancer (OPC). METHODS: Cancer-free head and neck cancer survivors
      (>6 months since treatment completion) were eligible for participation in a
      questionnaire-based study. Participants completed the MD Anderson Symptom
      Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN). Those patients >=65 years old at
      treatment for OPC with definitive RT were included. Individual and overall
      symptom severity and clinical variables were analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 79
      participants analyzed, 82% were male, 95% white, 41% T3/4 disease, 39% RT alone,
      27% induction chemotherapy, 52% concurrent, and 18% both, and 96% IMRT. Median
      age at RT was 71 yrs. (range: 65-85); median time from RT to MDASI-HN was 46 mos.
      (2/3 > 24 mos.). The top 5 MDASI-HN items rated most severe in terms of mean (+/
      SD) ratings (0-10 scale) were dry mouth (3.48 +/- 2.95), taste (2.81 +/- 3.29),
      swallowing (2.59 +/- 2.96), mucus in mouth/throat (2.04 +/- 2.68), and choking
      (1.30 +/- 2.38) reported at moderate-severe levels (>=5) by 35, 29, 29, 18, and
      13%, respectively. Thirty-nine % reported none (0) or no more than mild (1-4)
      symptoms across all 22 MDASI-HN symptoms items, and 38% had at least one item
      rated as severe (>=7). Hierarchical cluster analysis resulted in 3 patient
      groups: 1) ~65% with ranging from none to moderate symptom burden, 2) ~35% with
      moderate-severe ratings for a subset of classically RT-related symptoms (e.g. dry
      mouth, mucus, swallowing) and 3) 2 pts. with severe ratings of most items.
      CONCLUSIONS: The overall long-term symptom burden seen in this older OPC cohort
      treated with modern standard therapy was largely favorable, yet a higher symptom
      group (~35%) with a distinct pattern of mostly local and classically RT-related
      symptoms was identified.

PMID- 28888225
TI  - Towards evidence-based computational statistics: lessons from clinical research
      on the role and design of real-data benchmark studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The goal of medical research is to develop interventions that are in
      some sense superior, with respect to patient outcome, to interventions currently
      in use. Similarly, the goal of research in methodological computational
      statistics is to develop data analysis tools that are themselves superior to the
      existing tools. The methodology of the evaluation of medical interventions
      continues to be discussed extensively in the literature and it is now well
      accepted that medicine should be at least partly "evidence-based". Although we
      statisticians are convinced of the importance of unbiased, well-thought-out study
      designs and evidence-based approaches in the context of clinical research, we
      tend to ignore these principles when designing our own studies for evaluating
      statistical methods in the context of our methodological research. MAIN MESSAGE:
      In this paper, we draw an analogy between clinical trials and real-data-based
      benchmarking experiments in methodological statistical science, with datasets
      playing the role of patients and methods playing the role of medical
      interventions. Through this analogy, we suggest directions for improvement in the
      design and interpretation of studies which use real data to evaluate statistical
      methods, in particular with respect to dataset inclusion criteria and the
      reduction of various forms of bias. More generally, we discuss the concept of
      "evidence-based" statistical research, its limitations and its impact on the
      design and interpretation of real-data-based benchmark experiments. CONCLUSION:
      We suggest that benchmark studies-a method of assessment of statistical methods
      using real-world datasets-might benefit from adopting (some) concepts from
      evidence-based medicine towards the goal of more evidence-based statistical
      research.

PMID- 28888226
TI  - Modulation of hippocampal neuronal activity by So-ochim-tang-gamibang in mice
      subjected to chronic restraint stress.
AB  - BACKGROUND: So-ochim-tang-gamibang (SOCG) is a decoction formula which has been
      used to improve mental activity in traditional Korean medicine. The present study
      was performed to evaluate whether the treatment of SOCG was involved in
      activating hippocampal neurons in mice which were subjected to chronic restraint
      stress (CRS). METHODS: Mice were subjected to CRS for 2 weeks to induce
      depressive-like behaviors. SOCG was orally administered for the same period. mRNA
      expression in the hippocampus was analyzed by RT-PCR. Levels of serotonin
      receptor 5-HT1AR in the hippocampus were determined by western blotting and by
      immunofluorescence staining in coronal brain sections. Cultured neurons were
      prepared from the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) in mice to examine the effects of CRS
      and SOCG treatment on neurite outgrowth. Depressive-like behaviors of
      experimental animals were measured by open field test (OFT) and forced swimming
      test (FST). RESULTS: mRNA levels of serotonin 1A and 1B receptors (5-HT1AR and 5
      HT1BR) were decreased in the hippocampus of CRS animals and increased by SOCG
      treatment. Signals of 5-HT1AR protein in CA3 pyramidal cells were decreased by
      CRS but elevated back to levels in control animals after SOCG treatment. Phospho
      Erk1/2 protein in CA3 cells showed similar pattern of changes as in 5-HT1AR,
      suggesting coordinated regulation after SOCG treatment in CRS animals. Axonal
      growth-associated protein GAP-43 levels were also decreased by CRS and then
      increased by SOCG treatment. In vivo administration of SOCG improved neurite
      outgrowth of primary DRG neurons from CRS animals and also increased 5-HT1AR
      protein signals. Behavioral tests of open field and forced swimming showed that
      immobility time periods were significantly decreased by SOCG treatment.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that SOCG treatment may increase synaptic
      responsiveness to serotonergic neuronal inputs by upregulating 5-HT1AR in the
      hippocampal neurons.

PMID- 28888227
TI  - Conversion of an inactive xylose isomerase into a functional enzyme by co
      expression of GroEL-GroES chaperonins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Second-generation ethanol production is a clean bioenergy source with
      potential to mitigate fossil fuel emissions. The engineering of Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae for xylose utilization is an essential step towards the production of
      this biofuel. Though xylose isomerase (XI) is the key enzyme for xylose
      conversion, almost half of the XI genes are not functional when expressed in S.
      cerevisiae. To date, protein misfolding is the most plausible hypothesis to
      explain this phenomenon. RESULTS: This study demonstrated that XI from the
      bacterium Propionibacterium acidipropionici becomes functional in S. cerevisiae
      when co-expressed with GroEL-GroES chaperonin complex from Escherichia coli. The
      developed strain BTY34, harboring the chaperonin complex, is able to efficiently
      convert xylose to ethanol with a yield of 0.44 g ethanol/g xylose. Furthermore,
      the BTY34 strain presents a xylose consumption rate similar to those observed for
      strains carrying the widely used XI from the fungus Orpinomyces sp. In addition,
      the tetrameric XI structure from P. acidipropionici showed an elevated number of
      hydrophobic amino acid residues on the surface of protein when compared to XI
      commonly expressed in S. cerevisiae. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we
      elaborate an extensive discussion concerning the uncertainties that surround
      heterologous expression of xylose isomerases in S. cerevisiae. Probably, a
      correct folding promoted by GroEL-GroES could solve some issues regarding a
      limited or absent XI activity in S. cerevisiae. The strains developed in this
      work have promising industrial characteristics, and the designed strategy could
      be an interesting approach to overcome the non-functionality of bacterial protein
      expression in yeasts.

PMID- 28888228
TI  - Transperineal cryotherapy for unresectable muscle invasive bladder cancer:
      preliminary experience with 7 male patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radical cystectomy (RC) with pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) and
      urinary diversion (UD) is considered the standard treatment for muscle invasive
      bladder cancer (MIBC). In a part of patients, RC procedure is aborted due to
      unresectable disease, other followed treatment like systemic chemotherapy,
      radiotherapy or cryotherapy may be a better option. The aim of present study was
      to report the preliminary results of transperineal cryotherapy for unresectable
      muscle invasive bladder cancer. METHODS: From January 2011 to August 2013, 7 male
      patients with pT4b unresectable bladder cancer underwent bilateral
      ureterocutaneostomy. Two performed a pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND). Then
      primary transperineal cryosurgery for preserved bladder at the guidance of
      transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) was performed. All patients underwent a dual freeze
      thaw cycle using third-generation cryotechnology with ultrathin 17-gauge
      cryoneedles. Computer tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance image (MRI)were
      performed at 3 month intervals after cryosurgery to determine whether progression
      or recurrence occurred. RESULTS: All cryosurgery was performed successfully, mean
      operation time was 76.43 +/- 25.12 min (range 50-120 min), mean blood loss was
      19.29 +/- 15.92 ml (range 5-50 ml). Mean hospital stay was 3.86 +/- 1.68 day
      (range 2-7 days). No operative related deaths occurred. Four patients dead due to
      the metastasis disease at the follow up time of 8, 15, 18 and 37 months,
      respectively. Six patients received postoperative therapy, of whom 5 patients
      were treated with combined chemoradiation, and the other one received
      chemotherapy alone. The progression free survival (PFS) of the 7 patients was
      22.00 +/- 14.61 months (range 3-40 months). The one, two and three year overall
      survival (OS) was 85.7%, 57.1% and 42.9%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results
      suggest that cryosurgery combination with chemoradiotherapy provide a safe and
      effective alternative method for unresectable pT4b bladder cancer. Longer follow
      up is necessary to determine the sustained efficacy.

PMID- 28888229
TI  - Changes in ankle joint motion after Supramalleolar osteotomy: a cadaveric model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Malalignment of the ankle joint has been found after trauma, by
      neurological disorders, genetic predisposition and other unidentified factors,
      and results in asymmetrical joint loading. For a medial open wedge supramalleolar
      osteotomy(SMO), there are some debates as to whether concurrent fibular osteotomy
      should be performed. We assessed the changes in motion of ankle joint and plantar
      pressure after supramalleolar osteotomy without fibular osteotomy. METHODS: Ten
      lower leg specimens below the knee were prepared from fresh-frozen human
      cadavers. They were harvested from five males (10 ankles)whose average age was 70
      years. We assessed the motion of ankle joint as well as plantar pressure for
      SS(supra-syndesmotic) SMO and IS(intra-syndesmotic) SMO. After the osteotomy,
      each specimen was subjected to axial compression from 20 N preload to 350 N
      representing half-body weight. For the measurement of the motion of ankle joint,
      the changes in gap and point, angles in ankle joint were measured. The plantar
      pressure were also recorded using TekScan sensors. RESULTS: The changes in the
      various gap, point, and angles movements on SS-SMO and IS-SMO showed no
      statistically significant differences between the two groups. Regarding the shift
      of plantar center of force (COF) were noted in the anterolateral direction, but
      not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: SS-SMO and IS-SMO with intact fibula
      showed similar biomechanical effect on the ankle joint. We propose that IS-SMO
      should be considered carefully for the treatment of osteoarthrosis when fibular
      osteotomy is not performed because lateral cortex fracture was less likely using
      the intrasyndesmosis plane because of soft tissue support.

PMID- 28888230
TI  - Effect of supercritical carbon dioxide on the enzymatic production of biodiesel
      from waste animal fat using immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B variant.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Waste animal fat is a promising feedstock to replace vegetable oil
      that widely used in commercial biodiesel process, however the high content of
      free fatty acid in waste fat makes it unfeasible to be processed with commercial
      base-catalytic process. Enzymatic process is preferable to convert waste fat into
      biodiesel since enzyme can catalyze both esterification of free fatty acid and
      transesterification of triglyceride. However, enzymatic reaction still has some
      drawbacks such as lower reaction rates than base-catalyzed transesterification
      and the limitation of reactant concentration due to the enzyme inhibition of
      methanol. Supercritical CO2 is a promising reaction media for enzyme-catalyzed
      transesterification to overcome those drawbacks. RESULT: The transesterification
      of waste animal fat was carried out in supercritical CO2 with varied
      concentration of feedstock and methanol in CO2. The CO2 to feedstock mass ratio
      of 10:1 showed the highest yield compared to other ratios, and the highest FAME
      yield obtained from waste animal fat was 78%. The methanol concentration effect
      was also observed with variation 12%, 14%, and 16% of methanol to feedstock
      ratio. The best yield was 87% obtained at the CO2 to feedstock ratio of 10: 1 and
      at the methanol to feedstock ratio of 14% after 6 h of reaction. CONCLUSION:
      Enzymatic transesterification to produce biodiesel from waste animal fat in
      supercritical fluid media is a potential method for commercialization since it
      could enhance enzyme activity due to supercritical fluid properties to remove
      mass transfer limitation. The high yield of FAME when using high mass ratio of
      CO2 to oil showed that supercritical CO2 could increase the reaction and mass
      transfer rate while reducing methanol toxicity to enzyme activity. The increase
      of methanol concentration also increased the FAME yield because it might shift
      the reaction equilibrium to FAME production. This finding describes that the
      application of supercritical CO2 in the enzymatic reaction enables the
      application of simple process such as a packed-bed reactor.

PMID- 28888231
TI  - Preface to glyco-neuroscience.

PMID- 28888232
TI  - Small non-coding RNAs in endocrinology.

PMID- 28888233
TI  - Asian Urban Environment and Climate Change: Preface.
AB  - The Asian Network on Climate Science and Technology (www.ancst.org), in
      collaboration with Tsinghua University, held a conference on environmental and
      climate science, air pollution, urban planning and transportation in July 2015,
      with over 40 Asian experts participating and presentation. This was followed by a
      meeting with local government and community experts on the practical conclusions
      of the conference. Of the papers presented at the conference a selection are
      included in this special issue of Journal of Environmental Science, which also
      reflects the conclusions of the Paris Climate meeting in Dec 2015, when the major
      nations of the world agreed about the compelling need to reduce the upward trend
      of adverse impacts associated with global climate change. Now is the time for
      urban areas to work out the serious consequences for their populations, but also
      how they should work together to take action to reduce global warming to benefit
      their own communities and also the whole planet!

PMID- 28888234
TI  - Disseminating near-real-time hazards information and flood maps in the
      Philippines through Web-GIS.
AB  - The Philippines being a locus of tropical cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and
      volcanic eruptions, is a hotbed of disasters. These natural hazards inflict loss
      of lives and costly damage to property. Situated in a region where climate and
      geophysical tempest is common, the Philippines will inevitably suffer from
      calamities similar to those experienced recently. With continued development and
      population growth in hazard prone areas, it is expected that damage to
      infrastructure and human losses would persist and even rise unless appropriate
      measures are immediately implemented by government. In 2012, the Philippines
      launched a responsive program for disaster prevention and mitigation called the
      Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH), specifically for
      government warning agencies to be able to provide a 6hr lead-time warning to
      vulnerable communities against impending floods and to use advanced technology to
      enhance current geo-hazard vulnerability maps. To disseminate such critical
      information to as wide an audience as possible, a Web-GIS using mashups of freely
      available source codes and application program interface (APIs) was developed and
      can be found in the URLs http://noah.dost.gov.ph and http://noah.up.edu.ph/. This
      Web-GIS tool is now heavily used by local government units in the Philippines in
      their disaster prevention and mitigation efforts and can be replicated in
      countries that have a proactive approach to address the impacts of natural
      hazards but lack sufficient funds.

PMID- 28888235
TI  - Predicting vehicle fuel consumption patterns using floating vehicle data.
AB  - The status of energy consumption and air pollution in China is serious. It is
      important to analyze and predict the different fuel consumption of various types
      of vehicles under different influence factors. In order to fully describe the
      relationship between fuel consumption and the impact factors, massive amounts of
      floating vehicle data were used. The fuel consumption pattern and congestion
      pattern based on large samples of historical floating vehicle data were explored,
      drivers' information and vehicles' parameters from different group classification
      were probed, and the average velocity and average fuel consumption in the
      temporal dimension and spatial dimension were analyzed respectively. The fuel
      consumption forecasting model was established by using a Back Propagation Neural
      Network. Part of the sample set was used to train the forecasting model and the
      remaining part of the sample set was used as input to the forecasting model.

PMID- 28888236
TI  - Urban air quality, meteorology and traffic linkages: Evidence from a sixteen-day
      particulate matter pollution event in December 2015, Beijing.
AB  - A heavy 16-day pollution episode occurred in Beijing from December 19, 2015 to
      January 3, 2016. The mean daily AQI and PM2.5 were 240.44 and 203.6MUg/m3. We
      analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of air pollutants, meteorology and
      road space speed during this period, then extended to reveal the combined effects
      of traffic restrictions and meteorology on urban air quality with observational
      data and a multivariate mutual information model. Results of spatiotemporal
      analysis showed that five pollution stages were identified with remarkable
      variation patterns based on evolution of PM2.5 concentration and weather
      conditions. Southern sites (DX, YDM and DS) experienced heavier pollution than
      northern ones (DL, CP and WL). Stage P2 exhibited combined functions of
      meteorology and traffic restrictions which were delayed peak-clipping effects on
      PM2.5. Mutual information values of Air quality-Traffic-Meteorology (ATM-MI)
      revealed that additive functions of traffic restrictions, suitable relative
      humidity and temperature were more effective on the removal of fine particles and
      CO than NO2.

PMID- 28888237
TI  - Street floods in Metro Manila and possible solutions.
AB  - Urban floods from thunderstorms cause severe problems in Metro Manila due to road
      traffic. Using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived topography, flood
      simulations and anecdotal reports, the root of surface flood problems in Metro
      Manila is identified. Majority of flood-prone areas are along the intersection of
      creeks and streets located in topographic lows. When creeks overflow or when
      rapidly accumulated street flood does not drain fast enough to the nearest stream
      channel, the intersecting road also gets flooded. Possible solutions include the
      elevation of roads or construction of well-designed drainage structures leading
      to the creeks. Proposed solutions to the flood problem of Metro Manila may avoid
      paralyzing traffic problems due to short-lived rain events, which according to
      Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) cost the Philippine economy
      2.4billionpesos/day.

PMID- 28888238
TI  - GIS-based analysis of population exposure to PM2.5 air pollution-A case study of
      Beijing.
AB  - PM2.5, formally defined as particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5MUm, is
      one of most harmful air pollutants threatening human health. Numerous
      epidemiological studies have shown that both short-term and long-term exposures
      to PM2.5 are strongly linked with respiratory diseases. In this study, various
      types of spatio-temporal data were collected and used to estimate the spatio
      temporal variation of PM2.5 exposure in Beijing in 2014. The seasonal and daily
      variation of the population-weighted exposure level (PWEL) in 2014 was estimated
      and compared. The results show that the population exposure to ambient air
      pollution differs significantly in the four seasons, and the exposure levels in
      winter and spring are notably higher than the other seasons; the exposure level
      changes greatly from North to South, and each sub-district maintains similarity
      to neighboring sub-districts.

PMID- 28888239
TI  - Urban climate in the Tokyo metropolitan area in Japan.
AB  - Long-term climate changes related with urbanization in Tokyo, Japan, and recent
      temperature and heavy rainfall distribution in the Tokyo metropolitan area are
      reviewed. A relatively high temperature increase in annual mean temperature at
      the rate of 3.0 degrees C/century was detected in Tokyo for the period 1901-2015.
      Some observational evidence showed the existence of both thermal and mechanical
      effects of urbanization on recent heavy rainfall occurrences, and modeling
      studies also support precipitation enhancement. Urban influences were recognized
      in other climatological elements, such as number of fog days, relative humidity,
      and wind circulation.

PMID- 28888240
TI  - Sensitivity of precipitation statistics to urban growth in a subtropical coastal
      megacity cluster.
AB  - This short paper presents an investigation on how human activities may or may not
      affect precipitation based on numerical simulations of precipitation in a
      benchmark case with modified lower boundary conditions, representing different
      stages of urban development in the model. The results indicate that certain
      degrees of urbanization affect the likelihood of heavy precipitation
      significantly, while less urbanized or smaller cities are much less prone to
      these effects. Such a result can be explained based on our previous work where
      the sensitivity of precipitation statistics to surface anthropogenic heat sources
      lies in the generation of buoyancy and turbulence in the planetary boundary layer
      and dissipation through triggering of convection. Thus only mega cities of
      sufficient size, and hence human-activity-related anthropogenic heat emission,
      can expect to experience such effects. In other words, as cities grow, their
      effects upon precipitation appear to grow as well.

PMID- 28888241
TI  - Buoyancy and turbulence-driven atmospheric circulation over urban areas.
AB  - In the buoyancy and turbulence-driven atmospheric circulations (BTDAC) that occur
      over urban areas where the approach means wind speeds are very low (less than
      turbulent fluctuations and typically <3m/sec), the surface temperatures are
      significantly higher than those in the external rural areas, and the atmosphere
      above the mixing layer is stably stratified. In this paper, the mechanisms of
      BTDAC formation are studied through laboratory experiments and modelling, with
      additional low-level inflow from external rural areas and a divergent outflow in
      the opposite direction in the upper part of the mixed layer. Strong turbulent
      plumes in the central region mix the flow between lower and higher levels up to
      the inversion height. There are shear-driven turbulent eddies and weaker buoyant
      plumes around the periphery of the urban area. As the approach flow is very weak,
      the recirculating streamlines within the dome restrict the ventilation, and the
      dispersion of pollution emitted from sources below the inversion height leading
      to a rise in the mean concentration. Low-level air entrained from rural areas
      can, however, improve ventilation and lower this concentration. This trend can
      also be improved if the recirculating structure of the BTDAC flow pattern over
      urban areas breaks down as a result of the surface temperature distribution not
      being symmetrical, or as the approach wind speed increases to a level comparable
      with the mean velocity of circulation, or (except near the equator) the urban
      area is large enough that the Coriolis acceleration is significant.

PMID- 28888242
TI  - Surface ozone scenario and air quality in the north-central part of India.
AB  - Tropospheric pollutants including surface ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2),
      carbon monoxide (CO) and meteorological parameters were measured at a traffic
      junction (78 degrees 2' E and 27 degrees 11' N) in Agra, India from January 2012
      to December 2012. Temporal analysis of pollutants suggests that annual average
      mixing ratios of tropospheric pollutants were: O3 - 22.97+/-23.36ppbV, NO2 -
      19.84+/-16.71ppbV and CO - 0.91+/-0.86ppmV, with seasonal variations of O3 having
      maximum mixing ratio during summer season (32.41+/-19.31ppbV), whereas lowest was
      found in post-monsoon season (8.74+/-3.8ppbV). O3 precursors: NO2 and CO, showed
      inverse relationship with O3. Seasonal variation and high O3 episodes during
      summer are associated with meteorological parameters such as high solar
      radiation, atmospheric temperature and transboundary transport. The
      interdependence of these variables showed a link between the daytime mixing
      ratios of O3 with the nighttime level of NO2. The mixing ratios of CO and NO2
      showed tight correlations, which confirms the influence of vehicular emissions
      combined with other anthropogenic activities due to office/working hours,
      shallowing, and widening of boundary layer. FLEXTRA backward trajectories for the
      O3 episode days clearly indicate the transport from the NW and W to S/SE and SW
      direction at Agra in different seasons.

PMID- 28888243
TI  - Challenges to quantitative applications of Landsat observations for the urban
      thermal environment.
AB  - Since the launch of its first satellite in 1972, the Landsat program has operated
      continuously for more than forty years. A large data archive collected by the
      Landsat program significantly benefits both the academic community and society.
      Thermal imagery from Landsat sensors, provided with relatively high spatial
      resolution, is suitable for monitoring urban thermal environment. Growing use of
      Landsat data in monitoring urban thermal environment is demonstrated by
      increasing publications on this subject, especially over the last decade. Urban
      thermal environment is usually delineated by land surface temperature (LST).
      However, the quantitative and accurate estimation of LST from Landsat data is
      still a challenge, especially for urban areas. This paper will discuss the main
      challenges for urban LST retrieval, including urban surface emissivity,
      atmospheric correction, radiometric calibration, and validation. In addition, we
      will discuss general challenges confronting the continuity of quantitative
      applications of Landsat observations. These challenges arise mainly from the scan
      line corrector failure of the Landsat 7 ETM+ and channel differences among
      sensors. Based on these investigations, the concerns are to: (1) show general
      users the limitation and possible uncertainty of the retrieved urban LST from the
      single thermal channel of Landsat sensors; (2) emphasize efforts which should be
      done for the quantitative applications of Landsat data; and (3) understand the
      potential challenges for the continuity of Landsat observation (i.e., thermal
      infrared) for global change monitoring, while several climate data record
      programs being in progress.

PMID- 28888244
TI  - New and Anticipated Therapies for Severe Asthma.
AB  - Asthma is frequently undertreated, resulting in a relatively high prevalence of
      patients with uncontrolled disease, characterized by the presence of symptoms and
      risk of adverse outcomes. Patients with uncontrolled asthma have a higher risk of
      morbidity and mortality, underscoring the importance of identifying uncontrolled
      disease and modifying management plans to improve control. Several assessment
      tools exist to evaluate control with various cutoff points and measures, but
      these tools do not reliably correlate with physiological measures and should be
      considered a supplement to physiological tests. When attempting to improve
      control in patients, nonpharmacological interventions should always be attempted
      before changing or adding pharmacotherapies. Among patients with severe,
      uncontrolled asthma, individualized treatment based on asthma phenotype and
      eosinophil presence should be considered. The efficacy of the anti-IgE antibody
      omalizumab has been well established for patients with allergic asthma, and novel
      biologic agents targeting IL-5, IL-13, IL-4, and other allergic pathways have
      been investigated for patients with allergic or eosinophilic asthma. Fevipiprant
      (a CRTH2 [chemokine receptor homologous molecule expressed on Th2 cells]
      antagonist) and imatinib (a tyrosine kinase inhibition) are examples of
      nonbiologic therapies that may be useful for patients with severe, uncontrolled
      asthma. Incorporation of new and emerging treatment into therapeutic strategies
      for patients with severe asthma may improve outcomes for this patient population.

PMID- 28888245
TI  - Metabolic adventures in aging research.

PMID- 28888246
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28888248
TI  - Epinephrine Autoinjectors: New Data, New Problems.
AB  - Epinephrine is the first-line treatment for anaphylaxis. Despite this, there have
      been identified gaps in the management of anaphylaxis including infrequent or
      delayed use of epinephrine for acute allergic reactions, as well as inadequate
      epinephrine autoinjector (EAI) training, and prescription rates of these devices
      for patients at risk. This paper reviews new data, and new problems in recently
      published literature on EAIs. A database search was conducted for publications
      between January 2015 and February 2017 using keywords related to EAIs including
      their functionality and features, carriage, prescription rates, barriers, and
      side effects. Eligibility criteria included patients at risk for anaphylaxis,
      caregivers, and health care professionals. Experimental studies and observational
      studies were included. Of 1,737 potentially relevant articles, 19 were used for
      analysis. These articles addressed specific aspects of an EAI, including (1)
      information on features and functionality; (2) prescriptions; (3) training on
      their use; and (4) carriage and use at the time of reaction by patients, schools,
      camps, emergency departments, and paramedics. Our review highlights that existing
      gaps in anaphylaxis management remain unaddressed. Patient needs are largely
      unmet, and very few studies are being designed to clarify and instill best
      practice, and to determine how to increase adherence to existing anaphylaxis
      guidelines through integrated knowledge translation strategies.

PMID- 28888247
TI  - Fatal Anaphylaxis: Mortality Rate and Risk Factors.
AB  - Up to 5% of the US population has suffered anaphylaxis. Fatal outcome is rare,
      such that even for people with known venom or food allergy, fatal anaphylaxis
      constitutes less than 1% of total mortality risk. The incidence of fatal
      anaphylaxis has not increased in line with hospital admissions for anaphylaxis.
      Fatal drug anaphylaxis may be increasing, but rates of fatal anaphylaxis to venom
      and food are stable. Risk factors for fatal anaphylaxis vary according to cause.
      For fatal drug anaphylaxis, previous cardiovascular morbidity and older age are
      risk factors, with beta-lactam antibiotics, general anesthetic agents, and
      radiocontrast injections the commonest triggers. Fatal food anaphylaxis most
      commonly occurs during the second and third decades. Delayed epinephrine
      administration is a risk factor; common triggers are nuts, seafood, and in
      children, milk. For fatal venom anaphylaxis, risk factors include middle age,
      male sex, white race, cardiovascular disease, and possibly mastocytosis; insect
      triggers vary by region. Upright posture is a feature of fatal anaphylaxis to
      both food and venom. The rarity of fatal anaphylaxis and the significant quality
      of life impact of allergic conditions suggest that quality of life impairment
      should be a key consideration when making treatment decisions in patients at risk
      for anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28888249
TI  - Do Corticosteroids Prevent Biphasic Anaphylaxis?
AB  - Anaphylaxis is a severe hypersensitivity reaction that is rapid in onset and can
      result in death. The pattern of an anaphylactic reaction can be uniphasic (or
      monophasic), biphasic (also called delayed or late phase), or refractory in
      nature. The most widely cited definition of biphasic anaphylaxis is a recurrence
      of anaphylactic symptoms after initial resolution despite no further exposure to
      the trigger. Corticosteroids are thought by some to prevent the development of
      biphasic symptoms and, therefore, commonly used in the emergency treatment of
      anaphylaxis but this has not been systemtically analyzed. In this review, Ovid
      MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched for articles using
      "anaphylaxis" combined with the key terms "biphasic" and/or "corticosteroids"
      and/or "epinephrine." A total of 31 appropriate studies were identified. Biphasic
      anaphylactic reactions are more likely to occur in moderate to severe anaphylaxis
      or when anaphylaxis is not treated with timely epinephrine. Because of the
      potential detrimental adverse effects of corticosteroids and lack of compelling
      evidence demonstrating an effective role in reducing anaphylaxis severity or
      preventing biphasic anaphylaxis, we do not advocate for their routine use in
      anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28888250
TI  - Latex Allergy: Where Are We Now and How Did We Get There?
AB  - Latex allergy emerged as an epidemic of anaphylaxis, occupational asthma, and
      clinical dilemmas in the 1980s. A systematic recognition, investigation,
      discovery, epidemiology, and prevention strategy followed. International
      attention and collaborations of investigators, government agencies,
      manufacturing, and health policy resulted in near elimination of a global
      epidemic. This article summarizes nearly 4 decades of work in control of this
      epidemic and focuses attention on future problems that still require resolution.

PMID- 28888251
TI  - Anaphylaxis: Recognizing Risk and Targeting Treatment.

PMID- 28888252
TI  - Anaphylaxis and Clinical Utility of Real-World Measurement of Acute Serum
      Tryptase in UK Emergency Departments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: British guidelines recommend that serial acute serum tryptase
      measurements be checked in all adults and a subset of children presenting with
      anaphylaxis. This is the first study reporting the clinical utility of acute
      serum tryptase in a "real-world" emergency department (ED) setting following the
      publication of the World Allergy Organization (WAO) criteria for anaphylaxis.
      OBJECTIVES: To (1) assess sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative
      predictive values (PPV, NPV) of acute serum tryptase in anaphylaxis; (b)
      determine factors associated with higher acute serum tryptase levels; and (c)
      audit compliance of acute serum tryptase measurement in the ED. METHODS: The
      methods used were retrospective electronic search for ED admissions to 3 acute
      care hospitals in Birmingham, UK, with anaphylaxis in 2012 using wide search
      terms followed by scrutiny of electronic clinical records and application of the
      WAO diagnostic criteria for anaphylaxis. Patients with an acute serum tryptase
      measurement were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Acute serum tryptase level
      was measured in 141 of 426 (33.1%) cases. Mean time from the onset of symptoms to
      the measurement of acute serum tryptase level was 4 hours 42 minutes (SD +/-
      05:03 hours) and no patients had serial measurements conforming to British
      guidelines. Acute serum tryptase level of more than 12.4 ng/mL (75th centile) was
      associated with a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of 28%, 88%, 0.93, and
      0.17, respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that male sex (odds
      ratio, 2.66; P = .003) and hypotension (odds ratio, 7.08; P = .001) predicted
      higher acute serum tryptase level. CONCLUSIONS: An acute serum tryptase level of
      more than 12.4 ng/mL in an ED setting carries high PPV and specificity, but poor
      sensitivity and NPV.

PMID- 28888254
TI  - In-season Dosage Adjustment for Pollen Subcutaneous Immunotherapy: The
      Controversy Continues.

PMID- 28888253
TI  - Further Evaluation of Factors That May Predict Biphasic Reactions in Emergency
      Department Anaphylaxis Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anaphylaxis is a systemic allergic reaction that is commonly treated
      in the emergency department (ED). The risk of a biphasic reaction is the
      rationale for observation. OBJECTIVE: To derive a prediction rule to stratify ED
      anaphylaxis patients at risk of a biphasic reaction. METHODS: We conducted an
      observational study of a cohort of patients presenting to an academic ED with
      signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis. We collected clinical data on biphasic
      reactions meeting National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease/Food
      Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network diagnostic criteria. Logistic regression analyses
      were conducted to identify predictors of biphasic reactions, and odds ratios
      (ORs) with 95% CIs are reported. The predictive ability of the model features is
      summarized using the area under a receiver operating characteristics curve, or
      AUC. Internally validated AUCs were obtained using bootstrap resampling. RESULTS:
      We identified 872 anaphylaxis-related visits. Thirty-six (4.1%) visits resulted
      in biphasic reactions. Multivariable analysis showed that prior anaphylaxis (OR,
      2.74; 95% CI, 1.33-5.63), unknown inciting trigger (OR, 2.40; 95% CI, 1.14-4.99),
      and first epinephrine administration more than 60 minutes after symptom onset
      (OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.09-4.79) were statistically significantly associated with
      biphasic reactions. The AUC of this model was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.61-0.79), with an
      internally validated AUC of 0.67 (95% CI, 0.59-0.76). The P value from the
      goodness-of-fit test was .91. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated a 4.1% rate of
      biphasic reactions and found that prior anaphylaxis, unknown inciting trigger,
      and delayed epinephrine use were risk factors for biphasic reactions.

PMID- 28888255
TI  - What Does Screening Newborns for T-Cell Lymphopenia Find?

PMID- 28888256
TI  - Vaccine Reactions.

PMID- 28888257
TI  - Gelatin Anaphylaxis During Surgery: A Rare Cause of Perioperative Anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28888258
TI  - Actually Calling and Talking with Your Patient.

PMID- 28888259
TI  - Is treatment of serological ABPA similar to that of ABPA with bronchiectasis?

PMID- 28888260
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28888261
TI  - Erratum to "Photomodified fluoranthene exerts more harmful effects as compared to
      intact fluoranthene by inhibiting growth and photosynthetic processes in wheat"
      [Ecotoxicol. Environ. Saf. 122 (2015), 31-36].

PMID- 28888262
TI  - Introduction.

PMID- 28888263
TI  - Epidemiology of racial/ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity and
      mortality.
AB  - The literature abounds with examples of racial/ethnic disparities in both
      obstetric outcomes and care. Disparities in maternal mortality are well
      documented with non-Hispanic blacks carrying the burden of the highest maternal
      mortality rates. Maternal deaths likely represent only the "tip of the iceberg"
      with respect to pregnancy complications, leading many to explore risk factors and
      disparities in severe maternal morbidity, a more common precursor to maternal
      mortality. This review article explores commonly cited indicators of severe
      maternal morbidity and includes a review of the epidemiological literature
      supporting or refuting disparities among each indicator.

PMID- 28888264
TI  - Availability of patient decision aids for stroke prevention in atrial
      fibrillation: A systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation is a common irregular heart rhythm that increases
      patients' risk of stroke. Aspirin, warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants, and an
      implantable device can reduce this risk. Given the availability of multiple
      comparable options, this decision depends on patient preferences and is
      appropriate for the use of decision aids and other efforts to promote shared
      decision making. The objective of this review was to examine the existence and
      accessibility of, as well as select outcomes associated with, published, formally
      evaluated patient decision aids for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.
      METHODS: Six databases were searched from inception to March 2016 with a research
      librarian. Two authors independently reviewed potential articles, selected trials
      meeting inclusion criteria, and assessed outcome measures. Outcomes included
      patient knowledge, involvement, choice, and decisional conflict. RESULTS: The
      search resulted in 666 articles; most were excluded for not examining stroke
      prevention in atrial fibrillation and 7 studies were eventually included. Six
      decision aids displayed combinations of aspirin, warfarin, or no therapy; 1
      included a direct oral anticoagulant. Interventions were associated with
      increased patient knowledge, increased likelihood of making a choice, and low
      decisional conflict. Use of decision aids in this review was associated with less
      selection of warfarin. None of the tested decision aids are currently available.
      DISCUSSION: Published patient decision aids for stroke prevention in atrial
      fibrillation are not accessible for clinical use. Given the availability of
      multiple comparable options, there is a need to develop and test new patient
      decision aids in this context.

PMID- 28888265
TI  - Temporal changes in myocardial infarction incidence rates are associated with
      periods of perceived psychosocial stress: A SWEDEHEART national registry study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Psychosocial stress might trigger myocardial infarction (MI).
      Increased MI incidence coincides with recurrent time periods during the year
      perceived as particularly stressful in the population. METHODS: A stress
      triggering hypothesis on the risk of MI onset was investigated with Swedish
      population data on MI hospital admission date and symptom onset date (N=156,690;
      148,176) as registered from 2006 through 2013 in the national quality registry
      database Swedish Web-system for Enhancement and Development of Evidence-based
      care in Heart disease Evaluated According to Recommended Therapies (SWEDEHEART).
      Poisson regression was applied to analyze daily MI rates during days belonging to
      the Christmas and New Year holidays, turns of the month, Mondays, weekends, and
      summer vacation in July compared with remaining control days. RESULTS: Adjusted
      incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for MI rates were higher during Christmas and New
      Year holidays (IRR=1.07 [1.04-1.09], P<.001) and on Mondays (IRR=1.11 [1.09
      1.13], P<.001) and lower in July (IRR=0.92 [0.90-0.94], P<.001) and over weekends
      (IRR=0.88 [0.87-0.89], P<.001), yet not during the turns of the month (IRR=1.01
      [1.00-1.02], P=.891). These findings were also predominantly robust with symptom
      onset as alternative outcome, when adjusting for both established and some
      suggested-but-untested confounders, and in 8 subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Fluctuations
      in daily MI incidence rates are systematically related to time periods of
      presumed psychosocial stress. Further research might clarify mechanisms that are
      amenable to clinical alteration.

PMID- 28888266
TI  - New York Heart Association class and the survival benefit from primary prevention
      implantable cardioverter defibrillators: A pooled analysis of 4 randomized
      controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)
      reduce all-cause mortality by reducing sudden cardiac death. There are
      conflicting data regarding whether patients with more advanced heart failure
      derive ICD benefit owing to the competing risk of nonsudden death. METHODS: We
      performed a patient-level meta-analysis of New York Heart Association (NYHA)
      class II/III heart failure patients (left ventricular ejection fraction <=35%)
      from 4 primary prevention ICD trials (MADIT-I, MADIT-II, DEFINITE, SCD-HeFT).
      Bayesian-Weibull survival regression models were used to assess the impact of
      NYHA class on the relationship between ICD use and mortality. RESULTS: Of the
      2,763 patients who met study criteria, 68% (n=1,867) were NYHA II and 52%
      (n=1,435) were randomized to an ICD. In a multivariable model including all study
      patients, the ICD reduced mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0.65, 95% posterior
      credibility interval [PCI]) 0.40-0.99). The interaction between NYHA class and
      the ICD on mortality was significant (posterior probability of no
      interaction=.036). In models including an interaction term for the NYHA class and
      ICD, the ICD reduced mortality among NYHA class II patients (HR 0.55, PCI 0.35
      0.85), and the point estimate suggested reduced mortality in NYHA class III
      patients (HR 0.76, PCI 0.48-1.24), although this was not statistically
      significant. CONCLUSIONS: Primary prevention ICDs reduce mortality in NYHA class
      II patients and trend toward reducing mortality in the heterogeneous group of
      NYHA class III patients. Improved risk stratification tools are required to guide
      patient selection and shared decision making among NYHA class III primary
      prevention ICD candidates.

PMID- 28888267
TI  - Sex-based differences in quality of care and outcomes in a health system using a
      standardized STEMI protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent data from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry indicate
      that women with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) continue to
      have higher mortality and reported delays in treatment compared with men. We
      aimed to determine whether the sex difference in mortality exists when treatment
      disparities are reduced. METHODS: Using a prospective regional percutaneous
      coronary intervention (PCI)-based STEMI system database with a standardized STEMI
      protocol, we evaluated baseline characteristics, treatment, and clinical outcomes
      of STEMI patients stratified by sex. RESULTS: From March 2003 to January 2016,
      4,918 consecutive STEMI patients presented to the Minneapolis Heart Institute at
      Abbott Northwestern Hospital regional STEMI system including 1,416 (28.8%) women.
      Compared with men, women were older (68.4 vs 60.9 years) with higher rates of
      hypertension (66.7% vs 55.7%), diabetes (21.7% vs 17.4%), and cardiogenic shock
      (11.5% vs 8.0%) (all P < .001). Pre-revascularization medications and PCI were
      performed with same frequencies, but women were less likely to receive statin or
      antiplatelet therapy at discharge. After age adjustment, women had similar in
      hospital mortality to men (5.1% vs 4.8%, P = .60) despite slightly longer door-to
      balloon time (95 vs 92 minutes, P = .004). Five-year follow-up confirmed absence
      of a sex disparity in age-adjusted survival post-STEMI. CONCLUSIONS: Previously
      reported treatment disparities between men and women are diminished in a regional
      PCI-based STEMI system using a standardized STEMI protocol. No sex differences in
      short-term or long-term age-adjusted mortality are present in this registry
      despite some treatment disparities. These results suggest that STEMI health care
      disparities and mortality in women can be improved using STEMI protocols and
      systems.

PMID- 28888269
TI  - Depression is associated with recurrent chest pain with or without coronary
      artery disease: A prospective cohort study in the emergency department.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Only a small fraction of acute chest pain in the emergency department
      (ED) is due to obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). ED chest pain remains
      associated with high rates of recidivism, often in the presence of nonobstructive
      CAD. Psychological states such as depression, anxiety, and elevation of perceived
      stress may account for this finding. The objective of the study was to determine
      whether psychological states predict recurrent chest pain (RCP). METHODS: We
      conducted a prospective cohort study of low- to moderate-cardiac risk ED patients
      admitted to the Yale Chest Pain Center with acute chest pain. Depression,
      anxiety, and perceived stress were assessed in each patient using multistudy
      validated screening scales: Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ8), Clinical Anxiety
      Scale (CAS), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), respectively. All patients ruled
      out for infarction underwent appropriate cardiac stress testing. Primary outcome
      was RCP at 30 days evaluated by phone follow-up and medical record. The
      relationship between each psychological scale and RCP was evaluated using ordinal
      logistic regressions, controlling for known sociodemographic and cardiac risk
      factors. Depression (PHQ8>=10), anxiety (CAS>=30), and perceived stress (PSS>=15)
      were considered positive. RESULTS: Between August 2013 and May 2015, 985 patients
      were screened at the Yale Chest Pain Center. Of 500 enrolled patients, 483
      patients had complete data and 365 (76%) patients completed follow-up. Thirty-six
      percent (n=131) had RCP within 1 month. On multivariable regression models,
      depression (odds ratio [OR]=2.11, 95% CI 1.18-3.79) was a significant independent
      predictor of 30-day chest pain recurrence after adjustment, whereas PSS (OR=0.96,
      95% CI 0.60-1.53) and anxiety (OR=1.59, 95% CI 0.80-3.20) were not. Similarly,
      there was a direct relationship between psychometric evaluation of depression
      (via PHQ8) and the frequency of chest pain. CONCLUSIONS: Depression is
      independently associated with RCP regardless of significant cardiac ischemia on
      stress testing. Identification and targeted interventions may curtail recidivism
      with RCP.

PMID- 28888268
TI  - A randomized, multicenter, open-label, blinded end point trial comparing the
      effects of spironolactone to chlorthalidone on left ventricular mass in patients
      with early-stage chronic kidney disease: Rationale and design of the SPIRO-CKD
      trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased left
      ventricular (LV) mass and arterial stiffness. In a previous trial, spironolactone
      improved these end points compared with placebo in subjects with early-stage CKD,
      but it is not known whether these effects were specific to the drug or secondary
      to blood pressure lowering. AIM: The aim was to investigate the hypothesis that
      spironolactone is superior to chlorthalidone in the reduction of LV mass while
      exerting similar effects on blood pressure. DESIGN: This is a multicenter,
      prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded end point clinical trial initially
      designed to compare the effects of 40weeks of treatment with spironolactone 25mg
      once daily to chlorthalidone 25mg once daily on the co-primary end points of
      change in pulse wave velocity and change in LV mass in 350 patients with stages 2
      and 3 CKD on established treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme
      inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Because of slow recruitment rates,
      it became apparent that it would not be possible to recruit this sample size
      within the funded time period. The study design was therefore changed to one with
      a single primary end point of LV mass requiring 150 patients. Recruitment was
      completed on 31 December 2016, at which time 154 patients had been recruited.
      Investigations included cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, applanation
      tonometry, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and laboratory tests.
      Subjects are assessed before and after 40weeks of randomly allocated drug therapy
      and at 46weeks after discontinuation of the study drug.

PMID- 28888271
TI  - Clinical event adjudication in cardiovascular device trials: An Food and Drug
      Administration perspective.

PMID- 28888270
TI  - Soluble endothelial cell-selective adhesion molecule and incident cardiovascular
      events in a multiethnic population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cell adhesion molecules are key regulators of atherosclerotic plaque
      development, but circulating levels of soluble fragments, such as intercellular
      adhesion molecule (sICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (sVCAM-1), have
      yielded conflicting associations with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
      (ASCVD). Endothelial cell-selective adhesion molecule (ESAM) is expressed
      exclusively in platelets and endothelial cells, and soluble ESAM (sESAM) levels
      have been associated with prevalent subclinical atherosclerosis. We therefore
      hypothesized that sESAM would be associated with incident ASCVD. METHODS: sESAM,
      sICAM-1, and sVCAM-1 were measured in 2,442 participants without CVD in the
      Dallas Heart Study, a probability-based population sample aged 30-65 years
      enrolled between 2000 and 2002. ASCVD was defined as first myocardial infarction,
      stroke, coronary revascularization, or CV death. A total of 162 ASCVD events were
      analyzed over 10.4 years. RESULTS: Increasing sESAM was associated with ASCVD,
      independent of risk factors (HR Q4 vs Q1: 2.7, 95% CI 1.6-4.6). Serial adjustment
      for renal function, sICAM-1, VCAM-1, and prevalent coronary calcium did not
      attenuate these associations. Continuous ESAM demonstrated similar findings (HR
      1.31, 95% CI 1.2-1.4). Addition of sESAM to traditional risk factors improved
      discrimination and reclassification (delta c-index: P = .009; integrated
      discrimination-improvement index P = .001; net reclassification index = 0.42, 95%
      CI 0.15-0.68). Neither sICAM-1 nor sVCAM-1 was independently associated with
      ASCVD. CONCLUSIONS: sESAM but not sICAM-1 or sVCAM-1 levels are associated with
      incident ASCVD. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of sESAM in
      ASCVD.

PMID- 28888272
TI  - Gender differences in coronary angiography, subsequent interventions, and
      outcomes among patients with acute coronary syndromes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective was to investigate whether gender disparities are found
      in referrals of patients with acute coronary syndromes to percutaneous coronary
      interventions (PCIs) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and, furthermore,
      to study gender differences in complications and mortality. METHODS: All
      consecutive coronary angiographies (CAs) and PCIs performed in Sweden and Iceland
      are prospectively registered in the Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty
      Registry. For the present analysis, data of patients with acute coronary
      syndromes, enrolled in 2007-2011, were used to analyze gender differences in
      revascularization, in-hospital complications, and 30-day mortality. RESULTS: A
      total of 106,881 CAs were performed during the study period. In patients with
      significant coronary artery disease, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for women to
      undergo PCI compared with men was 0.95 (95% CI 0.92-0.99) and 0.81 (0.76-0.87)
      for referrals to CABG. In patients with 1-vessel disease, women were less likely
      to undergo PCI than men, but women with 2- or 3-vessel or left main stem disease
      were more likely to undergo PCI. All in-hospital complications after CA followed
      by PCI were more frequent among women (adjusted OR 1.58 [1.47-1.70]). There was
      no gender difference in adjusted 30-day mortality after PCI (1.02 [0.92-1.12])
      and after CABG (0.97 [0.72-1.31]). CONCLUSIONS: After CA showing 1-vessel
      disease, women as compared with men were less likely to undergo PCI. In the group
      with 2- or 3-vessel disease or left main stem stenosis, women were more likely to
      undergo PCI but less likely to undergo CABG. However, there was no gender
      difference in 30-day mortality.

PMID- 28888274
TI  - Blood pressure reactivity to psychological stress is associated with clinical
      outcomes in patients with heart failure.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular (CV) reactivity to psychological stress has been
      implicated in the development and exacerbation of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
      Although high CV reactivity traditionally is thought to convey greater risk of
      CVD, the relationship between reactivity and clinical outcomes is inconsistent
      and may depend on the patient population under investigation. The present study
      examined CV reactivity in patients with heart failure (HF) and its potential
      association with long-term clinical outcomes. METHODS: One hundred ninety-nine
      outpatients diagnosed with HF, with ejection fraction <=40%, underwent an
      evaluation of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate reactivity to a laboratory-based
      simulated public-speaking stressor. Cox proportional hazards regression models
      were used to examine the prospective association between BP and heart rate
      reactivity on a combined end point of death or CV hospitalization over a 5-year
      median follow-up period. RESULTS: Both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and
      diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity, quantified as continuous variables,
      were inversely related to risk of death or CV hospitalization (Ps < .01) after
      controlling for established risk factors, including HF disease severity and
      etiology. In similar models, heart rate reactivity was unrelated to outcome (P =
      .12). In models with tertiles of reactivity, high SBP reactivity, compared with
      intermediate SBP reactivity, was associated with lower risk (hazard ratio [HR] =
      .498, 95% CI .335-.742, P =.001), whereas low SBP reactivity did not differ from
      intermediate reactivity. For DBP, high reactivity was marginally associated with
      lower risk compared with intermediate DBP reactivity (HR = .767, 95% CI .515
      1.14, P =.193), whereas low DBP reactivity was associated with greater risk (HR =
      1.49, 95% CI 1.027-2.155, P =.0359). No relationship of heart rate reactivity to
      outcome was identified. CONCLUSIONS: For HF patients with reduced ejection
      fraction, a robust increase in BP evoked by a laboratory-based psychological
      challenge was associated with lower risk for adverse CVD events and may be a
      novel and unique marker of left ventricular systolic reserve that is accompanied
      by a more favorable long-term prognosis.

PMID- 28888276
TI  - Protocol changes to the TRIUMPH study.

PMID- 28888275
TI  - Mean arterial pressure of 65 mm Hg versus 85-100 mm Hg in comatose survivors
      after cardiac arrest: Rationale and study design of the Neuroprotect post-cardiac
      arrest trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Post-cardiac arrest (CA) patients admitted to the intensive care unit
      (ICU) have a poor prognosis, with estimated survival rates of around 30%-50%. On
      admission, these patients have a large cerebral penumbra at risk for additional
      damage in case of suboptimal brain oxygenation during their stay in the ICU. The
      aim of the Neuroprotect post-CA trial is to investigate whether forcing mean
      arterial blood pressure (MAP) and mixed venous oxygen saturation (SVO2) in a
      specific range (MAP 85-100 mm Hg, SVO2 65%-75%) with additional pharmacological
      support (goal-directed hemodynamic optimization) may better salvage the penumbra,
      reduce cerebral ischemia, and improve functional outcome when compared with
      current standard of care (MAP 65 mm Hg). DESIGN: The Neuroprotect post-CA trial
      (NCT02541591) is a multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, open-label, assessor
      blinded, monitored, and investigator-driven clinical trial. The trial will be
      conducted in 2 tertiary care hospitals in Belgium (UZ Leuven and ZOL-Genk). A
      total of 112 eligible patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to goal
      directed hemodynamic optimization or standard care strategy by an interactive
      voice response system. Patients will be stratified according to the presence of
      an initial shockable rhythm. Adult patients (>=18 years) resuscitated from out-of
      hospital CA of a presumed cardiac cause who are unconscious upon hospital
      admission are eligible for inclusion. Patients can be included irrespective of
      their presenting heart rhythm but need to have a sustained return of spontaneous
      circulation. Trial interventions will take 36 hours starting from ICU admission.
      The primary outcome is the extent of cerebral ischemia as quantified by the
      apparent diffusion coefficient on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging
      to be performed at day 4-5 post-CA. Secondary outcomes include surrogate
      biomarkers of brain injury (neuron specific enolase) at day 1-5,
      neuropsychological and functional testing at hospital discharge, a Short Form-36
      health questionnaire at 180 days, and outcome as assessed with cerebral
      performance category scores at ICU discharge and at 180 days. CONCLUSIONS: The
      Neuroprotect post-CA trial will investigate whether a more aggressive hemodynamic
      strategy to obtain a MAP 85-100 mm Hg and SVO2 65%-75% reduces brain ischemia and
      improves outcome when compared with standard treatment (MAP 65 mm Hg) in comatose
      post-CA survivors.

PMID- 28888277
TI  - Erratum for "Specific RNA-Binding Antibodies with a Four-Amino-Acid Code" [J.
      Mol. Biol.426 (2014) 2145-2157].

PMID- 28888273
TI  - Multinational and multiethnic variations in health-related quality of life in
      patients with chronic heart failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with
      heart failure (HF) is an important goal of clinical care and HF research. We
      sought to investigate ethnic differences in perceived HRQoL and its association
      with mortality among patients with HF and left ventricular ejection fraction
      <=35%, controlling for demographic characteristics and HF severity. METHODS AND
      RESULTS: We compared 5697 chronic HF patients of Indian (26%), white (23%),
      Chinese (17%), Japanese/Koreans (12%), black (12%), and Malay (10%) ethnicities
      from the HF-ACTION and ASIAN-HF multinational studies using the Kansas City
      Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ; range 0-100; higher scores reflect better
      health status). KCCQ scores were lowest in Malay (58+/-22) and Chinese (60+/-23),
      intermediate in black (64+/-21) and Indian (65+/-23), and highest in white (67+/
      20) and Japanese or Korean patients (67+/-22) after adjusting for age, sex,
      educational status, HF severity, and risk factors. Self-efficacy, which measures
      confidence in the ability to manage symptoms, was lower in all Asian ethnicities
      (especially Japanese/Koreans [60+/-26], Malay [66+/-23], and Chinese [64+/-28])
      compared to black (80+/-21) and white (82+/-19) patients, even after
      multivariable adjustment (P<.001). In all ethnicities, KCCQ strongly predicted 1
      year mortality (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.30-0.67 for highest vs lowest quintile of KCCQ;
      P for interaction by ethnicity .101). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, HRQoL is inversely
      and independently related to mortality in chronic HF but is not modified by
      ethnicity. Nevertheless, ethnic differences exist independent of HF severity and
      comorbidities. These data may have important implications for future global
      clinical HF trials that use patient-reported outcomes as endpoints.

PMID- 28888278
TI  - Are all jobs created equal? A cross-national analysis of women's employment and
      child malnutrition in developing countries.
AB  - Using multi-level models, the analysis examines female employment and child
      stunting across 49 developing countries. At the country level, female labor force
      participation is not associated with malnutrition after controlling for economic
      development. At the individual level, a binary measure of employment is not
      significantly associated with malnutrition. However, a more nuanced measure of
      seven occupational categories shows that certain types of employment improve
      malnutrition. Professional, clerical, sales, and domestic jobs are associated
      with reduced stunting. These effects are only partially mediated by wealth,
      perhaps suggesting that some jobs may bring benefits to the household beyond the
      sheer acquisition of tangible resources. Agricultural jobs are associated with
      increased malnutrition. Manual labor and service work do not have an effect on
      malnutrition, compared to unemployment. Thus, women's employment is not
      necessarily a mechanism for empowerment and wellbeing. Not all jobs are created
      equal, and many of them do not confer the benefits that are typically associated
      with working outside the home.

PMID- 28888279
TI  - A social ecology of civil conflict: Shifting allegiances in the conflict in
      Sierra Leone.
AB  - Drawing on data from a survey of 1043 ex-combatants who took part in the civil
      war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002) this paper explores the conditions that predict a
      key outcome in the conflict literature: defection, or side-switching between the
      various organizations at war. This paper advances arguments drawn from the
      organizational ecology school and works to extend key theories related to "Blau
      Space" to the study of civil war. Using a series of logistic regression
      procedures, this paper tests various competing hypotheses against key
      contributions of the organizational ecology school. Key findings of this work
      suggest support for major hypotheses in this literature as net of important
      theoretical conditions, defections are most likely when individuals are either
      demographically atypical of their organization (niche edge) or most susceptible
      to competition for their services by other groups (niche overlap).

PMID- 28888280
TI  - Intergenerational transmission of parent-child relationship quality: Evidence
      from a multi-actor survey.
AB  - Intergenerational transmission is a long-standing interest of social science
      research. However, little attention has been devoted to the study of transmission
      of relationship quality between several generations of family members. Exploiting
      multigenerational multi-actor data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), we
      estimate multilevel models to investigate whether, in three-generation families,
      relationship quality between the middle generation and the oldest (that is,
      grandparent) generation predicts relationship quality between the youngest
      generation of adolescent children and the middle generation. Our results reveal
      evidence of intergenerational transmission of emotional closeness, conflict, and
      ambivalence. Transmission was more consistently observed when emanating from ties
      to grandfathers than from ties to grandmothers. A hypothesis concerning
      differences in the strength of transmission between East Germany and West Germany
      found no support. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations and
      perspectives for future research.

PMID- 28888281
TI  - Intergenerational relations before and after offspring arrive: A within-person
      investigation.
AB  - The birth of a child may re-orientate the relations between adult children and
      their parents; however, the previous studies on the topic are both scarce and
      methodologically limited. The current study investigates whether younger adults'
      entry into parenthood (i.e., the birth of the first child) is associated with
      increased contact frequency, emotional closeness, intimacy and conflict with
      their own parents. The participants are from the German Panel Analysis of
      Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics, which is a prospective survey of
      younger adults with six annual follow-up waves between 2009 and 2014 (n = 17,662
      person-observations from 4821 persons). Within-person regression with a focus on
      each individual's variation over time was used to detect changes in
      intergenerational relations. The contact frequency between daughters and mothers
      increased after the arrival of their first child. In contrast, the emotional
      closeness and intimacy between sons and mothers decreased after the birth of
      their first child. The results are discussed with reference to gender-based
      differences in intergenerational relations.

PMID- 28888282
TI  - Market transformation and the opportunity structure for gender inequality: A
      cohort analysis using linked employer-employee data from Slovenia.

PMID- 28888283
TI  - In-home firearm access among US adolescents and the role of religious subculture:
      Results from a nationally representative study.
AB  - Religious participation is linked to numerous positive safety outcomes for
      adolescents. Scant attention, however, has been paid to associations between
      religious participation and safety risks among adolescents. Using data from Add
      Health (N = 18,449), a nationally representative school-based sample of US
      adolescents, this study examines the relationship between adolescents' religious
      affiliation and easy access to firearms at home. Regression analyses adjust for
      complex sampling design and compare easy firearm access at home among
      conservative Protestant adolescents to adolescent firearm access in other
      religious traditions. Conservative Protestant adolescents have a substantially
      greater likelihood of easy access to a gun at home compared to adolescents of all
      other major religious traditions in the United States. Recognizing differences in
      adolescent firearm access between subcultural groups can help public health
      interventions more effectively identify and address the needs of vulnerable
      populations. The paper's conclusion considers suggestions for effective policy
      and programmatic initiatives.

PMID- 28888284
TI  - Long-term consequences of youth volunteering: Voluntary versus involuntary
      service.
AB  - Despite the renewed interest in youth volunteering in recent years, there remain
      major gaps in our knowledge of its consequences. Drawing data from the National
      Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine the long-term
      effects of youth volunteering on the civic and personal aspects of volunteers'
      lives. Our results suggest that youth volunteering has a positive return on adult
      volunteering only when it is voluntary, and that net of contextual factors
      neither voluntary nor involuntary youth service has a significant effect on adult
      voting. Regarding personal outcomes, our findings indicate that the psychological
      benefits of youth volunteering accrue only to voluntary participants, whereas
      both voluntary and involuntary youth service are positively associated with
      educational attainment and earnings in young adulthood. Taken together, these
      results lend support to the case for youth volunteer programs, though the civic
      benefits of these programs appear to be less dramatic than generally suggested.

PMID- 28888285
TI  - The stratification of college-going Latinos' postsecondary destinations.

PMID- 28888286
TI  - Applying to college: Do information deficits lower the likelihood of college
      eligible students from less-privileged families to pursue their college
      intentions?: Evidence from a field experiment.
AB  - Information deficits are considered an important source of why students from less
      privileged families do not enroll in college, even when they are college-eligible
      and intend to go to college. In this paper, we examine whether correct and
      detailed information on the costs of and returns to higher education increases
      the likelihood of college applications of less-privileged high school graduates
      who expressed college intentions in their junior high school year. We employ an
      experimental design with a randomly assigned 25-minute information treatment
      about funding opportunities for, and returns to, higher education given at Berlin
      schools awarding university entrance qualifications. Our analyses show that our
      information treatment indeed substantially increases the likelihood of treated
      less-privileged students to apply to college. Our study indicates that our low
      cost provision of financial information not only increased their college
      knowledge but also substantially changed their college application behavior,
      despite other existing barriers, like economic constraints.

PMID- 28888287
TI  - The optimism trap: Migrants' educational choices in stratified education systems.
AB  - Immigrant children's ambitious educational choices have often been linked to
      their families' high level of optimism and motivation for upward mobility.
      However, previous research has mostly neglected alternative explanations such as
      information asymmetries or anticipated discrimination. Moreover, immigrant
      children's higher dropout rates at the higher secondary and university level
      suggest that low performing migrant students could have benefitted more from
      pursuing less ambitious tracks, especially in countries that offer viable
      vocational alternatives. We examine ethnic minority's educational choices using a
      sample of academically low performing, lower secondary school students in
      Germany's highly stratified education system. We find that their families'
      optimism diverts migrant students from viable vocational alternatives.
      Information asymmetries and anticipated discrimination do not explain their high
      educational ambitions. While our findings further support the immigrant optimism
      hypothesis, we discuss how its effect may have different implications depending
      on the education system.

PMID- 28888288
TI  - The effect of sociodemographic (mis)match between interviewers and respondents on
      unit and item nonresponse in Belgium.
AB  - Interviewer characteristics affect nonresponse and measurement errors in face-to
      face surveys. Some studies have shown that mismatched sociodemographic
      characteristics - for example gender - affect people's behavior when interacting
      with an interviewer at the door and during the survey interview, resulting in
      more nonresponse. We investigate the effect of sociodemographic (mis)matching on
      nonresponse in two successive rounds of the European Social Survey in Belgium. As
      such, we replicate the analyses of the effect of (mis)matching gender and age on
      unit nonresponse on the one hand, and of gender, age and education level
      (mis)matching on item nonresponse on the other hand. Recurring effects of
      sociodemographic (mis)match are found for both unit and item nonresponse.

PMID- 28888289
TI  - Measuring multiple discrimination through a survey-based methodology.
AB  - This paper focuses on the concept of multiple discrimination and its measurement
      through survey methods. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental comparison
      of survey mode effects on the quality of discrimination measurement: the
      traditional 'face-to-face' survey, the conventional self-completed mode and CAWI
      (finally deleted due to its non-comparability). Consistent with our hypothesis,
      some support was obtained for the social desirability bias and survey mode
      effects: 1) self-administration of questionnaires favours the declaration of
      discriminatory attitudes and personal experiences of discrimination; 2) the
      effect of privacy is greater in direct indicators of discriminatory attitudes; 3)
      perceptions and experiences of discrimination are more frequently reported by
      highly educated respondents. Nevertheless, contrary to our expectations, less
      educated respondents are also affected by survey mode and continue to be
      underrepresented in self-completed methods. The current research aims to serve as
      a basis for further research in this area.

PMID- 28888290
TI  - Experiencing discrimination in Los Angeles: Latinos at the intersection of legal
      status and socioeconomic status.
AB  - Despite its recent slowdown, immigration from Latin America continues to be a
      controversial issue. Some scholars argue that the social climate is increasingly
      inhospitable to Latinos, potentially fueling discriminatory attitudes and
      behaviors. However, little research has examined Latinos' experiences with
      discrimination, especially variation by nativity and legal status. We address
      this issue with research on perceived discrimination among Mexican and Central
      American residents of Los Angeles County, a major destination for Latin American
      immigrants. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and
      the American Community Survey, the analyses consider immigrants' legal status,
      intersectionality, and competing perspectives on assimilation. The results show
      that undocumented immigrants do not report especially high levels of
      discrimination. Instead, young U.S.-born Latinos are the most likely to report
      mistreatment in interpersonal and institutional domains. Neighborhood ethnoracial
      and income diversity also have implications for perceived exposure to different
      types of discrimination.

PMID- 28888291
TI  - Ultimatum bargaining over losses and gains - An experimental comparison.
AB  - Subjects in the loss domain tend to split payoffs equally when bargaining. The
      ultimatum game offers an ideal mechanism through which social scientists can
      investigate whether equal splits are the consequence of the proposers' generosity
      or due to their anticipation that the responders will reject lower offers. This
      paper experimentally compares ultimatum bargaining that takes place in a loss
      domain with that under a gains domain. The results reveal that, although
      responders do not expect more in the loss domain, proposers do make higher
      offers. As such, proposers reach agreements more often in the loss domain than
      they do in the gains domain, and responders receive higher payoffs.

PMID- 28888292
TI  - Racial identity and the quality of life among blacks and whites in the U.S.
AB  - Social identity theory and research on mental health among racial minority groups
      suggest that a stronger, more positive racial identity will be related to a
      higher subjective quality of life. We investigate how ingroup closeness, ingroup
      evaluation, and ingroup bias are associated with happiness, positive affect about
      life, and generalized trust for blacks and whites, using partial proportional
      odds models. Data came from the 1996-2014 General Social Surveys (N = 6553).
      Ingroup closeness and more favorable ingroup evaluation had mostly positive
      associations with the quality of life dimensions. Contrary to what social
      identity theory would predict, ingroup bias was either unrelated or negatively
      related to them. Racial identity functions somewhat differently for blacks and
      whites. Ingroup evaluation and ingroup bias were related to greater positive
      affect about life for blacks but lower positive affect about life for whites.

PMID- 28888293
TI  - Too much of a good thing? Economic growth and human rights, 1960 to 2010.
AB  - Despite widespread belief in the benefits of economic growth, some scholars
      emphasize the potentially negative consequences of growth-and especially rapid
      growth-for social and political outcomes. Using data for 149 countries between
      1960 and 2010, I analyze the effect of economic growth on fundamental human
      rights conditions. Dynamic random-effects and two-way fixed-effects estimators,
      both with and without instrumental variables, yield several conclusions. First,
      economic growth is causally prior to rights conditions. Second, economic growth
      has a modest positive effect on human rights, albeit with diminishing returns at
      high growth rates. Third, low-income countries account for much of this
      relationship: growth improves rights conditions for most low-income countries,
      but extremely rapid growth is inimical. Growth has little effect among middle
      income countries, while for high-income countries the relationship is positive
      but not robust. I bring these findings to bear on long-standing debates between
      proponents and critics of modernization theory.

PMID- 28888294
TI  - Occupy the government: Analyzing presidential and congressional discursive
      response to movement repression.
AB  - I examine the role of Occupy Wall Street in shifting presidential and
      congressional discourse on economic fairness and inequality. Using data from 4646
      presidential speeches and 1256 congressional records from 2009 to 2015, I test
      different mechanisms, including repression, media coverage, public opinion, and
      presidential agenda-setting by applying a novel combination of web scraping,
      natural language processing, and time series models. I suggest that movement
      success can be measured in its ability to shape discursive opportunity
      structures, and I argue that the role of the president should be at the forefront
      of social movements research. Ultimately, I demonstrate (1) that the repression
      of Occupy protesters not only predicts media coverage but also increases
      discursive opportunities through President Obama and Congress, (2) that media
      coverage of Occupy predicts presidential discourse, (3) that the president's
      rhetorical shift increases congressional response, and (4) that this change
      persists after the movement faltered.

PMID- 28888295
TI  - Rehabilitation of the Complex Burn Patient with Multiple Injuries or
      Comorbidities.
AB  - Patients with complex burn injuries require interdisciplinary rehabilitation to
      maximize their functional recovery. Successful rehabilitation from burn injuries
      starts with addressing the loss of the protective, mechanical, and cosmetic
      function of the skin and underlying structures. However, other injuries,
      particularly to the nervous and musculoskeletal systems, need to be identified
      and managed as part of the rehabilitation plan. Burn injuries can cause losses of
      functional mobility, self-care skills, psychological well-being, and community
      participation, which require comprehensive rehabilitation interventions
      throughout the recovery process.

PMID- 28888296
TI  - Current Concepts Burn Rehabilitation, Part I: Care During Hospitalization.
AB  - This article summarizes current interventions for several of the most common
      challenges faced by patients during their rehabilitation from burn injury. These
      include preservation of range of motion through scar contracture management, and
      achieving maximal independence through exercise, and training in activities of
      daily living.

PMID- 28888297
TI  - Current Concepts Burn Rehabilitation, Part II: Long-Term Recovery.
AB  - This article summarizes current interventions for several of the most common
      challenges faced by patients during their rehabilitation from burn injury. These
      challenges include range of motion preservation through scar contracture
      management, achieving maximal independence through exercise and activities of
      daily living training, and psychological recovery through nonpharmacologic
      approaches pain and anxiety.

PMID- 28888299
TI  - Principles of Burn Pain Management.
AB  - This article describes pathophysiology of burn injury-related pain and the basic
      principles of burn pain management. The focus is on concepts of perioperative and
      periprocedural pain management with extensive discussion of opioid-based
      analgesia, including patient-controlled analgesia, challenges of effective opioid
      therapy in opioid-tolerant patients, and opioid-induced hyperalgesia. The
      principles of multimodal pain management are discussed, including the importance
      of psychological counseling, perioperative interventional pain procedures, and
      alternative pain management options. A brief synopsis of the principles of
      outpatient pain management is provided.

PMID- 28888298
TI  - Rehabilitation in the Acute Versus Outpatient Setting.
AB  - Rehabilitation of patients with burn injuries aims to restore strength,
      coordination, and mobility as closely to normal as possible and should begin
      immediately after initial admission. In the acute phase, baseline assessments are
      made against which all subsequent rehabilitation success is held. In the
      intermediate phase, active, full range-of-motion movement, ambulation of steadily
      increasing distances, and resistive exercise and stretching aid in the prevention
      of muscle and bone atrophy and preserve muscle memory and coordination. In the
      long-term outpatient rehabilitation phase, individualized patient-centered
      exercise programs can be advantageous in achieving measurable and lasting
      positive rehabilitation outcomes.

PMID- 28888301
TI  - Laser Modulation of Hypertrophic Scars: Technique and Practice.
AB  - In this review, the authors discuss the use of laser photothermolysis and laser
      resurfacing in the management of hypertrophic burn scars. They provide details
      regarding preoperative selection, intraoperative decision making, and
      postoperative care.

PMID- 28888300
TI  - Heterotopic Ossification and Hypertrophic Scars.
AB  - Burns and trauma cause superficial and deep soft tissue wounds that cannot heal
      to the preinjury state. Healing requires cell proliferation and differentiation
      into the injured tissue type, laying down extracellular matrix, often as
      collagens. Heterotopic ossification causes severe pain, nonhealing wounds, and
      restricted range of motion. Treatment includes radiation therapy, nonsteroidal
      anti-inflammatory drugs, bisphosphonates, and possibly surgical excision and
      prophylactic measures. Hypertrophic scars, nonosseous lesions caused by excessive
      collagen deposition, are often painful, functionally limiting, and aesthetically
      displeasing. Treatment includes CO2 laser application, steroid injections, and
      excision with skin grafting. This article reviews the management of these
      pathologic wounds.

PMID- 28888302
TI  - A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Laser Therapy for Hypertrophic Burn
      Scars.
AB  - The objective of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of laser
      therapy for the treatment of hypertrophic burn scars. Improvements in scar
      symptoms following laser treatment were reported in 11 of the 12 included
      studies. However, issues related to overall quality and risk of bias were present
      in all studies. As a result, there is insufficient scientific evidence to
      determine the effectiveness of laser therapy from this systematic review. Future
      studies that use more rigorous study designs such as randomized controlled trials
      are needed to support the use of laser therapy for hypertrophic burn scars.

PMID- 28888303
TI  - Fat Grafting for Burn, Traumatic, and Surgical Scars.
AB  - Fat grafting provides a reliable modality with expanding usefulness in
      reconstructive plastic surgery. Owing to its mechanical and theorized
      regenerative properties, adipose tissue can improve scar qualities and scar
      related symptoms when grafted adjacent to or within a scar. In this article, the
      literature describing the effect of fat grafting on various types of scars,
      current scientific understanding of fat grafting for scars, and our current
      approach to the management of problematic burn scars are reviewed.

PMID- 28888305
TI  - Tissue Rearrangements: The Power of the Z-Plasty.
AB  - The z-plasty is a highly versatile standard technique of reconstructive burn
      surgery. Variations of the classic z-plasty with limbs of equal length at 60
      degrees  angles can accommodate specific reconstruction needs. Opposing z
      plasties can be used when available tissue is limited; series of z-plasties can
      be linked to elongate tissue over a longer distance with smaller individual
      incisions, and a z-plasty with varying limb angles and lengths can provide tissue
      coverage in areas with special distributions of scarred and normal skin.

PMID- 28888306
TI  - The Use of Prefabricated Flaps in Burn Reconstruction.
AB  - This article describes the use of prefabricated flaps in burn reconstruction.
      Several case examples are provided that demonstrate the versatility and power of
      this approach to restoration of form and function after burn injury.

PMID- 28888304
TI  - Peripheral Neuropathy and Nerve Compression Syndromes in Burns.
AB  - Peripheral neuropathy and nerve compression syndromes lead to substantial
      morbidity following burn injury. Patients present with pain, paresthesias, or
      weakness along a specific nerve distribution or experience generalized peripheral
      neuropathy. The symptoms manifest at various times from within one week of
      hospitalization to many months after wound closure. Peripheral neuropathy may be
      caused by vascular occlusion of vasa nervorum, inflammation, neurotoxin
      production leading to apoptosis, and direct destruction of nerves from the burn
      injury. This article discusses the natural history, diagnosis, current
      treatments, and future directions for potential interventions for peripheral
      neuropathy and nerve compression syndromes related to burn injury.

PMID- 28888307
TI  - Microsurgical Burn Reconstruction.
AB  - The treatment of burn-related wounds requires consideration of several factors,
      including defect size, available donor sites, exposure of critical structures,
      and the ultimate functional and aesthetic result of reconstruction. Although skin
      grafts and locoregional flaps are workhorses in burn reconstruction, they have
      inherent limitations that can directly impact reconstructive outcomes.
      Microsurgical free tissue transfer represents a viable option for the
      reconstruction of burn-related wounds in certain patients. Each anatomic region
      of the body has unique challenges that must be addressed to achieve a successful
      reconstruction. Therefore, the choice of free flap must be individualized to the
      wound and patients.

PMID- 28888308
TI  - Hand Reconstruction After Burn Injury: Functional Results.
AB  - Frequently burns of the hand occur as part of a major thermal injury, but
      appropriate treatment of the hands has high priority, because even small burns of
      the hand may result in severely limited function and compromised aesthetic
      appearance. The functional importance of the hand cannot be overemphasized,
      because the patient's ability to perform useful work after recovery or the
      ability to care for themselves is to a great degree determined by residual hand
      function. This article describes the management of burn injuries involving the
      hand, stressing the importance of appropriate initial treatment. A comprehensive
      review of hand reconstruction and rehabilitation, to optimize form and function,
      is provided.

PMID- 28888309
TI  - Head and Neck Reconstruction.
AB  - Management of head and neck burns involves acute and intermediate phases.
      Acutely, the goals are establish a secure airway and treat life-threatening
      injuries. Then, optimize nutrition, assess extent of the burn, perform local
      wound care, and provide eye protection. Management depends on the degree of the
      head and neck burn. Postinjury splinting and rehabilitation are vital to healing.
      After the acute inflammation has resolved and the scars have matured,
      reconstruction begins with the goals of restoring both function and aesthetics.
      Reconstruction ranges from simple scar release, to skin grafting, and possibly
      free flap reconstruction.

PMID- 28888310
TI  - Role of Facial Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation in Burn Patients.
AB  - Face transplantation can provide improved quality of life to patients with
      extensive burn injuries. Facial vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA)
      offers a new paradigm of treatment options, serving as a powerful reconstructive
      tool to restore facial form and function. Although currently facial VCA patients
      must follow a lifelong regimen of immunosuppression medications and suffer a risk
      of rejection, in properly selected patients, facial VCA can be a transformative
      operation and can improve quality of life. Research efforts continue to optimize
      immunosuppression and surgical technique and serve as evidence of the procedure's
      growing role in reconstructive surgery for critically injured patients.

PMID- 28888311
TI  - Pediatric Burn Reconstruction: Focus on Evidence.
AB  - In this article, the author surveys the best available evidence to guide decision
      making in pediatric burn reconstruction. Evidence-based protocols are examined in
      the context of optimizing form and function in children who have sustained burn
      injury.

PMID- 28888312
TI  - Burn Management in the Developing World: International Volunteerism.
AB  - The burden of burn injury falls predominantly on the world's poor, with low
      income and middle-income countries accounting for 96% of burn injuries. These
      vulnerable populations are the least likely to have access to adequate medical
      care and are the most reliant on volunteer organizations. Every underserved area
      has a unique set of needs, circumstances, customs, resources, and challenges. The
      authors' intent is to provide an additional resource for volunteer surgeons who
      are interested in treating burns. This article reviews planning, organizing, and
      participating in a burn surgical mission trip.

PMID- 28888313
TI  - Aftercare, Survivorship, and Peer Support.
AB  - Burn recovery includes addressing any emotional, psychological, and social needs
      of the survivor and family. Providing support and resources is essential for a
      smooth transition from the acute phase of injury to rehabilitation and successful
      social and community reintegration. Priority psychosocial target areas are
      developing social skills, addressing body image concerns, and providing peer
      support. Peer support provides a unique perspective of shared experience that can
      instill hope and assist coping efforts of survivors and family. Health care
      professionals can be instrumental in connecting survivors to community support
      organizations. Discussed are considerations for aftercare planning and peer
      support's role.

PMID- 28888314
TI  - Of These, Faith, Hope, and Love: Assessing and Providing for the Psychosocial and
      Spiritual Needs of Burn Patients.
AB  - Burn treatment has grown increasingly advanced and technologically capable.
      Clinicians must take into account, however, multidimensional patient needs that
      factor into long-term burn recovery. Important psychosocial factors associated
      with burn care include psychiatric comorbidities, such as anxiety and depression,
      healthy family relationships, social support, and community involvement.
      Spiritual factors and resources, such as time spent praying and/or meditating and
      access to pastoral services, are also important to consider. Further study is
      needed to identify specific psychosocial and spiritual needs of patients and to
      develop interventions or therapies that specifically provide for these needs.

PMID- 28888315
TI  - Ethics in the Setting of Burned Patients.
AB  - This article considers multiple ethical principles in the context of patients
      with burns. It explores the application of these principles to burn care and the
      impact on medical decision making, through several clinical vignettes.

PMID- 28888316
TI  - Outcome Metrics After Burn Injury: From Patient-Reported Outcome Measures to
      Value-Based Health Care.
AB  - Outcomes research is important because it allows us to critically evaluate our
      results and strive for quality improvement, share our experiences with our
      colleagues, and improve the care and results delivered to the patient. This
      article focuses on outcomes research in burns from a historical perspective,
      highlights some of the current innovations, and previews future directions for
      outcomes-based research in burn care.

PMID- 28888317
TI  - Hypertrophic Burn Scar Research: From Quantitative Assessment to Designing
      Clinical Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trials.
AB  - This article explores the current options for the quantitative assessment of
      hypertrophic burn scars. It also introduces a novel type of randomized,
      controlled trial, which relies on heterogeneity of the subject population to
      improve the predictive value of personalized treatment strategies.

PMID- 28888318
TI  - Under Pressure: Applying Practice-Based Learning and Improvement to the Treatment
      of Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Patients with Burns.
AB  - Chronic neuropathic pain after burn injury may have multiple causes, such as
      direct nerve injury, nerve compression, or neuroma formation, and can
      significantly impair quality of life and limit functional recovery. Management
      includes a team-based approach that involves close collaboration between
      occupational and physical therapists, plastic surgeons, and experts in chronic
      pain, from neurology, anesthesia, psychiatry, and physiatry. Carefully selected
      patients with an anatomic cause of chronic neuropathic pain unequivocally benefit
      from surgical intervention. Self-reflection and analysis yield improvement in
      both efficiency and effectiveness when managing patients with burns with chronic
      neuropathic pain.

PMID- 28888319
TI  - Systems-based Practice in Burn Care: Prevention, Management, and Economic Impact
      of Health Care-associated Infections.
AB  - Health care-associated infections in burn patients, from ventilator-associated
      pneumonia to skin and soft tissue infections, can substantially compromise
      outcomes, because these complications are associated with longer lengths of stay,
      increased morbidity and mortality, and greater direct medical costs. Health care
      associated infections are largely preventable, through surveillance, education,
      appropriate hand hygiene, and culture change, especially for device-related
      infections. Systems-based practice, which allows individuals and clinical
      microsystems to navigate and improve the macro health care system, may be one of
      the most powerful skill sets to effect change, permitting a shift in culture
      toward patient safety and quality improvement.

PMID- 28888320
TI  - Wellness and Burnout in Burn Care Providers: Professionalism, the Social
      Covenant, and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teams.
AB  - This article explores the functioning of highly effective teams in burn care.
      Critical to the success of the team is the health of burn care providers, who can
      experience burnout. Wellness must be promoted by health care organizations,
      which, in turn, are responsible for the health of the populations they serve.
      Professionalism not only frames the social covenant between patients and burn
      care physicians but may also serve as a critical force in protecting against
      burnout and promoting wellness.

PMID- 28888321
TI  - Volume 2: Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, and Recovery.

PMID- 28888322
TI  - TOR, the Gateway to Cellular Metabolism, Cell Growth, and Disease.
AB  - Michael N. Hall is this year's recipient of the Lasker Basic Medical Research
      Award for the identification of the target of rapamycin, TOR. TOR is a master
      regulator of the cell's growth and metabolic state, and its dysregulation
      contributes to a variety of diseases, including diabetes, obesity,
      neurodegenerative disorders, aging, and cancer, making the TOR pathway an
      attractive therapeutic target.

PMID- 28888323
TI  - Two Basic Scientists Walk into a Translational Space.
AB  - When John Schiller first joined Douglas Lowy's lab at the National Cancer
      Institute of the NIH, he could have not predicted that their common interest in
      the molecular biology of oncogenes would set them in path for discoveries that
      ultimately enabled the development of a vaccine for the human papillomavirus,
      which causes the majority of cervical cancers worldwide. John and Doug, the
      recipients of the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Award, have joined Cell editor
      Joao Monteiro in a Conversation about science, public health, and the joys and
      challenges of being basic scientists in a translational space. Annotated excerpts
      from this conversation are presented below.

PMID- 28888324
TI  - A Prize for Cancer Prevention.
AB  - This year's Lasker-DeBakey Prize for Clinical Research to Douglas Lowy and John
      Schiller celebrates the science behind one of the greatest advances in the
      history of cancer research: the development of vaccines that prevent infection
      and thus prevent tumor induction by pathogenic strains of human papilloma virus
      (HPV).

PMID- 28888325
TI  - An Amazing Turn of Events.
AB  - How the master regulator of cell growth, TOR, came to be identified and
      understood, from the perspective of its discoverer, Michael N. Hall.

PMID- 28888326
TI  - Artists Create Puzzles, Scientists Solve Them.
AB  - The Spanish artist Diego Velazquez created a puzzle-painting 360 years ago that
      to this day remains unsolved, but still mystifies and intrigues. Unlike artists
      who get their thrills by creating puzzles that stimulate the imagination,
      scientists get their kicks by solving puzzles that advance biomedical research.

PMID- 28888327
TI  - Vicarious Social Defeat Stress Induces Depression-Related Outcomes in Female
      Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stress is a prevailing risk factor for mood-related illnesses,
      wherein women represent the majority of those affected by major depression.
      Despite the growing literature suggesting that affective disorders can arise
      after a traumatic event is vicariously experienced, this relationship remains
      understudied in female subjects at the preclinical level. Thus, the objective of
      the current investigation was to examine whether exposure to emotional and/or
      psychological stress (ES) mediates depression-related outcomes in female mice.
      METHODS: Female C57BL/6 mice (8 weeks old, null parity) vicariously experienced
      the defeat bout of a male conspecific, by a male CD1 aggressor, for 10
      consecutive days. Twenty-four hours after the last stress exposure, female mice
      were tested in the social interaction, sucrose preference, tail suspension, or
      elevated plus maze tests. Furthermore, we examined whether ketamine and
      chlordiazepoxide, pharmacological agents used to treat mood-related disorders in
      the clinical population, would reverse the ES-induced social dysfunction.
      RESULTS: When compared with control mice, female mice exposed to ES displayed
      decreased social behavior and preference for sucrose, along with increased
      immobility in the tail suspension test. Also, they displayed higher levels of
      blood serum corticosterone, as well as decreased body weight. Lastly, the ES
      induced avoidance-like phenotype was ameliorated by both ketamine and
      chlordiazepoxide. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that female mice exposed to ES
      display a behavioral and physiologic profile that mimics symptoms of depression
      in the clinical population. As such, this experimental model may be adopted to
      examine vicarious stress-induced mood-related disorders, as well as
      pharmacological antidepressant response, in a sex-specific manner.

PMID- 28888328
TI  - A population-based approach to assess the heritability and distribution of renal
      handling of electrolytes.
AB  - The handling of electrolytes by the kidney is essential for homeostasis. However,
      the heritability of these processes, the first step in gene discovery, is poorly
      known. To help clarify this, we estimated the heritability of serum
      concentration, urinary excretion, renal clearance, and fractional excretion of
      sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, and chloride in a population
      based study. Nuclear families were randomly selected from the general population
      in Lausanne, Geneva, and Bern, Switzerland, and urine collected over 24-hour
      periods. We used the ASSOC program (S.A.G.E.) to estimate narrow sense
      heritability, including sex, age, body mass index, and study center as covariates
      in the model. The 1128 participants, from 273 families, had a mean age of 47
      years, body mass index of 25.0 kg/m2, and an estimated glomerular filtration rate
      (CKD-EPI) of 98 mL/min/1.73 m2. The heritability of serum concentration was
      highest for calcium, 37% and lowest for sodium, 13%. The heritability of 24-hour
      urine clearances, excretions, and fractional excretions ranged from 15%, 10%, and
      16%, respectively, for potassium to 45%, 44%, and 51%, respectively, for calcium.
      All probability values were significant. The heritability for phosphate-related
      phenotypes was lower than that for calcium. Thus, the serum and urine
      concentrations as well as urinary excretion and renal handling of electrolytes
      are heritable in the general adult population. The phenotypic variance
      attributable to additive genetic factors was variable and was higher for calcium.
      These results pave the way for identifying genetic variants involved in
      electrolyte homeostasis in the general population.

PMID- 28888329
TI  - Lasker foundation announces award winners for 2017.

PMID- 28888330
TI  - Saddle pulmonary embolism in hemodynamically stable patients: To lyse or not to
      lyse? An issue in no guidelines land.

PMID- 28888331
TI  - Hamartia in hippocampal sclerosis-associated mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.
AB  - Hamartia are small collections of rounded glioneuronal cells that are thought to
      be due to aberrant cell migration. Their presence has been recognized in
      association with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy; their prevalence among cases of
      hippocampal sclerosis (HS) and any potential association with patient
      demographics and outcomes is unknown. This study examines hamartia in a series of
      292 patients with pathologically confirmed HS. Medical records were reviewed for
      pertinent patient clinical information (follow-up mean 5years). Hamartia were
      identified in 96 cases (33%) and were seen primarily in the amygdala (n=88) and
      less commonly in the hippocampus (n=10) and temporal lobe (n=4). A statistically
      significant relationship was found between the presence of hamartia and male
      gender, younger age of seizure onset, and history of childhood febrile seizures
      and developmental delay. It is unclear if these associations represent a real
      association or are a result of the underlying pathologies related to chronic
      epilepsy. At follow-up, there were no significant differences between patients
      who had hamartia and those who lacked this finding. Hamartia were observed in all
      subtypes of HS and there was a significant difference found in subtype
      distribution as well as proportion of cases between subtypes, but no association
      with any specific subtype overall. The presence of hamartia was not associated
      with the coexistence of focal cortical dysplasia or any specific histologic
      pattern of dysplasia. Hamartia are a common concomitant finding in HS and
      indicates evidence of aberrant cell migration in the hippocampal and
      parahippocampal regions in these patients.

PMID- 28888332
TI  - Machine-Learning-Based Electronic Triage More Accurately Differentiates Patients
      With Respect to Clinical Outcomes Compared With the Emergency Severity Index.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: Standards for emergency department (ED) triage in the United
      States rely heavily on subjective assessment and are limited in their ability to
      risk-stratify patients. This study seeks to evaluate an electronic triage system
      (e-triage) based on machine learning that predicts likelihood of acute outcomes
      enabling improved patient differentiation. METHODS: A multisite, retrospective,
      cross-sectional study of 172,726 ED visits from urban and community EDs was
      conducted. E-triage is composed of a random forest model applied to triage data
      (vital signs, chief complaint, and active medical history) that predicts the need
      for critical care, an emergency procedure, and inpatient hospitalization in
      parallel and translates risk to triage level designations. Predicted outcomes and
      secondary outcomes of elevated troponin and lactate levels were evaluated and
      compared with the Emergency Severity Index (ESI). RESULTS: E-triage predictions
      had an area under the curve ranging from 0.73 to 0.92 and demonstrated equivalent
      or improved identification of clinical patient outcomes compared with ESI at both
      EDs. E-triage provided rationale for risk-based differentiation of the more than
      65% of ED visits triaged to ESI level 3. Matching the ESI patient distribution
      for comparisons, e-triage identified more than 10% (14,326 patients) of ESI level
      3 patients requiring up triage who had substantially increased risk of critical
      care or emergency procedure (1.7% ESI level 3 versus 6.2% up triaged) and
      hospitalization (18.9% versus 45.4%) across EDs. CONCLUSION: E-triage more
      accurately classifies ESI level 3 patients and highlights opportunities to use
      predictive analytics to support triage decisionmaking. Further prospective
      validation is needed.

PMID- 28888333
TI  - Maternal long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid status and pregnancy
      complications.
AB  - Maternal nutrition plays a crucial role in influencing fetal growth and birth
      outcome. Any nutritional insult starting several weeks before pregnancy and
      during critical periods of gestation is known to influence fetal development and
      increase the risk for diseases during later life. Literature suggests that
      chronic adult diseases may have their origin during early life - a concept
      referred to as Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) which states
      that adverse exposures early in life "program" risks for later chronic disorders.
      Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA), mainly omega-6 and omega-3 fatty
      acids are known to have an effect on fetal programming. The placental supply of
      optimal levels of LCPUFA to the fetus during early life is extremely important
      for the normal growth and development of both placenta and fetus. Any alteration
      in placental development will result in adverse pregnancy outcome such as
      gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), preeclampsia, and intrauterine growth
      restriction (IUGR). A disturbed materno-fetal LCPUFA supply is known to be linked
      with each of these pathologies. Further, a disturbed LCPUFA metabolism is
      reported to be associated with a number of metabolic disorders. It is likely that
      LCPUFA supplementation during early pregnancy may be beneficial in improving the
      health of the mother, improving birth outcome and thereby reducing the risk of
      diseases in later life.

PMID- 28888334
TI  - Preparation, characterization and application of long-acting FSH analogs for
      assisted reproduction.
AB  - Assisted reproduction technologies are widely used in humans and domestic animals
      and often include follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in the protocol. One
      limitation with most of the available FSH preparations is the relative short half
      life in the circulation that dictates multiple daily injections for the desired
      follicle development and superovulation. The development of bioactive long-acting
      structurally modified FSH analogs is desirable for human and veterinary use. In
      addition, optimal preparations and/or formulations are expected to improve the
      regimen and efficiency of the treatment. This review briefly describes the
      approaches that have been explored to extend the half-life of FSH in the
      circulation. These include strategies to increase the mass and/or charge of FSH
      and to prevent the dissociation of the hormone to inactive subunits components.
      Most of these strategies, except one that led to a registered drug (Elonva)
      indicated for controlled ovarian stimulation protocols in humans, are still in
      experimental stage.

PMID- 28888336
TI  - Pediatric Firearm Deaths and Injuries in the United States.

PMID- 28888335
TI  - Dramatic relapse of seizures after everolimus withdrawal.
AB  - Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant multisystemic disorder
      caused by deregulation of the mTOR pathway, and represents one of the leading
      genetic causes of epilepsy. mTOR inhibitors (Sirolimus and Everolimus) are
      currently approved only for the treatment of growing subependymal giant cell
      astrocytomas, renal angiomyolipomas and lymphangioleiomyomatosis in TSC. However,
      preclinical and clinical evidence supports their potential role in effectively
      treating TSC-associated epilepsy, but no consensus on its use in seizures has
      been reached yet and there are few data on epilepsy outcome after the suspension
      of mTOR inhibitors treatment. We report for the first time on a patient in whom
      discontinuation of Everolimus (prescribed for growing subependymal giant cell
      astrocytomas) was associated with a relapse of seizures twice, and control of
      seizures was regained after reintroducing the medicine. This clinical report
      supports the promising potential of Everolimus in treating epilepsy in TSC, and
      specifically underlines the non-permanent effect on seizures after withdrawal.

PMID- 28888337
TI  - Recommendations for the Establishment of Disorders/Differences of Sex Development
      Interdisciplinary Care Clinics for Youth.
AB  - PURPOSE: Provide recommendations for the development of an interdisciplinary care
      (IDC) clinic for the treatment of youth with disorders/differences of sex
      development (DSD). DSD consist of a group of complex congenital medical disorders
      in which the development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical.
      Youth with DSD require care from multiple specialized healthcare disciplines,
      including several medical specialties, surgery, nursing, and mental health.
      METHOD: Recommendations are based on an interdisciplinary care clinic model that
      allows for a team of relevant professionals who share knowledge, ideas, and
      responsibility of care. The framework established in this article is based
      largely on experiences at an established DSD clinic, as well as observations of
      multiple clinics across the United States. RESULTS: Preliminary outcome data on
      clinic adherence to treatment protocol under an IDC model are provided.
      CONCLUSIONS: To meet the diverse healthcare needs of youth with DSD,
      comprehensive care clinics are recommended; however, few such clinics exist in
      the United States. Establishing new comprehensive DSD clinics can be challenging
      due to the highly unique treatment of DSD, but the current paper expands the
      literature available to guide clinic development in the United States.

PMID- 28888338
TI  - South Asian floods and Hurricane Harvey: diabetes in crisis.

PMID- 28888339
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28888340
TI  - Proteomic analysis of influenza haemagglutinin-specific antibodies following
      vaccination reveals convergent immunoglobulin variable region signatures.
AB  - Analysis of the anti-haemagglutinin serum antibody proteome from six H1N1pdm09
      influenza A vaccinated subjects demonstrated restricted IgG1 heavy chain species
      encoded by IGHV5-51 and IGHV3-7 gene families in 2 subjects and either IGHV5-51
      or IGHV3-7 in 4 individuals. All subjects exhibited a dominant IGKV3-20 light
      chain, however 5 subjects also exhibited IGKV3-11 and IGKV4-1 families. Sequences
      were closely aligned with the matched germline sequence, with few shared
      mutations. This study illustrates the feasibility of using a proteomic approach
      to determine the expressed V region signatures of serum antibodies induced by
      vaccination.

PMID- 28888341
TI  - HLA based selection of epitopes offers a potential window of opportunity for
      vaccine design against HIV.
AB  - The pace of progression to AIDS after HIV infection varies from individual to
      individual. While some individuals develop AIDS quickly, others are protected
      from the onset of disease for more than a decade (elite controllers and long term
      non-progressors). The mechanisms of protection are not yet clearly understood,
      though various factors including host genetics, immune components and virus
      attenuation have been elucidated partly. The influence of HLA alleles on HIV-1
      infection and disease outcome has been studied extensively. Several HLA alleles
      are known to be associated with resistance to infection or delayed progression to
      AIDS after infection. Similarly, certain HLA alleles are reported to be
      associated with rapid progression to disease. Since HLA alleles influence the
      outcome of HIV infection differentially, selection of epitopes specifically
      recognized by protective alleles could serve asa rational means for HIV vaccine
      design. In this review article, we discuss existing knowledge on HLA alleles and
      their association with resistance/susceptibility to HIV and its relevance to
      vaccine design.

PMID- 28888342
TI  - Risk of venous thromboembolism following influenza vaccination in adults aged
      50years and older in the Vaccine Safety Datalink.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Influenza-like illness and inflammation are known risk factors for
      venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and
      pulmonary embolism (PE). However, few studies have characterized the risk of VTE
      following influenza vaccination. We examined VTE risk after vaccination in adults
      50years old and older within the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD). METHODS: We used
      the self-controlled case series method to determine the risk of VTE among age
      eligible adults who received influenza vaccine (with or without pandemic H1N1)
      and experienced a VTE during the months of September through December in 2007
      through 2012. Presumptive VTE cases were identified among VSD participants using
      diagnostic codes, diagnostic tests, and oral anticoagulant prescription.
      Potential cases were validated by medical record review. The VTE incidence rate
      ratio was calculated among confirmed cases for the risk window 1 to 10days after
      vaccination relative to all other person-time from September through December.
      RESULTS: Of the 1,488 presumptive cases identified, 508 were reviewed, of which
      492 (97%) were confirmed cases of VTE. The analysis included 396 incident,
      confirmed cases. Overall, there was no increased risk of VTE in the 1 to 10days
      after influenza vaccination (IRR=0.89, 95% CI 0.69-1.17) compared to the control
      period. Results were similar when all person-time was censored before
      vaccination. A post hoc analysis showed an increased risk among current tobacco
      smokers (IRR=2.57, 95% CI 1.06-6.23). No clustering of VTE was observed in the 1
      42days after vaccination. DISCUSSION: Overall, there was no evidence that
      inactivated influenza vaccine was associated with VTE in adults >=50years old. An
      increased risk was found among current smokers in a post hoc analysis. These
      findings are consistent with previous research and support the safety of annual
      vaccination in this population.

PMID- 28888343
TI  - Is midazolam a constitutional or pharmacological alternative in lethal
      injections?

PMID- 28888345
TI  - Erratum to "Contralesional Cathodal versus Dual Transcranial Direct Current
      Stimulation for Decreasing Upper Limb Spasticity in Chronic Stroke Individuals: A
      Clinical and Neurophysiological Study".

PMID- 28888344
TI  - Plasma Retinol-Binding Protein 4 Levels and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke among
      Women.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Plasma retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) levels have been associated
      with cardiovascular risk factors and risk of coronary heart disease, but little
      is known about the association between RBP4 and the risk of ischemic stroke. We
      hypothesized that elevated RBP4 levels would be associated with an increased risk
      of ischemic stroke among women. METHODS: We performed a nested case-control study
      among women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study who provided blood samples
      between 1989 and 1990 and were free of prior stroke and cancer. We measured
      prediagnostic RBP4 levels in 471 ischemic stroke cases who were confirmed by
      medical record review and in 471 controls who were matched 1:1 to the cases on
      age, race, blood collection date, menopausal status, postmenopausal hormone use,
      and smoking status. We analyzed the association between RBP4 levels and ischemic
      stroke using multivariable conditional logistic regression conditional on the
      matching factors and adjusted for physical activity, body mass index, aspirin
      use, alcohol consumption, diet, history of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood
      pressure, or heart disease, and cholesterol and hemoglobin A1C levels. RESULTS:
      Median levels of RBP4 were similar in cases (31.1 ug/mL) and controls (31.0
      ug/mL; P value from the Wilcoxon rank-sum test = .82). Quartiles of RBP4 were not
      associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke (highest quartile compared
      to lowest quartile: multivariate-adjusted odds ratio, .75; 95% confidence
      interval, .48, 1.17). We also did not observe associations between RBP4 and
      ischemic stroke of thrombotic or embolic origin. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated levels of
      RBP4 were not associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28888346
TI  - The Safety of Carotid Artery Stenting for Patients in the Acute Poststroke Phase.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The efficacy of carotid artery stenting (CAS) for patients in the
      acute poststroke phase has not been established. We investigated the outcome of
      CAS for patients with symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis in the
      acute poststroke phase. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of all
      patients who underwent CAS for symptomatic ICA stenosis in our institution.
      Patients in whom the time interval between neurological deterioration and the CAS
      procedure was less than 3 days were included in the early group, and the other
      patients were included in the delayed group. Perioperative complications
      including major adverse events (MAEs) were compared between the early and the
      delayed groups. RESULTS: One hundred five patients were included in the study.
      Forty patients were assigned to the early group and 65 patients were assigned to
      the delayed group. The overall MAE rate was 4.8%. There was no significant
      increase in the perioperative MAE in the early group compared with the delayed
      group (early group 2.5% versus delayed group 6.5%, P = .65). In the early group,
      25 of 40 patients (62.5%) were functionally independent (modified Rankin scale
      [mRS] score of 0-2) at discharge. Significant differences between the independent
      patients and the disabled patients (mRS score of 3-6) included age (independent
      72 versus disabled 79, P < .01) and prevalence of transient ischemic attack
      (36.0% versus .0%, P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: CAS performed within 3 days from the
      last ischemic event did not increase the risk of perioperative complication.
      Early CAS may be a useful option for the treatment of symptomatic carotid artery
      stenosis.

PMID- 28888347
TI  - Safety and efficacy of prasugrel in East Asian patients with acute coronary
      syndromes.

PMID- 28888349
TI  - Trump administration halts mountaintop coal mining health study.

PMID- 28888348
TI  - Nursing Across the Lifespan: Implications of Lifecourse Theory for Nursing
      Research.
AB  - Despite the lifecourse focus of nursing clinical care, nursing research largely
      remains cross-sectional or process-oriented within silos determined by patient
      characteristics such as age, acuity, or disease process. Incorporating
      interdisciplinary lifecourse theory into pediatric nursing research provides the
      opportunity to expand nursing theories and research beyond practice, age, and
      disease silos. One such theory is the Lifecourse Health Development (LCHD)
      framework. LCHD takes a more expansive view of health development from
      preconception through old age based on the premise that health is a consequence
      of transactions between genetic, biological, behavioral, social, and economic
      contexts that change as a child develops over time (Halfon & Hochstein, 2002).
      LCHD also explains how intergenerational influences and prevention during early
      life help predict health development and disease over the lifespan. The
      preventive and lifecourse focus of LCHD is well-aligned with the lifespan
      wellness foci of pediatric nurses. The purpose of this article is to introduce
      pediatric nurse researchers to LCHD and discuss proposed augmentations and
      implications related to expanding LCHD into pediatric nursing research.

PMID- 28888351
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28888350
TI  - Anterior cingulate cortex grey matter volume abnormalities in adolescents with
      PTSD after childhood sexual abuse.
AB  - Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) substantially increase the risk of later
      psychiatric and somatic pathology. While neurobiological factors are likely to
      play a mediating role, specific insights are lacking. The scarce neuroimaging
      studies in traumatised pediatric populations have provided inconsistent results,
      potentially due to the inclusion of different types of trauma. To further improve
      our understanding of the neurobiology of pediatric psychotrauma, this study seeks
      to investigate abnormalities in grey matter volume (GMV) in a homogeneous group
      of adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to childhood sexual
      abuse (CSA) and the relationship between GMV and symptom severity. We performed a
      voxel based morphometry (VBM) analysis in 21 adolescents with CSA-related PTSD
      and 25 matched non-traumatised, non-clinical adolescents. Hippocampus, amygdala,
      anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial PFC (mPFC) and superior temporal gyrus
      (STG) were chosen as regions of interest (ROIs). Trauma symptomatology was
      measured with the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) and dissociation
      symptoms with the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES). The ROI
      analysis showed that the CSA-related PTSD group had significant smaller volumes
      of the dorsal ACC as compared to healthy controls. However, no correlations were
      found between GMV and scores on the TSCC and A-DES. The smaller ACC volume is
      partly in line with previous studies in traumatised youth and is a consistent
      finding in traumatised adults. Taken together our results suggest that the dorsal
      ACC is implicated in the neurobiological sequelae of CSA, potentially associated
      with an altered evaluative processing of emotion, but not directly with PTSD
      severity.

PMID- 28888352
TI  - High fat diet aggravates atrial and ventricular remodeling of hypertensive heart
      disease in aging rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Left ventricular hypertrophy is a major cause of heart
      failure in aging population. This study is to determine whether an excess dietary
      fat is lipotoxic or lipoprotein to the hypertrophic aging heart. METHODS: At 44
      week-old, a normal chow (12% fat) was replaced a high-fat diet (HFD; 45% fat) for
      randomly selective spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR + HFD, n = 6) and Wistar
      Kyoto rats (WKY + HFD, n = 6, normotensive control). Others (SHR, n = 11; WKY, n
      = 10) were continuously fed with normal diets. After 27 weeks, electrocardiogram,
      echocardiography, and femoral arterial catheterization were performed before rats
      being sacrificed for molecular biology analyses. RESULTS: HFD aggravated cardiac
      atrial, ventricular dilation and hypertrophy in SHR (LV mass: SHR + HFD 2026.0 +/
      424.9 vs SHR 1449 +/- 461.1 mg, unpaired t test P < 0.05). HFD caused
      significant atrial dilatation in both WKY (LA diameter, 5.38 +/- 0.36 vs 4.11 +/-
      0.42 mm, P < 0.001) and SHR (6.13 +/- 0.79 vs 4.69 +/- 1.00, P < 0.01). Only in
      SHR, HFD induced significant left ventricular dilatation (LV diameter, 8.87 +/-
      1.25 vs 7.08 +/- 1.00 mm, P < 0.01) and reduced ejection fraction (LVEF, 62.8 +/-
      11.6 vs 75.1 +/- 9.2 mm, P < 0.05). The alpha-myosin heavy chain was
      significantly upregulated in atria and ventricles of HFD groups. HFD induced
      significant upregulation of PPARalpha, ACADM, and TNFalpha transcripts in atrial
      tissues (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Hypertensive heart disease in aging rats was
      aggravated by HFD with worse atrial, ventricular remodeling and associated with
      left ventricular systolic function impairment.

PMID- 28888353
TI  - Preimplantation genetic diagnosis and screening: Current status and future
      challenges.
AB  - Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a clinically feasible technology to
      prevent the transmission of monogenic inherited disorders in families afflicted
      the diseases to the future offsprings. The major technical hurdle is it does not
      have a general formula for all mutations, thus different gene locus needs
      individualized, customized design to make the diagnosis accurate enough to be
      applied on PGD, in which the quantity of DNA is scarce, whereas timely result is
      sometimes requested if fresh embryo transfer is desired. On the other hand,
      preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) screens embryo with aneuploidy and was
      also known as PGD-A (A denotes aneuploidy) in order to enhance the implantation
      rates as well as livebirth rates. In contrasts to PGD, PGS is still under
      ferocious debate, especially recent reports found that euploid babies were born
      after transferring the aneuploid embryos diagnosed by PGS back to the womb and
      only very few randomized trials of PGS are available in the literature. We have
      been doing PGD and/or PGS for more than 10 years as one of the core PGD/PGS
      laboratories in Taiwan. Here we provide a concise review of PGD/PGS regarding its
      current status, both domestically and globally, as well as its future challenges.

PMID- 28888354
TI  - Reply to "Daily egg consumption should be still limited in hypercholesterolemic
      patients".

PMID- 28888355
TI  - The correlation of controlled attenuation parameter results with ultrasound
      identified steatosis in real-world clinical practice.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) is a method for
      measuring steatosis based on FibroScan. Despite observer dependency, ultrasound
      (US) robustly diagnoses moderate and severe steatosis. Here, we aimed to evaluate
      the correlation of CAP with US-identified steatosis in real-world clinical
      practice. METHODS: CAP and US were performed for 1554 chronic liver disease (CLD)
      patients. CAP was performed by two technicians, and US was performed by 30
      hepatologists. The performance of the CAP as compared with the US results was
      assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve
      (AUROC). RESULTS: 532 (34.2%) of the patients had hepatitis C virus (HCV)
      infection, 723 (46.5%) of the patients had hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and
      the rest were patients with metabolic risk factors. CAP values were significantly
      correlated with the steatosis grades identified by US for all the patients (rho =
      0.497, P < 0.001), for the HBV-infected patients (rho = 0.495, P < 0.001), for
      the HCV-infected patients (rho = 0.343, P < 0.001), and for the patients with
      metabolic risk factors (rho = 0.515, P < 0.001). Using CAP, the AUROC values were
      0.759, 0.795, 0.715, and 0.716 for >=moderate steatosis identified by US in,
      respectively, all the patients, the HBV-infected patients, the HCV-infected
      patients, and the patients with metabolic risk factors. The AUROC values were
      0.791, 0.868, 0.807 and 0.701 for severe steatosis identified by US in,
      respectively, all the patients, the HBV-infected patients, the HCV-infected
      patients, and the patients with metabolic risk factors. CONCLUSION: CAP values
      were well correlated with the steatosis grades assessed by US in real-world
      clinical practice.

PMID- 28888356
TI  - Predicting response to rTMS for auditory hallucinations: Younger patients and
      females do better.

PMID- 28888357
TI  - Bullying victimization and perpetration in a community sample of youth with
      psychotic like experiences.
AB  - Prior studies indicate an association between psychotic-like experiences (PLEs)
      and bullying victimization; however, the most frequent types of bullying
      victimization and the association with bullying perpetration are unclear. A
      community sample of 1563 adolescents completed questionnaires examining PLEs and
      frequency of bullying victimization and perpetration. Compared to adolescents
      scoring below the psychosis-risk cut-off (n=1294), those with PLEs (who are
      putatively at-risk) (n=269) were more likely to report being the victims of
      overt, relational, and reputational bullying and to have perpetrated bullying
      against others. Increased bullying perpetration among youth with PLEs may reflect
      reactive aggression in response to being bullied.

PMID- 28888358
TI  - Prediction of self-stigma in early psychosis: 3-Year follow-up of the randomized
      controlled trial on extended early intervention.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-stigma represents a major barrier to recovery in people with
      psychotic disorders but is understudied in early illness stage. Longitudinal
      investigation of prediction for self-stigma is scarce and none is conducted in
      early psychosis. We aimed to prospectively examine baseline predictors of self
      stigma in early psychosis patients in the context of a 3-year follow-up of a
      randomized-controlled trial (RCT) comparing 1-year extension of early
      intervention (EI) with step-down psychiatric care for first-episode psychosis
      (FEP). METHOD: One hundred sixty Chinese patients were recruited from a
      specialized EI program for FEP in Hong Kong after they had completed this 2-year
      EI service, and underwent a 12-month RCT. Participants were followed up and
      reassessed 3years after inclusion to the trial. Comprehensive evaluation
      encompassing clinical, functional, subjective quality of life and treatment
      related variables were conducted. Data analysis was based on 136 participants who
      completed self-stigma assessment at 3-year follow-up. RESULTS: Fifty patients
      (36.8%) had moderate to high levels of self-stigma at 3-year follow-up.
      Multivariate regression analysis revealed that female gender, prior psychiatric
      hospitalization, longer duration of untreated psychosis and greater positive
      symptom severity at study intake independently predicted self-stigma at the end
      of 3-year study period. CONCLUSION: Our results of more than one-third of early
      psychosis patients experienced significant self-stigma underscore the clinical
      needs for early identification and intervention of self-stigmatization in the
      initial years of psychotic illness. Further research is warranted to clarify
      prediction profile and longitudinal course of self-stigma in the early illness
      phase.

PMID- 28888359
TI  - Patients with psychosis struggle with scalar implicatures.
AB  - Pragmatic language difficulties in people with psychosis have been demonstrated
      repeatedly but one of the most studied types of pragmatic language, i.e. scalar
      implicatures (SIs), has not yet been examined in this population. SIs are a
      special kind of pragmatic inferences, based on linguistic expressions like some,
      or, must. Such expressions are part of a scale of informativeness organized by
      informativity (e.g. some/many/all). Although semantically the less informative
      expressions imply the more informative ones, pragmatically people generally infer
      that the use of a less informative expression implies that the more informative
      option is not applicable. Based on the pragmatic language difficulties of people
      with psychosis we hypothesized that they may be less likely to derive these
      pragmatic SIs. We conducted two studies in which the ability of people with
      psychosis to derive SIs was compared to that of healthy controls matched for age
      and educational level. In the second study we additionally explored the possible
      link between the capacity to derive SIs and theory of mind (ToM) ability. In
      general, people with psychosis were less likely to derive SIs than controls.
      However, the patient group was not homogeneous: half had problems deriving SIs,
      the other half did not. This dichotomization seems linked to ToM ability because
      in the patient group, better ToM was associated with a higher ability to derive
      SIs. Based on the nature of the stimuli used in the SI-task we speculate that
      this link may not be a direct but an indirect one.

PMID- 28888360
TI  - An examination of components of recovery after five years of treatment in an
      early intervention program for psychosis.
AB  - Recovery from psychotic disorders includes both symptomatic and functional
      components. Progress in understanding recovery requires careful replication and
      extension of findings using comparable measures. In the current paper, we present
      a study of five year recovery rates in an early intervention program in London,
      Canada with the same operational criteria as those used in a previous report from
      the OPUS cohort in Denmark. Our analysis extends the OPUS reports by including
      additional potential predictors of overall recovery, such as cognitive
      functioning, adherence to medication and early social support, and examining
      rates and predictors of individual components of recovery at five year follow-up.
      Consistent with reports from OPUS, we found younger age of onset and lower
      initial severity of negative symptoms to predict greater likelihood of overall
      recovery. Different patterns of predictors emerge when we examine individual
      components of recovery. Adherence to medication during the first year was the
      sole independent predictor of remission of positive symptoms, while early social
      adjustment and social support were more likely to predict negative symptom and
      functional aspects of recovery at five years. Cognitive functioning, as
      represented by IQ, did not predict any aspects of recovery. Our findings suggest
      the importance of examining the predictors of individual components in the quest
      to improve overall recovery.

PMID- 28888361
TI  - Increased platelet glycogen sysnthase kinase 3beta in first-episode psychosis.
AB  - Past studies have linked intracellular pathways related to psychotic disorders to
      the GSK3B enzyme. This study aimed to investigate GSK3B protein expression and
      phosphorylation in drug-naive first-episode psychosis patients (n=43) at baseline
      and following symptom remission, and in healthy controls (n=77). At baseline
      GSK3B total level was higher in patients (p<0.001). In schizophrenia spectrum
      patients (n=25) GSK3B total and phosphorylated levels were higher than in
      controls and patients with other non-affective psychotic disorders (n=18)
      (p<0.001; p=0.027; p=0.05 respectively). No enzyme changes were found after
      clinical remission. The implication of this finding for the biology of psychoses
      warrants further studies to clarify whether increased GSK3B may be useful as a
      biomarker for psychosis in general, and schizophrenia in particular.

PMID- 28888363
TI  - Effect of complete or partial proteinuria recovery on long-term outcomes of lupus
      nephritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate the effect of complete recovery (CR),
      partial recovery (PR), and no recovery (NR) of proteinuria at 2 years from the
      diagnosis of LN on long-term renal and extra-renal outcomes. METHODS: Patients
      with LN and proteinuria attending the Lupus Center from 1970 to 2015 were
      analyzed. At 2 years from diagnosis of LN, patients were divided into three
      groups (CR, PR, and NR), and long-term outcomes were studied up to 15 years or
      last visit available. CR was defined as resolution of proteinuria, PR as a
      reduction >=50% in baseline proteinuria, and NR as a reduction <50% compared to
      baseline. Long-term outcomes examined included renal outcomes [low eGFR, ESRD,
      and composite renal (low eGFR, ESRD, and dialysis/transplant)], cardiovascular
      outcomes, damage, and death. Kaplan-Meier plots, time-independent and time
      dependent Cox proportional hazards models were applied to examine the effect of
      CR, PR, or NR on long-term outcomes. RESULTS: Of 277 patients, 71.8% achieved CR,
      18.4% PR, and 9.8% NR at 2 years. CR compared to NR and CR compared to PR were
      protective against low eGFR and composite renal outcome in time-independent and
      time-dependent analyses. CR compared to PR protected against damage in the time
      independent analysis. Overall, the comparison of CR and PR favored CR for long
      term renal outcomes. CONCLUSION: CR at 2 years from diagnosis of LN protected
      against renal outcomes (low eGFR, ESRD/dialysis, and transplant). CR is more
      favorable compared to PR and clinicians should aim for CR to improve long-term
      outcomes in LN.

PMID- 28888364
TI  - VDAC electronics: 4. Novel electrical mechanism and thermodynamic estimations of
      glucose repression of yeast respiration.
AB  - Inhibition of cell respiration by high concentrations of glucose (glucose
      repression), known as "Crabtree effect", has been demonstrated for various
      cancerous strains, highly proliferating cells and yeast lines. Although
      significant progress in understanding metabolic events associated with the
      glucose repression of cell respiration has been achieved, it is not yet clear
      whether the Crabtree effect is the result of a limited activity of the
      respiratory chain, or of some glucose-mediated regulation of mitochondrial
      metabolic state. In this work we propose an electrical mechanism of glucose
      repression of the yeast S. cerevisiae, resulting from generation of the
      mitochondrial outer membrane potential (OMP) coupled to the direct oxidation of
      cytosolic NADH in mitochondria. This yeast-type mechanism of OMP generation is
      different from the earlier proposed VDAC-hexokinase-mediated voltage generation
      of cancer-type, associated with the mitochondrial outer membrane. The model was
      developed assuming that VDAC is more permeable to NADH than to NAD+.
      Thermodynamic estimations of OMP, generated as a result of NADH(2-)/NAD+(1-)
      turnover through the outer membrane, demonstrated that the values of calculated
      negative OMP match the known range of VDAC voltage sensitivity, thus suggesting a
      possibility of OMP-dependent VDAC-mediated regulation of cell energy metabolism.
      According to the proposed mechanism, we suggest that the yeast-type Crabtree
      effect is the result of a fast VDAC-mediated electrical repression of
      mitochondria due to a decrease in the outer membrane permeability to charged
      metabolites and owing their redistribution between the mitochondrial
      intermembrane space and the cytosol, both controlled by metabolically-derived
      OMP.

PMID- 28888362
TI  - Risk factors for increased duration of untreated psychosis. Results from the FACE
      SZ dataset.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Reducing the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) may improve the
      prognosis of schizophrenia. This study investigated the prevalence, and
      associated risk factors, of long DUP in a large, non-selected sample of community
      dwelling schizophrenia patients (SZ). METHOD: 478 community-dwelling stable SZ
      participants (122 women and 356 men; mean age 32.37+/-9.86years) were recruited
      between 2010 and 2016. The mean retrospective DUP was evaluated from both patient
      and family reports, as well as hospital/psychiatrists records. Long DUP was
      defined as >2years. RESULTS: The mean DUP was 1.5years. 80 participants (16.7%)
      had a DUP>2years. In multivariate analyses, after adjustment for sex, education
      level, history of childhood trauma and history of maternal schizophrenia or
      bipolar disorder, long DUP was associated with a younger age of illness onset
      (19.3+/-6.67years vs. 22.0+/-6.51years, adjusted odd ratio aOR=0.91, 95%CI [0.86;
      0.97], p=0.003) and cannabis use disorder (20.0% vs. 10.3%, aOR=2.41, 95%CI [1.14
      5.09], p=0.02). CONCLUSION: A high proportion of SZ patients still have a long
      DUP. The present results suggest that illness onset before age 19years and
      cannabis use are associated with long DUP in schizophrenia patients. Early
      psychosis detection programs should prioritize the targeting of these
      populations.

PMID- 28888365
TI  - Functional reconstitution of cell-free synthesized purified Kv channels.
AB  - The study of ion channel activity and the screening of possible inhibitor
      molecules require reliable methods for production of active channel proteins,
      their insertion into artificial membranes and for the measurement of their
      activity. Here we report on cell-free expression of soluble and active Kv1.1 and
      Kv1.3 channels and their efficient insertion into liposomes. Two complementary
      methods for the determination of the electrical activity of the proteoliposome
      embedded channels were compared using Kv1.1 as a model system: (1) single channel
      recordings in droplet interface bilayers (DIB) and (2) measurement of the
      membrane voltage potential generated by a potassium ion diffusion potential using
      the voltage-sensitive fluorescent dye oxonol VI. Single channel recordings in
      DIBs proved unreliable because of the non-reproducible fusion of proteoliposomes
      with an artificial membrane. Therefore, the use of the optical indicator oxonol
      VI was adapted for 96 well microtiter plates using the ionophore valinomycin as a
      positive control. The activity of Kv1.1 and Kv1.3 channels was then monitored in
      the absence and presence of different venom toxins, demonstrating that
      fluorescent dyes can be used very efficiently when screening small molecules for
      their channel blocking activity.

PMID- 28888366
TI  - Lipopolysaccharides promote binding and unfolding of the antibacterial colicin E3
      rRNAse domain.
AB  - Nuclease colicins are antibacterial proteins produced by certain strains of E.
      coli to reduce competition from rival strains. These colicins are generally
      organized with an N-terminal transport (T)-domain, a central receptor binding (R)
      domain, and a C-terminal cytotoxic nuclease domain. These colicins are always
      produced in complex with an inhibitory immunity protein, which dissociates prior
      entrance of the cytotoxic domain in the target cell. How exactly colicins
      traverse the cell envelope is not understood, yet this knowledge is important for
      the design of new antibacterial therapies. In this report, we find that the
      cytotoxic rRNAse domain of colicin E3, lacking both T- and R-domains, is
      sufficient to inhibit cell growth provided the immunity protein Im3 has been
      removed. Thus, while the T-domain is needed for dissociation of Im3, the rRNAse
      alone can associate to the cell surface without R-domain. Accordingly, we find a
      high affinity interaction (Kd ~1-2MUM) between the rRNAse domain and
      lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Furthermore, we show that binding of ColE3 to LPS
      destabilizes the secondary structure of the toxin, which is expectedly crucial
      for transport through the narrow pore of the porin OmpF. The effect of LPS on
      binding and unfolding of ColE3 may be indicative of a broader role of LPS for
      transport of colicins in general.

PMID- 28888367
TI  - Attenuation of ischemia/reperfusion-induced inhibition of the rapid component of
      delayed rectifier potassium current by Isosteviol through scavenging reactive
      oxygen species.
AB  - Isosteviol has been demonstrated to play a protective role during ischemia
      reperfusion (I/R) myocardial infarction. However, the underlying
      electrophysiological mechanisms of isosteviol are still unknown. Our previous
      study showed that the rapid component of the delayed rectifier potassium channel
      (IKr) plays an important role in the prolongation of I/R-induced QT interval
      related arrhythmia. This study aimed to investigate whether isosteviol could
      attenuate I/R-induced prolongation of the action potential duration (APD) along
      with inhibition of IKr, and we aimed to clarify the electrophysiological
      mechanism of isosteviol to determine its cardioprotective effects in guinea pigs.
      We observed that the APD90 were 298.5+/-41.6ms in control, 528.6+/-56.7ms during
      I/R, and reduced to 327.8+/-40.5ms after 10MUmol/L of isosteviol treatment. The
      IKr currents were 1.44+/-0.06 pA.pF-1in the control group, 0.50+/-0.07pA.pF
      1during I/R, and recovered to 1.20+/-0.12pA.pF-1after 10MUmol/L of isoteviol
      treatment. Moreover, isosteviol reduced the over-production of reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) during I/R. Importantly, isosteviol does not affect the IKr and
      human ether-a-go-go-related gene currents of normal cardiomyocytes. It attenuated
      the I/R-induced inhibition of IKr due to reduced over-production of ROS.
      Furthermore, isosteviol is safe and has no cardiotoxicity, and it might be
      beneficial for coronary reperfusion therapy.

PMID- 28888368
TI  - Involvement of scavenger receptor class B type 1 and low-density lipoprotein
      receptor in the internalization of liposomes into HepG2 cells.
AB  - In this study, HepG2 cells, an in vitro model system for human hepatocytes, were
      used to evaluate the interaction of lipoprotein receptors with liposomes carrying
      fluorescently labeled cholesterol and their subsequent intracellular uptake. In
      these experiments, two lipoprotein receptors, scavenger receptor class B type 1
      (SR-B1) and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), accounted for approximately
      20% and 10%, respectively, of the intracellular uptake of the labeled liposomes.
      These findings indicate that additional mechanisms contributed to liposomal
      internalization. Liposomes modified with both apolipoproteins A-I and E were
      internalized in HepG2 cells in FBS-depleted culture medium at the same levels as
      unmodified liposomes in FBS-containing culture medium, which indicates that
      apolipoproteins A-I and E were the major serum components involved in liposomal
      binding to SR-B1 or LDLR (or both). These results increase our understanding of
      the disposition of liposomes, processes that can directly affect the efficacy and
      safety of drug products.

PMID- 28888369
TI  - Structure analysis of the membrane-bound dermcidin-derived peptide SSL-25 from
      human sweat.
AB  - SSL-25 (SSLLEKGLDGAKKAVGGLGKLGKDA) is one of the shortest peptides present in
      human sweat and is produced after the proteolytic processing of the parent
      peptide dermcidin. Both peptides are reported to have antimicrobial function. To
      determine the structure of SSL-25 in lipid bilayers, a series of 19F-labeled SSL
      25 analogs were synthesized. Circular dichroism (CD) analysis showed that SSL-25
      and all of its analogs formed alpha-helices in the presence of lipid vesicles,
      thus allowing a detailed analysis via oriented CD and solid-state NMR. The
      results suggest that SSL-25 resides on the membrane surface with a slight helix
      tilt angle. A detailed 19F NMR analysis revealed that SSL-25 does not form a
      continuous helix. The alpha-helical structure of the N-terminal part of the
      peptide was preserved in membranes of different lipid compositions and at various
      peptide-to-lipid molar ratios, but the C-terminus was disordered and did not fold
      into a well-defined alpha-helical conformation. Furthermore, the NMR results
      showed that SSL-25 resides on the membrane surface and does not re-orient into
      the membrane in response to changes in either peptide concentration or membrane
      composition. SSL-25 does not aggregate and remains fully mobile within the
      membrane bilayer, as shown by 19F NMR. SSL-25 has a high binding affinity toward
      bilayers mimicking bacterial lipid compositions, but does not bind to mammalian
      model membranes containing cholesterol. These observations may explain the
      selectivity of this peptide for bacterial membranes, and they are also in line
      with basic biophysical considerations on spontaneous lipid curvature and the
      general effect of cholesterol on peptide/lipid interactions.

PMID- 28888371
TI  - The "bespoke" recovery: Available when the tailoring is guided by experience and
      high-quality data.

PMID- 28888370
TI  - Biophysical and biological properties of small linear peptides derived from
      crotamine, a cationic antimicrobial/antitumoral toxin with cell penetrating and
      cargo delivery abilities.
AB  - Crotamine is a natural polypeptide from snake venom which delivers nucleic acid
      molecules into cells, besides having pronounced affinity for negatively charged
      membranes and antifungal activity. We previously demonstrated that crotamine
      derived short linear peptides were not very effective as antifungal, although the
      non-structured recombinant crotamine was overridingly more potent compared to the
      native structured crotamine. Aiming to identify the features necessary for the
      antifungal activity of crotamine, two linear short peptides, each comprising half
      of the total positively charged amino acid residues of the full-length crotamine
      were evaluated here to show that these linear peptides keep the ability to
      interact with lipid membrane model systems with different phospholipid
      compositions, even after forming complexes with DNA. Interestingly, the presence
      of cysteine residues in the structure of these linear peptides highly influenced
      the antifungal activity, which was not associated to the lipid membrane lytic
      activity. In addition to the importance of the positive charges, the crucial role
      of cysteine residues was noticed for these linear analogs of crotamine, although
      the tridimensional structure and lipid membrane lytic activity observed only for
      native crotamine was not essential for the antifungal activity. As these peptides
      still keep the ability to form complexes with DNA molecules with no prejudice to
      their ability to bind to lipid membranes, they may be potentially advantageous as
      membrane translocation vector, as they do not show lipid membrane lytic activity
      and may harbor or not antifungal activity, by keeping or not the semi-essential
      amino acid cysteine in their sequence.

PMID- 28888372
TI  - The arithmetic of a successful mitral valve repair.

PMID- 28888373
TI  - A nondystopian alternative history?

PMID- 28888374
TI  - Racing to the Rubicon.

PMID- 28888375
TI  - D-dimer and early coronary graft closure: Not so fast.

PMID- 28888376
TI  - Clamping improves your judgment.

PMID- 28888377
TI  - Rapid-deployment valves: Finally the fog is lifting-benefits beyond crossclamp
      and bypass times.

PMID- 28888378
TI  - Unplanned left ventricular assist device insertion for dissecting intramyocardial
      hematoma during biventricular assist device explantation.

PMID- 28888379
TI  - Video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy is associated with greater recurrence-free
      survival than stereotactic body radiotherapy for clinical stage I lung cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Stereotactic body radiotherapy is the standard treatment for medically
      inoperable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Recent data suggest that in
      operable patients, stereotactic body radiotherapy produces outcomes comparable to
      those of surgical resection. In veterans with early non-small cell lung cancer,
      we compared the outcomes of stereotactic body radiotherapy and video-assisted
      thoracoscopic lobectomy. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed data from 183
      patients (94.0% male) with clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer who
      underwent stereotactic body radiotherapy (n = 56) or video-assisted thoracoscopic
      lobectomy (n = 127) from 2009 to 2014. Propensity matching was used to produce
      more comparable groups. Primary end points were tumor control and overall,
      recurrence-free, and lung-cancer-specific survival, as estimated by Kaplan-Meier
      actuarial analysis. Multivariable analysis was used to identify independent
      predictors. RESULTS: In the overall cohort, the patients who received
      stereotactic body radiotherapy were older than the patients who received video
      assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy (median age, 79.5 vs 64 years) and had more
      comorbidities. In the 37 propensity-matched pairs, the 3-year actuarial tumor
      control rate was 54.3% after stereotactic body radiotherapy and 90.6% after video
      assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy (P = .0038). Actuarial lung cancer-specific 3
      year survival was 78.1% (stereotactic body radiotherapy) versus 93.6% (video
      assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy) (P = .055). One-year overall, 3-year overall,
      and 3-year recurrence-free survivals were 89.2%, 52.9%, and 38.5% after
      stereotactic body radiotherapy and 94.6%, 85.7%, and 82.8% after video-assisted
      thoracoscopic lobectomy (P < .005 for all), respectively. In multivariable
      analysis, stereotactic body radiotherapy independently predicted recurrence and
      poorer survival. CONCLUSIONS: In veteran patients with early-stage non-small cell
      lung cancer, video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy resulted in better disease
      control and survival than stereotactic body radiotherapy. Although prior reports
      suggest that stereotactic body radiotherapy is a suitable alternative to surgery
      in early-stage lung cancer, a prospective randomized trial is needed.
      Nevertheless, stereotactic body radiotherapy remains a suitable option for
      medically inoperable patients.

PMID- 28888380
TI  - A minimally invasive right ventricular assist device insertion late after a
      continuous-flow left ventricular assist device implantation.

PMID- 28888382
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28888381
TI  - Long-term Observation of CT-guided Radiofrequency Ablation of Lung Neoplasm in
      476 Consecutive Patients by a Thoracic Surgical Service: A Single-institutional
      Experience.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate the overall
      survival (OS) rate, progression survival rate, and local control rate over 10
      years of medically inoperable patients with lung cancer undergoing computed
      tomography (CT)-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA). MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Between September 2004 to March 2016, 668 neoplasms were treated in 476 medically
      inoperable patients (294 men, 60 women; median age 74 years; range 29-84) who
      underwent CT-guided RFA. All patients had clinical or pathologic evidence of the
      neoplastic lesion: 22.1% patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC), 22.3% patients with recurrent NSCLC, 45.2% with metastases, and 10.3%
      with small cell lung cancer. The mean size of the lesions was 3.8 cm (range of 1
      16 cm). Twenty-one lesions were re-treated from one to as many as four times.
      RESULTS: The procedure was technically successful in all cases. No procedure
      related deaths occurred in the RFA procedures. Major complications consisted in
      104 (21.8%) cases of low-grade fever, 46 (9.6%) of the pneumothorax. The mean
      follow-up was 32 months. The probabilities of 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year OS rate
      were 98.1%, 86.6%, 68.9% 34.5%, and 9.5% for primary NSCLC; 59.7%, 18.5%, 8%,
      3.4%, and 1.5% for metastases; 93.3%, 59.1%, 49.6%, 19.7%, and 0% for recurrence;
      and 89.4%, 67.5%, 39.1%, 16.5%, and 0% for small cell lung cancer. In primary
      NSCLC, progression-free survival (PFS) and OS were significantly related to tumor
      size, but there was no significant difference in recurrent NSCLC, metastasis, and
      peripheral SCLC. The median OS of metastases of NSCLC was significantly related
      to nodal or distant metastases. The most common pattern of recurrence was local;
      any type of recurrence at 1-year follow-up imaging was seen in 7.1% of primary
      NSCLC diameter less than 3 cm. CONCLUSIONS: Our experience indicates that CT
      guided RFA done by the thoracic surgeons is feasible and safe in high-risk
      patients. Maximum tumor diameter less than 3 cm and lack of extrapulmonary
      metastasis are all positive prognostic factors of survival after RFA. RFA offers
      good local control of recurrent NSCLC, lung metastases, and SCLC, also in the
      long-term period. RFA should continue to offer an alternative option in medically
      inoperable patients.

PMID- 28888383
TI  - Developing Item Response Theory-Based Short Forms to Measure the Social Impact of
      Burn Injuries.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop self-reported short forms for the Life Impact Burn Recovery
      Evaluation (LIBRE) Profile. DESIGN: Short forms based on the item parameters of
      discrimination and average difficulty. SETTING: A support network for burn
      survivors, peer support networks, social media, and mailings. PARTICIPANTS: Burn
      survivors (N=601) older than 18 years. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: The LIBRE Profile. RESULTS: Ten-item short forms were developed
      to cover the 6 LIBRE Profile scales: Relationships with Family & Friends, Social
      Interactions, Social Activities, Work & Employment, Romantic Relationships, and
      Sexual Relationships. Ceiling effects were <=15% for all scales; floor effects
      were <1% for all scales. The marginal reliability of the short forms ranged from
      .85 to .89. CONCLUSIONS: The LIBRE Profile-Short Forms demonstrated credible
      psychometric properties. The short form version provides a viable alternative to
      administering the LIBRE Profile when resources do not allow computer or Internet
      access. The full item bank, computerized adaptive test, and short forms are all
      scored along the same metric, and therefore scores are comparable regardless of
      the mode of administration.

PMID- 28888384
TI  - Ulnar Nerve Cross-Sectional Area for the Diagnosis of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome: A
      Meta-Analysis of Ultrasonographic Measurements.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine the performance of sonographic cross-sectional area (CSA)
      measurements in the diagnosis of cubital tunnel syndrome (CuTS). DATA SOURCES:
      Electronic databases, comprising PubMed and EMBASE, were searched for the
      pertinent literature before July 1, 2017. STUDY SELECTION: Fourteen trials
      comparing the ulnar nerve CSA measurements between participants with and without
      CuTS were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Study design, participants' demographic
      characteristics, diagnostic reference of CuTS, and methods of CSA measurement.
      DATA SYNTHESIS: Among different elbow levels, the between-group difference in CSA
      was the largest at the medial epicondyle (6.0mm2; 95% confidence interval [CI],
      4.5-7.4mm2). The pooled mean CSA in participants without CuTS was 5.5mm2 (95% CI,
      4.4-6.6mm2) at the arm level, 7.4mm2 (95% CI, 6.7-8.1mm2) at the cubital tunnel
      inlet, 6.6mm2 (95% CI, 5.9-7.2mm2) at the medial epicondyle, 7.3mm2 (95% CI, 5.6
      9.0mm2) at the cubital tunnel outlet, and 5.5mm2 (95% CI, 4.7-6.3mm2) at the
      forearm level. The sensitivities, specificities, and diagnostic odds ratios
      pooled from 5 studies, using 10mm2 as the cutoff point, were .85 (95% CI, .78
      .90), .91 (95% CI, .86-.94), and 53.96 (95% CI, 14.84-196.14), respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: The ulnar nerve CSA measured by ultrasound imaging is useful for the
      diagnosis of CuTS and is most significantly different between patients and
      participants without CuTS at the medial epicondyle. Because the ulnar nerve CSA
      in healthy participants, at various locations, rarely exceeds 10mm2, this value
      can be considered as a cutoff point for diagnosing ulnar nerve entrapment at the
      elbow region.

PMID- 28888385
TI  - Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue.

PMID- 28888386
TI  - Pediatric chronic osteomyelitis in the outskirts of Al-Ushbuna (Carnide, Lisboa,
      Portugal).
AB  - The skeletal remains of seven individuals (five non-adults and two adults) were
      recovered during an archeological intervention in the township of Carnide
      (Lisbon, Portugal). Funerary anthropology strongly suggests that the sample is
      from the Medieval Islamic period (8th - 12th centuries AD). This report presents
      a case of chronic osteomyelitis in a non-adult individual. The diagnostic is
      substantiated by the presence of pathognomonic signs of osteomyelitis, including
      the presence of cloacae and a sequestrum in the left tibia. The bone infection is
      discussed in the context of inadequate socioeconomic conditions. This case from a
      relatively unfamiliar chronology and cultural context supplements the uncommon
      paleopathological descriptions of osteomyelitis in non-adults from historical
      populations.

PMID- 28888387
TI  - Scurvy at the agricultural transition in the Atacama desert (ca 3600-3200 BP):
      nutritional stress at the maternal-foetal interface?
AB  - Studies of contemporary populations have demonstrated an association between
      decreased dietary diversity due to resource scarcity or underutilization and an
      increase in diseases related to poor micronutrient intake. With a reduction of
      dietary diversity, it is often the women and children in a population who are the
      first to suffer the effects of poor micronutrient status. Scurvy, a disease of
      prolonged vitamin C deficiency, is a micronutrient malnutrition disorder
      associated with resource scarcity, low dietary diversity, and/or dependence on
      high carbohydrate staple-foods. The aim of this paper is to assess the potential
      impact of nutritional transition on the prevalence of diseases of nutritional
      insufficiency in an archaeological sample. Here, we report palaeopathological
      findings from an Early Formative Period transitional site located in coastal
      Northern Chile (Quiani-7). The subadult cohort from this site is composed of four
      perinates who exhibit a number of non-specific skeletal changes suggestive of a
      systemic pathological condition. One of these is associated with an adult female
      exhibiting diagnostic skeletal lesions of scurvy. We argue that the lesions
      exhibited by these perinates may represent maternal transmission of vitamin C
      deficiency but acknowledge that there are difficulties in applying current
      diagnostic criteria for scurvy to individuals this young.

PMID- 28888388
TI  - A case of concrescent tooth-A developmental anomaly in a 19th century skull from
      Uganda.
AB  - Dental abnormalities in archeological material such us concrescence or odontoma
      are rare cases often found accidentally, mostly during routine X-ray analysis or
      during macroscopic examination of the mastication apparatus. In this study, we
      present a rare case of concrescence between an upper left third molar and a
      supernumerary fourth molar in a 19th century skull from Uganda. Simultaneously,
      it is a critical revision of earlier studies on the same object (which considered
      this abnormality as an odontoma), using dental X-ray imaging and histological
      analysis. Concrescence is a rare dental anomaly and this specimen is, to the best
      of our knowledge, the first such case reported in paleopathological studies of
      Eastern Africa. It may contribute to recognition and identification of
      etiopathogenetic factors in dental developmental defects in historical and
      contemporary populations of Africa.

PMID- 28888389
TI  - Scheuermann's disease in a juvenile male from the late Roman necropolis of
      Torrenueva (3rd-4th century CE, Granada, Spain).
AB  - This study details a severe case of Scheuermann's disease (SD) in a well
      preserved skeleton of a juvenile male (designated TOR302), dated to 3rd-4th
      century CE, from the late Roman necropolis of Torrenueva (Granada, Spain).
      Individual TOR302 shows an evident kyphotic curve in the thoraco-lumbar spine,
      which is characterised by: (i) vertebral bodies of thoracic vertebra T2, thoracic
      segment T4-T9, and thoraco-lumbar segment T12-L2 wedged at >5 degrees ; (ii)
      slight anterior extensions of the epiphyseal ring; (iii) Schmorl's nodes on the
      superior and/or inferior plates; and (iv) a Cobb angle of 75 degrees , derived
      from thoracic segments T4-T9. In addition, TOR302 shows other skeletal
      malformations as the secondary results of abnormal growth, due to altered
      biomechanical forces imposed by the spinal deformity, including: (i) lateral
      distortion of the spine that causes a slight secondary scoliotic curve; (ii)
      pelvic obliquity; and (iii) discrepancy in the length of the limbs. We argue that
      the secondary skeletal abnormalities allowed the individual to adapt to his
      spinal deformity meaning he was able to walk without the aid of a stick. Despite
      SD being a common modern clinical finding, few cases have been reported in
      ancient skeletal remains. This case therefore represents an important
      contribution to the palaeopathological literature.

PMID- 28888390
TI  - Ovarian teratoma: A case from 15th-18th century Lisbon, Portugal.
AB  - This paper discusses the differential diagnosis of an unusual calcified mass
      found in the pelvic cavity of 45+-year-old female excavated from 15th-18th
      century Lisbon (Portugal). The mass is relatively large, irregularly shaped, and
      exhibits a concave base with malformed teeth embedded within its inner surface.
      Considering its macroscopic and radiological characteristics, several conditions
      were considered in the differential diagnosis, namely eccyesis, fetus in fetu,
      lithopaedion, and ovarian teratoma. However, the morphological features of the
      specimen, such as its structure, morphology, and dimensions, are diagnostic of a
      teratoma. Its location and the sex of the individual are more specifically
      compatible with a calcified ovarian teratoma. With regional and temporal
      variations in the frequency of tumours, the report of new cases becomes
      imperative, especially from geographic regions where few cases have been
      identified. In fact, this appears to be the first case of ovarian teratoma
      detected in the Portuguese archaeological record and adds to the few
      palaeopathological cases described in the osteoarchaeological literature
      worldwide.

PMID- 28888391
TI  - Osteocytes and the bone lacunar-canalicular system: Insights into bone biology
      and skeletal function using bone tissue microstructure.

PMID- 28888393
TI  - Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in a young adult male from Berber, Sudan (2nd-3rd
      century CE).
AB  - Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is a pathological condition characterised by
      extensive periosteal new bone formation (NBF) on the diaphyses of the long bones,
      metacarpal and metatarsal bones. In modern clinical contexts, the secondary form
      of the disease is common and most often occurs secondary to intra-thoracic cancer
      and other forms of chronic pulmonary disease. Paleopathological evidence for HOA
      on the other hand has only occasionally been reported. Here we report a young
      adult male from the Meriotic cemetery at Berber in Sudan (2nd-3rd century CE)
      displaying widespread NBF on the diaphyses of the upper and lower limb bones,
      metacarpal and metatarsal bones, as well as the pelvis and scapulae. While
      several pathological conditions have to be considered as differential diagnostic
      options for NBF in the post-cranial skeleton, HOA is the most likely diagnosis,
      based on the distribution of the changes observed in this individual, as well as
      their macroscopic and radiographic characteristics. A chronic pulmonary condition
      as indicated by NBF on the visceral side of the ribs may represent the underlying
      cause for the HOA. This individual represents the first paleopathological case of
      HOA reported from an archaeological site in Africa.

PMID- 28888392
TI  - Toxocara eggs in an 18th century Franciscan from Portugal. The challenge of
      differentiating between parasitism and chance in Paleoparasitology.
AB  - In 2005, an adult male was excavated in the cloister of the former Convent of the
      Holy Spirit, in the Franciscan Province of Holy Mary of Arrabida, Lisbon
      district. From the anterior part of the sacrum, a darker organic agglomeration
      was collected and studied for intestinal parasites. Samples were rehydrated with
      Lycopodium tablets in a Na3PO4 5% solution for 72h, followed by the swirl
      technique. Organic material was concentrated at 2500rpm. At least 20 slides of
      each sample were examined using a light/polarized microscope. A control sample
      from outside the pelvis revealed no biological remains. A sample collected inside
      the pelvic girdle was positive for pollen grains, other plant remains and
      Toxocara eggs, perhaps T. cati (2766 eggs/gram sediment). This finding, although
      exciting, cannot be explained in a simple way because humans are not definitive
      hosts for Toxocara species. Ingestion of feces-contaminated food or water,
      geophagy, or true infection are hypotheses considered in this study, which
      demonstrates the difficulty of interpreting the presence of animal parasites in
      human remains. This is the first time Toxocara eggs are found associated with
      human remains.

PMID- 28888394
TI  - Three cases of feet and hand amputation from Medieval Estremoz, Portugal.
AB  - Peri-mortem limb amputations are rarely reported in the paleopathological
      literature. The cases reported here concern severing of both hands and feet
      observed in three adult male skeletons, exhumed from the medieval Portuguese
      necropolis of Rossio do Marques de Pombal, Estremoz, Portugal. The fact that they
      were found in the same site, in graves placed side by side, that all are young
      males, and that the three skeletons show similar perimortem injuries, make this a
      unique case meriting detailed analysis. Considering the lesions' location and
      pattern, as well as historical data, we hypothesize that this is a case of
      amputation as a consequence of judicial punishment. Estremoz was an important
      city in sustaining the Royal power at a regional scale during the medieval
      period.

PMID- 28888395
TI  - Dental adaptations of Bronze Age Harappans: Occlusal wear, crown size, and dental
      pathology.
AB  - Systematic study of dental attributes yields insights regarding diet and
      subsistence that cannot be gained from the archaeological record alone. This
      analysis documents occlusal tooth wear, tooth crown dimensions and dental
      pathology of an expanded dental sample from Harappa (2550-2030cal BC; Pakistan).
      New floral and faunal evidence of subsistence indicates a mix of agriculture and
      pastoralism that can be integrated with evidence of dental attributes and disease
      to reveal the impact of Harappan diet on oral health. An enlarged dental sample
      (58 specimens, 910 teeth) from mature phase Harappa was analyzed using Scott's
      quadrant wear system, measures of crown size, and prevalence of seven
      pathological dental lesions. All data were collected by the author using standard
      methods. Sex differences were found in wear, tooth size and prevalence of dental
      diseases. Females exhibit greater caries prevalence and antemortem tooth loss
      than men, an attribute associated with higher rates of pulp exposure and
      abscesses in women. At Harappa antemortem tooth loss results from penetrating
      caries, while in foragers the cause is severe occlusal wear. In contrast to early
      Holocene foragers of north India (Damdama, 8800-8600 BP), Harappans have greater
      occlusal wear, smaller teeth, and a distinct dental pathology profile.

PMID- 28888396
TI  - Middle and late holocene micromammal pathologies from Cueva Tixi (Tandilia Range,
      Buenos Aires Province, Argentina).
AB  - Paleopathology in bones of very small mammals has rarely been studied. Different
      types of osseous lesions of mammals weighing under 0.2kg, recovered from the
      Holocene strata of Cueva Tixi archaeological and paleontological site (Tandilia
      range, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina), are described and discussed in this
      report. Several types of trauma, entheseal changes, degenerative joint diseases,
      and probable osteomyelitis were identified. The lesions were chronic, indicating
      that the animals were able to survive a period of convalescence, although in many
      cases the decreased capacity for locomotion likely was significant. These
      pathological findings open research avenues for very small mammals that usually
      are not considered in archaeological disease studies.

PMID- 28888397
TI  - Social reorganization and biological change: An examination of stature variation
      among Iron Age Samnites from Abruzzo, central Italy.
AB  - Stature is a sensitive indicator of overall environmental quality experienced
      during growth and development, and can provide insights on a population's 'well
      being'. This study investigated changes in estimated adult stature in a large
      (N=568) sample of Samnite Iron Age (800-27 BCE) people from central Italy, during
      a period of increasing sociopolitical complexity. Stature was analyzed
      diachronically, between sexes, and across social strata inferred using the
      'Status Index' based on funerary treatment. It was expected: 1) a decrease in
      stature from the Orientalizing-Archaic period (O-A) to the fifth century BC (V
      SEC) and the following Hellenistic period (ELL), due to population increase and
      urbanization; 2) social status to positively influence the attainment of the full
      stature potential; 3) sexual dimorphism to be higher in more stratified groups.
      Results revealed no significant diachronic changes in stature (females: O-A:
      154.2cm,V SEC: 154.2cm, and ELL: 153.6cm; males: O-A: 165.0cm,V SEC: 165.2cm, and
      ELL: 165.0cm) or sexual dimorphism. High-status males were taller than low-status
      (p=0.021), possibly due to a better diet, but only in the Orientalizing-Archaic
      period. Nonsignificant changes in females suggest either differential access to
      resources in women, or a better buffering from environmental optima or crises.
      The results of this study highlight the complex interrelation between social
      factors and human growth, and stress the importance of understanding the specific
      mechanisms leading to variation in adult stature.

PMID- 28888398
TI  - Basilar portion porosity: A pathological lesion possibly associated with
      infantile scurvy.
AB  - Recent analysis of the juvenile (<=12 years) human remains from a 19th century
      site in Wolverhampton, England revealed a relatively high level of nutritional
      deficiency diseases within the population. Indeed, 41.7% of the 48 juvenile
      skeletons analysed exhibited a combination of porous and proliferative bone
      lesions consistent with the pathological alterations associated with nutritional
      stress. This paper describes a pathological lesion on the inferior surface of the
      basilar portion of the occipital bone, not previously reported in association
      with infantile scurvy, but which was exhibited by 90% (N=9) of the 10 scorbutic
      individuals identified during this study.

PMID- 28888399
TI  - Overlapping genetic pathways in the skeletal dysplasias of a middle woodland
      individual: A case study.
AB  - Studies of interacting/overlapping genetic skeletal disorders are rare for
      populations today, but even more so for archaeological contexts. The skeletal
      remains of an adult female (EZ 3-7-1) were excavated in the 1980s from the Middle
      Woodland (50BC-AD400) context of the Elizabeth site (11PK512) in the lower
      Illinois Valley (LIV), USA. Reported here are the standard score (z-score)
      comparisons of the measured skeletal differences of EZ 3-7-1 with a reference
      sample and a re-analysis of the individual's pathological changes, with special
      consideration placed on refining the disease diagnosis. The impressive
      preservation and meticulous recovery of these skeletal remains have provided the
      opportunity to identify the first and earliest archaeological example of an
      individual (EZ 3-7-1) with a combined genetic skeletal dysplasia, Leri-Weill
      dyschondrosteosis and achondroplasia.

PMID- 28888400
TI  - Characterization of inflammasome-related genes in urine sediments of patients
      receiving intravesical BCG therapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nowadays, the intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)
      instillation is the method of choice for the postsurgical treatment of high-grade
      nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer , to reduce both recurrence rate and risk of
      progression. BCG is hypothesized to correct the immune system disequilibrium
      occurring during carcinogenesis, through an immunostimulation with detrimental
      effects for tumoral cells. Inflammation plays a crucial role in tumor
      progression. The deregulation of inflammasomes upon carcinogenesis underlines its
      importance both in physiologic and pathologic human conditions. Nucleotide
      oligomerization domain-like receptors (NLRs) are key components of this molecular
      platform and the increase in expression of some members of nucleotide
      oligomerization domain-like receptors family (NLRP3, NLRP4, NLRP9, and NLR family
      apoptosis inhibitory protein [NAIP]) in urothelial carcinoma was already
      demonstrated in our previous work. The first aim of the present work was to
      estimate whether these inflammasome-related genes show alterations during BCG
      instillations. The expression levels of NLRP3, NLRP4, NLRP9, and NAIP were
      assessed in the urine sediments from patients, which underwent surgery for
      superficial high-grade bladder cancer and further subjected to serial BCG
      instillations. The eventual association between NLR expression and recurrence was
      also evaluated. The expression of CK20 mRNA as confirmed marker of bladder cancer
      was also assayed. METHODS: Urine were sampled from patients harboring high-grade
      superficial bladder cancer and treated postsurgically with weekly BCG
      instillations for 6 weeks (induction cycle, I). Urine sediments were processed
      and resulting RNA was reverse transcribed and used for amplification by real-time
      PCR. RESULTS: After surgery, CK20 levels decreased significantly whereas NLRP4
      and NLRP9 genes showed an increase. NLRP3 and NAIP remained substantially
      unmodified. CK20 mRNA decreased at the end of the induction cycle. NLRP3 did not
      show relevant modifications. The expression levels of NLRP4 and NLRP9 decreased
      significantly after 2 BCG administrations and remained substantially
      downregulated during the whole induction cycle. CK20 was higher in recurrence
      cases before BCG administration compared to the recurrence-free group, while no
      significant difference after BCG therapy was recorded. NLRP4 and NLRP9 were
      higher in patients with recurrence before BCG administration. CONCLUSIONS: The
      study underlines the importance of NLRP4 and NLRP9 in urothelial carcinoma and if
      these preliminary data will be confirmed in larger cohort studies, the assessment
      of NLRP4 and NLRP9 expression levels could help to predict the BCG failure,
      playing a relevant role in decision making for early radical surgery.

PMID- 28888401
TI  - Detection of carbapenemases and other mechanisms of enzymatic resistance to beta
      lactams in Enterobacteriaceae with diminished susceptibility to carbapenems in a
      tertiary care hospital.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Our objective was to characterize the enzymatic beta-lactam
      resistance in clinical Enterobacteriaceae isolates with diminished susceptibility
      to carbapenems from 2013 to 2014 at Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet.
      MATERIAL/METHODS: A total of 63 clinical isolates were analyzed for the presence
      of carbapenemases (KPC, OXA-48 and MBL), ESBLs and AmpC enzymes by combined disk
      methods and PCR detection of carbapenemase-encoding and beta-lactamase-encoding
      genes. RESULTS: Fifteen isolates had a phenotypic test compatible with
      carbapenemase production; two of these were confirmed by PCR as OXA-48 producers.
      ESBL detection was positive in 27 isolates (43%); plasmid-mediated AmpC was
      detected in nine isolates (14.2%) and derepressed AmpC beta-lactamase was present
      in 18 isolates (28%). CONCLUSION: During the study period, the decreased
      susceptibility to carbapenems in Enterobacteriaceae in our area was not due to
      true carbapenemases but rather to beta-lactamase activity (82.5% were ESBL or
      AmpC producers), probably in combination with decreased permeability of the outer
      membrane.

PMID- 28888402
TI  - Investigating the potential of multiwalled carbon nanotubes based zinc
      nanocomposite as a recognition interface towards plant pathogen detection.
AB  - The emergence of nanotechnology has opened new horizons for constructing
      efficient recognition interfaces. This is the first report where the potential of
      a multiwalled carbon nanotube based zinc nanocomposite (MWCNTs-Zn NPs)
      investigated for the detection of an agricultural pathogen i.e. Chili leaf curl
      betasatellite (ChLCB). Atomic force microscope analyses revealed the presence of
      multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) having a diameter of 50-100nm with zinc
      nanoparticles (Zn-NPs) of 25-500nm. In this system, these bunches of Zn-NPs
      anchored along the whole lengths of MWCNTs were used for the immobilization of
      probe DNA strands. The electrochemical performance of DNA biosensor was assessed
      in the absence and presence of the complementary DNA during cyclic and
      differential pulse voltammetry scans. Target binding events occurring on the
      interface surface patterned with single-stranded DNA was quantitatively
      translated into electrochemical signals due to hybridization process. In the
      presence of complementary target DNA, as the result of duplex formation, there
      was a decrease in the peak current from 1.89*10-04 to 5.84*10-05A. The
      specificity of this electrochemical DNA biosensor was found to be three times as
      compared to non-complementary DNA. This material structuring technique can be
      extended to design interfaces for the recognition of the other plant viruses and
      biomolecules.

PMID- 28888403
TI  - Transitioning From a Level II to Level I Trauma Center Increases Resident Patient
      Exposure.
AB  - Increased patient exposure has been shown to improve residency training as
      determined by better patient outcomes. The transition of John Peter Smith
      Hospital from a level II to a level I trauma center in 2009 provided a unique
      opportunity to investigate the direct effects of increased patient exposure on
      residency training in a relatively controlled setting. We evaluated the effect of
      the transition to a level I trauma center on residency training. In 2014, we
      examined the annual facility reports and separated the data into 2 groups: level
      II (2001 to 2008) and level I (2010 to 2013). The primary outcome measures were
      patient volume, surgical volume, patient acuity, and scholarly activity by the
      residents. The patient volume in all units increased significantly (p < .05 for
      all) after the transition to a level I center. The surgical volume increased
      significantly for the general surgery, orthopedics, and podiatry departments (p <
      .05 for all) but remained unchanged in the gynecology and oral maxillofacial
      surgery departments. The volume measures were performed on all 98 residents
      (100%). Patient acuity and scholarly activity increased by 17% and 52%,
      respectively; however, the differences in these data were not statistically
      significant. The scholarly activity per resident was measured for the orthopedic
      and podiatry departments. For those departments, the total number of residents
      was 30, and scholarly activity was measured for 100% of them. Overall, resident
      education improved when the hospital transitioned to a level I trauma center,
      although certain subspecialties benefited more than did others from this
      transition.

PMID- 28888404
TI  - Expert Tibial Nails for Treating Distal Tibial Fractures With Soft Tissue Damage:
      A Patient Series.
AB  - Distal tibial fractures with soft tissue damage are relatively difficult to
      treat. We assessed the outcomes of patients with these fractures treated with the
      Expert Tibial Nail(r) (DePuy Synthes, Raynham, MA) from March 2012 to December
      2014. At 6 months postoperatively, the general health quality of patients was
      assessed using operative time, interval to return to work, American Orthopaedic
      Foot and Ankle Society ankle scale score, pain measured using a visual analog
      scale, and short-form health outcomes 36-item survey physical functioning and
      mental health dimension scores. Of 11 cases, 7 (63.6%) were open fractures (3
      [27.3%] Gustilo-Anderson type II, 3 [27.3%] type IIIA, and 1 [9.1%] type IIIB)
      and 4 (36.4%) were closed fractures with Tscherne-Oestern type II tissue damage.
      Their mean age was 52.2 (range 28 to 66) years. The mean operative time was 83
      (range 65 to 105) minutes. The mean follow-up period was 16.3 (range 14 to 18)
      months. The median short-form 36-item survey scores were 79.1 (range 68.9 to
      89.0) for the physical function dimension and 77.0 (range 64.3 to 90.0) for the
      mental health dimension. The mean postoperative ankle score was 88.6 (range 84 to
      94). The mean pain score was 1.6 (range 0 to 4) mm. The mean interval to return
      to work was 14 (range 11 to 17) months. No patient showed evidence of
      neurovascular damage, malunion, nonunion, or shortening of the tibia. Taken
      together, we have confirmed that Expert Tibial Nails can effectively treat distal
      tibial fractures with soft tissue damage.

PMID- 28888405
TI  - Anatomic Locking Plate for Displaced Intraarticular Calcaneal Fracture: Design
      and Application.
AB  - Calcaneal fracture can lead to long-term disability and have a considerable
      economic effect. Most calcaneal fractures are intraarticular fractures involving
      the posterior facet of the subtalar joint. Treating displaced intraarticular
      calcaneal fractures is complicated because of the lack of an optimal treatment
      option. Internal fixation typically involves screw-and-plate implants, which can
      be unfavorable owing to the lack of an anatomic design and the intraoperative
      bending required for the plate to contour to the irregular surface of the
      calcaneus. We assessed the outcomes of 30 patients treated using innovative,
      anatomically designed calcaneal locking plates and the perceived advantages for
      surgeons. Postoperative computed tomography images of the affected feet were
      obtained, and the functional performance was recorded. The mean average Bohler
      angle had increased significantly from 16.8 degrees  +/- 14.9 degrees  to 28.5
      degrees  +/- 9.4 degrees  (p < .001). The mean average maximal fracture gap and
      maximal step-off in the posterior facet of the subtalar joint in the coronal
      computed tomography images also decreased significantly from 2.8 +/- 3.7 mm to
      0.8 +/- 1.3 mm (p < .01) and from 3.3 +/- 2.8 mm to 0.8 +/- 1.2 mm (p < .001),
      respectively. The mean average American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Ankle-Hindfoot
      scale score was 93.9 +/- 7.1 at the final follow-up visit. In addition, the
      surgical time was reduced because bending the plate was not required and the
      quality of reduction could be assessed easily by examining the gap between the
      cortex and the plate. The results were promising, revealing that the anatomic
      locking plate can be used effectively in the treatment of displaced
      intraarticular calcaneal fractures using simple reduction techniques with a
      potentially shortened operating time.

PMID- 28888406
TI  - Temporal Trends in the Prevalence, Severity, and Localization of Myocardial
      Ischemia and Necrosis at Myocardial Perfusion Imaging After Myocardial
      Infarction.
AB  - The definition, presentation, and management of myocardial infarction (MI) have
      changed substantially in the last decade. Whether these changes have impacted on
      the presence, severity, and localization of necrosis at myocardial perfusion
      imaging (MPI) has not been appraised to date. Subjects undergoing MPI and
      reporting a history of clinical MI were shortlisted. We focused on the presence,
      severity, and localization of necrosis at MPI with a retrospective single-center
      analysis. A total of 10,476 patients were included, distinguishing 5 groups
      according to the period in which myocardial perfusion scintigraphy had been
      performed (2004 to 2005, 2006 to 2007, 2008 to 2009, 2010 to 2011, 2012 to 2013).
      Trend analysis showed over time a significant worsening in baseline features
      (e.g., age, diabetes mellitus, and Q waves at electrocardiogram), whereas medical
      therapy and revascularization were offered with increasing frequency. Over the
      years, there was also a lower prevalence of normal MPI (from 16.8% to 13.6%) and
      ischemic MPI (from 35.6% to 32.8%), and a higher prevalence of ischemic and
      necrotic MPI (from 12.0% to 12.7%) or solely necrotic MPI (from 35.7% to 40.9%, p
      <0.001). Yet the prevalence of severe ischemia decreased over time from 11.4% to
      2.0%, with a similar trend for moderate ischemia (from 15.9% to 11.8%, p <0.001).
      Similarly sobering results were wound for the prevalence of severe necrosis (from
      19.8% to 8.2%) and moderate necrosis (from 8.5% to 7.8%, p = 0.028). These trends
      were largely confirmed at regional level and after propensity score matching. In
      conclusion, the outlook of stable patients with previous MI has substantially
      improved in the last decade, with a decrease in the severity of residual
      myocardial ischemia and necrosis, despite an apparent worsening in baseline
      features.

PMID- 28888407
TI  - Comparison of Outcome of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation for Severe
      Aortic Stenosis in 3 Age Groups (<=70; 71 to 80, and >=81 Years).
AB  - Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has been widely used for the
      treatment of aortic stenosis. Most pivotal studies of TAVI included patients with
      a mean age of over 80 years old. Many young patients may also be considered for
      TAVI because of severe co-morbidities. We sought to describe a group of patients
      undergoing TAVI at an age below 70 and to compare them with older patients
      undergoing the procedure. This study included 1,324 consecutive patients from a 3
      center TAVI registry from 2008 to 2014. Patients were divided according to age
      into 3 groups: patients aged 70 years and below, patients between the ages of 71
      and 80, and patients 81 years and older. Patients in the younger group had higher
      body mass index (p <0.001), higher proportion of previous stroke (p = 0.05),
      peripheral vascular disease (p = 0.03), and diabetes mellitus (p <0.001). Thirty
      percent of patients in the younger group had functional class IV. Corticosteroids
      treatment was 5-fold higher in the younger group (p <0.001). Average valve area
      was lower in the older group (p = 0.004). Thirty-day mortality was similar
      between the 3 groups. We found no difference in the rate of in-hospital
      complications. One-year all-cause mortality rate of patients aged 70 years, 71 to
      80 years, and >80 years was 7.6%, 7.5%, and 12.6%, respectively, p = 0.01. In
      conclusion, younger patients undergoing TAVI exhibited higher prevalence of risk
      factors and co-morbidities that probably explain the decision to perform TAVI
      rather than surgical aortic valve replacement. Nevertheless, the 1-year mortality
      of these patients was significantly lower than in older patients.

PMID- 28888408
TI  - Atrial Fibrillation and Stent Selection (Bare Metal vs Drug Eluting) (from
      Medicare Claims).
AB  - In treating coronary artery disease, many factors influence the choice of bare
      metal stent (BMS) or drug-eluting stent (DES), including bleed risk and
      suitability for prolonged dual antiplatelet therapy. Atrial fibrillation (AF)
      further complicates this choice, due to common use of anticoagulation. We
      examined stent selection in the United States by AF status and across academic
      medical centers (AMCs) to explore how cardiologists are managing this complex
      choice. Using a 100% Medicare denominator file and associated claims (2008 to
      2012), we identified patients over age 65 receiving inpatient coronary artery
      stents. We measured BMS and DES use in patients with AF and in patients without
      AF and assessed variation in stent choice across AMCs, adjusting for differences
      in age, gender, and race. We identified 898,788 stent episodes among elderly
      Medicare beneficiaries. BMS, as a percentage of total inpatient stent episodes,
      decreased from 2008 to 2012, in patients with AF (42% to 34%) and in patients
      without AF (32% to 23%). Across AMCs, adjusted stent choice varied substantially,
      but more so for patients with AF (2008 to 2012 median BMS 44% to 39%, annual
      interquartile ratios range 1.8 to 2.3) than patients without AF (2008 to 2012
      median BMS 33% to 25%, annual interquartile ratios range 2.0 to 1.8). In
      conclusion, among stent recipients, patients with AF are more likely to receive
      BMS than patients without AF but treatment varies across systems, suggesting a
      lack of consensus. Studies of stent choice and outcomes among patients with AF
      are needed to guide care decisions and optimize outcomes.

PMID- 28888410
TI  - Three-dimensional printing in contemporary fixed prosthodontics: A technique
      article.
AB  - Digital dentistry has gained in popularity among clinicians and laboratory
      technicians because of its versatile applications. Three-dimensional (3D)
      printing has been applied in many areas of dentistry as it offers efficiency,
      affordability, accessibility, reproducibility, speed, and accuracy. This article
      describes a technique where 3D printing is used to fabricate a die-trimmed cast
      and to replicate gingival tissue and implant analogs. The digital workflow that
      replaces the conventional laboratory procedure is outlined.

PMID- 28888409
TI  - Maxillofacial prosthetic treatment factors affecting oral health-related quality
      of life after surgery for patients with oral cancer.
AB  - STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: After oral cancer surgery, tissue defects can cause
      deformity and limited mobility, complicating many essential functions. For
      patients with mandibular, tongue, and oral floor defects, evidence regarding the
      effects of maxillofacial prosthetics on their oral health-related quality of life
      (OHRQoL) is lacking. Therefore, maxillofacial prosthetic reconstruction has been
      implemented with no clear treatment goals. PURPOSE: The purpose of this clinical
      study was to identify factors affecting the improvement of OHRQoL by using
      maxillofacial prosthetic treatment after surgery to repair maxillary, mandibular,
      tongue, and oral floor defects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All individuals who agreed
      to maxillofacial prosthetics after surgery for oral cancer were enrolled. Oral
      function and OHRQoL were evaluated before maxillofacial prosthesis placement and
      1 month after final adjustments. The oral functions evaluated included
      masticatory function, swallowing function, and articulatory function. The Oral
      Health Impact Profile (OHIP-J54) was used to evaluate OHRQoL. Factors affecting
      changes in the OHIP-J54 score for participants' background and oral functions
      before and after treatment were analyzed through logistic regression analysis
      (stepwise method). RESULTS: Participants included 34 men and 16 women with an
      average age of 72.4 +/-8.7 years. "Psychological discomfort" was correlated with
      the patient's sex and masticatory function. "Physical disability" was related to
      articulatory function. "Handicap" was related to the swallowing function.
      "Additional Japanese questions" were related to the patient's sex. CONCLUSIONS:
      Participants' sex and their oral functions, including masticatory, swallowing,
      and articulatory functions, were associated with improved OHRQoL because of
      maxillofacial prosthetics after surgery for oral cancer.

PMID- 28888411
TI  - 3D-printed cone-beam computed tomography scans: A tool for patient education.

PMID- 28888412
TI  - A risk-based decision making tree for managing fractured abutment and prosthetic
      screws: A systematic review.
AB  - STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: In implant dentistry, a variety of techniques are used to
      manage fractured abutment and prosthetic screws. All of them pose various degrees
      of difficulty to both the clinician and patient and risk involving damage to the
      implants and prostheses. PURPOSE: The purpose of this systematic review was to
      classify and organize the various reported techniques for managing fractured
      abutment and or prosthetic screws into a risk-based, decision making tree that
      could be used to guide the clinician through this difficult and time-consuming
      clinical procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic search of the
      PubMed/MEDLINE database for articles published before June 2016 was performed by
      2 independent reviewers. Studies published in English that described a clinical
      technique to retrieve or manage a fractured abutment or prosthetic screws were
      included. Techniques were classified according to risk of irreversible damage to
      the implant. Low-risk techniques were defined as those involving the use of basic
      hand instruments and instrument modification; moderate-risk techniques were
      defined as those involving the use of screw retrieval kits, rotary instruments,
      and screw modification; and high-risk techniques were defined as those involving
      modification of the implant. Published techniques were then organized into a
      decision-making tree. RESULTS: A total of 35 articles were included. The reported
      techniques ranged from straightforward instrumentation and instrument
      modification to screw or implant modifications. Seven techniques were considered
      low risk, 17 moderate risk, and 11 high risk. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed risk
      based decision tree is a useful tool in helping clinicians choose the most
      appropriate strategy or sequence of strategies that offers maximum benefit to the
      patient while minimizing associated risks.

PMID- 28888413
TI  - Digital intraoral scanning technique for edentulous jaws.
AB  - Few studies have evaluated direct digital scans of edentulous jaws using
      intraoral scanners because it is difficult to scan edentulous sites that are
      smooth and devoid of features. A scanning technique is introduced for making
      direct digital scans of edentulous jaws with intraoral scanners in patients with
      a broad palate.

PMID- 28888414
TI  - Use of silver diamine fluoride for the maintenance of dental prostheses in a high
      caries-risk patient: A medical management approach.
AB  - A technique for using silver diamine fluoride (SDF) as part of a regimen to help
      maintain dental prostheses in a patient with scleroderma and at high risk of
      caries is presented. Medically compromised, xerostomic, or elderly patients
      generally face greater risk of caries and specifically with prosthetic retainer
      teeth. SDF is a minimally invasive solution to this problem. A technique is
      described for using SDF to arrest and prevent new caries with the goal of
      maintaining fixed and removable prostheses and supporting teeth in a cost
      effective manner.

PMID- 28888415
TI  - A chairside technique to add customized anterior acrylic resin teeth to a
      surgical obturator.
AB  - A surgical obturator may need to be modified during the healing process after
      tissue resection. Apart from relining the fitting surfaces to accommodate the
      healing wound and changes in the surrounding tissues, other modifications such as
      adding teeth are sometimes required to improve esthetics and speech. This article
      describes a chairside technique to add customized acrylic resin teeth to an
      existing surgical obturator.

PMID- 28888416
TI  - Toll Like Receptors in systemic sclerosis: An emerging target.
AB  - Pattern Recognition Receptors are critical receptors that elicit an immune
      response upon their activation that culminates in activation of NF-KB and
      cytokine secretion. Key among these receptors are the Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs).
      These evolutionary conserved receptors form a key part in the defence against
      various pathogens and comprise a key part of the innate immune system. Systemic
      sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which a breach of tolerance has occurred
      and leads to fulminant autoimmunity, dysregulated cytokines, pro-fibrotic
      mediators and activation of fibroblasts leading to fibrosis via collagen
      deposition. It has become apparent in recent years that the innate immune system
      and specifically TLRs are important in disease pathogenesis; responding to
      internal ligands to initiate an innate immune response ultimately leading to
      release of a variety of factors that initiate and perpetuate fibrosis. This
      review will examine the recent evidence of TLR signalling in systemic sclerosis
      and the internal danger associated molecules that may mediate the fibrotic
      cascade. Evaluation of their contribution to disease in systemic sclerosis and
      possible therapeutic targeting will be discussed.

PMID- 28888417
TI  - American Brachytherapy Society recurrent carcinoma of the endometrium task force
      patterns of care and review of the literature.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this American Brachytherapy Society task force is to
      present a literature review and patterns of care by a panel of experts for the
      management of vaginal recurrence of endometrial cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In
      2016, the American Brachytherapy Society Board selected a panel of experts in
      gynecologic brachytherapy to update our current state of knowledge for managing
      vaginal recurrence of endometrial cancer. Practice patterns were evaluated via an
      online survey and clinical updates occurred through a combination of literature
      review and clinical experience and/or expertise. RESULTS: There are various
      retrospective series of patients treated with radiation for vaginal recurrence of
      endometrial cancer, which include a varied group of patients, multiple treatment
      techniques, and a range of total doses and demonstrate a wide scope of local
      control and overall survival outcomes. In the era of image-guided brachytherapy,
      high local control rates with low significant late-term morbidities can be
      achieved. Lower rates of local control and higher late-term toxicity are reported
      in the retreatment setting. In patients with no previous history of radiation
      treatment, external beam radiation therapy followed by brachytherapy boost should
      be used. There are varying practices with regard to the definition and
      appropriate doses of both the high-risk clinical target volume and the
      intermediate-risk clinical target volume in the setting of vaginal recurrence of
      endometrial cancer. There are limited data to provide appropriate dose
      constraints for some organs at risk with the majority of guidance taken from the
      definitive cervical cancer literature. CONCLUSIONS: A summary of literature and
      expert practice patterns for patient selection, dose recommendations, and
      constraints are provided as guidance for practitioners.

PMID- 28888418
TI  - Vitamin D supplementation in adult critically ill patients: Should we trust it?

PMID- 28888419
TI  - Clinical Skills and Professionalism: Assessing Orthopaedic Residents With
      Unannounced Standardized Patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We developed a series of orthopedic unannounced standardized patient
      (USP) encounters for the purpose of objective assessment of residents during
      clinic encounters. DESIGN: Consecutive case-series. SETTING: NYU-Langone Multi
      center Academic University Hospital System. PARTICIPANTS: NYU-Langone/Hospital
      for Joint Diseases Orthopedic Surgery residents; 48 consecutive residents
      assessed. METHODS: Four orthopedic cases were developed. USPs presented
      themselves as patients in outpatient clinics. Residents were evaluated on
      communication skills (information gathering, relationship development, and
      education and counseling). USPs globally rated whether they would recommend the
      resident. RESULTS: Forty-eight USP encounters were completed over a 2-year
      period. Communication skills items were rated at 51% (+/-30) "well done."
      Education and counseling skills were rated as the lowest communication domain at
      33% (+/-33). Residents were globally recommended based on communication skills in
      63% of the encounters recommended in 70% of encounters based on both
      professionalism and medical competence. CONCLUSIONS: The USP program has been
      useful in assessing residents' clinical skills, interpersonal and communications
      skills, and professionalism. Use of USP in orthopedic surgery training programs
      can be an objective means for trainee assessment.

PMID- 28888420
TI  - Transition to Residency: The Successful Development and Implementation of a
      Nonclinical Elective in Perioperative Management.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Few medical school programs in Canada address challenges related to
      the significant increase in responsibility for patient care between medical
      school and residency. This is particularly important in surgery and anesthesia
      due to the high-acuity care required during the perioperative period. The purpose
      of this study was to develop and assess a program that would help students
      transition to surgical and anesthesia residencies, in terms of knowledge
      acquisition, clinical decision-making skills, and subjective preparedness.
      DESIGN: The authors developed a 1-week nonclinical Perioperative Management
      Elective for students matching to surgical or anesthesia residencies. Clinical
      decision-making training was incorporated using a simulated pager called the
      MedsOnCall Pager app. A study was conducted to evaluate knowledge acquisition and
      development of clinical decision-making skills in students completing the
      elective. A mixed-effects model analysis of the proportion of pages answered
      correctly during the elective was used as a marker of their progression. Students
      were asked to complete entry and exit questionnaires to provide subjective
      information regarding their elective experience. SETTING: The study ran for 2
      iterations of the elective in 2016 and 2017 at the University of Ottawa.
      PARTICIPANTS: A total of 20 University of Ottawa fourth-year medical students
      completed the elective. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in the
      proportion of correctly answered pages over the course of the elective week (p =
      0.04). Results from entry and exit questionnaires revealed that students felt
      more knowledgeable, comfortable, and prepared for residency after completing the
      elective (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The Perioperative Management Elective has
      completed 2 successful iterations with confirmed knowledge acquisition and
      improved clinical decision-making skills among elective students. Participating
      students perceived that the experience was beneficial and fulfilled a gap in
      their medical school training. We believe that this elective framework could be
      employed by other schools to help graduating students' transition smoothly into
      residency.

PMID- 28888422
TI  - Exome Sequencing Landscape Analysis in Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma Shed Light on
      Key Chromosomal Regions and Mutation Gene Networks.
AB  - Previous studies have reported genome-wide mutation profile analyses in ovarian
      clear cell carcinomas (OCCCs). This study aims to identify specific novel
      molecular alterations by combined analyses of somatic mutation and copy number
      variation. We performed whole exome sequencing of 39 OCCC samples with 16
      matching blood tissue samples. Four hundred twenty-six genes had recurrent
      somatic mutations. Among the 39 samples, ARID1A (62%) and PIK3CA (51%) were
      frequently mutated, as were genes such as KRAS (10%), PPP2R1A (10%), and PTEN
      (5%), that have been reported in previous OCCC studies. We also detected
      mutations in MLL3 (15%), ARID1B (10%), and PIK3R1 (8%), which are associations
      not previously reported. Gene interaction analysis and functional assessment
      revealed that mutated genes were clustered into groups pertaining to chromatin
      remodeling, cell proliferation, DNA repair and cell cycle checkpointing, and
      cytoskeletal organization. Copy number variation analysis identified frequent
      amplification in chr8q (64%), chr20q (54%), and chr17q (46%) loci as well as
      deletion in chr19p (41%), chr13q (28%), chr9q (21%), and chr18q (21%) loci.
      Integration of the analyses uncovered that frequently mutated or
      amplified/deleted genes were involved in the KRAS/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase
      (82%) and MYC/retinoblastoma (75%) pathways as well as the critical chromatin
      remodeling complex switch/sucrose nonfermentable (85%). The individual and
      integrated analyses contribute details about the OCCC genomic landscape, which
      could lead to enhanced diagnostics and therapeutic options.

PMID- 28888421
TI  - Neural crest and cancer: Divergent travelers on similar paths.
AB  - Neural crest cells are multipotent progenitors that dynamically interpret diverse
      microenvironments to migrate significant distances as a loosely associated
      collective and contribute to many tissues in the developing vertebrate embryo.
      Uncovering details of neural crest migration has helped to inform a general
      understanding of collective cell migration, including that which occurs during
      cancer metastasis. Here, we discuss several commonalities and differences of
      neural crest and cancer cell migration and behavior. First, we focus on some of
      the molecular pathways required for the initial specification and potency of
      neural crest cells and the roles of many of these pathways in cancer progression.
      We also describe epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which plays a critical
      role in initiating both neural crest migration and cancer metastasis. Finally, we
      evaluate studies that demonstrate myriad forms of cell-cell and cell-environment
      communication during neural crest and cancer collective migration to highlight
      the remarkable similarities in their molecular and cell biological regulation.

PMID- 28888424
TI  - Novel patient missense mutations in the HSD17B10 gene affect dehydrogenase and
      mitochondrial tRNA modification functions of the encoded protein.
AB  - MRPP2 (also known as HSD10/SDR5C1) is a multifunctional protein that harbours
      both catalytic and non-catalytic functions. The protein belongs to the short
      chain dehydrogenase/reductases (SDR) family and is involved in the catabolism of
      isoleucine in vivo and steroid metabolism in vitro. MRPP2 also moonlights in a
      complex with the MRPP1 (also known as TRMT10C) protein for N1-methylation of
      purines at position 9 of mitochondrial tRNA, and in a complex with MRPP1 and
      MRPP3 (also known as PRORP) proteins for 5'-end processing of mitochondrial
      precursor tRNA. Inherited mutations in the HSD17B10 gene encoding MRPP2 protein
      lead to a childhood disorder characterised by progressive neurodegeneration,
      cardiomyopathy or both. Here we report two patients with novel missense mutations
      in the HSD17B10 gene (c.34G>C and c.526G>A), resulting in the p.V12L and p.V176M
      substitutions. Val12 and Val176 are highly conserved residues located at
      different regions of the MRPP2 structure. Recombinant mutant proteins were
      expressed and characterised biochemically to investigate their effects towards
      the functions of MRPP2 and associated complexes in vitro. Both mutant proteins
      showed significant reduction in the dehydrogenase, methyltransferase and tRNA
      processing activities compared to wildtype, associated with reduced stability for
      protein with p.V12L, whereas the protein carrying p.V176M showed impaired
      kinetics and complex formation. This study therefore identified two distinctive
      molecular mechanisms to explain the biochemical defects for the novel missense
      patient mutations.

PMID- 28888423
TI  - Transposons As Tools for Functional Genomics in Vertebrate Models.
AB  - Genetic tools and mutagenesis strategies based on transposable elements are
      currently under development with a vision to link primary DNA sequence
      information to gene functions in vertebrate models. By virtue of their inherent
      capacity to insert into DNA, transposons can be developed into powerful tools for
      chromosomal manipulations. Transposon-based forward mutagenesis screens have
      numerous advantages including high throughput, easy identification of mutated
      alleles, and providing insight into genetic networks and pathways based on
      phenotypes. For example, the Sleeping Beauty transposon has become highly
      instrumental to induce tumors in experimental animals in a tissue-specific manner
      with the aim of uncovering the genetic basis of diverse cancers. Here, we
      describe a battery of mutagenic cassettes that can be applied in conjunction with
      transposon vectors to mutagenize genes, and highlight versatile experimental
      strategies for the generation of engineered chromosomes for loss-of-function as
      well as gain-of-function mutagenesis for functional gene annotation in vertebrate
      models, including zebrafish, mice, and rats.

PMID- 28888425
TI  - Prevalence and incidence of urinary tract and genital infections among patients
      with and without type 2 diabetes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological data on genitourinary infections (GUIs) comparing
      patients with and without type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is scant. We aimed to estimate
      the incidence of urinary tract infections (UTIs), genital infections (GIs), or
      any GUI in total and stratified by history of GUI and sex. RESEARCH DESIGN AND
      METHODS: We identified 39,295 patients in the Kaiser Permanente Northwest health
      plan with T2DM and an equal number of age and sex matched patients without
      diabetes. The cohort was followed for up to 9years (2006-2014). We calculated
      incidence rates and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) of any GUI, UTIs
      and GIs adjusting for age, sex, race, BMI, presence of chronic kidney disease,
      annual number of outpatient visits, and diuretic use. RESULTS: Adjusted incidence
      of any GUI was 97.2/1000person-years (p-y) (95% CI 95.5-98.8) among the T2DM
      cohort vs. 79.7/1000 p-y (78.3-81.2) among those without diabetes. T2DM was
      associated with an adjusted 25% increased risk of UTI (rate ratio 1.25, 95% CI
      1.22-1.29), a 26% increased risk of GI (1.26, 1.22-1.31) and a 22% increased risk
      of any GUI (1.22, 1.19-1.25). Incidence rates were lower among those with no GUI
      history, but the relative risks were similar. Women in both groups had higher
      incidence rates of GUIs than men. CONCLUSIONS: T2DM was associated with increased
      risks of any GUI, UTIs and GIs. Incidence rates of UTIs were higher than rates of
      GIs, but the relative risk of GIs was essentially identical. A similar pattern
      was observed when stratifying by sex. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: RESEARCH
      QUESTIONS.

PMID- 28888426
TI  - Sudden sensorineural hearing loss in children and adolescents: Clinical
      characteristics and age-related prognosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Although many studies have investigated sudden sensorineural hearing
      loss (SSNHL) in adults, there were few studies on SSNHL in the pediatric
      population; especially research on treatment and prognosis of pediatric SSNHL was
      limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical characteristics,
      treatment outcomes and prognostic factors in children and adolescents with SSNHL.
      METHODS: A retrospective review of medical records of 67 pediatric patients (67
      ears) who had diagnosed with SSNHL at our hospitals was performed to analyze
      patients' clinical manifestations and audiograms. All patients were treated with
      high-dose systemic prednisolone (1mg/kg), and 17 of them underwent intratympanic
      steroid injection therapy. Audiological evaluation was carried out before and
      after treatment, and hearing recovery was defined as complete recovery and
      partial recovery according to Siegel's criteria. Patients were divided into two
      groups: childhood group (ages between 4 and 12 years old) and adolescence group
      (age>12years), and clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were
      investigated. In addition, patients were divided into two groups according to
      degree of hearing recovery, and evaluation was made regarding possible prognostic
      factors. RESULTS: The recovery rate in total 67 patients was 55.2%. The recovery
      rate of the childhood group was significantly lower than that of the adolescence
      group (p=0.038). While the presence of vertigo did not significantly correlate
      with prognosis (p=0.219), the presence of tinnitus was significantly associated
      with hearing recovery (p=0.005). Audiological assessment revealed that a low
      initial hearing threshold, high speech discrimination score, and descending type
      of audiogram were positively associated with hearing recovery (p=0.002, p=0.003,
      and p=0.029, respectively). CONCLUSION: The childhood group had worse treatment
      outcomes than the adolescence group. High initial hearing threshold and absence
      of tinnitus were poor prognostic factors of hearing recovery. Active treatment is
      required for patients with these poor prognostic factors and childhood patients
      with SSNHL.

PMID- 28888427
TI  - Scientific considerations for the regulatory evaluation of cell therapy products.
AB  - Cell therapy involves the administration of a viable somatic cell preparation to
      a patient for the treatment of a disease or traumatic damage. Because cell
      therapies are complex and very different from traditional biological products,
      they present significant challenges for regulatory authorities, manufacturers,
      developers, health care providers, and patients involved in their application.
      Like other emerging areas of biomedical research and development, there are many
      issues where regulatory views and decisions among countries and regions may
      differ due to minimal scientific evidence to support safety and efficacy, and
      lack of experience with these novel treatments. A brief overview of the current
      regulatory landscape for cell-based therapies is presented, and the need for a
      global effort to develop a set of common principles that may serve to facilitate
      the regulatory evaluation and market availability of these products is
      identified. In addition, a number of elements that could form a core consensus
      package of requirements for evaluating human cell therapy products is presented
      in the supplemental material which should be read in conjunction with the
      manuscript.

PMID- 28888429
TI  - Taste receptors in the gut - A new target for health promoting properties in
      diet.
AB  - In this review we describe a new target for food functionality, the taste
      receptors in the gastrointestinal tract. These receptors are involved in an
      intricate signalling network for monitoring of taste and nutrient intake,
      homeostasis and energy metabolism, and they are also an early warning system for
      toxic substances in our diet. Especially the receptors for bitter taste provide a
      new possibility to activate a number of health related signalling pathways,
      already at low concentrations of the active substance, without requiring uptake
      into the body and transport via the circulation. When ligands bind to these
      receptors, signalling is induced either via peptide hormones into the circulation
      to other organs in the body, or via nerve fibers directly to the brain.

PMID- 28888428
TI  - Displacement comparison of CAD-CAM titanium and zirconia abutments to implants
      with different conical connections.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare the displacements of CAD-CAM zirconia and titanium abutments
      into different internal connection systems after torquing. METHODS: OsseoSpeed EV
      and OsseoSpeed TX implants (n=10) were placed in resin blocks. Zirconia and
      titanium abutments (n=5) were first hand tightened and then tightened to the
      recommended torque (20Ncm for TX and 25Ncm for EV). Displacements of abutments
      between screw tightening by hand and torque driver was measured using three
      dimensional digital image correlation (3D DIC) technique. Displacements were
      measured in U (front/back), V (into/outward), W (right/left) directions and 3
      dimensionally (3D). ANOVA with restricted maximum likelihood estimation method
      was used to analyze the data. Bonferroni-corrected t tests was used to determine
      the statistical differences (alpha=0.05). RESULTS: 3D displacement of zirconia
      and titanium abutments was significantly greater in OsseoSpeed EV implant
      (P<0.001). Displacement of zirconia and titanium abutments was not significantly
      different within implant systems, 3D (P>=0.386) and in each direction (P>=0.382).
      In U and V directions, zirconia and titanium abutments displaced significantly
      more towards negative in OsseoSpeed EV implant (P<0.019). Within the OsseoSpeed
      TX system, abutments displaced significantly more in V direction compared to the
      U and W (P<=0.005), and within the Osseospeed EV system, abutment displacements
      were significantly different amongst directions and displacements in V were the
      greatest (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Abutments displaced more in the implant that
      required higher torque values to tighten the abutment. The amount of displacement
      in both systems was clinically small. Abutment material did not affect the
      magnitude of displacement.

PMID- 28888430
TI  - Vacuum facilitated infusion of bioactives into yeast microcarriers: Evaluation of
      a novel encapsulation approach.
AB  - Encapsulation into yeast microcarriers provides an appealing alternative to
      biomimetic systems by employing natural, pre-formed vehicles for the
      stabilization and delivery of bioactives compounds. However, current (diffusion
      limited) methods of encapsulation using yeast require long time scales and
      heating which lead to poor encapsulation efficiencies and yields. This study
      evaluates the usage of vacuum infusion to encapsulate two model bioactives,
      curcumin and fisetin, into yeast and yeast cell wall particles and the physical
      parameters, e.g. vacuum level, concentration of carrier solvent, log p value of
      bioactive, etc., which facilitate the process of vacuum infusion. Encapsulation
      efficiencies were determined using UV-vis spectrophotometry. Localization of
      bioactives within yeast microcarriers was determined using confocal and
      multiphoton (two-photon) microscopy. 99% vacuum, or 1.0kPa, and 35% ethanol (v/v)
      provide the optimal conditions for the encapsulation of both curcumin and
      fisetin; compared to the diffusion-limited method, vacuum infusion is able to
      encapsulate 3* more curcumin and 2* more fisetin into yeast microcarrier and
      requires 288-fold less time. Enhanced encapsulation efficiencies and yield as
      well as rapid encapsulation process technology presented in this study can
      transform the use of cell based carriers for encapsulation and delivery of
      bioactives.

PMID- 28888431
TI  - Thermal Pest Control in 'Tannat' grapes: Effect on anthocyanins, sensory and
      color of one-year-old wines.
AB  - Thermal pest control (TPC) is a technology that applies heated air in the
      vineyard to reduce pests. However, it can also alter grape anthocyanin synthesis
      in answer to temperature stress. The aim of this work was to determine the impact
      of TPC in 'Tannat' grape vineyards on wine quality. The major makers of quality
      considered in this study were the wine anthocyanin characterization by HPLC-PDA
      MSn, beverage's sensory evaluation by descriptive analysis, and color parameters
      by instrumental analysis. A total of three experiments were performed in
      different harvesting years. In 2011/12 (Experiment I), four applications were
      performed from the flowering to fruiting. For the second experiment (2012/13),
      five applications were used only during fruiting. TPC treatment performed in
      2013/14 (Experiment III) had a total of 19 applications from the flowering to
      harvesting. In the first experiment, TPC had increased wine pigments, color, and
      sensorial descriptors for visual (translucence) and gustatory (woody and body)
      perceptions. However, in the second experiment none of the evaluated wine quality
      parameters was affected by TPC (p<=0.05). In the last and longest experiment (19
      applications), TPC has significantly increased some wine pigments content.
      Nonetheless, wine sensorial parameters were not affected. Since the climate was
      different among the years, it seems that TPC effect does not depend on the
      applications number and vegetable cycle period only, but also it can be affected
      by the weather conditions in which the vine is being cultivated. However, when
      TPC treatment has resulted in the greatest anthocyanin increment (Experiment I)
      some wine sensory descriptors were also improved.

PMID- 28888432
TI  - Incorporation of water-in-oil-in-water (W1/O/W2) double emulsion in a set-type
      yogurt model.
AB  - The effect of W1/O/W2 emulsion incorporation in set-type yogurt on the
      acidification process, physicochemical properties, bacterial growth kinetics and
      structural characteristics was investigated. The W1/O/W2 emulsion was formed by
      using a two-step homogenisation process and milk as the W1 and W2 phases, and
      stability was monitored with optical microscopy and cryo-SEM. Adding the W1/O/W2
      emulsions reduced the acidification rate, viscosity and water retention capacity.
      Texture (adhesiveness, cohesiveness, hardness, and gumminess) differed in yogurts
      containing W1/O/W2 emulsion compared to controls during the acidification
      process, however, trends became stable during storage. The growth of S.
      thermophilus during the acidification process of yogurt was reduced in the
      presence of W1/O/W2 emulsion while L. bulgaricus trended higher during storage.
      This study shows that yogurts containing W1/O/W2 emulsion are feasible subject to
      processing modification.

PMID- 28888433
TI  - Apple pectin-derived oligosaccharides produce carbon dioxide radical anion in
      Fenton reaction and prevent growth of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - Pectin is the main soluble fiber in apples or citruses. It may be fermented by
      gut microbiota to metabolites showing local intestinal and systemic effects. A
      wide range of beneficial effects of dietary pectin includes impacts on the redox
      milieu and microbiota profile. We prepared pectin-derived oligosaccharides (apple
      (APDO) and citrus) and polygalacturonic acid-derived oligosaccharides, using
      alkaline hydrolysis by hydrogen peroxide, and analyzed them by Fourier Transform
      Infrared spectrometry. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of pectin-derived
      oligosaccharides on hydroxyl radical (HO)-generating Fenton reaction using
      electron paramagnetic resonance spin-trapping spectroscopy, and the effects on
      the growth of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in the presence of
      dietary-relevant HO-generating system (iron+ascorbate). The oligosaccharides
      react with HO radical to produce carbon dioxide radical anion (CO2-). A
      comparative analysis showed that APDO has the most prominent bacteriostatic
      effect. This might be at least partially related to the higher capacity of APDO
      to produce CO2-, which specifically targets proteins and appears to have a longer
      lifetime and larger diffusion radius in biological systems compared to HO.

PMID- 28888434
TI  - Ensuring food safety in food donations: Case study of the Belgian
      donation/acceptation chain.
AB  - The food donation process in Belgium is mapped and analyzed to identify
      bottlenecks in compliance with the legal framework and implementation of food
      safety management, based on literature search and interviews with stakeholders
      (donors, acceptors, regulators and facilitators) in Belgium and at EU level. The
      study revealed that the food donation/acceptation chain is far less structured
      and organized than the conventional food supply chain. The fragmented landscape
      of many small food banks and charity organizations (acceptors), often directed by
      and working with volunteers without training in food safety and lack of knowledge
      of legal food hygiene requirements is a bottleneck to generate trust among food
      donors and restricts the provision of perishable products in food donations. Lack
      of refrigerated transport and insufficient cold/freezing capacity in food banks
      and charity organizations was identified as a barrier to distribute perishable
      products. Furthermore, in two cities in Flanders (Belgium), at some food donation
      centers, donated perishable food samples (n=72) were taken and subjected to
      microbiological analysis to determine their overall food quality, hygiene and
      food safety status. Twenty-two of 72 analyzed samples showed marginal
      microbiological quality based on numbers of yeast, lactic acid bacteria or total
      viable count. In three samples Listeria monocytogenes was detected per 25g among
      which one ready-to-eat cooked meat product which showed increased numbers of L.
      monocytogenes (3.5logCFU/g) and Enterobacteriaceae (6.7logCFU/g). Overall, in
      Belgium, most of the donated foods considers nonperishable foods, with more or
      less half of the food collected by the food banks being purchased with funds from
      FEAD (Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived) and thus not derived from food
      losses. Efforts are being made by facilitators to provide a platform for better
      coordination of donors and acceptors to make more efficient use of food losses.
      Regulators at the national level are taking action to clarify and provide some
      flexibility in food hygiene regulation and initiatives on EU level to facilitate
      food donation in the combat of food losses are pending. As from the side of the
      acceptors, it is recommended to professionalize the acceptation chain in Belgium
      and seek for a more harmonized approach and concerted action.

PMID- 28888435
TI  - Resuscitation and growth kinetics of sub-lethally injured Listeria monocytogenes
      strains following fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS).
AB  - This study investigated the effect of acid (pH4.2), osmotic (10% NaCl) and heat
      (55 degrees C for 30min) stress induced injury on Listeria monocytogenes strains
      ATCC19115, 69, 159/10 and 243 using differential plating and flow cytometry
      coupled with membrane integrity indicators, thiazole orange (TO) and propidium
      iodide (PI) staining. Growth kinetics of injured cells sorted by fluorescence
      activated cell sorting (FACS) were studied at 4, 25 and 37 degrees C. The
      percentage of cell injury detectable by both flow cytometry and differential
      plating varied significantly among strains and stress treatments (p<0.0001).
      Based on flow cytometry and TO/PI staining, acid stress caused the highest level
      of injury followed by heat and osmotic stress. Following cell sorting, acid and
      osmotic stress injured cells were capable of resuscitation and re-growth while
      heat injured cells (except for strain 69) were incapable of re-growth despite
      having a high level of membrane intact cells. The lag phase duration (lambda) of
      sorted stress injured cells resuscitated in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth was
      significantly influenced by strain variations (p<0.0001), stress treatments
      (p=0.007) and temperature of resuscitation (p<=0.001). Following repair, the
      maximum specific growth rate (MUmax) of resuscitated cells was not different from
      untreated control cells regardless of strain differences and stress treatments.
      Only temperature had a significant effect (p<0.0001) on growth rate. Sorted cells
      were also capable of growth at 4 degrees C, with the time to detectable growth
      (>=1.40Log10CFUml-1) ranging from 3 to 15days. Overall, re-growth potential of
      sorted cells showed that while membrane integrity was a good indicator of cell
      injury and viability loss for acid and osmotic stress, it was not a sufficient
      indicator of heat stress injury. Once injured cells repair the cellular damage,
      their growth rate is not different from non-injured cells regardless of form of
      stress and strain differences. Thus highlighting the potential food safety risks
      of stress injured L. monocytogenes cells.

PMID- 28888436
TI  - The influence of ripening stage and region on the chemical compounds in mulberry
      fruits (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) based on UPLC-QTOF-MS.
AB  - Mulberries (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) are rich in beneficial nutrients and
      secondary metabolites. Dramatic climate differences between western and eastern
      China lead to differences among the fruiting habits of mulberries grown in these
      regions. In this study, Xinjiang and Jiangsu, two regions in western and eastern
      China, respectively, were selected as sites where mulberry fruits (MFs) at
      different ripening stages were sampled. Their individual components, including
      both targeted and non-targeted chemical compounds, were detected by rapid ultra
      performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry
      (UPLC-QTOF-MS). Multivariate statistical analyses, including principal component
      analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS
      DA) were used to compare MFs during ripening from these two regions. Potential
      biomarkers, which significantly contributed to the differentiation of the
      samples, were further identified or tentatively identified to determine the
      effects of ripening stages and regions on the chemical compounds in MFs. The
      results show that 43 compounds classified into nine different groups were
      identified in the MF samples from both the Xinjiang and Jiangsu regions. Among
      the compounds, all anthocyanins, carbohydrates and dihydroflavonols increased
      while phenolic acids and hydroxycoumarins decreased during ripening.
      Caffeoylquinic acids and some of anthocyanins could be regarded as important
      markers for MF ripening, and the accumulation of organic acids differentiated the
      samples from the two regions. Together, UPLC-QTOF-MS coupled with multivariate
      statistical analyses may be effective for metabolite profiling and identification
      of ripening degrees and cultivation regions.

PMID- 28888437
TI  - Differences in the metabolic profiles and antioxidant activities of wild and
      cultivated black soybeans evaluated by correlation analysis.
AB  - Wild soybeans are considered a potential resource for soybean domestication and
      an important source of genetic diversity for soybean crop improvement.
      Understanding metabolite-caused bioactivity differences between cultivated and
      wild soybeans is essential for designing a soybean with enhanced nutritional
      traits. In this study, the non-targeted metabolic profiling of 26 soybean
      varieties, 15 wild black soybeans (WBS) and 11 cultivated black soybeans (CBS),
      using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) in combination with
      multivariate analysis revealed significant differences in 25 differential
      metabolites. Among these, the soyasaponins Ab and Bb were found to be
      characteristic metabolites expressed more substantially in CBS than in WBS. Three
      different antioxidant assays and correlation analysis identified major and minor
      antioxidants that contributed to WBS having an antioxidant activity 4- to 8-fold
      stronger than that of CBS. Epicatechin, procyanidin B2, and cyanidin-3-O
      glucoside were identified by both association analysis and the online LC-ABTS
      radical scavenging assay as being major antioxidants.

PMID- 28888438
TI  - Impact of legume protein type and location on lipid oxidation in fish oil-in
      water emulsions: Lentil, pea, and faba bean proteins.
AB  - Emulsion-based delivery systems are being developed to incorporate omega-3 fatty
      acids into functional foods and beverages. There is interest in formulating these
      delivery systems from more sustainable and label-friendly ingredients. The aim of
      this study was therefore to examine the impact of plant-protein emulsifiers on
      the oxidative stability of 1wt% fish oil-in-water emulsions. Fish oil emulsions
      stabilized by three types of legume protein (lentil, pea, and faba bean) were
      produced using a high-pressure microfluidizer. The formation of primary
      (peroxides) and secondary (TBARS) lipid oxidation products was measured when the
      emulsions were stored at 37 degrees C under accelerated (+100MUM iron sulfate) or
      non-accelerated (no added iron) conditions for 21 or 33days, respectively. The
      particle size, charge and microstructure of the emulsions were monitored during
      storage using light scattering and microscopy to detect changes in physical
      stability. Emulsions stabilized by whey protein isolate, a commonly used animal
      based protein, were utilized as a control. The emulsions formed using whey
      protein had smaller initial particle sizes, better physical stability, and
      slightly better stability to lipid oxidation than the ones formed using plant
      based proteins. The impact of protein location (adsorbed versus non-adsorbed) on
      the oxidative stability of the emulsions was also investigated. The presence of
      non-adsorbed proteins inhibited lipid oxidation, presumably by binding transition
      metals and reducing their ability to interact with omega-3 fatty acids in the
      lipid droplets. Overall, these results have important implications for
      fabricating emulsion-based delivery systems for bioactive lipids, e.g., they
      indicate that including high levels of non-adsorbed proteins could improve
      oxidative stability.

PMID- 28888439
TI  - Preparation, characterization and alcoholic liver injury protective effects of
      algal oligosaccharides from Gracilaria lemaneiformis.
AB  - Oligosaccharides derived from seaweeds possess diverse biological functions.
      However, little is known about their effects on liver damage. In this study,
      algal oligosaccharides (AOS) were prepared from Gracilaria lemaneiformis by
      biodegradation approaches. HPLC analysis showed AOS were composed of
      agarooligosaccharides and neoagarooligosaccharides. In vivo animal studies showed
      AOS significantly attenuated alcohol-induced hepatopathy in mice to some extent,
      as revealed by the normalization of several serum liver-damage markers. Besides,
      AOS increased antioxidant levels of hepatic glutathione (GSH) and superoxide
      dismutase (SOD), and ameliorated the elevated formation of malonaldehyde (MDA),
      suggesting AOS attenuated hepatopathy mainly through their antioxidant
      activities. Interestingly, AOS could also enhance the activities of hepatic
      alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Histological examination of liver tissues showed AOS
      reduced the alcohol-induced liver injury in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover,
      the comparison of different administration strategies suggested AOS were best
      taken 2h before alcohol consumption. Therefore, our study provided a novel
      nutritional strategy for reducing alcohol-induced hepatotoxicity.

PMID- 28888440
TI  - Current applications and new opportunities for the thermal and non-thermal
      processing technologies to generate berry product or extracts with high
      nutraceutical contents.
AB  - The demand from consumer for safe and nutritious berry and berry products has
      promoted the rapid development of non-conventional processing technologies. This
      review summarizes the recent advances of thermal and non-thermal processing
      technologies in berry and berry products, including microwave, ohmic heating,
      high pressure processing, irradiation, dense phase carbon dioxide, ultrasonic
      processing, pulsed electric field, ozone, membrane processing technologies, cold
      plasma, and hydrothermodynamic cavitation. These technologies individually or in
      combination have shown great potential for extraction, sterilization, drying,
      concentration and deacidfication. They could decrease processing time and
      temperature, improve processing efficiency and minimize nutritional losses, as
      well as reduce energy consumption. Given the nutritional benefits of anthocyanins
      and other polyphenols in berry, their content and compositional change during
      processing were highlighted, as well as the primarily studies of the underlying
      mechanisms. The advantage and limitation of these technologies are also discussed
      along with the perspective insight of their future development.

PMID- 28888441
TI  - Effect of clarified Brazilian native fruit juices on postprandial glycemia in
      healthy subjects.
AB  - Brazilian native fruits have been shown as excellent sources of polyphenols which
      are associated with multiple biological activities including inhibition of
      carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes, alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. Postmeal
      blood glucose elevations and high glycemic index diets can play a major role in
      the development of type 2 diabetes, therefore alternative approaches to reduce
      postprandial hyperglycemia are of growing interest in order to reduce diabetes
      risk. Here we investigated the effect of six Brazilian native clarified fruit
      juices from Amazon, Savannah and Atlantic Forest biomes on postprandial glycemia
      after consumption of a carbohydrate meal. For this, 23 healthy subjects were
      selected to consume seven meal tests, with a 1-week interval among them,
      consisting in 50g white bread plus 300mL of water (control) or cambuci, cagaita,
      maracuja-alho, cupuacu, camu-camu and jaboticaba clarified fruit juices. The
      results showed that serum glucose concentrations were significantly lower after
      consumption of cambuci, cagaita, camu-camu and jaboticaba juices, whereas
      maracuja-alho and cupuacu juices did not decrease the amount of glucose absorbed,
      compared to control (p<0.05). In addition, cagaita, cambuci, cupuacu and
      jaboticaba juices increased the oxygen radical absorbance capacity in plasma,
      whereas all juices augmented the ferric reducing ability of plasma, except for
      cambuci (p<0.05). These results indicate that juices from Brazilian native fruits
      may be considered as adjuvant treatment for reduction of postprandial glycemia in
      healthy subjects.

PMID- 28888442
TI  - Fermented pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) with in vitro DNA damage protection
      activity, bioactive compounds and antioxidant potential.
AB  - In the present study, pearl millet cultivar PUSA-415 was fermented by solid state
      fermentation (SSF) process using Aspergillus sojae (MTCC-8779) as starter
      culture. The fermentation was carried out for the period of ten days. The effect
      of SSF on phenolic content, condensed tannin content, antioxidant potential and
      DNA damage protection of pearl millet during different fermentation period was
      determined. Results showed that SSF and thermal processing significantly affect
      the bioactive profile and antioxidant potential of bio-transformed pearl millet.
      Extracts prepared from 6th days fermented pearl millet flour exhibited the
      highest TPC, antioxidant potential and DNA damage protection activity.
      Qualitative and quantitative analysis of bioactive compounds were done by HPLC.
      During SSF, production of enzymes (alpha-amylase, beta-glucosidase and xylanase)
      as well as specific bioactive compounds (ascorbic acid, gallic acid and p
      Coumaric acid) was significantly increased. Thus, bio-transformed Aspergillus
      sojae fermented pearl millet could be used in preparation of functional foods and
      novel nutraceuticals in health promotions. Chapatti was formulated from
      unfermented as well as fermented flour and the effect of thermal processing on
      bioactive compounds and antioxidant potential was studied. Thermal processing
      resulted in decrease in TPC of both, AFM and UFM by 4.75-16.27% and increase in
      CTC by 38.52-67.41%.

PMID- 28888443
TI  - Flow properties and chemical composition of carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) flours
      as related to particle size and seed presence.
AB  - Due to abundance in carbohydrates, dietary fibres and bioactive compounds, as
      well as for its outspread and low prices, carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) flour has
      a great potential of use as a functional ingredient. The aim of this study was to
      analyse this potential by physical and chemical properties assessment of
      different particle sizes of carob flour with and without seeds. The influence of
      seed presence on physical and chemical properties of flour was also investigated.
      Seed presence in carob flour led to higher cohesivity and cake strength. It also
      affected the extraction efficiency of polyphenols, which was confirmed by the
      ranking of samples according to their procyanidin and tannins contents. With
      regard to the carbohydrate content, significant differences (P<0.05) between the
      contents of fructose and glucose was established in samples differing by the
      presence of carob seeds. Spearman rank order correlations revealed a significant
      difference (P<0.05) between physical and chemical properties of carob flours.
      These findings confirm the importance of understanding physical and chemical
      properties of carob flours in order to use them efficiently as a functional food
      ingredient.

PMID- 28888444
TI  - Metal ions accelerated phytosterol thermal degradation on Ring A & Ring B of
      steroid nucleus in oils.
AB  - This study aimed to investigate the effect of metal ions on the degradation of
      phytosterols in oils. The oil was heated at 180 degrees C for 1h with/without
      addition of Fe3+, Fe2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, Zn2+, Na+, Al3+ and Mg2+. Variations of beta
      sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, brassicasterol and their degradation
      products were confirmed by the GC-MS analysis. In general, the increase of the
      metal ion concentration resulted in more phytosterol degradation, and the ability
      of metal ions following decreasing order:
      Fe3+>Fe2+>Mn2+>=Cu2+>=Zn2+>Na+>=Mg2+>Al3+. Metal ions significantly induced
      phytosterol autoxidation on C5, C6 and C7 on Ring B of steroid nucleus at even a
      low concentration, and induced dehydration on the C3 hydroxyl to form dienes and
      trienes at high concentration. The metal ions in oils are accounted for
      increasing phytosterol degradation, which decreases food nutritional quality and
      gives rise to the formation of undesirable compounds.

PMID- 28888445
TI  - Eating flowers? Exploring attitudes and consumers' representation of edible
      flowers.
AB  - Edible flowers have gained more attention in recent years thanks to their
      perceived health benefits. Despite this attention, it seems that edible flowers
      are not popularized for consumption in South America, being considered unfamiliar
      for some cultures from this continent. In this context, the general goal of the
      present study was to investigate the three dimensions of social representation
      theory, the representational field, the information and the attitude of the two
      conditions of edible flowers: a more general "food made with flowers" and more
      directional product "yoghurt made with flowers", using Brazilian consumers. To
      achieve this goal, a free word association task was applied. A total of 549
      consumers participated in this study. Participants were divided into two
      conditions, in which the inductor expressions for the free word association task
      changed: (a) food products made with flowers and (b) yoghurt made with flowers.
      Results showed a very positive attitude to both situations, and consumers
      associated Food products made with flowers to "health care" while the central
      core of yoghurt made with flowers reflected the innovative condition of this
      product, supported here by their unpredictable character (information generated).

PMID- 28888446
TI  - Changes in anthocyanins and volatile components of purple sweet potato fermented
      alcoholic beverage during aging.
AB  - Purple sweet potato was fermented into alcoholic beverage. By using LC-MS
      analysis, 12 types of anthocyanins were found in the purple sweet potato
      alcoholic beverage (PSPFAB); these were based on cyanidin and peonidin as
      aglycones. The anthocyanins in young PSPFAB mainly consisted of acylates. The
      acylated anthocyanins, however, degraded gradually with aging. Cyanidin 3
      sophoroside-5-glucoside and peonidin 3-sophoroside-5-glucoside were found to be
      major anthocyanins in the PSPFAB after two years of aging. Moreover, 52 kinds of
      volatile components were detected in PSPFAB by GC-MS analysis. Alcohol and ester
      substances constituted a major proportion of these volatile components of PSPFAB.
      After two years of aging, levels of high-alcohols such as 1-pentanol remarkably
      decreased to below the detection limit, while the level of total esters increased
      significantly. Such variation of aromas enriched and improved the flavor of
      PSPFAB.

PMID- 28888447
TI  - Projective mapping based on choice or preference: An affective approach to
      projective mapping.
AB  - This work explores a new affective approach to projective mapping, based on
      consumers' choices or preferences. Two sessions, one week apart, were performed
      with the same consumers, using whole bread as a case study. Overall liking
      ratings (OL) were gathered in blind conditions and samples were also profiled by
      a trained panel using generic descriptive analysis. Three projective mapping
      tests were performed in different scenarios. Consumers' categorization and
      product descriptions were explored when consumers based their positioning on the
      products' similarities and differences (analytical approach, "classic napping")
      both in blind and informed conditions, and when consumers were focusing on their
      preference or choice (affective approach). The affective approach to projective
      mapping successfully revealed consumers' drivers of liking and choice from a
      holistic perspective, where consumers summarized their main drivers for
      categorizing products as they would do when choosing in real life situations,
      based on their preferences.

PMID- 28888448
TI  - Effect of explosion-puffed coffee on locomotor activity and behavioral patterns
      in Drosophila melanogaster.
AB  - We hypothesized that the administration of explosion-puffed coffee, containing
      gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), would be
      associated with a reduction of the caffeine effect on sleep behavior and
      behavioral patterns, which was investigated in a Drosophila model. The effects of
      feeding roasted coffee beans (RB), explosion-puffed coffee beans puffed at
      0.75MPa and 0.9MPa (PB 7.5 and PB 9.0, respectively), or decaffeinated coffee
      beans (DeRB) on locomotor activity and behavioral patterns of Drosophila was
      analyzed. In the decreasing order, the total chlorogenic acid (caffeoylquinic
      acids, CQA) content was PB 7.5>PB 9.0>RB. PB content analysis showed high levels
      of GABA and 5-HTP, compared with that of RB, which corresponded with the sleep
      wake behavior of Drosophila. The RB and PB (PB 7.5 and PB 9.0) groups were not
      significantly different with respect to an activity count during the subjective
      night and day period compared with the normal controls. Sleep bout numbers of the
      normal, PB, and DeRB groups showed significant differences as compared with the
      caffeine and RB groups (p<0.05). The PB and DePB groups showed a significantly
      increased transcript levels for the GABA receptors compared to the caffeine
      group. The caffeine and RB groups displayed better climbing ability than the
      other groups, covering an average distance 6cm in the related test; the average
      distance covered by the normal, PB 7.5, and DeRB groups was <4cm. The normal and
      DeRB groups showed similar behavior patterns with respect to total distance,
      velocity, moving, not moving, and meander. However, the PB 7.5 group
      significantly regulated not moving and meander of flies compared to flies
      receiving only caffeine and RB. Suppression of the stimulating effect of caffeine
      by explosion-puffed coffee administration was indicated in the above results,
      which can be attributed to the increased content of GABA and 5-HTP with explosive
      puffing process carried out at 0.75MPa. Results of the underlying mechanism of
      the behavioral change patterns of explosive puffed with or without caffeine in
      Drosophila models, transcript level for the Dop1-R1 receptor in caffeine group
      was significantly higher than normal, PB, and DePB groups. Flies exposed to the
      caffeine had significantly decreased transcript levels for the GABA receptors. PB
      7.5 and DePB showed higher level of GABA content than RB.

PMID- 28888449
TI  - Understanding the effect of pulsed electric fields on thermostability of
      connective tissue isolated from beef pectoralis muscle using a model system.
AB  - Brisket is a low value/tough meat cut that contains a large amount of connective
      tissue. Conversion of collagen into gelatin during heating reduces the toughness
      of the connective tissue however this conversion is slow at low cooking
      temperatures (around 60 degrees C). The objective of this project was to
      determine the ability of pulsed electric field (PEF) processing to reduce the
      thermal stability of connective tissue. To achieve this, a novel model system was
      designed in which connective tissue obtained from beef deep pectotalis muscle
      (brisket) was exposed to PEF at combinations of electric field strength (1.0 and
      1.5kV/cm) and specific energy (50 and 100kJ/kg) within an agar matrix at
      electrical conductivities representing the electrical conductivity found in
      brisket. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that PEF treatment
      significantly (p<0.05) decreased the denaturation temperature of connective
      tissue compared to untreated samples. Increasing electric field strength and the
      specific energy increased the Ringer soluble collagen fraction. PEF treated
      samples showed higher solubilization compared to the untreated samples at both 60
      degrees C and 70 degrees C in heat solubility test. SEM examination of PEF
      treated (at 1.5kV/cm and 100kJ/kg) and untreated samples revealed that PEF
      appeared to increase the porosity of the connective tissue structure. These
      finding suggest that PEF processing is a technology that could be used to improve
      the tenderness and decrease the cooking time of collagen rich, meat cuts.

PMID- 28888451
TI  - Application of gamma radiation for the reduction of norovirus and the quality
      stability in optimally ripened cabbage kimchi.
AB  - Optimally ripened commercial cabbage kimchi is considered the main cause of
      enteric norovirus (NoV) outbreaks in Korea. This study investigated the effect of
      1-10kGy gamma radiation on the inactivation of murine norovirus-1 (MNV-1; initial
      inoculum of 5-6log10PFU/ml), used as a human NoV surrogate, in kimchi. The
      effects of gamma radiation on the pH and acidity were also examined to address
      the index of quality and fermentation, respectively. Titers of MNV-1
      significantly reduced (p<0.05) in kimchi subjected to increasing gamma radiation
      doses: MNV-1 titers in kimchi after 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10kGy were 4.82 (0.34-log10
      reduction), 4.45 (0.71-log10 reduction), 4.18 (0.98-log10 reduction), 3.71 (1.45
      log10 reduction), and 3.40 (1.76-log10 reduction) log10 PFU/ml, respectively.
      However, the values of pH (4.5-4.6) and acidity (0.6-0.7%) were not significantly
      different between non-irradiated and irradiated kimchi (p>0.05). The D-value (1
      log reduction) for MNV-1 in kimchi, calculated using first-order kinetics, was
      5.75kGy (R2=0.98, RMSE=0.10). Therefore, this study suggests that the use of
      >=5.75kGy gamma radiation in the kimchi manufacturing industry could be very
      effective in reducing NoV contamination by >90% (1 log), without causing changes
      in quality and fermentation.

PMID- 28888450
TI  - Formation of amyloid fibrils from soy protein hydrolysate: Effects of selective
      proteolysis on beta-conglycinin.
AB  - The soy protein hydrolysate subjected to selective proteolysis on beta
      conglycinin (referred to as DbetaH, contrast group) and a control soy protein
      isolate sample without addition of protease (referred to as CSPI, blank group)
      were adopted as experimental samples. By employing the "subtraction" mode of
      logical thinking, we aimed to compare the differences between CSPI and DbetaH on
      fibrillation at pH2.0 with heating at 95 degrees C. The results showed when
      heated for 60min, CSPI tended to form short worm-like fibrils while DbetaH long
      semiflexible fibrils. When heating time was prolonged to 360min, the fibrils
      formed from them both exhibited cluster. Whereas when heated for 720min, no
      fibrillar aggregates appeared from them. This study would help explore the
      effects of beta-conglycinin on the fibril formation of soy protein isolate by a
      new way.

PMID- 28888452
TI  - Inactivation mechanism of Vibrio parahaemolyticus via supercritical carbon
      dioxide treatment.
AB  - The effects of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) treatments on Vibrio
      parahaemolyticus cells were determined using viable plate count method at
      different treatment times (10 and 40min), pressures (10-25MPa), and temperature
      (40 degrees C). Using the changes in the physical (absorbance, transmission
      electron microscope and contents of fatty acids) and chemical indexes (pH value,
      activity of Na+K+-ATPase, SDS-PAGE) were for further understand the mechanisms of
      bacterial inactivation under SC-CO2. The result showed that 25MPa treatment for
      40min in 40 degrees C could significantly (P<0.05) enhance inactivation of V.
      parahaemolyticus. The pH value and activity of Na+K+-ATPase of SC-CO2 treated
      groups significantly (P<0.05) decreased compared with blank group. Damage to the
      cell membrane and cytoplasmic components can be observed on transmission electron
      microscope images. Results of SDS-PAGE and UV-absorbing substances also showed
      that the leakage of proteins and cytoplasmic materials increased with the SC-CO2
      treatment time and pressure. Therefore, our results indicate that SC-CO2 can be
      applied to inactivate V. parahaemolyticus by causing a low pH, as well as severe
      damage to key substances and structures.

PMID- 28888453
TI  - Effect of microwave and conventional heating on structural, functional and
      antioxidant properties of bovine serum albumin-maltodextrin conjugates through
      Maillard reaction.
AB  - In present study, effect of conventional heating (CH) and microwave heating (MH)
      on Maillard reaction (MR) progression and structural, functional and antioxidant
      properties of glycated protein was investigated. The glycation process was
      carried out at 90 degrees C, in bovine serum albumin-maltodextrin system. The
      extent of glycation was assessed by ortho-phthaldialdehyde and absorbance at
      420nm. Afterwards, K-means clustering was applied to classify all treatments into
      three levels of glycation (low, medium, high). Subsequently, SDS-PAGE, structural
      (surface hydrophobicity and circular dichroism), functional and antioxidant (DPPH
      radical scavenging) properties were measured within chosen treatments. Results
      showed that MH was more effective on the reduction of free amino groups and
      increase in absorbance at 420nm more than CH (p<0.05). On the other hand, higher
      values in solubility, emulsion activity and foam capacity were obtained during MH
      heating which could be attributed to different structural changes of proteins
      under MH and CH.

PMID- 28888454
TI  - Technological characteristics of cold-set gelled double emulsion enriched with n
      3 fatty acids: Effect of hydroxytyrosol addition and chilling storage.
AB  - A study was carried out to analyse the technological characteristics and
      microbiological content of gelled double emulsions (GDE) formulated with perilla
      oil (as lipid phase and source of n-3 fatty acids) combined or not with
      hydroxytyrosol (Hyt) (in the inner aqueous phase) over 30days storage at 4
      degrees C. Both the control sample without Hyt (GDE-C) and the sample containing
      Hyt (GDE-Hyt) had an appropriate whitish solid-like structure with rheological
      (elastic and viscous moduli, and phase angle) and textural (hardness and
      chewiness) properties of strong gels. In comparison with GDE-C, the presence of
      Hyt promoted the formation of weaker gels, as evidenced by lower hardness and
      chewiness values and elastic modulus. Overall, GDEs presented excellent water and
      fat binding properties irrespective of the formulation and storage time. Changes
      in hydroperoxides and TBARs contents over storage indicated that GDEs were little
      prone to oxidation after 30days. Nevertheless, Hyt increased GDE antioxidant
      capacity by up to 12 times after preparation, although this declined with
      storage. Most of the antimicrobial activity of Hyt was observed during the first
      two weeks of storage.

PMID- 28888455
TI  - Extraordinarily soft, medium-hard and hard Indian wheat varieties: Composition,
      protein profile, dough and baking properties.
AB  - Hard wheat (HW), medium-hard wheat (MHW) and extraordinarily soft wheat (Ex-SW)
      varieties with grain hardness index (GHI) of 83 to 95, 72 to 80, 17 to 29 were
      evaluated for pasting, protein molecular weight (MW) distribution, dough rheology
      and baking properties. Flours from varieties with higher GHI had more protein
      content, ash content and paste viscosities. Ex-SW had more glutenins proportion
      as compared to HW and MHW. Flours from Ex-SW varieties showed lower NaSRC, WA and
      mixographic parameters as compared to HW and MHW. Dough from flours milled from
      Ex-SW had higher Intermolecular-beta-sheets (IM-beta-sheets) than those from MHW
      and HW. Muffins volume increased with decrease in GHI, Ex-SW varieties had more
      muffin volume and less air space. The accumulation of polypeptides (PPs) varied
      significantly in different varieties. Ex-SW variety (QBP12-10) showed
      accumulation of 98, 90, 81 and 79kDa PPs, which was unique and was different from
      other varieties.

PMID- 28888456
TI  - Dry heating of whey proteins.
AB  - Whey protein products are of widespread use as food ingredients because of their
      high nutritional, biological and functional properties. Whey proteins are
      important structural components in many foods as used in their native form, for
      example for their heat-induced gelation abilities. Furthermore, they also offer
      reliable functionalities when modified by heating processes as denatured or
      aggregated proteins. Heat treatment of whey proteins in a liquid state has
      received much attention in recent years. While dry heating of whey proteins, say
      heating whey proteins in the dry state, is frequently cited in the literature as
      a potential and efficient means to improve the functional properties of proteins,
      it has received very little attention. We report first on the dry heating of whey
      products as applied to promote glycation of whey proteins with a low
      denaturation, and second, to promote their denaturation and aggregation and on
      their consequences on the functional properties of whey proteins.

PMID- 28888457
TI  - Effects of phosphorylation on MU-calpain activity at different incubation
      temperature.
AB  - The study investigated the effects of alkaline phosphatase (AP) dephosphorylation
      and protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation on MU-calpain activity and its
      sensitivity to temperature. The purified MU-calpain was treated with AP or PKA
      for 30min at 30 degrees C to modulate its phosphorylation level. Samples were
      then incubated at controlled freezing point (-1), 4, 25 and 37 degrees C,
      respectively. The results showed that PKA and AP had no influence on pH values of
      incubation solution. At -1 and 4 degrees C, the degradation rate of MU-calpain
      was maximum in AP group and minimum in control group. Low temperature of
      controlled freezing point prevented dephosphorylation and phosphorylation
      progression and delayed MU-calpain degradation. Increased incubation temperature
      of 4, 25 and 37 degrees C increased MU-calpain degradation. Two about 50kDa
      degradation products from MU-calpain were identified, of which the intensity was
      also lower in control group than in the other two groups. These observations
      demonstrated that AP dephosphorylation and PKA phosphorylation of MU-calpain
      promoted MU-calpain autolysis and activation.

PMID- 28888459
TI  - Structural characterization and formation mechanism of zein-propylene glycol
      alginate binary complex induced by calcium ions.
AB  - Effect of calcium ions (Ca2+) on characteristics of zein-propylene glycol
      alginate (PGA) binary complex was studied in this work. Ca2+ induced the
      formation of zein aggregates with decreased fluorescence intensity and a
      significant alpha-helix loss of zein. Zein-PGA binary complex with Ca2+ showed
      the decreased dimension and the minimum size was observed at 50.0mM Ca2+. Ca2+
      resulted in the formation of strong hydrogen bonds between zein and PGA,
      strengthened their hydrophobic interactions, and induced a new peak at the
      diffraction angle of 30 degrees  in the pattern of Zein-PGA binary complex. PGA
      fortified with Ca2+ exhibited an overall plane-like structure, also an interwoven
      flat profile appeared in Zein-PGA binary complex with Ca2+. Three potential
      mechanisms were proposed to explain the morphological changes of samples after
      Ca2+ addition: (i) particle-particle collision and aggregation of particles; (ii)
      chain-chain association and further cross-linking of associated chains; (iii)
      simultaneous cross-linking coupled with aggregation.

PMID- 28888458
TI  - The high content of beta-carotene present in orange-pulp fruits of Carica papaya
      L. is not correlated with a high expression of the CpLCY-beta2 gene.
AB  - We investigated the transcriptional regulation of six genes involved in
      carotenoid biosynthesis, together with the carotenoid accumulation during
      postharvest ripening of three different papaya genotypes of contrasting pulp
      color. Red-pulp genotype (RPG) showed the lowest content of yellow pigments (YP),
      such as beta-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, and violaxanthin, together with the
      lowest relative expression levels (REL) of CpLCY-beta2 and CpCHX-beta genes. On
      the contrary, the yellow-pulp genotype (YPG) showed the highest content of YP and
      the highest REL of CpLCY-beta2 and CpCHX-beta genes. Interestingly, the orange
      pulp genotype (OPG) showed intermediate content of YP and intermediate REL of
      CpLCY-beta2 and CpCHX-beta genes. The highest content of beta-carotene shown by
      OPG despite having an intermediate REL of the CpLCY-beta2 genes, suggests a post
      transcriptional regulation. Thus, the transcriptional level of the genes,
      directing the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway, can partially explain the
      accumulation of carotenoids during the postharvest ripening in C. papaya
      genotypes of contrasting pulp color.

PMID- 28888460
TI  - Impact of boiling on free and bound phenolic profile and antioxidant activity of
      commercial gluten-free pasta.
AB  - Cooking by boiling dry pasta could have varying degrees of influence on
      nutritional and functional components. In the present study, its effect on total
      phenolic content and antioxidant capacity, as well as on the comprehensive
      profile of free and bound phenolics, was investigated in six commercial gluten
      free (GF) pasta products. Overall, the heat treatment caused a significant
      reduction (P<0.01) of the total phenolic content as well as FRAP reducing power
      and ORAC radical scavenging, with significant differences among the pasta samples
      considered. The highest values were recorded in free phenolic fraction remaining
      in black rice (41mggallic acid equivalents100g-1 and 25mmolTrolox Equivalents100g
      1) and quinoa (24mggallic acid equivalents100g-1 and 14mmolTrolox Equivalents100g
      1) cooked GF pasta. Significant correlations (P<0.01) could be found between
      total phenolics and both the antioxidant capacity assays performed. UHPLC
      ESI/QTOF-MS mass profiling allowed confirming the spectrophotometric results,
      while identifying the amount of free and bound fractions. Among phenolic classes,
      lignans exhibited the highest decrease during the cooking process, followed by
      stilbenes and flavonoids. However, phenolic acids and other phenolics showed the
      highest stability. Furthermore, cooking by boiling strongly lowered the bound-to
      free ratio of phenolic compounds, by an averaged factor ranging from 14-folds for
      flavonoids to 5-folds for other classes of phenolics.

PMID- 28888461
TI  - A high fat-high sucrose diet enriched in blue mussels protects against systemic
      inflammation, metabolic dysregulation and weight gain in C57BL/6 mice.
AB  - High fat-high sucrose (HF-HS) diet, known as the western diet, has been shown to
      induce the onset of obesity via increasing metabolic inflammation, insulin
      resistance and adipose tissue dysfunction. Hyperleptinemia, hyperglycemia and
      dyslipidemia are also the primary observations of obesogenic diet induced
      obesity. We have previously reported anti-adipogenic and insulin sensitizing
      effects of blue mussels (BM) using 3T3-L1 cells. BM is a rich source of omega-3
      polyunsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols and other micronutrients that has been
      shown to elicit benefits under obese conditions using in-vitro cell culture
      models. However, no studies to date have established the anti-obesity effects,
      safety and efficacy of BM in an in-vivo animal model. In the present study, we
      fed a HF-HS diet supplemented with different concentrations of BM freeze-dried
      powder (1.25, 2.5 and 5% w/w) to C57BL/6 mice for 12weeks. A HF-HS diet caused
      rapid weight gain, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, hyperleptinemia, and increased
      plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines; interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis
      factor (TNF)-alpha. Incorporating 2.5% BM in the HF-HS diet prevented weight
      gain, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and reduced the levels of inflammatory
      cytokines and leptin mRNA expression. Furthermore, plasma from 2.5% BM increased
      cholesterol efflux capacity of J774 macrophage cells, compared to plasma from HF
      HS diet. There was no effect of 1.25% BM on any tested parameters, while 5% BM
      was not palatable after four weeks. In conclusion, our findings have established
      the efficacy and safety of BM using C57BL/6 mice, demonstrating that BM has the
      potential to target obesity and related complications.

PMID- 28888462
TI  - Control of protein digestion under simulated gastrointestinal conditions using
      biopolymer microgels.
AB  - Controlling the rate and extent of protein digestion within different regions of
      the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is important for regulating hormonal
      responses (such as hunger, satiety, and satiation) and immune responses (such as
      allergenicity). In this study, hydrogel beads (biopolymer microgels) were
      fabricated by injecting a solution of anionic alginate molecules into a solution
      of cationic calcium ions using a vibrating extrusion device. A model food protein
      (whey protein isolate, WPI) was mixed with the alginate solution prior to bead
      formation. The impact of thermal processing (80 degrees C, 15min) of the WPI
      before or after microgel formation was examined to determine the impact of
      protein denaturation and aggregation on encapsulation efficiency and retention.
      Heat-denaturation of the protein prior to microgel formation led to the highest
      encapsulation efficiency and retention, which was attributed to the formation of
      a cold-set protein gel inside the beads. Simulated GIT studies indicated that
      protein encapsulation in the microgels retarded its digestion in the stomach
      (around 3.7% digested), but not in the small intestine (around 19.6% digested).
      The denatured and native proteins were digested differently in different GIT
      regions: denatured protein digested faster in the stomach (around 11% digested),
      whereas native protein digested faster in the small intestine (around 41%
      digested). These results could provide valuable information for the design of
      microgel-based delivery systems to regulate protein digestion and peptide release
      in the GIT.

PMID- 28888463
TI  - Brazil nuts: Nutritional composition, health benefits and safety aspects.
AB  - Brazil nuts are among the richest selenium food sources, and studies have
      considered this Amazonian nut as an alternative for selenium supplementation.
      Besides selenium, Brazil nuts present relevant content of other micronutrients
      such as magnesium, copper, and zinc. The nutritional composition of nuts, also
      characterized by adequate fatty acid profile and high content of protein and
      bioactive compounds, has many health benefits. In the present review, we examine
      the nutritional composition of Brazil nuts, comparing it with other nuts, and
      describe the relevance of possible contaminants and metal toxicants observed in
      this nut for human health. Furthermore, we report different trials available in
      the literature, which demonstrate positive outcomes such as modulation of the
      lipid serum profile, enhancement of the antioxidant system and improvement of
      anti-inflammatory response. These effects have been assessed under different
      conditions, such as cognitive impairment, dyslipidemia, cancer, and renal
      failure.

PMID- 28888464
TI  - Minerals profile of two globe artichoke cultivars as affected by NPK fertilizer
      regimes.
AB  - Globe artichoke is a proven source of various minerals (such as K, Fe and Zn) in
      the Mediterranean diet, but their content in response to fertilizer regime has
      not yet been investigated sufficiently. Thus, we monitored the effect of two
      contrasting nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium (NPK) fertilizer regimes (one balanced
      and the other excessive) on the minerals accumulation of 'Apollo' and 'Tema 2000'
      cultivars, grown in three Sicilian locations ('Landolina', 'Iannarello' and
      'Zotto') - South Italy. Except for total nitrogen, the balanced fertilizer regime
      favoured the accumulation of both macro- and micro-minerals, but with a different
      extent depending especially on trial location. Particularly, plants grown at
      'Iannarello' responded more strongly to the fertilizer regime with respect to K,
      P, Ca, Fe and Zn accumulation, as a result of its different soil characteristics
      than the other locations. Providing a balanced supply of
      nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium via fertilization can enhance the nutritive value
      of globe artichoke, but taking into account especially soil characteristics.

PMID- 28888465
TI  - Predicting and evaluation the severity in acute pancreatitis using a new modeling
      built on body mass index and intra-abdominal pressure.
AB  - OBJECT: Acute pancreatitis (AP) keeps as severe medical diagnosis and treatment
      problem. Early evaluation for severity and risk stratification in patients with
      AP is very important. Some scoring system such as acute physiology and chronic
      health evaluation-II (APACHE-II), the computed tomography severity index (CTSI),
      Ranson's score and the bedside index of severity of AP (BISAP) have been used,
      nevertheless, there're a few shortcomings in these methods. The aim of this study
      was to construct a new modeling including intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) and body
      mass index (BMI) to evaluate the severity in AP. METHODS: The study comprised of
      two independent cohorts of patients with AP, one set was used to develop modeling
      from Jinling hospital in the period between January 2013 and October 2016, 1073
      patients were included in it; another set was used to validate modeling from the
      81st hospital in the period between January 2012 and December 2016, 326 patients
      were included in it. The association between risk factors and severity of AP were
      assessed by univariable analysis; multivariable modeling was explored through
      stepwise selection regression. The change in IAP and BMI were combined to
      generate a regression equation as the new modeling. Statistical indexes were used
      to evaluate the value of the prediction in the new modeling. RESULTS: Univariable
      analysis confirmed change in IAP and BMI to be significantly associated with
      severity of AP. The predict sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value,
      negative predictive value and accuracy by the new modeling for severity of AP
      were 77.6%, 82.6%, 71.9%, 87.5% and 74.9% respectively in the developing dataset.
      There were significant differences between the new modeling and other scoring
      systems in these parameters (P < 0.05). In addition, a comparison of the area
      under receiver operating characteristic curves of them showed a statistically
      significant difference (P < 0.05). The same results could be found in the
      validating dataset. CONCLUSIONS: A new modeling based on IAP and BMI is more
      likely to predict the severity of AP.

PMID- 28888466
TI  - Effects of Electronic Medical Record Display on Provider Ordering Behavior:
      Leveraging the EMR to Improve Quality and Costs.

PMID- 28888467
TI  - Early electrophysiological findings in Fisher-Bickerstaff syndrome.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The term Fisher-Bickerstaff syndrome (FBS) has been proposed to
      describe the clinical spectrum encompassing Miller-Fisher syndrome (MFS) and
      Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis. The pathophysiology of FBS and the nature of
      the underlying neuropathy (demyelinating or axonal) are still subject to debate.
      This study describes the main findings of an early neurophysiological study on 12
      patients diagnosed with FBS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective evaluation of
      clinical characteristics and electrophysiological findings of 12 patients with
      FBS seen in our neurology department within 10 days of disease onset. Follow-up
      electrophysiological studies were also evaluated, where available. RESULTS: The
      most frequent electrophysiological finding, present in 5 (42%) patients, was
      reduced sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) amplitude in one or more nerves.
      Abnormalities were rarely found in motor neurography, with no signs of
      demyelination. The cranial nerve exam revealed abnormalities in 3 patients
      (facial neurography and/or blink reflex test). Three patients showed resolution
      of SNAP amplitude reduction in serial neurophysiological studies, suggesting the
      presence of reversible sensory nerve conduction block. Results from cranial MRI
      scans were normal in all patients. CONCLUSION: An electrophysiological pattern of
      sensory axonal neuropathy, with no associated signs of demyelination, is an early
      finding of FBS. Early neurophysiological evaluation and follow-up are essential
      for diagnosing patients with FBS.

PMID- 28888468
TI  - Effect of visual biofeedback cycling training on gait in patients with multiple
      sclerosis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gait alterations are present in a high percentage of patients with
      multiple sclerosis (MS). They appear from early stages of the disease and can
      limit patients' capacity to perform basic activities of daily living, affecting
      their quality of life. Visual biofeedback cycling training appears to be a useful
      tool in treating these impairments. This study aims to evaluate the short-term
      effect of visual biofeedback cycling training on gait in patients with MS.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 61 patients with mild to moderate MS were
      randomly assigned to a control group and an intervention group. The intervention
      group received visual biofeedback cycling training (MOTOmed viva2 system) once
      per week for 3 months, and a home exercise program. The control group only
      received the home exercise program. Both groups were evaluated using the
      GAITRite(r) Walkway gait assessment system before the intervention, during the
      first month of the programme, and after the intervention. RESULTS: In the
      intervention group, the analysis revealed statistically significant differences
      between Functional Ambulation Profile (FAP) scores before and during the
      intervention (P=.014), and before and after the intervention (P=.002). A
      statistically significant improvement was observed in step length in the
      intervention group between pre- and post-intervention scores (P=.001) and between
      first-month and post-intervention scores (P=.004). CONCLUSIONS: Visual
      biofeedback cycling training improved specific gait parameters in the short term
      and appears to be a therapeutic option for gait retraining in patients with MS.

PMID- 28888470
TI  - Functional and biochemical adaptations of elite level futsal players from Brazil
      along a training season.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Although hard training is mandatory in elite level
      futsal training, few studies have proposed a biochemical follow up in futsal
      players during a whole season. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare
      functional and biochemical markers in Brazilian elite level futsal players
      throughout a competition season. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight players aged 25.5+/
      5.4 years were evaluated at three time points: preseason (T1), immediately before
      the FIFA(r)-Intercontinental-Futsal-Cup (T2), and at the end of the season (T3),
      with a tapering period of 1 week before T2. Functional parameters (weight,
      height, body fat, VO2max, heart rate, and distance ran) and blood sampling for
      cell count and lipid profile (cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglycerides) were
      assessed at each time point. After, a Yo-Yo R2 test was carried out in each time
      point (T1, T2 and T3) and blood samples to assess skeletal muscle damage
      (creatine kinase [CK], lactate dehydrogenase [LDH]), inflammation (C-reactive
      protein [CRP]) and oxidative stress markers (ischemia modified albumin [IMA], and
      advanced oxidation protein products [AOPP]) were obtained before and after the
      tests. RESULTS: Although functional parameters did not change throughout the
      season, greater total number of erythrocytes (P<=0.05), and hemoglobin (P<=0.05)
      were found at T2 compared to T1. Similarly, lower LDH (P<=0.05) and CK (P<=0.05)
      levels were found at T2 compared to T1. CPR levels were also decreased at T2 in
      comparison to T1 both before and after Yo-Yo R2 test (P<=0.05), while IMA and
      AOPP levels showed only a season effect (P<=0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The tapering
      strategy was successful considering players presented lower levels of muscle
      damage, inflammation and oxidative stress makers before T2, which preceded the
      main championship of the year. These results are of great relevance, considering
      the team won the FIFA(r)-Intercontinental-Futsal-Cup, which happened at T2. Thus,
      it seems that routine-based biochemical markers may be useful as training control
      means in this population.

PMID- 28888469
TI  - Cut and Paste: Efficient Homology-Directed Repair of a Dominant Negative KRT14
      Mutation via CRISPR/Cas9 Nickases.
AB  - With the ability to induce rapid and efficient repair of disease-causing
      mutations, CRISPR/Cas9 technology is ideally suited for gene therapy approaches
      for recessively and dominantly inherited monogenic disorders. In this study, we
      have corrected a causal hotspot mutation in exon 6 of the keratin 14 gene (KRT14)
      that results in generalized severe epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS-gen sev),
      using a double-nicking strategy targeting intron 7, followed by homology-directed
      repair (HDR). Co-delivery into EBS keratinocytes of a Cas9 D10A nickase (Cas9n),
      a predicted single guide RNA pair specific for intron 7, and a minicircle donor
      vector harboring the homology donor template resulted in a recombination
      efficiency of >30% and correction of the mutant KRT14 allele. Phenotypic
      correction of EBS-gen sev keratinocytes was demonstrated by immunofluorescence
      analysis, revealing the absence of disease-associated K14 aggregates within the
      cytoplasm. We achieved a promising safety profile for the CRISPR/Cas9 double
      nicking approach, with no detectable off-target activity for a set of predicted
      off-target genes as confirmed by next generation sequencing. In conclusion, we
      demonstrate a highly efficient and specific gene-editing approach for KRT14,
      offering a causal treatment option for EBS.

PMID- 28888472
TI  - Integra(r) as a single-stage dermal regeneration template in reconstruction of
      large defects of the scalp.
AB  - Dermal regeneration templates may be used in the reconstruction of large defects
      after the excision of cutaneous malignancies. We describe the successful use of
      Integra(r) (Integra Lifesciences Corporation, Plainsboro, NJ, USA) as a single
      stage regeneration template after the excision of multiple lesions of the scalp
      with a surface area of 96.7cm2. Second-stage epidermal autografting was precluded
      because of an unforeseen deterioration in the patient's condition, and the wound
      re-epithelialised over a period of six months. To the best of our knowledge there
      are no published reports on the use of this procedure after excision of cutaneous
      malignancies of the scalp of similar dimensions, without subsequent epidermal
      autografting (Johnson and Wong, 2016).1.

PMID- 28888471
TI  - Altered expression of the FMR1 splicing variants landscape in premutation
      carriers.
AB  - FMR1 premutation carriers (55-200 CGG repeats) are at risk for developing Fragile
      X-associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS), an adult onset neurodegenerative
      disorder. Approximately 20% of female carriers will develop Fragile X-associated
      Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (FXPOI), in addition to a number of clinical
      problems affecting premutation carriers throughout their life span. Marked
      elevation in FMR1 mRNA levels have been observed with premutation alleles
      resulting in RNA toxicity, the leading molecular mechanism proposed for the FMR1
      associated disorders observed in premutation carriers. The FMR1 gene undergoes
      alternative splicing and we have recently reported that the relative abundance of
      all FMR1 mRNA isoforms is significantly increased in premutation carriers. In
      this study, we characterized the transcriptional FMR1 isoforms distribution
      pattern in different tissues and identified a total of 49 isoforms, some of which
      observed only in premutation carriers and which might play a role in the
      pathogenesis of FXTAS. Further, we investigated the distribution pattern and
      expression levels of the FMR1 isoforms in asymptomatic premutation carriers and
      in those with FXTAS and found no significant differences between the two groups.
      Our findings suggest that the characterization of the expression levels of the
      different FMR1 isoforms is fundamental for understanding the regulation of the
      FMR1 gene as imbalance in their expression could lead to an altered functional
      diversity with neurotoxic consequences. Their characterization will also help to
      elucidating the mechanism(s) by which "toxic gain of function" of the FMR1 mRNA
      may play a role in FXTAS and/or in the other FMR1-associated conditions.

PMID- 28888473
TI  - Acupuncture for temporomandibular joint syndrome.

PMID- 28888474
TI  - Recent advances in the genomic and molecular biology of Giardia.
AB  - Giardia duodenalis is the most common gastrointestinal protozoan parasite of
      humans and a significant contributor to the global burden of both diarrheal
      disease and post-infectious chronic disorders. Robust tools for analyzing gene
      function in this parasite have been developed and a range of genetic tools are
      now available. These together with public databases have provided insights on the
      function of different genes in Giardia. In this review we provide a current
      perspective on different molecular aspects of Giardia related to genomics,
      regulation of encystation, trophozoite transcriptional responses to physiological
      and xenobiotic (drug-induced) stress, and mechanisms of drug resistance. We also
      examine recent insights that have contributed to gain knowledge in the study of
      VSPs, antigenic variation, epigenetics, DNA repair and in the direct manipulation
      of gene function in Giardia, with a particular focus on the inducible Cre/loxP
      system.

PMID- 28888475
TI  - Promoter methylation status of the TIMP2 and ADAMTS4 genes and patellar
      tendinopathy.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Patellar tendinopathy (PT) is a debilitating and prevalent condition
      that tends to affect those who are physically active or engaged in jumping
      sports. Although tendinopathies are known to have a genetic basis, the role of
      DNA methylation as an epigenetic factor and risk determinant for human PT has
      never been described. We sought to determine whether differences existed between
      the methylation profiles of both the TIMP2 and ADAMTS4 gene promoter sequences in
      a cohort of males having undergone surgery for patellar tendinopathy compared to
      controls. DESIGN: Case-control epigenetic study using DNA from 10 males with PT
      and 10 males with healthy tendons. METHODS: We used PCR and targeted
      pyrosequencing to interrogate the methylation profiles of CpG sites upstream of
      both the TIMP2 (4 sites) and ADAMTS4 (6 sites) genes. We compared methylation
      differences between the two groups using t-tests. RESULTS: We report no
      significant (p>0.05) methylation differences within the TIMP2 gene promoter
      between the PT group and controls across the 4 CpG sites investigated. In
      contrast, we detected a significant (p=0.016) difference in the methylation
      status of 1 CpG site, approximately 3kb upstream of the ADAMTS4 gene between the
      PT group and controls. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study to
      investigate how DNA methylation impacts on the risk of human tendinopathy. Our
      data indicate that the methylation status of the ADAMTS4 gene is altered in
      patellar tendinopathy and we speculate on how this change might modify the
      patellar tendon extra-cellular matrix environment.

PMID- 28888477
TI  - WITHDRAWN: Health Policy Research May Ensure the Future of Oral and Maxillofacial
      Surgery.
AB  - The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an
      article that has already been published,
      https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2017.03.056. 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- 28888476
TI  - Computational sensitivity investigation of hydrogel injection characteristics for
      myocardial support.
AB  - Biomaterial injection is a potential new therapy for augmenting ventricular
      mechanics after myocardial infarction (MI). Recent in vivo studies have
      demonstrated that hydrogel injections can mitigate the adverse remodeling due to
      MI. More importantly, the material properties of these injections influence the
      efficacy of the therapy. The goal of the current study is to explore the
      interrelated effects of injection stiffness and injection volume on diastolic
      ventricular wall stress and thickness. To achieve this, finite element models
      were constructed with different hydrogel injection volumes (150uL and 300 uL),
      where the modulus was assessed over a range of 0.1kPa to 100kPa (based on
      experimental measurements). The results indicate that a larger injection volume
      and higher stiffness reduce diastolic myofiber stress the most, by maintaining
      the wall thickness during loading. Interestingly, the efficacy begins to taper
      after the hydrogel injection stiffness reaches a value of 50kPa. This
      computational approach could be used in the future to evaluate the optimal
      properties of the hydrogel.

PMID- 28888478
TI  - Mandibular Coronoidectomy Could Significantly Accelerate the Healing Process of
      Infratemporal Fossa Abscess.
AB  - PURPOSE: Management of an infratemporal fossa abscess (IFA), which is a specific
      form of severe and advanced deep fascial space infection (DFI), is based mainly
      on traditional methods. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of
      mandibular coronoidectomy in accelerating IFA healing. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This
      research is a single-center retrospective study composed of 23 patients with IFA.
      The predictor variables were gender, age, diabetes, severity score, and
      mandibular coronoidectomy. The outcome variables included hospitalization time
      (HT) and irrigating time (IT). A comparison of treatment outcomes between the
      improved and traditional surgical interventions for IFA was performed. RESULTS:
      Compared with patients who did not receive mandibular coronoidectomy (NC group;
      HT, 17.54 +/- 1.80 days; IT, 38.54 +/- 3.73 days), patients who underwent
      mandibular coronoidectomy (AC group) had significantly decreased HT (7.20 +/-
      1.19 days) and IT (15.10 +/- 1.27 days; P < .01). In addition, 4 patients (31%)
      in the NC group received reoperation for osteomyelitis, whereas no osteomyelitis
      and DFI recurrence occurred in the AC group. CONCLUSIONS: Mandibular
      coronoidectomy with extra intraoral drainage could considerably accelerate the
      healing process of IFAs and obviously decrease the reoperation rate for
      osteomyelitis.

PMID- 28888479
TI  - Letter to the Editor concerning "One and a half syndrome following penetrating
      head injury: Case report" by Mathew R. Voisin, Sanskriti Sasikumar, Jeremy H.
      Russell, Gelareh Zadeh, Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 41 (2017) 88-90.

PMID- 28888480
TI  - The clinical characteristics and microsurgical therapy of pituitary adenomas in
      elderly patients: A retrospective study of 130 cases.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical characteristics and microsurgical therapy
      of pituitary adenomas in elderly patients. METHOD: This article describes a
      retrospective study of 130 pituitary adenomas in elderly patients over 65years of
      age who underwent a microsurgical operation using the transsphenoidal approach
      and were admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) from January
      2010 to December 2012. RESULTS: A total of 60 (46.2%) males and 70 females
      (53.8%) were included, and the mean age of the patients was 68.38years. The main
      clinical manifestation was visual defects (35.4%), and the levels of growth
      hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), adrenocorticotropic hormone
      (ACTH), and prolactin (PRL) were increased by 11.5%, 11.5%, 6.2%, and 7.7%,
      respectively. All patients underwent the transsphenoidal approach. The main
      comorbidity prior to surgery was hypertension (45.0%), and the average duration
      of follow-up was 39.6+/-10.6months. Tumor recurrence was observed in 19 patients,
      17 of which received radiological therapy, and two patients underwent an
      additional operation at our hospital. The rate of loss to follow-up was 15.9%.
      CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in the surgical outcome,
      mortality in the perioperative period or complications between the elderly
      patients and the general population. However, the indications for pituitary
      adenomas in elderly patients still require further age-specific guidelines.

PMID- 28888481
TI  - Spatial distribution of conduction disorders during sinus rhythm.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Length of lines of conduction block (CB) during sinus rhythm (SR) at
      Bachmann's bundle (BB) is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, it
      is unknown whether extensiveness of CB at BB represents CB elsewhere in the
      atria. We aim to investigate during SR 1) the spatial distribution and
      extensiveness of CB 2) whether there is a predilection site for CB and 3) the
      association between CB and incidence of post-operative AF. METHODS: During SR,
      epicardial mapping of the right atrium (RA), BB and left atrium was performed in
      209 patients with coronary artery disease. The amount of conduction delay (CD,
      Deltalocal activation time >=7ms) and CB (Delta>=12ms) was quantified as % of the
      mapping area. Atrial regions were compared to identify potential predilection
      sites for CD/CB. Correlations between CD/CB and clinical characteristics were
      tested. RESULTS: Areas with CD or CB were present in all patients, overall
      prevalence was respectively 1.4(0.2-4.0) % and 1.3(0.1-4.3) %. Extensiveness and
      spatial distribution of CD/CB varied considerably, however occurred mainly at the
      superior intercaval RA. Of all clinicalcharacteristics, CD/CB only correlated
      weakly with age and diabetes (P<0.05). A 1% increase in CD or CB caused a 1.1
      1.5ms prolongation of the activation time (P<0.001). There was no correlation
      between CD/CB and post-operative AF. CONCLUSION: CD/CB during SR in CABG patients
      with electrically non-remodeled atria show considerable intra-atrial, but also
      inter-individual variation. Despite these differences, a predilection site is
      present at the superior intercaval RA. Extensiveness of CB at the superior
      intercaval RA or BB does not reflect CB elsewhere in the atria and is not
      associated with post-operative AF.

PMID- 28888483
TI  - Correction.

PMID- 28888482
TI  - Exercise training and cardiac autonomic function in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A
      systematic review.
AB  - Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a common complication of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus (T2DM). It has been found to independently predict all cause and
      cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. It remains unclear whether exercise
      training could improve autonomic control in T2DM patients. The purpose of this
      study was to systematically review the effects of exercise training on cardiac
      autonomic function in T2DM patients. Electronic databases (MEDLINE, CENTRAL,
      PEDro, Scopus and Web of science) were systematically searched to retrieve
      relevant evidence. Clinical trials administering exercise training for at least 4
      weeks and examining either heart rate variability (HRV), baroreflex sensitivity
      (BRS), heart rate recovery (HRR) as outcome measures were eligible. Eighteen
      articles were found to be relevant and were then assessed for characteristics and
      quality. Fifteen studies out of 18 found that exercise training leads to positive
      improvements in autonomic function of T2DM patients. Exercise participation
      enhances cardiac autonomic function of type 2 diabetics and therefore should be
      implemented in their management programs.

PMID- 28888484
TI  - Prediction of human efficacious antidepressant doses using the mouse forced swim
      test.
AB  - The forced swim test (FST) is a commonly used preclinical animal behavioural
      model for prediction of antidepressant activity in humans. While the FST may
      qualitatively predict efficacy, less is known about the quantitative translation
      of FST data to human efficacious doses. Assessing quantitative translation allows
      better predictions of human efficacious doses and a higher chance of success in
      the drug development process. Dose-response and time-course FST experiments were
      carried out on mice using four marketed antidepressants (citalopram, desipramine,
      bupropion, desvenlafaxine) in addition to ketamine, all with varying mechanisms
      of action. Population pharmacokinetic (PK)/pharmacodynamic (PD) analysis methods
      were applied to analyse the PK and immobility data, and the accuracy of the
      translation of FST data to human doses was evaluated using both area under the
      curve (AUC) and concentration-based approaches. The results showed that for the
      five antidepressants, average human AUC at clinically relevant doses were up to
      38-fold higher than mouse AUC at doses associated with 50% of maximal efficacy in
      the FST (ED50). Using a concentration approach, human peak and trough drug
      concentrations at clinically relevant doses were generally associated with
      concentrations of at least 65% (EC65) and 20% (EC20) of maximal effect in mice,
      respectively. The FST is a useful tool to predict antidepressant efficacy across
      a variety of drugs with different mechanisms of actions. However, human doses can
      be over-or under-predicted many fold when using the traditional approach of
      estimating based upon ED50 AUC in mice. It is recommended that a concentration
      approach be used, where concentrations associated with 80% (EC80) and 30% (EC30)
      of maximal effect in the mouse are used as general targets for human maximum and
      trough concentrations, respectively, in the prediction of clinically efficacious
      doses of new, potential antidepressant agents.

PMID- 28888486
TI  - Subungual melanoma: Management in the modern era.
AB  - Subungual melanoma is a rare subtype of cutaneous melanoma that arises from the
      structures of the nail apparatus. It presents most commonly in older patients and
      at an advanced stage. A retrospective review of all patients with subungual
      melanoma in a single institution over a 15-year period was performed. In total,
      54 patients were included (26 males, average age 62.9 years), of which 28 cases
      involved the upper limb. Median tumour thickness was 4.5 mm. Eighteen patients
      had lymph node metastasis at diagnosis, including 11 of 36 patients with positive
      sentinel lymph node biopsy. Median survival was 4.6 years. Subungual melanoma has
      a poor prognosis that is strongly associated with presence of nodal disease at
      diagnosis. Sentinel lymph node biopsy should be considered to determine stage and
      prognosis.

PMID- 28888485
TI  - Immunobiology of the IL-15/IL-15Ralpha complex as an antitumor and antiviral
      agent.
AB  - Interleukin (IL)-15 is essential for natural killer (NK), NKT and memory (m) CD8+
      T cell development and function, and is currently under investigation as an
      immunotherapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer. Recently, the creation of IL
      15 superagonist by complexing IL-15 and its high affinity receptor alpha (IL-15
      Ralpha) in solution, inspired by the natural trans-presentation of IL-15,
      advances the potential of IL-15-based tumor immunotherapy. IL-15 superagonist
      shows promising advantages over monomeric IL-15 such as sustaining high
      circulating concentrations due to prolonged half-life and more potently
      stimulating NK and CD8+ T effector lymphocytes. So far, there are three different
      forms of recombinant IL-15 superagonist fusion protein based on configurational
      modifications. Gene therapy using engineered cells co-expressing IL-15/IL-15
      Ralpha complex for cancer treatment is also emerging. All forms have demonstrated
      efficacy in causing tumor regression in animal studies, which provides strong
      rationale for advancing IL-15 superagonist through clinical trials. To date,
      there are fourteen phase I/II IL-15 superagonist trials in cancer patients and
      one phase I trial in HIV patients. Information generated by ongoing trials
      regarding the toxicity and efficacy of IL-15 superagonist is awaited. Finally, we
      elaborate on immunotoxicity caused by IL-15 superagonist in preclinical studies
      and discuss important safety considerations.

PMID- 28888487
TI  - Impaired autophagic flux and p62-mediated EMT are involved in arsenite-induced
      transformation of L-02 cells.
AB  - Autophagy is a catabolic process essential for preserving cellular homeostasis,
      and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved during tissue
      development and cancer progression. In arsenite-treated human hepatic epithelial
      (L-02) cells, arsenite reduced the autophagic flux, which caused accumulation of
      p62, an adaptor and receptor of autophagy. Further, in arsenite-transformed L-02
      cells, the levels of E-cadherin were attenuated, but the levels of vimentin,
      which is expressed in mesenchymal cells, and Snail, a transcription regulator of
      the EMT, were up-regulated. Thus, after chronic exposure of L-02 cells to
      arsenite, the impaired autophagic flux induced the accumulation of p62, which up
      regulated the expression of Snail, a protein involved in arsenite-induced EMT of
      these cells. Knockdown of p62 by siRNA reversed the arsenite-induced EMT and
      decreased the capacities of arsenite-transformed L-02 cells for colony formation
      and invasion and migration. Therefore, in arsenite-induced transformation of L-02
      cells, the accumulation of p62, by impairing autophagic flux, mediates the EMT
      via Snail. These results provide a previously unknown mechanism underlying
      arsenic toxicity and carcinogenicity.

PMID- 28888488
TI  - Cognitive Interviews for Validating the Family Nutrition Physical Activity
      Instrument for Korean-American Families With Young Children.
AB  - PURPOSE: Childhood obesity is a growing health concern for Korean-Americans (KA).
      The purpose of this study was to develop a culturally appropriate Korean-language
      version of the Family Nutrition Physical Activity (FNPA) instrument and evaluate
      its comprehensibility and cultural appropriateness of the FNPA for KAs. DESIGN
      AND METHODS: The FNPA was translated into Korean and cognitive interviews were
      conducted with 19 KA mothers in the Chicago metropolitan area. RESULTS: Overall,
      participants reported that the FNPA is easy to understand and said they had no
      difficulty answering items using a 4-point Likert scale. Six out of 20 items had
      minor revisions due to: items that were not specific enough, had confusing
      wording, or led to incorrect interpretations. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive interviews
      confirmed the cultural appropriateness of the translated FNPA in the KA context.
      It is crucial that child's age and cultural aspects of a child's household
      routines should be taken into consideration when the original FNPA is being used
      with culturally diverse populations. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Health care
      professionals may use the FNPA when assessing family environment in their efforts
      to prevent and control childhood obesity among KAs.

PMID- 28888489
TI  - Mental Health and Quality of Life Among Spanish-born and Immigrant Children in
      Years 2006 and 2012.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One of every five children and adolescents in the European Union
      suffers from behavioural, and emotional disturbances. OBJECTIVES: To compare
      factors associated with the quality of life and mental health of immigrant and
      Spanish children aged 4-14years both during the years 2006 and 2012 and to
      evaluate changes over this time period. DESIGN AND METHODS: An epidemiologic age
      and sex matched case-control study (1:2) was conducted. The study group were 677
      immigrant children and 1354 matched Spanish children (controls). This study was
      conducted using data obtained from the Spanish National Health Surveys done in
      2006 and 2012. We used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to obtain the
      score for variables derived from mental health and the Kidscreen-10 questionnaire
      to score the Health-Related Quality of Life. RESULTS: Spanish girls scored higher
      in conduct problems (2.04+/-0.1) and better in problems with peers (1.21+/-0.08)
      regarding immigrant girls (1.82+/-0.12-1.92+/-0.13 respectively). Concerning
      total scores, immigrant children obtained significantly lower scores in quality
      of life (81.29+/-0.76) and in problems with peers (2.04+/-0.09) than their
      matched Spanish children (84.4+/-0.45 and 1.26+/-0.06) in 2006. Immigrant
      children had lower total scores in prosocial behaviour (8.62+/-0.11) compared to
      the matched Spanish children (8.92+/-0.06) in 2012. The total average scores of
      immigrant children in terms of quality of life, emotional symptoms, behavioural
      problems, hyperactivity and problems with peers were significantly better in 2012
      (86.58; 1.84; 1.46; 3.77 and 1.48 respectively) than in 2006 (81.29; 2.15; 1.90;
      4.58 and2.04). CONCLUSIONS: Immigrant children had a poorer quality of life and
      mental health than matched Spanish children in 2006.

PMID- 28888490
TI  - Type 2 Diabetes in Canadian Aboriginal Adolescents: Risk Factors and Prevalence.
AB  - PURPOSE: To identify the risk factors and prevalence rates of prediabetes and
      type 2 diabetes among northern Canadian Aboriginal adolescents. DESIGN AND
      METHODS: In this novel exploratory, quantitative study, 160 high school students
      (aged 13-21) from three northern, predominantly Canadian Aboriginal communities
      were screened for risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes including demographic
      data, family medical history, anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, and
      hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Descriptive and inferential statistics, in addition to
      chi-square analysis, were used to establish risk and prevalence rates for
      prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in Aboriginal adolescents. RESULTS: At least half
      of the adolescents presented with multiple risk factors for type 2 diabetes. In
      this sample, 10% had an HbA1c>5.7%, 22.5% were overweight, 17.5% were obese, and
      26.6% had prehypertension or hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: Prediabetes and type 2
      diabetes are emerging as serious health concerns for young Aboriginal Canadians.
      This is troubling because both result from modifiable risk factors. As this study
      is the first to examine the prevalence of prediabetes in Canadian Aboriginal
      adolescents in the last decade, the findings underscore the necessity for early
      screening of Aboriginal adolescents for both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
      PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Recommendations toward positive health outcomes include
      the introduction of early age screening programs, followed by culturally relevant
      interventions, specific to the modifiable risk factors (overweight/obesity and
      hypertension), and developed in collaboration with the communities. Such
      approaches have the potential to prevent the progression of prediabetes to
      diabetes and reduce complications related to type 2 diabetes.

PMID- 28888491
TI  - Breakfast Eating Habits Among Schoolchildren.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A healthy breakfast provides school-age children with the essential
      nutrients needed for their activities and is correlated with improving a person's
      general nutritional status. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted over a
      period of two months in 2015, involving 1798 Jordanian schoolchildren from grade
      1 to grade 6. The study data sheet covered the breakfast habits of those
      children. Descriptive measures and Pearson's chi-square test were computed.
      Multivariate regression was calculated to assess the predictors' factors for
      breakfast consumption. The p value was considered significant at p<0.05. RESULTS:
      Findings show a prevalence for breakfast consumption of 80.4%. Furthermore, 52.1%
      of the breakfast eaters indicated that it was a family habit; half of them ate
      breakfast in order to be active and energetic and to alleviate hunger during the
      morning. Live with both parents, age groups of 6-9years and boys were the
      predictors of breakfast consumption among schoolchildren. CONCLUSION: Breakfast
      skipping among schoolchildren was initially high and increased with age. The
      findings suggest a community health education programme, conducted by school
      nurses, nutritionists and other health professionals, is needed.

PMID- 28888492
TI  - Physio-psychological Burdens and Social Restrictions on Parents of Children With
      Technology Dependency are Associated With Care Coordination by Nurses.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the association between parental care burdens and care
      coordination provided by nurses for children with technology dependency,
      specifically regarding physio-psychological burdens and social restrictions.
      DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted between October and
      November 2015. Participants were recruited via home-visit nursing stations,
      social worker offices, and special-needs schools. A total of 246 parents of
      children with technology dependency completed anonymous self-report
      questionnaires. Parental burden was measured using the Zarit Burden Interview.
      Care coordination for children with technology dependency was examined using
      items extracted from focus group interviews involving three nursing
      administrators at home-visit nursing stations, two social workers, and a
      coordinator of school education for children with special health care needs.
      Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between
      parental burden and care coordination among 172 parents who contracted with
      visiting nurses. RESULTS: Parents and children with nursing support were
      significantly younger and had higher medical care needs and higher parental role
      strain than those without nursing support. Care coordination from nurses
      predicted reduced parental burden, role strain, and personal strain (beta=-0.247,
      p=0.002; beta=-0.272, p=0.001; beta=-0.221, p=0.009, respectively). CONCLUSION:
      Nurses' care coordination appears to be associated with a reduction in parents'
      care burden resulting from home medical care of children with technology
      dependency, especially the social restrictions and physio-psychological burdens.
      PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Strengthening nursing functioning as care coordinators may
      contribute to reducing care burdens for parents of children with technology
      dependency.

PMID- 28888493
TI  - The Effects of Smartphone-based Nebulizer Therapy Education on Parents' Knowledge
      and Confidence of Performance in Caring for Children with Respiratory Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify the effects of smartphone-based nebulizer
      therapy education on the knowledge and confidence of parents while performing
      care for their children with respiratory disease. DESIGN AND METHODS: This quasi
      experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design using a nonequivalent
      control group. Data were collected from children's parents who had not used
      nebulizer therapy for their children previously. Both the groups were given
      nebulizer therapy education using the same content but different learning
      methods. The experimental group (n=36) was taught using smartphones, while the
      control group (n=36) was taught using verbal and paper-based methods. The data
      were analyzed using the Chi Square test, repeated measures analysis of variance,
      and t-test. RESULTS: The mean scores on knowledge improvement (F=100.949,
      p<0.001) and confidence in performing care (t=-6.959, p<0.001) were significantly
      higher for the experimental group as compared to the control group. Further, the
      scores on satisfaction with the learning method were significantly higher for the
      experimental group as compared to the control group (t=-5.819, p<0.001). Our
      results suggest that smartphone-based education on nebulizer therapy might be
      effective in improving parents' knowledge and confidence in performing care for
      their children. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that smartphone-based education
      needs to be considered as an effective educational intervention in providing
      nursing support for parents of children with respiratory disease.

PMID- 28888494
TI  - Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Sleep Disturbance among Jordanian Mothers and
      Fathers of Infants Admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Preliminary Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the stressors and stress levels among Jordanian parents
      of infants in the NICU and their relationship to three factors: anxiety,
      depression and sleep disturbance. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey
      was conducted in two hospitals in Jordan among 310 parents of infants in the NICU
      by using PSS: NICU and PROMIS. RESULTS: Both parents experienced high levels of
      stress, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance. There was a significant
      difference in stress level between mothers and fathers [t (308)=3.471, p=0.001],
      with the mothers experiencing higher stress than the fathers [mean:
      mothers=108.58; fathers=101.68]. The highest and lowest sources of stress were
      infant behavior and appearance (M=4.09) and sights and sounds in the NICU
      (M=3.54), respectively. The correlation between stress levels with anxiety
      (r=0.79) and depression (r=0.75) was strong and positive while sleep disturbance
      was significant and moderate (r=0.43). CONCLUSIONS: The mothers experienced
      higher levels of stress compared to fathers, with positive correlations between
      stress and anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The
      findings of this study create nursing awareness of parent stress and its impact,
      which will help them to improve nursing care for parents.

PMID- 28888495
TI  - Teachers' Experiences With and Perceptions of Students With Attention
      Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to examine teacher experiences with and
      perceptions of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
      Teachers are integral in helping these children learn effectively and foster
      healthy relationships, yet little is known about their interactions with these
      children. DESIGN AND METHOD: Semi structured interviews were conducted with a
      purposive sample of fourteen currently practicing or retired elementary and
      middle schools teachers in North Carolina and South Carolina. All interviews were
      audio-recorded then analyzed for common themes. RESULTS: Participants obtained
      ADHD information from in-services or peer interaction, rather than formal
      education. Culture and gender influenced teacher perceptions, and ADHD classroom
      strategies were based on anecdotal experience. Teachers experienced guilt and
      worry while negotiating student needs, school system constraints, and family
      issues. CONCLUSIONS: While teachers have developed effective coping mechanisms
      through informal means, formal education and support will help teachers better
      serve students with ADHD. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Pediatric nurses in many
      settings can benefit from better understanding how teachers perceive and interact
      with students who have attentional issues.

PMID- 28888496
TI  - "Mission Impossible"; the Mothering of a Child With Type 1 Diabetes - From the
      Perspective of Mothers Experiencing Burnout.
AB  - PURPOSE: To explore how mothers experiencing burnout describe their mothering of
      a child with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), with a focus on their experienced
      need for control and self-esteem. METHODS: This study used a qualitative,
      descriptive design and aimed to reveal the experience of mothering a child with
      diabetes when experiencing burnout. Twenty-one mothers of children with T1DM who
      were experiencing burnout participated in this study. Data were collected via
      semi-structured interviews, and content analysis was performed. RESULTS: The main
      results (latent content of the data) were interpreted in one theme, Mission
      impossible, an inner feeling derived from an extremely challenging experience of
      mothering, encompassing involuntary responsibility and constant evaluation. Two
      sub-themes emerged: Forced to provide extraordinary mothering and Constant
      evaluation of the mothering. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to monitoring the health of
      the child with T1DM, it is important for clinicians to pay attention to how
      mothers experience their daily life in order to support those who are at risk of
      developing burnout, as well as those who are experiencing burnout. The wellbeing
      of the mother could influence the wellbeing of the child, as well as the entire
      family. Further research on perceived parental responsibility, gender
      differences, psychosocial factors, and burnout is needed. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
      Knowledge and understanding of how mothers suffering from burnout experience
      mothering a child with diabetes could help nurses, social workers, psychologists
      and counselors conducting pediatric diabetes care become more attentive to the
      mother's situation and have procedures for counseling interventions.

PMID- 28888497
TI  - Urban-Rural Differences in School Nurses' Asthma Training Needs and Access to
      Asthma Resources.
AB  - PURPOSE: Few studies have examined school nurses preferences' for asthma
      training. Our purpose was to: 1) assess school nurses' perceived asthma training
      needs, 2) describe nurses' access to asthma educational resources, and 3)
      identify urban-rural differences in training needs and access to resources in
      southern states. DESIGN AND METHODS: A convenience sample of school nurses
      (n=162) from seven counties (two urban and five rural) in North Carolina and
      South Carolina completed an online, anonymous survey. Chi-square tests were used
      to examine urban-rural differences. RESULTS: Although most nurses (64%) had
      received asthma training within the last five years, urban nurses were more
      likely to have had asthma training than rural nurses (chi2=10.84, p=0.001). A
      majority of nurses (87%) indicated they would like to receive additional asthma
      training. Approximately half (45%) of nurses reported access to age-appropriate
      asthma education materials, but only 16% reported that their schools implemented
      asthma education programs. Urban nurses were more likely than rural nurses to
      have access to asthma education programs (chi2=4.10, p=0.04) and age-appropriate
      asthma education materials (chi2=8.86, p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Few schools are
      implementing asthma education programs. Rural nurses may be disadvantaged in
      terms of receiving asthma training and having access to asthma education programs
      and materials. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Schools are an ideal setting for delivering
      age-appropriate asthma education. By providing school nurses with access to age
      appropriate asthma education resources and additional asthma training, we can
      help them overcome several of the barriers that impede their ability to deliver
      asthma care to their students.

PMID- 28888499
TI  - The Efficacy of Art Therapy in Pediatric Oncology Patients: An Integrative
      Literature Review.
AB  - PROBLEM: Children undergoing cancer treatment experience detrimental adverse side
      effects that may be addressed with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
      such as art therapy. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of
      art therapy in pediatric patients living with cancer. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: An
      integrative literature review was conducted using the CINAHL, OVID Medline, and
      PsycINFO databases. Studies were included if they were a primary source utilizing
      an art therapy intervention in children with cancer age birth to 18years old, was
      published between the year 2000 and 2016, and written in the English language.
      SAMPLE: Seven primary sources met inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Few studies were
      reported in this review. Findings of this review suggest that children who
      participated in various forms of drawing interventions exhibited enhanced
      communication with family members and healthcare providers. Additionally,
      children were able to better express underlying emotions, developed more
      effective coping skills, and experienced a reduction in adverse side effects.
      CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a drawing intervention or other forms of art into the
      holistic care of a pediatric oncology patient may assist in maximizing quality of
      life and allow for a more tolerable lifestyle. IMPLICATIONS: Acquiring a means of
      proper communication with children through art allows nurses to gain insight on
      the needs of this special patient population, resulting in a higher quality plan
      of care.

PMID- 28888498
TI  - Parental expectations of support from healthcare providers during pediatric life
      threatening illness: A secondary, qualitative analysis.
AB  - PURPOSES: To explain parental expectations of support from healthcare providers
      for their parenting roles and goals during a child's life-threatening illness
      (LTI). DESIGN AND METHODS: Qualitative interpretive study guided by the Family
      Adjustment and Adaptation Response Model. Thematic analyses were conducted with
      data from 31 semi-structured interviews of parents of children with LTI using
      systematic strategies to ensure rigor including audit trails and prolonged
      engagement. RESULTS: We identified three themes and one meta-theme or overall
      theme: (1) "Help us survive this," (2) "Let's fight together: please fight with
      me, not against me, to care for my family," and (3) "Guide me through the
      darkness: I am suffering." Overall, the parents conveyed that they expect
      mutuality with the health care providers and system in order to keep Fighting
      together for my family survival. CONCLUSIONS: In the daily work of caring for
      their families, parents of children with LTI consider survival on multiple
      levels. They consider the life, illness, and potential death of one child while
      considering the on-going survival and sustenance of family relationships.
      PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Parents are distressed and grapple with conflicted
      feelings about managing competing needs of various family members. Relationships
      with health care providers can influence parents' management of the situation and
      be a source of support as their parenting role changes over the illness
      trajectory, time, and in response to adversity.

PMID- 28888500
TI  - Evaluating the Reliability and Validity of the Arabic Version of the Parents
      Perceptions of Uncertainty Scale (A-PPUS).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uncertainty often accompanies illness and may be a major aversive
      component of the patients' treatment process. There is evidence that parental
      uncertainty has a negative impact on their own and on their child's coping
      strategies and may affect family functioning. Key to the provision of competent
      care, to address uncertainty, is the use of an appropriate validated assessment
      tool to understand key parental concerns. The 'Parent Perception of Uncertainty
      Scale' (PPUS) has been widely used for this purpose. AIM: This study reports on
      the validity and reliability testing of the Arabic version of the Parents
      Perception of Uncertainty Scale (A-PPUS). METHODS: The scale was translated to
      Arabic using the translation-back-translation method. Appropriate statistical
      tests were performed including measurements of internal consistency, item to
      total scale correlation, and univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The
      study included 240 parents of children with chronic illnesses. Cronbach's alpha
      coefficient of the whole scale was 0.93. All the items were positively correlated
      to the total score. The univariate and multivariate analysis supported the
      previous tests and the assertion that the Arabic version of the PPUS provided a
      relevant measure of the uncertainty level. CONCLUSION: This study has identified
      that the A-PPUS is a reliable tool for parent report of their uncertainty, in the
      UAE and Arabic population.

PMID- 28888501
TI  - The effectiveness of assertiveness training for school-aged children on bullying
      and assertiveness level.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an assertive
      training for school-aged children on peer bullying and assertiveness. DESIGN AND
      METHODS: A quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-testing was conducted.
      Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, an assertiveness scale,
      and the peer victimization scale. The training program was comprised of eight
      sessions which were implemented to intervention group. RESULTS: Descriptive
      characteristics were not statistically different between the groups (p>0.05). The
      peer victimization victim dimension results show that post-test mean scores of
      the students in the intervention group were lower than the pre-test mean scores
      (p<0.05). For the control group, no significant change was found in the pre-test
      and post-test mean scores (p>0.05). A comparison of the mean pre-test/post-test
      scores of peer-victimization bully dimension of the students' intervention and
      control groups revealed that the mean post-test scores of the students in the
      each group decreased (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: An assertiveness training program
      increased the assertiveness level and reduced the state of being victims, but did
      not affect the state of being bullies. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The results of this
      study can help children acquire assertive behaviors instead of negative behaviors
      such as aggression and shyness, and help them to build effective social
      communication.

PMID- 28888502
TI  - Health Literacy in Adolescents With Sickle Cell Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate health literacy in a cohort of 75 adolescents with sickle
      cell disease (SCD). DESIGN AND METHODS: This cross-sectional, descriptive
      correlational study included assessment of demographic measures and appraisal of
      data resulting from completion of the REALM-Teen and Newest Vital Sign (NVS)
      instruments by 75 Black, non-Hispanic adolescents with SCD. Convenience sampling
      was utilized. Inclusion criteria were a diagnosis of one of the four primary
      genotypes of SCD and age 10-19years. RESULTS: Thirty-seven males and 38 females
      were recruited for the study. Their mean age was 14.7years (SD=2.2; range 8.1).
      Their grade level ranged from 4 to 12 (mean 8.7; SD=2.2). Scores on the REALM
      Teen ranged from 12 to 66 (mean 53.7; SD=12.8). Scores on the NVS ranged from 0
      to 6 (mean 2.37; SD=1.33). These health literacy scores were lower using both the
      REALM-Teen and the NVS instruments when compared to scores in all healthy
      adolescents and adults. Current grade level and health literacy scores showed a
      moderately high positive correlation (r=0.52, p<0.01). Health literacy scores
      were also significantly positively correlated with age (r=0.49, p<0.01) and
      income (r=0.37, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Health literacy in adolescents with SCD is
      suboptimal. Future research should include identifying facilitators and barriers
      to health literacy levels in a larger cohort of adolescents with SCD. PRACTICE
      IMPLICATIONS: Health literacy is a potential facilitator of successful health
      outcomes for all adolescents. This study lays a solid foundation for future
      adolescent health literacy initiatives.

PMID- 28888503
TI  - Adolescent Smoking Prevention: Feasibility and Effect of Participatory Video
      Production.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study tested whether a youth participatory video production program
      for smoking prevention is feasible and effective. DESIGN AND METHODS: A
      participatory video production program was implemented in eight twice-weekly
      sessions at a youth summer camp in a community center in a low-income
      neighborhood. Twenty-three youths participated. Descriptive statistics and a
      qualitative analysis were conducted to test the feasibility of the program by
      assessing attendance rates, the time and resources required, reasons for
      participation, and program satisfaction using checklists and interviews. Smoking
      intention was measured via pre- and post-intervention surveys and a quantitative
      analysis utilizing a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test to detect differences in intention
      for non-smoking. RESULTS: Participants worked in groups to produce four video
      clips containing anti-smoking messages. Three main themes (active engagement,
      participation for community health, and personal growth and healthy development)
      emerged from the qualitative interview data. >75% of the participants considered
      the program excellent and stated that it met their expectations. Significant
      positive changes were also found from baseline to post-intervention in intention
      not to smoke. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the effect of a participatory
      digital media production approach and confirmed its feasibility for youth health
      promotion and health education. Participants' active involvement in producing
      anti-smoking videos for a community health-promotion campaign decreased their
      intention to smoke and empowered them as advocates for a non-smoking community.
      PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: These findings confirm the feasibility and utility of
      digital media use and interactive technology for actively engaging young people
      in health promotion.

PMID- 28888504
TI  - Parenting Practices of African Immigrants in Destination Countries: A Qualitative
      Research Synthesis.
AB  - PROBLEM: While studies have discussed the parenting practices and challenges of
      African immigrants, no paper has synthesized the results of these qualitative
      studies. We conducted a qualitative synthesis of the literature to summarize and
      interpret knowledge of African immigrants' parenting practices and challenges in
      destination countries to identify future directions for research, policy, and
      practice. ELIGIBILITY: We used a qualitative research synthesis method involving
      meta-summary and meta-synthesis of the literature. A research librarian assisted
      in searching ten databases. Two members of the research team independently
      reviewed 1794 articles. We included articles that: (a) reported a qualitative
      research study; (b) was written in English; and (c) provided the perspective of
      African immigrant parents on their parenting practices and/or challenges. SAMPLE:
      A total of 24 articles met our inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Our results indicate
      that parenting practices of African immigrants include the following: changes in
      discipline practices across transnational borders and the use of physical
      discipline, respect as a deeply embedded value of parenting, integration of
      cultural values into parenting, and integration of religious practices into
      parenting. We also found gender differences in parenting. Challenges faced by
      African immigrants in parenting their children in destination countries include
      lack of informal/community support, access to services and lack of formal
      support, cultural conflict in parenting, fear related to social services, and
      language barriers. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Our study identifies a need for
      culturally appropriate policies and practices that build on the strengths of
      African immigrants in destination countries while addressing their unique
      challenges.

PMID- 28888505
TI  - Mindfulness for Novice Pediatric Nurses: Smartphone Application Versus
      Traditional Intervention.
AB  - PURPOSE: The current study compares the effects of a traditionally delivered
      mindfulness (TDM) intervention to a smartphone delivered mindfulness (SDM)
      intervention, Headspace, an audio-guided mindfulness meditation program, in a
      group of novice nurses. DESIGN AND METHODS: Novice nurses participating in a
      pediatric nurse residency program were asked to participate in either a TDM or
      SDM intervention. Participants (N=95) completed self-administered pencil and
      paper questionnaires measuring mindfulness skills, and risk and protective
      factors at the start of their residency and three months after entering the
      program. RESULTS: Nurses in the SDM group reported significantly more "acting
      with awareness" and marginally more "non-reactivity to inner experience" skills
      compared to the TDM group. The smartphone intervention group also showed
      marginally more compassion satisfaction and marginally less burnout.
      Additionally, nurses in the SDM group had lower risk for compassion fatigue
      compared to the TDM group, but only when the nurses had sub-clinical
      posttraumatic symptoms at the start of the residency training program.
      CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone delivered mindfulness interventions may provide more
      benefits for novice nurses than traditionally delivered mindfulness
      interventions. However, the smart-phone intervention may be better indicated for
      nurses without existing symptoms of posttraumatic stress. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
      Mindfulness interventions delivered through smartphone applications show promise
      in equipping nurses with important coping skills to manage stress. Because of the
      accessibility of smartphone applications, more nurses can benefit from the
      intervention as compared to a therapist delivered intervention. However, nurses
      with existing stress symptoms may require alternate interventions.

PMID- 28888506
TI  - The Perspective of Families With a Ventilator-Dependent Child at Home. A
      Literature Review.
AB  - This literature review gives an overview about the existing research concerning
      the experiences of families with a child with ventilation at home. The number of
      children with home-ventilation is increasing. Children who receive homecare have
      the possibility of growing up in their familiar environment and participate in
      social life. In comparison to children living in institutions, children at home
      show advantages in their physical, psychological, emotional, social and cognitive
      development. However, homecare of a child with ventilation places high demands on
      all family members. Parents assume divergent roles and live with losses.
      Especially mothers feel isolated, partially through self-imposed isolation. While
      parents are concerned about this dilemma, talk about their anxieties and strive
      for stability, children focus on other aspects of their life. They see the
      ventilator as a positive technique that helps them breathe. The children
      underline the importance of friends and would like to meet them without nurses in
      attendance. They strive for normalcy and independence like healthy children,
      asking for acceptance of themselves and their wishes. There are only few studies
      about the experience of families with a child with ventilator. Most studies are
      from the mother's perspective. Parents and children ascribe different importance
      to the ventilation. Further research should usefully explore the experiences of
      families with children using home-ventilation. The different perspectives of all
      family members have to be taken into consideration.

PMID- 28888507
TI  - Pediatric Nurses' Perspectives on Medication Teaching in a Children's Hospital.
AB  - PURPOSE: To explore inpatient pediatric nurses' current experiences and
      perspectives on medication teaching. DESIGN AND METHODS: A descriptive
      qualitative study was conducted at a Midwest pediatric hospital. Using
      convenience sampling, 26 nurses participated in six focus groups. Data were
      analyzed in an iterative group coding process. RESULTS: Three themes emerged. 1)
      Medication teaching is an opportunity. 2) Medication teaching is challenging.
      Nurses experienced structural and process challenges to deliver medication
      teaching. Structural challenges included the physical hospital environment,
      electronic health record, and institutional discharge workflow while process
      challenges included knowledge, relationships and interactions with caregivers,
      and available resources. 3) Medication teaching is amenable to improvement.
      CONCLUSION: Effective medication teaching with caregivers is critical to ensure
      safe, quality care for children after discharge. Nursing teaching practices have
      not changed, despite advances in technology and major changes in hospital care.
      Nurses face many challenges to conduct effective medication teaching. Improving
      current teaching practices is imperative in order to provide the best and safest
      care. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study generated knowledge regarding pediatric
      nurses' teaching practices, values and beliefs that influence teaching, barriers,
      and ideas for how to improve medication teaching. Results will guide the
      development of targeted interventions to promote successful medication teaching
      practices.

PMID- 28888508
TI  - Functional Independence of Children With Myelomeningocele: Is It Associated With
      the Informal Caregivers' Burden?
AB  - PURPOSE: This study aims to evaluate the association between the functional
      independence of children after postnatal spinal dysraphism correction and
      informal caregivers' burden. DESIGN AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study
      conducted in a child neurosurgery clinic at a University hospital. We included
      informal caregivers of children between six months and seven-and-a-half years old
      who were operated on for spinal dysraphism correction due to myelomeningocele.
      Functional independence was assessed using the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability
      Inventory (PEDI). Caregivers' burden was assessed through the Caregiver Burden
      Scale (CBS). RESULTS: Twenty-six caregivers were assessed, all mothers, aged 18
      42years. Five provided child care and engaged in paid work. Regarding functional
      independence, 23.1% of the children were classified as needing supervision, 23.1%
      moderate assistance, 42.3% maximal assistance, and 11.5% total assistance. Median
      value for the overall CBS was 27.0 (22.0-53.0). The mean global CBS score was
      1.42 and the mean PEDI score was 1.95. Correlations between PEDI and CBS scores
      were very close to zero. CONCLUSIONS: We found no association between the
      functional independence of children with myelomeningocele from 0 to 7years old
      and the burden of informal caregivers. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The effect of
      functional independence of children with myelomeningocele may be balanced by the
      caregivers' resilience so that caregivers' burden is not dependent upon the
      child's independence.

PMID- 28888509
TI  - Tummy Time for Latinos With Limited English Proficiency: Evaluating the
      Feasibility of a Cultural and Linguistically Adapted Parent Education
      Intervention.
AB  - PURPOSE: Tummy Time is preventive positioning designed to strengthen an infant's
      neck and upper body muscles and minimize musculoskeletal disorders, including
      positional plagiocephaly. Latino parents with limited English proficiency (LEP)
      may experience barriers to receiving instruction on this important health
      promotion strategy. Study aims included 1) adaptation and implementation of a
      Spanish-language version of Tummy Time; 2) evaluation of participant Tummy Time
      knowledge; and 3) assessment of efficacy and acceptability of the Spanish
      language intervention. DESIGN AND METHODS: This feasibility study involved
      translation of educational materials into Spanish, creation of Spanish-language
      print materials, and training of bilingual research assistants to deliver the
      educational intervention. Participants were 21 Latino expectant and current
      parents with self-identified LEP. Participants completed brief pre- and post
      tests and performed a return demonstration. RESULTS: Participant knowledge of
      Tummy Time increased post-intervention. Program evaluation and on-site
      observations supported feasibility and acceptability. CONCLUSIONS: The cultural
      and linguistic tailoring of targeted educational interventions is a feasible and
      potentially effective strategy to overcome barriers experienced by parents with
      limited English proficiency and may contribute to improved infant health
      outcomes. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: To be effective, health education programs must
      be tailored to the target population. Pediatric nurses and nurse practitioners
      should be aware that populations with LEP face many barriers that may inhibit
      their ability to participate in and understand health promotion educational
      activities. While translating interventions can mitigate language barriers,
      providers should also evaluate and address other barriers such as time
      constraints, transportation issues, and trust.

PMID- 28888510
TI  - Improving the Patient Experience: Call Light Intervention Bundle.
AB  - PURPOSE: Delays in call light response are a significant patient quality and
      safety concern. Research on call light interventions and patient outcomes has
      focused exclusively on adult inpatients. This project examined the impact of
      increasing staff awareness and workflow redesign to improve the pediatric patient
      experience and outcomes based on timely response. DESIGN AND METHODS: A quality
      improvement project was conducted on two pediatric medical surgical units' (31
      and 35 beds respectively) at a large Midwest academic medical center with
      patients' ages from to young adults. Data on staff knowledge, patient
      satisfaction, and fall rates was examined pre- and post-intervention of an
      evidence-based call light intervention bundle which included: 1) unit-based
      patient experience committees, 2) purposeful rounding, 3) pod buddy assignments,
      and 4) staff education. RESULTS: Post-intervention both units demonstrated
      improvement in staff knowledge on call light interventions and exhibited
      sustained improvement in patient satisfaction scores for promptness to call.
      Likelihood to recommend the hospital and satisfaction with pain control improved
      for one of the two units. No impact on fall rates was noted over time for either
      unit. CONCLUSIONS: A call light intervention bundle can positively impact patient
      satisfaction with promptness to call lights in pediatric medical surgical
      hospitalized patients and their families. Unlike adult patients, a call light
      intervention bundle did not impact fall rates in children and further study in
      pediatric fall reduction strategies is needed.

PMID- 28888511
TI  - The Influence of Peers on Diet and Exercise Among Adolescents: A Systematic
      Review.
AB  - Adolescents' diet and exercise are modifiable factors contributing to high rates
      of adolescent obesity. Diverse contextual factors, including family, social
      environment, and peers, affect adolescents' diet and exercise behaviors. Because
      peer influence increases during adolescence, peers' contributions to adolescents'
      diet and exercise behaviors should be examined as potential targets for
      intervention to reduce the prevalence of adolescent obesity. The purpose of this
      systematic review is to identify research examining the contribution of peers to
      diet and exercise of adolescents. The electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, Web of
      Science, and SCOPUS were searched. A total of 24 unique articles were included:
      seven examined diet only, fourteen studied exercise only, and three explored diet
      and exercise. This review provided evidence that diet and exercise of adolescents
      were significantly associated with those of their peers. However, these
      associations differed depending on gender, the type of diet and exercise, and
      closeness of friends. Findings from this review suggest that peers could be
      possible targets for interventions to promote healthier diet and exercise among
      adolescents; however, more studies are needed to identify specific peer
      influences and develop tailored interventions.

PMID- 28888512
TI  - Caring for a Child With an Obstetric Brachial Plexus Injury: A Metaphor Analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the metaphors used by mothers
      to describe their experiences caring for their children with obstetric brachial
      plexus injuries. DESIGN AND METHODS: A secondary qualitative data analysis was
      conducted from the primary data set of a phenomenological study of mothers'
      experiences caring for their children with obstetric brachial plexus injuries.
      The type of secondary qualitative data analysis approach used was analytic
      expansion. Metaphor Identification Procedure was used to analyze the corpus of
      132 pages of typed transcription. RESULTS: This metaphorical analysis yielded
      seven metaphors mothers used to describe their experiences caring for their
      children with obstetric brachial plexus injuries. These metaphors portrayed
      mothers' lives as involving a heavy weight, a maze, a juggling act, a simmering
      pot, a dagger to the heart, a rollercoaster, and a constant battle. CONCLUSION:
      The seven metaphors helped women express what they could not completely capture
      using only medical jargon and provide valuable insight for clinicians. Using
      secondary qualitative data analysis to mine for any metaphors in a primary data
      set gives researchers another valuable and creative opportunity to discover new
      knowledge from the data they had previously collected. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
      Specific interventions can be developed to target each of these seven metaphors
      to help mothers in their daily care for their children with obstetric brachial
      plexus injuries.

PMID- 28888513
TI  - Enhancing Pediatric Asthma Care and Nursing Education Through an Academic
      Practice Partnership.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Home environmental assessments and interventions delivered via
      academic practice partnerships (APP) between clinics and schools of nursing may
      be a low or no cost delivery model of pediatric asthma care and professional
      education. Patients receive enhanced clinical resources that can improve self
      management and healthcare utilization. Additionally, students can practice
      chronic disease management skills in actual patient encounters. OBJECTIVE: To
      describe outcomes of the implementation of an APP between a school of nursing and
      a pediatric asthma specialty clinic (PASC) to deliver a home visit program (HVP).
      The HVP was designed to reduce emergency department visits and asthma related
      hospitalizations in PASC patients and provide clinical experiences for nursing
      students. METHODS: PASC referred patients to the HVP based on their level of
      asthma control. Students provided an individualized number of home visits to 17
      participants over a nine month period. A 12-month pre- and post-HVP comparison of
      emergency department visits and asthma related hospitalizations was conducted.
      Additional information was gathered from stakeholders via an online survey, and
      interviews with APP partners and HVP families. OUTCOMES: Children had fewer
      asthma related hospitalizations post HVP. Findings suggest a reduction in
      exposure to environmental triggers, improved patient and family management of
      asthma, and increased PASC knowledge of asthma triggers in the home and increased
      student knowledge and skills related to asthma management. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple
      clinical and educational benefits may be realized through the development of APPs
      as an infrastructure supporting targeted interventions in home visits to
      pediatric asthma patients and their families.

PMID- 28888514
TI  - Indicators of Non-adherence to Asthma Treatment in Pediatric Primary Care.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chronic disease management represents an ongoing challenge, as many
      childhood illnesses require complex medical management by primary care providers.
      Asthma is one such illness, and today there is evidence to support primary care
      based management strategies that will benefit patients with asthma throughout a
      lifetime. This study seeks to find significant indicators of asthma non-adherence
      in pediatric primary care, with potential for utilization in the medical home
      model. DESIGN AND METHODS: Potential indicators included in a chart review
      process of one large Southeastern U.S. primary care pediatric practice were
      reviewed from the previous calendar year for asthma patients. The study
      retroactively looks at the incidence of six indicators in relation to asthma
      related emergency department visits and hospitalizations, and number of missed
      appointments for clinically relevant associations. RESULTS: Strong associations
      were found between emergency department visits and hospitalizations and many of
      the indicators of non-adherence with high statistical significance. No
      associations were found between number of missed appointments and the selected
      indicators. CONCLUSIONS: The data analysis performed from the collected patient
      information can be helpful to guide practices in further discussions on the
      topic. Results were analyzed and reported to the practice in review as
      recommendations for a new medical home asthma documentation protocol that is in
      development. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The indicators of non-adherence to asthma
      treatments identified may be useful in developing markers of disease severity in
      primary care pediatrics. Medical home access to knowledge of target populations
      can lead to better patient outcomes with lower cost to stakeholders.

PMID- 28888515
TI  - "Treat Me Like a Normal Person!" A Meta-Ethnography of Adolescents' Expectations
      of Their Health Care Providers.
AB  - PURPOSE: Preventive health care services provide an important opportunity to
      assist adolescents to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle and assume an
      increasing independent role in their health care. National guidelines emphasize
      the importance of an annual wellness visit to identify and address risk-behaviors
      that contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality in this population.
      Despite these recommendations, adolescents utilize preventive health care at
      declining rates throughout adolescence. The purpose of this study was to capture
      a more holistic view of what adolescents, as consumers of health care services,
      expect from their primary health care providers (HCPs). METHOD: A metasynthesis
      of 12 qualitative research studies was conducted using Noblit and Hare's (1988)
      meta-ethnographic approach. RESULTS: Five overarching metaphors, Talk with Me-
      Not at Me, Accept Me, Respect My Privacy and Confidentiality, Show Me You Are a
      Professional, and A Trusted Relationship described adolescents' expectations of
      their HCPs. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a more holistic view of adolescents'
      expectations of their HCPs. Clinical strategies are suggested to assist HCPs to
      meet adolescents' expectations.

PMID- 28888516
TI  - Effects of Animal-assisted Activities on Biobehavioral Stress Responses in
      Hospitalized Children: A Randomized Controlled Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study assessed the effectiveness of animal-assisted activities
      (AAA) on biobehavioral stress responses (anxiety, positive and negative affect,
      and salivary cortisol and C-reactive protein [CRP] levels) in hospitalized
      children. DESIGN AND METHODS: This was a randomized, controlled study. METHOD:
      Forty-eight participants were randomly assigned to receive a 10-minute AAA (n=24)
      or a control condition (n=24). Anxiety, positive and negative affect, and levels
      of salivary biomarkers were assessed before and after the intervention. RESULTS:
      Although increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect were
      larger in the AAA condition, pre- and post-intervention differences between the
      AAA and control conditions were not significant. In addition, pre- and post
      intervention differences between the conditions in salivary cortisol and CRP were
      not statistically significant. Baseline levels of anxiety, cortisol, and CRP had
      a significant and large correlation to the corresponding post-intervention
      measures. Scores on the Pet Attitude Scale were high but were not associated with
      changes in anxiety, positive affect, negative affect, or stress biomarkers.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although changes were in the expected direction, the magnitude of
      the effect was small. Future randomized controlled trials with larger recruitment
      are needed to determine the effectiveness of AAAs in reducing biobehavioral
      stress responses in hospitalized children. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Nurses are
      positioned to recommend AAA as a beneficial and safe experience for hospitalized
      children.

PMID- 28888517
TI  - Beliefs Regarding Asthma Management Relating to Asthma Action Plans (AAPs) of
      African American Caregivers Residing in Newark, New Jersey Public Housing
      Communities.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the beliefs regarding asthma
      management and Asthma Action Plans (AAPs) of African American caregivers residing
      in three New Jersey public housing communities in Newark, New Jersey. DESIGN: A
      qualitative methods design was accomplished using semi-structured interviews with
      a purposive sample of nine African American caregivers of children with asthma.
      Information was coded using N'VIVOTM; the textual analysis combined codes into
      categories, which were then assembled into themes. RESULTS: Self-determination
      was found to be a fundamental goal of asthma management; however, three themes
      emerged as barriers and facilitators to this goal: challenges in the urban
      environment, preference of familial methods, and access to medical care.
      CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study regarding minority caregivers' beliefs
      regarding difficulty navigating the health care system coupled with insurance
      instability, leading to use of Emergency Departments, are consistent with past
      research. Although caregivers expressed belief in use of prescribed medications
      as indicated on AAPs, familial methods, found to provide a sense of control over
      asthma, were preferred.

PMID- 28888518
TI  - The Effect of Oral Care Using an Oral Health Care Guide on Preventing Mucositis
      in Pediatric Intensive Care.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of standard-of-care oral care guides
      developed specifically for children in intensive care to prevent mucositis.
      DESIGN AND METHODS: This prospective, interventional and single-group study
      design was performed in the pediatric intensive care unit of a university
      hospital in Istanbul between January and December 2014. Daily oral care was
      implemented to pediatric patients in the study group in line with an oral care
      guide developed by the researchers. Data were collected using the data collection
      form and oral mucositis assessment scale published by the World Health
      Organization (WHO). RESULTS: Oral mucositis occurred in 16 (5.2%) patients in the
      pre-intervention group and 7 (2.5%) in the post-intervention group, 10 patients
      had grade 1, and 6 patients had grade 2 oral mucositis in the pre-intervention
      group, and in the post-intervention group, three patients had grade 1, and four
      patients had grade 2 oral mucositis. Although more patients in the pre
      intervention group had mucositis than in the post-intervention group, the
      differences were not statistically significant (P=0.067). CONCLUSIONS: Oral
      mucositis can be reduced through the practice of administering oral care in
      accordance with oral healthcare guidelines. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Oral care
      implemented in line with an evidence-based oral care guide and frequent
      observation of patients are the most important steps in preventing oral
      mucositis.

PMID- 28888519
TI  - An Integral Component of Pediatric Nursing Practice.

PMID- 28888520
TI  - Are Outcomes Related to Left Ventricular Assist Device Center Volume?: Too
      Complex to Answer.

PMID- 28888522
TI  - Sleep Disordered Breathing and Heart Failure: What Does the Future Hold?
AB  - Most patients with heart failure (HF) have sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), with
      central (rather than obstructive) sleep apnea becoming the predominant form in
      patients with more severe disease. Cyclical apnea and hypopneas are associated
      with sleep disturbance, hypoxemia, hemodynamic changes, and sympathetic
      activation. These patients have a worse prognosis than those without SDB. Mask
      based therapies of positive airway pressure targeted at SDB can improve measures
      of sleep quality and can partially normalize the sleep and respiratory
      physiology. However, recent randomized trials of cardiovascular outcomes in
      central sleep apnea in chronic HF with reduced ejection fraction have had neutral
      findings or suggested the possibility of harm, likely from an increased rate of
      sudden death. Further randomized outcome studies are required to determine
      whether mask-based treatment is appropriate for patients with chronic HF with
      reduced ejection fraction and obstructive sleep apnea, for patients with heart
      failure with preserved ejection fraction, and for patients with decompensated
      heart failure. New therapies for sleep apnea (e.g., implantable phrenic nerve
      stimulators) also require robust assessment. No longer can the surrogate
      endpoints of improvement in respiratory and sleep metrics be taken as adequate
      therapeutic outcome measures in patients with HF and sleep apnea.

PMID- 28888521
TI  - Impact of Center Left Ventricular Assist Device Volume on Outcomes After
      Implantation: An INTERMACS Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This study examined patient outcomes after left ventricular assist
      device (LVAD) implantation across a range of center surgical volumes. BACKGROUND:
      In order for a center to qualify for reimbursement, Centers for Medicare and
      Medicaid Services (CMS) requires it to implant >=10 LVADs or total artificial
      hearts over a 3-year period. The impact of center LVAD surgical volumes on
      patient outcomes has not been thoroughly scrutinized. METHODS: Center volumes
      were provided for 7,416 patients undergoing LVAD implantation who were enrolled
      in INTERMACS (Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory
      Support). Center LVAD volume was categorized as either very low (<=10
      implants/year, n = 617), low (11 to 30 implants/year, n = 2,561), medium (31 to
      50 implants/year, n = 2,458), or high (>50 implants/year, n = 1,750). The main
      outcome of interest was patient survival based on center volume derived from
      Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression. RESULTS: Overall survival was
      associated with center volume (p = 0.003), as follows: 71 +/- 1.8% (very low
      volume), 81 +/- 0.8% (low volume), 83 +/- 0.8% (medium volume), and 79 +/- 1.0%
      (high volume) at 1 year. Compared with medium volume centers, the 90-day
      mortality was higher in very low volume (odds ratio [OR]: 1.35; p = 0.04) and
      high volume (OR: 1.28; p = 0.018) VAD centers. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs)
      for mortality were 1.32 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.11 to 1.56), 1.07 (95%
      CI: 0.95 to 1.21), and 1.17 (95% CI: 1.03 to 1.30) for very low, low, and high
      volume centers, respectively. Center volume did not predict mortality (p = 0.25;
      n = 3,688) in INTERMACS profile 1 patients (patients who had sustained
      cardiogenic shock) and profile 2 patients (patients with progressive hemodynamic
      decline despite inotropes). CONCLUSIONS: Center volume correlates with post-VAD
      survival, with worse survival noted at very-low volume centers. These findings
      suggest that current U.S. VAD center standards warrant reconsideration.

PMID- 28888523
TI  - Mechanical alignment technique for TKA: Are there intrinsic technical
      limitations?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mechanically aligned (MA) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is affected
      by disappointing functional outcomes in spite of the recent improvements in
      surgical precision and implant designs. This might suggest the existence of
      intrinsic technical limitations. Our study aims to compare the prosthetic and
      native trochlear articular surfaces and to estimate the extent of collateral
      ligament imbalance, which is technically uncorrectable by collateral ligament
      release when TKA implants are mechanically aligned. STUDY HYPOTHESIS:
      Conventional MA technique generates a high rate of prosthetic overstuffing of the
      distal groove, distal lateral trochlear facet and distal lateral femoral condyle
      (Hypothesis 1), and technically uncorrectable collateral ligament imbalance
      (hypothesis 2)? Disregarding the distal femoral joint line obliquity (DFJLO) when
      performing femoral cuts explains distal lateral femoral prosthetic stuffing and
      uncorrectable imbalance (hypothesis 3)? METHODS: Twenty patients underwent a
      conventional MA TKA. Pre-operative MRI-based 3D knee models were generated and MA
      TKA was simulated. Native and prosthetic trochlear articular surfaces were
      compared using in-house analysis software. Following the automatic determination
      by the planning software of the size of the extension and flexion gaps, an
      algorithm was applied to balance the gaps and the frequency and amplitude of
      technically uncorrectable knee imbalance were estimated. RESULTS: The
      conventional MA technique generates a significant slight distal lateral femoral
      prosthetic overstuffing (mean 0.6mm, 0.8mm, 1.25mm for the most distal lateral
      facet point, groove, and at the most distal point of lateral femoral condyle,
      respectively) and a high rate of type 1 and 2 uncorrectable knee imbalance (30%
      and 40%, respectively). The incidence of distal lateral prosthetic overstuffing
      (trochlea and condyle) and uncorrectable knee imbalance were strongly to very
      strongly correlated with the DFJLO (r=0.53 to 0.89). CONCLUSION: Conventional MA
      technique for TKA generates frequent lateral distal femoral prosthetic
      overstuffing and technically uncorrectable knee imbalance secondary to
      disregarding the DFJLO when adjusting the femoral component frontal and axial
      rotations, respectively. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: level 4.

PMID- 28888524
TI  - Total knee arthroplasty after opening- versus closing-wedge high tibial
      osteotomy. A 135-case series with minimum 5-year follow-up.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: High tibial osteotomy (HTO) is effective in treating isolated
      medial osteoarthritis of the knee, but subsequent deterioration is inevitable,
      and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is then an option. The present study sought to
      compare TKA following medial opening-wedge HTO (OW-HTO) versus lateral closing
      wedge HTO (CW-HTO) in terms of intraoperative data and clinical results. The
      study hypothesis was that there is no significant difference in clinical results
      or complications in TKA following OW-HTO or CW-HTO. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A
      retrospective multicenter (9 centers) study was conducted for the French Society
      of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology (SoFCOT), including 135 TKAs following HTO
      (58 OW and 77 CW) at a minimum 5 years' follow-up. Mean interval between HTO and
      TKA was 134 months and was longer in case of CW-HTO (P<0.0001). Mean age at TKA
      was 65.4 years and older in case of CW-HTO (P=0.021). Tibial slope was greater in
      case of OW-HTO (P=0.024). Prior to TKA, 55.7% of patients could walk without
      canes, 98.4% found stairs difficult or impossible and only 19.1% could manage a
      walking distance greater than 1000m. Mean flexion was 110 degrees ; 54.2% of
      patients showed frontal knee stability and 87.8% sagittal stability; 60.1% had a
      mechanical axis in varus, without difference according to OW- or CW-HTO. RESULTS:
      Hardware was almost systematically removed (in 98.5% of cases): in the same step
      for OW-HTO (P=0.018) or often in 2 steps for CW-HTO. The primary approach was
      generally re-used (54.2%), but less frequently in the CW-HTO group (P=0.0004).
      Lateral or medial ligament release was not associated in respectively 78.2% and
      79.7% of cases. The TKA implant was usually without stem (87.2%) and was fitted
      using a conventional technique (74.4%). At a mean 87 months' follow-up, 78.5% of
      patients could walk without canes, stairs were still difficult or impossible for
      67%, and 74.1% could now walk further than 1000m; mean flexion was 110.5 degrees
      . Overall, 91.5% of patients showed frontal knee stability and 98.2% sagittal
      stability, without difference according to OW- or CW-HTO. There were 15
      complications within 3 months, more often in the OW-HTO group (12.3%) although
      not significantly, and with no difference in severity. Late complications
      comprised loosening (5.5%) and infection (3.6%) and were more frequent in the CW
      HTO group (12%) (P<0.05). DISCUSSION: The study hypothesis was partially
      confirmed. The only technical differences concerned hardware removal, often
      performed in two steps in case of CW-HTO, and TKA approach, which differed from
      the primary approach in case of CW-HTO. Clinical results were comparable between
      OW- and CW-HTO, but late complications were more frequent in the CW-HTO group.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III; comparative retrospective study.

PMID- 28888525
TI  - Clinical and radiological outcomes following radioscapholunate fusion.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Radioscapholunate (RSL) fusion is typically performed following
      wrist trauma. It addresses the pain caused by radiocarpal osteoarthritis but
      reduces the wrist's mobility. The objective of this study was to determine the
      long-term clinical and radiological outcomes of this procedure. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: This was a retrospective study of all wrists operated for RSL fusion in
      our surgery unit over a 12-year period. The clinical analysis consisted of joint
      amplitudes, grip strength, pain (VAS) and functional scores (PRWE, QuickDash,
      Mayo Wrist Score). The radiological analysis focused on bone fusion and the
      presence of midcarpal osteoarthritis. RESULTS: This surgery procedure was
      performed on 48 wrists. Of these, 34 patients were available for review,
      including 6 who had subsequently undergone total wrist fusion after the RSL
      procedure. The average follow-up was 53 months. Flexion/extension and radioulnar
      deviation were 56 degrees  and 30 degrees , respectively. Grip strength in the
      operated wrist was 71% of the contralateral wrist. The mean pain level was 3 out
      of 10. The PRWE, QuickDash and Mayo Wrist Score were 35.7, 44.5 and 57.2,
      respectively. Seventy-nine percent of patients were satisfied with the outcome.
      The fusion rate was 71%, the midcarpal osteoarthritis rate was 64% and the STT
      osteoarthritis rate was 46%. DISCUSSION: Reduced wrist range of motion in
      patients who have undergone RSL fusion helps to preserve satisfactory function in
      the majority of patients; however, the functional outcome scores point to some
      hindrance in day-to-day activities. Nonunion occurred in nearly one-quarter of
      patients and appears to be preventable by excision of the distal pole of the
      scaphoid (DPS). Midcarpal osteoarthritis develops in most wrists over the long
      term and appears to be inevitable. CONCLUSION: RSL fusion is a palliative
      procedure that preserves some of the wrist's mobility. However, it is a difficult
      procedure that has a significant nonunion rate. Excision of the DPS may
      contribute to lowering the nonunion rate.

PMID- 28888526
TI  - Posterior shoulder instability managed by arthroscopic acromial pediculated bone
      block. Technique.
AB  - : In posterior shoulder instability (recurrent dislocation, involuntary posterior
      subluxation or voluntary subluxation that has become involuntary), surgery may be
      considered in case of failure of functional treatment if there are no
      psychological contraindications. Acromial bone-block with pediculated deltoid
      flap, as described by Kouvalchouk, is an alternative to iliac bone-block,
      enabling triple shoulder locking by the blocking effect, the retention hammock
      provided by the deltoid flap and posterior capsule repair. Arthroscopy allows
      shoulder joint exploration and diagnosis of associated lesions, with opening and
      conservation of the posterior capsule; it greatly facilitates bone-block
      positioning and capsule reinsertion. The present report describes the procedure
      in detail. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Technical note.

PMID- 28888528
TI  - Redefining knee replacement.

PMID- 28888527
TI  - Complications following harvesting of patellar tendon or hamstring tendon grafts
      for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: Systematic review of literature.
AB  - : Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction can be performed with an
      autograft, which is most often harvested from the patient's hamstring tendon (HT)
      or patellar tendon (PT). However, autograft harvesting leads to morbidity that is
      by no means insignificant. A systematic review of literature was performed to
      define the incidence of complications related to graft harvesting and the methods
      to prevent these complications. In March 2017, a systemic review of literature
      was performed using the keywords"harvesting", "harvest", "morbidity",
      "complication", "cruciate ligament". No time limit was applied. The studies had
      to be written in French or English with their abstract available online. This
      initial search based on the title and abstract identified 133 articles. Two
      independent observers analyzed each article entirely, including the references.
      In all, 36 articles were retained. The main complication of HT harvesting was
      sensory deficit because of damage to the infrapatellar branches of the saphenous
      nerve. This complication occurred in 39.7% to 88% of patients. This risk can be
      reduced by using a horizontal or oblique incision. The main complication
      following PT harvesting is anterior knee pain, reported in up to 46% of patients.
      There are substantial numbers of short-, medium- and long-term complications
      related to the harvesting of the two main ACL autografts. Effective means of
      prevention exist to reduce the risk of these complications. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
      Systematic review of literature.

PMID- 28888529
TI  - Eyelid inflammation: An uncommon cause in occidental countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Myiasis designates the infestation of live human and vertebrate
      animals with dipterous (two-winged) larvae (maggots) and is the fourth most
      common travel-associated skin disease. Furuncle is the most common aspect of
      cutaneous myiasis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 24-year-old Caucasian female had been
      back from Cap-Vert. She described pruritus, slight pain, and the sensation of a
      foreign body moving in the eyelid. Physical examination showed a single furuncle
      like nodule with surrounding erythema and a central pore of the upper eyelid
      through which a serosanguinous fluid was exuding. A larval end was visible to the
      naked eye through the aforementioned pore. Treatment consisted of the application
      of petroleum jelly (Vaseline(r)) to produce localized hypoxia. A transparent
      occlusive dressing was set for a duration of 2 h. The larva, Cordylobia
      antropophaga, spontaneously externalized to breathe and was extracted.
      DISCUSSION: There is an increase in travelers returning from tropical countries.
      Consequently, travel-associated dermatoses are increasing in non-endemic
      countries. Context of travel and typical clinical presentation strongly suggested
      to evoke a cutaneous myiasis. The typical furuncular lesion is a papule or nodule
      with a central punctum that exudes serosanguinous or purulent fluid. Ultrasound
      can be used to confirm the diagnosis. Treatment consists of three techniques:
      methods producing localized hypoxia to force emergence of the larvae, application
      of toxic substances to the eggs and larvae, and mechanical or surgical
      debridement. Surgery and antibiotics are usually unnecessary. Prevention of
      furunculous myiasis is based on vector control and individual actions to improve
      hygiene.

PMID- 28888530
TI  - Economic implications of unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning in the United
      States and the cost and benefit of CO detectors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unintentional non-fire-related (UNFR) carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning
      has been among the leading causes of poisoning in the United States. Current
      estimation of its economic burden is important for an optimal allocation of
      resources for UNFR CO poisoning prevention. OBJECTIVE: This study was to estimate
      the morbidity costs of UNFR CO poisoning. We also compared the costs and benefits
      of installing CO detectors in residences. METHODS: We used 2010-2014 charges and
      cost data from Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), and Truven(c)
      Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters and Medicare Supplemental
      data. We directly measured the morbidity cost as the summation of costs for
      different healthcare services. Benefit of installing CO detector was estimated by
      summing up the avoidable morbidity cost and mortality cost (value of life). Cost
      of CO detectors was calculated using the average market price of CO detectors. We
      also calculated the benefit-to-cost ratio by dividing the benefit by its cost.
      All expenditures were converted into 2013 U.S. dollars. RESULTS: For UNFR CO
      poisoning, total annual medical cost ranged from $33.6 to $37.7 million. Annual
      non-health-sector costs varied from $3.7 to almost $4.4 million. The benefit-to
      cost ratio can be as high as 7.2 to 1. CONCLUSION: UNFR CO poisoning causes
      substantial economic burden in the U.S. The benefit of using CO detectors in
      homes to prevent UNFR CO poisoning can considerably exceed the cost of
      installation. Public health programs could use these findings to promote broad
      installation of CO detectors in homes.

PMID- 28888531
TI  - Post-cardiac injury syndrome: an atypical case following percutaneous coronary
      intervention.
AB  - Post-cardiac injury syndrome (PCIS) is a syndrome characterized by pericardial
      and/or pleural effusion, triggered by a cardiac injury, usually a myocardial
      infarction or cardiac surgery, rarely a minor cardiovascular percutaneous
      procedure. Nowadays, the post-cardiac injury syndrome, is regaining importance
      and interest as an emerging cause of pericarditis, especially in developed
      countries, due to a great and continuous increase in the number and complexity of
      percutaneous cardiologic procedures. The etiopathogenesis seems mediated by the
      immunitary system producing immune complexes, which deposit in the pericardium
      and pleura and trigger an inflammatory response. We present the atypical case of
      a 76-year-old man presenting with a hydro-pneumothorax, low-grade fever and
      elevated inflammation markers, after two complex percutaneous coronary
      interventions, executed 30 and 75 days prior. The clinical features of our case
      are consistent with the diagnostic criteria of PCIS: prior injury of the
      pericardium and/or myocardium, fever, leucocytosis, elevated inflammatory
      markers, remarkable steroid responsiveness and latency period. Only one element
      does not fit with this diagnosis and does not find any further explanation: the
      air accompanying the pleural effusion, determining a hydro-pneumothorax and
      requiring a pleural drainage catheter positioning.

PMID- 28888532
TI  - Soft tissue oxygen saturation prediction of admission from the ED.

PMID- 28888533
TI  - An overview of posttraumatic stress disorder genetic studies by analyzing and
      integrating genetic data into genetic database PTSDgene.
AB  - Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric syndrome with
      complex etiology. Studies aiming to explore genetic susceptibility and
      environmental triggers of PTSD have been increasing. However, the results are
      limited and highly heterogeneous. To understand the genetic study status of PTSD
      and explore more reliable candidates, we obtained 105 PTSD related genetic
      studies by comprehensively literature searching and filtering 1762 studies.
      Detailed phenotype and sample information for each study and association results
      for each genetic marker were extracted. Based on the extracted data, we reviewed
      the PTSD genetic research status and further conducted bioinformatics analyses
      for the genetic data. Our analyses summarized the landscape of PTSD genetic
      studies, identified the genes with most genetic evidence, discovered the
      biological function of the candidate variants/genes and enlarged the overall
      candidates for future investigations. All the data were stored in the PTSDgene
      database (http://ptsdgene.psych.ac.cn). We hope PTSDgene could be a platform for
      the rapid growth of PTSD genetic data and provide new insights into the
      pathogenesis of PTSD.

PMID- 28888534
TI  - Psychiatric phenotypes in chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
AB  - Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder involving
      cognitive, motor, and psychiatrically-relevant symptoms resulting from repetitive
      head impacts. Psychiatric phenotypes of CTE, including depression and
      suicidality, present particular challenges for CTE research, given that the
      diagnosis requires postmortem neuropathological examination. The pathognomonic
      lesion of CTE is the perivascular accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau (ptau)
      protein at the depths of cortical sulci. These lesions are found in the earliest
      disease stages, and with advancing pathological severity, ptau deposition occurs
      in widespread brain regions in a four-stage scheme of severity. We review the
      psychiatric phenotypes of individuals neuropathologically diagnosed with CTE, and
      suggest that earlier CTE stages hold particular interest for psychiatric CTE
      research. In the early CTE stages, there is ptau pathology in frontal cortex and
      axonal loss in the frontal white matter, followed by progressive ptau
      neurofibrillary degeneration in the amygdala and hippocampus. Neuropathological
      changes in the frontal and medial temporal lobes may underlie psychiatric
      phenotypes. Additional insight into the association between CTE pathology and
      psychiatric sequelae may come from advancements in in vivo methods of CTE
      detection. Further epidemiological, clinical, and postmortem studies are needed
      to validate the nature of psychiatric sequelae in CTE.

PMID- 28888535
TI  - From psychological moments to mortality: A multidisciplinary synthesis on heart
      rate variability spanning the continuum of time.
AB  - Heart rate variability (HRV) indexes functioning of the vagus nerve, arguably the
      most important nerve in the human body. The Neurovisceral Integration Model has
      provided a structural framework for understanding brain-body integration,
      highlighting the role of the vagus in adaptation to the environment. In the
      present paper, we emphasise a temporal framework in which HRV may be considered a
      missing, structural link between psychological moments and mortality, a proposal
      we label as Neurovisceral Integration Across a Continuum of Time (or NIACT). This
      new framework places neurovisceral integration on a dimension of time,
      highlighting implications for lifespan development and healthy aging, and helping
      to bridge the gap between clearly demarcated disciplines such as psychology and
      epidemiology. The NIACT provides a novel framework, which conceptualizes how
      everyday psychological moments both affect and are affected by the vagus in ways
      that have long-term effects on mortality risk. We further emphasize that a
      longitudinal approach to understanding change in vagal function over time may
      yield novel scientific insights and important public health outcomes.

PMID- 28888536
TI  - In vitro immunostimulatory potential of fungal beta-glucans in pacific red
      snapper (Lutjanus peru) cells.
AB  - This study attempts to describe the immunostimulatory effects of three fungal
      glucans on innate immunity responses in an in vitro assays using Pacific red
      snapper leukocytes. First, the yield glucans obtained was higher in Aspergillus
      niger, follow by Aspergillus ochraceus and Alternaria botrytis (40, 20 and 10%,
      respectively). Structural characterization of these fungal glucans by proton
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) indicated structures containing (1-6)-branched
      (1-3)-beta-D-glucan. The immunostimulatory activity of fungal glucans were
      assessed in head-kidney leukocytes at 24 h using colorimetric assays and
      molecular gene expression. In addition, the response against bacterial infection
      using Aeromonas hydrophila was evaluated by flow cytometry with annexin
      V/propidium iodide. Leukocytes responded positively to fungal glucans where the
      viability was higher than 80%. Interestingly, A. niger beta-glucans enhanced the
      phagocytic ability and capacity in head-kidney leukocytes. Immunological assays
      reveled an increased in nitric oxide production, myeloperoxidase, superoxide
      dismutase and catalase activities, in fish stimulated with A. niger beta-glucans.
      Induction of cytokines (IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-12) were more
      pronounced in A. niger beta-glucans leukocytes stimulated compared to other
      group. Finally, flow cytometry assay showed that A. botrytis and A. niger beta
      glucans were able to inhibit apoptosis caused by Aeromonas hydrophila in the
      Pacific red snapper leukocytes indicating an immunostimulant potent response by
      fungi derived-glucans. These results strongly support the idea that fungal beta
      glucans can stimulate the immune mechanism in head-kidney leukocytes and that
      Aspergillus niger beta-glucan possess immunostimulatory properties cell
      increasing viability, and reducing necrotic cell death caused by Aeromonas
      hydrophila.

PMID- 28888537
TI  - A GTP-dependent Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase from Crassostrea gigas Involved
      in Immune Recognition.
AB  - Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) is well known as a key enzyme involved
      in the metabolic pathway of gluconeogenesis in organisms, but the information
      about its involvement in immune response is still very limited. In the present
      study, a novel PEPCK homolog named CgPEPCK was identified from oyster Crassostrea
      gigas. The deduced amino acid sequence of CgPEPCK shared 52%-74% similarities
      with those from other known PEPCKs. There were one conserved guanosine
      triphosphate (GTP) binding site, one substrate binding site, one metal binding
      site and one active site in CgPEPCK. The mRNA transcripts of CgPEPCK were
      constitutively expressed in all the tested tissues including hemolymph, mantle,
      gill, muscle, gonad and hepatopancreas. CgPEPCK proteins were mainly distributed
      in adductor muscle, gonad, gill and mantle, and rarely detected in hepatopancreas
      by using immunohistochemical analysis. After the stimulations with
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS), peptidoglycan (PGN), Vibrio splendidus and V.
      anguillarum, CgPEPCK transcripts in hemocytes were significantly up-regulated and
      peaked at 6 h (LPS, 9.62-fold, p < 0.01), 9 h (PGN, 4.25-fold, p < 0.01), 12 h
      (V. splendidus, 5.72-fold, p < 0.01), 3 h (V. anguillarum, 2.87-fold, p < 0.01),
      respectively. The recombinant CgPEPCK protein (rCgPEPCK) exhibited Mn2+/Mg2+
      dependent GTP binding activity, and the activities to bind LPS and PGN, but not
      beta-1,3-glucan (GLU), lipoteichoic acid (LTA), mannan (MAN) nor polyinosinic
      polycytidylic (Poly I: C). It could also bind Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus
      aureus, Micrococcus luteus and significantly inhibit their growth. All these
      results collectively suggested that CgPEPCK could not only exert GTP binding
      activity involved in gluconeogenesis, but also mediate the bacteria recognition
      and clearance in immune response of oysters.

PMID- 28888538
TI  - The self-activation and LPS binding activity of executioner caspase-1 in oyster
      Crassostrea gigas.
AB  - Executioner caspases play important roles in apoptotic pathway and immune
      defense, which is considered to coordinate the execution phase of apoptosis by
      cleaving multiple structural and repair proteins. However, the knowledge about
      the activation mechanism and function of executioner caspases in mollusks,
      especially marine bivalves is limited. In the present study, the full-length cDNA
      sequence of caspase-1 was cloned from oyster Crassostrea gigas, which encoded a
      predicted protein containing a small subunit (p10) and large subunit (p20) with a
      conserved caspase active site QACRG similar to that of human executioner caspase
      3/7. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and western blot results demonstrated
      that the CgCaspase-1 zymogen could be cleaved into p20p10, p20 and p10 in
      prokaryotic expression systems, and the C-terminus of CgCaspase-1 was also
      cleaved into p20 and p10. Both of the recombinant CgCaspase-1 (rCgCaspase-1) and
      the C-terminus of CgCaspase-1 (rCgCaspase-1-C) exhibited similar caspase activity
      towards proteolytic substrate Ac-DMQD-pNA and Ac-DEVD-pNA. However, the
      recombinant N-terminus of CgCaspase-1 (rCgCaspase-1-N) did not display any
      caspase activity. Moreover, the inhibitor of both caspase-3/7 and pan-caspase
      could significantly inhibit the proteolytic activity of rCgCaspase-1. The strong
      binding activities towards lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of both rCgCaspase-1 and
      rCgCaspase-1-C were revealed by ELISA techniques and western blotting. A high
      level of CgCaspase-1 mRNA transcripts was detected in the gills and hemocytes by
      quantitative real-time PCR, and the CgCaspase-1 protein was mainly located in the
      cytoplasm of oyster hemocytes by immunofluorescence assay. These results
      collectively suggested that CgCaspase-1 was a homolog of executioner caspase-3/7,
      which could be self-activated through proteolytic cleavage in prokaryotic
      expression systems, and performed caspase and LPS binding activities in the
      innate immune response of oyster.

PMID- 28888539
TI  - Variation in type II endometrial cancer risk by Hispanic subpopulation: An
      exploratory analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Minorities have demonstrated an increased risk for type II
      endometrial cancers, but no data exists about risk among minority subpopulations.
      Our objective was to evaluate heterogeneity in risk of type II endometrial cancer
      (EC) histologies across race and Hispanic sub-groups using data from Florida's
      statewide cancer registry (FCDS). METHODS: FCDS contains data on N=26,416 women
      diagnosed with EC from 2004 to 2013. Our analysis included women >=18years of age
      who were classified as non-Hispanic White (NHW), non-Hispanic Black (NHB) or
      belonged to one of five Hispanic sub-groups, and had a histology code consistent
      with type I or type II EC. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to
      model risk of type II versus type I ECs across racial and ethnic groups relative
      to NHW. RESULTS: Relative to NHW, overall odds of being diagnosed with a type II
      EC were significantly higher in NHB (OR=2.64, 95%CI: 2.38-2.92), Cubans (OR=1.35,
      95%CI: 1.08-1.68) and South and Central Americans (SCA) (OR=1.84, 95%CI: 1.40
      2.43). Compared to NHW, odds of serous EC were significantly higher in Cubans
      (OR=2.15, 95% CI: 1.51-3.05) and NHB (OR=2.51, 95% CI: 2.11-2.97); odds of
      carcinosarcoma (CS) were significantly higher in NHB (OR=2.97, 95% CI: 2.47-3.57)
      and Puerto Ricans (OR=2.35, 95%CI: 1.32-4.17); and odds of grade III
      adenocarcinoma (AG3) were significantly higher in NHB (OR=1.60, 95% CI: 1.42
      1.81) and SCA (OR=1.76, 95%CI: 1.29-2.40). CONCLUSION: Risk of type II EC varies
      considerably across Hispanic sub-groups, with Cubans, Puerto Ricans and SCA
      characterized by elevated odds for specific type II histologies.

PMID- 28888540
TI  - Feasibility, safety and clinical outcomes of cardiophrenic lymph node resection
      in advanced ovarian cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Surgical resection of enlarged cardiophrenic lymph nodes (CPLNs) in
      primary treatment of advanced ovarian cancer has not been widely studied. We
      report on a cohort of patients undergoing CPLN resection during primary
      cytoreductive surgery (CRS), examining its feasibility, safety, and potential
      impact on clinical outcomes. METHODS: We identified all patients undergoing
      primary CRS/CPLN resection for Stages IIIB-IV high-grade epithelial ovarian
      cancer at our institution from 1/2001-12/2013. Clinical and pathological data
      were collected. Statistical tests were performed. RESULTS: 54 patients underwent
      CPLN resection. All had enlarged CPLNs on preoperative imaging. Median diameter
      of an enlarged CPLN: 1.3cm (range 0.6-2.9). Median patient age: 59y (range 41
      74). 48 (88.9%) underwent transdiaphragmatic resection; 6 (11.1%) underwent video
      assisted thoracic surgery. A median of 3 nodes (range 1-23) were resected. A
      median of 2 nodes (range 0-22) were positive for metastasis. 51/54 (94.4%) had
      positive nodes. 51 (94.4%) had chest tube placement; median time to removal: 4d
      (range 2-12). 44 (81.4%) had peritoneal carcinomatosis. 19 (35%) experienced
      major postoperative complications; 4 of these (7%) were surgery-related. Median
      time to adjuvant chemotherapy: 40d (range 19-205). All patients were optimally
      cytoreduced, 30 (55.6%) without visible residual disease. Median progression-free
      survival: 17.2mos (95% CI 12.6-21.8); median overall survival: 70.1mos (95% CI
      51.2-89.0). CONCLUSIONS: Enlarged CPLNs can be identified on preoperative imaging
      and may indicate metastases. Resection can identify extra-abdominal disease,
      confirm Stage IV disease, obtain optimal cytoreduction. In the proper setting it
      is feasible, safe, and does not delay chemotherapy. In select patients, it may
      improve survival.

PMID- 28888541
TI  - Frequency of mutations in a large series of clinically ascertained ovarian cancer
      cases tested on multi-gene panels compared to reference controls.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Given the lack of adequate screening modalities, knowledge of ovarian
      cancer risks for carriers of pathogenic alterations in predisposition genes is
      important for decisions about risk-reduction by salpingo-oophorectomy. We sought
      to determine which genes assayed on multi-gene panels are associated with ovarian
      cancer, the magnitude of the associations, and for which clinically meaningful
      associations could be ruled out. METHODS: 7768 adult ovarian cancer cases of
      European ancestry referred to a single clinical testing laboratory underwent
      multi-gene panel testing for detection of pathogenic alterations in known or
      suspected ovarian cancer susceptibility genes. A targeted capture approach was
      employed to assay each of 19 genes for the presence of pathogenic or likely
      pathogenic alterations. Mutation frequencies in ovarian cancer cases were
      compared to mutation frequencies in individuals from the Exome Aggregation
      Consortium (ExAC). Analyses stratified by family and personal history of other
      cancers and age at diagnosis were also performed. RESULTS: Significant
      associations (p<0.001) were identified between alterations in 11 genes and
      ovarian cancer, with eight of these displaying >=5-fold increased risk (BRCA1,
      BRCA2, BRIP1, MSH2, MSH6, RAD51C, RAD51D). Relative risks of ovarian cancer
      greater than two-fold were also observed for ATM, but could reliably be ruled out
      for RAD50 and CHEK2. CONCLUSIONS: These results will inform clinical management
      of women found to carry pathogenic alterations in genes tested on multi-gene
      panels. The knowledge that some genes are not associated with OC can reduce
      concerns of women found to carry pathogenic alterations in those genes.

PMID- 28888542
TI  - Values and worries of ovarian cancer patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Older women with ovarian cancer (OC) are less likely to receive
      guideline concordant treatment. Differences in values and worries about treatment
      may explain why. METHODS: Women with OC in 2013-2015 were surveyed about values
      and worries at the time of initial treatment. Existing values (11 item, e.g.,
      maintaining quality of life) and worries (12 items, e.g., treatment side effects)
      scales were adapted based on OC literature. Responses were very/somewhat/a
      little/not at all important or worried. Principal Component Analyses (PCA)
      identified groups of values and worries that best explained scales' variation. We
      examined proportions reporting very/somewhat important/worried on >=1 item in
      each component by age (older >=65years, younger <65years). RESULTS: Of 170
      respondents, 42.3% were older. PCA components for values were: functional well
      being (3 survey items, proportion of variance explained [PoVE] 26.3%), length of
      life and sexual functioning (3 items, PoVE 20.1%), attitudes (3 items, PoVE
      14.2%), and not becoming a burden (2 items, PoVE 13.7%). PCA components for
      worries were: economic (4 items, PoVE 27.2%), uncertainty (6 items, PoVE 26.0%),
      and family impact (2 items, PoVE 16.3%). Older women were less likely to indicate
      very/somewhat worried to >=1 item in the economic (51.4% vs 72.4%, p=0.006),
      uncertainty (80.6% vs. 98.0%, p=0.001), and family impact component (55.6% vs.
      70.4%, p=0.03). No other age differences were found. CONCLUSIONS: While worry
      during OC treatment decision-making may differ across age groups, values do not.
      Research should assess how differences in worry might affect OC medical decision
      making for older and younger women.

PMID- 28888543
TI  - Preparation and characterization of bio-nanocomposite films based on cassava
      starch or chitosan, reinforced with montmorillonite or bamboo nanofibers.
AB  - In this study, films based on two different polysaccharides (chitosan and cassava
      starch) were produced by casting technique and nanostructured by montmorillonite
      (MMTNPs) or bamboo nanofibers (BNFs) at two different concentrations: 0.5g/100g
      and 1.0g/100g of polymer, using glycerol as plasticizer at concentration of
      30g/100g of polymer. The particle size and surface charge of the MMTNPs and BNFs
      nanoparticles were 315+/-14nm and 60+/-3nm and -31.78mV and -20.77mV,
      respectively. In relation to the mechanical properties, the nanofibers increased
      the tensile strength in 50% of starch films, while the elongation at break shows
      a similar increase (66%) for both types of nanoparticles at concentration of
      1.0g/100g. Cassava starch films showed a better response to nanostructure
      process, noticed through by the mechanical properties. XRD analyses showed good
      interaction between the polymer matrix and bamboo nanofibers.

PMID- 28888544
TI  - Xylanase immobilization on modified superparamagnetic graphene oxide
      nanocomposite: Effect of PEGylation on activity and stability.
AB  - In order to utilize the advantages of immobilization such as improvement of
      stability, increasing the catalytic activity, ability to recovery and reuse of
      enzyme from reaction medium, xylanase enzyme was immobilized on superparamagnetic
      garphene oxide nanosheets (GOMNP). Xylanase, as a hydrolytic enzyme of xylan has
      widely used in industry. Since the xylan is bulk, for enhance accessibility of
      active sites of the immobilized xylanase, polyethylene glycol bis amine (PEGA)
      was used as a spacer for functionalization of GOMNP. The modified GOMNP and
      immobilized xylanase on PEGA-GOMNP (PEGA-GOMNP/Xy) were characterized through
      different analysis tools. The results showed that xylanase was attached to the
      functionalized nanocomposite with a yield of 273mg enzyme per gram PEGA-GOMNP.
      Thermal stability, pH stability, reusability and storage stability were
      determined for immobilized enzyme. The free and immobilized xylanase displayed an
      optimal enzymatic activity at 60 degrees C and pH 6.5 and 7.5, respectively. The
      immobilized enzyme retained about 40% of the initial activity after 8 cycles with
      xylan substrate at 60 degrees C. Also immobilized and free enzymes retained 35%
      and 20% of the initial catalytic activity after 90days storage at 4 degrees C,
      respectively. Consequently, PEGA- modified GOMNP can be introduced as a
      biodegradable and suitable support for bioengineering.

PMID- 28888545
TI  - Next generation sequencing for the investigation of an outbreak of Salmonella
      Schwarzengrund in Nanjing, China.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Salmonella Schwarzengrund is most frequently isolated from poultry
      meat and can cause human infections. S. Schwarzengrund was isolated from
      diarrheal patients in a food poisoning event in Nanjing, China. METHODS: Three
      strains isolated from patients were microbiologically confirmed as S.
      Schwarzengrund. Salmonella strains from spiced donkey meat were also confirmed as
      S. Schwarzengrund. Epidemiology investigation showed evidence of a correlation
      between the consumption of spiced donkey meat and those cases. Pulsed field gel
      electrophoresis, antibiotic susceptibility test and next generation sequencing
      (NGS) were employed to investigate this food poisoning event. RESULTS: The 3
      strains isolated from patients and the strain isolated from the spiced donkey
      meat showed same results in PFGE, antibiotic susceptibility test and no SNPs were
      observed between these 4 strains in NGS analysis. DISCUSSION: NGS data could be
      used in the confirmation of an outbreak and in the tracing of contamination.
      However, this standard of defining an outbreak with NGS remained a challenge in
      practice. And the NGS data should be used in combination with other data in
      epidemiological investigation.

PMID- 28888546
TI  - Glyoxal-induced modification enhances stability of hemoglobin and lowers iron
      mediated oxidation reactions of the heme protein: An in vitro study.
AB  - Glyoxal, a reactive alpha-oxoaldehyde, increases in diabetic condition. It reacts
      with different proteins to form advanced glycation end products (AGEs) following
      Maillard-like reaction. Considering the significance of AGE-mediated protein
      modification by glyoxal, here we have investigated the in vitro effect of the
      reactive alpha-oxoaldehyde (10, 20MUM) on the heme protein hemoglobin (HbA0)
      (100MUM) after incubation for one week at 25 degrees C. In comparison with HbA0,
      glyoxal-treated HbA0 exhibited decreased absorbance around 280nm, reduced
      intrinsic fluorescence and lower surface hydrophobicity. Glyoxal treatment was
      found to increase the stability of HbA0 without significant perturbation of the
      secondary structure of the heme protein. In addition, H2O2-mediated iron release
      and subsequent iron-mediated oxidative (Fenton) reactions were found to be lower
      in presence of glyoxal-treated HbA0 compared to HbA0. Mass spectrometric studies
      revealed modification of arginine residues of HbA0 (Arg-31alpha, Arg-40beta) to
      hydroimidazolone adducts. AGE-induced modifications thus appear to be associated
      with the observed changes of the heme protein. Considering the increased level of
      glyoxal in diabetes mellitus as well as its high reactivity, glyoxal-derived AGE
      adducts might thus be associated with modifications of the protein including
      physiological significance.

PMID- 28888547
TI  - Green Nanotechnology for Synthesis and characterization of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate
      co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) nanoparticles for sustained bortezomib release using
      supercritical CO2 assisted particle formation combined with electrodeposition.
AB  - Carbon dioxide assisted particle formation combined with electrospraying using
      supercritical CO2 (scCO2) as an aid (Carbon Dioxide Assisted Nebulization
      Electrodeposition, CAN-ED) was used to produce Bortezomib loaded poly(3
      hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) P(3HB-co-3HHx) nanoparticles for sustained
      release. The morphology and structure of the prepared nanoparticles were
      investigated by SEM, TEM and FT-IR spectroscopy. Average diameter of particles
      obtained was 155nm and the average core sizes of P(3HB-co-3HHx) nanoparticles
      were between 6 and 13nm. The drug loading capacity, drug release and stability of
      Bortezomib loaded P(3HB-co-3HHx) nanoparticles were analyzed. The maximum loading
      capacity was achieved at pH=6.0 in phosphate buffer (K2HPO4/KH2PO4). It was found
      that temperature did not affect the stability of Bortezomib loaded nanoparticles
      and it was good both at 37 degrees C and 4 degrees C. This study pointed out that
      CAN-ED is a green method to produce P(3HB-co-3HHx) nanoparticles for pH
      responsive targeting of Bortezomib especially to parts of the body where size
      exclusion is not crucial.

PMID- 28888548
TI  - A Novel approach for the morphology controlled synthesis of rod-shaped nano
      hydroxyapatite using semi-IPN and IPN as a template.
AB  - Present work offers use of semi-interpenetrating network (semi-IPN) and
      interpenetrating network (IPN) as the template for the synthesis of nano
      hydroxyapatites. Semi-IPN and IPN of agar-gelatin were prepared and successfully
      used to synthesize nano-hydroxyapatite. Graft copolymerization technique was used
      to alter the properties of the hybrid backbone using ammonium persulphate as an
      initiator and N,N'methylene-bisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. The first step
      was to synthesize cross-linked semi-IPN of agar-gelatin blend which was converted
      to a cross-linked interpenetrating polymer. Semi-IPN and IPN showed 4786% and
      4896% swelling, respectively. In the second step in situ synthesis of rod-shaped
      nano-hydroxyapatites was carried out. Ca/P ratio for hydroxyapatite formed was
      found to be 1.67 for semi-IPN and 1.63 for IPN with the particle size of 50-100nm
      (length) and 6-15nm (diameter). These results were than compared with the
      literature findings of synthesizing n-HA (nano-hydroxyapatite) without using
      templates and results were better for n-HA synthesized using templates. Thus, the
      use of semi-IPN and IPN for the controlled growth of rod-shaped nano
      hydroxyapatite was a novel approach.

PMID- 28888549
TI  - Amination of biorefinery technical lignins using Mannich reaction synergy with
      subcritical ethanol depolymerization.
AB  - The alcoholic depolymerization and Mannich reaction were conducted to improve the
      chemical activity of biorefinery technical lignins and introduce amino groups
      into lignins, respectively. To understand the chemical structural transformations
      and examine the reaction mechanism, GPC and solution-state NMR techniques were
      performed. Element analysis was also used to quantify the amount of amine groups.
      The NMR characterization the depolymerized lignins indicated of the
      depolymerization, demethoxylation, and bond cleavage of linkages occurred during
      the depolymerization process. Results showed that the depolymerization
      temperature instead of the addition of capping reagents was the main factor for
      improving the reactivity of lignin under the given conditions. The Mannich
      reaction was very selective, primarily occurred at H3,5 and G5 positions, and the
      H units present a higher chemical reactivity. It is believed that the
      understanding of the fundamental chemistry of lignin during depolymerization and
      Mannich reaction process will contribute to the extension of high value-added
      applications of biorefinery lignin.

PMID- 28888550
TI  - ISSR marker-assisted genetic diversity analysis of Dioscorea hispida and
      selection of the best variety for sustainable production.
AB  - Plant breeding is a way of selection of a particular individual for the
      production of the progeny by separating or combining desired characteristics. The
      objective of this study was to justify different characteristics of Dioscorea
      hispida (Ubi gadong) varieties using molecular techniques to select the best
      variety for sustainable production at the farmer's level. A total of 160
      germplasms of Ubi gadong were collected from different locations at the
      Terengganu and Kelantan states of Malaysia. Forty eight (48) out of 160
      germplasms were selected as "primary" selection based on yield and other
      qualitative characters. Selected collections were then grown and maintained for
      ISSR marker-assisted genetic diversity analysis. Overall plant growth and yield
      of tubers were also determined. A total of 12 ISSR markers were tested to justify
      the characteristics of Ubi gadong varieties among which three markers showed
      polymorphic bands and on average 57.3% polymorphism were observed representing
      the highest variation among germplasms. The ISSR marker based on UPGMA cluster
      analysis grouped all 48 D. hispida into 10 vital groups that proved a vast
      genetic variation among germplasm collections. Therefore, hybridization should be
      made between two distant populations. The D. hispida is already proved as the
      highest starch content tuber crops and very rich in vitamins with both micro and
      macro minerals. Considering all these criteria and results from marker-assisted
      diversity analysis, accessions that are far apart based on their genetic
      coefficient (like DH27 and DH71; DH30 and DH70; DH43 and DH62; DH45 and DH61;
      DH77 and DH61; DH78 and DH57) could be selected as parents for further breeding
      programs. This will bring about greater diversity, which will lead to high
      productive index in terms of increase in yield and overall quality and for the
      ultimate target of sustainable Ubi gadong production.

PMID- 28888551
TI  - Amino acids production focusing on fermentation technologies - A review.
AB  - Amino acids are attractive and promising biochemicals with market capacity
      requirements constantly increasing. Their applicability ranges from animal feed
      additives, flavour enhancers and ingredients in cosmetic to specialty nutrients
      in pharmaceutical and medical fields. This review gives an overview of the
      processes applied for amino acids production and points out the main advantages
      and disadvantages of each. Due to the advances made in the genetic engineering
      techniques, the biotechnological processes, and in particular the fermentation
      with the aid of strains such as Corynebacterium glutamicum or Escherichia coli,
      play a significant role in the industrial production of amino acids. Despite the
      numerous advantages of the fermentative amino acids production, the process still
      needs significant improvements leading to increased productivity and reduction of
      the production costs. Although the production processes of amino acids have been
      extensively investigated in previous studies, a comprehensive overview of the
      developments in bioprocess technology has not been reported yet. This review
      states the importance of the fermentation process for industrial amino acids
      production, underlining the strengths and the weaknesses of the process.
      Moreover, the potential of innovative approaches utilizing macro and microalgae
      or bacteria are presented.

PMID- 28888552
TI  - Chassis and key enzymes engineering for monoterpenes production.
AB  - Microbial production of monoterpenes is often limited by their cytotoxicity and
      in vivo conversion. Therefore, alleviating cytotoxicity and reducing conversion
      by chassis engineering are highly desirable. On the other hand, engineering key
      enzymes is also critical for improving monoterpenes production through
      facilitating the biosynthesis process. Here we critically review recent advances
      in cytotoxicity alleviation, reducing in vivo conversion, selecting geranyl
      diphosphate synthase and engineering monoterpene synthases. These achievements
      would lead to the development of superior chassis with improved tolerance to
      cytotoxicity and rationally tailored metabolites profiles to improve titer, yield
      and productivity for the production of monoterpenes by microbial cells.

PMID- 28888553
TI  - NutriCancer: A French observational multicentre cross-sectional study of
      malnutrition in elderly patients with cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the prevalence of malnutrition and nutritional management
      between elderly (>=70years old) and younger patients (<70years) with cancer.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a post-hoc analysis of NutriCancer 2012 study; a
      one-day cross-sectional nationwide survey conducted to assess malnutrition in
      adult patients with cancer in France. Patients diagnosed with cancer at the study
      date in both inpatient and outpatient settings were included. Data collection was
      performed by means of questionnaires completed by the physician, the patient and
      the caregiver. RESULTS: This post-hoc analysis compared 578 elderly patients
      (27.6%) vs. 1517 younger patients (72.4%). There were significant differences in
      cancer localization between the groups particularly in gastrointestinal cancer
      (27% in younger patients vs. 42% in elderly), breast cancer (17% vs 8% in
      elderly) and oropharyngeal (15% vs. 9% in elderly). Weight loss was significantly
      more reported in the elderly than in younger patients (73.6% vs. 67.6%, p=0.009).
      Elderly patients were more frequently malnourished than younger patients (44.9%
      vs. 36.7%, p=0.0006). Food intake was comparable between the groups; however,
      physicians overestimated the food intake, particularly in the elderly. The
      malnutrition management was more frequently proposed in elderly, as dietary
      advice and oral nutritional supplements, than in younger patients; however,
      enteral nutrition was significantly less undertaken in the elderly. CONCLUSION:
      Malnutrition is prevalent in elderly patients with cancer, and more frequent than
      in younger patients. There is a need for an early integration of the nutritional
      counselling in patients with cancer, and particularly in the elderly.

PMID- 28888555
TI  - Functional impairment prior to major non-cardiac surgery is associated with
      mortality within one year in elderly patients with gastrointestinal,
      gynaecological and urogenital cancer: A prospective observational cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic value of elements of the Geriatric
      Assessment, in particular the Timed Up and Go (TUG) Test and the Barthel Index of
      Activities of Daily Living (ADL) for one-year post-operative mortality in elderly
      patients with cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective cohort study
      included patients 65years of age or older undergoing elective major surgery for
      cancer between June 2008 and June 2010. Preoperative functional status was
      measured by the TUG Test and the Barthel Index of ADL Cognitive state was
      assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Complications were recorded
      prospectively. The degree of resection was noted. RESULTS: Data from 131 patients
      (56% women; median age, 71years) were analysed at 1year of follow-up. Mortality
      after 1year was 28.2%. Twenty-nine patients (22.3%) were dependent in ADLs, and
      43 (35.2%) impaired in TUG. Thirteen patients (10.7%) were both, dependent in
      ADLs and impaired in TUG. Short-term complications after surgery occurred in 66%
      of patients, and major complications occurred in 29%. Patients who were dependent
      in ADLs and impaired in TUG had significantly higher 1-year mortality (OR, 4.5;
      95% CI, 1.21-18.25; p=0.034). Lower scores on the MMSE (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.43
      0.95; p=0.048) and incomplete surgical resection (OR, 3.25; 95% CI, 1.15-9.20;
      p=0.026) were independently associated with higher 1-year mortality. CONCLUSION:
      Functional assessments, such as ADL and TUG scores, as well as mild cognitive
      impairment, are predictors of long-term outcome in elderly cancer patients. TRIAL
      REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS 00005150).

PMID- 28888554
TI  - How to treat pancreatic adenocarcinoma in elderly: How far can we go in 2017?
AB  - Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is one of the most fatal cancers that frequently
      affects older patients. Limited data suggest that older patients are as likely to
      benefit from surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy as younger patients. The only
      potentially curative approach for pancreatic cancer is surgery but this is only
      performed in less than 20% of patients considered resectable. With improvements
      in surgical techniques, older patients without major comorbidities show a course
      of disease after resection similar to that of younger patients. The use of
      adjuvant chemotherapy in an attempt to prolong survival is therefore reasonable
      for this population of patients. Historically, patients with locally-advanced
      disease will be offered gemcitabine as standard chemotherapy, with radiotherapy
      considered at a later time. In the majority, metastatic patients will preferably
      be offered gemcitabine chemotherapy, which can be used at a lower dose in frail
      or very old patients. In some cases in patients in a very good health condition,
      two recent intensive chemotherapies can be proposed with modified doses and a
      close follow-up: the 5-fluoroucil, leucovorin, irinotecan, oxaliplatin
      (FOLFIRINOX) regimen and the combination of gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel. For
      older patients with terminal disease and palliative needs, which is the majority
      of cases, better use of pain control and palliative measures can be beneficial.
      Each of these issues will be examined in detail in this review.

PMID- 28888556
TI  - Telehealth in older adults with cancer in the United States: The emerging use of
      wearable sensors.
AB  - As the aging and cancer populations in the world continue to increase, the need
      for complements to traditional geriatric assessments and the logical
      incorporation of fast and reliable telehealth tools have become interlinked. In
      the United States, studies examining the use of telehealth for chronic disease
      management have shown promising results in small groups. The implementation of
      health technology on a broader scale requires older adults to both accept and
      adapt such innovation into routine medical care. Though the commercial and
      recreational use of new technology has increased in older individuals, the
      transition into creating a smart and connected home that can interface with both
      patients and healthcare professionals is in its early phases. Current limitations
      include an inherent digital divide, as well as concerns regarding privacy, data
      volume, rapid change, cost and reimbursement. The emergence of low-cost, high
      fidelity wearable sensors with a spectrum of clinical utility may be the key to
      increased use and adaptation by older adults. An opportunity to utilize wearable
      sensors for objective and real-time assessment of older patients with cancer for
      baseline functional status and treatment toxicity may be on the horizon.

PMID- 28888557
TI  - Robust current control-based generalized predictive control with sliding mode
      disturbance compensation for PMSM drives.
AB  - This paper addresses the current control of permanent magnet synchronous motor
      (PMSM) for electric drives with model uncertainties and disturbances. A
      generalized predictive current control method combined with sliding mode
      disturbance compensation is proposed to satisfy the requirement of fast response
      and strong robustness. Firstly, according to the generalized predictive control
      (GPC) theory based on the continuous time model, a predictive current control
      method is presented without considering the disturbance, which is convenient to
      be realized in the digital controller. In fact, it's difficult to derive the
      exact motor model and parameters in the practical system. Thus, a sliding mode
      disturbance compensation controller is studied to improve the adaptiveness and
      robustness of the control system. The designed controller attempts to combine the
      merits of both predictive control and sliding mode control, meanwhile, the
      controller parameters are easy to be adjusted. Lastly, the proposed controller is
      tested on an interior PMSM by simulation and experiment, and the results indicate
      that it has good performance in both current tracking and disturbance rejection.

PMID- 28888559
TI  - Work Equity and Investment-based Pediatric Departmental Reorganization.

PMID- 28888558
TI  - Elimination of hepatitis C virus infection among PWID: The beginning of a new era
      of interferon-free DAA therapy.

PMID- 28888560
TI  - Unintentional Cannabis Ingestion in Children: A Systematic Review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze published reports of unintentional cannabis ingestions in
      children to determine presenting signs and symptoms, route of exposure,
      treatment, and outcome. STUDY DESIGN: PubMed, OpenGrey, and Google Scholar were
      systematically searched. Articles were selected, reviewed, and graded using
      Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine guidelines. RESULTS: Of 3316 articles,
      44 were included (3582 children age <=12 years). We found no high quality (Oxford
      Center for Evidence-Based Medicine level I or II) studies and 10 level III
      studies documenting lethargy as the most common presenting sign and confirming
      increasing incidence of unintentional ingestion in states having decriminalized
      medical and recreational cannabis. We identified 16 level IV case series, and 28
      level V case reports with 114 children, mean age 25.2 +/- 18.7 months, range 8
      months to 12 years, and 50 female children (44%). The most common ingestion (n =
      43, 38%) was cannabis resin, followed by cookies and joints (both n = 15, 13%).
      Other exposures included passive smoke, medical cannabis, candies, beverages, and
      hemp oil. Lethargy was the most common presenting sign (n = 81, 71%) followed by
      ataxia (n = 16, 14%). Tachycardia, mydriasis, and hypotonia were also commonly
      observed. All cases were cared for in the emergency department or admitted, and
      mean length of stay was 27.1 +/- 27.0 hours. Twenty (18%) were admitted to the
      pediatric intensive care unit, and 7 (6%) were intubated. CONCLUSIONS:
      Unintentional cannabis ingestion by children is a serious public health concern
      and is well-documented in numerous studies and case reports. Clinicians should
      consider cannabis toxicity in any child with sudden onset of lethargy or ataxia.

PMID- 28888561
TI  - Delayed Presentation and Prolonged Survival of a Child with Surfactant Protein B
      Deficiency.
AB  - Surfactant protein B encoding gene mutations have been related to early onset
      fatal respiratory distress in full-term neonates. We report a school-aged male
      child homozygous for a surfactant protein B encoding gene missense mutation who
      presented after the neonatal period. His respiratory insufficiency responded to
      high dose intravenous methylprednisolone and hydroxychloroquine.

PMID- 28888564
TI  - Everolimus for the Treatment of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex-Related Cardiac
      Rhabdomyomas in Pediatric Patients.

PMID- 28888563
TI  - Bilirubin Uridine Diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase Polymorphism as a Risk
      Factor for Prolonged Hyperbilirubinemia in Japanese Preterm Infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a variant of the bilirubin uridine diphosphate
      glucuronosyltransferase gene (UGT1A1*6) is a risk factor for prolonged
      hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants. STUDY DESIGN: UGT1A1 genotypes in 46
      Japanese preterm infants (<37 weeks of gestation) were compared with UGT1A1
      genotypes in 38 control infants, using polymerase chain reaction-direct
      sequencing. Prolonged unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia was defined as serum total
      bilirubin concentration of >150 umol/L (8.77 mg/dL) beyond 14 days of life.
      RESULTS: In the case group, 41 of 46 infants (89.1%) had a polymorphic variant,
      c.211G>A, p.G71R (UGT1A1*6). In the control group, 7 of 38 (18.4%) had UGT1A1*6.
      The allele frequency of UGT1A1*6 was 0.641 in the prolonged hyperbilirubinemia
      group, which was significantly higher than in the control group (0.092; P <
      .001). In total, 39 of 46 infants in the case group were breast fed, and only 10
      infants in the control group were breast fed. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest
      that UGT1A1*6 is a risk factor for prolonged unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia in
      preterm infants in Japan. Given the different rate of breast feeding in this
      study, additional data are necessary for drawing a definitive conclusion.

PMID- 28888562
TI  - Timing and Chronicity of Maternal Depression Symptoms and Children's Verbal
      Abilities.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test the associations between the timing and chronicity of maternal
      depression symptoms (MDS) and children's long-term verbal abilities. STUDY
      DESIGN: Participants were 1073 mother-child pairs from a population-based birth
      cohort in Canada. MDS were assessed at ages 5 months, 1.5, 3.5, and 5 years using
      the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Verbal abilities were
      measured at 5, 6, and 10 years using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised
      (PPVT-R). Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the association
      between timing (early: 5 months and/or 1.5 years vs late 3.5 and/or 5 years) and
      chronicity (5 months, 1.5, 3.5, and 5 years) of exposure to elevated MDS and
      children's mean PPVT-R scores. RESULTS: Children exposed to chronic MDS had lower
      PPVT-R scores than children never exposed (mean difference = 9.04 [95% CI = 2.28
      15.80]), exposed early (10.08 [3.33-16.86]) and exposed late (8.69 [1.85-15.53]).
      There were no significant differences between scores of children in the early
      compared with the late exposure group. We adjusted for mother-child interactions,
      family functioning, socioeconomic status, PPVT-R administration language, child's
      birth order, and maternal IQ, psychopathology, education, native language, age at
      birth of child, and parenting practices. Maternal IQ, (eta2 = 0.028), native
      language (eta2 = 0.009), and MDS (eta2 = 0.007) were the main predictors of
      children's verbal abilities. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to chronic MDS in early
      childhood is associated with lower levels of verbal abilities in middle
      childhood. Further research is needed in larger community samples to test the
      association between MDS and children's long-term language skills.

PMID- 28888565
TI  - The Use of Echocardiography for Pediatric Patients Presenting with Syncope.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the frequency, yield, and cost of echocardiograms meeting
      "rarely appropriate" criteria. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, single-center study
      of pediatric patients presenting with syncope. Patients were categorized
      according to the appropriate use criteria and based upon location of care
      (emergency department only, primary care setting only, or referred to a pediatric
      cardiologist). Multivariable regression was used to determine factors associated
      with performance of a "rarely appropriate" echocardiogram. Costs were calculated
      using fair market values from the Healthcare Bluebook. RESULTS: The cohort
      included 637 patients presenting with syncope during the 1-year study.
      Echocardiograms were ordered for 127 of 637 (20.1%) including 0 of 328 emergency
      department patients, 1 of 66 (1.5%) primary care setting patients, and 127 of 243
      (52.3%) patients evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist. Use of echocardiography
      by pediatric cardiologists was categorized as "appropriate" in 92 of 127 (72.4%),
      "maybe appropriate" in 6 of 127 (4.7%), and "rarely appropriate" in 29 of 127
      (22.8%). Abnormal findings were seen in 6 of 127 (4.7%) echocardiograms but in
      none of the "rarely appropriate" studies. In multivariable analysis, female sex
      and younger age were the only factors associated with performance of a "rarely
      appropriate" echocardiogram. "Rarely appropriate" echocardiograms cost an
      estimated $16 704.00 ($576.00 per patient) in the 1-year study. CONCLUSIONS:
      "Rarely appropriate" echocardiograms performed for syncope do not contribute
      management changing diagnostic information. However, they burden patients with
      additional cost and perhaps contribute to increased need for follow-up.

PMID- 28888566
TI  - Tendon Tissue Engineering: Mechanism and Effects of Human Tenocyte Coculture With
      Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.
AB  - PURPOSE: Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are a potential candidate for cell
      based therapy targeting tendon injury; however, their therapeutic benefit relies
      on their ability to interact with native tenocytes. This study examines the
      mechanism and effects of coculturing human tenocytes and ASCs. METHODS: Tenocytes
      (T) were directly cocultured with either ASCs (A) or fibroblasts (F) (negative
      control) in the following ratios: 50% T/50% A or F; 25% T/75% A or F; and 75%
      T/25% A or F. Cells were indirectly cocultured using a transwell insert that
      allowed for exchange of soluble factors only. Proliferation and collagen I
      production were measured and compared with monoculture controls. Synergy was
      quantified using the interaction index (II), which normalizes measured values by
      the expected values assuming no interaction (no synergy when II = 1). The ability
      of ASCs to elicit tenocyte migration was examined in vitro using a transwell
      migration assay and ex vivo using decellularized human flexor tendon explants.
      RESULTS: Compared with monoculture controls, II of proliferation was greater than
      1 for all tenocyte and ASC direct coculture ratios, but not for tenocyte and
      fibroblast direct coculture ratios or for tenocyte and ASC indirect coculture.
      The ASCs elicited greater tenocyte migration in vitro and ex vivo. The II of
      collagen I production was greater than 1 for direct coculture groups with 25%
      T/75% A and 75% T/25% A. CONCLUSIONS: Direct coculture of ASCs and tenocytes
      demonstrated synergistic proliferation and collagen I production, and ASCs
      elicited tenocyte migration in vitro and ex vivo. These interactions play a key
      role in tendon healing and were absent when ASCs were replaced with fibroblasts,
      supporting the use of ASCs for cell-based therapy targeting tendon injuries.
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: When ASCs are delivered for cell-based therapy, they directly
      interact with native tenocytes to increase cell proliferation, collagen I
      production, and tenocyte migration, which may enhance tendon healing.

PMID- 28888567
TI  - Biomechanics of the Acute Boutonniere Deformity.
AB  - PURPOSE: To demonstrate which structures of the extensor mechanism create a
      boutonniere deformity, when damaged, in a cadaver model. An analysis of how
      damage to these anatomical structures affects the biomechanical performance of
      the extensor mechanism was also performed. METHODS: We secured 18 fresh cadaveric
      hands onto an apparatus consisting of a computer-controlled motor and tensiometer
      attached in series to the extensor communis tendon of the ring and middle digits.
      The central slip, transverse, and oblique fibers of the interosseous hood and the
      triangular ligament were sequentially divided. After each structure was divided,
      the motors were activated to provide a constant tendon displacement force. The
      angular displacement at the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) and distal
      interphalangeal joints was recorded. RESULTS: In all digits, detachment of the
      central slip from the middle phalanx produced a decrease in extension of the PIP
      joint. When the transverse and oblique fibers of the interosseous hood were also
      divided, extension at the PIP joint was further decreased. A boutonniere
      deformity occurred only when all 3 structures were damaged. CONCLUSIONS: The
      boutonniere deformity requires subluxation of the lateral bands volar to the axis
      of rotation of the PIP joint. This study demonstrates that damage to the central
      slip alone does not cause the deformity. Combined injury of the central slip,
      triangular ligament, and transverse and oblique fibers of the interosseous hood
      causes a boutonniere deformity. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Division of the central slip
      leads to loss of extension at the PIP joint. A more substantial loss of extension
      after injury or development of a boutonniere deformity should alert clinicians
      that other structures of the extensor mechanism are also damaged.

PMID- 28888568
TI  - In Vivo 3-Dimensional Kinematics of Thumb Carpometacarpal Joint During Thumb
      Opposition.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study primarily aimed to demonstrate the screw-home rotation of the
      thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint and the function of surrounding ligaments
      during thumb oppositional motion. METHODS: A 3-dimensional kinematic analysis of
      the thumb CMC joint was conducted using data derived from computed tomography of
      9 healthy volunteers. Scans were obtained in the neutral forearm and wrist
      position and the thumb in maximum radial abduction, maximum palmar abduction, and
      maximum opposition. The movements of the first metacarpal and the palmar and
      dorsal bases on the trapezium during thumb oppositional motion from radial
      abduction through palmar abduction were quantified using a coordinate system
      originating on the trapezium. In addition to the kinematic analyses, the length
      of virtual ligaments, including the anterior oblique, ulnar collateral, dorsal
      radial, dorsal central (DCL), and posterior oblique ligament (POL), were
      calculated at each thumb position. RESULTS: From radial abduction to opposition
      of the thumb through palmar abduction, the first metacarpal was abducted,
      internally rotated, and flexed on the trapezium. The palmar base of the first
      metacarpal moved in the palmar-ulnar direction, and the dorsal base moved in the
      palmar-distal direction along the concave surface of the trapezium. Although the
      DCL and POL lengthened, the lengths of other ligaments did not change
      significantly. CONCLUSIONS: During thumb oppositional motion, internal rotation
      of the first metacarpal occurred, with the palmar base rotating primarily with
      respect to the dorsal base. The DCL and POL may be strained in thumb functional
      positions. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Kinematic variables indicated a screw-home
      rotation of the thumb CMC joint and the contribution of the dorsal ligaments to
      the stability of the rotation on the pivot point.

PMID- 28888569
TI  - A Biomechanical Analysis of 2 Constructs for Metacarpal Spiral Fracture Fixation
      in a Cadaver Model: 2 Large Screws Versus 3 Small Screws.
AB  - PURPOSE: Surgeons confronted with a long spiral metacarpal fracture may choose to
      fix it solely with lagged screws. A biomechanical analysis of a metacarpal spiral
      fracture model was performed to determine whether 3 1.5-mm screws or 2 2.0-mm
      screws provided more stability during bending and torsional loading. METHODS:
      Second and third metacarpals were harvested from 12 matched pairs of fresh-frozen
      cadaveric hands and spiral fractures were created. One specimen from each matched
      pair was fixed with 2 2.0-mm lagged screws whereas the other was fixed with 3 1.5
      mm lagged screws. Nine pairs underwent combined cyclic cantilever bending and
      axial compressive loading followed by loading to failure. Nine additional pairs
      were subjected to cyclic external rotation while under a constant axial
      compressive load and were subsequently externally rotated to failure under a
      constant axial compressive load. Paired t tests were used to compare cyclic
      creep, stiffness, displacement, rotation, and peak load levels. RESULTS: Average
      failure torque for all specimens was 7.2 +/- 1.7 Nm. In cyclic torsional testing,
      the group with 2 screws exhibited significantly less rotational creep than the
      one with 3 screws. A single specimen in the group with 2 screws failed before
      cyclic bending tests were completed. No other significant differences were found
      between test groups during torsional or bending tests. CONCLUSIONS: Both
      constructs were biomechanically similar except that the construct with 2 screws
      displayed significantly less loosening during torsional cyclic loading, although
      the difference was small and may not be clinically meaningful. CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE: Because we found no obvious biomechanical advantage to using 3 1.5-mm
      lagged screws to fix long spiral metacarpal fractures, the time efficiency and
      decreased implant costs of using 2-2.0 mm lagged screws may be preferred.

PMID- 28888570
TI  - Revision of the Failed Thumb Carpometacarpal Arthroplasty.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the outcome of revision surgery for failed thumb
      carpometacarpal (CMC) arthroplasty. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 32
      patients with failed thumb CMC arthroplasty. The primary reason for revision was
      pain caused by metacarpal subsidence. Revision surgery included soft tissue
      interposition and distraction pinning to address the metacarpal subsidence.
      Additional ligament reconstruction was performed in patients with thumb
      instability. Eight patients required additional metacarpophalangeal joint fusion
      for concomitant joint hyperextension. Eleven required additional partial excision
      of the trapezoid for concomitant scaphotrapezoidal joint arthritis. All patients
      were evaluated clinically and radiographically. RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 57
      months (range, 24-121 months). Pain levels evaluated by visual analog scale were
      significantly reduced in all patients after revision surgery. Mean grip strength
      and key pinch strength significantly increased. Twenty-seven patients achieved
      good functional results; those for 5 patients were fair. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      showed that revision surgery with distraction pinning and soft tissue
      interposition with or without ligament reconstruction was an effective treatment
      for failed CMC arthroplasty of the thumb. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Therapeutic IV.

PMID- 28888571
TI  - Accuracy and Early Clinical Outcome of 3-Dimensional Planned and Guided Single
      Cut Osteotomies of Malunited Forearm Bones.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the reduction accuracy of 3-dimensional planned single
      cut osteotomies (SCOTs) of the forearm that were performed using patient-specific
      guides. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of SCOTs performed between 2012 and
      2014 was performed. Ten patients (age, 15-59 years) with 6 malunions of the ulna
      and 6 malunions of the radius were identified. The reduction accuracy was
      assessed by comparing the 3-dimensional preoperative plan of each osteotomy with
      the superimposed bone model extracted from postoperative computed tomography
      data. The difference was assessed by 3-dimensional angle and in all 6 degrees of
      freedom (3 translations, 3 rotations) with respect to an anatomical coordinate
      system. Wrist range of motion and grip strength was assessed after a mean of 16.7
      months and compared with the preoperative measurements. RESULTS: On average, the
      12 SCOTs demonstrated excellent accuracy of the reduction with respect to
      rotation (ie, pronation/supination, 4.9 degrees ; flexion/extension, 1.7 degrees
      ; ulnar/radial angulation, 2.0 degrees ) and translation (ie, proximal/distal,
      0.8 mm; radial/ulnar, 0.8 mm; dorsal/palmar, 0.8 mm). A mean residual 3
      dimensional angle of 5.8 degrees  (SD, 3.6 degrees ) was measured after surgery.
      All 6 patients operated on for reasons of a reduced range of motion demonstrated
      improved symptoms and increased movement (from 20 degrees  to 80 degrees ). In
      the patients with unstable/painful distal radioulnar joint, 3 were totally free
      of complaints and 1 patient showed residual pain during sports. CONCLUSIONS: A
      SCOT combined with patient-specific guides is an accurate and reliable technique
      to restore normal anatomy in multiplanar deformities of the forearm. TYPE OF
      STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic IV.

PMID- 28888572
TI  - Risk Factors of Lunate Collapse in Kienbock Disease.
AB  - PURPOSE: Not all patients with Kienbock disease progress to collapse of the
      lunate and carpal malalignment, but it is difficult to determine which patients
      are at risk. We aimed to identify demographic or anatomical factors associated
      with more advanced stages of Kienbock disease. METHODS: We included all 195
      eligible patients with Kienbock disease and available preoperative
      posteroanterior and lateral radiographs. We compared the mean age, sex
      distribution, mean ulnar variance, radial height, radial (ulnarward) inclination,
      palmar tilt, anteroposterior distance, and lunate type among the different
      Lichtman stages of Kienbock disease and performed ordinal logistic regression
      analysis. RESULTS: We found that patients with more negative ulnar variance had
      more advanced stages of Kienbock disease (adjusted odds ratio, 1.4). An increase
      in age was also independently associated with a higher Lichtman stage of Kienbock
      disease (adjusted odds ratio, 1.02). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that more
      negative ulnar variance may be related to a greater magnitude of lunate collapse
      in Kienbock disease. Additional long-term study is needed to confirm the
      longitudinal relationship of negative ulnar variance with progressive Kienbock
      disease. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic II.

PMID- 28888573
TI  - An Extradigital Glomus Tumor of the Median Antebrachial Vein.
AB  - Glomus tumors are benign vascular neoplasms that arise from specialized dermal
      arteriovenous anastomoses called glomus bodies. These tumors are most often found
      in the digital pulp and subungual region of the fingertips; however, a review of
      the literature suggests that extradigital glomus tumors may occur more often than
      is generally recognized. Although most extradigital glomus tumors arise within
      subcutaneous tissues, glomus tumors have occasionally been found within bones,
      nerves, and blood vessels. An intravascular glomus tumor of the forearm is a very
      rare occurrence and only a few cases have been reported in the literature. Here
      we describe a 55-year-old right-handed man with a 10-year history of exquisite
      tenderness and dysesthesia of his right proximal forearm. Surgical exploration
      revealed the presence of a mass arising from the median antebrachial vein, which
      was confirmed histologically to be a glomus tumor.

PMID- 28888574
TI  - Patient- and Disease-Specific Factors Associated With Operative Management of de
      Quervain Tendinopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: It remains unclear which factors, patient- or disease-specific, are
      associated with electing to undergo operative management for de Quervain
      tendinopathy. Our null hypothesis was that no patient- or disease-specific
      factors would be associated with the choice of surgical treatment of de Quervain
      tendinopathy. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of consecutive
      patients diagnosed with de Quervain tendinopathy over 3 years by 1 of 3
      fellowship-trained hand surgeons at an urban academic institution. Descriptive
      statistics were calculated for patient baseline and disease-specific
      characteristics. Cohorts were compared using bivariate analysis for all collected
      variables. Binary logistic regression with backward stepwise term selection was
      performed including independent predictors identified by bivariate analysis.
      RESULTS: A total of 200 patients were identified for inclusion. Bivariate
      analysis revealed that surgically treated patients were significantly more likely
      to have Medicaid insurance, psychiatric illness history, and disabled work
      status. Regression analysis revealed an association between surgical treatment
      and 2 of the factors evaluated: Medicaid insurance status and psychiatric illness
      history. CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric illness and Medicaid insurance status are
      associated with undergoing surgical release of the first dorsal compartment.
      These findings support the use of a biopsychosocial framework when treating
      patients with de Quervain tendinopathy. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Prognostic IV.

PMID- 28888575
TI  - Fascaplysin inhibit ovarian cancer cell proliferation and metastasis through
      inhibiting CDK4.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are important regulators of the cell
      cycle; previous studies have shown that misregulation of CDK4 (cyclin-dependent
      kinase 4) activity can lead to cancer. The present study investigated the anti
      tumor effects of a highly selective CDK4 inhibitor fascaplysin in ovarian
      carcinoma cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In our study, cell proliferation,
      cell cycle, cell apoptosis, cell invasion, and cell migration relative assays
      were performed in ovarian cancer cell lines A2780 and OVCAR3 in the presence of
      different concentrations of fascaplysin. The protein expression levels of CDK4,
      cyclin D1, Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphoma-2), and VEGFA (vascular endothelial growth
      factor A) were determined by western blot. RESULTS: Our results showed that
      fascaplysin inhibited ovarian cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration,
      as well as inducing S arrest and cell apoptosis. Treatment with fascaplysin also
      suppressed CDK4, cyclin D1, Bcl-2, and VEGFA expression at protein levels.
      CONCLUSIONS: Above all, our results showed that fascaplysin has anti-tumor
      activity against ovarian cancer cell lines through inhibiting CDK4, and may be a
      therapeutic target for the treatment of ovarian carcinomas.

PMID- 28888576
TI  - Association of vitamin D and vitamin D binding protein (DBP) gene polymorphism
      with susceptibility of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Bangladesh.
AB  - AIMS: Polymorphism in vitamin D binding protein gene may have an impact on serum
      vitamin D transport and thus may have relation with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In
      our study, we investigated the association of serum vitamin D level and vitamin D
      binding protein gene polymorphism with the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 104 type 2 diabetic
      patients and 107 healthy volunteers. Serum vitamin D was measured by high
      performance liquid chromatography. Genetic analysis of vitamin D-binging protein
      gene was carried out by polymerase chain reaction - restriction fragment length
      polymorphism method. RESULTS: We found significantly (p<0.001) lower level of
      vitamin D in type 2 diabetic patients compared to control subjects. A
      significantly negative correlation (r=-0.25, p<0.05) between vitamin D level and
      fasting blood glucose level was found among type 2 diabetic subjects. The Glu/Glu
      at codon 416 (rs7041) (p<0.05) and Lys/Lys at codon 420 (rs4588) (p<0.01)
      variants of vitamin D binding protein gene was significantly higher in type 2
      diabetic subjects than controls. The patients with Glu/Glu and Lys/Lys genotypes
      respectively at codon 416 (odds ratio=2.87; 95% confidence interval=1.19 to 6.95)
      and 420 (odds ratio=8.9; 95% confidence interval=1.89 to 41.99) were at high risk
      of developing type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Our present study strongly suggests
      that there might have an association of vitamin D, and vitamin D-binding protein
      gene (codon 416 & 420) polymorphisms with the occurrence of type 2 diabetes
      mellitus.

PMID- 28888577
TI  - CRISPR knock out CTLA-4 enhances the anti-tumor activity of cytotoxic T
      lymphocytes.
AB  - T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity plays a pivotal role in cancer immune
      surveillance. Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) is a protein
      receptor mainly expressed in activated T cells and regulatory T cells. CTLA-4
      competes with CD28 for ligand binding and generates inhibitory signals to
      attenuate T cell activation. The blockade of CTLA-4 mediated immune inhibitory
      checkpoint has been associated with enhanced anti-tumor immunity. In this study,
      we use CRISPR-Cas9 system to knock out (KO) CTLA-4 from cytotoxic T lymphocytes
      (CTLs) and evaluate its effect on the anti-tumor activity of the CTLs. CTLA-4 KO
      CTLs robustly enhanced tumor cell death by 40% compared to the control and
      facilitated apoptosis and caspase activities in tumor cells. The knockout of CTLA
      4 also increased TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma secretion of the CTLs by approximately 2
      fold. The effectiveness of CTLA-4 KO in enhancing anti-tumor activity of the CTLs
      was verified in vivo using mouse xenograft model. The xenografted mice treated
      with CTLA-4 KO CTLs demonstrated repressed tumor growth and prolonged survival
      compared to the control group. Our data suggest that CRISPR targeting CTLA-4
      immune checkpoint could significantly improve the anti-tumor activity of CTLs.

PMID- 28888578
TI  - When figures and data contradict text: MiR346 is apparently reduced in breast
      cancer tissue, contrary to claims by a paper's author.
AB  - A recent article in Gene highlighted potential function of miR-346 in human
      breast cancer (Yang et al., 2017). We request an explanation or correction of the
      report. In its current state, the text will certainly create confusion in the
      field and lead to incorrect assumptions. The authors made several critical
      errors. The abstract stated "we found that the expression of miR-346 was higher
      in breast cancer tissues than in their paired corresponding non-cancerous
      tissues" and the main text and legend for Fig. 1A stated "miR-346 expression was
      significantly higher in breast cancer tissues than in their paired corresponding
      non-cancerous tissues (Fig. 1A, Yang et al., 2017)" and "miR-346 was upregulated
      in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. (A)", respectively. It was also stated
      that "SRCIN1 expression levels were significantly down-regulated in breast cancer
      compared to the adjacent normal tissues (Fig. 5B, Yang et al., 2017)". The
      problem with these statements is that they contradict the actual data presented
      in the paper! This misrepresentation of the effects of miR-346 in breast cancer
      could prove harmful by sidetracking future research. Further, clinical trials may
      be incorrectly directed towards lowering miR-346 without a complete and fair
      assessment of the internal contradictions in the data. Inaccurately-presented
      data impede progress of biomedical research, deplete scientific resources and
      compromise public trust.

PMID- 28888579
TI  - Reliability of Self-reported Treatment Data by Patients With Breast Cancer
      Compared With Medical Record Data.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Medical records are considered the gold standard for accurate
      treatment information. However, treatment data are increasingly obtained from
      questionnaires. It can be questioned whether self-reported treatment data are
      reliable, particularly because patients have to process a lot of information
      during their diagnosis and treatment process. The present study assesses the
      reliability of self-reported treatment data compared with medical records.
      METHODS: All patients with stage I, II, and III breast cancer (n = 606) in 5
      hospitals in the west of the Netherlands were invited to complete a questionnaire
      9 to 18 months after surgery. We calculated kappa statistics, proportion correct,
      sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values to assess
      agreement. RESULTS: Three hundred fifty patients completed the questionnaire
      (58%). Agreement was good for type of surgery and receiving chemotherapy,
      endocrine therapy, and radiation therapy, with sensitivity and specificity of 95%
      or higher and kappa above 0.90. However, only moderate agreement was seen for
      sentinel node biopsy, including the pathologic results and axillary lymph node
      dissection (kappa between 0.60 and 0.80). Lack of agreement was more often found
      for patients who had received endocrine therapy (odds ratio, 1.85; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.11-3.10) but not influenced by age (odds ratio, 1.00; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.98-1.02). CONCLUSION: Accuracy of self-reported data is high for type
      of surgery, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and radiation therapy, but much
      lower for sentinel node biopsy including the pathologic results and axillary
      lymph node dissection. This is relevant for clinicians given the time spent
      explaining these procedures, and for researchers to help decide what information
      to obtain from patients or medical records.

PMID- 28888580
TI  - Predicting Brain Metastasis in Breast Cancer Patients: Stage Versus Biology.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Brain metastasis (BM) is a life-threatening event in breast cancer
      patients. Identifying patients at a high risk for BM can help to adopt screening
      programs and test preventive interventions. We tried to identify the incidence of
      BM in different stages and subtypes of breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We
      reviewed the clinical records of 2193 consecutive breast cancer patients who
      presented between January 1999 and December 2010. We explored the incidence of BM
      in relation to standard clinicopathological factors, and determined the
      cumulative risk of BM according to the disease stage and phenotype. RESULTS: Of
      the 2193 included women, 160 (7.3%) developed BM at a median follow-up of 5.8
      years. Age younger than 60 years (P = .015), larger tumors (P = .004), lymph node
      (LN) positivity (P < .001), high tumor grade (P = .012), and HER2 positivity (P <
      .001) were associated with higher incidence of BM in the whole population. In
      patients who presented with locoregional disease, 3 factors independently
      predicted BM: large tumors (hazard ratio [HR], 3.60; 95% confidence interval
      [CI], 1.54-8.38; P = .003), axillary LN metastasis (HR, 4.03; 95% CI, 1.91-8.52;
      P < .001), and HER2 positivity (HR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.0-3.41; P = .049). A Brain
      Relapse Index was formulated using those 3 factors, with 5-year cumulative
      incidence of BM of 19.2% in those having the 2 or 3 risk factors versus 2.5% in
      those with no or 1 risk factor (P < .001). In metastatic patients, 3 factors were
      associated with higher risk of BM: HER2 positivity (P = .007), shorter relapse
      free interval (P < .001), and lung metastasis (P < .001). CONCLUSION: Disease
      stage and biological subtypes predict the risk for BM and subsequent treatment
      outcome.

PMID- 28888581
TI  - Treatment Outcomes and Prognostic Factors in Male Patients With Stage IV Breast
      Cancer: A Population-based Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: Male breast cancer (MBC) represents < 1% of breast cancer patients, and
      limited data exists regarding metastatic MBC. To better characterize this patient
      subset, we performed a population-based study examining prognostic factors among
      patients with stage IV MBC. METHODS: Patients with stage IV MBC diagnosed between
      1988 and 2012 were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results
      database. Prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and cause-specific
      survival (CSS) were evaluated. RESULTS: Overall, 394 patients had metastatic
      disease meeting inclusion criteria. The median follow-up was 21 months. The 5
      year OS and CSS rates were 21.1% and 38.3%, respectively. Of those with known
      progesterone receptor (PR) status, 52% were PR-positive, which was associated
      with better OS (P < .001) and CSS (P = .003). Overall, 197 patients (50%)
      received surgery for the primary tumor, and 197 (50%) did not. Patients
      undergoing surgery had longer median CSS than those who did not (36 vs. 21
      months; P < .001). Additional factors that correlated with prolonged OS and CSS
      were smaller tumor size (<= 2 cm; P < .05) and younger age (<= 65 years; P <
      .05). In multivariate analysis, smaller tumor size, PR-positivity, younger age,
      and resection of the primary tumor were associated with longer OS and CSS (P <
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: Although stage IV MBC has poor OS and CSS, patients with PR
      positive disease, younger age (<= 65 years), tumor size <= 2 cm, or who undergo
      surgery of the primary tumor have better OS and CSS. This is the largest study of
      stage IV MBC to date, and these findings address some of the questions regarding
      this rare presentation of breast cancer.

PMID- 28888582
TI  - Hydroxychloroquine as additional treatment in pregnant patients with refractory
      APS.

PMID- 28888583
TI  - Food and Drug Administration warning on anesthesia and brain development:
      implications for obstetric and fetal surgery.
AB  - There has been growing concern about the detrimental effects of certain
      anesthetic agents on the developing brain. Preclinical studies in small animal
      models as well as nonhuman primates suggested loss or death of brain cells and
      consequent impaired neurocognitive function following anesthetic exposure in
      neonates and late gestation fetuses. Human studies in this area are limited and
      currently inconclusive. On Dec. 14, 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration
      issued a warning regarding impaired brain development in children following
      exposure to certain anesthetic agents used for general anesthesia, namely the
      inhalational anesthetics isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane, and the
      intravenous agents propofol and midazolam, in the third trimester of pregnancy.
      Furthermore, this warning recommends that health care professionals should
      balance the benefits of appropriate anesthesia in young children and pregnant
      women against potential risks, especially for procedures that may last >3 hours
      or if multiple procedures are required in children <3 years old. The objective of
      this article is to highlight how the Food and Drug Administration warning may
      impact the anesthetic and surgical management of the obstetric patient. Neuraxial
      anesthesia (epidural or spinal anesthesia) is more commonly administered for
      cesarean delivery than general anesthesia. The short duration of fetal exposure
      to general anesthesia during cesarean delivery has not been associated with
      learning disabilities. However, the fetus can also be exposed to both intravenous
      and inhalation anesthetics during nonobstetric or fetal surgery in the second and
      third trimester; this exposure is typically longer than that for cesarean
      delivery. Very few studies address the effect of anesthetic exposure on the fetus
      in the second trimester when most nonobstetric and fetal surgical procedures are
      performed. It is also unclear how the plasticity of the fetal brain at this stage
      of development will modulate the consequences of anesthetic exposure. Strategies
      that may circumvent possible untoward long-term neurologic effects of anesthesia
      in the baby include: (1) use of nonimplicated (nongamma-aminobutyric acid
      agonist) agents for sedation such as opioids (remifentanil, fentanyl) or the
      alpha-2 agonist, dexmedetomidine, when appropriate; (2) minimizing the duration
      of exposure to inhalational anesthetics for fetal, obstetric, and nonobstetric
      procedures in the pregnant patient, as much as possible within safe limits; and
      (3) commencing surgery promptly and limiting the interval between induction of
      anesthesia and surgery start time will help decrease patient exposure to
      inhalational agents. While the Food and Drug Administration warning was based on
      duration and repetitive nature of exposure rather than concentration of
      inhalational agents, intravenous tocolytics can be considered for intraoperative
      use, to provide uterine relaxation for fetal surgery, in lieu of high
      concentrations of inhalational anesthetic agents. Practitioners should consider
      the type of anesthesia that will be administered and the potential risks when
      scheduling patients for nonobstetric and fetal surgery.

PMID- 28888584
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28888585
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28888586
TI  - Lessons learned from domestic and international human papillomavirus vaccination
      programs: a review.
AB  - Since the development of the human papillomavirus vaccine, many countries have
      created implementation programs to bolster vaccination rates and protect their
      populations. Despite demonstrated efficacy with decreased human papillomavirus
      related disease abroad, the vaccine's potential to prevent morbidity and
      mortality in the United States is not being met. The purpose of this review is to
      discuss strategies of both international and domestic vaccination programs, their
      impact on human papillomavirus-related diseases, the unique obstacles faced by
      the United States, and future directions for success.

PMID- 28888587
TI  - Reply.

PMID- 28888588
TI  - Variation in waiting period for Medicaid postpartum sterilizations: results of a
      national survey of obstetricians-gynecologists.

PMID- 28888590
TI  - Effective evidence-based medicine: considering factors not included in research
      studies.

PMID- 28888589
TI  - Beyond the traditional models of group prenatal care: the case for Moms2B.

PMID- 28888591
TI  - Aspirin for Evidence-Based Preeclampsia Prevention trial: influence of compliance
      on beneficial effect of aspirin in prevention of preterm preeclampsia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Aspirin for Evidence-Based Preeclampsia Prevention trial was a
      multicenter study in women with singleton pregnancies. Screening was carried out
      at 11-13 weeks' gestation with an algorithm that combines maternal factors and
      biomarkers (mean arterial pressure, uterine artery pulsatility index, and
      maternal serum pregnancy-associated plasma protein A and placental growth
      factor). Those with an estimated risk for preterm preeclampsia of >1 in 100 were
      invited to participate in a double-blind trial of aspirin (150 mg/d) vs placebo
      from 11-14 until 36 weeks' gestation. Preterm preeclampsia with delivery at <37
      weeks' gestation, which was the primary outcome, occurred in 1.6% (13/798)
      participants in the aspirin group, as compared with 4.3% (35/822) in the placebo
      group (odds ratio in the aspirin group, 0.38; 95% confidence interval, 0.20 to
      0.74). OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine the influence of compliance on the
      beneficial effect of aspirin in prevention of preterm preeclampsia in the Aspirin
      for Evidence-Based Preeclampsia Prevention trial. STUDY DESIGN: This was a
      secondary analysis of data from the trial. The proportion of prescribed tablets
      taken was used as an overall measure of compliance. Logistic regression analysis
      was used to estimate the effect of aspirin on the incidence of preterm
      preeclampsia according to compliance of <90% and >=90%, after adjustment for the
      estimated risk of preterm preeclampsia at screening and the participating center.
      The choice of cut-off of 90% was based on an exploratory analysis of the
      treatment effect. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate predictors
      of compliance >=90% among maternal characteristics and medical history. RESULTS:
      Preterm preeclampsia occurred in 5/555 (0.9%) participants in the aspirin group
      with compliance >=90%, in 8/243 (3.3%) of participants in the aspirin group with
      compliance <90%, in 22/588 (3.7%) of participants in the placebo group with
      compliance >=90%, and in 13/234 (5.6%) of participants in the placebo group with
      compliance <90%. The odds ratio in the aspirin group for preterm preeclampsia was
      0.24 (95% confidence interval, 0.09-0.65) for compliance >=90% and 0.59 (95%
      confidence interval, 0.23-1.53) for compliance <90%. Compliance was positively
      associated with family history of preeclampsia and negatively associated with
      smoking, maternal age <25 years, Afro-Caribbean and South Asian racial origin,
      and history of preeclampsia in a previous pregnancy. CONCLUSION: The beneficial
      effect of aspirin in the prevention of preterm preeclampsia appears to depend on
      compliance.

PMID- 28888593
TI  - Digestibility and clover proportion determine milk production when silages of
      different grass and clover species are fed to dairy cows.
AB  - This study examined how silages of different grass and clover species affect dry
      matter (DM) intake, milk production, and eating behavior in dairy cows. The
      primary growth of perennial ryegrass (early and late harvested), festulolium,
      tall fescue, red clover, and white clover swards were cut, wilted, and ensiled
      without additives. Thirty-six Danish Holstein cows were fed ad libitum with total
      mixed rations containing 70% forage on DM basis in an incomplete Latin square
      design. The forage source was either 1 of the 6 pure silages or late perennial
      ryegrass silage mixed (50:50 on DM basis) with either red clover or white clover
      silage. Intake of DM, milk yield, and milk lactose concentration were higher,
      whereas milk fat and protein concentrations were lower when cows were fed clover
      compared with grass. No differences in DM intake and milk composition were
      detected between cows fed red clover and white clover, but white clover resulted
      in higher milk yield than red clover. Lower body weight, probably caused by lower
      rumen fill, in cows fed pure white clover compared with the other treatments
      indicated that intake was regulated physiologically instead of physically. Cows
      fed early perennial ryegrass, which had the highest silage organic matter
      digestibility (OMD), did not produce the expected amount of energy-corrected milk
      (ECM) compared with the other treatments based on the amount of OM digested in
      the gastrointestinal tract, but the reason was unclear. Across all other grass
      species, ECM was related to OMD. Inclusion of 50% clover in the diet increased
      ECM with 2.3 kg/d, and the response to OMD was comparable to the response for the
      grass silages. In situ fiber degradation profile parameters indicated that fiber
      in festulolium differed compared with fiber in the other grass species and
      resembled fiber in clover. Drinking and eating behavior differed markedly in cows
      fed pure white clover compared with the other treatments. Water intake per
      drinking bout was comparable among treatments, but cows fed pure white clover had
      higher drinking bout duration and reduced drinking rate. Additionally, meal size
      was smaller for cows fed pure white clover compared with the other treatments,
      for which meal size was similar. In conclusion, differences in ECM between
      different grass species can be explained by differences in OMD, and at a given
      OMD level inclusion of clover in the diet increased ECM.

PMID- 28888592
TI  - Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug resistance in dysmenorrhea: epidemiology,
      causes, and treatment.
AB  - Although nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs can alleviate menstrual pain, about
      18% of women with dysmenorrhea are unresponsive, leaving them and their
      physicians to pursue less well-studied strategies. The goal of this review is to
      provide a background for treating menstrual pain when first-line options fail.
      Research on menstrual pain and failure of similar drugs in the antiplatelet
      category suggested potential mechanisms underlying nonsteroidal antiinflammatory
      drug resistance. Based on these mechanisms, alternative options may be helpful
      for refractory cases. This review also identifies key pathways in need of further
      study to optimize menstrual pain treatment.

PMID- 28888594
TI  - Plasma concentrations of glucagon-like peptide 1 and 2 in calves fed calf
      starters containing lactose.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of lactose inclusion in
      calf starters on plasma glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 and GLP-2 concentrations
      and gastrointestinal tract development in calves. Holstein bull calves (n = 45)
      were raised on an intensified nursing program using milk replacer containing
      28.0% CP and 15.0% fat, and were fed a texturized calf starter containing 0
      (control), 5.0 (LAC5), or 10.0% (LAC10; n = 15 for each treatment) lactose on a
      DM basis. Lactose was included in the starter by partially replacing dry ground
      corn in pelleted portion of the starter. All calf starters were formulated with
      23.1% CP. The ethanol-soluble carbohydrate concentrations of the control, LAC5,
      and LAC10 starters were 7.3, 12.3, and 16.8% on a DM basis, respectively. Starch
      concentrations of the control, LAC5, and LAC10 starters were 29.7, 27.0, and
      21.4% on a DM basis, respectively. All calves were fed treatment calf starters ad
      libitum. Blood samples were obtained weekly from 1 to 11 wk of age, and used to
      measure plasma GLP-1, GLP-2, and insulin concentrations, serum beta
      hydroxybutyrate (BHB) concentration, and blood glucose concentration. At 80 d of
      age, calves were euthanized, and weights of the reticulorumen, omasum, abomasum,
      small intestine, and large intestine tissue were measured. Serum BHB
      concentration was higher for calves fed the LAC10 (171 MUmol/L) starter than for
      those fed the control (151 MUmol/L) and LAC5 (145 MUmol/L) starters. Plasma GLP-1
      and GLP-2 concentrations did not differ between treatments. However, relative to
      the baseline (1 wk of age), the plasma GLP-1 concentration was higher for the
      LAC10 (125.9%) than for the LAC5 (68.2%) and control (36.8%), and for the LAC5
      than for the control (36.8%). Moreover, similar differences between treatments
      were observed for GLP-2 concentration relative to the baseline (88.2, 76.9, and
      74.9% for LAC10, LAC5, and control treatments, respectively). The serum BHB
      concentration was positively correlated with the plasma GLP-1 concentration (r =
      0.428). Furthermore, the plasma GLP-1 concentration was positively correlated
      with the insulin concentration (r = 0.793). The weights of the reticulorumen,
      omasum, abomasum, small intestine, and large intestine were not affected by the
      treatments. In conclusion, inclusion of lactose in calf starters resulted in
      higher plasma GLP-1 and GLP-2 concentrations, and BHB might be associated with
      higher plasma GLP-1 concentration.

PMID- 28888595
TI  - Short communication: The diurnal intake and behavior of dairy cows when access to
      a feed of consistent nutritive value is restricted.
AB  - The diurnal variation in pasture nutritive value adds a confounding factor to
      studies elucidating the effect of time of day on behavior. Our work separates the
      effect of time of day on both feeding and lying patterns for cows outdoors to
      enable the alignment of feeding behavior with feed management. We determined the
      diurnal intake patterns and behavior of dairy cows when the nutritive value of
      feed remained constant throughout 24 h in an outdoor environment, and when feed
      access was restricted. Nine nonlactating Holstein-Friesian cows (live weight 626
      +/- 53 kg, age 96 +/- 33 mo; mean +/- SD) were split into 3 groups of 3 and
      offered lucerne hay cubes (cube volume 32 mm3) ad libitum according to 3
      treatments: full access (FA, feed access 24 h), day access (DA, feed access
      between 0600 and 1800 h), and night access (NA, feed access between 1800 and 0600
      h). Treatments were applied to individual cows in a crossover design with 7-d
      periods. During the last 4 d of each period, data were collected on feed intake,
      as well as feeding and lying behaviors. Total daily intake was greater for cows
      on the FA treatment (3.5% of BW) compared with the DA and NA treatments at 3.1
      and 2.9% of BW, respectively. The cows with FA consumed 69% of their total intake
      during the day (0600-1800 h), with the greatest intake (39%) occurring during
      1200 to 1800 h and only 12% of intake occurring during 2400 to 0600 h. Cows with
      DA consumed 56% of feed during 0600 to 1200 h and 44% during 1200 to 1800 h. In
      contrast, NA cows consumed more feed (74%) during the first 6 h period (1800-2400
      h), thus maximizing lying time between 2400 and 0600 h. The time spent lying
      throughout daylight periods varied between treatments; however, total daily lying
      time was similar across the 3 treatments. This experiment shows the feeding and
      lying behaviors of cows when feed quality remains constant throughout 24 h, which
      will assist the formulation of variable feed allocation strategies for future
      testing in both robotic and conventional milking systems. Varying the quantity of
      feed offered throughout 24 h may benefit robot utilization at night in automatic
      milking systems through increased feeding activity, and as we observed, is likely
      to have little effect on lying time or DMI, with cows readily adapting to changes
      in feed management. Conversely, aligning feed on offer with preferred feeding
      time in conventional milking systems may increase the intake of high quality
      pasture.

PMID- 28888596
TI  - Relative importance of herd-level risk factors for probability of infection with
      paratuberculosis in Irish dairy herds.
AB  - Control of paratuberculosis is challenging due to the relatively poor performance
      of diagnostic tests, a prolonged incubation period, and protracted environmental
      survival. Prioritization of herd-level interventions is not possible because
      putative risk factors are often not supported by risk factor studies. The
      objective for this study was to investigate the relative importance of risk
      factors for an increased probability of herd paratuberculosis infection. Risk
      assessment data, comprehensive animal purchase history, and diagnostic test data
      were available for 936 Irish dairy herds. Both logistic regression and a Bayesian
      beta regression on the outcome of a latent class analysis were conducted.
      Population attributable fractions and proportional reduction in variance
      explained were calculated for each variable in the logistic and Bayesian models,
      respectively. Routine use of the calving area for sick or lame cows was found to
      be a significant explanatory covariate in both models. Purchasing behavior for
      the previous 10 yr was not found to be significant. For the logistic model,
      length of time calves spend in the calving pen (25%) and routine use of the
      calving pen for sick or lame animals (14%) had the highest attributable
      fractions. For the Bayesian model, the overall R2 was 16%. Dry cow cleanliness
      (7%) and routine use of the calving area for sick or lame cows (6%) and had the
      highest proportional reduction in variance explained. These findings provide
      support for several management practices commonly recommended as part of
      paratuberculosis control programs; however, a large proportion of the observed
      variation in probability of infection remained unexplained, suggesting other
      important risks factors may exist.

PMID- 28888597
TI  - Symposium review: Mechanisms linking metabolic stress with innate immunity in the
      endometrium.
AB  - Bacterial infections of the uterus after parturition are ubiquitous in dairy
      cattle and often cause uterine disease, such as metritis or endometritis.
      However, the metabolic stress associated with milk production increases the risk
      of developing disease. Resolution of bacterial infections requires rapid and
      robust innate immune responses, which depend on host cell receptors recognizing
      pathogen-associated molecular patterns, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from
      gram-negative bacteria. Here, we argue that metabolic stress impairs the
      inflammatory response to pathogens. Glucose and glutamine are the major energy
      sources for cells, but their abundance is reduced in postpartum dairy cows.
      Furthermore, inflammatory responses exacerbate metabolic stress, with animals and
      tissues consuming more glucose when challenged with LPS. However, depriving
      endometrial tissue of glucose or glutamine impairs the secretion of IL-1beta, IL
      6, and IL-8 in response to pathogen-associated molecular patterns. Glycolysis and
      the intracellular sensor of energy, AMP-activated protein kinase, are important
      for the response to LPS because perturbing glycolysis or AMP-activated protein
      kinase activity reduces the secretion of IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-8 in the
      endometrium. The mevalonate pathway for cellular cholesterol synthesis may also
      be linked to immunity, as inhibition of the terminal enzyme in the pathway,
      squalene synthase, reduces inflammatory responses to pathogenic bacteria and LPS.
      In contrast, only modest effects on inflammation are found when modulating the
      sensor of cellular nutrient satiety, mammalian target of rapamycin, or the
      endocrine regulator of metabolism, insulin-like growth factor-1. We suggest that
      stressing cellular metabolism increases the risk of uterine disease by impairing
      endometrial defenses.

PMID- 28888598
TI  - Effect of hoof trimmer intervention in moderately lame cows on lameness
      progression and milk yield.
AB  - The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of hoof trimmer
      intervention (HTI) in moderately lame cows on lameness progression and milk
      yield. Two freestall Holstein herds were enrolled. Cows were milked 2 (herd A:
      2,374 cows) or 3 (herd B: 2,800 cows) times a day. Within each dairy, moderately
      lame cows [locomotion score (LS) = 3 on a 5-point scale] were randomly assigned
      to control group (CON; herd A = 66, herd B = 84) or treatment group (HTI;
      evaluated and treated by the hoof trimmer under researchers' supervision; herd A
      = 73; herd B = 75). Enrollment criteria were <350 d in milk, <180 d pregnant, >10
      kg/d of milk yield, not selected for therapeutic trimming 2 mo before enrollment,
      and >14 observations of daily milk yield during the study period. Biweekly
      lameness scoring (LS <=2, LS = 3, LS >=4) was conducted up to 6 wk post
      intervention. Lesion type and severity records were collected at intervention
      from HTI cows and up to 6 wk post-intervention from all enrolled cows identified
      as lame by farm employees. Daily milk yield data were collected from -1 to 6 wk
      relative to intervention using Afifarm (Afimilk Ltd., Kibbutz Afikim, Israel)
      records. No treatment effect was detected on the predicted probability of
      locomotion score, but the predicted probability of LS >=3 decreased over time in
      herd B, whereas in herd A, it initially decreased but later increased. A tendency
      for a treatment by time interaction was observed in herd A; at 2 wk post
      intervention, the predicted probability for LS >=3 was higher for HTI (0.69) than
      for CON (0.43), but similar at 4 wk (0.41 HTI, 0.49 CON) and 6 wk (0.77 HTI, 0.73
      CON). At intervention, most study cows had no lesions (41.2%), sole hemorrhages
      (28.4%), thin soles (8.8%), or vertical fissure (6.8%). During the 6 wk following
      intervention, a similar proportion of cows were identified as lame in CON (8.7%)
      and HTI (6.7%) groups. In herd A, milk yield (least squares means +/- standard
      error) was similar for CON (42.0 +/- 0.77 kg/d) and HTI (42.3 +/- 0.75 kg/d)
      cows, whereas in herd B, it tended to be lower for HTI (43.7 +/- 0.61 kg/d) than
      for CON (45.2 +/- 0.59 kg/d) cows. A significant effect of time was detected on
      both dairies, with milk yield decreasing over the study period. In our study,
      implementing HTI on moderately lame cows resulted in no improvement in gait or
      milk yield. The low presence of severe lesions amenable to therapy may partially
      explain our findings.

PMID- 28888599
TI  - Management, operational, animal health, and economic characteristics of large
      dairy herds in 4 states in the Upper Midwest of the United States.
AB  - Recent trends in dairy farm structure in the United States have included a
      decreasing number of farms, although farm size has increased, especially the
      share of milk production from very large herds (>2,500 cows). The objectives of
      this observational study were to describe common management practices; to
      characterize labor and operational structure; to measure some aspects of animal
      health, including lameness, hock lesions, mortality, and mastitis incidence; and
      to summarize cost of production on farms with more than 2,500 cows in 4 states in
      the Upper Midwest of the United States. The study included 15 dairy farms in
      Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota. Farms were visited twice, once each
      year, and on-farm herd records were collected for those 2 yr. On-farm herd
      records were used to investigate mortality, culling, pregnancy rate, and clinical
      mastitis incidence. At least 1 high-producing pen of mature cows and 1 pen of
      fresh cows were scored for locomotion. Likewise, at least 1 pen of high-producing
      mature cows was scored for cleanliness and hock lesions. Median herd size was
      3,975 cows (range = 2,606-13,266). Milk sold per employee was 1,120,745 kg and
      the number of cows per employee was 105. Eighty percent of the farms had Holstein
      cows, 13% had Jersey, and 7% had Jersey-Holstein crosses. All farms used
      artificial insemination as the sole form of breeding and 100% of the farms used
      hormonal synchronization or timed artificial insemination programs in their
      reproductive protocols; 21-d pregnancy rate was 21.7%. Median lameness prevalence
      was 18.3% and median severe lameness prevalence was 5.1%. Median hock lesion
      prevalence was 17.4% and median severe hock lesion prevalence was 1.9%; mortality
      rate was 7.4%. Clinical mastitis incidence was 62.5 cases per 100 cow-years. Feed
      costs accounted for approximately 53% of the total cost of producing milk,
      followed by labor at 11%, interest and depreciation expenses at 10%, and
      replacement costs at 9.5%. Herds in the top 50th percentile for profitability had
      a net income of $2.40 per hundredweight of milk sold compared with $0.95 per
      hundredweight for herds in the bottom 50th percentile. Although results of this
      study were helpful in understanding how large dairy systems operate in the Upper
      Midwest, more research is yet needed with a larger number of farms and wider
      variety of management practices to identify factors within these large farms that
      promote optimal animal health and profitability.

PMID- 28888600
TI  - Effects of egg yolk inclusion, milk replacer feeding rate, and low-starch
      (pelleted) or high-starch (texturized) starter on Holstein calf performance
      through 4 months of age.
AB  - The objectives of this research were to evaluate milk replacer (MR) feeding
      rates, alternative protein and fat sources in MR, and calf starter starch
      concentration and their effects on calf performance to 4 mo of age. Male Holstein
      calves (42.6 +/- 1.2 kg of body weight; n = 192) were assigned at 3 d of age to 1
      of 8 treatments in a randomized complete block design with a 2 * 2 * 2 factorial
      arrangement of treatments. Factors tested from d 0 to 56 (nursery) were low or
      high MR feeding rates, 0 or 10% inclusion of spray-dried egg yolks in MR, and low
      or high-starch calf starter. The low MR rate was 0.66 kg of dry matter (DM) fed
      for 39 d followed by 0.33 kg of DM for 3 d. The high MR rate was 0.87 kg of DM
      fed for 5 d, 1.08 kg of DM for 37 d, and 0.43 kg of DM for 7 d. The MR contained
      27.5% crude protein and 19.6% fat (DM basis) and starters were 21.2% crude
      protein; low starch was a complete pellet with 10.2% starch, and high starch was
      textured using whole corn and oats with 43.3% starch. From d 56 to 112 (grower),
      calves were randomly assigned to pens (4 calves/pen) maintaining MR rate and
      starch content while stratifying yolk treatments within pen, resulting in a 2 * 2
      factorial arrangement. Starter was blended with 5% chopped hay during the grower
      trial. Fecal scores and medical treatments were recorded daily. In the nursery
      trial, calves were weighed initially and weekly thereafter. Hip width and body
      condition score (BCS) were measured initially and every 2 wk thereafter. In the
      grower trial, body weight, hip width, and BCS were measured on d 56, 84, and 112.
      Data were analyzed as repeated measures with calf (nursery) or pen (grower) as
      the experimental unit. Calf average daily gain, hip width, and BCS change were
      greater for calves fed high versus low MR, 0 versus 10% yolk, and high versus low
      starch in the nursery. In the grower trial, calves fed low MR and high starch had
      the greatest average daily gain (1.09 vs. 0.87 kg/d) and hip width change (5.4
      vs. 3.9 cm) compared with calves fed low MR and low starch with other treatments
      intermediate. From 0 to 112 d, calves fed high MR had 9% greater body weight gain
      and 4% greater hip width change than calves fed low MR, yet nutrient efficiency
      was similar despite 80% more MR intake than calves fed low MR. Additionally,
      calves fed high-starch starter achieved 18% greater body weight gain and 17%
      greater hip width than calves fed low starch starter overall, a more than 2-fold
      greater response than the effect of MR feeding rate.

PMID- 28888601
TI  - Interaction of potassium carbonate and soybean oil supplementation on performance
      of early-lactation dairy cows fed a high-concentrate diet.
AB  - Potassium carbonate supplementation is known to improve milk fat synthesis and to
      modify milk mineral composition in dairy cows. The objective of the current
      experiment was to evaluate the effect of K2CO3 on production performance,
      biohydrogenation of fatty acids (FA), and mineral composition of milk in early
      lactation dairy cows fed a high-concentrate diet with or without soybean oil
      (SBO), as a source of polyunsaturated FA. Twenty-eight ruminally fistulated
      Holstein cows were used in a randomized complete block design. The experiment
      lasted 33 d, including a 5-d pretreatment collection period used as a covariate.
      Experimental treatments were arranged as a 2 * 2 factorial with 0 or 1.5% K2CO3
      and with 0 or 2% SBO, and balanced to contain 40% forage (57% corn silage + 43%
      grass silage) and 60% concentrate. Preplanned orthogonal contrasts were used to
      assess the effects of K2CO3, SBO, and their interaction. Feeding K2CO3 did not
      affect milk yield, but tended to increase 4% fat-corrected milk and fat yield
      when combined with SBO. However, adding SBO to diets increased milk yield.
      Dietary K2CO3 supplementation did not affect milk fat concentration of trans-10
      18:1 or any other identified biohydrogenation intermediates. Soybean oil
      supplementation decreased milk fat concentration of C16 and de novo synthesized
      FA, and increased preformed FA. Among the other effects of SBO supplementation
      observed, concentrations of cis-9,trans-11 18:2 increased, as well as most of the
      cis and trans isomers of 18:1 and 18:0. Milk urea N decreased in cows fed K2CO3
      as compared with unsupplemented diets. A positive relation was established
      between milk Cl concentration and milk yield, suggesting that the equilibrium of
      this ion is linked to the efficiency of lactogenesis. The effect of K2CO3 on this
      mineral equilibrium in the mammary gland remains to be established. Overall,
      results have shown that potential effect of K2CO3 on milk fat synthesis is
      dependent on the levels of dietary polyunsaturated FA.

PMID- 28888602
TI  - Properties of acid gels made from sodium caseinate-maltodextrin conjugates
      prepared by a wet heating method.
AB  - Covalent attachment of polysaccharides to proteins (conjugation) via the Maillard
      reaction has been extensively studied. Conjugation can lead to a significant
      improvement in protein functionality (e.g., solubility, emulsification, and heat
      stability). Caseins have previously been successfully conjugated with
      maltodextrin (Md), but the effect on the detailed acid gelation properties has
      not been examined. We studied the effect of conjugating sodium caseinate (NaCN)
      with 3 different sized Md samples via the Maillard reaction in aqueous solutions.
      The Md samples had dextrose equivalents of 4 to 7, 9 to 12, and 20 to 23 for
      Md40, Md100, and Md200, respectively. The conjugation reaction was performed in
      mixtures with 5% NaCN and 5% Md, which were heated at 90 degrees C for 10 h. The
      degree of conjugation was estimated from the reduction in free amino groups as
      well as color changes. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE analysis was performed to
      confirm conjugation by employing staining of both protein and carbohydrate bands.
      The molar mass of samples was determined by size-exclusion chromatography coupled
      with multi-angle laser light scattering. After the conjugation reaction, samples
      were then gelled by the addition of 0.63% (wt/vol) glucono-delta-lactone at 30
      degrees C, such that samples reached pH 4.6 after about 13 h. The rheological
      properties of samples during acidification was monitored by small-strain dynamic
      oscillatory rheology. The microstructure of acid gels at pH 4.6 was examined by
      fluorescence microscopy. Conjugation resulted in a loss of 10.8, 8.8, and 11.9%
      of the available amino groups in the protein for the NaCN-Md40 conjugates (C40),
      NaCN-Md100 conjugates (C100), and NaCN-Md100 conjugates (C200), respectively.
      With a decrease in the size of the type of Md, an increase occurred in the molar
      mass of the resultant conjugate. The weight average molar masses of NaCN-Md
      samples were 340, 368, and 425 kDa for the conjugates C40, C100, and C200,
      respectively. Addition of Md to NaCN dispersion resulted in slightly shorter acid
      gelation times even without the conjugation reaction. The storage modulus (G') of
      acid gels was significantly lower in conjugated samples compared with the
      corresponding (unreacted) mixtures of Md and NaCN. The sample with the lowest G'
      value at pH 4.6 was the C40 conjugate. Fluorescence microscopy showed that gels
      made by conjugates had slightly larger pores. These results indicate that
      conjugation of casein modified its acid gelation properties, presumably by the Md
      polysaccharide moiety hindering aggregation and rearrangements of the casein
      network.

PMID- 28888603
TI  - Potential factors involved in virulence of Cronobacter sakazakii isolates by
      comparative transcriptome analysis.
AB  - Cronobacter species are important foodborne pathogens causing severe infections
      in neonates through consumption of contaminated powdered infant formula. However,
      the virulence-associated factors in Cronobacter are largely unknown. In this
      study, the transcriptome analysis between highly virulent Cronobacter sakazakii
      G362 and attenuated L3101 strains was used to reveal the potential factors
      involved in virulence. The total transcripts were grouped into 20 clusters of
      orthologous group categories and summarized in 3 gene ontology categories
      (biological process, cellular component, and molecular function). In addition,
      the differentially expressed genes (DEG) between these isolates were analyzed
      using Volcano plots and gene ontology enrichment. The predominant DEG were
      flagella-associated genes such as flhD, motA, flgM, flgB, and fliC. Furthermore,
      the expression abundance of outer membrane protein or lipoprotein genes (ompW,
      slyB, blc, tolC, and lolA), potential virulence-related factors (hlyIII and hha),
      and regulation factors (sdiA, cheY, Bss, fliZ) was also significantly different
      between G362 and L3101. Interestingly, 3 hypothetical protein genes (ESA_01022,
      ESA_01609, and ESA_00609) were found to be expressed only in G362. Our findings
      provide valuable transcriptomic information about potential virulence factor
      genes, which will be needed in future molecular biology studies designed to
      understand the pathogenic mechanism of Cronobacter.

PMID- 28888604
TI  - Neglect of lactation stage leads to naive assessment of residual feed intake in
      dairy cattle.
AB  - Residual feed intake (RFI) is a candidate trait for feed efficiency in dairy
      cattle. We investigated the influence of lactation stage on the effect of energy
      sinks in defining RFI and the genetic parameters for RFI across lactation stages
      for primiparous dairy cattle. Our analysis included 747 primiparous Holstein
      cows, each with recordings on dry matter intake (DMI), milk yield, milk
      composition, and body weight (BW) over 44 lactation weeks. For each individual
      cow, energy-corrected milk (ECM), metabolic BW (MBW), and change in BW (DeltaBW)
      were calculated in each week of lactation and were taken as energy sinks when
      defining RFI. Two RFI models were considered in the analyses; RFI model [1] was a
      1-step RFI model with constant partial regression coefficients of DMI on energy
      sinks (ECM, MBW, and DeltaBW) over lactation. In RFI model [2], data from 44
      lactation weeks were divided into 11 consecutive lactation periods of 4 wk in
      length. The RFI model [2] was identical to model [1] except that period-specific
      partial regressions of DMI on ECM, MBW, and DeltaBW in each lactation period were
      allowed across lactation. We estimated genetic parameters for RFI across
      lactation by both models using a random regression method. Using RFI model [2],
      we estimated the period-specific effects of ECM, MBW, and DeltaBW on DMI in all
      lactation periods. Based on results from RFI model [2], the partial regression
      coefficients of DMI on ECM, MBW, and DeltaBW differed across lactation in RFI.
      Constant partial regression coefficients of DMI on energy sinks over lactation
      was not always sufficient to account for the effects across lactation and tended
      to give roughly average information from all period-specific effects.
      Heritability for RFI over 44 lactation weeks ranged from 0.10 to 0.29 in model
      [1] and from 0.10 to 0.23 in model [2]. Genetic variance and heritability
      estimates for RFI from model [2] tended to be slightly lower and more stable
      across lactation than those from model [1]. In both models, RFI was genetically
      different over lactation, especially between early and later lactation stages.
      Genetic correlation estimates for RFI between early and later lactation tended to
      be higher when using model [2] compared with model [1]. In conclusion, partial
      regression coefficients of DMI on energy sinks differed across lactation when
      modeling RFI. Neglect of lactation stage when defining RFI could affect the
      assessment of RFI and the estimation of genetic parameters for RFI across
      lactation.

PMID- 28888605
TI  - Effects of profound acidemia on the dynamic glucose and insulin response and
      plasma potassium and phosphorus concentrations during an intravenous glucose
      tolerance test in neonatal calves.
AB  - Acidemia and electrolyte imbalances such as hyperkalemia are common in neonatal
      calves with diarrhea. Acidemia negatively affects the cellular response to
      insulin and may therefore result in deranged glucose, potassium, and phosphorus
      homeostasis. The primary aim of this study was to compare indices that
      characterize the dynamic glucose and insulin response between acidemic and
      nonacidemic neonatal diarrheic calves and a healthy control group during an
      intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) that consisted of i.v. administration
      of 0.3 g of glucose per kg of body weight. Secondary aims were to characterize
      the associated changes in plasma potassium and phosphorus concentrations. The
      effect of correction of profound acidemia with a sodium bicarbonate containing
      infusion on these parameters was also assessed. Thirty calves (age <=21 d) were
      purposively assigned to one of the following groups: 10 calves with diarrhea and
      profound acidemia (venous blood pH <7.20) where an IVGTT was performed before and
      after treatment with sodium bicarbonate, 10 calves with diarrhea and minimal acid
      base disturbance (venous blood pH >7.35), and 10 healthy control calves.
      Profoundly acidemic diarrheic calves (jugular venous blood pH 6.99 +/- 0.10) had
      a similar initial increase in plasma insulin concentration to that in healthy
      control calves or nonacidemic calves with diarrhea. However, insulin
      concentrations remained relatively stable in acidemic calves between 15 and 60
      min after the start of the IVGTT, whereas a marked decrease in plasma insulin
      concentrations occurred in all other groups during the same period of time. We
      conclude that acidemia does not alter cell glucose availability or the dynamic
      response of glucose, phosphorus, and potassium to insulin; however, acidemia
      markedly prolongs plasma insulin concentrations following an IVGTT through an
      unidentified mechanism. Results of this study emphasize the importance of
      correcting acidemia and metabolic acidosis in neonatal calves with diarrhea.

PMID- 28888606
TI  - Preovulatory follicle characteristics and oocyte competence in repeat breeder
      dairy cows.
AB  - The varied and elusive etiology of repeat breeding (RB) in dairy cows
      necessitates evaluation of oocytes and follicles, which have not previously been
      assessed together. Accordingly, we evaluated characteristics of preovulatory
      follicles and the competence of oocytes in control (CTL) and RB cows. The estrous
      cycles of 35 cows (18 CTL and 17 RB) were synchronized using PGF2alpha and estrus
      detection. Cows with a corpus luteum were treated with PGF2alpha and, 14 to 15 d
      after a visible behavioral estrus, they were administered a second PGF2alpha,
      followed 48 h later by follicular fluid (FF) aspiration of the preovulatory
      follicles. Estradiol (E2)-active preovulatory follicles did not differ in
      diameter between the 2 groups of cows. However, FF of RB cows had higher E2
      concentrations than that of CTL cows: 1,854.9 and 1,073.6 ng/mL, respectively,
      but similar androstenedione and progesterone concentrations. In the second part
      of the study, 14 consecutive ovum pick-ups (OPU) were performed in 5 CTL and 5 RB
      cows, at 3- to 4-d intervals. The RB and CTL cows did not differ in average
      numbers of follicles available per cow per session (7.1 and 7.3, respectively),
      oocyte recovery rates (42.2 and 44.1%, respectively), or cleavage rates (57.6 and
      63.4%, respectively), but blastocyst production was markedly less in RB than in
      CTL cows (12.5 and 29.2%, respectively). We conclude that part of the RB cows'
      etiology occurs at an earlier phase of folliculogenesis, thereby impairing oocyte
      competence, and subsequently reducing the probability of normal fertilization,
      which diminish embryo vitality and development.

PMID- 28888607
TI  - Effect of increasing amounts of milk replacer powder added to whole milk on
      postweaning performance, reproduction, glucose metabolism, and mammary fat pad in
      dairy heifers.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of increasing the total solids
      (TS) content of liquid feed, by adding increasing amounts of milk replacer powder
      to whole milk, on age at puberty and postweaning performance, glucose metabolism,
      and mammary fat pad of dairy heifers. Crossbreed Holstein * Gyr heifers (n = 58)
      were distributed into 4 different treatments during the preweaning period.
      Treatments consisted of liquid feeds with TS content of 12.5 (actual TS = 13.5 +/
      0.53%; n = 15), 15.0 (actual TS = 16.1 +/- 0.03%; n = 15), 17.5 (actual TS =
      18.2 +/- 0.14%; n = 13), or 20.0% (actual TS = 20.4 +/- 0.24%; n = 15), which
      were provided up to 59 d old. From 60 to 89 d old, the animals received the same
      starter offered during the preweaning period in addition to corn silage ad
      libitum starting at 70 d old. From 90 to 104 d old, the animals were adapted to a
      total mixed ration. At 105 d old, the animals were distributed in 4 paddocks
      equipped with electronic feed and water bins and were fed the same total mixed
      ration ad libitum. A period of adaptation to the electronic feed bins occurred
      from 105 to 119 d old. Feed and water intake and body weight and body frame
      development were assessed until puberty. Mammary gland evaluations were performed
      monthly by ultrasonography from 120 d of age until puberty onset. Puberty onset
      was determined as plasma progesterone concentration greater than 1 ng/mL in 2
      consecutive samples collected 7 d apart. The date of puberty onset was recorded
      as the collection day of the first of these samples. A glucose tolerance test was
      performed at 280 d of age. The increased TS content of the liquid feed fed during
      the preweaning period did not affect dry matter intake, performance, age at
      puberty, glucose metabolism, or mammary gland fat pad at later stages of rearing
      process. Conversely, hip width and heart girth increased linearly up to 150 and
      240 d of age, respectively, as a result of the increased TS concentration of the
      liquid feed during the preweaning period.

PMID- 28888608
TI  - Effect of dietary flax seed and oil on milk yield, gross composition, and fatty
      acid profile in dairy cows: A meta-analysis and meta-regression.
AB  - Several experiments were conducted over the past few years to evaluate the
      feeding value of flax seed and oil in dairy cow diets. The current meta-analysis
      and meta-regression was undertaken to assess the overall effect of different
      forms of flax, as a source of trienoic (cis-9,cis-12,cis-15 18:3) fatty acids
      (FA), on lactation performance and on transfer efficiency of its constituent n-3
      FA from diet to milk fat. Comparisons were first conducted with nonsupplemented
      controls or with diets containing either saturated (mainly 16:0 or 18:0 or both),
      monoenoic (mainly cis-9 18:1), or dienoic (mainly cis-9,cis-12 18:2) FA. Results
      indicate that supplementing flax seed and oil decreased dry matter intake, as
      well as actual and energy-corrected milk yield without affecting the efficiency
      of utilization of dietary dry matter or energy as compared with nonsupplemented
      iso-energetic controls. When compared with the other 3 types of dietary fat
      evaluated, flax rich in trienoic FA supported a yield of energy-corrected milk
      similar to supplements rich in saturated, monoenoic, or dienoic FA. Greater milk
      fat concentration and feed efficiency were observed with saturated supplements.
      However, milk fat concentration and yield were lower with dienoic FA than with
      flax supplements. Further analyses were conducted to compare the effect of
      different forms of flax oil, seed, or fractions of seed. Among the 6 categories
      evaluated, mechanically processed whole seed (rolled or ground) allowed the
      greatest yield of energy-corrected milk and the best feed efficiency when
      compared with free oil, intact or extruded whole seed, protected flax, and flax
      hulls. Feeding protected flax and flax hulls allowed the greatest milk fat
      concentration of cis-9,cis-12,cis-15 18:3. Moreover, the greatest transfer
      efficiencies of this fatty acid from diet to milk were recorded with the same 2
      treatments, plus the mechanically processed whole seed. These results make this
      last category the most suitable treatment, among the 6 flax forms evaluated, to
      combine optimum lactation performance and protection of flax constituent cis
      9,cis-12,cis-15 18:3.

PMID- 28888609
TI  - Consumers' perceptions toward 3 different fermented dairy products: Insights from
      focus groups, word association, and projective mapping.
AB  - Yogurts, fermented milk beverages, and fermented milks have great similarity and
      are widely accepted by Brazilian population, but the factors that influence their
      choice and consumption are unknown. In this sense, the present study aimed to
      identify the main aspects involved in consumers' perception of 3 different
      products, comparing the findings by using the 2 fast qualitative methods, word
      association and projective mapping, and a standard method, focus group. The tasks
      were performed by different participants through graphic stimuli (word
      association and projective mapping) and focus interviews (focus group). Results
      showed that all the 3 methodologies identified numerous intrinsic and extrinsic
      factors that influence the consumer choices regarding fermented dairy products.
      Major dimensions were closely related to the sensory aspects, emotional factors,
      perception of benefits, and composition, among others. It is noteworthy that the
      stimuli related to fermented milk beverages evoked rejecting responses, possibly
      due to the dissociation between information and consumers' expectation. Although
      minor differences were observed between the number and type of dimensions that
      were obtained, similar conclusions can be drawn from all 3 sensory methods, which
      shows the relevance of qualitative and projective methods for investigation of
      consumers' perception. These findings can help dairy companies to provide
      subsidies and guidelines for the reformulation of their products, marketing
      strategies, and improvement in the communication between producers and consumers
      from different fermented dairy products.

PMID- 28888610
TI  - Effects of monensin on glucose metabolism in transition dairy cows.
AB  - Eight multiparous periparturient Holstein cows fitted with ruminal cannula were
      used in a split plot design to evaluate the effects of monensin on plasma glucose
      metabolism. Diets were top-dressed daily with 0 mg/cow of monensin (control) or
      300 mg/cow of monensin (MON) both pre- and postpartum. Plasma glucose kinetic
      parameters on d -13 +/- 2.0 and 19 +/- 1.6 relative to parturition were
      determined by using stable isotopes. Na-1-13C3-Propionate (labeled propionate)
      was infused into the rumen to measure glucose synthesis originating from ruminal
      propionate, and U-13C-glucose (labeled glucose) was injected into the jugular
      vein to determine total glucose kinetics. A sampling period of 480 min following
      labeled glucose injection was implemented. A compartmental analysis was employed
      to determine steady state glucose kinetic parameters. To develop a steady state
      glucose model, the Windows version of SAAM software (WinSAAM) was used. A 4
      compartment model was adequate to comprehensively describe plasma glucose
      metabolism. The main model compartments consisted of propionate and plasma
      glucose. The time frame of the 480-min sampling period post-tracer glucose
      infusion allowed accurate quantification of glucose metabolism. The model
      estimated that glucose input from sources other than ruminal propionate decreased
      with MON, from 2.26 to 1.09 g/min postpartum. Gluconeogenesis, expressed as the
      propionate contribution to the plasma glucose pool, increased in cows fed MON (22
      vs. 31%), whereas glucose oxidation, expressed as the glucose disposal rate,
      significantly decreased (1.67 vs. 0.92 g/min). In conclusion, MON may improve the
      energy status of transition cows by (1) improving the efficiency of propionate to
      produce glucose and (2) decreasing glucose oxidation in body tissues.

PMID- 28888611
TI  - Comparison of mammary lipid metabolism in dairy cows and goats fed diets
      supplemented with starch, plant oil, or fish oil.
AB  - A direct comparison of cow and goat performance and milk fatty acid (FA)
      responses to diets known to induce milk fat depression in the bovine has
      suggested interspecies differences in rumen and mammary lipid metabolism. Thus,
      this study was conducted to infer some potential mechanisms responsible for the
      differences in mammary lipogenesis due to diet and ruminant species. To meet this
      objective, 12 cows and 15 goats were fed a basal diet (control), a similar diet
      supplemented with 2.2% fish oil (FO), or a diet containing 5.3% sunflower oil and
      additional starch (+38%; SOS) according to a 3 * 3 Latin square design with 26-d
      experimental periods. Milk yield, milk composition, FA profile, and FA secretion
      were measured. On the last day of each period, the mRNA abundance of 19 key genes
      in mammary metabolism or the enzyme activity or both were measured in mammary
      tissue sampled by biopsy or at slaughter or both. The results show significant
      differences in the response of cows and goats to the dietary treatments. In cows,
      milk fat content and yield were lowered by FO and SOS (-31%), whereas only FO
      decreased milk fat content in goats (-21%) compared with the control. In cows and
      to a lesser extent in goats, FO and SOS decreased the secretion of <C16 and C16
      FA, and FO lowered >C16 FA output (mmol/kg of BW). However, SOS increased the
      secretion of >C16 FA in goats. These changes in milk fat content and FA secretion
      were not associated with modifications in mammary expression or the activity of
      19 proteins involved in the major lipogenic pathways. This absence of variation
      may be attributable to posttranscriptional regulation for these genes or related
      to the time of sampling of the mammary tissue relative to the previous meal and
      milking. Otherwise, the abundances of 15 mRNA among the 19 encoding for genes
      involved in lipid metabolism in the mammary gland were different among species,
      with 9 more abundant in cows (FASN, FADS1, SCD1, GPD1, LALBA, SREBF1, LXRA,
      PPARA, and PPARG1) and 6 more abundant in goats (G6PD, GPAM, SCD5, XDH, CSN2, and
      SP1). Similarly, a significant effect of the species was observed in the 4 enzyme
      activities measured; glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme were
      higher in cows, and FA synthase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities
      were higher in goats. In conclusion, the differences between cow and goat
      performance and milk FA responses to the FO and SOS treatments were not related
      to changes in the measured mammary lipogenic gene expression. Furthermore, the
      data provide evidence that the major mammary lipogenic pathways differ between
      the caprine and the bovine, whose biological significance remains to be
      unraveled.

PMID- 28888612
TI  - Evaluation of a gas in vitro system for predicting methane production in vivo.
AB  - Methane production from ruminant livestock varies with the diet as a result of
      factors such as dry matter intake, diet composition, and digestibility. To
      estimate the effect of dietary composition and feed additives, CH4 production can
      be measured in vitro as a first step because large numbers of samples can be
      incubated and analyzed at the same time. This study evaluated a recently
      developed in vitro method for prediction of in vivo CH4 production by examining
      the relationship between predicted and observed CH4 production values. A total of
      49 different diets (observations), used in previous 13 in vivo studies, were
      selected to include diets varying in nutrient composition. Methane production was
      measured in all in vivo studies by respiration chambers or the GreenFeed system
      (C-Lock Inc., Rapid City, SD). Overall, the in vitro system predicted CH4
      production well (R2 = 0.96), but the values obtained were slightly underestimated
      compared with observed in vivo values (mean 399 L/d compared with 418 L/d: root
      mean square prediction error = 51.6 L/d or 12.3% of observed mean). Further
      analysis of the effect on residuals showed no significant relationship between
      CH4 production and most factors known to affect CH4 production such as dry matter
      intake, digestibility, and dietary concentrations of fat and starch. However,
      some factors included in the model were not well predicted by the system, with
      residuals negatively related to neutral detergent fiber concentration and
      positively related to concentrate proportion. The in vitro system can thus be
      useful for screening diets and evaluation of feed additives as a first step that
      can be best interpreted when feeding cows at maintenance level.

PMID- 28888613
TI  - Intimate partner violence and breastfeeding practices: a systematic review of
      observational studies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the association between intimate partner violence and
      breastfeeding practices in the literature. DATA SOURCES: The search was carried
      out in five databases, including MEDLINE, LILACS, SCOPUS, PsycoINFO, and Science
      Direct. The search strategy was carried out in February 2017. The authors
      included original studies with observational design, which investigated forms of
      intimate partner violence (including emotional, physical, and/or sexual) and
      breastfeeding practices. The quality of the studies was assessed based on the
      bias susceptibility through criteria specifically developed for this review.
      SUMMARY OF DATA: The study included 12 original articles (10 cross-sectional, one
      case-control, and one cohort study) carried out in different countries. The forms
      of intimate partner violence observed were emotional, physical, and/or sexual.
      Breastfeeding was investigated by different tools and only assessed children
      between 2 days and 6 months of life. Of the 12 studies included in this review,
      eight found a lower breastfeeding intention, breastfeeding initiation, and
      exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of the child's life, and a
      higher likelihood of early termination of exclusive breastfeeding among women
      living at home where violence was present. The quality varied between the studies
      and six were classified as having low bias susceptibility based on the assessed
      items. CONCLUSIONS: Intimate partner violence is associated with inadequate
      breastfeeding practices of children aged 2 days to 6 months of life.

PMID- 28888614
TI  - Curricular intervention increases adolescents' knowledge about asthma: a
      randomized trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of a curricular intervention concerning the
      knowledge about asthma among adolescents from a public school. METHODS: This was
      a randomized, controlled trial study on a curricular intervention in asthma,
      carried out with asthmatic and non-asthmatic adolescents. The study participants
      were divided into a curricular intervention group for asthma (IG), and a control
      group with traditional curriculum (CG). Topics related to asthma were included in
      the curriculum, such as the disease concept, triggering factors, treatment,
      symptoms, action plan, and beliefs in popular myths about the disease. These
      topics were evaluated through a questionnaire with scores ranging from 0 to 20
      points, expressed by the mean score. The acquisition of knowledge was evaluated
      90 days and 540 days after the start of the intervention (baseline), by applying
      the mixed linear model for analysis of associations. RESULTS: 181 students
      participated in the study (IG=101 and CG=80). As shown by their scores before the
      intervention; the students were unaware about asthma (IG: x-=10.7+/-2.9vs. CG: x
      =11.5+/-2.7 points), its treatment (IG: x-=1.6+/-0.9vs. CG: x-=1.6+/-0.8 points),
      and reported beliefs in popular myths about the disease (IG: x-=1.5+/-1.1vs. CG:
      x-=1.7+/-1.1 points). After the intervention, the IG showed higher overall
      knowledge (GI: x-=15.5+/-3.1 points), as well as knowledge about the treatment
      (GI: x-=2.5+/-1.0 points), and two times more knowledge in the field "beliefs in
      popular myths about the disease" when compared to the CG. A greater probability
      of achieving satisfactory knowledge about asthma was noted in the IG (RR=3.5),
      with NTT=2.0. CONCLUSION: The inclusion of the asthma topic in the curriculum
      improved knowledge about the disease in a subgroup of students.

PMID- 28888615
TI  - Who cares for adolescents and young adults with cancer in Brazil?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Approximately 6% of all cancers arise in adolescents and young adults.
      Currently, the ward type best placed to treat this patient group remains
      controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate exactly where adolescents
      and young adults with cancer are treated in Brazil. METHODS: Data were extracted
      from 271 Brazilian hospital-based cancer registries (2007-2011), including all
      five national regions (North, Northeast, Midwest, South, and Southeast).
      Variables included gender, age, ethnicity, National Code of Health Establishment,
      hospital unit state, and region. Tumors were classified according to the World
      Health Organization classification for adolescents and young adults with cancer.
      Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were computed by unconditional logistic
      regression. RESULTS: Most patients were managed on medical oncology wards,
      followed by pediatric oncology and then by non-specialist wards. Of patients aged
      15-19 years, 49% were managed on pediatric wards; most of the older patients
      (96%; aged 20-24) were managed on adult wards. Patients were more likely to be
      seen in medical oncology wards as their age increased (OR=2.03 [1.98-2.09]), or
      if they were based in the South (OR=1.50 [1.29-1.73]). Conversely, bone tumors
      were less likely to be treated (decreased OR) on medical oncology wards,
      regardless of age, gender, and region. CONCLUSION: An elevated risk of treatment
      on medical oncology wards was observed for older patients and those treated in
      the South. Bone tumors were generally treated in pediatric oncology wards, while
      skin cancers were treated in medical oncology wards, regardless of age, gender,
      and region.

PMID- 28888616
TI  - Physical functioning and risk for sleep disorders in US adults: results from the
      National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2014.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Sleep disorders (SDs), particularly problems with falling asleep or
      daytime sleepiness, have negative impact on health and longevity. Sleep
      deprivation is also associated with a decline in physical functioning (PF) that
      mediates the ability to perform activities of daily living. But it remains
      unknown if deterioration in PF can predict the risk of having a SD. Therefore,
      the purpose of the present study is to assess the risk of SD associated with PF
      status in the US adult population. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study design
      with data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from year
      2005 to year 2014. METHODS: PF limitation is assessed by reported difficulty in
      performing 10 tasks selected from PF questionnaire. SD is identified by
      subjective description of presence of doctor diagnosed SD. Also, five categories
      of comorbidities that caused difficulty in carrying out these tasks were created.
      RESULTS: The adults with self-reported PF limitation have 41% higher odds of
      having a SD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22-1.59).
      Moreover, participants having cognitive problems and cardiovascular and pulmonary
      disorders as secondary conditions that cause difficulty in PF have 145% and 28%
      higher odds (OR = 2.45 and 1.28; 95% CI = 2.01-3.01 and 1.08-1.53, respectively)
      of having a SD. Also, females have a 27% lower odds of having a SD than males (OR
      = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.63-0.83). CONCLUSION: Risk for SD is associated with
      increasing level of functional disability. We advocate the importance of
      engagement in physical activities to prevent or delay the onset of SD.

PMID- 28888617
TI  - Relationships between bone mass and dietary/lifestyle habits in Japanese women at
      3-4 months postpartum.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The relationships between calcaneal bone mass and dietary/lifestyle
      habits in women at 3-4 months postpartum were examined in the context of
      osteoporosis prevention. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHODS: We
      measured bone mass using calcaneal ultrasound in mothers who brought their 3- to
      4-month-old babies to healthcare centers in Japan for health examination and
      administered a self-report questionnaire on physical characteristics and
      dietary/lifestyle habits to those who agreed to participate in the survey. Valid
      data were available for 1220 women (valid response rate, 97.5%). RESULTS: Based
      on their stiffness score, a measure of bone mass, 70.9% (n = 865) of the
      participants were classified as 'no apparent abnormality (stiffness score
      >=78.8)' (low-risk group), 18.2% (n = 222) as 'guidance required (>=70.1-<78.8)'
      (intermediate-risk group), and 10.9% (n = 133) as 'complete examination required
      (<70.1)' (high-risk group), according to the criteria for osteoporosis screening
      test results. The percentage of individuals with a history of fracture was higher
      in the guidance required/complete examination required than in the no apparent
      abnormality group (P = 0.016). The analysis of relationships between the
      consumption frequency of certain foods, such as calcium-rich foodstuffs, and bone
      mass found that women who reported lower frequencies of milk and dark-colored
      (beta-carotene rich) vegetables for breakfast consumption had a significantly
      lower bone mass than those who consumed these foods more often. Furthermore, the
      guidance required/complete examination required group had a significantly lower
      calcium intake than the no apparent abnormality group (P = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS:
      These results indicate the need to provide postpartum women with dietary
      education programs to promote healthy eating habits, such as increased
      consumption of calcium-rich foods, and prevent osteoporosis.

PMID- 28888618
TI  - Feedback intervention to doctors improves patient satisfaction among outpatients
      in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The doctor-patient relationship (DPR) in China is known to be tense.
      We tested whether an intervention program providing individualized feedback to
      doctors by patients could improve patients' satisfaction in an outpatient
      setting. STUDY DESIGN: A non-randomized controlled prepost intervention study in
      a tertiary hospital. Six surgery clinics were chosen as the intervention group
      and eight internal medicine clinics as the control group. METHODS: Before the
      program started, patients attending each group of clinics were asked to fill in
      the Short-Form Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18). In the experimental
      period, patients attending the intervention clinics were requested to rate their
      perception of the doctor's quality of care in various domains on an 8-question
      feedback card immediately after exiting from the examination room and to drop the
      completed card into the feedback box for the particular doctor. The cards were
      then collected by the doctor confidentially at the end of each day. There was no
      feedback in the control clinics. After the experimental period ended, the doctors
      in both groups of clinics were reassessed by a new series of patients using PSQ
      18. The PSQ-18 scores were compared within the same group of clinics over time,
      and the changes in satisfaction score compared between intervention and control
      clinics. RESULTS: There were 189 and 190 responders in the intervention group and
      190 and 200 in the control group, before and after the intervention period,
      respectively. Scores in all domains increased significantly (P < 0.001) in the
      intervention group but not in the control group. Significant improvement in the
      patient satisfaction scores in the intervention clinics compared with the control
      clinics was confirmed by mixed-effects linear regression controlling for the
      effects of gender, age, marital status, education, and household income in the
      domains of general satisfaction, technical quality, communication, and
      accessibility and convenience. CONCLUSIONS: Timely feedback to doctors of
      patients' perception of quality of care received can improve outpatient
      satisfaction in a Chinese hospital.

PMID- 28888619
TI  - Natural killer cell-mediated immunosurveillance of human cancer.
AB  - The contribution of natural killer (NK) cells to immunosurveillance of human
      cancer remains debatable. Here, we discuss advances in several areas of human NK
      cell research, many of which support the ability of NK cells to prevent cancer
      development and avoid relapse following adoptive immunotherapy. We describe the
      molecular basis for NK cell recognition of human tumor cells and provide evidence
      for NK cell-mediated killing of human primary tumor cells ex vivo. Subsequently,
      we highlight studies demonstrating the ability of NK cells to migrate to, and
      reside in, the human tumor microenvironment where selection of tumor escape
      variants from NK cells can occur. Indirect evidence for NK cell
      immunosurveillance against human malignancies is provided by the reduced
      incidence of cancer in individuals with high levels of NK cell cytotoxicity, and
      the significant clinical responses observed following infusion of human NK cells
      into cancer patients. Finally, we describe studies showing enhanced tumor
      progression, or increased cancer incidence, in patients with inherited and
      acquired defects in cellular cytotoxicity. All these observations have in common
      that they, either indirectly or directly, suggest a role for NK cells in
      mediating immunosurveillance against human cancer. This opens up for exciting
      possibilities with respect to further exploring NK cells in settings of adoptive
      immunotherapy in human cancer.

PMID- 28888621
TI  - Patient-reported outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia: Where are we now?
AB  - Outcomes for acute myeloid leukemia remain poor, and treatment decisions must
      consider not just quantity, but also quality of life (QOL). We conducted a
      systematic review of studies in patients with acute myeloid leukemia or high-risk
      myelodysplastic syndrome that incorporated patient-reported outcome (PRO)
      measures. PubMed and PsycINFO were searched for articles published from January
      2000 through June 2016. Forty-one were relevant for our review with more
      published in recent years. There was considerable inter-study heterogeneity in
      which instruments were used, and many studies employed multiple (often
      overlapping) instruments. Longitudinal studies in particular suffered from both
      high attrition rates due to disease-related mortality as well as waning
      compliance with questionnaire completion. There remain significant challenges to
      incorporation of PROs into leukemia trials. Despite these limitations, however,
      well-implemented PROs can provide important information beyond objective response
      outcomes and highlight areas of focus for clinicians caring for patients and for
      future research endeavors.

PMID- 28888620
TI  - The caspase-8/Bid/cytochrome c axis links signals from death receptors to
      mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production.
AB  - Ligation of the death receptors for TNF-alpha, FasL, and TRAIL triggers two
      common pathways, caspase-dependent intrinsic apoptosis and intracellular reactive
      oxygen species (ROS) generation. The apoptotic pathway is well characterized;
      however, a signaling linker between the death receptor and ROS production has not
      been clearly elucidated. Here, we found that death receptor-induced ROS
      generation was strongly inhibited by mitochondrial complex I and II inhibitors,
      but not by inhibitors of NADPH oxidase, lipoxygenase, cyclooxygenase or xanthine
      oxidase, indicating that ROS are mostly generated by the impairment of the
      mitochondrial respiratory chain. ROS generation was accompanied by caspase-8
      activation, Bid cleavage, and cytochrome c release; it was blocked in FADD- and
      caspase-8-deficient cells, as well as by caspase-8 knockdown and inhibitor.
      Moreover, Bid knockdown abrogated TNF-alpha- or TRAIL-induced ROS generation,
      whereas overexpression of truncated Bid (tBid) or knockdown of cytochrome c
      spontaneously elevated ROS production. In addition, p53-overexpressing cells
      accumulated intracellular ROS via cytochrome c release mediated by the BH3-only
      protein Noxa induction. In a cell-free reconstitution system, caspase-8-mediated
      Bid cleavage and recombinant tBid induced mitochondrial cytochrome c release and
      ROS generation, which were blocked by Bcl-xL and antioxidant enzymes. These data
      suggest that anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins play an important role in
      mitochondrial ROS generation by preventing cytochrome c release. These data
      provide evidence that the FADD/caspase-8/Bid/cytochrome c axis is a crucial
      linker between death receptors and mitochondria, where they play a role in ROS
      generation and apoptosis.

PMID- 28888622
TI  - The utility of thromboelastography and thrombin generation in assessing the
      prothrombotic state of adults with sickle cell disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have suggested a chronic hypercoagulable state in
      SCD, and that thrombosis also plays a role in the pathophysiology of sickle cell
      vaso-occlusive pain crises (VOC). Studies looking at thrombin generation have
      produced conflicting results. In this study we aimed to assess and compare whole
      blood thromboelastography (TEG) and plasma Calibrated Automated Thrombogram (CAT)
      in SCD versus healthy controls and in four different SCD subgroups. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: In this prospective observational study, TEG and 1pM TF activated CAT
      assays were performed in citrated blood samples from 77 adult (18-66years old)
      SCD patients (HbSS and HbSB) and 22 healthy (HbAA) ethnically-matched controls.
      RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: SCD was associated with a prothrombotic state in all TEG
      parameters. CAT results showed that the upslope of the CAT in SCD displayed a
      hypercoagulable state with shorter time to peak and higher velocity index, but
      the downslope was also faster leading to an overall lower endogenous thrombin
      potential (ETP) compared to healthy controls. TEG subgroup analyses showed that
      during VOC the prothrombotic state is greater compared to patients on disease
      ameliorating therapy. CAT did not display statistically significant differences
      between the SCD subgroups. This study shows that the prothrombotic state in SCD
      is best displayed with TEG, and suggests the hypercoagulable changes of SCD rely
      at least in part in the cellular components of blood, which can only be detected
      in whole blood assays.

PMID- 28888623
TI  - Effect of different oral oxytetracycline treatment regimes on selection of
      antimicrobial resistant coliforms in nursery pigs.
AB  - A major concern derived from using antimicrobials in pig production is the
      development of resistance. This study aimed to assess the impact of selected
      combinations of oral dose and duration of treatment with oxytetracycline (OTC) on
      selection of tetracycline resistant (TET-R) coliforms recovered from swine feces.
      The work encompassed two studies: 1) OTC 5mg/kg and 20mg/kg were administered to
      nursery pigs for 3 and 10days, respectively, under controlled experimental
      conditions, and 2) 10mg/kg, 20mg/kg and 30mg/kg OTC were given to a higher number
      of pigs for 6, 3 and 2days, respectively, under field conditions. Statistical
      modeling was applied to analyze trends in the proportion of TET-R coliforms. In
      the experimental study, no statistical difference in proportion of TET-R
      coliforms was observed between treatments at the end of the trial (day 18) and
      compared to day 0. In the field study, treatment had a significant effect on the
      proportion of TET-R bacteria two days after the end of treatment (2dAT) with the
      regimes "low dose-six days" and "medium dose-three days" yielding the highest and
      lowest proportions of TET-R strains, respectively. No indication of co-selection
      for ampicillin- and sulphonamide -R bacteria was observed for any treatment at
      2dAT. By the end of the nursery period, the proportion of TET-R bacteria was not
      significantly different between treatments and compared to day 0. Our results
      suggest that similar resistance levels might be obtained by using different
      treatment regimes regardless of the combinations of oral dose-duration of
      treatment.

PMID- 28888624
TI  - Changes in the population structure of canine methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus pseudintermedius in Poland.
AB  - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) is being reported
      with an increasing frequency in small animal veterinary practice. The molecular
      typing of MRSP isolates revealed that the dominating European multidrug-resistant
      lineage is the sequence type 71 (ST71), associated with staphylococcal
      chromosomal cassette SCCmec type II-III. However, the recent reports indicated
      the emergence of other clones. The study aimed to determine the genetic
      properties of MRSP isolates obtained from dogs in Poland over a ten-year period.
      A total of 42 clinical MRSP isolates were subjected to multilocus-sequence typing
      (MLST) and SCCmec typing. MLST typing of 42 MRSP isolates yielded six STs
      belonging to two major clonal complexes (CCs): CC71 and CC551, associated with
      SCCmec element II-III and V, respectively. CC71 comprising ST71 and its newly
      described single locus variant (SLV) ST680. The second dominating CC551was
      represented by ST551 and newly described SLV ST771. The other, ST258 and ST85
      were detected in single MRSP isolates. This is the first report concerning MLST
      typing of MRSP isolates in Poland. The results confirmed the domination of ST71
      among MRSP until 2015, and the emergence of ST551 in 2015. Furthermore, in 2016
      ST551 was identified in the majority of the strains, indicating the changes in
      the population structure of MRSP in Poland. Polish clinical MRSP isolates showed
      a shift in the population structure during the period of 2007 and 2016. The
      dominating MRSP lineage until 2015 was multidrug-resistant ST71-SCCmecII-III. The
      other lineage ST551-SCCmecV emerged in Poland since 2015, and in 2016 was found
      in the majority of MRSP isolates.

PMID- 28888625
TI  - Fine mapping and conservation analysis of linear B-cell epitopes of peste des
      petits ruminants virus hemagglutinin protein.
AB  - Hemagglutinin protein (H), one of the two glycoproteins of peste des petits
      ruminants virus (PPRV), binds to its receptor on the host cell and acts as a
      major antigen that induces and confers highly protective immunity in the host. In
      order to delineate the epitopes on H protein, fine epitope mapping and
      conservation analysis of linear B-cell epitopes (BCEs) on PPRV H has been
      undertaken using biosynthetic peptides and rabbit anti-PPRV H sera. Thirteen
      linear BCEs were identified and their corresponding minimal motifs were located
      on the H protein of PPRV China/Tibet/Geg/07-30. Conservation analysis indicated
      that two of the 13 minimal motifs were conserved among 52 PPRV strains. Nine of
      the 13 peptides containing the minimal motifs were recognized using anti-PPRV
      serum from a goat immunized with PPRV vaccine strain Nigeria 75/1. Identified
      epitopes and their motifs improve our understanding of the antigenic
      characteristics of PPRV H and provide a basis for the development of epitope
      based diagnostic assays and multiple epitopes vaccine.

PMID- 28888626
TI  - Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Mannheimia haemolytica,
      Pasteurella multocida, and Histophilus somni isolated from the lower respiratory
      tract of healthy feedlot cattle and those diagnosed with bovine respiratory
      disease.
AB  - Current information on prevalence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of bacterial
      respiratory pathogens is crucial to guide antimicrobial choice for control and
      treatment of bovine respiratory disease (BRD). The objectives were to describe
      the prevalence of three BRD-associated bacteria (Mannheimia haemolytica,
      Pasteurella multocida, and Histophilus somni) in the lower airways of feedlot
      cattle, and to analyze AMR in these bacteria. Cattle with (n=210) and without
      (n=107) BRD were sampled by trans-tracheal aspiration at four feedlots (Nov. 15
      Jan. 16). These cattle had received 2.5mg/kg of tulathromycin on arrival at the
      feedlot for BRD control and two in-feed pulses of chlortetracycline
      (5g/animal/day for 5days) within the first 21days on feed to prevent
      histophilosis. Bacteria were detected by culture and AMR was tested by
      microdilution. Pasteurella multocida was the most frequent bacterium isolated in
      cattle with BRD (54.8%), followed by M. haemolytica (30.5%) and H. somni (22.9%).
      Compared to those with BRD, healthy cattle were less likely to be positive for P.
      multocida (OR=0.27), M. haemolytica (OR=0.32), or H. somni (OR=0.25). There were
      high levels of resistance (>70%) against tulathromycin and oxytetracycline in M.
      haemolytica and P. multocida isolates and high levels of resistance against
      oxytetracycline (67%) and penicillin (52%) in H. somni isolates. None or few
      isolates were resistant to florfenicol, enrofloxacin and ceftiofur. The high
      prevalence of resistance against tulathromycin and oxytetracycline suggests that
      these antimicrobials should not be repeatedly used for both control and treatment
      of BRD and/or histophilosis.

PMID- 28888627
TI  - Genetic and pathogenic characterization of a novel reassortant mammalian
      orthoreovirus 3 (MRV3) from a diarrheic piglet and seroepidemiological survey of
      MRV3 in diarrheic pigs from east China.
AB  - Mammalian orthoreoviruses (MRVs), which cause gastrointestinal and respiratory
      illness, have been isolated from a wide variety of mammalian species including
      bats, minks, pigs and humans. Here we report the isolation and genetic and
      pathogenic characterization of a novel MRV type 3 (MRV3), named MRV-ZJ2013, from
      the diarrheic feces of piglets in Zhejiang province, China. Genomic and
      phylogenetic analysis shows that MRV-ZJ2013 may have originated from
      reassortments among mink, bat, and pig MRVs, suggesting the hypothesis that
      interspecies transmission has occurred in pig herds. Neonatal piglets infected
      with MRV-ZJ2013 displayed mild clinical signs such as poor appetite and soft
      feces, but vomiting and diarrhea were not observed. Fecal virus shedding was
      detected only in three out of six piglets, each for one- or two-day post
      infection. In contrast, piglets inoculated with a virulent porcine epidemic
      diarrhea virus (PEDV) strain as the control group had severe signs characterized
      by acute vomiting and watery diarrhea. These findings suggest that the virulence
      of MRV-ZJ2013, if any, was likely not significant compared to that of PEDV. A
      seroepidemiological survey of MRV by means of an indirect enzyme-linked immune
      sorbent assay (ELISA) based on a recombinant MRV3 capsid protein sigma1 as
      antigen revealed a high seroprevalence (77%) in 1037 samples from diarrheic pigs
      of different ages from 24 herds in seven provinces of east China between 2015 and
      2016, indicating that MRV3 is endemic in pig herds in China, and may contribute
      collectively to enteric disease along with other porcine pathogens.

PMID- 28888628
TI  - Neuropathological survey reveals underestimation of the prevalence of
      neuroinfectious diseases in cattle in Switzerland.
AB  - Neuroinfectious diseases in livestock represent a severe threat to animal health,
      but their prevalence is not well documented and the etiology of disease often
      remains unidentified. The aims of this study were to generate baseline data on
      the prevalence of neuroinfectious diseases in cattle in Switzerland by
      neuropathological survey, and to identify disease-associated pathogens. The
      survey was performed over a 1-year period using a representative number of
      brainstem samples (n=1816) from fallen cattle. In total, 4% (n=73) of the animals
      had significant lesions, the most frequent types of which were indicative of
      viral (n=27) and bacterial (n=31) etiologies. Follow-up diagnostics by
      immunohistochemistry, PCR protocols and next-generation sequencing identified
      infection with Listeria monocytogenes (n=6), ovine herpesvirus 2 (n=7), bovine
      astrovirus CH13 (n=2), bovine herpesvirus 6 (n=6), bovine retrovirus CH15 (n=2),
      posavirus 1 (n=2), and porcine astroviruses (n=2). A retrospective questionnaire
      based investigation indicated that animals' owners observed clinical signs of
      neurological disease in about one-third of cases with lesions, which was
      estimated to correspond to approximately 85 cases per year in the adult fallen
      cattle population in Switzerland. This estimate stands in sharp contrast to the
      number of cases reported to the authorities and reveals a gap in disease
      surveillance. Systematic neuropathological examination and follow-up molecular
      testing of neurologically diseased cattle could significantly enhance the
      efficiency of disease detection for the purposes of estimating the prevalence of
      endemic diseases, identifying new or re-emerging pathogens, and providing "early
      warnings" of disease outbreaks.

PMID- 28888629
TI  - Prevalence of lapine rotavirus, astrovirus, and hepatitis E virus in Canadian
      domestic rabbit populations.
AB  - Lapine rotavirus and astrovirus have been associated with disease in rabbits, and
      there is strong evidence of zoonotic transmission of lapine hepatitis E virus
      (HEV). Outbreaks of enteritis are common on commercial meat farms, resulting in
      poor welfare, high rabbit mortality, and significant financial losses for rabbit
      producers. Currently, none of these viruses are routinely tested by diagnostic
      laboratories. In this study, we assessed the prevalence of rotavirus, astrovirus,
      and HEV RNA in 205 pooled and individual fecal samples from healthy Canadian
      laboratory, companion, shelter and commercial meat rabbit populations. Viral RNA
      were extracted and amplified via RT-PCR using virus-specific primers. Positive
      samples from the first cohort of samples tested were sequenced and aligned to
      previously identified viruses to confirm the products. Almost 45% (13/29) of the
      surveyed commercial rabbit farms were astrovirus-positive. Three commercial meat
      rabbit samples were positive for rotavirus, and either astrovirus or HEV RNA was
      also detected. Three companion rabbit samples also tested positive for lapine
      HEV. Samples from specific pathogen-free laboratory animals were negative for all
      viruses. Sequencing results showed highest identity to rotavirus A strain 30-96,
      lapine astrovirus strain 2208 and lapine HEV strain CMC-1. These results permit a
      better understanding of the prevalence of rotavirus, astrovirus, and hepatitis E
      virus in Canadian domestic rabbit populations, and continued screening for
      viruses may help to reduce risk of zoonotic agent transmission as well as
      providing a better understanding of potential causative agents of rabbit
      enteritis.

PMID- 28888630
TI  - A novel recombinant porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus with
      significant variation in cell adaption and pathogenicity.
AB  - Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an important
      pathogen that causes huge economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. In
      this study, a type 2 PRRSV strain was isolated from primary porcine alveolar
      macrophage cells and designated as GD1404. Interestingly, this strain was unable
      to grow in MARC-145 cells. Analysis of the full-length genome sequence revealed
      that strain GD1404 was an inter-subgenotype recombinant of strains QYYZ and JXA1.
      The C-terminus of the GP2 protein of strain GD1404 had an amino acid deletion.
      Also, the ORF5a protein had 51 codons, five more than most other highly
      pathogenic (HP-PRRSV) strains. Phylogenetic analysis based on ORF5 gene sequences
      showed that strain GD1404 and five others isolated in China formed a new
      subgenotype represented by strain QYYZ. Challenge experiments with piglets showed
      that the GD1404 and HP-PRRSV BB0907 strains caused similar rates of mortality and
      interstitial pneumonia. However, strain GD1404 infection resulted in lower
      viremia and viral loads in the lungs, as compared with strain BB0907. The results
      of this study provide evidence of the circulation of type 2 PRRSV QYYZ-like
      strains in China with variations in cell adaption and pathogenic abilities.

PMID- 28888631
TI  - Incidence of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus in Asian elephants in India.
AB  - Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHVs) are the cause of acute
      hemorrhagic disease in endangered Asian and African elephants. In the present
      study, we report the incidence of EEHV infection and associated mortality in the
      captive elephant of Assam, India. Our result showed the gross morphology and
      histopathological changes of EEHV infection in the elephant. Moreover, the
      phylogenetic analysis of the polymerase, helicase, and GPCR genes from the
      infected tissue samples suggested the presence of EEHV1A virus.

PMID- 28888632
TI  - Genotypic and geographical distribution of porcine reproductive and respiratory
      syndrome viruses in mainland China in 1996-2016.
AB  - Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) has caused huge economic
      losses to Chinese swine industry and remains a major threat since it was first
      reported in 1996. However, investigations of molecular epidemiological and
      genetic diversity of PRRS viruses (PRRSVs) in China were limited to a small
      number of representative strains collected in several areas. Moreover, lineage
      classifications reported by individual researchers were quite different. In the
      present study, we sequenced ORF5 sequences of 217 PRRSVs from clinical samples,
      retrieved all the available ORF5 sequences of PRRSVs isolated in China in 1996
      2016 (n=2213) from GenBank, and systematically analyzed corresponding
      epidemiological data. NA-type PRRSVs in China were classified into five lineages:
      lineage 1, lineage 3, lineage 5, lineage 8, and lineage 9. Most strains in China
      belonged to lineage 8 (85.6%), with dominant strains being classified as
      sublineage 8.3 (78.3%). Importantly, the emerging lineage 1 and lineage 3 strains
      spread rapidly, and their proportions among circulating PRRSVs have significantly
      increased in recent years. The geographical distribution of different PRRSV
      lineages in each province was analyzed and possible inter-province transmission
      routes were outlined for main lineages and sublineages. To our knowledge, this
      study is the most comprehensive and extensive phylogeographical analysis of
      PRRSVs in China since PRRS outbreak in 1996. Our dataset can serve as a canonical
      standard for PRRSV classification and will help to study genetic evolution of
      PRRSV. The results of the present study may also improve prevention of PRRS in
      China.

PMID- 28888633
TI  - Erratum to 'Antimicrobial susceptibility monitoring of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae
      and Mycoplasma bovis isolated in Europe' [Vet. Microbiol. 204C (2017)188-193].

PMID- 28888634
TI  - Development of improved enzyme-based and lateral flow immunoassays for rapid and
      accurate serodiagnosis of canine brucellosis.
AB  - Brucellosis is a widespread zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp. Brucella
      canis is the etiological agent of canine brucellosis, a disease that can lead to
      sterility in bitches and dogs causing important economic losses in breeding
      kennels. Early and accurate diagnosis of canine brucellosis is central to control
      the disease and lower the risk of transmission to humans. Here, we develop and
      validate enzyme and lateral flow immunoassays for improved serodiagnosis of
      canine brucellosis using as antigen the B. canis rough lipopolysaccharide (rLPS).
      The method used to obtain the rLPS allowed us to produce more homogeneous batches
      of the antigen that facilitated the standardization of the assays. To validate
      the assays, 284 serum samples obtained from naturally infected dogs and healthy
      animals were analyzed. For the B. canis-iELISA and B. canis-LFIA the diagnostic
      sensitivity was of 98.6%, and the specificity 99.5% and 100%, respectively. We
      propose the implementation of the B. canis-LFIA as a screening test in
      combination with the highly accurate laboratory g-iELISA. The B. canis-LFIA is a
      rapid, accurate and easy to use test, characteristics that make it ideal for the
      serological surveillance of canine brucellosis in the field or veterinary
      laboratories. Finally, a blind study including 1040 serum samples obtained from
      urban dogs showed a prevalence higher than 5% highlighting the need of new
      diagnostic tools for a more effective control of the disease in dogs and
      therefore to reduce the risk of transmission of this zoonotic pathogen to humans.

PMID- 28888635
TI  - Infection dynamics and genetic variability of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae in self
      replacement gilts.
AB  - The aim of this study was to assess the longitudinal pattern of M. hyopneumoniae
      detection in self-replacement gilts at various farms and to characterize the
      genetic diversity among samples. A total of 298 gilts from three M. hyopneumoniae
      positive farms were selected at 150days of age (doa). Gilts were tested for M.
      hyopneumoniae antibodies by ELISA, once in serum at 150 doa and for M.
      hyopneumoniae detection in laryngeal swabs by real time PCR two or three times.
      Also, 425 piglets were tested for M. hyopneumoniae detection in laryngeal swabs.
      A total of 103 samples were characterized by Multiple Locus Variable-number
      tandem repeats Analysis. Multiple comparison tests were performed and adjusted
      using Bonferroni correction to compare prevalences of positive gilts by ELISA and
      real time PCR. Moderate to high prevalence of M. hyopneumoniae in gilts was
      detected at 150 doa, which decreased over time, and different detection patterns
      were observed among farms. Dam-to-piglet transmission of M. hyopneumoniae was not
      detected. The characterization of M. hyopneumoniae showed 17 different variants
      in all farms, with two identical variants detected in two of the farms. ELISA
      testing showed high prevalence of seropositive gilts at 150 doa in all farms.
      Results of this study showed that circulation of M. hyopneumoniae in self
      replacement gilts varied among farms, even under similar production and
      management conditions. In addition, the molecular variability of M. hyopneumoniae
      detected within farms suggests that in cases of minimal replacement gilt
      introduction bacterial diversity maybe farm specific.

PMID- 28888636
TI  - Efficacy of oral BCG vaccination in protecting free-ranging cattle from natural
      infection by Mycobacterium bovis.
AB  - Vaccination of cattle against bovine tuberculosis could be a valuable control
      strategy, particularly in countries faced with intractable ongoing infection from
      a disease reservoir in wildlife. A field vaccination trial was undertaken in New
      Zealand. The trial included 1286 effectively free-ranging cattle stocked at low
      densities in a remote 7600ha area, with 55% of them vaccinated using
      Mycobacterium bovis BCG (Danish strain 1311). Vaccine was administered orally in
      all but 34 cases (where it was injected). After inclusion, cattle were exposed to
      natural sources of M. bovis infection in cattle and wildlife, most notably the
      brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). Cattle were slaughtered at 3-5 years of
      age and were inspected for tuberculous lesions, with mycobacteriological culture
      of key tissues from almost all animals. The prevalence of M. bovis infection was
      4.8% among oral BCG vaccinates, significantly lower than the 11.9% in non
      vaccinates. Vaccination appeared to both reduce the incidence of detectable
      infection, and to slow disease progression. Based on apparent annual incidence,
      the protective efficacy of oral BCG vaccine was 67.4% for preventing infection,
      and was higher in cattle slaughtered soon after vaccination. Skin-test reactivity
      to tuberculin was high in vaccinates re-tested 70days after vaccination but not
      in non-vaccinates, although reactor animals had minimal response in gamma
      interferon blood tests. In re- tests conducted more than 12 months after
      vaccination, skin-test reactivity among vaccinates was much lower. These results
      indicate that oral BCG vaccination could be an effective tool for greatly
      reducing detectable infection in cattle.

PMID- 28888637
TI  - High abundance and diversity of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing
      Escherichia coli in faeces and tonsils of pigs at slaughter.
AB  - This cross-sectional study investigates the abundance of cefotaxime-resistant
      Escherichia coli (CREC) in the faeces and tonsils of 96 pigs during slaughter.
      Moreover, different isolates from a selected number of pigs were tested to study
      the diversity of blaESBL genes within E. coli isolates from one pig. Cefotaxime
      resistant bacteria (based on enumeration results on MacConkey agar supplemented
      with 1mg/L cefotaxime) were found in the faeces of 77 pigs (80%; 95% CI: 70-87%)
      and the tonsils of 91 pigs (95%; 95% CI: 88%-98%). Cefotaxime-resistant E. coli
      (based on enumeration results on Tryptone Bile X-glucuronide agar supplemented
      with 1mg/L cefotaxime) were detected in 72 faecal samples (75%; 95% CI: 64-83%)
      and 45 tonsil samples (47%; 95% CI: 35-59%), in numbers up to 5.5 and 5.6log10
      CFU/g, respectively. On average, around 1/10,000 E. coli in both faeces and
      tonsils were cefotaxime-resistant, though large variations were observed between
      pigs. Within one sample, CREC isolates with up to five different combinations of
      ESBL genes were observed. In three out of 16 faecal samples and six out of 14
      tonsil samples, only one ESBL gene profile was found. The high numbers of CREC
      that are occasionally found in the faeces and tonsils of pigs during slaughter
      may represent an important source of contamination of carcasses and subsequently
      pork.

PMID- 28888638
TI  - The response of red deer to oral administration of heat-inactivated Mycobacterium
      bovis and challenge with a field strain.
AB  - Deer species (family Cervidae) are often part of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      complex maintenance host community, and tuberculosis (TB) control in deer,
      including vaccination, is consequently an area of ongoing research. However, most
      research into deer vaccination against TB is focused on using the live bacillus
      Calmette Guerin (BCG). Oral inactivated vaccines represent an interesting
      alternative to either oral or parenteral BCG, since neither diagnostic cross
      reactions nor vaccine strain survival are likely to occur. In order to describe
      the red deer response to heat-inactivated M. bovis (IV) as compared to BCG and to
      unvaccinated controls (n=5/group), we ran an experiment with five month-old
      vaccinated red deer, which were challenged with a virulent M. bovis strain 70days
      later and necropsied at 60days post-challenge. A reduction in the IV group
      infection burden was discovered. There were significant differences between the
      IV group and the control group (53% lesion reduction) as regards to the TB lesion
      scores, but not between other pairs. Complement component 3 plasma levels
      increased after challenge, and there were no differences between groups. The
      plasma cytokines (IL-1beta, TNFalpha, IFNgamma, IL-10 and IL-12) levels did not
      change after vaccination, but IL-1beta, TNFalpha and IL-10 did so following the
      challenge. The IL-1beta level increased in all the groups while TNFalpha levels
      had a distinct response pattern in the IV group and IL-10 had a distinct response
      pattern in control group. The results showed that oral vaccination with IV
      reduces the TB lesion score in red deer challenged with a M. bovis field strain
      without interfering with the in vivo diagnosis of infection in this species.

PMID- 28888639
TI  - Increased microbiome diversity at the time of infection is associated with
      improved growth rates of pigs after co-infection with porcine reproductive and
      respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2).
AB  - Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine
      circovirus type 2 (PCV2) are two of the most important pathogens affecting the
      swine industry worldwide. Co-infections are common on a global scale, resulting
      in pork production losses through reducing weight gain and causing respiratory
      disease in growing pigs. Our initial work demonstrated that the fecal microbiome
      was associated with clinical outcome of pigs 70days post-infection (dpi) with
      PRRSV and PCV2. However, it remained uncertain if microbiome characteristics
      could predispose response to viral infection. The purpose of this study was to
      determine if microbiome characteristics present at the time of virus exposure
      were associated with outcome after co-infection. Using the Lawrence Livermore
      Microbial Detection Array, we profiled the microbiome in feces prior to infection
      from pigs identified retrospectively as having high or low growth rates after co
      infection. High growth rate pigs had less severe interstitial pneumonia, reduced
      virus replication, and a significant increase in average daily weight gain
      throughout the study. At the level of the fecal microbiome, high growth rate pigs
      had increased microbial diversity on both a family and species level. Shifts in
      the microbiome composition of high growth rate pigs included reduced
      Methanobacteriaceae species, increased Ruminococcaceae species, and increased
      Streptococcaceae species when compared to low growth rate pigs. The results
      indicate that both microbiome diversity and composition at the time of virus
      exposure may play a role in the subsequent response of pigs to PRRSV/PCV2 co
      infection.

PMID- 28888640
TI  - A bovine botulism outbreak associated with a suspected cross-contamination from a
      poultry farm.
AB  - In October 2014, an outbreak of botulism type D/C occurred on two cattle farms in
      close proximity. A poultry farm located nearby with no history of botulism had
      transferred poultry manure to both bovine farms before the beginning of the
      outbreak. Given this context, epidemiological investigation was conducted to
      determine if the poultry farm was a reservoir of C. botulinum type D/C and to
      identify the source of contamination on the cattle farms. Environmental samples
      were collected at three houses on the poultry farm (boot swabs from the
      surroundings, swabs from the ventilation system, boot swabs from the poultry
      litter and darkling beetles samples), and on the two cattle farms (silage
      samples, boot swabs from the cattle stalls, boot swabs from the cattle pasture
      and poultry manure samples). These samples were analyzed using real-time PCR
      after an enrichment step to detect C. botulinum type D/C. On the poultry farm,
      three boot swabs from the surroundings, two swabs from the ventilation system,
      one boot swab from the litter and one sample of darkling beetles were detected
      positive. On one cattle farm, C. botulinum type D/C was identified in a sample of
      silage made from grass grown on a field on which the poultry manure had
      previously been stored and in a boot swab from a pasture. On the other cattle
      farm, C. botulinum type D/C was detected in a sample of poultry manure stored on
      the cattle farm and in a boot swab from a pasture. This investigation shows that
      the healthy poultry farm might have been the reservoir of C. botulinum type D/C
      and that cross-contamination between poultry and cattle likely occurred,
      resulting in the botulism outbreak on the two cattle farms.

PMID- 28888641
TI  - A molecular survey of small ruminant hemotropic mycoplasmosis in Turkey,
      including first laboratory confirmed clinical cases caused by Mycoplasma ovis.
AB  - Hemotropic mycoplasmas are emerging zoonotic pathogens that cause mild to severe
      hemolytic anemia. Blood samples and thin blood smears were collected from six
      sheep exhibiting clinical symptoms typical of hemolytic anemia. Coccoid and ring
      shaped M. ovis were found on the surface of erythrocytes of infected sheep.
      Parasitemia ranged from 0.7% to 3.7% in individual smears. Clinical cases caused
      by Mycoplasma ovis were evaluated, and prevalence, based on DNA screening for the
      16S rRNA gene of hemoplasmas in apparently healthy sheep (n=328) and goats
      (n=272) from the same area, was 11.3% (CI 8.1-15.2) and 6.2% (CI 3.7-9.8),
      respectively, a significant difference between species (p<0.05). Sequences of the
      nearly complete 16S rRNA gene shared 99% identity with the corresponding
      published sequences for M. ovis and Mycoplasma wenyonii. The overall M. ovis
      prevalence in healthy animals was 9% (CI 6.8-11.6) with no significant
      differences in infection rate between young and adults (p>0.05). The proportion
      of hemoplasma-positive small ruminants was higher with tick infestation (p<0.05).
      The presence of tick-borne Babesia spp. and Theileria spp. was also significantly
      associated with ovine hemoplasma infection (p<0.05) in the healthy sample. This
      is the first report of M. wenyonii in sheep. M. ovis should be considered in
      differential diagnosis in cases of high fever and anorexia in pastured sheep and
      goats.

PMID- 28888642
TI  - Spatio-temporal variations and genetic diversity of Anaplasma spp. in cattle from
      the North of Tunisia.
AB  - In cattle, anaplasmosis is a tick-borne rickettsial disease caused by Anaplasma
      marginale, A. centrale, A. phagocytophilum, and A. bovis. To date, no information
      concerning the seasonal dynamics of single and/or mixed infections by different
      Anaplasma species in bovines are available in Tunisia. In this work, a total of
      1035 blood bovine samples were collected in spring (n=367), summer (n=248),
      autumn (n=244) and winter (n=176) from five different governorates belonging to
      three bioclimatic zones from the North of Tunisia. Molecular survey of A.
      marginale, A. centrale and A. bovis in cattle showed that average prevalence
      rates were 4.7% (minimum 4.1% in autumn and maximum 5.6% in summer), 7% (minimum
      3.9% in winter and maximum 10.7% in autumn) and 4.9% (minimum 2.7% in spring and
      maximum 7.3% in summer), respectively. A. phagocytophilum was not detected in all
      investigated cattle. Seasonal variations of Anaplasma spp. infection and co
      infection rates in overall and/or according to each bioclimatic area were
      recorded. Molecular characterization of A. marginale msp4 gene indicated a high
      sequence homology of revealed strains with A. marginale sequences from African
      countries. Alignment of 16S rRNA A. centrale sequences showed that Tunisian
      strains were identical to the vaccine strain from several sub-Saharan African and
      European countries. The comparison of the 16S rRNA sequences of A. bovis variants
      showed a perfect homology between Tunisian variants isolated from cattle, goats
      and sheep. These present data are essential to estimate the risk of bovine
      anaplasmosis in order to develop integrated control policies against multi
      species pathogen communities, infecting humans and different animal species, in
      the country.

PMID- 28888644
TI  - Genetic diversity of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) in Thailand during 2009
      2015.
AB  - Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), the essential cause of porcine circovirus
      associated disease (PCVAD), has evolved rapidly and it has been reported
      worldwide. However, genetic information of PCV2 in Thailand has not been
      available since 2011. Herein, we studied occurrence and genetic diversity of PCV2
      in Thailand and their relationships to the global PCV2 based on ORF2 sequences.
      The results showed that 306 samples (44.09%) from 56 farms (80%) were PCV2
      positive by PCR. Phylogenetic trees constructed by both neighbor-joining and
      Bayesian Inference yielded similar topology of the ORF2 sequences. Thai PCV2
      comprise four clusters: PCV2a (5.5%), PCV2b (29.41%), intermediate clade 1 (IM1)
      PCV2b (11.03%) and PCV2d (54.41%). Genetic shift of PCV2 in Thailand has occurred
      similarly to the global situation. The shift from PCV2b to PCV2d was clearly
      observed during 2013-2014. The viruses with genetically similar to the first
      reported PCV2 in 2004 have still circulated in Thailand. The first Thai PCV2b and
      PCV2d were closely related to the neighboring countries. The haplotype network
      analysis revealed the relationship of PCV2 in Thailand and other countries. These
      results indicate that genetic diversity of PCV2 in Thailand is caused by genetic
      drift of the local strains and intermittent introduction of new strains or
      genotypes from other countries. Genetic evolution of PCV2 in Thailand is similar
      to that occurs globally.

PMID- 28888645
TI  - Eradication of bovine viral diarrhea virus in Germany-Diversity of subtypes and
      detection of live-vaccine viruses.
AB  - Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) causes high economic losses in the cattle population
      worldwide. In Germany, an obligatory control program with detection and removal
      of persistently infected animals is in force since 2011. For molecular tracing of
      virus transmission, a comprehensive sequence data base of the currently
      circulating BVD viruses was established. Partial sequences of 1007 samples
      collected between 2008 and 2016 were generated. As dominant viruses, subtypes 1b
      (47.0%) and 1d (26.5%) could be identified with no marked geographic or sampling
      year effect, a much higher amount of BVDV-2c was detected in 2013 compared to
      other years, predominantly in Western Germany. In addition, subtypes 1a, 1e, 1f,
      1h, 1g, 1k, and 2a were found. Interestingly, besides field-viruses, two
      different live-vaccine viruses were detected in tissue samples of newborn calves
      (n=37) whose mothers were immunized during pregnancy.

PMID- 28888643
TI  - Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci in
      healthy humans is associated with occupational pig contact in a dose-response
      manner.
AB  - This study aimed to explore the association between occupational pig contact and
      human methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCoNS) carriage.
      We conducted a cross-sectional study of pig exposed participants and controls in
      Guangdong, China, using a multi-stage sampling design. Participants provided a
      nasal swab for MRCoNS analysis and resulting isolates were tested for antibiotic
      susceptibility. The dose-response relation was examined using log binomial
      regression or Poisson regression models. The adjusted prevalence of MRCoNS
      carriage in pig exposed participants was 1.67 times (95% CI: 1.32-2.11) higher
      than in controls. The adjusted average number of resistance to different
      antibiotic classes of MRCoNS isolates from pig exposed participants was 1.67
      times (95% CI: 1.46-1.91) higher than those from controls. Notably, we found the
      frequency and duration of occupational pig contact was associated with increased
      prevalence and increased number of resistance to different antibiotic classes of
      MRCoNS in a dose-response manner. When examining these relations by MRCoNS
      species, there was still evidence of similar exposure-response relations.
      Additionally, the proportion of tetracycline-resistant and tet(M)-containing
      MRCoNS isolates was significantly higher in pig exposed participants than in
      controls. These findings suggested a potential transmission of MRCoNS from
      livestock to humans by occupational livestock contact, and the presence of
      phenotypic and genotypic tetracycline resistance may aid in the differentiation
      of animal origins of MRCoNS isolates.

PMID- 28888646
TI  - Disparity in the nasopharyngeal microbiota between healthy cattle on feed, at
      entry processing and with respiratory disease.
AB  - Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the most serious causes of health and
      economic problems in the beef production industry, especially in recently weaned,
      intensely raised and newly transported feedlot cattle. While the importance of
      upper airway structure and function in the susceptibility of the lower
      respiratory tract to colonization with potential pathogens is well established,
      the role of the mucosal microbiota in respirtatory health is less well defined.
      The objective of this study was to characterize the nasopharyngeal microbiota of
      feedlot cattle at entry into a commercial feedlot, during initial management
      processing, and to compare the dynamics of change in these microbial communities
      between clinically healthy calves and those that develop BRD within the first
      month after entry. Deep nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from randomly
      selected healthy calves (n=66) during initial handling and processing at the
      feedlot, and again at the initial diagnosis of BRD (n=22). Clinically healthy pen
      matched controls calves (n=10) were sampled at the same time as the BRD affected
      animals. Genomic DNA was extracted from each sample, and the 16S rRNA gene V1-V3
      hypervariable region was amplified and sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq
      platform. Across all the samples, the predominant bacterial phyla were
      Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. While the predominant genera were
      Moraxella, Mycoplasma and Acinetobacter. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA)
      effect size (LEfSe) revealed significant differences in bacterial taxa between
      healthy and BRD affected calves. Discriminant analysis revealed that the
      nasopharyngeal microbiota in feedlot calves at entry and in BRD affected calves
      were distinct from pen matched healthy calves. While the temporal dynamics of
      this shift were not examined in this study, it is possible that the observed
      changes in mucosal microbiota are linked to the increased susceptibility of
      calves to BRD during the first month after entry in to the feedlot. Additional
      studies are needed to examine the trajectory of change in nasopharyngeal
      microbial communities from entry to disease onset, and to explore the impact of
      other factors such as diet transition, commingling, vaccination and housing on
      the nasopharyngeal microbiota of growing cattle.

PMID- 28888647
TI  - Fibronectin-/fibrinogen-binding protein (FBPS) is not a critical virulence factor
      for the Streptococcus suis serotype 2 strain ZY05719.
AB  - Fibronectin-/fibrinogen-binding protein (FBPS) of Streptococcus suis serotype 2
      (SS2) is an atypical anchorless microbial surface components recognizing adhesive
      matrix molecules (MSCRAMM) for which the role in bacterial infection are not
      clearly established. To investigate the biological functions of FBPS, an fbps
      knockout mutant was constructed in SS2 strain ZY05719 to explore the phenotypic
      changes between the wild-type and mutant strains. Cell morphology analyses
      combined with the basic growth curves showed that deletion of fbps does not
      significantly influence neither the thickness of the capsule of SS2 nor the cell
      growth characteristic. In addition to three previously identified host components
      fibronectin (FN), factor H (FH) and fibrinogen (FG), we also found that both
      laminin (LN) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) could bind specifically to FBPS.
      Furthermore, we confirmed that FBPS play an important role in adherence of SS2 to
      host cells. The in vitro assays demonstrated that an inactivation of fbps does
      not inhibit the intracellular survival of SS2 in RAW246.7 macrophages, attenuate
      the ability of invasion of host cells or the growth ability in pig blood.
      Additionally, the fbps mutation failed to decrease the virulence of SS2 in both
      BALB/c mice and zebrafish. Finally, immunization with recombinant FBPS showed no
      significant difference from the control groups in terms of murine viability after
      SS2 challenge. Taken together, we concluded that FBPS is not a critical virulence
      factor for the SS2 strain ZY05719.

PMID- 28888648
TI  - Evaluation of the effect of a porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome
      (PRRS) modified-live virus vaccine on sow reproductive performance in endemic
      PRRS farms.
AB  - The efficacy of a porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) modified
      live virus vaccine in reproductive performance was evaluated under field
      conditions. Three PRRS endemic farms were selected based on their history of PRRS
      associated reproductive failures. On each farm, a total of 40 sows were randomly
      allocated to either vaccinated (n=20) or unvaccinated (n=20) groups. Sows were
      vaccinated six weeks prior to breeding. Clinical data showed a significant
      improvement in reproductive performance in vaccinated sows. Sows in the
      vaccinated groups had a significantly (P<0.05) reduced number of stillborn
      piglets in all 3 farms. Sows in the vaccinated groups also had a significantly
      (P<0.05) higher number of live-born piglets in one of the farms. Sows in the
      vaccinated groups had a significantly (P<0.05) higher number of weaned piglets in
      two of the farms. Premature farrowing, one of the late gestation symptoms of
      PRRS, was also reduced due to vaccination as suggested by the increase in
      gestation length and the reduction in the number of stillborn piglets. No adverse
      systemic or local side effects relative to vaccination were observed during the
      entire gestation. No vaccine strain was detected in the vaccinated sows from all
      three farms at 70 and 114days post vaccination and in live-born piglets at the
      time of farrowing. Vaccination of sows with this PRRS vaccine was effective in
      improving reproductive performance in endemic PRRS farms.

PMID- 28888649
TI  - Identification of two novel avian influenza a (H5N6) viruses in wild birds,
      Shanghai, in 2016.
AB  - The H5N6 avian influenza virus (AIV) has been continuously reported in wild
      birds, which may contribute to further geographical spread during their long
      distance migrations. Active AIV surveillance in wild birds was conducted during
      October and November 2016 in Shanghai, China. Two novel influenza A (H5N6)
      viruses were detected in samples from migratory waterfowl that are genetically
      similar to recent South Korea and Japan H5N6 viruses collected in 2016 and 2017,
      highlighting the role of migratory waterfowl in the dissemination of H5N6 viruses
      along migratory flyways.

PMID- 28888650
TI  - Detection of rat hepatitis E virus in wild Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) and
      Black rats (Rattus rattus) from 11 European countries.
AB  - Rat hepatitis E virus (HEV) is genetically only distantly related to hepeviruses
      found in other mammalian reservoirs and in humans. It was initially detected in
      Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) from Germany, and subsequently in rats from
      Vietnam, the USA, Indonesia, China, Denmark and France. Here, we report on a
      molecular survey of Norway rats and Black rats (Rattus rattus) from 12 European
      countries for ratHEV and human pathogenic hepeviruses. RatHEV-specific real-time
      and conventional RT-PCR investigations revealed the presence of ratHEV in 63 of
      508 (12.4%) rats at the majority of sites in 11 of 12 countries. In contrast, a
      real-time RT-PCR specific for human pathogenic HEV genotypes 1-4 and a nested
      broad-spectrum (NBS) RT-PCR with subsequent sequence determination did not detect
      any infections with these genotypes. Only in a single Norway rat from Belgium a
      rabbit HEV-like genotype 3 sequence was detected. Phylogenetic analysis indicated
      a clustering of all other novel Norway and Black rat-derived sequences with
      ratHEV sequences from Europe, the USA and a Black rat-derived sequence from
      Indonesia within the proposed ratHEV genotype 1. No difference in infection
      status was detected related to age, sex, rat species or density of human
      settlements and zoological gardens. In conclusion, our investigation shows a
      broad geographical distribution of ratHEV in Norway and Black rats from Europe
      and its presence in all settlement types investigated.

PMID- 28888651
TI  - Necrotic enteritis locus 1 diguanylate cyclase and phosphodiesterase (cyclic-di
      GMP) gene mutation attenuates virulence in an avian necrotic enteritis isolate of
      Clostridium perfringens.
AB  - Necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by netB-positive strains of Clostridium
      perfringens is an important disease of intensively-reared broiler chickens. It is
      widely controlled by antibiotic use, but this practice that has come under
      increasing scrutiny and alternative approaches are required. As part of the
      search for alternative approaches over the last decade, advances have been made
      in understanding its pathogenesis but much remains to be understood and applied
      to the control of NE. The objective of this work was to assess the effect on
      virulence of mutation of the cyclic-di-GMP signaling genes present on the large
      pathogenicity locus (NELoc-1) in the tcp-encoding conjugative virulence plasmid,
      pNetB. For this purpose, the diguanylate cyclase (dgc) and phosphodiesterase
      (pde) genes were individually insertionally inactivated and the two mutants were
      subsequently complemented with their respective genes. Southern blotting showed
      that a single gene insertion was present. Mutation of either gene resulted in
      almost total attenuation of the mutants to cause NE in experimentally-infected
      broiler chickens, which was fully restored in each case by complementation of the
      respective mutated gene. Production of NetB-associated cytotoxicity for Leghorn
      male hepatoma (LMH) cells was unaffected in mutants. We conclude that the cyclic
      di-GMP signaling system is important in controlling virulence in a NE C.
      perfringens strain and might be a target for control of the disease.

PMID- 28888652
TI  - Erratum to "Antimicrobials used for surgical prophylaxis by companion animal
      veterinarians in Australia" [Vet. Microbiol. 203C (2017) 301-307].

PMID- 28888653
TI  - Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus does not replicate in porcine monocyte-derived
      dendritic cells, but activates the transcription of type I interferon and
      chemokine.
AB  - Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) belongs to the alphacoronavirus of the
      Coronaviridae. It is the major etiological agent of the recent outbreaks of
      piglet diarrhea and death in the US. Limited knowledge is currently available
      regarding the role of dendritic cells in PEDV infection. Here, we observed that
      PEDV did not replicate in monocyte-derived dendritic cells as evidenced by the
      decrease of viral gene transcript copies in infected cells by qRT-PCR and the
      absence of viral proteins by immunofluorescence staining as well as the absence
      of virus particles in infected cells by transmission electron microscopy. In
      addition, PEDV did not compromise cell viability at 48, 72, and 96h after
      infection at either a MOI of 2.5 or 5. Interestingly, an increased transcription
      of type I interferon including interferon-alpha and beta was observed in infected
      cells compared to mock infected cells. Surprisingly, we did not detect any
      interferon-beta in the supernatants of infected cells. A slight increase in
      interferon-alpha protein production in the supernatants of PEDV-infected cells
      was observed compared to mock infected cells. We also observed a markedly
      increased transcription of interferon inducible protein -10 (IP-10). Overall,
      PEDV does not replicate in porcine Mo-DC, but activates the transcription of type
      I interferon and chemokine IP-10.

PMID- 28888654
TI  - Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O22:H8 isolated from cattle reduces
      E. coli O157:H7 adherence in vitro and in vivo.
AB  - PROBLEM ADDRESSED: Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are a group of
      bacteria responsible for food-associated diseases. Clinical features include a
      wide range of symptoms such as diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis and the hemolytic
      uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition. OBJECTIVE: Our group has
      observed that animals naturally colonized with STEC strains of unknown serotype
      were not efficiently colonized with E. coli O157:H7 after experimental infection.
      In order to assess the basis of the interference, three STEC strains were
      isolated from STEC persistently-colonized healthy cattle from a dairy farm in
      Buenos Aires, Argentina. METHODS AND RESULTS: The three isolated strains are E.
      coli O22:H8 and carry the stx1 and stx2d genes. The activatable activity of Stx2d
      was demonstrated in vitro. The three strains carry the adhesins iha, ehaA and
      lpfO113. E. coli O22:H8 formed stronger biofilms in abiotic surface than E. coli
      O157:H7 (eae+, stx2+) and displayed a more adherent phenotype in vitro towards
      HeLa cells. Furthermore, when both serotypes were cultured together O22:H8 could
      reduce O157:H7 adherence in vitro. When calves were intragastrically pre
      challenged with 108 CFU of a mixture of the three STEC strains and two days later
      challenged with the same dose of the strain E. coli O157:H7 438/99, the shedding
      of the pathogen was significantly reduced. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest
      that E. coli O22:H8, a serotype rarely associated with human illness, might
      compete with O157:H7 at the bovine recto-anal junction, making non-O157 carrying
      calves less susceptible to O157:H7 colonization and shedding of the bacteria to
      the environment.

PMID- 28888655
TI  - The matrix protein of vesicular stomatitis virus inhibits host-directed
      transcription of target genes via interaction with the TFIIH subunit p8.
AB  - In response to viral infection, the host innate antiviral response is elicited to
      limit viral replication. Many viruses have evolved various strategies to
      circumvent the host antiviral response. It has been reported that matrix (M)
      protein of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) can inhibit host gene expression to
      evade the host innate immune response. However, the molecular mechanism remains
      unclear. Here, we demonstrated that VSV M protein inhibited transcription of a
      reporter gene transfected into BSR-T7/5 cells. To further investigate the
      underlying mechanism, a yeast two-hybrid screen was performed to search for host
      proteins that interact with the M protein. The subunit of transcription/repair
      factor TFIIH, p8, was identified as an M binding partner, and the interaction was
      validated with a GST pull-down assay and laser confocal microscopy. Through a
      mutagenesis analysis, we found that the p8-M interaction was impaired when I96,
      E156, R159 and R160 residues on M were replaced with Ala. These mutants reduced
      the inhibitory effect on transcription of the reporter gene. Furthermore, the
      transcription inhibition mediated by M was impaired when co-expressed with p8.
      These results indicate that the p8-M interaction plays an important role in
      inhibiting transcription of host genes.

PMID- 28888656
TI  - Molecular characterization of circulating Foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV)
      serotype O topotype EA-3 and serotype A (African topotype) genotype IV in Egypt,
      2016.
AB  - In January-April 2016, cattle and buffalo farm owners and veterinarians reported
      clinical signs suggestive of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) outbreaks among
      non-vaccinated cattle and buffalo herds in Egypt. The clinical disease observed
      was either mild (small oral lesions and speedy recovery) or severe (extensive
      oral lesions and/or mortalities), and the form of the disease (either mild or
      severe) segregated by farm. This study aimed to confirm the presence of FMDV and
      to characterize the circulating strains associated with the outbreaks. Vesicular
      epithelia were collected from 41 animals representing 15 affected cattle and
      buffalo farms in five governorates (Behira, Cairo, Daqahlia, Giza and Ismailia),
      and tested by real time (rt) RT-PCR. Consequently, 92% (38/41) of examined
      samples were positive. Furthermore, the VP1 coding region of 60% (23/38) of
      positive specimens were amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced. The phylogenetic
      analysis identified two distinct strains characterized as serotype O topotype EA
      3 and serotype A (African topotype) of genotype IV in the severe and mild disease
      forms, respectively. The newly identified strains clustered in distinct clades in
      the phylogenetic trees, indicating the likelihood of new incursions into Egypt.
      Those strains were most closely related to previously described Sudanese strains.

PMID- 28888657
TI  - Spontaneous listeriosis in grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus), but not in
      Goodman's mouse lemurs (Microcebus lehilahytsara) of the same colony.
AB  - Listeriosis is a zoonotic infection with the gram positive, facultative
      intracellular bacterium Listeria (L.) monocytogenes. Infections mainly occur in
      ruminants, but also in other species, including humans. Case fatality rate
      usually is high. The incidence of listeriosis in captive non-human primates is
      very low. We report the first spontaneous, fatal, and likely food-born outbreak
      of listeriosis in a population of captive grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus).
      Conspicuously, none of the closely related Goodman's mouse lemurs (Microcebus
      lehilahytsara) in the same facility were affected.

PMID- 28888658
TI  - Variations in glycoprotein B contribute to immunogenic difference between PRV
      variant JS-2012 and Bartha-K61.
AB  - A newly emerged pseudorabies virus (PRV) variant has been identified in many
      Bartha-K61-vaccinated pig farms. This variant has caused great economic losses to
      the swine industry in China since 2011. Sequence analysis demonstrated that the
      gB gene of the emerging PRV variant JS-2012 had multiple variations compared with
      the vaccine strain Bartha-K61. In the study, a specific CRISPR/Cas9 system
      combined with homologous recombination was used to construct two recombinant
      viruses, BJB (Bartha-K61+JS-2012gB) and JBJ (JS-2012-DeltagE/gI+Bartha-K61gB), by
      interchanging the full-length gB genes between Bartha-K61 and JS-2012-DeltagE/gI.
      The two recombinant viruses showed similar characteristics in growth kinetics in
      vitro and similar pathogenicity in mice, as compared to their parental strains.
      Immunization of mice with inactivated BJB or JBJ followed by challenge of JS-2012
      showed that BJB could increase protective efficacy to 80%, compared to only 40%
      protection by the parental Bartha-K61 strain. JBJ had a decreased protective
      efficacy of 65%, as compared to 90% protection by its parental JS-2012-DeltagE/gI
      strain. Exchange of the gB gene markedly altered the immunogenicity of the
      recombinant PRV. These data suggest that variations in gB might play an important
      role in the virulence of the reemergent PRV variant in China. Our results
      demonstrate the importance of gB in protective immunity and suggest that the
      recombinant virus BJB could be a promising vaccine candidate for eradication of
      the PRV variant.

PMID- 28888659
TI  - Development of a luminescent mutagenicity test for high-throughput screening of
      aquatic samples.
AB  - The Salmonella reversion based Ames test is the most widely used method for
      mutagenicity testing. For rapid toxicity assessment of e.g. water samples and for
      effect-directed analysis, however, the Ames test suffers from lack of throughput
      and is regarded as a laborious, time consuming method. To achieve faster
      analysis, with increased throughput, a (downscaled) luminescent derivative of the
      Ames Salmonella/microsome fluctuation test has been developed through expression
      of the Photorhabdus luminescens luciferase in the Salmonella TA98 and TA100
      strains. The applicability of this test is demonstrated by analysis of
      environmentally relevant compounds, a suspended particulate matter extract and an
      industrial effluent sample. Use of the luminescent reporter reduced the required
      detection time from 48 to 28h with a specificity of 84% for responses reported in
      the literature to a set of 14 mutagens as compared to 72% in the unmodified
      fluctuation test. Testing of the same compounds in a downscaled luminescent
      format resulted in an 88% similarity with the response found in the regular
      luminescent format. The increase in throughput, faster analysis and potential for
      real-time bacterial quantification that luminescence provides, allows future
      application in the high-throughput screening of large numbers of samples or
      sample fractions, as required in effect-directed analysis in order to accelerate
      the identification of (novel) mutagens.

PMID- 28888660
TI  - Time for a change in how new antibiotics are reimbursed: Development of an
      insurance framework for funding new antibiotics based on a policy of risk
      mitigation.
AB  - Healthcare systems depend on the availability of new antibiotics. However, there
      is a lack of treatments for infections caused by multidrug resistant (MDR)
      pathogens and a weak development pipeline of new therapies. One core challenge to
      the development of new antibiotics targeting MDR pathogens is that expected
      revenues are insufficient to drive long-term investment. In the USA and Europe,
      financial incentives have focussed on supporting R&D, reducing regulatory burden,
      and extending market exclusivity. Using resistance data to estimate global
      revenues, we demonstrate that the combined effects of these incentives are
      unlikely to rekindle investment in antibiotics. We analyse two supplemental
      approaches: a commercial incentive (a premium price model) and a new business
      model (an insurance model). A premium price model is familiar and readily
      implemented but the required price and local budget impact is highly uncertain
      and sensitive to cross-sectional and longitudinal variation in prevalence of
      antibiotic resistance. An insurance model delivering risk mitigation for payers,
      providers and manufacturers would provide an incentive to drive investment in the
      development of new antibiotics while also facilitating antibiotic conservation.
      We suggest significant efforts should be made to test the insurance model as one
      route to stimulate investment in novel antibiotics.

PMID- 28888661
TI  - Rational design of conformationally constrained oxazolidinone-fused 1,2,3,4
      tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives as potential PDE4 inhibitors.
AB  - Improvement of subtype selectivity of an inhibitor's binding activity using the
      conformational restriction approach has become an effective strategy in drug
      discovery. In this study, we applied this approach to PDE4 inhibitors and
      designed a series of novel oxazolidinone-fused 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline
      derivatives as conformationally restricted analogues of rolipram. The bioassay
      results demonstrated the oxazolidinone-fused tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives
      exhibited moderate to good inhibitory activity against PDE4B and high selectivity
      for PDE4B/PDE4D. Among these derivatives, compound 12 showed both the strongest
      inhibition activity (IC50=0.60MUM) as well as good selectivity against PDE4B and
      good in vivo activity in animal models of asthma/COPD and sepsis induced by LPS.
      The primary SAR study showed that restricting the conformation of the catechol
      moiety in rolipram with the scaffold of oxazolidinone-fused
      tetrahydroisoquinoline could lead to an increase in selectivity for PDE4B over
      PDE4D, which was consistent with the observed docking simulation.

PMID- 28888662
TI  - Candida auris: An emerging multidrug-resistant pathogen.
AB  - Candida aurisis an emerging multidrug-resistant pathogen that can be difficult to
      identify using traditional biochemical methods. C. auris is capable of causing
      invasive fungal infections, particularly among hospitalized patients with
      significant medical comorbidities. Echinocandins are the empiric drugs of choice
      for C. auris, although not all isolates are susceptible and resistance may
      develop on therapy. Nosocomial C. auris outbreaks have been reported in a number
      of countries and aggressive infection control measures are paramount to stopping
      transmission.

PMID- 28888663
TI  - Impact of air manganese on child neurodevelopment in East Liverpool, Ohio.
AB  - BACKGROUND: East Liverpool, Ohio, the site of a hazardous waste incinerator and a
      manganese (Mn) processor, has had air Mn concentrations exceeding United States
      Environmental Protection Agency reference levels for over a decade. Save Our
      County, Inc., a community organization, was formed to address community
      environmental health concerns related to local industry. Researchers from the
      University of Cincinnati partnered with Save Our County to determine if air Mn
      had an impact on the neurocognitive function of children in the community.
      METHODS: Children 7-9 years of age from East Liverpool and its surrounding
      communities, were enrolled (N=106) in the Communities Actively Researching
      Exposure Study from between March 2013-June 2014. Blood and hair were analyzed
      for Mn and lead, and serum was analyzed for cotinine. We used linear regression
      to assess associations between biological measures and IQ subscale scores.
      RESULTS: Geometric mean blood lead (n=67), blood Mn (n=66), hair Mn (n=98), and
      serum cotinine (n=69) concentrations were 1.13+/-1.96MUg/dL, 10.06+/-1.30MUg/L,
      and 360.22+/-2.17ng/g, 0.76+/-6.12MUg/L respectively. After adjusting for
      potential confounders, hair Mn was negatively associated with Full Scale IQ.
      CONCLUSIONS: Hair Mn was negatively associated with child IQ scores. Community
      partners were instrumental in the conception and implementation of this study.

PMID- 28888664
TI  - Regulatory T cells and TLR9 activation shape antibody formation to a secreted
      transgene product in AAV muscle gene transfer.
AB  - Adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene delivery to skeletal muscle is being explored
      for systemic delivery of therapeutic proteins. To better understand the signals
      that govern antibody formation against secreted transgene products in this
      approach, we administered an intramuscular dose of AAV1 vector expressing human
      coagulation factor IX (hFIX), which does not cause antibody formation against
      hFIX in C57BL/6 mice. Interestingly, co-administration of a TLR9 agonist (CpG
      deoxyoligonucleotide, ODN) but not of lipopolysaccharide, caused a transient anti
      hFIX response. ODN activated monocyte-derived dendritic cells and enhanced T
      follicular helper cell responses. While depletion of regulatory T cells (Tregs)
      also caused an antibody response, TLR9 activation combined with Treg depletion
      instead resulted in prolonged CD8+ T cell infiltration of transduced muscle.
      Thus, Tregs modulate the response to the TLR9 agonist. Further, Treg re
      population eventually resolved humoral and cellular immune responses. Therefore,
      specific modes of TLR9 activation and Tregs orchestrate antibody formation in
      muscle gene transfer.

PMID- 28888665
TI  - Fish scale-derived collagen patch promotes growth of blood and lymphatic vessels
      in vivo.
AB  - : In this study, Type I collagen was extracted from fish scales asa potential
      alternative source of collagen for tissue engineering applications. Since
      unmodified collagen typically has poor mechanical and degradation stability both
      in vitro and in vivo, additional methylation modification and 1,4-butanediol
      diglycidyl ether (BDE) crosslinking steps were used to improve the
      physicochemical properties of fish scale-derived collagen. Subsequently, in vivo
      studies using a murine model demonstrated the biocompatibility of the different
      fish scale-derived collagen patches. In general, favorable integration of the
      collagen patches to the surrounding tissues, with good infiltration of cells,
      blood vessels (BVs) and lymphatic vessels (LVs) were observed under growth factor
      free conditions. Interestingly, significantly higher (p<0.05) number of LVs was
      found to be more abundant around collagen patches with methylation modification
      and BDE crosslinking. Overall, we have demonstrated the potential application of
      fish scale-derived collagen as a promising scaffolding material for various
      biomedical applications. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Currently the most common
      sources of collagen are of bovine and porcine origins, although the industrial
      use of collagen obtained from non-mammalian species is growing in importance,
      particularly since they have a lower risk of disease transmission and are not
      subjected to any cultural or religious constraints. However, unmodified collagen
      typically has poor mechanical and degradation stability both in vitro and in
      vivo. Hence, in this study, Type I collagen was successfully extracted from fish
      scales and chemically modified and crosslinked. In vitro studies showed overall
      improvement in the physicochemical properties of the material, whilst in vivo
      implantation studies showed improvements in the growth of blood and lymphatic
      host vessels in the vicinity of the implants.

PMID- 28888666
TI  - Perceptual Differences between Novice and Professional Music Theater Singers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Research examining contemporary commercial music styles of singing has
      increased significantly over the last 10 years. While acoustic analysis has
      helped determine which characteristics define various vocal genres, a discrepancy
      still exists in how those acoustic characteristics are perceived, described, and
      evaluated. METHODS: The current study recorded seven novice and four professional
      musical theater singers performing belt, legit, and mix vocal samples. Novice
      singers were defined as first- and second-year students in an undergraduate
      musical theater program, while professional singers were defined as having played
      at least one major role in a music theater production in regional Equity
      theaters. Five regional Equity casting directors listened to the recordings and
      rated each sample on the basis of style (belt versus legit) and tone quality
      (brassy versus fluty and bright versus dark). Results were compared across
      experience level (novice/professional) and pitch. Additionally, relationships
      between style (belt/legit) and quality (brassy/fluty, bright/dark) were examined.
      RESULTS: The statistically significant correlation emerged between the raters'
      perceived singing style and the singers' indicated singing style. Auditors
      identified the style (belt/legit) more reliably for the professional singers than
      for novice singers, and ratings of other qualities varied significantly between
      raters. CONCLUSIONS: The singers were successfully able to produce voicing styles
      that matched the perceptual expectations of the casting directors. Not
      surprisingly, professional singers were somewhat more successful in this regard
      than were the novices. There appears to be little consensus among the auditors,
      however, about which acoustical qualities define a belt, mix, or legit style.

PMID- 28888667
TI  - Preimmunization with a heat-killed preparation of Mycobacterium vaccae enhances
      fear extinction in the fear-potentiated startle paradigm.
AB  - The hygiene hypothesis or "Old Friends" hypothesis proposes that inflammatory
      diseases are increasing in modern urban societies, due in part to reduced
      exposure to microorganisms that drive immunoregulatory circuits, and a failure to
      terminate inappropriate inflammatory responses. Inappropriate inflammation is
      also emerging as a risk factor for trauma-related, anxiety, and affective
      disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is characterized
      as persistent re-experiencing of the trauma after a traumatic experience.
      Traumatic experiences can lead to long-lasting fear memories and exaggerated fear
      potentiation of the acoustic startle reflex. The acoustic startle reflex is an
      ethologically relevant reflex and can be potentiated in both humans and rats
      through Pavlovian conditioning. Mycobacterium vaccae NCTC 11659 is a soil-derived
      bacterium with immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory properties that has been
      demonstrated to confer stress resilience in mice. Here we immunized adult male
      Sprague Dawley rats 3*, once per week, with a heat-killed preparation of M.
      vaccae NCTC 11659 (0.1mg, s.c., in 100ul borate-buffered saline) or vehicle, and,
      then, 3weeks following the final immunization, tested them in the fear
      potentiated startle paradigm; controls were maintained under home cage control
      conditions throughout the experiment (n=11-12 per group). Rats were tested on
      days 1 and 2 for baseline acoustic startle, received fear conditioning on days 3
      and 4, and underwent fear extinction training on days 5-10. Rats were euthanized
      on day 11 and brain tissue was sectioned for analysis of mRNA expression for
      genes important in control of brain serotonergic signaling, including tph2,
      htr1a, slc6a4, and slc22a3, throughout the brainstem dorsal and median raphe
      nuclei. Immunization with M. vaccae had no effect on baseline acoustic startle or
      fear expression on day 5. However, M. vaccae-immunized rats showed enhanced
      between-session and within-session extinction on day 6, relative to vehicle
      immunized controls. Immunization with M. vaccae and fear-potentiated startle
      altered serotonergic gene expression in a gene- and subregion-specific manner.
      These data are consistent with the hypothesis that immunoregulatory strategies,
      such as preimmunization with M. vaccae, have potential for prevention of stress-
      and trauma-related psychiatric disorders.

PMID- 28888668
TI  - Effects of obesity on depression: A role for inflammation and the gut microbiota.
AB  - Depression is a mental disorder associated with environmental, genetic and
      psychological factors. Recent studies indicate that chronic neuro-inflammation
      may affect brain physiology and alter mood and behavior. Consumption of a high
      fat diet leads to obesity and chronic systemic inflammation. The gut microbiota
      mediates many effects of a high-fat diet on human physiology and may also
      influence the mood and behavior of the host. We review here recent studies
      suggesting the existence of a link between obesity, the gut microbiota and
      depression, focusing on the mechanisms underlying the effects of a high-fat diet
      on chronic inflammation and brain physiology. This body of research suggests that
      modulating the composition of the gut microbiota using prebiotics and probiotics
      may produce beneficial effects on anxiety and depression.

PMID- 28888669
TI  - Thyroid hormones decrease the proinflammatory TLR4/NF-kappabeta pathway and
      improve functional parameters of the left ventricle of infarcted rats.
AB  - Myocardial infarction leads to oxidative stress and promotes activation of the
      TLR4/NF-kappabeta proinflammatory pathway. Thyroid hormones (TH) are known to be
      cardioprotective after infarction. However, there are no studies evaluating
      whether TH could modulate this pathway in the heart. This study aimed to verify
      the effect of thyroid hormones on the TLR4/NF-kappabeta pathway after myocardial
      infarction. Male Wistar rats were allocated into the following groups: Sham
      operated (SHAM), sham-operated + TH (SHAMT), infarcted (AMI) and infarcted + TH
      (AMIT). The treated rats received T4 and T3 (8 and 2 MUg 100 g-1 day-1) for 12
      days by gavage. Subsequently, the animals were evaluated by echocardiography and
      euthanized, and the left ventricle was collected for biochemical and molecular
      analyses. TH modulates TLR4/NF-kappabeta expression in the infarcted hearts of
      rats and decreases xanthine oxidase expression. These effects were related to
      cardiac functional improvement after infarction. The cardioprotective effects of
      T3 and T4 seem to involve an anti-inflammatory action.

PMID- 28888670
TI  - Reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test
      (BESTest) in individuals with multiple sclerosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest) measures various
      aspects of postural control, but little data exist in persons with multiple
      sclerosis (MS). The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometrics of
      the BESTest in MS. DESIGN: Observational study. METHODS: 21 ambulatory subjects
      with MS participated. In the first session, demographic data was collected; each
      subject completed a questionnaire of self-perceived disability level and the
      BESTest. The BESTest was re-administered 1 week later. RESULTS: Test-retest
      reliability (ICC 3,1) for the total BESTest was 0.94, ranging 0.66 to 0.93 for
      the subsections. Internal consistency (Chronbach's alpha) for the total BESTest
      was 0.97; subsections scores ranged 0.79 to 0.96. Minimal detectable change (MDC)
      scores ranged from 2.25 to 4.58 for subsections with 9.47 points for total
      BESTest. Weak to moderate correlations were found between individual subsection
      scores (0.12 to 0.78), and BESTest total and subsection scores to fall (-0.08 to 
      0.62) frequency and self-perceived disability level (-0.24 to -0.64). Strongest
      correlations were found between BESTest total and individual subsection scores.
      No floor effects were found; five BESTest subsections had ceiling effects.
      CONCLUSIONS: The BESTest is reliable and valid in individuals with MS. Total
      BESTest scores demonstrated higher reliability and a lack of a ceiling effect as
      compared to subsection scores, suggesting that clinicians use the BESTest in its
      entirety. The correlations among subsection scores indicate that each assesses a
      unique aspect of balance, supporting its construct validity. The MDC scores will
      assist clinicians in assessing patient change.

PMID- 28888671
TI  - Dicistroviridae: A new viral purification technique.
AB  - The family Dicistroviridae comprises three genera and about twenty species of RNA
      virus, most of them with health or agricultural importance. The Triatoma virus
      (TrV) is the only entomopathogenic virus identified in triatomine bugs up to the
      present. TrV replicates within the intestinal epithelial cells, causing high
      mortality rate and delayed development of the molt of these bugs. TrV has been
      proposed as a biological control agent for vectors of Chagas disease. Viral
      particles were purified from feces of 1, 5 and 10 insects from an experimental
      colony of Triatoma infestans infected with TrV. Viral concentration and
      infectivity were corroborated using polyacrylamide gels and RT-PCR, respectively.
      In this work we report a method of viral purification that allows to reduce
      necessary reagents and time, using a very small amount of fecal matter.

PMID- 28888672
TI  - Student support in accelerated nursing programs: Gender-based perspectives and
      impact on academic outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Factors that contribute to student success in accelerated degree
      nursing programs are poorly understood and may vary by gender. PURPOSE: Examine
      associations between satisfaction with peer and mentor support, gender, and
      academic outcomes among students in accelerated degree nursing programs. METHODS:
      We used data (demographic variables, satisfaction with peer and mentor support,
      graduation, and attempts of National Council Licensure Examination for Registered
      Nurses) from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and Robert Wood
      Johnson Foundation's New Career in Nursing Program. Multivariable mixed effects
      regression models were used to examine associations among gender, satisfaction
      with support, and academic outcomes. FINDINGS: Males had an increased probability
      of reporting high satisfaction with peer support. Both males and females who were
      very dissatisfied with peer support were less likely to graduate than students
      who were very satisfied with peer support. Gender did not moderate the
      relationships between satisfaction with peer and mentor support and academic
      outcomes. CONCLUSION: Peer support is an important aspect of graduation among
      students in accelerated degree nursing programs. Continuous quality improvement
      strategies to improve student peer support may be warranted.

PMID- 28888673
TI  - Relationship between bacteriology report time in the morning and length of stay
      in hospital after the report.
AB  - We studied the relationship between the time of day bacteriology reports were
      available in the electronic medical record (Epic, Verona, WI) and subsequent
      length of stay (LOS) following the last report before discharge. All patients
      >=18years admitted to the UF Health Shands Hospital between 1/1/2014-2/29/2016
      were included. We calculated the mean LOS following the report for each half-hour
      time period between 6AM and 1PM (N=14, 95.6% of all results) and tested the
      relationship to subsequent LOS. For patients whose total LOS was <=168hours
      (N=13,830) there was a highly significant positive linear relationship between
      the report time and LOS following the last report (r=0.8813, P=0.00001556). For
      those patients with total LOS>168h, there was no clear relationship between
      report time in the morning and LOS after the last bacteriology report. The
      relationship between bacteriology report time in the morning and use of this
      information by physicians in discharge decision-making is likely to be complex
      and multi-factorial, but for those patients with a total hospital LOS <=168h,
      there is a strong relationship between an earlier report and earlier patient
      discharge.

PMID- 28888676
TI  - Editorial Comment.

PMID- 28888674
TI  - Geographic variations in clinical presentation and outcomes of decompressive
      surgery in patients with symptomatic degenerative cervical myelopathy: analysis
      of a prospective, international multicenter cohort study of 757 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a progressive
      degenerative spine disease and the most common cause of spinal cord impairment in
      adults worldwide. Few studies have reported on regional variations in
      demographics, clinical presentation, disease causation, and surgical
      effectiveness. PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to evaluate differences
      in demographics, causative pathology, management strategies, surgical outcomes,
      length of hospital stay, and complications across four geographic regions. STUDY
      DESIGN/SETTING: This is a multicenter international prospective cohort study.
      PATIENT SAMPLE: This study includes a total of 757 symptomatic patients with DCM
      undergoing surgical decompression of the cervical spine. OUTCOME MEASURES: The
      outcome measures are the Neck Disability Index (NDI), the Short Form 36 version 2
      (SF-36v2), the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA) scale, and the
      Nurick grade. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The baseline characteristics, disease
      causation, surgical approaches, and outcomes at 12 and 24 months were compared
      among four regions: Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and North America.
      RESULTS: Patients from Europe and North America were, on average, older than
      those from Latin America and Asia Pacific (p=.0055). Patients from Latin America
      had a significantly longer duration of symptoms than those from the other three
      regions (p<.0001). The most frequent causes of myelopathy were spondylosis and
      disc herniation. Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament was most
      prevalent in Asia Pacific (35.33%) and in Europe (31.75%), and hypertrophy of the
      ligamentum flavum was most prevalent in Latin America (61.25%). Surgical
      approaches varied by region; the majority of cases in Europe (71.43%), Asia
      Pacific (60.67%), and North America (59.10%) were managed anteriorly, whereas the
      posterior approach was more common in Latin America (66.25%). At the 24-month
      follow-up, patients from North America and Asia Pacific exhibited greater
      improvements in mJOA and Nurick scores than those from Europe and Latin America.
      Patients from Asia Pacific and Latin America demonstrated the most improvement on
      the NDI and SF-36v2 PCS. The longest duration of hospital stay was in Asia
      Pacific (14.16 days), and the highest rate of complications (34.9%) was reported
      in Europe. CONCLUSIONS: Regional differences in demographics, causation, and
      surgical approaches are significant for patients with DCM. Despite these
      variations, surgical decompression for DCM appears effective in all regions.
      Observed differences in the extent of postoperative improvements among the
      regions should encourage the standardization of care across centers and the
      development of international guidelines for the management of DCM.

PMID- 28888675
TI  - Radiation dose and cardiac risk in breast cancer treatment: An analysis of modern
      radiation therapy including community settings.
AB  - PURPOSE: Adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) for breast cancer improves outcomes, but
      prior studies have documented substantive cardiac dose and cardiac risk. We
      assessed the mean heart dose (MHD) of RT and estimated the risk of RT-associated
      cardiac toxicity in women undergoing adjuvant RT for breast cancer in
      contemporary (predominantly) community practice. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We
      identified women with left-sided breast cancer receiving adjuvant RT between 2012
      and 2014 from 94 centers across 16 states. We used bivariate analyses and
      multivariable linear regression to assess associations between RT techniques and
      MHD. Excess RT-related cardiac risk by age 80 was estimated for women diagnosed
      at age 60 using the previously reported relationship between MHD and cardiac
      risk. RESULTS: Among 1161 women, 77.3% were treated in community practice and
      with breast conservation (77.8%). The most common techniques were free-breathing
      (92.2%), supine (94.8%), and fixed gantry intensity modulated RT (FG-IMRT;
      46.9%). The median MHD was 2.76 Gy (interquartile range, 1.47-5.03). In
      multivariable analyses, the predicted median MHD with deep inspiration breath
      hold was 2.41 Gy compared with 3.86 Gy with free-breathing (P < .001). Three
      dimensional conformal RT (3D-CRT) was associated with a lower predicted median
      MHD (2.78 Gy) than FG-IMRT (4.02 Gy) or rotational IMRT, 6.60 Gy, P < .001). For
      60-year-old women with the median MHD of the study population (2.76 Gy) and no
      cardiovascular risk factors, the 20-year predicted excess risk of death from
      ischemic heart disease attributable to radiation was 3.5 excess events/1000
      patients, in contrast to estimates of 8 events/1000 from prior analyses. The
      predicted risk of cardiac events varied based on radiation technique, with 4
      excess events/1000 with 3D-CRT, 5 excess events/1000 with FG-IMRT, and 8 excess
      events/1000 with rotational IMRT. CONCLUSIONS: MHD varies substantially across
      patients and is influenced by technique in predominantly community settings.
      Overall risk of cardiac toxicity is modest.

PMID- 28888677
TI  - Quantitation of lanosterol in the vitreous humor of rabbits after ocular
      administration of lanosterol/thermogel formulation by ultra high performance
      liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with the electrospray ionization
      mode.
AB  - Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness worldwide affecting tens of
      millions of people. Here, we report a simple, rapid, sensitive and specific
      method by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with
      the electrospray ionization mode (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) for quantitation of lanosterol,
      a possible effective drug for cataracts, in the vitreous humor of rabbits after
      ocular administration. The injected lanosterol was prepared by dispersing
      lanosterol molecules into the poly-(dl-lactic acid-co-glycolic acid)
      poly(ethylene glycol)-poly-(dl-lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA-PEG-PLGA)
      thermogel solution. The analyte and internal standard (IS, panaxadiol) were
      extracted by the simple protein precipitation with methanol. The chromatographic
      separation used an Agilent RRHD SB-C18 column with a methanol mobile phase
      containing 50mM of ammonium acetate aqueous solution (with 0.1% formic acid)
      (95:5, v/v). The protonated analyte was quantitated in positive ionization by
      multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) with a mass spectrometer. The mass transitions
      m/z 443.5->235 and m/z 461->127 were used to measure the analyte and IS,
      respectively. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 1-1250ngmL-1 for
      lanosterol in vitreous samples. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 1ngmL
      1 with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 15%. Acceptable precision
      and accuracy were obtained for concentrations over the standard curve ranges. A
      run time of 5min per sample offered a throughput of more than 200 samples per
      day. This validated method was used to analyze vitreous samples of New Zealand
      white rabbits for pharmacokinetic studies. The results provided useful
      information on pharmacological action mechanism of lanosterol and were meaningful
      for cataract treatment among the elderly population.

PMID- 28888678
TI  - Preparation of a magnetic porous organic polymer for the efficient extraction of
      phenylurea herbicides.
AB  - A magnetic porphyrin-based porous organic polymer (M-PPOP) with good porosity,
      high surface area and strong magnetism was prepared and employed as the adsorbent
      for the magnetic solid phase extraction of the phenylurea herbicides (metoxuron,
      monolinuron, chlorotoluron, and buturon) from bottled grape juice and tomato
      samples prior to their determination by high performance liquid chromatography.
      Under the optimized conditions, the developed method exhibited a good linear
      range, low limits of detection, low relative standard deviations (<6.8%), good
      method recoveries between 80.8% and 117%, and high enrichment factors (51-106).
      For a better elucidation of the adsorption of the M-PPOP towards the analytes,
      the extraction performance of the M-PPOP for different types of organic compounds
      including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenylurea insecticides, phenylurea
      herbicides and phenols was studied. The results indicated that the pi- stacking,
      hydrogen-bonding and hydrophobic interactions between the M-PPOP and the analytes
      played a main role for the adsorption. The results revealed that the M-PPOP
      material had a great potential for the enrichment of more organic pollutants from
      real samples.

PMID- 28888679
TI  - Assessment of the removal of side nanoparticulated populations generated during
      one-pot synthesis by asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation coupled to
      elemental mass spectrometry.
AB  - Coupling of asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) to an on-line
      elemental detection (inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, ICP-MS) has
      been recently proposed as a powerful diagnostic tool for characterization of the
      bioconjugation of CdSe/ZnS core-shell Quantum Dots (QDs) to antibodies. Such
      approach has been used herein to demonstrate that cap exchange of the native
      hydrophobic shell of core/shell QDs with the bidentate dihydrolipoic acid ligands
      directly removes completely the eventual side nanoparticulated populations
      generated during simple one-pot synthesis, which can ruin the subsequent final
      bioapplication. The critical assessment of the chemical and physical purity of
      the surface-modified QDs achieved allows to explain the transmission electron
      microscopy findings obtained for the different nanoparticle surface modification
      assayed.

PMID- 28888680
TI  - The reciprocal iso-inhibition volume concept: A procedure for the evaluation in
      effect-directed analysis with thin-layer chromatography - using the thin-layer
      chromatography-luminescent bacteria assay as an example.
AB  - In effect-directed analysis (EDA) with high-performance thin-layer chromatography
      (HPTLC), the effect is often detected using images. Thus, an approach to create
      inhibition chromatograms from these images was developed using the example of the
      HPTLC- bioluminescence inhibition test. A comparison between the cuvette test and
      the HPTLC test shows that the test on the plate is significantly more sensitive.
      To describe the strength of the effect, the EC50 value is determined from the
      dose-response relationship. However, the inhibiting compounds are generally
      unknown and thus their concentrations are also unknown. Therefore, instead of the
      concentration, the known application volumes are used. This enables the
      calculation of the application volume necessary to achieve 50% inhibition. Since
      the volume is inversely proportional to the concentration, the reciprocal value
      of the calculated volume is indicated and is referred to as the reciprocal iso
      inhibition volume (RIV). Using this RIV-concept, it is now possible to compare
      inhibition bands within and between plates. The entire evaluation is described by
      the means of two samples from a contaminated site using the bioluminescence
      inhibition.

PMID- 28888681
TI  - Nano reversed phase versus nano hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography on
      a chip in the analysis of hemopexin glycopeptides.
AB  - Analysis of the glycosylation of proteins is a challenge that requires orthogonal
      methods to achieve separation of the diverse glycoforms. A combination of
      reversed phase chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (RP-LC-MS/MS) is one
      of the most powerful tools for glycopeptide analysis. In this work, we developed
      and compared RP-LC and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) in
      nanoscale on a chip combined with MS/MS in order to separate glycoforms of two
      peptides obtained from the tryptic digest of hemopexin. We observed reduction of
      the retention time with decreasing polarity of glycans attached to the same
      peptide backbone in HILIC. The opposite effect was observed for RP-LC. The
      presence of sialic acids prolonged the retention of glycopeptides in both
      chromatographic modes. The nanoHILIC method provided higher selectivity based on
      the composition of glycan, compared to nanoRP-LC but a lower sensitivity. The
      nanoHILIC method was able to partially separate linkage isomers of fucose (core
      and outer arm) on bi-antennary glycoform of SWPAVGDCSSALR glycopeptide, which is
      beneficial in the elucidation of the structure of the fucosylated glycoforms.

PMID- 28888682
TI  - Rapid capillary electrophoresis approach for the quantification of ewe milk
      adulteration with cow milk.
AB  - The substitution of ewe milk with more economic cow milk is a common fraud. Here
      we present a capillary electrophoresis method for the quantification of ewe milk
      in ovine/bovine milk mixtures, which allows for the rapid and inexpensive
      recognition of ewe milk adulteration with cow milk. We utilized a routine CE
      method for human blood and urine proteins analysis, which fulfilled the
      separation of skimmed milk proteins in alkaline buffer. Under this condition,
      ovine and bovine milk exhibited a recognizable and distinct CE protein profiles,
      with a specific ewe peak showing a reproducible migration zone in ovine/bovine
      mixtures. Based on ewe specific CE peak, we developed a method for ewe milk
      quantification in ovine/bovine skimmed milk mixtures, which showed good
      linearity, precision and accuracy, and a minimum amount of detectable fraudulent
      cow milk equal to 5%.

PMID- 28888683
TI  - Adult spinal deformity treated with minimally invasive surgery. Description of
      surgical technique, radiological results and literature review.
AB  - The prevalence of adult spinal deformity has been increasing exponentially over
      time. Surgery has been credited with good radiological and clinical results. The
      incidence of complications is high. MIS techniques provide good results with
      fewer complications. This is a retrospective study of 25 patients with an adult
      spinal deformity treated by MIS surgery, with a minimum follow-up of 6 months.
      Radiological improvement was SVA from 5 to 2cm, coronal Cobb angle from 31
      degrees  to 6 degrees , and lumbar lordosis from 18 degrees  to 38 degrees . All
      of these parameters remained stable over time. We also present the complications
      that appeared in 4 patients (16%). Only one patient needed reoperation. We
      describe the technique used and review the references on the subject. We conclude
      that the MIS technique for treating adult spinal deformity has comparable results
      to those of the conventional techniques but with fewer complications.

PMID- 28888684
TI  - Prognostic factors after a traumatic hip dislocation. A long-term retrospective
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Traumatic hip dislocations can have devastating complications such
      as osteoarthritis or osteonecrosis. The aim of this study was to identify the
      variables and prognostic factors associated with clinical and radiological
      outcome after a traumatic hip dislocation at long-term follow-up. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: A review was performed of all dislocations and fracture-dislocations of
      the hip from January 1999 to December 2012. A computed tomography scan was
      performed after reduction in all cases. The Harris Hip Score and modified Merle
      d'Aubigne-Postel method were used for clinical evaluation and radiological
      assessment was performed according to the Thompson and Epstein classification.
      RESULTS: There were 30 cases in 29 patients with a mean follow-up of 11 years
      (range, 4-17). The great majority were simple dislocations (21; 70%) vs. complex
      dislocations (9; 30%). Closed reduction was performed in less than 6h in all
      except one case (29; 96.7%). All of the patients with simple dislocations had an
      excellent outcome without radiological signs of osteoarthritis at the end of the
      follow-up (P<.01). Overall, arthritic signs had developed in 4 patients (13.3%)
      and avascular necrosis was noted in 3 patients (10%). Five patients with
      intraarticular fragments were treated non-operatively, and 3 of them developed
      arthritic changes (P<.05). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that complex
      dislocations are associated with poorer functional and radiological outcomes than
      simple dislocations. We also found a strong association between intraarticular
      fragments and osteoarthritis, so surgical fragment removal could be considered in
      these cases.

PMID- 28888685
TI  - Predictive factors of hospital stay, mortality and functional recovery after
      surgery for hip fracture in elderly patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Due to its high prevalence and serious consequences it is very
      important to be well aware of factors that might be related to medical
      complications, mortality, hospital stay and functional recovery in elderly
      patients with hip fracture. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective study of a group
      of 130 patients aged over 75 years admitted for osteoporotic hip fracture. Their
      medical records, physical and cognitive status prior to the fall, fracture type
      and surgical treatment, medical complications and functional and social evolution
      after hospitalization were evaluated. RESULTS: Patients with greater physical
      disability, more severe cognitive impairment and those who lived in a nursing
      home before the fracture had worse functional recovery after surgery. Treatment
      with intravenous iron to reduce transfusions reduced hospital stay and improved
      walking ability. Infections and heart failure were the most frequent medical
      complications and were related to a longer hospital stay. The prescription of
      nutritional supplements for the patients with real indication improved their
      physical recovery after the hip fracture CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of physical,
      cognitive and social status prior to hip fracture should be the basis of an
      individual treatment plan because of its great prognostic value.
      Multidisciplinary teams with continuous monitoring of medical problems should
      prevent and treat complications as soon as possible. Intravenous iron and
      specific nutritional supplements can improve functional recovery six months after
      hip fracture.

PMID- 28888687
TI  - Rapid screening of abused drugs by direct analysis in real time (DART) coupled to
      time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) combined with ion mobility spectrometry
      (IMS).
AB  - Increasing in cases involving drugs of abuse leads to heavy burden for law
      enforcement agencies, exacerbating demand for rapid screening technique. In this
      study, atmospheric pressure ionization technologies including direct analysis in
      real time (DART) ion source coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (DART
      TOF-MS)as well asdopant-assisted positive photoionization ion mobility
      spectrometry (DAPP-IMS) without radioactivity were utilized together as the
      powerful analytical tool for the rapid screening and identification of 53 abused
      drugs.The limits of detection (LOD) were 0.05-2MUg/mL when using DART-TOF-MS and
      0.02-2MUg when using DAPP-IMS which could satisfy the actual requirement in
      forensic science laboratory. The advantages of this method included fast
      response, high-throughput potential, high specificity, and minimal sample
      preparation. A screening library of reduced mobility (K0), accurate mass of
      informative precursor ion ([M+H]+) and fragment ions was established respectively
      by employing a bench-top DAPP-IMS and TOF-MS in-source collision induced
      dissociation (CID) mode. Then the standardized screening procedure was developed
      with criteria for the confirmation of positive result. A total of 50 seized drug
      samples provided by local forensic laboratory we reanalyzed to testify the
      utility of the method. This study suggests that a method combing DART-TOF-MS and
      DAPP-IMS is promising for the rapid screening and identification of abused drugs
      with minimal sample preparation and absence of chromatography.

PMID- 28888686
TI  - Fibroblast-derived HGF drives acinar lung cancer cell polarization through
      integrin-dependent RhoA-ROCK1 inhibition.
AB  - The formation of lumens in epithelial tissues requires apical-basal polarization
      of cells, and the co-ordination of this individual polarity collectively around a
      contiguous lumen. Signals from the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) instruct epithelia
      as to the orientation of where basal, and thus consequently apical, surfaces
      should be formed. We report that this pathway is normally absent in Calu-3 human
      lung adenocarcinoma cells in 3-Dimensional culture, but that paracrine signals
      from MRC5 lung fibroblasts can induce correct orientation of polarity and acinar
      morphogenesis. We identify HGF, acting through the c-Met receptor, as the key
      polarity-inducing morphogen, which acts to activate beta1-integrin-dependent
      adhesion. HGF and ECM-derived integrin signals co-operate via a c-Src-dependent
      inhibition of the RhoA-ROCK1 signalling pathway via p190A RhoGAP. This occurred
      via controlling localization of these signalling pathways to the ECM-abutting
      surface of cells in 3-Dimensional culture. Thus, stromal derived signals can
      influence morphogenesis in epithelial cells by controlling activation and
      localization of cell polarity pathways.

PMID- 28888688
TI  - Comparing the Centering Ability of Different Pathfinding Systems and Their Effect
      on Final Instrumentation by Hyflex CM.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Recently, different rotary glide path systems have been introduced.
      The aim of this study was to compare the centering ability of different rotary
      pathfinding systems and their effect on the final preparation by Hyflex CM files.
      METHODS: Sixty endodontic training blocks with J-shaped canals were divided into
      3 groups according to the pathfinding system used. Instrumentation was done with
      G-File + Hyflex CM (G-File group), PathFile + Hyflex CM (PathFile group), and
      Hyflex GPF + Hyflex CM (GPF group). Three images were taken: initial, after glide
      path preparation, and after final instrumentation. Pre-instrumentation and post
      instrumentation images were superimposed, and centering ratio along the J-shaped
      canal was measured to evaluate the occurrence of deviation. Statistical analysis
      of the data was performed by using one-way analysis of variance, followed by
      Tukey test (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: The ability of instruments to remain centered
      in canals at 0-mm level (apex) was significantly lower in PathFile group (P <
      .05). No significant difference was found at other levels. After final
      preparation by Hyflex CM no significant difference was found at any level.
      CONCLUSIONS: The centering abilities of Hyflex GPF and G-Files are better than
      that of PathFile at apex, but it has no significant effect on final preparation
      by Hyflex CM.

PMID- 28888689
TI  - Exercise training improves exercise capacity and quality of life in people with
      interstitial lung disease [commentary].

PMID- 28888690
TI  - Pelvic physiotherapy in addition to standard care is more effective than standard
      medical care alone for children with functional constipation [synopsis].

PMID- 28888691
TI  - Exercise training improves exercise capacity and quality of life in people with
      interstitial lung disease [synopsis].

PMID- 28888692
TI  - Canadian Study of Health and Aging Clinical Frailty Scale: Does It Predict
      Adverse Outcomes among Geriatric Trauma Patients?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Canadian Study of Health and Aging Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS)
      and the laboratory Frailty Index (FI-lab) are validated tools based on clinical
      and laboratory data, respectively. Their utility as predictors of geriatric
      trauma outcomes is unknown. Our primary objective was to determine whether pre
      admission CFS is associated with adverse discharge destination. Secondary
      objectives were to evaluate the relationships between CFS and in-hospital
      complications and between admission FI-lab and discharge destination. STUDY
      DESIGN: We performed a 4-year (2011 to 2014) retrospective cohort study with
      patients 65 years and older admitted to a level I trauma center. Admission FI-lab
      was calculated using 23 variables collected within 48 hours of presentation. The
      primary outcome was discharge destination, either adverse (death or discharge to
      a long-term, chronic, or acute care facility) or favorable (home or
      rehabilitation). The secondary outcome was in-hospital complications.
      Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between
      CFS or FI-lab and outcomes. RESULTS: There were 266 patients included. Mean age
      was 76.5 +/- 7.8 years and median Injury Severity Score was 17 (interquartile
      range 13 to 24). There were 260 patients and 221 patients who had sufficient data
      to determine CFS and FI-lab scores, respectively. Pre-admission frailty as per
      the CFS (CFS 6 or 7) was independently associated with adverse discharge
      destination (odds ratio 5.1; 95% CI 2.0 to 13.2; p < 0.001). Severe frailty on
      admission, as determined by the FI-lab (FI-lab > 0.4), was not associated with
      adverse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-admission clinical frailty independently
      predicts adverse discharge destination in geriatric trauma patients. The CFS may
      be used to triage resources to mitigate adverse outcomes in this population. The
      FI-lab determined on admission for trauma may not be useful.

PMID- 28888693
TI  - N-terminus determines activity and specificity of styrene monooxygenase
      reductases.
AB  - Styrene monooxygenases (SMOs) are two-enzyme systems that catalyze the
      enantioselective epoxidation of styrene to (S)-styrene oxide. The FADH2 co
      substrate of the epoxidase component (StyA) is supplied by an NADH-dependent
      flavin reductase (StyB). The genome of Rhodococcus opacus 1CP encodes two SMO
      systems. One system, which we define as E1-type, displays homology to the SMO
      from Pseudomonas taiwanensis VLB120. The other system, originally reported as a
      fused system (RoStyA2B), is defined as E2-type. Here we found that E1-type RoStyB
      is inhibited by FMN, while RoStyA2B is known to be active with FMN. To
      rationalize the observed specificity of RoStyB for FAD, we generated an
      artificial reductase, designated as RoStyBart, in which the first 22 amino acid
      residues of RoStyB were joined to the reductase part of RoStyA2B, while the
      oxygenase part (A2) was removed. RoStyBart mainly purified as apo-protein and
      mimicked RoStyB in being inhibited by FMN. Pre-incubation with FAD yielded a
      turnover number at 30 degrees C of 133.9+/-3.5s-1, one of the highest rates
      observed for StyB reductases. RoStyBart holo-enzyme switches to a ping-pong
      mechanism and fluorescence analysis indicated for unproductive binding of FMN to
      the second (co-substrate) binding site. In summary, it is shown for the first
      time that optimization of the N-termini of StyB reductases allows the evolution
      of their activity and specificity.

PMID- 28888694
TI  - Analyzing the effects of co-expression of chick (Gallus gallus) melanocortin
      receptors with either chick MRAP1 or MRAP2 in CHO cells on sensitivity to ACTH(1
      24) or ACTH(1-13)NH2: Implications for the avian HPA axis and avian melanocortin
      circuits in the hypothalamus.
AB  - In order to better understand the roles that melanocortin receptors (cMCRs) and
      melanocortin-2 receptor accessory proteins (cMRAP1 and cMRAP2) play in the HPA
      axis and hypothalamus, adrenal gland and hypothalamus mRNA from 1day-old white
      leghorn chicks (Gallus gallus), were analyzed by real-time PCR. mRNA was also
      made for kidney, ovary, and liver. Mrap1 mRNA could be detected in adrenal
      tissue, but not in any of the other tissues, and mrap2 mRNA was also detected in
      the adrenal gland. Finally, all five melanocortin receptors mRNAs could be
      detected in the adrenal gland; mc2r and mc5r mRNAs were the most abundant. To
      evaluate any potential interactions between MRAP1 and the MCRs that may occur in
      adrenal cells, individual chick mcr cDNA constructs were transiently expressed in
      CHO cells either in the presence or absence of a chick mrap1 cDNA, and the
      transfected cells were stimulated with hACTH(1-24) at concentrations ranging from
      10-13M to 10-6M. As expected, MC2R required co-expression with MRAP1 for
      functional expression; whereas, co-expression of cMC3R with cMRAP1 had no
      statistically significant effect on sensitivity to hACTH(1-24). However, co
      expression of MC4R and MC5R with MRAP1, increased sensitivity for ACTH(1-24) by
      approximately 35 fold and 365 fold, respectively. However, co-expressing of
      cMRAP2 with these melanocortin receptors had no effect on sensitivity to hACTH(1
      24). Since the real-time PCR analysis detected mrap2 mRNA and mc4r mRNA in the
      hypothalamus, the interaction between cMC4R and cMRAP2 with respect to
      sensitivity to ACTH(1-13)NH2 stimulation was also evaluated. However, no effect,
      either positive or negative, was observed. Finally, the highest levels of mc5r
      mRNA were detected in liver cells. This observation raises the possibility that
      in one-day old chicks, activation of the HPA axis may also involve a
      physiological response from liver cells.

PMID- 28888695
TI  - Characterization of seasonal reproductive and stress steroid hormones in wild
      Radiated Tortoises, Astrochelys radiata.
AB  - The critically endangered Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) is endemic to
      the southern coastlines of Madagascar. Once common, wild populations of this
      tortoise have undergone dramatic declines in recent years. Although there have
      been studies documenting reproductive activities, reproductive physiological
      parameters are unknown yet may be crucial in the recovery of the species. Over
      four research seasons in remote field locations native to A. radiata, we surveyed
      for, radio-tracked, and sampled wild, free ranging tortoises. We sampled and
      measured stress and reproductive parameters (corticosterone [CORT], testosterone
      [T], estradiol-17beta [E2], and progesterone [P]) in 311 plasma samples from 203
      wild A. radiata, capturing their active period. Generally, hormone concentrations
      were associated with body condition, temperature, and humidity. There was wide
      variation in CORT that varied monthly and by group. Juvenile tortoises maintained
      more than twice the mean basal CORT concentrations than either adult sex, with
      the most dramatic distinctions in the middle of the wet season. For adult sex
      hormones, the last months of the dry season and into the wet season when ground
      humidities are low and just begin to rise prior to temperature declines, male T
      concentrations gradually increased to a peak before returning to near
      undetectable values into the dry season. We had limited data for T concentrations
      in females, but found average T concentrations were much lower than in males and
      positively correlated with larger female home range sizes. For female hormone
      cycles, E2 also peaked in the early 1/3 of the wet season along with male T, and
      was followed by an uptick in P which correlates to the putative ovulatory cycle.
      Females tracked over four years showed variation in patterns of P, indicating
      that number and frequency of clutches vary. Our results suggest that 1) there is
      high species plasticity in response to stress; 2) A. radiata reproductive cycling
      is somewhat dissociated with courtship timing and is instead triggered by
      environmental cues; and 3) individual female reproductive output is irregular.
      This study is oone of the first to document and describe multi-year seasonal
      stress and reproductive hormones in a free-ranging Malagasy chelonian. These data
      may be used to identify key high-production habitats for conservation, and aide
      in captive management and reproduction in assurance colonies for species health
      and survival.

PMID- 28888696
TI  - Characterization of NvLWamide-like neurons reveals stereotypy in Nematostella
      nerve net development.
AB  - The organization of cnidarian nerve nets is traditionally described as diffuse
      with randomly arranged neurites that show minimal reproducibility between
      animals. However, most observations of nerve nets are conducted using cross
      reactive antibodies that broadly label neurons, which potentially masks
      stereotyped patterns produced by individual neuronal subtypes. Additionally, many
      cnidarians species have overt structures such as a nerve ring, suggesting higher
      levels of organization and stereotypy exist, but mechanisms that generated that
      stereotypy are unknown. We previously demonstrated that NvLWamide-like is
      expressed in a small subset of the Nematostella nerve net and speculated that
      observing a few neurons within the developing nerve net would provide a better
      indication of potential stereotypy. Here we document NvLWamide-like expression
      more systematically. NvLWamide-like is initially expressed in the typical
      neurogenic salt and pepper pattern within the ectoderm at the gastrula stage, and
      expression expands to include endodermal salt and pepper expression at the
      planula larval stage. Expression persists in both ectoderm and endoderm in
      adults. We characterized our NvLWamide-like::mCherry transgenic reporter line to
      visualize neural architecture and found that NvLWamide-like is expressed in six
      neural subtypes identifiable by neural morphology and location. Upon completing
      development the numbers of neurons in each neural subtype are minimally variable
      between animals and the projection patterns of each subtype are consistent.
      Furthermore, between the juvenile polyp and adult stages the number of neurons
      for each subtype increases. We conclude that development of the Nematostella
      nerve net is stereotyped between individuals. Our data also imply that one aspect
      of generating adult cnidarian nervous systems is to modify the basic structural
      architecture generated in the juvenile by increasing neural number proportionally
      with size.

PMID- 28888697
TI  - Response to unfairness across the suicide risk spectrum.
AB  - Suicidal behavior is frequently triggered by social crises, such as familial,
      romantic, social or work-related conflict. A variety of cognitive and social
      functioning impairments has been associated with suicidal thoughts and acts. One
      of the precipitating and perpetuating factors of social conflict is the desire
      for retribution after a perceived offense, even at one's own detriment. We
      utilized the Ultimatum Game-a behavioral economic task which examines the
      behavioral response to perceived unfairness-in order to characterize the response
      to unfairness across the acute suicide risk spectrum. We examined five groups of
      adult individuals of both genders (n = 204): High- and Low-Lethality recent
      Suicide Attempters, Suicidal Ideators, Non-Suicidal Depressed Patients; and
      Healthy Controls. We also measured demographic and clinical variables. Even
      though all depressed groups showed similar rejection rates in the Ultimatum Game,
      there was a higher likelihood of rejecting offers in the low stakes condition in
      all acutely suicidal groups compared with healthy controls. Stake size, offer,
      education, and gender of the proposer were significantly associated with
      rejection rates. Acutely suicidal patients may be more vulnerable to adverse
      interpersonal interactions. Further characterization of social behavior may
      provide targets for secondary and tertiary prevention for high-risk individuals.

PMID- 28888698
TI  - [Ultra wide field imaging of a retinal detachment caused by desinsertion of the
      ora serrata].

PMID- 28888699
TI  - Endometrial Ablation.
AB  - The destruction of the endometrium in women with heavy menstrual bleeding has
      been used for well over a century, and the various techniques of delivering forms
      of thermal energy have been modified over the years to ensure a safe and
      effective treatment approach. Today, 6 nonresectoscopic devices are approved for
      use in the United States in addition to resectoscopic techniques that rely on the
      skillful use of the operative hysteroscope. Regardless of the technique used,
      endometrial ablation uniformly reduces menstrual blood loss, improves general and
      menstrual-related quality of life, and prevents hysterectomy in 4 of 5 women who
      undergo the procedure. When patients are appropriately selected, outcomes are
      optimized, and risks of serious complications are minimized. This article reviews
      the literature with singular reference to nonresectoscopic endometrial ablation
      procedures including historical background, appropriate patient selection,
      clinical outcomes data, complications, and special or unique considerations.

PMID- 28888700
TI  - Surgical Repair of Rectovaginal Fistula Using the Modified Martius Procedure: A
      Step-by-Step Guide.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the surgical repair of a rectovaginal fistula
      (RVF) using the modified Martius procedure. DESIGN: A step-by-step presentation
      of the procedure using video (Canadian Task Force classification III). SETTING:
      RVF is abnormal epithelialized connections between the vagina and rectum. Causes
      of RVF include obstetric trauma, Crohn disease, pelvic irradiation, and
      postsurgical complications. Many surgical interventions have been developed, from
      the laparoscopic technique to muscle transposition and even rectal resection.
      However, the treatment of RVF is a great challenge to gynecologic surgeons
      because the incidence of RVF is low and there is no high evidence for the best
      surgical approach to this disease. When RVF is persistent or recurrent, the
      surrounding tissue is always scarred or damaged, so the interposition of a
      healthy and well-perfused tissue is an appropriate approach to fistula
      management. The modified Martius procedure using adipose tissue from the labia
      major places well-vascularized pedicle in the place of the RVF. Limited studies
      involving the procedure present favorable successful rates. PATIENT: Consent was
      obtained from the patient. The study was approved by the local ethics committee.
      INTERVENTION: The surgical repair of rectovaginal fistula by the modified Martius
      procedure is described as follows: The patient is placed in the high lithotomy
      position. A temporary transurethral urinary catheter is placed preoperatively to
      keep the operative site clean. The rectovaginal fistula is identified by a
      fistula probe. A 4-cm incision is made vertically over the left labium majus from
      the level of the mons pubis to the bottom of the labium to harvest pedicle. It is
      imperative to ensure adequate length on the flap before transection. Blood supply
      to the fat-muscle flap is provided superiorly by the external pudendal artery,
      posteriorly by the internal posterior and laterally by the obturator artery. The
      fat-muscle flap is dissected in a lateral-to-medial direction and divided in the
      upper section by two clamps, preserving its posterior aspect intact to maintain
      its blood supply. After that the fistula is circumcised with a scalpel through
      the vaginal wall with a margin of healthy tissue. During the process, the
      rectovaginal septum is opened and wide mobilized so that a multilayer closure can
      be performed without any tension. Then a subcutaneous tunnel is made from the
      labium majus to the fistula with a forcep. It is also important to make the
      tunnel wide enough to easily accommodate the flap. The fat-muscle flap is pulled
      through the tunnel gently, ensuring proper orientation without kinking the blood
      supply. The rectal mucosa is sutured in one layer with 3-0 Vicryl in interrupted
      fashion. The flap is then sutured down to the rectal wall with four single
      sutures in interrupted fashion. So the rectal and vaginal walls are separated
      with a healthy, well-vascularized pedicle. In addition, the flap fills in the
      dead space and enhances granulation tissue. The vaginal mucosa is then closed
      over the pedicle with 1-0 Vicryl in interrupted suture without tension. The
      labial incision is closed in layers with absorbable suture. Neither incision is
      drained. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In this video, we describe the modified
      Martius procedure for the management of RVF. We present a 26-year-old woman who
      suffered from RVF caused by obstetric trauma. She complained of passing flatus
      and feces through the vagina 1 week after vaginal delivery. Clinical examination
      performed in the local hospital confirmed RVF 1 cm in diameter located in the
      lower third of the vagina. The fistula was present for about 6 months, which
      brought psychosocial dysfunction to the patient. She was transferred to our
      clinic. After examination, the anal sphincter was intact. After mechanical bowel
      preparation with polyethylene glycol solution, the patient was presented for
      surgery. The operating time was about 40 minutes. No recurrence or complications
      were observed at the 4-month follow-up. A protective ileostomy or colostomy was
      avoided. The patient reestablished intestinal continuity. The functional and
      cosmetic results were excellent with high patient satisfaction and greatly
      improved quality of life. CONCLUSION: The Martius flap is easy to harvest with
      minimal external disfigurement and a minimal recovery time. The modified Martius
      procedure is a feasible adjuvant technique for RVF with excellent postoperative
      outcomes.

PMID- 28888701
TI  - Direct Mass Spectrometry Differentiation of Ectopic and Eutopic Endometrium in
      Patients with Endometriosis.
AB  - STUDY OBJECTIVE: To introduce a method for the rapid assessment of endometriotic
      tissues using direct mass spectrometry (MS)-based lipidomics. DESIGN: A
      prospective observational cohort study (Canadian Task Force classification II2).
      SETTING: Department of Operative Gynecology of the Research Centre for
      Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology. PATIENTS: Fifty patients with ovarian
      cysts and peritoneal endometriosis who underwent laparoscopic surgery between
      2014 and 2016. INTERVENTION: Differences in mass spectrometric profiles of
      ectopic endometria (endometriosis) and eutopic endometria were analyzed for each
      patient in combination with morphohistologic evaluation. The lipidomic approach
      was applied using a direct high-resolution MS method. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
      RESULTS: Of 148 metabolites, 15 showed significant differences between
      endometriotic tissue and a healthy endometrium of the same patient, considered as
      a control in this study. The main lipids prevalent in endometriotic tissues were
      phosphoethanolamine (PE O-20:0), sphingomyelin (SM 34:1), diglycerides (DG 44:9),
      phosphatidylcholines (PC 32:1, PC O-36:3, PC 38:7, PC 38:6, PC 40:8, PC 40:7, PC
      40:6, PC 40:9, and PC O-42:1), and triglycerides (TG 41:2, TG 49:4, and TG 52:3).
      Using partial least squares discriminant analysis models, MS showed that the
      lipidomic profile of endometriotic tissue (peritoneal endometriosis and ovarian
      endometriomas) was clearly separated from the eutopic endometrium, indicating
      tissue-type differentiation. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that direct MS may
      play an important role for endometriotic tissue identification. Such an approach
      has potential usefulness for real-time tissue determination and differentiation
      during surgical treatment. Lipids of 3 important classes, sphingolipids,
      phospholipids, and the fatty acids (di- and triglycerides), were identified.
      Validation is required to determine whether these lipids can be used to
      discriminate between patients with endometriosis and those with other gynecologic
      diseases.

PMID- 28888703
TI  - Electrochemically assisted photocatalysis: Highly efficient treatment using
      thermal titanium oxides doped and non-doped electrodes for water disinfection.
AB  - Electrochemically assisted photocatalysis (by electronic drainage) is a highly
      promising method for disinfection of water. In this research, the efficiency of
      photolytic oxidation using UV-A radiation and electrochemically assisted
      photocatalysis (with electric potential of 1.5 V) was studied by using electrodes
      prepared by thermal treatment and doped with silver, for inactivation of
      Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The Chick-Watson microorganism
      inactivation model was applied and the electrical energy consumption of the
      process was calculated. It was observed no significant inactivation of
      microorganisms when UV-A light or electric potential were applied separately.
      However, the electrochemically assisted photocatalytic process, with Ag-doped
      electrode completely inactivated the microbial population after 10 (E. coli) and
      60 min (S. aureus). The best performing non-doped electrodes achieved 52.74% (E.
      coli) and 44.09% (S. aureus) inactivation rates after 60 min. Thus,
      electrochemically assisted photocatalytic activity was not only effective for the
      inactivation of microorganisms, but also notably low on electrical energy
      consumption during the treatment due to small current and low electric potential
      applied.

PMID- 28888704
TI  - Preparation of a novel resin with acyl and thiourea groups and its properties for
      Cu(II) removal from aqueous solution.
AB  - In this paper, a new resin (PIDTR) containing acyl and thiourea chelating groups
      was synthesized and its adsorption performances and mechanism to Cu(II) were
      investigated by adsorption tests, BET, SEM, FTIR and XPS analyses. Equilibrium
      data were fitted well with Langmuir model with the maximum adsorption capacity of
      1.1608 mmol g-1 for Cu(II) at pH 5.0. The regeneration and reusability test
      showed that the adsorption capacities decreased from 0.917 mmol g-1 to 0.88 mmol
      g-1 after five cycles of adsorption and desorption. The thermodynamics showed
      that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. The adsorption
      dynamic demonstrated that two stages in the adsorption process: liquid film
      diffusion and chemical adsorption. The studies of SEM indicated that Cu(II) ions
      were adsorbed on the surface of PIDTR. FTIR and XPS analysis further proved that
      Cu(II) ions were chemisorbed on the surface of PIDTR by formation of CuN, CuO and
      CuS bonds with the breakage of NH, C=O and S=C bonds in PIDTR.

PMID- 28888702
TI  - Molecular Mechanisms Determining Lifespan in Short- and Long-Lived Species.
AB  - Aging is a global decline of physiological functions, leading to an increased
      susceptibility to diseases and ultimately death. Maximum lifespans differ up to
      200-fold between mammalian species. Although considerable progress has been
      achieved in identifying conserved pathways that regulate individual lifespan
      within model organisms, whether the same pathways are responsible for the
      interspecies differences in longevity remains to be determined. Recent cross
      species studies have begun to identify pathways responsible for interspecies
      differences in lifespan. Here, we review the evidence supporting the role of
      anticancer mechanisms, DNA repair machinery, insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1
      signaling, and proteostasis in defining species lifespans. Understanding the
      mechanisms responsible for the dramatic differences in lifespan between species
      will have a transformative effect on developing interventions to improve human
      health and longevity.

PMID- 28888705
TI  - Regulated expression of the lncRNA TERRA and its impact on telomere biology.
AB  - The telomere protects against genomic instability by minimizing the accelerated
      end resection of the genetic material, a phenomenon that results in severe
      chromosome instability that could favor the transformation of a cell by enabling
      the emergence of tumor-promoting mutations. Some mechanisms that avoid this fate,
      such as capping and loop formation, have been very well characterized; however,
      telomeric non-coding transcripts, such as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), should
      also be considered in this context because they play roles in the organization of
      telomere dynamics, involving processes such as replication, degradation,
      extension, and heterochromatin stabilization. Although the mechanism through
      which the expression of telomeric transcripts regulates telomere dynamics is not
      yet clear, a non-coding RNA component opens the research options in telomere
      biology and the impact that it can have on telomere-associated diseases such as
      cancer.

PMID- 28888706
TI  - Molecular radiation biology/oncology and its impact on preclinical and clinical
      research in radiotherapy.

PMID- 28888707
TI  - The value of laparoscopy in the management of chronic groin pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic groin pain problem represents a diagnostic and management
      challenge. This study is reporting all patients who underwent laparoscopic
      exploration of the groin and pelvis for undiagnosed chronic groin pain. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study. Evaluators were not involved in the
      operations. Laparoscopic exploration and mesh insertion using Trans-Abdominal Pre
      Preitoneal (TAPP) approach was performed for all patients. Follow up in the;
      clinic at 2 weeks and 6 months was arranged. This was a consecutive series of
      patients who were presented with chronic groin pain and no pre-operative
      radiological, orthopedic, gynecological or urologic abnormalities. Patients who
      were diagnosed with clinical hernia or other positive finding were excluded.
      RESULTS: Data were collected and analyzed for 92 patients. The operation had
      successfully managed the groin pain in 81 patients (88.04%), and the pain was
      improved in another 3 patients (3.26%). Six patients (6.52%) had no change in
      their symptoms, and worse pain was reported in two patient (2.17%). CONCLUSION:
      Laparoscopic groin exploration is an effective method to diagnose the chronic
      groin pain that under diagnosed by clinical, ultrasound and MRI tests.
      Laparoscopic management had resulted in resolution of the pain in the majority of
      the patients. The procedure is effective in athletes' patients who did not have
      clinical, radiological and laparoscopic evidence of groin hernia.

PMID- 28888708
TI  - Ureteric-urethral engraftment as a new surgical technique for management of
      incontinence in bladder exstrophy complex: A retrospective cohort.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To report the results of a novel surgical technique for achieving
      urinary continence in patients with bladder exstrophy complex (BEC) by ureteric
      urethral engraftment (UUE) technique. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixteen female
      patients with BEC and a mean +/- SD age of 3.48 +/- 1.75 years were referred for
      primary exstrophy repair from 2009 to 2012. From these, 9 patients were operated
      by single-stage bladder closure (group I); while 7 patients underwent the novel
      technique of UUE to compare the continence achievement (group II). In UUE
      technique, distal ureter was applied for total urethral replacement while the
      lower part of engraft was fixed in external genitalia. No osteotomy was performed
      in none of the groups. Continence and upper urinary tract evaluation were
      performed in the follow-ups with 3 months intervals for the first year and
      biannually thereafter. The patients were followed-up for a mean +/- SD duration
      of 72 +/- 6 months. RESULTS: All patients in both groups experienced an
      uneventful postoperative period. In group II, 5 patients were continent day and
      night and voided per urethra without need for augmentation or intermittent
      catheterization technique (71.42%); while 55.55% of patients in group I achieved
      total continence (n = 5). Partial continence was achieved in 4 (44.44%) and 2
      (28.57%) patients in group I and II, respectively. However, 3 patients in UUE
      group had postoperative vesicoureteral reflux that was successfully managed by
      Deflux injection. CONCLUSION: The eventual clinical outcomes of BEC children
      undergoing the UUE technique were promising. This practicable, safe, and
      reproducible option will add one complementary stage to the previously used
      reconstruction techniques. These patients would necessitate further surveillance
      with upper urinary tract evaluations during the adult life.

PMID- 28888709
TI  - Modelling and assessment of accidental oil release from damaged subsea pipelines.
AB  - This paper develops a 3D, transient, mathematical model to estimate the oil
      release rate and simulate the oil dispersion behavior. The Euler-Euler method is
      used to estimate the subsea oil release rate, while the Eulerian-Lagrangian
      method is employed to track the migration trajectory of oil droplets. This model
      accounts for the quantitative effect of backpressure and hole size on oil release
      rate, and the influence of oil release rate, oil density, current speed, water
      depth and leakage position on oil migration is also investigated in this paper.
      Eventually, the results, e.g. transient release rate of oil, the rise time of oil
      and dispersion distance are determined by above-mentioned model, and the oil
      release and dispersion behavior under different scenarios is revealed.
      Essentially, the assessment results could provide a useful guidance for detection
      of leakage positon and placement of oil containment boom.

PMID- 28888710
TI  - Fast assessment of bioaccessible metallic contamination in marine sediments.
AB  - A fast (16min) procedure to assess the bioaccessible metallic fraction of Cd, Cr,
      Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn simultaneously extracted (SEM) from marine sediments plus an
      indirect approach to determine acid volatile sulfides (AVS) are presented. For
      the extraction process magnetic agitation was compared with ultrasonic stirring
      (using a bath and a probe), and several stirring times were assayed. The proposed
      SEM procedure uses an ultrasonic probe and 1mL of HCl. It dramatically minimizes
      the turnaround time and the residues. AVS were evaluated as the difference
      between the amounts of sulphur in the solid residue after the extraction and
      total sulphur in the original sample. These procedures are fast, easy to
      implement and cost-effective to assess the potential risk posed by metals in
      marine sediments. They were tested using several CRMs and applied to sediments
      from two Galician Rias (NW Spain); their SEM-AVS differences indicated no
      biological risk.

PMID- 28888711
TI  - Fluorescence characteristics in the deep waters of South Gulf of Mexico.
AB  - Vertical profiles of deep-water fluorescence determined by the chlorophyll
      sensor, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, biomarkers, and other miscellaneous
      parameters measured in the southern Gulf of Mexico are reported. In the course of
      the survey, unexpected deep fluorescences were recorded (>1100m depth) in half of
      the 40 stations studied, a novel finding in this area of the Gulf. Currently, the
      deep-water fluorescence phenomenon is not completely understood, however we
      observe linear correlation between the fluorescence intensity and chlorophyll
      alpha concentrations and coincidence of higher number of hydrocarbonoclastic
      bacteria in samples collected precisely in the deep-water fluorescence. This
      information is particularly interesting in relation to the Deepwater Horizon oil
      spill in 2010, in view that the aftermaths of the spill can be observed till
      today as oil plumes trapped in deep water layers that may disturb the natural
      water ecosystem.

PMID- 28888712
TI  - Simultaneous optimization of pH and binary organic composition by grid form
      modeling of the retention behavior in reversed-phase ultra high-performance
      liquid chromatography.
AB  - A novel computer-assisted methodology for the simultaneous optimization of
      aqueous pH and binary organic eluent composition through a broad range of
      analytical conditions of reversed-phase ultra high-performance liquid
      chromatography is proposed. Two of nonlinear prediction models were employed to
      fit into the retention time (tR) on a linear gradient elution with a predefined
      slope. One model was derived from Bernoulli-type probability distribution to
      predict the value of tR against the pH value of the aqueous eluent. This sigmoid
      shaped model was successfully fitted for tR value shift in the presence of three
      levels of organic eluent compositions (volumetric mixing of acetonitrile/methanol
      ratios 1:0, 1:1, and 0:1). The resultant pH versus tR value models were
      subsequently combined into grid form by quadratic multiple regression models
      based on the solubility parameter theory and their binary organic composition
      axes. The predicted tR values afforded from grid models were highly accurate for
      13 different acidic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [root mean square error
      (RMSE) <=0.030] and 16 basic histamine H1-receptor blockers (RMSE <=0.067) in a
      pH ranging from 2.5 to 9.0 and an acetonitrile/methanol volumetric mixing ratio
      ranging from 1:0 to 0:1. Each compatibility score was defined as the indicator of
      the peak separation. Scores were calculated for all combinations of aqueous pH
      values and binary organic compositions via the predicted tR values. A colored map
      generated from the calculated scores was greatly effective in determining optimal
      combinations of both mobile phase conditions. By employing this predictive data,
      all analytes in both acidic and basic sample mixtures were finally separated at
      their respective optimized conditions.

PMID- 28888713
TI  - Simple and rapid LC-MS/MS method for the absolute determination of cetuximab in
      human serum using an immobilized trypsin.
AB  - Proteomic approaches using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) without an immunopurification technique have not been
      applied to the determination of serum cetuximab. This study developed a simple
      and rapid LC-MS/MS method for the absolute determination of cetuximab in human
      serum and applied it to clinical settings. Surrogate peptides derived from
      cetuximab digests were selected using a Fourier transform mass spectrometer.
      Reduced-alkylated serum cetuximab without immunopurification was digested for
      20minutes using immobilized trypsin, and the digestion products were purified by
      solid-phase extraction. The LC-MS/MS was run in positive ion multiple reaction
      monitoring mode. This method was applied to the determination of serum samples in
      head and neck cancer patients treated with cetuximab. The chromatographic run
      time was 10minutes and no peaks interfering with surrogate peptides in serum
      digestion products were observed. The calibration curve of absolute cetuximab in
      serum was linear over the concentration range of 4-200MUg/mL. The lower limit of
      quantification of cetuximab in human serum was 4MUg/mL. The intra-assay and inter
      assay precision and accuracy were less than 13.2% and 88.0-100.7%, respectively.
      The serum concentration range of cetuximab was 19-140MUg/mL in patients. The
      serum cetuximab concentrations in LC-MS/MS were correlated with those in ELISA
      (r=0.899, P <0.01) and the mean bias was 1.5% in cancer patients. In conclusion,
      the present simple and rapid method with acceptable analytical performance can be
      helpful for evaluating the absolute concentration of serum cetuximab in clinical
      settings.

PMID- 28888714
TI  - The Diagnosis and Management of Bipolar I and II Disorders: Clinical Practice
      Update.
AB  - Bipolar disorders, including bipolar I disorder (BP-I) and bipolar II disorder
      (BP-II), are common, potentially disabling, and, in some cases, life-threatening
      conditions. Bipolar disorders are characterized by alternating episodes of mania
      or hypomania and depression, or mixtures of manic and depressive features.
      Bipolar disorders present many diagnostic and therapeutic challenges for busy
      clinicians. Adequate management of bipolar disorders requires pharmacotherapy and
      psychosocial interventions targeted to the specific phases of illness. Effective
      treatments are available for each illness phase, but mood episode relapses and
      incomplete responses to treatment are common, especially for the depressive
      phase. Mood symptoms, psychosocial functioning, and suicide risk must, therefore,
      be continually reevaluated, and, when necessary, the plan of care must be
      adjusted during long-term treatment. Many patients will require additional
      treatment of comorbid psychiatric and substance use disorders and management of a
      variety of commonly co-occurring chronic general medical conditions.

PMID- 28888715
TI  - Acute traumatic rupture of the patellar tendon in pediatric population: Case
      series and review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Intact knee extensor mechanism is required for the normal function of
      the lower extremity. Patellar tendon rupture is a relatively rare injury with
      peak age incidence around 40 years and usually occurs midsubstance. The
      occurrence of pure patellar tendon rupture without bony avulsion is an extremely
      rare injury in the pediatric population with few cases reported in the literature
      with limited information regarding frequency, complications, and outcomes in
      children. However, due to increased participation in sports and high-energy
      recreational activities during childhood, the frequency of such injuries has
      progressively increased. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency of pediatric
      patellar tendon rupture injuries and describe the radiological findings,
      treatment modalities, and outcome of such injuries. METHODS: Demographic and
      clinical data on a series of patients who sustained patellar tendon rupture were
      reviewed. These data included age at time of injury, sex, laterality, mechanism
      of injury, associated injuries, complications, presence or absence of Osgood
      Schlatter disease, diagnostic imaging such as plain radiographs and magnetic
      resonance images (MRI), surgical technique, method of fixation, period of
      postoperative immobilization, total duration of physiotherapy, time to return to
      sports activities and follow-up duration. Insall-Salvati ratio was calculated on
      the preoperative lateral x-ray. The functional outcome was evaluated with regard
      to final knee active range of motion (AROM), manual quadriceps muscle testing,
      and presence or the absence of terminal extension lag. Clinical outcome rating
      using knee society score (KSS) was performed and functional outcome was further
      classified according to the calculated score. RESULTS: Five male patients with
      patellar tendon rupture (7%) were identified among 71 pediatric patients who
      sustained acute traumatic injury of the knee extensor mechanism. The mean age at
      the time of injury was 13.6 years (range: 12-15 years). The injury occurred in
      relation to sports activities in 4 patients. Osteogenesis imperfecta and Osgood
      Schlatter disease were identified in 2 patients. High riding patella is the
      hallmark diagnostic sign detected in plain x-ray with preoperative Insall-Salvati
      ratio ranged from 1.7 to 2.5. Three patients had pure soft tissue avulsion
      distally from the proximal tibia, 1 patient had pure soft tissue avulsion
      proximally from the inferior patellar pole, and 1 patient with midsubstance
      tendinous disruption. No associated intra-articular lesions were identified.
      Suture bridge double row technique, transpatellar suturing, and transosseous
      suturing through the proximal tibia were used for patellar tendon reinsertion.
      After a mean follow-up period of 18. 4 weeks (range: 10-30 weeks), patients
      achieved AROM ranging from 0 to 120 degrees  to 0-137 degrees  without terminal
      extension lag. The mean time to return to sports activity was 22 weeks (range: 13
      30 weeks). Quadriceps muscle strength was 5/5 at the final follow-up visit in all
      patients; however, relative muscle atrophy was noted in comparison to the other
      side in one patient. The mean KSS was 91.8 points (range: 79-100 points) with
      excellent outcome in 4 patients and good outcome in 1 patient. CONCLUSION:
      Patellar tendon rupture is rare in the pediatric population and represents 7% of
      pediatric patients who sustained acute traumatic injury of the knee extensor
      mechanism. Ruptures may occur midsubstance, or from proximal or distal
      insertions. High riding patella is the hallmark diagnostic sign for such injury.
      Although rare, it is considered a serious injury that necessitates early
      diagnosis and surgical intervention. Functional range of motion was obtained in
      all patients with different modalities of treatment.

PMID- 28888716
TI  - Ideal angle of syndesmotic screw fixation: A CT-based cross-sectional image
      analysis study.
AB  - Without clear reference, the precision of syndesmotic screw placement cannot be
      guaranteed and malposition of these screws leads to poor results. Therefore, to
      prevent malpositioning of syndesmotic screws, an improved understanding of the
      orientation of tibiofibular syndesmosis is essential. We analyzed cross-sectional
      computed tomography (CT) scans of the foot and ankle to identify precise screw
      positions for the treatment of syndesmotic injuries. A total of 134 calcaneal
      fractures with intact tibiofibular syndesmosis were enrolled in this
      retrospective study. We measured the angle between the perpendicular line of the
      second proximal phalanx and the line start apex of the lateral cortex of the
      fibula bisecting the tibial incisura and crossing the center of the tibia in
      neutral ankle joints, with the second toe positioned anteriorly using a short leg
      splint. The second toe was used as the reference for clarity and applicability.
      The ideal angle of syndesmotic screw placement in cross-sectional CT images was
      18.8+/-5.6 degrees  (mean+/-standard deviation) and did not differ according to
      independent variables (P>0.05). In neutral ankle joints with the second toe
      positioned anteriorly, the ideal angle of syndesmotic screw placement is 18.8
      degrees , which is less than that currently in used in conventional methods.

PMID- 28888717
TI  - Role of biomarkers in acute traumatic lung injury.
AB  - In severely injured patients severe thoracic trauma is common and can
      significantly influence the outcome of these critically ill patients by increased
      rates of mainly pulmonary complications. Furthermore, patients who sustained
      thoracic trauma are at increased risk for Acute Lung Injury (ALI) or Adult
      Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Therapeutic options are limited, basically
      consisting of prophylactic antibiotic therapy and changing patient's positions.
      It is known, that ALI and ARDS differ clinically and pathobiologically from
      ALI/ARDS caused by other reasons, but the exact pathology remains elusive. Due to
      that no reliable predictive or surveillance biomarkers could be established for
      clinical diagnosis and identification of patients at high risk for acute
      traumatic lung injury. Nevertheless, there are plenty of promising markers that
      need to be further elucidated in larger case numbers and multicenter studies.
      This article sums up the recent status of those promising clinical biomarkers.

PMID- 28888718
TI  - The frail fail: Increased mortality and post-operative complications in
      orthopaedic trauma patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The burgeoning elderly population calls for a robust tool to identify
      patients with increased risk of mortality and morbidity. This paper investigates
      the utility of the MFI as a predictor of morbidity and mortality in orthopaedic
      trauma patients. DESIGN: Retrospective review of the NSQIP database to identify
      patients age 60 and above who underwent surgery for pelvis and lower extremity
      fractures between 2005 and 2014. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: For each patient, an
      MFI score was calculated using NSQIP variables. The relationship between the MFI
      score and 30-day mortality and morbidity was determined using chi-square
      analysis. MFI was compared to age, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical
      status classification, and wound classifications in multiple logistic regression.
      RESULTS: Study sample consisted of 36,424 patients with 27.8% male with an
      average age of 79.5 years (SD 9.3). MFI ranged from 0 to 0.82 with mean MFI of
      0.12 (SD 0.09). Mortality increased from 2.7% to 13.2% and readmission increased
      from 5.5% to 18.8% with increasing MFI score. The rate of any complication
      increased from 30.1% to 38.6%. Length of hospital stay increased from 5.3days (+/
      5.5days) to 9.1days (+/-7.2days) between MFI score 0 and 0.45+. There was a
      stronger association between 30-day mortality and MFI (aOR for MFI 0.45+: 2.6,
      95% CI: 1.7-3.9) compared to age (aOR for age: 1.1, 95% CI: 1.1-1.1) and ASA (aOR
      2.5, 95% CI: 2.3-2.7). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: MFI was a significant predictor
      of morbidity and mortality in orthopaedic trauma patients. The use of MFI can
      provide an individualized risk assessment tool that can be used by an
      interdisciplinary team for perioperative counseling and to improve outcomes.

PMID- 28888719
TI  - Insulin complexed with cyclodextrins stimulates epithelialization and
      neovascularization of skin wound healing in rats.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Skin lesions are a significant public health problem, above all
      that wounds fail to heal properly and become chronic. Due to its reepithelization
      action, insulin has the potential to heal skin lesions, by stimulating the
      proliferation and migration of keratinocytes, angiogenic stimulus, and increasing
      collagen deposition. In the present study insulin was complexed with 2
      hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPbetaCD) and its wound healing effect and
      inclusion complex (HPbetaCD-I) were evaluated in excisional wounds in the skin of
      rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Three different gel based pharmaceutical forms were
      created: carbopol 940(r) base gel, an insulin gel comprising the base gel plus 50
      IU of insulin and a gel complex comprising the base gel plus (HPbetaCD) complexed
      with insulin (HPbetaCD-I) were used to verify wound healing in vitro and in vivo
      assays. RESULTS: The wounds in the skin of rats were treated with gel containing
      HPbetaCD-I not cytoxically irritating and cytotoxic. Analysis of cell
      proliferation and measurement of the length and thickness of the epidermis showed
      that HPbetaCD-I prolonged the proliferation and migration of keratinocytes.
      Revascularization analysis of lesions treated with HPbetaCD-I compared to those
      treated with insulin found that angiogenic stimulus was less intense, but more
      constant and prolonged in the modified release process. There was increased
      deposition of type I and III collagen fibers in accordance with the treatment
      time. CONCLUSION: Therefore, the slow release of complexed insulin modulated the
      reepithelialization process by stimulating cell proliferation and migration of
      keratinocytes, favoring greater concentration of serum insulin, modulating
      inflammatory response, matrix remodeling and promoting neovascularization.
      Angiogenesis extended by the steady release of insulin can be effective in the
      treatment of chronic wounds.

PMID- 28888720
TI  - Aged chimpanzees exhibit pathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a uniquely human brain disorder characterized by the
      accumulation of amyloid-beta protein (Abeta) into extracellular plaques,
      neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) made from intracellular, abnormally phosphorylated
      tau, and selective neuronal loss. We analyzed a large group of aged chimpanzees
      (n = 20, age 37-62 years) for evidence of Abeta and tau lesions in brain regions
      affected by AD in humans. Abeta was observed in plaques and blood vessels, and
      tau lesions were found in the form of pretangles, NFT, and tau-immunoreactive
      neuritic clusters. Abeta deposition was higher in vessels than in plaques and
      correlated with increases in tau lesions, suggesting that amyloid build-up in the
      brain's microvasculature precedes plaque formation in chimpanzees. Age was
      correlated to greater volumes of Abeta plaques and vessels. Tangle pathology was
      observed in individuals that exhibited plaques and moderate or severe cerebral
      amyloid angiopathy, a condition in which amyloid accumulates in the brain's
      vasculature. Amyloid and tau pathology in aged chimpanzees suggests these AD
      lesions are not specific to the human brain.

PMID- 28888721
TI  - TMEM106B and ApoE polymorphisms in CHMP2B-mediated frontotemporal dementia (FTD
      3).
AB  - Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the TMEM106B gene have been identified as a
      risk factor in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The major allele of SNP rs3173615
      is a risk factor in sporadic FTD, whereas the minor allele seems protective in
      GRN- and C9orf72-mediated FTD. The role of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) in FTD is
      uncertain, though an established risk factor in Alzheimer's disease. In a unique
      Danish family, inherited FTD is caused by a mutation in the CHMP2B gene located
      on chromosome 3 (FTD-3). In this family, both risk factors TMEM106B and ApoE were
      analyzed and correlated to age at onset (AAO) and progression in terms of age at
      institutionalization (AAI) and age at death (AAD). Although TMEM106B and CHMP2B
      share cellular function in that both localize to endolysosomes, TMEM106B
      genotypes appeared to have no influence on the clinical disease course. ApoE
      epsilon4 was found to be a protective factor with later AAO and AAI, whereas
      epsilon2 seemed to aggravate the disease with earlier AAO and AAD. These results
      indicate ApoE epsilon2 as a risk factor in FTD-3 and suggest a protective role of
      epsilon4.

PMID- 28888722
TI  - Breast Cancer Risk After Radiation Therapy for Hodgkin Lymphoma: Influence of
      Gonadal Hormone Exposure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Young women treated with chest radiation therapy (RT) for Hodgkin
      lymphoma (HL) experience a strongly increased risk of breast cancer (BC). It is
      unknown whether endogenous and exogenous gonadal hormones affect RT-associated BC
      risk. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study among female 5-year HL
      survivors treated before age 41. Hormone exposure and HL treatment data were
      collected through medical records and questionnaires for 174 BC case patients and
      466 control patients. Radiation dose to breast tumor location was estimated based
      on RT charts, simulation films, and mammography reports. RESULTS: We observed a
      linear radiation dose-response curve with an adjusted excess odds ratio (EOR) of
      6.1%/Gy (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.1%-15.4%). Women with menopause <30
      years (caused by high-dose procarbazine or pelvic RT) had a lower BC risk (OR,
      0.13; 95% CI, 0.03-0.51) than did women with menopause >=50 years. BC risk
      increased by 6.4% per additional year of post-RT intact ovarian function
      (P<.001). Among women with early menopause (<45 years), hormone replacement
      therapy (HRT) use for >=2 years did not increase BC risk (OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.32
      2.32), whereas this risk was nonsignificantly increased among women without early
      menopause (OR, 3.69; 95% CI, 0.97-14.0; P for interaction: .06). Stratification
      by duration of post-RT intact ovarian function or HRT use did not statistically
      significantly modify the radiation dose-response curve. CONCLUSIONS: BC risk in
      female HL survivors increases linearly with radiation dose. HRT does not appear
      to increase BC risk for HL survivors with therapy-induced early menopause. There
      are no indications that endogenous and exogenous gonadal hormones affect the
      radiation dose-response relationship.

PMID- 28888723
TI  - Isolated Biceps Reflection Pulley Tears Treated With Subpectoral Biceps
      Tenodesis: Minimum 2-Year Outcomes.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate if patients younger than 50 years old had improved
      functional outcomes after subpectoral biceps tenodesis (BT) for the treatment of
      biceps reflection pulley (BRP) lesions at minimum 2-year postoperative follow-up.
      METHODS: Patients who had arthroscopically confirmed BRP tears that were treated
      with subpectoral BT and were at least 2 years out from surgery were included;
      patients were excluded if they had concomitant reconstructive or reparative
      procedures at index surgery. Patient-centered outcomes including return to
      activity, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES), Quick Disabilities of the
      Arm, Shoulder and Hand (QuickDASH), and Short Form-12 Physical Component Summary
      (SF-12 PCS) scores, and patient satisfaction were collected. The pre- and
      postoperative scores were compared with a Wilcoxon test. Failure was defined as
      revision BT. RESULTS: Between January 2006 and July 2014, of 1,184 patients who
      underwent open subpectoral BT, 14 patients (6 male, 8 female) with mean age 37
      (range, 16-49 years) met the inclusion criteria. Minimum 2-year outcomes data
      were available for all 14 patients (100% follow-up). The mean follow-up was 3.6
      +/- 1.3 years. There were significant improvements postoperatively for all
      outcome scores (P = .017 ASES, P = .002 QuickDASH, P = .003 SF-12 PCS). There was
      no correlation between age and outcome scores (P > .05). Median patient
      satisfaction was 9 of 10. Five patients (36%) reported return to recreational
      activity with no modifications; 9 (64%) indicated a return to activity with
      modifications. The 5 patients who returned to recreational activity with no
      modification had significantly less time from initial injury/onset of symptoms
      until surgery in comparison with the 9 patients who modified their activity (P =
      .028). No complications or reoperations were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Patients
      younger than 50 years old with a symptomatic isolated BRP lesion experienced
      excellent results, high return to recreational activity, little postoperative
      pain, and high degrees of satisfaction when treated with subpectoral BT. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Level IV, therapeutic case series.

PMID- 28888724
TI  - [Stellate ganglion radiofrequency ablation in arrhythmic storm management].

PMID- 28888725
TI  - [Impact of rotational coronary angiography in the amount of iodinated contrast
      and the exposure to ionising radiations in patients undergoing invasive coronary
      procedures: A systematic review and meta-analysis].
AB  - BACKGROUND: Invasive coronary procedures involve the administration of iodinated
      contrast and the exposure to ionising radiations, increasing morbidity and
      mortality. The rotational coronary angiography (RCA) allows acquiring multiple
      projections with a unique injection of iodinated contrast. To date, there are no
      meta-analyses specifically comparing RCA and conventional coronary angiography
      (CCA) in patients undergoing invasive coronary procedures, whether diagnostic or
      diagnostic and therapeutic. The aim of this meta-analysis is to assess the impact
      of RCA on the amount of iodinated contrast and the exposure to ionising
      radiations during invasive coronary procedures. METHODS: A search in PubMed and
      Ovid databases was conducted to identify studies, including diagnostic and
      diagnostic and therapeutic studies, comparing RCA and CCA. The manuscripts were
      evaluated on quality and biases, and were included if they analysed any of the
      following endpoints: volume of contrast and exposure to ionising radiations
      measured as dose-area product, and Kerma-air or fluoroscopy time. RESULTS:
      Sixteen studies, with a total of 2,327 patients, were included in the final
      analysis (1,146 patients underwent RCA and 1,181 patients underwent CCA), with
      significant differences being detected in volume of contrast (standard difference
      in means [95% confidence interval] -1.887 [-2.472 to -1.302]; P<.001), dose-area
      product (-0.726 [-1.034 to -0.418]; P<.001), Kerma-air (-0.842 [-1.104 to 
      0.581]; P<.001), and fluoroscopy time (0.263 [-0.496 to -0.030]; P=.027).
      CONCLUSIONS: RCA reduces the volume of contrast and the exposure to radiation,
      evaluated as dose-area product, Kerma-air, and fluoroscopy time, in patients
      undergoing invasive coronary procedures.

PMID- 28888726
TI  - Complementary analyses of hollow cylindrical unioriented permanent magnet (HCM)
      with high permeability external layer.
AB  - In this article, several studies based on analytical expressions and
      computational simulations on Hollow Cylindrical Magnets with an external soft
      ferromagnetic material (HCM magnets) are presented. Electromagnetic
      configurations, as well as permanent-magnet-based structures, are studied in
      terms of magnetic field strength and homogeneity. Permanent-magnet-based
      structures are further analyzed in terms of the anisotropy of the magnetic
      permeability. It was found that the HCM magnets produce a highly homogeneous
      magnetic field as long as the magnetic material is isotropic. The dependency of
      the magnetic field strength and homogeneity in terms of the anisotropy of the
      magnetic permeability is also explored here. These magnets can potentially be
      used in medium-resolution NMR spectrometers and high-field NMR spectrometers.

PMID- 28888727
TI  - Genome-wide characterization of Toll-like receptor gene family in common carp
      (Cyprinus carpio) and their involvement in host immune response to Aeromonas
      hydrophila infection.
AB  - The Toll-like receptor (TLR) gene family is a class of conserved pattern
      recognition receptors, which play an essential role in innate immunity providing
      efficient defense against invading microbial pathogens. Although TLRs have been
      extensively characterized in both invertebrates and vertebrates, a comprehensive
      analysis of TLRs in common carp is lacking. In the present study, we have
      conducted the first genome-wide systematic analysis of common carp (Cyprinus
      carpio) TLR genes. A set of 27 common carp TLR genes were identified and
      characterized. Sequence similarity analysis, functional domain prediction and
      phylogenetic analysis supported their annotation and orthologies. By examining
      the gene copy number of TLR genes across several vertebrates, gene duplications
      and losses were observed. The expression patterns of TLR genes were examined
      during early developmental stages and in various healthy tissues, and the results
      showed that TLR genes were ubiquitously expressed, indicating a likely role in
      maintaining homeostasis. Moreover, the differential expression of TLRs was
      examined after Aeromons hydrophila infection, and showed that most TLR genes were
      induced, with diverse patterns. TLR1, TLR4-2, TLR4-3, TLR22-2, TLR22-3 were
      significantly up-regulated at minimum one timepoint, whereas TLR2-1, TLR4-1, TLR7
      1 and TLR7-2 were significantly down-regulated. Our results suggested that TLR
      genes play critical roles in the common carp immune response. Collectively, our
      findings provide fundamental genomic resources for future studies on fish disease
      management and disease-resistance selective breeding strategy development.

PMID- 28888728
TI  - Can attentional bias modification inoculate people to withstand exposure to real
      world food cues?
AB  - Two experiments investigated whether attentional bias modification can inoculate
      people to withstand exposure to real-world appetitive food cues, namely
      television advertisements for chocolate products. Using a modified dot probe
      task, undergraduate women were trained to direct their attention toward (attend)
      or away from (avoid) chocolate pictures. Experiment 1 (N = 178) consisted of one
      training session; Experiment 2 (N = 161) included 5 weekly sessions. Following
      training, participants viewed television advertisements of chocolate or control
      products. They then took part in a so-called taste test as a measure of chocolate
      consumption. Attentional bias for chocolate was measured before training and
      after viewing the advertisements, and in Experiment 2 also at 24-h and 1-week
      follow-up. In Experiment 2, but not Experiment 1, participants in the avoid
      condition showed a significant reduction in attentional bias for chocolate,
      regardless of whether they had been exposed to advertisements for chocolate or
      control products. However, this inoculation effect on attentional bias did not
      generalise to chocolate intake. Future research involving more extensive
      attentional re-training may be needed to ascertain whether the inoculation effect
      on attentional bias can extend to consumption, and thus help people withstand
      exposure to real-world palatable food cues.

PMID- 28888729
TI  - Easy-going, rational, susceptible and struggling eaters: A segmentation study
      based on eating behaviour tendencies.
AB  - Eating behaviour tendencies, emotional eating (EE), uncontrolled eating (UE) and
      cognitive restraint (CR), are associated with various indicators of physical and
      mental health. Therefore, it is important to understand these tendencies in order
      to design interventions to improve health. Previous research has mostly examined
      eating behaviour tendencies individually, without considering typical
      combinations of these tendencies or their manifestation in well-being and food
      choices. This study aimed to understand the interactive occurrence of EE, UE and
      CR in two independent populations. Finnish (n = 1060) and German (n = 1070)
      samples were segmented on the basis of their responses to a modified Three-Factor
      Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R15). Well-being, coping strategies and food
      consumption habits of the segments were studied. Segmentation revealed four
      segments: "Susceptible", "Easy-going", "Rational" and "Struggling". These
      segments were similar in both countries with regard to well-being, coping
      strategies and food choices. EE and UE co-occurred, and these tendencies were
      mainly responsible for differentiating the segments. Members of the "Rational"
      and "Easy-going" segments, who had low scores for EE and UE, tended to experience
      vitality and positive emotions in life, and contentment with their eating. By
      contrast, the "Susceptible" and "Struggling" segments, with more pronounced
      tendencies towards EE and UE, experienced lower levels of vitality and less
      frequently positive emotions, applied less adaptive coping strategies and
      experienced more discontent with eating. The results of the current study suggest
      that it is possible to identify segments, with differing eating habits, coping
      strategies and well-being on the basis of the eating behaviour tendencies EE, UE
      and CR. We discuss possible viewpoints for the design of interventions and food
      products to help people towards psychologically and physiologically healthier
      eating styles.

PMID- 28888730
TI  - DNA methylation patterns at sweet taste transducing genes are associated with BMI
      and carbohydrate intake in an adult population.
AB  - Individual differences in taste perception may influence appetite, dietary
      intakes, and subsequently, disease risk. Correlations of DNA methylation patterns
      at taste transducing genes with BMI and dietary intakes were studied. A
      nutriepigenomic analysis within the Methyl Epigenome Network Association (MENA)
      project was conducted in 474 adults. DNA methylation in peripheral white blood
      cells was analyzed by a microarray approach. KEGG pathway analyses were performed
      concerning the characterization and discrimination of genes involved in the taste
      transduction pathway. Adjusted FDR values (p < 0.0001) were used to select those
      CpGs that showed best correlation with BMI. A total of 29 CpGs at taste
      transducing genes met the FDR criteria. However, only 12 CpGs remained
      statistically significant after linear regression analyses adjusted for age and
      sex. These included cg15743657 (TAS1R2), cg02743674 (TRPM5), cg01790523 (SCN9A),
      cg15947487 (CALHM1), cg11658986 (ADCY6), cg04149773 (ADCY6), cg02841941 (P2RY1),
      cg02315111 (P2RX2), cg08273233 (HTR1E), cg14523238 (GABBR2), cg12315353 (GABBR1)
      and cg05579652 (CACNA1C). Interestingly, most of them were implicated in the
      sweet taste signaling pathway, except CACNA1C (sour taste). In addition, TAS1R2
      methylation at cg15743657 was strongly correlated with total energy (p < 0.0001)
      and carbohydrate intakes (p < 0.0001). This study suggests that methylation in
      genes related to sweet taste could be an epigenetic mechanism associated with
      obesity.

PMID- 28888731
TI  - Mechanism for detecting NAPL using electrical resistivity imaging.
AB  - The detection of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) related impacts in freshwater
      environments by electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) has been clearly
      demonstrated in field conditions, but the mechanism generating the resistive
      signature is poorly understood. An electrical barrier mechanism which allows for
      detecting NAPLs with ERI is tested by developing a theoretical basis for the
      mechanism, testing the mechanism in a two-dimensional sand tank with ERI, and
      performing forward modeling of the laboratory experiment. The NAPL barrier theory
      assumes at low bulk soil NAPL concentrations, thin saturated NAPL barriers can
      block pore throats and generate a detectable electrically resistive signal. The
      sand tank experiment utilized a photographic technique to quantify petroleum
      saturation, and to help determine whether ERI can detect and quantify NAPL across
      the water table. This experiment demonstrates electrical imaging methods can
      detect small quantities of NAPL of sufficient thickness in formations. The bulk
      volume of NAPL is not the controlling variable for the amount of resistivity
      signal generated. The resistivity signal is primarily due to a zone of high
      resistivity separate phase liquid blocking current flow through the fully NAPL
      saturated pores spaces. For the conditions in this tank experiment, NAPL
      thicknesses of 3.3cm and higher in the formation was the threshold for detectable
      changes in resistivity of 3% and greater. The maximum change in resistivity due
      to the presence of NAPL was an increase of 37%. Forward resistivity models of the
      experiment confirm the barrier mechanism theory for the tank experiment.

PMID- 28888732
TI  - Are all phytochemicals useful in the preventing of DNA damage?
AB  - Phytochemicals derived from natural plants have been used commonly for the
      prevention and/or treatment of different diseases due to the belief of their
      safety. Many plant species synthesize toxic chemicals. New natural chemicals are
      being discovered but their toxic effects are unknown. Phytochemicals have been
      regarded as possible antioxidants. But on the other hand it is suggested that
      various phenolic antioxidants can display pro-oxidant properties at high doses.
      In this review, the role of some phytochemicals (epigallocathecin gallate,
      carvacrol, galangin, limonene, lycopene, naringin, puerarin, terpinene, thymol
      and ursolic acid) on the prevention of DNA damage will be discussed.

PMID- 28888733
TI  - Exposure risk assessment to ochratoxin A through consumption of juice and wine
      considering the effect of steam extraction time and vinification stages.
AB  - The goals of this study were (i) to verify the effect of steam extraction used in
      juice production and the stages of vinification on the ochratoxin A (OTA) levels
      found in grapes naturally contaminated, and (ii) evaluate the risk of exposure to
      this toxin when the daily consumption of juice and wine is followed to prevent
      cardiovascular disease. OTA-producing fungi were isolated from Cabernet
      Sauvignon, Moscato Italico and Concord grapes harvested from the same vineyard
      and intended to produce red wine, white wine and juice, respectively. The highest
      levels of this toxin were found in the Concord grapes used for juice production.
      Although greater reduction in OTA levels occurred during juice production (73%)
      compared to winemaking (66 and 44%, for red and white, respectively), the
      estimated OTA exposure through juice was higher than the tolerable intake
      established for this toxin by JECFA. The risk associated with juice consumption,
      rather than wine, can be explained by (i) higher OTA levels found in Concord must
      than those of Cabernet and Moscato, indicating that Concord grapes appear to be
      more susceptible to OTA production by toxigenic fungi; and (ii) the daily
      recommended juice consumption is higher than those proposed to red wine.

PMID- 28888734
TI  - Influence of the container on the consumption of cosmetic products.
AB  - The container, also known as primary package or inner package, could be defined
      as the packaging designed to come into direct contact with the cosmetic product.
      To author's knowledge, no study was available regarding the effect of the primary
      package on the consumption of cosmetic products. The aim of the study was to
      assess the impact of the container on the consumption of three cosmetic products
      widely used, i.e. shampoo, shower gel and emollient cream. The three products
      were contained in a tube with a flip top cap and in a bottle with a pump. The
      study was conducted on 221 French adults: 108 women and 113 men. Results showed
      that the consumption of each cosmetic product was slightly higher when the
      product was packaged in tube with a flip top cap than in bottle with a pump. The
      difference of consumption could vary from 5 % to 23 % when calculated with mean
      values. This information could be interesting for safety evaluators, safety
      agencies and commercial services of cosmetic manufacturers.

PMID- 28888735
TI  - UPLC-MS/MS analysis of ochratoxin A metabolites produced by Caco-2 and HepG2
      cells in a co-culture system.
AB  - Ochatoxin A (OTA) is one of the most important mycotoxins based on its toxicity.
      The oral route is the main gateway of entry of OTA into the human body, and
      specialized epithelial cells constitute the first barrier. The present study
      investigated the in vitro cytotoxic effect of OTA (5, 15 and 45 MUM) and
      production of OTA metabolities in Caco-2 and HepG2 cells using a co-culture
      Transwell System to mimic the passage through the intestinal epithelium and
      hepatic metabolism. The results derived from MTS cell viability assays and
      transepithelial electrical resistance measurements showed that OTA was slightly
      cytotoxic at the lowest concentration at 3 h, but significant toxicity was
      observed at all concentrations at 24 h. OTA metabolites generated in this co
      culture were ochratoxin B (OTB), OTA methyl ester, OTA ethyl ester and the OTA
      glutathione conjugate (OTA-GSH). OTA methyl ester was the major metabolite found
      in both Caco-2 and HepG2 cells after all treatments. Our results showed that OTA
      can cause cell damage through several mechanisms and that the OTA exposure time
      is more important that the dosage in in vitro studies. OTA methyl ester is
      proposed as an OTA exposure biomarker, although future studies should be
      conducted.

PMID- 28888736
TI  - Distinct urinary metabolite profiles of two pharmacologically active N
      methylanthranilates: Three approaches to xenobiotic metabolite identification.
AB  - Two volatile alkaloids, isopropyl N-methylanthranilate (IMA) and methyl N
      methylanthranilate (MMA), present in the human diet and cosmetic products, were
      recently demonstrated to possess important pharmacological activities. While MMA
      is considered to be phototoxic, there is scarce data on the toxicity of IMA.
      Herein, we analyzed urinary metabolites of IMA and MMA in rats (200 mg kg-1,
      i.p., 7 days) by combining three different approaches: 1) preparative
      chromatography, 2) synthesis, and 3) SPR. The preparative approach, Sephadex LH
      20 chromatography of the extract of urine samples of IMA treated animals, in
      conjunction with NMR, enabled the identification of 16 different anthranilate
      derivatives, among which products of aromatic core hydroxylation (isopropyl 5
      hydroxy-N-methylanthranilate, isopropyl 5-hydroxyantranilate, isopropyl 3
      hydroxyantranilate) were the major ones. The first application of the
      synthetic/combinatorial approach led to a successful identification of MMA
      metabolites, where 2-(methylamino)benzamide and N-methylanthranilic acid were the
      principal ones, among 14 others. Generally, MMA and IMA undergo analogous
      biotransformation pathways; however, MMA predominantly underwent chemical
      conversions of the ester group, i.e. transformation into derivatives of
      anthranilamide and anthranilic acid, while the major metabolic pathway of IMA was
      hydroxylation of the aromatic core. Additionally, pathohistological examinations
      revealed no signs of liver toxicity, or other signs of toxicity.

PMID- 28888737
TI  - Epigenetic toxicity of environmental chemicals upon exposure during development -
      Bisphenol A and valproic acid may have epigenetic effects.
AB  - As of 2017, chemical substances registered in Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)
      exceed 100 million, which is increasing yearly. The safety of chemical substances
      is adequately managed by regulations based on scientific information from
      toxicity tests. However, there are substances reported to have "biological
      effects" even though they are judged to be nontoxic in conventional toxicity
      tests. Therefore, it is necessary to consider a new concept on toxicity,
      "epigenetic toxicity". In this review, we explain about epigenetic toxicity using
      bisphenol A (BPA) and valproic acid (VPA) as examples. We also discuss the
      problems associated with the judgment of epigenetic toxicity. Currently,
      epigenetic changes can only be detected by biochemical methods, which are labor
      intensive. Therefore, we are developing reporter mice that can be used to detect
      epigenetic toxicity during conventional toxicity tests. In addition, we consider
      that linking epigenomic changes with phenotypic changes is important, because
      causality is important for toxicity evaluation. Therefore, we are developing an
      artificial epigenome-editing technology. If we can develop a safety-assessment
      system by incorporating epigenetic evaluation into toxicity tests, we can
      increase the safety of both food and environmental chemical substances. The
      practical application of such a new safety-assessment system will be increasingly
      important in the future.

PMID- 28888738
TI  - Three-dimensional analysis of accuracy of patient-matched instrumentation in
      total knee arthroplasty: Evaluation of intraoperative techniques and
      postoperative alignment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is questionable that the accuracies of patient-matched
      instrumentation (PMI) have been controversial, even though many surgeons follow
      manufacturers' recommendations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
      accuracy of intraoperative procedures and the postoperative alignment of the
      femoral side using PMI with 3-dimensional (3D) analysis. METHODS: Eighteen knees
      that underwent total knee arthroplasty using MRI-based PMI were assessed.
      Intraoperative alignment and bone resection errors of the femoral side were
      evaluated with a CT-based navigation system. A conventional adjustable guide was
      used to compare cartilage data with that derived by PMI intraoperatively.
      Postoperative alignment was assessed using a 3D coordinate system with a computer
      assisted design software. We also measured the postoperative alignments using
      conventional alignment guides with the 3D evaluation. RESULTS: Intraoperative
      coronal alignment with PMI was 90.9 degrees  +/- 1.6 degrees . Seventeen knees
      (94.4%) were within 3 degrees  of the optimal alignment. Intraoperative
      rotational alignment of the femoral guide position of PMI was 0.2 degrees  +/-
      1.6 degrees compared with the adjustable guide, with 17 knees (94.4%) differing
      by 3 degrees  or less between the two methods. Maximum differences in coronal and
      rotation alignment before and after bone cutting were 2.0 degrees  and 2.8
      degrees , respectively. Postoperative coronal and rotational alignments were 89.4
      degrees  +/- 1.8 degrees  and -1.1 degrees  +/- 1.3 degrees , respectively. In
      both alignments, 94.4% of cases were within 3 degrees  of the optimal value. The
      PMI group had less outliers than conventional group in rotational alignment (p =
      0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Our 3D analysis provided evidence that PMI system resulted
      in reasonably satisfactory alignments both intraoperatively and postoperatively.
      Surgeons should be aware that certain surgical techniques including bone cutting,
      and the associated errors may affect postoperative alignment despite accurate PMI
      positioning.

PMID- 28888739
TI  - Impingement between medial plica against femoral condyle osteophyte after high
      tibial osteotomy.

PMID- 28888740
TI  - Can the hip joint center be estimated from pelvic dimensions in dysplastic hips?
AB  - BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine correlations between the hip joint center
      position and pelvic dimensions and whether the three-dimensional position of the
      original hip joint center could be estimated from pelvic landmarks in dysplastic
      and normal hips. METHODS: We reviewed the pelvic CT scans of 70 patients (70
      hips) with hip dysplasia. Seventy-seven normal hips were used as controls. The
      hip joint center coordinates (Cx, Cy, and Cz) and pelvic dimensions were measured
      with reference to the anterior pelvic plane coordinate system. Multiple
      regression formulas were used to estimate the original hip joint center. RESULTS:
      The hip center for both dysplastic and normal hip was highly correlated with the
      distance between the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) in the coronal plane (r
      = 0.76 and 0.84), the distance from the ASIS to the pubic tubercle in the
      sagittal plane (r = 0.81 and 0.76), and distance from the pubic tubercle to the
      most posterior point of the ischium on the transverse plane (r = 0.76 and 0.78).
      The hip joint center could be estimated within a 5-mm error for more than 80% of
      hips on their respective axes in both dysplastic and normal hips. CONCLUSIONS:
      The three-dimensional position of the original hip joint center was correlated
      with pelvic dimensions, and can be estimated with substantial accuracy using
      pelvic landmarks as references. Although these results are preliminary, this
      estimation method may be useful for surgeons planning total hip arthroplasties.

PMID- 28888741
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Signal Abnormalities Within the Pericruciate Fat Pad: A
      Possible Secondary Sign for Acute Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears.
AB  - PURPOSE: The study sought to investigate the presence of magnetic resonance (MR)
      signal alterations within the pericruciate fat pad in patients with an acute
      anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear as well as evaluate its diagnostic value in
      comparison with the main secondary signs of ACL tears. METHODS: Two
      musculoskeletal radiologists retrospectively reviewed knee MR examinations
      performed from May to October 2015. The ACL was considered as torn or intact
      based on either previous arthroscopic findings or unequivocal MR imaging
      interpretation if arthroscopic correlation was unavailable. Abnormalities of the
      pericruciate fat pad were evaluated as increased signal on the fluid-sensitive
      sequences; the main secondary signs of ACL tears were identified. Sensitivity and
      specificity were calculated for each sign. RESULTS: A total of 182 patients
      entered this study: 22 with an acute ACL tear, 160 with intact ACL. Signal
      hyperintensity of the pericruciate fat pad was demonstrated in all patients with
      an acutely torn ACL, resulting significantly different between individuals with
      intact ACL and those with ligament tear (P < .0001). This sign was much more
      sensitive (100%) but less specific (72.5%-75%) than other secondary signs.
      CONCLUSIONS: Signal hyperintensity of the pericruciate fat pad on the fluid
      sensitive sequences is associated with acute ACL tears and could be considered as
      a possible indicator of these injuries.

PMID- 28888742
TI  - Brain Diffusion Changes in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

PMID- 28888743
TI  - HTLV-1-infected thymic epithelial cells convey the virus to CD4+ T lymphocytes.
AB  - The human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is the causative agent of adult T
      cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic
      paraparesis (HAM/TSP). CD4+T cells are the main target of HTLV-1, but other cell
      types are known to be infected, including immature lymphocytes. Developing T
      cells undergo differentiation in the thymus, through migration and interaction
      with the thymic microenvironment, in particular with thymic epithelial cells
      (TEC) the major component of this three dimensional meshwork of non-lymphoid
      cells. Herein, we show that TEC express the receptors for HTLV-1 and can be
      infected by this virus through cell-cell contact and by cell-free virus
      suspensions. The expression of anti-apoptosis, chemokine and adhesion molecules
      genes are altered in HTLV-1-infected TEC, although gene expression of antigen
      presentation molecules remained unchanged. Furthermore, HTLV-1-infected TEC
      transmitted the virus to a CD4+ T cell line and to CD4+ T cells from healthy
      donors, during in vitro cellular co-cultures. Altogether, our data point to the
      possibility that the human thymic epithelial cells play a role in the
      establishment and progression of HTLV-1 infection, functioning as a reservoir and
      transmitting the virus to maturing CD4+ T lymphocytes, which in turn will cause
      disease in the periphery.

PMID- 28888744
TI  - [Stereotactic body radiotherapy for liver tumors: State of the art].
AB  - Thanks to the improvement in radiotherapy physics, biology, computing and
      imaging, patients presenting with liver tumors can be efficiently treated by
      radiation. Radiotherapy has been included in liver tumors treatment guidelines at
      all disease stages. Liver stereotactic radiotherapy has to be preferred to
      standard fractionated radiotherapy whenever possible, as potentially more
      efficient because of higher biological equivalent dose. Liver stereotactic
      radiotherapy planning and delivery require extensive experience and optimal
      treatment quality at every step, thus limiting its availability to specialized
      centres. Multicentre studies are difficult to develop due to a large technical
      heterogeneity. Respiratory management, image guidance and immobilization are
      considerations as important as machine type. The use of multimodal planning
      imaging is compulsory to achieve expected contouring quality. Treatment efficacy
      is difficult to assess following liver stereotactic radiotherapy, but local
      control is high and toxicity unusual. As a consequence, liver stereotactic
      radiotherapy is part of multimodal and multidisciplinary management of liver
      tumors.

PMID- 28888745
TI  - [Repair and time-dose factor: The example of spinal cord irradiation].
AB  - The question whether a reirradiation is possible, with either curative of
      palliative intent, is a frequent issue and a true therapeutic challenge, in
      particular for a critical organ sensitive to cumulative dose, such as the spinal
      cord. Preclinical experimental data, based on debatable models that are hardly
      transferable to patients, suggest that there is a possibility of reirradiation,
      beyond the classical threshold for dose constraints, taking into account the
      "time-dose factor". Although the underlying biological mechanisms are however
      uncertain, scarce clinical data seem to confirm that the tolerance of spinal cord
      to reirradiation does exist, provided that a particular attention to total dose
      is given. In the context where modern stereotactic irradiation facilities expand
      therapeutic perspectives, we review the literature on possibilities of
      reirradiation, through the example of spinal cord reirradiation.

PMID- 28888746
TI  - [Toxicity and quality of life comparison of iodine 125 brachytherapy and
      stereotactic radiotherapy for prostate cancers].
AB  - Quality of life is a major issue for good prognostic prostate cancer, for which
      brachytherapy is one of the reference treatments. Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy
      (SBRT) is a recent alternative however not yet validated as a standard treatment.
      This review of the literature reports and compares the toxicities and the quality
      of life, either after exclusive brachytherapy with iodine 125 or after SBRT. The
      comparison is made with the limitations of the absence of randomized trial
      comparing the two treatment techniques. Acute toxicity appears to be lower after
      SBRT compared to brachytherapy (from 10 to 40 % versus 30 to 40 %, respectively).
      Conversely, acute and late gastrointestinal toxicity (from 0 to 21 % and from 0
      to 10 % of grade 2, respectively) appears more frequent with SBRT. Late urinary
      toxicity seems identical between both techniques (from 20 to 30 % of grade 2),
      with a possible urinary flare syndrome. Both treatments have an impact on
      erectile dysfunction, although it is not possible to conclude that a technique is
      superior because of the limited data on SBRT. SBRT has better bowel and urinary
      (irritation or obstruction) quality of life scores than brachytherapy; while
      sexual and urinary incontinence remain the same. The absence of randomized trial
      comparing SBRT with brachytherapy for prostate cancers does not allow to conclude
      on the superiority of one technique over another, thus justifying a phase III
      medicoeconomic evaluation.

PMID- 28888747
TI  - Corrigendum to "Reducing implant loss rates in immediate breast reconstructions"
      [The Breast 31 (2017) 208-213].

PMID- 28888748
TI  - Editorial commentary: Modulation of the QT interval by gender and age.

PMID- 28888749
TI  - Complete Penile Disassembly for Repair of Epispadias Causes Erectile Tissue
      Alteration Through Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1 Overexpression in a Rabbit
      Model.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate corporal tissue viability and changes in endothelial
      content following current techniques used for epispadias repair in an animal
      model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty rabbits were allocated into 3 groups: sham
      operation (penile degloving), complete disassembly model, and Cantwell-Ransley
      model. On weeks 2, 4, 12, and 24 postoperation, the penile tissue was harvested
      and processed for (1) Masson's trichrome staining for smooth muscle cell (SMC)-to
      collagen ratios, (2) immunohistochemical staining for endothelial factor (CD31),
      and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta1) (3) terminal deoxynucleotidyl
      transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL)
      assay to detect apoptosis. RESULTS: Masson trichrome staining of corporal tissue
      showed significant decrease in SMC-to-collagen ratio in complete disassembly
      group compared with sham operation group. The expression of CD31 was
      significantly lower (P <.05) in complete disassembly group compared with the
      other groups at all time points, whereas no significant difference was observed
      between the Cantwell-Ransley group and the sham operation group. Moreover,
      apoptotic index was markedly higher in the complete disassembly group compared
      with the 2 other operation groups (P <.05). Immunohistochemistry also showed a
      significantly higher expression of TGF-beta1 in the penile tissue after complete
      disassembly than Cantwell-Ransley or sham operation. CONCLUSION: Complete
      detachment of the urethra from the corpus cavernosa may result in endothelial
      dysfunction, alteration of SMC content of erectile tissue, and replacement of the
      native cavernosal tissue with fibrotic tissue. An increased expression of TGF
      beta1, following the complete disassembly technique, might be one of the
      important factors causing the abovementioned alterations.

PMID- 28888750
TI  - Primary Mediastinal Pure Seminomatous Germ Cell Tumor (Germinoma) as a Rare Cause
      of Precocious Puberty in a 9-Year-Old Patient.
AB  - Less than 5%-7% of germ cell tumors are extragonadal, with the central nervous
      system being the most common location in children, followed by retroperitoneum
      and mediastinum. Only 10% of mediastinal tumors are malignant and one-third of
      these are pure seminomas (germinomas). We report the case of a 9-year-old boy
      with development of secondary sexual characteristics. Beta-human chorionic
      gonadotropin was elevated and a mediastinal mass was found. Final histology
      showed a pure seminomatous germ cell tumor. To our knowledge, this is the first
      report of a boy with precocious puberty secondary to a mediastinal germinoma.

PMID- 28888751
TI  - Female Outlet Obstruction After Anti-incontinence Surgery.
AB  - Numerous surgical options are available for the management of stress urinary
      incontinence in women, including urethral bulking agents, pubovaginal slings,
      retropubic bladder neck suspensions, midurethral slings, and even artificial
      urinary sphincters. We discuss the incidence, etiology, diagnosis, evaluation,
      and management of bladder outlet obstruction after anti-incontinence surgery in
      women. This problem presents with a wide range of symptoms. Urodynamic evaluation
      is not always diagnostic but can be helpful. Management options range from
      conservative to invasive. The optimal timeline for intervention is still not well
      defined, but general guiding principles of management are presented and a
      comprehensive review of current literature is presented.

PMID- 28888752
TI  - Incidence of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer After a Diagnosis of Atypical
      Small Acinar Proliferation, High-grade Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia, or
      Benign Tissue.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the incidence of clinically significant and insignificant
      prostate cancer after an initial biopsy that revealed either atypical small
      acinar proliferation (ASAP), high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia
      (HGPIN), or benign tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively identified
      patients diagnosed with ASAP, HGPIN, or benign tissue who had a repeat prostate
      biopsy within 1 year of diagnosis during 1987-2015. We compared the incidence of
      any prostate cancer and clinically significant prostate cancer (based on Gleason
      score, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), number of positive cores, and core
      volume) for each diagnostic group. RESULTS: A total of 17,016 biopsies were
      performed in 12,817 patients during 1987-2015. Among the 615 patients who had a
      repeat biopsy within 1 year of their first, 261 (42.4%), 208 (33.8%), and 146
      (23.8%) had ASAP, HGPIN, or benign tissue on the initial biopsy, respectively.
      The second biopsy demonstrated significant differences in prostate cancer
      detection rates between these 3 groups (34.1%, 20.2%, and 15.8%, respectively; P
      <.001), with cancer detected significantly more often in the ASAP group relative
      to other groups (P <.001 vs benign and P = .001 vs HGPIN). The rates of
      clinically significant prostate cancer did not differ between groups (8.0%, 6.7%,
      and 4.1%, respectively, P = .31). CONCLUSION: On repeat biopsy, rates of
      clinically significant prostate cancer did not differ between patients initially
      diagnosed with ASAP, HGPIN, or benign tissue. Elevated rates of prostate cancer
      after a diagnosis of ASAP appear to be largely due to differences in the rate of
      clinically insignificant disease.

PMID- 28888753
TI  - The Role of Gut Microbiome in the Pathogenesis of Prostate Cancer: A Prospective,
      Pilot Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To elucidate potential biomarkers or mechanistic principles involved
      with the gut microbiota and its impact on prostate cancer pathogenesis. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: We performed a prospective case-control pilot study evaluating the
      gut microbiome of 20 men with either benign prostatic conditions (n = 8) or
      intermediate or high risk clinically localized prostate cancer (Gleason >=4 + 3
      cN0M0) (n = 12) undergoing care at tertiary referral center from September 1,
      2015 to March 1, 2016. Key exclusion criteria included recent antibiotic use,
      significant gastrointestinal disorders, hormonal or systemic therapy for prostate
      cancer. Computational genomics analysis was performed on collected stool samples
      using MetaPhlAn2 and HUMAnN2 platforms. Linear discriminant analysis effect size
      method was used to support high-dimensional class comparisons to find
      biologically relevant features. Kruskal-Wallis sum-rank test was used to detect
      features with significant differential abundance with respect to class, with
      biological consistency investigated using a set of pairwise tests among
      subclasses using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, both to an alpha <=0.05. RESULTS:
      Higher relative abundance of Bacteriodes massiliensis was seen in prostate cancer
      cases compared to controls. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Eubacterium rectalie
      had higher relative abundance among controls. Biologically significant
      differences were also found in relative gene, pathway, and enzyme abundance.
      CONCLUSION: Biologically significant differences exist in the gut microbial
      composition of men with prostate cancer compared to benign controls. These
      differences may play a role in the pathobiology of prostate cancer, and warrant
      further exploration.

PMID- 28888754
TI  - Effect of antioxidant supplementation on the auditory threshold in sensorineural
      hearing loss: a meta-analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Hearing loss is conceptualized as any impairment of the ability to
      hear and/or detect speech or environment sounds, regardless of cause, type, or
      degree. It may occur at different stages of life; during pregnancy or childbirth,
      in childhood, adulthood or old age. It should be noted that aging is the most
      common cause of sensorineural hearing loss followed by noise-induced hearing
      loss, and both are closely related to the formation of reactive oxygen species.
      Dietary antioxidant supplementation has been employed as a therapeutic strategy
      to prevent and/or delay the risks of major human diseases. OBJECTIVE: To assess
      randomized clinical trials to determine the effect of antioxidant supplementation
      on the auditory thresholds in patients of different age groups with sensorineural
      hearing loss. METHODS: This systematic review consisted of a search in the
      following databases: MEDLINE, CENTRAL, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science,
      LILACS, SciELO and ClinicalTrials.gov. Additionally, the gray literature was also
      searched. The search strategy included terms related to the intervention
      (antioxidant supplementation), primary outcome (sensorineural hearing loss), as
      well as terms related to randomized clinical trials to improve search
      sensitivity. RESULTS: Based on 977 potentially relevant records identified
      through the search in the databases, ten full-text publications were retrieved
      for further evaluation. The increase in threshold at the 4kHz frequency was
      statistically higher in the control group (1.89 [1.01-2.78], p<0.0001) when
      compared to the NAC group and the ginseng group, whereas at 6kHz, the threshold
      increase was higher in the control group (1.42 [-1.14-3.97], p=0.28), but no
      statistically significant differences were found between groups. CONCLUSION:
      Ginseng was the antioxidant agent that showed the best effect in preventing
      auditory threshold worsening at the frequency of 4kHz, but not at 6kHz in
      patients with sensorineural hearing loss caused by exposure to high sound
      pressure levels. There was no improvement in the thresholds with vitamin E
      supplementation.

PMID- 28888755
TI  - An atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation liquid chromatographic-tandem mass
      spectrometry method for the analysis of benzodiazepines in urine.
AB  - The objective of this work was to establish an analytical method for the analysis
      of 7 Benzodiazepines (diazepam, oxazepam, temazepam, nordiazepam,
      desalkylflurazepam, alprazolam and alpha-hydroxyalprazolam) in urine specimens
      taken from drivers suspected of driving under the influence of drugs. The
      specimen, calibrator and control preparation involved hydrolysis of conjugated
      benzodiazepines using beta-glucuronidase in sodium acetate buffer, with
      incubation at 60 degrees C for 2h. Specimens were then centrifuged, before being
      diluted 1 in 5 (total dilution 1 in 10), with 10% acetonitrile in water.
      Specimens were analysed using a Shimadzu Prominence UPLC coupled to an AB Sciex
      4000 QTrap LC-MS-MS. The chromatographic column was a Shim-pack XR ODS 2.2MUm.
      3.0*50mm column and the mobile phase was a binary gradient system comprising of
      mobile phase A which was an ammonium formate/formic acid buffer dissolved in
      water and mobile phase B which was an ammonium formate/formic acid buffer
      dissolved in Acetonitrile. APCI was selected as the ionisation technique and the
      MS was operated in MRM mode, monitoring 2 transitions per analyte. The validation
      of the method is described. The method was found to be linear, accurate and
      precise (within day and between day) for diazepam, oxazepam, temazepam,
      nordiazepam, desalkylflurazepam, alprazolam and alpha-hydroxyalprazolam. The
      results of 480 cases are reviewed and show that alprazolam use was found in 35%
      of cases. Use of benzodiazepines resulting in oxazepam, nordiazepam or temazepam
      were found ca. 70% of cases analysed.

PMID- 28888756
TI  - Renoprotective effect of the xanthine oxidoreductase inhibitor Topiroxostat under
      decreased angiotensin II type 1a receptor expression.
AB  - The aim of this study was to confirm the renoprotective effect of xanthine
      oxidoreductase (XOR) inhibitor, topiroxostat, compared with another XOR
      inhibitor, febuxostat, under decreased angiotensin II type 1a (AT1a) receptor
      expression in the model of renal injury caused by adenine. To evaluate the degree
      of tubular damage using urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP)
      under decreased AT1a expression, we used AT1a receptor knockdown hetero and human
      L-FABP chromosomal transgenic (Tg) mice (AT1a+/-L-FABP+/-). Male AT1a+/-L-FABP+/-
      mice were divided into two groups: the adenine diet group (n = 40) was given a
      diet containing only 0.2% w/w adenine, and the normal diet group (n = 5) was
      given a normal diet. When renal dysfunction was confirmed in the adenine diet
      group 4 weeks after starting the diet, the adenine diet group was further divided
      into five groups. The adenine diet group (n = 8) was continuously given only the
      adenine diet. Each group receiving high-dose (3mg/kg) or low-dose (1mg/kg)
      topiroxostat (Topiroxostat-H group, n = 8, Topiroxostat-L group, n = 8) or
      febuxostat (Febuxostat-H group, n = 8, Febuxostat-L group, n = 8) was given the
      adenine diet including the drug for another 4 weeks. The levels of renal XOR,
      renal dysfunction, urinary L-FABP, tubulointerstitial damage, hypoxia, and
      oxidative stress were decreased or attenuated after treatment with topiroxostat
      or febuxostat compared with the adenine diet group. Furthermore, antioxidant
      capacity was maintained owing to these treatments. In conclusion, topiroxostat
      and febuxostat attenuated renal damage under decreased AT1a expression in the
      adenine-induced renal injury model.

PMID- 28888757
TI  - Single-step purification of recombinant Gaussia luciferase from serum-containing
      culture medium of mammalian cells.
AB  - A dihydrofolate reductase-deficient Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1/dhfr-) cell
      line stably expressing Gaussia luciferase with a histidine-tag sequence at the
      carboxyl terminus (GLase-His) was established. Recombinant GLase-His was purified
      from serum-containing culture medium by single-step Ni-chelate column
      chromatography in the presence of 2 M NaCl and 0.01% Tween 20. The protein yield
      of GLase-His with over 95% purity was 0.5 mg from 0.9 L of the cultured medium.
      The enzymatic properties of purified GLase-His were characterized. Interestingly,
      non-ionic detergent Tween 20 stabilized and stimulated GLase-His activity and its
      luminescence activity was stimulated 2-fold by the synergistic effect of 0.01%
      Tween 20 and 150 mM NaCl.

PMID- 28888758
TI  - Large area alpha sources with a lip: Integral counting and spectral distortions.
AB  - The detection efficiency for large area alpha sources with adjustable heights of
      a raised lip around the edge were measured by 2pi gas-filled proportional
      counter. The variations in low-energy spectral shape were modeled using a Geant4
      radiation and charge transport Monte Carlo simulation, to enable extrapolation of
      the spectrum to zero energy. COMSOL Multiphysics finite-element analysis was used
      to explore changes in the spectrum gain in the presence of a lip. It
      qualitatively reproduced an increase in peak height due to an increasing height
      of the source lip. A spectrum analysis procedure was developed to perform
      integral counting on sources with a lip. The experimental results were used to
      validate the model, which was then used to predict the changes in 2pi counting
      efficiency for other source-lip geometries.

PMID- 28888759
TI  - Impact of iliac artery anatomy on the outcome of fenestrated and branched
      endovascular aortic repair.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Fenestrated and branched endovascular aneurysm repair (FB-EVAR) is a
      valid option to treat juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms and
      thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. Because successful deployment depends on
      complex maneuvers, hostile iliac artery anatomy (HIA) can prejudice the FB-EVAR
      outcome. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of HIA on FB-EVAR
      outcome. METHODS: Between 2010 and 2015, all patients undergoing FB-EVAR were
      prospectively categorized according to iliac anatomy (friendly iliac artery
      anatomy [FIA] or HIA). HIA was defined as the presence of one of the following:
      severe (>90-degree) iliac angle, extensive (>50%) iliac circumferential
      calcification, hemodynamic iliac stenosis or obstruction, external iliac artery
      diameter <7 mm, or previous aortoiliac/femoral graft. Early end points were
      technical success (absence of type I or type III endoleak, target visceral vessel
      [TVV] loss, conversion to open repair), intraoperative adjunctive maneuvers
      (IAMs; iliac percutaneous transluminal angioplasty/stenting, surgical iliac
      conduit, intra-aortic graft rotations, several attempts of TVV cannulation),
      intraoperative technical problems (iliac rupture, significant endograft twisting,
      difficult TVV cannulations, TVV injuries, TVV loss), and 30-day mortality. Follow
      up end points were survival, TVV patency, and freedom from reintervention.
      RESULTS: Ninety-four patients (male, 87%; age, 73 +/- 6 years) with 59 (63%)
      juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms and 35 (37%) thoracoabdominal
      aortic aneurysms underwent FB-EVAR, for a total of 324 TVVs; 60 (64%) patients
      had HIA and 34 (36%) had FIA. Patients with HIA and FIA had similar preoperative
      clinical characteristics, except for coronary artery disease, peripheral artery
      occlusive disease, and American Society of Anesthesiologists class 4 (47% vs 24%
      [P = .03], 12% vs 0% [P = .04], and 28% vs 9% [P = .03], respectively). Technical
      success was 96% (HIA, 97%; FIA, 95%; P = .6). In HIA, adjunctive iliac procedures
      were performed in 32 cases (surgical conduit, 14 [15%]; percutaneous transluminal
      angioplasty/stenting, 27 [29%]). Endograft twisting and difficult TVV cannulation
      occurred in 13 (14%) and 33 (35%) cases, respectively (HIA 18% vs FIA 15% [P =
      .09]; HIA 28% vs FIA 21% [P = .03]). TVV cannulation failed in nine cases and
      injury occurred in five (TVV patency rate, 97.8%; HIA 94.7% vs FIA 98.3%; P =
      .3). One (1%) iliac rupture occurred in HIA, needing surgical repair. Overall, 44
      (47%; HIA 55% vs FIA 25%; P = .03) IAMs were necessary. Perioperative mortality
      was 4% (HIA 3% vs FIA 5%; P = .9). At multivariate analysis, predictors of IAMs
      were external iliac diameter <7 mm (odds ratio [OR], 12.5; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 2.2-71.4; P = .004) and extensive iliac calcifications (OR, 8.3;
      95% CI, 1.4-50.0; P = .02). The mean follow-up was 24 +/- 17 months, with an
      overall survival of 87% and 71% at 1 year and 3 years, respectively,
      significantly lower in HIA compared with FIA (at 3 years, HIA 60% vs FIA 92%; P =
      .02). On multivariate analysis, HIA was a significant predictor of late mortality
      (OR, 3.6; 95% CI, 1.1-13.2; P = .04). Freedom from reintervention (87%) and 3
      year TVV patency (92%) were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: HIA does not
      significantly affect the early outcome of FB-EVAR. However, in patients with HIA,
      procedures are technically more demanding and late mortality is increased. Iliac
      characteristics should be taken into account to correctly stratify the surgical
      risk in FB-EVAR.

PMID- 28888760
TI  - An in vitro investigation of indigenous South African medicinal plants used to
      treat oral infections.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Over a 120 South African medicinal plants are
      used for the treatment of oral diseases. Despite the vast collection of
      antimicrobial studies being done on South African plants, there is still limited
      research on pathogens associated with oral infections. In consultation with the
      available ethnobotanical literature, this study investigates the antimicrobial
      efficacy of some South African medicinal plants against oral pathogens. AIM OF
      THE STUDY: To provide a detailed account of the antimicrobial properties of
      selected South African medicinal plants used traditionally to treat oral
      infections. The effect on Streptococcus mutans biofilm formation and the toxicity
      profiles of these plants are also investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of
      136 aqueous and organic extracts and six essential oils were prepared from 31
      different plant species. These plant samples were screened for antimicrobial
      efficacy against nine oral pathogens using the micro-titre plate dilution assay.
      Plant extracts that were found to have noteworthy antimicrobial activity against
      S. mutans were further evaluated on the effect on S. mutans biofilm formation
      using the glass slide technique. The toxicity profiles of plant samples that were
      found to have noteworthy antimicrobial activity were evaluated using the brine
      shrimp lethality assay. RESULTS: The organic extract of Cissampelos torulosa
      stems displayed the lowest MIC value of 0.05mg/mL against both Lactobacillus spp.
      This high antimicrobial activity was also observed with the organic extract of
      Spirostachys africana leaves against Candida albicans. In some instances, a
      direct relationship was found between the traditional use of the plant and the
      antimicrobial activity observed. For example, noteworthy activity (MIC <
      1.00mg/mL) was observed against all three Candida spp. when tested against
      Clematis brachiata (leaves), a plant traditionally used to treat oral thrush.
      Englerophytum magalismonatanum stems displayed notable activity against both
      Streptococcus spp. (MIC 0.83mg/mL against S. mutans and MIC 0.67mg/mL against S.
      sanguis). Spirostachys africana leaves displayed the greatest anti-adherent
      properties against S. mutans biofilm formation at both 24 and 48h, reducing the
      biofilm by 97.56% and 86.58% respectively. The majority of plant samples tested
      in the brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA) were considered safe, however, 13
      plant samples were considered toxic, at a concentration of 1mg/mL. CONCLUSION:
      Noteworthy antimicrobial activity for plants species such as C. brachiata and E.
      magalismonatnum provides validation for the traditional use of these plants.
      Spirostachys africana displayed the greatest reduction of adherent S. mutans
      cells. The BSLA results revealed that the majority of the plant samples were not
      toxic in nature. The findings from the results favour the potential use of these
      plants in treating oral diseases such as dental caries, periodontal diseases and
      oral thrush.

PMID- 28888761
TI  - Associations Between TNFAIP3 Gene Polymorphisms and Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk: A
      Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A host of studies investigated the associations between
      tumor necrosis factor alpha inducible protein 3 (TNFAIP3) gene rs2230926 and
      rs5029937 polymorphisms and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) susceptibility, but with
      conflicting findings. Therefore, we explored whether TNFAIP3 gene rs2230926 and
      rs5029937 polymorphisms are associated with RA by meta-analysis. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We performed out a comprehensive literature search of PubMed, Elsevier,
      Embase, and CNKI databases to identify relevant studies. Pooled odds ratios (ORs)
      and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of the
      associations. RESULTS: Literature search identified 10 case-control studies
      involving 18,014 cases and 20,112 controls in this meta-analysis. Our data
      supported an association between TNFAIP3 gene rs2230926 and rs5029937
      polymorphisms and RA risk. Stratification analysis of ethnicity indicated that
      rs5029937 polymorphism increased the risk of RA among Caucasians, while rs2230926
      polymorphism increased the risk of RA among Asians and Caucasians. CONCLUSIONS:
      In conclusion, this meta-analysis demonstrates that TNFAIP3 gene polymorphisms
      (rs2230926 and rs5029937) are associated with the increased risk of RA.

PMID- 28888762
TI  - Probiotic Supplementation in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Double-blind, Randomized,
      Placebo-controlled Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of probiotic
      supplementation on the gut microbiota profile and inflammatory markers in chronic
      kidney disease patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (HD). DESIGN AND
      METHODS: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Forty-six
      HD patients were assigned to receive 1 of 2 treatments: probiotic (n = 23;
      Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus e Bifidobacterialongum, 90
      billion colony-forming units per day) or placebo (n = 23) daily for 3 months.
      Blood and feces were collected at baseline and after intervention. The
      inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6) were analyzed by
      immunoenzymatic assay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Uremic toxins plasma
      levels (indoxyl sulfate, p-cresyl sulfate, and indole-3-acetic acid) were
      obtained by Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. Routine
      laboratory parameters were measured by standard techniques. Fecal pH was measured
      by the colorimetric method, and the gut microbiota profile was assessed by
      Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis analysis. RESULTS: Sixteen patients
      remained in the probiotic group (11 men, 53.6 +/- 11.0 year old, 25.3 +/- 4.6
      kg/m2) and 17 in the placebo group (10 men, 50.3 +/- 8.5 year old, 25.2 +/- 5.7
      kg/m2). After probiotic supplementation there was a significant increase in serum
      urea (from 149.6 +/- 34.2 mg/dL to 172.6 +/- 45.0 mg/dL, P = .02), potassium
      (from 4.4 +/- 0.4 mmol/L to 4.8 +/- 0.4 mmol/L, P = .02), and indoxyl sulfate
      (from 31.2 +/- 15.9 to 36.5 +/- 15.0 mg/dL, P = .02). The fecal pH was reduced
      from 7.2 +/- 0.8 to 6.5 +/- 0.5 (P = .01). These parameters did not change
      significantly in placebo group. Changes in the percentage delta (Delta) between
      groups were exhibited with no statistical differences observed. The inflammatory
      markers and gut profile were not altered by supplementation. CONCLUSIONS:
      Aprobiotic supplementation failed to reduce uremic toxins and inflammatory
      markers. Therefore, probiotic therapy should be chosen with caution in HD
      patients. Further studies addressing probiotic therapy in chronic kidney disease
      patients are needed.

PMID- 28888764
TI  - Rehabilitating cardiac rehabilitation after heart transplantation.

PMID- 28888763
TI  - miR-155 targets Est-1 and induces ulcerative colitis via the IL-23/17/6-mediated
      Th17 pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
      affecting millions of people worldwide. miR-155 has been reported to be
      upregulated in various inflammatory diseases and is a positive regulator of the T
      cell response. IL-17 secreting helper T (Th17) cells have been heavily implicated
      in tissue-specific immune pathology, including UC. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      Therefore, we targeted miR-155 and investigated its expression levels in a DSS
      induced UC mouse model, revealing increased expression. Est-1 expression was
      found to have decreased, but the levels of IL-23/17/6 were raised significantly
      and Th17 had experienced an obvious increase. We overexpressed miR-155 using a
      lentiviral treatment. Increased miR-155 expression induced a more severe damage
      to colon tissues. In this case, the level of Est-1 decreased even further,
      thereby enhancing IL-23/17/6-mediated Th17 differentiation. CONCLUSION: miR-155
      seems to target Est-1 and induces UC via the IL-23/17/6-mediated Th17 pathway.

PMID- 28888765
TI  - Donor bronchial wash bile acid and suitability of donor lungs for
      transplantation.

PMID- 28888766
TI  - A natural hybrid of a Bacillus thuringiensis Cry2A toxin implicates Domain I in
      specificity determination.
AB  - A PCR-RFLP method was used to identify cry2A toxin genes in a collection of 300
      strains of Bacillus thuringiensis. From 81 genes identified, the vast majority
      appeared to be cry2Aa or cry2Ab, however three showed a different pattern and
      were subsequently cloned and sequenced. The gene cloned from strain HD395 was
      named cry2Ba2. Since the proteins encoded by the genes cloned from LS5115-3 and
      DS415 shared >95% sequence identity with existing toxins their genes were named
      cry2Aa17 and cry2Ab29 respectively by the toxin nomenclature committee. Despite
      this overall similarity these two toxins resembled natural hybrids, with Cry2Ab29
      resembling Cry2Ab for the majority of the protein but then showing identity to
      Cry2Aa for the last 66 amino acids. For Cry2Aa17, Domains II and III most closely
      resembled Cry2Aa (99% identity) whilst Domain I was identical to that of Cry2Ab.
      The toxicity of the recombinant toxins was tested against Aedes aegypti and
      Spodoptera exigua, and it was found that the toxicity profile of Cry2Aa17 more
      closely matched the profile of Cry2Ab than that of Cry2Aa, thus implicating
      Domain I in specificity determination. This association of Domain I with toxicity
      was confirmed when hybrids were made between Cry2Aa and Cry2Ab.

PMID- 28888767
TI  - Recent acute crayfish mortality reveals Aphanomyces astaci presence in Bosnia and
      Herzegovina.
AB  - Although the introduction of the crayfish plague pathogen Aphanomyces astaci to
      Europe is responsible for substantial declines in native crayfish populations
      throughout the whole continent, its presence has never been officially confirmed
      in many European regions, including most of the Balkan Peninsula. We demonstrate
      that the recent crayfish mortality observed in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mostarsko
      blato karst field, Neretva river drainage) was caused by A. astaci. The causative
      strain is known only from European crayfish, indicating that A. astaci poses a
      threat to native species in this region, even in the absence of its main vectors,
      the North American crayfish.

PMID- 28888768
TI  - Assessment of a cricket, Acheta domesticus, bioassay for Chequa Iflavirus and
      bunya-like virus from redclaw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus.
AB  - Chequa iflavirus and a bunya-like virus infect redclaw crayfish (Cherax
      quadricarinatus) and they may cause mortality reaching 20-40% after about three
      weeks after a stress event. To complete River's postulates for viruses, virus
      free animals are needed. Due to a lack of chequa iflavirus and bunya-like virus
      free crayfish (testing shows>85% infection rate) coupled with the facts that
      iflavirus and bunyaviruses are found in insects and that crickets had been
      successful alternate hosts for crustacean viruses before, Acheta domesticus was
      trialled asa bioassay animal. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in
      mortality rates between uninfected control crickets and infected crickets.
      Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for both viruses failed to find
      any trace of the RNA viruses in fed or inoculated crickets after 30days. The
      search for an alternative bioassay host will have to be widened.

PMID- 28888769
TI  - Inter-vender and test-retest reliabilities of resting-state functional magnetic
      resonance imaging: Implications for multi-center imaging studies.
AB  - This prospective multi-center study aimed to evaluate the inter-vendor and test
      retest reliabilities of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS
      fMRI) by assessing the temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and functional
      connectivity. Study included 10 healthy subjects and each subject was scanned
      using three 3T MR scanners (GE Signa HDxt, Siemens Skyra, and Philips Achieva) in
      two sessions. The tSNR was calculated from the time course data. Inter-vendor and
      test-retest reliabilities were assessed with intra-class correlation coefficients
      (ICCs) derived from variant component analysis. Independent component analysis
      was performed to identify the connectivity of the default-mode network (DMN). In
      result, the tSNR for the DMN was not significantly different among the GE,
      Philips, and Siemens scanners (P=0.638). In terms of vendor differences, the
      inter-vendor reliability was good (ICC=0.774). Regarding the test-retest
      reliability, the GE scanner showed excellent correlation (ICC=0.961), while the
      Philips (ICC=0.671) and Siemens (ICC=0.726) scanners showed relatively good
      correlation. The DMN pattern of the subjects between the two sessions for each
      scanner and between three scanners showed the identical patterns of functional
      connectivity. The inter-vendor and test-retest reliabilities of RS-fMRI using
      different 3T MR scanners are good. Thus, we suggest that RS-fMRI could be used in
      multicenter imaging studies as a reliable imaging marker.

PMID- 28888771
TI  - C-terminal hydrazide modification changes the spinal antinociceptive profiles of
      endomorphins in mice.
AB  - Previously, we have demonstrated that endomorphins (EMs) analogs with C-terminal
      hydrazide modification retained the MU-opioid receptor affinity and selectivity,
      and exhibited potent antinociception after intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.)
      administration. In the present study, we extended our studies to evaluate the
      antinociceptive profiles of EMs and their analogs EM-1-NHNH2, EM-2-NHNH2 given
      spinally in the radiant heat paw withdrawal test. Following intrathecal (i.t.)
      administration, EM-1, EM-2, EM-1-NHNH2 and EM-2-NHNH2 dose-dependently increased
      the latency for paw withdrawal response. EM-1-NHNH2 displayed the highest
      antinociceptive effects, with the ED50 values being 1.63 nmol, more potent than
      the parent EM-1 (1.96 nmol), but with no significant difference. By contrast, the
      analgesic activities of EM-2 and its analog EM-2-NHNH2 were almost equivalent
      (P>0.05). Naloxone and beta-funaltrexamine (beta-FNA) almost completely
      attenuated the antinociceptive effects of EMs and their analogs EM-1-NHNH2, EM-2
      NHNH2 (10 nmol, i.t.), indicating the involvement of MU-opioid receptors.
      Notably, the antinociception of EM-1 was not significantly antagonized by
      naloxonazine, a selective MU1-opioid receptor antagonist, but partially reversed
      the effects of EM-2, suggesting that EM-1 and EM-2 may produce antinociception
      through distinct MU1- and MU2-opioid receptor subtypes. Moreover, naloxonazine
      didn't significantly block the antinociceptive effects of EM-1-NHNH2 and EM-2
      NHNH2, and nor-BNI, the kappa-opioid receptor antagonist, attenuated the
      analgesic effects of EM-2, but not EM-1, EM-1-NHNH2 or EM-2-NHNH2. These results
      indicated that C-terminal amide to hydrazide conversion changed the
      antinociceptive opioid mechanisms of EM-2 but not EM-1 at the spinal level.
      Herein, the acute antinociceptive tolerance were further determined and compared.
      EM-1-NHNH2 and EM-2-NHNH2 shifted the dose-response curve rightward by only 2.8
      and 1.5-fold as determined by tolerance ratio, whereas EM-1 and EM-2 by 3.4 and
      4.6-fold, respectively, indicating substantially reduced antinociceptive
      tolerance. The present study demonstrated that C-terminal hydrazide modification
      changes the spinal antinociceptive profiles of EMs.

PMID- 28888770
TI  - Test-retest reliability of cerebral blood flow in healthy individuals using
      arterial spin labeling: Findings from the EMBARC study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Previous investigations of test-retest reliability of cerebral
      blood flow (CBF) at rest measured with pseudo-continuous Arterial Spin Labeling
      (pCASL) demonstrated good reliability, but are limited by the use of similar
      scanner platforms. In the present study we examined test-retest reliability of
      CBF in regions implicated in emotion and the default mode network. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: We measured absolute and relative CBF at rest in thirty-one healthy
      subjects in two scan sessions, one week apart, at four different sites and three
      different scan platforms. We derived CBF from pCASL images with an automated
      algorithm and calculated intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) across
      sessions for regions of interest. In addition, we investigated site effects.
      RESULTS: For both absolute and relative CBF measures, ICCs were good to excellent
      (i.e. >0.6) in most brain regions, with highest values observed for the subgenual
      anterior cingulate cortex and ventral striatum. A leave-one-site-out cross
      validation analysis did not show a significant effect for site on whole brain CBF
      and there was no proportional bias across sites. However, a significant site
      effect was present in the repeated measures ANOVA. CONCLUSIONS: The high test
      retest reliability of CBF measured with pCASL in a range of brain regions
      implicated in emotion and salience processing, emotion regulation, and the
      default mode network, which have been previously linked to depression
      symptomatology supports its use in studies that aim to identify neuroimaging
      biomarkers of treatment response.

PMID- 28888773
TI  - Reply by Authors.

PMID- 28888772
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- 28888774
TI  - Impact of body mass index in liver transplantation for nonalcoholic fatty liver
      disease and alcoholic liver disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study evaluates long-term outcomes and body mass index (BMI)
      following liver transplantation (LT) for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
      (NAFLD) in comparison with alcoholic liver disease (ALD). METHODS: Patient and
      graft survival were compared using Kaplan Meier curves and log rank test.
      Multivariable analysis of recipient and donor characteristics was performed as
      determinants of patient survival. BMI at listing was compared with BMI post-LT.
      RESULTS: Patient survival at 1-, 3-, 5- and 10 years post-LT was similar in the
      ALD group (n = 195) compared with the NAFLD group (n = 84) (93% vs. 93%, 91% vs.
      89%, 86% vs. 77%, 64% vs. 66% respectively, p = 0.21). One patient in the NAFLD
      group was re-transplanted and none in the ALD group therefore graft survival was
      also similar (p = 0.20). Multivariable analysis didn't identify any significant
      predictors of reduced survival. In comparison with the ALD group, BMI was
      significantly higher in the NAFLD group at listing (31 vs. 27, p < 0.001), 3
      months post-LT (28 vs. 26, p < 0.05) and 6-months post-LT (29 vs. 27, p < 0.05)
      but was equivalent by 5-years post-LT (29 vs. 30, p = 0.80). CONCLUSIONS: NAFLD
      patients had similar patient and graft survival post-LT compared to ALD. NAFLD
      patients returned to listing BMI by one-year post-LT but by 5-years post-LT there
      was no difference in BMI between the groups.

PMID- 28888775
TI  - Simultaneous versus delayed hepatectomy for synchronous colorectal liver
      metastases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare outcomes
      between patients undergoing simultaneous or delayed hepatectomy for synchronous
      colorectal liver metastases. BACKGROUND: The optimal strategy for treating liver
      disease among patients with resectable synchronous colorectal liver metastases
      (CRLM) is unclear. Simultaneous resection of primary tumour and liver metastases
      may improve patient experience by reducing the number of interventions. However,
      there are concerns of increased morbidity compared to delayed resections.
      METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed using EMBASE, Medline,
      Cochrane library and Google scholar databases. Meta-analyses were performed using
      both random-effects and fixed-effect models. Publication and patient selection
      bias were assessed with funnel plots and sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: Thirty
      studies including 5300 patients were identified. There were no statistically
      significant differences in parameters relating to safety and efficacy between the
      simultaneous and delayed hepatectomy cohorts. Patients undergoing delayed surgery
      were more likely to have bilobar disease or undergo major hepatectomy. The
      average length of hospital stay was six days shorter with simultaneous approach
      [MD = -6.27 (95% CI: -8.20, -4.34), p < 0.001]. Long term survival was similar
      for the two approaches [HR = 0.97 (95%CI: 0.88, 1.08), p = 0.601]. CONCLUSION: In
      selected patients, simultaneous resection of liver metastases with colorectal
      resection is associated with shorter hospital stay compared to delayed
      resections, without adversely affecting perioperative morbidity or long-term
      survival.

PMID- 28888776
TI  - Living donor liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: results of
      prospective patient selection by Kyushu University Criteria in 7 years.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Expanding patient selection beyond the Milan criteria in living donor
      liver transplantation (LDLT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has long been a
      matter for debate. We have used the Kyushu University Criteria - maximum tumor
      diameter <5 cm or des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin <300 mAU/ml - in LDLT for HCC
      since June 2007. The aim of the present study was to present the results of our
      prospective patient selection by Kyushu University Criteria and to confirm
      whether or not our criteria were justified. METHODS: The entire study period was
      divided into the pre-Kyushu era (July 1999-May 2007) and the Kyushu era (June
      2007-November 2014). Eighty-nine and 90 patients underwent LDLT for HCC in the
      pre-Kyushu era and the Kyushu era, respectively. RESULTS: In the pre-Kyushu era,
      there were significant differences in recurrence-free and disease-specific
      survival between the beyond-Milan and the within-Milan patients. In the Kyushu
      era, however, the differences in recurrence-free and disease-specific survival
      between the beyond-Milan and the within-Milan patients disappeared. The 5-year
      overall patient survival in the Kyushu era was 89.4%. CONCLUSION: Our selection
      criteria enabled a considerable number of beyond-Milan patients to undergo LDLT
      without jeopardizing the recurrence-free, and disease-specific, and overall
      patient survival.

PMID- 28888777
TI  - Evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma spread via the portal system by 3
      dimensional mapping.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The pattern of tumor cell spread via the portal system has
      not been fully clarified in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This
      study aimed to evaluate the intrahepatic distribution of cancer cells derived
      from the main tumor by assessing histological portal invasion and/or intrahepatic
      metastasis (vp/im). METHODS: In 14 patients who underwent anatomical resection of
      primary solitary HCC <= 50 mm in diameter, vp/im were examined pathologically,
      and the sites of the lesions were reproduced on preoperative 3D-CT images. The
      number of vp/im and the distance of each lesion from the tumor margin were also
      determined. RESULTS: The tumor diameter was <30 mm in seven patients (smaller
      HCCs) and 30-50 mm in seven patients (larger HCCs). 3D mapping revealed that
      almost all vp/im were localized to the peritumoral area within one cm of the
      tumor margin in smaller HCCs, whereas vp/im seemed to spread extensively to the
      feeding 3rd level portal branches in larger HCCs. The number of vp/im was greater
      in patients with larger HCCs than in those with smaller HCCs. CONCLUSIONS: 3D
      mapping suggested tumor cells of HCC spread via the portal vein extensively in
      several cases.

PMID- 28888778
TI  - Mincle inhibits neutrophils and macrophages apoptosis in A. fumigatus keratitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether macrophage inducible C-type lectin (Mincle)
      regulates neutrophils and macrophages apoptosis in A. fumigatus keratitis.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A murine model (C57BL/6) of fungal keratitis (AF) was
      established by gently scraping corneal central epithelium, smearing A. fumigatus
      on the epithelium surface and covering the eye with contact lenses. AF cell model
      was established by extracting neutrophils (PMN) and macrophages, and then
      infecting cells with A. fumigatus. Animals and cells were randomly divided into
      control and A. fumigatus keratitis group, which were treated with Mincle ligand
      Trehalose-6,6-dibehenate (TDB), Mincle neutralizing antibody (MincleAb) or PBS
      before infection. The cornea infection was monitored using a slit lamp and
      further analyzed using H&E assay. PCR, Western blot, immunostaining, TUNEL
      staining and flow cytometry were used to examine the expression of Mincle and
      apoptosis factors, PMN infiltration and cell apoptosis, respectively. RESULTS:
      Higher levels of Mincle mRNA and protein, as well as epithelial thickness and
      presence of inflammatory cells in the stroma, were observed in the AF group
      compared to control. In addition, higher Mincle mRNA levels were observed in
      normal and stimulated neutrophils and macrophages. Furthermore, Fas, FasL and
      CASP3 mRNA levels, neutrophils infiltration rate and TUNEL-positive cells were
      significantly increased in AF+MincleAb mice compared with the control. Similar
      results, as well as significantly higher neutrophils and macrophages apoptosis,
      were observed by treating cells with MincleAb in vitro. Most importantly,
      opposite results i.e. lower mRNA levels, neutrophils infiltration rate and TUNEL
      positive cells, as well as lower cell apoptosis in vitro, were observed in mice
      and cells treated with TDB. CONCLUSION: Mincle-participated in inflammatory
      process which inhibits neutrophils and macrophages apoptosis induced by A.
      fumigatus involved in Fas-dependent apoptotic pathways.

PMID- 28888779
TI  - Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential of Guaianolide isolated from
      Cyathocline purpurea: Role of COX-2 inhibition.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Inflammation activated by oxidative stress can cause various
      diseases, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, diabetes, etc. Plant
      constituents with sesquiterpene lactones possess antioxidant and anti
      inflammatory properties. AIM: To determine the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
      potential of isolated phytoconstituent from Cyathocline purpurea Buch-Ham ex D
      (CP). Don in laboratory animals. Furthermore, to understand the interactions
      involved in the binding of this compound to cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) via
      computational docking. METHODS: Phytoconstituent was isolated, purified and well
      characterized (using IR, NMR, and MS) from ethyl acetate fraction of CP
      methanolic extract. It was then evaluated for its in-vitro antioxidant activity
      against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and
      hydroxyl (OH) radical assays as well as in-vivo anti-inflammatory potential
      against carrageenan-induced paw edema model in rats. The molecular docking study
      was performed against the crystal structure of COX-2 to evaluate the binding
      potential of phytoconstituent towards this enzyme. RESULTS: The isolated compound
      6alpha-hydroxy-4 [14], 10 [15]-guainadien-8alpha, 12-olide (HGN) showed
      significant (p<0.001) antioxidant activity with IC50 values of 76MUg/mL.
      Administration of HGN (10 and 20mg/kg) significantly (p<0.001) reduced the
      increased paw volume after subplantar administration of carrageenan. It also
      exhibits good binding affinity towards with COX-2 with a docking score of -8.98
      and Glide binding energy of -36.488kcal/mol shedding light on the potential
      mechanism of anti-inflammatory action. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of hydroxyl
      group in HGN provides a credential to its in-vivo anti-inflammatory and in-vitro
      antioxidant activities. Furthermore, the good binding affinity of HGN for the
      active site of COX-2 may open novel vistas in therapeutic option with natural
      antioxidants like Cyathocline purpurea to treat various inflammatory disorders.

PMID- 28888780
TI  - Berberine suppresses LPS-induced inflammation through modulating Sirt1/NF-kappaB
      signaling pathway in RAW264.7 cells.
AB  - Chronic inflammation is a major contributing factor in the pathogenesis of many
      diseases. Natural product berberine (BBR) exhibits potent anti-inflammatory
      effect in vitro and in vivo, while the underlying mechanisms remain elusive.
      Sirt1, a NAD+-dependent protein deacetylase, was recently found to play an
      important role in modulating the development and progression of inflammation.
      Thus, we speculate that Sirt1 might mediate the inhibitory effect of BBR on
      inflammation. In LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages, BBR treatment significantly
      downregulated the expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as MCP-1, IL-6 and
      TNF-alpha. Importantly, BBR potently reversed LPS-induced down-regulation of
      Sirt1. Consistently, the inhibitory effects of BBR on proinflammatory cytokines
      expression was largely abrogated by Sirt1 inhibition either by EX527, a Sirt1
      inhibitor or Sirt1 siRNA. Further mechanistic studies revealed that BBR-induced
      inhibition of NF-kappaB is Sirt1-dependent, as either pharmacologically or
      genetically inactivating Sirt1 enhanced the IkappaBetaalpha degradation, IKK
      phosphorylation, NF-kappaB p65 acetylation and DNA-binding activity. Taken
      together, our results provide the first evidence that BBR potently suppressed
      inflammatory responses in macrophages through inhibition of NF-kappaB signaling
      via Sirt1-dependent mechanisms.

PMID- 28888782
TI  - TNF-alpha-induced protein 3 levels in lung dendritic cells instruct TH2 or TH17
      cell differentiation in eosinophilic or neutrophilic asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: It is currently unknown why allergen exposure or environmental
      triggers in patients with mild-to-moderate asthma result in TH2-mediated
      eosinophilic inflammation, whereas patients with severe asthma often present with
      TH17-mediated neutrophilic inflammation. The activation state of dendritic cells
      (DCs) is crucial for both TH2 and TH17 cell differentiation and is mediated
      through nuclear factor kappaB activation. Ablation of TNF-alpha-induced protein 3
      (TNFAIP3), one of the crucial negative regulators of nuclear factor kappaB
      activation in myeloid cells and DCs, was shown to control DC activation.
      OBJECTIVE: In this study we investigated the precise role of TNFAIP3 in myeloid
      cells for the development of TH2- and TH17-cell mediated asthma. METHODS: We
      exposed mice with conditional deletion of the Tnfaip3 gene in either myeloid
      cells (by using the lysozyme M [LysM] promotor) or specifically in DCs (by using
      the Cd11c promotor) to acute and chronic house dust mite (HDM)-driven asthma
      models. RESULTS: We demonstrated that reduced Tnfaip3 gene expression in DCs in
      either Tnfaip3CD11c or Tnfaip3LysM mice dose-dependently controlled development
      of TH17-mediated neutrophilic severe asthma in both acute and chronic HDM-driven
      models, whereas wild-type mice had a purely TH2-mediated eosinophilic
      inflammation. TNFAIP3-deficient DCs induced HDM-specific TH17 cell
      differentiation through increased expression of the TH17-instructing cytokines IL
      1beta, IL-6, and IL-23, whereas HDM-specific TH2 cell differentiation was
      hampered by increased IL-12 and IL-6 production. CONCLUSIONS: These data show
      that the extent of TNFAIP3 expression in DCs controls TH2/TH17 cell
      differentiation. This implies that reducing DC activation could be a new
      pharmacologic intervention to treat patients with severe asthma who present with
      TH17-mediated neutrophilic inflammation.

PMID- 28888781
TI  - Sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectin 8 (Siglec-8) is an activating
      receptor mediating beta2-integrin-dependent function in human eosinophils.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Siglec-8 is a CD33 subfamily cell-surface receptor selectively
      expressed on human eosinophils. After cytokine priming, Siglec-8 mAb or glycan
      ligand binding causes eosinophil apoptosis associated with reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) production. Most CD33-related Siglecs function as inhibitory
      receptors, but the ability of Siglec-8 to stimulate eosinophil ROS production and
      apoptosis suggests that Siglec-8 might instead function as an activating
      receptor. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the role of IL-5 priming and identify
      the signaling molecules involved in Siglec-8 function for human eosinophils.
      METHODS: We used an mAb and/or a multimeric synthetic sulfated sialoglycan ligand
      recognizing Siglec-8 in combination with integrin blocking antibodies,
      pharmacologic inhibitors, phosphoproteomics, and Western blot analysis to define
      the necessity of various proteins involved in Siglec-8 function for human
      eosinophils. RESULTS: Cytokine priming was required to elicit the unanticipated
      finding that Siglec-8 engagement promotes rapid beta2-integrin-dependent
      eosinophil adhesion. Also novel was the finding that this adhesion was necessary
      for subsequent ROS production and apoptosis. Siglec-8-mediated ROS was generated
      through reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase
      activation because pretreatment of eosinophils with catalase (an extracellular
      superoxide scavenger) or NSC 23766 (a Rac GTPase inhibitor) completely inhibited
      Siglec-8-mediated eosinophil apoptosis. Finally, engagement of Siglec-8 on IL-5
      primed eosinophils resulted in increased phosphorylation of Akt, p38, and c-Jun N
      terminal kinase 1 that was also beta2-integrin dependent; pharmacologic
      inhibition of these kinases completely prevented Siglec-8-mediated eosinophil
      apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that Siglec-8 functions uniquely
      as an activating receptor on IL-5-primed eosinophils through a novel pathway
      involving regulation of beta2-integrin-dependent adhesion, NADPH oxidase, and a
      subset of protein kinases.

PMID- 28888783
TI  - Phytochemical study of Juglans regia L. leaves.
AB  - A methanolic extract of Juglans regia L. leaves was fractioned by various
      chromatographic techniques yielding a total of 40 metabolites belonging to
      megastigmane, tetralone, phenylpropanoid, neolignane and juglone glycosides. Ten
      unknown megastigmane glucoside derivatives (juglanionosides A-K, 1-10) and six
      unknown tetralone glucoside derivatives (juglanosides J-O, 11-16) together with
      24 known compounds - among them 16 described for the first time in Juglans - were
      isolated. As characteristic structural feature, the previously undescribed
      compounds showed acylation of the sugar units with sinapic, ferulic, coumaric,
      benzoic or salicylic acid. Their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis
      of 1D and 2D NMR techniques, HRESIMS as well as CD spectroscopy. Absolute
      stereochemistry was revealed by mild alkaline hydrolysis and comparison of CD and
      polarimetric data to literature values.

PMID- 28888784
TI  - Malignant ascites determine the transmesothelial invasion of ovarian cancer
      cells.
AB  - The exact role of malignant ascites in the development of intraperitoneal ovarian
      cancer metastases remains unclear. In this report we sought to establish if
      ascites can determine the efficiency of transmesothelial invasion of ovarian
      cancer cells, and, if so, whether the fluid generated by highly aggressive serous
      and undifferentiated tumors will promote the invasion more effectively than
      ascites from less aggressive clear cell and endometrioid cancers. The study
      showed that the invasion of ovarian cancer cells (SKOV-3 and primary cancer
      cells) across monolayered peritoneal mesothelial cells was elevated upon
      mesothelial cell exposure to fluid produced by serous and undifferentiated
      cancers, as compared with cells subjected to ascites from clear cell and
      endometrioid tumors. This effect coincided with decreased mesothelial expression
      of junctional proteins: connexin 43, E-cadherin, occludin, and desmoglein.
      Moreover, it was accompanied by transforming growth factor beta1-dependent
      overproduction of reactive oxygen species by these cells. The activity of ascites
      from serous and undifferentiated tumors was mediated by p38 mitogen-activated
      protein kinase and nuclear factor kappaB. When the mesothelial cells were
      protected against oxidative stress, both deterioration of junctional proteins and
      intensification of cancer cell invasion in response to ascites from serous and
      undifferentiated tumors were effectively prevented. In conclusion, our findings
      indicate that the high aggressiveness of some histotypes of ovarian cancer may be
      related to the ability of malignant ascites generated by these cells to oxidative
      stress-dependent impairment of mesothelial cell integrity and the resulting
      increase in their transmesothelial invasion.

PMID- 28888785
TI  - Infrared spectroscopic imaging: Label-free biochemical analysis of stroma and
      tissue fibrosis.
AB  - Infrared spectroscopic tissue imaging is a potentially powerful adjunct tool to
      current histopathology techniques. By coupling the biochemical signature obtained
      through infrared spectroscopy to the spatial information offered by microscopy,
      this technique can selectively analyze the chemical composition of different
      features of unlabeled, unstained tissue sections. In the past, the tissue
      features that have received the most interest were parenchymal and epithelial
      cells, chiefly due to their involvement in dysplasia and progression to
      carcinoma; however, the field has recently turned its focus toward stroma and
      areas of fibrotic change. These components of tissue present an untapped source
      of biochemical information that can shed light on many diverse disease processes,
      and potentially hold useful predictive markers for these same pathologies. Here
      we review the recent applications of infrared spectroscopic imaging to stromal
      and fibrotic regions of diseased tissue, and explore the potential of this
      technique to advance current capabilities for tissue analysis.

PMID- 28888786
TI  - Microwave-assisted synthesis of ruthenium(II) complexes with alkynes as potential
      inhibitor by selectively recognizing c-myc G-quadruplex DNA.
AB  - Herein, two polypyridyl ruthenium(II) complexes with alkynes, [Ru(bpy)2L](ClO4)2
      (L=p-TEPIP (1) and p-BEPIP (2); bpy=2,2'-bipyridine; p-TEPIP=2-(4
      trimethylsilylpropargyl)-1H-imidazo[4,5f][1,10]phenanthroline; p-BEPIP=2-(4
      phenyacetylenephenyl)-1H-imidazo[4,5f][1,10]phenanthroline) have been
      successfully achieved in yields of 32%-89% by a Sonogashira coupling reaction
      under microwave irradiation. We studied these complexes as potential stabilizers
      of c-myc G-quadruplex DNA. Observations revealed that both complexes could
      selectively bind to and stabilize c-myc G-quadruplex DNA with a constant of
      approximately 1.61+/-0.78 and 9.47+/-4.20*103M-1, respectively, as determined
      from ITC (isothermal ttitration calorimetry) experiments, FRET (fluorescence
      resonance energy ttransfer) assay and competitive FRET assay. Moreover, the
      melting point (Tm) of the c-myc G-quadruplex DNA increased in the presence of 1
      and 2 ([Ru]=0.2MUM) by approximately 9 and 19.9 degrees C, respectively. It is
      noteworthy that the conformation of the c-myc G-quadruplex DNA appeared to change
      when titrated with 1 and 2, which was accompanied by a negative-induced CD
      (circular dichroism) signal that appeared at a wavelength of 295nm. Furthermore,
      the conformational change in c-myc G-quadruplex DNA induced by 1 and 2have also
      been confirmed by TEM (transmission electron microscopy) and AFM (atomic force
      microscopy). Consequently, the replication of c-myc DNA was blocked by 1 and 2,
      and especially by 2, as verified by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) -stop assay
      and Western-blot assay. Thus, these ruthenium(II) complexes can be developed as
      potential inhibitors in chemotherapy through their binding and stabilization of c
      myc G-quadruplex DNA.

PMID- 28888787
TI  - Radiographic cup anteversion measurement corrected from pelvic tilt.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop a novel technique to improve the
      accuracy of radiographic cup anteversion measurement by correcting the influence
      of pelvic tilt. Ninety virtual total hip arthroplasties were simulated from
      computed tomography data of 6 patients with 15 predetermined cup orientations.
      For each simulated implantation, anteroposterior (AP) virtual pelvic radiographs
      were generated for 11 predetermined pelvic tilts. A linear regression model was
      created to capture the relationship between radiographic cup anteversion angle
      error measured on AP pelvic radiographs and pelvic tilt. Overall, nine hundred
      and ninety virtual AP pelvic radiographs were measured, and 90 linear regression
      models were created. Pearson's correlation analyses confirmed a strong
      correlation between the errors of conventional radiographic cup anteversion angle
      measured on AP pelvic radiographs and the magnitude of pelvic tilt (P < 0.001).
      The mean of 90 slopes and y-intercepts of the regression lines were -0.8 and -2.5
      degrees , which were applied as the general correction parameters for the
      proposed tool to correct conventional cup anteversion angle from the influence of
      pelvic tilt. The current method proposes to measure the pelvic tilt on a lateral
      radiograph, and to use it as a correction for the radiographic cup anteversion
      measurement on an AP pelvic radiograph. Thus, both AP and lateral pelvic
      radiographs are required for the measurement of pelvic posture-integrated cup
      anteversion. Compared with conventional radiographic cup anteversion, the errors
      of pelvic posture-integrated radiographic cup anteversion were reduced from 10.03
      (SD = 5.13) degrees to 2.53 (SD = 1.33) degrees. Pelvic posture-integrated cup
      anteversion measurement improves the accuracy of radiographic cup anteversion
      measurement, which shows the potential of further clarifying the etiology of
      postoperative instability based on planar radiographs.

PMID- 28888788
TI  - Experimental and modelling characterisation of adjustable hollow Micro-needle
      delivery systems.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hollow micro-needles have been used increasingly less in practice
      because the infusion into the skin is limited by the tissue resistance to flow.
      The relationship between the infusion flow rate and tissue resistance pressure is
      not clear. METHODS: A custom-made, hollow micro-needle system was used in this
      study. The driving force and infusion flow rate were measured using a force
      transducer attached to an infusion pump. Evans blue dye was injected into the
      air, polyacrylamide gel and in-vivo mouse skin at different flow rates. Two
      different micro-needle lengths were used for in-vivo infusion into the mouse. A
      model was derived to calculate the driving force of the micro-needle infusion
      into the air, and the results were compared to experimental data. RESULTS: The
      calculated driving forces match the experimental results with different infusion
      flow rates. The pressure loss throughout the micro-needle delivery system was
      found to be two orders smaller than the resistance pressure inside the gel and
      mouse skin, and the resistance pressure increased with increasing flow rate. A
      portion of liquid backflow was observed when the flow rate was relatively larger,
      and the backflow was associated with a sudden larger increase in resistance
      pressure at a higher flow rate. CONCLUSIONS: The current micro-needle delivery
      system is capable of administering liquid into the mouse skin at a flow rate of
      up to 0.15 ml/min, without causing significant backflow on the surface. The
      resistance pressure increases with increasing flow rate, causing infusion
      restriction at higher flow rates.

PMID- 28888789
TI  - Modal analysis for the assessment of cementless hip stem primary stability in
      preoperative THA planning.
AB  - This numerical vibration finite element (FE) study introduces resonance three
      dimensional planning (RP3D) to assess preoperatively the primary stability of a
      cementless stem for total hip arthroplasty. Based on a patient's CT-scan and a
      numerical model of a stem, RP3D aims at providing mechanical criteria indicative
      of the achievable primary stability. We investigate variations of the modal
      response of the stem to changes of area and apparent stiffness of the bone
      implant interface. The model is computationally cheap as it does not include a
      mesh of the bone. The apparent stiffness of the bone is modeled by springs
      attached to the nodes of the stem's mesh. We investigate an extended range of
      stiffness values while, in future works, patient's specific Hounsfield values
      could be used to define stiffness. We report modal frequencies, shapes, and a
      ratio of elastic potential energies (rEPE) that quantifies the proximal motion
      that should be minimum for a stable stem. The modal response exhibits a clear
      transition between loose and tight contact as area and stiffness of the interface
      increase. rEPE thresholds that could potentially discriminate preoperatively
      between stable and unstable stems are given for a Symbios SPS(r) size C stem.

PMID- 28888790
TI  - Evolution in Australia's mesic biome under past and future climates: Insights
      from a phylogenetic study of the Australian Rock Orchids (Dendrobium speciosum
      complex, Orchidaceae).
AB  - The Australian mesic biome spans c. 33 degrees  of latitude along Australia's
      east coast and ranges and is dissected by historical and contemporary
      biogeographical barriers. To investigate the impact of these barriers on
      evolutionary diversification and to predict the impact of future climate change
      on the distribution of species and genetic diversity within this biome, we
      inferred phylogenetic relationships within the Dendrobium speciosum complex
      (Orchidaceae) across its distribution and undertook environmental niche modelling
      (ENM) under past, contemporary and projected future climates. Neighbor Joining
      tree inference, NeighborNet and Structure analyses of Amplified Fragment Length
      Polymorphism (AFLP) profiles for D. speciosum sampled from across its
      distribution showed that the complex consists of two highly supported main groups
      that are geographically separated by the St. Lawrence gap, an area of dry
      sclerophyll forest and woodland. The presence of several highly admixed
      individuals identified by the Structure analysis provided evidence of genetic
      exchange between the two groups across this gap. Whereas previous treatments have
      recognised between one to eleven species, the molecular results support the
      taxonomic treatment of the complex as a single species with two subspecies. The
      ENM analysis supported the hypothesis that lineage divergence within the complex
      was driven by past climatic changes. The St. Lawrence gap represented a stronger
      biogeographic barrier for the D. speciosum complex during the cool and dry
      glacial climatic conditions of the Pleistocene than under today's interglacial
      conditions. Shallow genetic divergence was found within the two lineages, which
      mainly corresponded to three other biogeographic barriers: the Black Mountain
      Corridor, Glass House Mountains and the Hunter Valley. Our ENM analyses provide
      further support for the hypothesis that biogeographic barriers along Australia's
      east coast were somewhat permeable to genetic exchange due to past episodic range
      expansions and contractions caused by climatic change resulting in recurrent
      contact between previously isolated populations. An overall southward shift in
      the distribution of the complex under future climate scenarios was predicted,
      with the strongest effects on the northern lineage. This study contributes to our
      understanding of the factors shaping biodiversity patterns in Australia's mesic
      biome.

PMID- 28888791
TI  - A multilocus view on Mediterranean aeolid nudibranchs (Mollusca): Systematics and
      cryptic diversity of Flabellinidae and Piseinotecidae.
AB  - Recent molecular studies revealed high level of endemism and numerous cryptic
      species within opisthobranchs, with Mediterranean taxa clearly understudied. Here
      we used genetic data from both mitochondrial and nuclear gene fragments as well
      as morphological data from taxonomically relevant characters to investigate the
      phylogenetic relationships and systematics of Mediterranean taxa of the
      Flabellinidae and Piseinotecidae families. Phylogenetic analyses based on
      Bayesian and Maximum-Likelihood methods indicate that Flabellinidae and
      Pisenotecidae taxa and species within the genera Flabellina, Calmella and
      Piseinotecus do not form monophyletic clades. These results are supported by our
      morphological analyses which allowed the re-evaluation of the triseriate radula
      condition in Pisenotecidae and Calmella taxa and their inclusion in the genus
      Flabellina as Flabellina gaditanacomb. nov. (synonym of F. confusa), Flabellina
      gabiniereicomb. nov. and Flabellina cavolinicomb. nov. Species delimitation and
      barcoding gap analyses allowed uncovering cryptic species within Flabellina
      gracilis (Alder and Hancock, 1844), F. trophina (Bergh, 1890), F. verrucosa (M.
      Sars, 1829) and F. ischitana Hirano and Thompson, 1990, the latter with an
      Atlantic form which is under description. This study corroborates the relevance
      of combining molecular and morphological data from multiple populations and
      species in the assessment of nudibranch diversity and classification.

PMID- 28888792
TI  - Bisphenol A regulates rare minnow testicular vitellogenin expression via reducing
      its promoter Er recruitment.
AB  - Vitellogenins (Vtgs) are major precursor of the egg-yolk proteins. They are
      synthesized in liver of adult female ovipara, but normally silent in males. For
      their sensitive response to estrogen, Vtgs are usually used as biomarkers for
      environmental estrogenic compounds. In the present study, three vtg subtypes
      (vtg1, vtg2 and vtg3) were proved to present in the testis of rare minnow
      Gobiocypris rarus for the first time. Immunohistochemistry result showed that Vtg
      proteins mainly deposit in spermatogonium and spermatocytes. Following 225MUg/L
      bisphenol A (BPA) exposure 1, 3 and 9 weeks, testicular vtg mRNAs were mostly
      significantly decreased. The further chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that
      BPA could decrease estrogen receptor (Er) recruitment in vtg promoter, which
      possibly reduced Er's transcription activation effect on vtgs. However, different
      from the continuously decreased vtg mRNA levels, testicular Vtg protein levels
      were recovered at week 9. Considering the induced hepatic Vtg expression,
      testicular Vtgs may be replenished by the induced hepatic Vtgs under BPA
      exposure.

PMID- 28888793
TI  - Metal bioavailability in ecological risk assessment of freshwater ecosystems:
      From science to environmental management.
AB  - Metal contamination in freshwater ecosystems is a global issue and metal
      discharges to aquatic environments are monitored in order to protect aquatic life
      and human health. Bioavailability is an important factor determining metal
      toxicity. In aquatic systems, metal bioavailability depends on local water and
      sediment characteristics, and therefore, the risks are site-specific.
      Environmental quality standards (EQS) are used to manage the risks of metals in
      aquatic environments. In the simplest form of EQSs, total concentrations of
      metals in water or sediment are compared against pre-set acceptable threshold
      levels. Now, however, the environmental administration bodies have stated the
      need to incorporate metal bioavailability assessment tools into environmental
      regulation. Scientific advances have been made in metal bioavailability
      assessment, including passive samplers and computational models, such as biotic
      ligand models (BLM). However, the cutting-edge methods tend to be too elaborate
      or laborious for standard environmental monitoring. We review the commonly used
      metal bioavailability assessment methods and introduce the latest scientific
      advances that might be applied to environmental management in the future. We
      present the current practices in environmental management in North America,
      Europe and China, highlighting the good practices and the needs for improvement.
      Environmental management has met these new challenges with varying degrees of
      success: the USA has implemented site-specific environmental risk assessment for
      water and sediment phases, and they have already implemented metal mixture
      toxicity evaluation. The European Union is promoting the use of bioavailability
      and BLMs in ecological risk assessment (ERA), but metal mixture toxicity and
      sediment phase are still mostly neglected. China has regulation only for total
      concentrations of metals in surface water. We conclude that there is a need for
      (1) Advanced and up-to-date guidelines and legislation, (2) New and simple
      scientific methods for assessing metal bioavailability and (3) Improvement of
      knowledge and skills of administrators.

PMID- 28888794
TI  - Rutin: Exploitation of the flavonol for health and homeostasis.

PMID- 28888795
TI  - Comment on: Long-term nutritional impact of sleeve gastrectomy.

PMID- 28888796
TI  - Laparoscopic treatment of gastroparesis: a single center experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastroparesis (GP) is a chronic disorder of gastric motility with
      delayed gastric emptying. Gastric electrical stimulator (GES) implantation and
      Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) are surgical options for medically refractory GP.
      OBJECTIVE: Evaluate operational outcomes and symptom improvement of patients with
      diabetic (DM) and idiopathic (IP) GP. SETTING: University Hospital, United
      States. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed of all patients who
      underwent surgical treatment of GP from February 2003 to December 2014. Subgroup
      analysis was performed based on etiology of GP (DM versus IP) and procedure
      received (GES versus RYGB). Postoperative outcomes and postoperative symptom
      improvements were compared between groups. RESULTS: Of 93 patients, 47 (50.5%)
      had IP and 46 (49.5%) had DM. The majority underwent GES implantation (83.8%, n =
      78), and 15 patients (16%) underwent RYGB. There were significant differences in
      hospital stay (2 versus 3 days) and reoperation rate (30% versus 7%) between IP
      and DM. Operation time, complication rate, and 30-day readmission rate were
      similar in both groups. DM patients significantly improved GP-related complaints
      compared with preoperatively. IP patients also improved nausea and vomiting and
      had no change in abdominal pain between pre- and postoperative period. GES showed
      significant improvement of nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. RYGB showed
      improvement of nausea, but not vomiting or abdominal pain. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery
      is a feasible intervention for GP for both DM and IP patients; however, based on
      the data presented in this manuscript and the current literature, the use of
      gastric bypass as an effective treatment modality for patients with intractable
      GP remains highly controversial. Care must be taken for IP patients in the
      postoperative period due to high incidence of reoperation. Although both
      procedures offer some degree of symptomatic improvement, GES seems to provide
      improvement of more GP symptoms. However, there is no significant difference in
      the need for postoperative medications regardless of the procedure used.

PMID- 28888797
TI  - Will molecular target agents enable the multidisciplinary treatment in stage IV
      gastric cancer?
AB  - A detailed molecular characterization of gastric cancer has been revealed by
      global initiatives and a number of new molecular agents are under investigation.
      Currently only trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody for human epidermal growth
      factor receptor 2 (HER2), is clinically used for HER2 positive advanced gastric
      cancer patients and ramucirumab, a monoclonal antibody directed against the
      extracellular ligand-binding domain of vascular endothelial growth factor
      receptor (VEGFR)2, can be used in second line. However, despite the progress in
      gastric cancer treatment, the prognosis of stage IV gastric cancer patients
      remains dismal. To achieve a remarkable improvement in the prognosis of patients,
      a multidisciplinary treatment approach with the help of effective molecular
      target agents should be considered. So far the role of multidisciplinary
      treatment for stage IV gastric cancer is still uncertain due to limited available
      data and absence of long-lasting tumor control with systemic therapy. Herein, an
      overview of the latest developments of molecular targeted agents for gastric
      cancer in advanced stages, in the perioperative setting and in oligometastatic
      disease is provided. The possibility of a multidisciplinary strategy using
      molecular target agents and surgery for stage IV gastric cancer is also assessed.

PMID- 28888798
TI  - Impact of body mass index on treatment outcome of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy
      in locally advanced rectal cancer.
AB  - AIM: To determine the effect of obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI), on
      tumor response and surgical outcome in patients with locally advanced rectal
      cancer (LARC) undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and radical
      surgery. METHOD: LARC patients undergoing nCRT and radical surgery from 2008 to
      2014 were included and divided into three groups: non-obese (BMI < 25.0 kg/m2),
      obese I (BMI 25.0-29.9 kg/m2), and obese II (BMI >= 30.0 kg/m2). Tumor response,
      surgical and oncological outcome were compared between groups. Multivariate
      analyses were performed to identify risk factors for local recurrence. RESULTS: A
      total of 522 LARC patients were analyzed (407 non-obese, 93 obese I, 22 obese
      II). Post-operative complications did not differ between groups. Increased BMI
      was associated with poorer T downstaging and Rectal Cancer Regression Grade (P =
      0.116, P = 0.036). With a mean follow-up of 57 months, the 5-year overall
      survival and distant metastasis rates did not differ between groups (P = 0.861, P
      = 0.116). The 5-year local recurrence rate in obese II patients was 14.6%, higher
      than that in non-obese and obese I groups (P = 0.015). Cox regression analysis
      demonstrated that BMI >=30 kg/m2 (HR = 6.187, P = 0.010) was significantly
      associated with increased risk for local recurrence. CONCLUSION: Obesity was
      associated with poorer T downstaging and Rectal Cancer Regression Grade, and thus
      poor local control in LARC following nCRT in Asian patients. More effective
      treatment strategies to improve treatment outcome for obese patients with LARC
      are warranted.

PMID- 28888799
TI  - Patterns of care and the survival of elderly patients with high-risk endometrial
      cancer: A case-control study from the FRANCOGYN group.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The standard of care of endometrial cancer involves complex
      procedures such as pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy and omentectomy,
      particularly for high-risk endometrial cancer. Few data are available about these
      complex surgical procedures and adjuvant therapy in elderly women. We aim to
      examine treatment and survival of elderly women diagnosed with high-risk
      endometrial cancer. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a case-control study of women
      diagnosed between 2001 and 2013 with high-risk endometrial cancers. Women older
      than 70 years (n = 198) were compared with patients <70 years (n = 198) after
      matching on high-risk for recurrence and LVSI status. RESULTS: Elderly patients
      had lymphadenectomies less frequently compared with younger patients (76% vs 96%,
      p < 0.001) and no adjuvant treatment more frequently (17% vs 8%, p = 0.005) due
      to less chemotherapy being administered (23% vs 46%, p < 0.001). The 3-year DFS,
      CSS and OS of patients >=70 years was 52% (43-61), 81% (74-88) and 61% (53-70),
      respectively. These were significantly lower than the 3-year DFS, CSS, and OS of
      younger patients, which was 75% (68-82) (p < 0.001), 92% (87-96) (p < 0.008) and
      75% (69-82) (p = 0.018), respectively. Cox proportional hazard models found that
      elderly women had 57% increased risk of recurrence (hazard ratio 1.57, 95% CI
      1.04-2.39) compared with younger patients. CONCLUSION: Although we found an
      independently significant lower DFS in elderly patients with high-risk
      endometrial cancer when compared with young patients, elderly women are less
      likely to be treated with lymphadenectomy and chemotherapy. Specific guidelines
      for management of elderly patients with high-risk endometrial cancer are required
      to improve their prognosis.

PMID- 28888800
TI  - Percutaneous lung ablation of pulmonary recurrence may improve survival in
      selected patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery for colorectal cancer with
      peritoneal carcinomatosis.
AB  - PURPOSE: To analyze the outcomes of patients developing pulmonary metastases (PM)
      following cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and perioperative intra-peritoneal
      chemotherapy (IPC) for colorectal cancer (CRC) with peritoneal carcinomatosis.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patients undergoing CRS/IPC for
      CRC from 1996 to 2016 was performed. Lung-specific disease-free and patient
      overall survival was analyzed. Patients undergoing percutaneous lung ablative
      therapy (PLAT) for PM were compared to patients receiving systemic chemotherapy
      alone. RESULTS: 273 patients underwent CRS/IPC for CRC. Of these, 61 (22%)
      developed PM. Median time to development of PM was 8 months (range 0-52 months)
      and 41 patients (67%) had metachronous lesions. Twenty-one PM patients underwent
      PLAT, either by radio-frequency or micro-wave ablation, for an average of 3
      lesions (range 1-12) and 13 (62%) had bilobar disease. The most common post
      interventional complication was the development of pneumothorax (71%). Overall
      survival following development of PM was 18 months and higher in patients
      undergoing PLAT compared to those treated with systemic chemotherapy (26 vs. 14
      months, p = 0.03). In eight cases (38%) local tumor recurrence developed post
      PLAT. A peritoneal carcinomatosis index >10 (HR 3.48, 95% CI 1.69-7.19), presence
      of liver metastases (HR 2.49, 95% CI 1.24-5.03) and PLAT (HR 0.43, 95% CI 0.20
      0.93) were identified as significant predictors of overall survival following
      diagnosis of PM. CONCLUSION: PM develop in approximately a fourth of patients
      undergoing CRS/IPC for CRC. Of these, about 1/3 may be eligible for PLAT. PLAT is
      a valuable treatment option providing good local control and potentially
      prolongation of overall survival.

PMID- 28888801
TI  - Curative-intent treatment of recurrent colorectal liver metastases: A comparison
      between ablation and resection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Liver-limited recurrence after resection of colorectal liver
      metastases is a frequent occurrence, and can in some cases be treated with
      curative intent. Although surgical re-resection remains standard of care, there
      is growing interest in the role of ablation in this setting. The aim of this
      study was to compare the outcomes after curative-intent ablation and resection in
      patients with recurrent colorectal liver metastases. METHODS: We retrospectively
      analysed data from 366 consecutive patients who underwent liver resection for
      colorectal liver metastases between June 2010 and August 2015. Sixty-four
      developed liver-limited recurrence which was treated with curative intent, thirty
      three (51.6%) by ablation and 31 (48.4%) by repeat resection. RESULTS: Patient
      groups were well matched, with surgically resected patients showing higher pre
      operative carcinoembryonic antigen levels and larger metastases. There were fewer
      post-operative complications and shorter length of stay in the ablation group (p
      < 0.02). After a median follow-up of 36.2 months, median overall survival was the
      same for both the resected and ablated groups at 33.3 months. Median progression
      free survival was longer for patients treated with surgery (10.2 months) compared
      to ablation (4.3 months) (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Ablation or resection for
      liver-limited recurrence after surgery for colorectal liver metastases is
      associated with improved overall survival compared with systemic chemotherapy
      alone, and should always be considered for patients with resectable liver
      recurrence. Although ablation seemed to be associated with a shorter progression
      free survival, post-procedure morbidity was significantly lower. The choice
      between ablation and resection should therefore be made on a personalised basis.

PMID- 28888802
TI  - Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture for postoperative pain management in cats
      undergoing ovariohysterectomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the analgesic efficacy of Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture
      (YNSA) as an adjuvant for postoperative pain management in cats. STUDY DESIGN:
      Prospective, randomized, blinded, clinical study. ANIMALS: Twenty cats aged (mean
      +/- standard deviation) 25 +/- 9 months and weighing 2.7 +/- 0.6 kg undergoing
      ovariohysterectomy. METHODS: The cats were sedated with intramuscular (IM)
      ketamine (5 mg kg-1), midazolam (0.5 mg kg-1) and tramadol (2 mg kg-1). The cats
      were randomly distributed before induction of anesthesia into two groups of 10
      cats each: group YNSA, in which bilateral basic D points were stimulated with a
      dry needle from 20 minutes prior to anesthetic induction to the end of the
      surgery; group Control, in which no acupuncture was applied. Postoperative
      analgesia was assessed at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 hours postextubation using an
      Interactive Visual Analog Scale and Universidade Estadual Paulista-Botucatu
      Multidimensional Composite Pain Scale (UNESP-Botucatu MCPS). Rescue analgesia was
      provided with IM tramadol (2 mg kg-1), and the pain scores were reassessed 30
      minutes after rescue intervention. If the analgesia remained insufficient,
      meloxicam (0.2 mg kg-1 as a single dose) was administered IM. Data were analyzed
      using Student t-test, Fisher exact test, Mann-Whitney U test and Friedman test (p
      < 0.05). RESULTS: Significantly lower pain scores were observed in YNSA when
      compared with Control at 1-4 hours based on the UNESP-Botucatu MCPS scores.
      Although significant differences were not identified between groups requiring
      rescue analgesia, additional postoperative analgesia was administered to four of
      10 cats in Control and no cats in YNSA. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
      Perioperative YNSA resulted in decreased pain scores and a reduction in
      postoperative requirement for rescue analgesia in cats. This method should be
      considered a viable option as an adjuvant analgesic therapy for cats undergoing
      ovariohysterectomy.

PMID- 28888803
TI  - Effects of pneumoperitoneum and of an alveolar recruitment maneuver followed by
      positive end-expiratory pressure on cardiopulmonary function in sheep
      anesthetized with isoflurane-fentanyl.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of pneumoperitoneum alone or combined with
      an alveolar recruitment maneuver (ARM) followed by positive end-expiratory
      pressure (PEEP) on cardiopulmonary function in sheep. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective,
      randomized, crossover study. ANIMALS: A total of nine adult sheep (36-52 kg).
      METHODS: Sheep were administered three treatments (>=10-day intervals) during
      isoflurane-fentanyl anesthesia and volume-controlled ventilation (tidal volume:
      12 mL kg-1) with oxygen: CONTROL (no intervention); PNEUMO (120 minutes of CO2
      pneumoperitoneum); PNEUMOARM/PEEP (PNEUMO protocol with an ARM instituted after
      60 minutes of pneumoperitoneum). The ARM (5 cmH2O increases in PEEP of 1 minute
      duration until 20 cmH2O of PEEP) was followed by 10 cmH2O of PEEP until the end
      of anesthesia. Cardiopulmonary data were recorded until 30 minutes after
      abdominal deflation. RESULTS: PaO2 was decreased from 435-462 mmHg (58.0-61.6
      kPa) (range of mean values in CONTROL) to 377-397 mmHg (50.3-52.9 kPa) in PNEUMO
      (p < 0.05). Quasistatic compliance (Cqst, mL cmH2O-1 kg-1) was decreased from
      0.85-0.92 in CONTROL to 0.52-0.58 in PNEUMO. PaO2 increased from 383-385 mmHg
      (51.1-51.3 kPa) in PNEUMO to 429-444 mmHg (57.2-59.2 kPa) in PNEUMOARM/PEEP (p <
      0.05) and Cqst increased from 0.52-0.53 in PNEUMO to 0.70-0.74 in PNEUMOARM/PEEP.
      Abdominal deflation in PNEUMO did not restore PaO2 and Cqst to control values.
      Cardiac index (L minute-1 m2) decreased from 4.80-4.70 in CONTROL to 3.45-3.74 in
      PNEUMO and 3.63-3.76 in PNEUMOARM/PEEP. Compared with controls, ARM/PEEP with
      pneumoperitoneum decreased mean arterial pressure from 81 to 68 mmHg and
      increased mean pulmonary artery pressure from 10 to 16 mmHg. CONCLUSIONS AND
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Abdominal deflation did not reverse the pulmonary function
      impairment associated with pneumoperitoneum. The ARM/PEEP improved respiratory
      compliance and reversed the oxygenation impairment induced by pneumoperitoneum
      with acceptable hemodynamic changes in healthy sheep.

PMID- 28888804
TI  - Study of the physicochemical effects on the separation of the non-metallic
      fraction from printed circuit boards by inverse flotation.
AB  - Recycling printed circuit boards using green technology is increasingly important
      due to the metals these contain and the environmental care that must be taken
      when separating the different materials. Inverse flotation is a process that can
      be considered a Green Technology, which separates metallic from non-metallic
      fractions. The degree of separation depends on how much material is adhered to
      air bubbles. The contact angle measurement allows to determine, in an easy way,
      whether the flotation process will occur or not and thus establish a material as
      hydrophobic or not. With the material directly obtained from the milling process,
      it was found that the contact angle of the non-metallic fraction-liquid-air
      system increases as temperature increases. In the same way, the increments in
      concentration of frother in the liquid increase the contact angle of the non
      metallic fraction-liquid-air system. 10ppm of Methyl Isobutyl Carbinol provides
      the highest contact angle as well as the highest material charging in the bubble.

PMID- 28888805
TI  - Hydrothermal carbonization of food waste for nutrient recovery and reuse.
AB  - Food waste represents a rather large and currently underutilized source of
      potentially available and reusable nutrients. Laboratory-scale experiments
      evaluating the hydrothermal carbonization of food wastes collected from
      restaurants were conducted to understand how changes in feedstock composition and
      carbonization process conditions influence primary and secondary nutrient fate.
      Results from this work indicate that at all evaluated reaction times and
      temperatures, the majority of nitrogen, calcium, and magnesium remain integrated
      within the solid-phase, while the majority of potassium and sodium reside in the
      liquid-phase. The fate of phosphorus is dependent on reaction times and
      temperatures, with solid-phase integration increasing with higher reaction
      temperature and longer time. A series of leaching experiments to determine
      potential solid-phase nutrient availability were also conducted and indicate
      that, at least in the short term, nitrogen release from the solids is small,
      while almost all of the phosphorus present in the solids produced from
      carbonizing at 225 and 250 degrees C is released. At a reaction temperature of
      275 degrees C, smaller fractions of the solid-phase total phosphorus are released
      as reaction times increase, likely due to increased solids incorporation. Using
      these data, it is estimated that up to 0.96% and 2.30% of nitrogen and phosphorus
      based fertilizers, respectively, in the US can be replaced by the nutrients
      integrated within hydrochar and liquid-phases generated from the carbonization of
      currently landfilled food wastes.

PMID- 28888806
TI  - Kinetic study of dry anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and cardboard for
      methane production.
AB  - Dry anaerobic digestion is a promising option for food waste treatment and
      valorization. However, accumulation of ammonia and volatile fatty acids often
      occurs, leading to inefficient processes and digestion failure. Co-digestion with
      cardboard may be a solution to overcome this problem. The effect of the initial
      substrate to inoculum ratio (0.25 to 1gVS.gVS-1) and the initial total solids
      contents (20-30%) on the kinetics and performance of dry food waste mono
      digestion and co-digestion with cardboard was investigated in batch tests. All
      the conditions produced methane efficiently (71-93% of the biochemical methane
      potential). However, due to lack of methanogenic activity, volatile fatty acids
      accumulated at the beginning of the digestion and lag phases in the methane
      production were observed. At increasing substrate to inoculum ratios, the initial
      acid accumulation was more pronounced and lower cumulative methane yields were
      obtained. Higher amounts of soluble organic matter remained undegraded at higher
      substrate loads. Although causing slightly longer lag phases, high initial total
      solids contents did not jeopardize the methane yields. Cardboard addition reduced
      acid accumulation and the decline in the yields at increasing substrate loads.
      However, cardboard addition also caused higher concentrations of propionic acid,
      which appeared as the most last acid to be degraded. Nevertheless, dry co
      digestion of food waste and cardboard in urban areas is demonstrated asan
      interesting feasible valorization option.

PMID- 28888807
TI  - Assessing the costs of municipal solid waste treatment technologies in developing
      Asian countries.
AB  - The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the main costs incurred
      by local authorities in developing countries. According to some estimates, these
      costs can account for up to 50% of city government budgets. It is therefore of
      importance that policymakers, urban planners and practitioners have an adequate
      understanding of what these costs consist of, from collection to final waste
      disposal. This article focuses on a specific stage of the MSW value chain, the
      treatment of waste, and it aims to identify cost patterns associated with the
      implementation and operation of waste treatment approaches in developing Asian
      countries. An analysis of the capital (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX)
      of a number of facilities located in countries of the region was conducted based
      on a database gathering nearly 100 projects and which served as basis for
      assessing four technology categories: composting, anaerobic digestion (AD),
      thermal treatment, and the production of refuse-derived fuel (RDF). Among these,
      it was found that the least costly to invest, asa function of the capacity to
      process waste, are composting facilities, with an average CAPEX per ton of 21,493
      USD2015/ton. Conversely, at the upper end featured incineration plants, with an
      average CAPEX of 81,880 USD2015/ton, with this treatment approach ranking by and
      large as the most capital intensive of the four categories assessed. OPEX figures
      of the plants, normalized and analyzed in the form of OPEX/ton, were also found
      to be higher for incineration than for biological treatment methods, although on
      this component differences amongst the technology groups were less pronounced
      than those observed for CAPEX. While the results indicated the existence of
      distinct cost implications for available treatment approaches in the developing
      Asian context, the analysis also underscored the importance of understanding the
      local context asa means to properly identify the cost structure of each specific
      plant. Moreover, even though CAPEX and OPEX figures are important elements to
      assess the costs of a waste treatment system, these should not be considered on a
      standalone basis for decision making purposes. In complement to this internal
      cost dimension, the broader impacts - to the economy, society and the environment
      - resulting from the adoption of a certain treatment approach should be properly
      understood and, ideally, measured and expressed in monetary terms.

PMID- 28888808
TI  - Association of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration with different
      types of stroke and coronary heart disease: The Japan Public Health Center-based
      prospective (JPHC) study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Although low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol
      concentration is an established risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD),
      information regarding subtypes of stroke is very limited, especially in Asian
      populations. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted among 30,736 individuals
      aged 40-69 years, who lived in nine communities in Japan and did not have a
      history of cardiovascular disease (CVD). CHD and stroke, including its subtypes,
      were assessed, and sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals
      (CIs) for outcomes were estimated according to quintiles of HDL cholesterol using
      Cox proportional models adjusted for other CVD risk factors. RESULTS: We
      identified 296 CHD and 1712 stroke events over a median 15 yr of follow-up. HDL
      cholesterol concentration showed an inverse association with CHD in men and
      women. A low HDL cholesterol concentration slightly raised the risk for total
      strokes in men, but not in women. When analyzed by subtypes, we observed an
      inverse relationship between HDL cholesterol concentration and the incidence of
      lacunar infarction, with an adjusted HR for the lowest quintile of HDL
      cholesterol concentration compared with the highest quintile of 1.63 (95% CI,
      1.00-2.66) in men and 1.97 (95% CI, 1.19-3.26) in women. HDL cholesterol
      concentration was positively associated with the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage
      (ICH) in a linear manner in women (p for trend = 0.028), but not in men.
      CONCLUSIONS: The associations of HDL cholesterol concentration with lacunar
      infarction and ICH may be related to different functional properties of HDL
      rather than to its protective function against lipid-rich atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28888809
TI  - Childhood maltreatment, psychological resources, and depressive symptoms in women
      with breast cancer.
AB  - Childhood maltreatment is associated with elevated risk for depression across the
      human lifespan. Identifying the pathways through which childhood maltreatment
      relates to depressive symptoms may elucidate intervention targets that have the
      potential to reduce the lifelong negative health sequelae of maltreatment
      exposure. In this cross-sectional study, 271 women with early-stage breast cancer
      were assessed after their diagnosis but before the start of adjuvant treatment
      (chemotherapy, radiation, endocrine therapy). Participants completed measures of
      childhood maltreatment exposure, psychological resources (optimism, mastery, self
      esteem, mindfulness), and depressive symptoms. Using multiple mediation analyses,
      we examined which psychological resources uniquely mediated the relationship
      between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms. Exposure to maltreatment
      during childhood was robustly associated with lower psychological resources and
      elevated depressive symptoms. Further, lower optimism and mindfulness mediated
      the association between childhood maltreatment and elevated depressive symptoms.
      These results support existing theory that childhood maltreatment is associated
      with lower psychological resources, which partially explains elevated depressive
      symptoms in a sample of women facing breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. These
      findings warrant replication in populations facing other major life events and
      highlight the need for additional studies examining childhood maltreatment as a
      moderator of treatment outcomes.

PMID- 28888810
TI  - Bystander automated external defibrillator use and clinical outcomes after out-of
      hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - AIM: To systematically review studies comparing bystander automated external
      defibrillator (AED) use to no AED use in regard to clinical outcomes in out-of
      hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), and to provide a descriptive summary of studies
      on the cost-effectiveness of bystander AED use. METHODS: We searched Medline,
      Embase, the Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for randomized trials and
      observational studies published before June 1, 2017. Meta-analyses were performed
      for patients with all rhythms, shockable rhythms, and non-shockable rhythms.
      RESULTS: Forty-four observational studies, 3 randomized trials, and 13 cost
      effectiveness studies were included. Meta-analysis of 6 observational studies
      without critical risk of bias showed that bystander AED use was associated with
      survival to hospital discharge (all rhythms OR: 1.73 [95%CI: 1.36, 2.18],
      shockable rhythms OR: 1.66 [95%CI: 1.54, 1.79]) and favorable neurological
      outcome (all rhythms OR: 2.12 [95%CI: 1.36, 3.29], shockable rhythms OR: 2.37
      [95%CI: 1.58, 3.57]). There was no association between bystander AED use and
      neurological outcome for non-shockable rhythms (OR: 0.76 [95%CI: 0.10, 5.87]).
      The Public-Access Defibrillation trial found higher survival rates when
      volunteers were equipped with AEDs. The other trials found no survival
      difference, although their study settings differed. The quality of evidence was
      low for randomized trials and very low for observational studies. AEDs were cost
      effective in settings with high cardiac arrest incidence, with most studies
      reporting ratios < $100,000 per quality-adjusted life years. CONCLUSIONS: The
      evidence supports the association between bystander AED use and improved clinical
      outcomes, although the quality of evidence was low to very low.

PMID- 28888811
TI  - Outcome after cardiac arrest, time will matter.

PMID- 28888812
TI  - Use of automated chest compression devices after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
      in Sweden.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the implementation of automated chest compression
      cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ACC-CPR) after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
      (OHCA) in Sweden during the years 2011 through 2015. The association between ACC
      CPR and 30-day survival was studied as a secondary objective. METHODS: The
      Swedish cardiopulmonary resuscitation registry is a prospectively recorded
      nationwide registry of modified Utstein parameters including all patients with
      attempted resuscitation after OHCA. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to
      adjust for known confounders in the secondary analysis. RESULTS: Of the 24,316
      patients included in the study population, 32.4% received ACC-CPR, with
      substantial regional variation ranging from 0.8% to 78.8%. Male gender and an
      initial shockable rhythm were associated with ACC-CPR, whereas crew witnessed
      status was associated with manual CPR. Potential markers of prolonged
      resuscitation attempts (drug administration and endotracheal intubation) were
      more prevalent in the ACC-CPR group. The unadjusted 30-day survival rate was 6.3%
      for ACC-CPR patients. The adjusted odds ratio for 30-day survival regarding use
      of an ACC device was 0.72 (95% CI 0.62-0.84, p<0.001, n=13922). CONCLUSION: The
      use of ACC devices varied significantly between Swedish regions and overall
      survival to 30days was low among patients receiving ACC-CPR. Although measured
      and unmeasured confounding might explain our finding of lower survival rates for
      patients exposed to ACC-CPR, specific guidelines recommending when and how ACC
      CPR should be used are warranted as there might be circumstances where these
      devices do more harm than good.

PMID- 28888813
TI  - Gender-specific Differences in Recurrence of Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer:
      A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - CONTEXT: The incidence of urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) is lower in
      women; however, women tend to present with more advanced disease. To date, there
      is no quantitative synthesis of studies reporting gender-specific outcomes in non
      muscle-invasive UCB. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a meta-analysis evaluating gender
      specific differences in recurrence of non-muscle-invasive urinary bladder cancer
      (NMIBC). EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: An unrestricted systematic literature search of
      the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane libraries was conducted. Studies evaluating the
      impact of gender on disease recurrence after local treatment of NMIBC using
      multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were included. Random effect meta
      analysis, subgroup analyses, meta-influence, and cumulative meta-analyses were
      conducted. Publication bias was assessed via a funnel plot and Eggers test.
      EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Of 609 studies screened, 27 comprising 23 754 patients were
      included. Random effect meta-analyses indicated women at increased risk for UCB
      recurrence compared with men (hazard ratio [HR]=1.11, 95% confidence interval
      [CI]: 1.01-1.23, p=0.03). Subgroup analyses yielded estimates between HR=0.99 and
      HR=1.68. Gender-specific differences in UCB recurrence were most pronounced in
      studies administering exclusively bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG; HR=1.64, 95% CI:
      1.13-2.39, p=0.01), especially in a long-term treatment regimen (HR=1.68, 95% CI:
      1.32-2.15, p<0.001). Sensitivity analyses confirmed female patients at increased
      risk for UCB recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Women are at increased risk for disease
      recurrence after local treatment of NMIBC compared with male patients. Reduced
      effectiveness of BCG treatment might underlie this observation. Gender-specific
      differences were evident across various subgroups and proved robust upon
      sensitivity analyses. PATIENT SUMMARY: In this report, we combined several
      studies on gender-specific differences in relapse of superficial bladder cancer.
      Women were more likely to experience cancer relapse than men.

PMID- 28888814
TI  - Primary and Secondary Enuresis: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
AB  - CONTEXT: Enuresis is a common and possibly underestimated condition. While 5-10%
      of school-aged children suffer from the condition, a lack of background knowledge
      may impede timely child-adapted and successful therapy. OBJECTIVE: To provide a
      comprehensive overview of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of
      enuresis. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Guideline and position papers from the European
      Society of Pediatric Urology, the European Association of Urology, and the
      International Children's Continence Society were acquired. PubMed was searched
      for literature on enuresis, and all papers published in the last 5 yr were
      considered. The most relevant information from the papers with the highest level
      of evidence was extracted and incorporated into the review. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS:
      An altered antidiuretic hormone profile, arousal failure, and delayed bladder
      maturation are the main pathophysiological factors in primary enuresis.
      Coexisting constipation, obstructive airway disease, attention deficit
      hyperactivity disorder, obesity, and genetic preconditions influence its
      prevalence. Diagnosis relies on history-taking and simple noninvasive
      examinations to differentiate monosymptomatic enuresis and patients with daytime
      symptoms. It is essential to exclude daytime voiding symptoms, overactive
      bladder, dysfunctional voiding, and urinary tract infections. Further imaging is
      indicated in complex cases with a suspicion of underlying congenital
      malformations or systemic or endocrine diseases and in children refractory to
      initial therapy. In secondary enuresis, psychological causes should also be taken
      into consideration. While desmopressin melt tablets and alarm systems constitute
      the mainstays of treatment in monosymptomatic enuresis, anticholinergics and
      urotherapy play an additional role in nonmonosymptomatic enuresis. For therapy
      refractory cases, after a thorough re-investigation to identify any missed
      comorbidities and anatomical or functional causes of enuresis, combination
      therapy and stationary urotherapy might be promising options. CONCLUSIONS: While
      enuresis seems to be an often underestimated condition in terms of the suffering
      that children and their families, there are efficacious therapy options once a
      correct and full diagnosis is made. PATIENT SUMMARY: This article reviews primary
      and secondary nocturnal enuresis, which is the medical term for the condition
      whereby children wet their beds regularly after their first birthday. We describe
      the background of enuresis,including its complex underlying mechanisms, as well
      as diagnosis and treatment in the light of current scientific publications. We
      conclude that while enuresis seems to be an often underestimated condition in
      terms of the suffering that children and their families may undergo, there are
      efficacious therapy options once a correct and full diagnosis is made.

PMID- 28888815
TI  - Neurogenic Bladder in a Girl After Surgery for Cloacal Malformation: The
      Importance of informing Patients and Parents of All Various Options.
AB  - Management of neurogenic bladder in pediatric patients is complex. Treatment
      options must be individualized to not only address the clinical parameters but
      also take into account the social factors that directly impact the ability to
      achieve a successful outcome.

PMID- 28888816
TI  - The repeat structure of two paralogous genes, Yersinia ruckeri invasin (yrInv)
      and a "Y. ruckeri invasin-like molecule", (yrIlm) sheds light on the evolution of
      adhesive capacities of a fish pathogen.
AB  - Inverse autotransporters comprise the recently identified type Ve secretion
      system and are exemplified by intimin from enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli
      and invasin from enteropathogenic Yersiniae. These proteins share a common domain
      architecture and promote bacterial adhesion to host cells. Here, we identified
      and characterized two putative inverse autotransporter genes in the fish pathogen
      Yersinia ruckeri NVH_3758, namely yrInv (for Y. ruckeri invasin) and yrIlm (for
      Y. ruckeri invasin-like molecule). When trying to clone the highly repetitive
      genes for structural and functional studies, we experienced problems in obtaining
      PCR products. PCR failures and the highly repetitive nature of inverse
      autotransporters prompted us to sequence the genome of Y. ruckeri NVH_3758 using
      PacBio sequencing, which produces some of the longest average read lengths
      available in the industry at this moment. According to our sequencing data, YrIlm
      is composed of 2603 amino acids (7812bp) and has a molecular mass of 256.4kDa.
      Based on the new genome information, we performed PCR analysis on four non
      sequenced Y. ruckeri strains as well as the sequenced. Y. ruckeri type strain. We
      found that the genes are variably present in the strains, and that the length of
      yrIlm, when present, also varies. In addition, the length of the gene product for
      all strains, including the type strain, was much longer than expected based on
      deposited sequences. The internal repeats of the yrInv gene product are highly
      diverged, but represent the same bacterial immunoglobulin-like domains as in
      yrIlm. Using qRT-PCR, we found that yrIlm and yrInv are differentially expressed
      under conditions relevant for pathogenesis. In addition, we compared the genomic
      context of both genes in the newly sequenced Y. ruckeri strain to all available
      PacBio-sequenced Y. ruckeri genomes, and found indications of recent events of
      horizontal gene transfer. Taken together, this study demonstrates and highlights
      the power of Single Molecule Real-Time technology for sequencing highly
      repetitive proteins, and sheds light on the genetic events that gave rise to
      these highly repetitive genes in a commercially important fish pathogen.

PMID- 28888818
TI  - Consequences of perinatal hypoxia in developing brain: Changes in GABA
      transporter functioning in cortical, hippocampal and thalamic rat nerve
      terminals.
AB  - Perinatal hypoxia leads to behavioral abnormalities, cognitive disabilities, and
      epilepsy resulting from alterations in neurodevelopment, maturation and
      construction of the network. Considering a particular role of gamma-aminobutyric
      acid (GABA) for an immature brain, we analysed transporter-mediated [3H]GABA
      uptake in the cortical, hippocampal and thalamic nerve terminals isolated from
      rats of different age in the control and after perinatal hypoxia. The state of
      hypoxia was induced by exposure of rats at the age of 10 postnatal days (pd)
      (that corresponds approximately to the time of birth in humans) to a respiratory
      medium with low O2 content (4% O2 and 96%N2) for 12min (up to the initiation of
      clonico-tonic seizures). Here, we found that the initial rate of [3N]GABA uptake
      was higher in the young rats (pd 17-19) as compared to the older ones (pd 24-26,
      38-40 and 66-73) in both control and hypoxia groups. It decreased abruptly by 50%
      in the thalamus and by 25% in the cortex for the period from pd 17-19 to pd 66
      73. In the hippocampus, a decrease in the rate during the same time interval was
      25%. Exposure to hypoxia had no effect on the intensity of [3N]GABA uptake by the
      cortical and thalamic nerve terminals, but caused a significant age-dependent
      attenuation (by 35%) of the uptake intensity in the hippocampal ones. Significant
      age-dependent hypoxia-independent decrease in [3N]GABA uptake with step-like
      dynamics of changes was shown in the thalamus and cortex. Gradual age-dependent
      hypoxia-dependent decrease in [3N]GABA uptake was revealed in the hippocampus,
      and so a particular vulnerability of the latest structure to hypoxia as compared
      to the cortex and thalamus was revealed.

PMID- 28888817
TI  - Mate choice, sexual selection, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
AB  - Humans have disproportionately affected the habitat and survival of species
      through environmental contamination. Important among these anthropogenic
      influences is the proliferation of organic chemicals, some of which perturb
      hormone systems, the latter referred to as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
      EDCs are widespread in the environment and affect all levels of reproduction,
      including development of reproductive organs, hormone release and regulation
      through the life cycle, the development of secondary sexual characteristics, and
      the maturation and maintenance of adult physiology and behavior. However, what is
      not well-known is how the confluence of EDC actions on the manifestation of
      morphological and behavioral sexual traits influences mate choice, a process that
      requires the reciprocal evaluation of and/or acceptance of a sexual partner.
      Moreover, the outcomes of EDC-induced perturbations are likely to influence
      sexual selection; yet this has rarely been directly tested. Here, we provide
      background on the development and manifestation of sexual traits, reproductive
      competence, and the neurobiology of sexual behavior, and evidence for their
      perturbation by EDCs. Selection acts on individuals, with the consequences
      manifest in populations, and we discuss the implications for EDC contamination of
      these processes, and the future of species.

PMID- 28888819
TI  - Synthesis and evaluation of biological activities of vibsanin A analogs.
AB  - Vibsanin A is an 11-membered vibsane diterpenoid and is reported to induce
      myeloid cell differentiation via activation of protein kinase C (PKC) without
      tumor-promoting activity. Therefore, vibsanin A is thought to be an attractive
      compound for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) therapy. In this study, we synthesized
      vibsanin A analogs and compared the activity of these compounds for PKC
      activation and myeloid cell differentiation. We found that the hydroxymethyl
      group in vibsanin A is an important substituent to induce differentiation of AML
      cells. Collectively, our results showed the biochemical features of vibsanin A
      and provided new insights into the development of new antileukemic drugs.

PMID- 28888820
TI  - Design and synthesis of 2-phenylpyrimidine coumarin derivatives as anticancer
      agents.
AB  - A series of 2-phenylpyrimidine coumarin derivatives with potential telomerase
      inhibiting activity was designed and synthesized. All of the compounds were
      screened for antiproliferative activity against CNE2, KB, and Cal27 cell lines in
      vitro. The results showed that most of the derivatives had a favorable effect on
      resisting tumor cell proliferation; compound 13, 3-(4-amino-5-oxo-5H-chromeno[4,3
      d]pyrimidin-2-yl)phenyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzenesulfonate, exhibited the best
      activity. Flow cytometry revealed that compound 13 can inhibit CNE2
      proliferation. Telomerase inhibition and in vitro antitumor activity were
      consistent among the compounds, but compound 13 showed the best telomerase
      inhibiting activity and could inhibit telomere extension. Molecular docking
      results indicated that compound 13 bonded with telomerase reverse transcriptase
      (TERT) through multiple interactions, including hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic
      interactions. The results of the study provide further information on 2
      phenylpyrimidine coumarins, expanding the types of telomerase inhibitors as the
      parent structures.

PMID- 28888821
TI  - [11C]BCTC: Radiosynthesis and in vivo binding to transient receptor potential
      vanilloid subfamily member 1 (TRPV1) receptor in the mouse trigeminal nerve.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to synthesize a new positron emission tomography
      radiotracer, N-(4-tertiarybutylphenyl)-4-(3-chloropyridin-2-yl)tetrahydropyrazine
      1(2H)-[11C]carboxamide ([11C]BCTC, [11C]1), and assess its in vivo binding to the
      transient receptor potential vanilloid subfamily member 1 (TRPV1) receptor in
      mice. [11C]BCTC was synthesized by reacting the hydrochloride of 4
      tertiarybutylaniline (2.HCl) with [11C]phosgene ([11C]COCl2) to give isocyanate
      [11C]4, followed by reaction with 4-(3-chloropyridin-2-yl)tetrahydropyrazine (3).
      [11C]BCTC was obtained at a 16-20% radiochemical yield, based on the cyclotron
      produced [11C]CO2 (decay-corrected to the end of bombardment), with >98%
      radiochemical purity and 65-110GBq/MUmol specific activity at the end of
      synthesis. An ex vivo biodistribution study in mice confirmed the specific
      binding of [11C]BCTC to TRPV1 in the trigeminal nerve, which is a tissue with
      high TRPV1 expression.

PMID- 28888822
TI  - Discovery of novel steroidal histamine H3 receptor antagonists/inverse agonists.
AB  - Emerging from an HTS campaign, novel steroid-based histamine H3 receptor
      antagonists were identified and characterized. Structural moieties of the hit
      compounds were combined to improve binding affinities which resulted in compound
      4 as lead molecule. During the lead optimization due to the versatile
      modifications of diamino steroid derivatives, several in vitro potent compounds
      with subnanomolar binding affinities to histamine H3 receptors were found. The
      unfavorable binding to rat muscarinic receptors was successfully reduced by
      tuning the basicity. Compound 20 showed significant in vivo activity in the rat
      dipsogenia model and could serve as a pharmacological tool in the future.

PMID- 28888823
TI  - Comparing percentages and ranks of adolescent weight-related outcomes among U.S.
      states: Implications for intervention development.
AB  - Understanding statistical differences in states' percentages and ranks of
      adolescents meeting health behavior guidelines can guide policymaking. Data came
      from 531,777 adolescents (grades 9-12) who completed the Youth Risk Behavior
      Surveillance System survey in 2011, 2013, or 2015. We measured the percentage of
      adolescents in each state that met guidelines for physical activity, fruit and
      vegetable (F&V) consumption, and healthy weight status. Then we ranked states and
      calculated the ranks' 95% CI's using a Monte Carlo method with 100,000
      simulations. We repeated these analyses stratified by sex (female or male) or
      race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic/Latino, or
      other). Pearson's and Spearman's correlation coefficients examined consistency in
      the percentages and ranks (respectively) across behaviors and subgroups. Meeting
      the physical activity and F&V consumption guidelines was relatively rare among
      adolescents (25.8% [95% CI=25.2%-26.4%] and 8.0% [95% CI=7.6%-8.3%],
      respectively), while meeting the healthy weight guideline was common (71.5% [95%
      CI=70.7%-72.3%]). At the state level, percentages of adolescents meeting these
      guidelines were statistically similar; states' ranks had wide CI's, resulting in
      considerable overlap (i.e., statistical equivalence). For each behavior, states'
      percentages and ranks were moderately to highly correlated across adolescent
      subgroups (Pearson's r=0.33-0.96; Spearman's r=0.42-0.96), but across behaviors,
      only F&V consumption and healthy weight were correlated (Pearson's r=0.34;
      Spearman's r=0.37). Adolescents in all states could benefit from initiatives to
      support cancer prevention behaviors, especially physical activity and F&V
      consumption. Programs in states that ranked highly on all assessed health
      behaviors could be adapted for dissemination in lower-performing states.

PMID- 28888824
TI  - Associations of 100% fruit juice versus whole fruit with hypertension and
      diabetes risk in postmenopausal women: Results from the Women's Health
      Initiative.
AB  - The objective of this study was to determine whether consumption of 100% fruit
      juice as compared to whole fruit is associated with increased risk of
      hypertension or diabetes. We analyzed postmenopausal women in the United States
      enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative between 1993 and 1998. Whole fruit and
      100% fruit juice intake were assessed by baseline food frequency questionnaire.
      Standardized questionnaires assessed outcomes every 6-12months during a mean
      7.8years of follow-up. Cox regression estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95%
      confidence intervals (CI) for incident hypertension (n=36,314 incident
      cases/80,539 total participants) and diabetes (n=11,488 incident cases/114,219
      total participants). In multivariable analyses there was no significant
      association comparing the highest to lowest quintiles of 100% fruit juice
      consumption (8oz/day compared to none) and incident hypertension (HR 1.00, 95% CI
      0.97-1.03) or diabetes (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.90-1.03). There was also no significant
      association between whole fruit consumption (2.4servings/day compared to
      0.3servings/day) and incident hypertension (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.98-1.05) or
      diabetes (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.96-1.10). Consuming moderate amounts of 100% fruit
      juice or whole fruit was not significantly associated with risk of hypertension
      or diabetes among postmenopausal US women.

PMID- 28888825
TI  - Multimodal interventions for bundle implementation to decrease central line
      associated bloodstream infections in adult intensive care units in a teaching
      hospital in Taiwan, 2009-2013.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Central line (CL)-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) poses a
      major threat to patient safety and is associated with additional cost. This study
      investigated the sustained effect of multimodal interventions focusing on CL
      bundle improvement in the adult intensive care units (ICUs) of a teaching
      hospital in Taiwan. METHODS: A before-after prospective study was conducted in 17
      adult ICUs of a medical center in northern Taiwan from January 2009 to December
      2013. Many interventions that aimed to facilitate CL bundle implementation were
      initiated in January 2011. The incidence rates of CLABSI and catheter-related
      bloodstream infection (CRBSI) were compared between the baseline and intervention
      periods. Catheter utilization ratios and microbiological characteristics were
      also analyzed. RESULTS: The incidence rates of both CLABSI and CRBSI decreased
      significantly from the baseline to the intervention periods (from 9.27 to 7.66
      per 1000 CL-days and from 1.51 to 0.89 per 1000 CL-days, respectively). The
      yearly incidence rate decreased by up to 31% (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.69;
      95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59-0.81) for CLABSI and 59% (IRR, 0.41; 95% CI,
      0.26-0.65) for CRBSI since the initiation of the interventions. The catheter
      utilization ratio also decreased from 0.71 to 0.63 (p < 0.001). Microbiological
      analysis showed that among all CLABSI isolates, the proportion of coagulase
      negative staphylococci significantly decreased during the intervention period.
      CONCLUSION: Implementing multimodal interventions focusing on CL bundle
      improvement was effective in reducing the incidence rates of CLABSI and CRBSI in
      Taiwan's adult ICUs.

PMID- 28888826
TI  - Intramural duodenal hematoma post EUS-guided placement of fiducial radiopaque
      markers.

PMID- 28888827
TI  - Tumor Dose Response in Yttrium-90 Resin Microsphere Embolization for
      Neuroendocrine Liver Metastases: A Tumor-Specific Analysis with Dose Estimation
      Using SPECT-CT.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate dose-response relationship in yttrium-90 (90Y) resin
      microsphere radioembolization for neuroendocrine tumor (NET) liver metastases
      using a tumor-specific dose estimation based on technetium-99m-labeled
      macroaggregated albumin (99mTc MAA) single photon emission computed tomography
      (SPECT)-CT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-five tumors (mean size 3.9 cm) in 15
      patients (10 women; mean age 57 y) were evaluated. Tumor-specific absorbed dose
      was estimated using a partition model. Initial (median 2.3 months) follow-up data
      were available for all tumors; last (median 7.6 months) follow-up data were
      available for 45 tumors. Tumor response was evaluated using Modified Response
      Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST) on follow-up CT. Tumors with
      complete or partial response were considered responders. Mean tumor absorbed dose
      was 231.4 Gy +/- 184.3, and mean nontumor liver absorbed dose was 39.0 Gy +/-
      18.0. RESULTS: Thirty-six (65.5%) and 30 (66.7%) tumors showed response at
      initial and last follow-up, respectively. Mean absorbed doses in responders and
      nonresponders at initial and last follow-up were 285.8 Gy +/- 191.1 and 128.1 Gy
      +/- 117.1 (P = .0004) and 314.3 Gy +/- 195.8 and 115.7 Gy +/- 117.4 (P = .0001).
      Cutoff value of >= 191.3 Gy for tumor-specific absorbed dose predicted tumor
      response with 93% specificity, whereas < 72.8 Gy predicted nonresponse with 100%
      specificity at last follow-up. Estimated mean absorbed tumor dose per patient was
      significantly higher in responders versus nonresponders over the follow-up period
      (224.5 Gy +/- 90.3 vs 70.0 Gy +/- 28.0; P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: Tumor-specific
      absorbed dose, estimated with a partition model, was significantly associated
      with tumor response in NET liver metastases. An estimated dose >= 191.3 Gy
      predicted treatment response with high sensitivity and specificity.

PMID- 28888828
TI  - Contribution of dark septate fungi to the nutrient uptake and growth of rice
      plants.
AB  - The use of dark septate fungi (DSE) to promote plant growth can be beneficial to
      agriculture, and these organisms are important allies in the search for
      sustainable agriculture practices. This study investigates the contribution of
      dark septate fungi to the absorption of nutrients by rice plants and their
      ensuing growth. Four dark septate fungi isolates that were identified by Internal
      transcribed spacer phylogeny were inoculated in rice seeds (Cv. Piaui). The
      resulting root colonization was estimated and the kinetic parameters Vmax and Km
      were calculated from the nitrate contents of the nutrient solution. The
      macronutrient levels in the shoots, and the NO3--N, NH4+-N, free amino-N and
      soluble sugars in the roots, sheathes and leaves were measured. The rice roots
      were significantly colonized by all of the fungi, but in particular, isolate A103
      increased the fresh and dry biomass of the shoots and the number of tillers per
      plant, amino-N, and soluble sugars as well as the N, P, K, Mg and S contents in
      comparison with the control treatment. When inoculated with isolates A103 and
      A101, the plants presented lower Km values, indicating affinity increases for NO3
      -N absorption. Therefore, the A103 Pleosporales fungus presented the highest
      potential for the promotion of rice plant growth, increasing the tillering and
      nutrients uptake, especially N (due to an enhanced affinity for N uptake) and P.

PMID- 28888829
TI  - Sensitivity, specificity and comparison of three commercially available
      immunological tests in the diagnosis of Cryptosporidium species in animals.
AB  - The study was conducted to compare the specificity of immunological diagnostic
      methods used for the diagnosis of Cryptosporidium species capable of causing life
      threatening infection in both immunosuppressed and immunocompetent patients. For
      the detection of Cryptosporidium species in 79 animals with diarrhoea, we used
      three Copro-antigen tests: RIDASCREEN(r)Cryptosporidium test, Cryptosporidium 2nd
      Generation (ELISA) and RIDA(r)QUICK Cryptosporidium. For immunoassays we used
      positive and negative samples detected by means of polymerase chain reaction and
      validated by sequencing and nested polymerase chain reaction to confirm the
      presence six different species of Cryptosporidium species. Prevalence of
      cryptosporidiosis in the entire group determined by enzyme immunoassay, enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assay, immuno-chromatographic test and polymerase chain
      reaction was 34.17%, 27.84%, 6.33% and 27.84%, respectively. Sensitivity of
      animal samples with enzyme immunoassay, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, and
      immuno-chromatographic test was 63.6%, 40.9% and 22.7%, resp., when questionable
      samples were considered positive, whereas specificity of enzyme immunoassay,
      enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and immuno-chromatographic test was 75.9%,
      78.9% and 100%, respectively. Positive predictive values and negative predictive
      values were different for all the tests. These differences results are
      controversial and therefore reliability and reproducibility of immunoassays as
      the only diagnostic method is questionable. The use of various Cryptosporidium
      species in diagnosis based on immunological testing and different results
      obtained by individual tests indicate potential differences in Copro-antigens
      produced by individual Cryptosporidium species.

PMID- 28888830
TI  - The isolation of pentose-assimilating yeasts and their xylose fermentation
      potential.
AB  - For the implementation of cellulosic ethanol technology, the maximum use of
      lignocellulosic materials is important to increase efficiency and to reduce
      costs. In this context, appropriate use of the pentose released by hemicellulose
      hydrolysis could improve de economic viability of this process. Since the
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae is unable to ferment the pentose, the search for pentose
      fermenting microorganisms could be an alternative. In this work, the isolation of
      yeast strains from decaying vegetal materials, flowers, fruits and insects and
      their application for assimilation and alcoholic fermentation of xylose were
      carried out. From a total of 30 isolated strains, 12 were able to assimilate 30gL
      1 of xylose in 120h. The strain Candida tropicalis S4 produced 6gL-1 of ethanol
      from 56gL-1 of xylose, while the strain C. tropicalis E2 produced 22gL-1 of
      xylitol. The strains Candida oleophila G10.1 and Metschnikowia koreensis G18
      consumed significant amount of xylose in aerobic cultivation releasing non
      identified metabolites. The different materials in environment were source for
      pentose-assimilating yeast with variable metabolic profile.

PMID- 28888831
TI  - Steryl ester synthesis, storage and hydrolysis: A contribution to sterol
      homeostasis.
AB  - Sterols are essential lipids of all eukaryotic cells, appearing either as free
      sterols or steryl esters. Besides other regulatory mechanisms, esterification of
      sterols and hydrolysis of steryl esters serve to buffer both an excess and a lack
      of free sterols. In this review, the esterification process, the storage of
      steryl esters and their mobilization will be described. Several model organisms
      are discussed but the focus was set on mammals and the yeast Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae. The contribution of imbalanced cholesterol homeostasis to several
      human diseases, namely Wolman disease, cholesteryl ester storage disease,
      atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, Niemann-Pick type C and Tangier disease
      is described.

PMID- 28888832
TI  - Ageing sensitized by iPLA2beta deficiency induces liver fibrosis and intestinal
      atrophy involving suppression of homeostatic genes and alteration of intestinal
      lipids and bile acids.
AB  - Ageing is a major risk factor for various forms of liver and gastrointestinal
      (GI) disease and genetic background may contribute to the pathogenesis of these
      diseases. Group VIA phospholipase A2 or iPLA2beta is a homeostatic PLA2 by
      playing a role in phospholipid metabolism and remodeling. Global iPLA2beta-/-
      mice exhibit aged-dependent phenotypes with body weight loss and abnormalities in
      the bone and brain. We have previously reported the abnormalities in these mutant
      mice showing susceptibility for chemical-induced liver injury and colitis. We
      hypothesize that iPLA2beta deficiency may sensitize with ageing for an induction
      of GI injury. Male wild-type and iPLA2beta-/- mice at 4 and 20-22months of age
      were studied. Aged, but not young, iPLA2beta-/-mice showed increased hepatic
      fibrosis and biliary ductular expansion as well as severe intestinal atrophy
      associated with increased apoptosis, pro-inflammation, disrupted tight junction,
      and reduced number of mucin-containing globlet cells. This damage was associated
      with decreased expression of intestinal endoplasmic stress XBP1 and its regulator
      HNF1alpha, FATP4, ACSL5, bile-acid transport genes as well as nuclear receptors
      LXRalpha and FXR. By LC/MS-MS profiling, iPLA2beta deficiency in aged mice caused
      an increase of intestinal arachidonate-containing phospholipids concomitant with
      a decrease in ceramides. By the suppression of intestinal FXR/FGF-15 signaling,
      hepatic bile-acid synthesis gene expression was increased leading to an elevation
      of secondary and hydrophobic bile acids in liver, bile, and intestine. In
      conclusions, ageing sensitized by iPLA2beta deficiency caused a decline of key
      intestinal homeostatic genes resulting in the development of GI disease in a gut
      to-liver manner.

PMID- 28888833
TI  - Iron depletion induces hepatic secretion of biliary lipids and glutathione in
      rats.
AB  - Iron depletion (ID) has been shown to induce the liver expression of Cyp7a1, the
      rate-limiting enzyme initiating conversion of cholesterol to bile acids (BA),
      although the effect on bile acids metabolism and bile production is unknown.
      Therefore, we investigated changes in bile secretion and BA synthesis during diet
      induced iron depletion (ID) in rats. ID increased bile flow along with augmented
      biliary excretion of bile acids, glutathione, cholesterol and phospholipids.
      Accordingly, we found transcriptional upregulation of the Cyp7a1, Cyp8b1, and
      Cyp27a1 BA synthetic enzymes, as well as induction of the Abcg5/8 cholesterol
      transporters in ID rat livers. In contrast, intravenous infusion of 3H
      taurocholate failed to elicit any difference in biliary secretion of this
      compound in the ID rats. This corresponded with unchanged expression of
      canalicular rate-limiting transporters for BA as well as glutathione. We also
      observed that ID substantially changed the spectrum of BA in bile and decreased
      plasma concentrations of BA and cholesterol. Experiments with differentiated
      human hepatic HepaRG cells confirmed human CYP7A1 orthologue upregulation
      resulting from reduced iron concentrations. Results employing a luciferase
      reporter gene assay suggest that the transcriptional activation of the CYP7A1
      promoter under ID conditions works independent of farnesoid X (FXR), pregnane X
      (PXR) and liver X (LXRalpha) receptors activation. It can be concluded that this
      study characterizes the molecular mechanisms of modified bile production as well
      as cholesterol as along with BA homeostasis during ID. We propose complex
      upregulation of BA synthesis, and biliary cholesterol secretion as the key
      factors affected by ID.

PMID- 28888834
TI  - Season of birth and primary central nervous system tumors: a systematic review of
      the literature with critical appraisal of underlying mechanisms.
AB  - PURPOSE: Season of birth has been considered a proxy of seasonally varying
      exposures around perinatal period, potentially implicated in the etiology of
      several health outcomes, including malignancies. METHODS: Following the Preferred
      Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we have
      systematically reviewed published literature on the association of birth
      seasonality with risk of central nervous system tumors in children and adults.
      RESULTS: Seventeen eligible studies using various methodologies were identified,
      encompassing 20,523 cases. Eight of 10 studies in children versus four of eight
      in adults showed some statistically significant associations between birth
      seasonality and central nervous system tumor or tumor subtype occurrence,
      pointing to a clustering of births mostly in fall and winter months, albeit no
      consistent pattern was identified by histologic subtype. A plethora of perinatal
      factors might underlie or confound the associations, such as variations in birth
      weight, maternal diet during pregnancy, perinatal vitamin D levels, pesticides,
      infectious agents, immune system maturity, and epigenetic modifications.
      CONCLUSIONS: Inherent methodological weaknesses of to-date published individual
      investigations, including mainly underpowered size to explore the hypothesis by
      histological subtype, call for more elegant concerted actions using primary data
      of large datasets taking also into account the interplay between the potential
      underlying etiologic factors.

PMID- 28888835
TI  - Disparities in gestational age-specific fetal mortality rates in the United
      States, 2009-2013.
AB  - PURPOSE: Although studies have examined overall temporal changes in gestational
      age-specific fetal mortality rates, there is little information on the current
      status of racial/ethnic differences. We hypothesize that differences exist
      between racial/ethnic groups across gestational age and that these differences
      are not equally distributed. METHODS: Using the 2009-2013 data from US fetal
      death and live birth files for non-Hispanic white (NHW); non-Hispanic black
      (NHB); Hispanic; and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) women, we conducted
      analyses to examine fetal mortality rates and estimate adjusted prevalence rate
      ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: There were lower risks of
      fetal mortality among NHB women (aPRR = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.71-0.81) and Hispanic
      women (aPRR = 0.89; 95% CI = 0.83-0.96) compared with NHWs at 22-23 weeks'
      gestation. For NHB women, the risk was higher starting at 32-33 weeks (aPRR =
      1.11; 95% CI = 1.04-1.18) and continued to increase as gestational age increased.
      Hispanic and AIAN women had lower risks of fetal mortality compared with NHW
      women until 38-39 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Further examination is needed to identify
      causes of fetal death within the later pregnancy period and how those causes and
      their antecedents might differ by race and ethnicity.

PMID- 28888836
TI  - Transcriptome sequencing and characterization of Symbiodinium muscatinei and
      Elliptochloris marina, symbionts found within the aggregating sea anemone
      Anthopleura elegantissima.
AB  - There is a growing body of literature using transcriptomic data to study how
      tropical cnidarians and their photosynthetic endosymbionts respond to
      environmental stressors and participate in metabolic exchange. Despite these
      efforts, our understanding of how essential genes function to facilitate
      symbiosis establishment and maintenance remains limited. The inclusion of
      taxonomically and ecologically diverse endosymbionts will enhance our
      understanding of these interactions. Here we characterize the transcriptomes of
      two very different symbionts found within the temperate sea anemone Anthopleura
      elegantissima: the chlorophyte Elliptochloris marina and the dinoflagellate
      Symbiodinium muscatinei. We use a multi-level approach to assess the diversity of
      genes found across S. muscatinei and E. marina transcriptomes, and compare their
      overall protein domains with other dinoflagellates and chlorophytes. Our analysis
      identified several genes that are potentially involved in mitigating stress
      response (e.g., heat shock proteins pathways for mediating reactive oxygen
      species) and metabolic exchange (e.g., ion transporters). Finally, we show that
      S. muscatinei and other Symbiodinium strains are equipped with a high salt
      peridinin-chl-protein (HSPCP) gene previously identified only in free-living
      dinoflagellates. The addition of these transcriptomes to the cnidarian-symbiont
      molecular toolkit will aid in understanding how these vitally important symbiotic
      relationships are established and maintained across a variety of environmental
      conditions.

PMID- 28888837
TI  - Left Ventricular Device Implantation Impacts on Hospitalisation Rates, Length of
      Stay and Out of Hospital Time.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Widespread application of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) in
      advanced heart failure, is limited by costs, and access to technical expertise.
      Hospitalisation drives both cost and inversely, quality of life - but cross
      institutional and pre-surgical inpatient length of stay data is missing in the
      Australian literature. We describe changes in hospitalisation rates, in the year
      before and after bridge to transplant LVAD therapy and preceding heart transplant
      (HTX). METHODS: Hospitalisation, Australian refined diagnosis group (ArDRG), and
      clinical data were assessed for 77/100 consecutive patients listed for heart
      transplant between July of 2009 and June of 2012. Twenty-five of the patients
      required ventricular assist device (VAD) therapy whilst waitlisted.
      Hospitalisation was defined as the proportion of "days at risk" that were spent
      in hospital and included all public and private admissions identified in the year
      before and after VAD implant, or before HTX, in a linked administrative dataset
      of admissions across New South Wales. RESULTS: Patients requiring VADs were
      clinically more unstable and spent proportionally more time in hospital than pre
      HTX patients, (13% (IQR 10-20%) vs 4% (IQR1-10%), p<0.01). During the index
      admission, they spent 22days (IQR 10-33) in hospital before implantation,
      including 13 days in non-transplant centres (IQR 7-20). Following implantation,
      median inpatient stay was 31(IQR 26-70) - including rehabilitation in 8 of the 25
      patients. The number of admissions per patient reduced in the year after VAD
      implant to two (IQR1-3), from five pre-implant (IQR 3-7) p=0.002. This was
      similar to the pre-HTX group's three admissions (IQR1-6), p=0.33. Overall
      hospitalisation decreased in VAD patients beyond the first year - from 14% (IQR
      10-20%) at 1-year to 0.5% (IQR 0-10%) at 2-years (p=0.002). A high percentage of
      hospitalisation prior to VAD (41%) and HTX (66%) occurred outside the transplant
      centre. CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of activity in the pre-implant and
      transplant year occurs outside the implanting hospital with higher pre-implant
      hospitalisation in VAD patients reflecting clinical severity. Ventricular assist
      device implantation is significantly associated with reduced admissions, and
      hospitalisation once reconditioning has occurred.

PMID- 28888838
TI  - Space for human connection in antenatal education: Uncovering women's hopes using
      Participatory Action Research.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: the aim of this research was to initiate active consultation with
      women and antenatal educators in the development and delivery of antenatal
      education that was mutually relevant. DESIGN: a Participatory Action Research
      approach influenced by feminist concerns was used to guide the research. Data
      were analysed by the researcher and participants using a Voice Centred Relational
      Method of Analysis. SETTING: an Antenatal Education service in a consultant-led
      tertiary referral unit in Ireland. FINDINGS: research findings revealed women's
      desires to build relationships through ANE to cope with anticipated loneliness
      and isolation after birth; however, environmental, structural, and organisational
      factors prohibited opportunity to build space for human connection. Participating
      women valued external and authoritative knowledge as truth, but concomitantly
      sought opportunity and space through classes to learn from the real life
      experiences of other mothers. Women lacked confidence in embodied knowing and
      their power to birth and demonstrated unquestioning acceptance of the
      predetermined nature of hospital birth and biomedical model of maternity care.
      KEY CONCLUSIONS: in this research, we envisioned that hospital-based ANE,
      relevant and grounded in the needs and life experiences of women, could be
      developed, with a view to supporting women's decision-making processes, and
      understanding of pregnancy, birth and early motherhood. Participatory Action
      Research using a Voice Centred Relational Method of Analysis offered an
      opportunity to foster ethical and dialogic activity between learner and
      facilitator, underpinned by acknowledgement of the value of women's experiences;
      however, space for expression of new and useful knowledge in preparation for
      motherhood was limited by institutional context.

PMID- 28888839
TI  - Oxidative stress and antioxidant defenses during blood processing and storage of
      erythrocyte concentrates.
AB  - Oxidative lesions start accumulating in cells when the oxidant attacks overwhelm
      the antioxidant defenses. This review will briefly describe red blood cell
      storage lesions with emphasis on the consequences of oxidation and the cellular
      defense mechanisms, as well as the methods that can be used to monitor them. The
      sources of variability in red blood cell storage capacity depend on the donor
      characteristics, the product processing and the storage conditions. Suggestions
      to improve the product quality in order to ensure the best efficacy and safety
      for the transfused patient are also discussed.

PMID- 28888840
TI  - Teneligliptin Prevents Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy, Fibrosis, and Development of
      Hypertensive Heart Failure in Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We investigated the effects of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor
      teneligliptin on cardiac function and hemodynamics during heart failure in
      hypertensive model rats. METHODS AND RESULTS: Fifty-five male Dahl salt-sensitive
      rats were divided into 4 groups: control group (0.3% NaCl chow; n = 13),
      hypertension (HT) group (8% NaCl chow; n = 20), HT-early TNL group (8% NaCl chow
      and teneligliptin from 6 weeks; n = 10), and HT-late TNL group (8% NaCl chow and
      teneligliptin from 10 weeks; n = 12). Hemodynamic measurement and tissue analyses
      were performed at 18 weeks. In all of the HT groups, systolic blood pressures
      were similarly elevated (P = .66) and heart weights similarly increased (P = .36)
      with and without TNL administration. LV end-diastolic dimension was significantly
      enlarged only in the HT-early TNL group compared with the control group (P =
      .025). Histologic analysis showed less fibrosis (P = .008) and cardiomyocyte
      widths (P = .009) in the HT-early TNL group compared with the HT group. On
      hemodynamic analysis, only the HT group showed significant LV end-diastolic
      pressure elevation (P = .049) and lung congestion (P < .001) compared with the
      control group. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that teneligliptin prevents
      concentric LV hypertrophy, fibrosis, and development of congestive heart failure
      in Dahl salt-sensitive rats. Teneligliptin may inhibit pressure-overload
      hypertrophic adaption and result in LV eccentric hypertrophy with reduced LV
      ejection fraction.

PMID- 28888841
TI  - Implications of the N-terminal heterogeneity for the neuronal K-Cl cotransporter
      KCC2 function.
AB  - The neuron-specific K-Cl cotransporter KCC2 maintains the low intracellular
      chloride concentration required for the fast hyperpolarizing responses of the
      inhibitory neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine. The two
      KCC2 isoforms, KCC2a and KCC2b differ by their N-termini as a result of
      alternative promoter usage. Whereas the role of KCC2b in mediating the chloride
      transport is unequivocal, the physiological role of KCC2a in neurons has remained
      obscure. We show that KCC2a isoform can decrease the intracellular chloride
      concentration in cultured neurons and attenuate calcium responses evoked by
      application of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol. While the biotinylation assay
      detected both KCC2 isoforms at the cell surface of cultured neurons, KCC2a was
      not detected at the plasma membrane in immunostainings, suggesting that the N
      terminal KCC2a epitope is masked. Confirming this hypothesis, KCC2a surface
      expression was detected by the C-terminal KCC2 pan antibody but not by the N
      terminal KCC2a antibody in KCC2b-deficient neurons. One possible cause for the
      epitope masking is the binding site of Ste20-related proline-alanine-rich kinase
      (SPAK) in the KCC2a N-terminus. SPAK, a known regulator of K-Cl cotransporters,
      was co-immunoprecipitated in a complex with KCC2a but not KCC2b isoform.
      Moreover, SPAK overexpression decreased the transport activity of KCC2a but not
      that of KCC2b, as revealed by rubidium flux assay in HEK293 cells. Thus, our data
      indicate that both KCC2 isoforms perform as chloride cotransporters in neuronal
      cells, while their N-terminal heterogeneity could play an important role in fine
      tuning of the K-Cl transport activity.

PMID- 28888843
TI  - Food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome to peanut with early introduction: a
      clinical dilemma.

PMID- 28888842
TI  - Evidence Refuting the Existence of Autoimmune/Autoinflammatory Syndrome Induced
      by Adjuvants (ASIA).
AB  - Autoimmune/autoinflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA) was described in
      2011. Over time the condition and its triggers have broadened to include several
      autoimmune disorders, the macrophagic myofasciitis syndrome, the Gulf war
      syndrome, the sick building syndrome, siliconosis, and the chronic fatigue
      syndrome. The aluminum-containing adjuvants in the hepatitis B vaccine and the
      human papillomavirus vaccine in particular have been stated to be the major
      causes of the disorder. Here, we review the specificity of the diagnostic
      criteria for ASIA. We also examine relevant human data, pertaining to causation,
      particularly from patients undergoing allergen-specific immunotherapy (IT).
      Patients undergoing allergen-specific IT receive 100 to 500 times more injected
      aluminum over 3 to 5 years, compared with hepatitis B and human papillomavirus
      vaccine recipients. In a large pharmacoepidemiological study, in contrast to case
      series of ASIA, patients receiving aluminum-containing allergen IT preparations
      were shown to have a lower incidence of autoimmune disease. In another clinical
      trial, there were no increases in exacerbations in a cohort of patients with
      systemic lupus erythematosus immunized with the hepatitis B vaccine. Current data
      do not support the causation of ASIA by vaccine adjuvants containing aluminum,
      which should be of reassurance to patients undergoing routine immunizations as
      well as to those undergoing allergen-specific IT.

PMID- 28888844
TI  - Recurrence of Chronic Urticaria: Incidence and Associated Factors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic urticaria (CU) is urticaria that has been present
      continuously or intermittently for at least 6 weeks. Although the prevalence and
      characteristics of CU are well established, little is known about recurrent CU
      (RCU). OBJECTIVES: We sought to establish a definition, determine the frequency,
      and evaluate risk factors for RCU. METHODS: A retrospective chart review of adult
      patients with CU evaluated at the University of Texas Southwestern allergy and
      immunology clinic was performed. RCU was defined as CU recurring at least 6
      months after cessation of controller therapy and resolution of prior CU symptoms.
      Charts were reviewed for symptom resolution and recurrence, subtypes of CU
      (idiopathic, physical, and urticarial vasculitis), and medication usage (first
      line agents, alternative agents, and steroid dependence). RESULTS: Forty-five of
      341 patients (13%) had RCU. The recurrence group had a higher frequency of
      alternative agent use at 57.8% (n = 26) compared with the nonrecurrence group at
      34.8% (n = 103), which was statistically significant (P < .01). The rate of
      steroid dependence was similar in both groups (13.3% in the recurrence group vs
      14.5%) and not statistically significant. Individuals exposed to anti
      inflammatory agents, immunosuppressants, and omalizumab had a significantly
      higher relative risk of recurrence compared with those who only used first-line
      agents (relative risk [RR] 2.32, P < .01; RR 2.69, P < .01; and RR 2.18, P = .05,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: RCU occurs in approximately 13% of patients with CU
      in our clinic population. Alternative agent use and antihistamine refractoriness
      appear to place patients at increased risk for recurrence compared with first
      line agent use alone.

PMID- 28888845
TI  - Eosinophilic esophagitis linked to pollen food syndrome.

PMID- 28888846
TI  - Diagnostic Accuracy of Urinary LTE4 Measurement to Predict Aspirin-Exacerbated
      Respiratory Disease in Patients with Asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) are
      distinguished from patients with aspirin-tolerant asthma (ATA) by significantly
      higher baseline concentrations of urinary leukotriene E4 (uLTE4). However, an
      overlap between the individual values of the groups exists. OBJECTIVE: The
      objective of this study was to estimate the discriminative value of uLTE4
      concentration in differentiating between patients with AERD and patients with ATA
      and evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of uLTE4 measurement alone and added to
      clinical parameters to predict AERD diagnosis in patients with asthma. METHODS:
      Clinical data were collected from questionnaires. Spirometry, skin prick tests,
      total IgE, and blood eosinophilia were evaluated. ULTE4 concentrations were
      measured in morning urine samples by enzyme-linked immune assay (ELISA). RESULTS:
      Patients with AERD (n = 247) had significantly higher uLTE4 concentrations than
      those with ATA (n = 239). The uLTE4 concentration of 800.0 pg/mg creatinine as
      measured by ELISA on a spot sample best discriminated the 2 groups (area under
      the curve 0.7; 95% confidence interval 0.66-0.74, sensitivity 49%, specificity
      81%). The positive predictive value and negative predictive value (NPV), after
      considering the prevalence of AERD in the population of asthmatics, were 16% and
      96%, respectively. Nasal polyps, upper airway symptoms, nasal corticosteroid
      treatment, asthma exacerbations, forced expiratory volume in the 1 second
      predicted, and age of asthma onset were independent predictors of AERD diagnosis.
      The addition of elevated uLTE4 concentration to the set of clinical parameters
      enhanced slightly the prediction of AERD diagnosis beyond the level predicted by
      clinical parameters (P = .036). CONCLUSIONS: A set of typical clinical parameters
      has a superior accuracy in prediction of AERD diagnosis than the measurement of
      uLTE4 concentration alone. The addition of uLTE4 concentration to clinical
      parameters slightly enhances the prediction of AERD diagnosis, especially due to
      a high NPV.

PMID- 28888847
TI  - Hereditary angioedema in 2 sisters due to paternal gonadal mosaicism.

PMID- 28888848
TI  - Prevention of oxytosis-induced c-Raf down-regulation by (arylthio)cyclopentenone
      prostaglandins is neuroprotective.
AB  - Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of glutamate leads to cell type
      specific glutathione depletion and resulting oxidative stress, known as oxytosis.
      As a result of glutathione depletion, accumulation of reactive oxygen species and
      Ca2+ influx are increased; however, the specific target of oxytosis has yet to be
      identified. In the present study, we focused on the effect of glutamate-induced
      oxidative stress on the extracellular-regulated protein kinase (ERK) pathway
      using the murine hippocampal HT22 cell line. Although the contribution of the ERK
      pathway to glutamate-induced oxytosis in HT22 cells is controversial, Western
      blot analysis revealed that glutamate caused down-regulation of mitogen-activated
      protein kinase kinase kinase (c-Raf) and a resulting decrease in the
      phosphorylation of c-Raf, as well as of mitogen-activated protein kinase
      kinase1/2 (MEK1/2) and ERK1/2, downstream components of the c-Raf/MEK/ERK
      pathway. Furthermore, neuroprotective (arylthio)cyclopentenone prostaglandins
      prevented glutamate-induced c-Raf down-regulation and consequently maintained the
      basal activity of c-Raf and its downstream signaling components. A pull-down
      assay using biotin-labeled cyclopentenone prostaglandins revealed that they
      preferentially bound to c-Raf relative to other signaling molecules of the ERK
      pathway, including Ras, MEK1/2, and ERK. These results suggest that
      neuroprotective (arylthio)cyclopentenone prostaglandins directly bind to c-Raf
      protein and protect cells from down-regulation of the c-Raf protein itself,
      resulting in neuroprotection against oxidative stress.

PMID- 28888849
TI  - Outcomes in non-metastatic treatment naive extremity osteosarcoma patients
      treated with a novel non-high dosemethotrexate-based, dose-dense combination
      chemotherapy regimen 'OGS-12'.
AB  - PURPOSE: High-dose methotrexate (HDMTX)-based regimens are widely used in
      osteosarcoma. However, mandatory in-patient treatment with complex
      pharmacokinetic monitoring requirement precludes its use, especially in resource
      constrained settings of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHODS: All
      treatment naive consecutive patients of osteosarcoma were prospectively treated
      on a novel institutional regimen (named OGS-12) comprising of eight sequential
      doublets of the following drugs: doxorubicin, cisplatin and ifosfamide in four
      courses each, given in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. Data were
      prospectively collected on baseline characteristics, histological response to
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), toxicity, event-free survival (EFS) and overall
      survival (OS). RESULTS: Between 2011 and 2014, 317 treatment naive patients with
      extremity osteosarcoma were seen, of whom 237 (75%) were non-metastatic. Majority
      had high tumour burden, with mean tumour size of 10.45 cm, high serum lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH) and serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP) in 71% and 88%
      respectively. A significant number (34%) were nutritionally challenged. Two
      hundred ten of 237 patients were analysable for histological response of which
      58% had good response (viable cells <=10%). At the median follow-up of 34.31 (2
      60) months, in intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis, the 5-year EFS and OS were 56%
      and 75% respectively; the same were 60% and 80% in per-protocol analysis. There
      was febrile neutropenia (FN) in 56%, grade 3/4 thrombocytopaenia in 22% and
      anaemia in 47% with two chemotoxic deaths. Ten percent of the patients had grade
      3/4 diarrhoea and stomatitis and one patient developed grade 4 acute kidney
      injury requiring dialysis. Baseline SAP (per-protocol) for EFS and performance
      status (ITT) for OS were found to be independent variables. Histological response
      was an independent predictor for EFS and OS in both the analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In
      treatment naive patients with non-metastatic osteosarcoma, OGS-12 protocol, a
      dose-dense, non-HDMTX-based, novel, economic and easy to administer regimen
      produces comparable outcomes to international standards, with acceptable toxicity
      and is worthy of wider clinical application.

PMID- 28888850
TI  - Ultrasound-based follow-up does not increase survival in early-stage melanoma
      patients: A comparative cohort study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Different protocols have been used to follow up melanoma patients
      in stage I-II. However, there is no consensus on the complementary tests that
      should be requested or the appropriate intervals between visits. Our aim is to
      compare an ultrasound-based follow-up with a clinical follow-up. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: Analysis of two prospectively collected cohorts of melanoma patients in
      stage IB-IIA from two tertiary referral centres in Barcelona (clinical-based
      follow-up [C-FU]) and Turin (ultrasound-based follow-up [US-FU]). Kaplan-Meier
      curves were used to evaluate distant metastases-free survival (DMFS), disease
      free interval (DFI), nodal metastases-free survival (NMFS) and melanoma-specific
      survival (MSS). RESULTS: A total of 1149 patients in the American Joint Committee
      on Cancer stage IB and IIA were included in this study, of which 554 subjects
      (48%) were enrolled for a C-FU, and 595 patients (52%) received a protocolised US
      FU. The median age was 53.8 years (interquartile range [IQR] 41.5-65.2) with a
      median follow-up time of 4.14 years (IQR 1.2-7.6). During follow-up, 69 patients
      (12.5%) in C-FU and 72 patients (12.1%) in US-FU developed disease progression.
      Median time to relapse for the first metastatic site was 2.11 years (IQR 1.14
      4.04) for skin metastases, 1.32 (IQR 0.57-3.29) for lymph node metastases and
      2.84 (IQR 1.32-4.60) for distant metastases. The pattern of progression and the
      total proportion of metastases were not significantly different (P = .44) in the
      two centres. No difference in DFI, DMFS, NMFS and MSS was found between the two
      cohorts. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-based follow-up does not increase the survival of
      melanoma patients in stage IB-IIA.

PMID- 28888851
TI  - Long term longitudinal study of muscle function in patients with glycogen storage
      disease type IIIa.
AB  - Glycogen storage disease type III (GSDIII) is an autosomal recessive disorder
      caused by mutations in the AGL gene coding for the glycogen debranching enzyme.
      Current therapy is based on dietary adaptations but new preclinical therapies are
      emerging. The identification of outcome measures which are sensitive to disease
      progression becomes critical to assess the efficacy of new treatments in upcoming
      clinical trials. In order to prepare future longitudinal studies or therapeutic
      trials with large cohorts, information about disease progression is required. In
      this study we present preliminary longitudinal data of Motor Function Measure
      (MFM), timed tests, Purdue pegboard test, and handgrip strength collected over 5
      to 9years of follow-up in 13 patients with GSDIII aged between 13 and 56years
      old. Follow-up for nine of the 13 patients was up to 9years. Similarly to our
      previous cross-sectional retrospective study, handgrip strength significantly
      decreased with age in patients older than 37years. MFM scores started to decline
      after the age of 35. The Purdue pegboard score also significantly reduced with
      increasing age (from 13years of age) but with large inter-visit variations. The
      time to stand up from a chair or to climb 4 stairs increased dramatically in some
      but not all patients older than 30years old. In conclusion, this preliminary
      longitudinal study suggests that MFM and handgrip strength are the most sensitive
      muscle function outcome measures in GSDIII patients from the end of their third
      decade. Sensitive muscle outcome measures remain to be identified in younger
      GSDIII patients but is challenging as muscle symptoms remain discrete and often
      present as accumulated fatigue.

PMID- 28888852
TI  - Renal endoplasmic reticulum stress is coupled to impaired autophagy in a mouse
      model of GSD Ia.
AB  - GSD Ia (von Gierke Disease, Glycogen Storage Disease Type Ia) is a devastating
      genetic disorder with long-term sequelae, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver
      disease and renal failure. Down-regulated autophagy is involved in the
      development of hepatic metabolic dysfunction in GSD Ia; however, the role of
      autophagy in the renal pathology is unknown. Here we show that autophagy is
      impaired and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is increased in the kidneys of a
      mouse model of GSD Ia. Induction of autophagy by rapamycin also reduces this ER
      stress. Taken together, these results show an additional role for autophagy down
      regulation in the pathogenesis of GSD Ia, and provide further justification for
      the use of autophagy modulators in GSD Ia.

PMID- 28888853
TI  - Monitoring guidance for patients with hypophosphatasia treated with asfotase
      alfa.
AB  - Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare, inherited, systemic, metabolic disorder caused
      by autosomal recessive mutations or a single dominant-negative mutation in the
      gene encoding tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP). The disease is
      associated with a broad range of signs, symptoms, and complications, including
      impaired skeletal mineralization, altered calcium and phosphate metabolism,
      recurrent fractures, pain, respiratory problems, impaired growth and mobility,
      premature tooth loss, developmental delay, and seizures. Asfotase alfa is a
      human, recombinant enzyme replacement therapy that is approved in many countries
      for the treatment of patients with HPP. To address the unmet need for guidance in
      the monitoring of patients receiving asfotase alfa, an international panel of
      physicians with experience in diagnosing and managing HPP convened in May 2016 to
      discuss treatment monitoring parameters. The panel discussions focused on
      recommendations for assessing and monitoring patients after the decision to treat
      with asfotase alfa had been made and did not include recommendations for whom to
      treat. Based on the consensus of panel members, this review provides guidance on
      the monitoring of patients with HPP during treatment with asfotase alfa,
      including recommendations for laboratory, efficacy, and safety assessments and
      the frequency with which these should be performed during the course of
      treatment. Recommended assessments are based on patient age and include regular
      monitoring of biochemistry, skeletal radiographs, respiratory function, growth,
      pain, mobility and motor function, and quality of life. Because of the systemic
      presentation of HPP, a coordinated, multidisciplinary, team-based, patient
      focused approach is recommended in the management of patients receiving asfotase
      alfa. Monitoring of efficacy and safety outcomes must be tailored to the
      individual patient, depending on medical history, clinical manifestations,
      availability of resources in the clinical setting, and the clinician's
      professional judgment.

PMID- 28888854
TI  - Quantitation of phenylbutyrate metabolites by UPLC-MS/MS demonstrates inverse
      correlation of phenylacetate:phenylacetylglutamine ratio with plasma glutamine
      levels.
AB  - Urea cycle disorders (UCDs) are genetic conditions characterized by nitrogen
      accumulation in the form of ammonia and caused by defects in the enzymes required
      to convert ammonia to urea for excretion. UCDs include a spectrum of enzyme
      deficiencies, namely n-acetylglutamate synthase deficiency (NAGS), carbamoyl
      phosphate synthetase I deficiency (CPS1), ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency
      (OTC), argininosuccinate lyase deficiency (ASL), citrullinemia type I (ASS1), and
      argininemia (ARG). Currently, sodium phenylbutyrate and glycerol phenylbutyrate
      are primary medications used to treat patients with UCDs, and long-term
      monitoring of these compounds is critical for preventing drug toxic levels.
      Therefore, a fast and simple ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC-MS/MS)
      method was developed and validated for quantification of phenylbutyrate (PB),
      phenylacetate (PA), and phenylacetylglutamine (PAG) in plasma and urine. The
      separation of all three analytes was achieved in 2min, and the limits of
      detection were <0.04MUg/ml. Intra-precision and inter-precision were <8.5% and 4%
      at two quality control concentrations, respectively. Average recoveries for all
      compounds ranged from 100% to 106%. With the developed assay, a strong
      correlation between PA and the PA/PAG ratio and an inverse correlation between
      PA/PAG ratio and plasma glutamine were observed in 35 patients with confirmed
      UCDs. Moreover, all individuals with a ratio >=0.6 had plasma glutamine
      levels<1000MUmol/l. Our data suggest that a PA/PAG ratio in the range of 0.6-1.5
      will result in a plasma glutamine level<1000MUmol/l without reaching toxic levels
      of PA.

PMID- 28888855
TI  - Cytomegalovirus associated severe pneumonia, multi-organ failure and Ganciclovir
      associated arrhythmia in immunocompetent child.
AB  - Cytomegalovirus (CMV) can rarely cause severe manifestations in immunocompetent
      individuals. Hereby, we report a twelve-year-old boy who presented with
      tachycardia, tachypnea, fever and leukocytosis, which progressed to hypoxemic
      respiratory failure and severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
      Subsequently, he developed multi-organ failure despite the ongoing full
      supportive care and empiric broad spectrum antibiotics. Cytomegalovirus infection
      was diagnosed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in blood and histopathological
      examination of lung biopsy. Immunological work up for the child was unremarkable.
      Ganciclovir therapy was introduced and showed significant improvement until full
      recovery. However, our patient developed transient heart block as a rare
      complication for Ganciclovir therapy throughout his course. We present this case
      with literature review for the CMV infection associated morbidity and mortality
      among immunocompetent children.

PMID- 28888856
TI  - Computational models of basal ganglia dysfunction: the dynamics is in the
      details.
AB  - The development, simulation, and analysis of mathematical models offer helpful
      tools for integrating experimental findings and exploring or suggesting possible
      explanatory mechanisms. As models relating to basal ganglia dysfunction have
      proliferated, however, there has not always been consistency among their
      findings. This work points out several ways in which biological details, relating
      to ionic currents and synaptic pathways, can influence the dynamics of models of
      the basal ganglia under parkinsonian conditions and hence may be important for
      inclusion in models. It also suggests some additional useful directions for
      future modeling studies relating to basal ganglia dysfunction.

PMID- 28888857
TI  - Modelling plasticity in dendrites: from single cells to networks.
AB  - One of the key questions in neuroscience is how our brain self-organises to
      efficiently process information. To answer this question, we need to understand
      the underlying mechanisms of plasticity and their role in shaping synaptic
      connectivity. Theoretical neuroscience typically investigates plasticity on the
      level of neural networks. Neural network models often consist of point neurons,
      completely neglecting neuronal morphology for reasons of simplicity. However,
      during the past decades it became increasingly clear that inputs are locally
      processed in the dendrites before they reach the cell body. Dendritic properties
      enable local interactions between synapses and location-dependent modulations of
      inputs, rendering the position of synapses on dendrites highly important. These
      insights changed our view of neurons, such that we now think of them as small
      networks of nearly independent subunits instead of a simple point. Here, we
      propose that understanding how the brain processes information strongly requires
      that we consider the following properties: which plasticity mechanisms are
      present in the dendrites and how do they enable the self-organisation of synapses
      across the dendritic tree for efficient information processing? Ultimately,
      dendritic plasticity mechanisms can be studied in networks of neurons with
      dendrites, possibly uncovering unknown mechanisms that shape the connectivity in
      our brains.

PMID- 28888859
TI  - Determination of heavy metal toxicity by using a micro-droplet hydrodynamic
      voltammetry for microalgal bioassay based on alkaline phosphatase.
AB  - We developed an electrochemical microalgal bioassay for the determination of
      heavy metal toxicity in water on the basis of the alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
      enzyme inhibition of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Five heavy metals were chosen as
      toxicants: Hg, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Cu. The induced ALP activity of C. reinhardtii was
      inhibited using the phosphate starvation method, and the results were evaluated
      by measuring the electrochemical oxidation of p-aminophenol (PAP) following the
      enzymatic conversion of p-aminophenyl phosphate (PAPP) as a substrate. The rapid
      determination of enzymatic activity was achieved using hydrodynamic voltammetry
      in a 50 MUL micro-droplet with a rotating disk electrode (RDE). Enzymatic
      activity over a PAPP substrate is affected by heavy metal ions, and this
      phenomenon decreases the chronoamperometric current signal. The concentrations of
      Hg, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Cu in which the ALP activity was half that of the control
      (EC50) were found to be 0.017, 0.021, 0.27, 1.30, and 1.36 MUM, respectively. The
      RDE system was demonstrated to be capable of detecting enzymatic activity by
      using a small amount of regent, a reaction time of only 60 s, and a detection
      limit of 5.4 * 10-7 U.

PMID- 28888861
TI  - Development of nanohybrid adsorbent for defluoridation from aqueous systems.
AB  - The objective of present study is advancement of an efficient nanomaterial which
      was investigated to substantiate its efficiency, using kinetic studies to ensnare
      fluoride in order to make water potable. A new crystalline ZrAlCa nanohybrid
      adsorbent for fluoride removal was successfully synthesized by a co-precipitation
      method in this study. The prepared adsorbents were characterized by XRD, FT-IR,
      TGA, BET and FESEM and EDX. The adsorption properties of the developed adsorbent
      were studied using batch adsorption method which shown the noticeable fluoride
      removal efficiency up to 99% at near neutral pH as well as in acidic pH range.
      The reaction kinetics for adsorption of fluoride was established using reaction
      based kinetic models which fitted well with Avarami kinetic model as compared to
      pseudo-first-order, pseudo second-order and power function rate expression. The
      equilibrium isotherm modelling described adsorption process and Langmuir,
      Jovanovic, Temkin and Freundlich isotherms provides best fit to experimental
      data. The fluoride loaded adsorbent was efficiently regenerated by using an
      alkali solution and has no significant counter ion effect on fluoride adsorption
      efficiency. Interestingly, the developed nanomaterial has fluoride removal
      efficacy over varied concentration ranges. It has capability of reanimate and
      reuse the nanohybrid adsorbent makes it an attractive sustainable material.

PMID- 28888860
TI  - Natural soil mediated photo Fenton-like processes in treatment of
      pharmaceuticals: Batch and continuous approach.
AB  - This paper manifests the potential viability of soil as a cost-free catalyst in
      photo-Fenton-like processes for treating pharmaceuticals at large scale.
      Naturally available soil without any cost intensive modification was utilized as
      a catalyst to degrade pharmaceuticals, specifically ornidazole (ORZ) and
      ofloxacin (OFX). Soil was characterized and found enriched with various iron
      oxides like hematite, magnetite, goethite, pyrite and wustite, which contributes
      toward enhanced dissolution of Fe3+ than Fe2+ in the aqueous solution resulting
      in augmented rate of photo-Fenton reaction. The leached iron concentration in
      solution was detected during the course of experiments. The degradation of ORZ
      and OFX was assessed in solar induced batch experiments using H2O2 as oxidant and
      95% ORZ and 92% OFX removal was achieved. Elevated efficiencies were achieved due
      to Fe2+/Fe3+ cycling, producing more hydroxyl radical leading to the existence of
      homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions simultaneously. The removal efficiency of
      solar photo-Fenton like process was also compared to photo-Fenton process with
      different irradiation sources (UV-A and UV-B) and were statistically analysed.
      Continuous-scale studies were conducted employing soil either in the form of soil
      beads or as a thin layer spread on the surface of baffled reactor. Soil beads
      were found to have satisfactory reusability and stability. 84 and 79% degradation
      of ORZ and OFX was achieved using soil as thin layer while with soil beads 71 and
      68% degradation, respectively. HPLC and TOC study confirmed the efficient removal
      of both the compounds. Toxicity assessment demonstrates the inexistence of toxic
      intermediates during the reaction.

PMID- 28888862
TI  - Nitrogen dioxide radicals mediated mineralization of perfluorooctanoic acid in
      aqueous nitrate solution with UV irradiation.
AB  - Effective decomposition of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has received increasing
      attention in recent years because of its global occurrence and resistance to most
      conventional treatment processes. In this study, the complete mineralization of
      PFOA was achieved by the UV-photolysis of nitrate aqueous solution (UV/Nitrate),
      where the in-situ generated nitrogen dioxide radicals (NO2) efficiently mediated
      the degradation of PFOA. In particular, when the twinborn hydroxyl radicals were
      scavenged, the production of more NO2 radicals realized the complete
      mineralization of PFOA. DFT calculations further confirm the feasibility of PFOA
      removal with NO2. Near-stoichiometric equivalents of fluoride released rather
      than the related intermediates were detected in solution after decomposition of
      PEOA, further demonstrating the complete degradation of PFOA. Possible PFOA
      degradation pathways were proposed on the basis of experimental results. This
      work offers an efficient strategy for the complete mineralization of
      perfluorinated chemicals, and also sheds light on the indispensable roles of
      nitrogen dioxide radicals for environmental pollutants removal.

PMID- 28888863
TI  - Increased insulin resistance in men with unexplained infertility.
AB  - This prospective case-control study aimed to test the presence of insulin
      resistance (IR) in men with unexplained infertility. We included two groups: the
      study group including 160 infertile men with unexplained oligozoospermia (sperm
      count <10 * 106/ml) and normal hormonal profile, and the control group of 79 men
      with proven fertility within the preceding year. A fasting blood test measured
      IR, FSH, LH, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein
      and triglycerides. Insulin level was significantly higher in the study group
      (13.67 +/- 10.44) compared with the control group (5.46 +/- 3.15), P < 0.0001,
      and IR was significantly higher in the study group, P < 0.0001. FSH was
      significantly (P < 0.0001) higher in the study group (4.71 +/- 2.57) than the
      control group (3.15 +/- 1.92). LH was significantly higher in the study group
      (4.98 +/- 2.41) compared with the control group (3.15 +/- 1.12), P < 0.0001.
      Total cholesterol was significantly higher in the study group (198.29 +/- 37.52)
      than the control group (182.45 +/- 35.92), P < 0.05. In conclusion, IR in men
      with unexplained infertility may be a cause of reproductive and metabolic
      abnormalities. The benefit of insulin-sensitizing agents for these patients
      should be tested.

PMID- 28888864
TI  - Predictors of supplementation for breastfed babies in a Baby-Friendly hospital.
AB  - PROBLEM: Supplementation of breastfed babies is common during the hospital stay.
      BACKGROUND: The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) optimises practices to
      support exclusive breastfeeding, yet supplementation is still prevalent.
      OBJECTIVE: To determine predictors for supplementation in a cohort of breastfed
      babies in a Baby-Friendly hospital. METHODS: Electronic hospital records of 1530
      healthy term or near term singleton infants and their mothers were examined
      retrospectively and analysed to identify factors associated with in-hospital
      supplementation using Poisson regression (unadjusted and adjusted). FINDINGS:
      Fifteen percent of breastfed infants were supplemented during their hospital
      stay. Analysis by multivariable Poisson regression found that supplementation was
      independently associated with overweight (reference normal weight) (aRR [adjusted
      relative risk]=1.46; 95% CI: 1.11-1.93); primiparity (aRR=1.40; 95% CI: 1.09
      1.80); early term gestation (37-376 weeks, aRR=2.79; 95% CI: 1.88-4.15; 38-386
      weeks, aRR=2.03, 95%CI: 1.46-2.82); birthweight less than 2500 grams (reference
      3000-3499 grams) (aRR=3.60; 95% CI: 2.32-5.60) and use of postpartum uterotonic
      (aRR=2.47; 95% CI: 1.09-5.55). Greater than 65 minutes of skin-to-skin contact at
      birth reduced the risk of supplementation (aRR=0.66; 95% CI; 0.48-0.92).
      CONCLUSION: These identified predictors for supplementation, can inform the
      development of interventions for mother-infant pairs antenatally or in the early
      postpartum period around increased breastfeeding education and support to reduce
      supplementation. It may also be possible to reduce supplementation through
      judicious use of postpartum uterotonics and facilitation of mother-infant skin-to
      skin contact at birth for greater than one hour duration.

PMID- 28888865
TI  - Changes in foot posture during pregnancy and their relation with musculoskeletal
      pain: A longitudinal cohort study.
AB  - AIM: To examine foot posture changes during the three trimesters of pregnancy and
      to determine whether there is a relationship between these changes and the pain
      experienced in this period. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 62 pregnant
      women who attended the Gynaecology Service at Hospital Santa Maria del Puerto
      (Cadiz, Spain), between January 2013 and May 2014. In their first visit, the
      following sociodemographic and anthropometric data were recorded: age, weight,
      height and foot size. In addition, information was obtained regarding pain in the
      lower back, knees, ankles and feet. In this first visit, too, the Foot Posture
      Index (FPI) was assessed, and three subsequent controls were performed during the
      first, second and third months of pregnancy (termed Stages 1, 2 and 3,
      respectively). RESULTS: In Stage 1, the average foot size (i.e., shoe size) was
      38.3 (SD 1.5). This size did not change between Stages 1, 2 and 3. However, body
      weight and BMI did present statistically significant changes during this period
      (p<0.0001). The FPI varied during pregnancy but no relation was observed between
      these changes and the onset of pain. CONCLUSIONS: During pregnancy, pronation
      increases but this does not appear to influence the onset of pain in the lower
      limbs.

PMID- 28888866
TI  - Everolimus Versus Axitinib as Second-line Therapy in Metastatic Renal Cell
      Carcinoma: Experience From Institut Gustave Roussy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Everolimus (E) and axitinib (A) have been standard treatments for
      patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma after failure of first-line therapy
      (1L) with vascular endothelial growth factor-targeted therapy. This study aims to
      compare both drugs in a large comprehensive cancer center. METHODS: Patient
      characteristics and outcome data from all patients with metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma who received E or A as second-line therapy at Gustave Roussy from April
      2007 to May 2015 have been recorded. RESULTS: A total of 81 patients were treated
      with E and 45 patients with A. There were no major differences between the 2
      groups. The most common 1L was sunitinib (79% in the E group and 82.2% in the A
      group). The median follow-up was 29 months; 26 months for A and 33 months for E
      (P = .046). The median overall survival (OS) was 21.5 months for E and 14.9
      months for A (P = .23). The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.3 and
      7.7 months for E and A, respectively (P = .39). Partial response was achieved in
      4% and in 24% of patients (P = .002) in the E and A cohort, respectively. In the
      A group, the median PFS and OS were statistically different according to
      response, tumor burden, and 1L duration. No differences were found in the E arm.
      CONCLUSION: In this series, there are no significant differences for PFS and OS
      with E and A. A appears to provide more objective response. A appears to be more
      effective in patients with small tumor burden, responders to 1L, and 1L therapy >
      12 months.

PMID- 28888867
TI  - PICK1 facilitates lasting reduction in GluA2 concentration in the hippocampus
      during chronic epilepsy.
AB  - Overstimulation of glutamate receptors resulting in excessive intracellular
      calcium concentrations is a major cause of neuronal cell death in epilepsy. The
      main source of increased calcium concentration during this excitotoxicity is an
      influx through NMDA subtype of glutamate receptors. The GluR2 (GluA2) hypothesis
      states that following a neurological insult such as an epileptic seizure, the
      AMPA receptor subunit GluR2 protein is downregulated. This increases the
      likelihood of the formation of GluR2-lacking, calcium-permeable AMPA receptor
      which might further enhance the toxicity of the neurotransmitter, glutamate. The
      cytosolic protein, PICK1, facilitates the removal of GluA2 subunits from the
      synaptic plasma membrane. High calcium concentrations may cause PICK1 to bind to
      the GluA2 subunit of calcium-impermeable AMPARs, leading to an increased
      internalization of these receptor subunits and a relative increase of GluA2
      lacking, calcium-permeable AMPARs. This further escalates the cytosolic calcium
      concentration. In order to test this hypothesis, we have used kainic acid to
      induce epilepsy in rats. Using semi-quantitative western blotting combined with
      univariate and multivariate statistical analyses, we found that both GluA2 and
      PICK1 were down-regulated in kainate-treated rats for as long as eight weeks
      after induction of epilepsy. An interesting finding was that statistical analysis
      indicates that the functional role of PICK1 in our material is to increase GluA2
      concentrations in the cells. The observed reduction in PICK1 concentration may
      thus be an independent contributor to the observed GluA2 reduction. This
      reduction may possibly be an adaptive mechanism, serving to prevent further loss
      of GluA2 from the synapses.

PMID- 28888868
TI  - Acute Right Upper Quadrant Abdominal Pain.

PMID- 28888869
TI  - Development of a set of multiplex PCRs for detection of genes encoding cell wall
      associated proteins in Staphylococcus pseudintermedius isolates from dogs, humans
      and the environment.
AB  - Staphylococcus pseudintermedius commonly colonizes the skin of dogs, whilst nasal
      carriage may occur in humans who are in contact with dogs or the environment of
      veterinary hospitals. Genes encoding cell wall-associated (CWA) proteins have
      been described in Staphylococcus aureus but knowledge of their occurrence in S.
      pseudintermedius is still limited. The aim of the study was to develop a method
      to detect S. pseudintermedius surface protein genes (sps) encoding CWA proteins,
      and to examine the distribution of the genes in isolates from different sources.
      Four multiplex PCR assays (mPCR) were developed for detection of 18 sps genes,
      with 4-5 genes detected per mPCR. These were applied to 135 S. pseudintermedius
      isolates from carriage sites (n=35) and infected sites (n=35) in dogs, from the
      nasal cavity of humans (n=25), and from the environment of a veterinary hospital
      (n=40). The mPCRs were shown to detect all 18 known sps genes, and no
      discrepancies were found between uniplex and mPCR results. The mPCRs could detect
      at least 1pg/MUl of DNA template. A total of 23 sps gene profiles were found
      among the 135 isolates, with diverse gene combinations. Only spsD, spsF, spsI,
      spsO, spsP, and spsQ were not detected in all isolates. spsP and spsQ were more
      frequently detected in the canine isolates from infected sites than from carriage
      sites. This finding suggests that these two genes may play a role in
      pathogenicity, whereas the presence of the 12 sps genes may contribute to
      adherence function at all surfaces where carriage occurs.

PMID- 28888870
TI  - Efficient differentiation of Corynebacterium striatum, Corynebacterium amycolatum
      and Corynebacterium xerosis clinical isolates by multiplex PCR using novel
      species-specific primers.
AB  - A multiplex-PCR (mPCR) assay was designed with species-specific primers which
      generate amplicons of 226bp, 434bp and 106bp for differentiating the species C.
      striatum, C. amycolatum, and C. xerosis, respectively. mPCR results were 100% in
      agreement with identifications achieved by 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing and
      by VITEK-MS.

PMID- 28888871
TI  - Interplay of mitochondria apoptosis regulatory factors and microRNAs in valvular
      heart disease.
AB  - Valvular heart disease (VHD) is an active process involving a wide range of
      pathological changes. The major complications of VHD are stenosis and
      regurgitation, which are macroscopic phenomena, induced in part through cellular
      changes. Altered expression of mitochondria associated genes causes membrane
      potential depolarization, leading to the increased levels of apoptosis observed
      in cardiac dysfunction. Objective of this study is to find molecular medicine
      candidates that can control expression of the key mitochondria apoptosis
      regulatory genes. Present study aims to assess the way microRNA are involved in
      regulating mitochondrial apoptosis regulatory genes and observation of their
      expression in the heart valve dysfunction. Apoptotic genes PUMA and DRP1 were
      found to be highly expressed, whereas anti-apoptotic gene ARC was down regulated.
      The expression level of GATA-4 transcription factor was also reduced in cardiac
      valve tissues. MicroRNAs miR-15a and miR-29a were repressed, while miR-214 was up
      regulated. Furthermore, study showed that PUMA, DRP1 and ARC expression might be
      attenuated by their respective miRNAs. Our results indicate that mitochondria
      regulatory genes might be controlled by miR-15a, miR-29a and miR-214, in VHD
      patients. Present study may provide platform for future research regarding
      potential therapeutic role of miRNAs in CVDs.

PMID- 28888872
TI  - The catalytic activity of a recombinant single chain variable fragment nucleic
      acid-hydrolysing antibody varies with fusion tag and expression host.
AB  - The antigen-binding properties of single chain Fv antibodies (scFvs) can vary
      depending on the position and type of fusion tag used, as well as the host cells
      used for expression. The issue is even more complicated with a catalytic scFv
      antibody that binds and hydrolyses a specific antigen. Herein, we investigated
      the antigen-binding and -hydrolysing activities of the catalytic anti-nucleic
      acid antibody 3D8 scFv expressed in Escherichia coli or HEK293f cells with or
      without additional amino acid residues at the N- and C-termini. DNA-binding
      activity was retained in all recombinant forms. However, the DNA-hydrolysing
      activity varied drastically between forms. The DNA-hydrolysing activity of E.
      coli-derived 3D8 scFvs was not affected by the presence of a C-terminal human
      influenza haemagglutinin (HA) or His tag. By contrast, the activity of HEK293f
      derived 3D8 scFvs was completely lost when additional residues were included at
      the N-terminus and/or when a His tag was incorporated at the C-terminus, whereas
      a HA tag at the C-terminus did not diminish activity. Thus, we demonstrate that
      the antigen-binding and catalytic activities of a catalytic antibody can be
      separately affected by the presence of additional residues at the N- and C
      termini, and by the host cell type.

PMID- 28888874
TI  - A kinetic approach to conflict theory and aggregation/secession of countries:
      Comment on "Modeling human behavior in economics and social science" by Marina
      Dolfin, Leone Leonida, and Nisrina Outada.

PMID- 28888873
TI  - Comparison of regadenoson and nitroprusside to adenosine for measurement of
      fractional flow reserve: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: FFR is useful in defining the physiological significance of
      intermediate coronary stenosis and requires induction of maximal hyperemia and
      measurement of pressure proximal and distal to the stenosis. Hyperemia normally
      is induced by either IV or IC adenosine, a medication associated with short-term
      side effects. IV regadenoson and IC nitroprusside have been suggested as viable
      alternatives. This meta-analysis aims to identify all studies comparing use of
      intravenous (IV) regadenoson or intracoronary (IC) nitroprusside with IV
      adenosine to determine differences related to the agent utilized for assessment
      of fractional flow reserve (FFR). METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of
      Science, SCOPUS, ClinicalTrials.gov and the Cochrane Library databases for
      studies comparing IV regadenoson or IC nitroprusside to IV adenosine for FFR
      assessment. The main outcome was difference in mean FFR measurement. The main
      secondary outcomes were composite side-effect profile and reclassification of
      lesions. RESULTS: Seven studies were included in the analysis, with a total of
      375 patients. Compared to IV adenosine, there was no difference in the mean FFR
      derived from IV regadenoson (p=1.0) or IC nitroprusside (p=0.48). IV regadenoson
      was associated with 53% lower risk of pooled side effects compared to IV
      adenosine (p=0.05). IC nitroprusside was associated with 97% lower risk of pooled
      side effects compared to IV adenosine (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: IV regadenoson and
      IC nitroprusside produce similar pressure-derived FFR measurements compared to IV
      adenosine and have a favorable side effect profile. Both can be considered as
      alternative agents to IV adenosine for FFR measurement. Further clinical
      validation is warranted.

PMID- 28888875
TI  - Imazalil exposure induces gut microbiota dysbiosis and hepatic metabolism
      disorder in zebrafish.
AB  - The fungicide imazalil (IMZ) is used extensively to preserve freshness, prevent
      decay and control fungal infections in fruits, vegetables or other plants.
      Recently, some studies have reported that the real in aquatic systems have
      reached very high levels. Here, male adult zebrafish were exposed to 100 and
      1000MUg/L IMZ for 1, 7, 21days, and the gut microbiota and hepatic metabolism
      were evaluated. Exposure to a high concentration of IMZ for 21days decreased
      mucin secretion in the gut. Sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S
      rRNA gene revealed a significant increase in the diversity of gut microbiota in
      male zebrafish. At the phylum level, the composition of Proteobacteria and
      Bacteroidetes was decreased, while those Fusobacteria and Firmicutes increased in
      the gut after exposure to 1000MUg/L IMZ for 21days. At the genus level, 29
      species of microorganisms were significantly changed after IMZ exposure. Based on
      GC/MS metabolomics analysis, 101 metabolites were observably significantly
      altered in the 1000MUg/L IMZ-treatment group. These changed metabolites were
      mainly associated with the pathway of glycolysis, amino acid metabolism, and
      lipid metabolism. In addition, the transcription of some genes related to
      glycolysis and lipid metabolism, including Aco, Cpt1, Acc1, Srebp1a and Fas, was
      decreased significantly in the liver of zebrafish when exposed to 100 and
      1000MUg/L IMZ for 7 or 21days. These results indicated that exposure to IMZ could
      cause gut microbiota dysbiosis and metabolic disorders in adult zebrafish.

PMID- 28888876
TI  - Hemolymph and gill carbonic anhydrase are more sensitive to aquatic contamination
      than mantle carbonic anhydrase in the mangrove oyster Crassostrea rhizophorae.
AB  - Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a ubiquitous metalloenzyme of great importance in
      several physiological processes. Due to its physiological importance and
      sensitivity to various pollutants, CA activity has been used as biomarker of
      aquatic contamination. Considering that in bivalves the sensitivity of CA to
      pollutants seems to be tissue-specific, we proposed here to analyze CA activity
      of hemolymph, gill and mantle of Crassostrea rhizophorae collected in two
      tropical Brazilian estuaries with different levels of anthropogenic impact, in
      dry and rainy season. We found increased carbonic anhydrase activity in
      hemolymph, gill and mantle of oysters collected in the Paraiba Estuary (a site of
      high anthropogenic impact) when compared to oysters from Mamanguape Estuary
      (inserted in an area of environmental preservation), especially in the rainy
      season. CA of hemolymph and gill were more sensitive than mantle CA to aquatic
      contamination. This study enhances the suitability of carbonic anhydrase activity
      for field biomarker applications with bivalves and brings new and relevant
      information on hemolymph carbonic anhydrase activity as biomarker of aquatic
      contamination.

PMID- 28888877
TI  - The role of charge in the toxicity of polymer-coated cerium oxide nanomaterials
      to Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - This study examined the impact of surface functionalization and charge on ceria
      nanomaterial toxicity to Caenorhabditis elegans. The examined endpoints included
      mortality, reproduction, protein expression, and protein oxidation profiles.
      Caenorhabditis elegans were exposed to identical 2-5nm ceria nanomaterial cores
      which were coated with cationic (diethylaminoethyl dextran; DEAE), anionic
      (carboxymethyl dextran; CM), and non-ionic (dextran; DEX) polymers. Mortality and
      reproductive toxicity of DEAE-CeO2 was approximately two orders of magnitude
      higher than for CM-CeO2 or DEX-CeO2. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis with
      orbitrap mass spectrometry identification revealed changes in the expression
      profiles of several mitochondrial-related proteins and proteins that are
      expressed in the C. elegans intestine. However, each type of CeO2 material
      exhibited a distinct protein expression profile. Increases in protein carbonyls
      and protein-bound 3-nitrotyrosine were also observed for some proteins,
      indicating oxidative and nitrosative damage. Taken together the results indicate
      that the magnitude of toxicity and toxicity pathways vary greatly due to surface
      functionalization of CeO2 nanomaterials.

PMID- 28888878
TI  - Effect of vitamin D supplementation on knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review
      and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To provide evidence regarding the effect of vitamin D supplementation
      on symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: A systematic review and meta
      analysis was performed to quantitatively pool the results from randomized
      clinical trials. Studies were identified from a search of the Embase, MEDLINE and
      Web of Science databases up to January 22, 2017, and also from conference
      abstracts, ClinicalTrials.gov and the reference lists of identified studies. A
      standardized mean difference (SMD) was used to assess effect sizes, as outcomes
      were reported on different scales. Depending on the degree of heterogeneity,
      random-effects or fixed-effects models were used to pool outcomes. RESULTS: Up to
      January 22, 2017, four clinical trials containing 570 subjects in the vitamin D
      supplementation group and 560 subjects in the placebo group were identified. All
      of the included studies were of high quality and had a low risk of bias for each
      domain. The results indicated that vitamin D supplementation had a statistically
      significant but small-to-moderate effect on pain control in patients with knee OA
      (SMD=-0.32, 95% CI: -0.63 to -0.02). However, no effects were observed for the
      change in tibial cartilage volume (SMD=0.12, 95% CI: -0.05 to 0.29) or joint
      space width (SMD=0.07, 95% CI: -0.08 to 0.23). The subgroup analysis indicated
      that vitamin D supplementation had no significant effect regardless of whether
      patients had sufficient or insufficient serum 25(OH)D levels at baseline.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that vitamin D supplementation
      may not have a clinically significant effect on pain control or structure
      progression among patients with knee OA. Longer-term clinical trials with
      rigorous measurement of symptom and radiologic changes are required to further
      clarify the effect of vitamin D supplementation in patients with symptomatic knee
      OA and low serum 25(OH)D levels.

PMID- 28888879
TI  - Fast form alpha-2-macroglobulin - A marker for protease activation in plasma
      exposed to artificial surfaces.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Investigation of the blood compatibility requires a number of
      sensitive assays to quantify the activation of the blood protein cascades and
      cells induced by biomaterials. A global assay measuring the blood compatibility
      of biomaterials could be a valuable tool in such regard. In this study, we
      investigated whether an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), that
      specifically measures the electrophoretic "fast form" of alpha2-macroglobulin (F
      alpha2M), could be a sensitive and global marker for activation of calcium
      dependent and in-dependent proteases in plasma exposed to biomaterials in vitro.
      METHODS: A F-alpha2M specific monoclonal antibody was generated and applied in an
      ELISA setup. Using the F-alpha2M ELISA, we investigated activation of calcium
      dependent and in-dependent proteases by polyvinylchloride (n=10),
      polytetrafluoroethylene (n=10) and silicone (n=10) tubings as well as glass tubes
      (n=10). RESULTS: We found that F-alpha2M is a sensitive marker for activation of
      both calcium dependent and in-dependent proteases. A significant difference
      between F-alpha2M concentrations in the control sample and plasma exposed to the
      artificial surfaces was found (p>0.001). This was observed both in the presence
      and absence of calcium. Furthermore, the highest F-alpha2M concentration was in
      both cases found in plasma incubated with glass. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings
      demonstrate that F-alpha2M is a sensitive marker for detection of protease
      activation in plasma by artificial surfaces. Potentially, levels of F-alpha2M
      could be a global marker of the blood compatibility of biomaterials.

PMID- 28888880
TI  - Nutritional support in preterm infants.

PMID- 28888881
TI  - Prevalence and genetic profiling of tetracycline resistance (Tet-R) genes and
      transposable element (Tn916) in environmental Enterococcus species.
AB  - Resistance against antimicrobial agents in enterococci is a global concern that
      not only challenges infection therapy but also make them reservoir of antibiotic
      resistance in human and animal alike. This study was conducted to establish
      tetracycline resistance profiles, prevalence of tet genes and transposable
      element (Tn916) in enterococcal soil and clinical isolates. Enterococci (n =
      1210) from different environmental niche were collected and subjected to
      molecular identification. In total, 361 isolates showed tetracycline resistance
      at the breakpoint of 32 MUg ml-1. MICs (32-512 MUg ml-1) were established by both
      agar and micro-broth dilution methods. Soil isolates (n = 76) were further
      investigated for Tet genes (tet-A, C, K, L, M, S, O) and Tn916. Major resistance
      was observed in E. faecium 67% followed by E. faecalis 22%, E. hirae 8% and E.
      casseliflavus 2.6%. Results revealed that tet(L) was more frequently found in E.
      faecium 74.5%, while tet(M) was in high prevalence in E. faecalis 82.3%. Tn916
      was detected in both clinical and soil isolates (i.e. 43.3% and 19.7%,
      respectively). RAPD-PCR analysis showed high diversity among the investigated
      isolates. Cumulatively, our results revealed high-level tetracycline resistance
      and the presence of multiple Tet genes and transposable element Tn916 in
      enterococci.

PMID- 28888882
TI  - Genome-wide sequence transposon insertion sites and analyze the essential genes
      of Brucella melitensis.
AB  - A transposon mutant library of B. melitensis NI including 32,640 transposon
      mutants was established. By sequencing the transposon insertion sites, 10,832
      mutants were successfully defined for their insertion sites. Analysis of the
      mutants with defined transposon insertion sites (DTIS) indicated that the
      insertions were well spread through the two genomes. In addition, 948 genes with
      no detectable transposon insertions were taken as the candidate for
      identification of essential genes. In comparison with the Bacterial Database of
      Essential Genes and by using comparative genomics analysis, 183 potential
      essential genes of B. melitensis NI cultured in vitro were found and they were
      conserved in the common bacteria. This work was focused on screening of the
      essential genes of B. melitensis NI, which may provide a foundation for
      identification of the novel drug targets against brucellosis. Besides, the
      sequence-defined transposon library should serve as a resource for screening of
      different function genes of Brucella.

PMID- 28888883
TI  - Host responses and bacterial colonization following inoculation of Pasteurella
      multocida P52 strain into unvaccinated and aluminum hydroxide gel hemorrhagic
      septicemia vaccinated mice.
AB  - Hemorrhagic septicemia is a highly infectious and contagious disease caused by
      Pasteurella multocida serogroup B:2 in tropical Asian and African countries. The
      acute inflammatory responses induced by Pasteurella multocida are the main cause
      of death in hemorrhagic septicemia. Therefore, present study was undertaken to
      examine the blood cytokine expression profiles (TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6),
      bacterial colonization and histopathological changes of intraperitoneally and
      subcutaneously challenged vaccinated and unvaccinated mice with 102 CFU of P.
      multocida P52. The observations were made at 6, 12, 18, 24 h and 48 h intervals.
      Real-time PCR based blood cytokine profiles (TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6)
      measurement revealed a significantly higher amount of pro-inflammatory cytokines
      expression in the unvaccinated challenged group of mice than the vaccinated
      challenged group. There was heavy bacterial load in all organs of mice viz.
      trachea, lung, spleen, within 6 h of challenge in both vaccinated and
      unvaccinated group of mice, but bacterial load increased in the unvaccinated
      challenged group of mice with respect to time whereas the load were constant in
      the vaccinated challenged group. Histopathological changes were mild in the
      vaccinated challenged group of mice in comparison to the unvaccinated challenged
      group. There was no significant difference in the bacterial load,
      histopathological changes and cytokines expression when challenged through
      different routes.

PMID- 28888884
TI  - Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and integron gene cassettes in Escherichia
      coli isolated from yaks (Poephagus grunniens) in Aba Tibetan Autonomous
      Prefecture, China.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Escherichia coli (E. coli) is one of the most relevant opportunistic
      pathogenic bacteria as it may cause severe morbidity and mortality in yaks
      (poephagus grunniens). In recent years, several kinds of antibiotics have been
      widely used in Tibetan areas to treat the bacterial diseases, resulting in
      serious repercussions on the bacterial antibiotic resistance in yaks. This
      investigation was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial
      resistance and integron gene cassettes in E. coli isolated from yaks in Aba
      Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Aba TAP), China. METHODS: A total of 278 non
      duplicated fresh samples were collected from the yaks in Aba TAP for the
      isolation and identification of E. coli isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility
      testing is performed by using the disc diffusion method according to the Clinical
      and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines (CLSI, 2013). Various antibiotic
      resistance genes and integron gene cassettes were detected by polymerase chain
      reaction (PCR) and sequencing. RESULTS: Overall, a total of 228 E. coli bacteria
      were isolated from the fresh faeces of yaks in four different geographical
      regions. 58% of those isolates showed multi-drug resistance capabilities (MDR) in
      our study. These isolated bacteria showed a high resistance rate to streptomycin
      (84%), cefotaxime (79%), amikacin (61%) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (54%).
      The most common antimicrobial resistance genes in the isolates were blaCTX-M,
      sul1, aph (3')-IIa, aac (3)-IIa, aac (6')-Ib, tetB, with respective detection
      rates of 65%, 46%, 35%, 13%, 11%, and 10%. Furthermore, 66% and 6% of the strains
      carried Class 1 and 2 integrons, respectively. However, the class 3 integron was
      not detected. Gene cassette arrays in the class 1 integron included aadA1, aadA7,
      aadA5, aadA17, dfrA1, dfrA5, dfrA1-aadA1, dfrA12-aadA2 and dfrA17-aadA5. The most
      prevalent gene cassette was aadA1 (20%). For the class 2 integron, dfrA1-sat2
      aadA1 (6%) and dfrA1-sat1-aadA1 (0.4%) were also detected as part of this
      research. CONCLUSION: High multi-drug resistance rates have been discovered, as
      well as a prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes and integron gene cassettes
      in the E. coli isolated from the faeces of yak. This might create a potential
      problem for treatment of the yaks' bacterial infections as well as food hygiene
      for humans. It is therefore urgently necessary to begin continuous surveillance
      and analysis of antibiotic resistance and integron cassettes in other bacteria
      from yaks.

PMID- 28888885
TI  - A mitogen-activated protein kinase gene (VmPmk1) regulates virulence and cell
      wall degrading enzyme expression in Valsa mali.
AB  - Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) play critical roles in the regulation
      of different developmental processes and hydrolytic enzyme production in many
      fungal plant pathogens. In this study, an FUS3/KSS1-related MAPK gene, VmPmk1,
      was identified and characterized in Valsa mali, which causes a highly destructive
      canker disease on apple. VmPmk1 deletion mutant showed a significant reduction in
      growth rate in vitro, and could not produce pycnidium, indicating that the MAPK
      gene is important for growth and asexual development. Also, VmPmk1 played a
      significant role in response to oxidative stress and in the maintenance of cell
      wall integrity. More importantly, when deletion mutant was inoculated onto
      detached apple leaves and twigs, an obvious decrease in lesion size was observed.
      Furthermore, expression of many cell wall degrading enzyme (CWDE) genes declined
      in the VmPmk1 deletion mutant during infection. VmPmk1 deletion mutant also
      showed a significant reduction in activities of CWDEs in both induced media and
      infection process. Finally, the determination of immunogold labeling of pectin
      demonstrated that the capacity of degradation pectin was attenuated due to the
      deletion of VmPmk1. These results indicated that VmPmk1 plays important roles in
      growth, asexual development, response to oxidative stress, and maintenance of
      cell wall integrity. More importantly, VmPmk1 is involved in pathogenicity of V.
      mali mainly by regulating CWDE genes expression.

PMID- 28888886
TI  - The recombinant EHV-1 vector producing CDV hemagglutinin as potential vaccine
      against canine distemper.
AB  - Canine distemper virus (CDV), is a pantropic agent of morbillivirus that causes
      fetal disease in dogs. Base on a broad host rang of CDV, the continued vaccines
      inoculation is unavoidable to pose gene recombination risk in vaccine virus and
      wild virus. The current study presents the construction of novel vectors, using
      equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) expressing the canine distemper virus (CDV).
      The recent field strain hemagglutinin protein and nucleoprotein were used for the
      construction of the viral vector vaccines. Based on the Bacterial artificial
      chromosome (BAC) genomes of EHV-1 RacH strain, the recombinant EHV-1 vaccine
      virus encoding CDV hemagglutinin protein (EHV-H) or CDV nucleoprotein (EHV-N) was
      constructed separately. The constructed BACs were rescued after 72 h post
      infection, and the expression of H or N in the recombinant viruses was confirmed
      by western-blotting. Furthermore, high levels of neutralizing antibodies were
      induced persistently following vaccination in the groups EHV-H&EHV-N and EHV-H,
      but the EHV-N group. The groups of vaccinated EHV-H and EHV-H&EHV-N pups were
      monitored for clinical signs, whereas the vaccinated EHV-N group developed
      moderate symptoms. The present study demonstrated that EHV-1 based recombinant
      virus carrying CDV H could be a promising vaccine candidate against canine
      distemper.

PMID- 28888887
TI  - The novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification based confirmation methodology
      on the bacteria in Viable but Non-Culturable (VBNC) state.
AB  - As a self-protection mechanism, the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state
      provides the ability against conventional detection methods among various
      foodborne pathogens. The ability of forming colonies is lost while metabolism is
      still maintaining in VBNC state cells. Recently, ethidium monoazide (EMA) and
      propidium monoazide (PMA) have been widely applied on the detection of foodborne
      pathogens in VBNC state. Combined with loop-mediated isothermal amplification
      (LAMP), the PMA/EMA-LAMP showed a significant priority in high sensitivity,
      specificity and rapidity over conventional PCR based assays. Particularly,
      PMA/EMA-LAMP has been proved as an effective method in the detection of
      Escherichia coli, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Staphylococcus in VBNC state. Based
      on the current investigations, the VBNC mechanism and current detection method
      for VBNC-state foodborne pathogens were introduced and discussed in this review.

PMID- 28888888
TI  - Sepsis induced by cecal ligation and perforation (CLP) alters nucleotidase
      activities in platelets of rats.
AB  - Sepsis is a potentially lethal condition, and it is associated with platelet
      alterations. The present study sought to investigate the activity of ecto
      nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (E-NTPDase), E-5'-nucleotidase, and
      ecto-adenosine deaminase (E-ADA) in the platelets of rats that were induced with
      sepsis. Male Wistar rats were divided into three groups of ten animals each: a
      negative control group (normal; NC); a group that underwent surgical procedures
      (sham); and a group that underwent cecal ligation and perforation (CLP). The
      induction of sepsis was confirmed by bacteremia, and the causative pathogen
      identified was Escherichia coli. Hematological parameters showed leukocytosis and
      thrombocytopenia in animals in the septic group. The results also revealed that
      there were significant (p < 0.05) increases in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and
      adenosine monophosphate (AMP) hydrolyses, and in the deamination of adenosine in
      the CLP group compared to the sham and control groups. Conversely, ADP hydrolysis
      was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in the CLP group compared to the sham and
      control groups. Purine levels were analyzed by high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC) in serum samples from control, sham, and CLP groups.
      Increased concentrations of ATP, adenosine, and inosine were found in the CLP
      group compared to the sham and control groups. Conversely, the concentrations of
      ADP and AMP in the CPL group were not significantly altered. We suggest that
      alterations in hematological parameters, nucleotide hydrolysis in platelets, and
      nucleotide concentrations in serum samples of rats with induced sepsis may be
      related to thromboembolic events.

PMID- 28888889
TI  - Biofabrication of polyphenols coated Nano palladium and its in-vitro cytotoxicity
      against human leukemia cell lines (K562).
AB  - The biofabrication of palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) using aqueous leaf extract
      of Pelargonium graveolens is reported herein. The polyphenols present in the
      Pelargonium graveolens extract are mainly responsible for reduction and
      subsequent stabilization of formed PdNPs. UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis)
      absorption and reaction color change from yellow to brown indicated the formation
      of PdNPs. The as synthesized PdNPs were studied by using characterization
      techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission
      electron microscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Zeta potential
      measurements and Selected area electron diffraction (SAED). FTIR analysis and
      Zeta potential measurements showed the capping of polyphenols onto the surface of
      PdNPs, which further responsible for preventing aggregation of PdNPs. TEM image
      showed that the PdNPs exists in the range from 50 to 150nm. Also, XRD pattern
      revealed the crystalline nature of as synthesized PdNPs. The in vitro
      cytotoxicity studies of Pelargonium graveolens extract capped PdNPs was conducted
      using human leukemia cell lines (K562) by following an MTT cell viability assay
      and is found that the cytotoxicity is dose dependent. Further, the synthesized
      PdNPs will open a new opportunities in the field of biomedicine. Also, the
      produced method is an alternative to the chemical synthetic approaches that are
      being used nowadays.

PMID- 28888890
TI  - Spatial variations and determinants of infant and under-five mortality in
      Bangladesh.
AB  - Reducing child mortality is a Sustainable Development Goal yet to be achieved by
      many low-income countries. We applied a subnational and spatial approach based on
      publicly available datasets and identified permanent insolvency, urbanicity, and
      malaria endemicity as factors associated with child mortality. We further
      detected spatial clusters in the east of Bangladesh and noted Sylhet and Jamalpur
      as those districts that need immediate attention to reduce child mortality. Our
      approach is transferable to other regions in comparable settings worldwide and
      may guide future studies to identify subnational regions in need for public
      health attention. Our study adds to our understanding where we may intervene to
      more effectively improve health, particularly among disadvantaged populations.

PMID- 28888891
TI  - Investigating the role of temporal lobe activation in speech perception accuracy
      with normal hearing adults: An event-related fNIRS study.
AB  - Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a safe, non-invasive, relatively
      quiet imaging technique that is tolerant of movement artifact making it uniquely
      ideal for the assessment of hearing mechanisms. Previous research demonstrates
      the capacity for fNIRS to detect cortical changes to varying speech
      intelligibility, revealing a positive relationship between cortical activation
      amplitude and speech perception score. In the present study, we use an event
      related design to investigate the hemodynamic response in the temporal lobe
      across different listening conditions. We presented participants with a speech
      recognition task using sentences in quiet, sentences in noise, and vocoded
      sentences. Hemodynamic responses were examined across conditions and then
      compared when speech perception was accurate compared to when speech perception
      was inaccurate in the context of noisy speech. Repeated measures, two-way ANOVAs
      revealed that the speech in noise condition (-2.8dB signal-to-noise ratio/SNR)
      demonstrated significantly greater activation than the easier listening
      conditions on multiple channels bilaterally. Further analyses comparing correct
      recognition trials to incorrect recognition trials (during the presentation phase
      of the trial) revealed that activation was significantly greater during correct
      trials. Lastly, during the repetition phase of the trial, where participants
      correctly repeated the sentence, the hemodynamic response demonstrated
      significantly higher deoxyhemoglobin than oxyhemoglobin, indicating a difference
      between the effects of perception and production on the cortical response. Using
      fNIRS, the present study adds meaningful evidence to the body of knowledge that
      describes the brain/behavior relationship related to speech perception.

PMID- 28888892
TI  - Alpha-band transcranial alternating current stimulation modulates precision, but
      not gain during whole-body spatial updating.
AB  - Spatial updating is essential to maintain an accurate representation of our
      visual environment when we move. A neural mechanism that contributes to this
      ability is called remapping: the transfer of visual information from neural
      populations that code a location before the motion to those that encode it after
      the motion. While there is ample evidence for neural remapping in conjunction
      with eye movements, only recent findings suggest a role of this mechanism for
      whole-body motion updating, based on the observation that alpha band (10Hz)
      activity is selectively reorganized during remapping. This study tested whether
      alpha oscillations directly contribute to whole-body motion updating using
      transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). In a double blind sham
      controlled design, healthy volunteers received 10Hz tACS at an intensity of 1mA
      over either the left or right posterior hemisphere during a whole-body motion
      updating task. Updating performance was assessed psychometrically and indices of
      gain and precision were obtained. No tACS-related effects on updating gain were
      found, irrespective of whether the remapping was across or within the
      hemispheres. In contrast, updating precision was enhanced when a target
      representation had to be internally remapped to the stimulated hemisphere, but
      not in other remapping conditions. Our observations suggest that alpha band
      oscillations do not directly affect the transfer of target representations during
      remapping, but increase the fidelity of the updated representation by attenuating
      interference of afferent information.

PMID- 28888893
TI  - Face working memory deficits in developmental prosopagnosia: Tests of encoding
      limits and updating processes.
AB  - Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a condition in which individuals experience
      life-long problems recognising faces. In recent years, unpacking the nature of
      the impairments of this population has been the focus of numerous studies. One
      focus has been on the nature of face-based memory impairments for such
      individuals, with the onus being mainly on long-term memory deficits. Far fewer
      have considered the nature of face-based working memory (WM) impairments for DP
      cases, and the current study seeks to address this. One recent WM study (Shah et
      al., 2015) reported that the maintenance of faces over time in WM was spared
      among DPs, and argued instead that face encoding was limited in some way. Here we
      further explore the nature of face-based WM impairments in DP across two
      experiments designed to probe encoding limits (Experiment 1) and WM updating
      processes (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1 we manipulated the number of faces (1
      4) to encode into WM and presented these simultaneously. We reasoned that if face
      encoding among DPs was inefficient or imprecise, then increasing encoding demands
      (WM load) would disproportionately impair WM accuracy compared to controls.
      However, we found that DP cases were consistently poorer than controls across all
      face load conditions, suggesting that front-end encoding problems are only part
      of the deficit. In Experiment 2, to measure updating four faces were shown
      sequentially for encoding into WM and accuracy was analysed as a function of
      whether the test face had been presented first, second, third or last in the
      encoding sequence. DPs had significantly poorer WM than controls for later faces
      but not the first face encoded in the sequence, and showed an attenuated recency
      effect. To account for these findings, we discuss the potential role of
      comparison processes at retrieval, impairments in configural face processing, and
      the impact of noise in the face identification system of individuals with DP.

PMID- 28888894
TI  - Exercise intervention attenuates hyperhomocysteinemia-induced aortic endothelial
      oxidative injury by regulating SIRT1 through mitigating NADPH oxidase/LOX-1
      signaling.
AB  - Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a critical cardiovascular disease and a cause of
      high morbidity and mortality in this world. Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) has been
      suggested as a risk factor for CAD. In addition, SIRT1 (sirtuin 1) has been
      reported to play a protective role in a variety of diseases, especially in the
      cardiovascular system. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the
      effects of exercise training on apoptosis and inflammation in HHcy animals. We
      also tested whether exercise protected against Hhcy-induced dysfunction of
      endothelium through modulation of SIRT1. C57BL mice (8 in each group) were fed
      with or without 1% L-methionine (w/w) in water for 4 months to induce HHcy. We
      found that Hhcy repressed SIRT1 and AMPK expression and increased NADPH oxidase
      activity. Plasma MDA, endothelium LOX-1 and p-p38 were up-regulated by Hhcy
      induction. NF-kappaB and it downstream molecules were activated under Hhcy
      situation, thereby promoting pro-inflammatory responses. Moreover, we also
      reported that Hhcy caused endothelium apoptosis involving Akt inhibition and
      mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathways. Exercise training significantly
      protected against endothelium from Hhcy caused oxidative injuries. In addition,
      EX527 (SIRT1 inhibitor) reduced the therapeutic effects by exercise. Our results
      had indicated that exercise training prevent the development of atherosclerosis
      through SIRT1 activation and oxidative stress inhibition under Hhcy situation.

PMID- 28888896
TI  - Hormonal profile and follicular dynamics concurrent with CIDR and insulin
      modified Ovsync TAI programs and their impacts on the fertility response in
      buffaloes.
AB  - Fifty one cyclic Egyptian buffaloes were used to study the hormonal profile and
      follicular dynamics concurrent with CIDR and insulin modified Ovsync TAI programs
      and their impacts on the consequent fertility responses. The buffaloes were
      randomly assigned into 3 ovulation synchronization protocols: Ovsync-alone (n =
      13, control) CIDR-sync (n = 20) and Insulin-sync (n = 18). Ovsync-alone protocol
      consisted of two im injections of 20 MUg bueserlin (GnRHa) on Day 0 (GnRH 1) and
      on Day 9 (GnRH 2) with an im injection of 500 MUg of cloprostenol sodium (PGF2
      alpha) on Day 7. The CIDR-sync protocol consisted of the same treatment protocol
      as in Ovsync in addition to intra-vaginal insertion of CIDR (contains 1.38 gm of
      progesterone) on Day 0 followed by removal on Day 7. The Insulin-sync protocol
      consisted of the same treatment protocol as in Ovsync plus 3 sc injections of
      insulin at a dose of 0.25 i.u/1 kg, on Days 7, 8, and 9. Buffaloes in all groups
      were inseminated 16 h after GnRH2 by the same inseminator using frozen semen in
      straws. Blood samples were collected on Days 0, 3, 5 for serum progesterone assay
      and on Day 9 to measure serum concentrations of estradiol, insulin and IGF-1.
      Transrectal ultrasonographic scanning of the ovaries was conducted on Days 7, 8
      and 9 to record the diameter of the largest follicle. Pregnancy diagnosis was
      conducted on Day 30 post-TAI by trans-rectal ultrasonographic scanning of the
      uterus to calculate conception rate. The serum progesterone concentration showed
      an increase (p < 0.01) in pregnant compared with non-pregnant buffaloes in both
      Ovsync-alone and Insulin-sync groups, but not in CIDR-sync group (p > 0.05) on
      Days 3 and 5. The serum estradiol concentration on Day 9 showed an increase (p <
      0.01) in pregnant compared with the non-pregnant buffaloes in all of the treated
      groups. In Insulin-sync and Ovsync-alone groups, the diameter of the largest
      follicle (LF) was larger (p < 0.01) in pregnant compared with non-pregnant
      buffaloes, but in CIDR-sync, the diameter of the (LF) was larger (p < 0.01) in
      non-pregnant compared with pregnant buffaloes. Also, the results showed that the
      greatest diameter of LF was observed in pregnant buffaloes in Insulin-sync
      compared with either pregnant or non-pregnant buffaloes in all groups. It is
      concluded that modified CIDR-sync and Insulin-sync could improve fertility
      response through modulating hormonal profile and follicular dynamics in buffaloes
      during low breeding season.

PMID- 28888895
TI  - Regulation of platelet activation and thrombus formation by reactive oxygen
      species.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated within activated platelets and play
      an important role in regulating platelet responses to collagen and collagen
      mediated thrombus formation. As a major collagen receptor, platelet-specific
      glycoprotein (GP)VI is a member of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily, with two
      extracellular Ig domains, a mucin domain, a transmembrane domain and a
      cytoplasmic tail. GPVI forms a functional complex with the Fc receptor gamma
      chain (FcRgamma) that, following receptor dimerization, signals via an
      intracellular immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM), leading to
      rapid activation of Src family kinase signaling pathways. Our previous studies
      demonstrated that an unpaired thiol in the cytoplasmic tail of GPVI undergoes
      rapid oxidation to form GPVI homodimers in response to ligand binding, indicating
      an oxidative submembranous environment in platelets after GPVI stimulation. Using
      a redox-sensitive fluorescent dye (H2DCF-DA) in a flow cytometric assay to
      measure changes in intracellular ROS, we showed generation of ROS downstream of
      GPVI consists of two distinct phases: an initial Syk-independent burst followed
      by additional Syk-dependent generation. In this review, we will discuss recent
      findings on the regulation of platelet function by ROS, focusing on GPVI
      dependent platelet activation and thrombus formation.

PMID- 28888897
TI  - Hepatobiliary disease in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aims of the study were to determine the frequency of
      hepatobiliary disease in patients with cystic fibrosis and to describe the
      sociodemographic, clinical, and laboratory profile of these patients. METHODS:
      This was a retrospective, descriptive, and analytical study of 55 patients
      diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, aged between 3 months and 21 years, followed-up
      from January 2008 to June 2016 in a referral center. Medical records were
      consulted and sociodemographic, clinical and laboratory data, including
      hepatobiliary alterations, imaging studies, genetic studies, liver biopsies, and
      upper digestive endoscopies were registered. RESULTS: Hepatobiliary disease was
      diagnosed in 16.4% of the patients and occurred as an initial manifestation of
      cystic fibrosis in 55.6% of these cases. The diagnosis of hepatopathy occurred
      before or concomitantly with the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis in 88.9% of the
      children. All patients with hepatobiliary disease were considered non-white, with
      a predominance of females (77.8%) and median (IQR) of 54 (27-91) months. Compared
      with the group without hepatobiliary disease, children with liver disease had a
      higher frequency of severe mutations identified in the CFTR gene (77.8% vs.
      39.6%, p=0.033) and severe pancreatic insufficiency (88.9% vs. 31.6%, p=0.007).
      CONCLUSION: The frequency of hepatobiliary disease was high, with a very early
      diagnosis of the disease and its complications in the studied series. A
      statistical association was observed between the occurrence of hepatobiliary
      disease and the presence of pancreatic insufficiency and severe mutations in the
      CFTR gene. It is emphasized that cystic fibrosis is an important differential
      diagnosis of liver diseases in childhood.

PMID- 28888898
TI  - Duodenal pathologies in children: a single-center experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Several studies have been performed concerning pathologies of the
      stomach and esophagus in the pediatric age group. However, there have been very
      few studies of duodenal pathologies in children. The authors aimed to examine the
      clinical, endoscopic, and histopathological characteristics, as well as the
      etiology of duodenal pathologies in children. METHOD: Patients aged between 1 and
      17 years undergoing esophagogastroduodenoscopy during two years at this unit,
      were investigated retrospectively. Demographic, clinical, endoscopic data, and
      the presence of duodenal pathologies, gastritis, and esophagitis were recorded in
      all of the children. RESULTS: Out of 747 children who underwent endoscopy,
      duodenal pathology was observed in 226 (30.3%) patients. Pathology was also
      present in the esophagus in 31.6% of patients and in the stomach in 58.4%. The
      level of chronic diarrhea was higher in patients with duodenal pathology when
      compared with those without duodenal pathology (p=0.002, OR: 3.91, 95% CI: 1.59
      9.57). Helicobacter pylori infection was more common in patients with pathology
      in the duodenum (59.3%). CONCLUSION: Duodenal pathology was detected in 30.3% of
      the present patients. A significantly higher level of chronic diarrhea was
      observed in subjects with duodenal pathologies compared to those with no such
      pathology. The rate of Helicobacter pylori infection was considerably higher than
      that in previous studies. In addition, there is a weak correlation between
      endoscopic appearance and histology of duodenitis.

PMID- 28888899
TI  - Association between body mass index and individual characteristics and the school
      context: a multilevel study with Portuguese children.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the association between
      individual and school context characteristics with the body mass index of
      Portuguese children. METHODS: The sample comprised 1641 children (847 boys) aged
      6-10 years from the North and Central regions of Portugal. Regarding the
      individual characteristics, age, gender, city of residence, levels of physical
      activity, and physical fitness were assessed. Concerning the school context
      characteristics, the surrounding environment, school size, presence of
      recreational characteristics and space, and presence of a sports court and of
      physical education classes were considered. Children's body mass index was the
      dependent variable. The multilevel analysis was carried out in HLM 7.0 software.
      RESULTS: The predictors of the child and the school context explained,
      respectively, 97.3% and 2.7% of the total body mass index variance. Regarding the
      individual characteristics, older children, boys, and those who had lower
      performance at the 1-mile run/walk, curl-up, push-up, and higher performance in
      trunk lift tests showed higher BMI. Further, urban schools with higher
      recreational spaces were positively associated with children's body mass index.
      CONCLUSION: School context variables have a reduced effect on body mass index
      variation compared to the children's biological and behavioral characteristics.
      The authors therefore encourage strategies that aim to increasing children's
      physical fitness levels to help prevent excess weight.

PMID- 28888900
TI  - Sliding enhances fluid and solute transport into buried articular cartilage
      contacts.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Solutes and interstitial water are naturally transported from
      cartilage by load-induced interstitial fluid pressures. Fluid and solute recovery
      during joint articulation have been primarily attributed to passive diffusion and
      mechanical 'pumping' from dynamic loading. This paper tests if the sliding action
      of articulation is a significant and independent driver of fluid and solute
      transport in cartilage. DESIGN: The large osteochondral samples utilized in the
      present study preserve the convergent wedges necessary for physiological
      hydrodynamics. Following static load-induced fluid exudation and prior to
      sliding, a fluorescent solute (AlexaFluor 633) was added to the lubricant bath.
      In situ confocal microscopy was used to quantify the transport of solute from the
      bath into the buried stationary contact area (SCA) during sliding. RESULTS:
      Following static exudation, significant reductions in friction and strain during
      sliding at 60 mm/s were accompanied by significant solute transport into the
      inaccessible center of the buried contact; no such transport was detected for the
      0- or 1 mm/s sliding conditions. The results suggest that external hydrodynamic
      pressures from sliding induced advective flows that carried solutes from the bath
      toward the center of contact. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide the first direct
      evidence that the action of sliding is a significant contributor to fluid and
      solute recovery by cartilage. Furthermore, they indicate that the sliding-induced
      transport of solutes into the buried interface was orders of magnitude greater
      than that attributable to diffusion alone, a result with critical implications
      for disease prevention and tissue engineering.

PMID- 28888901
TI  - Oral administration of undenatured native chicken type II collagen (UC-II)
      diminished deterioration of articular cartilage in a rat model of osteoarthritis
      (OA).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the ability of undenatured
      native chicken type II collagen (UC-II) to prevent excessive articular cartilage
      deterioration in a rat model of osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Twenty male rats
      were subjected to partial medial meniscectomy tear (PMMT) surgery to induce OA.
      Immediately after the surgery 10 rats received vehicle and another 10 rats oral
      daily dose of UC-II at 0.66 mg/kg for a period of 8 weeks. In addition 10 naive
      rats were used as an intact control and another 10 rats received sham surgery.
      Study endpoints included a weight-bearing capacity of front and hind legs, serum
      biomarkers of bone and cartilage metabolism, analyses of subchondral and
      cancellous bone at the tibial epiphysis and metaphysis, and cartilage pathology
      at the medial tibial plateau using histological methods. RESULTS: PMMT surgery
      produced moderate OA at the medial tibial plateau. Specifically, the
      deterioration of articular cartilage negatively impacted the weight bearing
      capacity of the operated limb. Immediate treatment with the UC-II preserved the
      weight-bearing capacity of the injured leg, preserved integrity of the cancellous
      bone at tibial metaphysis and limited the excessive osteophyte formation and
      deterioration of articular cartilage. CONCLUSION: Study results demonstrate that
      a clinically relevant daily dose of UC-II when applied immediately after injury
      can improve the mechanical function of the injured knee and prevent excessive
      deterioration of articular cartilage.

PMID- 28888903
TI  - Appropriateness and total knee arthroplasty: an examination of the American
      Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons appropriateness rating system.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recently published
      appropriateness criteria for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) who are being
      considered for total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We evaluated the extent to which
      predictor variables used by the AAOS contribute to final classification, rated as
      "appropriate," "may be appropriate" or "rarely appropriate." METHODS: The
      RAND/UCLA Appropriateness method was used by AAOS to develop 864 clinical
      vignettes, each incorporating eight evidence-based variables associated with TKA
      outcome or need. Variables included function-limiting pain severity, knee OA
      severity, knee motion and age among others. The contribution of each variable to
      the overall classification was determined using multinomial regression. A
      classification tree method was applied to determine the combinations of variables
      that contributed to final classification for each vignette. RESULTS: Multinomial
      regression indicated that patient age, knee motion, OA severity and location were
      the four most powerful predictors of final classification. Function limiting
      pain, knee instability and lower limb alignment contributed little to the final
      classification. The classification tree had an accuracy of 86.7% and the most
      important contributors to classification were age, knee OA severity and pattern.
      CONCLUSION: Function limiting pain, the most frequent reason endorsed by patients
      seeking TKA does not meaningfully contribute to the newly developed AAOS
      appropriateness criteria. The system is highly dependent on traditional variables
      that surgeons consider when evaluating patients for TKA: patient age, knee OA
      severity, knee OA pattern and knee motion.

PMID- 28888902
TI  - A small-molecule inhibitor of the Wnt pathway (SM04690) as a potential disease
      modifying agent for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease characterized by loss
      of cartilage and increased subchondral bone within synovial joints. Wnt signaling
      affects the pathogenesis of OA as this pathway modulates both the differentiation
      of osteoblasts and chondrocytes, and production of catabolic proteases. A novel
      small-molecule Wnt pathway inhibitor, SM04690, was evaluated in a series of in
      vitro and in vivo animal studies to determine its effects on chondrogenesis,
      cartilage protection and synovial-lined joint pathology. DESIGN: A high
      throughput screen was performed using a cell-based reporter assay for Wnt pathway
      activity to develop a small molecule designated SM04690. Its properties were
      evaluated in bone-marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) to assess
      chondrocyte differentiation and effects on cartilage catabolism by
      immunocytochemistry and gene expression, and glycosaminoglycan breakdown. In vivo
      effects of SM04690 on Wnt signaling, cartilage regeneration and protection were
      measured using biochemical and histopathological techniques in a rodent acute
      cruciate ligament tear and partial medial meniscectomy (ACLT + pMMx) OA model.
      RESULTS: SM04690 induced hMSC differentiation into mature, functional
      chondrocytes and decreased cartilage catabolic marker levels compared to vehicle.
      A single SM04690 intra-articular (IA) injection was efficacious in a rodent OA
      model, with increased cartilage thickness, evidence for cartilage regeneration,
      and protection from cartilage catabolism observed, resulting in significantly
      improved Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) histology scores
      and biomarkers, compared to vehicle. CONCLUSIONS: SM04690 induced chondrogenesis
      and appeared to inhibit joint destruction in a rat OA model, and is a candidate
      for a potential disease modifying therapy for OA.

PMID- 28888904
TI  - Changes in biomechanical risk factors for knee osteoarthritis and their
      association with 5-year clinically important improvement after limb realignment
      surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate 5-year outcomes after lower limb realignment and test the
      hypothesis that surgery-induced changes in selected biomechanical risk factors
      for medial knee osteoarthritis (OA) are associated with clinically important
      improvements. DESIGN: We prospectively evaluated patient-reported outcomes, full
      limb standing radiographs and gait biomechanics before, 6 months (surgery-induced
      change) and 5 years after medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (HTO) in 170
      patients (46.4 +/- 8.9 years, 135 males) with knee OA and varus alignment.
      Logistic regression tested the associations of 6-month changes in mechanical axis
      angle and knee adduction moment with achieving an increase of >=10 points in the
      Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)4 at 5 years, with and without
      adjusting for covariates. Gait data were also compared to existing data from
      healthy controls. RESULTS: Mean 5-year changes (95% confidence interval (CI))
      were: KOOS4: +14.2 (10.8, 17.6); mechanical axis angle: +8.21 degrees  (7.58,
      8.83); knee adduction moment: -1.49 %BW*Ht (-1.35, -1.63). The postoperative knee
      adduction moments were typically lower than values for healthy controls. When
      divided into quartiles, although all strata improved significantly, patients with
      reductions in knee adduction moment of 1.14-1.74 %BW*Ht (neither largest nor
      smallest changes) had highest 5-year KOOS4 scores. The 6-month change in knee
      adduction moment (odds ratios (OR) = 0.38; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.67), preoperative
      KOOS4 (OR = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.99) and preoperative medial tibiofemoral
      narrowing grade (OR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.37, 1.00) were negatively associated with
      having a 5-year clinically important improvement (C-statistic = 0.70).
      CONCLUSIONS: Substantial improvements in biomechanical risk factors and patient
      reported outcomes are observed 5 years after medial opening wedge HTO. The
      surgery-induced change in load distribution during walking is significantly
      associated with long-term clinically important improvement.

PMID- 28888906
TI  - The comparison of ground reaction forces and lower limb muscles correlation and
      activation time delay between forward and backward walking.
AB  - This study aimed to compare the ground reaction forces (GRF) and lower limb
      muscles correlation and activation time delay between Forward (FW) and Backward
      (BW) walking. Twenty-four male students participated in this research.
      Electromyogram activities of gluteus medius, biceps femoris, medial
      gastrocnemius, soleus and anterior tibialis muscles along with GRFs were
      measured. Each participant performed two FW and two BW trials bare foot.
      Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis was performed over anterior
      posterior and vertical GRFs time series. The paired t-test was used in SPM
      analysis. Cross-correlation analysis compared similarity in shape and time delay
      of EMG pattern. SPM analysis of GRFs showed that these two walking modes have
      asymmetrical kinetic behavior during most parts of stance phase. Based on cross
      correlation analysis, the shape of EMG activation profiles differed, where a
      phase shift in the muscle activation pattern of approximately 60% occurred. This
      shift may indicate different control mechanisms, at the spinal level, underpin FW
      and BW walking modalities.

PMID- 28888905
TI  - Selective interference of mTORC1/RAPTOR protects against human disc cellular
      apoptosis, senescence, and extracellular matrix catabolism with Akt and autophagy
      induction.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine kinase
      that integrates nutrients to execute cell growth and protein synthesis. We
      hypothesized that mTOR is essential for the intervertebral disc, the largest
      avascular, low-nutrient organ. Our objective was to elucidate roles of mTOR
      signaling in human disc cells. DESIGN: The mTOR exists in two complexes: mTORC1
      containing the regulatory-associated protein of mTOR (RAPTOR) and mTORC2
      containing the rapamycin-insensitive companion of mTOR (RICTOR). To analyze their
      functions in human disc nucleus pulposus cells, RNA interference (RNAi) of mTOR
      targeting mTORC1 and mTORC2, RAPTOR targeting mTORC1, or RICTOR targeting mTORC2
      or rapamycin, a pharmacological mTORC1 inhibitor, was applied. First, mTOR
      signaling including Akt, p70/ribosomal S6 kinase (p70/S6K), and autophagy were
      assessed. Then, apoptosis, senescence, and matrix metabolism were evaluated under
      pro-inflammatory interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) stimulation. RESULTS: Western
      blotting showed significant decreases in specific proteins by each RNAi (all P <
      0.0001). In mTOR signaling, RNAi of mTOR and RICTOR decreased p70/S6K and Akt
      phosphorylation, whereas RAPTOR RNAi decreased p70/S6K but increased Akt
      phosphorylation. All RNAi treatments increased light chain 3 (LC3)-II and
      decreased p62/sequestosome 1 (p62/SQSTM1), indicating enhanced autophagy. In
      apoptosis, IL-1beta-induced terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end
      labeling (TUNEL)-positive cells and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and
      caspase-9 cleavage decreased by RAPTOR RNAi. In senescence, IL-1beta-induced
      senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-gal)-positive cells and
      p16/INK4A expression also decreased by RAPTOR RNAi. In matrix metabolism, RAPTOR
      RNAi reduced IL-1beta-induced catabolic matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) release
      and activation and up-regulated anabolic gene expression. These findings were all
      consistent with rapamycin administration. Additional disc-tissue analysis
      detected expression and phosphorylation of mTOR-signaling molecules in varying
      ages. CONCLUSION: Selective interference of mTORC1/RAPTOR protects against
      inflammation-induced apoptosis, senescence, and matrix catabolism possibly
      through Akt and autophagy induction in human disc cells.

PMID- 28888907
TI  - A robotic system for delivering novel real-time, movement dependent
      perturbations.
AB  - Perturbations are often used to study movement control and balance, especially in
      the context of falling. Most often, discrete perturbations defined prior to the
      experiment are used to mimic external disturbances to balance. However, the
      largest proportion of falls is due to self-generated errors in weight shifting.
      Inspired by self-generated weight shifting errors, we created a novel, continuous
      mediolateral perturbation proportional to subjects' mediolateral center of mass
      movement with minimal delays. This perturbation was delivered by a robotic
      platform controlled by a real time Matlab Simulink model using kinematic data
      from a marker positioned at subjects' L5 as input. Fifteen healthy young adults
      stood as still as possible atop the robotic platform with their eyes closed. We
      evaluated the performance of the perturbation in terms of accuracy and delay
      relative to the input signal by using cross-correlations. The perturbations were
      accurate (r=-0.984), with delays of 154 ms. Such systematic perturbation
      significantly affected mediolateral sway, increasing its range (from 5.56+/-3.72
      to 9.58 +/-4.83 mm, p=0.01), SD (from 1.08+/-0.74 to 1.72+/-0.74 mm, p = 0.02),
      and mean power frequency (from 0.08+/-0.05 to 0.25+/-0.17 Hz, p<0.01). These
      perturbation characteristics enable inducing systematic, movement-dependent
      perturbations and open the door for future studies investigating self-generated
      movement errors.

PMID- 28888908
TI  - Quick foot placement adjustments during gait are less accurate in individuals
      with focal cerebellar lesions.
AB  - Online gait corrections are frequently used to restore gait stability and prevent
      falling. They require shorter response times than voluntary movements which
      suggests that subcortical pathways contribute to the execution of online gait
      corrections. To evaluate the potential role of the cerebellum in these pathways
      we tested the hypotheses that online gait corrections would be less accurate in
      individuals with focal cerebellar damage than in neurologically intact controls
      and that this difference would be more pronounced for shorter available response
      times and for short step gait corrections. We projected virtual stepping stones
      on an instrumented treadmill while some of the approaching stepping stones were
      shifted forward or backward, requiring participants to adjust their foot
      placement. Varying the timing of those shifts allowed us to address the effect of
      available response time on foot placement error. In agreement with our
      hypothesis, individuals with focal cerebellar lesions were less accurate in
      adjusting their foot placement in reaction to suddenly shifted stepping stones
      than neurologically intact controls. However, the cerebellar lesion group's foot
      placement error did not increase more with decreasing available response distance
      or for short step versus long step adjustments compared to the control group.
      Furthermore, foot placement error for the non-shifting stepping stones was also
      larger in the cerebellar lesion group as compared to the control group.
      Consequently, the reduced ability to accurately adjust foot placement during
      walking in individuals with focal cerebellar lesions appears to be a general
      movement control deficit, which could contribute to increased fall risk.

PMID- 28888909
TI  - Association of varus thrust with prevalent patellofemoral osteoarthritis: A cross
      sectional study.
AB  - This cross-sectional study investigated (i) the association of varus thrust
      during gait with the presence of patellofemoral osteoarthritis (PFOA) in patients
      with medial knee osteoarthritis (OA) and (ii) patellar alignment in the knees
      with varus thrust. Participants from orthopedic clinics (n=171; mean age, 73.4
      years; 71.9% female) diagnosed with radiographic medial knee OA
      (Kellgren/Lawrence [K/L] grade >=1) were included in this study, and underwent
      gait observation for varus thrust assessment using 2D video analysis. A
      radiographic skyline view was used to assess the presence of medial PFOA using
      the grading system from the Osteoarthritis Research Society International Atlas.
      The tibiofemoral joint K/L grade, patellar alignment (i.e., lateral shift and
      tilting angle), and knee pain intensity were also evaluated as covariates. Thirty
      two (18.7%) of 171 patients exhibited varus thrust and they presented
      significantly higher knee pain (46.0+/-3.04mm vs. 32.4+/-2.73mm; P=0.024), a
      lower patellar tilting angle (P=0.024), and a higher prevalence of PFOA compared
      with those without varus thrust. A logistic regression analysis with adjustment
      of covariates showed that varus thrust was significantly associated with higher
      odds of the presence of mixed and medial PFOA, and trended to significantly
      associate with any PFOA, including lateral PFOA. This indicates that varus thrust
      was associated with PFOA in a compartment-nonspecific manner in patients with
      medial knee OA. Varus thrust may represent a clinical disease feature of more
      advanced and multicompartmental disease.

PMID- 28888910
TI  - The influence of adherent cell morphology on hydrodynamic recruitment of
      leukocytes.
AB  - Innate immunity is characterized by the coordinated activity of multiple
      leukocytes mobilizing at or near the site of tissue injury. Slow rolling and/or
      adherent leukocytes have been shown to hydrodynamically recruit free-stream
      leukocytes to a model of inflamed tissue. In this paper, we numerically
      investigate the hydrodynamic recruitment of free-stream leukocytes due to the
      presence of a nearby adherent, deformed leukocyte by using a computational model
      developed from first principles to simulate these types of interactions. For free
      stream cells at least one diameter above the surface and subsequently involved in
      a glancing (out-of-plane) collision with one or more adherent cell, the
      simulation indicated that the free-stream cell was driven closer to the surface
      as a function of increasing glancing distance. Further, with increasing
      deformation of the adherent cell a similar effect was observed beginning at
      smaller glancing offsets. The influence of binary interactions on the
      trajectories of free-stream cells that were less than one diameter above the
      surface was also examined. For fixed glancing distance, increased adherent cell
      deformation led to enhanced recruiting effectiveness which was quantified by
      determining the time needed for the free-stream cell to enter the reactive zone;
      that is, a membrane separation distance such that receptor-ligand binding was
      possible. This effectiveness was only moderately influenced by variations in
      shear rate and cell buoyancy. Finally, for large glancing offset the domain of
      influence of the adherent cell diminished and the trajectory of the free-stream
      cell was unaffected by the adherent cell, with regard to hydrodynamic
      recruitment.

PMID- 28888911
TI  - Photobiomodulation with 670 nm light ameliorates Muller cell-mediated activation
      of microglia and macrophages in retinal degeneration.
AB  - Muller cells, the supporting cells of the retina, play a key role in responding
      to retinal stress by releasing chemokines, including CCL2, to recruit microglia
      and macrophages (MG/MPhi) into the damaged retina. Photobiomodulation (PBM) with
      670 nm light has been shown to reduce inflammation in models of retinal
      degeneration. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether 670 nm light had an
      effect on Muller cell-initiated inflammation under retinal photo-oxidative damage
      (PD) in vivo and in vitro. Sprague-Dawley rats were pre-treated with 670 nm light
      (9J/cm2) once daily over 5 days prior to PD. The expression of inflammatory genes
      including CCL2 and IL-1beta was analysed in retinas. In vitro, primary Muller
      cells dissociated from neonatal rat retinas were co-cultured with 661W
      photoreceptor cells. Co-cultures were exposed to PD, followed by 670 nm light
      treatment to the Muller cells only, and Muller cell stress and inflammation were
      assessed. Primary MG/MPhi were incubated with supernatant from the co-cultures,
      and collected for analysis of inflammatory activation. To further understand the
      mechanism of 670 nm light, the expression of COX5a and mitochondrial membrane
      potential (DeltaPsim) were measured in Muller cells. Following PD, 670 nm light
      treated Muller cells had a reduced inflammatory activation, with lower levels of
      CCL2, IL-1beta and IL-6. Supernatant from 670 nm light-treated co-cultures
      reduced activation of primary MG/MPhi, and lowered the expression of pro
      inflammatory cytokines, compared to untreated PD controls. Additionally, 670 nm
      light-treated Muller cells had an increased expression of COX5a and an elevated
      DeltaPsim following PD, suggesting that retrograde signaling plays a role in the
      effects of 670 nm light on Muller cell gene expression. Our data indicates that
      670 nm light reduces Muller cell-mediated retinal inflammation, and offers a
      potential cellular mechanism for 670 nm light therapy in regulating inflammation
      associated with retinal degenerations.

PMID- 28888913
TI  - The renaissance of lipoprotein(a): Brave new world for preventive cardiology?
AB  - Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is a highly heritable cardiovascular risk factor. Although
      discovered more than 50 years ago, Lp(a) has recently re-emerged as a major focus
      in the fields of lipidology and preventive cardiology owing to findings from
      genetic studies and the possibility of lowering elevated plasma concentrations
      with new antisense therapy. Data from genetic, epidemiological and clinical
      studies have provided compelling evidence establishing Lp(a) as a causal risk
      factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, major gaps in
      knowledge remain and the identification of the mechanistic processes governing
      both Lp(a) pathobiology and metabolism are an ongoing challenge. Furthermore, the
      complex structure of Lp(a) presents a major obstacle to the accurate
      quantification of plasma concentrations, and a universally accepted and
      standardized approach for measuring Lp(a) is required. Significant progress has
      been made in the development of novel therapeutics for selectively lowering
      Lp(a). However, before these therapies can be widely implemented further
      investigations are required to assess their efficacy, safety, and cost-efficiency
      in the prevention of cardiovascular events. We review recent advances in
      molecular and biochemical aspects, epidemiology, and pathobiology of Lp(a), and
      provide a contemporary update on the significance of Lp(a) in clinical medicine.
      "Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be."
      (Khalil Gibran).

PMID- 28888912
TI  - Chemotherapy induces secretion of exosomes loaded with heparanase that degrades
      extracellular matrix and impacts tumor and host cell behavior.
AB  - : The heparan sulfate-degrading enzyme heparanase promotes the progression of
      many cancers by driving tumor cell proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis.
      Heparanase accomplishes this via multiple mechanisms including its recently
      described effect on enhancing biogenesis of tumor exosomes. Because we recently
      discovered that heparanase expression is upregulated in myeloma cells that
      survive chemotherapy, we were prompted to investigate the impact of anti-myeloma
      drugs on exosome biogenesis. When myeloma cells were exposed to the commonly
      utilized anti-myeloma drugs bortezomib, carfilzomib or melphalan, exosome
      secretion by the cells was dramatically enhanced. These chemotherapy-induced
      exosomes (chemoexosomes) have a proteome profile distinct from cells not exposed
      to drug including a dramatic elevation in the level of heparanase present as
      exosome cargo. The chemoexosome heparanase was not found inside the chemoexosome,
      but was present on the exosome surface where it was capable of degrading heparan
      sulfate embedded within an extracellular matrix. When exposed to myeloma cells,
      chemoexosomes transferred their heparanase cargo to those cells, enhancing their
      heparan sulfate degrading activity and leading to activation of ERK signaling and
      an increase in shedding of the syndecan-1 proteoglycan. Exposure of chemoexosomes
      to macrophages enhanced their secretion of TNF-alpha, an important myeloma growth
      factor. Moreover, chemoexosomes stimulated macrophage migration and this effect
      was blocked by H1023, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits heparanase enzymatic
      activity. These data suggest that anti-myeloma therapy ignites a burst of
      exosomes having a high level of heparanase that remodels extracellular matrix and
      alters tumor and host cell behaviors that likely contribute to chemoresistance
      and eventual patient relapse. SUMMARY: We find that anti-myeloma chemotherapy
      dramatically stimulates secretion of exosomes and alters exosome composition.
      Exosomes secreted during therapy contain high levels of heparanase on their
      surface that can degrade ECM and also can be transferred to both tumor and host
      cells, altering their behavior in ways that may enhance tumor survival and
      progression.

PMID- 28888914
TI  - Acute diffuse peritonitis due to spontaneous rupture of a primary
      gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the jejunum: A case report.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common
      mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. Overt peritonitis caused by
      GIST rupture is very uncommon. Three types of GIST rupture have been described:
      closed perforation due to abscess (abscess type), hemoperitoneum leading to
      rupture of the hematoma capsule in the tumor (hemoperitoneum type), and
      perforation of the digestive tract via a fistula leading to central necrosis of
      the tumor (bowel perforation type). This report describes a patient with
      spontaneous tumor rupture and diffuse peritonitis, a variant of the bowel
      perforation type of GIST rupture. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 74-year-old man
      presented with symptoms of vomiting and abdominal pain. Computed tomography (CT)
      scan revealed an approximately 10*7-cm mass in the pelvis with free air and fluid
      collection. Emergency laparotomy revealed a tumor in the jejunum, which was
      ruptured with a hole measuring 5mm in diameter. The tumor and part of the jejunum
      were resected. Immunohistochemically, the mass was diagnosed as a GIST
      originating from the gastrointestinal tract. Despite chemotherapy with imatinib
      mesylate, the patient died 22 months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: This report
      describes a patient with acute diffuse peritonitis due to spontaneous rupture of
      a primary GIST of the jejunum.

PMID- 28888915
TI  - A case report of locally advanced triple negative breast cancer showing
      pathological complete response to weekly paclitaxel with bevacizumab treatment
      following disease progression during anthracycline-based neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is the standard of care for locally
      advanced triple negative breast cancer, however, approximately 5% of cases show
      disease progression during NAC. Although downstaging is essential to create an
      opportunity for curative surgery and to improve the local control outcome in such
      a case, no additional line of chemotherapy has been established. CASE
      PRESENTATION: A 60-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for an axillary
      mass presenting three weeks ago and was diagnosed as having right locally
      advanced (T2N2M0, stage IIIA) triple negative breast cancer. After two courses of
      epirubicine and cyclophosphamide as NAC, disease progression was recognized and
      curative resection was considered impossible due to enlarged axillary lymph nodes
      showing invasion to surrounding tissue. As second-line chemotherapy, weekly
      paclitaxel with bevacizumab treatment was initiated and significant shrinkage was
      immediately obtained. A clinically complete response was diagnosed after four
      courses of weekly paclitaxel with bevacizumab and she underwent a right breast
      mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection without major complications.
      Histopathological examination of surgical specimens showed no residual invasive
      or noninvasive disease and she was diagnosed as having a pathological complete
      response. CONCLUSIONS: Although the addition of bevacizumab to standard adjuvant
      chemotherapy is not recommended in unselected triple negative breast cancer, the
      potent effect on tumor shrinkage should be considered in the treatment of locally
      advanced triple negative breast cancer showing disease progression during
      standard NAC.

PMID- 28888916
TI  - Blue finger: An unusual clinical presentation.

PMID- 28888917
TI  - Light-switchable systems for remotely controlled drug delivery.
AB  - Light-switchable systems have recently received attention as a new mode of
      remotely controlled drug delivery. In the past, a multitude of nanomedicine
      studies have sought to enhance the specificity of drug delivery to target sites
      by focusing on receptors overexpressed on malignant cells or environmental
      features of diseases sites. Despite these immense efforts, however, there are few
      clinically available nanomedicines. We need a paradigm shift in drug delivery.
      One strategy that may overcome the limitations of pathophysiology-based drug
      delivery is the use of remotely controlled delivery technology. Unlike
      pathophysiology-based active drug targeting strategies, light-switchable systems
      are not affected by the heterogeneity of cells, tissue types, and/or
      microenvironments. Instead, they are triggered by remote light (i.e., near
      infrared) stimuli, which are absorbed by photoresponsive molecules or three
      dimensional nanostructures. The sequential conversion of light to heat or
      reactive oxygen species can activate drug release and allow it to be spatio
      temporally controlled. Light-switchable systems have been used to activate
      endosomal drug escape, modulate the release of chemical and biological drugs, and
      alter nanoparticle structures to control the release rates of drugs. This review
      will address the limitations of pathophysiology-based drug delivery systems, the
      current status of light-based remote-switch systems, and future directions in the
      application of light-switchable systems for remotely controlled drug delivery.

PMID- 28888918
TI  - Effects of psychopharmacological treatment with antipsychotic drugs on the
      vascular system.
AB  - Psychopharmacological treatment with antipsychotic drugs is an essential part of
      guideline-based treatment strategies in psychotic disorders, such as
      schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders, and delusional disorders. Other mental
      disorders frequently treated with antipsychotic drugs are bipolar disorders, and
      major depressive disorder. Furthermore, antipsychotic drugs are often given in
      emergency and surgical units for the treatment of metabolic or postoperative
      delirium. Antipsychotic drugs can exert direct and indirect effects on the
      vascular system, potentially leading to severe complications such as
      thromboembolism. Therefore, knowledge of vascular side effects of antipsychotic
      drugs is important for clinicians. This clinical orientated review article covers
      direct and indirect effects of antipsychotics on the vascular system.

PMID- 28888920
TI  - Comprehensive Integrated Care Model to Improve Maternal Mental Health.
AB  - In this article, we describe an integrated care model in a perinatal psychiatry
      program to improve access to care for women who experience mood changes during
      the perinatal period. A nurse-practitioner trained in psychiatry and obstetrics
      is embedded in the obstetric clinic, and perinatal nurses, often the first
      professionals to recognize women who are experiencing mood changes, can easily
      refer women for follow-up. Barriers, lessons learned, and goals for
      implementation are described.

PMID- 28888919
TI  - Patterns of Symptoms of Perinatal Depression and Stress in Late Adolescent and
      Young Adult Mothers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare symptoms of depression, maternal adjustment, and perceived
      stress in late adolescent and young adult mothers and to examine the patterns of
      these symptoms during the first 3 months after birth. DESIGN: Secondary analysis
      of existing longitudinal data. SETTING: San Francisco Bay Area, with participants
      in their home environments. PARTICIPANTS: Ethnically diverse women expecting
      their first infants recruited during the third trimester from childbirth
      education classes and antenatal clinics. The final sample included 34
      participants in the late adolescent group (18-20 years) and 48 participants in
      the young adult group (21-24 years). METHODS: The Center for Epidemiologic
      Studies Depression Scale was used to assess depression symptoms, the Maternal
      Adjustment and Maternal Attitudes Scale was used to assess maternal adjustment,
      and the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale was used to assess perceived stress.
      Repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to examine changes over time in
      depression, maternal adjustment, and perceived stress scores. RESULTS: Compared
      with young adult participants, late adolescent participants had greater mean
      depression scores (F(1, 61) = 8.02, p = .006) and perceived stress scores (F(1,
      62) = 9.45, p = .003) at all time points. Scores for maternal adjustment could
      not be compared because of the low internal validity of the instrument.
      CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that late adolescent mothers may have more
      symptoms of depression and stress in late pregnancy and the early postpartum
      period than young adult mothers. Clinicians in maternity and pediatric settings
      should be vigilant in screening for depression and stress in this vulnerable
      population during their transitions to motherhood.

PMID- 28888921
TI  - N(4)-[B-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan)methyl]-2'-deoxycytidine as a
      potential boron delivery agent with respect to glioblastoma.
AB  - Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a central nervous system tumor of grade IV,
      according to the WHO classification, extremely resistant to all currently used
      forms of therapy, including resection, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or combined
      therapy. Therefore, more effective treatment strategies of this tumor are needed,
      with boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) being a potential solution, provided a
      proper cancer cells-targeted 10B delivery agent is found. In search of such an
      agent, toxicity and capacity to target DNA of a boronated derivative of 2'
      deoxycytidine, N(4)-[B-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan)methyl]-2'
      deoxycytidine (1), was tested against human tumor vs. normal cells. The present
      in vitro results revealed 1 to show low toxicity for human U-118 MG glioma cells
      (in the mM range) and even by 3-4 - fold lower against normal human fibroblasts.
      In accord, induction of apoptosis dependent on caspase-3 and caspase-7 was
      detected at high (>20mM) concentration of 1. Although demonstrated to be
      susceptible to phosphorylation by human deoxycytidine kinase and to undergo
      incorporation in cellular DNA, the boron analogue did not disturb cell
      proliferation when applied at non-toxic concentrations and showed low toxicity to
      a model metazoan organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. Thus, N(4)-[B-(4,4,5,5
      tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan)methyl]-2'-deoxycytidine appears a promising
      candidate for a 10B delivery agent to be used in BNCT, with C. elegans indicated
      as a good model for in vivo studies.

PMID- 28888922
TI  - MicroRNA-20a participates in the aerobic exercise-based prevention of coronary
      artery disease by targeting PTEN.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Exercise can reduce the coronary artery disease (CAD) incidence.
      MiRNA-20a has been reported to distinctly expressed after sustain physical
      activity. However, its expression and regulation pattern in CAD model with or
      without exercise has not been reported. OBJECTIVE: In present study, we aim to
      investigate regulatory mechanism of miR-20a in exercise-associated reduced-CAD
      incidence and miR-20a-dependent signaling pathways. METHODS: Eight weeks old male
      ApoE/LDLR double knock out mice were recruited for this study. CAD model was
      established in mice fed with or without western diet and cholesterol levels were
      measured using detection kit as well as fast protein liquid chromatography.
      Relative mRNA levels were determined using quantitative RT-PCR while the protein
      levels were analyzed using western blotting. Luciferase assay was used to
      determine the miRNA binding site on target genes. CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry
      (FCM) were used for assessing the proliferative and apoptotic rate. RESULTS:
      Overall cholesterol level was significantly increased in CAD model group,
      compared to normal control group. Expression of miR-20 was significantly lower in
      CAD group where the VEGF and PTEN were upregulated, compared to non-CAD group.
      Increased miR-20a was induced after exercise in CAD model group, and miR-20a
      agomir group. Overexpression of miR-20a decreased the expression level of ET-1,
      TxA2, ANGII, PTEN and increased the eNOS, PGI2, and VEGF, at both transcriptional
      and translational levels. In vitro examination further confirmed these findings
      in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). MiR-20a specifically binds to
      the 3'UTR of PTEN and mediated the cell survival and proliferation through
      activating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. CONCLUSION: MiRNA-20a may have great
      potential as therapeutic target for CAD, since its participation can induce
      alteration of functional genes as well as PTEN, which is specifically targeted by
      miR-20a, and promote the survival and proliferation of vein endothelial cells.

PMID- 28888923
TI  - Social learning in a maze? Contrasting individual performance among wild
      zebrafish when associated with trained and naive conspecifics.
AB  - Social learning facilitates informed decision making about foraging, mating and
      anti-predatory tactics among animals. We investigated the occurrence of social
      learning through performance in a spatial task among wild-caught zebrafish.
      Individual fish (demonstrators) were trained through a novel food finding task in
      a maze for 8days. Demonstrators were paired with naive individuals (observers)
      and subjected to trials through maze for 4days followed by removal of the
      demonstrators and further training of observers for 4 more days. Paired naive
      individuals were subjected to trials through the maze in similar fashion
      separately and the performance of observers were compared with theirs. Our
      results showed that observers associated with knowledgeable conspecifics did not
      perform the task better than naive-paired individuals. Performances across trials
      improved for both sets while number of mistakes committed increased indicating no
      learning. The presence of a demonstrator could have increased the observer's
      activity, increasing the chances for the observer to come in contact with the
      stimulus. Performance of observers and naive-paired fish were probably affected
      by social distraction. Sex and body-size of the dyads (demonstrator-observer
      pairs and naive pairs) could also have interfered with information transfer among
      individuals.

PMID- 28888924
TI  - Mesothelin-specific Immune Responses Predict Survival of Patients With Brain
      Metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced malignancies, e.g. lung cancer, ovarian cancer
      or melanoma, frequently present with brain metastases. Clinical presentation and
      disease progression of cancer is in part shaped by the interaction of the immune
      system with malignant cells. Antigen-targeted immune responses have been
      implicated in the prolonged survival of patients with cancer. This includes the
      tumor-associated antigen (TAA) mature mesothelin, a 40kDa cell surface-bound
      antigen that is overexpressed in several malignancies including lung ovarian and
      pancreatic cancer. We examined in an observational, prospective study the
      survival of patients with brain metastases in association with clinical
      parameters and cellular immune responses to molecularly defined TAAs or viral
      (control) target antigens. METHODS: Immune cells in peripheral blood obtained
      from thirty-six patients with brain metastases were tested for cytokine
      production in response to a broad panel of defined viral and TAA target antigens,
      including full-length mesothelin. Incubation of immune cells with antigenic
      targets was carried out in i) medium alone, (ii) in a cytokine cocktail of
      interleukin (IL)-2/IL-15/IL-21, or (iii) IL-2/IL-7. Supernatants were tested for
      interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production, after which univariate and multivariate
      analyses (Cox stepwise regression model) were performed to identify independent
      clinical and immunological factors associated with patient survival. Patients
      were followed-up for at least 500days after surgery or until death. FINDINGS:
      Univariate analysis identified age, gender, radiotherapy and mutational load as
      clinical parameters affecting survival of patients with brain metastases. Cox
      multivariate analysis showed that radiotherapy (P=0.004), age (P=0.029) and IFN
      gamma responses to mature mesothelin, conditioned by IL-2/IL-7 (P=0.045) were
      independent predictors of the survival of patients from surgery up to follow-up
      or death. INTERPRETATION: This is the first evidence that immune responses to
      mesothelin serve as a marker of increased overall survival in patients with brain
      metastases, regardless of the primary tumor origin. Analyses of immunological
      markers could potentially serve as prognostic markers in patients with brain
      metastases and help to select patients in need for adjunct, immunological,
      treatment strategies.

PMID- 28888926
TI  - Sleep improvement by internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy might help
      prevent mental health disorders.

PMID- 28888925
TI  - Follicular Helper T Cells are Essential for the Elimination of Plasmodium
      Infection.
AB  - CD4+ follicular helper T (Tfh) cells have been shown to be critical for the
      activation of germinal center (GC) B-cell responses. Similar to other infections,
      Plasmodium infection activates both GC as well as non-GC B cell responses. Here,
      we sought to explore whether Tfh cells and GC B cells are required to eliminate a
      Plasmodium infection. A CD4 T cell-targeted deletion of the gene that encodes
      Bcl6, the master transcription factor for the Tfh program, resulted in complete
      disruption of the Tfh response to Plasmodium chabaudi in C57BL/6 mice and
      consequent disruption of GC responses and IgG responses and the inability to
      eliminate the otherwise self-resolving chronic P. chabaudi infection. On the
      other hand, and contrary to previous observations in immunization and viral
      infection models, Signaling Lymphocyte Activation Molecule (SLAM)-Associated
      Protein (SAP)-deficient mice were able to activate Tfh cells, GC B cells, and IgG
      responses to the parasite. This study demonstrates the critical role for Tfh
      cells in controlling this systemic infection, and highlights differences in the
      signals required to activate GC B cell responses to this complex parasite
      compared with those of protein immunizations and viral infections. Therefore,
      these data are highly pertinent for designing malaria vaccines able to activate
      broadly protective B-cell responses.

PMID- 28888928
TI  - An update on new and unique uses of botulinum toxin in movement disorders.
AB  - The therapeutic applications of botulinum toxin (BoNT) have grown manifold since
      its initial approval in 1989 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the
      treatment of strabismus, blepharospasm, and other facial spasms. Although it is
      the most potent biologic toxin known to man, long-term studies have established
      its safety in the treatment of a variety of neurologic and non-neurologic
      disorders. This review focuses on some novel and uncommon uses of BoNT in the
      treatment of movement disorders, such as oromandibular dystonia, including
      bruxism, anterocollis, camptocormia, tremor, tics, tardive and levodopa-induced
      dyskinesia, and restless legs syndrome. Despite a paucity of randomized
      controlled trials and lack of FDA approval for these movement disorders, there is
      growing body of evidence that BoNT provides benefit to patients with these
      hyperkinetic movement disorders and that BoNT is a safe treatment when used by
      clinicians skilled in the administration of the drug for these conditions.

PMID- 28888927
TI  - The effects of improving sleep on mental health (OASIS): a randomised controlled
      trial with mediation analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleep difficulties might be a contributory causal factor in the
      occurrence of mental health problems. If this is true, improving sleep should
      benefit psychological health. We aimed to determine whether treating insomnia
      leads to a reduction in paranoia and hallucinations. METHODS: We did this single
      blind, randomised controlled trial (OASIS) at 26 UK universities. University
      students with insomnia were randomly assigned (1:1) with simple randomisation to
      receive digital cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for insomnia or usual care,
      and the research team were masked to the treatment. Online assessments took place
      at weeks 0, 3, 10 (end of therapy), and 22. The primary outcome measures were for
      insomnia, paranoia, and hallucinatory experiences. We did intention-to-treat
      analyses. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number
      ISRCTN61272251. FINDINGS: Between March 5, 2015, and Feb 17, 2016, we randomly
      assigned 3755 participants to receive digital CBT for insomnia (n=1891) or usual
      practice (n=1864). Compared with usual practice, the sleep intervention at 10
      weeks reduced insomnia (adjusted difference 4.78, 95% CI 4.29 to 5.26, Cohen's
      d=1.11; p<0.0001), paranoia (-2.22, -2.98 to -1.45, Cohen's d=0.19; p<0.0001),
      and hallucinations (-1.58, -1.98 to -1.18, Cohen's d=0.24; p<0.0001). Insomnia
      was a mediator of change in paranoia and hallucinations. No adverse events were
      reported. INTERPRETATION: To our knowledge, this is the largest randomised
      controlled trial of a psychological intervention for a mental health problem. It
      provides strong evidence that insomnia is a causal factor in the occurrence of
      psychotic experiences and other mental health problems. Whether the results
      generalise beyond a student population requires testing. The treatment of
      disrupted sleep might require a higher priority in mental health provision.
      FUNDING: Wellcome Trust.

PMID- 28888929
TI  - Longitudinal studies of botulinum toxin in cervical dystonia: Why do patients
      discontinue therapy?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have established botulinum toxin (BoNT) to be safe
      and effective for the treatment of cervical dystonia (CD). Despite its well
      documented efficacy, there has been growing awareness that a significant
      proportion of CD patients discontinue therapy. The reasons for discontinuation
      are only partly understood. METHODS: This summary describes longitudinal studies
      that provided information regarding the proportions of patients discontinuing
      BoNT therapy, and the reasons for discontinuing therapy. The data come
      predominantly from un-blinded long-term follow-up studies, registry studies, and
      patient-based surveys. RESULTS: All types of longitudinal studies provide strong
      evidence that BoNT is both safe and effective in the treatment of CD for many
      years. Overall, approximately one third of CD patients discontinue BoNT. The most
      common reason for discontinuing therapy is lack of benefit, often described as
      primary or secondary non-response. The apparent lack of response is only rarely
      related to true immune-mediated resistance to BoNT. Other reasons for
      discontinuing include side effects, inconvenience, cost, or other reasons.
      DISCUSSION: Although BoNT is safe and effective in the treatment of the majority
      of patients with CD, approximately one third discontinue. The increasing
      awareness of a significant proportion of patients who discontinue should
      encourage further efforts to optimize administration of BoNT, to improve BoNT
      preparations to extend duration or reduce side effects, to develop add-on
      therapies that may mitigate swings in symptom severity, or develop entirely novel
      treatment approaches.

PMID- 28888930
TI  - A combined experimental, modeling, and computational approach to interpret the
      viscoelastic response of the white matter brain tissue during indentation.
AB  - Viscoelastic properties of the white matter brain tissue are systematically
      studied in this paper utilizing indentation experiments, mathematical modeling,
      and finite element simulation. It is first demonstrated that the internal
      stiffness of the instrument needs to be thoroughly obtained and incorporated in
      the analysis as its contribution to the recorded mechanical response is
      significant for experiments on very compliant materials. The flat-punch monotonic
      indentation is then performed indirectly on sagittal plane slices with pushing a
      large rigid coverslip into the sample surface. The recorded load and displacement
      data are used for calibrating different viscoelastic models and presenting
      numerical values for the model elements. Consequently, the accuracy of the
      findings based on the theoretical models is investigated by performing finite
      element simulations which suggest a considerable substrate effect that causes
      violation of the semi-infinite half-space assumption in modeling of the material
      behavior. Accordingly, correction factors for adjusting the viscoelastic
      constants are obtained and presented. Since the Maxwell model shows a superior
      capability in rendering the mechanical response of the brain, an extension of
      this model to Multimode Maxwell viscoelastic solid is proposed for modeling the
      tissue behavior under a more complex load-hold-unload indentation cycle that
      shows acceptable agreement with experimental observations.

PMID- 28888931
TI  - Biomechanical testing of zirconium dioxide osteosynthesis system for Le Fort I
      advancement osteotomy fixation.
AB  - The following work is the first evaluating the applicability of 3D printed
      zirconium dioxide ceramic miniplates and screws to stabilize maxillary segments
      following a Le-Fort I advancement surgery. Conventionally used titanium and
      individual fabricated zirconium dioxide miniplates were biomechanically tested
      and compared under an occlusal load of 120N and 500N using 3D finite element
      analysis. The overall model consisted of 295,477 elements. Under an occlusal load
      of 500N a safety factor before plastic deformation respectively crack of 2.13 for
      zirconium dioxide and 4.51 for titanium miniplates has been calculated. From a
      biomechanical point of view 3D printed ZrO2 mini-plates and screws are suggested
      to constitute an appropriate patient specific and metal-free solution for
      maxillary stabilization after Le Fort I osteotomy.

PMID- 28888932
TI  - Effect of frequency on crack growth in articular cartilage.
AB  - Cracks can occur in the articular cartilage surface due to the mechanical loading
      of the synovial joint, trauma or wear and tear. However, the propagation of such
      cracks under different frequencies of loading is unknown. The objective of this
      study was to determine the effect of frequency of loading on the growth of a pre
      existing crack in cartilage specimens subjected to cyclic tensile strain. A
      2.26mm crack was introduced into cartilage specimens and crack growth was
      achieved by applying a sinusoidally varying tensile strain at frequencies of 1,
      10 and 100Hz (i.e. corresponding to normal, above normal and up to rapid heel
      strike rise times, respectively). These frequencies were applied with a strain of
      between 10-20% and the crack length was measured at 0, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000,
      5000 and 10,000 cycles of strain. Crack growth increased with increasing number
      of cycles. The maximum crack growth was 0.6 +/- 0.3 (mean +/- standard
      deviation), 0.8 +/- 0.2 and 1.1 +/- 0.4mm at frequencies of 1, 10 and 100Hz,
      respectively following 10,000 cycles. Mean crack growth were 0.3 +/- 0.2 and 0.4
      +/- 0.2 at frequencies of 1 and 10Hz, respectively. However, this value increased
      up to 0.6 +/- 0.4mm at a frequency of 100Hz. This study demonstrates that crack
      growth was greater at higher frequencies. The findings of this study may have
      implications in the early onset of osteoarthritis. This is because rapid heel
      strike rise times have been implicated in the early onset of osteoarthritis.

PMID- 28888933
TI  - Microstructures, mechanical properties, and degradation behaviors of heat-treated
      Mg-Sr alloys as potential biodegradable implant materials.
AB  - In previous studies, Mg-Sr alloys exhibited great biocompatibility with regard to
      test animals, and enhanced peri-implant bone formation. The objective of the
      present study was to investigate the effects of heat treatments on the mechanical
      and corrosion properties of Mg-Sr alloys. Various heat-treated Mg-xSr (x = 0.5,
      1, and 2wt%, nominal composition) alloys were prepared using homogenization and
      aging treatments. Mechanical tests were performed at room temperature on the as
      cast, homogenized, and peak-aged alloys. As the Sr content increased, the volume
      fraction of Mg17Sr2 phases within the as-cast alloys increased; in addition, the
      mechanical strength of the alloys initially increased and subsequently decreased,
      while the ductility decreased. Following the homogenization treatment, the
      mechanical strength of the alloys decreased, and the ductility increased. Nano
      sized Mg17Sr2 phases were re-precipitated during the aging treatment. The age
      hardening response at 160 degrees C was enhanced as the Sr content increased.
      Following the aging treatment, there was an increase in the mechanical strength
      of the alloys; however, there was a slight reduction in the ductility. Immersion
      tests were conducted at 37 degrees C for 360h, using Hank's buffered salt
      solution (HBSS), to study the degradation behavior of the alloys. As the Sr
      content of the Mg-Sr alloys increased, the corrosion rate (CR) increased owing to
      the galvanic effect. The homogenization treatment consequently reduced the CR
      dramatically, and the aging treatment had a slight effect on the CR. The peak
      aged Mg-1Sr (wt%) alloy exhibited the best combination of properties. The tensile
      yield strength (TYS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), elongation, compressive
      yield strength (CYS), ultimate compressive strength (UCS), compressibility, and
      CR of the as-cast Mg-1Sr (wt%) alloy were 56.0MPa, 92.67MPa, 1.27%, 171.4MPa,
      243.6MPa, 22.3%, and 1.76mm/year, respectively. The respective results obtained
      for the peak-aged Mg-1Sr (wt%) alloys were 69.7MPa, 135.6MPa, 3.22%, 183.1MPa,
      273.6MPa, 27.6%, and 1.33mm/year. Following immersion in HBSS, the primary
      corrosion products of the peak-aged Mg-1Sr (wt%) alloy were Mg(OH)2, MgO, MgCO3,
      Mg3(PO4)2, MgHPO4, and Mg(H2PO4)2, which enhanced the corrosion resistance by
      forming a composite corrosion film.

PMID- 28888934
TI  - Femoral stem incorporating a diamond cubic lattice structure: Design, manufacture
      and testing.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The current total hip prostheses with dense femoral stems are
      considerably stiffer than the host bones, which leads to such long-term
      complications as aseptic loosening, and eventually, the need for a revision.
      Consequently, the lifetime of the implantation does not match the lifetime
      expectation of young patients. METHOD: A femoral stem design featuring a porous
      structure is proposed to lower its stiffness and allow bone tissue ingrowth. The
      porous structure is based on a diamond cubic lattice in which the pore size and
      the strut thickness are selected to meet the biomechanical requirements of the
      strength and the bone ingrowth. A porous stem and its fully dense counterpart are
      produced by laser powder-bed fusion using Ti-6Al-4V alloy. To evaluate the
      stiffness reduction, static testing based on the ISO standard 7206-4 is
      performed. The experimental results recorded by digital image correlation are
      analyzed and compared to the numerical model. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: The
      numerical and experimental force-displacement characteristics of the porous stem
      show a 31% lower stiffness as compared to that of its dense counterpart.
      Moreover, the correlation analysis of the total displacement and equivalent
      strain fields allows the preliminary validation of the numerical model of the
      porous stem. Finally, the analysis of the surface-to-volume and the strength-to
      stiffness ratios of diamond lattice structures allow the assessment of their
      potential as biomimetic constructs for load-bearing orthopaedic implants.

PMID- 28888936
TI  - beta-arrestin-2 is involved in irisin induced glucose metabolism in type 2
      diabetes via p38 MAPK signaling.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a common metabolic disease worldwide. It has
      been reported that irisin play regulatory role in glucose metabolism in T2DM.
      However, the underlying mechanism involved in that is not completely known.
      Herein, we determined the novel role of beta-arrestin-2 in irisin-induced glucose
      utilization in diabetes. Effects of irisin and beta-arrestin-2 on glucose
      utilization were investigated in a rat model of diabetes and in diabetic C2C12
      cells in vitro. Results showed that irisin had positive role in glucose
      metabolism via regulating glucose tolerance as well as uptake in cardiac and
      skeletal muscle tissues, as evidenced by IPGTT, 2-deoxyglucose uptake and plasma
      membrane GLUT-4 assay. beta-arrestin-2 also improved glucose utilization in
      diabetes by increasing the glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity, as shown in
      mice overexpressing beta-arrestin-2. In diabetic C2C12 myocytes, irisin-induced
      GLUT4 and glucose uptake were restrained by beta-arrestin-2 inhibition, but was
      enhanced by beta-arrestin-2 overexpression. Additionally, irisin and beta
      arrestin-2 increased the activation of p38 MAPK in diabetic C2C12 cells, and the
      repression of p38 MAPK activation decreased the glucose uptake and plasma
      membrane GLUT-4 was enhanced by irisin and beta-arrestin-2 overexpression in
      diabetic C2C12 cells. In conclusion, we demonstrated that beta-arrestin-2 has a
      crucial role in irisin induced glucose metabolism in T2DM by regulating the p38
      MAPK signaling. This might present a novel therapeutic target of treatment for
      human diabetes.

PMID- 28888935
TI  - Viscoplastic crack initiation and propagation in crosslinked UHMWPE from
      clinically relevant notches up to 0.5mm radius.
AB  - Highly crosslinked UHMWPE is now the material of choice for hard-on-soft bearing
      couples in total joint replacements. However, the fracture resistance of the
      polymer remains a design concern for increased longevity of the components in
      vivo. Fracture research utilizing the traditional linear elastic fracture
      mechanics (LEFM) or elastic plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM) approach has not
      yielded a definite failure criterion for UHMWPE. Therefore, an advanced viscous
      fracture model has been applied to various notched compact tension specimen
      geometries to estimate the fracture resistance of the polymer. Two generic
      crosslinked UHMWPE formulations (remelted 65kGy and remelted 100kGy) were
      analyzed in this study using notched test specimens with three different notch
      radii under static loading conditions. The results suggest that the viscous
      fracture model can be applied to crosslinked UHMWPE and a single value of
      critical energy governs crack initiation and propagation in the material. To our
      knowledge, this is one of the first studies to implement a mechanistic approach
      to study crack initiation and propagation in UHMWPE for a range of clinically
      relevant stress-concentration geometries. It is believed that a combination of
      structural analysis of components and material parameter quantification is a path
      to effective failure prediction in UHMWPE total joint replacement components,
      though additional testing is needed to verify the rigor of this approach.

PMID- 28888937
TI  - Low density lipoprotein receptor class A domain containing 4 (LDLRAD4) promotes
      tumorigenesis of hepatic cancer cells.
AB  - LDLRAD4 was previously identified and shown to be connected with psychiatric
      disorders. The structure of LDLRAD4 protein is similar to that of TMEPAI protein,
      which is overexpressed in many tumors. However, it is still unknown whether
      LDLRAD4 is involved in tumorigenesis. In this study, the potential role of
      LDLRAD4 in tumorigenesis was investigated. LDLRAD4 is elevated in hepatic cancer
      cells and tumor tissues, and expression of LDLRAD4 promotes hepatic cancer cell
      HepG2 and SMMC-7721 proliferation and migration. LDLRAD4 interacts Nedd4 to
      promote cell proliferation and migration and negatively regulates the TGF-beta
      signaling. Furthermore, immunofluorescence microscopy analysis indicates that
      LDLRAD4 is localized to the lysosome and association with Nedd4 is necessary for
      its intracellular transport to the lysosome. In addition, depletion of LDLRAD4 in
      HepG2 liver cancer cells inhibited tumorigenesis in nude mice. These results
      reveal an oncogenic role of LDLRAD4 in tumorigenesis through its association with
      Nedd4.

PMID- 28888938
TI  - Occurrence of Vibrio cholerae in water reservoirs of Burkina Faso.
AB  - Africa is currently an important region in which cholera epidemics occur. Little
      is known about the presence of Vibrio cholerae in freshwater bodies in Africa.
      There are ca. 1700 lakes and reservoirs in Burkina Faso, most of which have been
      built within recent decades to secure water resources. The purpose of this study
      was to investigate the presence of V. cholerae in the water of reservoirs, using
      the most-probable-number polymerase chain reaction. Results showed that V.
      cholerae could be detected in water samples collected from 14 of 39 sampled
      reservoirs. The concentrations varied from 0 MPN/l to more than 1100 MPN/l. Fifty
      strains of V. cholerae isolated on CHROMagarTM vibrio were identified as V.
      cholerae non-O1/non-O139, none of which carried the ctxA gene. A significant
      positive correlation was found between the presence of V. cholerae in the
      reservoirs and both alkaline pH and phytoplankton biomass. V. cholerae was
      present in significantly higher numbers in reservoirs of urban areas than in
      rural areas. Since V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 has been shown to be a causative
      agent of endemic diarrheal outbreaks, their presence in Burkina Faso reservoirs
      suggests they may play a role in gastroenteritis in that country.

PMID- 28888939
TI  - Water isotope effect on the lipidic cubic phase: Heavy water-Induced interfacial
      area reduction of monoolein-Water system.
AB  - Heavy water (D2O) affects various functions of cells and living things. In order
      to gain fundamental insight into the molecular mechanism on biological effects of
      heavy water, D2O-effects on fully hydrated monoolein (MO) systems were
      investigated from the structural viewpoints. At room temperature, the MO fully
      hydrated by pure light water (H2O) forms a bicontinuous cubic (Pn3m) phase, and
      then, the Pn3m cubic phase transforms into an inverted hexagonal (HII) phase at
      about 90 degrees C. Temperature-scan X-ray diffraction measurements showed that
      substitution of D2O for H2O lowers the Pn3m-to-HII phase transition temperature
      and reduces the lattice constants of both phases. The structural analysis of the
      Pn3m phase using the diffraction intensity data indicated that D2O reduces the
      surface occupied area of MO at the interface by 12% in comparison with H2O. This
      change is probably due to the difference of the strength of hydrogen bond.

PMID- 28888940
TI  - Environmental change in a modified catchment downstream of a gold mine, Solomon
      Islands.
AB  - Solomon Islands is rapidly developing its natural resource exploitation sector,
      but data needed to assess consequent environmental impacts are scarce. We
      assessed catchments surrounding the Gold Ridge gold mine (Guadalcanal, Solomon
      Islands) and found that extensive changes in river course, and water and sediment
      quality have occurred downstream of the gold mine since its development. Sediment
      run-off from exposed areas associated with the mine pit has increased, elevating
      turbidity (up to 2450 NTU) and metal and arsenic levels, with levels of the
      latter being up to 0.141 mg/L in surface waters and 265 mg/kg in sediments. An
      overfull, inoperative tailings storage facility associated with the currently
      inactive gold mine with fluctuating arsenic levels (up to 0.087 mg/L in the
      water; 377 mg/kg in the sediment) presents an ongoing threat to the environment.
      Arsenic, due to its toxicity, appears to be the greatest threat, with sediment
      and water guideline levels in rivers exceeded 10-fold and exceeded nearly 20-fold
      in the tailings dam sediments. Despite elevated metal and arsenic content in the
      area, no toxic inorganic arsenic was found to have bioaccumulated in locally
      harvested food. In summary, the natural environment surrounding the Gold Ridge
      mine has been modified substantially and requires an ongoing monitoring program
      to ensure the ecosystem services of food and water for the local communities
      continue to be safe. This study informs not only the local area but also provides
      a microcosm of the broader global challenges facing the regulation of extractive
      industries in proximity to subsistence communities.

PMID- 28888941
TI  - Application of the IEUBK model for linking Children's blood lead with
      environmental exposure in a mining site, south China.
AB  - This study consisted of a site- and age-specific investigation linking children's
      blood lead level (BLL) to environmental exposures in a historic mining site in
      south China. A total of 151 children, aged 3-7 years, were included in this
      study. The geometric mean (GM) BLL was 8.22 MUg/dl, indicating an elevated BLL.
      The Integrated Exposure Uptake Bio-Kinetic (IEUBK) model has proven useful at
      many sites for study of routes of exposure. Application of the IEUBK model to
      these children indicated that the GM difference between observed and predicted
      BLL levels was only 1.07 MUg/dl. It was found that the key environmental exposure
      pathway was soil/dust intake, which contributed 86.3% to the total risk. Younger
      children had higher BLL than did older children. Therefore, of the various low
      risk-high benefit solutions, interventions for the children living near the site
      should be focused on the dust removal and soil remediation. Implementation of the
      China Eco-village Construction Plan and China New Rural Reconstruction Movement
      of the government may be a better solution.

PMID- 28888942
TI  - Enhanced photochemical conversion of NO2 to HONO on humic acids in the presence
      of benzophenone.
AB  - The photochemical conversion of NO2 to HONO on humic acids (HA) in the presence
      of benzophenone (BP) was investigated using a flow tube reactor coupled to a NOx
      analyzer at ambient pressure. BP significantly enhanced the reduction of NO2 to
      HONO on HA under simulated sunlight, as shown by the increase of NO2 uptake
      coefficient (gamma) and HONO yield with the mass ratio of BP to HA. The gamma and
      HONO yield on the mixtures of HA and BP obviously depended on the environmental
      conditions. Both gamma and HONO yield increased with the increase of irradiation
      intensity and temperature, whereas they decreased with pH. The gamma exhibited a
      negative dependence on the NO2 concentration, which had slight influences on the
      HONO yield. There were maximum values for the gamma and HONO yield at relative
      humidity (RH) of 22%. Finally, atmospheric implications about the photochemical
      reaction of NO2 and HA in the presence of photosensitive species were discussed.

PMID- 28888944
TI  - The novel dopamine D3 receptor antagonists/partial agonists CAB2-015 and BAK4-54
      inhibit oxycodone-taking and oxycodone-seeking behavior in rats.
AB  - The use of prescription opioid analgesics, particularly oxycodone, has
      dramatically increased, and parallels escalated opioid abuse and drug-related
      deaths worldwide. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the
      development of opioid dependence and expanding treatment options to counter
      prescription opioid abuse has become a critical public health matter. In the
      present study, we first evaluated the reinforcing effects of oxycodone in a rat
      model of self-administration and then explored the potential utility of two novel
      high affinity dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) antagonists/partial agonists, CAB2-015
      and BAK4-54, for treatment of prescription opioid abuse and dependence. We found
      that rats acquired oxycodone self-administration rapidly within a range of unit
      doses that was similar to that for heroin, confirming that oxycodone has
      significant abuse potential. Strikingly, pretreatment with either CAB2-015 or
      BAK4-54 (0.4-10 mg/kg, i.p.) dose-dependently decreased oxycodone self
      administration, and shifted the oxycodone dose-response curve downward. Repeated
      pretreatment with CAB2-015 or BAK4-54 (0.4-4 mg/kg) facilitated extinction and
      inhibited oxycodone-induced reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior. In addition,
      pretreatment with CAB2-015 or BAK4-54 (4-10 mg/kg) also dose-dependently
      decreased oxycodone-enhanced locomotor activity, but only CAB2-015 decreased oral
      sucrose self-administration. These data suggest that D3R antagonists may be
      suitable alternatives or adjunctive to opioid-based medications currently used
      clinically in treating opioid addiction and that the D3R-selective ligands (CAB2
      015 or BAK4-54) provide new lead molecules for development.

PMID- 28888945
TI  - Mathematical model for the spread of drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum
      parasite considering transmission conditions.
AB  - Antimalarial drugs have been used as one of the main strategies for controlling
      this disease. However, the spread of drug resistance in the Plasmodium falciparum
      parasite has generated major challenges for the control of malaria. For this
      reason, it is necessary to develop an efficient policy considering the parasite
      behavior in relation to drug treatment and epidemiological parameters. To achieve
      this goal, we propose a mathematical model that describes the dynamics of
      parasite population considering the transmission effects between mosquitoes and
      humans. In order to quantify the drug treatment effect on humans and the
      generation of new parasite genotypes within the mosquito, the parasite population
      was divided into those found in humans and mosquitoes. To test the model, we
      simulate several parasite populations, related with pyrimethamine resistance, in
      high and low transmission conditions. Simulation results show the dynamics of
      different parasite populations depending on drug coverage and the effect of
      epidemiological parameters. These results show that disease elimination may not
      be possible by using only pyrimethamine treatment, so we include different
      control strategies and we observe that reducing contacts between mosquitoes and
      humans helped the drug coverage to reduce the prevalence of disease. Finally,
      this model is used to propose an optimal policy that minimizes disease
      prevalence; the principal result is that the most effective coverage of the drug
      is around middle coverage. The model can also be used to evaluate not only
      pyrimethamine treatments, but it can be adapted for the study of resistance to
      other drugs.

PMID- 28888943
TI  - Melanin concentrating hormone modulates oxytocin-mediated marble burying.
AB  - Repetitive and perseverative behaviors are common features of a number of
      neuropsychiatric diseases such as Angelman's syndrome, Tourette's syndrome,
      obsessive-compulsive disorder, and autism spectrum disorders. The oxytocin system
      has been linked to the regulation of repetitive behavior in both animal models
      and humans, but many of its downstream targets have still to be found. We report
      that the melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) system is a target of the oxytocin
      system in regulating one repetitive behavior, marble burying. First we report
      that nearly 60% of MCH neurons express oxytocin receptors, and demonstrate using
      rabies mediated tract tracing that MCH neurons receive direct presynaptic input
      from oxytocin neurons. Then we show that MCH receptor knockout (MCHR1KO) mice and
      MCH ablated animals display increased marble burying response while central MCH
      infusion decreases it. Finally, we demonstrate the downstream role of the MCH
      system on oxytocin mediated marble burying by showing that central infusions of
      MCH and oxytocin alone or together reduce it while antagonizing the MCH system
      blocks oxytocin-mediated reduction of this behavior. Our findings reveal a novel
      role for the MCH system as a mediator of the role of oxytocin in regulating
      marble-burying behavior in mice.

PMID- 28888946
TI  - Autocatalytic confusion clarified.
AB  - There is frequent confusion about the terms autocatalytic reaction, autocatalytic
      cycle, and autocatalytic set. As the use of the same adjective implies, these
      three systems do indeed share common properties, in particular their potential
      for exponential growth. However, the ways in which they achieve this potential
      are different, giving rise to different internal network structures and dynamics.
      Therefore, care should be taken which term is used in which context. Here, we
      explain and discuss the similarities and differences between the three systems in
      detail, in an effort to avoid any further confusion. We then also discuss the
      relevance of these autocatalytic systems for possible origin of life scenarios,
      with an emphasis on how autocatalytic sets may have played an important role in
      this.

PMID- 28888947
TI  - A tale of three RNAs in mitochondria: tRNA, tRNA derived fragments and mitomiRs.

PMID- 28888948
TI  - The influence of understanding and having choice on children's prosocial
      behavior.
AB  - Humans are remarkable moral evaluators. However, between infancy and the
      preschool-age, children move from merely evaluating the world in terms of moral
      ("good"/"bad") terms to acting upon it in meaningful (prosocial and antisocial)
      ways. We argue that children's developing understanding and experience of choice
      and agency has profound behavioral consequences for this development in prosocial
      behavior. During the preschool age, children begin to explicitly reflect on their
      own actions and alternative actions (i.e., actions not taken), which then in turn
      help them make sense of the extent to which their prosocial behavior is costly,
      freely chosen, and internally motivated. We review the progression and
      developmental antecedents of children's beliefs about choice and agency as well
      as recent evidence for how children's social contexts may imbue them with a sense
      of choice and agency over their moral actions. We argue that the preschool period
      may be a particularly sensitive developmental time window during which children
      are sensitive to input regarding their own agency.

PMID- 28888949
TI  - Deficiency of N-acetyltransferase increases the interactions of isoniazid with
      endobiotics in mouse liver.
AB  - Acetylation is the major metabolic pathway of isoniazid (INH) mediated by N
      acetyltransferases (NATs). Previous reports suggest that slow acetylators have
      higher risks of INH hepatotoxicity than rapid acetylators, but the detailed
      mechanisms remain elusive. The current study used Nat1/2(-/-) mice to mimic NAT
      slow metabolizers and to investigate INH metabolism in the liver. We found that
      INH acetylation is abolished in the liver of Nat1/2(-/-) mice, suggesting that
      INH acetylation is fully dependent on NAT1/2. In addition to the acetylation
      pathway, INH can be hydrolyzed to form hydrazine (Hz) and isonicotinic acid
      (INA). We found that INA level was not altered in the liver of Nat1/2(-/-) mice,
      indicating that deficiency of NAT1/2 has no effect on INH hydrolysis. Because INH
      acetylation was abolished and INH hydrolysis was not altered in Nat1/2(-/-) mice,
      we expected an extremely high level of INH in the liver. However, we only
      observed a modest accumulation of INH in the liver of Nat1/2(-/-) mice,
      suggesting that there are alternative pathways in INH metabolism in NAT1/2
      deficient condition. Our further studies revealed that the conjugated metabolites
      of INH with endobiotics, including fatty acids and vitamin B6, were significantly
      increased in the liver of Nat1/2(-/-) mice. In summary, this study illustrated
      that deficiency of NAT1/2 decreases INH acetylation, but increases the
      interactions of INH with endobiotics in the liver. These findings can be used to
      guide future studies on the mechanisms of INH hepatotoxicity in NAT slow
      metabolizers.

PMID- 28888950
TI  - The two faces of aldehyde oxidase: Oxidative and reductive transformations of 5
      nitroquinoline.
AB  - Aldehyde oxidase (AOX) is a cytosolic enzyme responsible for the metabolism of
      some drugs and drug candidates. AOX catalyzes the oxidative hydroxylation of
      substrates including several aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, and nitrogen
      containing heterocyclic compounds. AOX is also reported to catalyze the reductive
      metabolism of nitro-compounds, N-oxides, sulfoxides, isoxazoles, isothiazoles,
      nitrite and hydroxamic acids. These reductive transformations are not well
      understood and are generally believed to only occur at low oxygen concentrations.
      In this study, we used 5-nitroquinoline (5NQ) as a substrate to further
      understand both the oxidative and the reductive transformations catalyzed by AOX.
      In vitro reaction of 5NQ with AOX under aerobic conditions generated the oxidized
      (2-oxo-5-nitroquinoline, 2-oxo-5NQ), the reduced (5-aminoquinoline, 5AQ) and the
      oxidized/reduced (2-oxo-5-aminoquinoline, 2-oxo-5AQ) metabolites. Interestingly,
      in human liver cytosol, co-incubation of 5NQ and known AOX oxidative substrates
      DACA and phthalazine significantly increased the yield of the reduced metabolite,
      while oxidized metabolites production decreased. These data indicate that 5NQ can
      be reduced at atmospheric oxygen concentrations and that the reductive
      transformation occurs at a second site that is kinetically distinct from the
      oxidative site.

PMID- 28888951
TI  - Cocaine and takotsubo syndrome: How frequent is it?

PMID- 28888952
TI  - Successful foetal delivery and emergency redo mitral valve replacement for acute
      prosthetic valve thrombosis in a 29-week pregnant woman.

PMID- 28888953
TI  - Attentional control underlies the perceptual load effect: Evidence from voxel
      wise degree centrality and resting-state functional connectivity.
AB  - The fact that interference from peripheral distracting information can be reduced
      in high perceptual load tasks has been widely demonstrated in previous research.
      The modulation from the perceptual load is known as perceptual load effect (PLE).
      Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on perceptual load
      have reported the brain areas implicated in attentional control. To date, the
      contribution of attentional control to PLE and the relationship between the
      organization of functional connectivity and PLE are still poorly understood. In
      the present study, we used resting-state fMRI to explore the association between
      the voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) and PLE in an individual differences design
      and further investigated the potential resting-state functional connectivity
      (RSFC) contributing to individual's PLE. DC-PLE correlation analysis revealed
      that PLE was positively associated with the right middle temporal visual area
      (MT)-one of dorsal attention network (DAN) nodes. Furthermore, the right MT
      functionally connected to the conventional DAN and the RSFCs between right MT and
      DAN nodes were also positively associated with individual difference in PLE. The
      results suggest an important role of attentional control in perceptual load tasks
      and provide novel insights into the understanding of the neural correlates
      underlying PLE.

PMID- 28888954
TI  - Central antagonism of orexin type-1 receptors attenuates the development of
      morphine dependence in rat locus coeruleus neurons.
AB  - Prolonged use/abuse of opioid agonists leads to development of severe dependence
      to these drugs. Orexin-A has a crucial role in development of morphine
      dependence. The locus coeruleus (LC) is implicated in the expression of morphine
      withdrawal signs. Hyperactivity of LC neurons as well as increased intracellular
      cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) level temporally corresponds to the
      expression of opioid withdrawal behaviors. In this study the effect of central
      OX1R blockade on neuronal activity and cAMP content of LC neurons was
      investigated following naloxone administration in morphine-dependent rats. Male
      Wistar rats weighing 250-300g were used in this study. To induce morphine
      dependence, morphine was injected intraperitoneally (10mg/kg, i.p.) once a day
      for seven consecutive days. A selective OX1R antagonist (SB-334867) was
      microinjected into the cerebral ventricle (10ug/10ul) immediately before each
      morphine injection. The activity of LC neurons was investigated using in vivo
      extracellular single-unit recording on day 8 and naloxone (2mg/kg, i.p.) was
      administered after 10-min baseline recording. In addition,
      immunohistofluorescence method was used to measure the effect of naloxone on
      coerulear cAMP level. Chronic morphine injection induced morphine dependence in
      LC neurons which was revealed as a significant increase in LC neuronal firing
      rate in response to naloxone. The results of this study indicated that SB-334867
      administration prior to each morphine injection prevents naloxone-elicited
      neuronal activation within the LC. In addition, naloxone injection enhanced the
      cAMP concentration in LC neurons of morphine-dependent animals and this effect
      was significantly reduced by OX1R blockade.

PMID- 28888955
TI  - Distinct roles of neuronal and microglial CB2 cannabinoid receptors in the mouse
      hippocampus.
AB  - The effects of cannabinoids are primarily mediated by type-1 cannabinoid
      receptors in the brain and type-2 cannabinoid receptors (CB2Rs) in the peripheral
      immune system. However, recent evidence demonstrates that CB2Rs are also
      expressed in the brain and implicated in neuropsychiatric effects. Diverse types
      of cells in various regions in the brain express CB2Rs but the cellular loci of
      CB2Rs that induce specific behavioral effects have not been determined. To
      manipulate CB2R expression in specific types of cells in the dorsal hippocampus
      of adult mice, we used Cre-dependent overexpression and CRISPR-Cas9 genome
      editing techniques in combination with adeno-associated viruses and transgenic
      mice. Elevation and disruption of CB2R expression in microglia in the CA1 area
      increased and decreased, respectively, contextual fear memory. In CA1 pyramidal
      neurons, disruption of CB2R expression enhanced spatial working memory, whereas
      their overexpression reduced anxiety levels assessed asan increase in the
      exploration time in the central area of open field. Interneuronal CB2Rs were not
      involved in the modulation of cognitive or emotional behaviors tested in this
      study. The targeted manipulation of CB2R expression in pyramidal neurons and
      microglia suggests that CB2Rs in different types of cells in the mature
      hippocampus play distinct roles in the regulation of memory and anxiety.

PMID- 28888956
TI  - Oxysterol, 5alpha-cholestan-3-one, modulates a contractile response to beta2
      adrenoceptor stimulation in the mouse atria: Involvement of NO signaling.
AB  - AIM: Atrial beta2-adrenoceptors provide an important mechanism for regulation of
      cardiac function and changes in their downstream signaling are involved in
      processes underlying heart disorders. We have investigated the mechanism by which
      the cholesterol metabolite 5alpha-cholestan-3-one (5alphaCh3) modulates inotropic
      effect of beta2-adrenoceptor agonist fenoterol. MAIN METHODS: Atria from mice
      were electrically stimulated and changes in contraction amplitude in response to
      fenoterol were studied in 5alphaCh3-pretreated samples. Intracellular Ca2+ and NO
      levels were estimated using fluorescent dyes Fluo-4 and DAF-FM, respectively. KEY
      FINDINGS: By itself 5alphaCh3 that appears in the circulation under some
      pathological conditions had a negligible influence on contraction, Ca2+-transient
      and NO production. However, pretreatment with 5alphaCh3 markedly attenuated the
      positive inotropic effect of fenoterol which was accompanied by an increase in
      the NO synthesis. Unexpectedly, the oxysterol also augmented an enhancement of
      Ca2+-transient amplitude in response to fenoterol. Under conditions of a
      pharmacological inhibition of Gi-protein/Akt/NO synthase/protein kinase G
      signaling, 5alphaCh3 augmented the inotropic effect of fenoterol. Herein, Akt
      antagonist suppressed the increase in NO production, while inhibition of NO
      synthesis did not modify the increased amplitude of the Ca2+-transient. Along
      similar lines, enrichment of plasma membranes with cholesterol reduced the
      stimulatory effect of 5alphaCh3 on beta2-adrenoceptor-evoked NO production, but
      not on the Ca2+-transient amplitude, leading to an elevation of the positive
      inotropic response to fenoterol. SIGNIFICANCE: These data suggest that 5alphaCh3
      potentiates the effect of pharmacological beta2-adrenoceptor activation on both
      NO production and Ca2+ transient via independent mechanisms, thereby affecting
      the positive inotropy.

PMID- 28888957
TI  - Investigating toxicity specific to adjuvanted vaccines.
AB  - In an attempt to understand the unique toxicity of adjuvanted vaccines, we
      studied how toxicity develops over time following vaccine administration. In
      addition to on- and off-target toxicity typically observed with general
      pharmaceuticals, we observed toxicity associated with both the generation and the
      broad action of effectors (antibodies and/or cytotoxic T lymphocytes, CTLs). The
      impact on effector generation appears to be related to local tolerance specific
      to the adjuvant. The vaccine immune response by effectors serves to demonstrate
      species relevance as outlined in the recent WHO guideline on the nonclinical
      evaluation of adjuvanted vaccines. When regarded as pharmaceuticals that function
      at sites of local administration, adjuvants have inherent on- and off-target
      toxicity. On-target toxicity of the adjuvant is typically associated with
      effector generation, and could vary depending on animal species. Therefore, the
      use of species with sensitivity to adjuvants described in the WHO guidelines is
      required to evaluate the toxicity of the vaccine associated with effector
      generation. Changes in safety pharmacology endpoints would be considered off
      target and further studies are conducted only if changes in these endpoints are
      observed in nonclinical or clinical studies. Thus our decision tree does not
      recommend the routine conduct of stand-alone safety pharmacology studies.

PMID- 28888959
TI  - Genotoxicity and sub-chronic toxicity of MYOLUTION(r) (branched chain keto
      acids).
AB  - MYOLUTION(r), which consists of a mixture of the branched chain keto acids, keto
      leucine, keto-isoleucine and keto-valine, as their calcium salts, may potentially
      be used as a food ingredient based on the reported contributions of these
      compounds to muscle health and exercise performance. Tests on genotoxicity and
      sub-chronic toxicity were performed to evaluate the safety of branched chain keto
      acids. No genotoxic effects were observed in the bacterial mutation assay or the
      in vitro micronucleus assay in human lymphocytes. In the 28 day and 90 day
      repeated dose toxicity studies no test item related mortality or toxicological
      effects on clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, urine parameters,
      hematology, clinical biochemistry parameters, organ weight, gross pathological
      findings and histopathology were observed. Based on the studies described here,
      MYOLUTION(r) does not exert a genotoxic effect, and a no-observed-adverse-effect
      level of 3318.38 mg/kg bw/day in males and 3733.28 mg/kg bw/day in females was
      determined in the 90 day repeated dose toxicity study.

PMID- 28888958
TI  - Establishing maximum tolerated doses for a 2-year combined
      chronic/carcinogenicity rat study based on toxicokinetic and toxicity gender
      differences.
AB  - For agrochemicals tested in a carcinogenicity rodent study, it is often not
      possible to use the same high dose to achieve maximum tolerated dose (MTDs)
      without overdosing or insufficiently challenging one gender if significant gender
      differences are known. Toxicokinetic (TK) data for pesticide FR from a 28-day rat
      study showed that males required a 3-fold higher external dose compared to
      females to produce similar internal exposure levels of the parent compound. In
      the 90-day study, 8%/17% (M/F) decrease in bodyweight gain (BWG) and 15%/15%
      (M/F) increase in relative liver weights were observed in the 6000 ppm males and
      2000 ppm females, respectively. Based on the above TK and toxicity data,
      different high dose levels were selected for females (1600 ppm) and males (4800
      ppm) for a 2-year combined chronic/carcinogenicity study in rats. In the 2-year
      study, 14%, 13%, 13% and 21% reduction in BWG of males and 10%, 12%, 19% and 20%
      reduction in BWG of females were observed at weeks 13, 26, 52 and 104,
      respectively in the highest dose tested. Similar reductions in bodyweight gain in
      males and females at the different high dose levels clearly demonstrated that
      appropriate MTDs were reached. Therefore, it is scientifically sound and
      practical to use TK and toxicity data to use different high dose levels to
      achieve MTDs for a pesticide with large gender differences.

PMID- 28888960
TI  - Complete genome sequence of endophyte Bacillus flexus KLBMP 4941 reveals its
      plant growth promotion mechanism and genetic basis for salt tolerance.
AB  - Bacillus flexus KLBMP 4941 is a halotolerant endophyte isolated from the
      halophyte Limonium sinense. This strain can improve host seedling growth under
      salt stress conditions. We here report the complete genome information of
      endophyte KLBMP 4941. It has a circular chromosome and two plasmids for a total
      genome 4,104,242 bp in size with a G+C content of 38.09%. Genes related to plant
      growth promotion (PGP), such as those associated with nitrogen fixation,
      siderophore, spermidine, and acetoin synthesis were found in the KLBMP 4941
      genome. Some genes responsible for high salinity tolerance, like genes associated
      with the Na+/H+ antiporter, glycine betaine transporter, and betaine-aldehyde
      dehydrogenase were also found in the KLBMP 4941 genome. The genome analysis will
      provide better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the promotion of plant
      growth in strain KLBMP 4941 under salt stress conditions and its ability to adapt
      to coastal salt marsh habitats, and provide a basis for its further
      biotechnological applications in agriculture.

PMID- 28888961
TI  - The SeqAn C++ template library for efficient sequence analysis: A resource for
      programmers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of novel algorithmic techniques is pivotal to many important
      problems in life science. For example the sequencing of the human genome (Venter
      et al., 2001) would not have been possible without advanced assembly algorithms
      and the development of practical BWT based read mappers have been instrumental
      for NGS analysis. However, owing to the high speed of technological progress and
      the urgent need for bioinformatics tools, there was a widening gap between state
      of-the-art algorithmic techniques and the actual algorithmic components of tools
      that are in widespread use. We previously addressed this by introducing the SeqAn
      library of efficient data types and algorithms in 2008 (Doring et al., 2008).
      RESULTS: The SeqAn library has matured considerably since its first publication 9
      years ago. In this article we review its status as an established resource for
      programmers in the field of sequence analysis and its contributions to many
      analysis tools. CONCLUSIONS: We anticipate that SeqAn will continue to be a
      valuable resource, especially since it started to actively support various
      hardware acceleration techniques in a systematic manner.

PMID- 28888962
TI  - Structural insights into beta-glucosidase transglycosylation based on
      biochemical, structural and computational analysis of two GH1 enzymes from
      Trichoderma harzianum.
AB  - beta-glucosidases are glycoside hydrolases able to cleave small and soluble
      substrates, thus producing monosaccharides. These enzymes are distributed among
      families GH1, GH2, GH3, GH5, GH9, GH30 and GH116, with GH1 and GH3 being the most
      relevant families with characterized enzymes to date. A recent transcriptomic
      analysis of the fungus Trichoderma harzianum, known for its increased beta
      glucosidase activity as compared to Trichoderma reesei, revealed two enzymes from
      family GH1 with high expression levels. Here we report the cloning, recombinant
      expression, purification and crystallization of these enzymes, ThBgl1 and ThBgl2.
      A close inspection of the enzymatic activity of these enzymes surprisingly
      revealed a marked difference between them despite the sequence similarity (53%).
      ThBgl1 has an increased tendency to catalyze transglycosylation reaction while
      ThBgl2 acts more as a hydrolyzing enzyme. Detailed comparison of their crystal
      structures and the analysis of the molecular dynamics simulations reveal the
      presence of an asparagine residue N186 in ThBgl2, which is replaced by the
      phenylalanine F180 in ThBgl1. This single amino acid substitution seems to be
      sufficient to create a polar environment that culminates with an increased
      availability of water molecules in ThBgl2 as compared to ThBgl1, thus conferring
      stronger hydrolyzing character to the former enzyme.

PMID- 28888964
TI  - Comparison of spread of transversus thoracic plane block by sagittal and
      transverse approach in a clinical setting.

PMID- 28888963
TI  - Sex differences in the mitochondrial bioenergetics of astrocytes but not
      microglia at a physiologically relevant brain oxygen tension.
AB  - Biological sex is thought to influence mitochondrial bioenergetic function.
      Previous respiration measurements examining brain mitochondrial sex differences
      were made at atmospheric oxygen using isolated brain mitochondria. Oxygen is 160
      mm Hg (21%) in the atmosphere, while the oxygen tension in the brain generally
      ranges from ~5 to 45 mm Hg (~1-6% O2). This study tested the hypothesis that sex
      and/or brain physiological oxygen tension influence the mitochondrial
      bioenergetic properties of primary rat cortical astrocytes and microglia. Oxygen
      consumption was measured with a Seahorse XF24 cell respirometer in an oxygen
      controlled environmental chamber. Strikingly, male astrocytes had a higher
      maximal respiration than female astrocytes when cultured and assayed at 3% O2.
      Three percent O2 yielded a low physiological dissolved O2 level of ~1.2% (9.1 mm
      Hg) at the cell monolayer during culture and 1.2-3.0% O2 during assays. No
      differences in bioenergetic parameters were observed between male and female
      astrocytes at 21% O2 (dissolved O2 of ~19.7%, 150 mm Hg during culture) or
      between either of these cell populations and female astrocytes at 3% O2. In
      contrast to astrocytes, microglia showed no sex differences in mitochondrial
      bioenergetic parameters at either oxygen level, regardless of whether they were
      non-stimulated or activated to a proinflammatory state. There were also no O2- or
      sex-dependent differences in proinflammatory TNF-alpha or IL-1beta cytokine
      secretion measured at 18 h activation. Overall, results reveal an intriguing sex
      variance in astrocytic maximal respiration that requires additional
      investigation. Findings also demonstrate that sex differences can be masked by
      conducting experiments at non-physiological O2.

PMID- 28888965
TI  - "Click" reaction based synthesis of nimbolide derivatives and study of their
      insect antifeedant activity against Spodoptera litura Larvae.
AB  - A series of Nimbolide-triazole conjugates were synthesized through copper(I)-
      catalyzed azide-alkyne "click" chemistry approach and these derivatives (2-4, 2a
      2l) were characterized using modern spectroscopic techniques. Antifeedant
      activities of these derivatives were studied on Tobacco Caterpillar, Spodoptera
      litura (F.) using no-choice leaf disk bioassay. Interestingly, the synthesized
      derivatives were more effective in reducing feedancy by insect species when
      compared to the parent nimbolide. Among the tested compounds, 2a, 2c, and 2d
      showed potent antifeedancy with ED50 values of 0.49, 0.95 and 0.97mg/cm2 against
      S. litura. Several of the analogs were also toxic or caused developmental
      abnormalities following leaf disc assay.

PMID- 28888966
TI  - Pursuing sesterterpene lactams in Australian Irciniidae sponges.
AB  - Chemical investigation of two Irciniidae sponges collected by hand (SCUBA) from
      Australian near shore waters, afforded six new examples of a rare class of
      sesterterpene lactam; ircinialactams B (1), G (2), H (5), and I (6), and 8
      hydroxyircinialactams C (3) and G (4); together with the new biosynthetically
      related lactone, ircinialactone A (7). Also isolated were seven biosynthetically
      related known Irciniidae metabolites; ircinialactams A (8) and C (9),
      (7E,12E,20Z,18S)-variabilin (10), (7Z,12Z,20Z,18S)-variabilin (11),
      (7E,12Z,20Z,18S)-variabilin (12), (7Z,12E,20Z,18S)-variabilin (13) and
      irciniafuran A (14). The structure elucidation of 1-14 was achieved by detailed
      spectroscopic analysis, and consideration of a plausible biosynthetic
      relationship linking Irciniidae sesterterpene beta-furans, lactams and lactones.

PMID- 28888967
TI  - Twenty-five-gauge sutureless lensectomy in infants with congenital cataract.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the incidence of intra- and postoperative complications of
      transconjunctival 25-gauge (25G) sutureless pars plicata lensectomy. METHODS: The
      medical records of patients <12 months of age with congenital cataracts who
      underwent 25G sutureless lensectomy were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were
      evaluated at postoperative days 1, 7, 15, 30, 60, and 90 and every 3 months
      thereafter. Visual acuity outcomes and intra- and postoperative complications
      were described and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 72 eyes of 44 infants were
      included; 28 patients (64%) had bilateral cataract. Median follow-up was 28
      months (range, 12-93 months). In 47 eyes (81%) there was improved visual acuity
      after surgery. Intraoperative adverse events occurred in 9 eyes (13%).
      Postoperative complications occurred in 14 eyes (19%): 6 eyes (8%) had secondary
      visual axis opacification, 6 eyes (8%) had secondary glaucoma, 1 eye (1%) had
      posterior synechiae, and 1 eye (1.4%) had retinal detachment. CONCLUSIONS:
      Transconjunctival pars plicata 25G sutureless lensectomy is a minimally invasive
      technique for congenital cataract treatment. No postoperative complications were
      observed in 81% of eyes. Visual acuity improved in 81% of the operated eyes.

PMID- 28888968
TI  - Role of botulinum toxin A in treatment of intractable diplopia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of botulinum toxin A (BTXA) in patients with
      intractable diplopia related to intracranial problems or long-term interruption
      of fusion due to cataract or uncorrected aphakia and to identify the group of
      resistant cases who have no potential to fuse the two images. METHODS: The
      medical records of patients seen by the senior author (SBO) over a period of 20
      years were reviewed retrospectively to identify those who underwent BTXA
      treatment for intractable diplopia. All cases had horizontal and/or vertical
      deviations. The diagnostic criterion was persistence of diplopia in free space
      despite neutralization of the deviation by prisms or synoptophore. BTXA was
      injected into the appropriate extraocular muscle to control the deviation in the
      identified patients. RESULTS: A total of 22 patients were identified: 13
      developed intractable diplopia following head trauma, intracranial surgery, or
      stroke; 9 had a history of binocular sensory deprivation due to traumatic
      cataract or uncorrected aphakia. The duration of sensory deprivation ranged from
      2 to 41 years. BTXA was injected into the appropriate extraocular muscle(s).
      Diplopia resolved completely in 14 patients, resolved incompletely with short
      term single vision in 3 cases, and persisted in 5 patients despite correction of
      the deviation by BTXA. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that BTXA offers the
      advantage of a temporary decrease of the deviation without altering image quality
      that allows the visual system to recover fusion under real-life conditions.
      Permanent treatment with surgical correction of the deviation should be reserved
      for those who achieve fusion during the orthotropic period provided by BTXA.

PMID- 28888969
TI  - mTOR-related neuropathology in mutant tsc2 zebrafish: Phenotypic, transcriptomic
      and pharmacological analysis.
AB  - Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare, genetic disease caused by loss-of
      function mutations in either TSC1 or TSC2. Patients with TSC are neurologically
      characterized by the presence of abnormal brain structure, intractable epilepsy
      and TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders. Given the lack of effective long
      term treatments for TSC, there is a need to gain greater insight into TSC-related
      pathophysiology and to identify and develop new treatments. In this work we show
      that homozygous tsc2-/- mutant zebrafish larvae, but not tsc2+/- and WT larvae,
      display enlarged brains, reduced locomotor behavior and epileptiform discharges
      at 7dpf. In addition, we pharmacologically validated the TSC model by
      demonstrating the dramatic rescue effect of pericardially injected rapamycin, a
      well-known mTOR inhibitor, on selected behavioral read-outs and at the molecular
      level. By means of trancriptome profiling we also acquired more insight into the
      neuropathology of TSC, and as a result were able to highlight possible new
      treatment targets. The gene expression profiles of WT and tsc2+/- larvae revealed
      117 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), while between WT and tsc2-/- larvae
      and tsc2+/- and tsc2-/- larvae there were 1414 and 1079 DEGs, respectively.
      Pathway enrichment analysis from the WT and tsc2-/- DEGs, identified 14 enriched
      pathways from the up-regulated genes and 6 enriched pathways from the down
      regulated genes. Moreover, genes related to inflammation and immune response were
      up-regulated in the heads of tsc2-/- larvae, in line with the findings in human
      brain tissue where inflammatory and immune responses appear to be major hallmarks
      of TSC. Taken together, our phenotypic, transcriptomic and pharmacological
      analysis identified the tsc2-/- zebrafish as a preclinical model that mirrors
      well aspects of the human condition and delineated relevant TSC-related
      biological pathways. The model may be of value for future TSC-related drug
      discovery and development programs.

PMID- 28888971
TI  - Fungal infection in neural tissue of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease
      and the main cause of motor neuron pathology. The etiology of the disease remains
      unknown, and no effective therapy exists to halt the disease or improve the
      quality of life. Here, we provide compelling evidence for the existence of fungal
      infection in ALS. Immunohistochemistry analysis using a battery of antifungal
      antibodies revealed fungal structures such as yeast and hyphae in the motor
      cortex, the medulla and the spinal cord, in eleven patients with ALS. Some fungal
      structures were localized intracellularly and even intranuclearly, indicating
      that this infection is not the result of post-mortem colonization. By contrast,
      this burden of fungal infection cannot be observed in several CNS areas of
      control subjects. PCR analysis and next generation sequencing of DNA extracted
      from frozen neural tissue identified a variety of fungal genera including
      Candida, Malassezia, Fusarium, Botrytis, Trichoderma and Cryptococcus. Overall,
      our present observations provide strong evidence for mixed fungal infections in
      ALS patients. The exact mixed infection varies from patient to patient consistent
      with the different evolution and severity of symptoms in each ALS patient. These
      novel findings provide a logical explanation for the neuropathological
      observations of this disease, such as neuroinflammation and elevated chitinase
      levels, and could help to implement appropriate therapies.

PMID- 28888970
TI  - Glial overexpression of Dube3a causes seizures and synaptic impairments in
      Drosophila concomitant with down regulation of the Na+/K+ pump ATPalpha.
AB  - Duplication 15q syndrome (Dup15q) is an autism-associated disorder co-incident
      with high rates of pediatric epilepsy. Additional copies of the E3 ubiquitin
      ligase UBE3A are thought to cause Dup15q phenotypes, yet models overexpressing
      UBE3A in neurons have not recapitulated the epilepsy phenotype. We show that
      Drosophila endogenously expresses Dube3a (fly UBE3A homolog) in glial cells and
      neurons, prompting an investigation into the consequences of glial Dube3a
      overexpression. Here we expand on previous work showing that the Na+/K+ pump
      ATPalpha is a direct ubiquitin ligase substrate of Dube3a. A robust seizure-like
      phenotype was observed in flies overexpressing Dube3a in glial cells, but not
      neurons. Glial-specific knockdown of ATPalpha also produced seizure-like
      behavior, and this phenotype was rescued by simultaneously overexpressing
      ATPalpha and Dube3a in glia. Our data provides the basis of a paradigm shift in
      Dup15q research given that clinical phenotypes have long been assumed to be due
      to neuronal UBE3A overexpression.

PMID- 28888972
TI  - EMG synchrony to assess impaired corticomotor control of locomotion after stroke.
AB  - Adapting one's gait pattern requires a contribution from cortical motor commands.
      Evidence suggests that frequency-based analysis of electromyography (EMG) can be
      used to detect this cortical contribution. Specifically, increased EMG synchrony
      between synergistic muscles in the Piper frequency band has been linked to
      heightened corticomotor contribution to EMG. Stroke-related damage to cerebral
      motor pathways would be expected to diminish EMG Piper synchrony. The objective
      of this study is therefore to test the hypothesis that EMG Piper synchrony is
      diminished in the paretic leg relative to nonparetic and control legs,
      particularly during a long-step task of walking adaptability. Twenty adults with
      post-stroke hemiparesis and seventeen healthy controls participated in this
      study. EMG Piper synchrony increased more for the control legs compare to the
      paretic legs when taking a non-paretic long step (5.02+/-3.22% versus 0.86+/
      2.62%), p<0.01) and when taking a paretic long step (2.04+/-1.98% versus 0.70+/
      2.34%, p<0.05). A similar but non-significant trend was evident when comparing
      non-paretic and paretic legs. No statistically significant differences in EMG
      Piper synchrony were found between legs for typical walking. EMG Piper synchrony
      was positively associated with walking speed and step length within the stroke
      group. These findings support the assertion that EMG Piper synchrony indicates
      corticomotor contribution to walking.

PMID- 28888973
TI  - Novel lipidic and bienzymatic nanosomes for efficient delivery and enhanced
      bioactivity of catalase.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the improved characteristics of
      catalase (CAE) when loaded in lipidic and bienzymatic nanosomes. Lipidic and
      bienzymatic nanosomes containing CAE and uricase (LSCU) were manufactured in two
      buffer solutions. Their micromorphologies, sizes, zeta potentials, enzymatic
      activities, kinetic characteristics, and hydrogen peroxide-lowering effects were
      compared with those of free CAE and lipidic nanosomes containing only CAE (LSC).
      The structural change and stability mechanism were investigated using fluorescent
      probes. Compared with free CAE and LSC, LSCU had better physiochemical
      characteristics and improved in vitro enzymatic activity under different
      temperatures and pH conditions. In vivo bioavailability and peroxidase activity
      were also improved. For example, the bioavailability of LSCU was ~450% greater
      than that of free CAE, and the time required for LSCU to lower hydrogen peroxide
      concentrations to a physiologically normal level was almost one-third the time
      required for free CAE and one-half the time required for LSC. The increased
      catalytic activity and hydrogen peroxide-lowering capabilities of CAE loaded in
      LSCU could be ascribed to the favorable conformational changes of CAE and the
      protection offered by the lipidic and bienzymatic nanosomal biomembrane. Lipidic
      and bienzymatic nanosomes might be promising nanocarriers for the parenteral
      delivery of therapeutic enzymes such as CAE.

PMID- 28888974
TI  - Nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogels and reconstructed hydrogels as matrices for
      controlled drug release.
AB  - Concentrated 3% and 6.5% anionic nanofibrillar cellulose (ANFC) hydrogels were
      introduced as matrix reservoirs for controlled delivery applications of small
      molecules and proteins. A further aim was to study how the freeze-drying and
      subsequent rehydration of ANFC hydrogel affects the rheological properties and
      drug release of selected model compounds from the reconstructed hydrogels. It was
      demonstrated that the 3% and 6.5% ANFC hydrogels can be freeze-dried with
      suitable excipients into highly porous aerogel structures and redispersed back
      into the hydrogel form without significant change in the rheological properties.
      Freeze-drying did not affect the drug release properties from redispersed ANFC
      hydrogels, indicating that these systems could be stored in the dry form and only
      redispersed when needed. For large molecules, the diffusion coefficients were
      significantly smaller when higher ANFC fiber content was used, indicating that
      the amount of ANFC fibers in the hydrogel can be used to control the release
      rate. The release of small molecules was controlled with the ANFC fiber content
      only to a moderate extent. The results indicate that ANFC hydrogel can be used
      for controlled delivery of several types of molecules and that the hydrogel can
      be successfully freeze-dried and redispersed.

PMID- 28888975
TI  - Solvent-responsive floating liquid crystalline-molecularly imprinted polymers for
      gastroretentive controlled drug release system.
AB  - Liquid crystalline-molecularly imprinted polymer (LC-MIP) particles were first
      found to possess the floating behavior on the aqueous medium. Combined with
      molecular recognition, the LC-MIP was fabricated as a novel class of the
      controlled-release gastric retentive DDS. The LC-MIP was made using co
      polymerization of methacrylic acid, 4-methyl phenyl dicyclohexyl ethylene (LC
      monomer with vinyl group), and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate with S-amlodipine
      (S-AML) as model template drug. The optimum condition of the preparation of LC
      MIP has been obtained relying on release behaviors of S-AML from the LC-MIP. The
      surface morphology of LC-MIP and three corresponding control samples, i.e.,
      template-free LC-NIP, LC-free MIP, and LC-free NIP, were studied. Applying the LF
      model for the binding isotherm, imprinting factors was 2.80 for the LC-MIP with
      the crosslinking degree of 20.0%, whereas 6.70 for the LC-free MIP with high
      levels of crosslinker (80.0%). Furthermore, the phase transition behaviors of LC
      based particles as well as drug-loaded LC elastomers were measured by a
      differential scanning calorimeter and the formed hydrogen bonding between S-AML
      and LC-MIP was demonstrated by FT-IR spectra. In vivo imaging experiment proved
      that the floating LC-MIP had significantly longer gastric residence time (>60min)
      than the non-floating MIP reference (<30min). In vivo pharmacokinetic study
      showed a plateau region between 1.5 and 22h on the plasma concentration from the
      LC-MIP. In spite of lower imprinting factor, the relative bioavailability of the
      gastro-floating LC-MIP was 180.5%, whereas only 111.7% of the LC-free MIP. As a
      conclusion, the LC-MIPs indicated potentials for oral administration due to the
      innovative combination of floating and controlled release properties.

PMID- 28888976
TI  - Simple nanophotosensitizer fabrication using water-soluble chitosan for
      photodynamic therapy in gastrointestinal cancer cells.
AB  - The polysaccharide chitosan has abundant cationic amine groups, and can form ion
      complexes with anionic molecules such as the strong photosensitizer chlorin e6
      (Ce6). In this study, water-soluble chitosan (WSC) was used to fabricate Ce6
      incorporated nanophotosensitizers (Abbreviated as ChitoCe6 nanophotosensitizer)
      via a self-assembling process. This was accomplished by dissolving WSC in pure
      water and then directly mixing the solution with solid Ce6 causing ion complex
      formation between WSC and Ce6. The resulting nanophotosensitizer was spherical in
      shape and had a particle size of less than 300nm. The photodynamic effect of
      ChitoCe6 nanophotosensitizer was evaluated using gastrointestinal (GI) cancer
      cells. At in vitro study using SNU478 cholangiocarcinoma cells, ChitoCe6
      nanophotosensitizer showed improved Ce6 uptake by tumor cells, reactive oxygen
      species production, and cellular phototoxicity. An in vivo study using SNU478
      bearing nude mice showed that the ChitoCe6 nanophotosensitizer efficiently
      accumulated in the tumor tissue and inhibited tumor growth more than treatment
      with Ce6 alone. Furthermore, ChitoCe6 nanophotosensitizer was also efficiently
      absorbed through tissue layers in an ex vivo study using porcine bile duct
      explants. ChitoCe6 nanophotosensitizer showed enhanced photosensitivity and
      photodynamic effects against cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We present
      ChitoCe6 nanophotosensitizer as a promising candidate for photodynamic therapy of
      GI cancer.

PMID- 28888977
TI  - Emerging technologies for the non-invasive characterization of physical
      mechanical properties of tablets.
AB  - The density, porosity, breaking force, viscoelastic properties, and the presence
      or absence of any structural defects or irregularities are important physical
      mechanical quality attributes of popular solid dosage forms like tablets. The
      irregularities associated with these attributes may influence the drug product
      functionality. Thus, an accurate and efficient characterization of these
      properties is critical for successful development and manufacturing of a robust
      tablets. These properties are mainly analyzed and monitored with traditional
      pharmacopeial and non-pharmacopeial methods. Such methods are associated with
      several challenges such as lack of spatial resolution, efficiency, or sample
      sparing attributes. Recent advances in technology, design, instrumentation, and
      software have led to the emergence of newer techniques for non-invasive
      characterization of physical-mechanical properties of tablets. These techniques
      include near infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray microtomography,
      nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, terahertz pulsed imaging, laser-induced
      breakdown spectroscopy, and various acoustic- and thermal-based techniques. Such
      state-of-the-art techniques are currently applied at various stages of
      development and manufacturing of tablets at industrial scale. Each technique has
      specific advantages or challenges with respect to operational efficiency and
      cost, compared to traditional analytical methods. Currently, most of these
      techniques are used as secondary analytical tools to support the traditional
      methods in characterizing or monitoring tablet quality attributes. Therefore,
      further development in the instrumentation and software, and studies on the
      applications are necessary for their adoption in routine analysis and monitoring
      of tablet physical-mechanical properties.

PMID- 28888978
TI  - Fabrication of drug-loaded hydrogels with stereolithographic 3D printing.
AB  - 3D printing (3DP) technologies have been attracting much recent interest as new
      methods of fabricating medicines and medical devices. Of the many types of 3DP
      available, stereolithographic (SLA) printing offers the unique advantage of being
      able to fabricate objects by cross-linking resins to form networked polymer
      matrices. Because water can be entrapped in these matrices, it is possible in
      principle to fabricate pre-wetted, drug-loaded hydrogels and devices. Here, SLA
      printing was used to prepare ibuprofen-loaded hydrogels of cross-linked
      polyethylene glycol diacrylate. Hydrogels containing up to 30% w/w water, and 10%
      w/w ibuprofen, were successfully printed. Dissolution profiles showed that drug
      release rates were dependent on water content, with higher water content
      hydrogels releasing drug faster. The conclusion is that SLA 3DP offers a new
      manufacturing route to pharmaceutical hydrogels.

PMID- 28888979
TI  - Resveratrol, piceatannol and analogs inhibit activation of both wild-type and
      T877A mutant androgen receptor.
AB  - Prostate cancer growth and progression are mainly dependent on androgens and many
      current prostate cancer treatment options target the synthesis or function of
      androgens. We have previously reported that resveratrol and synthetic analogs of
      resveratrol with a higher bioavailability inhibit the synthesis of androgens in
      human adrenocortical H295R cells. Now we have studied the antiandrogenic
      properties of resveratrol, piceatannol and analogs in two different prostate cell
      lines; LNCaP and RWPE. LNCaP carry a T877A mutation in the androgen receptor
      while RWPE has a wild-type androgen receptor. We found that resveratrol,
      piceatannol and all studied analogs were able to inhibit a dihydrotestosterone
      induced activation of the androgen receptor, showing that they act as
      antiandrogens. In LNCaP cells, all studied compounds were able to statistically
      significantly decrease the androgenic signaling in concentrations >=1MUM and the
      synthetic analogs trimethylresveratrol (RSVTM) and tetramethylpiceatannol (PICTM)
      were the most potent compounds. RWPE cells were not as responsive to the studied
      compounds as the LNCaP cells. A statistically significant decrease in the
      androgenic signaling was observed at concentrations <=5MUM for most compounds and
      RSVTM was found to be the most potent compound. Further, we studied the effects
      of resveratrol, piceatannol and analogs on the levels of prostate-specific
      antigen (PSA) in LNCaP cells and found that all studied compounds decreased the
      level of PSA and that the synthetic analogs diacetylresveratrol (RSVDA),
      triacetylresveratrol (RSVTA) and RSVTM were the most potent compounds, decreasing
      the PSA level by approx. 50% at concentrations >=10MUM. In a cell-free receptor
      binding assay we were unable to show binding of resveratrol or analogs to the
      ligand binding domain of the androgen receptor, indicating that the observed
      effects are mediated via other mechanisms than direct ligand competition. We
      conclude that the resveratrol, piceatannol and analogs are highly interesting for
      chemoprevention of prostate cancer, since they have a high potency both as
      inhibitors of androgen synthesis and androgen receptor activation.

PMID- 28888980
TI  - Arctigenin attenuates ischemic stroke via SIRT1-dependent inhibition of NLRP3
      inflammasome.
AB  - Arctigenin (ARC), a phenylpropanoid dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan derived from
      Arctium lappa L, has been reported to protect against cerebral ischemia injury in
      rats, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. In this study, we investigated
      whether ARC ameliorated ischemic stroke by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome-derived
      neuroinflammation and whether SIRT1 signaling was involved in this process. ARC
      (20 mg/kg) or vehicle were intraperitoneally injected to Sprague-Dawley rats for
      3 days before middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) surgery performed. The
      infarct volume, neurological score, brain water content, neuroinflammation, NLRP3
      inflammasome activation and SIRT1 protein expression were assessed. Furthermore,
      we also investigated whether ARC protected against cerebral ischemia via SIRT1
      dependent inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome by administrating EX527, a specific
      SIRT1 inhibitor, under oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) condition. We found that
      ARC pretreatment decreased infarct volume, neurological score and brain water
      content. Moreover, ARC treatment effectively inhibited cerebral ischemia induced
      NLRP3 inflammasome activation and IL-1beta, IL-18 secretion both in vivo and in
      vitro. Futhermore, ARC treatment activated Silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1)
      singnaling in the brain. Importantly, suppress of SIRT1 reversed the inhibitory
      effect of ARC on NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Taken together our results
      demonstrated that ARC may confer protection against ischemic stroke by inhibiting
      NLRP3 inflammasome activation. The activation of SIRT1 signaling pathway may
      contribute to the neuroprotection of ARC in MCAO.

PMID- 28888981
TI  - Hypoxia in 3T3-L1 adipocytes suppresses adiponectin expression via the PERK and
      IRE1 unfolded protein response.
AB  - Adiponectin, an adipocytokine produced by adipocytes, functions as an anti
      inflammatory and anti-apoptotic substance, while also enhancing insulin
      sensitivity. Patients or model animals with obesity or diabetes typically present
      attenuated expression of adiponectin. Moreover, obesity and diabetes are often
      accompanied with hypoxia in adipose tissue, which may result in endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER) stress as well as low expression of adiponectin. The purpose of
      this study was to investigate the specific role of the unfolded protein response
      (UPR) involved in the low expression of adiponectin induced by hypoxia.
      Subjecting 3T3-L1 adipocytes to hypoxia significantly reduced adiponectin
      expression and activated the PERK and IRE1 signaling pathways in a time-dependent
      manner. The ATF6 signaling pathway showed no obvious changes with hypoxia
      treatment under a similar time course. Moreover, the down-regulated expression of
      adiponectin induced by hypoxia was relieved once the PERK and IRE1 signaling
      pathways were suppressed by the inhibitors GSK2656157 and 4MU8C, respectively.
      Overall, these data demonstrate that hypoxia can suppress adiponectin expression
      and activate the PERK and IRE1 signaling pathways in differentiated adipocytes,
      and this two pathways are involved in the suppression of adiponectin expression
      induced by hypoxia.

PMID- 28888982
TI  - Disrupting nNOS-PSD-95 coupling in the hippocampal dentate gyrus promotes
      extinction memory retrieval.
AB  - Granule cells in the dentate gyrus regenerate constantly in adult hippocampus and
      then integrate into neural circuits in the hippocampus thereby providing the
      neural basis for learning and memory. Promoting the neurogenesis in the
      hippocampus facilitates learning and memory such as spatial learning, object
      identification, and extinction learning. The interaction between neuronal nitric
      oxide synthase (nNOS) and postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95) is reported to
      negatively regulate neurogenesis in brain, so we hypothesized that disrupting
      this interaction might facilitate the neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) and
      thus enhance the extinction memory retrieval of fear learning. We found that
      uncoupling the nNOS-PSD-95 complex in remote contextual fear condition promoted
      both neuronal proliferation and survival in the DG, contributing to an enhanced
      retrieval of the extinction memory. Moreover, the nNOS-PSD-95 uncoupling-induced
      neurogenesis may be mediated by the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)
      as the phosphorylation level of ERK1/2 was increased after uncoupling. These
      findings suggest that the nNOS-PSD-95 complex may serve as a novel target for the
      treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

PMID- 28888983
TI  - The Arabidopsis thaliana lysophospholipid acyltransferase At1g78690p acylates
      lysocardiolipins.
AB  - The Arabidopsis thaliana lysophospholipid acyltransferase At1g78690 acylates a
      variety of lysophospholipids such as lyso phosphatidylglycerol, lyso
      phosphatidylethanolamine and lyso phosphatidylserine. Despite di-acylate
      phosphatidylglycerol being a substrate, overexpression of At1g78690 in
      Escherichia coli leads to the accumulation of acyl-PG. Here we show that
      cardiolipin also accumulates in cells overexpressing At1g78690. To help try and
      explain this observation, we show, using a liquid chromatography mass
      spectrometry (LC-MS) based assay, that At1g78690 utilizes both mono- and di-lyso
      cardiolipin as an acyl acceptor. Because At1g78690 shares high homology (~40%)
      with the cardiolipin remodeling enzyme tafazzin, we also tested whether At1g78690
      was able to catalyze a tafazzin-like transacylation reaction. Di-linoleoyl
      phosphatidylcholine was used as the acyl donor and mono-lyso cardiolipin was used
      as the acyl acceptor in a reaction and the reaction was monitored by LC-MS. No
      transfer of the linoleoyl chains was detected in an At1g78690 dependent manner
      suggesting that, despite the strong homology, these enzymes catalyze unique
      reactions.

PMID- 28888984
TI  - Cannabidiol, a novel inverse agonist for GPR12.
AB  - GPR12 is a constitutively active, Gs protein-coupled receptor that currently has
      no confirmed endogenous ligands. GPR12 may be involved in physiological processes
      such as maintenance of oocyte meiotic arrest and brain development, as well as
      pathological conditions such as metastatic cancer. In this study, the potential
      effects of various classes of cannabinoids on GPR12 were tested using a cAMP
      accumulation assay. Our data demonstrate that cannabidiol (CBD), a major non
      psychoactive phytocannabinoid, acted as an inverse agonist to inhibit cAMP
      accumulation stimulated by the constitutively active GPR12. Thus, GPR12 is a
      novel molecular target for CBD. The structure-activity relationship studies of
      CBD indicate that both the free hydroxyl and the pentyl side chain are crucial
      for the effects of CBD on GPR12. Furthermore, studies using cholera toxin, which
      blocks Gs protein and pertussis toxin, which blocks Gi protein, revealed that Gs,
      but not Gi is involved in the inverse agonism of CBD on GPR12. CBD is a promising
      novel therapeutic agent for cancer, and GPR12 has been shown to alter
      viscoelasticity of metastatic cancer cells. Since we have demonstrated that CBD
      is an inverse agonist for GPR12, this provides novel mechanism of action for CBD,
      and an initial chemical scaffold upon which highly potent and efficacious agents
      acting on GPR12 may be developed with the ultimate goal of blocking cancer
      metastasis.

PMID- 28888985
TI  - A point mutation in the heavy chain complementarity-determining region 3 (HCDR3)
      significantly enhances the specificity of an anti-ROS1 antibody.
AB  - The proto-oncogene tyrosine kinase ROS1 plays a key role in carcinogenesis
      through gene rearrangement to form a fusion protein with other genes, in which
      the C-terminal intracellular region of ROS1 participates. The possibility of wild
      type ROS1 overexpression through epigenetic regulation has been proposed. Here,
      we generated an antibody, 3B20, reactive to the N-terminal region of ROS1 to use
      it for the detection of wild type ROS1 in cancerous tissues. Using immunoblot and
      immunoprecipitation analyses, we found that 3B20 also reacted with heat shock
      proteins (Hsp)70s. Using homology searching, ROS1 and Hsp70s were found to share
      an identical amino acid sequence: DLGT. Using alanine mutagenesis of ROS1, the
      epitope was found to harbor this sequence. To modify the idiotope with the aim of
      selecting more specific antibodies, we introduced random mutations into the heavy
      chain complementarity-determining region 3 and successfully generated an antibody
      clone, 3B20-G1K, with a point mutation that only reacted with ROS1 in enzyme
      linked immunosorbent assays, and in immunoblot and immunoprecipitation analysis.
      In immunohistochemical analysis using 3B20-G1K, ROS1 was found to be absent in
      normal lung tissues and was overexpressed in a case of lung adenocarcinoma.

PMID- 28888986
TI  - PDE 5 inhibitor improves insulin sensitivity by enhancing mitochondrial function
      in adipocytes.
AB  - Adipocytes are involved in many metabolic disorders. It was recently reported
      that phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) is expressed in human adipose tissue. In
      addition, PDE5 inhibitors have been shown to improve insulin sensitivity in
      humans. However, the mechanism underlying the role of PDE5 inhibitors as an
      insulin sensitizer remains largely unknown. The present study was undertaken to
      investigate the role of the PDE5 inhibitor udenafil in insulin signaling in
      adipocytes and whether this is mediated through the regulation of mitochondrial
      function. To study the mechanism underlying the insulin sensitizing action of
      PDE5 inhibitors, we evaluated quantitative changes in protein or mRNA levels of
      mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) complex, oxygen consumption rate
      (OCR), and fatty acid oxidation with varying udenafil concentrations in 3T3-L1
      cells. Our cell study suggested that udenafil enhanced the insulin signaling
      pathway in 3T3-L1 cells. Following udenafil treatment, basal mitochondrial OCR,
      maximal OxPhos capacity, and OxPhos gene expression significantly increased.
      Finally, we examined whether udenafil can affect the fatty acid oxidation
      process. Treatment of 3T3-L1 cells with udenafil (10 and 20 MUM) significantly
      increased fatty acid oxidation rate in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the
      expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1
      alpha (PGC-1alpha) significantly increased. We demonstrated that the PDE5
      inhibitor udenafil enhances insulin sensitivity by improving mitochondrial
      function in 3T3-L1 cells. This might be the mechanism underlying the PDE5
      inhibitor-enhanced insulin signaling in adipocytes. This also suggests that
      udenafil may provide benefit in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and other
      related cardiovascular diseases.

PMID- 28888987
TI  - In vivo RNA interference of BmNHR96 enhances the resistance of transgenic
      silkworm to BmNPV.
AB  - We previously identified a nuclear hormone receptor gene, BmNHR96, which promotes
      Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) entry into silkworm cells. In an attempt
      to create an antiviral silkworm strain for better silk production, we used RNAi
      to downregulate BmNHR96 in silkworm larvae. We screened the resulting BmNHR96
      RNAi silkworm strain (NHR) and also explored the antiviral mechanism in vivo. We
      found that the survival rate of the NHR strain was higher than that of the Dazao
      strain, when silkworm larvae were infected with BmNPV via oral ODV infection and
      BV injection. More importantly, the economic characteristics (silk yield) of the
      transgenic line remained unchanged. These findings reveal that RNAi of BmNHR96
      could be an effective way to enhance the tolerance of B. mori to BmNPV infection.

PMID- 28888988
TI  - Canine human-scent-matching: The limitations of systematic pseudo matching-to
      sample procedures.
AB  - Here transfer performance is contrasted with baseline training performance to
      determine whether a relational solution strategy is learned from the systematic
      pseudo matching-to-sample procedures commonly used to train human-scent-matching
      dogs. Evidence indicates that due to the lack of constraints to control against
      simple discrimination solutions, dogs trained with systematic pseudo matching-to
      sample arrangements do not learn to use the scent sample as a signaling cue and
      do not learn about the matching relationship between the scent sample and
      matching comparison. Moreover, during pseudo matching-to-sample training, dogs
      may learn to ignore both the scent sample and the discriminative dimension of
      human scent, such as genetic information. Thus, during subsequent random control
      matching-to-sample (MTS) conditional discrimination training, learning about the
      matching relationship between the individual-unique information on the scent
      sample and matching comparison can be retarded. Failure to identify the solution
      strategy that human-scent-matching dogs must learn in order to perform accurately
      and reliably during operations and to distinguish between simple discrimination,
      random control MTS conditional discrimination, and systematic pseudo matching-to
      sample has been a major drawback to the advancement of scent-matching dogs and is
      a contributing factor to the continued controversy surrounding their use and
      reliability.

PMID- 28888989
TI  - Noradrenaline, oxymetazoline and phorbol myristate acetate induce distinct
      functional actions and phosphorylation patterns of alpha1A-adrenergic receptors.
AB  - In LNCaP cells that stably express alpha1A-adrenergic receptors, oxymetazoline
      increased intracellular calcium and receptor phosphorylation, however, this
      agonist was a weak partial agonist, as compared to noradrenaline, for calcium
      signaling. Interestingly, oxymetazoline-induced receptor internalization and
      desensitization displayed greater effects than those induced by noradrenaline.
      Phorbol myristate acetate induced modest receptor internalization and minimal
      desensitization. alpha1A-Adrenergic receptor interaction with beta-arrestins
      (colocalization/coimmunoprecipitation) was induced by noradrenaline and
      oxymetazoline and, to a lesser extent, by phorbol myristate acetate.
      Oxymetazoline was more potent and effective than noradrenaline in inducing ERK
      1/2 phosphorylation. Mass spectrometric analysis of immunopurified alpha1A
      adrenergic receptors from cells treated with adrenergic agonists and the phorbol
      ester clearly showed that phosphorylated residues were present both at the third
      intracellular loop and at the carboxyl tail. Distinct phosphorylation patterns
      were observed under the different conditions. The phosphorylated residues were:
      a) Baseline and all treatments: T233; b) noradrenaline: S220, S227, S229, S246,
      S250, S389; c) oxymetazoline: S227, S246, S381, T384, S389; and d) phorbol
      myristate acetate: S246, S250, S258, S351, S352, S401, S402, S407, T411, S413,
      T451. Our novel data, describing the alpha1A-AR phosphorylation sites, suggest
      that the observed different phosphorylation patterns may participate in defining
      adrenoceptor localization and action, under the different conditions examined.

PMID- 28888990
TI  - Chemicals or mutations that target mitochondrial translation can rescue the
      respiratory deficiency of yeast bcs1 mutants.
AB  - Bcs1p is a chaperone that is required for the incorporation of the Rieske subunit
      within complex III of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Mutations in the human
      gene BCS1L (BCS1-like) are the most frequent nuclear mutations resulting in
      complex III-related pathologies. In yeast, the mimicking of some pathogenic
      mutations causes a respiratory deficiency. We have screened chemical libraries
      and found that two antibiotics, pentamidine and clarithromycin, can compensate
      two bcs1 point mutations in yeast, one of which is the equivalent of a mutation
      found in a human patient. As both antibiotics target the large mtrRNA of the
      mitoribosome, we focused our analysis on mitochondrial translation. We found that
      the absence of non-essential translation factors Rrf1 or Mif3, which act at the
      recycling/initiation steps, also compensates for the respiratory deficiency of
      yeast bcs1 mutations. At compensating concentrations, both antibiotics, as well
      as the absence of Rrf1, cause an imbalanced synthesis of respiratory subunits
      which impairs the assembly of the respiratory complexes and especially that of
      complex IV. Finally, we show that pentamidine also decreases the assembly of
      complex I in nematode mitochondria. It is well known that complexes III and IV
      exist within the mitochondrial inner membrane as supramolecular complexes III2/IV
      in yeast or I/III2/IV in higher eukaryotes. Therefore, we propose that the
      changes in mitochondrial translation caused by the drugs or by the absence of
      translation factors, can compensate for bcs1 mutations by modifying the
      equilibrium between illegitimate, and thus inactive, and active supercomplexes.

PMID- 28888991
TI  - LRRK2 functions as a scaffolding kinase of ASK1-mediated neuronal cell death.
AB  - Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), a multi-domain protein, is a key causative
      factor in Parkinson's disease (PD). Identification of novel substrates and the
      molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of LRRK2 are essential for
      understanding the pathogenesis of PD. In this study, we showed that LRRK2 played
      an important role in neuronal cell death by directly phosphorylating and
      activating apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1). LRRK2 phosphorylated ASK1
      at Thr832 that is adjacent to Thr845, which serves as an autophosphorylation
      site. Moreover, results of binding and kinase assays showed that LRRK2 acted as a
      scaffolding protein by interacting with each components of the ASK1-MKK3/6-p38
      MAPK pathway through its specific domains and increasing the proximity to
      downstream targets. Furthermore, LRRK2-induced apoptosis was suppressed by ASK1
      inhibition in neuronal stem cells derived from patients with PD. These results
      clearly indicate that LRRK2 acts as an upstream kinase in the ASK1 pathway and
      plays an important role in the pathogenesis of PD.

PMID- 28888993
TI  - The risks of nocturnal hypoglycaemia in insulin-treated diabetes.
AB  - Over half of all episodes of severe hypoglycaemia (requiring external help) occur
      during sleep, but nocturnal hypoglycaemia is often asymptomatic and unrecognised.
      The precise incidence of nocturnal hypoglycaemia is difficult to determine with
      no agreed definition, but continuous glucose monitoring has shown that it occurs
      frequently in people taking insulin. Attenuation of the counter-regulatory
      responses to hypoglycaemia during sleep may explain why some episodes are
      undetected and more prolonged, and modifies cardiovascular responses. The
      morbidity and mortality associated with nocturnal hypoglycaemia is probably much
      greater than realised, causing seizures, coma and cardiovascular events and
      affecting quality of life, mood and work performance the following day. It may
      induce impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia. Cardiac arrhythmias that occur during
      nocturnal hypoglycaemia include bradycardia and ectopics that may provoke
      dangerous arrhythmias. Treatment strategies are discussed that may help to
      minimise the frequency of nocturnal hypoglycaemia.

PMID- 28888992
TI  - Associations between biological markers of prenatal stress and infant negative
      emotionality are specific to sex.
AB  - PURPOSE: Fetal programming is the idea that environmental stimuli can alter the
      development of the fetus, which may have a long-term effect on the child. We have
      recently reported that maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative
      emotionality in a sex-dependent manner: high prenatal cortisol was associated
      with increased negative emotionality in females, and decreased negative
      emotionality in males. This study aims to test for this sex-specific effect in a
      different cohort, and investigate whether sex differences in fetal programming
      may be specific to glucocorticoid mechanisms by also examining a maternal
      salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) by sex interaction. METHODS: 88 pregnant women (mean
      gestational age=27.4 weeks, SD=7.4) collected saliva samples at home over two
      working days to be assayed for the hormone cortisol (range=0.13-88.22nmol/l) and
      the enzyme alpha-amylase (range=4.57-554.8units/ml). Samples were collected at
      waking, 30-min post-waking and 12h post-waking. Two months after birth
      participants reported infant negative emotionality using the distress to limits
      subscale of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. RESULTS: The interaction between
      maternal prenatal cortisol and infant sex to predict distress to limits
      approached significance (p=0.067). In line with our previous finding there was a
      positive association between prenatal cortisol and negative emotionality in
      females, and a negative association in males. The interaction between sAA and sex
      to predict distress was significant (p=0.025), and the direction of effect was
      the same as for the cortisol data; high sAA associated with increased negative
      emotionality in females and reduced negative emotionality in males. CONCLUSIONS:
      In line with our previous findings, this research adds to an emerging body of
      literature, which suggests that fetal programming mechanisms may be sex
      dependent. This is the first study to demonstrate that maternal prenatal sAA may
      be an important biomarker for infant behavior, and the findings have implications
      for understanding sex differences in developmental psychopathology.

PMID- 28888995
TI  - mTOR signaling in immune cells and its implications for cancer immunotherapy.
AB  - The realization that cellular metabolism dictates immune cell development,
      differentiation and function affords metabolic intervention as a potential venue
      for cancer immunotherapy. mTOR signaling, as a metabolic master regulator,
      controls immune cell biology in a cell type-specific and context dependent
      manner. Furthermore, mTOR activity needs to be fine-tuned to maintain proper
      immune function. These properties may be exploited for therapeutic purpose, yet
      caution should be taken against radical changes of mTOR activity. Here, the
      intricate and complex mTOR regulation in different immune cells is reviewed,
      highlighting latest discoveries and opportunities for cancer immunotherapy.

PMID- 28888994
TI  - Chronic lymphocytic leukemia with isochromosome 17q: An aggressive subgroup
      associated with TP53 mutations and complex karyotypes.
AB  - Although i(17q) [i(17q)] is frequently detected in hematological malignancies,
      few studies have assessed its clinical role in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
      (CLL). We recruited a cohort of 22 CLL patients with i(17q) and described their
      biological characteristics, mutational status of the genes TP53 and IGHV and
      genomic complexity. Furthermore, we analyzed the impact of the type of
      cytogenetic anomaly bearing the TP53 defect on the outcome of CLL patients and
      compared the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of i(17q)
      cases with those of a group of 38 CLL patients harboring other 17p aberrations.
      We detected IGHV somatic hypermutation in all assessed patients, and TP53
      mutations were observed in 71.4% of the cases. Patients with i(17q) were more
      commonly associated with complex karyotypes (CK) and tended to have a poorer OS
      than patients with other anomalies affecting 17p13 (median OS, 44 vs 120 months,
      P = 0.084). Regarding chromosomal alterations, significant differences in the
      median OS were found among groups (P = 0.044). In conclusion, our findings
      provide new insights regarding i(17q) in CLL and show a subgroup with adverse
      prognostic features.

PMID- 28888996
TI  - Mutations of RNA splicing factors in hematological malignancies.
AB  - Systematic large-scale cancer genomic studies have produced numerous significant
      findings. These studies have not only revealed new cancer-promoting genes, but
      they also have identified cancer-promoting functions of previously known
      "housekeeping" genes. These studies have identified numerous mutations in genes
      which play a fundamental role in nuclear precursor mRNA splicing. Somatic
      mutations and copy number variation in many of the splicing factors which
      participate in the formation of multiple spliceosomal complexes appear to play a
      role in many cancers and in particular in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
      Mutated proteins seem to interfere with the recognition of the authentic splice
      sites (SS) leading to utilization of suboptimal alternative splicing sites
      generating aberrantly spliced mRNA isoforms. This short review is focusing on the
      function of the splice factors involved in the formation of splicing complexes
      and potential mechanisms which affect usage of the authentic splice site
      recognition.

PMID- 28888997
TI  - Discovery of peptide drug carrier candidates for targeted multi-drug delivery
      into prostate cancer cells.
AB  - Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains essentially
      incurable. Targeted Drug Delivery (TDD) systems may overcome the limitations of
      current mCRPC therapies. We describe the use of strict criteria to isolate novel
      prostate cancer cell targeting peptides that specifically deliver drugs into
      target cells. Phage from a libraries displaying 7mer peptides were exposed to PC
      3 cells and only internalized phage were recovered. The ability of these phage to
      internalize into other prostate cancer cells (LNCaP, DU-145) was validated. The
      displayed peptides of selected phage clones were synthesized and their
      specificity for target cells was validated in vitro and in vivo. One peptide
      (P12) which specifically targeted PC-3 tumors in vivo was incorporated into mono
      drug (Chlorambucil, Combretastatin or Camptothecin) and dual-drug
      (Chlorambucil/Combretastatin or Chlorambucil/Camptothecin) PDCs and the cytotoxic
      efficacy of these conjugates for target cells was tested. Conjugation of P12 into
      dual-drug PDCs allowed discovery of new drug combinations with synergistic
      effects. The use of strict selection criteria can lead to discovery of novel
      peptides for use as drug carriers for TDD. PDCs represent an effective
      alternative to current modes of free drug chemotherapy for prostate cancer.

PMID- 28888998
TI  - TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) for bone sarcoma treatment: Pre
      clinical and clinical data.
AB  - Bone sarcomas are rare, highly malignant mesenchymal tumours that affect
      teenagers and young adults, as well as older patients. Despite intensive,
      multimodal therapy, patients with bone sarcomas have poor 5-year survival, close
      to 50%, with lack of improvement over recent decades. TNF-related apoptosis
      inducing ligand (TRAIL), a member of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) ligand
      superfamily (TNFLSF), has been found to induce apoptosis in cancer cells while
      sparing nontransformed cells, and may therefore offer a promising new approach to
      treatment. We cover the existing preclinical and clinical evidence about the use
      of TRAIL and other death receptor agonists in bone sarcoma treatment. In vitro
      studies indicate that TRAIL and other death receptor agonists are generally
      potent against bone sarcoma cell lines. Ewing's sarcoma cell lines present the
      highest sensitivity, whereas osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma cell lines are
      considered less sensitive. In vivo studies also demonstrate satisfactory results,
      especially in Ewing's sarcoma xenograft models. However, the few clinical trials
      in the literature show only low or moderate efficacy of TRAIL in treating bone
      sarcoma. Potential strategies to overcome the in vivo resistance reported include
      co-administration with other drugs and the potential to deliver TRAIL on the
      surface of primed mesenchymal or immune cells and the use of targeted single
      chain antibodies such as scFv-scTRAIL.

PMID- 28888999
TI  - Role of cellular metabolism in regulating type I interferon responses:
      Implications for tumour immunology and treatment.
AB  - Type I interferons (IFN) are increasingly recognized for their role in regulating
      anti-tumour immune responses. However, chronic activation of these pathways can
      result in immunosuppression and has been linked to poor responses to genotoxic
      and radiotoxic therapies. Emerging evidence suggests energy, lipid and amino acid
      metabolism play an important role in regulating and fine tuning type I IFN
      responses. Further, dysregulation of these processes has been implicated in the
      pathogenesis of chronic viral infections and autoimmune disorders. Systematic
      evaluation of these interrelationships in cancer models and patients may have
      important implications for the development of targeted IFN based anti-cancer
      therapeutics with minimal toxicity and limited off target effects.

PMID- 28889000
TI  - HSF1 upregulates ATG4B expression and enhances epirubicin-induced protective
      autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
AB  - Considerable evidences have shown that both heat shock transcription factor 1
      (HSF1) and autophagy can attenuate the sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma
      (HCC) cells to chemotherapeutic reagents. However, it is still little known
      whether HSF1 is associated with autophagy in regulating the chemosensitivity of
      HCC cells. In this study, we for the first time demonstrated that HSF1 markedly
      attenuated the killing effect of epirubicin (EPI) to HCC cells via enhancing the
      EPI-induced protective autophagy. Mechanistically, HSF1 upregulated autophagy
      related 4B (ATG4B) in HCC cells, which enhanced the EPI-triggered protective
      autophagy. Reporter assay showed that HSF1 increased the transcriptional activity
      of ATG4B gene promoter, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay verified that
      HSF1 bound to the site (-1429 to -1417) in ATG4B gene promoter region. The
      experiments in nude mice showed that knockdown of HSF1 or ATG4B strengthened the
      anti-HCC effect of EPI in vivo. Collectively, these results revealed that HSF1
      elevates ATG4B via promoting its transcription, which alleviates the sensitivity
      of EPI in HCC cells through enhancing protective autophagy, suggesting that the
      "HSF1/ATG4B/protective autophagy" pathway may be a novel target for developing
      sensitizing strategy to HCC chemotherapy.

PMID- 28889001
TI  - Decontamination of fresh-cut cucumber slices by a combination of a modified
      chitosan coating containing carvacrol nanoemulsions and pulsed light.
AB  - In this study, the impact of the combination of pulsed light (PL) treatments with
      antimicrobial coatings, consisting of modified chitosan suspensions incorporating
      carvacrol nanoemulsions, was investigated on the decontamination of fresh-cut
      cucumber slices. The upper surface of the cucumber slices, with or without the
      coating deposition, was inoculated with Escherichia coli ATCC 26 to reach a final
      concentration of 107CFU/g of the vegetable. PL treatments were conducted at
      different fluence (4, 8, and 12J/cm2) on the inoculated surface of cucumber
      slices. Results showed that the microbial reduction was only marginally affected
      by the coating formulation. A slight increase was observed when the carvacrol
      nanoemulsions were embedded in the chitosan matrix, but microbial reduction
      levels remained always below 1log cycle. In contrast, the different PL treatments
      resulted in a statistically significant increase in inactivation with increasing
      the treatment fluence, reaching 2.6log cycles at the maximum fluence. Remarkably,
      the combination of the antimicrobial coating with the most intense PL treatments
      resulted in a strong synergistic effect. For example, by combining a PL treatment
      at 12J/cm2 with one of the antimicrobial coatings a microbial reduction >5log
      cycles was reached. Therefore, it can be concluded that the combination of
      antimicrobial coatings and PL treatment is a promising method for surface
      decontamination of fresh-cut vegetables, which could be exploited in view of
      ensuring their microbiological safety.

PMID- 28889002
TI  - Mapping the complex topological organization of the human parietal face area.
AB  - The macaque monkey ventral intraparietal area (VIP) contains neurons with aligned
      visual-tactile receptive fields anchored to the face and upper body. Our previous
      fMRI studies using standard head coils found a human parietal face area (VIP+
      complex; putative macaque VIP homologue) containing superimposed topological maps
      of the face and near-face visual space. Here, we construct high signal-to-noise
      surface coils and used phase-encoded air puffs and looming stimuli to map
      topological organization of the parietal face area at higher resolution. This
      area is consistently identified as a region extending between the superior
      postcentral sulcus and the upper bank of the anterior intraparietal sulcus (IPS),
      avoiding the fundus of IPS. Using smaller voxel sizes, our surface coils picked
      up strong fMRI signals in response to tactile and visual stimuli. By analyzing
      tactile and visual maps in our current and previous studies, we constructed a set
      of topological models illustrating commonalities and differences in map
      organization across subjects. The most consistent topological feature of the VIP+
      complex is a central-anterior upper face (and upper visual field) representation
      adjoined by lower face (and lower visual field) representations ventrally
      (laterally) and/or dorsally (medially), potentially forming two subdivisions VIPv
      (ventral) and VIPd (dorsal). The lower visual field representations typically
      extend laterally into the anterior IPS to adjoin human area AIP, and medially to
      overlap with the parietal body areas at the superior parietal ridge. Significant
      individual variations are then illustrated to provide an accurate and
      comprehensive view of the topological organization of the parietal face area.

PMID- 28889003
TI  - The role of auditory cortex in the spatial ventriloquism aftereffect.
AB  - Cross-modal recalibration allows the brain to maintain coherent sensory
      representations of the world. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
      the present study aimed at identifying the neural mechanisms underlying
      recalibration in an audiovisual ventriloquism aftereffect paradigm. Participants
      performed a unimodal sound localization task, before and after they were exposed
      to adaptation blocks, in which sounds were paired with spatially disparate visual
      stimuli offset by 14 degrees  to the right. Behavioral results showed a
      significant rightward shift in sound localization following adaptation,
      indicating a ventriloquism aftereffect. Regarding fMRI results, left and right
      planum temporale (lPT/rPT) were found to respond more to contralateral sounds
      than to central sounds at pretest. Contrasting posttest with pretest blocks
      revealed significantly enhanced fMRI-signals in space-sensitive lPT after
      adaptation, matching the behavioral rightward shift in sound localization.
      Moreover, a region-of-interest analysis in lPT/rPT revealed that the lPT activity
      correlated positively with the localization shift for right-side sounds, whereas
      rPT activity correlated negatively with the localization shift for left-side and
      central sounds. Finally, using functional connectivity analysis, we observed
      enhanced coupling of the lPT with left and right inferior parietal areas as well
      as left motor regions following adaptation and a decoupling of lPT/rPT with
      contralateral auditory cortex, which scaled with participants' degree of
      adaptation. Together, the fMRI results suggest that cross-modal spatial
      recalibration is accomplished by an adjustment of unisensory representations in
      low-level auditory cortex. Such persistent adjustments of low-level sensory
      representations seem to be mediated by the interplay with higher-level spatial
      representations in parietal cortex.

PMID- 28889005
TI  - A flexible graphical model for multi-modal parcellation of the cortex.
AB  - Advances in neuroimaging have provided a tremendous amount of in-vivo information
      on the brain's organisation. Its anatomy and cortical organisation can be
      investigated from the point of view of several imaging modalities, many of which
      have been studied for mapping functionally specialised cortical areas. There is
      strong evidence that a single modality is not sufficient to fully identify the
      brain's cortical organisation. Combining multiple modalities in the same
      parcellation task has the potential to provide more accurate and robust
      subdivisions of the cortex. Nonetheless, existing brain parcellation methods are
      typically developed and tested on single modalities using a specific type of
      information. In this paper, we propose Graph-based Multi-modal Parcellation
      (GraMPa), an iterative framework designed to handle the large variety of
      available input modalities to tackle the multi-modal parcellation task. At each
      iteration, we compute a set of parcellations from different modalities and fuse
      them based on their local reliabilities. The fused parcellation is used to
      initialise the next iteration, forcing the parcellations to converge towards a
      set of mutually informed modality specific parcellations, where correspondences
      are established. We explore two different multi-modal configurations for group
      wise parcellation using resting-state fMRI, diffusion MRI tractography, myelin
      maps and task fMRI. Quantitative and qualitative results on the Human Connectome
      Project database show that integrating multi-modal information yields a stronger
      agreement with well established atlases and more robust connectivity networks
      that provide a better representation of the population.

PMID- 28889006
TI  - Role of intra-accumbal orexin receptors in the acquisition of morphine-induced
      conditioned place preference in the rats.
AB  - Orexin receptor shave essential role in the induction of reward-related behaviors
      to several drugs of abuse. In the present study, we investigated the effects of
      bilateral administration of SB334867, as an orexin-1 receptor antagonist, and TCS
      OX2 29, as an orexin-2 receptor antagonist, into the nucleus accumbens (NAc) on
      the acquisition of morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in the
      rats. Adult male Wistar rats (n=80; 220-250g) were entered in a CPP paradigm.
      Bilateral microinjections of different doses of SB334867 (1, 3, 10 and 30nM) or
      TCS OX2 29 (3, 10, 30 and 100nM) into the NAc (0.5MUl/side) were done 5min before
      subcutaneous injection of morphine (5mg/kg) during 3-dayconditioning
      (acquisition) phase. The CPP scores and locomotor activity of animals were
      recorded by video tracking system and Ethovision software. The results
      demonstrated that intra-NAc microinjection of 3, 10 and 30nM solutions of
      SB334867 markedly decreased the acquisition of morphine-induced CPP in a dose
      dependent manner. Intra-accumbal injection of 10, 30 and 100nM solutions of TCS
      OX2 29 significantly attenuated the acquisition of morphine CPP as well. In
      addition, contribution of orexin-1 receptors to development of morphine reward
      related behaviors was more than orexin-2 receptors. Our results suggest that both
      orexin-1 and -2 receptors in the NAc are involved in the development of morphine
      induced CPP. It seems that orexin-1 receptors in this region are more effective
      in development of drug seeking behaviors in the rats.

PMID- 28889004
TI  - Quantitative vascular neuroimaging of the rat brain using superparamagnetic
      nanoparticles: New insights on vascular organization and brain function.
AB  - A method called Quantitative Ultra-Short Time-to-Echo Contrast Enhanced (QUTE-CE)
      Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which utilizes superparamagnetic iron oxide
      nanoparticles (SPIONs) as a contrast agent to yield positive contrast angiograms
      with high clarity and definition is applied to the whole live rat brain. QUTE-CE
      MRI intensity data are particularly well suited for measuring quantitative
      cerebral blood volume (qCBV). A global map of qCBV in the awake resting-state
      with unprecedented detail was created via application of a 3D MRI rat brain atlas
      with 173 segmented and annotated brain areas. From this map we identified two
      distributed, integrated neural circuits showing the highest capillary densities
      in the brain. One is the neural circuitry involved with the primary senses of
      smell, hearing and vision and the other is the neural circuitry of memory. Under
      isoflurane anesthesia, these same circuits showed significant decreases in qCBV
      suggesting a role in consciousness. Neural circuits in the brainstem associated
      with the reticular activating system and the maintenance of respiration, body
      temperature and cardiovascular function showed an increase in qCBV with
      anesthesia. During awake CO2 challenge, 84 regions showed significant increases
      relative to an awake baseline state. This CO2 response provides a measure of
      cerebral vascular reactivity and regional perfusion reserve with the highest
      response measured in the somatosensory cortex. These results demonstrate the
      utility of QUTE-CE MRI for qCBV analysis and offer a new perspective on brain
      function and vascular organization.

PMID- 28889007
TI  - Selective deletion of the oxytocin gene remodels the number and shape of
      dendritic spines in the medial amygdala of males with and without sexual
      experience.
AB  - Oxytocin has central actions that modulate synaptic plasticity and the occurrence
      of social behavior in rodents. The posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD) composes
      a sexually dimorphic neural circuit for the display of male sexual behavior.
      Local dendritic spines are notably plastic and affected by context-dependent
      social stimuli. Here, we examined the effects of the selective deletion of the OT
      gene (OTKO) in the number and shape of Golgi-impregnated dendritic spines in the
      MePD of naive and sexually experienced (SexExp) male mice (n=6 each group).
      Compared to the control wild-type mice (WT), OTKO naive mice did not differ in
      the density of dendritic spines, but there was a significant and more intense
      reduction in the number of spines in the WT/SexExp (~40%) than in the OTKO/SexExp
      (~25%). This structural change had a spine-specific feature. That is, sexual
      experience induced a decrease in the number of thin (~50%) and mushroom-like
      spines (~35%) at the same time that increased (~30%) the number of stubby/wide
      spines. In addition, the OTKO/SexExp animals have more thin and mushroom spines
      than the WT/SexExp ones (~25% and 55%, respectively; p <0.01 in all cases). In
      conjunction, these novel data indicate that OT participates in the spine
      remodeling, synaptic refinement, and social stimuli-dependent plasticity in the
      MePD of male mice.

PMID- 28889009
TI  - Gaze position interferes in body sway in young adults.
AB  - Postural control is influenced by eye movements. Gaze fixation, which comprises a
      component of ocular vergence, is important in the acquisition of highly specific
      task information, but its relation to postural control is little investigated.
      The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of gaze fixation position
      (central and lateral fixations) on postural sway in young adults. Forty young
      adults with ages ranging from 20 to 35 years were invited to participate in the
      study. Postural sway was measured in quiet stance in bipedal support in three 60
      s trials under the following conditions: gaze fixation on a target positioned in
      front of participant, gaze fixation on a target positioned on right side of
      participant, and gaze fixation on a target positioned on left side of
      participant. The following center of pressure parameters (COP) in the
      anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral directions (ML) were analyzed for each of
      the trials: body sway displacement, mean velocity of sway, root mean square (RMS)
      of sway, and median frequency. In addition, detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA)
      exponent, in anteroposterior and medio-lateral directions, was calculated. The
      COP presented greater AP and ML displacement (p<0.03, effect size=1.37; and
      p<0.03, effect size=1.64, respectively) and RMS AP and ML (p<0.04, effect
      size=1.66; and p<0.02, effect size=2.50, respectively) for lateral gaze fixation
      compared to central gaze fixation. These results suggest that gaze fixation on a
      laterally positioned target increases body sway in anteroposterior and
      mediolateral directions.

PMID- 28889008
TI  - The interplay between ventro striatal BDNF levels and the effects of valproic
      acid on the acquisition of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference in mice.
AB  - Alcohol addiction is a chronic, relapsing and progressive brain disease with
      serious consequences for health. Compulsive use of alcohol is associated with the
      capacity to change brain structures involved with the reward pathway, such as
      ventral striatum. Recent evidence suggests a role of chromatin remodeling in the
      pathophysiology of alcohol dependence and addictive-like behaviors. In addition,
      neuroadaptive changes mediated by the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
      seems to be an interesting pharmacological target for alcoholism treatment. In
      the present study, we evaluated the effects of the deacetylase inhibitor valproic
      acid (VPA) (300mg/kg) on the conditioned rewarding effects of ethanol using
      conditioned place preference (CPP) (15% v/v; 2g/kg). Ethanol rewarding effect was
      investigated using a biased protocol of CPP. BDNF levels were measured in the
      ventral striatum. Ethanol administration induced CPP. VPA pretreatment did not
      reduce ethanol-CPP acquisition. VPA pretreatment increased BDNF levels when
      compared to ethanol induced-CPP. VPA pretreatment increased BDNF levels even in
      saline conditioned mice. Taken together, our results indicate a modulatory effect
      of VPA on the BDNF levels in the ventral striatum. Overall, this study brings
      initial insights into the involvement of neurotrophic mechanisms in the ventral
      striatum in ethanol-induced addictive-like behavior.

PMID- 28889010
TI  - Pain in osteoarthritis. Implications for optimal management.
AB  - Pain is an ubiquitous symptom in osteoarticular diseases, occurring much more
      commonly than stiffness or disability. OA of the knee, hand, or hip affects
      around 20% of adults in various populations and is dramatically increasing in
      many countries, mostly related to age and obesity, leading to an increased number
      of people having OA pain, and creating a huge burden related to disability and
      health care costs. OA-related pain, has been classically considered to be a
      nociceptive pain condition. Clinicians have considered pain to be an alarm
      signal, correlated to the intensity of joint degradation. In OA, most authors
      have focused their studies on joint architecture and local degradation,
      considering pain as only a symptom, a consequence of joint damage. However, OA
      related pain is a specific disease, with a complex pathophysiology, including
      neuropathic peripheral and central abnormalities, together with local
      inflammation involving all joint structures. Clinical findings emphasize that it
      is not a stable and linear condition, that pain experience is independent of
      structural modifications, and that the quality of pain in OA is important to
      consider, aside from its intensity. OA-related pain is modulated by many factors,
      including the individual patient's psychological and genetic factors, as well as
      the theoretical role of meteorological influences. Recent neuroimaging findings
      have improved our knowledge about central mechanisms of OA pain, especially in
      persistent cases.

PMID- 28889011
TI  - Two novel LRR and Ig domain-containing proteins from oyster Crassostrea gigas
      function as pattern recognition receptors and induce expression of cytokines.
AB  - Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain and immunoglobulin (Ig) domain are both
      competent immune recognition modules, and the immunological roles of LRR and Ig
      domain containing- proteins (LRRIGs) are speculated to be multifunctional and
      worth investigating. In the present study, two novel LRRIGs, CgLRRIG-1 and
      CgLRRIG-2, were identified and characterized from oyster Crassostrea gigas. Both
      of them contained an N-terminal LRR region, an Ig domain, a transmembrane region,
      and a C-terminal cytoplasmic tail. The mRNA transcripts of CgLRRIG-1 and CgLRRIG
      2 were constitutively expressed in muscle, gill, hepatopancreas, mantle, gonad
      and hemocytes with the highest expression level in hepatopancreas. Their mRNA
      expression levels in hemocytes were significantly up-regulated after the
      stimulations with four PAMPs including peptidoglycan (PGN), lipopolysaccharide
      (LPS), glucan (GLU) and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) and one
      bacteria Vibrio anguillarum. The recombinant proteins, rCgLRRIG-1 and rCgLRRIG-2,
      could bind to PGN, LPS, GLU and poly I:C, and rCgLRRIG-2 exhibited higher binding
      affinity. Additionally, rCgLRRIG-1 and rCgLRRIG-2 could significantly induce the
      expression of CgTNF-1 and CgIL17-5 in cultured oyster hemocytes, and the activity
      of rCgLRRIG-2 was higher than that of rCgLRRIG-1. All these results indicated
      that CgLRRIG-1 and CgLRRIG-2 could function as immune effectors or pro
      inflammatory factors as well as PRRs in oyster.

PMID- 28889012
TI  - Effect of pea crab Pinnotheres vicajii (Chhapgar, 1957) on immunocompetence of
      bivalve Paphia malabarica (Chemnitz, 1782).
AB  - The endosymbiont-host relationship between a pea crab and its bivalve host has
      been studied previously using bivalve's multi-physiological parameters. The
      present study is first of its kind that uses hemocyte's immune functionality to
      evaluate the symbiotic relationship between bivalve Paphia malabarica and its
      symbiont crab, Pinnotheres vicajii. The sampling was carried out at two stations
      (differed in nutrient concentration, productivity, and bacterial abundance)
      located along the southwest coast of India. The results showed lower
      immunocompetence in the case of bivalves infested with pea crabs. The lowering of
      hemocyte population was the most prominent and perhaps the initial reaction in
      response to focal inflammation or wound inflicted by the pea crabs. A significant
      lowering of phagocytosis, lysozyme, and esterase activity was also observed,
      indicating the detrimental impact of crab infestation. Interestingly, no
      significant correlation was found between parasitism and condition index despite
      the lower immunocompetence, validating the effectiveness of using hematological
      parameters in comparison to other life-history traits. This indicates that the
      immune parameters being directly related to the organism's metabolic state can
      elucidate the early effect of stressors, therefore, proving to be a better proxy
      for understanding a host-pathogen relationship. Disparity found in bivalve's
      immunocompetence between the sampling sites could be linked to either variation
      in environmental parameters, the size of the symbiont or the infection level. Our
      preliminary results provide a direction towards examining immunodepression in
      parasitized bivalves by considering ex-situ controlled parasitism induction along
      with varying environmental conditions. In view of this, efforts must be directed
      towards minimizing pea crab's outbreaks, especially in cultivated shellfish
      farms. Future studies should elucidate molecular mechanisms involved in the
      immunocompetence of P. malabarica, hosting the parasitic pea crabs.

PMID- 28889013
TI  - The core ubiquitin system of mandarin fish, Siniperca chuatsi, can be utilized by
      infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus.
AB  - The process of ubiquitination regulates various cellular processes. The ubiquitin
      proteasome system (UPS) in fish, which is important for the generation of innate
      and adaptive immune responses to pathogens, is the target of aquatic viruses to
      achieve immune evasion. We cloned and characterized three genes, namely, a
      ubiquitin-activating enzyme (ScE1), a ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (ScE2), and a
      HECT-type ubiquitin ligase (ScE3) of mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi. The genes
      were expressed in all tissues and the highest levels were observed in the blood.
      In infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV)-infected mandarin fish fry
      cells, the expression levels of the three genes in vitro were almost identical,
      and upregulated during the early stage and downregulated at the late stage. In
      the blood of ISKNV-infected mandarin fish, their expressions in vivo were
      downregulated equally although peaking at different timepoints, indicating the
      suppression of UPS by viral infection. Furthermore, these recombinant proteins
      were determined to function well in ubiquitination assays in vitro. Moreover,
      ScE1 and ScE2 can be utilized by four RING-type viral E3s (vE3s) that are encoded
      by ISKNV. The in vitro activity of vE3 was stronger than that of ScE3, suggesting
      that the fish UPS may be hijacked by ISKNV via E3 activity competition and
      expression modulation. The present study investigated the function of mandarin
      fish UPS as well as its response to iridovirus infection, providing insights to
      better understand the virus-host interactions and the mechanism of ISKNV in
      evading host immune responses.

PMID- 28889014
TI  - Transcriptomic and morphological analyses of Litopenaeus vannamei intestinal
      barrier in response to Vibrio paraheamolyticus infection reveals immune response
      signatures and structural disruption.
AB  - The white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei has been greatly impacted by Vibrio
      infection. In this study, we investigated the intestinal barrier response of L
      vannamei following challenge with Vibrio parahaemolyticus E1, by examining
      morphological changes and transcriptome expression levels. A total of 16,4420
      unigenes were obtained from RNAseq data after quality control and assembly, and
      4646 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified following Vibrio
      challenge, of which 2469 unigenes were significantly up-regulated and 2177 were
      significantly down-regulated. DEGs were determined to be involved in various
      physical, chemical and immunological intestinal barrier functions, including
      peritrophin, cytoskeleton and cell junction, pattern recognition receptors,
      antimicrobial peptide and immune signaling pathways, serine protease/protease
      inhibitor and prophenoloxidase system, apoptosis and phagocytosis, and
      antioxidant systems. Fifteen DEGs were randomly selected for validation by real
      time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and showed results consistent with the RNA-seq
      data. Intestinal epithelial cell morphology was also affected by Vibrio
      challenge, showing epithelial detachment, nuclear pyknosis, and destruction of
      cell junctions. These results improve our current understanding of the intestinal
      barrier function in the shrimp response to bacterial infection.

PMID- 28889015
TI  - Functional characterization of a reactive oxygen species modulator 1 gene in
      Litopenaeus vannamei.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) imparts a dual effect on multicellular organisms,
      wherein high levels are usually harmful, and low levels could facilitate in
      combating pathogenic microorganisms; therefore, the regulation of ROS production
      is critical. Previous studies have suggested that ROS contributes to resistance
      to the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) or Vibrio alginolyticus in Litopenaeus
      vannamei. However, the regulation of ROS metabolism in L. vannamei remains
      elusive. In the present study, we proved that the overexpression of L. vannamei
      reactive oxygen species modulator 1 (LvROMO1) increases ROS production in
      Drosophila Schneider 2 (S2) cells. Real-time RT-PCR analysis indicated that
      LvROMO1 is induced by WSSV or V. alginolyticus infection and beta-glucan or
      microcystin (MC-LR) injection. Further investigation showed that LvROMO1
      responding to MC-LR, thereby inducing hemocytes to undergo apoptosis, and
      ultimately resulting in hepatopancreatic damage. And LvROMO1 downregulation
      induced an increase in the cumulative mortality of WSSV-infected shrimp by
      reducing ROS production and suppressing the expression of antimicrobial peptides
      genes. The findings of present study suggest that LvROMO1 plays an important role
      in ROS production in L. vannamei and is involved in innate immunity.

PMID- 28889016
TI  - The effect of melatonin from slow-release implants on basic and TLR-4-mediated
      gene expression of inflammatory cytokines and their receptors in the choroid
      plexus in ewes.
AB  - The present study concerns the effect of melatonin from slow-release implants on
      the expression of genes coding interleukin-1beta (Il1B), inerleukin-6 (Il6),
      tumour necrosis factor alpha (Tnf) and their receptors: IL-1 receptor type I
      (Il1r1) and type II (Il1r2), IL-6 receptor (Il6r) and signal transducer (Il6st),
      TNFalpha receptor type I (Tnfrsf1a) and II (Tnfrsf1b) and retinoid-related orphan
      receptor alpha (RorA) and Rev.-erbalpha in the ovine choroid plexus (CP) under
      basal and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged conditions. Studies were performed
      on four groups: 1) sham-implanted and placebo-treated, 2) melatonin-implanted
      (Melovine, 18mg) and placebo-treated, 3) sham-implanted and LPS-treated (400ng/kg
      of body weight) and 4) melatonin-implanted and LPS-treated. Under basal
      conditions, we observed weak expression of Tnf, low expression of Il1B, Il6 and
      Il1r2 and intermediate expression of other cytokines receptors. LPS treatment
      induced (P<=0.05) expression in all cytokines and their receptors, except Il6r 3h
      after the administration. Melatonin attenuated (P<=0.05) LPS-induced up
      regulation of Il6 but had no effect on other cytokines and their receptors and up
      regulated (P<=0.05) Rev.-erbalpha expression under basal conditions. This
      indicates that melatonin from slow-release implants suppresses TLR4-mediated Il6
      expression in the ovine CP via a mechanism likely involving clock genes.

PMID- 28889017
TI  - Mycoplasmas: Brain invaders?
AB  - Mycoplasmas of humans and animals are usually associated with respiratory,
      autoimmune, genital and joint diseases. Human mycoplasmas have also been known to
      affect the brain. Severe central nervous system (CNS) diseases, such as
      encephalitis, have been linked to Mycoplasma pneumoniae and ureaplasma
      infections. Less well known is the sheep and goat pathogen, Mycoplasma
      agalactiae, which has been found in large quantities in the brain where it may be
      responsible for non-purulent encephalitis as well as ataxia in young animals.
      Experimental intra-mammary infections of sheep with this mycoplasma have resulted
      in histopathological changes in the CNS. The cattle pathogen, M. bovis, has been
      reported occasionally in the brains of calves and adult cattle showing a range of
      histopathological lesions including abscesses and fibrinous meningitis. Two avian
      pathogens, M. gallisepticum and M. synoviae have been isolated from the brains of
      poultry showing meningeal vasculitis and encephalitis. There have been no
      reported detections of two other avian pathogens, M. meleagridis or M. iowae in
      the CNS. Over the last few decades, mycoplasmas have been isolated from the
      brains of sea mammals dying in large numbers in the North Sea although it was
      concluded that their role may be secondary to underlying viral disease. Finally,
      evidence has been advanced that certain Spiroplasma species may have a role in
      the development of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). Invasion
      of the brain by mycoplasmas may be as a result of direct entry following damage
      to the inner ear as seen with M. bovis or across the blood brain barrier by
      mechanisms as yet uncertain.

PMID- 28889018
TI  - The cancer secretome and secreted biomarkers.

PMID- 28889019
TI  - Psychotraumatology: What researchers and clinicians can learn from an
      evolutionary perspective.
AB  - This review outlines the contribution of evolutionary science to experimental and
      clinical psychotraumatology. From an evolutionary perspective, traumatic and
      psychosocial stressors are conceived of as events or circumstances that thwart
      the achievement of biological goals. The more important is the adaptive value of
      the goal, the more painful is the emotional impact of the life event that
      endangers goal achievement. Life history theory and sexual selection theory help
      to explain why goal priorities differ between the sexes and across age groups.
      Cultural values and social learning interact with evolved inclinations in
      determining the hierarchy of goals for a specific person in a specific phase of
      his or her life. To illustrate the applicability of the evolutionary model,
      epidemiological and clinical data concerning individual differences in stress
      sensitivity and stress generation are reviewed and discussed. The final part of
      the review summarizes new hypotheses that explain how early and current
      psychosocial stressors can activate a series of adaptive mechanisms including
      developmental plasticity, predictive adaptive responses and differential
      susceptibility. Ultimately, the contribution of evolutionary science to
      psychotraumatology is the idea that experimental and clinical studies should
      shift the focus of research from the external environment (defined as all
      stressful factors external to the subjects under investigation) to the ecological
      environment (defined as those stressful factors of the external environment that
      have a greater potential to threaten the adaptive equilibrium of the subjects
      under investigation because of their evolved inclinations).

PMID- 28889020
TI  - The novel Aspergillus fumigatus MAT1-2-4 mating-type gene is required for mating
      and cleistothecia formation.
AB  - Sexual propagation accompanied by recombination and the formation of spore
      containing fruiting bodies is a cornerstone of fungal genetics and biology. In
      the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus sexual identity has previously been
      shown to be determined by MAT1-1-1 or MAT1-2-1 genes which act as transcriptional
      regulators and are present within idiomorphs found at the MAT locus. We here
      report the identification and first characterization of a further novel gene,
      termed MAT1-2-4, that is present in the MAT1-2 idiomorph of A. fumigatus. A
      mating-type swapping strategy was used to achieve an unbiased deletion of the
      MAT1-2-4 gene with no impact on MAT1-2-1 gene expression. Phenotypical
      characterization of the resulting strain revealed an inability to mate with the
      compatible MAT1-1 progenitor, demonstrating that the MAT1-2-4 gene product is a
      genuine mating-type factor required for correct sexual development. A GPI
      anchored protein of unknown function was identified as interaction partner.
      However, no functional role in the mating process or ascosporogenesis could be
      demonstrated by deletion analysis for this latter protein, although a role in
      heterokaryon formation is suggested. Bioinformatic analysis also demonstrated the
      presence of MAT1-2-4 homologues in some, but not all, other Aspergillus species
      and the evolutionary origins and implications of the MAT1-2-4 gene are discussed.

PMID- 28889021
TI  - Maxillary sinuses and midface in patients with cleidocranial dysostosis.
AB  - The cleidocranial dysplasia is general skeletal disorder with an autosomal
      dominant inheritance. It is manifested by many craniofacial abnormalities, of
      which the maxillary hypoplasia is the most evident. The aim of the study was to
      use CBCT to evaluate the volume of the maxillary sinuses and the dimensions of
      maxillae in patients with CCD and compare them with healthy individuals. Files of
      four children with cleidocranial dysplasia were investigated. Volume of every
      maxillary sinus as well as two dimensional measurements of distances between
      particular points of interest located on surface of maxilla were calculated from
      reconstructed CBCT examination. Data were compared with a control group.
      Statistical analysis was performed. Linear and volumetric data obtained using
      CBCT was collected and compared with a control group. All affected children had
      both maxillary sinus volume and maxillary dimensions smaller than control values.
      The maxillary sinuses were underdeveloped up to half of normal values. The
      largest differences were recorded in vertical linear dimensions of the maxillae.
      Horizontal dimensions were also lower. There are morphological modifications of
      bone tissue which accompany CCD. It seems that these changes occur on the
      midfacial region and to a greater extent concern the maxillary sinus volume.

PMID- 28889022
TI  - Injection of oxytocin into paraventricular nucleus reverses depressive-like
      behaviors in the postpartum depression rat model.
AB  - Oxytocin (OXT) has been considered as a neuroregulator mediating social behaviors
      and stress-related disorders. Recent clinical studies suggest that OXT might also
      act as antidepressant in postpartum depression (PPD) patients, but the mechanism
      is still unknown. In the present study, we explored the effect of OXT in
      paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and possible signaling pathway involved in a PPD
      rat model induced by gestation restraint stress (GRS). PPD rats exhibited
      depressive-like behaviors with significantly longer immobility time, shorter
      climbing time, and lower sucrose consumption compared to the control rats. Plasma
      corticosterone (CORT) level was also higher in PPD rats. While PVN and supraoptic
      nucleus (SON) are main OXT synthesis regions in the brain, GRS-induced decrease
      of mRNA and peptide level of OXT was seen only in PVN. The expression of TrkB in
      PVN was increased in PPD rats. Local injection of OXT (20ng) into PVN reversed
      GRS-induced depressive-like behaviors and high plasma CORT level in PPD rats.
      Moreover, injection of OXT also reversed GRS-induced increase of TrkB in PVN of
      PPD rats. All those data suggest that OXT plays an antidepressant role by, at
      least in part, modulating HPA axis via TrkB in PVN of PPD rats.

PMID- 28889023
TI  - Suppression of FoxO3a attenuates neurobehavioral deficits after traumatic brain
      injury through inhibiting neuronal autophagy.
AB  - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious insult that frequently leads to
      neurological impairments. Forkhead box O (FoxO) 3a, as transcription factor, has
      been confirmed to modulate autophagic process. Moreover, FoxO3a is expressed
      throughout the brain including the hippocampus. However, the role of FoxO3a in
      the pathophysiology of TBI is unclear. The present study is designed to
      investigate whether FoxO3a has the neuroprotective effects on rats subjected to
      TBI, and further to explore the potential molecular mechanisms. Thus, a rat model
      of TBI was created by using a modified weight-drop device to mimic the insults of
      TBI. The results showed that FoxO3a was significantly increased in the serum of
      patients with TBI as well as in experimental animals. Furthermore, our data also
      demonstrated that TBI stimulated the translocation of FoxO3a from the cytosol to
      the nucleus. Additionally, we found that knockdown of FoxO3a by siRNA silencing
      significantly improved neurobehavioral dysfunctions and conferred a better
      neuroprotective effects after TBI, evidenced by promoting motor behavioral
      recovery, attenuating learning and memory impairments, and partially reversing
      neuronal damage in the hippocampus. To further investigate the molecular
      mechanisms underlying this neuroprotection, we identified that nuclear
      accumulation of Foxo3a could induce highly expression of autophagy pathway genes
      including LC-3, Beclin-1, p62, ATG12, and ATG14, and finally initiate
      neurological impairments. Interestingly, silencing FoxO3a by siRNA remarkably
      inhibited the induction of neuronal autophagy after TBI, and activated autophagy
      was closely related to TBI-induced neurological deficits. Taken together, these
      findings indicated that FoxO3a knockdown conferred neuroprotective effects after
      TBI through inhibiting the activation of neuronal autophagy.

PMID- 28889024
TI  - The toxicology of mercury: Current research and emerging trends.
AB  - Mercury (Hg) is a persistent bio-accumulative toxic metal with unique
      physicochemical properties of public health concern since their natural and
      anthropogenic diffusions still induce high risk to human and environmental
      health. The goal of this review was to analyze scientific literature evaluating
      the role of global concerns over Hg exposure due to human exposure to ingestion
      of contaminated seafood (methyl-Hg) as well as elemental Hg levels of dental
      amalgam fillings (metallic Hg), vaccines (ethyl-Hg) and contaminated water and
      air (Hg chloride). Mercury has been recognized as a neurotoxicant as well as
      immunotoxic and designated by the World Health Organization as one of the ten
      most dangerous chemicals to public health. It has been shown that the half-life
      of inorganic Hg in human brains is several years to several decades. Mercury
      occurs in the environment under different chemical forms as elemental Hg
      (metallic), inorganic and organic Hg. Despite the raising understanding of the Hg
      toxicokinetics, there is still fully justified to further explore the emerging
      theories about its bioavailability and adverse effects in humans. In this review,
      we describe current research and emerging trends in Hg toxicity with the purpose
      of providing up-to-date information for a better understanding of the kinetics of
      this metal, presenting comprehensive knowledge on published data analyzing its
      metabolism, interaction with other metals, distribution, internal doses and
      targets, and reservoir organs.

PMID- 28889025
TI  - Industrial pollution and cancer in Spain: An important public health issue.
AB  - Cancer can be caused by exposure to air pollution released by industrial
      facilities. The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) has
      made it possible to study exposure to industrial pollution. This study seeks to
      describe the industrial emissions in the vicinity of Spanish towns and their
      temporal changes, and review our experience studying industrial pollution and
      cancer. Data on industrial pollutant sources (2007-2010) were obtained from the E
      PRTR registries. Population exposure was estimated by the distance from towns to
      industrial facilities. We calculated the amount of carcinogens emitted into the
      air in the proximity (<5km) of towns and show them in municipal maps. We
      summarized the most relevant results and conclusions reported by ecological E
      PRTR-based on studies of cancer mortality and industrial pollution in Spain and
      the limitations and result interpretations of these types of studies. There are
      high amounts of carcinogen emissions in the proximity of towns in the southwest,
      east and north of the country and the total amount of emitted carcinogens is
      considerable (e.g. 20Mt of arsenic, 63Mt of chromium and 9Mt of cadmium).
      Although the emissions of some carcinogens in the proximity of certain towns were
      reduced during the study period, emissions of benzene, dioxins+furans and
      polychlorinated biphenyls rose. Moreover, the average population of towns lying
      within a 5km radius from emission sources of carcinogens included in the
      International Agency for Research on Cancer list of carcinogens was 9 million
      persons. On the other hand, the results of the reviewed studies suggest that
      those Spanish regions exposed to the pollution released by certain types of
      industrial facilities have around 17% cancer excess mortality when compared with
      those unexposed. Moreover, excess mortality is focused on digestive and
      respiratory tract cancers, leukemias, prostate, breast and ovarian cancers.
      Despite their limitations, ecological studies are a useful tool in environmental
      epidemiology, not only for proposing etiological hypotheses about the risk of
      living close to industrial pollutant sources, but also for providing data to
      account for situations of higher mortality in specific areas. Nevertheless, the
      reduction of emissions should be a goal, with special relevance given to
      establishing limits for known carcinogens and other toxic substances in the
      environs of population centers, as well as industry-specific emission limits.

PMID- 28889027
TI  - Re-evaluating the presumed superiority of amorphous nanoparticles over amorphous
      microscale solid dispersion in solubility enhancement of poorly soluble drugs.
AB  - The solubility enhancement afforded by amorphous drug nanoparticles was
      demonstrated in several studies to be superior to the traditional amorphization
      approach by microscale amorphous solid dispersion (or micro ASD in short). A
      closer look at these studies, however, revealed that they were performed using a
      very limited number of poorly-soluble drug models (i.e. itraconazole and
      cefuroxime). Herein we aimed to re-examine the solubility enhancement and
      physical stability of amorphous nanoparticles relative to that of the micro ASD
      using a different poorly-soluble drug model, i.e. ciprofloxacin (CIP). Two types
      of amorphous CIP nanoparticles, i.e. CIP nanorod prepared by pH-shift
      precipitation and CIP nanoplex prepared by drug-polyelectrolyte complexation,
      were compared with CIP micro ASD prepared by spray drying with
      hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC). The results showed that (1) the solubility
      enhancement of amorphous drug nanoparticles was not necessarily superior to that
      of the micro ASD, particularly in their dry-powder form, and (2) the
      amorphization strategy of drug nanoparticles significantly influenced their
      solubility enhancement and physical stability. In short, the solubility
      enhancement was in the order of CIP micro ASD>CIP nanorod>CIP nanoplex, whereas
      the amorphous state stability during storage was in the order of CIP nanoplex>CIP
      micro ASD>CIP nanorod. A trade-off thus existed between the solubility
      enhancement and physical stability of amorphous CIP particles. The present work
      concluded that the superior solubility enhancement of amorphous drug
      nanoparticles was not drug independent.

PMID- 28889026
TI  - GNAS mutations and heterotopic ossification.
AB  - GNAS is a complex imprinted gene encoding the alpha-subunit of the stimulatory
      heterotrimeric G protein (Gsalpha). GNAS gives rise to additional gene products
      that exhibit exclusively maternal or paternal expression, such as XLalphas, a
      large variant of Gsalpha that shows exclusively paternal expression and is partly
      identical to the latter. Gsalpha itself is expressed biallelically in most
      tissues, although the expression occurs predominantly from the maternal allele in
      a small set of tissues, such as renal proximal tubules. Inactivating mutations in
      Gsalpha-coding GNAS exons are responsible for Albright's hereditary
      osteodystrophy (AHO), which refers to a constellation of physical and
      developmental disorders including obesity, short stature, brachydactyly,
      cognitive impairment, and heterotopic ossification. Patients with Gsalpha
      mutations can present with AHO in the presence or absence of end-organ resistance
      to multiple hormones including parathyroid hormone. Maternal Gsalpha mutations
      lead to AHO with hormone resistance (i.e. pseudohypoparathyroidism type-Ia),
      whereas paternal mutations cause AHO alone (i.e. pseudo
      pseudohypoparathyroidism). Heterotopic ossification associated with AHO develops
      through intramembranous bone formation and is limited to dermis and subcutis. In
      rare cases carrying Gsalpha mutations, however, ossifications progress into deep
      connective tissue and skeletal muscle, a disorder termed progressive osseous
      heteroplasia (POH). Here I briefly review the genetic, clinical, and molecular
      aspects of these disorders caused by inactivating GNAS mutations, with particular
      emphasis on heterotopic ossification.

PMID- 28889028
TI  - Development and in vitro/in vivo performance of self-nanoemulsifying drug
      delivery systems loaded with candesartan cilexetil.
AB  - Candesartan cilexetil is widely used in the management of hypertension and heart
      failure. The drug delivery encounters obstacles of poor aqueous solubility,
      efflux by intestinal P-glycoprotein and vulnerability to enzymatic degradation in
      small intestine. Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) loaded with
      candesartan cilexetil were successfully developed to overcome such obstacles.
      Preliminary screening was carried out to select proper surfactant, co-surfactant
      and oil combination for successful SNEDDS formulation. All screened excipients
      were reported for their P-glycoprotein and cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4)
      modulation activity. Ternary and pseudo ternary diagrams were constructed to
      optimize the system. Peppermint oil and clove oil showed a high emulsification
      ability. The nature of obtained dispersions was identified to be nanoemulsions.
      Twenty-four formulations were evaluated for stability, robustness to dilution and
      self-emulsification efficiency. All formulations showed a very short
      emulsification time of <2min. The emulsification efficiency was significantly
      superior at pH6.8, at which the largest self-emulsifying region was also
      observed. Eight formulations were selected for further characterization according
      to cloud point measurement; mean droplet size, poly dispersity index (PDI) and
      zeta potential determination in addition to in vitro drug release study. All
      selected formulations showed very high cloud points (70-90 degrees C), ultrafine
      mean droplet size (12+/-1.4 to 24.5+/-2.13nm), very low PDI values (0.015-0.1305)
      and almost a complete drug release after 12h. Formulation F15 (Peppermint oil 55%
      w/w: Cremophor RH40 25% w/w: Labrasol 20% w/w) was selected for further
      characterization. Its droplet size showed robustness to different dilution folds
      with different media and its TEM photograph showed spherical particles without
      any apparent aggregation even after 24h. Formulation F15 successfully controlled
      the systolic blood pressure of hypertensive rats for 24h with the maximum effect
      was observed after 2h. These results indicate that, SNEDDS could be promising
      delivery systems with a rapid onset of action and prolonged therapeutic effect of
      candesartan cilexetil.

PMID- 28889030
TI  - Crowdfunding our health: Economic risks and benefits.
AB  - Crowdfunding is an expanding form of alternative financing that is gaining
      traction in the health sector. This article presents a typology for crowdfunded
      health projects and a review of the main economic benefits and risks of
      crowdfunding in the health market. We use evidence from a literature review,
      complimented by expert interviews, to extend the fundamental principles and
      established theories of crowdfunding to a health market context. Crowdfunded
      health projects can be classified into four types according to the venture's
      purpose and funding method. These are projects covering health expenses,
      fundraising health initiatives, supporting health research, or financing
      commercial health innovation. Crowdfunding could economically benefit the health
      sector by expanding market participation, drawing money and awareness to
      neglected health issues, improving access to funding, and fostering project
      accountability and social engagement. However, the economic risks of health
      related crowdfunding include inefficient priority setting, heightened financial
      risk, inconsistent regulatory policies, intellectual property rights concerns,
      and fraud. Theorized crowdfunding behaviours such as signalling and herding can
      be observed in the market for health-related crowdfunding. Broader threats of
      market failure stemming from adverse selection and moral hazard also apply. Many
      of the discussed economic benefits and risks of crowdfunding health campaigns are
      shared more broadly with those of crowdfunding projects in other sectors. Where
      crowdfunding health care appears to diverge from theory is the negative
      externality inefficient priority setting may have towards achieving broader
      public health goals. Therefore, the market for crowdfunding health care must be
      economically stable, as well as designed to optimally and equitably improve
      public health.

PMID- 28889029
TI  - Veterinary antibiotics in food, drinking water, and the urine of preschool
      children in Hong Kong.
AB  - Due to the harmful effects of veterinary antibiotics (VAs) residues in food on
      children's health, urine samples from 31 preschool and primary school children
      were analyzed for 13 common VAs. Samples of raw and cooked pork, chicken, fish,
      milk and drinking water from the children's living areas were also analyzed for
      residual VAs. Urinalysis revealed one to four target antibiotics in 77.4% of the
      sample group, with concentrations as high as 0.36ng/mL. Norfloxacin and
      penicillin had the highest detection rates (48.4% and 35.5%, respectively), with
      median concentrations of 0.037 and 0.13ng/mL, respectively. The VA burden of
      children in HK was lower than that in Shanghai. Enrofloxacin, penicillin, and
      erythromycin were the most detected VAs in raw and cooked food. Only
      oxytetracycline was detected in terminal tap water, and none were detected in
      milk. Tetracycline and doxycycline hyclate were detected in organic eggs (up to
      7.1ng/g) and regular eggs (up to 6.6ng/g), which were common in children's diets.
      Traditional Chinese cooking processes did not completely eliminate VAs, and the
      concentrations of some VAs increased, especially after frying and roasting. The
      estimated daily intake (EDI) results show that the contribution of dietary intake
      and that based on the urine concentrations of VAs were far below the acceptable
      daily intake (ADI). The EDIs from urine were significantly lower than those based
      on cooked foods. The highest level of achievement percentage (LAP) based on
      dietary consumption and urine concentrations were 39.7% and 1.79%, respectively,
      and thus current levels of exposure to VAs would not seem to pose a risk to
      children's health. However, harmful effects of residual VAs during developmental
      periods may occur with exposure to much lower doses than those considered harmful
      to adults, and further investigation of these emerging pollutants is urgently
      encouraged.

PMID- 28889031
TI  - Mens rea ascription, expertise and outcome effects: Professional judges surveyed.
AB  - A coherent practice of mens rea ('guilty mind') ascription in criminal law
      presupposes a concept of mens rea which is insensitive to the moral valence of an
      action's outcome. For instance, an assessment of whether an agent harmed another
      person intentionally should be unaffected by the severity of harm done.
      Ascriptions of intentionality made by laypeople, however, are subject to a strong
      outcome bias. As demonstrated by the Knobe effect, a knowingly incurred negative
      side effect is standardly judged intentional, whereas a positive side effect is
      not. We report the first empirical investigation into intentionality ascriptions
      made by professional judges, which finds (i) that professionals are sensitive to
      the moral valence of outcome type, and (ii) that the worse the outcome, the
      higher the propensity to ascribe intentionality. The data shows the
      intentionality ascriptions of professional judges to be inconsistent with the
      concept of mens rea supposedly at the foundation of criminal law.

PMID- 28889032
TI  - Non-destructive study of wood using the Compton scattering technique.
AB  - A simple nondestructive method is presented in this study to characterize woods
      having different densities, thus estimating the size and depth of inhomogeneities
      in given wood samples using the Compton scattering technique (CST). This
      technique uses a collimated beam of 662-keV energy from 137Cs radioactive source,
      and the scattered flux is detected by an NaI(Tl) detector. To characterize
      different wood samples on the basis of their densities, both scattering and
      transmission experiments were performed. The presence of inhomogeneities such as
      knots in wood was simulated by drilling cylindrical voids of diameter 9mm in the
      samples and then filling them with a high-density material (aluminum).
      Furthermore, different sizes of inhomogeneities (Al cylinders) were filled in the
      wood samples to estimate the depth and size of the inhomogeneity using the CST. A
      higher linear correlation (R2 ~ 0.96) was found between the scattered intensity
      and the density of different woods using the CST than that using the transmission
      (R2 ~ 0.83) method by measuring the density range. An increase of 24.6% in the
      average scattered intensity was observed at the location where the knot was
      present, and it was found that an inhomogeneity of the order of ~4mm or more
      could be detected by the CST.

PMID- 28889033
TI  - Strategies to improve beef tenderness by activating calpain-2 earlier postmortem.
AB  - Our objectives were to determine the effect of post rigor calcium chloride
      injection or freezing on 1) sarcoplasmic calcium concentration and calpain-2
      activity of beef longissimus lumborum (LL) and semimembranosus (SM) steaks aged
      1, 4, and 14days post-treatment and on 2) Warner-Bratzler shear force, water
      holding capacity, and consumer acceptability of LL and SM steaks aged 4 and
      14days post-treatment. Free calcium levels in the calcium, frozen, and control
      steaks averaged 1256, 127, and 121MUM for the LL and 1520, 120, and 111MUM for
      the SM, respectively. Measurable LL native calpain-2 activity was lower in
      calcium and frozen steaks than control steaks (P<0.01), while SM native calpain-2
      activity was lowest in calcium steaks and intermediate in frozen steaks (P<0.01).
      LL calcium steaks were more tender (P=0.04) than control steaks. In conclusion,
      calcium chloride injection and freezing activate calpain-2 earlier postmortem in
      both muscles and calcium injection improves LL tenderness.

PMID- 28889034
TI  - The effect of technical replicate (repeats) on Nix Pro Color SensorTM measurement
      precision for meat: A case-study on aged beef colour stability.
AB  - The Nix Pro Colour SensorTM (NIX) can be potentially used to measure meat colour,
      but procedural guidelines that assure measurement reproducibility and
      repeatability (precision) must first be established. Technical replicate number
      (r) will minimise response variation, measureable as standard error of predicted
      mean (SEM), and contribute to improved precision. Consequently, we aimed to
      explore the effects of r on NIX precision when measuring aged beef colour
      (colorimetrics; L*, a*, b*, hue and chroma values). Each colorimetric SEM
      declined with increasing r to indicate improved precision and followed a
      diminishing rate of improvement that allowed us to recommend r=7 for meat colour
      studies using the NIX. This definition was based on practical limitations and a*
      variability, as additional r would be required if other colorimetrics or advanced
      levels of precision are necessary. Beef ageing and display period, holding
      temperature, loin and sampled portion were also found to contribute to
      colorimetric variation, but were incorporated within our definition of r.

PMID- 28889035
TI  - Influence of meat source, pH and production time on zinc protoporphyrin IX
      formation as natural colouring agent in nitrite-free dry fermented sausages.
AB  - Nitrite is commonly used in meat products due to its plural technological
      advantages. However, it is controversial because of its detrimental side effects
      on health. Within the context of nitrite reduction, zinc protoporphyrin IX
      (Zn(II)PPIX) formation in meat products as natural red colouring agent has been
      suggested. This investigation presents the evaluation of naturally occurring
      pigments, namely Zn(II)PPIX, protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) and heme in nitrite-free
      dry fermented sausages in function of time, meat source (pork, horsemeat and a
      combination of both meat sources) and pH condition. In function of time,
      Zn(II)PPIX and PPIX were formed and heme content decreased. Higher pH conditions
      promoted Zn(II)PPIX and PPIX formation, whereas the influence of pH on heme was
      less clear. The use of horsemeat also promoted Zn(II)PPIX formation. Moreover,
      even similar amounts were formed when it was combined with pork. Product redness,
      however, could not be related to Zn(II)PPIX formation.

PMID- 28889036
TI  - Multisubunit tethering complexes in higher plants.
AB  - Tethering complexes mediate the initial, specific contact between donor and
      acceptor membranes. This review focuses on the modularity and function of
      multisubunit tethering complexes (MTCs) in higher plants. One emphasis is on
      molecular interactions of plant MTCs. Here, a number of insights have been gained
      concerning interactions between different tethering complexes, and between
      tethers and microtubule-associated proteins. The roles of tethering complexes in
      abiotic stress responses appear indirect, but in the context of biotic stress
      responses it has been suggested that some tethers are direct targets of pathogen
      effectors or virulence factors. In light of the central roles tethering complexes
      play in plant development, an emerging concept is that tethers may be co-opted
      for plant adaptive responses.

PMID- 28889037
TI  - Gender-specific evolution of fetal heart rate variability throughout gestation: A
      study of 8823 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fetal heart rate (FHR) variability throughout gestation reflects
      aspects of fetal development, and its analysis has been used for the assessment
      of fetal well-being. AIM: The objective of this study was to provide a gender
      specific analysis of the evolution of FHR variability indices throughout
      gestation, using linear time-domain, spectral and nonlinear FHR indices. STUDY
      DESIGN: A large retrospective study was carried out using antepartum FHR
      recordings obtained from 4713 male and 4110 female fetuses, with normal pregnancy
      outcome, between 2004 and 2013, with gestational ages ranging between 25 and
      40weeks. OUTCOME MEASURES: FHR variability was analysed through linear time
      domain methods, as well as using spectral analysis and entropy indices. Evolution
      of FHR indices throughout gestation was analysed through Spearman correlation
      coefficient. Comparison between male and female fetuses was performed using
      nonparametric bootstrap 95% confidence intervals for the median. RESULTS: Mean
      FHR decreased significantly throughout gestation, whereas most variability
      indices increased. Sympatho-vagal balance measured by spectral analysis exhibited
      two local maxima at 29-30 and 34-35weeks and decreased afterwards. Entropy
      indices increased until around the 34th week, slightly decreasing after the 37th
      week. Female fetuses presented higher mean FHR and entropy from the 34th week
      afterwards, and lower short-term variability and sympatho-vagal balance in the
      same period. CONCLUSIONS: Spectral and entropy analysis should be considered as a
      complement to conventional FHR variability analysis, aiming at a better
      characterization and follow-up of fetal development/maturation throughout
      gestation. Additionally, gestational age needs to be considered when defining
      reference ranges for FHR indices in systems of computerized analysis.

PMID- 28889038
TI  - Control of plant phosphate homeostasis by inositol pyrophosphates and the SPX
      domain.
AB  - Proteins containing a SPX domain are involved in phosphate (Pi) homeostasis,
      including Pi transport and adaptation to Pi deficiency. The SPX domain harbors a
      basic surface binding Pi at low affinity and inositol pyrophosphates (PP-InsPs)
      at high affinity. Genetic and biochemical studies revealed that PP-InsPs serve as
      ligands for the SPX domain. Residues in the PHO1 SPX domain involved in PP-InsPs
      binding are critical for its Pi export activity, and the interaction between SPX
      proteins and the PHR1 transcription factor, which results in PHR1 inactivation,
      is promoted by PP-InsPs. Changes in PP-InsPs levels in response to Pi deficiency
      may thus contribute to the adaptation of plants to stress via the modulation of
      the activity of SPX-containing proteins and their interactors. Modulating PP-InsP
      levels or the affinity/specificity of the SPX domain for PP-InsP could
      potentially be used to engineer crops to maintain high yield under reduced Pi
      fertilizer input.

PMID- 28889039
TI  - Hydrolysis of particulate settleable solids (PSS) in activated sludge is
      determined by the bacteria initially adsorbed in the sewage.
AB  - Up to half of the organic fraction of an urban wastewater is made up of
      particulate settleable solids (PSS). In activated sludge process (AS) this
      material is rapidly adsorbed on to microbial flocs but is only slowly and
      partially degraded. To better understand and predict the degradation kinetics
      observed, a determination of the proportion of hydrolytic bacteria is required.
      As inoculum is usually added in the biodegradation tests, a comparison is
      required between the roles of bacteria introduced with the inoculum and those
      attached to the substrate. In this work, respirometric batch experiments were
      performed on PSS collected from upstream or downstream of the sewers of Toulouse
      city. Toilet paper (TP) and cellulose, two model particulate substrates, were
      also investigated. To understand the role of the active biomass in hydrolysis,
      increasing concentrations of AS were added to a certain amount of PSS or TP. No
      correlation was observed between the concentration of AS and the rate and
      duration of degradation of the particulate matter. Simulations performed after
      calibration of the model ASM-1 allowed the fraction of hydrolytic bacteria to be
      estimated in both the substrate and the AS-inoculum. Only a very small fraction
      of the bacteria of AS and of the substrate samples were found to be efficient for
      hydrolysis. Hydrolysis was mainly initiated by a small proportion of the
      microorganisms, and especially by cells already attached to PSSs. Moreover, the
      fraction of bacteria able to hydrolyse large particles present in an inoculum of
      AS depended on the initial contamination of the surface of the particles.

PMID- 28889040
TI  - Greywater reuse - Assessment of the health risk induced by Legionella
      pneumophila.
AB  - Greywater (GW), domestic wastewater excluding the streams generated by toilets
      and kitchens, can serve as an alternative water source. The main options for GW
      reuse are toilet flushing and garden irrigation, both generating aerosols. These
      may transmit inhalable pathogens like Legionella and present a potential health
      risk. This study quantified the health risk that may arise from inhalation of
      Legionella-contaminated aerosols due to non-potable GW reuse. Data on Legionella
      concentrations in potable water and GW was collected. Then, Quantitative
      Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) was performed for two possible exposure
      scenarios: garden irrigation and toilet flushing. This was performed while
      considering Legionella seasonality. In order to determine the safety of GW reuse
      regarding Legionella transmission, the obtained results were compared with
      estimated tolerable risk levels of infection and of disease. Both limits were
      expressed as Disability-Adjusted Life Years index (DALY) being 10-4 and 10-5,
      respectively. The QMRA revealed that the annual risk associated with reuse of
      treated and chlorinated GW for garden irrigation and toilet flushing was not
      significantly higher than the risk associated with using potable water for the
      same two purposes. In all studied scenarios, the health risk stemming from
      reusing treated and chlorinated GW was acceptable regarding Legionella infection.
      In contrast, reuse of untreated or treated but unchlorinated GW should not be
      practiced, as these are associated with significantly higher health risks.

PMID- 28889041
TI  - Building a community-based culture of evaluation.
AB  - In this article we argue for a community-based approach as a means of promoting a
      culture of evaluation. We do this by linking two bodies of knowledge - the 70
      year theoretical tradition of community-based research and the trans-discipline
      of program evaluation - that are seldom intersected within the evaluation
      capacity building literature. We use the three hallmarks of a community-based
      research approach (community-determined; equitable participation; action and
      change) as a conceptual lens to reflect on a case example of an evaluation
      capacity building program led by the Ontario Brian Institute. This program
      involved two community-based groups (Epilepsy Southwestern Ontarioand the South
      West Alzheimer Society Alliance) who were supported by evaluators from the Centre
      for Community Based Research to conduct their own internal evaluation. The
      article provides an overview of a community-based research approach and its link
      to evaluation. It then describes the featured evaluation capacity building
      initiative, including reflections by the participating organizations themselves.
      We end by discussing lessons learned and their implications for future evaluation
      capacity building. Our main argument is that organizations that strive towards a
      community-based approach to evaluation are well placed to build and sustain a
      culture of evaluation.

PMID- 28889042
TI  - Marginal En Bloc Resection of C2-C3 Chordoma with Bilateral Vertebral Artery
      Preservation and Mesh Cage Reconstruction with Review of Previously Published
      Cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chordomas arise from remnants of the notochord and occur throughout
      the neuroaxis. En bloc resection of chordomas can prove especially challenging in
      the upper cervical spine secondary to the unique structural anatomy and intimate
      relationship to the vertebral arteries and spinal cord. CASE DESCRIPTION: We
      describe the resection of a C2-C3 chordoma in a 55-year-old woman in 2-stage
      fashion with preservation of the vertebral arteries. First, a posterior
      instrumented fusion and removal of the posterior elements was performed, followed
      by an anterior transmandibular en bloc resection with cage reconstruction with
      kick-plate support achievable with off-the-shelf products. CONCLUSIONS: Chordomas
      in the upper cervical spine pose a surgical challenge but are amenable to en bloc
      resection. With careful planning and intraoperative adaptability, the surgeon can
      achieve a suitable reconstruction with off-the-shelf products.

PMID- 28889043
TI  - Photovoicing the neighbourhood: Understanding the situated meaning of intangible
      places for ageing-in-place.
AB  - Ageing-in-place is considered important for the health of older adults. In this
      paper, inspired by a constructivist approach to ageing-in-place, we unravel
      professionals' and older adults' constructions of ageing-in-place. Their
      perspectives are studied in relation to a policy that aims to develop so-called
      'lifecycle-robust neighbourhoods' in the southern part of the Netherlands. We
      conducted a photovoice study in which 18 older adults (70-85 years) living
      independently and 14 professionals (social workers, housing consultants,
      neighbourhood managers and community workers) were asked to photograph and
      discuss the places they consider important for ageing-in-place. Based on a
      theoretically informed analysis of the data, we found that professionals
      primarily consider objective characteristics of neighbourhoods such as access to
      amenities, mobility and meeting places as important enablers for older adults to
      remain living independently. Analysis of older adults' photographs and stories
      show that they associate ageing-in-place with specific lived experiences and
      attachments to specific, intangible and memory-laden public places. We conclude
      that exploring these experiences helps to increase current knowledge about place
      attachment in old age.

PMID- 28889044
TI  - Cervical disc arthroplasty for the treatment of adjacent segment disease: A
      systematic review of clinical evidence.
AB  - The safety and efficacy of cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) performed adjacent to
      previous fusion for the treatment of adjacent segment disease (ASD) remains
      unknown. This systematic review summarizes clinical evidence on the outcomes of
      CDA performed adjacent to previous cervical fusion. A systematic search of
      PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medline and
      Embase for literature published through March 2017 was conducted. All the studies
      on CDA for the treatment of ASD after cervical fusion surgery were included. Two
      independent reviewers searched and assessed the literature according to the
      Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines
      (PRISMA). A total of 5 studies were identified. The overall quality of evidence
      was low. All included studies demonstrated that clinical outcomes reflected by
      several assessment scales improved after arthroplasty. Cervical lordosis range of
      motion (ROM) after arthroplasty remained and was even enhanced postoperatively.
      The rate of complications and subsequent surgeries was low. There is a dearth of
      information regarding the outcomes of CDA for the treatment of ASD in the
      literature. In general, CDA may be a safe and effective surgical procedure to
      treat ASD, but this conclusion needs to be confirmed by future long-term,
      prospective clinical trials.

PMID- 28889045
TI  - Martino's reformation: A schism in the neuroprogression church.

PMID- 28889046
TI  - A systematic review of measures of mental health and emotional wellbeing in
      parents of children aged 0-5.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A significant proportion of women with young children experience
      mental health problems and recent research suggests fathers may also be affected.
      This may have a long term negative impact on the child's development with
      significant costs to society. Appropriate measures are therefore needed to
      identify parents and children at risk. METHOD: This literature review aimed to
      identify the most reliable, evidence based global measures of mental health for
      parents of infants from pregnancy to 5 years postpartum (0-5 years). Literature
      searches were conducted on online databases and hand searches of reference lists
      were also carried out. Studies were included in the review if they reported
      information on measures of global psychological distress or wellbeing from 0 to 5
      years postpartum. RESULTS: A total of 183 studies were included in the review, 19
      of which directly examined the psychometric validity of an outcome measure. These
      studies reported information on 23 outcome measures, 4 of which had been
      validated in parents of children from 1 to 5. These were: the General Health
      Questionnaire (GHQ), the Symptom Checklist (SCL), the Self-Reporting
      Questionnaire (SRQ) and the Kessler scale (K10/6). Reliability and validity
      varied across studies. LIMITATIONS: Only a small number of studies included
      fathers and examined psychometric validity across the entire period of early
      childhood. CONCLUSIONS: The GHQ was the most frequently validated but results
      suggest poor reliability and validity. The SRQ and K10/6 were the most promising
      measures in terms of psychometric properties and clinical utility.

PMID- 28889047
TI  - An examination of the prospective association between religious service
      attendance and suicide: Explanatory factors and period effects.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We addressed two unanswered questions from prior research,
      demonstrating a prospective association between frequent religious service
      attendance and decreased risk for suicide. First, we assessed whether religious
      service attendance conferred protection from suicide even after accounting for
      strength of religious affiliation. Second, we evaluated whether the relationship
      between religious service attendance and suicide was subject to period effects.
      METHODS: Data were drawn from the 1978-2010 General Social Survey, a nationally
      representative study of 30,650 non-institutionalized, English-speaking American
      residents age 18 or older. Data were linked with the National Death Index through
      the end of 2014. We analyzed these data using moderated Cox proportional hazard
      analyses. RESULTS: Religious affiliation had no relationship with suicide.
      Religious service attendance only had a protective effect against suicide death
      among those in later (2000-2010) rather than earlier (1998 and earlier) data
      collection periods. LIMITATIONS: Secondary analysis of data limited the types of
      variables that were available. CONCLUSIONS: The protective nature of religion is
      due more to participating in religious activities, such as attending religious
      services, than to having a strong religious affiliation, and this effect exists
      primarily in more recent data collection periods.

PMID- 28889048
TI  - Mania triggered by sleep loss and risk of postpartum psychosis in women with
      bipolar disorder.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women with bipolar disorder are at high risk of affective psychoses
      following childbirth (i.e. "postpartum psychosis", PP) and there is a need to
      identify which factors underlie this increased risk. Vulnerability to mood
      dysregulation following sleep loss may influence risk of PP, as childbirth is
      typified by sleep disruption. We investigated whether a history of mood episodes
      triggered by sleep loss was associated with PP in women with bipolar disorder
      (BD). METHODS: Participants were 870 parous women with BD recruited to the
      Bipolar Disorder Research Network. Lifetime diagnoses of BD and perinatal
      episodes were identified via interview and case notes. Information on whether
      mood episodes had been triggered by sleep loss was derived at interview. Rates of
      PP were compared between women who did and did not report mood episodes following
      sleep loss. RESULTS: Women who reported sleep loss triggering episodes of mania
      were twice as likely to have experienced an episode of PP (OR = 2.09, 95% CI =
      1.47-2.97, p < 0.001) compared to women who did not report this. There was no
      significant association between depression triggered by sleep loss and PP (p =
      0.526). LIMITATIONS: Data were cross-sectional therefore may be subject to recall
      bias. We also did not have objective data on sleep disruption that had occurred
      during the postpartum period or prior to mood episodes. CONCLUSIONS: In clinical
      practice, a history of mania following sleep loss could be a marker of increased
      vulnerability to PP, and should be discussed with BD women who are pregnant or
      planning to conceive.

PMID- 28889049
TI  - The potential impact of biochemical mediators on telomere attrition in major
      depressive disorder and implications for future study designs: A narrative
      review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been proposed to represent a
      "disease of premature aging", which is associated with certain biomarkers of
      cellular ageing and numerous other age-related diseases. Over the last decade,
      telomere length (TL) arose as a surrogate for cellular aging. Recent data
      suggests that TL might be reduced in patients with MDD, however, results are
      still inconclusive. This might be explained by the lack of assessment of
      potential biochemical mediators that are directly associated with telomere
      shortening and frequently observed in patients with MDD. METHODS: A narrative
      review was performed. The PubMed database was searched for relevant studies.
      RESULTS: We identified four major mediators, which are recurrently reported in
      patients with MDD and are associated with reduced TL: inflammation/oxidative
      stress, dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, metabolic
      dysbalance including insulin resistance, and decreased brain-derived neurotrophic
      factor. These mediators are also mutually associated and were not systematically
      assessed in current studies investigating TL and MDD, which might explain
      inconclusive findings across current literature. Finally, we discuss possible
      ways to assess those mediators and potential implications of such approaches for
      future research. LIMITATIONS: The majority of identified studies had cross
      sectional designs and used heterogeneous methods to assess TL and associated
      relevant biochemical mediators. CONCLUSIONS: A better understanding of the
      complex interactions between biochemical mediators, somatic comorbidities and
      shortened telomeres in patients with MDD might further specify the
      pathophysiology-based conceptualization and, based on that, personalized
      treatment of MDD.

PMID- 28889050
TI  - Music-based interventions to reduce internalizing symptoms in children and
      adolescents: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Existing systematic reviews provide evidence that music therapy is an
      effective intervention in the treatment of children and adolescents with
      psychopathology. The objective of the present review was to systematically review
      and quantify the effects of music-based interventions in reducing internalizing
      symptoms (i.e., depression and anxiety) in children and adolescents using a meta
      analytical approach. METHODS: Databases and journals were systematically screened
      for studies eligible for inclusion in meta-analysis on the effects of music-based
      interventions in reducing internalizing symptoms. A random-effect meta-analysis
      using standardized mean differences (SMD) was conducted. RESULTS: Five studies
      were included. Analysis of data from (randomized) controlled trials, yielded a
      significant main effect (Hedge's g = -0.73; 95%CI [-1.42;-0.04], Z = 2.08, p =
      0.04, k = 5), indicating a greater reduction of internalizing symptoms in youth
      receiving music-based interventions (n = 100) compared to different control group
      interventions (n = 95). LIMITATIONS: The existing evidence is limited to studies
      of low power and methodological quality. Included studies were highly
      heterogeneous with respect to the nature of the intervention, the measurements
      applied, the samples studied, and the study design. CONCLUSIONS: Findings
      indicate that music-based interventions may be efficient in reducing the severity
      of internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents. While these results are
      encouraging with respect to the application of music-based intervention, rigorous
      research is necessary to replicate existing findings and provide a broader base
      of evidence. More research adopting well controlled study designs of high
      methodological quality is needed.

PMID- 28889051
TI  - Different spectrophotometric methods applied for the analysis of simeprevir in
      the presence of its oxidative degradation product: Acomparative study.
AB  - Five simple spectrophotometric methods were developed for the determination of
      simeprevir in the presence of its oxidative degradation product namely, ratio
      difference, mean centering, derivative ratio using the Savitsky-Golay filters,
      second derivative and continuous wavelet transform. These methods are linear in
      the range of 2.5-40MUg/mL and validated according to the ICH guidelines. The
      obtained results of accuracy, repeatability and precision were found to be within
      the acceptable limits. The specificity of the proposed methods was tested using
      laboratory prepared mixtures and assessed by applying the standard addition
      technique. Furthermore, these methods were statistically comparable to RP-HPLC
      method and good results were obtained. So, they can be used for the routine
      analysis of simeprevir in quality-control laboratories.

PMID- 28889052
TI  - A rapid Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic method for analysis of certain
      proton pump inhibitors in binary and ternary mixtures.
AB  - A simple and non-destructive FTIR method was used to determine certain proton
      pump inhibitors (PPIs) in binary and ternary mixtures. Proton pump inhibitors
      (PPIs); omeprazole (OMZ), esomeprazole (EZM), lansoprazole (LAN), pantoprazole
      sodium (PAN sodium) and rabeprazole sodium (RAB sodium) in binary mixture with
      domperidone (DOM) and ternary mixture of OMZ, clarithromycin (CLM) and tinidazole
      (TNZ) were determined in the solid-state by FTIR spectroscopy for the first time.
      The method was validated according to ICH-guidelines where linearity was ranged
      from 20 to 850MUg/g and 20-360MUg/g for PPIs and DOM, respectively in binary
      mixtures and 10-400, 100-8000 and 150-14,000MUg/g for OMZ, CLM and TNZ,
      respectively. Limits of detection were found to be 6-100 and 9-100MUg/g for PPIs
      and DOM, respectively and 4, 40 and 50MUg/g for OMZ, CLM and TNZ, respectively.
      The method was applied successfully for determination of the cited drugs in their
      respective pharmaceutical dosage forms.

PMID- 28889053
TI  - Structure, isomerism, and vibrational assignment of
      aluminumtrifluoroacetylacetonate. An experimental and theoretical study.
AB  - An interpretation of the experimental IR and Raman spectra of Aluminum (III)
      trifluoroacetylacetonate (Al(TFAA)3) complex, which were synthesized by us, is
      first reported here. The charge distribution, isomerism, strength of metal-oxygen
      binding and vibrational spectral properties for this complex structure were
      theoretically investigated through population analysis, geometry optimization and
      harmonic frequency calculations, performed at B3LYP/6-311G* level of theory. In
      the population analysis, two different approaches reffered to as "Atoms in
      molecules (AIM)", and "Natural Bond Orbital (NBO)" were used. According to the
      calculation resuls, the energy difference between the cis and trans isomers of
      Al(TFAA)3 is very small and indicates that both isomers coexist in the sample in
      comparable proportions. Comparison of the calculated frequency and intensity data
      with the observed IR and Raman spectra of the complex has supported this
      conclusion. On the other hand, comparison of the structural and vibrational
      spectral data of Al(TFAA)3, which were experimentally measured and calculated at
      B3LYP/6-311G* level, with the corresponding data of Aluminum acetylacetonate
      (Al(AA)3) has revealed the effects of CF3 substitution on the structural and
      vibrational spectral data associated with the CH3 groups in the complex
      structure.

PMID- 28889054
TI  - Evaluation of chemical immersion treatments to reduce microbial populations in
      fresh beef.
AB  - The aim of the current study was to assess the ability of a number of chemicals
      (acetic Acid (AA), citric acid (CA) lactic acid (LA), sodium decanoate (SD) and
      trisodium phosphate (TSP)) to reduce microbial populations (total viable count,
      Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria
      monocytogenes) on raw beef using an immersion system. The following
      concentrations of each chemical were used: 3 & 5% for AA, CA, LA, SD and 10 &12%
      for TSP. Possible synergistic effects of using combinations of two chemicals
      sequentially (LA+CA and LA+AA) were also investigated. L*, a* and b* values were
      measured before and after treatments and DeltaE* values were calculated in order
      to determine any changes in the color of meat due to the use of these chemicals.
      In general, all chemical treatments resulted in significantly (p<0.05) reduced
      bacterial counts when compared to untreated controls. The greatest reductions
      were obtained by using LA3%, SD5%, AA5%, LA5% and SD3% for TVC, C. jejuni, E.
      coli, S. typhimurium and L. monocytogenes, respectively. However, no significant
      difference in microbial load was observed between the different concentrations of
      each chemical used (p>0.05). The application of combinations of chemical
      immersion treatments (LA3%+AA3% and LA3%+CA3%) did not result in further
      significant reductions in microbial populations when compared to single chemical
      treatments (P<0.05). Assessment of color changes in meat following the
      application of chemical immersion treatments indicated that using AA or CA at
      either concentration and LA at 5% led to an increase in the DeltaE* value of >3
      immediately after treatment and after 24h storage. The remaining treatments did
      not result in significant changes to the color of raw beef.

PMID- 28889055
TI  - Cells-qPCR as a direct quantitative PCR method to avoid microbial DNA extractions
      in grape musts and wines.
AB  - A novel quantitative PCR assay called Cells-qPCR has been developed for the rapid
      detection and quantification of yeasts, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and acetic
      acid bacteria (AAB) directly from grape must and wine that does not require DNA
      extraction. The assay was tested on Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae, Lactobacillus plantarum, Oenococcus oeni, Acetobacter aceti and
      Gluconobacter oxydans in culture media, and in white and red grape musts and
      wines. Standard curves were constructed from DNA and cells for the six target
      species in all the matrices. Good efficiencies were obtained for both when
      comparing DNA and cells standard curves. No reaction inhibition was observed
      between matrices for each species. Cells quantification was linear over a range
      of cell concentrations (7, 5 or 4 orders of magnitude) and detected as few as one
      cell per reaction in all the matrices. The developed Cells-qPCR assay is a
      robust, reliable, fast and specific method to detect and quantify different
      yeasts, LAB and AAB species in grape must and wine that avoids DNA extraction and
      overcomes the presence of inhibitors like polyphenols and ethanol.

PMID- 28889056
TI  - Voltammetric behavior of Mammeisin (MA) at a glassy carbon electrode and its
      interaction with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA).
AB  - The electrochemical oxidation of Mammeisin (MA) was studied in a solution
      containing acetone and 0.1M phosphate buffer +0.1M KCl (pH=5.3) at a glassy
      carbon electrode (GCE), using cyclic (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV). MA
      showed a quasi-reversible process, which is pH dependent and that involves the
      exchange of two electrons and two protons. The oxidation product was adsorbed by
      the electrode surface to form a film that blocks active sites over repetitive
      cyclic. Moreover, the interaction of MA and bovine serum albumin (BSA) was
      studied by CV and SWV at different pHs (5.4, 7.2, 9.5). As a result of the
      affinity binding with BSA, electrochemically inactive complex was formed. In
      addition, the oxidation potential of MA in the presence of BSA depends on the pH.
      The diffusion coefficients of both free and bound MA were estimated from the
      cyclic voltammetry data using the method developed by Randles-Sevich (Df=9.85*10
      5cm2s-1 and Db=1.27*10-9cm2s-1) and the binding constant of MA-BSA complex,
      K=3.47*102Lmol-1, was obtained.

PMID- 28889057
TI  - Personality, marijuana norms, and marijuana outcomes among college students.
AB  - Based on the high prevalence of marijuana use among college students, we examined
      distal and proximal antecedents to marijuana-related outcomes in this population.
      Specifically, we examined three marijuana-related perceptions (descriptive norms,
      injunctive norms, and internalization of college marijuana use culture) as
      potential mediators of the associations between four personality traits
      (impulsivity, sensation seeking, hopelessness, and anxiety sensitivity) and
      marijuana-related outcomes (marijuana use, negative marijuana-related
      consequences). In a large sample of college student marijuana users (n=2129), our
      path analysis revealed marijuana-related perceptions to significantly mediate the
      associations between personality and marijuana-related outcomes. Specifically,
      internalization of college marijuana use culture mediated the effects of both
      impulsivity and sensation seeking on marijuana-related outcomes. Not only do our
      findings suggest the importance of distinct types of marijuana-related norms in
      predicting marijuana involvement, but also the possibility that such normative
      beliefs could be targeted as part of personality-tailored interventions.

PMID- 28889058
TI  - The relationship between family-based adverse childhood experiences and substance
      use behaviors among a diverse sample of college students.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Research suggests that college students are an especially
      vulnerable subset of the population for substance use and misuse. However,
      despite evidence of the high prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE)
      among students and the link between family-based ACE and substance use among
      older adults, this relationship remains understudied in college populations.
      Moreover, whether ACE represents a shared risk across substance use behaviors and
      ethnic groups is unknown. METHODS: Data are student responses (n=2953) on the
      2015 American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment II
      (ACHA-NCHA II) administered at one of the largest, most diverse public
      universities in California. Multivariable logistic and negative binomial
      regression models tested the association between individual and accumulated ACE
      and past 30-day alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and illicit drug use, past 12-month
      prescription medication misuse and polysubstance use. RESULTS: Between 50% and
      75% of students involved in substance use were ACE exposed. There was a
      significant dose-response relationship between ACE and substance use and
      polysubstance use. Although accumulated ACE increased risk for substance use,
      there was considerable ethnic variability in these associations. CONCLUSIONS: The
      graded effects of ACE for substance use underscore the link between family-based
      stressors and these behaviors in emergent adult college students. Our findings
      make a compelling case for investing in health initiatives that prioritize ACE
      screening and access to trauma-informed care in campus communities. Continued
      research with college populations is needed to replicate findings and clarify the
      role of ethnicity and culture in trauma response and help seeking behaviors.

PMID- 28889059
TI  - Implicit and explicit internalized stigma: Relationship with risky behaviors,
      psychosocial functioning and healthcare access among people who inject drugs.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: People who inject drugs (PWID) are stigmatized by society. Over
      time people may begin to internalize the stigma about their group. This research
      examines how implicit and explicit internalized stigma among PWID relates to
      health care and treatment access, psychosocial functioning, and engagement in
      risky behaviors. METHODS: PWID were recruited from a needle and syringe program
      (NSP) located in Sydney, Australia. Participants completed a survey examining
      explicit and implicit internalized stigma, risky behaviors (e.g., sharing
      injecting equipment, unprotected sex), health care and treatment access (e.g.,
      comfort attending NSPs), and psychosocial functioning (e.g., mental health).
      Detailed demographic variables were also collected. RESULTS: A total of 115
      clients completed the measures. To the degree that participants had internalized
      the stigma about their group (measured explicitly), they felt less comfortable
      attending NSPs, had greater severity of dependence, and experienced more
      depressive symptoms. The implicit measure of internalized stigma was related to
      treatment engagement and needle sharing, although the direction of these effects
      was unexpected. CONCLUSIONS: This research highlights the importance of ongoing
      research into the implications of internalized stigma for PWID. Assessing both
      explicit and implicit internalized stigma appears to be beneficial as these are
      related to different health and behavioral outcomes.

PMID- 28889060
TI  - Why narcissists are at risk for developing Facebook addiction: The need to be
      admired and the need to belong.
AB  - Building upon previous research establishing a positive association between
      grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and problematic social networking use, the
      present study tests a model that explains how grandiose and vulnerable
      narcissists might develop Facebook (Fb) addiction symptoms through the need for
      admiration and the need to belong. A sample of 535 undergraduates (50.08% F; mean
      age 22.70+/-2.76years) completed measures of grandiose narcissism, vulnerable
      narcissism, Fb addiction symptoms, and two brief scales measuring the need for
      admiration and the need to belong. Results from structural equation modelling
      show that the association between grandiose narcissism and Fb addiction levels
      was completely mediated by the need for admiration and the need to belong. On the
      other hand, vulnerable narcissism was not found to be associated either directly
      or indirectly with Fb addiction levels. The variables in the model accounted for
      30% of the variance in Fb addiction levels. The present study represents a step
      toward a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying the link
      between grandiose narcissism and problematic Fb use.

PMID- 28889061
TI  - Depressive symptoms, ruminative thinking, drinking motives, and alcohol outcomes:
      A multiple mediation model among college students in three countries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent research suggests that ruminative thinking (specifically
      problem-focused thoughts) may explain why individuals engage in drinking to cope
      (DTC) when dealing with depressive symptoms; which in turn leads to increased
      negative alcohol-related consequences. Cross-cultural studies addressing these
      phenomena are scarce. OBJECTIVES: The present study cross-culturally tested
      whether four rumination facets (problem-focused thoughts, counterfactual
      thinking, repetitive thoughts, and anticipatory thoughts) uniquely mediate the
      relationships between depressive symptoms and drinking motives/alcohol outcomes
      in a multicultural sample of college student drinkers (n=1429) from Spain,
      Argentina, and the U.S. METHOD: Structural equation modeling was conducted to
      test the models, controlling for sex. Further, we conducted invariance testing to
      determine whether our models were culturally-specific or culturally-universal.
      RESULTS: Within both proposed models, no rumination facet uniquely mediated the
      relationship between depressive symptoms and drinking motives. However, an
      exploratory model with a second-order latent factor of ruminative thinking did
      significantly mediate these associations (exception was conformity motives).
      Further, there were two significant double-mediated associations that suggested
      that increased depressive symptoms is associated with increased ruminative
      thinking, which is associated with higher DTC motives, which in turn is
      associated with higher alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related
      consequences. All models were found to be invariant across countries and sex,
      suggesting that these associations may be relatively universal. CONCLUSIONS:
      Rumination is relevant to understand the increased vulnerability of college
      drinkers to exhibit greater alcohol consumption and negative consequences via DTC
      motives when dealing with depressive symptoms.

PMID- 28889063
TI  - Controlled and implicit processes in evaluative conditioning on implicit and
      explicit attitudes toward alcohol and intentions to drink.
AB  - Since implicit attitudes (i.e. evaluations occurring outside of complete
      awareness) are highly predictive of alcohol consumption, we tested an evaluative
      learning procedure based on repeated pairing to a critical stimulus (i.e.
      alcohol, the CS) with a valenced stimulus (the US) in order to modify implicit
      attitudes (i.e. evaluative conditioning; EC). We hypothesized that manipulating
      the learning context to bolster implicit affect misattribution should strengthen
      EC effects on implicit attitudes toward alcohol, while encouraging deliberate
      processing of CS-US pairs, should strengthen EC effects on explicit attitudes. In
      our study (n=114 students) we manipulated whether CS-US pairs were presented
      simultaneously or sequentially. Recollective memory was estimated with a Process
      Dissociation Procedure. Both implicit and explicit attitudes were assessed
      immediately after the procedure. Behavioral intentions were measured directly
      after and one week after the EC-procedure. We found that EC with sequential
      presentation had a stronger impact on implicit and explicit measures and on
      purchase intentions immediately after the procedure and one week after. The
      present findings provide new evidence that (i) EC is an effective way to change
      implicit attitudes toward alcohol and (ii) evidence that EC may be better
      described by propositional rather than dual process accounts.

PMID- 28889064
TI  - Spiroplasma eriocheiris induces mouse 3T6-Swiss albino cell apoptosis that
      associated with the infection mechanism.
AB  - Spiroplasma eriocheiris is a novel pathogen similar to the Spiroplasma mirum and
      also had an ability to infect the newborn mice and caused cataract. Our study was
      designed to study how S. eriocheiris infects mouse 3T6-Swiss albino cells and to
      elucidate the cellular molecular pathogenesis of Spiroplasma. FCM analysis and
      MTT analysis clearly shown that S. eriocheiris could induce 3T6 cell apoptosis
      and cause cell viability decreased seriously. Immunofluorescence experiments and
      TEM analysis shown that S. eriocheiris can invade 3T6 cells and form typical
      inclusion bodies and exhibit vacuolization in vitro. S. eriocheiris
      oxytetracycline protection assay show that the infective bacteria already were
      detected at 1h post infection, and sharply increased at 12h after the bacteria
      infection. To further study the infection mechanism of S. eriocheiris, global
      mRNA and microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling were analyzed after the cells
      infected with the bacteria. A total of 619 non-redundant annotated transcripts
      (183 up-regulated and 436 down-regulated) and 22 miRNAs (8 up-regulated and 14
      down-regulated) were differential expression after 6h S. eriocheiris infection
      compared to control group. Integrated analysis shown that homologous genes from
      differential expression miRNA targets and the differential expression genes of
      the mRNA microarray were major focused on two important pathways focal adhesion
      and MAPK signaling pathway. To validate the results of microarray, eight focal
      adhesion (beta-Catenin, Parvin, Grb2 and ERK) and MAPK signaling pathway (FGFR,
      Grb2, ERK, MKK3, p38 and JNK) genes and the housekeeping gene GAPDH were assayed
      by qPCR and Western blot to confirm the results. Eight miRNAs (miR-143-3p, miR
      214-5p, miR-322-3p, miR-328-5p, miR-351-5p, miR-466h-5p, miR-503-5p and miR-30c-1
      3p) and the housekeeping gene U6 miRNA were assayed by qPCR to confirm the
      results of microarray. All the results help us better understand the infection
      mechanism of S. eriocheiris.

PMID- 28889062
TI  - Affective dysregulation predicts incident nonmedical prescription analgesic use
      among college students.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the relationship between four suspected
      risk factors-affective dysregulation, conduct problems, depressive symptoms, and
      psychological distress-and incident nonmedical prescription analgesic (NPA) use
      among college students. METHODS: The sample was derived from 929 college students
      from a large, mid-Atlantic university who completed the third annual College Life
      Study assessment (Y3) and were NPA use naive at baseline (Y1). A series of
      logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the predictors of
      incident NPA use by Y3. Separate models were developed to evaluate the
      association between the suspected risk factors and (a) NPA use relative to non
      use of other drugs, including nonmedical use of other drug classes, (b) NPA use
      relative to other drug use, and (c) other drug use relative to non-use. All
      models included gender, parental education level, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS:
      Affective dysregulation was significantly associated with becoming an incident
      NPA user relative to both drug users without NPA use as well as non-users, after
      statistically controlling for demographic characteristics and other factors.
      Conduct problems in early childhood were positively related to both incident NPA
      use and other drug use without NPA use relative to non-users, after statistically
      controlling for demographic characteristics and other factors. Depressive
      symptoms were associated with NPA incidence at the bivariate level only.
      CONCLUSIONS: These findings extend previous research suggesting that NPA use
      might be related to deficits in regulating negative emotional states, and
      highlight possible markers for screening and intervention to prevent NPA use.

PMID- 28889065
TI  - Profiling dendritic cell subsets in the patients with active pulmonary
      tuberculosis.
AB  - Dendritic cell (DC) plays an important role in the immune response against
      pulmonary tuberculosis. However, the phenotypic profile of DC subsets in
      peripheral blood in individuals with active pulmonary tuberculosis (APT) is still
      inconclusive. Here, we demonstrated that the absolute numbers of total DC (tDC),
      myeloid DC (mDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) in individuals with APT were decreased
      compared to healthy controls (HCs). The decreased number of DCs, especially of
      pDC, seems to be a useful diagnostic marker of APT. Meanwhile, the number of DCs
      was associated with the prolonged/complicated TB, ATD treatment effect and
      lymphocyte immune reactions, as manifested that relapsed APT patients with a
      higher number of tDC and lower number of pDC compared to newly diagnosed
      patients. Interestingly, mDC from APT patients displayed high expressions of CD83
      and CCR7, but pDC displayed low expressions of CD83 and CCR7. Moreover, DCs from
      APT patients expressed lower levels of HLA-DR and CD80, but expressed a higher
      level of CD86 than those from HCs. However, the antigen uptake capacity of DC
      subsets was not different between APT and HCs, despite the antigen uptake
      capacity of pDC was much lower than that of mDC in both APT patients and HCs. Our
      data represent a systematic profile of DC subsets in the blood of APT patients,
      and would represent a useful biomarker for APT.

PMID- 28889066
TI  - Effect of lentivirus-mediated gene silencing, targeting toll-like receptor 2, on
      corneal allograft transplantation in rats.
AB  - AIM: The present work aims to assess the effectiveness of lentiviral vector (LV)
      mediated Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene silencing in the survival of
      transplanted corneal allografts, against immune rejection, in rats. METHODS: LV
      mediated TLR2 small interference RNA (SiRNA) with enhanced green fluorescent
      protein (eGFP) [LV-TLR2-siRNA-eGFP] was realised and transfected to both rat
      corneal epithelial (EC) and stromal cells (SC). Multiplicity of infection (MOI)
      was optimized for transfection efficiency using flow cytometric (FCM) analysis.
      Viability of transfected cells and the success rate of TLR2 gene silencing were
      respectively determined by CCK-8 assay and western blot assay. The in-vivo
      experiments were subjected to a penetrating keratoplasty (PK) performed between
      host Sprague Dawley (SD) and donor Wistar/SD rats, randomly dividing them into 4
      groups including the allograft, isograft, allograft treated with LV-eGFP (LV
      blank control) and allograft treated with LV-TLR2-siRNA-eGFP (LV treated group).
      The rejection index (RI) was then recorded under a slit lamp, every day following
      surgery. Expression of the TLR2 and Myeloid differentiation primary response gene
      88 (MyD88) were detected by using immunohistochemistry on day 9 post-surgery,
      whereas grafts's TLR2 and MyD88 mRNA were determined on day 5, 9, and 14 post
      surgery performing RT-PCR and, normal rat corneas were included as additional
      controls. RESULTS: Transfected cells showed the strongest eGFP expression when
      MOI was 200 with an efficiency of 77.5% for EC and 76.3% for SC. CCK-8 assay, as
      measured at 72 and 96h post transfection, showed no significant changes in the
      cell viability (both EC and SC) between the transfected and the control group
      (p>0.05, p>0.05). Western blot results demonstrated a successful down regulation
      of TLR2 expression by LV-TLR2-SiRNA-eGFP, in both EC and SC. In vivo, compared to
      allograft group, LV treated group demonstrated less edema, opacity and
      neovascularization. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a lower expression of
      TLR2 and MyD88 in isograft and LV treated group as compared to allograft group.
      TLR2 and MyD88 mRNA were detected in all grafts, and increased over time. With
      its highest expression in allograft group (peak on day 9), the mRNA expression
      for TLR2 and MyD88 showed a significant difference amongst the groups, on both
      day 9 and 14 (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: LV mediated TLR2 siRNA could effectively
      down regulate the TLR2 expression via RNA interference and prolong the survival
      of corneal grafts, although not necessarily able to prevent the rejection.

PMID- 28889068
TI  - Effect of HPV16 L1 virus-like particles on the aggregation of non-functionalized
      gold nanoparticles.
AB  - Colorimetric assays based on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are of considerable
      interest for diagnostics because of their simplicity and low-cost. Nevertheless,
      a deep understanding of the interaction between the GNPs and the intended
      molecular target is critical for the development of reliable detection
      technologies. The present report describes the spontaneous interaction between
      HPV16 L1 virus-like particles (VLPs) and non-functionalized GNPs (nfGNPs)
      resulting in the inhibition of nfGNPs salt-induced aggregation and the
      stabilization of purified VLPs. Ionic-competition experiments suggested that the
      nature of nfGNPs-VLPs interaction is non-covalent. Adsorption of an RNA aptamer
      on nfGNPs surface showed an additive aggregation-inhibitory effect. The use of
      mutant VLPs confirmed that the interaction nfGNPs-VLPs is not mediated by the
      opposing superficial electrostatic charges, suggesting that non-electrostatic
      forces participate in the arrangement of nfGNPs on the VLPs surface. Competition
      experiments using increasing ethanol concentrations on nfGNPs-VLPs complexes
      suggested hydrophobic interactions as the main stabilizing force. Therefore, the
      nfGNPs-VLPs interaction described here should facilitate the development of
      adsorption assays based on nfGNPs for HPV detection and cervical cancer
      prevention.

PMID- 28889067
TI  - Immune monitoring for precision medicine in allergy and asthma.
AB  - 'Precision Medicine' embodies the analyses of extensive data collected from
      patients and their environments to identify and apply patient-specific
      prophylactic strategies and medical treatments to improve clinical outcomes and
      healthcare cost-effectiveness. Many new methods have been developed for
      evaluating the activity of the human immune system. Such 'immune monitoring'
      approaches are now being used in studies of allergy and asthma in the hope of
      identifying better correlates of disease status, predictors of therapeutic
      outcomes, and potential side-effects of treatment. Together with analyses of
      family histories, genetic and other biometric data, and measurements of exposures
      to environmental and other risk factors for developing or exacerbating disease,
      immune monitoring approaches promise to enable 'Precision Medicine' for allergic
      diseases and asthma.

PMID- 28889069
TI  - Electrochemical assay for continuous monitoring of dynamic DNA methylation
      process.
AB  - A simple electrochemical strategy is reported for continuous monitoring of
      dynamic DNA methylation process over time. An electrochemical sensor was prepared
      by co-assembling of DNA probe and 6-mercapto-1-hexanol onto a gold electrode. The
      top of the DNA probe was labeled with 6-ferrocenylhexanethiol modified gold
      nanoparticle. The charge density between the C*G base pair was verified to be
      slightly reduced by DNA methylation, and could be further decelerated by ~ 25%
      upon co-locating a Br group onto methylated cytosine (mC). Therefore, in the
      presence of NaIO4/LiBr, the progressively methylated DNA on the sensor showed a
      clearly decreasing current over methylation time. The dynamic DNA methylation
      process was indicated continuously from the current decrease ratio, with a limit
      of detection of 0.0372uM. The strategy is convenient, cost-effective, and enable
      continuous profiling methylation process without distortion. Besides, the
      strategy was successfully applied for the studies on inhibitor screening and
      flanking sequence preference of DNA methyltransferase 3a. The results show that
      the activity of DNA methyltransferase 3a can be mildly inhibited by
      epigallocatechin gallate, and varies towards different flanking sequence with an
      order of 5'-CCGG-3' < 5'-CGCG-3' < 5'-CGCA-3'.

PMID- 28889070
TI  - Tranexamic acid for refractory gastrointestinal bleeds: A cohort study.

PMID- 28889071
TI  - Linking implementation of evidence-based parenting programs to outcomes in early
      intervention.
AB  - In the field of early intervention, only a few studies of parenting interventions
      include both participant and facilitator behaviors. Fidelity and supervision
      (facilitator characteristics) and dosage and satisfaction (participant
      characteristics) were tested on the outcome of improved parenting style in a
      sample of 36 parents of young children with disabilities. Results indicated that
      the facilitator behavior of fidelity was significantly and negatively related to
      the program outcome of parenting style; no effect was found for the facilitator
      behavior of supervision. For the participant behaviors, both dosage and
      satisfaction had non-significant relationships with the program outcome of
      parenting style at follow-up. The surprising negative relationship between
      content fidelity and parenting style was discussed.Two possible explanations
      were: (1) process or quality of intervention delivery is more influential than
      content fidelity, which considers only adherence to the intervention manual, and
      (2) the developmental stage of early intervention families calls for more focus
      on relationships between facilitators and parents and less on content of the
      specific intervention.

PMID- 28889072
TI  - The haemocytes of the colonial aplousobranch ascidian Diplosoma listerianum:
      Structural, cytochemical and functional analyses.
AB  - Diplosoma listerianum is a colonial aplousobranch ascidian of the family
      Didemnidae that is native to the northeast Atlantic and exhibits a cosmopolitan
      distribution in temperate waters. It lacks a shared colonial circulation crossing
      the tunic, and the zooids are connected only by the common tunic. In the present
      study, the haemocytes of this ascidian were analysed via light and electron
      microscopy. Their phagocytic and enzymatic activities, staining and
      immunostaining properties, and lectin affinity were examined with various
      classical methods reconsidered and modified for small marine invertebrates. Eight
      morphotypes were identified in reference to corresponding cell types described in
      other ascidians: undifferentiated cells (haemoblasts), storage cells for
      nitrogenous catabolites (nephrocytes) and immunocytes. The immunocytes are
      involved in immune responses, acting as (1) phagocytes, rich in hydrolases and
      involved in the clearance of both foreign particles and effete cells (hyaline
      amoebocytes and macrophage-like cells); (2) cytotoxic cells, able to degranulate
      and induce cytotoxicity through the release of the enzyme phenoloxidase after an
      immune stimulus (granular amoebocytes and morula cells); and (3) basophilic cells
      with an affinity for ConA and NPA that contain heparin and histamine and that
      show sensitivity to the compound 48/80, promoting their degranulation (mast cell
      like granulocytes). In addition, a particular cell type showing exceptional
      development of the Golgi apparatus and large vacuoles containing a filamentous
      material has been recognised (spherule cell), for which a role in tunic repair
      and fibrogenesis has been hypothesised.

PMID- 28889073
TI  - Infant intralimb coordination and torque production: Influence of prematurity.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to investigate changes in leg joint coordination,
      intersegmental dynamics, and their relation in infants born preterm (PT) during
      the first months of life. Kicking actions were analyzed of 11 infants born PT at
      6 and 15-weeks corrected age (CA) using three-dimensional kinematics and
      kinetics; results were compared to the kicking actions of 10 infants born full
      term (FT). Both groups changed from a predominately in-phase coordination at 6
      weeks CA to a less in-phase coordination at 15-weeks CA, however, at 6-weeks CA,
      infants born PT demonstrated less in-phase coordination of their ankle joints
      with their hip and knee joints. Between groups and across ages, both groups
      demonstrated consistent net and partitioned joint torque profiles, however, at 6
      weeks CA infants born PT demonstrated more complex patterns of torque components.
      In both groups, less in-phase hip-knee coordination was associated with reduced
      active knee muscle torque and increased passive knee torques, however, passive
      knee torques had a greater influence on the kicks of infants born PT at 6-weeks
      CA. At 6-weeks CA, infants born PT, compared to FT, generated kicks with less in
      phase hip-knee coordination, hip excursion, hip angular velocity, and hip muscle
      torque impulse. By 15-weeks CA, differences resolved in all variables except hip
      muscle torque impulse. These results highlight a different trajectory of leg
      joint coordination and torque production for infants born PT compared to FT.

PMID- 28889074
TI  - Interaction between FKBP5 gene and childhood trauma on psychosis, depression and
      anxiety symptoms in a non-clinical sample.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Childhood trauma has been associated with a heightened risk for
      presenting clinical and non-clinical psychopathology in adulthood. Genes related
      with the stress response, such as the FK506 binding protein 51 (FKBP5), are
      plausible candidates moderating the effects of childhood trauma on the emergence
      of such symptoms later on. The present study aimed to explore the moderating role
      of FKBP5 genetic variability on the association of different types of childhood
      trauma with subclinical psychosis, depression and anxiety in a non-clinical
      sample. METHODS: Schizotypy, psychotic-like experiences, depression and anxiety
      symptoms and childhood trauma were assessed in 808 young adults. Two FKBP5
      haplotypic blocks were detected: block 1 (rs3800373 - rs9296158 - rs1360780) and
      block 2 (rs9470080 - rs4713916). Subjects were classified in two groups according
      to whether they carried or not the risk haplotype previously described in the
      literature (block 1: CAT and block 2: TA). Linear regression analyses were used
      to study (i) the main effects of childhood trauma and FKBP5 haplotype blocks and
      (ii) their interaction effects on the mentioned forms of psychopathology.
      RESULTS: All childhood trauma scales, except sexual abuse, were associated with
      schizotypy, psychotic-like experiences, depression and anxiety symptoms. None of
      the analysed symptoms was associated with the main effects of FKBP5 genetic
      variability. However an interaction effect between block 1 and physical abuse was
      observed on anxiety, with lower scores in CAT carriers. This effect was driven by
      SNP 1 and 2. Moreover, an interaction effect between block 2 and physical abuse
      was identified on the variables tapping depressive and anxiety symptoms.
      Specifically, non-TA carrier subjects who were exposed to physical abuse were
      found to be at higher risk for depressive and anxiety symptoms. These effects
      were driven by SNP 5. No interaction effect was observed for the other variables.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that exposure to childhood physical abuse may
      increase the risk for sub-clinical depressive and anxiety symptoms depending on
      FKBP5 genetic variability. Further research is needed to better elucidate the
      role of FKBP5 on mental health in clinical and non-clinical cohorts.

PMID- 28889075
TI  - Epigenetic clock analysis in long-term meditators.
AB  - In this paper, we examined whether meditation practice influences the epigenetic
      clock, a strong and reproducible biomarker of biological aging, which is
      accelerated by cumulative lifetime stress and with age-related chronic diseases.
      Using the Illumina 450K array platform, we analyzed the DNA methylome from blood
      cells of long-term meditators and meditation-naive controls to estimate their
      Intrinsic Epigenetic Age Acceleration (IEAA), using Horvath's calculator. IEAA
      was similar in both groups. However, controls showed a different IEAA trajectory
      with aging than meditators: older controls (age>=52) had significantly higher
      IEAAs compared with younger controls (age <52), while meditators were protected
      from this epigenetic aging effect. Notably, in the meditation group, we found a
      significant negative correlation between IEAA and the number of years of regular
      meditation practice. From our results, we hypothesize that the cumulative effects
      of a regular meditation practice may, in the long-term, help to slow the
      epigenetic clock and could represent a useful preventive strategy for age-related
      chronic diseases. Longitudinal randomized controlled trials in larger cohorts are
      warranted to confirm and further characterize these findings.

PMID- 28889076
TI  - geneSurv: An interactive web-based tool for survival analysis in genomics
      research.
AB  - Survival analysis methods are often used in cancer studies. It has been shown
      that the combination of clinical data with genomics increases the predictive
      performance of survival analysis methods. But, this leads to a high-dimensional
      data problem. Fortunately, new methods have been developed in the last decade to
      overcome this problem. However, there is a strong need for easily accessible,
      user-friendly and interactive tool to perform survival analysis in the presence
      of genomics data. We developed an open-source and freely available web-based tool
      for survival analysis methods that can deal with high-dimensional data. This tool
      includes classical methods, such as Kaplan-Meier, Cox proportional hazards
      regression, and advanced methods, such as penalized Cox regression and Random
      Survival Forests. It also offers an optimal cutoff determination method based on
      maximizing several test statistics. The tool has a simple and interactive
      interface, and it can handle high dimensional data through feature selection and
      ensemble methods. To dichotomize gene expressions, geneSurv can identify optimal
      cutoff points. Users can upload their microarray, RNA-Seq, chip-Seq, proteomics,
      metabolomics or clinical data as a nxp dimensional data matrix, where n refers to
      samples and p refers to genes. This tool is available free at
      www.biosoft.hacettepe.edu.tr/geneSurv. All source code is available at
      https://github.com/selcukorkmaz/geneSurv under the GPL-3 license.

PMID- 28889077
TI  - A method for quantifying recurrent patterns of local wavefront direction during
      atrial fibrillation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Spiral wave reentry is a potential mechanism of atrial fibrillation
      (AF), but is difficult to differentiate clinically from multiple wavelet breakup
      using standard bipolar recordings. We developed a new methodology using bipolar
      recordings to estimate the direction of local activation wavefronts during AF by
      calculating the electrogram conformation (Egm-C). We subsequently used recurrence
      quantification analysis (RQA) of Egm-C to differentiate regions of spiral wave
      reentry from wavelet breakup. METHODS: A 2D computer simulation was created with
      regions containing a stable spiral wave and also regions of wavebreak. A grid of
      40 * 40 unipolar electrodes was superimposed. At each site, the actual wavefront
      direction (WD) was determined by comparing relative activation timings of the
      local intracellular recordings, and the estimated wavefront direction (Egm-C) was
      determined from the morphology of the local bipolar electrogram. RQA of Egm-C was
      compared to RQA of actual WD in order to differentiate AF mechanisms. RESULTS:
      RQA of actual WD and Egm-C both distinguished regions of spiral wave reentry from
      wavelet breakup with high correlation between the two methods (recurrence rate, r
      = 0.96; determinism, r = 0.61; line max, r = 0.95; entropy, r = 0.84; p < 0.001
      for all). In areas of stable spiral wave reentry, the recurrence plots of both
      Egm-C and actual WD demonstrated stable, periodic dynamics, while regions of
      wavelet breakup demonstrated chaotic behavior largely devoid of repetitive
      activation patterns. CONCLUSION: Calculation of Egm-C allows RQA to be performed
      on bipolar electrograms during AF and differentiates regions of spiral wave
      reentry from multiple wavelet breakup.

PMID- 28889078
TI  - Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer risk associated with inorganic arsenic
      exposure.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether the association between breast cancer (BC) and
      inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure is modulated by selected polymorphisms in iAs
      metabolism. METHODS: A population based case-control (1016/1028) study was
      conducted in Northern Mexico. Urinary arsenic metabolites were measured by High
      Performance Liquid Chromatography. Metabolites percentages and methylation
      ratios, were estimated. Genotypes of selected polymorphisms were determined by
      allelic discrimination. The interaction between polymorphisms and iAs metabolites
      percentages and methylation ratios on BC was assessed with unconditional logistic
      regression models. RESULTS: A significant interaction (p=0.002) between MTR
      c.2756A>G polymorphism and percentage dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) on BC was found;
      BC risk related with %DMA was lower in AG+GG carriers than in AA carriers. No
      other significant interactions were found. CONCLUSION: MTR c.2756A>G polymorphism
      may confer protection for BC associated with iAs exposure. Further research is
      warranted to elucidate the potential involvement of other polymorphisms in iAs
      related BC.

PMID- 28889079
TI  - Lead induces apoptosis in mouse TM3 Leydig cells through the Fas/FasL death
      receptor pathway.
AB  - The study was aimed to investigate the effect of Pb toxicity on mouse Leydig
      cells and its molecular mechanism. The TM3 cells were cultured in vitro and
      exposed to Pb at different concentrations for 24h. The effects of Pb on cell
      proliferation and apoptosis were analyzed with MTT and Annexin V-FITC/PI via flow
      cytometry, respectively. Expression levels of Fas, Fas-L and caspase-8 in TM3
      cells were determined by western blot. As well as the inhibitory effect of the
      caspase-8 inhibitor Z-IETD-FMK on cell apoptosis. We found that Pb treatment
      significantly decreased the cellar viability (P<0.05), increased the apoptosis
      (P<0.01) and the Fas, FasL, and caspase-8 expression levels in Pb-treated cells
      as compared to the control cells (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, the caspase-8
      inhibitor effectively block the Pb-induced cell apoptosis. Taken together, our
      data suggest that Pb-induced TM3 cell toxic effect may involve in the Fas/FasL
      death receptor signaling pathway.

PMID- 28889080
TI  - Reprogramming of rabbit induced pluripotent stem cells toward epiblast and
      chimeric competency using Kruppel-like factors.
AB  - Rabbit induced pluripotent stem cells (rbiPSCs) possess the characteristic
      features of primed pluripotency as defined in rodents and primates. In the
      present study, we reprogrammed rbiPSCs using human Kruppel-like factors (KLFs) 2
      and 4 and cultured them in a medium supplemented with fetal calf serum and
      leukemia inhibitory factor. These cells (designated rbEKA) were propagated by
      enzymatic dissociation for at least 30 passages, during which they maintained a
      normal karyotype. This new culturing protocol resulted in transcriptional and
      epigenetic reconfiguration, as substantiated by the expression of transcription
      factors and the presence of histone modifications associated with naive
      pluripotency. Furthermore, microarray analysis of rbiPSCs, rbEKA cells, rabbit
      ICM cells, and rabbit epiblast showed that the global gene expression profile of
      the reprogrammed rbiPSCs was more similar to that of rabbit ICM and epiblast
      cells. Injection of rbEKA cells into 8-cell stage rabbit embryos resulted in
      extensive colonization of ICM in 9% early-blastocysts (E3.5), epiblast in 10% mid
      blastocysts (E4.5), and embryonic disk in 1.4% pre-gastrulae (E6). Thus, these
      results indicate that KLF2 and KLF4 triggered the conversion of rbiPSCs into
      epiblast-like, embryo colonization-competent PSCs. Our results highlight some of
      the requirements to achieve bona fide chimeric competency.

PMID- 28889081
TI  - Distinct solubility and cytotoxicity regimes of paclitaxel-loaded cationic
      liposomes at low and high drug content revealed by kinetic phase behavior and
      cancer cell viability studies.
AB  - Lipid-based particles are used worldwide in clinical trials as carriers of
      hydrophobic paclitaxel (PTXL) for cancer chemotherapy, albeit with little
      improvement over the standard-of-care. Improving efficacy requires an
      understanding of intramembrane interactions between PTXL and lipids to enhance
      PTXL solubilization and suppress PTXL phase separation into crystals. We studied
      the solubility of PTXL in cationic liposomes (CLs) composed of positively charged
      2,3-dioleyloxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride (DOTAP) and neutral 1,2-dioleoyl
      sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC) as a function of PTXL membrane content
      and its relation to efficacy. Time-dependent kinetic phase diagrams were
      generated from observations of PTXL crystal formation by differential
      interference-contrast microscopy. Furthermore, a new synchrotron small-angle x
      ray scattering in situ methodology applied to DOTAP/DOPC/PTXL membranes condensed
      with DNA enabled us to detect the incorporation and time-dependent depletion of
      PTXL from membranes by measurements of variations in the membrane interlayer and
      DNA interaxial spacings. Our results revealed three regimes with distinct time
      scales for PTXL membrane solubility: hours for >3 mol% PTXL (low), days for ~ 3
      mol% PTXL (moderate), and >=20 days for < 3 mol% PTXL (long-term). Cell viability
      experiments on human cancer cell lines using CLPTXL nanoparticles (NPs) in the
      distinct CLPTXL solubility regimes reveal an unexpected dependence of efficacy on
      PTXL content in NPs. Remarkably, formulations with lower PTXL content and thus
      higher stability show higher efficacy than those formulated at the membrane
      solubility limit of ~3 mol% PTXL (which has been the focus of most previous
      physicochemical studies and clinical trials of PTXL-loaded CLs). Furthermore, an
      additional high-efficacy regime is seen on occasion for liposome compositions
      with PTXL >=9 mol% applied to cells at short time scales (hours) after formation.
      At longer time scales (days), CLPTXL NPs with >=3 mol% PTXL lose efficacy while
      formulations with 1-2 mol% PTXL maintain high efficacy. Our findings underscore
      the importance of understanding the relationship of the kinetic phase behavior
      and physicochemical properties of CLPTXL NPs to efficacy.

PMID- 28889082
TI  - Comparison of three multiplex gastrointestinal platforms for the detection of
      gastroenteritis viruses.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Viruses are major etiological agents of childhood gastroenteritis. In
      recent years, several molecular platforms for the detection of viral enteric
      pathogens have become available. OBJECTIVE/STUDY DESIGN: We evaluated the
      performance of three multiplex platforms including Biofire's Gastrointestinal
      Panel (FilmArray), Luminex xTAG(r) Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (GPP), and the
      TaqMan Array Card (TAC) for the detection of five gastroenteritis viruses using a
      coded panel of 300 archived stool samples. RESULTS: The FilmArray detected a
      virus in 199 (96.1%) and the TAC in 172 (83.1%) of the 207 samples (187 samples
      positive for a single virus and 20 samples positive for more than one virus)
      whereas the GPP detected a virus in 100 (78.7%) of the 127 (97 positive for one
      virus and three positive for more than one virus) samples. Overall the clinical
      accuracy was highest for the FilmArray (98%) followed by TAC (97.2%) and GPP
      (96.9%). The sensitivity of the FilmArray, GPP and TAC platforms was highest for
      rotavirus (100%, 95.8%, and 89.6%, respectively) and lowest for adenovirus type
      40/41 (97.4%, 57.9% and 68.4%). The specificity of the three platforms ranged
      from 95.6% (rotavirus) to 99.6% (norovirus/sapovirus) for the FilmArray, 99.6%
      (norovirus) to 100% (rotavirus/adenovirus) for GPP, and 98.9% (astrovirus) to
      100% (rotavirus/sapovirus) for TAC. CONCLUSION: The FilmArray demonstrated the
      best analytical performance followed by TAC. In recent years, the availability of
      multi-enteric molecular testing platforms has increased significantly and our
      data highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these platforms.

PMID- 28889083
TI  - Live versus attenuated influenza vaccine uptake and post-vaccination influenza
      like illness outcomes in HIV-infected US Air Force members.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although clinical data is limited, guidelines recommend avoiding live
      attenuated intranasal influenza vaccine (LAIV) in HIV-infected persons.
      OBJECTIVES: To evaluate non-guideline LAIV use and resulting adverse effects in
      an HIV-infected population. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of influenza
      vaccination in US Air Force (USAF) members with HIV infection immunized between
      2005 and 2015 was performed. Influenza vaccination history after HIV diagnosis
      was evaluated, including receipt of LAIV or inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV).
      The proportion with influenza-like illness (ILI) diagnoses within 30days after
      vaccination with IIV or LAIV was assessed by ICD-9 codes. RESULTS: 437 patients
      met inclusion criteria, with 121 (27.7%) receiving at least one dose of LAIV and
      316 (72.3%) receiving only IIV during follow-up. The mean number of LAIV doses
      received was 1.5+/-0.89 (range, 1-4) and the majority (n=50, 82%) received their
      first LAIV vaccination within the first year after HIV diagnosis. Patients were
      predominantly males and the LAIV group had a lower mean age at HIV diagnosis
      (27.5+/-6.6) compared to the IIV group (30+/-7.8; p <0.001). Overall, IIV was
      associated with ILI diagnosis within 30days of vaccination (X2 4.58; p=0.032),
      with 16 cases (94.1%) occurring in those who received IIV compared to 1 case
      (5.9%) in those who received LAIV. CONCLUSION: Although over a quarter of USAF
      members received LAIV after HIV diagnosis, LAIV administration did not show an
      increased frequency of post-vaccine ILI diagnoses. Further education is needed to
      ensure that USAF members with HIV infection are vaccinated according to guideline
      recommendations, particularly newly diagnosed patients.

PMID- 28889084
TI  - A menu of electron probes for optimising information from scanning transmission
      electron microscopy.
AB  - We assess a selection of electron probes in terms of the spatial resolution with
      which information can be derived about the structure of a specimen, as opposed to
      the nominal image resolution. Using Ge [001] as a study case, we investigate the
      scattering dynamics of these probes and determine their relative merits in terms
      of two qualitative criteria: interaction volume and interpretability. This
      analysis provides a 'menu of probes' from which an optimum probe for tackling a
      given materials science question can be selected. Hollow cone, vortex and
      spherical wave fronts are considered, from unit cell to Angstrom size, and for
      different defocus and specimen orientations.

PMID- 28889085
TI  - Immunosenescence and immunecheckpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer
      patients: Does age really matter?
AB  - Immunotherapy has dramatically changed the therapeutic scenario in non-small cell
      lung cancer (NSCLC), extending overall survival, with a favorable safety profile.
      However, there is still a gap of knowledge about the efficacy of immune
      checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in elderly patients. Data from randomized clinical
      trials testing ICIs are conflicting and often lack adequate statistical power.
      Although two large meta-analyses suggested an absence of a significant survival
      benefit in patients older than 75years, expanded access programs and
      retrospective cohort studies of ICIs in the real-life setting, showed comparable
      survival outcomes and safety profiles between older and younger patients. In this
      complex scenario, a further unresolved issue is the potential correlation between
      older age and immunotherapy primary resistance, a phenomenon probably linked to
      the continuous and progressive remodeling of immune functions with ageing, known
      as immunosenescence. Defining the role of ICIs in elderly NSCLC patients and
      exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying a possible lack of benefit or even
      accelerated tumor growth during immunotherapy are two major challenges for future
      research in this field of cancer treatment. In this review, we describe the major
      hallmarks of immunosenescence and we summarize the existing clinical data of ICIs
      in elderly NSCLC patients.

PMID- 28889086
TI  - The Notch-3 receptor: A molecular switch to tumorigenesis?
AB  - The Notch pathway is a highly conserved pathway increasingly implicated with the
      progression of human cancers. Of the four existing receptors associated with the
      pathway, the deregulation in the expression of the Notch-3 receptor is associated
      with more aggressive disease and poor prognosis. Selective targeting of this
      receptor has the potential to enhance current anti-cancer treatments. Molecular
      profiling strategies are increasingly incorporated into clinical decision making.
      This review aims to evaluate the clinical potential of Notch-3 within this new
      era of personalised medicine.

PMID- 28889087
TI  - Self-expanding transcatheter aortic valve implantation for degenerated small
      Mitroflow bioprosthesis: early and midterm outcomes.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this study was to report clinical outcomes of self-expanding
      transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) for failed small Mitroflow (MF)
      bioprostheses. METHODS AND RESULTS: Between January 2013 and July 2016, 15
      symptomatic patients (NYHA Class >=III) with degenerated small MF (<=23 mm)
      underwent CoreValve (CV) or Evolut R (EvR) implantation due to high/prohibitive
      risk for surgical redo. The MF size was 19 or 21 mm (off-label in Europe) in
      eight patients. A "preventive" left main (LM) stenting was successfully performed
      in one patient. Early LM obstruction occurred in two cases requiring stenting.
      Late LM obstruction was observed in one subject. A significant correlation
      between virtual left transcatheter valve-to-coronary ostia (VTC) distance and
      left sinus of Valsalva (LSV) diameter was observed (R=0.652; p=0.012). However,
      only left VTC was significantly smaller in patients who experienced LM
      obstruction compared to those who did not (p=0.002). No cases of moderate/severe
      stenosis were observed in either on- or off-label procedures. No death or other
      major events occurred up to the one-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: CV or EvR
      implantation for failed small MF has favourable early and midterm outcomes if a
      careful risk evaluation and preventive measures for coronary obstruction are
      adopted. Low gradients can be achieved regardless of MF size.

PMID- 28889088
TI  - Participation in randomised controlled trials: perspectives of psychiatric
      patients and key relatives.
AB  - This study assessed the perspectives of adults who had acute nonorganic
      psychiatric disorders and were admitted in a private, not for- profit medical
      college hospital, and also of their key relatives, on randomised controlled
      trials (RCTs). Structured questionnaires and audio-recorded interviews were used
      for the purpose. We explored their willingness and motivation to participate in
      two hypothetical RCTs with different risks and burdens. The transcripts of the
      interviews were analysed using the principles of grounded theory and framework
      analysis. Of the 24 consenting participants (12 patient and key-relative dyads),
      the 20 who completed the interviews had largely positive attitudes towards
      research and RCTs. However, 50% of those interviewed declined to participate in
      either of the hypothetical RCTs. The refusal to participate seemed to be
      influenced by a lack of education; forgetfulness, which impeded the process of
      making informed decisions; unfavourable benefit-risk-burden ratios; practical
      difficulties; dependence on treating doctors and relatives for decision-making;
      and the wish to exercise one's choice regarding treatment options. The factors
      that motivated the patients and relatives were trust in doctors and
      organisations, altruism, expectation of personal benefits and favourable risk
      benefit ratios. These observations indicate that while the respondents in this
      study valued research, they were discerning about whether or not to participate
      in the trials; their decision-making was influenced by individualised assessments
      of risks and burdens and pragmatic considerations, rather than only by the
      benefits they would obtain.

PMID- 28889089
TI  - On the integration of Ethics into the Physiology curriculum.
AB  - A one-day state-level workshop was organised in Karnataka to share the experience
      of a programme implemented earlier, in 2015-16, at St John's Medical College,
      Bengaluru that integrated the teaching of ethics into the physiology curriculum.
      The aim was to develop the programme further, list the challenges likely to be
      faced while scaling it up, and identify other colleges which could participate in
      the scaling up. Twenty-eight participants, representing 13 medical colleges, and
      five resource persons attended the workshop. There was a consensus that the
      integration of ethics into the physiology course was relevant and desirable,
      although the participants identified several critical challenges which might
      arise. These included the lack of institutional support, a possible lack of
      student "buy-in" since it was beyond the requirements of the examinations, and
      time constraints. Specific areas of integration were identified. Three medical
      colleges, including the host institution, opted to implement the programme and
      refine it further.

PMID- 28889090
TI  - Placing the "radar" under the radar: ethics of public health surveillance.
AB  - Public health surveillance (PHS) is an essential public health activity, which
      entails collecting data on diseases and disease-related states in a timely manner
      to aid in international health regulations and in local health planning. Opinions
      differ sharply on whether it is a research or non-research activity. In recent
      years, most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been establishing their
      own PHS systems, with or without support from external donors, to comply with the
      stipulations of international health regulations. With the expansion of the scope
      and role of PHS in ensuring the health security of countries, it is important to
      understand the ethical principles of PHS and the specific ethical issues involved
      in it, as well as the need for ethical oversight of PHS. This paper deals with
      these aspects of PHS, and highlights the need for specific ethical guidance and
      oversight mechanisms in LMICs that are setting up their own PHS systems.

PMID- 28889091
TI  - MRI in sarcoglycanopathies: a large international cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterise the pattern and spectrum of involvement on muscle MRI
      in a large cohort of patients with sarcoglycanopathies, which are limb-girdle
      muscular dystrophies (LGMD2C-2F) caused by mutations in one of the four genes
      coding for muscle sarcoglycans. METHODS: Lower limb MRI scans of patients with
      LGMD2C-2F, ranging from severe childhood variants to milder adult-onset forms,
      were collected in 17 neuromuscular referral centres in Europe and USA. Muscle
      involvement was evaluated semiquantitatively on T1-weighted images according to a
      visual score, and the global pattern was assessed as well. RESULTS: Scans from 69
      patients were examined (38 LGMD2D, 18 LGMD2C, 12 LGMD2E and 1 LGMD2F). A common
      pattern of involvement was found in all the analysed scans irrespective of the
      mutated gene. The most and earliest affected muscles were the thigh adductors,
      glutei and posterior thigh groups, while lower leg muscles were relatively spared
      even in advanced disease. A proximodistal gradient of involvement of vasti
      muscles was a consistent finding in these patients, including the most severe
      ones. CONCLUSIONS: Muscle involvement on MRI is consistent in patients with
      LGMD2C-F and can be helpful in distinguishing sarcoglycanopathies from other
      LGMDs or dystrophinopathies, which represent the most common differential
      diagnoses. Our data provide evidence about selective susceptibility or resistance
      to degeneration of specific muscles when one of the sarcoglycans is deficient, as
      well as preliminary information about progressive involvement of the different
      muscles over time.

PMID- 28889092
TI  - Quantitative MR spectroscopic imaging in metachromatic leukodystrophy: value for
      prognosis and treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging
      is useful in predicting clinical course of patients with metachromatic
      leukodystrophy (MLD), an inherited white matter disorder treatable with
      haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). METHODS: 21 patients with juvenile or
      adult MLD (12 HCT-treated) were compared with 16 controls in the same age range.
      Clinical outcome was determined as good, moderate or poor. Metabolites were
      quantified in white matter, and significance of metabolite concentrations at
      baseline for outcome prediction was assessed using logistic regression analysis.
      Evolution of metabolic changes was assessed for patients with follow-up
      examinations. RESULTS: In this retrospective study, 16 patients with baseline
      scans were included, 5 with good, 3 with moderate and 8 with poor outcome, and 16
      controls. We observed significant group differences for all metabolite
      concentrations in white matter (p<0.001). Compared with controls, patients had
      decreased N-acetylaspartate and glutamate, and increased myo-inositol and
      lactate, most pronounced in patients with poor outcome (post hoc, all p<0.05).
      Logistic regression showed complete separation of data. Creatine could
      distinguish poor from moderate and good outcome, the sum of glutamate and
      glutamine could distinguish good from moderate and poor outcome, and N
      acetylaspartate could distinguish all outcome groups. For 13 patients (8 with
      baseline scans), one or more follow-up examinations were evaluated, revealing
      stabilisation or even partial normalisation of metabolites in patients with
      moderate and good outcome, clearly visible in the ratio of choline/N
      acetylaspartate. CONCLUSION: In MLD, quantitative spectroscopic imaging at
      baseline is predictive for outcome and aids in determining eligibility for HCT.

PMID- 28889093
TI  - Striatal molecular alterations in HD gene carriers: a systematic review and meta
      analysis of PET studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Over the past years, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging
      studies have investigated striatal molecular changes in premanifest and manifest
      Huntington's disease (HD) gene expansion carriers (HDGECs), but they have yielded
      inconsistent results. OBJECTIVE: To systematically examine the evidence of
      striatal molecular alterations in manifest and premanifest HDGECs as measured by
      PET imaging studies. METHODS: MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane Library and
      Scopus databases were searched for articles published until 7 June 2017 that
      included PET studies in manifest and premanifest HDGECs. Meta-analyses were
      conducted with random effect models, and heterogeneity was addressed with I2
      index, controlling for publication bias and quality of study. The primary outcome
      was the standardised mean difference (SMD) of PET uptakes in the whole striatum,
      caudate and putamen in manifest and premanifest HDGECs compared with healthy
      controls (HCs). RESULTS: Twenty-four out of 63 PET studies in premanifest (n=158)
      and manifest (n=191) HDGECs and HCs (n=333) were included in the meta-analysis.
      Premanifest and manifest HDGECs showed significant decreases in dopamine D2
      receptors in caudate (SMD=-1.233, 95% CI -1.753 to -0.713, p<0.0001; SMD=-5.792,
      95% CI -7.695 to -3.890, p<0.0001) and putamen (SMD=-1.479, 95% CI -1.965 to 
      0.992, p<0.0001; SMD=-5.053, 95% CI -6.558 to -3.549, p<0.0001), in glucose
      metabolism in caudate (SMD=-0.758, 95% CI -1.139 to -0.376, p<0.0001; SMD=-3.738,
      95% CI -4.880 to -2.597, p<0.0001) and putamen (SMD=-2.462, 95% CI -4.208 to 
      0.717, p=0.006; SMD=-1.650, 95% CI -2.842 to -0.458, p<0.001) and in striatal
      PDE10A binding (SMD=-1.663, 95% CI -2.603 to -0.723, p=0.001; SMD=-2.445, 95% CI 
      3.371 to -1.519, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: PET imaging has the potential to detect
      striatal molecular changes even at the early premanifest stage of HD, which are
      relevant to the neuropathological mechanisms underlying the development of the
      disease.

PMID- 28889094
TI  - Analysis of known amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia genes
      reveals a substantial genetic burden in patients manifesting both diseases not
      carrying the C9orf72 expansion mutation.
AB  - : Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are part
      of a clinical, pathological and genetic continuum. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the
      present study was to assess the mutation burden that is present in patients with
      concurrent ALS and FTD (ALS/FTD) not carrying the chromosome 9 open reading frame
      72 (C9orf72) hexanucleotide repeat expansion, the most important genetic cause in
      both diseases. METHODS: From an initial group of 973 patients with ALS, we
      retrospectively selected those patients fulfilling diagnostic criteria of
      concomitant ALS and FTD lacking the repeat expansion mutation in C9orf72. Our
      final study group consisted of 54 patients clinically diagnosed with ALS/FTD (16
      with available postmortem neuropathological diagnosis). Data from whole exome
      sequencing were used to screen for mutations in known ALS and/or FTD genes.
      RESULTS: We identified 11 patients carrying a probable pathogenic mutation,
      representing an overall mutation frequency of 20.4%. TBK1 was the most important
      genetic cause of ALS/FTD (n=5; 9.3%). The second most common mutated gene was
      SQSTM1, with three mutation carriers (one of them also harboured a TBK1
      mutation). We also detected probable pathogenic genetic alterations in TAF15, VCP
      and TARDBP and possible pathogenic mutations in FIG4 and ERBB4. CONCLUSION: Our
      results indicate a high genetic burden underlying the co-occurrence of ALS and
      FTD and expand the phenotype associated with TAF15, FIG4 and ERBB4 to FTD. A
      systematic screening of ALS and FTD genes could be indicated in patients
      manifesting both diseases without the C9orf72 expansion mutation, regardless of
      family history of disease.

PMID- 28889095
TI  - Ethnography: challenges and opportunities.

PMID- 28889096
TI  - Resources page.

PMID- 28889097
TI  - Healthcare professionals should be mindful that victims and victim-bullies may
      have additional health needs associated with risk-taking behaviour.

PMID- 28889098
TI  - Reversal of Arterial Stiffness and Maladaptative Arterial Remodeling After Kidney
      Transplantation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease is characterized by stiffening, thinning,
      dilatation, and increased circumferential wall stress of large arteries,
      associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Kidney transplantation (KT)
      reverses many pathological features of chronic kidney disease and improves life
      expectancy; however, longitudinal studies exploring the impact of KT on recipient
      large arteries are scarce. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study was designed to
      appraise arterial changes following KT. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity,
      carotid remodeling (circumferential wall stress and carotid internal diameter),
      and stiffness were measured in 161 consecutive recipients receiving either a
      living (n=49) or a deceased (n=112) donor allograft, at 3 and 12 months after
      transplantation. Mean pulse wave velocity decreased from 10.8 m/s (95% confidence
      interval, 10.5-11.2 m/s) (at month 3) to 10.1 m/s (95% confidence interval, 9.8
      10.5 m/s) (at month 12) (P<0.001). After multivariate adjustment, pulse wave
      velocity reduction from month 3 to month 12 was significantly larger in the
      living donor allograft KT (P<0.001). Circumferential wall stress decreased, 70
      kPa (95% confidence interval, 68-72 kPa) to 64 kPa (95% confidence interval, 62
      67 kPa), as well as carotid internal diameter and carotid stiffness (P<0.001 for
      all). Reductions in circumferential wall stress, diameter, and stiffness were
      significantly larger in the living donor allograft KT (P<0.001). When deceased
      donor allograft patients were classified into standard and expanded criteria
      donors, changes in both pulse wave velocity and circumferential wall stress were
      blunted in expanded criteria donors. Changes were independent of graft function
      and blood pressure changes. CONCLUSIONS: Large-artery stiffness and maladaptive
      carotid artery remodeling of chronic kidney disease is partially reversed within
      12 months of KT and appears unrelated to renal function. Improvements were
      independently associated with live organ donation. Our data suggest that expanded
      criteria donors may hamper vascular recovery.

PMID- 28889099
TI  - The Impact of Heterozygous KCNK3 Mutations Associated With Pulmonary Arterial
      Hypertension on Channel Function and Pharmacological Recovery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heterozygous loss of function mutations in the KCNK3 gene cause
      hereditary pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). KCNK3 encodes an acid-sensitive
      potassium channel, which contributes to the resting potential of human pulmonary
      artery smooth muscle cells. KCNK3 is widely expressed in the body, and dimerizes
      with other KCNK3 subunits, or the closely related, acid-sensitive KCNK9 channel.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: We engineered homomeric and heterodimeric mutant and
      nonmutant KCNK3 channels associated with PAH. Using whole-cell patch-clamp
      electrophysiology in human pulmonary artery smooth muscle and COS7 cell lines, we
      determined that homomeric and heterodimeric mutant channels in heterozygous KCNK3
      conditions lead to mutation-specific severity of channel dysfunction. Both
      wildtype and mutant KCNK3 channels were activated by ONO-RS-082 (10 MUmol/L),
      causing cell hyperpolarization. We observed robust gene expression of KCNK3 in
      healthy and familial PAH patient lungs, but no quantifiable expression of KCNK9,
      and demonstrated in functional studies that KCNK9 minimizes the impact of select
      KCNK3 mutations when the 2 channel subunits co-assemble. CONCLUSIONS:
      Heterozygous KCNK3 mutations in PAH lead to variable loss of channel function via
      distinct mechanisms. Homomeric and heterodimeric mutant KCNK3 channels represent
      novel therapeutic substrates in PAH. Pharmacological and pH-dependent activation
      of wildtype and mutant KCNK3 channels in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells
      leads to membrane hyperpolarization. Co-assembly of KCNK3 with KCNK9 subunits may
      provide protection against KCNK3 loss of function in tissues where both KCNK9 and
      KCNK3 are expressed, contributing to the lung-specific phenotype observed
      clinically in patients with PAH because of KCNK3 mutations.

PMID- 28889100
TI  - Role of Admission Troponin-T and Serial Troponin-T Testing in Predicting Outcomes
      in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Troponin-T elevation is seen commonly in sepsis and septic shock
      patients admitted to the intensive care unit. We sought to evaluate the role of
      admission and serial troponin-T testing in the prognostication of these patients.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a retrospective cohort study from 2007 to 2014 on
      patients admitted to the intensive care units at the Mayo Clinic with severe
      sepsis and septic shock. Elevated admission troponin-T and significant delta
      troponin-T were defined as >=0.01 ng/mL and >=0.03 ng/mL in 3 hours,
      respectively. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes
      included 1-year mortality and lengths of stay. During this 8-year period, 944
      patients met the inclusion criteria with 845 (90%) having an admission troponin-T
      >=0.01 ng/mL. Serial troponin-T values were available in 732 (78%) patients.
      Elevated admission troponin-T was associated with older age, higher baseline
      comorbidity, and severity of illness, whereas significant delta troponin-T was
      associated with higher severity of illness. Admission log10 troponin-T was
      associated with unadjusted in-hospital (odds ratio 1.6; P=0.003) and 1-year
      mortality (odds ratio 1.3; P=0.04), but did not correlate with length of stay.
      Elevated delta troponin-T and log10 delta troponin-T were not significantly
      associated with any of the primary or secondary outcomes. Admission log10
      troponin-T remained an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio
      1.4; P=0.04) and 1-year survival (hazard ratio 1.3; P=0.008). CONCLUSIONS: In
      patients with sepsis and septic shock, elevated admission troponin-T was
      associated with higher short- and long-term mortality. Routine serial troponin-T
      testing did not add incremental prognostic value in these patients.

PMID- 28889102
TI  - Caenorhabditis elegans HIF-1 Is Broadly Required for Survival in Hydrogen
      Sulfide.
AB  - Hydrogen sulfide is common in the environment, and is also endogenously produced
      by animal cells. Although hydrogen sulfide is often toxic, exposure to low levels
      of hydrogen sulfide improves outcomes in a variety of mammalian models of
      ischemia-reperfusion injury. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the initial
      transcriptional response to hydrogen sulfide depends on the hif-1 transcription
      factor, and hif-1 mutant animals die when exposed to hydrogen sulfide. In this
      study, we use rescue experiments to identify tissues in which hif-1 is required
      to survive exposure to hydrogen sulfide. We find that expression of hif-1 from
      the unc-14 promoter is sufficient to survive hydrogen sulfide. Although unc-14 is
      generally considered to be a pan-neuronal promoter, we show that it is active in
      many nonneuronal cells as well. Using other promoters, we show that pan-neuronal
      expression of hif-1 is not sufficient to survive exposure to hydrogen sulfide.
      Our data suggest that hif-1 is required in many different tissues to direct the
      essential response to hydrogen sulfide.

PMID- 28889101
TI  - Relationship of Sleep Duration With All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular
      Events: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort
      Studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Effects of extreme sleep duration on risk of mortality and
      cardiovascular outcomes remain controversial. We aimed to quantify the dose
      response relationships of sleep duration with risk of all-cause mortality, total
      cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      PubMed and Embase were systematically searched for prospective cohort studies
      published before December 1, 2016, that examined the associations between sleep
      duration and at least 1 of the 4 outcomes in generally healthy populations. U
      shaped associations were indicated between sleep duration and risk of all
      outcomes, with the lowest risk observed for ~7-hour sleep duration per day, which
      was varied little by sex. For all-cause mortality, when sleep duration was <7
      hours per day, the pooled relative risk (RR) was 1.06 (95% CI, 1.04-1.07) per 1
      hour reduction; when sleep duration was >7 hours per day, the pooled RR was 1.13
      (95% CI, 1.11-1.15) per 1-hour increment. For total cardiovascular disease, the
      pooled RR was 1.06 (95% CI, 1.03-1.08) per 1-hour reduction and 1.12 (95% CI,
      1.08-1.16) per 1-hour increment of sleep duration. For coronary heart disease,
      the pooled RR was 1.07 (95% CI, 1.03-1.12) per 1-hour reduction and 1.05 (95% CI,
      1.00-1.10) per 1-hour increment of sleep duration. For stroke, the pooled RR was
      1.05 (95% CI, 1.01-1.09) per 1-hour reduction and 1.18 (95% CI, 1.14-1.21) per 1
      hour increment of sleep duration. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that both
      short and long sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of all-cause
      mortality and cardiovascular events.

PMID- 28889103
TI  - A New Diagnostic Resource for Ceratitis capitata Strain Identification Based on
      QTL Mapping.
AB  - The Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) is a destructive
      agricultural pest and the subject of exclusion efforts in many countries.
      Suppression and eradication of invasive populations to prevent its establishment
      is facilitated by the release of sterile males using the sterile insect technique
      (SIT). In SIT release areas, it is critical to accurately discriminate between
      released sterile males and wild individuals to detect extremely rare invasive
      individuals in areas inundated with millions of sterile male flies. Current
      methods for discrimination exist but are not always definitive, and a more
      reliable method is necessary. To address this, we developed a genotyping assay
      that can be used to discriminate between sterile males from the SIT strain and
      wild individuals. This was achieved by identifying single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) linked to the maintained traits that facilitate male-only
      releases, white pupae (wp) and temperature-sensitive lethal (tsl), via QTL
      mapping. This resulted in the identification of one SNP that was in near-perfect
      linkage disequilibrium between genotype at this locus and the pupal color
      phenotype. Medfly from many SIT colonies and wild individuals from across its
      geographic range were genotyped for this locus, and results show its consistency
      in identifying SIT flies. In addition, linkage and QTL mapping of wp and tsl have
      larger impacts as they can serve as foundational tools to identify the genetic
      basis of traits that facilitate the separation of males from female flies, which
      can be used to develop SIT programs in related species.

PMID- 28889104
TI  - Machine Learning Analysis Identifies Drosophila Grunge/Atrophin as an Important
      Learning and Memory Gene Required for Memory Retention and Social Learning.
AB  - High-throughput experiments are becoming increasingly common, and scientists must
      balance hypothesis-driven experiments with genome-wide data acquisition. We
      sought to predict novel genes involved in Drosophila learning and long-term
      memory from existing public high-throughput data. We performed an analysis using
      PILGRM, which analyzes public gene expression compendia using machine learning.
      We evaluated the top prediction alongside genes involved in learning and memory
      in IMP, an interface for functional relationship networks. We identified
      Grunge/Atrophin (Gug/Atro), a transcriptional repressor, histone deacetylase, as
      our top candidate. We find, through multiple, distinct assays, that Gug has an
      active role as a modulator of memory retention in the fly and its function is
      required in the adult mushroom body. Depletion of Gug specifically in neurons of
      the adult mushroom body, after cell division and neuronal development is
      complete, suggests that Gug function is important for memory retention through
      regulation of neuronal activity, and not by altering neurodevelopment. Our study
      provides a previously uncharacterized role for Gug as a possible regulator of
      neuronal plasticity at the interface of memory retention and memory extinction.

PMID- 28889105
TI  - Inducible laryngeal obstruction: an official joint European Respiratory Society
      and European Laryngological Society statement.
AB  - Inducible laryngeal obstruction (ILO) describes an inappropriate, transient,
      reversible narrowing of the larynx in response to external triggers. ILO is an
      important cause of a variety of respiratory symptoms and can mimic asthma.
      Current understanding of ILO has been hampered by imprecise nomenclature and
      variable approaches to assessment and management. A task force of the European
      Respiratory Society (ERS) and European Laryngological Society (ELS) was thus set
      up to address this, and to identify research priorities.A literature search
      identified relevant articles published until June 2016, using all identifiable
      terms for ILO, although including only articles using laryngoscopy. In total, 172
      out of 252 articles met the inclusion criteria, summarised in sections on
      diagnostic approach, aetiology, comorbidities, epidemiology and treatment. The
      consensus taxonomy published by ERS, ELS and the American College of Chest
      Physicians (ACCP) in 2015 is used throughout this statement.We highlight the high
      prevalence of ILO and the clinical impact for those affected. Despite recent
      advances, most aspects of this condition unfortunately remain incompletely
      understood, precluding firm guidance. Specifically, validated diagnostic and
      treatment algorithms are yet to be established, and no randomised control studies
      were identified in this search; hence we also make recommendations for future
      research.

PMID- 28889106
TI  - Prevention of COPD exacerbations: a European Respiratory Society/American
      Thoracic Society guideline.
AB  - This document provides clinical recommendations for the prevention of chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. It represents a collaborative
      effort between the European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic
      Society.Comprehensive evidence syntheses were performed to summarise all
      available evidence relevant to the Task Force's questions. The evidence was
      appraised using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and
      Evaluation approach and the results were summarised in evidence profiles. The
      evidence syntheses were discussed and recommendations formulated by a
      multidisciplinary Task Force of COPD experts.After considering the balance of
      desirable (benefits) and undesirable consequences (burden in the form of adverse
      effects and cost), quality of evidence, feasibility, and acceptability of various
      interventions, the Task Force made recommendations for mucolytic, long-acting
      muscarinic antagonist, phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor (roflumilast) and macrolide
      therapy, as well as a conditional recommendation against fluoroquinolone therapy.
      All of the recommendations were conditional, except for a strong recommendation
      for the use of a long-acting antimuscarinic agent versus a long-acting beta2
      adrenergic, indicating that there was uncertainty about the balance of desirable
      and undesirable consequences of the intervention, and that well-informed patients
      may make different choices regarding whether to have or not have the specific
      intervention.The guideline summarises the evidence and provides recommendations
      for pharmacological therapy for the prevention of COPD exacerbations.

PMID- 28889108
TI  - Survival in individuals with severe alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency (PiZZ) in
      comparison to a general population with known smoking habits.
AB  - Knowledge about the natural history of severe alpha 1-antitrypsin (AAT)
      deficiency (PiZZ) is limited. Our aim was to compare the survival of PiZZ
      individuals with randomly selected controls from the Swedish general
      population.The PiZZ subjects (n=1585) were selected from the Swedish National
      AATD Register. The controls (n=5999) were randomly selected from the Swedish
      population register. Smoking habits were known for all subjects.Median follow-up
      times for the PiZZ subjects (731 never-smokers) and controls (3179 never-smokers)
      were 12 and 17 years, respectively (p<0.001). During follow-up, 473 PiZZ subjects
      (30%), and 747 controls (12%) died. The PiZZ subjects had a significantly shorter
      survival time than the controls, p<0.001. After adjustment for gender, age,
      smoking habits and presence of respiratory symptoms, the risk of death was still
      significantly higher for the PiZZ individuals than for the controls, hazard ratio
      (HR) 3.2 (95% CI 2.8-3.6; p<0.001). By contrast, the risk of death was not
      increased in never-smoking PiZZ individuals identified by screening, compared to
      never-smoking controls, HR 1.2 (95% CI 0.6-2.2).The never-smoking PiZZ
      individuals identified by screening had a similar life expectancy to the never
      smokers in the Swedish general population. Early diagnosis of AAT deficiency is
      of utmost importance.

PMID- 28889107
TI  - RESPITE: switching to riociguat in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients with
      inadequate response to phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors.
AB  - A proportion of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients do not reach
      treatment goals with phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE5i). RESPITE investigated
      the safety, feasibility and benefit of switching from PDE5i to riociguat in these
      patients.RESPITE was a 24-week, open-label, multicentre, uncontrolled study.
      Patients in World Health Organization (WHO) functional class (FC) III, with 6-min
      walking distance (6MWD) 165-440 m, cardiac index <3.0 L.min-1.m-2 and pulmonary
      vascular resistance >400 dyn.s.cm-5 underwent a 1-3 day PDE5i treatment-free
      period before receiving riociguat adjusted up to 2.5 mg maximum t.i.d Exploratory
      end-points included change in 6MWD, WHO FC, N-terminal prohormone of brain
      natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and safety.Of 61 patients enrolled, 51 (84%)
      completed RESPITE. 50 (82%) were receiving concomitant endothelin receptor
      antagonists. At week 24, mean+/-sd 6MWD had increased by 31+/-63 m, NT-proBNP
      decreased by 347+/-1235 pg.mL-1 and WHO FC improved in 28 patients (54%). 32
      patients (52%) experienced study drug-related adverse events and 10 (16%)
      experienced serious adverse events (2 (3%) study drug-related, none during the
      PDE5i treatment-free period). Six patients (10%) experienced clinical worsening,
      including death in two (not study drug-related).In conclusion, selected patients
      with PAH may benefit from switching from PDE5i to riociguat, but this strategy
      needs to be further studied.

PMID- 28889109
TI  - Are indexed values better for defining exercise pulmonary hypertension?

PMID- 28889111
TI  - Nitrogen back-diffusion during multiple-breath washout with 100% oxygen.

PMID- 28889110
TI  - European Respiratory Society guidelines for the management of adult
      bronchiectasis.
AB  - Bronchiectasis in adults is a chronic disorder associated with poor quality of
      life and frequent exacerbations in many patients. There have been no previous
      international guidelines.The European Respiratory Society guidelines for the
      management of adult bronchiectasis describe the appropriate investigation and
      treatment strategies determined by a systematic review of the literature.A
      multidisciplinary group representing respiratory medicine, microbiology,
      physiotherapy, thoracic surgery, primary care, methodology and patients
      considered the most relevant clinical questions (for both clinicians and
      patients) related to management of bronchiectasis. Nine key clinical questions
      were generated and a systematic review was conducted to identify published
      systematic reviews, randomised clinical trials and observational studies that
      answered these questions. We used the GRADE approach to define the quality of the
      evidence and the level of recommendations. The resulting guideline addresses the
      investigation of underlying causes of bronchiectasis, treatment of exacerbations,
      pathogen eradication, long term antibiotic treatment, anti-inflammatories,
      mucoactive drugs, bronchodilators, surgical treatment and respiratory
      physiotherapy.These recommendations can be used to benchmark quality of care for
      people with bronchiectasis across Europe and to improve outcomes.

PMID- 28889112
TI  - Interplay between cigarette smoking and pulmonary reverse lipid transport.
AB  - Reverse lipid transport is critical to maintain homeostasis. Smoking causes lipid
      accumulation in macrophages, therefore suggesting suboptimal reverse lipid
      transport mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the interplay between
      smoking and reverse lipid transport and the consequences on smoking-induced lung
      and peripheral alterations.To investigate the relationship between smoking and
      reverse lipid transport, we used a clinical lung gene expression dataset and a
      mouse model of cigarette smoke exposure. We also used ApoA-1-/- mice, with
      reduced reverse lipid transport capacity, and a recombinant ApoA-1
      Milano/phospholipid complex (MDCO-216) to boost reverse lipid transport. Cellular
      and functional analyses were performed on the lungs and impact on body
      composition was also assessed.Smoking affects pulmonary expression of abca1,
      abcg1, apoe and scarb1 in both mice and humans, key genes involved in reverse
      lipid transport. In mice, the capacity of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum
      to stimulate cholesterol efflux in macrophages was increased after a single
      exposure to cigarette smoke. ApoA-1-/- mice showed increased lung neutrophilia,
      larger macrophages and greater loss in lean mass in response to smoking, whereas
      treatment with MDCO-216 reduced the size of macrophages and increased the lean
      mass of mice exposed to cigarette smoke.Altogether, this study shows a functional
      interaction between smoking and reverse lipid transport, and opens new avenues
      for better understanding the link between metabolic and pulmonary diseases
      related to smoking.

PMID- 28889113
TI  - Overdosing on immediate-release morphine solution has predictable adverse
      effects.

PMID- 28889114
TI  - The paradoxes of asthma management: time for a new approach?
AB  - Poor adherence to maintenance pharmacotherapy is a reality in asthma. Studies
      confirm that when symptoms worsen, most patients increase short-acting beta2
      agonist (SABA) use, instead of using controller medication. This behaviour might
      be attributable to several paradoxes in the current treatment approach. These
      paradoxes include the recommended use of a SABA bronchodilator alone at Global
      Initiative for Asthma (GINA) step 1, despite the fact that asthma is a chronic
      inflammatory disease. At step 1, the patient has autonomy and their perception of
      need and disease control is accepted, but at higher asthma treatment steps a
      fixed-dose approach is recommended, irrespective of symptom severity. The
      unintended consequence is the establishment of a pattern of early over-reliance
      on SABA. New approaches that avoid these paradoxes are needed, such as patient
      adjusted therapy, in which patients adopt a symptom-driven approach using a
      combination reliever/controller. We propose that SABA reliever monotherapy should
      be replaced by a combination of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and formoterol, or
      similar rapid-onset bronchodilator, as reliever therapy for patients at GINA
      steps 1 or 2. This will ensure early and more regular administration of a
      controller medication. However, a significant body of clinical data will be
      needed before this approach can be approved by regulatory authorities.

PMID- 28889115
TI  - Predictable adverse events such as respiratory depression highlight the need for
      caution when prescribing morphine for refractory breathlessness.

PMID- 28889116
TI  - Challenging the concept of adding more drugs in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

PMID- 28889118
TI  - Biotechnology of siderophores in high-impact scientific fields.
AB  - Different aspects of bacterial and fungal siderophore biotechnological
      applications will be discussed. Areas of application presented include, but are
      not limited to agriculture, medicine, pharmacology, bioremediation,
      biodegradation and food industry. In agriculture-related applications,
      siderophores could be employed to enhance plant growth due to their uptake by
      rhizobia. Siderophores hindered the presence of plant pathogens in biocontrol
      strategies. Bioremediation studies on siderophores discuss mostly the
      mobilization of heavy metals and radionuclides; the emulsifying effects of
      siderophore-producing microorganisms in oil-contaminated environments are also
      presented. The different applications found in literature based in medicine and
      pharmacological approaches range from iron overload to drug delivery systems and,
      more recently, vaccines. Additional research should be done in siderophore
      production and their metabolic relevance to have a deeper understanding for
      future biotechnological advances.

PMID- 28889119
TI  - Sham transcranial electrical stimulation and its effects on corticospinal
      excitability: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Sham stimulation is used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the
      efficacy of active stimulation and placebo effects. It should mimic the
      characteristics of active stimulation to achieve blinding integrity. The present
      study was a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published literature to
      identify the effects of sham transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) -
      including anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS, c
      tDCS), transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), transcranial random
      noise stimulation (tRNS) and transcranial pulsed current stimulation (tPCS) - on
      corticospinal excitability (CSE), compared to baseline in healthy individuals.
      Electronic databases - PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Science Direct and MEDLINE (Ovid) 
      were searched for RCTs of tES from 1990 to March 2017. Thirty RCTs were
      identified. Using a random-effects model, meta-analysis of a-tDCS, c-tDCS, tACS,
      tRNS and tPCS studies showed statistically non-significant pre-post effects of
      sham interventions on CSE. This review found evidence for statically non
      significant effects of sham tES on CSE.

PMID- 28889120
TI  - Efficiency: an underlying principle of learning?
AB  - Learning is essential. It allows animals to change circumstances, deal with new
      situations and adapt to environments. Here, we argue that learning, at behavioral
      and neural levels, involves efficiency, reflected in metabolic cost reductions.
      Behaviourally, although multiple solutions to a novel problem may be available,
      all solutions are not learnt - it is too costly. Furthermore, once a strategy has
      been selected, it is reinforced producing an efficiency that leads to a
      maximisation of performance and metabolic cost reductions. Learning can be
      represented in the brain through many mechanisms; however, if learning is truly
      efficient, then, all such mechanisms should also be accompanied by a reduction in
      measurable metabolic costs. By thinking about learning in terms of efficiency,
      not simply as a descriptive term but rather in terms of metabolic costs, it
      allows learning to be examined more carefully and provides predictions that can
      be easily tested (and indeed refuted).

PMID- 28889121
TI  - Structure-Function Analysis of the Periplasmic Escherichia coli Cyclophilin PpiA
      in Relation to Biofilm Formation.
AB  - The presence of peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases, EC: 5.2.1.8) in
      all domains of life indicates their biological importance. Cyclophilin PpiA,
      present in the periplasm of gram-negative bacteria, possesses PPIase activity but
      its physiological functions are still not clearly defined. Here, we demonstrate
      that the DeltappiA deletion strain from Escherichia coli exhibits an increased
      ability for biofilm formation and enhanced swimming motility compared to the wild
      type strain. To identify structural features of PpiA which are necessary for the
      negative modulation of biofilm formation, we constructed a series of mutant PpiA
      proteins using a combination of error-prone and site-directed mutagenesis
      approaches. We show that the negative effect of PpiA on biofilm formation is not
      dependent on its PPIase activity, since PpiA mutants with a reduced PPIase
      activity are able to complement the DeltappiA strain during biofilm growth.

PMID- 28889122
TI  - Galectin-9 Produced by Intestinal Epithelial Cells Enhances Aldehyde
      Dehydrogenase Activity in Dendritic Cells in a PI3K- and p38-Dependent Manner.
AB  - Intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) drive regulatory T cell (Treg) responses by
      promoting the differentiation of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)-expressing CD103+
      dendritic cells (DC). Apical stimulation of TLR9 by CpG DNA on IEC supports
      galectin-9 expression by IEC, which is promoted by short-chain galacto
      oligosaccharides and long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (GF). While galectin-9
      can induce the maturation of monocyte-derived DC (moDC), the contribution of
      galectin-9 on the induction of ALDH activity in DC is not known. To this end, DC
      were stimulated with galectin-9, and ALDH activity and the expression of CD103
      were assessed. ALDH activity was increased by moDC exposed to galectin-9, while
      the expression of CD103 remained unaltered. Galectin-9 secreted by IEC apically
      exposed to CpG DNA and GF enhanced ALDH activity, but not CD103 expression by
      moDC, which was abrogated upon galectin-9 neutralization. Similar observations
      were found in murine GM-CSF-cultured bone marrow-derived DC (BMDC). Using Flt3L
      cultured BMDC and ex vivo murine splenic DC, it was observed that galectin-9 only
      enhanced ALDH activity in the presence of GM-CSF in CD103- cells. The induction
      of ALDH activity in BMDC was dependent on p38 and PI3K signaling. These data
      indicate a novel role for galectin-9 in modulating innate immunity by inducing
      ALDH activity in DC.

PMID- 28889123
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28889124
TI  - Factors Affecting Stereotactic Accuracy in Image-Guided Deep Brain Stimulator
      Electrode Placement.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Intraoperative imaging allows near-real-time assessment of
      stereotactic accuracy during implantation of deep brain stimulation (DBS)
      electrodes. Such technology can be used to examine factors impacting stereotactic
      error. METHODS: Intraoperative CT imaging was reviewed in patients undergoing DBS
      placement at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Coordinates of the target
      electrode were compared to the operative plan to characterize the magnitude and
      direction of stereotactic error with respect to side of implantation, target, and
      electrode approach angles. RESULTS: One hundred sixty-nine leads in 94 patients
      were examined. Targets were GPi (n = 86), STN (n = 31), and Vim (n = 52). The
      average Euclidean error was 1.63 mm (SD 0.87). The error magnitude was higher for
      Vim (1.95 mm) than for GPi (1.44 mm), while STN (1.65 mm) did not differ from
      either Vim or GPi (ANOVA: F = 6.15, p = 0.003). Electrodes targeting Vim and STN
      were significantly more likely to deviate medially compared to those targeting
      GPi (ANOVA: F = 9.13, p < 0.001). The coronal approach angle affected the error
      when targeting Vim (rho = 0.338, p = 0.01). These findings were confirmed during
      multivariate analyses. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows a significant effect of
      target on the accuracy of electrode placement for DBS. Targeting Vim results in a
      greater Euclidean error and a greater medial deviation off target. These
      systematic deviations should be taken into account during electrode implantation.

PMID- 28889125
TI  - Brimonidine Protects Auditory Hair Cells from in vitro-Induced Toxicity of
      Gentamicin.
AB  - Brimonidine, an alpha-2 adrenergic receptor (alpha2-AR) agonist, has
      neuroprotective effects in the visual system and in spiral ganglion neurons.
      Auditory hair cells (HCs) express all 3 alpha2-AR subtypes, but their roles in
      HCs remain unknown. This study investigated the effects of brimonidine on
      auditory HCs that were also exposed to gentamicin, which is toxic to HCs. Organ
      of Corti explants were exposed to gentamicin in the presence or absence of
      brimonidine, and the alpha2-AR protein expression levels and Erk1/2 and Akt
      phosphorylation levels were determined. Brimonidine had a protective effect on
      auditory HCs against gentamicin-induced toxicity that was blocked by yohimbine.
      This suggested that the protective effect of brimonidine on HCs was mediated by
      the alpha2-AR. None of the treatments altered alpha2-AR protein expression
      levels, and brimonidine did not significantly change the activation levels of the
      Erk1/2 and Akt proteins. These observations indicated that brimonidine, acting
      directly via alpha2-AR, protects HCs from gentamicin-induced toxicity. Therefore,
      brimonidine shows potential for preventing or treating sensorineural hearing
      loss.

PMID- 28889126
TI  - Chromosomal Microarray Analysis in Fetuses with Growth Restriction and Normal
      Karyotype: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To perform a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analysis
      to estimate the incremental yield of chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) over
      karyotyping in fetal growth restriction (FGR). METHODS: This was a systematic
      review conducted in accordance with the PRISMA criteria. All articles identified
      in PubMed, Ovid Medline, and ISI Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) from January
      2009 to November 2016 describing pathogenic copy number variants (CNVs) in
      fetuses with growth restriction were included. Case reports were excluded. Risk
      differences were pooled to estimate the overall and stratified CMA incremental
      yield. RESULTS: Ten studies with full data available met the inclusion criteria
      for analysis. Combined data from these studies revealed a 4% (95% confidence
      interval [CI] 1-6%) incremental yield of CMA over karyotyping in nonmalformed
      growth-restricted fetuses, and a 10% (95% CI 6-14%) incremental yield in FGR when
      associated with fetal malformations. The most frequently found pathogenic CNVs
      were 22q11.2 duplication, Xp22.3 deletion, and 7q11.23 deletion (Williams-Beuren
      syndrome), particularly in isolated FGR. CONCLUSION: The use of genomic CMA
      provides a 4% incremental yield of detecting pathogenic CNVs in fetuses with
      isolated growth restriction and normal karyotype.

PMID- 28889127
TI  - Buccal Epithelium, Cigarette Smoking, and Lung Cancer: Review of the Literature.
AB  - Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men
      and women in the United States, and optimal screening methods are still lacking.
      The field effect is a well-supported phenomenon wherein a noxious stimulus
      triggers genetic, epigenetic and molecular changes that are widespread throughout
      the entire exposed organ system. The buccal epithelium is an easily accessible
      part of the respiratory tree that has good potential of yielding a surrogate
      marker for the field effect in cigarette smokers, and thus, a noninvasive,
      reliable lung cancer screening method. Herein, we review the literature on the
      relationship between the buccal epithelium, cigarette smoking, and lung cancer.

PMID- 28889129
TI  - Abstracts of 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Public Health Supplement.

PMID- 28889128
TI  - Hemorrhage Detection and Incidence during Magnetic Resonance-Guided Deep Brain
      Stimulator Implantations.
AB  - BACKGROUND/AIMS: Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) is increasingly
      used to implant deep brain stimulator (DBS) electrodes. The approach has the
      advantages of a high targeting accuracy, minimization of brain penetrations, and
      allowance of implantation under general anesthesia. The hemorrhagic complications
      of iMRI-guided DBS implantation have not been studied in a large series. We
      report on the incidence and characteristics of hemorrhage during these
      procedures. METHODS: Hemorrhage incidence was assessed in a series of 231 iMRI
      procedures (374 electrodes implanted). All patients had movement disorders and
      the subthalamic nucleus or the globus pallidus internus was typically targeted.
      Hemorrhage was detected with intra- or postoperative MRI or postoperative
      computed tomography. Hemorrhage was classified based on its point of origin and
      clinical impact. RESULTS: Hemorrhage and symptomatic hemorrhage were detected
      during 2.4 and 1.1% of electrode implantations, respectively. The hemorrhage
      origin was subdural/subarachnoid (n = 3), subcortical (n = 5), or deep (n = 1).
      Factors that contributed to hemorrhage included unintentional crossing of a
      sulcus and resistance at the pial membrane, which produced cortical depression
      and a rebound hemorrhage. Delayed hemorrhage occurred in 2 patients and was
      attributed to premature reintroduction of anticoagulation therapy or air
      intrusion into the cranial cavity. CONCLUSIONS: Hemorrhage was readily apparent
      on intraoperative imaging, and hemorrhage rates for iMRI-guided DBS implantations
      were comparable to those for conventional implantation approaches.

PMID- 28889130
TI  - Experience of a rapid access falls and syncope service at a teaching hospital in
      Kuala Lumpur.
AB  - No abstract available.

PMID- 28889131
TI  - Missed opportunities for earlier HIV-testing in patients with HIV infection
      referred to a tertiary hospital, a cross-sectional study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In Malaysia, the prevalence of missed opportunities for HIV-testing
      is unknown. Missed opportunities have been linked to late diagnosis of HIV and
      poorer outcome for patients. We describe missed opportunities for earlier HIV
      testing in newly-HIV-diagnosed patients. METHODS: Cross sectional study. Adult
      patients diagnosed with HIV infection and had at least one medical encounter in a
      primary healthcare setting during three years prior to diagnosis were included.
      We collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, patient characteristics at
      diagnosis, HIV-related conditions and whether they were subjected to risk
      assessment and offered HIV testing during the three years prior to HIV diagnosis.
      RESULTS: 65 newly HIV-diagnosed patients (male: 92.3%; Malays: 52.4%; single:
      66.7%; heterosexual: 41%; homosexual 24.6%; CD4 <350 at diagnosis: 63%). 93.8%
      were unaware of their HIV status at diagnosis. Up to 56.9% had presented with HIV
      related conditions at a primary healthcare facility during the three years prior
      to diagnosis. Slightly more than half were had risk assessment done and only
      33.8% were offered HIV-testing. CONCLUSIONS: Missed opportunities for HIV-testing
      was unacceptably high with insufficient risk assessment and offering of HIV
      testing. Risk assessment must be promoted and primary care physicians must be
      trained to recognize HIV-related conditions that will prompt them to offer
      HIVtesting.

PMID- 28889132
TI  - Food allergy and allergic rhinitis in 435 asian patients - A descriptive review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of food allergy in Asian patients with
      allergic rhinitis. STUDY DESIGN: A non-randomized prospectively collected
      patients over a three year period, with complaints of nose congestion, rhinorrhea
      and/or nasal discharge. RESULTS: There were 435 patients enrolled, 213 children
      and 222 adults. The children group had a high prevalence of allergen specific IgE
      to Dermatophagoides pteryonysinus (70%), Dermatophagoides farina (69%), and
      Blomia tropicalis (55%); followed by dogs (32%), cats (19%) and cockroaches
      (19%). In the children food allergy category, the top three allergens were egg
      white (54%), milk (31%) and soya bean (13%). The adult group had results of
      Dermatophagoides pteryonysinus (71%), Dermatophagoides farina (72%), and Blomia
      tropicalis (59%); the adult food allergy category, the top 3 allergens were egg
      white (13%), milk (6%) and soya bean (5%). There was a statistically significant
      difference in the child and adult group for Dust, D. pteryonysinus, D. farina,
      B.tropicalis, egg white, wheat, gluten and soya bean. In the age specific child
      groups, there was an increased in egg food allergy levels, with a peak at the age
      of five-nine years old and decreasing thereafter (p=0.04). In the children group,
      the mean Total Nasal Symptom Score (TNSS) was 10.3 (range of 7 to 13); the adult
      group was similar, with a mean TNSS of 9.8 (range 5 to 12). CONCLUSION: The
      prevalence of food allergy in paediatric patients with allergic rhinitis is
      fairly high and should be considered when treating these children.

PMID- 28889133
TI  - Prevalence and predictors of depression and suicidal ideation among adolescents
      attending government secondary schools in Malaysia.
AB  - No abstract available.

PMID- 28889134
TI  - Pesticide applicators questionnaire content validation: A fuzzy delphi method.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The most crucial step in forming a set of survey questionnaire is
      deciding the appropriate items in a construct. Retaining irrelevant items and
      removing important items will certainly mislead the direction of a particular
      study. This article demonstrates Fuzzy Delphi method as one of the scientific
      analysis technique to consolidate consensus agreement within a panel of experts
      pertaining to each item's appropriateness. This method reduces the ambiguity,
      diversity, and discrepancy of the opinions among the experts hence enhances the
      quality of the selected items. The main purpose of this study was to obtain
      experts' consensus on the suitability of the preselected items on the
      questionnaire. METHODS: The panel consists of sixteen experts from the
      Occupational and Environmental Health Unit of Ministry of Health, Vector-borne
      Disease Control Unit of Ministry of Health and Occupational and Safety Health
      Unit of both public and private universities. A set of questionnaires related to
      noise and chemical exposure were compiled based on the literature search. There
      was a total of six constructs with 60 items in which three constructs for
      knowledge, attitude, and practice of noise exposure and three constructs for
      knowledge, attitude, and practice of chemical exposure. The validation process
      replicated recent Fuzzy Delphi method that using a concept of Triangular Fuzzy
      Numbers and Defuzzification process. RESULTS: A 100% response rate was obtained
      from all the sixteen experts with an average Likert scoring of four to five. Post
      FDM analysis, the first prerequisite was fulfilled with a threshold value (d) <=
      0.2, hence all the six constructs were accepted. For the second prerequisite,
      three items (21%) from noise-attitude construct and four items (40%) from
      chemical-practice construct had expert consensus lesser than 75%, which giving
      rise to about 12% from the total items in the questionnaire. The third
      prerequisite was used to rank the items within the constructs by calculating the
      average fuzzy numbers. The seven items which did not fulfill the second
      prerequisite similarly had lower ranks during the analysis, therefore those items
      were discarded from the final draft. CONCLUSION: Post FDM analysis, the experts'
      consensus on the suitability of the pre-selected items on the questionnaire set
      were obtained, hence it is now ready for further construct validation process.

PMID- 28889135
TI  - Acute outcome of chronic total occlusion (CTO) recanalizsation in the elderly.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of total chronic total
      occlusion (CTO) still remains a major challenge in interventional cardiology.
      There is only insignificant knowledge reported in the literature about age
      differences in CTO recanalization. We analyzed in this study the issue of the
      impact of age on procedural characteristics, complications and short-term
      outcome. METHODS: Between 2012-2016 we included 440 patients. They underwent PCI
      for at least one CTO. Antegrade and retrograde CTO techniques were applied. The
      retrograde approach was used only after failed antegrade intervention. Continuous
      data are presented as the mean +/- standard deviation; categorical data are
      presented as numbers and percentages unless otherwise specified. We used
      Twosamplet- t-test with equal variance to test the significant differences of the
      variables between the two cohorts. RESULTS: Procedural success proved
      independently of age. There was no significant interaction between age and
      procedural success (p=0.5). Complication rates were low in both groups (2.7% vs.
      4%; p=0,4) with no difference in statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      suggests that in an aging society patients with severe coronary artery disease
      and chronical total occlusions an interventional therapy should be used more
      intensively. It can be performed safe and feasible.

PMID- 28889136
TI  - Electro-navigational bronchoscopy for bilateral peripheral lung lesions: A case
      report.
AB  - Electromagnetic navigational bronchoscopy (ENB), one of the methods of
      navigational bronchoscopy is an advanced diagnostic tool allowing tissue sampling
      at the lung peripheries which were previously accessible only by computed
      tomography (CT) guidance or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). We
      report a 53-year-old man who presented with a cough and dyspnea with
      constitutional symptoms for one month. CT thorax revealed multiple bilateral
      peripheral lung nodules and there were no endobronchial lesions on flexible
      bronchoscopy. ENB was performed using a loan machine from Veran navigational
      technology. Biopsy successfully revealed small cell carcinoma of the lung thus
      preventing him from undergoing a more invasive diagnostic procedure. This case
      highlights the utility of ENB in the evaluation of peripheral lung nodules that
      were inaccessible by conventional bronchoscopy. This is one of the first few
      successful applications of Veran ENB in Asia.

PMID- 28889137
TI  - Perforated gastric ulcer in severe dengue infection: A case report.
AB  - Abdominal pain is one of the common presentations in severe dengue infection. We
      report a rare case of perforated gastric ulcer in a young man diagnosed with
      severe dengue infection and the challenges we faced in managing this patient.
      Perforated gastric ulcer need to be considered if there are signs of peritonitis
      and persistent abdominal pain that does not conform to the natural history of
      dengue. Proper imaging and early surgical intervention in perforated gastric
      ulcer is vital in preventing further complication and reducing the risk of
      mortality.

PMID- 28889138
TI  - Pulmonary actinomycosis masquerading as lung cancer: A case report.
AB  - Pulmonary actinomycosis is a rare yet important and challenging diagnosis to
      make. It is commonly confused with other lung diseases, such as tuberculosis and
      bronchogenic carcinoma, leading to delay diagnosis or misdiagnosis. A 49-year-old
      man presented with a chronic cough, hemoptysis, and pleuritic chest pain. His
      initial imaging studies including computed tomography (CT) was suggestive of
      bronchogenic carcinoma. A subsequent CTguided biopsy was consistent with
      pulmonary actinomycosis and excluded the possibility of bronchogenic carcinoma.
      He was treated with antibiotic therapy and achieved remission with complete
      radiological resolution upon follow-up.

PMID- 28889139
TI  - Bohring-opitz syndrome - A case of a rare genetic disorder.
AB  - The diagnostic challenge of Bohring-Opitz Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder has
      haunted clinicians for ages. Our patient was born at term via caesarean-section
      with a birth weight of 1.95 kilograms. She had mild laryngomalacia,
      gastroesophageal reflux disease and seizures. Physical signs included
      microcephaly, hemangioma, low set ears, cleft palate, micrognatia and the typical
      BOS posture. Chromosomal analysis showed 46 xx -Bohring-Opitz Syndrome overlapped
      with C- syndrome. Goal-directed holistic care with integration of parent/carer
      training was started very early. She succumbed to a Respiratory- Syncitial-Virus
      and Pseudomonas pneumonia complicated with sepsis at the age of two years and 11
      months.

PMID- 28889140
TI  - Multiple bilateral renal abscesses in a previously healthy young patient.
AB  - The incidence of renal abscesses is not common. Patients usually have risk
      factors like diabetes mellitus or an underlying condition which predisposes to
      urinary tract infections. We report a case of a previously healthy young girl
      with multiple bilateral renal abscesses. Ultrasonography revealed multiple renal
      abscesses with a possible differential diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease
      with infected cysts. No renal calculi were seen. CT-scan of kidneys confirmed the
      diagnosis. Blood and urine cultures were repeatedly negative. She was treated
      with two weeks of intravenous antibiotics followed by another four weeks of oral
      Ciprofloxacin. No surgical intervention was carried out. Repeated ultrasound at
      six months showed complete resolution of all the renal abscesses.

PMID- 28889141
TI  - Case report: A case of pericardial effusion presenting to primary care.
AB  - This is a rare but interesting case of Mr. MZ who had a lifethreatening
      pericardial effusion presenting to the primary care clinic. Through great
      clinical acumen and prudent targeted investigations, diagnosis of this rare
      condition was reached and urgent referral made to the cardiology team which
      performed an emergency pericardiocentesis which proved to be life -saving.
      However, the hovering poor prognosis of Mr. MZ may prompt for a referral to the
      palliative care team to provide quality end of life care for this unfortunate
      patient.

PMID- 28889142
TI  - Dengue shock syndrome with retroperitoneal haematoma requiring repeated artery
      angioembolization.
AB  - Eyelid reconstruction is complex and challenging since it is not only for
      structural and functional restoration, but also for an acceptable aesthetic
      result. In full thickness eyelid injuries, it will involve both anterior and
      posterior lamella. Therefore, when reconstructing the defect, it requires at
      least two layers; one will be a flap with blood supply, and the other can be a
      free graft. In this case, a rotational advancement cheek flap and composite graft
      were used to reconstruct the lower eyelid.

PMID- 28889143
TI  - A Nonrandom Sample of 55 Sexual Abuse Cases in Sivas.
AB  - BACKGROUND Sexual abuse in childhood is a significant public health problem
      because of the destructive results both to the individual and to the community.
      The aim of this study was to examine the sociodemographic characteristics of
      children who were victims of sexual abuse, the relationship of the victim and
      abuser, and the findings of sexual abuse. MATERIAL AND METHODS An examination was
      made of the results of forensic medicine and psychiatric evaluations of child
      victims of sexual abuse. The sociodemographic characteristics of the cases and
      the characteristics of the incidents of sexual abuse were evaluated at the
      Forensic Medicine Department of Cumhuriyet University between 2013 and 2016.
      RESULTS A total of 55 cases were included in the study, comprising eight males
      (14.5%) and 47 females (85.5%) in the age range of 5-17 years. The vast majority
      of the cases were high school students. The place of the abuse incident was the
      home of the victim or the perpetrator in 29 cases (52.7%). The sexual abuse was
      determined to be bodily penetration in 32 cases (58.1%). In 32 cases (58.1%), the
      perpetrator was known to the victim. CONCLUSIONS The study findings that the
      perpetrator of the sexual abuse was known to the child, that predominantly female
      children were attacked, and the low sociocultural level of the cases were
      consistent with other studies reported in the literature. To prevent sexual abuse
      of children, to make an early diagnosis, and to provide rehabilitation for the
      abused children, it is essential that the evaluations of these cases are made
      using a professional multidisciplinary approach.

PMID- 28889144
TI  - Modified Fan-Shaped Distribution Technology for Computed Tomography (CT)-Guided
      Radioactive Seed Implantation in Lung Cancer Patients with Lung Dysfunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the safety and effectiveness
      of fan-shaped distribution and coaxial puncture technology for radioactive iodine
      125 (125I) seed implantation in treatment of lung cancer patients with lung
      dysfunction. MATERIAL AND METHODS We enrolled and analyzed 33 lung cancer
      patients with lung dysfunction diagnosed in our hospital from 2013 to 2014 in
      this study, all of which were implanted with radioactive 125I seed with
      technology of fan-shaped distribution and coaxial puncture. The matched
      peripheral dose (MPD) range was 90-140GY. The brachytherapy planning system (TPS)
      was used to draw up a preoperative seed implantation plan. The fan-shaped
      distribution system was applied to simulate a surgery program, and seed
      implantation pitch was 0.5-1.0 cm. Real-time adjustment was necessary during
      surgery. Dose distributions were verified by TPS immediately after implantation.
      Intraoperative and postoperative surgery-related complications were analyzed. All
      patients were followed up for 6 months, and the local control rate of cancer was
      evaluated through CT scan. RESULTS All patients were operated on successfully.
      The main surgery-related complications were pulmonary hemorrhage, pleural cavity
      hemorrhage, and pneumothorax. The local control rates of 2-month, 4-month, and 6
      month were 29%, 73%, and 85%, respectively. The total complete remission rate was
      18%, the partial response rate was 67%, the stable disease rate was 12%, and the
      disease progression rate was 3%. CONCLUSIONS The fan-shaped distribution and
      coaxial puncture technology for radioactive 125I seed implantation was safe and
      effective in treating lung cancer patients with lung dysfunction.

PMID- 28889145
TI  - Efficacy and adverse events of pirfenidone in treating idiopathic pulmonary
      fibrosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To analyze the efficacy and adverse events  (AEs) of pirfenidone in
      idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) trials. Methods: MEDLINE, Cochrane Library,
      and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched for studies published before June 2016. All
      studies of clinical trials with the key words IPF or idiopathic pulmonary
      fibrosis or lung fibrosis and pirfenidone or Esbriet were identified. Quality
      assessment and data extraction nwere conducted by 2 independent researchers. A
      meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed, and relative
      risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated.   Results: Five
      studies were included in this review, involving 1568 participants. The meta
      analysis revealed that pirfenidone reduced the risk of decline in forced vital
      capacity (FVC)% >=10% from baseline (relative risk: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.51-0.76, p
      less than 0.001). The pirfenidone group had a significantly higher rate of AEs
      compared with the placebo group. Pirfenidone did not reduce mortality from any
      cause significantly (odds ratio: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.36-1.09). Conclusions: This
      study showed that pirfenidone could reduce disease progression as assessed by the
      decline in FVC in IPF. Pirfenidone represents a suitable treatment option for
      patients with IPF.

PMID- 28889146
TI  - Celiac disease in Saudi children. Evaluation of clinical features and diagnosis.
AB  - Objectives: To characterize the clinical presentations and diagnosis including
      serological tests and histopathological findings in children with celiac disease.
      Methods: All children (less than 18 years) with confirmed celiac disease
      diagnosed over a 6 year period at a private tertiary care health care center in
      Riyadh,  Saudi Arabia were studied retrospectively. Information collected
      included demographics, clinical presentation and diagnostic modalities with
      serology and small intestinal histology reported by Marsh grading. Results: A
      total of 59 children had confirmed celiac disease. Thirty (50.8%) were male.
      Median age was 8 years (range 1 to 16 years). The mean duration of symptoms
      before diagnosis was 2.3 (+/-1.5) years. Classical disease was present only in
      30.5%, whereas 69.5% had either non-classical presentations or belonged to high
      risk groups for celiac disease such as those with type-1 diabetes, autoimmune
      thyroiditis, Down syndrome and siblings. Failure to thrive was the most common
      presentation followed by short stature, abdominal pain and chronic diarrhea. Anti
      tissue transglutaminase antibody was positive in 91.5%, and titers were no
      different between those with classical and non-classical disease. All had Marsh
      graded biopsy findings consistent with celiac disease. Conclusion: Children with
      celiac disease usually present with non-classical features. A high index of
      suspicion needs to be maintained to consider this disorder in the diagnostic
      workup of pediatric patients. High risk group should be screened early to avoid
      complications associated with untreated celiac disease.

PMID- 28889147
TI  - Acute coronary syndrome risk prediction of rapid emergency medicine scoring
      system in acute chest pain. An observational study of patients presenting with
      chest pain in the emergency department in Central Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the diagnostic validity of the rapid emergency medical
      score (REMS) for the risk stratification of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) from
      non-cardiogenic chest pain. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was
      carried out among patients presenting with chest pain to the Emergency Department
      of Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for 6
      months from January to June 2016. All patients, included through non-probability
      convenience sampling, were assessed using standard protocols for the
      physiological parameters of the REMS, and ACS was confirmed through
      electrocardiography, cardiac enzyme testing, and angiography (if needed). Data
      were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 15
      (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). The validity of REMS was determined using a cutoff
      value of 17. Results: In total, 176 (70.4%) of patients were men with a mean age
      of 49+/-8.5 years. The mean REM score of the patients was 9.3+/-4.5, and a
      sensitivity of 81.6%, specificity of 90.05%, positive predictive value of 66.67%,
      and a negative predictive value of 95.26% were obtained. Conclusion: Rapid
      emergency medical score is a simple and fairly valid tool that may be used for
      diagnosis of ACS with limited resources in emergency medicine.

PMID- 28889148
TI  - Association of fine particulate air pollution with cardiopulmonary morbidity in
      Western Coast of Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess cardiopulmonary morbidity associated with daily exposures
      to PM2.5 in Western Coast of Saudi Arabia. Methods: We monitored 24-h PM2.5 and
      its constituents including black carbon (BC), particulate sulfate (p-SO42-),
      nitrate (p-NO3-), ammonium (p-NH4+) and trace elements (TEs) at a site in Rabigh,
      Saudi Arabia from May to June 2013 with simultaneous collection of hospital data
      (N=2513). Cardiopulmonary morbidity risk was determined in a generalized linear
      time-series model.  Results: Exposure to PM2.5 was associated with a 7.6%
      (p=0.056) increase in risk of respiratory disease (RD) in females. Black carbon
      increased RD morbidity risk by 68.1% (p=0.056) in females. Exposure to p-SO42-
      increased the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk by up to 5.3% (p=0.048) in males;
      and RD by 2.9% (p=0.037) in females and 2.5% (p=0.022) in males. The p-NH4+
      increased CVD risk by up to 20.3% (p=0.033) in males; and RD by 10.7% (p=0.014)
      in females and 8% (p=0.031) in males. No statistically significant association
      was observed for p-NO3- and TEs exposure. Conclusion: Overall, results show an
      increased risk for cardiopulmonary morbidity following exposure to air pollution.

PMID- 28889149
TI  - Patterns, knowledge, and barriers of mammography use among women in Saudi Arabia.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess mammography utilization and knowledge, and to determine
      barriers associated with mammography utilization among Saudi women. Methods: We
      conducted a cross-sectional survey in 5 main geographic regions of Saudi Arabia
      from February 2015 to May 2015. The sample comprised women aged >=40 years.
      Associations between socio-demographic factors and mammography use were tested
      using chi-square test. Predictors of mammography use were assessed by logistic
      regression. Results: A total of 3,245 women were surveyed, with 40% reporting
      ever having a mammogram. As indicated by the univariable analyses, older age
      (>=60 years), being single or divorced, having less than 2 children, not
      completing high school, and having a family history (hx) of breast cancer were
      significantly associated with never having a mammogram. Participants of older age
      (odds ratio [OR] 51-60 versus 41-50 = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.5-0.7 and OR less than 60
      versus 41-50 = 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3-0.8), and divorced (OR divorced versus married =
      0.6, 95% CI: 0.5-0.8] were less likely to have had a mammogram, while
      participants with no family hx of breast cancer (OR no family hx versus family hx
      = 1.5, 95%CI: 1.3-1.8)were more likely to have had a mammogram. Conclusion:
      Mammography utilization and knowledge are low in Saudi Arabia. Increasing the
      awareness of breast cancer screening through educational programs could help
      women overcome existing barriers and misconceptions.

PMID- 28889150
TI  - Screening for skin-sensitizing allergens among patients with clinically suspected
      allergic contact dermatitis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To detect common skin-sensitizing agents among patients experiencing
      allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Methods: This was a retrospective study of 152
      patients with clinically suspected ACD who underwent patch testing in an allergy
      clinic at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
      between January 2012 and February 2015. Of these patients, only 74 (48%) patients
      reacted to one or more contact allergens. This group of patients included 58
      (78.4%) women and 16 (21.6%) men (mean age: 37.8+/-13.8 years). Patch testing was
      performed using the thin-layer rapid-use epicutaneous patch test panels. Results:
      Nickel sulfate was the most common sensitizing agent, with 26 (35.1%) patients
      yielding a positive result; followed by p-phenylenediamine in 17 (22.9%), butyl
      tetra-phenol formaldehyde in 12 (16.2%), gold sodium thiosulfate in 10 (13.5%),
      and thimerosal in 6 (8.1%) patients. Nickel reactivity was significantly higher
      among women (41.4%) than among men (12.5%) (p less than 0.0001). Similarly, gold
      reactivity among women (15.5%) was also higher than among men (6.2%) (p<=0.02). 
      Conclusion: The high level of skin sensitization due to nickel, PPD, and gold in
      patients with ACD emphasizes the need for measures to decrease exposure to these
      sensitizing agents.

PMID- 28889151
TI  - Hydrogen water ameliorates the severity of atopic dermatitis-like lesions and
      decreases interleukin-1beta, interleukin-33, and mast cell infiltration in NC/Nga
      mice.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of hydrogen water (HW) on the severity of
      atopic dermatitis (AD) and elucidate the underlying pathophysiological
      mechanisms. METHODS: For this experimental study between March 2015 and December
      2015, NC/Nga mice characterized by mild AD severity were given either HW (n=11)
      or purified water (PW) (n=9) ad libitum; specific-pathogen-free mice (n=9) were
      used as AD-free control. Atopic dermatitis severity score and transepidermal
      water loss (TEWL) were examined at baseline (0 week), and after 4 weeks of HW/PW
      treatment. Levels of serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) and
      cytokines in the AD lesion were measured by ELISA; and mRNA expression of TARC 
      and aquaporin (AQP-3) genes in the skin was examined by real-time polymerase
      chain reaction. Results: Mice treated with HW for 4 weeks demonstrated a
      significant decrease in the AD severity score compared with PW-treated mice (p
      less than 0.01). Hydrogen water administration also significantly reduced TEWL
      and serum TARC levels (p less than 0.01), infiltration of mast cells (p less than
      0.05), and secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1beta and
      IL-33 (p less than 0.05) in skin lesions compared with PW. However, no difference
      was observed between PW and HW groups in interferon-gamma secretion and
      expression of AQP-3 and TARC genes. Conclusion: Hydrogen water suppressed
      inflammation in AD mice, leading to amelioration of disease severity, which
      suggests the therapeutic potential of HW in AD treatment.

PMID- 28889152
TI  - Anti-carbamylated protein antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis patients and their
      association with rheumatoid factor.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate levels of anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP)
      antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to determine their
      association with serological parameters and disease activity. Methods: A cross
      sectional study involving 105 multiethnic RA patients (48 rheumatoid factor [RF]
      positive and 57 RF-negative patients) was conducted at Hospital Universiti Sains
      Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia, from January 2015 to February 2016. Fifty healthy
      controls (HCs) were included. C-reactive protein (CRP), RF, anti-cyclic
      citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) and anti-CarP antibodies were measured. A health
      assessment questionnaire (HAQ) was administered to the study participants and 28
      joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28) were obtained. Results: The level of anti
      CarP antibodies was significantly increased in the RA patients compared with HCs
      (p=0.042). The presence of anti-CarP antibodies was significantly associated with
      RF (p=0.019) and the HAQ (p=0.010). A significant association between the
      presence of anti-CarP antibodies and the DAS28 was not found (p=0.632).
      Conclusion: Our study provides further evidence that the level of anti-CarP
      antibodies is significantly elevated in RA patients.

PMID- 28889153
TI  - Medical residents' attitudes and emotions related to Middle East respiratory
      syndrome in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine medical residents' emotions, attitudes, and knowledge
      related to Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks. Methods: In this is
      a cross sectional study, self-administered questionnaires were distributed and
      collected before resident education activities in 4 tertiary hospitals in Riyadh,
      Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, between November 2015 and January 2016. The
      questionnaire included questions related to residents' demographic data and their
      emotions, attitudes, and knowledge related to an MERS outbreak. Results: Of the
      228 participants analyzed, 85.5% believed their work put them at risk of
      infection, and two-thirds believed their family was exposed to a greater risk of
      infection. However, only 2.6% would change their job. Nearly half of the
      residents indicated that their hospital had a clear plan, and only 28% considered
      themselves not well prepared for an MERS outbreak. Conclusions: Our study
      highlights medical residents' attitude and emotions related to MERS outbreaks.
      Residents' concerns and emotions in relation to MERS should be considered in
      greater detail by hospital policymakers.

PMID- 28889154
TI  - Factors influencing the psychology and quality of life in lung cancer patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the factors closely correlated with the unhealthy
      psychological status of patients with lung cancer and to ascertain whether the
      unhealthy psychology adversely affects their quality-of-life (QOL). Methods:
      Patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer between May 2013 and December 2015 in
      the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Tianjin 4th Centre Hospital, Tianjin, China
      were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Patients were asked to complete the
      Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) and Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) survey.
      From the responses, the correlation between the patient's psychological status
      and QOL were analyzed with respect to several variables. Results: From the total
      of 258 patients subjected to the test, 168 belonged to the unhealthy psychology
      group and 90 to the healthy psychology group. Multiple regression analysis
      revealed that significant factors related to poor QOL among the 2 groups are
      gender (p=0.02), younger age (p=0.001), surgical history (p=0.04), employment
      status (p=0.03), and medical insurance (p=0.01) significantly predicted the
      severity of unhealthy psychology in lung cancer patients. A significantly
      negative correlation was noted between the points of SCL-90 and the general QOL
      in all included patients (p=0.03). Conclusion: Gender, younger age, surgical
      history, employment status, and medical insurance significantly predicted the
      severity of unhealthy psychology in lung cancer patients.

PMID- 28889155
TI  - Comparison of 3 different regional block techniques in pediatric patients. A
      prospective randomized single-blinded study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the analgesic efficiencies of caudal blocks, ultrasound
      (US)-guided transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks, and ilio-inguinal/ilio
      hypogastric (II/IH) blocks performed to provide postoperative analgesia in
      pediatric patients undergoing unilateral lower abdominal surgery. Methods: This
      prospective, randomized, single-blinded study was conducted in the Department of
      Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey
      from July 2013 to January 2015. The doses used were as follows: 0.5 ml/kg (group
      T), 0.3 ml/kg (group I), and 0.7 ml/kg (group C) of a 0.25% levobupivacaine
      solution with 1/200,000 adrenalin for the TAP block, II/IH block, and caudal
      block. The primary aim was to compare postoperative analgesic consumption within
      the first 24 hours after surgery. The secondary aim were to compare the mCHEOPS
      score, first analgesic requirement time, vital signs, and undesirable effects
      such as nausea and vomiting, which were recorded in the surgical ward at 1, 4, 8,
      16, and 24 hours after surgery. Results: Ninety patients with American Society of
      Anesthesiology physical status class I-II were randomized into 3 groups (group I,
      group T, and group C). The total amount of analgesic consumption was
      significantly higher in Group I compared with Groups T and C (p=0.003). Pain
      scores at 1, 4, and 8 hours were significantly higher in Group I compared with
      the other 2 groups; however, pain scores in Group I at 16 hours were
      significantly higher only compared with Group C (p less than 0.05). Conclusion:
      Caudal and TAP blocks are more effective than II/IH nerve blocks in the early
      postoperative period.

PMID- 28889156
TI  - Oxidative damage and associated inflammatory risk factors in obese Emirati women.
      Body mass index versus waist circumference.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To establish whether body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference
      (WC) is a better predictor of cardio metabolic risk factors that are associated
      with increased visceral fat among obese women from the United Arab Emirates
      (UAE). METHODS: In this  cross-sectional study, 333 obese subjects visiting
      community health centers in Al Ain city, UAE, were recruited between 2012 and
      2015. After a written consent subjects had anthropometric, clinical and
      biochemical measurements.  Fasting serum and plasma samples were collected for
      the measurement of markers of oxidative damage, antioxidants and inflammation. 
      Outcome measures were compared between 4 equal BMI and WC quartiles. RESULTS: We
      observed significantly higher blood pressure, c-reactive protein levels, IL6
      levels, and protein carbonyls contents and lower beta-carotene levels in the
      fourth quartile than in the first quartile for both BMI and WC (p less than
      0.01). Glutathione peroxidase and adiponectin both decreased and TNF-alpha
      increased with increasing WC quartiles but not BMI quartiles; however, the
      results were statistically significant only for TNF-alpha (p=0.032). Conclusion:
      Both elevated BMI and elevated WC are associated with increased cardio metabolic
      risk factors in obese Emirati women; however, WC is a stronger predictor than is
      BMI.

PMID- 28889157
TI  - Epidemiologic characteristics of gastric malignancies among Jordan University
      Hospital patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To discover the epidemiologic distribution of gastric malignancies
      among Jordan University Hospital patients and to compare this distribution with
      the neighboring Arab countries. Methods: Retrospective study covering the period
      between  January 2006, and May 2016, in Jordan University Hospital, Amman,
      Jordan. All cases were retrieved from the computer system and analyzed using IBM
      SPSS version 23 software.  Results: One hundred and sixty-five cases were
      analyzed. Male-to-female ratio was 1.2:1. The mean age was 58.6 with 32.1% of
      patients aged 50 or younger. Primary adenocarcinoma was the most common tumor,
      half of which were diffuse type, followed by carcinoid tumors (15.2 %), lymphomas
      (10.3%), and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (8.5%). Proximally located tumors
      accounted for 15.4%. Helicobacter pylori were present in approximately half of
      the cases and 34.6% of cases contained intestinal metaplasia.  Conclusion: Jordan
      is a low-risk area for gastric cancer, but carcinoma occurs at a young age and is
      associated with gastritis, Helicobacter pylori infection, and intestinal
      metaplasia in a large proportion of cases. Better strategic health planning and
      early detection is needed, especially in young patients suffering from gastritis.

PMID- 28889159
TI  - Journal of Allied Health, Production Data 2016-2017.
AB  - During the period September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017, the following breakdown
      shows what occurred involving the Journal of Allied Health. Each year, the
      acceptance rate is in the 60-65% range for all manuscript types. The final result
      for these 130 papers will not be known until decisions are made regarding the 72
      manuscripts still pending.

PMID- 28889158
TI  - Detection and identification of cutaneous leishmaniasis isolates by culture,
      Polymerase chain reaction and sequence analyses in Syrian and Central Anatolia
      patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To characterize the cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) isolates of Syrian
      and Central Anatolia patients at species levels. Methods: Skin scrapings of 3
      patients (2 Syrian, 1 Turkish) were taken and examined by direct examination,
      culture in Novy-MacNeal-Nicole (NNN) medium, internal transcribed spacer
      polymerase chain reaction and sequence analysis (PCR). Results:According to
      microscopic examination, culture and PCR methods, 3 samples were detected
      positive. The sequencing results of all isolates in the study were identified as
      Leishmania tropica. The same genotypes were detected in the 3 isolates and
      nucleotide sequence submitted into GenBank with the accession number: KP689599.
      Conclusion: This finding could give information about the transmission of CL
      between Turkey and Syria. Because of the Syrian civil war, most of the Syrian
      citizens circulating in Turkey and different part of Europe, this can be increase
      the risk of spreading the disease. So, prevention measurements must be taken
      urgently.

PMID- 28889160
TI  - Interprofessional Education in Allied Health Using Virtual Technologies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Interprofessional education (IPE) is becoming increasingly prevalent
      in health science education, with the goal of preparing students to work
      collaboratively in teams within the healthcare environment. Students in our
      cytotechnology and radiation therapy (RT) programs used virtual technologies to
      demonstrate their professions using case studies. The purpose of this activity
      was to see if our students' knowledge of each other's professions and educational
      technologies increased and if the students had a better understanding of how they
      would work together in a healthcare team. METHODS: Participants included four
      cytotechnology students and five RT students. All were given a presurvey to
      determine their level of knowledge about each other's profession. The
      cytotechnology students presented cases involving gynecologic and lung cancers
      using virtual microscopy and explained how they screen slides and interpret
      cellular changes. The RT students explained how they would treat these same
      patients using the Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Training system (VERT),
      showing the cytotechnology students how the beam is guided to the exact spot for
      treatment. After the IPE activity, all participants were given a post-survey to
      determine their levels of understanding. RESULTS: The results indicated that the
      IPE activity increased the level of understanding regarding each other's
      professions and how they each fit together in the role of patient care.
      CONCLUSIONS: IPE activities, even on a small scale with two professions in the
      same college, can improve knowledge and collaboration between professions. More
      of these activities should be conducted for effective healthcare teams and
      improved patient outcomes.

PMID- 28889161
TI  - Employers' Viewpoint on Clinical Education.
AB  - ISSUE: This qualitative study gathered the opinions of healthcare employers to
      better understand the importance, benefits, obstacles, and evolving issues
      related to allied health (AH) clinical education from the employers' perspective,
      with the goal to identify opportunities to strengthen and improve clinical
      educational partnerships. METHOD: Member deans of the Association of Schools of
      Allied Health Professions (ASAHP) provided names and contact information of
      employers that routinely educate their students. Interviews were scheduled with
      employers who responded to Clinical Education Task Force (CETF) invitation.
      Twenty-one interviews were conducted by CETF members in early 2016 and analyzed
      utilizing qualitative software. OUTCOMES: Themes included benefits of working
      with students and hiring trainees, and obstacles of time and effort required to
      host students. A trend was noted in gaps between educational preparation and
      clinical performance. Recent changes highlighted increased technology and
      regulation, while anticipated changes included more focus on learning on site,
      longer clinical experiences, and payment for clinical education. CONCLUSION:
      Collaboration between educators and employers is essential to ensure that
      curriculum and outcomes match the needs of the field and effectively prepare
      students as entry-level clinicians.

PMID- 28889162
TI  - Meaningful Functional Change Achieved from Physical Therapy Provided in a Student
      Run Pro Bono Clinic.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether patients with chronic neurologic
      diagnoses who attended a student-run pro bono physical therapy (PT) clinic
      achieved the minimum detectable change (MDC) on functional measures and the
      factors associated with such change. METHODS: Retrospective chart review included
      71 patients with a primary diagnosis of stroke, traumatic brain injury, or
      multiple sclerosis from 2010 to 2014. The sample was 45% female, with a mean age
      of 62 yrs (SD 12.6) and mean 7.9 yrs (10.1) postdiagnosis. Second-year DPT
      students provided supervised weekly sessions. Meaningful functional change was
      defined as the achievement of the MDC on one functional outcome measure.
      Multivariate logistic regression, controlled for semester, was used to analyze
      factors associated with achievement of MDC. RESULTS: MDC was achieved in
      approximately 70% of cases. Factors associated with MDC achievement were number
      of visits (OR 1.04, p<0.02) and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (OR 1.06, p<0.02).
      Factors not associated were age, sex, diagnosis, years post-diagnosis, number of
      medications, admission functional status, and distance to the clinic.
      CONCLUSIONS: Weekly 60-min PT sessions provided in a student-run neurologic
      clinic were associated with achieving the MDC on functional measures. Such
      clinics may be a safety net.

PMID- 28889163
TI  - The Future of Clinical Education: Using Futuristic Scenarios to Explore Allied
      Health Deans' Perspectives on Clinical Education.
AB  - ISSUE: There is limited information and consensus on the future of clinical
      education. The Delphi technique was selected to identify agreement among
      Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions' (ASAHP) allied health deans
      on the future (2018-2023) of allied health (AH) clinical education. METHODS:
      Sixty-one AH deans, 54.9% (61 of 111) of the ASAHP membership, expressed opinions
      about clinical education through a three-round Delphi study. In conjunction with
      a conceptual model, four futuristic scenarios were used to encourage deans'
      feedback on the key factors impacting the future of clinical education. RESULTS:
      The responses to the four scenarios showed ways the external environment
      influences which activities the deans recommend. The results presented, by
      individual scenario and in totality, provide relevant and timely information on
      the importance and transformation of AH clinical education and its future.
      DISCUSSION: Futuristic scenarios, in combination with the Delphi technique,
      generated information where little exists specific to AH deans' perspectives on
      AH clinical education. The results offer deans opportunities for future strategic
      improvements. CONCLUSION: The use of the futuristic scenarios was suitable for
      guiding deans' responses and reaching agreement on the future of AH clinical
      education. These contributions reflect the imminent conditions and healthcare
      environment identified in the various scenarios and provide additional insight on
      key factors impacting the future for AH clinical education.

PMID- 28889164
TI  - Reliability of Ultrasound Imaging for Lumbar Multifidus Muscle: Capturing Video
      vs Static Images.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Ultrasound imaging is a widely used method for viewing musculoskeletal
      tissues. However, capturing movies of lumbar multifidus (LM) muscle with
      ultrasound imaging (video method) is a relatively new method, and its reliability
      has not been fully tested. The objective of this study was to compare the intra
      rater reliability of two methods of ultrasound imaging of LM muscle, the
      traditional method (static images) and the video method, in healthy subjects
      conducted by a novice rater. METHODS: Images of LM thickness in 15 healthy
      subjects were captured and measured by static images and video methods. Intra
      class correlation coefficient (ICC) with 95% confidence interval, standard error
      of measurement, and minimal detectable change were calculated to determine the
      reliability and precision of the LM thickness measurements. RESULTS: Excellent
      intra-rater reliability was demonstrated in measuring LM muscle thickness using
      both methods, with the intra-rater ICC ranging from 0.75 to 0.95. CONCLUSION: The
      reliability of the LM thickness measurements in video ultrasound is similar to
      that in the static images method in healthy subjects.

PMID- 28889165
TI  - Impact of Student Response Systems on Initial Learning and Retention of Course
      Content in Health Sciences Students.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess student learning in two intervention courses when using a
      student response system (SRS) in combination with content quizzes (CQ) as a
      teaching/ learning strategy. METHODS: A within-subject design was used to
      evaluate the effectiveness of SRS use in combination with CQ on initial learning
      and retention of course content across two health science graduate-level courses.
      Thirty-three graduate students were enrolled in each course, and 24 participated
      in the study. Course exam questions were divided between content covered with
      standard course instruction including CQ and content covered with CQ and the SRS
      (CQ-SRS). Performance on these exam questions was analyzed with a two-tailed t
      test, and odds ratios were calculated. RESULTS: Students performed significantly
      better 6 months later on CQ-SRS-based questions. CONCLUSION: Findings of this
      study suggest that use of a SRS with CQ supports initial learning and enhances
      long-term retention of course content better than use of CQ alone.

PMID- 28889166
TI  - Clinical Performance and Admission Variables as Predictors of Passage of the
      National Physical Therapy Examination.
AB  - : Prior studies have explored variables that had predictive relationships with
      National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) score or NPTE failure. The purpose
      of this study was to explore whether certain variables were predictive of test
      takers' first-time score on the NPTE. SUBJECTS: The population consisted of 134
      students who graduated from the university's Professional DPT Program in 2012 to
      2014. METHODS: This quantitative study used a retrospective design. Two separate
      data analyses were conducted. First, hierarchical linear multiple regression
      (HMR) analysis was performed to determine which variables were predictive of
      first-time NPTE score. Second, a correlation analysis was performed on all 18
      Physical Therapy Clinical Performance Instrument (PT CPI) 2006 category scores
      obtained during the first long-term clinical rotation, overall PT CPI 2006 score,
      and NPTE passage. RESULTS: With all variables entered, the HMR model predicted
      39% of the variance seen in NPTE scores. The HMR results showed that physical
      therapy program first-year GPA (1PTGPA) was the strongest predictor and explained
      24% of the variance in NPTE scores (b=0.572, p<0.001). The correlational analysis
      found no statistically significant correlation between the 18 PT CPI 2006
      category scores, overall PT CPI 2006 score, and NPTE passage. DISCUSSION: As
      1PTGPA had the most significant contribution to prediction of NPTE scores,
      programs need to monitor first-year students who display academic difficulty. PT
      CPI version 2006 scores were significantly correlated with each other, but not
      with NPTE score or NPTE passage. Both tools measure many of the same professional
      requirements but use different modes of assessment, and they may be considered
      complementary tools to gain a full picture of both the student's ability and
      skills.

PMID- 28889167
TI  - Does Simulation-Based Training Increase Athletic Training Students' Clinical
      Confidence and Competence in Performing a Cardiovascular Screening?
AB  - CONTEXT: The incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in athletes is higher than
      previously estimated. The need for increased screening to detect cardiac diseases
      in preparticipation physical examinations (PPE) has become a focus in athletic
      training. The use of simulation-based training in healthcare professionals'
      education has increased clinical confidence and competence, but research is
      limited. OBJECTIVE: To examine if a simulation-based educational intervention can
      increase athletic training students' self-reported confidence and clinical
      competence in conducting a cardiovascular screening. DESIGN: Pretest-posttest
      design. METHODS: 25 first-year athletic training students in a professional
      master's program participated. The intervention consisted of a standardized
      cardiovascular curriculum consisting of a 45-minute, interactive instructor-led
      session and a 45-minute audio session which included repetitions of heart
      murmurs. Learner self-reported confidence scale, multiple-choice knowledge exam,
      and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) of cardiovascular assessment
      skills and auditory recognition of heart murmurs were recorded. RESULTS: Self
      reported confidence increased significantly from 4.4+/-2.1 to 9.2+/-3.0 post
      intervention (F=78.7, p<0.001) with a moderately high effect size (n2=0.789).
      Knowledge exam scores increased significantly from 11.0+/-2.5 to 13.6+/-4.0 post
      intervention (F=5.3, p=0.031) with a low effect size (n2=0.191). The history
      taking assessment of the OSCE increased significantly from 2.6+/-1.6 to 5.7+/-1.7
      post-intervention (F=70.1, p<0.001) with a moderately high effect size
      (n2=0.751). The clinical skills assessment of the OSCE increased significantly
      from 4.1+/-2.8 to 15.6+/-1.6 post-intervention (F=415.4, p<0.001) with a high
      effect size (n2=0.952). CONCLUSIONS: Simulation-based training is an effective
      tool for increasing athletic training students' self-reported confidence and
      competence in conducting a cardiovascular screening.

PMID- 28889168
TI  - Professionalism Values in Health Science Education: Self- and Peer-Assessment of
      Faculty, Staff, and Students.
AB  - PURPOSE: Professionalism values are critical to developing health science
      students. Although many educational programs strive to develop professionalism
      values within students, few include faculty and staff. We evaluated the
      professional values of our faculty, staff, and students and evaluated the
      acceptance of this professionalism program. METHODS: Faculty members adopted a 5
      item professionalism assessment survey (honesty, teamwork, responsibility,
      respect, and communication) and performed a 360 degrees  peer assessment among
      our basic/applied science faculty, clinical faculty, and administrative staff.
      Data were collected for 3 consecutive years (2013-2015). The 37 students were
      also assessed as part of their inter-professional education (IPE) program.
      RESULTS: Peer rankings were stable across years from 2013-2015 for faculty and
      staff. Faculty with expertise in teaching clinical skills rated "teamwork"
      (higher) and "respect" (lower), differently from our basic/applied science
      faculty (p<0.001 and p=0.023, respectively). Faculty and staff supported that the
      360 degrees  assessments were of value for their own professional development.
      Student assessments revealed improved "verbal communication" and "teamwork"
      (p=0.003 and 0.02, respectively) after working in IPE groups during the semester.
      CONCLUSIONS: An annual professionalism assessment program appears to be one
      important component to developing professional values among faculty, staff, and
      students in the health sciences.

PMID- 28889169
TI  - Creating Rural Allied Health Leadership Structures Using District Advisors: An
      Action Research Project Using Program Logic.
AB  - BACKGROUND: District advisors in five allied health disciplines were introduced
      in a local health district in rural Australia in 2013. These strategic leadership
      roles provide support to clinicians and managers. As there is little research
      exploring allied health leadership models from a strategic and operational
      perspective, the coordinated commencement of these roles provided opportunity to
      study the creation of this leadership structure. METHODS: Four advisors
      participated in this action research study which used focus groups and program
      logic processes to explore the inputs, outputs, barriers, outcomes to date, and
      preferred future outcomes of the leadership model. A purpose-built questionnaire
      was sent to 134 allied health clinicians or managers with questionnaire responses
      used by advisors to visualise the leadership model. RESULTS: Advisors prioritised
      policy development, representing the profession outside the organisation, and
      supporting department managers, whilst clinicians prioritised communication and
      connection-building within the organisation. Outcomes of the leadership model
      included connection, coordination, and advocacy for clinicians. Future preferred
      outcomes included increased strategic and workforce planning. Barriers included
      limited time, a widespread workforce and limited resourcing. CONCLUSIONS:
      Instituting a leadership model improved communication, cohesion, and coordination
      within the organisation. Future increases in workforce planning and coordination
      are limited by advisor capacity and competing workloads.

PMID- 28889170
TI  - Embedding Volunteer Activity into Paramedic Education.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Paramedics require a wide range of skills that are beyond clinical or
      technical skills in order to meet the demands of the role and provide quality and
      compassionate care to patients. Non-technical or "soft" skills and attributes are
      generally challenging to teach and develop in the classroom setting. Volunteerism
      provides an opportunity for students to gain exposure to different communities
      and develop interpersonal skills. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used one-on
      one interviews with 12 third-year Bachelor of Emergency Health (Paramedic)
      students from Monash University, Australia, who completed a community
      volunteering program. RESULTS: Results suggest that paramedic students see
      volunteering as a highly valuable means of developing a number of skills crucial
      to their future roles and paramedic practice. Volunteering also provided students
      with an opportunity to learn about themselves and the broader community, develop
      confidence, and improve overall job-readiness and employability. CONCLUSIONS:
      This study demonstrates that embedding volunteering into paramedic education is
      an effective way to develop the broad range of paramedic attributes required for
      the role. These experiences allow students to make the important transition to a
      job-ready graduate paramedic who can provide holistic patient-centred care.

PMID- 28889171
TI  - Considering Recent Trends in Healthcare Labor Markets in Educational Program
      Planning in Allied Health.
AB  - Recent trends in wages and employment should be considered to help inform
      recruitment and expansion planning for educational programs related to the future
      healthcare workforce. We present a relatively straightforward method for
      assessing a broad set of health labor market trends from 2010 to 2014 based on
      the number employed and wage rates across all healthcare-related occupational
      categories available from the Occupational Employment Statistics data. To focus
      more on trends within the healthcare sector, we used the relative wages and
      employment of the occupations compared to medical doctors. Of 19 broad
      occupational categories, pharmacists, physician assistants, and occupational and
      physical therapists have been experiencing a growth in demand relative to medical
      doctors as evidenced by a growth in relative wages and employment. There is also
      clear evidence of a reduction in the relative supply of allied health workers.
      Specifically, across all allied healthcare workers, there was an increase in
      relative wages (2.28%) and a decline in relative employment (-3.64%). Occupations
      with increases in wages and number employed are likely to be good areas for
      programs to expand both in terms of the future economic welfare of their
      graduates and to help meet market demand.

PMID- 28889172
TI  - Service-Learning Enhances Physical Therapy Students' Ability to Examine Fall Risk
      in Older Adults.
AB  - : Service-learning (SL) is one educational methodology that provides students
      opportunities to practice and refine affective, cognitive and psychomotor skills
      in a community-based setting. PURPOSE: The aims of this study were: 1) to
      investigate the impact of SL on physical therapy (PT) students' attitudes and
      perceived clinical competence when working with older adults, and 2) to evaluate
      the difference between perceptions of students who developed and implemented the
      SL activity vs those who implemented only. METHODS: Eighty PT students, (from two
      consecutive cohorts) enrolled in a first-year geriatrics course, participated in
      this study. The first cohort designed and implemented the SL activities, while
      the second cohort only implemented these activities. Student self-perceived
      anxiety, confidence, knowledge and skills were assessed by pre- and post-SL
      surveys using a 5- point Likert-like scale. RESULTS: Both cohorts reported
      similar anxiety and confidence levels pre-SL. For both cohorts, with the
      exception of one item, all responses to anxiety items significantly decreased
      from pre- to post-SL. All students' confidence levels for assessing and
      mitigating fall risk in older adults increased post-SL (p<0.01). Moreover,
      students in cohort 1, who designed and delivered SL activities, expressed self
      perceived improvement in their ability to interpret results of evaluations, to
      determine type and severity of balance impairments, and to serve a geriatric
      population (p<0.05) compared to students in cohort 2 who only implemented the
      activities. CONCLUSION: Embedding SL into a geriatrics course decreased self
      perceived anxiety and improved student confidence regarding working with older
      adults. Also, empowering students to be actively involved in the design and
      implementation of SL increased self-perceived ability in interpreting results
      from assessments.

PMID- 28889173
TI  - The impact of fellowship surgical training on operative time and patient
      morbidity during robotics-assisted sacrocolpopexy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Abdominal sacrocolpopexy is commonly performed for
      the surgical correction of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in the USA. Over the last
      decade, fellowship programs have increased the number of these procedures
      performed robotically. Currently, there is a paucity of literature exploring the
      impact of fellowship training on outcomes of robotic-assisted sacrocolpopexy
      (RASC). We sought to explore the impact of an expert surgeon operating alone
      versus with a fellow on operative time and perioperative morbidity associated
      with RASC. METHODS: This is an analysis of a retrospectively collected cohort of
      all RASCs performed to treat POP from June 2010 to August 2015 by a single
      attending surgeon. Outcomes were compared by expert surgeon alone and with a
      fellow. RESULTS: We identified 208 RASCs, of which 124 (59.6%) were performed by
      an expert surgeon alone and 84 (40.4%) with a fellow. Eight fellows were
      included, with a median of 7 cases (interquartile range 5-13.5). Cases with
      fellows were 31.1 min longer than an expert surgeon alone (155.6 vs 124.5 min, p
      < 0.001), a 25% increase. Increased operative time for fellows remained
      significant on multivariate regression (34.2 min, p < 0.001) after adjusting for
      case order postmenopausal status, hysterectomy, mid-urethral sling, and bowel
      injury. Years in fellowship did not have an impact on operative time (p = 0.80).
      Complications were seen in 34 women (16.4%). On univariate regression, fellows
      did not have an impact on complications (OR 1.49, 95% CI [0.65-3.43]), which was
      unchanged on multivariate regression (OR 0.628, 95% CI [0.26-1.54]). Prolapse
      recurrence was seen in 19 women (9.5%). Fellows had no impact on prolapse
      recurrence (OR 0.478, 95% CI [0.17-1.38]), which was unchanged on multivariate
      regression (OR 0.266, 95% CI [0.17-1.49]). CONCLUSION: When an expert surgeon
      operated together with a fellow, operative time increased by 34 min without
      increasing prolapse recurrence or complications.

PMID- 28889174
TI  - Individual and Combined Toxicities of Benzo[a]pyrene and 2,2',4,4'
      Tetrabromodiphenyl Ether on Early Life Stages of the Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea
      gigas.
AB  - Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are ubiquitous and coexisted in the aquatic
      environment. Individual and combined toxic effects of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and
      2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) on embryogenesis, and larval survival
      of the Pacific oyster were investigated. The EC50 values of BaP, BDE-47 and their
      mixture on embryogenesis were 18.4, 203.3 and 72.0 ug/L respectively, while the
      LC50 values for 96 h larval mortality were 26.8, 244.5 and 108.9 ug/L
      respectively. The Marking-Dawson additive toxicity indices were -0.02 and -0.19,
      indicating an additive effect with a trend to antagonism. In addition, DNA strand
      breaks were also observed in oyster embryos after exposure. Our study suggests
      that BaP and BDE-47 exposure can cause developmental abnormalities, DNA damage
      and larval mortality. Furthermore, the toxicity of the mixture is slightly lower
      than individual pollutant. These data will be helpful to predict the toxicity of
      organic pollutants, and provide criteria for marine water quality standards.

PMID- 28889175
TI  - Expression of the lef5 gene from Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus
      contributes to the baculovirus stability in cell culture.
AB  - Baculoviruses are a broad group of viruses infecting insects, predominately of
      the order Lepidoptera. They are used worldwide as biological insecticides and as
      expression vectors to produce recombinant proteins. Baculoviruses replicate in
      their host, although several cell lines have been developed for in vitro
      replication. Nevertheless, replication of baculoviruses in cell culture involves
      the generation of defective viruses with a decrease in productivity and
      virulence. Transcriptional studies of the Spodoptera exigua multiple
      nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV) and the Autographa californica multiple
      nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) infective process revealed differences in the
      expression patterns when the virus replicated under in vitro (Se301 cells) or in
      vivo (S. exigua larvae) conditions. The late expression factor 5 (lef5) gene was
      found to be highly overexpressed when the virus replicates in larvae. To test the
      possible role of lef5 expression in viral stability, recombinant AcMNPV
      expressing the lef5 gene from SeMNPV (Se-lef5) was generated and its stability
      was monitored during successive infection passages in Sf21 cells by evaluating
      the loss of several essential and non-essential genes. The gfp transgene was more
      stable in those viruses expressing the Se-LEF5 protein and the GFP-defective
      viruses were accumulated at a lower level when compared to its control viruses,
      confirming the positive influence of lef5 in viral stability during the
      multiplication process. This work describes for the first time a viral factor
      involved in transgene stability when baculoviruses replicate in cell culture,
      opening new ways to facilitate the in vitro production of recombinant proteins
      using baculovirus.

PMID- 28889176
TI  - Proton pump inhibitors have pH-dependent effects on the thermostability of the
      carboxyl-terminal domain of voltage-gated proton channel Hv1.
AB  - The voltage-gated proton channel Hv1 is highly selective for H+ and is activated
      by membrane depolarization and pH gradient. An increased external and decreased
      internal pH opens the Hv1 channel. The intracellular C-terminal domain of Hv1 is
      responsible for channel dimerization, cooperative, and thermosensitive gating.
      Here, we found that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) interact with the C-terminal
      domain of human Hv1. The interaction between PPIs and the C-terminal domain,
      which is pH-dependent, lowered the thermal and structural stability of the
      protein at pH 4, but enhanced the thermal and structural stability at pH 8.
      Furthermore, we investigated in vitro the interaction of PPIs with the C-terminal
      domain of Hv1 by fluorescence and micro-Raman spectra. Fluorescence quenching
      measurements revealed that the interaction between the C-terminal domain and PPIs
      is a mainly hydrophobic interaction. The micro-Raman spectra showed that PPIs did
      not form stable disulfide bonds with the unique thiol group within this domain
      (Cys249 residue). The preferential interaction of PPIs with the inactive form of
      Hv1 stabilizes the high pH inactive state of the C-terminal domain, indicating a
      mechanism by which PPIs might act explicitly on the stabilization of a closed
      state of the proton channel.

PMID- 28889177
TI  - A 15-amino acid C-terminal peptide of beta-defensin-3 inhibits bone resorption by
      inhibiting the osteoclast differentiation and disrupting podosome belt formation.
AB  - : Human beta-defensin-3 (HBD3), which is secreted from cells in the skin,
      salivary gland, and bone marrow, exhibits antimicrobial and immunomodulatory
      activities. Its C-terminal end contains a 15-amino acid polypeptide (HBD3-C15)
      that is known to effectively elicit antimicrobial activity. Recently, certain
      antimicrobial peptides are known to inhibit osteoclast differentiation and, thus,
      we investigated whether HBD3-C15 hinders osteoclast differentiation and bone
      destruction to assess its potential use as an anti-bone resorption agent. HBD3
      C15 inhibited the receptor activator of nuclear factor kappaB ligand (RANKL)
      induced osteoclast differentiation and formation of resorption pits. In addition,
      HBD3-C15 disrupted the formation of RANKL-induced podosome belt which is a
      feature typically found in mature osteoclasts with bone-resorbing capacity. HBD3
      C15 downregulated cortactin, cofilin, and vinculin, which are involved in the
      podosome belt formation. Furthermore, bone loss induced by RANKL was
      significantly reduced in a mouse calvarial implantation model that was treated
      with HBD3-C15. Similar inhibitory effects were observed on the osteoclast
      differentiation and podosome belt formation induced by Aggregatibacter
      actinomycetemcomitans lipopolysaccharide (AaLPS). Concordantly, HBD3-C15
      attenuated the resorption in the calvarial bone of AaLPS-implanted mouse.
      Collectively, these results suggest that HBD3-C15 has an anti-bone resorption
      effect in developing osteoclasts and that this occurs via its disruption of
      podosome belt formation. HBD3-C15 could be a potential therapeutic agent for the
      inhibition of bone destruction. KEY MESSAGES: HBD3-C15 inhibits osteoclast
      differentiation and bone resorption capacity. HBD3-C15 disrupts the podosome belt
      formation in osteoclasts. HBD3-C15 alleviates the bone loss by RANKL or A.
      actinomycetemcomitans LPS in vivo.

PMID- 28889178
TI  - Music and speech distractors disrupt sensorimotor synchronization: effects of
      musical training.
AB  - Humans display a natural tendency to move to the beat of music, more than to the
      rhythm of any other auditory stimulus. We typically move with music, but rarely
      with speech. This proclivity is apparent early during development and can be
      further developed over the years via joint dancing, singing, or instrument
      playing. Synchronization of movement to the beat can thus improve with age, but
      also with musical experience. In a previous study, we found that music perturbed
      synchronization with a metronome more than speech fragments; music superiority
      disappeared when distractors shared isochrony and the same meter (Dalla Bella et
      al., PLoS One 8(8):e71945, 2013). Here, we examined if the interfering effect of
      music and speech distractors in a synchronization task is influenced by musical
      training. Musicians and non-musicians synchronized by producing finger force
      pulses to the sounds of a metronome while music and speech distractors were
      presented at one of various phase relationships with respect to the target.
      Distractors were familiar musical excerpts and fragments of children poetry
      comparable in terms of beat/stress isochrony. Music perturbed synchronization
      with the metronome more than speech did in both groups. However, the difference
      in synchronization error between music and speech distractors was smaller for
      musicians than for non-musicians, especially when the peak force of movement is
      reached. These findings point to a link between musical training and timing of
      sensorimotor synchronization when reacting to music and speech distractors.

PMID- 28889179
TI  - Evaluation of outdoor human thermal sensation of local climate zones based on
      long-term database.
AB  - This study gives a comprehensive picture on the diurnal and seasonal general
      outdoor human thermal sensation levels in different urban quarters based on long
      term (almost 3 years) data series from urban and rural areas of Szeged, Hungary.
      It is supplemented with a case study dealing with an extreme heat wave period
      which is more and more frequent in the last decades in the study area. The intra
      urban comparison is based on a thermal aspect classification of the surface,
      namely, the local climate zone (LCZ) system, on an urban meteorological station
      network and on the utilization of the physiologically equivalent temperature
      (PET) comfort index with categories calibrated to the local population. The
      selected stations represent sunlit areas well inside the LCZ areas. The results
      show that the seasonal and annual average magnitudes of the thermal load exerted
      by LCZs in the afternoon and evening follow their LCZ numbers. It is perfectly in
      line with the LCZ concept originally concentrating only on air temperature (T
      air) differences between the zones. Our results justified the subdivision of
      urban areas into LCZs and give significant support to the application
      possibilities of the LCZ concept as a broader term covering different thermal
      phenomena.

PMID- 28889180
TI  - The degree of cartilage degradation assessed by serum biomarker levels changes
      after arthroscopic knee synovectomy in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
AB  - PURPOSE: In order to test the validity of the selected surgical technique as a
      way to manage persistent synovitis of the knee joint, as well as to slow down the
      cartilage and bone destruction, we studied the dynamics of biomarkers of
      inflammatory conditions, and bone and cartilage destruction after total
      arthroscopic synovectomy (TAS) of the knee joint. METHODS: The sampling comprised
      124 RA patients (158 knees) who had undergone the TAS procedure between 2003 and
      2015. Before surgery the rheumatoid factor (IgM), C-reactive protein (CRP),
      erythrocyte sedimentation rate test was completed for all patients. Blood serum
      samples were collected (prior to surgery, and three, six and 12 months after
      surgery) and frozen at -70 degrees S. The content of CRP, Matrix
      metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3), Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein, as well as
      cross-linked Ctelopeptides of types I and II were measured in blood serum by
      means of polarization fluoroimmunoassay with the use of a standard set of
      reagents. RESULTS: The average duration of the disease in the studied group was
      8.7 +/- 6.6 years. Concentration of the inflammation markers showed that only MMP
      3 displayed statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results can be
      used as basis in assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of this method of
      treatment of persistent knee joint synovitis associated with the RA.

PMID- 28889181
TI  - Humeral lengthening in patients with achondroplasia and in patients with post
      septic shortening: comparison of procedure efficiency and safety.
AB  - PURPOSE: Although humeral lengthening in patients with achondroplasia is an
      accepted procedure for improving functional status, there is still a paucity of
      information about the effectiveness of the method. Therefore, the aim of this
      study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of humeral lengthening using
      monolateral fixators in patients with achondroplasia and unilateral shortening.
      METHODS: Twenty-one patients (31 humeri) were included in this study. The study
      group consisted of eight patients with achondroplasia (16 segments). The control
      group consisted of 13 patients with post-septic shortening of the humerus (15
      segments). All subjects underwent distraction osteogenesis with the use of a
      monolateral fixator. RESULTS: The mean lengthening in the patients with
      achondroplasia was 8.29 cm, whereas in the control group it was 7.34 cm (p =
      0.1677). The mean lengthening percentage in the patients with achondroplasia (50%
      of the initial length of the humerus) was significantly greater than in the
      control group (33% of the initial length of the humerus) (p = 0.0007). The mean
      healing index was 24.8 days/cm in the patients with achondroplasia and 28.56
      days/cm in the control group (p = 0.1832). The overall complication rates for the
      achondroplastic and post-septic patients were, respectively, 175% and 160% (p =
      0.1420). CONCLUSIONS: Humeral lengthening with use of monolateral fixators in
      patients with achondroplasia is an efficient method. Although the segment
      lengthening percentage is significantly greater in patients with achondroplasia
      than in patients with post-septic shortening of the humerus, the safety of this
      procedure is comparable.

PMID- 28889182
TI  - Benign extracerebral fluid collection complicated by subdural hematoma and fluid
      collection: clinical characteristics and management.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Benign extracerebral fluid collection (bECFC) can be complicated by
      subdural hematoma (SDH) or subdural fluid collection (SDFC). The etiology,
      natural history, and management strategy for SDH/SDFC in bECFC are not fully
      understood. We retrospectively reviewed the cases of bECFC patients complicated
      with SDH/SDFC and tried (1) to confirm the fact that bECFC children are
      vulnerable to SDH/SDFC, (2) to investigate the clinical significance of 'trauma
      history' witnessed by a caregiver, and (3) to determine optimal management for
      them. METHOD: Among 213 bECFC patients identified from January 2000 to August
      2015, 20 patients (male:female = 14:6; median age, 6.5 months; range 1-16 months)
      complicated by SDH/SDFC documented with brain imaging were evaluated for their
      clinical manifestations, radiologic features, and management outcomes. The median
      follow-up period was 9.5 months. They were divided into two groups (traumatic
      group versus non-traumatic group) according to whether objective radiologic
      evidence of head injury was present or not, and the two groups were analyzed for
      any clinical differences between them. We also evaluated the clinical
      significance of witnessed traumatic events by caregivers as an additional
      independent variable in the analysis. RESULTS: The incidence of SDH/SDFC in bECFC
      patients was 9.4% (20/213) in our data. In a comparative analysis, the traumatic
      group is more likely to have 'acute' stage SDH, whereas the non-traumatic group
      is more likely to have 'chronic' stage SDH. The trauma history witnessed by
      caregivers did not show clinical significance in the data analysis when included
      as an independent variable. The prognosis of SDH/SDFC in bECFC patients was
      favorable without surgery in most of patients regardless of whether the patient
      has evidence of head trauma or not. CONCLUSION: Benign ECFC is vulnerable to
      SDH/SDFC development. For the bECFC patients complicated by SDH/SDFC, the trauma
      history witnessed by a caregiver did not show any clinical significance. A 'wait
      and watch' strategy is sufficient for the management of SDH/SDFC in bECFC
      patients.

PMID- 28889183
TI  - Recognizing the importance of an all-inclusive approach to brown bear
      conservation now and into the future.
AB  - In their critique of our recent article in Oecologia (Pigeon et al. Oecologia
      181:1101-1116, 2016a) investigating the influence of ambient temperature on brown
      bear habitat selection, Ordiz et al. (2017, current issue) argue that we downplay
      the role of human disturbance on bear behavior, and that we wrongly report on the
      findings of Ordiz et al. (Oecologia 166:59-67, 2011). We argue that our previous
      article in Oecologia (Pigeon et al. 2016a) by no means downplays the influence of
      human factors on bear behavior, and that we correctly stated that Ordiz et al.
      (2011) did not adequately consider the potential influence of temperature on
      their findings. Finally, we stress the relevance of considering all-inclusive
      approaches to the common goal of successful wildlife conservation.

PMID- 28889184
TI  - Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) in rheumatoid arthritis and its
      correlation with sonographic knee cartilage thickness and disease activity.
AB  - The aim of the study is to investigate the correlation of serum cartilage
      oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) levels with articular cartilage damage based on
      sonographic knee cartilage thickness (KCT) and disease activity in rheumatoid
      arthritis (RA). A total of 61 RA patients and 27 healthy controls were recruited
      in this study. Serum samples were obtained from all subjects to determine the
      serum COMP levels. All subjects had bilateral ultrasound scan of their knees. The
      KCT was based on the mean of measurements at three sites: the medial condyle,
      lateral condyle and intercondylar notch. Besides, the RA patients were assessed
      for their disease activity based on 28-joint-based Disease Activity Score (DAS
      28). Serum COMP concentrations were significantly elevated in the RA patients
      compared to the controls (p = 0.001). The serum COMP levels had an inverse
      relationship with bilateral KCT in RA subjects and the healthy controls. COMP
      correlated significantly with disease activity based on DAS 28 (r = 0.299, p =
      0.010), disease duration (r = 0.439, p = < 0.05) and mean left KCT (r = - 0.285,
      p = 0.014) in RA. The correlation between serum COMP and DAS 28 scores was
      comparable to the traditional markers of inflammation: erythrocyte sedimentation
      rate (ESR) (r = 0.372, p = 0.003) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (r = 0.305, p =
      0.017). The serum COMP is a promising biomarker in RA which reflects disease
      activity and damage to the articular cartilage.

PMID- 28889185
TI  - Statistical approach to quality assessment in liver transplantation.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study investigated the utility of retrospective two one-sided
      cumulative sum (CUSUM) charts combined with multivariable regression analysis in
      liver transplantation for transplant center benchmarking. METHODS: One thousand
      seven hundred and forty-nine consecutive adult primary liver transplants (January
      1, 1983 to December 31, 2012) were analyzed retrospectively with two one-sided
      CUSUM chart analysis of 90-day mortality. RESULTS: Three eras and two subseries
      in latest era 3 were identified due to graphically delineated relevant shifts in
      mean 90-day mortality. Delineation of eras 1, 2, and 3 coincided with relevant
      changes in allocation policies. CUSUM analysis detected a resurgence of higher
      mean 90-day mortality in era 3 after results had improved continuously over 25
      years. In era 3, two subseries were identified with improving mean 90-day
      mortality rates from 15.4% in subseries 1 to 8.9% in the following subseries 2.
      The quantitative influence of independent risk factors on 90-day mortality
      differed markedly between all identified eras and subseries as assessed with
      multivariable regression analysis deployed on era-specific subcohorts.
      CONCLUSION: The assessed methodology is able to identify meaningful center
      specific eras and subseries of liver transplantation with striking alterations of
      the significance and weight of outcome drivers for post-transplant 90-day
      mortality over time. This warrants the introduction of prospective risk-adjusted
      two one-sided CUSUM chart analysis into quality management in liver
      transplantation in Germany with the goal to obtain alarm signals as early as
      possible.

PMID- 28889186
TI  - Local bone-marrow exposure: how to interpret the data on stable chromosome
      aberrations in circulating lymphocytes? (some comments on the use of FISH method
      for dose reconstruction for Techa riverside Residents).
AB  - The method of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) applied to peripheral
      blood T lymphocytes is used for retrospective dose estimation, and the results
      obtained from the analysis of stable chromosomal aberrations are usually
      interpreted as a dose accumulated in the red bone marrow (RBM). However, after
      local internal exposure of the RBM, doses derived from FISH were found to be
      lower than those derived from direct measurements of radionuclides accumulated in
      the bodies of exposed persons. These results were obtained for people residing
      near the Techa River contaminated by 89,90Sr (beta-emitters) in 1949-1956
      (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia). A new analysis has been performed of the combined
      results of FISH studies (n = 178) undertaken during 1994-2012 for persons living
      on the Techa Riverside. Analysis confirms the lower slope of the translocation
      yield per Gy (8.0 +/- 0.7 * 10-3) for Techa residents in comparison with FISH
      data for donors with external exposures (11.6 +/- 1.6 * 10-3, Tawn et al., Radiat
      Res 184(3):296-303, 2015). It was suggested that some portion of T cells remained
      unexposed, because they represented the descendants of T cell progenitors, which
      had migrated to the thymus before the start of 89,90Sr intakes. To clarify this
      problem, the dynamics of T-cell Genera (TG), combining all descendants of
      specific T-cell progenitor reaching the thymus, was considered. Rates of TGs
      produced by RBM over different age periods of human life were estimated with the
      use of the mathematic model of T-cell homeostasis (Bains, Mathematical modeling
      of T-cell homeostasis. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
      of the University College London. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/20159/1/20159.pdf ,
      2010). The rate of TG loss during the lifetime was assumed to be very small in
      comparison with production rate. The recirculation of mature T lymphocytes in
      contaminated RBM was taken into account. According to our model estimates, at the
      time of blood sampling, the fraction of exposed T lymphocytes (whose progenitors
      were irradiated) ranged from 20 to 80% depending on the donors' age at the start
      of exposure to 89,90Sr. Dose to T lymphocytes, estimated from FISH studies,
      should be about 0.6-0.9 of RBM dose for residents of the upper Techa region and
      about 0.4-0.8 in the middle Techa region. Our results could explain the lower
      value of translocation yield per Gy obtained for Techa residents. The approaches
      for further model improvement and validation are discussed in this paper.

PMID- 28889187
TI  - Measurements between the hepatic veins and portal venous system, in human
      cirrhotic liver: a cast study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To measure the distance between the right and middle hepatic veins and
      portal vein branches, in human cirrhotic liver casts. Was this measure actually
      smaller in the cirrhotic liver than in normal one? MATERIALS AND METHODS: This
      study was authorized by an area Research Ethics Committee, and each study subject
      or legal representative granted signed informed consent. Acrylic corrosion casts
      of 21 resected cirrhotic livers were generated. Diameters of hepatic veins and
      portal branches and pertinent intervening distances were measured. To assess
      differences in estimated average (relative to reference values), Student's t test
      for one sample was applied. RESULTS: Mean distances from right hepatic vein to
      the right portal branch and to portal vein bifurcation were 33 +/- 6.4 and 36 +/-
      7.4 mm, respectively, both significantly less than published reference values in
      healthy human livers (p < 0.0001 and p < 0.0002, respectively). Mean distances
      from middle hepatic vein to right and left branches of portal vein were 36 +/-
      6.8 and 26 +/- 8.8 mm, respectively. CONCLUSION: Distances separating right
      hepatic vein and portal vein (right branch and bifurcation) are diminished in
      cirrhotic livers compared to healthy ones. Given its caliber and proximity to
      portal branches, the middle hepatic vein remains as a reasonable alternative for
      TIPS procedures.

PMID- 28889188
TI  - Factors associated with accelerated subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with
      spondyloarthritis without overt cardiovascular disease.
AB  - Data on the progression of atherosclerosis in spondyloarthritis (SpA) are scarce,
      despite a high burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The aim of this study was
      to identify the predictors of an accelerated subclinical atherosclerosis in
      patients with SpA. Study participants were 66 patients free of CVD classified
      according to ASAS criteria. The patients were evaluated at baseline and after
      13.5 +/- 3.6 months. Ultrasound measurements of carotid intima-media thickness
      (cIMT) and distensibility coefficient (cDC) were used to assess the extent of
      subclinical atherosclerosis. cIMT progression rate was calculated dividing the
      cIMT change by the time between the scans. Accelerated atherosclerosis was
      defined as the top cIMT progression rate quartile. At baseline, the mean
      Framingham Risk Score was 14 +/- 11%. At follow-up, cIMT increased in 39 patients
      (59%; mean difference 0.01 +/- 0.10; p = 0.334). Mean cIMT progression rate was
      0.01 mm/year (95% CI - 0.02 to 0.03). cDC was unchanged at follow-up. Patients
      with accelerated atherosclerosis (n = 16) had significantly higher serum
      creatinine and lower glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at baseline. In multiple
      logistic regression, only eGFR and the presence of syndesmophytes were associated
      with an accelerated atherosclerosis, independent of traditional cardiovascular
      risk factors. In patients with SpA without overt CV disease, a decrease in renal
      function and radiographic damage are conditions associated with the development
      of subclinical accelerated atherosclerosis. Longitudinal assessment of cIMT could
      be useful to better evaluate the individual CV risk of these patients improving
      their prognostic stratification.

PMID- 28889189
TI  - Prognostic role of progesterone receptor expression in a population-based
      analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The role of progesterone (PR) expression in the management of breast
      cancer is controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the characteristics
      and prognosis of progesterone status among breast cancers patients in a
      population-based analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Through the Tuscan Cancer
      Registry data on all the invasive breast cancer cases diagnosed during the period
      2004-2005 in the provinces of Florence and Prato, central Italy, were retrieved.
      Histological reports were re-examined to obtain information on the percentage of
      positive tumor cells for estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) receptors, Ki67 marker
      and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2). Information on age, stage,
      differentiation grade were also obtained. RESULTS: Out of 1487 patients, 28% had
      PR- breast cancer. These patients were older (p 0.006) than PR+ cancer patients,
      with more frequently high Ki67 (p < 0.0001), HER2 + (p < 0.0001), ER- (p <
      0.0001) tumoral expression. The ER+/PR+ subtype was the most represented
      (n.1053), while ER-/PR+ was the most rare (n.23); 210 cases (14.1%) ER+ PR- and
      201 (13.5%) ER-/PR- cases were found. Analysis of survival by the Cox
      proportional hazards model showed an independent prognostic value of PR
      expression (p < 0.0001), also when estrogen, Ki67, HER2 status and age were
      included. The 5-year cancer-specific survival was 82.1, 86.5, 100, 92% for ER-/PR
      , ER+/PR-, ER-/PR+, ER+/PR+ subtype, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study
      revealed significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics among
      breast cancer according to PR expression and confirmed its prognostic independent
      role, suggesting a role of PR in the improvement of breast cancer prognostic
      characterization.

PMID- 28889190
TI  - Anti-apoptotic role of spermine against lead and/or gamma irradiation-induced
      hepatotoxicity in male rats.
AB  - Exposure to either lead (Pb) or gamma-irradiation (IR) results in oxidative
      stress in biological systems. Herein, we explored the potential anti-apoptotic
      effect of spermine (Spm) against lead and/or gamma-irradiation-induced
      hepatotoxicity in male albino rats. Rats were divided into eight experimental
      groups of ten rats each: groups including negative control, whole body gamma
      irradiated (6 Gray (Gy)), lead acetate (PbAct) trihydrate orally administered (75
      mg/kg bw = 40 mg/kg bw Pb for 14 consecutive days), and Spm intraperitoneally
      dosed (10 mg/kg bw for 14 consecutive days) rats and groups subjected to
      combinations of Pb + IR, Spm + IR, Spm + Pb, and Spm + Pb followed by IR on day
      14 (Spm + Pb + IR). A significant decrease in arginase activity as well as mRNA
      and protein levels of Bcl-2 and p21 was observed in rats intoxicated with Pb
      and/or gamma-irradiation compared to controls, whereas Bax mRNA and protein
      levels were significantly increased. Also, an increased level of nitric oxide
      (NO) with a reduced arginase activity was observed in liver tissues of
      intoxicated rats. Spm co-treatment with lead and/or gamma-irradiation attenuated
      the increase in Bax mRNA and protein expression, while it restored those of Bcl-2
      and p21 together with NO levels and arginase activity to control values.
      Altogether, we suggest that Spm may be useful in combating free radical-induced
      apoptosis in Pb-intoxicated and/or gamma-irradiated rats.

PMID- 28889191
TI  - High tibial slope correlates with increased posterior tibial translation in
      healthy knees.
AB  - PURPOSE: Notwithstanding the importance of the tibial slope (TS) for anterior
      tibial translation, little information is available regarding the implications on
      posterior laxity, particularly in healthy subjects. It was hypothesized that
      increased TS is associated with decreased posterior tibial translation (PTT) in
      healthy knees. METHODS: A total of 124 stress radiographs of healthy knees were
      enrolled in this study. Tibial slope and the posterior tibial translation were
      evaluated using a Telos device with a 150-N force at 90 degrees  of knee flexion.
      Two blinded observers reviewed independently on two different occasions. RESULTS:
      One hundred and twenty-four patients [35 females and 89 males; 41 (range 18-75)
      years] were enrolled in this study, with a mean PTT of 2.8 mm (+/-1.9 mm; range 0
      8 mm) and a mean TS of 8.6 degrees  (+/-2.6 degrees ; range 1 degrees -14 degrees
      ). Pearson correlation showed a significant correlation between the PTT and TS in
      the overall patient cohort (P < 0.0001) with r = 0.76 and R 2 = 0.58. There was
      no statistical difference between female and male patients regarding the PTT or
      the TS. Subgrouping of the patient cohort (four groups with n = 31) according to
      their TS (groups I < 7 degrees ; II = 7 degrees -8.5 degrees ; III = 9 degrees 
      10.5 degrees ; IV >= 11 degrees ) revealed significant differences between each
      subgroup, respectively. Furthermore, there was a weak but significant correlation
      between age and PTT (P = 0.004, r = 0.26). CONCLUSION: In addition to the
      substantial variance in tibial slope and posterior laxity among healthy knees,
      high tibial slope significantly correlates with increased posterior tibial
      translation. Increasing age is further associated with a greater magnitude of
      posterior tibial translation. Consequently, knowledge of the tibial slope
      facilitates simple estimation of posterior knee laxity, which is mandatory for
      PCL reconstruction and knee arthroplasty.

PMID- 28889193
TI  - Are obstetric outcomes affected by female genital mutilation?
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been associated
      with adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes, such as postpartum haemorrhage
      (PPH), perineal trauma, genital fistulae, obstructed labour and stillbirth. The
      prevalence of FGM has increased in the UK over the last decade. There are
      currently no studies available that have explored the obstetric impact of FGM in
      the UK. The aim of our study was to investigate the obstetric and neonatal
      outcomes of women with FGM when compared with the general population. METHODS: We
      conducted a retrospective case-control study of consecutive pregnant women with
      FGM over a 5-year period between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2013. Each woman
      with FGM was matched for age, ethnicity, parity and gestation with subsequent
      patients without FGM (control cohort) over the same 5-year period. Outcomes
      assessed were mode of delivery, duration of labour, estimated blood loss,
      analgaesia, perineal trauma and foetal outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 242 eligible
      women (121 FGM, 121 control) were identified for the study. There was a
      significant increase in the use of episiotomy in the FGM group (p = 0.009) and a
      significant increase in minor PPH in the control group during caesarean sections
      (p = 0.0001). There were no differences in all other obstetric and neonatal
      parameters. CONCLUSIONS: In our unit, FGM was not associated with an increased
      incidence of adverse obstetric and foetal morbidity or mortality.

PMID- 28889192
TI  - The economic impact of prematurity and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
AB  - : Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most serious chronic lung
      diseases in infancy and one of the most important sequels of premature birth
      (prevalence of 15-50%). Our objective was to estimate the cost of BPD of one
      preterm baby, with no other major prematurity-related complications, during the
      first 2 years of life in Spain. Data from the Spanish Ministry of Health
      regarding costs of diagnosis-related group of preterm birth, hospital admissions
      and visits, palivizumab administration, and oxygen therapy in the year 2013 were
      analyzed. In 2013, 2628 preterm babies were born with a weight under 1500 g;
      50.9% were males. The need for respiratory support was 2.5% needed only oxygen
      therapy, 39.5% required conventional mechanical ventilation, and 14.9% required
      high-frequency ventilation. The incidence of BPD was of 34.9%. The cost of the
      first 2 years of life of a preterm baby with BPD and no other major prematurity
      related complications ranged between 45,049.81 ? and 118,760.43 ?, in Spain,
      depending on birth weight and gestational age. If the baby required home oxygen
      therapy or developed pulmonary hypertension, this cost could add up to 181,742.43
      ?. CONCLUSION: Prematurity and BPD have an elevated cost, even for public health
      care systems. This cost will probably increase in the coming years if the
      incidence and survival of preterm babies keeps rising. The development of new
      therapies and preventive strategies to decrease the incidence of BPD and other
      morbidities associated with prematurity should be a priority. What is known: *
      Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a serious chronic lung disease related with
      premature birth. * BPD is an increasing disease due to the up-rise in the number
      of premature births. What is new: * The economic cost of preterm birth and BPD
      has never before been estimated in Spain nor published with European data. *
      Preterm babies with BPD and a good clinical outcome carry also an important
      economic and social burden.

PMID- 28889194
TI  - Functions of Periostin in dental tissues and its role in periodontal tissues'
      regeneration.
AB  - The goal of periodontal regenerative therapy is to predictably restore the
      tooth's supporting periodontal tissues and form a new connective tissue
      attachment of periodontal ligament (PDL) fibers and new alveolar bone. Periostin
      is a matricellular protein so named for its expression primarily in the
      periosteum and PDL of adult mice. Its biological functions have been widely
      studied in areas such as cardiovascular physiology and oncology. Despite being
      initially identified in the dental tissues and bone, investigations of Periostin
      functions in PDL and alveolar-bone-related physiopathology are less abundant.
      Recently, several studies have suggested that Periostin may be an important
      regulator of periodontal tissue formation. By promoting collagen fibrillogenesis
      and the migration of fibroblasts and osteoblasts, Periostin might play a pivotal
      part in regeneration of the PDL and alveolar bone following periodontal surgery.
      The aim of this article is to provide an extensive review of the implications of
      Periostin in periodontal tissue biology and its potential use in periodontal
      tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28889196
TI  - Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm presenting as a primary ovarian mass in an
      eighteen-year-old female: report of a case and review of the literature.

PMID- 28889195
TI  - Effect of Si-rich substances on phosphorous adsorption by sandy soils.
AB  - The poor adsorption capacity of sandy soils is one of the primary reasons of a
      high level of phosphorus (P) leaching. Silicon (Si)-rich soil amendments have the
      potential to improve the low absorption capacity of sandy soils for P. The
      objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of different Si-rich
      materials to regulate P adsorption and retention by sandy soils. Amorphous fine
      silica (FSS), calcium silicate (CaSiO3), chemically pure CaCO3, and two types of
      Ca-silicate slags from metal industry (Pro-Sil) and chemical industry (TS) were
      used in laboratory experiments being conducted with pure quartz sand and
      cultivated and virgin Entisols and Spodosols collected in the South Florida. The
      binding energy-related constants were evaluated for soils treated by Si-rich
      materials and then incubated during 2 months. The following row of tested
      materials on the increasing level of "affinity parameter" was determined: for
      virgin Spodosol, Pro-Sil < CaCO3 < FSS< CaSiO3 < TS; for cultivated Spodosol, FSS
      < Pro-Sil < CaCO3< CaSiO3 < TS; for virgin Entisol, Pro-Sil < CaSiO3 < CaCO3 <
      FSS < TS; and for cultivated Entisol, FSS < Pro-Sil < CaSiO3 < CaCO3 < TS.
      Chemical, physical, and physical-chemical mechanisms of increasing soil
      adsorption capacity are hypothesized and discussed to explain the results
      obtained. The conducted experiments have demonstrated high prospective of Si-rich
      materials for reduction of P leaching from cultivated sandy soils.

PMID- 28889198
TI  - Polyhydroxyalkanoate production from sucrose by Cupriavidus necator strains
      harboring csc genes from Escherichia coli W.
AB  - Cupriavidus necator H16 is the most promising bacterium for industrial production
      of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) because of their remarkable ability to accumulate
      them in the cells. With genetic modifications, this bacterium can produce poly(3
      hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx), which has better physical
      properties, as well as poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) using plant oils and sugars
      as a carbon source. Considering production cost, sucrose is a very attractive raw
      material because it is inexpensive; however, this bacterium cannot assimilate
      sucrose. Here, we used the sucrose utilization (csc) genes of Escherichia coli W
      to generate C. necator strains that can assimilate sucrose. Especially, glucose
      utilizing recombinant C. necator strains harboring the sucrose hydrolase gene
      (cscA) and sucrose permease gene (cscB) of E. coli W grew well on sucrose as a
      sole carbon source and accumulated PHB. In addition, strains introduced with a
      crotonyl-CoA reductase gene (ccr), ethylmalonyl-CoA decarboxylase gene (emd), and
      some other genetic modifications besides the csc genes and the glucose-utilizing
      mutations produced PHBHHx with a 3-hydroxyhexanoate (3HHx) content of maximum
      approximately 27 mol% from sucrose. Furthermore, when one of the PHBHHx-producing
      strains was cultured with sucrose solution in a fed-batch fermentation, PHBHHx
      with a 3HHx content of approximately 4 mol% was produced and reached 113 g/L for
      65 h, which is approximately 1.5-fold higher than that produced using glucose
      solution.

PMID- 28889197
TI  - Changes in Gene Expression in the Locus Coeruleus-Amygdala Circuitry in
      Inhibitory Avoidance PTSD Model.
AB  - The locus coeruleus (LC)-amygdala circuit is implicated in playing a key role in
      responses to emotionally arousing stimuli and in the manifestation of post
      traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we examined changes in gene expression of
      a number of important mediators of the LC-amygdala circuitry in the inhibition
      avoidance model of PTSD. After testing for basal acoustic startle response (ASR),
      rats were exposed to a severe footshock (1.5 mA for 10 s) in the inhibitory
      avoidance apparatus. They were given contextual situational reminders every 5 day
      for 25 days. Controls were treated identically but with the footshock
      inactivated. Animals were re-tested on second ASR and decapitated 1 h later. The
      shock group had enhanced hyperarousal and several changes in gene expression
      compared to controls. In the LC, mRNA levels of norepinephrine (NE) biosynthetic
      enzymes (TH, DBH), NE transporter (NET), NPY receptors (Y1R, Y2R), and CB1
      receptor of endocannabinoid system were elevated. In the basolateral amygdala
      (BLA), there were marked reductions in gene expression for CB1, and especially
      Y1R, with rise for corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) system (CRH, CRH
      receptor 1), and no significant changes in the central amygdala. Our results
      suggest a fast forward mechanism in the LC-amygdala circuitry in the shock group.

PMID- 28889199
TI  - Oral delivery of staphylococcal nuclease by Lactococcus lactis prevents type 1
      diabetes mellitus in NOD mice.
AB  - Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the
      self-destruction of insulin-producing beta cells. Recently, studies have revealed
      that neutrophils contribute to the early pathological injury to the pancreas,
      predominantly via the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). To
      determine whether early intervention targeting NETs with staphylococcal nuclease
      (SNase) can delay the onset of T1DM, non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice were orally
      administered recombinant Lactococcus lactis (L. lactis) expressing SNase. The
      results showed that NETs were effectively disrupted by SNase both in vivo and in
      vitro, leading to a significant decrease in neutrophil-derived circulating free
      DNA (cf-DNA/NETs), neutrophil elastase (NE), and protease 3 (PR3) in the serum
      compared with the controls. In addition, SNase effectively regulated the blood
      glucose levels of NOD mice, and the onset of diabetes was postponed with reduced
      mortality and morbidity. Recombinant L. lactis also ameliorated inflammation in
      NOD mice, as evidenced by the remarkable increase in IL-4 and reductions in TNF
      alpha and CRP. Moreover, HE staining results showed that L. lactis expressing
      SNase exerted protective effects on pancreatic islets and relieved inflammation
      of the small intestine in NOD mice. Hence, the present study indicates that the
      oral delivery of SNase by L. lactis can effectively prevent T1DM, ameliorate
      inflammation, and contribute to immunomodulatory balance in NOD mice.

PMID- 28889200
TI  - Prevalence of common hereditary risk factors for thrombophilia in Somalia and
      identification of a novel Gln544Arg mutation in coagulation factor V.
AB  - Thrombophilia, commonly manifested as venous thromboembolism (VTE), is a
      worldwide concern but little is known on its genetic epidemiology in many parts
      of the globe particularly in the developing countries. Here we employed TaqMan
      genotyping and pyrosequencing to evaluate the prevalence of known common
      nucleotide polymorphisms associated with thrombophilia in a Somali population in
      the Puntland region of Somalia. We also employed next generation sequencing (NGS)
      to investigate other genetic variants in a Somali patient with deep venous
      thrombosis (DVT). As expected, we found no existence of factor V Leiden (rs6025)
      and prothrombin G20210A (rs1799963) in the Somali population. The G allele of ABO
      [261G/delG] polymorphism (rs8176719) was found at a frequency of 29%, similar to
      that observed in other African populations. We found the lowest so far reported
      frequency of MTHFR C677T (rs1801133) polymorphism in the Somali population (T
      allele frequency 1.5%). A novel and deleterious single nucleotide variation in
      exon 11 of coagulation factor V (c.1631A>G) causing Gln544Arg exchange in factor
      V was identified in a 29 years old Somali female with DVT. The same patient was
      heterozygous to VKORC1 Asp36Tyr polymorphism (rs61742245) that predisposes to
      warfarin resistance. In conclusion, this study shows that common hereditary
      factors for thromboembolism found in Caucasians are either less frequent or
      absent in the Somali population-similar to the situation in other Africans. NGS
      is possibly a better choice to detect genetic risk variants for thrombosis in
      this ethnic group.

PMID- 28889201
TI  - Not accounting for interindividual variability can mask habitat selection
      patterns: a case study on black bears.
AB  - Habitat selection studies conducted at the population scale commonly aim to
      describe general patterns that could improve our understanding of the limiting
      factors in species-habitat relationships. Researchers often consider
      interindividual variation in selection patterns to control for its effects and
      avoid pseudoreplication by using mixed-effect models that include individuals as
      random factors. Here, we highlight common pitfalls and possible
      misinterpretations of this strategy by describing habitat selection of 21 black
      bears Ursus americanus. We used Bayesian mixed-effect models and compared results
      obtained when using random intercept (i.e., population level) versus calculating
      individual coefficients for each independent variable (i.e., individual level).
      We then related interindividual variability to individual characteristics (i.e.,
      age, sex, reproductive status, body condition) in a multivariate analysis. The
      assumption of comparable behavior among individuals was verified only in 40% of
      the cases in our seasonal best models. Indeed, we found strong and opposite
      responses among sampled bears and individual coefficients were linked to
      individual characteristics. For some covariates, contrasted responses canceled
      each other out at the population level. In other cases, interindividual
      variability was concealed by the composition of our sample, with the majority of
      the bears (e.g., old individuals and bears in good physical condition) driving
      the population response (e.g., selection of young forest cuts). Our results
      stress the need to consider interindividual variability to avoid
      misinterpretation and uninformative results, especially for a flexible and
      opportunistic species. This study helps to identify some ecological drivers of
      interindividual variability in bear habitat selection patterns.

PMID- 28889203
TI  - Do Growth Mindsets in Math Benefit Females? Identifying Pathways between Gender,
      Mindset, and Motivation.
AB  - Despite efforts to increase female representation in science, technology,
      engineering, and mathematics (STEM), females continue to be less motivated to
      pursue STEM careers than males. A short-term longitudinal study used a sample of
      1449 high school students (grades 9-12; 49% females) to examine pathways from
      gender and mindset onto STEM outcomes via motivational beliefs (i.e., expectancy
      beliefs, task value, and cost). Mindset, motivational beliefs, and STEM career
      aspirations were assessed between the fall and winter months of the 2014-2015
      school year and math grades were obtained at the conclusion of the same year.
      Student growth mindset beliefs predicted higher task values in math. Task values
      also mediated the pathway from a growth mindset to higher STEM career
      aspirations. Expectancy beliefs mediated the pathway between gender and math
      achievement. This mediated pathway was stronger for females than for males, such
      that females had higher math achievement than males when they endorsed a growth
      mindset. Findings suggest possible avenues for improving female's interest in
      STEM.

PMID- 28889202
TI  - Regulation of sterile alpha- and armadillo motif (SARM) containing protein
      expression in Pam2CSK4- and Pam3CSK4-activated mouse macrophage cell line
      (RAW264.7) requires TLR9.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: We aimed to investigate the involvement of surface TLRs and
      endosomal TLRs in the regulation of SARM expression by TLR2 ligands (Pam2CSK4 and
      Pam3CSK4). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mouse macrophage cell line (RAW264.7) was
      treated with either Pam2CSK4 or Pam3CSK4 (TLR2 ligands) at a concentration of 100
      ng/ml. At indicated time points, the treated cells were lysed. The gene and
      protein expression of SARM were determined by RT-PCR and immunoblotting,
      respectively. For silencing of TLR9 function, the cells were transfected with
      TLR9 siRNAs before stimulation by these two TLR2 ligands RESULTS: The SARM
      expression was upregulated at both transcriptional and translational levels in
      time-dependent manner during activation of Pam2CSK4 and Pam3CSK4 in mouse
      macrophages. Blocking of ligand internalization by cytochalasin D showed
      interference effect with SARM expression. Moreover, our results also demonstrated
      that endosomal acidification and TLR9 were required for SARM expression
      suggesting the essential role of endosomal compartment acidification and TLR9 in
      regulating SARM expression. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested the collaboration
      of TLR2-TLR9 at least in the regulation of SARM expression. However, the
      underlying mechanism that participated in these two TLRs cooperation is
      underinvestigated.

PMID- 28889204
TI  - A microfluidics-based mobility shift assay to identify new inhibitors of beta
      secretase for Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - The beta-secretase (BACE1) initiates the generation of toxic amyloid-beta peptide
      (Abeta) from amyloid-beta precursor protein (APP), which was widely considered to
      play a key role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, a novel
      microfluidics-based mobility shift assay (MMSA) was developed, validated, and
      applied for the screening of BACE1 inhibitors for AD. First, the BACE1 activity
      assay was established with a new fluorescent peptide substrate (FAM-EVNLDAEF)
      derived from the Swedish mutant APP, and high-quality ratiometric data were
      generated in both endpoint and kinetic modes by electrophoretic separation of
      peptide substrate from the BACE1 cleaved product (FAM-EVNL) before fluorescence
      quantification. To validate the assay, the inhibition and kinetic parameter
      values of two known inhibitors (AZD3839 and AZD3293) were evaluated, and the
      results were in good agreement with those reported by other methods. Finally, the
      assay was applied to screen for new inhibitors from a 900-compound library in a
      384-well format, and one novel hit (IC50 = 26.5 +/- 1.5 MUM) was identified.
      Compared with the common fluorescence-based assays, the primary advantage of the
      direct MMSA was to discover novel BACE1 inhibitors with lower auto-fluorescence
      interference, and its superb capability for kinetic study. Graphical abstract
      Microfluidics-based mobility shift assay for BACE1.

PMID- 28889205
TI  - Coupled Monte Carlo simulation and Copula theory for uncertainty analysis of
      multiphase flow simulation models.
AB  - Simulation-optimization techniques are effective in identifying an optimal
      remediation strategy. Simulation models with uncertainty, primarily in the form
      of parameter uncertainty with different degrees of correlation, influence the
      reliability of the optimal remediation strategy. In this study, a coupled Monte
      Carlo simulation and Copula theory is proposed for uncertainty analysis of a
      simulation model when parameters are correlated. Using the self-adaptive weight
      particle swarm optimization Kriging method, a surrogate model was constructed to
      replace the simulation model and reduce the computational burden and time
      consumption resulting from repeated and multiple Monte Carlo simulations. The
      Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC)
      were employed to identify whether the t Copula function or the Gaussian Copula is
      the optimal Copula function to match the relevant structure of the parameters.
      The results show that both the AIC and BIC values of the t Copula function are
      less than those of the Gaussian Copula function. This indicates that the t Copula
      function is the optimal function for matching the relevant structure of the
      parameters. The outputs of the simulation model when parameter correlation was
      considered and when it was ignored were compared. The results show that the
      amplitude of the fluctuation interval when parameter correlation was considered
      is less than the corresponding amplitude when parameter estimation was ignored.
      Moreover, it was demonstrated that considering the correlation among parameters
      is essential for uncertainty analysis of a simulation model, and the results of
      uncertainty analysis should be incorporated into the remediation strategy
      optimization process.

PMID- 28889207
TI  - Antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia: synthesis of world-wide guidelines and
      integrated recommendations for assessment, management and future research.
AB  - RATIONALE: Hyperprolactinemia is a highly prevalent adverse effect of many
      antipsychotic agents, with potentially serious health consequences. Several
      guidelines have been developed for the management of this condition; yet, their
      concordance has not been evaluated. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this paper were
      (1) to review current clinical guidelines; (2) to review key systematic evidence
      for management; and (3) based on our findings, to develop an integrated
      management recommendation specific to male and female patients who are otherwise
      clinically stabilised on antipsychotics. METHODS: We performed searches of
      Medline and EMBASE, supplemented with guideline-specific database and general web
      searches, to identify clinical guidelines containing specific recommendations for
      antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia, produced/updated 01/01/2010-15/09/2016.
      A separate systematic search was performed to identify emerging management
      approaches described in reviews and meta-analyses published >= 2010. RESULTS:
      There is some consensus among guidelines relating to baseline PRL screening (8/12
      guidelines), screening for differential diagnosis (7/12) and
      discontinuing/switching PRL-raising agent (7/12). Guidelines otherwise diverge
      substantially regarding most aspects of screening, monitoring and management
      (e.g. treatment with dopamine agonists). There is an omission of clear sex
      specific recommendations. Systematic literature on management approaches is
      promising; more research is needed. An integrated management recommendation is
      presented to guide sex-specific clinical response to antipsychotic-induced
      hyperprolactinemia. Key aspects include asymptomatic hyperprolactinemia
      monitoring and fertility considerations with PRL normalisation. CONCLUSION:
      Further empirical work is key to shaping robust guidelines for antipsychotic
      induced hyperprolactinemia. The integrated management recommendation can assist
      clinician and patient decision-making, with the goal of balancing effective
      psychiatric treatment while minimising PRL-related adverse health effects in male
      and female patients.

PMID- 28889208
TI  - Detection of human antibodies binding with smooth and rough LPSs from Proteus
      mirabilis O3 strains S1959, R110, R45.
AB  - Bacteria of the genus Proteus of the family Enterobacteriaceae are facultative
      human pathogens responsible mainly for urinary tract and wound infections,
      bacteremia and the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We have analyzed and
      compared by ELISA the titer of antibodies in plasmas of healthy individuals and
      in sera of rheumatoid arthritis patients recognizing a potential host cross
      reactive epitope (lysine-galacturonic acid epitopes) present in Proteus
      lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In our experiments LPSs isolated from two mutants of
      smooth Proteus mirabilis 1959 (O3), i.e. strains R110 and R45, were used. R110
      (Ra type mutant) is lacking the O-specific polysaccharide, but possesses a
      complete core oligosaccharide, while R45 (Re type) has a reduced core
      oligosaccharide and contains two 3-deoxy-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid residues and
      one of 4-amino-4-deoxy-L-arabinopyranose residues. Titer of P. mirabilis S1959
      LPS-specific-antibodies increased with the age of blood donors. RA and blood
      donors' sera contained antibodies against S and Ra and Re type of P. mirabilis O3
      LPSs. Antibodies recognizing lysine-galacturonic acid epitopes of O3 LPS were
      detected by ELISA in some plasmas of healthy individuals and sera of rheumatoid
      arthritis patients. RA patients antibodies reacting with P. mirabilis S1959 S and
      R LPSs may indicate a potential role of anti-LPS antibodies in molecular mimicry
      in RA diseases.

PMID- 28889209
TI  - Micro-bead injection spectroscopy for label-free automated determination of
      immunoglobulin G in human serum.
AB  - Immunoglobulin G (IgG) represents the major fraction of antibodies in healthy
      adult human serum, and deviations from physiological levels are a generic marker
      of disease corresponding to different pathologies. Therefore, screening methods
      for IgG evaluation are a valuable aid to diagnostics. The present work proposes a
      rapid, automatic, and miniaturized method based on UV-vis micro-bead injection
      spectroscopy (MU-BIS) for the real-time determination of human serum IgG with
      label-free detection. Relying on attachment of IgG in rec-protein G immobilized
      in Sepharose 4B, a bioaffinity column is automatically assembled, where IgG is
      selectively retained and determined by on-column optical density measurement. A
      "dilution-and-shoot" approach (50 to 200 times) was implemented without further
      sample treatment because interferences were flushed out of the column upon sample
      loading, with minimization of carryover and cross-contamination by automatically
      discarding the sorbent (0.2 mg) after each determination. No interference from
      human serum albumin at 60 mg mL-1 in undiluted sample was found. The method
      allowed IgG determination in the range 100-300 MUg mL-1 (corresponding to 5.0-60
      mg mL-1 in undiluted samples), with a detection limit of 33 MUg mL-1 (1.7 mg mL-1
      for samples, dilution factor of 50). RSD values were < 9.4 and < 11.7%, for intra
      and inter-assay precision, respectively, while recovery values for human serum
      spiked with IgG at high pathological levels were 97.8-101.4%. Comparison to
      commercial ELISA kit showed no significant difference for tested samples (n = 8).
      Moreover, time-to-result decreased from several hours to < 5 min and analysis
      cost decreased 10 times, showing the potential of the proposed approach as a
      point-of-care method. Graphical abstract Micro-Bead Injection Spectroscopy method
      for real time, automated and label-free determination of total serum human
      Immunoglobulin G (IgG). The method was designed for Lab-on-Valve (LOV) platforms
      using a miniaturised protein G bioaffinity separative approach. IgG are separated
      from serum matrix components upon quantification with low non-specific binding in
      less than 5 min.

PMID- 28889206
TI  - Dietary Fatty Acid Composition Modulates Obesity and Interacts with Obesity
      Related Genes.
AB  - The prevalence of obesity is skyrocketing worldwide. The scientific evidence has
      associated obesity risk with many independent factors including the quality of
      dietary fat and genetics. Dietary fat exists as the main focus of dietary
      guidelines targeting obesity reduction. To prevent/minimize the adipogenic effect
      of dietary fatty acids (FA), intakes of long-chain saturated- and trans-FA should
      be reduced and substituted with unsaturated FA. The optimal proportions of
      dietary unsaturated FA are yet to be defined, along with a particular emphasis on
      the need to achieve a balanced ratio of n-3:n-6 polyunsaturated FA and to
      increase monounsaturated FA consumption at the expense of saturated FA. However,
      inter-individual variability in weight loss in response to a dietary intervention
      is evident, which highlights the importance of exploring gene-nutrient
      interactions that can further modulate the risk for obesity development. The
      quality of dietary fat was found to modulate obesity development by interacting
      with genes involved in fatty acid metabolism, adipogenesis, and the
      endocannabinoid system. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the
      effect of the quality of dietary fat on obesity phenotype and obesity-related
      genes. The evidence is not only supporting the modulatory effect of fat quality
      on obesity development but also presenting a number of interactions between
      obesity-related genes and the quality of dietary fat. The identified gene-FA
      interaction may have a clinical importance and holds a promise for the
      possibility of using genetically targeted dietary interventions to reduce obesity
      risk in the future.

PMID- 28889211
TI  - Philippe Hardy: In Memoriam.

PMID- 28889210
TI  - Ketamine and midazolam differently impact post-intubation hemodynamic profile
      when used as induction agents during emergency airway management in
      hemodynamically stable patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction.
AB  - We investigated the incidence of post-intubation hypotension (PIH) in
      hemodynamically stable patients with STEMI requiring rapid sequences intubation
      (RSI) and medicated with ketamine or midazolam as induction agent. STEMI patients
      admitted between 1st January 2009 and 1st January 2017 who did not receive any
      type of inotropic support before the endotracheal intubation (ETI) was reviewed.
      PIH was defined as a reduction greater than 20% or a drop of systolic blood
      pressure (SBP) below 90 mmHg within 10 min from the administration of the
      induction agent [ketamine (1 mg/kg) or midazolam (0.3 mg/kg)]. Over the study
      period, 136 patients (66 male and 70 females, mean age 72.25 +/- 7.33 years) met
      the inclusion criteria. Patients treated with midazolam and ketamine were 63 and
      73, respectively. PIH was observed in 38 (27.9%) patients after 10 min from ETI.
      Midazolam patients had a significant lower SBP at both 5 and 10 min after
      induction (97.75 +/- 8.06 vs 100.81 +/- 8.08, p = 0.029 and 92.83 +/- 7.53 vs
      101.58 +/- 7.29, p < 0.0001, respectively) (ANOVA p < 0.0001). Age (OR 1.91, 95%
      CI 1.87-1.97, p = 0.001), history of arterial hypertension (OR 2.27, 95% CI 2.21
      2.35, p = 0.0001), multivessel coronary artery disease (OR 2.66, 95% CI 2.58
      2.71, p = 0.001), SI >=0.9 (OR 2.41, 95% CI 2.36-2.48, p < 0.0001) and anterior
      STEMI (OR 2.51, 95% CI 2.48-2.57, p = 0.0001) resulted independent predictors of
      PIH in STEMI patients treated with midazolam, as induction agent, before ETI.
      Midazolam was more likely than ketamine to cause significant PIH when used as an
      induction agent for RSI in hemodynamically stable patients with STEMI.

PMID- 28889213
TI  - Robotic approach to resection of villous adenoma of the urachus: a case report
      and literature review.
AB  - Very few cases of villous adenomas of the bladder or urinary tract have been
      described. To our knowledge this is the first account of resection of an urachal
      villous adenoma via robotic laparoscopy, which is a safe and efficacious surgical
      approach. At this time, there is not enough evidence to suggest that progression
      of disease to carcinoma is the typical course. Nonetheless, follow-up cystoscopy
      is recommended after complete removal of the adenoma to monitor for recurrence.
      This case report reviews the current literature and describes a novel approach to
      treatment of this exceedingly rare entity.

PMID- 28889212
TI  - Cocaine-like discriminative stimulus effects of "norepinephrine-preferring"
      monoamine releasers: time course and interaction studies in rhesus monkeys.
AB  - RATIONALE: The therapeutic potential of monoamine releasers with prominent
      dopaminergic effects is hindered by their high abuse liability. OBJECTIVES: The
      present study examined the effects of several novel "norepinephrine (NE)
      preferring" monoamine releasers relative to non-selective monoamine releasers, d
      amphetamine and d-methamphetamine, in rhesus monkeys trained to discriminate
      cocaine. NE-preferring releasers were approximately 13-fold more potent for NE
      compared to dopamine release and ranged in potency for serotonin release (PAL-329
      < l-methamphetamine < PAL-169). METHODS: Adult rhesus macaques were trained to
      discriminate 0.4 mg/kg, IM cocaine on a 30-response fixed ratio schedule of food
      reinforcement. Substitution studies determined the extent to which test drugs
      produced cocaine-like discriminative stimulus effects and their time course. Drug
      interaction studies determined whether pretreatment with test drugs altered the
      discriminable effects of cocaine. RESULTS: Results show that cocaine, d
      amphetamine, and d-methamphetamine dose-dependently substituted for cocaine with
      similar potencies. Among the "NE-preferring" releasers, PAL-329 and l
      methamphetamine also dose-dependently substituted for cocaine but differed in
      potency. PAL-169 failed to substitute for cocaine up to a dose that disrupted
      responding. When administered prior to cocaine, only d-amphetamine and PAL-329
      significantly shifted the cocaine dose-effect function leftward indicating
      enhancement of cocaine's discriminative stimulus effects. CONCLUSIONS: These data
      suggest that greater potency for NE relative to dopamine release (up to 13-fold)
      does not interfere with the ability of a monoamine releaser to produce cocaine
      like discriminative effects but that increased serotonin release may have an
      inhibitory effect. Further characterization of these and other "NE-preferring"
      monoamine releasers should provide insight into their potential for the
      management of cocaine addiction.

PMID- 28889214
TI  - SERPING1 mRNA overexpression in monocytes from HIV+ patients.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The HIV-1 virus activates the complement system, an essential element
      of the immune system. SERPING1 is a protease inhibitor that disables C1r/C1s in
      the C1 complex of the classical complement pathway. METHODS: In this paper, we
      performed an analysis of several microarrays deposited in GEO dataset to
      demonstrate that SERPING1 mRNA is modulated in CD14+ monocytes from HIV-1
      infected individuals. In addition, data were validated on monocytes isolated from
      seronegative healthy volunteers, treated with IFNs. RESULTS: Our analysis shows
      that SERPING1 mRNA is overexpressed in monocytes from HIV-1+ patients and the
      expression levels correlate positively with viral load and negatively with the
      CD4+ T-cell count. Of note, anti-retroviral therapy is able to reduce the levels
      of SERPING1 mRNA, ex vivo. In addition, we found that 30% of the SERPING1 genes
      network is upregulated in monocytes from HIV-1+ patients. Noteworthy, the
      expression levels of IFITM1-an antiviral molecule belonging to the genes network
      correlate positively with SERPING1 expression. Interestingly, the monocytes
      treatment with IFN-gamma, IFN-beta and IFN-alpha significantly upregulates the
      SERPING1 mRNA expression levels. CONCLUSIONS: From the outcome of our
      investigation, it is possible to conclude that SERPING1 and its network serve as
      important components of the innate immune system to restrict HIV-1 infection.

PMID- 28889215
TI  - Brief Report: Postsecondary Work and Educational Disruptions for Youth on the
      Autism Spectrum.
AB  - This study examined vocational/educational disruption in the 2-3 years after high
      school for 36 youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data were collected
      three times from parents: during youth's last year of high school and two times
      after high school exit. Data were coded into categories indicating any versus no
      disruptions in postsecondary vocation/education, and group differences in
      individual (behavior problems, IQ, adaptive behavior, autism severity, stress
      reactivity) and family (parent depression, anxiety, quality of life; family
      income and climate) factors were examined. One-half of youth had experienced a
      postsecondary vocational/educational disruption; parents of those with a
      disruption had more depressive and anxiety symptoms and lower quality of life
      while their son/daughter was still in high school.

PMID- 28889216
TI  - Municipal solid waste management planning for Xiamen City, China: a stochastic
      fractional inventory-theory-based approach.
AB  - In this study, a stochastic fractional inventory-theory-based waste management
      planning (SFIWP) model was developed and applied for supporting long-term
      planning of the municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Xiamen City, the
      special economic zone of Fujian Province, China. In the SFIWP model, the
      techniques of inventory model, stochastic linear fractional programming, and
      mixed-integer linear programming were integrated in a framework. Issues of waste
      inventory in MSW management system were solved, and the system efficiency was
      maximized through considering maximum net-diverted wastes under various
      constraint-violation risks. Decision alternatives for waste allocation and
      capacity expansion were also provided for MSW management planning in Xiamen. The
      obtained results showed that about 4.24 * 106 t of waste would be diverted from
      landfills when p i is 0.01, which accounted for 93% of waste in Xiamen City, and
      the waste diversion per unit of cost would be 26.327 * 103 t per $106. The
      capacities of MSW management facilities including incinerators, composting
      facility, and landfills would be expanded due to increasing waste generation
      rate.

PMID- 28889217
TI  - Best dispersal strategies in spatially heterogeneous environments: optimization
      of the principal eigenvalue for indefinite fractional Neumann problems.
AB  - We study the positive principal eigenvalue of a weighted problem associated with
      the Neumann spectral fractional Laplacian. This analysis is related to the
      investigation of the survival threshold in population dynamics. Our main result
      concerns the optimization of such threshold with respect to the fractional order
      [Formula: see text], the case [Formula: see text] corresponding to the standard
      Neumann Laplacian: when the habitat is not too fragmented, the principal positive
      eigenvalue can not have local minima for [Formula: see text]. As a consequence,
      the best strategy for survival is either following the diffusion with [Formula:
      see text] (i.e. Brownian diffusion), or with the lowest possible s (i.e.
      diffusion allowing long jumps), depending on the size of the domain. In addition,
      we show that analogous results hold for the standard fractional Laplacian in
      [Formula: see text], in periodic environments.

PMID- 28889218
TI  - Opioid use following gynecologic and pelvic reconstructive surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Opioid use, addiction, and overdose are a growing
      epidemic in the USA. Our objective was to determine whether the amount of opioid
      medication prescribed following gynecologic and pelvic reconstructive surgery is
      insufficient, adequate, or in excess. We hypothesized that we were
      overprescribing postoperative opioids. METHODS: Participants who were at least 18
      years old and underwent gynecologic and/or pelvic reconstructive surgery from
      April through August 2016 were eligible to participate. Routine practice for pain
      management is to prescribe 30 tablets of opioids for major procedures and ten to
      15 tablets for minor procedures. At the 2-week postoperative visit, participants
      completed a questionnaire regarding the number of tablets prescribed and used,
      postoperative pain control, and relevant medical history. Fisher's exact test was
      used to compare data. RESULTS: Sixty-five participants completed questionnaires.
      Half (49.1%) reported being prescribed more opioids than needed, while two (3.5%)
      felt the amount was less than needed. Though not significant, participants who
      underwent major surgeries were more likely to report being prescribed more than
      needed (53.5%) compared with participants who underwent minor surgeries (35.7%; p
      = 0.47). Though not significant, participants with anxiety were less likely to
      report being prescribed more tablets than needed compared with participants
      without anxiety (44.4% vs. 57.1%; p = 0.38). This was also true of participants
      with depression compared with those without (37.5% vs. 58.3%; p = 0.17), and
      those with chronic pain compared with those without (33.3% vs. 60.0%; p = 0.10).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our current opioid prescription practice for postoperative pain
      management may exceed what patients need.

PMID- 28889219
TI  - A validated UPLC-MS/MS method coupled with protein precipitation and ion exchange
      solid phase extraction for the quantitation of porcine relaxin B29 in dog plasma
      and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.
AB  - Porcine relaxin is a 6 kDa peptide hormone of pregnancy with important
      physiological and pharmacological effects. It contains a number of analogs of
      which porcine relaxin B29 is one of the most important. To support the
      development of porcine relaxin B29 as a new drug, we established an UPLC-MS/MS
      method for its quantitation in dog plasma. Sample preparation by protein
      precipitation and ion exchange solid phase extraction was followed by UPLC on an
      XBridgeTM BEH300 C18 column at 40  degrees C in a run time of only 5.5 min.
      Detection was performed on a Qtrap 6500 mass spectrometer using ESI in the
      positive ion mode with MRM of the transitions at m/z 831.7 [M+7H]7+ -> 505.4 and
      m/z 1162.4 [M+5H]5+ -> 226 for pRLX B29 and internal standard (recombinant human
      insulin), respectively. The method was linear over the concentration range 30
      2000 ng/mL with no matrix effects. Intra- and inter-day precisions were < 15%
      with accuracies in the range 98.8-100.6%. The method was successfully applied to
      a pharmacokinetic study in beagle dogs after administration of a 0.15 mg/kg
      intravenous dose. Graphical abstract Sample preparation and detection procedure.

PMID- 28889220
TI  - Rapamycin treatment attenuates age-associated periodontitis in mice.
AB  - Interventions that target biological mechanisms of aging have great potential to
      enhance quality of life by delaying morbidity and mortality. The FDA-approved
      drug rapamycin is a compelling candidate for such an intervention. In a previous
      study, it was reported that 3 months of rapamycin treatment is sufficient to
      increase life expectancy and remodel the gut microbiome in aged mice. Transient
      treatment with rapamycin or a rapamycin derivative has also been shown to delay
      immune stem cell senescence and rejuvenate immune function in aged mice and
      elderly people. Periodontal disease is an important age-related disease involving
      altered immune function, pathological changes to the oral microbiome, and
      systemic inflammation. Periodontal disease is defined clinically by loss of
      alveolar bone and by connective tissue degeneration. Here, we describe
      significant alveolar bone loss during aging in two different mouse strain
      backgrounds and report that rapamycin treatment is sufficient to reverse age
      associated periodontal disease in mice. Partial restoration of youthful levels of
      alveolar bone is observed in 22-month-old rapamycin-treated mice as rapidly as 8
      weeks after initiation of treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this
      represents the first intervention shown to substantially prevent or reverse age
      associated alveolar bone loss. These findings suggest the possibility that
      inhibition of mTOR with rapamycin or other pharmacological agents may be useful
      to treat a clinically relevant condition for which there is currently no
      effective treatment.

PMID- 28889221
TI  - Influence of Rapeseed Cake on Iron Plaque Formation and Cd Uptake by Rice (Oryza
      sativa L.) Seedlings Exposed to Excess Cd.
AB  - A soil spiking experiment at two Cd levels (0.72 and 5.20 mg kg-1) was conducted
      to investigate the effects of rapeseed cake (RSC) at application rates of 0%,
      0.75%, 1.5%, and 3.0% (w/w) on iron plaque formation and Cd uptake by rice (Oryza
      sativa L.) seedlings. The use of RSC did result in a sharp decrease in soil
      bioavailability of Cd and a significant increase in rice growth, soil pH and
      organic matter. Application of RSC increased the amount of iron plaque formation
      and this effectively inhibited the uptake and translocation of Cd into the rice
      seedlings. RSC was an effective organic additive for increasing rice growth and
      reducing Cd uptake by rice plant, simultaneously. These results could be used as
      a reference for the safety use of Cd polluted paddy soil.

PMID- 28889222
TI  - The predictive factors of secondary patellar resurfacing in computer-assisted
      total knee arthroplasty. A prospective cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The decision to resurface the patella during total knee arthroplasty
      (TKA) remains controversial. This prospective cohort study aimed to evaluate the
      outcome and survivorship of the native patella in computer-assisted TKA (CAS TKA)
      implanted for primary knee osteoarthritis, and to determine the predictive
      factors of secondary patellar resurfacing (SPR). METHODS: A prospective cohort of
      273 cementless ultra-congruent mobile-bearing CAS TKA implanted without patellar
      resurfacing was included in our total joint registry. Patients were evaluated
      with the International Knee Society (IKS) and Hospital for Special Surgery
      Patellar (HSSP) scores. Radiographic evaluation was focused on the patellofemoral
      (PF) compartment to assess: the patellar dysplasia (Wiberg classification), PF
      osteoarthritis (Iwano classification), femoral trochlear dysplasia (femoral
      sulcus angle), patellar maltracking (patellar tilt and lateralization), and
      patella height (Blackburne-Peel ratio). RESULTS: At a six-year median follow-up,
      the CAS TKA survivorship using SPR as end-point was 95% (range, 91-99%). The IKS
      and HSSP improved significantly after SPR (p = 0.001 and 0.004, respectively). No
      significant difference in the IKS and HSSP was detected between TKA with native
      patella and SPR-TKA at latest follow-up. Importantly, four pre-operative
      radiographic PF parameters were significantly associated with SPR: higher stages
      of patellar dysplasia and PF osteoarthritis, and higher sulcus angle and patellar
      lateralization (hazard ratios = 5.1 to 11.6, p = 0.009 to 0.04). CONCLUSION: When
      preserving the native patella, surgeons should be aware of pre-operative PF
      radiographic parameters that could influence the outcome and survivorship of CAS
      TKA leading to SPR. Particularly, evidence of PF dysplasia, osteoarthritis and
      maltracking should be determined pre-operatively to resurface the patella at the
      time of TKA. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level II (prospective cohort study).

PMID- 28889223
TI  - Response of anaerobic membrane bioreactor to the presence of nano-Bi2WO6: reactor
      performance, supernatant characteristics, and microbial community.
AB  - Considering the increasing incorporation of manufactured nano-material into
      consumer products, there is a concern about its potential impacts in biological
      wastewater treatment. In this study, the response of anaerobic sludge to the
      presence of Bi2WO6 nano-particles (NPs) was investigated in the anaerobic
      membrane bioreactor (AnMBR). As the concentration of Bi2WO6 in the reactor was
      controlled around 1 mg/L, there was no significant difference in effluent water
      quality or bacterial activities before and after NP exposure, partially due to
      the microbial-induced NP aggregation and stable complex formation. However, with
      the increasing dosage of Bi2WO6 from 5 to 40 mg/L, great influences on the AnMBR
      performance were observed, including the reduction of COD removal efficiency,
      inhibition of the mechanization step, increased production of soluble microbial
      products, and enhanced secretion of extracellular polymer substrates. Additional
      investigation with high-throughput sequencing was conducted, clearly
      demonstrating that Bi2WO6 NPs induced changes in the bacterial community.

PMID- 28889224
TI  - Relationship between choroidal blood flow velocity and choroidal thickness in
      patients with regression of acute central serous chorioretinopathy.

PMID- 28889225
TI  - Effects of blood flow restriction during moderate-intensity eccentric knee
      extensions.
AB  - We investigated if blood flow restriction (BFR, cuff pressure 20 mmHG below
      individual occlusion pressure) increases metabolic stress, hormonal response,
      release of muscle damage markers, and muscle swelling induced by moderate
      intensity eccentric contractions. In a randomized, matched-pair design, 20 male
      subjects (25.3 +/- 3.3 years) performed four sets of unilateral eccentric knee
      extensions (75% 1RM) to volitional failure with (IG) or without (CG) femoral BFR.
      Despite significant differences of performed repetitions between IG (85.6 +/-
      15.4 repetitions) and CG (142.3 +/- 44.1 repetitions), peak values of lactate (IG
      7.0 +/- 1.4 mmol l-1, CG 6.9 +/- 2.7 mmol l-1), growth-hormone (IG 4.9 +/- 4.8 ng
      ml-1, CG 5.2 +/- 3.5 ng ml-1), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IG 172.1 +/- 41.9 ng
      ml-1, CG 178.7 +/- 82.1 ng ml-1), creatine-kinase (IG 625.5 +/- 464.8 U l-1, CG
      510.7 +/- 443.5 U l-1), the absolute neutrophil count (IG 7.9 +/- 1.3 103 ul-1,
      CG 8.7 +/- 2.0 103 ul-1), induced muscle swelling of rectus femoris and vastus
      lateralis and perceived pain did not differ. The present data indicate that BFR
      is suitable to intensify eccentric exercises.

PMID- 28889226
TI  - Stereopsis and fusion in anisometropia according to the presence of amblyopia.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the level of stereopsis and fusion in patients with
      anisometropia according to the presence of amblyopia. METHODS: We included 107
      children with anisometropia, divided into groups with non-amblyopic anisometropia
      (NA, n = 72) and amblyopic anisometropia (AA, n = 35). Normal subjects without
      anisometropia were enrolled in the control group (n = 73). Main outcome measures
      were the level of stereopsis and sensory fusion as evaluated by Titmus stereotest
      and Worth 4-dot test, respectively, using anisometropic glasses. RESULTS: The
      degree of anisometropia in the NA, AA, and control groups was 2.54 diopters (D),
      4.29 D, and 0.30 D, respectively (P = 0.014). Stereopsis (arcsec) was
      significantly worse in the AA group than the NA and control groups (641.71,
      76.25, 54.52, respectively, P < 0.001), while no significant difference was found
      between the NA and control groups. The rate of fusion was significantly lower in
      the AA than the NA group (14.3% vs. 65.3%, P < 0.001), and was significantly
      lower in the NA than the control group (65.3% vs. 80.6%, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      The levels of stereopsis and sensory fusion with anisometropic glasses were
      significantly worse in the AA than in the NA group. The level of stereopsis in
      the NA group, however, did not differ significantly from that in the isometropic
      control, while the rate of fusion was significantly lower. Early prescription of
      anisometropic glasses is needed to improve visual acuity and binocularity in
      children with possible amblyopic anisometropia.

PMID- 28889227
TI  - Effective adsorbent for arsenic removal: core/shell structural nano zero-valent
      iron/manganese oxide.
AB  - Recently, nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) has emerged as an effective adsorbent for
      the removal of arsenic from aqueous solutions. However, its use in various
      applications has suffered from reactivity loss resulting in a decreased
      efficiency. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop an effective arsenic
      adsorbent as a core/shell structural nZVI/manganese oxide (or nZVI/Mn oxide) to
      minimize the reactivity loss of the nZVI. As the major result, the arsenic
      adsorption capacities of the nZVI/Mn oxide for As(V) and As(III) were
      approximately two and three times higher than that of the nZVI, respectively. In
      addition, the As(V) removal efficiency of the nZVI/Mn oxide was maintained
      through 4 cycles of regeneration whereas that of the nZVI was decreased
      significantly. The enhanced reactivity and reusability of the nZVI/Mn oxide can
      be successfully explained by the synergistic interaction of the nZVI core and
      manganese oxide shell, in which the manganese oxides participate in oxidation
      reactions with corroded Fe2+ and subsequently retard the release of aqueous iron
      providing additional surface sites for arsenic adsorption. In summary, this study
      reports the successful fabrication of a core/shell nZVI/Mn oxide as an effective
      adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from aqueous solutions.

PMID- 28889228
TI  - Intraosseous migration of tendinous calcifications: two case reports.
AB  - Calcific tendinopathy of the rotator cuff is a common cause of shoulder pain.
      Inflammation of the rotator cuff tendons may be complicated by adjacent bone
      erosion and subsequent migration of calcific deposits within the bone resulting
      in marrow inflammation. Bone marrow involvement is not readily visible using X
      ray and ultrasound (US) and further testing is necessary. Magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) is a highly sensitive technique that can detect a focal bone T1 and
      T2-weighted hypointensity with bone marrow edema-like signal and cortical
      erosion. These findings can mislead the radiologist by suggesting an infectious
      or neoplastic lesion, often requiring further evaluation with computed tomography
      (CT) and biopsy. We report two cases of patients with shoulder pain in which
      different radiological approaches were used with pathological confirmation in one
      of them. In the first case, MRI revealed significant bone involvement in the head
      of the humerus and cortical erosion of the greater tuberosity. A CT examination
      and a biopsy was necessary for a final diagnosis of inflammatory bone reaction
      from intraosseous migration of tendinous calcifications. In the second case,
      similar MRI findings prompted re-evaluation of imaging to make a diagnosis of
      intraosseous migration of tendinous calcifications, obviating the need to perform
      CT and biopsy. We illustrate MRI signs of this complication that we think would
      allow to narrow the differential diagnosis potentially avoiding biopsy and
      additional CT examinations.

PMID- 28889229
TI  - Melatonin alleviates inflammation-induced apoptosis in human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells via suppression of Ca2+-XO-ROS-Drp1-mitochondrial fission axis
      by activation of AMPK/SERCA2a pathway.
AB  - Endothelia inflammation damage is vital to the development and progression of
      chronic venous disease. In the present study, we explored the protective effect
      of melatonin on endothelia apoptosis induced by LPS, particularly focusing on the
      mitochondrial fission. We demonstrated that human umbilical vein endothelial
      cells (HUVEC) subjected to LPS for 12 h exhibited a higher apoptotic rate.
      However, melatonin (1-20 MUM) treatment 12 h before LPS had the ability to
      protect HUVEC cell against LPS-mediated apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner.
      Furthermore, LPS induced the cytoplasmic calcium overload which was responsible
      for the upregulation of calcium-dependent xanthine oxidase (XO). Higher XO
      expression was associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction,
      leading to the Drp1 phosphorylation at the Ser616 site and migration on the
      surface of mitochondria. Furthermore, phosphorylated Drp1 initiated the
      mitochondrial fission contributing to the caspase9-dependent mitochondrial
      apoptosis as evidenced by lower membrane potential, more cyt-c leakage into the
      nuclear, and higher expression of proapoptotic proteins. However, melatonin
      treatment could trigger the AMPK pathway, which was followed by the increased
      SERCA2a expression. Activation of AMPK/SERCA2a by melatonin inhibited the calcium
      overload, XO-mediated ROS outburst, Drp1-required mitochondrial fission, and
      final mitochondrial apoptosis. In summary, this study confirmed that LPS induced
      HUVEC apoptosis through Ca2+-XO-ROS-Drp1-mitochondrial fission axis and that
      melatonin reduced the apoptosis of HUVEC through activation of the AMPK/SERCA2a
      pathway.

PMID- 28889230
TI  - The relationship between social support networks and depression in the 2007
      National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being.
AB  - PURPOSE: Social isolation and low levels of social support are associated with
      depression. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship
      between depression and social connectivity factors (frequency of contact and
      quality of social connections) in the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental
      Health and Well-being. METHODS: A national survey of 8841 participants aged 16-85
      years was conducted. Logistic regression was used to investigate the relationship
      between social connectivity factors and 12-month prevalence of Major Depressive
      Disorder in the whole sample, as well as across three age groups: younger adults
      (16-34 years), middle-aged adults (35-54 years), and older adults (55+ years).
      Respondents indicated how often they were in contact with family members and
      friends (frequency of contact), and how many family and friends they could rely
      on and confide in (quality of support), and were assessed for Major Depressive
      Disorder using the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostics
      Interview. RESULTS: Overall, higher social connection quality was more closely
      and consistently associated with lower odds of the past year depression, relative
      to frequency of social interaction. The exception to this was for the older group
      in which fewer than a single friendship interaction each month was associated
      with a two-fold increased likelihood of the past year depression (OR 2.19, 95% CI
      1.14-4.25). Friendship networks were important throughout life, although in
      middle adulthood, family support was also critically important-those who did not
      have any family support had more than a three-fold increased odds of the past
      year depression (OR 3.47, 95% CI 2.07-5.85). CONCLUSIONS: High-quality social
      connection with friends and family members is associated with reduced likelihood
      of the past year depression. Intervention studies that target the quality of
      social support for depression, particularly support from friends, are warranted.

PMID- 28889231
TI  - Favorable effects of early tolvaptan administration in very elderly patients
      after repeat hospitalizations for acute decompensated heart failure.
AB  - Tolvaptan (TLV) is an oral selective vasopressin 2 receptor antagonist that acts
      on the distal nephrons, causing a loss of electrolyte-free water. To date, its
      early administration in very elderly patients after repeat hospitalizations for
      acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) despite receiving optimal medical
      therapy has not been evaluated. Fifty-six ADHF patients who were >80 years old
      and had been repeatedly hospitalized were retrospectively enrolled in this study.
      Twenty-five patients (14 men; mean age 86.7 +/- 5.3 years; control group)
      received standard therapy and 31 patients (15 men; mean age 85.5 +/- 4.5 years;
      TLV group) received oral TLV within 24 h of admission. The rate of worsening
      renal function was significantly lower in the TLV group than in the control group
      (13 vs. 40%, P < 0.05). The duration of the return to body weight at a steady
      state was significantly shorter in the TLV group (5.3 +/- 2.8 days) than in the
      control group (13.9 +/- 9.2 days, P < 0.01). Consequently, the hospitalization
      period in the TLV group (13.5 +/- 5.9 days) was significantly shorter than that
      in the control group (24.7 +/- 12.3 days, P < 0.01). In conclusion, the early
      administration of TLV to very elderly patients who underwent repeat
      hospitalizations for ADHF resulted in immediate decongestion and thus reduced the
      hospitalization period with a lower incidence of worsening renal function.

PMID- 28889233
TI  - Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of the Cavernous Sinus - Otolaryngological Sequelae of
      Therapy: Case Report.
AB  - A 60-year-old woman, otherwise in a good health condition, was first admitted to
      the hospital with a year-long tingling sensations of the right half of the face,
      which gradually turned into severe neuralgia corresponding to maxillary (V2) and
      mandibular (V3) branches of the right trigeminal nerve. MRI scans of the head
      revealed an unusual hyperplastic or inflammatory changes along the brain base,
      cavernous sinus extending toward the pterygopalatine fossa, and lateral pterygoid
      on the right side. Meningioma was suspected and neuralgia was treated
      conservatively. About 2 years later, due to severe facial and eye pain, the
      patient underwent decompression of trigeminal nerve roots - Janetta's surgery.
      The following MRI scans revealed a tumor of cavernous sinus, arousing suspicion
      of malignancy. Histological specimens obtained after a biopsy and then partial
      transnasal tumor resection yielded a diagnosis of adenoid cystic carcinoma. The
      patient was treated with proton radiation therapy. The therapy caused burns in
      the oropharyngeal soft tissues extending from the oral cavity to the throat and
      esophagus. The additional adverse effect of the therapy was hypoacusis and a
      damage to the right cornea. A radiation-induced sinusitis appeared that required
      surgical intervention. The patient suffered a string of further complications,
      including pneumonia and a transient kidney failure. In the end, the patient
      survived. The adenoid carcinoma in the currently 64-year-old woman is visibly
      reduced, but she still suffers from the trigeminal neuralgia. The patient remains
      under constant laryngological outpatient care as she requires a periodic
      cleansing of nasal cavities and hypoacusis monitoring.

PMID- 28889232
TI  - Modulation of the flavin-protein interactions in NADH peroxidase and mercuric ion
      reductase: a resonance Raman study.
AB  - NADH peroxidase (Npx) and mercuric ion reductase (MerA) are flavoproteins
      belonging to the pyridine nucleotide:disulfide oxidoreductases (PNDO) and
      catalyzing the reduction of toxic substrates, i.e., hydrogen peroxide and
      mercuric ion, respectively. To determine the role of the flavin adenine
      dinucleotide (FAD) in the detoxification mechanism, the resonance Raman (RR)
      spectra of these enzymes under various redox and ligation states have been
      investigated using blue and/or near-UV excitation(s). These data were compared to
      those previously obtained for glutathione reductase (GR), another enzyme of the
      PNDO family, but catalyzing the reduction of oxidized glutathione. Spectral
      differences have been detected for the marker bands of the isoalloxazine ring of
      Npx, MerA, and GR. They provide evidence for different catalytic mechanisms in
      these flavoproteins. The RR modes of the oxidized and two-electron reduced (EH2)
      forms of Npx are related to very tight flavin-protein interactions maintaining a
      nearly planar conformation of the isoalloxazine tricycle, a low level of H
      bonding at the N1/N5 and O2/O4 sites, and a strong H-bond at N3H. They also
      indicate minimal changes in FAD structure and environment upon either NAD(H)
      binding or reduction of the sulfinic redox center. All these spectroscopic data
      support an enzyme functioning centered on the Cys-SO-/Cys-S- redox moiety and a
      neighbouring His residue. On the contrary, the RR data on various functional
      forms of MerA are indicative of a modulation of both ring II distortion and H
      bonding states of the N5 site and ring III. The Cd(II) binding to the EH2-NADP(H)
      complexes, biomimetic intermediates in the reaction of Hg(II) reduction, provokes
      important spectral changes. They are interpreted in terms of flattening of the
      isoalloxazine ring and large decreases in H-bonding at the N5 site and ring III.
      The large flexibility of the FAD structure and environment in MerA is in
      agreement with proposed mechanisms involving C4a(flavin) adducts.

PMID- 28889234
TI  - Peripheral Arterial Tonometry in Pulmonary Vasculitis.
AB  - Vascular wall inflammation in primary vasculitides results in diminished vessel
      dilation and finally impaired blood flow, causing multiple organs dysfunction and
      ultimate damage. In granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), the inflammatory
      process concerns small and medium sized vessels and its pulmonary location is
      often predominant. The pivotal role in the development of that pathology plays
      vascular endothelium. Endothelial vasodilatory function strongly depends on the
      instant production and release of nitrogen oxide (NO), a potent local factor
      controlling vascular tonus. NO output is triggered by a variety of stimuli,
      especially by ischemia. The endothelial vasodilatory ability can be measured
      indirectly by a few of methods, one of them is peripheral arterial tonometry
      (PAT). The method assesses reactive hyperemia, mediated mostly by NO release, as
      a response to vessel occlusion. The vasodilatory reaction depends on the quality
      of the endothelium which deteriorates with time of GPA disease progression. The
      aim of the present study was to estimate a correlation between the clinical
      status, reflected by the disease extent index (DEI), and the vasodilatory
      endothelial function reflected by the index of arterial reactive hyperemia (RHI),
      measured by PAT in 27 patients with GPA, having a significant pulmonary
      involvement. We found a moderate inverse correlation between DEI and log
      transformed RHI (r = -0.46, p < 0.05). The conclusion is that impaired
      endothelial function, as assessed by RHI-PAT, might predict the GPA progression.

PMID- 28889235
TI  - Genotoxic potential of diesel exhaust particles from the combustion of first- and
      second-generation biodiesel fuels-the FuelHealth project.
AB  - Epidemiological data indicate that exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEPs)
      from traffic emissions is associated with higher risk of morbidity and mortality
      related to cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, accelerated progression of
      atherosclerotic plaques, and possible lung cancer. While the impact of DEPs from
      combustion of fossil diesel fuel on human health has been extensively studied,
      current knowledge of DEPs from combustion of biofuels provides limited and
      inconsistent information about its mutagenicity and genotoxicity, as well as
      possible adverse health risks. The objective of the present work was to compare
      the genotoxicity of DEPs from combustion of two first-generation fuels, 7% fatty
      acid methyl esters (FAME) (B7) and 20% FAME (B20), and a second-generation 20%
      FAME/hydrotreated vegetable oil (SHB: synthetic hydrocarbon biofuel) fuel. Our
      results revealed that particulate engine emissions from each type of biodiesel
      fuel induced genotoxic effects in BEAS-2B and A549 cells, manifested as the
      increased levels of single-strand breaks, the increased frequencies of
      micronuclei, or the deregulated expression of genes involved in DNA damage
      signaling pathways. We also found that none of the tested DEPs showed the
      induction of oxidative DNA damage and the gamma-H2AX-detectable double-strand
      breaks. The most pronounced differences concerning the tested particles were
      observed for the induction of single-strand breaks, with the greatest
      genotoxicity being associated with the B7-derived DEPs. The differences in other
      effects between DEPs from the different biodiesel blend percentage and biodiesel
      feedstock were also observed, but the magnitude of these variations was limited.

PMID- 28889237
TI  - Analysis of clinical factors correlated with the accuracy of colposcopically
      directed biopsy.
AB  - PURPOSE: Many factors affect the accuracy of colposcopically directed biopsy
      (CDB). This study aimed to compare the histological results of CDB with those of
      cone specimens and to determine clinical factors associated with the accuracy of
      CDB in defining the extent and severity of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.
      METHODS: We studied 513 patients diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial
      neoplasia by CDB who underwent conization between September 2012 and December
      2016. We retrospectively evaluated the agreement between histological results on
      biopsies and cone specimens and analyzed factors influencing the accuracy of the
      results. RESULTS: The overall agreement between the histological results on
      biopsy and the corresponding cone specimens was 74.1%; underestimation occurred
      in 6.4% of cases. The agreement between histological results on biopsy and cone
      specimen was 54.5% for low-grade lesions, 78.2% for high-grade lesions, and 28.9%
      for microinvasive cervical cancer. The overall agreement between high-grade
      cytology and the final histological diagnosis was 86.7%. By univariate analysis,
      patient age (p = 0.026), menopausal status (p = 0.018), type of transformation
      zone (p = 0.003), number of biopsies (p = 0.002), and cone width (p = 0.015) were
      found to be associated with the accuracy of CDB. However, multivariate logistic
      regression revealed that cone width (p = 0.044) was the only independent factor
      correlated with CDB accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that old age (>=50),
      postmenopausal status, and transformation zone type 3 might be positively
      associated with the under-diagnosis of CDB. Three or more biopsies and cone width
      >=21 mm might improve CDB accuracy. However, cone width was the only independent
      factor correlated with CDB accuracy.

PMID- 28889236
TI  - Seasonal Variation in Water-Soluble Ions in Airborne Particulate Deposition in
      the Suburban Nanjing Area, Yangtze River Delta, China, During Haze Days and
      Normal Days.
AB  - To investigate the seasonal variation and characterization of water-soluble ions
      (WSIs) present in airborne particle deposition (APD) during Haze Days (visibility
      <=7.5 km) and Normal Days (visibility >7.5 km) in suburban Nanjing area, 151
      filter samples were collected from 18 May 2013 to 26 May 2014. Ten different WSIs
      from the samples were determined by Ion Chromatography. The results indicated
      that secondary WSIs (NH4+, NO3-, and SO42-) were the main ions in the WSIs,
      averaging 17.2, 18.5, and 17.1 MUg/m3, respectively, and accounting respectively
      20.9, 22.5, and 20.8% of the total WSIs. On Haze Days, the concentration of WSIs
      increased dramatically in fine size (particle size <2.1 MUm), especially for
      NH4+, NO3-, and SO42- (increased by 52.6, 71.3, and 73.1%, respectively), whereas
      the concentrations of WSIs increased slowly in coarse size (2.1 MUm < particle
      size < 10 MUm), in which NH4+, NO3-, and SO42- increased by 14.7, 27.2, and
      54.5%, respectively. According to the backward trajectories and the principal
      component analysis analysis, Nanjing APD were mainly derived from the soil dust
      in northern China (35%) in the spring, from ocean air masses (61 and 55%) in the
      summer and the autumn, and from local air masses (73%) in the winter. On summer
      Haze Days, secondary components in PM2.1 consisted mainly of (NH4)2SO4 and
      NH4NO3, whereas secondary components in PM2.1-10 consisted mainly of (NH4)2SO4,
      NH4Cl, and NH4NO3. The increasing concentrations of secondary components increase
      the light extinction coefficients of aerosol on winter and autumn Haze Days. The
      concentrations of WSIs in fine size rose sharply on Haze Days, leading the
      visibility to exponential decline. Differently, the concentrations of WSIs in
      coarse size were not the main cause in the change of the visibility.

PMID- 28889238
TI  - Langerhans cell histiocytosis and Erdheim-Chester disease overlap syndrome with
      bone marrow involvement and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PMID- 28889239
TI  - Into the void: a giant aneurysm mimicking a macroprolactinoma.

PMID- 28889240
TI  - Ursodeoxycholic Acid in the Prevention of Gallstone Formation After Bariatric
      Surgery: an Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - We aim to review the available literature on obese patients treated with
      ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in order to prevent gallstone formation after
      bariatric surgery. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed,
      Cochrane library, and Scopus databases, in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines.
      Eight studies met the inclusion criteria incorporating 1355 patients. Random
      effects meta-analysis showed a lower incidence of gallstone formation in patients
      taking UDCA. Subgroup analysis reported fewer cases of gallstone disease in the
      UDCA group in relation to different bariatric procedures, doses of administered
      UDCA, and time from bariatric surgery. Adverse events were similar in both
      groups. Fewer patients required cholecystectomy in UDCA group. No deaths were
      reported. The administration of UDCA after bariatric surgery seems to prevent
      gallstone formation.

PMID- 28889241
TI  - The role of glycaemic and lipid risk factors in mediating the effect of BMI on
      coronary heart disease: a two-step, two-sample Mendelian randomisation study.
AB  - AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The extent to which effects of BMI on CHD are mediated by
      glycaemic and lipid risk factors is unclear. In this study we examined the
      effects of these traits using genetic evidence. METHODS: We used two-sample
      Mendelian randomisation to determine: (1) the causal effect of BMI on CHD (60,801
      case vs 123,504 control participants), type 2 diabetes (34,840 case vs 114,981
      control participants), fasting glucose (n = 46,186), insulin (n = 38,238), HbA1c
      (n = 46,368) and LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triacylglycerols (n =
      188,577); (2) the causal effects of glycaemic and lipids traits on CHD; and (3)
      the extent to which these traits mediate any effect of BMI on CHD. RESULTS: One
      SD higher BMI (~ 4.5 kg/m2) was associated with higher risk of CHD (OR 1.45 [95%
      CI 1.27, 1.66]) and type 2 diabetes (1.96 [95% CI 1.35, 2.83]), higher levels of
      fasting glucose (0.07 mmol/l [95% CI 0.03, 0.11]), HbA1c (0.05% [95% CI 0.01,
      0.08]), fasting insulin (0.18 log pmol/l [95% CI 0.14, 0.22]) and
      triacylglycerols (0.20 SD [95% CI 0.14, 0.26]) and lower levels of HDL
      cholesterol (-0.23 SD [95% CI -0.32, -0.15]). There was no evidence for a causal
      relation between BMI and LDL-cholesterol. The causal associations of higher
      triacylglycerols, HbA1c and diabetes risk with CHD risk remained after performing
      sensitivity analyses that considered different models of horizontal pleiotropy.
      The BMI-CHD effect reduced from 1.45 to 1.16 (95% CI 0.99, 1.36) and to 1.36 (95%
      CI 1.19, 1.57) with genetic adjustment for triacylglycerols or HbA1c,
      respectively, and to 1.09 (95% CI 0.94, 1.27) with adjustment for both.
      CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Increased triacylglycerol levels and poor glycaemic
      control appear to mediate much of the effect of BMI on CHD.

PMID- 28889242
TI  - Zinc oxide nanoparticle inhibits the biofilm formation of Streptococcus
      pneumoniae.
AB  - Biofilms are structured consortia of microbial cells that grow on living and non
      living surfaces and surround themselves with secreted polymers. Infections with
      bacterial biofilms have emerged as a foremost public health concern because
      biofilm growing cells can be highly resistant to both antibiotics and host immune
      defenses. Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been reported as a potential
      antimicrobial agent, thus, in the current study, we have evaluated the
      antimicrobial as well as antibiofilm activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles against
      the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae which is a significant cause of disease.
      Zinc oxide nanoparticles showed strong antimicrobial activity against S.
      pneumoniae, with an MIC value of 40 MUg/ml. Biofilm inhibition of S. pneumoniae
      was also evaluated by performing a series of experiments such as crystal violet
      assay, microscopic observation, protein count, EPS secretion etc. using sub-MIC
      concentrations (3, 6 and 12 ug/ml) of zinc oxide nanoparticles. The results
      showed that the sub-MIC doses of zinc oxide nanoparticles exhibited significant
      anti-biofilm activity against S. pneumoniae, with maximum biofilm attenuation
      found at 12 MUg/ml. Taken together, the results indicate that zinc oxide
      nanoparticles can be considered as a potential agent for the inhibition of
      microbial biofilms.

PMID- 28889243
TI  - A high-throughput QCM chip configuration for the study of living cells and cell
      drug interactions.
AB  - In this study, we present a novel design of interference-free, negligible
      installation-induced stress, suitable for the fabrication of high-throughput
      quartz crystal microbalance (HQCM) chips. This novel HQCM chip configuration was
      fabricated using eight independent yet same-batch quartz crystal resonators
      within a common glass substrate with eight through-holes of diameter slightly
      larger than that of the quartz resonator. Each quartz resonator's rim was adhered
      to the inner part of the through-hole via silicone glue to form the rigid
      (quartz)-soft (silicone)-rigid (glass) structure (RSRS) which effectively
      eliminates the acoustic couplings among different resonators and largely
      alleviates the installation-induced stresses. The consistence of the eight
      resonators was verified by very similar equivalent circuit parameters and very
      close response slopes to liquid density and viscosity. The HQCM chip was then
      employed for real-time and continuous monitoring of H9C2 cardiomyoblast adhesions
      and viscoelastic changes induced by the treatments of two types of drugs: drugs
      that affect the cytoskeletons, including nocodazole, paclitaxel, and Y-27632, and
      drugs that affect the contractile properties of the cells: verapamil and
      different dosages of isoprenaline. Meanwhile, we compared the cytoskeleton
      affecting drug-induced viscoelastic changes of H9C2 with those of human umbilical
      vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The results described here provide the first
      solution to fabricate HQCM chips that are free from the limitation of resonator
      number, installation-induced stress, and acoustic interferences among resonators,
      which should find wide applications in areas of cell phenotype assay,
      cytotoxicity test, drug evaluation and screening, etc. Graphical abstract
      Schematic illustration of the principle and configuration of interference-free
      high-throughput QCM chip to evaluate and screen drugs based on cell
      viscoelasticity.

PMID- 28889244
TI  - Lumbar subtotal corpectomy non-fusion model produced using a novel prosthesis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to design a movable artificial lumbar complex
      (MALC) prosthesis for non-fusion reconstruction after lumbar subtotal corpectomy
      and to establish an in vitro anterolateral lumbar corpectomy non-fusion model for
      evaluating the biomechanical stability, preservation of segment movements and
      influence on adjacent inter-vertebral movements of this prosthesis. METHODS:
      Imaging was performed on a total of 26 fresh goat lumbar spine specimens to
      determine which of the specimens did not meet the requirements (free of deformity
      and fractures); the residual specimens were randomly divided into an intact
      group, a fusion group and a non-fusion group. Bone mineral density (BMD) was
      tested and compared among the three groups. Biomechanical testing was conducted
      to obtain the range of motion (ROM) in flexion-extension, lateral bending at L2
      3, L3-4 and L4-5 and axial rotation at L2-5 in the three groups. RESULTS: Two
      specimens were excluded due to vertebral fractures. BMD showed no statistical
      significance among three groups (P > 0.05). The stability of the prosthesis did
      not differ significantly during flexion, extension, and lateral bending at L2-3,
      L3-4, and L4-5 and axial torsion at L2-5 between the intact group and the non
      fusion group (P > 0.05). Segment movements of the specimens in the non-fusion
      group revealed significantly decreased L2-3 ROM and significantly increased L3-4
      and L4-5 ROM in flexion and lateral bending compared with the fusion group (P <
      0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Reconstruction with a MALC prosthesis after lumbar subtotal
      corpectomy not only produced instant stability but also effectively preserved
      segment movements, without any abnormal gain of mobility in adjacent inter
      vertebral spaces. However, additional studies, including in vivo animal
      experiments as well as biocompatibility and biomechanical tests of human body
      specimens are needed.

PMID- 28889245
TI  - Effect of Soil Amendments on Microbial Resilience Capacity of Acid Soil Under
      Copper Stress.
AB  - An incubation study was undertaken to study microbial resilience capacity of acid
      soil amended with farmyard manure (FYM), charcoal and lime under copper (Cu)
      perturbation. Copper stress significantly reduced enzymatic activities and
      microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in soil. Percent reduction in microbial activity
      of soil due to Cu stress was 74.7% in dehydrogenase activity, 59.9% in MBC, 48.2%
      in alkaline phosphatase activity and 15.1% in acid phosphatase activity. Soil
      treated with FYM + charcoal showed highest resistance index for enzymatic
      activities and MBC. Similarly, the highest resilience index for acid phosphatase
      activity was observed in soil amended with FYM (0.40), whereas FYM + charcoal
      treated soil showed the highest resilience indices for alkaline, dehydrogenase
      activity and MBC: 0.50, 0.22 and 0.25, respectively. This investigation showed
      that FYM and charcoal application, either alone or in combination, proved to be
      better than lime with respect to microbial functional resistance and resilience
      of acid soil under Cu perturbation.

PMID- 28889246
TI  - The preliminary radiogenomics association between MR perfusion imaging parameters
      and genomic biomarkers, and their predictive performance of overall survival in
      patients with glioblastoma.
AB  - The radiogenomics association of neovascularization is important for overall
      survival (OS) in glioblastoma patients and remains unclear. The purpose of this
      study is to assess the association between MR perfusion imaging derived
      parameters and genomic biomarkers of glioblastoma, and to evaluate their
      prognostic value. This retrospective study enrolled 41 patients with newly
      diagnosed glioblastoma. The mean and maximal relative cerebral blood volume
      (rCBV) ratio (rCBVmean and rCBVmax), derived from MR perfusion weighted imaging,
      of the enhancing tumor, as well as maximal rCBV ratio of peri-enhancing tumor
      area (rCBVperi-tumor) were measured. The ki-67 labeling index, mammalian target
      of rapamycin (mTOR) activation, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)
      amplification, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation and TP53 were assessed.
      There was a significant correlation between rCBVmax and mTOR based on Pearson's
      correlations with Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment for controlling false discovery
      rate, p = 0.047. The rCBVperi-tumor showed significant correlation with mTOR (p =
      0.0183) after adjustment of gender and EGFR status. The mean rCBVperi-tumor value
      of the patients with OS shorter than 14 months was significantly higher than
      patients with OS longer than 14 months, p = 0.002. The rCBVperi-tumor and age
      were the two strongest predictors of OS (hazard ratio = 1.29 and 1.063
      respectively) by Cox regression analysis. This study showed that hemodynamic
      abnormalities of glioblastoma were associated with genomics activation status of
      mTOR-EGFR pathway, however, the radiogenomics associations are different in
      enhancing and peri-enhancing area of glioblastoma. The rCBVperi-tumor has better
      prognostic value than genomic biomarkers alone.

PMID- 28889247
TI  - Guidelines for autopsy investigation of sudden cardiac death: 2017 update from
      the Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology.
AB  - Although sudden cardiac death (SCD) is one of the most important modes of death
      in Western countries, pathologists and public health physicians have not given
      this problem the attention it deserves. New methods of preventing potentially
      fatal arrhythmias have been developed and the accurate diagnosis of the causes of
      SCD is now of particular importance. Pathologists are responsible for determining
      the precise cause and mechanism of sudden death but there is still considerable
      variation in the way in which they approach this increasingly complex task. The
      Association for European Cardiovascular Pathology has developed these guidelines,
      which represent the minimum standard that is required in the routine autopsy
      practice for the adequate investigation of SCD. The present version is an update
      of our original article, published 10 years ago. This is necessary because of our
      increased understanding of the genetics of cardiovascular diseases, the
      availability of new diagnostic methods, and the experience we have gained from
      the routine use of the original guidelines. The updated guidelines include a
      detailed protocol for the examination of the heart and recommendations for the
      selection of histological blocks and appropriate material for toxicology,
      microbiology, biochemistry, and molecular investigation. Our recommendations
      apply to university medical centers, regionals hospitals, and all healthcare
      professionals practicing pathology and forensic medicine. We believe that their
      adoption throughout Europe will improve the standards of autopsy practice, allow
      meaningful comparisons between different communities and regions, and permit the
      identification of emerging patterns of diseases causing SCD. Finally, we
      recommend the development of regional multidisciplinary networks of
      cardiologists, geneticists, and pathologists. Their role will be to facilitate
      the identification of index cases with a genetic basis, to screen appropriate
      family members, and ensure that appropriate preventive strategies are
      implemented.

PMID- 28889248
TI  - Towards Discovery and Targeted Peptide Biomarker Detection Using nanoESI-TIMS-TOF
      MS.
AB  - In the present work, the potential of trapped ion mobility spectrometry coupled
      to TOF mass spectrometry (TIMS-TOF MS) for discovery and targeted monitoring of
      peptide biomarkers from human-in-mouse xenograft tumor tissue was evaluated. In
      particular, a TIMS-MS workflow was developed for the detection and quantification
      of peptide biomarkers using internal heavy analogs, taking advantage of the high
      mobility resolution (R = 150-250) prior to mass analysis. Five peptide biomarkers
      were separated, identified, and quantified using offline nanoESI-TIMS-CID-TOF MS;
      the results were in good agreement with measurements using a traditional LC-ESI
      MS/MS proteomics workflow. The TIMS-TOF MS analysis permitted peptide biomarker
      detection based on accurate mobility, mass measurements, and high sequence
      coverage for concentrations in the 10-200 nM range, while simultaneously
      achieving discovery measurements of not initially targeted peptides as markers
      from the same proteins and, eventually, other proteins. Graphical Abstract ?.

PMID- 28889249
TI  - Papillae formation on trichome cell walls requires the function of the mediator
      complex subunit Med25.
AB  - KEY MESSAGE: Glassy Hair 1 (GLH1) gene that promotes papillae formation on
      trichome cell walls was identified as a subunit of the transcriptional mediator
      complex MED25. The MED25 gene is shown to be expressed in trichomes. The
      expression of the trichome development marker genes GLABRA2 (GL2) and Ethylene
      Receptor2 (ETR2) is not affected in the glh1 mutant. Presented data suggest that
      Arabidopsis MED25 mediator component is likely involved in the transcription of
      genes promoting papillae deposition in trichomes. The plant cell wall plays an
      important role in communication, defense, organization and support. The
      importance of each of these functions varies by cell type. Specialized cells,
      such as Arabidopsis trichomes, exhibit distinct cell wall characteristics
      including papillae. To better understand the molecular processes important for
      papillae deposition on the cell wall surface, we identified the GLASSY HAIR 1
      (GLH1) gene, which is necessary for papillae formation. We found that a splice
      site mutation in the component of the transcriptional mediator complex MED25 gene
      is responsible for the near papillae-less phenotype of the glh1 mutant. The MED25
      gene is expressed in trichomes. Reporters for trichome developmental marker genes
      GLABRA2 (GL2) and Ethylene Receptor2 (ETR2) were not affected in the glh1 mutant.
      Collectively, the presented results show that MED25 is necessary for papillae
      formation on the cell wall surface of leaf trichomes and suggest that the
      Arabidopsis MED25 mediator component is likely involved in the transcription of a
      subset of genes that promote papillae deposition in trichomes.

PMID- 28889250
TI  - Surface-modified CMOS IC electrochemical sensor array targeting single chromaffin
      cells for highly parallel amperometry measurements.
AB  - Amperometry is a powerful method to record quantal release events from chromaffin
      cells and is widely used to assess how specific drugs modify quantal size,
      kinetics of release, and early fusion pore properties. Surface-modified CMOS
      based electrochemical sensor arrays allow simultaneous recordings from multiple
      cells. A reliable, low-cost technique is presented here for efficient targeting
      of single cells specifically to the electrode sites. An SU-8 microwell structure
      is patterned on the chip surface to provide insulation for the circuitry as well
      as cell trapping at the electrode sites. A shifted electrode design is also
      incorporated to increase the flexibility of the dimension and shape of the
      microwells. The sensitivity of the electrodes is validated by a dopamine
      injection experiment. Microwells with dimensions slightly larger than the cells
      to be trapped ensure excellent single-cell targeting efficiency, increasing the
      reliability and efficiency for on-chip single-cell amperometry measurements. The
      surface-modified device was validated with parallel recordings of live chromaffin
      cells trapped in the microwells. Rapid amperometric spikes with no diffusional
      broadening were observed, indicating that the trapped and recorded cells were in
      very close contact with the electrodes. The live cell recording confirms in a
      single experiment that spike parameters vary significantly from cell to cell but
      the large number of cells recorded simultaneously provides the statistical
      significance.

PMID- 28889251
TI  - A 10-year prospective-longitudinal study of daily hassles and incident
      psychopathology among adolescents and young adults: interactions with gender,
      perceived coping efficacy, and negative life events.
AB  - PURPOSE: To prospectively examine whether higher daily hassles predict a variety
      of incident mental disorders and respective associations vary by gender, age,
      perceived coping efficacy and number of negative life events. METHODS: Data comes
      from the Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study (EDSP), a
      prospective-longitudinal study among adolescents and young adults from the
      community (n = 2797, aged 14-24 at baseline) followed up in up to 3 assessment
      waves over 10 years. Mental disorders were assessed at each wave using the DSM
      IV/M-CIDI. Daily hassles, perceived coping efficacy, and negative life events
      were assessed at baseline using the Daily Hassles Scale, Scale for Self-Control
      and Coping Skills, and Munich Life Event List. RESULTS: In logistic regressions
      adjusted for gender, age, other mental disorders, perceived coping efficacy and
      number of negative life events at baseline, higher daily hassles at baseline
      predicted the incidence of any anxiety disorder, specific phobia, obsessive
      compulsive disorder, any affective disorder, and major depressive episodes at
      follow-up (OR 1.2-1.9 per standard deviation). Daily hassles interacted with
      perceived coping efficacy at baseline in predicting incident panic attacks (OR
      1.3) and panic disorder (OR 1.3) at follow-up, i.e., higher daily hassles only
      predicted incident panic pathology among individuals with low perceived coping
      efficacy (OR 1.6-2.0) but not high perceived coping efficacy. Moreover, the
      associations between daily hassles and incident mental disorders partially varied
      by gender and age but not by negative life events at baseline. CONCLUSIONS:
      Targeted stress management interventions among individuals with increased daily
      hassles might be useful to prevent the onset of anxiety and affective disorders.

PMID- 28889253
TI  - Evaluating Parental Autism Disclosure Strategies.
AB  - The relative effects of different autism disclosure methods on the perceptions of
      a mother-child dyad were investigated. Using three conditions, disclosure card,
      disclosure bracelet, and no disclosure, U.S. community parents (N = 383) were
      asked 18 questions about their perceptions of the dyad. An ANOVA revealed
      significant protection from stigma for those in either disclosure condition
      compared to the no disclosure condition on two factors, Critical of the
      Mother/Child and Need to Protect Own Child, as well as a single item,
      Embarrassment for the Mother. These results reinforce findings that disclosure
      may effectively and efficiently reduce negative perceptions. The availability of
      multiple, effective methods of disclosure that reduce stigma allows parents to
      choose the method that best suits their individual preferences.

PMID- 28889252
TI  - The association between physical activity and depression among individuals
      residing in Brazil.
AB  - PURPOSE: There is very limited literature investigating the association between
      physical activity (PA) and depression in South American countries such as Brazil.
      The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the prevalence of depression and
      its association with PA in a very large, representative sample of young adults
      (ages 18-39 years) (YA), middle-aged adults (ages 40-59 years) (MAA) and older
      adults (ages >= 60 years) (OA) residing in Brazil. METHODS: The sample for this
      cross-sectional study was based on the Brazilian National Health Survey conducted
      in 2013. The Personal Health Questionnaire depression scale (PHQ-8) was applied
      to measure current (past 2 weeks) depression as the outcome of interest, and the
      exposure was self-reported PA for leisure. Multivariable weighted logistic
      regression models were conducted to investigate the association between PA and
      depression while adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and number of
      health comorbidities among YA, MAA and OA. RESULTS: The final study sample size
      was 59,399 (33,480 females; 25,919 males). After adjusting for the covariates of
      interest, the lack of PA for leisure was associated with a significant increase
      in depression only among males (YA: OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.02-2.06; MAA: OR 2.38, 95%
      CI 1.40-4.03; OA: OR 5.35, 95% CI 2.14-13.37). There was no significant
      association between PA for leisure and depression among females of all age
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: Although PA for leisure is not associated with depression
      among Brazilian females, the obtained results suggest that this association is
      significant among Brazilian males, who may be able to benefit from PA for leisure
      to reduce their symptoms of depression.

PMID- 28889254
TI  - Effect of impulsive controls in a model system for age-structured population over
      a patchy environment.
AB  - In this paper, a very general model of impulsive delay differential equations in
      n-patches is rigorously derived to describe the impulsive control of population
      of a single species over n-patches. The model allows an age structure consisting
      of immatures and matures, and also considers mobility and culling of both matures
      and immatures. Conditions are obtained for extinction and persistence of the
      model system under three special scenarios: (1) without impulsive control; (2)
      with impulsive culling of the immatures only; and (3) with impulsive culling of
      the matures only, respectively. In the case of persistence, the persistence level
      is also estimated for the systems in the case of identical n patches, by relating
      the issue to the dynamics of multi-dimensional maps. Two illustrative examples
      and their numerical simulations are given to show the effectiveness of the
      results. Based on the theoretical results, some strategies of impulsive culling
      are provided to eradicate the population of a pest species.

PMID- 28889255
TI  - Motor-related brain abnormalities in HIV-infected patients: a multimodal MRI
      study.
AB  - PURPOSE: It is generally believed that HIV infection could cause HIV-associated
      neurocognitive disorders (HAND) across a broad range of functional domains. Some
      of the most common findings are deficits in motor control. However, to date no
      neuroimaging studies have evaluated basic motor control in HIV-infected patients
      using a multimodal approach. METHODS: In this study, we utilized high-resolution
      structural imaging and task-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
      assess brain structure and motor function in a homogeneous cohort of HIV-infected
      patients. RESULTS: We found that HIV-infected patients had significantly reduced
      gray matter (GM) volume in cortical regions, which are involved in motor control,
      including the bilateral posterior insula cortex, premotor cortex, and
      supramarginal gyrus. Increased activation in bilateral posterior insula cortices
      was also demonstrated by patients during hand movement tasks compared with
      healthy controls. More importantly, the reduced GM in bilateral posterior insula
      cortices was spatially coincident with abnormal brain activation in HIV-infected
      patients. In addition, the results of partial correlation analysis indicated that
      GM reduction in bilateral posterior insula cortices and premotor cortices was
      significantly correlated with immune system deterioration. CONCLUSION: This study
      is the first to demonstrate spatially coincident GM reduction and abnormal
      activation during motor performance in HIV-infected patients. Although it remains
      unknown whether the brain deficits can be recovered, our findings may yield new
      insights into neurologic injury underlying motor dysfunction in HAND.

PMID- 28889256
TI  - Structural and functional diversity arising from intra- and inter-haplotype
      combinations of duplicated DQA and B loci within the ovine MHC.
AB  - In sheep, the A and B loci encoding the alpha and beta chains of the classical
      class II MHC molecules are DRA and DRB and DQA and DQB. Previous analyses
      described the duplication of the DQA and DQB genes. The majority of haplotypes
      include DQA1 and DQA2 loci, however, in a number of haplotypes, DQA1 appears
      absent and these haplotypes have been described as DQA1 null. In these
      haplotypes, the DQA2 locus is found in combination with a second locus which
      appeared more closely related to DQA2 than DQA1, hence the description of this
      locus as DQA2-like. Here we combine our previous analysis of the DQA transcripts
      with an analysis of the associated DQB transcripts in ten haplotypes from MHC
      homozygous animals. This allows the potential for surface expression of different
      haplotype combinations of DQA and B genes and the functional significance of DQA2
      like and its predicted DQB partner to be determined. Atypical DQB transcripts
      (DQB2-like) were identified in haplotypes classified as DQA1-null and conserved
      DQB2-like orthologues were identified in other Bovidae indicating trans-species
      conservation of the allelic lineage. Functional combinations detected by co
      transfection of DQ1, DQ2 and DQ2-like genes demonstrates the potential for a wide
      range of DQ molecules derived from both intra- and inter-haplotype as well as
      inter-locus combinations. We provide evidence that DQA2-like and B2-like genes
      form an evolutionary conserved pair which generates structurally distinct class
      II molecules that are likely to present a distinct range of peptides to CD4+ T
      cells.

PMID- 28889257
TI  - Evaluation of auditory and cochlear functions in ankylosing spondylitis patients
      according to the site of involvement.
AB  - Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease of unknown
      origin with a prevalence rate about 1% in the population. Audiovestibular
      dysfunction is encountered in AS and sensorineural hearing loss is the most
      common form. The present study aimed to evaluate auditory and cochlear function
      in AS patients according to the site of involvement. A total of 47 patients
      followed for AS in the rheumatology outpatient clinic and 30 healthy controls
      were enrolled in the study. Subgroups of AS were identified according to the site
      of involvement. The participants underwent complete otolaryngological examination
      together with audiometry, otoacoustic emission and tympanometry tests. Disease
      Activity Index (BASDAI) was determined in the AS group. Hearing loss was detected
      in seven patients (15%) in the AS group and in four subjects (8%) in the control
      group. There was statistically significant difference between the patient and
      control groups in terms of mean bone conduction hearing level at 4000 hertz (Hz)
      in the right and left ears (p = 0.028, p = 0.049). There was no significant
      difference between the subgroups of AS in terms of overall auditory and cochlear
      functions. No correlation was determined between auditory values and Disease
      Activity Index and CRP (p > 0.05 for all). Our results reveal that AS has minimal
      effect on auditory and cochlear functions. The effects of subgroups of AS on
      auditory functions were comparable. The authors concluded that BASDAI and CRP are
      not convenient in monitoring auditory functions of AS patients.

PMID- 28889259
TI  - An ultrasensitive and selective electrochemical sensor for determination of
      estrone 3-sulfate sodium salt based on molecularly imprinted polymer modified
      carbon paste electrode.
AB  - A highly sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor based on carbon paste
      electrode (CPE) modified with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) has been
      developed for the determination of estrone 3-sulfate sodium salt (ESS). MIPs were
      prepared in polar medium via bulk polymerization and characterized by scanning
      electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry was performed
      to the study preparation process and binding behavior of the MIP-modified CPE
      (MIP/CPE) toward ESS. The conditions for preparing MIPs and MIP/CPE as well as
      ESS detection were optimized. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the
      detection linear range for ESS is 4 * 10-12 to 6 * 10-9 M with a limit of
      detection of 1.18 * 10-12 M (S/N = 3). In addition, the sensor exhibits high
      binding affinity toward ESS over its structural analogues with excellent
      repeatability and stability. The fabricated MIP/CPE was then successfully
      employed to detect ESS in pregnant mare urine (PMU) without any pretreatment, and
      the average recoveries were from 99.6 to 104.9% with relative standard deviation
      less than 3.0%. High-performance liquid chromatography was adopted as a reference
      to validate the established approach in detecting ESS and their results showed
      good agreement. The as-prepared sensor has high potential to be a decent tool for
      on-site determination of ESS in PMU in a fast and convenient manner. Graphical
      Abstract ?.

PMID- 28889258
TI  - Moderators of smoking cessation outcomes in a randomized-controlled trial of
      varenicline versus placebo.
AB  - RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: Varenicline has gained a reputation as the optimal
      intervention for treatment resistant smokers, yet more than half of those who try
      it do not succeed. To better understand individual differences in the
      effectiveness of varenicline, this study evaluates the effectiveness of
      varenicline for smoking cessation in a double-blind, placebo-controlled,
      randomized clinical trial and examines the influence of psychological factors on
      treatment outcome. METHOD: Two hundred five cigarette smokers interested in
      quitting were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of varenicline or placebo. Outcomes
      examined were CO-confirmed continuous abstinence for the past month, average
      number of cigarettes smoked per day, and 7-day point prevalence. RESULTS:
      Varenicline-treated participants were more likely than placebo to achieve
      continuous abstinence at the end of treatment (OR = 3.29; RR = 2.62), and 7-day
      point prevalence rates showed an effect of medication at each time point.
      Participants in both groups significantly reduced their smoking during the course
      of treatment and follow-up, and the medication by visit interaction was
      significant in the expected direction. Impulsivity and personality style emerged
      as moderators of the relationship between medication condition and treatment
      outcome. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to replicating efficacy results for varenicline
      versus placebo, the present study shows that the efficacy of pharmacotherapy is
      influenced by psychological factors. In an era where pharmacotherapy is often
      perceived as the "silver bullet," we are reminded that smoking cessation is a
      dynamic process and intervention must be adaptable to address individual
      differences.

PMID- 28889260
TI  - Developmental Neurotoxicity of Lead.
AB  - Lead exposure is a major concern for the developing nervous system. Environmental
      exposures to lead, predominantly from contaminated water or lead paint chips,
      account for the majority of exposures to children. In utero and early life
      exposures to lead have been associated with lower IQ, antisocial and delinquent
      behaviors, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. In this review, we will
      discuss sources of developmental lead exposure and mechanisms of lead
      neurotoxicity. We will highlight both human epidemiological studies showing
      associations between lead exposure and behavioral abnormalities as well as
      experimental data from animal studies. Finally, we will discuss the effects of
      lead on neurological endpoint past childhood, namely, development of Alzheimer's
      disease in old age.

PMID- 28889262
TI  - Inherited Disorders of Manganese Metabolism.
AB  - While the neurotoxic effects of manganese were recognized in 1837, the first
      genetic disorder of manganese metabolism was described only in 2012 when
      homozygous mutations in SLC30A10 were reported to cause manganese-induced
      neurotoxicity. Two other genetic disorders of manganese metabolism have now been
      described - mutations in SLC39A14 cause manganese toxicity, while mutations in
      SLC39A8 cause manganese and zinc deficiency. Study of rare genetic disorders
      often provides unique insights into disease pathobiology, and the discoveries of
      these three inherited disorders of manganese metabolism are already transforming
      our understanding of manganese homeostasis, detoxification, and neurotoxicity.
      Here, we review the mechanisms by which mutations in SLC30A10, SLC39A14, and
      SLC39A8 impact manganese homeostasis to cause human disease.

PMID- 28889263
TI  - Chemical Speciation of Selenium and Mercury as Determinant of Their
      Neurotoxicity.
AB  - The antagonism of mercury toxicity by selenium has been well documented. Mercury
      is a toxic metal, widespread in the environment. The main target organs (kidneys,
      lungs, or brain) of mercury vary depending on its chemical forms (inorganic or
      organic). Selenium is a semimetal essential to mammalian life as part of the
      amino acid selenocysteine, which is required to the synthesis of the
      selenoproteins. This chapter has the aim of disclosing the role of selenide or
      hydrogen selenide (Se-2 or HSe-) as central metabolite of selenium and as an
      important antidote of the electrophilic mercury forms (particularly, Hg2+ and
      MeHg). Emphasis will be centered on the neurotoxicity of electrophile forms of
      mercury and selenium. The controversial participation of electrophile mercury and
      selenium forms in the development of some neurodegenerative disease will be
      briefly presented. The potential pharmacological use of organoseleno compounds
      (Ebselen and diphenyl diselenide) in the treatment of mercury poisoning will be
      considered. The central role of thiol (-SH) and selenol (-SeH) groups as the
      generic targets of electrophile mercury forms and the need of new in silico tools
      to guide the future biological researches will be commented.

PMID- 28889261
TI  - Manganese and Developmental Neurotoxicity.
AB  - Manganese (Mn) is an essential metal that plays a fundamental role for brain
      development and functioning. Environmental exposure to Mn may lead to
      accumulation in the basal ganglia and development of Parkinson-like disorders.
      The most recent research is focusing on early-life overexposure to Mn and the
      potential vulnerability of younger individuals to Mn toxicity also in regard to
      cognitive and executive functions through the involvement of the frontal
      cortex.Neurodevelopmental disturbances are increasing in the society, and
      understanding the potential role of environmental determinants is a key for
      prevention. Therefore, assessing the environmental sources of Mn exposure and the
      mechanisms of developmental neurotoxicity and defining appropriate biomarkers of
      exposure and early functional alterations represent key issues to improve and
      address preventive strategies. These themes will be reviewed in this chapter.

PMID- 28889264
TI  - Metals and Paraoxonases.
AB  - The paraoxonases (PONs) are a three-gene family which includes PON1, PON2, and
      PON3. PON1 and PON3 are synthesized primarily in the liver and a portion is
      secreted in the plasma, where they are associated with high-density lipoproteins
      (HDLs), while PON2 is an intracellular enzyme, expressed in most tissues and
      organs, including the brain. PON1 received its name from its ability to hydrolyze
      paraoxon, the active metabolite of the organophosphorus (OP) insecticide
      parathion, and also more efficiently hydrolyzes the active metabolites of several
      other OPs. PON2 and PON3 do not have OP-esterase activity, but all PONs are
      lactonases and are capable of hydrolyzing a variety of lactones, including
      certain drugs, endogenous compounds, and quorum-sensing signals of pathogenic
      bacteria. In addition, all PONs exert potent antioxidant effects. PONs play
      important roles in cardiovascular diseases and other oxidative stress-related
      diseases, modulate susceptibility to infection, and may provide neuroprotection
      (PON2). Hence, significant attention has been devoted to their modulation by a
      variety of dietary, pharmacological, lifestyle, or environmental factors. A
      number of metals have been shown in in vitro, animal, and human studies to mostly
      negatively modulate expression of PONs, particularly PON1, the most studied in
      this regard. In addition, different levels of expression of PONs may affect
      susceptibility to toxicity and neurotoxicity of metals due to their
      aforementioned antioxidant properties.

PMID- 28889265
TI  - Manganese and the Insulin-IGF Signaling Network in Huntington's Disease and Other
      Neurodegenerative Disorders.
AB  - Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease
      resulting in motor impairment and death in patients. Recently, several studies
      have demonstrated insulin or insulin-like growth factor (IGF) treatment in models
      of HD, resulting in potent amelioration of HD phenotypes via modulation of the
      PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. Administration of IGF and insulin can rescue microtubule
      transport, metabolic function, and autophagy defects, resulting in clearance of
      Huntingtin (HTT) aggregates, restoration of mitochondrial function, amelioration
      of motor abnormalities, and enhanced survival. Manganese (Mn) is an essential
      metal to all biological systems but, in excess, can be toxic. Interestingly,
      several studies have revealed the insulin-mimetic effects of Mn-demonstrating Mn
      can activate several of the same metabolic kinases and increase peripheral and
      neuronal insulin and IGF-1 levels in rodent models. Separate studies have shown
      mouse and human striatal neuroprogenitor cell (NPC) models exhibit a deficit in
      cellular Mn uptake, indicative of a Mn deficiency. Furthermore, evidence from the
      literature reveals a striking overlap between cellular consequences of Mn
      deficiency (i.e., impaired function of Mn-dependent enzymes) and known HD
      endophenotypes including excitotoxicity, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS)
      accumulation, and decreased mitochondrial function. Here we review published
      evidence supporting a hypothesis that (1) the potent effect of IGF or insulin
      treatment on HD models, (2) the insulin-mimetic effects of Mn, and (3) the newly
      discovered Mn-dependent perturbations in HD may all be functionally related.
      Together, this review will present the intriguing possibility that intricate
      regulatory cross-talk exists between Mn biology and/or toxicology and the
      insulin/IGF signaling pathways which may be deeply connected to HD pathology and,
      perhaps, other neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and other neuropathological
      conditions.

PMID- 28889266
TI  - Occupational Metal Exposure and Parkinsonism.
AB  - Parkinsonism is comprised of a host of neurological disorders with an underlying
      clinical feature of movement disorder, which includes many shared features of
      bradykinesia, tremor, and rigidity. These clinical outcomes occur subsequent to
      pathological deficits focused on degeneration or dysfunction of the nigrostriatal
      dopamine system and accompanying pathological inclusions of alpha-synuclein and
      tau. The heterogeneity of parkinsonism is equally matched with the complex
      etiology of this syndrome. While a small percentage can be attributed to genetic
      alterations, the majority arise from an environmental exposure, generally
      composed of pesticides, industrial compounds, as well as metals. Of these, metals
      have received significant attention given their propensity to accumulate in the
      basal ganglia and participate in neurotoxic cascades, through the generation of
      reactive oxygen species as well as their pathogenic interaction with
      intracellular targets in the dopamine neuron. The association between metals and
      parkinsonism is of critical concern to subsets of the population that are
      occupationally exposed to metals, both through current practices, such as mining,
      and emerging settings, like E-waste and the manufacture of metal nanoparticles.
      This review will explore our current understanding of the molecular and
      pathological targets that mediate metal neurotoxicity and lead to parkinsonism
      and will highlight areas of critical research interests that need to be
      addressed.

PMID- 28889267
TI  - Inflammatory Activation of Microglia and Astrocytes in Manganese Neurotoxicity.
AB  - Neurotoxicity due to excessive exposure to manganese (Mn) has been described as
      early as 1837 (Couper, Br Ann Med Pharm Vital Stat Gen Sci 1:41-42, 1837).
      Extensive research over the past two decades has revealed that Mn-induced
      neurological injury involves complex pathophysiological signaling mechanisms
      between neurons and glial cells. Glial cells are an important target of Mn in the
      brain, both for sequestration of the metal, as well as for activating
      inflammatory signaling pathways that damage neurons through overproduction of
      numerous reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and inflammatory cytokines.
      Understanding how these pathways are regulated in glial cells during Mn exposure
      is critical to determining the mechanisms underlying permanent neurological
      dysfunction stemming from excess exposure. The subject of this review will be to
      delineate mechanisms by which Mn interacts with glial cells to perturb neuronal
      function, with a particular emphasis on neuroinflammation and neuroinflammatory
      signaling between distinct populations of glial cells.

PMID- 28889268
TI  - Aluminum and Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Aluminum (Al) is one of the most extended metals in the Earth's crust. Its
      abundance, together with the widespread use by humans, makes Al-related toxicity
      particularly relevant for human health.Despite some factors influence individual
      bioavailability to this metal after oral, dermal, or inhalation exposures, humans
      are considered to be protected against Al toxicity because of its low absorption
      and efficient renal excretion. However, several factors can modify Al absorption
      and distribution through the body, which may in turn progressively contribute to
      the development of silent chronic exposures that may lately trigger undesirable
      consequences to health. For instance, Al has been recurrently shown to cause
      encephalopathy, anemia, and bone disease in dialyzed patients. On the other hand,
      it remains controversial whether low doses of this metal may contribute to
      developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), probably because of the multifactorial and
      highly variable presentation of the disease.This chapter primarily focuses on two
      key aspects related to Al neurotoxicity and AD, which are metabolic impairment
      and iron (Fe) alterations. We discuss sex and genetic differences as a plausible
      source of bias to assess risk assessment in human populations.

PMID- 28889269
TI  - Copper and Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of adult neurode-generation and
      is characterised by progressive loss of cognitive function leading to death. The
      neuropathological hallmarks include extracellular amyloid plaque accumulation in
      affected regions of the brain, formation of intraneuronal neurofibrillary
      tangles, chronic neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and abnormal biometal
      homeostasis. Of the latter, major changes in copper (Cu) levels and localisation
      have been identified in AD brain, with accumulation of Cu in amyloid deposits,
      together with deficiency of Cu in some brain regions. The amyloid precursor
      protein (APP) and the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide both have Cu binding sites,
      and interaction with Cu can lead to potentially neurotoxic outcomes through
      generation of reactive oxygen species. In addition, AD patients have systemic
      changes to Cu metabolism, and altered Cu may also affect neuroinflammatory
      outcomes in AD. Although we still have much to learn about Cu homeostasis in AD
      patients and its role in disease aetiopathology, therapeutic approaches for
      regulating Cu levels and interactions with Cu-binding proteins in the brain are
      currently being developed. This review will examine how Cu is associated with
      pathological changes in the AD brain and how these may be targeted for
      therapeutic intervention.

PMID- 28889270
TI  - Uranium and the Central Nervous System: What Should We Learn from Recent New
      Tools and Findings?
AB  - Increasing industrial and military use of uranium has led to environmental
      pollution, which may result in uranium reaching the brain and causing cerebral
      dysfunction. A recent literature review has discussed data published over the
      last 10 years on uranium and its effects on brain function (Dinocourt C, Legrand
      M, Dublineau I, et al., Toxicology 337:58-71, 2015). New models of uranium
      exposure during neonatal brain development and the emergence of new technologies
      (omics and epigenetics) are of value in identifying new specific targets of
      uranium. Here we review the latest studies of neurogenesis, epigenetics, and
      metabolic dysfunctions and the identification of new biomarkers used to establish
      potential pathophysiological states of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative
      diseases.

PMID- 28889271
TI  - Neurotoxicity of Metal Mixtures.
AB  - Metals are the oldest toxins known to humans. Metals differ from other toxic
      substances in that they are neither created nor destroyed by humans (Casarett and
      Doull's, Toxicology: the basic science of poisons, 8th edn. McGraw-Hill, London,
      2013). Metals are of great importance in our daily life and their frequent use
      makes their omnipresence and a constant source of human exposure. Metals such as
      arsenic [As], lead [Pb], mercury [Hg], aluminum [Al] and cadmium [Cd] do not have
      any specific role in an organism and can be toxic even at low levels. The
      Substance Priority List of Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
      (ATSDR) ranked substances based on a combination of their frequency, toxicity,
      and potential for human exposure. In this list, As, Pb, Hg, and Cd occupy the
      first, second, third, and seventh positions, respectively (ATSDR, Priority list
      of hazardous substances. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public
      Health Service, Atlanta, 2016). Besides existing individually, these metals are
      also (or mainly) found as mixtures in various parts of the ecosystem (Cobbina SJ,
      Chen Y, Zhou Z, Wub X, Feng W, Wang W, Mao G, Xu H, Zhang Z, Wua X, Yang L,
      Chemosphere 132:79-86, 2015). Interactions among components of a mixture may
      change toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics (Spurgeon DJ, Jones OAH, Dorne J-L,
      Svendsen C, Swain S, Sturzenbaum SR, Sci Total Environ 408:3725-3734, 2010) and
      may result in greater (synergistic) toxicity (Lister LJ, Svendsen C, Wright J,
      Hooper HL, Spurgeon DJ, Environ Int 37:663-670, 2011). This is particularly
      worrisome when the components of the mixture individually attack the same organs.
      On the other hand, metals such as manganese [Mn], iron [Fe], copper [Cu], and
      zinc [Zn] are essential metals, and their presence in the body below or above
      homeostatic levels can also lead to disease states (Annangi B, Bonassi S, Marcos
      R, Hernandez A, Mutat Res 770(Pt A):140-161, 2016). Pb, As, Cd, and Hg can induce
      Fe, Cu, and Zn dyshomeostasis, potentially triggering neurodegenerative
      disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).
      Additionally, changes in heme synthesis have been associated with
      neurodegeneration, supported by evidence that a decline in heme levels might
      explain the age-associated loss of Fe homeostasis (Atamna H, Killile DK, Killile
      NB, Ames BN, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99(23):14807-14812, 2002).The sources,
      disposition, transport to the brain, mechanisms of toxicity, and effects in the
      central nervous system (CNS) and in the hematopoietic system of each one of these
      metals will be described. More detailed information on Pb, Mn, Al, Hg, Cu, and Zn
      is available in other chapters. A major focus of the chapter will be on Pb
      toxicity and its interaction with other metals.

PMID- 28889272
TI  - Methylmercury-Induced Neurotoxicity: Focus on Pro-oxidative Events and Related
      Consequences.
AB  - Methylmercury (MeHg) is a highly neurotoxic environmental pollutant. Even though
      molecular mechanisms mediating MeHg toxicity are not completely understood,
      several lines of evidence indicate that the neurotoxic effects resultant from
      MeHg exposure represent a consequence of its pro-oxidative properties. In this
      regard, MeHg is a soft electrophile that preferentially interacts with (and
      oxidize) nucleophilic groups (mainly thiols and selenols) from biomolecules,
      including proteins and low-molecular-weight molecules. Such interaction
      contributes to the occurrence of oxidative stress and impaired function of
      several molecules [proteins (receptors, transporters, enzymes, structural
      proteins), lipids (i.e., membrane constituents and intracellular messengers), and
      nucleic acids (i.e., DNA)], culminating in neurotoxicity.In this chapter, an
      initial background on the general aspects regarding the neurotoxicology of MeHg,
      with a particular focus on its pro-oxidative properties and its interaction with
      nucleophilic thiol- and selenol-containing molecules, is provided. Even though
      experimental evidence indicates that symptoms (i.e., motor impairment) resultant
      from MeHg exposure are linked to its pro-oxidative properties, as well as to
      their molecular consequences (lipid peroxidation, disruption of glutamate and/or
      calcium homeostasis, etc.), data concerning the relationship between molecular
      parameters and behavioral impairment others that those related to the motor
      function (i.e., visual impairment, cognitive skills, etc.) are scarce. Thus, even
      though scientific research has provided a significant amount of knowledge
      concerning the mechanisms mediating MeHg-induced neurotoxicity in the last
      decades, the whole scenario is far from being completely understood, and further
      research in this area is well warranted.

PMID- 28889273
TI  - Neurotoxicity of Vanadium.
AB  - Vanadium (V) is a transition metal that presents in multiple oxidation states and
      numerous inorganic compounds and is also an ultra-trace element considered to be
      essential for most living organisms. Despite being one of the lightest metals, V
      offers high structural strength and good corrosion resistance and thus has been
      widely adopted for high-strength steel manufacturing. High doses of V exposure
      are toxic, and inhalation exposure to V adversely affects the respiratory system.
      The neurotoxicological properties of V are just beginning to be identified.
      Recent studies by our group and others demonstrate the neurotoxic potential of
      this metal in the nigrostriatal system and other parts of the central nervous
      system (CNS). The neurotoxic effects of V have been mainly attributed to its
      ability to induce the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). It is
      noteworthy that the neurotoxicity induced by occupational V exposure commonly
      occurs with co-exposure to other metals, especially manganese (Mn). This review
      focuses on the chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and neurotoxicity of V.

PMID- 28889274
TI  - Neurotoxicity of Zinc.
AB  - Zinc-induced neurotoxicity has been shown to play a role in neuronal damage and
      death associated with traumatic brain injury, stroke, seizures, and
      neurodegenerative diseases. During normal firing of "zinc-ergic" neurons,
      vesicular free zinc is released into the synaptic cleft where it modulates a
      number of postsynaptic neuronal receptors. However, excess zinc, released after
      injury or disease, leads to excitotoxic neuronal death. The mechanisms of zinc
      mediated neurotoxicity appear to include not only neuronal signaling but also
      regulation of mitochondrial function and energy production, as well as other
      mechanisms such as aggregation of amyloid beta peptides in Alzheimer's disease.
      However, recent data have raised questions about some of our long-standing
      assumptions about the mechanisms of zinc in neurotoxicity. Thus, this review
      explores the most recent published findings and highlights the current
      mechanistic controversies.

PMID- 28889275
TI  - Neurotoxicity of Copper.
AB  - Copper is an essential trace metal that is required for several important
      biological processes, however, an excess of copper can be toxic to cells.
      Therefore, systemic and cellular copper homeostasis is tightly regulated, but
      dysregulation of copper homeostasis may occur in disease states, resulting either
      in copper deficiency or copper overload and toxicity. This chapter will give an
      overview on the biological roles of copper and of the mechanisms involved in
      copper uptake, storage, and distribution. In addition, we will describe potential
      mechanisms of the cellular toxicity of copper and copper oxide nanoparticles.
      Finally, we will summarize the current knowledge on the connection of copper
      toxicity with neurodegenerative diseases.

PMID- 28889276
TI  - Thallium Toxicity: General Issues, Neurological Symptoms, and Neurotoxic
      Mechanisms.
AB  - Thallium (Tl+) is a ubiquitous natural trace metal considered as the most toxic
      among heavy metals. The ionic ratio of Tl+ is similar to that of potassium (K+),
      therefore accounting for the replacement of the latter during enzymatic
      reactions. The principal organelle damaged after Tl+ exposure is mitochondria.
      Studies on the mechanisms of Tl+ include intrinsic pathways altered and changes
      in antiapoptotic and proapoptotic proteins, cytochrome c, and caspases. Oxidative
      damage pathways increase after Tl+ exposure to produce reactive oxygen species
      (ROS), changes in physical properties of the cell membrane caused by lipid
      peroxidation, and concomitant activation of antioxidant mechanisms. These
      processes are likely to account for the neurotoxic effects of the metal. In
      humans, Tl+ is absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes and then is widely
      distributed throughout the body to be accumulated in bones, renal medulla, liver,
      and the Central Nervous System. Given the growing relevance of Tl+ intoxication,
      in recent years there is a notorious increase in the number of reports attending
      Tl+ pollution in different countries. In this sense, the neurological symptoms
      produced by Tl+ and its neurotoxic effects are gaining attention as they
      represent a serious health problem all over the world. Through this review, we
      present an update to general information about Tl+ toxicity, making emphasis on
      some recent data about Tl+ neurotoxicity, as a field requiring attention at the
      clinical and preclinical levels.

PMID- 28889277
TI  - Neurodegeneration Induced by Metals in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - Metals are a component of a variety of ecosystems and organisms. They can
      generally be divided into essential and nonessential metals. The essential metals
      are involved in physiological processes once the deficiency of these metals has
      been associated with diseases. Although iron, manganese, copper, and zinc are
      important for life, it has been evidenced that they are also involved in neuronal
      damage in many neurodegenerative disorders. Nonessential metals, which are metals
      without physiological functions, are present in trace or higher levels in living
      organisms. Occupational, environmental, or deliberate exposures to lead, mercury,
      aluminum, and cadmium are clearly correlated with the increase of toxicity and
      varied kinds of pathological situations. Actually, the field of neurotoxicology
      needs to satisfy two opposing demands: the testing of a growing list of chemicals
      and resource limitations and ethical concerns associated with testing using
      traditional mammalian species. Toxicological assays using alternative animal
      models may relieve some of this pressure by allowing testing of more compounds
      while reducing expenses and using fewer mammals. The nervous system is by far the
      more complex system in C. elegans. Almost a third of their cells are neurons (302
      neurons versus 959 cells in adult hermaphrodite). It initially underwent
      extensive development as a model organism in order to study the nervous system,
      and its neuronal lineage and the complete wiring diagram of its nervous system
      are stereotyped and fully described. The neurotransmission systems are
      phylogenetically conserved from nematodes to vertebrates, which allows for
      findings from C. elegans to be extrapolated and further confirmed in vertebrate
      systems. Different strains of C. elegans offer a new perspective on
      neurodegenerative processes. Some genes have been found to be related to
      neurodegeneration induced by metals. Studying these interactions may be an
      effective tool to slow neuronal loss and deterioration.

PMID- 28889278
TI  - Endocrine Disrupting Compounds from the Source Water of the Huai River (Huainan
      City), China.
AB  - The occurrence and environmental risk of eight endocrine disrupting compounds
      (EDCs), namely dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), benzyl butyl
      phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), nonyl phenol (NP), bisphenol A (BPA),
      17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) and estrone (E1), from four water sources
      (Pingshantou, Wanfenggang, Shisi, and Shiyi) of Huai River (Huainan section) were
      investigated in this study. Except for DMP only found in Pingshantou, all of the
      selected EDCs existed widely in the source water. DMP, DEP, BBP, DBP, NP, BPA,
      EE2, and E1 had the ranges of nd (cannot be detected)-130 ng/L, 25-310, 76-1351,
      431-1299, 215-627, 23-107, nd-0.174, and 0.143-0.334 ng/L, respectively.
      Therefore, the studied water sources were associated with notable levels of EDCs,
      wherein the concentrations of BBP, DBP, and NP were much higher than the other
      five chemicals. The selected EDCs appeared to be higher in upstream than in
      downstream (p < 0.05) for each water source, suggesting that EDCs were subjected
      to a decreasing with water flow. Correlation analysis suggests that DEP-BP-DBP,
      NP-BPA, and EE2-E1 might have the same sources, respectively; and the source of
      NP, EE2, and E1 was different from that of BBP, BEP and BBP, and DEP,
      respectively. It was observed that both the TAS (total ambient severity) and RQ
      (risk quotient) were less than 1, indicating that EDCs in Huai River (Huainan
      section) posed little or no thread to the health of local inhabitants and
      ecological environmental.

PMID- 28889279
TI  - Impact of Land Use on the Mobility of Hg Species in Different Compartments of a
      Tropical Watershed in Brazil.
AB  - This study evaluated the levels of total Hg and CH3Hg+ from a comprehensive
      perspective, considering the retention, leaching, and deposition of these
      contaminants in the main compartments (soil, plant litter, and sediment) of three
      landscapes (Atlantic Forest, pasture, and agricultural area) in a watershed in
      northern Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Variables analyzed were total Hg, CH3Hg+,
      organic carbon, total nitrogen, grain size, and surface area. In soil samples,
      total Hg levels were the highest in agricultural soil followed by forest soil and
      pasture (97.3, 87.6, and 77.1 ng g-1, respectively), and CH3Hg+ was lower than
      1.7%. Total Hg levels in leaf litter varied between 22.6 and 34.2 ng g-1, and
      CH3Hg+ was 4.37%. In sediment, Hg (60-180 ng g-1) and CH3Hg+ (<1%) indicate the
      transport of these contaminants from soils to this compartment and may be
      associated with soil use and cover. Multiple regressions were used to understand
      the dispersion of Hg species, and the effect of each variable varied with the
      landscape, showing that plant cover should not be ignored in investigations
      related to Hg species retention in a watershed. The landscapes surveyed in the
      present study clearly influence the quantitative and qualitative distribution of
      Hg species. On the other hand, anthropic processes associated with changes in
      soil use did not have any critical effects on the absolute levels of total Hg and
      CH3Hg+, meaning that the landscapes evaluated seem to represent the background
      concentration of these chemical species for the evaluated watershed.

PMID- 28889280
TI  - Successful multimodal treatment of a gigantic choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC) in
      an 8-year-old girl.

PMID- 28889282
TI  - Enzymatic Production of c-di-GMP Using a Thermophilic Diguanylate Cyclase.
AB  - C-di-GMP has emerged as a prevalent bacterial messenger that controls a multitude
      of bacterial behaviors. Having access to milligram or gram quantities of c-di-GMP
      is essential for the biochemical and structural characterization of enzymes and
      effectors involved in c-di-GMP signaling. Although c-di-GMP can be synthesized
      using chemical methods, diguanylate cyclases (DGC)-based enzymatic synthesis is
      the most efficient method of preparing c-di-GMP today. Many DGCs are not suitable
      for c-di-GMP production because of poor protein stability and the presence of a c
      di-GMP-binding inhibitory site (I-site) in most DGCs. We have identified and
      engineered a thermophilic DGC for efficient production of c-di-GMP for
      characterizing c-di-GMP signaling proteins and riboswitches. Importantly, residue
      replacement in the inhibitory I-site of the thermophilic DGC drastically relieved
      product inhibition to enable the production of hundreds of milligrams of c-di-GMP
      using 5-10 mg of this robust biocatalyst.

PMID- 28889281
TI  - Discovery of the Second Messenger Cyclic di-GMP.
AB  - The nearly ubiquitous bacterial second messenger cyclic di-GMP is involved in a
      multitude of fundamental physiological processes such as sessility/motility
      transition and the switch between the acute and chronic infection status,
      combined with cell cycle control. The discovery of cyclic di-GMP, though, has
      been an example par excellence of scientific serendipity. We recapitulate here
      its years-long discovery process as an activator of the cellulose synthase of the
      environmental bacterium Komagataeibacter xylinus and its consequences for follow
      up research. Indeed, the discovery of cyclic di-GMP as a ubiquitous second
      messenger contributed to the change in perception of bacteria as simple
      unicellular organisms just randomly building-up multicellular communities.
      Subsequently, cyclic di-GMP also paved the way to the identification of other pro
      and eukaryotic cyclic dinucleotide second messengers.

PMID- 28889283
TI  - Synthesis of [32P]-c-di-GMP for Diguanylate Cyclase and Phosphodiesterase
      Activity Determinations.
AB  - Diguanylate cyclases that synthesize and phosphodiesterases that hydrolyze the
      second messenger cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP) are at the center of bacterial
      signaling pathways that control behaviors relevant to all aspects of microbial
      physiology and pathogenesis (Romling et al., Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 77(1):1-52,
      2013). Bioinformatics tools can easily predict the presence of the diguanylate
      cyclase GGDEF domain, or the EAL and HD-GYP domains associated with
      phosphodiesterase activity. However, experimental confirmation of enzymatic
      activity is still necessary, as many proteins contain degenerate domains that
      lack catalytic activity but nonetheless function as c-di-GMP receptors.

PMID- 28889284
TI  - High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-Based Detection and Quantitation of
      Cellular c-di-GMP.
AB  - The modulation of c-di-GMP levels plays a vital role in the regulation of various
      processes in a wide array of bacterial species. Thus, investigation of c-di-GMP
      regulation requires reliable methods for the assessment of c-di-GMP levels and
      turnover. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)
      analysis has become a commonly used approach to accomplish these goals. The
      following describes the extraction and HPLC-based detection and quantification of
      c-di-GMP from Pseudomonas aeruginosa samples, a procedure that is amenable to
      modifications for the analysis of c-di-GMP in other bacterial species.

PMID- 28889285
TI  - Identification and Quantification of Cyclic Di-Guanosine Monophosphate and Its
      Linear Metabolites by Reversed-Phase LC-MS/MS.
AB  - Cyclic dinucleotides such as bis-(3',5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate
      (3',3'-c-di-GMP) represent an important class of second messengers in bacteria
      and are involved in numerous (patho)physiological settings. Here, we describe a
      sensitive and specific quantification method for 3',3'-c-di-GMP by HPLC-coupled
      tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Additionally, linear 3',3'-c-di-GMP
      metabolites, i.e., 5'-phosphoguanylyl-3',5'-guanosine (pGpG) and 5'-guanosine
      monophosphate (5'-GMP), as well as cyclic guanosine monophosphate (3',5'-cGMP)
      and 3',3' c-di-GMP analogues (2',3'-c-di-GMP and 2',2'-c-di-GMP) can be
      simultaneously determined by this method.

PMID- 28889286
TI  - Detection of Cyclic Dinucleotides by STING.
AB  - STING (stimulator of interferon genes) is an essential signaling adaptor protein
      mediating cytosolic DNA-induced innate immunity for both microbial invasion and
      self-DNA leakage. STING is also a direct receptor for cytosolic cyclic
      dinucleotides (CDNs), including the microbial secondary messengers c-di-GMP
      (3',3'-cyclic di-GMP), 3',3'cGAMP (3',3'-cyclic GMP-AMP), and mammalian
      endogenous 2',3'cGAMP (2',3'-cyclic GMP-AMP) synthesized by cGAS (cyclic GMP-AMP
      synthase). Upon CDN binding, STING undergoes a conformational change to enable
      signal transduction by phosphorylation and finally to active IRF3 (Interferon
      regulatory factor 3) for type I interferon production. Here, we describe some
      experimental procedures such as Isothermal Titration Calorimetry and luciferase
      reporter assays to study the CDNs binding and activity by STING proteins.

PMID- 28889287
TI  - Spectrophotometric and Mass Spectroscopic Methods for the Quantification and
      Kinetic Evaluation of In Vitro c-di-GMP Synthesis.
AB  - The expression and activity of diguanylate cyclase (DGC) and phosphodiesterase
      (PDE) enzymes are responsible for modulating and maintaining the intracellular
      concentration of the bacterial second messenger cyclic diguanosine-monophosphate
      (c-di-GMP). Here, we describe an in vitro method for the spectrophotometric
      detection and quantification of DGC catalyzed c-di-GMP synthesis through
      adaptation of the EnzChek(r) Pyrophosphate Assay Kit. We also outline a method
      for the quantification of c-di-GMP produced in this in vitro reaction using Ultra
      Performance Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). These
      methods can be leveraged for a number of experimental applications including the
      evaluation of enzyme activity for the in vitro synthesis of c-di-GMP, examination
      of how molecular signals impact these activities, identifying the catalytic
      properties of hybrid DGC-PDE proteins, and the development of DGC inhibitors.

PMID- 28889288
TI  - Gauging and Visualizing c-di-GMP Levels in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Using
      Fluorescence-Based Biosensors.
AB  - Recent research has shown that the molecule c-di-GMP is an important second
      messenger regulating various functions in bacteria. In particular, the
      implication of c-di-GMP as a positive regulator of adhesion and biofilm formation
      has gained momentum as a highly relevant research topic, as detailed knowledge
      about the underlying regulatory mechanisms may enable the development of measures
      to control biofilms in both industrial and medical settings. Accordingly, it is
      in many cases of interest to measure the c-di-GMP level in bacteria under
      specific conditions or in specific mutant strains. We have developed a collection
      of fluorescence-based c-di-GMP biosensors capable of gauging the c-di-GMP level
      in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and closely related bacteria. Here, we describe
      protocols for the use of these biosensors in gauging and visualizing cellular c
      di-GMP levels of P. aeruginosa both in in vitro setups such as continuous-culture
      flow-cell biofilms, and in in vivo settings such as a murine corneal infection
      model.

PMID- 28889289
TI  - Cyclic di-GMP-Responsive Transcriptional Reporter Bioassays in Pseudomonas
      aeruginosa.
AB  - 3',5'-cyclic diguanosine monophosphate (cyclic di-GMP) is a bacterial secondary
      messenger molecule that regulates many important cellular activities and
      behaviors, such as motility and biofilm formation. While mass spectrometry
      protocols for quantitative analyses of intracellular cyclic di-GMP concentrations
      have been developed, they are time intensive, expensive, low-throughput, and
      incapable of directly monitoring dynamic changes in vivo. In this protocol, we
      provide a Pseudomonas aeruginosa-specific detailed methodology to assay the
      intracellular levels of cyclic di-GMP using biological reporters.

PMID- 28889290
TI  - Live Flow Cytometry Analysis of c-di-GMP Levels in Single Cell Populations.
AB  - Second-generation RNA-based fluorescent biosensors have been developed that
      enable flow cytometry experiments to monitor the population dynamics of c-di-GMP
      signaling in live bacteria. These experiments are high-throughput, provide
      information at the single-cell level, and can be performed on cells grown in
      complex media and/or under anaerobic conditions. Here, we describe flow cytometry
      methods for three applications: (1) high-throughput screening for diguanylate
      cyclase activity, (2) analyzing c-di-GMP levels under anaerobic conditions, and
      (3) monitoring cell population dynamics of c-di-GMP levels upon environmental
      changes. These methods showcase RNA-based fluorescent biosensors as versatile
      tools for studying c-di-GMP signaling in bacteria.

PMID- 28889291
TI  - Experimental Detection and Visualization of the Extracellular Matrix in
      Macrocolony Biofilms.
AB  - By adopting elaborate three-dimensional morphologies that vary according to their
      extracellular matrix composition, macrocolony biofilms offer a unique opportunity
      to interrogate about the roles of specific matrix components in shaping biofilm
      architecture. Here, we describe two methods optimized for Escherichia coli that
      profit from morphology and the high level of structural organization of
      macrocolonies to gain insight into the production and assembly of amyloid curli
      and cellulose-the two major biofilm matrix elements of E. coli-in biofilms. The
      first method, the macrocolony morphology assay, is based on the ability of curli
      and cellulose-either alone or in combination-to generate specific morphological
      and Congo Red-staining patterns in E. coli macrocolonies, which can then be used
      as a direct visual readout for the production of these matrix components. The
      second method involves thin sectioning of macrocolonies, which along with in situ
      staining of amyloid curli and cellulose and microscopic imaging allows gaining
      fine details of the spatial arrangement of both matrix elements inside
      macrocolonies. Beyond their current use with E. coli and related curli and
      cellulose-producing Enterobacteriaceae, both the methods offer the potential to
      be adapted to other bacterial species.

PMID- 28889292
TI  - Congo Red Stain Identifies Matrix Overproduction and Is an Indirect Measurement
      for c-di-GMP in Many Species of Bacteria.
AB  - Congo red is a diazo textile dye that has been used to visualize the production
      of amyloid fibers for nearly a century. Microbiological applications were later
      developed, especially in identifying strains that produce amyloid appendages
      called curli and overexpressing polysaccharides in the biofilm matrix. The second
      messenger cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) regulates the production of biofilm
      matrix polysaccharides, and therefore Congo red staining of samples can be
      utilized as an indirect measurement of elevated c-di-GMP production in bacteria.
      Congo red allows the identification of strains producing high c-di-GMP in an
      inexpensive, quantitative, and high-throughput manner.

PMID- 28889293
TI  - Type IV Pili-Dependent Motility as a Tool to Determine the Activity of c-di-GMP
      Modulating Enzymes in Myxococcus xanthus.
AB  - The nucleotide-based second messenger bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric GMP (c-di-GMP)
      regulates multiple processes in bacteria including cellular motility. The rod
      shaped Myxococcus xanthus cells move in the direction of their long axis using
      two distinct motility systems: type IV pili (T4P)-dependent motility and gliding
      motility. Manipulation of the c-di-GMP level by expression of either an active,
      heterologous diguanylate cyclase or an active, heterologous phosphodiesterase
      causes defects in T4P-dependent motility without affecting gliding motility. As
      both an increased and a decreased level of c-di-GMP affect T4P-dependent
      motility, M. xanthus represents a good model system to assess enzyme activity of
      diguanylate cyclases and phosphodiesterases using T4P-dependent motility as a
      readout. Here, we describe the assay, which allows correlating diguanylate
      cyclase and phosphodiesterase activity with T4P-dependent motility in M. xanthus.

PMID- 28889294
TI  - Using Light-Activated Enzymes for Modulating Intracellular c-di-GMP Levels in
      Bacteria.
AB  - Signaling pathways involving second messenger c-di-GMP regulate various aspects
      of bacterial physiology and behavior. We describe the use of a red light
      activated diguanylate cyclase (c-di-GMP synthase) and a blue light-activated c-di
      GMP phosphodiesterase (hydrolase) for manipulating intracellular c-di-GMP levels
      in bacterial cells. We illustrate the application of these enzymes in regulating
      several c-di-GMP-dependent phenotypes, i.e., motility and biofilm phenotypes in
      E. coli and chemotactic behavior in the alphaproteobacterium Azospirillum
      brasilense. We expect these light-activated enzymes to be also useful in
      regulating c-di-GMP-dependent processes occurring at the fast timescale, for
      spatial control of bacterial populations, as well as for analyzing c-di-GMP
      dependent phenomena at the single-cell level.

PMID- 28889295
TI  - Analysis of c-di-GMP Levels Synthesized by a Photoreceptor Protein in Response to
      Different Light Qualities Using an In Vitro Enzymatic Assay.
AB  - Diguanylate cyclases are enzymes that use two GTP molecules to produce one
      molecule cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP). This cyclic
      dinucleotide is an ubiquitous prokaryotic second messenger that controls a
      variety of cell functions. Several proteins have been described which contain a
      photoreceptor domain fused to a diguanylate cyclase. The cyanobacterial light
      sensor Cph2 is responsible for the blue-light induced synthesis of c-di-GMP in
      Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Here, we provide a detailed protocol for an in vitro
      enzymatic assay with a purified photoreceptor protein using light as the crucial
      reaction parameter for c-di-GMP synthesis. The assay is accomplished under
      continuous illumination with light of different quality with inactivation of the
      enzyme by heat denaturation. Analytics are performed using HPLC-UV.

PMID- 28889296
TI  - Probing the Role of Cyclic di-GMP Signaling Systems in Disease Using Chinese
      Radish.
AB  - The determination of the genome sequences of pathogenic bacteria has facilitated
      functional analyses that aim to understand the molecular basis of virulence. In
      particular, genome sequence information of the pathogen Xanthomonas campestris
      pathovar campestris has allowed researchers to identify and functionally analyze
      the role of intracellular signaling involving cyclic di-GMP in black rot disease
      of crucifers. Here, we describe leaf clipping and spraying methods for testing
      the virulence of wild type and derived mutants of X. campestris in Chinese
      radish. These methods address different facets of the disease cycle, which
      requires the ability to survive epiphytically before entry into the plant and
      growth and systemic spread within the xylem.

PMID- 28889297
TI  - Contribution of Cyclic di-GMP in the Control of Type III and Type VI Secretion in
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
AB  - Bacteria produce toxins to enhance their competitiveness in the colonization of
      an environment as well as during an infection. The delivery of toxins into target
      cells is mediated by several types of secretion systems, among them our focus is
      Type III and Type VI Secretion Systems (T3SS and T6SS, respectively). A thorough
      methodology is provided detailing how to identify if cyclic di-GMP signaling
      plays a role in the P. aeruginosa toxin delivery mediated by T3SS or T6SS. This
      includes in vitro preparation of the samples for Western blot analysis aiming at
      detecting possible c-di-GMP-dependent T3SS/T6SS switch, as well as in vivo
      analysis using the model organism Galleria mellonella to demonstrate the
      ecological and pathogenic consequence of the switch between these two secretion
      systems.

PMID- 28889298
TI  - Semiquantitative Analysis of the Red, Dry, and Rough Colony Morphology of
      Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium and Escherichia coli Using Congo Red.
AB  - The Congo Red (CR) assay is a standard biofilm test assessing the colony
      morphology of bacteria growing on agar plates supplemented with the diazo dye
      Congo Red. Biofilm forming Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and
      Escherichia coli produce a red, dry, and rough (rdar) morphotype on CR-plates.
      The phenotype is characterized by staining of the extracellular matrix components
      curli (brown color) and cellulose (pink color) by CR. This method allows
      semiquantitative determination of the expression level of the individual matrix
      components and dissection of the regulatory networks controlling their production
      in response to c-di-GMP levels. Here, we describe the CR-assay and its variations
      and discuss the effect of deletion or overexpression of c-di-GMP turnover
      proteins on colony morphology.

PMID- 28889299
TI  - Fluorescent 2-Aminopurine c-di-GMP and GpG Analogs as PDE Probes.
AB  - c-di-GMP is widely recognized as an important ubiquitous signaling molecule in
      bacteria. c-di-GMP phosphodiesterases (PDEs) regulate the intracellular
      concentration of c-di-GMP and some could be potential drug targets. Here, we
      describe a class of dinucleotide probes suitable for monitoring the enzymatic
      activities of c-di-GMP PDEs in real time. Such probes contain fluorescent
      nucleobases and can be readily cleaved by PDEs, resulting in a change in
      fluorescence. Fluorescent cyclic and linear dinucleotide probes could be used in
      diverse applications, such as confirming the activity of an expressed PDE or
      oligoribonuclease (Orns) or identifying inhibitors of PDEs or Orns using high
      throughput screening formats.

PMID- 28889300
TI  - Measuring Cyclic Diguanylate (c-di-GMP)-Specific Phosphodiesterase Activity Using
      the MANT-c-di-GMP Assay.
AB  - The second messenger, cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP), regulates a variety of
      bacterial cellular and social behaviors. A key determinant of c-di-GMP levels in
      cells is its degradation by c-di-GMP-specific phosphodiesterases (PDEs). Here, we
      describe an assay to determine c-di-GMP degradation rates in vitro using 2'-O-(N'
      methylanthraniloyl)-cyclic diguanylate (MANT-c-di-GMP). Additionally, a protocol
      for the production and purification of recombinant Pseudomonas aeruginosa RocR, a
      c-di-GMP-specific PDE that may serve as a control in MANT-c-di-GMP assays, is
      provided. The use of the fluorescent MANT-c-di-GMP analogue can deliver
      fundamental information about PDE function, and is suitable for identifying and
      investigating c-di-GMP-specific PDE activators and inhibitors.

PMID- 28889301
TI  - Determining Phosphodiesterase Activity (Radioactive Assay).
AB  - Cyclic-di-GMP phosphodiesterases (PDEs) catalyze the hydrolysis of the bacterial
      second messenger c-di-GMP. This protocol describes a sensitive radioactive assay
      for PDE activity in which substrate and product can be quickly and easily
      separated by thin-layer chromatography.

PMID- 28889302
TI  - Determining Diguanylate Cyclase Activity (Radioactive Assay).
AB  - Bioinformatics approaches can identify sequence motifs associated with
      diguanylate cyclases (DGCs), but experimental demonstration of DGC enzymatic
      activity is often desired. This protocol describes a sensitive radioactive assay
      for DGC activity in which substrate and product are quickly and easily separated
      by thin-layer chromatography.

PMID- 28889303
TI  - Detection of c-di-GMP-Responsive DNA Binding.
AB  - Modulation of signal transduction via binding of the secondary messenger molecule
      cyclic di-GMP to effector proteins is a near universal regulatory schema in
      bacteria. In particular, direct binding of c-di-GMP to transcriptional regulators
      has been shown to alter gene expression of a variety of processes. Here, we
      illustrate a pull-down-based DNA:protein binding reaction to determine the
      relative importance of c-di-GMP in the binding affinity of a target protein to
      specific DNA sequences. Specifically, the pull-down-based assay enables DNA
      binding to be analyzed with differing concentrations of c-di-GMP in the
      absence/presence of specific and nonspecific competitors.

PMID- 28889304
TI  - Use of Nonradiochemical DNAse Footprinting to Analyze c-di-GMP Modulation of DNA
      Binding Proteins.
AB  - The transition of bacteria from a planktonic lifestyle to a collaborative,
      sessile biofilm lifestyle is a regulated process orchestrated by the
      intracellular second-messenger c-di-GMP (bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine
      monophosphate). To modulate this transition, c-di-GMP acts at the
      transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and posttranslational levels. In this
      chapter, we describe a method to study of how a transcriptional regulator
      modulates gene expression in response to c-di-GMP binding. DNase I footprinting
      is a valuable tool for use in analyzing how regulatory proteins bind to DNA, the
      location of their binding sites or how c-di-GMP affects their binding to DNA.
      This chapter describes a protocol for nonradiochemical DNase I footprinting
      experiments using a capillary electrophoresis method based on the interaction of
      the Pseudomonas aeruginosa FleQ protein with the promoter regions of biofilm
      related genes.

PMID- 28889305
TI  - Detection of Cyclic di-GMP Binding Proteins Utilizing a Biotinylated Cyclic di
      GMP Pull-Down Assay.
AB  - Cyclic di-GMP is an important regulatory messenger molecule that often directly
      interacts with proteins to alter function. It is therefore important to find
      potential c-di-GMP binding proteins and verify a direct interaction between them.
      Here, we describe a pull-down assay using biotinylated-c-di-GMP to capture a
      specific protein of interest followed by immunoblot analysis to determine
      relative protein abundance. This method also allows for addition of both specific
      and nonspecific competitors to determine specificity of c-di-GMP-protein binding.
      We also discuss using densitometry analysis on resulting immunoblots to calculate
      the dissociation constant (KD) of the binding reaction, allowing for a
      determination of binding affinity.

PMID- 28889306
TI  - Probing Protein-Protein Interactions with Genetically Encoded Photoactivatable
      Cross-Linkers.
AB  - Fundamental to all living organisms is the ability of proteins to interact with
      other biological molecules at the right time and location, with the proper
      affinity, and to do so reversibly. One well-established technique to study
      protein interactions is chemical cross-linking, a process in which proteins in
      close spatial proximity are covalently tethered together. An emerging technology
      that overcomes many limitations of traditional cross-linking methods is one in
      which photoactivatable cross-linking noncanonical amino acids are genetically
      encoded into a protein of interest using the cell's native translational
      machinery. These proteins can then be used to trap interacting biomolecules upon
      UV illumination. Here, we describe a method for the site-specific incorporation
      of photoactivatable cross-linking amino acids into fluorescently tagged proteins
      of interest in E. coli. Photo-cross-linking and analysis by SDS-PAGE using in-gel
      fluorescence detection, which provides rapid, highly sensitive, and specific
      detection of cross-linked adducts even in impure systems, are also described. An
      example expression and cross-linking experiment involving transmembrane signaling
      of a bacterial second messenger receptor system that controls biofilm formation
      is shown. All reagents needed to carry out these experiments are commercially
      available, and do not require special or unique technology to perform, making
      this method tractable to a broad community studying protein structure and
      function.

PMID- 28889307
TI  - Identification of c-di-AMP-Binding Proteins Using Magnetic Beads.
AB  - To identify cytosolic proteins that bind to cyclic di-AMP, a biotinylated analog
      of the nucleotide is used for protein pull-down experiments. In this approach,
      biotinylated c-di-AMP is coupled to Streptactin-covered beads. After protein
      separation using standard SDS-PAGE, the protein(s) of interest are identified by
      mass spectrometric analyses.

PMID- 28889308
TI  - Pull-Down with a c-di-GMP-Specific Capture Compound Coupled to Mass Spectrometry
      as a Powerful Tool to Identify Novel Effector Proteins.
AB  - Capture compound technology coupled to mass spectrometry (CCMS) allows to
      biochemically identify ligand receptors. Using a c-di-GMP-specific Capture
      Compound, we adapted this method for the identification and characterization of c
      di-GMP binding proteins in any bacterial species. Because in silico analysis
      often fails to predict novel c-di-GMP effectors, this universal method aims at
      better defining the cellular c-di-GMP network in a wide range of bacteria. CCMS
      was successfully applied in several bacterial species (Nesper et al., J Proteom
      75:4874-4878, 2012; Steiner et al., EMBO J 32:354-368, 2013; Tschowri et al.,
      Cell 158:1136-1147, 2014; Trampari et al., J Biol Chem 290:24470-24483, 2015;
      Rotem et al., J Bacteriol 198:127-137, 2015). To outline the detailed protocol
      and to illustrate its power, we use Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic
      pathogen in which c-di-GMP plays a critical role in virulence and biofilm
      control, as an example. CCMS identified 74% (38/51) of the known or predicted
      components of the c-di-GMP network.

PMID- 28889309
TI  - Identification of c-di-GMP-Responsive Riboswitches.
AB  - Bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) is an important
      signaling molecule for community behavior control, cell morphogenesis, and
      virulence in bacteria. In addition to protein effectors, this second messenger
      binds RNA molecules that act as riboswitches to control target gene expression.
      In this chapter, we describe a method for experimental validation of the
      functionality of c-di-GMP-responsive riboswitches and the analysis of c-di-GMP
      control of target gene expression by qRT-PCR and Northern blot. This procedure
      can be used for the studies of in silico-predicted riboswitch candidates, as well
      as a targeted experimental approach for exploring the data from next-generation
      sequencing. The examples on the analysis of type I and type II c-di-GMP
      responsive riboswitches in Clostridium difficile are provided to illustrate the
      application of the method.

PMID- 28889310
TI  - Isothermal Titration Calorimetry to Determine Apparent Dissociation Constants (K
      d) and Stoichiometry of Interaction (n) of C-di-GMP Binding Proteins.
AB  - Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a commonly used biophysical technique
      that enables the quantitative characterization of intermolecular interactions in
      solution. Based on enthalpy changes (DeltaH) upon titration of the binding
      partner (e.g., a small-molecule ligand such as c-di-GMP) to the molecule of
      interest (e.g., a receptor protein), the resulting binding isotherms provide
      information on the equilibrium association/dissociation constants (K a, K d) and
      stoichiometry of binding (n), as well as on changes in the Gibbs free energy
      (DeltaG) and entropy (DeltaS) along the interaction. Here we present ITC
      experiments used for the characterization of c-di-GMP binding proteins and
      discuss advantages and potential caveats in the interpretation of results.

PMID- 28889311
TI  - Targeting c-di-GMP Signaling, Biofilm Formation, and Bacterial Motility with
      Small Molecules.
AB  - Bacteria possess several signaling molecules that regulate distinct phenotypes.
      Cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) has emerged as a ubiquitous second messenger that
      regulates bacterial virulence, cell cycle, motility, and biofilm formation. The
      link between c-di-GMP signaling and biofilm formation affords novel strategies
      for treatment of biofilm-associated infections, which is a major public health
      problem. The complex c-di-GMP signaling pathway creates a hurdle in the
      development of small molecule modulators. Nonetheless, some progress has been
      made in this regard and inhibitors of c-di-GMP metabolizing enzymes that affect
      biofilm formation and motility have been documented. Herein we discuss the
      components of c-di-GMP signaling, their correlation with biofilm formation as
      well as motility and reported small molecule inhibitors of c-di-GMP signaling.

PMID- 28889312
TI  - Discovering Selective Diguanylate Cyclase Inhibitors: From PleD to Discrimination
      of the Active Site of Cyclic-di-GMP Phosphodiesterases.
AB  - One of the most important signals involved in controlling biofilm formation is
      represented by the intracellular second messenger 3',5'-cyclic diguanylic acid (c
      di-GMP). Since the pathways involved in c-di-GMP biosynthesis and breakdown are
      found only in bacteria, targeting c-di-GMP metabolism represents an attractive
      strategy for the development of biofilm-disrupting drugs. Here, we present the
      workflow required to perform a structure-based design of inhibitors of
      diguanylate cyclases, the enzymes responsible for c-di-GMP biosynthesis.
      Downstream of the virtual screening process, detailed in the first part of the
      chapter, we report the step-by-step protocols required to test the positive hits
      in vitro and to validate their selectivity, thus minimizing possible off-target
      effects.

PMID- 28889313
TI  - High-Throughput Screening for Compounds that Modulate the Cellular c-di-GMP Level
      in Bacteria.
AB  - Bacteria in the biofilm mode of growth cause numerous problematic infections due
      to their resistance to antimicrobials and the immune system. Because conventional
      antimicrobial compounds cannot efficiently eradicate biofilm infections, we
      urgently need new efficient anti-biofilm drugs. The secondary messenger c-di-GMP
      is a positive regulator of biofilm formation in many clinically relevant
      bacteria, and it is assumed that drugs that lower the intracellular level of c-di
      GMP will force biofilm bacteria into a more treatable planktonic lifestyle. We
      describe a protocol for high-throughput screening of chemical libraries for
      compounds that lower the c-di-GMP level in bacteria, and potentially can serve as
      lead compounds in the development of novel biofilm dismantling drugs.

PMID- 28889314
TI  - Genetic Tools to Study c-di-GMP-Dependent Signaling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
AB  - Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections are often difficult or impossible to treat,
      mainly due to its ability to form antibiotic-resistant biofilms. Since c-di-GMP
      signaling strongly influences P. aeruginosa biofilm development and sensitivity
      to antibiotics, it is considered a promising target for the development of anti
      biofilm drugs and it is under intensive investigation. However, studying c-di-GMP
      signaling in P. aeruginosa is challenging, mainly due to (1) the multiplicity of
      enzymes involved in c-di-GMP metabolism, (2) the difficulty to extract and
      measure c-di-GMP intracellular levels by chemical methods, and (3) the lack of
      genetic tools specifically dedicated to this purpose.Here, a bioluminescence
      based reporter system convenient for studying cellular processes or compounds
      expected to cause an increase or a decrease in intracellular c-di-GMP levels
      produced by P. aeruginosa cultures is described. Bioluminescence is particularly
      appropriate in P. aeruginosa research, due to the high intensity of the signal
      and total lack of background noise. In addition, the use of genetic cassettes
      allowing the fine control of P. aeruginosa c-di-GMP intracellular levels via
      arabinose induction is described.Overall, the genetic tools described here could
      facilitate investigations tackling the c-di-GMP signaling process on different
      fields, from cellular physiology to drug-discovery research.

PMID- 28889315
TI  - Brief Report: Executive Function as a Predictor of Academic Achievement in School
      Aged Children with ASD.
AB  - The contributions of Executive Function (EF) to academic achievement in children
      with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are not well understood. Academic achievement
      and its association with EF is described in 32, 9-year-old children with ASD. EF
      at age 6 and 9, and academic achievement at age 9 were assessed as part of a
      larger longitudinal study. Better performance on a Spatial Reversal task but not
      A-not-B with Invisible Displacement at age 6 was associated with better math
      achievement at age 9. No relationship was found between these EF measures at age
      6 and reading or spelling achievement at age 9. Future studies are needed to
      explore whether improving early EF skills can increase math achievement in
      children with ASD.

PMID- 28889316
TI  - Global stability of multi-group viral models with general incidence functions.
AB  - In this paper, strongly connected and non-strongly connected multi-group viral
      models with time delays and general incidence functions are considered. Employing
      the Lyapunov functional method and a graph-theoretic approach, we show that the
      global dynamics of the strongly connected system are determined by the basic
      reproduction number under some reasonable conditions for incidence functions. In
      addition, we find a more complex and more interesting result for multi-group
      viral models with non-strongly connected networks because of the basic
      reproduction numbers corresponding to each strongly connected component. Finally,
      we provide simulations for non-strongly connected multi-group viral models to
      support our conclusion.

PMID- 28889317
TI  - The predictive value of T-tau and AB1-42 levels in idiopathic normal pressure
      hydrocephalus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) has no reliable
      biomarker to assist in the selection of patients who could benefit from
      ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt insertion. The neurodegenerative markers T-tau
      and Abeta1-42 have been found to successfully differentiate between Alzheimer's
      disease (AD) and INPH and therefore are candidate biomarkers for prognosis and
      shunt response in INPH. The aim of this study was to test the predictive value of
      cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) T-tau and Abeta1-42 for shunt responsiveness. In
      particular, we pay attention to the subset of INPH patients with raised T-tau,
      who are often expected to be poor surgical candidates. METHODS: Single-centre
      retrospective analysis of probable INPH patients with CSF samples collected from
      2006 to 2016. INDEX TEST: CSF levels of T-tau and Abeta1-42. Reference standard:
      postoperative outcome. ROC analysis assessed the predictive value. RESULTS: A
      total of 144 CSF samples from INPH patients were analysed. Lumbar T-tau was a
      good predictor of post-operative mobility (AUROC 0.80). The majority of patients
      with a co-existing neurodegenerative disease responded well, including those with
      high T-tau levels. CONCLUSION: INPH patients tended to exhibit low levels of CSF
      T-tau, and this can be a good predictor outcome. However levels are highly
      variable between individuals. Raised T-tau and being shunt-responsive are not
      mutually exclusive, and such patients ought not necessarily be excluded from
      having a VP shunt. A combined panel of markers may be a more specific method for
      aiding selection of patients for VP shunt insertion. This is the most
      comprehensive presentation of CSF samples from INPH patients to date, thus
      providing further reference values to the current literature.

PMID- 28889318
TI  - Human axillary skin condition is improved following incorporation of glycerol
      into the stratum corneum from an antiperspirant formulation.
AB  - The study objectives were to demonstrate that glycerol, when topically applied
      from a roll-on antiperspirant formulation, can be delivered directly to human
      skin ex vivo and the axillary stratum corneum (SC) in vivo, and to assess whether
      it improves the quality of the axillary skin barrier. Ex vivo human skin
      absorption of glycerol was measured following application of a roll-on
      antiperspirant formulation containing 4% 13C3-glycerol. Skin distribution of 13C3
      glycerol over 24 h was assessed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In
      vivo axillary SC penetration was measured by confocal Raman spectroscopy and
      multivariate curve-resolution software 1 h after topical application of a roll-on
      antiperspirant formulation containing 8% deuterated glycerol (d5-glycerol). A
      clinical study was conducted to determine the efficacy of a roll-on
      antiperspirant formulation containing 4% glycerol in reducing shaving-induced
      visual irritation and in increasing axillary-skin hydration. Ex vivo skin
      absorption studies indicated that the formulation delivered 13C3-glycerol into
      the SC at all timepoints over the 24-h period. In vivo Raman measurements (1 h
      after application) demonstrated that d5-glycerol was detectable to a depth of at
      least 10 MUm in the axillary SC. Application of 4% glycerol from a roll-on
      antiperspirant formulation to the axilla was associated with significantly less
      visible irritation and greater skin hydration than observed with the control
      (glycerol-free) product. These studies demonstrate that glycerol, incorporated in
      a roll-on antiperspirant formulation, is delivered directly and rapidly to all
      depths of the axillary SC, and results in improvements in visible irritation and
      hydration in the axilla.

PMID- 28889319
TI  - Sex, sex hormones and autonomic circulatory control.

PMID- 28889320
TI  - The role of preoperative iron deficiency in colorectal cancer patients:
      prevalence and treatment.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In preoperative blood management of colorectal cancer patients,
      intravenous iron therapy is increasingly used to treat anaemia and prevent red
      blood cell transfusions. However, while iron deficiency is the most common cause
      of anaemia, little is known about the prevalence and namely type of iron
      deficiency in this population, whereas both types of iron deficiency (i.e.
      absolute and functional iron deficiency) are recommended to be treated
      differently by international cancer guidelines. OBJECTIVE: The aim of present
      study is to investigate the prevalence and namely type of iron deficiency in
      colorectal cancer patients, and to assess its clinical relevance. METHODS:
      Preoperative iron status, clinical parameters (i.e. age, ASA classification,
      tumour location, tumour stage) and postoperative complications were
      retrospectively collected for all newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients in
      our institution over a 3-year period. RESULTS: Iron deficiency was observed in
      163 (48.1%) of 339 patients. Of these iron-deficient patients, 3.7% had an
      isolated absolute iron deficiency (AID) and 15.3% a functional iron deficiency
      (FID), while the rest had a combination of AID and FID. Anaemia was present in
      66.1% of iron-deficient patients. Iron deficiency was significantly associated
      with an increased postoperative complication rate (univariable OR 1.94, p = 0.03,
      multivariable OR 1.84, p = 0.07), with right-sided tumours (p < 0.001), high ASA
      classification (p = 0.002), advanced tumour stage (p = 0.01) and advanced age (p
      = 0.04). In comparing clinical parameters between patients with AID and FID,
      advanced age was significantly associated with FID (p = 0.03), and the presence
      of anaemia with AID (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: In preoperative colorectal cancer
      patients, there is a high prevalence of iron deficiency, including a high
      percentage of patients with-a component of-functional iron deficiency, associated
      with the increased postoperative complication rate. As both types of iron
      deficiency require a different treatment strategy, our results illustrate the
      therapeutic potential of especially intravenous iron supplementation in patients
      with severe iron deficiency and stress the urgency of routinely monitoring
      preoperative iron status and differentiation between types of iron deficiency. As
      iron therapy may also be potentially harmful in respect to stimulation of tumour
      growth, future clinical trials assessing the long-term effect of iron therapy are
      necessary.

PMID- 28889321
TI  - Effects of purified human fibrinogen modified with carbon monoxide and iron on
      coagulation in rabbits injected with Crotalus atrox venom.
AB  - While snake venom derived enzymes, such as the thrombin-like activity possessing
      ancrod, have been used to treat thrombotic disease by defibrinogenating patients,
      the therapeutic potential of fibrinogenolytic snake venom enzymes, such as those
      derived from Crotalus atrox, have not been fully explored. However, one of the
      potential risks of administering fibrinogenolytic enzymes to effect
      defibrinogenation is hemorrhage secondary to hypofibrinogenemia. The present
      investigation sought to determine if human fibrinogen modified with carbon
      monoxide (CO) and iron (Fe) could resist degradation by C. atrox venom as has
      been seen in vitro in a recently developed rabbit model of envenomation. Compared
      with unmodified human fibrinogen, CO/Fe modified fibrinogen administered prior to
      envenomation had significantly shorter onset of coagulation and greater strength;
      however, when administered after envenomation, there was no differences between
      the two types of fibrinogen. Of interest, when administered after envenomation,
      both types of fibrinogen delayed the onset of coagulation while increasing plasma
      clot strength, a mixed effect likely secondary to formation of fibrinogen
      degradation products. Further preclinical investigations are needed to further
      define the benefits and risks of the use of fibrinogenolytic enzymes as
      defibrinogenating agents, as well as the risks of the "biochemical brakes" used
      to modulate the activity or substrate of the fibrinogenolytic enzyme.

PMID- 28889322
TI  - Efficiency of soft tissue incision with a novel 445-nm semiconductor laser.
AB  - Using a 445-nm semiconductor laser for tissue incision, an effective cut is
      expected due to the special absorption properties of blue laser light in soft
      tissues. The aim of the present study was the histological evaluation of tissue
      samples after incision with a 445-nm diode laser. Forty soft tissue specimens
      were obtained from pork oral mucosa and mounted on a motorized linear translation
      stage. The handpiece of a high-frequency surgery device, a 970-nm semiconductor
      laser, and a 445-nm semiconductor laser were connected to the slide, allowing a
      constant linear movement (2 mm/s) and the same distance of the working tip to the
      soft tissue's surface. Four incisions were made each: (I) 970-nm laser with
      conditioned fiber tip, contact mode at 3-W cw; (II-III): 445-nm laser with non
      conditioned fiber tip, contact mode at 2-W cw, and non-contact mode (1 mm) at 2
      W; and (IV): high-frequency surgery device with straight working tip, 90 degrees 
      angulation, contact mode at 50 W. Histological analysis was performed after H&E
      staining of the embedded specimens at 35-fold magnification. The comparison of
      the incision depths showed a significant difference depending on the laser
      wavelength and the selected laser parameters. The highest incision depth was
      achieved with the 445-nm laser contact mode (median depth 0.61 mm, min 0.26, max
      1.17, interquartile range 0.58) (p < 0.05) with the lowest amount of soft tissue
      denaturation (p < 0.05). The lowest incision depth was measured for the high
      frequency surgical device (median depth 0.36 mm, min 0.12, max 1.12,
      interquartile range 0.23) (p < 0.05). Using a 445-nm semiconductor laser, a
      higher cutting efficiency can be expected when compared with a 970-nm diode laser
      and high-frequency surgery. Even the 445-nm laser application in non-contact mode
      shows clinically acceptable incision depths without signs of extensive soft
      tissue denaturation.

PMID- 28889323
TI  - Significance of preoperative prognostic nutrition index as prognostic predictors
      in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma with tyrosine kinase inhibitors
      as first-line target therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Prognostic nutritional index (PNI) is a recognized indicator of both
      immune and nutritional status. It was firstly used as a preoperative prognostic
      indicator, and its role in the prognosis of patients with metastatic renal cell
      carcinoma (mRCC) has not yet been investigated in large-scale study. The purpose
      of this work was to investigate the prognostic role of pretreatment PNI in
      patients with mRCC with sorafenib or sunitinib as first-line targeted therapy.
      METHOD: In this retrospective single-center research, the Kaplan-Meier method was
      used to estimate the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of
      178 mRCC patients who received first-line therapy of sorafenib or sunitinib. Log
      rank test was used to compare the survival outcomes of patients with low
      pretreatment PNI (PNI < 51.62) and high pretreatment PNI (PNI >= 51.62), and Cox
      proportional hazard regression model was used to compare PFS and OS between these
      two groups. Prognostic accuracy was determined using Harrell concordance index.
      RESULTS: The overall median PFS and OS time for all 178 patients were 11 months
      (95% CI 9-12 months) and 24 months (95% CI 19-33 months), respectively. Patients
      with low pretreatment PNI both had significantly shorter median PFS (7 vs 19
      months, P < 0.001) and OS (14 vs 50 months, P < 0.001) than those with high PNI.
      Multivariate analysis showed that pretreatment PNI was an independent predictor
      of OS (HR 1.658, 95% CI 1.040-2.614, P = 0.033) and an independent predictor of
      PFS as well (HR 1.842, 95% CI 1.226-2.766, P = 0.003). The model built by the
      addition of pretreatment PNI improved predictive accuracy of PFS and OS compared
      with the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium Model
      (Heng model) (c-index: 0.68 and 0.70). Comparing to NLR (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte
      ratio) (0.69 and 0.72), PNI might be a preciser factor to predict PFS and OS
      (0.71 and 0.73). CONCLUSIONS: Low pretreatment PNI could be a significant risk
      factor for mRCC patients who received tyrosine kinase inhibitors as first-line
      target therapy and increase the accuracy of established prognostic model.

PMID- 28889325
TI  - Brief Report: Discrimination of Foreign Speech Pitch and Autistic Traits in Non
      Clinical Population.
AB  - Individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are widely suggested to show
      enhanced perceptual discrimination but inconsistent findings have been reported
      for pitch discrimination. Given the high variability in ASC, this study
      investigated whether ASC traits were correlated with pitch discrimination in an
      undergraduate sample when musical and language experiences were taken into
      consideration. Results indicated that the social skills subscale of the Autism
      Spectrum Quotient was associated with foreign speech pitch discrimination,
      suggesting that individuals who were less sociable and socially skillful were
      less able to discriminate foreign speech pitch. Current findings have an
      implication in investigating individual differences in ASC and further
      investigation is needed for spelling out the relationship between the non-social
      and social aspects of ASC.

PMID- 28889324
TI  - Expression and Prognostic Value of Oestrogen Receptor Beta in Colorectal Cancer.
AB  - Differences between men and women in the incidence and biological mechanisms of
      colorectal cancer (CRC) suggest that estrogens may play a role in the
      pathogenesis of this disease. The identification of the human estrogen receptor
      beta (ERbeta) and its expression in the intestinal mucosa led to further studies
      that revealed that estrogens have a protective function against CRC mediated by
      the activation of ERbeta. However, ERbeta expression and its role in CRC is
      controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution and
      prognostic value of ERbeta expression in the intestinal mucosa of patients
      diagnosed and surgically treated for CRC, and its association with other known
      prognostic factors. A total of 109 paraffin-embedded samples of the wild-type
      ERbeta isoform were analyzed by immunohistochemical nuclear staining in patients
      with colorectal adenocarcinoma. Clinical/pathological and survival data were
      collected. Immunohistochemical quantification was performed using the category
      scoring system, which has been validated for assessing estrogen receptor alfa.
      The wild-type ERbeta isoform -also called ERbeta1- was positive in 101 patients
      (92.7%) and negative in nine patients (7.3%). Univariate analysis revealed that
      the absence of expression of the ERbeta1 gene was correlated with mucinous
      adenocarcinoma (p < 0.05). Also, a non-significant tendency was observed for
      ERbeta expression to be down-regulated in advanced tumors. With a median follow
      up of 47 months, the overall survival and progression-free survival were not
      found to be associated with ERbeta1 expression (p = 0.2). Although the wild-type
      ERbeta isoform was expressed in most study patients with colorectal cancer, it
      does not seem to have any prognostic value for the course of the disease. Further
      studies should be conducted to investigate whether the down-regulation of ERbeta
      expression has any biological function in mucinous colorectal cancer.

PMID- 28889326
TI  - Myocardial contractile patterns predict future cardiac events in sarcoidosis.
AB  - The poor prognosis of cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) underscores the need for risk
      stratification. We evaluated 84 consecutive sarcoidosis patients who were
      referred for echocardiographic studies for cardiac symptoms or abnormal
      electrocardiograms. In 54 patients without previous diagnosis of CS or other
      known structural heart disease, 13 reached endpoints during (median) 24 months
      follow up. Significantly impaired peak systolic longitudinal strain in their
      original echocardiograms were identified in 13 of 17 left ventricular segments,
      clustering in the free wall, interventricular septum and apex. The regional
      (including 13 clustered segments) peak systolic longitudinal strain (RPSLS) were
      significantly impaired in patients with endpoints, compared with those without [(
      11.4 +/- 4.45) vs. (-18.7 +/- 3.76) %, P < 0.00001]. Cox multivariate regression
      analysis revealed that RPSLS was independently associated with endpoints (HR
      1.24; 95% CI 1.08-1.42, P = 0.002). Receiver operating characteristic curve
      suggested a cut-off RPSLS value of -15.0% (84.6% sensitivity and 86.8%
      specificity) to predict the occurrence of endpoints. Impaired RPSLS correlates
      with risk of adverse cardiac events in patients with extra-cardiac sarcoidosis.

PMID- 28889327
TI  - A linkage between flowering phenology and fruit-set success of alpine plant
      communities with reference to the seasonality and pollination effectiveness of
      bees and flies.
AB  - To clarify the linkage between flowering phenology and pollination success in
      alpine plant communities, we quantified the seasonality of flower visitors, the
      temporal transition of floral resources, and the variation in pollination success
      of alpine plants in northern Japan. Bumble bees, syrphid flies, and non-syrphid
      flies were the predominant flower visitors. Foraging activity of bumble bees
      increased toward the late flowering period reflecting the life cycle of colony
      development. The activity of syrphid flies was sensitive to ambient temperature,
      while that of non-syrphid flies remained high throughout the season. Flower
      production of bee-pollinated plants fluctuated significantly between years with a
      bimodal pattern peaking in the early and late periods, while flower production of
      fly-pollinated plants was less variable between years. Fruit-set success of bee
      pollinated plants increased considerably from the early to the late flowering
      period, while the trend for fly-pollinated plants was less marked. Three times
      more visits of dipteran insects are necessary for fly-pollinated plants to
      achieve fruiting success comparable to bee-pollinated plants. Bumble bees are
      potentially excellent pollinators, but the visitation frequency is low early in
      the season. Lower pollination ability of dipteran insects may be compensated for
      by abundant flower visits. The relationships between flowering phenology and
      fruit-set success of alpine plant communities highly depend on the type of
      pollinators.

PMID- 28889328
TI  - The Work Role Functioning Questionnaire v2.0 Showed Consistent Factor Structure
      Across Six Working Samples.
AB  - Objective The Work Role Functioning Questionnaire v2.0 (WRFQ) is an outcome
      measure linking a persons' health to the ability to meet work demands in the
      twenty-first century. We aimed to examine the construct validity of the WRFQ in a
      heterogeneous set of working samples in the Netherlands with mixed clinical
      conditions and job types to evaluate the comparability of the scale structure.
      Methods Confirmatory factor and multi-group analyses were conducted in six cross
      sectional working samples (total N = 2433) to evaluate and compare a five-factor
      model structure of the WRFQ (work scheduling demands, output demands, physical
      demands, mental and social demands, and flexibility demands). Model fit indices
      were calculated based on RMSEA <= 0.08 and CFI >= 0.95. After fitting the five
      factor model, the multidimensional structure of the instrument was evaluated
      across samples using a second order factor model. Results The factor structure
      was robust across samples and a multi-group model had adequate fit (RMSEA = 0.63,
      CFI = 0.972). In sample specific analyses, minor modifications were necessary in
      three samples (final RMSEA 0.055-0.080, final CFI between 0.955 and 0.989).
      Applying the previous first order specifications, a second order factor model had
      adequate fit in all samples. Conclusion A five-factor model of the WRFQ showed
      consistent structural validity across samples. A second order factor model showed
      adequate fit, but the second order factor loadings varied across samples.
      Therefore subscale scores are recommended to compare across different clinical
      and working samples.

PMID- 28889329
TI  - Lack of Improvement in Scientific Integrity: An Analysis of WoS Retractions by
      Chinese Researchers (1997-2016).
AB  - This study investigated the status quo of article retractions by Chinese
      researchers. The bibliometric information of 834 retractions from the Web of
      Science SCI-expanded database were downloaded and analysed. The results showed
      that the number of retractions increased in the past two decades, and misconduct
      such as plagiarism, fraud, and faked peer review explained approximately three
      quarters of the retractions. Meanwhile, a large proportion of the retractions
      seemed typical of deliberate fraud, which might be evidenced by retractions
      authored by repeat offenders of data fraud and those due to faked peer review. In
      addition, a majority of Chinese fraudulent authors seemed to aim their articles
      which contained a possible misconduct at low-impact journals, regardless of the
      types of misconduct. The system of scientific evaluation, the "publish or perish"
      pressure Chinese researchers are facing, and the relatively low costs of
      scientific integrity may be responsible for the scientific integrity. We
      suggested more integrity education and severe sanctions for the policy-makers, as
      well as change in the peer review system and transparent retraction notices for
      journal administrators.

PMID- 28889330
TI  - Desarda's technique versus Lichtenstein technique for the treatment of primary
      inguinal hernia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled
      trials.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Lichtenstein technique (LT) has been recognized as the standard
      treatment for inguinal hernia in adults owing to the high recurrence rates of
      tissue-based repairs. However, Desarda technique (DT) appeared as promising
      tissue-based repair that provided low incidence of recurrence without the need
      for implanting prosthetic or foreign materials in the inguinal canal. This meta
      analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing DT and LT for primary
      inguinal hernia in adults aimed to determine which technique had better clinical
      outcome regarding recurrence and complication rates. METHODS: A systematic
      literature search for RCTs comparing between DT and LT was conducted using
      electronic databases and Google scholar service. Patients' characteristics,
      technical details, recurrence and complication rates, and time to resume daily
      activities were extracted from the original studies and analyzed. RESULTS: Six
      RCTs comprising 2159 patients (89% males) were included. No significant
      difference in the incidence of recurrence between both techniques was detected
      (OR = 0.946; P = 0.91). The overall complication rate of LT was significantly
      higher than DT (OR = 1.86; P < 0.001). LT had significantly higher rates of
      seroma formation and surgical site infection (OR = 2.17; P = 0.007) and (OR =
      2.17; P = 0.029), respectively. Postoperative pain, operation time, and time to
      resume normal activities were comparable in both groups. CONCLUSION: Both DT and
      LT provided satisfactory treatment for primary inguinal hernia with low
      recurrence rates and acceptable rates of complications that were significantly
      less after DT. More well-designed RCTs with longer follow-up are required for
      further validation of the DT.

PMID- 28889331
TI  - Magnetic resonance imaging-based evaluation of ossification of the medial
      clavicular epiphysis in forensic age assessment.
AB  - Evaluation of the degree of ossification of the medial clavicular epiphysis plays
      a crucial role in determining with an adequate degree of probability whether
      legally relevant age boundaries after the age of 17 have been crossed. In view of
      the need to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure, establishing non-X-ray methods
      for investigating the clavicle has long been a key objective in forensic age
      assessment research. Based on magnetic resonance imaging examinations in a large
      sample of healthy subjects, the current study for the first time presents
      statistical measures which allow inferences to be drawn for forensic age
      assessment in both sexes. We undertook a prospective study of a reference sample
      of 334 female and 335 male German volunteers aged from 12 to 24 using a 3-T MRI
      scanner. A 3D FFE (fast field echo) T1-weighted sequence with fat saturation was
      acquired. To stage ossification of the medial clavicular epiphysis, we used the
      clavicular ossification staging systems described by Schmeling et al. and
      Kellinghaus et al. Ossification stage IIIc offers a means in both sexes of
      demonstrating that the age of 18 has been attained prior to complete ossification
      of the epiphyseal plate. In both sexes, if a subject has reached ossification
      stage IV, it can be stated that he or she has attained the age of 21. Magnetic
      resonance imaging is a valid diagnostic procedure for determining the
      ossification stage of the medial clavicular epiphysis.

PMID- 28889332
TI  - Introduction to the Special Issue on Climate Ethics: Uncertainty, Values and
      Policy.
AB  - Climate change is a pressing phenomenon with huge potential ethical, legal and
      social policy implications. Climate change gives rise to intricate moral and
      policy issues as it involves contested science, uncertainty and risk. In order to
      come to scientifically and morally justified, as well as feasible, policies,
      targeting climate change requires an interdisciplinary approach. This special
      issue will identify the main challenges that climate change poses from social,
      economic, methodological and ethical perspectives by focusing on the complex
      interrelations between uncertainty, values and policy in this context. This
      special issue brings together scholars from economics, social sciences and
      philosophy in order to address these challenges.

PMID- 28889333
TI  - Antioxidant and Protective Effects of Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi Against
      Doxorubicin-Induced Toxicity.
AB  - Doxorubicin is an anticancer drug whose toxic effects on non-cancer cells are
      associated with increased oxidative stress. This study investigated the chemical
      composition, antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract of Schinus
      terebinthifolius Raddi leaves (MESL) as well as effects against doxorubicin
      induced toxicity in human erythrocytes, K562 human erythroleukemia cells, and
      mouse hearts. The chemical composition indicated the presence of phenolic
      compounds, flavonoids, tannins, and ascorbic acid. MESL showed antioxidant
      activity by scavenging free radicals and inhibiting hemolysis and lipid
      peroxidation in human erythrocytes incubated with an oxidizing agent, and was
      able to increase the enzymatic activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione
      peroxidase in human erythrocytes, without influencing the activity of enzyme
      catalase. The increase of oxidative hemolysis and malondialdehyde levels in
      erythrocytes incubated with doxorubicin was reduced by treatment with MESL. The
      cytotoxic activity of doxorubicin in erythroleukemia cells treated with MESL was
      unmodified. Additionally, the extract protected mice against the doxorubicin
      induced cardiotoxicity. In conclusion, the MESL exhibits antioxidant activity,
      reducing doxorubicin-induced oxidative stress without changing the anticancer
      action of the drug, and protects against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.
      Hence, these findings suggest that these effects are via anti-oxidative by
      inhibiting free radicals, decreased oxidative stress, and increased antioxidant
      enzyme activity.

PMID- 28889334
TI  - Erratum to: Loss of Pericytes in Radiation Necrosis after Glioblastoma
      Treatments.

PMID- 28889335
TI  - Morphological and functional diversity of first-order somatosensory neurons.
AB  - First-order somatosensory neurons transduce and convey information about the
      external or internal environment of the body to the central nervous system. They
      are pseudo unipolar neurons with cell bodies residing in one of several ganglia
      located near the central nervous system, with the short branch of the axon
      connecting to the spinal cord or the brain stem and the long branch extending
      towards the peripheral organ they innervate. Besides their sensory transducer and
      conductive role, somatosensory neurons also have trophic functions in the tissue
      they innervate and participate in local reflexes in the periphery. The cell
      bodies of these neurons are remarkably diverse in terms of size, molecular
      constitution, and electrophysiological properties. These parameters have provided
      criteria for classification that have proved useful to establish and study their
      functions. In this review, we discuss ways to measure and classify populations of
      neurons based on their size and action potential firing pattern. We also discuss
      attempts to relate the different populations to specific sensory modalities.

PMID- 28889336
TI  - Anticancer Activity of Copper Complex of (4R)-(-)-2-Thioxo-4
      thiazolidinecarboxylic Acid and 3-Rhodaninepropionic Acid on Prostate and Breast
      Cancer Cells by Fluorescent Microscopic Imaging.
AB  - Copper complexes with strong anticancer activity are promising new drugs for
      treatment of patients with metastatic cancer. Copper 8-hydroxyquinoline-2
      carboxaldehyde-thiosemicarbazide (CuHQTS) and copper 8-hydroxyquinoline-2
      carboxaldehyde-4,4-dimethyl-3-thiosemicarbazide (CuHQDMTS) were found to have
      strong anticancer activity against cisplatin-resistant neuroblastoma cells and
      prostate cancer cells. This study aimed to synthesize and characterize two new
      anticancer copper complexes, copper complex of (4R)-(-)-2-Thioxo-4
      thiazolidinecarboxylic acid (CuTTDC), and copper complex of 3-Rhodaninepropionic
      acid-copper complex (CuRDPA). Cell growth inhibition and cytotoxicity of CuTTDC
      and CuRDPA on prostate and breast cancer cells were evaluated with Cell Counting
      Kits-8 (CCK8) assay and fluorescent microscopic imaging respectively. Strong
      anticancer activity of CuTTDC and CuRDPA was demonstrated by growth inhibition
      and cytotoxicity of prostate and breast cancer cells treated with these two
      copper complexes, supporting further investigation of potential use of these two
      new anticancer complexes for treatment of prostate and breast cancer metastasis.

PMID- 28889338
TI  - German validation of the quality of life profile for spinal disorders (QLPSD).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Quality of Life Profile for Spine Deformities (QLPSD) is a self
      reporting questionnaire designed for studying patients with spinal deformities.
      PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to systematically translate the QLPSD
      into German (G-QLPSD) and to test its reliability and validity. Special emphasis
      was intended to be given to patients with different Cobb angles and ages.
      METHODS: The QLPSD was systematically translated into German and was responded to
      in a web-based online survey by patients with idiopathic scoliosis and by healthy
      control individuals to carry out a matched-pair analysis. Participants aged 14
      years and older were included. All participants answered a battery of validated
      questionnaires (SRS 22-r, PHQ-9, PANAS, FKS, WHO-5, BFI-S, PTQ). Reliability
      testing included Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability (retest 8 weeks
      after initial testing). Factorial, convergent, divergent, concurrent, and
      discriminant validity were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 255 scoliosis patients
      (age 30.0 +/- 16.7 years, Cobb angle 43.5 degrees  +/- 20.9 degrees ) and 189
      matched healthy control individuals were finally included. Cronbach's alpha for
      the G-QLPSD total score was 0.93 and the test-retest reliability was 0.84. The G
      QLPSD total score correlated with the SRS 22-r total score (r = -0.86). All
      concurrently applied scores showed strong correlations with the G-QLPSD (e.g.,
      depression score PHQ-9: r = 0.70). The matched-pair analysis of 189 pairs showed
      strong discriminant validity (Cohen's d = 0.78). Patients with more severe Cobb
      angles (>=40 degrees ) and those >=18 years of age had significantly poorer
      results than patients with minor curves and younger patients. CONCLUSION: The G
      QLPSD proved to be a highly reliable and valid instrument that can be recommended
      for clinical use in scoliosis patients.

PMID- 28889339
TI  - Incidence and risk factors for postoperative shoulder imbalance in scoliosis: a
      systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - PURPOSE: This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to detect the
      incidence and risk factors for postoperative shoulder imbalance (PSI) in
      scoliosis. METHODS: A systematic online search was conducted to identify eligible
      studies. ES, OR and WMD with 95% CI were used to assess the incidence and risk
      factors associated with PSI. RESULTS: Twenty-six studies were recruited. The
      pooled incidence of PSI was 25% (95% CI 20-31%). The incidence in Lenke 1 AIS,
      Lenke 2 AIS, Lenke 5 AIS and mixed AIS was 20% (9-31%), 26% (15-37%), 31% (17
      45%) and 27% (19-35%), respectively. Using RSH >=10 mm as the criterion of PSI,
      we found that preoperative LC, postoperative RSH, correction rate of MTC at
      follow-up were primary risk factors for PSI at follow-up. In the analysis of
      using RSH >=20 mm as the criterion of PSI, our results showed that Risser sign,
      postoperative RSH, correction rate of PTC at follow-up, and LC at follow-up were
      contributing to PSI. Besides, scoliosis patients with PSI were more likely to
      suffer from adding-on. CONCLUSIONS: The pooled incidence of PSI in scoliosis was
      25%. Risser sign, preoperative LC, postoperative RSH, correction rate of PTC at
      follow-up, correction rate of MTC at follow-up, and LC at follow-up were risk
      factors for PSI in patients with scoliosis. Adding-on might be a compensatory
      mechanism for PSI. It is recommended that (1) sufficient correction of PTC and
      moderate correction of MTC and LC in the operation should be performed; (2) PSI
      should be prevented not only for the patients' postoperative appearance, but also
      for preventing the adding-on phenomenon.

PMID- 28889340
TI  - Hypothyroidism in the "Arnolfini Portrait" (1434) by Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Arnolfini portrait painted by Jan van Eyck in 1434 remains one of
      the most puzzling yet alluring paintings of prerenaissance western art. PURPOSE:
      The painting is renowned for its exactitude in brush strokes, textures and the
      distinctive morphology of the main character Arnolfini. The nature of these
      requires pathological consideration. METHODS: Diagnostic and pathological
      analysis of the painting. RESULTS: A number of pathological abnormalities are
      noted in the face of the main character including loss of outer third of the
      eyebrow (Sign of Hertoghe), bilateral ptosis and melasma of the forehead. These
      together support a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. CONCLUSIONS: This novel diagnosis
      offers an additional perspective to this enigmatic portrait, and can add to the
      comprehension of the method, origin and pathological associations of this
      prominent painting from a genius artist.

PMID- 28889337
TI  - The cellular selection between apoptosis and autophagy: roles of vitamin D,
      glucose and immune response in diabetic nephropathy.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Apoptosis, autophagy and cell cycle arrest are cellular
      responses to injury which are supposed to play fundamental roles in initiation
      and progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN). The aims of the present study is to
      shed light on the potential effects of vitamin D analog 22-oxacalcitriol (OCT) on
      different cell responses during DN, and the possible interplay between both
      glucose, immune system and vitamin D in determining the cell fate. METHOD: All
      rats were randomly allocated into one of three groups: control, vehicle-treated
      DN group and OCT-treated DN group. Eight weeks after induction of diabetes, the
      rats were killed. Fasting blood glucose levels, serum 25 (OH) D, renal functions,
      cytokines and gene expression of autophagy, apoptotic and cell cycle arrest
      markers were assessed. In addition, the histological assessment of renal
      architecture was done. RESULTS: OCT treatment remarkably improved the renal
      functions and albuminuria. The reductions in mesangial cell hypertrophy,
      extracellular matrix as well as cell loss were significantly associated with
      upregulation of pro-autophagy gene expressions and downregulation of both pro
      apoptotic and G1-cell cycle arrest genes expression. The reno-protective effects
      of OCT treatment were associated with significant attenuation of the fasting
      blood glucose, serum IL-6, renal TLR-4 and IFN-g gene expression. CONCLUSION:
      Modulator effects of OCT on glucose and immune system play important roles in
      renal cell fate decision and chronic kidney disease progression.

PMID- 28889341
TI  - The medial orbito-frontal approach for orbital tumors: a How I Do It.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A variety of lesions can affect the orbit. Surgical approaches must
      be available to provide 360 degrees of access. For tumors occupying the
      superomedial intraconal quadrant, there is a rationale to selecting the medial
      orbito-frontal approach. METHODS: This article outlines the relevant surgical
      anatomy and the different surgical steps of this approach. RESULTS: The medial
      orbito-frontal approach offers a full exposure of the superomedial intraconal
      quadrant and avoids crossing the plane of the optic nerve. CONCLUSION: In
      selected intraconal tumor cases, this transcranial epidural intraorbital approach
      is a straightforward corridor through reliable landmarks that can be routinely
      performed.

PMID- 28889343
TI  - Mesial encephalitis: an uncommon presentation of neurosyphilis: a case report and
      review of the literature.

PMID- 28889342
TI  - Life cycle of Amblyomma mixtum (Acari: Ixodidae) parasitizing different hosts
      under laboratory conditions.
AB  - Amblyomma mixtum is a tick species in the Amblyomma cajennense complex. The known
      geographic range of A. mixtum extends from Texas in the USA to western Ecuador
      and some islands in the Caribbean. Amblyomma mixtum is a vector of disease agents
      of veterinary and public health importance. The objective of this study was to
      describe the life cycle of A. mixtum under laboratory conditions. Bovines,
      rabbits and sheep were infested with larvae, nymphs, and adult ticks under
      controlled conditions to assess several biological parameters. Eggs, larvae,
      nymphs and adults were kept in an incubator (27  degrees C temperature and 80%
      relative humidity) when they were off the host. The average life cycle of A.
      mixtum was 88 and 79 days when fed on rabbits and cattle, respectively. Sheep
      were found to be unsuitable because no ticks attached. The rabbit is a more
      practical host to maintain a colony of A. mixtum under laboratory conditions. The
      data from this study can be considered as an example for the life cycle of A.
      mixtum. However, caution must be exercised when making comparisons to the biology
      of A. mixtum in its natural habitat.

PMID- 28889344
TI  - Emission factors from different burning stages of agriculture wastes in Mexico.
AB  - Open-air burning of agricultural wastes from crops like corn, rice, sorghum,
      sugar cane, and wheat is common practice in Mexico, which in spite limiting
      regulations, is the method to eliminate such wastes, to clear the land for
      further harvesting, to control grasses, weeds, insects, and pests, and to
      facilitate nutrient absorption. However, this practice generates air pollution
      and contributes to the greenhouse effect. Burning of straws derived from the said
      crops was emulated in a controlled combustion chamber, hence determining emission
      factors for particles, black carbon, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitric
      oxide throughout the process, which comprised three apparent stages: pre
      ignition, flaming, and smoldering. In all cases, maximum particle concentrations
      were observed during the flaming stage, although the maximum final contributions
      to the particle emission factors corresponded to the smoldering stage. The
      comparison between particle size distributions (from laser spectrometer) and
      black carbon (from an aethalometer) confirmed that finest particles were emitted
      mainly during the flaming stage. Carbon dioxide emissions were also highest
      during the flaming stage whereas those of carbon monoxide were highest during the
      smoldering stage. Comparing the emission factors for each straw type with their
      chemical analyses (elemental, proximate, and biochemical), some correlations were
      found between lignin content and particle emissions and either particle emissions
      or duration of the pre-ignition stage. High ash or lignin containing-straw slowed
      down the pre-ignition and flaming stages, thus favoring CO oxidation to CO2.

PMID- 28889345
TI  - Knowledge About the Relation Between Tobacco and Disease and the Attitude Toward
      Advising the Cessation of Its Consumption Among a Group of Spanish Dental
      Students.
AB  - Tobacco is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the developed world.
      Smoking is associated with a large number of oral pathologies, such as cancer and
      periodontitis. Dental professionals can play a key role in preventing these
      health problems. The objectives of this study were (1) to analyze tobacco
      consumption habits among a group of Spanish dental students, and (2) to assess
      their knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes regarding procedures to help patients
      quit smoking. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at the Faculty
      of Medicine and Dentistry of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain). Three
      validated questionnaires were distributed, and the obtained data was processed
      using SPSS. One hundred twenty out of 220 surveys were completed. Of the
      students, 18.3% were smokers and the average number of smoked cigarettes per day
      was 7.5. Tobacco dependence and the intention to give up the habit were low
      (Fagerstrom Test) and doubtful (Richmond test), respectively. The majority of
      students (94.2%) considered it appropriate to promote tobacco use cessation (TUC)
      activities. A great divergence of criteria regarding tobacco-associated
      pathologies was found among courses. This article provides positive data about
      the motivation of dental students to implement TUC strategies. Nevertheless, the
      usefulness of these interventions makes it necessary to modify the university
      curricula in order to improve the education on this issue to reduce the incidence
      of future health problems.

PMID- 28889346
TI  - Prospective of Microbial Exopolysaccharide for Heavy Metal Exclusion.
AB  - Metals as a resource are depleting, and on another side, it fetches serious
      environmental pollution causing a threat to human health and ecosystem. The heavy
      metal accumulation due to anthropogenic activities results in toxicological
      manifestation. The traditional methods of remediation are not cost effective,
      efficient, and ecofriendly which necessitate and motivate towards the safe,
      effective, and ecofriendly biological methods. The increasing presence of heavy
      metals in the microbial habitat compels the microbes to develop the ability to
      tolerate or resist the presence of heavy metals. Exopolysaccharide (EPS)
      production is one of the strategies of microbes to fight against metal stress.
      EPS is a microbial biopolymer which is generally produced under stress from harsh
      environment and nutrition conditions. EPSs are cell-associated or secreted
      outside the cell and comprised organic macromolecules such as polysaccharides,
      proteins, and phospholipids in addition to some non-polymeric molecules. EPSs
      work as competent biosorbents with an anionic reactant group that effectively
      sequesters cationic heavy metals by electrostatic interactions. The present paper
      summarizes the EPSs with its types, role, and biosynthesis and an endeavor to
      elucidate the interaction mechanism of EPSs with heavy metal with supportive and
      distinctive applications for heavy metal exclusion. The review concluded with the
      current challenges and future prospects to make the EPS an efficient biosorbent.

PMID- 28889347
TI  - Decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate is associated with risk of end
      stage renal disease in type 2 diabetes with macroalbuminuria: an observational
      study from JDNCS.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is increased interest in surrogate endpoints for clinical
      trials of chronic kidney disease. METHODS: In this nationwide observational study
      of 456 patients with type 2 diabetes and clinically suspected diabetic
      nephropathy followed for a median of 4.2 years, we evaluated the association
      between estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria at baseline
      or during follow-up and risk of ESRD. RESULTS: Low eGFR (<60 mL/min/1.73 m2) and
      macroalbuminuria at enrollment were independently associated with risk of ESRD.
      In patients with macroalbuminuria, both <=-50% change and -50 to -30% change in
      eGFR over 1 and 2 years were predictive of ESRD. The higher cut point (>=50%
      decline in eGFR) was more strongly predictive but less common. Remission of
      macroalbuminuria to normo-/microalbuminuria at 1 and 2 years was associated with
      a lower incidence of ESRD than no remission; however, it was not a determinant
      for ESRD independently of initial eGFR and initial protein-to-creatinine ratio.
      CONCLUSION: These results suggest that a >=30% decline in eGFR over 1 or 2 years
      adds prognostic information about risk for ESRD in patients with type 2 diabetes
      and macroalbuminuria, supporting the consideration of percentage decline in eGFR
      as a surrogate endpoint among macroalbuminuric cases in type 2 diabetes. On the
      other hand, our study suggests that additional analyses on the relationship
      between remission of macroalbuminuria and risk of ESRD are needed in type 2
      diabetes.

PMID- 28889348
TI  - Treatment of erythemato-telangiectatic rosacea with brimonidine alone or combined
      with vascular laser based on preliminary instrumental evaluation of the vascular
      component.
AB  - The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outcome of a series of patients with
      erythematotelangiectatic rosacea (ETR) affected by persistent erythema and
      varying degree of telangiectasias being treated with brimonidine alone or
      combined with a vascular laser based on the type of vascular components
      preliminarily evaluated by clinical and instrumental observation. Ten patients
      affected by ETR were enrolled in a pilot, open study. Instrumental evaluation
      included erythema-directed digital photography by VISIA-CRTM system and X10
      dermoscopy. Those patients showing marked background erythema and minimal
      telangiectasias (group A) were treated with a single application of brimonidine
      0.33% gel, while patients showing both marked background erythema and marked
      telangiectasias (group B) were treated with a session of Nd:YAG laser and
      reevaluated 1 month later after a single application of brimonidine. An
      Investigator Global Assessment (IGA) of treatment outcome was performed at the
      end of treatment in both groups. In group A, 6 h after brimonidine application, a
      marked reduction of the background erythema was observed in all patients, and IGA
      was rated as excellent. In group B, 6 h following the application of brimonidine,
      a marked reduction of the background erythema was observed in all cases, while
      telangiectasias remained unchanged. A further treatment with brimonidine 1 month
      after the Nd:YAG laser session determined complete clearing of facial erythema,
      and IGA was rated as excellent. In conclusion, a preliminary evaluation of the
      vascular component by erythema-directed digital photography and dermoscopy in ETR
      may be helpful to select the most appropriate therapeutic strategy.

PMID- 28889349
TI  - Gene expression and levels of IL-6 and TNFalpha in PBMCs correlate with severity
      and functional class in patients with chronic heart failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence shows that proinflammatory cytokines are important
      determinants of assessment of severity and prognosis of chronic heart failure
      (CHF). AIMS: We investigated whether peripheral expression of the
      proinflammmatory factors, TNF-alpha and IL-6 can predict variable of clinical
      assessment of patients with CHF. METHODS: In this report, we used real-time PCR
      assay to compare relative gene expression of TNFalpha and IL-6 in PBMC from CHF
      patients with various heart diseases (n = 42, EF < 45%, NYHA I to IV) and matched
      healthy control subjects (n = 42).We also determined the TNFalpha and IL-6
      concentrations of cell culture supernatant of PBMCs with ELISA. RESULTS: There
      was a significant negative correlation between gene expression of TNFalpha and
      LVEF(r = 0.4, p < 0.05). Patients with CHF had increased gene expression of
      TNFalpha and IL-6 in PBMCs (p < 0.05). They also had elevated the supernatant
      levels of these cytokines in cultured PBMCs (p < 0.001). Levels of TNFalpha and
      IL-6 were increased in ischemic heart disease compared to non-ischemic heart
      disease. There was a positive correlation between TNFalpha and IL-6 levels in CHF
      patients and severity of CHF in patients. Levels of these cytokines were higher
      in patients with NYHA III-IV than in NYHA I-II and normal subjects. CONCLUSIONS:
      Results of this study indicate that peripheral expression of proinflammatory
      cytokines, TNF-alpha and IL-6, is important indicators of severity and prognosis
      in patients with chronic heart disease.

PMID- 28889350
TI  - Binding free energy predictions of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonists using a
      linear interaction energy (LIE) approach with reliability estimation: application
      to the D3R Grand Challenge 2.
AB  - Computational protein binding affinity prediction can play an important role in
      drug research but performing efficient and accurate binding free energy
      calculations is still challenging. In the context of phase 2 of the Drug Design
      Data Resource (D3R) Grand Challenge 2 we used our automated eTOX ALLIES approach
      to apply the (iterative) linear interaction energy (LIE) method and we evaluated
      its performance in predicting binding affinities for farnesoid X receptor (FXR)
      agonists. Efficiency was obtained by our pre-calibrated LIE models and molecular
      dynamics (MD) simulations at the nanosecond scale, while predictive accuracy was
      obtained for a small subset of compounds. Using our recently introduced
      reliability estimation metrics, we could classify predictions with higher
      confidence by featuring an applicability domain (AD) analysis in combination with
      protein-ligand interaction profiling. The outcomes of and agreement between our
      AD and interaction-profile analyses to distinguish and rationalize the
      performance of our predictions highlighted the relevance of sufficiently
      exploring protein-ligand interactions during training and it demonstrated the
      possibility to quantitatively and efficiently evaluate if this is achieved by
      using simulation data only.

PMID- 28889351
TI  - Multidimensional phenotyping of breast cancer cell lines to guide preclinical
      research.
AB  - PURPOSE: Cell lines are extremely useful tools in breast cancer research. Their
      key benefits include a high degree of control over experimental variables and
      reproducibility. However, the advantages must be balanced against the limitations
      of modelling such a complex disease in vitro. Informed selection of cell line(s)
      for a given experiment now requires essential knowledge about molecular and
      phenotypic context in the culture dish. METHODS: We performed multidimensional
      profiling of 36 widely used breast cancer cell lines that were cultured under
      standardised conditions. Flow cytometry and digital immunohistochemistry were
      used to compare the expression of 14 classical breast cancer biomarkers related
      to intrinsic molecular profiles and differentiation states: EpCAM, CD24, CD49f,
      CD44, ER, AR, HER2, EGFR, E-cadherin, p53, vimentin, and cytokeratins 5, 8/18 and
      19. RESULTS: This cell-by-cell analysis revealed striking heterogeneity within
      cultures of individual lines that would be otherwise obscured by analysing cell
      homogenates, particularly amongst the triple-negative lines. High levels of p53
      protein, but not RNA, were associated with somatic mutations (p = 0.008). We also
      identified new subgroups using the nanoString PanCancer Pathways panel (730
      transcripts representing 13 canonical cancer pathways). Unsupervised clustering
      identified five groups: luminal/HER2, immortalised ('normal'), claudin-low and
      two basal clusters, distinguished mostly by baseline expression of TGF-beta and
      PI3-kinase pathway genes. CONCLUSION: These features are compared with other
      published genotype and phenotype information in a user-friendly reference table
      to help guide selection of the most appropriate models for in vitro and in vivo
      studies, and as a framework for classifying new patient-derived cancer cell lines
      and xenografts.

PMID- 28889352
TI  - Characterization of a novel zinc finger transcription factor (TaZnF) from wheat
      conferring heat stress tolerance in Arabidopsis.
AB  - C3HC4-type zinc finger proteins are known to play important roles in various
      plant processes including regulation of growth and development, signaling
      networks, responses to abiotic stresses etc. The current study identifies and
      explores the involvement of TaZnF in plant stress response, mainly heat stress.
      TaZnF belongs to C4HC3-type zinc finger transcription factor. Phylogenetic
      analysis of TaZnF revealed strong sequence similarity to Brachypodium distachyon,
      a model system for crop species. Gene expression studies have revealed its role
      under diverse stress conditions including heat and cold conditions. The
      transcript level of TaZnF was found to be highest in seed and starts at the post
      anthesis period 3-5DAA, a more sensitive stage resulting in a negative influence
      on the yield of crop species. TaZnF possesses transcriptional activity.
      Overexpression of TaZnF in Arabidopsis thaliana conferred improved tolerance to
      both basal and high-temperature stress as observed from various assays examining
      their growth and development. The transgenics were recovered and showed early
      flowering compared to wild-type. They had larger primary roots, more lateral
      branching, bigger, and more numerous leaves, resulting in heavier fresh weight.
      Enhanced growth and early recovery resulted in bigger plants with more yield.
      Additionally, the overexpression Arabidopsis transgenics also showed considerable
      tolerance to cold and oxidative stress. These observations suggest that TaZnF
      acts as a positive regulator of thermal stress and thus can be of great
      significance in understanding and improving temperature stress tolerance in
      plants.

PMID- 28889353
TI  - The Detection Techniques for Autophagy-Associated Cell Death-Related Genes and
      Proteins: Gene Expression Assay and Immunohistochemistry.
AB  - Autophagy is important in cellular homeostasis for the cell survival mechanism.
      Deficiency or excess of autophagy is generally related to some of diseases such
      as cancer and neurodegeneration. Although autophagy is a cell survival mechanism,
      it can mediate programmed cell death in several conditions. Autophagy-related
      genes (ATGs) regulate the autophagy and also control the crosstalk with autophagy
      associated cell death and apoptosis in some condition. Various methods have been
      used to detect the marker genes and the proteins involved in these processes.
      Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) method for monitoring the expression of
      genes involved in autophagy or autophagic cell death is often preferred because
      of its sensitivity, high efficiency potential, accurate quantification, and high
      grade potential automation. The detection of the markers for autophagy-related
      process by immunohistochemistry in paraffin sections of various patient tissues
      has become a reliable method for monitoring autophagy. Here, we introduce
      protocols for detecting autophagy and autophagy-associated cell death in HeLa
      cells by using gene expression assays qRT-PCR, and also in paraffin-embedded
      tissue section from human biopsy material by using immunohistochemistry.

PMID- 28889354
TI  - Predictive value of SYNTAX score II for clinical outcomes in cardiogenic shock
      underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention; a pilot study.
AB  - SYNTAX Score II (SSII) connects clinical variables with coronary anatomy. We
      investigated the prognostic value of SSII in patients with ST segment elevated
      myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated with cardiogenic shock treated with
      primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). In this retrospective
      analysis, we evaluated the in-hospital prognostic impact of SSII on 492 patients
      with STEMI complicated with cardiogenic shock treated with PPCI. Patients were
      stratified by tertiles of SSII, in-hospital clinical outcomes were compared
      between those groups. In-hospital univariate analysis revealed higher rates of in
      hospital death for patients with SSII in tertile 3, as compared to patients with
      SSII in tertile 1 (OR 17.4, 95% CI 10.0-30.2, p < 0.001). After adjustment for
      confounding baseline variables, SSII in tertile 3 was associated with 6.2-fold
      hazard of in-hospital death (OR 6.2, 95% CI 2.6-14.1, p < 0.001). SSII in
      patients with STEMI complicated with cardiogenic shock treated with PPCI provide
      an independent prognostic marker of in-hospital outcomes. Our data suggests SSII
      to be a simple, feasible and clinically applicable tool for rapid risk
      stratification in patients with STEMI complicated with cardiogenic shock treated
      with PPCI.

PMID- 28889355
TI  - Tingenone, a pentacyclic triterpene, induces peripheral antinociception due to
      cannabinoid receptors activation in mice.
AB  - Several works have shown that triterpenes induce peripheral antinociception by
      activation of cannabinoid receptors and endocannabinoids; besides, several
      research groups have reported activation of cannabinoid receptors in peripheral
      antinociception. The aim of this study was to assess the involvement of the
      cannabinoid system in the antinociceptive effect induced by tingenone against
      hyperalgesia evoked by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) at peripheral level. The paw
      pressure test was used and the hyperalgesia was induced by intraplantar injection
      of PGE2 (2 MUg/paw). All drugs were injected subcutaneously in the hind paws of
      male Swiss mice. Tingenone (200 ug/paw) administered into the right hind paw
      induced a local antinociceptive effect, that was antagonized by AM630, a
      selective antagonist to CB2 cannabinoid receptor. AM251, a selective antagonist
      to CB1 cannabinoid receptor, did not alter the peripheral antinociceptive effect
      of tingenone. MAFP, a fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor; VDM11, an
      anandamide reuptake inhibitor; and JZL184, monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL)
      inhibitor did not potentiate the peripheral antinociceptive effect of the lower
      dose of tingenone (50 ug/paw). The results suggest that tingenone induced a
      peripheral antinociceptive effect via cannabinoid receptor activation. Therefore,
      this study suggests a pharmacological potential for a new analgesic drug.

PMID- 28889356
TI  - Spectroscopic and Theoretical Studies of Fluorescence Effects in 2-Methylamino-5
      (2,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole Induced by Molecular Aggregation.
AB  - The article presents the results of fluorescence analyses of 2-methylamino-5-(2,4
      dihydroxyphenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole (MDFT) in an aqueous environment. MDFT
      dissolved in aqueous solutions with a pH value in the range from 1 to 4.5 yielded
      an interesting effect of two clearly separated fluorescence emissions. In turn, a
      single fluorescence was observed in MDFT dissolved in water solutions with a pH
      value from 4.5 to 12. As it was suggested in the previous investigations of other
      1,3,4-thiadiazole compounds, these effects may be associated with conformational
      changes in the structure of the analysed molecule accompanied by aggregation
      effects. Crystallographic data showed that the effect of the two separated
      fluorescence emissions occurred in a conformation with the -OH group in the
      resorcyl ring bound on the side of the sulphur atom from the 1,3,4-thiadiazole
      ring. The hypothesis of aggregation as the mechanism involved in the change in
      the spectral properties at low pH is supported by the results of (Time-Dependent)
      Density Functional Theory calculations. The possibility of rapid analysis of
      conformational changes with the fluorescence spectroscopy technique may be rather
      important outcome obtained from the spectroscopic studies presented in this
      article. Additionally, the presented results seem to be highly important as they
      can be easily observed in solutions and biologically important samples.

PMID- 28889358
TI  - Erratum to: Managing neurogenic orthostatic hypotension in a patient presenting
      with pure autonomic failure who later developed Parkinson disease.

PMID- 28889359
TI  - Erratum to: Titrating droxidopa to maximize symptomatic benefit in a patient with
      Parkinson disease and neurogenic orthostatic hypotension.

PMID- 28889357
TI  - The Development of Skull Prosthesis Through Active Contour Model.
AB  - Skull defects result in brain infection and inadequate brain protection and pose
      a general danger to patient health. To avoid these situations and prevent re
      injury, a prosthesis must be constructed and grafted onto the deficient region.
      With the development of rapid customization through additive manufacturing and 3D
      printing technology, skull prostheses can be fabricated accurately and
      efficiently prior to cranioplasty. However, an unfitted skull prosthesis made
      with a metal implant can cause repeated infection, potentially necessitating
      secondary surgery. This paper presents a method of creating suitably geometric
      graphics of skull defects to be applied in skull repair through active contour
      models. These models can be adjusted in each computed tomography slice according
      to the graphic features, and the curves representing the skull defect can be
      modeled. The generated graphics can adequately mimic the natural curvature of the
      complete skull. This method will enable clinical surgeons to rapidly implant
      customized prostheses, which is of particular importance in emergency surgery.
      The findings of this research can help surgeons provide patients with skull
      defects with treatment of the highest quality.

PMID- 28889360
TI  - Enhanced effect of HAH on citric acid-chelated Fe(II)-catalyzed percarbonate for
      trichloroethene degradation.
AB  - This work demonstrates the impact of hydroxylamine hydrochloride (HAH) addition
      on enhancing the degradation of trichloroethene (TCE) by the citric acid (CA)
      chelated Fe(II)-catalyzed percarbonate (SPC) system. The results of a series of
      batch-reactor experiments show that TCE removal with HAH addition was increased
      from approximately 57 to 79% for a CA concentration of 0.1 mM and from 89 to
      99.6% for a 0.5 mM concentration. Free-radical probe tests elucidated the
      existence of hydroxyl radical (HO*) and superoxide anion radical (O2*-) in both
      CA/Fe(II)/SPC and HAH/CA/Fe(II)/SPC systems. However, higher removal rates of
      radical probe compounds were observed in the HAH/CA/Fe(II)/SPC system, indicating
      that HAH addition enhanced the generation of both free radicals. In addition,
      increased contribution of O2*- in the HAH/CA/Fe(II)/SPC system compared to the
      CA/Fe(II)/SPC system was verified by free-radical scavengers tests. Complete TCE
      dechlorination was confirmed based on the total mass balance of the released Cl-
      species. Lower concentrations of formic acid were produced in the later stages of
      the reaction for the HAH/CA/Fe(II)/SPC system, suggesting that HAH addition
      favors complete TCE mineralization. Studies of the impact of selected groundwater
      matrix constituents indicate that TCE removal in the HAH/CA/Fe(II)/SPC system is
      slightly affected by initial solution pH, with higher removal rates under acidic
      and near neutral conditions. Although HCO3- was observed to have an adverse
      impact on TCE removal for the HAH/CA/Fe(II)/SPC system, the addition of HAH
      reduced its inhibitory effect compared to the CA/Fe(II)/SPC system. Finally, TCE
      removal in actual groundwater was much significant with the addition of HAH to
      the CA/Fe(II)/SPC system. The study results indicate that HAH amendment has
      potential to enhance effective remediation of TCE-contaminated groundwater.

PMID- 28889361
TI  - Brevibacillus laterosporus isolated from the digestive tract of honeybees has
      high antimicrobial activity and promotes growth and productivity of honeybee's
      colonies.
AB  - The development of novel antimicrobial drugs, as well as the discovery of novel
      compounds able to promote honeybee's growth, represents major challenges for
      modern entomology. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether
      Brevibacillus laterosporus isolated from the digestive tract of Saudi honeybees,
      Apis mellifera, was able to stimulate colony strength parameters of honeybees and
      to evaluate its ability to produce antimicrobial agents. Honeybees were collected
      in Dirab, Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia, and microorganisms were isolated and
      identified by 16S ribosomal RNA analysis. Microscopic identification of the
      microorganism in its native state was facilitated by atomic force microscopy at
      high-resolution imaging. Active biological compounds were produced by submerged
      fermentation with B. laterosporus. The fermented broth was subjected to
      extraction and purification, and then semi-pure compounds were analyzed by gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry. The effectiveness of the crude extract and semi
      pure compounds as antimicrobial agents was evaluated by susceptibility assays.
      More than 22% of the microorganisms isolated from the digestive tract of healthy
      honeybees have been identified as B. laterosporus, this kind of species has a
      unique shape and morphological structure. The cyclic dipeptide cyclo(Leu-Pro)
      produced by B. laterosporus showed biological activity against several pathogenic
      microorganisms. Furthermore, the total counts of workers, closed brood, and open
      brood, as well as the production of bee pollen and honey, were better in
      honeybees treated with a B. laterosporus suspension. The data indicated that the
      B. laterosporus strain isolated from a healthy honeybee might be a novel
      probiotic and a producer of important biological compounds.

PMID- 28889362
TI  - A Novel Aza-MBP Altered Peptide Ligand for the Treatment of Experimental
      Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.
AB  - Myelin basic protein (MBP) is a major target of T cells in lesions of multiple
      sclerosis (MS) patients and its animal model, experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis (EAE). Interactions between the major histocompatibility
      complex II containing antigenic peptides and the T cell receptor activate CD4+ T
      cells that perpetuate EAE and MS. Previously reported data has shown that
      treating with an altered peptide ligand (APL) in which the normal antigenic
      peptide sequence of MBP has been slightly changed at T cell contact positions is
      helpful in reducing disease in both rodents and humans. The use of natural
      peptides, which are susceptible to protease degradation, requires high
      concentrations that can create hypersensitivity reactions. Our hypothesis is that
      APL containing aza substitutions, CH(R)-N- > N(R)N, could lead to improved
      protease resistance, reduced clinical disease scores, and a shift in T cell
      profile. In this study, several aza-APLs and control peptides were synthesized
      and screened for the best aza-APL candidate (3aza-APL) based on dissociation half
      time from major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II, induction of IL-2
      response, and resistance to degradation by proteases. The efficacy was then
      tested in vivo. Results indicate that 3aza-APL is superior to currently available
      APLs in terms of protease resistance and disease suppression in EAE mice. The
      3aza-APL induced anti-inflammatory immune responses by altering key transcription
      factors and cytokine genes which regulate T cell subpopulations. These data
      suggest that the novel 3aza-APL has increased protease resistance property and is
      effective in reducing clinical and physiological signs of disease in EAE animals.

PMID- 28889363
TI  - Synthesis of ZnO Nanocrystals and Application in Inverted Polymer Solar Cells.
AB  - Controllable synthesis of various ZnO nanocrystals was achieved via a simple and
      cost-effective hydrothermal process. The morphology evolution of the ZnO
      nanostructures was well monitored by tuning hydrothermal growth parameters, such
      as solution concentration, reaction temperature, and surfactant. As-obtained ZnO
      nanocrystals with different morphologies, e.g., ZnO nanorods, nanotetrapods,
      nanoflowers, and nanocubes, were further introduced into the organic bulk
      heterojunction solar cells as the electron transport channel. It was found that
      the device performance was closely related to the morphology of the ZnO
      nanocrystals.

PMID- 28889364
TI  - Open complete anterior dislocation of the sacro-iliac joint in a 4-year-old boy:
      a case report of a rare injury with 5-year follow-up.
AB  - Pelvic fractures are uncommon in children and account for between 0.3 and 7.5% of
      all pediatric injuries. Open pelvic fractures only account for up to 12.9% of all
      pediatric pelvic fractures. An unusual case of open complete anterior sacro-iliac
      joint dislocation in a 4-year-old boy is presented with a long-term follow-up.
      The multidisciplinary approach is reported with review of the current literature.
      A 4-year-old male presented to our institution in January 2012 after having been
      run over by a tractor. He presented with gross hemodynamical instability, MISS of
      25, and an unstable lateral compression type III pelvic fracture with complete
      anterior dislocation of the left hemipelvis and a groin wound extending into the
      left thigh. The patient was managed in accordance with the ATLS and open fracture
      guidelines. Reduction in the dislocated SI joint was achieved via a posterior
      approach to the SI joint, followed by fixation with 2K wires in S1 and S2 sacral
      segments, with an anterior external fixator. Pelvic asymmetry post-reduction was
      0.9 cm, compared to 16 cm post-injury, and asymmetry persisted till final follow
      up at 5 years. At 5 years, patient regained full function, including recreational
      sport activities. Patients scored a 96/96 on the Majeed score (after excluding 4
      points for sexual function). We believe that posterior reduction in an anteriorly
      dislocated SI joint in the pediatric population is a viable option. A
      coordinated, multidisciplinary approach and restoration of pelvic ring stability
      can lead to optimal outcome.

PMID- 28889365
TI  - Epidermal Inclusion Cyst in an Intra-pancreatic Accessory Spleen: a Differential
      Diagnosis for Pancreatic Cystic Neoplasms and Review of the Literature.

PMID- 28889366
TI  - Performance of 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT for Prostate Cancer Management at Initial Staging
      and Time of Biochemical Recurrence.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Recently introduced Gallium-68 labeled PSMA-ligands such
      as HBED-CC (68Ga-PSMA) have shown promise for unmet diagnostic needs in prostate
      cancer. RECENT FINDINGS: 68Ga-PSMA has demonstrated improved detection rates and
      specificity for prostate cancer compared to standard imaging approaches. In the
      setting of primary disease, 68Ga-PSMA appears to preferentially identify
      treatment-relevant intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer. There is also a
      growing evidence that 68Ga-PSMA positron emission tomography (PET) outperforms
      alternative conventional imaging methods including choline-based radiotracers for
      the localization of disease sites at biochemical recurrence, particularly at
      lower prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels (< 1 ng/mL). However, the majority
      of published work lacks rigorous verification of imaging results. 68Ga-PSMA
      offers significant promise for both, primary disease and biochemically recurrent
      prostate cancer. The evidence base to support 68Ga-PSMA is however still
      underdeveloped, and more rigorous studies substantiating efficacy are needed.

PMID- 28889367
TI  - Identifying the subtypes of cancer-related fatigue: results from the population
      based PROFILES registry.
AB  - PURPOSE: Little research has been done to identify possible cancer-related
      fatigue (CRF) subtypes and to classify cancer survivors accordingly. We aimed to
      identify CRF subtypes in a large population-based sample of (long term) stage I
      III colorectal cancer survivors. We also identified factors associated with the
      CRF subtypes. METHODS: Respondents completed the Multidimensional Fatigue
      Inventory and other validated questionnaires on anxiety and reduced positive
      affect (anhedonia), sleep quality, and lifestyle factors (body mass index and
      physical activity). Latent class analysis was used to derive the CRF subtypes.
      Factors associated with the derived CRF subtypes were determined with multinomial
      logistic regression. RESULTS: Three CRF classes were identified: class 1 (no
      fatigue and distress, n = 644, 56%), class 2 (low fatigue, moderate distress, n =
      256, 22%), and class 3 (high fatigue, moderate distress, n = 256, 22%).
      Multinomial logistic regression results show that survivors in class 3 were more
      likely to be female, were treated with radiotherapy, have comorbid diabetes
      mellitus, and be overweight/obese than survivors in class 1 (reference).
      Survivors in classes 2 and 3 were also more likely to have comorbid heart
      condition, report poorer sleep quality, experience anhedonia, and report more
      anxiety symptoms when compared with survivors in class 1. CONCLUSIONS: Three
      distinct classes of CRF were identified which could be differentiated with sleep
      quality, anxiety, anhedonia, and lifestyle factors. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER
      SURVIVORS: The identification of CRF subtypes with distinct characteristics
      suggests that interventions should be targeted to the CRF subtype.

PMID- 28889369
TI  - Interlocking Editorships in Scientific Journals.

PMID- 28889368
TI  - The Role of Sensation Seeking and R-rated Movie Watching in Early Substance Use
      Initiation.
AB  - Adolescence is a time of heightened impulsivity as well as substantial exposure
      to the effects of popular media. Specifically, R-rated movie content and
      sensation seeking have been shown to be individually and multiplicatively
      associated with early alcohol initiation, as well as to mutually influence one
      another over time. The present study attempts to replicate and extend these
      findings to cigarette and marijuana use, considering several peer, parental, and
      individual correlates, as well as substance-specific movie exposure, among 1023
      youth (mean age 12.4 years, 52% female), using a combination of cross-lagged path
      models, latent growth models, and discrete-time survival models. Changes over
      time were associated between R-rated movie watching and sensation seeking, and
      both individually, not multiplicatively, predicted earlier alcohol initiation. R
      rated movie watching (but not sensation seeking) also predicted earlier smoking
      and marijuana initiation. Parental R-rated movie restriction may thus potentially
      delay smoking and marijuana initiation as well as adolescent drinking.

PMID- 28889370
TI  - Semi-Mechanistic Model for Predicting the Dosing Rate in Children and Neonates
      for Drugs Mainly Eliminated by Cytochrome Metabolism.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: A simple approach is proposed to predict drug clearance
      in children when no paediatric data are available for drugs metabolised by
      cytochromes. METHODS: The maturation functions of cytochrome activity and binding
      proteins in plasma were combined with several measures of body size to describe
      drug clearance increase with age. The complete model and different reduced models
      were evaluated on a large panel of drug clearance data in children. The
      parameters of the models were estimated by nonlinear regression. Bias and
      precision of predictions were determined. RESULTS: Two hundred and ten clearance
      ratios were available for the analysis, corresponding to 53 drugs mainly
      eliminated by cytochrome metabolism. The age range was 1.5 day to 16 years and
      there were 30 values for children aged less than 2 years. Fat-free mass at power
      0.75 yielded better results than the other body size descriptor tested. The model
      with the best fit was based on the fat-free mass ratio, the unbound fraction
      ratio, maturation functions for cytochromes and no maturation function for
      clearance by other routes. In children aged less than 2 years, the predictive
      performances were much better with the final model than with the model based on
      body surface area. The final model was almost unbiased. CONCLUSIONS: This model
      allows the calculation of the maintenance dose of drugs eliminated mainly by
      cytochromes. After external validation, it could be used in children aged less
      than 2 years. In older children, the model reduces to a simple approach based on
      body surface area or preferably on fat-free mass at power 0.75. The model is not
      suitable for preterm neonates.

PMID- 28889373
TI  - Analysis of Chromosomal Alterations in Urothelial Carcinoma.
AB  - Here, we describe the use of complementary techniques applicable to different
      types of samples to analyze chromosomal alterations in urothelial carcinoma. By a
      conventional chromosome analysis on fresh biopsies, it is possible to delineate
      the status of ploidy and rough chromosomal aberrations. The multi-target
      fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) UroVysion test, for the rapid detection
      of chromosomal aneusomy of chromosomes 3, 7, and 17 and/or deletion of 9p21
      locus, is applicable to urine specimens as well as to formalin-fixed paraffin
      embedded (FFPE) specimens and fresh biopsies. Finally, array comparative genomic
      hybridization (array-CGH) gives the possibility of analyzing the DNA in a single
      experiment from a biopsy of the tumor but also from FFPE specimens; this
      technique is able to detect alterations at the genome level not excluding any
      chromosome.

PMID- 28889372
TI  - Ezrin regulates skin fibroblast size/mechanical properties and YAP-dependent
      proliferation.
AB  - Ezrin acts as a dynamic linkage between plasma membrane and cytoskeleton, and
      thus involved in many fundamental cellular functions. Yet, its potential role in
      human skin is virtually unknown. Here we investigate the role of Ezrin in primary
      skin fibroblasts, the major cells responsible extracellular matrix (ECM)
      production. We report that Ezrin play an important role in the maintenance of
      skin fibroblast size/mechanical properties and proliferation. siRNA-mediated
      Ezrin knockdown decreased fibroblast size and mechanical properties, and thus
      impaired the nuclear translocation of YAP, a protein commonly response to cell
      size and mechanical force. Functionally, depletion of Ezrin significantly
      inhibited YAP target gene expression and fibroblast proliferation. Conversely,
      restoration of YAP nuclear translocation by overexpression of constitutively
      active YAP reversed YAP target genes expression and rescued proliferation in
      Ezrin knockdown cells. These data reveal a novel role for Ezrin in maintenance of
      fibroblast size/mechanical force and regulating YAP-mediated proliferation.

PMID- 28889374
TI  - Analysis of Point Mutations in Clinical Samples of Urothelial Carcinoma.
AB  - In the last two decades specific point mutations in oncogenes have been
      identified in urinary bladder cancers. Identification of these mutations in
      clinical samples (e.g., urine or tumor tissue) can be of use for diagnostic or
      prognostic purposes. In this chapter we describe how mutations in multiple
      oncogenes can be identified with a simple assay.

PMID- 28889371
TI  - Bone Marrow Stroma and Vascular Contributions to Myeloma Bone Homing.
AB  - PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Herein we dissect mechanisms behind the dissemination of
      cancer cells from primary tumor site to the bone marrow, which are necessary for
      metastasis development, with a specific focus on multiple myeloma. RECENT
      FINDINGS: The ability of tumor cells to invade vessels and reach the systemic
      circulation is a fundamental process for metastasis development; however, the
      interaction between clonal cells and the surrounding microenvironment is equally
      important for supporting colonization, survival, and growth in the secondary
      sites of dissemination. The intrinsic propensity of tumor cells to recognize a
      favorable milieu where to establish secondary growth is the basis of the "seed
      and soil" theory. This theory assumes that certain tumor cells (the "seeds") have
      a specific affinity for the milieu of certain organs (the "soil"). Recent
      literature has highlighted the important contributions of the vascular niche to
      the hospitable "soil" within the bone marrow. In this review, we discuss the
      crucial role of stromal cells and endothelial cells in supporting primary growth,
      homing, and metastasis to the bone marrow, in the context of multiple myeloma, a
      plasma cell malignancy with the unique propensity to primarily grow and
      metastasize to the bone marrow.

PMID- 28889375
TI  - A Versatile Assay for Detection of Aberrant DNA Methylation in Bladder Cancer.
AB  - Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is one of the most common malignancies in the
      industrialized world, mainly caused by smoking and occupational exposure to
      chemicals. The favorable prognosis of early stage bladder cancer underscores the
      importance of early detection for the treatment of this disease. The high
      recurrence rate of this malignancy also highlights the need for close post
      diagnosis monitoring of bladder cancer patients. As for other malignancies,
      aberrant DNA methylation has been shown to play a crucial role in the initiation
      and progression of bladder cancer, and thus holds great promise as a diagnostic
      and prognostic biological marker. Here, we describe a protocol for a versatile
      DNA methylation enrichment method, the Methylated CpG Island Recovery Assay
      (MIRA), which enables analysis of the DNA methylation status in individual genes
      or across the entire genome. MIRA is based on the ability of the methyl-binding
      domain (MBD) proteins, the MBD2B/MBD3L1 complex, to specifically bind methylated
      CpG dinucleotides. This easy-to-perform method can be used to analyze the
      methylome of bladder cancer or urothelial cells shed in the urine to elucidate
      the evolution of bladder carcinogenesis and/or identify epigenetic signatures of
      chemicals known to cause this malignancy.

PMID- 28889376
TI  - Immunohistochemical Analysis of Urothelial Carcinoma Tissues for Proliferation
      and Differentiation Markers.
AB  - Immunohistochemistry is a standard method in histopathology and enables the
      localized detection of proteins in histological tissue sections. Specific
      antibodies are bound to cellular antigens, captured by secondary antibodies or
      polymers, linked to enzymes and visualized by chromogenic substrates. Here, we
      describe an automated staining technique for larger slide batches as well as a
      manual protocol for only few slides using a polymer technique. We focus on
      differentiation markers, measures of cell proliferation, and therapeutic targets
      in benign and malignant urothelial tissues.

PMID- 28889377
TI  - Molecular Subtype Profiling of Urothelial Carcinoma Using a Subtype-Specific
      Immunohistochemistry Panel.
AB  - Molecular subtypes of bladder cancer (BC) can be determined by relatively small
      immunohistochemistry panels both for non-muscle invasive (NMI) and muscle
      invasive (MI) tumors. For analysis of NMI tumors, as few as two markers are
      needed, although classification is dependent also on pathological grade and
      histological evaluation. The result is a classification into the three tumor-cell
      phenotypes of NMI-BC, Urothelial-like (Uro), Genomically Unstable (GU), and
      Basal/SCC-like. For analysis of MI tumors, 13 markers are needed. The larger
      number of markers required for the classification of MI-BC reflects the inclusion
      of two additional phenotypes exclusively found in invasive tumors; Mesenchymal
      like (Mes-like) and Small-cell/Neuroendocrine-like (Sc/NE-like). Here follows a
      description of how to perform and approach IHC-based subtype classification of
      bladder cancer.

PMID- 28889378
TI  - Defining the Pathways of Urogenital Schistosomiasis-Associated Urothelial
      Carcinogenesis through Transgenic and Bladder Wall Egg Injection Models.
AB  - Urogenital schistosomiasis (infection with Schistosoma haematobium) is a major
      cause of bladder carcinogenesis. However, the exact mechanisms of the sequelae
      leading up to the development of bladder cancer are poorly understood, mainly
      because of a dearth of tractable mouse models. We developed a mouse model of
      urogenital schistosomiasis through intramural injection of parasite eggs into the
      bladder wall to mimic the trapping of parasite eggs in the bladder. This approach
      recapitulates many of the sequelae observed in infected humans. Here, we describe
      procedures for utilizing this surgical technique in combination with well
      established transgenic mouse strains to dissect the role of cancer-related genes
      in the initiation and establishment of bladder carcinogenesis. The described
      method utilizes CRE-mediated flox activity to render mice p53 haploinsufficient
      before challenging them with bladder wall egg injection. These techniques are
      potentially amenable to studying the role of other pro-carcinogenic and cancer
      suppressor gene(s) in urogenital schistosomiasis-associated urothelial
      carcinogenesis.

PMID- 28889379
TI  - Algorithm for the Automated Evaluation of NAT2 Genotypes.
AB  - N-Acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) genotyping by PCR and RFLP-based methods provides
      information on seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) without deriving the
      chromosomal phase (haplotype). So genotyping results must be processed to get all
      possible NAT2 haplotype (or allele) combinations. Here we describe the procedure
      for genotyping and present a program based on Microsoft(r) Access(r) which
      automatically generates all possible haplotype pairs for a given unphased NAT2
      genotype. NAT2 haplotypes are important to predict the NAT2 phenotype.

PMID- 28889380
TI  - Detection of APOBEC3 Proteins and Catalytic Activity in Urothelial Carcinoma.
AB  - Members of the APOBEC3 (A3) family of enzymes were shown to act in an oncogenic
      manner in several cancer types. Immunodetection of APOBEC3A (A3A), APOBEC3B
      (A3B), and APOBEC3G (A3G) proteins is particularly challenging due to the large
      sequence homology of these proteins and limited availability of antibodies. Here
      we combine independent immunoblotting with an in vitro activity assay technique,
      to detect and categorize specific A3s expressed in urothelial bladder cancer and
      other cancer cells.

PMID- 28889381
TI  - Oxidative Stress in Urothelial Carcinogenesis: Measurements of Protein
      Carbonylation and Intracellular Production of Reactive Oxygen Species.
AB  - Oxidative stress contributes substantially to urothelial carcinogenesis. Its
      extent can be assessed by measurements of reactive species (mainly reactive
      oxygen species (ROS)), oxidatively modified damage products, and levels of
      various antioxidants. We presented herein the methods for the measurement of
      protein carbonyl content and intracellular production of ROS. Protein carbonyl is
      the most commonly used indicator of protein oxidation because it is early formed
      and relatively stable under oxidative stress. Determination of protein carbonyl
      relies on the derivatization of carbonyl groups (aldehydes: R-CHO and ketones: R
      CO-R) with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) under strongly acidic conditions to
      yield stable dinitrophenyl (DNP) hydrazones. Absorbance of the DNP hydrazones at
      370-375 nm is proportional to the content of carbonyl groups. To report the
      protein carbonyl content, it is usually normalized by total proteins. Detection
      of intracellular ROS production is based on oxidation of 2',7'
      dichlorofluorescein-diacetate (DCFH-DA) by ROS to produce the highly fluorescent
      2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCF). Fluorescent intensity measured at 480 nm
      excitation and 535 nm emission is directly proportional to the amount of ROS
      generated.

PMID- 28889382
TI  - Urothelial Carcinoma Stem Cells: Current Concepts, Controversies, and Methods.
AB  - Cancer stem cells are defined as a self-renewing and self-protecting
      subpopulation of cancer cells able to differentiate into morphologically and
      functionally diverse cancer cells with a limited lifespan. To purify cancer stem
      cells, two basic approaches can be applied, the marker-based approach employing
      various more of less-specific cell surface marker molecules and a marker-free
      approach largely based on various self-protection mechanisms. Within the context
      of urothelial carcinoma, both methods could find use. The cell surface markers
      have been mainly derived from the urothelial basal cell, a probable cell of
      origin of muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma, with CD14, CD44, CD90, and 67LR
      representing successful examples of this strategy. The marker-free approaches
      involve side population sorting, for which a detailed protocol is provided, as
      well as the Aldefluor assay, which rely on a specific overexpression of efflux
      pumps or the detoxification enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase, respectively, in stem
      cells. These assays have been applied to both non-muscle-invasive and muscle
      invasive bladder cancer samples and cell lines. Urothelial carcinoma stem cells
      feature a pronounced heterogeneity as to their molecular stemness mechanisms.
      Several aspects of urothelial cancer stem cell biology could enter translational
      development rather soon, e.g., a specific CD44+-derived gene expression signature
      able to identify non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients with a high risk of
      progression, or deciphering a mechanism responsible for repopulating activity of
      urothelial carcinoma stem cells within the context of therapeutic resistance.

PMID- 28889383
TI  - In Vitro Differentiation and Propagation of Urothelium from Pluripotent Stem Cell
      Lines.
AB  - Bioengineering of bladder tissue, particularly for those patients who have
      advanced bladder disease, requires a source of urothelium that is healthy,
      capable of significant proliferation in vitro and immunologically tolerated upon
      transplant. As pluripotent stem cells have the potential to fulfill such
      criteria, they provide a critical cell source from which urothelium might be
      derived in vitro and used clinically. Herein, we describe the in vitro
      differentiation of urothelium from the H9 human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line
      through the definitive endoderm (DE) phase via selective culture techniques. The
      protocol can be used to derive urothelium from other hESCs or human-induced
      pluripotent stem cells.

PMID- 28889384
TI  - Spheroid Cultures of Primary Urothelial Cancer Cells: Cancer Tissue-Originated
      Spheroid (CTOS) Method.
AB  - Increasingly, it has been recognized that studying cancer samples from individual
      patients is important for the development of effective therapeutic strategies and
      in endeavors to overcome therapy resistance. Primary cultures of cancer cells
      acutely dissected from individual patients can provide a platform that enables
      the study and characterization of individual tumors. To that end, we have
      developed a method for preparing cancer cells in the form of multi-cellular
      spheroids. The cells can be derived from patient tumors (primary cells), from
      patient-derived xenografts, or from genetically- or chemically induced animal
      tumors. This method of culturing spheroids composed of cells derived from cancer
      tissues can be applied to various types of cancer, including urothelial cancer.
      The method is based on the principle of retaining cell-cell contact throughout
      cancer cell preparation and culturing. The first step is a partial digestion of
      the tumor specimen into small fragments; these fragments spontaneously form
      spheroidal shapes within several hours. The spheroid is referred to as a cancer
      tissue-originated spheroid (CTOS). The advantage of the CTOS method is that it
      allows one to prepare pure cancer cells at high yield. CTOSs can be stably
      cultured in serum-free conditions. The CTOS method can be applied to drug
      sensitivity assays, drug screening, and analyses of intracellular signaling.
      Moreover, the CTOS method provides a platform for studying the nature of cancer
      cell clusters.

PMID- 28889385
TI  - The N-butyl-N-4-hydroxybutyl Nitrosamine Mouse Urinary Bladder Cancer Model.
AB  - Urinary bladder cancer (UBC) is a common and complex malignancy, with a
      multifactorial etiology, like environmental factors, such as cigarette smoking,
      occupational exposure, and genetic factors.UBC exhibits considerable genotypic
      and phenotypic heterogeneity. Among all UBC lesions, urothelial carcinoma is the
      most frequently observed histological type. Despite all the developments made in
      urologic oncology field, therapeutic options remain inadequate. There is urgency
      for the identification and development of new antineoplastic drugs to replace or
      improve current protocols and in vivo models have been proven to be essential for
      this step. There are different animal models of UBC: Spontaneous and
      experimentally induced models (genetically engineered, transplantable-xenograft
      and syngeneic animals- and chemically induced models). N-butyl-N(4
      hydroxybutil)nitrosamine (BBN) is the most suitable reagent to generate
      chemically induced in vivo models of UBC and to study bladder carcinogenesis. BBN
      has proven, over the years, to be very realistic and reliable. It is bladder
      specific, and induces high tumor incidence.

PMID- 28889386
TI  - Patient-Derived Bladder Cancer Xenografts.
AB  - Patient-derived xenograft (PDX ) tumors are models developed by direct transplant
      of human tumors into immune-compromised hosts such as nude mice. These models
      retain the histological and genetic characteristics of the primary tumor and are
      considered a valuable platform for translational cancer research. This chapter
      describes the methodology to establish and propagate bladder cancer PDX model.

PMID- 28889387
TI  - Orthotopic Mouse Models of Urothelial Cancer.
AB  - Orthotopic mouse models of urothelial cancer are essential for testing novel
      therapies and molecular manipulations of cell lines in vivo. These models are
      either established by orthotopic inoculation of human (xenograft models) or
      murine tumor cells (syngeneic models) in immunocompromised or immune competent
      mice. Current techniques rely on inoculation by intravesical instillation or
      direct injection into the bladder wall. Alternative models include the induction
      of murine bladder tumors by chemical carcinogens (BBN) or genetic engineering
      (GEM).

PMID- 28889388
TI  - Quantification of MicroRNAs in Urine-Derived Specimens.
AB  - MicroRNAs are small noncoding RNAs which regulate the expression of genes
      involved in a multitude of cellular processes. Dysregulation of microRNAs and-in
      consequence-of the affected pathways is frequently observed in numerous
      pathologies including cancers. Therefore, tumor-related alterations in microRNA
      expression and function can reflect molecular processes of tumor onset and
      progression qualifying microRNAs as potential diagnostic and prognostic
      biomarkers.In particular, microRNAs with differential expression in bladder
      cancer (BCa) might represent promising tools for noninvasive tumor detection in
      urine. This would be helpful not only for diagnostic and monitoring purposes but
      also for therapeutic decisions. Detection and quantification of BCa-associated
      microRNAs in urine can be performed using the cellular sediment, which also
      contains BCa cells, or in exosomes originating from those cells. Methods for
      isolation of exosomes from urine, extraction of total RNA from cells and exosomes
      as well as techniques for RNA quantification, reverse transcription, and qPCR
      based quantification of microRNA expression levels are described herein.

PMID- 28889389
TI  - Quantitative RNA Analysis from Urine Using Real Time PCR.
AB  - Urine is emerging as a biological fluid suitable to perform liquid biopsy in a
      minimally invasive manner, a fundamental attribute for prevention and early
      detection of cancer. Urine biomarkers can be analyzed in voided urine, in urine
      sediment, and urine supernatant. In the case of urothelial carcinoma, in which
      tumor cells are in direct contact with urine, the assessment of the levels of
      biomarkers in the urinary cell fraction appears to be the most promising approach
      to identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in a noninvasive way. Here, we
      describe a protocol to collect and process urine samples to obtain urinary
      exfoliated cells. Furthermore, we describe the methodology to isolate RNA from
      urinary cells and to quantify gene expression levels from these urinary cells.

PMID- 28889390
TI  - DNA Methylation Analysis from Body Fluids.
AB  - Circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) can be found in various body fluids, i.e.,
      blood (serum and plasma), urine, pleural effusions, and ascites. While ccfDNA
      predominantly originates from physiological processes, a fraction might be
      related to pathological events, e.g., cancer. Aberrant DNA methylation, which is
      considered a hallmark of cancer, can be assessed accurately in ccfDNA.
      Consequently, DNA methylation testing in body fluids represents a powerful
      diagnostic tool in the clinical management of malignant diseases. Frequently,
      however, the total amount of disease-related ccfDNA in a sample is low and masked
      by an excess of physiological ccfDNA. Thus, DNA methylation analysis of tumor
      derived DNA is challenging, and high volumes of body fluids need to be analyzed
      in order to ensure a sufficient abundance of the analyte in the test sample. DNA
      methylation assays are usually based on prior conversion of cytosines to uracils
      by means of bisulfite. This reaction takes place under harsh chemical conditions
      leading to DNA degradation and therefore necessitates a proper DNA purification
      before downstream analyses. This article describes a protocol which allows for
      the preparation of ultra-pure bisulfite-converted DNA from up to 3 ml blood
      plasma and serum, which is well suited for subsequent molecular biological
      techniques, e.g., methylation-specific real-time PCR.

PMID- 28889392
TI  - Isolation and Characterization of CTCs from Patients with Cancer of a Urothelial
      Origin.
AB  - Monitoring of circulating tumor cells' (CTCs) presence has the potential to
      improve therapeutic management of oncological diseases at an early stage and also
      to identify patients with increased risk of tumor progression or recurrence
      before the onset of clinically detected metastasis. Here we describe a new
      simplified efficient methodology for the separation and in vitro culturing of
      viable CTCs from peripheral blood by size-based filtration (MetaCell(r)). The
      isolation protocol yields preferentially cells bigger than 8 MUm enabling further
      cytomorphological and molecular analysis.

PMID- 28889391
TI  - Urinary Protein Markers for the Detection and Prognostication of Urothelial
      Carcinoma.
AB  - Bladder cancer diagnosis and surveillance is mainly based on cystoscopy and urine
      cytology. However, both methods have significant limitations; urine cytology has
      a low sensitivity for low-grade tumors, while cystoscopy is uncomfortable for the
      patients. Therefore, in the last decade urine analysis was the subject of
      intensive research resulting in the identification of many potential biomarkers
      for the detection, surveillance, or prognostic stratification of bladder cancer.
      Current trends move toward the development of multiparametric models to improve
      the diagnostic accuracy compared with single molecular markers. Recent technical
      advances for high-throughput and more sensitive measurements have led to the
      development of multiplex assays showing potential for more efficient tools toward
      future clinical application. In this review, we focus on the findings of urinary
      protein research in the context of detection and prognostication of bladder
      cancer. Furthermore, we provide an up-to-date overview on the recommendations for
      the quality evaluation of published studies as well as for the conduction of
      future urinary biomarker studies.

PMID- 28889393
TI  - Epigenetic Treatment Options in Urothelial Carcinoma.
AB  - Mutations, dysregulation, and dysbalance of epigenetic regulators are especially
      frequent in urothelial carcinoma (UC) compared to other malignancies.
      Accordingly, targeting epigenetic regulators may provide a window of opportunity
      particularly in anticancer therapy of UC. In general, these epigenetic regulators
      comprise DNA methyltransferases and DNA demethylases (for DNA methylation),
      histone methyltransferases, and histone demethylases (for histone methylation) as
      well as acetyl transferases and histone deacetylases (for histone and non-histone
      acetylation).As epigenetic regulators target a plethora of cellular functions and
      available inhibitors often inhibit enzymatic activity of more than one isoenzyme
      or may have further off-target effects, analysis of their functions in UC
      pathogenesis as well as of the antineoplastic capacity of according inhibitors
      should follow a multidimensional approach.Here, we present our standard approach
      for the analysis of the cellular and molecular functions of individual HDAC
      enzymes, their suitability as treatment targets and for the evaluation of
      isoenzyme-specific HDAC inhibitors regarding their antineoplastic efficacy. This
      approach may also serve as prototype for the preclinical evaluation of other
      epigenetic treatment approaches.

PMID- 28889394
TI  - Evaluation of Protein Levels of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase ErbB3 in Serum.
AB  - The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family of receptor tyrosine kinases
      (RTK) consists of four members: EGFR1/ErbB1/HER1, ErbB2/HER2, ErbB3/HER3, and
      HER4/ErbB4. Signaling through these receptors regulates many key cellular
      activities, such as cell division, migration, adhesion, differentiation, and
      apoptosis. The ErbB family has been shown to be overexpressed in different types
      of cancers and is a target of several inhibitors already in clinical trials.
      ErbB3 lacks a functional tyrosine kinase domain and therefore has not been as
      extensively studied as the other members of this family, but its importance in
      activating downstream pathways, such as the PI3K/Akt pathway, makes this RTK a
      worthy investigation target, especially in urothelial carcinoma where the
      PI3K/Akt pathway is vital for progression. In recent times, ErbB3 overexpression
      has been linked to drug resistance and progression of various diseases,
      especially cancer. ErbB3 levels in the serum were shown in many cases to be
      reflective of its role in disease progression, and therefore detection of serum
      ErbB3 levels during treatment may be of importance.Here we describe two methods
      for detecting ErbB3 protein in serum from patients who have undergone a clinical
      trial, utilizing two well-established methods in molecular biology-western
      blotting and ELISA, focusing on sample preparation and troubleshooting.

PMID- 28889395
TI  - Targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR Pathway in Bladder Cancer.
AB  - The PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway shows frequent molecular alterations and
      increased activity in cancer. Given its role in the regulation of cell growth,
      survival and metastasis, molecules within this pathway are promising targets for
      pharmacologic intervention. Metastatic bladder cancer (BLCA) continues to have
      few treatment options. Although various molecular alterations in PI3K/AKT/mTOR
      signaling have been described in BLCA, clinical trials with small molecule
      inhibitors have not met their endpoints. In this article, we summarize results
      from preclinical studies and clinical trials that examined PI3K pathway
      inhibitors in BLCA focusing on technical challenges that might result in
      contradictory findings in preclinical studies. Based on published data from our
      group, we also address challenges that need to be overcome to optimize PI3K
      inhibition in BLCA and enable its successful translation into the clinic.

PMID- 28889396
TI  - Visualization and Quantitative Measurement of Drug-Induced Platinum Adducts in
      the Nuclear DNA of Individual Cells by an Immuno-Cytological Assay.
AB  - Immunocytological staining with adduct-specific antibodies allows the
      visualization and measurement of structurally defined types of DNA damage in the
      nuclei of individual cells. Here we describe an immunocytological assay (ICA)
      procedure for the localization and quantification of such damage, in particular
      induced by platinum-based anticancer drugs, in cell lines , in primary cell
      suspensions and in frozen tissue sections.

PMID- 28889397
TI  - Retraction Note to: Risk factors for increased left ventricular hypertrophy in
      patients with chronic kidney disease.

PMID- 28889398
TI  - Repeatability and reproducibility of a telemanipulated fracture reduction system.
AB  - We evaluate the inter- and intraobserver variability of a telemanipulated femur
      fracture reduction system using a joystick device. Five examiners performed
      virtual reduction of 3D femur fracture models on two separate occasions. We
      assessed the inter- and intraobserver variability for the final alignment and
      reduction. The average difference between testing rounds was only 0.3 mm for
      overall displacement and 0.5 degrees  for overall rotation. There was an average
      time reduction between rounds of 11.7 s. The mean differences in overall
      displacement between examiners ranged between 0.2 and 0.9 mm; between 0.2 degrees
      and 3.2 degrees  for overall rotation; and between 9 and 82 s for time to
      reduction. The time required to complete the reduction did not have a significant
      effect on the overall displacement or rotation of the final model.
      Telemanipulated fracture reduction is a reliable and reproducible technique,
      which does not require extensive training.

PMID- 28889399
TI  - The dissipation and risk assessment of 2,4-D sodium, a preharvest anti-fruit-drop
      plant hormone in bayberries.
AB  - Preharvest fruit-drop is a challenge to bayberry production. 2,4-D sodium as a
      commonly used anti-fruit-drop hormone on bayberry can reduce the yield loss
      caused by preharvest fruit-drop. The persistence and risk assessment of 2,4-D
      sodium after applying on bayberries were investigated. A method for determining
      2,4-D sodium in bayberry was established based on LC-MS-MS. The average
      recoveries of 2,4-D sodium were at the range of 93.7-95.8% with relative standard
      deviations (RSDs) ranging from 0.9 to 2.8%. The dissipation rates of 2,4-D sodium
      were described using first-order kinetics, and its half-life ranged from 11.2 to
      13.8 days. A bayberry consumption survey was carried out for Chinese adults for
      the first time. The safety assessments of 2,4-D sodium were conducted by using
      field trail data as well as monitoring data. Results showed that the chronic risk
      quotient and the acute risk quotient were calculated to be 0.23-0.59 and 0.02
      0.05%, respectively, for Chinese adults, indicating low dietary risk for adults
      and children. In the end, the household cleaning steps were compared, and results
      showed that water rinsing for 1 min can remove 49.9% 2,4-D sodium residue, which
      provides pesticide removal suggestion for consumers.

PMID- 28889400
TI  - Are children playgrounds safe play areas? Inorganic analysis and lead isotope
      ratios for contamination assessment in recreational (Brazilian) parks.
AB  - In city playgrounds, there is a potential risk of harming children's health by
      contamination coming from anthropogenic activities. With the aim to determinate
      the sources and the risk of hazardous elements, soil samples were collected in 19
      selected playgrounds of different urban and rural areas from the Rio Grande do
      Sul state (Brazil). The concentration of 23 metals and metalloids and lead
      isotopic ratios were determined by ICP-MS. The methodology proposed here,
      firstly, classified the parks according to the average metal content by means of
      the NWACs (Normalized-and-Weighted Average Concentrations) and assess the
      contamination risk determining the Contamination Factors (CFs). Finally,
      statistical tools (correlation analysis and principal component analysis) were
      used to identify the most important contamination sources. The statistical tools
      used, together with lead isotopic composition analysis of the samples, revealed
      that coal combustion is the main source of contamination in the area. Vegetation
      was identified as a barrier for the contamination coming from the city.
      Nonetheless, some of the soils present a possible toxicological risk for humans.
      In fact, Cr, Sb, and Pb concentrations were higher than the Residential
      Intervention Values (VIRs) defined by the Environmental Protection Agency of the
      State of Sao Paulo, also in Brazil.

PMID- 28889401
TI  - Severity of drug resistance and co-existence of Enterococcus faecalis in diabetic
      foot ulcer infections.
AB  - The genes encoding aminoglycoside resistance in Enterococcus faecalis may promote
      collateral aminoglycoside resistance in polymicrobial wounds. We studied a total
      of 100 diabetic foot ulcer samples for infection and found 60 samples to be
      polymicrobial, 5 to be monomicrobial, and 35 samples to be culture negative. A
      total of 65 E. faecalis isolates were screened for six genes coding for
      aminoglycoside resistance, antibiotic resistance patterns, and biofilm
      production. Infectious Diseases Society of America/International Working Group on
      the Diabetic Foot system was used to classify the wound ulcers. Majority of the
      subjects with culture-positive wound were recommended conservative management,
      while 14 subjects underwent amputation. Enterococcal isolates showed higher
      resistance for erythromycin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. Isolates from grade
      3 ulcer showed higher frequency of aac(6')-Ie-aph(2")-Ia, while all the isolates
      were negative for aph(2")-Ib, aph(2")-Ic, and aph(2")-Id. The isolates from grade
      3 ulcers showed higher resistance to aminoglycosides as well as teicoplanin and
      chloramphenicol. All the 39 biofilm producers were obtained from polymicrobial
      wound and showed higher resistance when compared to biofilm non-producers. Higher
      frequency of isolates carrying aac(6')-Ie-aph(2")-Ia in polymicrobial community
      showing resistance to key antibiotics suggests widespread distribution of
      aminoglycoside-resistant E. faecalis and their role in worsening diabetic foot
      ulcers.

PMID- 28889402
TI  - Social Freezing in Medical Practice. Experiences and Attitudes of Gynecologists
      in Germany.
AB  - Surveys of the German public have revealed a high acceptance of social freezing,
      i.e. oocyte conservation without medical indication. Up to now, there are no
      investigations available on the experiences and attitudes of health professionals
      towards social freezing. Between August 2015 and January 2016, we surveyed
      gynecologists Germany-wide on the topic social freezing. Five gynecologists
      specialized in reproductive medicine and five office-based gynecologists in
      standard care were chosen for the survey. The survey was conducted with an
      explorative, qualitative research design. The demand for social freezing in
      Germany is low. With regard to their fertility age, most women attend
      consultations too late, they have only little previous knowledge and false
      expectations. The gynecologists consider it the duty of society and politics to
      provide for the compatibility of family and work. They relate late parenthood to
      disadvantages primarily for the children. A majority of the gynecologists
      interviewed tend to advise natural reproduction. Social freezing is often
      mistaken as a kind of fertility insurance. Thus, it is necessary that physicians
      inform women early about the possibilities and limitations of social freezing. In
      the first place, social freezing is not a medical or medical-ethical topic. Women
      consider the method as a possibility to ensure the compatibility of family and
      work. This compatibility should be mostly perceived as a political topic. It
      cannot be a medical task to solve this issue. In fact, a debate in society as a
      whole is necessary that includes all relevant actors.

PMID- 28889403
TI  - Do Paediatric Investigation Plans (PIPs) Advance Paediatric Healthcare?
AB  - Since 2007, new drugs need a paediatric investigation plan (PIP) for EU
      registration. The PIPs' justifications can be traced back to concerns expressed
      by Shirkey that label warnings against paediatric use made children "therapeutic
      orphans", and the American Academy of Pediatrics' claim that all children differ
      considerably from adults. US legislation first encouraged, then also required,
      separate, adult-style safety and efficacy studies in all paediatric
      subpopulations. This triggered paediatric regulatory studies by the
      pharmaceutical industry. There were also negative outcomes, as a result of using
      the legal definition of childhood as a medical/physiological term. The
      "therapeutic orphans" concept became dogma that supported/expanded adult-style
      regulatory testing into all age groups even when poorly justified in adolescents
      or where other methods are available to generate needed data. PIPs are especially
      problematic because they lack the limitations imposed on the Food and Drug
      Administration's (FDA's) regulatory actions and more practical approaches used in
      the USA. Many PIP studies are medically senseless or even questionable and/or
      unfeasible with poor risk/benefit ratios. For example, physiologically mature
      adolescents have been exposed to treatments and doses known to be suboptimal in
      adults. Unfeasible PIP studies in rare diseases may harm patients by preventing
      their participation in more beneficence-driven studies. PIP-required studies can
      prevent effective treatment of allergic rhinitis during years of placebo
      treatment, exposing minors to the risk of disease progression to asthma. The PIP
      system should be revised; more should be done by key players, including
      institutional review boards/ethics committees, to ensure that all paediatric
      clinical studies are medically justified, rather than legislation driven, and can
      produce scientifically valid results.

PMID- 28889404
TI  - The value and pitfalls of biologics registries for psoriasis.

PMID- 28889405
TI  - Alternate dosing regimens of brentuximab vedotin for CD30+ cutaneous T-cell
      lymphoma.

PMID- 28889406
TI  - Intrapartum transperineal ultrasound used to predict cases of complicated
      operative (vacuum and forceps) deliveries in nulliparous women.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to investigate the predictive value
      of intrapartum transperineal ultrasound in the identification of complicated
      operative (vacuum or forceps) deliveries in nulliparous women. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Prospective observational study of nulliparous women with an indication
      for operative delivery who underwent intrapartum transperineal ultrasound before
      fetal extraction. Managing obstetricians were blinded to the ultrasound data.
      Intrapartum transperineal ultrasound was performed immediately before blade
      application, both at rest and concurrently with contractions and active pushing.
      Operative delivery was classified as complicated when one or more of the
      following situations occurred: three or more tractions; a third-/fourth-degree
      perineal tear; significant bleeding during the episiotomy repair; major tear or
      significant traumatic neonatal lesion. RESULTS: A total of 143 nulliparous women
      were included in the study (82 vacuum-assisted deliveries and 61 forceps-assisted
      deliveries), with 20 fetuses in occiput posterior position. Forty-seven operative
      deliveries were classified as complicated deliveries (28 vacuum-assisted
      deliveries, 19 forceps-assisted deliveries). No differences in obstetric,
      intrapartum or neonatal characteristics were observed between the study groups,
      with the following exceptions: birthweight (3229 +/- 482 uncomplicated deliveries
      vs. 3623 +/- 406 complicated deliveries; p < 0.003) and number of vacuum
      tractions (1.4 uncomplicated deliveries, 4.5 complicated deliveries; p < 0.0005).
      The strongest predictors of a complicated delivery, using the area under the
      receiver-operating characteristics curve (AUC), were the angle of progression
      with active pushing (AoP2) (AUC 86.9%) and the progression distance with active
      pushing (PD2) (AUC 74.5%). The optimal cut-off value for predicting a difficult
      operative delivery was an AoP2 of 153.5 degrees  (sensitivity 95.2%; false
      positive rate 5.9%) or PD2 of 58.5 mm (sensitivity 95.2%; false-positive rate
      7.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The sonographic parameters AoP2 and PD2 can be used to
      predict cases of complicated operative deliveries in nulliparous women.

PMID- 28889407
TI  - Mucinous adenocarcinoma with lepidic pattern and with K-RAS mutation in a newborn
      with antenatal diagnosis of congenital pulmonary airway malformation.

PMID- 28889454
TI  - Intrafamilial variability of the triphalangeal thumb phenotype in a Dutch
      population: Evidence for phenotypic progression over generations?
AB  - Triphalangeal thumbs (TPTs) are regularly caused by mutations in the ZRS in
      LMBR1. Phenotypic variability can be present in TPT-families. However, recent
      observations suggest an increased occurrence of severe phenotypes in the Dutch
      TPT-population. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the
      progression of the clinical severity of TPT-phenotype through generations. Index
      patients from a Dutch TPT-population were identified. A 105C>G mutation in the
      ZRS has previously been confirmed in this population. Questionnaires regarding
      family occurrence and phenotypes were distributed. Subsequently, families were
      visited to validate the phenotype. Both occurrence and inheritance patterns of
      the TPT-phenotype were analyzed through multiple generations. One hundred seventy
      patients with TPT were identified from 11 families. When considering all 132
      segregations (parent-to-child transmission), 54% of the segregations produced a
      stable phenotype, 38% produced a more severe phenotype while only 8% of the
      phenotype was less severe when compared to the affected parents. Overall, 71% of
      the index patients had a more severe phenotype compared to their great
      grandparent. Although all family members share an identical mutation in the ZRS
      (105C>G), it does not explain the wide phenotypic range of anomalies. Our
      observational study provides better estimations for counseling and provides new
      insights in the long-range regulation of SHH by the ZRS-enhancer. In the current
      study, we provide evidence that the assumed variability in TPT-phenotype is not
      random, but in fact it is more likely that the expression becomes more severe in
      the next generation. Therefore, we observe a pattern that resembles phenotypic
      anticipation in TPT-families.

PMID- 28889455
TI  - Management of primary aldosteronism in patients with adrenal hemorrhage following
      adrenal vein sampling: A brief review with illustrative cases.
AB  - The authors describe the clinical investigation of two cases of primary
      aldosteronism with adrenal hemorrhage (AH) following adrenal vein sampling. A
      literature review was conducted regarding the medical management of primary
      aldosteronism in patients with AH following adrenal vein sampling. Guidelines on
      the management of primary aldosteronism with AH following adrenal vein sampling
      are lacking. The two patients were followed with serial imaging to document
      resolution of AH and treated medically with excellent blood pressure response.
      Resolution of AH was achieved, but a repeat adrenal vein sampling was deferred
      given the increased morbidity risk associated with a repeat procedure.

PMID- 28889456
TI  - Harmine promotes periodontal ligament cell-induced tissue regeneration.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: to investigate whether harmine has a promotive effect on human
      periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs)-induced tissue regeneration. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Various concentrations of harmine on hPDLCs proliferation were tested.
      Osteogenic and cementogenic characteristics were examined in hPDLC/rhBMP-2 and
      hPDLC/harmine by alizarin red S staining, real-time PCR, and Western blotting
      assay. The activity of harmine was investigated in an ectopic transplantation
      nude mouse model. RESULTS: We determined that 10 MUM of harmine was the threshold
      concentration. hPDLC/harmine showed similar mineralized nodule formation in
      alizarin S staining compared to hPDLC/rhBMP-2. In real-time PCR, the highest gene
      expression level was observed for Runx2 in hPDLC/harmine at all time points. The
      level of CEMP-1 in hPDLC/harmine was higher at 7 days than hPDLCs alone. Thicker
      band of Runx2 in hPDLC/harmine was observed than in hPDLC/rhBMP-2 at 7 days by
      Western blotting. The band for CEMP-1 in hPDLC/harmine was thicker than hPDLCs
      alone at both 7 and 14 days. In ectopic transplantation, hPDLCs with harmine
      showed a comparable amount of mineralized tissue formation compared to rhBMP-2.
      hPDLCs with harmine or rhBMP-2 formed both bone and cementum-like tissue with
      Sharpey's fiber-like collagen insertion. CONCLUSION: Harmine can be a potential
      candidate for promoting hPDLCs-induced tissue regeneration.

PMID- 28889457
TI  - Registries as real-world cohort studies that are useful and necessary in the
      pyramid of evidence.

PMID- 28889479
TI  - Associations of oral fluid MMP-8 with periodontitis in Swiss adult subjects.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: MMP-8 is a prominent collagenase in periodontal disease. This cross
      sectional study examined whether MMP-8 levels in saliva and gingival crevicular
      fluid (GCF) are associated with periodontitis in a Swiss population. SUBJECTS AND
      METHODS: A total of 258 subjects (107 m, 151 f, mean age: 43.5 yr; range: 21-58
      yr) acquired from the Swiss bone marrow donor registry participated in the study.
      Saliva and GCF samples were collected from subjects followed by a thorough dental
      and periodontal examination. MMP-8 levels were determined with immunofluorometric
      assay. Associations of MMP-8 levels with periodontal diagnosis, probing pocket
      depth (PPD) and bleeding on probing were statistically analysed with Pearson chi
      square test, Spearman's rho and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: MMP-8 in
      GCF correlated with MMP-8 in saliva (p < .001). Periodontitis was more common (p
      < .001) among subjects with high levels of MMP-8 in saliva and/or GCF compared
      with subjects with low levels of MMP-8. Higher MMP-8 levels in GCF and saliva
      were associated with any periodontal diagnosis (mild, moderate or severe),
      greater PPD, and bleeding on probing (p < .05). When age, gender, smoking, body
      mass index, number of medications and decayed, missing and filled teeth were
      adjusted for, all observed associations remained statistically significant. The
      area under curve of receiver-operating characteristic was 0.67 for saliva and
      0.71 for GCF. CONCLUSION: Elevated MMP-8 levels both in saliva and GCF are
      associated with periodontitis in a normal adult population.

PMID- 28889480
TI  - Why do surgeons receive more complaints than their physician peers?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Compared with other doctors, surgeons are at an increased risk of
      medicolegal events, including patient complaints and negligence claims. This
      retrospective study aimed to describe the frequency and nature of complaints
      involving surgeons compared with physicians. METHODS: We assembled a national
      data set of complaints about surgeons and physicians lodged with medical
      regulators in Australia from 2011 to 2016. We classified the complaints into 19
      issues across four domains: treatment and procedures, other performance,
      professional conduct and health. We assessed differences in complaint risk using
      incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Finally, we used a multivariate model to identify
      predictors of complaints among surgeons. RESULTS: The rate of complaints was 2.3
      times higher for surgeons than physicians (112 compared with 48 complaints per
      1000 practice years, P < 0.001). Two-fifths (41%) of the higher rate of
      complaints among surgeons was attributable to issues other than treatments and
      procedures, including fees (IRR = 2.68), substance use (IRR = 2.10),
      communication (IRR = 1.98) and interpersonal behaviour (IRR = 1.92). Male
      surgeons were at a higher risk of complaints, as were specialists in
      orthopaedics, plastic surgery and neurosurgery. DISCUSSION: Surgeons are more
      than twice as likely to attract complaints as their physician peers. This
      elevated risk arises partly from involvement in surgical procedures and
      treatments, but also reflects wider concerns about interpersonal skills,
      professional ethics and substance use. Improved understanding of these patterns
      may assist efforts to reduce harm and support safe practise.

PMID- 28889481
TI  - Review of the biologic and clinical significance of genetic mutations in
      angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
AB  - Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) is an age-related malignant lymphoma,
      characterized by immune system-dysregulated symptoms. Recent sequencing studies
      have clarified the recurrent mutations in ras homology family member A (RHOA) and
      in genes encoding epigenetic regulators, tet methyl cytosine dioxygenase 2
      (TET2), DNA methyl transferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A) and isocitrate dehydrogenase 2,
      mitochondrial (IDH2), as well as those related to the T-cell receptor signaling
      pathway in AITL. In this review, we focus on how this genetic information has
      changed the understanding of the developmental process of AITL and will in future
      lead to individualized therapies for AITL patients.

PMID- 28889482
TI  - TLR-Induced SMPD3 Defects Enhance Inflammatory Response of B Cell and Macrophage
      in the Pathogenesis of SLE.
AB  - B lymphocyte and macrophages may contribute to SLE pathogenesis through cytokine
      production after TLR stimulation. Emerging evidences suggested that defects of
      sphingolipid metabolism were responsible for SLE pathogenesis. However, it is not
      clear whether these defects exist in B cells and macrophages under SLE condition
      and whether TLR signalling pathway was related to the dysfunction of sphingolipid
      metabolism in SLE. Here, we demonstrated that the enzymes involved in the
      sphingolipid metabolism expressed abnormally in B cells from SLE patients and
      lupus-prone mice. Moreover, we found that TLR signalling induced the abnormal
      expression of sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase 3 (SMPD3), sphingosine-1-phosphate
      phosphatase 2 (SGPP2), ceramide kinase (CERK) and UDP glycosyltransferase 8
      (UGT8), which were involved in sphingolipid metabolism. TLR signalling also
      induced the transportation of SMPD3 from Golgi apparatus. Furthermore, the
      dysfunction of SMPD3 enhanced TLR-induced inflammatory response of B cells and
      macrophages in turn. Thus, these findings provide an innovative direction and a
      new target for research and treatment of SLE.

PMID- 28889522
TI  - Salidroside, a Chemopreventive Glycoside, Diminishes Cytotoxic Effect of
      Cisplatin in Vitro.
AB  - Natural products represent the source or the inspiration for the majority of the
      active ingredients of medicines because of their structural diversity and a wide
      range of biological effects. Our aims in this study were (i) to synthesize
      enzymatically salidroside (SAL), the most effective phenylethanoid glycoside in
      Rhodiola species; (ii) to examine its antioxidant capacity using cell-free assays
      (reducing power, DPPH radicals scavenging and Fe2+ -chelating assays); (iii) to
      assess its DNA-protective potential on plasmid DNA (DNA topology assay) and in
      HepG2 cells (comet assay) damaged by Fe2+ ions and hydrogen peroxide,
      respectively; and (iv) to investigate the effects of SAL, cisplatin (CDDP) and
      combined treatments of SAL + CDDP on cell viability (MTT test), level of DNA
      damage (comet assay), proliferation, cell cycle (flow cytometry) and the
      expression of signalling molecules associated with cell growth and apoptotic
      pathways (Western immunoblotting). We found out that SAL manifested low
      antioxidant and DNA-protective capacity in all assays used. In both parental
      A2780 and CDDP-resistant A2780/CP human ovarian carcinoma cells, SAL itself
      exerted in fact no impact on the viability, while in combination with CDDP it
      showed antagonistic effect supporting the chemopreventive activity on the CDDP
      induced cell damage. These results were confirmed by the partial reversal of the
      cell cycle alterations and the DNA damage level, as well as with partial
      restoration of cell survival/signalling pathways, when the expression of these
      molecules partially returned to their proper levels.

PMID- 28889556
TI  - Short-term visual outcome after unilateral implantation of a trifocal diffractive
      presbyopia-correcting intraocular lens.

PMID- 28889523
TI  - The epithelioid BAP1-negative and p16-positive phenotype predicts prolonged
      survival in pleural mesothelioma.
AB  - AIMS: Mesothelioma is a relatively uncommon but highly malignant neoplasm. Most
      patients die of disease within 1 year of diagnosis, but some have prolonged
      survival. Prospective identification of these longer-term survivors may help to
      guide treatment. We therefore sought to investigate the role of p16
      immunohistochemistry (IHC) both alone and in combination with other markers as a
      potential predictor of prolonged survival in mesothelioma. METHODS AND RESULTS:
      P16 IHC was performed on unselected pleural mesotheliomas biopsied from 1991 to
      2014; 153 of 208 (74%) cases were p16-negative, which correlated significantly
      with poor overall survival in both univariate (median survival 7.6 versus 13.6
      months; P = 0.001) and multivariate analysis [hazard ratio (HR): 1.632; 95%
      confidence interval (CI): 1.103-2.415; P = 0.014]. Other independent factors
      associated with prolonged survival included loss of expression of BAP1 and
      epithelioid morphology. We therefore stratified patients further based on these
      three independent prognostic variables and demonstrated an unusually prolonged
      survival in mesotheliomas which were epithelioid, BAP1 IHC negative and p16 IHC
      positive (12% of cases, median survival 31.7 months, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In
      conclusion, p16 IHC is an independent prognostic biomarker in pleural
      mesothelioma. When used in combination with BAP1 IHC and morphological subtyping,
      patients with exceptionally prolonged survival can potentially be identified.

PMID- 28889573
TI  - Pyrazolidine-3,5-dione-based inhibitors of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase as a
      new class of potential C4 plant herbicides.
AB  - Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) is a key enzyme in the C4 photosynthetic
      pathway of many of the world's worst weeds and a valuable target to develop C4
      plant-selective herbicides. By virtual screening, analog synthesis, and in vitro
      validation, we identified pyrazolidine-3,5-diones as a new class of small
      molecules with inhibitory potential down to the submicromolar range against C4
      PEPC and a selectivity factor of up to 16 over C3 PEPC. No other biological
      activity has yet been reported for the best compound, (3-bromophenyl)-4-(3
      hydroxybenzylidene)-pyrazolidine-3,5-dione. A systematic variation in the
      substituents allowed the derivation of a qualitative structure-activity
      relationship. These findings make this compound class highly interesting for
      further investigations toward generating potent, C4 plant-selective herbicides
      with a low potential for unwanted effects.

PMID- 28889600
TI  - Normothermic ex vivo kidney perfusion for graft quality assessment prior to
      transplantation.
AB  - Normothermic ex vivo kidney perfusion (NEVKP) represents a novel approach for
      graft preservation and functional improvement in kidney transplantation. We
      investigated whether NEVKP also allows graft quality assessment before
      transplantation. Kidneys from 30-kg pigs were recovered in a model of heart
      beating donation (group A) after 30 minutes (group B) or 60 minutes (group C) (n
      = 5/group) of warm ischemia. After 8 hours of NEVKP, contralateral kidneys were
      resected, grafts were autotransplanted, and the pigs were followed for 3 days.
      After transplantation, renal function measured based on peak serum creatinine
      differed significantly among groups (P < .05). Throughout NEVKP, intrarenal
      resistance was lowest in group A and highest in group C (P < .05). intrarenal
      resistance at the initiation of NEVKP correlated with postoperative renal
      function (P < .001 at NEVKP hour 1). Markers of acid-base homeostasis (pH, HCO3-
      , base excess) differed among groups (P < .05) and correlated with
      posttransplantation renal function (P < .001 for pH at NEVKP hour 1). Similarly,
      lactate and aspartate aminotransferase were lowest in noninjured grafts versus
      donation after circulatory death kidneys (P < .05) and correlated with
      posttransplantation kidney function (P < .001 for lactate at NEVKP hour 1). In
      conclusion, assessment of perfusion characteristics and clinically available
      perfusate biomarkers during NEVKP allows the prediction of posttransplantation
      graft function. Thus, NEVKP might allow decision-making regarding whether grafts
      are suitable for transplantation.

PMID- 28889619
TI  - Alternate dosing regimens of brentuximab vedotin for CD30+ cutaneous T-cell
      lymphoma: reply from the authors.

PMID- 28889641
TI  - Design of sodium channel ligands with defined selectivity - a case study in
      scorpion alpha-toxins.
AB  - Scorpion alpha-toxins are polypeptides that inhibit voltage-gated sodium channel
      inactivation. They are divided into mammal, insect and alpha-like toxins based on
      their relative activity toward different phyla. Several factors are currently
      known to influence the selectivity, which are not just particular amino acid
      residues but also general physical, chemical, and topological properties of toxin
      structural modules. The objective of this study was to change the selectivity
      profile of a chosen broadly active alpha-like toxin, BeM9 from Mesobuthus eupeus,
      toward mammal-selective. Based on the available information on what determines
      scorpion alpha-toxin selectivity, we designed and produced msBeM9, a BeM9
      derivative, which was verified to be exclusively active toward mammalian sodium
      channels and, most importantly, toward the Nav 1.2 isoform expressed in the
      brain.

PMID- 28889650
TI  - Correlation of Recommendations of Treatment Guidelines and Frequently Prescribed
      Antibiotics: Evaluation of Their Pharmaceutical Pack Size.
AB  - There are various factors that contribute to development of antimicrobial
      resistance. Overuse, inappropriate prescribing and extensive agricultural use of
      antibiotics are some of the factors which have been identified. Antibiotics are
      almost always universally packaged by manufacturers in packs that are heavily
      driven by cost of economies and convenience rather than by any scientific basis
      or duration of therapy. So, in this study, the correlation of the treatment
      guidelines with the choice of antibiotics and whether packing size contributes to
      leftover dosing units when used according to guideline recommendations were
      assessed.

PMID- 28889651
TI  - Living donor liver transplantation for biliary atresia: An analysis of 2085 cases
      in the registry of the Japanese Liver Transplantation Society.
AB  - Biliary atresia (BA) is the most common indication for liver transplantation (LT)
      in pediatric population. This study analyzed the comprehensive factors that might
      influence the outcomes of patients with BA who undergo living donor LT by
      evaluating the largest cohort with the longest follow-up in the world. Between
      November 1989 and December 2015, 2,085 BA patients underwent LDLT in Japan. There
      were 763 male and 1,322 female recipients with a mean age of 5.9 years and body
      weight of 18.6 kg. The 1-, 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year graft survival rates for the
      BA patients undergoing LDLT were 90.5%, 90.4%, 84.6%, 82.0%, and 79.9%,
      respectively. The donor body mass index, ABO incompatibility, graft type,
      recipient age, center experience, and transplant era were found to be significant
      predictors of the overall graft survival. Adolescent age (12 to <18 years) was
      associated with a significantly worse long-term graft survival rate than younger
      or older ages. We conclude that LDLT for BA is a safe and effective treatment
      modality that does not compromise living donors. The optimum timing for LT is
      crucial for a successful outcome, and early referral to transplantation center
      can improve the short-term outcomes of LT for BA. Further investigation of the
      major cause of death in liver transplanted recipients with BA in the long-term is
      essential, especially among adolescents.

PMID- 28889652
TI  - Dynamics and function of ERM proteins during cytokinesis in human cells.
AB  - The molecular mechanism that governs cytoskeleton-membrane interaction during
      animal cytokinesis remains elusive. Here, we investigated the dynamics and
      functions of ERM (Ezrin/Radixin/Moesin) proteins during cytokinesis in human
      cultured cells. We found that ezrin is recruited to the cleavage furrow through
      its membrane-associated domain in a cholesterol-dependent but largely Rho
      independent manner. While ERMs are dispensable for furrow ingression, they play a
      pivotal role in contractile activity of the polar cortex. Notably, when anillin
      and supervillin are codepleted, ERMs increasingly accumulate at the cleavage
      furrow and substantially contribute to the furrow ingression. These results
      reveal a supportive role of ERMs in cortical activities during cytokinesis, and
      also provide insight into the selective mechanism that preferentially associates
      cytokinesis-relevant proteins with the division site.

PMID- 28889653
TI  - Chronic actinic dermatitis: successful treatment with psoralen-ultraviolet A
      photochemotherapy.

PMID- 28889642
TI  - Treating pediatric neuromuscular disorders: The future is now.
AB  - Pediatric neuromuscular diseases encompass all disorders with onset in childhood
      and where the primary area of pathology is in the peripheral nervous system.
      These conditions are largely genetic in etiology, and only those with a genetic
      underpinning will be presented in this review. This includes disorders of the
      anterior horn cell (e.g., spinal muscular atrophy), peripheral nerve (e.g.,
      Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease), the neuromuscular junction (e.g., congenital
      myasthenic syndrome), and the muscle (myopathies and muscular dystrophies).
      Historically, pediatric neuromuscular disorders have uniformly been considered to
      be without treatment possibilities and to have dire prognoses. This perception
      has gradually changed, starting in part with the discovery and widespread
      application of corticosteroids for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. At present,
      several exciting therapeutic avenues are under investigation for a range of
      conditions, offering the potential for significant improvements in patient
      morbidities and mortality and, in some cases, curative intervention. In this
      review, we will present the current state of treatment for the most common
      pediatric neuromuscular conditions, and detail the treatment strategies with the
      greatest potential for helping with these devastating diseases.

PMID- 28889654
TI  - Patient-reported health outcomes in long-term lung transplantation survivors: A
      prospective cohort study.
AB  - During the last three decades lung transplantation (LTx) has become a proven
      modality for increasing both survival and health-related quality of life (HRQoL)
      in patients with various end-stage lung diseases. Most previous studies have
      reported improved HRQoL shortly after LTx. With regard to long-term effects on
      HRQoL, however, the evidence is less solid. This prospective cohort study was
      started with 828 patients who were on the waiting list for LTx. Then, in a
      longitudinal follow-up, 370 post-LTx patients were evaluated annually for up to
      15 years. For all wait-listed and follow-up patients, the following four HRQoL
      instruments were administered: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Zung Self-rating
      Depression Scale, Nottingham Health Profile, and a visual analogue scale. Cross
      sectional and generalized estimating equation (GEE) analysis for repeated
      measures were performed to assess changes in HRQoL during follow-up. After LTx,
      patients showed improvement in all HRQoL domains except pain, which remained
      steady throughout the long-term follow-up. The level of anxiety and depressive
      symptoms decreased significantly and remained constant. In conclusion, this study
      showed that HRQoL improves after LTx and tends to remain relatively constant for
      the entire life span.

PMID- 28889657
TI  - The physiologic pattern of normal labour progression.

PMID- 28889694
TI  - [Highlights for our Congress, in November].

PMID- 28889695
TI  - [SPCCTV & SPA Scientific Meeting].

PMID- 28889697
TI  - [Professor Americo Dinis da Gama Award].

PMID- 28889696
TI  - [Why publishing is so important?]

PMID- 28889698
TI  - [Coronary artery bypass grafting in the octogenarians: should we just leave them
      alone?]

PMID- 28889699
TI  - Elective and urgent coronary surgery in octogenarians.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To analyze the influence of surgical myocardial revascularization on
      early and late mortality in octogenarians and compare the survival rates with age
      adjusted general population. METHODS: Between 2007 and 2014, 182 octogenarian
      patients underwent elective or urgent coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.
      Logistic regression was performed to evaluate the in-hospital mortality
      predictors. The comparison of long term survival between our population and age
      adjusted general population was made using one-sample log-rank test. RESULTS: The
      in-hospital mortality was 4,4% and its predictors on univariable analysis were
      non sinus rhythm (p=0,001), acute coronary syndrome less than 7 days prior to
      surgery (p=0,021), ejection fraction less than 50% (p=0,04) and the need for
      conversion to on pump surgery (p=0,04). On multivariate logistic regression non
      sinus rhythm and acute myocardial infarction less than 7 days before surgery were
      independent predictors of in-hospital mortality. Follow-up at one-year showed
      survival rate of 86,2% and at five years 58,4%. There was no significant
      difference in survival rates between the study group and the age adjusted
      standard population (p=0,96). The group was divided in two groups: (1) complete
      revascularization and (2) incomplete revascularization. There was no significant
      difference in survival (p=0,32 and p=0,19, respectively) compared to the age
      adjusted standard population. CONCLUSIONS: Coronary artery bypass grafting in
      octogenarians is safe and has an important impact on long term survival, with
      five-year survival being similar to the age adjusted standard population.

PMID- 28889700
TI  - [De novo atrial fibrillation following aortic valve replacement surgery].
AB  - : Objetives: The present study aimed to explore the risk factors associated with
      de novo atrial fibrillation following isolated aortic valve replacement surgery
      and its prevalence in a high volume cardiothoracic surgery center. METHODS: This
      is a cross-sectional retrospective observational study including all patients
      submitted to isolated aortic valve replacement surgery during 2014 and the
      corresponding data. Patients with previous history of atrial fibrillation,
      endocarditis or aortic valve prosthesis were excluded. The statistical analysis
      was conducted according to the type of variables concerned. RESULTS: One hundred
      and seventy-three patients were included and 45.1% had de novo atrial
      fibrillation, with a median occurrence on 2.4 +/-1.5 days of the postoperative
      period. Age was significantly associated with the arrhythmia (p=0.028). Atrial
      fibrillation patients had a significantly lower minimum of postoperative
      creatinine clearance (p=0.026) and a higher postoperative plasmatic C-reactive
      protein peak (p=0.025). Arrhythmic patients had a median time of hospital stay
      significantly superior to those who did not develop atrial fibrillation
      (p=0.008). Hospital mortality was low and similar between groups (3%, p=0.796).
      DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: This study confirms the high prevalence of atrial
      fibrillation following aortic valve replacement surgery. The increased C-reactive
      protein and decreased creatinine clearance reinforce the importance of
      inflammation in its pathophysiology. The longer hospital stay in these patients
      also contributes to the importance of atrial fibrillation prevention and risk
      stratification.

PMID- 28889701
TI  - [Surgical treatment of type A acute aortic syndrome: a single-center 10-year
      experience].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute Aortic Syndrome (AAS) affecting the ascending aorta still
      represents a challenge to cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, being
      associated with high mortality even with early surgery. AIMS: To describe the
      immediate post-operative results and long-term survival after the surgical
      treatment of type A AAS. Secondary outcomes include hospital mortality, length of
      hospital stay and long-term mortality. METHODS: Retrospective longitudinal study,
      including all patients who underwent ascending aorta replacement for surgical
      treatment of type A AAS, in a tertiary center, between January 2005 and December
      2015. Preoperative, surgical and postoperative characteristics were evaluated. In
      addition to the descriptive analysis, the impact of some variables on long-term
      mortality, hospital mortality and length of hospital stay was evaluated. RESULTS:
      We included 78 patients, the most common type of AAS was aortic dissection
      (92,3%). 6 patients died at operation room and 12 in the immediate post-operative
      period, completing 23,1% of in-hospital mortality. Considering 60 survivors who
      were followed by a mean time of 5 years, maximum of 12, we registered a
      cumulative survival at 1, 3, 5, 10-years of 93,5%, 84,3%, 77% and 69,5%,
      respectively. Marfan Syndrome was found to be a risk factor of higher long term
      mortality (HR: 3,85, p=0,045). CONCLUSION: Our study confirms previous
      observations associating AAS type A with high rates of morbidity and mortality,
      despite significant advances in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.

PMID- 28889702
TI  - [Video-assisted thoracic sympathectomy - the results from a center outpatient
      surgery program].
AB  - BACKGROUND: The outpatient surgery program from our department has started in
      2014 to improve patient access to surgery and to reduce the surgical waitlist.
      Focused on the thoracic surgery, the most common intervention is the surgical
      treatment of primary hyperhidrosis by thoracic sympathectomy by video-assisted
      thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). It is performed according to the patient's
      symptoms, with section or application of surgical clips between R2-R5. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Retrospective study including all the patients submitted to thoracic
      sympathectomy by video- -assisted thoracoscopy surgery from our department's
      outpatient surgery program from January 2014 to January 2016. RESULTS: In our
      outpatient program we performed 198 thoracic sympathectomy by VATS. The mean age
      of the patients was 32,8 years old. 63,6% of the patients were females and 36.4%
      were males. From the 198 endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy performed, 181 (91,4%)
      were performed bilatellary with section between R3-R5, 12 (6,1%) were performed
      with the application of surgical clips in R2-R4 and 3 (1.5%) could not be
      performed due to the presence of pleuropulmonary adhesions. One of the patients
      was re-operated due to recurrent symptoms and another patients had surgery to
      remove the surgical clips (bilaterally in R2) due to exaggerated abdominal
      compensatory hyperhidrosis. Three patients had pneumothorax. CONCLUSION: The
      surgical treatment of primary hyperhidrosis was the most frequent procedure in
      our outpatient surgery program. The procedure without the use of a thoracic
      drainage allowed its inclusion in the outpatient surgery program. Excluding 3
      patients, all the patients were discharged within 12 hours after the surgery. The
      good results and the reduction of the surgical waitlist encourage the
      cardiothoracic outpatient surgery program.

PMID- 28889703
TI  - A rare cause of hoarseness in a young patient.
AB  - Syphilis is nowadays a rare cause of aortic aneurysms in developed countries.
      Commonly saccular, syphilitic aneurysms are frequently single, involving the
      ascending aorta and arch and are frequently asymptomatic unless large enough to
      cause symptoms due to compression of surrounding structures or death from
      rupture. In this paper, the authors present the case of a 32-years old patient
      presenting with progressive weakness, anorexia, weight loss and hoarseness, who
      was diagnosed with a multiple saccular aortic aneurysms, which were syphilitic in
      nature. The patient underwent surgery for a hemiarch replacement after receiving
      a cycle of antibiotics and had an uneventful recovery. This case illustrates
      that, although rare, syphilis must be recognized as a potential source of
      aneurismal disease as it warrants antibiotic therapy and screening of involvement
      of other organs.

PMID- 28889704
TI  - [The question of the biological behavior of EVAR: thirty years later, history
      repeats itself].

PMID- 28889705
TI  - Endoleak type II post-EVAR - predictive factors and therapeutic intervention -
      single centre experience in 100 EVAR procedures.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) has significantly altered the
      therapeutic strategy for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), due to less
      invasiveness and lower perioperative morbi-mortality. However, specific
      complications such as persistent type 2 endoleak (pT2E, present > 6 months after
      EVAR) have been associated with adverse outcomes. However conflicting results
      from heterogeneous studies, failed to support an optimal threshold for
      intervention. The purpose of this study was to identify predictive factors
      associated with pT2E. METHODS: The clinical data of the last 100 patients
      admitted for EVAR in our hospital until April 2016 were retrospec- tively
      reviewed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS V.22. RESULTS: We
      analyzed 100 cases of EVAR, performed with a branched stentgraft for AAA or aorto
      iliac aneurysms. Most cases (n=83) were performed electively but 17 were
      performed for ruptured AAA. No pre-operative inferior mesen- teric artery (IMA)
      coil embolization was performed. A pT2E was observed by Computed Tomography
      Angiography (CTA) in 21 cases (21%). Univariate analysis of risk factors for pT2E
      revealed that the number of patent lumbar arteries, patent IMA, platelet
      antiaggregants, absence of thoracic aortic aneurysm, and ruptured AAA were risk
      factors for pT2E (p<0.05). Binary logistic regression concluded platelet
      antiaggregants and increasing number of patent lumbars were independent risk
      factors for pT2E (p<0.05). DISCUSSION: Recently, pT2E that persists over a long
      period of time following EVAR has been reported to be involved in aneurysm sac
      growth, open conversion and rupture. Identification of pT2E predictive factors is
      crucial to prevent compli- cations and to consider measures such as pre-operative
      IMA coil embolization. We identified the number of patent lumbar arteries, the
      presence of patent IMA, platelet antiaggregants, absence of thoracic aortic
      aneurysm and ruptured AAA as sta- tistically significant risk factors for pT2E
      (p<0.05).

PMID- 28889706
TI  - [Endovascular Revascularization for Diabetic Foot Ulcer - Experience from a
      Dedicated Clinic].
AB  - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the outcome of endovascular revascularization in
      Diabetic patients with Fontaine stage IV chronic ischaemia, at our Diabetic Foot
      Clinic. Primary outcomes were ulcer healing, major amputation and limb salvage.
      METHODS: Retrospective single center analysis of patients treated between January
      2009 and May 2015. Time-dependent event rates were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier
      method. The differences between groups were evaluated with the chi-square test. A
      P value below 0,05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: There were
      106 limbs (93 patients) revascularized during the study. The average age was 71
      years, and PEDIS 3 or 4 infection was present in 45.3% on admission. 56.6% were
      treated for femoropopliteal injurie only, 17% infrapopliteal, and 26.4% for both
      levels. Technical success was achieved in 77.4%, and haemodynamic success in
      58.3%. Ulcer healing was attained in 53.8%, with an average healing time of 8.4
      months. The major amputation rate was 7.5%, with a limb salvage rate of 90.4% at
      6, 12 and 24 months. Chronic pulmo- nary disease decreased the likelihood of
      healing (p=0,012). Restenosis was more likely to occur in patients with
      nephropathy (p=0,008) or insulin-treated diabetes (p=0,033). CONCLUSIONS:
      Dedicated multidisciplinary teams are key to successful treatment in diabetic
      foot disease. The good results achieved in our series arise from best medical
      treatment combined with timely revascularization in those ischemic.

PMID- 28889707
TI  - [Causes of death after revascularization of the lower limbs through surgery and
      angioplasty in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 2006 and 2011].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The underlying cause of death is the single diagnosis to which the
      cause of death is attributed. Other diagnostic codes written in the death
      certificate are the multiple causes. The study of the multiple causes allows the
      identification of the diseases present in the death. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the
      underlying and multiple causes of death after revascularization of the lower
      limbs using open surgery or angioplasty. METHODS: Two databases of the Public
      Health System of Rio de Janeiro were used: Authorizations for Hospitalizations
      2006/10, and Statements of Deaths 2006/11. Probabilistic linkage of records
      between databases was performed using the Stata program. RESULTS: The most
      frequent underlying and multiple cause of death was Diabetes mellitus. The second
      was the systemic atherosclerotic disease represented by peripheral arterial
      disease, ischemic coronary disease and cerebrovascular disease. The analysis of
      multiple causes revealed septicemia, iatrogenic and complications after surgery,
      as well as renal failure after angio- plasty. Patients submitted to lower limb
      revascularization procedures had a higher overall mortality rate than the
      population of the State of Rio de Janeiro over 50 years of age, for all causes
      and specific ones. CONCLUSION: The period of highest risk of death was up to 30
      days after hospital discharge, demonstrating the need to improve medical and
      hospital care before, during and after procedures. The study of multiple causes
      revealed adverse events and complications that were not chosen as the underlying
      cause.

PMID- 28889708
TI  - Outcomes in carotid endarterectomy in a portuguese tertiary care hospital.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Indication for CAE is a balance of long-term benefit of stroke
      reduction compared with the best medical treatment. The purpose of this study is
      to describe the postoperative complications in patients submitted to CEA between
      Octo- ber 2015 and July 2016. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in
      patients scheduled for CEA between October 2015 and July 2016. This study
      involved 89 patients. Data were obtained from electronic clinical charts.
      EXCLUSION CRITERIA: simultaneous CEA and cardiac surgery. All analysis was
      calculated with software SPSS. RESULTS: We had registered 57 complications in the
      89 patients. 14% were neurological complications. 82% were non- -neurologic
      complications. 2 patients died. Perioperative stroke and cervical hematoma were
      statistically more frequent compa- red to the literature. CONCLUSION: 57
      complications were observed, most were non-neurological. Comparing to the
      literature, perioperative stroke and cervical hematoma occurrence was higher.

PMID- 28889709
TI  - [Deep vein thrombosis in the pediatric population - a rare entity of uncertain
      prognosis].
AB  - Deep vein thrombosis, whose prevalence remains unknown in the pediatric
      population, is an increasingly common diag- nosis in this age group. This
      increased incidence makes the post-thrombotic syndrome a likely long-term
      complication, so there is a critical need to establish high quality evidence over
      its suitable approach in this population. We present two cases of deep vein
      thrombosis in children and their management in a hospital of the northern region
      of Portugal, reviewing the literature on this under researched subject. In
      conclusion, further investigation is needed to assess the incidence, the
      prevalence, the predictors and the safety and efficacy of therapies for the
      prevention and appropriate treatment of deep vein thrombosis in children and
      eventual post- -thrombotic syndrome.

PMID- 28889710
TI  - Acute focal dissection of Kommerell's diverticulum.

PMID- 28889711
TI  - Renal artery aneurysm in a young patient with a solitary kidney.

PMID- 28889712
TI  - Mini-invasive aortic valve replacement: How we do it.

PMID- 28889713
TI  - [Cardiac Surgery - a New Paradigm].

PMID- 28889714
TI  - [Clinical Study of HoLEP for the Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia who
      are on Oral Antithrombotics].
AB  - Recently, holmium laserenucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) was associated with
      less bleeding compared with transurethral resection of prostate. Since 2012, we
      have performed HoLEP for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) under continuous oral
      antithrombotics (OA). Between October 2004 and March 2015, 54 patients with BPH
      underwent HoLEP while on OA at our hospital. Eight patients underwent HoLEP
      without OA cessation and 46 patients with temporary OA cessation. No significant
      between-group difference was observed in age, prostate volume, transitional zone
      prostate volume, operation time, resection weight, resection weight per minute,
      urethral catheter duration, Hb decrease on day 1 post- HoLEP, hospital stay after
      HoLEP, bleeding intraoperative rate, bleeding rate after HoLEP and transfusion
      rate. None presented embolic complications. HoLEP was safe without OA cessation.
      However, highvolume BPH patients without OA cessation required intraoperative
      transfusion. Thus, high-volume BPH patients may benefit from OA cessation.

PMID- 28889715
TI  - [Simultaneous Hepatorenal Transplantation from a Brain-Dead Donor for Graft
      Dysfunction and Renal Insufficiency in a Liver Transplant Recipient : A Case
      Report].
AB  - We report a case of lethal hepatorenal insufficiency in a 52-year-old man who
      received successful simultaneous hepatorenal transplantation from a deceased
      donor. The patient had undergone live-donor liver transplantation for type-C
      hepatitis and liver cirrhosis 11 years before he developed graft liver
      dysfunction due to recurrent viral hepatitis and cirrhosis. At that instance, he
      also developed end-stage renal dysfunction due to calcineurin inhibitor
      nephropathy and hepatorenal syndrome. Although he needed three open hemostases
      and abundant blood transfusion, he was withdrawn from continuous
      hemodiafiltration on the 55th day and discharged from the hospital on the 272nd
      day postoperatively. Simultaneous hepatorenal transplantation was reported to be
      associated with more favorable outcomes of graft function, lower rejection rates,
      but higher perioperative complication rates compared with liver transplantation
      alone in patients on hemodialysis. Particularly, close attention should be paid
      for hemostasis since patients have a hemorrhagic tendency until the recovery of
      graft liver function.

PMID- 28889716
TI  - [A Case of Primary Sigmoid Colon Lymphoma Presenting with Sigmoidovesical Fistula
      in a Patient with a Long History of Ulcerative Colitis].
AB  - A 73-year-old male patient with a 16-year history of ulcerative colitis presented
      to our hospital with a history of pneumaturia and fever. Cystoscopy and a
      computed tomography scan showed sigmoidovesical fistula. Colonoscopy showed a
      necrotic tumor along with sigmoidovesical fistula. A biopsy was not sufficient to
      make a definitive diagnosis of the tumor. Total colectomy with ileostomy and
      partial cystectomy were performed. A pathological examination showed diffuse
      large B-cell lymphoma of the sigmoid colon. On postoperative day 35, delayed
      dehiscence of the bladder wall was detected and a biopsy of the bladder wall
      showed lymphoma. Standard systemic chemotherapy (R-THP-COP) was administered and
      the defect of the bladder was closed. Three years and 2 months postoperatively,
      the patient has no local recurrence or distant metastasis.

PMID- 28889717
TI  - [A Case of Primary Schwannoma of the Urinary Bladder].
AB  - A 68-year-old woman presented with a bladder tumor. She was asymptomatic, and the
      tumor was incidentally detected with radiological imaging performed during
      treatment of cervical cancer. Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography
      revealed a solitary submucosal tumor located in the anterior wall of the urinary
      bladder, with homogeneous contrast enhancement. Cystoscopy showed a submucosal
      tumor covered by normal mucosa. A paraganglioma was considered in the
      differential diagnosis, but symptoms suggesting hypercatecholaminemia were not
      apparent. Moreover, she did not have a family history or symptoms associated with
      neurofibromatosis-1 (NF-1). She underwent partial cystectomy with a preliminary
      diagnosis of submucosal bladder tumor. Histopathological diagnosis confirmed a
      schwannoma arising from the bladder wall. She was followed up without
      intravesical recurrence or metastases for 6 months. In the literature, only 12
      cases of bladder schwannoma have been reported. There was no reported family
      history or symptoms associated with NF-1 in any of the cases. Although the number
      of cases is limited, literature review showed a favorable prognosis for bladder
      schwannoma with local tumor resection in patients without NF-1.

PMID- 28889718
TI  - [Reactive Arthritis during the Second Course of Intravesical BCG Therapy
      Requiring Administration of Methotrexate : A Case Report].
AB  - Reactive arthritis, formerly called Reiter's syndrome, is one of the rare
      complications following intravesical instillation of Bacillus Calmette Guerin
      (BCG). A 58-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of fever, hyperemia
      of conjunctiva, and arthralgia following the second course of intravesical
      instillation of BCG in the treatment of pT1 and pTis bladder cancer. We diagnosed
      him with reactive arthritis due to the clinical course. Reactive arthritis is
      usually well controlled with the discontinuation of instillation and
      administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). However, his
      symptoms were not improved after administration of NSAIDs, prednisolone, and
      isoniazid. Following initiation of methotrexate, however, there was remission. He
      has been free from recurrence of bladder cancer for 20 months.

PMID- 28889719
TI  - [Two Cases of Urethral Clear Cell Adenocarcinoma with Suspected Recurrence of
      Uterine Cancer].
AB  - Herein, we report two cases of urethral clear cell carcinoma in two patients who
      had previously undergone radical hysterectomyfor utetine cancer. Case 1 presented
      with bloodyvaginal discharge and case 2 presented with acute urinaryretention.
      Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a periurethral tumor in both cases. Both
      cases were suspected to be recurrence at first. However, pathological findings of
      the transurethral resection-biopsyshowed clear cell adenocarcinoma in both cases.
      Subsequentlyradical cystourethrectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy were performed
      in both cases. Surgical findings showed tumor invasion of the vaginal muscularis
      in case 1 and invasion of the anterior wall of the vagina and bladder neck in
      case 2. Although adjuvant postoperative therapywas not performed, there has been
      no evidence of recurrence to date.

PMID- 28889720
TI  - Presynaptic Dopaminergic Degeneration in a Patient with Beta-Propeller Protein
      Associated Neurodegeneration Documented by Dopamine Transporter Positron Emission
      Tomography Images: A Case Report.

PMID- 28889721
TI  - Spinal Myoclonus Responding to Continuous Intrathecal Morphine Pump.
AB  - Spinal myoclonus is a sudden, brief, and involuntary movement of segmental or
      propriospinal muscle groups. Spinal myoclonus has occasionally been reported in
      patients undergoing opioid therapy, but the pathophysiology of opioid-induced
      myoclonus has not been elucidated yet. Here, we present two patients with spinal
      segmental myoclonus secondary to ischemic and radiation myelopathy. Conventional
      medications did not help treat persistent myoclonus in both legs. Continuous
      intrathecal morphine infusion was implanted for pain control in one patient,
      which relieved spinal myoclonus entirely. This experience led to the application
      of this method with a second patient, leading to the same gratifying result.
      Spinal myoclonus reemerged as soon as the morphine pumps were off, which
      confirmed the therapeutic role of opioids. In contrast to the opioid-induced
      myoclonus, these cases show a benefit of opioids on spinal myoclonus, which could
      be explained by synaptic reorganization after pathologic insults in the spinal
      cord.

PMID- 28889722
TI  - Effects of central fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) in energy balance.
AB  - Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is known as a major metabolic regulator of
      glucose and lipid homeostasis. Continuous intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.)
      administration of FGF21 was found to modulate feeding and energy expenditure in
      rats with diet-induced obesity, suggesting a central effect by the peptide. In
      this context, in the present work, we studied the effects of a single central
      FGF21 administration (0.5-5 ug) on feeding and energy expenditure by evaluating
      locomotor activity, interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) weight, gene
      expression of uncoupling protein-1 (UCP-1) in BAT and plasma norepinephrine (NE)
      levels in Sprague-Dawley fed rats. In addition, we evaluated the effects of FGF21
      on orexigenic [agouti-related peptide (AgRP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY)] and
      anorexigenic [cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and
      proopiomelanocortin (POMC)] peptides, in the hypothalamus, and dopamine (DA) and
      serotonin (5-hydroxytriptamine, 5-HT) levels in nucleus accumbens (NAc). We
      confirmed that central FGF21 administration induced a significant increase in
      food intake, possibly mediated by increased NPY and AgRP, and decreased POMC and
      CART gene expression. Moreover, FGF21 could modulate the motivational aspects of
      feeding, possibly through stimulated NAc DA levels. On the other hand, our
      findings of decreased locomotor activity, BAT weight, UCP-1 gene expression and
      plasma NE levels support a role for FGF21 in decreasing energy expenditure.

PMID- 28889723
TI  - Expression of C-myc and beta-catenin and their correlation in triple negative
      breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The present study was planned to study the expression of C-myc and
      beta-catenin in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) tissue. Furthermore, their
      relations to clinical features of the tumor and the survival prognosis were also
      studied. Additionally, correlation was evaluated between the expression of C-myc
      and beta-catenin to provide the theoretical basis for the targeted therapy of
      TNBC. METHODS: Sixty cases of patients diagnosed with TNBC for the first time
      were selected for the study. The immumo-histochemical staining was employed to
      detect the positive expression rates of C-myc and beta-catenin in cancer tissues
      and normal mammary tissues 3 cm away from the carcinoma. Fluorescence in situ
      hybridization (FISH) was used to test the gene amplification of C-myc in order to
      analyze the relation between C-myc and the protein expression of beta-catenin.
      Further, kept the median follow-up time to 25.0 months in order to compare the
      survival prognosis. RESULTS: The positive expression rates of C-myc and beta
      catenin in cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in precancerous
      normal tissues (P<0.05). Furthermore, the expression rates were related with the
      diameter of tumor, clinical staging, pathological grading and lymphatic
      metastasis (P<0.5). There were 33 cases that exhibited an increase in C-myc gene
      copy number and the gene amplification was observed to be 55% in total. On the
      other hand, patients with positive expression of C-myc and beta-catenin protein
      exhibited a shortened disease-free survival without tumor with an increasing
      recurrence rate and lower survival rate (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The present study
      concludes that the positive expression of C-myc and beta-catenin in TNBC tissue
      might be closely correlated with clinical features of cancer and the survival
      prognosis.

PMID- 28889724
TI  - Effects of the combined administration of entecavir and adefovir dipivoxil to
      improve hepatic fibrosis in hepatitis B patients with interferon resistance.
AB  - BACKGROUND: To observe the effect of the combined administration of entecavir and
      adefovir dipivoxil to improve hepatic fibrosis in hepatitis B patients with
      interferon resistance. METHODS: This study comprised 90 hepatitis B patients with
      hepatic fibrosis and interferon (IFN) resistance who were admitted in the
      hospital's department of infectious disease for diagnosis and treatment between
      January 2013 and September 2015. They were randomly divided into two groups in
      accordance with the random number table: the combination treatment group (N.=45)
      and the entecavir group (N.=45). They were observed for any variations in the
      indexes of liver function and fibrosis, as well as the Model for end-stage liver
      disease (MELD) scores, before and after treatment. RESULTS: After treatment, the
      levels of the indexes in both groups (the combination treatment group vs. the
      entecavir group) were as follows: bilirubin (67.5+/-7.7 vs. 82.4+/-13.5 MUmol/L);
      International Normalized Ratio (INR) (1.21+/-0.8 vs. 1.14+/-0.7); creatinine
      (147.3+/-12.4 vs. 287.4+/-21.6 mg/dL); GGT (67.4+/-23.2 vs. 88.4+/-23.7 U/L); and
      ALT (63.4+/-40.8 vs. 96.5+/-23.5 U/L). In comparison of the indexes of hepatic
      fibrosis between the two groups, we found the following differences: PCIII
      (67.5+/-7.7 vs. 82.4+/-13.5 MUg/L); IV-C (61.3+/-18.7 vs. 74.5+/-17.9 MUg/L); HA
      (147.3+/-12.4 vs. 87.4+/-31.6 MUg/L); and LN (88.7+/-13.2 vs 102.5+/-23.4 MUg/L).
      The results showed that the differences in comparison of the indexes before and
      after the treatment were statistically significant (P<0.05). After treatment, the
      MELD score of patients in the combination treatment group was significantly lower
      than that in the entecavir group (18.7+/-3.2 vs. 22.5+/-3.4), with a
      statistically significant difference (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In the chronic
      hepatitis B patients with interferon resistance, the combined administration of
      entecavir and adefovir dipivoxil can significantly improve liver function,
      hepatic fibrosis and MELD scores. The results highlight the need to promote the
      benefits of this drug combination in helping chronic hepatitis B patients with
      interferon resistance, and to promote its application in clinical practices.

PMID- 28889725
TI  - Oncogene miR-106a promotes proliferation and metastasis of prostate cancer cells
      by directly targeting PTEN in vivo and in vitro.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading contributor to male
      malignancy-associated death in developed countries. The study aimed to evaluate
      the effects of miR-106a on prostate cancer cells and the underlying molecular
      mechanism. METHODS: The cell proliferation was detected using MTT assay and
      colony formation, and cells migration and invasion were also analyzed. Luciferase
      reporter assay was carried out to explore the correlation between miR-106a and
      PTEN. Besides, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and western blot
      were carried out to measure the mRNA and protein levels in prostate tissues and
      PCa cells. Immunocytochemical staining was performed to detect the PTEN level in
      PCa tissues. RESULTS: MiR-106a level was dramatically increased in the PCa
      tissues and PCa cell lines. The overexpression of miR-106a significantly promoted
      the proliferation, migration and invasion of PCa cells. Besides, we confirmed
      that PTEN was regulated by miR-106a expression and was a direct target of miR
      106a. Most importantly, we further found that miR-106a could promote the PCa
      cells xenograft growth in the nude mice by targeting PTEN, which was
      significantly downregulated in PCa tissues and cell lines and was closely related
      with PCa metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-106a as an oncogene could promote
      proliferation and metastasis of prostate cancer cells by directly targeting PTEN
      in vivo and in vitro.

PMID- 28889726
TI  - The significance of blastocyst culture for discarded embryos in the treatment
      period of in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer without available embryos.

PMID- 28889728
TI  - Role and function of exosomal miR-9-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28889727
TI  - Multidisciplinary treatment of colorectal liver metastases.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The therapy of patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) has
      undergone significant changes. Extended survival has been observed to be
      associated with adoption of hepatic resection and improved chemotherapy. EVIDENCE
      ACQUISITION: This review summarizes standards, developments and controversies on
      the management of these patients. Literature search was performed with focus on
      work published within the last ten years. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Patients with CRLM
      should undergo surgery whenever possible with careful and experienced patient
      selection as hepatic resection offers the best long-term prognosis. The
      multidisciplinary approach has markedly evolved and has increased the number of
      patients in whom curative-intended surgery is possible. Patients with resectable
      metastases can undergo upfront surgery or may receive perioperative chemotherapy
      in selected cases, a decision which is under debate and remains individual.
      Patients with non-resectable metastases that may become resectable upon
      conversion treatment should receive polychemotherapy with or without local
      ablative therapy as pretreatment with the main goal of achieving resectability.
      In patients with synchronous CRLM, the optimal sequence of treatment remains
      unclear. Depending on the hepatic tumor burden and its dynamics as well as the
      type and stage of the primary tumor, simultaneous resection or either the
      sequential "bowel-first" or reversed "liver-first" approach represent suitable
      options to achieve complete tumor clearance. CONCLUSIONS: The improvements in the
      management of CRLM due to multidisciplinary treatment and novel developments are
      a great example of successfully pushing the boundaries of cure in metastatic
      cancer. Surgery aiming at complete tumor clearance represents the central
      instrument to achieve long-term survival.

PMID- 28889729
TI  - Post-transcriptional regulation of cytokine in the context of renal inflammation.
AB  - Mechanisms that control mammalian gene expression, notably mRNA stability and
      translation, have major functions in the modulation of the cellular response to
      internal and external stimuli. Altered posttranscriptional regulation of gene
      expression has been associated with many diseases. Such types of deregulation
      have also recently been noted on the inflammatory cytokines pertinent to kidney
      inflammation. In this article, we summarize briefly the recent knowledge obtained
      from both human and experimental systems on the details of posttranscriptional
      regulation of gene expression related to the control of mRNA stability and
      discuss their relevance in regulating cytokine expression linked to the
      inflammatory processes in kidney. Despite the fact that not many such examples in
      human kidney diseases have been uncovered with great mechanistic details, studies
      in experimental models suggest that the mRNA stability control is more than meets
      the eye. Therapeutic potentials aiming at regulating cytokine expression via
      posttranscriptional modification of mRNA half-life are thus discussed.

PMID- 28889730
TI  - Anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities of Inula cappa roots
      (Compositae).
AB  - Background The medicinal properties of Inula cappa, a perennial shrub, are
      ascribed to its roots. In this article, we study the anti-inflammatory and
      immunomodulatory activities of I. cappa root extracts based on its utilization in
      traditional medicine-treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, menoxenia, fever,
      jaundice and many others. Methods Anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory
      activities of I. cappa extracts were studied. The anti-inflammatory activity was
      determined by carrageenan-induced rat paw edema and cotton pellet-induced
      granulation method while the immunomodulatory activity was estimated by
      phagocytic assay method, hemagglutinating antibody (HA) titer assay, delayed-type
      hypersensitivity assay method, plaque forming cell assay and determination of
      immunoprophylatic activity. Results The methanolic extract showed maximum
      reduction in the rat paw edema and showed significant inhibition of the cotton
      pellet-induced granulomas in rats. The methanolic extract also showed potential
      immunomodulatory activity in all the assays performed. Two sesquiterpenes,
      isoalantolactone and germacranolide were also isolated from the methanolic
      extract. Conclusions The present study supports the evidence that the roots of I.
      cappa can be used as a potent anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory agent.

PMID- 28889731
TI  - Comparative evaluation of hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity of various
      extract of Anogeissus latifolia bark in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.
AB  - Background Anogeissus latifolia Wall. (A. latifolia) bark has been traditionally
      used in the treatment of various diseases which includes diabetes and general
      debility. The present study was aimed to investigate the comparative hypoglycemic
      and hypolipidemic activity of various extracts of A. latifolia bark in
      streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetic rats. Methods Acute toxicity was carried
      out at 2 g/kg dose of petroleum ether extract of A. latifolia bark (PEALB),
      chloroform extract of A. latifolia bark (CEALB) and methanol extract of A.
      latifolia bark (MEALB) in rats. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin (STZ, 60
      mg/kg, i.p.) and it was confirmed at 72 h. Diabetic rats received above extracts
      at 100 and 200 mg/kg doses for 28 days. Body weight and blood glucose level were
      determined at every week after the treatment schedule. Serum biochemical
      parameters and lipid profile levels were estimated at the end of the study.
      Results PEALB, CEALB and MEALB were non-toxic and no death was observed at 2 g/kg
      dose. Administration of MEALB at 100 and 200 mg/kg showed significant (p< 0.01,
      p< 0.05) improvement in body weight and reduction in blood glucose at third and
      fourth week of treatment. Altered serum biochemical parameters and lipid profiles
      level were brought to near normal level significantly (p<0.001) compared to
      diabetic control rats after the administration of both doses of MEALB. However,
      PEALB and CEALB did not exhibit significant hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic
      activity. Conclusions Our findings revealed that long-term (28 days) treatment of
      MEALB possesses significant hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity compared to
      PEALB and CEALB in type 1 diabetic rats and given evidence to the traditional use
      of A. latifolia bark in diabetes.

PMID- 28889732
TI  - Effects of water extract of Curcuma longa (L.) roots on immunity and telomerase
      function.
AB  - Background Immunity and Longevity Methods A water extract of Curcuma longa (L.)
      [vern. Turmeric] roots (TurmericImmuneTM) standardized for a minimum 20 % of
      turmeric polysaccharides ukonan A, B, C and D was evaluated for its biological
      properties in in vitro tissue culture studies. Results The water extract of
      turmeric (TurP) exhibited induced-nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW264.7
      macrophages. These results suggested the immunomodulatory effects of TurP. In
      addition, the polysaccharides up-regulated function of telomerase reverse
      transcriptase (TERT) equally to the phenolic compound from turmeric, curcumin.
      Conclusions The ukonan family of polysaccharides may assist in promoting cellular
      immune responses, tissue repair and lifespan by enhancing immune response and
      telomere function.

PMID- 28889733
TI  - Garcinia kola seeds may prevent cognitive and motor dysfunctions in a type 1
      diabetes mellitus rat model partly by mitigating neuroinflammation.
AB  - Background We reported recently that extracts of seeds of Garcinia kola, a plant
      with established hypoglycemic properties, prevented the loss of inflammation
      sensible neuronal populations like Purkinje cells in a rat model of type 1
      diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Here, we assessed G. kola extract ability to prevent
      the early cognitive and motor dysfunctions observed in this model. Methods Rats
      made diabetic by single injection of streptozotocin were treated daily with
      either vehicle solution (diabetic control group), insulin, or G. kola extract
      from the first to the 6th week post-injection. Then, cognitive and motor
      functions were assessed using holeboard and vertical pole behavioral tests, and
      animals were sacrificed. Brains were dissected out, cut, and processed for Nissl
      staining and immunohistochemistry. Results Hyperglycemia (209.26 %), body weight
      loss (-12.37 %), and T1DM-like cognitive and motor dysfunctions revealed
      behavioral tests in diabetic control animals were not observed in insulin and
      extract-treated animals. Similar, expressions of inflammation markers tumor
      necrosis factor (TNF), iba1 (CD68), and Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP),
      as well as decreases of neuronal density in regions involved in cognitive and
      motor functions (-49.56 % motor cortex, -33.24 % medial septal nucleus, -41.8 % /
      37.34 % cerebellar Purkinje /granular cell layers) were observed in diabetic
      controls but not in animals treated with insulin or G. kola. Conclusions Our
      results indicate that T1DM-like functional alterations are mediated, at least
      partly, by neuroinflammation and neuronal loss in this model. The prevention of
      the development of such alterations by early treatment with G. kola confirms the
      neuroprotective properties of the plant and warrant further mechanistic studies,
      considering the potential for human disease.

PMID- 28889734
TI  - Crocus sativus, Serenoa repens and Pinus massoniana extracts modulate
      inflammatory response in isolated rat prostate challenged with LPS.
AB  - Prostatitis is a common prostate disease that could be promoted by bacterial or
      non-bacterial infectious agents. In addition, inflammatory pathways involved in
      prostatitis have been increasingly studied, and herbal extracts endowed with anti
      inflammatory effects are under investigation, individually or in combination, for
      their efficacy in alleviating the burden of inflammation, with possible
      improvements in symptoms. Serenoa repens (Serenoa), in combination with Crocus
      sativus (Crocus) and Pinus massoniana (Pinus), has previously shown to improve
      sexual function and limit urinary symptoms in patients suffering from concomitant
      erectile dysfunction and lower urinary tract symptoms. In this context, the aim
      of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of Serenoa, Crocus and Pinus
      extracts, either alone or in combination, on immortalized prostate cells (PC3)
      and in an experimental model of bacterial prostatitis constituted by ex vivo
      prostate specimens challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We found that the
      tested extracts were able to reduce ROS production by PC3 cells and NFkB and PGE2
      activity in prostate specimens challenged with LPS. In addition, the
      pharmacological association of the extracts displayed synergistic effects
      indicating a rational use of the mixture of the tested extracts as a novel anti
      oxidant and anti-inflammatory formulation in bacterial prostatitis. Finally, we
      performed analytical and in vitro evaluation to better characterize the
      phytochemical profile and the mechanism of action of selected secondary
      metabolites.

PMID- 28889735
TI  - Small-Molecule Potentiators for Conventional Antibiotics against Staphylococcus
      aureus.
AB  - Antimicrobial resistance constitutes a global health problem, while the discovery
      and development of novel antibiotics is stagnating. Methicillin-resistant
      Staphylococcus aureus, responsible for the establishment of recalcitrant, biofilm
      related infections, is a well-known and notorious example of a highly resistant
      micro-organism. Since resistance development is unavoidable with conventional
      antibiotics that target bacterial viability, it is vital to develop alternative
      treatment options on top. Strategies aimed at more subtle manipulation of
      bacterial behavior have recently attracted attention. Here, we provide a
      literature overview of several small-molecule potentiators for antibiotics,
      identified for the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infection. Typically, these
      potentiators are not bactericidal by themselves and function by reversing
      resistance mechanisms, by attenuating Staphylococcus aureus virulence, and/or by
      interfering with quorum sensing.

PMID- 28889736
TI  - Biosensing Strategy for Simultaneous and Accurate Quantitative Analysis of
      Mycotoxins in Food Samples Using Unmodified Graphene Micromotors.
AB  - A high-performance graphene-based micromotor strategy for simultaneous, fast, and
      reliable assessment of two highly concerning mycotoxins (fumonisin B1 (FB1) and
      ocratoxin A (OTA)) has successfully been developed. The assay principle is based
      on the selective recognition from aptamers to the target mycotoxins and further
      "on-the-move" fluorescence quenching of the free aptamer in the outer layer of
      unmodified reduced graphene (rGO; sensing layer) micromotors. Template-prepared
      rGO/platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) tubular micromotors were synthesized rapidly
      and inexpensively by the direct electrodeposition within the conical pores of a
      polycarbonate template membrane. The new wash-free approach offers using just 1
      MUL of sample, a simultaneous and rapid "on-the-fly" detection (2 min) with high
      sensitivity (limits of detection of 7 and 0.4 ng/mL for OTA and FB1,
      respectively), and high selectivity. Remarkable accuracy (Er < 5%) during the
      mycotoxin determination in certified reference material as well as excellent
      quantitative recoveries (96-98%) during the analysis of food samples were also
      obtained. The excellent results obtained allow envisioning an exciting future for
      the development of novel applications of catalytic micromotors in unexplored
      fields such as food safety diagnosis.

PMID- 28889737
TI  - Selective and Real-Time Detection of Nitric Oxide by a Two-Photon Fluorescent
      Probe in Live Cells and Tissue Slices.
AB  - Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule involved in many
      physiological and pathological processes. To understand these NO-mediated
      processes, it is a key to develop rapid and specific detection methods for NO. In
      the past 2 decades, numerous excellent fluorescent probes for NO have been
      designed; however, it still remains limitations such as slow response, low
      selectivity, and short excitation wavelength (<600 nm). In this Article, a two
      photon fluorescent probe, NO-QA5, has been developed with 3-dimethylaminophenyl
      linking at the 6-position of 5-aminoquinoline as both the active site and
      prefluorophore for detection of NO. The nonfluorescent NO-QA5 can fast react with
      NO via a diazonium intermediate to generate two azoic regioisomers, one of which
      exhibits intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) emission, and two-photon absorption
      behavior (deltaPhi = 57 GM), giving a turn-on fluorescence rapid response. The
      sensing reaction is pH-insensitive in the range of 6-11 and highly selective and
      well sensitive (LOD = 15 nM), possible undergoing the same intermediate diazonium
      with the reaction under diazotization condition (NaNO2/HCl). Also, as a nitrite
      fluorescent probe NO-QA5 exhibits highly sensitive (LOD = 7 nM). Therefore, NO
      QA5 can serve as a dual functional fluorescent probe for NO and NO2-.
      Furthermore, NO-QA5 as a specific imaging agent has been demonstrated by
      achieving both exogenous and endogenous detections of NO in living cells under
      both one- and two-photon excitation and high resolution in tissue slices under
      two-photon excitation.

PMID- 28889738
TI  - Introduction to the Highlights of the 26th ASIC Conference.
AB  - The 26th International Conference on Coffee Sciences (ASIC 2016) that was held in
      November 13-19, 2016 in Kunming, China, has marked the 50th anniversary of the
      creation of the Association for Science and Information on Coffee (ASIC). The
      meeting in China was well-attended by over 400 participants from all over the
      world and allowed for fruitful exchanges among participants from all horizons of
      coffee science.

PMID- 28889739
TI  - Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Studies of Iron Sulfur
      (FeS)m- (m = 2-8) Cluster Anions: Coexisting Multiple Spin States.
AB  - Iron sulfur cluster anions (FeS)m- (m = 2-8) are studied by photoelectron
      spectroscopy (PES) at 3.492 eV (355 nm) and 4.661 eV (266 nm) photon energies,
      and by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The most probable structures
      and ground state spin multiplicities for (FeS)m- (m = 2-8) clusters are
      tentatively assigned through a comparison of their theoretical and experiment
      first vertical detachment energy (VDE) values. Many spin states lie within 0.5 eV
      of the ground spin state for the larger (FeS)m- (m >= 4) clusters. Theoretical
      VDEs of these low lying spin states are in good agreement with the experimental
      VDE values. Therefore, multiple spin states of each of these iron sulfur cluster
      anions probably coexist under the current experimental conditions. Such available
      multiple spin states must be considered when evaluating the properties and
      behavior of these iron sulfur clusters in real chemical and biological systems.
      The experimental first VDEs of (FeS)m- (m = 1-8) clusters are observed to change
      with the cluster size (number m). The first VDE trends noted can be related to
      the different properties of the highest singly occupied molecular orbitals (NBO,
      HSOMOs) of each cluster anion. The changing nature of the NBO/HSOMO of these
      (FeS)m- (m = 1-8) clusters from a p orbital on S, to a d orbital on Fe, and to an
      Fe-Fe bonding orbital is probably responsible for the observed increasing trend
      for their first VDEs with respect to m.

PMID- 28889740
TI  - Long-Range Orientational Self-Assembly, Spatially Controlled Deprotonation, and
      Off-Centered Metalation of an Expanded Porphyrin.
AB  - Expanded porphyrins are large-cavity macrocycles with enormous potential in
      coordination chemistry, anion sensing, photodynamic therapy, and optoelectronics.
      In the last two decades, the surface science community has assessed the
      physicochemical properties of tetrapyrrolic-like macrocycles. However, to date,
      the sublimation, self-assembly and atomistic insights of expanded porphyrins on
      surfaces have remained elusive. Here, we show the self-assembly on Au(111) of an
      expanded aza-porphyrin, namely, an "expanded hemiporphyrazine", through a unique
      growth mechanism based on long-range orientational self-assembly. Furthermore, a
      spatially controlled "writing" protocol on such self-assembled architecture is
      presented based on the STM tip-induced deprotonation of the inner protons of
      individual macrocycles. Finally, the capability of these surface-confined
      macrocycles to host lanthanide elements is assessed, introducing a novel off
      centered coordination motif. The presented findings represent a milestone in the
      fields of porphyrinoid chemistry and surface science, revealing a great potential
      for novel surface patterning, opening new avenues for molecular level information
      storage, and boosting the emerging field of surface-confined coordination
      chemistry involving f-block elements.

PMID- 28889741
TI  - Adaptation of Divinyl Chlorophyll a/b-Containing Cyanobacterium to Different
      Light Conditions: Three Strains of Prochlorococcus marinus.
AB  - The light-harvesting mechanisms in the three strains of Prochlorococcus marinus,
      CCMP1986, CCMP1375, and CCMP2773, grown under blue and red light-emitting diodes
      (LEDs) at two intensity levels were investigated. The blue LED was divinyl
      chlorophyll b (DV-Chl b) selective and the red LED was DV-Chl a selective. Under
      the red LED, the relative amount of DV-Chl b in CCMP1375 and CCMP2773 decreased
      and the relative amount of zeaxanthin increased in CCMP1375. Furthermore, the
      pigment composition of cells of CCMP1375 grown under red LED was remodified when
      they were transplanted under the blue LED. Picosecond-time-resolved fluorescence
      of the LED-grown Prochlorococcus was measured, and the excitation-energy-transfer
      efficiency between DV-Chl a did not significantly change for the different LED
      colors or intensities; however, a change in the pigment composition of the DV-Chl
      b-rich strains (CCMP1375 and CCMP2773) was observed. It appears that peripheral
      antenna responds to light conditions, with small modifications in the
      photosystems.

PMID- 28889742
TI  - Droplet Coalescence and Spontaneous Emulsification in the Presence of Asphaltene
      Adsorption.
AB  - In a refinery, undesired high levels of salt concentration in crude oils are
      reduced by the contact of water with crude oils, where an emulsion is formed.
      Later, the separation of the water from the desalted oil is essential for the
      quality of both wastewater discharge and refined oil. However, complex components
      of crude oils such as asphaltenes may stabilize these emulsions, causing
      difficulties in efficient separation. Here, we show the coalescence inhibition
      caused by asphaltene adsorption for both water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions,
      where the oil phase consists of a simple model of asphaltenes dissolved in
      toluene. We find that oil-in-water emulsions are less stable than water-in-oil
      emulsions by using a newly developed instrument where controlled experiments can
      be performed to measure the coalescence time of a single droplet against an
      oil/water interface as a function of asphaltene aging (associated with the
      adsorption process of asphaltene molecules onto the interfaces) and asphaltene
      concentration. Furthermore, we find that the coalescence time for water droplets
      exhibits a maximum because of a spontaneous emulsification at the oil/water
      interface that produces droplets consisting of asphaltene-laden water droplets.

PMID- 28889743
TI  - Prediction of Green Phosphorus with Tunable Direct Band Gap and High Mobility.
AB  - Black phosphorus is an emerging material in nanoelectronics and nanophotonics due
      to its high carrier mobility and anisotropic in-plane properties. In addition,
      the polymorphism of phosphorus leads to numerous searches for new allotropes that
      are more attractive than black phosphorus in a variety of applications. On the
      basis of ab initio evolutionary crystal structure search computation, we report
      the prediction of a phosphorus allotrope called green phosphorus (lambda-P),
      which exhibits direct band gaps ranging from 0.7 to 2.4 eV and strong anisotropy
      in optical and transport properties. Free-energy calculations show that a single
      layer form, termed green phosphorene, is energetically more stable than blue
      phosphorene, and a phase transition from black to green phosphorene can occur at
      temperatures above 87 K. We suggest that green phosphorene can be synthesized on
      corrugated metal surfaces rather than clean surfaces due to its buckled
      structure, providing guidance to achieving epitaxial growth.

PMID- 28889744
TI  - Synthesis of Bicyclic Isothiazoles through an Intramolecular Rhodium-Catalyzed
      Transannulation of Cyanothiadiazoles.
AB  - An intramolecular rhodium-catalyzed transannulation of readily available
      cyanothiadiazoles containing an ester, amide, or ether as a linker is described.
      It provides a wide range of bicyclic isothiazoles in good to excellent yields
      together with the release of molecular nitrogen. These results indicate that the
      carbon atom in the alpha-thiavinyl carbene is nucleophilic and that the sulfur
      atom is electrophilic.

PMID- 28889745
TI  - Self-Bleaching Behaviors in Black-to-Transmissive Electrochromic Polymer Thin
      Films.
AB  - Polymer-based electrochromic smart windows are an emerging energy-saving
      technology. There are several technological hurdles in the development of organic
      electrochromics. In this article, the self-bleaching behaviors of a black
      electrochromic polymer (ECP-black) thin film were investigated. We found that the
      electrochemical break-in process led to a less dense morphology and the increased
      free volume facilitated ion permeation in the ECP-black thin films. The polarized
      interface between the polymer thin film and transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
      electrode made charge transfer accessible, which caused the self-bleaching
      behaviors. Herein, we proposed two approaches to study and mitigate the self
      bleaching phenomenon. First, a densely packed morphology was regenerated by
      increasing the cathodic polarization time under open-circuit conditions (Voff).
      The second involved the modification of the electrode (ITO) surface with a
      partial coverage of the octadecyltrichlorosilane layer. The combination of the
      two approaches rendered the ECP-black thin film capable of maintaining the
      colored state for up to 900 s. To extend the scope of our studies, self-bleaching
      of ECP-magenta and ECP-blue thin films were also tested and suppressed by using
      these two methods. Additionally, the cycling stability of the ECP-black has been
      improved from ~600 cycles to up to 2300 cycles without a noticeable decay of
      optical contrast.

PMID- 28889746
TI  - Structurally Engineered Nanoporous Ta2O5-x Selector-Less Memristor for High
      Uniformity and Low Power Consumption.
AB  - A memristor architecture based on metal-oxide materials would have great promise
      in achieving exceptional energy efficiency and higher scalability in next
      generation electronic memory systems. Here, we propose a facile method for
      fabricating selector-less memristor arrays using an engineered nanoporous Ta2O5-x
      architecture. The device was fabricated in the form of crossbar arrays, and it
      functions as a switchable rectifier with a self-embedded nonlinear switching
      behavior and ultralow power consumption (~2.7 * 10-6 W), which results in
      effective suppression of crosstalk interference. In addition, we determined that
      the essential switching elements, such as the programming power, the sneak
      current, the nonlinearity value, and the device-to-device uniformity, could be
      enhanced by in-depth structural engineering of the pores in the Ta2O5-x layer.
      Our results, on the basis of the structural engineering of metal-oxide materials,
      could provide an attractive approach for fabricating simple and cost-efficient
      memristor arrays with acceptable device uniformity and low power consumption
      without the need for additional addressing selectors.

PMID- 28889747
TI  - Synthesis of pH-Responsive Inorganic Janus Nanoparticles and Experimental
      Investigation of the Stability of Their Pickering Emulsions.
AB  - Pickering emulsions exhibit outstanding stability, especially those prepared with
      Janus particles, whose desorption energy is expected to be up to 3-fold greater
      than emulsions of homogeneous particles from theoretical calculations. To the
      best of our knowledge, however, there remains no experimental proof of this
      behavior in practice. In this study, inorganic Janus nanoparticles were
      fabricated by regioselective modification of the separate side of SiO2
      nanoparticles with a judiciously selected mixture of
      trimethoxysilylpropyldiethylenetriamine and n-octyltrimethoxysilane. Janus
      nanoparticles demonstrated excellent interfacial activity, forming Pickering
      emulsions with oil phases at oil-water interfacial tensions ranging from 6.6-52.8
      mN m-1. Furthermore, as the interface of the Janus nanoparticles was regionally
      functionalized with -NH2 groups, phase inversion could be realized by tuning pH.
      This is the first example for the Pickering emulsions stabilized with inorganic
      Janus particles. Importantly, based on the results of centrifugation experiment,
      the desorption energy of Janus nanoparticles at the interface was 3.2 times
      larger than that of homogeneous nanoparticles, which is in accordance with the
      result from theoretical calculations. These experimental results will
      substantially enrich our understanding of Janus nanoparticle Pickering emulsions
      and their interfacial assembly behavior.

PMID- 28889748
TI  - Identification and Characterization of Volatile Components Causing the
      Characteristic Flavor of Wagyu Beef (Japanese Black Cattle).
AB  - To clarify the characteristic sweet aroma of Wagyu (Japanese Black Cattle), aroma
      extraction dilution analysis (AEDA) was applied to the volatile fractions of
      Wagyu and Australia beefs. Some 20 odor-active peaks were detected, and 17
      odorants were identified or tentatively identified. Among the perceived odorants,
      most of them were newly identified from the Wagyu beef. The main constituents of
      the potent odorants were aldehydes and ketones, which are known as the
      degradation products of polyunsaturated fatty acids that were significantly
      included in the lipids of the Wagyu. In addition, the most potent odorant was
      trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal, which is known to be the oxidation product of
      polyunsaturated acids, such as linoleic acid and arachidonic acid, that were
      significantly included in the lipids of the Wagyu. Accordingly, these findings
      strongly suggested that the kind of fatty acid constituting lipids of the Wagyu
      plays an important role in the formation of the characteristic aroma of the Wagyu
      beef.

PMID- 28889749
TI  - Highly Transparent w/o Pickering Emulsions without Adjusting the Refractive Index
      of the Stabilizing Particles.
AB  - Pickering emulsions with a remarkable transmittance of up to 86% across the
      visible spectrum have been prepared without adjusting the refractive index (RI)
      of the stabilizing particles to those of the aqueous and oil phases. Commercially
      available hydrophilic silica particles with a diameter of 20 nm, which are
      hydrophobized partially in situ, were used to stabilize water droplets with
      diameters below 400 nm in IsoparM. In this system, the stabilizing particles and
      the emulsion droplets act as one single scattering object, which renders RI
      matching of the particles unnecessary. By either evaporation of some water from
      the droplets or addition of an appropriate organic liquid to the oil phase, it is
      possible to match the RI of the droplets (aqueous phase + particles) with that of
      the continuous phase, which minimizes scattering and results in highly
      transparent emulsions.

PMID- 28889750
TI  - How Does the Addition of a Third Ion Affect the Molecular Interactions and the
      Thermodynamic Properties of Acetate-Based Ionic Liquids?
AB  - The effect of the addition of a third ion to the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3
      methylimidazolium acetate [C4C1Im][OAc] was studied through the measurement of
      the enthalpy of mixing and of the excess molar volume of its mixtures with 1
      butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoroacetate [C4C1Im][CF3CO2], 1-butyl-3
      methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [C4C1Im][NTf2], and
      tetrabutylphosphonium acetate [P4444][OAc]. Negative enthalpies of mixing
      (DeltamixH < 0) and positive excess molar volumes (VE > 0) were observed in all
      cases. The infrared and NMR studies of the pure ionic liquids and their mixtures
      show that the presence of a third ion with a weaker affinity with the common
      counterion contributes to prevailing the more favorable hydrogen-bond, herein
      always between the imidazolium cation and the acetate anion. Both radial and
      spatial distribution functions calculated by molecular simulation confirm this
      behavior. The remarkable enhancement of the viscosities of the [C4C1Im][OAc] +
      [P4444][OAc] mixtures could be discussed in light of the calculated friction
      coefficients.

PMID- 28889751
TI  - Adiabatic Switching Extended To Prepare Semiclassically Quantized Rotational
      Vibrational Initial States for Quasiclassical Trajectory Calculations.
AB  - An approximation-free adiabatic switching method to generate semiclassically
      quantized ensembles of rovibrational states of polyatomic molecules for use as
      initial conditions in quasiclassical trajectory calculations is presented.
      Vibrational states are prepared, starting from an ensemble of classical states
      corresponding to the desired quantum state of the normal-mode Hamiltonian by
      slowly switching on the anharmonicity in internal coordinates, thereby avoiding
      rotational contamination. To generate rovibrational states, an extension is
      proposed: The vibrationally quantized molecules are slowly spun up to the desired
      quantized angular momentum. The ensembles obtained with adiabatic switching for
      CH4 are insensitive to the choice of internal coordinates and stationary;
      furthermore, their mean energies agree remarkably well with the quantum
      mechanical values: The zero-point energy and 15 vibrational levels of the first
      three polyads are within 20 cm-1, the rotational levels are between J = 1 and 50
      within 1%, and the standard deviation is always <1%. Adiabatic switching produces
      classical state ensembles with significantly better properties than normal-mode
      sampling, making them more appropriate in quasiclassical trajectory calculations.

PMID- 28889752
TI  - Covalent immobilization of oxylipin biosynthetic enzymes on nanoporous rice husk
      silica for production of cis(+)-12-oxophytodienoic acid.
AB  - Soybean lipoxygenase, recombinant rice allene oxide synthase-1 and rice allene
      oxide cyclase were covalently immobilized on nanoporous rice husk silica using
      two types of linkers: glutardialdehyde and polyethylene glycol. The
      immobilization efficiency achieved using glutardialdehyde-linked rice husk silica
      was higher than that achieved using polyethylene glycol-linked rice husk silica
      (50-92% and 25-50%, respectively). Immobilization on both types of matrices
      significantly decreased the specific activities of the immobilized enzymes. Solid
      phase reaction yields of the enzymes were determined relative to the yields
      observed for the solution-phase reactions. Yields of the solid-phase reactions
      catalyzed by immobilized soybean lipoxygenase, rice allene oxide synthase-1, and
      rice allene oxide cyclase ranged from 50% to 230% and were dependent on both the
      enzymes and linkers used. Production of cis(+)-12-oxophytodienoic acid from alpha
      linolenic acid by consecutive reactions using all three enzymes in a co
      immobilization system resulted in 83.6% and 65.1% yields on glutardialdehyde
      linked and epichlorohydrin-polyethylene glycol-linked rice husk silica,
      respectively. Our results suggest that immobilization of biosynthetic enzymes of
      the octadecanoid pathway on rice husk silica may be an efficient method for the
      in vitro production of oxylipins. Additionally, enzyme immobilizations on rice
      husk silica matrices may be more broadly applicable for producing physiologically
      important compounds in other biosynthetic pathways.

PMID- 28889753
TI  - Silencing of BACH1 inhibits invasion and migration of prostate cancer cells by
      altering metastasis-related gene expression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cancer lethality is mainly caused by metastasis. Therefore,
      understanding the nature of the genes involved in this process has become a
      priority. BACH1, a basic leucine zipper transcription factor, has been shown to
      transcriptionally regulate expression of a range of genes that are associated
      with breast cancer metastasis. However, the exact role and the underlying
      molecular mechanism of BACH1 in prostate cancer remain unclear. This study aims
      to explore the expression of BACH1 in prostate cancer tissues and the effect of
      BACH1 suppression on prostate cancer cell behavior. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In
      this study, we used quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to measure BACH1
      expression in prostate adenocarcinoma tissues and two metastasis-derived prostate
      cancer cell lines, DU145 and LNCaP. We also used immunohistochemical (IHC)
      staining to measure BACH1 protein expression in prostate adenocarcinoma and
      matched normal tissue samples. In the following BACH1 expression was silenced in
      DU145 cells using siRNA as well. Knockdown was confirmed by qRT-PCR and Western
      blotting. The cytotoxic effects of BACH1-siRNA on DU145 cells were determined
      using an MTT assay. The migration and invasive capacity of DU145 cells were
      examined by scratch wound healing assay and matrigel invasion assay,
      respectively. We also used qRT-PCR to study the effect of BACH1 silencing on the
      expression levels of metastasis-related genes. RESULTS: We find that the
      expression of BACH1 mRNA and protein in prostate cancer tissues is significantly
      higher than in matched normal prostate tissues (p < .05). In addition, DU145 and
      LNCaP cells exhibited 4.25-fold and 3.45-fold higher levels of BACH1 compared to
      HFF cell line. BACH1-siRNA significantly reduced both mRNA and protein expression
      levels in DU145 cells. More importantly, we show that BACH1 promotes key features
      of metastasis, as BACH1-siRNA treatment significantly reduced cell invasion and
      migration by changing the expression levels of a number of metastasis-related
      genes in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: BACH1 is overexpressed in prostate cancer. Because
      this promotes invasion and migration, it may facilitate metastasis of prostate
      cancer. Thus, BACH1 is a potential therapeutic target for metastatic prostate
      cancer. BACH1 silencing therapy can be considered as a novel and effective
      adjuvant in prostate cancer targeted therapies.

PMID- 28889754
TI  - The development and initial evaluation of the Pornography-Use Avoidance Self
      Efficacy Scale.
AB  - Background and aims This study employed a newly developed questionnaire to
      evaluate whether men's self-efficacy to avoid using pornography in each of 18
      emotional, social, or sexually arousing situations was associated with either
      their typical frequency of pornography use or their hypersexuality. Methods Using
      an Internet-based data collection procedure, 229 male pornography users (Mage =
      33.3 years, SD = 12.2) who had sought or considered seeking professional help for
      their use of pornography completed questionnaires assessing their situationally
      specific self-efficacy, history of pornography use, self-efficacy to employ
      specific pornography-reduction strategies, hypersexuality, and demographic
      characteristics. Results Frequency of pornography use was significantly
      negatively associated with level of confidence in 12 of the 18 situations. In
      addition, lower hypersexuality and higher confidence to employ pornography-use
      reduction strategies were associated with higher confidence to avoid using
      pornography in each of the 18 situations. A principal axis factor analysis
      yielded three clusters of situations: (a) sexual arousal/boredom/opportunity, (b)
      intoxication/locations/easy access, and (c) negative emotions. Discussion and
      conclusions This questionnaire could be employed to identify specific high-risk
      situations for lapse or relapse and as a measure of treatment outcome among
      therapy clients, but we recommend further examination of the psychometric
      properties and clinical utility of the questionnaire in treatment samples.
      Because only one of the three clusters reflected a consistent theme, we do not
      recommend averaging self-efficacy within factors to create subscales.

PMID- 28889755
TI  - The dangers of conflating gambling-related harm with disordered gambling.
AB  - In their critical review of the prevention paradox (PP) applied to gambling
      related harm, Delfabbro and King (2017) raise a number of concerns regarding
      specific assumptions, methods, and findings as well as the general conceptual
      approach. Besides discussing the PP, the review also considers the merits of
      considering a "continuum of harm," as opposed to the more traditional categorical
      approach to classifying problem gamblers. Their critique is carefully modulated
      and balanced, and starts a useful dialogue in the context of a public health
      approach to gambling. Unfortunately, some of Delfabbro and King's (2017)
      arguments rest on the treatment of gambling harm as a binary state and conflates
      gambling-related harm with disordered gambling. In this reply, we argue that the
      application of PP logic to gambling harm has not yet been addressed by us, and is
      only indirectly related to the more important objective of understanding how
      gambling can reduce ones' quality of life.

PMID- 28889756
TI  - Occurrence of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the oral cavity of
      patients with dental caries.
AB  - Oral streptococci are the major group of microbes isolated from oral microflora.
      They represent frequent pathogens of infective endocarditis (IE), and it is
      assumed that in most of the cases oral streptococci are acquired via mucosa layer
      of oral cavity. Staphylococcus aureus is also frequently isolated from IE as it
      accounts for 20%-30% of all cases. Vancomycin has been the most reliable
      therapeutic agent against infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus
      (MRSA). The main objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of S.
      aureus species in dental caries specimens. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing
      of S. aureus to four antibiotics namely vancomycin, linezolid, teicoplanin, and
      daptomycin was performed. Detection of vancomycin resistance was conducted using
      polymerase chain reaction. Among the tested 150 strains, 98 were MRSA and of that
      54 were vancomycin sensitive and 27 were resistant. All 98 MRSA strains were
      positive for mecA and 36 yielded pvl, whereas 13 carried vanA and only 2 were
      positive for vanB. Majority of the isolates showed sensitivity toward daptomycin
      and linezolid. Strains of S. aureus exhibiting decreased susceptibility to
      different antibiotics like vancomycin, daptomycin, and linezolid severely
      compromise the therapeutic alternatives and require a considerable amount of
      time, public awareness, and integrative health-care strategies to prevent the
      emergence of resistance to these compounds.

PMID- 28889757
TI  - Resurgence of yellow fever in Brazil: Overview and possible control options.

PMID- 28889758
TI  - MALDI-TOF MS versus 16S rRNA sequencing: Minor discrepancy between tools in
      identification of Bacteroides isolates.
AB  - Members of the genus Bacteroides are important components of the normal
      microbiota of gastrointestinal tract; however, as opportunistic pathogens are
      also associated with severe or even life-threatening infections with significant
      mortality. Various species within Bacteroides fragilis group are phenotypically
      very similar; thus, their identifications with traditional-automated biochemical
      methods are frequently inaccurate. The identification of the newly discovered or
      reclassified bacteria can be doubtful because of the lack of biochemical profile
      in the database of these tests. The aim of this study was to determine the
      accuracy of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass
      spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) method by testing of 400 Hungarian Bacteroides
      clinical isolates. Inaccurate identification results with MALDI-TOF MS were
      confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and findings were compared with traditional
      automated biochemical test rapid ID 32A method as well.

PMID- 28889759
TI  - Nintedanib with Add-on Pirfenidone in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Results of
      the INJOURNEY Trial.
AB  - RATIONALE: Nintedanib and pirfenidone slow the progression of idiopathic
      pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), but the disease continues to progress. More data are
      needed on the safety and efficacy of combination therapy with nintedanib and add
      on pirfenidone. OBJECTIVES: To investigate safety, tolerability, and
      pharmacokinetic and exploratory efficacy endpoints in patients treated with
      nintedanib and add-on pirfenidone versus nintedanib alone. METHODS: Patients with
      IPF and FVC greater than or equal to 50% predicted at screening who completed a 4
      to 5-week run-in with nintedanib 150 mg twice daily without dose reduction or
      treatment interruption were randomized to receive nintedanib 150 mg twice daily
      with add-on pirfenidone (titrated to 801 mg three times daily) or nintedanib 150
      mg twice daily alone in an open-label manner for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint
      was the percentage of patients with on-treatment gastrointestinal adverse events
      from baseline to Week 12. Analyses were descriptive and exploratory. MEASUREMENTS
      AND MAIN RESULTS: On-treatment gastrointestinal adverse events were reported in
      37 of 53 patients (69.8%) treated with nintedanib with add-on pirfenidone and 27
      of 51 patients (52.9%) treated with nintedanib alone. Predose plasma trough
      concentrations of nintedanib were similar when it was administered alone or with
      add-on pirfenidone. Mean (SE) changes from baseline in FVC at Week 12 were -13.3
      (17.4) ml and -40.9 (31.4) ml in patients treated with nintedanib with add-on
      pirfenidone (n = 48) and nintedanib alone (n = 44), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:
      Nintedanib with add-on pirfenidone had a manageable safety and tolerability
      profile in patients with IPF, in line with the adverse event profiles of each
      drug. These data support further research into combination regimens in the
      treatment of IPF. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov
      (NCT02579603).

PMID- 28889760
TI  - An analysis of clinical characteristics and patient outcomes in primary
      mediastinal sarcomas.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Published data concerning primary mediastinal sarcomas are limited to
      small-sized retrospective series.  This study reviewed the clinical outcomes of
      these cases from the SEER (surveillance, epidemiology and end results) database.
      METHODS: Primary mediastinal sarcomas (1988 - 2013) were assembled from the SEER
      database. The incidence and 10-year cancer-specific survival rates were compared
      to other primary mediastinal malignancies (thymic carcinoma, germ cell tumors,
      neurogenic tumors, Hodgkin / non Hodgkin lymphomas) as well as to non mediastinal
      sarcomas. RESULTS: A total of 204 patients were recruited into this cohort.
      Multivariate analysis showed better overall survival for patients with younger
      age at diagnosis, low grade [hazard ratio 0.427 (95% CI: 0.224-0.814; P= 0.010)],
      posterior mediastinum location [hazard ratio 0.458 (95% CI: 0.268-0.781; P=
      0.004)], node negative disease [hazard ratio 0.463 (95% CI: 0.232-0.923; P=
      0.029)] and surgical treatment [hazard ratio 0.488 (95% CI: 0.336-0.709; P
      <0.0001)]. Compared to other mediastinal malignancies, primary mediastinal
      sarcomas have the worst 10-year overall survival. Similarly compared to non
      mediastinal sarcomas, primary mediastinal sarcomas have worse 10-year overall
      survival (23% versus 55%). CONCLUSION: Primary mediastinal sarcoma is a rare
      entity with worse prognosis compared to non-mediastinal counterparts. Surgical
      resection plays a particularly important role in the management.

PMID- 28889761
TI  - Safety issues associated with using medication to treat overactive bladder.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The mainstay of overactive bladder treatment is the use of
      anticholinergic medication with its common side effects well known. This review
      focused on three less well-known safety issues when treating OAB. Areas covered:
      Patients with increased anticholinergic load are at risk of cognitive decline,
      dementia or even death. The elderly are particularly at risk due to polypharmacy.
      Botulinum toxin carries the risk of high urinary residuals, urinary tract
      infection and need to self catheterise. The use of vaginal oestrogens may improve
      OAB symptoms, but there is concern in those with a history of breast cancer.
      Studies have shown that the systemic absorption is negligible and does not
      increase the risk of recurrence. Expert Opinion: Improvement in assessing
      anticholinergic load is needed with the development of a universal drug scale. To
      avoid increasing load, Mirabegron or botulinum toxin can be used instead. There
      is no consensus of the use of prophylactic antibiotics when injecting botulinum
      toxin and at what residual to initiate self catheterisation. Despite evidence
      showing that the use of vaginal oestrogens is safe in those with a history of
      cancer, it is not fully supported by any health body. Further work is needed in
      those using aromatase inhibitors.

PMID- 28889762
TI  - Correlation between fetal mild ventriculomegaly and biometric parameters.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between fetal
      lateral ventricle width and biometric measurements. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A
      prospective study on 335 fetuses, 101 fetuses with isolated mild ventriculomegaly
      and a control group of 234 fetuses with a normal US examination. All fetuses
      underwent a detailed brain ultrasound scan and a full biometric evaluation. To
      further compare biometric parameters, we matched, according to gestational week
      and gender, 91 fetuses from the study group to 91 fetuses from the control group.
      RESULTS: The mean gestational week during the exam was significantly different
      between the groups (29.6 weeks in the study group versus 28.3 in the control
      group, p = .001). The mean maternal age, obstetrical history, mode of conception,
      or fetal gender did not differ between the groups. After matching according to
      gestational age and fetal gender, the mean gestational week between the matched
      groups did not differ and was 29 + 5 weeks in both groups. The study group had
      significantly larger head circumference (p = .009), biparietal diameter (p <
      .001), femur length (p = .023), and estimated fetal weight (p = .024) compared
      with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Isolated mild ventriculomegaly could be
      related to other larger fetal biometric measurements and does not necessarily
      mean a pathological condition.

PMID- 28889763
TI  - Identification of methylated metabolites of oat avenanthramides in human plasma
      using UHPLC QToF-MS.
AB  - Oat avenanthramides (AVAs) are a group of phenolic alkaloids, consisting of an
      anthranilic acid and a hydroxycinnamic acid linked by a pseudo-peptide bond.
      Bioavailability of AVA is poor in humans, suggesting transformations for rapid
      excretion. Thus, we aim to identify metabolites of AVA isomers in plasma of
      humans after consuming AVA-enriched oats. After lipid removal, AVA and their
      metabolites in plasma were extracted with ethyl acetate and analysed using an
      Agilent UHPLC-QToF-MS. Pharmacokinetics of AVA-O showed a bimodal distribution
      with Cmax1 and 2 for AVA-O at 5.9 +/- 5.2 and 7.9 +/- 7.0 ng/mL and Tmax1 and 2
      at 1.7 +/- 0.7 and 3.1 +/- 1.2 h, respectively. Only the methyl-AVA-O showed a
      single Cmax at 14 +/- 9.9 ng/mL AVA-O equivalents and a Tmax of 2.4 +/- 2.7 h.
      This analysis is the first to identify methylated metabolites of AVAs and AVA
      aglycones in human blood after acute AVA consumption.

PMID- 28889764
TI  - Can technology-assisted toilets improve hygiene and independence in geriatric
      rehabilitation? A cohort study.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate whether technology-assisted toilets (TATs) could be used
      to improve toileting hygiene and independence for geriatric rehabilitation
      patients. TATs are commercially available toilet seats that use a stream of warm
      water to clean the user, have a fan for drying and are operated by a remote
      control. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five geriatric rehabilitation in-patients
      were recruited, six completed the study, and seven partially completed the study.
      Each participant had two trial bowel movements. One trial involved cleaning
      themselves with toilet paper; the other involved cleaning themselves with the TAT
      functions. After each trial, participants received a visual inspection for
      cleanliness and answered the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale
      (PIADS), a validated scale, to assess their sense of competence, adaptability and
      self-esteem in the bathroom. A toileting cleanliness scale, designed for this
      study, was completed by a nurse after TAT usage. Participants received a score
      from 1 (completely clean) to 4 (completely soiled) based on a visual inspection
      after cleaning. RESULTS: TAT and toileting cleanliness scores were similar. PIADS
      scores showed a trend towards higher scores when using the TAT, but results were
      not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: TATs cleaned as well as standard
      toileting in geriatric rehabilitation inpatients. Participants indicated that
      TATs improved their sense of competence, adaptability and self-esteem.
      Geriatricians and rehabilitation professionals should consider prescribing TATs
      in their practice as an assistive device in order to promote patient independence
      and dignity and reduce the burden of care for patients requiring toileting
      assistance. Implications for rehabilitation Technology-assisted toilets (TATs)
      are commercially-available toilet seats that could be used to allow
      rehabilitation patients to clean themselves more independently in the bathroom.
      Improved toileting independence can reduce burden of care of geriatric
      rehabilitation and reduce the impact of toileting assistance on patient dignity
      and self-esteem. Physiatrists should consider recommending TATs to their patients
      but should take into account whether a patient's particular set of disabilities
      will allow them to use a TAT effectively.

PMID- 28889765
TI  - Effect of caffeine on superior mesenteric artery blood flow velocities in preterm
      neonates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of caffeine infusion on superior mesenteric
      artery (SMA) blood flow velocities (BFV) in preterm infants. METHODS: Prospective
      observational study on 38 preterm neonates 28-33+6 weeks gestation, who developed
      apnea on their first day of life, and caffeine citrate infusion was initiated at
      a loading dose of 20 mg/kg, followed by a maintenance dose of 5-10 mg/kg/day.
      Duplex ultrasound measurements of SMA BFV were recorded: peak systolic velocity
      (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV) and resistive index (RI), at 15 min before, 1
      , 2- and 6-h after caffeine loading dose, and 2 h after two maintenance doses.
      RESULTS: There was a significant reduction in PSV 1-h (p = .008), a significant
      decrease in EDV 1- and 2-h (p = .000 and p = .005, respectively) and a
      significant increase in RI 1- and 2-h (p = .003 and p = .005, respectively)
      following caffeine loading dose, as compared to values before caffeine infusion.
      No significant effect of caffeine maintenance doses on SMA BFV was observed (p >
      .05). CONCLUSION: Blood flow in SMA is significantly reduced after caffeine
      citrate infusion at a loading dose of 20 mg/kg. This effect continues for at
      least 2 h. Meanwhile, SMA BFV seems not affected by maintenance doses.

PMID- 28889766
TI  - Stabilized helical peptides: overview of the technologies and its impact on drug
      discovery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Protein-protein interactions are predominant in the workings of all
      cells. Until now, there have been a few successes in targeting protein-protein
      interactions with small molecules. Peptides may overcome some of the challenges
      of small molecules in disrupting protein-protein interactions. However, peptides
      present a new set of challenges in drug discovery. Thus, the study of the
      stabilization of helical peptides has been extensive. Areas covered: Several
      technological approaches to helical peptide stabilization have been studied. In
      this review, stapled peptides, foldamers, and hydrogen bond surrogates are
      discussed. Issues regarding design principles are also discussed. Furthermore,
      this review introduces select computational techniques used to aid peptide design
      and discusses clinical trials of peptides in a more advanced stage of
      development. Expert opinion: Stabilized helical peptides hold great promise in a
      wide array of diseases. However, the field is still relatively new and new design
      principles are emerging. The possibilities of peptide modification are quite
      extensive and expanding, so the design of stabilized peptides requires great
      attention to detail in order to avoid a large number of failed lead peptides. The
      start of clinical trials with stapled peptides is a promising sign for the
      future.

PMID- 28889767
TI  - Delayed-interval delivery in twin pregnancies: report of three cases and
      literature review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Delayed delivery is sometimes performed in selected multifetal
      pregnancies when the first twin birth occurs inevitably. The aim of this
      procedure is to improve the prognosis and decrease the morbidity and mortality of
      the second twin. We report three cases of delayed-interval delivery of
      dichorionic-diamniotic twin pregnancies assisted in our center between 2015 and
      2017. After the first twin delivery, the second twin was left in utero and the
      patient received tocolytic therapy and antibiotics. Cervical cerclage was not
      performed. RESULTS: Our patients were admitted between 21 + 3 and 23 + 6 weeks of
      gestation. We achieved an average interval delivery of 6.33 d. Four out of six
      twins did not survive the delayed interval procedure. The average stay of the
      first and second twins that were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit
      (NICU) was of 72 d (28-116) and 39.5 d (12-67), respectively. The first twin
      birth was vaginal in all cases, while the second twin delivery was performed by
      cesarean section in two out of our three patients. Our neonatal results are not
      favorable, probably due to the extreme prematurity. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed delivery
      of the second twin before 28 weeks of gestation can be an alternative for the
      obstetrician since it could prolong the pregnancy until a gestational age which
      confers a better prognosis and a better perinatal outcome for the second twin.

PMID- 28889768
TI  - Effect of prenatal smoking cessation interventions on birth weight: meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Smoking is preventable factor for pregnancy outcomes such as low
      birth weight (LBW). In this study, we assessed the effects of smoking cessation
      in pregnancy period on the birth weight in Randomized Controlled Trial studies
      (RCTs). METHODS: International databases of Pub Med, Scopus, and Web of Science,
      by the MeSH heading and/or additional terms, were searched to assess relevant
      studies in systematic possess. I2 statistics was used to assess of heterogeneity.
      Pooled effects size was obtained by random effects model. Meta-regression was
      used to explore of heterogeneity using Stata software version 12 (Stata Corp,
      College Station, TX). RESULTS: A total 16 RCTs, 6192 women were enrolled to
      assess of smoking cessation in pregnancy period on the birth weight. Relative
      risk (RR) of not smoking at the end of pregnancy in intervention group was 2.47
      (95% CI: 1.73-3.20). The odds ratio (OR) for effect of smoking cessation on LBW
      was 0.65 (95% CI: 0.42-0.88) and standardized mean difference (SMD) was
      significantly increased in the intervention group, 0.28 (95% CI: 0.05-0.50).
      CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study approve results of previous RCTs that smoking
      cessation in pregnancy is a good practical action to prevention of LBW in
      infants.

PMID- 28889769
TI  - Orsiro cobalt-chromium sirolimus-eluting stent: present and future perspectives.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: New-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) represent the current
      standard of care in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
      Biodegradable polymer DES (BP-DES) were recently developed to overcome current
      limitations of newer-generation durable polymer DES (DP-DES) attributed to
      sustained inflammatory responses induced by permanent polymers. The Orsiro DES
      (Biotronik AG, Bulach, Switzerland) is a novel thin-strut cobalt-chromium
      sirolimus-eluting stent with biodegradable polymer that features some of the
      latest developments in DES technology. Areas covered: This article aims to review
      the currently available evidence on the clinical performance of the Orsiro BP-DES
      and its future perspectives. Expert commentary: The Orsiro DES is a recent newer
      generation BP-DES that combines a highly deliverable thin-strut cobalt-chromium
      stent platform and a unique hybrid concept with passive and active coatings
      designed to enhance tissue biocompatibility. In preclinical and intravascular
      imaging studies, the Orsiro BP-DES was shown to induce low inflammation and
      promote very early arterial healing. Recently, large randomized non-inferiority
      clinical trials have shown similar short- and mid-term efficacy and safety
      outcomes with Orsiro BP-DES compared with currently established newer-generation
      DES among all-comers and high-risk subgroups. The potential clinical superiority
      of Orsiro BP-DES over Xience DP-DES in patients with STEMI is currently
      investigated in the BIOSTEMI trial (NCT02579031).

PMID- 28889770
TI  - Angiogenic factors for prediction of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth
      restriction onset in high-risk women: AngioPred study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to compare the level of two angiogenic factors,
      soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt1) and soluble endoglin (sEng), for the
      prediction of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction in high-risk
      pregnant women. METHODS: A prospective multicenter cohort study of 200 pregnant
      patients was conducted between June 2008 and October 2010. sFlt1 and sEng were
      measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Forty-five patients
      developed a placenta-mediated adverse pregnancy outcome. Plasma levels of sFlt1
      and sEng were higher in patients who will experience a preeclampsia at 28, 32,
      and 36 weeks compared with patients with no complication. The same results were
      observed for intrauterine growth restriction. Plasma levels of sFlt1 and sEng
      were not significantly different for patients with preeclampsia compare to
      patients with intrauterine growth restriction. Patients with early pre-eclampsia
      (PE) had very high rates of angiogenic factors at 20, 24, and 28 weeks. Patients
      with late PE and early and late intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) had high
      rates at 32 and 36 weeks. CONCLUSION: In high-risk women, angiogenic factors are
      disturbed before the onset of preeclampsia and this is true for intrauterine
      growth restriction.

PMID- 28889771
TI  - Helicobacter pylori infection and risk of preeclampsia: a systematic review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Helicobacter pylori is associated with many pregnancy adverse effects
      such as preeclampsia (PE). We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis
      study to assess the possible association between H. pylori infection and PE and
      this is the first meta-analysis to clarify this issue. METHODS: PubMed, ISI (Web
      of Science), SCOPUS, and Google Scholar databases were searched (up to April
      2017) to identify the relevant studies. The Meta-analysis of Observational
      Studies in Epidemiology and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and
      Meta-Analyses Protocols guidelines were used to do this study. Pooled odds ratio
      (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using a random-effects meta
      analysis model. Heterogeneity was assessed with the chi2-based Q-test and I2
      statistic. RESULTS: A total of eight studies including 889 participants (460
      preeclamptic women and 429 controls) met the eligibility criteria. A positive
      association was found between H. pylori infection and PE (OR: 3.35; 95% CI: 2.21
      5.10). Heterogeneity was acceptable (chi2 = 13.39; I2 = 47.7, 95% CI: 0-77). In
      subgroup analysis, cytotoxin-associated antigen A seropositivity was a
      substantial risk factor for PE when immunoblotting methods (OR: 11.12; 95% CI:
      5.34-23.16; chi2 = 6.42; I2 = 53.3, 95% CI: 0-85) were used, whereas it was not
      potential risk factor for PE when ELISA was used as a detecting method (OR: 1.11;
      95% CI: 0.6-2.06; chi2 = 1.83; I2 = 0, 95% CI: 0-90). CONCLUSIONS: This study
      indicated that women with H. pylori infection, especially those infected with Cag
      A positive strains are more likely to have PE compared with the uninfected women.

PMID- 28889772
TI  - Human papillomavirus infection and intrauterine growth restriction: a data
      linkage study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Using unbiased population data, to examine whether having a positive
      Pap smear, and thus a high probability of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection,
      is a significant risk factor for intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) in a
      subsequent pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Two independent population-based
      databases, namely the South Australian Perinatal Statistics Collection and the
      South Australian Cervical Screening Database, were deidentified and linked by the
      SANT Datalinkage Service. Analyses were performed on cases where Pap smear
      screening data was available for up to 2 years prior to a singleton live birth.
      Population characteristics and pregnancy related data were compared statistically
      by normal birth weight versus IUGR (10th percentile - known as small for
      gestational age (SGA), small for gestational age) and (3rd percentile birth
      weight - known as VLBW, very low birth weight). The association between cervical
      screening results and IUGR was assessed using generalized linear log binomial
      regression models. RESULTS: A total of 31,827 women met the criteria. Of these,
      1311 women (4.1%) had a positive Pap smear within 2 years of the current
      pregnancy. Those having a positive Pap smear were more likely to have a baby with
      IUGR than those with negative smear results. For SGA, 5.8% babies were from
      mothers with positive Pap smears compared to 4.0% with negative smears indicating
      a 40% higher risk of having an SGA baby (95%CI 20-70%) among women with positive
      Pap smears. For VLBW, 7.6% mothers had positive Pap smears compared with 4.0%
      with negative smears (p < .001), which reflects a 90% increased risk (95%CI 40
      150%). These associations reduced to 20% (95%CI 1-40%) and 50% (95%CI 10-100%)
      for SGA and VLBW, respectively, after adjusting for all other significant
      covariates including maternal age, ethnicity, marital status, occupation,
      smoking, pregnancy history, and maternal health during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS:
      Mothers with a positive Pap smear have an increased risk of IUGR, especially for
      VLBW, which is independent of other risk factors. The results confirm previous
      findings in a small study and emphasise the need to consider the risks of both
      cancer and IUGR in all HPV vaccination programs.

PMID- 28889773
TI  - Sensitivity of nPCR for four types of membrane protein DNA and of two pairs of
      primers for Tpp47 DNA of Treponema pallidum in whole blood of congenital syphilis
      newborns.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Problems exist in congenital syphilis (CS) diagnosis and no single
      test can be used to diagnose CS. OBJECTIVE: To know whether there exist
      differences of nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) sensitivity among four
      membrane protein DNA and of nPCR between two pairs of primers for Tpp47. METHODS:
      We collected 30 CS patients as a study group, and 20 cases admitted to hospital
      for other reasons as a control group. The blood samples from newborns were left
      of blood for other examination, not special for the study. Following confirmed
      diagnosis, DNA was extracted from blood. nPCR examined for membrane protein DNA
      in both groups. RESULTS: Sensitivity of nPCR for Tpp15, Tpp17, Tpp45, and Tpp47
      (total) was 6/30, 3/30, 1/30, and 20/30, respectively. The sensitivity of nPCR
      for Tpp47 was highest among that of four types of membrane protein DNA. The nPCR
      sensitivity of two pairs of primers (a and b) for Tpp47 was 11/30 and 13/30,
      respectively. There was no significant difference between two pairs of primers
      for Tpp47, and total sensitivity of nPCR for Tpp47 combining Tpp47a with Tpp47b
      was up to 20/30. CONCLUSION: Sensitivity of nPCR for Tpp47 was highest among that
      of four types of membrane protein DNA. Two pairs of primers for Tpp47 different
      bands could elevate nPCR sensitivity.

PMID- 28889774
TI  - Vaginal breech delivery at term and neonatal morbidity and mortality - a
      population-based cohort study in Sweden.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The routine to deliver almost all term breech cases by elective
      cesarean section (CS) has continued to be debated due to the risk of maternal and
      neonatal complications. The aims of the study were (1) to investigate if mode of
      delivery impacts on the risk of morbidity and mortality among term infants in
      breech presentation and (2) to compare the rates of severe neonatal complications
      and mortality in relation to presentation and mode of delivery. METHODS: This
      population-based cohort study used data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register.
      All women (and their newborn infants) with singleton pregnancies who gave birth
      at term to an infant in breech (n = 27,357) or cephalic presentation (n =
      837,494) between 2001 and 2012 were included. Births with vacuum extraction and
      induced labors were excluded, as well as antepartum stillbirths, births with
      infants diagnosed with congenital malformations and multiple births. RESULTS: On
      one hand, the rates of neonatal complications and mortality were higher among
      infants born in vaginal breech compared to the vaginal cephalic group. On the
      other hand, after CS, the rates of all neonatal complications under study and
      neonatal mortality were lower among infants in breech presentation than in those
      in cephalic presentation. After adjustment for confounders, infants delivered in
      vaginal breech had 23.8 times higher odds AOR (ratio) for brachial plexus injury,
      13.3 times higher odds ratio for Apgar score <7 at 5 min, 6.7 times higher odds
      of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), or convulsions and 7.6 higher odds ratio for
      perinatal mortality than those delivered by elective CS. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a
      probable selection of women who before-hand were considered at low risk and,
      therefore, could be recommended vaginal breech delivery, infants delivered in
      vaginal breech faced substantially increased risks of severe neonatal
      complications compared with infants in breech presentations delivered by elective
      CS. Key message Vaginal breech delivery is associated with increased risk for
      severe neonatal complications.

PMID- 28889775
TI  - High-dose compared with low-dose oxytocin for induction of labour of nulliparous
      women at term.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The optimal oxytocin infusion regimen to induce labour with the
      lowest caesarean section rate, instrumental delivery rate and length of active
      labour is unclear. We compared the effect of a low-dose to high-dose oxytocin
      regimen to induce labour. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective
      study of nulliparous women induced at term in a single tertiary centre from 2009
      to 2015. The oxytocin induction protocol changed from a high to low-dose regimen
      in November 2012, affording us the opportunity to compare outcomes 3 years prior
      to, and following the change in protocol. Main outcome measures were caesarean
      section rate, instrumental delivery rate and length of active labour. RESULTS:
      Four thousand eight hundred and eighty-five participants were included, 2211 were
      induced via the low-dose regimen, and 2674 using the high-dose regimen. There was
      no difference in caesarean section rate (adjusted OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.87-1.13) or
      instrumental delivery rates once adjusted for regional anaesthesia (adjusted OR
      1.16; 95% CI 0.99-1.36) between the different regimens. Surprisingly, the length
      of labour was longer in the high-dose oxytocin group (adjusted mean difference
      0.60 h; 95%CI 0.81-0.12). There were significantly more postpartum haemorrhage
      >=1000 ml (10.5% versus 7.8%, p < .001) and regional anaesthesia use (55.8%
      versus 52.1%, p = .03) in the low-dose cohort. There were no differences in
      neonatal outcomes. CONCLUSION: Outcomes between high- and low-dose oxytocin
      induction regimens are relatively comparable with similar caesarean section and
      instrumental delivery rates. Therefore, either regimen is acceptable for use for
      induction of labour.

PMID- 28889776
TI  - Risk of spontaneous preterm birth in IVF-conceived twin pregnancies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the mean transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) cervical length (CL)
      at midtrimester in screening for preterm birth in in vitro (IVF)-conceived twin
      pregnancies versus spontaneously-conceived twin pregnancies. METHODS: This was a
      retrospective cohort study. Potential study subjects were identified at the time
      of a routine second trimester fetal ultrasound exam at 18 0/7 to 23 6/7-week
      gestation. All women with twin diamniotic pregnancies screened with a single TVU
      CL for this trial were included. Mean TVU CLs were compared between IVF-conceived
      twin pregnancies and spontaneously-conceived twin pregnancies. The relationship
      of TVU CL with gestational age at delivery was assessed. Incidence of short TVU
      CL, defined as TVU CL <=30 mm, was also calculated in the two groups. The primary
      outcome was the mean of TVU CL. Distribution of CL was determined and normality
      was examined in both groups Results: A total of 668 women with diamniotic twin
      pregnancies who underwent TVU CL screening between 18 0/6 and 23 6/7 weeks were
      included. 158 (23.7%) were IVF-conceived pregnancies, and 510 (76.3%) were
      spontaneously-conceived pregnancies. No women received progesterone, pessary, or
      cerclage for preterm birth prevention during pregnancy. The mean TVU CL was
      significantly lower in the IVF-conceived group (32.2 +/- 10.5 mm) compared to the
      spontaneously-conceived group (34.1 +/- 9.1 mm) (mean difference (MD) - 1.90 mm,
      95%CI -3.72 to -0.08). The incidence of TVU CL <=30 mm was 30.4% in the IVF
      conceived group and 21.6% in the spontaneously-conceived group (adjusted odds
      ratio (aOR) 1.59, 95%CI 1.06-2.37). IVF-conceived twins had a significantly
      higher risk of spontaneous preterm birth <34 weeks (32.9 versus 21.2%; aOR 1.83,
      95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23-2.71) and higher rate of delivery due to
      spontaneous onset of labor (64.5 versus 54.9%; aOR 1.50, 95%CI 1.03-2.17). For
      any given TVU CL measured between 18 0-7 and 23 6/7 weeks, gestational age at
      delivery for IVF-conceived twins was earlier by about 1 week on average compared
      with spontaneously-conceived twins. CONCLUSIONS: The higher rate of spontaneous
      preterm birth in IVF-conceived twin pregnancies is predicted by lower
      midtrimester TVU CL, as well as by the lower gestational age at birth per any
      given CL in the IVF-conceived compared to the spontaneously-conceived twin
      pregnancies.

PMID- 28889777
TI  - Assessment of neonatal adrenal size using high resolution 2D ultrasound and its
      correlation with birth demographics and clinical outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Assessment of adrenal function in a sick neonate remains a challenge
      in spite of major advances in neonatal care. We used 2D ultrasound of adrenal
      glands to assess maturity of adrenal glands in extremely preterm infants and sick
      term and near term infants. STUDY DESIGN: We collected demographics details of 99
      mother-infants pairs (24-41 weeks) and obtained 2D ultrasound scans of adrenal
      glands in first week of life to measure adrenal volume, fetal zone size, and
      adrenal to kidney ratios. Relationship between adrenal measurements, antenatal
      factors, and postnatal outcomes were studied. RESULTS: We reported normative
      adrenal gland volume data during gestation from 80 appropriate for gestational
      age (AGA) infants. In a binary analysis, adrenal size was significantly related
      to gender, race, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), maternal
      chorioamnionitis, and maternal hypertension. Linear regression analysis showed
      that fetal zone is significantly related to not only gestational age but also
      chorioamnionitis and later development of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH).
      Adrenal volume likewise is also related to gestational age, preeclampsia, and
      IVH. CONCLUSIONS: Antenatal maternal factors and uterine environment affects
      adrenal growth and development thus postnatal high resolution 2D US scan of
      adrenal glands can provide useful information to predict outcomes. This
      information can complement hormone and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)
      stimulation assays.

PMID- 28889778
TI  - Genotoxicity testing: progress and prospects for the next decade.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Genotoxicity and mutagenicity analyses have a significant role in
      the identification of hazard effects of therapeutic drugs, cosmetics,
      agrochemicals, industrial compounds, food additives, natural toxins and
      nanomaterials for regulatory purposes. To evaluate mutagenicity or genotoxicity,
      different in vitro and in vivo methodologies exert various genotoxicological
      endpoints such as point mutations, changes in number and structure of
      chromosomes. Areas covered: This review covered the basics of genotoxicity and in
      vitro/in vivo methods for determining of genetic damages. The limitations that
      have arisen as a result of the common use of these methods were also discussed.
      Finally, the perspectives of further prospects on the use of genotoxicity testing
      and genotoxic mode of action were emphasized. Expert opinion: The solution of
      actual and practical problems of genetic toxicology is inarguably based on the
      understanding of DNA damage mechanisms at molecular, subcellular, cellular,
      organ, system and organism levels. Current strategies to investigate human health
      risks should be modified to increase their performance for more reliable results
      and also new techniques such as toxicogenomics, epigenomics and single cell
      approaches must be integrated into genetic safety evolutions. The explored new
      biomarkers by the omic techniques will provide forceful genotoxicity assessment
      to reduce the cancer risk.

PMID- 28889779
TI  - Physician performance feedback in a Canadian academic center.
AB  - Purpose This paper aims at the implementation and early evaluation of a
      comprehensive, formative annual physician performance feedback process in a large
      academic health-care organization. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods
      approach was used to introduce a formative feedback process to provide physicians
      with comprehensive feedback on performance and to support professional
      development. This initiative responded to organization-wide engagement surveys
      through which physicians identified effective performance feedback as a priority.
      In 2013, physicians primarily affiliated with the organization participated in a
      performance feedback process, and physician satisfaction and participant
      perceptions were explored through participant survey responses and physician
      leader focus groups. Training was required for physician leaders prior to
      conducting performance feedback discussions. Findings This process was completed
      by 98 per cent of eligible physicians, and 30 per cent completed an evaluation
      survey. While physicians endorsed the concept of a formative feedback process,
      process improvement opportunities were identified. Qualitative analysis revealed
      the following process improvement themes: simplify the tool, ensure leaders
      follow process, eliminate redundancies in data collection (through academic or
      licensing requirements) and provide objective quality metrics. Following
      physician leader training on performance feedback, 98 per cent of leaders who
      completed an evaluation questionnaire agreed or strongly agreed that the
      performance feedback process was useful and that training objectives were met.
      Originality/value This paper introduces a physician performance feedback model,
      leadership training approach and first-year implementation outcomes. The results
      of this study will be useful to health administrators and physician leaders
      interested in implementing physician performance feedback or improving physician
      engagement.

PMID- 28889780
TI  - Prevalence of hearing loss and associated factors in subjects with normal
      otoscopy: a national cross-sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report the prevalence of hearing loss (HL) and associated factors
      in a nationwide study. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. STUDY SAMPLE: We
      investigated the prevalence of HL in 10,845 participants >=12 years of age and
      analysed the associated factors with HL from 7434 participants >=40 years of age.
      RESULTS: The prevalence of worse ear HL was 21.9% (1.2% in youngest and 81.9% in
      oldest) and that of better ear was 12.5% (none in youngest and 65.3% in oldest).
      Based on the worse ear HL, the prevalence of HL was more common in men, and
      related with low education and income. In univariable analysis, hypertension,
      smoking, diabetes, depressive mood, stroke or cardiac disease, anaemia,
      hypercholesterolaemia and underweight showed positive associations with HL, and
      alcohol consumption and regular walking showed negative associations with HL.
      There were five associated factors in multivariable analysis, including smoking
      (OR =1.36 for smokers with <20 pack years; OR =1.55 for smokers with >=20 pack
      years), noise exposure at workplace (OR = 1.28), stroke (OR = 1.72), anaemia (OR
      = 1.36) and depressive mood (OR = 1.29). CONCLUSION: Prevention of smoking and
      reduction of noise, as well as awareness of the association with stroke, anaemia
      and depression would help to reduce the burden of HL.

PMID- 28889781
TI  - Intrauterine cleaning after placental delivery at cesarean section: a randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate whether omission of
      intrauterine cleaning increases intraoperative and postoperative complications
      among women who deliver via cesarean section. METHODS: We randomized 206 women
      undergoing primary elective cesarean deliveries to intrauterine cleaning or
      omission of cleaning. Postpartum endomyometritis rates across groups were the
      primary outcome. We also examined secondary outcomes. To detect a 20% difference
      in infection rate between the cleaned and the non-cleaned groups (two-tailed
      [alpha] = 0.05, [beta] = 0.2), 103 women were required per group. Analysis was by
      intention-to-treat. RESULTS: Two hundred and six were randomized as follows: 103
      to intrauterine cleaning and 103 to omission of cleaning after placental
      delivery. There were no statistically significant differences in the rate of
      endomyometritis between the two groups (2.0% versus 2.9%, RR =0.60; 95% CI 0.40
      1.32). There were no statistically significant differences in postpartum
      hemorrhage rates (5.8% versus 7.7%, RR 0.75; 95% CI 0.6-1.2), hospital
      readmission rates (2.9 versus 3.8%, RR 0.75; 95% CI 0.5-1.6), time to return of
      gastrointestinal function, need for repeat surgery, or quantitated blood loss
      between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our randomized controlled trial provides
      evidence suggesting that omission of intrauterine cleaning during cesarean
      deliveries in women at low risk of infection does not increase intraoperative or
      postoperative complications.

PMID- 28889782
TI  - Sex-related hormone receptor in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: correlation
      with androgen estrogen-alpha and prolactin receptor expression and influence of
      prognosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The expression and function of androgen receptors (AR) and estrogen
      receptor alpha (ER-alpha) in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) have
      remained controversial for decades. Prolactin receptor (PRLR) is a sex-related
      hormone, that has been rarely documented in terms of expression or function
      compared with data on other hormone receptors in laryngeal carcinoma. METHODS:
      This study reports on immunohistochemical and reverse transcription-polymerase
      chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of tumour tissue and adjacent normal tissue in
      96 patients with LSCC (82 males and 14 females). The expression levels of the
      receptors were related to clinicopathologic parameters and survival data.
      RESULTS: At both protein and mRNA levels, the expression level of AR, ER-alpha,
      and PRLR was much higher in LSCC than in adjacent normal tissues (p < .05). Among
      them, higher PRLR expression in tumour tissues tended to have a significantly
      poorer survival rate (p = .03) for patients with LSCC. Furthermore, higher
      expression of ER-alpha in tumours was correlated with higher expression level of
      PRLR (r = .823, p = .03). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate that
      the sex-related hormone receptors play an important role in the development of
      LSCC. The PRLR represents a novel prognosticator, because of its negative effect
      on survival and its interaction with ER-alpha.

PMID- 28889783
TI  - Sex chromosome changes in leukemia: cytogenetics and molecular aspects.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Sex chromosome loss (SCL) can occur in older men as a
      physiological phenomenon or as an acquired abnormality in leukemia. Loss of
      chromosome Y and loss of chromosome X are acquired disorders that are mainly
      observed in patients over 80 years as well as in myeloid and lymphoid
      malignancies. In this review, we examine the cytogenetic and molecular changes of
      sex chromosomes in leukemia. METHODS: Relevant English language literature were
      searched and retrieved from PubMed search engine (1990-2016). The following
      keywords were used: 'Sex chromosomes', 'Leukemia' and 'Cytogenetics'. RESULTS:
      The loss of tumor suppressor genes along with these chromosomal abnormalities in
      the majority of malignant cells in bone marrow (BM) has raised the question
      whether this is an age-related phenomenon or has occurred as a result of clonal
      abnormality. On the other hand, the presence of these chromosomal abnormalities
      in a number of genetic diseases associated with leukemia leads to progression of
      malignancy, and their role in peripheral blood stem cell transplantation confirm
      the finding that these chromosomal abnormalities can play an important role in
      clonal abnormality. CONCLUSION: The presence of these abnormalities can cause
      genetic instability in BM and result in the development of a malignant clone and
      progression of the disease. In addition, the evaluation of SCL together with the
      genes involved in these chromosomes can contribute to predict the disease
      prognosis as well as monitoring of malignancy.

PMID- 28889784
TI  - Isolation and characterization of key contributors to the "kokumi" taste in
      soybean seeds.
AB  - The water extract of soybean seeds (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is nearly tasteless,
      but "kokumi" taste sensation was confirmed upon addition of a basic umami
      solution containing glutamic acid, inosine monophosphate, and sodium chloride. To
      identify the key contributors to the "kokumi" taste sensation in soybean seeds,
      sensory-guided fractionation, taste sensory analyses, and LC-MS/MS analyses were
      utilized. gamma-glutamyl-tyrosine and gamma-glutamyl-phenylalanine were
      identified as contributors to "kokumi taste"; specifically, these gamma-glutamyl
      peptides imparted the "kokumi" taste sensation at a low taste threshold in a
      basic umami solution. Raffinose and stachyose, which are sufficiently present in
      soybean seeds, exhibited a synergistic effect in regard to the enhanced "kokumi"
      taste sensation of gamma-glutamyl peptides. This is the first report that the
      combined use of gamma-glutamyl peptides and oligosaccharides can increase the
      "kokumi" intensity, which suggests that soybean extracts or soymilk can be used
      to enhance the "kokumi" taste sensation in food products.

PMID- 28889785
TI  - Validation of Fetal Medicine Foundation algorithm for prediction of pre-eclampsia
      in the first trimester in an unselected Brazilian population.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the predictive performance
      of the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) algorithm for prediction of preeclampsia
      (PE) between 11 and 14 weeks of gestation in an unselected Brazilian population.
      METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study with 617 singleton pregnancies
      of unselected risk. Biophysical markers (mean pulsatility index, mean arterial
      pressure) and biochemical markers (placental growth factor (PLGF) and PAPP-A)
      were inserted into the FMF software and converted into multiples of the median
      (MoM). The subjects were divided into five groups: early-onset PE, parturition
      <34 weeks' gestation; preterm PE, parturition <37 weeks; PE, parturition at any
      gestational age; gestational hypertension (GH); and control group. Areas under
      the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) were calculated for the
      outcomes. RESULTS: Among 617 patients, seven developed early-onset PE, 18
      developed preterm PE (seven early PE plus 11 delivered between 34 and 36 + 6
      weeks gestation), 34 developed PE (18 preterm PE plus 16 delivered after 37-week
      gestation), 12 pregnant women developed GH, and 517 women comprised the control
      group. The best predictive performance using the FMF algorithm occurred in the
      early-onset PE group, with AUC = 0.946 (95% CI 0.919-0.973) and the detection
      rate of 28.6% and 85.7% for 5% and 10% false-positive (FP), respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: The FMF algorithm to predict PE was effective in a Brazilian
      population, mainly in the early-onset form of the disease at 10% FP.

PMID- 28889786
TI  - Implantable microphones as an alternative to external microphones for cochlear
      implants.
AB  - Totally implantable cochlear implants may be able to address many of the problems
      cochlear implant users have around cosmetic appearances, discomfort, and
      restriction of activities. The major technological challenges that need to be
      solved to develop a totally implantable device relate to implanted microphone
      performance. Previous attempts at implanting microphones for cochlear implants
      have not performed as well as conventional cochlear implant microphones, and in
      addition have struggled with extraneous body or surface contact noise.
      Microphones can be implanted under the skin or act as sensors in the middle ear;
      however, evidence from middle ear implants suggest body and contact noise can be
      overcome by converting ossicular chain movements into digital signals. This
      article reviews implantable microphone systems and discusses the technology
      behind them.

PMID- 28889787
TI  - Evaluation of scalp hair nickel and chromium level changes in patients with fixed
      orthodontic appliance: a one-year follow-up study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The release of metal ions from orthodontic appliances
      is part of the dissolution and biomechanical processes of alloys. Nickel (Ni) and
      chromium (Cr) are the elements commonly used in the manufacture of various
      components of fixed orthodontic appliances, including bands, brackets and wires.
      This study was aimed to measure the Ni and Cr ions levels in the scalp hair of
      patients treated with fixed orthodontic appliances in comparison of the control
      group. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patient group consisted of 24 patients treated
      with fixed orthodontic appliances for one year, while the control group included
      28 healthy individuals without orthodontic appliances. Analysis of the Cr and Ni
      was performed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer by graphite furnace
      method. The data were analyzed via student and paired samples t-test and ANOVA
      repeated measurement test. RESULTS: After one year, the levels of Ni and Cr in
      two groups showed significant differences (0.086 +/- 0.007 and 0.258 +/- 0.009
      ug/g for control group and 0.149 +/- 0.010 and 0.339 +/- 0.013 ug/g for patient
      group, respectively for Ni and Cr, p < .001). ANCOVA test by removing the effects
      of age, gender and the baseline levels of Ni and Cr showed that changes in these
      ions in the scalp hair of both groups after one year were statistically
      significant. CONCLUSION: Due to the slightly elevated levels of Ni and Cr ions in
      the scalp hair of patients treated with fixed orthodontic appliances and
      considering the cytotoxic and allergic effects of these ions, changing the
      ingredients in fixed orthodontic appliances is suggested for the future.

PMID- 28889788
TI  - Exploring perspectives on restraint during medical procedures in paediatric care:
      a qualitative interview study with nurses and physicians.
AB  - The aim of this study was to explore nurses' and physicians' perspectives on and
      reasoning about the use of restraint during medical procedures on newly admitted
      preschoolers in somatic hospital care. We analysed qualitative data from
      individual interviews with a video recall session at the end with seven
      physicians and eight nurses. They had earlier participated in video recorded
      peripheral vein cannulations on preschool children. The data were collected
      between May 2012 and May 2013 at a paediatric hospital unit in Norway. The
      analysis resulted in three main themes: (1) disparate views on the concept of
      restraint and restraint use (2), ways to limit the use of physical restraint and
      its negative consequences, and (3) experience with the role of parents and their
      influence on restraint. Perspectives from both healthcare professions were
      represented in all the main themes and had many similarities. The results of this
      study may facilitate more informed and reflective discussions of restraint and
      contribute to higher awareness of restraint in clinical practice. Lack of
      guidance and scientific attention to restraint combined with conflicting
      interests and values among healthcare providers may result in insecurity,
      individual dogmatism, and a lack of shared discussions, language, and
      terminology.

PMID- 28889789
TI  - Blood pressure evolution in young patients with acute ischemic stroke: a new
      model for understanding the natural course of spontaneous hypertension?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Approximately 80% of patients suffering an acute ischemic stroke
      develop transient hypertension. The physiopathological mechanism remains unclear.
      Due to the lack of vascular risk factors, young adults could be a useful model
      for understanding blood pressure (BP) evolution in this setting. METHODS:
      Patients between 18 and 55 years old admitted with an acute ischemic stroke were
      included. BP was evaluated during the following 48 h. Hypertension was defined
      as: systolic blood pressure (SBP) >=140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP)
      >=90 mmHg. Patients were divided into two groups: RF group included those who had
      a previous vascular risk factor and/or other medical condition known to affect
      the autonomic function; noRF group included patients without any of the
      previously stated conditions. RESULTS: Thirty-nine patients were included: mean
      age: 44.26 years old, 21 were males (53.8%). Mean SBP and DBP at admission were
      139.77 +/- 5.35 mmHg (range: 90-243) and 84.44 +/- 3.02 mmHg (range: 60-128),
      respectively; 43.58% patients were hypertensive at admission. SBP decreased
      significantly during the first 48 h (p = 0.044) for the entire population. RF
      group has higher SBP (p = 0.009) and DBP (p = 0.011) at admission than the noRF
      group. CONCLUSION: Most patients were normotensive at admission and BP fell
      spontaneously despite BP at admission. Young patients without medical conditions
      that could alter the autonomic system function could be a useful model for
      understanding acute hypertension in ischemic stroke.

PMID- 28889791
TI  - Additional resective surgery after the failure of initial surgery in patients
      with intractable epilepsy.
AB  - Objectives There are three conceivable reasons for the failure of resective
      surgery for intractable epilepsy: incomplete resection of the epileptogenic zone
      including or overlapping with eloquent area (group A); incorrect determination of
      the epileptogenic zone prior to the first surgery (group B); and the development
      of a new epileptic focus after the first surgery (group C). We examined the
      relationship between the reason for failure of initial surgery and patient
      outcomes after repeated surgical resection. Methods The study included 18
      patients (5.1%) underwent additional surgery after failure of the initial
      operation. Post-operative outcomes, complications and other clinical data were
      collected by retrospective chart review. Results Four patients (22.2%) were
      assigned to group A, 13 (72.2%) were assigned to group B, and 1 patient was
      assigned to group C (5.6%). Six patients (40.0%) were seizure-free for 2 or more
      years after additional surgery. In group B, 11 patients underwent additional
      resection of the cortex adjacent to the previously resected area and 2 underwent
      re-operation involving a site distant from the previously resected area; notably,
      the latter 2 patients did not achieve seizure-free status post-surgery. After the
      first operation, only one patient (group A) experienced transient paresis; after
      additional surgery, 10 of 18 patients (56%; 3 group A, 6 group B, and 1 group C)
      experienced various complications. Discussion Although additional resective
      surgery provided freedom from seizures in about 40% of the patients, it is
      important to weigh a high risk of complications against possible benefits when
      considering additional surgery.

PMID- 28889793
TI  - Hemorheological dysfunction in cardiac syndrome X.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac syndrome X (CSX) is often described as angina or angina-like
      chest pain with a normal coronary arteriogram, yet the underlying
      pathophysiological mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. The aim of the
      current study was to determine alterations in blood rheology (erythrocyte
      aggregation and deformability, plasma viscosity - PV) in patients with CSX.
      METHODS: The study comprised 26 CSX patients (55.77 +/- 12.33 years) and 37 age-
      and sex-matched (56.32 +/- 11.98 years) healthy controls. Erythrocyte aggregation
      and deformability were measured by an ektacytometer and PV with a rotational
      viscometer. RESULTS: Erythrocyte deformability measured at 1.69 and 3.00 Pa was
      lower in the CSX patients compared to the controls (p = .0001 and .017,
      respectively). Erythrocyte aggregation index (AI) (72.758 +/- 7.65 vs. 66.483 +/-
      6.63, p = .002) and PV measured at a shear rate of 375 s-1 (1.932 +/- 0.225 vs.
      1.725 +/- 0.331, p = .019) were significantly higher in patients with CSX. When
      AI, RDW and erythrocyte deformability measured at 1.69 Pa were evaluated
      together, it was observed that the increase in AI and RDW augments the risk of
      having CSX (OR: 1.2 and 2.65, respectively), while the rise in deformability
      decreases this risk (OR = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Hemorheological impairments are
      associated with CSX.

PMID- 28889794
TI  - Editorial: Computer Aided Structure-based Lead Optimization.

PMID- 28889792
TI  - Overall Survival with Combined Nivolumab and Ipilimumab in Advanced Melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nivolumab combined with ipilimumab resulted in longer progression
      free survival and a higher objective response rate than ipilimumab alone in a
      phase 3 trial involving patients with advanced melanoma. We now report 3-year
      overall survival outcomes in this trial. METHODS: We randomly assigned, in a
      1:1:1 ratio, patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma to receive
      nivolumab at a dose of 1 mg per kilogram of body weight plus ipilimumab at a dose
      of 3 mg per kilogram every 3 weeks for four doses, followed by nivolumab at a
      dose of 3 mg per kilogram every 2 weeks; nivolumab at a dose of 3 mg per kilogram
      every 2 weeks plus placebo; or ipilimumab at a dose of 3 mg per kilogram every 3
      weeks for four doses plus placebo, until progression, the occurrence of
      unacceptable toxic effects, or withdrawal of consent. Randomization was
      stratified according to programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) status, BRAF mutation
      status, and metastasis stage. The two primary end points were progression-free
      survival and overall survival in the nivolumab-plus-ipilimumab group and in the
      nivolumab group versus the ipilimumab group. RESULTS: At a minimum follow-up of
      36 months, the median overall survival had not been reached in the nivolumab-plus
      ipilimumab group and was 37.6 months in the nivolumab group, as compared with
      19.9 months in the ipilimumab group (hazard ratio for death with nivolumab plus
      ipilimumab vs. ipilimumab, 0.55 [P<0.001]; hazard ratio for death with nivolumab
      vs. ipilimumab, 0.65 [P<0.001]). The overall survival rate at 3 years was 58% in
      the nivolumab-plus-ipilimumab group and 52% in the nivolumab group, as compared
      with 34% in the ipilimumab group. The safety profile was unchanged from the
      initial report. Treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or 4 occurred in 59%
      of the patients in the nivolumab-plus-ipilimumab group, in 21% of those in the
      nivolumab group, and in 28% of those in the ipilimumab group. CONCLUSIONS: Among
      patients with advanced melanoma, significantly longer overall survival occurred
      with combination therapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab or with nivolumab alone
      than with ipilimumab alone. (Funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and others; CheckMate
      067 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01844505 .).

PMID- 28889795
TI  - Preface.

PMID- 28889796
TI  - Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) Network: Recent Advances in Drug Discovery.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The investigation of the cellular components, their interactions and
      related functions constitute the major conditions in order to understand the cell
      as an integrated system. More specifically, the Protein-Protein Interactions and
      the obtained networks are very important in the majority of biological functions
      and processes, while most of the proteins appear to activate their
      functionalities through their interaction. METHODS: Our in depth review analysis,
      include Sixty-five peer-reviewed research and review studies from several
      bibliographic databases. The most significant components were fully described,
      filtered, combined and analyzed in order to provide documented proofs on the
      Protein-Protein Interaction Network' applications in biomedicine. RESULTS: The
      Protein-Protein Interaction Network' alignment and mapping give the opportunity
      of further knowledge extraction concerning the evolutionary relationships between
      the species through conserved pathways and protein complexes. Additionally,
      Protein-Protein Interaction Network information has been demonstrated to be able
      to predict functionally orthologous proteins within sequence homology clusters.
      Our review analysis concluded that, while Protein- Protein Interaction was used
      to be characterized just by their large and plain interacting surfaces, they were
      considered inapplicable for drug discovery studies for a long time. CONCLUSION:
      The present review explores multiple technologies implicated in Protein-Protein
      Interaction Networks, implicating their potential role in drug discovery
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28889797
TI  - An experimental study of executive function and social impairment in Cornelia de
      Lange syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extreme shyness and social anxiety is reported to be characteristic
      of adolescents and adults with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS); however, the
      nature of these characteristics is not well documented. In this study, we develop
      and apply an experimental assessment of social anxiety in a group of adolescents
      and adults with CdLS to determine the nature of the social difficulties and
      whether they are related to impairments in executive functioning. METHODS: A
      familiar and unfamiliar examiner separately engaged in socially demanding tasks
      comprising three experimental conditions with a group of individuals with CdLS (n
      = 25; % male = 44; mean age = 22.16; SD = 8.81) and a comparable group of
      individuals with Down syndrome (DS; n = 20; % male = 35; mean age = 24.35; SD =
      5.97). Behaviours indicative of social anxiety were coded. The Behavior Rating
      Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool version, an informant measure of
      executive function, was completed by participants' caregivers. RESULTS:
      Significantly less verbalisation was observed in the CdLS group than the DS group
      in conditions requiring the initiation of speech. In the CdLS group, impairments
      in verbalisation were not associated with a greater degree of intellectual
      disability but were significantly correlated with impairments in both planning
      and working memory. This association was not evident in the DS group.
      CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents and adults with CdLS have a specific difficulty with the
      initiation of speech when social demands are placed upon them. This impairment in
      verbalisation may be underpinned by specific cognitive deficits, although further
      research is needed to investigate this fully.

PMID- 28889798
TI  - Erratum to: Attention training for infants at familial risk of ADHD
      (INTERSTAARS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

PMID- 28889799
TI  - In vitro protective effects of resveratrol and stilbene alkanoic derivatives on
      induced oxidative stress on C2C12 and MCF7 cells.
AB  - Resveratrol (3,4',5-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) is a natural phytoalexin found in
      grapes and wine, which has been extensively studied for a wide range of
      biological effects. A large number of stilbene-containing derivatives have
      displayed antioxidant and antiproliferative activities on various cancer cell
      lines. In this study, a series of stilbene hybrids 1-9, previously reported as
      peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonists, were assessed at
      micromolar concentrations using MTT cell viability assay in C2C12 and MCF7 cell
      lines. The modulation of oxidative stress was also evaluated by measuring the
      protective effects on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production induced or not by
      oxidative stimulus. Among these, compounds 2 and 8 showed significant radical
      scavenging activity.

PMID- 28889800
TI  - Adenocarcinoma of the lacrimal gland: a case report.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary ductal adenocarcinomas of the lacrimal gland are very rare.
      This neoplasm shares some histological and immunohistochemical similarities with
      salivary duct carcinoma. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we present a case of a 55-year
      old Moroccan man with lacrimal gland adenocarcinoma. He underwent orbital
      exenteration with lymph nodes dissection and ipsilateral parotidectomy. After
      surgery, he was lost to follow-up and died 13 months later. CONCLUSIONS: Lacrimal
      gland tumors are rare but highly aggressive salivary gland tumors. Complete
      excision with adjuvant radiotherapy is recommended.

PMID- 28889801
TI  - Do health professionals have a prototype concept of disease? The answer is no.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Health and disease are core concepts in health care and have
      attracted substantial interest and controversy. In recent and interesting
      contributions to the debate it has been argued that the challenges with the
      concept of disease can be resolved by a prototype concept of disease. As a robin
      is a more prototypical of a bird than a penguin, some diseases are more
      prototypical than others. If disease is a prototype concept, it would change
      nosology, but also health care and the study of health and disease. However, the
      statement that "disease is a prototype concept" forms an empirically testable
      hypothesis. Therefore, this study aims to test the hypothesis that health
      professionals have a prototype concept of disease. METHODS: Two hundred twenty
      three health care professionals in Norway were invited to participate in a survey
      where they were asked to rank a wide range of diseases according to how typical
      they considered them to be as diseases. Results were analysed with descriptive
      statistics. RESULTS: The response rate was 90%. Lung cancer, leukemia, colon
      cancer, myocardial infarction, and AIDS are the diseases ranged to be most
      typical, while homosexuality, pregnancy, drapetomania, dissidence, and nostalgia
      are considered to be the least typical diseases. The results also show that the
      answers to how typical various diseases are vary greatly, even amongst a
      relatively homogenous group of health professionals. CONCLUSION: This study
      falsifies the hypothesis that disease is a prototype concept for health
      professionals. This has implications for the debate on core concepts for health
      care. If health professionals do not have a prototype concept of disease, it is
      unlikely that there is a prototype concept of disease in general. Consequently,
      nosologies should not be based on prototypes.

PMID- 28889802
TI  - Prevalence and clinical relevance of interview-assessed psychosis-risk symptoms
      in the young adult community.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An efficient indicated prevention of psychotic disorders requires
      valid risk criteria that work in both clinical and community samples. Yet, ultra
      high risk and basic symptom criteria were recently recommended for use in
      clinical samples only. Their use in the community was discouraged for lack of
      knowledge about their prevalence, clinical relevance and risk factors in non
      clinical, community settings when validly assessed with the same instruments used
      in the clinic. METHODS: Using semi-structured telephone interviews with
      established psychosis-risk instruments, we studied the prevalence of psychosis
      risk symptoms and criteria, their clinical relevance (using presence of a non
      psychotic mental disorder or of functional deficits as proxy measures) and their
      risk factors in a random, representative young adult community sample (N=2683;
      age 16-40 years; response rate: 63.4%). RESULTS: The point-prevalence of
      psychosis-risk symptoms was 13.8%. As these mostly occurred too infrequent to
      meet frequency requirements of psychosis-risk criteria, only 2.4% of participants
      met psychosis-risk criteria. A stepwise relationship underlay the association of
      ultra-high risk and basic symptoms with proxy measures of clinical relevance,
      this being most significant when both occurred together. In line with models of
      their formation, basic symptoms were selectively associated with age, ultra-high
      risk symptoms with traumatic events and lifetime substance misuse. CONCLUSIONS:
      Psychosis-risk criteria were uncommon, indicating little risk of falsely
      labelling individuals from the community at-risk for psychosis. Besides, both
      psychosis-risk symptoms and criteria seem to possess sufficient clinical
      relevance to warrant their broader attention in clinical practice, especially if
      ultra-high risk and basic symptoms occur together.

PMID- 28889803
TI  - Effort-cost decision-making in psychosis and depression: could a similar
      behavioral deficit arise from disparate psychological and neural mechanisms?
AB  - Motivational impairment is a common feature of both depression and psychosis;
      however, the psychological and neural mechanisms that give rise to motivational
      impairment in these disorders are poorly understood. Recent research has
      suggested that aberrant effort-cost decision-making (ECDM) may be a potential
      contributor to motivational impairment in both psychosis and depression. ECDM
      refers to choices that individuals make regarding the amount of 'work' they are
      willing to expend to obtain a certain outcome or reward. Recent experimental work
      has suggested that those with psychosis and depression may be less willing to
      expend effort to obtain rewards compared with controls, and that this effort
      deficit is related to motivational impairment in both disorders. In the current
      review, we aim to summarize the current literature on ECDM in psychosis and
      depression, providing evidence for transdiagnostic impairment. Next, we discuss
      evidence for the hypothesis that a seemingly similar behavioral ECDM deficit
      might arise from disparate psychological and neural mechanisms. Specifically, we
      argue that effort deficits in psychosis might be largely driven by deficits in
      cognitive control and the neural correlates of cognitive control processes, while
      effort deficits in depression might be largely driven by reduced reward
      responsivity and the associated neural correlates of reward responsivity.
      Finally, we will provide some discussion regarding future directions, as well as
      interpretative challenges to consider when examining ECDM transdiagnostically.

PMID- 28889804
TI  - Metabolic and inflammatory markers: associations with individual depressive
      symptoms.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Literature has shown that obesity, metabolic syndrome and
      inflammation are associated with depression, however, evidence suggests that
      these associations are specific to atypical depression. Which of the atypical
      symptoms are driving associations with obesity-related outcomes and inflammation
      is unknown. We evaluated associations between individual symptoms of depression
      (both atypical and non-atypical) and body mass index (BMI), metabolic syndrome
      components and inflammatory markers. METHODS: We included 808 persons with a
      current diagnosis of depression participating in the Netherlands Study of
      Depression and Anxiety (67% female, mean age 41.6 years). Depressive symptoms
      were derived from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and the
      Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology. Univariable and multivariable regression
      analyses adjusting for sex, age, educational level, depression severity, current
      smoking, physical activity, anti-inflammatory medication use, and statin use were
      performed. RESULTS: Increased appetite was positively associated with BMI, number
      of metabolic syndrome components, waist circumference, C-reactive protein and
      tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Decreased appetite was negatively associated with
      BMI and waist circumference. Psychomotor retardation was positively associated
      with BMI, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, and insomnia
      with number of metabolic syndrome components. CONCLUSION: Increased appetite - in
      the context of a depressive episode - was the only symptom that was associated
      with both metabolic as well as inflammatory markers, and could be a key feature
      of an immuno-metabolic form of depression. This immuno-metabolic depression
      should be considered in clinical trials evaluating effectiveness of compounds
      targeting metabolic and inflammatory pathways or lifestyle interventions.

PMID- 28889805
TI  - Interferon-alpha induces negative biases in emotional processing in patients with
      hepatitis C virus infection: a preliminary study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Treatment of medical patients with the inflammatory cytokine,
      interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), is frequently associated with the development of
      clinical depressive symptomatology. Several important biological correlates of
      the effect of IFN-alpha on mood have been described, but the neuropsychological
      changes associated with IFN-alpha treatment are largely unexplored. The aim of
      the present preliminary study was to assess the effect of IFN-alpha on measures
      of emotional processing. METHOD: We measured changes in emotional processing over
      6-8 weeks in 17 patients receiving IFN-alpha as part of their treatment for
      hepatitis C virus infection. Emotional processing tasks included those which have
      previously been shown to be sensitive to the effects of depression and
      antidepressant treatment, namely facial expression recognition, emotional
      categorisation and the dot probe attentional task. RESULTS: Following IFN-alpha,
      patients were more accurate at detecting facial expressions of disgust; they also
      showed diminished attentional vigilance to happy faces. IFN-alpha produced the
      expected increases in scores on depression rating scales, but there was no
      correlation between these scores and the changes in emotional processing.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary findings suggest that IFN-alpha treatment produces
      negative biases in emotional processing, and this effect is not simply a
      consequence of depression. It is possible that increased recognition of disgust
      may represent a neuropsychological marker of depressive disorders related to
      inflammation.

PMID- 28889806
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Sources of bias and need for caution in interpreting the
      results of Spoth et al.'s (2017) PROSPER study.

PMID- 28889807
TI  - No nutritional benefits of egg cannibalism for Coleomegilla maculata (Coleoptera:
      Coccinellidae) on a high-quality diet.
AB  - Egg cannibalism serves various functions in the Coccinellidae. Here we examined
      the fitness consequences of egg cannibalism by neonates, fourth instar larvae,
      and prereproductive adults of Coleomegilla maculata DeGeer, with beetles fed a
      diet of Ephestia kuehniella Zeller eggs. Cannibalism of two eggs by neonates had
      no effect on development, and cannibalism of five eggs by fourth instars did not
      benefit any aspect of reproduction, but delayed pupation slightly. Cannibalism of
      eggs by pre-reproductive adults had no effect on reproductive success in any
      combination of reciprocal crosses of cannibals and non-cannibals. Females did not
      recognize, nor avoid consuming, their own clutches, and cannibalism propensity
      did not change following mating and onset of oviposition in either sex. These
      results contrast with those for more strictly aphidophagous species in which
      larvae gain developmental benefits, and females may recognize and avoid filial
      egg clusters while using cannibalism to interfere with conspecific females,
      whereas males reduce egg cannibalism after mating because they cannot recognize
      filial clusters. Egg cannibalism may confer developmental benefits to C. maculata
      when diet is suboptimal, as previously shown, but no such benefits were evident
      on the high-quality E. kuehniella egg diet. Female C. maculata do not require
      aphids to reproduce and distribute their eggs broadly in the environment, given
      that larvae can develop on pollen and non-aphid prey. Thus, C. maculata is not
      subject to the intraspecific competition that selects for cannibalism in more
      aphidophagous species, and also lacks many secondary adaptations associated with
      the behaviour.

PMID- 28889808
TI  - Maternal immune and affiliative biomarkers and sensitive parenting mediate the
      effects of chronic early trauma on child anxiety.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Chronic early trauma alters children's stress reactivity and
      increases the prevalence of anxiety disorders; yet the neuroendocrine and immune
      mechanisms underpinning this effect are not fully clear. Animal studies indicate
      that the mother's physiology and behavior mediate offspring stress in a system
      specific manner, but few studies tested this external-regulatory maternal role in
      human children exposed to chronic stress. METHODS: We followed a unique cohort of
      children exposed to continuous wartime trauma (N = 177; exposed; N = 101,
      controls; N = 76). At 10 years, maternal and child's salivary immunoglobulin A (s
      IgA) and oxytocin (OT), biomarkers of the immune and affiliation systems, were
      assayed, maternal and child relational behaviors observed, mother and child
      underwent psychiatric diagnosis, and child anxiety symptoms assessed. RESULTS:
      War-exposed mothers had higher s-IgA, lower OT, more anxiety symptoms, and their
      parenting was characterized by reduced sensitivity. Exposed children showed
      higher s-IgA, more anxiety disorders and post traumatic stress disorder, and more
      anxiety symptoms. Path analysis model defined three pathways by which maternal
      physiology and behavior impacted child anxiety; (a) increasing maternal s-IgA,
      which led to increased child s-IgA, augmenting child anxiety; (b) reducing
      maternal OT, which linked with diminished child OT and social repertoire; and (c)
      increasing maternal anxiety, which directly impacted child anxiety. CONCLUSIONS:
      Our findings, the first to measure immune and affiliation biomarkers in mothers
      and children, detail their unique and joint effects on children's anxiety in
      response to stress; highlight the relations between chronic stress, immune
      activation, and anxiety in children; and describe how processes of biobehavioral
      synchrony shape children's long-term adaptation.

PMID- 28889810
TI  - Simple diagnostic signs in those with cognitive impairment-anything to improve
      detection of cognitive disorders.
AB  - With now over 50 million people worldwide with dementia (Prince et al., 2013),
      there are almost certainly well over 100 million people with cognitive concerns
      and many of these will attend their health professional keen to know what is
      going on. We need those without intensive training in this field to be more
      confident and correct in their diagnosis when such a concerned person turns up.
      Many simple diagnostic tests have been proposed and some assessed - these include
      the walk and talk (divided attention) test (those who stop when asked a question
      while walking may be cognitively impaired) (Lamoth et al., 2011), the clock
      drawing test (Brodaty and Moore, 1997), the "handbag" sign (those clutching their
      personal possessions are more likely to be cognitively impaired) and the
      "hippopotamus sign" (calling the rhinoceros, in those tests that include this, a
      hippopotamus). Simple screening tests have been extensively validated and are
      important to the clinician in formulating a diagnosis (Lorentz et al., 2002). The
      "head-turning" and the "attended with/alone" signs are frequently observed, and
      many clinicians assessing such individuals would be well aware of them and
      probably even unknowingly factor them into their diagnosis. In this issue, Pinar
      Soysal and colleagues (Soysal et al., 2017) have evaluated these signs and, in
      those older people attending with cognitive concerns, found they had quite good
      diagnostic value. They were not very specific but showed good sensitivity and
      negative predictive value. Indeed, at the recent Alzheimer's Association
      International Conference in London there were several posters evaluating "soft
      but simple" signs although not all performed as expected - one group found gait
      actually sped up in those with cognitive impairment that were asked a question.

PMID- 28889809
TI  - Leukocyte telomere length and personality: associations with the Big Five and
      Type D personality traits.
AB  - : Backgrounds Accelerated cellular ageing, which can be examined by telomere
      length (TL), may be an overarching mechanism underlying the association between
      personality and adverse health outcomes. This 6-year longitudinal study examined
      the relation between personality and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) across time
      among adults with a wide age-range. METHODS: Data from the Netherlands Study of
      Depression and Anxiety were used and included patients with a depression and/or
      anxiety disorder and healthy controls. Overall, 2936 persons (18-65 years, 66%
      female) had data on LTL at baseline and 1883 persons had LTL at 6-year follow-up.
      The Big Five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to
      experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and Type D personality were
      assessed. RESULTS: Neuroticism was negatively (B = -2.11, p = 0.03) and
      agreeableness was positively (B = 3.84, p = 0.03) related to LTL measured across
      two time points, which became just non-significant after adjusting for somatic
      health, lifestyle factors, and recent life stress (B = -1.99, p = 0.06; and B =
      3.01, p = 0.10). Type D personality was negatively (B = -50.16, p < 0.01) related
      to LTL across two time points, which still remained statistically significant
      after full adjustment (B = -47.37, p = 0.01). Associations did not differ by age,
      gender, and current psychiatric status. CONCLUSIONS: The Big Five traits high
      neuroticism and low agreeableness, and Type D personality were associated with
      shorter LTL measured across a 6-year period. Associations with the Big Five
      traits became non-significant after controlling for somatic health, lifestyle
      factors, and recent life stress, yet similar trends were observed. Type D
      personality remained independently associated with shorter LTL after full
      adjustment.

PMID- 28889811
TI  - Cardiovascular CT for evaluation of single-ventricle heart disease: risks and
      accuracy compared with interventional findings.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the risk and image quality from cardiovascular
      CT in patients across all stages of single-ventricle palliation, and to define
      accuracy by comparing findings with intervention and surgery. METHODS:
      Consecutive CT scans performed in patients with single-ventricle heart disease
      were retrospectively reviewed at a single institution. Diagnosis, sedation needs,
      estimated radiation dose, and adverse events were recorded. Anatomical findings,
      image quality (1-4, 1=optimal), and discrepancy compared with interventional
      findings were determined. Results are described as medians with their 25th and
      75th percentiles. RESULTS: From January, 2010 to August, 2015, 132 CT scans were
      performed in single-ventricle patients of whom 20 were neonates, 52 were post
      Norwood, 15 were post-Glenn, and 45 were post-Fontan. No sedation was used in 76
      patients, 47 were under minimal or moderate sedation, and nine were under general
      anaesthesia. The median image quality score was 1.2. The procedural dose-length
      product was 24 mGy-cm, and unadjusted and adjusted radiation doses were 0.34
      (0.2, 1.8) and 0.82 (0.55, 1.88) mSv, respectively. There was one adverse event.
      No major and two minor discrepancies were noted at the time of 79 surgical and 10
      catheter-based interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiovascular CT can be performed
      with a low radiation exposure in patients with single-ventricle heart disease.
      Its accuracy compared with that of interventional findings is excellent. CT is an
      effective advanced imaging modality when a non-invasive pathway is desired,
      particularly if cardiac MRI poses a high risk or is contraindicated.

PMID- 28889812
TI  - A focussed single-view hand-held echocardiography protocol for the detection of
      rheumatic heart disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic screening represents an opportunity for reduction
      in the global burden of rheumatic heart disease. A focussed single-view screening
      protocol could allow for the rapid training of healthcare providers and screening
      of patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity
      and specificity of a focussed single-view hand-held echocardiographic protocol
      for the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease in children. METHODS: A total of
      nine readers were divided into three reading groups; each interpreted 200 hand
      held echocardiography studies retrospectively as screen-positive, if mitral
      regurgitation ?1.5 cm and/or any aortic insufficiency were observed, or screen
      negative from a pooled study library. The performance of experts receiving
      focussed hand-held protocols, non-experts receiving focussed hand-held protocols,
      and experts receiving complete hand-held protocols were determined in comparison
      with consensus interpretations on fully functional echocardiography machines.
      RESULTS: In all, 587 studies including 76 on definite rheumatic heart disease,
      122 on borderline rheumatic heart disease, and 389 on normal cases were available
      for analysis. The focussed single-view protocol had a sensitivity of 81.1%,
      specificity of 75.5%, negative predictive value of 88.5%, and a positive
      predictive value of 63.2%; expert readers had higher specificity (86.1 versus
      64.8%, p<0.01) but equal sensitivity. Sensitivity - experts, 96% and non-experts,
      95% - and negative predictive value - experts, 99% and non-experts, 98% - were
      better for definite rheumatic heart disease. False-positive screening studies
      resulting from erroneous identification of mitral regurgitation and aortic
      insufficiency colour jets increased with shortened protocols and less experience
      (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Our data support a focussed screening protocol limited to
      parasternal long-axis images. This holds promise in making echocardiographic
      screening more practical in regions where rheumatic heart disease remains
      endemic.

PMID- 28889813
TI  - Unique levoatriocardinal veins in neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome
      and intact atrial septum.
AB  - We had two cases of neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and intact
      atrial septum who had unique levoatriocardinal veins. Contrast-enhanced CT and
      angiography revealed that previously unknown communicating vessels ran from the
      top of the left atrium and drained into the right atrium. We emphasise that
      transcatheter atrial septostomy should be performed not through these
      communicating vessels but using the trans-septal approach in neonates with
      hypoplastic left heart syndrome and an intact atrial septum.

PMID- 28889815
TI  - Exercise beyond nutrition to enhance physical recovery.

PMID- 28889814
TI  - Distinguishing postpartum and antepartum depressive trajectories in a large
      population-based cohort: the impact of exposure to adversity and offspring
      gender.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Distinguishing temporal patterns of depressive symptoms during
      pregnancy and after childbirth has important clinical implications for diagnosis,
      treatment, and maternal and child outcomes. The primary aim of the present study
      was to distinguish patterns of chronically elevated levels of depressive symptoms
      v. trajectories that are either elevated during pregnancy but then remit after
      childbirth, v. patterns that increase after childbirth. METHODS: The report uses
      latent growth mixture modeling in a large, population-based cohort (N = 12 121)
      to investigate temporal patterns of depressive symptoms. We examined
      theoretically relevant sociodemographic factors, exposure to adversity, and
      offspring gender as predictors. RESULTS: Four distinct trajectories emerged,
      including resilient (74.3%), improving (9.2%), emergent (4.0%), and chronic
      (11.5%). Lower maternal and paternal education distinguished chronic from
      resilient depressive trajectories, whereas higher maternal and partner education,
      and female offspring gender, distinguished the emergent trajectory from the
      chronic trajectory. Younger maternal age distinguished the improving group from
      the resilient group. Exposure to medical, interpersonal, financial, and housing
      adversity predicted membership in the chronic, emergent, and improving
      trajectories compared with the resilient trajectory. Finally, exposure to
      medical, interpersonal, and financial adversity was associated with the chronic
      v. improving group, and inversely related to the emergent class relative to the
      improving group. CONCLUSIONS: There are distinct temporal patterns of depressive
      symptoms during pregnancy, after childbirth, and beyond. Most women show stable
      low levels of depressive symptoms, while emergent and chronic depression patterns
      are separable with distinct correlates, most notably maternal age, education
      levels, adversity exposure, and child gender.

PMID- 28889817
TI  - A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR ASSESSING, IN THE ABSENCE OF FULL EVIDENCE, WHETHER
      MULTICOMPONENT INTERVENTIONS CAN BE MORE COST-EFFECTIVE THAN SINGLE COMPONENT
      INTERVENTIONS.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Multicomponent interventions (MCIs), consisting of at least two
      interventions, are common in rehabilitation and other healthcare fields. When the
      effectiveness of the MCI versus that of its single interventions is comparable or
      unknown, evidence of their expected incremental cost-effectiveness can be helpful
      in deciding which intervention to recommend. As such evidence often is
      unavailable this study proposes an approach to estimate what is more cost
      effective; the MCI or the single intervention(s). METHODS: We reviewed the
      literature for potential methods. Of those identified, headroom analysis was
      selected as the most suitable basis for developing the approach, based on the
      criteria of being able to estimate the cost-effectiveness of the single
      interventions versus that of the MCI (a) within a limited time frame, (b) in the
      absence of full data, and (c) taking into account carry-over and interaction
      effects. We illustrated the approach with an MCI for cancer survivors. RESULTS:
      The approach starts with analyzing the costs of the MCI. Given a specific
      willingness-to-pay-value, it is analyzed how much effectiveness the MCI would
      need to generate to be considered cost-effective, and if this is likely to be
      attained. Finally, the cost-effectiveness of the single interventions relative to
      the potential of the MCI for being cost-effective can be compared. CONCLUSIONS: A
      systematic approach using headroom analysis was developed for estimating whether
      an MCI is likely to be more cost effective than one (or more) of its single
      interventions.

PMID- 28889816
TI  - First-stage palliation strategy for univentricular heart disease may impact risk
      for acute kidney injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Norwood palliation for patients with single ventricle heart disease is
      associated with a significant risk for acute kidney injury, which portends a
      worse prognosis. We sought to investigate the impact of hybrid stage I palliation
      (Hybrid) on acute kidney injury risk. DESIGN: This study is a single-centre
      prospective case-control study of seven consecutive neonates with single
      ventricle undergoing Hybrid palliation. Levels of serum creatinine and four novel
      urinary biomarkers, namely neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin,
      interleukin-18, liver fatty acid-binding protein, and kidney injury molecule-1,
      were obtained before and after palliation. Acute kidney injury was defined as a
      ?50% increase in serum creatinine within 48 hours after the procedure. Data were
      compared with a contemporary cohort of 12 neonates with single ventricle who
      underwent Norwood palliation. RESULTS: Patients who underwent Hybrid were more
      likely to be high-risk candidates (86 versus 25%, p=0.01) compared with those who
      underwent Norwood. Despite similar preoperative serum creatinine levels, there
      was a trend towards higher levels of postoperative peak serum creatinine (0.7
      [0.63, 0.94] versus 0.56 [0.47, 0.74], p=0.06) and rate of acute kidney injury
      (67 versus 29%, p=0.17) in the Norwood cohort. Preoperative neutrophil gelatinase
      associated lipocalin (58.4 [11, 86.3] versus 6.3 [5, 16.2], p=0.07) and
      interleukin-18 (30.6 [9.6, 167.2] versus 6.3 [6.3, 16.4], p=0.03) levels were
      higher in the Hybrid cohort. Nevertheless, longitudinal mixed-effect models
      demonstrated Hybrid palliation to be a protective factor against increased
      postoperative levels of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (estimate -1.8
      [-3.0, -9.0], p<0.001) and liver fatty acid-binding protein (-49.3 [-89.7, -8.8],
      p=0.018). CONCLUSIONS: In this single-centre case-control study, postoperative
      acute kidney injury risk did not differ significantly by single ventricle stage I
      treatment strategy; however, postoperative elevation in novel urinary biomarkers,
      consistent with subclinical kidney injury, was encountered in the Norwood cohort
      but not in the Hybrid cohort.

PMID- 28889818
TI  - Efficacy and safety of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator for venous
      thrombosis after paediatric heart surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Reports in the literature of treatment with recombinant tissue
      plasminogen activator following cardiac surgery are limited. We reviewed our
      experience to provide a case series of the therapeutic use of tissue plasminogen
      activator for the treatment of venous thrombosis in children after cardiac
      surgery. The data describe the morbidity, mortality, and clinical outcomes of
      tissue plasminogen activator administration for treatment of venous thrombosis in
      children following cardiac surgery. DESIGN: The study was designed as a
      retrospective case series. SETTING: The study was carried out in a 25-bed cardiac
      intensive care unit in an academic, free-standing paediatric hospital. Patients
      All children who received tissue plasminogen activator for venous thrombosis
      within 60 days of cardiac surgery, a total of 13 patients, were included.
      Interventions Data was collected, collated, and analysed as a part of the
      interventions of this study. Measurements and main results Patients treated with
      tissue plasminogen activator were principally young infants (median 0.2, IQR 0.07
      0.58 years) who had recently (22, IQR 12.5-27.3 days) undergone cardiac surgery.
      Hospital mortality was high in this patient group (38%), but there was no
      mortality attributable to tissue plasminogen activator administration, occurring
      within <72 hours. There was one major haemorrhagic complication that may be
      attributable to tissue plasminogen activator. Complete or partial resolution of
      venous thrombosis was confirmed using imaging in 10 of 13 patients (77%), and
      tissue plasminogen activator administration was associated with resolution of
      chylous drainage, with no drainage through chest tubes, at 10 days after tissue
      plasminogen activator treatment in seven of nine patients who had upper
      compartment venous thrombosis-associated chylothorax. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis
      of our experience with administration of tissue plasminogen activator in children
      after cardiac surgery, tissue plasminogen activator is both safe and effective
      for resolution of venous thrombosis in this high-risk population.

PMID- 28889819
TI  - Advances in the treatment of anorexia nervosa: a review of established and
      emerging interventions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a disabling, deadly and costly mental
      disorder. Until recently, treatment recommendations were based on expert opinion
      and limited evidence. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesise recent
      evidence on established and emerging AN treatments and to forecast trends for
      future developments. METHODS: We systematically review trials of established
      treatments and associated process outcome studies from the last 5 years,
      published since a previous review in this journal. 'Established' treatments were
      those that are widely used in AN, recommended by guidelines and/or have been
      tested in at least one large randomised controlled trial. Secondly, we summarise
      emerging treatments for AN, i.e. those that have only been (or are currently
      being) tested in proof-of concept, feasibility or pilot trials. RESULTS: We
      identified 19 published trials of established treatments (15 of high or moderate
      quality), mostly assessing psychological therapies (n = 17). We also found 11
      published trials of emerging treatments, and a total of 34 registered, as yet
      unpublished trials. Promising emerging treatments include cognitive remediation
      therapy, exposure therapy and non-invasive neuromodulation. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence
      generation on the treatment of AN has dramatically accelerated, with our
      understanding of the role of family-based approaches for adolescents more nuanced
      and a range of psychological approaches available for the treatment of adults.
      Evidence on emerging treatments and from forthcoming trials suggests that there
      is a shift towards more targeted brain-based interventions. Future studies need
      to focus on elucidating mechanisms of action of treatments and what works best
      for whom.

PMID- 28889820
TI  - Thoracoscopic treatment of left-to-right shunt in a child with scimitar syndrome.
AB  - Scimitar syndrome represents a rare variant of partial anomalous pulmonary venous
      connection with right lung hypoplasia, dextrocardia, and concomitant airway
      vessel abnormalities. Surgical correction is preferred in symptomatic patients or
      in patients with increased left-to-right shunt. In this report, the first case of
      scimitar syndrome with dual arterial supply and venous drainage to be treated
      with thoracoscopic approach is presented.

PMID- 28889821
TI  - Relating ASD symptoms to well-being: moving across different construct levels.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about the specific factors that contribute to the
      well-being (WB) of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A plausible
      hypothesis is that ASD symptomatology has a direct negative effect on WB. In the
      current study, the emerging tools of network analysis allow to explore the
      functional interdependencies between specific symptoms of ASD and domains of WB
      in a multivariate framework. We illustrate how studying both higher-order (total
      score) and lower-order (subscale) representations of ASD symptomatology can
      clarify the interrelations of factors relevant for domains of WB. METHODS: We
      estimated network structures on three different construct levels for ASD
      symptomatology, as assessed with the Adult Social Behavior Questionnaire (item,
      subscale, total score), relating them to daily functioning (DF) and subjective WB
      in 323 adult individuals with clinically identified ASD (aged 17-70 years). For
      these networks, we assessed the importance of specific factors in the network
      structure. RESULTS: When focusing on the highest representation level of ASD
      symptomatology (i.e. a total score), we found a negative connection between ASD
      symptom severity and domains of WB. However, zooming in on lower representation
      levels of ASD symptomatology revealed that this connection was mainly funnelled
      by ASD symptoms related to insistence on sameness and experiencing reduced
      contact and that those symptom scales, in turn, impact different domains of WB.
      CONCLUSIONS: Zooming in across construct levels of ASD symptom severity into
      subscales of ASD symptoms can provide us with important insights into how
      specific domains of ASD symptoms relate to specific domains of DF and WB.

PMID- 28889822
TI  - The relationship between obesity and cognitive health and decline.
AB  - The relationship between obesity and cognitive impairment is important given the
      globally ageing population in whom cognitive decline and neurodegenerative
      disorders will carry grave individual, societal and financial burdens. This
      review examines the evidence for the link between obesity and cognitive function
      in terms of both the immediate effects on cognitive performance, and effects on
      the trajectory of cognitive ageing and likelihood of dementia. In mid-life, there
      is a strong association between obesity and impaired cognitive function.
      Anthropometric measures of obesity are also associated with reduced neural
      integrity (e.g. grey and white matter atrophy). Increasing age coupled with the
      negative metabolic consequences of obesity (e.g. type 2 diabetes mellitus) are
      likely to significantly contribute to cognitive decline and incidence of
      dementia. Stress is identified as a potential risk factor promoting abdominal
      obesity and contributing to impaired cognitive function. However, the potentially
      protective effects of obesity against cognitive decline in older age require
      further examination. Finally, surgical and whole diet interventions, which
      address obesity may improve cognitive capacity and confer some protection against
      later cognitive decline. In conclusion, obesity and its comorbidities are
      associated with impaired cognitive performance, accelerated cognitive decline and
      neurodegenerative pathologies such as dementia in later life. Interventions
      targeting mid-life obesity may prove beneficial in reducing the cognitive risks
      associated with obesity.

PMID- 28889823
TI  - Epigenetics and DOHaD: from basics to birth and beyond.
AB  - Developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) is the study of how the early
      life environment can impact the risk of chronic diseases from childhood to
      adulthood and the mechanisms involved. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA
      methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs are involved in mediating
      how early life environment impacts later health. This review is a summary of the
      Epigenetics and DOHaD workshop held at the 2016 DOHaD Society of Australia and
      New Zealand Conference. Our extensive knowledge of how the early life environment
      impacts later risk for chronic disease would not have been possible without
      animal models. In this review we highlight some animal model examples that
      demonstrate how an adverse early life exposure results in epigenetic and gene
      expression changes that may contribute to increased risk of chronic disease later
      in life. Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are chronic diseases with an
      increasing incidence due to the increased number of children and adults that are
      obese. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation have been shown to be
      associated with metabolic health measures and potentially predict future
      metabolic health status. Although more difficult to elucidate in humans, recent
      studies suggest that DNA methylation may be one of the epigenetic mechanisms that
      mediates the effects of early life exposures on later life risk of obesity and
      obesity related diseases. Finally, we discuss the role of the microbiome and how
      it is a new player in developmental programming and mediating early life
      exposures on later risk of chronic disease.

PMID- 28889824
TI  - Differences in clinical outcomes and cost between complex and simple arterial
      switches.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the morbidity, mortality, and cost differences
      between patients who underwent either a simple or a complex arterial switch
      operation. METHODS: A retrospective study of patients undergoing an arterial
      switch operation at a single institution was performed. Simple cases were defined
      as patients with d-transposition of the great arteries with usual coronary
      anatomy or circumflex artery originating from the right with either intact
      ventricular septum or ventricular septal defect. Complex cases included all other
      forms of coronary anatomy, aortic coarctation or arch hypoplasia, and Taussig
      Bing anomalies. Costs were acquired using an institutional activity-based
      accounting system. RESULTS: A total of 98 patients were identified, 68 patients
      in the simple group and 30 in the complex group. The mortality rate was 2% for
      the simple and 7% for the complex group, p=0.23. Major morbidities including
      cardiac arrest, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a major coronary event,
      surgical or catheter-based re-intervention, stroke, or permanent pacemaker
      placement, non-cardiac surgical procedures, mediastinitis, and sepsis did not
      differ between the simple and complex groups (16 versus 27%, p=0.16). The complex
      group had increased bleeding requiring re-exploration (0 versus 10%, p=0.04).
      Hospital and ICU length of stay did not differ. Complex patients had higher
      overall hospital costs (simple $80,749 versus complex $97,387, p=0.01) and higher
      postoperative costs (simple $60,192 versus complex $70,132, p=0.02). The
      operating room and supplies accounted for the majority of the cost difference.
      CONCLUSION: Complex arterial switches can be safely performed with low rates of
      morbidity and mortality but at an increased cost.

PMID- 28889825
TI  - Enhancement of diuresis with metolazone in infant paediatric cardiac intensive
      care patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few data are available regarding the use of metolazone in infants in
      cardiac intensive care. Researchers need to carry out further evaluation to
      characterise the effects of this treatment in this population. METHODS: This is a
      descriptive, retrospective study carried out in patients less than a year old.
      These infants had received metolazone over a 2-year period in the paediatric
      cardiac intensive care unit at our institution. The primary goal was to measure
      the change in urine output from 24 hours before the start of metolazone therapy
      to 24 hours after. Patient demographic variables, laboratory data, and fluid
      balance data were analysed. RESULTS: The study identified 97 infants with a mean
      age of 0.32+/-0.25 years. Their mean weight was 4.9+/-1.5 kg, and 58% of the
      participants were male. An overall 63% of them had undergone cardiovascular
      surgery. The baseline estimated creatinine clearance was 93+/-37 ml/minute/1.73
      m2. Initially, the participants had received a metolazone dose of 0.27+/-0.10
      mg/kg/day, the maximum dose being 0.43 mg/kg/day. They had also received other
      diuretics during metolazone initiation, such as furosemide (87.6%),
      spironolactone (58.8%), acetazolamide (11.3%), bumetanide (7.2%), and ethacrynic
      acid (1%). The median change in urine output after metolazone was 0.9 ml/kg/hour
      (interquartile range 0.15-1.9). The study categorised a total of 66 patients
      (68.0%) as responders. Multivariable analysis identified acetazolamide use
      (p=0.002) and increased fluid input in the 24 hours after metolazone initiation
      (p0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Metolazone increased urine output in a select group of
      patients. Efficacy can be maximised by strategic selection of patients.

PMID- 28889826
TI  - Recombinant factor VIIa as a rescue therapy in severe haemoptysis in a patient
      with a Fontan circulation.
AB  - We describe the successful use of recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa) in the control
      of massive haemoptysis in a 17-year-old patient with a Fontan circulation. The
      patient was intubated and ventilated in the ICU with deteriorating gas exchange.
      Conventional methods to control the haemoptysis were ineffective, and rFVIIa was
      successfully administered as a rescue therapy. rFVIIa is a powerful pro
      thrombotic agent, which is only licensed in haemophiliacs with acquired
      inhibitors to anticoagulation. It has been used off-license in the treatment of
      massive haemorrhage, although a Cochrane review did not show any significant
      benefit; however, it may have a role as a rescue therapy where alternatives
      options have been exhausted after careful risk-benefit analysis.

PMID- 28889827
TI  - Multidisciplinary family-centred psychosocial care for patients with CHD:
      consensus recommendations from the AEPC Psychosocial Working Group.
AB  - Because of the enormous advances in the medical treatment of CHD, the long-term
      survival of patients suffering from this disease has increased significantly.
      Currently, about 90% of patients reach adulthood, which entails many new
      challenges both for patients and their families and for healthcare professionals.
      The main objective of family-centred psychosocial care is to strengthen the
      emotional resilience of chronically ill patients and their families by adopting a
      holistic approach. During the biannual meeting of the psychosocial working group
      in 2012, participants expressed the need for general European guidelines. The
      present recommendations were written to support medical staff and psychosocial
      healthcare professionals to provide the best care for children and adolescents
      with CHD as well as for their families. This article describes in detail how the
      integrated family-centred psychological care modules work, involving different
      healthcare specialists, including a paediatric/congenital cardiologist or a
      general paediatrician. The different clinical implications and specific needs
      have been taken into account and recommendations have been provided on the
      following: structured follow-up screening; identification of stressful periods
      related to cardiac surgery or invasive medical procedures; evidence-based,
      disease-specific, and family-oriented psychosocial interventions; and interactive
      media links to medical and psychosocial information.

PMID- 28889828
TI  - Atrial septal defect morphology and stenting in hypoplastic left heart syndrome
      after hybrid palliation.
AB  - : Aims The aim of this study was to describe atrial septal defect morphology in
      hypoplastic left heart syndrome, to report the incidence of restrictiveness and
      its relationship with defect morphology, to correlate restriction with midterm
      outcome, and to describe our interventional approach to restrictive defect.
      Methods and results From 2011 to 2015, 31 neonates with hypoplastic left heart
      syndrome underwent hybrid procedure with pulmonary artery banding and ductal
      stenting at our Institution. Restrictive physiology of the atrial septal defect
      was based on Doppler gradient >6 mmHg through the defect and on clinical signs of
      pulmonary hypertension. The mean gradient was then measured invasively.
      Restrictive defect occurred in 11/27 patients (40%). The restrictive group showed
      three ostium secundum defects (27%) and eight complex morphologies (73%).
      Conversely, in the non-restrictive group, we observed 11 ostium secundum defects
      (69%) and five complex morphologies (31%). Early balloon atrioseptostomy was
      required in three cases. Late restriction occurred in eight patients and was
      dealt with balloon dilation, stenting, or atrioseptectomy. There was no
      significant difference between restrictive and non-restrictive groups in terms of
      early or 12-month survival. CONCLUSIONS: Complex morphologies were more
      frequently related to restrictiveness. Stenting technique has a crucial role, as
      the procedure carries a significant risk for stent migration. Effective treatment
      of restrictive atrial septal defect is related to a better outcome, as it leads
      to equalisation of survival between patients with and those without restrictive
      atrial septal defect.

PMID- 28889829
TI  - Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin reflects inflammation and is not a
      reliable renal biomarker in neonates and infants after cardiopulmonary bypass: a
      prospective case-control study.
AB  - : Introduction Acute kidney injury is a frequent complication after cardiac
      surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass in infants. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated
      lipocalin has been suggested to be a promising early biomarker of impending acute
      kidney injury. On the other hand, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin has
      been shown to be elevated in systemic inflammatory diseases without renal
      impairment. In this secondary analysis of data from our previous study on acute
      kidney injury after infant cardiac surgery, our hypothesis was that neutrophil
      gelatinase-associated lipocalin may be associated with surgery-related
      inflammation. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 59 neonates and infants
      undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery for CHD and measured neutrophil
      gelatinase-associated lipocalin in plasma and urine and interleukin-6 in the
      plasma. Values were correlated with postoperative acute kidney injury according
      to the paediatric Renal-Injury-Failure-Loss-Endstage classification. RESULTS:
      Overall, 48% (28/59) of patients developed acute kidney injury. Of these, 50%
      (14/28) were classified as injury and 11% (3/28) received renal replacement
      therapy. Both plasma and urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin
      values were not correlated with acute kidney injury occurrence. Plasma neutrophil
      gelatinase-associated lipocalin showed a strong correlation with interleukin-6.
      Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin values correlated with
      cardiopulmonary bypass time. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that plasma and
      urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin values are not reliable
      indicators of impending acute kidney injury in neonates and infants after cardiac
      surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Inflammation may have a major impact on
      plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin values in infant cardiac
      surgery. Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin may add little
      prognostic value over cardiopulmonary bypass time.

PMID- 28889830
TI  - Endocarditis of a congenital coronary fistula in a child.
AB  - Endocarditis of congenital coronary fistulas in the cardiac chambers is rare,
      especially in the paediatric age group. We describe the case of a 9-year-old boy
      with a fistula from the dilated right coronary artery to the junction of the
      superior caval vein to the right atrium, complicated by endocarditis. Treatment
      consisted of 6 weeks of antibiotics and interventional closure of the fistula 3
      months later with an Amplatzer vascular plug.

PMID- 28889831
TI  - Methodological and practical viewpoints of qualitative-driven mixed method
      design: the case of decentralisation of primary healthcare services in Nepal.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although considerable attention has been paid to the use of
      quantitative methods in health research, there has been limited focus on
      decentralisation research using a qualitative-driven mixed method design.
      Decentralisation presents both a problematic concept and methodological
      challenges, and is more context-specific and is often multi-dimensional.
      Researchers often consider using more than one method design when researching
      phenomena is complex in nature. Aim To explore the effects of decentralisation on
      the provision of primary healthcare services. METHODS: Qualitative-driven mixed
      method design, employing three methods of data collections: focus group
      discussions (FGDs), semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and participant
      observations under two components, that is, core component and supplementary
      components were used. Four FGDs with health service practitioners, three FGDs
      with district stakeholders, 20 SSIs with health service users and 20 SSIs with
      national stakeholders were carried out. These were conducted sequentially.
      NVivo10, a data management program, was utilised to code the field data,
      employing a content analysis method for searching the underlying themes or
      concepts in the text material. Findings Both positive and negative experiences
      related to access, quality, planning, supplies, coordination and supervision were
      identified. CONCLUSION: This study suggests some evidence of the effects of
      decentralisation on health outcomes in general, as well as filling a gap of
      understanding and examining healthcare through a qualitative-driven mixed methods
      approach, in particular. Future research in the area of qualitative in-depth
      understanding of the problems (why decentralisation, why now and what for) would
      provoke an important data set that benefits the researchers and policy-makers for
      planning and implementing effective health services.

PMID- 28889832
TI  - Intra-individual Cognitive Variability: An Examination of ANAM4 TBI-MIL Simple
      Reaction Time Data from Service Members with and without Mild Traumatic Brain
      Injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics 4 TBI-MIL (ANAM4)
      is a computerized cognitive test often used in post-concussion assessments with
      U.S. service members (SMs). Existing evidence, however, remains mixed regarding
      ANAM4's ability to identify cognitive issues following mild traumatic brain
      injury (mTBI). Studies typically examine ANAM4 by comparing mean scores to
      baseline or normative scores. A more fine-grained approach involves examining
      inconsistency within an individual's performance. METHODS: Data from a sample of
      231 were healthy control SMs and 100 SMs within 7 days of mTBI who took the ANAM4
      were included in analyses. We examine each individual's performance on a simple
      reaction time (SRT) subtest that is administered at the beginning (SRT1) and end
      (SRT2) of the ANAM4 battery, and calculate the standard deviation of difference
      scores by trial across administrations. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of
      variance and univariate analyses revealed group differences across all
      comparisons (p0.41). CONCLUSIONS: While inconsistencies in performance are often
      viewed as noise or test error, the results suggest intra-individual cognitive
      variability may be more sensitive than central tendency measures (i.e.,
      comparison of means) in detecting changes in cognitive function in mTBI.
      Additionally, the findings highlight the utility of ANAM4's repeating a subtest
      at two points in a battery to explore within-subject differences in performance.
      (JINS, 2017, 23, 1-6).

PMID- 28889833
TI  - Acute kidney injury following first-stage palliation in hypoplastic left heart
      syndrome: hybrid versus Norwood palliation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of acute kidney
      injury after first-stage surgical palliation in patients with a single ventricle
      and to explore associated risk factors and outcomes. Design and patients This
      single-centre retrospective study included neonates who underwent either Norwood
      or Hybrid procedure from 2008 to 2015 for a single ventricle. Postoperative acute
      kidney injury was defined using the paediatric risk, injury, failure, loss, end
      stage renal disease (pRIFLE), criteria within 72 hours of the procedure. Main
      results Our cohort (n=48) underwent surgical palliation at a mean (SD) age of 12
      (11) days. Postoperative acute kidney injury was diagnosed in 14 (29%) patients.
      The prevalence of acute kidney injury in the Hybrid group was 16% and 53% in the
      Norwood group. Infants who developed acute kidney injury underwent surgery at
      younger ages [6 (5-10) versus 10 (8-16) days, p=0.016], and had a higher peak
      lactate level in the initial 24 hours [5.9 (4.2-9.1) versus 3.4 (2.4-6.7),
      p=0.007]. Norwood procedure was significantly associated with acute kidney injury
      [odds ratio 11.7 (95% confidence interval 1.3-101.9), p=0.03]. ICU stay [38 (21
      84) versus 16 (6-45) days, p=0.038] and time to extubation [204 (120-606) versus
      72 (26-234) hours, p=0.014] were longer in those with acute kidney injury. The
      two patients who developed early postoperative renal failure as per pRIFLE died
      before discharge from associated comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: Acute kidney injury
      occurs in a third of the patients with single ventricle after surgical palliation
      but is mostly transient. Norwood, compared with Hybrid procedure, is a risk
      factor for postoperative acute kidney injury, which, in turn, is associated with
      longer ICU stay and time to extubation.

PMID- 28889834
TI  - Comparison of an interviewer-administered with an automated self-administered 24
      h (ASA24) dietary recall in adolescents.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The current pilot study aimed to assess whether reporting quality
      would decline materially in adolescents completing weekly web-based Automated
      Self-Administered 24-Hour dietary recalls (ASA24-Kids-2014) and interviewer
      administered 24 h dietary recalls for six weeks. We also aimed to assess method
      preference. DESIGN: We conducted two studies. Study 1 (n 20) randomized
      participants to complete either one ASA24-Kids-2014 or one interviewer
      administered recall weekly, for six weeks. Energy intake and number of foods
      reported were described for each method over time. Differences between recall
      methods for each measure were tested using mixed-effects regression. Study 2 (n
      10) employed a randomized crossover design to describe method preference.
      SETTING: Dietary intake was collected either by telephone (interviewer
      administered dietary recalls) or via the Internet (ASA24-Kids-2014 dietary
      recalls). SUBJECTS: Adolescents aged 12-17 years with no prior diet recording
      experience were enrolled. RESULTS: In Study 1, mean (sd) total energy and number
      of foods reported decreased by 50 (222) kJ (12 (53) kcal) and 0.05 (0.31) items
      v. 38 (138) kJ (9 (33) kcal) and 0.17 (0.14) items per recall for participants
      randomized to the ASA24-Kids-2014 v. interviewer-administered recalls,
      respectively. There was no difference between groups for either measure (P >
      0.57). In Study 2, eight of ten participants preferred the interviewer
      administered recall over the ASA24-Kids-2014. Overall, seven of twenty
      participants experienced technical difficulties with the ASA24-Kids-2014.
      CONCLUSIONS: No appreciable decay in reporting quality was seen for either
      method. However, participants reported a preference for the interviewer
      administered recall. Our findings can help inform and support larger studies to
      further characterize the performance of the ASA24 in adolescents.

PMID- 28889835
TI  - Corrigendum to "Context-Dependent Remodeling of Rad51-DNA Complexes by Srs2 Is
      Mediated by a Specific Protein-Protein Interaction" [J. Mol. Biol.426 (2014) 1883
      1897].

PMID- 28889836
TI  - Radiologia: state of the journal at a point of change.

PMID- 28889837
TI  - Electrodermal Conductance at Acupuncture Points and Asthma.

PMID- 28889838
TI  - Reply to the Letter to the Editor (Electrodermal Conductance at Acupuncture
      Points and Asthma).

PMID- 28889839
TI  - Laser Acupuncture at HT7 Improves the Cerebellar Disorders in Valproic Acid-Rat
      Model of Autism.
AB  - The novel therapeutic strategy against autism is essential due to the limited
      therapeutic efficacy. Based on the benefit of laser acupuncture at HT7 acupoint
      on the neurological disorders related with oxidative stress and inflammation, its
      benefit on oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and GABAergic/glutamatergic
      imbalance in cerebellum of autism have been considered. To elucidate this issue,
      male rat pups were induced autistic-like conditions by valproic acid (VPA) and
      treated with laser acupuncture at HT7 acupoint once daily between postnatal Day
      14 and Day 40. At the end of study, the changes of oxidative stress markers, the
      expressions of cytokines interleukin 6 (IL-6) and glutamic acid decarboxylase
      (GAD) proteins (65 kDa and 67 kDa) together with gamma-aminobutyric acid
      transaminase (GABA-T) activity and density of Purkinje cell in the cerebellum
      were assessed. The results showed that laser acupuncture HT7 decreased oxidative
      stress, IL-6 expression, and GABA-T activity but increased the expressions of GAD
      65 kDa together with the density of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum. Therefore,
      laser acupuncture at HT7 is the potential strategy to improve the cerebellar
      disorders in VPA-rat model of autism. The mechanism may occur partly via the
      decrease of oxidative stress status, inflammation, and the improved GABAergic
      function.

PMID- 28889840
TI  - Immediate Effect of Needling at CV-12 (Zhongwan) Acupuncture Point on Blood
      Glucose Level in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Pilot Randomized
      Placebo-Controlled Trial.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus is a major global health problem. Needling at CV
      12 has reduced blood glucose level in diabetic rats. The aim of this study was to
      evaluate the effect of needling at CV-12 (Zhongwan) on blood glucose level in
      patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty T2DM
      patients were recruited and randomized into either the acupuncture group or
      placebo control group. The participants in the acupuncture group were needled at
      CV-12 (4 cun above the center of the umbilicus), and those in the placebo control
      group were needled at a placebo point on the right side of the abdomen (1 cun
      beside the CV-12). For both groups, the needle was retained for 30 minutes.
      Assessments were performed prior to and after the intervention. Statistical
      analysis was performed using SPSS version 16. RESULTS: There was a significant
      reduction in random blood glucose level in the acupuncture group compared to
      baseline. No such significant change was observed in the placebo control group.
      CONCLUSION: The result of this study suggests that 30 minutes of needling at CV
      12 might be useful in reducing blood glucose level in patients with T2DM.

PMID- 28889841
TI  - Hwanglyunhaedok Pharmacopuncture versus Saline Pharmacopuncture on Chronic
      Nonbacterial Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome.
AB  - PURPOSE: Chronic nonbacterial prostatitis (CP)/chronic pelvic pain syndrome
      (CPPS) is known not to have a successful therapy as yet. More recently,
      acupuncture, some herbal compounds, and trigger point injection have been
      reported to be beneficial. Pharmacopuncture is an herbal acupuncture having these
      benefits. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of HP (Hwanglyunhaedok
      Pharmacopuncture) versus normal saline injection (Saline Pharmacopuncture, SP) on
      CP/CPPS. METHODS: A retrospective follow up study of 63 patients who were
      diagnosed with CP/CPPS was performed. All patients were treated with
      electroacupuncture and injected with either 1 ml of HP or SP at CV1 as a standard
      treatment for 4 weeks. Thus, the patients were classified in two groups: HP (n =
      32) and SP group (n = 31). Treatment was applied twice a week every third day for
      4 weeks. After 4 weeks, the effect of pharmacopunture in both groups was compared
      using NIH-CPSI (National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index)
      and IPSS (International Prostate Symptom Score) before and after treatment.
      RESULTS: After treatment, the total NIH-CPSI scores were significantly reduced in
      both groups (p < 0.01). Pain domain scores in both groups showed significant
      decrease (p < 0.01). In HP group, urination (p < 0.05) and quality of life (p <
      0.01) scores reduced significantly. In SP group, impact score showed significant
      decrease (p < 0.05). However, impact score in HP group and urination and quality
      of life scores in SP group didn't show any significance. IPSS score was reduced
      significantly after treatment in both groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These
      results suggest that pharmacopuncture and electroacupuncture treatment were
      effective on CP/CPPS. HP and SP didn't show any significant difference. However,
      it was also confirmed that HP is more favorable than SP to improve the symptoms
      of CP/CPPS.

PMID- 28889842
TI  - Effects of Acupuncture on 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-induced Allergic
      Contact Dermatitis in Mice.
AB  - Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Topical
      corticosteroids are the first-line therapy for ACD despite their significant
      adverse effects. Acupuncture has been widely used in the treatment of various
      skin diseases, but its underlying mechanism remains unrevealed. In this study, we
      investigated the characteristics of acupuncture treatment based on effectiveness
      and mechanism. BALB/c mice received 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (DNCB)
      application to build AD-like model. Results showed that acupuncture was an
      effective treatment method in inhibiting inflammatory conditions, serum IgE
      levels, and expression of proinflammatory cytokine Th2 (IL-4, IL-6), and Th2 (IL
      1beta, TNF-alpha) mRNA compared with DNCB treatment. Acupuncture treatment also
      inhibited nuclear factor-kappaB p65, phosphorylation of IkappaBalpha, and
      phosphorylation of occludin proteins expression. Furthermore, it could improve
      the expression of epidermal growth factor in both mRNA and protein levels. These
      results suggest that acupuncture, as an alternative therapy treatment for its no
      significant side effects, was effective in alleviating ACD by reducing
      proinflammatory cytokines and changing proteins' expression.

PMID- 28889843
TI  - Quality Assessment of Randomized Controlled Trials of Moxibustion Using STandards
      for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Moxibustion (STRICTOM) and Risk
      of Bias (ROB).
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the quality and completeness of published reports of
      randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of moxibustion. METHOD: We searched six
      databases to retrieve eligible RCTs of moxibustion published from 2000 to
      December 2015. We used the STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical
      Trials of Moxibustion (STRICTOM) and Risk of Bias (ROB) tool to assess the
      completeness of reporting of RCTs of moxibustion and evaluate the reporting
      quality of included RCTs. RESULTS: Thirty-four studies of moxibustion were
      analyzed using STRICTOM and ROB. Of the 34 studies, the completeness percentage
      of STRICTOM varied from 33% to 100% (mean 68%, median 67%). The completeness of
      STRICTOM items showed a rising tendency along with the publication year. The
      STRICTOM items of setting and context (14.7%), rationale for the control (17.6%),
      and response (26.4%) showed incomplete reporting. The number of RCTs that rated a
      low risk of bias for allocation concealment (n=6), blinding of participants and
      personnel (n=1), and blinding of outcome assessment (n=4) appeared to be small.
      CONCLUSION: The quality of reporting of RCTs of moxibustion remains incomplete
      according to the STRICTOM and ROB tool at present. Researchers should consider
      the STRICTOM and ROB for improving not only the completeness of reporting but
      also the study design. General guidelines for RCTs of moxibustion are also
      required.

PMID- 28889844
TI  - Development of a Novel Questionnaire for the Traditional Chinese Medicine Pattern
      Diagnosis of Stress.
AB  - Currently, there is no definitive diagnosis or list of signs and symptoms for
      "stress" in either modern biomedicine or Chinese medicine (CM). While modern
      theories on stress relate to the neurological interaction of a stressor or
      stimuli on the autonomic nervous system, it is generally regarded as subjective
      in nature and as such each individual will likely present varying somatic or
      cognitive signs and symptoms. A questionnaire was therefore developed, based on
      textual research, that incorporated both general as well as gender specific signs
      and symptom responses to determine the most common CM patterns associated with
      individuals who report as feeling stressed. For the 45 females who completed the
      questionnaire, the mean percentage of symptoms per CM pattern showed that the
      pattern with the highest average percentage was heart qi deficiency (61.88%)
      followed by liver blood deficiency (60.23%) and then heart blood deficiency
      (60.12%). For males (n = 16), heart qi deficiency was also the highest scoring CM
      pattern with a scoring percentage of 54.81%. In males, however, heart blood
      deficiency was second with 53.29% followed by liver blood deficiency with 51.10%.
      Of the general non gender-specific symptoms collected (n = 65 symptoms), the
      symptom most commonly reported by both men and women was "anxious or racing
      thoughts", followed by "constant worrying" and "inability to concentrate". The CM
      diagnostic pattern results may prove useful for clinicians as the change in
      diagnostic understanding will also modify the treatment principle and subsequent
      treatment with acupuncture or herbal medicine. Future CM research studies should
      consider including the questionnaire either as a diagnostic aid or as an outcome
      measure for acupuncture or herbal medicine studies related to stress.

PMID- 28889845
TI  - Effect of Electroacupuncture Rehabilitation in Transverse Myelitis: A Case
      Report.
AB  - A 32-year-old male diagnosed with transverse myelitis in 2013 came to our clinic
      in 2015 with complaints of paraplegia, sensory disturbances, pain, exertional
      dyspnea, poor quality of sleep, emotional instability, and depression. This was a
      recurrent attack that had been exacerbated by post-traumatic stress. Owing to
      pain and functional disabilities, he was struggling to actively participate in
      the treatment modalities offered at our center. A modified protocol of
      electroacupuncture was planned for a period of 21 days, every day, with each
      session lasting for 30 minutes. Assessments based on the brief version of World
      Health Organization Brief Quality of Life (WHO Brief QOL) questionnaire,
      Pittsburgh sleep quality index, visual analog scale, and a disease-specific
      physical examination showed momentous improvement in functional health status as
      well as mental well-being. The quality of life showed significant improvement
      particularly in the physical and psychological dimensions of WHO Brief QOL. The
      patient reported a reduction in pain, dyspnea, and fatigue accompanied by an
      improvement in the quality of sleep and mood. This case report suggests that
      acupuncture can play a vital role in amelioration of symptoms, thereby improving
      the health status in patients with transverse myelitis.

PMID- 28889846
TI  - Acupuncture for Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Patient with
      Myasthenia Gravis: A Case Report.
AB  - Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an acquired disease of the neuromuscular junctions
      characterized by muscular weakness and fatigue, with a prevalence of 50-125 cases
      per million population in western countries. In men, it usually appears after the
      age of 60 years, while in women, it usually appears before the age of 40 years.
      Long-term immunosuppression with corticosteroids is the mainstay treatment for
      patients with MG; however, the use of corticosteroids is a well-documented risk
      factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus, which has also been reported in steroid
      treated patients with MG. Here, a case of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a patient
      with MG who underwent 105 sessions of acupuncture delivered over 6 months is
      reported. After acupuncture treatment, the patient's fasting plasma glucose and
      hemoglobin A1c levels, as well as the score on the Hamilton Depression Rating
      Scale, were decreased. Furthermore, no adverse effects were observed. The
      findings in this clinical study are encouraging and provide evidence supporting
      the effectiveness of acupuncture in reducing type 2 diabetes mellitus in a
      patient with MG.

PMID- 28889847
TI  - Acupuncture for Symptom Relief in Palliative Care-Study Protocol and
      Semistandardized Treatment Schemes.
AB  - The use of complementary and alternative medicine methods such as acupuncture in
      palliative care has increased over the past years. Well-planned trials are
      warranted to show its effectiveness in relieving distressing symptoms. The
      development of treatment schemes to be used in the trial for both acupuncture and
      medical symptom control is challenging, as both acupuncture and palliative care
      are highly individualized. Thus, standardized care plans of a randomized
      controlled trial will have difficulties in producing treatment results that
      compare to the clinical practice. As an alternative, treatment protocols for both
      acupuncture and medical symptom control of dyspnea, pruritus, hypersalivation,
      depression, anxiety, and xerostomia were designed with the input of experts. They
      are designed to provide sufficient symptom control and comparability for a three
      arm, randomized controlled trial. Medical symptom control will be provided to all
      groups. The two control groups will be medical treatment and sham-laser
      acupuncture.

PMID- 28889848
TI  - Honoring Our Past and Embracing Our Present Defines Our Future in Research,
      Practice, and Policies.

PMID- 28889849
TI  - Nutrition Economics.

PMID- 28889850
TI  - Healthy Checkout Lines: A Study in Urban Supermarkets.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand the impact of healthy checkouts in Bronx, New York City
      supermarkets. DESIGN: Consumer purchasing behavior was observed for 2 weeks in
      2015. SETTING: Three supermarkets in the South Bronx. PARTICIPANTS: A total of
      2,131 adult shoppers (aged >=18 years) who paid for their groceries at 1 of the
      selected study checkout lines. INTERVENTION: Two checkout lines were selected per
      store; 1 was converted to a healthy checkout and the other remained as it was
      (standard checkout). Data collectors observed consumer behavior at each line and
      recorded items purchased from checkout areas. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentage
      of customers who purchase items from the checkout area; quantity and price of
      healthy and unhealthy items purchased from the healthy and standard checkout
      lines. ANALYSIS: Measures were analyzed by study condition using chi-square and t
      tests; significance was determined at alpha = .05. RESULTS: Only 4.0% of
      customers bought anything from the checkout area. A higher proportion of
      customers using the healthy vs standard checkout line bought healthy items (56.5%
      vs 20.5%; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: When healthier products were
      available, the proportion of healthy purchases increased. Findings contribute to
      limited research on effectiveness of healthy checkouts in supermarkets. Similar
      interventions should expect an increase in healthy purchases from the checkout
      area, but limited overall impact.

PMID- 28889851
TI  - The Affordability of MyPlate: An Analysis of SNAP Benefits and the Actual Cost of
      Eating According to the Dietary Guidelines.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To estimate the funds required to support a MyPlate diet and to
      estimate the additional costs needed for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
      Program recipients to adhere to the MyPlate diet. DESIGN: Using the US Department
      of Agriculture's (USDA's) MyPlate dietary guidelines that specify recommendations
      for individuals based on age and gender and retail price data from the USDA, the
      cost of following USDA's MyPlate guidelines for consuming 3 meals daily was
      estimated for the following individuals: children, adolescents, female adults,
      male adults, female seniors, male seniors, and a 4-person family. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Cost of consuming a MyPlate diet, including canned, frozen, and fresh
      produce as part of the diet. ANALYSIS: Descriptive analysis of the cost of
      consuming a MyPlate diet. RESULTS: Consuming a MyPlate diet consisting of only
      fresh fruits and vegetables is the most expensive diet. The monthly additional
      costs on an individual basis is the largest for boys aged 12-17 years ($75/mo)
      because they have the largest quantity of food consumed compared with all other
      gender and age groups. The monthly cost for a family of 4 ranged from $1,109 to
      $1,249/mo. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The monetary amount of Supplemental
      Nutrition Assistance Program benefits may be insufficient to support a healthy
      diet recommended by federal nutrition guidelines.

PMID- 28889852
TI  - The Impact of Economic Conditions on Healthy Dietary Intake: Evidence From
      Fluctuations in Canadian Unemployment Rates.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study examined the impact of economic conditions on fruit and
      vegetable consumption using multiple waves of the Canadian Community Health
      Survey. DESIGN: By using metropolitan-area variation in the unemployment rate as
      a proxy for economic conditions, various measures of fruit and vegetable
      consumption were regressed on this unemployment rate, using a 2-way fixed effect
      estimation strategy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The following measures of fruit and
      vegetable consumption were considered: (1) total number of times per day
      respondents ate fruits and vegetables and (2) servings of fruit of vegetable
      consumption (<5 times/d, 5-10 times/d, and >10 times/d). ANALYSIS: Regression
      models with location and time-fixed effects were estimated to explore the impact
      of the unemployment rate with the measures of fruit and vegetable consumption.
      Pearson's chi-square tests were used to examine subgroup differences by gender.
      RESULTS: Findings suggested that increases in the unemployment rate (ie, worse
      economic conditions) reduced fruit and vegetable consumption, and this result was
      robust across gender and education levels. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These
      findings contribute to a small but important body of literature that focuses
      specifically on the relationship between economic conditions and fruit and
      vegetable consumption.

PMID- 28889853
TI  - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Emergency Food Pantry
      Use.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
      Program (SNAP) participation and pantry use. DESIGN: A pretest-posttest design
      that compared pantry use at program enrollment and after 6 months of
      participation while controlling for household, economic, and geographic
      characteristics. SETTING: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Food Security
      Survey: a national telephone survey of SNAP new-entrant households conducted in
      2011-2012. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3,191 households that completed baseline
      interviews and were still participating in SNAP approximately 6 months later.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Received emergency food from pantries in the past 30 days.
      ANALYSIS: Logistic regression analysis of pantry use with SNAP participation and
      time-varying household characteristics as independent variables. Statistical
      significance was assessed using t tests. The authors applied a Bonferroni
      adjustment to account for multiple comparisons performed. RESULTS: Participating
      in SNAP for 6 months was associated with a decrease in pantry use by 5.2
      percentage points (P < .001), representing a 24% reduction (from 21.8% to 16.6%).
      CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit
      allotments are sufficient for some households, but 76% of SNAP households that
      enter the program while using pantries continue to do so about 6 months later,
      which underscores the need to assess the adequacy of SNAP benefit allotments in
      ensuring access to sufficient food for a healthy, active life.

PMID- 28889854
TI  - The Association Between Consumer Competency and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
      Program Participation on Food Insecurity.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To examine whether Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
      participants exhibited lower food insecurity when they also demonstrated
      desirable behaviors in the areas of financial management, nutrition literacy, and
      conscientious food shopping. DESIGN: Using data from the US Department of
      Agriculture's newly launched National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase
      Survey, this study examined whether consumer competency is a factor that affects
      food insecurity. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4,158 participants were included.
      Sampling weights were applied to represent the population better. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Very low food insecurity was the dependent variable. Important
      independent variables were participants' financial management skills, nutrition
      literacy, and conscientious shopping. ANALYSIS: Logit and 2-staged least-squares
      models were used for empirical analyses. The significance of models was tested at
      .05, .01, and .001. RESULTS: Consumer competency-related factors such as
      financial management ability, not defaulting on bill payments within the previous
      6 months, and using the nutrition panel frequently when shopping were negatively
      associated with food insecurity and very low food security after controlling for
      a number of other demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral characteristics.
      CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Policies that focus solely on consumer competency
      programs such as SNAP-Education might marginally achieve program goals but the
      effect would be modest owing to the unique challenges that SNAP participants may
      face. Further investigations are needed to understand better why SNAP
      participants do not benefit successfully from competent consumer practices.

PMID- 28889855
TI  - Dietary Intake Contributions of Food and Beverages by Source and Food Security
      Status in US Adults.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare the consumption patterns and diet quality of foods and
      beverages obtained from various sources by food security status. DESIGN: Cross
      sectional analysis of 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
      data. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4,789 adults (aged >19 years) with dietary intake
      and food security data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The contribution of foods and
      beverages to energy, nutrients, and diet quality by locations where food was
      obtained was compared across food security status. ANALYSIS: Descriptive analysis
      and logistic regression. RESULTS: Almost all US adults consumed food and
      beverages obtained from grocery stores, regardless of food security status (about
      95%), which accounted for one half to two thirds of total macronutrient intakes.
      The diet quality of foods from grocery stores was better in highly food-secure
      adults. Convenience stores are used most by very low food-secure adults; those
      foods had the poorest diet quality profile. Dietary patterns of marginally food
      secure adults more closely resembled sources and intakes of low and very low food
      secure adults. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Food-insecure adults use food
      sources differently, resulting in diet quality differences of foods and beverages
      obtained. Place-based interventions in the food environment may have differential
      effects by food security status.

PMID- 28889857
TI  - A Comment on Guthrie J "Integrating Behavioral Economics Into Nutrition Education
      Research and Practice".

PMID- 28889856
TI  - Foods and Beverages Available at SNAP-Authorized Drugstores in Sections of North
      Carolina.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess healthy food availability in Supplemental Nutrition
      Assistance Program-authorized drugstores by store chain and neighborhood income
      level in 3 regions of North Carolina. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, descriptive study.
      SETTING: Twenty-five counties in North Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 108
      drugstores (36 CVS Health, 36 Rite Aid, and 36 Walgreens). MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURE(S): Fifty foods and beverages offered at drugstores, categorized as
      healthier and less healthy. ANALYSIS: Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test
      differences in the availability of foods and beverages by chain and neighborhood
      income. RESULTS: Of the 50 foods/beverages observed, 11 were available at all
      drugstores. Three of the 36 (8%) healthier items were available at all stores
      (100% fruit juice, water, and high-fiber cereal) whereas 8 of the 14 less healthy
      items (57%) were available at all stores (chips, sports drinks, energy drinks,
      regular soda, diet soda, sugar-sweetened beverages, beer, and wine). Only 3% of
      drugstores offered fresh vegetables and 4% offered fresh fruits. Less than 20%
      offered frozen chicken or beef. For 36 healthier foods, 11 differed by chain
      (28%); for less healthy foods 2 of 14 differed by chain (7%). Foods and beverages
      offered did not vary by neighborhood income. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:
      Although drugstores offer some healthier items, few offer fresh produce. As the
      drugstore industry changes, it is important for the nutrition community to study
      the impact of these changes on food purchasing behavior and ultimately health.

PMID- 28889858
TI  - Response to "A Comment on Guthrie J 'Integrating Behavioral Economics Into
      Nutrition Education Research and Practice'".

PMID- 28889859
TI  - Erratum.

PMID- 28889860
TI  - Improving uncertainty in Widmark equation calculations: Alcohol volume, strength
      and density.
AB  - The Widmark equation is probably the most commonly used calculation for
      medicolegal purposes. Recently the National Research Council (USA) and the
      Forensic Science Regulator (UK) have called for the uncertainty of all results to
      be given with all forensic measurements and calculations. To improve the
      uncertainty of measurement of results from Widmark calculations we have
      concentrated on the uncertainties of measurement involved in the calculation of
      amount of alcohol, that of the volume of alcohol, the concentration of alcohol
      and the density of alcohol as previous studies have investigated some of the
      other factors involved. Using experimental studies, the scientific literature and
      legal statutes, we have determined revised and improved uncertainties of the
      concentration of ethanol for Widmark calculations for both the USA and UK. Based
      on the calculations that we have performed we recommend the use of Monte Carlo
      Simulation for the determination of uncertainty of measurement for Widmark
      Calculations.

PMID- 28889861
TI  - Forensic science and the right to access to justice: Testing the efficacy of self
      examination intimate DNA swabs to enhance victim-centred responses to sexual
      violence in low-resource environments.
AB  - In developed countries, DNA profiling routinely forms part of the forensic
      strategy in the investigation of sexual violence. Medical examinations provide
      opportunities for recovering DNA evidence from intimate swabs, which can be
      particularly probative in cases where the identity of the perpetrator is unknown
      and proof of intercourse between two people is required. In low-resource
      environments, such as developing countries, remote geographic locations, conflict
      (and post-conflict) affected regions and displaced communities where access to
      medical examinations is lacking, DNA evidence is not available to support
      prosecutions and perpetrators are rarely identified and held accountable for
      crimes of sexual violence. This paper reports the results of a proof-of-concept
      study testing the efficacy of a novel self-examination intimate swab designed for
      recovering DNA following unprotected sexual intercourse. The results of this
      study corroborate previous research which has demonstrated that male DNA profiles
      can be successfully recovered by post-coital, self-examination methods, and
      discusses how this novel approach could enable the integration of DNA evidence
      into victim-centred approaches to investigating and prosecuting sexual violence
      in low-resource environments. The results and discussion challenge the prevailing
      assumption that intimate DNA swabs must be collected by trained medical
      professionals in order to be of evidential value.

PMID- 28889862
TI  - Genetic DNA profile in urine and hair follicles from patients who have undergone
      allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
AB  - Biological samples from patients who have undergone allogeneic hematopoietic stem
      cell transplantation (HSCT) constitute a challenge for individual identification.
      In this study we analyzed the genetic profiles (by the amplification of 15
      autosomic STRs) of HSCT patients found in different types of samples (blood, hair
      and urine) that may be the source of DNA in civil or criminal forensic cases. Our
      results show that while in hair follicles the donor component was not detected in
      any patient, thus being a reliable source of biological material for forensic
      identification, mixed chimerism was detected in urine samples from all patient,
      and no correlation was found between the time elapsed from the transplant and the
      percentage of chimerism. These results certainly have practical implications if
      the urine is being considered as a source of DNA for identification purposes in
      HSTC patients. Moreover, taking into consideration that chimerism was found not
      only in patients with leukocyturia (given the hematopoietic origin of leukocytes,
      this was expected), but also in those without observable leukocytes in the
      sediment, we conclude that an alternative source or sources of donor DNA must be
      implicated.

PMID- 28889863
TI  - The persistence of human DNA in soil following surface decomposition.
AB  - Though recent decades have seen a marked increase in research concerning the
      impact of human decomposition on the grave soil environment, the fate of human
      DNA in grave soil has been relatively understudied. With the purpose of
      supplementing the growing body of literature in forensic soil taphonomy, this
      study assessed the relative persistence of human DNA in soil over the course of
      decomposition. Endpoint PCR was used to assess the presence or absence of human
      nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, while qPCR was used to evaluate the quantity of
      human DNA recovered from the soil beneath four cadavers at the University of
      Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility (ARF). Human nuclear DNA from the soil
      was largely unrecoverable, while human mitochondrial DNA was detectable in the
      soil throughout all decomposition stages. Mitochondrial DNA copy abundances were
      not significantly different between decomposition stages and were not
      significantly correlated to soil edaphic parameters tested. There was, however, a
      significant positive correlation between mitochondrial DNA copy abundances and
      the human associated bacteria, Bacteroides, as estimated by 16S rRNA gene
      abundances. These results show that human mitochondrial DNA can persist in grave
      soil and be consistently detected throughout decomposition.

PMID- 28889864
TI  - The transfer of diatoms from freshwater to footwear materials: An experimental
      study assessing transfer, persistence, and extraction methods for forensic
      reconstruction.
AB  - In recent years there has been growing interest in environmental forms of trace
      evidence, and ecological trace evidence collected from footwear has proved
      valuable within casework. Simultaneously, there has been growing awareness of the
      need for empirical experimentation to underpin forensic inferences. Diatoms are
      unicellular algae, and each cell (or 'frustule') consists of two valves which are
      made of silica, a robust material that favours their preservation both in
      sediments and within forensic scenarios. A series of experiments were carried out
      to investigate the transfer and persistence of diatoms upon common footwear
      materials, a recipient surface that has historically been overlooked by studies
      of persistence. The effectiveness of two novel extraction techniques (jet
      rinsing, and heating and agitation with distilled water) was compared to the
      established extraction technique of hydrogen peroxide digestion, for a suite of
      five common footwear materials: canvas, leather, and 'suede' (representing upper
      materials), and rubber and polyurethane (representing sole materials). It was
      observed that the novel extraction technique of heating and agitation with
      distilled water did not extract fewer diatom valves, or cause increased
      fragmentation of valves, when compared to peroxide digestion, suggesting that the
      method may be viable where potentially hazardous chemical reactions may be
      encountered with the peroxide digestion method. Valves could be extracted from
      all five footwear materials after 3min of immersion, and more valves were
      extracted from the rougher, woven upper materials than the smoother sole
      materials. Canvas yielded the most valves (a mean of 2511/cm2) and polyurethane
      the fewest (a mean of 15/cm2). The persistence of diatoms on the three upper
      materials was addressed with a preliminary pilot investigation, with ten
      intervals sampled between 0 and 168h. Valves were seen to persist in detectable
      quantities after 168h on all three upper materials. However, some samples
      produced slides with no valves, and the earliest time after which no diatom
      valves were found was 4h after the transfer. Analysis of the particle size
      distributions over time, by image analysis, suggests that the retention of
      diatoms may be size-selective; after 168h, no particles larger than 200MUm2 could
      be found on the samples of canvas, and >95% of the particles on the samples of
      suede were less than or equal to 200MUm2. A pilot investigation into the effects
      of immersion interval was carried out upon samples of canvas. Greater numbers of
      valves were extracted from the samples with longer immersion intervals, but even
      after 30s, >500 valves could be recovered per cm2, suggesting that footwear may
      be sampled for diatoms even if the contact with a water body may have been brief.
      These findings indicate that, if the variability within and between experimental
      runs can be addressed, there is significant potential for diatoms to be
      incorporated into the trace analysis of footwear and assist forensic
      reconstructions.

PMID- 28889865
TI  - Estimating the age of the adult stages of the blow flies Lucilia sericata and
      Calliphora vicina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) by means of the cuticular hydrocarbon
      n-pentacosane.
AB  - Age estimation of insects like blow flies plays an important role in forensic
      entomology and can answer questions in regard to time of death. So far the focus
      is on the immature stages of these insects, but recently the adult fly became a
      target of interest. It has been established that the profile of specific
      cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) changes in a consistent pattern as adult insects
      age; thus, their analysis could be a promising tool for the age estimation of
      adult insects. We investigated the CHC n-pentacosane (nC25) on the legs of the
      adult blow flies Lucilia sericata and Calliphora vicina with gas chromatography
      mass spectrometry. The flies were kept at room temperature (17 degrees C+/-2
      degrees C) and 12:12 L:D from Day 1 to Day 20 post-emergence. For each of five
      flies per species, the amount of nC25 on all legs was determined daily. The
      amounts of nC25 on C. vicina increased linearly (R2=0.949). No significant
      difference between sexes could be detected. While L. sericata showed the same
      linear increase in general, we found significant (p<0.001) differences in the
      amount of nC25 between males and females. Although the amounts of nC25 increased
      linearly for both sexes (males: R2=0.948; females: R2=0.920), female L. sericata
      produced more nC25 than males. An equation for the prediction of fly age is
      constructed from these data. Although the influence of various environmental
      factors, e.g., fluctuating temperatures, still needs to be tested, nC25 seems to
      be a promising tool for the age estimation of adult flies.

PMID- 28889866
TI  - Helicopter thermal imaging for detecting insect infested cadavers.
AB  - One of the most common techniques applied for searching living and even dead
      persons is the FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) system fixed on an aircraft like
      e.g. a helicopter, visualizing the thermal patterns emitted from objects in the
      long-infrared spectrum. However, as body temperature cools down to ambient values
      within approximately 24h after death, it is common sense that searching for
      deceased persons can be just applied the first day post-mortem. We postulated
      that the insect larval masses on a decomposing body generate a heat which can be
      considerably higher than ambient temperatures for a period of several weeks and
      that such heat signatures might be used for locating insect infested human
      remains. We examined the thermal history of two 70 and 90kg heavy pig cadavers
      for 21days in May and June 2014 in Germany. Adult and immature insects on the
      carcasses were sampled daily. Temperatures were measured on and inside the
      cadavers, in selected maggot masses and at the surroundings. Thermal imaging from
      a helicopter using the FLIR system was performed at three different altitudes up
      to 1500ft. during seven day-flights and one night-flight. Insect colonization was
      dominated by blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) which occurred almost
      immediately after placement of the cadavers. Larvae were noted first on day 2 and
      infestation of both cadavers was enormous with several thousand larvae each.
      After day 14 a first wave of post-feeding larvae left the carcasses for pupation.
      Body temperature of both cadavers ranged between 15 degrees C and 35 degrees C
      during the first two weeks of the experiment, while body surface temperatures
      peaked at about 45 degrees C. Maggot masses temperatures reached values up to
      almost 25 degrees C above ambient temperature. Detection of both cadavers by
      thermal imaging was possible on seven of the eight helicopter flights until day
      21.

PMID- 28889867
TI  - An investigation into the effect of surveillance drones on textile evidence at
      crime scenes.
AB  - With increasing numbers of Police forces using drones for crime scene
      surveillance, the effect of the drones on trace evidence present needs
      evaluation. In this investigation the effect of flying a quadcopter drone at
      different heights over a controlled scene and taking off at different distances
      from the scene were measured. Yarn was placed on a range of floor surfaces and
      the number lost or moved from their original position was recorded. It was
      possible to estimate "safe" distances above and take off distance from the bath
      mat (2m and 1m respectively), and carpet tile (3m and 1m) which were the roughest
      surfaces. The maximum distances tested of 5m above and 2m from was not far enough
      to prevent significant disturbance with the other floor surfaces. This report
      illustrates the importance of considering the impact of new technologies into a
      forensic workflow on established forensic evidence prior to implementation.

PMID- 28889868
TI  - Three-dimensional analysis of third molar development to estimate age of
      majority.
AB  - Third molars are one of the few biological markers available for age estimation
      in undocumented juveniles close the legal age of majority, assuming an age of
      18years as the most frequent legal demarcation between child and adult status. To
      obtain more accurate visualization and evaluation of third molar mineralization
      patterns from computed tomography images, a new software application,
      DentaVol(c), was developed. Third molar mineralization according to qualitative
      (Demirjian's maturational stage) and quantitative parameters (third molar volume)
      of dental development was assessed in multi-slice helical computed tomography
      images of both maxillary arches displayed by DentaVol(c) from 135 individuals (62
      females and 73 males) aged between 14 and 23years. Intra- and inter-observer
      agreement values were remarkably high for both evaluation procedures and for all
      third molars. A linear correlation between third molar mineralization and
      chronological age was found, with third molar maturity occurring earlier in males
      than in females. Assessment of dental development with both procedures, by using
      DentaVol(c) software, can be considered a good indicator of age of majority
      (18years or older) in all third molars. Our results indicated that virtual
      computed tomography imaging can be considered a valid alternative to
      orthopantomography for evaluations of third molar mineralization, and therefore a
      complementary tool for determining the age of majority.

PMID- 28889869
TI  - The sharing of ballistics data across Europe and neighbouring territories.
AB  - The current study explored the use of ballistic examinations and cross-border
      information sharing across 14 European countries. The presented data were
      collected using a mixed methods technique consisting of semi-structured
      interviews and questionnaires that were completed by participants. The results
      painted a very heterogeneous picture of the use of automated ballistic systems
      across these countries, as well as how ballistic analyses are integrated in the
      fight against gun-enabled crime. Three super-ordinates themes emerged from the
      thematic analysis: use of automated ballistic systems; Ballistic evidence
      recovery and analysis; knowledge exchange and best practices. The ability to draw
      firm conclusions regarding the value of ballistics comparison systems, either on
      a national or cross-border basis, is hampered by inconsistencies regarding data
      recording practices and definitions. Therefore, key recommendations are suggested
      to establish better cross border cooperation between member states and develop a
      better understanding of data sharing procedures.

PMID- 28889870
TI  - The use of handwriting examinations beyond the traditional court purpose.
AB  - Traditionally, forensic science has predominantly focused its resources and
      objectives on addressing court related questions. However, this view restricts
      the contribution of forensic science to one function and results in lost
      opportunities as investigative and intelligence roles are often overlooked. A
      change of perspective and expansion of the contributions of forensic science is
      required to take advantage of the benefits of abductive and inductive thought
      processes throughout the investigative and intelligence functions. One forensic
      discipline that has the potential to broaden its traditional focus is handwriting
      examination. Typically used in investigations that are focused on both criminal
      and civil cases, the examination procedure and outcome are time consuming and
      subjective, requiring a detailed study of the features of the handwriting in
      question. Traditionally, the major handwriting features exploited are
      characteristics that are often considered individual (or at least highly
      polymorphic) and habitual. However, handwriting can be considered as an
      information vector in an intelligence framework. One such example is the
      recognition of key elements related to the author's native language. This paper
      discusses the traditional method generally used around the world and proposes a
      theoretical approach to expand the application of handwriting examination towards
      gaining additional information for intelligence purposes. This concept will be
      designed and tested in a future research project.

PMID- 28889871
TI  - Reply to Morrison et al. (2016) Refining the relevant population in forensic
      voice comparison - A response to Hicks et alii (2015) The importance of
      distinguishing information from evidence/observations when formulating
      propositions.

PMID- 28889872
TI  - IV Immunoglobulin for Autoimmune Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia.

PMID- 28889873
TI  - Statins in COPD: Life After STATCOPE.

PMID- 28889874
TI  - The Many Faces of Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis.

PMID- 28889875
TI  - Geo-economic Variations and ARDS: If a Tree Falls in a Forest....

PMID- 28889876
TI  - Giants in Chest Medicine: Jack Hirsh, CM, MD, DSc.

PMID- 28889877
TI  - PET scan.

PMID- 28889878
TI  - COPD.

PMID- 28889879
TI  - The Jazzman.

PMID- 28889880
TI  - Art and Ego.

PMID- 28889881
TI  - Vitamin C Is Not Ready for Prime Time in Sepsis but a Solution Is Close.

PMID- 28889882
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28889883
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28889884
TI  - The Unsung Hero: Role of Thiamine in the 'Vitamin C Cocktail'.

PMID- 28889885
TI  - Persistent Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia Treated With IVIg.

PMID- 28889886
TI  - Reclassify Lung-RADS Category "S".

PMID- 28889887
TI  - Prisoners in the United States Likely to Have Higher Odds of Death From Sepsis.

PMID- 28889888
TI  - De Novo Development of Bronchiectasis in Patients With Hematologic Malignancy.

PMID- 28889889
TI  - Probiotics in the Pediatric ICU: Beyond Blurred Lines.

PMID- 28889890
TI  - Thiamine: Why No Chance in Severe Sepsis?

PMID- 28889891
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28889892
TI  - Point-of-Care Ultrasonography for Acute Coronary Syndrome: Rule This in or Rule
      Out Others?

PMID- 28889893
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28889894
TI  - Hydrocortisone, Vitamin C and Thiamine for Sepsis: Whither the Ethics in
      Research?

PMID- 28889895
TI  - Response.

PMID- 28889896
TI  - Bronchiectasis Complicating Lung Volume Reduction Coil Treatment.
AB  - Endoscopic lung volume reduction has emerged over the past several years as a
      promising technique to improve the respiratory functional status of patients with
      advanced emphysema. Nevertheless, the procedure may be associated with various
      complications; among them, the development of bronchiectasis related to the coils
      has not yet been described. We report the case of a patient with emphysema who
      developed localized bronchiectasis at the site of coil insertion several months
      after lung volume reduction coil treatment.

PMID- 28889897
TI  - A 70-Year-Old Develops Refractory Hypotension in the ICU.

PMID- 28889898
TI  - A Previously Healthy Man in His 30s With Worsening Shortness of Breath Over 5
      Days.

PMID- 28889899
TI  - Pulmonary Nodules in an Adolescent Female Presented With Abdominal Pain, Fatigue,
      and Weight Loss.
AB  - CASE PRESENTATION: A 14-year-old girl initially presented to a pediatric
      gastroenterology office with a 1-month history of right upper quadrant abdominal
      pain, which radiated to the right shoulder and back. Her pain was worse after
      heavy meals and with deep breaths. She reported anorexia, fatigue, dyspnea while
      playing soccer, and a 5-pound weight loss. She denied any fevers, cough, or
      changes in her bowel habits.

PMID- 28889900
TI  - A 62-Year-Old Woman With Wheezing, Respiratory Failure, and an Abnormal CT Scan.
AB  - CASE PRESENTATION: A previously healthy 62-year-old woman was transferred to the
      ICU from the medical ward with acute bronchospastic respiratory failure requiring
      intubation and mechanical ventilation. Four weeks before, the patient was
      vacationing in Arizona and acquired a mildly productive cough as well as mild
      dyspnea. She presented to an urgent care facility and was diagnosed with
      community-acquired pneumonia. She received a 5-day course of azithromycin, with
      partial improvement of her symptoms. The patient returned home 1 week prior to
      admission, reporting worsening dyspnea, chest pressure, cough, and fever. The
      patient was admitted to the medical ward, and treatment for unresolved pneumonia
      was begun with levofloxacin, an inhaled short-acting beta agonist, and oral
      prednisone. Despite this treatment, the patient experienced severe respiratory
      distress with audible wheezing as well as increased work of breathing. She was
      intubated for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure and transferred to the ICU.

PMID- 28889901
TI  - Corrigendum to "Tumor Macroenvironment and Metabolism" [Seminars in Oncology, Vol
      41, No 2, April 2014, pp 281-295].

PMID- 28889902
TI  - "Benznidazole-resistance in Trypanosoma cruzi: Evidence that distinct mechanisms
      can act in concert'' [Mol. Biochem. Parasit. (2014) 193, 17-19].

PMID- 28889903
TI  - Instructed fear stimuli bias visual attention.
AB  - We investigated whether stimuli merely instructed to be fear-relevant can bias
      visual attention, even when the fear relation was never experienced before.
      Participants performed a dot-probe task with pictures of naturally fear-relevant
      (snake or spider) or -irrelevant (bird or butterfly) stimuli. Instructions
      indicated that two pictures (one naturally fear-relevant and one fear-irrelevant)
      could be followed by an electrical stimulation (i.e., instructed fear). In
      reality, no stimulation was administered. During the task, two pictures were
      presented on each side of the screen, after which participants had to determine
      as fast as possible on which side a black dot appeared. After a first phase, fear
      was reinstated by instructing participants that the device was not connected but
      now was (reinstatement phase). Participants were faster when the dot appeared on
      a location where an instructed fear picture was presented. This effect seemed
      independent of whether picture content was naturally fear-relevant, but was only
      found in the first half of each phase, suggesting rapid extinction due to the
      absence of stimulation, and rapid re-evaluation after reinstatement. A second
      experiment similarly showed that instructed fear biases attention, even when
      participants were explicitly instructed that no stimulation would be given during
      the dot-probe task. Together, these findings demonstrate that attention can be
      biased towards instructed fear stimuli, even when these fear relations were never
      experienced. Future studies should test whether this is specific to fear, or can
      be observed for all instructions that change the relevance of a given stimulus.

PMID- 28889904
TI  - Are mercury and Alzheimer's disease linked?

PMID- 28889905
TI  - [Orbital lymphoma masquerading in a young patient with Graves ophthalmopathy].

PMID- 28889906
TI  - [Iridoschisis: A glaucoma to screen for and an unusual phacoemulsification].

PMID- 28889907
TI  - Are Thraustochytrids algae?
AB  - Thraustochytrids, a heterotrophic fungus-like clade of Stramenopiles, are
      becoming an increasingly important source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
      for biotechnological industries. PUFA rich oils from these organisms are
      subsequently referred to in some literature and marketing sources as being
      derived from 'algae', in spite of their non-photosynthetic source organism. In
      this review, we attempt to disentangle the evolutionary relationship of the
      Thraustochytrids from other Protists, demonstrating that there is no scientific
      basis for the aforementioned misnomer. Some research has previously suggested
      that the ancestor of the Stramenopiles may have been photosynthetic, and
      subsequently lost their plastids in multiple lineages. The placement of the
      Thraustochytrids within the Stramenopiles and their possible plastid loss may
      have been a source of obfuscation. It is becoming increasingly evident that the
      common ancestor of the Stramenopiles was not photosynthetic, and that only the
      Ochrophyte lineage later engulfed a plastid via higher order endosymbiosis.
      Because all basal lineages of Stramenopiles are non-plastidial heterotrophs,
      including the Thraustochytrids, there remains no phylogenetic, biological, or
      ecological justification for the term 'algae' to be applied to Thraustochytrids
      or their products.

PMID- 28889908
TI  - Resistance of Fusarium poae in Arabidopsis leaves requires mainly functional JA
      and ET signaling pathways.
AB  - Fusarium poae has been considered as a minor species among those that cause the
      FHB disease but in recent years several researchers have documented a high
      frequency of occurrence in several crops. We evaluated the ability of F. poae to
      produce symptoms in A. thaliana leaves. Moreover, we analyzed the defense of A.
      thaliana against F. poae using SA, JA, and ET mutants and we monitored the
      expression level of genes involved in the main signaling pathways related to
      plant defense. Symptoms were observed in the inoculated leaves demonstrating the
      ability of F. poae to infect A. thaliana leaves. Moreover, the npr1-1 mutants
      presented low symptoms compared to Col-0, etr2-1, and coi1-1 and that the coi1-1
      mutant was the most susceptible genotypes followed by etr2-1 genotypes. The RT
      PCR revealed that PDF1.2, CHI/PR3, and ERF1, three important JA-ET responsive
      genes and NPR1 and PR1, which are regulated by SA signaling, were expressed upon
      F. poae inoculation. Our results suggest that JA and ET could play a key role in
      Arabidopsis leaves defense against F. poae representing the first evaluation of
      the response of the main A. thaliana phytohormones involved in plant defense in
      the presence of F. poae.

PMID- 28889909
TI  - Organization and evolution of mating-type genes in three Stagonosporopsis species
      causing gummy stem blight of cucurbits and leaf spot and dry rot of papaya.
AB  - Population divergence and speciation of closely related lineages can result from
      reproductive differences leading to genetic isolation. An increasing number of
      fungal diseases of plants and animals have been determined to be caused by
      morphologically indistinguishable species that are genetically distinct, thereby
      representing cryptic species. We were interested in identifying if mating systems
      among three Stagonosporopsis species (S. citrulli, S. cucurbitacearum, and S.
      caricae) causing gummy stem blight (GSB) of cucurbits or leaf spot and dry rot of
      papaya differed, possibly underlying species divergence. Additionally, we were
      interested in identifying evolutionary pressures acting on the genes controlling
      mating in these fungi. The mating-type loci (MAT1) of three isolates from each of
      the three species were identified in draft genome sequences. For the three
      species, MAT1 was structurally identical and contained both mating-type genes
      necessary for sexual reproduction, which suggests that all three species are
      homothallic. However, both MAT1-1-1 and MAT1-2-1 were divergent among species
      showing rapid evolution with a much greater number of amino acid-changing
      substitutions detected for the reproductive genes compared with genes flanking
      MAT1. Positive selection was detected in MAT1-2-1, especially in the highly
      conserved high mobility group (MATA_HMG-box) domain. Thus, the mating-type genes
      are rapidly evolving in GSB fungi, but a difference in mating systems among the
      three species does not underlie their divergence.

PMID- 28889910
TI  - Phylogenetic study of the Colletotrichum species on imported citrus fruits
      uncovers a low diversity and a new species in the Colletotrichum gigasporum
      complex.
AB  - Colletotrichum species associated with citrus fruits are fragmentarily known and
      it lacks accordingly accurate information on the diversity carried alongside the
      trade of these commodities from producer countries to Europe. In this study, we
      investigated the molecular phylogenetic diversity, colonisation, and prevalence
      of Colletotrichum isolated from asymptomatic and diseased tissues of nine citrus
      fruit species from 17 geographically diverse countries. Totally 454 isolates were
      morphoculturally characterised, and multilocus analyses (ACT, ApMat, CHS-1,
      GAPDH, ITS, TUB2) was performed on a subset of representative morphotype
      isolates. Results led to the identification of three previously known species
      (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Colletotrichum karstii, Colletotrichum siamense)
      and one novel lineage comprising endophytic isolates from Citrus maxima. Based on
      this lineage, Colletotrichum citri-maximae is described as a new species in the
      Colletotrichum gigasporum complex, and is characterised by a long deletion in the
      GAPDH sequence, a character shared with three of its phylogenetic sister taxa.
      Prevalence of Colletotrichum varied among citrus species and was greatest on
      Citrus sinensis fruits. C. gloeosporioides was the most common species followed
      by C. siamense. Except for the new species, all other isolated Colletotrichum
      spp. also colonise citrus leaves, but the overall diversity on fruits may be
      lower than that of leaves.

PMID- 28889911
TI  - FPD: A comprehensive phosphorylation database in fungi.
AB  - Protein phosphorylation, one of the most classic post-translational modification,
      plays a critical role in diverse cellular processes including cell cycle, growth,
      and signal transduction pathways. However, the available information about
      phosphorylation in fungi is limited. Here, we provided a Fungi Phosphorylation
      Database (FPD) that comprises high-confidence in vivo phosphosites identified by
      MS-based proteomics in various fungal species. This comprehensive phosphorylation
      database contains 62 272 non-redundant phosphorylation sites in 11 222 proteins
      across eight organisms, including Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus nidulans,
      Fusarium graminearum, Magnaporthe oryzae, Neurospora crassa, Saccharomyces
      cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, and Cryptococcus neoformans. A fungi
      specific phosphothreonine motif and several conserved phosphorylation motifs were
      discovered by comparatively analysing the pattern of phosphorylation sites in
      plants, animals, and fungi.

PMID- 28889912
TI  - A systematic overview of Descolea (Agaricales) in the Nothofagaceae forests of
      Patagonia.
AB  - The descolea clade includes species of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes in the
      genera Descolea, Setchelliogaster, Descomyces, and Timgrovea that are known
      primarily from the Southern Hemisphere. Taxa in this group produce basidiomes
      that range in morphology from typical epigeous mushrooms (Descolea) and secotioid
      taxa (Setchelliogaster) to fully gasteroid species (Descomyces and Timgrovea).
      High intraspecific morphological variation has been reported in several species
      within this clade, suggesting that careful morphological and molecular studies
      are needed to refine species concepts. Molecular analyses of fresh Patagonian
      collections in conjunction with taxonomic studies have confirmed high variability
      in key morphological features, including overall sporocarp form, spore shape and
      dimensions, universal veil remnants, and cuticle configuration. Based on our
      synthesis, we emend the genus Descolea to include sequestrate species. We
      describe the new sequestrate taxon Descolea inferna sp. nov. from Nothofagaceae
      forests in Patagonia and we propose Cortinarius squamatus as a synonym of our new
      combination Descolea brunnea. We also formalize the identity of Descolea pallida
      as a synonym of Descolea antarctica and provide new specimens of Cortinarius
      archeuretus, a species that has not been encountered since the original discovery
      during the expeditions of Roland Thaxter in 1905-1906. Here we re-describe and
      transfer this species to Descolea as D. archeureta. We also discuss diagnostic
      features that can be used to delimitate the four known South American taxa in the
      descolea clade.

PMID- 28889913
TI  - Phylogenetic relationships of Chlamydomyces, Harzia, Olpitrichum, and their
      sexual allies, Melanospora and Sphaerodes.
AB  - Phylogenetic analyses using internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large subunit rRNA
      (LSU), and small subunit (SSU) sequence data showed that Harzia, Chlamydomyces,
      and Olpitrichum are con-generic. Thus, Chlamydomyces, and Olpitrichum were
      reduced to synonymy of Harzia. The generic concept was amended and expanded
      accordingly. Eight new combinations were proposed. Melanospora and Sphaerodes are
      phylogenetically related to Harzia. However, several members of Melanospora and
      Sphaerodes are polyphyletic and belong to Hypocreales or Microascales in
      Sordariomycetes. The Proteophiala morph is not only a crucial morphological
      character, but also has a phylogenetical significance in defining Melanosporales.
      It is hypothesized that the taxa with synanamorphic or asexual Proteophiala all
      belong to Ceratostomataceae, Melanosporales.

PMID- 28889914
TI  - Microplastics as a vector for the transport of the bacterial fish pathogen
      species Aeromonas salmonicida.
AB  - Microplastics is widespread in the marine environment where it can cause numerous
      negative effects. It can provide space for the growth of organisms and serves as
      a vector for the long distance transfer of marine microorganisms. In this study,
      we examined the sea surface concentrations of microplastics in the North Adriatic
      and characterized bacterial communities living on the microplastics. DNA from
      microplastics particles was isolated by three different methods, followed by PCR
      amplification of 16S rDNA, clone libraries preparation and phylogenetic analysis.
      28 bacterial species were identified on the microplastics particles including
      Aeromonas spp. and hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial species. Based on the 16S rDNA
      sequences the pathogenic fish bacteria Aeromonas salmonicida was identified for
      the first time on microplastics. Because A. salmonicida is responsible for
      illnesses in fish, it is crucial to get answers if and how microplastics
      pollution is responsible for spreading of diseases.

PMID- 28889915
TI  - "Every child that is a foster child is marked from the beginning": The home
      school communication experiences of foster parents of children with disabilities.
AB  - This study investigated the perceptions of foster parents of children with
      disabilities concerning their interactions with school personnel. We conducted
      semi-structured interviews with 7 foster parents of 6 children with disabilities
      (age range=5-16). A qualitative analysis of the interviews resulted in the
      identification of five thematic areas, including foster parent perceptions of:
      (a) the role of the foster parent, (b) the efficacy of the foster parent in
      helping the child learn, (c) invitations to involvement from the school (d)
      invitations to involvement from the child, and (e) foster child experiences in
      the school system. Marked differences were found in the perceptions of the
      perceptions in foster parents of elementary and secondary age students. It is
      clear that foster parents who take on an active role in their child's education
      experienced positive relationships with their child's school. Foster parents who
      take a passive role in their partnerships with the schools experienced increased
      difficulty maintaining motivation to continue in their efforts to increase
      collaboration and involvement with the schools. They indicated a sense of anger,
      distrust, and even hostility towards the schools. Based on the findings,
      recommendations are provided for improving home-school relationships, and
      addressing obstacles to successful school partnerships with foster families.

PMID- 28889916
TI  - Evidence for a relationship between child maltreatment and absenteeism among high
      school students in Sweden.
AB  - School absenteeism is a potent predictor of academic failure. Maltreated
      adolescents have been found to be more absent from school compared to their
      peers. However, it is scarcely studied in what degree a general population of
      students with high levels of school absenteeism has been exposed to child
      maltreatment. Furthermore, it is not known if maltreated school-absentees have
      specific characteristics compared to not-maltreated absentees. In this article,
      the first objective was to present and compare the prevalence of six types of
      child maltreatment in a general population of high school students reporting no,
      moderate or excessive absenteeism. The second objective was to compare maltreated
      and not-maltreated students who report absenteeism in respect to mental health,
      perceived school environment and peer victimization in school. Data from 667
      girls and 649 boys (mean age 14.3) was used from the longitudinal
      multidisciplinary research program LoRDIA (Longitudinal Research on Development
      In Adolescence). Data was collected via self-report questionnaires in classroom
      settings. All six types of child maltreatment were overrepresented among
      absentees. Roughly 25% of absentees reported one subtype of maltreatment (16% in
      the total population) and a mean of 22% of absentees reported two or more types
      of maltreatment (11% in the total population). Maltreated absentees reported more
      mental health problems, personal harassment and worse relationship with their
      teachers than not-maltreated absentees. There might be specific correlates of
      school absenteeism among maltreated adolescents and professionals involved in
      preventing school-absenteeism should be made aware of the relationship between
      maltreatment and absenteeism.

PMID- 28889917
TI  - Care research in Spain: Nurses will, politicians will and population impact.

PMID- 28889918
TI  - Erratum to"Ethnicity: An essential approach in improving the quality of care and
      patient safety with equity" <[Enferm Clin. 27 (2017) 209-210]>.

PMID- 28889919
TI  - Emerging immunotherapy in advanced renal cell carcinoma.
AB  - Immunotherapy has recently catapulted to the forefront of treatments for patients
      with solid tumors. Given its inherent immunogenic properties, renal cell
      carcinoma (RCC) has historically responded to immunotherapy and remains primed
      for further development. Although immunotherapy with high-dose interleukin 2 was
      a primary treatment for advanced RCC (aRCC), recent discoveries of key molecular
      and immunological alterations have led to the FDA-approval of nivolumab, an
      antiprogrammed cell death inhibitor, which has demonstrated an overall survival
      in patients with previously treated aRCC. However, despite recent therapeutic
      advances, aRCC remains an incurable disease for most patients. In this review, we
      assess the current landscape and future developments of immunotherapy in aRCC.

PMID- 28889920
TI  - The incidence of unsuccessful partial nephrectomy within the United States: A
      nationwide population-based analysis from 2003 to 2015.
AB  - PURPOSE: Partial nephrectomy (PN) remains underutilized within the United States
      and few reports have attempted to explain this trend. The aim of this study is to
      evaluate the nationwide incidence of unsuccessful PN and factors that predict its
      occurrence. METHODS: Using the Premier Healthcare Database, we retrospectively
      analyzed a weighted sample of 66,432 patients undergoing curative surgery for
      renal mass between 2003 and 2015. PN intent was denoted by presence of insurance
      claims for the administration of mannitol. Unsuccessful PN was defined as an
      event in which patients were administered mannitol but received radical
      nephrectomy. A multivariate logistic regression model was generated to identify
      factors predicting unsuccessful PN. RESULTS: Overall rates of unsuccessful PN
      declined from 33.5% to 14.5% since 2003. Conversion to radical nephrectomy
      occurred most frequently during laparoscopic (34.7%) and least frequently during
      robotic approach (13.6%). There was significant difference in the rate of
      unsuccessful PN between very high and very low volume surgeons (open: 39.4% vs.
      13.3%, laparoscopic: 51.2% vs. 32.2%, and robot assisted: 27.1% vs. 9.4%, all
      P<0.001). After adjustment for patient- and hospital-related factors, surgical
      approach (laparoscopic vs. open, odds ratio = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.31-2.30, P<0.001)
      and annual surgeon volume (very high vs. very low, odds ratio = 0.27, 95% CI:
      0.21-0.34 P<0.001) were associated with unsuccessful PN. CONCLUSIONS: Although
      the rate of unsuccessful PN appears to be declining, it still remains common for
      low volume surgeons and with the laparoscopic surgical approach. Further
      evaluation of its effect on health care outcomes is necessary.

PMID- 28889921
TI  - PD-1 checkpoint inhibition: Toxicities and management.
AB  - PURPOSE: With the recent approval of 5 PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for a number of
      malignancies, PD-1 axis inhibition is drastically changing the treatment
      landscape of immunotherapy in cancer. As PD-1/PD-L1 are involved in peripheral
      immune tolerance, inhibition of this immune checkpoint has led to novel immune
      related adverse events including colitis, hepatitis, pneumonitis, rash, and
      endocrinopathies among many others. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this seminar, we
      will analyze the incidence of immune-related adverse events for nivolumab,
      pembrolizumab, atezolizumab, durvalumab, and avelumab. Then, we will discuss the
      specific management of the most common immune-mediated adverse events including
      colitis, hepatitis, pneumonitis, rash, endocrinopathies, nephritis, and
      neurologic toxicities. RESULTS: Immune-related adverse events are frequently
      treated with immunosuppressive medication such as steroids and mycofenolate
      mofetil. CONCLUSIONS: There are specific immune-related adverse events which are
      frequently seen by the treating oncologist from checkpoint inhibitors. It is
      essential to understand the recommended treatment options to minimize toxicity
      and mortality from this important class of anti-neoplastic therapies.

PMID- 28889922
TI  - The effect of AB0 and Rhesus blood grouping systems on oncological outcome in
      patients undergoing radical nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial
      carcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of AB0 and Rhesus factor expression blood
      group systems on outcomes of upper tract urothelial carcinoma patients treated
      with radical nephroureterectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed data from 271
      patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma who underwent radical
      nephroureterectomy at 3 German academic institutions. Cox and logistic regression
      models assessed the association of AB0 blood group antigen and Rhesus factor
      expression with tumor biologic features and outcomes, respectively. RESULTS: In
      total, 119 patients (43.9%) had blood group antigen A0, 42 patients (15.4%)
      antigen B0, 15 patients (5.5%) antigen AB, and 95 patients (35.0%) the antigen
      00. A total of 231 patients (85.2%) were Rhesus factor positive. The AB0 blood
      group antigen expression was associated with a higher tumor grade (P = 0.049) and
      sessile tumor architecture (P = 0.019). Both, AB0 blood group system and Rhesus
      factor expression, were associated with worse performance status (P = 0.024, and
      P = 0.003, respectively). In contrast, Rhesus factor expression status was not
      associated with any clinicopathologic characteristics. Neither the AB0 blood
      group antigens nor the Rhesus factor was associated with survival. CONCLUSION:
      AB0 blood group antigens and Rhesus factor expression are not associated with
      survival. The association of the AB0 blood group antigens with adverse
      pathological features warrants further validation.

PMID- 28889923
TI  - Social risky decision-making reveals gender differences in the TPJ: A
      hyperscanning study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
AB  - Previous neuroscience studies have investigated neural correlates of risky
      decision-making in a single-brain frame during pseudo social (predominantly non
      face-to-face) contexts. To fully understand the risky decision-making behavior in
      more natural social interactions, the present study employed a functional near
      infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning technique to simultaneously measure
      pairs of participants' fronto-temporal activations in a face-to-face gambling
      card-game. The intra-brain results revealed that both those who identified as
      males and as females showed higher activations in their mPFC and in the inferior
      parts of the frontopolar area, as well as in the tempo-parietal junction (TPJ) in
      cases involving higher versus lower risk. This is consistent with previous
      findings suggesting importance of the mentalizing network in decision tasks. The
      fNIRS results of inter-brain neural synchronization (INS) also revealed that
      males and females showed increased inter-brain coherence in the mPFC and dlPFC.
      Females, however, uniquely showed increased inter-brain coherence in the left
      TPJ. This INS result suggests that males may primarily depend on non-social
      cognitive ability to make a risky decision in a social interaction, while females
      may use both social and non-social cognitive abilities. The implications are also
      discussed for general topics of human interaction and two-person neuroscience.

PMID- 28889924
TI  - Single-docking robotic biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch technique.

PMID- 28889925
TI  - Editorial.

PMID- 28889926
TI  - Triple therapy with dual antiplatelet treatment and direct oral anticoagulants.
      Author's reply.

PMID- 28889927
TI  - A reduction in acute thrombotic admissions during a period of unexplained
      increased deaths and medical admissions in the UK.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Since 2011 in England there has been a period of unexplained higher
      deaths and medical admissions which policy makers have assumed are attributable
      to the increasing age of the population and the inability of health and social
      care to limit demand. METHODS: Analysis of data obtained from NHS and Office of
      National Statistics. RESULTS: Contrary to the trends in certain other medical
      diagnoses those for thrombosis show a shift to lower acute admissions, which
      mainly occur in the young as a same day stay emergency admission. A reduction in
      occupied bed days also occurs. CONCLUSION: A shift in the balance of
      inflammatory/anti-inflammatory forces may be responsible for this dichotomous
      behaviour.

PMID- 28889928
TI  - Infections of the Nervous System.
AB  - Microorganisms can affect the entire neuraxis, producing a variety of neurologic
      complications that frequently entail prolonged hospitalizations and complicated
      treatment regimens. The spread of pathogens to new regions and the reemergence of
      opportunistic organisms in immunocompromised patients pose increasing challenges
      to health care professionals. Because rapid diagnosis and treatment may prevent
      long-term neurologic sequelae, providers should approach these diseases with a
      structured, neuroanatomic framework, incorporating a thorough history,
      examination, laboratory analysis, and neuroimaging in their clinical reasoning
      and decision-making.

PMID- 28889929
TI  - Sometimes the Eyes Say More Than the Mouth.

PMID- 28889930
TI  - Radiologic Pearls for Internists: A Case-Based Review.
AB  - Modern technologic advances in medical imaging and the increasing use of imaging
      across all disciplines in medicine have led to a striking rise in incidental
      findings unrelated to the original study indication. Often, these findings have
      no clinical relevance and will not impact the current or future health status of
      the patient. It is incumbent on radiologists to report these findings in a
      definitive and unambiguous manner. Similarly, it is essential for clinicians to
      restrain from further diagnostic investigation of incidental findings that are
      conclusive by imaging. A classic and common example is the finding of a cyst.
      This article presents several cases of incidentally found cysts for which a
      confident diagnosis can be made without any need for follow-up.

PMID- 28889931
TI  - Isolation and antifungal activity evaluation of Satureja khuzestanica Jamzad
      extract against some clinically important dermatophytes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Among the fungi, dermatophytes are the major cause of spectrum of
      superficial mycoses medically known as dermatophytosis (tinea) in human and
      animal. Treatment of these infections has still remained difficult. The aim of
      this survey was to evaluate in vitro anti-dermatophytic activity of ethanolic
      extract (EtOH) from Satureja khuzestanica leaf (SKLE) against some clinically
      important dermatophyte species from the genera of Trichophyton, Microsporum and
      Epidermophyton. Minimal inhibition concentration (MIC) of SKLE was tested against
      14 dermatophyte strains of 5 species by using agar dilution method. Phytochemical
      screening of SKLE was carried out by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography
      (HPTLC). The results of in vitro anti-dermatophytic activity of SKLE showed with
      MIC values between 1.250 and 10mg/mL. MIC90 and MIC50 values were as 0.625-1.250
      and 0.156-0.312mg/mL, respectively. The MFC values of SKLE were in the range of
      1.250-2.50mg/mL and possessed biological activity against dermatophytes. Morever,
      phytochemical analysis by HPTLC revealed that the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extracts
      of SKL contain triterpenes which are known to have biological activity and it
      seems that this compound be responsible for the anti-dermatophytic activity of
      this plant. In conclusion, the results of in vitro antifungal susceptibility
      testing and phytochemical screening revealed that SKLE had both fungistatic and
      fungicidal activities against dermatophytes and can potentially be helpful as a
      supplementary or alternative for treatment of dermatophytosis.

PMID- 28889932
TI  - Small Vessel Disease and Dietary Salt Intake: Cross-Sectional Study and
      Systematic Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Higher dietary salt intake increases the risk of stroke and may
      increase white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume. We hypothesized that a long
      term higher salt intake may be associated with other features of small vessel
      disease (SVD). METHODS: We recruited consecutive patients with mild stroke
      presenting to the Lothian regional stroke service. We performed brain magnetic
      resonance imaging, obtained a basic dietary salt history, and measured the
      urinary sodium/creatinine ratio. We also carried out a systematic review to put
      the study in the context of other studies in the field. RESULTS: We recruited 250
      patients, 112 with lacunar stroke and 138 with cortical stroke, with a median age
      of 67.5 years. After adjustment for risk factors, including age and hypertension,
      patients who had not reduced their salt intake in the long term were more likely
      to have lacunar stroke (odds ratio [OR], 1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10
      3.29), lacune(s) (OR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.09-3.99), microbleed(s) (OR, 3.4; 95% CI,
      1.54, 8.21), severe WMHs (OR, 2.45; 95% CI 1.34-4.57), and worse SVD scores (OR,
      2.17; 95% CI, 1.22-3.9). There was limited association between SVD and current
      salt intake or urinary sodium/creatinine ratio. Our systematic review found no
      previously published studies of dietary salt and SVD. CONCLUSION: The association
      between dietary salt and background SVD is a promising indication of a potential
      neglected contributory factor for SVD. These results should be replicated in
      larger, long-term studies using the recognized gold-standard measures of dietary
      sodium.

PMID- 28889933
TI  - Bacterial conjugated linoleic acid production and their applications.
AB  - Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been shown to exert various potential
      physiological properties including anti-carcinogenic, anti-obesity, anti
      cardiovascular and anti-diabetic activities, and consequently has been considered
      as a promising food supplement. Bacterial biosynthesis of CLA is an attractive
      approach for commercial production due to its high isomer-selectivity and
      convenient purification process. Many bacterial species have been reported to
      convert free linoleic acid (LA) to CLA, hitherto only the precise CLA-producing
      mechanisms in Propionibacterium acnes and Lactobacillus plantarum have been
      illustrated completely, prompting the development of recombinant technology used
      in CLA production. The purpose of the article is to review the bacterial CLA
      producers as well as the recent progress on describing the mechanism of microbial
      CLA-production. Furthermore, the advances and potential in the heterologous
      expression of CLA genetic determinants will be presented.

PMID- 28889934
TI  - Working length and proximal screw constructs in plate osteosynthesis of distal
      femur fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study purpose is to evaluate the working length, proximal screw
      density, and diaphyseal fixation mode and the correlation to fracture union after
      locking plate osteosynthesis of distal femoral fractures using bridge-plating
      technique. METHODS: A four-year retrospective review was performed to identify
      patients undergoing operative fixation of distal femur fractures with a distal
      femoral locking plate using bridge-plating technique for the metadiaphyseal
      region. Primary variables included fracture union, secondary surgery for union,
      plate working length, and diaphyseal screw technique and configuration. Multiple
      secondary variables including plate metallurgy and coronal plane fracture
      alignment were also collected. RESULTS: Ninety-six patients with distal femur
      fractures with a mean age 60 years met inclusion criteria. None of the clinical
      parameters were statistically significant indicators of union. Likewise, none of
      the following surgical technique parameters were associated with fracture union:
      plate metallurgy, the mean working length, screw density and number of proximal
      screws and screw cortices. However, diaphyseal screw technique did show
      statistical significance. Hybrid technique had a statistically significant higher
      chance of union when compared to locking (p=0.02). All proximal locking screw
      constructs were 2.9 times more likely to lead to nonunion. CONCLUSIONS: Plating
      constructs with all locking screws used in the diaphysis when bridge-plating
      distal femur locking plates were 2.9 times more likely to incur a nonunion.
      However, other factors associated with more flexible fixation constructs such as
      increased working length, decreased proximal screw number, and decreased proximal
      screw density were not significantly associated with union in this study.

PMID- 28889935
TI  - Sociocultural determinants of US women's ethical views on various fertility
      treatments.
AB  - Ethical concerns over treatments for infertility can discourage patients from
      pursuing fertility healthcare. This study aims to evaluate the sociocultural
      factors that influence the ethical views of reproductive-aged women regarding
      various fertility treatments. A publicly available cross-sectional survey of 4792
      nationally representative US women aged 25-52 years was analysed to identify the
      frequency of ethical concerns over such interventions. Concerns were most common
      for treatments that increase the chance of twins (54%), followed by third-party
      reproductive strategies (48-51%), IVF (30%) and partner insemination (14%).
      Regression analysis revealed distinct sociocultural determinants for each of the
      treatment approaches. While being black was associated with a higher level of
      concern for several distinct fertility treatments, Hispanic ethnicity was only
      associated with increased ethical concern about donor eggs. Additionally,
      religious attendance predicts increased odds of ethical concern for IVF and all
      third-party approaches, while Catholic or Christian religious affiliations also
      predict ethical concern over partner insemination. These findings show that
      ethical concerns over fertility treatments are not generally 'all-or-nothing',
      but rather are often specific to the treatment approach. This knowledge may help
      explain differences in help-seeking behaviours and improve the physician-patient
      relationship.

PMID- 28889936
TI  - Decreased zinc and increased lead blood levels are associated with endometriosis
      in Asian Women.
AB  - Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease associated with multiple pathogenic
      factors and studies regarding roles of trace metals in endometriosis have been
      inconsistent and limited. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to compare
      the blood levels of miscellaneous trace metals measured by inductively coupled
      plasma mass spectrometry in infertile women with and without endometriosis. Zinc
      level is associated with declining odds (adjusted OR=0.39, 95% CI=0.18-0.88) of
      endometriosis. By contrast, lead level is associated with increasing odds
      (adjusted OR=2.59, 95% CI=1.11-6.06) of endometriosis. The cadmium levels were
      higher in women with endometriosis, but the aOR was not significant. Zinc has
      anti-inflammatory characteristics and regulates homeostasis of zinc-containing
      superoxide dismutase. High lead levels might induce reactive oxygen species and
      deplete antioxidant defense mechanisms. Further prospective study is needed to
      test for their causal associations.

PMID- 28889937
TI  - Metastatic fusiform aneurysms from atrial myxoma: A case report and literature
      review.

PMID- 28889938
TI  - Role of Robotics in Children: A brave New World!
AB  - CONTEXT: The key in the evolution towards minimally invasive surgery is the
      availability of appropriate equipment, especially when procedures involve
      children. While robotic procedures in adults continue to struggle to prove
      measurable advantages compared with open or classical laparoscopic ones, the use
      of the robotic platform (RP) in pediatric urology is steadily increasing.
      OBJECTIVE: To review the contemporary literature regarding the use of robotic
      assisted (RA) urologic interventions in children. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A
      nonsystematic review of the literature was conducted through PubMed database
      between 2002 and 2017, with an emphasis on large series. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: A
      few major challenges must be considered before using the RP in children:
      anesthesia, placement of trocars, and technical difficulties related to small
      space. To date, only the robot-assisted pyeloplasty is recognized as safe and
      efficient with an equivalent outcome compared to the open or classical
      laparoscopy; this was supported by large multicentric studies, which are not
      available for most of the other procedures. CONCLUSIONS: RA procedure in children
      has been proven safe and effective. Still in its infancy, further data over time
      is likely to prove different RA procedures to be equivalent to open or
      laparoscopy in terms of outcome. PATIENT SUMMARY: The advent of the robotic
      platform means an evolution towards minimizing surgical trauma for the child.
      Currently, the available platforms designed for adults are adapted to work in
      children. However, it might be expected in the future that new technologies will
      improve the technical possibilities to improve the robotic platform for minimally
      invasive surgery in children. To date, a few applications are considered safe and
      efficient (in experienced hands), considering that the team has to be aware of
      some challenges to overcome regarding anesthesia, material, and technique
      adaptation to the patient. The most accepted robotic applications in children
      comprises of the robot-assisted pyeloplasty, hemi-nephrectomy, and ureteric
      reimplantation.

PMID- 28889939
TI  - Erratum to: "Immunohistochemistry staining for mismatch repair proteins: the
      endoscopic biopsy material provides useful and coherent results" [Hum Pathol
      2015;46:1705-1711].

PMID- 28889940
TI  - Corrigendum to "Staufen targets coracle mRNA to Drosophila neuromuscular
      junctions and regulates GluRII asynaptic accumulation and bouton number" [Dev.
      Biol. 392 (2014) 153-167].

PMID- 28889941
TI  - Ultrasonic Characteristics and Cellular Properties of Anabaena Gas Vesicles.
AB  - Ultrasound imaging is a common modality in clinical examination and biomedical
      research, but has not played a significant role in molecular imaging for lack of
      an appropriate contrast agent. Recently, biogenic gas vesicles (GVs), naturally
      formed by cyanobacteria and haloarchaea, have exhibited great potential as an
      ultrasound molecular imaging probe with a much smaller size (~100 nm) and
      improved imaging contrast. However, the basic acoustic and biological properties
      of GVs remain unclear, which hinders future application. Here, we studied the
      fundamental acoustic properties of a rod-shaped gas vesicle from Anabaena, a kind
      of cyanobacterium, including attenuation, oscillation resonance, and scattering,
      as well as biological behaviors (cellular internalization and cytotoxicity). We
      found that GVs have two resonance peaks (85 and 120 MHz). We also observed a
      significant non-linear effect and its pressure dependence as well. Ultrasound B
      mode imaging reveals sufficient echogenicity of GVs for ultrasound imaging
      enhancement at high frequencies. Biological characterization also reveals
      endocytosis and non-toxicity.

PMID- 28889942
TI  - Differential functions of WAVE regulatory complex subunits in the regulation of
      actin-driven processes.
AB  - The WAVE regulatory complex (WRC) links upstream Rho-family GTPase signaling to
      the activation of the ARP2/3 complex in different organisms. WRC-induced and
      ARP2/3 complex-mediated actin nucleation beneath the plasma membrane is critical
      for actin assembly in the leading edge to drive efficient cell migration. The WRC
      is a stable heteropentamer composed of SCAR/WAVE, Abi, Nap, Pir and the small
      polypeptide Brk1/Hspc300. Functional interference with individual subunits of the
      complex frequently results in diminished amounts of the remaining polypeptides of
      the WRC complex, implying the complex to act as molecular entity. However, Abi
      was also found to associate with mammalian N-WASP, formins, Eps8/SOS1 or VASP,
      indicating additional functions of individual WRC subunits in eukaryotic cells.
      To address this issue systematically, we inactivated all WRC subunits, either
      alone or in combination with VASP in Dictyostelium cells and quantified the
      protein content of the remaining subunits in respective WRC knockouts. The
      individual mutants displayed highly differential phenotypes concerning various
      parameters, including cell morphology, motility, cytokinesis or multicellular
      development, corroborating the view of additional roles for individual subunits,
      beyond their established function in WRC-mediated Arp2/3 complex activation.
      Finally, our data uncover the interaction of the actin polymerase VASP with WRC
      embedded Abi to mediate VASP accumulation in cell protrusions, driving efficient
      cell migration.

PMID- 28889943
TI  - Potential for recycling of slightly radioactive metals arising from
      decommissioning within nuclear sector in Slovakia.
AB  - The decommissioning of nuclear installations represents a complex process
      resulting in the generation of large amounts of waste materials containing
      various concentrations of radionuclides. Selection of an appropriate strategy of
      management of the mentioned materials strongly influences the effectiveness of
      decommissioning process keeping in mind safety, financial and other relevant
      aspects. In line with international incentives for optimization of radioactive
      material management, concepts of recycling and reuse of materials are widely
      discussed and applications of these concepts are analysed. Recycling of some
      portion of these materials within nuclear sector (e.g. scrap metals or concrete
      rubble) seems to be highly desirable from economical point of view and may lead
      to conserve some disposal capacity. However, detailed safety assessment along
      with cost/benefit calculations and feasibility study should be developed in order
      to prove the safety, practicality and cost effectiveness of possible recycling
      scenarios. Paper discussed the potential for recycling of slightly radioactive
      metals arising from decommissioning of NPPs within nuclear sector in Slovakia.
      Various available recycling scenarios are introduced and method for overall
      assessment of various recycling scenarios is outlined including the preliminary
      assessment of safety and financial aspects.

PMID- 28889944
TI  - Identification of Plasmodium falciparum isolates lacking histidine-rich protein 2
      and 3 in Eritrea.
AB  - The histidine-rich protein 2 of Plasmodium falciparum is the most common malaria
      antigen targeted by rapid diagnostic tests for the specific diagnosis of P.
      falciparum. Recently, pfhrp2 gene deletions have been documented in P. falciparum
      isolates from South America and some multiple endemic countries in Africa and
      Asia. Parasites with such gene deletions can produce false negative diagnostic
      results using HRP2-based rapid diagnostic kits. In the present work, the
      prevalence of P. falciparum parasites lacking pfhrp2, pfhrp3, which produces a
      second P. falciparum antigen that is recognized by PfHRP2 -based rapid diagnostic
      tests, and their flanking genes was evaluated in 135 P. falciparum isolates from
      Gash Barka region and in 9 isolates from Debub region, in Eritrea. In the
      analyzed samples, 56% (81/144) of isolates were pfhrp2/pfhrp3 positive, while
      9.7% (14/144) showed deletion of exon 2 of pfhrp2 gene and 43% (62/144) of
      isolates lacked the pfhrp3 gene. These results suggest that the pfhrp2 and pfhrp3
      deletion phenomenon is present in a considerable proportion in the study areas,
      thus making the HRP2/3 based rapid diagnostic tests not completely reliable for
      malaria diagnosis in Eritrea.

PMID- 28889945
TI  - A systematic review and narrative synthesis of interventions for uncomplicated
      obesity: weight loss, well-being and impact on eating disorder.

PMID- 28889946
TI  - Dynamic balance in persons with multiple sclerosis who have a falls history is
      altered compared to non-fallers and to healthy controls.
AB  - Around 60% of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience falls, however the
      dynamic balance differences between those who fall and those who don't are not
      well understood. The purpose of this study is to identify distinct biomechanical
      features of dynamic balance during gait that are different between fallers with
      MS, non-fallers with MS, and healthy controls. 27 recurrent fallers with MS, 28
      persons with MS with no falls history, and 27 healthy controls walked on a
      treadmill at their preferred speed for 3min. The variability of trunk
      accelerations and the average and variability of minimum toe clearance,
      spatiotemporal parameters, and margin of stability were compared between groups.
      Fallers with MS exhibited a slower cautious gait compared to non-fallers and
      healthy controls, but had decreased anterior-posterior margin of stability and
      minimum toe clearance. Fallers walked with less locally stable and predictable
      trunk accelerations, and increased variability of step length, stride time, and
      both anterior-posterior and mediolateral margin of stability compared to non
      fallers and healthy controls. The present work provides evidence that within a
      group of persons with MS, there are gait differences that are influenced by falls
      history. These differences indicate that in persons with MS who fall, the center
      of mass is poorly controlled through base of support placement and the foot is
      closer to the ground during swing phase relative to the non-fallers. These
      identified biomechanical differences could be used to evaluate dynamic balance in
      persons with MS and to help improve fall prevention strategies.

PMID- 28889948
TI  - Internet-delivered physiotherapist-prescribed exercise and pain-coping skills
      training is beneficial for people with chronic knee pain [synopsis].

PMID- 28889949
TI  - Back Performance Scale.

PMID- 28889947
TI  - An NF-kappaB Transcription-Factor-Dependent Lineage-Specific Transcriptional
      Program Promotes Regulatory T Cell Identity and Function.
AB  - Both conventional T (Tconv) cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells are activated
      through ligation of the T cell receptor (TCR) complex, leading to the induction
      of the transcription factor NF-kappaB. In Tconv cells, NF-kappaB regulates
      expression of genes essential for T cell activation, proliferation, and function.
      However the role of NF-kappaB in Treg function remains unclear. We conditionally
      deleted canonical NF-kappaB members p65 and c-Rel in developing and mature Treg
      cells and found they have unique but partially redundant roles. c-Rel was
      critical for thymic Treg development while p65 was essential for mature Treg
      identity and maintenance of immune tolerance. Transcriptome and NF-kappaB p65
      binding analyses demonstrated a lineage specific, NF-kappaB-dependent
      transcriptional program, enabled by enhanced chromatin accessibility. These dual
      roles of canonical NF-kappaB in Tconv and Treg cells highlight the functional
      plasticity of the NF-kappaB signaling pathway and underscores the need for more
      selective strategies to therapeutically target NF-kappaB.

PMID- 28889950
TI  - Exploring Metabolic Configurations of Single Cells within Complex Tissue
      Microenvironments.
AB  - Over the past years, plenty of evidence has emerged illustrating how metabolism
      supports many aspects of cellular function and how metabolic reprogramming can
      drive cell differentiation and fate. Here, we present a method to assess the
      metabolic configuration of single cells within their native tissue
      microenvironment via the visualization and quantification of multiple enzymatic
      activities measured at saturating substrate conditions combined with subsequent
      cell type identification. After careful validation of the approach and to
      demonstrate its potential, we assessed the intracellular metabolic configuration
      of different human immune cell populations in healthy and tumor colon tissue.
      Additionally, we analyzed the intercellular metabolic relationship between cancer
      cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts in a breast cancer tissue array. This
      study demonstrates that the determination of metabolic configurations in single
      cells could be a powerful complementary tool for every researcher interested to
      study metabolic networks in situ.

PMID- 28889952
TI  - Orosomucoid-like 3 (ORMDL3) upregulates airway smooth muscle proliferation,
      contraction, and Ca2+ oscillations in asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Airway hyperresponsiveness is a major feature of asthma attributed
      predominantly to an extrinsic immune/inflammatory response increasing airway
      smooth muscle (ASM) contractility. OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether increased
      ASM expression of orosomucoid-like 3 (ORMDL3), a gene on chromosome 17q21 highly
      linked to asthma, induced increased ASM proliferation and contractility in vitro
      and influenced airway contractility and calcium flux in ASM in precision-cut lung
      slices (PCLSs) from wild-type and hORMDL3Zp3-Cre mice (which express increased
      levels of human ORMDL3 [hORMDL3]). METHODS: Levels of ASM proliferation and
      contraction were assessed in ASM cells transfected with ORMDL3 in vitro. In
      addition, airway contractility and calcium oscillations were quantitated in ASM
      cells in PCLSs derived from naive wild-type and naive hORMDL3Zp3-Cre mice, which
      do not have a blood supply. RESULTS: Increased ASM expression of ORMDL3 in vitro
      resulted in increased ASM proliferation and contractility. PCLSs derived from
      naive hORMDL3Zp3-Cre mice, which do not have airway inflammation, exhibit
      increased airway contractility with increased calcium oscillations in ASM cells.
      Increased ASM ORMDL3 expression increases levels of ASM sarcoplasmic reticulum
      Ca2+ ATPase 2b (SERCA2b), which increases ASM proliferation and contractility.
      CONCLUSION: Overall, these studies provide evidence that an intrinsic increase in
      ORMDL3 expression in ASM can induce increased ASM proliferation and
      contractility, which might contribute to increased airway hyperresponsiveness in
      the absence of airway inflammation in asthmatic patients.

PMID- 28889953
TI  - Role of B cells in TH cell responses in a mouse model of asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The importance of B lymphocytes to present antigens for antibody
      production is well documented. In contrast, very little is known about their
      capacity to influence CD4+ T-cell activation during a primary or secondary
      response to allergens. OBJECTIVE: Using mouse models of asthma, we investigated
      the role of B cells as antigen-presenting cells in priming and maintenance of TH
      cell responses. METHODS: Mice were immunized through the intranasal route with
      house dust mite (HDM) extract derived from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. B
      cells were depleted in HDM-sensitized animals to investigate the importance of B
      cells in maintenance of the allergic response. B cells were depleted before HDM
      sensitization to investigate the role of B cells in T-cell priming; furthermore,
      HDM sensitization was performed in mice with MHC class II expression restricted
      to the B-cell lineage. RESULTS: We found that B cells serve as potent antigen
      presenting cells ex vivo and restimulate in vivo-primed HDM-specific TH cells.
      HDM antigens were taken up by B cells independently of B-cell receptor
      specificity, indicating that HDM uptake and antigen presentation to CD4+ T cells
      is not restricted to rare B cells carrying HDM-specific B cell receptors. B-cell
      depletion before HDM challenge in HDM-sensitized mice resulted in a dramatic
      reduction of allergic response, indicating the role of B cells in amplification
      of TH2 responses. In contrast, HDM sensitization of mice in which MHC class II
      expression was restricted to B cells revealed the inability of these cells to
      prime TH2 responses but highlighted their unexpected role in priming TH1 and TH17
      responses. CONCLUSION: Collectively, these data reveal new mechanisms leading to
      initiation and exacerbation of the allergic response that might have implications
      for designing new therapeutic strategies to combat HDM allergy.

PMID- 28889954
TI  - MicroRNA-155 mediates downregulation of the high-affinity receptor for IgE
      through Toll-like receptor signaling.

PMID- 28889951
TI  - Pancreatic beta Cell Regeneration as a Possible Therapy for Diabetes.
AB  - Diabetes is the result of having inadequate supply of functional insulin
      producing beta cells. Two possible approaches for replenishing the beta cells
      are: (1) replacement by transplanting cadaveric islets or beta cells derived from
      human embryonic stem cells/induced pluripotent stem cells and (2) induction of
      endogenous regeneration. This review focuses on endogenous regeneration, which
      can follow two pathways: enhanced replication of existing beta cells and
      formation of new beta cells from cells not expressing insulin, either by
      conversion from a differentiated cell type (transdifferentiation) or
      differentiation from progenitors (neogenesis). Exciting progress on both pathways
      suggest that regeneration may have therapeutic promise.

PMID- 28889955
TI  - Impaired humoral and cellular immune responses to influenza vaccination in
      chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

PMID- 28889956
TI  - Editorial - Development and evolution of sensory cells and organs.

PMID- 28889957
TI  - Pathophysiology of preterm labor with intact membranes.
AB  - Preterm labor with intact membranes is a major cause of spontaneous preterm birth
      (sPTB). To prevent sPTB a clear understanding is needed of the hormonal
      interactions that initiate labor. The steroid hormone progesterone acting via its
      nuclear progesterone receptors (PRs) in uterine cells is essential for the
      establishment and maintenance of pregnancy and disruption of PR signaling (i.e.,
      functional progesterone/PR withdrawal) is key trigger for labor. The process of
      parturition is also associated with inflammation within the uterine tissues and
      it is now generally accepted that inflammatory stimuli from multiple extrinsic
      and intrinsic sources induce labor. Recent studies suggest inflammatory stimuli
      induce labor by affecting PR transcriptional activity in uterine cells to cause
      functional progesterone/PR withdrawal. Advances in understanding the functional
      interaction of inflammatory load on the pregnancy uterus and progesterone/PR
      signaling is opening novel areas of research and may lead to rational therapeutic
      strategies to effectively prevent sPTB.

PMID- 28889958
TI  - Maternity care access, quality, and outcomes: A systems-level perspective on
      research, clinical, and policy needs.
AB  - The quality of maternity care in the United States is variable, and access to
      care is tenuous for rural residents, low-income individuals, and people of color.
      Without accessible, timely, and high-quality care, certain clinical and
      sociodemographic characteristics of individuals may render them more vulnerable
      to poor birth outcomes. However, risk factors for poor birth outcomes do not
      occur in a vaccum; rather, health care financing, delivery, and organization as
      well as the policy environment shape the context in which patients seek and
      receive maternity care. This paper describes the relationship between access and
      quality in maternity care and offers a systems-level perspective on the
      innovations and strategies needed in research, clinical care, and policy to
      improve equity in maternal and infant health.

PMID- 28889960
TI  - Outcomes after fecal diversion for colonic and perianal Crohn disease in
      children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temporary fecal diversion by means of an ileostomy or colostomy has
      been used in the surgical management of refractory colonic and perianal Crohn
      disease (CD). The aims of our study were to evaluate the outcomes after fecal
      diversion in pediatric patients with colonic and perianal CD. METHODS: The
      records of patients who underwent fecal diversion for colonic and perianal CD at
      Children's Hospital of Wisconsin between July 2000 and June 2014 were reviewed
      retrospectively. Patient demographics, medication use, onset and extent of
      disease, response to fecal diversion, rate of stoma reversal and relapse rate
      after stoma reversal were recorded. RESULTS: We identified 28 consecutive
      patients (20 females, 8 males; median age 13.9years) undergoing fecal diversion
      for refractory colonic (n=21) and perianal CD (n=7). Median duration of follow-up
      after fecal diversion was 2.26years (range, 0.79-10.2years). The response to
      fecal diversion was sustained clinical remission in 13/28 (46%), temporary
      clinical remission in 10/28 (36%), no change in 5/28 (18%). Intestinal continuity
      was restored in 14/28 (50%) patients; however, 3 (21%) required permanent stoma
      after reconnection. Classification tree analysis identified that female patients
      without perianal CD had higher rates of stoma reversal (p=0.008). CONCLUSIONS:
      Fecal diversion can induce remission in pediatric patients with refractory
      colonic and perianal CD. Restoration of intestinal continuity was achieved in
      about 39%. Female patients without perianal CD carried no risk of a permanent
      stoma. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III study.

PMID- 28889959
TI  - Metabolic profiles revealed anti-ischemia-reperfusion injury of Yangxinshi tablet
      in Rats.
AB  - ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a
      serious injury that is resulted from the recovery of blood supply after
      myocardial ischemia. Yangxinshi tablet is a compound Chinese herbal preparation
      and often used to alleviate the myocardial ischemia in clinical, but its
      protective mechanism of anti-myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury remains
      unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-I/R injury effect
      of Yangxinshi tablet on a myocardial I/R rat model and to identify serum
      biomarker metabolites associated with I/R based on ultra-high performance liquid
      chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC
      QTOF/MS) metabolomic method, and explore the metabolic mechanism of anti-I/R
      injury of Yangxinshi tablet. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Unsupervised principle
      component analysis highlighted significant differences in the metabolome of the
      myocardial I/R, healthy control and drug-treated rats. Partial least squares
      discriminant analysis revealed 25 metabolites as the most potential biomarker
      metabolites discriminating the myocardial I/R rats and control rats. Most of the
      metabolites were primarily involved in oxidative stress, energy metabolism, fatty
      acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism. These metabolites were validated by
      assessing the efficacy after intragastric administration of Yangxinshit ablet to
      the myocardial I/R rat model. RESULTS: Based on metabolomic results, the action
      mechanism of anti-I/R injury of Yangxinshi tablet was concluded as follows: (1)
      enhance the ability of scavenging free radicals and reactive oxygen species in
      vivo; (2) provide energy for myocardium via accelerating the intracellular
      carnitine transportion to accelerate the oxidation of fatty acid and (3)
      attenuate ceramide to reduce cardiomyocyte apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: Yangxinshi
      tablet has cardio-protection effects on I/R rats via regulation of multiple
      metabolic pathways involving in oxidative stress, energy metabolism, fatty acid,
      and amino acid metabolisms. This study will be meaningful for its clinical
      application and valuable for further exploring the action mechanism of Yangxinshi
      tablet.

PMID- 28889961
TI  - Analysis of the reversibility of biliary cirrhosis in young rats submitted to
      biliary obstruction.
AB  - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Biliary atresia and other liver biliary obstructions are
      relevant conditions in pediatric surgery due to their progression to biliary
      cirrhosis and indication for liver transplantation. It is known that the period
      during which biliary obstruction persists determines the development of cirrhosis
      and its reversibility after a biliary drainage procedure. However, no time or
      histological markers of biliary cirrhosis reversibility have been established.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and twenty-nine young Wistar rats underwent
      surgery for ligation of the common bile duct and were maintained until 8weeks. A
      part of these animals was submitted to biliary drainage surgery at 2, 3, 4, 5, or
      6weeks after the initial procedure. After cyst formation at the site of
      obstruction, cyst-jejunal anastomosis was performed to restore bile flow. After
      biliary obstruction and drainage, liver samples were collected for histological
      and molecular analysis of the genes responsible for collagen deposition and
      fibrosis. RESULTS: The mortality rates were 39.8% and 56.7% after the first and
      second procedures, respectively. Ductular proliferation (p=0.001) and collagen
      deposition increased according to the period under obstruction (p=0.0001), and
      both alterations were partially reduced after biliary drainage. There were no
      significant differences in the values of desmin and alpha-actin according to the
      period during which the animal remained with biliary obstruction (p=0.09 and
      p=0.3, respectively), although increased values of transforming growth factor
      beta 1 (TGFbeta1) occurred after 8weeks (p=0.000). Desmin levels decreased, and
      alpha-actin and TGFbeta1 levels increased according to the period under
      obstruction. The molecular alterations were partially reversed after biliary
      drainage. CONCLUSIONS: The histologic and molecular changes in the liver
      parenchyma promoted by biliary obstruction in the young animal can be partially
      reversed by a biliary drainage procedure.

PMID- 28889962
TI  - Neurobehavioral outcomes in autoimmune encephalitis.
AB  - This study evaluates long-term neurobehavioral function in patients with
      clinically diagnosed autoimmune encephalitis (AE) of various etiologies through
      retrospective chart review and a cross-sectional structured telephone interview.
      Of 77 patients meeting clinical diagnostic criteria for AE over a ten year
      period, 39/77 (51%) patients had known AE-associated antibodies, and 38/77 (49%)
      had no detected antibody. 9/77 (12%) died, and 26/77 (34%) had "poor" neurologic
      disability score (mRS 3-5) at the last documented follow-up. 44 participants
      enrolled in the telephone interview, of whom 38/44 (86%) endorsed ongoing
      difficulties with fatigue, emotional lability, short-term memory, and/or
      concentration. On standardized assessment of adaptive behavior (ABAS-3), 23/44
      (52%) scored "below average" (general adaptive composite: mean 86.95, standard
      deviation 18.45). Of the participants with "good" neurologic disability outcome
      (mRS 0-2), 12/30 (40%) scored "below average" in adaptive behavior. In summary,
      patients with AE frequently have persistent impairments in neurologic disability,
      neurocognitive symptomatology, and adaptive behavior, which may not be adequately
      captured by routine neurologic assessments. Comprehensively elucidating these
      persistent neurobehavioral impairments and predicting which patients are at
      highest risk will allow for optimal care of patients and their families.

PMID- 28889963
TI  - Quantitative analysis of retinal perfusion in mice using optical coherence
      tomography angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate repeatability of the quantitative analysis of vessel density
      in the retinas of healthy mice using optical coherence tomography angiography
      (OCT-A). METHODS: Seventeen eyes of seventeen healthy mice aged 10-15 weeks
      (young) and 75-95 weeks (old) were included in this study. OCT-A was performed
      using RTVue XR Avanti (Optovue Inc., Fremont, California, USA) under general
      anaesthesia. The retina was imaged twice using a 3 * 3 mm2 scan. Retinal
      thickness and flow density data in the superficial and deep retinal OCT
      angiograms were extracted and analysed. RESULTS: The differences between the flow
      density values (whole en face) in the first and second sessions were non
      significant (superficial retinal OCT angiogram: first session: 45.4 +/- 4.1%
      (39.1-55.3%); second session: 46.1 +/- 4.7% (39.1-59.1%); p = 0.14; deep retinal
      OCT angiogram: first session: 47.1 +/- 3.8% (39.4-53.4%); second session: 47.3 +/
      3.7% (39.4-53.8%); p = 0.50). The repeatability assessment of retinal thickness
      yielded intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values ranging between (0.86
      0.99) while the ICCs for the flow density measurements ranged from 0.87 to 0.92
      for the superficial retinal OCT angiogram and 0.68 to 0.93 for the deep retinal
      OCT angiogram. CONCLUSIONS: Repeated OCT-A measurement of mice retinal vessel
      density (VD) revealed valid repeatability, indicating that this non-invasive
      technology is sufficient for longitudinal assessment of vascular changes in
      various mouse models and thereby opening the way to in-depth, experimental
      analysis of the vascular aspects of different retinal diseases and monitoring of
      disease progression and the effects of treatments.

PMID- 28889964
TI  - Hypotensive effect induced by microinjection of Alamandine, a derivative of
      angiotensin-(1-7), into caudal ventrolateral medulla of 2K1C hypertensive rats.
AB  - In the present study we evaluated the cardiovascular effects produced by
      microinjection of the new component of the renin-angiotensin system, alamandine,
      into caudal ventrolateral medulla of urethane-anesthetized normotensive and
      hypertensive 2K1C rats. The participation of different angiotensin receptors in
      the effects of alamandine was also evaluated. Microinjection of angiotensin-(1-7)
      was used for comparison. The microinjection of 4, 40 and 140pmol of alamandine or
      angiotensin-(1-7) into caudal ventrolateral medulla induced similar hypotensive
      effects in Sham-operated rats. However, contrasting with angiotensin-(1-7), in
      2K1C rats the MAP response to the highest dose of alamandine was similar to that
      observed with saline. The microinjection of A-779, a selective Mas receptor
      antagonist, blunted the angiotensin-(1-7) effects but did not block the
      hypotensive effect of alamandine in Sham or in 2K1C rats. However, microinjection
      of D-Pro7-angiotensin-(1-7), a Mas/MrgD receptor antagonist, blocked the
      hypotensive effect induced by both peptides. Furthermore, microinjection of
      PD123319, a putative AT2 receptor antagonist blocked the hypotensive effect of
      alamandine, but not of angiotensin-(1-7), in Sham and 2K1C rats. Microinjection
      of the AT1 receptor antagonist, losartan, did not alter the hypotensive effect of
      angiotensin-(1-7) or alamandine in both groups. These results provide new
      insights about the differential mechanisms participating in the central
      cardiovascular effects of alamandine and angiotensin-(1-7) in normotensive and
      2K1C hypertensive rats.

PMID- 28889965
TI  - Losartan counteracts the effects of cardiomyocyte swelling on glucose uptake and
      insulin receptor substrate-1 levels.
AB  - A growing body of evidence demonstrates an association between Angiotensin II
      (Ang II) receptor blockers (ARBs) and enhanced glucose metabolism during ischemic
      heart disease. Despite these encouraging results, the mechanisms responsible for
      these effects during ischemia remain poorly understood. In this study we
      investigated the influence of losartan, an AT1 receptor blocker, and secreted Ang
      II (sAng II) on glucose uptake and insulin receptor substrate (IRS-1) levels
      during cardiomyocyte swelling. H9c2 cells were differentiated to cardiac muscle
      and the levels of myogenin, Myosin Light Chain (MLC), and membrane AT1 receptors
      were measured using flow cytometry. Intracellular Ang II (iAng II) was
      overexpressed in differentiated cardiomyocytes and swelling was induced after
      incubation with hypotonic solution for 40min. Glucose uptake and IRS-1 levels
      were monitored by flow cytometry using 2-NBDG fluorescent glucose (10MUM) or an
      anti-IRS-1 monoclonal antibody in the presence or absence of losartan (10-7M).
      Secreted Angiotensin II was quantified from the medium using a specific Ang II
      EIA kit. To evaluate the relationship between sAng II and losartan effects on
      glucose uptake, transfected cells were pretreated with the drug for 24h and then
      exposed to hypotonic solution in the presence or absence of the secreted peptide.
      The results indicate that: (1) swelling of transfected cardiomyocytes decreased
      glucose uptake and induced the secretion of Ang II to the extracellular medium;
      (2) losartan antagonized the effects of swelling on glucose uptake and IRS-1
      levels in transfected cardiomyocytes; (3) the effects of losartan on glucose
      uptake were observed during swelling only in the presence of sAng II in the
      culture medium. Our study demonstrates that both losartan and sAng II have
      essential roles in glucose metabolism during cardiomyocyte swelling.

PMID- 28889967
TI  - The importation of the phylogenetic-transition state of Zika virus to China in
      2014.

PMID- 28889966
TI  - Safety evaluation of supratherapeutic dose of Maytenus ilicifolia Mart. ex
      Reissek extracts on fertility and neurobehavioral status of male and pregnant
      rats.
AB  - Maytenus ilicifolia Mart. ex Reissek is a plant commonly used in folklore
      medicine in the management of gastric diseases in South America. This study
      explores the effects of a supratherapeutic dose of aqueous and ethanol extracts
      of M. ilicifolia (1360 mg/kg) on fertility and neurobehavioral status in male and
      pregnant rats. A battery of sensory-motor developmental endpoints was carried out
      to assess impairments on pups of dams orally treated with the aqueous extract of
      M. ilicifolia during the organogenesis period of pregnancy (GD 9 through GD 14).
      The neuromotor maturation reflexes and physical developments of the offspring
      were not significantly different between the groups (p < 0.05). Also, the
      hippocampal morphology revealed no indices of cell loss in the CA1, CA2, CA3 and
      CA4 areas. As second protocol, some fertility aspects were investigated in young
      post pubertal male Wistar rats treated with the ethanol extract for 30 days. The
      semen quality and testicular tissue morphology of male rats treated with the
      ethanol extract of M. ilicifolia remained unaffected upon treatment. Thus, the
      results indicate that the high-dose of M. ilicifolia extracts have no neurotoxic
      potential on offspring and seem not to affect the sperm quality of male rats.

PMID- 28889968
TI  - Genetic analysis of H7N9 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in Guangdong,
      China, 2016-2017.

PMID- 28889969
TI  - Andrographolide inhibits influenza A virus-induced inflammation in a murine model
      through NF-kappaB and JAK-STAT signaling pathway.
AB  - Influenza viruses, the main cause of respiratory tract diseases, cause high
      morbidity and mortality in humans. Excessive inflammation in the lungs is
      proposed to be a hallmark for the severe influenza virus infection, especially
      influenza A virus infection. Strategies against inflammation induced by influenza
      A virus infection could be a potential anti-influenza therapy. Here, lethal dose
      of mouse-adapted H1N1 strain PR8A/PR/8/34 was inoculated C57BL/6 mice to detect
      the anti-influenza activity of andrographolide, the active component of
      traditional Chinese medicinal herb Andrographis paniculata, with or without
      influenza virus entry inhibitor CL-385319. Treatment was initiated on 4 days
      after infection. The survival rate, body weight, lung pathology, viral loads,
      cytokine expression were monitored in 14 days post inoculation. The combination
      group had the highest survival rate. Andrographolide treatment could increase the
      survival rate, diminish lung pathology, decrease the virus loads and the
      inflammatory cytokines expression induced by infection. Mechanism studies showed
      the NF-kappaB and JAK-STAT signaling pathway were involved in the activity of
      andrographolide. In conclusion, combination of virus entry inhibitor with
      immunomodulator might be a promising therapeutic approach for influenza.

PMID- 28889970
TI  - Genomic signature analysis of the recently emerged highly pathogenic A(H5N8)
      avian influenza virus: implying an evolutionary trend for bird-to-human
      transmission.
AB  - In early 2014, a novel subclade (2.3.4.4) of the highly pathogenic avian
      influenza (HPAI) A(H5N8) virus caused the first outbreak in domestic ducks and
      migratory birds in South Korea. Since then, it has spread to 44 countries and
      regions. To date, no human infections with A(H5N8) virus have been reported, but
      the possibility cannot be excluded. By analyzing the genomic signatures of
      A(H5N8) strains, we found that among the 47 species-associated signature
      positions, three positions exhibited human-like signatures (HLS), including PA
      404S, PB2-613I and PB2-702R and that mutation trend of host signatures of avian
      A(H5N8) is different before and after 2014. About 82% of A(H5N8) isolates
      collected after January of 2014 carried the 3 HLS (PA-404S/PB2-613I/PB2-702R) in
      combination, while none of isolates collected before 2014 had this combination.
      Furthermore, the HA protein had S137A and S227R substitutions in the receptor
      binding site and A160T in the glycosylation site, potentially increasing viral
      ability to bind human-type receptors. Based on these findings, the newly emerged
      HPAI A(H5N8) isolates show an evolutionary trend toward gaining more HLS and,
      along with it, the potential for bird-to-human transmissibility. Therefore, more
      extensive surveillance of this rapidly spreading HPAI A(H5N8) and preparedness
      against its potential pandemic are urgently needed.

PMID- 28889971
TI  - Host and pathogen interface: microRNAs are modulators of disease outcome.
AB  - Chlamydiae are a group of intracellular bacterium that infect a range of hosts
      and are responsible for the most common sexual transmitted infections, which
      could be the result of a plethora of factors leading to varied pathological
      outcomes. This review aims to show that Chlamydia possibly manipulates host
      defenses through microRNAs interaction.

PMID- 28889972
TI  - The emerging role of AMP-activated protein kinase in cholestatic liver diseases.
AB  - AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), recognized as an energy sensor with three
      heterotrimeric subunits (alpha, beta and gamma), not only maintains basal
      intracellular adenosine triphosphate levels but also regulates energy-intensive
      pathological responses, such as neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases, through
      multiple signaling pathways. Recent studies open a new direction for AMPK
      research and demonstrate that AMPK is a critical player in the pathogenesis of
      cholestatic liver injury and plays paradoxical roles in the regulation of
      different pathological processes, including the disruption of bile acid
      homeostasis and the regulation of hepatic polarity, inflammation and fibrosis. In
      the present review, we summarize recent findings that implicate AMPK-mediated
      signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of cholestatic liver injury. These
      findings provide novel insight regarding the potential use of AMPK as a
      therapeutic target for the treatment of cholestatic liver injury.

PMID- 28889973
TI  - Origin of the Reflectin Gene and Hierarchical Assembly of Its Protein.
AB  - Cephalopods, the group of animals including octopus, squid, and cuttlefish, have
      remarkable ability to instantly modulate body coloration and patterns so as to
      blend into surrounding environments [1, 2] or send warning signals to other
      animals [3]. Reflectin is expressed exclusively in cephalopods, filling the
      lamellae of intracellular Bragg reflectors that exhibit dynamic iridescence and
      structural color change [4]. Here, we trace the possible origin of the reflectin
      gene back to a transposon from the symbiotic bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio
      fischeri and report the hierarchical structural architecture of reflectin
      protein. Intrinsic self-assembly, and higher-order assembly tightly modulated by
      aromatic compounds, provide insights into the formation of multilayer reflectors
      in iridophores and spherical microparticles in leucophores and may form the basis
      of structural color change in cephalopods. Self-assembly and higher-order
      assembly in reflectin originated from a core repeating octapeptide (here named
      protopeptide), which may be from the same symbiotic bacteria. The origin of the
      reflectin gene and assembly features of reflectin protein are of considerable
      biological interest. The hierarchical structural architecture of reflectin and
      its domain and protopeptide not only provide insights for bioinspired photonic
      materials but also serve as unique "assembly tags" and feasible molecular
      platforms in biotechnology.

PMID- 28889974
TI  - Ionotropic Receptors Mediate Drosophila Oviposition Preference through Sour
      Gustatory Receptor Neurons.
AB  - Carboxylic acids are present in many foods, being especially abundant in fruits.
      Yet, relatively little is known about how acids are detected by gustatory systems
      and whether they have a potential role in nutrition or provide other health
      benefits. Here we identify sour gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) in tarsal taste
      sensilla of Drosophila melanogaster. We find that most tarsal sensilla harbor a
      sour GRN that is specifically activated by carboxylic and mineral acids but does
      not respond to sweet- and bitter-tasting chemicals or salt. One pair of taste
      sensilla features two GRNs that respond only to a subset of carboxylic acids and
      high concentrations of salt. All sour GRNs prominently express two Ionotropic
      Receptor (IR) genes, IR76b and IR25a, and we show that both these genes are
      necessary for the detection of acids. Furthermore, we establish that IR25a and
      IR76b are essential in sour GRNs of females for oviposition preference on acid
      containing food. Our investigations reveal that acids activate a unique set of
      taste cells largely dedicated to sour taste, and they indicate that both
      pH/proton concentration and the structure of carboxylic acids contribute to sour
      GRN activation. Together, our studies provide new insights into the cellular and
      molecular basis of sour taste.

PMID- 28889975
TI  - Consistent Individual Differences Drive Collective Behavior and Group Functioning
      of Schooling Fish.
AB  - The ubiquity of consistent inter-individual differences in behavior ("animal
      personalities") [1, 2] suggests that they might play a fundamental role in
      driving the movements and functioning of animal groups [3, 4], including their
      collective decision-making, foraging performance, and predator avoidance. Despite
      increasing evidence that highlights their importance [5-16], we still lack a
      unified mechanistic framework to explain and to predict how consistent inter
      individual differences may drive collective behavior. Here we investigate how the
      structure, leadership, movement dynamics, and foraging performance of groups can
      emerge from inter-individual differences by high-resolution tracking of known
      behavioral types in free-swimming stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) shoals. We
      show that individual's propensity to stay near others, measured by a classic
      "sociability" assay, was negatively linked to swim speed across a range of
      contexts, and predicted spatial positioning and leadership within groups as well
      as differences in structure and movement dynamics between groups. In turn, this
      trait, together with individual's exploratory tendency, measured by a classic
      "boldness" assay, explained individual and group foraging performance. These
      effects of consistent individual differences on group-level states emerged
      naturally from a generic model of self-organizing groups composed of individuals
      differing in speed and goal-orientedness. Our study provides experimental and
      theoretical evidence for a simple mechanism to explain the emergence of
      collective behavior from consistent individual differences, including variation
      in the structure, leadership, movement dynamics, and functional capabilities of
      groups, across social and ecological scales. In addition, we demonstrate
      individual performance is conditional on group composition, indicating how social
      selection may drive behavioral differentiation between individuals.

PMID- 28889976
TI  - Humans, but Not Deep Neural Networks, Often Miss Giant Targets in Scenes.
AB  - Even with great advances in machine vision, animals are still unmatched in their
      ability to visually search complex scenes. Animals from bees [1, 2] to birds [3]
      to humans [4-12] learn about the statistical relations in visual environments to
      guide and aid their search for targets. Here, we investigate a novel manner in
      which humans utilize rapidly acquired information about scenes by guiding search
      toward likely target sizes. We show that humans often miss targets when their
      size is inconsistent with the rest of the scene, even when the targets were made
      larger and more salient and observers fixated the target. In contrast, we show
      that state-of-the-art deep neural networks do not exhibit such deficits in
      finding mis-scaled targets but, unlike humans, can be fooled by target-shaped
      distractors that are inconsistent with the expected target's size within the
      scene. Thus, it is not a human deficiency to miss targets when they are
      inconsistent in size with the scene; instead, it is a byproduct of a useful
      strategy that the brain has implemented to rapidly discount potential
      distractors.

PMID- 28889978
TI  - Massive Protein Import into the Early-Evolutionary-Stage Photosynthetic Organelle
      of the Amoeba Paulinella chromatophora.
AB  - The endosymbiotic acquisition of mitochondria and plastids more than 1 Ga ago
      profoundly impacted eukaryote evolution. At the heart of understanding organelle
      evolution is the re-arrangement of the endosymbiont proteome into a host
      controlled organellar proteome. However, early stages in this process as well as
      the timing of events that underlie organelle integration remain poorly
      understood. The amoeba Paulinella chromatophora contains cyanobacterium-derived
      photosynthetic organelles, termed "chromatophores," that were acquired more
      recently (around 100 Ma ago). To explore the re-arrangement of an organellar
      proteome during its integration into a eukaryotic host cell, here we
      characterized the chromatophore proteome by protein mass spectrometry.
      Apparently, genetic control over the chromatophore has shifted substantially to
      the nucleus. Two classes of nuclear-encoded proteins-which differ in protein
      length-are imported into the chromatophore, most likely through independent
      pathways. Long imported proteins carry a putative, conserved N-terminal targeting
      signal, and many specifically fill gaps in chromatophore-encoded metabolic
      pathways or processes. Surprisingly, upon heterologous expression in a plant
      cell, the putative chromatophore targeting signal conferred chloroplast
      localization. This finding suggests common features in the protein import
      pathways of chromatophores and plastids, two organelles that evolved
      independently and more than 1 Ga apart from each other. By combining experimental
      data with in silico predictions, we provide a comprehensive catalog of almost 450
      nuclear-encoded, chromatophore-targeted proteins. Interestingly, most imported
      proteins seem to derive from ancestral host genes, suggesting that the re
      targeting of nuclear-encoded proteins that resulted from endosymbiotic gene
      transfers plays only a minor role at the onset of chromatophore integration.

PMID- 28889977
TI  - Novel Organelles with Elements of Bacterial and Eukaryotic Secretion Systems
      Weaponize Parasites of Drosophila.
AB  - The evolutionary success of parasitoid wasps, a highly diverse group of insects
      widely used in biocontrol, depends on a variety of life history strategies in
      conflict with those of their hosts [1]. Drosophila melanogaster is a natural host
      of parasitic wasps of the genus Leptopilina. Attack by L. boulardi (Lb), a
      specialist wasp to flies of the melanogaster group, activates NF-kappaB-mediated
      humoral and cellular immunity. Inflammatory blood cells mobilize and encapsulate
      Lb eggs and embryos [2-5]. L. heterotoma (Lh), a generalist wasp, kills larval
      blood cells and actively suppresses immune responses. Spiked virus-like particles
      (VLPs) in wasp venom have clearly been linked to wasps' successful parasitism of
      Drosophila [6], but the composition of VLPs and their biotic nature have remained
      mysterious. Our proteomics studies reveal that VLPs lack viral coat proteins but
      possess a pharmacopoeia of (1) the eukaryotic vesicular transport system, (2)
      immunity, and (3) previously unknown proteins. These novel proteins distinguish
      Lh from Lb VLPs; notably, some proteins specific to Lh VLPs possess sequence
      similarities with bacterial secretion system proteins. Structure-informed
      analyses of an abundant Lh VLP surface and spike-tip protein, p40, reveal
      similarities to the needle-tip invasin proteins SipD and IpaD of Gram-negative
      bacterial type-3 secretion systems that breach immune barriers and deliver
      virulence factors into mammalian cells. Our studies suggest that Lh VLPs
      represent a new class of extracellular organelles and share pathways for protein
      delivery with both eukaryotic microvesicles and bacterial surface secretion
      systems. Given their mixed prokaryotic and eukaryotic properties, we propose the
      term mixed-strategy extracellular vesicle (MSEV) to replace VLP.

PMID- 28889979
TI  - Visual Threat Assessment and Reticulospinal Encoding of Calibrated Responses in
      Larval Zebrafish.
AB  - All visual animals must decide whether approaching objects are a threat. Our
      current understanding of this process has identified a proximity-based mechanism
      where an evasive maneuver is triggered when a looming stimulus passes a subtended
      visual angle threshold. However, some escape strategies are more costly than
      others, and so it would be beneficial to additionally encode the level of threat
      conveyed by the predator's approach rate to select the most appropriate response.
      Here, using naturalistic rates of looming visual stimuli while simultaneously
      monitoring escape behavior and the recruitment of multiple reticulospinal
      neurons, we find that larval zebrafish do indeed perform a calibrated assessment
      of threat. While all fish generate evasive maneuvers at the same subtended visual
      angle, lower approach rates evoke slower, more kinematically variable escape
      responses with relatively long latencies as well as the unilateral recruitment of
      ventral spinal projecting nuclei (vSPNs) implicated in turning. In contrast,
      higher approach rates evoke faster, more kinematically stereotyped responses with
      relatively short latencies, as well as bilateral recruitment of vSPNs and
      unilateral recruitment of giant fiber neurons in fish and amphibians called
      Mauthner cells. In addition to the higher proportion of more costly, shorter
      latency Mauthner-active responses to greater perceived threats, we observe a
      higher incidence of freezing behavior at higher approach rates. Our results
      provide a new framework to understand how behavioral flexibility is grounded in
      the appropriate balancing of trade-offs between fast and slow movements when
      deciding to respond to a visually perceived threat.

PMID- 28889980
TI  - The Adder Phenomenon Emerges from Independent Control of Pre- and Post-Start
      Phases of the Budding Yeast Cell Cycle.
AB  - Although it has long been clear that cells actively regulate their size, the
      molecular mechanisms underlying this regulation have remained poorly understood.
      In budding yeast, cell size primarily modulates the duration of the cell-division
      cycle by controlling the G1/S transition known as Start. We have recently shown
      that the rate of progression through Start increases with cell size, because cell
      growth dilutes the cell-cycle inhibitor Whi5 in G1. Recent phenomenological
      studies in yeast and bacteria have shown that these cells add an approximately
      constant volume during each complete cell cycle, independent of their size at
      birth. These results seem to be in conflict, as the phenomenological studies
      suggest that cells measure the amount they grow, rather than their size, and that
      size control acts over the whole cell cycle, rather than specifically in G1.
      Here, we propose an integrated model that unifies the adder phenomenology with
      the molecular mechanism of G1/S cell-size control. We use single-cell microscopy
      to parameterize a full cell-cycle model based on independent control of pre- and
      post-Start cell-cycle periods. We find that our model predicts the size
      independent amount of cell growth during the full cell cycle. This suggests that
      the adder phenomenon is an emergent property of the independent regulation of pre
      and post-Start cell-cycle periods rather than the consequence of an underlying
      molecular mechanism measuring a fixed amount of growth.

PMID- 28889981
TI  - Visual-Vestibular Conflict Detection Depends on Fixation.
AB  - Visual and vestibular signals are the primary sources of sensory information for
      self-motion. Conflict among these signals can be seriously debilitating,
      resulting in vertigo [1], inappropriate postural responses [2], and motion,
      simulator, or cyber sickness [3-8]. Despite this significance, the mechanisms
      mediating conflict detection are poorly understood. Here we model conflict
      detection simply as crossmodal discrimination with benchmark performance limited
      by variabilities of the signals being compared. In a series of psychophysical
      experiments conducted in a virtual reality motion simulator, we measure these
      variabilities and assess conflict detection relative to this benchmark. We also
      examine the impact of eye movements on visual-vestibular conflict detection. In
      one condition, observers fixate a point that is stationary in the simulated
      visual environment by rotating the eyes opposite head rotation, thereby nulling
      retinal image motion. In another condition, eye movement is artificially
      minimized via fixation of a head-fixed fixation point, thereby maximizing retinal
      image motion. Visual-vestibular integration performance is also measured, similar
      to previous studies [9-12]. We observe that there is a tradeoff between
      integration and conflict detection that is mediated by eye movements. Minimizing
      eye movements by fixating a head-fixed target leads to optimal integration but
      highly impaired conflict detection. Minimizing retinal motion by fixating a scene
      fixed target improves conflict detection at the cost of impaired integration
      performance. The common tendency to fixate scene-fixed targets during self-motion
      [13] may indicate that conflict detection is typically a higher priority than the
      increase in precision of self-motion estimation that is obtained through
      integration.

PMID- 28889982
TI  - Retraction notice to "Electrical Stimulation for Hemiplegic Shoulder Function: A
      Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 15 Randomized Controlled Trials" [Arch
      Phys Med Rehabil. 97 (2016) 1588-94].
AB  - This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal
      (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This
      article has been retracted at the request of the co-Editors-in-Chief. The article
      plagiarizes a paper that was published in BioMed Research International, Volume
      2015 (2015), Article ID 729768, 14 pages, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/729768.
      Nearly the entire introduction and sections of the methods, limitations and
      conclusions duplicate the BioMed Research International paper. One of the
      conditions of submission of a paper to Archives of Physical Medicine and
      Rehabilitation is that authors declare explicitly that the paper is an original
      work and not duplicative of prior work unless that work is cited properly. The
      duplication in this manuscript is a severe abuse of the scientific publishing
      system. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter.

PMID- 28889983
TI  - Analysing the change of sagittal balance in patients with Lenke 5 idiopathic
      scoliosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate preoperative and postoperative
      spinopelvic parameters and the influence of lowest instrumented vertebrae on
      sagittal parameters in Lenke 5 Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) patients.
      METHODS: A total of 42 patients (37 females, 5 males; mean age: 16.71 +/- 3.46
      years) were included in the study. Preoperative and postoperative last follow up
      lumbar lordosis (LL), thoracic kyphosis (TK), pelvic tilt (PT), pelvic incidence
      (PI) and sacral slope (SS) angles measured. By stopped fusion in L3, L4 or L5 we
      divided the group into three parts. RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 43 months.
      Preoperatively, the mean TK and LL were 36.8 degrees  and 55.3 degrees . At the
      last follow up, the mean TK and LL were 27.1 degrees  and 49.0 degrees  degrees,
      respectively. Preoperatively, the mean PI, PT and SS were 53.3 degrees , 16.1
      degrees  and 37.4 degrees  degrees. At the last follow up, the mean PI, PT and SS
      were 52.7 degrees , 19.9 degrees  and 33.0 degrees  respectively. Significant
      differences were observed for SS (p = 0.003), TK (p = 0.004), LL (p = 0.012) and
      PT (p = 0.013) postoperatively for all patients. According the L3 and L4 groups
      there is significant difference in SS, LL (p = 0.013) and PT (p = 0.018) which
      means a significant decrease occurs in SS and LL when the distal fusion level
      changes from L3 to L4 but significant increase in PT in L3 group to compensate
      spinopelvic change after surgery. CONCLUSION: The selection of more distal level
      for fusion adversely affects the compensation mechanisms of sagittal balance in
      Lenke 5 AIS patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, Therapeutic study.

PMID- 28889984
TI  - Association between aspartic acid repeat polymorphism of the asporin gene and
      risk of knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Studies have assessed the association between aspartic acid (D)-repeat
      polymorphism in the gene encoding Asporin (ASPN) and knee osteoarthritis (KOA)
      risk, but the results were inconclusive and contradictory. Therefore, we
      performed a meta-analysis to investigate the association between ASPN gene D
      repeat polymorphism and KOA risk. METHODS: Eligible studies were identified by
      searching several electronic databases for relevant reports published before
      September 2016. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) for the association between ASPN
      polymorphism and KOA and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were
      estimated using the random- or fixed-effect model. RESULTS: A total of eleven
      case-control studies in ten publications with 4610 KOA cases and 3621 controls
      were included for the ASPN D-repeat polymorphism. Overall, no significant
      association was detected for D14 allele carrier (D14 vs. D13: OR = 1.10, 95% CI =
      0.90-1.36, p = 0.32). Meta-analysis of D14 vs. other alleles and D13 vs. other
      alleles showed the same pattern of KOA association as the D14 vs. D13 (OR = 1.30,
      95% CI = 1.00-1.70, p = 0.06; OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.82-1.06, p = 0.33,
      respectively). Also, in the stratified analysis by ethnicity, no significant
      association of this polymorphism with risk of KOA was found in the European and
      Asians populations (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.91-1.21, p = 0.49; OR = 0.98, 95% CI =
      0.78-1.23, p = 0.88, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis
      suggests that the ASPN D-repeat polymorphism is not associated with an increased
      KOA risk. However, future large studies with gene-gene and gene-environment
      interactions are needed to validate these findings. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III
      diagnostic study.

PMID- 28889985
TI  - Combined intra- and extra-articular grafting for revision ACL reconstruction: A
      multicentre study by the French Arthroscopy Society (SFA).
AB  - BACKGROUND: A careful analysis of the reasons for ACL reconstruction failure is
      essential to selection of the optimal surgical revision technique designed to
      ensure good rotational stability and to minimise the risk of re-rupture.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate anterolateral ligament (ALL) stabilisation during revision
      ACL reconstruction. HYPOTHESIS: ALL stabilisation during revision ACL
      reconstruction provides good rotational stability without increasing the risk of
      complications. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This multicentre study included 349
      patients, 151 retrospectively and 198 prospectively. There were 283 males and 66
      females. Inclusion criteria were an indication for revision ACL reconstruction
      surgery with combined intra-articular reconstruction and ALL stabilisation after
      failed autograft ACL reconstruction, and intact PCL. Exclusion criteria were
      primary ACL reconstruction and concomitant peripheral medial and/or lateral
      lesions. Each patient underwent a clinical and radiographic evaluation before and
      after revision surgery. Before revision surgery, the mean IKDC score was 56.5+/
      15.5 and 96% of patients were IKDC C or D. RESULTS: Rates were 5.0% for early and
      10.5% for late postoperative complications. Lachmann's test had a hard stop at
      last follow-up in 97% of patients. The pivot-shift test was positive in 1% of
      patients. The mean subjective IKDC score was 84.5+/-13.0 and 86.5% of patients
      were IKDC A or B. The proportions of patients with radiographic knee
      osteoarthritis at last follow-up was unchanged for the lateral tibio-femoral and
      patello-femoral compartments but increased by 9.7% to 21.2% for the medial tibio
      femoral compartment. The re-rupture rate was 1.2% and the further surgical
      revision rate was 5.4%. CONCLUSION: Anterior laxity at last follow-up was
      consistent with previous studies of revision ACL reconstruction. However,
      rotational stability and the re-rupture risk were improved. ALL stabilisation is
      among the techniques that deserve consideration as part of the therapeutic
      options for revision ACL reconstruction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, retrospective and
      prospective cohort study.

PMID- 28889987
TI  - Prevalence of nocturnal sleep onset rapid movement sleep period (SOREMP) in
      narcolepsy type 1 and type 2.

PMID- 28889986
TI  - 'Haemophilus quentini' in the urethra of men complaining of urethritis symptoms.
AB  - We isolated a cryptic genospecies of Haemophilus influenzae referred to as
      'Haemophilus quentini' in the urethra of 3 men complaining of urethritis
      symptoms. H. influenzae strains, which had been isolated from the urethra in 77
      of 1518 men complaining of urethritis symptoms, identified by the conventional
      test, and stored, were re-cultured for this study. Sixty-seven strains surviving
      storage were screened by a PCR-based assay specific for the cryptic genital
      Haemophilus genospecies. Three strains (HI09003, HI11006, and HI14016) were
      screened by PCR and identified as 'H. quentini' by 16S rRNA sequencing. The men
      positive for HI09003 and HI11006 were diagnosed as having non-chlamydial non
      gonococcal urethritis (NGU), and their demographic and clinical features were
      similar to those of NGU caused by other pathogens. The man positive for HI14016
      was ultimately diagnosed as having condyloma acuminatum on the glans. The 3
      strains of 'H. quentini' produced no beta-lactamase and were susceptible to
      ampicillin and other antimicrobial agents, including cephalosporins,
      fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and macrolides, recommended for treatment for
      urethritis. 'H. quentini' would be an uncommon pathogen in men with urogenital
      infections. Based on the clinical features of the two patients with 'H. quentini'
      positive NGU, it would be difficult to predict the presence of 'H. quentini' in
      the urethra. The 3 strains of 'H. quentini' were susceptible to a variety of
      antimicrobial agents. Further accumulation of data regarding 'H. quentini'
      infections is needed to characterize the pathogenic roles of this genospecies in
      urogenital infections and to establish appropriate management of 'H. quentini'
      infections.

PMID- 28889988
TI  - Developmental sequelae and neurophysiologic substrates of sensory seeking in
      infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder.
AB  - It has been proposed that early differences in sensory responsiveness arise from
      atypical neural function and produce cascading effects on development across
      domains. This longitudinal study prospectively followed infants at heightened
      risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on their status as younger siblings
      of children diagnosed with ASD (Sibs-ASD) and infants at relatively lower risk
      for ASD (siblings of typically developing children; Sibs-TD) to examine the
      developmental sequelae and possible neurophysiological substrates of a specific
      sensory response pattern: unusually intense interest in nonsocial sensory stimuli
      or "sensory seeking." At 18 months, sensory seeking and social orienting were
      measured with the Sensory Processing Assessment, and a potential neural signature
      for sensory seeking (i.e., frontal alpha asymmetry) was measured via resting
      state electroencephalography. At 36 months, infants' social symptomatology was
      assessed in a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation. Sibs-ASD showed elevated
      sensory seeking relative to Sibs-TD, and increased sensory seeking was
      concurrently associated with reduced social orienting across groups and resting
      frontal asymmetry in Sibs-ASD. Sensory seeking also predicted later social
      symptomatology. Findings suggest that sensory seeking may produce cascading
      effects on social development in infants at risk for ASD and that atypical
      frontal asymmetry may underlie this atypical pattern of sensory responsiveness.

PMID- 28889990
TI  - Glandular sources of pheromones used to control host workers (Apis mellifera
      scutellata) by socially parasitic workers of Apis mellifera capensis.
AB  - Pheromonal control by the honey bee queen is achieved through the use of
      secretions from diverse glandular sources, but the use of pheromones from a
      variety of glandular sources by reproductively dominant workers, has not
      previously been explored. Using the social parasite, Apis mellifera capensis
      clonal worker we studied the diversity of glandular sources used for pheromonal
      control of reproductively subordinate A. m. scutellata workers. To determine
      whether pheromones from different glandular sources are used by reproductively
      active workers to achieve dominance and evaluate the degree of pheromonal
      competition between workers of the two sub-species, we housed groups of workers
      of the two sub-species together in cages and analysed mandibular and tergal gland
      secretions as well as, ovarian activation status of each worker after 21days. The
      results showed that A. m. capensis invasive clones used both mandibular and
      tergal gland secretions to achieve reproductive dominance and suppress ovarian
      activation in their A. m. scutellata host workers. The reproductively dominant
      workers (false queens) produced more queen-like pheromones and inhibited ovarian
      activation in subordinate A. m. scutellata workers. These results show that
      tergal gland pheromones working in synergy with pheromones from other glands
      allow individual workers (false queens) to establish reproductive dominance
      within these social groups and to act in a manner similar to that of queens. Thus
      suggesting that, the evolution of reproductively dominant individuals (queens or
      false queens) and subordinate individuals (workers) in social insects like the
      honey bee is the result of a complex interplay of pheromonal signals from
      different exocrine glands.

PMID- 28889989
TI  - The TNF Receptor Superfamily-NF-kappaB Axis Is Critical to Maintain Effector
      Regulatory T Cells in Lymphoid and Non-lymphoid Tissues.
AB  - After exiting the thymus, Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells undergo further
      differentiation in the periphery, resulting in the generation of mature, fully
      suppressive effector (e)Treg cells in a process dependent on TCR signaling and
      the transcription factor IRF4. Here, we show that tumor necrosis factor receptor
      superfamily (TNFRSF) signaling plays a crucial role in the development and
      maintenance of eTreg cells. TNFRSF signaling activated the NF-kappaB
      transcription factor RelA, which was required to maintain eTreg cells in lymphoid
      and non-lymphoid tissues, including RORgammat+ Treg cells in the small intestine.
      In response to TNFRSF signaling, RelA regulated basic cellular processes,
      including cell survival and proliferation, but was dispensable for IRF4
      expression or DNA binding, indicating that both pathways operated independently.
      Importantly, mutations in the RelA binding partner NF-kappaB1 compromised eTreg
      cells in humans, suggesting that the TNFRSF-NF-kappaB axis was required in a non
      redundant manner to maintain eTreg cells in mice and humans.

PMID- 28889991
TI  - Use of dispersion modelling for Environmental Impact Assessment of biological air
      pollution from composting: Progress, problems and prospects.
AB  - With the increase in composting asa sustainable waste management option,
      biological air pollution (bioaerosols) from composting facilities have become a
      cause of increasing concern due to their potential health impacts. Estimating
      community exposure to bioaerosols is problematic due to limitations in current
      monitoring methods. Atmospheric dispersion modelling can be used to estimate
      exposure concentrations, however several issues arise from the lack of
      appropriate bioaerosol data to use as inputs into models, and the complexity of
      the emission sources at composting facilities. This paper analyses current
      progress in using dispersion models for bioaerosols, examines the remaining
      problems and provides recommendations for future prospects in this area. A key
      finding is the urgent need for guidance for model users to ensure consistent
      bioaerosol modelling practices.

PMID- 28889992
TI  - Astrocytic expression of the CXCL12 receptor, CXCR7/ACKR3 is a hallmark of the
      diseased, but not developing CNS.
AB  - Based on our previous demonstration of CXCR7 as the major mediator of CXCL12
      signaling in cultured astrocytes, we have now compared astrocytic expression of
      the CXCL12 receptors, CXCR7 and CXCR4, during CNS development and disease. In
      addition, we asked whether disease-associated conditions/factors affect
      expression of CXCL12 receptors in astrocytes. In the late embryonic rat brain,
      CXCR7+/GFAP+ cells were restricted to the ventricular/subventricular zone while
      CXCR4 was widely absent from GFAP-positive cells. In the early postnatal and
      adult brain, CXCR7 and CXCR4 were almost exclusively expressed by GFAP
      immunoreactive astrocytes forming the superficial glia limitans. Contrasting the
      situation in the intact CNS, a striking increase in astrocytic CXCR7 expression
      was detectable in the cortex of rats with experimental brain infarcts, in the
      spinal cord of rats with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and
      after mechanical compression, as well as in the in infarcted human cerebral
      cortex and in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's disease patients. None of these
      pathologies was associated with substantial increases in astrocytic CXCR4
      expression. Screening of various disease-associated factors/conditions further
      revealed that CXCR7 expression of cultured cortical astrocytes increases with
      IFNgamma as well as under hypoxic conditions whereas CXCR7 expression is
      attenuated following treatment with IFNbeta. Again, none of the treatments
      affected CXCR4 expression in cultured astrocytes. Together, these findings
      support the hypothesis of a crucial role of astrocytic CXCR7 in the progression
      of various CNS pathologies.

PMID- 28889994
TI  - Erratum to "The use of next generation sequencing in the diagnosis and typing of
      respiratory infections"[J. Clin. Virol. 69 (2015) 96-100].

PMID- 28889993
TI  - A subpopulation of activated retinal macrophages selectively migrated to regions
      of cone photoreceptor stress, but had limited effect on cone death in a mouse
      model for type 2 Leber congenital amaurosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Studies of antigen presentation in retina using mice that expressed
      green fluorescent protein (GFP) from a transgenic CD11c promoter found that
      retinal GFPhi cells possessed antigen presentation function. Subsequent studies
      found that these high GFPhi cells preferentially localized to sites of retinal
      injury, consistent with their APC function. Interest in the roles of macrophages
      in degenerative CNS diseases led us to study the GFPhi cells in a retinal model
      of neurodegeneration. We asked if apoptotic cone photoreceptor cell death in
      Rpe65-/- knockout mice induced the GFPhi cells, explored their relationship to
      resident microglia (MG), and tested their role in cone survival. METHODS: Rpe65-/
      mice were bred to CD11cGFP mice on the B6/J background. CD11cGFPRpe65-/- mice
      were also backcrossed to CX3CR1YFP-creERROSADTA mice so that CX3CR1+ mononuclear
      cells could be depleted by Tamoxifen. Retinas were analyzed by
      immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, fluorescence fundoscopy and flow
      cytometry. RESULTS: Elevated numbers of GFPhi cells were concentrated in
      photoreceptor cell layers of CD11cGFPRpe65-/- mice coinciding with the peak of
      cone death at 2 to 4weeks of age, and persisted for at least 14months. After the
      initial wave of cone loss, a slow progressive loss of cones was found that
      continued to retain GFPhi cells in the outer retina. Sustained, four-week
      Tamoxifen depletions of the GFPhi cells and MG in Rpe65-/- mice from day 13 to
      day 41, and from day 390 to day 420 promoted a small increase in cone survival.
      We found no evidence that the GFPhi cells were recruited from the circulation;
      all data pointed to a MG origin. MG and GFPhi cells were well segregated in the
      dystrophic retina; GFPhi cells were foremost in the photoreceptor cell layer,
      while MG were concentrated in the inner retina. CONCLUSIONS: The expression of
      GFP on a subset of retinal mononuclear cells in CD11cGFP mice identified a
      distinct population of cells performing functions previously attributed to MG.
      Although GFPhi cells dominated the macrophage response to cone death in the
      photoreceptor cell layer, their ablation led to only an incremental increase in
      cone survival. The ability to identify, ablate, and isolate these cells will
      facilitate analysis of this activated, antigen-presenting subset of MG.

PMID- 28889995
TI  - Aging and working memory performance: Electrophysiological correlates of high and
      low performing elderly.
AB  - In this study we investigated age-related changes in WM capacity and their
      respective ERP correlates. We explicitly addressed the differentiation between
      high and low performing elderly to identify electrophysiological correlates of
      successful aging. Therefore, ERP and behavioral data was obtained from 45 young
      (mean = 22.73 years) and 35 older participants (mean = 68.49 years). Both groups
      performed a visual-spatial n-back task with two levels of difficulty.
      Additionally, related neuropsychological tests were administered. Older subjects
      performed less accurately in both conditions of the n-back task. Older age was
      additionally associated with a reduced fronto-central positivity (labeled as
      P200) in the 2-back task and an overall reduced amplitude of the parietal
      positivity (labeled as P300). The latter shifted to frontal leads in older
      subjects. Additionally, only in the group of the older participants, increased
      P200 and decreased parietal P300 amplitudes correlated with performance.
      Regarding older high and low performers, we observed a clear shift of frontal
      activity of both ERP components in the group of high performers. High performers
      additionally performed better in spatial working memory, verbal learning, and
      fluid intelligence tasks. We conclude, that increasing demands of working memory
      load are accompanied by a reallocation of resources in both young and older
      adults. With age, executive control and updating processes (indexed by both ERP
      components) are diminished or rely on more frontal processes for compensation.
      However, high performing older adults, who perform comparable to young adults,
      sustain comparable executive control processes, exceeding pure compensation.

PMID- 28889996
TI  - Emotion processing in the infant brain: The importance of local information.
AB  - Facial expressions provide crucial information for an infant's social and
      cognitive development. Expressions are discriminated based on specific basic
      level information, such as global and local information represented in spatial
      frequencies. Research in adults suggests that different neural pathways are
      involved in emotion discrimination, each activated by specific spatial frequency
      ranges. However, in infants the involvement of spatial frequencies in emotion
      discrimination is unknown. In the current study we investigated the effect of
      manipulating spatial frequency information in the face on emotion discrimination.
      Infants aged 9-10 months (N = 61) viewed happy, fearful, and neutral faces. The
      faces contained either lower (related to global information) or higher spatial
      frequencies (related to local information). Brain activity in response to the
      faces was measured with electroencephalography. Interest was in the effect of
      emotion and spatial frequency on the amplitude of the N290, P400, and Nc
      components. Amplitudes of the N290 and P400 components differed between happy
      versus fearful or neutral faces, although only in the higher, and not the lower,
      spatial frequency condition. Amplitude of the Nc components differed between
      happy versus fearful or neutral faces regardless of spatial frequency condition.
      These results reveal the importance of higher spatial frequencies for emotion
      discrimination in infants (particularly at the N290 and P400 components). We
      related these findings to current models on the neural basis of facial-emotion
      processing.

PMID- 28889997
TI  - Policy evaluation and democracy: Do they fit?
AB  - The papers assembled in this special issue shed light on the question of the
      interrelation between democracy and policy evaluation by discussing research on
      the use of evaluations in democratic processes. The collection makes a case for a
      stronger presence of evaluation in democracy beyond expert utilization.
      Parliamentarians prove to be more aquainted with evaluations than expected and
      the inclusion of evaluations in policy arguments increases the deliberative
      quality of democratic campaigns. In sum, evaluation and democracy turn out to be
      well compatible after all.

PMID- 28889998
TI  - Association of Apolipoprotein E Polymorphisms with Age-related Macular
      Degeneration Subtypes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the worldwide
      leading cause of blindness among the elderly, especially in developed countries.
      The possible association between apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism (epsilon2,
      epsilon3, epsilon4) and AMD has been extensively investigated with conflicting
      results, especially when specifying different clinical phenotypes of AMD. Herein,
      we conducted a meta-analysis by integrating several recent large-sample studies
      to verify the effect of ApoE polymorphisms on AMD subtypes. METHODS: The retrieve
      for targeted literature was conducted based on the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane
      library, and Web of Science. Summary odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence
      intervals (CIs) were used for estimation of risk. The p-value was adjusted due to
      the multiple comparison. RESULTS: A total of 12 studies included in the final
      summary analysis, including 13842 cases and 38647 controls. ApoE epsilon4 carrier
      was inversely associated with early stage AMD (OR = 0.889, 95% CI = 0.82-0.97),
      geographic atrophy (OR = 0.594, 95% CI = 0.43-0.83) and neovascular AMD (OR =
      0.670, 95% CI = 0.58-0.76). Stratification analysis by ethnicity revealed that
      the ApoE epsilon4 carriers was associated with neovascular AMD in both Caucasians
      (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.47-0.83) and East Asians (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.58-0.79).
      A significant association of ApoE epsilon2 carriers was only found with early AMD
      in Black and East Asian population, however small samples and limited studies
      restrict its generalization. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis revealed a
      significantly protective role of epsilon4 on each subtypes of AMD, but no
      supportive evidence of the association of epsilon2 with AMD. Thus, further
      studies with larger samples are needed to understand the precise role of epsilon2
      on AMD susceptibility.

PMID- 28890000
TI  - Maternal DRD2, SLC6A3, and OXTR genotypes as potential moderators of the relation
      between maternal history of care and maternal cortisol secretion in the context
      of mother-infant separation.
AB  - A mother's cortisol secretion is importantly associated with her own mental
      health and her infant's cortisol secretion. This study investigated the
      influences of maternal history of care and maternal DRD2, SLC6A3, and OXTR
      genotypes on maternal cortisol in the context of infant stress. A community
      sample of 296 mother-infant dyads completed a maternal separation at infant age
      17 months. Maternal salivary cortisol, buccal cells, and self-reported history of
      care were collected. Multilevel models revealed that history of care had a
      greater influence on maternal baseline cortisol (but not cortisol trajectory) for
      mothers with more plasticity alleles of SLC6A3 (10R) and OXTR (G), relative to
      mothers with fewer or no plasticity alleles. Findings indicate that a mother's
      history of care is related to her cortisol secretion in anticipation of infant
      stress, but that this relation depends on her genetic characteristics. Findings
      are discussed in relation to the maternal protective system and anticipatory
      cortisol secretion.

PMID- 28889999
TI  - Humoral immune responses during asthma and influenza co-morbidity in mice.
AB  - Humoral immunity serve dual functions of direct pathogen neutralization and
      enhancement of leukocyte function. Antibody classes are determined by antigen
      triggers, and the resulting antibodies can contribute to disease pathogenesis and
      host defense. Although asthma and influenza are immunologically distinct
      diseases, since we have found that allergic asthma exacerbation promotes
      antiviral host responses to influenza A virus, we hypothesized that humoral
      immunity may contribute to allergic host protection during influenza. C57BL/6J
      mice sensitized and challenged with Aspergillus fumigatus (or not) were infected
      with pandemic influenza A/CA/04/2009 virus. Negative control groups included
      naive mice, and mice with only 'asthma' or influenza. Concentrations of
      antibodies were quantified by ELISA, and in situ localization of IgA- and IgE
      positive cells in the lungs was determined by immunohistochemistry. The number
      and phenotype of B cells in spleens and mediastinal lymph nodes were determined
      by flow cytometry at predetermined timepoints after virus infection until viral
      clearance. Mucosal and systemic antibodies remained elevated in mice with asthma
      and influenza with prominent production of IgE and IgA compared to influenza-only
      controls. B cell expansion was prominent in the mediastinal lymph nodes of
      allergic mice during influenza where most cells produced IgG1 and IgA. Although
      allergy-skewed B cell responses dominated in mice with allergic airways
      inflammation during influenza virus infection, virus-specific antibodies were
      also induced. Future studies are required to identify the mechanisms involved
      with B cell activation and function in allergic hosts facing respiratory viral
      infections.

PMID- 28890001
TI  - Association between resting-state brain network topological organization and
      creative ability: Evidence from a multiple linear regression model.
AB  - Previous studies have indicated a tight linkage between resting-state functional
      connectivity of the human brain and creative ability. This study aimed to further
      investigate the association between the topological organization of resting-state
      brain networks and creativity. Therefore, we acquired resting-state fMRI data
      from 22 high-creativity participants and 22 low-creativity participants (as
      determined by their Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking scores). We then
      constructed functional brain networks for each participant and assessed group
      differences in network topological properties before exploring the relationships
      between respective network topological properties and creative ability. We
      identified an optimized organization of intrinsic brain networks in both groups.
      However, compared with low-creativity participants, high-creativity participants
      exhibited increased global efficiency and substantially decreased path length,
      suggesting increased efficiency of information transmission across brain networks
      in creative individuals. Using a multiple linear regression model, we further
      demonstrated that regional functional integration properties (i.e., the
      betweenness centrality and global efficiency) of brain networks, particularly the
      default mode network (DMN) and sensorimotor network (SMN), significantly
      predicted the individual differences in creative ability. Furthermore, the
      associations between network regional properties and creative performance were
      creativity-level dependent, where the difference in the resource control
      component may be important in explaining individual difference in creative
      performance. These findings provide novel insights into the neural substrate of
      creativity and may facilitate objective identification of creative ability.

PMID- 28890002
TI  - On-line action monitoring of response execution: An electrophysiological study.
AB  - In between-hand choice-RT-tasks, small incorrect EMG activations occurring before
      the correct response ("partial errors") are assumed to reflect the detection,
      inhibition and correction of erroneous hand selection, revealing the existence of
      an action monitoring system, acting "on-line". Now, EMG activations of the
      correctly selected hand muscles, too small to reach the response threshold, may
      also occur before these hand muscles produce an overt correct response ("partial
      corrects"). We hypothesized that partial corrects reflect incorrect execution of
      correctly selected responses. We found 1) that response force was smaller on
      trials preceding a partial correct trial and 2) that the Error Negativity, a
      performance sensitive ERP, assumed to reveal "on-line" action monitoring, was
      larger for partial corrects than for correct trials. This also suggests that the
      competence of the action monitoring system is not restricted to selection errors
      but also extends to execution errors.

PMID- 28890003
TI  - Editorial overview: Tissue, cell and pathway engineering: The advent of
      complexity.

PMID- 28890004
TI  - Response to letter to the editor: The role of propionic acid at diagnosis
      predicts mortality in patients with septic shock.

PMID- 28890005
TI  - [Ablative therapy in kidney cancer: Oncological, functional, perioperative
      outcomes and cost].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The incidence of kidney cancer has increased significantly over the
      past few decades presumably due to the increased use of imaging. The aim of this
      article is to describe contemporary outcomes of ablative therapy and to compare
      them to other therapeutic options in terms of oncological, functional,
      perioperative outcomes and cost. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We searched MEDLINE(r),
      Embase(r), using (MeSH) words; from January 2005 through May 2017, and we looked
      for all the studies. Investigators graded the strength of evidence in terms of
      methodology, language and relevance. RESULTS: Ninety-one articles were analyzed.
      We described the outcomes of ablative therapy in relation to the energy used and
      the approach, and compared these outcomes to the other therapeutic options in
      terms of oncological, functional and perioperative outcomes. We analyzed these
      studies in order to search for predictive factors influencing the results of
      ablative therapy. We also analyzed the economic burden of small renal tumor
      management. CONCLUSION: The strength of evidence is based almost entirely on
      retrospective studies and is susceptible to the inherent limitations of this
      study design. Although, the evidence was low among studies, our revue showed
      that, in elderly patients treated with ablative therapy for cT1a tumors, the
      cancer-specific survival was comparable to partial nephrectomy with differences
      in overall survival that are explained by competing risks of death in the old
      population. Considering the functional results, the renal function preservation
      seems to be comparable between the 2 groups while the perioperative morbidity is
      higher in the partial nephrectomy group. The evidence base medicine at this time
      cannot support the extension of the indications of ablative therapy beyond the
      actual implementations.

PMID- 28890006
TI  - Tapping the woodpecker tree for evolutionary insight.
AB  - Molecular phylogenetic studies of woodpeckers (Picidae) have generally focused on
      relationships within specific clades or have sampled sparsely across the family.
      We compared DNA sequences of six loci from 203 of the 217 recognized species of
      woodpeckers to construct a comprehensive tree of intrafamilial relationships. We
      recovered many known, but also numerous unknown, relationships among clades and
      species. We found, for example, that the three picine tribes are related as
      follows (Picini, (Campephilini, Melanerpini)) and that the genus Dinopium is
      paraphyletic. We used the tree to analyze rates of diversification and
      biogeographic patterns within the family. Diversification rate increased on two
      occasions during woodpecker history. We also tested diversification rates between
      temperate and tropical species but found no significant difference. Biogeographic
      analysis supported an Old World origin of the family and identified at least six
      independent cases of New World-Old World sister relationships. In light of the
      tree, we discuss how convergence, mimicry, and potential cases of hybridization
      have complicated woodpecker taxonomy.

PMID- 28890007
TI  - Medical Training and the Brain Death Exam: A Single Institution's Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinicians may have limited opportunities to perform neurological
      determination of death (NDD, or brain death) certification during their training.
      This study aimed to evaluate the level of resident exposure to the brain death
      exam at a large-volume donor hospital. METHODS: In March 2014, we adapted a dual
      physician model for NDD certification at our institution to improve resident
      education regarding NDD. To evaluate the incidence of resident exposure, we
      collected examiner information from all brain death exams conducted between
      January 2014 and July 2015. Organ procurement, family authorization, and brain
      death intervals were also collected to evaluate the impact of NDD timeliness on
      organ donation. RESULTS: A total of 68 patients who met NDD criteria were
      included in this study. For these patients, 127 brain death exams were performed,
      108 (85%) by a critical care attending physician or fellow, 9 (7%) by a neurology
      resident, and 7 (6%) by a neurosurgery resident. Exposure rates for neurology and
      neurosurgery residents were approximately 0.22 and 0.20 exams/resident/year,
      respectively. The median brain death interval between exams was 1.0 hours
      (interquartile range, 0.0-2.5) hours. Resident involvement, time between exams,
      and dual exams were all found to be nonsignificant correlates of organ
      authorization and family refusal. CONCLUSIONS: Neurology and neurosurgery
      residents may be limited in their exposure to the brain death exam during
      training. High-volume donor hospitals may be able to complete 2 exams for NDD
      certification in a timely manner without detrimentally influencing organ
      authorization or family refusal rates.

PMID- 28890008
TI  - Minimally Invasive Treatment for a Sacral Tarlov Cyst Through Tubular Retractors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tarlov cysts (TC) are focal dilations of arachnoid and dura mater of
      the spinal posterior nerve root sheath that appear as cystic lesions of the nerve
      roots typically in the lower spine, especially in the sacrum, which can cause
      radicular symptoms when they increase in size and compress the nerve roots.
      Different open procedures have been described to treat TCs, but no minimally
      invasive procedures have been described to effectively address this pathology.
      CASE DESCRIPTION: A 29-year-old woman presented with right lower extremity pain
      and weakness. A magnetic resonance imaging scan demonstrated a lumbosacral TC
      that protruded through the right L5-S1 foramina. Through a small laminotomy, cyst
      drainage followed by neck ligation using a Scanlan modified technique through
      tubular retractors was performed. The patient recovered full motor function
      within the first days postoperatively and showed no signs of relapse at 6-month
      follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Minimally invasive spine surgery through tubular
      retractors can be safely performed for successful excision and ligation of TC
      using a Scanlan modified technique.

PMID- 28890009
TI  - Impact of Onyx Embolization on Radiosurgical Management of Cerebral Arteriovenous
      Malformations: Treatment and Outcome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a well-established treatment
      modality for cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The main limiting
      factor in the radiosurgical treatment of AVMs is the volume of the nidus, with
      high-grade lesions often requiring combined treatment to reduce the SRS target
      volume. To overcome this limitation, we have been using a combined treatment
      approach consisting of endovascular embolization with Onyx followed by SRS.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate our clinical experience for safety and feasibility of this
      multimodality treatment approach. METHODS: This is a retrospective review of all
      adult patients with cerebral AVMs who received SRS treatment to their AVM after
      endovascular embolization with Onyx between June 2007 and June 2014. RESULTS:
      Thirty-five consecutive patients were identified. The mean follow-up period was
      52.4 +/- 22.6 months (range 18-97 months). We confirmed 18 (51.4%) complete nidus
      closures at a median time of 49.5 months (range 6.5-81 months) from SRS. High
      resolution Magnetic resonance imaging/magnetic resonance angiography was
      performed routinely in all patients until closure of the nidus. Digital
      subtraction angiography was performed to confirm complete obliteration in 5 of
      the patients (28%); 13 patients are either planned for digital subtraction
      angiography or have refused it. In 6 patients (17%) a significant flow reduction
      was noted after a mean of 32 +/- 16 months. No significant improvement was
      observed in 9 patients (26%) during the follow-up period. Two patients were lost
      to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The multimodality treatment of cerebral AVMs using
      embolization with Onyx followed by SRS is feasible and safe. The use of Onyx
      significantly reduced the SRS treatment target volume.

PMID- 28890011
TI  - A Secure Approach to the Inferior Horn Using the Deep Medullary Vein as an
      Anatomic Guide.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Safe entry to the inferior horn is required for a selective approach
      to the medial temporal region. This can be challenging sometimes for
      inexperienced surgeons. Our objective was to verify the usefulness of the deep
      medullary vein (DMV) as an intraoperative landmark for safely entering the
      inferior horn during the transsylvian selective approach to the mesial temporal
      region. METHODS: Videos of 8 cases of transsylvian selective
      amygdalohippocampectomies performed at the University of Tokyo Hospital from 2013
      to 2015 were reviewed. Consistency of the DMV and time required to open the
      inferior horn via the temporal stem through the inferior limiting sulcus were
      retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: DMVs were identified in all cases; the
      average number identified was 2.5 +/- 0.3 (mean +/- SE). The inferior horn was
      opened without disorientation in all cases, with mean dissecting time of 7.0
      minutes +/- 1.1. No complications were caused by disorientation within the
      temporal stem white matter. CONCLUSIONS: Consideration of the venous system
      within the white matter and following the DMV could reduce the risk of
      disorientation and enable the surgeon to reach the inferior horn in a
      straightforward manner without accidental white matter damage.

PMID- 28890010
TI  - Lumbosacral Subdural Hematoma After Glioblastoma Multiforme Resection: Possible
      Radiographic Evidence for the Downward Migration of Intracranial Blood.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Spinal subdural hematomas (SSDHs) are rare and usually associated
      with bleeding diatheses, trauma, iatrogenic injury, spinal vascular
      malformations, or intraspinal tumors. CASE DESCRIPTION: We report a case of a 75
      year-old man who developed a symptomatic lumbosacral SSDH after undergoing
      resection of a right temporal glioblastoma multiforme. The patient subsequently
      recovered and was discharged home. Over the next 2 weeks, he developed
      progressively worsening symptoms of lower back pain, lower extremity weakness,
      and urinary retention. Although the patient had no known risk factors for
      developing a SSDH, magnetic resonance imaging on postoperative day 16 revealed an
      extensive L2-sacrum SSDH. The patient underwent L2-L5 total laminectomies for
      evacuation of the SSDH. His symptoms resolved after surgery. Literature review
      produced 26 other cases of SSDHs after intracranial surgery in patients without
      obvious risk factors. In our case, the lumbosacral SSDH may have originated from
      downward migration of intracranial blood in a gravity-dependent fashion.
      Radiographic evidence of blood within the posterior thecal sac of the patient's
      cervical spine supports this hypothesis. CONCLUSIONS: In most cases, SSDHs after
      intracranial surgery resolve with conservative treatment; however, as shown in
      our case, surgery may be required if there is progressive neurologic decline.
      Neurosurgeons should be aware of this potential complication after intracranial
      surgery; a magnetic resonance imaging of the spine may be indicated if there is
      unexplained lower extremity pain or weakness.

PMID- 28890012
TI  - Ethnicity, Race, and Postoperative Stroke Risk Among 53,593 Patients with
      Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis Undergoing Revascularization.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The incidence of postoperative stroke after carotid endarterectomy is
      an uncommon event, and differences by racial and ethnic subgroups are not
      described fully in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of race
      and ethnicity on postoperative stroke risk among patients with asymptomatic
      carotid stenosis undergoing carotid endarterectomy. METHODS: The American College
      of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was searched
      for patients between the dates 2008 and 2015 to identify patients undergoing
      carotid endarterectomy with no history of stroke. Four racial and ethnic
      subgroups were included: non-Hispanic white, Hispanic white, non-Hispanic back,
      and non-Hispanic Asian. In addition to a descriptive statistical analysis,
      univariate and multivariate regression models were created to adjust for
      cardiovascular and perioperative risk factors and corrected for multiple
      comparisons. RESULTS: Among the 53,593 patients identified meeting the inclusion
      criteria, 788 (1.45%) patients experienced a stroke within 30 days. The non
      Hispanic white group compared with the minority subgroups had a lower risk of
      postoperative stroke (1.43% vs. 1.67%, P = 0.18). The greatest difference was
      between the non-Hispanic white and Hispanic white groups, but this was not
      significant on multivariable analysis (odds ratio 1.40, 95% confidence interval
      0.97-2.02, P = 0.08) after adjustment for risk stroke factors. The strongest
      predictors of postoperative stroke were perioperative blood transfusion,
      dependent functional status, and longer operative time. CONCLUSIONS: There was no
      difference between the racial and ethnic groups and the proportion of
      postoperative stroke among patients undergoing revascularization for asymptomatic
      carotid stenosis.

PMID- 28890013
TI  - Evaluating proteins for potential allergenicity using bioinformatic approaches.

PMID- 28890014
TI  - Genetically modified products and food allergy: Beliefs, evidence, and
      opportunity.

PMID- 28890015
TI  - Penicillin skin testing: The devil is in the details.

PMID- 28890016
TI  - Single recombinant and purified major allergens and peptides: How they are made
      and how they change allergy diagnosis and treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To review the current knowledge regarding recombinant and purified
      allergens and allergen-derived peptides. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, homepages relevant
      to the topic, and the National Institutes of Health clinical trial database were
      searched. STUDY SELECTIONS: The literature was screened for studies describing
      purified and recombinant allergens and allergen-derived peptides. Studies
      relevant to the topic were included in this review. RESULTS: Advantages and
      drawbacks of pure and defined recombinant allergens and peptides over allergen
      extracts in the context of allergy research, diagnosis, and allergen
      immunotherapy are discussed. We describe how these molecules are manufactured,
      which products are currently available on the market, and what the regulative
      issues are. We furthermore provide an overview of clinical studies with vaccines
      based on recombinant allergens and synthetic peptides. The possibility of
      prophylactic vaccination based on recombinant fusion proteins consisting of viral
      carrier proteins and allergen-derived peptides without allergenic activity are
      also discussed. CONCLUSION: During the last 25 years more than several hundred
      allergen sequences were determined, which led to a production of recombinant
      allergens that mimic biochemically and immunologically their natural
      counterparts. Especially in Europe, recombinant allergens are increasingly
      replacing allergen extracts in diagnosis of allergy. Despite many challenges,
      such as high cost of clinical trials and regulative issues, allergy vaccines
      based on recombinant allergens and peptides are being developed and will likely
      soon be available on the market.

PMID- 28890017
TI  - An unusual cause of fever in a patient with common variable immunodeficiency.

PMID- 28890018
TI  - The allergenicity of genetically modified foods from genetically engineered
      crops: A narrative and systematic review.

PMID- 28890019
TI  - Allergic sensitization and objective measures of sleep in urban school-aged
      children with asthma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Allergic sensitization is associated with increased child asthma
      morbidity and decreased pulmonary function. Nocturnal symptoms and/or awakenings
      typically are measured by self-report from diary data, whereas objective
      assessments of sleep in child asthma studies are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To
      investigate the association between increased allergic sensitization (number of
      positive allergy test results measured by skin prick test or specific
      immunoglobulin E) and sleep outcomes (sleep efficiency, sleep duration, and mean
      number of awakenings measured by actigraphy) in urban schoolchildren with
      persistent asthma. METHODS: One hundred ninety-six children with persistent
      asthma (7-9 years old) attending public school in 1 of 4 large urban school
      districts completed allergy testing during a study clinic visit. Forced
      expiratory volume in 1 second was monitored at home using a handheld spirometer.
      Sleep outcomes were measured with a wrist Actiwatch during a 1-month period in
      the fall and winter seasons. RESULTS: Number of positive allergy test results
      significantly predicted mean sleep efficiency (P = .02), such that children with
      more positive test results experienced less efficient sleep. Number of positive
      allergy test results significantly predicted mean number of night awakenings (P =
      .05), such that children with more positive allergy test results experienced more
      night awakenings. Variability in forced expiratory volume in 1 second was a
      significant moderator in the association between number of positive allergy test
      results and variability in sleep efficiency (P = .04). Racial and ethnic
      differences in allergic sensitization and sleep outcomes were found between
      African Americans and Latinos. CONCLUSION: More positive allergy test results
      were associated with poorer sleep outcomes measured objectively in this sample of
      urban children. Implications for environmental control interventions and asthma
      treatments in different racial and ethnic groups are discussed.

PMID- 28890020
TI  - The national cost of asthma among school-aged children in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent research has quantified the national health care resource use
      (HCRU) and health care expenditure (HCE) burden associated with adult asthma;
      however, estimates specific to school-aged children are more than 2 decades old.
      OBJECTIVE: To estimate the national HCRU and HCEs attributable to asthma among
      school-aged children in the United States. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional
      retrospective analysis of school-aged children (aged 6-17 years) in the
      nationally representative 2007-2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. All-cause
      HCRU and HCEs of school-aged children with asthma were compared with school-aged
      children without asthma, controlling for sociodemographics and comorbidities.
      HCRU encounters included emergency department (ED) and outpatient visits,
      hospitalizations, and prescriptions. Expenditures included total, medical, ED,
      inpatient, outpatient, and pharmacy. Negative binomial regression analyses were
      used for HCRU and Heckman selection with logarithmic transformation, and smearing
      retransformation was used for HCEs. RESULTS: There were 44,320 school-aged
      children of whom 5,890 had asthma. Children with asthma incurred a higher rate of
      all-cause annual ED visits (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.5; P < .001),
      hospitalizations (IRR, 1.4; P < .05), outpatient visits (IRR, 1.4; P < .001), and
      prescription drugs (IRR, 3.3; P < .001) compared with school-aged children
      without asthma. They incurred US$847 (2015 dollars) more annually in all-cause
      expenditures (P < .001). Private insurance and Medicaid paid the largest share of
      expenditures. Pharmacy and outpatient costs represented the largest proportion of
      total expenditures. On the basis of the nationally representative Medical
      Expenditure Panel Survey sample weights from 2013, the total annual HCEs
      attributable to asthma for school-aged children in the United States was US$5.92
      billion (2015 dollars). CONCLUSION: Childhood asthma continues to represent a
      prevalent and significant clinical and economic burden in the United States. More
      aggressive treatment and asthma management programs are needed to address this
      national financial and resource burden.

PMID- 28890021
TI  - Sensitization profiles to peanut allergens across the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Measurement of IgE antibody to peanut components can aid in the
      prediction of allergic responses the food. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the
      association between patient demographics (age, location) and allergic
      sensitization to peanut components across the United States. METHODS: Serum
      samples from 12,155 individuals with peanut extract specific IgE levels of 0.35
      kUA/L or higher were analyzed for IgE antibodies to Ara h 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9 by
      ImmunoCAP. RESULTS: Among this population of peanut sensitized individuals, 79.1%
      of children (<3 years old) were sensitized to one or more peanut storage proteins
      (Ara h 1, 2, and/or 3), in contrast to 64.2% of adolescents (12-15 years old) and
      22.1% of adults (>20 years old). Although sensitization was more prevalent to Ara
      h 2 than to the other storage proteins, a sizable fraction of patients were
      sensitized to Ara h 1 and/or 3 but not to Ara h 2 (eg, 13% of children <3 years
      old). Moreover, 9.6% of children, 10.2% of adolescents, and 10.5% of adults were
      sensitized to Ara h 9, whereas 2.4% of children, 49.4% of adolescents, and 42.9%
      of adults produced IgE to Ara h 8 (pathogenesis-related protein 10).
      Sensitization to Ara h 8 alone was markedly higher in the Northeastern United
      States relative to other regions of the country. CONCLUSION: We conclude that
      sensitization to individual peanut components is highly dependent on age and
      geographic location. Given that a severe allergic reaction to peanut is unlikely
      in individuals with isolated sensitization to Ara h 8, a sizable fraction of
      patients, in particular adolescents and adults, may be at lower risk than
      anticipated based only on demonstration of sensitization to whole peanut extract.

PMID- 28890022
TI  - Lymphoproliferative responses to dendritic cell presentation of sensitizing
      allergens in atopic children with multiple allergies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) proliferate
      inconsistently, rendering current lymphoproliferation assays unreliable in
      diagnosis. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the utility and nature of proliferation
      responses in allergy by comparison of the standard lymphoproliferation with a new
      dendritic cell (DC) stimulated assay. METHODS: Monocyte-derived DCs were pulsed
      with allergens and incubated with autologous T cells for 7 days. DC-stimulated
      and standard PBMC proliferation responses to 3 common dietary allergens in
      children with allergy and without atopy were measured by incorporation of
      tritiated thymidine and reduction of carboxyl fluorescein succinimidyl ester
      staining. RESULTS: The DC presentation of sensitizing allergens induced
      significantly higher proliferative responses than PBMC stimulation (P = .04) and
      greater distinction between normal and allergic responses. DC-induced stimulation
      indices of children without sensitivity and those with allergy were significantly
      different with all 3 foods (P < .001). All children with allergy presented with
      peanut allergy and 12 of 14 (86%) beta-lactoglobulin-pulsed DC preparations
      proliferated more than 3.3-fold above un-pulsed cells, but 8 of 18 children (44%)
      with ovalbumin egg allergy showed proliferation below this level. The stimulation
      index of DC tritiated thymidine incorporation correlated closely with carboxyl
      fluorescein succinimidyl ester reduction (P < .001). Sensitivity of detection of
      peanut, milk, or egg allergy was 100%, 85.7%, or 55.6% and specificity was 60%,
      88.9%, or 86.7%, respectively. DC-stimulated T cells expressed increased levels
      of CD45 RO and CD25 and most produced interferon-gamma. DC-stimulated
      proliferation correlated with total immunoglobulin E and peanut antigen
      stimulated proliferation correlated with peanut specific immunoglobulin E (P =
      .03). CONCLUSION: The DC-induced lymphoproliferation had higher sensitivity,
      specificity, and reproducibility than the standard assay and caused increased
      memory and activated T-cell proliferation in children with food allergy.

PMID- 28890023
TI  - Knowledge of food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome among general
      pediatricians.

PMID- 28890024
TI  - Unusual presentation of combined immunodeficiency in a child with homozygous
      DOCK8 mutation.

PMID- 28890025
TI  - Predictors of granulomatous lymphocytic interstitial lung disease in common
      variable immunodeficiency: Methodological issues.

PMID- 28890026
TI  - Author's response.

PMID- 28890027
TI  - Cryopreserved Cadaveric Arterial Allograft for Arterial Reconstruction in
      Patients with Prosthetic Infection.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to report outcomes of cryopreserved arterial
      allografts used as a vascular substitute in the setting of prosthetic material
      infection. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data was
      conducted including all consecutive interventions performed with cryopreserved
      arterial allografts used for vascular reconstruction in the setting of prosthetic
      material infection between January 2005 and December 2014. Five year outcomes
      included allograft related re-interventions, survival, primary patency, and limb
      salvage rates. RESULTS: Fifty-three procedures were performed using cryopreserved
      allografts for vascular prosthetic infection: 25 procedures (47%) were performed
      at aorto-iliac level (Group 1) and 28 procedures (53%) at peripheral level (Group
      2). The mean follow-up was 52 months. Five year allograft related re-intervention
      was 55% in Group 1 (6 allograft ruptures and 5 allograft aneurysm degenerations)
      and 33% in Group 2 (2 allograft ruptures and 7 allograft aneurysm degenerations).
      Five year survival was 40% and 68%, primary patency was 89% and 59% and limb
      salvage was 100% and 89% for Group 1 and 2 respectively. CONCLUSION: Use of
      cryopreserved arterial allografts provides acceptable results but is tempered by
      suboptimal 5 year outcomes with high re-intervention rates.

PMID- 28890028
TI  - A novel technique for placement of sacro-alar-iliac (S2AI) screws by K-wire
      insertion using intraoperative navigation.
AB  - Sacral-iliac fixation techniques may be indicated in the management of various
      lumbosacral pathologies including spinal degeneration, infection, tumour
      resection, fracture, pseudarthrosis, correction of spinal deformities involving
      long fusion constructs to the sacrum and cases with poor sacral fixation. There
      are a number of options for lumbosacral fixation each with their own advantages
      and disadvantages. Though S2-alar-iliac (S2AI) have demonstrated promising
      advantages over alternatives, the complex anatomy of the spinopelvic region
      demands precise insertion of the screws to create a biomechanically robust
      construct safely. As such, we present a novel technique of using intra-operative
      CT navigation and K-wires to establish and secure a planned trajectory, thereby
      ensuring solid spinopelvic fixation with S2AI screws. This was performed as part
      of a long fusion construct for correction of kyphosis deformity in a male
      patient.

PMID- 28890029
TI  - Natural course and predictors of severe disability and death in Thai patients
      with dementia.
AB  - More than half of patients with dementia lived in countries with low and middle
      incomes. However, there have been few studies on the natural course of disease in
      these countries. The purpose of this study was to study the natural course and
      the predictive factors of advanced stage and death in Thai patients with
      dementia. Patients with dementia who were treated in neurologic and psychiatric
      clinic from September 2004 to February 2016, were included. Data about natural
      course of diseases, behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia (BPSD) and
      complications were studied. 207 patients were included. Mean age was 77years old.
      Mean Thai Mental State Examination (TMSE) was 17.5. Alzheimer's disease was the
      most common cause of dementia (55%). With the mean follow-up of 39months (range
      from 2 to 126months), 64% of the patients had BPSD. Sixty-two patients (30%) had
      complications required admission. Seven patients died. Fifty-four patients (29%)
      ended in the advanced stage of dementia. Mean duration from diagnosis to the
      advanced stage was 49months. Complications that required admission usually
      occurred in moderate to severe dementia and were strongly associated with the
      advanced stage or death (OR 6.1, 95%CI 2.57-14.49, p-value<0.0001). Alzheimer's
      disease was the most common cause of dementia in the study. Most demented
      patients presented in moderate severity of dementia. Mean duration from diagnosis
      to the advanced stage of dementia was approximate 4-5years. Complications
      required admissions related to the progression to advanced stage or death.

PMID- 28890030
TI  - Corpus callosal lipoma extending as nasal encephalocoel/cranial lipomeningocoel.
AB  - A hitherto unreported case is presented wherein a 2year old child had a 'cranial
      lipomeningocoel' or a 'nasal lipo-encephalocoel'. The child presented with a
      growing mass in the base of the nose. Investigations revealed that the nasal mass
      was a lipoma that was an extension of intracranial lipoma. The intracranial
      component extended up to corpus callosum. Resection of the extracranial extension
      and basal reconstruction resulted in cosmetic recovery.

PMID- 28890031
TI  - Variation in prophylactic anticoagulation for venous thromboembolism among acute
      stroke patients.
AB  - Asians were known to have relatively lower incidence of deep vein thrombosis
      (DVT) compared with Caucasians. We aimed to evaluate rates of prophylactic
      anticoagulation among Korean acute stroke patients who are at high-risk for
      developing DVT. Of 1295 patients with acute ischemic stroke who were at high-risk
      for developing DVT, anticoagulation was used in only 21 patients (1.6%; 95%
      Confidence Interval, 0.9-2.3) during admission. The use of anticoagulation did
      not differ in relation to age, stroke severity, leg motor weakness, or functional
      outcomes at discharge. Prophylactic anticoagulation was rarely used in Korean
      stroke patients who were at high-risk for developing DVT.

PMID- 28890032
TI  - Ulnar nerve entrapment at the elbow. A surgical series and a systematic review of
      the literature.
AB  - Chronic compression of the ulnar nerve at the elbow is the second most common
      entrapment neuropathy. Various surgical options have been described. Timing of
      surgery is also debated. In this study we report the long-term results of a
      consecutive surgical series of anterior subcutaneous transpositions and review
      the pertinent literature. Sixty consecutive patients underwent anterior
      subcutaneous transposition at our Institution to treat ulnar nerve compression at
      the elbow. McGowan scale was used in the neurological exam before surgery. Bishop
      rating system was used to assess outcome. Seventy-eight% of patients scored good
      excellent. None of the patients worsened. No complications and no recurrences
      were reported. Young age and good pre-operative neurological status (McGowan
      grade 1) were predictive of favorable outcome both at univariate and at
      multivariate analysis. No differences in outcome were observed between patients
      with intermediate (McGowan grade 2) and severe (McGowan grade 3) neuropathy.
      Thirty-four studies assessing outcome of different surgical techniques were
      reviewed. Anterior subcutaneous transposition had the lowest recurrence rate with
      an excellent effectiveness and safety profile. The favorable predictive role for
      outcome of preoperative neurological status was confirmed. The good long-term
      clinical results of the present series and the results of literature analysis
      confirm the value of anterior subcutaneous transposition of the ulnar nerve at
      the elbow. This technique has a particular effectiveness in most severe
      compressions, where outcomes are comparable with intermediate neuropathy cases.
      Moreover, our results suggest an aggressive attitude towards ulnar nerve
      compression at the elbow, particularly in younger patients.

PMID- 28890033
TI  - The Wada test might predict postoperative fine finger motor deficit after
      hemispherotomy.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cerebral hemispherotomy is a surgical method with a high rate of
      seizure reduction in patients with intractable epilepsy. However, there is a
      probability of postoperative motor deficits. The objective of this study was to
      investigate whether the Wada test can help predict motor function outcomes after
      hemispherotomy and, therefore, may be useful in decision-making and patient
      selection. PATIENTS AND METHOD: A total of 13 patients with hemispherical
      intractable epilepsy underwent hemispherical disconnection surgeries. Six of them
      underwent the Wada test to evaluate motor function and language function followed
      by peri-insula hemispherotomy. The patients' age ranged from 11 to 45years (mean
      27years). RESULTS: Three of six patients had reduced dexterity on the Wada test.
      The finger motor function in the other patients did not change on the Wada test.
      Postoperatively, all patients who had decreased fine motor movement on the Wada
      test showed postoperative clumsiness of their hands and fingers. CONCLUSIONS: The
      Wada test might predict postoperative fine finger motor deficit after
      hemispherotomy. This study showed that gross motor function was compensated in
      the ipsilateral hemisphere, whereas fine finger motor movement function remained
      in the contralateral frontal cortex.

PMID- 28890034
TI  - Use of regional scalp block for pain management after craniotomy: Review of
      literature and critical appraisal of evidence.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effective management of postoperative pain have the tendency to
      reduce morbidity and mortality. According to International Association for the
      Study of Pain (I.A.S.P), pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience
      associated with existing or potential tissue injury. Post-operative pain is most
      severe during the first 72h following surgery and is usually of limited time
      frame mostly. METHODS: Literature search conducted using EMBASE (1980 onwards),
      MEDLINE (1946 onwards) and Cochrane Central register of Controlled Trials
      database for systematic reviews. Key words applied were "scalp block"
      "craniotomy" "analgesia", "neurosurgery". Studies were limited to English and
      those involving humans. Relevant studies were isolated for further critique and
      the level of evidence assessed. RESULTS: Total of 140 citations were identified,
      after thorough screening non relevant studies and non-randomised clinical trials
      were exempted, five randomised control trials selected. Selection not restricted
      by English language. CONCLUSION: The evidences are very limited, most data are
      confounded by weaknesses in methodology and most of the studies have small sample
      sizes. Large trials on safety and efficacy of analgesia post craniotomy using
      standardized and widely accepted tools are yet to be performed. None of the
      studies identified studied post craniotomy analgesia in patients with
      neurocognitive change. From level 1 evidence, regional scalp block post
      craniotomy provides effective form of analgesia.

PMID- 28890035
TI  - Longitudinal interactions of estrogen receptor alpha gene rs9340799 with social
      environmental factors on depression in adolescents after Wenchuan earthquake.
AB  - Inconsistent relationships were reported between rs9340799 on estrogen receptor
      alpha gene (ESR1) and depression in previous studies. The present study was to
      explore the longitudinal changes of prevalence and severity of depression in 439
      Chinese Han adolescents with different genotypes of ESR1 rs9340799 at 6, 12 and
      18months after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Social-environmental factors were
      collected by questionnaires from 465 high school students. Variants of rs9340799
      were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length
      polymorphism analyses and verified by DNA sequencing. Depression symptoms were
      assessed by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The results showed the female AA
      homozygotes had higher prevalence of depression at 12months and higher BDI scores
      at 18months than the female G allele carriers. Significantly decreased prevalence
      of depression was observed only in the female AA homozygotes at 18months when
      compared with that at 6 or 12 months. Consecutive decreases in BDI scores were
      observed only in the female AA homozygotes. The AA genotype was one of the risk
      factors at 12months and predictors of BDI scores at 18months. These results
      firstly suggest different interactions may occur in a gender and time dependent
      manner among rs9340799 and other potential factors of depression or predictors of
      its severity, and influence the development and natural rehabilitation of
      depression.

PMID- 28890036
TI  - Tumoral and stromal expression of Slug, ZEB1, and ZEB2 in brain metastasis.
AB  - Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has an active role in the malignant
      progression of epithelial tumor cells. The aim of the study was to identify the
      existence of the EMT mechanism in brain metastasis. Tumors from 29 patients with
      brain metastases were assessed in terms of the immunoexpression of EMT-related
      factors including Slug, ZEB1, ZEB2, and E-cadherin in tumor cells and the
      surrounding mesenchymal stromal cells. The results were compared between primary
      tumors and their matched metastatic brain tumors. Analysis of tumor cell
      expression showed that Slug, ZEB1, or ZEB2 expression was found in more than 10%
      of the neoplastic cells in the metastatic lesions of 17 cases (59%) and in the
      primary lesions of 7 cases (24%, P=0.02). The expression level of ZEB2 was
      negatively correlated with that of E-cadherin (P=0.05). There were no differences
      in the tumoral expression levels of Slug, ZEB1, or ZEB2 among the primary organs.
      Analysis of stromal cell expression revealed a global increase in ZEB1 and ZEB2
      expression levels with metastases (P<0.0001). Quantitative analysis confirmed
      that messenger RNA expression of ZEB1 and ZEB2 was elevated in metastatic
      lesions. The increased expression of EMT-related factors in brain metastasis was
      found not only in tumor cells, but also in tumor-associated stromal cells. Our
      results suggest that EMT-related factors play a role as a facilitator of brain
      metastasis.

PMID- 28890037
TI  - The association between scabies and myasthenia gravis: A nationwide population
      based cohort study.
AB  - Scabies is an infectious inflammatory pruritic skin disease. Cytokine-mediated
      inflammatory processes contribute to the pathologic mechanism in scabies.
      Myasthenia gravis (MG) is also an autoimmune disease that is mediated by
      cytokines. The study aimed to investigate the association between scabies and
      myasthenia gravis. We conducted a nationwide population-based cohort study
      utilized data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of
      Taiwan. Patients with scabies (n=5429) and control subjects without scabies
      (n=20,176) were enrolled. We tracked the subjects in both groups for a 7-year
      period to identify new onset MG. Cox regression analysis was performed to
      calculate the hazard ratio (HR) for MG. A total of 25,605 patients were enrolled
      in the study, including 5429 patients in the scabies group and 20,176 in the
      control group. There were 40 (0.7%) patients from the scabies group and 84 (0.4%)
      subjects from the control group who were newly diagnosed with MG during the 7
      year follow-up period. The scabies patients had a significantly increased risk of
      MG, with an adjusted HR of 1.27 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.89). As
      such, prompt diagnosis and treatment of scabies may decrease the risk of
      subsequent MG.

PMID- 28890038
TI  - Improving the efficiency of Auditory Brainstem Responses in newborns, using a
      60clicks/s stimulation rate.
AB  - Recent evidence suggests that Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR), in neonates
      with risk factors for neurological damage, may show auditory brainstem
      abnormalities, even in patients with normal hearing. To compare the recording and
      diagnostic accuracy of neonatal Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR), using 10 and
      60clicks/s stimulation rates, two groups of neonates were prospectively studied:
      30 healthy full-term neonates, with no peri- or postnatal complications; and 30
      high-risk newborns with two or more of the following conditions:
      hyperbilirubinemia, use of ototoxic drugs, birth weight inferior to 1500g,
      perinatal sepsis, intraventricular hemorrhage, and/or mechanical ventilation.
      Correlation between ABR trials, recording duration, and the absolute and
      interpeak latencies of ABR waves I, III and V, were measured. ROC-curve analysis
      assessed the diagnostic accuracy of both stimulation rates. The correlations
      between ABRs trials were significantly higher at 60clicks/s than at 10clicks/s
      (F(1,116)=14.5, p<0.0002). Recording duration at 60clicks/s was significantly
      lower (t=20.9, p<0.0001). ROC-curve comparisons showed increased diagnostic
      accuracy at the stimulation rate of 60clicks/s, for waves I (D=2.04, p=0.04), V
      (D=2.02, p=0.04), interpeak latencies III-V (D=2.2, p=0.02), and I-V (D=2.86,
      p=0.004). In neonates, the use of 60clicks/s stimulation rate permits a
      substantial shortening of the ABR recording, with greater diagnostic accuracy and
      replicability.

PMID- 28890039
TI  - Legionella longbeachae pneumonia as a complication of alemtuzumab therapy.

PMID- 28890040
TI  - Risk of Deep vein thrombosis in neurosurgery: State of the art on prophylaxis
      protocols and best clinical practices.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analytically discuss some protocols in Deep vein thrombosis
      (DVT)/pulmonary Embolism (PE) prophylaxis currently use in Neurosurgical
      Departments around the world. DATA SOURCES: Analysis of the prophylaxis protocols
      in the English literature: An analytical and narrative review of literature
      concerning DVT prophylaxis protocols in Neurosurgery have been conducted by a
      PubMed search (back to 1978). DATA EXTRACTION: 80 abstracts were reviewed, and 74
      articles were extracted. DATA ANALYSIS: The majority of DVT seems to develop
      within the first week after a neurosurgical procedure, and a linear correlation
      between the duration of surgery and DVT occurrence has been highlighted. The
      incidence of DVT seems greater for cranial (7.7%) than spinal procedures (1.5%).
      Although intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) devices provided adequate
      reduction of DVT/PE in some cranial and combined cranial/spinal series, low-dose
      subcutaneous unfractionated heparin (UFH) or low molecular-weight heparin (LMWH)
      further reduced the incidence, not always of DVT, but of PE. Nevertheless, low
      dose heparin-based prophylaxis in cranial and spinal series risks minor and major
      postoperative haemorrhages: 2-4% in cranial series, 3.4% minor and 3.4% major
      haemorrhages in combined cranial/spinal series, and a 0.7% incidence of
      major/minor haemorrhages in spinal series. CONCLUSION: This analysis showed that
      currently most of the articles are represented by case series and case reports.
      As long as clear guidelines will not be defined and universally applied to this
      diverse group of patients, any prophylaxis for DVT and PE should be tailored to
      the individual patient with cautious assessment of benefits versus risks.

PMID- 28890041
TI  - Successful endovascular thrombectomy 90h after stroke onset.
AB  - Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) has extended the conventionally accepted time
      window of treatment, from 4.5h (ECASS III trial) for intravenous thrombolysis, to
      7.3h for EVT (HERMES collaboration). More recent evidence suggests EVT times
      could be extended to 24h in carefully selected patients (DAWN trial). Some
      patients present after these time windows with large areas of ischemia but little
      established infarction on imaging. They represent a major dilemma with much to
      gain from EVT but at theoretically higher risk of a poor outcome. We present a
      case of near-complete left M1 occlusion in which EVT achieved reperfusion 90h
      41min after stroke onset with excellent clinical outcome. Current guidelines on
      treatment windows for EVT according to HERMES collaboration do not reflect
      individual patient factors. In appropriate patients delayed EVT may give positive
      clinical outcomes.

PMID- 28890042
TI  - Guillain Barre Syndrome in the elderly: Experience from a tertiary-care hospital
      in India.
AB  - Age influences incidence and prognosis of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), common
      cause of ascending areflexic quadriparesis. Dedicated studies on elderly GBS are
      infrequent. This study aimed to describe clinical features and outcome at
      hospital-discharge in patients aged>=60years with GBS. Medical records of 70
      elderly GBS over 15years were analysed. Mean symptom-duration was 5.78+/-4.5days
      and onset-to-peak 5.14+/-4.4days. Antecedent events preceded GBS by 8.07+/
      9.9days and included: fever (n=19), respiratory infection (n=6), and
      gastroenteritis (n=5). Clinical features were weakness of facial (n=34), bulbar
      (n=13), extraocular (n=4) and respiratory (n=20) muscles and recurrence (n=4).
      Nine had Hughes disability score (HDS) of three or less. Sensory symptoms and
      signs included paresthesias (n=40), pain (n=24), and impaired kinaesthetic
      sensation (n=14). Laboratory abnormalities included albumino-cytological
      dissociation (n=50), hyponatremia (n=36) and elevated creatine kinase (n=18).
      Electrophysiological subtypes were: primary demyelinating (n=52), inexcitable
      (n=3), equivocal (n=2) and axonal (n=1). Fifty-seven patients treated with
      plasmapheresis (n=48) or intravenous immunoglobulin (n=9) had mean HDS of 3.53+/
      0.7 at discharge. Twenty-one were ambulant (HDS>=3), one had persisting
      respiratory weakness and one died. Striking differences between the 'elderly' and
      100 'adults' seen over 20months were shorter symptom-duration, higher frequency
      of facial palsy and hyponatremia, lower frequency of pain, lower mean MRC sum
      score and worse HDS at study-entry and discharge (p<0.05). Requirement for
      mechanical ventilation and cardiac autonomic dysfunction was higher among elderly
      (p:0.02). In conclusion, in this cohort of elderly GBS, there was a higher
      frequency severe GBS and demyelinating electrophysiology.

PMID- 28890043
TI  - A migration case of Kii amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism dementia
      complex with the shortest stay in the endemic area and the longest incubation to
      develop the disease.
AB  - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism dementia complex (ALS/PDC) is an
      endemic disease observed in the Kii peninsula, Guam, and Papua. We report a case
      of a 76-year old man with ALS/PDC of the Kii peninsula of Japan (Kii ALS/PDC).
      The patient was born and grew up in the Kii peninsula. He moved out at age three,
      and developed symptoms 73years later. He showed pyramidal sign, parkinsonian
      symptoms, and mildly impaired cognitive function. 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine
      myocardial scintigraphy showed decreased cardiac sympathetic nerve function, and
      dopamine transporter single photon emission computed tomography imaging showed
      decreased 123I-N-omega-fluoropropyl-2beta-carbomethoxy3beta-(4-iodophenyl)
      nortropane accumulation. Cerebral blood flow showed hypoperfusion. Positron
      emission tomography showed widespread tau deposition in his brain. This is a
      migration case of Kii ALS/PDC with the shortest stay in the endemic area and the
      longest delay to develop the disease, indicating a genetic factor for the disease
      development in a considerable degree.

PMID- 28890044
TI  - Recursive partitioning analysis for disease progression in adult intracranial
      ependymoma patients.
AB  - Intracranial ependymomas are rare tumors in adults. Although recent advancements
      from demographic, clinical, and biological studies provide new perspectives on
      this rare tumor, they are not yet widely applied in clinical practice. Currently,
      most ependymoma patients are treated in the same way: via surgical resection with
      adjuvant radiation therapy. However, it is reasonable to apply more aggressive
      treatment for high-risk patients. From this point of view, we performed a study
      to investigate risk grouping for disease progression of intracranial ependymomas
      in adults. A total of 53 patients were included in this study. Data were
      extracted for patient and tumor characteristics, extent of resection, progression
      free survival (PFS), and overall survival. Prognostic variables from univariate
      and multivariate survival analyses were included in a recursive partitioning
      analysis for the hierarchical risk grouping of the estimated PFS. Three risk
      groups were defined based on the clinical prognostic factors. Survival analysis
      showed significant differences in mean PFS between the different groups: 160.5+/
      22.1months in the complete resection group, 100.4+/-36.8months in the incomplete
      resection and intraventricular-location group, and 23.5+/-6.9months in the
      incomplete-resection and extraventricular-location group (p<0.001). The risk of
      disease progression in adult intracranial ependymoma patients could be stratified
      by degree of resection and tumor location. In clinical practice, this result
      could provide useful information, such as when "second-look" surgery should be
      performed or whether small tumors invading the fourth ventricle floor should be
      resected at the expense of neurological deficit.

PMID- 28890045
TI  - The renin angiotensin system and the brain: New developments.
AB  - The traditional renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is indispensable system in
      adjusting sodium homeostasis, body fluid volume, and controlling arterial blood
      pressure. The key elements are renin splitting inactive angiotensinogen to yield
      angiotensin (Ang-I). Ang-1 is then changed by angiotensin-1 converting enzyme
      (ACE) into angiotensin II (Ang-II). Using PubMed, Google Scholar, and other
      means, we searched the peer-reviewed literature from 1990 to 2013 for articles on
      newly discovered findings related to the RAS, especially focusing on how the
      system influences the central nervous system (CNS). The classical RAS is now
      considered to be only part of the picture; the discovery of additional RAS
      pathways in the brain and elsewhere has yielded a vastly improved understanding
      of how the RAS influences the CNS. Newly discovered effects of the RAS on brain
      tissue include neuroprotection, cognition, and cerebral vasodilation. A number of
      brain biochemical pathways are influenced by the brain RAS. Within various
      pathways, there are potential opportunities for classical pharmacologic
      interventions as well as the possibility of controlling gene expression.

PMID- 28890046
TI  - Effect of multiple neonatal sevoflurane exposures on hippocampal apolipoprotein E
      levels and learning and memory abilities.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sevoflurane anesthesia is widely used in pediatric patients. In this
      study, we investigated whether early multiple exposures to sevoflurane induced
      cognitive dysfunction by altering the hippocampal expression of ApoE later in
      development. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 2.6% sevoflurane at
      postnatal day 7 (P7), P14, and P21 for 2 h. The ability of learning and memory
      was assessed using the Morris water maze at P37 and P97. The hippocampal volume
      was measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at P37 and P97. The hippocampal
      expression of ApoE was assessed by immunohistochemical analyses and real-time
      polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Behavioral testing revealed that the
      ability of learning and memory in the sevoflurane-exposed rats was decreased
      compared with the control animals; however, there was no significant difference
      (P > 0.05). The MRI results showed a significant decrease in the left hippocampal
      volume, left maximum hippocampal length, and right maximum hippocampal length in
      the sevoflurane young group compared with the control young group (P < 0.05). The
      brain volume, left maximum hippocampal length, right hippocampal volume, and
      maximum brain length were significantly lower in the sevoflurane adult group than
      in the control adult group (P < 0.05). In young animals, the ApoE expression in
      the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions and the ApoE mRNA level were significantly
      higher compared with the control group (P < 0.05), but not in the dentate gyrus
      region (P > 0.05). Among the adult animals, there was no significant difference
      between the groups in any parameter tested (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Multiple
      exposures to sevoflurane during the neonatal period decreased the volume of the
      hippocampus and increased the hippocampal expression of ApoE. The differential
      expression level of ApoE in different hippocampal subdivisions suggested that the
      expression of ApoE was regionally specific and reversible.

PMID- 28890047
TI  - Basilar-type migraine: An overlooked cause of loss of consciousness in pediatric
      emergency rooms.

PMID- 28890049
TI  - Psychological Processes in Chronic Pain: Influences of Reward and Fear Learning
      as Key Mechanisms - Behavioral Evidence, Neural Circuits, and Maladaptive
      Changes.
AB  - In the understanding of chronic pain, hypotheses derived from psychological
      theories, together with insights from physiological assessments and brain
      imaging, highlight the importance of mechanistically driven approaches. Physical
      system changes, for example following injury, can result in alterations of
      psychological processes and are accompanied by changes in corticolimbic circuits,
      which have been shown to be essential in emotional learning and memory, as well
      as reward processing and related behavior. In the present review, we thus
      highlight the importance of motivational, reward/pain relief, and fear learning
      processes in the context of chronic pain and discuss the potential of a
      mechanistic understanding of chronic pain within a clinical perspective, for
      example for the development of therapeutic strategies. We argue that changes in
      these mechanisms are not only characteristic for chronic pain, reflecting
      consequences of the disorder, but are also critically involved in the transition
      from acute to chronic pain states.

PMID- 28890048
TI  - Molecular, Cellular and Circuit Basis of Cholinergic Modulation of Pain.
AB  - In addition to being a key component of the autonomic nervous system,
      acetylcholine acts as a prominent neurotransmitter and neuromodulator upon
      release from key groups of cholinergic projection neurons and interneurons
      distributed across the central nervous system. It has been more than forty years
      since it was discovered that cholinergic transmission profoundly modifies the
      perception of pain. Directly activating cholinergic receptors or extending the
      action of endogenous acetylcholine via pharmacological blockade of acetylcholine
      esterase reduces pain in rodents as well as humans; conversely, inhibition of
      muscarinic cholinergic receptors induces nociceptive hypersensitivity. Here, we
      aim to review the considerable progress in our understanding of peripheral,
      spinal and brain contributions to cholinergic modulation of pain. We discuss the
      distribution of cholinergic neurons, muscarinic and nicotinic receptors over the
      central nervous system and the synaptic and circuit-level modulation by
      cholinergic signaling. AchRs profoundly regulate nociceptive transmission at the
      level of the spinal cord via pre- as well as postsynaptic mechanisms. Moreover,
      we attempt to provide an overview of how some of the salient regions in the pain
      network spanning the brain, such as the primary somatosensory cortex, insular
      cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex and descending
      modulatory systems are influenced by cholinergic modulation. Finally, we
      critically discuss the clinical relevance of cholinergic signaling to pain
      therapy. Cholinergic mechanisms contribute to several both conventional as well
      as unorthodox forms of pain treatments, and reciprocal interactions between
      cholinergic and opioidergic modulation impact on the function and efficacy of
      both opioids and cholinomimetic drugs.

PMID- 28890050
TI  - Modulation of hippocampal synapse maturation by activity-regulated E3 ligase via
      non-canonical pathway.
AB  - Development of functional synapses is crucial for the transmission and storage of
      information in the brain. Post establishment of the initial synaptic contact,
      synapses are stabilized through neuronal activity-induced signals. Emerging
      studies have implicated ubiquitination; a reversible posttranslational
      modification, as a key regulatory switch that modulates synapse development
      through proteasomal degradation. Ubiquitination of proteins is precisely
      regulated by E3 ligases, a set of enzymes that bind to specific substrates to
      facilitate the conjugation of monomeric or polymeric ubiquitin. However, the
      identity of specific E3 ubiquitin ligases that influence activity-dependent
      maturation of synapses and the mechanism by which ubiquitination of proteins
      regulate functional synapse development remain elusive. Here, we have identified
      a RING domain containing E3 ligase, Rnf2, asan activity-regulated factor that
      modulates glutamatergic synapse development in the hippocampus. Rnf2 is a synapse
      associated E3 ligase that is stabilized by neuronal activity through self
      polyubiquitination. We have shown that neuronal activity shifts the balance
      toward stabilization of Rnf2 through self-polyubiquitination rather than
      triggering its degradation through polyubiquitination by Ube3A, an E3 ligase
      implicated in Angelman Syndrome. Our synapse density measurements and whole-cell
      patch-clamp recordings have revealed that the loss of Rnf2 function in cultured
      hippocampal neurons result in the development of 'silent' synapses that lack
      GluA1 containing functional AMPA receptors. These results provide a plausible
      mechanistic approach toward understanding how synapse maturation is regulated via
      the activity-dependent stabilization of Rnf2 through a non-canonical function of
      polyubiquitination.

PMID- 28890052
TI  - Neuropeptide Y and its Involvement in Chronic Pain.
AB  - Chronic pain is a serious condition that significantly impairs the quality of
      life, affecting an estimate of 1.5 billion people worldwide. Despite the
      physiological, emotional and financial burden of chronic pain, there is still a
      lack of efficient treatments. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a highly conserved
      endogenous peptide in the central and peripheral nervous systems of all mammals,
      which has been implicated in both pro- and antinociceptive effects. NPY is
      expressed in the superficial laminae of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, where
      it appears to mediate its antinociceptive actions via the Y1 and Y2 receptors.
      Intrathecal administration of NPY in animal models of neuropathic, inflammatory
      or postoperative pain has been shown to cause analgesia, even though its exact
      mechanisms are still unclear. It remains to be seen whether these promising
      central antinociceptive effects of NPY can be transferred into a future treatment
      for chronic pain.

PMID- 28890051
TI  - Systemic administration of two different anxiolytic drugs decreases local field
      potential theta frequency in the medial entorhinal cortex without affecting grid
      cell firing fields.
AB  - Neurons coding spatial location (grid cells) are found in medial entorhinal
      cortex (MEC) and demonstrate increasing size of firing fields and spacing between
      fields (grid scale) along the dorsoventral axis. This change in grid scale
      correlates with differences in theta frequency, a 6-10Hz rhythm in the local
      field potential (LFP) and rhythmic firing of cells. A relationship between theta
      frequency and grid scale can be found when examining grid cells recorded in
      different locations along the dorsoventral axis of MEC. When describing the
      relationship between theta frequency and grid scale, it is important to account
      for the strong positive correlation between theta frequency and running speed.
      Plotting LFP theta frequency across running speeds dissociates two components of
      this relationship: slope and intercept of the linear fit. Change in theta
      frequency through a change in the slope component has been modeled and shown
      experimentally to affect grid scale, but the prediction that change in the
      intercept component would not affect grid scale has not been tested
      experimentally. This prediction about the relationship of intercept to grid scale
      is the primary hypothesis tested in the experiments presented here. All known
      anxiolytic drugs decrease hippocampal theta frequency despite their differing
      mechanisms of action. Specifically, anxiolytics decrease the intercept of the
      theta frequency-running speed relationship in the hippocampus. Here we
      demonstrate that anxiolytics decrease the intercept of the theta frequency
      running speed relationship in the MEC, similar to hippocampus, and the decrease
      in frequency through this change in intercept does not affect grid scale.

PMID- 28890053
TI  - Intrastriatal Chromospheres' Transplant Reduces Nociception in Hemiparkinsonian
      Rats.
AB  - The present study evaluates the possible antinociceptive effect of chromosphere
      transplants in rats injected with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), a model of
      Parkinson's disease. Male adult Wistar rats received 40MUg/0.5MUl of 6-OHDA or
      0.5MUl of vehicle into the left substantia nigra (SNc). Rats were evaluated for
      mechanical allodynia, cold allodynia, thermal hyperalgesia and formalin. Rats
      with altered nociceptive threshold were transplanted with chromospheres. After
      transplant, rats were evaluated every week. Our results confirm that 6-OHDA
      injection into rat's SNc reduces mechanical, thermal, and chemical thresholds.
      Interestingly, chromospheres' transplant reverted 6-OHDA-induced allodynia and
      hyperalgesia. The antinociceptive effect induced by chromospheres was dopamine D2
      and opioid-receptor dependent since sulpiride or naltrexone reverted its effect.

PMID- 28890054
TI  - Home-cage odors spatial cues elicit theta phase/gamma amplitude coupling between
      olfactory bulb and dorsal hippocampus.
AB  - The brain oscillations may play a critical role in synchronizing neuronal
      assemblies in order to establish appropriate sensory-motor integration. In fact,
      studies have demonstrated phase-amplitude coupling of distinct oscillatory
      rhythms during cognitive processes. Here we investigated whether olfacto
      hippocampal coupling occurs when mice are detecting familiar odors located in a
      spatially restricted area of a new context. The spatial olfactory task (SOT) was
      designed to expose mice to a new environment in which only one quadrant (target)
      contains odors provided by its own home-cage bedding. As predicted, mice showed a
      significant higher exploration preference to the target quadrant; which was
      impaired by olfactory epithelium lesion (ZnSO4). Furthermore, mice were able to
      discriminate odors from a different cage and avoided the quadrant with predator
      odor 2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), reinforcing the specificity of the SOT. The
      local field potential (LFP) analysis of non-lesioned mice revealed higher gamma
      activity (35-100Hz) in the main olfactory bulb (MOB) and a significant theta
      phase/gamma amplitude coupling between MOB and dorsal hippocampus, only during
      exploration of home-cage odors (i.e. in the target quadrant). Our results suggest
      that exploration of familiar odors in a new context involves dynamic coupling
      between the olfactory bulb and dorsal hippocampus.

PMID- 28890055
TI  - Resected irradiated rectal cancers: Are twelve lymph nodes really necessary in
      the era of neoadjuvant therapy?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Our study aims to identify the minimum number of lymph nodes (LN)
      associated with improved survival in patients who underwent NRT for stage II-III
      rectal cancer. METHODS: Adults with clinical stage II and III rectal
      adenocarcinoma in the National Cancer Data Base were stratified by NRT.
      Multivariable Cox regression modeling with restricted cubic splines was used to
      determine the minimum number of LNs associated with improved survival. RESULTS:
      Of 38,363 patients, 76% received NRT. After adjustment, a LNY>=12 was associated
      with improved survival among patients receiving NRT (HR 0.79, p < 0.0001) and
      those without NRT (HR 0.88, p = 0.04). Among patients receiving NRT, factors
      independently associated with LNY>=12 were younger age, private insurance, low
      comorbidity score, a recent year of diagnosis, higher T stage and grade, APR
      resection, and academic institution. CONCLUSIONS: A minimum LNY of 12 confers a
      survival benefit for rectal cancer patients regardless of receiving neoadjuvant
      radiation therapy.

PMID- 28890056
TI  - Giant Chest Wall Arteriovenous Malformation: A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We present an interesting case of a 55-year-old male with a large
      left chest mass after significant cutaneous bleeding. Computed tomography
      angiogram of the chest revealed arteriovenous malformation with blood supply from
      sub-branches of the left subclavian artery, left internal mammary artery, and
      left external carotid artery. Measuring 5.0 * 14.0 * 10.8 cm, the mass extended
      superior to the clavicle and inferior to the third rib with medial and lateral
      borders at the level of the clavicular head and coracoid, respectively. METHODS:
      Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are characterized by abnormal connections
      between arteries and veins which bypass the capillary system. Often small and
      asymptomatic, large AVMs can be painful, prone to bleeding and, if large enough,
      interfere with activities of daily living. While described involving various
      parts of the body, most notably in the central nervous system, there is a paucity
      of literature involving chest wall AVMs. RESULTS: Using a staged,
      multidisciplinary approach, treatment began with an endovascular exclusion of the
      arterial blood supply, which involved a combination of coil embolization and
      stent exclusion of feeder vessels. Two days postembolization, the patient
      underwent an en bloc resection of affected portion of his chest wall.
      Reconstruction was completed with a combination rotational flap and split
      thickness skin graft. Following the procedures, the patient had an uncomplicated
      recovery. Three years following procedure, he has no signs of recurrence of his
      AV malformation. CONCLUSION: Surgical planning and indications for giant
      arteriovenous malformations remains a unique and difficult problem. The complex
      anatomy and extreme rarity of a chest wall AVM requires a multidisciplinary
      staged approach but can be treated with a multistage, multidisciplinary surgical
      approach with satisfactory and long-lasting results.

PMID- 28890057
TI  - Endovascular Exclusion of Hypogastric Aneurysms Using Distal Branches of the
      Internal Iliac Artery as Landing Zone: A Case Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to report an alternative endovascular
      technique to exclude aneurysms of the internal iliac artery in the setting of
      abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease using the anterior division of the
      hypogastric artery (HGA) or the superior gluteal artery (SGA) as distal landing
      zone for the stent graft. METHODS: Three patients with HGA aneurysms in the
      setting of AAA that were excluded with placement of a self-expandable covered
      stent. In 2 patients, the AAA had been already treated with resulting exclusion
      of 1 HGA, while in the remaining we treated the hypogastric aneurysm before the
      AAA. We used as distal landing zone the anterior division of the HGA or the SGA.
      We adopted a "stent-within-a-stent" or "telescope" technique to manage diameter
      discrepancy between proximal and distal landing zone. RESULTS: Computed
      tomography angiography (CTA) at 6 and 12 months showed regular placement and
      patency of the stent grafts placed and absence of detectable endoleaks (EL). None
      of the patients developed pelvic ischemic complication at longest follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS: The procedure seems to be safe and effective, with optimal primary
      patency of the stent grafts, freedom from type 1 and 2 endoleaks, and absence of
      pelvic ischemic complications in the short-term and mid-term.

PMID- 28890058
TI  - Reversal of Acute Mesenteric Ischemia by Salvation of the Meandering Mesenteric
      Artery with Stenting of the Left Internal Iliac Artery.
AB  - The presence of the meandering mesenteric artery, which is a nonconstant tortuous
      arterial component unifying the peripheral intestinal circulation, is evidence of
      chronic occlusive disease of the main intestinal arteries. This collateral
      intestinal arterial pathway, when present, must be preserved in any abdominal
      intervention, as it is often the only remaining arterial supply of the intestine;
      its ligation can be accompanied by intestinal ischemia. We present herein, the
      case of a 42-year-old man, heavy smoker, who had chronic mesenteric ischemia
      without particular clinical manifestations till the hospitalization for acute
      myocardial infarction for which he underwent balloon angioplasty and stenting of
      the left circumflex coronary artery. Three days later, he experienced acute-on
      chronic intestinal ischemia with crescendo clinical manifestations; intra
      arterial angiography revealed the presence of a meandering mesenteric artery in a
      milieu of celiac, superior and inferior mesenteric, and right internal iliac
      artery occlusion accompanied by a tight stenosis of the left internal iliac
      artery. Successful stenting of the orifice of the left internal iliac artery was
      followed by a well-defined dilatation of the meandering artery, revascularization
      of the peripheral branches of the inferior-through the superior hemorrhoidal
      artery-and superior mesenteric arteries and complete resolution of the acute
      mesenteric ischemia. Thus, time was gained for the patient in order to have, if
      needed, a future elective open revascularization of the mesenteric artery, when
      the perioperative risk of mortality from the recent myocardial infarction and the
      coronary angioplasty and stenting will be minimal.

PMID- 28890059
TI  - Covered Stent Grafts for Acquired Arterial Venous Fistulas: A Case Series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stent grafts have become the preferred method for treating abdominal
      aortic aneurysms (AAAs) but also have utility in treating other vasculopathies.
      In 2005, peripheral stent grafts were approved for treating superficial femoral
      artery occlusive disease. This report describes our experience using covered
      stent grafts to treat acquired arterial venous fistulae (aAVF). METHODS: We
      reviewed the records of patients treated for aAVF with covered stent grafts.
      Eleven patients had 12 limbs treated with a stent graft. The data collected
      included presenting symptoms, mechanism of injury, vessel location, stent graft
      used for therapy, and patency. RESULTS: Eleven patients underwent successful
      treatment of 12 aAVF with a peripheral stent grafts. The average age was 55.6 (18
      87), and there were 4 women and 7 men. The mechanisms of injuries were heart
      catheterization in 5 patients, penetrating trauma in 3 patients, and orthopedic
      injury in 3 patients. Five of the patients had concurrent pseudoaneurysms. Self
      expanding expanded polytetrafluoroethelene (ePTFE) stent grafts were used in 8
      patients, and balloon-expandable ePTFE stent grafts were used in 3 patients.
      Primary patency at 2 years is 100%, with all patients having significant relief
      of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral stent grafts are a useful tool for treating
      aAVF, with excellent patency. They provide a valuable minimally invasive approach
      to this disease.

PMID- 28890060
TI  - Transverse versus Longitudinal Incisions for Femoral Artery Exposure in Treating
      Patients with Peripheral Vascular Disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study evaluates differences in wound complication rate when
      transverse versus longitudinal incision is utilized to expose femoral vessels in
      managing patients with peripheral vascular disease. METHODS: A retrospective
      review from 2013 to 2015 was conducted of 150 patients undergoing 156 lower
      extremity revascularizations with femoral artery exposure through a groin
      incision. Patients were stratified into 2 groups, transverse versus longitudinal
      groin incision. Data were reviewed for 3 surgeons that utilize either transverse
      or longitudinal groin incision in patients undergoing common or iliofemoral
      endarterectomies, or where femoral artery was used as inflow and/or outflow
      vessel for limb revascularization. Each group had a comparative outcomes analysis
      based on incision type. The primary outcome was wound complication, defined as
      any wound infection, lymphocele, hematoma, dehiscence, pseudoaneurysm, or
      necrosis. Other outcomes studied included unplanned return to operating room for
      wound complication, wound vacuum therapy, and soft-tissue flap closure. Data were
      analyzed using 2-tailed chi-squared test and Student's t-test. RESULTS: Patients
      in the transverse (n = 85 cases) versus longitudinal (n = 71 cases) cohorts were
      similar in relation to demographics and comorbidities. Overall mean follow-up was
      220 days. Patients with a transverse as compared to longitudinal incision had a
      significantly lower overall wound complication rate, 7% vs. 42%, respectively (P
      < 0.001). Furthermore, transverse incisions were associated with lower incidence
      of unplanned return to the operating room to manage wound complications than
      patients with a longitudinal incision (5% vs. 23%, respectively; P < 0.001).
      Transverse versus longitudinal incisions were also associated with significantly
      lower need for wound vacuum therapy (6% vs. 15%, respectively; P < 0.05) and
      muscle flap closure (0% vs. 13%, respectively; P < 0.001) for wound
      complications. CONCLUSIONS: Transverse groin incisions for femoral artery
      exposure may offer a lower risk of wound complications for open procedures as
      compared to a longitudinal incision. While longitudinal incisions may have higher
      wound complication rates, incisional approach is contingent on anatomical
      circumstance and treated disease pattern. Patients should undergo appropriate
      preoperative counseling regarding wound healing in preparation for limb
      revascularization.

PMID- 28890061
TI  - Cerebral Protection with a Temporary Ascending Aorta-External Carotid Artery
      Bypass during Common Carotid Artery Revascularization.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease, and multiarterial involvement is common.
      Involvement of all the supra-aortic arteries may occur in the same patient making
      cerebral revascularization challenging. In this report, we present complete supra
      aortic revascularization, that is, revascularization of the bilateral common
      carotid and subclavian arteries in a 51-year-old male patient with occluded
      brachiocephalic trunk, left subclavian artery, and proximally stenotic left
      common carotid artery. A temporary ascending aorta to left external carotid
      artery bypass provided meticulous cerebral protection with pulsatile cerebral
      flow in the presence of a proximal arterial clamp; hence, a neurologically
      uneventful procedure during bilateral common carotid artery revascularization.

PMID- 28890062
TI  - National Utilization and Outcomes of Redo Lower Extremity Bypass versus
      Endovascular Intervention after a Previous Failed Bypass.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Redo lower extremity bypass (LEB) and infrainguinal endovascular
      intervention (IEI) are options to treat critical limb ischemia after a failed
      prior LEB, but the utilization and outcomes of each are poorly described. The
      purpose of this study was to compare 30-day major adverse limb events (MALEs) and
      major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) after LEB and IEI in patients with a
      failed prior ipsilateral LEB and determine risk factors for each composite
      outcome. METHODS: Patients with prior failed ipsilateral LEB who underwent LEB or
      IEI involving the same arterial segment for critical limb ischemia were
      identified in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) Vascular
      Targeted File (2011-2014). LEB with single-segment saphenous vein was compared to
      LEB with alternative conduit (prosthetic/spliced vein/composite) and IEI. Primary
      outcomes were MALE (untreated loss of patency, reintervention, or amputation) and
      MACE (stroke, myocardial infarction, or death). Multivariate analysis was
      utilized to identify independent predictors of MALE and MACE. RESULTS: Among
      8,066 revascularizations performed for critical limb ischemia (CLI), 1,606 (461
      [28.7%] IEI, 518 [32.3%] LEB saphenous, and 627 [39.0%] LEB alternative) were
      performed after failed ipsilateral LEB involving the same arterial segment. LEB
      with saphenous had lower MALE than LEB with alternate conduit and IEI (15.8% IEI,
      10.8% saphenous, and 15.5% alternative, P = 0.03). Higher MALE was driven by
      higher 30-day amputation in IEI (7.8% IEI, 3.7% saphenous, and 5.3% alternative,
      P = 0.02). Independent predictors of MALE include transfer status (odds ratio
      [OR] = 1.7, P = 0.01), tobacco use (OR = 1.5, P = 0.02), infrageniculate
      revascularization (OR = 1.6, P = 0.004), and saphenous conduit (OR = 0.5, P =
      0.002). MACE was also different between groups (3.9% IEI, 7% saphenous, and 5.6%
      alternative, P = 0.049), with no difference in 30-day mortality (P = 0.53).
      Independent predictors of MACE included congestive heart failure (OR = 3.0, P =
      0.01) and dialysis dependence (OR = 2.5, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In this large
      national sample representing routine vascular care of patients with CLI after
      failed ipsilateral LEB of the same arterial segment, IEI is common and represents
      30% of revascularizations in this data set. Redo LEB with saphenous is associated
      with superior limb-related outcomes, but IEI offers an acceptable potential
      alternative to bypass in patients who would require alternative conduit. Finally,
      perioperative care is critical as we demonstrate that patient comorbidities, not
      the method of revascularization, predicted MACE.

PMID- 28890063
TI  - The Value of Carotid Endarterectomy as a Learning Tool for Trainees.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) intervention needs a specific training
      and a sufficient learning curve to obtain optimal results in terms of outcome. A
      formative program was settled up in a single academic center to optimize training
      of standard CEA procedures. This study aims to evaluate the 11-year results of
      the teaching CEA program. METHODS: The trainees CEA teaching program is carried
      on during the 5-year vascular surgery residency period, and it is stratified as
      follows: learning theory and intervention assistance (minimum 50 procedures per
      year) in the first and second residency year; performing CEA as second operator
      in the third and fourth residency year (minimum 50 procedures per year); CEA
      execution as first operator with attending supervision in the last residency
      year. All CEA procedures from 2005 to 2015 were retrospectively collected and the
      30-day results were compared according to the expertise of the first operator:
      experienced vascular surgeons (EVSs) versus trainees. All CEA procedures were
      performed in general anesthesia, with routine shunting and patching. RESULTS: In
      the study period, 1,379 (361 [26.2%] symptomatic; 1,018 [73.8%] asymptomatic)
      CEAs were performed. Trainees performed 199 (14.4%) CEAs as first operator.
      Patients submitted to CEA by trainees were similar in terms of preoperative
      clinical characteristics except for the patients' age (trainees 72.4 years versus
      EVS 70.8 years, P = 0.02) and smoking history (trainees 30.7% versus EVS 24.1%, P
      = 0.04). The 30-day complication rates were similar in CEA performed by trainees
      versus EVS: stroke 0.5% vs. 1.1%, P = 0.5; death 0.0% vs. 0.5%, P = 0.6;
      stroke/death 0.5% vs. 1.7%, P = 0.24; hematoma 3.0% vs. 2.2%, P = 0.48; and
      cranial nerve injury 9.0% vs. 7.8%, P = 0.47, respectively. The intervention time
      was significantly longer in CEAs performed by trainees compared with EVS: 104 +/-
      1.9 min versus 98 +/- 1.0 min, P = 0.02. CONCLUSIONS: With a defined CEA teaching
      program, trainees can obtain results similar to those of more experienced
      surgeons in terms of clinical outcome at the price of an increased intervention
      time.

PMID- 28890064
TI  - Evaluating the Utilization of Prophylactic Inferior Vena Cava Filters in Trauma
      Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The lack of evidence-based guidelines on the use of prophylactic
      inferior vena cava filters (IVCFs) in patients after trauma has led to variation
      of its application. We seek to understand the national trend of the use of
      prophylactic IVCF in trauma population. METHODS: A retrospective review of the
      National Trauma Databank (2002-2014) was performed to identify patients who
      received an IVCF after trauma. Those without a preexisting venous thromboembolism
      or discharge diagnosis of VTE were classified as receiving prophylactic IVCF.
      Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine associations
      between the use of prophylactic IVCF and risk factors for VTE. P value <=0.05 was
      considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Among the 2,189,994 patients
      evaluated, 41,155 (2%) received a prophylactic IVCF. The rate of overall IVCF
      placement (2.9% in 2002-2006 to 1.6% in 2014, P < 0.001) and prophylactic IVCF
      placement (2.5% in 2002-2006 to 1.2% in 2014, P < 0.001) decreased over the study
      period. In multivariable analysis, significant risk factors associated with the
      use of prophylactic IVCF were male gender (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1-1.2), African
      American race (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1-1.2), injury severity score >= 24 (OR 4.4, 95%
      CI 4.2-4.5), Glasgow Coma Scale <8 (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.4-1.5), spinal cord injury
      with paraplegia (OR 5.1, 95% CI 4.7-5.6), pelvic fracture (OR 2.9, 95% CI 2.7
      3.0), long bone fracture (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.3-1.4), and solid organ injury (OR
      1.2, 95% CI 1.2-1.3) (P < 0.001). Patients who were treated at a level-II trauma
      center (OR 1.1, 95% CI 1.1-1.2, P < 0.001), at a facility with >=200 beds (OR
      1.3, 95% CI 1.2-1.4, P < 0.001), and those with medical insurance coverage (OR
      1.4, 95% CI 1.6-1.8, P < 0.001) were also more likely to receive a prophylactic
      IVCF. CONCLUSIONS: The utilization of prophylactic IVCF in trauma patients has
      decreased over time between 2008 and 2014. Considerable variation exists in its
      use, which is not fully accounted for by the VTE rate. Further study is required
      to evaluate appropriate indications for placement of prophylactic IVCF in trauma
      patients.

PMID- 28890066
TI  - Ascending Aorta Endovascular Repair of a Symptomatic Penetrating Atherosclerotic
      Ulcer with a Custom-Made Endograft.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) has become lately the
      procedure of choice in the treatment of most pathologies of descending thoracic
      aorta. Aortic arch aneurysms also came to be treated by TEVAR with various hybrid
      techniques or custom-made scalloped/fenestrated stent grafts. Zone 0; ascending
      TEVAR is more challenging than TEVAR of the descending thoracic aorta or aortic
      arch because of the more complex pathology, hemodynamics, and anatomy. Ascending
      TEVAR can be a lifesaving treatment in selected high surgical risk patients. CASE
      REPORT: A 71-year-old male with known history of respiratory insufficiency,
      coronary artery disease, and low left ventricle ejection fraction, presented to
      emergency department with acute thoracic pain. As the initial laboratory tests
      and the electrocardiogram were negative for acute coronary syndrome, a computed
      tomography (CT) scan was performed that showed a 20 mm large and 17 mm depth
      penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU) in the middle portion of ascending
      thoracic aorta. After medical therapy administration, the thoracic pain was
      controlled, and due to the high surgical risk of the patient, high incidence of
      aortic rupture due to PAU, and favorable anatomic conditions was scheduled the
      implantation of a custom-made (due to short ascending aorta) stent graft (Bolton,
      Relay Plus). A pacemaker was implanted 1 week before the operation to induce
      rapid ventricular pacing during the stent-graft deployment. During the operation,
      the patient was under general anesthesia as it was our first case treated in this
      way. The delivery of the graft was achieved through a right femoral artery cut
      open by an extra-stiff guide wire (Lunderquist Cook) that was placed through an
      angio-catheter into the left ventricle of the heart. The final positioning and
      deployment of the graft was achieved under rapid ventricular pacing, and the
      final angiogram after the withdraw of the graft delivery system showed exclusion
      from circulation of PAU, patency of coronary arteries, and brachiocephalic trunk
      with competent aortic valve. CONCLUSIONS: TEVAR of the ascending aorta is a safe
      and feasible technique indicated mainly unfit for open surgery patients.

PMID- 28890065
TI  - Comparison of Endovascular Stent Grafts for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair in
      Medicare Beneficiaries.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Increased renal complications have been suggested with suprarenal
      stent grafts, but long-term analyses have been limited. Therefore, the purpose of
      this study was to evaluate the effect of endograft choice on perioperative and
      long-term outcomes. METHODS: We compared Medicare beneficiaries undergoing
      endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysms repair from 2005 to 2008 with endografts
      with infrarenal fixation and a single docking limb (AneuRx, Excluder) to those
      with suprarenal fixation and 2 docking limbs (Zenith), or a unibody configuration
      (Powerlink). Propensity score weighting accounted for differences in patient
      characteristics among the different graft formations, and perioperative
      mortality, complications, and length of stay and 4-year rates of survival,
      rupture, and reintervention were compared. RESULTS: Forty-six thousand one
      hundred seventy-one Medicare beneficiaries were identified including 11,002 (24%)
      with suprarenal fixation, 32,909 (71%) with infrarenal fixation, and 2,260 (5%)
      with a unibody graft. After propensity score weighting, there were no significant
      differences in patients' baseline clinical and demographic characteristics. The
      suprarenal fixation patients had higher rates of perioperative mortality (1.7%
      vs. 1.3%, P < 0.01), renal failure (6.0% vs. 4.7%, P < 0.001), and mesenteric
      ischemia (0.7% vs. 0.4%, P < 0.01) and longer length of stay (3.4 days vs. 3.0
      days, P < 0.001) compared with patients with infrarenal fixation. Unibody grafts
      had higher rates of renal failure (5.9% vs. 4.7%, P < 0.001), mesenteric ischemia
      (1.0% vs. 0.4%, P < 0.001), and conversion to open repair (0.7% vs. 0.1%, P <
      0.001) compared to those with infrarenal fixation and single docking limbs. At 4
      years, mortality remained slightly higher with suprarenal compared to infrarenal
      fixation (30% vs. 29%, P = 0.047), although these patients had fewer conversions
      to open repair (0.6% vs. 0.9%, P = 0.03) and aneurysm-related reinterventions
      (10% vs. 12%, P < 0.01). At 4 years, unibody grafts had more aneurysm-related
      interventions compared to infrarenal fixation grafts (15% vs. 12%, P < 0.01) but
      fewer conversions to open repair (0.4% vs. 0.9%, P = 0.02). Late rupture did not
      differ among the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to infrarenal fixation devices,
      patients who underwent EVAR with suprarenal fixation had higher perioperative
      mortality and renal complications but fewer reinterventions including conversion,
      while the unibody graft had more perioperative complications and aneurysm-related
      reinterventions, but fewer conversions to open repair. Although these differences
      could be explained by selection bias, these data suggest that further comparative
      effectiveness analyses should be performed to understand the outcomes following
      EVAR with suprarenal fixation and unibody grafts.

PMID- 28890067
TI  - Retrosternal Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Cancer Causing Superior Vena Cava
      Syndrome: A Very Rare Presentation.
AB  - Thyroid cancer causing superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome is a very rare clinical
      entity with only 26 cases reported worldwide. Metastatic thyroid cancer causing
      SVC syndrome several years following resection of the primary tumor is extremely
      rare with only 2 cases reported; one of them was of the papillary variety. We
      report the second case worldwide of metastatic papillary thyroid cancer causing
      SVC syndrome 2 years after total thyroidectomy of the original tumor in a 62-year
      old Indian female pilgrim. Unfortunately, the patient died on the third day of
      intensive care unit admission. The severity of the clinical condition in addition
      to the late presentation resulted in a catastrophic outcome, which made all the
      possible resuscitative efforts very difficult.

PMID- 28890068
TI  - Is the Endovascular Treatment of Mild Iliac Stenoses Worthwhile to Improve Wound
      Healing in Patients Undergoing Femorotibial Bypass?
AB  - BACKGROUND: After an infrapopliteal reconstruction, minor amputations are
      frequently required, but even in the case of successful revascularization, wound
      healing is a major concern. We studied the role of iliac artery inflow correction
      in patients undergoing infrapopliteal vein grafts to improve the heal of midfoot
      amputation. METHODS: Thirty-eight patients affected with Rutherford grade III
      category 5 peripheral arterial disease, who underwent successful simultaneous
      iliac endovascular procedure, infrapopliteal reversed vein bypass graft, and
      minor amputation, were enrolled in this retrospective study. The population was
      divided in group 1 (20 patients) with inflow vessels Trans-Atlantic Inter-Society
      Consensus Document on Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease (TASC) II type B
      atherosclerotic lesions and group 2 (18 patients) with TASC II type A
      atherosclerotic lesions determining an invasive pressure drop greater than 15 mm
      Hg. Fifteen patients (group 3) undergoing infrapopliteal reversed vein bypass
      graft without associated inflow procedures (TASC II type A and invasive pressure
      drop greater than 15 mm Hg) were matched with group 2 based on propensity score.
      Healing was calculated by subtracting the final ulcer area from the initial ulcer
      area and dividing by the number of follow-up months to obtain the total area
      healed per month (cm2/month). Stepwise logistic regression analysis adjusted for
      demographics and medical comorbid conditions was used to test the association
      between wound healing and treatment modalities. RESULTS: Forty-three patients
      were available for further analysis. Ten patients were excluded because of graft
      occlusion with consequent impairment of wound healing. After midfoot amputations,
      mean wound diameter was 20 +/- 8 cm2, and mean healing time was 10 +/- 4 months
      (range 3-20 months; median 9 months). Wounds of groups 1 and 2 healed faster than
      those of group 3 at 4 and 8 months (P < 0.02 and P < 0.001, respectively; P <
      0.04 and P < 0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis demonstrated the
      association between wound healing and inflow correction (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:
      An aggressive treatment is necessary to obtain the heal of the ischemic wounds.
      The most important predictive factor for nonhealing wounds is the absence of
      inflow correction. We demonstrated that the inflow should be also corrected in
      the presence of subclinical lesions.

PMID- 28890069
TI  - Shrinking Hepatic Hemangiomas in a Patient Treated for Metastatic Germ Cell
      Tumor.

PMID- 28890070
TI  - Oligometastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma With Sarcomatoid Differentiation
      Demonstrating Variable Imaging Phenotypes on 68Ga-PSMA and 18F-FDG PET/CT: A Case
      Report and Review of the Literature.

PMID- 28890071
TI  - Serum lipid alterations in GBA-associated Parkinson's disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Mutations in the GBA gene, encoding for the lysosomal enzyme
      glucocerebrosidase, are associated with Gaucher disease. Alterations in plasma
      sphingolipids have been reported in Gaucher, and similarly in brain extracts in
      Lewy body disease. As GBA mutations are prevalent risk factors for Parkinson's
      disease and overlap of molecular pathways are presumable, here we assessed the
      lipid profiles in Parkinson's patients with and without GBA mutations. METHODS:
      We sequenced all GBA exons in 415 Parkinson's patients, previously genotyped for
      LRRK2. 64 patients (29 GBA positive vs. 35 non-GBA-carriers including 18 LRRK2
      positive and 17 non-mutated) were analyzed for chitotriosidase activity and for
      the concentration of 40 lipid classes using HPLC-MS. RESULTS: 29/415 patients
      (6.9%) carried 8 different GBA mutations associated with Gaucher or Parkinson's,
      including one novel mutation. Chitotriosidase activity was similar across the
      genetic groups, while the levels of key lipids were altered in GBA mutation
      carriers: Monohexosylceramide, Ceramide and Sphingomyelin were elevated; while
      Phosphatidic acid (PA), Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), Plasmalogen
      phosphatidylethanolamine (PEp) and Acyl Phosphatidylglycerol (AcylPG) were
      decreased. CONCLUSION: The results suggest an important role for these lipids in
      GBA mediated Parkinson's disease and assist in the identification of common
      pathways between Gaucher and Parkinson's. Ultimately, our findings may lead to
      the identification of novel biomarkers for individuals at increased risk of
      developing Parkinson's disease.

PMID- 28890072
TI  - Large-Scale Quantitative Proteomics Identifies the Ubiquitin Ligase Nedd4-1 as an
      Essential Regulator of Liver Regeneration.
AB  - The liver is the only organ in mammals that fully regenerates even after major
      injury. To identify orchestrators of this regenerative response, we performed
      quantitative large-scale proteomics analysis of cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions
      from normal versus regenerating mouse liver. Proteins of the ubiquitin-proteasome
      pathway were rapidly upregulated after two-third hepatectomy, with the ubiquitin
      ligase Nedd4-1 being a top hit. In vivo knockdown of Nedd4-1 in hepatocytes
      through nanoparticle-mediated delivery of small interfering RNA caused severe
      liver damage and inhibition of cell proliferation after hepatectomy, resulting in
      liver failure. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that Nedd4-1 is required for
      efficient internalization of major growth factor receptors involved in liver
      regeneration and their downstream mitogenic signaling. These results highlight
      the power of large-scale proteomics to identify key players in liver regeneration
      and the importance of posttranslational regulation of growth factor signaling in
      this process. Finally, they identify an essential function of Nedd4-1 in tissue
      repair.

PMID- 28890074
TI  - Editorial - Waste management.

PMID- 28890073
TI  - Alternative Progenitor Cells Compensate to Rebuild the Coronary Vasculature in
      Elabela- and Apj-Deficient Hearts.
AB  - Organogenesis during embryonic development occurs through the differentiation of
      progenitor cells. This process is extraordinarily accurate, but the mechanisms
      ensuring high fidelity are poorly understood. Coronary vessels of the mouse heart
      derive from at least two progenitor pools, the sinus venosus and endocardium. We
      find that the ELABELA (ELA)-APJ signaling axis is only required for sinus venosus
      derived progenitors. Because they do not depend on ELA-APJ, endocardial
      progenitors are able to expand and compensate for faulty sinus venosus
      development in Apj mutants, leading to normal adult heart function. An
      upregulation of endocardial SOX17 accompanied compensation in Apj mutants, which
      was also seen in Ccbe1 knockouts, indicating that the endocardium is activated in
      multiple cases where sinus venosus angiogenesis is stunted. Our data demonstrate
      that by diversifying their responsivity to growth cues, distinct coronary
      progenitor pools are able to compensate for each other during coronary
      development, thereby providing robustness to organ development.

PMID- 28890076
TI  - Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey scores for required reading versus
      leisure reading in school-age children.
AB  - PURPOSE: To compare Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey scores for required
      reading for school versus scores for leisure reading. METHODS: At a single
      private practice, we surveyed 100 children with normal binocular vision using
      modified survey questions specifying either required reading or leisure reading
      as the near visual activity. Average total symptom scores and subscores for
      questions about discomfort, fatigue, impaired vision, and cognitive performance
      were analyzed using t tests; responses to individual questions were analyzed
      using Mann-Whitney U tests. RESULTS: The average score for the required reading
      survey was significantly higher than for the leisure reading survey (14.4 +/- 9.1
      vs 9.8 +/- 6.9 [P = 0.005]). Significantly higher symptom scores were recorded
      for 7 of 15 questions and 3 of 4 subscores (discomfort, fatigue, and impaired
      vision) for the required reading survey, whereas scores for the leisure reading
      survey highly correlated (R2 = 0.95) with each child's self-reported reading
      speed. CONCLUSIONS: Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey scores vary greatly
      depending on the type of near activity being surveyed and thus do not accurately
      isolate and reflect near visual ability. Beginning each survey with the question
      about self-rated reading speed could eliminate the need for additional questions
      if a child self-rates his or her reading speed as average or better. Because of
      the influence of the type of near visual activity on symptoms, survey questions
      should explicitly specify the near visual activity to prevent a child's
      interpretation of the question's intent from affecting the symptom score.

PMID- 28890075
TI  - Down-regulation of dorsal striatal alphaCaMKII causes striatum-related cognitive
      and synaptic disorders.
AB  - Alpha calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (alphaCaMKII) is a
      serine/threonine protein kinase which is expressed abundantly in dorsal striatum
      and is highly involved in the corticostriatal synaptic plasticity. Nevertheless,
      it currently remains unclear whether and how alphaCaMKII plays a in the striatum
      related neural disorders. To address the above issue, lentivirus-mediated short
      hairpin RNA (shRNA) was used to silence the expression of alphaCaMKII gene in the
      dorsal striatum of mice. As a consequence of down-regulation of dorsal striatal
      alphaCaMKII expression, we observed defective motor skill learning in
      accelerating rotarod and response learning in water cross maze. Furthermore,
      impaired corticostriatal basal transmission and long-term potentiation (LTP),
      which correlated with the deficits in dorsal striatum-related cognition, were
      also detected in the alphaCaMKII-shRNA mice. Consistent with the above results,
      alphaCaMKII-shRNA mice exhibited a remarkable decline in GluA1-Ser831 and GluA1
      Ser845 phosphorylation levels of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4
      isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR), and a decline in the expression levels
      of N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) subunits NR1, NR2A and NR2B. Taken
      together, alphaCaMKII down-regulation caused dorsal striatum-related cognitive
      disorders by inhibiting corticostriatal synaptic plasticity, which resulted from
      dysfunction of AMPARs and NMDARs. Our findings demonstrate for the first time an
      important role of alphaCaMKII in striatum-related neural disorders and provide
      further evidence for the proposition that corticostriatal LTP underlies aspects
      of dorsal striatum-related cognition.

PMID- 28890077
TI  - Occlusion dose monitoring in amblyopia therapy: status, insights, and future
      directions.
AB  - Occlusion therapy remains the mainstay treatment of amblyopia, but its outcome is
      not assured or universally excellent. Many factors are known to influence
      treatment outcome, among which compliance is foremost. The occlusion dose monitor
      (ODM) removes one variable from the treatment equation, because it records the
      occlusion actually received by-rather than prescribed for-the child. Improvement
      observed can thus be quantitatively related to the patching received. This review
      summarizes the insights the ODM has provided to date particularly in elucidating
      the dose-response relationship. We are entering the era of personalized
      ophthalmology in which treatments will be tailored to the needs of the individual
      child and facilitated by the use of wearable monitors.

PMID- 28890078
TI  - Choroidal Thinning Associated With Hydroxychloroquine Retinopathy.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate choroidal thickness in patients using hydroxychloroquine
      (HCQ) and compare choroidal thickness between eyes with and without HCQ
      retinopathy. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. METHODS: Setting: Institutional.
      PATIENTS: We included 124 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus or
      rheumatoid arthritis who were treated with HCQ. The patients were divided into an
      HCQ retinopathy group and a control group, according to the presence or absence
      of HCQ retinopathy. OBSERVATION: Total choroidal thickness and choriocapillaris
      equivalent thickness were measured manually by 2 independent investigators using
      swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT; DRI-OCT, Topcon Inc, Tokyo,
      Japan). These measurements were made at the fovea and at nasal and temporal
      locations 0.5, 1.5, and 3 mm from the fovea. Medium-to-large vessel layer
      thickness was calculated accordingly. The thicknesses were compared between the
      HCQ retinopathy and control groups. We performed correlation analyses between
      choroidal thicknesses and details regarding HCQ use. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Total
      choroidal thickness and choriocapillaris-equivalent thickness. RESULTS: Choroidal
      thicknesses were significantly decreased (P < .05) in the HCQ retinopathy group
      compared to the control group, except at the temporal choroid 1.5 mm from the
      fovea. Choriocapillaris-equivalent thicknesses were significantly different in
      all choroidal locations between the groups. In contrast, the medium-to-large
      vessel layer thickness was only significantly different at a few locations. The
      cumulative dose/body weight was significantly correlated with subfoveal choroidal
      and choriocapillaris-equivalent thicknesses (both P = .001). The association
      between presence of HCQ retinopathy and choroidal thicknesses was also
      statistically significant after adjusting for age, diagnosis for HCQ use,
      refractive errors, and duration of HCQ use (P = .001 and P = .003 for subfoveal
      choroidal and choriocapillaris-equivalent thickness, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:
      These results all suggest that HCQ retinopathy is associated with choroidal
      thinning, especially in the choriocapillaris. Our results may suggest choroidal
      involvement of HCQ toxicity.

PMID- 28890079
TI  - The Effect of Chronic Pulmonary Disease and Mechanical Ventilation on Corneal
      Donor Endothelial Cell Density and Transplant Suitability.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine how chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
      mechanical ventilation time affect corneal donor endothelial cell density (ECD)
      and transplant suitability. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Setting:
      Institutional. STUDY POPULATION: Total of 39 679 cornea donor eyes from SightLife
      Eye Bank between 2012 and 2016. Demographics, death-to-preservation time, ECD,
      lens status, medical history, time on mechanical ventilation, and suitability for
      transplantation were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ECD and transplant
      suitability. RESULTS: Mean ECD was 2733 cells/mm2. Mean age was 59 years. COPD
      affected 34.2% of donors. Mechanical ventilation was required in 35% of donors.
      Mean ventilation time was 1.3 days. After controlling for covariates, COPD was
      not found to be associated with poor transplant suitability (P = .22).
      Ventilation >7 days was associated with poor transplant suitability (P = .04).
      Donors with COPD and donors who were mechanically ventilated exhibited lower cell
      counts (P < .001, P < .01, respectively). Longer ventilation led to reduced
      endothelial cell density: ventilation time >7 days (-46.5 cells/mm2, P < .001)
      and >30 days (-101.4 cells/mm2, P = .02). Limitations of the study included the
      retrospective nature, dataset obtained from a single eye bank, and medical
      history documentation completed by eye bank technicians. CONCLUSIONS: A high
      proportion of cornea donors have respiratory disease prior to donation.
      Ventilation time >7 days affected transplant suitability but the presence of COPD
      did not. Donors with COPD and donors who were mechanically ventilated had reduced
      cell counts. Longer ventilation times lead to increased cell loss. The presence
      of respiratory disease may affect tissue oxygenation and endothelial cell health.

PMID- 28890080
TI  - Preoperative determination of artificial chordae length: Wishful thinking?

PMID- 28890081
TI  - Factors associated with postoperative atrial fibrillation and other adverse
      events after cardiac surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to evaluate the impact of various surgical
      characteristics and practices on the risk of postoperative atrial fibrillation
      and other adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery. METHODS: By using the
      prospectively collected data of patients who underwent cardiac surgery in 28
      centers across the United States, Italy, and Argentina, the details of surgery
      characteristics were collected for each patient and the outcomes, including
      postoperative atrial fibrillation, major adverse cardiovascular events, and
      mortality. These were evaluated via multivariable-adjusted models. RESULTS: In
      1462 patients, a total of 460 cases of postoperative atrial fibrillation, 33
      major adverse cardiovascular events, 23 cases of 30-day mortality, and 46 cases
      of 1-year mortality occurred. We found that type of surgery and cardiopulmonary
      bypass use predicted the occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation.
      Compared with coronary artery bypass grafting alone, there was a higher risk of
      postoperative atrial fibrillation with valvular surgery alone (odds ratio, 1.4;
      95% confidence interval, 1.1-1.9), and the risk was even higher with concomitant
      valvular and coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (odds ratio, 1.8; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.2-2.7). Compared with no bypass, use of cardiopulmonary
      bypass was associated with higher risk of postoperative atrial fibrillation (odds
      ratio, 2.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.7-3.5), but there were significant age and
      sex differences of the impact of bypass use among patients undergoing coronary
      artery bypass grafting (P for interaction = .04). In addition, compared with
      spontaneous return of rhythm, ventricular pacing was associated with a higher
      risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (odds ratio, 5.0; 95% confidence
      interval, 1.4-18), whereas concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting and
      valvular surgery was associated with a higher risk of 30-day mortality (hazard
      ratio, 4.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-14) compared with coronary artery bypass
      grafting alone. Occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation was associated
      with greater length of stay and 1-year mortality (hazard ratio, 2.2; 95%
      confidence interval, 1.2-3.9). CONCLUSIONS: In this multicenter trial, we
      identified specific adverse outcomes that are associated with concomitant
      valvular and coronary artery bypass graft surgery, cardiopulmonary bypass,
      ventricular pacing, and occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation.

PMID- 28890082
TI  - Catheter palliation or early surgery for tetralogy of Fallot: Options when timing
      is less than ideal.

PMID- 28890083
TI  - Surgical technique for placement of the Melody valve in a dilated right
      ventricular outflow tract.

PMID- 28890084
TI  - Contingent engagement: What we learn from patients with complex health problems
      and low socioeconomic status.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Elicit patients' perceptions of factors that facilitate their
      engagement in care METHODS: In-depth interviews with 20 adult Medicaid patients
      who had complex health problems, frequent hospitalizations/emergency department
      use, and who were enrolled in an intensive, team-based care program designed to
      address medical, behavioral, and social needs. RESULTS: Prior to engaging in the
      program, participants described weak relationships with primary care providers,
      frequent hospitalizations and emergency visits, poor adherence to medications and
      severe social barriers to care. After participating in the program, participants
      identified key factors that enabled them to develop trust and engage with care
      including: availability for extended intensive interactions, a non-judgmental
      approach, addressing patients' material needs, and providing social contact for
      isolated patients. After developing relationships with their care team,
      participants described changes such as sustained interactions with their primary
      care team and incremental improvements in health behaviors. CONCLUSION: These
      findings illuminate factors promoting "contingent engagement" for low socio
      economic status patients with complex health problems, which allow them to become
      proactive in ways commensurate with their circumstances, and offers insights for
      designing interventions to improve patient outcomes. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: For
      these patients, engagement is contingent on healthcare providers' efforts to
      develop trust and address patients' material needs.

PMID- 28890085
TI  - In Situ Architecture and Cellular Interactions of PolyQ Inclusions.
AB  - Expression of many disease-related aggregation-prone proteins results in
      cytotoxicity and the formation of large intracellular inclusion bodies. To gain
      insight into the role of inclusions in pathology and the in situ structure of
      protein aggregates inside cells, we employ advanced cryo-electron tomography
      methods to analyze the structure of inclusions formed by polyglutamine (polyQ)
      expanded huntingtin exon 1 within their intact cellular context. In primary mouse
      neurons and immortalized human cells, polyQ inclusions consist of amyloid-like
      fibrils that interact with cellular endomembranes, particularly of the
      endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Interactions with these fibrils lead to membrane
      deformation, the local impairment of ER organization, and profound alterations in
      ER membrane dynamics at the inclusion periphery. These results suggest that
      aberrant interactions between fibrils and endomembranes contribute to the
      deleterious cellular effects of protein aggregation. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

PMID- 28890087
TI  - [Therapeutic innovations in radiation oncology for localized prostate cancer].
AB  - Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy with
      fiducial markers and prostate brachytherapy allow the delivery of dose escalation
      for localized prostate cancer with very low rates of long-term toxicity and
      sequelae. Nowadays, modern radiotherapy techniques make it possible to shorten
      treatment time with hypofractionation, to better protect surrounding healthy
      tissues and to escalate the dose even further. Advances in radiotherapy are
      closely linked to advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and/or PET
      imaging. Functional imaging makes it possible to deliver personalised pelvic
      nodal radiotherapy, targeting the nodal areas at higher risk of microscopic
      involvement. In patients with an index lesion at baseline or at failure, MR-based
      focal therapy or focal dose escalation with brachytherapy or stereotactic body
      radiation therapy is also currently investigated. MR-based adaptive radiotherapy,
      which makes it possible to track prostate shifts during radiation delivery, is
      another step forward in the integration of MR imaging in radiation delivery.

PMID- 28890088
TI  - Management of local relapse after prostate cancer radiotherapy: Surgery or
      radiotherapy?
AB  - Isolated local relapse after prostate cancer radiotherapy corresponds to 40% of
      biochemical failure. The management of these relapses is not well defined.
      Several strategies are available including surgery, high-intensity focused
      ultrasounds (HIFU), cryotherapy and reirradiation. Radical prostatectomy is the
      historical approach; biochemical control is obtained in 50 to 80% at 5 year.
      However, morbidity is higher after irradiation than as a first line treatment.
      Some limited series of HIFU and cryotherapy have been published with interesting
      results, but again the risk of urinary and rectal toxicity is high. However, new
      generation technologies could decrease the complication rate. Reirradiation could
      be performed with brachytherapy and more recently with stereotactic radiation
      therapy. The results of salvage low-dose-rate brachytherapy have been reported in
      some series with a 5-year biochemical control rate of 34 to 88%. High-dose rate
      brachytherapy seems to be better tolerated, but the number of patients treated
      and reported is too low to draw firm conclusions. This is the same for
      stereotactic radiation therapy salvage treatment. A prospective trial of salvage
      brachytherapy (CAPRICUR) is now open in France and inclusion in this trial is
      recommended.

PMID- 28890089
TI  - [Tumour sequencing: Evolutions and revolutions].
AB  - For some years now, we have entered the genomic age of tumour genotyping from a
      medical point of view. Technological breakthroughs in both biology and
      information science now allow a genomic analysis of cancers in everyday medical
      practice with, in some case, a major impact on patient care not only for the
      choice of therapy (i.e. EGFR mutations in lung adenocarcinoma), but also for
      diagnosis and monitoring of the disease. Tumour genotyping is performed from
      formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues used for diagnosis of cancer. However,
      new approaches have emerged, with for example the more and more spread use of
      "liquid biopsies". Genotyping of a gene panel implicated in carcinogenesis is now
      routinely performed in some cancer types, with the help of high-throughput
      sequencers, and it is likely that improvement of these machines will make tumour
      genotyping easier and more accessible in the near future. Nevertheless, the
      current challenge is not anymore detection of molecular alterations, but their
      relevant interpretation, so as to be the most useful in patient care.

PMID- 28890086
TI  - Sensory Neurons Co-opt Classical Immune Signaling Pathways to Mediate Chronic
      Itch.
AB  - Mammals have evolved neurophysiologic reflexes, such as coughing and scratching,
      to expel invading pathogens and noxious environmental stimuli. It is well
      established that these responses are also associated with chronic inflammatory
      diseases, including asthma and atopic dermatitis. However, the mechanisms by
      which inflammatory pathways promote sensations such as itch remain poorly
      understood. Here, we show that type 2 cytokines directly activate sensory neurons
      in both mice and humans. Further, we demonstrate that chronic itch is dependent
      on neuronal IL-4Ralpha and JAK1 signaling. We also observe that patients with
      recalcitrant chronic itch that failed other immunosuppressive therapies markedly
      improve when treated with JAK inhibitors. Thus, signaling mechanisms previously
      ascribed to the immune system may represent novel therapeutic targets within the
      nervous system. Collectively, this study reveals an evolutionarily conserved
      paradigm in which the sensory nervous system employs classical immune signaling
      pathways to influence mammalian behavior.

PMID- 28890090
TI  - [From quality management to dynamic management through quality: Deployment within
      a radiotherapy group].
AB  - In 2015, the quality group of the radiotherapy clinic Groupement de Radiotherapie
      et d'Oncologie des Pyrenees (GROP, Pau, France) decided to review the deployment
      of its quality approach in order to optimize it continuously. For this, two
      improvements were proposed: an involvement of process drivers and a material and
      financial investment in document management software. The implementation of these
      organizational and managerial provisions enabled us to better cover the
      requirements of the ISO 9001 standard, the international reference in quality
      management.

PMID- 28890091
TI  - [What does the medical physicist expect from the radiation oncologist and vice
      versa?]
AB  - The cooperation between radiation oncologist and medical physicist is essential
      to guarantee the quality and safety of the irradiation of our patients. It would
      be wrong to consider that the intervention of medical physicists in the patient
      management process is limited to the provision of calibrated and controlled
      equipment and to guarantee the validity of the dose distribution and the
      treatment time, while the radiation oncologist has the complete control of all
      clinical activities related to irradiation. The intervention of physicists at the
      stage of acquisition of anatomical data and throughout the phase of optimization
      of the treatment is already a reality. The recognition of the profession of
      medical physicist as a health profession comes to legitimize this intervention.
      Should physician-physicist cooperation be limited to these common tasks and
      participation in continuing care? Can we envisage a true synergy of action that
      goes beyond the field of care? The answer to the question: what does the
      physicist expect from the radiation oncologist and vice versa may bring elements
      to reinforce tomorrow's cooperation. This article is the second part of the
      question.

PMID- 28890092
TI  - [Clinical research for rectal carcinoma: State of the art and objectives].
AB  - The treatment of rectal carcinoma is based on multidisciplinary strategy and
      multimodal approaches including gastrointestinal tract specialists, medical
      oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgery. The different objectives should
      be declined according to the characteristics of the tumours. The aim of the
      therapist would be to select the best strategy offering to the patient to be
      cured with as less as possible late adverse toxicity. The challenge of the
      treatment of small tumours is to maintain a functional anal sphincter while
      minimizing the risk of local recurrence. The standard treatment of locally
      advanced disease is aiming firstly to cure the patient and secondly to prevent
      late complications. Each of these clinical presentations of the disease has to be
      considered as a whole taking into account the new surgical techniques and a
      personalized approach adapted to the tumour. Nowadays they should be studied with
      dedicated clinical trials.

PMID- 28890094
TI  - ?

PMID- 28890093
TI  - Mechanistic and Fc requirements for inhibition of Sudan virus entry and in vivo
      protection by a synthetic antibody.
AB  - The Sudan virus (SUDV), an ebolavirus, causes severe hemorrhagic fever with human
      case fatality rates of ~50%. Previous work from our lab demonstrated the
      synthetic antibody F4 potently inhibits viral entry and protects against lethal
      virus challenge in mice [Chen et al., ACS Chem. Biol., 2014, 9, 2263-2273]. Here,
      we explore mechanistic requirements as well as contribution of the Fc region and
      function on neutralization and in vivo protection. Live cell imaging demonstrates
      that the antibody colocalizes with vesicular stomatitis virus particles
      containing the Sudan virus glycoprotein (VSV-GPSUDV) and that the antibody is
      rapidly degraded within cellular endosomes. A viral escape mutant contained
      substitutions on the N-heptad repeat (NHR) segment of GP2, the fusion subunit.
      Truncation studies indicated that the size of the Fc impacts virus neutralization
      potential. Finally, we examined the protective efficacy of Fc-null mutants in
      mice, and found that Fc function was not required for high levels of protection.
      Altogether, these results indicate that neutralization of SUDV GP-mediated cell
      entry likely involves blockade of viral membrane fusion within endosomes, and
      that inhibition of viral entry is the likely mechanism of in vivo protection.

PMID- 28890095
TI  - ?

PMID- 28890097
TI  - [Growing up as a migrant, rites of passage in the Maghreb].
AB  - In a context of migration, some parents experience difficulties in passing on
      their culture and their knowledge, which makes it difficult to achieve reciprocal
      recognition and to establish a feeling of filiation and heritage. In this
      context, maintaining the rites of passage enables their symbolic effectiveness
      and creativity to be maintained. Circumcision, in particular, is a key stage of
      this process in the Maghreb.

PMID- 28890096
TI  - [The choice of a child's first name in West Africa].
AB  - Choosing a name is a powerful act, filled with meaning. In most societies, this
      act is accompanied by specific rites and rituals. By naming a child, we are
      acknowledging their existence. A transmission is thereby created between the
      person giving the name and the person who will bear it. The naming of children in
      West Africa, particularly among the Soninke people, constitutes an example of the
      elements which come into play when a child is given a name.

PMID- 28890098
TI  - [Rituals of birth in Senegal].
AB  - In a Senegalese society undergoing profound change, holding on to certain beliefs
      and social and cultural practices can sometimes prove difficult. Prevention and
      care systems must take into account social and cultural representations in order
      to support these families as best as possible.

PMID- 28890099
TI  - [Mothering practices and protection of babies in Vietnam].
AB  - In Vietnam, newborn babies are believed to carry within them vital principles
      originating from their ancestors. It is essential to protect the babies and
      ensure their development is harmonious, by building around them successive
      'envelopes' - the mother, the family, family friends, then the village and
      finally the rest of the world. These protective rituals still partly exist in
      families of Vietnamese origin living in the West.

PMID- 28890100
TI  - [Postnatal depression and relationship with the cultural world in Tunisia].
AB  - Culture and the human spirit gain structure through their interactions with the
      cultural system. Indeed, individuals come from a culture which is unique to them
      and leaves its mark on them. In Tunisian concept, the young mother suffering from
      postnatal depression is considered to be possessed by the djinn spirit Kattous in
      nfas and treated using traditional rituals. It is important to take into account
      these aspects in the clinical psychopathology.

PMID- 28890101
TI  - [Mother tongue and protection of children, the role of school].
AB  - The question of mother tongues in the socio-educational context of school was the
      subject of a memorandum of 2016. Moreover, research in psychology and linguistics
      shows the extent to which the family language and culture are important elements
      in the construction of the child. These must be taken into account at school as
      well as in any support and care environment.

PMID- 28890102
TI  - [Anorexia in prepubescent adolescents].
AB  - Anorexia in young prepubescent patients is often linked to clinical signs
      occurring in early childhood. While therapies offer somatic, dietetic or
      medication-based treatments, the psychotherapeutic approach gives children and
      their families the opportunity to talk.

PMID- 28890103
TI  - [Minors and treatment orders].
AB  - In France, minors over the age of 13 can be given a common law sentence but their
      status as a minor is taken into account, reducing the maximum sentence by half.
      They can however be subjected to a treatment order, a measure applicable in the
      context of social and legal supervision, which aims to prevent repeat offending.

PMID- 28890104
TI  - [Suturing a child's wound, humanising care in the emergency department].
AB  - The humanisation of the care pathway constitutes an objective for all caregivers.
      A visit to the emergency department by a child requiring a suture is a simple and
      frequent situation which highlights the different stages of the care. Several of
      these stages can be anticipated in the waiting room, in particular the exchanging
      of information with the patient and the family, which helps to improve the parent
      child-professional relationship.

PMID- 28890105
TI  - ?

PMID- 28890106
TI  - Development of a peptide-modified siRNA nanocomplex for hepatic stellate cells.
AB  - Insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor (IGF2R) is overexpressed in activated
      hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and therefore can be utilized for HSC-specific drug
      delivery. We recently discovered an IGF2R-specific peptide using a novel
      biopanning. Here, we adopted biotin-conjugated IGF2R-specific peptide,
      cholesterol, and vitamin A as the targeting ligands for the neutravidin-based
      siRNA nanocomplex to deliver PCBP2 siRNA, a potentially antifibrotic agent, to
      HSCs. Compared to vitamin A and cholesterol, the IGF2R-specific peptide exhibited
      the highest targeting effect to human LX-2 HSC, rat HSC-T6 cell line, and
      activated primary rat HSCs. Accordingly, the IGF2R-specific peptide coupled
      nanocomplex demonstrated higher silencing activity of PCBP2 and better inhibition
      on the migration of activated HSCs. Compared to free siRNA and the nanocomplexes
      coupled with vitamin A and cholesterol, the IGF2R-specific peptide coupled
      nanocomplex showed the highest uptake in the liver and lowest uptake in the lung
      and kidney of the rats with CCl4-induced liver fibrosis.

PMID- 28890107
TI  - Real-time imaging of VCAM-1 mRNA in TNF-alpha activated retinal microvascular
      endothelial cells using antisense hairpin-DNA functionalized gold nanoparticles.
AB  - Vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) is an important inflammatory biomarker
      correlating with retinal disease progression. Thus, detection of VCAM-1 mRNA
      expression levels at an early disease stage could be an important predictive
      biomarker to assess the risk of disease progression and monitoring treatment
      response. We have developed VCAM-1 targeted antisense hairpin DNA-functionalized
      gold nanoparticles (AS-VCAM-1 hAuNP) for the real time detection of VCAM-1 mRNA
      expression levels in retinal endothelial cells. The AS-VCAM-1 hAuNP fluorescence
      enhancement clearly visualized the TNF-alpha induced cellular VCAM-1 mRNA levels
      with high signal to noise ratios compared to normal serum treated cells. The
      scrambled hAuNP probes were minimally detectable under same image acquisition
      conditions. Intracellular hAuNPs were detected using transmission electron
      microscopy (TEM) analysis of the intact cells. In addition, the AS-VCAM-1 hAuNP
      probes exhibited no acute toxicity to the retinal microvascular endothelial cells
      as measured by live-dead assay.

PMID- 28890108
TI  - Polymer hydration and stiffness at biointerfaces and related cellular processes.
AB  - The direct and indirect (by changing mechanical properties) effects of hydration
      at interfaces on cellular processes and tissue diseases are reviewed. The
      essential effect of substrate stiffness on cellular processes was demonstrated in
      the last decade. The combined effect of surface stiffness and hydration at
      interfaces has garnered much less attention, though hydration and dehydration
      play important roles in biological processes. This review focuses on the studies
      that demonstrate how hydration affects biological processes at interfaces.
      Elevated sodium and dehydration stimulate inflammatory signaling in endothelial
      cells and promote atherosclerosis. Various types of implant and blood contacting
      device coatings with varied surface stiffness and hydration have been reported.
      Effect of hydration on polymer modulus of elasticity and viscoelasticity was
      discussed taking into account cells adhesion, migration, proliferation,
      differentiation on surfaces with various degree of hydration. Future directions
      of research were considered, including the use of nanotechnology to regulate the
      hydration degree.

PMID- 28890109
TI  - NIR light-induced tumor phototherapy using photo-stable ICG delivery system based
      on inorganic hybrid.
AB  - NIR responsive inorganic hybrid (Ti@GO) was synthesized. It could absorb NIR
      light and convert it into local hyperthermia and ROS synchronously. Ti@GO was
      firstly developed as a photosensitizer and a photothermal agent to realize tumor
      PTT and PDT. For anti-tumor application, HA was grafted on Ti@GO simultaneously
      as water solubility improver and tumor targeting moiety. ICG was chosen as a
      model drug. Results demonstrated that HA-Ti@GO could remarkably improve ICG
      stability and drug accumulation in 4T1 cells, enhance tumor phototherapy
      efficiency and reduce light-associated side effects. HA-Ti@GO/ICG under NIR laser
      irradiation showed a significant decreased cell viability of 20.7+/-2.6% and a
      high DNA damage degree of 82.4+/-8.3%. Moreover, in vivo results showed that HA
      Ti@GO/ICG plus NIR laser achieved almost complete tumor regression on 4T1 tumor
      bearing mice, with a tumor volume of 67.0 mm3. Taken together, our study provided
      a promising strategy to realize synergistic PTT/PDT tumor therapy with a single
      NIR light.

PMID- 28890110
TI  - Methyl aspartylphenylalanine, the pons and cerebellum in mice: An evaluation of
      motor, morphological, biochemical, immunohistochemical and apoptotic effects.
AB  - In this study, adult mice were assigned to five groups, and administered vehicle
      (distilled water), or aspartame (20, 40, 80 and 160mg/kg body weight) for 28days.
      Behavioural tests to assess motor-balance and gait were conducted on day 28,
      following which animals were sacrificed. Sections of the cerebellar cortex and
      pons were processed, for general histology and Bielschwosky's silver staining
      protocol. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neuron-specific enolase
      (NSE) immunoreactivity were assessed. Antioxidant status and aspartic
      acid/cysteine-aspartic acid protease (caspase)-3 levels were also assessed using
      homogenates of the cerebellum and pons. Body weight-gain decreased significantly
      following aspartame consumption; while no significant changes in gait and balance
      were observed. Histological changes suggestive of neuronal injury were observed
      at 80 and 160mg/kg/day; however, no obvious neuritic plaques were seen. GFAP
      reactive astrocytes and NSE-reactive neurons increased at 20, 40 and 80mg/kg, but
      decreased at 160mg/kg. There was derangement of oxidative status and increased
      caspase-3 concentration with increasing doses of aspartame; although no
      significant difference in aspartate level was observed. The study concluded that
      repeated oral administration of the higher doses of aspartame was associated with
      morphological alterations suggestive of neuronal injury, and derangement of
      antioxidant status.

PMID- 28890111
TI  - Tick-borne pathogens and their reservoir hosts in northern Italy.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of Anaplasma
      phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Babesia spp., and Candidatus Neoehrlichia
      mikurensis in Ixodes spp. ticks removed from wildlife, domestic animals and
      humans in the Province of Trento (northern Italy) in order to better understand
      their ecology and provide public health professionals with an updated list of
      pathogens which should be considered during their diagnostic procedures after a
      tick bite. During 2011-2012, 848 feeding ticks at all life stages (adults, nymphs
      and larvae) from various hosts (wild ungulates, birds and rodents; domestic
      sheep, dogs and humans) were collected. The highest prevalences of A.
      phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. were detected in adult and nymphal tick
      stages feeding on wild ungulates (11.4% prevalence for both pathogens), while the
      Babesia spp. prevailed in nymphal and larval ticks feeding on wild birds (7.7%).
      A wide spectrum of tick-borne agents was present in larval ticks: those detached
      from wild ungulates were positive for A. phagocytophilum, B. venatorum, R.
      helvetica, R. monacensis and R. raoultii, while those removed from wild rodents
      were positive for B. venatorum, R. helvetica, R. monacensis and Ca. N.
      mikurensis, and ticks from wild birds carried A. phagocytophilum, B. venatorum,
      B. capreoli and R. helvetica. This study provides evidence of circulation of five
      tick-borne pathogens not reported in this region before, specifically R.
      raoultii, R. monacensis, B. venatorum, B. capreoli and B. microti. Furthermore,
      it discusses the epidemiological role of the animal species from which the ticks
      were collected highlighting the needs for more experimental studies especially
      for those pathogens where transovarial transmission in ticks has been
      demonstrated.

PMID- 28890113
TI  - Relationship between swallowing function and breathing/phonation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Clarification of the association between the swallowing function and
      respiratory and phonatory functions. METHODS: The subjects were 30 patients with
      a chief complaint of swallowing disorder with clear consciousness capable of
      retaining a sitting position. Patients with organic and functional diseases of
      the larynx were excluded. Twenty-two and eight patients were male and female,
      respectively, and the mean age was 77.0+/-14.6years old. The chest expansion
      score was measured as an index of the respiratory function, and the maximum
      phonation time (MPT) was measured as an index of the phonatory function. The
      presence or absence of aspiration was judged using videoendoscopic swallowing
      study (VESS) and videofluoroscopic swallow studies (VFSS). The patients were
      divided into those with and without aspiration, and the chest expansion score and
      MPT were compared. In addition, the distance of laryngeal elevation was measured
      in the lateral view of VFSS, and its correlations with the chest expansion score
      and MPT were closely analyzed. To evaluate reliability of the test, the distance
      of laryngeal elevation and videoendoscopic score were compared between the
      presence and absence of aspiration. RESULTS: The distance of laryngeal elevation
      was significantly shortened and the videoendoscopic score was significantly
      higher in the group with aspiration, as previously reported. On comparison of the
      chest expansion score between the groups with and without aspiration, no
      significant difference was noted at the axillary or xiphoid process level, and
      shortening was significant only at the 10th rib level in the group with
      aspiration. On comparison of MPT, it was significantly shortened in the group
      with aspiration. In addition, a significant positive correlation with the
      distance of laryngeal elevation was noted in both chest expansion score and MPT.
      CONCLUSION: It was suggested that declines of the respiratory and phonatory
      functions are risk factors of aspiration through limiting laryngeal elevation,
      and the chest expansion score at the 10th rib level and MPT are useful for
      screening of aspiration.

PMID- 28890114
TI  - Natural course of tonsillectomy pain: A prospective patient cohort study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the natural course of pain
      after tonsillectomy. METHODS: This study included 119 patients that underwent
      tonsillectomy between November 2013 and November 2015. After undergoing
      tonsillectomy, patients scored their pain using the visual analogue scale three
      times daily (morning, midday, and evening) for 2 weeks. A linear mixed model was
      used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: Increasing postoperative days was
      negatively associated with pain following tonsillectomy surgery (estimated value
      [EV] of visual analogue score [VAS]/day=-0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI]=-0.43
      to -0.41, P<0.001); the post-tonsillectomy pain curve illustrated this negative
      correlation. Postoperative pain was less in children and adolescents (<=18years
      old) than in adults (>18 years old) (EV=-0.81, 95% CI=-1.56 to -0.08, P=0.031).
      Mean tonsillectomy-associated pain on postoperative day 1 was 6.4 VAS. It
      decreased slightly to 5.3 VAS until postoperative day 7, after which it reduced
      sharply to 3.7 VAS within 3 days; on postoperative day 14 it had decreased to 1.6
      VAS. Pain assessments were higher in the morning (EV=0.59, 95% CI=0.50 to 0.69,
      P<0.001) compared with assessments conducted in the evening. CONCLUSION: The
      natural course of postoperative tonsillectomy pain follows a gradual decline for
      1 week after surgery, but decreases more rapidly after this period.

PMID- 28890115
TI  - RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, benzenepropanol, a,beta-dimethyl-,
      CAS Registry Number 56836-93-2.

PMID- 28890116
TI  - Dermatologic Conditions and Risk of Suicide: A Case-Control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients diagnosed with skin conditions have a higher risk of
      comorbid psychiatric conditions and suicide-related outcomes such as suicidal
      ideations and behaviors. There is paucity of evidence in the US general
      population about the risk of suicide death in patients with dermatologic
      conditions. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective case-control study to
      investigate the risk of suicide death in patients receiving care for dermatologic
      conditions. This study involved 8 US health systems. A total of 2674 individuals
      who died by suicide (cases) were matched with 267,400 general population control
      individuals. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, sex, and any mental health or
      substance use condition, we did not find an association between death by suicide
      and any skin condition including conditions where clinicians are generally
      concerned about the risk such as acne (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.04, p =
      0.814), atopic dermatitis (aOR = 0.77, p = 0.28), and psoriasis (aOR = 0.91, p =
      0.64). CONCLUSION: This case-control study provides no evidence of increased risk
      of death by suicide in individuals with major skin disorders in the US general
      population.

PMID- 28890117
TI  - Potential for peritoneal cancer cell seeding in endoscopic full-thickness
      resection for early gastric cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: During endoscopic full-thickness resection (EFTR) for
      cancers, whether exposure of the lumen to the abdominal cavity during the
      procedure is acceptable is controversial because of the potential risk of tumor
      cell seeding. To assess the possibility of transplantation as a result of contact
      with tumor cells during the procedure, we prospectively investigated the ability
      of cancer cells to be detached by touching the tumor surface. METHODS: In 48
      patients with a single early gastric cancer resected by endoscopic submucosal
      dissection, stamp cytology was performed by touching the surface of the specimens
      to glass slides. Samples were obtained from cancerous and noncancerous areas,
      constituting the study and control groups, respectively. The detection rate of
      malignant class IV or V (C-IV/C-V) samples was investigated with Papanicolaou
      staining. The rate of CD44v9-positive cases, a cancer stem cell marker, was
      assessed in C-IV/C-V samples with immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS:
      Detection rates of C-IV/C-V samples in the cancerous group (53/192 slides, 27.6%)
      differed significantly from those of the C-IV/C-V samples in the noncancerous
      group (0/96 slides, 0%). Among the 53 slides of C-IV/C-V samples in the cancerous
      group, CD44v9 cells were expressed in 18 slides (34.0%). CONCLUSIONS: These data
      suggest that cancer cells, including cancer stem cells, in early gastric cancers
      are easily detached via contact with the tumor surface. In EFTR, a nonexposure
      approach is recommended to avoid the risk of iatrogenic cancer cell seeding via
      contact with and transplantation of cancer cells.

PMID- 28890118
TI  - Mitochondrial DNA content: A new biomarker for sudden intrauterine unexplained
      death syndrome (SIUDS).
AB  - In literature there are no data related to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content in
      sudden intrauterine unexplained death syndrome (SIUDS). To test the hypothesis
      that a quantitative excess of mtDNA could play a role in the pathogenesis of
      SIUDS, mtDNA content was measured in cerebral cortex of 9 SIUDS and in 7
      controls. The median (interquartile range) mtDNA in SIUDS and controls was 14,000
      (8600-33,500), 3400 (0-8500) copies per nuclear DNA, respectively (p=0.007). If
      mitochondria are involved in SIUDS, then higher mitochondrial DNA content may be
      a biomarker of this syndrome.

PMID- 28890119
TI  - Do we perform surgical programming well? How can we improve it?
AB  - : The objective is to establish the duration of our interventions, intermediate
      times and surgical performance. This will create a virtual waiting list to apply
      a mathematical programme that performs programming with maximum performance.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective review of 49 surgical sessions obtaining the
      delay in start time, intermediate time and surgical performance. Retrospective
      review of 4,045 interventions performed in the last 3 years to obtain the average
      duration of each type of surgery. Creation of a virtual waiting list of 700
      patients in order to perform virtual programming through the MIQCP-P until
      achieving optimal performance. RESULTS: Our surgical performance with manual
      programming was 75.9%, ending 22.4% later than 3pm. The performance in the days
      without suspensions was 78.4%. The delay at start time was 9.7min. The optimum
      performance was 77.5% with a confidence of finishing before 15h of 80.6%. The
      waiting list has been scheduled in 254 sessions. DISCUSSION: Our manual surgical
      performance without suspensions (78.4%) was superior to the optimal (77.5%),
      generating days finished later than 3pm and suspensions. The possibilities for
      improvement are to achieve punctuality at the start time and adjust the schedule
      to the ideal performance. The virtual programming has allowed us to obtain our
      ideal performance and to establish the number of operating rooms necessary to
      solve the waiting list created. CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained in virtual
      mathematical programming are reliable enough to implement this model with
      guarantees.

PMID- 28890120
TI  - Fascia iliaca block for pain control in hip fracture patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Pain treatment for patients with hip fracture has been based on the
      use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories and opioid derived drugs. These
      medications have been associated with multiple adverse effects. Fascia iliaca
      block is a recent pain management alternative for these patients. The objective
      of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of fascia iliaca block performed
      in the emergency room (ER) for patients over 65years of age with hip fracture.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cohort of 216 patients, from January to December 2016,
      was studied prospectively. Analyzed variables were: pain upon arrival at ER, pain
      after fascia iliaca block, need for rescue medication, protocol compliance, delay
      in analgesia administration and delay for surgery. RESULTS: Differences between
      visual analogue scale (VAS), before and after the fascia iliaca block, were
      statistically significant (P<.001). Pre-block VAS recorded was 6.16 (SD=2.82).
      The mean VAS reduction after the block was 2.99 (95%CI: 2.45-3.53%). Twenty-six
      percent of patients required morphine as rescue medication in the first 8hours
      after diagnosis. Compliance with protocol administration was of 84%. Fascia
      iliaca block was performed in a mean time of 16minutes (SD=10.33) after
      diagnosis. The median delay for surgery was 1 day (RIQ 25-75%: 1-2). CONCLUSION:
      Fascia iliaca block is a reproducible, safe and effective technique for pain
      management. It is a keystone in pain treatment for patients with a proximal femur
      fracture at our institution. Other objectives in our pain management protocol
      include early analgesia administration and reduction of time to surgery.

PMID- 28890121
TI  - Surgical treatment of extra-articular distal-third diaphyseal fractures of the
      humerus using a modified posterior approach and an extra-articular plate.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical and radiological outcomes of these fractures
      treated through a modified posterior approach with a distal humerus plate.
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between 2013 and 2015 we performed a retrospective study of
      these fractures surgically treated in our centre. INCLUSION CRITERIA: older than
      18 years old, no pathological fractures, follow up 1 year at least. 23 patients
      underwent surgery, mean age 45 years old, with an average follow-up of 18 months.
      Patient characteristics, aetiology and type of fractures were recorded. The
      surgery was performed using Gerwin modified posterior approach with a
      posterolateral distal humerus plate. Clinical results were evaluated using Quick
      DASH, MEPS, VAS. Radiological results were also evaluated. Complications
      associated with treatment and radial nerve palsy incidence were recorded as well.
      RESULTS: Type of fracture according AO/OTA: six 12-A, seven 12-B, ten 12-C. 23
      patients progressed to union. After one year: QD 6.43, VAS 0.66, MEPS 88.88. No
      failure of internal fixation. Two superficial infections. 15 excellent results, 5
      good, and 3 fair, with no poor results. CONCLUSION: Surgical fixation of these
      fractures through a modified posterior approach with a posterolateral plate
      minimises iatrogenic nerve injury, provides better visualisation of the proximal
      humerus, provides stable fixation of these injuries and results in high union
      rates and overall excellent functional results.

PMID- 28890122
TI  - Lumbar segmental artery pseudoaneurysm after L5 pedicle screw placement. A rare
      vascular complication.
AB  - Posterior lumbar screw fixation is a common surgical procedure nowadays. However,
      it can sometimes produce complications that can be devastating. One of the less
      common causes of major complication is the misplacement of a pedicle screw. This
      highlights the importance of being methodical when placing pedicle screws, and
      checking that the pathway has been created correctly and their placement. We
      present a case of a massive bleed after a pedicular screw placement during lumbar
      canal stenosis surgery. Screw malposition led to intraoperative haemodynamic
      instability after failed attempts to control bleeding in the surgical site.
      Contrast enhanced CT imaging revealed a lumbar intersegmentary artery injury that
      was eventually controlled by means of a coil embolisation.

PMID- 28890123
TI  - Isolated scaphotrapeziotrapezoid osteoarthritis treatment using resurfacing
      arthroplasty with scaphoid anchorage.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to show the results of
      scaphotrapeziotrapezoid (STT) joint osteoarthritis treatment performing
      resurfacing arthroplasty with scaphoid anchorage. MATERIAL AND METHOD: An
      observational, descriptive and retrospective study was performed. Ten patients
      with isolated STT joint osteoarthritis were studied between 2013 and 2015. The
      mean follow-up time was 26months. Clinical results, functional and subjective
      scores were reviewed. RESULTS: The patients were satisfied, achieving an average
      of 2.1 (0-3) on the VAS score and 16 (2 to 28) in the DASH questionnaire, and
      returning to work in the first three months post-surgery. Recovery of range of
      motion compared to the contralateral wrist was 96% in extension, 95% in flexion,
      87% in ulnar deviation and 91% in radial deviation. The average handgrip strength
      of the wrist was 95% and pinch strength was 95% compared to the contralateral
      side. There were no intraoperative complications or alterations in postoperative
      carpal alignment. CONCLUSION: Resurfacing arthroplasty is proposed as a good and
      novel alternative in treating isolated SST joint arthritis. Achieving the correct
      balance between the strength and mobility of the wrist, without causing carpal
      destabilisation, is important to obtain satisfactory clinical and functional
      results.

PMID- 28890124
TI  - [Sentinel lymph node biopsy and neoadjuvant treatment in breast cancer].
AB  - Sentinel lymph node biopsy has replaced axillary lymph node dissection in those
      patients with clinically node-negative axilla without compromising their
      oncologic outcomes. Indication of neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been extended to
      patients to evaluate the pathologic response and to offer more conservative
      breast surgery. Sentinel lymph node dissection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is
      feasible and accurate in patients with clinically node-negative patients. The
      timing of the sentinel lymph node biopsy, before or after medical treatment has
      been studied with benefits for each procedure. Sentinel lymph node dissection has
      been explored in different randomized prospective studies in clinically positive
      axilla with the aim of reduce axillary lymph node dissection. However, several
      studies are necessary to more accurately identify residual axillary disease and
      the sentinel lymph node after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, to adjust the adjuvant
      radiotherapy protocols and to evaluate the impact on oncologic outcomes.

PMID- 28890125
TI  - Cryptic Female Choice: A General Phenomenon. A Reply to Eberhard.

PMID- 28890126
TI  - The Nebulous Ecology of Native Invasions.
AB  - In the Anthropocene, alien species are no longer the only category of biological
      organism establishing and rapidly spreading beyond historical boundaries. We
      review evidence showing that invasions by native species are a global phenomenon
      and present case studies from Southern Africa, and elsewhere, that reveal how
      climate-mediated expansions of native plants into adjacent communities can
      emulate the functional and structural changes associated with invasions by alien
      plant species. We conclude that integrating native invasions into ecological
      practice and theory will improve mechanistic models and better inform policy and
      adaptive ecological management in the 21st century.

PMID- 28890127
TI  - Is Reintroduction Biology an Effective Applied Science?
AB  - Reintroduction biology is a field of scientific research that aims to inform
      translocations of endangered species. We review two decades of published
      literature to evaluate whether reintroduction science is evolving in its decision
      support role, as called for by advocates of evidence-based conservation.
      Reintroduction research increasingly addresses a priori hypotheses, but remains
      largely focused on short-term population establishment. Similarly, studies that
      directly assist decisions by explicitly comparing alternative management actions
      remain a minority. A small set of case studies demonstrate full integration of
      research in the reintroduction decision process. We encourage the use of tools
      that embed research in decision-making, particularly the explicit consideration
      of multiple management alternatives because this is the crux of any management
      decisions.

PMID- 28890128
TI  - Characteristics and Health Care Preferences Associated with Cardiovascular
      Disease Risk among Women Veterans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Women veterans are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease
      (CVD), but little is known about comorbidities and healthcare preferences
      associated with CVD risk in this population. METHODS: We describe the prevalence
      of CVD-relevant health behaviors, mental health symptoms, and health care use
      characteristics and preferences among participants of the National Survey of
      Women Veterans (conducted 2008-2009). FINDINGS: Fifty-four percent of respondents
      were at risk for CVD (defined as a diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes, current
      tobacco use, or obesity without CVD). In unadjusted analysis, ORs for being at
      risk for CVD were greater among those interested in gender-specific clinical
      settings (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.2-3.4) and gender-specific weight loss programs (OR,
      1.8; 95% CI, 1.1-2.9). ORs were also greater for women who were physically
      inactive (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1-3.3), with current symptoms of depression (OR,
      2.5; 95% CI, 1.1-6.1), anxiety (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2-3.6), and posttraumatic
      stress disorder (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.2-4.8). Adjusting for age, race/ethnicity,
      marital status, education level, employment, and source of health care use, the
      ORs for CVD risk were higher for women with current posttraumatic stress disorder
      symptoms (2.5; 95% CI, 1.1-5.3) and gender-specific health care preferences (2.0;
      95% CI, 1.1-3.4), and gender-specific weight loss programs (1.9; 95% CI, 1.1
      3.2). CONCLUSIONS: Risk for CVD was common and preferences for gender-specific
      care and posttraumatic stress disorder were associated with being at risk for
      CVD. Women's health clinics may be a good location for targeted CVD prevention
      interventions for women veterans both in and outside the Veterans Health
      Administration.

PMID- 28890129
TI  - Bioinformatics approaches to predict target genes from transcription factor
      binding data.
AB  - Transcription factors regulate gene expression and play an essential role in
      development by maintaining proliferative states, driving cellular differentiation
      and determining cell fate. Transcription factors are capable of regulating
      multiple genes over potentially long distances making target gene identification
      challenging. Currently available experimental approaches to detect distal
      interactions have multiple weaknesses that have motivated the development of
      computational approaches. Although an improvement over experimental approaches,
      existing computational approaches are still limited in their application, with
      different weaknesses depending on the approach. Here, we review computational
      approaches with a focus on data dependency, cell type specificity and usability.
      With the aim of identifying transcription factor target genes, we apply available
      approaches to typical transcription factor experimental datasets. We show that
      approaches are not always capable of annotating all transcription factor binding
      sites; binding sites should be treated disparately; and a combination of
      approaches can increase the biological relevance of the set of genes identified
      as targets.

PMID- 28890131
TI  - Characterization of systemic neutrophil function in patients undergoing
      colorectal cancer resection.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In patients with colorectal cancer, the generation and maintenance of
      a systemic inflammatory response is associated with poor outcomes. Neutrophils
      have been implicated in the prognosis of such patients, but little is known about
      their functional response to surgery. This study was conducted to characterize
      neutrophil function of patients undergoing colorectal cancer resection. MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: Systemic neutrophils were isolated from patients with colorectal
      cancer who underwent surgical resection preoperatively (day 0) and
      postoperatively (day 1 and day 3). Neutrophils were stimulated to produce
      neutrophil extracellular traps, which were quantified by a measure of the
      fluorescence of the extracellular DNA. Neutrophil apoptosis and phagocytosis were
      measured by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. RESULTS: Forty-five patients
      were evaluated. Statistically significant differences were identified in NET
      formation over the perioperative period (reduced NET production [day 0 to day 1]
      and restored NET production [day 1 to day 3]) in the absence of stimulation (P =
      0.0016) and in response to stimulation with interleukin 8 (P = 0.0045),
      lipopolysaccharide (P = 0.0025), and N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (P =
      0.0014). No statistically significant differences were identified in apoptosis at
      4-hour incubation; however, at 24-hours, significant differences were identified
      in alive (P < 0.0001), early apoptotic (P = 0.0008) and late apoptotic (P =
      0.0018) stages (impaired apoptosis [day 0 to day 1] and restored apoptosis [day 1
      to day 3]). Demonstrable, but nonsignificant, increases in neutrophil
      phagocytotic activity were revealed on sequential perioperative days, and a
      significant increase in phagocytosis was identified from day 1 to day 3 in
      response to E coli (P = 0.0078). CONCLUSIONS: A novel neutrophil phenotype
      demonstrating reduced NET formation, reduced apoptosis, and increased
      phagocytosis has been demonstrated in patients undergoing colorectal cancer
      resection. As a consequence of impaired cell death, an accumulation of
      neutrophils in the circulation could be potentially harmful to the host following
      surgery and an early phenotypic switch may be desirable.

PMID- 28890132
TI  - Motor abnormalities in first-episode psychosis patients and long-term
      psychosocial functioning.
AB  - Motor abnormalities (MAs) are highly prevalent in patients with first-episode
      psychosis both before any exposure and after treatment with antipsychotic drugs.
      However, the extent to which these abnormalities have predictive value for long
      term psychosocial functioning is unknown. One hundred antipsychotic-naive first
      episode psychosis (FEP) patients underwent extensive motor evaluation including
      catatonic, parkinsonism, dyskinesia, akathisia and neurological soft signs.
      Patients were assessed at naive state and 6months later. Patients were followed
      up in their naturalistic treatment and settings and their psychosocial
      functioning was assessed at 6-month, 1year, 5year and 10years from the FEP by
      collecting all available information. A set of linear mixed models were built to
      account for the repeated longitudinal assessment of psychosocial functioning
      during the follow-up regarding to the five domains of MAs (catatonic,
      parkinsonism, akathisia, dyskinesia and neurologic soft-signs) at index episode
      at antipsychotic naive state and after 6months of FEP. Basic epidemiological
      variables, schizophrenia diagnosis and average of chlorpromazine equivalent doses
      of antipsychotic drugs were included as covariates. Catatonic signs and
      dyskinesia at drug-naive state were significantly associated with poor long-term
      psychosocial functioning. Moreover, higher scores on parkinsonism, akathisia,
      neurological soft signs and catatonic signs at 6-month of FEP but not dyskinesia
      showed significant associations with poor long-term psychosocial functioning. Our
      results added empirical evidence to motor abnormalities as core manifestations of
      psychotic illness before and after antipsychotic treatment with high predictive
      value for poor long-term psychosocial functioning in FEP patients.

PMID- 28890130
TI  - Effects of perinatal bisphenol A exposure on the volume of sexually-dimorphic
      nuclei of juvenile rats: A CLARITY-BPA consortium study.
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA) is a high volume endocrine disrupting chemical found in a wide
      variety of products including plastics and epoxy resins. Human exposure is nearly
      ubiquitous, and higher in children than adults. Because BPA has been reported to
      interfere with sex steroid hormone signaling, there is concern that developmental
      exposure, even at levels below the current FDA No Observed Adverse Effect Level
      (NOAEL) of 5mg/kg body weight (bw)/day, can disrupt brain sexual differentiation.
      The current studies were conducted as part of the CLARITY-BPA (Consortium Linking
      Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity) program and tested the
      hypothesis that perinatal BPA exposure would induce morphological changes in
      hormone sensitive, sexually dimorphic brain regions. Sprague-Dawley rats were
      randomly assigned to 5 groups: BPA (2.5, 25, or 2500MUg/kgbw/day), a reference
      estrogen (0.5MUg ethinylestradiol (EE2)/kgbw/day), or vehicle. Exposure occurred
      by gavage to the dam from gestational day 6 until parturition, and then to the
      offspring from birth through weaning. Unbiased stereology was used to quantify
      the volume of the sexually dimorphic nucleus (SDN), the anteroventral
      periventricular nucleus (AVPV), the posterodorsal portion of the medial amygdala
      (MePD), and the locus coeruleus (LC) at postnatal day 28. No appreciable effects
      of BPA were observed on the volume of the SDN or LC. However, AVPV volume was
      enlarged in both sexes, even at levels below the FDA NOAEL. Collectively, these
      data suggest the developing brain is vulnerable to endocrine disruption by BPA at
      exposure levels below previous estimates by regulatory agencies.

PMID- 28890133
TI  - Expanding the Kinome World: A New Protein Kinase Family Widely Conserved in
      Bacteria.
AB  - Fine tuning of signaling pathways is essential for cells to cope with sudden
      environmental variations. This delicate balance is maintained in particular by
      protein kinases that control the activity of target proteins by reversible
      phosphorylation. In addition to homologous eukaryotic enzymes, bacteria have
      evolved some specific Ser/Thr/Tyr protein kinases without any structural
      resemblance to their eukaryotic counterparts. Here, we show that a previously
      identified family of ATPases, broadly conserved among bacteria, is in fact a new
      family of protein kinases with a Ser/Thr/Tyr kinase activity. A prototypic member
      of this family, YdiB from Bacillus subtilis, is able to autophosphorylate and to
      phosphorylate a surrogate substrate, the myelin basic protein. Two crystal
      structures of YdiB were solved (1.8 and 2.0A) that display a unique ATP-binding
      fold unrelated to known protein kinases, although a conserved HxD motif is
      reminiscent of that found in Hanks-type protein kinases. The effect of mutations
      of conserved residues further highlights the unique nature of this new protein
      kinase family that we name ubiquitous bacterial kinase. We investigated the
      cellular role of YdiB and showed that a ?ydiB mutant was more sensitive to
      paraquat treatment than the wild type, with ~13% of cells with an aberrant
      morphology. In addition, YdiE, which is known to participate with both YdiC and
      YdiB in an essential chemical modification of some specific tRNAs, is
      phosphorylated in vitro by YdiB. These results expand the boundaries of the
      bacterial kinome and support the involvement of YdiB in protein translation and
      resistance to oxidative stress in B. subtilis.

PMID- 28890134
TI  - Modifiers of GRN-Associated Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.
AB  - Heterozygous loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in the human progranulin gene (GRN)
      cause frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) by a mechanism of
      haploinsufficiency. Patients present most frequently with frontotemporal
      dementia, which is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia at young
      age. Currently, no disease-modifying therapies are available for these patients.
      Stimulating GRN protein expression or inhibiting its breakdown is an obvious
      therapeutic strategy, and is indeed the focus of current preclinical research and
      clinical trials. Multiple studies have demonstrated the heterogeneity in clinical
      presentation and wide variability in age of onset in patients carrying a GRN LOF
      mutation. Recently, this heterogeneity became an opportunity to identify disease
      modifiers, considering that these might constitute suitable targets for
      developing disease-modifying or disease-delaying therapies.

PMID- 28890135
TI  - Targeted Immune Interventions for an HIV-1 Cure.
AB  - Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) induces durable suppression of virus
      replication but is unable to eradicate HIV. Invariably, virus rebound follows
      treatment interruption and life-long cART is thus required. Advances have been
      made in our understanding of HIV latency, identification of HIV cell reservoirs,
      regulation of HIV-specific immune responses, as well as in the development of
      broad neutralizing antibodies and putative therapeutic vaccines. These have
      provided a scientific basis to explore alternative strategies that achieve
      durable suppression of viremia in the absence of cART, the so-called functional
      cure. Single intervention strategies have shown promise, albeit with limited
      efficacy. Consequently, a combination of interventions aiming to stimulate the
      immune response and prevent new rounds of viral infection and spreading may
      render the HIV functional cure a feasible goal.

PMID- 28890137
TI  - Secular trends of use of anti-osteoporotic treatments in Spain: A population
      based cohort study including over 1.5million people and more than 12years of
      follow-up.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Different regulatory actions for anti-osteoporotic medication (AOM)
      were taken during the last years, including marketing of new drugs, safety
      warnings, or restrictions on the indications. We aimed to characterise the
      secular trends of AOM use in Spain from 2001 to 2013. METHODS: A cohort study
      using the Spanish Database for Pharmacoepidemiological Research in Primary Care
      (BIFAP), was performed. BIFAP includes anonym records for 4million patients.
      Participants entered the study when aged >=50years in 2001-2013 and after 1year
      of data available, and were followed to an AOM prescription (including
      alendronate, other bisphosphonates, SERM (selective estrogen receptor
      modulators), strontium ranelate, teriparatide or denosumab), death, lost or the
      end of December 2013. Prevalence (%) and incidence rate (IR/1000person-years
      (py)) of AOM users were computed by years and sex. RESULTS: Out of 1.5million
      participants, 135,410 received AOM treatment during 2001-2013. Prevalence was
      6.1% (women) and 1.1% (men), that increased from 2001 (2.0%) to 2009 (7.6%) to
      decrease thereafter. Out of them, 95,057 were incident. The IR was 24.90 (women)
      and 2.77 (men), that increased from 2001 (21.25 and 1.96) to 2007 (35.84 and
      3.64), and decreased to 12.48 and 1.81 (2013). IRs were highest for
      bisphosphonates along the years (ranging 3.70-14.73 and 0.57-1.75 in women and
      men respectively), followed by SERM up to 2005 (6.51-9.02 and 0.06-0.07), and
      strontium ranelate from 2006 (4.66 and 0.45) to 2012 (2.05 and 0.26). IR for
      teriparatide increased from marketing in 2004 (0.10-1.01 and 0.02-0.29), as was
      denosumab from marketing in 2011 (0.03-2.64 and 0.09-0.15). CONCLUSIONS:
      Population-based estimates of AOM use in Spain peaked in 2007-2009 and decreased
      thereafter, irrespective of age and sex. New treatments were ten times higher in
      women than men. Bisphosphonates were the most frequently prescribed class,
      followed by SERM in women before 2006, strontium otherwise till 2012, and
      denosumab in women or teriparatide in men in 2013. Changes in the osteoporosis
      criteria, fracture risk assessment strategies, and regulatory actions for AOM
      around the time, may explain that trend.

PMID- 28890138
TI  - Unlocking Marine Biotechnology in the Developing World.
AB  - Fulfilling the promise of marine biotechnology as a source for environmental and
      biomedical applications remains challenging. New technologies will be necessary
      to harness marine biodiversity, and collaboration across government, academic,
      and private sectors will be crucial to create mechanisms of technology transfer
      and promote the development of new marine biotechnology companies.

PMID- 28890136
TI  - Identification of lipidomic markers of chronic 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl
      (PCB 126) exposure in the male rat liver.
AB  - Exposure to PCB 126, an environmentally relevant aryl hydrocarbon receptor
      agonist, is an environmental factor causing hepatic steatosis in rodent models;
      however, the lipidome of PCB 126-exposed rats has not been investigated in-depth.
      The objective of the present study was therefore to characterize dose-dependent
      changes in the lipid profile in the liver of male Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to
      PCB 126. Rats were exposed for three month to intraperitoneal injections of 0.01,
      0.05 and 0.2MUmol/kg bw PCB 126 in corn oil. Control animals were exposed in
      parallel and received corn oil alone. Lipids were extracted from whole liver
      homogenate and levels of polar lipids and fatty acids incorporated into
      triglycerides (FATAGs) were determined with tandem mass spectrometry using
      electrospray ionization. PCB 126 exposure increased the hepatic content of polar
      lipids and FATAGs. Protein adjusted levels of several polar lipid classes, in
      particular phosphatidylserine levels, decreased, whereas FATAGs levels typically
      increased with increasing PCB 126 dose. Sensitive, dose-dependent endpoints of
      PCB 126 exposure included an increase in levels of adrenic acid incorporated into
      triglycerides and changes in levels of certain ether-linked phospholipid and 1
      alkyl/1-alkenyldiacylglycerol species, as determined using partial least square
      discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and ANOVA. These changes in the composition of
      polar lipids and fatty acid in the liver of PCB 126 exposed rats identified
      several novel markers of PCB 126-mediated fatty liver disease that need to be
      validated in further studies.

PMID- 28890139
TI  - Duck interferon regulatory factor 1 acts as a positive regulator in duck innate
      antiviral response.
AB  - In mammals, IFN regulatory factor (IRF) 1 can activates cellular genes and
      promotes viral resistance against some DNA and RNA viruses. Most IRFs have been
      identified as critical regulators in the IFN responses in both mammals and fish.
      In ducks, however, the functional role of IRF1 remains unknown. Here, we
      identified duck IRF1 (duIRF1) is essential to counteract viral invasion. duIRF1
      is most abundant in duck spleen, and virus infection or poly(I:C) stimulation
      significantly induced duIRF1 expression in vivo and in vitro. Overexpression of
      duRF1 induces the expression of type I IFN-beta, type III IFN-lambda, and
      interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) in duck embryo fibroblasts (DEFs), initiating
      cells resistant to avian viruses infection. More importantly, we found duIRF1
      interacts with duck myeloid differentiation factor 88 (duMyD88) to activate duck
      IFN-beta, different from IRF3 and IRF7, which involve in IFN expression through
      the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptor pathway in mammals.
      Together, these results indicate that duIRF1 effectively inhibits viral
      replication through the induction of IFN and antiviral ISGs. This will help with
      understanding the role of duIRF1 mediated antiviral responses by innate immune
      mechanisms.

PMID- 28890140
TI  - [Impact of the elderly patient in the emergency department].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aging of the population, chronic diseases, and non-urgent
      visits to the Emergency departments (ED) are considered the reasons for the
      increase of the demand of care. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of
      the older population in the ED, when compared to a younger population. MATERIAL
      AND METHODS: An observational, descriptive and retrospective study including an
      analysis of the 92,627 patients that attended the ED in Hospitals from Health
      Area IV belonging to the Principality of Asturias Health Services during 2009.
      The analysis included the number of visits, degree of urgency when arriving at
      the ED, length of stay (LOS), destination after ED assessment, demand of care per
      time of day, laboratory tests, and radiology, complaints, and social services
      consultation. A comparison was made between the data of patients over and below
      70 years of age. RESULTS: At total of 28,965 (31.27%) patients were over 70 years
      of age, with a frequency rate in the ED of 52.29% (25.70% in those less than 70
      years). Patients over 70 years had a higher priority attention through the
      Manchester triage scale, receiving more laboratory tests, with a higher LOS. They
      also had a higher probability of being seen by social services, of being
      admitted, and death. CONCLUSIONS: Older patients consult the ED with more
      justifiable reasons than the younger adult population.

PMID- 28890141
TI  - [Gait speed and the appearance of neurocognitive disorders in older adults:
      Results of a Peruvian cohort].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The prevention and management of neurocognitive disorders (NCD)
      among older adults can be improved by early identification of risk factors such
      as walking speed. The objective of the study is to assess the association between
      gait speed and NCD onset in a population of Peruvian older adults. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: Cohort conducted in older adults who attended the geriatrics service of
      Naval Medical Center (Callao, Peru). During the baseline assessment,
      participants' gait speed was recorded. Subsequently, participants were followed
      up annually for 5 years, with a mean of 21 months. NCD onset was defined as the
      occurrence of a score <=24 points on the Mini Mental State Examination (screening
      test) during follow-up. The hazard ratios (HR) and their 95% confidence intervals
      (95% CI) were calculated using Cox regression. RESULTS: The study included 657
      participants, with a mean age of 73.4+/-9.2 (SD) years, of whom 47.0% were male,
      47.8% had a gait speed <0.8 m/s, and 20.1% developed NCD during the follow up. It
      was found that older adults who had gait speed <0.8 m/s at baseline were more
      likely to develop NCD than those who had a gait speed >=0.8 m/s (adjusted
      HR=1.41, 95% CI=1.34-1.47). CONCLUSION: A longitudinal association was found
      between decreased gait speed and NCD onset, suggesting that gait speed could be
      useful to identify patients at risk of NCD onset.

PMID- 28890142
TI  - [Clinical variables associated with rhabdomyolysis and its complications in
      elderly patients. A retrospective cohort study].

PMID- 28890144
TI  - Adipocyte-Epithelial Interactions and Crohn's Disease - An Emerging Drug Target.

PMID- 28890146
TI  - Knitted octopuses inside the incubators, a non-evidence based viral practice.

PMID- 28890145
TI  - Clinical Implications of the Association of Fetal Hemoglobin with Peripheral
      Oxygen Saturation in Sickle Cell Disease.

PMID- 28890143
TI  - Transcriptional interaction between cFOS and the homeodomain-binding
      transcription factor VAX1 on the GnRH promoter controls Gnrh1 expression levels
      in a GnRH neuron maturation specific manner.
AB  - Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is required for pubertal onset and
      reproduction, thus the control of GnRH transcription is tightly regulated during
      development and adulthood. GnRH neuron development depends on transcription
      factors of the homeodomain family. For example, Ventral anterior homeobox 1
      (Vax1) is necessary to maintain GnRH expression after embryonic day 13 in the
      mouse. To further our understanding of the mechanisms by which VAX1 regulates
      GnRH gene expression, we asked whether VAX1 interacts with other transcription
      factors to modify GnRH expression levels. Using the GnRH cell lines, GN11 and GT1
      7, we found that activation of PKC enhances expression of the immediate early
      gene cFos in both GN11, and GT1-7, and represses expression of Vax1 in GT1-7.
      Further, VAX1 interacts with cFOS while bound to the GnRH promoter. In immature
      GN11 cells, VAX1 and cFOS enhance GnRH expression, whereas VAX1 and cFOS have a
      repressive role in the mature GT1-7 cells.

PMID- 28890147
TI  - Obstructive sleep apnea: Influence of hypertension on adiponectin, inflammatory
      markers and dyslipidemia.
AB  - Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common but often unrecognized condition with
      potentially serious complications. The aim of this study was to explore the
      possible mechanisms linking hypertension (HT), a common cardiovascular disease
      (CVD), with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) by investigating the levels of morning
      and evening serum adiponectin, inflammatory markers (TNF-alpha, IL-6), and lipid
      profiles in OSA patients with and without HT. Four groups were enrolled in this
      case-control analytic study: control, OSA, OSA+HT, and HT groups, each of which
      included 22 subjects. The results revealed low morning and evening serum
      adiponectin levels in patients with OSA and OSA+HT compared with their control
      and HT counterparts. Serum adiponectin levels declined progressively with
      increasing severity of OSA. Also, morning adiponectin levels were significantly
      decreased at the same time that a loss of the normal diurnal rhythm was observed
      in the OSA and OSA+HT groups. Both TNF-alpha and IL-6 levels were significantly
      increased in the OSA and OSA+HT groups compared with levels in the control and HT
      groups. Altered lipid profiles was noticed in the same groups. These findings
      were more pronounced in the OSA+HT than in the OSA group. In conclusion, the
      biochemical findings of this study demonstrate predominantly low adiponectin
      levels, increased levels of inflammatory markers, and atherogenic lipid profiles
      in OSA patients with HT compared with those of the other patients studied. This
      highlights the possible contributing role of these factors to the pathogenesis of
      HT as a common cardiovascular complication in OSA patients.

PMID- 28890148
TI  - Co-infections of infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus and Siniperca
      chuatsi rhabdovirus in Chinese perch (Siniperca chuatsi).
AB  - In spite of the quite common co-infections of viruses in the cultured fish, most
      of the previous studies have just simply focused on the infection of a single
      pathogen. In this report, we observed that about 13% of cultured Chinese perch
      have been co-infected by infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) and
      Siniperca chuatsi rhabdovirus (SCRV). Furthermore, Chinese perch could co
      infected by ISKNV and SCRV by intraperitoneally injection with the two viruses.
      Interestingly, we revealed that the two viruses could even co-infect a single
      cell of Chinese perch in vivo and a single Chinese perch brain cells (CPB) cell
      in vitro. The dynamic co-infected viruses loads in the different tissues of
      Chinese perch showed dependent. When CPB cells were infected with the same 10 MOI
      of SCRV and ISKNV, the replication of SCRV overwhelmed the replication of ISKNV.
      When the MOI of ISKNV (10 MOI) was 10,000 times of MOI of SCRV (0.001 MOI), the
      dynamic virus loads of the two viruses in CPB cells indicated that co-infections
      could synergistically stimulate both viruses replication at the late time points
      but not at early time points. The co-infections of ISKNV and SCRV in the cultured
      Chinese perch will shed a new light on the prevention of the viral diseases of
      Chinese perch. The development of multivalent vaccine which could be effective
      for preventing against the co-infections of the viruses is highly needed.

PMID- 28890150
TI  - Antagonizing the GABAA receptor during behavioral training improves spatial
      memory at different doses in control and chronically stressed rats.
AB  - Chronic stress leads to a dysregulated inhibitory tone that could impact
      hippocampal-dependent spatial learning and memory. The present study examined
      whether spatial memory deficits resulting from chronic stress could be overcome
      by antagonizing the GABAA receptor, a prominent inhibitory receptor of GABA in
      the hippocampus. Young adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were chronically stressed
      (STR, wire mesh restraint, 6h/d/21d) or placed in a no-stress control group
      (CON). When chronic restraint ended, rats were tested on a 2-trial object
      placement (OP) task at a delay (3h) that would result in chance performance
      without intervention and then on novel object recognition (NOR) and the elevated
      plus maze (EPM) to assess non-spatial memory and anxiety profile. In CON rats,
      Bicuculline (BIC, 0, 0.25, 0.5mg/kg), a GABAA antagonist, injected 30min prior to
      training led to facilitated OP performance with 0.25 and 0.5mg/kg doses. In
      contrast, STR rats required BIC at the highest dose (0.5mg/kg) to improve OP
      performance. While overall object exploration was decreased by chronic stress,
      motivation or anxiety profile were unlikely to explain these results. These
      findings reveal two different dose response functions for BIC in control and
      chronically stressed rats, with the dose response function of BIC being shifted
      to the right for chronically stressed rats compared to controls in order to
      improve spatial memory. While the literature demonstrates that chronic stress
      disrupts hippocampal inhibitory tone, the current study reveals that a single
      injection to antagonize the GABAA receptor can restore hippocampal-dependent
      spatial memory in chronically stressed subjects.

PMID- 28890149
TI  - Distinct roles for the deacetylase domain of HDAC3 in the hippocampus and medial
      prefrontal cortex in the formation and extinction of memory.
AB  - Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are chromatin modifying enzymes that have been
      implicated as powerful negative regulators of memory processes. HDAC3has been
      shown to play a pivotal role in long-term memory for object location as well as
      the extinction of cocaine-associated memory, but it is unclear whether this
      function depends on the deacetylase domain of HDAC3. Here, we tested whether the
      deacetylase domain of HDAC3has a role in object location memory formation as well
      as the formation and extinction of cocaine-associated memories. Using a
      deacetylase-dead point mutant of HDAC3, we found that selectively blocking HDAC3
      deacetylase activity in the dorsal hippocampus enhanced long-term memory for
      object location, but had no effect on the formation of cocaine-associated memory.
      When this same point mutant virus of HDAC3 was infused into the prelimbic cortex,
      it failed to affect cocaine-associated memory formation. With regards to
      extinction, impairing the HDAC3 deacetylase domain in the infralimbic cortex had
      no effect on extinction, but a facilitated extinction effect was observed when
      the point mutant virus was delivered to the dorsal hippocampus. These results
      suggest that the deacetylase domain of HDAC3 plays a selective role in specific
      brain regions underlying long-term memory formation of object location as well as
      cocaine-associated memory formation and extinction.

PMID- 28890151
TI  - When to Perform Preoperative Bone Scintigraphy for Kidney Cancer Staging:
      Indications for Preoperative Bone Scintigraphy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To identify an objective and reproducible strategy for preoperative
      staging bone scintigraphy (BS) in patients diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma
      (RCC), because in the absence of objective criteria, the decision to perform
      preoperative BS remains a subjective practice. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study
      included a total of 2008 patients with RCC treated with surgery and prospectively
      included into an institutional database. The study outcome was the presence of 1
      or more bone lesions suspicious for metastases at staging BS. A multivariable
      logistic regression model predicting a positive BS was fitted. The predictors
      consisted of the preoperative clinical tumor (cT) and clinical nodal (cN) stages,
      the presence of systemic symptoms, and the platelet-to-hemoglobin (PLT/Hb) ratio.
      RESULTS: The rate of positive BS was 4% (n = 81). At the multivariable logistic
      regression analysis, cT2, cN1, the presence of systemic symptoms, and the PLT/Hb
      ratio were all associated with am increased risk of positive BS (P <.05).
      Following the 2000-sample bootstrap validation, the concordance index was 0.77
      (proposed model) vs 0.63 (decision making based on symptoms only). At the
      decision curve analysis, the proposed strategy was associated with a higher net
      benefit. If BS is performed when the risk of positive result is >5%, a negative
      BS is spared in 80% and a positive BS is missed in 2% of the population only.
      CONCLUSION: Using preoperative variables, it is possible to accurately estimate
      the risk of positive BS at RCC staging using preoperative characteristics.
      Compared with the strategy supported by available guidelines, the proposed model
      was more objective, statistically more accurate, and clinically associated with
      higher net benefit.

PMID- 28890152
TI  - Re: Leapman et al.: Up and Away: Five Decades of Urologic Investigation in
      Microgravity (Urology 106:18-25).

PMID- 28890153
TI  - Medicinal plants for in vitro antiplasmodial activities: A systematic review of
      literature.
AB  - The increasing resistance of malaria to drugs raise the need to new antimalarial
      agents. Antiplasmodial herbs and their active compounds are the most promising
      source the new antimalarial agents. This study aimed to identify the medicinal
      plants with very good in vitro antiplasmodial activities, with half-maximal
      inhibitory concentration (IC50)<=1MUg/ml, and to determine trends in the process
      of screening their antiplasmodial activities. A total of 58 reports published in
      the English language were retrieved from the bibliographical databases. Screening
      and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. The herbs were
      categorized as very good, good, moderate and inactive if the IC50 values were
      <0.1MUg/ml, 0.1-1MUg/ml, >1-5MUg/ml and >5MUg/ml respectively. We documented 752
      medicinal plants belonging to 254 genera. The majority of the plants were
      reported from Africa followed by Asia. The traditional use for malaria treatment
      was the most common reason for the selection of the plants for investigation.
      About 80% of the plants experimented were reported to be inactive. Among plants
      identified as having very good to good antiplasmodial crude extracts are
      Harungana madagascariensis, Quassia africana, and Brucea javanica, while
      Picrolemma spruce, Aspidosperma vargasi, Aspidosperma desmanthum, and Artemisia
      annua were reported to have individual compound isolates with very good
      antiplasmodial activities. In conclusion, the number of plant species assessed so
      far is still small compared with the stock in nature's plant library. A mechanism
      of systematically approaching and exploring the untouched plant genera needs to
      be designed.

PMID- 28890154
TI  - Diabetes mellitus in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the pancreas is
      associated with high-grade dysplasia and invasive carcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: While the association between Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and pancreatic
      ductal adenocarcinoma is well recognized, its importance in intraductal papillary
      mucinous neoplasm of the pancreas (IPMN) is not well-defined. We sought to
      examine the associations of DM with degree of dysplasia and morphological
      subtypes in IPMN. METHODS: In 454 patients with resected IPMN, we evaluated
      associations of DM with high-grade dysplasia (HGD), invasive carcinoma, precursor
      epithelial subtype (gastric, intestinal, oncocytic, pancreatobiliary), and
      histological type of invasive carcinomas (tubular, colloid, oncocytic) using
      logistic regression. We performed multivariate analyses adjusting for worrisome
      features and high-risk stigmata of malignancy in a subset of 289 patients with
      annotated radiological characteristics. RESULTS: The prevalence of DM in our
      study was 34%. DM was significantly associated with HGD (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.02
      4.01, P = 0.045) and invasive carcinoma (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.08-3.87, P = 0.027)
      after adjusting for worrisome features. Compared to patients without DM, those
      with recent-onset DM (<=5 years before surgery) had 6.9-fold (95% CI 2.38-19.92,
      P < 0.001) higher risk of invasive carcinoma. DM was associated with increased
      likelihood of intestinal-type precursor epithelium (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.07-2.47, P
      = 0.022) and colloid carcinomas (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.01-5.99, P = 0.047)
      CONCLUSION: Preoperative DM was associated with significantly higher risk of HGD
      and invasive carcinoma in resected IPMN, and risk of invasive carcinoma was
      highest in patients with recent-onset DM. Patients with DM were more likely to
      harbor intestinal-type IPMN and colloid carcinomas. Our findings suggest that a
      diagnosis of DM in patients with IPMN may warrant more aggressive surveillance.

PMID- 28890155
TI  - Antibiotic-induced microbiota perturbation causes gut endocannabinoidome changes,
      hippocampal neuroglial reorganization and depression in mice.
AB  - The microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA) regulates the reciprocal interaction between
      chronic inflammatory bowel and psychiatric disorders. This interaction involves
      multiple pathways that are highly debated. We examined the behavioural,
      biochemical and electrophysiological alterations, as well as gut microbiota
      composition in a model of antibiotic-induced experimental dysbiosis. Inflammation
      of the small intestine was also assessed. Mice were exposed to a mixture of
      antimicrobials for 2weeks. Afterwards, they received Lactobacillus casei DG
      (LCDG) or a vehicle for up to 7days via oral gavage. Perturbation of microbiota
      was accompanied by a general inflammatory state and alteration of some
      endocannabinoidome members in the gut. Behavioural changes, including increased
      immobility in the tail suspension test and reduced social recognition were
      observed, and were associated with altered BDNF/TrkB signalling, TRPV1
      phosphorylation and neuronal firing in the hippocampus. Moreover, morphological
      rearrangements of non-neuronal cells in brain areas controlling emotional
      behaviour were detected. Subsequent probiotic administration, compared with
      vehicle, counteracted most of these gut inflammatory, behavioural, biochemical
      and functional alterations. Interestingly, levels of Lachnospiraceae were found
      to significantly correlate with the behavioural changes observed in dysbiotic
      mice. Our findings clarify some of the biomolecular and functional modifications
      leading to the development of affective disorders associated with gut microbiota
      alterations.

PMID- 28890156
TI  - The microbiota influences cell death and microglial colonization in the perinatal
      mouse brain.
AB  - The mammalian fetus develops in a largely sterile environment, and direct
      exposure to a complex microbiota does not occur until birth. We took advantage of
      this to examine the effect of the microbiota on brain development during the
      first few days of life. The expression of anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines,
      developmental cell death, and microglial colonization in the brain were compared
      between newborn conventionally colonized mice and mice born in sterile, germ-free
      (GF) conditions. Expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin 1beta
      and tumor necrosis factor alpha was markedly suppressed in GF newborns. GF mice
      also had altered cell death, with some regions exhibiting higher rates
      (paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the CA1 oriens layer of the
      hippocampus) and other regions exhibiting no change or lower rates (arcuate
      nucleus of the hypothalamus) of cell death. Microglial labeling was elevated in
      GF mice, due to an increase in both microglial cell size and number. The changes
      in cytokine expression, cell death and microglial labeling were evident on the
      day of birth, but were absent on embryonic day 18.5, approximately one-half day
      prior to expected delivery. Taken together, our results suggest that direct
      exposure to the microbiota at birth influences key neurodevelopmental events and
      does so within hours. These findings may help to explain some of the behavioral
      and neurochemical alterations previously seen in adult GF mice.

PMID- 28890158
TI  - Childhood cancer: the long-term costs of cure.

PMID- 28890157
TI  - The cumulative burden of surviving childhood cancer: an initial report from the
      St Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (SJLIFE).
AB  - BACKGROUND: Survivors of childhood cancer develop early and severe chronic health
      conditions (CHCs). A quantitative landscape of morbidity of survivors, however,
      has not been described. We aimed to describe the cumulative burden of curative
      cancer therapy in a clinically assessed ageing population of long-term survivors
      of childhood cancer. METHODS: The St Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (SJLIFE)
      retrospectively collected data on CHCs in all patients treated for childhood
      cancer at the St Jude Children's Research Hospital who survived 10 years or
      longer from initial diagnosis and were 18 years or older as of June 30, 2015. Age
      matched and sex-frequency-matched community controls were used for comparison. 21
      treatment exposure variables were included in the analysis, with data abstracted
      from medical records. 168 CHCs for all participants were graded for severity
      using a modified Common Terminology Criteria of Adverse Events. Multiple
      imputation with predictive mean matching was used for missing occurrences and
      grades of CHCs in the survivors who were not clinically evaluable. Mean
      cumulative count was used for descriptive cumulative burden analysis and marked
      point-process regression was used for inferential cumulative burden analysis.
      FINDINGS: Of 5522 patients treated for childhood cancer at St Jude Children's
      Research Hospital who had complete records, survived 10 years or longer, and were
      18 years or older at time of study, 3010 (54.5%) were alive, had enrolled, and
      had had prospective clinical assessment. 2512 (45.5%) of the 5522 patients were
      not clinically evaluable. The cumulative incidence of CHCs at age 50 years was
      99.9% (95% CI 99.9-99.9) for grade 1-5 CHCs and 96.0% (95% CI 95.3-96.8%) for
      grade 3-5 CHCs. By age 50 years, a survivor had experienced, on average, 17.1
      (95% CI 16.2-18.1) CHCs of any grade, of which 4.7 (4.6-4.9) were CHCs of grade 3
      5. The cumulative burden in matched community controls of grade 1-5 CHCs was 9.2
      (95% CI 7.9-10.6; p<0.0001 vs total study population) and of grade 3-5 CHCs was
      2.3 (1.9-2.7, p<0.0001 vs total study population). Second neoplasms, spinal
      disorders, and pulmonary disease were major contributors to the excess total
      cumulative burden. Notable heterogeneity in the distribution of CHC burden in
      survivors with differing primary cancer diagnoses was observed. The cumulative
      burden of grade 1-5 CHCs at age 50 years was highest in survivors of CNS
      malignancies (24.2 [95% CI 20.9-27.5]) and lowest in survivors of germ cell
      tumours (14.0 [11.5-16.6]). Multivariable analyses showed that older age at
      diagnosis, treatment era, and higher doses of brain and chest radiation are
      significantly associated with a greater cumulative burden and severity of CHCs.
      INTERPRETATION: The burden of CHCs in survivors of childhood cancer is
      substantial and highly variable. Our assessment of total cumulative burden in
      survivors of paediatric cancer, with detailed characterisation of long-term CHCs,
      provide data to better inform future clinical guidelines, research
      investigations, and health services planning for this vulnerable, medically
      complex population. FUNDING: The US National Cancer Institute, St Baldrick's
      Foundation, and the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities.

PMID- 28890159
TI  - Acral retiform purpura.

PMID- 28890160
TI  - Elfin: An algorithm for the computational design of custom three-dimensional
      structures from modular repeat protein building blocks.
AB  - Computational protein design methods have enabled the design of novel protein
      structures, but they are often still limited to small proteins and symmetric
      systems. To expand the size of designable proteins while controlling the overall
      structure, we developed Elfin, a genetic algorithm for the design of novel
      proteins with custom shapes using structural building blocks derived from
      experimentally verified repeat proteins. By combining building blocks with
      compatible interfaces, it is possible to rapidly build non-symmetric large
      structures (>1000 amino acids) that match three-dimensional geometric
      descriptions provided by the user. A run time of about 20min on a laptop computer
      for a 3000 amino acid structure makes Elfin accessible to users with limited
      computational resources. Protein structures with controlled geometry will allow
      the systematic study of the effect of spatial arrangement of enzymes and
      signaling molecules, and provide new scaffolds for functional nanomaterials.

PMID- 28890161
TI  - Self-assembly of repeat proteins: Concepts and design of new interfaces.
AB  - In nature, assembled protein structures offer the most complex functional
      structures. The understanding of the mechanisms ruling protein-protein
      interactions opens the door to manipulate protein assemblies in a rational way.
      Proteins are versatile scaffolds with great potential as tools in nanotechnology
      and biomedicine because of their chemical, structural, and functional
      versatility. Currently, bottom-up self-assembly based on biomolecular
      interactions of small and well-defined components, is an attractive approach to
      biomolecular engineering and biomaterial design. Specifically, repeat proteins
      are simplified systems for this purpose. In this work, we provide an overview of
      fundamental concepts of the design of new protein interfaces. We describe an
      experimental approach to form higher order architectures by a bottom-up assembly
      of repeated building blocks. For this purpose, we use designed consensus
      tetratricopeptide repeat proteins (CTPRs). CTPR arrays contain multiple identical
      repeats that interact through a single inter-repeat interface to form elongated
      superhelices. Introducing a novel interface along the CTPR superhelix allows two
      CTPR molecules to assemble into protein nanotubes. We apply three approaches to
      form protein nanotubes: electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions, and
      pi-pi interactions. We isolate and characterize the stability and shape of the
      formed dimers and analyze the nanotube formation considering the energy of the
      interaction and the structure in the three different models. These studies
      provide insights into the design of novel protein interfaces for the control of
      the assembly into more complex structures, which will open the door to the
      rational design of nanostructures and ordered materials for many potential
      applications in nanotechnology.

PMID- 28890162
TI  - Intermediate filament structure in fully differentiated (oxidised) trichocyte
      keratin.
AB  - For the past 50years there has been considerable debate over the sub-structure of
      the fully differentiated (oxidised) trichocyte keratin intermediate filament.
      Depending on the staining and preparative procedures employed, IF observed in
      transverse section in the transmission electron microscope have varied in
      appearance between that of a "ring" and a "ring-core" structure, corresponding to
      the so-called (8+0) and (7+1) protofilament arrangements. In a new analysis of
      the fine structure of the 1nm equatorial region of the X-ray diffraction pattern
      of quill we show that the observed pattern is consistent with the (8+0) model and
      we are also able to assign values to the various parameters. In contrast, we show
      that the observed X-ray pattern is inconsistent with a (7+1) arrangement.
      Furthermore, in the (7+1) model steric hindrance would be encountered between the
      core protofilament and those constituting the ring. The appearance of a central
      "core" in transverse TEM sections, previously attributed to a central
      protofilament, is explained in terms of portions of the apolar, disulfide-bonded
      head and/or tail domains of the trichocyte keratin IF molecules, including the
      conserved H subdomains, lying along the axis of the IF, thereby decreasing the
      efficacy of the reducing agents used prior to staining. The H1 subdomain,
      previously shown to be important in the assembly of epidermal IF molecules at the
      two- to four-molecule level, is likely to have a similar role for the trichocyte
      keratins and may form part of a central scaffold on which the molecules assemble
      into fully functional IF.

PMID- 28890165
TI  - Reduction of the Anticholinergic Burden Makes It Possible to Decrease Behavioral
      and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a reduction of the
      anticholinergic burden (AB) on the frequency and severity of behavioral and
      psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and their repercussions on the care
      team (occupational disruptiveness). METHODS: In this prospective, single-center
      study in an acute care unit for Alzheimer disease (AD) and related disorders, 125
      elderly subjects (mean age: 84.4 years) with dementia presented with BPSD. The
      reduction of the AB was evaluated by the Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden Scale.
      BPSD were evaluated with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Nursing Home Version (NPI
      NH). The effect of the reduction of the AB on the BPSD was studied using logistic
      regression adjusting for the variables of the comprehensive geriatric assessment.
      RESULTS: Seventy-one subjects (56.8%) presenting with probable AD, 32 (25.6%)
      mixed dementia (AD and vascular), 17 (13.6%) vascular dementia, and 5 (4.0%) Lewy
      body dementia were included. Reducing the AB by at least 20% enabled a
      significant decrease in the frequency * severity scores of the NPI-NH (adjusted
      odds ratio: 3.5; 95% confidence interval: 1.6-7.9) and of the occupational
      disruptiveness score (adjusted odds ratio: 9.9; 95% confidence interval: 3.6
      27.3). CONCLUSION: AB reduction in elderly subjects with dementia makes is
      possible to reduce BPSD and caregiver burden. Recourse to treatments involving an
      AB must be avoided as much as possible in these patients, and preferential use of
      nonpharmacologic treatment management plans is encouraged.

PMID- 28890163
TI  - Single Stem Cell Imaging and Analysis Reveals Telomere Length Differences in
      Diseased Human and Mouse Skeletal Muscles.
AB  - Muscle stem cells (MuSCs) contribute to muscle regeneration following injury. In
      many muscle disorders, the repeated cycles of damage and repair lead to stem cell
      dysfunction. While telomere attrition may contribute to aberrant stem cell
      functions, methods to accurately measure telomere length in stem cells from
      skeletal muscles have not been demonstrated. Here, we have optimized and
      validated such a method, named MuQ-FISH, for analyzing telomere length in MuSCs
      from either mice or humans. Our analysis showed no differences in telomere length
      between young and aged MuSCs from uninjured wild-type mice, but MuSCs isolated
      from young dystrophic mice exhibited significantly shortened telomeres. In
      corroboration, we demonstrated that telomere attrition is present in human
      dystrophic MuSCs, which underscores its importance in diseased regenerative
      failure. The robust technique described herein provides analysis at a single-cell
      resolution and may be utilized for other cell types, especially rare populations
      of cells.

PMID- 28890166
TI  - History and strategic initiatives of the new World Sleep Society.

PMID- 28890164
TI  - Directed Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells to Fate-Committed
      Schwann Cells.
AB  - Our ultimate goal of in vitro derivation of Schwann cells (SCs) from adult bone
      marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) is such that they may be used autologously to assist
      post-traumatic nerve regeneration. Existing protocols for derivation of SC-like
      cells from BMSCs fall short in the stability of the acquired phenotype and the
      functional capacity to myelinate axons. Our experiments indicated that neuro
      ectodermal progenitor cells among the human hBMSCs could be selectively expanded
      and then induced to differentiate into SC-like cells. Co-culture of the SC-like
      cells with embryonic dorsal root ganglion neurons facilitated contact-mediated
      signaling that accomplished the switch to fate-committed SCs. Microarray analysis
      and in vitro myelination provided evidence that the human BMSC-derived SCs were
      functionally mature. This was reinforced by repair and myelination phenotypes
      observable in vivo with the derived SCs seeded into a nerve guide as an implant
      across a critical gap in a rat model of sciatic nerve injury.

PMID- 28890167
TI  - Long sleep duration and health outcomes: A systematic review, meta-analysis and
      meta-regression.
AB  - We examined the dose-response relationship between long sleep duration and health
      outcomes including mortality and the incidence of diabetes mellitus,
      hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, coronary heart diseases, obesity,
      depression and dyslipidemia. We collected data from 5,134,036 participants from
      137 prospective cohort studies. For the independent variable, we categorized
      participants at baseline as having long sleep duration or normal sleep duration.
      Risk ratios (RRs) for mortality and incident health conditions during follow-up
      were calculated through meta-analyses of adjusted data from individual studies.
      Meta-regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between
      each outcome and specific thresholds of long sleep. Long sleep was significantly
      associated with mortality (RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.31-1.47), incident diabetes
      mellitus (1.26, 1.11-1.43), cardiovascular disease (1.25, 1.14-1.37), stroke
      (1.46, 1.26-1.69), coronary heart disease (1.24, 1.13-1.37), and obesity (1.08,
      1.02-1.15). Long sleep was not significantly related to incident hypertension
      (1.01, 0.95-1.07). Insufficient data were available for depression and
      dyslipidemia. Meta-regression analyses found statistically significant linear
      associations between longer sleep duration and increased mortality and incident
      cardiovascular disease. Future studies should address whether the relationship
      between long sleep and health outcomes is causal and modifiable.

PMID- 28890168
TI  - Sleep disturbances increase the risk of dementia: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - Sleep disturbances and dementia are two common and significant health problems in
      older adults. Investigations suggest that sleep disturbances might increase the
      risk of dementia. The aim of the present study was to systematically review and
      meta-analyze the predictive roles of overall sleep disturbances, their subtypes
      (e.g., insomnia, sleep disordered breathing [SDB]), and other sleep problems
      (e.g., excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep-related movement disorder, circadian
      rhythm sleep disorder, and nonspecific sleep problems) in incident all-cause
      dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia subtypes. We
      performed a systematic search of the PubMed, EMBase, ISI Web of Science, and
      PsycINFO databases for longitudinal studies that were published up to October 28,
      2016. A total of 12,926 papers were retrieved. Eighteen longitudinal studies that
      included 246,786 subjects at baseline and 25,847 dementia cases after an average
      9.49 y of follow-up were eligible for inclusion. Compared with individuals
      without sleep disturbances, subjects who reported sleep disturbances had a higher
      risk of incident all-cause dementia, AD, and vascular dementia. The subgroup
      analysis showed that insomnia increased the risk of AD but not vascular or all
      cause dementia. In contrast, SDB was associated with a higher incidence of all
      cause dementia, AD, and vascular dementia. This meta-analysis suggests that sleep
      disturbances may predict the risk of incident dementia. Moreover, insomnia was
      associated only with incident AD, and SDB was a risk factor of all-cause
      dementia, AD, and vascular dementia. However, sleep disturbances were evaluated
      mainly based on self-reports, and some confounders may mediate the relationship
      between sleep disturbances and dementia. Therefore, the results should be further
      validated. In summary, these findings may help identify individuals who are at
      risk for dementia and optimize early prevention strategies.

PMID- 28890169
TI  - How can we predict cellular mechanosensation?: Comment on "Cellular
      mechanosensing of the biophysical microenvironment: A review of mathematical
      models of biophysical regulation of cell responses" by Bo Cheng et al.

PMID- 28890170
TI  - Characterization of a novel mosquitocidal toxin of Cry50Ba and its potential
      synergism with other mosquitocidal toxins.
AB  - A putative toxin gene of cry50Ba was successfully expressed in E. coli cells and
      confirmed that the purified Cry50Ba toxin had very high toxic activity against
      Culex quinquefasciatus larvae. Furthermore, the potential synergism of Cry50Ba
      toxin with Cry2Aa, Cry4Aa and Cry11Aa at a ratio of 1:1 was investigated.
      Although no significant synergism with other toxins was observed, the Cry50Ba as
      a novel toxin could be used to delay rapid onset of resistance in mosquito.

PMID- 28890171
TI  - General characterization of the venoms from two species of rattlesnakes and an
      intergrade population (C. lepidus x aquilus) from Aguascalientes and Zacatecas,
      Mexico.
AB  - The venoms from two species of rock rattlesnakes and an intergrade population
      were studied. Differences were noted in SDS-PAGE and RP-HPLC profiles and only
      the venom from the intergrade population showed low procoagulant activity. Also,
      a Crotoxin-like neurotoxic PLA2 was identified in the venom of C. l. klauberi,
      the most toxic of the analyzed venoms. This is the first report of such a toxin
      in C. l. klauberi from Aguascalientes, Mexico.

PMID- 28890172
TI  - Spray drying of silica microparticles for sustained release application with a
      new sol-gel precursor.
AB  - A new precursor, tetrakis(2-methoxyethyl) orthosilicate (TMEOS) was used to
      fabricate microparticles for sustained release application, specifically for
      biopharmaceuticals, by spray drying. The advantages of TMEOS over the currently
      applied precursors are its water solubility and hydrolysis at moderate pH without
      the need of organic solvents or catalyzers. Thus a detrimental effect on
      biomolecular drug is avoided. By generating spray-dried silica particles
      encapsulating the high molecular weight model compound FITC-dextran 150 via the
      nano spray dryer Buchi-90, we demonstrated how formulation parameters affect and
      enable control of drug release properties. The implemented strategies to regulate
      release included incorporating different quantities of dextrans with varying
      molecular weight as well as adjusting the pH of the precursor solution to modify
      the internal microstructures. The addition of dextran significantly altered the
      released amount, while the release became faster with increasing dextran
      molecular weight. A sustained release over 35days could be achieved with addition
      of 60 kD dextran. The rate of FITC-Dextran 150 release from the dextran 60
      containing particles decreased with higher precursor solution pH. In conclusion,
      the new precursor TMEOS presents a promising alternative sol-gel technology based
      carrier material for sustained release application of high molecular weight
      biopharmaceutical drugs.

PMID- 28890173
TI  - Spray drying of poorly soluble drugs from aqueous arginine solution.
AB  - Co-amorphous drug-amino acid mixtures have shown potential for improving the
      solid-state stability and dissolution behavior of amorphous drugs. In previous
      studies, however these mixtures have been produced mainly with small-scale
      preparation methods, or with methods that have required the use of organic
      solvents or other dissolution enhancers. In the present study, co-amorphous
      ibuprofen-arginine and indomethacin-arginine mixtures were spray dried from
      water. The mixtures were prepared at two drug-arginine molar ratios (1:1 and
      1:2). The properties of the prepared mixtures were investigated with differential
      scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffractometry, Fourier-transform infrared
      spectroscopy and a 24h, non-sink, dissolution study. All mixtures exhibited a
      single glass transition temperature (Tg), evidence of the formation of homogenous
      single-phase systems. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed strong
      interactions (mainly salt formation) that account for the positive deviation
      between measured and estimated Tg values. No crystallization was observed during
      a 1-year stability study in either 1:1 or 1:2 mixtures, but in the presence of
      moisture, handling difficulties were encountered. The formation of co-amorphous
      salts led to improved dissolution characteristics when compared to the
      corresponding physical mixtures or to pure crystalline drugs.

PMID- 28890174
TI  - Improved control over MSCs behavior within 3D matrices by using different cell
      loads in both in vitro and in vivo environments.
AB  - The combination of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and different
      biomaterials has led to enormous advances in cell-based therapies, among which
      cell microencapsulation technologies are included. In the present work, we have
      studied the influence of different cell densities on the behavior of
      erythropoietin (EPO)-secreting MSCs immobilized in alginate microcapsules for
      their use as drug delivery systems. In vitro studies showed a more sustained and
      controlled EPO-secretion in groups with higher cell densities, which may be
      related to a more balanced renewal of the encapsulated cells, while low and
      intermediate densities gave rise to a continuous increase of both the number of
      cells and the EPO secretion levels. However, in vivo studies depicted a
      completely different scenario. Here the higher levels of cell proliferation led
      to a rapid space saturation and oxygen depletion of the capsule core, which
      eventually resulted in implant failure for the highest cell loads. On the
      contrary, lower cell densities showed a longer lasting release with a steadily
      increasing secretion profile. In conclusion, these results demonstrate how the
      final outcome of a cell-based drug delivery system may be tuned by just modifying
      the initial cell load, always taking into account the surrounding
      microenvironment.

PMID- 28890175
TI  - Effect of the pulmonary deposition and in vitro permeability on the prediction of
      plasma levels of inhaled budesonide formulation.
AB  - The growing interest in the inhalable pharmaceutical products requires advanced
      approaches to safe and fast product development, such as in silico tools that can
      be used for estimating the bioavailability and toxicity of developed formulation.
      GastroPlusTM is one of the few available software packages for in silico
      simulation of PBPK profile of inhalable products. It contains a complementary
      module for calculating the lung deposition, the permeability and the systemic
      absorption of inhalable products. Experimental values of lung deposition and
      permeability can also be used. This study aims to assess the efficiency of
      simulation by applying experimental permeability and deposition values, using
      budesonide as a model substance. The lung deposition values were obtained from
      the literature, the lung permeability data were experimentally determined by
      culturing Calu-3 cells under air-liquid interface and submersed conditions to
      morphologically resemble bronchial and alveolar epithelial cells, respectively. A
      two-compartment PK model was created for i.v. administration and used as a
      background for the in silico simulation of the plasma profile of budesonide after
      inhalation. The predicted plasma profile was compared with the in vivo data from
      the literature and the effects of experimental lung deposition and permeability
      on prediction were assessed. The developed model was significantly improved by
      using realistic lung deposition data combined with experimental data for
      peripheral permeability.

PMID- 28890176
TI  - A gamma-subunit point mutation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast F1Fo-ATP
      synthase confers tolerance to reactive oxygen species.
AB  - The chloroplast F1Fo-ATP synthase (CF1Fo) drives ATP synthesis and the reverse
      reaction of ATP hydrolysis. The enzyme evolved in a cellular environment where
      electron transfer processes and molecular oxygen are abundant, and thiol
      modulation in the gamma-subunit via thioredoxin is important for its ATPase
      activity regulation. Especially under high light, oxygen can be reduced and forms
      reactive oxygen species (ROS) which can oxidize CF1Fo among various other
      biomolecules. Mutation of the conserved ROS targets resulted in a tolerant
      enzyme, suggesting that ROS might play a regulatory role. The mutations had
      several side effects in vitro, including disturbance of the ATPase redox
      regulation [F. Buchert et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1817 (2012) 2038-2048].
      This would prevent disentanglement of thiol- and ROS-specific modes of
      regulation. Here, we used the F1 catalytic core in vitro to identify a point
      mutant with a functional ATPase redox regulation and increased H2O2 tolerance. In
      the next step, the mutation was introduced into Chlamydomonas reinhardtii CF1Fo,
      thereby allowing us to study the physiological role of ROS regulation of the
      enzyme in vivo. We demonstrated in high light experiments that CF1Fo ROS targets
      were involved in the significant inhibition of ATP synthesis rates. Molecular
      events upon modification of CF1Fo by ROS will be considered.

PMID- 28890177
TI  - Lignanamides with potent antihyperlipidemic activities from the root bark of
      Lycium chinense.
AB  - Seven new lignanamides, lyciumamides D-J (1-4 and 9-11), together with nine known
      analogues (5-8 and 12-16), were isolated from the root bark of Lycium chinense.
      The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated on the basis of NMR
      spectroscopic and HRESIMS data. All isolated compounds were evaluated for
      antihyperlipidemic activities in HepG2 cells. The primary structure-activity
      relationships were discussed.

PMID- 28890178
TI  - Prevalence of Endometriosis and Its Symptoms among Young Jordanian Women with
      Chronic Pelvic Pain Refractory to Conventional Therapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study sought to explore the prevalence and clinical
      manifestations of endometriosis in young women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP)
      refractory to conventional medical therapy. METHODS: This prospective clinical
      interventional study was conducted in two general and private hospitals in the
      city of Al-Karak in Jordan. A total of 28 female patients aged <=21 who had CPP
      refractory to conventional medical therapy were recruited during the years 2010
      2014. The intervention used in the study was laparoscopy. Endometriosis was
      staged according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
      classification. The main outcome measures were the presence and stage of
      endometriosis at laparoscopy, the presence of cold intolerance, and the severity
      and duration of pain symptoms. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 18.4
      (range 15 to 21). Endometriosis was found in 20 of 28 participants (71.4%), as
      follows: stage I, 9 of 20 (45.0%); stage II, 8 of 20 (40%); stage III, 2 of 21
      (10%); and stage IV, 1 of 21 (5%). Notably, 16 of 28 (57.1%) of all participants
      reported cold intolerance, including 14 of 20 (70%) with endometriosis and 2 of 8
      (25%) without endometriosis (Fisher exact [1-tail] P = 0.039). There was no
      association between stage of disease and age distribution (<=18 and >19 to 21; P
      = 0.7) or with duration of symptoms (<=2 and >2 years) and the presence of cold
      intolerance (P > 0.05). However, severity of pain symptoms (<7 vs. >=7, as
      measured by the visual analogue scale [VAS]) was associated significantly with
      stage of disease (P = 0.011). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of endometriosis among
      young women with CPP refractory to conventional therapy was high, mainly in the
      mild stage. Cold intolerance was highly associated with endometriosis.

PMID- 28890179
TI  - Maternal colonization or infection with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase
      producing Enterobacteriaceae in Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To summarize published studies on the prevalence of and risk factors
      for maternal bacterial colonization and/or infection with extended-spectrum beta
      lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) in pregnant and/or post-partum
      women in Africa. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted using the PubMed,
      Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. Bibliographies of included eligible studies
      were manually searched to identify additional relevant articles. No language
      restriction was applied. The timeframe of the search included all records from
      electronic database inception to July 15, 2017. A random-effects meta-analysis
      was performed to summarize the prevalence and the 95% confidence intervals (CI)
      of ESBL-E colonization or infection in pregnant or post-partum women in Africa.
      The meta-analysis was conducted using STATA IC 13.1 software and the metaprop
      function/plugin. RESULTS: Ten studies (seven on pregnant women and three on post
      partum women) were included, documenting a 17% prevalence of maternal
      colonization with ESBL-E in Africa (95% CI 10-23%). The prevalence of ESBL-E in
      community isolates exceeded that in isolates from the hospital setting (22% vs.
      14%). The most frequently reported ESBL-encoding gene was CTX-M (cefotaxime
      hydrolyzing capabilities). Data on risk factors for maternal ESBL-E colonization
      and infection are very limited. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of colonization
      and/or infection with ESBL-E in pregnant and post-partum women in Africa exceeds
      that reported from high- and middle-income settings, representing a risk for
      subsequent neonatal colonization and/or infection with ESBL-E.

PMID- 28890180
TI  - Effectiveness of meibomian gland massage combined with topical levofloxacin
      against ocular surface flora in patients before penetrating ocular surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the bacterial profile in the conjunctiva and meibomian
      glands in patients before penetrating ocular surgeries, and to compare the anti
      bacterial efficacy of 0.5% levofloxacin and its combination with meibomian gland
      massage. DESIGN: Hospital-based, case-control study. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred
      and twenty-six eyes from 226 patients with non-infective ocular diseases and
      scheduled for penetrating ocular surgeries. METHODS: Tested eyes were
      administered topical 0.5% levofloxacin (4 times daily) for 2 days. Among them, 91
      eyes received meibomian gland massage before levofloxacin application. Samples
      from the conjunctival sac and meibomian glands were collected for aerobic and
      anaerobic cultures. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Culture-positivity and bacterial
      strains. RESULTS: Before treatment, aerobes and anaerobes were cultured from
      38.5% and 11.0% of the conjunctival samples respectively, compared with 38.5% and
      8.8% in the meibomian secretions respectively. Staphylococcus epidermidis and
      Propionibacterium acnes were the commonest isolated aerobe and anaerobe. Two-day
      application of levofloxacin reduced aerobic growth to 29.6% in the conjunctiva
      and 19.3% in the meibomian glands. It had no effect on the anaerobes in these
      regions (13.3% in the conjunctiva and 10.4% in the meibomian glands). Combined
      levofloxacin with meibomian gland massage further reduced aerobic growth to 19.8%
      in the conjunctiva and 11.0% in the meibomian glands. It also drastically
      decreased anaerobic growth in the meibomian glands (1.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Meibomian
      glands carrying considerable bacteria should be considered as a potential source
      of contamination in ocular surgery. Meibomian gland massage shows additional anti
      bacterial effects to topical levofloxacin and could be recommended as a
      complementary preoperative prophylaxis.

PMID- 28890181
TI  - Hostility and cognitive control: Evidence of increased cardiovascular reactivity
      as a function of exposure to affective stress using a dichotic listening
      paradigm.
AB  - Indices of cognitive control were examined in men with high and low levels of
      trait hostility as a function of exposure to affective and cognitive stress. A
      dual concurrent task paradigm was used whereby participants intentionally
      directed focus to the left or right ear under dichotic listening conditions
      before and after exposure to angry infant vocalizations. Analysis of the
      behavioral data supports the prediction of reduced right frontal regulatory
      control in men with high levels of hostility as indicated by diminished capacity
      to suppress report of phonemes presented to the language dominant left hemisphere
      (right ear) in the Focus Left condition. This diminishment in the capacity to
      suppress report of phonemes presented to the right ear in the Focus Left
      condition is suggestive of reduced cognitive control. With respect to the
      neurophysiological data, heart rate increased for only men with high levels of
      hostility in the Focus Left condition, and this was especially evident in the
      post-affective stress condition. This increase in right hemisphere arousal
      provides additional evidence of reduced cognitive control and support for the
      capacity model of hostility by implicating poor right frontal regulatory control
      over right posterior cerebral regions under dual task conditions. The results are
      discussed in terms of integrating the construct of cognitive control into the
      capacity model as well as providing implications regarding reductions in the
      capacity to suppress predominant aggressive responses in domestic settings.

PMID- 28890182
TI  - Transient heart rate acceleration in association with spontaneous eyeblinks.
AB  - The reason why people spontaneously blink several times more frequently than is
      necessary for ocular lubrication has been a mystery. However, spontaneous
      eyeblinks selectively occur at attentional breakpoints of information processing,
      suggesting the involvement of spontaneous eyeblink in attentional disengagement
      from external stimuli. Physiological activity also changes considerably according
      to attention state. Heart rate decreases when attention is directed at stimuli,
      while it increases as attention is released. Therefore, we examined the temporal
      dynamics between spontaneous eyeblinks and instantaneous heart rate under natural
      circumstances. Our results showed that the heart rate momentarily increases after
      each spontaneous eyeblink while participants were freely viewing a movie or
      listening to a story. This phenomenon was consistently observed even when the
      participants were placed in a dark room. The skin conductance level on the
      fingers also increased after each spontaneous eyeblink, suggesting that the blink
      related heart rate acceleration was induced by an increase in sympathetic nervous
      system activity. In contrast, no heart rate acceleration was observed to
      accompany spontaneous eyeblinks at rest or volitional eyeblinks. These results
      demonstrated that the generation of spontaneous eyeblinks and the activity of the
      autonomic nervous system are correlated under attentional influence of natural
      circumstances.

PMID- 28890183
TI  - Radiomics Analysis on Ultrasound for Prediction of Biologic Behavior in Breast
      Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In current clinical practice, invasive ductal carcinoma is always
      screened using medical imaging techniques and diagnosed using
      immunohistochemistry. Recent studies have illustrated that radiomics approaches
      provide a comprehensive characterization of entire tumors and can reveal
      predictive or prognostic associations between the images and medical outcomes. To
      better reveal the underlying biology, an improved understanding between objective
      image features and biologic characteristics is urgently required. PATIENTS AND
      METHODS: A total of 215 patients with definite histologic results were enrolled
      in our study. The tumors were automatically segmented using our phase-based
      active contour model. The high-throughput radiomics features were designed and
      extracted using a breast imaging reporting and data system and further selected
      using Student's t test, interfeature coefficients and a lasso regression model.
      The support vector machine classifier with threefold cross-validation was used to
      evaluate the relationship. RESULTS: The radiomics approach demonstrated a strong
      correlation between receptor status and subtypes (P < .05; area under the curve,
      0.760). The appearance of hormone receptor-positive cancer and human epidermal
      growth factor receptor 2-negative cancer on ultrasound scans differs from that of
      triple-negative cancer. CONCLUSION: Our approach could assist clinicians with the
      accurate prediction of prognosis using ultrasound findings, allowing for early
      medical management and treatment.

PMID- 28890184
TI  - Evaluation of the Tumor Response After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer
      Patients: Correlation Between Dynamic Contrast-enhanced Magnetic Resonance
      Imaging and Pathologic Tumor Cellularity.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We evaluated the tumor response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC)
      in breast cancer patients using dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic
      resonance (MR) imaging parameters assessed using a commercially available
      computer-aided system. We also analyzed their correlation with pathologic tumor
      cellularity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the data from 130
      patients with breast cancer who had undergone NAC followed by surgery from
      January to October 2013. Maximum diameter, volume, peak enhancement, and
      persistent, plateau, and washout-enhancing components were measured using a
      computer-aided system on DCE MR images and correlated with the Miller-Payne
      grading system. Patients with a Miller-Payne grade of 5 were classified into the
      pathologic complete response (pCR) group. Patients with grades 1, 2, 3, and 4
      were included in the non-pCR group. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using
      receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: Twenty patients were
      included in the pCR group and 110 patients in the non-pCR group. Of the 6
      parameters, the rate of tumor volume reduction (r = 0.729, P < .001) showed the
      strongest correlation with the Miller-Payne grading system, followed by the
      maximum diameter (r = 0.706, P < .001) and washout component (r = 0.606, P <
      .001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (Az value) was
      the largest for the rate of volume reduction (Az = 0.895), followed by the
      maximum diameter (Az = 0.891). CONCLUSION: The tumor volume changes in breast
      cancers before and after NAC, measured automatically using a commercially
      available computer-aided system and a clinical DCE MR imaging protocol might be
      the most accurate tool for evaluation of the pathologic response after NAC.

PMID- 28890185
TI  - Stromal Clusterin Expression Predicts Therapeutic Response to Neoadjuvant
      Chemotherapy in Triple Negative Breast Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Expression of clusterin correlates with tumor progression and
      therapeutic response in several human malignancies, including breast cancer.
      However, its predictive value in the neoadjuvant setting in breast cancer remains
      unexplored. The objective of this explorative study was to determine whether
      clusterin expression in breast cancer correlated with clinical pathologic
      characteristics and whether its expression was predictive of response to
      neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We determined the
      clusterin expression pattern in 72 triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) treated
      with NAC before surgery. Clusterin expression was evaluated by
      immunohistochemistry and was correlated with pathologic characteristics and
      response to NAC using residual cancer burden score. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry
      analysis revealed a differential pattern of expression between tumor and stroma.
      Clusterin expression in the tumor associated stroma as opposed to expression by
      the neoplastic epithelium was significantly associated with neoadjuvant-treated
      TNBC. Low stromal clusterin, low stromal content, and high tumor-infiltrating
      lymphocytes were associated with a significantly greater likelihood of achieving
      a good pathologic response as reflected by lower residual cancer burden scores (P
      = .002, P = .003, and P = .001, respectively). Tumor and/or stromal clusterin
      expression were not associated with patient age, tumor histologic grade, stage,
      and lymph node status. CONCULSION: This study suggests a potential role for the
      assessment of stromal clusterin as a predictive biomarker for response of TNBC to
      neoadjuvant therapy. Further validation of this biomarker in a large study is
      needed.

PMID- 28890186
TI  - Ionophores at work: Exploring the interaction of guanosine-based amphiphiles with
      phospholipid membranes.
AB  - An amphiphilic derivative of guanosine, carrying a myristoyl group at the 5'
      position and two methoxy(triethylene glycol) appendages at the 2' and 3'
      positions (1), endowed with high ionophoric activity, has been here studied in
      its interaction mode with a model lipid membrane along with its 5'-spin-labelled
      analogue 2, bearing the 5-doxyl-stearic in lieu of the myristic residue. Electron
      spin resonance spectra, carried out on the spin-labelled nucleolipid 2 in mixture
      with a DOPC/DOPG phospholipid bilayer, on one side, and on spin-labelled lipids
      mixed with 1, on the other, integrated with dynamic light scattering and neutron
      reflectivity measurements, allowed getting an in-depth picture of the effect of
      the ionophores on membrane structure, relevant to clarify the ion transport
      mechanism through lipid bilayers. Particularly, dehydration of lipid headgroups
      and lowering of both the local polarity and acyl chains order across the bilayer,
      due to the insertion of the oligo(ethylene glycol) chains in the bilayer
      hydrophobic core, have been found to be the main effects of the amphiphilic
      guanosines interaction with the membrane. These results furnish directions to
      rationally implement future ionophores design.

PMID- 28890187
TI  - Kinetic analysis of the inhibition of the drug efflux protein AcrB using surface
      plasmon resonance.
AB  - Multidrug efflux protein complexes such as AcrAB-TolC from Escherichia coli are
      paramount in multidrug resistance in Gram-negative bacteria and are also
      implicated in other processes such as virulence and biofilm formation. Hence
      efflux pump inhibition, as a means to reverse antimicrobial resistance in
      clinically relevant pathogens, has gained increased momentum over the past two
      decades. Significant advances in the structural and functional analysis of AcrB
      have informed the selection of efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs). However, an
      accurate method to determine the kinetics of efflux pump inhibition was lacking.
      In this study we standardised and optimised surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to
      probe the binding kinetics of substrates and inhibitors to AcrB. The SPR method
      was also combined with a fluorescence drug binding method by which affinity of
      two fluorescent AcrB substrates were determined using the same conditions and
      controls as for SPR. Comparison of the results from the fluorescent assay to
      those of the SPR assay showed excellent correlation and provided validation for
      the methods and conditions used for SPR. The kinetic parameters of substrate
      (doxorubicin, novobiocin and minocycline) binding to AcrB were subsequently
      determined. Lastly, the kinetics of inhibition of AcrB were probed for two
      established inhibitors (phenylalanine arginyl beta-naphthylamide and 1-1
      naphthylmethyl-piperazine) and three novel EPIs: 4-isobutoxy-2-naphthamide (A2),
      4-isopentyloxy-2-naphthamide (A3) and 4-benzyloxy-2-naphthamide (A9) have also
      been probed. The kinetic data obtained could be correlated with inhibitor
      efficacy and mechanism of action. This study is the first step in the
      quantitative analysis of the kinetics of inhibition of the clinically important
      RND-class of multidrug efflux pumps and will allow the design of improved and
      more potent inhibitors of drug efflux pumps. This article is part of a Special
      Issue entitled: Beyond the Structure-Function Horizon of Membrane Proteins edited
      by Ute Hellmich, Rupak Doshi and Benjamin McIlwain.

PMID- 28890188
TI  - Harnessing the respiration machinery for high-yield production of chemicals in
      metabolically engineered Lactococcus lactis.
AB  - When modifying the metabolism of living organisms with the aim of achieving
      biosynthesis of useful compounds, it is essential to ensure that it is possible
      to achieve overall redox balance. We propose a generalized strategy for this,
      based on fine-tuning of respiration. The strategy was applied on metabolically
      engineered Lactococcus lactis strains to optimize the production of acetoin and
      (R,R)-2,3-butanediol (R-BDO). In the absence of an external electron acceptor, a
      surplus of two NADH per acetoin molecule is produced. We found that a fully
      activated respiration was able to efficiently regenerate NAD+, and a high titer
      of 371mM (32g/L) of acetoin was obtained with a yield of 82% of the theoretical
      maximum. Subsequently, we extended the metabolic pathway from acetoin to R-BDO by
      introducing the butanediol dehydrogenase gene from Bacillus subtilis. Since one
      mole of NADH is consumed when acetoin is converted into R-BDO per mole, only the
      excess of NADH needs to be oxidized via respiration. Either by fine-tuning the
      respiration capacity or by using a dual-phase fermentation approach involving a
      switch from fully respiratory to non-respiratory conditions, we obtained 361mM
      (32g/L) R-BDO with a yield of 81% or 365mM (33g/L) with a yield of 82%,
      respectively. These results demonstrate the great potential in using finely-tuned
      respiration machineries for bio-production.

PMID- 28890189
TI  - Human papillomavirus vaccination coverage using two-dose or three-dose schedule
      criteria.
AB  - In October 2016, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) updated
      the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination recommendation to include a 2-dose
      schedule for U.S. adolescents initiating the vaccine series before their 15th
      birthday. We analyzed records for >4million persons aged 9-17years receiving any
      HPV vaccine by the end of each quarter during January 1, 2014-September 30, 2016
      from six Immunization Information Systems Sentinel Sites, and reclassified HPV
      vaccination up-to-date coverage according to the updated recommendations.
      Compared with HPV vaccination up-to-date coverage by the 3-dose schedule only,
      including criteria for either a 2-dose or 3-dose schedule increased up-to-date
      coverage in 11-12, 13-14, and 15-17 year-olds by 4.5-8.5 percentage points. The
      difference between 3-dose up-to-date coverage and 2- or 3-dose up-to-date
      coverage was greatest in late 2016. These data provide baseline HPV vaccination
      coverage using current ACIP recommendations.

PMID- 28890190
TI  - The eradication of Polio: Have we succeeded?

PMID- 28890191
TI  - Considerations for use of Ebola vaccine during an emergency response.
AB  - Vaccination against Ebola virus disease is a tool that may limit disease
      transmission and deaths in future outbreaks, integrated within traditional Ebola
      outbreak prevention and control measures. Although a licensed Ebolavirus vaccine
      (EV) is not yet available, the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak has
      accelerated EV clinical trials and given public health authorities in Guinea,
      Liberia, and Sierra Leone experience with implementation of emergency ring
      vaccination. As evidence supporting the use of EV during an outbreak response has
      become available, public health authorities in at-risk countries are considering
      how to integrate EV into future emergency Ebola responses and for prevention in
      high-risk groups, such as healthcare workers and frontline workers (HCW/FLWs),
      even before an EV is licensed. This review provides an overview of Ebola
      epidemiology, immunology, and evidence to inform regional and country-level
      decisions regarding EV delivery during an emergency response and to at-risk
      populations before a licensed vaccine is available and beyond. Countries or
      regions planning to use EV will need to assess factors such as the likelihood of
      a future Ebolavirus outbreak, the most likely species to cause an outbreak, the
      availability of a safe and effective EV (unlicensed or licensed) for the affected
      population, capacity to implement Ebola vaccination in conjunction with standard
      Ebola outbreak control measures, and availability of minimum essential resources
      and regulatory requirements to implement emergency Ebola vaccination. Potential
      emergency vaccination strategies for consideration include ring or geographically
      targeted community vaccination, HCW/FLW vaccination, and mass vaccination. The
      development of guidelines and protocols for Ebola vaccination will help ensure
      that activities are standardized, evidence-based, and well-coordinated with
      overall Ebola outbreak response efforts in the future.

PMID- 28890192
TI  - Workplace availability, risk group and perceived barriers predictive of 2016-17
      influenza vaccine uptake in the United States: A cross-sectional study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Seasonal influenza, though mostly self-limited in the healthy adult,
      may lead to severe disease and/or complications in subpopulations. Annual
      influenza vaccination is available in many countries with coverage goals rarely
      being met. We conducted a cross-sectional study of influenza vaccine uptake and
      explored socio-demographic, economic, and psychological factors that explained
      vaccine uptake. METHODS: The survey was administered via Amazon Mechanical Turk
      (MTurk) to United States residents in January 2017, using the Qualtrics platform.
      Using principal axis factor analysis, we reduced the 25 items theory-based
      psychological determinants into the primary constructs they measure if/when
      internal consistency was sufficient (Cronbach's alpha >0.60). Logistic regression
      models were used to quantify the association of socio-demographic, economic, and
      psychological factors with reported vaccine behavior in the 2016-17 flu season.
      RESULTS: 1007 participants completed the survey, sex distribution was even, 67%
      had 25-44years of age, and 61% annual household income of $30-99 thousand United
      States dollars. About 25% had the flu shot offered at their workplace and 20%
      reported belonging to a group for whom the flu shot is recommended. Vaccine
      uptake was 31.5%. Eight predictors remained in the final adjusted model
      (R2=0.489), having the vaccine offered at the workplace, belonging to a group for
      whom the vaccine is recommended, and higher perceived barriers were the strongest
      predictors of vaccine uptake, increasing (and decreasing in the case of barriers)
      the odds by >3-fold. Additionally, higher household income, higher perceived
      susceptibility and higher perceived benefits also independently predicted vaccine
      uptake. DISCUSSION: We found evidence that perceived barriers significantly
      impaired vaccine uptake to the same extent that having the vaccine offered at the
      workplace or belonging to a group for whom the vaccine is recommended facilitated
      uptake. Ideally, a better understanding of drivers of vaccine hesitancy will
      result in improved interventions to increase vaccine uptake.

PMID- 28890193
TI  - Evaluating cessation of the type 2 oral polio vaccine by modeling pre- and post
      cessation detection rates.
AB  - The globally synchronized removal of the attenuated Sabin type 2 strain from the
      oral polio vaccine (OPV) in April 2016 marked a major change in polio vaccination
      policy. This change will provide a significant reduction in the burden of vaccine
      associated paralytic polio (VAPP), but may increase the risk of circulating
      vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) outbreaks during the transition period. This
      risk can be monitored by tracking the disappearance of Sabin-like type 2 (SL2)
      using data from the polio surveillance system. We studied SL2 prevalence in 17
      countries in Africa and Asia, from 2010 to 2016 using acute flaccid paralysis
      surveillance data. We modeled the peak and decay of SL2 prevalence following mass
      vaccination events using a beta-binomial model for the detection rate, and a
      Ricker function for the temporal dependence. We found type 2 circulated the
      longest of all serotypes after a vaccination campaign, but that SL2 prevalence
      returned to baseline levels in approximately 50days. Post-cessation model
      predictions identified 19 anomalous SL2 detections outside of model predictions
      in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and western Africa. Our models
      established benchmarks for the duration of SL2 detection after OPV2 cessation. As
      predicted, SL2 detection rates have plummeted, except in Nigeria where OPV2 use
      continued for some time in response to recent cVDPV2 detections. However, the
      anomalous SL2 detections suggest specific areas that merit enhanced monitoring
      for signs of cVDPV2 outbreaks.

PMID- 28890194
TI  - Improving chances for successful clinical outcomes with better preclinical
      models.
AB  - In order to avoid expensive clinical failures, better and more predictive animal
      models of vaccine efficacy are needed to screen Shigella and ETEC vaccine
      candidates for protective efficacy. The 2016 Vaccines Against Shigella and ETEC
      (VASE) Conference included a workshop focused on the strengths and weaknesses of
      current models, particularly in terms of the correlation to vaccine efficacy in
      human clinical trials. Workshop presenters shared information on existing
      preclinical animal models for assessing the immunogenicity and protective
      efficacy of Shigella and ETEC vaccines. The presentations were followed by a
      discussion about how to best utilize these models, how the models can be
      improved, and best practices for Shigella and ETEC vaccine developers. The
      workshop concluded with three major recommendations for the field: (1) develop
      better and more consistent reagents for animal studies and make them widely
      available, (2) prioritize harmonization of animal models and immunology assays,
      and (3) develop preclinical correlates of protection, which will be key in
      selecting the best vaccine candidates for further clinical development.

PMID- 28890195
TI  - GK-1 peptide reduces tumor growth, decreases metastatic burden, and increases
      survival in a murine breast cancer model.
AB  - GK-1 is a parasite-derived peptide adjuvant of 18 amino acid-length that enhances
      T-cell function and increases survival in B16-F10 melanoma tumor-bearing mice.
      This study was designed to evaluate in vivo the antitumor efficacy of GK-1 on 4T1
      mouse mammary carcinoma. BALB/c mice with palpable primary tumors were weekly
      intravenously injected three times with saline solution or three different
      concentrations (10, 50, or 100MUg per mouse) of GK-1. GK-1 significantly
      increased lifespan (p<0.0001) and reduced the primary tumor weight (p=0.014) and
      volume (p<0.0001) with respect to control mice, with no statistically significant
      differences among GK-1 doses. At the primary tumor, we found increased necrotic
      areas associated with a reduction in tumor mass, as well as an increase in the
      antitumor cytokine IL-12. Especially encouraging is the ability of GK-1 to reduce
      the number of lung metastasis (p=0.006) disregarding the dose used. The
      participation of IL-6 in metastasis development and the decreased levels of CCL
      2, CCL-3, TNF-alpha, CXCL-9, GM-CSF, and b-FGF found in lungs of GK-1-treated
      mice is discussed. Our study supports the effectiveness of GK-1 as an
      antineoplastic agent that merits further exploration in combination with other
      therapeutic approaches in future translational studies.

PMID- 28890197
TI  - Revisiting asthma therapeutics: focus on WNT signal transduction.
AB  - Asthma is a complex disease of the airways that develops as a consequence of both
      genetic and environmental factors. This interaction has highlighted genes
      important in early life, particularly those that control lung development, such
      as the Wingless/Integrase-1 (WNT) signalling pathway. Although aberrant WNT
      signalling is involved with an array of human conditions, it has received little
      attention within the context of asthma. Yet it is highly relevant, driving events
      involved with inflammation, airway remodelling, and airway hyper-responsiveness
      (AHR). In this review, we revisit asthma therapeutics by examining whether WNT
      signalling is a valid therapeutic target for asthma.

PMID- 28890196
TI  - Cost-effectiveness and public health impact of alternative influenza vaccination
      strategies in high-risk adults.
AB  - PURPOSE: High-dose trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV3) or
      recombinant trivalent influenza vaccine (RIV) may increase influenza vaccine
      effectiveness (VE) in adults with conditions that place them at high risk for
      influenza complications. This analysis models the public health impact and cost
      effectiveness (CE) of these vaccines for 50-64year-olds. METHODS: Markov model CE
      analysis compared 5 strategies in 50-64year-olds: no vaccination; only standard
      dose IIV3 offered (SD-IIV3 only), only quadrivalent influenza vaccine offered (SD
      IIV4 only); high-risk patients receiving HD-IIV3, others receiving SD-IIV3 (HD
      IIV3 & SD-IIV3); and high-risk patients receiving HD-IIV3, others receiving SD
      IIV4 (HD-IIV3 & SD-IIV4). In a secondary analysis, RIV replaced HD-IIV3.
      Parameters were obtained from U.S. databases, the medical literature and
      extrapolations from VE estimates. Effectiveness was measured as 3%/year
      discounted quality adjusted life year (QALY) losses avoided. RESULTS: The least
      expensive strategy was SD-IIV3 only, with total costs of $99.84/person. The SD
      IIV4 only strategy cost an additional $0.91/person, or $37,700/QALY gained. The
      HD-IIV3 & SD-IIV4 strategy cost $1.06 more than SD-IIV4 only, or $71,500/QALY
      gained. No vaccination and HD-IIV3 & SD-IIV3 strategies were dominated. Results
      were sensitive to influenza incidence, vaccine cost, standard-dose VE in the
      entire population and high-dose VE in high-risk patients. The CE of RIV for high
      risk patients was dependent on as yet unknown parameter values. CONCLUSIONS:
      Based on available data, using high-dose influenza vaccine or RIV in middle-aged,
      high-risk patients may be an economically favorable vaccination strategy with
      public health benefits. Clinical trials of these vaccines in this population may
      be warranted.

PMID- 28890198
TI  - Crosstalk between endoplasmic reticulum stress and oxidative stress in
      schizophrenia: The dawn of new therapeutic approaches.
AB  - Disruption of oxidant/anti-oxidant ratio as well as endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
      stress are thought to be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. These
      stresses can lead to impairments in brain functions progressively leading to
      neuronal inflammation followed by neuronal cell death. Moreover, the cellular
      stresses are interlinked leading us to the conclusion that protein misfolding,
      oxidative stress and apoptosis are intricately intertwined events requiring
      further research into their mechanistic and physiological pathways. These
      pathways can be targeted by using different therapeutic interventions like anti
      oxidants, sigma-1 receptor agonists and gene therapy to treat the
      neurodegenerative course of schizophrenia. We have also put empahsis on use of
      synthetic and natural ER stress inhibitors like 4-phenylbutyrate or salubrinal
      for the treatment of this disorder. This would provide an opportunity to create
      new therapeutic benchmarks in the field of neuropsychiatric disorders like
      schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

PMID- 28890199
TI  - Distinct cognitive impairments in different disease courses of multiple sclerosis
      A systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - Cognitive impairment (CI) is common and debilitating in patients with multiple
      sclerosis. However, little is known about how different disease courses affect
      CI, impeding prognosis and disease management. Here, we contrasted the magnitude
      and profile of CI measured with standardized neuropsychological tests in patients
      with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) against relapsing-remitting
      multiple sclerosis (RRMS) while considering potentially confounding demographic
      and clinical differences. Systematic literature review and meta-analysis was
      performed finding 47 eligible studies (N=4460 patients). Effect-sizes for 12
      cognitive domains were calculated as Hedges' g. Results indicated more severe CI
      overall (g=-0.37, p<.001) and in each single cognitive domain (g=-0.28 to -0.65,
      p<.001) in patients with PPMS despite comparable degrees of fatigue and
      depression. Moderator analyses revealed that these differences were not fully
      attributable to clinical heterogeneity between disease courses (e.g., age,
      disability). Particularly verbal learning and memory differentiated PPMS and RRMS
      independent from demographic differences. Results imply that, previously under
      recognized, PPMS patients display severe degrees of CI and need more specialized
      disease management than RRMS patients.

PMID- 28890200
TI  - Esculetin modulates cytotoxicity induced by oxidants in NB4 human leukemia cells.
AB  - Esculetin is a polyphenolic compound with cytoprotective properties. We
      previously demonstrated the induction of apoptosis by esculetin in NB4 human
      leukemia cells, as a model, by a mechanism not well understood. To analyse the
      antioxidant activity of esculetin on apoptosis, we have studied the influence of
      co-treatments of esculetin at a concentration of 100MUM with exogenous ROS
      donors, namely tert-butyl-hydroperoxide and hydrogen peroxide, on NB4 cells.
      Esculetin (100MUM) exerts a protective effect on cell viability and death
      necrosis or late apoptosis caused by the oxidant t-BHP whereas it potentiates
      decrease of cell viability and cell death caused by H2O2. In the first case, the
      O2- scavenging activity of esculetin (100MUM) could be implicated. In the last
      one, cytotoxicity by apoptosis induction seems to be related to the increase in
      O2-, among other possible mechanisms. These results contribute to the study of
      the antitumor properties of esculetin by regulation of redox balance in leukemia
      cells.

PMID- 28890201
TI  - Enhanced anticancer effect and reduced toxicity of doxorubicin in combination
      with thymoquinone released from poly-N-acetyl glucosamine nanomatrix in mice
      bearing solid Ehrlish carcinoma.
AB  - The incidence of breast cancer remarkably increases all over the world.
      Therefore, there is a great demand to introduce new approaches into cancer
      treatment field. The current study was designated to evaluate the role of
      doxorubicin (DOX) and/or thymoquinone (TQ) nanomatrix in potentiating the
      cytotoxicity of either drug, and to investigate the ability of TQ to reduce
      cardiotoxicity of DOX in solid Ehrlich carcinoma (SEC)-bearing mice. DOX and TQ
      were loaded into F2 gel, which is a fully-acetylated poly-N-acetyl glucosamine
      nanofiber. SEC was induced in female albino mice as a model for experimentally
      induced breast cancer. Mice were randomly divided into eight groups (n=10):
      normal control, tumor control, F2 gel, free DOX, DOX+F2 gel, free TQ, TQ+F2 gel,
      and DOX+TQ+F2 gel. On day 28th from tumor inoculation, mice were sacrificed and
      blood samples were collected for measurement of the cardiac markers; lactate
      dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK-MB). In addition, cardiac tissue was
      utilized for determination of lipid peroxide, and tumor tissue was used for
      measurement of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 as well as gene expression of the
      tumor suppressor gene P53. DOX and/or TQ showed a significant reduction in tumor
      volume, cardiac markers, tumor Bcl-2, and P53 upregulation compared to free
      conventional therapies. Co-treatment with DOX+TQ+F2 gel was superior to all other
      groups in exerting beneficial effects. Use of TQ as an adjuvant therapy with DOX
      could improve its cytotoxic effects and limit its cardiac toxicity. Furthermore,
      loading of DOX and/or TQ into F2 gel showed a remarkable anti-cancer activity.

PMID- 28890202
TI  - Dexamethasone palmitate large porous particles: A controlled release formulation
      for lung delivery of corticosteroids.
AB  - We have optimized a formulation of a prodrug of dexamethasone (DXM),
      dexamethasone palmitate (DXP) for pulmonary delivery as a dry powder.
      Formulations were prepared by spray drying DXP with 1,2-Dipalmitoyl-sn-Glycero-3
      Phosphocholine (DPPC) and Hyaluronic Acid (HA) as excipients. Large porous
      particles around 13 MUm were produced with a tap density of 0.05g/cm3 and a Fine
      particle fraction around 40%. The palmitate moiety favors DXP insertion into DPPC
      bilayers therefore limiting its in vitro release as shown by differential
      scanning calorimetry. After administering DXP powder intratracheally to rats by
      insufflation, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and blood samples were
      collected up to 24h and DXP and DXM concentrations were determined by HPLC
      analysis after extraction. PK parameters were evaluated according to a non
      compartmental model. We observe that DXP remains for up to 6h in the epithelial
      lining fluid (ELF) of the lungs at very high concentration. In addition, DXP
      concentration decreases according to two characteristic times. Consequently, DXM
      can be detected at rather important concentration in ELF up to 24h. The passage
      of DXP from the lungs to the bloodstream is very poor whereas DXM seems to be
      absorbed in the blood more easily. These results suggest that once administered
      DXP undergoes two different processes: hydrolysis into DXM due to the presence of
      esterases in the lungs and distribution in the lung tissue. This formulation
      appears promising to reduce systemic exposure and prolong the effect of the drug
      locally.

PMID- 28890203
TI  - Regional aerosol deposition in the human airways: The SimInhale benchmark case
      and a critical assessment of in silico methods.
AB  - Regional deposition effects are important in the pulmonary delivery of drugs
      intended for the topical treatment of respiratory ailments. They also play a
      critical role in the systemic delivery of drugs with limited lung
      bioavailability. In recent years, significant improvements in the quality of
      pulmonary imaging have taken place, however the resolution of current imaging
      modalities remains inadequate for quantifying regional deposition. Computational
      Fluid-Particle Dynamics (CFPD) can fill this gap by providing detailed
      information about regional deposition in the extrathoracic and conducting
      airways. It is therefore not surprising that the last 15years have seen an
      exponential growth in the application of CFPD methods in this area. Survey of the
      recent literature however, reveals a wide variability in the range of modelling
      approaches used and in the assumptions made about important physical processes
      taking place during aerosol inhalation. The purpose of this work is to provide a
      concise critical review of the computational approaches used to date, and to
      present a benchmark case for validation of future studies in the upper airways.
      In the spirit of providing the wider community with a reference for quality
      assurance of CFPD studies, in vitro deposition measurements have been conducted
      in a human-based model of the upper airways, and several groups within MP1404
      SimInhale have computed the same case using a variety of simulation and
      discretization approaches. Here, we report the results of this collaborative
      effort and provide a critical discussion of the performance of the various
      simulation methods. The benchmark case, in vitro deposition data and in silico
      results will be published online and made available to the wider community.
      Particle image velocimetry measurements of the flow, as well as additional
      numerical results from the community, will be appended to the online database as
      they become available in the future.

PMID- 28890205
TI  - Shivering in Febrile Children: Frequency and Usefulness in Predicting Serious
      Bacterial Infections - A Prospective Case-Control Study.
AB  - A prospective case-control study was conducted in a pediatric emergency
      department to describe the proportion of febrile children experiencing shivering
      and its clinical significance. Shivering was reported in 186 of 645 febrile
      children (28.8%). The rate of serious bacterial infection was similar in 86
      children with shivering and 86 matched controls.

PMID- 28890204
TI  - Early Caffeine Prophylaxis and Risk of Failure of Initial Continuous Positive
      Airway Pressure in Very Low Birth Weight Infants.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that early caffeine treatment on the day of
      birth, compared with later treatment in very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500 g)
      infants receiving continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, is
      associated with a decreased risk of CPAP failure in the first week of life. STUDY
      DESIGN: Multicenter, observational cohort study in 366 US neonatal intensive care
      units. We evaluated inborn, VLBW infants discharged from 2000 to 2014, who
      received only CPAP therapy without surfactant treatment on day of life (DOL) 0,
      had a 5-minute Apgar >=3, and received caffeine in the first week of life. We
      used multivariable conditional logistic regression to compare the risk of CPAP
      failure, defined as invasive mechanical ventilation or surfactant therapy on DOL
      1-6, by timing of caffeine treatment as either early (initiation on DOL 0) or
      routine (initiation on DOL 1-6). RESULTS: We identified 11 133 infants; 4528
      (41%) received early caffeine and 6605 (59%) received routine caffeine. Median
      gestational age was lower in the early caffeine group, 29 weeks (25th, 75th
      percentiles; 28, 30) vs the routine caffeine group, 30 weeks (29, 31); P < 0.001.
      The incidence of CPAP failure on DOL 1-6 was similar between the early and
      routine caffeine groups: 22% vs 21%; adjusted OR = 1.05 (95% CI: 0.93, 1.18).
      CONCLUSIONS: Early caffeine treatment on the day of birth was not associated with
      a decreased risk of CPAP failure in the first week of life for VLBW infants
      initially treated with CPAP.

PMID- 28890206
TI  - Unraveling the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of an agar producing red
      macroalga, Gracilaria changii (Rhodophyta, Gracilariales).
AB  - Agar and agarose have wide applications in food and pharmaceutical industries.
      Knowledge on the genome of red seaweeds that produce them is still lacking. To
      fill the gap in genome analyses of these red algae, we have sequenced the nuclear
      and organellar genomes of an agarophyte, Gracilaria changii. The partial nuclear
      genome sequence of G. changii has a total length of 35.8Mb with 10,912 predicted
      protein coding sequences. Only 39.4% predicted proteins were found to have
      significant matches to protein sequences in SwissProt. The chloroplast genome of
      G. changii is 183,855bp with a total of 201 open reading frames (ORFs), 29 tRNAs
      and 3 rRNAs predicted. Five genes: ssrA, leuC and leuD CP76_p173 (orf139) and
      pbsA were absent in the chloroplast genome of G. changii. The genome information
      is valuable in accelerating functional studies of individual genes and resolving
      evolutionary relationship of red seaweeds.

PMID- 28890207
TI  - Whole genome DNA methylation profiling of oral cancer in ethnic population of
      Meghalaya, North East India reveals novel genes.
AB  - Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is a serious and one of the most common and
      highly aggressive malignancies. Epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation have
      been known to be implicated in a number of cancer etiologies. The main objective
      of this study was to investigate physiognomies of Promoter DNA methylation
      patterns associated with oral cancer epigenome with special reference to the
      ethnic population of Meghalaya, North East India. The present study identifies
      27,205 CpG sites and 3811 regions that are differentially methylated in oral
      cancer when compared to matched normal. 45 genes were found to be differentially
      methylated within the promoter region, of which 38 were hypermethylated and 7
      hypomethylated. 14 of the hypermethylated genes were found to be similar to that
      of the TCGA-HNSCC study some of which are TSGs and few novel genes which may
      serve as candidate methylation biomarkers for OSCC in this poorly characterized
      ethnic group.

PMID- 28890208
TI  - Role of orexin receptors in the ventral tegmental area on acquisition and
      expression of morphine-induced conditioned place preference in the rats.
AB  - The orexins are hypothalamic neuropeptides and their role in reward processing
      and drug addiction has been demonstrated. The extent of involvement of each
      orexin receptor in the acquisition and expression of conditioned place preference
      (CPP) for morphine is still a matter of controversy. We investigated the
      functional differences between orexin-1 and -2 receptor blockade in the ventral
      tegmental area (VTA) on the acquisition and expression of morphine CPP. A total
      of 86 adult male Wistar rats weighing 250+/-30g (age 7-8weeks) received intra-VTA
      microinjection of either SB334867 (0.1, 1 and 10nM), a selective orexin-1
      receptor (OX1R) antagonist, or TCS-OX2-29 (1, 5 and 25nM), a selective orexin-2
      receptor (OX2R) antagonist. To measure the acquisition, the animals received each
      antagonist (SB334867 or TCS-OX2-29) 5min prior to subcutaneous injection of
      morphine (5mg/kg) during the conditioning phase. To measure the CPP expression,
      the animals received each antagonist on the post-conditioning phase. The CPP
      conditioning score was recorded by Ethovision software. Data showed that intra
      VTA microinjection of OX1-R antagonist significantly attenuated morphine CPP
      acquisition, during the conditioning phase, and expression, during the post
      conditioning phase. Intra-VTA microinjection of OX2-R antagonist also
      significantly attenuated morphine CPP acquisition and expression in the mentioned
      phases. Our results showed the orexin role in learning and memory and indicate
      that orexin receptors (OX1R and OX2R) function in the VTA is essential for both
      acquisition and expression of morphine reward in rats in the CPP model.

PMID- 28890209
TI  - Nursing workload and adherence to non-pharmacological measures in the prevention
      of ventilator-associated pneumonia. A pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyse whether adherence to non-pharmacological measures in the
      prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is associated with nursing
      workload. METHODS: A prospective observational study performed in a single
      medical-surgical ICU. Nurses in charge of patients under ventilator support were
      assessed. VARIABLES: knowledge questionnaire, application of non-pharmacological
      VAP prevention measures, and workload (Nine Equivalents of Nursing Manpower Use
      Score). Phases: 1) the nurses carried out a educational programme, consisting of
      60-minute lectures on non-pharmacological measures for VAP prevention, and at the
      end completed a questionnaire knowledge; 2) observation period; 3) knowledge
      questionnaire. RESULTS: Among 67 ICU-staff nurses, 54 completed the educational
      programme and were observed. A total of 160 observations of 49 nurses were made.
      Adequate knowledge was confirmed in both the initial and final questionnaires.
      Application of preventive measures ranged from 11% for hand washing pre
      aspiration to 97% for the use of a sterile aspiration probe. The Nine Equivalents
      of Nursing Manpower Use Score was 50+/-13. No significant differences were
      observed between the association of the nurses' knowledge and the application of
      preventive measures or between workload and the application of preventive
      measures. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses' knowledge of VAP prevention measures is not
      necessarily applied in daily practice. Failure to follow these measures is not
      subject to lack of knowledge or to increased workload, but presumably to
      contextual factors.

PMID- 28890211
TI  - Antibacterial photodynamic therapy with curcumin and Curcuma xanthorrhiza extract
      against Streptococcus mutans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to conventional
      antibacterial chemotherapy. This has prompted the application of antibacterial
      photodynamic therapy (aPDT) in bacteria-related diseases due to its excellent
      biocide effects. However, few studies have attempted to develop a novel
      photosensitizer based on natural components. The aim of the present study was to
      compare the aPDT effects of curcumin and Curcuma xanthorrhiza extract (CXE)
      against Streptococcus mutans. METHODS: A planktonic suspension containing an S.
      mutans strain was treated in three separate groups: aPDT with curcumin, CXE, and
      a mixture of curcumin and CXE (ratio= 1:1) at concentrations of 0, 10, 102, 103,
      and 104ng/ml. Light irradiation with a center wavelength of 405nm was applied
      using an LED (power density of 84.5mW for 300s at an energy density of
      25.3J/cm2). The phototoxicity of photosensitizers against S. mutans was
      investigated using a colony-forming-unit assay. Percentage logarithmic reductions
      [log10(CFU/ml) values] were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by the Tukey
      test (p<0.05) and Student's independent t-test. RESULTS: The viability of S.
      mutans in the presence of curcumin, CXE, and a mixture of these two components
      was substantially reduced during irradiation with 405nm light. The phototoxicity
      of the photosensitizer varied with its solubility and concentration. CONCLUSION:
      These preliminary in vitro findings imply that combining curcumin and CXE with a
      405nm LED may be a novel method of applying aPDT. This could be advantageous in
      preventing and treating dental caries using devices that are readily available in
      clinics.

PMID- 28890210
TI  - Photodynamic therapy: An option in mycosis fungoides.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a well-known and effective treatment
      for non-melanoma skin-cancer. Numerous studies have also shown its effectiveness
      in mycosis fungoides. The aim of the study was to analyse MF patients treated
      with PDT at the Dermatology Unit of Bologna University. METHODS: We
      retrospectively analysed MF patients treated with PDT over the last ten years.
      Each PDT protocol consisted of the appliance for 3h under an occlusive film
      dressing on each lesion of a one-mm-thick layer of 16% methyl aminolaevulinate
      (MAL) 160mg/g cream (Metvix(r), Galderma, Paris, France). The cream was then
      removed and the skin was exposed to 630nm red light from a diode lamp
      (Aktilite(r), Galderma Benelux, Rotterdam, the Netherlands), with a total
      radiation dose of 37J/cm2 for 9 mins. A protocol of one session every month was
      scheduled. The treated lesions were clinically examined, before each treatment.
      RESULTS: Four cases, three male and one female, had been treated with PDT. Two
      patch lesions on the plantar area, one leg and the pubic area were treated. The
      number of PDT sessions ranged from 4 to 9. Two complete remissions and two
      partial remissions were observed. A low-to-mild burning sensation was reported
      during the treatment, and persisted over the next day; no further side effects
      were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our series shows that PDT can be considered an
      effective second-line treatment in patients characterised by a disease located in
      difficult-to-treat anatomical areas such as the feet and the pubic area.

PMID- 28890212
TI  - A Self-Killing Rabies Virus That Leaves a Trace on the DNA.
AB  - Although modified rabies viruses have emerged as a powerful tool for tracing the
      inputs to genetically defined populations of neurons, the toxicity of the virus
      has limited its utility. A recent study employed a self-inactivating rabies (SiR)
      virus that enables recording or manipulation of targeted neurons for months.

PMID- 28890213
TI  - Oxygen generating nanoparticles for improved photodynamic therapy of hypoxic
      tumours.
AB  - Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a clinically approved anti-cancer treatment that
      involves the activation of an otherwise inactive sensitiser drug with light,
      which in the presence of molecular oxygen, generates cytotoxic reactive oxygen
      species (ROS). As oxygen is a key requirement for the generation of ROS in PDT
      and given the fact that hypoxia is a characteristic of most solid cancerous
      tumours, treating hypoxic tumours using PDT can be a challenge. In this
      manuscript, we have prepared a CaO2 nanoparticle (NP) formulation coated with a
      pH-sensitive polymer to enable the controlled generation of molecular oxygen as a
      function of pH. The polymer coat was designed to protect the particles from
      decomposition while in circulation but enable their activation at lower pH values
      in hypoxic regions of solid tumours. The oxygen generating capability of the
      polymer coated NPs was demonstrated in aqueous solution with minimal oxygen
      produced at pH7.4, whereas it increased significantly when the pH was reduced to
      6.2. The polymer coated CaO2 NPs were also observed to significantly increase
      tumour pO2 levels (p<0.05) in mice bearing ectopic human xenograft MIA PaCa-2
      pancreatic tumours with an average increase in tumour pO2 of 6.5mmHg in the
      period 10-30min following administration. A statistically significant improvement
      in PDT mediated efficacy (p<0.001) was also observed when the particles were
      administered to mice bearing the same tumours 20min prior to PDT treatment. These
      results suggest that the polymer coated CaO2 NP formulation offers significant
      potential as an in situ method for oxygen generation to enhance the efficacy of
      treatments that depend on the presence of oxygen to elicit a cytotoxic effect.

PMID- 28890214
TI  - Effect of zymosan and poly (I:C) adjuvants on responses to microneedle
      immunization coated with whole inactivated influenza vaccine.
AB  - Microneedles are the micrometer size devices used for the delivery of vaccines
      and biotherapeutics. In order to increase the vaccine efficacy and reduce the
      antigen dose, there is a significant need to find some adjuvants for the
      microneedle vaccination. In this study, zymosan, which is the cell wall
      preparation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or poly (I:C) was coated on a
      microneedle with inactivated influenza virus, and then immunized into BALB/c
      mouse to determine the immunogenicity, protection and synergetic effect between
      two adjuvants. As a result, the group administered with zymosan and vaccine
      antigen showed significantly stronger IgG response, HI titer and IgG subtypes
      without any adverse effects, compared to the group immunized with the vaccine
      antigen alone. Also, there were enhanced cellular immune responses in the group
      received adjuvant with vaccine antigen. In addition, they showed superior
      protection and lung viral reduction against lethal viral challenge. Taken
      together, this study confirms that zymosan can be used as an immunostimulant for
      microneedle vaccination.

PMID- 28890215
TI  - Piperine-pro-nanolipospheres as a novel oral delivery system of cannabinoids:
      Pharmacokinetic evaluation in healthy volunteers in comparison to buccal spray
      administration.
AB  - Nowadays, therapeutic indications for cannabinoids, specifically Delta9
      tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) are widening. However, the oral
      consumption of the molecules is very limited due to their highly lipophilic
      nature that leads to poor solubility at the aqueous environment. Additionally,
      THC and CBD are prone to extensive first pass mechanisms. These absorption
      obstacles render the molecules with low and variable oral bioavailability. To
      overcome these limitations we designed and developed the advanced pro
      nanolipospheres (PNL) formulation. The PNL delivery system is comprised of a
      medium chain triglyceride, surfactants, a co-solvent and the unique addition of a
      natural absorption enhancer: piperine. Piperine was selected due to its
      distinctive inhibitory properties affecting both Phase I and Phase II metabolism.
      This constellation self emulsifies into nano particles that entrap the
      cannabinoids and the piperine in their core and thus improve their solubility
      while piperine and the other PNL excipients inhibit their intestinal metabolism.
      Another clear advantage of the formulation is that its composition of materials
      is approved for human consumption. The safe nature of the excipients enabled
      their direct evaluation in humans. In order to evaluate the pharmacokinetic
      profile of the THC-CBD-piperine-PNL formulation, a two-way crossover, single
      administration clinical study was conducted. The trial comprised of 9 healthy
      volunteers under fasted conditions. Each subject received a THC-CBD (10.8mg, 10mg
      respectively) piperine (20mg)-PNL filled capsule and an equivalent dose of the
      oromucosal spray Sativex(r) with a washout period in between treatments. Single
      oral administration of the piperine-PNL formulation resulted in a 3-fold increase
      in Cmax and a 1.5-fold increase in AUC for THC when compared to Sativex(r). For
      CBD, a 4-fold increase in Cmax and a 2.2-fold increase in AUC was observed. These
      findings demonstrate the potential this formulation has in serving as a
      standardized oral cannabinoid formulation. Moreover, the concept of improving
      oral bioavailability described here, can pave the way for other potential
      lipophilic active compounds requiring enhancement of their oral bioavailability.

PMID- 28890216
TI  - My Treatment Approach: Pancreatic Cysts.
AB  - Our treatment approach for either symptomatic or incidentally found pancreatic
      cysts continues to improve. The true incidence of pancreatic cysts is not known,
      and pancreatic cystic neoplasms, especially intraductal papillary mucinous
      neoplasms, are currently most commonly diagnosed and resected. This is a result
      of increasing awareness, widespread availability of imaging, and better
      understanding of the nature of pancreatic cysts as well. Recent studies on
      molecular analysis and devices such as microbiopsy forceps help us better define
      and select the treatment approach to alleviate symptoms and to prevent malignant
      tumors while avoiding unnecessary surgery.

PMID- 28890217
TI  - Saddle vs Nonsaddle Pulmonary Embolism: Clinical Presentation, Hemodynamics,
      Management, and Outcomes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To understand the clinical significance, hemodynamic presentation,
      management, and outcomes of patients presenting with saddle pulmonary embolism
      (PE). METHODS: All patients with saddle PE diagnosed at Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
      Minnesota, from January 1, 1999, through December 31, 2014, were included in this
      study. These patients were age and simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index
      (sPESI) matched (1:1) to a nonsaddle PE cohort. Both groups were then classified
      into massive, submassive, and low-risk PE based on established criteria and
      compared for clinical presentation, management, and outcomes. RESULTS: A total of
      187 consecutive patients with saddle PE were identified. The saddle PE group
      presented more frequently with massive PE (31% vs 20%) and submassive PE (49% vs
      32%), whereas low-risk PE was more common in the nonsaddle PE group (48% vs 20%).
      Systemic thrombolysis was used more frequently in the saddle PE group on
      admission (10% vs 4%; P=.04) and later during hospitalization (3.2% vs 0%;
      P=.03). Late major adverse events were similar in both groups except for
      mechanical ventilation (6% in saddle PE vs 1% in nonsaddle PE; P=.02). Overall in
      hospital mortality did not differ between the 2 groups (4.3% in saddle PE vs 5.4%
      in nonsaddle PE; P=.81). CONCLUSION: Although patients with saddle PE presented
      with higher rates of hemodynamic compromise and need for thrombolysis and
      mechanical ventilation, we found no difference in short-term outcomes compared
      with an age- and severity-matched nonsaddle PE cohort. Overall, in-hospital
      mortality was low in both groups.

PMID- 28890219
TI  - Use of Monte Carlo analysis in a risk-based prioritization of toxic constituents
      in house dust.
AB  - Many chemicals have been detected in house dust with exposures to the general
      public and particularly young children of potential health concern. House dust is
      also an indicator of chemicals present in consumer products and the built
      environment that may constitute a health risk. The current analysis compiles a
      database of recent house dust concentrations from the United States and Canada,
      focusing upon semi-volatile constituents. Seven constituents from the phthalate
      and flame retardant categories were selected for risk-based screening and
      prioritization: diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBzP),
      diisononyl phthalate (DINP), a pentabrominated diphenyl ether congener (BDE-99),
      hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP)
      and tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP). Monte Carlo analysis was used to
      represent the variability in house dust concentration as well as the uncertainty
      in the toxicology database in the estimation of children's exposure and risk.
      Constituents were prioritized based upon the percentage of the distribution of
      risk results for cancer and non-cancer endpoints that exceeded a hazard quotient
      (HQ) of 1. The greatest percent HQ exceedances were for DEHP (cancer and non
      cancer), BDE-99 (non-cancer) and TDCIPP (cancer). Current uses and the potential
      for reducing levels of these constituents in house dust are discussed. Exposure
      and risk for other phthalates and flame retardants in house dust may increase if
      they are used to substitute for these prioritized constituents. Therefore,
      alternative assessment and green chemistry solutions are important elements in
      decreasing children's exposure to chemicals of concern in the indoor environment.

PMID- 28890218
TI  - Serum perfluoroalkyl substances and cardiometabolic consequences in adolescents
      exposed to the World Trade Center disaster and a matched comparison group.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Large amounts of various chemical contaminants, including
      perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), were released at the time of the World Trade
      Center (WTC) disaster. Thousands of children who lived and/or attended school
      near the disaster site were exposed to these substances but few studies have
      examined the possible consequences related to these exposures. OBJECTIVES: To
      examine the relationship of PFASs serum levels with cardiometabolic profile in
      children and adolescents enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry
      (WTCHR) and a matched comparison group. METHODS: We evaluated WTCHR enrollees who
      resided in New York City and were born between September 11, 1993 and September
      10, 2001, and a matched comparison group consisting of individuals who were
      ineligible for WTCHR participation upon distance of their home, school or work
      from the WTC and lack of participation in rescue and recovery activities.
      Matching was based on date of birth, sex, race, ethnicity, and income. We
      assessed exposure to PFASs, as measured by serum levels and association with
      cardiometabolic profile as measured by arterial wall stiffness, body mass index,
      insulin resistance, fasting total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides.
      RESULTS: A total of 402 participants completed the study and serum samples were
      analyzed from 308 participants, 123 in the WTCHR group and 185 in the comparison
      group. In multivariable regression analysis, after adjusting for relevant
      confounders, we observed a significant, positive association of perfluorooctanoic
      acid (PFOA) with triglycerides (beta coefficient=0.14, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.27, 15.1%
      change), total cholesterol (beta coefficient=0.09, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.14, 9.2%
      change), and LDL cholesterol (beta coefficient=0.11, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.19, 11.5%
      change). Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid levels were associated with decreased
      insulin resistance (beta coefficient=-0.09, 95% CI: -0.18, -0.003, -8.6% change);
      PFOA and perfluorononanoic acid were associated with increased brachial artery
      distensibility. CONCLUSIONS: This research adds to our knowledge of the physical
      health impacts in a large group of children exposed to the WTC disaster. Abnormal
      lipid levels in young adults might be an early marker of atherosclerosis and
      cardiovascular diseases and our findings highlight the importance of conducting
      longitudinal studies in this population.

PMID- 28890221
TI  - Biogas Science 2016.

PMID- 28890220
TI  - Production of highly stable spray dried phage formulations for treatment of
      Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection.
AB  - The potential of bacteriophage therapy for the treatment of pulmonary infections
      caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been well recognised. The purpose of
      this study was to investigate the effect of excipients on stabilisation and
      aerosolisation of spray dried powders of morphologically different phages - PEV
      podovirus and PEV myovirus. Seven anti-pseudomonal phages were screened against
      90 clinical strains of bacterial hosts and three of the phages were selected for
      formulation study based on the host range. Design of experiments was utilised to
      assess the effect of different excipients on the stabilisation and aerosolisation
      of spray dried phages. Both podovirus and myovirus phages were stable in spray
      dried formulations containing trehalose or lactose and leucine as excipients with
      less than 1-log10 titre reduction during spray drying, with lactose providing
      superior phage protection over trehalose. Furthermore, the spray dried phage
      formulations dispersed in an Osmohaler at 85L/min produced a high fine particle
      fraction of over 50%. The results showed that the phages in this study can form
      respirable dry powder phage formulations using the same excipient composition.
      Spray dried various types of lytic phages hold significant potential for the
      treatment of pulmonary infections.

PMID- 28890222
TI  - Identifying subsets of patients with single-level degenerative disc disease for
      lumbar fusion: the value of prognostic tests in surgical decision making.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Fusion surgery for degenerative disc disease (DDD) has become
      a standard of care, albeit not without controversy. Outcomes are inconsistent and
      a superiority over conservative treatment is debatable. Proper patient selection
      is key to clinical success, and a comprehensive understanding of prognostic tests
      does not currently exist. PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the value of
      prognostic tests and sociodemographic factors in predicting outcomes following
      lumbar fusion surgery for DDD. STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective analysis of
      prospectively collected data. PATIENT SAMPLE: We included patients who underwent
      fusion surgery for DDD between 2010 and 2016. OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome
      measures included pre- and postoperative visual analog scale and Oswestry
      Disability Index scores. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospectively collected patient
      data were reviewed for preoperative tests, perioperative data, and clinical
      outcomes. Prognostic tests used were discography, pantaloon cast test (PCT),
      Modic changes, and a summary of physical symptoms, coined "loading factor." By
      means of multivariate stepwise regression, prognostic factors that were useful in
      predicting outcomes were identified. RESULTS: A total of 91 patients fit the
      inclusion criteria, with a mean follow-up of 33+/-16 months. Discography, Modic
      changes, and loading factor were of no value for predicting outcome scores
      (p>.05). A positive PCT predicted improved outcomes in back pain severity, but
      only in patients without prior surgery (p=.02). Demographic factors that showed a
      consistent reduction in back pain were female sex (p=.021) and no prior surgery
      at index level (p=.009). No other sociodemographic factors were of predictive
      value (p>.05). CONCLUSIONS: In patients without prior surgery, the PCT appears to
      be the most promising prognostic tool. Other prognostic selection tools such as
      discography and Modic changes yield disappointing results. In this study, female
      patients and those without prior spine surgery appear to be most likely to
      benefit from fusion surgery for DDD.

PMID- 28890223
TI  - A new iPhone application for measuring active craniocervical range of motion in
      patients with non-specific neck pain: a reliability and validity study.
AB  - BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Measurement of cervical spine range of motion (ROM) is often
      considered to be an essential component of cervical spine physiotherapy
      assessment. PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the reliability and validity
      of an iPhone application (app) (Goniometer Pro) for measuring active
      craniocervical ROM (ACCROM) in patients with non-specific neck pain. STUDY
      DESIGN/SETTING: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the musculoskeletal
      biomechanics laboratory located at Iran University of Medical Sciences. PATIENT
      SAMPLE: Forty non-specific neck pain patients participated in this study. OUTCOME
      MEASURES: The outcome measure was the ACCROM, including flexion, extension,
      lateral flexion, and rotation. METHOD: Following the recruitment process, ACCROM
      was measured using a universal goniometer (UG) and iPhone 7 app. Two blinded
      examiners each used the UG and iPhone to measure ACCROM in the following
      sequences: flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and rotation. The second (2 hours
      later) and third (48 hours later) sessions were carried out in the same manner as
      the first session. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) models were used to
      determine the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability. The Pearson correlation
      coefficients were used to establish concurrent validity of the iPhone app.
      Minimum detectable change at the 95% confidence level (MDC95) was also computed.
      RESULTS: Good intra-rater and inter-rater reliability was demonstrated for the
      goniometer with ICC values of >=0.66 and >=0.70 and the iPhone app with ICC
      values of >=0.62 and >=0.65, respectively. The MDC95 ranged from 2.21 degrees  to
      12.50 degrees  for the intra-rater analysis and from 3.40 degrees  to 12.61
      degrees  for the inter-rater analysis. The concurrent validity between the two
      instruments was high, with r valuesof >=0.63. The magnitude of the differences
      between the UG and iPhone app values (effect sizes) was small, with Cohen d
      values of <=0.17. CONCLUSIONS: The iPhone app possesses good reliability and high
      validity. It seems that this app can be used for measuring ACCROM.

PMID- 28890224
TI  - Comparison of hip muscle volume between fit-and-fill stem and tapered-wedge stem
      after total hip arthroplasty using the anterolateral approach.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery, hip muscle preservation is
      important in strengthening the stability of the hip and improving the activities
      of the patient. However, whether the type of femoral stem affects the recovery of
      the hip muscles remains unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the
      postoperative hip muscle recovery among femoral stem varieties after THA.
      METHODS: The computed tomography (CT) images of 44 patients (44 hips) who
      underwent THA using an anterolateral approach were reviewed. Twenty-two patients
      received a fit-and-fill (FF) stem and 22 received the tapered-wedge (TW) stem.
      The volumes of the gluteus maximus (GMA), gluteus medius (GME), and obturator
      internus (OI) were measured on three-dimensional models reconstructed using
      preoperative and 6-month postoperative CT images. Relationships between muscle
      volume changes and factors including the femoral stem length were evaluated.
      RESULTS: The GMA and GME volumes increased postoperatively by 8.2% and 8.3%,
      respectively, in the FF stem group and 7% and 6%, respectively, in the TW stem
      group, with no group differences. In contrast, the OI volume decreased
      postoperatively by 17.8% in the FF group and was preserved in TW group (p <
      0.001). Moreover, OI volume was decreased in 19 patients (86%) in the FF group
      and in 11 patients (50%) in the TW group (p = 0.01). The normalized stem length
      was significantly associated with the postoperative change in OI volume (r = 
      0.45, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The TW stem showed a significant advantage over
      the FF stem in terms of OI preservation. Surgeons should pay close attention
      during surgery to avoid OI injury when using different femoral stem types. We
      suggest that a short and reduced lateral shoulder femoral stem is a better choice
      for the preservation of external rotation muscles.

PMID- 28890226
TI  - The impact of early shame memories in Binge Eating Disorder: The mediator effect
      of current body image shame and cognitive fusion.
AB  - This study examined the phenomenology of shame experiences from childhood and
      adolescence in a sample of women with Binge Eating Disorder. Moreover, a path
      analysis was investigated testing whether the association between shame-related
      memories which are traumatic and central to identity, and binge eating symptoms'
      severity, is mediated by current external shame, body image shame and body image
      cognitive fusion. Participants in this study were 114 patients, who were assessed
      through the Eating Disorder Examination and the Shame Experiences Interview, and
      through self-report measures of external shame, body image shame, body image
      cognitive fusion and binge eating symptoms. Shame experiences where physical
      appearance was negatively commented or criticized by others were the most
      frequently recalled. A path analysis showed a good fit between the hypothesised
      mediational model and the data. The traumatic and centrality qualities of shame
      related memories predicted current external shame, especially body image shame.
      Current shame feelings were associated with body image cognitive fusion, which,
      in turn, predicted levels of binge eating symptomatology. Findings support the
      relevance of addressing early shame-related memories and negative affective and
      self-evaluative experiences, namely related to body image, in the understanding
      and management of binge eating.

PMID- 28890225
TI  - Early life stress predicts negative urgency through brooding, depending on 5
      HTTLPR genotype: A pilot study with 6-month follow-up examining suicide ideation.
AB  - The present study examined the interaction between early life stress and 5-HTT
      genotypes in predicting two risk factors for suicidal behavior - the brooding
      subtype of rumination and impulsivity, in the form of negative urgency - over
      time. Furthermore, we examined early life stress, brooding, and impulsivity as
      predictors of suicidal ideation over time. Participants with and without a
      history of early life stress were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and
      completed assessments assessing brooding and negative urgency at baseline and 6
      month follow up. Early life emotional abuse was associated with negative urgency
      at follow-up. We found an indirect effect of early life emotional abuse on
      negative urgency through brooding among individuals with 5-HTT low expressing
      genotypes but not among individuals with 5-HTT high expressing genotypes.
      Further, a logistic regression analysis revealed that negative urgency was
      associated with higher odds (O.R. = 16.2) of reporting suicide ideation (versus
      no ideation) at follow-up. Our findings suggest that brooding and negative
      urgency may result from the interaction between early life emotional abuse and 5
      HTT low expressing genotypes. Further research is necessary to understand how
      early life stress interacts with 5-HTT genotypes to confer risk for suicidal
      behavior through psychological mechanisms.

PMID- 28890227
TI  - Using the transtheoretical model to predict physical activity level of overweight
      adults with serious mental illness.
AB  - Although physical activity (PA) is recommended for individuals with serious
      mental illness (ISMI), most of them are inactive or insufficiently active. The
      transtheoretical model (TTM) has been proposed to explain the motivational
      factors associated with PA however, there is little evidence of its applicability
      to ISMI. So, the objective was to analyse whether TTM components are related to
      PA in overweight ISMI. In this cross-sectional study, participants completed the
      Global Physical Activity Questionnaire to assess their PA level and TTM
      components: stages of change (SOC), decisional balance (pros and cons), self
      efficacy and processes of change (POC; experiential and behavioural). 43
      overweight ISMI (27 males, mean age 29.0 +/- 6.64, mean BMI 31.91 +/- 5.10kg/m2,
      30% with schizophrenia, and 44% inactive), referred to a PA programme were
      recruited. PA was positively correlated with POC and perceived pros, with TTM
      constructs accounting for 14.5% of PA variance. Mean level of behavioural POC and
      perceived pros were higher in physically active than in inactive participants.
      So, this study confirms that TTM components are associated with PA in overweight
      ISMI. Therefore, the TTM should be considered when planning PA interventions for
      ISMI.

PMID- 28890228
TI  - Actor-partner interdependence analysis in depressed patient-caregiver dyads:
      Influence of emotional intelligence and coping strategies on anxiety and
      depression.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of suffering for
      both patients and their natural caregivers. A preliminary study highlights the
      association of emotional intelligence (EI) and coping strategies with quality of
      life. However, there is a lack of studies concerning dyadic (i.e., patient and
      natural caregiver) characteristics' impact on anxious and depressive symptoms. In
      a sample of MDD patients-caregivers dyads, we explored the influence of EI and
      coping strategies on anxious and depressive symptoms using the actor-partner
      interdependence model (APIM). METHODS: The cross-sectional study included 79 MDD
      patient-caregiver dyads. Self-reported data, completed by patients and their
      primary caregivers, were collected including socio-demographic, EI using TEIQue
      SF, coping strategies using BriefCope, depressive symptoms using Beck Depression
      Inventory, anxious symptoms using STAI. The APIM was used to test the dyadic
      effects of EI and coping strategies on anxious and depressive symptoms, using
      structural equation modelling. RESULTS: Patients and caregivers reported both
      anxious and depressive symptoms. Coping strategies, such as problem solving,
      positive thinking and avoidance, exhibited evidence of actor (degree to which the
      individual's coping strategies are associated with their own anxiety or
      depression level) and partner effect (degree to which the individual's coping
      strategies are associated with the anxiety or depression level of the other
      member of the dyad). The caregivers' EI was associated with a decrease of their
      own depression level contrary to patients for which the results were not
      significant. The patients' and caregivers' EI was associated with a decrease of
      their own level of anxiety. CONCLUSION: EI and coping strategies were moderately
      associated with anxious and depressive symptomatology among MDD patient-caregiver
      dyads. These results suggest that targeted interventions could be proposed to
      both patients and caregivers.

PMID- 28890229
TI  - Patterns of emotion regulation and emotion-related behaviors among parents of
      children with and without ADHD.
AB  - Parent emotion regulation is a crucial factor in child adjustment. This study
      examined the patterns and correlation of emotion regulation and emotion-related
      behaviors for parents of children with and without ADHD. The study emphasized
      specific parental emotion regulation strategies used in parent-child
      interactions. Of the 177 participating parents 55.4% had at least one child with
      ADHD. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires measuring their emotion
      regulation and emotion-related behaviors (supportive vs. unsupportive) with
      regard to a specific child, noting whether the child had ADHD. Results indicated
      that parents of children with ADHD used more emotion regulation strategies than
      parents of children without ADHD. No differences were found in emotion-related
      behaviors. Patterns of relations between reappraisal and suppression emotion
      regulation and supportive and non-supportive emotion-related behaviors revealed
      that parent reappraisal was an effective emotion regulation strategy for both
      subgroups, whereas suppression was ineffective only for parents of children
      without ADHD. These findings shed light on the relation of parent reappraisal and
      suppression strategies to emotion-related behaviors for different parenting
      experiences and emphasize the importance of addressing parent specific emotion
      regulation in parenting intervention programs.

PMID- 28890231
TI  - 40 Years of Biotechnology Research at Forschungszentrum Julich.

PMID- 28890230
TI  - Is there a best side for cochlear implants in post-lingual patients?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cochlear Implant is a sensory prosthesis capable of restoring
      hearing in patients with severe or profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if there is a better side to be implanted in post-lingual
      patients. METHODS: Retrospective longitudinal study. Participants were 40
      subjects, of both sex, mean age of 47 years, with post-lingual hearing loss,
      users of unilateral cochlear implant for more than 12 months and less than 24
      months, with asymmetric auditor reserve between the ears (difference of 10dBNA,
      In at least one of the frequencies with a response, between the ears), divided
      into two groups. Group A was composed of individuals with cochlear implant in the
      ear with better auditory reserve and Group B with auditory reserve lower in
      relation to the contralateral side. RESULTS: There was no statistical difference
      for the tonal auditory threshold before and after cochlear implant. A better
      speech perception in pre-cochlear implant tests was present in B (20%), but the
      final results are similar in both groups. CONCLUSION: The cochlear implant in the
      ear with the worst auditory residue favors a bimodal hearing, which would allow
      the binaural summation, without compromising the improvement of the audiometric
      threshold and the speech perception.

PMID- 28890232
TI  - Complete progressive ophthalmoplegia and numb chin syndrome, the first clinical
      manifestations of a lethal abdominal Burkitt lymphoma.
AB  - A 57-year-old patient was admitted to the Neurology Clinic for hypoesthesia,
      intense pain in the right chin and double vision. During the hospitalization, the
      patient developed progressive complete bilateral ophthalmoplegia and numbness of
      both sides of the chin. Brain CT and MRI scans with gadolinium were normal.
      Standard laboratory tests on admission were normal. The cerebral spinal fluid
      examination and the infectious and autoimmune workup were also normal. A thoracic
      abdominal and pelvic CT scan revealed two hypodense lesions in the liver,
      irregular thickening of the gastric and ileal wall, and multiple abdominal
      adenopathies. Meanwhile, the patient developed marked fatigue, fever, sweats,
      nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. An exploratory laparotomy was performed that
      showed multiple tumours of the small intestinal wall, stomach wall, multiple
      liver masses in both lobes and appendicular tumour. Histopathological findings of
      the liver biopsy and appendicular walls revealed Burkitt lymphoma. The patient
      died two days after surgery by cardiopulmonary arrest. This case underscores the
      importance of keeping BL in the differential diagnosis of patients with rapidly
      progressive ophthalmoplegia and numb chin syndrome, with normal brain MRI and CSF
      examinations.

PMID- 28890233
TI  - [What would you do when faced with a Muslim patient with a conversational
      disorder?]
AB  - The purpose of this work is to present the approach to mental disorders in
      Moroccan patients from a sociocultural perspective. The anthropology of health
      and ethno-psychiatry will allow us to analyze the concepts of health and disease.
      From the Moroccan cosmovision we will analyze the alternative treatments and
      their association with other therapeutic models.

PMID- 28890235
TI  - The science reproducibility crisis and the necessity to publish negative results.

PMID- 28890234
TI  - Calibration of a lactic-acid model for simulating biofilm-induced degradation of
      the dentin-composite interface.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To verify and calibrate a chemical model for simulating the
      degradation of the dentin-composite interface induced by multi-species oral
      biofilms in vitro. METHODS: Dentin-composite disks (5-mm dia.*2-mm thick) were
      made from bovine incisor roots and filled with either Z100TM (Z100) or FiltekTM
      LS (LS) composite. The disks, which were covered with nail varnish, but with one
      of the dentin-composite margins exposed, were immersed in lactic acid solution at
      pH 4.5 for up to 48h. Diametral compression was performed to measure the
      reduction in bond strength of the dentin-composite disks following acid
      challenge. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine decalcification
      of dentin and fracture modes of the disks. To better understand the degradation
      process, micro-computed tomography, in combination with a radiopaque dye (AgNO3),
      was used to assess interfacial leakage in 3D longitudinally, while SEM was used
      to determine the path of leakage. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used
      to analyze the results, with the level of statistical significance set at p<0.05.
      The results were compared with those obtained previously using multi-species
      biofilms for verification and calibration purposes. RESULTS: After 48h of acid
      challenge, the debonding load of both the LS- and Z100-filled disks reduced
      significantly (p<0.05). In the Z100-filled disks, debonding mostly occurred at
      the adhesive-dentin interface, while in the LS-filled disks, this happened at the
      adhesive-composite interface, instead. The degree of dentin demineralization, the
      reduction in debonding load and the modes of failure observed were very similar
      to those induced by multi-species oral biofilms found in the previous work.
      Leakage of AgNO3 occurred mainly along the hybrid layer. The specimens filled
      with Z100 had a thicker hybrid layer (~6.5MUm), which exhibited more interfacial
      leakage than those filled with LS. SIGNIFICANCE: The chemical model with lactic
      acid used in this study can induce degradation to the dentin-composite interface
      similar to those produced by multi-species biofilms. With appropriate
      calibration, this could provide an effective in vitro method for ageing composite
      restorations in assessing their potential clinical performance.

PMID- 28890236
TI  - ADenoVirus Initiative Study in Epidemiology (ADVISE): Results of a multicentric
      epidemiology study in Spain.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Non-interventional, observational, epidemiology study to assess
      clinical characteristics and frequency of adenovirus conjunctivitis diagnosed by
      AdenoPlus(r) in patients who presented with signs and symptoms of acute
      conjunctivitis. Safety aspects during use of the test were analyzed as well.
      METHOD: This analysis presents the data obtained from the 386 patients enrolled
      in Spain. Patients had to present with acute signs and symptoms of conjunctivitis
      <=7days. The minimum age was 1year old. Patients who had already used local
      antiviral therapies, topical steroids or immuno-modulators were not allowed to
      enter the study. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect patient's
      ocular history and test results. RESULTS: A total of 386 patients were recruited
      in 22 sites, being analyzed 329 patients. Among them, the percentage of
      "AdenoPlus(r) positive" was 36,2% (119/329). Before the test was performed, in
      84,1% of the cases, investigators believed that the conjunctivitis was of viral
      origin but only 50,3% of the investigators had their clinical assessment
      confirmed by the test. Patients who tested positive for adenoviral conjunctivitis
      presented higher percentages of signs and symptoms than the rest of the patients.
      CONCLUSIONS: None of the signs or symptoms could be qualified as pathognomonic of
      the disease, being difficult for the clinicians to perform an accurate diagnosis.
      AdenoPlus(r) test is an antigen based immunoassay test that detects the presence
      of adenovirus directly from tears, and it can be an useful tool to help early
      differential diagnosis in patients with conjunctivitis signs and symptoms lasting
      for less than or equal to 7days.

PMID- 28890237
TI  - Molecular structure, supramolecular organization and thermotropic phase behavior
      of N-acylglycine alkyl esters with matched acyl and alkyl chains.
AB  - N-Acylglycines (NAGs), the endogenous single-tailed lipids present in rat brain
      and other mammalian tissues, play significant roles in cell physiology and
      exhibit interesting pharmacological properties. In the present study, a
      homologous series of N-acylglycine alkyl esters (NAGEs) with matched chains were
      synthesized and characterized. Results of differential scanning calorimetric
      studies revealed that all NAGEs exhibit a single sharp phase transition and that
      the transition enthalpy and entropy show a linear dependence on the N-acyl and
      ester alkyl chain length. The structure of N-myristoylglycine myristyl ester
      (NMGME), solved by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, showed that the molecule
      adopts a linear geometry and revealed that the structure of N-myristoyl glycyl
      moiety in NMGME is identical to that in N-myristoylglycine. The molecules are
      packed in layers with the polar functional groups of the ester and amide
      functionalities located at the center of the layer. The crystal packing is
      stabilized by NH?O hydrogen bonds between the amide CO and NH groups of adjacent
      molecules as well as by CH?O hydrogen bonds between the amide carbonyl and the
      methylene CH adjacent to the ester carbonyl of neighboring molecules as well as
      between ester carbonyl and methylene group of the glycine moiety of adjacent
      molecules. Powder X-ray diffraction studies showed a linear dependence of the d
      spacings on the acyl chain length, suggesting that all NAGEs adopt a structure
      similar to the packing exhibited in the crystal lattice of NMGME.

PMID- 28890238
TI  - Delivering the right message: Challenges and opportunities in lipid nanoparticles
      mediated modified mRNA therapeutics-An innate immune system standpoint.
AB  - mRNA molecules hold tremendous potential as a tool for gene therapy of a wide
      range of diseases. However, the main hurdle in implementation of mRNA for
      therapeutics, the systemic delivery of mRNA molecules to target cells, remains a
      challenge. A feasible solution for this challenge relies in the rapidly evolving
      field of nucleic acid-loaded nanocarriers and specifically in the established
      family of lipid-based nanoparticles (LNPs). Herein, we will discuss the main
      factors, which determine the fate of modified mRNA (mmRNA)-loaded LNPs in-vivo,
      and will focus on their interactions with the innate immune system as a main
      consideration in the design of lipid-based mmRNA delivery platforms.

PMID- 28890239
TI  - Self-help organisations as patient representatives in health care and policy
      decision-making.
AB  - A crucial question about participation is who is legitimised, willing and capable
      of representing particular collectives. Social insurance health care systems tend
      to focus on representation by patient organisations. Self-help organisations
      (SHOs), as one type of 'health consumer and patient organisation', often take
      over this role. Research findings indicate that participation by SHOs is
      accompanied by high expectations, but also by concerns about the risks of
      instrumental abuse, overload and professionalisation. However, there is a dearth
      of in-depth knowledge about both potential and risks of participating for the
      SHO. To tackle this research gap, a qualitative study design was used to
      investigate fifteen SHOs in Austria. Data were generated by expert interviews
      with SHO representatives and documentary analysis of SHO websites. Content
      analysis was applied. SHOs in Austria advocate for patients' interests,
      participate in invited spaces and have various forms of cooperative relations
      with the health care system. Thereby, they draw on the experiential knowledge of
      their members without, however, systematising it. Experiences with
      professionalisation and instrumental use are ambiguous, whereas overload is
      prevalent. SHOs need resources for reflection in order to define their position
      visa- vis the health system and to realise their potential as patient
      representatives. Deepening co-operation with the health care system might lead to
      new participatory practices acknowledging differences in culture and the
      resources of both sides.

PMID- 28890240
TI  - Erratum to "Association between peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, UCP3
      and lipoprotein lipase gene polymorphisms and obesity in Chinese adolescents"
      [Obes Res Clin Pract 2017;11(January-February1):27-33].

PMID- 28890241
TI  - Manual and expert annotation of the nearly complete genome sequence of
      Staphylococcus sciuri strain ATCC 29059: A reference for the oxidase-positive
      staphylococci that supports the atypical phenotypic features of the species
      group.
AB  - Staphylococcus sciuri is considered to be one of the most ancestral species in
      the natural history of the Staphylococcus genus that consists of 48 validly
      described species. It belongs to the basal group of oxidase-positive and
      novobiocin-resistant staphylococci that diverged from macrococci approximately
      250 million years ago. Contrary to other groups, the S. sciuri species group has
      not developed host-specific colonization strategies. Genome analysis of S. sciuri
      ATCC 29059 provides here the first genetic basis for atypical traits that would
      support the switch between the free-living style and the infective state in
      animals and humans. From among the most remarkable features, it was noticed in
      this extensive study that there were a number of phosphoenolpyruvate:carbohydrate
      phosphotransferase systems (PTS), almost twice as many as any other
      staphylococci, and the co-occurrence of mevalonate and non-mevalonate pathways
      for isoprenoid synthesis. The sequenced strain was devoid of the main virulence
      factors present in Staphylococcus aureus, although it exhibited numerous heme and
      iron acquisition systems, as well as crt and aldH genes necessary for gold
      pigment synthesis. The sensing and signaling networks, exemplified by a large and
      typical repertoire of two-component regulatory systems and a complete panel of
      master regulators, such as agr, rex, mgrA, rot, sarA and sarR genes, depict the
      background in which S. aureus virulence genes were later acquired. An additional
      sigma factor, a distinct set of electron transducer elements and many gene
      operons similar to those found in Bacillus spp. would constitute the most visible
      remnant links with Bacillaceae organisms.

PMID- 28890242
TI  - Asphyxiation death caused by oxygen-depleting cargo on a ship.
AB  - The extreme danger associated with entering enclosed spaces loaded with oxygen
      depleting organic cargo in ships and tanks is obviously underestimated, both
      among crew and management. We present a case report to highlight this
      occupational hazard and to increase the knowledge about the imperative
      precautions, in order to prevent future accidents. An experienced customs officer
      was found lifeless at the bottom of the unattended cargo hold on a ship loaded
      with woodchips. The oxygen content in the cargo atmosphere was below 2%, which is
      incompatible with life. Forensic autopsy revealed injuries related to the fall,
      and there were no positive toxicological findings in blood, lung or urine.
      Management and workers must be taught about the extreme rapidity of developing
      unconsciousness and asphyxiant death when entering enclosed spaces loaded with
      oxygen-depleting cargo. Even a single inhalation can result in unconsciousness
      and death. Dozens of annual deaths and severe injuries can easily be prevented if
      simple precautions are followed.

PMID- 28890243
TI  - Re: Giorgio Gandaglia, Stephen A. Boorjian, William P. Parker, et al. Impact of
      Postoperative Radiotherapy in Men with Persistently Elevated Prostate-specific
      Antigen After Radical Prostatectomy for Prostate Cancer: A Long-term Survival
      Analysis. Eur Urol 2017;72:910-7.

PMID- 28890244
TI  - Re: Comprehensive Qualitative Assessment of Urethral Stricture Disease: Toward
      the Development of a Patient Centered Outcome Measure.

PMID- 28890245
TI  - Efficacy of Local Treatment in Prostate Cancer Patients with Clinically Pelvic
      Lymph Node-positive Disease at Initial Diagnosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence supporting the use of local treatment (LT)
      for prostate cancer (PCa) patients with clinically pelvic lymph node-positive
      (cN1) disease. OBJECTIVE: To examine the efficacy of any form of LT+/-androgen
      deprivation therapy (ADT) in treating these individuals. DESIGN, SETTING, AND
      PARTICIPANTS: Using the National Cancer Database (2003-2011), we retrospectively
      identified 2967 individuals who received LT+/-ADT versus ADT alone for cN1 PCa.
      Only radical prostatectomy (RP) and radiation therapy (RT) were considered as
      definitive LT. INTERVENTION: LT+/-ADT versus ADT alone. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND
      STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Instrumental variable analyses (IVA) were performed using a
      two-stage residual inclusion approach to compare overall mortality (OM)-free
      survival between patients who received LT+/-ADT versus ADT alone. The same
      methodology was used to further compare OM-free survival between patients who
      received RP+/-ADT versus RT+/-ADT. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: Overall, 1987 (67%)
      and 980 (33%) patients received LT+/-ADT and ADT alone, respectively. In the LT+/
      ADT group, 751 (37.8%) and 1236 (62.2%) patients received RP+/-ADT and RT+/-ADT,
      respectively. In IVA, LT+/-ADT was associated with a significant OM-free survival
      benefit (hazard ratio=0.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.13-0.74, p=0.007),
      when compared with ADT alone. At 5 yr, OM-free survival was 78.8% (95% CI: 74.1
      83.9%) versus 49.2% (95% CI: 33.9-71.4%) in the LT+/-ADT versus ADT alone groups.
      When comparing RP+/-ADT versus RT+/-ADT, IVA showed no significant difference in
      OM-free survival between the two treatment modalities (hazard ratio=0.54, 95%
      CI=0.19-1.52, p=0.2). Despite the use of an IVA, our study may be limited by
      residual unmeasured confounding. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that PCa patients
      with clinically pelvic lymph node-positive disease may benefit from any form of
      LT+/-ADT over ADT alone. While not necessarily curative by itself, the use of RP
      or RT could be the first step in a multi-modality approach aiming at providing
      the best cancer control outcomes for these individuals. PATIENTS SUMMARY: We
      examined the role of local treatment for clinically pelvic lymph node-positive
      prostate cancer. We found that the delivery of radical prostatectomy or radiation
      therapy may be associated with an overall mortality-free survival benefit
      compared with androgen deprivation therapy alone.

PMID- 28890246
TI  - Reply to Alan Dal Pra, Stephane Supiot and Pirus Ghadjar's Letter to the Editor
      re: Giorgio Gandaglia, Stephen A. Boorjian, William P. Parker, et al. Impact of
      Postoperative Radiotherapy in Men with Persistently Elevated Prostate-specific
      Antigen After Radical Prostatectomy for Prostate Cancer: A Long-term Survival
      Analysis. Eur Urol 2017;72:910-7.

PMID- 28890247
TI  - New Insights into Adjuvant Renal Cell Carcinoma Treatment with Vascular
      Endothelial Growth Factor Inhibitors: What Have We Learned So Far?
AB  - Adjuvant treatment of renal cell carcinoma with vascular endothelial growth
      factor inhibitors is feasible and effective with careful patient selection and
      standard dosing levels.

PMID- 28890248
TI  - Innovative Therapies to Overcome Resistance to Enzalutamide: Perspective on the
      Use of Darolutamide.

PMID- 28890249
TI  - Re: The Use of Apnea During Ureteroscopy.

PMID- 28890250
TI  - Re: Association Between Direct-to-consumer Advertising and Testosterone Testing
      and Initiation in the United States, 2009-2013.

PMID- 28890251
TI  - Risk of Bleeding Versus Venous Thromboembolism in Urological Surgery-Finding the
      Right Balance Is Not Always Easy!

PMID- 28890252
TI  - Canalicular adenoma: A systematic review.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Canalicular adenoma (CA) is an uncommon but unique benign tumor of
      salivary gland origin. It is the third most common benign tumor of minor salivary
      glands, representing less than 1% of all salivary neoplasms. A systematic review
      is presented of reported cases of CA, to determine trends in presentation,
      diagnostic features, treatment, and patient outcome. METHODS: Searches of
      specific databases, as reported, were carried out to identify papers reporting
      CA. The variables were patient symptoms, tumor location, histopathological
      findings, demographics, treatment, follow-up, and recurrence. RESULTS: 430 cases
      were identified; the most common location was in the upper lip (66.3%), followed
      by hard palate (14.5%). The most common clinical presentation was a nodule
      (46.5%), followed by asymptomatic (29.5%), and discomfort (28.7%). CA was most
      frequently seen in females (64%). The average age was 66.3 years. 97% of cases
      were treated surgically. The average follow-up was 136.3 months, and recurrence
      was reported in 3% of the cases. CONCLUSION: CA shows a strong predilection for
      the upper lip. CAs are frequently asymptomatic, but the principal symptom was
      pressure.

PMID- 28890253
TI  - Soft tissue oxygen saturation to predict admission.

PMID- 28890255
TI  - Regional myocardial structural characteristics in ischemic and non-ischemic
      cardiomyopathy: Left ventricle versus right and apex versus base.

PMID- 28890256
TI  - Tunable denture adhesives using biomimetic principles for enhanced tissue
      adhesion in moist environments.
AB  - : Nature provides many interesting examples of adhesive strategies. Of particular
      note, the protein glue secreted by marine mussels delivers high adhesion in wet
      and dynamic environments owing to existence of catechol moieties. As such, this
      study focuses on denture fixatives, where a non-zinc-containing commercial-based
      formulation has been judiciously modified by a biomimetic catechol-inspired
      polymer, poly(3,4-dihydroxystyrene/styrene-alt-maleic acid) in a quest to
      modulate adhesive performance. In vitro studies, in a lap-shear configuration,
      revealed that the catechol-modified components were able to enhance adhesion to
      both the denture base and hydrated, functional oral tissue mimic, with the
      resulting mode of failure prominently being adhesive rather than cohesive. These
      characteristics are desirable in prosthodontic fixative applications, for which
      temporary adhesion must be maintained, with ultimately an adhesive failure from
      the mucosal tissue surface preferred. These insights provide an experimental
      platform in the design of future biomimetic adhesive systems. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: Mussel adhesive proteins have proven to be promising biomimetic
      adhesive candidates for soft tissues and here for the first time we have adapted
      marine adhesive technology into a denture fixative application. Importantly, we
      have incorporated a soft tissue mimic in our in vitro adhesion technique that
      more closely resembles the oral mucosa than previously studied substrates. The
      novel biomimetic-modified adhesives showed the ability to score the highest
      adhesive bonding out of all the formulations included in this study, across all
      moisture levels. This paper will be of major interest to the Acta Biomaterialia
      readership since the study has illustrated the potential of biomimetic principles
      in the design of effective prosthodontic tissue adhesives in a series of purpose
      designed in vitro experiments in the context of the challenging features of the
      oral environment.

PMID- 28890254
TI  - Rethinking HSF1 in Stress, Development, and Organismal Health.
AB  - The heat shock response (HSR) was originally discovered as a transcriptional
      response to elevated temperature shock and led to the identification of heat
      shock proteins and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). Since then HSF1 has been shown to
      be important for combating other forms of environmental perturbations as well as
      genetic variations that cause proteotoxic stress. The HSR has long been thought
      to be an absolute response to conditions of cell stress and the primary mechanism
      by which HSF1 promotes organismal health by preventing protein aggregation and
      subsequent proteome imbalance. Accumulating evidence now shows that HSF1, the
      central player in the HSR, is regulated according to specific cellular
      requirements through cell-autonomous and non-autonomous signals, and directs
      transcriptional programs distinct from the HSR during development and in
      carcinogenesis. We discuss here these 'non-canonical' roles of HSF1, its
      regulation in diverse conditions of development, reproduction, metabolism, and
      aging, and posit that HSF1 serves to integrate diverse biological and
      pathological responses.

PMID- 28890257
TI  - Effects of PDGF-BB delivery from heparinized collagen sutures on the healing of
      lacerated chicken flexor tendon in vivo.
AB  - : Flexor tendon lacerations are traditionally repaired by using non-absorbable
      monofilament sutures. Recent investigations have explored to improve the healing
      process by growth factor delivery from the sutures. However, it is difficult to
      conjugate growth factors to nylon or other synthetic sutures. This study explores
      the performance of a novel electrochemically aligned collagen suture in a flexor
      tendon repair model with and without platelet derived growth factor following
      complete tendon laceration in vivo. Collagen suture was fabricated via
      electrochemical alignment process. Heparin was covalently bound to
      electrochemically aligned collagen sutures (ELAS) to facilitate affinity bound
      delivery of platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB). Complete laceration of
      the flexor digitorum profundus in the third digit of the foot was performed in 36
      skeletally mature White Leghorn chickens. The left foot was used as the positive
      control. Animals were randomly divided into three groups: control specimens
      treated with standard nylon suture (n=12), specimens repaired with heparinated
      ELAS suture without PDGF-BB (n=12) and specimens repaired with heparinated ELAS
      suture with affinity bound PDGF-BB (n=12). Specimens were harvested at either
      4weeks or 12weeks following tendon repair. Differences between groups were
      evaluated by the degree of gross tendon excursion, failure load/stress,
      stiffness/modulus, absorbed energy at failure, elongation/strain at failure.
      Quantitative histological scoring was performed to assess cellularity and
      vascularity. Closed flexion angle measurements demonstrated no significant
      differences in tendon excursion between the study groups at 4 or 12weeks.
      Biomechanical testing showed that the group treated with PDGF-BB bound
      heparinated ELAS suture had significantly higher stiffness and failure load
      (p<0.05) at 12-weeks relative to both heparinated ELAS suture and nylon suture.
      Similarly, the group treated with PDGF-BB bound suture had significantly higher
      ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus (p<0.05) at 12-weeks relative to
      both ELAS suture and nylon suture. Compared to nylon controls, heparinized ELAS
      with PDGF-BB improved biomechanics and vascularity during tendon healing by 12
      weeks following primary repair. The ability of ELAS to deliver PDGF-BB to the
      lacerated area of tendon presents investigators with a functional bioinductive
      platform to improve repair outcomes following flexor tendon repair. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: A high strength aligned collagen suture was fabricated via linear
      electrocompaction and heparinized for prolonged delivery of PDFG-BB. When it was
      used to suture a complete lacerated flexor tendon in a chicken model controlled
      release of the PDGF-BB improved the strength of treated tendon after 12 weeks
      compared to tendon sutured with commercial nylon suture. Furthermore, Collagen
      suture with affinity bound PDGF-BB enhanced the vascularization and remodeling of
      lacerated tendon when it compare to synthetic nylon suture. Overall,
      electrocompacted collagen sutures holds potential to improve repair outcome in
      flexor tendon surgeries by improving repair strength and stiffness, vascularity,
      and remodeling via sustained delivery of the PDGF-BB. The bioinductive collagen
      suture introduces a platform for sustained delivery of other growth factors for a
      wide-array of applications.

PMID- 28890258
TI  - Facile construction of bioreducible crosslinked polypeptide micelles for enhanced
      cancer combination therapy.
AB  - : In this study, we developed pH and redox-responsive crosslinked polypeptide
      based combination micelles for enhanced chemotherapeutic efficacy and minimized
      side effects. The stability and drug release properties of the polypeptide
      micelles were efficiency balanced by the corona-crosslinking of the triblock
      copolymer, poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(aspartic acid)-b-poly(tyrosine) (PEG-b
      pAsp-b-pTyr) with coordinated redox and pH dual-sensitivity by introducing
      disulfide crosslinkages. Because of the crosslinking of the middle shell of the
      triblock polypeptide micelles, their robust structure was maintained in strong
      destabilization conditions and exhibited excellent stability. GSH concentrations
      were significantly higher in tumor tissue than in normal tissue, which formed the
      basis for our design. Drug release was elevated under redox and low acidic
      conditions. Furthermore, crosslinked micelles showed a superior anticancer effect
      compared to that of non-crosslinked micelles. Incorporation of docetaxel (DTX)
      and lonidamine (LND) in crosslinked polypeptide micelles increased the
      intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and oxidative stress and caused
      damage to intracellular components that resulted in greater apoptosis of cancer
      cells than when DTX or LND was used alone. The combination of DTX and LND in
      crosslinked micelles exhibited efficacious inhibition of tumor growth with an
      excellent safety profile compared to that reported for drug cocktail combinations
      and non-crosslinked micelles. Overall, redox/pH-responsive polypeptide micelles
      could be an interesting platform for efficient chemotherapy. STATEMENT OF
      SIGNIFICANCE: We have synthesized a biodegradable polypeptide block copolymer to
      construct a facile pH and redox-responsive polymeric micelle asan advanced
      therapeutic system for cancer therapy. We have designed a corona-crosslinked
      triblock copolymer (poly (ethylene glycol)-b-poly(aspartic acid)-b-poly(tyrosine)
      (PEG-b-pAsp-b-pTyr)) micelles co-loaded with docetaxel and lonidamine (cl-M/DL).
      The corona of triblock polymer was crosslinked to maintain its structural
      integrity in the physiological environment. The mitochondrial targeting LND is
      expected to generate ROS, oxidative stress and thereby synergize the
      chemotherapeutic efficacy of DTX in killing cancer cells. Consistently, cl-M/DL
      exhibited excellent antitumor efficacy in xenograft tumor model with remarkable
      tumor regression. Overall, we demonstrated the construction of bioreducible
      nanosystem for the effective synergistic delivery of DTX/LND in tumor tissues
      towards cancer treatment.

PMID- 28890259
TI  - Silk fibroin-chondroitin sulfate scaffold with immuno-inhibition property for
      articular cartilage repair.
AB  - : The demand of favorable scaffolds has increased for the emerging cartilage
      tissue engineering. Chondroitin sulfate (CS) and silk fibroin have been
      investigated and reported with safety and excellent biocompatibility as tissue
      engineering scaffolds. However, the rapid degradation rate of pure CS scaffolds
      presents a challenge to effectively recreate neo-tissue similar to natural
      articular cartilage. Meanwhile the silk fibroin is well used as a structural
      constituent material because its remarkable mechanical properties, long-lasting
      in vivo stability and hypoimmunity. The application of composite silk fibroin and
      CS scaffolds for joint cartilage repair has not been well studied. Here we report
      that the combination of silk fibroin and CS could synergistically promote
      articular cartilage defect repair. The silk fibroin (silk) and silk fibroin/CS
      (silk-CS) scaffolds were fabricated with salt-leaching, freeze-drying and
      crosslinking methodologies. The biocompatibility of the scaffolds was
      investigated in vitro by cell adhesion, proliferation and migration with human
      articular chondrocytes. We found that silk-CS scaffold maintained better
      chondrocyte phenotype than silk scaffold; moreover, the silk-CS scaffolds reduced
      chondrocyte inflammatory response that was induced by interleukin (IL)-1beta,
      which is in consistent with the well-documented anti-inflammatory activities of
      CS. The in vivo cartilage repair was evaluated with a rabbit osteochondral defect
      model. Silk-CS scaffold induced more neo-tissue formation and better structural
      restoration than silk scaffold after 6 and 12weeks of implantation in ICRS
      histological evaluations. In conclusion, we have developed a silk fibroin/
      chondroitin sulfate scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering that exhibits
      immuno-inhibition property and can improve the self-repair capacity of cartilage.
      STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Severe cartilage defect such as osteoarthritis (OA) is
      difficult to self-repair because of its avascular, aneural and alymphatic nature.
      Current scaffolds often focus on providing sufficient mechanical support or bio
      mimetic structure to promote cartilage repair. Thus, silk has been adopted and
      investigated broadly. However, inflammation is one of the most important factors
      in OA. But few scaffolds for cartilage repair reported anti-inflammation
      property. Meanwhile, chondroitin sulfate (CS) is a glycosaminoglycan present in
      the natural cartilage ECM, and has exhibited a number of useful biological
      properties including anti-inflammatory activity. Thus, we designed this silk-CS
      scaffold and proved that this scaffold exhibited good anti-inflammatory effects
      both in vitro and in vivo, promoted the repair of articular cartilage defect in
      animal model.

PMID- 28890260
TI  - The health care innovation bubble.

PMID- 28890261
TI  - Participation and payments in the PQRS Maintenance of Certification Program:
      Implications for future merit based payment programs.

PMID- 28890262
TI  - [Relapsing polychondritis: What's new in 2017?]
AB  - Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a rare condition characterized by recurrent
      inflammation of cartilaginous tissue and systemic manifestations. Data on
      pathophysiology are scarce and suggest an autoimmune mechanism. Recently, the
      possibility of dividing patients with RP into three distinct clinical phenotypes
      has been suggested: the hematological form representing less than 10% of
      patients, essentially older men with associated myelodysplasia and poor
      prognosis, the respiratory form representing about 25% of patients with
      predominant tracheobronchial involvement, and the mild and most frequent form,
      representing 65% of patients, with a good prognosis. Recent data on survival
      shows an improvement of overall prognosis compared to historical series. Reported
      poor prognosis factors are male gender, associated haemopathies and cardiac
      involvement. Few recent series suggest an interest for positron emission
      tomography for the diagnosis and the follow-up of treatment. Due to the lack of
      randomized therapeutic trial, treatment remains empirical and is mainly based on
      oral corticosteroids sometimes associated with immunosuppressive agents. The use
      of biologic agents has recently been reported in small retrospective series with
      different outcome. Finally, some selected patients with mild and occasional
      peripheral chondritis might justify a treatment with colchicine or a therapeutic
      abstention with occasional short-term corticosteroids therapy.

PMID- 28890263
TI  - [Secondary thrombotic microangiopathies].
AB  - Thrombotic microangiopathies (TMA) are termed secondary when associated to a
      specific context favouring their occurrence. They encompass mainly TMA associated
      with pregnancy, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, cancer,
      drugs, or HIV infection. Secondary TMA represent a heterogeneous group of
      diseases which clinical presentation largely depends on the associated context.
      It is therefore mandatory to recognize these conditions since they have a
      significant impact in TMA management and prognosis. A successful management still
      represents a challenge in secondary TMA. Significant progresses have been made in
      the understanding of pregnancy-associated TMA, allowing an improvement of
      prognosis; on the opposite, other forms of secondary TMA such as hematopoietic
      stem cell transplantation-associated TMA or TMA associated with chemotherapy
      remain of dismal prognosis. A better understanding of pathophysiology in these
      forms of TMA, 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- 28890264
TI  - Breastfeeding Is Associated With Higher Retention in WIC After Age 1.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Examine factors associated with retention on the Special Supplemental
      Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) after 1 year of age.
      SETTING: A large California WIC program. PARTICIPANTS: WIC participants 14 months
      old (9,632) between July and September, 2016. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:
      Recertification in WIC by 14 months of age. ANALYSIS: Multivariate logistic
      regression was performed and odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)
      were computed to examine factors associated with child retention in WIC at age 14
      months. RESULTS: Mothers performing any amount of breastfeeding from 6 to 12
      months were more likely than mothers not breastfeeding to recertify their
      children in WIC at age 14 months. The odds of retention for children fully
      breastfed from 6 to 12 months was about 3 times higher than for fully formula-fed
      children (95% CI, 2.46-3.59). The odds of retention for mostly breastfed children
      and children fed some breast milk but mostly formula were 1.95 (95% CI, 1.57
      2.43) and 1.72 (95% CI, 1.41-2.10) times higher than fully formula-fed children.
      Prenatal intention to breastfeed (OR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.16-1.55), online education
      (OR = 1.08; 95% CI, 1.03-1.13), missing benefits (OR = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.17-0.21),
      underredemption of WIC benefits (OR = 0.51, 95% CI, 0.45-0.58), early enrollment
      in WIC (OR = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.09-1.14), number of family members receiving WIC (OR
      = 1.29, 95% CI, 1.14-1.46), English language preference (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.47
      0.64), and participation in Medicaid (OR = 1.29; 95% CI, 1.14-1.47) were also
      associated with retention. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Results from this study
      suggested there are a number of areas WIC programs may target to promote ongoing
      participation in the program. These include support for both breastfeeding and
      non-breastfeeding women, technology-based strategies, and targeted outreach to
      pregnant women, participants who have missed benefits, and participants who have
      not redeemed their benefits. Research that examines the impact of targeted
      interventions directed at >=1 of these areas is essential to help WIC programs
      maintain contact with children into early childhood.

PMID- 28890265
TI  - Branding a School-Based Campaign Combining Healthy Eating and Eco-friendliness.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To develop a branding strategy for a campaign to improve the quality
      of foods children bring from home to school, using a combined healthy eating and
      eco-friendly approach and for a control campaign focusing solely on nutrition.
      METHODS: Formative research was conducted with third- and fourth-grade students
      in lower- and middle-income schools in Greater Boston and their parents. Phase I
      included concept development focus groups. Phase II included concept testing
      focus groups. A thematic analysis approach was used to identify key themes.
      RESULTS: In phase I, the combined nutrition and eco-friendly messages resonated;
      child preference emerged as a key factor affecting food from home. In phase II,
      key themes included fun with food and an element of mystery. Themes were
      translated into a concept featuring food face characters. CONCLUSIONS AND
      IMPLICATIONS: Iterative formative research provided information necessary to
      create a brand that appealed to a specified target audience.

PMID- 28890266
TI  - In-line coupling of supported liquid membrane extraction to capillary
      electrophoresis for simultaneous analysis of basic and acidic drugs in urine.
AB  - Simultaneous extraction of basic and acidic drugs across thin supported liquid
      membrane (SLM) and direct injection of the extracted drugs from SLM surface into
      capillary electrophoresis (CE) were demonstrated. A microextraction device
      compatible with injection system of commercial CE instrument was filled with
      20MUL of sample and 10MUL of acceptor solution, which were interspaced by the SLM
      impregnated with 5MUL of organic solvent. Extractions of three basic drugs
      (nortriptyline, haloperidol and loperamide) and two acidic drugs (ketoprofen and
      naproxen) were achieved at optimized conditions including 1-ethyl-2-nitrobenzene
      as SLM solvent, natural pH of sample solution, 2.5mM NaOH acceptor solution and
      30min extraction time. The extracted drugs were directly injected into CE for
      separation and quantification in a background electrolyte solution consisting of
      30mM ammonium acetate adjusted to pH 4.2 with acetic acid. The entire analytical
      procedure including drugs extraction, injection, separation and quantification
      was automated in the CE instrument and the only manual procedures were SLM
      impregnation and filling the microextraction device with sample and acceptor
      solutions. The analytical method was suitable for simultaneous determination of
      basic and acidic drugs in undiluted human urine samples and was used for direct
      determination of naproxen in urine after oral administration of Nalgesin S
      tablet. Efficient elimination of sample matrix and selective transfer of basic
      and acidic drugs were achieved and the hyphenated SLM-CE method was characterized
      by repeatability of peak areas ranging from 3.7 to 13.4%, linear relationship
      between peak areas and concentrations (r2=0.994-0.999) and limits of detection
      between 0.05 and 1.5MUg/mL.

PMID- 28890267
TI  - Analysis of underivatised low volatility compounds by comprehensive two
      dimensional gas chromatography with a short primary column.
AB  - Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC*GC) approaches with
      cryogenic modulation were developed for the qualitative analysis of selected low
      volatility compounds in raw coffee bean extracts, without derivatisation. The
      approaches employed short first (1D) and second (2D) dimension columns,
      specifically a 1D 65% phenyl methyl siloxane column (11m) and a 2D 5% phenyl
      methyl siloxane column (1m), which allowed elution of high molar mass compounds
      (e.g.>600Da). Solutes included hydrocarbons, fatty acids, diterpenes,
      tocopherols, sterols, diterpene esters, and di- and triacylglycerides. An oven
      temperature program up to 370 degrees C was employed. The effects of experimental
      conditions were investigated, revealing that the GC*GC results strongly depended
      on the cryogenic trap T, and oven T program. An appropriate condition was
      selected and further applied for group type analysis of low volatility compounds
      in green Arabica coffee beans. Retention indices were compiled for 1D GC analysis
      and were similar for the composite column data in GC*GC. The elution of some
      compounds was confirmed by use of authentic standards. The approach allowed
      direct analysis of coffee extract in ethyl acetate solution, with improved
      analyte peak capacity (approximately 200 compounds were detected) without prior
      fractionation or pre-treatment of the sample. This avoided potential hydrolysis
      of high molar mass conjugate esters as well as degradation of thermally labile
      compounds such as the derivatives of the diterpenes cafestol and kahweol.

PMID- 28890268
TI  - Acylhydrazone bond dynamic covalent polymer gel monolithic column online coupling
      to high-performance liquid chromatography for analysis of sulfonamides and
      fluorescent whitening agents in food.
AB  - A new dynamic covalent polymer (DCP) gel was well designed and constructed based
      on imine chemistry. Polycondensation of 4,4'-biphenyldicarboxaldehyde and 1,3,5
      benzenetricarbohydrazide via Schiff-base reaction resulted in an acylhydrazone
      bond gel (AB-gel) DCP. AB-gel DCP had three-dimensional network of interconnected
      nanoparticles with hierarchically porous structure. AB-gel DCP was successfully
      fabricated as a monolithic column by an in-situ chemical bonding method for
      online enrichment and separation purpose with excellent permeability. AB-gel DCP
      based monolithic column showed remarkable adsorption affinity towards target
      analytes including sulfonamides (SAs) and fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) due
      to its strong pi-pi affinity, hydrophobic effect and hydrogen bonding
      interaction. Then, AB-gel DCP based monolithic column was applied for online
      separation and analysis of trace SAs and FWAs in food samples coupled with high
      performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Sulfathiazole (ST) and sulfadimidine
      (SM2) in one positive weever sample were actually found and determined with
      concentrations of 273.8 and 286.3MUg/kg, respectively. 2,5-Bis(5-tert-butyl-2
      benzoxazolyl) thiophene (FWA184) was actually quantified in one tea infusion
      sample with the concentration of 268.5ng/L. The spiked experiments suggested the
      good recoveries in range of 74.5-110% for SAs in weever and shrimp samples with
      relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 9.7% and in range of 74.0-113% for
      FWAs in milk and tea infusion samples with RSDs less than 9.0%. AB-gel DCP
      monolithic column was proved to be a promising sample preparation medium for
      online separation and analysis of trace analytes in food samples with complex
      matrices.

PMID- 28890269
TI  - Characterization and purification of anthocyanins from black peanut (Arachis
      hypogaea L.) skin by combined column chromatography.
AB  - Black peanut skins as a byproduct from peanut industry contain abundant
      anthocyanins, evaluated as 8.61+/-0.27mg/g dry black peanut skins, are currently
      poorly exploited. In this work, four anthocyanins and three major flavonols were
      detected and identified by HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS from the acidified water extract of
      black peanut skins of Arachis hypogaea L. After preliminary removal of flavonols
      by ethyl acetate (EtOAc), further purification of the anthocyanins was conducted
      using a combination of Amberlite XAD-7HP and ODS-AQ-HG column chromatography
      methods. Two most abundant monomeric anthocyanins cyanidin-3-O-sophoroside
      (5.77+/-0.42mg) and cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside (4.10+/-0.17mg) were eventually
      obtained from 2g dry black peanut skins, and their purities were determined by
      HPLC-PDA as 97.29% and 98.28% at the yields of 87.47% and 64.27% on the basis of
      their total amount in the crude extracts, respectively. These sequential
      treatments can be easily adapted to large-scale fractionation of pure anthocyanin
      monomers.

PMID- 28890270
TI  - Solid-phase extraction of the alcohol abuse biomarker phosphatidylethanol using
      newly synthesized polymeric sorbent materials containing quaternary heterocyclic
      groups.
AB  - Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is an interesting biomarker finding increased use for
      detecting long term alcohol abuse with high specificity and sensitivity. Prior to
      detection, sample preparation is an unavoidable step in the work-flow of PEth
      analysis and new protocols may facilitate it. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is a
      versatile sample preparation method widely spread in biomedical laboratories due
      to its simplicity of use and the possibility of automation. In this work, SPE was
      used for the first time to directly extract PEth from spiked human plasma and
      spiked human blood. A library of polymeric SPE materials with different surface
      functionalities was screened for PEth extraction in order to identify the surface
      characteristics that control PEth retention and recovery. The plasma samples were
      diluted 1:10 (v/v) in water and spiked at different concentrations ranging from
      0.3 to 5MUM. The library of SPE materials was then evaluated using the proposed
      SPE method and detection was done by LC-MS/MS. One SPE material efficiently
      retained and recovered PEth from spiked human plasma. With this insight, four new
      SPE materials were formulated and synthesized based on the surface
      characteristics of the best SPE material found in the first screening. These new
      materials were tested with spiked human blood, to better mimic a real clinical
      sample. All the newly synthetized materials outperformed the pre-existing
      commercially available materials. Recovery values for the new SPE materials were
      found between 29.5% and 48.6% for the extraction of PEth in spiked blood. A
      material based on quaternized 1-vinylimidazole with a poly(trimethylolpropane
      trimethacrylate) backbone was found suitable for PEth extraction in spiked blood
      showing the highest analyte recovery in this experiment, 48.6%+/-6.4%.

PMID- 28890271
TI  - The parathyroid hormone 2 receptor participates in physiological and behavioral
      alterations of mother mice.

PMID- 28890273
TI  - The association of weight loss with one-year mortality in hospital patients,
      stratified by BMI and FFMI subgroups.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN)
      has recently published consensus-based criteria for the diagnosis of
      malnutrition; in subjects identified at nutritional risk the diagnosis is
      confirmed by either BMI <18.5 kg/m2 or weight loss in combination with low BMI or
      low FFMI. Concerns have been raised whether this definition correctly classifies
      malnutrition in patients with normal weight or overweight and concomitant weight
      loss. Therefore, the aim of this research is to assess the association between
      weight loss and one-year mortality in hospitalized patients, stratified by BMI
      and FFMI subgroups. METHODS: This prospective study included 769 patients
      admitted to the VU University Medical Center. Critical weight loss (CWL) was
      defined as >5% weight loss in the previous month or >10% weight loss in the
      previous six months. The association between CWL and one-year mortality was
      analyzed with a priori stratification by BMI cut-off values (</>=20.0 kg/m2 for
      patients <70 years and </>=22.0 kg/m2 for patients >=70 years) and FFMI cut-off
      values (derived from BIA measurements, </>=15 kg/m2 for females and </>=17 kg/m2
      for males). Mortality risks were calculated (HR, 95% CI). RESULTS: CWL occurred
      in 35% of patients and was associated with an increased one-year mortality rate
      vs. no-CWL (25% vs. 15%, p = 0.001), HR for mortality risk 1.76 (1.26-2.45)). CWL
      + low FFMI was associated with higher mortality risk (HR 1.95 (1.20-3.17),
      whereas CWL + normal FFMI was not (HR 1.37 (0.85-2.21)). Among patients with
      normal/high BMI, those with CWL had a significantly higher mortality risk
      compared to those without critical weight loss, however additionally adding FFMI
      to that model showed that a low FFMI was crucial in the observed association with
      mortality (CWL + normal BMI + low FFMI, HR 2.69 (1.29-5.65); CWL + normal BMI +
      normal FFMI, HR 1.38 (0.84-2.27)). CONCLUSION: - Patients with critical weight
      loss have a higher one-year mortality compared to patients with no critical
      weight loss. FFMI seems to play a crucial role in this association, as normal
      weight patients with normal FFMI had lower mortality rates than their
      counterparts with low FFMI.

PMID- 28890272
TI  - A comparison of bite size and BMI in a cafeteria setting.
AB  - Our study investigated the relationship between BMI and bite size in a cafeteria
      setting. Two hundred and seventy one participants consumed one meal each.
      Participants were free to select any food provided by the cafeteria and could
      return for additional food as desired. Bite weights were measured with a table
      embedded scale. Data were analyzed with ANOVAs, regressions, Kolmogorov-Smirnov
      tests, and a repeated measures general linear model for quartile analysis. Obese
      participants were found to take larger bites than both normal (p=0.002) and
      overweight participants (p=0.017). Average bite size increased by 0.20g per point
      increase in BMI. Food bites and drink bites were analyzed individually, showing
      0.11g/BMI and 0.23g/BMI slopes, respectively. Quartiles of bites were also
      analyzed, and a significant interaction was found between normal and obese
      participants (p=0.034) such that the lower two quartiles were similar, but the
      upper two quartiles showed an increase in bite size for obese participants. The
      source of these effects could be the result of a combination of several
      uncontrolled factors.

PMID- 28890274
TI  - Serum magnesium concentrations and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer
      mortality among U.S. adults: Results from the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the associations of serum magnesium (Mg)
      concentrations with total and cause-specific mortality in a nationally
      representative sample of US adults. We investigate the dose-response
      relationships of baseline serum Mg concentrations with risk of mortalities in a
      large, nationally representative sample of US adults. METHODS: We analyzed
      prospective data of 14,353 participants aged 25-74 years with measures of serum
      Mg concentrations at baseline (1971-1975) from the National Health and Nutrition
      Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHEFS). Mortality data was
      linked through December 31, 2011. We estimated the mortality hazard ratios (HRs),
      for participants within serum Mg categories of <0.7, 0.7-0.74, 0.75-0.79, 0.8
      0.89 (referent), 0.9-0.94, 0.95-0.99, and >=1.0 mmol/L using weighted
      multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: During a median
      follow-up of 28.6 years, 9012 deaths occurred, including 3959 CVD deaths, 1923
      cancer deaths, and 708 stroke deaths. The multivariate-adjusted HRs (95% CIs) of
      all-cause mortality across increasing categories of Mg were 1.34 (1.02, 1.77),
      0.94 (0.75, 1.18), 1.08 (0.97, 1.19), 1.00 (referent), 1.05 (0.95, 1.16), 0.96
      (0.79, 1.15), and 0.98 (0.76, 1.26). Similar trends were observed for cancer (HRs
      for serum Mg < 0.7: 1.39, 95% CI: 0.83, 2.32) and CVD mortality (HRs for serum Mg
      < 0.7: 1.28, 95% CI: 0.81, 2.02) but were not statistically significant. An
      elevated risk for stroke mortality was observed among participants with serum Mg
      < 0.70 mmol/L (HR: 2.55, 95% CI: 1.18, 5.48). CONCLUSIONS: Very low serum Mg
      concentrations were significantly associated with an increased risk of all-cause
      mortality in US adults.

PMID- 28890275
TI  - Enhanced referral prioritisation for acute adult dietetic services: A randomised
      control trial to test a web-based decision training tool.
AB  - BACKGROUND & AIMS: Dietitians in acute adult services need to prioritise dietetic
      referrals in order to manage their daily workload and ensure effective treatment
      of patients. Newly qualified dietitians do not usually receive specific training
      on prioritisation and could be helped with an evidence-based, effective, decision
      training tool that is based on the practice of experienced dietitians. We
      developed an internationally available web-based decision-training tool designed
      to improve novice dietitians' ability to make dietetic prioritisation decisions.
      The training tool comprised of a pre-training task, a post-training task and
      training materials. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of the
      training tool on novices' ability for dietetic prioritisation. METHODS: Pre
      registration dietitians and recent graduates (one-year) from across the UK were
      invited to participate in this randomised controlled trial (RCT). Each
      participant made prioritisation decisions on a set of dietetic referral
      scenarios: 53 scenarios at pre-training and 27 at post-training. After pre
      training the intervention group was presented with the training materials,
      whereas the control group was told to carry on with the post-training task.
      Participants did not know which group they had been randomly allocated to. We
      calculated i) level of agreement between decisions made by each novice and
      experts' consensus using Pearson correlation, intra-class correlation (ICC(2,1));
      ii) intra-rater consistency using ICC(1,1) and iii) intra-group consistency using
      ICC (2,1). We compared group means at pre-training and post-training; estimated
      effect size using the degree of change from pre- to post-training, and 2-factor
      mixed ANOVA to assess overall effect of the training across the groups and time
      points. RESULTS: 151 participants (69 in control and 82 in intervention)
      completed the trial. The groups did not differ in demographic characteristics.
      Both Pearson and ICC(2,1) correlations increased with training intervention; a
      moderate effect of training was found for both metrics, d = 0.69 (r = 0.32) for
      the former and d = 0.54 (r = 0.26) for the latter. Intra-rater consistency
      improved with training but with a small effect size, d = 0.32 (r = 0.16). The
      intra-group consistency also improved with training: ICC = 0.48 pre-training to
      0.61 post-training. CONCLUSIONS: The training tool was found to be effective in
      improving the novice dietitian's ability to prioritise referrals in the acute
      adult setting. The training tool is freely available at www.dietitianreferral.org
      for use by all student or early career dietitians internationally.

PMID- 28890276
TI  - The pressures of obesity: The relationship between obesity, malnutrition and
      pressure injuries in hospital inpatients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pressure injuries (PI) are a significant clinical problem across all
      healthcare facilities, associated with poor patient outcomes, increased length of
      stay and healthcare costs. Whilst it is known that underweight (Body Mass Index
      (BMI) < 18.5 kg/m2) and malnourished individuals have an increased risk of
      developing PI, few studies have investigated the effects of obesity (BMI >= 30
      kg/m2) and morbid obesity (BMI >= 40 kg/m2) on PI prevalence. This study aimed to
      determine whether PI prevalence was associated with levels of obesity; the
      complex association between morbid obesity, malnutrition and PI prevalence in
      hospital inpatients was also explored. METHODS: Data collected from annual
      Queensland Patient Safety Bedside Audits conducted between 2010 and 2015 was used
      to examine the outcomes of interest (n = 2479). Bivariate tests were used to
      explore relationships between age, gender, BMI, malnutrition and PI prevalence.
      Regression analysis explored associations between BMI, malnutrition and PI,
      adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Overall PI prevalence was 6.9% and
      was significantly higher in the underweight and morbidly obese groups
      (underweight 12.7%, healthy weight 7.8%, overweight 5.7%, obese 4.8%, morbidly
      obese 12%; p = 0.001). In addition to BMI, malnutrition and age were
      significantly associated with PI prevalence. After adjusting for confounders,
      morbidly obese inpatients had over three times the odds of developing a PI
      compared to healthy weight inpatients (OR = 3.478, 95% CI 1.657-7.303; p =
      0.001). Morbidly obese inpatients who were also malnourished had eleven-fold
      greater odds of developing a PI compared to the morbidly obese well-nourished in
      logistic regression analysis (OR = 11.143, 95% CI 2.279-54.481, p = 0.003).
      CONCLUSIONS: Morbid obesity is a significant and independent risk factor for PI
      development. However, the clustering of nutritional risk factors (morbid obesity
      and malnutrition) substantially increases this risk. Therefore, routine and
      formal assessment of both BMI and malnutrition status are important to enable the
      identification of patients at high risk of PI.

PMID- 28890277
TI  - [Prenatal diagnosis of abdominal wall defects].
AB  - Anterior abdominal wall defects (AAWD) correspond to a wide spectrum of
      congenital defects affecting 6.3/10,000 pregnancies. They have in common a
      closure defect of the anterior abdominal wall and can be fatal or expose the
      fetus and the neonate (NN) to many complications. This study was based on a
      retrospective study of 22 cases of AAWD collected between May 2009 and December
      2014. Its purpose was to specify the importance of prenatal ultrasonography in
      the diagnosis and prognosis assessment of these defects. These 22 AAWDs consisted
      in 13 cases of omphalocele (including four cases of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome),
      four of gastroschisis, one of pentalogy of Cantrell, three of vesical exstrophy
      and one of cloacal exstrophy. Prenatal ultrasonography provided the diagnosis of
      14 of these defects with a changing sensitivity with the gestational age varying
      from 17% in the first trimester to 71.4% and 77.8% in the second and third
      trimesters, respectively. The relevance of this examination was improved when
      performed by an imaging specialist. The prenatal diagnosis of these defects
      indicated an amniocentesis in eight cases, allowing the diagnosis of two cases of
      trisomy 18. It also motivated a therapeutic termination of the pregnancy (TTP) in
      ten cases. Prenatal ultrasonography allowed better prenatal follow-up and
      planning of the delivery of the continued pregnancies. It indicated an emergency
      C-section in only one case by showing intestinal complications of gastroschisis.
      Four NNs died (two cases of omphalocele and two of gastroschisis), three of which
      postoperatively and the prenatal diagnosis did not improve survival. Prenatal
      ultrasonographic diagnosis provided a precise morphological study determining the
      type of the AAWD, a complete malformation assessment, and the prognosis factors.
      This resulted in adequate multidisciplinary pre and postnatal care, including a
      rigorous ultrasound follow-up, a TTP in case of associated defects, and emergency
      delivery once the complications of poor diagnosis are detected.

PMID- 28890278
TI  - Comments on 'Management of parturients with Factor XI deficiency - 10 year case
      series and review of the literature'.

PMID- 28890279
TI  - EBCOG position statement on caesarean section in Europe.

PMID- 28890280
TI  - Psychometric properties of a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies
      Depression (CES-D-10) scale for screening depressive symptoms in healthy
      community dwelling older adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The 10-item Center for the Epidemiological Studies of Depression
      Short Form (CES-D-10) is a widely used self-report measure of depression
      symptomatology. The aim of this study is to investigate the psychometric
      properties of the CES-D-10 in healthy community dwelling older adults. METHODS:
      The sample consists of 19,114 community-based individuals residing in Australia
      and the United States who participated in the ASPREE trial baseline assessment.
      All individuals were free of any major illness at the time. We evaluated
      construct validity by performing confirmatory factor analysis, examined
      measurement invariance across country and gender followed by evaluating item
      discrimination bias in age, gender, race, ethnicity and education level, and
      assessing internal consistency. RESULTS: High item-total correlations and
      Cronbach's alpha indicated high internal consistency. The factor analyses
      suggested a unidimensional factor structure. Construct validity was supported in
      the overall sample, and by country and gender sub-groups. The CES-D-10 was
      invariant across countries, and although evidence of marginal gender non
      invariance was observed there was no evidence of notable gender specific item
      discrimination bias. No notable differences in discrimination parameters or group
      membership measurement non-invariance were detected by gender, age, race,
      ethnicity, and education level. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest the CES-D-10
      is a reliable and valid measure of depression in a volunteer sample. No
      noteworthy evidence of invariance and/or item discrimination bias is observed
      across gender, age, race, language and ethnic groups.

PMID- 28890281
TI  - Participation in a US community-based cardiovascular health study: investigating
      nonrandom selection effects related to employment, perceived stress, work-related
      stress, and family caregiving.
AB  - PURPOSE: Participation in health studies may be inversely associated with
      employment and stress. We investigated whether employment, perceived stress, work
      related stress, and family caregiving were related to participation in a
      longitudinal US community-based health study of black and white men and women
      aged >=45 years. METHODS: Prevalence ratios and confidence intervals were
      estimated for completion of the second stage (S2) of a two-stage enrollment
      process by employment (status, type), and stress (perceived stress, work-related
      stress, caregiving), adjusting for age, sex, race, region, income, and education.
      Eligibility and consent for a follow-up occupational survey were similarly
      evaluated. RESULTS: Wage- but not self-employed participants were less likely
      than the unemployed to complete S2. Among the employed, S2 completion did not
      vary by stress; however, family caregivers with a short time burden of care (<2
      hour/d) were more likely to complete S2, compared to noncaregivers. Eligibility
      and participation in the follow-up occupational survey were higher among those
      employed (vs. unemployed) at enrollment but were not associated with enrollment
      stress levels. CONCLUSIONS: Limited evidence of selection bias was seen by
      employment and stress within a large US community-based cohort, but findings
      suggest the need for enrollment procedures to consider possible barriers to
      participation among wage-employed individuals.

PMID- 28890282
TI  - Opioid dosing trends over eight years among US Veterans with musculoskeletal
      disorders after returning from service in support of recent conflicts.
AB  - PURPOSE: To examine long-term opioid dosing trends among Veterans with chronic
      pain. METHODS: We identified 79,015 Veterans with musculoskeletal disorders who
      were dispensed greater than or equal to 1 opioid prescriptions between 2002 and
      2009 after returning from recent conflicts. Opioid-dosing trends were examined
      using a generalized estimating equation while accounting for patient
      characteristics, temporal and geographic confounding. RESULTS: In total, 472,819
      opioid prescriptions were dispensed (mean +/- standard deviation: 6.0 +/- 10.1
      per Veteran). Both average daily morphine equivalents (MEs/d) and the proportion
      of high-dose prescribing (greater than 100 ME/d) increased from baseline period
      (2002-2004) to 2006, then remained relatively stable. Veterans with extended
      persistent (greater than or equal to 40 days over 1-2 episodes) and extended
      intermittent (greater than or equal to 40 days over greater than or equal to
      three episodes) dispensing patterns received more high-dose prescriptions than
      those dispensed prescriptions less than 40 days, with adjusted odds ratios (95%
      confidence interval) of 7.2 (6.0-8.8) and 3.6 (3.0-4.3), respectively.
      Posttraumatic stress disorder and other mental health diagnoses were associated
      with 30% increased odds of high-dose prescribing. CONCLUSIONS: The average daily
      dose of opioid prescriptions and the likelihood of high-dose prescribing to these
      Veterans appeared to increase from 2002 to 2006, then remained relatively stable
      through 2009. Veterans on opioid prescriptions for extended duration or with
      mental health diagnoses tend to receive higher dose therapy.

PMID- 28890283
TI  - Factors affecting workforce participation and healthy worker biases in U.S. women
      and men.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate potential attenuation of healthy worker biases in
      populations in which healthy women of reproductive age opt out of the workforce
      to provide childcare. METHODS: We used 2013-2015 data from 120,928 U.S. women and
      men aged 22-44 years participating in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. We
      used logistic regression to estimate adjusted prevalence odds ratios (PORs) and
      95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between health and workforce
      nonparticipation. RESULTS: Women and men reporting poor health were more likely
      to be out of the workforce than individuals reporting excellent health (POR: 3.7,
      95% CI: 3.2-4.2; POR: 6.7, 95% CI: 5.7-7.8, respectively), suggesting potential
      for healthy worker bias. For women (P < .001) but not men (P = .30), the strength
      of this association was modified by number of children in the home: POR: 7.3 (95%
      CI: 5.8-9.1) for women with no children, decreasing to POR: 0.9 (95% CI: 0.6-1.5)
      for women with four or more children. CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent
      with attenuation of healthy worker biases when healthy women opt out of the
      workforce to provide childcare. Accordingly, we might expect the magnitude of
      these biases to vary with the proportion of women with differing numbers of
      children in the population.

PMID- 28890284
TI  - Activity-dependent changes in transporter and potassium currents in hippocampal
      astrocytes.
AB  - Astrocytes are involved in maintenance of synaptic microenvironment by glutamate
      uptake and K+ clearance. These processes are associated with net charge transfer
      across the membrane and therefore can be recorded as glutamate transporter
      (IGluT) and K+ (IK) currents. It has been previously shown that the blockade of
      IK with BaCl2 enhances the IGluT. Here we show that activity-dependent
      facilitation (5 stimuli at 50Hz) of IGluT was not significantly different in
      BaCl2 compared to facilitation of IGluT isolated by post-hoc subtraction of IK.
      Nevertheless, BaCl2 abolished the activity-dependent prolongation of taudecay,
      which was observed for IGluT isolated by post-hoc subtraction of IK. This finding
      suggests that activity-dependent accumulation of extracellular K+ ([K+]o) causes
      astrocytic depolarization, which is responsible for the increase in taudecay of
      IGluT. The blockade of inward rectifying K+ channels (Kir) with BaCl2 makes
      astrocytic membrane potential insensitive to [K+]o elevation and thus abolishes
      this increase. Blockade of IGluT with glutamate transporter blocker, DL-threo
      beta-benzyloxyaspartic acid (TBOA) did not significantly affect the amplitude of
      IK but decreased its taudecay. However, activity dependent facilitations of both
      amplitude and taudecay of IK were larger in TBOA, than in the control conditions.
      We suggest that activity-dependent accumulation of extracellular glutamate can
      enhance release of K+. Thus activity-dependent changes in [K+]o can affect
      glutamate dwell-time in the synaptic cleft, and vice versa, extracellular
      glutamate accumulation can affect [K+]o time-course. Our finding is important for
      understanding of the astrocytic mechanisms in glutamate excitotoxicity and in
      diseases related to disruption of K+ homeostasis (e.g. stroke, migraine, and
      epilepsy).

PMID- 28890285
TI  - Rate of Legionella pneumophila colonization in hospital hot water network after
      time flow taps installation.
AB  - In hospital water systems legionellae may be resistant to disinfectants in
      pipework, which is a problem particularly in areas where there is low flow or
      stagnation of water. We evaluated legionella colonization of a water network of
      an Italian hospital after time flow taps (TFTs) installation in proximity to dead
      legs. The water volume flushed was 64 L/day from May 2016, and 192 L/day from
      December 2016. Before TFTs installation, Legionella pneumophila sg2-14 was
      detected in all points (4 * 104 +/- 3.1 * 104 cfu/L). All sites remained positive
      (2.9 * 104 +/- 1.9 * 104 cfu/L) through November 2016. From December 2016
      legionella persisted in one point only (2 * 102 to 6.8 * 103 cfu/L). TFTs with
      chemical disinfection may reduce legionella colonization associated with dead
      legs.

PMID- 28890286
TI  - Processes of care in surgical patients who died with hospital-acquired infections
      in Australian hospitals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Infection may complicate surgical patients' hospital admission. The
      effect of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) on processes of care among surgical
      patients who died is unknown. AIM: To investigate the effect of HAIs on processes
      of care in surgical patients who died in hospital. METHODS: Surgeon-recorded
      infection data extracted from a national Australian surgical mortality audit
      (2012-2016) were grouped into HAIs and no infection. The audit included all-age
      surgical patients, who died in hospital. Not all patients had surgery. Excluded
      from analysis were patients with community-acquired infection and those with
      missing timing of infection. Multivariate logistic regression was used to
      determine the adjusted effects of HAIs on the processes of care in these
      patients. Costs associated with HAIs were estimated. FINDINGS: One-fifth of
      surgical patients who died did so with an HAI (2242 out of 11,681; 19.2%). HAI
      patients had increased processes of care compared to those who died without
      infection: postoperative complications [51.0% vs 30.3%; adjusted odds ratio
      (aOR): 2.20; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.98-2.45; P < 0.001]; unplanned
      reoperations (22.6% vs 10.9%; aOR: 2.38; 95% CI: 2.09-2.71; P < 0.001) and
      unplanned intensive care unit admission (29.3% vs 14.8%; aOR: 2.18; 95% CI: 1.94
      2.45; P < 0.001). HAI patients had longer hospital admissions and greater
      hospital costs than those without infection. CONCLUSION: HAIs were associated
      with increased processes of care and costs in surgical patients who died; these
      outcomes need to be investigated in surgical patients who survive.

PMID- 28890287
TI  - Assessing the burden of Clostridium difficile infections for hospitals.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nosocomial infections place a heavy burden on the healthcare system.
      However, quantifying the burden raises many questions, ranging from the way to
      accurately estimate the extra length of stay at hospital to defining and costing
      the preventive methods among the different care providers. AIM: To estimate the
      cost of nosocomial infection by C. difficile to inform the hospital managers.
      METHODS: Multi-state modelling based on Markov processes and bootstrapping was
      used to derive individual estimates of the prolongation of stay at hospital
      associated with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Indicators of cost for
      hospitals were then computed, including an estimation of the productivity losses
      derived from diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based payment systems. Patients were
      aged >=55 years, admitted in two hospital facilities in Lille, with and without
      an episode of CDI from January 1st, 2013 to September 15th, 2014. FINDINGS: A
      total of 52 episodes were screened during the study period. The estimated mean
      cost of CDI was approximately ?23,909 (SD: 17,458) for an extended length of
      hospital stay (N = 27). In the case of a reduced length of hospital stay (N =
      25), the mean cost was approximately ?-14,697 (SD: 16,936), which represents net
      savings for the hospitals. The main cost/savings driver was the productivity
      losses/gains resulting from the nosocomial infection. A sensitivity analysis
      showed that the main factor explaining the amount of costs or savings due to
      nosocomial infections was the length of the hospital stay. CONCLUSION: The notion
      of productivity gains in the case of deaths as a factor revealing the
      incompleteness of the payment systems is discussed, followed by the
      methodological issues associated with the statistical method used to control for
      temporality bias.

PMID- 28890288
TI  - NMR spectroscopy up to 35.2T using a series-connected hybrid magnet.
AB  - The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has brought to field a Series
      Connected Hybrid magnet for NMR spectroscopy. As a DC powered magnet it can be
      operated at fields up to 36.1T. The series connection between a superconducting
      outsert and a resistive insert dramatically minimizes the high frequency
      fluctuations of the magnetic field typically observed in purely resistive
      magnets. Current-density-grading among various resistive coils was used for
      improved field homogeneity. The 48mm magnet bore and 42mm outer diameter of the
      probes leaves limited space for conventional shims and consequently a combination
      of resistive and ferromagnetic shims are used. Field maps corrected for field
      instabilities were obtained and shimming achieved better than 1ppm homogeneity
      over a cylindrical volume of 1cm diameter and height. The magnetic field is
      regulated within 0.2ppm using an external 7Li lock sample doped with paramagnetic
      MnCl2. The improved field homogeneity and field regulation using a modified
      AVANCE NEO console enables NMR spectroscopy at 1H frequencies of 1.0, 1.2 and
      1.5GHz. NMR at 1.5GHz reflects a 50% increase in field strength above the highest
      superconducting magnets currently available. Three NMR probes have been
      constructed each equipped with an external lock rf coil for field regulation.
      Initial NMR results obtained from the SCH magnet using these probes illustrate
      the very exciting potential of ultra-high magnetic fields.

PMID- 28890289
TI  - The Myotonic Dystrophy Health Index: Italian validation of a disease-specific
      outcome measure.
AB  - The Myotonic Dystrophy Health Index (MDHI) is a disease-specific, self-reported
      outcome measure that assesses total disease burden and 17 areas of Myotonic
      Dystrophy type 1 (DM1) specific health. This study translated the MDHI into
      Italian and validated the instrument using a cohort of Italian DM1 patients.
      Italian DM1 patients were interviewed regarding the form and content of the
      instrument. Thirty-eight DM1 patients were subsequently recruited to test the
      reliability and concurrent validity of the instrument by serially completing the
      MDHI and a battery of clinical tests. Lastly, we determined the internal
      consistency of the Italian MDHI and each of its subscales. The internal
      consistency was excellent in the total Italian MDHI score and acceptable in all
      of its subscales; the test-retest reliability was high (intraclass correlation
      coefficient = 0.95); Italian MDHI total scores and subscales were associated with
      neuromuscular function, cognitive and social health, respiratory function, and
      quality of life. Overall, the Italian MDHI is valid and well suited to measure
      the multi-dimensional aspects of disease burden in Myotonic Dystrophy clinical
      trials.

PMID- 28890290
TI  - The role of long non-coding RNA H19 in musculoskeletal system: A new player in an
      old game.
AB  - The long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have gained much attention due to its
      essential roles in molecular regulation. As one of the classic lncRNAs, H19 is
      strongly expressed during embryogenesis and plays a crucial biological function
      during development. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an ideal cell source for
      tissue engineering in musculoskeletal system as they own the multi
      differentiation ability towards osteogenesis, adipogenesis, tenogenesis or
      chondrogenesis. In recent years, many studies have been found in the field of H19
      mediated cellular differentiation of MSCs. Here, we summarized the current
      understanding of H19 during multi-differentiation of MSCs and its application in
      tissue regeneration of musculoskeletal system. Particularly, its molecular
      regulation and biological function during the multi-differentiation were also
      discussed.

PMID- 28890291
TI  - MiR-122 inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinoma by
      targeting Snail1 and Snail2 and suppressing WNT/beta-cadherin signaling pathway.
AB  - The downregulation of microRNA-122 (miR-122) had been reported to be associated
      with tumor invasion and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However,
      the underlying mechanisms of miR-122 involved in epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) still need to be investigated. In the study, we demonstrated
      that miR-122 was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues compared with
      adjacent normal tissues. MiR-122 expression was closely correlated with tumor
      size, vascular invasion and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage of
      HCC patients. Kaplan-Meier survival curve and log rank test demonstrated that
      lower miR-122 predicted poor Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival
      (OS) time in patients. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis confirmed that
      tumor size, vascular invasion, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage
      and lower miR-122 expression levels were independent risk factors for DFS or OS
      in HCC patients. Function assays demonstrated that upregulation of miR-122
      inhibited the cell proliferation, colony formation and cell invasion in HCC
      cells, however, downregulation of miR-122 promoted cell proliferation, colony
      formation and cell invasion in HCC cells. Moreover, we demonstrated that
      increased miR-122 expression levels in HCC cells inhibited epithelial-mesenchymal
      transition (EMT) by suppressing the expression of ZEB1/2, Snail1/2, N-cadherin,
      Vimentin and upregulating the E-cadherin expression. However, downregulation of
      miR-122 caused an opposite effects. Mechanisms study found that miR-122
      overexpression inhibited the EMT process by targeting Snail1 and Snail2 and
      regulated their expression levels in HCC cells. In addition, we also revealed
      that upregulated miR-122 expression suppressed the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling
      pathway. Taken together, our results indicated that miR-122 may be a biomarker
      for predicting prognosis of HCC and therapeutic target for HCC patients.

PMID- 28890292
TI  - SAHA-induced TRAIL-sensitisation of Multiple Myeloma cells is enhanced in 3D cell
      culture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multiple Myeloma (MM) is currently incurable despite many novel
      therapies. Tumour Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) is a
      potential anti-tumour agent although effects as a single agent are limited. In
      this study, we investigated whether the Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor SAHA
      can enhance TRAIL-induced apoptosis and target TRAIL resistance in both
      suspension culture, and 3D cell culture as a model of disseminated MM lesions
      that form in bone. METHODS: The effects of SAHA and/or TRAIL in 6 Multiple
      Myeloma cell lines were assessed in both suspension cultures and in an Alginate
      based 3D cell culture model. The effect of SAHA and/or TRAIL was assessed on
      apoptosis by assessment of nuclear morphology using Hoechst 33342/Propidium
      Iodide staining. Viable cell number was assessed by CellTiter-Glo luminescence
      assay, Caspase-8 and -9 activities were measured by Caspase-GloTM assay kit.
      TRAIL-resistant cells were generated by culture of RPMI 8226 and NCI-H929 by
      acute exposure to TRAIL followed by selection of TRAIL-resistant cells. RESULTS:
      TRAIL significantly induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner in OPM-2, RPMI
      8226, NCI-H929, U266, JJN-3 MM cell lines and ADC-1 plasma cell leukaemia cells.
      SAHA amplified TRAIL responses in all lines except OPM-2, and enhanced TRAIL
      responses were both via Caspase-8 and -9. SAHA treatment induced growth
      inhibition that further increased in the combination treatment with TRAIL in MM
      cells. The co-treatment of TRAIL and SAHA reduced viable cell numbers all cell
      lines. TRAIL responses were further potentiated by SAHA in 3D cell culture in NCI
      H929, RPMI 8226 and U266 at lower TRAIL + SAHA doses than in suspension culture.
      However TRAIL responses in cells that had been selected for TRAIL resistance were
      not further enhanced by SAHA treatment. CONCLUSIONS: SAHA is a potent sensitizer
      of TRAIL responses in both TRAIL sensitive and resistant cell lines, in both
      suspension and 3D culture, however SAHA did not sensitise TRAIL-sensitive cell
      populations that had been selected for TRAIL-resistance from initially TRAIL
      sensitive populations. SAHA may increase TRAIL sensitivity in insensitive cells,
      but not in cells that have specifically been selected for acquired TRAIL
      resistance.

PMID- 28890293
TI  - Epidermal barrier reaction to an in vitro psoriatic microenvironment.
AB  - Keratinocytes (KCs) and Langerhans cells (LCs) contribute to create the epidermal
      barrier. To form a functional epidermis, KCs express filaggrin and Toll-like
      Receptors (TLRs). LCs are the first line of epidermal defence and can be
      activated by interleukin (IL)-17 and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-alpha. In
      psoriasis, an alteration of TLR expression, a defective expression of filaggrin,
      and LC activation occur. In organotypic cultures of human skin we investigated
      the interplay between IL-17 and TNF-alpha on i) expression of filaggrin, TLR2, 7
      and 9, and Nuclear Factor (NF)-kB localization by immunofluorescence and ii) LC
      ultrastructural features by transmission electron microscopy. Normal human skin
      was obtained after aesthetic surgery (n=7), overnight incubated in a Transwell
      system, and exposed to TNF-alpha and/or IL-17 for 24 (T24), 48 (T48), and 72
      (T72) hours. Cytokines always influenced the expression of filaggrin. TNF-alpha
      alone activated LCs only starting from T48. TLR2 and TLR7 expressions were
      affected at T24 by IL-17 and the combination of cytokines, but not by TNF-alpha.
      TLR9-positive cells were detectable in the granular layer after cytokine
      exposure. A nuclear localization of NF-kB was always observed after cytokine
      incubation. In conclusion, each cytokine possess an intrinsic activity on the
      different components of the epidermal barrier.

PMID- 28890294
TI  - Analysis of non-small cell lung cancer microenvironment indicates preponderance
      of T cell exhaustion marker expression.
AB  - Lung cancer metastasis causes 70% of an estimated 1.4 million deaths per annum.
      The major shortcoming in lung cancer is the tendency to have inherent or develop
      acquired resistance to chemotherapy. It is now evolving that such resistance
      might develop due to differential contribution and interaction with tumor
      microenvironment, stromal cells, and the extracellular matrix. The objective of
      the current study was to define the lung cancer tumor microenvironment. We have
      identified multiple tumor-infiltrating T lymphocyte subsets in patients with lung
      cancer, which were independent of disease stage. Functional analysis indicated
      high expression of the inhibitory receptors, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated
      protein 4 (CTLA4), lymphocyte activated gene 3 (LAG3) and programmed cell death
      protein 1 (PD-1) in both CD4 and CD8 subsets, compared to non-malignant controls.
      Inhibitory receptors expressed by the tumor infiltrating T cells might mediate
      tolerance to tumor antigens with co-expression of these receptors exacerbating
      lung carcinogenesis and metastatic progression.

PMID- 28890295
TI  - Eribulin: an effective therapeutic option in liposarcoma.

PMID- 28890296
TI  - Thalidomide reduces chemotherapy-induced vomiting.

PMID- 28890297
TI  - E-cigarette use in young people in the UK.

PMID- 28890298
TI  - Use of cancer-related emergency departments.

PMID- 28890299
TI  - Comparison of fluticasone/formoterol with budesonide/formoterol pMDI in adults
      with moderate to severe persistent asthma: Results from a 12-week randomized
      controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Combination therapy of inhaled corticosteroid/long acting beta2
      agonist (ICS/LABA) is the cornerstone of managing asthmatics who are uncontrolled
      with low-medium dose of ICS. The novel ICS/LABA combination of fluticasone
      propionate and formoterol (flu/form) provides potent anti-inflammatory and rapid
      bronchodilatory effect. This randomized, multi-centre, double-blind study
      compared the efficacy and safety of flu/form (125/6 mcg BD; Maxiflo(r)) with the
      well-established budesonide/formoterol combination (bud/form 200/6 mcg BD), both
      delivered through a pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI) in patients with
      moderate to severe persistent asthma over 12 weeks. METHODS: This study enrolled
      patients between 18 and 65 years. The primary end-point was to demonstrate non
      inferiority for the mean change in the pre-dose morning peak expiratory flow
      values (PEF). The secondary end-points included lung function assessments, number
      of symptom-free days and nights, rescue medication use, day-and night-time
      symptom scores and safety evaluation. RESULTS: Two hundred and thirty-two
      patients were randomized to either flu/form (n = 117) or bud/form (n = 115). At
      the end of 12 weeks, flu/form was non-inferior to bud/form with regards to the
      primary end-point of morning PEF (48.07 L/min vs. 49.03 L/min, p > 0.05). These
      improvements were statistically significant (p < 0.0001) vs baseline. Similar
      improvements were observed between the two groups for secondary efficacy end
      points including FEV1, symptom-free nights, rescue medication use, day-and night
      time symptom scores (p > 0.05). Flu/form exhibited a safety profile comparable to
      that of bud/form. CONCLUSION: Fluticasone/formoterol combination administered
      through a pMDI is as efficacious and well-tolerated as budesonide/formoterol and
      offers a new therapeutic option for patients with moderate to severe persistent
      asthma.

PMID- 28890300
TI  - Tau positron emission tomography using [18F]THK5351 and cerebral glucose
      hypometabolism in Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - This study aims to evaluate the clinical validity of [18F]THK5351 positron
      emission tomography (PET) for the assessment of disease progression and symptoms
      in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Fifty-one patients with AD dementia, 30 patients
      with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and 43 controls with normal
      cognition (NC) were included. All subjects underwent [18F]THK5351 PET, 3.0-T
      magnetic resonance imaging, and detailed neuropsychological tests. Regions of
      interest and voxel-based statistical analyses were performed. In patients with AD
      dementia, [18F]THK5351 retention was greater in most association cortices as well
      as the limbic area compared to NC or aMCI participants. Patients with aMCI also
      showed higher THK5351 retention in those areas compared to NC. [18F]THK5351
      retention significantly correlated with neuropsychological test results. Negative
      correlations between [18F]THK5351 and [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose were observed in
      AD dementia and aMCI groups. Mirror images of [18F]THK5351 retention and glucose
      hypometabolism in [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose were noticeable in the focal variants
      of AD. [18F]THK5351 PET reflects disease severity and symptoms in AD. Our results
      suggest [18F]THK5351 is reflective of tau-related AD pathology.

PMID- 28890301
TI  - Antibody recognizing 4-sulfated chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans restores memory
      in tauopathy-induced neurodegeneration.
AB  - Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are the main active component of
      perineuronal nets (PNNs). Digestion of the glycosaminoglycan chains of CSPGs with
      chondroitinase ABC or transgenic attenuation of PNNs leads to prolongation of
      object recognition memory and activation of various forms of plasticity in the
      adult central nervous system. The inhibitory properties of the CSPGs depend on
      the pattern of sulfation of their glycosaminoglycans, with chondroitin 4-sulfate
      (C4S) being the most inhibitory form. In this study, we tested a number of
      candidates for functional blocking of C4S, leading to selection of an antibody,
      Cat316, which specifically recognizes C4S and blocks its inhibitory effects on
      axon growth. It also partly blocks binding of semaphorin 3A to PNNs and
      attenuates PNN formation. We asked whether injection of Cat316 into the
      perirhinal cortex would have the same effects on memory as chondroitinase ABC
      treatment. We found that masking C4S with the Cat316 antibody extended long-term
      object recognition memory in normal wild-type mice to 24 hours, similarly to
      chondroitinase or transgenic PNN attenuation. We then tested Cat316 for
      restoration of memory in a neurodegeneration model. Mice expressing tau with the
      P301S mutation showed profound loss of object recognition memory at 4 months of
      age. Injection of Cat316 into the perirhinal cortex normalized object recognition
      at 3 hours in P301S mice. These data indicate that Cat316 binding to C4S in the
      extracellular matrix can restore plasticity and memory in the same way as
      chondroitinase ABC digestion. Our results suggest that antibodies to C4S could be
      a useful therapeutic to restore memory function in neurodegenerative disorders.

PMID- 28890302
TI  - Ulna-humerus contact mechanics: Finite element analysis and experimental
      measurements using a tactile pressure sensor.
AB  - Elbow articular cartilage withstands high compressive and shear forces while
      protecting the bone from excessive loading. Better understanding of elbow
      cartilage contact mechanics can provide insight into cartilage degeneration. In
      this study a tactile pressure sensor was used to measure the contact pressure
      distribution within the ulno-humeral joint of two cadaver specimens at 20 degrees
      flexion angle across three different axial loads of 80 N, 110 N, and 140 N.
      Corresponding 3D finite element (FE) models were constructed from magnetic
      resonance imaging (MRI) and contact analysis was performed for each specimen with
      boundary and loading conditions identical to the experiment. Direct comparison
      between FE results and experimental measurements was conducted for the validation
      of the FE models and a sensitivity analysis was employed for assessing the effect
      of cartilage parameters on the model's outputs. The results showed a good
      agreement between the FE models and the experiments in terms of contact
      characteristics. The sensitivity analysis demonstrated that outcomes of the
      model, particularly peak contact pressure is more sensitive to the Poisson's
      ratio rather than to Young's modulus under static conditions. This result
      suggests that selection of Poisson's ratio is very critical for accurate
      prediction of contact mechanics within the ulno-humeral joint.

PMID- 28890303
TI  - A simulation framework for humeral head translations.
AB  - Humeral head translations (HHT) play a crucial role in the glenohumeral (GH)
      joint function. The available shoulder musculoskeletal models developed based on
      inverse dynamics however fall short of predicting the HHT. This study aims at
      developing a simulation framework that allows forward-dynamics simulation of a
      shoulder musculoskeletal model with a 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) GH joint. It
      provides a straightforward solution to the HHT prediction problem. We show that
      even within a forward-dynamics simulation addressing the HHT requires further
      information about the contact. To that end, a deformable articular contact is
      included in the framework defining the GH joint contact force in terms of the
      joint kinematics. An abduction motion in the scapula plane is simulated. The
      results are given in terms of HHT, GH joint contact force, contact areas, contact
      pressure, and cartilage strain. It predicts a superior-posterior translation of
      the humeral head followed by an inferior migration.

PMID- 28890304
TI  - Hemodynamic parameters that may predict false-lumen growth in type-B aortic
      dissection after endovascular repair: A preliminary study on long-term multiple
      follow-ups.
AB  - Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) is commonly applied in type-B aortic
      dissection. For patients with dissection affects descending aorta and extends
      downward to involve abdominal aorta and possibly iliac arteries, false lumen (FL)
      expansion might occur post-TEVAR. Predictions of dissection development may
      assist in medical decision on re-intervention or surgery. In this study, two
      patients are selected with similar morphological features at initial presentation
      but with different long-term FL development post-TEVAR (stable and enlarged FL).
      Patient-specific models are established for each of the follow-ups. Flow
      boundaries and computational validations are obtained from Doppler ultrasound
      velocimetry. By analyzing the hemodynamic parameters, the false-to-true luminal
      pressure difference (PDiff) and particle relative residence time (RRT) are found
      related to FL remodeling. It is found that (i) the position of the first FL flow
      entry is the watershed of negative-and-positive PDiff and, in long-term follow
      ups, and the position of largest PDiff is consistent with that of the greatest
      increase of FL width; (ii) high RRT occurs at the FL proximal tip and similar
      magnitude of RRT is found in both stable and enlarged cases; (iii) comparing to
      the RRT at 7days post-TEVAR, an increase of RRT afterwards in short-term is found
      in the stable case while a slight decrease of this parameter is found in the
      enlarged case, indicating that the variation of RRT in short-term post-TEVAR
      might be potential to predict long-term FL remodeling.

PMID- 28890305
TI  - Relationships between blood pressure and blood glucose among offspring of parents
      with type 2 diabetes: Prediction of incident dysglycemia in a biracial cohort.
AB  - AIMS: We assessed blood pressure (BP) and blood glucose (BG) values in healthy
      subjects, and examined baseline BP as a predictor of incident prediabetes during
      follow-up. METHODS: Participants in the Pathobiology of Prediabetes in a Biracial
      Cohort (POP-ABC) study underwent screening assessments (anthropometry, BP, OGTT)
      and were stratified into normal BP (NBP), prehypertension, or hypertension, and
      normal glucose regulation (NGR), prediabetes (IFG/IGT), or type 2 diabetes (T2D)
      status. NGR subjects who met all inclusion criteria were enrolled in a 5-yr
      prospective study, with the primary outcome of incident prediabetes. RESULTS: We
      screened 602 adults (341 black, 261 white) and enrolled 343 (193 black, 150
      white) for prospective follow-up. Systolic and diastolic BP correlated
      significantly with fasting and nonfasting BG (P=0.003-<0.0001). Compared to NGR
      group, more prediabetic subjects had prehypertension (42.5% vs. 36.2%) and fewer
      had NBP (35.9% vs. 48.6%) (P=0.009). During ~5years of follow-up, 26.3% of NBP
      and 35.7% of prehypertensive subjects developed prediabetes (P=0.02). Kaplan
      Meier analysis showed higher probability of incident prediabetes among
      participants with prehypertension compared to NBP during ~5years of follow-up
      (P=0.0012). CONCLUSIONS: In our biracial cohort, BP and BG values were
      significantly correlated, and BP status predicted incident prediabetes among
      initially normoglycemic individuals. These findings suggest co-evolution of
      factors involved in the dysregulation of BP and BG.

PMID- 28890306
TI  - Variants m.13276G>A in the MT-ND5 and m.8241T>G in the MT-CO2 gene are not
      responsible for maternally inherited diabetes and deafness.

PMID- 28890307
TI  - Are estrogens promoting immune modulation and islet protection in type 1
      diabetes?

PMID- 28890308
TI  - Left ventricular mass, geometry and function in diabetic patients affected by
      coronary artery disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is quite common among diabetic
      patients, our study goal is to detect the prevalence of left ventricular (LV)
      adverse changes in geometry, mass and diastolic function on diabetic, but not
      hypertensive patients, with coronary artery disease(CAD) and LV ejection
      fraction(LVEF)>45%, actually unknown, because of current guidelines that do not
      include echocardiographic assessment for follow up of diabetic patients. PATIENTS
      AND METHODS: 665 consecutive diabetic patients (443 females, mean age 66+/
      9years), performed a complete echocardiographic assessment according to current
      ASE echo-guidelines: diastolic dysfunction (DD), eccentric hypertrophy (EH),
      concentric hypertrophy (CH) and concentric remodeling (CR) of LV were reported.
      CAD was assessed only by reports of bypass surgery, angioplasty or patients
      hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction. RESULTS: 218 patients (32.8%)
      presented LV changes: LVDD 49 (7.4%), LVEH 68 (10.2%), LVDD and EH 46 (6.9%),
      LVDD and CH 36 (5.4%), LVDD and CR 19 (2.9%). 447 (67.2%) had no LV changes. 81
      (12.1%) patients with CAD, presented: LVDD 17 (21%), LVEH 32 (39.5%), LVDD and EH
      9 (11.1%), LVDD and CH 7 (8.6%), LVDD and CR 8 (9.9%), 8 (9.9%) had no LV adverse
      changes. There were among CAD patients, a significantly higher prevalence of LVDD
      (p<0.02), LV eccentric hypertrophy (EH) (p<0.05), DD and LVEH (p<0.04), DD and LV
      concentric hypertrophy(CH) (p<0.03) and DD and LV concentric remodeling (p<0.02),
      when compared with those patients without CAD. CONCLUSION: CAD is related to all
      different patterns of LV adverse changes in mass, geometry and diastolic
      function, with a significantly higher prevalence in our population of diabetic
      patients with normal systolic function. These changes however remain unrecognized
      until they undergo to a conventional echocardiographic assessment. We support
      this tool need to be included into future guidelines concerning follow-up of
      diabetic patients.

PMID- 28890309
TI  - Pupillary response to nitrous oxide administration in cataract surgery under
      general anesthesia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite recent innovations in cataract surgery, pupillary diameter is
      one of the most important affecting factors in outcome of this surgery. As
      cataract surgery is performed ideally when the pupil is sufficiently dilated,
      anesthesia may contribute significantly in success or failure of this operation.
      This study was performed to evaluate the effect of nitrous oxide on pupillary
      diameter in cataract surgery under general anesthesia. METHODS: Forty patients
      with cataract, scheduled for operation under general anesthesia, were randomly
      allocated into two groups. After induction of anesthesia, anesthesia was
      maintained with isoflurane and nitrous oxide - oxygen (60%-40%) in group 1 versus
      oxygen 100% in group 2. Pupillary diameter, heart rate and blood pressure were
      monitored and recorded, before induction of anesthesia, just before tracheal
      intubation, and one and 5 min after laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation.
      RESULTS: Statistical analysis of the results using Mann-Whitney test showed no
      significant difference in pupillary diameter between two the groups. CONCLUSION:
      According to the results of this study, nitrous oxide has no effect on pupillary
      diameter of patients under general anesthesia, so it could be safety used, in
      this regard, in ophthalmic operations.

PMID- 28890311
TI  - Pancreatoduodenectomy after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: technical considerations
      and outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients with altered anatomy due to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB)
      present unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenges when they present with
      periampullary pathology. We describe a series of patients who underwent
      pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) after gastric surgery with Roux-en-Y reconstruction
      and review the literature to highlight technical considerations and outcomes.
      METHODS: Patients from two institutions were identified and data regarding
      preoperative workup, operative conduct, and pathologic and clinical outcomes were
      collected. RESULTS: Eleven patients were included in the institutional series. At
      the time of periampullary pathology, the median age was 64 years and time since
      RYGB was 10 years. Median operative time was 361 minutes, estimated blood loss
      was 500 mLs, and length of stay was 6 days. Remnant gastrectomy was performed in
      nine patients and reconstruction was performed using the biliopancreatic limb
      (BP) without revision of the jejuno-jejunostomy in ten patients. Pathology
      revealed pancreatic cancer (8), chronic pancreatitis (2), and duodenal cancer
      (1). Three patients experienced major complications and there were no 90-day
      mortalities. CONCLUSION: Pancreatic surgeons will see an increasing number of
      patients with Roux-en-Y anatomy who will require evaluation and resection for
      periampullary diseases. For PD after RYGB, we recommend remnant gastrectomy with
      reconstruction using the BP limb.

PMID- 28890310
TI  - Evaluating the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement
      project risk calculator: results from the U.S. Extrahepatic Biliary Malignancy
      Consortium.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to evaluate use of the American
      College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP)
      online risk calculator for estimating common outcomes after operations for
      gallbladder cancer and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. METHODS: Subjects from
      the United States Extrahepatic Biliary Malignancy Consortium (USE-BMC) who
      underwent operation between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2014 at 10 academic
      medical centers were included in this study. Calculator estimates of risk were
      compared to actual outcomes. RESULTS: The majority of patients underwent partial
      or major hepatectomy, Whipple procedures or extrahepatic bile duct resection. For
      the entire cohort, c-statistics for surgical site infection (0.635), reoperation
      (0.680) and readmission (0.565) were less than 0.7. The c-statistic for death was
      0.740. For all outcomes the actual proportion of patients experiencing an event
      was much higher than the median predicted risk of that event. Similarly, the
      group of patients who experienced an outcome did have higher median predicted
      risk than those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: The ACS NSQIP risk calculator is easy
      to use but requires further modifications to more accurately estimate outcomes
      for some patient populations and operations for which validation studies show
      suboptimal performance.

PMID- 28890312
TI  - Clinicopathological features and prognosis of advanced biliary carcinoma centered
      in the cystic duct.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Whether to classify "advanced (subserosal layer or greater invasion)"
      biliary carcinoma centered in the cystic duct (BCCD) as gallbladder carcinoma
      (GBC) or perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (PHCC) remains unclear. METHODS: The
      clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) of patients with advanced
      BCCD were examined through a comparison with those of patients with advanced PHCC
      and with GBC. RESULTS: 290 patients were classified as 199 PHCC, 44 GBC, and 47
      BCCD. Patients with BCCD (median, 23 months) had significantly worse OS than
      those with PHCC (44 months, p = 0.030). OS of patients with BCCD, all of whom
      were classified as pT3 or pT4 by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)
      classification of GBC, was similar to 27 patients with pT3 or pT4 GBC (23 months,
      p = 0.840). When the patients with BCCD were classified by the AJCC
      classification of PHCC, 36 were classified as pT2. OS among the patients with
      BCCD classified as pT2 by the PHCC classification (29 months) was significantly
      worse than that among patients classified as pT2 PHCC (48 months, p = 0.040).
      CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that advanced BCCD is appropriately classified
      as a subtype of GBC because it can grow through the serosa.

PMID- 28890313
TI  - Surgical site infections following pancreaticoduodenectomy.

PMID- 28890314
TI  - Bilateral clavicular attachment of omohyoid muscle.
AB  - Omohyoid muscle present in cervical region is of particular importance to
      anatomists as it defines anteriorly the carotid triangle and divides the
      posterior cervical triangle. It has superior and inferior bellies and an
      intermediate common tendon. Like sternohyoid, sternothyroid and thyrohyoid
      muscles, omohyoid is also an infrahyoid muscle, but it differs from them in its
      course. The infrahyoid muscles are formed from a muscle primordium occurring in
      the anterior cervical area. Anderson (Anderson, 1881) theorized that the superior
      belly of the omohyoid muscle is a true infrahyoid muscle, whereas the inferior
      belly most likely shares a common embryology with the subclavius muscle. In the
      present study, during routine dissection in the neck region of an adult male
      cadaver of 50 years age, an anomalous origin of inferior belly of omohyoid with
      absence of intermediate tendon was observed bilaterally. It was arising from
      clavicle on both sides. Both the muscle bellies were measured from the lateral
      end of fascial sling. The inferior belly of omohyoid extending from the lateral
      margin of sling to clavicular surface was measured 3.3cm in length on left side
      and 3.6cm on right side. The omohyoid is important in neck dissections because it
      is considered as an ideal landmark for level III and IV lymph node metastases.
      Knowledge of variations of this muscle is very important for surgeries in neck
      region because of its close relation to the internal jugular vein and brachial
      plexus. Its crucial relationship to vascular structures in the neck makes it an
      important landmark during neck surgeries.

PMID- 28890316
TI  - Iron Biochemistry is Correlated with Amyloid Plaque Morphology in an Established
      Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - A signature characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is aggregation of amyloid
      beta (Abeta) fibrils in the brain. Nevertheless, the links between Abeta and AD
      pathology remain incompletely understood. It has been proposed that neurotoxicity
      arising from aggregation of the Abeta1-42 peptide can in part be explained by
      metal ion binding interactions. Using advanced X-ray microscopy techniques at sub
      micron resolution, we investigated relationships between iron biochemistry and AD
      pathology in intact cortex from an established mouse model over-producing Abeta.
      We found a direct correlation of amyloid plaque morphology with iron, and
      evidence for the formation of an iron-amyloid complex. We also show that iron
      biomineral deposits in the cortical tissue contain the mineral magnetite, and
      provide evidence that Abeta-induced chemical reduction of iron could occur in
      vivo. Our observations point to the specific role of iron in amyloid deposition
      and AD pathology, and may impact development of iron-modifying therapeutics for
      AD.

PMID- 28890315
TI  - Subthalamic neural entropy is a feature of freezing of gait in freely moving
      people with Parkinson's disease.
AB  - : The goal of this study was to investigate subthalamic (STN) neural features of
      Freezers and Non-Freezers with Parkinson's disease (PD), while freely walking
      without freezing of gait (FOG) and during periods of FOG, which were better
      elicited during a novel turning and barrier gait task than during forward
      walking. METHODS: Synchronous STN local field potentials (LFPs), shank angular
      velocities, and ground reaction forces were measured in fourteen PD subjects
      (eight Freezers) off medication, OFF deep brain stimulation (DBS), using an
      investigative, implanted, sensing neurostimulator (Activa(r) PC+S, Medtronic,
      Inc.). Tasks included standing still, instrumented forward walking, stepping in
      place on dual forceplates, and instrumented walking through a turning and barrier
      course. RESULTS: During locomotion without FOG, Freezers showed lower beta (13
      30Hz) power (P=0.036) and greater beta Sample Entropy (P=0.032), than Non
      Freezers, as well as greater gait asymmetry and arrhythmicity (P<0.05 for both).
      No differences in alpha/beta power and/or entropy were evident at rest. During
      periods of FOG, Freezers showed greater alpha (8-12Hz) Sample Entropy (P<0.001)
      than during walking without FOG. CONCLUSIONS: A novel turning and barrier course
      was superior to FW in eliciting FOG. Greater unpredictability in subthalamic beta
      rhythms was evident during stepping without freezing episodes in Freezers
      compared to Non-Freezers, whereas greater unpredictability in alpha rhythms was
      evident in Freezers during FOG. Non-linear analysis of dynamic neural signals
      during gait in freely moving people with PD may yield greater insight into the
      pathophysiology of FOG; whether the increases in STN entropy are causative or
      compensatory remains to be determined. Some beta LFP power may be useful for
      rhythmic, symmetric gait and DBS parameters, which completely attenuate STN beta
      power may worsen rather than improve FOG.

PMID- 28890317
TI  - MitoNeoD: A Mitochondria-Targeted Superoxide Probe.
AB  - Mitochondrial superoxide (O2?-) underlies much oxidative damage and redox
      signaling. Fluorescent probes can detect O2?-, but are of limited applicability
      in vivo, while in cells their usefulness is constrained by side reactions and DNA
      intercalation. To overcome these limitations, we developed a dual-purpose
      mitochondrial O2?- probe, MitoNeoD, which can assess O2?- changes in vivo by mass
      spectrometry and in vitro by fluorescence. MitoNeoD comprises a O2?--sensitive
      reduced phenanthridinium moiety modified to prevent DNA intercalation, as well as
      a carbon-deuterium bond to enhance its selectivity for O2?- over non-specific
      oxidation, and a triphenylphosphonium lipophilic cation moiety leading to the
      rapid accumulation within mitochondria. We demonstrated that MitoNeoD was a
      versatile and robust probe to assess changes in mitochondrial O2?- from isolated
      mitochondria to animal models, thus offering a way to examine the many roles of
      mitochondrial O2?- production in health and disease.

PMID- 28890318
TI  - Total Biosynthesis of the Pyrrolo[4,2]benzodiazepine Scaffold Tomaymycin on an In
      Vitro Reconstituted NRPS System.
AB  - In vitro reconstitution and biochemical analysis of natural product biosynthetic
      pathways remains a challenging endeavor, especially if megaenzymes of the
      nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) type are involved. In theory, all
      biosynthetic steps may be deciphered using mass spectrometry (MS)-based analyses
      of both the carrier protein-coupled intermediates and the free intermediates. We
      here report the "total biosynthesis" of the pyrrolo[4,2]benzodiazepine scaffold
      tomaymycin using an in vitro reconstituted NRPS system. Proteoforms were analyzed
      by liquid chromatography (LC)-MS to decipher every step of the biosynthesis on
      its respective megasynthetase with up to 170 kDa in size. To the best of our
      knowledge, this is the first report of a comprehensive analysis of virtually all
      chemical steps involved in the biosynthesis of nonribosomally synthesized natural
      products. The study includes experiments to determine substrate specificities of
      the corresponding A-domains in competition assays by analyzing the adenylation
      step as well as the transfer to the respective carrier protein domain.

PMID- 28890319
TI  - Arctic Abeta40 blocks the nicotine-induced neuroprotective effect of CHRNA7 by
      inhibiting the ERK1/2 pathway in human neuroblastoma cells.
AB  - Amyloid beta protein (Abeta) plays a central role in Alzheimer's disease (AD)
      pathogenesis. Point mutations in the Abeta sequence, which cluster around the
      central hydrophobic core of the peptide, are associated with familial AD (FAD).
      Several mutations have been identified, with the Arctic mutation exhibiting a
      purely cognitive phenotype that is typical of AD. Our previous findings suggest
      that Arctic Abeta40 binds to and aggregates with CHRNA7, thereby inhibiting the
      calcium response and signaling pathways downstream of the receptor. Activation of
      CHRNA7 is neuroprotective both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, in the present
      study, we investigated whether Arctic Abeta40 affects neuronal survival and/or
      death via CHRNA7. Using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, we found that the
      neuroprotective function of CHRNA7 is blocked by CHRNA7 knockdown using RNA
      interference. Furthermore, Arctic Abeta40 blocked the neuroprotective effect of
      nicotine by inhibiting the ERK1/2 pathway downstream of CHRNA7. Moreover, we show
      that ERK1/2 activation mediates the neuroprotective effect of nicotine against
      oxidative stress. Collectively, our findings further our understanding of the
      molecular pathogenesis of Arctic FAD.

PMID- 28890320
TI  - Neuropsychologist's (re-)view: Resective versus ablative
      amygdalohippocampectomies.
AB  - Pharmacoresistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) represents the major
      indication for epilepsy surgery. Since epilepsy surgery is an elective treatment
      option, preserving cognition is a high priority. Given the essential role of
      temporomesial structures in declarative long-term memory formation, surgical
      treatment for mTLE is primarily associated with a risk of material-specific
      memory decline, but other cognitive domains may be affected as well. The major
      determinants for the neuropsychological outcome are the functional integrity of
      surgically affected tissues, the functional reserve capacities of the remnant
      brain, the postoperative seizure outcome, as well as the quantitative and
      qualitative changes of antiepileptic drugs. Anterior temporal lobectomy has long
      been the standard procedure for treating mTLE. However, if an exclusive mesial
      pathology is present, then functional non-pathological tissues of the temporal
      pole and neocortex are sacrificed. As a result, more selective or tailored
      surgical approaches have been developed which strive towards minimizing
      iatrogenic effects. However, whether or not these approaches are equipotential
      with regard to seizure control is still a matter of debate. The quality of the
      presurgical diagnostics could also be decisive. Selective surgery should indeed
      be selective in terms of preventing evitable collateral cortical damage along the
      approach. Invasivity and risks of collateral damage associated with "open"
      selective resective surgery are further minimized by stereotactic ablative
      surgery via thermocoagulation, or eventually even eliminated by gamma knife
      surgery. From a neuropsychological point of view, this development is consequent
      and desirable, but no clear scientific evidence of a superior cognitive outcome
      after radiosurgery or thermocoagulation currently exists. The studies that are
      available contain significant methodological limitations. Thus, randomized head
      to-head cognitive outcome studies of competing selective procedures are needed,
      which should meet the minimum requirements for study design and
      neuropsychological evaluations. Finally, none of the surgical treatment variants
      can systematically prevent memory decline when the hippocampus is targeted.

PMID- 28890321
TI  - General hospital costs in England of medical and psychiatric care for patients
      who self-harm: a retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Self-harm is an extremely common reason for hospital presentation.
      However, few estimates have been made of the hospital costs of assessing and
      treating self-harm. Such information is essential for planning services and to
      help strengthen the case for investment in actions to reduce the frequency and
      effects of self-harm. In this study, we aimed to calculate the costs of hospital
      medical care associated with a self-harm episode and the costs of psychosocial
      assessment, together with identification of the key drivers of these costs.
      METHODS: In a retrospective analysis, we estimated hospital resource use and care
      costs for all presentations for self-harm to the John Radcliffe Hospital (Oxford,
      UK), between April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014. Episode-related data were
      provided by the Oxford Monitoring System for Self-harm and we linked these with
      financial hospital records to quantify costs. We assessed time and resources
      allocated to psychosocial assessments through discussion with clinical and
      managerial staff. We then used generalised linear models to investigate the
      associations between hospital costs and methods of self-harm. FINDINGS: Between
      April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014, 1647 self-harm presentations by 1153 patients
      were recorded. Of these, 1623 (99%) presentations by 1140 patients could be
      linked with hospital finance records. 179 (16%) patients were younger than 18
      years. 1150 (70%) presentations were for self-poisoning alone, 367 (22%) for self
      injury alone, and 130 (8%) for a combination of methods. Psychosocial assessments
      were made in 75% (1234) of all episodes. The overall mean hospital cost per
      episode of self-harm was L809. Costs differed significantly between different
      types of self-harm: self-injury alone L753 (SD 2061), self-poisoning alone L806
      (SD 1568), self-poisoning and self-injury L987 (SD 1823; p<0.0001). Costs were
      mainly associated with the type of health-care service contact such as inpatient
      stay, intensive care, and psychosocial assessment. Mean costs of psychosocial
      assessments were L228 for adults and L392 for individuals younger than 18 years.
      INTERPRETATION: If our findings are extrapolated to England, the estimated
      overall annual cost of general hospital management of self-harm is L162 million
      per year. More use of psychosocial assessment and other preventive measures,
      especially for young people and against self-poisoning, could potentially lower
      future costs at a time of major cost pressures in the NHS. FUNDING: National
      Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied
      Health Research, Care Oxford at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, and
      Department of Health.

PMID- 28890322
TI  - How should cost-of-illness studies be interpreted?

PMID- 28890323
TI  - Detection of intramyocardial fat infiltration by computerized tomography in a
      patient with arrhythmogenic biventricular cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28890324
TI  - Direct Head-to-Head Evaluation of Recombinant Adeno-associated Viral Vectors
      Manufactured in Human versus Insect Cells.
AB  - The major drawback of the Baculovirus/Sf9 system for recombinant adeno-associated
      viral (rAAV) manufacturing is that most of the Bac-derived rAAV vector serotypes,
      with few exceptions, demonstrate altered capsid compositions and lower biological
      potencies. Here, we describe a new insect cell-based production platform
      utilizing attenuated Kozak sequence and a leaky ribosome scanning to achieve a
      serotype-specific modulation of AAV capsid proteins stoichiometry. By way of
      example, rAAV5 and rAAV9 were produced and comprehensively characterized side by
      side with HEK293-derived vectors. A mass spectrometry analysis documented a 3
      fold increase in both viral protein (VP)1 and VP2 capsid protein content compared
      with human cell-derived vectors. Furthermore, we conducted an extensive analysis
      of encapsidated single-stranded viral DNA using next-generation sequencing and
      show a 6-fold reduction in collaterally packaged contaminating DNA for rAAV5
      produced in insect cells. Consequently, the re-designed rAAVs demonstrated
      significantly higher biological potencies, even in a comparison with HEK293
      manufactured rAAVs mediating, in the case of rAAV5, 4-fold higher transduction of
      brain tissues in mice. Thus, the described system yields rAAV vectors of superior
      infectivity and higher genetic identity providing a scalable platform for good
      manufacturing practice (GMP)-grade vector production.

PMID- 28890326
TI  - Taurolidine-based catheter lock regimen significantly reduces overall costs,
      infection, and dysfunction rates of tunneled hemodialysis catheters.
AB  - Catheter-related infections and dysfunction are the main catheter complications
      causing morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. However, there are no
      consistent data for the choice of catheter lock solutions for tunneled
      hemodialysis lines. In this prospective, multicenter, randomized, controlled
      trial, two lock regimens using three commercial catheter lock solutions were
      compared in 106 hemodialysis patients with a newly inserted tunneled central
      catheter. In the taurolidine group, TauroLockTM-Hep500 was used twice per week
      and TauroLockTM-U25,000 once a week. In the citrate group, a four percent citrate
      solution was used after each dialysis. Both groups were compared regarding
      catheter-related infections, catheter dysfunction, and costs. Over a period of
      15,690 catheter days, six catheter-related infections occurred in six of 52
      patients in the taurolidine group, but 18 occurred in 13 of 54 patients in the
      citrate group, corresponding to 0.67 and 2.7 episodes of catheter-related
      infections per 1000 catheter days, respectively (Incidence Rate Ratio 0.25, 95%
      confidence interval, 0.09 to 0.63). Catheter dysfunction rates were significantly
      lower in the taurolidine group (18.7 vs. 44.3/1000 catheter days) and alteplase
      rescue significantly more frequent in the citrate group (9.8 vs. 3.8/1000
      catheter days). These differences provided significant catheter-related cost
      savings of 43% in the taurolidine group vs. citrate group when overall expenses
      per patient and year were compared. Thus, use of taurolidine-based catheter lock
      solutions containing heparin and urokinase significantly reduced complications
      related to tunneled hemodialysis catheters when compared to four percent citrate
      solution and was overall more cost-efficient.

PMID- 28890327
TI  - Induction of interdigitating cell processes in podocyte culture.
AB  - Highly organized cell processes characterize glomerular podocytes in vivo.
      However, podocytes in culture have a simple morphology lacking cell processes,
      especially upon reaching confluence. Here, we aimed to establish culture
      conditions under which cultured podocytes extend cell processes at confluence.
      Among various culture conditions that could possibly cause phenotypic changes in
      podocytes, we examined the effects of heparin, all-trans retinoic acid, fetal
      bovine serum, and extracellular matrices on the morphology of podocytes in rat
      primary culture. Consequently, long arborized cell processes were observed to
      radiate extensively from the cell body only when cells were cultured in the
      presence of heparin and all-trans retinoic acid on laminin-coated dishes with
      decreasing concentrations of fetal bovine serum. Primary processes branching
      repeatedly into terminal processes and cell process insertion under adjacent cell
      bodies were evident by electron microscopy-based analysis. Immunostaining for
      podocin showed conspicuous elongations of intercellular junctions. Under these
      conditions, the expression levels of podocyte-specific proteins and genes were
      markedly upregulated. Thus, we succeeded in establishing culture conditions in
      which the cultured podocytes exhibit phenotypes similar to those under in vivo
      conditions.

PMID- 28890328
TI  - Are phase I trials safe for older patients?
AB  - Phase I clinical trials in oncology primarily aim to assess the toxicity profile
      of new drugs and determine recommended phase II doses (RP2D). Since the cancer
      rate increases with age and our population is continually aging, RP2D must
      necessarily be assessed in older patients. Few clinical studies include older
      patients, however, and particularly few Phase I trials. We reviewed published
      data on the safety and efficacy of Phase I trials in older patients. The majority
      of studies included primarily young, fit patients, with age thresholds varying
      widely from 65 to 80years. However, age does not seem to be associated with more
      toxicity or less efficacy. While Phase I trials seem feasible in fit older
      patients, geriatric-medicine score systems should be included in the clinical
      trial design in order to better characterize this population.

PMID- 28890329
TI  - Histone methyltransferase SETDB1 maintains survival of mouse spermatogonial
      stem/progenitor cells via PTEN/AKT/FOXO1 pathway.
AB  - Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) possess the capacity of self-renewal and
      differentiation, which are the basis of spermatogenesis. In maintenance of SSC
      homeostasis, intrinsic/extrinsic factors and various signaling pathways tightly
      control the fate of SSCs. Methyltransferase SETDB1 (Set domain, bifurcated 1)
      catalyzes histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) trimethylation and represses gene
      expression. SETDB1 is required for maintaining the survival of spermatogonial
      stem cells in mice. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear.
      In the present study, we found that Setdb1 regulates PTEN/AKT/FOXO1 pathway to
      inhibit SSC apoptosis. Co-immunoprecipitation and reporter gene assay revealed
      that SETDB1 interacted and coordinated with AKT to regulate FOXO1 activity and
      expression of the downstream target genes Bim and Puma. Among the SETDB1-bound
      genes, the H3K9me3 levels on the promoter regions of Bim and Pten decreased in
      Setdb1-KD group; in contrast, H3K9me3 status on promoters of Bax and Puma
      remained unchanged. Therefore, SETDB1 was responsible for regulating the
      transcription activity of genes in the apoptotic pathway at least in part through
      modulating H3K9me3. This study replenishes the research on the epigenetic
      regulation of SSC survival, and provides a new insight for the future study of
      epigenetic regulation of spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28890330
TI  - A Comparative Analysis of Resource Utilization Between Proximal Row Carpectomy
      and Partial Wrist Fusion: A Population Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: We conducted a population-level analysis comparing proximal row
      carpectomy (PRC) and partial wrist arthrodesis (PWA) for treatment of chronic
      wrist arthritis to (1) characterize national practice patterns, (2) determine the
      rate of conversion to total wrist arthrodesis (TWA), and (3) calculate the
      associated direct cost of care. METHODS: Using the Truven MarketScan databases
      from 2009 to 2015, we identified patients 18 years or older with a diagnosis of
      wrist osteoarthritis who had a PRC or PWA and were followed for 18 months. We
      used Chi-square analysis and multivariable logistic regression to examine patient
      characteristics associated with conversion to a TWA. Rates of repeat PWA were
      also obtained, including the total number of procedures until completion and
      direct treatment cost. RESULTS: Of a total of 3,388 eligible patients, 1,305 had
      a PRC (39%) and 2,083 had a PWA (61%). In patients 54 years of age or younger,
      PWA was more commonly performed than PRC (49% vs 38%). The TWA rates were
      significantly higher for patients of all ages who underwent PWA (19.2%) versus
      PRC (4.9%). Those undergoing PWA required more total procedures than patients who
      received a PRC (average, 1.7 vs 1.1) resulting in a greater average direct cost
      per patient ($10,842 vs $7,171). CONCLUSIONS: Conversion rates to a TWA are
      significantly higher with a PWA (19.2%) than with a PRC (4.9%) and have a greater
      associated direct cost. This includes younger patients, who in the past were
      considered better candidates for PWA. Our findings suggest that surgeons may need
      to reevaluate their indications for PWA and that there may need to be a paradigm
      shift in the current practice patterns for salvage treatment of wrist arthrosis,
      more often considering PRC for all age groups. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
      Prognostic II.

PMID- 28890325
TI  - AKI on CKD: heightened injury, suppressed repair, and the underlying mechanisms.
AB  - Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are interconnected.
      Although AKI-to-CKD transition has been intensively studied, the information of
      AKI on CKD is very limited. Nonetheless, AKI, when occurring in patients with
      CKD, is known to be more severe and difficult to recover. CKD is associated with
      significant changes in cell signaling in kidney tissues, including the activation
      of transforming growth factor-beta, p53, hypoxia-inducible factor, and major
      developmental pathways. At the cellular level, CKD is characterized by
      mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and aberrant autophagy. At the
      tissue level, CKD is characterized by chronic inflammation and vascular
      dysfunction. These pathologic changes may contribute to the heightened
      sensitivity of, and nonrecovery from, AKI in patients with CKD.

PMID- 28890331
TI  - A Prospective Randomized Study Analyzing Preoperative Opioid Counseling in Pain
      Management After Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery.
AB  - PURPOSE: Prescription opioid misuse has become increasingly prevalent in the
      United States. Preoperative opioid counseling has been proposed to decrease
      opioid consumption after surgery. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of
      preoperative opioid counseling on patients' pain experience and opioid
      consumption after carpal tunnel release (CTR) surgery. METHODS: A prospective
      comparison of consecutive patients scheduled to undergo CTR surgery was
      conducted. Patients were randomized to receive either formal preoperative opioid
      counseling or no counseling. All operations were performed with the same mini
      open CTR surgical technique, and the same number of opioids were prescribed after
      surgery. Daily opioid pill consumption, pain levels, and any adverse reactions
      were recorded. RESULTS: During the day of surgery and the first day following
      surgery, patients in the group with counseling reported significantly fewer
      prescribed opioid pills consumed compared with patients in the group without
      counseling, while experiencing no significant difference in pain level
      experience. In addition, patients in the group with counseling reported a
      significantly lower number of total pain pills consumed over the course of the
      study than the group without counseling. No major adverse reactions were noted in
      either group. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative opioid counseling was found to result in
      a significant decrease in overall opioid consumption after surgery. TYPE OF
      STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic II.

PMID- 28890332
TI  - Association of Physical Function, Anxiety, and Pain Interference in Nonshoulder
      Upper Extremity Patients Using the PROMIS Platform.
AB  - PURPOSE: The relationship between psychosocial factors and self-reported physical
      function among hand and upper extremity patients is complex. The Patient-Reported
      Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) platform has attempted to create
      a variety of specifically targeted metrics that can be administered using
      computer adaptive testing (CAT). Three metrics measuring self-reported physical
      function (herein referred to in combination as "functional" metrics) include the
      PROMIS Physical Function (PF) CAT, PROMIS Upper Extremity (UE) CAT, and the Quick
      Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (QuickDASH). Two metrics assessing
      psychosocial factors include the PROMIS Anxiety and Pain Interference (PI) CATs
      ("nonfunctional" metrics). This study evaluates whether the functional metrics
      were correlated with nonfunctional metrics. METHODS: The 5 questionnaires were
      administered prospectively on a tablet computer to all consecutive adult patients
      presenting to an outpatient hand and upper extremity (nonshoulder) clinic at a
      tertiary academic medical center from January 1 to November 1, 2014. For patients
      with multiple visits during the study period, only the first was included. Data
      were evaluated retrospectively to assess the relationship between functional and
      nonfunctional measures, with Pearson correlation coefficients to understand the
      relationship between continuous variables, and 1-way analysis of variance to
      examine for differences in outcome measures across demographic groups.
      Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to determine factors
      predicting functional disability. RESULTS: We included 1,299 patients: mean age
      was 46.8 years, 53% were female, and 23% were unemployed or on disability. The
      PROMIS PF CAT, PROMIS UE CAT, and QuickDASH scores were all significantly
      correlated with PROMIS Anxiety CAT (Pearson correlation coefficients, -0.46, 
      0.48, and 0.53, respectively) and PROMIS PI CAT (-0.60, -0.65, and 0.76,
      respectively) scores. Multivariable regression analyses demonstrated that
      increased PROMIS Anxiety and PI CAT scores each independently and adversely
      influenced PROMIS PF CAT, PROMIS UE CAT, and QuickDASH scores. CONCLUSIONS:
      Increasing levels of patient anxiety and pain interference are independently
      associated with decreased patient-reported upper extremity function. CLINICAL
      RELEVANCE: This study provides further support of the biopsychosocial model by
      highlighting that increased anxiety is associated with decreased self-reported
      function using the PROMIS platform.

PMID- 28890335
TI  - The ER-Localized Transmembrane Protein EPG-3/VMP1 Regulates SERCA Activity to
      Control ER-Isolation Membrane Contacts for Autophagosome Formation.
AB  - During autophagosome formation in mammalian cells, isolation membranes (IMs;
      autophagosome precursors) dynamically contact the ER. Here, we demonstrated that
      the ER-localized metazoan-specific autophagy protein EPG-3/VMP1 controls ER-IM
      contacts. Loss of VMP1 causes stable association of IMs with the ER, thus
      blocking autophagosome formation. Interaction of WIPI2 with the ULK1/FIP200
      complex and PI(3)P contributes to the formation of ER-IM contacts, and these
      interactions are enhanced by VMP1 depletion. VMP1 controls contact formation by
      promoting SERCA (sarco[endo]plasmic reticulum calcium ATPase) activity. VMP1
      interacts with SERCA and prevents formation of the SERCA/PLN/SLN inhibitory
      complex. VMP1 also modulates ER contacts with lipid droplets, mitochondria, and
      endosomes. These ER contacts are greatly elevated by the SERCA inhibitor
      thapsigargin. Calmodulin acts as a sensor/effector to modulate the ER contacts
      mediated by VMP1/SERCA. Our study provides mechanistic insights into the
      establishment and disassociation of ER-IM contacts and reveals that VMP1
      modulates SERCA activity to control ER contacts.

PMID- 28890336
TI  - The Plasticity of the Hsp90 Co-chaperone System.
AB  - The Hsp90 system in the eukaryotic cytosol is characterized by a cohort of co
      chaperones that bind to Hsp90 and affect its function. Although progress has been
      made regarding the underlying biochemical mechanisms, how co-chaperones influence
      Hsp90 client proteins in vivo has remained elusive. By investigating the effect
      of 12 Hsp90 co-chaperones on the activity of different client proteins in yeast,
      we find that deletion of co-chaperones can have a neutral or negative effect on
      client activity but can also lead to more active clients. Only a few co
      chaperones are active on all clients studied. Closely related clients and even
      point mutants can depend on different co-chaperones. These effects are direct
      because differences in client-co-chaperone interactions can be reconstituted in
      vitro. Interestingly, some co-chaperones affect client conformation in vivo.
      Thus, co-chaperones adapt the Hsp90 cycle to the requirements of the client
      proteins, ensuring optimal activation.

PMID- 28890333
TI  - Static and Dynamic DNA Loops form AP-1-Bound Activation Hubs during Macrophage
      Development.
AB  - The three-dimensional arrangement of the human genome comprises a complex network
      of structural and regulatory chromatin loops important for coordinating changes
      in transcription during human development. To better understand the mechanisms
      underlying context-specific 3D chromatin structure and transcription during
      cellular differentiation, we generated comprehensive in situ Hi-C maps of DNA
      loops in human monocytes and differentiated macrophages. We demonstrate that
      dynamic looping events are regulatory rather than structural in nature and
      uncover widespread coordination of dynamic enhancer activity at preformed and
      acquired DNA loops. Enhancer-bound loop formation and enhancer activation of
      preformed loops together form multi-loop activation hubs at key macrophage genes.
      Activation hubs connect 3.4 enhancers per promoter and exhibit a strong
      enrichment for activator protein 1 (AP-1)-binding events, suggesting that multi
      loop activation hubs involving cell-type-specific transcription factors represent
      an important class of regulatory chromatin structures for the spatiotemporal
      control of transcription.

PMID- 28890334
TI  - CRISPR-Mediated Base Editing Enables Efficient Disruption of Eukaryotic Genes
      through Induction of STOP Codons.
AB  - Standard CRISPR-mediated gene disruption strategies rely on Cas9-induced DNA
      double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here, we show that CRISPR-dependent base editing
      efficiently inactivates genes by precisely converting four codons (CAA, CAG, CGA,
      and TGG) into STOP codons without DSB formation. To facilitate gene inactivation
      by induction of STOP codons (iSTOP), we provide access to a database of over 3.4
      million single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) for iSTOP (sgSTOPs) targeting 97%-99% of genes
      in eight eukaryotic species, and we describe a restriction fragment length
      polymorphism (RFLP) assay that allows the rapid detection of iSTOP-mediated
      editing in cell populations and clones. To simplify the selection of sgSTOPs, our
      resource includes annotations for off-target propensity, percentage of isoforms
      targeted, prediction of nonsense-mediated decay, and restriction enzymes for RFLP
      analysis. Additionally, our database includes sgSTOPs that could be employed to
      precisely model over 32,000 cancer-associated nonsense mutations. Altogether,
      this work provides a comprehensive resource for DSB-free gene disruption by
      iSTOP.

PMID- 28890338
TI  - Improving undergraduate pathology teaching: medical students' perspective.

PMID- 28890339
TI  - Improving undergraduate pathology teaching: medical students' perspective-reply.

PMID- 28890337
TI  - The ATPase Fap7 Tests the Ability to Carry Out Translocation-like Conformational
      Changes and Releases Dim1 during 40S Ribosome Maturation.
AB  - Late in their maturation, nascent small (40S) ribosomal subunits bind 60S
      subunits to produce 80S-like ribosomes. Because of the analogy of this
      translation-like cycle to actual translation, and because 80S-like ribosomes do
      not produce any protein, it has been suggested that this represents a quality
      control mechanism for subunit functionality. Here we use genetic and biochemical
      experiments to show that the essential ATPase Fap7 promotes formation of the
      rotated state, a key intermediate in translocation, thereby releasing the
      essential assembly factor Dim1 from pre-40S subunits. Bypassing this quality
      control step produces defects in reading frame maintenance. These results show
      how progress in the maturation cascade is linked to a test for a key
      functionality of 40S ribosomes: their ability to translocate the mRNA?tRNA pair.
      Furthermore, our data demonstrate for the first time that the translation-like
      cycle is a quality control mechanism that ensures the fidelity of the cellular
      ribosome pool.

PMID- 28890340
TI  - Infection of Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843) (Gastropoda: Tateidae) by
      trematodes in Poland, including the first record of aspidogastrid acquisition.
AB  - The prosobranch gastropod Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843) is poorly
      understood as a parasite host outside its native New Zealand, including in
      Europe. Our aim was to ascertain whether non-native P. antipodarum could acquire
      aspidogastrids or digeneans in habitats where these parasites are found in native
      hosts. We examined 2400 P. antipodarum individuals from Sosno Lake (Poland). The
      majority of snails were adult females. No males were found. We found five P.
      antipodarum individuals with Aspidogaster conchicola and 39 snails with
      metacercariae of Echinoparyphium aconiatum Dietz 1909 or E. recurvatum (Linstow,
      1873). Snails with metacercariae and unparasitized snails, but not snails with A.
      conchicola, produced embryos. Ours is the first record of an Aspidogastrea - P.
      antipodarum association.

PMID- 28890341
TI  - Cueing for people with Parkinson's disease with freezing of gait: A narrative
      review of the state-of-the-art and novel perspectives.
AB  - Freezing, which manifests during gait and other movements, is an incapacitating
      motor symptom experienced by many patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In
      rehabilitation, auditory and visual cueing methods are commonly applied to evoke
      a more goal-directed type of motor control and, as such, reduce freezing severity
      in patients with PD. In this narrative review, we summarize the current evidence
      regarding the effects of external cueing in patients with PD with freezing of
      gait (FOG) and provide suggestions on how to further improve cueing effectiveness
      with emerging technological developments. For this paper, we reviewed 24 articles
      describing the assessment of the effects of cues in patients with FOG (n=354).
      Because these studies mostly involved quasi-experimental designs, no
      methodological analysis was undertaken. In general, the evidence suggests that
      cue-augmented training can reduce FOG severity, improve gait parameters and
      improve upper-limb movements immediately after training. However, findings were
      not univocal, and long-term consolidation and transfer of the effects appear to
      be hampered specifically in this subgroup. With the increasing use of wearable
      technology, new possibilities are allowing for adapting the cue type, cue content
      and dose of cues to the needs of individual patients, which may boost the
      clinical use and efficiency of cued training in PD patients with FOG.

PMID- 28890342
TI  - Prosthetic joint infection with pseudo-tumoral aspect due to Mycobacterium bovis
      infection after Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin therapy.

PMID- 28890343
TI  - Antibiotic prophylaxis in breast reduction surgery: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness and harm of using antibiotic
      prophylaxis versus placebo or no intervention in patients undergoing breast
      reduction surgery to prevent surgical site infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      search strategy was conducted in the MEDLINE, CENTRAL, EMBASE, and LILACS
      databases. Searches were also conducted in other databases and unpublished
      literature. Clinical trials were included without language restrictions. The risk
      of bias was evaluated with the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. An analysis of
      fixed effects was conducted. The primary outcome was surgical site infection. The
      secondary outcomes were delayed wound healing and adverse effects. The measure of
      the effect was the risk difference (RD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The
      planned interventions were antibiotic prophylaxis versus placebo/no intervention.
      RESULTS: Five articles were included in the qualitative and quantitative
      analysis. A total of 584 patients were included from the five studies. A low risk
      of bias was shown for most of the study items. The overall RD for surgical site
      infection was -0.08 (95% CI -0.14--0.03), favoring antibiotic prophylaxis
      compared with placebo. CONCLUSION: Antibiotic prophylaxis lowers the incidence of
      surgical site infection in breast reduction surgery compared with placebo or no
      intervention.

PMID- 28890344
TI  - A new parallel DNA algorithm to solve the task scheduling problem based on
      inspired computational model.
AB  - As a promising approach to solve the computationally intractable problem, the
      method based on DNA computing is an emerging research area including mathematics,
      computer science and molecular biology. The task scheduling problem, as a well
      known NP-complete problem, arranges n jobs to m individuals and finds the minimum
      execution time of last finished individual. In this paper, we use a biologically
      inspired computational model and describe a new parallel algorithm to solve the
      task scheduling problem by basic DNA molecular operations. In turn, we skillfully
      design flexible length DNA strands to represent elements of the allocation
      matrix, take appropriate biological experiment operations and get solutions of
      the task scheduling problem in proper length range with less than O(n2) time
      complexity.

PMID- 28890346
TI  - Hepatoprotective effects of Methyl ferulic acid on alcohol-induced liver
      oxidative injury in mice by inhibiting the NOX4/ROS-MAPK pathway.
AB  - AIMS: The present study aimed to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of
      Methyl ferulic acid (MFA) against oxidative stress and apoptosis as well as
      inflammation in mice with liver injury induced by alcohol and its underlying
      mechanisms. METHODS: C57BL/6 mice were divided into a control group,a model
      group, and Methyl ferulic acid with high dosage (20 mg/kg), moderate dosage (10
      mg/kg) and low dosage (5 mg/kg) groups. The general condition and organ index of
      each group were investigated. Histopathological analysis was performed to
      determine the degree of hepatic injury. Biochemical analyses of functional liver
      enzymes, lipid peroxidation enzymes and lipid content in each group. The levels
      of inflammatory cytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
      (ELISA). The mechanisms were investigated by detecting levels of NADPH Oxidase 4
      (NOX4),p22phox, cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1),Bax,B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2),cleaved
      caspase 3 and 9 and phosphorylated extracellular regulated protein
      kinases(ERK),phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and phosphorylated p38
      mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) using real-time polymerase chain reaction
      (PCR) and Western blotting. RESULTS: MFA treatment significantly decreased serum
      enzymatic activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate
      aminotransaminase (AST). MFA markedly increased levels of superoxide dismutase
      (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and
      total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC), and reduced the concentration of
      malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Histopathological
      examination of livers showed that MFA reduced cytoplasmic vacuolisation necrosis
      and inflammatory cell infiltration in alcohol-treated mice. MFA treatment
      remarkably reduced the levels of trigyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low
      density lipoprotein (LDL), decreasing the levels of high-density lipoprotein
      (HDL), alcohol dehydrogenase(ADL) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). MFA
      treatment remarkably inhibited the expression of inflammatory factors tumour
      necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1),
      interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-6. MFA attenuated both mRNA and protein expression
      of NOX4,p22phox,CYP2E1,Bax/Bcl-2. In addition, MFA inhibited the activation of
      caspase 3 and 9 and downregulated the levels of p-JNK,p-p38 MAPK and p-ERK in
      liver. CONCLUSION: MFA has a protective effect on alcohol-induced liver injury,
      which may be related to its antioxidant,anti-inflammatory,lipid-eliminating
      properties and its ability to regulate the NOX4/ROS-MAPK signalling pathway.

PMID- 28890347
TI  - High-resolution structure discloses the potential for allosteric regulation of
      mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 7.
AB  - Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 7 (MAP2K7) regulates stress and
      inflammatory responses, and is an attractive drug discovery target for several
      diseases including arthritis and cardiac hypertrophy. Intracellular proteins such
      as MAP2K7 are prone to aggregation due to cysteine-driven oxidation in in vitro
      experiments. MAP2K7 instability due to the four free cysteine residues on the
      molecular surface abrogated the crystal growth and led to a low-resolution
      structure with large residual errors. To acquire a higher resolution structure
      for promoting rational drug discovery, we explored stable mutants of MAP2K7 by
      replacing the surface cysteine residues, Cys147, Cys218, Cys276 and Cys296.
      Single-site mutations, except for Cys147, maintained the specific activity and
      increased the protein yield, while all the multi-site mutations massively reduced
      the activity. The C218S mutation drastically augmented the protein production and
      crystallographic resolution. Furthermore, the C218S crystals grown under
      microgravity in a space environment yielded a 1.3 A resolution structure,
      providing novel insights for drug discovery: the precisely assigned water
      molecules in the active site, the double conformations in the flexible region and
      the C-terminal extension bound to the N-terminal region of the adjacent
      molecules. The latter insight is likely to promote the production of allosteric
      MAP2K7 inhibitors.

PMID- 28890345
TI  - Prosapip1-Dependent Synaptic Adaptations in the Nucleus Accumbens Drive Alcohol
      Intake, Seeking, and Reward.
AB  - The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), a transducer of local
      dendritic translation, participates in learning and memory processes as well as
      in mechanisms underlying alcohol-drinking behaviors. Using an unbiased RNA-seq
      approach, we identified Prosapip1 as a novel downstream target of mTORC1 whose
      translation and consequent synaptic protein expression are increased in the
      nucleus accumbens (NAc) of mice excessively consuming alcohol. We demonstrate
      that alcohol-dependent increases in Prosapip1 levels promote the formation of
      actin filaments, leading to changes in dendritic spine morphology of NAc medium
      spiny neurons (MSNs). We further demonstrate that Prosapip1 is required for
      alcohol-dependent synaptic localization of GluA2 lacking AMPA receptors in NAc
      shell MSNs. Finally, we present data implicating Prosapip1 in mechanisms
      underlying alcohol self-administration and reward. Together, these data suggest
      that Prosapip1 in the NAc is a molecular transducer of structural and synaptic
      alterations that drive and/or maintain excessive alcohol use.

PMID- 28890348
TI  - MiR-362-3p inhibits the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle
      cells in atherosclerosis by targeting ADAMTS1.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is a progressive condition of the large arteries that can cause
      coronary artery disease (CAD). Growing amounts of evidence have indicated that
      microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) can be used as diagnostic biomarkers in many cellular
      processes associated with CAD. MiR-362-3p has been implicated in many biological
      cellular functions. However, little is known about the role of miR-362-3p during
      atherosclerosis. In the present study, significant downregulation of miR-362-3p
      was observed in 110 atherosclerotic CAD patients and not in the 84 controls. The
      upregulation of miR-362-3p was demonstrated to inhibit vascular smooth muscle
      cell (VSMC) proliferation and migration, and impede the G1/S cell cycle
      transition. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that a disintegrin and
      metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 1 (ADAMTS1) was a direct target of
      miR-362-3p. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that miR-362-3p binds to the 3'
      untranslated region (UTR) of ADAMTS1 and decreases its levels of mRNA and protein
      expression. Overexpression of ADAMTS1 partially restored the miR-362-3p-mediated
      inhibition of VSMC proliferation, cell cycle, and migration. Upregulation of
      ADAMTS1 in plasma samples was detected in atherosclerotic CAD patients. Taken
      together, our findings suggested that miR-362-3p inhibits the proliferation and
      migration of VSMCs by directly targeting ADAMTS1, which might provide novel
      insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the action of miR-362-3p in
      atherosclerosis.

PMID- 28890349
TI  - Molecular hydrogen modulates gene expression via histone modification and induces
      the mitochondrial unfolded protein response.
AB  - Molecular hydrogen (H2) is a biologically active gas that is used medically to
      ameliorate various systemic pathological conditions. H2 also regulates gene
      expression involved in intracellular signaling and metabolic pathways. However,
      it is unclear whether H2 affects gene expression directly or through indirect
      effects as a consequence of health improvement. Therefore, we attempted to
      identify genes that exhibit similar changes in expression in response to H2 by
      employing DNA microarrays and gene set enrichment analysis to analyze RNA from
      liver and lung of rats and mice with or without dietary stress. We found that H2
      activated the expression of sets of genes regulated by histone H3K27 methylation
      status. H2 also modified the expression of many genes regulated by a wide variety
      of signaling pathways. RT-qPCR showed that H2 up-regulated expression of Kcnc3, a
      H3K27-regulated gene, in organs such as liver, lung, kidney and brain.
      Furthermore, using immunohistochemistry and immunoblot analysis, we observed
      changes in H3K27 methylation status in the liver of mice and rats administered
      H2. Moreover, we showed that H2 simultaneously induced the H3K27 demethylase,
      Jmjd3, and mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR)-related genes.
      Recently, alteration of mitochondrial function was shown to cause induction of
      H3K27 demethylase or chromatin restructuring, followed by mtUPR activation
      through the alteration of H3K27 or H3K9 methylation states. Taken together, our
      study suggests that H2 can induce beneficial effects through mtUPR activation via
      epigenetic histone modification and by modification of gene expression.

PMID- 28890350
TI  - Thioredoxin-interacting protein promotes high-glucose-induced macrovascular
      endothelial dysfunction.
AB  - Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) emerges as a central regulator for
      glucose homeostasis, which goes awry in diabetic subjects. Endothelial
      dysfunction is considered the earliest detectable stage of cardiovascular disease
      (CVD), a major complication of diabetes. Here, we hypothesize that TXNIP may
      promote endothelial dysfunction seen in Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). Using a
      T1D-like rat model, we found that diabetic rats showed significantly higher TXNIP
      mRNA and protein levels in peripheral blood, compared to their non-diabetic
      counterparts. Those changes were accompanied by decreased production of nitric
      oxide (NO) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), concurrent with
      increased expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and vascular cell adhesion
      molecule 1 (VCAM-1) in the aortic endothelium. In addition, TXNIP overexpression
      in primary human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) induced by either high glucose
      or overexpression of carbohydrate response element binding protein (ChREBP), a
      major transcriptional activator of TXNIP, promoted early apoptosis and impaired
      NO bioactivity. The correlation between TXNIP expression levels and endothelial
      dysfunction suggests that TXNIP may be a potential biomarker for vascular
      complications in T1D patients.

PMID- 28890351
TI  - In situ delivery and production system of trastuzumab scFv with Bifidobacterium.
AB  - A monoclonal antibody targeting human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2),
      trastuzumab has become a standard treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer.
      Recent advancements in antibody engineering have enabled the efficient generation
      of the trastuzumab single-chain variable fragment (scFv). In this study, we
      genetically engineered Bifidobacterium, a bacterial strain shown to accumulate
      safely and selectively in hypoxic tumor sites by intravenous (iv) injection, to
      express and secrete the trastuzumab scFv. The recombinant scFv bound to cell
      surface HER2 and inhibited in vitro growth of HER2-positive human cancer cells.
      Moreover, iv-injected recombinant bacteria specifically localized and secreted
      trastuzumab scFv in xenografted human HER2-positive tumors and consequently
      inhibited tumor growth. The development and results of this novel in situ
      delivery and production system for trastuzumab scFv with Bifidobacterium
      represents a promising avenue for future application in cancer treatment.

PMID- 28890352
TI  - Social cognitive aspects of the participation in workplace health promotion as
      revealed by the theory of planned behavior.
AB  - Health-promoting efforts strongly depend on individual cognitions such as
      attitudes as well as social cognitive aspects of the work environment such as
      leadership and support. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a
      theoretical frame, participation behavior of employees in courses offered by the
      workplace health promotion (WHP) program of the German Armed Forces was
      investigated. Social cognitive aspects of the work environment, such as
      leadership behaviors by setting an example or optimizing organization of work,
      were included in the TPB components of subjective norm and perceived behavioral
      control, which allowed for an investigation of the specific effects of leadership
      on WHP participation. A survey study with N=1385 members of the German Armed
      Forces was conducted in 2015 in Germany. Results showed that perceived behavioral
      control and attitudes towards WHP were the strongest predictors for WHP
      participation. While subjective norm was positively related to attitudes, it had
      a slightly negative effect on intention to participate in WHP activities. These
      findings suggest that the most effective way for leadership to increase WHP
      participation is to enhance perceived behavioral control. Quite contrary,
      creating a positive subjective norm regarding WHP participation may even result
      in psychological reactance.

PMID- 28890353
TI  - Identifying principles for effective messages about chemicals in cigarette smoke.
AB  - US law requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to disclose information on
      harmful and potentially harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke (i.e., constituents)
      to the public. To inform this effort, we sought to identify principles for
      creating constituent messages that effectively discourage smoking. Participants
      were an online convenience sample of 1148 US smokers ages 18+. We developed a
      library of 76 messages about constituents only and constituents plus
      contextualizing information (i.e., toxic products that also contain the chemical,
      health effects, or both). We randomized smokers to receive 1 message from each of
      7 message panels in a mixed between-/within-subjects experiment. Participants
      rated each message on perceived message effectiveness. Results indicated that
      smokers perceived messages about arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, uranium, and
      ammonia as more effective than messages about nitrosamines. Messages that
      contained information on toxic products, health effects, or both received higher
      effectiveness ratings than constituent-only messages. Among constituent-only
      messages, those that referenced multiple constituents received higher
      effectiveness ratings than those with fewer constituents. We conclude that
      chemical messages may have more impact if they pair known constituents with toxic
      product or health effect information. These message principles can be used to
      inform studies examining the impact of constituent messages on smoking beliefs
      and behavior.

PMID- 28890354
TI  - Employment changes associated with the introduction of taxes on sugar-sweetened
      beverages and nonessential energy-dense food in Mexico.
AB  - We assessed changes in employment in the manufacturing industry, the commercial
      sector and national unemployment rates, associated with the fiscal policies
      implemented in 2014 in Mexico: a 1 peso per liter excise tax to sugar-sweetened
      beverages (SSB) and an 8% tax on nonessential energy-dense food. We used data
      from three nationally representative surveys. Controlling for contextual
      variables, we used interrupted time series analyses to model changes in number of
      employees in the SSB and nonessential energy-dense food industry, in commercial
      establishments selling beverages and food and changes in national unemployment
      rates. Our results show that there were no significant changes in employment
      associated with the taxes in the manufacturing industries (for beverages and
      nonessential energy-dense food). We found a very small increasing trend in the
      post-tax period for employment in commercial stores and a decreasing trend in the
      unemployment rate. However, these changes are negligible and unlikely to be
      caused by the implementation of the taxes. In conclusion, there were no
      employment reductions associated with the fiscal policies implemented in Mexico
      in 2014 on SSB and nonessential energy-dense food.

PMID- 28890355
TI  - Impact of a workplace physical activity tracking program on biometric health
      outcomes.
AB  - Wellness programs are a popular strategy utilized by large U.S. employers. As
      mobile health applications and wearable tracking devices increase in prevalence,
      many employers now offer physical activity tracking applications. This
      longitudinal study evaluates the impact of engagement with a web-based, physical
      activity tracking program on changes in individuals' biometric outcomes in an
      employer population. The study population includes active employees and adult
      dependents continuously enrolled in an eligible health plan and who have
      completed at least two biometric screenings (n=36,882 person-years with 11,436
      unique persons) between 2011 and 2014. Using difference-in-differences (DID)
      regression, we estimate the effect of participation in the physical activity
      tracking application on BMI, total cholesterol, and blood pressure. Participation
      was significantly associated with a reduction of 0.275 in BMI in the post-period,
      relative to the comparison group, representing a 1% change from baseline BMI. The
      program did not have a statistically significant impact on cholesterol or blood
      pressure. Sensitivity checks revealed slightly larger BMI reductions among
      participants with higher intensity of tracking activity and in the period
      following the employer's shift to an outcomes-based incentive design. Results are
      broadly consistent with the existing literature on changes in biometric outcomes
      from workplace initiatives promoting increased physical activity. Employers
      should have modest expectations about the potential health benefits of such
      programs, given current designs and implementation in real-world settings.

PMID- 28890356
TI  - Multicenter prevalence of anaphylaxis in clinic-based oral food challenges.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although previous single-center studies report the rate of
      anaphylaxis for oral food challenges (OFCs) as 9% to 11%, little is known
      regarding the epidemiology of clinical OFCs across multiple centers in the United
      States. OBJECTIVE: To examine the epidemiology, symptoms, and treatment of
      clinical low-risk OFCs in the nonresearch setting. METHODS: Data were obtained
      from 2008 to 2013 through a physician survey in 5 food allergy centers
      geographically distributed across the United States. Allergic reaction rates and
      the association of reaction rates with year, hospital, and demographics were
      determined using a linear mixed model. Meta-analysis was used to pool the
      proportion of reactions and anaphylaxis with inverse-variance weights using a
      random-effects model with exact confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: A total of
      6,377 OFCs were performed, and the pooled estimate of anaphylaxis was 2% (95% CI,
      1%-3%). The rate of allergic reactions was 14% (95% CI, 13%-16%) and was
      consistent during the study period (P = .40). Reaction rates ranged from 13% to
      33%. Males reacted 16% more frequently than females (95% CI, 4%-37.5%; P = .04).
      Foods challenged in 2013 varied geographically, with peanut as the most
      challenged food in the Northeast, Midwest, and West and egg as the most
      challenged in the South. CONCLUSION: As the largest national survey of allergic
      reactions of clinical open OFCs in a nonresearch setting in the United States,
      this study found that performing clinical nonresearch open low-risk OFCs results
      in few allergic reactions, with 86% of challenges resulting in no reactions and
      98% without anaphylaxis.

PMID- 28890357
TI  - Treatment failure after interferon-free treatment of hepatitis C as a clue of a
      yet undetected hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28890358
TI  - Age-related differences in bimanual movements: A systematic review and meta
      analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: With increasing age motor functions decline. The additional
      challenges of executing bimanual movements further hinder motor functions in
      older adults. The current systematic review and meta-analysis determined the
      effects of healthy aging on performance in bimanual movements as compared to
      younger adults. METHODS: Our comprehensive search identified 27 studies that
      reported bimanual movement performance measures. Each study included a between
      groups comparison of older (mean age=68.79years) and younger adults (mean
      age=23.14years). The 27 qualified studies generated 40 total outcome measure
      comparisons: (a) accuracy: 18, (b) variability: 14, and (c) movement time: eight.
      RESULTS: Our meta-analysis conducted on a random effects model identified a
      relatively large negative standardized mean difference effect (ES=-0.93). This
      indicates that older adults exhibited more impaired bimanual movement performance
      in comparison to younger adults in our group of studies. Specifically, a
      moderator variable analysis revealed large negative effects in both accuracy (ES=
      0.94) and variability (ES=-1.00), as well as a moderate negative effect (ES=
      0.71) for movement time. These findings indicate that older adults displayed
      reduced accuracy, greater variability, and longer execution time when executing
      bimanual movements. CONCLUSION: These meta-analytic findings revealed that aging
      impairs bimanual movement performance.

PMID- 28890359
TI  - Optic atrophy 1 mediates coenzyme Q-responsive regulation of respiratory complex
      IV activity in brain mitochondria.
AB  - The oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in brain mitochondria is significantly lower in
      aged mice than in young mice, and the reduced OCR is rescued by administration of
      water-solubilized CoQ10 to aged mice via drinking water. However, the mechanism
      behind this remains unclear. Here, we show that the activity of respiratory
      complex IV (CIV) in brain mitochondria declined in aged mice than in young mice,
      with no significant change in individual respiratory complex levels and their
      supercomplex assembly. Reduced CIV activity in the aged mice coincided with
      reduced binding of optic atrophy 1 (OPA1) to CIV. Both reduced activity and OPA1
      binding of CIV were rescued by water-solubilized CoQ10 administration to aged
      mice via drinking water. OCR and the activity and OPA1 binding of CIV in isolated
      brain mitochondria from aged mice were restored by incubation with CoQ10, but not
      in the presence of 15-deoxy-prostaglandin J2, an inhibitor of a GTPase effector
      domain-containing GTPase such as OPA1 and DRP1. By contrast, the CoQ10-responsive
      restoration of OCR in the isolated mitochondria was not inhibited by Mdivi-1, a
      selective inhibitor of DRP1. Thus, we propose a novel function of OPA1 in
      regulating the CIV activity in brain mitochondria in response to CoQ10.

PMID- 28890361
TI  - Comprehensive Analysis of the Human SH3 Domain Family Reveals a Wide Variety of
      Non-canonical Specificities.
AB  - SH3 domains are protein modules that mediate protein-protein interactions in many
      eukaryotic signal transduction pathways. The majority of SH3 domains studied thus
      far act by binding to proline-rich sequences in partner proteins, but a growing
      number of studies have revealed alternative recognition mechanisms. We have
      comprehensively surveyed the specificity landscape of human SH3 domains in an
      unbiased manner using peptide-phage display and deep sequencing. Based on ~70,000
      unique binding peptides, we obtained 154 specificity profiles for 115 SH3
      domains, which reveal that roughly half of the SH3 domains exhibit non-canonical
      specificities and collectively recognize a wide variety of peptide motifs, most
      of which were previously unknown. Crystal structures of SH3 domains with two
      distinct non-canonical specificities revealed novel peptide-binding modes through
      an extended surface outside of the canonical proline-binding site. Our results
      constitute a significant contribution toward a complete understanding of the
      mechanisms underlying SH3-mediated cellular responses.

PMID- 28890360
TI  - Synergistic Regulation of Coregulator/Nuclear Receptor Interaction by Ligand and
      DNA.
AB  - Nuclear receptor (NR) transcription factors bind various coreceptors, small
      molecule ligands, DNA response element sequences, and transcriptional coregulator
      proteins to affect gene transcription. Small-molecule ligands and DNA are known
      to influence receptor structure, coregulator protein interaction, and function;
      however, little is known on the mechanism of synergy between ligand and DNA.
      Using quantitative biochemical, biophysical, and solution structural methods,
      including 13C-detected nuclear magnetic resonance and hydrogen/deuterium exchange
      (HDX) mass spectrometry, we show that ligand and DNA cooperatively recruit the
      intrinsically disordered steroid receptor coactivator-2 (SRC-2/TIF2/GRIP1/NCoA-2)
      receptor interaction domain to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma
      retinoid X receptor alpha (PPARgamma-RXRalpha) heterodimer and reveal the binding
      determinants of the complex. Our data reveal a thermodynamic mechanism by which
      DNA binding propagates a conformational change in PPARgamma-RXRalpha, stabilizes
      the receptor ligand binding domain dimer interface, and impacts ligand potency
      and cooperativity in NR coactivator recruitment.

PMID- 28890362
TI  - Microsecond Dynamics and Network Analysis of the HIV-1 SOSIP Env Trimer Reveal
      Collective Behavior and Conserved Microdomains of the Glycan Shield.
AB  - The trimeric HIV-1-envelope (Env) spike is one of the most glycosylated protein
      complexes known, with roughly half its mass comprising host-derived N-linked
      glycan. Here we use molecular dynamics to provide insight into its structural
      dynamics and into how both protomer and glycan movements coordinate to shield the
      Env protein surface. A 2-MUs molecular dynamics simulation of a fully
      glycosylated atomistic model of the HIV-1 SOSIP Env trimer revealed a spectrum of
      protomer-scissoring and trimer-opening movements. Network analysis showed that
      highly conserved glycans combined with protomer scissoring to restrict access to
      the binding site of the CD4 receptor. The network property of betweenness
      centrality appeared to identify whether glycans spread to restrict access or
      cluster to maintain the high-mannose character of the shield. We also observed
      stable microdomains comprising patches of glycan, with neutralizing antibodies
      generally binding at the interface between glycan microdomains. Overall, our
      results provide a microsecond-based understanding of the Env glycan shield.

PMID- 28890363
TI  - Relationship between the color stability and impurity profile of cefotaxime
      sodium.
AB  - The color grade, mainly introduced in the processes of semisynthesis and storage,
      is an important index used to evaluate the quality of cefotaxime sodium. Because
      the drug itself is prone to degradation under susceptible conditions, including
      those involving moisture, heat, ultraviolet light, acids, alkalis, and oxidants,
      and a series of degradation products as impurities are generated. In this study,
      the factors affecting color grade stability and the degradation mechanisms of
      cefotaxime sodium were investigated by designing different accelerated stability
      tests under the aforementioned conditions. The degradation extent was studied by
      using analytical methods, such as a solution color comparison method, ultraviolet
      spectrophotometry, and HPLC. The relationship between the color grade stability
      of cefotaxime sodium and its impurity profile has been explored, and a reasonable
      degradation mechanism has been proposed. The manufacturing conditions of
      inspection have been optimized, and a scientific basis for drug packaging,
      storage, and transportation conditions has been established. The results show
      that the color grade stability of cefotaxime sodium is related to the impurity
      profile to some degree, and the difference between the actual color and the
      standard color can reflect the levels of impurities to some extent.

PMID- 28890364
TI  - Sequential screening by ClonePix FL and intracellular staining facilitate
      isolation of high producer cell lines for monoclonal antibody manufacturing.
AB  - Screening and characterization of cell lines for stable production are critical
      tasks in identifying suitable recombinant cell lines for the manufacture of
      protein therapeutics. To aid this essential function we have developed a
      methodology for the selection of antibody expressing cells using fluorescence
      based ClonePix FL colony isolation and flow cytometry analysis following
      intracellular staining for immunoglobulin G (IgG). Our data show that
      characterization of cells by flow cytometry early in the clone selection process
      enables the identification of cell lines with the potential for high productivity
      and helps to eliminate unstable cell lines. We further demonstrate a correlation
      between specific productivity (qP) and intracellular heavy chain (HC) content
      with final productivity. The unique combination of screening using ClonePix FL
      and the flow cytometry approaches facilitated more efficient isolation of clonal
      cell lines with high productivity within a 15week timeline and which can be
      applied across NS0 and CHO host platforms. Furthermore, in this study we describe
      the critical parameters for the ClonePix FL colony based selection and the
      associated calculations to provide an assessment of the probability of
      monoclonality of the resulting cell lines.

PMID- 28890365
TI  - Detection and quantification of rituximab in the human urine.
AB  - B cell depletion by rituximab treatment might be inefficient in patients
      suffering from nephrotic syndrome. Due to the impaired glomerular filtration
      barrier a significant portion of the therapeutic antibody might be lost into the
      urinary space. In order to determine the amount of rituximab in the urine of such
      patients, CD20+ Daudi cells were stained with the patients' urine followed by a
      fluorochrome-labeled secondary antibody. Mean fluorescence intensity of that way
      labeled Daudi cells was determined by flow cytometry. Control samples with
      defined rituximab concentrations were used to create standard curves. The
      analyses revealed that all nephelometric IgG+ urine samples tested also
      manifested rituximab at concentrations between 100 and 46,707MUg/L. The flow
      cytometry-based approach is an easy and reliable method to assess rituximab in
      patients' urine samples for monitoring individual rituximab treatment courses in
      all patients co-presenting impaired renal filtration. Presence of such antibodies
      in the urine could be considered as criteria to modify the formulation or
      modality of rituximab delivery in order to prevent the loss of the therapeutic
      antibodies and thereby ensuring efficacy of the therapy.

PMID- 28890366
TI  - Increasing adult hippocampal neurogenesis in mice after exposure to unpredictable
      chronic mild stress may counteract some of the effects of stress.
AB  - Major depression is hypothesized to be associated with dysregulations of the
      hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and impairments in adult hippocampal
      neurogenesis. Adult-born hippocampal neurons are required for several effects of
      antidepressants and increasing the rate of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN)
      before exposure to chronic corticosterone is sufficient to protect against its
      harmful effects on behavior. However, it is an open question if increasing AHN
      after the onset of chronic stress exposure would be able to rescue behavioral
      deficits and which mechanisms might be involved in recovery. We investigated this
      question by using a 10-week unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) model on a
      transgenic mouse line (iBax mice), in which the pro-apoptotic gene Bax can be
      inducibly ablated in neural stem cells following Tamoxifen injection, therefore
      enhancing the survival of newborn neurons in the adult brain. We did not observe
      any effect of our treatment in non-stress conditions, but we did find that
      increasing AHN after 2 weeks of UCMS is sufficient to counteract the effects of
      UCMS on certain behaviors (splash test and changes in coat state) and endocrine
      levels and thus to display some antidepressant-like effects. We observed that
      increasing AHN lowered the elevated basal corticosterone levels in mice exposed
      to UCMS. This was accompanied by a tamoxifen-induced reversal of the lack of
      stress-induced decrease in neuronal activation in the anteromedial division of
      the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTMA) after intrahippocampal
      dexamethasone infusion, pointing to a possible mechanism through which adult-born
      neurons might have exerted their effects. Our results contribute to the
      neurogenesis hypothesis of depression by suggesting that increasing AHN may be
      beneficial not just before, but also after exposure to stress by counteracting
      several of its effects, in part through regulating the HPA axis.

PMID- 28890367
TI  - Enhanced anandamide signaling reduces flight behavior elicited by an approaching
      robo-beetle.
AB  - Our current knowledge of the implications of endocannabinoids in fear and anxiety
      is largely based on fear conditioning paradigms and approach-avoidance conflicts.
      Here we establish the ethobehavioral beetle mania task (BMT), which confronts
      mice with an erratically moving robo-beetle. With the help of this task we
      demonstrate decreased tolerance yet increased avoidance responses to an
      approaching beetle in high-anxiety behavior (HAB) and BALBc mice compared to
      C57BL/6N, CD1 and normal-anxiety behavior (NAB) mice. Also DBA/2N mice showed
      decreased passive and increased active behavior, but followed the robo-beetle
      more often than HAB and BALBc mice. Treatment with diazepam (1 mg/kg) increased
      tolerance without affecting avoidance behavior in HAB mice. Treatment with the
      MAGL inhibitor JZL184 (8 mg/kg) increased flight behavior, but did not affect
      tolerance. The FAAH inhibitor URB597 (0.3 mg/kg), however, reduced flight
      behavior and enhanced tolerance to the robo-beetle. The latter effects were
      blocked by co-treatment with the CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716A (3 mg/kg),
      which failed to affect the behavior by itself. Taken together, we validate the
      BMT as a novel test for studying endocannabinoids beyond traditional paradigms
      and for assessing active fear responses in mice. Furthermore, we demonstrate
      panicolytic consequences of pharmacological enhancement of anandamide, but not 2
      AG signaling.

PMID- 28890368
TI  - CYP17A1-independent production of the neurosteroid-derived 5alpha-pregnan
      3beta,6alpha-diol-20-one in androgen-responsive prostate cancer cell lines under
      serum starvation and inhibition by Abiraterone.
AB  - CYP17A1-independent intratumoral steroid hormone synthesis is regarded as one
      possible explanation for resistance to treatment with the CYP17-inhibitor
      Abiraterone (Abi). The aim of our study was therefore to investigate the steroid
      metabolism of prostate cancer cells under serum starvation and the effects of Abi
      treatment. We assessed steroid metabolism in a panel of prostate cancer cells
      under serum starvation by radioactivity detector-coupled HPLC and HPLC-ESI-ToF
      mass spectrometry after treatment with pregnenolone, progesterone and
      allopregnanolone. We further evaluated the effects of Abi on steroid metabolism
      of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) by
      enzyme immunoassays (EIAs). Androgen-responsive cell lines metabolized
      pregnenolone primarily to mitogenic steroid 5alpha-pregnan-3beta,6alpha-diol-20
      one under serum starvation. Co-administration of Abi lead to detectable
      concentrations of the Abi metabolite Delta4-Abi (D4A), known to inhibit enzymes
      other than CYP17A1 in steroid metabolism. In addition, co-administration of Abi
      abrogated pregnenolone metabolism and resulted in a CYP17A1-independent
      significant increase of DHEA (13- to >100-fold) and DHT (2.5-fold) in androgen
      responsive cells. Our results demonstrate the CYP17A1-independent formation of
      5alpha-pregnan-3beta,6alpha-diol-20-one by androgen-responsive prostate cancer
      cells under serum starvation and its inhibition by Abi. Its metabolism from
      pregnenolone suggests a major steroidogenesis shift in these cells, hinting at a
      neuroendocrine transdifferentiation phenomenon. The marked increase of DHEA
      levels by Abi resembles the steroidogenic pathways in nervous tissue, in a manner
      that precludes CYP17A1 activity. To which extent these processes are responsible
      or involved in the development of resistance to Abi, needs to be further
      elucidated.

PMID- 28890370
TI  - A mechanistic insight into protein-ligand interaction, folding, misfolding,
      aggregation and inhibition of protein aggregates: An overview.
AB  - This review article summarises the possible mechanisms of the protein-ligand
      interaction, folding, misfolding, aggregation and inhibition of protein
      aggregates. Under certain stressed condition the folding process deviates from
      its path and results into misfolding and aggregation of proteins. So aggregates
      have to be inhibited in order to cure the diseases. In some cases of protein
      ligand interaction studies we have seen that the interaction of a protein with
      more than one ligand may show both type of quenching mechanisms i.e. dynamic as
      well as static quenching rather than single type of quenching mechanism, that
      result can be entirely different by the result of binding study utilising single
      ligand. So, likewise it is hypothesized that if the aggregates are inhibited by
      using more than one inhibitor may give more fruitful results rather than
      application of single inhibitor in inhibition and disaggregation of the preformed
      aggregates. Therefore, we have hypothesized mechanisms for the inhibition of
      protein aggregates that may assist in curing the neurodegenerative diseases.
      Thus, besides the mechanism of protein-ligand interaction, folding, misfolding
      and aggregation; the hypothesized mechanisms for the inhibition of protein
      aggregates may show new route to researchers either directly or indirectly in
      treating the diseases.

PMID- 28890369
TI  - Selenium incorporated guar gum nanoparticles safeguard mitochondrial
      bioenergetics during ischemia reperfusion injury in H9c2 cardiac cells.
AB  - The application of nanotechnology has created high impact in diagnosis and
      prognosis of various disorders including cardiovascular diseases. In the present
      study, we investigated the beneficial effect of selenium incorporated guar gum
      nanoparticles (SGG) compared to nascent selenium (Se) and guar gum nanoparticles
      (GGN) against ischemiareperfusion (IR) induced alterations in oxidative
      phosphorylation and energy metabolism in H9c2 cardiac cells. Ischemia and
      reperfusion were induced for 1h. The alterations in activities of various
      complexes (complex 1, II, III and IV) of mitochondrial electron transport chain
      (ETC), aconitase activity, oxygen consumption rate, and the ATP content were
      seen. The role of heat shock protein, hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha and atrial
      natriuretic factor (ANP) were also analyzed. Then the beneficial properties of
      various particles like Se, GGN and SGG were evaluated. Among these, SGG treatment
      (1 and 5ng) was found to be more beneficial compared to other particles. Overall
      results reveal that SGG nanoparticles are effective in protecting H9c2 cardiac
      cells from IR injury via improving the efficiency of ETC in H9c2 cells.

PMID- 28890371
TI  - The application of chitosan/collagen/hyaluronic acid sponge cross-linked by
      dialdehyde starch addition as a matrix for calcium phosphate in situ
      precipitation.
AB  - Scaffolds based on chitosan, collagen and hyaluronic acid, cross-linked by
      dialdehyde starch were obtained through the freeze-drying method. The porous
      structures were used as matrixes for calcium phosphate in situ precipitation.
      Composites were characterized by different analyses, e.g. infrared spectroscopy,
      SEM images, porosity, density, and mechanical tests. Moreover, an examination
      involving the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopic method was carried out for
      the calcium and phosphorus ratio determination. In addition, the adhesion and
      proliferation of human osteosarcoma SaOS-2 cells were examined on the obtained
      scaffolds. The results showed that the properties of the scaffolds based on
      chitosan, collagen, and hyaluronic acid can be modified by dialdehyde starch
      addition. The mechanical parameters (i.e. compressive modulus and maximum
      compressive force), porosity, and density of the material were improved. Calcium
      phosphate was deposited in the scaffolds at the Ca/P ratio ~2. SEM images showed
      the homogeneous structure, with interconnected pores. The cross-linker addition
      and an inorganic compound precipitation improved the biocompatibility of the
      scaffolds. The obtained materials can provide the support required in tissue
      engineering and regenerative medicine.

PMID- 28890372
TI  - Thermal-oxidative effect of Kraft lignin antioxidant in polypropylene: Uncovering
      the key factor using correlation analysis model.
AB  - Which factors are crucial to improving lignin antioxidant ability in polymers has
      been debated over years. Here, the structural effect of natural antioxidant from
      technical Kraft lignin (KL) on the oxidation induction time (OIT) of
      KL/polypropylene (PP) was quantitatively investigated using correlation analysis
      model instead of traditional linear fitting model. The correlation coefficient
      and significance value of their relationship clearly demonstrated the dominating
      role of non-condensed Phenolic OH (Ph-OH) in improving KL/PP thermal-oxidation
      stability, subsequently followed by M-n, aliphatic OH/total Ph-OH, condensed Ph
      OH and polydispersity. OIT is positive with non-condensed and total Ph-OH, while
      it declines with increase of the above other factors. Remarkably, the longest OIT
      (~90min) was obtained even at extreme loading (0.5wt%), almost ~911% and ~201%
      huge increase in contrast to that of pure PP and crude KL/PP composite,
      respectively. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties of KL fractions/PP blends can
      be maintained at the same or better level than that of pure PP, due to strong
      interfacial adhesion strength.

PMID- 28890373
TI  - Fabrication of ofloxacin imprinted polymer on the surface of magnetic
      carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals for highly selective adsorption of
      fluoroquinolones from water.
AB  - A novel adsorbent with high selectivity for fluoroquinolone (FQ) compounds was
      developed, based on the surface functionalization of magnetic carboxylated
      cellulose nanocrystals (M-CCNs) with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)
      comprising amine moieties. The imprinting was achieved by a radical
      polymerization technique, which uses glycidyl methacrylate,
      tetraethylenepentamine, ofloxacin, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, and
      azobisisobutyronitrile as the functional monomer, active groups provider,
      template molecule, crosslinking agent, and initiator, respectively. The developed
      material (M-CCNs@MIP) was comprehensively characterized and shown to exhibit high
      adsorption capacity and selectivity with rapid equilibration time. Moreover, the
      adsorption isotherms could be well-fitted with the Freundlich model, and the
      adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model. The maximum
      adsorption capacities for M-CCNs@MIP after 2 and 20min were 34.09 and 40.65mgg-1,
      respectively, compared to 9.98 and 15.28mgg-1 observed for the unimprinted
      polymer (M-CCNs@NIP). By coupling the M-CCNs@MIP adsorbent with high-performance
      liquid chromatography, an approach was established to enhance the selective
      adsorption of seven structurally similar FQ compounds in river water samples. The
      recoveries of the seven FQs ranged from 81.2 to 93.7%, and the limits of
      detection were between 5.4 and 12.0ngmL-1. The M-CCNs@MIP adsorbent also retained
      good performance after seven consecutive cycles of reuse.

PMID- 28890374
TI  - Physico-mechanical and structural properties of eggshell membrane gelatin-
      chitosan blend edible films.
AB  - This study investigated the physico-mechanical and structural properties of
      composite edible films based on eggshell membrane gelatin (G) and chitosan (Ch)
      (75G:25Ch, 50G:50Ch, 25G:75Ch). The results demonstrated that the addition of Ch
      increased elongation at break significantly (p<0.05), but resulted in no
      significant change in tensile strength (TS) using 75G:25Ch, 50G:50Ch mixtures in
      comparison with gelatin-based film. The water solubility and water vapor
      permeability of the 50G:50Ch film decreased significantly compared to plain films
      (100G:0Ch and 0G:100Ch) and other composite films (p<0.05). Fourier transform
      infrared spectroscopy evaluation of structural properties showed that both
      polymers are totally miscible. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the
      morphology of the composite films; it revealed a homogenous and compact structure
      in 75G:25Ch and 50G:50 Ch. Also, the chemical interactions introduced by the
      addition of chitosan to eggshell membrane gelatin as new resources could improve
      the films' functional properties.

PMID- 28890375
TI  - Anti-inflammatory properties of GLPss58, a sulfated polysaccharide from Ganoderma
      lucidum.
AB  - Sulfated polysaccharides exhibit various biological properties, including anti
      coagulant, anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and immune
      regulatory activities. In the present study, the anti-inflammatory properties of
      GLPss58, a sulfated polysaccharide from Ganoderma lucidum formed by chemical
      sulfation, were investigated. We found that GLPss58 inhibited L-selectin/sTyr
      sLeX binding significantly, blocked the binding of anti-l-selectin antibodies to
      L-selectin on the surface of human peripheral blood lymphocytes, and inhibited
      the secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine-induced chemotactic invasion of HPBLs. In
      vivo studies in mice showed that lymphocyte homing from peripheral blood to
      spleen and lymph nodes was significantly inhibited by GLPss58. Furthermore,
      GLPss58 also inhibited the activation of complement systems and blocked the
      binding of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma to their antibodies. These results indicate
      that GLPss58 is able to inhibit not only the L-selectin-mediated inflammation,
      but also the complement system- and cytokines mediated-inflammation. Our results
      suggest that GLPss58 is a favorable potential anti-inflammatory agent.

PMID- 28890376
TI  - An unfolding story: Small molecules remedy misfolded monoamine transporters.
AB  - The key role of monoamine transporters is to take up neurotransmitters from the
      synaptic cleft and rapidly terminate neurotransmission. Monoamine transporters
      begin their journey by folding in the endoplasmic reticulum. Upon achieving their
      natively-folded state, the oligomerized transporters engage the coat protein
      complex II machinery and exit the endoplasmic reticulum compartment in a
      concentrative fashion. The transporters are subsequently sorted in the
      endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi intermediate complex and the Golgi apparatus, prior
      to reaching their pivotal site of action at the plasma membrane. Stringent
      quality-control mechanisms ensure that only the correctly-folded protein cargo
      departs the endoplasmic reticulum. Genetic point mutations in the coding
      sequences of monoamine transporters can trigger severe physiologic deficiencies
      by inducing folding defects. Protein misfolding precludes the delivery of
      functional monoamine transporters to the cell surface. Chemical- and/or
      pharmacological-chaperone molecules, which facilitate folding, have proven
      effective in restoring the activity of several misfolded pathological variants of
      monoamine transporters.

PMID- 28890377
TI  - Molecular characterization and functional analysis of chalcone synthase from
      Syringa oblata Lindl. in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway.
AB  - The flower color of Syringa oblata Lindl., which is often modulated by the
      flavonoid content, varies and is an important ornamental feature. Chalcone
      synthase (CHS) catalyzes the first key step in the flavonoid biosynthetic
      pathway. However, little is known about the role of S. oblata CHS (SoCHS) in
      flavonoid biosynthesis in this species. Here, we isolate and analyze the cDNA
      (SoCHS1) that encodes CHS in S. oblata. We also sought to analyzed the molecular
      characteristics and function of flavonoid metabolism by SoCHS1. We successfully
      isolated the CHS-encoding genomic DNA (gDNA) in S. oblata (SoCHS1), and the gene
      structural analysis indicated it had no intron. The opening reading frame (ORF)
      sequence of SoCHS1 was 1170bp long and encoded a 389-amino acid polypeptide.
      Multiple sequence alignment revealed that both the conserved CHS active site
      residues and CHS signature sequence were in the deduced amino acid sequence of
      SoCHS1. Crystallographic analysis revealed that the protein structure of SoCHS1
      is highly similar to that of FnCHS1 in Freesia hybrida. The quantitative real
      time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed to detect the SoCHS1 transcript
      expression levels in flowers, and other tissues revealed the expression was
      significantly correlated with anthocyanin accumulation during flower development.
      The ectopic expression results of Nicotiana tabacum showed that SoCHS1
      overexpression in transgenic tobacco changed the flower color from pale pink to
      pink. In conclusion, these results suggest that SoCHS1 plays an essential role in
      flavonoid biosynthesis in S. oblata, and could be used to modify flavonoid
      components in other plant species.

PMID- 28890378
TI  - MicroRNA-219-5p inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of epithelial
      ovarian cancer cells by targeting the Twist/Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.
AB  - MicroRNAs are emerging as critical regulators in various fundamental biological
      processes, including tumor progression. MicroRNA-219-5p (miR-219-5p) has been
      suggested as a novel tumor suppressing miRNA for many types of human cancers.
      However, the expression and functional significance of miR-219-5p in epithelial
      ovarian cancer remain poorly understood. In this study, we sought to explore the
      potential functions of miR-219-5p in epithelial ovarian cancer. Herein, we found
      that miR-219-5p levels were significantly decreased in epithelial ovarian cancer
      tissues and cell lines. Further experiments showed that overexpression of miR-219
      5p inhibited epithelial ovarian cancer cell proliferation, migration, and
      invasion, and suppressed the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. By contrast,
      suppression of miR-219-5p exhibited the opposite effects. Twist was identified as
      a downstream target of miR-219-5p, and its expression was directly regulated by
      miR-219-5p. Restoration of Twist expression in miR-219-5p-overexpresing cells
      significantly reversed the antitumor effects of miR-219-5p. Taken together, our
      results revealed a tumor suppressive role for miR-219-5p in epithelial ovarian
      cancer that includes suppression of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion
      through downregulation of the Twist/Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. Our study
      suggests that miR-219-5p may have potential applications in the diagnosis and
      treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.

PMID- 28890379
TI  - Characterization of conserved and novel miRNAs using deep sequencing and
      prediction of miRNA targets in Crucian carp (Carassius auratus).
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous small non-coding RNAs of -22
      nucleotides that can base pair with their target mRNAs, which represses their
      translation or induces their degradation in various biological processes.
      However, little is known about identification of miRNAs and their target genes in
      C. auratus. In the present study, a small RNA library from pooled tissue of C.
      auratus was constructed and sequenced using the deep sequencing. A total of 320
      conserved miRNAs (belonging to 105 families) as well as 11 potentially novel
      miRNAs were identified. Stem-loop qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that both conserved
      and novel miRNAs were expressed in C. auratus, and some of them were
      preferentially expressed in certain tissues. Subsequently, a total of 1668
      potential target genes were predicted for these identified miRNAs and GO analysis
      showed that most of the targets were involved in lots of physiological actions.
      This study represents a first large-scale identification and characterization of
      C. auratus miRNAs and their potential target genes. Taken together, our results
      add new information to existing data on C. auratus miRNAs and should be useful
      for investigating the biological functions of miRNAs in fishes and other aquatic
      species.

PMID- 28890380
TI  - Risk of Exclusion From Stroke Rehabilitation in the Oldest Old.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether oldest-old age (>=85y) is an independent
      predictor of exclusion from stroke rehabilitation. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort
      study. SETTING: Stroke unit (SU) of a tertiary hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Elderly
      patients (N=1055; aged 65-74y, n=230; aged 75-84y, n=432; aged >=85y, n=393) who,
      between 2009 and 2012, were admitted to the SU with acute stroke and evaluated by
      a multiprofessional team for access to rehabilitation. The study excluded
      patients for whom rehabilitation was unnecessary or inappropriate. INTERVENTIONS:
      Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Access to an early mobilization (EM)
      protocol during SU stay and subsequent access to postacute rehabilitation after
      SU discharge. Analyses were adjusted for prestroke and stroke-related
      characteristics. RESULTS: 32.2% of patients were excluded from EM. Multivariable
      adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of EM exclusion were 1.30 (95% confidence interval
      [CI], .76-2.21) for ages 75 to 84 years and 2.07 (95% CI, 1.19-3.59) for ages
      >=85 years compared with ages 65 to 74 years. Of 656 patients admitted to EM and
      who, at SU discharge, had not yet fully recovered their prestroke functional
      status, 18.4% were excluded from postacute rehabilitation. For patients able to
      walk unassisted at SU discharge, the probability of exclusion did not change
      across age groups. For patients unable to walk unassisted at SU discharge, ORs of
      exclusion from postacute rehabilitation were 3.74 (95% CI, 1.26-11.13) for ages
      75 to 84 years and 9.15 (95% CI, 3.05-27.46) for ages >=85 years compared with
      ages 65 to 74 years. CONCLUSIONS: Oldest-old age is an independent predictor of
      exclusion from stroke rehabilitation.

PMID- 28890381
TI  - Link Between Parkinson Disease and Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder
      With Dream Enactment: Possible Implications for Early Rehabilitation.
AB  - The purpose of this article is 2-fold: first, to inform readers of the link
      between the loss of motor inhibition during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
      dreaming, diagnosed as REM sleep behavior disorder, and the future onset of
      neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson disease and dementia with Lewy
      bodies; it has been reported that motor disinhibition during REM sleep often
      precedes the onset of these disorders by years or even decades; second, to
      consider that the identification of REM sleep behavior disorder and the early
      involvement of rehabilitation and/or development of home exercise plans may aid
      in prolonging and even increasing function, independence, and quality of life,
      should such neurodegenerative disorders develop later in life.

PMID- 28890382
TI  - In vitro genotoxicity and in vivo subchronic evaluation of the anti-inflammatory
      pyrazole compound LQFM021.
AB  - Scientific evidences have highlighted 5-(1-(3-fluorophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-2H
      tetrazole (LQFM021) as a promising anti-inflammatory, analgesic and
      antinociceptive agent due to its effects on peripheral opioid receptors
      associated with activation of the nitric oxide/cGMP/KATP pathway. Despite these
      important pharmacological findings, toxicity data of LQFM021 are scarce. Thus,
      this study investigated the in vitro genotoxicity of LQFM021 through cytokinesis
      block micronucleus assay (OECD No 487/2014). Moreover, zebrafish model was used
      to assess the embryotoxicity potential of LQFM021 using fish embryo toxicity test
      (OECD No 236/2013) with extended exposure to evaluate subchronic larval
      development. In vivo subchronic toxicity of LQFM021 in rats (OECD No 407/2008)
      was also conducted. This compound at the lower concentrations tested (3.1 and 31
      MUg/mL) did not promote changes in micronuclei frequency in HepG2 cells. However,
      in the higher concentrations of LQFM021 (310 and 620 MUg/mL) triggered a
      significant increase of micronucleated HepG2 cells, showing an alert signal of
      potential genotoxicity. Regarding the oral treatment of rats with LQFM021 (62.5,
      125 or 250 mg/kg) for 28 days, the main findings showed that LQFM021 promoted
      renal and liver changes in a dose-dependent manner, being irreversible damage for
      kidneys while liver tissue showed a recovery after 14 days post treatment.
      Regarding embryotoxicity, although the lower concentrations used did not show
      toxicity, the concentration of LQFM021 (39.8 and 100 mg/L) promoted malformations
      in zebrafish embryo-larvae stage, in especial cardiac tissue changes. In
      conclusion, anti-inflammatory compound LQFM021 seems to have some limiting
      factors as a new therapeutic option to be used orally and in high repeated doses,
      related to those found in the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

PMID- 28890383
TI  - Interaction between rhein acyl glucuronide and methotrexate based on human
      organic anion transporters.
AB  - Rhein, a major bioactive compound of many medicinal herbs and the prodrug of
      diacerein, is often used with low dose of methotrexate as drug combination to
      treat rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, potential drug-drug interaction
      between methotrexate and rhein was investigated based on organic anion
      transporters (OAT). Our study demonstrated that rhein acyl glucuronide (RAG), the
      major metabolite of rhein in the human blood circulation, significantly inhibited
      the uptake of p-aminohippurate in hOAT1 transfected cells with IC50 value of 691
      nM and estrone sulfate uptake in hOAT3 transfected cells with IC50 value of 78.5
      nM. As the substrate of both hOAT1 and hOAT3, the methotrexate transport was
      significantly inhibited by RAG in hOAT1 transfected cells at 50 MUM and hOAT3
      transfected cells at 1 MUM by 69% and 87%, respectively. Further in vivo study
      showed that after co-administrated with RAG in rats the AUC0-24 values of
      methotrexate increased from 3109 to 5370 ng/mL*hr and the t1/2 was prolonged by
      40.5% (from 7.4 to 10.4 h), demonstrating the inhibitory effect of RAG on
      methotrexate excretion. In conclusion, rhein acyl glucuronide could significantly
      decrease the transport of methotrexate by both hOAT1 and hOAT3. The combination
      use of rhein, diacerein or other rhein-containing herbs with methotrexate may
      cause obvious drug-drug interaction and require close monitoring for potential
      drug interaction in clinical practice.

PMID- 28890384
TI  - Design strategies for improved velocity-selective pulse sequences.
AB  - Over the years, a variety of MRI methods have been developed for visualizing or
      measuring blood flow without the use of contrast agents. One particular class of
      methods uses flow-encoding gradients associated with an RF pulse sequence to
      distinguish spins in flowing blood from stationary spins. While a strength of
      these particular methods is that, in general, they can be tailored to capture a
      desired range of blood flow, such sequences either do not provide a sharp
      transition from stationary spins to flowing spins, or else are long, generating
      relaxation losses and undesirable SAR, and have limited immunity to resonance
      offsets and to RF inhomogeneity. This article provides design methods for
      improving these longer RF pulse sequences, especially to provide improved
      immunity to RF inhomogeneity, and also to improve immunity to resonance offsets,
      as well as to minimize RF sequence length. These design methods retain the
      flexibility to capture a desired range of blood flow, with sharp transitions
      between stationary spins and flowing blood. These improvement strategies are
      demonstrated through Bloch equations simulations of examples of these new
      sequences in the presence of blood flow. Examples of improved sequences that
      should prove suitable for use at 3.0Tesla are presented.

PMID- 28890386
TI  - Co-targeting c-Met and DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs): Therapeutic strategies in
      BRCA-mutated gastric carcinomas.
AB  - Gastric cancer (GC) is a threatening malignancy characterized by heterogeneity.
      Current therapies use DNA damaging agents, for example, chemotherapeutic agents
      and ionizing radiation (IR). However, a significant portion of GC patients
      develops therapeutic resistance to DNA damage response (DDR) - inducing agents.
      An important mechanism is the stimulation of the c-MET RTK, which is a tyrosine
      kinase receptor and its ligand hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which facilitates
      cell survival by boosting DNA damage repair pathways and via escaping cell cycle
      arrest. A small subgroup of GC diagnosed patients has defects in BRCA1 and BRCA2
      as mediators of DNA repair proteins. BRCA1/2 related-tumors acquire resistance to
      chemotherapy through the DSBs (DNA double strand breaks) repair pathways.
      However, BRCA2-deficient cells, are vulnerable to PARP [poly (ADP-ribose)
      polymerase] inhibitors as the replication forks collapse and the DNA-induced
      damage is not reversed. Herein, we pose that taking into consideration the
      defective DDR machinery can trigger GC cell sensitization to therapies via
      inhibition of DNA repair response. Inhibition of DNA damage response axis may
      designate cancer cells with BRCAness (BRCA-mutant cells) more vulnerable to DNA
      damaging mediators, such as c-Met inhibitors.

PMID- 28890385
TI  - Reduced coronary reactive hyperemia in mice was reversed by the soluble epoxide
      hydrolase inhibitor (t-AUCB): Role of adenosine A2A receptor and plasma
      oxylipins.
AB  - Coronary reactive hyperemia (CRH) protects the heart against ischemia. Adenosine
      A2AAR-deficient (A2AAR-/-) mice have increased expression of soluble epoxide
      hydrolase (sEH); the enzyme responsible for breaking down the cardioprotective
      epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) to dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs). sEH
      inhibition enhances CRH, increases EETs, and modulates oxylipin profiles. We
      investigated the changes of oxylipins and their impact on CRH in A2AAR-/- and
      wild type (WT) mice. We hypothesized that the attenuated CRH in A2AAR-/- mice is
      mediated by changes in oxylipin profiles, and that it can be reversed by either
      sEH- or omega-hydroxylases-inhibition. Compared to WT mice, A2AAR-/- mice had
      attenuated CRH and changed oxylipin profiles, which were consistent between
      plasma and heart perfusate samples, including decreased EET/DHET ratios, and
      increased hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs). Plasma oxylipns in A2AAR-/- mice
      indicated an increased proinflammatory state including increased omega-terminal
      HETEs, decreased epoxyoctadecaenoic/dihydroxyoctadecaenoic acids (EpOMEs/DiHOMEs)
      ratios, increased 9-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid, and increased prostanoids.
      Inhibition of either sEH or omega-hydroxylases reversed the reduced CRH in A2AAR
      /- mice. In WT and sEH-/- mice, blocking A2AAR decreased CRH. These data
      demonstrate that A2AAR-deletion was associated with changes in oxylipin profiles,
      which may contribute to the attenuated CRH. Also, inhibition of sEH and omega
      hydroxylases reversed the reduction in CRH.

PMID- 28890387
TI  - Peptides derived from transcription factor EB bind to calcineurin at a similar
      region as the NFAT-type motif.
AB  - Calcineurin (CN) is involved in many physiological processes and interacts with
      multiple substrates. Most of the substrates contain similar motifs recognized by
      CN. Recent studies revealed a new CN substrate, transcription factor EB (TFEB),
      which is involved in autophagy. We showed that a 15-mer QSYLENPTSYHLQQS peptide
      from TFEB (TFEB-YLENP) bound to CN. When the TFEB-YLENP peptide was changed to
      YLAVP, its affinity for CN increased and it had stronger CN inhibitory activity.
      Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the TFEB-YLENP peptide has the same
      docking sites in CN as the 15-mer DQYLAVPQHPYQWAK motif of the nuclear factor of
      activated T cells, cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1-YLAVP). Moreover expression of the
      NFATc1-YLAVP peptide suppressed the TFEB activation in starved Hela cells. Our
      studies first identified a CN binding site in TFEB and compared the inhibitory
      capability of various peptides derived from CN substrates. The data uncovered a
      diversity in recognition sequences that underlies the CN signaling within the
      cell. Studies of CN-substrate interactions should lay the groundwork for
      developing selective CN peptide inhibitors that target CN-substrate interaction
      in vitro experiments.

PMID- 28890388
TI  - DHEA prevents ribavirin-induced anemia via inhibition of glucose-6-phosphate
      dehydrogenase.
AB  - Ribavirin has been widely used for antiviral therapy. Unfortunately, ribavirin
      induced anemia is often a cause of limiting or interrupting treatment. Our team
      has observed that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has a protective effect against
      in vitro and in vivo ribavirin-induced hemolysis. The aim of this study was to
      better understand this effect as well as the underlying mechanism(s). DHEA was
      able to reduce in vitro intraerythrocytic ATP depletion induced by ribavirin.
      Only 1% of ATP remained after incubation with ribavirin (2 mM) at 37  degrees C
      for 24 h vs. 37% if DHEA (200 MUM) was added (p < 0.01). DHEA also helped
      erythrocytes conserve their size, with a shrinkage of only 10% vs 40% at 24 h
      with ribavirin alone (p < 0.01), and reduced phosphatidylserine exposure at the
      outer membrane, i.e. 27% vs 40% at 48 h, (p < 0.05). DHEA also inhibits ribavirin
      induced hemolysis, i.e. 34% vs 46.5% at 72 h (p < 0.01). DHEA is an inhibitor of
      glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), a key enzyme in the hexose
      monophosphate shunt connected to the glycolytic pathway which is the only energy
      supplier of the red blood cell in the form of ATP. We have confirmed this
      inhibitory effect in the presence of ribavirin. All these observations suggest
      that ribavirin-induced hemolysis was initiated by ATP depletion, and that the
      inhibitory effect of DHEA on G6PD was able to rescue enough ATP to limit this
      hemolysis. This mechanism could be important for improving the therapeutic
      management of patients treated with ribavirin.

PMID- 28890390
TI  - Examining the "Veggie" personality: Results from a representative German sample.
AB  - An increasing proportion of people choose to follow a vegetarian diet. To date,
      however, little is known about if and how individual differences in personality
      relate to following a vegetarian diet. In the two studies presented here, we
      aimed to (1) estimate the prevalence of self-defined vegetarians in two waves of
      a German representative sample (N = 4496 and 5125, respectively), (2) analyze the
      effect of socio-demographic variables on dietary behavior, and (3) examine
      individual differences between vegetarians and meat eaters in personality traits,
      political attitudes, and health-related variables. In Study 1, a strict
      definition of vegetarians was used, while in Study 2 the definition was laxer, to
      include also individuals who only predominantly followed a vegetarian diet. The
      prevalence of self-defined vegetarians was 2.74% in Study 1, and 5.97% in Study
      2. Participants who were female, younger, and more educated were more likely to
      report following a vegetarian diet in both studies, and vegetarians had higher
      income as compared to meat eaters in Study 2. We also found differences between
      vegetarians and meat eaters with regard to personality traits, political
      attitudes, and health-related variables. Stepwise logistic regression analyses
      showed a unique effect beyond socio-demographic variables for openness (Studies 1
      and 2), conscientiousness (Study 1), trust (Study 2), conservatism (Studies 1 and
      2), and level of interest in politics (Study 1) on diet: Individuals with higher
      scores in openness and political interest had a higher probability of being
      vegetarian, whereas people with higher scores in conscientiousness and
      conservatism had a smaller likelihood of being vegetarian. We conclude that there
      are individual differences between vegetarians and meat eaters in socio
      demographics, personality traits, and political attitudes.

PMID- 28890389
TI  - Motor function deficits in the 12 month-old female 5xFAD mouse model of
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Motor problems occur early in some patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and as
      the disease progresses many patients develop motor dysfunction. Motor dysfunction
      has been reported in some mouse models of AD, including the 5xFAD mouse, thus
      this model may be particularly useful for studying motor dysfunction in AD. In
      order to determine the extent of motor dysfunction in these mice, we tested 11-13
      month old female 5xFAD and wildtype (WT) control mice in a battery of motor
      behaviour tasks. The 5xFAD mice showed hind limb clasping, weighed less and had
      slower righting reflexes than WT mice. In the open field, the 5xFAD mice
      travelled a shorter distance than the WT mice, spent less time moving and had a
      slower movement speed. The 5xFAD mice fell faster than the WT mice from the
      balance beam, wire suspension, grid suspension and rotarod tasks, indicating
      dysfunctions in balance, grip strength, motor co-ordination and motor learning.
      The 5xFAD mice had a short, shuffling gait with a shorter stride length than WT
      mice and had a slower swim speed. The 5xFAD mice also failed to show an acoustic
      startle response, likely due to motor dysfunction and previously reported hearing
      impairment. The 5xFAD mice did not show deficits in the ability of peripheral
      motor nerves to drive muscle output, suggesting that motor impairments are not
      due to dysfunction in peripheral motor nerves. These results indicate that the
      aged 5xFAD mice are deficient in numerous motor behaviours, and suggest that
      these mice may prove to be a good model for studying the mechanisms of motor
      dysfunction in AD, and motor behaviour might prove useful for assessing the
      efficacy of AD therapeutics. Motor dysfunction in 5xFAD mice must also be
      considered in behavioural tests of sensory and cognitive function so that
      performance is not confounded by impaired locomotor or swimming behaviour.

PMID- 28890391
TI  - Learned pleasure from eating: An opportunity to promote healthy eating in
      children?
AB  - Across the lifespan, eating is a common everyday act driven by the search for
      pleasure and reinforced by experienced pleasure. Pleasure is an innate indicator
      of the satisfaction of physiological needs, in addition to other attributes.
      Pleasure from eating is also learned and contributes to the development of
      children's eating habits, which remain mostly stable until adulthood. Based on
      classical models of determinants of food consumption behaviour, we identified
      three dimensions of pleasure from eating learned during childhood: 1/the sensory
      dimension, i.e., pleasure from sensory sensations during food consumption; 2/the
      interpersonal dimension, i.e., pleasure from the social context of food
      consumption; and 3/the psychosocial dimension, i.e., pleasure from cognitive
      representations of food. The objective of this narrative review is to explore
      whether these three dimensions may play a role in promotion of healthy eating
      behaviour among children. Up to now, it was assumed that providing nutritional
      information, pointing out which types of foods are "good" or "bad" for health,
      would drive healthier food choices in children. Today, we know that such
      strategies based on a cognitive approach toward eating have a limited impact on
      healthy choices and can even be counter-productive, leading children to avoid
      healthy foods. In the context of increasing rates of childhood obesity, new
      perspectives are needed to build efficient interventions that might help children
      adopt a healthy diet. This review suggests new directions for further research to
      test the efficacy of novel interventions that emphasize pleasure from eating.

PMID- 28890392
TI  - Natural History and Predictors of Parastomal Hernia after Robot-Assisted Radical
      Cystectomy and Ileal Conduit Urinary Diversion.
AB  - PURPOSE: We investigated the prevalence of and variables associated with
      parastomal hernia and its outcomes after robot-assisted radical cystectomy and
      ileal conduit creation for bladder cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We
      retrospectively reviewed the records of patients who underwent robot-assisted
      radical cystectomy at our institution. Parastomal hernia was defined as the
      protrusion of abdominal contents through the stomal defect in the abdominal wall
      on cross-sectional imaging. Parastomal hernia was further described in terms of
      patient and hernia characteristics, symptoms, management and outcomes. The Kaplan
      Meier method was used to determine time to parastomal hernia and time to surgery.
      Multivariate stepwise logistic regression was done to evaluate variables
      associated with parastomal hernia. RESULTS: A total of 383 patients underwent
      robot-assisted radical cystectomy and ileal conduit creation. Of the patients 75
      (20%) had parastomal hernia, which was symptomatic in 23 (31%), and 11 (15%)
      underwent treatment. Median time to parastomal hernia was 13 months (IQR 9-22).
      Parastomal hernia developed in 9%, 23% and 32% of cases at 1, 2 and 3 years,
      respectively. Patients with parastomal hernia had a significantly higher body
      mass index (30 vs 28 kg/m2, p = 0.02), longer overall operative time (357 vs 340
      minutes, p = 0.01) and greater blood loss (325 vs 250 ml, p = 0.04). On
      multivariate analysis operative time (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.21-3.90, p <0.001), a
      fascial defect 30 mm or greater (OR 5.23, 95% CI 2.32-11.8, p <0.001) and a lower
      postoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.21-3.90, p
      = 0.01) were significantly associated with parastomal hernia. CONCLUSIONS:
      Symptoms develop in approximately a third of patients with parastomal hernia and
      15% will require surgery. The risk of parastomal hernia plateaued after
      postoperative year 3. Longer operative time, a larger fascial defect and lower
      postoperative kidney function were associated with parastomal hernia.

PMID- 28890394
TI  - On the antiviral activity and developmental toxicity of 6-methylmercaptopurine
      riboside (6MMPr).

PMID- 28890393
TI  - Antiviral activity of arbidol hydrochloride against herpes simplex virus I in
      vitro and in vivo.
AB  - Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) causes significant human diseases ranging
      from skin lesions to encephalitis, especially in neonates and immunocompromised
      hosts. The discovery of novel anti-HSV-1 drugs with low toxicity is required for
      public health. Arbidol hydrochloride (ARB) is an indole derivative molecule with
      broad-spectrum antiviral activity. In this study, the antiviral effects of ARB
      against HSV-1 infection were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The results showed
      that ARB presents significant inhibitory effect on HSV-1 plaque formation and
      generation of progeny virus, with EC50 values (50% effective concentration) of
      5.39 ug/mL (10.49 uM) and 2.26 ug/mL (4.40 uM), respectively. Moreover, time-of
      addition and time-of-removal assays further suggested that ARB has viral
      inhibitory effects when added up to 12 h post-infection (p.i.), which could be
      further corroborated by determining the expression of viral immediate-early
      (ICP4, ICP22 and ICP27), early (ICP8 and UL42) and late (gB, gD, gH, VP1/2 and
      VP16) genes by real-time quantitative PCR as well as the expression of viral
      protein ICP4 and ICP8 at 6 h and 12 h p.i. Results of the in vivo study showed
      that ARB could reduce guinea pig skin lesions caused by HSV-1 infection.
      Conclusively, this report offers new perspectives in the search for therapeutic
      measures in the treatment of HSV-1 infection.

PMID- 28890395
TI  - The antifungal arsenal: alternative drugs and future targets.
AB  - Clinically available antifungals for the treatment of invasive fungal infections
      primarily target either ergosterol in the fungal cell membrane or 1,3-beta-D
      glucan in the fungal cell wall. These classes include the polyene amphotericin B,
      the triazoles, and the echinocandins. Although newer antifungals and improved
      formulations of others have advanced our ability to treat patients with invasive
      mycoses, these drugs are often limited by toxicities, drug interactions, and the
      need for intravenous administration. Several investigational agents are currently
      under development. These include those that also target either ergosterol or 1,3
      beta-D-glucan, but have advantages over currently available drugs. Among these
      are the tetrazoles VT-1129, VT-1161, and VT-1598 that are more specific for
      fungal Cyp51 and less so for mammalian CYP 450 enzymes, the echinocandin CD101
      that has an extended half-life, and the glucan synthase inhibitor SCY-078, which
      is being developed for oral administration. In addition, several agents with
      novel mechanisms of action are also under development. These include the inositol
      acyltransferase AX001, the dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor F901318, and VL
      2397, which is similar in structure to the siderophore ferrichrome. In addition
      to possibly overcoming the limitations of currently available antifungals, these
      newer agents may be less susceptible to mechanisms of resistance that may render
      antifungals ineffective. Each of these investigational agents has the potential
      to improve patient outcomes in the treatment of invasive mycoses.

PMID- 28890396
TI  - MiR-525-3p mediates antiviral defense to rotavirus infection by targeting
      nonstructural protein 1.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides that post
      transcriptionally regulate gene expression by controlling mRNA stability or
      translation. They play critical roles in intricate networks of host-pathogen
      interactions and innate immunity. Rotaviruses (RVs) are the leading cause of
      severe diarrhea among infants and young children worldwide. This study was
      undertaken to demonstrate the importance of cellular miRNAs during RV (human Wa
      RV or Rhesus RV) strains infection. Twenty-nine differentially regulated miRNAs
      were identified during RV infection, and miR-525-3p was downregulated and
      validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). MiR-525
      3p mimic inhibited RV replication in dose-dependent manner. Correspondingly, the
      miR-525-3p inhibitors enhanced RV replication. We confirmed that miR-525-3p was
      complementary to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of nonstructural protein
      1(NSP1) of RV (Wa or Rhesus) strains. Interestingly, miR-525-3p induced type I
      interferon (IFN) expression and proinflammatory cytokines during RV infection
      through IFN regulatory factor (IRF) 3/IRF7 and NF-kappaB activation, which can
      induce an antiviral state to further suppress RV infection. In addition, RV
      suppressed miR-525-3p expression to evade host innate immunity through the action
      of the RV protein NSP1. These results suggest that miR-525-3p has the potential
      to be used as an antiviral therapeutic against RV infection.

PMID- 28890397
TI  - Regulated expression of the TPbeta isoform of the human T prostanoid receptor by
      the tumour suppressors FOXP1 and NKX3.1: Implications for the role of thromboxane
      in prostate cancer.
AB  - The prostanoid thromboxane (TX)A2 signals through the TPalpha and TPbeta isoforms
      of T Prostanoid receptor (TP) that are transcriptionally regulated by distinct
      promoters termed Prm1 and Prm3, respectively, within the TBXA2R gene. We recently
      demonstrated that expression of TPalpha and TPbeta is increased in PCa,
      differentially correlating with Gleason grade and with altered CpG methylation of
      the individual Prm1/Prm3 regions within the TBXA2R. The current study sought to
      localise the sites of CpG methylation within Prm1 and Prm3, and to identify the
      main transcription factors regulating TPbeta expression through Prm3 in the
      prostate adenocarcinoma PC-3 and LNCaP cell lines. Bisulfite sequencing revealed
      extensive differences in the pattern and status of CpG methylation of the
      individual Prm1 and Prm3 regions that regulate TPalpha and TPbeta expression,
      respectively, within the TBXA2R. More specifically, Prm1 is predominantly
      hypomethylated while Prm3 is hypermethylated across its entire sequence in PC-3
      and LNCaP cells. Furthermore, the tumour suppressors FOXP1 and NKX3.1, strongly
      implicated in PCa development, were identified as key transcription factors
      regulating TPbeta expression through Prm3 in both PCa cell lines. Specific siRNA
      disruption of FOXP1 and NKX3.1 each coincided with up-regulated TPbeta protein
      and mRNA expression, while genetic-reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation
      (ChIP) analyses confirmed that both FOXP1 and NKX3.1 bind to cis-elements within
      Prm3 to transcriptionally repress TPbeta in the PCa lines. Collectively these
      data identify Prm3/TPbeta as a bona fide target of FOXP1 and NKX3.1 regulation,
      providing a mechanistic basis, at least in part, for the highly significant
      upregulation of TPbeta expression in PCa.

PMID- 28890398
TI  - Functional characterization of Pol III U6 promoters for gene knockdown and
      knockout in Plutella xylostella.
AB  - RNA polymerase type III (Pol-III) promoters such as U6 are commonly used to
      express small RNAs, including short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) and single guide RNAs
      (sgRNAs). Functional U6 promoters are widely used in CRISPR systems, and their
      characterization can facilitate genome editing of non-model organisms. In the
      present study, six U6 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) promoters containing two
      conserved elements of a proximal sequence element (PSEA) and a TATA box, were
      identified and characterized in the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella)
      genome. Relative efficiency of the U6 promoters to express shRNA induced EGFP
      knockdown was tested in a P. xylostella cell line, revealing that the PxU6:3
      promoter had the strongest expression effect. Further work with the PxU6:3
      promoter showed its efficacy in EGFP knockout using CRISPR/Cas9 system in the
      cells. The expression plasmids with versatile Pxabd-A gene specific sgRNA driven
      by the PxU6:3 promoter, combined with Cas9 mRNA, could induce mutagenesis at
      specific genomic loci in vivo. The phenotypes induced by sgRNA expression
      plasmids were similar to those done in vitro transcription sgRNAs. A plasmid with
      two tandem arranged PxU6:3:sgRNA expression cassettes targeting Pxabd-A loci was
      generated, which caused a 28,856 bp fragment deletion, suggesting that the multi
      sgRNA expression plasmid can be used for multi-targeting. Our work indicates that
      U6 snRNA promoters can be used for functional studies of genes with the approach
      of reverse genetics in P. xylostella. These essential promoters also provide
      valuable potential for CRISPR-derived gene drive as a tactic for population
      control in this globally significant pest.

PMID- 28890399
TI  - Activated brain-derived neurotrophic factor/TrkB signaling in rat dorsal and
      ventral hippocampi following 10-day electroconvulsive seizure treatment.
AB  - Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still the most effective strategy to treat
      severe and drug-resistant depressive disorders. Electroconvulsive seizure (ECS),
      which induces neuroplastic structural alterations and resilient behavioral
      changes in experimental animals, is the model of the ECT for human depression.
      ECT is typically administered three times per week for up to 4 weeks, while ECS
      treatments are administered daily for 10days. The increased expression of
      hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) induced by antidepressive
      ECS treatment in experimental animals has been well documented. BDNF executes
      various neuroplastic functions by phosphorylating its high-affinity receptor,
      full-length TrkB, which has an intrinsic tyrosine kinase domain. However, the
      exact activation of BDNF/TrkB signaling following multiple ECS treatments has not
      been well elucidated. In epileptogenesis, conflicting effects of BDNF have been
      reported; while acute BDNF administration enhanced neuronal hyperexcitability and
      induced epileptiform activities, continuous BDNF infusion inhibited
      epileptogenesis. These conflicting results have been attributed to agonist
      induced adaptive response of expressional down-regulation of the BDNF receptor.
      In the present study, using western blotting, we demonstrated increased
      phosphorylation as well as decreased expression of the full-length TrkB receptor
      (145kD) in both dorsal and ventral hippocampal regions of rats after a 10-day ECS
      treatment. The expression of mature BDNF (14kD) was up-regulated while that of
      proBDNF (32kD) remained unaltered in both hippocampal regions after the ECS
      treatment. Our results indicate that the hippocampal BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway
      is activated by multiple ECS treatments despite the ligand-induced down
      regulation of the full-length TrkB receptor.

PMID- 28890400
TI  - Deglycosylating enzymes acting on N-glycans in fungi: Insights from a genome
      survey.
AB  - BACKGROUND: N-Glycosylation, one of the most prominent post-translational
      modifications of proteins, is found in all domains of life, i.e. eukaryotes,
      bacteria and archaea, and has been shown to play a crucial role in modulating the
      physicochemical/physiological properties of carrier proteins. Deglycosylating
      enzymes that act on N-glycans are widely used in analyzing the
      structures/functions of N-glycans. Fungi are known to produce various
      deglycosylating enzymes, some of which are fungi-specific. While such enzymes
      likely are biologically relevant in fungal biology, their properties as well as
      their functions have not been explored in detail. SCOPE OF REVIEW: In this
      review, we summarize the current knowledge of fungal deglycosylating enzymes and
      discuss their biological significance. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: As of this writing,
      five types of deglycosylating enzymes that act on N-glycans are known to occur in
      fungi; (1) the cytosolic peptide: N-glycanase (PNGase), (2) the acidic PNGase,
      (3) the glycoside hydrolase family (GH) 85 endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase
      (ENGase), (4) the GH18 cytosolic ENGase, and (5) the GH18 secreted ENGase.
      Interestingly, genome surveys indicate that the loss of cytosolic PNGase activity
      in certain fungi coincide with the occurrence of GH18 cytosolic ENGase, implying
      that the GH18 ENGase serves to replace the deglycosylation function of the
      cytosolic PNGase in those filamentous ascomycete fungi. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: Our
      review concludes that fungi promise to be valuable organisms for developing an
      understanding of the biological functions of PNGases/ENGases.

PMID- 28890401
TI  - Aggregation properties of a disordered protein are tunable by pH and depend on
      its net charge per residue.
AB  - Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) possess a peculiar amino acid
      composition that makes them very soluble. Nevertheless, they can encounter
      aggregation in physiological and pathological contexts. In this work, we
      addressed the issue of how electrostatic charges can influence aggregation
      propensity by using the N-terminus moiety of the measles virus phosphoprotein,
      PNT, as a model IDP. Taking advantage of the high sequence designability of IDPs,
      we have produced an array of PNT variants sharing the same hydrophobicity, but
      differing in net charges per residue and isoelectric points (pI). The solubility
      and conformational properties of these proteins were analysed through biochemical
      and biophysical techniques in a wide range of pH values and compared with those
      of the green fluorescence protein (GFP), a globular protein with lower net charge
      per residue, but similar hydrophobicity. Tested proteins showed a solubility
      minimum close to their pI, as expected, but the pH-dependent decrease of
      solubility was not uniform and driven by the net charge per residue of each
      variant. A parallel behaviour was observed also in fusion proteins between PNT
      variants and GFP, which minimally contributes to the solubility of chimeras. Our
      data suggest that the overall solubility of a protein can be dictated by protein
      regions endowed with higher net charge per residue and, hence, prompter to
      respond to pH changes. This finding could be exploited for biotechnical purposes,
      such as the design of solubility/aggregation tags, and in studies aimed to
      clarify the pathological and physiological behaviour of IDPs.

PMID- 28890402
TI  - Lung responses in murine models of experimental asthma: Value of house dust mite
      over ovalbumin sensitization.
AB  - Ovalbumin (OVA) sensitization has limitations in modelling asthma. Thus, we
      examined the value of allergic sensitization using a purified natural allergen,
      house dust mite (HDM), over the sensitization performed with OVA. Mice were sham
      treated, or sensitized with OVA- or HDM with identical chronology. Airway
      resistance, tissue damping and elastance were assessed under control conditions
      and after challenging the animals with methacholine (MCh) and the specific
      allergen. Inflammatory profile of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was
      characterized and lung histology was performed. While no difference in the lung
      responsiveness to the specific allergen was noted, hyperresponsiveness to MCh was
      observed only in the HDM-sensitized animals in the lung peripheral parameters.
      Lung inflammation differed between the models, but excessive bronchial smooth
      muscle remodelling occurred only with OVA. In conclusion, we demonstrate that a
      purified natural allergen offers a more relevant murine model of human allergic
      asthma by expressing the key features of this chronic inflammatory disease both
      in the lung function and structure.

PMID- 28890403
TI  - Sex differences in respiratory muscle activation patterns during high-intensity
      exercise in healthy humans.
AB  - Although women experience greater ventilatory constraints and have a higher work
      of breathing during exercise, they are less susceptible to diaphragm fatigue
      compared to men. The mechanisms for diaphragmatic fatigue resistance in women is
      unknown but may be related to sex differences in respiratory muscle recruitment.
      Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to determine if electromyography (EMG)
      of the diaphragm (EMGdi) and extra-diaphragmatic inspiratory muscles differ
      between sexes during exercise. Forty subjects (21M:19F) completed a constant load
      cycling test at 85% of maximum work rate until exhaustion, while instrumented
      with an oesophageal electrode catheter to measure EMGdi and surface electrodes to
      measure EMG of the sternocleidomastoid (EMGscm) and scalene (EMGsca) muscles. No
      sex difference in EMGdi was observed at any measurement time. However, EMGscm and
      EMGsca were higher throughout all submaximal exercise times in women (p<0.01).
      These results suggest greater reliance on the extra-diaphragmatic inspiratory
      muscles in women relative to men, which may serve as a strategy to minimize
      diaphragmatic fatigue.

PMID- 28890404
TI  - Structural and functional characterization of a highly secreted alpha-l
      arabinofuranosidase (GH62) from Aspergillus nidulans grown on sugarcane bagasse.
AB  - Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes are key enzymes for biomass-to-bioproducts
      conversion. alpha-l-Arabinofuranosidases that belong to the Glycoside Hydrolase
      family 62 (GH62) have important applications in biofuel production from plant
      biomass by hydrolyzing arabinoxylans, found in both the primary and secondary
      cell walls of plants. In this work, we identified a GH62 alpha-l
      arabinofuranosidase (AnAbf62Awt) that was highly secreted when Aspergillus
      nidulans was cultivated on sugarcane bagasse. The gene AN7908 was cloned and
      transformed in A. nidulans for homologous production of AnAbf62Awt, and we
      confirmed that the enzyme is N-glycosylated at asparagine 83 by mass spectrometry
      analysis. The enzyme was also expressed in Escherichia coli and the studies of
      circular dichroism showed that the melting temperature and structural profile of
      AnAbf62Awt and the non-glycosylated enzyme from E. coli (AnAbf62Adeglyc) were
      highly similar. In addition, the designed glycomutant AnAbf62AN83Q presented
      similar patterns of secretion and activity to the AnAbf62Awt, indicating that the
      N-glycan does not influence the properties of this enzyme. The crystallographic
      structure of AnAbf62Adeglyc was obtained and the 1.7A resolution model showed a
      five-bladed beta-propeller fold, which is conserved in family GH62. Mutants
      AnAbf62AY312F and AnAbf62AY312S showed that Y312 was an important substrate
      binding residue. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated that the loop
      containing Y312 could access different conformations separated by moderately low
      energy barriers. One of these conformations, comprising a local minimum, is
      responsible for placing Y312 in the vicinity of the arabinose glycosidic bond,
      and thus, may be important for catalytic efficiency.

PMID- 28890405
TI  - Additive Biotech-Chances, challenges, and recent applications of additive
      manufacturing technologies in biotechnology.
AB  - The diversity and complexity of biotechnological applications are constantly
      increasing, with ever expanding ranges of production hosts, cultivation
      conditions and measurement tasks. Consequently, many analytical and cultivation
      systems for biotechnology and bioprocess engineering, such as microfluidic
      devices or bioreactors, are tailor-made to precisely satisfy the requirements of
      specific measurements or cultivation tasks. Additive manufacturing (AM)
      technologies offer the possibility of fabricating tailor-made 3D laboratory
      equipment directly from CAD designs with previously inaccessible levels of
      freedom in terms of structural complexity. This review discusses the historical
      background of these technologies, their most promising current implementations
      and the associated workflows, fabrication processes and material specifications,
      together with some of the major challenges associated with using AM in
      biotechnology/bioprocess engineering. To illustrate the great potential of AM,
      selected examples in microfluidic devices, 3D-bioprinting/biofabrication and
      bioprocess engineering are highlighted.

PMID- 28890407
TI  - Treatment for intrahepatic recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular
      carcinoma: Salvage liver transplantation or re-resection/radiofrequency ablation?
      A Retrospective Cohort Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The optimal treatment strategy for patients with recurrent
      hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. This study was designed to
      investigate the outcomes of salvage liver transplantation (SLT) and re-resection
      (RR)/radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with respect to the time to recurrence after
      initial curative resection. METHODS: Between 2007 and 2016, 756 patients
      underwent curative hepatectomy for HCC in accordance with the Milan criteria.
      Among them, 152 experienced an intrahepatic recurrence and underwent SLT (n = 36)
      and RR/RFA (n = 116). Clinical data, overall survival (OS), and disease-free
      survival (DFS) (including subgroup analyses) according to the time to recurrence
      were statistically compared between the 2 groups, and prognostic factors were
      identified. RESULTS: The DFS of the patients who underwent SLT was much better
      than that of the patients who underwent RR/RFA (P = 0.002), particularly those
      with late recurrence (more than 12 months, P = 0.004). The time to recurrence
      from initial hepatectomy was found to be an independent predictor of OS and DFS.
      CONCLUSIONS: SLT, rather than re-resection or RFA, should be the preferred
      treatment option for patients with late recurrence.

PMID- 28890406
TI  - Comparison of Conditioning with Fludarabine/Busulfan and Fludarabine/Melphalan in
      Allogeneic Transplantation Recipients 50 Years or Older.
AB  - The optimal conditioning regimen for elderly patients undergoing allogeneic
      hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remains unclear. We
      retrospectively analyzed 1607 patients aged 50 years or older with acute myeloid
      leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)
      who underwent allo-HCT using fludarabine/busulfan (FB) or fludarabine/melphalan
      (FM) between 2007 and 2014. We compared the clinical outcomes among FB2 (busulfan
      at 6.4 mg/kg iv, n = 463), FB4 (busulfan at 12.8 mg/kg iv, n = 721), and FM140
      (melphalan at 140 mg/m2, n = 423). The nonrelapse mortality (NRM) rates in the
      FB4 and FM140 groups were higher than that in the FB2 group (hazard ratio [HR],
      1.63 [P < .001]; and HR, 1.71 [P < .001], respectively). Conversely, the relapse
      rates in the FB4 and FM140 groups were lower than that in the FB2 group (HR, .73
      [P = .011]; and HR, .56 [P < .001], respectively). There were no significant
      differences in overall survival (OS) among the FB2, FB4, and FM140 groups. The 3
      year OS in patients with high-risk AML and MDS in the FM140 group (37.0% and
      60.2%) were superior to those in the FB2 group (24.4% and 45.5%) and the FB4
      group (24.6% and 40.6%) (P = .016 and P = .023), whereas there were no
      differences in OS in the other patients among the 3 groups. In conclusion, the
      lower rates of relapse in the FB4 and FM140 groups were largely offset by a worse
      NRM. However, FM140 might be associated with better OS in patients with high-risk
      AML and MDS.

PMID- 28890408
TI  - Interventions for Treating 3- or 4-part proximal humeral fractures in elderly
      patient: A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The fractures of proximal humerus have a high incidence in elderly
      patients, especially 3- or 4-part fracture. There are 4 main treatments including
      nonoperation, open reduction and internal fixation(ORIF), hemiarthroplasty(HA)
      and reverse shoulder arthroplasty(RSA). However, which one is the optimal choice
      remains a controversial topic. METHODS: Through the search of three electronic
      databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane), the randomized controlled trials of 3-
      or 4-part proximal humeral fracture, until the end of July 2017, which is
      concerned with the elderly patients, were identified. The quality evaluation of
      each study was evaluated, Constant score and reoperation rates were extracted and
      analyzed. We used R(R i386 3.3.2) and the package of gemtc to perform our network
      meta-analysis. RESULTS: Seven randomized controlled experiments with a total
      number of 347 patients were brought into our network meta-analysis. The rank
      probability plot of Constant score showed that the RSA had significantly the
      highest Constant score and lower reoperation than other treatments. The other way
      around, the efficacy of ORIF was the poorest. The rank for the Constant score
      was: RSA, HA, nonoperation and ORIF. The rank for the reduction in total
      reoperation rates was: RSA, nonoperation, HA and ORIF. CONCLUSIONS: The
      statistical result suggested that RSA has become a beneficial choice to treat
      displaced 3-or 4-part fracture in elderly patients, that might result in more
      favorable clinical outcomes and reduction of reoperation rates than other methods
      performed for the same indication. But the ORIF is the worst.

PMID- 28890410
TI  - Positron emission tomography modalities prevent futile radical resection of
      pancreatic cancer: A meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Numerous distant metastases were not detected preoperatively.
      Positron emission tomography (PET) has been used for oncology diagnosis recently.
      However, it remains controversial whether PET modality is a more efficient way in
      detecting unresectable features for radical resection of pancreatic cancer (PC).
      This meta-analysis aims to validate the efficiency of PET modalities (including
      PET and PET/CT) in preoperative assessment of PC, and compare them with computed
      tomography (CT). METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Science Citation Index and The Cochrane
      Library were searched to identify relevant studies. Both PET modality and CT had
      been performed for all the included patients. A meta-analysis was performed to
      compare the ability of PET modalities in detecting occult distant metastases and
      regional lymph nodes invasion with that of CT. RESULTS: 17 clinical studies that
      recruited 1343 patients were included. This meta-analysis indicated that PET
      modalities were more efficient in detecting true positive distant metastases
      compared with CT (OR = 1.52, 95%CI: 1.23-1.88). In subgroup analysis, when
      compared with CT alone, PET/CT also showed greater utility in detecting distant
      metastases (OR = 1.66, 95%CI: 1.31-2.08). There was no definite difference in
      detecting regional lymph nodes invasion between PET modalities and CT (OR = 0.97,
      95%CI: 0.63-1.47). CONCLUSION: Compared with CT, PET/CT provides extensive
      possibility to avoid futile radical resection by detecting occult metastases of
      PC preoperatively. Surgeons, especially in developing countries, should take PET
      modalities as a routine preoperative assessment before making operative plan for
      PC patients.

PMID- 28890411
TI  - Combined adductor canal block with local infiltrative analgesia for pain
      management in total knee arthroplasty: A meta-analysis.

PMID- 28890409
TI  - The STROCSS statement: Strengthening the Reporting of Cohort Studies in Surgery.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The development of reporting guidelines over the past 20 years
      represents a major advance in scholarly publishing with recent evidence showing
      positive impacts. Whilst over 350 reporting guidelines exist, there are few that
      are specific to surgery. Here we describe the development of the STROCSS
      guideline (Strengthening the Reporting of Cohort Studies in Surgery). METHODS AND
      ANALYSIS: We published our protocol apriori. Current guidelines for case series
      (PROCESS), cohort studies (STROBE) and randomised controlled trials (CONSORT)
      were analysed to compile a list of items which were used as baseline material for
      developing a suitable checklist for surgical cohort guidelines. These were then
      put forward in a Delphi consensus exercise to an expert panel of 74 surgeons and
      academics via Google Forms. RESULTS: The Delphi exercise was completed by 62%
      (46/74) of the participants. All the items were passed in a single round to
      create a STROCSS guideline consisting of 17 items. CONCLUSION: We present the
      STROCSS guideline for surgical cohort, cross-sectional and case-control studies
      consisting of a 17-item checklist. We hope its use will increase the transparency
      and reporting quality of such studies. This guideline is also suitable for cross
      sectional and case control studies. We encourage authors, reviewers, journal
      editors and publishers to adopt these guidelines.

PMID- 28890412
TI  - Complications of extracorporeal shockwave therapy in plantar fasciitis:
      Systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) seems to be an effective
      treatment for plantar fasciitis (PF) and is assumed to be safe. No systematic
      reviews have been published that specifically studied the complications and side
      effects of ESWT in treating PF. Aim of this systematic review is therefore to
      evaluate the complications and side effects of ESWT in order to determine whether
      ESWT is a safe treatment for PF. METHODS: For this systematic review the
      databases PubMed, MEDLINE, Cochrane and Embase were used to search for relevant
      literature between 1 January 2005 and 1 January 2017. PRISMA guidelines were
      followed. RESULTS: Thirty-nine studies were included for this review,
      representing 2493 patients (2697 heels) who received between 6424 and 6497 ESWT
      treatment sessions, with an energy flux density between 0.01 mJ/mm2 and 0.64
      mJ/mm2 and a frequency of 1000-3800 SWs. Average follow-up was 14.7 months
      (range: 24 h - 6 years). Two complications occurred: precordial pain and a
      superficial skin infection after regional anaesthesia. Accordingly, 225 patients
      reported pain during treatment and 247 reported transient red skin after
      treatment. Transient pain after treatment, dysesthesia, swelling, ecchymosis
      and/or petechiae, severe headache, bruising and a throbbing sensation were also
      reported. CONCLUSION: ESWT is likely a safe treatment for PF. No complications
      are expected at one-year follow-up. However, according to the current literature
      long-term complications are unknown. Better descriptions of treatment protocols,
      patient characteristics and registration of complications and side effects,
      especially pain during treatment, are recommended.

PMID- 28890413
TI  - Persistent postherniorrhaphy pain following inguinal hernia repair: A cross
      sectional study of prevalence, pain characteristics, and effects on quality of
      life.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Chronic inguinal pain due to the inguinal hernia repair is still a
      serious consideration, and its incidence is evident in approximately 3%-6% of the
      patients. The purpose of this study was performed to assess the prevalence of
      chronic pain after inguinal hernia repair and the effects on the quality of life
      in our patient. METHODS: The records of the patients who were 18 years of age or
      older and had had an inguinal hernia repair under spinal anesthesia after
      receiving a diagnosis of inguinal hernia at this hospital from 2009 to 2015 were
      accessed through the hospital's data system. Patients who had signed the informed
      consent agreement were given an Inguinal Pain Questionnaire (IPQ) and a Douleur
      Neuropathique 4 (DN-4) questionnaire after recording their demographic data on
      the appointment day. Surgical incision line was evaluated with a dolorimeter and
      mild touch hypoesthesia, needle-touch hypoesthesia, brushing allodynia were
      evaluated with cotton, and 0.711 mm diameter Von-Frey filament (Touch-Test
      Sensory Evaluator Kit; North Coast Medical, Inc., Gilroy, CA, USA). RESULTS: The
      total number of patients who had ASA I-II scores and who had undergone a one
      sided inguinal hernia repair under spinal anesthesia in elective conditions with
      at least three or more months of recovery time months was 619. Of these 264
      patients, 203 with absence of pain (score of the severest pain over the past week
      and now was 0) were classified as the Non-Pain group and 61 patients with
      inguinal pain (score of the severest pain over the past week or now was 1 or
      more) were classified as the Pain group. The incidence of chronic pain after
      inguinal hernia surgery was 23.48% (n = 61) in our study. The pain was localized
      at and near the surgical incision and radiated into the scrotum in 17.73% (n =
      36) of the male patients having chronic pain. While chronic pain developed in 60
      out of 239 patients who had pain prior to the surgery. The presence of pain prior
      to the surgery was evaluated as an effective factor for the chronic groin pain.
      Neuropathic pain was detected with the DN-4 questionnaire in 6 (2.95%) out of 203
      patients who stated that they had no pain during the physical examination and the
      week prior to the exam. The frequency of chronic pain after inguinal hernia
      repair was found 23.48% in our study. This is the same rate as previously
      reported. Quality of life of these patients was affected. We believe that there
      is an urgent need for prospective randomized studies with the aim of determining
      a standardized methodology towards preventive measures after determining the risk
      factors of chronic pain developed in the post inguinal hernia repair period.

PMID- 28890414
TI  - Perineal resectional procedures for the treatment of complete rectal prolapse: A
      systematic review of the literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIM: Several procedures for the treatment of complete rectal
      prolapse (CRP) exist. These procedures are performed via the abdominal or
      perineal approach. Perineal procedures for rectal prolapse involve either
      resection or suspension and fixation of the rectum. The present review aimed to
      assess the outcomes of the perineal resectional procedures including Altemeier
      procedure (AP), Delorme procedure (DP), and perineal stapled prolapse resection
      (PSR) in the treatment of CRP. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A systematic search of the
      current literature for the outcomes of perineal resectional procedures for CRP
      was conducted. Databases queried included PubMed/MEDLINE, SCOPUS, and Cochrane
      library. The main outcomes of the review were the rates of recurrence of CRP,
      improvement in bowel function, and complications. RESULTS: Thirty-nine studies
      involving 2647 (2390 females) patients were included in the review. The mean age
      of patients was 69.1 years. Recurrence of CRP occurred in 16.6% of patients. The
      median incidences of recurrence were 11.4% for AP, 14.4% for DP, and 13.9% for
      PSR. Improvement in fecal incontinence occurred in 61.4% of patients after AP,
      69% after DP, and 23.5% after PSR. Complications occurred in 13.2% of patients.
      The median complication rates after AP, DP and PSR were 11.1%, 8.7%, and 11.7%,
      respectively. CONCLUSION: Perineal resectional procedures were followed by a
      relatively high incidence of recurrence, yet an acceptably low complication rate.
      Definitive conclusions on the superiority of any procedure cannot be reached due
      to the significant heterogeneity of the studies.

PMID- 28890415
TI  - Performance of CT scan of abdomen and pelvis in detecting asymptomatic
      synchronous metastasis in breast cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In many centres in Australia, CT scan of abdomen and pelvis (CTAP) is
      a commonly used staging investigation to detect asymptomatic synchronous
      metastasis (ASM) in newly diagnosed breast cancer. However, its routine use is
      not supported by strong evidence either on its cost effectiveness or on
      specificity. Despite contrary recommendations by international guidelines this
      staging investigation is widely used among new early breast cancers(EBC). This
      retrospective study aims to assess the cost effectiveness and usefulness of CTAP
      in new breast cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients with primary invasive
      breast cancers who underwent breast cancer treatment through Eastern health
      breast unit during 50-month period from January 2012 were included in the study.
      All staging CTAP results were reviewed to evaluate its yield, false positive rate
      and cost of investigation per single positive result. Odds ratio for positive
      test results were calculated for five possible risk factors (Age less than 40
      years, stage III disease, presence of LVI, HER2 positive disease and presence of
      metastasis in lymph node). RESULTS: 49% (n = 285) of all breast cancer patient
      underwent staging CTAP which lead to the detection of 4 ASM. (Over all yield of
      1%) Overall false positive rate was 15% because of 42 indeterminate results
      needing further tests. Based merely on approved billing rates this amounted to $
      40733 per single ASM identified. Presence of lymph node metastasis did not
      increase the chance of positive test result (OR = 1.3; CI:0.13-12.69).
      CONCLUSION: Staging CTAP is associated with high incidence of false positive
      rates and low yield, especially among EBCs. It is desirable to choose this
      investigation more selectively than currently practiced.

PMID- 28890416
TI  - Bayesian population receptive field modelling.
AB  - We introduce a probabilistic (Bayesian) framework and associated software toolbox
      for mapping population receptive fields (pRFs) based on fMRI data. This generic
      approach is intended to work with stimuli of any dimension and is demonstrated
      and validated in the context of 2D retinotopic mapping. The framework enables the
      experimenter to specify generative (encoding) models of fMRI timeseries, in which
      experimental stimuli enter a pRF model of neural activity, which in turns drives
      a nonlinear model of neurovascular coupling and Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent
      (BOLD) response. The neuronal and haemodynamic parameters are estimated together
      on a voxel-by-voxel or region-of-interest basis using a Bayesian estimation
      algorithm (variational Laplace). This offers several novel contributions to
      receptive field modelling. The variance/covariance of parameters are estimated,
      enabling receptive fields to be plotted while properly representing uncertainty
      about pRF size and location. Variability in the haemodynamic response across the
      brain is accounted for. Furthermore, the framework introduces formal hypothesis
      testing to pRF analysis, enabling competing models to be evaluated based on their
      log model evidence (approximated by the variational free energy), which
      represents the optimal tradeoff between accuracy and complexity. Using
      simulations and empirical data, we found that parameters typically used to
      represent pRF size and neuronal scaling are strongly correlated, which is taken
      into account by the Bayesian methods we describe when making inferences. We used
      the framework to compare the evidence for six variants of pRF model using 7 T
      functional MRI data and we found a circular Difference of Gaussians (DoG) model
      to be the best explanation for our data overall. We hope this framework will
      prove useful for mapping stimulus spaces with any number of dimensions onto the
      anatomy of the brain.

PMID- 28890418
TI  - Arc ubiquitination in synaptic plasticity.
AB  - The activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) is a neuron
      expressed activity regulated immediate early gene (IEG) product that is essential
      for memory consolidation and serves as a direct readout for neural activation
      during learning. Arc contributes to diverse forms of synaptic plasticity mediated
      by the trafficking of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid
      (AMPA) receptors. Notably, Arc protein expression abruptly increases and then
      rapidly decreases following augmented network activity. A large body of work has
      focused on Arc transcription and translation. Far fewer studies have explored the
      relevance of Arc protein stability and turnover. Here, we review recent findings
      on the mechanisms controlling Arc degradation and discuss its contributions to
      AMPA receptor trafficking and synaptic plasticity.

PMID- 28890417
TI  - The impact of vessel size, orientation and intravascular contribution on the
      neurovascular fingerprint of BOLD bSSFP fMRI.
AB  - Monte Carlo simulations have been used to analyze oxygenation-related signal
      changes in pass-band balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP) as well as in
      gradient echo (GE) and spin echo (SE) sequences. Signal changes were calculated
      for artificial cylinders and neurovascular networks acquired from the mouse
      parietal cortex by two-photon laser scanning microscopy at 1 MUm isotropic
      resolution. Signal changes as a function of vessel size, blood volume, vessel
      orientation to the main magnetic field B0 as well as relations of intra- and
      extravascular and of micro- and macrovascular contributions have been analyzed.
      The results show that bSSFP is highly sensitive to extravascular and
      microvascular components. Furthermore, GE and bSSFP, and to a lesser extent SE,
      exhibit a strong dependence of their signal change on the orientation of the
      vessel network to B0.

PMID- 28890419
TI  - Arc protein: a flexible hub for synaptic plasticity and cognition.
AB  - Mammalian excitatory synapses express diverse types of synaptic plasticity. A
      major challenge in neuroscience is to understand how a neuron utilizes different
      types of plasticity to sculpt brain development, function, and behavior. Neuronal
      activity-induced expression of the immediate early protein, Arc, is critical for
      long-term potentiation and depression of synaptic transmission, homeostatic
      synaptic scaling, and adaptive functions such as long-term memory formation.
      However, the molecular basis of Arc protein function as a regulator of synaptic
      plasticity and cognition remains a puzzle. Recent work on the biophysical and
      structural properties of Arc, its protein-protein interactions and post
      translational modifications have shed light on the issue. Here, we present Arc
      protein as a flexible, multifunctional and interactive hub. Arc interacts with
      specific effector proteins in neuronal compartments (dendritic spines, nuclear
      domains) to bidirectionally regulate synaptic strength by distinct molecular
      mechanisms. Arc stability, subcellular localization, and interactions are
      dictated by synaptic activity and post-translational modification of Arc. This
      functional versatility and context-dependent signaling supports a view of Arc as
      a highly specialized master organizer of long-term synaptic plasticity, critical
      for information storage and cognition.

PMID- 28890420
TI  - Perinatal inflammation and adult psychopathology: From preclinical models to
      humans.
AB  - Perinatal environment plays a crucial role in brain development and determines
      its function through life. Epidemiological studies and clinical reports link
      perinatal exposure to infection and/or immune activation to various psychiatric
      disorders. In addition, accumulating evidence from animal models shows that
      perinatal inflammation can affect various behaviors relevant to psychiatric
      disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, anxiety and depression. Remarkably, the
      effects on behavior and brain function do not always depend on the type of
      inflammatory stimulus or the perinatal age targeted, so diverse inflammatory
      events can have similar consequences on the brain. Moreover, other perinatal
      environmental factors that affect behavior (e.g. diet and stress) also elicit
      inflammatory responses. Understanding the interplay between perinatal environment
      and inflammation on brain development is required to identify the mechanisms
      through which perinatal inflammation affect brain function in the adult animal.
      Evidence for the role of the peripheral immune system and glia on perinatal
      programming of behavior is discussed in this review, along with recent evidence
      for the role of epigenetic mechanisms affecting gene expression in the brain.

PMID- 28890421
TI  - The mechanistic link between Arc/Arg3.1 expression and AMPA receptor endocytosis.
AB  - The activity-regulated cytoskeleton associated protein (Arc/Arg3.1) plays a key
      role in determining synaptic strength through facilitation of AMPA receptor
      (AMPAR) endocytosis. Although there is considerable data on the mechanism by
      which Arc induction controls synaptic plasticity and learning behaviours, several
      key mechanistic questions remain. Here we review data on the link between Arc
      expression and the clathrin-mediated endocytic pathway which internalises AMPARs
      and discuss the significance of Arc binding to the clathrin adaptor protein 2 (AP
      2) and to endophilin/dynamin. We consider which AMPAR subunits are selected for
      Arc-mediated internalisation, implications for synaptic function and consider Arc
      as a therapeutic target.

PMID- 28890422
TI  - Transcriptional and post-translational regulation of Arc in synaptic plasticity.
AB  - One of the most interesting features of Arc-dependent synaptic plasticity is how
      multiple types of synaptic activity can converge to alter Arc transcription and
      then diverge to induce different plasticity outcomes, ranging from AMPA receptor
      internalisation that promotes long-term depression (LTD), to actin stabilisation
      that promotes long-term potentiation (LTP). This diversity suggests that there
      must be numerous levels of control to ensure the temporal profile, abundance,
      localisation and function of Arc are appropriately regulated to effect learning
      and memory in the correct contexts. The activity-dependent transcription and post
      translational modification of Arc are crucial regulators of synaptic plasticity,
      fine-tuning the function of this key protein depending on the specific situation.
      The extensive cross-talk between signalling pathways and the numerous routes of
      Arc regulation provide a complex interplay of processes in which Arc-mediated
      plasticity can be broadly induced, but specifically tailored to synaptic
      activity. Here we provide an overview what is currently known about these
      processes and potential future directions.

PMID- 28890423
TI  - Liposome-encapsulated diacyl glycerol and inositol triphosphate-induced delayed
      oocyte activation and poor development of parthenotes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To explore the ability of diacyl glycerol (DAG) and inositol
      triphosphate (IP3), two major secondary messengers in the calcium signaling
      pathway, in activating oocytes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Oocyte cumulus complex
      obtained from superovulated Swiss albino mice were incubated in M16 medium with
      liposome-encapsulated 1,2-Dipalmitoyl-sn-glycerol (LEDAG) and/or IP3 for 3 h.
      Strontium chloride was used as positive control. The activation potential, ploidy
      status, and blastocyst rate was calculated. RESULTS: Both DAG and IP3,
      individually, induced activation in ~98% of oocytes, which was significantly
      higher (p<0.01) than activation induced by strontium chloride (60%). Delayed
      pronucleus formation and a higher percentage of diploid parthenotes was observed
      in oocytes activated with LEDAG and/or IP3. However, these embryos failed to
      progress beyond the 6-8-cell stage. Only when the medium was supplemented with
      LEDAG (5 MUg/mL) and IP3 (10 MUg/mL) could activated oocytes progress till the
      blastocyst stage (5.26%), which was lower than the blastocyst rate in the
      positive controls (13.91%). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study indicate
      that DAG and IP3 can induce delayed oocyte activation and poor development of
      parthenotes in vitro.

PMID- 28890424
TI  - Revaluating the survival effects of International Federation of Gynecology and
      Obstetrics 1988 stage IIIA criteria for endometrial cancer.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to define factors that affected survival in the
      International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 1988 stage IIIA
      endometrial cancer (EC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included patients with
      EC who underwent surgery between 1992 and 2013. Patients with adnexal metastases,
      uterine serosal involvement or positive peritoneal cytology (stage IIIA disease
      according to the former 1988 FIGO staging system) were selected for further
      analysis. Clinical and pathologic factors associated with progression-free
      survival (PFS) were evaluated using univariate and multivariate statistical
      tests. RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients with stage IIIA disease according to the
      1988 FIGO staging system were included. The median follow-up was 37 months
      (range, 1-175 months) and recurrence was detected in 19 patients. Univariate
      analysis revealed that the presence of uterine serosal invasion and advanced
      histologic grade (grade 1-2 vs. grade 3) were associated with diminished PFS
      (p=0.001, p=0.047). The presence of adnexal involvement and positive peritoneal
      cytology had no statistically significant influence on PFS (p=0.643 and p=0.795,
      respectively). CONCLUSION: In patients with stage IIIA EC according to the FIGO
      1988 staging system, only uterine serosal involvement was related with adverse
      oncologic outcomes, not adnexal involvement or presence of positive cytology.

PMID- 28890425
TI  - Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio: A new inflammatory marker for the diagnosis of
      preterm premature rupture of membranes.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) is closely related with
      maternal and fetal complications. Therefore, early diagnosis is extremely
      important to provide maternal and fetal well-being. Many inflammatory markers
      have been evaluated for their ability to diagnose membrane rupture at early
      stages. We aimed to investigate the relationship between the platelet-to
      lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and preterm premature membrane rupture. MATERIAL AND
      METHODS: In this study, 121 pregnant women with PPROM and 96 age-matched pregnant
      women with spontaneous preterm labor who were admitted to our hospital between
      January 2014 and December 2015 were enrolled. Demographic data, complete blood
      cell count results, and neonatal outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: The neutrophil
      and platelet counts were higher in the PPROM group (9948.4+/-3393.2 vs. 7466.1+/
      1698.5/mm3 and 244.5+/-60 vs. 210.6+/-64.8/mm3, respectively, p<0.001). The PLR
      and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (NLR) were both significantly higher in the
      PPROM group (p<0.001). Correlation analysis revealed that the PLR was positively
      correlated with the NLR (r=0.10, p=0.031). The ability of the PLR to diagnose
      preterm premature rupture of membranes was evaluated using an ROC curve. The
      sensitivity and specificity of the PLR was 57.8% and 73.7%, respectively, at a
      threshold >117.14 (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The PLR might be a cost effective, easy
      to use, and practical marker for the early diagnosis of PPROM, which can help to
      determine the appropriate waiting time for delivery and provide maternal and
      fetal well-being.

PMID- 28890426
TI  - Lymph node dissection in atypical endometrial hyperplasia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The rate of concomitant endometrial carcinoma in patients with
      atypical endometrial hyperplasia is high. We aimed to investigate the role of
      lymphadenectomy in deciding adjuvant treatment in patients with concomitant
      atypical endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      Women with atypical endometrial hyperplasia were enrolled in this retrospective
      study. Lymph node dissection was performed in only some patients who gave
      informed consent if their surgeon elected to do so, or if the intraoperative
      findings necessitated. The final histopathologic evaluations of surgical
      specimens were compared with endometrial biopsy results. RESULTS: Eighty eligible
      patients were evaluated. Seventy-two (90%) patients had complex hyperplasia with
      atypia, and 8 (10%) patients had simple hyperplasia with atypia. Hysterectomy and
      bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy were performed to all patients; 37 also underwent
      lymph node dissection. Lymph node dissection was extended to the paraaortic
      region in 9 of 37 patients. The concomitant endometrial carcinoma rate was 50%.
      Two patients had lymph node metastasis. Among 40 cases of carcinoma, 17 had deep
      myometrial invasion and/or cervical or ovarian involvement or grade 2 tumors with
      superficial myometrial invasion on hysterectomy specimens; 27.5% of all
      carcinomas were stage Ib or higher. CONCLUSION: The concomitant endometrial
      carcinoma rate was high in patients with atypical endometrial hyperplasia. Nearly
      half of these patients had risk factors for extrauterine spread. Lymph node
      dissection might be helpful to decide adjuvant treatment.

PMID- 28890427
TI  - Blastocyst transfer does not improve cycle outcome as compared to D3 transfer in
      antagonist cycles with an elevated progesterone level on the day of hCG.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between progesterone elevation on the day
      of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration and clinical pregnancy rates
      of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist in vitro
      fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) cycles with the
      transfer of embryos at different developmental stages (day-3 versus day-5 ETs).
      MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of fresh IVF/ICSI; 194
      cycles out of 2676 conducted in a single center. RESULTS: A total of 2676 cycles
      were analyzed, of which 386 had no progesterone measurements available. Two
      hundred eighteen cycles had progesterone elevation (p>1.5 ng/mL) giving an
      overall incidence of 9.5%. Twenty-four cycles were excluded from further
      analysis. Of the remaining 194 cycles, 151 had day-3 transfers and 43 had
      blastocyst transfers. There was no statistically significant difference in
      pregnancy and clinical pregnancy rates per transfer between the D3-ET and D5-ET
      groups (46% vs. 49%, and 39% vs. 35%, respectively). CONCLUSION: The results of
      this study suggest that blastocyst transfer does not improve cycle outcomes
      compared with D3 transfer in GnRH antagonist cycles with an elevated progesterone
      level on the day of hCG.

PMID- 28890428
TI  - Microcystic, elongated, and fragmented pattern of invasion in relation to
      histopathologic and clinical prognostic factors in endometrioid endometrial
      adenocarcinoma.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of microcystic, elongated, and
      fragmented (MELF) pattern of invasion with prognostic factors in endometrioid
      endometrial adenocarcinoma (EEA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Stained tissue sections
      from 83 cases of EEA operated by the same gynecologic oncologist were reviewed to
      identify cases showing MELF-type invasion in this retrospective study. The
      association of MELF pattern with age, tumor grade, depth of myometrial invasion,
      and presence of lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) was analyzed. RESULTS: FIGO
      grade 2 and grade 1 tumors were evident in 53.0% and 38.6% of patients,
      respectively. Depth of myometrial invasion was <50% in 72.0% of patients, and
      LVSI was absent in 77.1%. MELF pattern was confirmed in 35 (42.2%) patients.
      Presence of MELF pattern was associated with significantly higher mean +/-
      standard deviation age (62.9+/-6.9) years vs. 58.9+/-9.1 years, p=0.033), and
      found to be more likely in patients with high-grade tumor (FIGO grade III; 85.7%
      vs. 14.3%, p<0.001), deep (>=50%) myometrial invasion (78.3% vs. 21.7%, p<0.001),
      and presence of LVSI (94.7% vs. 5.3%, p<0.001) as compared with absence of MELF
      pattern. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our findings revealed a high rate of MELF
      pattern among patients with EEA alongside the association of MELF pattern with
      poor prognostic factors such as high grade tumor, deep myometrial invasion, and
      LVSI.

PMID- 28890429
TI  - Exploring the umbilical and vaginal port during minimally invasive surgery.
AB  - This article focuses on the anatomy, literature, and our own experiences in an
      effort to assist in the decision-making process of choosing between an umbilical
      or vaginal port. Umbilical access is more familiar to general surgeons; it is
      thicker than the transvaginal entry, and has more nerve endings and sensory
      innervations. This combination increases tissue damage and pain in the umbilical
      port site. The vaginal route requires prophylactic antibiotics, a Foley catheter,
      and a period of postoperative sexual abstinence. Removal of large specimens is a
      challenge in traditional laparoscopy. Recently, there has been increased interest
      in going beyond traditional laparoscopy by using the navel in single-incision and
      port-reduction techniques. The benefits for removal of surgical specimens by
      colpotomy are not new. There is increasing interest in techniques that use
      vaginotomy in multifunctional ways, as described under the names of
      culdolaparoscopy, minilaparoscopy-assisted natural orifice surgery, and natural
      orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery. Both the navel and the transvaginal
      accesses are safe and convenient to use in the hands of experienced laparoscopic
      surgeons. The umbilical site has been successfully used in laparoscopy as an
      entry and extraction port. Vaginal entry and extraction is associated with a
      lower risk of incisional hernias, less postoperative pain, and excellent cosmetic
      results.

PMID- 28890430
TI  - How to personalize ovarian stimulation in clinical practice.
AB  - Controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles is
      the starting point from which couple's prognosis depends. Individualization in
      follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) starting dose and protocol used is based on
      ovarian response prediction, which depends on ovarian reserve. Anti-Mullerian
      hormone levels and the antral follicle count are considered the most accurate and
      reliable markers of ovarian reserve. A literature search was performed for
      studies that addressed the ability of ovarian reserve markers to predict poor and
      high ovarian response in assisted reproductive technology cycles. According to
      the predicted response to ovarian stimulation (poor- normal- or high- response),
      it is possible to counsel couples before treatment about the prognosis, and also
      to individualize ovarian stimulation protocols, choosing among GnRH-agonists or
      antagonists for endogenous FSH suppression, and the FSH starting dose in order to
      decrease the risk of cycle cancellation and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. In
      this review we discuss how to choose the best COS therapy, based on ovarian
      reserve markers, in order to enhance chances in IVF.

PMID- 28890431
TI  - What is your diagnosis?

PMID- 28890432
TI  - Obesity and insulin resistance are significant predictors of serum leptin levels.

PMID- 28890433
TI  - Evaluation of severity score-guided approaches to macrolide use in community
      acquired pneumonia.
AB  - International guidelines including those in the UK, Japan, Australia and South
      Africa recommend the avoidance of macrolides in patients with low-severity
      community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We hypothesised that severity scores are poor
      predictors of atypical pneumonia and response to macrolide therapy, and thus,
      inadequate tools for guiding antibiotic prescriptions.Secondary analysis of four
      independent prospective CAP datasets was conducted. The predictive values of the
      CURB-65 and pneumonia severity index (PSI) for clinically important groups of
      causative pathogens were evaluated. The effect of macrolide use according to risk
      class was assessed by multivariable analysis. Patients (3297) were evaluated, and
      the predictive values of CURB-65 and PSI for atypical pathogens were poor (AUC
      values of 0.37 and 0.42, respectively). No significant differences were noted
      among the effects of macrolide use on mortality in patients with mild, moderate
      and severe CAP, according to either CURB-65 (interaction testing severe versus
      mild disease OR=0.74 (0.29-1.89)) or PSI (severe versus mild disease OR=3.4
      (0.055-2.10)), indicating that severity scores were not significant modifiers of
      response to macrolide therapy.Severity scores did not accurately predict response
      to macrolide therapy in CAP, suggesting that current guidance to use these tools
      for empirical antibiotic choices might not be justified.

PMID- 28890434
TI  - International ERS/ESICM/ESCMID/ALAT guidelines for the management of hospital
      acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia: Guidelines for the
      management of hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP)/ventilator-associated pneumonia
      (VAP) of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), European Society of Intensive
      Care Medicine (ESICM), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious
      Diseases (ESCMID) and Asociacion Latinoamericana del Torax (ALAT).
AB  - The most recent European guidelines and task force reports on hospital-acquired
      pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) were published almost
      10 years ago. Since then, further randomised clinical trials of HAP and VAP have
      been conducted and new information has become available. Studies of epidemiology,
      diagnosis, empiric treatment, response to treatment, new antibiotics or new forms
      of antibiotic administration and disease prevention have changed old paradigms.
      In addition, important differences between approaches in Europe and the USA have
      become apparent.The European Respiratory Society launched a project to develop
      new international guidelines for HAP and VAP. Other European societies, including
      the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the European Society of
      Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, were invited to participate and
      appointed their representatives. The Latin American Thoracic Association was also
      invited.A total of 15 experts and two methodologists made up the panel. Three
      experts from the USA were also invited (Michael S. Niederman, Marin Kollef and
      Richard Wunderink).Applying the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment,
      Development and Evaluation) methodology, the panel selected seven PICO
      (population-intervention-comparison-outcome) questions that generated a series of
      recommendations for HAP/VAP diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

PMID- 28890435
TI  - Pain control in thoracic oncology.
AB  - This review of pain management in lung cancer is based on the presentation of
      four cases of thoracic oncology patients with pain at various stages of their
      disease. The approach will be multidisciplinary, involving a thoracic oncologist,
      radiologist, thoracic and orthopaedic spine surgeon, radiation therapist, pain
      medicine specialist, and palliative care specialist. This multispecialty approach
      to the management of different painful presentations in thoracic oncology will
      demonstrate the complexity of each case and the improved patient outcomes which
      result from the involvement of different disciplines working in concert.In the
      USA, Europe and other countries, palliative care specialists often become rapidly
      involved in the management of these patients, coordinating social care and
      providing psychological support.Thoracic and orthopaedic spine subspecialists
      provide surgical methods to control tumour invasion, and improve quality of life
      and preservation of function in settings of even diffuse metastatic disease.
      Similarly, thoracic oncology and radiation therapists utilise both therapeutic
      and palliative chemotherapeutic and radiation therapy regimens to prolong and
      improve quality of life.The pain medicine specialist can, in addition to
      medication management, offer a variety of interventional approaches including
      unique drug delivery systems such as epidural analgesia, regional anaesthesia
      techniques, and intrathecal pumps, as well as neuromodulation techniques and
      neurolytic or neuroablative procedures.In the USA, these specialists complete an
      additional fellowship year in pain medicine following the completion of an
      anaesthesiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology or psychiatry
      residency. These programmes are accredited by the Accreditation Council for
      Graduate Medical Education, or ACGME (www.acgme.org).

PMID- 28890437
TI  - Three years of experience with a novel "virtual" pneumonia follow-up clinic.

PMID- 28890436
TI  - Primary ciliary dyskinesia ciliated airway cells show increased susceptibility to
      Haemophilus influenzae biofilm formation.
AB  - Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is the most common pathogen in primary
      ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) patients. We hypothesised that abnormal ciliary motility
      and low airway nitric oxide (NO) levels on airway epithelial cells from PCD
      patients might be permissive for NTHi colonisation and biofilm development.We
      used a primary epithelial cell co-culture model to investigate NTHi infection.
      Primary airway epithelial cells from PCD and non-PCD patients were differentiated
      to ciliation using an air-liquid interface culture and then co-cultured with
      NTHi.NTHi adherence was greater on PCD epithelial cells compared to non-PCD cells
      (p<0.05) and the distribution of NTHi on PCD epithelium showed more aggregated
      NTHi in biofilms (p<0.001). Apart from defective ciliary motility, PCD cells did
      not significantly differ from non-PCD epithelial cells in the degree of ciliation
      and epithelial integrity or in cytokine, LL-37 and NO production. Treatment of
      PCD epithelia using exogenous NO and antibiotic significantly reduced NTHi
      viability in biofilms compared with antibiotic treatment alone.Impaired ciliary
      function was the primary defect in PCD airway epithelium underlying
      susceptibility to NTHi biofilm development compared with non-PCD epithelium.
      Although NO responses were similar, use of targeted NO with antibiotics enhanced
      killing of NTHi in biofilms, suggesting a novel therapeutic approach.

PMID- 28890438
TI  - Impact of alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency and prior augmentation therapy on
      patients' survival after lung transplantation.

PMID- 28890439
TI  - Inhaled budesonide does not prevent acute mountain sickness after rapid ascent to
      4559 m.

PMID- 28890440
TI  - Inhaled budesonide for acute mountain sickness.

PMID- 28890441
TI  - Haemophilus influenzae biofilms in primary ciliary dyskinesia: a moving story.

PMID- 28890442
TI  - Marked geographic patterns in the incidence of idiopathic central precocious
      puberty: a nationwide study in France.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Precocious puberty seems to be increasing but epidemiological data
      are scarce. Our objective was to improve the epidemiologic knowledge on this
      disease. We analyzed the national incidence and spatial trends of idiopathic
      central precocious puberty in France in 2011-2013 in a cross-sectional
      descriptive study. DESIGN: We used an indicator based on treatment reimbursements
      recorded in the national insurance database, in girls under the age of nine years
      and in boys under the age of 10 years. We considered a time lag of up to one year
      from the onset of puberty to first drug delivery. We tested four different
      predictive spatial models at the departement scale, selecting the model best
      fitting the data. We carried out semi-structured interviews with qualified
      hospital teams in five selected regions to investigate spatial differences in
      medical practices. RESULTS: The national annual incidence was 2.68 (95% CI: 2.55,
      2.81) per 10 000 girls under the age of 9 years and 0.24 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.27) per
      10 000 boys under the age of 10 years. Incidence rates conformed to a purely
      spatial heterogeneity model in girls, consistent between age groups, with a large
      incidence range. A similar pattern was observed for boys, with peaks in the South
      West and Center East. Differences in medical practices may have slightly affected
      incidence locally, but could not entirely explain the marked geographic pattern.
      CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the risk factors are similar for boys and
      girls and justify further investigations of the role of the environment.

PMID- 28890444
TI  - Introduction to the Special Issue.

PMID- 28890443
TI  - Stress and sex: does cortisol mediate sex change in fish?
AB  - Cortisol is the main glucocorticoid (GC) in fish and the hormone most directly
      associated with stress. Recent research suggests that this hormone may act as a
      key factor linking social environmental stimuli and the onset of sex change by
      initiating a shift in steroidogenesis from estrogens to androgens. For many
      teleost fish, sex change occurs as a usual part of the life cycle. Changing sex
      is known to enhance the lifetime reproductive success of these fish and the
      modifications involved (behavioral, gonadal and morphological) are well studied.
      However, the exact mechanism behind the transduction of the environmental signals
      into the molecular cascade that underlies this singular process remains largely
      unknown. We here synthesize current knowledge regarding the role of cortisol in
      teleost sex change with a focus on two well-described transformations:
      temperature-induced masculinization and socially regulated sex change. Three non
      mutually exclusive pathways are considered when describing the potential role of
      cortisol in mediating teleost sex change: cross-talk between GC and androgen
      pathways, inhibition of aromatase expression and upregulation of amh (the gene
      encoding anti-Mullerian hormone). We anticipate that understanding the role of
      cortisol in the initial stages of sex change will further improve our
      understanding of sex determination and differentiation across vertebrates, and
      may lead to new tools to control fish sex ratios in aquaculture.

PMID- 28890445
TI  - Challenging the Conventional Wisdom: <i>From Philosophy to Bioethics</i>.
AB  - Philosophy is a core discipline that has contributed importantly to bioethics. In
      this essay, the author traces his trajectory from philosophy to bioethics,
      oriented around the theme of challenging the conventional wisdom. Three topics
      are discussed to illustrate this theme: the ethics of randomized trials,
      determination of death and organ transplantation, and pragmatism as a method of
      bioethics. In addition, the author offers some general reflections on the
      relationship between philosophy and bioethics. Philosophy recovers itself when it
      ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of philosophers and becomes a
      method, cultivated by philosophers, for dealing with the problems of men.-John
      Dewey (1917).

PMID- 28890446
TI  - My Time in Medicine.
AB  - Through this autobiographical reflection on a life in medicine and bioethics, the
      author discovers that time is a unifying theme in his work. From his early
      writing on the regulation of house staff work hours and his abandonment of
      essentialism and the development of clinical pragmatism as a method of moral
      problem-solving to his scholarship on end-of-life care and disorders of
      consciousness, time has been a central heuristic in an effort to bridge ethical
      theory and clinical practice.

PMID- 28890447
TI  - What Nurse Bioethicists Bring to Bioethics: <i>The Journey of a Nurse
      Bioethicist</i>.
AB  - Nurses, one of the most trusted professional groups in our society, work with
      patients and their families at all stages of the illness trajectory. Nurse
      bioethicists are a small but special subset of the nursing profession and
      bioethics community, focusing on the moral complexities that arise in clinical
      care, research, and health policy. This article examines the career trajectory of
      a nurse bioethicist and the clinical, educational, and research experiences that
      shaped her career goals. It also addresses the uniqueness of nursing and the
      ethical challenges that nurse's encounter in their day-today interactions with
      diverse patient populations and calls for distinct conceptual and empirical
      bioethics inquiry. Training the next generation of nurse bioethicists requires a
      dialogue with nursing and bioethics scholars on the academic and philosophical
      skill set and mentorship requirements that will advance and contribute to the
      broader public good.

PMID- 28890448
TI  - A Tale of Two Disciplines: <i>Law and Bioethics</i>.
AB  - Fascination with In re Quinlan, the first high-profile right-to-die case in the
      United States, led the author to law school. By the time she received her law
      degree, bioethics was emerging as a field of study, and law and bioethics became
      her field. The mission of legal education is to teach students to "think like a
      lawyer," which can be a productive way to approach issues in many fields,
      including bioethics. Legal education can also teach individuals to respect people
      whose views on bioethics issues differ from their own. This essay describes three
      areas in which legal training influenced the author's work in bioethics:
      treatment decisions, research misconduct, and stem cell research.

PMID- 28890449
TI  - History, Morals, and Medicine.
AB  - This essay provides a rational reconstruction of the author's genetically
      inscribed inclination to do normative ethics with an historical bent and offers
      some reflections on the value of historical thinking for bioethics.

PMID- 28890450
TI  - Regarding Bioethics: <i>A Sociology of Morality</i>.
AB  - C. Wright Mills said that when done well, sociology illuminates the intersection
      of biography and history. This essay examines how the author's vocational choices
      and career path were shaped by historical circumstance, leading him to a degree
      in sociology and to participation in the odd and interesting interdiscipline of
      bioethics. Drawing on a distinction between sociology in bioethics and sociology
      of bioethics, the essay considers the value of sociology to the bioethical
      project.

PMID- 28890451
TI  - In the Matter of Stories.
AB  - This essay lays out some of the many resources that a background in literary
      studies has to offer bioethics. After identifying four useful characteristics of
      stories, it briefly discusses some kinds of moral work that stories can be put
      to, including countering ethically undesirable stories and modeling ethically
      troubling situations. Stories can be invoked in our moral reasoning, compared and
      parsed, and used to teach moral lessons. They can help us discern which moral
      concepts are operative in a specific instance. Our personal identities consist of
      stories, which help us understand who we and other people are. Stories can also
      be parodied, for political or other effect. Stories can perform these moral
      functions only to the extent that the persons telling or invoking or parodying
      them are themselves morally competent. But given that competence, a scholarly
      grasp of literature and narrative can greatly enhance bioethical reflection.

PMID- 28890452
TI  - A Journey in Public Health Ethics.
AB  - While medical ethics has a long history, and research ethics guidance emerged
      more formally in the 1960s and 1970s, frameworks for public health ethics began
      to appear in the 1990s. The author's thinking about public health ethics evolved
      from consideration of some of the ethics and policy questions surfacing regularly
      in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This essay discusses some of the shared commitments of
      public health and ethics, as well as how one might apply an ethics lens to public
      health programs, both generally and in the contexts of public health preparedness
      and obesity prevention.

PMID- 28890453
TI  - Risk Communication in EPA's Controlled Inhalation Exposure Studies and in
      Support.
AB  - On March 28, 2017, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
      (NASEM) released a much-anticipated report on the Environmental Protection
      Agency's controlled human inhalation exposure studies. This essay reviews the
      ethical controversies that led to the genesis of the report, summarizes its key
      findings, and comments on its approach to informing human subjects about the
      risks of inhalation exposure studies. NASEM's report makes a valuable
      contribution to our understanding of the scientific and ethical issues involved
      in conducting human inhalation exposure studies. Its definition of "reasonably
      foreseeable risks" provides useful guidance to investigators, research
      participants, and institutional review board members.

PMID- 28890455
TI  - Internationalism and Engineering in UNESCO during the End Game of Empire, 1943
      68.
AB  - When UNESCO was founded in 1945 the organization aimed to become a pivotal player
      in international collaboration in the field of engineering. UNESCO based its
      engineering initiatives on the World Engineering Conference, an organization
      espousing a politically motivated "technocratic internationalism" and on the
      World Power Conference, an organization promoting a business-friendly stance of
      "engineering internationalism." These competing models for international
      collaboration curtailed UNESCO's institutional ambitions. UNESCO's position was
      further weakened by fierce opposition from British engineering institutions that
      pursued a Commonwealth institutional framework in direct opposition to UNESCO.
      This article unravels the intricate connections between empire and
      internationalism that shaped UNESCO's engineering agenda during the first post
      war decades. It demonstrates how competing forms of internationalism, mounting
      cold war tensions, and the continuous influence of a British empire-based
      opposition ultimately forced UNESCO to abandon its technocratic internationalist
      ambitions and settle for a modest coordinating role in international technical
      collaboration.

PMID- 28890454
TI  - The Telegraph and the Control of Material Movements: A Micro-Study about the
      Detachment of Communication from Transport.
AB  - Relatively recent historiographical approaches such as global or transnational
      history have attracted new attention to telegraphy and its role in processes of
      globalization. This renewed interest in submarine cables and overland wires has
      recently provided us with a reasonably good idea of how the global telegraph
      network developed in the nineteenth century, who its principal designers were,
      and where it was more and where it was less tight. Little, however, has been said
      so far about the actual matters communicated telegraphically, certainly not in
      any systematic fashion. Apart from individual telegraphic messages that gained
      prominence in political or military history, the contents of telegrams have
      attracted little historiographical attention. What was conveyed in telegrams has
      not been interrogated as to its significance in globalization processes. This
      article seeks to make a first step in this direction and suggests that only in a
      content analysis of everyday telegrams do the most important qualities of
      telegraphy become apparent. It introduces a small but coherent corpus of
      telegrams-the Bala railway telegrams-that provides us with a rare opportunity to
      study the contents of telegraphic messages in a systematic form. In the course of
      the analysis of the Bala railway telegrams the importance of this device's power
      to coordinate and control movement begins to show. By relating evidence from this
      micro-level study to the contexts in which telegraphy was employed on a larger
      scale, the article suggests that this capacity for coordination and control was
      the principal new quality introduced by the technology.

PMID- 28890456
TI  - A Figure of Merit: Quantifying the Probability of a Nuclear Reactor Accident.
AB  - In recent decades, probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) has become an essential
      tool in risk analysis and management in many industries and government agencies.
      The origins of PRA date to the 1975 publication of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
      Commission's (NRC) Reactor Safety Study led by MIT professor Norman Rasmussen.
      The "Rasmussen Report" inspired considerable political and scholarly disputes
      over the motives behind it and the value of its methods and numerical estimates
      of risk. The Report's controversies have overshadowed the deeper technical
      origins of risk assessment. Nuclear experts had long sought to express risk in a
      "figure of merit" to verify the safety of weapons and, later, civilian reactors.
      By the 1970s, technical advances in PRA gave the methodology the potential to
      serve political ends, too. The Report, it was hoped, would prove nuclear power's
      safety to a growing chorus of critics. Subsequent attacks on the Report's methods
      and numerical estimates damaged the NRC's credibility. PRA's fortunes revived
      when the 1979 Three Mile Island accident demonstrated PRA's potential for
      improving the safety of nuclear power and other technical systems. Nevertheless,
      the Report's controversies endure in mistrust of PRA and its experts.

PMID- 28890458
TI  - The Life of a Renaissance Gunmaker: Bonaccorso Ghiberti and the Development of
      Florentine Artillery in the Late Fifteenth Century.
AB  - This article examines the technological development of artillery production in
      Florence during the last two decades of the fifteenth century, before and after
      the assimilation of the most efficient French ordnance into Italian warfare. The
      study starts from the notes, drawings, accounts, and guns produced by Bonaccorso
      di Vettorio Ghiberti (1451-1516), the heir of the foundry of his illustrious
      ancestor Lorenzo di Cione (1378-1455). Data have been collected from the
      historical archives of the Istituto degli Innocenti, from the Biblioteca
      Nazionale Centrale of Florence, and from the Florentine State Archive. This
      article demonstrates the existence of a lively and reactive war-related industry
      in Renaissance Italy, which was aware of new ideas and new techniques. The
      article highlights, moreover, the leading role of public demand in fostering
      military innovations.

PMID- 28890457
TI  - Healing Animals in an Antibiotic Age: Veterinary Drugs and the Professionalism
      Crisis, 1945-1970.
AB  - Between 1945 and 1970, the introduction of antibiotics in agriculture forced
      veterinarians to articulate the boundaries of their professional identity. While
      veterinarians welcomed the new aid to arrest infectious diseases of livestock,
      they worried as farmers took animal healing into their own hands without
      veterinary supervision, and resented the competition from retail outlets that
      sold the drugs. Veterinary antibiotics also set off heated debates within the
      field about whether the profession should position itself as preventers or
      healers of disease, debates that were akin to the kinds of professional
      discourses among physicians and pharmacists in the same period. By calling
      attention to the social context that helped facilitate an increasing reliance on
      the veterinary antibiotics, this article helps explain the sources of present-day
      overuse of such antibiotics in American agriculture.

PMID- 28890460
TI  - SHOT: Internationalization and the Art of Translation.

PMID- 28890459
TI  - James E. Webb, Technocracy, and the New Deal Roots of "Space Age Management".
AB  - abstract James E. Webb, NASA's Administrator during the hectic years preparing to
      send American astronauts to the Moon, has come to represent the pinnacle of
      postwar American optimism and support for large-scale, technically complex
      national undertakings. Success in 1969 lent credence to Webb's faith in "space
      age management." By the 1980s such "technocratic optimism" had precipitously
      declined. Since 1985, with the publication of Walter A. McDougall's Pulitzer
      Prize winning. . . The Heavens and the Earth, the rise and decline of such
      optimism has often been framed in the context of Cold War ideology and
      competition. In this study, aspects of Webb's vision are traced back prior to
      World War II. It argues that Cold War emphasis, although certainly crucial for
      understanding the institutions and practices Webb directed, nevertheless tends to
      mask the full extent of the 1980s rejection of long standing attitudes toward
      planning, expertise, and rigorous scientific and technical knowledge.

PMID- 28890461
TI  - Humans and Machines.

PMID- 28890462
TI  - The Documentary Impulse.
AB  - This article has two interconnected goals. It is, first of all, a review of the
      film The Land Beneath Our Feet, an exemplary documentary that combines the
      history of technology, science and technology studies, and environmental history
      in its exploration of the social, cultural, and natural consequences of the
      rubber industry's expansion in Liberia. The essay's larger purpose, however, is
      to explore the powerful role documentary film-making practices have to play in
      the development of new approaches in the history of technology. Here, an
      interview with historian and film co-director Gregg Mitman provides the framework
      for an expansive conversation about both the "documentary impulse" that he
      explores in his film and related written works, and also the growing role of
      audiovisual practice in scholarly work.

PMID- 28890463
TI  - "Useful Sciences"?: Ursula Klein, <i>Nutzliches Wissen</i>.

PMID- 28890464
TI  - Steam and Power: Andreas Malm, <i>Fossil Capital</i>.

PMID- 28890465
TI  - Hemodynamics of Pericardial Aortic Valves: Contemporary Stented versus Stentless
      Valves in a Matched Comparison.
AB  - PURPOSE: Hemodynamic performance of aortic valve bioprostheses is essential for
      reliable function and durability. So far, the supra-annularly implanted stentless
      Sorin Freedom Solo (SFS) demonstrated unsurpassed hemodynamic properties. As
      contemporary stented and externally mounted pericardial bioprostheses, like the
      Labcor Dokimos Plus (LDP), also improve hemodynamic performance, these types of
      valves were compared in this study. METHODS: A total of 218 patients, who
      underwent aortic valve replacement with the LDP or the SFS, were matched
      retrospectively 1:1 on variables affecting hemodynamic measurements: implanted
      valve size, age, sex, and body surface area (BSA). With matching tolerance for
      valve size and gender of 0%, for age and BSA of 5%, 57 patient-pairs were
      yielded. Operative data, clinical, and hemodynamic outcome were analyzed.
      RESULTS: Except for slightly higher left ventricular function and lower
      procedural times in the SFS group, preoperative, operative, and postoperative
      characteristics of patient-pairs did not differ significantly. Mean pressure
      gradients, effective orifice areas (EOAs), and indexed EOAs were comparable.
      Corresponding to valve sizes of 21, 23, 25, and 27 mm, the indexed EOAs of the
      LDP and SFS prostheses were 1.08 +/- 0.33, 0.92 +/- 0.19, 0.93 +/- 0.24, 0.99 +/-
      0.13 cm2/m2 and 0.81 +/- 0.13, 0.92 +/- 0.28, 0.95 +/- 0.20, 1.04 +/- 0.27
      cm2/m2, respectively. CONCLUSION: Contemporary stented and stentless pericardial
      bioprostheses showed excellent hemodynamic properties without significant
      differences in EOAs and indexed EOAs.

PMID- 28890466
TI  - Changes in Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity and the Predictors of Improvement in
      Arterial Stiffness Following Aortic Valve Replacement.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The interaction between valvular aortic stenosis (AS) and arterial
      stiffness, as well as the impact of aortic valve replacement (AVR) on arterial
      stiffness, remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the degree of AS
      severity on non-invasive pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements. We also searched
      whether the AVR procedure favorably affects PWV. METHODS: In all, 38 patients
      undergoing AVR for chronic AS were included. The degree of aortic stiffness was
      measured with PWV at both baseline and 6 months after AVR. Improvement in aortic
      stiffness was defined as the absolute decrease in PWV at 6 months compared to the
      baseline value. RESULTS: The study population had a mean age of 59 +/- 16 years,
      mean aortic gradient of 47.1 +/- 6.4 mmHg, and mean aortic valve area (AVA) index
      of 0.45 +/- 0.11 cm2 /m2 . Baseline PWV values correlated positively with the
      mean aortic gradient (r = 0.350, p = 0.031) and negatively with the AVA index (r
      = -0.512, p = 0.001). The mean PWV improved in 20 patients (53%) and worsened in
      18 patients (47%). The baseline New York Heart Association (NYHA) class (odds
      ratio [OR] = 1.023, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.005-1.041, p = 0.041) and
      AVA index (OR = 1.040, 96% CI = 1.023-1.057, p = 0.028) emerged as the
      independent predictors of improvement in PWV following AVR. CONCLUSION: The
      severity of AS was significantly associated with baseline PWV. In general, the
      mean PWV did not change with AVR. Baseline NYHA class and the AVA index
      independently predicted PWV improvement following AVR. Since the change in PWV
      after AVR was polarized based on the patients' characteristics, such as
      preoperative NYHA functional class or AVA index, further studies are needed to
      confirm clinical significance of PWV change following AVR in severe AS patients.

PMID- 28890467
TI  - Prediction of arterial blood gas values from venous blood gas values in Asiatic
      black bears (Ursus thibetanus) anesthetized with intramuscular medetomidine and
      zolazepam-tiletamine.
AB  - The objective of this study was to measure differences between arterial and
      venous blood gas parameters and to evaluate whether arterial blood gas values can
      be estimated from venous blood in Asiatic black bears (ABBs). Twelve healthy
      captive ABBs (8 males and 4 females; 8-16 years; 76.8-220 kg) were included in
      this study. The bears were immobilized with medetomidine and zolazepam-tiletamine
      using a dart gun. Arterial and venous samples were collected simultaneously at 5
      and 35 min after recumbency (5- and 35-min points). Partial pressure of oxygen
      (PO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), pH, bicarbonate (HCO3-), total
      carbon dioxide (TCO2), oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (SO2) and base excess
      (BEecf) were analyzed using a portable blood gas analyzer. There was no marked
      difference in measured and calculated variables over time in both venous and
      arterial blood except for PO2. However, arterial PO2, SO2 and pH were
      significantly higher and arterial PCO2, TCO2 and HCO3- were lower than those of
      venous samples at both 5- and 35-min points. In the regression analysis to
      estimate arterial values from venous values, PCO2, TCO2, HCO3-, BEecf and pH
      significantly showed over 0.45 in coefficient of determination value (R2), and
      there were little differences between actual and predicted arterial values.
      Although there were limits in venous gas values replaced those of arterial blood,
      if we could not get the arterial samples, the regression formulas for arterial
      values from venous blood in this study would be useful clinically, except for PO2
      and SO2.

PMID- 28890468
TI  - Dominant Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis Enriched in Response to Phosphate
      Concentrations in EBPR Process.
AB  - Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis (Accumulibacter), which plays an important
      role in enhanced biological phosphorus removal in wastewater treatment plants, is
      phylogenetically classified into two major types (Types I and II). Phosphate
      concentrations affect the Accumulibacter community of the biomass enriched in
      treatment plants. Therefore, in the present study, Accumulibacter enrichments
      were conducted using a down-flow hanging sponge reactor under five conditions and
      a wide range of controlled phosphate concentrations in order to investigate how
      phosphate governs the community. We found that excessive phosphate levels
      inhibited Accumulibacter activity, that this inhibitory effect was greater for
      Type II. In addition, the affinity of Type II for phosphate was higher than that
      of Type I. Type IIA-B dominated at a phosphate concentration less than 5 mg P L
      1, while Type IA was dominant at 50 and 500 mg P L-1. These patterns of
      enrichment may be explained by an inhibition kinetics model.

PMID- 28890469
TI  - Occurrence of Extended-Spectrum and AmpC-Type beta-Lactamase Genes in Escherichia
      coli Isolated from Water Environments in Northern Thailand.
AB  - Sixty-eight cefotaxime-resistant Escherichia coli isolates were recovered from
      different water environments in Northern Thailand. Isolates were mostly resistant
      to ceftazidime and aztreonam (>90%). The most common extended-spectrum beta
      lactamase-encoding gene was blaCTX-M-group 1 (75%) followed by blaCTX-M-group 9
      (13.2%). The co-existence of blaCTX-M and AmpC-type beta-lactamase genes was
      detected in 4 isolates (5.9%). Two E. coli isolates carrying blaCTX-M from canal
      and river water samples belonged to the phylogenetic group B2-ST131, which is
      known to be pathogenic. This is the first study on blaCTX-M and blaCMY-2-carrying
      E. coli and the emergence of ST131 from water environments in Thailand.

PMID- 28890470
TI  - Circulating ANGPTL2 Levels Increase in Humans and Mice Exhibiting Cardiac
      Dysfunction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recently, it was reported that angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2)
      secreted from a pathologically stressed heart accelerates cardiac dysfunction in
      an autocrine/paracrine manner, and that suppression of ANGPTL2 production in the
      heart restored cardiac function and myocardial energy metabolism, thereby
      blocking heart failure (HF) development. Interestingly, circulating ANGPTL2
      concentrations reportedly increase in HF patients, suggesting a possible
      endocrine effect on cardiac dysfunction. However, it remains unclear why
      circulating ANGPTL2 increases in those subjects and whether circulating ANGPTL2
      alters cardiac function in an endocrine manner.Methods and Results:It was found
      that circulating ANGPTL2 levels are positively correlated with left atrial
      diameter and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, and are inversely proportional
      to the percent of ejection fraction in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.
      Furthermore, in mice, circulating ANGPTL2 concentrations increased as HF
      developed following transverse aorta constriction (TAC), and were inversely
      correlated with the percent of fractional shortening. Interestingly, although
      circulating ANGPTL2 concentrations significantly increased in transgenic mice
      overexpressing keratinocyte-derived ANGPTL2, no pathological cardiac remodeling
      was seen. Furthermore, it was observed that there was no difference in HF
      development between transgenic mice and controls following TAC surgery.
      CONCLUSIONS: Circulating ANGPTL2 levels increase in subjects experiencing cardiac
      dysfunction. However, circulating ANGPTL2 does not promote cardiac dysfunction in
      an endocrine manner, and increased levels of circulating ANGPTL2 seen during HF
      are a secondary effect of increased ANGPTL2 secretion from stressed hearts in HF
      pathologies.

PMID- 28890471
TI  - Precarious Employment Is Not Associated with Increased Depressive Symptoms: A
      Cross-Sectional Study in Care Service Workers of Japan.
AB  - Some epidemiological studies with a large number of subjects, like a national
      health study, reported that precarious employment was associated with increased
      depressive symptoms, but this hypothesis may not be applicable to precarious
      workers of all industry types. We examined the association between precarious
      employment and depressive symptoms in light of work-related stress in care work
      environments. The self-administered questionnaire, composed of the Job Content
      Questionnaire based on the demand-control-support model and the Center of
      Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), was distributed, and a total of
      1,338 permanent and 531 precarious employees responded to it with complete forms.
      In the precarious employees, scores of CES-D, job demand and job control were
      lower and supervisor support score was higher compared with the permanent
      employees, though there was no significant difference in the proportion of CES-D
      score >=16 between the two groups. Multivariate analysis with adjustment for
      possible confounders revealed that increased depressive symptoms were associated
      with low coworker support in the precarious employees and with high demand and
      low control at work, low support from supervisors and coworkers in the permanent
      employees. However, precarious employment was not significantly associated with
      depressive symptoms in the male or female employees. In conclusion, our results
      do not support the above hypothesis at least in care service workers. Such a
      hypothesis should be verified in employees of each industry separately. Instead,
      coworker support within each workplace appears to be important for the preventive
      strategy of depression in workers including precarious employees.

PMID- 28890472
TI  - Ocular abnormalities associated with hypovitaminosis A in Hanwoo calves: a report
      of two cases.
AB  - This study reports on two Hanwoo (a native Korean breed of cattle) calves, a 3-
      and 6-month-old presenting with diarrhea, anorexia and blindness. Ophthalmoscopic
      examination revealed bilateral papilledema in both calves. Reverse-transcription
      polymerase chain reaction tests for bovine viral diarrhea virus, rotavirus and
      coronavirus were all negative. The levels of serum vitamin A in the two affected
      calves were 0.317 ug/dl and 0.481 ug/dl, respectively. These values are much
      lower than the normal vitamin A levels; therefore, the calves were diagnosed with
      hypovitaminosis A.

PMID- 28890473
TI  - New psychotropic substance abuse and its regulation.

PMID- 28890474
TI  - Changes in the prevalence of new psychoactive substances and their legal status
      in Japan.

PMID- 28890475
TI  - Evaluation of harmful effects of new psychoactive substances: current status and
      issues.

PMID- 28890477
TI  - Current status and promising future of nasal drug delivery.

PMID- 28890476
TI  - Old and new inflammation and infection hypotheses of Alzheimer's disease: focus
      on Microglia-aging for chronic neuroinflammation.

PMID- 28890478
TI  - Pharmacological properties and clinical efficacy of Ximency(r) Combination
      Tablets.

PMID- 28890479
TI  - RNA toxicity and RAN translation in repeat expansion disorders.

PMID- 28890480
TI  - Effect of treatment with epoprostenol and endothelin receptor antagonists on the
      development of thyrotoxicosis in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
AB  - Thyroid disease is known to be associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension
      (PAH). We investigated the prevalence of thyroid disease in patients with
      idiopathic PAH (IPAH) or heritable PAH (HPAH), and the factors affecting the
      pathogenesis of thyroid disease. We retrospectively evaluated 59 patients with
      IPAH or HPAH who had been diagnosed with PAH before the age of 20 years.
      Thyrotoxicosis was detected in 12 of the 59 patients (6 patients with Graves'
      disease, 3 with hashitoxicosis, and 3 with silent thyroiditis) after the start of
      PAH treatment. The proportion of patients who received epoprostenol in the
      thyrotoxicosis group was significantly higher than that in the euthyroid group
      (12/12 vs. 27/47, p=0.015). In the 39 patients treated with epoprostenol, the
      proportion of patients who received combination therapy with epoprostenol and an
      endothelin receptor antagonist (ERA) in the thyrotoxicosis group was
      significantly lower than that in the euthyroid group (5/12 vs. 23/27, p=0.016).
      Logistic regression analysis revealed that thyrotoxicosis development was
      significantly associated with administration of epoprostenol (odds ratio [OR]
      8.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.26-53.74, p=0.028) and non-administration of
      ERA (OR 5.33, 95% CI 1.29-22.06, p=0.021). The prevalence of thyrotoxicosis was
      high in patients with IPAH or HPAH. The onset of thyrotoxicosis might be promoted
      by epoprostenol and inhibited by ERA.

PMID- 28890481
TI  - Free testosterone concentration is inversely associated with markers of liver
      fibrosis in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - The association between serum testosterone level and liver fibrosis in patients
      with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is unclear. To clarify this association,
      we investigated the relationship between serum free testosterone concentration
      and markers of liver fibrosis in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus but no obvious
      features of alcohol consumption. This retrospective observational cross-sectional
      study enrolled 248 men with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The FIB-4 index was
      measured as a marker of liver fibrosis, and multiple linear regression analysis
      was performed to examine its association with serum free testosterone
      concentration. In addition, the 7S domain of type IV collagen (IV-7S) was
      examined in 140 of the 248 patients. The mean free testosterone concentration was
      10.6 +/- 6.8 pg/mL and the means of the FIB-4 index and IV-7S were 1.64 +/- 1.19
      and 4.02 +/- 1.11 ng/mL, respectively. After adjusting for all relevant
      variables, serum free testosterone concentrations were inversely associated with
      both the FIB-4 index and IV-7S (beta; -0.28, P < 0.0001, and beta; -0.28, P =
      0.002, respectively). Measuring serum free testosterone concentrations in men
      with type 2 diabetes mellitus may help to predict progression to advanced liver
      disease. Identifying patients at risk may help to prevent the development of
      cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

PMID- 28890482
TI  - The relationship between chronic kidney function and homeostasis model assessment
      of insulin resistance and beta cell function in Korean adults with or without
      type 2 diabetes mellitus.
AB  - The present study was conducted to assess the relationship between chronic kidney
      disease (CKD) and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA
      IR) and beta cell function (HOMA-B) in Korean adults with or without type 2
      diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study included 5,188 adults aged 20 or older using
      the 2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data,
      which represents national data in Korea. A covariance test adjusted for
      covariates was performed for HOMA-IR and HOMA-B in relation to CKD. The present
      study has several key findings. First, in T2DM, HOMA-IR (p = 0.035) was higher in
      the CKD group than in the non-CKD group after adjusting for the related variables
      but HOMA-B (p = 0.141) was not significant. Second, in non-T2DM, HOMA-IR (p =
      0.163) and HOMA-B (p = 0.658) were not associated with CKD after adjusting for
      the related variables (except age). However, when further adjusted for age, HOMA
      IR (p = 0.020) and HOMA-B (p = 0.006) were higher in the CKD group than in the
      non-CKD group. In conclusion, insulin resistance was positively associated CKD
      with in Korean adults with or without T2DM. Beta cell function was positively
      associated CKD with in Korean adults without T2DM but not in Korean adults with
      T2DM.

PMID- 28890483
TI  - Ligand Exchange Reactions of a Monomeric Zirconium Carbonate Complex with
      Carboxylic Acids Studied by Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure, UV
      Absorption and Raman Spectrophotometry.
AB  - Ligand exchange reactions of a monomeric zirconium carbonate complex with
      carboxylic acids were studied by means of extended X-ray absorption fine
      structure (EXAFS), UV absorption spectrophotometry and Raman spectrometry. Three
      carboxylic acids, gluconic acid, and L-tartaric acid and citric acid, which are
      mono-, di- and tri-carboxylic acids, respectively, were employed in this study.
      These three carboxylic acids gave different spectral signatures and concentration
      dependences, respectively. In the gluconic acid system, the peaks on Fourier
      transform of EXAFS spectrum and Raman spectrum caused by carbonate ion
      coordinating to zirconium atom were obviously decreased with increasing gluconic
      acid concentration compared to the other two carboxylic acid systems. This
      indicates the high association ability of gluconic acid to zirconium, which was
      revealed by UV spectrophotometric analysis.

PMID- 28890484
TI  - Electromagnetophoretic Micro-convection around a Droplet in a Capillary.
AB  - The electromagnetophoretic behavior of organic droplets in an electrolyte
      solution was investigated in a silica capillary cell using a superconducting bulk
      magnet (3.5 T) and a magnetic circuit (2.7 T). The initially dispersed emulsion
      droplets of dodecane migrated to the wall of the capillary, responding to the
      direction of an electric current, and coalesced to form smaller and larger
      droplets after some repeated migrations. When the electric current was applied
      continuously, the larger droplets became arranged with regular intervals on the
      wall, and smaller droplets rotated around the larger droplets. These interesting
      behaviors were analyzed while taking into account the local electric current
      density determined by the flow velocity of the ionic current around a droplet,
      which was lowest on the electrode sides of the droplet. The difference in the
      local electric current density generated the Lorentz-force difference in the
      medium, which lead to local micro-convection around the droplet, and also the
      alignment of larger droplets by a repelling effect between the adjacent micro
      convections.

PMID- 28890485
TI  - Platinum-coated Core-Shell Gold Nanorods as Multifunctional Orientation Sensors
      in Differential Interference Contrast Microscopy.
AB  - We characterized the optical properties of single platinum-coated core-shell gold
      nanorods (Pt-AuNRs) under dark-field (DF) and differential interference contrast
      (DIC) microscopy. Furthermore, we examined their potential use as multifunctional
      orientation probes. Longitudinal surface plasmon resonance damping was observed
      for single Pt-AuNRs due to Pt metals coated on the AuNR surface under single
      particle scattering spectroscopy. Despite the strong plasmon damping with a much
      decreased scattering intensity, DIC microscopy allowed us to detect single Pt
      AuNRs with much higher sensitivity. We found polarization-dependent DIC images
      and intensities of single Pt-AuNRs, which allowed us to determine their
      orientation angle under DIC microscopy. Therefore, we report that single Pt-AuNRs
      can be used to develop multifunctional orientation probes under DIC microscopy.

PMID- 28890486
TI  - Determination of Eleven Organophosphorus Pesticide Residues in Textiles by Using
      HPLC-HRMS.
AB  - The overuse of organophosphorus pesticides on cotton production is a big concern
      in China today. Therefore, developing methods for the rapid screening and
      confirming of pesticide residues in textiles has become a top public health
      security priority. Here, a method was established for the rapid screening and
      quantifying of 11 kinds of organophosphorus pesticides (ethoprophos, coumaphos,
      profenofos, diazinon, ethion, parathion, phosalone, quinalphos, dicrotophos,
      azinphos methyl, and tribuphos) in textiles by high-performance liquid
      chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS). Rapid screening and
      quantifying could be completed by using software of Peakview and MultiQuant.
      Samples were extracted by the method of modified QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap,
      Effective, Rugged and Safe) and analyzed in the positive mode with MS detection.
      The results showed that the limits of detection were between 0.1 and 5.0 ng g-1,
      with correlation coefficients above 0.9990. The recoveries were in the range of
      70.3 - 109.8%, with relative standard deviations from 5.1 to 16.4%. This method
      is accurate and simple, which can be used in the rapid screening and quantitative
      analysis of 11 kinds of organophosphorus pesticides in textiles.

PMID- 28890487
TI  - Quantitative Measurement of Protein Using Metal Mesh Device.
AB  - Biosensing of protein adsorption with metal mesh device (MMD) was investigated by
      computational calculations and experiments. Electromagnetic field computation was
      carried out with a single unit cell of MMD. Equivalent circuit model of MMD on
      the single unit cell was assumed, and the biosensing with MMD was analyzed in
      detail by computational calculation and experimental measurements. The dip
      frequency of MMD was shifted by adsorption of protein on MMD. The shift of dip
      frequency of MMD was proportional to the amount of protein adsorption. The
      sensitivity of MMD biosensing was dependent on the microstructure of MMD, and
      proportional to the square of the dip frequency. The refinement of MMD structure
      can improve the sensitivity of protein detection.

PMID- 28890488
TI  - Optimization of Experimental Parameters for the Performance of Solid-state Dye
      sensitized Solar Cells.
AB  - The effects of various sample parameters for solid-state dye sensitized solar
      cells were studied with carrier dynamics measurements and electrochemical
      measurements. Although many parameters and processes have been decided based on
      the experience of researchers, the chemical and physical reasons for the
      selections have not been clarified. We studied the effect of the generally
      utilized materials and processing such as the blocking layer, titanium oxide
      thickness, surface treatment, and the selection of dyes and hole transfer
      materials. Based on our findings, we were able to rationally optimize the
      structure of the solid-state dye sensitized solar cells in terms of cell
      performance or the lifetime of charge carriers.

PMID- 28890489
TI  - Simultaneous Determination of 19 Plant Growth Regulator Residues in Plant
      originated Foods by QuEChERS and Stable Isotope Dilution-Ultra Performance Liquid
      Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - In this study, a highly sensitive and fast method of QuEChERS (acronym of quick,
      easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe) combined with isotope dilution-ultra
      performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry was
      developed for the simultaneous determination of 19 plant growth regulators in
      plant-originated foods. The samples were initially extracted with acetonitrile
      containing 1% acetic acid and then the QuEChERS method was applied after the pH
      value was adjusted to 5.5 - 6.0, using 3-indolepropionic-d2 acid and
      forchlorfenuron-d5 as internal standard. The targeted 19 plant growth regulators
      were separated on an HSS T3 column using acetonitrile: 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate
      as the mobile phase. Quantitative results were based on multiple reaction
      monitoring mode after ionization in positive and negative electrospray ionization
      mode. Good linearity was achieved within a wide range and all the correlation
      coefficients were greater than 0.997. The limit of quantification was 0.060 - 6.0
      MUg/kg. Rate of recovery and relative standard deviation were 72.3 - 115.8 and
      1.78 - 5.32%, respectively. The method was successfully applied to measure 19
      plant growth regulator residues in 280 plant-originated commercial foods
      collected from local supermarkets in China. Twelve plant growth regulators were
      found in some of the analyzed samples.

PMID- 28890490
TI  - Time- and Space-resolved Optical Diagnostics for Discharge Plasmas Separately
      Formed in Aqueous Solution.
AB  - When high voltage is applied to a gap between electrodes in aqueous solution, a
      discharge plasma is generated that connects the edges of the facing electrodes.
      When the width of the gap between the electrodes is extended to more than several
      millimeters, the plasma is separated into two and they are localized at the
      vicinities of the edges of the anode (+plasma) and cathode (-plasma). Although
      they are expected to supply characteristic reaction fields, the properties of the
      plasmas, such as electron number density and temperatures of transient species,
      have not yet been clarified. In the present study, a time- and space-resolved
      emission spectrometer with a discharge cell was developed for optical diagnostics
      of the +plasma and -plasma separately. The electron number density for the
      +plasma was obviously lower than that for the -plasma. The difference in the
      electron number density should result from the difference in the ionization
      energy of the cathode materials. From the temporal evolutions of the emissions
      from the components, the emissions from the -plasma were sustained for about 0.5
      MUs after the decay of the applied voltage, probably due to the large number of
      free electrons in the -plasma. It is also clarified that hydroxyl radicals are
      effectively generated by the collisions between cations deriving from water and
      low-energy free electrons in the +plasma. The wide-gap in-solution discharge
      supplies two plasmas simultaneously with different properties. For plasma
      reactions, one plasma with suitable properties can be selected.

PMID- 28890491
TI  - Low-temperature Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance Measurements of TEMPO and 4
      Hydroxy-TEMPO Benzoate for Purity Analyses by the Effective Magnetic-moment
      Method.
AB  - The purities of two high-purity organic compounds with a nitroxyl radical moiety
      were quantified based on their free-radical content using the effective magnetic
      moment method. Magnetic moments were measured and X-band electron paramagnetic
      resonance (EPR) spectra were obtained using a superconducting quantum
      interference device and X-band EPR spectrometer, respectively, over a wide
      temperature range of near-room temperature to near-liquid-helium temperature.
      Concerning measurements of effective g-values using an EPR spectrometer, both the
      sweep direction and sweep speed were taken into account to obtain accurate g
      values. The purities of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO) and 4
      hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl benzoate (4-hydroxy-TEMPO benzoate)
      were close to 1 kg kg-1 with relative uncertainties of 1%, which represented
      improved values compared to those obtained by us previously. These results show a
      possibility for both compounds to act as reference materials in providing
      reliable quantification of free radicals per unit mass using this analytical
      method.

PMID- 28890492
TI  - A Quantitative Analysis of an Oil Component in an Emulsion by Multiphoton
      Ionization Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - The first quantitative analysis of an oil component in an emulsion was achieved
      by multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MPI-TOFMS). An oil-in
      water (O/W) emulsion was prepared. Styrene (0 - 5000 ng MUL-1) and Triton X-100
      were used as the oil phase and the disperser, respectively. Toluene was employed
      as an internal standard. We obtained a series of mass spectra, and then
      constructed the time profiles for styrene and toluene. As a result, we found
      several spikes from both time profiles when measuring emulsions with higher
      concentrations of styrene. Moreover, the timing of spikes for toluene coincided
      with that of styrene. These results suggested the movement of toluene into
      styrene droplets in the prepared emulsion. Furthermore, we constructed
      calibration curves of styrene using both the absolute calibration curve method
      and an internal standard method. Linear calibration curves were obtained in the
      concentration range investigated in the present study; the coefficients of
      determination obtained by both methods were 0.9956 and 0.9986, respectively.

PMID- 28890493
TI  - Study on the Glass Transition Process of Polymer System Using Differential
      Scanning Calorimetry and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.
AB  - The change in the infrared spectrum of polymer samples with temperature and their
      differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experimental results are analyzed.
      According to the van't Hoff equation at constant pressure, the changes in the
      absorbance ratio corresponding to high and low vibrational states are calculated,
      and the apparent enthalpy differences of the vibration energy states
      transformation of the characteristic group can be obtained. From the experimental
      results, we can find that characteristic vibration modes of a chemical group in a
      polymer are under the influence of the glass transition process of the polymer
      with a different extent. The characteristic vibration modes of the same chemical
      group behave differently due to the influence of the polymer system at which the
      chemical moiety is situated.

PMID- 28890494
TI  - Characterization of Inclusions in Evolution of Sodium Sulfate Using Terahertz
      Time-domain Spectroscopy.
AB  - The study of fluid inclusion is one of the important means to understanding the
      evolution of mineral crystals, and can therefore provide original information of
      mineral evolution. In the process of evolution, outside factors such as
      temperature and pressure, directly affect the number and size of inclusions, and
      thus are related to the properties of crystals. In this paper, terahertz time
      domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) was used to detect sodium sulfate crystals with
      different growth temperatures, and absorption coefficient spectra of the samples
      were obtained. It is suggested that the evolution of sodium sulfate could be
      divided into two stages, and 80 degrees C was the turning point. X-ray
      diffraction (XRD) and polarizing microscopy were used to support this conclusion.
      The research showed that THz-TDS could characterize the evolution of mineral
      crystals, and it had a unique advantage in terms of crystal evolution.

PMID- 28890495
TI  - Kinetic Analysis of the Solvent Extraction of Cadmium(II) Complexes Using a
      Cadmium-deposited Recessed Microelectrode and Confocal Fluorescence Microscope.
AB  - Using a Cd-deposited microelectrode, an electrochemically generated Cd(II) ion in
      a micro-water phase was reacted with 5-octyloxymethyl-8-quinolinol (HC8Q) in 1,6
      dichlorohexane. The fluorescence intensity of Cd(C8Q)2 near the water/oil
      interface (IF) was analyzed under a confocal fluorescence microscope. The rate of
      decrease of IF was independent of the HC8Q concentration and pH, but was
      influenced by the phase-boundary potential between the water and oil phases,
      suggesting that Cd(II) extraction is governed by Cd(C8Q)+ desorption at the
      interface.

PMID- 28890496
TI  - On-line Analysis of Catalytic Reaction Products Using a High-Pressure Tandem
      Micro-reactor GC/MS.
AB  - When a GC/MS system is coupled with a pressurized reactor, the separation
      efficiency and the retention time are directly affected by the reactor pressure.
      To keep the GC column flow rate constant irrespective of the reaction pressure, a
      restrictor capillary tube and an open split interface are attached between the GC
      injection port and the head of a GC separation column. The capability of the
      attached modules is demonstrated for the on-line GC/MS analysis of catalytic
      reaction products of a bio-oil model sample (guaiacol), produced under a pressure
      of 1 to 3 MPa.

PMID- 28890498
TI  - Quantum Dot-based Fluorescent Sensing.

PMID- 28890499
TI  - Time-resolved Fluorescent Detection for Glucose Using a Complex of Luminescent
      Layered Titanates and Enzymes.
AB  - Luminescent europium-doped layered titanates (Eu-TiOx) were synthesized and
      complexed with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and glucose oxidase (GOx). The
      emission of a resultant Eu-TiOx/HRP/GOx complex decreased upon the addition of
      glucose in the presence of guaiacol. The emission decrease was dependent on the
      concentrations of glucose, and the detection limit for glucose was 3.1 MUM. The
      proposed system would be promising as a new detection method for glucose.

PMID- 28890500
TI  - Electrochemical Detection of Hydroxylamine via Au-Pt Alloy Nanoparticle-modified
      Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Electrodes.
AB  - In the present study, we developed an electrochemical sensor for highly sensitive
      detection of hydroxylamine using Au-Pt alloy nanoparticles. Au-Pt alloy
      nanoparticles were electrochemically deposited on a working electrode made of
      single-walled carbon nanotubes. The framework composition in the Au-Pt alloy
      nanoparticle was easily controlled by adjusting the Au3+:Pt4+ composition ratio
      in the precursor solution. Morphological and chemical characterizations of the
      resulting Au-Pt alloy nanoparticles were performed using field emission scanning
      electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy dispersion X-ray spectroscopy.
      When the Au3+:Pt4+ ratio in the precursor solution was 1:5, the ratio of Au:Pt
      atom in alloy nanoparticle was about 6:4. Au60Pt40 alloy nanoparticles were found
      to have the optimum synthetic ratio for hydroxylamine detection. The
      electrocatalytic performance of Au-Pt alloy nanoparticles in the presence of
      hydroxylamine was also characterized using cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse
      voltammetry, and chronoamperometry. In the chronoamperometric detection of
      hydroxylamine, the sensor exhibited a detection limit of 0.80 MUM (S/N = 3) and a
      high sensitivity of 184 MUA mM-1 cm-2. Moreover, the amperometric response of the
      sensor in 1 mM hydroxylamine was stable for a long time (450 s). Long-term
      stability tests showed that the current responses to hydroxylamine were 96, 91
      and 85% of the initial signal value after storage for 5, 10, and 20 days,
      respectively.

PMID- 28890501
TI  - Novel Uniform Fe3O4 Hollow Spheres for Magnetic Solid-phase Extraction of
      Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.
AB  - A novel magnetic absorbent based on Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres was developed for
      polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) extraction. Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres were
      prepared by a one-pot facile solvothermal method and its structural properties
      were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and analyzer
      transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was the first time to use hollow
      nanospheres which possess high special surface area for magnetic solid-phase
      extraction (MSPE). The extraction condition of Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres and its
      performance for PAHs was systematically investigated. Besides, its extraction
      performance also compared with bare Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The results indicated
      the structure with hollow and spherical Fe3O4 perform better enrichment ability
      than that with solid and amorphous ones. The developed MSPE coupled with HPLC
      method shows good linearity (0.1 - 5 ng/mL) and low detection limits (2.5 - 10
      pg/mL) for six PAHs. It also has been executed for the analysis of environmental
      samples, with recoveries in the range of 84.6 - 97.8%.

PMID- 28890502
TI  - Close Monitoring of eGFR Should Be Performed in HIV-Infected Patients Aged over
      37 Years.
AB  - Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been shown to be a poor prognostic factor in HIV
      patients. This study aimed to identify risk factors in HIV-infected patients with
      early decline in renal function or an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)
      less than 90 mL/min/1.73 m2. The study was retrospectively conducted at
      Panyananthaphikkhu Chonprathan Medical Center, Thailand. The inclusion criteria
      were HIV-infected adult patients who were treated at the hospital's HIV clinic
      and whose eGFR levels at the first visit had been evaluated. Eligible patients
      were categorized according to their eGFR level being lesser or greater than 90
      mL/min/1.73 m2. Multivariate logistic analysis was performed to evaluate the
      association of risk factors with an eGFR of less than 90 mL/min/1.73 m2. There
      were 301 HIV-infected patients included in the study. Of those, 89 patients
      (29.57%) had an eGFR of less than 90 mL/min/1.73 m2. Age was the only significant
      risk factor associated with an eGFR of less than 90 mL/min/1.73 m2 with an
      adjusted odds ratio of 1.072 (95% confidence interval: 1.015-1.132). Age of over
      37 years predicted an eGFR of less than 90 mL/min/1.73 m2 as a risk factor in HIV
      infected patients, with a sensitivity of 80.9% and specificity of 34.91%. Age was
      independently associated with eGFRs of less than 90 mL/min/1.73 m2 in HIV
      infected patients. Close monitoring of eGFR should be performed in HIV-infected
      patients aged over 37 years.

PMID- 28890503
TI  - Spatial Clustering of Severe Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease Cases on Hainan Island,
      China.
AB  - The incidence of severe hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in Southeast and East Asia
      has increased in recent years. This study explored spatial clusters of the
      incidence and proportion of severe HFMD cases on Hainan Island, where the
      prevalence and mortality of HFMD were the highest in China during 2011. A spatial
      autocorrelation statistic (Anselin's Local Moran I) was calculated for the
      Empirical Bayesian (EB)-smoothed dataset of severe HFMD cases. Significant
      spatial clusters were detected for both the incidence and proportion of severe
      HFMD cases. Population density was higher in spatial clusters with a high
      proportion of severe HFMD cases among total HFMD cases. We speculate that a
      higher proportion of severe HFMD cases were diagnosed in densely populated
      townships. This should be considered when analyzing the HFMD database of Hainan
      Island.

PMID- 28890504
TI  - An Alarmingly High Proportion of HIV-1 Isolates Carrying Mutations Corresponding
      to Resistance to Antiretroviral Drugs among HIV-Positive High-Risk Groups in
      Central Vietnam: a Substudy of the National Sentinel Survey.
AB  - We studied the prevalence of HIV drug resistance among high-risk groups such as
      injecting drug users (IDUs), female sex workers (FSWs), and men having sex with
      men (MSM) in central Vietnam. We used HIV-positive blood samples from 2012-2013
      sentinel surveillance surveys. Study subjects were screened for HIV infection by
      standardized screening assays, and the HIV-positive samples were further tested
      for HIV viral load and drug-resistance mutations (DRMs) by in-house assays. DRMs
      were identified using the Stanford University online sequence analysis tool.
      Their risk behaviors were also investigated. During the study period, 6,016 (high
      risk) subjects were screened, and 97 tested positive for HIV infection (IDUs: n =
      63, 3.0%; FSWs: n = 24, 0.9%; and MSM: n = 10, 1.0%). Ninety-two of the 97
      samples (45 from 2012 and 47 from 2013) were available for further testing. HIV
      RNA was detected in 56 (60.9%) of the 92 samples, and drug resistance genotyping
      was successfully performed on 40 (71.4%) samples. All these isolates were subtype
      CRF01_AE, except for 1 (2.5%) IDU whose HIV belongs to subtype B. Thirteen
      individuals (32.5%) were carrying HIV with at least 1 DRM: 9 IDUs, 1 FSW, and 3
      MSM. Thus, HIV seroprevalence among high-risk individuals in central Vietnam is
      low, but a high proportion of drug resistant HIV-1 isolates is observed in the
      high-risk group.

PMID- 28890505
TI  - A Case of Community-Acquired Pneumonia Due to Legionella pneumophila Serogroup 9
      Wherein Initial Treatment with Single-Dose Oral Azithromycin Appeared Useful.
AB  - Legionella species are important causative pathogens for severe community
      acquired pneumonia (CAP). Most cases of Legionella pneumonia are due to
      Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1, and CAP due to L. pneumophila serogroup 9 is
      rare. A fourth case of CAP due to L. pneumophila serogroup 9 has been reported,
      and initial treatment using single-dose oral azithromycin appeared useful.
      Azithromycin or fluoroquinolone injection is usually recommended for the
      treatment of Legionella pneumonia, and no previous reports have shown the
      effectiveness of single-dose oral azithromycin. This case report is therefore
      valuable from the perspective of possible treatment for mild to moderate
      Legionella pneumonia using single-dose oral azithromycin.

PMID- 28890506
TI  - Sepsis Due to Chryseobacterium gleum in a Diabetic Patient with Chronic
      Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: a Case Report and Mini Review.

PMID- 28890507
TI  - Surveillance of Adenovirus Respiratory Infections in Children from Osaka, Japan.
AB  - Human adenovirus (HAdV) strains isolated from respiratory specimens of 139
      children were analyzed to evaluate the endemic situation of HAdV infections in
      Osaka, Japan, between 2008 and 2015. The cases increased during spring and
      winter, and the infections were confirmed mainly in children aged <= 5 years,
      comprising 91.9% of the total population examined. Molecular typing of the
      isolates revealed that the most common types belonged to HAdV-B and -C. Co
      infection of HAdV-C1 and -C2 was also confirmed in a case. The median age of HAdV
      E cases was higher than that of the HAdV-B and -C cases. These results revealed
      age and seasonal distribution of respiratory HAdV infections in children from
      Osaka, and indicate that majority of these children might have acquired immunity
      through endemic HAdV infection before reaching school age.

PMID- 28890508
TI  - Does Helicobacter pylori Infection Play a Role in Susceptibility to Brucellosis?
AB  - Brucellosis is endemic in Iran. Several studies have shown that brucellosis is
      associated with other infectious diseases. This study aimed to determine the
      relationship between Helicobacter pylori (HP) and brucellosis. In this case
      control study, 100 patients with brucellosis as cases and 200 participants
      without brucellosis as controls were evaluated. To compare the prevalence of HP
      in the 2 groups, odds ratios and confidence intervals for every variable were
      analyzed using logistic regression models after adjustment for confounding
      factors. The results obtained in patients with brucellosis showed that fever,
      sweating, and joint pain were the most prevalent clinical symptoms. In addition,
      compared with the control group, there was a significant relationship between the
      IgM antibody to HP and brucellosis infection (estimated odds ratio 2.74; 95% CI:
      1.5-4.9) (p = 0.001). Acute infection with HP was associated with brucellosis and
      increased the risk of brucellosis infection.

PMID- 28890509
TI  - Proposed Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Breakpoint of Garenoxacin and Other
      Quinolones.
AB  - The pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) breakpoints (BPs) of garenoxacin
      (GRNX) and other oral quinolones were calculated using Monte Carlo simulation
      (MCS) based on the distribution of changes in their plasma concentrations. PK-PD
      BPs of 400 mg once a day (QD) of GRNX for the free area under the curve/minimum
      inhibitory concentration (fAUC/MIC) for 30 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae
      and 100 strains of gram-negative bacteria (G [-]) were 0.5 and 0.125 MUg/mL,
      respectively. PK-PD BPs of other quinolones for S. pneumoniae/G (-) were 1/0.25
      MUg/mL for levofloxacin (LVFX) 500 mg QD, 0.5/0.125 MUg/mL for moxifloxacin
      (MFLX) 400 mg QD, 0.0625/0.0156 MUg/mL for sitafloxacin (STFX) 50 mg twice a day
      (BID) (100 mg QD), and 0.125/0.0313 MUg/mL for STFX 100 mg BID. We also
      investigated the hypothetical probability of target attainments (PTAs) of
      fAUC/MIC for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) using MCS, in consideration of
      the isolation frequencies of the three main causative pathogens of CAP: S.
      pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. For hypothetical
      CAP in adults, PTA of fAUC/MIC was 100% with GRNX and MFLX, 96%-97% with STFX at
      100 mg BID, 45%-46% with LVFX, and 53%-58% with STFX at 100 mg QD and 50 mg BID.
      Based on the PK-PD BP, GRNX showed higher fAUC/MIC than the other quinolones
      tested against the three main pathogens of respiratory infections.

PMID- 28890510
TI  - Circulating Genotypes of Dengue-1 Virus in South West India, 2014-2015.
AB  - Dengue is the most prevalent arboviral disease affecting humans, with tropical
      and subtropical regions having the highest risk of dengue virus infections. The
      clinical symptoms often range from mild fever to fever with hemorrhagic
      manifestations and shock. Since 2010, India has been witnessing a marked increase
      in the number of dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) infections, apart from those of
      serotypes 2 (DENV-2) and 3 (DENV-3). The present study was undertaken to
      understand the circulating genotypes of DENV-1 in South West India, by sequencing
      the envelope gene of DENV-1 samples representative of the 2014-2015 time period.
      The extracted RNAs from dengue NS1 antigen ELISA-positive samples, archived at
      the APEX Referral Laboratory for Arboviruses (National Vector Borne Disease
      Control Programme, Manipal Centre for Virus Research), were used for the study.
      The currently circulating genotypes of DENV-1 identified from the study area
      belong to genotypes V and I. Multicentric laboratory-based studies analyzing the
      envelope gene of all dengue serotypes are required from endemic countries like
      India.

PMID- 28890511
TI  - The Antibacterial Effects of Antimicrobial Peptides OP-145 against Clinically
      Isolated Multi-Resistant Strains.
AB  - OP-145 is a synthetic antimicrobial peptide developed from the human cathelicidin
      LL-37. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of the
      antimicrobial peptide OP-145 against clinically isolated drug-resistant strains.
      Ten methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains were obtained from
      our hospital's clinical inspection center, and the activity of OP-145 on growth
      and biofilm formation of these strains was evaluated by colony counts and
      scanning electron microscopy. The antimicrobial peptide OP-145 showed significant
      antibacterial activity against 9 MRSA strains. For the biofilm experiments, MRSA
      counts in the biofilms decreased significantly after 24 h (P < 0.05). OP-145
      strongly reduced growth and biofilm formation of clinically isolated drug
      resistant strains in vitro, and the use of this class of antimicrobial agents may
      be an important new approach in controlling bacterial infections.

PMID- 28890512
TI  - An Update on the Structure of Oxazolidinone Analogs and a Comparison with
      Linezolid in Terms of In Vitro and Intracellular Efficacy against Clinically
      Relevant Bacterial Species.
AB  - Oxazolidinones constitute a novel class of antimicrobials as inhibitors of
      bacterial ribosomal protein synthesis. In this study, we identified 15 novel
      oxazolidinone analogs with potent antituberculosis activities. Compounds sy124
      and sy125 showed the best activity in vitro (better than that of the linezolid)
      against various clinically relevant bacterial species, including most Gram
      positive bacteria, Mycobacterium spp., and Helicobacter pylori. A cell-based
      assay indicated that these compounds have a strong ability to kill intracellular
      pathogens. Our results reveal that the newly identified compounds may be further
      developed as novel antimicrobial agents.

PMID- 28890513
TI  - Leptospirosis Cases in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan.
AB  - In Japan, 20-50 cases of leptospirosis are reported annually, typically involving
      farmers or returnees from tropical areas. Here, we report on 5 indigenous
      leptospirosis cases that occurred in the Tokyo urban area. All patients were men
      (mean age, 66.4 +/- 4.6 [SD] years) and presented with clinical features that
      included high fever, acute kidney injury, and jaundice. Three patients presented
      with pulmonary infiltration and ground-glass opacity on admission. Two of the 5
      patients were intubated and underwent continuous hemodiafiltration. The mean
      length of hospitalization was 38.0 +/- 17.0 days, and all patients were treated
      successfully with antibiotics. Notably, all patients had a history of exposure to
      rats prior to becoming symptomatic, suggesting that exposure to rats is a risk
      factor for urban leptospirosis. Although rare, even in metropolitan areas,
      leptospirosis should be considered by physicians when patients present with
      severe sepsis, acute kidney injury, and a history of exposure to rats.

PMID- 28890514
TI  - Attack Rates of Norovirus and Campylobacter Food Poisonings that Cannot Be
      Represented by Numeric Constant but by Plotting the Attack Rate against the
      Number of Patients per Incident in Cartesian Coordinates.
AB  - In norovirus and Campylobacter food poisonings, the frequencies of the number of
      patients per incident and that of the number of eaters per incident followed a
      lognormal distribution, with medians of 12-27 and 23-48 for norovirus and 5-8 and
      9-21 for Campylobacter food poisonings, respectively. The lognormal frequency
      distribution of eaters could be simulated by assuming that people find a dish
      more appealing if that dish has already been found to be appealing to others. The
      numbers of patients and eaters per incident were not necessarily inter
      correlated; the frequencies of the attack rates (number of patients/number of
      eaters) were distributed evenly from 0.01 to 1; that is, the attack rates of
      these food poisonings could not be represented by means and standard deviations.
      The frequency distributions of the attack rates were nevertheless not entirely
      disordered; plotting the attack rate against the number of patients in individual
      incidents produced fingerprint-like patterns that were repeatedly produced at the
      prefectural and national levels.

PMID- 28890515
TI  - High Prevalence of Campylobacter in Broiler Flocks is a Crucial Factor for
      Frequency of Food Poisoning in Humans.

PMID- 28890516
TI  - Molecular Characterization of Carbapenemase-Nonproducing Clinical Isolates of
      Escherichia coli (from a Thai University Hospital) with Reduced Carbapenem
      Susceptibility.
AB  - Twelve nonreplicate carbapenemase-negative ertapenem (ETP)-nonsusceptible (CNENS)
      Escherichia coli isolates obtained at a Thai university hospital between 2010 and
      2014 were characterized and compared with 2 carbapenemase-producing E. coli
      isolates from the same hospital. Eight unique pulsed-field gel electrophoresis
      patterns were obtained. All the isolates produced CTX-M-15 beta-lactamase and 2
      either coexpressed CMY-2 cephalosporinase or showed increased efflux pump
      activity. Amino acid sequence analysis revealed that an OmpF defect (in 7
      isolates) due to mutations generating truncated proteins or an IS1 insertion was
      more prevalent than a defect in OmpC was (no truncated proteins detected). Seven
      out of 10 isolates possessing OmpC variants with any OmpF defect were weakly ETP
      resistant (minimum inhibitory concentrations [MICs] of 1-4 MUg/mL) and imipenem
      (IPM)- and meropenem (MEM)-susceptible (MICs 0.125-0.5 MUg/mL). Two isolates with
      ompC PCR-negative results and an OmpF defect showed higher carbapenem MICs (8-32,
      1-8, and 1-4 MUg/mL for ETP, IPM, and MEM, respectively) with the highest MICs
      associated with the additional efflux pump activity. Both carbapenemase producers
      possessing CTX-M-15 and a porin background identical to that in the CNENS
      isolates showed ETP, IPM, and MEM MICs of 128-256, 8, and 2-32 MUg/mL,
      respectively. These findings suggest that a porin defect combined with CTX-M-15
      production is the major mechanism of low carbapenem susceptibility among our
      CNENS isolates, which have potential to become strongly carbapenem-resistant
      because of additional carbapenemase or efflux pump activities.

PMID- 28890517
TI  - First Isolation of Human Parechovirus Type 4 in Yamagata, Japan.

PMID- 28890518
TI  - A Case of Dengue Fever Imported from Burkina Faso to Japan in October 2016.
AB  - Dengue fever remains underreported in Africa due to a lack of awareness among
      healthcare providers, the presence of other febrile illnesses, and insufficient
      laboratory testing. We present a case of dengue fever imported from Burkina Faso
      to Japan, where an outbreak of dengue was reported on October 18, 2016.
      Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolate from our patient belonged to a
      distinct cluster of sylvatic dengue viruses, suggesting that dengue viruses have
      been maintained in mosquitoes and human cycles in Burkina Faso for more than 30
      years.

PMID- 28890519
TI  - Two Rare Cases of Wound Infections Caused by Trueperella bernardiae.
AB  - Trueperella bernardiae (T.bernardiae) is a gram-positive curved rod that is
      considered an uncommon pathogen involved in few infections. The true incidence of
      infections with this bacterium, and the clinical implications, remain unknown. We
      report 2 cases of wound infections in 2 patients who underwent different surgical
      procedures, although in the second case the microorganism was isolated in mixed
      culture. Culture of wound secretions resulted in isolation of T. bernardiae.
      Treatment was performed and resolution of the infections was documented.

PMID- 28890520
TI  - Biofilm formation and determination of minimum biofilm eradication concentration
      of antibiotics in Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae.
AB  - The study was aimed to investigate biofilm forming ability of Mycoplasma
      hyopneumoniae and to determine the minimum biofilm eradication concentrations of
      antibiotics. Biofilm forming ability of six strains of M. hyopneumoniae was
      examined using crystal violet staining on coverslips. The results demonstrated an
      apparent line of biofilm growth in 3 of the strains isolated from swine with
      confirmed cases of enzootic pneumonia. BacLight bacterial viability assay
      revealed that the majority of the cells were viable after 336 hr of incubation.
      Moreover, M. hyopneumoniae persists in the biofilm after being exposed to 10 fold
      higher concentration of antibiotics than the minimum inhibitory concentrations in
      planktonic cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of
      biofilm formation in M. hyopneumoniae. However, comprehensive studies on the
      mechanisms of biofilm formation are needed to combat swine enzootic pneumonia
      caused by resistant M. hyopneumoniae.

PMID- 28890521
TI  - Effect of burdock extract on physical performance and physiological fatigue in
      mice.
AB  - : Burdock (BD) is a common vegetable with many pharmacological properties.
      However, few studies have examined the effect of BD on exercise performance and
      physical fatigue. We aimed to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of BD on
      fatigue and ergogenic functions following physical challenge in mice. METHODS:
      Male ICR mice were divided into four groups to receive either vehicle, or BD at
      348.5, 697 or 1,742.5 mg/kg/day, by daily oral gavage for 4 weeks. Exercise
      performance and fatigue were evaluated from forelimb grip strength, exhaustive
      swimming time, and post-exercise levels of physical fatigue-related biomarkers
      serum lactate, ammonia, glucose, and creatine kinase (CK). RESULTS: BD
      supplementation elevated endurance and grip strength in a dose-dependent manner.
      It also significantly decreased lactate, ammonia, and CK levels after physical
      challenge. In addition, BD supplementation had few subchronic toxic effects.
      CONCLUSIONS: Supplementation with BD has a wide spectrum of bioactive effects,
      including health promotion, performance improvement, and fatigue reduction.

PMID- 28890522
TI  - Characterization of the testicular regeneration potential in premature cockerels.
AB  - Previous studies have shown that grafted neonatal chicken testicular tissue can
      develop and produce functional sperm; however, it was unclear whether
      regenerative processes or proportional growth caused the re-appearance of
      spermatogenic tissue. We dissociated testicular tissues, performed subcutaneous
      auto-transplantation of the re-aggregated cells to castrated cockerels, and
      monitored the post-surgery development of these transplanted aggregates. We found
      that these transplanted cell aggregates experienced compensatory growth in the
      form of a 300-fold increase in size, rather than the 30-fold increase observed in
      normal testis development. Further, these dissociated testicular cell aggregates
      restored seminiferous tubule structure and were able to produce testosterone and
      motile sperm. Therefore, we concluded that the dissociated testicular cells from
      11-week-old cockerels retained a strong regenerative potential, as they exhibited
      compensatory growth, restored destroyed structure, and sustained spermatogenesis.

PMID- 28890523
TI  - Nation-Wide Implementation of Disaster Medical Coordinators in Japan.
AB  - In the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), successful medical and public
      health coordination by pre-assigned disaster medical coordinators saved many
      affected people, though the coordination itself had difficulties. This study aims
      to clarify the implementation and the challenges of disaster medical coordinators
      in Japan. We performed questionnaire surveillance in 2012 and 2014 to all
      prefectural government on assignment of disaster medical coordinators, their
      expected roles and supporting system. Out of all 47 prefectures, assignment or
      planning of disaster medical coordinators jumped up from four (8.5%) to 43
      (91.5%) by the end of 2015. The most expected role is the coordination with Japan
      Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT) and with other early responders. The
      evacuation center management, public health coordination and preparedness before
      disaster are less frequently expected. The supporting materials, human resource,
      and tools for communication vary according to the prefecture. Successful
      implementation requires the effort of health and governmental stakeholders. The
      coordination between prefectural and local coordinators and the coordination
      between medical and public health authorities still need to be improved. The
      roles of disaster medical coordinators depend on the local context and types of
      hazards. Education and training to build fundamental capacity is necessary. In
      conclusion, Japanese disaster medical system rapidly implemented disaster medical
      coordinator after GEJE. Their roles and standardization are challenging, but
      education, training and systematic support by the local government will enhance
      the effective preparedness and response of the health sector in disasters.

PMID- 28890524
TI  - Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Paroxysmal Sympathetic Hyperactivity
      following Acute Brain Injuries Using a Consensus-Based Diagnostic Tool: A Single
      Institutional Case Series.
AB  - Paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH) is a distinct syndrome of episodic
      sympathetic hyperactivities following severe acquired brain injury, characterized
      by paroxysmal transient fever, tachycardia, hypertension, tachypnea, excessive
      diaphoresis and specific posturing. PSH remains to be an under-recognized
      condition with a diagnostic pitfall especially in the intensive care unit (ICU)
      settings due to the high prevalence of concomitant diseases that mimic PSH. A
      consensus set of diagnostic criteria named PSH-Assessment Measure (PSH-AM) has
      been developed recently, which is consisted of two components: a diagnosis
      likelihood tool derived from clinical characteristics of PSH, and a clinical
      feature scale assigned to the severity of each sympathetic hyperactivity. We
      herein present a case series of patients with PSH who were diagnosed and followed
      by using PSH-AM in our tertiary institutional medical and surgical ICU between
      April 2015 and March 2017 in order to evaluate the clinical efficacy of PSH-AM.
      Among 394 survivors of 521 patients admitted with acquired brain injury defined
      as acute brain injury at all levels of severity regardless of the presence of
      altered consciousness, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, infectious
      disease, and encephalopathy, 6 patients (1.5%) were diagnosed as PSH by using PSH
      AM. PSH-AM served as a useful scoring system for early objective diagnosis,
      assessment of severity, and serial evaluation of treatment efficacy in the
      management of PSH in the ICU settings. In conclusion, critical care clinicians
      should consider the possibility of PSH and can use PSH-AM as a useful diagnostic
      and guiding tool in the management of PSH.

PMID- 28890525
TI  - Cognitive Development After Kawasaki Disease - Clinical Study and Validation
      Using a Nationwide Population-Based Cohort.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This purpose of this study was to investigate whether Kawasaki
      disease (KD) increases the risk of cognitive impairment. In this clinical study,
      cognitive profiles were compared between KD patients, control subjects, and a
      nationwide population-based cohort to determine the potential correlation between
      KD and a subsequent diagnosis of an intellectual disability.Methods and
      Results:The clinical study consisted of 168 KD patients (mean age 5.6 years,
      62.5% male) and 81 healthy controls (mean age 6.4 years, 54.3% male). The
      nationwide cohort consisted of 4,286 KD patients and 50,038 controls retrieved
      from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database between 1996 and
      2000. The clinical study sample revealed no significant difference in any
      developmental index or cognitive function between KD patients and controls across
      various age groups (P>0.05). In the nationwide cohort, Cox regression analysis
      showed that a diagnosis of KD did not significantly affect the likelihood of
      developing an intellectual disability (adjusted hazard ratio 0.87, 95% confidence
      interval 0.68-1.11). CONCLUSIONS: Both the clinical data and the population-based
      cohort consistently demonstrated that KD does not increase a child's risk of
      future cognitive impairment. Although the outcome of the present study is
      negative, caregivers and patients with KD can be reassured that KD will have no
      effect on developmental milestones or cognitive function later in life.

PMID- 28890526
TI  - Five-Year Clinical Outcomes After Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation Following
      Rotational Atherectomy for Heavily Calcified Lesions.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous coronary intervention for heavily calcified lesions
      requires rotational atherectomy (RA). Long-term clinical outcomes after drug
      eluting stent (DES) implantation following (RA) for heavily calcified lesions
      remain unclear. We assessed 5-year clinical outcomes after DES implantation
      following RA.Methods and Results:Between March 2006 and September 2011, 219
      consecutive patients with 219 lesions treated with DES following RA, were
      retrospectively enrolled. The cumulative 5-year incidence of target-lesion
      revascularization (TLR) and definite stent thrombosis (ST) were assessed. The
      cumulative incidence of TLR within (<=) the first year was 18.6%. Late TLR beyond
      (>) 1 year continued to occur at 1.9% per year without a decrease in the rate (5
      year incidence, 26.0%). The cumulative incidence of definite ST at 30 days, 1 and
      5 years was 0.9%, 2.3% and 2.9%, respectively. The annual rate of definite ST
      beyond 1 year was 0.15%. On multivariate analysis, the significant predictor of
      TLR within 1 year was use of first-generation DES (hazard ratio [HR], 2.09; 95%
      CI: 1.10-4.03, P=0.02) and that of TLR beyond 1 year was hemodialysis (HR, 3.29;
      95% CI: 1.06-10.55, P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Late TLR beyond 1 year continued to
      occur up to 5 years at a constant annual incidence, whereas very late ST was
      rare. Careful long-term clinical follow-up is continually needed in patients who
      have already received DES following RA for heavily calcified lesions.

PMID- 28890527
TI  - Microvascular Angina - Long-Term Exercise Stress Test Follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: A sizeable proportion of patients with primary stable microvascular
      angina (MVA; exercise-induced angina, positive exercise stress test [EST], normal
      coronary arteries) have recurrent symptoms during follow-up. There have been no
      previous studies, however, on the long-term results of EST and their correlation
      with symptom outcome.Methods and Results:Follow-up EST was performed in 71 MVA
      patients at an average of 16.2 years (range, 5-25 years) from the first EST.
      Angina status was assessed on weekly frequency of angina episodes and
      nitroglycerin consumption and by whether symptoms had worsened, improved, or
      remained unchanged over time. At follow-up EST, 41 patients (group 1) had
      exercise-induced ischemia, whereas 30 patients (group 2) had negative EST.
      Compared to group 2, group 1 patients more frequently had exercise-induced
      dyspnea, and had a greater maximum ST-segment depression and a lower coronary
      blood flow response to adenosine and cold pressor test, but group 2 patients had
      a more frequent history of rest angina. No differences between the 2 groups were
      found at follow-up in angina status or change in symptom status during follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS: Electrocardiogram results improve significantly in a sizeable
      proportion of patients with MVA. Changes in EST results, however, were not
      associated with clinical outcome.

PMID- 28890528
TI  - Association between economic status and discharge destination among elderly
      patients from acute care hospitals.
AB  - Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the association between
      economic status and discharge destination of elderly patients from acute care
      hospitals.Method We conducted a case-control study using data from a survey of
      elderly discharged patients conducted under the subsidy program of the Japanese
      Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The questionnaires were mailed to 1,068
      acute care hospitals located in the Kanto and Kansai region. The survey asked
      medical social workers or nurses, who were responsible for the discharge
      planning, to answer questions about the discharge of elderly patients from their
      hospitals. The survey included questions about discharge destination, economic
      status (how much the patients could afford for their care and living per month),
      family members living together, primary caregivers, physical status, and dementia
      status for each discharged patient.Results We analyzed the data for 565 patients
      from 179 hospitals, of which 293 patients were discharged to their home and 272
      patients were discharged to long-term care facilities. Patients who could afford
      to spend less than 100,000 yen per month were six times more likely to be
      discharged to their homes than patients who could afford to spend 100,000 to
      150,000 yen per month (OR: 6.48, 95% CI: 2.50-16.79). Patients who could afford
      to spend more than 150,000 yen per month were 70% less likely to be discharged to
      their homes than patients who could afford to spend 100,000 to 150,000 yen per
      month (OR: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.12-0.69). Half of the patients who could afford to
      spend more than 150,000 yen per month were not discharged home, and instead
      selected private and expensive long-term care facilities.Conclusion We observed
      an association between economic status and home discharge from acute care
      hospitals. As the monthly expenditure capacity of the elderly patients decreased,
      the likelihood that they were discharged to their homes increased. This suggests
      that elderly patients, who are economically disadvantaged, may select discharge
      to their homes due to limited options for discharge destinations that fit their
      budget. The Japanese government should arrange more low-cost facilities and home
      care services for low-income elderly patients.

PMID- 28890529
TI  - Factors relating to the feeling of school avoidance among elementary school
      children: Results from the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
      and Education) Super Shokuiku School Project.
AB  - Purpose This study aims to evaluate whether lifestyle factors including media use
      and social and family environments are associated with elementary school
      children's feeling of school avoidance.Methods Total study population for this
      study was 2,057 children in 5 elementary schools in Takaoka city, Toyama
      prefecture, which participated in the MEXT Super Shokuiku School Project. A
      questionnaire survey was conducted in July 2014 and 1,936 students responded
      (Response rate: 94.1%). Of those who responded, data from 1,698 respondents were
      relevant for this study. The questionnaire included questions on lifestyle
      factors (e.g., eating habits, media use, exercise habits, and sleep), health
      status, and the social and family environments. Children responded to questions
      on lifestyle factors, health status, and feeling of school avoidance with their
      parents. Parents were asked to only respond to the questions on social and family
      environments. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate whether the
      feeling of avoiding school, as the dependent variable, is associated with the
      independent variables such as social and family environment factors and lifestyle
      factors. The odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were
      calculated.Results The percentage of children who had the feeling of avoiding
      school was 32.2% in the study sample. In comparison with the 6th graders, the
      1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders were more likely to have this feeling. Relevant
      adjusted ORs [95%CI] for Grades 1-5 were found to be 1.48 [1.02-2.13], 1.63 [1.10
      2.42], 1.60 [1.08-2.39], and 1.56 [1.03-2.35], respectively. Other factors
      positively correlated with this feeling were skipping breakfast (OR 1.76, 95%CI
      [1.12-2.75]), daily snacking (OR 1.64, 95%CI [1.21-2.22]), watching TV for 3
      hours or longer (OR 1.55, 95%CI [1.05-2.28]), video gaming for 0.5-2 hours (OR
      1.37, 95%CI [1.08-1.74]), feeling sleepy (OR 1.51, 95%CI [1.14-1.99]), not
      feeling well upon waking up (OR 1.64, 95%CI [1.30-2.06]), being unsatisfied with
      their own health (OR 1.43, 95%CI [1.10-1.87]), and dislike for playing outside
      (OR 1.62, 95%CI [1.05-2.52]).Conclusions This study showed that feeling of school
      avoidance was significantly correlated with several lifestyle factors. School
      health activities aiming at establishing desirable lifestyles for children could
      reduce the number of children who have the feeling of school avoidance.

PMID- 28890531
TI  - Activities of daily living (ADL) of single elderly individuals using social
      assistive programs in a rural community.
AB  - Objectives The proportion of elderly individuals living alone is increasing in
      Japan. Matsumoto city office provides social assistive programs such as home
      help, lunch delivery, life advice, and safety check telephone calls. The purpose
      of this study was to compare the level of ADL between the elderly using social
      assistive programs (the use group) and those who did not (the non-use
      group).Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study at Shiga district of
      Matsumoto city in September 2014. A total of 128 elderly individuals participated
      in this study. Health volunteers asked these subjects to complete a questionnaire
      without assistance. Measurement items included lifestyle variables and social
      support networks. With respect to the frequency of use, we used questions that
      inquired about the use of the social assistive program. We included a set of
      instruments commonly used in the health assessment of elderly populations:
      functional capacity (Instrumental ADL, Intellectual Activity, Social Role),
      social support, nutrition (Mini Nutrition Assessment [MNA]) and depressive
      symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS]).Results The use group consisted of 24
      elderly individuals participating in the social support program. The non-use
      group consisted of 89 elderly individuals living alone without programs. The mean
      age of those who completed the survey was 83.9+/-4.2 years for the use group and
      82.3+/-4.3 years for the non-use group. Comparisons between the two groups did
      not show significant difference in terms of their intellectual activity, social
      role, emotional social support, and MNA or GDS scores. The use group was more
      likely to use the public transfer service and receive instrumental social support
      from children and relatives.Conclusions By means of utilizing the public transfer
      service, and receiving family support, the elderly living alone who used social
      assistive programs could live independently. These findings suggest a need for
      improvement in the public transfer service and social network.

PMID- 28890530
TI  - The prevalence and basic characteristics of knee pain in community-dwelling
      independent elderly: A complete survey.
AB  - Objectives The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of knee
      pain in independent community-dwelling elderly people and to examine the basic
      characteristics (sex and age) of those experiencing knee pain.Methods Survey on
      the health status and lifestyle habits was conducted for all (6,790) independent
      elderly who were 65 years or older, living in Tsuru City, Yamanashi Prefecture,
      Japan. The survey was carried out using a mailing questionnaire for 1 month from
      January 12 to February 11, 2016. Knee pain was defined as subjective pain in and
      around the knee joint in either one or both knees, on most days during the past
      month. Participants answered "Yes" if they were experienced knee pain, and "No"
      if they did not experience knee pain. Sex and age were investigated as basic
      characteristics of the participants by the questionnaire. The prevalence rate of
      knee pain was calculated as follows: the total number of people with knee pain
      divided by the total number of the respondents in the study. To examine the
      relationships between knee pain and age or sex, these basic characteristics were
      analyzed using a Chi-square test for the prevalence of knee pain within sex and
      age groups.Results The number of survey respondents was 5,328 (response rate:
      78.5%). The number of valid respondents with complete data was 5,186 (valid
      response rate: 76.4%). The number of subjects who responded "with knee pain" was
      1,733. The prevalence rate of knee pain was 33.4%. In addition, sex and age
      demonstrated strong associations with the prevalence of knee pain (both,
      P<0.001). In other words, the prevalence rate was higher in the elderly women
      than in elderly men and increased with age.Conclusion The present study suggested
      that one in three independently living elderly who live in medium-sized local
      municipalities in Japan experience chronic knee pain. The basic characteristics
      of a community-dwelling independent elderly with knee pain are to be a woman and
      older age.

PMID- 28890532
TI  - Diffuse Idiopathic Pulmonary Neuroendocrine Cell Hyperplasia: A Case Report and
      Review of the Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND Diffuse idiopathic pulmonary neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia (DIPNECH)
      is a rare pulmonary disorder that is characterized by diffuse hyperplasia of
      bronchiolar and bronchial pulmonary neuroendocrine cells. In this condition, when
      no other pathological pulmonary condition is detected, DIPNECH is considered to
      be an idiopathic lung disease. DIPNECH is a rare condition that can be difficult
      to distinguish from other forms of reactive pulmonary neuroendocrine cell
      hyperplasia (NECH). We present a case of DIPNECH and describe the approach to
      diagnosis of this rare condition. CASE REPORT A 69-year-old woman with a past
      medical history of successfully treated lobular carcinoma of the breast,
      presented to our department with a respiratory tract infection. High-resolution
      computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest showed a suspicious pulmonary nodule,
      measuring 13 mm, in the right middle pulmonary lobe. Combined positron emission
      tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), showed a solid and metabolically
      active nodule. A transbronchial biopsy and histopathology confirmed a diagnosis
      of DIPNECH. CONCLUSIONS It is possible that DIPNECH is an under-diagnosed
      pulmonary condition because it is rarely associated with symptoms. At this time,
      there are no evidence-based management guidelines. While the majority of cases
      have stable clinical course, some cases can progress to cause airway obstruction.
      This case report highlights this rare, but potentially progressive condition, and
      the need for evidence-based management guidelines for DIPNECH.

PMID- 28890533
TI  - Dose-Response Relationship Between Thrombin-Activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor
      (TAFI) and Stroke: A Chinese Case-Control Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND Because TAFI (thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor) antigen
      varies widely among different populations, we performed this case-control study
      to explore the relationship between TAFI levels and stroke in a Chinese
      population. MATERIAL AND METHODS Our population-based case-control study included
      217 stroke patients and 218 healthy controls. The plasma TAFI level was measured
      by immune turbidimetry. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses
      were used to analyze the association between different TAFI levels and stroke and
      its subtypes. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) combined with logistic regression
      analysis were used to explore the dose-response relationship between TAFI levels
      and stroke. RESULTS The plasma TAFI levels of cases were much higher than in the
      control group (p=0.038) and this difference persisted even after adjustment
      (OR=2.2). In the elderly (aged over 60) and female subgroups, TAFI levels in
      stroke patients were higher than those in controls, and the results were also
      noted in ischemic stroke. The dose-response curve showed that, as a whole, with
      the increase of TAFI levels, the relative risk of stroke first increased and then
      decreased (p=0.0127). Similarly, in general, with the increase of TAFI levels,
      the curve showed that the relative risk of ischemic stroke first increased and
      then decreased (p=0.0110). CONCLUSIONS There was a definite correlation between
      TAFI levels and stroke in this Chinese population, and with the increase of TAFI
      levels, the relative risk of stroke or ischemic stroke first increased and then
      decreased.

PMID- 28890535
TI  - Chromatin: Probing a piRNA paradox.

PMID- 28890537
TI  - Nephrotic syndrome: Novel monogenic causes of Galloway-Mowat syndrome.

PMID- 28890538
TI  - Kidney cancer: Targeting Wilms tumour.

PMID- 28890534
TI  - Harnessing ancient genomes to study the history of human adaptation.
AB  - The past several years have witnessed an explosion of successful ancient human
      genome-sequencing projects, with genomic-scale ancient DNA data sets now
      available for more than 1,100 ancient human and archaic hominin (for example,
      Neandertal) individuals. Recent 'evolution in action' analyses have started using
      these data sets to identify and track the spatiotemporal trajectories of genetic
      variants associated with human adaptations to novel and changing environments,
      agricultural lifestyles, and introduced or co-evolving pathogens. Together with
      evidence of adaptive introgression of genetic variants from archaic hominins to
      humans and emerging ancient genome data sets for domesticated animals and plants,
      these studies provide novel insights into human evolution and the evolutionary
      consequences of human behaviour that go well beyond those that can be obtained
      from modern genomic data or the fossil and archaeological records alone.

PMID- 28890536
TI  - A key role for IL-7R in the generation of microenvironments required for thymic
      dendritic cells.
AB  - Interleukin-7 receptor (IL-7R) signaling is critical for multiple stages of T
      cell development, but a role in the establishment of the mature thymic
      architecture needed for T-cell development and thymocyte selection has not been
      established. Crosstalk signals between developing thymocytes and thymic
      epithelial cell (TEC) precursors are critical for their differentiation into
      cortical TECs (cTECs) and medullary TECs (mTECs). In addition, mTEC-derived
      factors have been implicated in the recruitment of thymic dendritic cells (DCs)
      and intrathymic DC development. We therefore examined corticomedullary structure
      and DC populations in the thymus of Il7r-/- mice. Analysis of TEC phenotype and
      spatial organization revealed a striking shift in the mTEC to cTEC ratio,
      accompanied by disorganized corticomedullary structure. Several of the thymic
      subsets known to have DC potential were nearly absent, accompanied by reductions
      in DC cell numbers. We also examined chemokine expression in the Il7r-/- thymus,
      and found a significant decrease in mTEC-derived CCR7 ligand expression, and high
      levels of cTEC-derived chemokines, including CCL25 and CXCL12. Although splenic
      DCs were similarly affected, bone marrow (BM) precursors capable of giving rise
      to DCs were unperturbed. Finally, BM chimeras showed that there was no intrinsic
      need for IL-7R signaling in the development or recruitment of thymic DCs, but
      that the provision of wild-type progenitors enhanced reconstitution of thymic DCs
      from Il7r-/- progenitors. Our results are therefore supportive of a model in
      which Il7r-dependent cells are required to set up the microenvironments that
      allow accumulation of thymic DCs.

PMID- 28890539
TI  - Transplantation: IdeS to desensitize organ allograft recipients.

PMID- 28890540
TI  - Fine-tuning of thymocyte development by ubiquitination-mediated stability control
      of the ESCRT protein CHMP5.

PMID- 28890541
TI  - MicroRNA in vivo precipitation identifies miR-151-3p as a computational
      unpredictable miRNA to target Stat3 and inhibits innate IL-6 production.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) function as important regulators in the immune response and
      inflammation. Several approaches have been reported to computationally predict
      miRNAs and their potential targets. However, there are still many miRNA-target
      interactions that are unpredictable by using the current computational
      algorithms. We established a miRNA in vivo precipitation method (miRIP) to
      identify unpredictable miRNAs with definite targets in these cells. Because Stat3
      is a well-known transcription factor involved in innate immunity and
      inflammation, we utilized the miRIP method to identify miRNAs that bind Stat3
      mRNA in macrophages. Among the captured miRNAs, miR-151-3p was confirmed to
      interact with Stat3 mRNA 3'-UTR and downregulate the Stat3 protein levels. LPS
      stimulation decreased miR-151-3p expression, thereby increasing IL-6 production.
      Therefore, we found that miR-151-3p inhibited LPS-induced IL-6 production by
      targeting Stat3. These data further confirmed miRIP as an efficient method to
      identify unpredictable miRNAs and explore miRNAs-mediated regulation in innate
      immunity and inflammation.

PMID- 28890542
TI  - Multi-epitope vaccines: a promising strategy against tumors and viral infections.

PMID- 28890544
TI  - miR-31: a key player in CD8 T-cell exhaustion.

PMID- 28890543
TI  - The altered PD-1/PD-L1 pathway delivers the 'one-two punch' effects to promote
      the Treg/Th17 imbalance in pre-eclampsia.
AB  - The programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathway is critical for
      normal pregnancy by promoting regulatory T (Treg) cell development and inhibiting
      the Th17 response. However, the relationship between the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway and
      the Treg/Th17 imbalance in pre-eclampsia (PE) is an enigma. In this study,
      decreased PD-1 and PD-L1 expression and a Treg/Th17 imbalance were observed at
      the maternal-fetal interface in PE. The regulatory effects of the PD-1/PD-L1
      pathway on the Treg and Th17 cell quantities were determined in vitro by
      targeting T-cell proliferation, differentiation and transdifferentiation. First,
      decreased PD-1 expression might contribute to a higher Th17 cell frequency by
      promoting proliferation in PE. Second, the percentages of Treg but not Th17 cells
      differentiated from peripheral naive CD4+ T cells were increased by PD-L1 Fc
      administration. This effect was accompanied by decreased PI3K/AKT/m-TOR and
      increased PTEN mRNA expression and was completely reversed by PD-1 blockade.
      Finally, the percentage of IL-17-producing Treg cells increased and was
      positively associated with the Th17 cell frequency in PE. Increased RORgammat and
      IL-17 but not Foxp3 and IL-10 mRNA expression by Treg cells was observed with PD
      1 blockade. Similar findings occurred when Treg cells were exposed to IL-6/IL
      23/IL-1beta and were reversed by PD-L1 Fc. Taken together, our findings indicate
      that the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway contributes to the Treg/Th17 imbalance via 'one-two
      punch' approaches: (i) promoting Th17 cell proliferation, (ii) inhibiting Treg
      cell differentiation and (iii) enhancing Treg cell plasticity into Th17 cells in
      PE. The therapeutic value of PD-L1 Fc for PE treatment will be explored in the
      future.

PMID- 28890545
TI  - TIM-3: a crucial regulator of NK cells in pregnancy.

PMID- 28890546
TI  - Generating CD8alphaalpha IELs from two sources of thymic precursors.

PMID- 28890548
TI  - Water-soluble artemisinin derivatives as promising therapeutic immunosuppressants
      of autoimmune diseases.

PMID- 28890549
TI  - Thirteenth Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research: Public Education and the
      Social Contract: Restoring the Promise in an Age of Diversity and Division.
AB  - Building on the premise that closing achievement gaps is an economic imperative
      both to regain international educational supremacy and to maintain global
      economic competitiveness, I ask whether it is possible to rewrite the social
      contract so that education is a fundamental right-a statutory guarantee-that is
      both uniform across states and federally enforceable. I argue that the federal
      government was complicit in aggravating educational inequality by not
      guaranteeing free, public education as a basic right during propitious political
      moments; by enabling the creation of a segregated public higher education system;
      by relegating the Department of Education and its predecessors to a secondary
      status in the federal administration, thereby compromising its enforcement
      capability; and by proliferating incremental reforms while ignoring the unequal
      institutional arrangements that undermine equal opportunity to learn. History
      shows that a strong federal role can potentially strengthen the educational
      social contract.

PMID- 28890550
TI  - Electrochemical Fluorination and Radiofluorination of Methyl(phenylthio)acetate
      Using Tetrabutylammonium Fluoride (TBAF).
AB  - Electrochemical fluorination of methyl(phenylthio)acetate was achieved using
      tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF). Electrochemical fluorination was performed
      under potentiostatic anodic oxidation using an undivided cell in acetonitrile
      containing TBAF and triflic acid. The influence of several parameters including:
      oxidation potential, time, temperature, sonication, TBAF concentration and
      triflic acid concentration on fluorination efficiency were studied. It was found
      that the triflic acid to TBAF concentration ratio plays a key role in the
      fluorination efficiency. Electrochemical fluorination resulted in formation of
      mono-fluorinated methyl 2-fluoro-2-(phenylthio)acetate verified by gas
      chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
      Spectroscopy. Under optimum conditions 44 +/- 3% mono fluorination yield was
      obtained after a 30 min electrolysis. Electrochemical radiofluorination for the
      synthesis of methyl 2-[18F]fluoro-2-(phenothio) acetate was also achieved with
      the same optimized electrochemical cell parameters where TBAF was first passed
      through an anion exchange resin containing fluorine-18. A radiochemical
      fluorination efficiency of 7 +/- 1% was achieved after 30 min of electrolysis.

PMID- 28890551
TI  - A unified framework of demographic time.
AB  - Demographic thought and practice is largely conditioned by the Lexis diagram, a
      two-dimensional graphical representation of the identity between age, period, and
      birth cohort. This relationship does not account for remaining years of life,
      total length of life, or time of death, whose use in demographic research is both
      underrepresented and incompletely situated. We describe an identity between these
      six demographic time measures and describe the sub-identities and diagrams that
      pertain to this identity. We provide an application of this framework to the
      measurement of late-life morbidity prevalence. We generalize these relationships
      to higher order identities derived from an arbitrary number of events in calendar
      time. Our examples are based on classic human demography, but the concepts we
      present can reveal patterns and relationships in any event history data, and
      contribute to the study of human or non-human population dynamics measured on any
      scale of calendar time.

PMID- 28890547
TI  - Innate immunity in tuberculosis: host defense vs pathogen evasion.
AB  - The major innate immune cell types involved in tuberculosis (TB) infection are
      macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs), neutrophils and natural killer (NK) cells.
      These immune cells recognize the TB-causing pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis
      (Mtb) through various pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), including but not
      limited to Toll-like receptors (TLRs), Nod-like receptors (NLRs) and C-type
      lectin receptors (CLRs). Upon infection by Mtb, the host orchestrates multiple
      signaling cascades via the PRRs to launch a variety of innate immune defense
      functions such as phagocytosis, autophagy, apoptosis and inflammasome activation.
      In contrast, Mtb utilizes numerous exquisite strategies to evade or circumvent
      host innate immunity. Here we discuss recent research on major host innate immune
      cells, PRR signaling, and the cellular functions involved in Mtb infection, with
      a specific focus on the host's innate immune defense and Mtb immune evasion. A
      better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying host-pathogen
      interactions could provide a rational basis for the development of effective anti
      TB therapeutics.

PMID- 28890552
TI  - GEOMETRIC PROGRESSIONS ON ELLIPTIC CURVES.
AB  - In this paper, we look at long geometric progressions on different model of
      elliptic curves, namely Weierstrass curves, Edwards and twisted Edwards curves,
      Huff curves and general quartics curves. By a geometric progression on an
      elliptic curve, we mean the existence of rational points on the curve whose x
      coordinate (or y-coordinate) are in geometric progression. We find infinite
      families of twisted Edwards curves and Huff curves with geometric progressions of
      length 5, an infinite family of Weierstrass curves with 8 term progressions, as
      well as infinite families of quartic curves containing 10-term geometric
      progressions.

PMID- 28890553
TI  - Synchrophasor Sensor Networks for Grid Communication and Protection.
AB  - This paper focuses primarily on leveraging synchronized current/voltage
      amplitudes and phase angle measurements to foster new categories of applications,
      such as improving the effectiveness of grid protection and minimizing outage
      duration for distributed grid systems. The motivation for such an application
      arises from the fact that with the support of communication, synchronized
      measurements from multiple sites in a grid network can greatly enhance the
      accuracy and timeliness of identifying the source of instabilities. The paper
      first provides an overview of synchrophasor networks and then presents techniques
      for power quality assessment, including fault detection and protection. To
      achieve this we present a new synchrophasor data partitioning scheme that is
      based on the formation of a joint space and time observation vector. Since
      communication is an integral part of synchrophasor networks, the newly adopted
      wireless standard for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, known as IEEE
      802.11ah, has been investigated. The paper also presents a novel implementation
      of a hardware in the loop testbed for real-time performance evaluation. The
      purpose is to illustrate the use of both hardware and software tools to verify
      the performance of synchrophasor networks under more realistic environments. The
      testbed is a combination of grid network modeling, and an Emulab-based
      communication network. The combined grid and communication network is then used
      to assess power quality for fault detection and location using the IEEE 39-bus
      and 390-bus systems.

PMID- 28890554
TI  - Difficult airway: Challenges, phobias and options.

PMID- 28890555
TI  - Perioperative fluid management: From physiology to improving clinical outcomes.
AB  - Perioperative fluid management is a key component in the care of the surgical
      patient. It is an area that has seen significant changes and developments,
      however there remains a wide disparity in practice between clinicians.
      Historically, patients received large volumes of intravenous fluids
      perioperatively. The concept of goal directed therapy was then introduced, with
      the early studies showing significant improvements in morbidity and mortality.
      The current focus is on fluid therapy guided by an individual patient's
      physiology. A fluid challenge is commonly performed as part of an assessment of a
      patient's fluid responsiveness. There remains wide variation in how clinicians
      perform a fluid challenge and this review explores the evidence for how to
      administer an effective challenge that is both reliable and reproducible. The
      methods for monitoring cardiac output have evolved from the pulmonary artery
      catheter to a range of less invasive techniques. The different options that are
      available for perioperative use are considered. Fluid status can also be assessed
      by examining the microcirculation and the importance of recognising the
      possibility of a lack of coherence between the macro and microcirculation is
      discussed. Fluid therapy needs to be targeted to specific end points and
      individualised. Not all patients who respond to a fluid challenge will
      necessarily require additional fluid administration and care should be aimed at
      identifying those who do. This review aims to explain the underlying physiology
      and describe the evidence base and the changes that have been seen in the
      approach to perioperative fluid therapy.

PMID- 28890556
TI  - Ethnicity and upper airway measurements: A study in South Indian population.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Most studies on upper airway are conducted based on airway
      measurements in the western population. We set out to find the normal values of
      upper airway measurements in South Indian population. The aim of this study was
      to perform various upper airway examinations and to set standards for normal
      measurements in the South Indian population as well as to analyse the data for
      predictors of difficult intubation. METHODS: This prospective observational study
      was conducted in a tertiary cancer hospital in Southern India. Airway assessment
      parameters, including modified Mallampati classification (MPC), upper lip bite
      test (ULBT), sternomental distance, thyromental distance (TMD), and the inter
      incisor distance were documented for 2004 patients meeting the inclusion
      criteria. Laryngoscopic view after induction was graded as per Cormack and
      Lehane's (CL) classification. Any CL >=3 was considered to be difficult
      laryngoscopy. The collected data (2004 cases) was analyed with SPSS software
      version 17. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to determine
      cut-offs in the population. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative
      predictive value were computed. RESULTS: MPC, ULBT, and ratio of height to TMD
      (RHTMD) predicted difficult intubation with sensitivity of 40.86%, 45.53% and
      64.60%, respectively and these were statistically significant with P < 0.001.
      Using the area under the curve of the ROC curve and discrimination analysis
      normal RHTMD in our population had a cut off value of 17.1. CONCLUSION: The cut
      off value for RHTMD to predict difficult laryngoscopy in the South Indian
      population is 17.1.

PMID- 28890557
TI  - Are cardiac surgical patients at increased risk of difficult intubation?
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Safe airway management is the cornerstone of contemporary
      anaesthesia practice, and difficult intubation (DI) remains a major cause of
      anaesthetic morbidity and mortality. The surgical category, particularly cardiac
      surgery as a risk factor for DI has not been studied extensively. The aim of this
      study was to test the hypothesis whether cardiac surgical patients are at
      increased risk of DI. METHODS: During the study, 627 patients (329 cardiac and
      298 non-cardiac surgical) were enrolled. Pre-operative demographic and other
      variables associated with DI were assessed. Patients with Cormack Lehane grade
      III and IV or use of bougie in Cormack grade II were defined as DI. The incidence
      of anticipated and unanticipated DI was assessed. Factors associated with DI were
      described using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS:
      The overall incidence of DI was 122/627 (19.46%). The incidence of DI was higher
      in cardiac surgery patients (24%) as compared to non-cardiac surgery patients
      (14.4% P = 0.002). On multivariate analysis, factors independently associated
      with DI were greater age, male sex, higher Mallampati grade, and anticipated DI,
      but not cardiac surgery. The incidence of unanticipated DI was 48.1% and 53.4% in
      cardiac and non-cardiac surgery patients, respectively. CONCLUSION: Although
      there was a higher incidence of DI in cardiac surgical patients, cardiac surgery
      is not an independent risk factor for DI. Rather, other factors play more
      important role. About half of the DI both in cardiac and non-cardiac surgeries
      were unanticipated.

PMID- 28890558
TI  - A cohort evaluation of clinical use and performance characteristics of Ambu(r)
      AuraGainTM: A prospective observational study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Ambu(r) AuraGainTM (AG) (Ambu, Ballerup, Denmark) is a
      supraglottic device which has a design facilitating its use as a conduit for
      intubation. We designed this prospective observational study to assess the ease
      of AG placement in paralysed patients, determine its position and alignment to
      the glottis and assess its utility as a conduit for intubation. METHODS: One
      hundred patients, aged 18-60 years, American Society of Anesthesiologists
      physical status I-II, undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia were
      included in the study. The ease and number of attempts for successful insertion,
      ease of gastric tube insertion, leak pressures, fibre-optic grade of view, number
      of attempts and time for tracheal intubation, time for AG removal and
      complications were recorded. The mean, standard deviation (SD), interquartile
      range (IQR) and range were calculated. The upper limit of confidence interval for
      overall failure rate was calculated using Wilson's score method. RESULTS: AG was
      successfully inserted in all patients. The mean (SD) time taken for insertion was
      17.32 (8.48) s. The median [IQR] leak pressures were 24 [20-28] cm of H2O.
      Optimal laryngeal view for intubation was obtained in 68 patients. Eighty-eight
      patients could be intubated in the first attempt. Five patients could not be
      intubated. The overall failure rate of device was 9%. CONCLUSION: AMBU(r)
      AuraGainTM serves as an effective ventilating aid, but caution is suggested
      before using it as a conduit for endotracheal intubation.

PMID- 28890559
TI  - Comparison of the post-operative analgesic effect of paravertebral block,
      pectoral nerve block and local infiltration in patients undergoing modified
      radical mastectomy: A randomised double-blind trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Paravertebral block, pectoral nerve (Pecs) block and wound
      infiltration are three modalities for post-operative analgesia following breast
      surgery. This study compares the analgesic efficacy of these techniques for post
      operative analgesia. METHODS: Sixty-five patients with American Society of
      Anesthesiologists' physical status 1 or 2 undergoing modified radical mastectomy
      with axillary dissection were recruited for the study. All patients received 21
      mL 0.5% bupivacaine with adrenaline in the technique which was performed at the
      end of the surgery prior to extubation. Patients in Group 1 (local anaesthetic
      [LA], n = 22) received infiltration at the incision site after surgery, Group 2
      patients (paravertebral block [PVB], n = 22) received ultrasound-guided
      ipsilateral paravertebral block while Group 3 patients [PECT] (n = 21) received
      ultrasound-guided ipsilateral Pecs blocks I and II. Patients were evaluated for
      pain scores at 0, 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 h, duration of post-operative analgesia and
      rescue analgesic doses required. Non-normally distributed data were analysed
      using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Analysis of variance for normal distribution.
      RESULTS: The post-operative visual analogue scale scores were lower in PVB group
      compared with others at 0, 2, 4, 12 and 24 h (P < 0.05). Mean duration of
      analgesia was significantly prolonged in PVB group (P < 0.001) with lesser rescue
      analgesic consumption up to 24 h. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-guided paravertebral
      block reduces post-operative pain scores, prolongs the duration of analgesia and
      decreases demands for rescue analgesics in the first 24 h of post-operative
      period compared to ultrasound-guided Pecs block and local infiltration block.

PMID- 28890560
TI  - Perfusion index as a predictor of hypotension following spinal anaesthesia in
      lower segment caesarean section.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Perfusion index (PI) is a new parameter tried for predicting
      hypotension during spinal anaesthesia for the lower segment caesarean section
      (LSCS). This study aimed at investigating the correlation between baseline
      perfusion index and incidence of hypotension following SAB in LSCS. METHODS: In
      this prospective observational study, 126 parturients were divided into two
      groups on the basis of baseline PI. Group I included parturients with PI of <=3.5
      and Group II, parturients with PI values >3.5. Spinal anaesthesia was performed
      with 10 mg of injection bupivacaine 0.5% (hyperbaric) at L3-L4 or L2-L3
      interspace. Hypotension was defined as mean arterial pressure <65 mmHg.
      Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test, independent sample t
      test and Mann-Whitney U-test. Regression analysis with Spearman's rank
      correlation coefficient was done to assess the correlation between baseline PI
      and hypotension. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted for PI
      and occurrence of hypotension. RESULTS: The incidence of hypotension in Group I
      was 10.5% compared to 71.42% in Group II (P < 0.001). There was significant
      correlation between baseline PI >3.5 and number of episodes of hypotension
      (rs0.416, P < 0.001) and total dose of ephedrine (rs0.567, P < 0.001). The
      sensitivity and specificity of baseline PI of 3.5 to predict hypotension was
      69.84% and 89.29%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve for PI to predict
      hypotension was 0.848. CONCLUSION: Baseline perfusion index >3.5 is associated
      with a higher incidence of hypotension following spinal anesthesia in elective
      LSCS.

PMID- 28890561
TI  - A comparison of the efficacy of intercostal nerve block and peritubal
      infiltration of ropivacaine for post-operative analgesia following percutaneous
      nephrolithotomy: A prospective randomised double-blind study.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Intercostal nerve blockade (ICNB) and peritubal infiltration
      of the nephrostomy tract are well-established regional anaesthetic techniques for
      alleviating pain after percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). This prospective
      study compared the efficacy of ICNB and peritubal local anaesthetic infiltration
      of the nephrostomy tract in providing post-operative analgesia following PCNL.
      METHODS: Sixty American Society of Anesthesiologist physical status 1 and II
      patients scheduled for PCNL requiring nephrostomy tube were randomised to receive
      either peritubal infiltration or ICNB. At the completion of the procedure,
      patients in Group P received peritubal infiltration and those in Group I received
      ICNB at 10, 11, 12th spaces using fluoroscopy guidance. Postoperatively, patients
      were followed for 24 h for pain using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Dynamic
      VAS. Rescue analgesia was inj. tramadol 1 mg/kg IV when pain score exceeded 4.
      Time to first rescue analgesia, number of doses and patient's satisfaction were
      noted in all patients. RESULTS: Pain scores were lower in the group I at all
      points of measurement than group P. The mean time to first demand for rescue
      analgesia was higher in Group I (13.22 +/- 4.076 h vs 7.167 +/- 3.92 h P -
      0.001). The number of demands and the amount of analgesics consumed were less in
      Group I. CONCLUSION: ICNB provided superior analgesia as evidenced by longer time
      to first demand of analgesic, reduced number of demands and consumption of rescue
      analgesic. Peritubal infiltration, although less efficacious, may be a safe and
      simple alternative technique.

PMID- 28890562
TI  - Efficacy of atomised local anaesthetic versus transtracheal topical anaesthesia
      for awake fibreoptic intubation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Successful awake fibreoptic intubation (AFOI) depends on
      adequate topical anaesthesia of the airway. We aimed to compare efficacy of
      atomised local anaesthetic versus transtracheal topical anaesthesia for AFOI.
      METHODS: It was a prospective, randomised controlled study of 33 patients with
      the American Society of Anesthesiologists' physical status 1-3 with anticipated
      difficult airway requiring AFOI. The primary objective was to compare the patient
      comfort after topical anaesthesia of the airway using atomiser with transtracheal
      injection of the local anaesthetic agent for AFOI in patients with anticipated
      difficult airway. The secondary objectives were to compare the ease of
      intubation, time required to intubate and the haemodynamic changes during
      intubation. After topical anaesthesia of nostrils, patients in Group T received
      transtracheal injection of 4 ml of 4% lignocaine whereas Group A patients
      received 4-5mL of 4% atomised lignocaine using DeVilbiss atomiser before AFOI.
      Patient comfort assessed objectively by the anaesthetic assistant during the
      procedure, ease of intubation assessed using cough and gag reflex score, time
      taken to intubate and the haemodynamic changes during the procedure were
      compared. RESULTS: Ease of intubation, patient comfort and the time taken to
      intubate were significantly better in Group T patients, with P = 0.001, 0.009 and
      0.019, respectively, compared with the patients in Group A. There were no
      significant changes in haemodynamic parameters. CONCLUSION: Topical anaesthesia
      by transtracheal injection in patients with anticipated difficult airway made
      AFOI easier and faster with better patient comfort compared to atomiser with no
      clinically significant untoward side effects.

PMID- 28890563
TI  - Comparison of intrathecal clonidine and magnesium sulphate used as an adjuvant
      with hyperbaric bupivacaine in lower abdominal surgery.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Use of various adjuvants to spinal anaesthesia is a well
      known modality to provide intra- and post-operative analgesia. This study was
      designed to evaluate and compare the analgesic efficacy of clonidine and
      magnesium when used as an additive to intrathecal 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine.
      METHODS: Ninety patients of the American Society of Anesthesiologists' physical
      status grade I or II, scheduled for lower abdominal surgery under spinal
      anaesthesia, were randomly allocated into three groups. Group B received 3 mL of
      0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine with 1 mL of normal saline, Group C received 3 mL of
      0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine with 1 mL (30 MUg) of clonidine and Group M received
      3 mL of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine with 1 mL (50 mg) magnesium sulphate. The
      primary outcome variable was duration of analgesia and secondary outcome
      variables included onset and duration of sensory and motor block, sedation level
      and adverse effects. Data were analysed with ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square
      tests. RESULTS: The time to first rescue analgesia was significantly (P < 0.01)
      longer in the Group C (330.7 +/- 47.7 min) than both Groups. Group M (246.3 +/-
      55.9 min) showed significantly prolonged analgesia than Group B (134.4 +/- 17.9
      min). Group C and Group M showed significantly prolonged duration of both sensory
      and motor block compared to Group B. CONCLUSION: Intrathecal clonidine added to
      bupivacaine prolongs the duration of post-operative analgesia, and hastens the
      onset and prolongs the duration of sensory and motor block compared to magnesium
      or controls.

PMID- 28890564
TI  - Laryngeal mask airway protectorTM: Advanced uses for laparoscopic
      cholecystectomies.
AB  - The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) ProtectorTM is a second-generation perilaryngeal
      sealer type supraglottic airway device recently introduced into clinical
      practice. We describe our initial experiences with the use of the LMA ProtectorTM
      in three patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomies. In all patients, we
      found the LMA ProtectorTM to have acceptable placements on the first attempt,
      adequate oropharyngeal leak pressures and ventilation adequacy.

PMID- 28890565
TI  - Anaesthetic management of infants posted for repair of anomalous origin of left
      coronary artery from pulmonary artery.
AB  - First described in 1908, anomalous origin of left coronary artery from pulmonary
      artery is a very rare congenital anomaly. Here, the right coronary artery is
      usually enlarged and has a normal origin from aorta. Numerous collaterals connect
      the two coronary arteries over right ventricular outflow tract or
      interventricular septum. It is one of the most common causes of myocardial
      ischaemia and infarction in children.

PMID- 28890566
TI  - Airway management with a rigid external distractor in place.

PMID- 28890567
TI  - Novel use of transoesophageal echocardiography in a pregnant patient undergoing
      neurosurgery.

PMID- 28890568
TI  - Transdermal fentanyl patch in post-operative patients: Is it justified?

PMID- 28890569
TI  - Yet another cause for difficult extubation of nasotracheal tube.

PMID- 28890570
TI  - Encountering caudal cyst on ultrasound: What do we do?

PMID- 28890571
TI  - A novel position for D2 kyphoplasty: Swimmer's position.

PMID- 28890572
TI  - Capnography in the endoscopy suite: A necessity, not a luxury!

PMID- 28890573
TI  - Institutional and ethnic variations in postgraduate enrollment and completion.
AB  - Using the B&B:93/03 longitudinal cohort survey, we investigate (1) whether and
      how much variations in the timing of enrollment, the type of undergraduate
      institution attended, and type of graduate program pursued contribute to observed
      racial and ethnic differentials in post-baccalaureate enrollment, and (2) whether
      the observed enrollment differentials carry over to degree attainment. Dynamic
      event history methods that account both for the timing of matriculation and the
      hazard of enrolling reveal that compared to whites underrepresented minorities
      enroll earlier and also are more likely to enroll in doctoral and advanced
      professional degree programs relative to nonenrollment. Our results reveal
      sizable differences in the cumulative probability of advanced degree attainment
      according to undergraduate institutional mission, with graduates from research
      institutions enjoying a decided advantage over liberal arts college graduates.
      The conclusion discusses limitations of the analysis, directions for further
      research, and implications for strengthening the minority pipeline to graduate
      school.

PMID- 28890574
TI  - Is Communication a Mechanism of Relationship Education Effects among Rural
      African Americans?
AB  - Enhancing communication as a means of promoting relationship quality has been
      increasingly questioned, particularly for couples at elevated sociodemographic
      risk. In response, the current study investigated communication change as a
      mechanism accounting for changes in relationship satisfaction and confidence
      among 344 rural, predominantly low-income African American couples with an early
      adolescent child who participated in a randomized controlled trial of the
      Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program. Approximately 9
      months after baseline assessment, intent-to-treat analyses indicated ProSAAF
      couples demonstrated improved communication, satisfaction, and confidence
      compared with couples in the control condition. Improvements in communication
      mediated ProSAAF effects on relationship satisfaction and confidence; conversely,
      neither satisfaction nor confidence mediated intervention effects on changes in
      communication. These results underscore the short-term efficacy of a
      communication-focused, culturally sensitive prevention program and suggest that
      communication is a possible mechanism of change in relationship quality among low
      income African American couples.

PMID- 28890575
TI  - Two Ways to Frustrate a Desire.

PMID- 28890577
TI  - De facto Privatization and Inequalities in Educational Opportunity in the
      Transition to Secondary School in Rural Malawi.
AB  - There has been a recent, rapid de facto privatization of education in many
      African countries, as the number of private secondary schools operating in the
      region grew. The majority of these schools are "low-cost" private schools where
      tuition and fees are set as low as possible to cover operating costs and still
      generate profit. Proponents of low-cost private schools argue that these schools
      have proliferated in impoverished areas to meet unmet demand for access to
      education and where private schools may offer better quality than locally
      available public schools. Theories of inequality of educational opportunity
      suggest that if private schools offer better quality education, students from
      more advantaged families will be more likely to enroll at these institutions,
      potentially exacerbating educational inequality in the region. This analysis uses
      data from a school-based longitudinal survey, the Malawi Schooling and Adolescent
      Study, to examine socio-economic inequalities in the transition to secondary
      school and on-time enrollment in upper secondary. My findings indicate that youth
      from non-poor households are not only more likely to enroll in secondary school
      than poor youth, but they are also more likely to substitute enrollment in
      private schools for enrollment in second-tier government schools. Enrollment at
      private schools, however, does not yield schooling advantages; relative to both
      tiers of government secondary schooling, students who initially enrolled at
      private schools were the least likely to enroll on time in upper secondary
      school. These patterns suggest that these schooling circumstances may yield less
      segregation of opportunity than might otherwise be assumed.

PMID- 28890578
TI  - Detrifluoroacetylative Generation of Halogenated Enolates: Practical Access to
      Perhalogenated Ketones and Alkenes.
AB  - Sequential chlorination/fluorination of aromatic trifluoroacetylated ketones
      gives 1-aryl 2-chloro-2,4,4,4-tetrafluoro-butan-1,3-dione hydrates that are used
      for the synthesis of ketones and alkenes exhibiting a terminal
      bromochlorofluoromethyl group. The hydrates undergo detrifluoroacetylative
      cleavage and subsequent bromination in the presence of a copper(II)bisoxazoline
      catalyst, K2CO3 and NBS at room temperature. The corresponding
      bromochlorofluoromethyl ketones can be applied in Wittig and Horner-Wadsworth
      Emmons reactions and dibromoalkenylations.

PMID- 28890579
TI  - Gold Catalysis-Facilitated Rapid Synthesis of the Daphnane/Tigliane Tricyclic
      Core.
AB  - A concise approach to synthesize the 5-7-6 tricyclic carbon skeleton of the
      daphnane/tigliane diterpene natural products has been accomplished via a
      sequential gold-catalyzed furan formation and furan-allene [4+3] cycloaddition.
      This work provides new avenues for rapid and diverted synthesis of the
      medicinally important daphnane/tigliane diterpenes and their unnatural analogues.

PMID- 28890580
TI  - The Role of Compost in Stabilizing the Microbiological and Biochemical Properties
      of Zinc-Stressed Soil.
AB  - The progressive development of civilization and intensive industrialization has
      contributed to the global pollution of the natural environment by heavy metals,
      especially the soil. Degraded soils generally contain less organic matter, and
      thus, their homeostasis is more often disturbed, which in turn manifests in
      changes in biological and physicochemical properties of the soil. Therefore, new
      possibilities and solutions for possible neutralization of these contaminations
      are sought, inter alia, through reclamation of degraded land. At present, the use
      of additives supporting the reclamation process that exhibit heavy metal-sorbing
      properties is becoming increasingly important in soil recovery. Research was
      conducted to determine the role of compost in stabilizing the microbial and
      biochemical balance of the soil due to the significant problem of heavy metal
      contaminated areas. The study was conducted on loamy sand, to which zinc was
      applied at the following doses: 0, 250, 500, 750, 1000, and 1250 mg Zn2+ kg-1 DM
      of soil. Compost was introduced to the appropriate objects calculated on the
      basis of organic carbon content in the amount of 0, 10, and 20 g Corg kg-1 DM of
      soil. The study was conducted over a period of 20 weeks, maintaining soil
      moisture at 50% capillary water capacity. Zinc significantly modified soil
      microbiome status. The abundance of microorganisms and their biological diversity
      and the enzymatic activity of the soil were affected. The negative effects of
      contaminating zinc doses were alleviated by the introduction of compost into the
      soil. Organic fertilization led to microbial growth intensification and increased
      biochemical activity of the soil already 2 weeks after compost application. These
      effects persisted throughout the experiment. Therefore, it can be stated that the
      use of compost is an appropriate method for restoring normal functions of soil
      ecosystems contaminated with zinc.

PMID- 28890582
TI  - Theory of Linear and Nonlinear Gain in a Gyroamplifier using a Confocal
      Waveguide.
AB  - The linear and nonlinear theory of a gyroamplifier using a confocal waveguide is
      presented. A quasi-optical approach to describing the modes of a confocal
      waveguide is derived. Both the equations of motion and the mode excitation
      equation are derived in detail. The confocal waveguide circuit has the advantage
      of reducing mode competition but the lack of azimuthal symmetry presents
      challenges in calculating the gain. In the linear regime, the gain calculated
      using the exact form factor for the confocal waveguide agrees with an azimuthally
      averaged form factor. A beamlet code including velocity spread effects has been
      written to calculate the linear and nonlinear (saturated) gain. It has been
      successfully benchmarked against the MAGY code for azimuthally symmetric cases.
      For the confocal waveguide, the beamlet code shows that the saturated gain is
      reduced when compared with results obtained using an azimuthally averaged form
      factor. The beamlet code derived here extends the capabilities of nonlinear
      gyroamplifier theory to configurations that lack azimuthal symmetry.

PMID- 28890581
TI  - Fitness Effects of Thermal Stress Differ Between Outcrossing and Selfing
      Populations in Caenorhabditis elegans.
AB  - The maintenance of males and outcrossing is widespread, despite considerable
      costs of males. By enabling recombination between distinct genotypes, outcrossing
      may be advantageous during adaptation to novel environments and if so, it should
      be selected for under environmental challenge. However, a given environmental
      change may influence fitness of male, female, and hermaphrodite or asexual
      individuals differently, and hence the relationship between reproductive system
      and dynamics of adaptation to novel conditions may not be driven solely by the
      level of outcrossing and recombination. This has important implications for
      studies investigating the evolution of reproductive modes in the context of
      environmental changes, and for the extent to which their findings can be
      generalized. Here, we use Caenorhabditis elegans-a free-living nematode species
      in which hermaphrodites (capable of selfing but not cross-fertilizing each other)
      coexist with males (capable of fertilizing hermaphrodites)-to investigate the
      response of wild type as well as obligatorily outcrossing and obligatorily
      selfing lines to stressfully increased ambient temperature. We found that thermal
      stress affects fitness of outcrossers much more drastically than that of selfers.
      This shows that apart from the potential for recombination, the selective
      pressures imposed by the same environmental change can differ between populations
      expressing different reproductive systems and affect their adaptive potential.

PMID- 28890583
TI  - Compassionate Goals and Affect in Social Situations.
AB  - Optimal social interactions can leave people feeling socially connected and at
      ease, which has clear implications for health and psychological well-being. Yet,
      not all social interactions leave people feelings at ease and connected. What
      explains this variability? We draw from the egosystem-ecosystem theory of social
      motivation (Crocker & Canevello, 2008) to suggest that compassionate goals to
      support others explain some of this variability. We explored the nature of this
      association across 4 studies and varying social contexts. Across studies,
      compassionate goals predicted greater feelings of ease and connection. Results
      also indicate that a cooperative mindset may be one mechanism underlying this
      association: Findings suggest a temporal sequence in which compassionate goals
      lead to cooperative mindsets, which then lead to feeling at ease and connected.
      Thus, these studies suggest that people's compassionate goals lead to their sense
      of interpersonal ease and connection, which may ultimately have implications for
      their sense of belonging.

PMID- 28890585
TI  - Ageing and Elderly Care in the Arab Region: Policy Challenges and Opportunities.
AB  - Populations are expected to age rapidly in the Arab countries during the coming
      few decades. However, the current evidence base indicates that many countries in
      the region are not paying attention to this demographic phenomenon. This is a
      particular concern as longevity is often accompanied by many years of ill health
      and disability and most of the countries in the region continue to rely on the
      family as the primary source of elder care. While the family, and particularly
      women, are expected to provide increasing support for longer, they are faced by a
      set of socio-demographic changes that may hinder their ability to provide such
      care. This paper focuses on the ageing demographics in the Arab region and
      reflects on the multiple-roles for women by utilising quantitative analysis of
      international population and socio-economic indicators as well as reviewing the
      background literature and current ageing policies in the region. The paper then
      discusses possible strategies to address increasing long-term care needs through
      a social capital lens, where support to informal carers particularly women is
      emphasised.

PMID- 28890584
TI  - Interactive Q-learning for Quantiles.
AB  - A dynamic treatment regime is a sequence of decision rules, each of which
      recommends treatment based on features of patient medical history such as past
      treatments and outcomes. Existing methods for estimating optimal dynamic
      treatment regimes from data optimize the mean of a response variable. However,
      the mean may not always be the most appropriate summary of performance. We derive
      estimators of decision rules for optimizing probabilities and quantiles computed
      with respect to the response distribution for two-stage, binary treatment
      settings. This enables estimation of dynamic treatment regimes that optimize the
      cumulative distribution function of the response at a prespecified point or a
      prespecified quantile of the response distribution such as the median. The
      proposed methods perform favorably in simulation experiments. We illustrate our
      approach with data from a sequentially randomized trial where the primary outcome
      is remission of depression symptoms.

PMID- 28890586
TI  - The Meaning of Social Participation for Daily Mobility in Later Life: an
      Ethnographic Case Study of a Senior Project in a Swedish Urban Neighbourhood.
AB  - This paper presents an ethnographic case study that aims to understand the
      meaning of social participation in a neighbourhood for daily mobility in later
      life. In the study, the mobility of the participants of a senior-citizen project
      was monitored over 18 months. The project was founded as a result of a municipal
      district's targeting of social sustainability. The results show that social
      participation had positive effects on the daily mobility of the participants. The
      implementation of broad-minded thinking from the municipality and the cooperation
      of various municipal actors were shown to be essential for the positive outcome
      of this project.

PMID- 28890587
TI  - The Swedish Communicative Development Inventory III: Parent reports on language
      in preschool children.
AB  - A revised form of MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory III (SCDI
      III) was presented designed for Swedish speaking children aged 2 years 6 months-4
      years 0 months with the objective to give a proxy measure of their language
      competence. The instrument contains a vocabulary checklist with 100 words, mainly
      predicates, from four areas; Food words, Body words, Mental words and Emotion
      words. Two sections assess the child's grammar skills and a final section
      appraises the child's metalinguistic awareness. Assessments from 1,134 parents
      are reported. Scales with adequate psychometric properties were formed for each
      section. Monthly median values and spread of score distributions are presented
      for each scale. Girls scored higher than boys on all scales. The revision,
      sampling procedures, demographic variables and issues of reliability and
      validity, are discussed. The general structure of the instrument can well be
      integrated in similar instruments designed for other languages and cultures.

PMID- 28890576
TI  - Interface-Induced Phenomena in Magnetism.
AB  - This article reviews static and dynamic interfacial effects in magnetism,
      focusing on interfacially-driven magnetic effects and phenomena associated with
      spin-orbit coupling and intrinsic symmetry breaking at interfaces. It provides a
      historical background and literature survey, but focuses on recent progress,
      identifying the most exciting new scientific results and pointing to promising
      future research directions. It starts with an introduction and overview of how
      basic magnetic properties are affected by interfaces, then turns to a discussion
      of charge and spin transport through and near interfaces and how these can be
      used to control the properties of the magnetic layer. Important concepts include
      spin accumulation, spin currents, spin transfer torque, and spin pumping. An
      overview is provided to the current state of knowledge and existing review
      literature on interfacial effects such as exchange bias, exchange spring magnets,
      spin Hall effect, oxide heterostructures, and topological insulators. The article
      highlights recent discoveries of interface-induced magnetism and non-collinear
      spin textures, non-linear dynamics including spin torque transfer and
      magnetization reversal induced by interfaces, and interfacial effects in
      ultrafast magnetization processes.

PMID- 28890588
TI  - Informativeness of Diagnostic Marker Values and the Impact of Data Grouping.
AB  - Assessing performance of diagnostic markers is a necessary step for their use in
      decision making regarding various conditions of interest in diagnostic medicine
      and other fields. Globally useful markers could, however, have ranges of values
      that are "diagnostically non-informative". This paper demonstrates that the
      presence of marker values from diagnostically non-informative ranges could lead
      to a loss in statistical efficiency during nonparametric evaluation and shows
      that grouping non-informative values provides a natural resolution to this
      problem. These points are theoretically proven and an extensive simulation study
      is conducted to illustrate the possible benefits of using grouped marker values
      in a number of practically reasonable scenarios. The results contradict the
      common conjecture regarding the detrimental effect of grouped marker values
      during performance assessments. Specifically, contrary to the common assumption
      that grouped marker values lead to bias, grouping non-informative values does not
      introduce bias and could substantially reduce sampling variability. The proven
      concept that grouped marker values could be statistically beneficial without
      detrimental consequences implies that in practice, tied values do not always
      require resolution whereas the use of continuous diagnostic results without
      addressing diagnostically non-informative ranges could be statistically
      detrimental. Based on these findings, more efficient methods for evaluating
      diagnostic markers could be developed.

PMID- 28890590
TI  - In-migration, customary land tenure, and complexity: exploring the relationship
      between changing land tenure norms and differentiated migrant livelihoods in
      Brong Ahafo, Ghana.
AB  - This article focuses on the relationship between in-migration from Northern Ghana
      and changing land tenure norms in Ghana's central "transition zone" in Brong
      Ahafo Region. Using the complex adaptive systems (CAS) theoretical framework, it
      theorizes this relationship as part of a wider set of "co-evolving" social and
      environmental conditions across Brong Ahafo. It presents new qualitative research
      findings which show differentiated livelihood trajectories for Northern Ghanaian
      migrant farmers in Brong Ahafo in three case study sites in different districts
      and links these to migrants' diverse land tenure arrangements under customary
      tenure regimes in Brong Ahafo. I argue that differentiated outcomes for migrants
      at rural destinations have implications for the extent to which out-migration
      from environmentally marginal regions such as Northern Ghana can be viewed as a
      form of "adaptation" to environmental change.

PMID- 28890589
TI  - Mechanisms, applications, and perspectives of antiviral RNA silencing in plants.
AB  - Viral diseases of plants cause important economic losses due to reduction in crop
      quality and quantity to the point of threatening food security in some countries.
      Given the reduced availability of natural sources, genetic resistance to viruses
      has been successfully engineered for some plant-virus combinations. A sound
      understanding of the basic mechanisms governing plant-virus interactions,
      including antiviral RNA silencing, is the foundation to design better management
      strategies and biotechnological approaches to engineer and implement antiviral
      resistance in plants. In this review, we present current molecular models to
      explain antiviral RNA silencing and its application in basic plant research,
      biotechnology and genetic engineering.

PMID- 28890591
TI  - Emergent "Quantum" Theory in Complex Adaptive Systems.
AB  - Motivated by the question of stability, in this letter we argue that an effective
      quantum-like theory can emerge in complex adaptive systems. In the concrete
      example of stochastic Lotka-Volterra dynamics, the relevant effective "Planck
      constant" associated with such emergent "quantum" theory has the dimensions of
      the square of the unit of time. Such an emergent quantum-like theory has
      inherently non-classical stability as well as coherent properties that are not,
      in principle, endangered by thermal fluctuations and therefore might be of
      crucial importance in complex adaptive systems.

PMID- 28890592
TI  - Demonstration of Multi- and Single-Reader Sample Size Program for Diagnostic
      Studies software.
AB  - The recently released software Multi- and Single-Reader Sample Size Sample Size
      Program for Diagnostic Studies, written by Kevin Schartz and Stephen Hillis,
      performs sample size computations for diagnostic reader-performance studies. The
      program computes the sample size needed to detect a specified difference in a
      reader performance measure between two modalities, when using the analysis
      methods initially proposed by Dorfman, Berbaum, and Metz (DBM) and Obuchowski and
      Rockette (OR), and later unified and improved by Hillis and colleagues. A
      commonly used reader performance measure is the area under the receiver-operating
      characteristic curve. The program can be used with typical common reader
      performance measures which can be estimated parametrically or nonparametrically.
      The program has an easy-to-use step-by-step intuitive interface that walks the
      user through the entry of the needed information. Features of the software
      include the following: (1) choice of several study designs; (2) choice of inputs
      obtained from either OR or DBM analyses; (3) choice of three different inference
      situations: both readers and cases random, readers fixed and cases random, and
      readers random and cases fixed; (4) choice of two types of hypotheses:
      equivalence or noninferiority; (6) choice of two output formats: power for
      specified case and reader sample sizes, or a listing of case-reader combinations
      that provide a specified power; (7) choice of single or multi-reader analyses;
      and (8) functionality in Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

PMID- 28890594
TI  - Living Near to Attractive Nature? A Well-Being Indicator for Ranking Dutch,
      Danish, and German Functional Urban Areas.
AB  - While nature is widely acknowledged to contribute to people's well-being, nature
      based well-being indicators at city-level appear to be underprovided. This study
      aims at filling this gap by introducing a novel indicator based on the proximity
      of city-residents to nature that is of high-amenity. High-amenity nature is
      operationalized by combining unique systematic data on people's perceptions of
      what are the locations of attractive natural areas with data on natural land
      cover. The proposed indicator departs from the usual assumption of equal well
      being from any nature, as it approximates the 'actual' subjective quality of
      nature near people's homes in a spatially explicit way. Such indicator is used to
      rank 148 'cities' in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. International
      comparability of the indicator is enhanced by the use of a definition of cities
      as functional urban areas (FUAs), which are consistently identified across
      countries. Results demonstrate that the average 'nearness' of FUA populations to
      high amenity nature varies widely across the observed FUAs. A key finding, that
      complements insights from existing city-level indicators, is that while
      populations of FUAs with higher population densities may live relatively far from
      nature in general, they also live, on average, closer to high-amenity nature than
      inhabitants of lower density FUAs. Our results may stimulate policy-debates on
      how to combine urban agglomeration with access to natural amenities in order to
      account for people's wellbeing.

PMID- 28890593
TI  - Examples of applied public health through the work of the Epidemic Intelligence
      Service officers at CDC's National Center for Environmental Health: 2006-2015.
AB  - The Epidemic Intelligence Service officers (EISOs) at the National Center for
      Environmental Health (NCEH)/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
      (ATSDR) respond to public health outbreaks, assist public health surveillance,
      and recommend public health actions. We summarize the breadth of work done by
      EISOs assigned to NCEH/ATSDR during 2006-2015. We used the Web of Science,
      Scopus, and PubMed databases to identify articles authored by the EISOs, number
      and types of epidemiologic assistance field investigations (Epi-Aids), and
      interviewed NCEH/ATSDR programs with EISO assignees. The largest number of
      NCEH/ATSDR EISO publications (n = 61) and Epi-Aids (n = 110) related to toxic
      chemicals (23 and 37, respectively), followed by natural disasters and those
      caused by humans (19 and 25, respectively), extreme temperature-related illness
      (9), and chronic diseases (8). The investigations raised awareness, identified
      risk factors and public health needs, and introduced better prevention and
      protection measures for human health. Through field investigations and other
      technical assistance, NCEH/ATSDR provided leadership and staff scientists to
      assist in the field, as well as knowledge transfer to local, state, territorial,
      and international health departments.

PMID- 28890595
TI  - Does Consumer Confidence Forecast Household Saving and Borrowing Behavior?
      Evidence for Poland.
AB  - Consumer confidence plays an important role in households' decision-making
      processes. This study investigates the effects of consumer confidence on
      household saving and borrowing behavior that are unsatisfactorily considered in
      previous discussions. The questions of interest are first, whether indexes of
      consumer confidence have any predictive power on their own for future household
      saving and borrowing rates, and second, whether they contain information about
      future household saving and borrowing rates aside from the information contained
      in other available indicators. In addition to aggregate confidence indicators,
      their components are used to provide more precise information. Overall, the
      multiple linear regression analysis (OLS technique) of Polish time-series data
      gives positive answers to both questions. This finding supports the
      recommendation of combining the strengths of objective indicators (such as
      economic fundamentals) and subjective indicators (such as consumer confidence) to
      improve household financial behavior forecasts.

PMID- 28890597
TI  - Women's Land Tenure Security and Household Human Capital: Evidence from
      Ethiopia's Land Certification.
AB  - This paper examines the impact of Ethiopia's gendered land certification programs
      on household consumption of healthcare, food, education, and clothing. Ethiopia
      embarked on a land tenure reform program in 1998, after years of communism during
      which all land was nationalized. The reform began in Tigray region where land
      certificates were issued to household heads, who were primarily male. In a second
      phase carried out in 2003-2005, three other regions issued land certificates
      jointly to household heads and spouses, presenting variation in land tenure
      security by gender. Results using household panel data show that joint land
      certification to spouses was accompanied by increased household consumption of
      healthcare and homegrown food and decreased education expenditure, compared to
      household-head land certification. Joint land certification was also accompanied
      by increased consumption of women's and girls' clothing, and decreased men's
      clothing expenditures indicating results may be explained by a shift in the
      gender balance of power within households. Analysis on the incidence and duration
      of illness indicates that increased healthcare expenditures after joint land
      certification may be due to joint certification households seeking more effective
      treatment than head-only certification households for household members who fell
      ill or suffered injuries.

PMID- 28890596
TI  - Explaining Accessibility and Satisfaction Related to Healthcare: A Mixed-Methods
      Approach.
AB  - Accessibility and satisfaction related to healthcare services are conceived as
      multidimensional concepts. These concepts can be studied using objective and
      subjective measures. In this study, we created two indices: a composite
      healthcare accessibility index (CHCA) and a composite healthcare satisfaction
      index (CHCS). To calculate the CHCA index we used three indicators based on three
      components of multidimensional healthcare accessibility: availability,
      acceptability and accessibility. In the indicator based on the component of
      accessibility, we included an innovative perceived time-decay parameter. The
      three indicators of the CHCA index were weighted through the application of a
      principal components analysis. To calculate the CHCS index, we used three
      indicators: the waiting time after the patient arrives at the healthcare service,
      the quality of the healthcare, and the healthcare service supply. These three
      indicators making up the CHCA index were weighted by applying an analytical
      hierarchy process. Three kinds of regressions were subsequently applied in order
      to explain the CHCA and CHCS indices: namely the Linear Least Squares, Ordinal
      Logistic, and Random Forests regressions. In these regressions, we used different
      independent social and health-related variables. These variables represented the
      predisposing, enabling, and need factors of people's behaviors related to
      healthcare. All the calculations were applied to a study area: the city of Quito,
      Ecuador. Results showed that there are health-related inequalities in regard to
      healthcare accessibility and healthcare satisfaction in our study area. We also
      identified specific social factors that explained the indices developed. The
      present work is a mixed-methods approach to evaluate multidimensional healthcare
      accessibility and healthcare satisfaction, incorporating a pluralistic
      perspective, as well as a multidisciplinary framework. The results obtained can
      also be considered as tools for healthcare and urban planners, for more
      integrative social analyses that can improve the quality of life in urban
      residents.

PMID- 28890598
TI  - Experimental Investigation of Wood Decking Assemblies Exposed to Firebrand
      Showers.
AB  - Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires have become a problem of great concern
      across multiple continents. An important mechanism of structure ignition in WUI
      fires and urban fires is the production of firebrands. During WUI fires, decking
      assemblies have been observed to be an ignition vulnerability based on post-fire
      damage surveys conducted by NIST and elsewhere. The authors have conducted
      scoping experiments and demonstrated the dangers of the dynamic process of
      continual, wind-driven firebrand showers landing on decking assemblies for wind
      speeds of 6 m/s. In this study, eight full-scale experiments were conducted with
      wood decking assemblies under a wind speed of 8 m/s. The basis for these new
      investigations was twofold: observe possible vulnerabilities of wood decking
      assemblies to continuous, wind-driven firebrands at higher wind speed as
      firebrand accumulation patterns were expected to be influenced by wind speed, and
      examine if wall ignition occurred due to the burning decking assembly. To this
      end, sections of wood decking assemblies (1.2 m by 1.2 m) were constructed and
      attached to a reentrant corner assembly. The deck/reentrant corner assembly was
      then exposed to continuous, wind-driven firebrand bombardment generated by a full
      scale Continuous Feed Firebrand Generator installed in the Fire Research Wind
      Tunnel Facility (FRWTF) at the Building Research Institute (BRI) in Japan. The
      mass of firebrands required for flaming ignitions under a wind speed of 8 m/s was
      considerably less compared with those under a wind speed of 6 m/s. This result is
      postulated to be due to higher firebrand surface temperatures as the wind speed
      was increased. For the decking assembly to wall ignition studies, the interface
      between the decking assembly and the wall appeared to be a weak point; this is
      not addressed in the current test methods.

PMID- 28890599
TI  - Evaluation of Structural Robustness against Column Loss: Methodology and
      Application to RC Frame Buildings.
AB  - A computational methodology is presented for evaluating structural robustness
      against column loss. The methodology is illustrated through application to
      reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings, using a reduced-order modeling approach
      for three-dimensional RC framing systems that includes the floor slabs.
      Comparisons with high-fidelity finite-element model results are presented to
      verify the approach. Pushdown analyses of prototype buildings under column loss
      scenarios are performed using the reduced-order modeling approach, and an energy
      based procedure is employed to account for the dynamic effects associated with
      sudden column loss. Results obtained using the energy-based approach are found to
      be in good agreement with results from direct dynamic analysis of sudden column
      loss. A metric for structural robustness is proposed, calculated by normalizing
      the ultimate capacities of the structural system under sudden column loss by the
      applicable service-level gravity loading and by evaluating the minimum value of
      this normalized ultimate capacity over all column removal scenarios. The
      procedure is applied to two prototype 10-story RC buildings, one employing
      intermediate moment frames (IMFs) and the other employing special moment frames
      (SMFs). The SMF building, with its more stringent seismic design and detailing,
      is found to have greater robustness.

PMID- 28890601
TI  - Impact of RRAM Read Fluctuations on the Program-Verify Approach.
AB  - The stochastic nature of the conductive filaments in oxide-based resistive memory
      (RRAM) represents a sizeable impediment to commercialization. As such, program
      verify methodologies are highly alluring. However, it was recently shown that
      program-verify methods are unworkable due to strong resistance state relaxation
      after SET/RESET programming. In this paper, we demonstrate that resistance state
      relaxation is not the main culprit. Instead, it is fluctuation-induced false
      reading (triggering) that defeats the program-verify method, producing a large
      distribution tail immediately after programming. The fluctuation impact on the
      verify mechanism has serious implications on the overall write/erase speed of
      RRAM.

PMID- 28890600
TI  - Exciton Dynamics in Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides.
AB  - Since the discovery of semiconducting monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides,
      a variety of experimental and theoretical studies have been carried out seeking
      to understand the intrinsic exciton population recombination and valley
      relaxation dynamics. Reports of the exciton decay time range from hundreds of
      femtoseconds to ten nanoseconds, while the valley depolarization time can exceed
      one nanosecond. At present, however, a consensus on the microscopic mechanisms
      governing exciton radiative and non-radiative recombination is lacking. The
      strong exciton oscillator strength resulting in up to ~ 20% absorption for a
      single monolayer points to ultrafast radiative recombination. However, the low
      quantum yield and large variance in the reported lifetimes suggest that non
      radiative Auger-type processes obscure the intrinsic exciton radiative lifetime.
      In either case, the electron-hole exchange interaction plays an important role in
      the exciton spin and valley dynamics. In this article, we review the experiments
      and theory that have led to these conclusions and comment on future experiments
      that could complement our current understanding.

PMID- 28890602
TI  - Learning a Talker or Learning an Accent: Acoustic Similarity Constrains
      Generalization of Foreign Accent Adaptation to New Talkers.
AB  - Past research has revealed that native listeners use top-down information to
      adjust the mapping from speech sounds to phonetic categories. Such phonetic
      adjustments help listeners adapt to foreign-accented speech. However, the
      mechanism by which talker-specific adaptation generalizes to other talkers is
      poorly understood. Here we asked what conditions induce crosstalker
      generalization in talker accent adaptation. Native-English listeners were exposed
      to Mandarin-accented words, produced by a single talker or multiple talkers.
      Following exposure, adaptation to the accent was tested by recognition of novel
      words in a task that assesses online lexical access. Crucially, test words were
      novel words and were produced by a novel Mandarin-accented talker. Results
      indicated that regardless of exposure condition (single or multiple talker
      exposure), generalization was greatest when the talkers were acoustically similar
      to one another, suggesting that listeners were not developing an accent-wide
      schema for Mandarin talkers, but rather attuning to the specific acoustic
      phonetic properties of the talkers. Implications for general mechanisms of talker
      generalization in speech adaptation are discussed.

PMID- 28890603
TI  - HARNESSING VALUES TO PROMOTE MOTIVATION IN EDUCATION.
AB  - PURPOSE: We review the interventions that promote motivation in academic
      contexts, with a focus on two primary questions: How can we motivate students to
      take more STEM courses? Once in those STEM courses, how can we keep students
      motivated and promote their academic achievement? DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: We
      have approached these two motivational questions from several perspectives,
      examining the theoretical issues with basic laboratory research, conducting
      longitudinal questionnaire studies in classrooms, and developing interventions
      implemented in different STEM contexts. Our research is grounded in three
      theories that we believe are complementary: expectancy-value theory (Eccles &
      Wigfield, 2002), interest theory (Hidi & Renninger, 2006), and self-affirmation
      theory (Steele, 1988). As social psychologists, we have focused on motivational
      theory and used experimental methods, with an emphasis on values - students'
      perceptions of the value of academic tasks and students' personal values that
      shape their experiences in academic contexts. FINDINGS: We review the
      experimental field studies in high-school science and college psychology classes,
      in which utility-value interventions promoted interest and performance for high
      school students in science classes and for undergraduate students in psychology
      courses. We also review a randomized intervention in which parents received
      information about the utility value of math and science for their teens in high
      school; this intervention led students to take nearly one semester more of
      science and mathematics, compared with the control group. Finally, we review an
      experimental study of values affirmation in a college biology course and found
      that the intervention improved performance and retention for first-generation
      college students, closing the social-class achievement gap by 50%. We conclude by
      discussing the mechanisms through which these interventions work.
      ORIGINALITY/VALUE: These interventions are exciting for their broad applicability
      in improving students' academic choices and performance, they are also exciting
      regarding their potential for contributions to basic science. The combination of
      laboratory experiments and field experiments is advancing our understanding of
      the motivational principles and almost certainly will continue to do so. At the
      same time, interventions may benefit from becoming increasingly targeted at
      specific motivational processes that are effective with particular groups or in
      particular contexts.

PMID- 28890604
TI  - Monitoring of Batch Industrial Crystallization with Growth, Nucleation, and
      Agglomeration. Part 2: Structure Design for State Estimation with Secondary
      Measurements.
AB  - This work investigates the design of alternative monitoring tools based on state
      estimators for industrial crystallization systems with nucleation, growth, and
      agglomeration kinetics. The estimation problem is regarded as a structure design
      problem where the estimation model and the set of innovated states have to be
      chosen; the estimator is driven by the available measurements of secondary
      variables. On the basis of Robust Exponential estimability arguments, it is found
      that the concentration is distinguishable with temperature and solid fraction
      measurements while the crystal size distribution (CSD) is not. Accordingly, a
      state estimator structure is selected such that (i) the concentration (and other
      distinguishable states) are innovated by means of the secondary measurements
      processed with the geometric estimator (GE), and (ii) the CSD is estimated by
      means of a rigorous model in open loop mode. The proposed estimator has been
      tested through simulations showing good performance in the case of mismatch in
      the initial conditions, parametric plant-model mismatch, and noisy measurements.

PMID- 28890605
TI  - Highly Planarized Naphthalene Diimide-Bifuran Copolymers with Unexpected Charge
      Transport Performance.
AB  - The synthesis, characterization, and charge transport performance of novel
      copolymers PNDIFu2 made from alternating naphthalene diimide (NDI) and bifuran
      (Fu2) units are reported. Usage of potentially biomass-derived Fu2 as alternating
      repeat unit enables flattened polymer backbones due to reduced steric
      interactions between the imide oxygens and Fu2 units, as seen by density
      functional theory (DFT) calculations and UV-vis spectroscopy. Aggregation of
      PNDIFu2 in solution is enhanced if compared to the analogous NDI-bithiophene (T2)
      copolymers PNDIT2, occurring in all solvents and temperatures probed. PNDIFu2
      features a smaller pi-pi stacking distance of 0.35 nm compared to 0.39 nm seen
      for PNDIT2. Alignment of aggregates in films is achieved by using off-center spin
      coating, whereby PNDIFu2 exhibits a stronger dichroic ratio and transport
      anisotropy in field-effect transistors (FET) compared to PNDIT2, with an overall
      good electron mobility of 0.21 cm2/(V s). Despite an enhanced backbone planarity,
      the smaller pi-pi stacking and the enhanced charge transport anisotropy, the
      electron mobility of PNDIFu2 is about three times lower compared to PNDIT2.
      Density functional theory calculations suggest that charge transport in PNDIFu2
      is limited by enhanced polaron localization compared to PNDIT2.

PMID- 28890606
TI  - Combined photographic and ultrasonographic measurement of the ANB angle: a pilot
      study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to evaluate the feasibility of noninvasive
      measurement of the ANB angle using photographic and ultrasonographic methods.
      METHODS: Twenty consecutive orthodontic patients were evaluated. The ANB angle
      and soft tissue thickness covering the N, A, and B cephalometric points were
      measured by lateral teleradiography; these measurements were made by two expert
      operators. The soft tissue thickness covering the N, A, and B cephalometric
      points was measured by ultrasonography; these measurements were also made by two
      expert operators. On a 1:1 photographic profile print on which the
      ultrasonographic points were marked, the ANB ultrasonographic angle was measured.
      The following comparisons were considered: averaged and single measurements of N,
      A, and B points by first versus second ultrasonographer; averaged and single
      ultrasonographic versus radiographic soft tissue thickness covering the N, A, B
      points; and averaged and single ultrasonographic versus radiographic measurements
      of ANB angle. RESULTS: High correlation and concordance of the averaged and
      single measurements, but no significant difference, was found between the two
      ultrasonographers. No statistically significant difference was found between the
      two methods for measuring averaged soft tissue thickness, but a 20% difference
      was found for the single measurements. High correlation and concordance between
      the ultrasonographic and radiographic measurements, but no significant
      difference, was found between the single and averaged ANB angle measurements.
      CONCLUSION: Ultrasonography seems to be a noninvasive and reliable technique for
      measurement of the ANB angle and may replace radiographic measurement in some
      cases.

PMID- 28890607
TI  - Determining geometric error model parameters of a terrestrial laser scanner
      through Two-face, Length-consistency, and Network methods.
AB  - Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) are increasingly used in large-scale
      manufacturing and assembly where required measurement uncertainties are on the
      order of few tenths of a millimeter or smaller. In order to meet these stringent
      requirements, systematic errors within a TLS are compensated in-situ through self
      calibration. In the Network method of self-calibration, numerous targets
      distributed in the work-volume are measured from multiple locations with the TLS
      to determine parameters of the TLS error model. In this paper, we propose two new
      self-calibration methods, the Two-face method and the Length-consistency method.
      The Length-consistency method is proposed as a more efficient way of realizing
      the Network method where the length between any pair of targets from multiple TLS
      positions are compared to determine TLS model parameters. The Two-face method is
      a two-step process. In the first step, many model parameters are determined
      directly from the difference between front-face and back-face measurements of
      targets distributed in the work volume. In the second step, all remaining model
      parameters are determined through the Length-consistency method. We compare the
      Two-face method, the Length-consistency method, and the Network method in terms
      of the uncertainties in the model parameters, and demonstrate the validity of our
      techniques using a calibrated scale bar and front-face back-face target
      measurements. The clear advantage of these self-calibration methods is that a
      reference instrument or calibrated artifacts are not required, thus significantly
      lowering the cost involved in the calibration process.

PMID- 28890608
TI  - Coronal Sealing Capacity of Temporary Restorative Materials in Pediatric
      Dentistry: A Comparative Study.
AB  - AIMS: The aim of this in vitro study is to compare the coronal microleakage of
      three common temporary restorative materials, namely Coltosol, Compoglass, and
      Zonalin, used in pediatric dentistry after endodontic treatment at different time
      intervals (1 week, 1, and 2 months) using dye penetration. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      Access cavities were prepared in 72 intact extracted premolar teeth. The samples
      were divided into three groups (n = 24) and filled with Coltosol, Compoglass, or
      Zonalin. After thermal cycling for 500 cycles (5-55 degrees C), the teeth were
      immersed in 1% methylene blue dye at 37 degrees C for 1 week (n = 8), 1 month (n
      = 8), and 2 months (n = 8). The samples were sectioned buccolingually, and the
      linear depth of dye penetration was measured using a stereomicroscope at 16 *
      magnification. The data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: There
      were no significant differences in the micro-leakage values of Coltosol and
      Zonalin or Zonalin and Com-poglass groups at 1 week (p > 0.05) or 1 month (p >
      0.05) intervals, but a significant difference was noted between Coltosol and
      Compoglass groups (p < 0.01); Coltosol provided a more favorable coronal seal. No
      significant difference was found among the experimental groups at the 2-month
      interval (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: At 1 week or 1 month of use, Coltosol showed
      better coronal seal. At 2 months, there was no significant difference apparent
      between the groups. A longer time lapse was associated with an increased
      likelihood of microleakage. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Milani S, Seraj B, Heidari
      A, Mirdamadi A, Shahrabi M. Coronal Sealing Capacity of Temporary Restorative
      Materials in Pediatric Dentistry: A Comparative Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent
      2017;10(2):115-118.

PMID- 28890609
TI  - Association of Feeding Methods and Streptococcus mutans Count with Early
      Childhood Caries: A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a virulent form of dental caries
      that can destroy the primary dentition of toddlers and preschool children. The
      aim was to determine the relationship of feeding methods and oral Streptococcus
      mutans count in 3- to 5-year-old children with ECC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      cross-sectional study was conducted in children aged 3 to 5 years. Participating
      mothers were interviewed regarding child's demographic profile, educational level
      and socioeconomic status of parents, past medical and dental history of the
      mother and child, child's feeding habits, and dietary habits and oral hygiene
      practices of mother and child. Clinical examination for dental caries was done
      using the World Health Organization criteria (1997). Salivary samples of mother
      child pair were collected to determine the pH, flow rate, and S. mutans count.
      Statistical tests, such as Student's t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearson's
      correlation were applied. RESULTS: Out of 150 mother-child pair, statistically
      significant difference in the caries experience was found between mothers and
      children with high and low S. mutans count. Moderate but statistically
      significant negative correlation was found between mean decayed, missing, and
      filled teeth of mothers and mean decayed, extracted and filled teeth (deft) of
      children with high S. mutans count. Regarding deft, there was no statistically
      significant difference between children who were exclusively breast fed (7.85 +/-
      2.94), exclusively bottle-fed (8.67 +/- 3.98), and both breast and bottle-fed
      (7.77 +/- 2.91). CONCLUSION: The mean caries experience of mothers and children
      was 2.66 +/- 2.01 and 7.82 +/- 2.94 respectively, with decayed component being
      maximum. Moderate and significant correlation (r = 0.5) was found between S.
      mutans of mothers and children in saliva. Significant negative correlation was
      found between mothers and children with high S. mutans count (r = -0.0284; p =
      0.046). HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Bullappa D, Puranik MP, Sowmya KR,
      Nagarathnamma T. Association of Feeding Methods and Streptococcus mutans Count
      with Early Childhood Caries: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent
      2017;10(2):119-125.

PMID- 28890610
TI  - Evaluation of Novel Glass Fiber-reinforced Composite Technique for Primary
      Anterior Teeth with Deep Carious Lesions: A 12-month Clinical Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early childhood caries discloses a distinct clinical pattern, and the
      teeth most often involved are the maxillary central incisors, lateral incisors,
      and the maxillary and man-dibular first molars. The maxillary incisors are most
      severely affected, with deep carious lesions usually involving the pulp. Teeth
      that have been endodontically treated often have little coronal tooth tissue
      remaining and as such require a post to retain the core and restoration .This
      study evaluated and compared the efficacy of EverStick glass fiber-reinforced
      composite post with ParaPost Taper Lux in primary maxillary anterior teeth. AIM:
      An in vivo study was conducted to evaluate and compare the longevity and failures
      of two fiber post systems in primary maxillary anterior teeth. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: A total of 60 severely mutilated primary maxillary anterior teeth from
      children aged 3 to 5 years were selected according to the inclusion criteria.
      These teeth were treated endodontically and were randomly assigned into two
      groups with 30 samples in each group, group I: EverStick glass fiber-reinforced
      composite post, group II: ParaPost Taper Lux post. The evaluation of dislodgment
      of posts, secondary caries, root fracture, and post fracture was carried out
      clinically and radiographically during every follow-up at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months
      interval. RESULTS: Statistical tests (Chi-square test, Fisher's exact probability
      test) suggested that dislodgment of the posts was significant between the two
      groups at 6, 9, and 12 months follow-ups. But within the group during subsequent
      follow-up intervals, dislodgment of posts as a mode of failure was not
      statistically significant. However, clinically failures were seen in both the
      study groups. CONCLUSION: Fiber post system has proved to be successful
      clinically in both primary and permanent teeth due to the mono-block effect with
      luting agent, post system, core material, and bonding to dentin. Thus, today the
      EverStick glass fiber post system provides a novel way of fabricating cost
      effective and less time-consuming custom-made post in treating mutilated
      maxillary anteriors. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Sawant A, Chunawalla Y, Morawala
      A, Kanchan NS, Jain K, Talathi R. Evaluation of Novel Glass Fiber-reinforced
      Composite Technique for Primary Anterior Teeth with Deep Carious Lesions: A 12
      month Clinical Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):126-130.

PMID- 28890611
TI  - Comparison of Antimicrobial Activity of Child Formula Dentifrices at different
      Concentrations: An in vitro Study.
AB  - AIM: The aim of the present in vitro study is to evaluate and compare
      antimicrobial efficacy of commercially available child's dental formulas in
      reduced concentrations containing different forms of fluoride against
      Streptococcus mutans activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The selected dentifrices
      were prepared in dilutions of 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:8, and 1:16 using sterile pyrogen
      free distilled water. Various dilutions of the selected toothpaste slurries were
      incubated in the agar plate containing pure strains of S. mutans, and
      antimicrobial activity of each was assessed by measuring the diameter of zones of
      inhibition (in mm). Agar well plate diffusion method and minimum inhibitory
      concentration (MIC) determination were the methods used in this study. The
      inhibitory circle of each dentifrice was measured and MIC was achieved by
      considering the value of diameter of the circle. RESULTS: The results of the
      study showed that even at a lower concentration of fluoride, inhibition halos
      were obtained for all the formulations at different dilutions. CONCLUSION: The
      kid's formulations having lower fluoride concentration show antimicrobial
      activity even after dilutions. Thus, commercially, the fluoride concentrations
      can be further lowered down in the dentifrices, thereby reducing the risk
      associated with fluoride. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Malhotra R, Singla S,
      Shashikiran ND. Comparison ofAntimicrobial Activity of Child Formula Dentifrices
      at different Concentrations: An in vitro Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent
      2017;10(2):131-135.

PMID- 28890612
TI  - Comparative Evaluation of Sealing Ability, Water Absorption, and Solubility of
      Three Temporary Restorative Materials: An in vitro Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The quality of the coronal seal of root canal filling material is
      important for periapical health. Absorption of water or saliva by the temporary
      restorative materials leads to dimensional changes, loss of retention, staining
      and breaking in margin contours. Hence this study was carried out to evaluate and
      compare the sealing properties, water absorption and solubility of IRM
      (intermediate restorative material), Cavit G and GC Caviton. STUDY DESIGN:
      Experimental, in vitro intergroup randomized control trial. MATERIAL AND METHODS:
      36 non carious premolars were randomly selected assigned to three groups, 12
      teeth in each. Standard endodontic access cavities of approximately 4x4mm wide
      were prepared followed by the root canal obturation with Gutta-percha and
      restoration with experimental materials. For microleakage testing dye penetration
      method was used with 2% methylene blue dye. Followed by evaluation and scoring
      under stereomicroscope at 40x magnification. Disc shaped 12 specimens for each
      group were prepared for each material, stored in desiccator at 37 degrees  C,
      weighed daily to verify mass stabilization (dry mass,m1). Thereafter, the
      specimens were stored in distilled water at 37 degrees C for 7days to obtain the
      mass after saturation with water (m2). The specimens were placed in the
      desiccators again, at 37 degrees  C, and reweighed until a constant dry mass is
      obtained (m3). Water absorption (WS) and solubility (SL) was determined by using
      the formulas, WS = m3 - m2/V and SL= ml - m3/ V. RESULTS: GC Caviton showed least
      microleakage and least water absorption followed by IRM and Cavit G, the
      differences were statistically highly significant ( p < 0.001) and there was no
      statistical difference found in all the groups with respect to solubility.
      CONCLUSIONS: GC Caviton is best and suitable temporary restorative material in
      endodontic interappointments followed by IRM and Cavit G. HOW TO CITE THIS
      ARTICLE: Prabhakar AR, Rani NS, Naik SV. Comparative Evaluation of Sealing
      Ability, Water Absorption, and Solubility of Three Temporary Restorative
      Materials: An in vitro Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):136-141.

PMID- 28890613
TI  - Assessment of Vitamin B12 and Its Correlation with Dental Caries and Gingival
      Diseases in 10- to 14-year-old Children: A Cross-sectional Study.
AB  - AIM: To assess the level of vitamin B12 and correlate it with dental caries
      [decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth (DMFT) score] and gingival diseases
      [plaque index (PI) and gingival index (GI)]. DESIGN: Healthy children according
      to the inclusion criteria were selected by the computerized randomization method
      from a school to assess the vitamin B12 levels using Centaur/ Versace machine.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: Blood samples were collected to assess vitamin B12 levels
      using automated analyzer. Oral examination was done by a single calibrated
      dentist. A thorough oral examination was carried out and the DMFT, PI, and GI
      scores of all the children were recorded and assessed. Data were analyzed using
      Karl Pearson's correlation test. RESULTS: Vitamin B12 levels were deficient in
      64% of the children. In boys, vitamin B12 deficiency was found in about 76.2%,
      whereas, in girls it was 57.1%, which was not statistically significant. The
      vitamin B12 deficient children showed a significantly high DMFT scores than the
      children with normal vitamin B12 levels. The Pearson's correlation was -0.614 for
      DMFT, PI value -0.663, and GI value of -0.477. The negative correlation stated
      that there was a reverse relation between these indices and vitamin B12.
      CONCLUSION: In children with systemic vitamin B12 deficiency, there is increased
      dental caries prevalence and associated gingival problems. HOW TO CITE THIS
      ARTICLE: Hugar SM, Dhariwal NS, Majeed A, Badakar C, Gokhale N, Mistry L.
      Assessment of Vitamin B12 and Its Correlation with Dental Caries and Gingival
      Diseases in 10- to 14-year-old Children: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin
      Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):142-146.

PMID- 28890614
TI  - Comparison of Clinical and Radiographic Success Rates of Pulpotomy in Primary
      Molars using Ferric Sulfate and Bioactive Tricalcium Silicate Cement: An in vivo
      Study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Formocresol has been a popular pulpotomy medicament for many years.
      It is considered the "gold standard" in pediatric dentistry. However, concerns
      have been raised over its use in children. It has been reported that formocresol
      has toxic and mutagenic effects in cell culture, dental crypts, and precancerous
      epithelial cells. Therefore, additional biocompatible treatment alternatives are
      required to replace formocresol pulpotomy. AIMS: This study compared the clinical
      and radiographic success rates of ferric sulfate (FS) and bioactive tricalcium
      silicate cement (Biodentine, Septodont) as pulpotomy agents in primary molar
      teeth over a period of 9 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty primary molar
      teeth, symptom free, requiring pulpotomy in children aged 4 to 8 years were
      treated with conventional pulpotomy procedures. Ferric sulfate 15.5% solution
      (applied for 15 second for 25 teeth) and Biodentine (for 25 teeth) were used as
      pulpotomy agents. Permanent restorations were stainless steel crowns in most
      cases, in both groups. Patients were recalled for follow-up at 1, 3, 6, and 9
      months intervals. The data were statistically analysed using chi-square test.
      RESULTS: At 9 months, 96% clinical success rate was observed in the FS and 100%
      in the Biodentine group. Radiographic success rate in the FS group was 84%,
      whereas 92% in the Biodentine group at 9 months. No statistically significant
      difference was found between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Biodentine can be used
      as a pulpotomy agent but further long-term studies are required. HOW TO CITE THIS
      ARTICLE: Sirohi K, Marwaha M, Gupta A, Bansal K, Srivastava A. Comparison of
      Clinical and Radiographic Success Rates of Pulpotomy in Primary Molars using
      Ferric Sulfate and Bioactive Tricalcium Silicate Cement: An in vivo Study. Int J
      Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):147-151.

PMID- 28890615
TI  - Antibacterial Inhibitory Effects of Punica Granatum Gel on Cariogenic Bacteria:
      An in vitro Study.
AB  - AIM: This study evaluated the in vitro antibacterial effects of the formulated
      Punica granatum (PG) gel against Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis,
      and Lactobacillus casei. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The PG extract was dissolved in
      water at 500 mg/mL. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for
      identification and quantification of chemical marker punicalagin. Minimum
      bactericidal concentration (MBC) and time-kill assay (TKA) were investigated.
      Antibacterial activities of the formulated PG gel, 2% chlorhexidine (CHX) gel and
      blank gel were tested by measuring the zones of inhibition through agar well
      diffusion method. RESULTS: The HPLC results showed presence of punicalagin at
      2023.58 +/- 25.29 pg/mL in the aqueous PG extract and at 0.234% (w/w) in the
      formulated PG gel. The MBC for S. mutans, S. Sanguinis, and L. casei were 250,
      125, and 500 mg/mL respectively. The TKA of 500 mg/mL aqueous PG extract showed
      total inhibition of S. mutans, S. Sanguinis, and L. casei at 6, 1, and 24 hours
      contact time respectively. Agar well diffusion revealed that for S. mutans, CHX
      gel > PG gel > blank gel; for S. sanguinis, CHX gel = PG gel > blank gel; for L.
      casei, CHX gel > PG gel = blank gel. Comparison of the PG gel potency showed that
      S. sanguinis = S. mutans > L. casei. CONCLUSION: The PG gel equivalent to 0.234%
      punicalagin (w/w) inhibited S. mutans and S. sanguinis but not L. casei within 24
      hours incubation period and has the potential to be used for caries prevention.
      HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Millo G, Juntavee A, Ratanathongkam A, Nualkaew N,
      Peerapattana J, Chatchiwiwattana S. Antibacterial Inhibitory Effects of Punica
      Granatum Gel on Cariogenic Bacteria: An in vitro Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent
      2017;10(2):152-157.

PMID- 28890616
TI  - Clinical and Practical Implications of Storage Media used for Tooth Avulsion.
AB  - : Replantation is being widely accepted as an effective treatment option for an
      avulsed tooth. However, the long-term fate of replanted teeth is unpredictable;
      it is dependent on various factors, such as the time interval between avulsion
      and replantation, extra-alveolar storage period (dry storage or storage media),
      the vitality status of pulp or periodontal tissues and the type and period of
      splinting. The appropriate use of storage media is an important clinical factor
      affecting the postoperative prognosis of avulsed teeth following replantation.
      Hank's balanced salt solution and pasteurized milk are considered to be the most
      appropriate and clinically recommended storage media for avulsed teeth. The
      present review discusses the various available storage media for avulsed teeth
      and their potential maintenance of the vitality of periodontal ligament cells. A
      brief overview of the effect of clinical factors, such as the storage time, pH,
      and the osmolar-ity of storage media on their efficacy is included. HOW TO CITE
      THIS ARTICLE: Khinda VIS, Kaur G, Brar GS, Kallar S, Khurana H. Clinical and
      Practical Implications of Storage Media used for Tooth Avulsion. Int J Clin
      Pediatr Dent 2017; 10(2): 158-165.

PMID- 28890617
TI  - Prevalence of Oral Complications occurring in a Population of Pediatric Cancer
      Patients receiving Chemotherapy.
AB  - : Multiagent chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or a combination of both are the
      contemporary methods of cancer treatment. With medical advancements, though cure
      rates have increased considerably, focus is now shifted to the potential early
      and late complications of the same. The aim of this study was to assess the early
      oral complications in pediatric patients receiving chemotherapy. Sixty-two
      children with cancer undergoing chemotherapy with the mean age of 7.42 +/- 3.6
      years were included in the study. The various types of malignancies and oral
      problems during chemotherapy were recorded in the subjects. The most commonly
      encountered malignancy was acute lymphoblastic leukemia at 35.5%. Various oral
      and associated complications like mucosal inflammation with ulcerations, oral
      pain, xerostomia, and secondary infections were commonly seen, with mucositis
      being the most commonly observed complication in 58.1% of the subjects undergoing
      chemotherapy. Clinical importance of timely medical and dental interventions by a
      multidisciplinary team involving a pediatric dentist at different stages of
      anticancer treatment is also emphasized to minimize discomfort, increase
      treatment compliance, and improve the quality of life of pediatric patients. HOW
      TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Gandhi K, Datta G, Ahuja S, Saxena T, Datta AG. Prevalence
      of Oral Complications occurring in a Population of Pediatric Cancer Patients
      receiving Chemotherapy. Int Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):166-171.

PMID- 28890618
TI  - Prevalence of Dental Caries and Traumatic Dental Injuries among 6- to 12-year-old
      Children in Bhopal City, India.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Dental caries and trauma are the most common oral health problems
      for many decades. There is need for prevalence data to analyze the nature of the
      problems and to take necessary steps in improving public health. AIM AND
      OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of dental caries and traumatic dental
      injuries among schoolchildren of age 6 to 12 years in Bhopal city. SETTINGS AND
      DESIGN: Cross-sectional study design was selected. Universal sampling method was
      followed in this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1,204 children were
      examined. The distribution of samples was done based on age, gender, residing
      area, and type of school. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data were collected and
      statistically evaluated under chi-square test and analysis of variance. RESULTS:
      The overall caries experience (73.17%) was found to be higher than that of
      traumatic injury experience (20.9%). There was age-related correlation between
      age and decay, missing, and filled teeth score. CONCLUSION: Since most injuries
      occur at home or at school, educating the individual is the key that will have a
      great impact on the prognosis of traumatic injuries. Also good food habits need
      to be instilled in children from a tender age with the help of parents, which is
      the ultimate solution to fight caries. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Maran S,
      Shashikiran ND, Ahirwar P, Maran P, Kannojiya PR, Niranjan B. Prevalence of
      Dental Caries and Traumatic Dental Injuries among 6- to 12-year-old Children in
      Bhopal City, India. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017; 10(2): 172-176.

PMID- 28890619
TI  - Prevalence of Traumatic Dental Injuries to the Permanent Anterior Teeth among 9-
      to 14-year-old Schoolchildren of Navi Mumbai (Kharghar-Belapur Region), India.
AB  - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To measure the prevalence of anterior teeth trauma in 9- to
      14-year-old schoolchildren and their association with predisposing factors, such
      as lip competence, molar relationship, overjet, and variables, such as age,
      gender, and cause of trauma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Epidemiological cross
      sectional study was carried out among 3,012 schoolchildren aged 9 to 14 years in
      Navi Mumbai (Kharghar-Belapur region). The sample size was derived using the
      stratified random sampling method; we picked six schools from the region. These
      schools had 3,000 students in the acceptable age group of the study which
      constituted our final sample size. All children were examined for traumatic
      dental injuries, and the children with positive findings were further examined
      for lip competence, Angle's molar relationship, and overjet. The results were
      statistically analyzed using cross-tabulation and Chi-square test. RESULTS: The
      prevalence of dental injuries was 7.3%, and the ratio of male to female children
      was found to be 1.6:1. The maximum number of traumatic dental injuries was found
      with class I molar relationship and overjet less than 3.5 mm in children with
      competent lips. Maximum number of injuries occurred in the age group of 13-14
      years. The most predominant type of injury was the enamel fracture and the most
      common cause determined was due to fall. CONCLUSION: The present study is a
      collection of data on traumatic injuries to anterior teeth, which is seen very
      commonly in day-to-day practice. The frequency and cause of traumatic injuries to
      anterior teeth is important for identification of risk groups, treatment needs,
      and cost involved in order for establishing effective preventive measures. HOW TO
      CITE THIS ARTICLE: Hegde R, Agrawal G. Prevalence of Traumatic Dental Injuries to
      the Permanent Anterior Teeth among 9- to 14-year-old Schoolchildren of Navi
      Mumbai (Kharghar-Belapur Region), India. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):177
      182.

PMID- 28890620
TI  - Prevalence and associated Risk Factors of Severe Early Childhood Caries in 12- to
      36-month-old Children of Sirmaur District, Himachal Pradesh, India.
AB  - AIM: To assess the prevalence, distribution, and associated risk factors of
      severe early childhood caries (S-ECC) among 12- to 36-month-old children of
      district Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present
      study was conducted on a random sample of 510 children, both boys and girls,
      between 12 and 36 months of age randomly selected from various government
      sponsored day-care centers, private day-care centers, and vaccination centers.
      Caries was recorded using World Health Organization criteria. Statistical
      analysis was done by using chi-square test and Mann-Whitney test. A two-sided p
      value was calculated for each statistical test. Multiple logistic regressions
      were done to calculate the risk of S-ECC from independent variables. RESULTS: In
      the present study, S-ECC was found in 21% of 510, 12 to 36 months old children of
      Sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh. The S-ECC was found to be significantly
      higher in 25 to 36 months old children's age group and was 27.8% in them as
      compared with 8% in 12 to 24 months old children. CONCLUSION: Providing
      anticipatory guidance and education to parents is essential for the promotion of
      optimal oral health of their children. There is a need for moving upstream to
      propose and implement policies and programs to improve the oral health of the
      very young, especially in a developing country like India, which lacks much data
      on S-ECC. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Mangla RG, Kapur R, Dhindsa A, Madan M.
      Prevalence and associated Risk Factors of Severe Early Childhood Caries in 12- to
      36-month-old Children of Sirmaur District, Himachal Pradesh, India. Int J Clin
      Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):183-187.

PMID- 28890621
TI  - Soft Tissue Applications of Er,Cr:YSGG Laser in Pediatric Dentistry.
AB  - : Soft tissue laser, such as diode and Nd:YAG lasers were initially used in soft
      tissue lesions because of its increased success rate. It was because of the fact
      that these lasers were well-absorbed by chromophores, such as hemoglobin and
      melanin which are found abundant in the oral mucosa. The introduction of erbium
      family in 1990 comprising the Er:YAG and Er,Cr:YSGG lasers made the hard tissue
      laser a boon for dentistry. Erbium, chromium-doped yttrium, scandium, gallium and
      garnet (Er,Cr:YSGG) was introduced in 1997 for the surgical needs of clinical
      dentistry in general practice. The erbium belongs to the rare earth which is
      embedded in a host crystal. The actual lasing process takes place in the Er ion
      Er3+. Two host crystals consisting of yttrium, aluminum, and garnet (Y3A5O12) and
      yttrium, scandium, gallium, and garnet (Y3Sc2Ga3O12) are added to the erbium. The
      interest to use these hard tissue laser in the treatment of soft tissue lesion
      was because of the properties of these lasers which are well-absorbed by
      chromophore water apart from hydroxy appetite crystals. Erbium laser energy is
      absorbed by collagen, hydroxyapatite, and water components. It allows the laser
      to cut soft tissue, tooth structure, and bone. In the noncontact mode, the
      incision is scalpel-like, with very little hemostasis. In contact mode, it
      performs soft tissue sculpting with adequate hemostasis. The Er,Cr:YSGG is the
      world's most advanced dental laser, which is ideal all-tissue laser because all
      dental tissues contain water, for the multidisciplinary dentist who performs a
      broad spectrum of procedures. It delivers the highest level of clinician control,
      operating efficiency, flexibility in tip, and accessory selection. For optimal
      clinical results and patient comfort in hard and soft tissue procedures, the
      erbium lasers have set a new standard of clinical performance. The present case
      series aims to highlight the various soft tissue applications of Er,Cr:YSGG
      (Waterlase Biolase(r), Biolase, Inc, San Clemente, California, USA) in pediatric
      patients. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Kumar G, Rehman F, Chaturvedy V. Soft Tissue
      Applications of Er,Cr:YSGG Laser in Pediatric Dentistry. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent
      2017;10(2):188-192.

PMID- 28890622
TI  - Rare Condition of Dens Invaginatus in a Maxillary Primary Molar and a Birooted
      Maxillary Primary Canine diagnosed during Routine Examination.
AB  - : Congenital morphological dental alterations are related to the physiological
      phase of tooth development. Since the etiology of the dens invaginatus and
      supernumerary roots has yet to be fully determined, a rare presentation of dens
      invaginatus in a primary molar and a birooted deciduous maxillary canine were
      incidentally detected in routine radiographic examinations. Essential clinical
      considerations and treatment options are presented. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This
      study highlights the importance of a deep and comprehensive anamnesis and
      clinical examination, with radiographs taken when necessary. The negligence of
      these stages in an initial consultation could cause irreversible future damage to
      the patient, since rare dental anomalies or other lesions that require treatment
      may not be detected. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Brandao ECB, Ribeiro AAA, Seabra
      LMA. Rare Condition of Dens Invaginatus in a Maxillary Primary Molar and a
      Birooted Maxillary Primary Canine diagnosed during Routine Examination. Int J
      Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2): 193-195.

PMID- 28890623
TI  - Childhood Occurrence of Pemphigus.
AB  - : Pemphigus is a chronic mucocutaneous disease that initially manifests in the
      form of intraoral blisters which spread to other mucous membrane and skin. This
      study describes an unusual case of chronic generalized childhood pemphigus
      disease in an 11-year-old girl, who presented with multiple vesicles all over her
      body. Such a condition is seen more often in older people rather than children.
      It is crucial for dental professionals to be familiar with the diagnosis of
      bullous skin diseases in children and adolescents, especially in its initial
      stages in order to prevent the serious consequences and morbidity. The article
      highlights clinical presentation, histopathology, and successful management
      strategies useful for pediatric dental practice. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Patil
      RU, Anegundi RT, Gujjar KR, Indushekar KR. Childhood Occurrence of Pemphigus. Int
      J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):196-200.

PMID- 28890624
TI  - Closing a Large Maxillary Median Diastema using Bapat Power Arm.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study is to present a case of large maxillary median
      diastema closed by bodily movement of central incisors using Bapat power arm
      (BPA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: After extraction of mesiodens, a power chain with a
      force of 120 gm was applied to BPA ligated to preadjusted edgewise brackets
      bonded to maxillary central incisors to move them over round steel wire for
      closure of resultant diastema. Bonded retainer was placed after the closure of
      median diastema. RESULTS: The median diastema was completely closed in 5 months
      period with almost bodily movement of incisors, which was confirmed by periapical
      X-ray. CONCLUSION: Bapat power arm was efficient in closing diastema without any
      discomfort or injury and was well accepted by the patient. HOW TO CITE THIS
      ARTICLE: Bapat SM, Singh C, Bandejiya P. Closing a Large Maxillary Median
      Diastema using Bapat Power Arm. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):201-204.

PMID- 28890625
TI  - A Misdiagnosed Odontogenic Tumor: A Clinical Dilemma.
AB  - : Odontogenic myxomas are rarely occurring, slow-growing, asymptomatic, and
      locally aggressive odontogenic tumors with high rate of recurrence, mainly of
      ectomesenchymal origin. Three-dimensional imaging techniques can be used to
      diagnose such pathological lesions, but have limited use as they are not cost
      effective and are selectively available for better outcome. Following is a case
      report of OM of a 5-year-old child with a brief discussion on its diagnosis and
      management. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Mukherjee CG, Mukherjee U, Bansal A, Jha A.
      A Misdiagnosed Odontogenic Tumor: A Clinical Dilemma. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent
      2017;10(2):205-207.

PMID- 28890626
TI  - A Rare Concomitant Occurrence of Talon Cusp in Fused Mandibular Permanent Teeth:
      Report of Two Cases.
AB  - : Fusions of teeth and talon cusp are two rare developmental dental anomalies,
      affecting both primary and permanent dentitions. Both the anomalies are mostly
      reported as isolated finding and are rarely associated with other dental
      anomalies. Talon cusp is more common in maxillary anterior teeth in permanent
      dentition and fusion is commonly reported in mandibular teeth in primary
      dentition. The concomitant occurrence of talon cusp and fusion is rare and its
      occurrence in fused mandibular permanent teeth is also rare. This case report
      presents two unusual cases of concomitant occurrence of talon cusp with fusion in
      permanent mandibular incisors. The clinical problems associated with these dental
      anomalies and importance of their management are discussed in these case reports.
      HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Goswami M, Jangra B. A Rare Concomitant Occurrence of
      Talon Cusp in Fused Mandibular Permanent Teeth: Report of Two Cases. Int J Clin
      Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):208-212.

PMID- 28890627
TI  - Role of Cone Beam Computed Tomography in Evaluation of Radicular Cyst mimicking
      Dentigerous Cyst in a 7-year-old Child: A Case Report and Literature Review.
AB  - AIM: To report a rare case of large radicular cyst-associated deciduous tooth and
      to discuss the importance of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in diagnosing
      the condition. BACKGROUND: Radicular cyst is the most common cyst affecting the
      permanent teeth, but its occurrence in deciduous teeth is rare. Most of the
      radicular cysts are asymptomatic and are discovered accidentally when radiographs
      are taken. Conventional radiographs show two-dimensional images of three
      dimensional objects. Cone beam computed tomography provides undistorted three
      dimensional information of hard tissues and gives adequate spatial resolution.
      CASE REPORT: A 7-year-old child, with a complaint of swelling in the maxillary
      anterior region, was diagnosed with radicular cyst in relation to primary
      maxillary right central incisor based on CBCT and histopathological features.
      CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Early diagnosis and prompt treatment of
      radicular cyst in primary dentition is important to prevent damage to permanent
      tooth. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Mahesh BS, Shastry SP, Murthy PS, Jyotsna TR.
      Role of Cone Beam Computed Tomography in Evaluation of Radicular Cyst mimicking
      Dentigerous Cyst in a 7-year-old Child: A Case Report and Literature Review. Int
      J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):213-216.

PMID- 28890629
TI  - Strengthening the Link between Economic Development, Environment and Public
      Health.

PMID- 28890628
TI  - Multiple Bilateral Unerupted Supplemental Premolars: An Unusual Presentation in a
      Nonsyndromic Patient.
AB  - : Supernumerary teeth are one of the routinely encountered developmental
      disturbances representing one or more extra teeth in the jaws. These may resemble
      the teeth of the group to which it belongs, i.e., molars, premolars, or incisors,
      or it may bear little or no resemblance. Based on the morphologic appearance, it
      is classified as supplemental teeth or rudimentary teeth. The supplemental teeth
      are those that resemble the teeth to which it is associated and rudimentary teeth
      are those that do not resemble the teeth. Supplemental teeth, most of the times,
      are associated with syndromes and they can also be present in the absence of
      systemic pathology. Literature reveals predilection of the presence of
      supplemental premolars of 2:1 in males. This is the case report of a 14-year-old
      male who presented with multiple unerupted bilateral supplemental premolars on
      both the arches. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Satish V, Panda S, Maganur P, Ahmed A.
      Multiple Bilateral Unerupted Supplemental Premo-lars: An Unusual Presentation in
      a Nonsyndromic Patient. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(2):217-222.

PMID- 28890630
TI  - Review of Policy, Regulatory, and Organizational Frameworks of Environment and
      Health in Ethiopia.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ethiopia produced its Environmental Health Situational Analysis and
      Needs Assessment (SANA) report in 2010 as part of the global endeavor to
      characterize and underscore the importance of connecting health and environment.
      The assessment methods used in SANA 2010 were updated, replicated and used in
      this SABNA. with a focus on air pollution, occupational safety and health, and
      climate change. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the review was to examine national
      policies and identify gaps in regulations and organizational arrangements that
      determine Ethiopia's ability to mitigate and eventually prevent the health
      impacts of air pollution, occupational hazards, and climate change. METHODS: The
      national policy and regulatory documents were reviewed. Literature was identified
      through electronic searches. Hard copies of past reports and policies were
      reviewed whenever necessary. A semi-structured guideline was used to conduct in
      depth interviews aimed at identifying gaps and needs. RESULTS: The Constitution
      of Ethiopia has policy provisions related to air pollution, occupational safety
      and health (OSH), and climate change and health. Proclamation No. 300/2002 on
      Environmental Pollution Control specifies ambient air quality standards and
      allowable emissions. However, there were no documents that outlined the national
      or regional strategies that the ministries and agencies could adopt to translate
      existing policies, legal provisions, or guidelines for air pollution into
      practical programs. In the same way, a national OSH policy was lacking at the
      time this review was made on how occupational safety and health should be handled
      nationally or at lower governing levels as required by the International
      Occupation Safety and Health and Working Environment Convention No. 155/1981.
      Ethiopia is a signatory of this Convention. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The
      results of the situational analysis indicate that there are cross-cutting gaps in
      the various sectors. Among these, addressing the critical shortage of skilled
      personnel is an urgent priority. Most stakeholders face acute shortages of
      professionals and poor retention mechanisms. It is therefore important to design
      interventions that focus on capacity building in, for example, aligning curricula
      with specific needs of ministries, andequip professionals with the necessary
      technical skills.In addition, the results indicate that policies and regulations
      exist in theory, but in practice, there are inadequate implementation strategies
      to encourage adherence and enforcement of the regulations and policies.

PMID- 28890632
TI  - On some binomial [Formula: see text]-difference sequence spaces.
AB  - In this paper, we introduce the binomial sequence spaces [Formula: see text],
      [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] by combining the binomial
      transformation and difference operator. We prove the BK-property and some
      inclusion relations. Furthermore, we obtain Schauder bases and compute the alpha
      , beta- and gamma-duals of these sequence spaces. Finally, we characterize matrix
      transformations on the sequence space [Formula: see text].

PMID- 28890631
TI  - Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution- related Health Problem in Ethiopia: Review of
      Related Literature.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The health effects of air pollution are generally global problems,
      but they have, since recently become issues of particular concern for developing
      countries. This review assessed the situation of air pollution and related health
      effects in the context of Ethiopia. METHODS: The materials reviewed in this
      publication are published scientific papers from online search engines,
      unpublished government reports and academic theses/dissertations. In addition,
      interview data obtained from authorities and experts involved in the management
      of air quality were analyzed, interpreted and reported in the article. RESULTS:
      Review of the few studies conducted in Ethiopia showed that average
      concentrations of PM2.5 reached as high as 280 ug/m3 for 24-hour measurements
      (range: 2,417-12,739 ug/m3). Indoor carbon monoxide (CO) levels were universally
      higher than regulatory limits for the United States and were found to be much
      higher among households using traditional stoves and solid biomass fuels. The use
      of traditional stoves and solid biomass fuels was reported in >95% of the
      households considered. High average levels of NO2 (97 ppb) were reported in a
      large longitudinal study. The ambient PM10 level was below the WHO guideline
      values in the majority of the samples. About 50% of the on-road CO samples taken
      from traffic roads in Addis Ababa were found to be less than the guideline values
      while the number of motor vehicles in Ethiopia is reported to be increasing by
      more than 9% per annum. There is a very limited air quality monitoring capacity
      in the country. The co-ordination between stakeholders in this regard is also
      inadequate. The limited evidence available on health effects of air pollution
      indicates that the prevalence of acute respiratory illness among children living
      in households using crude biomass fuels is significantly higher than the national
      average figures. CONCLUSION: The limited evidence reviewed and reported in this
      article indicates high levels of indoor air pollution and trends of worsening
      outdoor air pollution. This tentative conclusion carries with it the urgent need
      for more evidence-based research and capacity building in the areas of indoor and
      outdoor air pollution.

PMID- 28890633
TI  - The approximation of bivariate Chlodowsky-Szasz-Kantorovich-Charlier-type
      operators.
AB  - In this paper, we introduce a bivariate Kantorovich variant of combination of
      Szasz and Chlodowsky operators based on Charlier polynomials. Then, we study
      local approximation properties for these operators. Also, we estimate the
      approximation order in terms of Peetre's K-functional and partial moduli of
      continuity. Furthermore, we introduce the associated GBS-case (Generalized
      Boolean Sum) of these operators and study the degree of approximation by means of
      the Lipschitz class of Bogel continuous functions. Finally, we present some
      graphical examples to illustrate the rate of convergence of the operators under
      consideration.

PMID- 28890634
TI  - The Role of Domain-General Cognitive Abilities and Decimal Labels in At-Risk
      Fourth-Grade Students' Decimal Magnitude Understanding.
AB  - The purpose of the study was to determine whether individual differences in at
      risk 4th graders' language comprehension, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation,
      working memory, and use of decimal labels (i.e., place value, point, incorrect
      place value, incorrect fraction, or whole number) are related to their decimal
      magnitude understanding. Students (n = 127) completed 6 cognitive assessments, a
      decimal labeling assessment, and 3 measures of decimal magnitude understanding
      (i.e., comparing decimals to the fraction [Formula: see text] benchmark task,
      estimating where decimals belong on a 0-1 number line, and identifying fraction
      and decimal equivalencies). Each of the domain-general cognitive abilities
      predicted students' decimal magnitude understanding. Using place value labels was
      positively correlated with students' decimal magnitude understanding, whereas
      using whole-number labels was negatively correlated with students' decimal
      magnitude understanding. Language comprehension, nonverbal reasoning, and concept
      formation were positively correlated with students' use of place value labels. By
      contrast, language comprehension and nonverbal reasoning were negatively
      correlated with students' use of whole number labels. Implications for the
      development of decimal magnitude understanding and design of effective
      instruction for at-risk students are discussed.

PMID- 28890635
TI  - It is More than Thought that Counts: the Role of Readiness for Aggression in the
      Relationship Between Ostracism and Displaced Aggression.
AB  - Research has shown that ostracism results in aggressive behavior towards the
      ostracising other, but also causes displaced aggression-aggression directed
      towards an innocent person. Our study investigated whether displaced aggressive
      responses to ostracism were increased by three types of aggression proneness
      (readiness for aggression) based on different mechanisms: emotional-impulsive,
      habitual-cognitive or personality-immanent. Participants (n = 118) played a
      Cyberball game in which they were either excluded or included, next prepared a
      hot sauce sample for another person as an indicator of aggression and completed
      the Readiness for Interpersonal Aggression Inventory. Results showed that
      ostracism evoked more aggression in participants with high rather than with low
      emotional-impulsive readiness for aggression. Only this type of readiness
      moderated the ostracism-aggression relationship indicating that mostly affective
      mechanisms induce displaced aggressive responses to exclusion.

PMID- 28890636
TI  - Contributions of Cognitive-Motivational Factors to the Sense of Identity.
AB  - This study addressed the relationship between sense of personal identity and
      thinking dispositions such as need for cognition, reflection, and integrative
      self-knowledge as well as modes of coping with self-related discrepancies through
      either excessive assimilation or accommodation. Participants were 544 young
      adults. The correlation and path analyses revealed, as expected, that need for
      cognition and integrative self-knowledge positively influenced one's sense of
      identity, while over-responsiveness to discrepant information about the self
      influenced it negatively. The effects of reflection and imperviousness to
      discrepancies appeared more complicated and varied. Together, the findings
      confirm the importance of cognitive-motivational variables in the development and
      maintenance of a sense of identity, and suggest that gender differences in their
      relative significance may deserve additional research attention.

PMID- 28890637
TI  - Is Religiosity in a Prospective Partner Always Desirable? The Moderating Roles of
      Shared Social Identity and Medium of Communication when Choosing Interaction
      Partners.
AB  - The profession of religion gives rise to myriad inferences and connotations, yet
      surprisingly little research has examined how it may influence with whom we
      choose to work. Two experiments conducted at a UK university investigated how
      religiosity by prospective collaborators affected attitudes and behaviour towards
      them. Participants in experiment 1 (N = 96) and experiment 2 (N = 120)
      demonstrated that individuals have a greater preference for, and are more likely
      to choose, a partner who shares their religious tendencies, but only when they
      anticipate working face-to-face. When electronic communication was anticipated,
      this bias disappeared. The implications for these findings are then discussed,
      particularly with regard to how they may impact on real-life issues such as
      online recruitment.

PMID- 28890639
TI  - Hospitals Press FCC to Expand Health Care on the Airwaves.
AB  - Hospitals press FCC to expand health care on the airwaves.

PMID- 28890638
TI  - "Wrong Patient" Insulin Pen Injections Alarmingly Frequent Even With Barcode
      Scanning.
AB  - "Wrong patient" insulin pen injections alarmingly frequent.

PMID- 28890640
TI  - Drug and Device News.
AB  - Approvals, new indications, regulatory activities, and more.

PMID- 28890641
TI  - Pharmaceutical Approval Update.
AB  - Sarilumab (Kevzara) for moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis;
      valbenazine (Ingrezza), the first approval for tardive dyskinesia; and
      cerliponase alpha (Brineura) for late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis
      type-2 disease.

PMID- 28890642
TI  - Reslizumab (Cinqair): An Interleukin-5 Antagonist for Severe Asthma of the
      Eosinophilic Phenotype.
AB  - Reslizumab (Cinqair), an interleukin-5 antagonist for severe eosinophilic asthma.

PMID- 28890643
TI  - U.S. and States Ramp Up Response to Opioid Crisis: Regulatory, Legislative, and
      Legal Tools Brought to Bear.
AB  - Politicians in both parties and at all levels of government have raised what many
      call the opioid crisis to a level of public attention it has never seen before.
      This article reviews the approaches, including prevention, treatment, and
      medication-assisted therapy, being taken by federal and state authorities to
      combat the abuse of opioids.

PMID- 28890644
TI  - EHRs: The Challenge of Making Electronic Data Usable and Interoperable.
AB  - Despite massive effort and investment in health information systems and
      technology, the promised benefits of electronic health records (EHRs) are far
      from fruition. The author presents the legislative programs that encourage the
      implementation of EHRs and explores the barriers hampering interoperability.

PMID- 28890645
TI  - Focusing on Basics, Including Drug-Use Policy, Remains Important for Today's P&T
      Committee.
AB  - Over the past few years, P&T committees have been evolving to deal with care at
      expanding sites within an organization, across a larger system, or involving
      multiple organizations. The authors consider one aspect of this expansion
      medication system failures-that requires the attention of P&T policy.

PMID- 28890646
TI  - Alternative Pharmacological Management of Vasopressor Extravasation in the
      Absence of Phentolamine.
AB  - Vasopressor extravasation is a rare adverse drug reaction that can lead to tissue
      damage, ischemia, and necrosis of the affected area when vasopressors are
      administered peripherally. Phentolamine, a nonselective, reversible alpha
      antagonist, is the current standard treatment for this adverse reaction, but it
      is often unavailable for use. This review seeks to synthesize the available data
      in order to recommend alternative pharmacological options for use when
      phentolamine is not available. After an extensive literature search, 16
      publications were reviewed. A treatment algorithm was created that recommends a
      combination of subcutaneous terbutaline, a selective beta2 agonist, and topical
      nitroglycerin, an organic nitrate, for adults; and topical nitroglycerin
      monotherapy for children younger than 2 years of age. However, further research
      and case reports are required in order to establish a new standard of care for
      the treatment of vasopressor extravasation.

PMID- 28890648
TI  - Research Briefs.

PMID- 28890647
TI  - ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.
AB  - This year's annual ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer paid particular
      attention to the influence of primary tumor sidedness in colorectal cancer as it
      affects prognosis and treatment outcomes to meet the growing interest in this
      theory.

PMID- 28890649
TI  - Recent Alcohol, Tobacco, and Substance Use Variations between Rural and Urban
      Middle and High School Students.
AB  - The use of addictive substances by adolescents is a major public health concern;
      however, rural vs. urban variations are poorly understood. The purpose of the
      current study was to examine rural-urban differences in the prevalence of recent
      use of 11 substances in grades 6-12 in a statewide sample of students from the
      Georgia Student Health Survey II (n = 513,909). We found that rural-urban
      differences in substance use depend largely upon grade level, with rural middle
      school students demonstrating higher rates of alcohol, smoking tobacco, and
      chewing tobacco use, and urban high school students demonstrating higher rates of
      illicit drugs.

PMID- 28890651
TI  - Re: JSLS. 2017;21(1):e2016.00098. DOI: 10.4293/JSLS.2016.00098. Minimally
      Invasive Hysterectomy for Uteri Greater Than One Kilogram.

PMID- 28890650
TI  - Economic Impact of Laparoscopic Conversion to Open in Left Colon Resections.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Studies have shown economic and clinical advantages of
      laparoscopic left-colon resections. Laparoscopic conversion to open is an
      important surgical outcome. We estimated conversion incidence, identified risk
      factors, and measured the clinical and economic impact. METHODS: In this
      retrospective study, we used the Premier Perspective database to analyze left
      sided colectomies from 2009 to 2014. Operating room time (ORT), length of stay
      (LOS), total hospital cost (2014 U.S. dollars); along with incidence of in
      hospital clinical outcomes (anastomotic leak surrogate [Leak], transfusion, and
      mortality) were evaluated. Multivariable models accounting for hospital
      clustering were used to identify conversion risk factors and analyze the effect
      of conversion on economic and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 41,417
      patients: 8,468 left hemicolectomy and 32,949 sigmoidectomy were identified. Lap
      Conversion incidence was 13.3% (95% CI, 12.9-13.7). Adjusted mean LOS (+/-SE)
      days was significantly lower for the Lap-Successful group (4.9 compared with Lap
      Conversion 6.8 and Open-Planned 7.0), but Lap-Conversion and Open-Planned had
      similar LOS. Adjusted mean cost was higher for Lap-Conversion $20,165 compared to
      Open-Planned $18,797; but this difference was smaller than the cost savings for
      Lap-Successful $16,206 +/- $219. Open-Planned had lower odds of Leak compared to
      Lap-Conversion. Open-Planned and Lap-Conversion had similar odds of transfusion
      and mortality. Conversion risk factors included inflammatory bowel disease and
      left-hemicolectomy. Colorectal specialists were associated with 38% decreased
      odds of conversion. CONCLUSIONS: Successful laparoscopic surgery was the most
      cost effective, with decreased LOS and odds of blood transfusion, leak surrogate,
      and mortality. Conversion was the most expensive and had increased odds of leak
      surrogate, but similar LOS compared to Open-Planned. The beneficial effect size
      of successful laparoscopic surgery was larger than the negative effect of
      conversion compared to Open-Planned.

PMID- 28890652
TI  - Personality and Employment Transitions at Older Ages: Direct and Indirect Effects
      through Non-Monetary Job Characteristics.
AB  - We study whether individuals with different personality traits systematically
      exhibit different retirement trajectories. We find weak direct associations
      between personality and employment transitions. On the other hand, personality
      does contribute indirectly to these transitions by moderating the effects of non
      monetary job characteristics. Specifically, workers with different traits are
      observed to follow different retirement paths when faced with similar physical
      demands, computer skills requirements, job flexibility and age discrimination in
      the workplace. Contrary to other economic domains, conscientiousness does not
      have the strongest association with retirement; the other components of the Big
      Five personality traits show more salient patterns.

PMID- 28890653
TI  - Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of the Cherskii's Sculpin Cottus czerskii and
      Siberian Taimen Hucho taimen Reveal GenBank Entry Errors: Incorrect Species
      Identification and Recombinant Mitochondrial Genome.
AB  - The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome is sequenced in 2 individuals of the
      Cherskii's sculpin Cottus czerskii. A surprisingly high level of sequence
      divergence (10.3%) has been detected between the 2 genomes of C czerskii studied
      here and the GenBank mt genome of C czerskii (KJ956027). At the same time, a
      surprisingly low level of divergence (1.4%) has been detected between the GenBank
      C czerskii (KJ956027) and the Amur sculpin Cottus szanaga (KX762049, KX762050).
      We argue that the observed discrepancies are due to incorrect taxonomic
      identification so that the GenBank accession number KJ956027 represents actually
      the mt genome of C szanaga erroneously identified as C czerskii. Our results are
      of consequence concerning the GenBank database quality, highlighting the
      potential negative consequences of entry errors, which once they are introduced
      tend to be propagated among databases and subsequent publications. We illustrate
      the premise with the data on recombinant mt genome of the Siberian taimen Hucho
      taimen (NCBI Reference Sequence Database NC_016426.1; GenBank accession number
      HQ897271.1), bearing 2 introgressed fragments (~0.9 kb [kilobase]) from 2 lenok
      subspecies, Brachymystax lenok and Brachymystax lenok tsinlingensis, submitted to
      GenBank on June 12, 2011. Since the time of submission, the H taimen recombinant
      mt genome leading to incorrect phylogenetic inferences was propagated in multiple
      subsequent publications despite the fact that nonrecombinant H taimen genomes
      were also available (submitted to GenBank on August 2, 2014; KJ711549, KJ711550).
      Other examples of recombinant sequences persisting in GenBank are also
      considered. A GenBank Entry Error Depositary is urgently needed to monitor and
      avoid a progressive accumulation of wrong biological information.

PMID- 28890654
TI  - Chondroitin Sulfate Inhibits Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 Release From 3T3
      L1 Adipocytes: A New Treatment Opportunity for Obesity-Related Inflammation?
AB  - Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) overproduction from inflamed adipose
      tissue is a major contributor to obesity-related metabolic syndromes. 3T3-L1
      embryonic fibroblasts were cultured and differentiated into adipocytes using an
      established protocol. Adipocytes were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to
      induce inflammation and thus MCP-1 release. At the same time, varying
      concentrations of chondroitin sulfate (CS) were added in a physiologically
      relevant range (10-200 ug/mL) to determine its impact on MCP-1 release.
      Chondroitin sulfate, a natural glycosaminoglycan of connective tissue including
      the cartilage extracellular matrix, was chosen on the basis of our previous
      studies demonstrating its anti-inflammatory effect on macrophages. Because the
      main action of MCP-1 is to induce monocyte migration, cultured THP-1 monocytes
      were used to test whether CS at the highest physiologically relevant
      concentration could inhibit cell migration induced by human recombinant MCP-1.
      Chondroitin sulfate (100-200 ug/mL) inhibited MCP-1 release from inflamed
      adipocytes in a dose-dependent manner (P < .01, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 
      5.89 to -3.858 at 100 ug/mL and P < .001, 95% CI: -6.028 to -3.996 at 200 ug/mL)
      but had no effect on MCP-1-driven chemotaxis of THP-1 monocytes. In summary, CS
      could be expected to reduce macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue by
      reduction in adipocyte expression and release of MCP-1 and as such might reduce
      adipose tissue inflammation in response to pro-inflammatory stimuli such as LPS,
      now increasingly recognized to be relevant in vivo.

PMID- 28890655
TI  - Comparison of 3 Derivatization Methods for the Analysis of Amphetamine-Related
      Drugs in Oral Fluid by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - The heptafluorobutyric anhydride (HFBA), pentafluoropropionic anhydride (PFPA),
      and trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA) are compared as derivatizing reagents to use
      as the optimal method for the analysis of 10 amphetamines and cathinones in oral
      fluid. The target compounds were amphetamine (AMP), methamphetamine (MA), 4
      methylamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4
      methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine
      (MDEA), cathinone (CAT), methcathinone, mephedrone, and ephedrine. Amphetamine
      D5, MA-D5, MDA-D5, MDMA-D5, and MDEA-D5 use as internal standards (IS). The
      analytes and IS were extracted from 0.5 mL of oral fluid by ethyl acetate in the
      presence of NaOH (0.1 N) as the base and then the dried extracts were derivatized
      with HFBA, PFPA, or TFAA at 70 degrees C for 30 minutes. The limits of
      quantification based on signal-to-noise ratios >=10 were ranged between 2.5 and
      10 ng/mL. The calibration graphs were linear in the range of 5 or 10 to 1000
      ng/mL for all analytes. Based on sensitivity, the PFPA is proved to be the best
      for derivatization of the target compounds prior to gas chromatography-mass
      spectrometry analysis.

PMID- 28890656
TI  - Effects of Teaching Health Care Workers on Diagnosis and Treatment of Pesticide
      Poisonings in Uganda.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acute pesticide poisoning in developing countries is a considerable
      problem, requiring diagnosis and treatment. This study describes how training of
      health care workers in Uganda affects their ability to diagnose and manage acute
      pesticide poisoning. METHOD: A postintervention cross-sectional study was
      conducted using a standardized questionnaire. A total of 326 health care workers
      in Uganda were interviewed on knowledge and handling of acute pesticide
      poisoning. Of those, 173 health care workers had received training, whereas 153
      untrained health care workers from neighboring regions served as controls.
      RESULTS: Trained health care workers scored higher on knowledge of pesticide
      toxicity and handling of acute pesticide poisoning. Stratification by sex,
      profession, experience, and health center level did not have any influence on the
      outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Training health care workers can improve their knowledge
      and treatment of pesticide poisonings. Knowledge of the subject is still
      insufficient among health care workers and further training is needed.

PMID- 28890657
TI  - Natural Field Infestation of Mangifera casturi and Mangifera lalijiwa by Oriental
      Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae).
AB  - Mango, Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae), is a crop cultivated pantropically.
      There are, however, many other Mangifera spp ("mango relatives") which have much
      more restricted distributions and are poorly known but have potential to produce
      mango-like fruits in areas where mangoes do not grow well or could be tapped in
      mango breeding programs. Because of the restricted distribution of many of the
      Mangifera spp, there has also been limited data collected on susceptibility of
      their fruits to infestation by tephritid fruit flies which is important to know
      for concerns both for quality of production and for quarantine security of fruit
      exports. Here, we report on natural field infestation by the oriental fruit fly,
      Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae), of two mango relatives native to
      Indonesia: Mangifera casturi and Mangifera lalijiwa. Rates of infestation of
      fruits of these two Mangifera spp by tephritid fruit flies have not previously
      been reported.

PMID- 28890658
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Axial Skeleton in Patients With
      Spondyloarthritis: Distribution Pattern of Inflammatory and Structural Lesions.
AB  - PURPOSE: Spondyloarthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the
      musculoskeletal system driven by systemic enthesitis and typically involving the
      axial skeleton, ie, the spine and the sacroiliac joints. The purpose of this
      study was to assess the distribution pattern of inflammatory and structural
      magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in spondyloarthritis. METHODS:
      Retrospective study of 193 patients with axial spondyloarthritis who received MRI
      of the spine and the sacroiliac joints. We quantitatively assessed inflammatory
      and structural lesions using established MRI-based scoring methods. The
      significance of the differences between gender, HLA-B27 status, and spine and
      sacroiliac involvement was determined. RESULTS: In total, 174 patients (90.2%)
      showed a sacroiliac involvement and 120 patients (62.2%) a combined involvement
      of the sacroiliac joints and the spine. An isolated sacroiliac involvement was
      found in 54 patients (28.0%) and an isolated spine involvement in 19 patients
      (9.8%). The sacroiliac joint was significantly more involved in men than in women
      (P < .01), and men had significantly higher scores for structural lesions (P <
      .001). The subgroup of HLA-B27-positive patients showed a significantly higher
      percentage of sacroiliac involvement compared with HLA-B27-negative patients (P <
      .05). CONCLUSIONS: Spondyloarthritis is a systemic disorder predominantly
      involving the sacroiliac joints. However, the entire axial skeleton may be
      affected. In particular, HLA-B27-negative women show atypical manifestations
      without sacroiliac involvement. Magnetic resonance imaging in spondyloarthritis
      should cover the entire axial skeleton, ie, sacroiliac joints and the spine to
      meet the pathophysiology of this disorder and capture the true extent of
      inflammatory and structural lesions.

PMID- 28890659
TI  - Loeffler Endocarditis: A Unique Presentation of Right-Sided Heart Failure Due to
      Eosinophil-Induced Endomyocardial Fibrosis.
AB  - Loeffler endocarditis is a rare restrictive cardiomyopathy caused by abnormal
      endomyocardial infiltration of eosinophils, with subsequent tissue damage from
      degranulation, eventually leading to fibrosis. Although an uncommon entity, it is
      still a disease with significant morbidity and mortality. Often identified only
      at late stages, treatment options are limited once fibrosis occurs, usually
      requiring heart failure medications or surgical intervention. We present a unique
      case of a woman with remote history of hypereosinophilic syndrome, attributed to
      treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with infliximab, who presented with symptoms of
      heart failure refractory to medical management and was found to have Loeffler
      endocarditis. The severe progression of the disease required surgical
      intervention with endocardial stripping to treat the right-sided diastolic heart
      failure.

PMID- 28890660
TI  - Flow Cytometric Immune Profiling in Infliximab-Associated Tuberculosis.
AB  - Tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonists are increasingly used to treat
      inflammatory and autoimmune disorders and are associated with increased risk of
      active tuberculosis. Diagnosis of active tuberculosis in patients taking tumor
      necrosis factor alpha antagonists can be challenging owing to increased incidence
      of extrapulmonary manifestations and false-negative results on current available
      diagnostic tests. We present a case of a young woman on infliximab for ulcerative
      colitis who presented with disseminated tuberculosis. As part of a research
      study, we performed flow cytometric immune profiling, which has previously not
      been reported in patients with active tuberculosis taking tumor necrosis alpha
      antagonists. The flow cytometry results were within the positive thresholds for
      tuberculosis infection. Flow cytometric immune profiling may be a valid
      diagnostic tool for patients taking tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonists.

PMID- 28890661
TI  - Association of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Gene Polymorphisms and Nephropathy
      in Diabetic Patients at a Tertiary Care Centre in South India.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphisms of the angiotensin-renin pathway have been
      thought to influence the development of diabetic nephropathy. However, there are
      conflicting results regarding this association in previous studies on populations
      with varying ethnicity. AIMS: Primary aim was to compare the frequency of
      distribution of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene (insertion/deletion
      [I/D]) polymorphism in Tamilian Indian type 2 diabetic individuals with and
      without microalbuminuria. Secondary objective was to compare the frequency of
      distribution of the 3 genotypes in diabetic patients with urinary
      albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) < 30 mg/dL, urinary ACR = 30 to 300 mg/dL, and
      urinary ACR > 300 mg/dL. METHODS: A total of 179 consecutive diabetic individuals
      between 40 and 70 years, from Puducherry and Tamilnadu of Dravidian descent
      participated in the study conducted from 2012 to 2014. Inclusion criteria were as
      follows: age >= 40 years and duration of type 2 diabetes mellitus for >=5 years.
      Patients were divided into 2 groups based on ACR values. Group 1 consisted of 50
      individuals with urinary ACR < 30 mg/g of creatinine, and group 2 consisted of
      129 individuals with urinary ACR > 30 mg/g. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE)
      gene polymorphism was determined by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction
      method using a primer pair flanking the polymorphic region of its intron 16.
      Furthermore, group 2 patients were subdivided into those with urinary ACR = 30 to
      300 mg/g of creatinine and those with urinary ACR > 300 mg/g of creatinine, and
      distribution of ACE gene polymorphism was compared in the three groups.
      STATISTICS: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 17.0. Independent
      Student t test was used to compare mean values between the 2 groups. Odds ratio
      was calculated for testing association between ACE gene (I/D) polymorphism and
      presence of microalbuminuria. P < .05 was considered significant. Comparison of
      ACE genotypes among 3 groups of patients (ACR < 30 mg/g, ACR = 30-300 mg/g, and
      ACR > 300 mg/g) was done using 1-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni
      multiple comparison test as post hoc analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Heterozygous I/D
      genotype was more frequent in the study population (45.8%) than the other
      genotypes. There was no difference in the genotype distribution in patients with
      varying levels of albuminuria.

PMID- 28890662
TI  - 'Where were your clothes?' Eliciting descriptions of clothing placement from
      children alleging sexual abuse in criminal trials and forensic interviews.
AB  - PURPOSE: The present study examined how children alleging sexual abuse are asked
      about clothing placement during abusive episodes, both in criminal trials and
      forensic interviews. The placement of clothing is of great importance, because it
      facilitates distinguishing abusive touch from non-abusive touch, as well as the
      severity of abuse when the touching is in fact sexual. If clothing has not been
      removed, then sexual abuse appears less likely and certain types of sexual
      contact are physically impossible (or at least highly improbable). METHODS: We
      examined how trial attorneys (n = 142) and forensic interviewers in investigative
      interviews (n = 155) questioned 5- 12-year-olds about the location of clothing
      during alleged sexual abuse. To do so, we identified all question-answer pairs
      that included references to clothing placement, and coded for the clothing item
      mentioned, whether the interviewer elicited information about clothing placement
      or the child spontaneously provided such information, question-type, and response
      type. RESULTS: Discussions about clothing placement were commonplace in both
      settings, particularly in court. Fewer than one in five question-answer pairs
      about clothing placement were spontaneous mentions by children; the questioner
      elicited most discussions. When interviewers asked wh- questions rather than
      yes/no and forced-choice questions, children provided more elaboration, more
      detailed clothing information, and were over six times more likely to describe
      clothing placement in a fashion that could not be captured by a single
      preposition (e.g., neither on nor off). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that
      descriptions of clothing placement are subject to serious misinterpretation when
      closed-ended questions are asked.

PMID- 28890663
TI  - Cold homes, fuel poverty and energy efficiency improvements: A longitudinal focus
      group approach.
AB  - Cold homes and fuel poverty have been identified as factors in health and social
      inequalities that could be alleviated through energy efficiency interventions.
      Research on fuel poverty and the health impacts of affordable warmth initiatives
      have to date primarily been conducted using quantitative and statistical methods,
      limiting the way how fuel poverty is understood. This study took a longitudinal
      focus group approach that allowed exploration of lived experiences of fuel
      poverty before and after an energy efficiency intervention. Focus group
      discussions were held with residents from three low-income communities before (n
      = 28) and after (n = 22) they received energy efficiency measures funded through
      a government-led scheme. The results show that improving the energy efficiency of
      homes at risk of fuel poverty has a profound impact on wellbeing and quality of
      life, financial stress, thermal comfort, social interactions and indoor space
      use. However, the process of receiving the intervention was experienced by some
      as stressful. There is a need for better community engagement and communication
      to improve the benefits delivered by fuel poverty programmes, as well as further
      qualitative exploration to better understand the wider impacts of fuel poverty
      and policy-led intervention schemes.

PMID- 28890664
TI  - Logic of approximate entailment in quasimetric and in metric spaces.
AB  - It is known that a quasimetric space can be represented by means of a metric
      space; the points of the former space become closed subsets of the latter one,
      and the role of the quasimetric is assumed by the Hausdorff quasidistance. In
      this paper, we show that, in a slightly more special context, a sharpened version
      of this representation theorem holds. Namely, we assume a quasimetric to fulfil
      separability in the original sense due to Wilson. Then any quasimetric space can
      be represented by means of a metric space such that distinct points are assigned
      disjoint closed subsets. This result is tailored to the solution of an open
      problem from the area of approximate reasoning. Following the lines of E.
      Ruspini's work, the Logic of Approximate Entailment ([Formula: see text]) is
      based on a graded version of the classical entailment relation. We present a
      proof calculus for [Formula: see text] and show its completeness with regard to
      finite theories.

PMID- 28890665
TI  - Trends and events through seven centuries: the history of a wetland landscape in
      the Czech Republic.
AB  - Environmental change can be viewed as the combined result of long-term processes
      and singular events. While long-term trends appear to be readily available for
      observation (in the form of temporal comparisons or space-for-time substitution),
      it is more difficult to gain information on singular events in the past, although
      these can be equally significant in shaping ecosystems. We examined the past 700
      years in the history of a lowland wetland landscape in the Czech Republic with
      the help of palaeoecological, ecological, landscape archaeological, and archival
      data. Macrofossil and pollen data were compared to known drainage works in the
      area and historical climatological data. Trends and events in habitat conditions
      were assessed using species indicator values. Results showed that ecological
      succession was the general process in the study area, detected as a trend towards
      eutrophication, desiccation and vegetation closure. Short-term events influenced
      development at the sites mainly from the second half of the 19th century. This is
      consistent with drainage history, although bias related to sample frequency
      cannot be excluded. On the whole, long-term trends and discrete events were
      complementary on different scales. We conclude that humans facilitated and
      accelerated background processes, which can be most likely associated with the
      succession of open wetlands towards terrestrial ecosystems.

PMID- 28890666
TI  - Discovering Drugs for the Treatment of Ebola Virus.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Ebola virus, a member of the Filoviridae family, is a
      causative agent of severe viral hemorrhagic fever in humans. Over the past 40
      years, the virus has been linked to several high mortality outbreaks in Africa
      with the recent West African outbreak resulting in over 11,000 deaths. This
      review provides a summary of the status of the drug discovery and development
      process for therapeutics for Ebola virus disease, with a focus on the strategies
      being used and the challenges facing each stage of the process. RECENT FINDINGS:
      Despite the wealth of in vitro efficacy data, preclinical data in animal models,
      and human clinical data, no therapeutics have been approved for the treatment of
      Ebola virus disease. However, several promising candidates, such as ZMapp and GS
      5734, have advanced into ongoing clinical trials. SUMMARY: The gravity of the
      2014-2016 outbreak spurred a heightened effort to identify and develop new
      treatments for Ebola virus disease, including small molecules,
      immunotherapeutics, host factors, and clinical disease management options.
      DISCLAIMER: Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those
      of the authors and are not necessarily endoresed by the U.S. Army.

PMID- 28890668
TI  - Multiracial Children's and Adults' Categorizations of Multiracial Individuals.
AB  - Research has explored how multiracial individuals are categorized by monoracial
      individuals, but has not yet explored how they are categorized by multiracial
      individuals themselves. We examined how multiracial children (4-9 years) and
      adults categorized multiracial targets (presented with and without parentage
      information). When parentage information was provided, multiracial targets were
      more likely to be categorized as neither wholly black nor wholly white. However,
      both multiracial adults and children more often categorized multiracial targets
      as black than as white regardless of the absence or presence of parentage
      information. For multiracial children, increased contact with white people
      predicted the tendency to categorize multiracial targets as black. These data
      suggest that multiracial children's categorizations are more flexible than those
      of monoracial children in previous research, and that the tendency to categorize
      multiracial targets as black emerges early in development within multiracial
      samples, and is especially likely in predominantly white contexts.

PMID- 28890667
TI  - Role of 3D Echocardiography in Cardiac Surgery: Strengths and Limitations.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review aims to highlight the general and specific
      strengths and limitations of intraoperative 3D echocardiography. This article
      explains the value of real-time three-dimensional transesophageal
      echocardiography (RT 3D TEE) during cardiac surgery and cardiac interventions.
      RECENT FINDINGS: Recently published recommendations and guidelines include the
      use of RT 3D TEE. RT 3 D TEE provides additional value particularly for guidance
      during cardiac interventions (i.e., transcatheter mitral valve repair, left
      atrial appendix and atrial septal defect closures), assessment of the mitral
      valve in surgical repair, measurement of left ventricular outflow tract area for
      transcatheter valvular replacements, and estimating right and left ventricular
      volumes and function. The exact localization of paravalvular leakage is another
      strength of RT 3D TEE. The major limitation is the reduced temporal resolution
      compared to 2D TEE. SUMMARY: Three-dimensional echocardiography is a powerful
      tool that improves communication and accurate measurements of cardiac structures.

PMID- 28890669
TI  - Probing the Cytotoxicity Of Semiconductor Quantum Dots.
AB  - With their bright, photostable fluorescence, semiconductor quantum dots show
      promise as alternatives to organic dyes for biological labeling. Questions about
      their potential cytotoxicity, however, remain unanswered. While cytotoxicity of
      bulk cadmium selenide (CdSe) is well documented, a number of groups have
      suggested that CdSe QDs are cytocompatible, at least with some immortalized cell
      lines. Using primary hepatocytes as a liver model, we found that CdSe-core QDs
      were indeed acutely toxic under certain conditions. Specifically, we found that
      the cytotoxicity of QDs was modulated by processing parameters during synthesis,
      exposure to ultraviolet light, and surface coatings. Our data further suggests
      that cytotoxicity correlates with the liberation of free Cd2+ ions due to
      deterioration of the CdSe lattice. When appropriately coated, CdSe-core QDs can
      be rendered non-toxic and used to track cell migration and reorganization in
      vitro. Our results inform design criteria for the use of QDs in vitro and
      especially in vivo where deterioration over time may occur.

PMID- 28890670
TI  - A Phenomenological and Dynamic View of Homology: Homologs as Persistently
      Reproducible Modules.
AB  - Homology is a fundamental concept in biology. However, the metaphysical status of
      homology, especially whether a homolog is a part of an individual or a member of
      a natural kind, is still a matter of intense debate. The proponents of the
      individuality view of homology criticize the natural kind view of homology by
      pointing out that homologs are subject to evolutionary transformation, and
      natural kinds do not change in the evolutionary process. Conversely, some
      proponents of the natural kind view of homology argue that a homolog can be
      construed both as a part of an individual and a member of a natural kind. They
      adopt the Homeostatic Property Cluster (HPC) theory of natural kinds, and the
      theory seems to strongly support their construal. Note that this construal
      implies the acceptance of essentialism. However, looking back on the history of
      the concept of homology, we should not overlook the fact that the individuality
      view was proposed to reject the essentialist interpretation of homology.
      Moreover, the essentialist notions of natural kinds can, in our view, mislead
      biologists about the phenomena of homology. Consequently, we need a non
      essentialist view of homology, which we name the "persistently reproducible
      module" (PRM) view. This view highlights both the individual-like and kind-like
      aspects of homologs while stripping down both essentialist and anti-essentialist
      interpretations of homology. In this article, we articulate the PRM view of
      homology and explain why it is recommended over the other two views.

PMID- 28890671
TI  - Current Management of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis From Colorectal Cancer: The Role
      of Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Peritoneal Chemoperfusion.
AB  - Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from colorectal cancer (CRC) is a disease with a
      poor prognosis, often thought to be a terminal illness with no hope except for
      palliative treatment. New therapeutic modalities combining cytoreductive surgery
      (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) have shown favorable
      outcomes and may provide a significant survival benefit in a selected group of
      patients. The main rational for CRS is to remove all visible tumor burden to
      allow for the chemotherapeutic agent (HIPEC) to eradicate any microscopic
      residual disease. The Amsterdam statement formulated at the 9th International
      Congress on Peritoneal Surface Malignancies supports the use of CRS with HIPEC as
      a standard of care for selected patients with small-to-moderate volume PC from
      CRC. Selecting appropriate patients who would benefit from CRS/ HIPEC is
      paramount to derive the maximum oncological outcomes while minimizing the risks
      of postoperative complications and mortality. In this paper, we will review the
      role for CRS/HIPEC in the management of PC from CRC.

PMID- 28890672
TI  - Multivariate strategy for the sample selection and integration of multi-batch
      data in metabolomics.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Availability of large cohorts of samples with related metadata
      provides scientists with extensive material for studies. At the same time, recent
      development of modern high-throughput 'omics' technologies, including
      metabolomics, has resulted in the potential for analysis of large sample sizes.
      Representative subset selection becomes critical for selection of samples from
      bigger cohorts and their division into analytical batches. This especially holds
      true when relative quantification of compound levels is used. OBJECTIVES: We
      present a multivariate strategy for representative sample selection and
      integration of results from multi-batch experiments in metabolomics. METHODS:
      Multivariate characterization was applied for design of experiment based sample
      selection and subsequent subdivision into four analytical batches which were
      analyzed on different days by metabolomics profiling using gas-chromatography
      time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS). For each batch OPLS-DA(r) was used
      and its p(corr) vectors were averaged to obtain combined metabolic profile.
      Jackknifed standard errors were used to calculate confidence intervals for each
      metabolite in the average p(corr) profile. RESULTS: A combined, representative
      metabolic profile describing differences between systemic lupus erythematosus
      (SLE) patients and controls was obtained and used for elucidation of metabolic
      pathways that could be disturbed in SLE. CONCLUSION: Design of experiment based
      representative sample selection ensured diversity and minimized bias that could
      be introduced at this step. Combined metabolic profile enabled unified analysis
      and interpretation.

PMID- 28890674
TI  - Treating symptomatic uterine fibroids with myomectomy: current practice and views
      of UK consultants.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The demand for uterus-sparing treatments is increasing as more women
      postpone childbirth to their 30-40s, when fibroids are more symptomatic. With an
      increasing choice of treatment options and changing care-provider profiles, now
      is an opportune time to survey current practices and opinions. Using a 25-stem
      questionnaire, a web-based survey was used to capture the practices and opinions
      of UK consultant gynecologists on the treatment of symptomatic fibroids,
      including the types of procedure most frequently used, methods used to reduce
      blood loss, and awareness and acceptability of treatment options, and to assess
      the impact of gender and experience of the treating gynecologist. RESULTS: The
      response rate was 22%. Laparascopic myomectomy is used least frequently, with 80%
      of the respondents using GnRHa preoperatively to minimize blood loss and correct
      anemia, while vasopressin is most frequently used to reduce intraoperative blood
      loss. Female consultants operate significantly less frequently than males. Those
      with more than 10 years consultant experience are more likely to perform an open
      myomectomy compared to those with less than 10 years experience. CONCLUSIONS:
      Compared to a similar survey performed 10 years ago, surgical methods remain to
      be the most common treatments, but use of less invasive treatments such as UAE
      has increased. Consultants' attitudes appear to be responding to the patient
      demand for less radical treatments. However, it is yet to be seen if the changing
      consultant demographics will keep up with this demand. The low response rate
      warrants cautious interpretation of the results, but they provide an interesting
      snapshot of current views and practices.

PMID- 28890675
TI  - Dominant hand, non-dominant hand, or both? The effect of pre-training in hand-eye
      coordination upon the learning curve of laparoscopic intra-corporeal knot tying.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Training of basic laparoscopic psychomotor skills improves both
      acquisition and retention of more advanced laparoscopic tasks, such as
      laparoscopic intra-corporeal knot tying (LICK). This randomized controlled trial
      (RCT) was performed to evaluate the effect of different pre-training programs in
      hand-eye coordination (HEC) upon the learning curve of LICK. RESULTS: The study
      was performed in a private center in Asuncion, Paraguay, by 60
      residents/specialists in gynaecology with no experience in laparoscopic surgery.
      Participants were allocated in three groups. In phase 1, a baseline test was
      performed (T1, three repetitions). In phase 2, participants underwent different
      training programs for HEC (60 repetitions): G1 with both the dominant hand (DH)
      and the non-dominant hand (NDH), G2 with the DH only, G3 none. In phase 3, a post
      HEC/pre LICK training test was performed (T2, three repetitions). In phase 4,
      participants underwent a standardized training program for LICK (60 repetitions).
      In phase 5, a final test was performed (T3, three repetitions). The score was
      based on the time taken for task completion system. The scores were plotted and
      non-linear regression models were used to fit the learning curves to one- and two
      phase exponential decay models for each participant (individual curves) and for
      each group (group curves). For both HEC and LICK, the group learning curves
      fitted better to the two-phase exponential decay model. For HEC with the DH, G1
      and G2 started from a similar point, but G1 reached a lower plateau at a higher
      speed. In G1, the DH curve started from a lower point than the NDH curve, but
      both curves reached a similar plateau at comparable speeds. For LICK, all groups
      started from a similar point, but immediately after HEC training and before LICK
      training, G1 scored better than the others. All groups reached a similar plateau
      but with a different decay, G1 reaching this plateau faster than the others
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that pre-training in HEC with both
      the DH and the NDH shortens the LICK learning curve.

PMID- 28890673
TI  - Navigating freely-available software tools for metabolomics analysis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The field of metabolomics has expanded greatly over the past two
      decades, both as an experimental science with applications in many areas, as well
      as in regards to data standards and bioinformatics software tools. The diversity
      of experimental designs and instrumental technologies used for metabolomics has
      led to the need for distinct data analysis methods and the development of many
      software tools. OBJECTIVES: To compile a comprehensive list of the most widely
      used freely available software and tools that are used primarily in metabolomics.
      METHODS: The most widely used tools were selected for inclusion in the review by
      either >= 50 citations on Web of Science (as of 08/09/16) or the use of the tool
      being reported in the recent Metabolomics Society survey. Tools were then
      categorised by the type of instrumental data (i.e. LC-MS, GC-MS or NMR) and the
      functionality (i.e. pre- and post-processing, statistical analysis, workflow and
      other functions) they are designed for. RESULTS: A comprehensive list of the most
      used tools was compiled. Each tool is discussed within the context of its
      application domain and in relation to comparable tools of the same domain. An
      extended list including additional tools is available at
      https://github.com/RASpicer/MetabolomicsTools which is classified and searchable
      via a simple controlled vocabulary. CONCLUSION: This review presents the most
      widely used tools for metabolomics analysis, categorised based on their main
      functionality. As future work, we suggest a direct comparison of tools' abilities
      to perform specific data analysis tasks e.g. peak picking.

PMID- 28890676
TI  - The effect of music in gynaecological office procedures on pain, anxiety and
      satisfaction: a randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pain can interfere with office procedures in gynaecology. The aim of
      this study is to measure the positive effect of music in gynaecological office
      procedures. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was performed between October
      2014 and January 2016. Women scheduled for an office hysteroscopy or colposcopy
      were eligible for randomization in the music group or control group.
      Stratification for hysteroscopy and colposcopy took place. The primary outcome is
      patients' level of pain during the procedure measured by the visual analogue
      scale (VAS). Secondary outcomes include patients' level of pain after the
      procedure, anxiety and satisfaction of patient and doctor. RESULTS: No positive
      effect of music on patients' perception of pain during the procedure was
      measured, neither for the hysteroscopy group (57 mm vs. 52 mm) nor for the
      colposcopy group (32 mm vs. 32 mm). Secondary outcomes were also similar for both
      groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed no positive effect of music on patients'
      level of pain, anxiety or satisfaction of patient or doctor for office
      hysteroscopy and colposcopy. We believe a multimodal approach has to be used to
      decrease patient distress in terms of pain and anxiety, with or without music.
      TRIAL REGISTRATION: Dutch Trial Register, NTR4924.

PMID- 28890677
TI  - The role of the multidisciplinary team in the management of deep infiltrating
      endometriosis.
AB  - The multidisciplinary team (MDT) is considered good practice in the management of
      chronic conditions and is now a well-established part of clinical care in the
      NHS. There has been a recent drive to have MDTs in the management of women with
      severe endometriosis requiring complex surgery as a result of recommendations
      from the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) and
      British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE). The multidisciplinary
      approach to the management of patients with endometriosis leads to better results
      in patient outcomes; however, there are potentially a number of barriers to its
      implementation and maintenance. This paper aims to review the potential benefits,
      disadvantages and barriers of the multidisciplinary team in the management of
      severe endometriosis.

PMID- 28890678
TI  - Pregnancy following laparoscopic hysteropexy-a case series.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Uterine-preserving prolapse surgery offers the chance to retain
      fertility; however, limited data is available for the safety of pregnancy
      following surgery and the effect of pregnancy on surgical outcome. Our operative
      technique involves mesh encircling the cervix and uterine arteries, which raises
      concerns that compromise of uterine blood flow during pregnancy may lead to
      foetal growth restriction. We also think this necessitates delivery by caesarean
      section. We report on six pregnancy outcomes following laparoscopic hysteropexy.
      Primary outcomes were live birth and birth weight. Secondary outcomes were
      integrity of mesh and immediate effect on prolapse. RESULTS: All patients had
      successful pregnancy outcomes with birth weights on or above the 10th centile.
      There was no effect on mesh integrity seen in any of the cases. There was no
      deterioration in apical prolapse when assessed post delivery, but two patients
      had new onset anterior vaginal wall prolapse. CONCLUSIONS: We think our technique
      of hysteropexy is safe for those wishing to conceive. Larger numbers are needed
      to allow robust evidence-based guidance for patients and clinicians.

PMID- 28890679
TI  - Effects of salpingectomy during abdominal hysterectomy on ovarian reserve: a
      randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of salpingectomy
      on ovarian function by measuring AMH. METHODS: This study was a balanced, single
      center, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial in Ruin Tan Arash Hospital,
      Tehran, between May 2013 and November 2014. A total of 30 patients undergoing
      elective abdominal hysterectomy were randomized into two groups, 15 with
      salpingectomy and 15 without salpingectomy. The primary objective of this study
      was to compare mean difference of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) between two
      groups. The secondary outcomes measured were follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH),
      operative time, and blood loss. RESULTS: Serum AMH levels decreased at 3 months
      after hysterectomy in all patients (pre AMH 1.32 +/- (0.91); post AMH 1.05 +/-
      (0.88), P < 0.001), the salpingectomy group (pre AMH 1.44 +/- (0.94); post AMH
      1.13 +/- (0.86), P < 0.001), and no salpingectomy group (pre AMH 1.2 +/- (0.9);
      post AMH 0.97 +/- (0.92), P < 0.001). The rate of decline of AMH levels after
      surgery did not differ between the two groups (25% (17-33%) vs. 26% (15-36%), P =
      0.23) among the women with salpingectomy versus without salpingectomy,
      respectively. There was no difference in the mean operative time (mean difference
      0.33, 95% CI - 22.21 to 22.86, P < 0.92), mean blood loss (mean difference -
      0.66, 95% CI - 15.8 to 14.46, P < 0.97), and post FSH (mean difference 0.34, 95%
      CI - 1.2 to 1.88, P < 0.65) between both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Salpingectomy with
      abdominal hysterectomy is a safe treatment that does not have a deleterious
      effect on ovarian reserve. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Iranian Registry of Clinical
      Trials, IRCT2014123118866N4 (www.IRCT.ir).

PMID- 28890680
TI  - Study of flow behaviors of droplet merging and splitting in microchannels using
      Micro-PIV measurement.
AB  - Droplet merging and splitting are important droplet manipulations in droplet
      based microfluidics. However, the fundamental flow behaviors of droplets were not
      systematically studied. Hence, we designed two different microstructures to
      achieve droplet merging and splitting respectively, and quantitatively compared
      different flow dynamics in different microstructures for droplet merging and
      splitting via micro-particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) experiments. Some flow
      phenomena of droplets different from previous studies were observed during
      merging and splitting using a high-speed microscope. It was also found the
      obtained instantaneous velocity vector fields of droplets have significant
      influence on the droplets merging and splitting. For droplet merging, the
      probability of droplets coalescence (eta) in a microgroove is higher (50% < eta <
      92%) than that in a T-junction microchannel (15% < eta < 50%), and the highest
      coalescence efficiency (eta = 92%) comes at the two-phase flow ratio e of 0.42 in
      the microgroove. Moreover, compared with a cylinder obstacle, Y-junction
      bifurcation can split droplets more effectively and the droplet flow during
      splitting is steadier. The results can provide better understanding of droplet
      behaviors and are useful for the design and applications of droplet-based
      microfluidics.

PMID- 28890681
TI  - Corrigendum: Associations between Family Adversity and Brain Volume in
      Adolescence: Manual vs. Automated Brain Segmentation Yields Different Results.
AB  - [This corrects the article on p. 398 in vol. 10, PMID: 27656121.].

PMID- 28890682
TI  - Impaired Mitophagy Plays a Role in Denervation of Neuromuscular Junctions in ALS
      Mice.
AB  - Motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and animal models
      show degeneration from the nerve terminal, known as dying-back neuropathy. To
      investigate the mechanism underlying this neuropathy, we analyzed the
      neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) and motor neuron cell bodies in SOD1G93A mice
      using electron microscopy. NMJs of SOD1G93A mice exhibited significantly higher
      numbers of autophagosomes and degenerated mitochondria compared to wild-type
      controls. Mitophagosomes were identified in the NMJ presynaptic terminals of wild
      type mice and SOD1G93A mice. However, the number of mitophagosomes did not
      increase significantly in SOD1G93A NMJs indicating a defect in mitophagy, the
      autophagic process to degrade mitochondria. Consistent with this, proteins
      essential for mitophagy, p62/SQSTM1, Bnip3, Pink1, and Parkin were down-regulated
      in motor neurons in SOD1G93A mice. Importantly, SQSTM1 is one of the genes
      mutated in familial ALS patients. We evaluated the effect of impaired mitophagy
      on motor neurons by analyzing the double knockout mice of Pink1 and Parkin, two
      genes responsible for sensing depolarized mitochondria and delivering degenerated
      mitochondria to mitophagosomes. The double knockout mice exhibited NMJ
      degeneration, including axon swelling and NMJ fragmentation at 4 months of age.
      These phenotypes were rarely observed in wild-type control mice of the same age.
      The protein level of ATP synthase beta subunit increased in the NMJ presynaptic
      terminals, suggesting the accumulation of mitochondria at NMJs of the double
      knockout mice. Importantly, NMJ denervation was observed in the double knockout
      mice. These data suggest that the reduced mitophagy function in motor neurons of
      SOD1G93A mice is one of the mechanisms causing degeneration of ALS NMJs.

PMID- 28890683
TI  - Rapid Processing of a Global Feature in the ON Visual Pathways of Behaving
      Monkeys.
AB  - Visual objects are recognized by their features. Whereas, some features are based
      on simple components (i.e., local features, such as orientation of line
      segments), some features are based on the whole object (i.e., global features,
      such as an object having a hole in it). Over the past five decades, behavioral,
      physiological, anatomical, and computational studies have established a general
      model of vision, which starts from extracting local features in the lower visual
      pathways followed by a feature integration process that extracts global features
      in the higher visual pathways. This local-to-global model is successful in
      providing a unified account for a vast sets of perception experiments, but it
      fails to account for a set of experiments showing human visual systems' superior
      sensitivity to global features. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying
      the "global-first" process will offer critical insights into new models of
      vision. The goal of the present study was to establish a non-human primate model
      of rapid processing of global features for elucidating the neural mechanisms
      underlying differential processing of global and local features. Monkeys were
      trained to make a saccade to a target in the black background, which was
      different from the distractors (white circle) in color (e.g., red circle target),
      local features (e.g., white square target), a global feature (e.g., white ring
      with a hole target) or their combinations (e.g., red square target). Contrary to
      the predictions of the prevailing local-to-global model, we found that (1)
      detecting a distinction or a change in the global feature was faster than
      detecting a distinction or a change in color or local features; (2) detecting a
      distinction in color was facilitated by a distinction in the global feature, but
      not in the local features; and (3) detecting the hole was interfered by the local
      features of the hole (e.g., white ring with a squared hole). These results
      suggest that monkey ON visual systems have a subsystem that is more sensitive to
      distinctions in the global feature than local features. They also provide the
      behavioral constraints for identifying the underlying neural substrates.

PMID- 28890685
TI  - EMG-Based Continuous and Simultaneous Estimation of Arm Kinematics in Able-Bodied
      Individuals and Stroke Survivors.
AB  - Among the potential biological signals for human-machine interactions (brain,
      nerve, and muscle signals), electromyography (EMG) widely used in clinical
      setting can be obtained non-invasively as motor commands to control movements.
      The aim of this study was to develop a model for continuous and simultaneous
      decoding of multi-joint dynamic arm movements based on multi-channel surface EMG
      signals crossing the joints, leading to application of myoelectrically controlled
      exoskeleton robots for upper-limb rehabilitation. Twenty subjects were recruited
      for this study including 10 stroke subjects and 10 able-bodied subjects. The
      subjects performed free arm reaching movements in the horizontal plane with an
      exoskeleton robot. The shoulder, elbow and wrist movements and surface EMG
      signals from six muscles crossing the three joints were recorded. A non-linear
      autoregressive exogenous (NARX) model was developed to continuously decode the
      shoulder, elbow and wrist movements based solely on the EMG signals. The
      shoulder, elbow and wrist movements were decoded accurately based only on the EMG
      inputs in all the subjects, with the variance accounted for (VAF) > 98% for all
      three joints. The proposed approach is capable of simultaneously and continuously
      decoding multi-joint movements of the human arm by taking into account the non
      linear mappings between the muscle EMGs and joint movements, which may provide
      less effortful control of robotic exoskeletons for rehabilitation training of
      individuals with neurological disorders and arm impairment.

PMID- 28890684
TI  - Neural Correlates of Early Sound Encoding and their Relationship to Speech-in
      Noise Perception.
AB  - Speech-in-noise (SIN) perception is a complex cognitive skill that affects
      social, vocational, and educational activities. Poor SIN ability particularly
      affects young and elderly populations, yet varies considerably even among healthy
      young adults with normal hearing. Although SIN skills are known to be influenced
      by top-down processes that can selectively enhance lower-level sound
      representations, the complementary role of feed-forward mechanisms and their
      relationship to musical training is poorly understood. Using a paradigm that
      minimizes the main top-down factors that have been implicated in SIN performance
      such as working memory, we aimed to better understand how robust encoding of
      periodicity in the auditory system (as measured by the frequency-following
      response) contributes to SIN perception. Using magnetoencephalograpy, we found
      that the strength of encoding at the fundamental frequency in the brainstem,
      thalamus, and cortex is correlated with SIN accuracy. The amplitude of the slower
      cortical P2 wave was previously also shown to be related to SIN accuracy and FFR
      strength; we use MEG source localization to show that the P2 wave originates in a
      temporal region anterior to that of the cortical FFR. We also confirm that the
      observed enhancements were related to the extent and timing of musicianship.
      These results are consistent with the hypothesis that basic feed-forward sound
      encoding affects SIN perception by providing better information to later
      processing stages, and that modifying this process may be one mechanism through
      which musical training might enhance the auditory networks that subserve both
      musical and language functions.

PMID- 28890686
TI  - Synaptic Activity and Muscle Contraction Increases PDK1 and PKCbetaI
      Phosphorylation in the Presynaptic Membrane of the Neuromuscular Junction.
AB  - Conventional protein kinase C betaI (cPKCbetaI) is a conventional protein kinase
      C (PKC) isoform directly involved in the regulation of neurotransmitter release
      in the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). It is located exclusively at the nerve
      terminal and both synaptic activity and muscle contraction modulate its protein
      levels and phosphorylation. cPKCbetaI molecular maturation includes a series of
      phosphorylation steps, the first of which is mediated by phosphoinositide
      dependent kinase 1 (PDK1). Here, we sought to localize PDK1 in the NMJ and
      investigate the hypothesis that synaptic activity and muscle contraction regulate
      in parallel PDK1 and cPKCbetaI phosphorylation in the membrane fraction. To
      differentiate the presynaptic and postsynaptic activities, we abolished muscle
      contraction with MU-conotoxin GIIIB (MU-CgTx-GIIIB) in some experiments before
      stimulation of the phrenic nerve (1 Hz, 30 min). Then, we analyzed total and
      membrane/cytosol fractions of skeletal muscle by Western blotting. Results showed
      that PDK1 is located exclusively in the nerve terminal of the NMJ. After nerve
      stimulation with and without coincident muscle contraction, total PDK1 and
      phosphorylated PDK1 (pPDK1) protein levels remained unaltered. However, synaptic
      activity specifically enhanced phosphorylation of PDK1 in the membrane, an
      important subcellular location for PDK1 function. This increase in pPDK1
      coincides with a significant increase in the phosphorylation of its substrate
      cPKCbetaI also in the membrane fraction. Moreover, muscle contraction maintains
      PDK1 and pPDK1 but increases cPKCbetaI protein levels and its phosphorylation.
      Thus, even though PDK1 activity is maintained, pcPKCbetaI levels increase in
      concordance with total cPKCbetaI. Together, these results indicate that
      neuromuscular activity could induce the membrane targeting of pPDK1 in the nerve
      terminal of the NMJ to promote the phosphorylation of the cPKCbetaI, which is
      involved in ACh release.

PMID- 28890688
TI  - Metastability of Neuronal Dynamics during General Anesthesia: Time for a Change
      in Our Assumptions?
AB  - There is strong evidence that anesthetics have stereotypical effects on brain
      state, so that a given anesthetic appears to have a signature in the
      electroencephalogram (EEG), which may vary with dose. This can be usefully
      interpreted as the anesthetic determining an attractor in the phase space of the
      brain. How brain activity shifts between these attractors in time remains
      understudied, as most studies implicitly assume a one-to-one relationship between
      drug dose and attractor features by assuming stationarity over the analysis
      interval and analyzing data segments of several minutes in length. Yet data in
      rats anesthetized with isoflurane suggests that, at anesthetic levels consistent
      with surgical anesthesia, brain activity alternates between multiple attractors,
      often spending on the order of 10 min in one activity pattern before shifting to
      another. Moreover, the probability of these jumps between attractors changes with
      anesthetic concentration. This suggests the hypothesis that brain state is
      metastable during anesthesia: though it appears at equilibrium on short
      timescales (on the order of seconds to a few minutes), longer intervals show
      shifting behavior. Compelling evidence for metastability in rats anesthetized
      with isoflurane is reviewed, but so far only suggestive hints of metastability in
      brain states exist with other anesthetics or in other species. Explicit testing
      of metastability during anesthesia will require experiments with longer
      acquisition intervals and carefully designed analytic approaches; some of the
      implications of these constraints are reviewed for typical spectral analysis
      approaches. If metastability exists during anesthesia, it implies degeneracy in
      the relationship between brain state and effect site concentration, as there is
      not a one-to-one mapping between the two. This degeneracy could explain some of
      the reported difficulty in using brain activity monitors to titrate drug dose to
      prevent awareness during anesthesia and should force a rethinking of the notion
      of depth of anesthesia as a single dimension. Finally, explicit incorporation of
      knowledge of the dynamics of the brain during anesthesia could offer better depth
      of anesthesia monitoring.

PMID- 28890687
TI  - Gp78 E3 Ubiquitin Ligase: Essential Functions and Contributions in Proteostasis.
AB  - As per the requirement of metabolism and fitness, normal cellular functions are
      controlled by several proteins, and their interactive molecular and signaling
      events at multiple levels. Protein quality control (PQC) mechanisms ensure the
      correct folding and proper utilization of these proteins to avoid their
      misfolding and aggregation. To maintain the optimum environment of complex
      proteome PQC system employs various E3 ubiquitin ligases for the selective
      degradation of aberrant proteins. Glycoprotein 78 (Gp78) is an E3 ubiquitin
      ligase that prevents multifactorial deleterious accumulation of different
      misfolded proteins via endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD).
      However, the precise role of Gp78 under stress conditions to avoid bulk misfolded
      aggregation is unclear, which can act as a crucial resource to establish the
      dynamic nature of the proteome. Present article systematically explains the
      detailed molecular characterization of Gp78 and also addresses its various
      cellular physiological functions, which could be crucial to achieving protein
      homeostasis. Here, we comprehensively represent the current findings of Gp78,
      which shows its PQC roles in different physiological functions and diseases; and
      thereby propose novel opportunities to better understand the unsolved questions
      for therapeutic interventions linked with different protein misfolding disorders.

PMID- 28890689
TI  - Integration between Glycolysis and Glutamate-Glutamine Cycle Flux May Explain
      Preferential Glycolytic Increase during Brain Activation, Requiring Glutamate.
AB  - The 1988 observation by Fox et al. (1988) that brief intense brain activation
      increases glycolysis (pyruvate formation from glucose) much more than oxidative
      metabolism has been abundantly confirmed. Specifically glycolytic increase was
      unexpected because the amount of ATP it generates is much smaller than that
      formed by subsequent oxidative metabolism of pyruvate. The present article shows
      that preferential glycolysis can be explained by metabolic processes associated
      with activation of the glutamate-glutamine cycle. The flux in this cycle, which
      is essential for production of transmitter glutamate and GABA, equals 75% of
      brain glucose utilization and each turn is associated with utilization of ~1
      glucose molecule. About one half of the association between cycle flux and
      glucose metabolism occurs during neuronal conversion of glutamine to glutamate in
      a process similar to the malate-aspartate shuttle (MAS) except that glutamate is
      supplied from glutamine, not formed from alpha-ketoglutarate (alphaKG) as during
      operation of conventional MAS. Regular MAS function is triggered by one oxidative
      process in the cytosol during glycolysis causing NAD+ reduction to NADH. Since
      NADH cannot cross the mitochondrial membrane (MEM) for oxidation NAD+ is re
      generated by conversion of cytosolic oxaloacetate (OAA) to malate, which enters
      the mitochondria for oxidation and in a cyclic process regenerates cytosolic OAA.
      Therefore MAS as well as the "pseudo-MAS" necessary for neuronal glutamate
      formation can only operate together with cytosolic reduction of NAD+ to NADH. The
      major process causing NAD+ reduction is glycolysis which therefore also must
      occur during neuronal conversion of glutamine to glutamate and may energize
      vesicular glutamate uptake which preferentially uses glycolytically derived
      energy. Another major contributor to the association between glutamate-glutamine
      cycle and glucose utilization is the need for astrocytic pyruvate to generate
      glutamate. Although some oxidative metabolism occurs during glutamate formation
      it is only one half of that during normal tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle
      function. Glutamate's receptor stimulation leads to potassium ion (K+) release
      and astrocytic uptake, preferentially fueled by glycolysis and followed by
      release and neuronal re-accumulation. The activation-induced preferential
      glycolysis diminishes with continued activation and is followed by an increased
      ratio between oxidative metabolism and glycolysis, reflecting oxidation of
      generated glutamate and accumulated lactate.

PMID- 28890690
TI  - A Cohesive Framework for Motor Stereotypy in Typical and Atypical Development:
      The Role of Sensorimotor Integration.
AB  - Stereotyped motor behavior manifests as rhythmic, repetitive movements. It is
      common in several neurologic and psychiatric disorders where it is considered
      maladaptive. However, it also occurs early in typical development where it serves
      an adaptive function in the development of complex, controlled motor behavior.
      Currently, no framework accounts for both adaptive and maladaptive forms of motor
      stereotypy. We propose a conceptual model that implicates sensorimotor mechanisms
      in the phenomenology of adaptive and maladaptive stereotypy. The extensive
      structural and functional connectivity between sensory and motor neural circuits
      evidences the importance of sensory integration in the production of controlled
      movement. In support of our model, motor stereotypy in normative development
      occurs when the sensory and motor brain regions are immature and the infant has
      limited sensory and motor experience. With maturation and experience, complex
      movements develop and replace simple, stereotyped movements. This developmental
      increase in motor complexity depends on the availability of sensory feedback
      indicating that the integration of sensory information with ongoing movement
      allows individuals to adaptively cater their movements to the environmental
      context. In atypical development, altered neural function of sensorimotor
      circuitry may limit an individual's ability to integrate sensory feedback to
      adapt movements to appropriately respond to environmental conditions.
      Consequently, the motor repertoire would remain relatively simple, resulting in
      the persistence of motor stereotypy. A framework that considers motor stereotypy
      as a manifestation of low motor complexity resulting from poor sensorimotor
      integration has many implications for research, identification and treatment of
      motor stereotypy in a variety of developmental disorders.

PMID- 28890691
TI  - Predicting Intentions of a Familiar Significant Other Beyond the Mirror Neuron
      System.
AB  - Inferring intentions of others is one of the most intriguing issues in
      interpersonal interaction. Theories of embodied cognition and simulation suggest
      that this mechanism takes place through a direct and automatic matching process
      that occurs between an observed action and past actions. This process occurs via
      the reactivation of past self-related sensorimotor experiences within the
      inferior frontoparietal network (including the mirror neuron system, MNS). The
      working model is that the anticipatory representations of others' behaviors
      require internal predictive models of actions formed from pre-established, shared
      representations between the observer and the actor. This model suggests that
      observers should be better at predicting intentions performed by a familiar
      actor, rather than a stranger. However, little is known about the modulations of
      the intention brain network as a function of the familiarity between the observer
      and the actor. Here, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      with a behavioral intention inference task, in which participants were asked to
      predict intentions from three types of actors: A familiar actor (their
      significant other), themselves (another familiar actor), and a non-familiar actor
      (a stranger). Our results showed that the participants were better at inferring
      intentions performed by familiar actors than non-familiar actors and that this
      better performance was associated with greater activation within and beyond the
      inferior frontoparietal network i.e., in brain areas related to familiarity
      (e.g., precuneus). In addition, and in line with Hebbian principles of neural
      modulations, the more the participants reported being cognitively close to their
      partner, the less the brain areas associated with action self-other comparison
      (e.g., inferior parietal lobule), attention (e.g., superior parietal lobule),
      recollection (hippocampus), and pair bond (ventral tegmental area, VTA) were
      recruited, suggesting that the more a shared mental representation has been pre
      established, the more neurons show suppression in their response to the
      presentation of information to which they are sensitive. These results suggest
      that the relation of performance to the extent of neural activation during
      intention understanding may display differential relationships based on the
      cognitive domain, brain region, and the cognitive interdependence between the
      observer and the actor.

PMID- 28890692
TI  - White Matter Injury after Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Pathophysiology and
      Therapeutic Strategies.
AB  - Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for 10%-30% of all types of stroke.
      Bleeding within the brain parenchyma causes gray matter (GM) destruction as well
      as proximal or distal white matter (WM) injury (WMI) due to complex
      pathophysiological mechanisms. Because WM has a distinct cellular architecture,
      blood supply pattern and corresponding function, and its response to stroke may
      vary from that of GM, a better understanding of the characteristics of WMI
      following ICH is essential and may shed new light on treatment options. Current
      evidence using histological, radiological and chemical biomarkers clearly
      confirms the spatio-temporal distribution of WMI post- ICH. Although certain
      types of pathological damage such as inflammatory, oxidative and neuro
      excitotoxic injury to WM have been identified, the exact molecular mechanisms
      remain unclear. In this review article, we briefly describe the constitution and
      physiological function of brain WM, summarize evidence regarding WMI, and focus
      on the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and therapeutic strategies.

PMID- 28890693
TI  - Modulation of Somatosensory Alpha Rhythm by Transcranial Alternating Current
      Stimulation at Mu-Frequency.
AB  - Introduction: Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is emerging as
      an interventional tool to modulate different functions of the brain, potentially
      by interacting with intrinsic ongoing neuronal oscillations. Functionally
      different intrinsic alpha oscillations are found throughout the cortex. Yet it
      remains unclear whether tACS is capable of specifically modulating the
      somatosensory mu-rhythm in amplitude. Objectives: We used tACS to modulate mu
      alpha oscillations in amplitude. When compared to sham stimulation we expected a
      modulation of mu-alpha oscillations but not visual alpha oscillations by tACS.
      Methods: Individual mu-alpha frequencies were determined in 25 participants.
      Subsequently, blocks of tACS with individual mu-alpha frequency and sham
      stimulation were applied over primary somatosensory cortex (SI).
      Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded before and after either stimulation or
      sham. Modulations of mu-alpha and, for control, visual alpha amplitudes were then
      compared between tACS and sham. Results: Somatosensory mu-alpha oscillations
      decreased in amplitude after tACS was applied at participants' individual mu
      alpha frequency. No changes in amplitude were observed for sham stimulation.
      Furthermore, visual alpha oscillations were not affected by tACS or sham,
      respectively. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the capability of tACS to
      specifically modulate the targeted somatosensory mu-rhythm when the tACS
      frequency is tuned to the individual endogenous rhythm and applied over
      somatosensory areas. Our results are in contrast to previously reported amplitude
      increases of visual alpha oscillations induced by tACS applied over visual
      cortex. Our results may point to a specific interaction between our stimulation
      protocol and the functional architecture of the somatosensory system.

PMID- 28890695
TI  - Acute Hypoxia Induced an Imbalanced M1/M2 Activation of Microglia through NF
      kappaB Signaling in Alzheimer's Disease Mice and Wild-Type Littermates.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease mainly
      caused by abnormal tau phosphorylation, amyloid beta (Abeta) deposition and
      neuroinflammation. As an important environmental factor, hypoxia has been
      reported to aggravate AD via exacerbating Abeta and tau pathologies. However, the
      link between hypoxia and neuroinflammation, especially the changes of pro
      inflammatory M1 or anti-inflammation M2 microglia phenotypes in AD, is still far
      from being clearly investigated. Here, we evaluated the activation of microglia
      in the brains of APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic (Tg) mice and their wild type (Wt)
      littermates, after a single episode of acute hypoxia (24 h) exposure. We found
      that acute hypoxia activated M1 microglia in both Tg and Wt mice as evidenced by
      the elevated M1 markers including cluster of differentiation 86 (CD86), tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-C motif chemokine
      ligand 2 (CCL2) and CCL3. In addition, the markers of M2 microglia phenotype
      (arginase-1 (Arg-1), CD206, IL-4 and IL-10) were decreased after acute hypoxia
      exposure, suggesting an attenuated M2 phenotype of microglia. Moreover, the
      activation of microglia and the release of cytokines and chemokines were
      associated with Nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) induction through toll-like
      receptor 4 (TLR4). In summary, our findings revealed that acute hypoxia modulated
      microglia M1/M2 subgroup profile, indicating the pathological role of hypoxia in
      the neuroinflammation of AD.

PMID- 28890696
TI  - Gaze Bias in Preference Judgments by Younger and Older Adults.
AB  - Individuals' gaze behavior reflects the choice they will ultimately make. For
      example, people confronting a choice among multiple stimuli tend to look longer
      at stimuli that are subsequently chosen than at other stimuli. This tendency,
      called the gaze bias effect, is a key aspect of visual decision-making.
      Nevertheless, no study has examined the generality of the gaze bias effect in
      older adults. Here, we used a two-alternative forced-choice task (2AFC) to
      compare the gaze behavior reflective of different stages of decision processes
      demonstrated by younger and older adults. Participants who had viewed two faces
      were instructed to choose the one that they liked/disliked or the one that they
      judged to be more/less similar to their own face. Their eye movements were
      tracked while they chose. The results show that the gaze bias effect occurred
      during the remaining time in both age groups irrespective of the decision type.
      However, no gaze bias effect was observed for the preference judgment during the
      first dwell time. Our study demonstrated that the gaze bias during the remaining
      time occurred regardless of decision-making task and age. Further study using
      diverse participants, such as clinic patients or infants, may help to generalize
      the gaze bias effect and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the gaze bias.

PMID- 28890694
TI  - Erythrocytes as Potential Link between Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Many studies support the existence of an association between type 2 diabetes
      (T2DM) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In AD, in addition to brain, a number of
      peripheral tissues and cells are affected, including red blood cell (RBC) and
      because there are currently no reliable diagnostic biomarkers of AD in the blood,
      a gradually increasing attention has been given to the study of RBC's
      alterations. Recently it has been evidenced in diabetes, RBC alterations
      superimposable to the ones occurring in AD RBC. Furthermore, growing evidence
      suggests that oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the development of RBC's
      alterations and vice versa. Once again this represents a further evidence of a
      shared pathway between AD and T2DM. The present review summarizes the two
      disorders, highlighting the role of RBC in the postulated common biochemical
      links, and suggests RBC as a possible target for clinical trials.

PMID- 28890697
TI  - Effect of the Natural Product Triptolide on Pancreatic Cancer: A Systematic
      Review of Preclinical Studies.
AB  - Objective: Triptolide (TL), a natural product isolated from Tripterygium
      wilfordii Hook F (TwHF), shows potent anticancer effects in vitro and in vivo. We
      aimed to summary the biochemical mechanisms through which TL has been shown to
      induce apoptosis, autophagy and inhibit angiogenesis in pancreatic cancer (PC).
      Methods: We undertook a systematic review of preclinical evidence. We searched
      electronic databases. The potential mechanisms and the underlying signaling
      pathways have been accumulated as well. Results: We screened 116 abstracts for
      eligibility and included 17 preclinical studies in the analysis. Details of the
      animals and cell lines were provided in 16 studies (94.1%). Six studies (75.0%)
      randomly assigned animals to treatment or control groups and only 1 study (12.5%)
      reported on blinding. The majority of the TL's research field has focused on its
      pro-apoptotic effects through downregulation of inhibitory pathways and
      upregulation of apoptotic pathways. The studies have shown that TL is effective
      both in vitro and in vivo against PC cells. Conclusion: This study provides a
      systematic summary of TL's anti-pancreatic cancer profile and the underlying
      mechanisms of with special emphasis on the apoptosis, autophagy, angiogenesis and
      related molecular pathways. Improved study quality in terms of treatment
      allocation methods reporting, randomization and blinding will accelerate needed
      progress toward trials.

PMID- 28890698
TI  - Multi-Target Screening and Experimental Validation of Natural Products from
      Selaginella Plants against Alzheimer's Disease.
AB  - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative
      disorder which is considered to be the most common cause of dementia. It has a
      greater impact not only on the learning and memory disturbances but also on
      social and economy. Currently, there are mainly single-target drugs for AD
      treatment but the complexity and multiple etiologies of AD make them difficult to
      obtain desirable therapeutic effects. Therefore, the choice of multi-target drugs
      will be a potential effective strategy inAD treatment. To find multi-target
      active ingredients for AD treatment from Selaginella plants, we firstly explored
      the behaviors effects on AD mice of total extracts (TE) from Selaginella
      doederleinii on by Morris water maze test and found that TE has a remarkable
      improvement on learning and memory function for AD mice. And then, multi-target
      SAR models associated with AD-related proteins were built based on Random Forest
      (RF) and different descriptors to preliminarily screen potential active
      ingredients from Selaginella. Considering the prediction outputs and the quantity
      of existing compounds in our laboratory, 13 compounds were chosen to carry out
      the in vitro enzyme inhibitory experiments and 4 compounds with BACE1/MAO-B dual
      inhibitory activity were determined. Finally, the molecular docking was applied
      to verify the prediction results and enzyme inhibitory experiments. Based on
      these study and validation processes, we explored a new strategy to improve the
      efficiency of active ingredients screening based on trace amount of natural
      product and numbers of targets and found some multi-target compounds with
      biological activity for the development of novel drugs for AD treatment.

PMID- 28890700
TI  - Dietary Capsaicin Improves Glucose Homeostasis and Alters the Gut Microbiota in
      Obese Diabetic ob/ob Mice.
AB  - Background: The effects of capsaicin on obesity and glucose homeostasis are still
      controversial and the mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown.
      This study aimed to investigate the potential relationship between the regulation
      of obesity and glucose homeostasis by dietary capsaicin and the alterations of
      gut microbiota in obese diabetic ob/ob mice. Methods: The ob/ob mice were
      subjected to a normal, low-capsaicin (0.01%), or high-capsaicin (0.02%) diet for
      6 weeks, respectively. Obesity phenotypes, glucose homeostasis, the gut
      microbiota structure and composition, short-chain fatty acids, gastrointestinal
      hormones, and pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured. Results: Both the low-
      and high-capsaicin diets failed to prevent the increase in body weight, adiposity
      index, and Lee's obesity index. However, dietary capsaicin at both the low and
      high doses significantly inhibited the increase of fasting blood glucose and
      insulin levels. These inhibitory effects were comparable between the two groups.
      Similarly, dietary capsaicin resulted in remarkable improvement in glucose and
      insulin tolerance. In addition, neither the low- nor high-capsaicin diet could
      alter the alpha-diversity and beta-diversity of the gut microbiota. Taxonomy
      based analysis showed that both the low- and high-capsaicin diets, acting in
      similar ways, significantly increased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio at the
      phylum level as well as increased the Roseburia abundance and decreased the
      Bacteroides and Parabacteroides abundances at the genus level. Spearman's
      correlation analysis revealed that the Roseburia abundance was negatively while
      the Bacteroides and Parabacteroides abundances were positively correlated to the
      fasting blood glucose level and area under the curve by the oral glucose
      tolerance test. Finally, the low- and high-capsaicin diets significantly
      increased the fecal butyrate and plasma total GLP-1 levels, but decreased plasma
      total ghrelin, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6 levels as compared with the normal
      diet. Conclusions: The beneficial effects of dietary capsaicin on glucose
      homeostasis are likely associated with the alterations of specific bacteria at
      the genus level. These alterations in bacteria induced by dietary capsaicin
      contribute to improved glucose homeostasis through increasing short-chain fatty
      acids, regulating gastrointestinal hormones and inhibiting pro-inflammatory
      cytokines. However, our results should be interpreted cautiously due to the lower
      caloric intake at the initial stage after capsaicin diet administration.

PMID- 28890699
TI  - Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Signaling as a Target in Hepatic Fibrosis Therapy.
AB  - Liver fibrosis is an excess production of extracellular matrix proteins as a
      result of chronic liver disease which leads to cell death and organ dysfunction.
      The key cells involved in fibrogenesis are resident hepatic stellate cells (HSCs)
      which are termed myofibroblasts after activation, acquiring contractile,
      proliferative, migratory and secretory capability. Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P)
      is a bioactive sphingolipid with well-established effects on angiogenesis,
      carcinogenesis and immunity. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that this
      metabolite is involved in the profibrotic inflammatory process through the
      regulation of pleiotropic cell responses, such as vascular permeability,
      leukocyte infiltration, cell survival, migration, proliferation and HSCs
      differentiation to myofibroblasts. S1P is synthesized by sphingosine kinases
      (SphKs) and many of its actions are mediated by S1P specific cell surface
      receptors (S1P1-5), although different intracellular targets of S1P have been
      identified. Modulation of SphKs/S1P/S1P receptors signaling is known to result in
      beneficial effects on various in vivo and in vitro models of liver fibrosis.
      Thus, a better knowledge of the molecular mechanisms involved in the modulation
      of the S1P pathway could help to improve liver fibrosis therapy. In this review,
      we analyze the effects of the S1P axis on the fibrogenic process, and the
      involvement of a range of inhibitors or approaches targeting enzymes related to
      S1P in the abrogation of pathological fibrogenesis. All in all, targeting this
      pathway offers therapeutic potential in the treatment of hepatic fibrosis.

PMID- 28890701
TI  - High Fat High Sugar Diet Reduces Voluntary Wheel Running in Mice Independent of
      Sex Hormone Involvement.
AB  - Introduction: Indirect results in humans suggest that chronic overfeeding
      decreases physical activity with few suggestions regarding what mechanism(s) may
      link overfeeding and decreased activity. The primary sex hormones are known
      regulators of activity and there are reports that chronic overfeeding alters sex
      hormone levels. Thepurpose of this study was to determine if chronic overfeeding
      altered wheel running through altered sex hormone levels. Materials and Methods:
      C57BL/6J mice were bred and the pups were weaned at 3-weeks of age and randomly
      assigned to either a control (CFD) or high fat/high sugar (HFHS) diet for 9-11
      weeks depending on activity analysis. Nutritional intake, body composition, sex
      hormone levels, and 3-day and 2-week wheel-running activity were measured.
      Additionally, groups of HFHS animals were supplemented with testosterone (males)
      and 17beta-estradiol (females) to determine if sex hormone augmentation altered
      diet-induced changes in activity. Results: 117 mice (56?, 61?) were analyzed. The
      HFHS mice consumed significantly more calories per day than CFD mice (male: p <
      0.0001; female: p < 0.0001) and had significantly higher body fat (male: p <
      0.0001; female: p < 0.0001). The HFHS diet did not reduce sex hormone levels, but
      did significantly reduce acute running-wheel distance in male (p = 0.05, 70 +/-
      28%) and female mice (p = 0.02, 57 +/- 26%). In animals that received hormone
      supplementation, there was no significant effect on activity levels. Two-weeks of
      wheel access was not sufficient to alter HFHS-induced reductions in activity or
      increases in body fat. Conclusion: Chronic overfeeding reduces wheel running, but
      is independent of the primary sex hormones.

PMID- 28890703
TI  - Observations on Working Psychoanalytically with a Profoundly Amnesic Patient.
AB  - Individuals with profound amnesia are markedly impaired in explicitly recalling
      new episodic events, but appear to preserve the capacity to use information from
      other sources. Amongst these preserved capacities is the ability to form new
      memories of an emotional nature - a skill at the heart of developing and
      sustaining interpersonal relationships. The psychoanalytic study of individuals
      with profound amnesia might contribute to the understanding the importance of
      each memory system, including effects on key analytic processes such as
      transference and countertransference. However, psychoanalytic work in the
      presence of profound amnesia might also require important technical
      modifications. In the first report of its kind, we describe observations from a
      long term psychoanalytic process (72 sessions) with an individual (JL) who has
      profound amnesia after an anoxic episode. The nature of therapy was shaped by
      JL's impairment in connecting elements that belong to distant (and even
      relatively close) moments in the therapeutic process. However, we were also able
      to document areas of preservation, in what appears to be a functioning
      therapeutic alliance. As regards transference, the relationship between JL and
      his analyst can be viewed as the evolution of a narcissistic transference, and
      case material is provided that maps this into three phases: (i) rejecting; (ii)
      starting to take in; and (iii) full use of the analytic space - where each phase
      exhibits differing degrees of permeability between JL and the analyst. This
      investigation appears to have important theoretical implications for
      psychoanalytic practice, and for psychotherapy in general - and not only with
      regard to brain injured populations. We especially note that it raises questions
      concerning the mechanism of therapeutic action in psychoanalysis and
      psychotherapy, and the apparent unimportance of episodic memory for many elements
      of therapeutic change.

PMID- 28890704
TI  - Computer Mediated Social Comparative Feedback Does Not Affect Metacognitive
      Regulation of Memory Reports.
AB  - In two experiments, we investigated how social comparative feedback affects the
      metacognitive regulation of eyewitness memory reports. In Experiment 1, 87
      participants received negative, positive, or no feedback about a co-witness's
      performance on a task querying recall of a crime video. Participants then
      completed the task individually. There were no significant differences between
      negative and positive feedback groups on any measure. However, participants in
      both of these conditions volunteered more fine-grain details than participants in
      the control condition. In Experiment 2, 90 participants answered questions about
      a crime video. Participants in the experimental groups received either positive
      or negative feedback, which compared their performance to that of others.
      Participants then completed a subsequent recall task, for which they were told
      their performance would not be scored. Feedback did not significantly affect
      participants' confidence, accuracy, or the level of detail they reported in
      comparison to a no feedback control group. These findings advance our
      understanding of the boundary conditions for social feedback effects on meta
      memory.

PMID- 28890702
TI  - A Pilot Study of the Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Post
      traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Brain Response to Traumatic Reminders of
      Combat in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat Veterans with
      Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Brain imaging studies in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder
      (PTSD) have implicated a circuitry of brain regions including the medial
      prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, parietal cortex, and insula.
      Pharmacological treatment studies have shown a reversal of medial prefrontal
      deficits in response to traumatic reminders. Mindfulness-based stress reduction
      (MBSR) is a promising non-pharmacologic approach to the treatment of anxiety and
      pain disorders. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of MBSR on
      PTSD symptoms and brain response to traumatic reminders measured with positron
      emission tomography (PET) in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom
      (OEF/OIF) combat veterans with PTSD. We hypothesized that MBSR would show
      increased prefrontal response to stress and improved PTSD symptoms in veterans
      with PTSD. METHOD: Twenty-six OEF/OIF combat veterans with PTSD who had recently
      returned from a combat zone were block randomized to receive eight sessions of
      MBSR or present-centered group therapy (PCGT). PTSD patients underwent assessment
      of PTSD symptoms with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), mindfulness
      with the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and brain imaging using PET
      in conjunction with exposure to neutral and Iraq combat-related slides and sound
      before and after treatment. Nine patients in the MBSR group and 8 in the PCGT
      group completed all study procedures. RESULTS: Post-traumatic stress disorder
      patients treated with MBSR (but not PCGT) had an improvement in PTSD symptoms
      measured with the CAPS that persisted for 6 months after treatment. MBSR also
      resulted in an increase in mindfulness measured with the FFMQ. MBSR-treated
      patients had increased anterior cingulate and inferior parietal lobule and
      decreased insula and precuneus function in response to traumatic reminders
      compared to the PCGT group. CONCLUSION: This study shows that MBSR is a safe and
      effective treatment for PTSD. Furthermore, MBSR treatment is associated with
      changes in brain regions that have been implicated in PTSD and are involved in
      extinction of fear responses to traumatic memories as well as regulation of the
      stress response.

PMID- 28890705
TI  - Parent Rated Symptoms of Inattention in Childhood Predict High School Academic
      Achievement Across Two Culturally and Diagnostically Diverse Samples.
AB  - Objective: To investigate parent reports of childhood symptoms of inattention as
      a predictor of adolescent academic achievement, taking into account the impact of
      the child's intellectual functioning, in two diagnostically and culturally
      diverse samples. Method: Samples: (a) an all-female sample in the U.S.
      predominated by youth with ADHD (Berkeley Girls with ADHD Longitudinal Study
      [BGALS], N = 202), and (b) a mixed-sex sample recruited from a Norwegian
      population-based sample (the Bergen Child Study [BCS], N = 93). Inattention and
      intellectual function were assessed via the same measures in the two samples;
      academic achievement scores during and beyond high school and demographic
      covariates were country-specific. Results: Childhood inattention predicted
      subsequent academic achievement in both samples, with a somewhat stronger effect
      in the BGALS sample, which included a large subgroup of children with ADHD.
      Intellectual function was another strong predictor, but the effect of early
      inattention remained statistically significant in both samples when intellectual
      function was covaried. Conclusion: The effect of early indicators of inattention
      on future academic success was robust across the two samples. These results
      support the use of remediation procedures broadly applied. Future longitudinal
      multicenter studies with pre-planned common inclusion criteria should be
      performed to increase our understanding of the importance of inattention in
      primary school children for concurrent and prospective functioning.

PMID- 28890706
TI  - Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism
      on Children's Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory.
AB  - The current study explores the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) and
      bilingualism on the linguistic skills and verbal short-term memory of preschool
      children. In previous studies comparing children of low and mid-high SES, the
      terms "a child with low-SES" and "a child speaking a minority language" are often
      interchangeable, not enabling differentiated evaluation of these two variables.
      The present study controls for this confluence by testing children born and
      residing in the same country and attending the same kindergartens, with all
      bilingual children speaking the same heritage language (HL-Russian). A total of
      120 children (88 bilingual children: 44 with low SES; and 32 monolingual
      children: 16 with low SES) with typical language development, aged 5; 7-6; 7,
      were tested in the societal language (SL-Hebrew) on expressive vocabulary and
      three repetition tasks [forward digit span (FWD), nonword repetition (NWR), and
      sentence repetition (SRep)], which tap into verbal short-term memory. The results
      indicated that SES and bilingualism impact different child abilities.
      Bilingualism is associated with decreased vocabulary size and lower performance
      on verbal short-term memory tasks with higher linguistic load in the SL-Hebrew.
      The negative effect of bilingualism on verbal short-term memory disappears once
      vocabulary is accounted for. SES influences not only linguistic performance, but
      also verbal short-term memory with lowest linguistic load. The negative effect of
      SES cannot be solely attributed to lower vocabulary scores, suggesting that an
      unprivileged background has a negative impact on children's cognitive development
      beyond a linguistic disadvantage. The results have important clinical
      implications and call for more research exploring the varied impact of language
      and life experience on children's linguistic and cognitive skills.

PMID- 28890708
TI  - Reduced Maximum Pitch Elevation Predicts Silent Aspiration of Small Liquid
      Volumes in Stroke Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Preliminary evidence has shown that reduced ability to
      maximally raise vocal pitch correlates with the occurrence of aspiration (i.e.,
      airway invasion by food or liquid). However, it is unclear if this simple task
      can be used as a reliable predictor of aspiration in stroke patients. Our aim was
      to examine whether maximum vocal pitch elevation predicted airway invasion and
      dysphagia in stroke. METHODS: Forty-five consecutive stroke patients (<1 month
      poststroke) at a rehabilitation setting participated in a videofluoroscopic
      swallow study and two maximum vocal pitch elevation tasks. Maximum pitch was
      evaluated acoustically [maximum fundamental frequency (max F0)] and perceptually.
      Swallowing safety was rated using the Penetration/Aspiration Scale and swallowing
      performance was assessed using components of the Modified Barium Swallow
      Impairment Profile (MBSImPTM(c)). Data were analyzed using simple regression and
      receiver operating characteristics curves to test the sensitivity and specificity
      of max F0 in predicting aspiration. Correlations between max F0 and MBSImP
      variables were also examined. RESULTS: Max F0 predicted silent aspiration of
      small liquid volumes with 80% sensitivity and 65% specificity (p = 0.023; area
      under the curve: 0.815; cutoff value of 359.03 Hz). Max F0 did not predict non
      silent aspiration or penetration in this sample and did not significantly
      correlate with MBSImP variables. Furthermore, all participants who aspirated
      silently on small liquid volumes (11% of sample) had suffered cortical or
      subcortical lesions. CONCLUSION: In stroke patients (<1 month poststroke),
      reduced maximum pitch elevation predicts silent aspiration of small liquid
      volumes with high sensitivity and moderate specificity. Future large-scale
      studies focusing on further validating this finding and exploring the value of
      this simple and non-invasive tool as part of a dysphagia screening are warranted.

PMID- 28890707
TI  - ELSA 2016 Cohort: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Marijuana Use and Their Association with
      Age of Drug Use Onset, Risk Perception, and Social Norms in Argentinean College
      Freshmen.
AB  - The transition from high school to college is a high-risk stage for the
      initiation and escalation of substance use. Substance use and its associated risk
      factors have been thoroughly described in developed countries, such as the United
      States, but largely neglected in Argentina, a South American country with
      patterns of a collectivist culture. The present cross-sectional study describes
      the occurrence of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use and the association between
      these behaviors and the age of onset of substance use and cognitive (i.e., risk
      perception) and social (i.e., prescriptive) variables in a large sample of
      Argentinean college freshmen (n = 4083, 40.1% men; mean age = 19.39 +/- 2.18
      years). The response rate across courses was >=90% and was similarly distributed
      across sex. Participants completed a survey that measured substance use (alcohol
      [with a focus on heavy drinking and binge drinking behaviors], tobacco, and
      marijuana), age of onset of the use of each substance, perceived risk associated
      with various substance use behaviors, prescriptive norms associated with
      substance use, and descriptive norms for alcohol use (AU). The results indicated
      that AU is nearly normative (90.4 and 80.3% with last year and last month use,
      respectively) in this population, and heavy drinking is highly prevalent (68.6
      and 54.9% with heavy episodic and binge drinking, respectively), especially among
      those with an early drinking onset (97.8 and 93.6% with last year and last month
      use and 87.8 and 76.3% with heavy episodic and binge drinking, respectively). The
      last-year occurrence of tobacco and marijuana use was 36 and 28%, respectively.
      Early substance use was associated with the greater use of that specific
      substance. The students overestimated their same-sex friend's AU, and women
      overestimated the level of AU of their best male friend. At the multivariate
      level, all of the predictors, with the exception of the parents' prescriptive
      norms, significantly explained the frequency of marijuana and tobacco use and
      frequency of hazardous drinking. Overall, despite important cultural and
      contextual differences between Argentina and the United States, our findings
      suggest that certain vulnerability factors have a similar influence across these
      cultural contexts.

PMID- 28890709
TI  - Editorial: Neuropeptides and Behavior: From Motivation to Psychopathology.

PMID- 28890710
TI  - Commentary: Thyrotropin Stimulates Differentiation Not Proliferation of Normal
      Human Thyrocytes in Culture.

PMID- 28890711
TI  - Horizontally Acquired Genes Are Often Shared between Closely Related Bacterial
      Species.
AB  - Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) serves as an important source of innovation for
      bacterial species. We used a pangenome-based approach to identify genes that were
      horizontally acquired by four closely related bacterial species, belonging to the
      Enterobacteriaceae family. This enabled us to examine the extent to which such
      closely related species tend to share horizontally acquired genes. We find that a
      high percent of horizontally acquired genes are shared among these closely
      related species. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the extent of sharing of
      horizontally acquired genes among these four closely related species is
      predictive of the extent to which these genes will be found in additional
      bacterial species. Finally, we show that acquired genes shared by more species
      tend to be better optimized for expression within the genomes of their new hosts.
      Combined, our results demonstrate the existence of a large pool of frequently
      horizontally acquired genes that have distinct characteristics from horizontally
      acquired genes that are less frequently shared between species.

PMID- 28890713
TI  - Bad Phages in Good Bacteria: Role of the Mysterious orf63 of lambda and Shiga
      Toxin-Converting Phi24B Bacteriophages.
AB  - Lambdoid bacteriophages form a group of viruses that shares a common schema of
      genome organization and lifecycle. Some of them can play crucial roles in
      creating the pathogenic profiles of Escherichia coli strains. For example, Shiga
      toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) acquired stx genes, encoding Shiga toxins, via
      lambdoid prophages (Stx phages). The results obtained so far present the evidence
      for the relation between the exo-xis region of the phage genome and lambdoid
      phage development, however molecular mechanisms of activities of the exo-xis
      genes' products are still unknown. In view of this, we decided to determine the
      influence of the uncharacterized open reading frame orf63 of the exo-xis region
      on lambdoid phages development using recombinant prophages, lambda and Stx phage
      Phi24B. We have demonstrated that orf63 codes for a folded protein, thus, it is a
      functional gene. NMR spectroscopy and analytical gel filtration were used to
      extend this observation further. From backbone chemical shifts, Orf63 is
      oligomeric in solution, likely a trimer and consistent with its small size (63
      aa.), is comprised of two helices, likely intertwined to form the oligomer. We
      observed that the deletion of phage orf63 does not impair the intracellular
      lambdoid phage lytic development, however delays the time and decreases the
      efficiency of prophage induction and in consequence results in increased survival
      of E. coli during phage lytic development. Additionally, the deletion of phage
      orf63 negatively influences expression of the major phage genes and open reading
      frames from the exo-xis region during prophage induction with hydrogen peroxide.
      We conclude, that lambdoid phage orf63 may have specific functions in the
      regulation of lambdoid phages development, especially at the stage of the lysis
      vs. lysogenization decision. Besides, orf63 probably participates in the
      regulation of the level of expression of essential phage genes and open reading
      frames from the exo-xis region during prophage induction.

PMID- 28890712
TI  - Microbial Carbonic Anhydrases in Biomimetic Carbon Sequestration for Mitigating
      Global Warming: Prospects and Perspectives.
AB  - All the leading cities in the world are slowly becoming inhospitable for human
      life with global warming playing havoc with the living conditions.
      Biomineralization of carbon dioxide using carbonic anhydrase (CA) is one of the
      most economical methods for mitigating global warming. The burning of fossil
      fuels results in the emission of large quantities of flue gas. The temperature of
      flue gas is quite high. Alkaline conditions are necessary for CaCO3 precipitation
      in the mineralization process. In order to use CAs for biomimetic carbon
      sequestration, thermo-alkali-stable CAs are, therefore, essential. CAs must be
      stable in the presence of various flue gas contaminants too. The extreme
      environments on earth harbor a variety of polyextremophilic microbes that are
      rich sources of thermo-alkali-stable CAs. CAs are the fastest among the known
      enzymes, which are of six basic types with no apparent sequence homology, thus
      represent an elegant example of convergent evolution. The current review focuses
      on the utility of thermo-alkali-stable CAs in biomineralization based strategies.
      A variety of roles that CAs play in various living organisms, the use of CA
      inhibitors as drug targets and strategies for overproduction of CAs to meet the
      demand are also briefly discussed.

PMID- 28890714
TI  - Gut Microbiota Analysis in Rats with Methamphetamine-Induced Conditioned Place
      Preference.
AB  - Methamphetamine abuse is a major public health crisis. Because accumulating
      evidence supports the hypothesis that the gut microbiota plays an important role
      in central nervous system (CNS) function, and research on the roles of the
      microbiome in CNS disorders holds conceivable promise for developing novel
      therapeutic avenues for treating CNS disorders, we sought to determine whether
      administration of methamphetamine leads to alterations in the intestinal
      microbiota. In this study, the gut microbiota profiles of rats with
      methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) were analyzed through
      16S rRNA gene sequencing. The fecal microbial diversity was slightly higher in
      the METH CPP group. The propionate-producing genus Phascolarctobacterium was
      attenuated in the METH CPP group, and the family Ruminococcaceae was elevated in
      the METH CPP group. Short chain fatty acid analysis revealed that the
      concentrations of propionate were decreased in the fecal matter of METH
      administered rats. These findings provide direct evidence that administration of
      METH causes gut dysbiosis, enable a better understanding of the function of gut
      microbiota in the process of drug abuse, and provide a new paradigm for addiction
      treatment.

PMID- 28890715
TI  - Identification of Fungal Communities Associated with the Biodeterioration of
      Waterlogged Archeological Wood in a Han Dynasty Tomb in China.
AB  - The Mausoleum of the Dingtao King (termed 'M2') is a large-scale huangchang ticou
      tomb that dates to the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-25 A.D.). It is the highest
      ranking Han Dynasty tomb discovered to date. However, biodeterioration on the
      surface of the tomb M2 is causing severe damage to its wooden materials. The aim
      of the present study was to give insight into the fungal communities colonized
      the wooden tomb. For this purpose, seven samples were collected from different
      sections of the tomb M2 which exhibited obvious biodeterioration in the form of
      white spots. Microbial structures associated with the white spots were observed
      with scanning electron microscopy. Fungal community structures were assessed for
      seven samples via a combination of high-throughput sequencing and culture
      dependent techniques. Sequencing analyses identified 114 total genera that
      belonged to five fungal phyla. Hypochnicium was the most abundant genus across
      all samples and accounted for 98.61-99.45% of the total community composition.
      Further, Hypochnicium sp. and Mortierella sp. cultures were successfully isolated
      from the tomb samples, and were distinguished as Hypochnicium sp. WY-DT1 and
      Mortierella sp. NK-DT1, respectively. Cultivation-dependent experiments indicated
      that the dominant member, Hypochnicium sp. WY- DT1, could grow at low
      temperatures and significantly degraded cellulose and lignin. Thus, our results
      taken together suggest that this fungal strain must be regarded as a serious
      threat to the preservation of the wooden tomb M2. The results reported here are
      useful for informing future contamination mitigation efforts for the tomb M2 as
      well as other similar cultural artifacts.

PMID- 28890716
TI  - Mining the Volatilomes of Plant-Associated Microbiota for New Biocontrol
      Solutions.
AB  - Microbial lifeforms associated with land plants represent a rich source for crop
      growth- and health-promoting microorganisms and biocontrol agents. Volatile
      organic compounds (VOCs) produced by the plant microbiota have been demonstrated
      to elicit plant defenses and inhibit the growth and development of numerous plant
      pathogens. Therefore, these molecules are prospective alternatives to synthetic
      pesticides and the determination of their bioactivities against plant threats
      could contribute to the development of control strategies for sustainable
      agriculture. In our previous study we investigated the inhibitory impact of
      volatiles emitted by Pseudomonas species isolated from a potato field against the
      late blight-causing agent Phytophthora infestans. Besides the well-documented
      emission of hydrogen cyanide, other Pseudomonas VOCs impeded P. infestans
      mycelial growth and sporangia germination. Current advances in the field support
      the emerging concept that the microbial volatilome contains unexploited, eco
      friendly chemical resources that could help select for efficient biocontrol
      strategies and lead to a greener chemical disease management in the field.

PMID- 28890717
TI  - Efficient Killing of Murine Pluripotent Stem Cells by Natural Killer (NK) Cells
      Requires Activation by Cytokines and Partly Depends on the Activating NK Receptor
      NKG2D.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role as cytotoxic effector cells,
      which scan the organism for infected or tumorigenic cells. Conflicting data have
      been published whether NK cells can also kill allogeneic or even autologous
      pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) and which receptors are involved. A clarification
      of this question is relevant since an activity of NK cells against PSCs could
      reduce the risk of teratoma growth after transplantation of PSC-derived grafts.
      Therefore, the hypothesis has been tested that the activity of NK cells against
      PSCs depends on cytokine activation and specifically on the activating NK
      receptor NKG2D. It is shown that a subcutaneous injection of autologous iPSCs
      failed to activate NK cells against these iPSCs and can give rise to teratomas.
      In agreement with this result, several PSC lines, including two iPSC, two
      embryonic stem cell (ESC), and two so-called multipotent adult germline stem cell
      (maGSC) lines, were largely resistant against resting NK cells although
      differences in killing were found at low level. All PSC lines were killed by
      interleukin (IL)-2-activated NK cells, and maGSCs were better killed than the
      other PSC types. The PSCs expressed ligands of the activating NK receptor NKG2D
      and NKG2D-deficient NK cells from Klrk1-/- mice were impaired in their cytotoxic
      activity against PSCs. The low-cytotoxic activity of resting NK cells was almost
      completely dependent on NKG2D. The cytotoxic activity of IL-2-activated NKG2D
      deficient NK cells against PSCs was reduced, indicating that also other
      activating receptors on cytokine-activated NK cells must be engaged by ligands on
      PSCs. Thus, NKG2D is an important activating receptor involved in killing of
      murine PSCs. However, NK cells need to be activated by cytokines before they
      efficiently target PSCs and then also other NK receptors become relevant. These
      features of NK cells might be relevant for transplantation of PSC-derived grafts
      since NK cells have the capability to kill undifferentiated cells, which might be
      present in grafts in trace amounts.

PMID- 28890718
TI  - Transmembrane Tumor Necrosis Factor Controls Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell
      Activity via TNF Receptor 2 and Protects from Excessive Inflammation during BCG
      Induced Pleurisy.
AB  - Pleural tuberculosis (TB) is a form of extra-pulmonary TB observed in patients
      infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Accumulation of myeloid-derived
      suppressor cells (MDSC) has been observed in animal models of TB and in human
      patients but their role remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, we
      analyzed the role of transmembrane TNF (tmTNF) in the accumulation and function
      of MDSC in the pleural cavity during an acute mycobacterial infection.
      Mycobacterium bovis BCG-induced pleurisy was resolved in mice expressing tmTNF,
      but lethal in the absence of tumor necrosis factor. Pleural infection induced
      MDSC accumulation in the pleural cavity and functional MDSC required tmTNF to
      suppress T cells as did pleural wild-type MDSC. Interaction of MDSC expressing
      tmTNF with CD4 T cells bearing TNF receptor 2 (TNFR2), but not TNFR1, was
      required for MDSC suppressive activity on CD4 T cells. Expression of tmTNF
      attenuated Th1 cell-mediated inflammatory responses generated by the acute
      pleural mycobacterial infection in association with effective MDSC expressing
      tmTNF and interacting with CD4 T cells expressing TNFR2. In conclusion, this
      study provides new insights into the crucial role played by the tmTNF/TNFR2
      pathway in MDSC suppressive activity required during acute pleural infection to
      attenuate excessive inflammation generated by the infection.

PMID- 28890719
TI  - Outer Membrane Vesicles Prime and Activate Macrophage Inflammasomes and Cytokine
      Secretion In Vitro and In Vivo.
AB  - Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are proteoliposomes blebbed from the surface of
      Gram-negative bacteria. Chronic periodontitis is associated with an increase in
      subgingival plaque of Gram-negative bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema
      denticola, and Tannerella forsythia. In this study, we investigated the immune
      modulatory effects of P. gingivalis, T. denticola, and T. forsythia OMVs on
      monocytes and differentiated macrophages. All of the bacterial OMVs were
      phagocytosed by monocytes, M(naive) and M(IFNgamma) macrophages in a dose
      dependent manner. They also induced NF-kappaB activation and increased TNFalpha,
      IL-8, and IL-1beta cytokine secretion. P. gingivalis OMVs were also found to
      induce anti-inflammatory IL-10 secretion. Although unprimed monocytes and
      macrophages were resistant to OMV-induced cell death, lipopolysaccharide or OMV
      priming resulted in a significantly reduced cell viability. P. gingivalis, T.
      denticola, and T. forsythia OMVs all activated inflammasome complexes, as
      monitored by IL-1beta secretion and ASC speck formation. ASC was critical for OMV
      induced inflammasome formation, while AIM2-/- and Caspase-1-/- cells had
      significantly reduced inflammasome formation and NLRP3-/- cells exhibited a
      slight reduction. OMVs were also found to provide both priming and activation of
      the inflammasome complex. High-resolution microscopy and flow cytometry showed
      that P. gingivalis OMVs primed and activated macrophage inflammasomes in vivo
      with 80% of macrophages exhibiting inflammasome complex formation. In conclusion,
      periodontal pathogen OMVs were found to have significant immunomodulatory effects
      upon monocytes and macrophages and should therefore influence pro-inflammatory
      host responses associated with disease.

PMID- 28890720
TI  - Porcine B Cell Subset Responses to Toll-like Receptor Ligands.
AB  - Toll-like receptors (TLR) triggering of B cells are known to promote B cell
      expansion, differentiation of B cells into antibody-producing and memory cells,
      but the TLR responses of porcine B cells is poorly characterized. Therefore, this
      study investigated the response pattern of porcine B cell subsets to a large
      collection of TLR ligands and demonstrates that the TLR2 ligand Pam3Cys-SK4 and
      the TLR7/8 ligands gardiquimod and resiquimod are particularly efficient at
      inducing proliferation, CD25 and CCR7. This activation was also determined in B
      cell subpopulations including a CD21+IgM+ subset, an IgG+ subset and two putative
      B1-like subsets, defined as CD21-IgMhighCD11R1+CD11c+CD14+ and CD21-IgMhigh
      CD11R1-CD11c+CD14- B cells. The latter two were larger and expressed higher
      levels of CD80/86 and spontaneous phospholipase C-gamma2 phosphorylation. All
      porcine B-cell subsets were activated by TLR2, TLR7, and TLR9 ligands. Naive and
      memory conventional B cells responded similar to TLR ligands. The CD11R1+ B1-like
      subset had the highest proliferative responses. While both B1-like subsets did
      not spontaneously secrete IgM, they were the only subsets to produce high level
      of TLR-induced IgM. Similar to polyclonal IgM responses, memory B cells were
      efficiently induced to produce specific antibodies by CpG oligodinucleotide,
      resiquimod, and to a weaker extend by Pam3Cys-SK4. Depletion of plasmacytoid
      dendritic cells (pDCs) enhanced TLR-induced antibodies. The same set of TLR
      ligands also induced CD40 on cDCs, pDCs, and monocytes with the exception of TLR4
      ligand being unable to activate pDCs. Gardiquimod and resiquimod were
      particularly efficient at inducing CCR7 on pDCs. Porcine B cells expressed high
      levels of TLR7, but relatively little other TLR mRNA. Nevertheless, TLR2 on B
      cells was rapidly upregulated following stimulation, explaining the strong
      responses following stimulation. Subset-specific analysis of TLR expression
      demonstrated a comparable expression of TLR2, TLR7, and TLR9 in all B cell
      subsets, but TLR3 was restricted to B1-like cells, whereas TLR4 was only
      expressed on conventional B cells, although both at low levels. Altogether, our
      data describe porcine innate B1-like cells, and how different B cell subsets are
      involved in innate sensing.

PMID- 28890721
TI  - Development and Application of Transcriptome-Derived Microsatellites in Actinidia
      eriantha (Actinidiaceae).
AB  - Actinidia eriantha Benth. is a diploid perennial woody vine native to China and
      is recognized as a valuable species for commercial kiwifruit improvement with
      high levels of ascorbic acid as well as having been used in traditional Chinese
      medicine. Due to the lack of genomic resources for the species, microsatellite
      markers for population genetics studies are scarce. In this study, RNASeq was
      conducted on fruit tissue of A. eriantha, yielding 5,678,129 reads with a total
      output of 3.41 Gb. De novo assembly yielded 69,783 non-redundant unigenes (41.3
      Mb), of which 21,730 were annotated using protein databases. A total of 8,658 EST
      SSR loci were identified in 7,495 unigene sequences, for which primer pairs were
      successfully designed for 3,842 loci (44.4%). Among these, 183 primer pairs were
      assayed for PCR amplification, yielding 69 with detectable polymorphism in A.
      eriantha. Additionally, 61 of the 69 polymorphic loci could be successfully
      amplified in at least one other Actinidia species. Of these, 14 polymorphic loci
      (mean NA = 6.07 +/- 2.30) were randomly selected for assessing levels of genetic
      diversity and population structure within A. eriantha. Finally, a neighbor
      joining tree and Bayesian clustering analysis showed distinct clustering into two
      groups (K = 2), agreeing with the geographical distributions of these
      populations. Overall, our results will facilitate further studies of genetic
      diversity within A. eriantha and will aid in discriminating outlier loci involved
      in local adaptation.

PMID- 28890723
TI  - Dynamics of Short-Term Phosphorus Uptake by Intact Mycorrhizal and Non
      mycorrhizal Maize Plants Grown in a Circulatory Semi-Hydroponic Cultivation
      System.
AB  - A non-destructive cultivation system was developed to study the dynamics of
      phosphorus (Pi) uptake by mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal maize plantlets. The
      system consisted of a plant container connected via silicon tubes to a glass
      bottle containing a nutrient solution supplemented with Pi. The nutrient solution
      is pumped with a peristaltic pump to the upper part of the container via the
      silicon tubes and the solution percolate through the plantlet container back into
      the glass bottle. Pi is sampled from the glass bottle at regular intervals and
      concentration evaluated. Maize plantlets were colonized by the AMF Rhizophagus
      irregularis MUCL 41833 and Pi uptake quantified at fixed intervals (9, 21, and 42
      h) from the depletion of the Pi in the nutrient solution flowing through the
      plantlets containers. Plants and fungus grew well in the perlite substrate. The
      concentration of Pi in the bottles followed an almost linear decrease over time,
      demonstrating a depletion of Pi in the circulating solution and a concomitant
      uptake/immobilization by the plantlet-AMF associates in the containers. The Pi
      uptake rate was significantly increased in the AMF-colonized plantlets (at 9 and
      21 h) as compared to non-colonized plantlets, although no correlation was noticed
      with plant growth or P accumulation in shoots. The circulatory semi-hydroponic
      cultivation system developed was adequate for measuring Pi depletion in a
      nutrient solution and by corollary Pi uptake/immobilization by the plant-AMF
      associates. The measurements were non-destructive so that the time course of Pi
      uptake could be monitored without disturbing the growth of the plant and its
      fungal associate. The system further opens the door to study the dynamics of
      other micro and macro-nutrients as well as their uptake under stressed growth
      conditions such as salinity, pollution by hydrocarbon contaminants or potential
      toxic elements.

PMID- 28890722
TI  - Predicted Functional Implications of Phosphorylation of Regulator of G Protein
      Signaling Protein in Plants.
AB  - Heterotrimeric G proteins function in development, biotic, and abiotic stress
      responses, hormone signaling as well as sugar sensing. We previously proposed
      that discrimination of these various external signals in the G protein pathway is
      accomplished in plants by membrane-localized receptor-like kinases (RLKs) rather
      than G-protein-coupled receptors. Arabidopsis thaliana Regulator of G Signaling
      protein 1 (AtRGS1) modulates G protein activation and is phosphorylated by
      several RLKs and by WITH-NO-LYSINE kinases (WNKs). Here, a combination of in
      vitro kinase assays, mass spectrometry, and computational bioinformatics
      identified and functionally prioritized phosphorylation sites in AtRGS1.
      Phosphosites for two more RLKs (BRL3 and PEPR1) were identified and added to the
      AtRGS1 phosphorylation profile. Bioinformatics analyses revealed that RLKs and
      WNK kinases phosphorylate plant RGS proteins within regions that are conserved
      across eukaryotes and at a high frequency. Four phospho-sites among 14 identified
      are proximal to equivalent mammalian phosphosites that impact RGS function,
      including: pS437 and pT267 in GmRGS2, and pS339 and pS436 in AtRGS1. Based on
      these analyses, we propose that pS437 and pS436 regulate GmRGS2 and AtRGS1
      protein interactions and/or localization, whereas pT267 is important for
      modulation of GmRGS2 GAP activity and localization. Moreover, pS339 most likely
      affects AtRGS1 activation.

PMID- 28890724
TI  - Vacuolar Sequestration of Paraquat Is Involved in the Resistance Mechanism in
      Lolium perenne L. spp. multiflorum.
AB  - Lolium perenne L. spp. multiflorum (Lam.) Husnot (LOLMU) is a winter annual weed,
      common to row crops, orchards and roadsides. Glyphosate-resistant populations of
      LOLMU are widespread in California. In many situations, growers have switched to
      paraquat or other postemergence herbicides to manage glyphosate-resistant LOLMU
      populations. Recently, poor control of LOLMU with paraquat was reported in a
      prune orchard in California where paraquat has been used several times. We
      hypothesize that the low efficacy observed is due to the selection of a paraquat
      resistant biotype of LOLMU. Greenhouse dose-response experiments conducted with a
      susceptible (S) and the putative paraquat-resistant biotype (PRHC) confirmed
      paraquat resistance in PRHC. Herbicide absorption studies indicated that paraquat
      is absorbed faster in S than PRHC, although the maximum absorption estimates were
      similar for the two biotypes. Conversely, translocation of 14C-paraquat under
      light-manipulated conditions was restricted to the treated leaf of PRHC, whereas
      herbicide translocation out of the treated leaf was nearly 20 times greater in S.
      To determine whether paraquat was active within the plant cells, the
      photosynthetic performance was assessed after paraquat application using the
      parameter maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm). Paraquat reaches the
      chloroplasts of PRHC, since there was a transitory inhibition of photosynthetic
      activity in PRHC leaves. However, PRHC Fv/Fm recovered to initial levels by 48 h
      after paraquat treatment. No paraquat metabolites were found, indicating that
      resistance is not due to paraquat degradation. LOLMU leaf segments were exposed
      to paraquat following pretreatments with inhibitors of plasma membrane- and
      tonoplast-localized transporter systems to selectively block paraquat
      intracellular movement. Subsequent evaluation of membrane integrity indicated
      that pre-exposure to putrescine resulted in the resistant biotype responding to
      paraquat similarly to S. These results strongly indicate that vacuolar
      sequestration is involved in the resistance to paraquat in this population of
      LOLMU.

PMID- 28890725
TI  - The Biphasic Root Growth Response to Abscisic Acid in Arabidopsis Involves
      Interaction with Ethylene and Auxin Signalling Pathways.
AB  - Exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) is known to either stimulate or inhibit root
      growth, depending on its concentration. In this study, the roles of ethylene and
      auxin in this biphasic effect of ABA on root elongation were investigated using
      chemical inhibitors and mutants. Inhibitors of ethylene perception and
      biosynthesis and an auxin influx inhibitor were all found to block the inhibitory
      effect of high ABA concentrations, but not the stimulatory effect of low ABA
      concentrations. In addition, three ethylene-insensitive mutants (etr1-1, ein2-1,
      and ein3-1), two auxin influx mutants (aux1-7, aux1-T) and an auxin-insensitive
      mutant (iaa7/axr2-1) were all insensitive to the inhibitory effect of high ABA
      concentrations. In the case of the stimulatory effect of low ABA concentrations,
      it was blocked by two different auxin efflux inhibitors and was less pronounced
      in an auxin efflux mutant (pin2/eir1-1) and in the iaa7/axr2-1 auxin-insensitive
      mutant. Thus it appears that the stimulatory effect seen at low ABA
      concentrations is via an ethylene-independent pathway requiring auxin signalling
      and auxin efflux through PIN2/EIR1, while the inhibitory effect at high ABA
      concentrations is via an ethylene-dependent pathway requiring auxin signalling
      and auxin influx through AUX1.

PMID- 28890726
TI  - Next-Generation Sequencing-Aided Rapid Molecular Diagnosis of Occult Macular
      Dystrophy in a Chinese Family.
AB  - Purpose: To show early, rapid and accurate molecular diagnosis of occult macular
      dystrophy (OMD) in a four-generation Chinese family with inherited macular
      dystrophy. Methods: In the current study, we comprehensively screened 130 genes
      involved in common inherited non-syndromic eye diseases with next-generation
      sequencing-based target capture sequencing of the proband of a four-generation
      Chinese family that has suffered from maculopathy without a definitive diagnosis
      for over 10 years. Variants were filtered and analyzed to identify possible
      disease-causing variants before validation by Sanger sequencing. Results: Two
      heterozygous mutations-RP1L1 c.133 C > T (p.Arg45Trp), which is a hot spot for
      OMD, and ABCA4 c.6119 G > A (p.Arg2040Gln), which was identified in Stargardt's
      disease were found in three patients, but neither of the mutations was found in
      the unaffected individuals in the same family, who are phenotypically normal or
      in the normal control volunteers. Conclusion: These results cannot only confirm
      the diagnosis of OMD in the proband, but also provide presymptomatic diagnosis of
      the proband's children before the onset of visual acuity impairment and guidance
      regarding the prognosis and management of these patients. Heterozygous mutations
      of RP1L1 c.133 C > T (p.Arg45Trp) and ABCA4 c.6119 G > A (p.Arg2040Gln) are
      likely responsible for OMD. Our results further extend our current understanding
      of the genetic basis of OMD, and emphasize the importance of molecular diagnosis
      and genetic counseling for OMD.

PMID- 28890727
TI  - Popliteal Artery Entrapment or Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome?
AB  - Diagnosis of lower limb pain in an athlete can be a challenging task due to the
      variety of potential etiologies and ambiguity of presenting symptoms. Five of the
      most commonly encountered causes of limb pain in athletes are chronic exertional
      compartment syndrome (CECS), medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS), tibial stress
      fractures, soleal sling syndrome, and popliteal artery entrapment syndrome
      (PAES). Of these, the least frequent but potentially most serious of the
      pathologies is PAES. With an incidence of less than 1% seen in living subject
      studies, the condition is rare. However, a missed diagnosis will likely lead to
      progression of the disease and potential for unnecessary invasive procedures
      (McAree et al. 2008). In this paper, we present a young athlete misdiagnosed and
      treated for chronic exertional compartment syndrome. In both descriptive and a
      quick-reference table format, we review current literature and discuss how best
      to distinguish functional PAES from other causes of activity-related leg pain.

PMID- 28890728
TI  - Ambient Air Quality Classification by Grey Wolf Optimizer Based Support Vector
      Machine.
AB  - With the development of society along with an escalating population, the concerns
      regarding public health have cropped up. The quality of air becomes primary
      concern regarding constant increase in the number of vehicles and industrial
      development. With this concern, several indices have been proposed to indicate
      the pollutant concentrations. In this paper, we present a mathematical framework
      to formulate a Cumulative Index (CI) on the basis of an individual concentration
      of four major pollutants (SO2, NO2, PM2.5, and PM10). Further, a supervised
      learning algorithm based classifier is proposed. This classifier employs support
      vector machine (SVM) to classify air quality into two types, that is, good or
      harmful. The potential inputs for this classifier are the calculated values of
      CIs. The efficacy of the classifier is tested on the real data of three
      locations: Kolkata, Delhi, and Bhopal. It is observed that the classifier
      performs well to classify the quality of air.

PMID- 28890730
TI  - Quantifying the quantum.

PMID- 28890729
TI  - Clinical application of a cancer genomic profiling assay to guide precision
      medicine decisions.
AB  - AIM: Develop and apply a comprehensive and accurate next-generation sequencing
      based assay to help clinicians to match oncology patients to therapies. MATERIALS
      & METHODS: The performance of the CANCERPLEX(r) assay was assessed using DNA from
      well-characterized routine clinical formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE)
      specimens and cell lines. RESULTS: The maximum sensitivity of the assay is 99.5%
      and its accuracy is virtually 100% for detecting somatic alterations with an
      allele fraction of as low as 10%. Clinically actionable variants were identified
      in 93% of patients (930 of 1000) who underwent testing. CONCLUSION: The test's
      capacity to determine all of the critical genetic changes, tumor mutation burden,
      microsatellite instability status and viral associations has important
      ramifications on clinical decision support strategies, including identification
      of patients who are likely to benefit from immune checkpoint blockage therapies.

PMID- 28890731
TI  - The organization of strong links in complex networks.
AB  - Many complex systems reveal a small-world topology, which allows simultaneously
      local and global efficiency in the interaction between system constituents. Here,
      we report the results of a comprehensive study that investigates the relation
      between the clustering properties in such small-world systems and the strength of
      interactions between its constituents, quantified by the link weight. For brain,
      gene, social and language networks, we find a local integrative weight
      organization in which strong links preferentially occur between nodes with
      overlapping neighbourhoods; we relate this to global robustness of the clustering
      to removal of the weakest links. Furthermore, we identify local learning rules
      that establish integrative networks and improve network traffic in response to
      past traffic failures. Our findings identify a general organization for complex
      systems that strikes a balance between efficient local and global communication
      in their strong interactions, while allowing for robust, exploratory development
      of weak interactions.

PMID- 28890732
TI  - Geographic distribution of blood collections in Haiti before and after the 2010
      earthquake.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The January 2010 Haiti earthquake destroyed the National Blood
      Transfusion Center and reduced monthly national blood collections by > 46%.
      Efforts to rapidly scale-up blood collections outside of the earthquake-affected
      region were investigated. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Blood collection data for
      2004-2014 from Haiti's 10 administrative departments were grouped into four
      regions: Northern, Central, Port-au-Prince and Southern. Analyses compared
      regional collection totals during the study period. RESULTS: Collections in Port
      au-Prince accounted for 52% of Haiti's blood supply in 2009, but fell 96% in
      February 2010. Haiti subsequently increased blood collections in the North,
      Central and Southern regions to compensate. By May 2010, national blood
      collections were only 10.9% lower than in May 2009, with 70% of collections
      coming from outside of Port-au-Prince. By 2013 national collections (27 478
      units) had surpassed 2009 levels by 30%, and Port-au-Prince collections had
      recovered (from 11 074 units in 2009 to 11 670 units in 2013). CONCLUSION:
      Haiti's National Blood Safety Program managed a rapid expansion of collections
      outside of Port-au-Prince following the earthquake. Annual collections exceeded
      pre-earthquake levels by 2012 and continued rising annually. Increased regional
      collections provided a greater share of the national blood supply, reducing
      dependence on Port-au-Prince for collections.

PMID- 28890733
TI  - Child Poverty in the United States: A Tale of Devastation and the Promise of
      Hope.
AB  - The child poverty rate in the United States is higher than in most similarly
      developed countries, making child poverty one of America's most pressing social
      problems. This article provides an introduction of child poverty in the US,
      beginning with a short description of how poverty is measured and how child
      poverty is patterned across social groups and geographic space. I then examine
      the consequences of child poverty with a focus educational outcomes and child
      health, and three pathways through which poverty exerts its influence: resources,
      culture, and stress. After a brief review of the anti-poverty policy and
      programmatic landscape, I argue that moving forward we must enrich the
      communities in which poor families live in addition to boosting incomes and
      directly supporting children's skill development. I conclude with emerging
      research questions.

PMID- 28890734
TI  - A spatially resolved estimate of High Mountain Asia glacier mass balances, 2000
      2016.
AB  - High Mountain Asia hosts the largest glacier concentration outside the polar
      regions. These glaciers are important contributors to streamflow in one of the
      most populated areas of the world. Past studies have used methods that can only
      provide regionally-averaged glacier mass balances to assess the High Mountain
      Asia glacier contribution to rivers and sea level rise. Here we compute the mass
      balance for about 92 % of the glacierized area of High Mountain Asia using time
      series of digital elevation models derived from satellite stereo-imagery. We
      calculate an average region-wide mass balance of -16.3 +/- 3.5 Gt yr-1 (-0.18 +/-
      0.04 m w.e. yr-1) between 2000 and 2016, which is less negative than most
      previous estimates. Region-wide mass balances vary from -4.0 +/- 1.5 Gt yr-1 (
      0.62 +/- 0.23 m w.e. yr-1) in Nyainqentanglha to +1.4 +/- 0.8 Gt yr-1 (+0.14 +/-
      0.08 m w.e. yr-1) in Kunlun, with large intra-regional variability of individual
      glacier mass balances (standard deviation within a region ~0.20 m w.e. yr-1).
      Specifically, our results shed light on the Nyainqentanglha and Pamir glacier
      mass changes, for which contradictory estimates exist in the literature. They
      provide crucial information for the calibration of the models used for
      projections of future glacier response to climatic changes, models that presently
      do not capture the pattern, magnitude and intra-regional variability of glacier
      changes in High Mountain Asia.

PMID- 28890735
TI  - Fluid-driven metamorphism of the continental crust governed by nanoscale fluid
      flow.
AB  - The transport of fluids through the Earth's crust controls the redistribution of
      elements to form mineral and hydrocarbon deposits, the release and sequestration
      of greenhouse gases, and facilitates metamorphic reactions that influence
      lithospheric rheology. In permeable systems with a well-connected porosity, fluid
      transport is largely driven by fluid pressure gradients. In less permeable rocks,
      deformation may induce permeability by creating interconnected heterogeneities,
      but without these perturbations, mass transport is limited along grain boundaries
      or relies on transformation processes that self-generate transient fluid
      pathways. The latter can facilitate large-scale fluid and mass transport in
      nominally impermeable rocks without large-scale fluid transport pathways. Here,
      we show that pervasive, fluid-driven metamorphism of crustal igneous rocks is
      directly coupled to the production of nanoscale porosity. Using multi-dimensional
      nano-imaging and molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that in feldspar,
      the most abundant mineral family in the Earth's crust, electrokinetic transport
      through reaction-induced nanopores (10-100 nm) can potentially be significant.
      This suggests that metamorphic fluid flow and fluid-mediated mineral
      transformation reactions can be considerably influenced by nanofluidic transport
      phenomena.

PMID- 28890736
TI  - The psychoactive drug 25B-NBOMe recapitulates rhabdomyolysis in zebrafish larvae.
AB  - N-Benzyl-substituted 2C class phenethylamines (NBOMes) are psychoactive designer
      drugs, with strong hallucinogenic and stimulant effects, even at low doses. The
      designer drug, 2-(4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl) ethanamine
      (25B-NBOMe) is considered to be one of the most potent agonists of the serotonin
      2A (5-HT2A) receptor. Recently, we reported the first lethal case of 25B-NBOMe
      intoxication with severe rhabdomyolysis, concluded by clinical, pathological and
      toxicological analyses. There are currently no good animal models that closely
      recapitulate serotonin receptor-dependent rhabdomyolysis. In the present study,
      we created animal models of rhabdomyolysis using zebrafish larvae to study the
      pathomechanism of rhabdomyolysis, and demonstrated that 25B-NBOMe can simulate
      lethal rhabdomyolysis in this animal. Treatment of the larvae with 25B-NBOMe
      decreased their survival rate, locomotion, altered birefringence of the skeletal
      muscle and immunostainings for dystroglycan (a myoseptal protein) and myosin
      heavy chain (a myofibril protein), which were consistent with rhabdomyolysis.
      This 25B-NBOMe-induced rhabdomyolysis was inhibited by the 5-HT2A receptor
      antagonists ritanserin and aripirazole, but not by the 5-HT1A + 5-HT1B receptor
      antagonist propranolol and the 5-HT3 receptor antagonist granisetron, indicating
      5-HT2A-dependent rhabdomyolysis. The 25B-NBOMe-treated zebrafish is, therefore, a
      highly useful model of rhabdomyolysis for studying the pathomechanism of
      rhabdomyolysis as well as for therapeutic drug screening.

PMID- 28890737
TI  - From 'Hard' Neuro-Tools to 'Soft' Neuro-Toys? Refocussing the Neuro-Enhancement
      Debate.
AB  - Since the 1990's, the debate concerning the ethical, legal and societal aspects
      of 'neuro-enhancement' has evolved into a massive discourse, both in the public
      realm and in the academic arena. This ethical debate, however, tends to repeat
      the same sets of arguments over and over again. Normative disagreements between
      transhumanists and bioconservatives on invasive or radical brain stimulators, and
      uncertainties regarding the use and effectivity of nootropic pharmaceuticals
      dominate the field. Building on the results of an extensive European project on
      responsible research and innovation in neuro-enhancement (NERRI), we observe and
      encourage that the debate is now entering a new and, as we will argue, more
      realistic and societally relevant stage. This new stage concerns those
      technologies that enter the market as ostensibly harmless contrivances that
      consumers may use for self-care or entertainment. We use the examples and
      arguments of participants in NERRI debates to describe three case studies of such
      purportedly innocent 'toys'. Based upon this empirical material, we argue that
      these 'soft' enhancement gadgets are situated somewhere in the boundary zone
      between the internal and the external, between the intimate and the intrusive,
      between the familiar and the unfamiliar, between the friendly and the scary and,
      in Foucauldian terms, between technologies of the self and technologies of
      control. Therefore, we describe their physiognomy with the help of a term
      borrowed from Jacques Lacan, namely as "extimate" technologies.

PMID- 28890738
TI  - Moral Enhancement Should Target Self-Interest and Cognitive Capacity.
AB  - Current suggestions for capacities that should be targeted for moral enhancement
      has centered on traits like empathy, fairness or aggression. The literature,
      however, lacks a proper model for understanding the interplay and complexity of
      moral capacities, which limits the practicability of proposed interventions. In
      this paper, I integrate some existing knowledge on the nature of human moral
      behavior and present a formal model of prosocial motivation. The model provides
      two important results regarding the most friction-free route to moral
      enhancement. First, we should consider decreasing self-interested motivation
      rather than increasing prosociality directly. Second, this should be complemented
      with cognitive enhancement. These suggestions are tested against existing and
      emerging evidence on cognitive capacity, mindfulness meditation and the effects
      of psychedelic drugs and are found to have sufficient grounding for further
      theoretical and empirical exploration. Furthermore, moral effects of the latter
      two are hypothesized to result from a diminished sense of self with subsequent
      reductions in self-interest.

PMID- 28890739
TI  - Towards a Moral Ecology of Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement in British
      Universities.
AB  - Few empirical studies in the UK have examined the complex social patterns and
      values behind quantitative estimates of the prevalence of pharmacological
      cognitive enhancement (PCE). We conducted a qualitative investigation of the
      social dynamics and moral attitudes that shape PCE practices among university
      students in two major metropolitan areas in the UK. Our thematic analysis of
      eight focus groups (n = 66) suggests a moral ecology that operates within the
      social infrastructure of the university. We find that PCE resilience among UK
      university students is mediated by normative and cultural judgments disfavoring
      competitiveness and prescription drug taking. PCE risk can be augmented by social
      factors such as soft peer pressure and normalization of enhancement within social
      and institutional networks. We suggest that moral ecological dynamics should be
      viewed as key mechanisms of PCE risk and resilience in universities. Effective
      PCE governance within universities should therefore attend to developing further
      understanding of the moral ecologies of PCE.

PMID- 28890740
TI  - Public Attitudes Towards Moral Enhancement. Evidence that Means Matter Morally.
AB  - To gain insight into the reasons that the public may have for endorsing or
      eschewing pharmacological moral enhancement for themselves or for others, we used
      empirical tools to explore public attitudes towards these issues. Participants (N
      = 293) from the United States were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk and
      were randomly assigned to read one of several contrastive vignettes in which a 13
      year-old child is described as bullying another student in school and then is
      offered an empathy-enhancing program. The empathy-enhancing program is described
      as either involving taking a pill or playing a video game on a daily basis for
      four weeks. In addition, participants were asked to imagine either their own
      child bullying another student at school, or their own child being bullied by
      another student. This resulted in a 2 * 2 between-subjects design. In an
      escalating series of morally challenging questions, we asked participants to rate
      their overall support for the program; whether they would support requiring
      participation; whether they would support requiring participation of children who
      are at higher risk to become bullies in the future; whether they would support
      requiring participation of all children or even the entire population; and
      whether they would be willing to participate in the program themselves. We found
      that people were significantly more troubled by pharmacological as opposed to non
      pharmacological moral enhancement interventions. The results indicate that
      members of the public for the greater part oppose pharmacological moral
      bioenhancement, yet are open to non-biomedical means to attain moral enhancement.
      [248 words].

PMID- 28890741
TI  - Coexisting Disadvantages in later Life: Demographic and Socio-Economic
      Inequalities.
AB  - In this study, we aimed to identify which of certain demographic and socio
      economic groups in the oldest part of the population that have an increased
      probability of experiencing simultaneous disadvantages in different life domains 
      here termed coexisting disadvantages. To do so, we compared analyses of
      coexisting disadvantages, measured as two or more simultaneous disadvantages,
      with analyses of single disadvantages and specific combinations of disadvantages.
      Indicators of physical health problems, ADL limitations, psychological health
      problems, limited financial resources, and limited social resources were
      included. We used nationally representative data from 2011 on people aged 76 and
      older in Sweden (n = 765). Results showed that coexisting disadvantages were
      associated with specific demographic and socio-economic groups, particularly
      certain marital status groups. Moreover, the differences between the demographic
      and socio-economic groups were only found for those who reported coexisting
      disadvantages, and not for those who reported only one disadvantage, which
      suggests that demographic and social factors become more important as
      disadvantages compound. Further, we analysed pairwise combinations of
      disadvantages. We found that different combinations of disadvantages tended to be
      associated with different groups, information useful from a social planning
      perspective since different combinations of disadvantages may imply different
      needs for help and support.

PMID- 28890742
TI  - Who in Europe Works beyond the State Pension Age and under which Conditions?
      Results from SHARE.
AB  - There is much research about those who exit the labour market prematurely,
      however, comparatively little is known about people working longer and about
      their employment and working conditions. In this paper, we describe the
      employment and working conditions of men and women working between 65 and 80
      years, and compare them with previous conditions of those retired in the same age
      group. Analyses are based on wave 4 data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and
      Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with information collected between 2009 and 2011
      from 17,625 older men and women across 16 European countries. Besides socio
      demographic and health-related factors (physical and mental health), the focus
      lies on employment conditions (e.g. employment status, occupational position and
      working hours) and on stressful working conditions, measured in terms of low
      control at work and effort-reward imbalance. In case of retired people,
      information on working conditions refer to the last job before retirement.
      Following descriptive analyses, we then conduct multivariable analyses and
      investigate how working conditions and poor health are related to labour market
      participation (i.e. random intercept models accounting for country affiliation
      and adjusted for potential confounders). Results illustrate that people working
      between the ages of 65 and 80 are more likely to be self-employed (either with or
      without employees) and work in advantaged occupational positions. Furthermore,
      findings reveal that psychosocial working conditions are generally better than
      the conditions retired respondents had in their last job. Finally, in contrast to
      those who work, health tends to be worse among retired people. In conclusion,
      findings deliver empirical evidence that paid employment beyond age 65 is more
      common among self-employed workers throughout Europe, in advantaged occupations
      and under-favourable psychosocial circumstances, and that this group of workers
      are in considerably good mental and physical health. This highlights that
      policies aimed at increasing the state pension age beyond the age of 65 years put
      pressure on specific disadvantaged groups of men and women.

PMID- 28890743
TI  - Are the Chinese Saving for Old Age?: The Relationship between Future Pension
      Benefits of 45-60 Years Old Chinese and Current Household Expenditures.
AB  - Worldwide, older people's support used to be the adult children's responsibility.
      In China, two generations after introducing the one-child policy in the late 70
      ies, this becomes an increasingly demanding obligation. The Chinese government
      took the responsibility to mitigating old- age poverty risks and realized
      unprecedented progress in pension coverage. At the same time, the household
      savings increased to about 30 % of disposable income. Built on previous research
      on the politics of ageing, this study analyses households responses to the
      established governmental and firm pension programs as well as to the New Rural
      Pension Scheme (NRPS), introduced in 2009. The central question is: will
      participation in the established and new pension programs lead to higher current
      Chinese household expenditures and therefore to lower savings? The China Health
      and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) dataset of 2011 offered the
      opportunity to study the influence of the recently introduced NRPS. We find that
      Chinese households with members between 45 and 60 years who expect future
      benefits of NRPS do not have higher expenditures than those not covered by NRPS.
      For the participants in the established, mostly urban pension programs a
      correlation was found with higher current expenditures (28 % more spending on
      basic needs, 80 % more on luxury) However, further analysis shows that this
      correlation cannot be interpreted as a causal relationship. This implies that
      coverage by pensions, be it in urban or rural programs, does not determine higher
      current expenditures and lower savings.

PMID- 28890744
TI  - Static and Time-Resolved Terahertz Measurements of Photoconductivity in Solution
      Deposited Ruthenium Dioxide Nanofilms.
AB  - Thin-film ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) is a promising alternative material as a
      conductive electrode in electronic applications because its rutile crystalline
      form is metallic and highly conductive. Herein, a solution-deposition multi-layer
      technique is employed to fabricate ca. 70 +/- 20 nm thick films (nanoskins) and
      terahertz spectroscopy is used to determine their photoconductive properties.
      Upon calcining at temperatures ranging from 373 K to 773 K, nanoskins undergo a
      transformation from insulating (localized charge transport) behavior to metallic
      behavior. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) indicates that nanoskins
      attain maximum static conductivity when calcined at 673 K (sigma = 1030 +/- 330
      S.cm-1). Picosecond time-resolved Terahertz spectroscopy (TRTS) using 400 nm and
      800 nm excitation reveals a transition to metallic behavior when calcined at 523
      K. For calcine temperatures less than 523 K, the conductivity increases following
      photoexcitation (DeltaE < 0) while higher calcine temperatures yield films
      composed of crystalline, rutile RuO2 and the conductivity decreases (DeltaE > 0)
      following photoexcitation.

PMID- 28890745
TI  - A Simple and Practical Method for Setting Up a Criterion of Projection of
      Silicone Breast Implant After Simple Mastectomy.
AB  - Objective: In breast reconstruction, decision of projection of silicone breast
      implant in tissue expander replacement is difficult because of the need to
      consider several parameters that cannot be expressed in accurate numerical form.
      The present study aimed at a quantitative analysis based on decreased projection
      of the reconstructed side compared with silicone breast implant projection and to
      develop a new method for simple and practical decision of silicone breast implant
      projection. Methods: Thirty-five patients who had mammary carcinoma and were
      treated with simple mastectomy, tissue expander insertion, and replacement with
      anatomical silicone breast implant from April 2013 to March 2016 were
      retrospectively identified. We recorded the projection of used silicone breast
      implant (Pi). The projections of reconstructed breast 6 months after silicone
      breast implant insertion (Pr) and that of the unaffected breast during silicone
      breast implant selection (Pu) were measured. The difference between Pi and Pr was
      defined as the revised numerical value (Rev). We investigated whether Rev
      significantly differed according to age, body mass index, or Pu and analyzed
      correlations between Rev and age, Pu, and body mass index. Results: Mean Rev in
      all patients was 1.2 +/- 0.3 cm. Rev was significantly higher in patients with
      higher body mass index than in those with lower body mass index (P < .01) and in
      patients with higher Pu than in those with lower Pu (P < .01). Significant
      positive correlations of Rev with body mass index and Pu were found (beta = .63,
      P < .01 and beta = .67, P < .01, respectively). Conclusions: Rev was a simple,
      practical, and cost-effective concept. We believe that it is a useful indicator
      for deciding silicone breast implant projection.

PMID- 28890746
TI  - A New Criterion for the Application of 2-Stage Implant-Only Breast Reconstruction
      Using a Classification Based on the Rostrocaudal Distance Along the Chest Wall
      Between the Lowest Point of the Breast and Inframammary Fold.
AB  - Objective: It is generally difficult to achieve symmetry in implant-only breast
      reconstruction with ptosis, and it remains unclear what quantitative criterion
      may be applied in cases of breast ptosis regarding the application of this
      modality. Our study aimed to suggest a criterion for obtaining good aesthetic
      outcomes and a symmetrical inframammary fold that is well-fitting for the
      brassiere in implant-only breast reconstruction after simple mastectomy. Methods:
      We classified into 3 groups 50 consecutive patients who underwent implant-only
      breast reconstruction that created an inframammary fold using a modified internal
      method after simple mastectomy. The classification was based on the rostrocaudal
      distance along the chest wall between the lowest point of the breast the and the
      inframammary fold on the contralateral side (Dc, in millimeters). Thereafter, we
      compared this distance on the reconstructed side (Dr, in millimeters), Dc-Dr, and
      projection of the implant (Pi, in centimeters) between the groups and
      investigated the correlation between Dr and lower (Pi < 5.0 cm) and higher Pi (Pi
      >= 5.0 cm). Results: Dr was similar to Dc in groups 1 and 2 (0 <= Dc < 10 mm,
      40/50 [80%]); however, Dr was significantly lesser than Dc in group 3 (Dc >= 10
      mm, 10/50 [20%]). In addition, we found significant positive correlations between
      Dr and lower Pi and between Dr and higher Pi. Conclusions: A Dc below 10 mm may
      be a good indication for implant-only breast reconstruction. Furthermore, the
      modality may be applied where Dc is 7 mm or less in cases with lower Pi and where
      Dc is 13 mm or less in cases with higher Pi.

PMID- 28890747
TI  - Sclerotherapy for the Management of Seromas: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Objective: Despite improved recognition of risk factors, plastic surgeons
      commonly encounter seromas postoperatively and must decide upon management.
      Current recommendations for minimally invasive, chemical management originate
      from the literature on management of pneumothorax and pleural effusions. A
      handful of published reports have suggested the efficacy of sclerotherapy in
      seroma management. The aim of this study was to assess the literature on the use
      of sclerosants to treat subcutaneous fluid collections. Methods: A systematic
      review of the literature was performed on the PubMed, MEDLINE, and Cochrane
      databases for primary research articles on sclerotherapy for seroma treatment
      between January 1975 and January 2017. Exclusion criteria were surgical
      treatment, sclerotherapy for seroma prevention, hematoma, or absence of detailed
      documentation. Data related to seroma location, sclerosant, and resolutions were
      extracted. Results: The literature search yielded 7 relevant articles of level IV
      evidence and 12 case reports, with a total of 84 patients treated with
      sclerotherapy for persistent seromas. Slerosant included talc, tetracycline
      antibiotics, ethanol, polidocanol, erythromycin, OK-432, fibrin glue, and
      povidone-iodine. All agents achieved high rates of success. Repeat aspirations
      and instillations were easily performed when required. Complications, while
      uncommon, included pain, tightness or discomfort of the treated area, and
      infection. Conclusion: Sclerotherapy appears to be effective and safe for
      recurrent seromas. While a variety of sclerosing agents may be applied
      successfully, talc and tetracyclines remain popular choices. Because of the small
      scale and retrospective nature of the published literature, larger, randomized,
      comparative studies are necessary to assess and optimize this treatment approach.

PMID- 28890748
TI  - Palatal Lengthening With Double-Opposing Buccal Flaps for Velopharyngeal
      Insufficiency.

PMID- 28890749
TI  - Salvage Operation Using the Free Latissimus Dorsi Muscle Flap for Necrosis of the
      Free Scapular Flap After Harvesting Both Flaps in a Chimeric Pattern.

PMID- 28890750
TI  - Advances in the control of vaccine preventable diseases in Ethiopia.

PMID- 28890751
TI  - Analysis of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance in Ethiopia, 2005-2015: progress
      and challenges.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ethiopia joined the global effort to eradicate polio in 1996, and
      interrupted indigenous wild poliovirus transmission by December 2001. However,
      the country experienced numerous separate importations during 2003-2013.
      Sensitive Acute Flaccid (AFP) surveillance is critical to rule out undetected
      circulation of WPV and VDPVs. METHODS: In this study described, we used a
      retrospective descriptive study design to characterize the surveillance
      performance from 2005 to 2015. RESULTS: The none-polio AFP rate improved from
      2.6/100,000 children <15 years old in 2005 to 3.1 in 2015, while stool adequacy
      has also improved from 78.5% in 2005 to 92 % in 2015. At the national level, most
      AFP surveillance performance indicators are achieved and maintained over the
      years, however, AFP surveillance performance at sub-national level varies greatly
      particularly in pastoralist regions. In addition, the minimum standard for non
      polio enterovirus isolation rate (10%) was not achieved except in 2007 and 2009.
      Nevertheless, the proportion of cases investigated within 2 days of notification
      and the proportion of specimens arriving in good condition within 3 days to the
      laboratory were maintained throughout all the years reviewed. CONCLUSION: We
      found that the AFP surveillance system was efficient and progressively improved
      over the past 10 years in Ethiopia. However, the subnational AFP surveillance
      performance varies and were not maintained, particularly in pastoralist regions,
      and the non-polio enterovirus isolation rate declined since 2010. We recommend
      the institution of community-based surveillance in pastoralist regions and
      conduct detail review of the laboratory sensitivity and the reverse cold chain
      system.

PMID- 28890752
TI  - Measles burden in urban settings: characteristics of measles cases in Addis Ababa
      city administration, Ethiopia, 2004-2014.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: In developing countries, measles was a major cause of morbidity and
      mortality before the wide spread use of measles vaccine. The purpose of this
      study was to describe measles burden in an urban setting, Addis Ababa- since the
      implementation of measles case-based surveillance in Ethiopia. We analyzed
      measles surveillance data for 2004 -2014. METHODS: Incidence of measles was
      described by sub city, by year and by age groups. Age specific incidence rate
      were calculated. Logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of
      confirmed measles cases. RESULTS: Of 4220 suspected measles cases 39% were
      confirmed cases. Males and females were equally affected. The mean affected age
      was 7.59 years. Measles cases peaked in 2010 and 2013-2014. Incidence of measles
      is higher among children less than five years old. Outer sub cities were more
      affected by measles in all years. CONCLUSION: Sub cities bordering with Oromia
      Regional State were more affected by measles. Older age groups were more affected
      than younger age groups (age <= five years old). Efforts to close immunity gaps
      against measles and further strengthen surveillance in urban settings,
      particularly among children below five years old, should be prioritized.

PMID- 28890753
TI  - Introducing an accountability framework for polio eradication in Ethiopia:
      results from the first year of implementation 2014-2015.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: the World Health Organization (WHO), Ethiopia country office,
      introduced an accountability framework into its Polio Eradication Program in 2014
      with the aim of improving the program's performance. Our study aims to evaluate
      staff performance and key program indicators following the introduction of the
      accountability framework. METHODS: the impact of the WHO accountability framework
      was reviewed after its first year of implementation from June 2014 to June 2015.
      We analyzed selected program and staff performance indicators associated with
      acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance from a database available at WHO. Data
      on managerial actions taken were also reviewed. Performance of a total of 38
      staff was evaluated during our review. RESULTS: our review of results for the
      first four quarters of implementation of the polio eradication accountability
      framework showed improvement both at the program and individual level when
      compared with the previous year. Managerial actions taken during the study period
      based on the results from the monitoring tool included eleven written
      acknowledgments, six discussions regarding performance improvement, six rotations
      of staff, four written first-warning letters and nine non-renewal of contracts.
      CONCLUSION: the introduction of the accountability framework resulted in
      improvement in staff performance and overall program indicators for AFP
      surveillance.

PMID- 28890754
TI  - CT AND MRI FUSION FOR POSTIMPLANT PROSTATE BRACHYTHERAPY EVALUATION.
AB  - Postoperative evaluation of prostate brachytherapy is typically performed using
      CT, which does not have sufficient soft tissue contrast for accurate anatomy
      delineation. MR-CT fusion enables more accurate localization of both anatomy and
      implanted radioactive seeds, and hence, improves the accuracy of postoperative
      dosimetry. We propose a method for automatic registration of MR and CT images
      without a need for manual initialization. Our registration method employs a point
      to-volume registration scheme during which localized seeds in the CT images,
      produced by commercial treatment planning systems as part of the standard of
      care, are rigidly registered to preprocessed MRI images. We tested our algorithm
      on ten patient data sets and achieved an overall registration error of 1.6 +/-
      0.8 mm with a running time of less than 20s. With high registration accuracy and
      computational speed, and no need for manual intervention, our method has the
      potential to be employed in clinical applications.

PMID- 28890755
TI  - ARCHITECTURAL PATTERNS FOR DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF PROLIFERATIVE BREAST LESIONS
      FROM HISTOPATHOLOGICAL IMAGES.
AB  - The differential diagnosis of proliferative breast lesions, benign usual ductal
      hyperplasia (UDH) versus malignant ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is
      challenging. This involves a pathologist examining histopathologic sections of a
      biopsy using a light microscope, evaluating tissue structures for their
      architecture or size, and assessing individual cell nuclei for their morphology.
      Imposing diagnostic boundaries on features that otherwise exist on a continuum
      going from benign to atypia to malignant is a challenge. Current computational
      pathology methods have focused primarily on nuclear atypia in drawing these
      boundaries. In this paper, we improve on these approaches by encoding for both
      cellular morphology and spatial architectural patterns. Using a publicly
      available breast lesion database consisting of UDH and three different grades of
      DCIS, we improve the classification accuracy by 10% over the state-of-the-art
      method for discriminating UDH and DCIS. For the four way classification of UDH
      and the three grades of DCIS, our method improves the results by 6% in accuracy,
      8% in micro-AUC, and 19% in macro-AUC.

PMID- 28890756
TI  - Single-Arm Phase II Group Sequential Trial Design with Survival Endpoint at a
      Fixed Time Point.
AB  - In this paper, three non-parametric test statistics are proposed to design single
      arm phase II group sequential trials for monitoring survival probability. The
      small-sample properties of these test statistics are studied through simulations.
      Sample size formulas are derived for the fixed sample test. The Brownian motion
      property of the test statistics allowed us to develop a flexible group sequential
      design using a sequential conditional probability ratio test procedure (Xiong,
      1995). An example is given to illustrate the trial design by using the proposed
      method.

PMID- 28890757
TI  - Populations of Rice Grain Bug, Paraeuscosmetus pallicomis, (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)
      in Weed-free Paddy Field, Weedy Paddy Field and Paddy Dykes.
AB  - Research on the populations of rice grain bug Paraeuscosmetus pallicomis Dallas
      (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) in paddy field ecosystems was performed with the aim to
      determine the populations of rice grain bug in weed-free paddy field, weedy paddy
      field, and paddy dykes. Experiment was carried out in the village of Paccellekang
      in the district of Patallasang of Gowa Regency in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
      Observations were performed during the milky grain stage (85 days after
      planting), the mature grain stage (105 days after planting), and one day after
      harvest (115 days after transplanting). Results showed that 85 days after the
      transplanting, the populations of rice grain bug was significantly higher in the
      weedy paddy field compared to weed-free field and paddy dykes with total numbers
      of 1.75, 3.53, and 0.31 insects per 2 hills, respectively. Similarly, 105 days
      after the transplanting, 2.53, 5.53, and 0.11 insects per hill, respectively.
      However, one day after the harvest (115 days after transplanting) the number of
      insects in weed-free field decreased, while in the dykes increased, and the weedy
      plot still had the highest number of insects per 2 hills. Our results suggested
      that weeds played an important role in regulating the bug population by providing
      alternative shelter and foods for the insect.

PMID- 28890758
TI  - Determination of Trophic Structure in Selected Freshwater Ecosystems by using
      Stable Isotope Analysis.
AB  - Stable isotope analysis has been used extensively to establish trophic
      relationships in many ecosystems. Present study utilised stable isotope
      signatures of carbon and nitrogen to identify trophic structure of aquatic food
      web in river and rice field ecosystems in Perak, northern peninsular Malaysia.
      The mean delta13C values of all producers ranged from -35.29 +/- 0.21 to -26.00
      +/- 0.0500/00. The greatest delta15N values noted was in zenarchopterid fish with
      9.68 +/- 0.0200/00. The delta15N values of aquatic insects ranged between 2.59 +/
      0.107 in Elmidae (Coleoptera) and 8.11 +/- 0.0220/00 in Nepidae (Hemiptera).
      Correspondingly, with all the delta13C and delta15N values recorded, it can be
      deduced that there are four trophic levels existed in the freshwater ecosystems
      which started with the producer (plants), followed by primary consumer (aquatic
      insects and non-predatory fish), secondary consumer (invertebrate predators) and
      lastly tertiary consumer (vertebrate predators).

PMID- 28890759
TI  - General Perceptions and Awareness Level among Local Residents in Penang Island
      toward Bats Conservation Efforts.
AB  - The population of bats has declined from year to year caused by human activities
      such as logging and hunting activities. Since the human factor is linked to the
      issues of population decline in many animal species, a community-based
      conservation strategy that involved local communities is needed. We conducted
      face-to-face surveys among residents in Penang Island to assess knowledge and
      awareness level toward bats conservation efforts. We collected demographic values
      such as age, gender, level of education, length of residency as well as their
      monthly income, since different group in these variable might have different
      perception. We found that age groups, level of education and monthly income have
      shown significant differences among the respondents. However, no other
      significant differences were indicated for by gender and length of residency.
      Respondent's knowledge of bats showed that the majority of the respondents were
      less likely to value the importance of bats in the ecosystem. We recommended
      stronger legal system, earlier exposure towards environmental education, well
      planned urbanisation implementation and long-term monitoring programs to
      strengthen efforts in conserving bats in Malaysia.

PMID- 28890760
TI  - Insecticide Residues on Poultry Manures: Field Efficacy Test on Selected
      Insecticides in Managing Musca Domestica Population.
AB  - In this study, bifenthrin (Maxxthor SC, Ensystex Australasia Pty Ltd),
      imidacloprid (Prothor SC, Ensystex Australasia Pty Ltd) and fipronil
      (Regent(r)50SC, Bayer) were applied on the natural infest manures according to
      the manufacturer rate during a broiler breeding cycle. Solvent direct-immersion
      extraction (SDIE) was used in detecting the target compound and later,
      quantification of the insecticide residues in field condition was investigated.
      The samples were prior cleaned up by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and analysed by
      Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) - photodiode array (PDA) system.
      In the field trial, three insecticides were showed accumulation during the
      broiler breeding period and it is suggested that they acted as adulticides when
      applied on the poultry manures, this is supported by the significant correlation
      between the increment of insecticide residues to the reduction percentage of
      adult flies (<0.05). Fipronil showed significantly greater reduction on the adult
      fly compared to the other insecticides, in which the reduction rate compared to
      control population at the end of the broiler breeding period; fipronil,
      imidaclopril and bifenthrin reduced 51.51%, 28.30% and 30.84% of adult flies,
      respectively.

PMID- 28890761
TI  - Hypothetical Protein BPSL3393 of Burkholderia pseudomallei is Involved in
      Ethanolamine Catabolism.
AB  - Burkholderia pseudomallei is a soil-dwelling bacterium that causes a globally
      emerging disease called melioidosis. Approximately one third of the in silico
      annotated genes in its genome are classified as hypothetical genes. This group of
      genes is difficult to be functionally characterised partly due to the absence of
      noticeable phenotypes under conventional laboratory settings. A bioinformatic
      survey of hypothetical genes revealed a gene designated as BPSL3393 that
      putatively encodes a small protein of 11 kDA with a CoA binding domain. BPSL3393
      is conserved in all the B. pseudomallei genomes as well as various in other
      species within the genus Burkholderia. Taking into consideration that CoA plays a
      ubiquitous metabolic role in all life forms, characterisation of BPSL3393 may
      uncover a previously over-looked metabolic feature of B. pseudomallei. The gene
      was deleted from the genome using a double homologous recombination approach
      yielding a null mutant. The BPSL3393 mutant showed no difference in growth rate
      with the wild type under rich and minimal growth conditions. An extensive
      metabolic phenotyping test was performed involving 95 metabolic substrates. The
      deletion mutant of BPSL3393 was severely impaired in its ethanolamine metabolism.
      The growth rate of the mutant was attenuated when ethanolamine was used as the
      sole carbon source. A transcriptional analysis of the ethanolamine metabolism
      genes showed that they were down-regulated in the BPSL3393 mutant. This seemed to
      suggest that BPSL3393 functions as a positive regulator for ethanolamine
      metabolism.

PMID- 28890762
TI  - Nutrient Contents of the Freshwater Crab, Isolapotamon bauense from Sarawak,
      Malaysia (Borneo).
AB  - Data on nutrient contents of freshwater crabs are important for ecological
      studies and species conservation assessments, especially when the species
      concerned is threatened among others by habitat destruction and uncontrolled
      resources utilisation. Indeed comprehensive biological information is required to
      reconcile the needs between sustainable resources utilisation and conservation of
      the species. This study documents the nutrient contents of a freshwater crab,
      Isolapotamon bauense which is listed as 'Vulnerable' in the IUCN Red List of
      Threatened Species and also being harvested by local community for dietary
      supplement. Results show that muscles of the freshwater crab contain a
      substantial amount of nutrients in particular water content (male = 79.31 +/-
      2.30 %, female = 77.63 +/- 0.56 %), protein (male = 77.47 +/- 6.11 %, female =
      63.28 +/- 3.62 %), magnesium (male = 51.48 +/- 16.10 mg/g, female = 39.73 +/-
      6.99 mg/g) and calcium (male = 25.50 +/- 6.98 mg/g, female = 39.73 +/- 6.99
      mg/g). Means of nutrient contents between male and female crabs are not
      significantly different. It is estimated that an individual of I. bauense with
      weight range of 56-139 g contained on average of 0.35 +/- 0.15 g of protein. Our
      estimation also shows that the number of individuals of the freshwater crab
      required to meet the recommended daily protein intakes of the community concerned
      is in the range 35-96 individuals for children, 130-188 individuals for
      adolescents, 171-179 individuals for men and 149-159 individuals for women. The
      results imply that harvesting of wild I. bauense as a source of protein
      supplement naturally may not be practical because of its relatively low
      population abundance, and conservation of the species for its ecological roles
      may thus be preferred.

PMID- 28890763
TI  - Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (Insecta) Abundance, Diversity and Role
      in Leaf Litter Breakdown in Tropical Headwater River.
AB  - Leaf litter decomposition in a tropical stream was examined in two types of leaf
      packs; single species leaf packs of Pometia pinnata and two species leaf packs of
      equal combination of Pometia pinnata and Dolichandrone spathacea leaves. Both
      leaf packs were immersed in a river and weekly examined for remains of decomposed
      leaves and presence of EPT. In the control leaf packs, leaves in the two species
      leaf packs treatments decomposed within 35 days, faster than in single species
      leaf packs which decomposed after 42 days. In the presence of EPT, the leaf
      breakdown took 28 days in two species and 35 days for single species leaf packs.
      Higher abundance of EPT was observed in single species leaf packs but its
      diversity was higher in two species leaf packs. Litter breakdown in the stream
      was faster in the presence of EPT and softer leaves of D. spathacea with higher
      nitrogen content underwent faster decomposition and sustained higher numbers of
      EPT.

PMID- 28890764
TI  - Lactococcus Lactis Strain A5 Producing Nisin-like Bacteriocin Active against Gram
      Positive and Negative Bacteria.
AB  - In this study, a Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strain was isolated on MRS medium
      from gastro-intestinal tissues of Broadhead catfish (Clarias macrocephalus). Out
      of 50 isolates, 25 isolates were found to be positive on lactose utilisation test
      and were identified to be gram positive cocci. Using disc diffusion methods, one
      out of 22 isolates, i.e., a strain A5 demonstrated inhibitions against three
      indicator organisms; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella
      thyphimurium. Partial 16S rDNA sequencing identified isolate A5 as a member of
      Lactococcus lactis, with 100% DNA homology. Cell free supernatant fluid from
      Lactococcus lactis A5 showed inhibitory activities against both gram positive
      pathogens (Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative pathogens
      (Salmonella thyphimurium). Chloroform precipitated bacteriocin retained
      antagonistic activities in the presence of catalase and lysozyme; and was
      completely inactivated by Proteinase K treatment. The bacteriocin has a molecular
      weight of 3.4 kDa, based on SDS-PAGE analysis and the extract was heat stable at
      37 degrees C and 65 degrees C, for 15 minutes. The antibacterial activity was
      suppressed with the addition of EDTA but was significantly increased with the
      addition of SDS, Triton X-100, Tween 20 and Tween 80. This bacteriocin belongs to
      class 1 bacteriocin, which was shown to have a nisin-like properties. This strain
      can be used as potential probiotics in animal or aquaculture feeding; and the
      bacteriocin it produces will be useful in food preservative.

PMID- 28890765
TI  - Evaluation of Nutritional Composition of The Dried Seaweed Ulva lactuca from
      Pameungpeuk Waters, Indonesia.
AB  - The nutritional composition of the dried seaweed Ulva lactuca from Pameungpeuk
      waters, including proximate, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and heavy metal
      has been carried out. The objective of this present study is to know the
      nutritional composition of the dried seaweed U. lactuca for utilisation in human
      nutrition in the future. Results show that carbohydrate was the major component
      in the proximate analysis of U. lactuca in the present study. The carbohydrate
      content was 58.1%. Moisture, ash, protein and fat content were 16.9%, 11.2%,
      13.6% and 0.19% respectively, while dietary fibre was 28.4%. The vitamin A
      content was examined in this study less than 0.5 IU/100 mg while vitamin B1
      (thiamine) and vitamin B2 (riboflavin) were 4.87 mg/kg and 0.86 mg/kg
      respectively. The calcium content was 1828 mg/100 g higher than other minerals.
      The heavy metal content examined in this study were lower than the limit of the
      quality criteria applied to edible seaweeds sold in Indonesia. Based on the
      results of this study show that U. lactuca has potential to be developed as an
      alternative source of a healthy food for human in the future.

PMID- 28890766
TI  - Some Biological Aspects of Bigeye Scad, Selar crumenophthalmus from Bangaa Faru,
      Maldives.
AB  - In this paper, we studied some biological aspects of big eye scad (Selar
      crumenophthalmus) from Maldives. The fish sample was collected from the local
      fish market at Bangaa Faru, Male, Maldives. The length of the samples were ranged
      from 7.7 cm to 24.5 cm (mean value = 16.85 +/- 2.82 cm) in fork length. Body
      weight ranged between 8 g to 255.6 g (mean value = 87.76 +/- 40.41 g). The
      exponent values (b slope) of lengthweight relationship of S. crumenophthalmus are
      2.9838 for females and 2.7687 for males; indicating negative allometric growth
      pattern for both sexes. Synchronous reproductive behaviour was observed in both
      sexes and a pronounced peak of Gonadosomatic index was observed in females in
      January 2013. It is estimated that length at first maturity (L50) for females is
      at 19.39 cm FL and for males at 21.76 cm FL. Our result also suggest that big eye
      scad have a reduced swimming capability, resulting the species to be easily
      caught. Careful planning and management should be implemented to prevent the big
      eye scad from being overfished.

PMID- 28890767
TI  - Application of Aquatic Insects (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera And Trichoptera) In
      Water Quality Assessment of Malaysian Headwater.
AB  - The Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) community structure and the
      specific sensitivity of certain EPT genera were found to be influenced by water
      parameters in the rivers of Gunung Jerai Forest Reserve (GJFR) in the north of
      peninsular Malaysia. The scores of EPT taxa richness of >10 in all rivers
      indicated all rivers' habitats were non-impacted, having good water quality
      coinciding with Class I and Class II of Malaysian water quality index (WQI)
      classification of potable water. The abundance of EPT was very high in Teroi
      River (9,661 individuals) but diversity was lower (22 genera) than Tupah River
      which was highly diverse (28 genera) but lower in abundance (4,263 individuals).
      The lowest abundance and moderate diversity was recorded from Batu Hampar River
      (25 genera). Baetis spp. and Thalerosphyrus spp., Neoperla spp. and
      Cheumatopsyche spp. were the most common genera found. Classification for all
      rivers using EPT taxa Richness Index and WQI gave different category of water
      quality, respectively. The WQI classified Tupah and Batu Hampar rivers into Class
      II and Teroi River (Class I) was two classes above the classification of the EPT
      taxa Richness Index.

PMID- 28890768
TI  - Isochrysis maritima Billard and Gayral Isolated from Penang National Park Coastal
      Waters as a Potential Microalgae for Aquaculture.
AB  - The importance of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in microalgae was widely
      reported. In this study, six isolated microalgae from Teluk Aling, Penang
      National Park were screened for PUFA contents. Isochrysis maritima showed the
      best polyunsaturated fatty acids essential for aquaculture species compared to
      other microalgal species tested. This species is a good choice as aquaculture
      feed due to its small size (3-7 MUm), which is appropriate size for ingestion.
      The maximum specific growth rate of this species was also high (0.52-0.82 days-1)
      and comparable with many recognised aquaculture microalgae. On the other hand,
      this species was also able to be cultivated successfully in big volume (1000 L
      culture medium) with open hatchery condition, which will optimise the production
      cost. Low ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFA) recorded in I.
      maritima at any growth phases (0.32-0.45) also indicate optimal values for
      feeding.

PMID- 28890769
TI  - Pollen Load and Flower Constancy of Three Species of Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera,
      Apidae, Meliponinae).
AB  - The genera of stingless bees play an important role as pollinators of plants.
      These bees are actively involved in the pollination of agricultural crops and
      known to have preferences in selecting flowers to pollinate. The aims of this
      study were to analyse the pollen load and flower constancy in Tetragonula
      laeviceps, Lepidotrigona terminata, and Heterotrigona itama. Each individual of
      species stingless bees collected and was put in a 1.5 mL micro-tube contain 0.5
      mL 70% ethanol:glycerol (4:1). Pollen loads on each individual of stingless bees
      was counted by hemocytometer. Flower constancy of stingless bees was measured
      based on percentage of pollen type loaded on the body. Results showed that the
      pollen loads of H. itama was the highest (31392 pollen grains) followed by L.
      terminata (23017 pollen grains) and T. laeviceps (8015 pollen grains). These
      species also demonstrated different flower constancy, T. laeviceps on Poaceae
      flowers (76.49%), L. terminata on Euphorbiaceae flowers (80.46%), and H. itama on
      Solanaceae flowers (83.33%).

PMID- 28890770
TI  - Using Non-supervised Artificial Neural Network for Determination of Anthropogenic
      Disturbance in a River System.
AB  - The study of river water quality plays an important role in assessing the
      pollution status and health of the water bodies. Human-induced activities such as
      domestic activities, aquaculture, agriculture and industries have detrimentally
      affected the river water quality. Pinang River is one of the important rivers in
      Balik Pulau District that supplies freshwater for human consumption. A total of
      442 physical and chemical parameters data of the Pinang River, Balik Pulau
      catchment were analysed to determine the sources of pollutants entering the
      river. Non-supervised artificial neural network (ANN) was employed to classify
      and cluster the river into upstream, middle-stream and downstream zones. The
      monitored data and non-supervised ANN analysis demonstrated that the source of
      nitrate was derived from the upper part of the Pinang River, Balik Pulau while
      the sources of nitrite, ammonia and ortho-phosphate are predominant at the middle
      stream of the river system. Meanwhile, the sources of high total suspended solid
      and biological oxygen demand were concentrated at the downstream of the river.

PMID- 28890771
TI  - A Preliminary Survey of Species Composition of Termites (Insecta: Isoptera) in
      Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary, Sarawak.
AB  - A survey on termite species composition was conducted in Samunsam Wildlife
      Sanctuary, Sarawak in February 2015. Overall 19 species of termite belonging to
      13 genera and 8 subfamilies was found in the sanctuary. It was recorded the
      subfamily of Termitinae had the highest number of species (6 species, equal to
      31.58% of total species), followed by Nasutermitinae (3 species, 15.79%),
      Macrotermitinae, Amitermitinae, Rhinotermitinae, Coptotermitinae, (2 species,
      10.53% respectively), and Heterotermitinae, Termitogetoninae (1 species, 5.26%
      respectively). Since this rapid survey is the first termite assemblage
      representation in Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary, the preliminary result may serve
      as the baseline data for termite composition in the area. Therefore, a whole
      coverage for the area within this sanctuary would definitely increase the number
      of termite species found in the sanctuary.

PMID- 28890772
TI  - Knowledge and Cultural Beliefs of Mothers Regarding the Risk Factors of Infant
      Hearing Loss and Awareness of Audiology Services.
AB  - The aim of the paper is to describe the knowledge of mothers in Durban, South
      Africa, regarding risk factors of hearing loss in infants and their awareness of
      audiology services, and to describe their cultural beliefs about the risk factors
      for hearing loss in infants. A descriptive survey design with quantitative
      methods of analysis were used. Conveniently sampled mothers (n=102) receiving
      postnatal care for their infants from eight provincial clinics within Durban
      consented to participate, yielding a response rate of 48%. A questionnaire was
      used to collect the data and the Cronbach alpha was calculated yielding a score
      of 0.835, indicating good internal consistency and reliability of the
      questionnaire. Sixty percent of the mothers were aware of risk factors, such as
      middle ear infections, ototoxic medication and consumption of alcohol during
      pregnancy. Seventy percent were unaware that NICU/mechanical ventilation for more
      than 5 days, prematurity, rubella and jaundice are considered risk factors for
      hearing loss, implying a need to create awareness amongst mothers regarding such
      risk factors. Sixty percent (n=62) believed that bewitchment and ancestral curses
      can cause hearing loss. Cultural beliefs were associated with hearing loss,
      therefore, health professionals need to demonstrate cultural competence when
      providing audiology services, especially in a culturally and linguistically
      diverse countries such as South Africa. Although the mothers had an average
      knowledge about risk factors, two thirds did not know which professional to seek
      help from. There is a need to create awareness amongst mothers regarding the risk
      factors of infant hearing loss as well as audiology services in order to
      facilitate early detection and intervention. There is a need for health
      professionals to demonstrate cultural competence when working with their
      patients.

PMID- 28890773
TI  - The Use of Facilities for Labor and Delivery: The Views of Women in Rural Uganda.
AB  - The aim of the paper is to explore factors associated with home or hospital
      delivery in rural Uganda. Qualitative interviews with recently-delivered women in
      rural Uganda and statistical analysis of data from the 2011 Ugandan Demographic
      and Health Survey (DHS) to assess the association between socio-demographic and
      cultural factors and delivery location in multivariable regression models. In the
      DHS, 61.7% (of 4907) women had a facility-based delivery (FBD); in adjusted
      analyses, FBD was associated with an urban setting [adjusted odds ratio (aOR)
      3.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.66 to 4.28)], the upper wealth quintile
      (aOR: 3.69, 95%CI 2.79 to 3.87) and with secondary education (aOR: 3.07, 95%CI
      2.37 to 3.96). In interviews women quoted costs and distance as barriers to FBD.
      Other factors reported in interviews to be associated with FBD included family
      influence, perceived necessity of care (weak women needed FBD), and the
      reputation of the facility (women bypassed local facilities to deliver at better
      hospitals). Choosing a FBD is a complex decision and education around the
      benefits of FBD should be combined with interventions designed to remove barriers
      to FBD.

PMID- 28890774
TI  - Diarrheagenic Escherichia Coli O157 from Libya: Recent Perspectives and
      Challenges.

PMID- 28890775
TI  - Musical Training Enhances Neural Processing of Comodulation Masking Release in
      the Auditory Brainstem.
AB  - Musical training strengthens segregation the target signal from background noise.
      Musicians have enhanced stream segregation, which can be considered a process
      similar to comodulation masking release. In the current study, we surveyed
      psychoacoustical comodulation masking release in musicians and non-musicians. We
      then recorded the brainstem responses to complex stimuli in comodulated and
      unmodulated maskers to investigate the effect of musical training on the neural
      representation of comodulation masking release for the first time. The musicians
      showed significantly greater amplitudes and earlier brainstem response timing for
      stimulus in the presence of comodulated maskers than non-musicians. In agreement
      with the results of psychoacoustical experiment, musicians showed greater
      comodulation masking release than non-musicians. These results reveal a
      physiological explanation for behavioral enhancement of comodulation masking
      release and stream segregation in musicians.

PMID- 28890776
TI  - Discovery of a potent protein kinase D inhibitor: insights in the binding mode of
      pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine analogues.
AB  - In this study, we set out to rationally optimize PKD inhibitors based on the
      pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine scaffold. The lead compound for this study was 1-NM
      PP1, which was previously found by us and others to inhibit PKD. In our screening
      we identified one compound (3-IN-PP1) displaying a 10-fold increase in potency
      over 1-NM-PP1, opening new possibilities for specific protein kinase inhibitors
      for kinases that show sensitivity towards pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derived
      compounds. Interestingly the observed SAR was not in complete agreement with the
      commonly observed binding mode where the pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine compounds are
      bound in a similar fashion as PKD's natural ligand ATP. Therefore we suggest an
      alternate binding mode where the compounds are flipped 180 degrees. This possible
      alternate binding mode for pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine based compounds could pave
      the way for a new class of specific protein kinase inhibitors for kinases
      sensitive towards pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrmidines.

PMID- 28890777
TI  - When Does Maluma/Takete Fail? Two Key Failures and a Meta-Analysis Suggest That
      Phonology and Phonotactics Matter.
AB  - Eighty-seven years ago, Kohler reported that the majority of students picked the
      same answer in a quiz: Which novel word form ('maluma' or 'takete') went best
      with which abstract line drawing (one curved, one angular). Others have
      consistently shown the effect in a variety of contexts, with only one reported
      failure by Rogers and Ross. In the spirit of transparency, we report our own
      failure in the same journal. In our study, speakers of Syuba, from the Himalaya
      in Nepal, do not show a preference when matching word forms 'kiki' and 'bubu' to
      spiky versus curvy shapes. We conducted a meta-analysis of previous studies to
      investigate the relationship between pseudoword legality and task effects. Our
      combined analyses suggest a common source for both of the failures: 'wordiness' -
      We believe these tests fail when the test words do not behave according to the
      sound structure of the target language.

PMID- 28890778
TI  - Yawning Detection Sensitivity and Yawning Contagion.
AB  - Contagious yawning-the urge to yawn when thinking about, listening to, or viewing
      yawning-is a well-documented phenomenon in humans and animals. The reduced yawn
      contagion observed in the autistic population suggested that it might be empathy
      related; however, it is unknown whether such a connection applies to nonclinical
      populations. We examined influences from both empathy (i.e., autistic traits) and
      nonempathy factors (i.e., individuals' perceptual detection sensitivity to
      yawning, happy, and angry faces) on 41 nonclinical adults. We induced contagious
      yawning with a 5-minute video and 20 yawning photo stimuli. In addition, we
      measured participants' autistic traits (with the autism-spectrum quotient
      questionnaire), eye gaze patterns, and their perceptual thresholds to detect
      yawning and emotion in human face photos. We found two factors associated with
      yawning contagion: (a) those more sensitive to detect yawning, but not other
      emotional expressions, displayed more contagious yawning than those less
      sensitive to yawning expressions, and (b) female participants exhibited
      significantly more contagious yawning than male participants. We did not find an
      association between autistic trait and contagious yawning. Our study offers a
      working hypothesis for future studies, in that perceptual encoding of yawning
      interacts with susceptibility to contagious yawning.

PMID- 28890781
TI  - Thermo-responsive cell culture carrier: Effects on macrophage functionality and
      detachment efficiency.
AB  - Harvesting cultivated macrophages for tissue engineering purposes by enzymatic
      digestion of cell adhesion molecules can potentially result in unintended
      activation, altered function, or behavior of these cells. Thermo-responsive
      polymer is a promising tool that allows for gentle macrophage detachment without
      artificial activation prior to subculture within engineered tissue constructs. We
      therefore characterized different species of thermo-responsive polymers for their
      suitability as cell substrate and to mediate gentle macrophage detachment by
      temperature shift. Primary human monocyte- and THP-1-derived macrophages were
      cultured on thermo-responsive polymers and characterized for phagocytosis and
      cytokine secretion in response to lipopolysaccharide stimulation. We found that
      both cell types differentially respond in dependence of culture and stimulation
      on thermo-responsive polymers. In contrast to THP-1 macrophages, primary monocyte
      derived macrophages showed no signs of impaired viability, artificial activation,
      or altered functionality due to culture on thermo-responsive polymers compared to
      conventional cell culture. Our study demonstrates that along with commercially
      available UpCell carriers, two other thermo-responsive polymers based on
      poly(vinyl methyl ether) blends are attractive candidates for differentiation and
      gentle detachment of primary monocyte-derived macrophages. In summary, we
      observed similar functionality and viability of primary monocyte-derived
      macrophages cultured on thermo-responsive polymers compared to standard cell
      culture surfaces. While this first generation of custom-made thermo-responsive
      polymers does not yet outperform standard culture approaches, our results are
      very promising and provide the basis for exploiting the unique advantages offered
      by custom-made thermo-responsive polymers to further improve macrophage culture
      and recovery in the future, including the covalent binding of signaling molecules
      and the reduction of centrifugation and washing steps. Optimizing these and other
      benefits of thermo-responsive polymers could greatly improve the culture of
      macrophages for tissue engineering applications.

PMID- 28890779
TI  - Elements of the niche for adult stem cell expansion.
AB  - Adult stem cells are crucial for tissue homeostasis. These cells reside within
      exclusive locations in tissues, termed niches, which protect adult stem cell
      fidelity and regulate their many functions through biophysical-, biochemical- and
      cellular-mediated mechanisms. There is a growing understanding of how these
      mechanisms and their components contribute towards maintaining stem cell
      quiescence, self-renewal, expansion and differentiation patterns. In vitro
      expansion of adult stem cells is a powerful tool for understanding stem cell
      biology, and for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.
      However, it is technically challenging, since adult stem cell removal from their
      native microenvironment has negative repercussions on their sustainability. In
      this review, we overview specific elements of the biomimetic niche and how
      recreating such elements can help in vitro propagation of adult stem cells.

PMID- 28883910
TI  - Blood Interferon Signatures Putatively Link Lack of Protection Conferred by the
      RTS,S Recombinant Malaria Vaccine to an Antigen-specific IgE Response.
AB  - Malaria remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Progress has
      been made in recent years with the development of vaccines that could pave the
      way towards protection of hundreds of millions of exposed individuals. Here we
      used a modular repertoire approach to re-analyze a publically available
      microarray blood transcriptome dataset monitoring the response to malaria
      vaccination. We report the seminal identification of interferon signatures in the
      blood of subjects on days 1, 3 and 14 following administration of the third dose
      of the RTS,S recombinant malaria vaccine. These signatures at day 1 correlate
      with protection, and at days 3 and 14 to susceptibility to subsequent challenge
      of study subjects with live parasites. In addition we putatively link the
      decreased abundance of interferon-inducible transcripts observed at days 3 and 14
      post-vaccination with the elicitation of an antigen-specific IgE response in a
      subset of vaccine recipients that failed to be protected by the RTS,S vaccine.
      Furthermore, profiling of antigen-specific levels of IgE in a Mozambican cohort
      of malaria-exposed children vaccinated with RTS,S identified an association
      between elevated baseline IgE levels and subsequent development of naturally
      acquired malaria infection during follow up. Taken together these findings
      warrant further investigation of the role of antigen-specific IgE in conferring
      susceptibility to malaria infection.

PMID- 28890780
TI  - Recellularization of decellularized heart valves: Progress toward the tissue
      engineered heart valve.
AB  - The tissue-engineered heart valve portends a new era in the field of valve
      replacement. Decellularized heart valves are of great interest as a scaffold for
      the tissue-engineered heart valve due to their naturally bioactive composition,
      clinical relevance as a stand-alone implant, and partial recellularization in
      vivo. However, a significant challenge remains in realizing the tissue-engineered
      heart valve: assuring consistent recellularization of the entire valve leaflets
      by phenotypically appropriate cells. Many creative strategies have pursued
      complete biological valve recellularization; however, identifying the optimal
      recellularization method, including in situ or in vitro recellularization and
      chemical and/or mechanical conditioning, has proven difficult. Furthermore, while
      many studies have focused on individual parameters for increasing valve
      interstitial recellularization, a general understanding of the interacting
      dynamics is likely necessary to achieve success. Therefore, the purpose of this
      review is to explore and compare the various processing strategies used for the
      decellularization and subsequent recellularization of tissue-engineered heart
      valves.

PMID- 28890784
TI  - First record of locally acquired human babesiosis in Canada caused by Babesia
      duncani: a case report.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The aim of this clinical assessment was to ascertain whether a 70
      year-old Canadian patient, who had no history of out-of-country travel, had
      contracted a Babesia infection. METHODS: The adult human male developed
      constitutional symptoms, which included sweats, chills, and immobilizing fatigue,
      and was screened for human babesiosis. Subsequent testing included a complete
      Babesia panel that consisted of B. microti immunoflourescent antibody IgM and
      IgG, B. duncani immunofluorescent antibody IgM and IgG, Babesia PCR, and Babesia
      fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) test. RESULTS: Both the IgM serology and
      the molecular FISH RNA probe were positive for B. duncani; all tests for B.
      microti were negative. Based on clinical symptoms and laboratory tests, the
      patient was diagnosed with human babesiosis. Interestingly, the patient's wife
      also was confirmed positive using serological and molecular testing. CONCLUSIONS:
      This is the first report of a locally acquired case of human babesiosis in Canada
      caused by Babesia duncani. The geographical distribution of B. duncani in North
      America is much greater than previously anticipated, especially north of the
      Canada-United States border. Since the patient was bitten by a blacklegged tick,
      Ixodes scapularis, a carrier of multiple zoonotic pathogens, the author suggests
      that this tick species is a vector of B. duncani. Health-care providers must be
      aware that B. duncani is present in Canada, and poses a public health risk.

PMID- 28890783
TI  - Twitter and traumatic brain injury: A content and sentiment analysis of tweets
      pertaining to sport-related brain injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Sport-related traumatic brain injuries are a significant public
      health burden, with hundreds of thousands sustained annually in North America.
      While sports offer numerous physical and social health benefits, traumatic brain
      injuries such as concussion can seriously impact a player's life, athletic
      career, and sport enjoyment. The culture in many sports encourages winning at all
      costs, placing athletes at risk for traumatic brain injuries. As social media has
      become a central part of everyday life, the content of users' messages often
      reflects the prevailing culture related to a particular event or health issue.
      METHODS: We hypothesized that Twitter data might be useful for understanding
      public perceptions and misperceptions of sport-related traumatic brain injuries.
      We performed a content and sentiment analysis of 7483 Twitter(r) tweets related
      to traumatic brain injuries in sports collected during June and July 2013.
      RESULTS: We identified five major themes. Users tweeted about personal traumatic
      brain injuries experiences, reported traumatic brain injuries in professional
      athletes, shared research about sport-related concussions, and discussed policy
      and safety in injury prevention, such as helmet use. We identified mixed
      perceptions of and sentiment toward traumatic brain injuries in sports: both an
      understanding that brain injuries are serious and disregard for activities that
      might reduce the public burden of traumatic brain injuries were prevalent in our
      Twitter analysis. CONCLUSION: While the scientific and medical community
      considers a concussion a form of traumatic brain injuries, our study demonstrates
      a misunderstanding of this fact among the public. In our current digital age,
      social media can provide useful insight into the culture around a health issue,
      facilitating implementation of prevention and treatment strategies.

PMID- 28890785
TI  - Staged approach for surgical management of a true femoral artery aneurysm
      combined with bilateral iliac artery aneurysms.
AB  - True femoral artery aneurysm is a rare vascular entity and is often associated
      with aortic or peripheral aneurysms. Life-threatening complications associated
      with peripheral arterial aneurysms include rupture, thrombosis, and embolization.
      In patients with multiple aneurysms, any symptomatic aneurysms should be treated
      first; in asymptomatic patients, the aneurysms can be repaired either
      simultaneously in a single operation or serially in a staged procedure. We report
      a case of concomitant true femoral aneurysm and bilateral iliac artery aneurysms,
      which were treated with a combination of open surgical and endovascular
      techniques.

PMID- 28890786
TI  - Hypertrophy of the abductor hallucis muscle: A case report and review of the
      literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Muscle hypertrophy is a relatively rare condition that may cause
      nerve entrapment syndromes. We report the case of a 14-year-old girl with
      unilateral hypertrophy of the abductor hallucis muscle with entrapment of the
      medial plantar nerve and review the literature. METHODS: Computed tomography and
      magnetic resonance imaging revealed unilateral hypertrophy of the abductor
      hallucis muscle. RESULTS: Two injections of steroid and lidocaine at the point of
      tenderness resulted in resolution of the pain. CONCLUSIONS: We report a rare case
      of hypertrophy of the abductor hallucis muscle considered with entrapment of the
      medial plantar nerve. Treatment of this condition should be selected according to
      the pathological condition of each patient.

PMID- 28890787
TI  - Unique angiographic findings in a patient with myocardial ischemia and
      immunoglobulin G4-related disease.
AB  - Immunoglobulin G4-related disease characteristically involves multiple organs
      including the heart and coronary arteries. Immunoglobulin G4-related coronary
      artery disease is thought to be due to periarteritis and histopathologically is
      characterized by marked thickening of the adventitia and periarterial fat with
      infiltration of immunoglobulin G4-positive plasma cells. Although comprehensive
      diagnostic criteria require a biopsy for a definite or probable diagnosis of
      immunoglobulin G4-related disease, obtaining a coronary artery biopsy is
      difficult and risky. However, imaging findings including coronary angiography and
      intravascular ultrasound might be useful tools to establish a diagnosis of
      immunoglobulin G4-related coronary artery disease. We report a case of a 63-year
      old man with a history of immunoglobulin G4-related disease who presented with
      exertional chest pain. We found unique angiographic and intravascular ultrasound
      features of immunoglobulin G4-related coronary artery disease that distinguished
      it from those of arteriosclerotic coronary artery disease and suggest that
      coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound might be useful tools in the
      diagnosis of immunoglobulin G4-related coronary artery disease.

PMID- 28890788
TI  - Opening bottlenecks on weighted networks by local adaptation to cascade failures.
AB  - Structure and dynamics of complex systems are often described using weighted
      networks in which the position, weight and direction of links quantify how
      activity propagates between system elements, or nodes. Nodes with only few
      outgoing links of low weight have low out-strength and thus form bottlenecks that
      hinder propagation. It is currently not well understood how systems can overcome
      limits imposed by such bottlenecks. Here, we simulate activity cascades on
      weighted networks and show that, for any cascade length, activity initially
      propagates towards high out-strength nodes before terminating in low out-strength
      bottlenecks. Increasing the weights of links that are active early in the cascade
      further enhances already strong pathways, but worsens the bottlenecks thereby
      limiting accessibility to other pathways in the network. In contrast,
      strengthening only links that propagated the activity just prior to cascade
      termination, i.e. links that point into bottlenecks, eventually removes these
      bottlenecks and increases the accessibility of all paths on the network. This
      local adaptation rule simply relies on the relative timing to a global failure
      signal and allows systems to overcome engrained structure to adapt to new
      challenges.

PMID- 28890789
TI  - Evaluation of blood metabolites reflects presence or absence of liver abscesses
      in beef cattle.
AB  - Liver abscesses constitute a prominent concern regarding animal health and
      profitability of the beef industry. Our objective was to evaluate potential
      biliary and blood indicators of liver abscesses. Twenty-nine beef bulls
      (initially averaging 356+/-70.5 kg and 253+/-30 days of age) were fed a high
      concentrate diet during a performance test of 112 days, during which blood was
      collected at nine time points spaced 0.5-13 days apart within 56 days before
      slaughter. At the abattoir, blood and bile were collected and livers were
      inspected for liver abscesses. Results indicated that liver abscesses are
      associated with elevated levels of plasma cortisol and aspartate
      aminotransferase, and decreased levels of albumin, cholesterol and testosterone
      over the period before slaughter. Based on the blood samples collected during
      exsanguination, the presence of liver abscesses was associated with lower
      concentrations of thyroxine, albumin, cholesterol and alkaline phosphatase, and
      is suggested to be associated with lower blood carbon dioxide (P=0.08) and lower
      biliary cortisol metabolites (P=0.07). Albumin and cholesterol are established
      indicators of hepatic function and are consistently related to the presence of
      liver abscesses. Identifying blood parameters that predict liver abscesses has
      practical implications for cattle husbandry and for ensuring food safety.

PMID- 28890790
TI  - Evaluating pair versus solitary housing in kennelled domestic dogs (Canis
      familiaris) using behaviour and hair cortisol: a pilot study.
AB  - Numerous studies conducted to assess welfare of domestic dogs housed in kennel
      facilities have reported that these dogs experience suboptimal living conditions.
      One important goal of improving welfare of kennelled dogs is to reduce their
      stress levels, and one recommended approach for improving welfare of kennelled
      dogs is group or social housing. The beneficial effects of management changes
      designed to achieve this goal should be measurable in individual animals. Stress
      is evident through behaviours exhibited, as well as via the concentration of
      cortisol, a key hormone reflecting stress. Using behavioural and hair cortisol
      measures, we conducted a pilot study to measure the impact of switching dogs
      housed in a long-term kennels facility from solitary to pair housing, using both
      within-subjects and between-groups comparisons. Considerable individual variation
      in dog responses was noted, with only two of eight pair-housed dogs showing
      significant declines in multiple stress-related behaviours once in pair housing.
      The most sensitive behaviours were active vigilance and repetitive movements
      (such as jumping and pacing). Barking was reduced overall in the facility
      following the housing change, even among dogs still in solitary housing. The long
      term stress as reflected in hormone deposition in hair also provided encouraging
      indications that the dogs experienced lower stress levels when in paired housing;
      dogs showed a significant decline in hair cortisol levels from the first
      (prehousing change) to second (postintervention) samples. Domestic dogs are
      social animals, and numerous indications of potential benefit were recorded with
      no negative impacts seen. Based on our findings, we recommend pair or group
      housing of compatible dogs as a promising addition to the strategies available to
      those seeking to improve welfare of kennelled dogs. Future studies using higher
      numbers of animals and that include tracking of hair cortisol, vigilance
      behaviour, repetitive movements and barking would be desirable.

PMID- 28890791
TI  - Potential of phytoceuticals to affect antibiotic residue detection tests in cow
      milk in a randomised trial.
AB  - Mastitis is a costly disease for dairy farmers. Some dairy farmers use herbal
      products, or phytoceuticals, to treat mastitis. Phytoceuticals have not been
      approved for this use by the United States Food and Drug Administration, and have
      not been tested to determine how they impact antibiotic residue detection
      testing. The current study tested the potential for phytoceuticals to cause
      positive results on two milk antibiotic residue screening tests, the Delvotest P
      and Charm SL Beta-lactam test, or to interfere with the detection of antibiotics
      by these tests. The three phytoceuticals tested were labelled for intramammary,
      topical or intravulvar administration. Testing was performed in vitro using the
      products diluted in milk obtained from healthy organic dairy cows. Phytoceuticals
      were tested at concentrations ranging from 1.5 per cent to 100 per cent.
      Concentration levels were replicated at least twice on each milk antibiotic
      residue screening test. The Delvotest P is based on detection of bacterial
      inhibitors and no positive results were obtained for any product at
      concentrations less than 50 per cent. The Charm SL Beta-lactam test uses a
      receptor for the detection of beta-lactam antibiotics and no concentration of
      phytoceuticals caused an interference with these tests. Based on dilution of the
      products in bovine milk at physiologically achievable levels, phytoceutical
      products tested at levels expected after treatment do not cause positive test
      results for the Delvotest P nor do they interfere with the Charm SL Beta-lactam
      test in detection of various antibiotics.

PMID- 28890792
TI  - Multicentre analysis of current ST-elevation myocardial infarction acute care
      pathways.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rapid reperfusion with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is
      vital for patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
      However, the guideline-recommended time targets are regularly exceeded. The goal
      of this study was to gain insight into how Dutch PCI centres try to achieve these
      time targets by comparing their care processes with one another and with the
      European guideline-recommended process. In addition, accelerating factors
      perceived by care providers were identified. METHODS: In this multiple case
      study, interviews with STEMI care providers were conducted, transcribed and used
      to create process descriptions per centre. Analyses consisted of within-case and
      between-case analyses of the processes. Accelerating factors were identified by
      means of open and axial coding. RESULTS: In total, 28 interviews were conducted
      in six PCI centres. The centres differed from the guideline-recommended process
      on, for example, additional, unavoidable patient routings and monitoring delays,
      and from one another on the communication of diagnostic information (eg,
      transmitting all, only ambiguous or no ECGs) and catheterisation room
      preparation. These differences indicated diverging choices to maintain a balance
      between speed and diagnostic accuracy. Factors perceived by care providers as
      accelerating the process included trust in the tentative diagnosis, and avoiding
      unnecessary intercaregiver consultations. The combination of processes and
      accelerating factors were summarised in a model. CONCLUSIONS: Numerous
      differences in processes between PCI centres were identified. Several time-saving
      strategies were applied by PCI centres, however, in different configurations. To
      further improve the care for patients with STEMI, best practices can be shared
      between centres and countries.

PMID- 28890793
TI  - Call for joint informed consent in athletes with inherited cardiac conditions.
AB  - Informed consent is of the utmost importance, especially in complex clinical
      situations where patients may be exposed to a life-threatening risk. A
      particularly complex example is the eligibility of competitive athletes with
      inherited cardiac conditions on medical grounds, especially when the risk is low
      or unquantifiable. The rationale and benefits of a joint informed consent for
      athletes to compete with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions are
      discussed in this manuscript.

PMID- 28890794
TI  - Engaging Experts and Patients to Refine the Nutrition Literacy Assessment
      Instrument.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An objective measure of nutrition literacy is unavailable for use in
      the primary care population. The Nutrition Literacy Assessment instrument (NLit)
      is a tool designed to measure nutrition literacy across six domains and has been
      previously piloted in breast cancer and parent populations. The purpose of this
      research was to engage nutrition experts and patients to guide revisions of the
      NLit for use in adult primary care. METHODS: Experts (n=5) reviewed each item in
      the NLit using a survey to assign rankings of their agreement according to
      relevance, clarity, and reading difficulty. Relevance rankings were used to
      calculate Scale Content Validity Index. After suggested revisions were made,
      patients (n=12) were recruited from urban primary care clinics of a University
      Medical Center located in the Midwestern United States and were interviewed by
      trained researchers using the cognitive interview approach to generate thoughts,
      feelings, and ideas regarding NLit items. Data analysis involved qualitative and
      quantitative methods. RESULTS: Content validity from expert review was confirmed
      with a total Scale Content Validity Index of 0.90. Themes emerging from the
      cognitive interviews resulted in changes in the NLit to improve instrument
      clarity. CONCLUSION: These data suggest the NLit achieves its target constructs,
      is understood by the target audience, and is ready to undergo validity and
      reliability testing within the primary care population.

PMID- 28890795
TI  - Bilateral patellar fractures and increased cortical bone thickness associated
      with long-term oral alendronate treatment in a cat.
AB  - CASE SUMMARY: A 14-year-old cat presented with bilateral patellar fractures and
      radiographically thickened tibial cortices. This cat had been treated with
      alendronate for 8 years prior to presentation. To remove the subjectivity of the
      radiographic evaluation, tibial radiographs from 35 apparently healthy geriatric
      cats were used for comparison. Cortical and diaphyseal thickness were measured at
      the proximal and distal thirds of the tibia. Our cat had increased cortical bone
      thickness compared to that of the control cats. RELEVANCE AND NOVEL INFORMATION:
      Treatment with bisphosphonates can lead to brittle bones and fractures after
      prolonged use in humans. This is the first description of fractures and cortical
      bone changes that may have been associated with prolonged bisphosphonate use in a
      cat. Radiographic measurements of cortical bone thickness may identify cats that
      are at increased risk for bone pathology secondary to prolonged alendronate use.

PMID- 28890796
TI  - Comparative efficacy and discontinuation of dimethyl fumarate and fingolimod in
      clinical practice at 24-month follow-up.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dimethyl fumarate and fingolimod are oral disease-modifying therapies
      approved to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis. Prior observational studies and
      our previous 12-month investigation showed comparable clinical efficacy.
      OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess real-world efficacy and
      discontinuation of dimethyl fumarate and fingolimod over 24 months in patients
      with multiple sclerosis. METHODS: Patients treated with dimethyl fumarate (n =
      395) or fingolimod (n = 264) completed 24-month follow-up in a large academic
      multiple sclerosis center. Discontinuation rates and measures of disease activity
      were compared after propensity score weighting. The primary outcome was on
      treatment annualized relapse rate ratio. Other measures included rate of drug
      discontinuation and brain magnetic resonance imaging activity defined as new T2
      and/or gadolinium-enhancing lesions. RESULTS: Propensity score weighting showed
      excellent covariate balance. At 24 months, dimethyl fumarate demonstrated
      comparable annualized relapse rate (rate ratio = 1.45, 95% confidence interval
      0.53-3.99) and brain magnetic resonance imaging activity (odds ratio = 1.38, 95%
      confidence interval 0.83-2.32). Dimethyl fumarate patients discontinued therapy
      earlier compared to fingolimod (hazard ratio = 1.40, 95% confidence interval 1.11
      1.77) and were more likely to discontinue therapy due to intolerability (odds
      ratio = 1.98, 95% confidence interval 1.18-3.23). CONCLUSION: Dimethyl fumarate
      and fingolimod had similar reductions in annualized relapse rate in clinical
      trials, and our real-world experience supports this observation. Dimethyl
      fumarate-treated patients had higher likelihood of early discontinuation, and
      this was mostly due to intolerability.

PMID- 28890797
TI  - Defining patient centricity with patients for patients and caregivers: a
      collaborative endeavour.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient engagement is an essential aspect in the research/development
      of biopharmaceutical products and disease management. Improving the lives of
      patients requires a deep understanding of their medical conditions, experiences,
      needs and priorities. However, a consistent definition of patient centricity is
      lacking. A series of initiatives was conducted to define patient centricity and
      its important principles impacting the biopharmaceutical industry. METHODS:
      Interviews, questionnaires and literature reviews were conducted involving key
      stakeholders to initially identify issues of importance to patients, healthcare
      providers and payers. Subsequently, two identical workshops which included 22
      patients/carers created a definition of patient centricity and the healthcare
      values important to patients/caregivers. Outputs were tested in a validation
      exercise involving patients in predominantly US (n=470) and European (n=703)
      patient forums. RESULTS: Initial research provided deeper understanding of
      patient needs and key topics of interest that were used to cocreate a definition
      of patient centricity and 10 associated principles of importance to the
      biopharmaceutical industry. Wider testing of these outputs among predominantly
      US/European patient communities confirmed their validity. Patient centricity
      should be defined as 'Putting the patient first in an open and sustained
      engagement of the patient to respectfully and compassionately achieve the best
      experience and outcome for that person and their family'. Important principles
      for patients focused on education/information, cocreation, access and
      transparency. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a consistent definition of patient
      centricity and its associated principles provides an opportunity for
      biopharmaceutical companies to adopt and use these as a reference point for
      consistent patient engagement throughout the product life cycle.

PMID- 28890798
TI  - American football and other sports injuries may cause migraine/persistent pain
      decades later and can be treated successfully with electrical twitch-obtaining
      intramuscular stimulation (ETOIMS).
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Autonomous twitch elicitation at myofascial trigger points from
      spondylotic radiculopathies-induced denervation supersensitivity can provide
      favourable pain relief using electrical twitch-obtaining intramuscular
      stimulation (ETOIMS). AIM: To provide objective evidence that ETOIMS is safe and
      efficacious in migraine and persistent pain management due to decades-old
      injuries to head and spine from paediatric American football. METHODS AND
      MATERIALS: An 83-year-old mildly hypertensive patient with 25-year history of
      refractory migraine and persistent pain self-selected to regularly receive fee
      for-service ETOIMS 2/week over 20 months. He had 180 sessions of ETOIMS. Pain
      levels, blood pressure (BP) and heart rate/pulse were recorded before and
      immediately after each treatment alongside highest level of clinically elicitable
      twitch forces/session, session duration and intervals between treatments. Twitch
      force grades recorded were from 1 to 5, grade 5 twitch force being strongest.
      RESULTS: Initially, there was hypersensitivity to electrical stimulation with low
      stimulus parameters (500 us pulse-width, 30 mA stimulus intensity, frequency 1.3
      Hz). This resolved with gradual stimulus increments as tolerated during
      successive treatments. By treatment 27, autonomous twitches were noted.
      Spearman's correlation coefficients showed that pain levels are negatively
      related to twitch force, number of treatments, treatment session duration and
      directly related to BP and heart rate/pulse. Treatment numbers and session
      durations directly influence twitch force. At end of study, headaches and quality
      of life improved, hypertension resolved and antihypertensive medication had been
      discontinued. CONCLUSIONS: Using statistical process control methodology in an
      individual patient, we showed long-term safety and effectiveness of ETOIMS in
      simultaneous diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention of migraine and
      persistent pain in real time obviating necessity for randomised controlled
      studies.

PMID- 28890799
TI  - Associations between altered movement patterns during single-leg squat and muscle
      activity at weight-transfer initiation in individuals with anterior cruciate
      ligament injury.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little is known about factors contributing to the altered movement
      patterns observed in many individuals with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
      injury. We addressed whether altered muscular activity is such a factor. METHODS:
      16 participants with unilateral, non-reconstructed ACL rupture were scored for
      altered movement patterns according to Test for Substitution Patterns (TSP),
      which includes the single-leg squat (SLS). Surface electromyography (SEMG), was
      recorded in the lower extremities at initiation of weight-transfer from double
      leg to single-leg stance (eyes closed), simulating the initiation of an SLS.
      Normalised SEMG amplitudes 200-300 ms after weight-transfer initiation were
      compared between injured and non-injured sides, and correlated to the TSP scores
      for the SLS. Peak absolute SEMG amplitudes during 5 TSP test movements were also
      compared between sides. RESULTS: At weight-transfer initiation, muscle activity
      was lower in the tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius and peroneus longus muscles on
      the injured side. Low muscle activity correlated moderately to worse TSP scores
      for the SLS for the gluteus medius (rs=-0.56, p=0.03), and gastrocnemius muscles
      (rs=-0.56, p=0.02). Median peak absolute amplitude during TSP movements was lower
      in the quadriceps, gastrocnemius and peroneus longus muscles on the injured side.
      CONCLUSIONS: The altered patterns of muscle activity at weight-transfer
      initiation, correlations between lower activity at movement initiation and
      altered movement patterns during SLS and the altered peak amplitudes during TSP
      movements together indicate alterations in sensorimotor control that may
      contribute to the observed altered movement patterns. Future studies will
      determine if exercises targeting muscle activity initiation should complement
      customary ACL injury rehabilitation.

PMID- 28890801
TI  - Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players
      think?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Preventing concussion in sport is a global challenge. To assess
      community-level adult male Australian Football players' views on following the
      Australian Football League's (AFL) concussion guidelines. METHODS: 3 focus
      groups, each comprising 6 players from 1 regional league, were conducted until
      saturation of issues raised. Discussions followed a semistructured script and
      were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted by
      2 coders independently. RESULTS: Identified advantages of the guidelines included
      highlighting the seriousness of concussion; changing the culture around playing
      with concussion and shifting return-to-play decision responsibility from players
      to others. Disadvantages included players being removed from play unnecessarily;
      removal of players' rights to decide if they are fit to play and players changing
      their behaviours to avoid being removed from play. Identified facilitators to
      guideline use included local league enforcement; broad information dissemination
      and impartial medically trained staff to assess concussion. Identified barriers
      to guideline use included players' desire to play at all costs; external pressure
      that encouraged players to return to play prematurely; and inconvenience and
      cost. CONCLUSIONS: Players generally understand that the AFL concussion
      guidelines protect their long-term welfare. However, their desire to play at all
      costs and help their team win is a common barrier to reporting concussion and
      adhering to guidelines. Leagues should take a lead role by mandating and
      enforcing the use of the guidelines and educating coaches, game day medical
      providers and players. The return-to-play component of the guidelines is complex
      and needs further consideration in the context of community sport.

PMID- 28890802
TI  - Appropriateness of the metabolic equivalent (MET) as an estimate of exercise
      intensity for post-myocardial infarction patients.
AB  - AIMS: To explore: (1) whether during exercise metabolic equivalents (METs)
      appropriately indicate the intensity and/or metabolic cost for post-myocardial
      infarction (MI) males and (2) whether post-exercise VO2 parameters provide
      insight into the intensity and/or metabolic cost of the prior exercise. METHODS:
      15 male phase-IV post-MIs (64.4+/-6.5 years) and 16 apparently healthy males
      (63.0+/-6.4 years) participated. Participants performed a graded cycle ergometer
      test (CET) of 50, 75 and 100 W, followed by 10 min active recovery (at 50 W) and
      22 min seated recovery. Participants' heart rate (HR, bpm), expired air
      parameters and ratings of perceived exertion (exercise only) were measured.
      RESULTS: General linear model analysis showed throughout significantly lower HR
      values in post-MI participants that were related to beta-blocker medication
      (F(2,5)=18.47, p<0.01), with significantly higher VCO2/VO2 (F(2,5)=11.25,
      p<0.001) and gross kcals/LO2/min (F(2,5)=11.25, p<0.001). Analysis comparing
      lines of regression showed, during the CET: post-MI participants worked at higher
      percentage of their anaerobic threshold (%AT)/MET than controls (F(2,90)=18.98,
      p<0.001), as well as during active recovery (100-50 W) (F(2,56)=20.81, p<0.001);
      during seated recovery: GLM analysis showed significantly higher values of
      VCO2/VO2 for post-MI participants compared with controls (F(2,3)=21.48, p=0.001)
      as well as gross kcals/LO2/min (F(2,3)=21.48, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Since METs
      take no consideration of any anaerobic component, they failed to reflect the
      significantly greater anaerobic contribution during exercise per MET for phase-IV
      post-MI patients. Given the anaerobic component will be greater for those with
      more severe forms of cardiac disease, current METs should be used with caution
      when determining exercise intensity in any patient with cardiac disease.

PMID- 28890800
TI  - Groin Pain Syndrome Italian Consensus Conference on terminology, clinical
      evaluation and imaging assessment in groin pain in athlete.
AB  - The nomenclature and the lack of consensus of clinical evaluation and imaging
      assessment in groin pain generate significant confusion in this field. The Groin
      Pain Syndrome Italian Consensus Conference has been organised in order to prepare
      a consensus document regarding taxonomy, clinical evaluation and imaging
      assessment for groin pain. A 1-day Consensus Conference was organised on 5
      February 2016, in Milan (Italy). 41 Italian experts with different backgrounds
      participated in the discussion. A consensus document previously drafted was
      discussed, eventually modified, and finally approved by all members of the
      Consensus Conference. Unanimous consensus was reached concerning: (1) taxonomy
      (2) clinical evaluation and (3) imaging assessment. The synthesis of these 3
      points is included in this paper. The Groin Pain Syndrome Italian Consensus
      Conference reached a consensus on three main points concerning the groin pain
      syndrome assessment, in an attempt to clarify this challenging medical problem.

PMID- 28890803
TI  - The effect of generalised joint hypermobility on rate, risk and frequency of
      injury in male university-level rugby league players: a prospective cohort study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rugby league is a collision sport where musculoskeletal injuries are
      common. There has been little research on generalised joint hypermobility (GJH)
      as a risk factor for injury in rugby league. The aim of this study was to
      investigate the role of GJH on the incidence of injuries in first and second team
      rugby league players from one British university. METHODS: We conducted a
      prospective cohort study of 45 student players from one British university first
      and second team rugby league squads (mean age 20.93+/-1.57 years). At the
      beginning of the season, GJH was determined using a 9-point Beighton scale, and
      injury and exposure data were collected on a weekly basis throughout the 2013
      2014 season. RESULTS: The prevalence of GJH was 20%. There was no statistically
      significant difference in the frequency of injuries between GJH and non-GJH
      participants (p=0.938, Mann-Whitney U test).Participants categorised as having
      GJH did not experience a higher fequency of injury (p=0.722, Fisher's exact test)
      and there was no tendency to demonstrate a higher risk of injury for participants
      categorised as GJH (OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.15 to 2.78; relative risk (RR)=1.188, 95%
      CI 0.537 to 2.625). The most common site of injury was the ankle, but this was
      not statistically significant (OR=0.152, 95% CI 0.008 to 2.876; RR=0.195, CI
      0.012 to 3.066). CONCLUSION: British university rugby league players with GJH did
      not demonstrate a greater risk of injury than those without GJH.

PMID- 28890804
TI  - Injuries during the international floorball tournaments from 2012 to 2015.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Floorball is a running indoor team sport that has growing popularity
      worldwide. Some prospective studies have investigated injuries in national
      floorball leagues, but such studies at the international level are lacking.
      OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence and characteristics of injuries during 12
      International Floorball Federation (IFF) events. METHODS: All top-level IFF
      events from 2012 to 2015 were included in the study. The IFF events were divided
      into the following groups: Men's World Floorball Championships (2012 and 2014),
      Women's World Floorball Championships (2013 and 2015), Men's Champions Cup (2012,
      2013, 2014 and 2015) and Women's Champions Cup (2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015). The
      team medical personnel prospectively recorded the injuries that occurred in games
      and practices. The time of exposure was calculated for entire teams based on the
      IFF statistics. RESULTS: Sixty-eight injuries were registered among 67 players.
      Sixty-five of the injuries occurred in games, resulting in an injury incidence of
      21.24 per 1000 game hours (95% CI 16.13 to 26.35). There was no significant
      difference in the incidence of game injuries between females and males (incidence
      rate ratio 0.68, 95% CI 0.41 to 1.11). The ankle was the most common site of
      injury (24%), followed by the head (18%) and the knee (18%). Almost half of the
      injuries (46%) involved joints or ligaments. CONCLUSIONS: Risk of injury during
      IFF tournaments was lower than in many other team sports at the highest level of
      play. Preventive actions should focus on acute ankle and knee injuries as well as
      head and face injuries.

PMID- 28890805
TI  - Outcome after post-acute spinal cord specific rehabilitation: a German single
      center study.
AB  - STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study
      was to analyze single center outcome measures of spinal cord injury (SCI)
      specific rehabilitation (SCISR) in Germany. SETTING: The study was conducted at
      an SCI specialized rehabilitation center. METHODS: Nonparametric tests for
      outcome description such as SCIM and length of stay. Logistic regression for
      outcome prediction was used. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty patients (113 men, 47
      women) with a mean age of 64.4 years were included. Non-traumatic etiologies,
      such as vascular diseases, tumors, infections or degenerative diseases accounted
      for 55.6% of SCI (89/160). Men experienced significantly more cervical lesions
      (P=0.02) and presented with lower SCIMstart values (P=0.04). Patients with AIS D
      (incomplete SCI) had significantly higher SCIMstart and SCIMend (P<0.01, each).
      Age correlated negatively with SCIMstart and SCIMend (r=-0.21; P<0.05; r=-0.21;
      P<0.05; respectively). The chance to reach an SCIMend ?50 points (milestone for
      starting post-primary rehabilitation) increased with every SCIM point at the
      beginning of rehabilitation by 12.2% (95% CI 7.3-17.3%) and for every day in
      rehabilitation by 1.4% (95% CI 0.5-2.3%). Every additional day in acute medical
      care, however, decreased the chance for this by 2.2% (95% CI -3.6 to -0.8%).
      CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study giving outcomes for post-acute SCISR in
      Germany. The obtained data support that even in an older cohort, early admission
      to SCISR after SCI and longer LOSreha increases the chance for higher
      independence at the end of the rehabilitation period.

PMID- 28890806
TI  - Postlaminectomy membrane with dynamic spinal cord compression disclosed with
      computed tomographic myelography: a case report and literature review.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: It has been hypothesized that postoperative epidural scar,
      postlaminectomy membrane, may be responsible for late neurological deterioration
      after cervical laminectomy in some cases, but there is a lack of radiological
      studies in the literature showing the clinical significance of postlaminectomy
      membrane. We describe a rare case with radiological evidence of dynamic spinal
      cord compression caused by the postlaminectomy membrane, which may have been
      related to neurological deterioration. CASE PRESENTATION: A 73-year-old male
      developed recurrent cervical myelopathy 6 months after C4-C6 laminectomy. In
      addition to atlantoaxial subluxation and kyphotic deformity, dynamic spinal cord
      compression by the postlaminectomy membrane was identified on computed
      tomographic myelography. The patient underwent atlantoaxial fixation and C3-C7
      posterior decompression and fixation combined with removal of the thick and firm
      postlaminectomy membrane adhering to the dura mater. Histopathological findings
      of the postlaminectomy membrane revealed chronic inflammation around exogenous
      materials, presumably surgical materials remaining after the first operation, in
      the thick fibrous tissue. The patient's symptoms improved without recurrence of
      symptoms and postlaminectomy membrane formation for 3 years. DISCUSSION: Compared
      with cervical laminoplasty, cervical laminectomy entails several postoperative
      problems, including postlaminectomy membrane formation. Postlaminectomy membranes
      may cause dynamic effects related to late neurological deterioration, and the
      evaluation of dynamic factors is important for neurological recurrence after
      cervical laminectomy. In the present case, chronic inflammation caused by
      surgical materials remaining after the first operation might have contributed to
      the rapid development of the postlaminectomy membrane.

PMID- 28890807
TI  - Social Network Decay as Potential Recovery from Homelessness: A Mixed Methods
      Study in Housing First Programming.
AB  - The positive relationship between social support and mental health has been well
      documented, but individuals experiencing chronic homelessness face serious
      disruptions to their social networks. Housing First (HF) programming has been
      shown to improve health and stability of formerly chronically homeless
      individuals. However, researchers are only just starting to understand the impact
      HF has on residents' individual social integration. The purpose of the current
      study was to describe and understand changes in social networks of residents
      living in a HF program. Researchers employed a longitudinal, convergent parallel
      mixed method design, collecting quantitative social network data through
      structured interviews (n = 13) and qualitative data through semi-structured
      interviews (n = 20). Quantitative results demonstrated a reduction in network
      size over the course of one year. However, increases in both network density and
      frequency of contact with network members increased. Qualitative interviews
      demonstrated a strengthening in the quality of relationships with family and
      housing providers and a shedding of burdensome and abusive relationships. These
      results suggest network decay is a possible indicator of participants' recovery
      process as they discontinued negative relationships and strengthened positive
      ones.

PMID- 28890808
TI  - The International Duration Evaluation of Adjuvant Chemotherapy study:
      implications for clinical practice.

PMID- 28890809
TI  - A single institute retrospective trial of concurrent chemotherapy with SIR
      Spheres(r) versus SIR-Spheres(r) alone in chemotherapy-resistant colorectal
      cancer liver metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of selective internal radiation therapy with yttrium 90 resin
      microspheres (SIR-Spheres(r)) in chemotherapy-resistant colorectal cancer liver
      metastases has been associated with favorable progression-free survival (PFS) and
      overall survival when given alone or concurrently with chemotherapy. We conducted
      a single institute retrospective trial to explore the potential impact of SIR
      Spheres(r) with concurrent chemotherapy vs. SIR-Spheres(r) alone on liver PFS in
      patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). METHODS: Patients with 5
      fluorouracil-refractory CRLM treated with SIR-Spheres(r) between 2009 and 2014
      were identified. Patients were excluded if they received any
      chemotherapy/targeted regimen following radioembolization on which they did not
      previously progress. This strategy was adopted to minimize the impact of post-SIR
      Spheres(r) systemic therapy bias on PFS. RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients satisfied
      inclusion criteria and were included in this analysis. Patients' demographics
      were similar between the two treatment arms, except for the median number of
      prior therapies. No associated >= grade 3 toxicities were noted. Liver disease
      control rates were 84% and 14% on the SIR-Spheres(r) plus chemotherapy arms and
      SIR-Spheres(r) alone arms, respectively (P=0.001). Median PFS in the liver was
      176 days in the SIR-Spheres(r) plus chemotherapy group vs. 91 days in the SIR
      Sphere(r) alone group (P=0.0009). Median overall survival was 212 days in the SIR
      Spheres(r) plus chemotherapy group vs. 154 days in the SIR-Spheres(r) alone group
      (P=0.1023). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with 5-fluorouracil-refractory disease, SIR
      Spheres(r) plus chemotherapy is associated with an increased liver disease
      control rate and a prolonged liver PFS in comparison with SIR-Spheres(r) alone.

PMID- 28890810
TI  - Updated survival outcomes and analysis of long-term survivors from the MORE study
      on safety and efficacy of radioembolization in patients with unresectable
      colorectal cancer liver metastases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Metastatic colorectal cancer liver metastases Outcomes after
      RadioEmbolization (MORE) study was a retrospective analysis of 606 patients with
      unresectable colorectal liver metastases treated with radioembolization (RE)
      using 90Y-labeled resin microspheres. The first analysis of this study was
      completed with a last patient follow-up of 77.7 months. We now provide an updated
      survival analysis through September 15, 2016, with a last patient follow-up of
      125 months. METHODS: 90Y-RE was considered for patients with advanced liver-only
      or liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer which was deemed not suitable for
      surgery, ablation, or systemic therapy, and which had progressed or become
      refractory to at least one line of systemic therapy. All patients with a
      diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer who had received at least 1 RE
      treatment and 1 follow-up visit were included in the analysis. Patients were
      treated between July 2002 and December 2011 at one of 11 U.S. tertiary care
      centers. Data were collected at baseline, on the day of the first 90Y-RE
      treatment (day 0), and at all subsequent visits or until death. Patient medical
      charts and/or public records were accessed to obtain dates of death. RESULTS:
      Dates of death were obtained for 574 out of a total of 606 patients, and overall
      survival (OS) data analyzed. Updated median OS was 10.0 months (95% CI: 9.2-11.8
      months) at a median follow-up of 9.5 months versus the originally reported median
      OS of 9.6 months (95% CI: 9.0-11.1 months) at a follow-up of 8.6 months in the
      first MORE analysis. Patients received a median (range) of 2 (0 to 6) lines of
      chemotherapy. Baseline characteristics and factors significantly associated with
      patient survival (P<0.01) are consistent with those reported in the first safety
      analysis of the MORE study. These factors include poor ECOG performance status,
      markers of advanced disease such as increased extent of tumor-to-target liver
      involvement, poor baseline liver function, pre-treatment anemia, lung shunt
      fraction, and number of lines of prior chemotherapy. Patient age did not
      significantly affect survival outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term follow-up confirms
      that 90Y-RE treatment offers favorable survival benefits for patients with
      unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer, even among patients who received 3 or
      more prior lines of chemotherapy. Our analysis also supports earlier reported
      prognostic factors for survival after 90Y-RE. Overall, our updated analysis
      confirms that 90Y-RE treatment provided a meaningful response and survival
      advantage for MORE patients across all ages and across diverse community and
      academic centers in the U.S.

PMID- 28890811
TI  - Tumor stage in patients operated for rectal cancer: a comparison of the pre
      operative MR and the resection specimen, with specific attention to the effect of
      neo-adjuvant radiotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evaluate the preoperative TN stage with MR and the postoperative
      stage with histology. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with rectal cancer (2002-2015)
      and a pre-operative MR were included. A chart review was done. Pathology reports
      were evaluated for the post-operative tumor stage. Down staging was defined as a
      lower disease stage in the resection specimen compared with the pre-operative MR.
      Upgrading ("progression") was defined as a higher disease stage in the resection
      specimen. The study was approved by ethical committee of the Zaans Medisch
      Centrum. RESULTS: From 176 out of 231 operated patients a pre-operative MR was
      available for evaluation. 142 patients (80.7%) underwent neo-adjuvant treatment;
      the remainder 19.3% underwent immediate surgery. Neo-adjuvant therapy resulted in
      significant down staging. However, almost 14% of patients had a higher TN stage
      as determined by the pre-operative MR. In patients who underwent immediate
      surgery the percentage with "progression" was 30%. The number of patients with
      stage 1 and 2 were higher in the group not treated with neo-adjuvant therapy.
      There was no significant difference in tumor stage as determined by histological
      examination of the resection specimen. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic accuracy of
      the MR is not perfect. Underestimation as well as overestimation of the tumor
      occurred both in the patients treated with radiotherapy as well as those who
      underwent immediate operation. As such, MR results should be interpreted with
      caution when devising a treatment strategy.

PMID- 28890812
TI  - Cyclooxygenase-2 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to colorectal cancer in a
      Brazilian population.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multi-ethnicity of Brazilian population displays high levels of
      genomic diversity. Polymorphism may detect people at higher risk of developing
      cancer, distinctive response to treatment, and prognosis. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX
      2) is induced in response to growth factors and cytokines, and is expressed in
      inflammatory diseases, precancerous lesions and colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim
      of this study was to evaluate the influence of COX-2 -1195A > G and 8473T > C
      polymorphisms as a risk factor of developing CRC. METHODS: We evaluated COX-2
      Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) of 230 CRC patients and 196 healthy controls
      by Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction. RESULTS: Populations were in Hardy
      Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), except for control group of 8473T > C SNP. The
      frequencies were similar in both groups for genotypes and haplotypes. There was
      no association between studied polymorphisms and risk of CRC. CONCLUSIONS: The
      gene polymorphisms studied do not participate in the genetic susceptibility to
      CRC in a Brazilian population.

PMID- 28890813
TI  - Endocuff assisted colonoscopy significantly increases sessile serrated adenoma
      detection in veterans.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer
      related deaths in the United States. Colonoscopy is the gold standard for the
      detection of CRC. There are many colonoscopy quality measures and among these the
      adenoma detection rate (ADR) has demonstrated a significant impact in reducing
      mortality from CRC. The primary aim of our study was to compare ADR and
      distribution of polyp type in patients undergoing Endocuff-assisted colonoscopy
      (EAC) versus standard colonoscopy (SC) in a VA system. METHODS: Retrospective
      data was collected from 496 patients who underwent routine screening,
      surveillance and diagnostic colonoscopies either via SC from January 6, 2014
      through March 12, 2014 or EAC from September 24, 2014 through February 19, 2015.
      A total of 54 patients were excluded based on a personal history of CRC and prior
      resection, incomplete colonoscopy due to poor bowel preparation, and removal or
      loss of Endocuff (EC). Primary outcomes measured and compared were ADR and types
      of polyps found. RESULTS: The overall ADR in the EAC group was higher at 59.91%
      versus 50.66% for SC, accounting for a 9% increase (P=0.0508). EAC was able to
      detect a total of 59 sessile serrated adenoma/polyps (SSA/Ps) compared to SC only
      detecting 8 (P<=0.0001). There was a significant increase in the SSA/P detection
      rate with EAC at 15% versus 3% in the SC group (P<=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: EAC
      significantly increases the detection of SSA/P and has shown a trend in improving
      ADR in our veteran population.

PMID- 28890814
TI  - Outcomes and complications of radiation therapy in patients with familial
      adenomatous polyposis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The outcomes, complications, and rates of secondary malignancies from
      radiation therapy (RT) are not known for patients with familial adenomatous
      polyposis (FAP). METHODS: We queried the Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancer
      Registry (HGCR) for patients with FAP who received RT. Outcomes assessed included
      acute and late treatment toxicity and secondary malignancies. RESULTS: We
      identified 15 patients undergoing 18 treatment courses. Median follow-up was 3.1
      years after RT. Treated sites included rectal cancer, desmoid, prostate cancer,
      breast cancer, melanoma, medulloblastoma, gastric cancer, and glioma. Secondary
      tumors occurred in two patients: a medulloblastoma was diagnosed in a patient
      treated for glioma, and a desmoid tumor was diagnosed in a patient treated for
      rectal cancer. All nine patients treated with intra-abdominal or pelvic RT had
      prior prophylactic proctocolectomies, yet only one patient experienced grade 3
      gastrointestinal toxicity. Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version
      4 (CTCAE v4) toxicities were grade 1 in seven treatment courses (39%), grade 2 in
      five courses (28%), and grade 3 in two courses (11%). CONCLUSIONS: In this
      cohort, RT was well tolerated with adverse effects comparable with non-FAP
      patients. Secondary in-field tumors occurred in 2 of 15 patients and their
      increased risk in this cohort was likely due to prior predilection from FAP
      itself, although an increased role of RT cannot be ruled out.

PMID- 28890815
TI  - The role of neoadjuvant radiotherapy for locally-advanced rectal cancer with
      resectable synchronous metastasis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although neoadjuvant radiotherapy is typically administered for
      locally-advanced rectal cancer to reduce local recurrence (LR), its role for
      patients who present with synchronous resectable liver and/or lung metastasis is
      not well defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of neoadjuvant
      radiotherapy for patients with stage IV rectal cancer undergoing curative-intent
      surgery. METHODS: This study is a retrospective review of a prospectively
      maintained surgical registry of all consecutive adult patients who underwent
      curative-intent resection at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, from January 1990
      until December 2014 with a median follow-up time of 43 (IQR 16-67) months.
      Eligible patients had locally-advanced rectal cancer (T3, T4 and/or nodal
      involvement) with synchronous resectable liver and/or lung metastasis. Exclusion
      criteria were as follows: patients with primary tumor stage of T1N0 or T2N0,
      patients with metastasis to organs other than the liver or lung, patients who had
      palliative resection, patients who had non-surgical treatment of synchronous
      metastasis (e.g., radiofrequency ablation), patients who received postoperative
      radiotherapy, or absence of research authorization. Ninety three patients were
      included of which 47 received neoadjuvant radiotherapy and 46 did not. All
      patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy +/- radiotherapy followed by curative
      intent surgery with metastasectomy performed either simultaneously with resection
      of the primary tumor or as a planned staged resection. The primary outcomes of
      this study are LR, distant metastasis, overall and disease-specific survival
      (DSS). RESULTS: LR was observed in 12 patients (26%) who did not receive
      radiotherapy, while no LR developed in those who received neoadjuvant
      radiotherapy, P<0.001. Univariate analysis showed that neither age, sex, ASA
      class, BMI, tumor location, procedure performed, or neoadjuvant chemotherapy were
      associated with subsequent LR. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were: 43.3%
      (95% CI: 30.1, 62.3) for no radiotherapy vs. 58.3% (95% CI: 43.4, 78.2) with
      radiotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Neoadjuvant radiotherapy should be considered in
      patients with locally-advanced stage IV rectal cancer. These data add to the
      evidence supporting neoadjuvant radiotherapy in the setting of resectable
      metastatic disease.

PMID- 28890816
TI  - Epidemiological profile of gastric cancer in the northwestern region of Algeria:
      about 116 cases.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) remains a public health issue despite the global
      incidence decrease over the last decades. GC is the third leading cause of cancer
      related death worldwide and stills of poor prognosis due to its late detection.
      The overall objective of our study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical,
      and histopathological aspects of stomach cancer. However, the specific purpose
      was to determine the gastric precancerous lesions among patients with
      histologically confirmed GC admitted at the gastroenterology department of the
      University Hospital of Sidi-Bel-Abbes city, Algeria. METHODS: We retrospectively
      analyzed the patients' medical records admitted from 2010 to 2015. Intended for
      the statistical analysis of the enrolled data, we executed Student t-test and Chi
      squared test, significance level was set at 5%. Histologic evidence objectified
      the biopsies performed during endoscopy; Hematoxylin and Eosin staining as well
      as the slides interpretation were executed at the level of the pathology
      department as a routine examination. RESULTS: 116 cases of GC were recorded. The
      mean age of the whole studied cohort was 58.96+/-14.75 years. We reported a sex
      ratio of 1.36 with a peak frequency observed in male gender (57.76%). Gastric
      precancerous lesions, as well as tumor histology, and topography were revealed.
      In our context, adenocarcinoma was significantly higher among male patients and
      linitis plastica was expressively related to female gender (P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
      Management of gastric precancerous lesions additionally to early diagnosis
      represent effective preventive and therapeutic methods of GC.

PMID- 28890817
TI  - Proton beam reirradiation for locally recurrent pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Local recurrence following definitive treatment for pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma is common and can be associated with significant morbidity and
      mortality. Retreatment options for these patients are limited. Proton beam
      reirradiation (PRT) may limit dose and toxicity to previously irradiated normal
      tissues in patients without evidence of metastatic disease. METHODS: Between
      8/2010-2/2015, 15 patients with isolated, locally-recurrent pancreatic cancer
      were treated with PRT. Acute toxicity was graded using CTC v 4.0 and defined as
      occurring within 90 days. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed from the
      start of PRT. A log-rank test was used to compare survival with or without
      concurrent chemotherapy. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 15.7 months [2-48] from
      the start of PRT. The median clinical target volume (CTV) was 71 cc [15-200]. Ten
      (67%) patients received concurrent chemotherapy. Median PRT dose was 59.4 Gy
      (37.5-59.4 Gy). The median time interval from the prior treatment course was 26.7
      months (7-461.3). There was a rate of 13% acute >= grade 3 toxicities attributed
      to PRT. The median overall survival (OS) was 16.7 months (95% CI, 4.7-36) and OS
      at 1 year was 67%. The "in-field" failure free survival at one year was 87%. The
      locoregional progression free survival (LPFS) and distant metastasis free
      survival (DMFS) at 1 year was 72% and 64% respectively. Concurrent chemotherapy
      was associated with a higher median survival. CONCLUSIONS: PRT was well
      tolerated, resulted in prolonged clinical outcomes compared to historical
      controls, and should be considered as a treatment option with concurrent
      chemotherapy in selected patients with locally-recurrent pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28890818
TI  - Individualized 4-dimensional computed tomography proton treatment for pancreatic
      tumors.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The goal of this study is to determine whether a phase or
      reconstruction of a 10-phase 4 dimensional computed tomography (4D CT) scan can
      be used as the primary planning scan for proton treatment of the pancreas, thus
      eliminating the need for second a slow CT or free breathing CT. METHODS: Ten
      patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma were simulated with 4D CT and a proton
      treatment plan generated based upon one of three primary planning scans, the T0
      phase, T50 phase or average reconstruction. These plans were then exported to
      each of the remaining phases of the 4D CT and the dose to 95% of the target (D95)
      calculated. Plans were deemed adequate if the D95 remained at 99% of the
      prescribed dose or greater. RESULTS: For the ten patients in this study anterior
      abdominal motion was found to range from 2-27 mm (mean 7.50+/-6.79 mm). For 9 of
      10 patients the anterior abdominal motion was <=8 mm and all three primary
      planning scans provided adequate target coverage, resulting in minimum D95
      coverage per plan of T0_plan 99.7%, T50_plan 99.3% and AVE_plan 99%. However no
      plan provided adequate target coverage on the single patient with the largest
      anterior abdominal motion, 27 mm, and cranio-caudal motion, 20 mm, with minimum
      D95 values of T0_plan 96.3%, T50_plan 68%, and AVE_plan 68%. CONCLUSIONS: The
      primary plans tested based up on the T0, T50 and average reconstructions provided
      adequate D95 coverage throughout the respiratory cycle as long as the anterior
      abdominal motion was <=8 mm and can be considered for use as the primary proton
      planning scan.

PMID- 28890819
TI  - The role of induction chemotherapy + chemoradiotherapy in localised pancreatic
      cancer: initial experience in Scotland.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Despite being relatively rare pancreatic cancer is one of the highest
      causes of death. Even within the potentially resectable group outcomes are poor.
      We present our initial experiences utilising a neoadjuvant approach to localised
      pancreatic cancer, evaluating survival, response rates and tolerability. METHODS:
      This was a retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database.
      Patients from 2012 to 2015 referred to a busy regional Hepato-Pancreatic Biliary
      (HPB) MDT were included. Patients were classified according to respectability
      criteria (utilising NCCN guidelines) and a treatment plan agreed. Systemic
      therapy with either FOLFIRINOX or Gem/Cap was delivered followed by
      chemoradiotherapy if disease remained localised. Toxicity, response, pathological
      outcomes and survival were all recorded. RESULTS: A total of 85 patients were
      included in the study: 45 had initially resectable disease; 19 required a
      response for resection and 21 had locally advanced inoperable disease; 34
      patients underwent resection. The median survival for the potentially resectable
      group was 22.2 months while for those undergoing resection it was 37 months.
      CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated that a neoadjuvant approach is deliverable and
      tolerable. In addition we have demonstrated impressive survival results in
      patients undergoing resection with no detriment in outcome for those not
      proceeding to surgery.

PMID- 28890820
TI  - A margin distance analysis of the impact of adjuvant chemoradiation on survival
      after pancreatoduodenectomy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) following
      pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDA) remains
      controversial. Recent data suggest that increased margin clearance (MC: distance
      between tumor and cut surface) is associated with improved survival after PD, but
      the role of adjuvant CRT in patients with known MC is undefined. We sought to
      delineate the impact of adjuvant CRT on survival based on MC following PD.
      METHODS: Patients who underwent PD for PDA between 2002 and 2014 were
      retrospectively stratified into three groups based on MC: 0 mm, <=1 mm, and >1
      mm. The impact of CRT on survival in each MC group was determined by univariate
      and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Three hundred and ten patients with known MC
      were analyzed (0 mm =67, <=1 mm =113, and >1 mm =130). Increasing MC was
      independently associated with improved OS (<=1 mm, HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.46-0.96,
      P=0.03; >1 mm, HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.35-0.75, P=0.001; compared to 0 mm). Adjuvant
      CRT was administered to 62 patients (20%). On margin-stratified multivariate
      analysis, adjuvant CRT was independently associated with increased OS in patients
      with <=1 mm margins (HR 0.36; 95% CI 0.18-0.69, P=0.002) but not for 0 mm and >1
      mm margins. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis suggests that the benefit of adjuvant CRT
      may be restricted to patients with <=1 mm MC after PD for pancreatic cancer.

PMID- 28890821
TI  - Feasibility and reproducibility of substituting oral contrast with water for
      duodenal volume delineation in patients undergoing pancreatic stereotactic body
      radiotherapy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This is the first known report evaluating the feasibility of
      substituting oral contrast with water in efforts to delineate the duodenum for
      pancreatic stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). METHODS: From January 2015 to
      August 2016, 13 patients were simulated after ingestion of 8 ounces of water
      approximately 15-20 min prior to their simulation scan. We examined the
      feasibility of contouring the duodenum thereafter, and measured the duodenal
      volume as well as its variation. Comparison was made to 40 patients treated from
      January 2009 to February 2012 on a prospective trial who used oral contrast.
      Group comparisons were performed by the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: The
      duodenum was identified in all 13 patients who used water instead of oral
      contrast without subjective difficulty. In this group, the median duodenal volume
      was 72.86 cm3 (range, 44.61-130.90 cm3). In the oral contrast group, median
      duodenal volume was 86.21 cm3 (range, 50.11-157.89 cm3) There were no significant
      differences between groups (P=0.115). The approach was reproducible, as all
      patients were able to drink the same amount of water 15-20 min prior to each SBRT
      fraction to keep duodenal volumes subjectively similar to volumes on the
      simulation CT scan. CONCLUSIONS: This novel approach is effective and
      reproducible in delineating the duodenum for treatment planning and daily setup.

PMID- 28890822
TI  - Utilization and trends in palliative therapy for stage IV pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma patients: a U.S. population-based study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an aggressive malignancy, with most
      patients diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease. Palliative therapies
      comprise an important, but underutilized, aspect of care. This aim of this study
      was to characterize the trends, factors, and outcomes associated with utilization
      of palliative therapies. METHODS: Patients with stage IV pancreatic
      adenocarcinoma from the 2003-2011 U.S. National Cancer Database were identified
      and stratified by receipt of palliative therapy. Linear regression, multivariable
      logistic regression, and survival analyses using multivariate proportional
      hazards models were performed. RESULTS: Sixty-eight thousand and seventy-five
      patients with stage IV disease were identified, of which only 11,449 (16.8%)
      underwent designated palliative therapy. The majority received systemic
      chemotherapy (37.2%), followed by surgery (19.0%), pain management alone (15.3%),
      radiation (8.1%), referral alone (11.7%), or a combination thereof (8.7%).
      Utilization of palliative therapies increased from 12.9% in 2003 to 19.2% in 2011
      (P<0.001). Patients were less likely to undergo palliation when older than 60 (OR
      0.89, P<0.001), or of black or Hispanic race (OR 0.83, P<0.001; OR 0.80, P<0.001,
      respectively, vs. Caucasians). Presence of comorbidities increased the use of
      palliative therapy (OR 1.16 per comorbidity, P<0.001). Survival was improved in
      those receiving palliative systemic chemotherapy (HR 0.55, P<0.001) and
      palliative surgery (HR 0.94, P<0.001), although this may be due to selection
      bias. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the continued dismal prognosis of pancreatic cancer,
      palliation of symptoms remains underutilized in this country, particularly in non
      Caucasian, older patients. Increased awareness of palliative options may help
      increase its utilization.

PMID- 28890823
TI  - Does lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio before, during, or after definitive
      chemoradiation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer predict for clinical
      outcomes?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Elevated pre-treatment lymphocyte (L) to monocyte (M) ratio (LMR) in
      peripheral blood has been suggested to correlate with improved survival in some
      malignancies, but data in the context of pancreatic cancer (PC) is limited. The
      aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of LMR before,
      during and after definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for locally advanced
      pancreatic cancer (LAPC). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 57 patients with
      LAPC treated with definitive CRT at a single institution from 2005 to 2013.
      Complete blood counts were obtained before (TP1), during the third week (TP2) and
      at the end of CRT (TP3). Univariate analysis (UVA) included gender, age, body
      mass index, pre-treatment CA19-9, T stage, N stage, induction chemotherapy (ICT),
      absolute L count (TP1, TP2, TP3), absolute M count (TP1, TP2, TP3), LMR (TP1,
      TP2, TP3), and relative LMR changes (TP2 / TP1, TP3 / TP1, TP3 / TP2). RESULTS:
      Median follow-up was 14 months. Twelve patients received ICT. Median LMR was 2.7
      (range, 0.8-5.25), 1.4 (range, 0.3-5) and 0.98 (range, 0.3-3.4) at TP1, TP2 and
      TP3, respectively. Superior PFS was significantly associated with an absolute M
      count during CRT <0.1 (P=0.04) while pre-CRT L count >=1.1 trended towards
      significance (P=0.09). Superior OS was significantly associated with change in
      LMR (TP3 / TP2) > 0.32 (P<0.0001) while pre-CRT LMR >=2.6 trended towards
      significance (P=0.06). CONCLUSIONS: Factors significantly associated with overall
      survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were change in LMR at the end
      of CRT and absolute M count during CRT. This analysis suggests treatment-time
      specific immune system parameters may affect clinical outcomes and warrant
      continued investigation.

PMID- 28890824
TI  - Gemcitabine and capecitabine for advanced biliary cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Gemcitabine with capecitabine (gem-cap) is an established regimen for
      advanced biliary cancer (ABC) supported by our previously reported phase II
      trial. Here, we provide our updated experience. METHODS: Single institution,
      retrospective study from 2005 to 2015 of ABC treated with gem-cap. RESULTS: A
      total of 372 patients with ABC were identified, of whom 227 (61.0%) were treated
      with chemotherapy. 153 patients (67.4%) received gem-cap, of which 129 (56.8%)
      received it in the first line. Thirty two point six percent (42/129) were locally
      advanced, 67.4% (87/129) had metastatic disease, and 18.6% (24/129) received it
      as adjuvant therapy. Disease sites included 48.8% [63] intrahepatic
      cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC), 24.0% [31] extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC) and
      27.1% [35] gallbladder carcinoma (GBC). Median follow-up was 49.7 months (mo).
      The median PFS and OS were 8.0 mo [95% confidence intervals (CI): 6.0-9.3] and
      13.0 mo (95% CI: 10.7-17.4), respectively. Overall, 53.5% (69/129) experienced a
      grade 3/4 toxicity. The most common (35.7%) was a hematologic toxicity
      (neutropenia or thrombocytopenia) followed by infection (25.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Gem
      cap provides similar survival outcomes to gemcitabine/cisplatin based on
      historical comparison to the ABC-2 trial (median PFS =8.0 mo and OS =11.7 mo).
      Gem-cap may offer the advantage of fewer adverse events compared to the levels
      reported in ABC-2 (grade 3/4 events 70.7%).

PMID- 28890825
TI  - Splenectomy is an independent risk factor for poorer perioperative outcomes after
      cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy: an analysis
      of 936 procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data on the impact of splenectomy on peri
      operative outcomes after cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal
      chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC). We report the largest series to date which addresses
      this topic. METHODS: Nine hundred and thirty six consecutive patients underwent
      CRS/HIPEC from 1996 to 2016 at a high-volume institution in Sydney, Australia. Of
      these, 418 (45%) underwent splenectomy. Peri-operative complications were graded
      according to the Clavien-Dindo Classification. The association of splenectomy
      with 19 peri-operative outcomes was assessed using univariate and multivariate
      analyses. RESULTS: In-hospital mortality was 1.8%. Patients undergoing
      splenectomy had a higher disease burden (peritoneal cancer index >=17) (71% vs.
      22%, P<0.001) and underwent a longer operation (>=9 hours) (73% vs. 34%,
      P<0.001). Even after accounting for confounding factors, splenectomy was
      independently associated with an increased risk of grade III/IV morbidity
      [relative risk (RR), 1.94; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.29-2.91; P=0.01],
      infective complications (RR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.09-2.44; P=0.018), pancreatic leak
      (RR, 5.2; 95% CI, 1.81-14.89, P=0.002) and intra-abdominal collection (RR, 1.86;
      95% CI, 1.23-2.84, P=0.004). It was also an independent risk factor for long
      hospital stay (>=28 days) (RR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.25-3.11; P=0.003). Splenectomy was
      not associated with in-hospital mortality (RR, 1.68; 95% CI, 0.32-9.32, P=0.556).
      CONCLUSIONS: Splenectomy is an independent risk factor for poorer peri-operative
      outcomes. Minimizing the likelihood of inadvertent splenic injury through careful
      dissection and routine vaccination can improve outcomes.

PMID- 28890826
TI  - Mutational burden on circulating cell-free tumor-DNA testing as a surrogate
      marker of mismatch repair deficiency or microsatellite instability in patients
      with colorectal cancers.

PMID- 28890828
TI  - Radiation induced gastroparesis-case report and literature review.
AB  - Radiation induced gastroparesis as well as the other autonomic nervous system
      radiation induced neuropathies are poorly described in the literature. A case of
      gastroparesis associated with phrenic and recurrent laryngeal nerves paralysis
      was observed in a 69-year old patient. She was already treated two times by
      rachis radiotherapy in a context of breast cancer with bone metastases.
      Anatomical and chronological correlation of lesions, concomitant nerve damage in
      the radiation fields and elimination of the main differential diagnoses allowed
      us to link this case of gastroparesis with the background of radiotherapy. It
      confirms the role of vagus nerve lesion in radiation induced gastroparesis. This
      specific diagnosis led to a successful treatment and a quality of life
      improvement.

PMID- 28890827
TI  - Primary pancreatic lymphoma: what we need to know.
AB  - Hodgkin's lymphoma is a group of malignant lymphoid which involve various organs
      including gastrointestinal tract. Stomach and small intestine are commonly
      involved more; however, pancreas can be primarily involved as well. The secondary
      involvement of pancreas caused by Hodgkin's lymphoma is more prevalent than the
      primarily involvement (1 .25-2.2% vs. <1%). Primary pancreatic lymphomas (PPLs)
      consist of 1-2% of all lymphoma outside nods. The symptoms and findings of PPL
      imaging can be akin to that of pancreas adenocarcinoma and differentiating them
      is difficult without examining the tissue sample. The prognosis and treatment of
      PPL are different from those of adenocarcinoma and due to the superior prognosis
      of PPL compared to pancreas adenocarcinoma, the proper diagnosis of the disease
      is important.

PMID- 28890829
TI  - A rare case of primary rectal squamous cell carcinoma diagnosed by endoscopic
      ultrasound.
AB  - Primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the rectum is a very rare entity making
      up to 0.1-0.25/1,000 cases of all colorectal cancers. Here, we present the case
      of an otherwise healthy 63-year-old female who presented with progressive pelvic
      discomfort, new onset constipation and a complex mass in presacral region on
      imaging which was proved to be poorly differentiated SCC of the rectum. The
      correct diagnosis was achieved by fine needle aspiration (FNA) via endoscopic
      ultrasound (EUS-guided FNA) as initial conventional colonoscopy failed to
      establish the diagnosis. Patient completed neoadjuvant chemo-radiation and her
      tumor was successfully resected. She is following up with oncology clinic for
      monitoring and further management.

PMID- 28890830
TI  - Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy combined with
      two-stage hepatectomy for multiple and bilobar desmoplastic small round cell
      tumor liver metastases.
AB  - Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare mesenchymal tumor usually
      affecting young patients. Local dissemination is common, and liver is the most
      common site for extraperitoneal metastases. Multimodal management has been shown
      to be the most effective treatment. Some authors consider liver metastases
      especially bi-lobar disease as a contraindication for surgical resection. We
      present a case of a DSRCT with bi-lobar metastases in an adult patient who
      underwent multi-modal management along with hepatectomy. A 51-year-old man was
      found to have a large intraperitoneal mass with bi-lobar liver metastases during
      work up for new onset reflux and abdominal pain. Biopsy confirmed it as DSRCT.
      The patient was treated with multi-modal therapy including cytoreductive surgery
      (CRS), hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), two-stage hepatectomy
      (TSHP) combined with (90Y) Yittrium-90 radioembolization of the right hepatic
      lobe and systemic chemotherapy. The patient had a right-sided pleural empyema one
      month after the surgery for which he required right-sided video-assisted
      thoracoscopy and decortication. He remains disease free at 2 years follow-up.
      DSRCT with bi-lobar liver metastases are best managed with multimodal therapy.
      TSHP seems to be a feasible and safe option in selected cases, with a potentially
      good outcome.

PMID- 28890831
TI  - Effects of central fibroblast growth factor 21 and irisin in anxiety-like
      behavior.
AB  - Adipose tissue and skeletal muscle are organs capable of secreting many bioactive
      molecules, such as adipomiokines that could be possibly involved in mood
      disorders. In the present work, we investigated the possible behavioral effects
      of a single intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of two adipomiokines,
      fibrobroblast growth factor (FGF)-21 (0.5-5.0 ug) and irisin (0.4-0.6 ug), in
      male rats tested in the open field and elevated plus maze tests. Prefrontal
      cortex levels of norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5
      hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) and the gene expression of catechol-O-methyltransferase
      (COMT), dopamine transport (DAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), were measured by
      high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis and real-time reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Both FGF-21 and irisin
      administration induced anxiogenic behavior, increased DA levels in prefrontal
      cortex, decreased COMT, DAT and increased TH gene expression. In conclusion, in
      the present study we demonstrated behavioral effects induced by central FGF-21
      and irisin injections that could involve increased DA signaling in the prefrontal
      cortex.

PMID- 28890832
TI  - Obesity Might Be a Predictor of Weight Reduction after Smoking Cessation.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Approximately one in five ex-smokers reduces or
      maintains weight after smoking cessation but little is known about who succeeds
      to avoid weight gain. The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of
      weight reduction after long-term smoking cessation in a general population.
      METHODS: Data was obtained from two Danish population-based cohorts (the Inter99
      and the Helbred2006 study). Anthropometric measurements were performed by trained
      research staff. Out of 3.577 daily smokers at baseline 317 participants had quit
      smoking at the five-year follow-up for at least one year. Multiple logistic
      regression analysis was performed to determine predictors of weight reduction.
      RESULTS: Thirteen percent reduced weight by at least 1 kg and 4% maintained their
      weight. Quitters with obesity had more than seven times higher odds than normal
      weight quitters to lose weight (OR 7.13 (95% CI 2.76-19.71)), and they had the
      largest median weight loss of 4.45 kg. The only other significant predictor of
      weight reduction was low tobacco consumption at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Predictors
      of weight reduction after smoking cessation were high body mass index and low
      tobacco consumption at baseline. This study might motivate smokers with obesity
      to quit smoking and health professionals to give them support.

PMID- 28890833
TI  - Gender, Success, and Drop-Out during a Resistance Exercise Program in Community
      Dwelling Old Adults.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Resistance exercise training can be effective against sarcopenia. We
      identified predictors of drop-out and compared physical outcomes between men and
      women after such training. METHODS: Subjects (N = 236, 73.7 +/- 5.7 years)
      participated in a 12-week resistance exercise program. Outcome variables were
      measured at baseline and endpoint. RESULTS: Drop-out was 11.9% and not
      significantly different between genders. Drop-outs were significantly older and
      had poorer strength and physical function in comparison to completers.
      Anthropometrics, QoL, and cognitive function were not related to drop-out.
      According to multivariate analysis, gait speed and physical activity were the
      strongest predictors of drop-out. After the training, gains in lean mass or
      appendicular muscle were significantly higher in men than women; however relative
      gains in appendicular muscle as well as absolute improvements in strength and
      function were similar in men and women, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Participants
      who drop out are older, have poorer physical function, and are less physically
      active. Old women do not drop out more frequently than men and show meaningful
      improvements in relevant outcomes similar to men after such a training program.
      The trial is registered at the US National Library of Medicine (NCT01074879).

PMID- 28890834
TI  - The Use of a Novel Heart Failure Agent in the Treatment of Pregnancy-Associated
      Cardiomyopathy.
AB  - Peripartum cardiomyopathy is an uncommon, pregnancy-related form of dilated
      cardiomyopathy that is associated with development of new-onset left ventricular
      dysfunction. Its etiology is presently unknown, but current standard of care
      involves the use of typical drug therapy for the treatment of heart failure.
      Pregnancy-associated cardiomyopathy (PACM) is a similar condition that refers to
      patients who develop such symptoms prior to the last month of pregnancy. We
      report the case of a nulliparous Caucasian female who develops early, severe PACM
      during her first pregnancy with postpartum persistence of New York Heart
      Association class II-III symptoms despite medical therapy. The use of the novel
      heart failure agent, sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto), is initiated with near
      complete resolution of her symptoms.

PMID- 28890835
TI  - Ponatinib as a Valid Alternative Strategy in Patients with Blast Crisis-Chronic
      Myeloid Leukemia Not Eligible for Allogeneic Stem Cells Transplantation and/or
      Conventional Chemotherapy: Report of a Case.
AB  - Currently, imatinib and dasatinib are the only tyrosine-kinase inhibitors
      approved in the US and Europe for the treatment of blast crisis of chronic
      myeloid leukemia (BC-CML) at diagnosis, while ponatinib is the only inhibitor
      used in patients bearing T315I mutation. Here we report the case of a 61-year-old
      man diagnosed with B-cell lymphoid BC-CML, initially treated with imatinib 800 mg
      day and then with dasatinib 140 mg day because of intolerance. A complete
      cytogenetic response (CCyR) was achieved at three months; however, three months
      later a relapse was observed, and the T315I mutation was detected. Ponatinib 45
      mg once daily was then started together with a short course of chemotherapy. Bone
      marrow evaluation after six months of therapy showed the regaining of CCyR,
      together with the achievement of a deep molecular response. However, one year
      from ponatinib start the patient experienced a new disease relapse; he was
      effectively treated with ponatinib and chemotherapy once again, but in the
      meanwhile an ischemic stroke was detected. This case report confirms the high
      efficacy of ponatinib monotherapy in BC-CML patients, representing a valid option
      for non-allogeneic stem cells transplantation eligible cases and the only one
      available for those carrying the T315I mutation.

PMID- 28890836
TI  - New Diagnosis of AIDS Based on Salmonella enterica subsp. I (enterica)
      Enteritidis (A) Meningitis in a Previously Immunocompetent Adult in the United
      States.
AB  - Salmonella meningitis is a rare manifestation of meningitis typically presenting
      in neonates and the elderly. This infection typically associates with foodborne
      outbreaks in developing nations and AIDS-endemic regions. We report a case of a
      19-year-old male presenting with altered mental status after 3-day absence from
      work at a Wisconsin tourist area. He was febrile, tachycardic, and tachypneic
      with a GCS of 8. The patient was intubated and a presumptive diagnosis of
      meningitis was made. Treatment was initiated with ceftriaxone, vancomycin,
      acyclovir, dexamethasone, and fluid resuscitation. A lumbar puncture showed
      cloudy CSF with Gram negative rods. He was admitted to the ICU. CSF culture
      confirmed Salmonella enterica subsp. I (enterica) Enteritidis (A). Based on this
      finding, a 4th-generation HIV antibody/p24 antigen test was sent. When this
      returned positive, a CD4 count was obtained and showed 3 cells/mm3, confirming
      AIDS. The patient ultimately received 38 days of ceftriaxone, was placed on
      elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide (Genvoya) for
      HIV/AIDS, and was discharged neurologically intact after a 44-day admission.

PMID- 28890837
TI  - Why It Is Not Always Anxiety: A Tough Diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome.
AB  - Anxiety disorder is a commonly used diagnosis that may mask underlying
      conditions. Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare neuroimmunological disorder
      characterized by progressive rigidity and painful muscle spasms affecting axial
      and lower extremity musculature. These episodes can be triggered by sudden
      movement, noise, or emotional stress, which may present as a psychiatric
      condition. We report the case of a 30-year-old female who presented with
      recurrent panic attacks with multiple prior hospital admissions for anxiety,
      rigidity, and difficulty in walking. Previous electroencephalogram (EEG) and
      brain and cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were unremarkable. She
      was empirically treated with diazepam and beta-blockers for SPS, which was
      confirmed by positive glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibodies. The patient's
      symptoms became refractory to benzodiazepines and required steroids with
      intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Her rigidity subsequently responded to
      plasmapheresis. In SPS, antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) most commonly
      target the GAD antigen on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons. The goal of
      treatment is to ameliorate symptoms and improve quality of life. Our case of SPS
      was masked as generalized anxiety disorder for at least six years since onset of
      symptoms. The criteria for both diagnoses may overlap as seen in this patient.

PMID- 28890838
TI  - Adenocarcinoma Ex Goblet Cell Carcinoid of Appendix: Two Case Reports.
AB  - Adenocarcinoma ex goblet cell carcinoid is a rare tumor incidentally found in
      specimens of appendicitis. Most patients present with acute abdomen, similar to
      acute appendicitis. Here we present two cases, which were found incidentally
      after operation. We give a brief summary about clinical and biological behavior
      of this entity.

PMID- 28890839
TI  - DPM dispersion inside a single straight entry using dynamic mesh model.
AB  - Three-dimensional simulations of diesel particulate matter (DPM) distribution
      inside a single straight entry for the Load-Haul-Dump loader (LHD)-truck loading
      and truck hauling operations were conducted by using ANSYS FLUENT computational
      fluid dynamics software. The loading operation was performed for a fixed period
      of 3 min. The dynamic mesh technique in FLUENT was used to study the impact of
      truck motion on DPM distribution. The resultant DPM distributions are presented
      for the cases when the truck were driving upstream and downstream of the loading
      face. Interesting phenomena were revealed in the study including the piston
      effect, layering of DPM in the roof region, and backflow of diesel exhaust
      against ventilation. The results from the simulation can be used to determine if
      the areas inside the face area and straight entry exceed the current U.S.
      regulatory requirement for DPM concentration (>160 ug/m3). This research can
      guide the selection of DPM reduction strategies and improve the working practices
      for the underground miners.

PMID- 28890840
TI  - ERRalpha regulates the growth of triple-negative breast cancer cells via S6K1
      dependent mechanism.
AB  - Estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRalpha) is an orphan nuclear factor that is a
      master regulator of cellular energy metabolism. ERRalpha is overexpressed in a
      variety of tumors, including ovarian, prostate, colorectal, cervical and breast,
      and is associated with a more aggressive tumor and a worse outcome. In breast
      cancer, specifically, high ERRalpha expression is associated with an increased
      rate of recurrence and a poor prognosis. Because of the common functions of
      ERRalpha and the mTORC1/S6K1 signaling pathway in regulation of cellular
      metabolism and breast cancer pathogenesis, we focused on investigating the
      biochemical relationship between ERRalpha and S6K1. We found that ERRalpha
      negatively regulates S6K1 expression by directly binding to its promoter.
      Downregulation of ERRalpha expression sensitized ERalpha-negative breast cancer
      cells to mTORC1/S6K1 inhibitors. Therefore, our results show that combinatorial
      inhibition of ERRalpha and mTORC1/S6K1 may have clinical utility in treatment of
      triple-negative breast cancer, and warrants further investigation.

PMID- 28890841
TI  - Predictive Filtering in Motion Compensation with Steerable Cardiac Catheters.
AB  - Robotic cardiac catheterization using ultrasound (US) imaging catheters provides
      real time imaging from within the heart while reducing the difficulty in manually
      steering a four degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) catheter. Accurate robotic catheter
      navigation in the heart is challenging due to a variety of disturbances including
      cyclical physiological motions, such as respiration. In this work we compensate
      for respiratory motion by using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to predict target
      motion and by applying the predictions to steer the US imaging catheter. The
      system performance was measured in bench top experiments with phantom
      vasculature. The robotic system with predictive filtering tracked cyclically
      moving targets with 1.59 mm and 0.72 degrees  mean error. Accurately tracking
      moving structures can improve intra-procedural treatments and visualization.

PMID- 28890842
TI  - Catalytic Mechanisms for Cofactor-Free Oxidase-Catalyzed Reactions: Reaction
      Pathways of Uricase-Catalyzed Oxidation and Hydration of Uric Acid.
AB  - First-principles quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM)-free energy
      calculations have been performed to uncover how uricase catalyzes metabolic
      reactions of uric acid (UA), demonstrating that the entire reaction process of UA
      in uricase consists of two stages-oxidation followed by hydration. The oxidation
      consists of four steps: (1) chemical transformation from 8-hydroxyxythine to an
      anionic radical via a proton transfer along with an electron transfer, which is
      different from the previously proposed electron-transfer mechanism that involves
      a dianion intermediate (UA2-) during the catalytic reaction process; (2) proton
      transfer to the O2- anion (radical); (3) diradical recombination to form a peroxo
      intermediate; (4) dissociation of H2O2 to generate the dehydrourate. Hydration,
      for the most favorable pathway, is initiated by the nucleophilic attack of a
      water molecule on dehydrourate, along with a concerted proton transfer through
      residue Thr69 in the catalytic site. According to the calculated free energy
      profile, the hydration is the rate-determining step, and the corresponding free
      energy barrier of 16.2 kcal/mol is consistent with that derived from experimental
      kinetic data, suggesting that the computational insights into the catalytic
      mechanisms are reasonable. The mechanistic insights not only provide a
      mechanistic base for future rational design of uricase mutants with improved
      catalytic activity against uric acid as an improved enzyme therapy, but also are
      valuable for understanding a variety of other cofactor-free oxidase-catalyzed
      reactions involving an oxygen molecule.

PMID- 28890843
TI  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Effects on
      Central Auditory Processing: A Review.
AB  - New research suggests that individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
      have central auditory processing deficits. To review the evidence for HIV
      affecting parts of the central nervous system involved in central auditory
      processing, we performed a systematic review of the literature. The objective was
      to determine whether existing studies show evidence for damage to structures
      associated with central auditory pathways in HIV. We searched PubMed for papers
      that used structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging,
      magnetic resonance spectroscopy or functional MRI in individuals infected with
      HIV. The review showed that HIV affects several areas involved in central
      auditory processing particularly the thalamus, internal capsule and temporal
      cortex. These findings support the idea that HIV can affect central auditory
      pathways and support the potential use of central auditory tests as a way to
      assess central nervous system effects of HIV.

PMID- 28890844
TI  - Evaluation of Silicon Phthalocyanine 4 Photodynamic Therapy Against Human
      Cervical Cancer Cells In Vitro and in Mice.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide
      [1]. Photodynamic therapy has been used for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
      with good responses, but few studies have used newer phototherapeutics. We
      evaluated the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy using Pc 4 in vitro and in
      vivo against human cervical cancer cells. METHODS: CaSki and ME-180 cancer cells
      were grown as monolayers and spheroids. Cell growth and cytotoxicity were
      measured using a methylthiazol tetrazolium assay. Pc 4 cellular uptake and
      intracellular distrubtion were determined. For in vitro Pc 4 photodynamic therapy
      cells were irradiated at 667nm at a fluence of 2.5 J/cm2 at 48 h. SCID mice were
      implanted with CaSki and ME-180 cells both subcutaneously and intracervically.
      Forty-eight h after Pc 4 photodynamic therapy was administered at 75 and 150
      J/cm2. RESULTS: The IC50s for Pc 4 and Pc 4 photodynamic therapy for CaSki and ME
      180 cells as monolayers were, 7.6MUM and 0.016MUM and >10MUM and 0.026MUM; as
      spheroids, IC50s of Pc 4 photodynamic therapy were, 0.26MUM and 0.01MUM. Pc 4 was
      taken up within cells and widely distributed in tumors and tissues. Intracervical
      photodynamic therapy resulted in tumor death, however mice died due to
      gastrointestinal toxicity. Photodynamic therapy resulted in subcutaneous tumor
      death and growth delay. CONCLUSIONS: Pc 4 photodynamic therapy caused death
      within cervical cancer cells and xenografts, supporting development of Pc 4
      photodynamic therapy for treatment of cervical cancer. Support: P30-CA47904, CTSI
      BaCCoR Pilot Program.

PMID- 28890845
TI  - Comorbidities of Atopic Dermatitis: Beyond Rhinitis and Asthma.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: In this review article, we summarize the current evidence
      about atopic dermatitis (AD)-associated comorbidities, beyond the traditional
      atopic and allergic conditions. RECENT FINDINGS: Patients with AD may have an
      increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, certain malignancies, autoimmune
      diseases, and neuropsychiatric diseases. The causes of these associations are
      likely multifactorial and may include genetic predispositions, systemic low-grade
      inflammation, environmental exposures, medication, and lifestyle and behavioral
      risk factors. There appears to be geographical variations in prevalence of
      comorbidities in patients with AD, indicating that differences in ethnicity and
      lifestyle factors may significantly influence the risk of certain comorbidities.
      SUMMARY: The reported comorbidities in recent literature emphasize the burden of
      disease in patients with AD. Early appropriate AD therapy, in combination with
      reduction of risk factors, may help prevention of certain comorbidities. The
      reported observations may generate hypotheses for future investigations in
      underlying risk factors for AD-associated comorbidities.

PMID- 28890846
TI  - Prediction of endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins using fragmented amino acid
      composition and support vector machine.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The endoplasmic reticulum plays an important role in many cellular
      processes, which includes protein synthesis, folding and post-translational
      processing of newly synthesized proteins. It is also the site for quality control
      of misfolded proteins and entry point of extracellular proteins to the secretory
      pathway. Hence at any given point of time, endoplasmic reticulum contains two
      different cohorts of proteins, (i) proteins involved in endoplasmic reticulum
      specific function, which reside in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, called
      as endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins and (ii) proteins which are in process
      of moving to the extracellular space. Thus, endoplasmic reticulum resident
      proteins must somehow be distinguished from newly synthesized secretory proteins,
      which pass through the endoplasmic reticulum on their way out of the cell.
      Approximately only 50% of the proteins used in this study as training data had
      endoplasmic reticulum retention signal, which shows that these signals are not
      essentially present in all endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins. This also
      strongly indicates the role of additional factors in retention of endoplasmic
      reticulum-specific proteins inside the endoplasmic reticulum. METHODS: This is a
      support vector machine based method, where we had used different forms of protein
      features as inputs for support vector machine to develop the prediction models.
      During training leave-one-out approach of cross-validation was used. Maximum
      performance was obtained with a combination of amino acid compositions of
      different part of proteins. RESULTS: In this study, we have reported a novel
      support vector machine based method for predicting endoplasmic reticulum resident
      proteins, named as ERPred. During training we achieved a maximum accuracy of
      81.42% with leave-one-out approach of cross-validation. When evaluated on
      independent dataset, ERPred did prediction with sensitivity of 72.31% and
      specificity of 83.69%. We have also annotated six different proteomes to predict
      the candidate endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins in them. A webserver,
      ERPred, was developed to make the method available to the scientific community,
      which can be accessed at http://proteininformatics.org/mkumar/erpred/index.html.
      DISCUSSION: We found that out of 124 proteins of the training dataset, only 66
      proteins had endoplasmic reticulum retention signals, which shows that these
      signals are not an absolute necessity for endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins
      to remain inside the endoplasmic reticulum. This observation also strongly
      indicates the role of additional factors in retention of proteins inside the
      endoplasmic reticulum. Our proposed predictor, ERPred, is a signal independent
      tool. It is tuned for the prediction of endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins,
      even if the query protein does not contain specific ER-retention signal.

PMID- 28890848
TI  - Urbanization alters communities of flying arthropods in parks and gardens of a
      medium-sized city.
AB  - Urbanization transforms undeveloped landscapes into built environments, causing
      changes in communities and ecological processes. Flying arthropods play important
      roles in these processes as pollinators, decomposers, and predators, and can be
      important in structuring food webs. The goal of this study was to identify
      associations between urbanization and the composition of communities of flying
      (and floating) arthropods within gardens and parks in a medium-sized mesic city.
      We predicted that flying arthropod abundance and diversity would respond strongly
      to percent impervious surface and distance to city center, measurements of
      urbanization. Flying arthropods were sampled from 30 gardens and parks along an
      urbanization gradient in Toledo, Ohio, during July and August 2016, using
      elevated pan traps. A variety of potential predictor variables were also recorded
      at each site. We collected a total of 2,369 individuals representing nine orders.
      We found that flying arthropod community composition was associated with percent
      impervious surface and canopy cover. Overall flying arthropod abundance was
      negatively associated with percent impervious surface and positively associated
      with distance to city center. Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants), Lepidoptera
      (moths, butterflies), and Araneae (spiders) were positively associated with
      distance to city center. Hemiptera (true bugs), Diptera (flies), and Araneae were
      negatively associated with percent impervious surface. Both distance to city
      center and percent impervious surface are metrics of urbanization, and this study
      shows how these factors influence flying arthropod communities in urban gardens
      and city parks, including significant reductions in taxa that contain pollinators
      and predators important to urban agriculture and forestry. A variety of
      environmental factors also showed significant associations with responses (e.g.
      canopy cover and soil moisture), suggesting these factors may underlie or
      modulate the urbanization effects. More research is needed to determine
      mechanisms of change.

PMID- 28890849
TI  - Trophic analysis of the fish community in the Cienega Churince, Cuatro Cienegas,
      Coahuila.
AB  - Fish diets were analyzed to evaluate the dynamic trophs of the fish community in
      the Churince wetland system of the Cuatro Cienegas, where the fauna consists of
      nine species: endemic, native and introduced. In nine sampling events (between
      February 2011 and May 2014) 556 specimens of all nine species were collected.
      Stomach contents were analyzed and the Relative Importance Index (IRI) was
      calculated. The feed coefficient (Q) of the diets and the accumulated trophic
      diversity (Hk), as well as the amplitude of the trophic niche were evaluated.
      Feeding strategies in the fish community were found to be eurifagic. The main
      foods in general were insects, crustaceans, gastropods, plants and teleosts.
      According to the average linkage method, four functional trophic groups were
      defined, with no higher consumption species; nevertheless all were regulators,
      mainly invertebrates. Therefore, the chain reaction in food control was higher
      from top to bottom, meaning a downwards dietary control.

PMID- 28890847
TI  - The contribution of Nintendo Wii Fit series in the field of health: a systematic
      review and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Wii Fit was originally designed as a health and fitness interactive
      training experience for the general public. There are, however, many examples of
      Wii Fit being utilized in clinical settings. This article aims to identify the
      contribution of Wii Fit in the field of health promotion and rehabilitation by:
      (1) identifying the health-related domains for which the Wii Fit series has been
      tested, (2) clarifying the effect of Wii Fit in those identified health-related
      domains and (3) quantifying this effect. METHOD: A systematic literature review
      was undertaken. The MEDLINE database and Games for Health Journal published
      content were explored using the search term "Wii-Fit." Occurrences resulting from
      manual searches on Google and material suggested by experts in the field were
      also considered. Included articles were required to have measurements from Wii
      Fit activities for at least one relevant health indicator. The effect of Wii Fit
      interventions was assessed using meta-analyses for the following outcomes:
      activity-specific balance confidence score, Berg balance score (BBC) and time-up
      and-go test (TUG). FINDINGS: A total of 115 articles highlighted that the Wii Fit
      has been tested in numerous healthy and pathological populations. Out of these,
      only a few intervention studies have focused on the prevention of chronic
      diseases. A large proportion of the studies focus on balance training (N = 55).
      This systematic review highlights several potential benefits of Wii Fit
      interventions and these positive observations are supported by meta-analyses data
      (N = 25). For example, the BBC and the TUG respond to a similar extend to Wii Fit
      interventions compared with traditional training. CONCLUSION: Wii Fit has the
      potential to be used as a rehabilitation tool in different clinical situations.
      However, the current literature includes relatively few randomized controlled
      trials in each population. Further research is therefore required.

PMID- 28890850
TI  - Minimum infusion rate and adrenocortical function after continuous infusion of
      the novel etomidate analog ET-26-HCl in rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Because etomidate induces prolonged adrenal suppression, even
      following a single bolus, its use as an infused anesthetic is limited. Our
      previous study indicated that a single administration of the novel etomidate
      analog methoxyethyletomidate hydrochloride (ET-26-HCl) shows little suppression
      of adrenocortical function. The aims of the present study were to (1) determine
      the minimum infusion rate of ET-26-HCl and compare it with those for etomidate
      and cyclopropyl-methoxycarbonylmetomidate (CPMM), a rapidly metabolized etomidate
      analog that is currently in clinical trials and (2) to evaluate adrenocortical
      function after a continuous infusion of ET-26-HCl as part of a broader study
      investigating whether this etomidate analog is suitable for long infusion in the
      maintenance of anesthesia. METHOD: The up-and-down method was used to determine
      the minimum infusion rates for ET-26-HCl, etomidate and CPMM. Sprague-Dawley rats
      (n = 32) were then randomly divided into four groups: etomidate, ET-26-HCl, CPMM,
      and vehicle control. Rats in each group were infused for 60 min with one of the
      drugs at its predetermined minimum infusion rate. Blood samples were drawn
      initially and then every 30 min after drug infusion to determine the
      adrenocorticotropic hormone-stimulated concentration of serum corticosterone as a
      measure of adrenocortical function. RESULTS: The minimum infusion rates for
      etomidate, ET-26-HCl and CPMM were 0.29, 0.62, and 0.95 mg/kg/min, respectively.
      Compared with controls, etomidate decreased serum corticosterone, as expected,
      whereas serum corticosterone concentrations following infusion with the etomidate
      analogs ET-26-HCl or CPMM were not significantly different from those in the
      control group. CONCLUSION: The corticosterone concentrations tended to be reduced
      for the first hour following ET-26-HCl infusion (as compared to vehicle
      infusion); however, this reduction did not reach statistical significance. Thus,
      further studies are warranted examining the practicability of using ET-26-HCl as
      an infused anesthetic.

PMID- 28890851
TI  - Stress responses to conspecific visual cues of predation risk in zebrafish.
AB  - Chemical communication relating to predation risk is a trait common among fish
      species. Prey fish under threat of predation can signal risk to conspecific fish,
      which then exhibit defensive responses. Fish also assess predation risk by visual
      cues and change their behavior accordingly. Here, we explored whether these
      behavioral changes act as visual alarm signals to conspecific fish that are not
      initially under risk. We show that shoals of zebrafish (Danio rerio) visually
      exposed to a predator display antipredator behaviors. In addition, these
      defensive maneuvers trigger antipredator reactions in conspecifics and,
      concomitantly, stimulate the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis, leading to
      cortisol increase. Thus, we conclude that zebrafish defensive behaviors act as
      visual alarm cues that induce antipredator and stress response in conspecific
      fish.

PMID- 28890852
TI  - Growth, stoichiometry and cell size; temperature and nutrient responses in
      haptophytes.
AB  - Temperature and nutrients are key factors affecting the growth, cell size, and
      physiology of marine phytoplankton. In the ocean, temperature and nutrient
      availability often co-vary because temperature drives vertical stratification,
      which further controls nutrient upwelling. This makes it difficult to disentangle
      the effects of temperature and nutrients on phytoplankton purely from
      observational studies. In this study, we carried out a factorial experiment
      crossing two temperatures (13 degrees and 19 degrees C) with two growth regimes
      (P-limited, semi-continuous batch cultures ["-P"] and nutrient replete batch
      cultures in turbidostat mode ["+P"]) for three species of common marine
      haptophytes (Emiliania huxleyi, Chrysochromulina rotalis and Prymnesium
      polylepis) to address the effects of temperature and nutrient limitation on
      elemental content and stoichiometry (C:N:P), total RNA, cell size, and growth
      rate. We found that the main gradient in elemental content and RNA largely was
      related to nutrient regime and the resulting differences in growth rate and
      degree of P-limitation, and observed reduced cell volume-specific content of P
      and RNA (but also N and C in most cases) and higher N:P and C:P in the slow
      growing -P cultures compared to the fast growing +P cultures. P-limited cells
      also tended to be larger than nutrient replete cells. Contrary to other recent
      studies, we found lower N:P and C:P ratios at high temperature. Overall,
      elemental content and RNA increased with temperature, especially in the nutrient
      replete cultures. Notably, however, temperature had a weaker-and in some cases a
      negative-effect on elemental content and RNA under P-limitation. This interaction
      indicates that the effect of temperature on cellular composition may differ
      between nutrient replete and nutrient limited conditions, where cellular uptake
      and storage of excess nutrients may overshadow changes in resource allocation
      among the non-storage fractions of biomass (e.g. P-rich ribosomes and N-rich
      proteins). Cell size decreased at high temperature, which is in accordance with
      general observations.

PMID- 28890853
TI  - Preferences for achromatic horizontal, vertical, and square patterns in zebrafish
      (Danio rerio).
AB  - The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is gaining popularity as a laboratory organism and is
      used to model many human diseases. Many behavioural measures of locomotion and
      cognition have been developed that involve the processing of visual stimuli.
      However, the innate preference for vertical and horizontal stripes in zebrafish
      is unknown. We tested the preference of adult zebrafish for three achromatic
      patterns (vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, and squares) at three different
      size conditions (1, 5, and 10 mm). Each animal was tested once in a rectangular
      arena, which had a different pattern of the same size condition on the walls of
      either half of the arena. We show that zebrafish have differential preferences
      for patterned stimuli at each of the three size conditions. These results suggest
      that zebrafish have naive preferences that should be carefully considered when
      testing zebrafish in paradigms using visual stimuli.

PMID- 28890854
TI  - Quantitative comparison of the spreading and invasion of radial growth phase and
      metastatic melanoma cells in a three-dimensional human skin equivalent model.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Standard two-dimensional (2D) cell migration assays do not provide
      information about vertical invasion processes, which are critical for melanoma
      progression. We provide information about three-dimensional (3D) melanoma cell
      migration, proliferation and invasion in a 3D melanoma skin equivalent (MSE)
      model. In particular, we pay careful attention to compare the structure of the
      tissues in the MSE with similarly-prepared 3D human skin equivalent (HSE) models.
      The HSE model is identically prepared to the MSE model except that melanoma cells
      are omitted. Using the MSE model, we examine melanoma migration, proliferation
      and invasion from two different human melanoma cell lines. One cell line, WM35,
      is associated with the early phase of the disease where spreading is thought to
      be confined to the epidermis. The other cell line, SK-MEL-28, is associated with
      the later phase of the disease where spreading into the dermis is expected.
      METHODS: 3D MSE and HSE models are constructed using human de-epidermised dermis
      (DED) prepared from skin tissue. Primary fibroblasts and primary keratinocytes
      are used in the MSE and HSE models to ensure the formation of a stratified
      epidermis, with a well-defined basement membrane. Radial spreading of cells
      across the surface of the HSE and MSE models is observed. Vertical invasion of
      melanoma cells downward through the skin is observed and measured using
      immunohistochemistry. All measurements of invasion are made at day 0, 9, 15 and
      20, providing detailed time course data. RESULTS: Both HSE and MSE models are
      similar to native skin in vivo, with a well-defined stratification of the
      epidermis that is separated from the dermis by a basement membrane. In the HSE
      and MSE we find fibroblast cells confined to the dermis, and differentiated
      keratinocytes in the epidermis. In the MSE, melanoma cells form colonies in the
      epidermis during the early part of the experiment. In the later stage of the
      experiment, the melanoma cells in the MSE invade deeper into the tissues.
      Interestingly, both the WM35 and SK-MEL-28 melanoma cells lead to a breakdown of
      the basement membrane and eventually enter the dermis. However, these two cell
      lines invade at different rates, with the SK-MEL-28 melanoma cells invading
      faster than the WM35 cells. DISCUSSION: The MSE and HSE models are a reliable
      platform for studying melanoma invasion in a 3D tissue that is similar to native
      human skin. Interestingly, we find that the WM35 cell line, that is thought to be
      associated with radial spreading only, is able to invade into the dermis. The
      vertical invasion of melanoma cells into the dermal region appears to be
      associated with a localised disruption of the basement membrane. Presenting our
      results in terms of time course data, along with images and quantitative
      measurements of the depth of invasion extends previous 3D work that has often
      been reported without these details.

PMID- 28890855
TI  - Effects of tire leachate on the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus and the native
      congener Aedes triseriatus.
AB  - Discarded vehicle tire casings are an important artificial habitat for the
      developmental stages of numerous vector mosquitoes. Discarded vehicle tires
      degrade under ultraviolet light and leach numerous soluble metals (e.g., barium,
      cadmium, zinc) and organic substances (e.g., benzothiazole and its derivatives
      [BZTs], polyaromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs]) that could affect mosquito larvae that
      inhabit the tire casing. This study examined the relationship between soluble
      zinc, a common marker of tire leachate, on mosquito densities in tire habitats in
      the field, and tested the effects of tire leachate on the survival and
      development of newly hatched Aedes albopictus and Aedes triseriatus larvae in a
      controlled laboratory dose-response experiment. In the field, zinc concentrations
      were as high as 7.26 mg/L in a single tire and averaged as high as 2.39 (SE +/-
      1.17) mg/L among tires at a single site. Aedes albopictus (37/42 tires, 81.1%)
      and A. triseriatus (23/42, 54.8%) were the most widespread mosquito species, co
      occurred in over half (22/42, 52.4%) of all tires, and A. triseriatus was only
      collected without A. albopictus in one tire. Aedes triseriatus was more strongly
      negatively associated with zinc concentration than A. albopictus, and another
      common mosquito, C. pipiens, which was found in 17 tires. In the laboratory
      experiment, A. albopictus per capita rate of population change (lambda') was over
      1.0, indicating positive population growth, from 0-8.9 mg/L zinc concentration (0
      10,000 mg/L tire leachate), but steeply declined to zero from 44.50-89.00 mg/L
      zinc (50,000-100,000 mg/L tire leachate). In contrast, A. triseriatus lambda'
      declined at the lower concentration of 0.05 mg/L zinc (100 mg/L tire leachate),
      and was zero at 0.45, 8.90, 44.50, and 89.00 mg/L zinc (500, 10,000, 50,000 and
      100,000 mg/L tire leachate). These results indicate that tire leachate can have
      severe negative effects on populations of container-utilizing mosquitoes at
      concentrations commonly found in the field. Superior tolerance to tire leachate
      of A. albopictus compared to A. triseriatus, and possibly other native mosquito
      species, may have facilitated the replacement of these native species as A.
      albopictus has invaded North America and other regions around the world.

PMID- 28890856
TI  - The semi-aquatic pondweed bugs of a Cretaceous swamp.
AB  - Pondweed bugs (Hemiptera: Mesoveliidae), considered a sister group to all other
      Gerromorpha, are exceedingly rare as fossils. Therefore, each new discovery of a
      fossil mesoveliid is of high interest, giving new insight into their early
      evolutionary history and diversity and enabling the testing of their proposed
      relationships. Here, we report the discovery of new mesoveliid material from
      Spanish Lower Cretaceous (Albian) amber, which is the first such find in Spanish
      amber. To date, fossil records of this family only include one species from
      French Kimmeridgian as compression fossils, two species in French amber (Albian
      Cenomanian boundary), and one in Dominican amber (Miocene). The discovery of two
      males and one female described and figured as Glaesivelia pulcherrima Sanchez
      Garcia & Solorzano Kraemer gen. et sp. n., and a single female described and
      figured as Iberovelia quisquilia Sanchez-Garcia & Nel, gen. et sp. n., reveals
      novel combinations of traits related to some genera currently in the subfamily
      Mesoveliinae. Brief comments about challenges facing the study of fossil
      mesoveliids are provided, showing the necessity for a revision of the existing
      phylogenetic hypotheses. Some of the specimens were studied using infrared
      microscopy, a promising alternative to the systematic study of organisms
      preserved in amber that cannot be clearly visualised. The new taxa significantly
      expand the fossil record of the family and shed new light on its palaeoecology.
      The fossils indicate that Mesoveliidae were certainly diverse by the Cretaceous
      and that numerous tiny cryptic species living in humid terrestrial to marginal
      aquatic habitats remain to be discovered. Furthermore, the finding of several
      specimens as syninclusions suggests aggregative behaviour, thereby representing
      the earliest documented evidence of such ethology.

PMID- 28890857
TI  - How long should the fully hillside-closed forest protection be implemented on the
      Loess Plateau, Shaanxi, China?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Restoration of degraded forest ecosystem is crucial for regional
      sustainable development. To protect the country's fragile and fragmented
      environment, the Chinese government initiated an ecological engineering project,
      the Natural Forest Protection Program, in seventeen provinces in China beginning
      in 1998. Fully hillside-closed forest protection (vegetation restoration
      naturally without any artificial disturbance) was one of vital measures of the
      Natural Forest Protection Program applied nation wide. Whether plant diversity,
      biomass and age structure of dominant tree species and soil nutrients in
      protected stands may become better with increase of protected period are still
      open problems. METHODS: We investigated community diversity, biomass of dominant
      tree species, age structures, and analyzed soil chemical properties of a Pinus
      tabulaeformis population at protected sites representing different protected ages
      at Huanglongshan Forest Bureau on the Loess Plateau, Shaanxi, China. RESULTS:
      Plant species richness of Pinus tabulaeformis community was significantly
      affected (p < 0.05) by forest protection and the effect attenuated with
      protection age. Shannon evenness index of plant species generally increased with
      protection age. Stands protected for 45 years had the highest tree biomass and
      considerable natural regeneration capacity. Contents of organic carbon, available
      phosphorus and available potassium in top soil increased in protected stands less
      than 45 years, however decreased significantly thereafter. Long-term forest
      protection also decreased the content of mineral nitrogen in top soil.
      DISCUSSION: We found that the richness of shrubs and herbs was significantly
      affected by forest protection, and evenness indices of tree, shrub and herb
      increased inconsistently with protected ages. Forest protection created more
      complex age structures and tree densities with increasing age of protection.
      Content of soil mineral nitrogen at 0-20 cm soil depth showed a decreasing trend
      in stands of up to 30 years. Soil available phosphorus and potassium contents
      were higher in stands with greater proportions of big and medium trees. Long-term
      protection (>45 years) of Pinus tabulaeformis stands in southeast Loess Plateau,
      China, may be associated with decreasing plant species richness, proportion of
      medium to large trees, dominant biomass of Pinus tabulaeformis and soil
      nutrients.

PMID- 28890858
TI  - Extrapolation of Efficacy in Pediatric Drug Development and Evidence-based
      Medicine: Progress and Lessons Learned.
AB  - BACKGROUND: "Complete Extrapolation" of efficacy from adult or other pediatric
      data, to the pediatric population, is an important scientific tool that reduces
      the need for pediatric efficacy trials. Dose finding and safety studies in
      pediatrics are still needed. "No Extrapolation" requires 2 pediatric efficacy
      trials. "Partial Extrapolation" eliminates the need to conduct 2 pediatric
      efficacy trials; 1 efficacy or exposure/response study may be sufficient. We
      examined pediatric extrapolation from 2009 to 2014 evaluating any changes in
      extrapolation assumptions and the causes for these changes since a prior analysis
      published in 2011. METHODS: We reviewed all 157 products with 388 pediatric
      studies submitted to the FDA from 2009 through 2014. We assessed whether efficacy
      was extrapolated from adult or other pediatric data and categorized extrapolation
      as Complete, Partial, or No, and identified the reasons for the changes. RESULTS:
      Partial extrapolation decreased, whereas use of No and Complete extrapolation
      noticeably increased. Complete, Partial, or No extrapolations changed from 14%,
      68%, and 18% in the 2011 study to 34%, 29%, and 37% respectively in the current
      study. The changes were mostly due to a better understanding of pediatric
      pathophysiology, why trials have failed, and improved endpoints. CONCLUSIONS:
      Evolving science and data obtained from clinical trials increases the certainty
      of extrapolation assumptions and drives decisions to utilize extrapolation.
      Lessons learned from the conduct of these trials are critical to improving
      evidence-based medicine. Extrapolation of Efficacy is a powerful scientific tool
      that streamlines pediatric product development. Increased knowledge and evolving
      science inform utilization of this tool.

PMID- 28890859
TI  - Association of aescin with beta- and gamma-cyclodextrins studied by DFT
      calculations and spectroscopic methods.
AB  - Background: Aescin, a natural mixture of saponins occurring in Aesculus
      hippocastanum, exhibits important flebotonic properties, being used in the
      treatment of chronic venous insufficiency in legs. The inclusion of aescin into
      cyclodextrins (CDs) is a technical solution for its incorporation into the
      textile of stockings, but details of the physicochemistry of these host-guest
      systems are lacking. This work investigates the inclusion of aescin into the
      cavities of two native cyclodextrins, beta-CD and gamma-CD. Results: The
      continuous variation method applied to aqueous-phase 1H nuclear magnetic
      resonance (1H NMR) has demonstrated that the preferred CD/aescin inclusion
      stoichiometries are 2:1 with beta-CD and 1:1 with gamma-CD. The affinity constant
      calculated for gamma-CD.aescin was 894 M-1, while for 2beta-CD.aescin it was
      estimated to be 715 M-1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the
      interaction of aescin Ib with CDs show that an inclusion can indeed occur and it
      is further demonstrated that the wider cavity of gamma-CD is more adequate to
      accommodate this large guest. ROESY spectroscopy is consistent with the formation
      of a complex in which the triterpenic moiety of aescin is included into the
      cavity of gamma-CD. The higher stability of this geometry was confirmed by DFT.
      Furthermore, DFT calculations were applied to determine the chemical shifts of
      the protons H3 and H5 of the CDs in the optimised structures of the inclusion
      complexes. The calculated values are very similar to the experimental data,
      validating the approach made in this study by NMR. Conclusion: The combination of
      experimental data from aqueous-state NMR measurements and theoretical
      calculations has demonstrated that gamma-CD is the most suitable host for aescin,
      although the inclusion also occurs with beta-CD. The geometry of the gamma
      CD.aescin complex is characterised by the inclusion of the triterpene segment of
      aescin into the host cavity.

PMID- 28890860
TI  - Why do young adults gamble online? A qualitative study of motivations to
      transition from social casino games to online gambling.
AB  - The present research examined the mechanisms of initiating online gambling among
      young adults. Of particular interest was whether social casino gaming was noted
      as part of young adults' experience with online gambling. This is because there
      is growing concern that social casino gaming may be a 'gateway' to online
      gambling. Three focus groups (N = 21) were conducted with young adult online
      gamblers from two large Canadian Universities. Participants noted the role of
      peer influence as well as incentives (e.g., sign up bonuses) as important factors
      that motivated them to start engaging in online gambling. Participants also noted
      a link between social casino games and online gambling. Specifically, several
      young adults reported migrating to online gambling within a relatively short
      period after engaging with social casino games. Potential mechanisms that may
      lead to the migration from social casino games to online gambling included the
      role of advertisements and the inflated pay out rates on these free to play
      gambling like games. The results suggest initiatives to prevent the development
      of disordered gambling should understand the potential of social casino gaming to
      act as a gateway to online gambling, especially amongst this vulnerable
      population.

PMID- 28890861
TI  - Idiopathic Anaphylaxis.
AB  - Idiopathic anaphylaxis is a rare life-threatening disorder with symptoms similar
      to other forms of anaphylaxis. There is lack of a robust evidence base
      underpinning the treatment of anaphylaxis and even less so for idiopathic
      anaphylaxis. Much of the evidence therefore comes from relatively small case
      series and expert opinion. Idiopathic anaphylaxis is a diagnosis of exclusion,
      requiring a thorough history and careful diagnostic work-up investigating
      possible triggers and underlying predisposing factors. Key diagnostic tests
      include skin-prick testing, tests for specific-IgE, component-resolved
      diagnostics, and in some cases for allergen challenge tests. Other recognized
      causes of anaphylaxis, such as foods, medications, insect stings, latex, and
      exercise, should all be considered, as should differential diagnoses such as
      asthma. While the cause of idiopathic anaphylaxis remains unknown, prompt
      treatment with intramuscular epinephrine (adrenaline) administered into the
      anterolateral aspect of the thigh is associated with good prognosis. There may
      also be a role for H1-antihistamines and corticosteroids as second-line agents.
      Patients need to be carefully monitored for signs of deterioration and/or a
      possible protracted or biphasic reaction. Patients with frequent episodes of
      anaphylaxis (e.g., six or more episodes/year) should be considered for preventive
      therapy, which may include corticosteroids, H1- and H2-antihistamines, and, in
      some cases, mast cell stabilizers such as ketotifen. Alternative immune
      suppressants (e.g., methotrexate) and anti-IgE may rarely also need to be
      considered. In many cases, the frequency of anaphylaxis declines such that
      regular use of corticosteroids can be discontinued after 9-12 months. Pediatric
      patients should be treated with similar regimens as adults, but with appropriate
      dose adjustments. Patients should carry their self-injectable epinephrine and
      other emergency medications at all times in order to deal with emergency
      situations.

PMID- 28890862
TI  - Where is the difference between an epidemic and a high endemic level with respect
      to nosocomial infection control measures? An analysis based on the example of
      vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in hematology and oncology departments.
AB  - Some infection control recommendations distinguish epidemic and endemic levels
      for infection control. However, it is often difficult to separate long lasting
      outbreaks from high endemic levels and it remains open, if this distinction is
      really useful. Aim: To compare infection control measures in endemic and epidemic
      outbreaks. Methods: The example of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium
      outbreaks in haematology or oncology departments was used to analyse differences
      in infection control measures between outbreaks and high endemic levels. The
      outbreak database and PubMed, including long lasting outbreaks, were used for
      this analysis. Two time limits were used for separation: 6 and 12 months. In
      addition, monoclonal and polyclonal outbreaks were distinguished. Findings: A
      total of 36 outbreaks were included. 13 outbreaks lasted 6 months or less, 9
      outbreaks more than 6 months but at maximum 12 months and 9 more than 12 months.
      For the remaining outbreaks, no information about their duration was available.
      Altogether, 11 outbreaks were monoclonal and 20 polyclonal. Considering infection
      control measures, there were almost no differences between the different groups
      compared. Patient screening was given up in 37.5% of long lasting outbreaks (>12
      months) and hand hygiene not reported in the majority of polyclonal outbreaks
      (77.8%). Conclusion: Despite many institutions trying to add further infection
      control measures in case of an outbreak, evidence based infection control
      measures should be implemented in endemic and epidemic situations. The crucial
      aspect is probably the degree of implementation and its control in both
      situations.

PMID- 28890863
TI  - Enhanced viscoelastic property of iron oxide nanoparticle decorated organoclay
      fluid under magnetic field.
AB  - Stable hydrophobic nanocomposites of magnetic nanoparticles and clay are prepared
      by the self-assembly of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles on surfaces of exfoliated
      clay platelets. Due to the attractive interaction between hydrophobic groups,
      oleic acid coated nanoparticles are strongly attached to the surface of cetyl
      trimethylammonium cation coated clay platelets in organic media. Crystal
      structure and magnetic property of composite particles are examined using
      electron microscopy, x-ray diffractometer and vibration sample magnetometer. In
      addition, composite particles are dispersed in mineral oil and rheological
      properties of composite particle suspensions are characterized using steady-state
      and oscillatory measurements. Magnetite nanoparticle decorated organoclay forms a
      tunable network in mineral oil. When a magnetic field is applied, the composite
      particle fluid exhibits higher storage modulus and maintains a solid-like
      property at larger strain. Our results show that the viscoelastic property of the
      magnetite nanoparticle decorated organoclay fluid is controlled by applying
      external magnetic field.

PMID- 28890864
TI  - Germ soak water as nutrient source to improve fermentation of corn grits from
      modified corn dry grind process.
AB  - Corn fractionation in modified dry grind processes results in low fermentation
      efficiency of corn grits because of nutrient deficiency. This study investigated
      the use of nutrient-rich water from germ soaking to improve grits fermentation in
      the conventional dry grind and granular starch hydrolysis (GSH) processes.
      Comparison of germ soak water with the use of protease and external B-vitamin
      addition in improving grits fermentation was conducted. Use of water from optimum
      soaking conditions (12 h at 30  degrees C) resulted in complete fermentation with
      29 and 8% higher final ethanol yields compared to that of control in conventional
      and GSH process, respectively. Fermentation rate (4-24 h) of corn grits with germ
      soak water (0.492 v/v-h) was more than double than that of control (0.208 v/v-h)
      in case of conventional dry grind process. The soaking process also increased the
      oil concentration in the germ by about 36%, which would enhance its economic
      value.

PMID- 28890865
TI  - Functional Imaging of Paragangliomas with an Emphasis on Von Hippel-Lindau
      Associated Disease: A Mini Review.
AB  - Few reports have presented data and results on functional (i.e., nuclear
      medicine) imaging of paragangliomas and pheochromocytomas (PGLs/PHEOs) for von
      Hippel-Lindau (VHL) patients. Nuclear medicine localization modalities for
      chromaffin tumors can be specific or nonspecific. Specific methods make use of
      the expression of the human norepinephrine transporter (hNET) and vesicular
      monoamine transporters (VMATs) by these tumors. These permit the use of
      radiolabeled ligands that enter the synthesis and storage pathway of
      catecholamines. Nonspecific methods are not related to the synthesis, uptake, or
      storage of catecholamines but make use of the tumors' high glucose metabolism or
      expression of somatostatin receptors. Consensuses and guidelines suggest that
      metastatic and sporadic PHEOs/PGLs in VHL patients (as in patients with
      chromaffin tumors of yet unknown genotype) should be evaluated first with 18F
      dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-DOPA) positron emission tomography/computed
      tomography (PET/CT). The functional imaging of second choice is 123I
      metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) for PHEOs in VHL patients. 123I-MIBG, 68Ga
      DOTATATE/DOTATOC/DOTANOC PET/CT, or 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT can
      be a second choice of functional imaging for PGLs in VHL patients.

PMID- 28890866
TI  - Improving Brain Delivery of Biomolecules via BBB Modulation in Mouse and Rat:
      Detection using MRI, NIRF, and Mass Spectrometry.
AB  - There is an urgent need to develop new and alternative methods to deliver
      functional biomolecules to the brain for diagnosis and treatment of brain
      diseases. The goal of this study was to evaluate the activity of blood-brain
      barrier (BBB) modulators (i.e., HAV and ADT peptides) to deliver functional
      biomolecules (i.e., galbumin, IRdye800cw-cLABL, and cIBR7) to the brains of mice
      and rats. HAV6, cHAVc3, and ADTC5 peptides but not HAV4 peptide significantly
      enhanced the brain delivery of 65 kDa galbumin compared to control in Balb/c mice
      as quantified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Ten-minute pretreatment with
      ADTC5 peptide still significantly increased brain delivery of galbumin; however,
      no enhancement was observed after 10-min pretreatment with HAV6. There was no
      enhancement of galbumin deposition following 40-min pretreatment with ADTC5 or
      HAV6, suggesting a short duration of the BBB opening for large molecules. ADTC5
      peptide also improved the brain delivery of IRdye800cw-cLABL peptide about 3.5
      fold compared to control in Balb/c mice as detected by near infrared fluorescence
      (NIRF). The BBB modulator activity of ADTC5 to deliver cIBR7 peptide was also
      evaluated in vivo using Sprague-Dawley rats. The amount of cIBR7 in the brain was
      detected by LC-MS/MS. ADTC5 peptide enhanced the delivery of cIBR7 peptide into
      rat brain about 4-fold compared to control and the intact cIBR7 can be
      efficiently extracted and detected in rat brain. In conclusion, HAV and ADT
      peptides enhance the brain delivery of functional peptides (e.g., cLABL and
      cIBR7) and protein (e.g., 65 kDa galbumin) in two animal models, and the duration
      of the BBB opening for a large molecule (e.g., galbumin) was short.

PMID- 28890867
TI  - Impaired interval timing and spatial-temporal integration in mice deficient in
      CHL1, a gene associated with schizophrenia.
AB  - Interval timing is crucial for decision-making and motor control and is impaired
      in many neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia - a
      neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic component. Several gene
      mutations, polymorphisms or rare copy number variants have been associated with
      schizophrenia. L1 cell adhesion molecules (L1CAMs) are involved in
      neurodevelopmental processes, and in synaptic function and plasticity in the
      adult brain. Mice deficient in the Close Homolog to L1 (CHL1) adhesion molecule
      show alterations of hippocampal and thalamo-cortical neuroanatomy as well as
      deficits in sensorimotor gating and exploratory behavior. We analyzed interval
      timing and attentional control of temporal and spatial information in male CHL1
      deficient (KO) mice and wild type (WT) controls. In a 20-s peak-interval timing
      procedure (standard and reversed), KO mice showed a maintained leftward shift of
      the response function relative to WT, indicative of a deficit in memory
      encoding/decoding. In trials with 2, 5, or 10-s gaps, KO mice shifted their peak
      times less than WT controls at longer gap durations, suggesting a decreased
      (attentional) effect of interruptions. In the spatial-temporal task, KO mice made
      more working and reference memory errors than controls, suggestive of impaired
      use of spatial and/or temporal information. When the duration spent on the
      central platform of the maze was manipulated, WT mice showed fewer spatial errors
      at the trained duration than at shorter or longer durations, indicative of
      discrimination based upon spatial-temporal integration. In contrast, performance
      was similar at all tested durations in KO mice, indicative of control by spatial
      cues, but not by temporal cues. These results suggest that CHL1 KO mice
      selectively attend to the more relevant cues of the task, and fail to integrate
      more complex spatial-temporal information, possibly as a result of reduced memory
      capacity related to hippocampal impairment, and altered temporal-integration
      mechanisms possibly due to thalamo-cortical anomalies.

PMID- 28890869
TI  - Multifunctional biomimetic spinal cord: New approach to repair spinal cord
      injuries.
AB  - The incidence of spinal cord injury (SCI) has been gradually increasing, and the
      treatment has troubled the medical field all the time. Primary and secondary
      injuries ultimately lead to nerve impulse conduction block. Microglia and
      astrocytes excessively accumulate and proliferate to form the glial scar. At
      present, to reduce the effect of glial scar on nerve regeneration is a hot spot
      in the research on the treatment of SCI. According to the preliminary
      experiments, we would like to provide a new bionic spinal cord to reduce the
      negative effect of glial scar on nerve regeneration. In this hypothesis we
      designed a new scaffold that combine the common advantage of acellular scaffold
      of spinal cord and thermosensitive gel, which could continue to release exogenous
      basic fibroblast growth factor (BFGF) in the spinal lesion area on the basis of
      BFGF modified thermosensitive gel. Meanwhile, the porosity, pore size and
      material of the gray matter and white matter regions were distinguished by an
      isolation layer, so as to induce the directed differentiation of cells into the
      defect site and promote regeneration of spinal cord tissue.

PMID- 28890871
TI  - Type 2 versus type 1 myocardial infarction: a comparison of clinical
      characteristics and outcomes with a meta-analysis of observational studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 myocardial infarction (MI) is an imbalance between myocardial
      oxygen demand and supply, leading to myocardial ischemia. It is not due to plaque
      rupture, and is usually caused by a condition other than coronary artery disease
      (CAD). However, limited data are available comparing the prevalence of
      traditional coronary risk factors and mortality between type 1 and type 2 MI. We
      hypothesize that type 2 MI carries a higher mortality than type 1. METHODS: We
      searched the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL, and MEDLINE for studies
      comparing type 1 MI with type 2 MI. The baseline variables were compared in each
      cohort. Summary risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using
      the random effects model to compare mortality between the two groups. RESULTS:
      The included studies yielded 25,872 patients of whom 2,683 (10%) had type 2 MI.
      Compared to the type 1 cohort, the type 2 cohort had significantly higher
      inpatient (15% vs. 4.7%, P<0.00001), 30-day (17.6% vs. 5.3%, P<0.00001) and 1-yr
      mortality (27% vs. 13%, P<0.00001), as well as higher 30-day major adverse
      cardiovascular events (20% vs. 9%, P<0.0001). Operative stress (20%) was the most
      common trigger of type 2 MI, followed by sepsis (19%), arrhythmia (18.63%), heart
      failure (15%), and anemia (12%). CONCLUSIONS: Type 2 MI is a common entity and is
      more common in females, older age groups, and in patients with multiple
      comorbidities: it also tends to result in higher mortality.

PMID- 28890868
TI  - Surgical and immune reconstitution murine models in bone marrow research:
      Potential for exploring mechanisms in sepsis, trauma and allergy.
AB  - Bone marrow, the vital organ which maintains lifelong hemopoiesis, currently
      receives considerable attention, as a source of multiple cell types which may
      play important roles in repair at distant sites. This emerging function, distinct
      from, but closely related to, bone marrow roles in innate immunity and
      inflammation, has been characterized through a number of strategies. However, the
      use of surgical models in this endeavour has hitherto been limited. Surgical
      strategies allow the experimenter to predetermine the site, timing, severity and
      invasiveness of injury; to add or remove aggravating factors (such as infection
      and defects in immunity) in controlled ways; and to manipulate the context of
      repair, including reconstitution with selected immune cell subpopulations. This
      endows surgical models overall with great potential for exploring bone marrow
      responses to injury, inflammation and infection, and its roles in repair and
      regeneration. We review three different murine surgical models, which variously
      combine trauma with infection, antigenic stimulation, or immune reconstitution,
      thereby illuminating different aspects of the bone marrow response to systemic
      injury in sepsis, trauma and allergy. They are: (1) cecal ligation and puncture,
      a versatile model of polymicrobial sepsis; (2) egg white implant, an intriguing
      model of eosinophilia induced by a combination of trauma and sensitization to
      insoluble allergen; and (3) ectopic lung tissue transplantation, which allows us
      to dissect afferent and efferent mechanisms leading to accumulation of
      hemopoietic cells in the lungs. These models highlight the gain in analytical
      power provided by the association of surgical and immunological strategies.

PMID- 28890870
TI  - Treg/Th17 cell balance and phytohaemagglutinin activation of T lymphocytes in
      peripheral blood of systemic sclerosis patients.
AB  - AIM: To investigate T-cell activation, the percentage of peripheral T regulatory
      cells (Tregs), Th17 cells and the circulating cytokine profile in systemic
      sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: We enrolled a total of 24 SSc patients and 16 healthy
      controls in the study and divided the patients as having diffuse cutaneous SSc
      (dcSSc, n = 13) or limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc, n = 11). We performed a further
      subdivision of the patients regarding the stage of the disease - early,
      intermediate or late. Peripheral venous blood samples were collected from all
      subjects. We performed flow cytometric analysis of the activation capacity of T
      lymphocytes upon stimulation with PHA-M and of the percentage of peripheral Tregs
      and Th17 cells in both patients and healthy controls. We used ELISA to quantitate
      serum levels of human interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, tissue growth factor-beta1 (TGF
      beta1), and IL-17A. RESULTS: We identified a decreased percentage of CD3+CD69+
      cells in PHA-stimulated samples from SSc patients in comparison with healthy
      controls (13.35% +/- 2.90% vs 37.03% +/- 2.33%, P < 0.001). However, we did not
      establish a correlation between the down-regulated CD3+CD69+ cells and the
      clinical subset, nor regarding the stage of the disease. The activated CD4+CD25+
      peripheral lymphocytes were represented in decreased percentage in patients when
      compared to controls (6.30% +/- 0.68% vs 9.36% +/- 1.08%, P = 0.016). Regarding
      the forms of the disease, dcSSc patients demonstrated lower frequency of
      CD4+CD25+ T cells against healthy subjects (5.95% +/- 0.89% vs 9.36% +/- 1.08%, P
      = 0.025). With regard to Th17 cells, our patients demonstrated increased
      percentage in comparison with controls (18.13% +/- 1.55% vs 13.73% +/- 1.21%, P =
      0.031). We detected up-regulated Th17 cells within the lcSSc subset against
      controls (20.46% +/- 2.41% vs 13.73% +/- 1.21%, P = 0.025), nevertheless no
      difference was found between dcSSc and lcSSc patients. Flow cytometric analysis
      revealed an increased percentage of CD4+CD25-Foxp3+ in dcSSc patients compared to
      controls (10.94% +/- 1.65% vs 6.88% +/- 0.91, P = 0.032). Regarding the
      peripheral cytokine profile, we detected raised levels of IL-6 [2.10 (1.05-4.60)
      pg/mL vs 0.00 pg/mL, P < 0.001], TGF-beta1 (19.94 +/- 3.35 ng/mL vs 10.03 +/-
      2.25 ng/mL, P = 0.02), IL-10 (2.83 +/- 0.44 pg/mL vs 0.68 +/- 0.51 pg/mL, P =
      0.008), and IL-17A [6.30 (2.50-15.60) pg/mL vs 0 (0.00-0.05) pg/mL, P < 0.001] in
      patients when compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, we found increased
      circulating IL-10, TGF-beta, IL-6 and IL-17A in the lcSSc subset vs control
      subjects, as it follows: IL-10 (3.32 +/- 0.59 pg/mL vs 0.68 +/- 0.51 pg/mL, P =
      0.003), TGF-beta1 (22.82 +/- 4.99 ng/mL vs 10.03 +/- 2.25 ng/mL, P = 0.031), IL-6
      [2.08 (1.51-4.69) pg/mL vs 0.00 pg/mL, P < 0.001], and IL-17A [14.50 (8.55-41.65)
      pg/mL vs 0.00 (0.00-0.05) pg/mL, P < 0.001]. Furthermore, circulating IL-17A was
      higher in lcSSc as opposed to dcSSc subset (31.99 +/- 13.29 pg/mL vs 7.14 +/-
      3.01 pg/mL, P = 0.008). Within the dcSSc subset, raised levels of IL-17A and IL-6
      were detected vs healthy controls: IL-17A [2.60 (0.45-9.80) pg/mL vs 0.00 (0.00
      0.05) pg/mL, P < 0.001], IL-6 [2.80 (1.03-7.23) pg/mL vs 0.00 pg/mL, P < 0.001].
      Regarding the stages of the disease, TGF-beta1 serum levels were increased in
      early stage against late stage, independently from the SSc phenotype (30.03 +/-
      4.59 ng/mL vs 13.08 +/- 4.50 ng/mL, P = 0.017). CONCLUSION: It is likely that the
      altered percentage of Th17 and CD4+CD25-FoxP3+ cells along with the peripheral
      cytokine profile in patients with SSc may play a key role in the pathogenesis of
      the disease.

PMID- 28890872
TI  - Cardiac troponin and outcome in decompensated heart failure with preserved
      ejection fraction.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cardiac troponin (cTn) has been established as an effective
      prognostic marker in acute heart failure (HF) with predominantly reduced ejection
      fraction. However, it's prognostic value in heart failure with preserved ejection
      fraction (HFpEF) is unclear. The aim of this study is to describe the prognostic
      role of troponin I in patients hospitalized for HFpEF decompensation. METHODS: We
      included 363 consecutive patients admitted for HFpEF decompensation that was not
      associated with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Patients with troponin level
      elevation (troponin I level >=0.04 ng/mL) were compared to patients with normal
      troponin level. The primary outcome was short-, intermediate-, and long-term all
      cause mortality. The secondary outcomes were differences in B-type natriuretic
      peptide level (BNP), length of stay, and readmission rates between the two
      groups. RESULTS: Nearly half of the patients in the Cohort had troponin level
      elevation. Troponin level elevation was significantly associated with higher 30
      day (4.8% vs. 0.6%, P=0.014), 1-year (12.2% vs. 4.6%, P=0.009), and 2-year
      mortality (13.8% vs. 5.1%, P=0.005) when compared to a normal troponin level.
      Troponin level elevation was an independent predictor of mortality after
      adjusting for clinical and laboratory risk factors seen in HFpEF decompensation.
      Additionally, BNP level >287 pg/mL, age, and history of atrial fibrillation were
      identified as statistically significant predictors of mortality. CONCLUSIONS:
      Troponin level elevation, in hospitalized patients with HFpEF decompensation, was
      associated with higher short-, intermediate-, and long-term mortality.

PMID- 28890874
TI  - Usefulness of amino terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide in evaluating
      children with cardiac failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The plasma levels of amino terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide
      (NT-proBNP) have been found to be useful in evaluating children with heart
      failure in developed countries where the cause is mainly structural heart
      lesions. There is paucity of similar studies from developing countries where the
      causes are mostly of infectious origin. This article is aim to evaluate the
      relationship between plasma NT-proBNP levels and the severity, outcome and
      duration of admission of children with heart failure. METHODS: The subjects were
      children presenting to the children's emergency room (CHER) diagnosed with heart
      failure based on the modified Ross criteria. The controls were age matched well
      children recruited from follow up clinics. Information on bio-data and socio
      demographics was collected while blood was obtained for plasma NT-proBNP
      measurement. Data analysis was done with SPSS. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty
      six subjects and same number of controls aged 2 months to 13 years were
      recruited. The mean plasma NT-proBNP in the subjects was 1,137.10+/-1,243.78 ng/L
      and in controls, 578.00+/-665.08 ng/L (t=5.669, P<0.001). Subjects with severe
      heart failure had a statistically significantly higher mean plasma NT-proBNP than
      those with mild or moderate categories (P<0.001). A plasma NT-proBNP of 903.15
      ng/L had a 73.3% sensitivity and 72.1% specificity for identifying severe heart
      failure using receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis (95% CI, 0.659-0.912,
      P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Children with heart failure had significantly higher mean
      NT-proBNP value than controls and the value was highest in those with severe form
      of heart failure compared to those with moderate or mild categories. Plasma NT
      proBNP should be determined for children presenting with clinically diagnosed
      heart failure to identify those with severe heart failure and institute prompt
      treatment.

PMID- 28890873
TI  - Diagnostic accuracy study of routine echocardiography for bicuspid aortic valve:
      a retrospective study and meta-analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is the standard procedure to
      distinguish tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) from bicuspid aortic valve (BAV).
      Published studies assessed the accuracy of TTE for BAV under ideal conditions.
      Conversely, we aimed at assessing accuracy of TTE for BAV under routine
      conditions. METHODS: This retrospective, cross-sectional study of 216 adults
      included 132 men aged 62+/-14 years. Of these, 108 had BAV and 108 were age
      matched individuals with TAV. All diagnoses were confirmed at surgery. We
      assessed TTE in two patient groups. First, in the (I) group of all 216
      individuals, where we assessed accuracy for BAV according to the original
      diagnoses as documented by the primary investigators during original TTE
      examination. Second, we assessed accuracy for BAV according to expert re
      evaluation in (II) all 158 TTE with availability of original recordings. Third,
      we performed a meta-analysis of published results on the accuracy of TTE for BAV
      according to PRISMA standards. RESULTS: Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of
      (I) primary investigators was 46.3%, 97.2, and 71.8% as compared to (II) expert
      re-evaluation with 59.7%, 93%, and 77.8%, respectively. Sensitivity was
      significantly higher at re-evaluation (P<0.001). TTE at a non-tertiary care
      center (P=0.012), presence of aortic aneurysm (P=0.001) and presence of severe
      aortic valve calcification (P=0.003) predicted an inaccurate diagnosis of BAV.
      Conversely, meta-analysis of published TTE studies identified a pooled
      sensitivity of 87.7% and a pooled specificity of 88.3% for BAV. CONCLUSIONS: The
      current study shows that TTE yields almost ideal diagnostic accuracy when ideal
      investigators examine ideal patients. However, the study also shows that TTE
      yields suboptimal diagnostic accuracy under routine conditions. TTE in non
      tertiary care settings, concomitant aortic aneurysm, and presence of severe
      aortic valve calcification predict an inaccurate diagnosis of BAV.

PMID- 28890875
TI  - Cyanotic congenital heart diseases among Nigerian children.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There are only few reports on cyanotic congenital heart diseases
      (CCHD) among Nigerian and African Children. The current report aim to provide the
      most recent hospital based data on the distribution of CCHD in children less than
      14 years of age, the demographic characteristics and risk factors identified.
      METHODS: Prospective and cross-sectional involving consecutive cases of CCHD
      diagnosed with echocardiography at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital
      between January 2007 and June 2016. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package
      for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Level of significance set at P<0.05.
      RESULTS: There were 352 subjects with CCHD with a male to female ratio of 1.34:1.
      The children were age 2 days to 14 years with a mean +/- SD of 38.62+/-44.74
      months and median of 21 months. The most common type of CCHD (both isolated and
      multiple CCHD) was tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) followed double outlet right
      ventricle (DORV) and transposition of the great arteries (TGA). The most common
      mode of presentation was cyanosis. CONCLUSIONS: TOF was found in almost half of
      the subjects. Cases of DORV which have been rarely reported were more than those
      with TGA. Most were diagnosed late. Cyanosis was the most common mode of
      presentation. Clinical features are protean; thus a high index of suspicion is
      required to make an early diagnosis.

PMID- 28890876
TI  - Implantable cardioverter defibrillator in non-ischemic cardiomyopathy: a meta
      analysis of randomized controlled trials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a significant cause of mortality in
      patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM). Implantable cardioverter
      defibrillators (ICDs) are currently indicated for the primary prevention of SCD
      in these patients. Conflicting results from published randomized controlled
      trials (RCTs) have recently questioned the protective role of ICD in NICM
      patients to perform an updated meta-analysis of the effect of ICDs on outcomes of
      NICM patients. METHODS: We performed a search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane
      databases for RCTs comparing ICD to medical therapy in patients with NICM.
      Outcomes were all-cause mortality, SCD, and cardiac mortality. Mantel-Haenszel
      (MH) risk ratios (RR) were calculated using random-effects meta-analysis for the
      outcomes mentioned. Heterogeneity was assessed using I2 statistics and Q
      statistic. RESULTS: A total of five RCTs met the inclusion criteria, with a total
      of 1,503 patients in the ICD group and 1,364 patients in the medical therapy.
      Compared to medical therapy, ICD use resulted in a 24% relative risk reduction
      (RRR) of all-cause mortality (RR 0.76, 95% CI 0.64-0.91, P=0.002), and 60% RRR of
      SCD (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.18-0.90, P=0.03), but was not associated with a
      statistically significant benefit in the prevention of cardiac mortality (RR
      0.75, 95% CI 0.39-1.44, P=0.39). Limiting the analysis to patients who received
      an ICD only without cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) pacemakers (4 trials,
      1,825 patients) showed similar all-cause mortality results with 24% RRR in ICD
      group (RR 0.76, 95% CI 0.61-0.94, P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: ICD therapy reduces all
      cause mortality and SCD in patients with NICM.

PMID- 28890878
TI  - Should all spontaneous coronary dissections need to be diagnosed by intracoronary
      imaging techniques?

PMID- 28890877
TI  - Pulmonary hypertension: diagnosis, imaging techniques, and novel therapies.
AB  - Pulmonary hypertension (PH), defined as the elevation of mean pulmonary arterial
      pressure (mPAP) above 25 mmHg, has numerous causes, which the World Health
      Organization (WHO) has divided into five distinct categories based upon the
      underlying mechanism of action. This review will explore the pathophysiology,
      diagnostic testing, and treatment of PH. Identification of PH depends on a strong
      clinical suspicion, a detailed history, and a thorough physical exam. We review
      the evidence supporting experimental and clinical laboratory parameters for
      diagnosis and monitoring of PH. Transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) is the initial
      screening test of choice. This review will detail specific echocardiographic
      techniques for the assessment and classification of PH. Furthermore, the
      importance of advanced imaging, including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic
      resonance imagining (MRI) is explored. New developments in pharmacology,
      percutaneous intervention, and surgical approaches are summarized. Finally, we
      will address the tools available to predict morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28890880
TI  - Prof. Tohru Asai & Prof. Taweesak Chotivatanapong: treatment of mitral valve
      disease.

PMID- 28890879
TI  - Streptococcal pharyngitis in children with painful throat: missed opportunities
      for rheumatic heart disease prevention in endemic area of Africa.

PMID- 28890881
TI  - Unseen/seen-the duality of nature.

PMID- 28890883
TI  - The Role of Probiotics in Cancer Treatment: Emphasis on their In Vivo and In
      Vitro Anti-metastatic Effects.
AB  - Probiotics are defined as live bacteria and yeasts that exert beneficial effects
      for health. Among their various effects, anti-cancer properties have been
      highlighted in recent years. Such effects include suppression of the growth of
      microbiota implicated in the production of mutagens and carcinogens, alteration
      in carcinogen metabolism and protection of DNA from oxidative damage as well as
      regulation of immune system. We performed a computerized search of the
      MEDLINE/PUBMED databases with key words: cancer, probiotics, lactobacilli,
      metastasis and invasion. Cell line studies as well as animal models and human
      studies have shown the therapeutic effects of probiotics in reduction of invasion
      and metastasis in cancer cells. These results support the beneficial effects of
      probiotics both in vitro and in vivo. However, pre-clinical or clinical studies
      are not enough to decide about their application.

PMID- 28890884
TI  - Circulating miR-92a, miR-143 and miR-342 in Plasma are Novel Potential Biomarkers
      for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that function as post
      transcriptional gene expression regulators. The expression profiling of miRNAs
      has already entered into cancer clinics as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers
      to assess tumor initiation, progression and response to treatment in cancer
      patients. Recent studies have opened the way for the use of circulating miRNAs as
      non-invasive diagnosis and prognosis of Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The aim of
      this study was to identify plasma miR-92a, miR-143 and miR-342 expression
      signatures in AML patients to introduce new markers for establishing AML
      diagnosis and prognosis. Blood samples were collected from 65 AML patients and 50
      controls. The expression of three target miRNAs (miR-92a, miR-143 and miR-342)
      was measured using quantitative real-time PCR method. Plasma levels of miR-92a,
      miR-143 and miR-342 were significantly lower in AML patients in comparison with
      control group. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that the
      sensitivity and specificity values of miR-92a were 81.5% and 94%, respectively,
      with a cut-off value of 0.704. The sensitivity and specificity values of miR-143
      were 87.7% and 80%, respectively, with a cut-off value of 0.65. The sensitivity
      and specificity values of miR-342 were 75.4% and 90%, respectively, with a cut
      off value of 0.479. Our findings suggest that plasma miR-92a, miR-143 and miR-342
      could be promising novel circulating biomarkers in clinical detection of AML.

PMID- 28890885
TI  - Evaluation of MicroRNA-99a and MicroRNA-205 Expression Levels in Bladder Cancer.
AB  - Bladder cancer is the second most common cancer in the genitourinary tract,
      showing often recurrence and progress into invasive states. Epigenetic changes,
      such as microRNA alteration are involved in bladder cancer tumorigenesis through
      a variety of signaling pathways. The epigenetic state depends on geographic and
      lifestyle conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression
      level of microRNA-99a and microRNA-205 in bladder cancer in Iranian populations
      and to determine the relationship between their expressions with
      clinicophatological features. 36 patients with bladder cancer were included in
      the study. The control group was the healthy adjacent tissue of the same
      patients. Total RNA was extracted from approximately 50 mg tissue using TRIzol
      reagent. cDNA was synthesized and Real-Time PCR was carried out using specific
      primers. The Unisp6 rRNA was used as a reference gene. A significant decrease was
      found in the expression level of miR-99a in tumor samples, compared to healthy
      adjacent tissues (P<0.001). The increased expression level of miR-99a was
      significantly associated with muscle invasion (P=0.02). The receiver operating
      characteristic (ROC) analysis for miR-99a showed AUC value equal to 0.944, with
      specificity of 97%, sensitivity of 91%, and cut off value of 8.31 (P<0.001). A
      significant association was found between smoking and miR-99a (P=0.04) and miR
      205 (P= 0.01) expression levels. Dramatic down-regulation of miR-99a in bladder
      cancer tissues confirmed the tumor suppressor role of miR-99a in bladder cancer.
      A higher amount of miR-99a expression was associated with invasive bladder
      cancer. According to ROC analysis, miR-99a could be considered as a valuable
      diagnostic biomarker.

PMID- 28890886
TI  - Development of a Novel Anti-Adhesive Vaccine Against Pseudomonasaeruginosa
      Targeting the C-terminal Disulfide Loop of the Pilin Protein.
AB  - Type IV pili (T4P) are major virulence factors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P.
      aeruginosa) that are associated with primary adhesion, biofilm formation and
      twitching motility. This study focuses on the introduction of a novel
      biologically active subunit vaccine derived from the disulfide loop (DSL) of P.
      aeruginosa pilin. We investigated the expression of the novel PilA in-frame with
      pET26b vector, which contains three domains, that each domain contains three
      tandem repeats. The flexible (GGGGS) and (GGGGS)3 linkers were linked between the
      three tandem repeats and each pilA domain, respectively. The recombinant
      construct (pET26b/pilA) was transformed and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21
      (DE3). The reactivity of specific antiserum against PilA was assessed by ELISA
      method. The biological activities of this candidate vaccine were evaluated by
      western blotting, opsonophagocytosis and twitching inhibition assays. The
      pET26b/pilA plasmid was confirmed by enzymatic digestion. The purified PilA
      protein was confirmed by immunoblot analysis. The checkerboard titration showed
      that the optimal dilution of the antibody to react with antigen was 1:8. The
      results of opsonophagocytosis assay revealed that the antibodies raised against
      PilA promoted phagocytosis of the PAO1 and 6266E strains to some extent (17.5%
      and 16.3%, respectively), so the twitching inhibition test confirmed this result.
      Taken together, these are the preliminary results based on a first chimerical
      structure failure to induce antibodies that promote the opsonization and
      eradication of the pathogen. Therefore, the biological activity of the PilA
      protein showed that it should be introduced with other proteins or target
      antigens against P. aeruginosa in the future studies.

PMID- 28890887
TI  - Isolation and Characterization of Actinobacteria from Algerian Sahara Soils with
      Antimicrobial Activities.
AB  - Extreme ecosystems can be a source of untapped microorganisms to produce novel
      bioactive compounds of industrial interest. Consequently, in this work, 32
      actinomycetes were isolated from 6 soil samples collected from Algerian Sahara in
      searching for untapped producers of novel antimicrobial compounds. All the
      isolates were further subjected to antimicrobial screening against pathogenic
      bacteria, yeast and fungi. The obtained results indicated that three of the
      isolates (named C, MS1 and 10) showed antimicrobial activities against most of
      the tested pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, these three promising isolates,
      previously identified as Streptomyces by morphological, biochemical and
      physiological methods, were selected for their subsequent identification by the
      whole cell matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass
      spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis. Thus, the isolates C, MS1 and 10 were
      identified as Streptomyces violaceoruber B263 UFL, Streptomyces albus B262 UFL
      and Streptomyces badius B192 UFL, respectively. These results pointed out
      actinomycetes from Sahara soils as potential sources of novel antimicrobial
      compounds. Also, MALDI-TOF MS showed to be a robust technique for bacteria
      identification.

PMID- 28890882
TI  - Neutrophils to the ROScue: Mechanisms of NADPH Oxidase Activation and Bacterial
      Resistance.
AB  - Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by NADPH oxidase play an important role
      in antimicrobial host defense and inflammation. Their deficiency in humans
      results in recurrent and severe bacterial infections, while their unregulated
      release leads to pathology from excessive inflammation. The release of high
      concentrations of ROS aids in clearance of invading bacteria. Localization of ROS
      release to phagosomes containing pathogens limits tissue damage. Host immune
      cells, like neutrophils, also known as PMNs, will release large amounts of ROS at
      the site of infection following the activation of surface receptors. The binding
      of ligands to G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), toll-like receptors, and
      cytokine receptors can prime PMNs for a more robust response if additional
      signals are encountered. Meanwhile, activation of Fc and integrin directly
      induces high levels of ROS production. Additionally, GPCRs that bind to the
      bacterial-peptide analog fMLP, a neutrophil chemoattractant, can both prime cells
      and trigger low levels of ROS production. Engagement of these receptors initiates
      intracellular signaling pathways, resulting in activation of downstream effector
      proteins, assembly of the NADPH oxidase complex, and ultimately, the production
      of ROS by this complex. Within PMNs, ROS released by the NADPH oxidase complex
      can activate granular proteases and induce the formation of neutrophil
      extracellular traps (NETs). Additionally, ROS can cross the membranes of
      bacterial pathogens and damage their nucleic acids, proteins, and cell membranes.
      Consequently, in order to establish infections, bacterial pathogens employ
      various strategies to prevent restriction by PMN-derived ROS or downstream
      consequences of ROS production. Some pathogens are able to directly prevent the
      oxidative burst of phagocytes using secreted effector proteins or toxins that
      interfere with translocation of the NADPH oxidase complex or signaling pathways
      needed for its activation. Nonetheless, these pathogens often rely on repair and
      detoxifying proteins in addition to these secreted effectors and toxins in order
      to resist mammalian sources of ROS. This suggests that pathogens have both
      intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms to avoid restriction by PMN-derived ROS. Here,
      we review mechanisms of oxidative burst in PMNs in response to bacterial
      infections, as well as the mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens thwart
      restriction by ROS to survive under conditions of oxidative stress.

PMID- 28890888
TI  - Association between ACE (rs4646994), FABP2 (rs1799883), MTHFR (rs1801133), FTO
      (rs9939609) Genes Polymorphism and Type 2 Diabetes with Dyslipidemia.
AB  - Diabetic dyslipidemia is one of the leading causes of coronary artery disease
      (CAD) death. Genetic and environmental factors play an important role in the
      development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and dyslipidemia. The present
      study was aimed to investigate the association of ACE (rs4646994), FABP2
      (rs1799883), MTHFR (rs1801133) and FTO (rs9939609) genes polymorphism in T2DM
      with dyslipidemia. Totally, 559 subjects including 221 T2DM cases with
      dyslipidemia, 158 T2DM without dyslipidemia and 180 controls were enrolled. ACE
      genes polymorphism was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), while MTHFR,
      FABP2, FTO genes polymorphisms were evaluated by PCR and restriction fragment
      length polymorphism (RFLP). Significant association of ACE and MTHFR genes
      polymorphisms were found in both group of cases [T2DM with dyslipidemia (P<0.001,
      and P=0.008, respectively) and T2DM without dyslipidemia (P=0.003, and P=0.010,
      respectively)] while FABP2 and FTO genes polymorphisms were significantly
      associated with T2DM without dyslipidemia (P=0.038, and P= 0.019, respectively).
      This study concludes that ACE, FABP2, FTO and MTHFR genes are associated with
      T2DM. Additionally, it also seems that ACE and MTHFR genes might be further
      associated with the development of dyslipidemia in T2DM cases.

PMID- 28890889
TI  - A Novel Missense Mutation in the ALDH13 Gene Causes Anophthalmia in Two Unrelated
      Iranian Consanguineous Families.
AB  - Anophthalmia or microphthalmia (A/M) is a rare group of congenital/developmental
      ocular malformations, characterized by absent or small eye within the orbit
      affecting one or both eyes. It has complex etiology with chromosomal, monogenic
      with high heterogeneity, and environmental causes. We performed genome SNP-array
      analysis followed by autozygosity mapping and sequencing in the members of two
      families in which three individuals are suffering from severe bilateral
      anophthalmia. The genetic analysis revealed a novel missense c.709G>A mutation in
      exon 7 of ALDH1A3 (aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A3), causing a
      substitution of glycine (Gly) to arginine (Arg) at residue 237. This study
      consolidates the importance of ALDH1A3 gene screening in autosomal recessive
      anophthalmia. This variation may also be suggestive of a founder effect in the
      southeastern area of Iran.

PMID- 28890890
TI  - The Impact of Resonance Frequency Breathing on Measures of Heart Rate
      Variability, Blood Pressure, and Mood.
AB  - Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) significantly improves heart rate
      variability (HRV). Breathing at resonance frequency (RF, approximately 6
      breaths/min) constitutes a key part of HRVB training and is hypothesized to be a
      pathway through which biofeedback improves HRV. No studies to date, however, have
      experimentally examined whether RF breathing impacts measures of HRV. The present
      study addressed this question by comparing three groups: the RF group breathed at
      their determined RF for 15 min; the RF + 1 group breathed at 1 breath/min higher
      than their determined RF for 15 min; and the third group sat quietly for 15 min.
      After this 15-min period, all groups participated in the Paced Auditory Serial
      Addition Task (PASAT) for 8 min, and then sat quietly during a 10-min recovery
      period. HRV, blood pressure, and mood were measured throughout the experiment.
      Groups were not significantly different on any of the measures at baseline. After
      the breathing exercise, the RF group reported higher positive mood than the other
      two groups and a significantly higher LF/HF HRV ratio relative to the control
      group, a key goal in HRVB training (p < 0.05). Additionally, the RF group showed
      lower systolic blood pressure during the PASAT and during the recovery period
      relative to the control group, with the RF + 1 group not being significantly
      different from either group (p < 0.05). Overall, RF breathing appears to play an
      important role in the positive effect HRVB has on measures of HRV.

PMID- 28890891
TI  - Collaborative Approaches and Policy Opportunities for Accelerated Progress toward
      Effective Disease Prevention, Care, and Control: Using the Case of Poverty
      Diseases to Explore Universal Access to Affordable Health Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a massive global momentum to progress toward the sustainable
      development and universal health coverage goals. However, effective policies to
      health-care coverage can only emerge through high-quality services delivered to
      empowered care users by means of strong local health systems and a translational
      standpoint. Health policies aimed at removing user fees for a defined health-care
      package may fail at reaching desired results if not applied with system thinking.
      METHOD: Secondary data analysis of two country-based cost-of-illness studies was
      performed to gain knowledge in informed decision-making toward enhanced access to
      care in the context of resource-constraint settings. A scoping review was
      performed to map relevant experiences and evidence underpinning the defined
      research area, the economic burden of illness. FINDINGS: Original studies
      reflected on catastrophic costs to patients because of care services use and
      related policy gaps. Poverty diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) may constitute
      prime examples to assess the extent of effective high-priority health-care
      coverage. Our findings suggest that a share of the economic burden of illness can
      be attributed to implementation failures of health programs and supply-side
      features, which may highly impair attainment of the global stated goals. We
      attempted to define and discuss a knowledge development framework for effective
      policy-making and foster system levers for integrated care. DISCUSSION:
      Bottlenecks to effective policy persist and rely on interrelated patterns of
      health-care coverage. Health system performance and policy responsiveness have to
      do with collaborative work among all health stakeholders. Public-private mix
      strategies may play a role in lowering the economic burden of disease and solving
      some policy gaps. We reviewed possible added value and pitfalls of collaborative
      approaches to enhance dynamic local knowledge development and realize integration
      with the various health-care silos. CONCLUSION: Despite a large political
      commitment and mobilization efforts from funding, the global development goal of
      financial protection for health-newly adopted in TB control as no TB-affected
      household experiencing catastrophic expenditure-may remain aspirational. To
      enhance effective access to care for all, innovative opportunities in patient
      centered and collaborative practices must be taken. Further research is greatly
      needed to optimize the use of locally relevant knowledge, networks, and
      technologies.

PMID- 28890892
TI  - MicroRNA Profiling in Cartilage Ageing.
AB  - Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common age-related joint disorder in man.
      MicroRNAs (miRNA), a class of small noncoding RNAs, are potential therapeutic
      targets for regulating molecular mechanisms in both disease and ageing. Whilst
      there is an increasing amount of research on the roles of miRNAs in ageing, there
      has been scant research on age-related changes in miRNA in a cartilage. We
      undertook a microarray study on young and old human cartilages. Findings were
      validated in an independent cohort. Contrasts between these samples identified
      twenty differentially expressed miRNAs in a cartilage from old donors, derived
      from an OA environment which clustered based on OA severity. We identified a
      number of recognised and novel miRNAs changing in cartilage ageing and OA
      including miR-126: a potential new candidate with a role in OA pathogenesis.
      These analyses represent important candidates that have the potential as
      cartilage ageing and OA biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

PMID- 28890894
TI  - Risk of Contamination of Gametes and Embryos during Cryopreservation and Measures
      to Prevent Cross-Contamination.
AB  - The introduction and widespread application of vitrification are one of the most
      important achievements in human assisted reproduction techniques (ART) of the
      past decade despite controversy and unclarified issues, mostly related to
      concerns about disease transmission. Guidance documents published by US Food and
      Drug Administration, which focused on the safety of tissue/organ donations during
      Zika virus spread in 2016, as well as some reports of virus, bacteria, and fungi
      survival to cryogenic temperatures, highlighted the need for a review of the way
      how potentially infectious material is handled and stored in ART-related
      procedures. It was experimentally demonstrated that cross-contamination between
      liquid nitrogen (LN2) and embryos may occur when infectious agents are present in
      LN2 and oocytes/embryos are not protected by a hermetically sealed device. Thus,
      this review summarizes pertinent data and opinions regarding the potential hazard
      of infectious transmission through cryopreserved and banked reproductive cells
      and tissues in LN2. Special attention is given to the survival of pathogens in
      LN2, the risk of cross-contamination, vitrification methods, sterility of LN2,
      and the risks associated with the use of straws, cryovials, and storage dewars.

PMID- 28890895
TI  - Isolation of Fibroblast-Activation Protein-Specific Cancer-Associated
      Fibroblasts.
AB  - The current study is to develop a gentle and efficient method for purification of
      fibroblast-activation protein positive (FAP+) cancer-associated fibroblasts
      (CAFs) from tumor tissues. Fresh tissues were isolated from BALB/c-Nude mice
      bearing human liver cancer cell line (HepG2), fully minced and separated into
      three parts, and digested with trypsin digestion and then treated with
      collagenase type IV once, twice, or thrice, respectively. Finally, the cells were
      purified by using FAP magnetic beads. The isolated CAFs were grown in culture
      medium and detected for the surface expression of fibroblast-activation protein
      (FAP). The number of adherent cells which were obtained by digestion process with
      twice collagenase type IV digestion was (5.99 +/- 0.18) * 104, much more than
      that with the only once collagenase type IV digestion (2.58 +/- 0.41) * 104 (P <
      0.0001) and similar to thrice collagenase type IV digestion. The percentage of
      FAP+ CAFs with twice collagenase type IV digestion (38.5%) was higher than that
      with the only once collagenase type IV digestion (20.0%) and little higher than
      thrice collagenase type IV digestion (37.5%). The FAP expression of CAFs was
      quite different from normal fibroblasts (NFs). The fibroblasts isolated by the
      innovation are with high purity and being in wonderful condition and display the
      features of CAFs.

PMID- 28890896
TI  - Informing Nutrition Care in the Antenatal Period: Pregnant Women's Experiences
      and Need for Support.
AB  - This study aimed to provide insights into Australian women's experiences in
      gaining nutrition information during pregnancy. Individual semistructured
      telephone interviews were conducted with 17 pregnant (across all trimesters) and
      9 postpartum women in five Australian states. Data were transcribed and analysed
      using inductive thematic analysis. Women valued nutrition information, actively
      sought it, and passively received it mainly from three sources: healthcare
      providers (HCPs), media, and their social networks. Women reported HCPs as
      highest for reliability but they had limited time and indifferent approaches.
      Various media were easily and most frequently accessed but were less reliable.
      Social networks were considered to be the least reliable and least accessed.
      Women reported becoming overwhelmed and confused. This in turn influenced their
      decisions (pragmatic/rational) and their eating behaviours ("overdo it," "loosen
      it," "ignore it," and "positive response"). Individual and environmental barriers
      impacted their application of knowledge to dietary practice. Women wanted more
      constructive and interactive engagement with their HCPs. This study identified
      the need to establish and maintain mutually respectful environments where women
      feel able to raise issues with their HCPs throughout their pregnancies and where
      they are confident that the information they receive will be accurate and meet
      their needs.

PMID- 28890897
TI  - Corrigendum to "Detecting Key Genes Regulated by miRNAs in Dysfunctional
      Crosstalk Pathway of Myasthenia Gravis".
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2015/724715.].

PMID- 28890893
TI  - Proximate Mediators of Microvascular Dysfunction at the Blood-Brain Barrier:
      Neuroinflammatory Pathways to Neurodegeneration.
AB  - Current projections are that by 2050 the numbers of people aged 65 and older with
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the US may increase threefold while dementia is
      projected to double every 20 years reaching ~115 million by 2050. AD is
      clinically characterized by progressive dementia and neuropathologically by
      neuronal and synapse loss, accumulation of amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary
      tangles (NFTs) in specific brain regions. The preclinical or presymptomatic stage
      of AD-related brain changes may begin over 20 years before symptoms occur, making
      development of noninvasive biomarkers essential. Distinct from neuroimaging and
      cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, plasma or serum biomarkers can be analyzed to
      assess (i) the presence/absence of AD, (ii) the risk of developing AD, (iii) the
      progression of AD, or (iv) AD response to treatment. No unifying theory fully
      explains the neurodegenerative brain lesions but neuroinflammation (a lethal
      stressor for healthy neurons) is universally present. Current consensus is that
      the earlier the diagnosis, the better the chance to develop treatments that
      influence disease progression. In this article we provide a detailed review and
      analysis of the role of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and damage-associated
      molecular patterns (DAMPs) as well as coagulation molecules in the onset and
      progression of these neurodegenerative disorders.

PMID- 28890899
TI  - Overcoming the Challenges in Implementing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Prevention
      Programs Can Decrease the Burden on Healthcare Costs in the United States.
AB  - Theoretically, identifying prediabetics would reduce the diabetic burden on the
      American healthcare system. As we expect the prevalence rate of prediabetes to
      continue increasing, we wonder if there is a better way of managing prediabetics
      and reducing the economic cost on the healthcare system. To do so, understanding
      the demographics and behavioral factors of known prediabetics was important. For
      this purpose, responses of prediabetic/borderline diabetes patients from the most
      recent publicly available 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
      survey were analyzed. The findings showed that there was a correlation between
      household income, geographic residence in the US, and risk for developing
      diabetes mellitus type 2, aside from the accepted risk factors such as high BMI.
      In conclusion, implementation of the National Diabetes Prevention Program is a
      rational way of reducing the burden of DM on the healthcare system both
      economically and by prevalence. However, difficulties arise in ensuring patient
      compliance to the program and providing access to all regions and communities of
      the United States. Technology incorporation in the NDPP program would maintain a
      low-cost implementation by the healthcare system, be affordable and accessible
      for all participants, and decrease economic burden attributed to diabetes
      mellitus.

PMID- 28890898
TI  - Antifatigue Functions and Mechanisms of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms.
AB  - Fatigue is the symptom of tiredness caused by physical and/or psychological
      stresses. As fatigue is becoming a serious problem in the modern society
      affecting human health, work efficiency, and quality of life, effective
      antifatigue remedies other than pharmacological drugs or therapies are highly
      needed. Mushrooms have been widely used as health foods, because of their various
      bioactive constituents such as polysaccharides, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and
      dietary fiber. This paper reviews the major findings from previous studies on the
      antifatigue effects, the active components of mushrooms, and the possible
      mechanisms. Many studies have demonstrated the antifatigue effects of edible and
      medicinal mushrooms. These mushrooms probably mitigate human fatigue through
      effects on the functional systems, including the muscular, cardiovascular,
      hormone, and immune system. The bioactive constituents that contribute to the
      antifatigue effects of mushrooms may include polysaccharides, peptides,
      nucleosides, phenolic compounds, and triterpenoids. Further research is still
      needed to identify the active ingredients and to investigate their mechanism of
      action on the antifatigue effects. Since most previous studies have been carried
      out in animal models, more human trials should be performed to verify the
      antifatigue function of edible and medicinal mushrooms.

PMID- 28890900
TI  - Aluminium in coal fly ash (FA), in plants grown on FA, and in the leachates from
      FA.
AB  - Two coal fly ashes (FA), one from Montana semi-bituminous coal and another from
      North Dakota lignite alone or in combination with bottom ash (BA) from Montana
      semi-bituminous coal were tested as plant growth media for the following plant
      species: barley (Hordeum vulgare), oats (Avena sativa), rye (Secale cereale),
      wheat (Triticum aestivum), regreen; a hybrid between wheatgrass (Agropyron
      cristatum) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), and triticale; a hybrid between
      wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rye (Secale cereale). The concentration of Al, in
      coal ashes and in plant seedlings was determined using Inducted Coupled Plasma
      Spectrophotometry (ICP). All tested plant species germinated and grow in FA
      and/or FA + BA containing media. These data demonstrate that tested plants can
      grow on media consisting of coal ash, and therefore these plants can be used to
      cover FA or BA residue piles. In summary, the presence of sphagnum peat moss and
      soil in coal ash based plant growth media expressed ameliorative role by reducing
      the presence of Al in plant growth media and in plant seedlings grown on these
      media, but it did not translate into the decrease of the presence of Al in the
      leachate from these media. Elevated concentrations of Al in the leachate may
      cause some environmental health concerns and require further investigations.

PMID- 28890901
TI  - Performing all major surgical procedures robotically will prolong wait times for
      surgery.
AB  - This article aimed to assess the burden of scheduling major urologic oncology
      procedures if all cases were performed robotically and to determine whether this
      would increase the time a patient would have to wait for surgery. We
      retrospectively determined the number of prostatectomies, radical nephrectomies,
      partial nephrectomies, and cystectomies at a single institution for one calendar
      year. A hypothetical situation was then constructed where all procedures were
      performed robotically. Using the allotted number of days that each surgeon was
      able to schedule robotic procedures, we analyzed the amount of time it would take
      to schedule and complete all cases. Five fellowship-trained surgeons were
      included in the study and accounted for 317 surgical cases. Three of the surgeons
      had dedicated robotic surgery (RS) time (block time), while two surgeons
      scheduled when there was non-dedicated RS time (open time) available. If all
      cases were performed robotically an additional 32 days would be needed, which
      could significantly increase the wait time to surgery. The limited number of
      robotic systems available in most hospitals creates a bottleneck effect; whereby
      increasing the number of cases would considerably lengthen the waiting time
      patients have for surgery. As RS becomes increasingly more commonplace in urology
      and other surgical fields, this could create a significant problem for health
      care systems.

PMID- 28890902
TI  - Pasteurella multocida Bacteremia and Peritonitis in a Patient With Cirrhosis: A
      Life-Threatening Case From a Prick of a Cactus.
AB  - A 58-year-old male with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis presents with
      right lower extremity cellulitis, abdominal tenderness, and severe sepsis after
      sustaining puncture injury from a cactus on a property with feral cats. Blood
      cultures and diagnostic paracentesis were consistent with spontaneous bacterial
      peritonitis due to Pasteurella multocida, a gram-negative coccobacillus found in
      the respiratory tract of domestic animals. The patient received timely antibiotic
      coverage with resolution of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and sepsis after 14
      day treatment. This case emphasizes the life-threatening nature of systemic
      Pasteurella multocida infection as well as an indirect way of acquiring a
      zoonotic infection in a patient with end-stage liver disease.

PMID- 28890903
TI  - Combining List Experiment and Direct Question Estimates of Sensitive Behavior
      Prevalence.
AB  - Survey respondents may give untruthful answers to sensitive questions when asked
      directly. In recent years, researchers have turned to the list experiment (also
      known as the item count technique) to overcome this difficulty. While list
      experiments are arguably less prone to bias than direct questioning, list
      experiments are also more susceptible to sampling variability. We show that
      researchers need not abandon direct questioning altogether in order to gain the
      advantages of list experimentation. We develop a nonparametric estimator of the
      prevalence of sensitive behaviors that combines list experimentation and direct
      questioning. We prove that this estimator is asymptotically more efficient than
      the standard difference-in-means estimator, and we provide a basis for inference
      using Wald-type confidence intervals. Additionally, leveraging information from
      the direct questioning, we derive two nonparametric placebo tests for assessing
      identifying assumptions underlying list experiments. We demonstrate the
      effectiveness of our combined estimator and placebo tests with an original survey
      experiment.

PMID- 28890904
TI  - Thirty-Year Experience With ACL Reconstruction Using Patellar Tendon: A Critical
      Evaluation of Revision and Reoperation.
AB  - BACKGROUND: During the preoperative discussion prior to anterior cruciate
      ligament reconstruction (ACLR), patients are often interested in data regarding
      rates of revision reconstruction, reoperation, concomitant pathologic changes,
      and future contralateral ACL injury. PURPOSE: To analyze a single surgeon's
      experience with primary and revision ACLR over a 30-year interval, focusing on
      incidence and risk factors for revision and reoperation. STUDY DESIGN: Case
      series; Level of evidence, 4. METHODS: Patients who underwent ACLR from 1986 to
      2016 were identified from a prospectively maintained database. Covariates of
      interest included age, sex, time, and graft selection. Outcomes of interest
      included revision and reoperation rates. RESULTS: A total of 2450 ACLRs (mean
      patient age, 29 years; 58% male) were reviewed. Among primary ACLRs performed (n
      = 2225), 68% entailed bone-patellar tendon-bone (BTB) autograft and 30% entailed
      BTB allograft. Patients undergoing ACLR with autograft and allograft had a mean
      age of 22 and 37 years, respectively. The rate of revision ACLR was 1.8% and 3.5%
      for primary and revision cases, respectively. An increased rate of revision was
      noted among females compared with males (2.6% vs 1.2%) and among allografts
      compared with autografts (2.7% vs 1.3%). Low-dose irradiation did not affect
      allograft revision rates. The nonrevision reoperation rate following primary ACLR
      was 12%. The nonrevision reoperation rate was lower among primary cases
      reconstructed with allograft than autograft (9% vs 13%). Seventeen percent of
      cases involved concomitant meniscal repair and, among these, 13% required
      revision meniscal surgery. The rate of contralateral ACLR was 5.3. CONCLUSION:
      This information is useful in the informed consent process, for perioperative
      decision making regarding graft choice, and for identifying patients who are at
      risk for injuring the uninvolved knee.

PMID- 28890905
TI  - Single- Versus Multiple-Site Harvesting Techniques for Bone Marrow Concentrate:
      Evaluation of Aspirate Quality and Pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bone marrow concentrate (BMC) is growing in popularity as an
      alternative treatment option in orthopaedics. The regenerative capacity of BMC
      has been linked to the number of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) present in the
      graft at the time of its clinical application. MSC counts in bone marrow aspirate
      (BMA) are affected by harvest technique, but controversy exists over which
      aspiration method optimizes cellular yield while taking patient comfort and risk
      into consideration. PURPOSE: To compare a single- versus multiple-site bone
      marrow aspiration technique to determine which would generate a sufficient volume
      of high-quality BMA for concentration into a BMC graft. The level of pain
      experienced by the patient was monitored, since patient comfort should be
      included in the determination of a safe and effective aspiration technique. STUDY
      DESIGN: Controlled laboratory study and cohort study; Level of evidence, 2.
      METHODS: BMC samples from 6 patients were sent to an outside source for
      laboratory analysis. All 6 participants underwent bilateral bone marrow
      aspiration. Each patient received both techniques at the posterior iliac crest:
      one side underwent a multiple-site aspiration technique, and the contralateral
      side underwent a single-site technique with needle redirection. BMA and BMC
      samples were analyzed for concentrations white blood cells, total nucleated
      cells, red blood cells, neutrophils, and hematopoietic stem cells. One BMC sample
      was cultured, and MSC analysis was performed via flow cytometry. All patients
      underwent monitoring of pain scores during and after the procedure through a
      visual analog pain scale at 24 hours, 72 hours, and 7 days after BMA. RESULTS: No
      significant difference was found between the cell ratios of the single- and
      multiple-site groups. Both aspiration techniques were found to provide ample
      colony-forming units without a marked difference in appearance. Additionally, no
      significant difference was found between groups with regard to MSC numbers. Pain
      during and 24 hours after the procedure was significantly greater with the
      multiple-site method than the single-insertion method. CONCLUSION: The single
      insertion method produced final cellular concentrations and culture results that
      were not significantly different from those of a multiple-insertion method.
      Additionally, the single-insertion site technique was significantly less painful
      to the patient at the time of the procedure as well as 24 hours after aspiration.
      CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The results of this study indicated that a high-quality bone
      marrow aspirate is possible with a single-stick aspiration method.

PMID- 28890906
TI  - Two-Part and Related Regression Models for Longitudinal Data.
AB  - Statistical models that involve a two-part mixture distribution are applicable in
      a variety of situations. Frequently, the two parts are a model for the binary
      response variable and a model for the outcome variable that is conditioned on the
      binary response. Two common examples are zero-inflated or hurdle models for count
      data and two-part models for semicontinuous data. Recently, there has been
      particular interest in the use of these models for the analysis of repeated
      measures of an outcome variable over time. The aim of this review is to consider
      motivations for the use of such models in this context and to highlight the
      central issues that arise with their use. We examine two-part models for
      semicontinuous and zero-heavy count data, and we also consider models for count
      data with a two-part random effects distribution.

PMID- 28890907
TI  - Functional ex-vivo Imaging of Arterial Cellular Recruitment and Lipid
      Extravasation.
AB  - The main purpose of this sophisticated and highly versatile method is to
      visualize and quantify structural vessel wall properties, cellular recruitment,
      and lipid/dextran extravasation under physiological conditions in living
      arteries. This will be of interest for a broad range of researchers within the
      field of inflammation, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and even the pharmaceutical
      industry. Currently, many researchers are using in vitro techniques to evaluate
      cellular recruitment, like transwell or flow chamber systems with cultured cells,
      with unclear physiological comparability. The here introduced method describes in
      detail the use of a sophisticated and flexible method to study arterial wall
      properties and leukocyte recruitment in fresh and viable murine carotid arteries
      ex vivo under arterial flow conditions. This model mimics the in vivo situation
      and allows the use of cells and arteries isolated from two different donors (for
      example, wildtype vs. specific knockouts) to be combined into one experiments,
      thereby providing information on both leukocyte and/or endothelial cell
      properties of both donors. As such, this model can be considered an alternative
      for the complicated and invasive in vivo studies, such as parabiotic experiments.

PMID- 28890908
TI  - Validation Study of a Predictive Algorithm to Evaluate Opioid Use Disorder in a
      Primary Care Setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Opioid abuse in chronic pain patients is a major public health issue.
      Primary care providers are frequently the first to prescribe opioids to patients
      suffering from pain, yet do not always have the time or resources to adequately
      evaluate the risk of opioid use disorder (OUD). PURPOSE: This study seeks to
      determine the predictability of aberrant behavior to opioids using a
      comprehensive scoring algorithm ("profile") incorporating phenotypic and, more
      uniquely, genotypic risk factors. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a validation study with
      452 participants diagnosed with OUD and 1237 controls, the algorithm successfully
      categorized patients at high and moderate risk of OUD with 91.8% sensitivity.
      Regardless of changes in the prevalence of OUD, sensitivity of the algorithm
      remained >90%. CONCLUSION: The algorithm correctly stratifies primary care
      patients into low-, moderate-, and high-risk categories to appropriately identify
      patients in need for additional guidance, monitoring, or treatment changes.

PMID- 28890909
TI  - Patient, Provider, and System Factors Associated With Failure to Follow-Up
      Elevated Glucose Results in Patients Without Diagnosed Diabetes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Although elevated glucose values are strongly associated with
      undiagnosed diabetes, they are frequently overlooked. Patient, provider, and
      system factors associated with failure to follow-up elevated glucose values in
      electronic medical records (EMRs) are not well described. METHODS: We conducted a
      chart review in a comprehensive EMR with a patient portal and results management
      features. Established primary care patients with no known diagnosis of diabetes
      and >= 1 glucose value >125 mg/dL were included. Follow-up failure was defined as
      (1) no documented comment on the glucose value or result communication to the
      patient within 30 days or (2) no hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ordered within 30 days or
      resulted within 12 months. Associations were examined using Wilcoxon and chi2
      tests. RESULTS: Of 150 charts reviewed, 97 met inclusion criteria. The median
      glucose was 133 mg/dL, and 20% of patients had multiple values >125 mg/dL. Only
      36% of elevated glucose values were followed up. No associations were observed
      between patient characteristics, diabetes risk factors, or provider
      characteristics and follow-up failures. Automated flagging of glucose values
      >=140 mg/dL by highlighting them red in the EMR was not associated with improved
      follow-up (46% vs 32%; P = .19). Even when follow-up occurred (n = 35), only 31%
      completed gold standard diabetes testing (HbA1c) within 12 months. Of the
      resulted HbA1c tests (n = 11), 55% were in the prediabetes range (5.7%-6.4%).
      CONCLUSIONS: Two-thirds of elevated glucose values were not followed up, despite
      EMR features facilitating results management. Greater understanding of the
      results management process and improved EMR functionalities to support results
      management are needed.

PMID- 28890911
TI  - Correction Notice.
AB  - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1177/2333392814557011.].

PMID- 28890910
TI  - Six-Month Outcomes for Collaborative Care Management of Depression Among Smoking
      and Nonsmoking Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Collaborative care management (CCM) is an evidence-based model that
      contributes to better outcomes for depression treatment in the primary care
      setting. Tobacco use increases overall economic costs, morbidity, and mortality
      and has been shown to impact behavioral health outcomes. Our study aims to
      observe clinical outcomes for depression treatment for patients with comorbid
      tobacco use and depression within the CCM model. METHODS: A retrospective chart
      review study of 2826 adult patients with depression enrolled in CCM was performed
      to determine the association between regular tobacco use and depression outcomes.
      Baseline intake data consisting of clinical and demographic variables along with
      6-month follow-up of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores for smokers (n
      = 727, 25.7%) and nonsmokers (n = 2099, 74.3%) were obtained. Depression
      remission was defined as a PHQ-9 score <5 and persistent depressive symptoms
      (PDS) as a PHQ-9 score >=10 at 6 months. RESULTS: Using an intention-to-treat
      analysis, the multivariate modeling demonstrated that smokers, at 6 months, had
      an increased adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for PDS: 1.624 (95% CI: 1.353-1.949).
      Furthermore, smokers had a lower AOR of depression remission: 0.603 (95% CI:
      0.492-0.739). Patient adherence to treatment was also lower in smokers with an
      AOR of 0.666 (95% CI: 0.553-0.802). CONCLUSIONS: Smokers enrolled in CCM were
      associated with reduced treatment adherence and worse outcomes for depression
      treatment at 6 months compared to nonsmokers, even when baseline clinical and
      demographic variables were controlled. Thus, new tailored practices may be
      warranted within the CCM model to treat comorbid depression and tobacco use
      disorders.

PMID- 28890912
TI  - Typhoid and Scrub Typhus Coinfection in a Returned Traveler.
AB  - This is a case report of a 12-year-old returned traveler with typhoid and scrub
      typhus coinfection. The diagnosis of typhoid was made early with blood cultures
      and Widal Weil Felix serology. Persistent fever despite appropriate antibiotics
      for typhoid fever prompted a search for concomitant infection, which led to the
      diagnosis of scrub typhus confirmed by Orientia tsutsugamushi serology. The
      patient was given doxycycline with good clinical response. Scrub typhus infection
      should be an early consideration in the differential diagnoses of fever in a
      returned traveler from regions where it is endemic. Coinfections should be taken
      into consideration particularly when fever or symptoms persist despite adequate
      therapy for a previously identified microorganism.

PMID- 28890913
TI  - Markers of Cardiovascular Dysfunction in Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa.
AB  - Background. Cardiovascular complications contribute to the high morbidity and
      mortality rate among children with anorexia nervosa (AN). Advances in cardiac
      imaging permit a more comprehensive assessment of myocardial performance in
      children that could not be previously obtained with conventional imaging.
      Myocardial strain analysis is an emerging quantitative echocardiographic
      technique to characterize global and regional ventricular function in children.
      Objective. To assess global and regional left ventricular (LV0 function in
      children newly diagnosed with AN with conventional and quantitative 2-dimensional
      speckle tracking echocardiographic (2DSTE)-derived strain imaging. Materials. In
      a cross-sectional study of 30 patients with AN (DSM-5) and 14 age-, sex-, and
      race-matched healthy children, markers of cardiovascular risk, conventional and
      2DSTE measures of LV function, and structure were evaluated and compared. The AN
      cohort was further stratified by behavioral patterns (restrict, exercise, or
      purge). Results. Conventional measures and LV global strain were similar between
      controls and children with AN. A subgroup of AN children with purging behavior
      had LV remodeling characterized by significantly decreased LV mass index.
      Regional ventricular function at the apex, as measured by strain, was also
      decreased in all AN patients. Percent change from ideal body weight, body mass
      index Z-score, electrolyte profiles, heart rate, and blood pressure were similar.
      Conclusions. Subclinical regional ventricular dysfunction is present in children
      with AN. Ventricular remodeling exists in a subgroup of children with AN in
      association with purging behavior. Future studies may utilize strain imaging to
      identify those AN patients who are at an increased risk for developing
      significant cardiac dysfunction.

PMID- 28890914
TI  - Effect of Menthol-preferring Status on Response to Intravenous Nicotine.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Menthol, a flavoring agent, is found in approximately 90% of
      cigarettes, but at much higher levels in menthol than non-menthol cigarettes.
      Menthol is reportedly included in cigarettes for its cooling and soothing
      effects, but also additional actions that affect smokers' receipt and processing
      of nicotine. In this study we investigated the response to short-term abstinence
      and acute nicotine delivery in menthol-preferring and non-menthol-preferring
      smokers. METHODS: Nicotine dependent participants (N = 134) participated in an
      intravenous nicotine delivery session following overnight smoking abstinence.
      Participants were intravenously administered a placebo and 2 escalating nicotine
      doses. We compare subjective and physiological responses to nicotine and smoking
      urges, withdrawal, and cognitive performance following overnight abstinence and
      post-nicotine between regular 'menthol' smokers and 'non-menthol' cigarette
      smokers. RESULTS: Relative to non-menthol-preferring smokers, menthol-preferring
      smokers re a smaller reduction in smoking urges from overnight abstinence
      baseline to post-nicotine end-of-session and rated less subjective differences
      between nicotine doses. CONCLUSIONS: Differences between menthol-preferring and
      non-menthol-preferring smokers' responses to abstinence or acute nicotine could
      reflect pre-existing individual differences that may have in initial development
      of menthol preferences, or could have arisen secondarily to pro use of menthol
      versus non-menthol cigarettes.

PMID- 28890915
TI  - Variation in the link between parental divorce and children's health disadvantage
      in low and high divorce settings.
AB  - Like in other world regions, children with divorced parents in sub-Saharan Africa
      experience significant heath disadvantages relative to their peers with married
      parents. Preliminary evidence suggests this disadvantage may not be uniform
      across the subcontinent's diverse settings. Research from other world regions
      shows that the childhood health consequences of divorce vary across different
      contexts. Specifically, we hypothesize that the childhood disadvantages
      associated with divorce are more severe in regions of sub-Saharan Africa where
      divorce is rare, and less so where divorce is a more common family experience.
      Using Demographic and Health Survey data from 290 subnational regions within 31
      sub-Saharan African countries, multilevel models document the previously shown
      link between having a divorced mother and child morbidity and mortality. The
      study results further demonstrate that the childhood health disadvantage is
      accentuated in subnational African regions where fewer women are divorced and
      muted in areas where more women are divorced. The findings demonstrate that the
      broader context can powerfully moderate childhood health inequalities
      traditionally thought of as operating at the family or individual level.

PMID- 28890916
TI  - Power analysis to detect treatment effects in longitudinal clinical trials for
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Assessing cognitive and functional changes at the early stage of
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) and detecting treatment effects in clinical trials for
      early AD are challenging. METHODS: Under the assumption that transformed versions
      of the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale-Sum of
      Boxes, and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale
      tests'/components' scores are from a multivariate linear mixed-effects model, we
      calculated the sample sizes required to detect treatment effects on the annual
      rates of change in these three components in clinical trials for participants
      with mild cognitive impairment. RESULTS: Our results suggest that a large number
      of participants would be required to detect a clinically meaningful treatment
      effect in a population with preclinical or prodromal Alzheimer's disease. We
      found that the transformed Mini-Mental State Examination is more sensitive for
      detecting treatment effects in early AD than the transformed Clinical Dementia
      Rating Scale-Sum of Boxes and Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive
      Subscale. The use of optimal weights to construct powerful test statistics or
      sensitive composite scores/endpoints can reduce the required sample sizes needed
      for clinical trials. CONCLUSION: Consideration of the multivariate/joint
      distribution of components' scores rather than the distribution of a single
      composite score when designing clinical trials can lead to an increase in power
      and reduced sample sizes for detecting treatment effects in clinical trials for
      early AD.

PMID- 28890917
TI  - Attentional disengagements in educational contexts: a diary investigation of
      everyday mind-wandering and distraction.
AB  - The present study examined everyday attentional disengagements in educational
      contexts. Undergraduate students completed various cognitive ability measures in
      the laboratory and recorded everyday mind-wandering and distraction in a diary
      over the course of a week. Participants reported mind-wandering and being
      distracted both in class and while studying and there were a number of different
      subtypes of attentional disengagements. Individual differences in cognitive
      abilities were related to some, but not all, everyday attentional disengagements
      and motivation and interest in classes were related to specific subtypes of
      disengagements. Finally, academic performance was related to fluid intelligence
      and motivation, but not to everyday disengagements. These results provide
      importance evidence on the different types of attentional disengagements that are
      prevalent in undergraduate students and for whom disengagements are most likely.

PMID- 28890918
TI  - Evidence for improved memory from 5 minutes of immediate, post-encoding exercise
      among women.
AB  - Memories consolidate over time, with one consequence being that what we
      experience after learning can influence what we remember. In these experiments,
      women who engaged in 5 minutes of low-impact exercise immediately after learning
      showed better recall for paired associations than did women who engaged in a non
      exercise control activity. In experiments 1 and 2, this benefit was apparent in a
      direct comparison between exercise and non-exercise groups. In experiment 3, it
      was reflected in a weak, positive correlation between memory performance and
      exercise-induced change in heart rate. In experiment 4, similar patterns emerged,
      although they fell short of statistical significance. Such memorial benefits did
      not emerge among male participants. In experiment 1, half the participants
      alternatively engaged in an equivalent period of exercise prior to learning, with
      no benefits for retention of the learned material, suggesting that the memorial
      benefits of exercise-induced arousal may reflect a specific impact on post
      learning processes such as memory consolidation. A meta-analysis across the
      experiments revealed a reliable benefit of post-learning exercise among women.
      Variation in the strength of the effect between experiments is consistent with a
      literature suggesting small but reliable benefits of acute exercise on cognitive
      performance.

PMID- 28890919
TI  - Integrating images from a moveable tracked display of three-dimensional data.
AB  - This paper describes a novel method for displaying data obtained by three
      dimensional medical imaging, by which the position and orientation of a freely
      movable screen are optically tracked and used in real time to select the current
      slice from the data set for presentation. With this method, which we call a
      "freely moving in-situ medical image", the screen and imaged data are registered
      to a common coordinate system in space external to the user, at adjustable scale,
      and are available for free exploration. The three-dimensional image data occupy
      empty space, as if an invisible patient is being sliced by the moving screen. A
      behavioral study using real computed tomography lung vessel data established the
      superiority of the in situ display over a control condition with the same free
      exploration, but displaying data on a fixed screen (ex situ), with respect to
      accuracy in the task of tracing along a vessel and reporting spatial relations
      between vessel structures. A "freely moving in-situ medical image" display
      appears from these measures to promote spatial navigation and understanding of
      medical data.

PMID- 28890920
TI  - How did I miss that? Developing mixed hybrid visual search as a 'model system'
      for incidental finding errors in radiology.
AB  - In a real world search, it can be important to keep 'an eye out' for items of
      interest that are not the primary subject of the search. For instance, you might
      look for the exit sign on the freeway, but you should also respond to the
      armadillo crossing the road. In medicine, these items are known as "incidental
      findings," findings of possible clinical significance that were not the main
      object of search. These errors (e.g., missing a broken rib while looking for
      pneumonia) have medical consequences for the patient and potential legal
      consequences for the physician. Here we report three experiments intended to
      develop a 'model system' for incidental findings - a paradigm that could be used
      in the lab to develop strategies to reduce incidental finding errors in the
      clinic. All the experiments involve 'hybrid' visual search for any of several
      targets held in memory. In this 'mixed hybrid search task,' observers search for
      any of three specific targets (e.g., this rabbit, this truck, and this spoon) and
      three categorical targets (e.g., masks, furniture, and plants). The hypothesis is
      that the specific items are like the specific goals of a real world search and
      the categorical targets are like the less well-defined incidental findings that
      might be present and that should be reported. In all these experiments, varying
      target prevalence, number of targets, etc., the categorical targets are missed at
      a much higher rate than the specific targets. This paradigm shows promise as a
      model of the incidental finding problem.

PMID- 28890921
TI  - The Doktaborse - an innovative online platform for research projects at the
      medical faculty of the LMU Munich.
AB  - Introduction: One of the most important extracurricular aspects of medical
      studies in Germany is a research thesis completed by most students. This research
      project often times conveys relevant competencies for the physician's role as
      scientist. Nevertheless, the choice of the right project remains a challenge.
      Reasons for this are among others, missing structures for a comprehensive
      overview of research groups and their respective projects. Description of the
      project: We developed the online platform Doktaborse as an online marketplace for
      doctoral research projects. The platform enables authorized researchers to create
      working groups and upload, deactivate and change research projects within their
      institute. For interested students, a front end with integrated search function
      displays these projects in a structured and well-arranged way. In parallel, the
      Doktaborse provides for a comprehensive overview of research at the medical
      faculty. We evaluated Researchers' and students' use of the platform. Results:
      96,6% of students participating in the evaluation (n=400) were in favor of a
      centralized research platform at the medical faculty. The platform grew at a
      steady pace and included 120 research groups in June 2016. The students
      appreciated the structure and design of the Doktaborse. Two thirds of all
      uploaded projects matched successfully with doctoral students via the platform
      and over 94% of researchers stated that they did not need technical assistance
      with uploading projects and handling the platform. Discussion: The Doktaborse
      represents an innovative and well accepted platform for doctoral research
      projects. The platform is perceived positively by researchers and students alike.
      However, students criticized limited extent and timeliness of offered projects.
      In addition, the platform serves as databank of research at the medical faculty
      of the LMU Munich. The future potential of this platform is to provide for an
      integrated management solution of doctoral thesis projects, possibly beyond the
      medical field and faculty.

PMID- 28890922
TI  - Concept and benefits of the Inverted Classroom method for a competency-based
      biochemistry course in the pre-clinical stage of a human medicine course of
      studies.
AB  - Background: Medical students often have a problem recognising the relevance of
      basic science subjects for their later professional work in the pre-clinical
      stage of their studies. This can lead to a lower motivation to learn biochemical
      content and dissatisfaction in the courses amongst the students. Alternative
      teaching methods such as the Inverted Classroom (IC) method can address this
      deficiency. The goal of this study was: to analyse the motivation and
      satisfaction of the students in a biochemistry seminar through the use of the e
      learning-based IC method, to investigate the acceptance against the IC teaching
      method in biochemistry, and to compare the learning success achieved using the IC
      approach with that of a traditional course. We also investigated how a
      biochemistry course in the pre-clinical stage of a human medicine course of
      studies can be successfully organised according to the IC method. Furthermore, we
      examined the benefits of the IC method over conventional teaching formats.
      Method: The IC method was implemented in accordance with the guidelines of the
      GMA committee "New Media" [30] in a biochemistry seminar for two student IC
      intervention groups with 42 students. A part of the factual knowledge from the on
      site phase in the form of teaching videos together with self-learning control
      tasks were provided online before the seminar for both IC intervention groups.
      Exporting content to the self-learning phase creates new free time in the on-site
      phase, during which the content can be critically considered and processed and
      additional competency-based learning objectives can be taught. Identical
      biochemistry teaching content was taught in parallel control groups (14 student
      groups with n=299 students), but no material was handed out beforehand for a self
      learning phase. These students only received the materials after the on-site
      phase. Motivation and satisfaction as well as the acceptance for the teaching
      methods were recorded by questionnaires, the acquisition of knowledge by MC
      exams. Results: On a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly
      agree), the students in the IC intervention groups could be seen to be much more
      motivated (5.53) than students in the control group (4.01). Students in the IC
      intervention groups also recognised the relevance of the learning content much
      more clearly (5.44) than students in the control group (4.01). Furthermore, the
      IC group also observed that additional competencies were trained in addition to
      the biochemistry content. In addition, the IC intervention group award the event
      a school grade of 1.53, the traditional control group a grade of 2.96. The
      teaching videos were rated very positively by both groups with an average school
      grade of 1.3 in each case. A qualitative analysis showed that the motivation and
      a positive attitude of the lecturers played a decisive role in the successful
      implementation of the IC method. Discussion and conclusion: Pre-clinical students
      display a high acceptance of the e-learning-based IC method. Teaching
      communication competencies in a biochemistry seminar was also rated very
      positively by the students. The quality of the teaching video and the motivation
      of the lecturers were shown to be a critical parameter for the successful
      performance of the IC method. What's more, the IC method can contribute to
      implementing a competence orientation in medical studies.

PMID- 28890923
TI  - Publication activity in medical education research: A descriptive analysis of
      submissions to the GMS Zeitschrift fur Medizinische Ausbildung in 2007-2015.
AB  - Objectives: The significance of medical education research has increased
      internationally. In this context we investigated whether, and if so, how the
      quantity and quality of scientific papers reviewed and/or published by the GMS
      Zeitschrift fur Medizinische Ausbildung (GMS Z Med Ausbild) changed. Methods: The
      quantity and ratio of original papers, project reports and reviews submitted to
      or published in the GMS Z Med Ausbild were analysed. Published scientific
      articles were investigated in regard to the quality features "study type" and
      "mode of data collection" as well as the background (university affiliation) of
      the last authors. The citation frequency within the first five years after PubMed
      listing was compared to the one of BMC Medical Education in the corresponding
      period. Results: The number of submitted scientific manuscripts increased
      steadily. Most of the submissions and publications are original papers. For
      publications explorative studies and prospective data collection are most common.
      A shift over time is not observed. 16% of the published works come from one and
      36% from four of the in total 39 universities represented by the last authors.
      The development of the citation frequency of articles published in GMS Z Med
      Ausbild is similar to that of BMC Medical Education. Conclusion: The rising
      number of submissions indicates an increasing significance of medical education
      research in German-speaking countries. The development of the number of citations
      reflects the growing appreciation of GMS Z Med Ausbild also indicated by the
      increasing number of online accesses. Our findings that study type and mode of
      data collection did not change has to be interpreted with caution since among
      other things choice and correct application of adequate methods are crucial
      regarding a scientific work's quality, too. These aspects, however, were not
      investigated in this paper.

PMID- 28890924
TI  - Measuring attitudes towards interprofessional learning. Testing two German
      versions of the tool "Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale" on
      interprofessional students of health and nursing sciences and of human medicine.
AB  - Objective: In order to verify the methodological quality of two versions of a
      tool for measuring attitudes towards interprofessional learning, we adapted - in
      terms of translation and scale form - the Heidelberg Version [1] of Readiness for
      Interprofessional Learning Scale - RIPLS [2], a methodologically controversial
      tool that had been translated into German, and compared both the original and new
      versions. Method: Three items were reworded and the scale form altered (from five
      to four levels), leading to the Halle Version that was validated by means of a
      cognitive pretest (n=6). Both questionnaires were completed by students taking
      the interprofessional degree program in Health and Nursing Sciences (HNS) and by
      students of Human Medicine. The test quality of both tools was examined by
      analyzing the main components and reliability using the scales allocation of the
      items as according to Parsell and Bligh [2]. Results: The questionnaires were
      randomly assembled and distributed to 331 students. The response was n=320 (HNS
      n=109; Medicine n=211). The Halle Version "RIPLS-HAL" of the questionnaire was
      completed by n=166 and the Heidelberg Version "RIPLS-HDB" by n=154. In the main
      component analysis the data could not depict the scale patterns of the original
      Australian tool. The reliability values of both the Heidelberg and Halle versions
      were only satisfactory for the "Teamwork and Collaboration" and "Professional
      Identity" scales. Conclusions: The German version of the Readiness for
      Interprofessional Learning Scale has only limited suitability for recording the
      attitude towards interprofessional learning. The present versions can be regarded
      as an approach towards developing a more suitable tool.

PMID- 28890925
TI  - On the road to becoming a responsible leader: A simulation-based training
      approach for final year medical students.
AB  - Background and objective: There is a need for young physicians to take a
      responsible role in clinical teams, comparable to a leadership role. However,
      today's medical curricula barely consider the development of leadership
      competencies. Acquisition of leadership skills are currently a by-product of
      medical education, even though it seems to be a competency relevant for
      physicians' success. Therefore, an innovative leadership training program for
      young physicians was developed and validated. Training conceptualisation were
      based upon findings of critical incidents interviews (N=19) with relevant
      personnel (e.g. experienced doctors/nurses, residents) and upon evidence-based
      leadership contents focusing on ethical leadership behaviors. Method: The
      training consists of four sessions (3-4 hours each) and provided evidence-based
      lectures of leadership theory and effective leader behaviors, interactive
      training elements and a simulation-based approach with professional role players
      focusing on interprofessional collaboration with care staff. Training evaluation
      was assessed twice after completion of the program (N=37). Assessments included
      items from validated and approved evaluation instruments regarding diverse
      learning outcomes (satisfaction/reaction, learning, self-efficacy, and
      application/transfer) and transfer indicators. Furthermore, training success
      predictors were assessed based on stepwise regression analysis. In addition, long
      term trainings effects and behavioral changes were analysed. Results: Various
      learning outcomes are achieved (self-reported training satisfaction, usefulness
      of the content and learning effects) and results show substantial transfer
      effects of the training contents and a strengthened awareness for the leadership
      role (e.g. self-confidence, ideas dealing with work-related problems in a role as
      responsible physician). We identified competence of trainer, training of applied
      tools, awareness of job expectations, and the opportunity to learn from
      experiences of other participants as predictors of training success.
      Additionally, we found long-term training effects and participants reported an
      increase in specific competencies, relevant for effective interprofessional
      collaboration (active perspective-taking, communication, conflict management,
      personal competencies). Conclusion: The training of leadership competencies for
      young physicians seems feasible to develop constructive influence strategies for
      a successful interprofessional collaboration in early career stages. The
      simulation-based approach is beneficial for residents to practice leadership
      behaviour in realistic job situations.

PMID- 28890926
TI  - Peer-Assisted History-Taking Groups: A Subjective Assessment of their Impact Upon
      Medical Students' Interview Skills.
AB  - Background and Objectives: Among the clinical skills needed by all physicians,
      history taking is one of the most important. The teaching model for peer-assisted
      history-taking groups investigated in the present study consists of small-group
      courses in which students practice conducting medical interviews with real
      patients. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the expectations,
      experiences, and subjective learning progress of participants in peer-assisted
      history-taking groups. Methods: The 42 medical student participants completed a 4
      month, peer-assisted, elective history-taking course, which both began and ended
      with a subjective assessment of their interview skills by way of a pseudonymized
      questionnaire. Measures comprised the students' self-assessment of their
      interview skills, their expectations of, and their experiences with the course
      and especially with the peer tutors. Results: Medical students' most important
      motivations in attending peer-assisted history-taking groups were becoming able
      to complete a structured medical interview, to mitigate difficult interviewing
      situations, and to address patients' emotional demands appropriately. By the end
      of the course, students' self-assessment of both their interview skills and
      management of emotional issues improved significantly. Students especially
      benefitted from individual feedback regarding interview style and relationship
      formation, as well as generally accepted and had their expectations met by peer
      tutors. Conclusions: To meet the important learning objectives of history-taking
      and management of emotional issues, as well as self-reflection and reflection of
      student-patient interactions, students in the field greatly appreciate practicing
      medical interviewing in small, peer-assisted groups with real patients. At the
      same time, peer tutors are experienced to be helpful and supportive and can help
      students to overcome inhibitions in making contact with patients.

PMID- 28890927
TI  - Analysis of Six Reviews on the Quality of Instruments for the Evaluation of
      Interprofessional Education in German-Speaking Countries.
AB  - Background: More and more institutions worldwide and in German-speaking countries
      are developing and establishing interprofessional seminars in undergraduate
      education of health professions. In order to evaluate the different didactic
      approaches and different outcomes regarding the anticipated interprofessional
      competencies, it is necessary to apply appropriate instruments. Cross-cultural
      instruments are particularly helpful for international comparability. The
      Interprofessional Education working group of the German Medical Association (GMA)
      aims at identifying existing instruments for the evaluation of interprofessional
      education in order to make recommendations for German-speaking countries.
      Methods: Systematic literature research was performed on the websites of
      international interprofessional organisations (CAIPE, EIPEN, AIPEN), as well as
      in the PubMed and Cinahl databases. Reviews focusing on quantitative instruments
      to evaluate competencies according to the modified Kirkpatrick competency levels
      were searched for. Psychometrics, language/country and setting, in which the
      instrument was applied, were recorded. Results: Six reviews out of 73 literature
      research hits were included. A large number of instruments were identified;
      however, their psychometrics and the applied setting were very heterogeneous. The
      instruments can mainly be assigned to Kirkpatrick levels 1, 2a & 2b. Most
      instruments have been developed in English but their psychometrics were not
      always reported rigorously. Only very few instruments are available in German.
      Conclusion: It is difficult to find appropriate instruments in German.
      Internationally, there are different approaches and objectives in the measurement
      and evaluation of interprofessional competencies. The question arises whether it
      makes sense to translate existing instruments or to go through the lengthy
      process of developing new ones. The evaluation of interprofessional seminars with
      quantitative instruments remains mainly on Kirkpatrick levels 1 and 2. Levels 3
      and 4 can probably only be assessed with qualitative or mixed methods. German
      language instruments are necessary.

PMID- 28890928
TI  - Conflicts of Interest in Medicine. A Systematic Review of Published and
      Scientifically evaluated Curricula.
AB  - Objective: Conflicts of interests resulting from interactions with pharmaceutical
      companies are pervasive in medicine and can result in an undue influence on
      physicians' decision-making. The objective of this systematic review is to
      analyze published and scientifically evaluated curricula for medical students and
      residents regarding such conflicts of interest. We begin by describing the
      covered topics and teaching methods; afterwards we analyze the quality of the
      curricula using the published data on their evaluations and comparing the content
      with content recommended for such curricula. Methods: We searched Pubmed,
      PsycInfo, EMBASE, OECD, WISO, SOWI and googlescholar up to and including the 5th
      of September 2016. Publications describing curricula for residents or medical
      students on the topic of conflicts of interest in medicine and evaluating them
      for their effects on the participants' learning were included. We analyzed the
      covered topics and the teaching methods used and compared them with
      recommendations by the American Medical Students' Association (AMSA) and Health
      Action International (HAI). Results: The literature search resulted in 20
      publications that fulfilled our search criteria. In five trials, a control group
      was used, in no trial the participants were randomized to intervention or control
      group. 16/20 published curricula primarily covered marketing strategies by
      pharmaceutical companies, especially the interaction with pharmaceutical sales
      representatives (PSRs). Most curricula only covered a limited number of topics
      recommended by AMSA/HAI. The most frequent teaching method was a group
      discussion, which was used in 18/20 curricula; all curricula used at least one
      interactive teaching method. The evaluation of the curricula was heterogeneous in
      results as well as design. Some publications described a change of attitudes
      toward a stronger skepticism regarding interactions with pharmaceutical
      companies. Four publications described improved knowledge, one publication
      described a change in behavior toward a reduction of the acceptance of gifts.
      Conclusion: The trials conducted to this date regarding curricula on conflicts of
      interests are methodologically flawed and the described curricula lack important
      topics beyond marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies. In addition,
      there are no data so far on the sustainability of the courses' effects on
      participants' behavior. It is therefore necessary to develop a model curriculum
      that covers a broader variety of topics and to evaluate it using a well thought
      out methodology to create a foundation for the further improvement of teaching
      conflicts of interest in medicine.

PMID- 28890929
TI  - Integrated Microfluidic System for Gene Silencing and Cell Migration.
AB  - Metastasis involves the phenotype transition of cancer cells to gain
      invasiveness, and the following migration at the tumor site. Here an integrated
      microfluidic chip to study this process is presented by combining on-chip
      delivery of siRNA for gene silencing and cell migration assay. The major
      advantage of the integrated chip is the simple input of cells and gene
      transfection materials, and the ultimate output of migration ability. The reverse
      fishbone structure and 0.7* phosphate-buffered saline solution are the optimized
      parameters for improved delivery efficiency. Using the chip, it is validated that
      cofilin plays an essential role in regulating cancer cell migration. The
      integrated chip may provide a simple and effective platform for biologists to
      easily check the role of specific genes in metastasis.

PMID- 28890930
TI  - Parkinson's disease associated with pure ATXN10 repeat expansion.
AB  - Large, non-coding pentanucleotide repeat expansions of ATTCT in intron 9 of the
      ATXN10 gene typically cause progressive spinocerebellar ataxia with or without
      seizures and present neuropathologically with Purkinje cell loss resulting in
      symmetrical cerebellar atrophy. These ATXN10 repeat expansions can be interrupted
      by sequence motifs which have been attributed to seizures and are likely to act
      as genetic modifiers. We identified a Mexican kindred with multiple affected
      family members with ATXN10 expansions. Four affected family members showed
      clinical features of spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10). However, one
      affected individual presented with early-onset levodopa-responsive parkinsonism,
      and one family member carried a large repeat ATXN10 expansion, but was clinically
      unaffected. To characterize the ATXN10 repeat, we used a novel technology of
      single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing and CRISPR/Cas9-based capture. We
      sequenced the entire span of ~5.3-7.0 kb repeat expansions. The Parkinson's
      patient carried an ATXN10 expansion with no repeat interruption motifs as well as
      an unaffected sister. In the siblings with typical SCA10, we found a repeat
      pattern of ATTCC repeat motifs that have not been associated with seizures
      previously. Our data suggest that the absence of repeat interruptions is likely a
      genetic modifier for the clinical presentation of l-Dopa responsive parkinsonism,
      whereas repeat interruption motifs contribute clinically to epilepsy. Repeat
      interruptions are important genetic modifiers of the clinical phenotype in SCA10.
      Advanced sequencing techniques now allow to better characterize the underlying
      genetic architecture for determining accurate phenotype-genotype correlations.

PMID- 28890932
TI  - Biceps Femoris Injury a Rarity: A Case Report.
AB  - Isolated biceps femoris rupture is a rare injury associated with limitation in
      the function of the knee. We present a 65-year-old man who sustained an isolated
      complete rupture of the tendon of the biceps femoris. The diagnostic was reached
      after clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging of the affected knee.
      This case was treated with a surgical tendon reconstruction. The outcome was good
      and the patient was able to walk normally again without limitation, even if he
      did not comply with our recommendation.

PMID- 28890931
TI  - Rotigotine transdermal patch and sleep in Parkinson's disease: where are we now?
AB  - A wide range of sleep dysfunction complicates Parkinson's disease during its
      course from prodromal to palliative stage. It is now increasingly acknowledged
      that sleep disturbances are thus integral to the disease and pose a significant
      burden impacting on quality of life of patients. Sleep fragmentation, restless
      legs syndrome, nocturia, and nocturnal pain are regarded as one of the main
      components of night-time sleep dysfunction with possible secondary impact on
      cognition and well-being. The role of dopaminergic therapies, particularly using
      a continuous drug delivery strategy in managing some of these sleep issues, have
      been reported but the overall concept remains unclear. This review provides an
      overview of several aspects of night-time sleep dysfunction in Parkinson's
      disease and describes all available published open-label and blinded studies that
      investigated the use of rotigotine transdermal patch targeting sleep. Blinded
      studies have suggested beneficial effects of rotigotine transdermal patch on
      maintenance insomnia and restless legs syndrome in Parkinson's disease patients.
      Open-label studies support these observations and also suggest beneficial effects
      on nocturia and nocturnal pain.

PMID- 28890933
TI  - An Online Telepractice Model for the Prevention of Voice Disorders in Vocally
      Healthy Student Teachers Evaluated by a Smartphone Application.
AB  - This article describes the Global Voice Prevention Model (GVPM) facilitated with
      student teachers at West Chester University and the VoiceEvalU8 smartphone
      application (app) used to assess the effectiveness of the GVPM. Twenty-one
      participants completed 1 of 3 conditions (i.e., in-person GVPM, telepractice
      GVPM, and control). The in-person and telepractice conditions ran for 4 weeks
      during fall 2016, with 1 week dedicated to vocal education and vocal hygiene and
      3 weeks spent in vocal training. The control condition ran for 1 week and
      included only vocal education and vocal hygiene. The VoiceEvalU8 app was used at
      pre- and post-condition twice a day for 5 days to record acoustic, perceptual,
      and aerodynamic voice measures. The study is ongoing; therefore, preliminary
      acoustic results for fundamental frequency (F0) and jitter% are presented from
      pre- to post-condition. During spring 2017, the participants were student
      teaching and using the VoiceEvalU8 app to record the voice measures before and
      after teaching all day. A new group of participants will be enrolled fall 2017
      for selection into 1 of the 3 conditions and then continue on to student teaching
      spring 2018.

PMID- 28890934
TI  - Developing a Community-Based Participatory Research Curriculum to Support
      Environmental Health Research Partnerships: An Initiative of the GROWH Community
      Outreach and Dissemination Core.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Transdisciplinary Research Consortium for Gulf Resilience on
      Women's Health (GROWH) addresses reproductive health disparities in the Gulf
      Coast by linking communities and scientists through community-engaged research.
      Funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, GROWH's
      Community Outreach and Dissemination Core (CODC) seeks to utilize community-based
      participatory research (CBPR) and other community-centered outreach strategies to
      strengthen resilience in vulnerable Gulf Coast populations. The CODC is an
      academic-community partnership comprised of Tulane University, Mary Queen of
      Vietnam Community Development Corporation, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community
      Organizing, and the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI). METHODS: Alongside
      its CODC partners, LPHI collaboratively developed, piloted and evaluated an
      innovative CBPR curriculum. In addition to helping with curriculum design, the
      CODC's community and academic partners participated in the pilot. The curriculum
      was designed to impart applied, practical knowledge to community-based
      organizations and academic researchers on the successful formulation, execution
      and sustaining of CBPR projects and partnerships within the context of
      environmental health research. RESULTS: The curriculum resulted in increased
      knowledge about CBPR methods among both community and academic partners as well
      as improved relationships within the GROWH CODC partnership. CONCLUSION: The
      efforts of the GROWH partnership and curriculum were successful. This curriculum
      may serve as an anchor for future GROWH efforts including: competency
      development, translation of the curriculum into education and training products,
      community development of a CBPR curriculum for academic partners, community
      practice of CBPR, and future environmental health work.

PMID- 28890935
TI  - SKI-178: A Multitargeted Inhibitor of Sphingosine Kinase and Microtubule Dynamics
      Demonstrating Therapeutic Efficacy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Models.
AB  - AIM: To further characterize the selectivity, mechanism-of-action and therapeutic
      efficacy of the novel small molecule inhibitor, SKI-178. METHODS: Using the state
      of-the-art Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA) technique to detect "direct
      target engagement" of proteins intact cells, in vitro and in vivo assays,
      pharmacological assays and multiple mouse models of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
      RESULTS: Herein, we demonstrate that SKI-178 directly target engages both
      Sphingosine Kinase 1 and 2. We also present evidence that, in addition to its
      actions as a Sphingosine Kinase Inhibitor, SKI-178 functions as a microtubule
      network disrupting agent both in vitro and in intact cells. Interestingly, we
      separately demonstrate that simultaneous SphK inhibition and microtubule
      disruption synergistically induces apoptosis in AML cell lines. Furthermore, we
      demonstrate that SKI-178 is well tolerated in normal healthy mice. Most
      importantly, we demonstrate that SKI-178 has therapeutic efficacy in several
      mouse models of AML. CONCLUSION: SKI-178 is a multi-targeted agent that functions
      both as an inhibitor of the SphKs as well as a disruptor of the microtubule
      network. SKI-178 induced apoptosis arises from a synergistic interaction of these
      two activities. SKI-178 is safe and effective in mouse models of AML, supporting
      its further development as a multi-targeted anti-cancer therapeutic agent.

PMID- 28890936
TI  - Object play in infants with autism spectrum disorder: A longitudinal
      retrospective video analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Early play behaviors may provide important information
      regarding later-diagnosed developmental delays. Play behaviors of young children
      with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are restricted in diversity, frequency, and
      complexity. Most ASD research focuses on play in children over 18 months of age.
      This study examined three groups of infants (later diagnosed with ASD, later
      diagnosed with other developmental disorders, and typically developing) with the
      aims of: (1) describing the play behaviors of the three groups of infants at two
      time points (9-12 months and 15-18 months); (2) examining group differences in
      four hierarchical levels of play at both time points; (3) comparing groups with
      respect to the highest level of play achieved; and (4) determining if the highest
      level of play achieved by infants with developmental delays, including ASD,
      correlated with later developmental outcomes. METHODS: The current study used
      longitudinal retrospective video analysis to examine object play behaviors of the
      three groups of infants (total n=92) at two time points (time 1: 9-12 months of
      age, and time 2: 15-18 months of age). Coding of play behaviors was based on
      existing literature and distribution of data from the current study.
      Developmental outcomes examined were measured using the Vineland Adaptive
      Behavior Scales, Childhood Autism Rating Scale, and a non-verbal developmental
      quotient calculated using visual reception scores from the Mullen Scales for
      Early Learning. RESULTS: Results indicate group differences in play, with infants
      later diagnosed with ASD showing significantly less sophisticated play than those
      with typical development. In addition, modest but significant correlations were
      found between highest level of play achieved at time 2 (15-18 months) and later
      outcomes for those with developmental disorders, including ASD. CONCLUSIONS AND
      IMPLICATIONS: Results suggest that examination of infant play behaviors is
      important for early screening and intervention planning to potentially mitigate
      effects on later developmental outcomes.

PMID- 28890937
TI  - Improvement of individual camouflage through background choice in ground-nesting
      birds.
AB  - Animal camouflage is a longstanding example of adaptation. Much research has
      tested how camouflage prevents detection and recognition, largely focusing on
      changes to an animal's own appearance over evolution. However, animals could also
      substantially alter their camouflage by behaviourally choosing appropriate
      substrates. Recent studies suggest that individuals from several animal taxa
      could select backgrounds or positions to improve concealment. Here, we test
      whether individual wild animals choose backgrounds in complex environments, and
      whether this improves camouflage against predator vision. We studied nest site
      selection by nine species of ground-nesting birds (nightjars, plovers and
      coursers) in Zambia, and used image analysis and vision modeling to quantify egg
      and plumage camouflage to predator vision. Individual birds chose backgrounds
      that enhanced their camouflage, being better matched to their chosen backgrounds
      than to other potential backgrounds with respect to multiple aspects of
      camouflage. This occurred at all three spatial scales tested (a few cm and five
      meters from the nest, and compared to other sites chosen by conspecifics), and
      was the case for the eggs of all bird groups studied, and for adult nightjar
      plumage. Thus, individual wild animals improve their camouflage through active
      background choice, with choices highly refined across multiple spatial scales.

PMID- 28890938
TI  - Positive selection inhibits gene mobilisation and transfer in soil bacterial
      communities.

PMID- 28890939
TI  - Adaptive modulation of antibiotic resistance through intragenomic coevolution.
AB  - Bacteria gain antibiotic resistance genes by horizontal acquisition of mobile
      genetic elements (MGE) from other lineages. Newly acquired MGEs are often poorly
      adapted causing intragenomic conflicts, resolved by compensatory adaptation of
      the chromosome, the MGE or reciprocal coadaptation. The footprints of such
      intragenomic coevolution are present in bacterial genomes, suggesting an
      important role promoting genomic integration of horizontally acquired genes, but
      direct experimental evidence of the process is limited. Here we show adaptive
      modulation of tetracycline resistance via intragenomic coevolution between
      Escherichia coli and the multi-drug resistant (MDR) plasmid RK2. Tetracycline
      treatments, including monotherapy or combination therapies with ampicillin,
      favoured de novo chromosomal resistance mutations coupled with mutations on RK2
      impairing the plasmid-encoded tetracycline efflux-pump. These mutations together
      provided increased tetracycline resistance at reduced cost. Additionally, the
      chromosomal resistance mutations conferred cross-resistance to chloramphenicol.
      Reciprocal coadaptation was not observed under ampicillin-only or no antibiotic
      selection. Intragenomic coevolution can create genomes comprised of multiple
      replicons that together provide high-level, low-cost resistance, but the
      resulting co-dependence may limit the spread of coadapted MGEs to other lineages.

PMID- 28890940
TI  - Phylotranscriptomic consolidation of the jawed vertebrate timetree.
AB  - Phylogenomics is extremely powerful but introduces new challenges as no agreement
      exists on "standards" for data selection, curation and tree inference. We use
      jawed vertebrates (Gnathostomata) as model to address these issues. Despite
      considerable efforts in resolving their evolutionary history and macroevolution,
      few studies have included a full phylogenetic diversity of gnathostomes and some
      relationships remain controversial. We tested a novel bioinformatic pipeline to
      assemble large and accurate phylogenomic datasets from RNA sequencing and find
      this phylotranscriptomic approach successful and highly cost-effective. Increased
      sequencing effort up to ca. 10Gbp allows recovering more genes, but shallower
      sequencing (1.5Gbp) is sufficient to obtain thousands of full-length orthologous
      transcripts. We reconstruct a robust and strongly supported timetree of jawed
      vertebrates using 7,189 nuclear genes from 100 taxa, including 23 new
      transcriptomes from previously unsampled key species. Gene jackknifing of genomic
      data corroborates the robustness of our tree and allows calculating genome-wide
      divergence times by overcoming gene sampling bias. Mitochondrial genomes prove
      insufficient to resolve the deepest relationships because of limited signal and
      among-lineage rate heterogeneity. Our analyses emphasize the importance of large
      curated nuclear datasets to increase the accuracy of phylogenomics and provide a
      reference framework for the evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates.

PMID- 28890941
TI  - High-brightness Cs focused ion beam from a cold-atomic-beam ion source.
AB  - We present measurements of focal spot size and brightness in a focused ion beam
      system utilizing a laser-cooled atomic beam source of Cs ions. Spot sizes as
      small as (2.1 +/- 0.2) nm (one standard deviation) and reduced brightness values
      as high as (2.4 +/- 0.1) * 107 A m-2 Sr-1 eV-1 are observed with a 10 keV beam.
      This measured brightness is over 24 times higher than the highest brightness
      observed in a Ga liquid metal ion source. The behavior of brightness as a
      function of beam current and the dependence of effective source temperature on
      ionization energy are examined. The performance is seen to be consistent with
      earlier predictions. Demonstration of this source with very high brightness,
      producing a heavy ionic species such as Cs+, promises to allow significant
      improvements in resolution and throughput for such applications as next
      generation circuit edit and nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry.

PMID- 28890942
TI  - Hyperactivation in Cognitive Control and Visual Attention Brain Regions During
      Emotional Interference in Adolescent Depression.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are characterized by
      biases in attention to negative emotional material. While there is evidence that
      anomalous functioning in frontocingulate regions may underlie these biases, we
      know little about the neural correlates of negative emotional biases in depressed
      adolescents. METHODS: Eighteen adolescents diagnosed with MDD and 21 matched
      healthy control (CTL) adolescents underwent fMRI while performing an emotional
      distractor task. On each trial participants were presented with task-relevant
      house pairs and task-irrelevant face pairs. Participants indicated whether the
      house pairs were identical while ignoring the face pairs, which were either
      fearful, sad, or neutral. RESULTS: Despite equivalent behavioral performance
      (response time and accuracy) between groups, adolescents with MDD exhibited
      greater activation in frontocingulate regions, including dorsal anterior
      cingulate cortex (dACC) and inferior frontal gyrus/middle frontal gyrus
      (IFG/MFG), and occipitoparietal regions, including lateral occipital cortex and
      superior parietal lobule when ignoring fearful versus neutral faces. Response
      times to these trial conditions also correlated negatively with activation in
      IFG/MFG and lateral occipital cortex suggesting these regions are recruited in
      order to effectively ignore emotional distractors. Groups did not differ when
      ignoring sad versus neutral faces or fearful versus sad faces. CONCLUSIONS:
      Adolescents with MDD recruit both cognitive control and visual attention regions
      to a greater degree than do CTL adolescents, reflecting greater cognitive demand
      when downregulating threat-related stimuli.

PMID- 28890944
TI  - The Cortical Network for Braille Writing in the Blind.
AB  - Fundamental forms of high-order cognition, such as reading and writing, are
      usually studied in the context of one modality - vision. People without sight,
      however, use the kinesthetic-based Braille writing, and haptic-based Braille
      reading. We asked whether the cognitive and motor control mechanisms underlying
      writing and reading are modality-specific or supramodal. While a number of
      previous functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated
      the brain network for Braille reading in the blind, such studies on Braille
      writing are lacking. Consequently, no comparative network analysis of Braille
      writing vs. reading exists. Here, we report the first study of Braille writing,
      and a comparison of the brain organization for Braille writing vs Braille
      reading. FMRI was conducted in a Siemens 3T Trio scanner. Our custom MRI
      compatible drawing/writing lectern was further modified to provide for Braille
      reading and writing. Each of five paragraphs of novel Braille text describing
      objects, faces and navigation sequences was read, then reproduced twice by
      Braille writing from memory, then read a second time. During Braille reading, the
      haptic-sensing of the Braille letters strongly activated not only the early
      visual area V1 and V2, but some highly specialized areas, such as the classical
      visual grapheme area and the Exner motor grapheme area. Braille-writing-from
      memory, engaged a significantly more extensive network in dorsal motor,
      somatosensory/kinesthetic, dorsal parietal and prefrontal cortex. However, in
      contrast to the largely extended V1 activation in drawing-from-memory in the
      blind after training (Likova, 2012), Braille writing from memory generated focal
      activation restricted to the most foveal part of V1, presumably reflecting
      topographically the focal demands of such a "pin-pricking" task.

PMID- 28890943
TI  - Trial of Amiloride in Type 2 Diabetes with Proteinuria.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Renal Na+ retention and extracellular fluid volume expansion are
      hallmarks of nephrotic syndrome, which occurs even in the absence of activation
      of hormones that stimulate renal Na+ transporters. Plasmin-dependent activation
      of the epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) has been proposed to have a role in renal
      Na+ retention in the setting of nephrotic syndrome. We hypothesized that the ENaC
      inhibitor amiloride would be an effective therapeutic agent in inducing a
      natriuresis and lowering blood pressure in individuals with macroscopic
      proteinuria. METHODS: We conducted a pilot double-blind randomized cross-over
      study comparing the effects of daily administration of either oral amiloride or
      hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) to patients with type 2 diabetes and macroscopic
      proteinuria. Safety and efficacy were assessed by monitoring systolic blood
      pressure (SBP), kidney function, adherence, weight, urinary Na+ excretion and
      serum electrolytes. Nine subjects were enrolled in the trial. RESULTS: No
      significant difference in SBP or weight was seen between HCTZ and amiloride
      (p>=0.15). Amiloride induced differences in serum K+ (p<0.001), with a 0.88+/
      0.30 mmol/L greater acute increase observed. Two subjects developed acute kidney
      injury and hyperkalemia when treated with amiloride. Four subjects had readily
      detectable levels of urinary plasminogen plus plasmin (uPl), and five did not.
      Changes in SBP in response to amiloride did not differ between individuals with
      vs. those without detectable uPl. CONCLUSION: In summary, among patients with
      type 2 diabetes, normal renal function and proteinuria, there were reductions in
      SBP in groups treated with HCTZ or amiloride. Acute kidney injury and severe
      hyperkalemia were safety concerns with amiloride.

PMID- 28890945
TI  - TEACH Kitchen: A Chronological Review of Accomplishments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Eating and Cooking Healthy (TEACH) Kitchen was founded at the
      Medical College of Georgia in 2015 as a nutrition-based intervention to combat
      the high prevalence of obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases in the area
      of Augusta, Georgia. Despite the importance of diet in the management of chronic
      diseases, inadequate nutrition education among patients and healthcare providers
      presents a barrier. The purpose of TEACH Kitchen is to address this gap. METHODS:
      TEACH Kitchen is as a student-led initiative that promotes healthy cooking among
      medical students and patients with chronic diseases. Healthy nutrition and
      cooking classes are held during the academic year. Participants spend four weeks
      on each of four modules: obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes
      mellitus. Data collection, which began in January 2017, is currently on going.
      TEACH Kitchen has collaborated with Augusta University, Sodexo, and Kohl's.
      RESULTS: Currently, TEACH Kitchen has enrolled 14 patients and 6 children.
      Anticipated results include measurements of pre-and post-intervention changes in
      knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and competence in nutrition, as well as
      differences in clinical indicators, including body mass index, blood pressure,
      lipid profile, and HbA1c. CONCLUSIONS: TEACH Kitchen is the first medical school
      based nutrition/cooking education initiative in Augusta, Georgia. It provides
      patients and medical students with hands-on healthy nutrition/cooking experience
      with the goal of decreasing the prevalence and improving the outcome of obesity
      related diseases.

PMID- 28890947
TI  - Strain Engineering a 4a*?3a Charge Density Wave Phase in Transition Metal
      Dichalcogenide 1T-VSe2.
AB  - We report a rectangular charge density wave (CDW) phase in strained 1T-VSe2 thin
      films synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy on c-sapphire substrates. The
      observed CDW structure exhibits an unconventional rectangular 4a*?3a periodicity,
      as opposed to the previously reported hexagonal 4a*4a structure in bulk crystals
      and exfoliated thin layered samples. Tunneling spectroscopy shows a strong
      modulation of the local density of states of the same 4a*?3a CDW periodicity and
      an energy gap of 2DeltaCDW = (9.1 +/- 0.1) meV. The CDW energy gap evolves into a
      full gap at temperatures below 500 mK, indicating a transition to an insulating
      phase at ultra-low temperatures. First-principles calculations confirm the
      stability of both 4a*4a and 4a*?3a structures arising from soft modes in the
      phonon dispersion. The unconventional structure becomes preferred in the presence
      of strain, in agreement with experimental findings.

PMID- 28890949
TI  - Designing Contestability: Interaction Design, Machine Learning, and Mental
      Health.
AB  - We describe the design of an automated assessment and training tool for
      psychotherapists to illustrate challenges with creating interactive machine
      learning (ML) systems, particularly in contexts where human life, livelihood, and
      wellbeing are at stake. We explore how existing theories of interaction design
      and machine learning apply to the psychotherapy context, and identify
      "contestability" as a new principle for designing systems that evaluate human
      behavior. Finally, we offer several strategies for making ML systems more
      accountable to human actors.

PMID- 28890948
TI  - Green environment and incident depression in South Africa: a geospatial analysis
      and mental health implications in a resource-limited setting.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Unprecedented levels of habitat transformation and rapid urbanisation
      are changing the way individuals interrelate with the natural environment in
      developing countries with high economic disparities. Although the potential
      benefit of green environments for mental health has been recognised, population
      level evidence to this effect is scarce. We investigated the effect of green
      living environment in potentially countering incident depression in a nationally
      representative survey in South Africa. METHODS: We used panel data from the South
      African National Income Dynamics Study (SA-NIDS). Our study used SA-NIDS data
      from three waves: wave 1 (2008), wave 2 (2010), and wave 3 (2012). Households
      were sampled on the basis of a stratified two-stage cluster design. In the first
      stage, 400 primary sampling units were selected for inclusion. In the second
      stage, two clusters of 12 dwelling units each were drawn from within each primary
      sampling unit (or 24 dwelling units per unit). Household and individual adult
      questionnaires were administered to participants. The main outcome, incident
      depression (ie, incident cohort of 11 156 study participants without significant
      depression symptoms at their first entry into SA-NIDS), was assessed in the adult
      survey via a ten item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression
      Scale; a total score of ten or higher was used as a cutoff to indicate
      significant depressive symptoms. Each participant was assigned a value for green
      living space via a satellite-derived normalised difference vegetation index
      (NDVI) based on the GPS coordinates of their household location. FINDINGS:
      Overall, we found uneven benefit of NDVI on incident depression among our study
      participants. Although the green living environment showed limited benefit across
      the study population as a whole, our final analysis based on logistic regression
      models showed that higher NDVI was a predictor of lower incident depression among
      middle-income compared with low-income participants (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]
      0.98, 0.97-0.99, p<0.0001), although when this analysis was broken down by race,
      its positive effect was particularly evident amongst African individuals. Living
      in rural areas was linked to lower odds of incident depression (aOR 0.71, 0.55
      0.92, p=0.011) compared with study participants residing in urban informal areas
      that often lack formal planning. INTERPRETATION: Our results imply the importance
      of green environments for mental wellbeing in sub-Saharan African settings
      experiencing rapid urbanisation, economic and epidemiological transition,
      reaffirming the need to incorporate environmental services and benefits for
      sustainable socioeconomic development. FUNDING: South African Medical Research
      Council, National Institutes of Health, and Academy of Finland.

PMID- 28890946
TI  - OncoKB: A Precision Oncology Knowledge Base.
AB  - PURPOSE: With prospective clinical sequencing of tumors emerging as a mainstay in
      cancer care, there is an urgent need for a clinical support tool that distills
      the clinical implications associated with specific mutation events into a
      standardized and easily interpretable format. To this end, we developed OncoKB,
      an expert-guided precision oncology knowledge base. METHODS: OncoKB annotates the
      biological and oncogenic effect and the prognostic and predictive significance of
      somatic molecular alterations. Potential treatment implications are stratified by
      the level of evidence that a specific molecular alteration is predictive of drug
      response based on US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling, National
      Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines, disease-focused expert group
      recommendations and the scientific literature. RESULTS: To date, over 3000 unique
      mutations, fusions, and copy number alterations in 418 cancer-associated genes
      have been annotated. To test the utility of OncoKB, we annotated all genomic
      events in 5983 primary tumor samples in 19 cancer types. Forty-one percent of
      samples harbored at least one potentially actionable alteration, of which 7.5%
      were predictive of clinical benefit from a standard treatment. OncoKB annotations
      are available through a public web resource (http://oncokb.org/) and are also
      incorporated into the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics to facilitate the
      interpretation of genomic alterations by physicians and researchers. CONCLUSION:
      OncoKB, a comprehensive and curated precision oncology knowledge base, offers
      oncologists detailed, evidence-based information about individual somatic
      mutations and structural alterations present in patient tumors with the goal of
      supporting optimal treatment decisions.

PMID- 28890950
TI  - Creating Conditions for Patients' Values to Emerge in Clinical Conversations:
      Perspectives of Health Care Team Members.
AB  - Eliciting, understanding, and honoring patients' values- the things most
      important to them in daily life-is a cornerstone of patient-centered care.
      However, this rarely occurs explicitly as a routine part of clinical practice.
      This is particularly problematic for individuals with multiple chronic conditions
      (MCC) because they face difficult choices about how to balance competing demands
      for self-care in accordance with their values. In this study, we sought to inform
      the design of interventions to support conversations about patient values between
      patients with MCC and their health care providers. We conducted a field study
      that included observations of 21 clinic visits for patients who have MCC, and
      interviews with 16 care team members involved in those visits. This paper
      contributes a practice-based account of ways in which providers engage with
      patient values, and discusses how future work in interactive systems design might
      extend and enrich these engagements.

PMID- 28890951
TI  - High Performance, Low Cost Carbon Nanotube Yarn based 3D Printed Electrodes
      Compatible with a Conventional Screen Printed Electrode System.
AB  - 3D printing technology has been widely used as a rapid prototyping fabrication
      tool in several fields, including electrochemistry. In this work, we incorporate
      3D printing technology with carbon nanotube yarns for electrochemical sensing of
      dopamine in the presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid. The novel 3D printed
      electrode provides a circular concavity detection zone with grooves to insert
      three electrodes. The electrode connections are fully compatible with
      conventional screen printed electrode workstation setups. The CNT yarn 3D printed
      electrode showed excellent electrocatalytic activity for the redox reaction of
      dopamine (DA) in the presence of ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA). Three
      well-defined sharp and fully resolved anodic peaks were found with the peak
      potentials using cyclic voltammetry (CV) at 50 mV, 305 mV, and 545 mV for AA, DA,
      and UA respectively and using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) at 91 mV, 389
      mV, and 569 mV, respectively. DA detection limit was 0.87 +/- 0.09 MUM. The CNT
      yarn 3D printed electrode displayed high reproducibility and stability. The
      electrode design enables the study of electrode reactions at the sidewall of
      CNTs, which cannot be performed using electrodes made by conventional fabrication
      methods. The new fabrication method provides a new platform to prototype new
      electrode materials for electrochemistry, providing a low-cost, customizable
      design compatible existing screen printed electrodes technology.

PMID- 28890952
TI  - Oxidative Stress: A Potential Therapeutic Target in Placental Malaria.
AB  - Placental malaria, characterized by sequestration of Plasmodium falciparum in the
      maternal placental blood space and associated inflammatory damage, contributes to
      poor birth outcomes and ~200,000 infant deaths annually. Specific mechanisms that
      contribute to placental damage and dysfunction during malaria are not completely
      understood. To investigate a potential role for oxidative stress, antioxidant
      genes and markers for oxidative damage were assessed by quantitative PCR and
      immunohistochemistry in Plasmodium chabaudi AS-infected pregnant mice. Widespread
      evidence of lipid peroxidation was observed and was associated with higher
      antioxidant gene expression in conceptuses of infected mice. To assess the extent
      to which this oxidative damage might contribute to poor birth outcomes and be
      amenable to therapeutic intervention, infected pregnant mice were treated with N
      acetylcysteine, a free radical scavenger, or tempol, an intracellular superoxide
      dismutase mimetic. The results show that mice treated with N-acetylcysteine
      experienced malaria induced-pregnancy loss at the same rate as control animals
      and failed to mitigate placental oxidative damage. In contrast, tempol-treated
      mice exhibited subtle improvement in embryo survival at gestation day 12.
      Although lipid peroxidation was not consistently reduced in the placentas of
      these mice, it was inversely related to embryo viability. Moreover, reduced IFN
      gamma and CCL2 plasma levels in treated mice were associated with midgestational
      embryo viability. Thus, although oxidative stress is remarkable in placental
      malaria and its mitigation by antioxidant therapy may improve pregnancy outcomes,
      the underlying mechanistic basis and potential therapeutic strategies require
      additional investigation.

PMID- 28890953
TI  - The Effects of Metal Ions on Heparin/Heparin Sulfate-Protein Interactions.
AB  - Heparin/heparin sulfate (HS) interacts with a number of proteins thereby playing
      an essential role in the regulation of many physiological processes. The
      understanding of heparin/HS-protein interactions at the molecular level is of
      fundamental importance to biology and will aid in the development of highly
      specific glycan-based therapeutic agents. The heparin-binding proteins (HBPs)
      interact with sulfated domains of heparin/HS chains primarily through ionic
      attraction between negatively charged groups in HS/heparin chains and basic amino
      acid residues within the protein. Reports in literature have been shown that
      heparin molecules have a high affinity for a wide range of metal ions. In the
      present study, we used surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to study the effects of
      metal ions (under physiological and non-physiological concentrations) on
      heparin/HS-protein interactions. The results showed that under non-physiological
      of metal ion concentration, different metal ions showed different effects on
      heparin binding to fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF1) and interleakin-7 (IL7).
      While the effects of individual metal ion at physiological concentrations had
      little impact on protein binding, the mixed metal ions reduced the FGF1/heparin
      or IL7/heparin binding affinity, changing its binding profile.

PMID- 28890955
TI  - Opportunities for Fluorochlorozirconate and Other Glass-Ceramic Detectors in
      Medical Imaging Devices.
AB  - This article gives an overview of fluorochlorozirconate glass-ceramic
      scintillators and storage phosphor materials: how they are synthesized, what
      their properties are, and how they can be used in medical imaging. Such materials
      can enhance imaging in x-ray radiography, especially mammography and dental
      imaging, computed tomography, and positron emission tomography. Although focusing
      on fluorochlorozirconate materials, the reader will find the discussion is
      relevant to other luminescent glass and glass-ceramic systems.

PMID- 28890956
TI  - Spin-dependent transport properties of zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons with oxygen
      saturated edges.
AB  - We investigate the electronic structures and electronic transport properties of
      zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons with oxygen-saturated edges (O-zPNRs) by using the
      spin-polarized density functional theory and the nonequilibrium Green's function
      method. The results show that the O-zPNR is an antiferromagnetic (AFM) or
      ferromagnetic (FM) semiconductor with spins localized at two ribbon edges anti
      parallel or parallel with each other. The electronic transmission for the single
      AFM or FM O-zPNR is zero when a bias voltage is applied to the two electrodes
      made of the same type O-zPNR. Nonzero transmission arises for the AFM-AFM and FM
      FM O-zPNR heterojunctions. The transmission spectrum and the electrical current
      are fully spin polarized for the FM-FM O-zPNR heterojunction. An in-plane
      transverse electrical field can effectively manipulate the electronic structure
      and spin-dependent electronic transport. It induces splitting of the spins of the
      two edges and makes the AFM O-zPNR become a half metal. Moreover, the transverse
      electrical field gives rise to the transmission spectrum and the spin polarized
      electrical current for the AFM-AFM O-zPNR heterojunction. The degree of spin
      polarization can be tuned by the strength of the transverse field.

PMID- 28890954
TI  - Mesenchymal Stem Cell Paracrine Factors in Vascular Repair and Regeneration.
AB  - Mesenchymal stem cell therapy show great optimism in the treatment of several
      diseases. MSCs are attractive candidates for cell therapy because of easy
      isolation, high expansion potential giving unlimited pool of transplantable
      cells, low immunogenicity, amenability to ex vivo genetic modification, and
      multipotency. The stem cells orchestrate the repair process by various mechanisms
      such as transdifferentiation, cell fusion, microvesicles or exosomes and most
      importantly by secreting paracrine factors. The MSCs release several angiogenic,
      mitogenic, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative factors that play
      fundamental role in regulating tissue repair in various vascular and cardiac
      diseases. The therapeutic release of these factors by the cells can be enhanced
      by several strategies like genetic modification, physiological and
      pharmacological preconditioning, improved cell culture and selection methods, and
      biomaterial based approaches. The current review describes the impact of
      paracrine factors released by MSCs on vascular repair and regeneration in
      myocardial infarction, restenosis and peripheral artery disease, and the various
      strategies adopted to enhance the release of these paracrine factors to enhance
      organ function.

PMID- 28890957
TI  - Clustering of PK-trisaccharides on amphiphilic cyclodextrin reveals unprecedented
      affinity for the Shiga-like toxin Stx2.
AB  - Using amphiphilic cyclodextrin as a scaffold, the first class of PK
      glycoconjugates capable of high avidity binding to both Stx1 and Stx2 toxins in
      solid-phase assay formats is reported. The generated glycomicroarray effectively
      mimics the plasma membrane surface while discriminating binding of the two Stx
      toxins, with unprecedented affinity to Stx2.

PMID- 28890958
TI  - Nickel-catalyzed ring-opening of alpha-hydroxycyclobutenones with a remarkable
      ligand effect.
AB  - A Ni-catalyzed ring-opening of alpha-hydroxycyclobutenones is reported herein. A
      remarkable ligand effect was observed during transformations following the ring
      opening. The employment of PPh3 leads to the formation of 2-furanones 2 through a
      migration of an alkoxyl group, and 2-furanones 3 were generated through a
      migration of hydrogen in the presence of Xantphos, affording a divergent approach
      to 2-furanones bearing multiple functional groups.

PMID- 28890959
TI  - A theory for the effect of patch/non-patch attractions on the self-assembly of
      patchy colloids.
AB  - In this paper, we develop a thermodynamic perturbation theory to describe the
      self-assembly of patchy colloids which exhibit both patch-patch attractions as
      well as patch/non-patch attractions. That is, patches attract other patches as
      well as the no patch region (we call this region Psi). In general, the patch
      patch and patch-Psi attractions operate on different energy scales allowing for a
      competition between different modes of attraction. This competition may result in
      anomalous thermodynamic properties. As an application, we tune the patch
      parameters to reproduce the liquid density (suitably scaled) maximum of water. It
      is then shown that the liquid branch of the colloids phase diagram has liquid
      densities consistent with both saturated and super-cooled liquid water. Finally,
      it is shown that the colloids reproduce water's anomalous minimum in isothermal
      compressibility and negative volume expansivity.

PMID- 28890960
TI  - Reduction of intrinsic defects in hybrid perovskite films via precursor
      purification.
AB  - A simple chemical process was developed in a scalable manner, to reduce trap
      states in perovskite absorbers from the very beginning. The obvious decrease of
      I2 in methylammonium iodide and the decrease of trap density in the resultant
      films were identified, which led to the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of
      perovskite solar cells (PSCs) increase from 16.5% to 18.5%.

PMID- 28890961
TI  - Two-dimensional pattern formation in ionic liquids confined between graphene
      walls.
AB  - We perform molecular dynamics simulations of ionic liquids confined between
      graphene walls under a large variety of conditions (pure ionic liquids, mixtures
      with water and alcohols, mixtures with lithium salts and defective graphene
      walls). Our results show that the formation of striped and hexagonal patterns in
      the Stern layer can be considered as a general feature of ionic liquids at
      electrochemical interfaces, the transition between patterns being controlled by
      the net balance of charge in the innermost layer of adsorbed molecules. This
      explains previously reported experimental and computational results and, for the
      first time, why these pattern changes are triggered by any perturbation of the
      charge density at the innermost layer of the electric double layer (voltage and
      composition changes, and vacancies at the electrode walls, among others), which
      may help tuning electrode-ionic liquid interfaces. Using Monte Carlo simulations
      we show that such structures can be reproduced by a simple two-dimensional
      lattice model with only nearest-neighbour interactions, governed by highly
      screened ionic interactions and short-range and excluded volume interactions. We
      also show that the results of our simulations are consistent with those inferred
      from the Landau-Brazovskii theory of pattern formation in self-assembling
      systems. The presence of these patterns at the ionic liquid graphene-electrode
      interfaces may have a strong impact on the process of ionic transfer from the
      bulk mixtures to the electrodes, on the differential capacitance of the electrode
      electrolyte double layer or on the rates of redox reactions at the electrodes,
      among other physicochemical properties, and is therefore an effect of great
      technological interest.

PMID- 28890962
TI  - Evidence for the spontaneous formation of N-heterocyclic carbenes in imidazolium
      based ionic liquids.
AB  - We present a study of the reactions of aldehydes in ionic liquids which gives
      evidence for the spontaneous formation of N-heterocyclic carbenes in ionic
      liquids based on 1,3-dialkyl substituted imidazolium cations from the lack of a
      deuterium isotope effect on the reaction of these ionic liquids with aldehydes.

PMID- 28890963
TI  - Structure relaxation via long trajectories made stable.
AB  - Molecular dynamics (MD) is appearing in increasing applications in materials
      science, nanotechnologies, condensed matter physics, computational physics,
      biochemistry, and biophysics. Finding mechanically static equilibrium
      configurations of molecular systems is one of the most practical tasks in MD.
      Most existing potential energy optimization algorithms do not permit searching
      equilibrium configurations through longer MD trajectories. We introduce a simple
      method of utilizing a microcanonical (NVE) ensemble to obtain static equilibriums
      of molecular systems, that is significantly faster than the standard
      implementations of quick-min (QM) and fast inertial relaxation engine (FIRE)
      optimization algorithms. The new method is based on the capability of NVE to
      convert potential energy to kinetic energy. The surprising efficiency of the
      method is illustrated using an indentation test on monolayer graphene and, in
      particular, the versatility of the method is illustrated using relaxation of a
      polystyrene chain through longer MD trajectories and large deformation. The
      capability of the new method in finding more stable equilibrium configurations
      than common optimization algorithms is demonstrated in relaxation of a pressured
      lubricating oil layer and a warped monolayer graphene cantilever.

PMID- 28890964
TI  - Utilization of the dye N-methyl-6-oxyquinolone as an optical acidometer in
      molecular solvents and protic ionic liquids.
AB  - We developed a procedure to use the highly sensitive dye N-methyl-6-oxyquinolone
      as an acidity probe in molecular solvents and protic ionic liquids. The
      combination of well-established stationary UV-vis absorption and the mathematical
      algorithm of singular value decomposition allows the determination of the amount
      of acidic protons even in complex solvents like ionic liquids.

PMID- 28890965
TI  - Direct observation of the photoinduced electron transfer processes of bis(4
      arylphenylamino benzo)-ortho-carborane using transient absorption spectroscopic
      measurements.
AB  - The intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer (PET) processes of three bis(4
      arylphenylamino benzo)-ortho-carboranes (ArCbAr, Ar = phenyl (Ph), naphthyl (Np)
      and pyrenyl (Py)) triads were investigated in CH2Cl2 and n-hexane using the
      femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption (TA) spectroscopic technique. In
      CH2Cl2, the transient S1-Sn absorption band of 1ArCbAr* was observed at short
      delay times. Concomitant with the decay of 1ArCbAr*, the TA bands for cation
      radical species were detected at around 700 nm for Ph+, 650 nm for Np+, and 580
      nm Py+. At the same time, the TA band of the carborane anion radical (Cb-) was
      observed at around 430 nm. This implies that the intramolecular PET process
      occurs from the 1ArCbAr* state. The TA bands of the cationic and anionic radical
      species can be assigned by comparison to the absorption spectra of an
      electrochemically generated radical species. The PET process also occurs in n
      hexane, as demonstrated by the monitoring of radical species in the TA spectra.
      In n-hexane, the TA band for Ar+ interfered with the aggregation induced emission
      (AIE) at early delay times. The long lived Ar+ species can be observed in the TA
      spectra at long delay times after fading of the AIE. The PET is exergonic in both
      solvents, as shown by the negative Gibbs energies (DeltaG) for the PET processes.

PMID- 28890966
TI  - Intracellular temperature measurements with fluorescent polymeric thermometers.
AB  - In 2003, we successfully created the first fluorescent polymeric thermometer by
      combining a thermo-responsive polymer and an environment-sensitive (polarity and
      hydrogen bonding-sensitive) fluorophore. Its high sensitivity to temperature
      variation and high hydrophilicity, even under conditions of high ionic strength,
      enabled intracellular temperature measurements. Along with the progress of our
      research projects, the development of new luminescent molecular thermometers and
      the establishment of novel methods for measuring intracellular temperature have
      matured in this field. In this Feature Article, we summarize the background and
      history of intracellular temperature measurements using fluorescent polymeric
      thermometers based on studies performed in our laboratory and the relationship
      between our methods and those of other eminent research groups. Future research
      directions regarding intracellular temperature measurements are also discussed.

PMID- 28890967
TI  - Syntheses and effectiveness of functional peptide-based RAFT agents.
AB  - In this study, a series of functional peptide-based RAFT agents were designed and
      synthesized by the solid-phase supported peptide synthesis method. These novel
      RAFT agents have enabled chemists to make well-defined peptide-polymer conjugates
      with complicated topological structures. Additionally, our results have shown an
      unexpected reaction that takes place during these syntheses, and the conversion
      of a nitrile group to a carboxamide group has been evidently elucidated and
      unambiguously confirmed.

PMID- 28890968
TI  - Ultrafast flavin photoreduction in an oxidized animal (6-4) photolyase through an
      unconventional tryptophan tetrad.
AB  - Photolyases are flavoenzymes repairing UV-induced lesions in DNA, which may be
      activated by a photoreduction of their FAD cofactor. In most photolyases, this
      photoreduction proceeds by electron transfer along a chain of three tryptophan
      (Trp) residues, connecting the flavin to the protein surface. Much less studied,
      animal (6-4) photolyases (repairing pyrimidine-pyrimidone (6-4) photoproducts)
      are particularly interesting as they were recently shown to have a longer
      electron transfer chain, counting four Trp residues. Using femtosecond polarized
      transient absorption spectroscopy, we performed a detailed analysis of the
      photoactivation reaction in the (6-4) photolyase of Xenopus laevis with oxidized
      FAD. We showed that the excited flavin is very quickly reduced (~0.5 ps) by a
      nearby tryptophan residue, yielding FAD- and WH+ radicals. Subsequent kinetic
      steps in the picosecond regime were assigned to the migration of the positive
      charge along the Trp tetrad, in competition with charge recombination. We propose
      that the positive charge is actually delocalized over various Trp residues during
      most of the dynamics and that charge recombination essentially occurs through the
      proximal tryptophanyl radical. Oxidation of the fourth tryptophan is thought to
      be reached about as fast as that of the third one (~40 ps), based on a comparison
      with a mutant protein lacking the distal Trp, implying ultrafast electron
      transfer between these two residues. This unusual mechanism sheds light on the
      rich diversity of electron transfer pathways found in various photolyases, and
      evolution-related cryptochromes alike.

PMID- 28890969
TI  - Triazolium cyclodextrin click cluster-resin conjugate: an enrichment material for
      phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-triphosphate.
AB  - UltraLink was functionalized with a triazolium cyclodextrin click cluster (CCC)
      which provides a well-oriented, multivalent, positively charged binding site for
      PtdIns(3,4,5)P3. MALDI TOF MS and LC ESI MS/MS MRM analysis of spiked
      PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 in lipid extract suggest that triazolium CCC-UltraLink conjugate
      can be used as an enrichment material for PtdIns(3,4,5)P3.

PMID- 28890970
TI  - Dynamic protein self-assembly driven by host-guest chemistry and the folding
      unfolding feature of a mutually exclusive protein.
AB  - A novel exploration utilizing a well-designed fusion protein containing a redox
      stimuli-responsive domain was developed to construct dynamic protein self
      assemblies induced by cucurbit[8]uril-based supramolecular interactions. The
      reversible interconversion of the morphology of the assemblies between nanowires
      and nanorings was regulated precisely by redox conditions.

PMID- 28890971
TI  - Quantitative interpretation of impedance spectroscopy data on porous LSM
      electrodes using X-ray computed tomography and Bayesian model-based analysis.
AB  - It is broadly understood that strontium-doped lanthanum manganate (LSM) cathodes
      for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have two pathways for the reduction of oxygen:
      a surface-mediated pathway culminating in oxygen incorporation into the
      electrolyte at the triple-phase boundary (TPB), and a bulk-mediated pathway
      involving oxygen transfer across the electrode-electrolyte interface. Patterned
      electrode and thin film experiments have shown that both pathways are active in
      LSM. Porous electrode geometries more commonly found in SOFCs have not been
      amenable for precise measurement of active electrode width because of the
      difficulty in precisely measuring the electrode geometry. This study
      quantitatively compares a reaction-diffusion model for the oxygen reduction
      reaction in LSM to the impedance spectrum of an experimental LSM porous electrode
      symmetric button cell on a yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte. The
      porous microstructure was characterized using computed tomography (nano-CT) and
      Bayesian model-based analysis (BMA) was used to estimate model parameters. BMA
      produced good fits to the data, with higher than expected values for the
      interfacial capacitance at the LSM-YSZ interface and vacancy diffusion activation
      energy; these results may indicate that the active width of the electrode is on a
      similar scale with that of the space-charge width at the LSM-YSZ interface. The
      analysis also showed that the active width and proportion of current moving
      through the bulk pathway is temperature dependent, in accordance with patterned
      electrode results.

PMID- 28890972
TI  - Nanomechanical sensors for direct and rapid characterization of sperm motility
      based on nanoscale vibrations.
AB  - Infertility, whether of male or female origin, is a critical challenge facing the
      low birth rate and aging population throughout the world, and semen analysis is a
      cornerstone of the diagnostic evaluation of the male contribution to infertility.
      This means that tools which can characterize sperm properties in an effective
      manner are very much needed. The conventional approaches are essentially image
      based, which have a limited value for analyzing sperm properties. Here, we show
      that an assay using nanomechanical sensors can detect sperm motility based on
      nanomotion. We use microcantilever sensors to directly characterize the
      mechanical response of the sperm based on the fluctuations of microcantilevers.
      We applied this methodology to sperms exposed to different chemical or physical
      agents. Real-time nanomechanical fluctuations showed that living sperms produced
      smaller fluctuations after treatment with inhibitory chemicals, and larger
      fluctuations after treatment with stimulatory chemicals. Our preliminary
      experiments suggest that the frequency of fluctuation is associated with sperm
      motility. This technique offers a brand-new perspective in the characterization
      of the sperm. By combining conventional measurements, reproductive medicine
      doctors and researchers should now be able to achieve unprecedented depth in the
      sperm properties.

PMID- 28890974
TI  - A nickel-phyllosilicate core-echinus catalyst via a green and base additive free
      hydrothermal approach for hydrogenation reactions.
AB  - We report a new hydrothermal and basic-additive free process for synthesizing a
      core(single-crystalline HBEA zeolite)-echinus(nickel phyllosilicate) catalyst,
      which exhibits excellent reactivity and stability for hydrogenation reactions.
      Desilication and dealumination processes generate substantial SiO32- ions and
      exposed Si-OH groups to form nickel phyllosilicate on the external and internal
      surfaces of zeolite.

PMID- 28890973
TI  - Highly dispersed ultra-small Pd nanoparticles on gadolinium hydroxide nanorods
      for efficient hydrogenation reactions.
AB  - Heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation reactions are of great importance to the
      petrochemical industry and fine chemical synthesis. Herein, we present the first
      example of gadolinium hydroxide (Gd(OH)3) nanorods as a support for loading ultra
      small Pd nanoparticles for hydrogenation reactions. Gd(OH)3 possesses a large
      number of hydroxyl groups on the surface, which act as an ideal support for good
      dispersion of Pd nanoparticles. Gd(OH)3 nanorods are prepared by hydrothermal
      treatment, and Pd/Gd(OH)3 catalyst with a low loading of 0.95 wt% Pd is obtained
      by photochemical deposition. The catalytic hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol (4-NP)
      to p-aminophenol (4-AP) and styrene to ethylbenzene is performed as a model
      reaction. The obtained Pd/Gd(OH)3 catalyst displays excellent activity as
      compared to other reported heterogeneous catalysts. The rate constant of 4-NP
      reduction is measured to be 0.047 s-1 and the Pd/Gd(OH)3 nanocatalyst shows no
      marked loss of activity even after 10 consecutive cycles. Additionally, the
      hydrogenation of styrene to ethylbenzene over Pd/Gd(OH)3 nanorods exhibits a
      turnover frequency (TOF) as high as 6159 h-1 with 100% selectivity. Moreover, the
      catalyst can be recovered by centrifugation and recycled for up to 5 consecutive
      cycles without obvious loss of activity. Our results indicate that Gd(OH)3
      nanorods act as a promoter to enhance the catalytic activity by providing a
      synergistic effect from the strong metal support interaction and the large
      surface area for high dispersion of small sized Pd nanoparticles enriched with
      hydroxyl groups on the surface. The high performance of Pd/Gd(OH)3 in
      heterogeneous catalysis offers a new, efficient and facile strategy to explore
      other metal hydroxides or oxides as supports for organic transformations.

PMID- 28890975
TI  - Thiol-ene/oxidation tandem reaction under visible light photocatalysis: synthesis
      of alkyl sulfoxides.
AB  - The photocatalyzed synthesis of sulfoxides from alkenes and thiols has been
      carried out using Eosin Y. This is a metal-free method which uses a low catalyst
      loading, atmospheric oxygen as the oxidant, and visible light conditions (green
      light). A mechanism has been proposed that is consistent with the experimental
      results.

PMID- 28890976
TI  - Fabrication of planarly-oriented polycrystalline thin films of smectic liquid
      crystalline organic semiconductors.
AB  - Fabrication of planarly-oriented polycrystalline thin films of organic
      semiconductors was investigated, in which molecules sit parallel, i.e., "face-on"
      on the substrate so as to allow vertical charge transport favorably through a
      thin film. With the aid of self-organization of liquid crystalline molecules and
      an over-coated orientation layer, tens of nm thin films vertically oriented can
      be re-oriented from "hemeotropic, or vertical" to "homogenous or planar" to
      achieve polycrystalline thin films planarly oriented after removing the over
      coated orientation layer. We investigated the key factors to affect re
      orientation of the films and uniformity and surface morphology of the resulting
      films, including conditions required for the re-orientation and properties of the
      orientation layer materials and liquid crystals.

PMID- 28890977
TI  - Correction: Enzyme-responsive reporter molecules for selective localization and
      fluorescence imaging of pathogenic biofilms.
AB  - Correction for 'Enzyme-responsive reporter molecules for selective localization
      and fluorescence imaging of pathogenic biofilms' by Junxin Aw et al., Chem.
      Commun., 2017, 53, 3330-3333.

PMID- 28890978
TI  - Site-selective tagging of proteins by pnictogen-mediated self-assembly.
AB  - Site-selective chemical protein modification is achieved by self-assembly of a
      specific di-cysteine motif, trivalent pnictogens (As, Sb or Bi) and an aromatic
      mercaptomethyl-based probe. The strategy is demonstrated with a quaternary
      complex involving Zika virus protease and a lanthanide ion, enabling paramagnetic
      nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and luminescence measurements.

PMID- 28890979
TI  - A novel assessment of the role of the methyl radical and water formation channel
      in the CH3OH + H reaction.
AB  - A number of experimental and theoretical papers accounted almost exclusively for
      two channels in the reaction of atomic hydrogen with methanol: H-abstraction from
      the methyl (R1) and hydroxyl (R2) functional groups. Recently, several
      astrochemical studies claimed the importance of another channel for this
      reaction, which is crucial for kinetic simulations related to the abundance of
      molecular constituents in planetary atmospheres: methyl radical and water
      formation (R3 channel). Here, motivated by the lack of and uncertainties about
      the experimental and theoretical kinetic rate constants for the third channel, we
      developed first-principles Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics thermalized at two
      significant temperatures - 300 and 2500 K. Furthermore, the kinetic rate constant
      of all three channels was calculated using a high-level deformed-transition state
      theory (d-TST) at a benchmark electronic structure level. d-TST is shown to be
      suitable for describing the overall rate constant for the CH3OH + H reaction (an
      archetype of the moderate tunnelling regime) with the precision required for
      practical applications. Considering the experimental ratios at 1000 K, kR1/kR2 ~
      0.84 and kR1/kR3 ~ 15-40, we provided a better estimate when compared with
      previous theoretical work: 7.47 and 637, respectively. The combination of these
      procedures explicitly demonstrates the role of the third channel in a significant
      range of temperatures and indicates its importance considering the thermodynamic
      control to estimate methyl radical and water formation. We expect that these
      results can help to shed new light on the fundamental kinetic rate equations for
      the CH3OH + H reaction.

PMID- 28890980
TI  - Fast and accurate prediction of proton affinities: revisiting the extended
      Koopmans' theorem for protons.
AB  - In this work we propose schemes based on the extended Koopmans' theorem for
      quantum nuclei (eKT), in the framework of the any particle molecular orbital
      approach (APMO/KT), for the quantitative prediction of gas phase proton
      affinities (PAs). The performance of these schemes has been tested on a set of
      300 organic molecules containing diverse functional groups. The APMO/KT scheme
      scaled by functional group (APMO/KT-SC-FG) displays an overall mean absolute
      error of 1.1 kcal mol-1 with respect to experimental data. Its performance in PA
      calculations is similar to that of post-Hartree-Fock composite methods or that of
      the APMO second order proton propagator (APMO/PP2) approach. The APMO/KT-SC-FG
      scheme is also employed to predict PAs of polyfunctional molecules such as the
      Nerve Agent VX and the 20 common alpha-amino acids, finding excellent agreement
      with available theoretical and/or experimental data. The accuracy of the
      predictions demonstrates that the APMO/KT-SC-FG scheme is a low-cost alternative
      to adiabatic methods for the calculation of accurate PAs. One of the most
      appealing features of the APMO/KT-SC-FG scheme, is that PAs can be derived from
      one single-point APMO Hartree-Fock calculation.

PMID- 28890981
TI  - Lipidated polymers for the stabilization of cubosomes: nanostructured drug
      delivery vehicles.
AB  - Lipidated polymers, like their protein counterparts, may be useful in fields as
      diverse as biochemistry and drug delivery. As such, strategies for preparing
      lipidated polymers with defined molecular architecture are clearly warranted.
      Herein, we describe a broadly-applicable methodology for synthesizing such
      lipidated materials, and demonstrate how they can be applied to the preparation
      of nanostructured drug delivery vehicles.

PMID- 28890982
TI  - The solution-phase process of a g-C3N4/BiVO4 dyad to a large-area photoanode:
      interfacial synergy for highly efficient water oxidation.
AB  - The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the rate-limiting process for water
      splitting, and highly efficient large-area OER photoanodes have been considered
      as an essential part in photoelectrochemical water splitting reactors. The high
      hole-electron separation efficiency of photoanodes is highly required for real
      applications of photoanodes in sufficiently harvesting solar energy. Herein we
      show that the inactive g-C3N4 nanolayers can be self-assembled with BiVO4 into a
      highly coupled BV/CN dyad to significantly enhance the charge separation
      efficiency of BiVO4 photoelectrodes for the OER. The incident photon-to-current
      conversion efficiency (IPCE) of visible light (400 nm) provided by the scalable
      BV/CN-5 photoanode was estimated to be 50% at 1.23 V vs. RHE in 0.5 M Na2SO4
      solution and significantly increased to 97% at a bias voltage of 1.6 V vs. RHE.

PMID- 28890983
TI  - van der Waals epitaxial two-dimensional CdSxSe(1-x) semiconductor alloys with
      tunable-composition and application to flexible optoelectronics.
AB  - Despite the substantial progress in the development of two-dimensional (2D)
      materials from conventional layered crystals, it still remains particularly
      challenging to produce high-quality 2D non-layered semiconductor alloys which may
      bring in some unique properties and new functions. In this work, the synthesis of
      well-oriented 2D non-layered CdSxSe(1-x) semiconductor alloy flakes with tunable
      compositions and optical properties is established. Structural analysis reveals
      that the 2D non-layered alloys follow an incommensurate van der Waals epitaxial
      growth pattern. Photoluminescence measurements show that the 2D alloys have
      composition-dependent direct bandgaps with the emission peak varying from 1.8 eV
      to 2.3 eV, coinciding well with the density functional theory calculations.
      Furthermore, photodetectors based on the CdSxSe(1-x) flakes exhibit a high
      photoresponsivity of 703 A W-1 with an external quantum efficiency of 1.94 * 103
      and a response time of 39 ms. Flexible devices fabricated on a thin mica
      substrate display good mechanical stability upon repeated bending. This work
      suggests a facile and general method to produce high-quality 2D non-layered
      semiconductor alloys for next-generation optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28890984
TI  - Correction: Elucidation of transport mechanism and enhanced alkali ion
      transference numbers in mixed alkali metal-organic ionic molten salts.
AB  - Correction for 'Elucidation of transport mechanism and enhanced alkali ion
      transference numbers in mixed alkali metal-organic ionic molten salts' by
      Fangfang Chen et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 19336-19344.

PMID- 28890985
TI  - Size-dependent abnormal thermo-enhanced luminescence of ytterbium-doped
      nanoparticles.
AB  - Thermal quenching above 300 K is widely expected in photoluminescence.
      Luminescence quenching is usually ascribed to the non-radiative relaxation of
      excited electrons to the ground state of the activators, during which a high
      temperature always plays a role in pushing the excited electrons towards the
      quenching channels, leading to thermal quenching. For the lanthanide-doped
      nanoparticles, however, there is a special luminescence quenching channel that
      does not exist in their bulk counterparts, i.e., energy migration-induced surface
      quenching. Herein, a size-dependent abnormal thermal enhancement of luminescence
      in the temperature range of 300 K to 423 K in the ytterbium-doped fluoride
      nanoparticles is presented for the first time. Importantly, in this work, we
      originally demonstrate that the energy migration-induced surface quenching can be
      suppressed by increasing temperature, which results in the abnormal thermal
      enhancement of luminescence. According to the temperature-dependent X-ray
      diffraction and lifetime analyses, an underlying mechanism based on the effect of
      thermal lattice expansion on ytterbium-mediated energy migration is proposed.
      This new finding adds new insights to the size effect on the luminescent
      characteristics of nanoparticles, which could be utilized to construct some
      unique nanostructures, especially for many important temperature-related
      purposes, such as thermal sensing technology.

PMID- 28890986
TI  - A (001) dominated conjugated polymer with high-performance of hydrogen evolution
      under solar light irradiation.
AB  - A two-dimensional imide-based conjugated polymer with a preferred (001)
      orientation was constructed by solvent-induced assembly. A high performance of
      1640 MUmol h-1 g-1 for solar-driven photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and an
      excellent stability were achieved due to tunnelling charge transport between the
      neighbouring molecular sheets.

PMID- 28890987
TI  - Impact of Patient-Specific Inflow Velocity Profile on Hemodynamics of the
      Thoracic Aorta.
AB  - Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides a noninvasive method to functionally
      assess aortic hemodynamics. The thoracic aorta has an anatomically complex inlet
      comprising of the aortic valve and root, which is highly prone to different
      morphologies and pathologies. We investigated the effect of using patient
      specific (PS) inflow velocity profiles compared to idealized profiles based on
      the patient's flow waveform. A healthy 31 yo with a normally functioning
      tricuspid aortic valve (subject A), and a 52 yo with a bicuspid aortic valve
      (BAV), aortic valvular stenosis, and dilated ascending aorta (subject B) were
      studied. Subjects underwent MR angiography to image and reconstruct three
      dimensional (3D) geometric models of the thoracic aorta. Flow-magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI) was acquired above the aortic valve and used to extract the patient
      specific velocity profiles. Subject B's eccentric asymmetrical inflow profile led
      to highly complex velocity patterns, which were not replicated by the idealized
      velocity profiles. Despite having identical flow rates, the idealized inflow
      profiles displayed significantly different peak and radial velocities. Subject
      A's results showed some similarity between PS and parabolic inflow profiles;
      however, other parameters such as Flowasymmetry were significantly different.
      Idealized inflow velocity profiles significantly alter velocity patterns and
      produce inaccurate hemodynamic assessments in the thoracic aorta. The complex
      structure of the aortic valve and its predisposition to pathological change means
      the inflow into the thoracic aorta can be highly variable. CFD analysis of the
      thoracic aorta needs to utilize fully PS inflow boundary conditions in order to
      produce truly meaningful results.

PMID- 28890988
TI  - The changing landscape of dermatology practice: melanoma and pump-probe laser
      microscopy.
AB  - To present current melanoma diagnosis, staging, prognosis, and treatment
      algorithms and how recent advances in laser pump-probe microscopy will fill in
      the gaps in our clinical understanding. Expert opinion and significantly cited
      articles identified in SCOPUS were used in conjunction with a pubmed database
      search on Melanoma practice guidelines from the last 10 years. Significant
      advances in melanoma treatment have been made over the last decade. However,
      proper treatment algorithm and prognostic information per melanoma stage remain
      controversial. The next step for providers will involve the identification of
      patient population(s) that can benefit from recent advances. One method of
      identifying potential patients is through new laser imaging techniques. Pump
      probe laser microscopy has been shown to correctly identify nevi from melanoma
      and furthermore stratify melanoma by aggressiveness. The recent development of
      effective adjuvant therapies for melanoma is promising and should be utilized on
      appropriate patient populations that can potentially be identified using pump
      probe laser microscopy.

PMID- 28890990
TI  - Child with Allergies or Allergic Reactions.
AB  - Incidence of allergic disorders in children has increased significantly over time
      due to environmental and life-style changes. These include allergic rhinitis,
      atopic dermatitis, allergic conjunctivitis, food allergies, bronchial asthma,
      drug allergies, insect bites and anaphylaxis; most being IgE-mediated type 1
      hypersensitivity reactions to common environmental and food antigens. Although
      most of them are self-limiting, they may adversely affect the quality of life and
      sometimes become life-threatening as well. These conditions are more likely to
      get underestimated, or over-diagnosed as recurrent infections. Hence a careful
      history and physical examination by attending pediatrician are necessary to
      differentiate it from infections. Diagnostic tests have limited value in
      identifying the inciting allergen. Management includes avoidance of the inciting
      allergens (if known), combined with symptomatic relief provided by a combination
      of pharmacological agents, e.g., antihistamines, anticholinergics, chromones,
      leukotriene-modifying agents, topical and systemic steroids. Further, specialist
      consultation needs to be sought, for children with recurrent or persistent
      symptoms. The scope of this manuscript does not include bronchial asthma.

PMID- 28890989
TI  - Association between maternal nonresponsive feeding practice and child's eating
      behavior and weight status: children aged 1 to 6 years.
AB  - : The purposes of this study are to investigate the prevalence of nonresponsive
      feeding practice (NRFP) and child's eating behavior (CEB) and to explore the
      hypothetical association between child's weight status, NRFP and CEB for 1- to 6
      year-old children. In this study, 2423 caregivers of 1- to 6-year-old children
      are from the Nanjing Maternal and Child Health Hospital who completed the self
      report questionnaires about their NRFP and CEB as well as their children's
      sociodemographic data. Chi-square test and multiple regression analyses were used
      to examine the correlation between child's weight status and NRFP and CEB. The
      total prevalence of overweight and obesity was 15.2 and 7.3%, respectively. High
      prevalence of CEB problems and NRFP was detected at 2- and 5-year-old children.
      Moreover, maternal NRFP was significantly positively associated with CEB. The
      regression and correlation analysis revealed CEB and maternal NRFP are closely
      associated with BMI. For instance, refusing new food (OR = 3.57, 95%CI, 1.37
      9.33, 1.5-year-old) and restriction (OR = 3.01, 95%CI, 1.34-6.76) are likely to
      be associated with underweight. Preferring junk food (OR = 4.892, 95%CI, 1.71
      14.01, 1-year-old) and inattention (OR = 2.24, 95%CI, 1.16-4.35, 1-year-old) are
      prone to be overweight and obese, and pressure (OR = 0.23, 95%CI, 0.06-0.91, 1
      year-old) is less likely to be associated with underweight. CONCLUSION: The
      findings provide strong evidence for the correlation between NRFR and CEB, and
      this indicates that prevention and intervention of unhealthy weight should start
      in early life. However, further research is necessary to gain an understanding of
      the impact of NRFP on CEB and weight. What is known: * Responsive feeding
      practice is crucial to the formation of eating behavior, and poor practice is
      associated with the current epidemics of childhood obesity and underweight. What
      is new: * The findings provide a strong evidence for the correlation between NRFR
      and CEB. * This finding indicates that NRFR and CEB are associated with child's
      unhealthy weight.

PMID- 28890991
TI  - Comments on: "Population Pharmacokinetic Modeling of Olmesartan, the Active
      Metabolite of Olmesartan Medoxomil, in Patients with Hypertension".

PMID- 28890992
TI  - Performance of five plant species in removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from an
      experimental phytoremediation system in the Ningxia irrigation area.
AB  - Agricultural non-point source (ANPS) pollution is an important contributor to
      elevated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in surface waters, which can cause
      serious environmental problems. Considerable effort has therefore gone into the
      development of methods that control the ANPS input of N and P to surface waters.
      Phytoremediation has been extensively used because it is cost-effective,
      environmentally friendly, and efficient. The N and P loads from agricultural
      drainage are a potential threat to the water quality of the Yellow River in
      Ningxia, China. Yet, phytoremediation has only rarely been applied within the
      Ningxia irrigation area. In an experimental set-up, five species (Ipomoea
      aquatica, IA; Lactuca sativa, LS; Oryza sativa, OS; Typha latifolia, TL; Zizania
      latifolia, ZL) were evaluated for their ability to reduce N and P loads over 62
      days and five observation periods. Total N and P concentrations, plant biomass,
      and nutrient content were measured. The results showed that OS, LS, and IA
      performed better than ZL and TL in terms of nutrients removal, biomass
      accumulation, and nutrients storage. The highest overall removal rates of N and P
      (57.7 and 57.3%, respectively) were achieved by LS treatment. In addition, plant
      uptake contributed significantly to nutrient removal, causing a 25.9-72.0%
      reduction in N removal and a 54.3-86.5% reduction in P removal. Thus, this study
      suggests that OS, LS, and IA would be more suitable than ZL and TL for
      controlling nutrient loads in the Ningxia irrigation area using phytoremediation.

PMID- 28890994
TI  - Transcription of mcrA Gene Decreases Upon Prolonged Non-flooding Period in a
      Methanogenic Archaeal Community of a Paddy-Upland Rotational Field Soil.
AB  - Methanogenic archaea survive under aerated soil conditions in paddy fields, and
      their community is stable under these conditions. Changes in the abundance and
      composition of an active community of methanogenic archaea were assessed by
      analyzing mcrA gene (encoding alpha subunit of methyl-coenzyme M reductase) and
      transcripts during a prolonged drained period in a paddy-upland rotational field.
      Paddy rice (Oryza sativa L.) was planted in the flooded field and rotated with
      soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) under upland soil conditions. Soil samples were
      collected from the rotational plot in the first year, with paddy rice, and in the
      two successive years, with soybean, at six time points, before seeding, during
      cultivation, and after harvest as well as from a consecutive paddy (control)
      plot. By the time that soybean was grown in the second year, the methanogenic
      archaeal community in the rotational plot maintained high mcrA transcript levels,
      comparable with those of the control plot community, but the levels drastically
      decreased by over three orders of magnitude after 2 years of upland conversion.
      The composition of active methanogenic archaeal communities that survived upland
      conversion in the rotational plot was similar to that of the active community in
      the control plot. These results revealed that mcrA gene transcription of
      methanogenic archaeal community in the rotational field was affected by a
      prolonged non-flooding period, longer than 1 year, indicating that unknown
      mechanisms maintain the stability of methanogenic archaeal community in paddy
      fields last up to 1 year after the onset of drainage.

PMID- 28890993
TI  - Chemotherapy in NETs: When and how.
AB  - The majority of neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are well-differentiated tumours
      that follow an indolent course, in contrast to a minority of poorly
      differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) which exhibit an aggressive
      course and assocaited with an overall short survival. Although surgery is the
      only curative treatment for NETs it is not always feasible,necessitating the
      application of other therapies including chemotherapy. Streptozotocin (STZ)-based
      regimens have long been used for advanced or metastatic well-to-moderately
      differentiated (G1-G2) NETs, especially those originating from the pancreas
      (pNETs). In poorly differentiated grade 3 (G3) tumours, platinum-based
      chemotherapy is recommended as first-line therapy, albeit without durable
      responses. Although data for temozolomide (TMZ)-based chemotherapy are still
      evolving, this treatment may replace STZ-based regimens in pNETs due to its
      better tolerability and side effect profile. In addition, there is evidence that
      TMZ could also be used in the subgroup of well-differentiated G3 NETs. There is
      less clear-cut evidence of a benefit for chemotherapy in intestinal NETs, but
      still evolving data suggest that TMZ may be efficacious in particular patients.
      In lung and thymic carcinoids, chemotherapy is reserved for patients with
      progressive metastatic disease in whom other treatment options are unavailable.
      Overall, chemotherapy is indicated in patients who have progressed on first-line
      treatment with somatostatin analogues, have extensive tumour load or exhibit
      rapid growth following a period of follow-up, and/or have a high proliferative
      rate; it may occasionally can be used in a neo-adjuvant setting. Prospective
      randomised studies are awaited to substantiate the role of chemotherapy in the
      therapeutic algorithm of NETs along with other evolving treatments.

PMID- 28890995
TI  - Resistance of aerobic microorganisms and soil enzyme response to soil
      contamination with Ekodiesel Ultra fuel.
AB  - This study determined the susceptibility of cultured soil microorganisms to the
      effects of Ekodiesel Ultra fuel (DO), to the enzymatic activity of soil and to
      soil contamination with PAHs. Studies into the effects of any type of oil
      products on reactions taking place in soil are necessary as particular fuels not
      only differ in the chemical composition of oil products but also in the
      composition of various fuel improvers and antimicrobial fuel additives. The
      subjects of the study included loamy sand and sandy loam which, in their natural
      state, have been classified into the soil subtype 3.1.1 Endocalcaric Cambisols.
      The soil was contaminated with the DO in amounts of 0, 5 and 10 cm3 kg-1.
      Differences were noted in the resistance of particular groups or genera of
      microorganisms to DO contamination in loamy sand (LS) and sandy loam (SL). In
      loamy sand and sandy loam, the most resistant microorganisms were oligotrophic
      spore-forming bacteria. The resistance of microorganisms to DO contamination was
      greater in LS than in SL. It decreased with the duration of exposure of
      microorganisms to the effects of DO. The factor of impact (IFDO) on the activity
      of particular enzymes varied. For dehydrogenases, urease, arylsulphatase and beta
      glucosidase, it had negative values, while for catalase, it had positive values
      and was close to 0 for acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase. However, in
      both soils, the noted index of biochemical activity of soil (BA) decreased with
      the increase in DO contamination. In addition, a positive correlation occurred
      between the degree of soil contamination and its PAH content.

PMID- 28890997
TI  - 18F-FDG PET/CT of extensive rheumatoid nodulosis.

PMID- 28890996
TI  - Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccination at birth and in vitro cytokine responses to
      non-specific stimulation. A randomized clinical trial.
AB  - Several studies have shown increased in vitro cytokine responses to non-related
      pathogens after Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination. A total of 158
      infants (80 BCG administered within 7 days of birth; 78 controls) were bled 4
      days post-randomization, and at age 3 and 13 months. Geometric mean
      concentrations of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6 (24 h stimulation) and IFN-gamma, IL
      10, IL-17, IL-22 (96 h stimulation) in response to in vitro stimulation with
      RPMI, LPS, PHA, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Candida albicans and
      BCG were compared among BCG vaccinated children and controls. BCG vaccination did
      not affect in vitro cytokine production, except IFN-gamma and IL-22 response to
      BCG. Stratifying for 'age at randomization' we found a potentiating effect of BCG
      on cytokine production (TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-10) in the 4 days post randomization
      stimulations, among children who were vaccinated at age 2-7 days versus age 0-1
      days. BCG vaccination did not potentiate cytokine production to non-BCG antigens.
      At 4 days post randomization, BCG was associated with higher cytokine production
      in the later randomized children.

PMID- 28890998
TI  - Neurodegenerative cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers tau and amyloid beta predict
      functional, quality of life, and neuropsychological outcomes after aneurysmal
      subarachnoid hemorrhage.
AB  - Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers might be useful in predicting outcome after
      aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). It was the aim to determine whether
      tau and amyloid beta CSF concentrations predict functional, health-related
      quality of life (hrQoL), and neuropsychological outcomes after aSAH. Ventricular
      CSF was obtained from n = 24 aSAH patients at admission (D0), day 2 (D2), and day
      6 (D6). CSF total (t)Tau, phosphorylated (p)Tau(181P), and amyloid beta(1-40 and
      1-42) (Abeta40/Abeta42) levels were compared between patients with favorable and
      unfavorable functional (modified Rankin Scale (mRS)), hrQoL (Euro-Qol (EQ-5D)),
      and neuropsychological outcomes at 3 (3 m) and 12 months (12 m). Patients with
      unfavorable functional (mRS 4-6) and hrQoL outcome (EQ-5D z-score <= - 1.0) at 3
      and 12 m had higher CSF tTau/pTau and lower Abeta40/Abeta42 at D0, D2, and D6
      with varying degrees of statistical significance. In terms of predicting
      neuropsychological outcome, CSF pTau showed a statistically significant
      correlation with the z-scores of executive function (r = - 0.7486, p = 0.008),
      verbal memory (r = - 0.8101, p = 0.002), attention (r = - 0.6498, p = 0.030), and
      visuospatial functioning (r = - 0.6944, p = 0.017) at 3 m. At 12 m, CSF pTau had
      statistically significant correlations with the z-scores of verbal memory (r = -
      0.7473, p = 0.008) and visuospatial functioning (r = - 0.6678, p = 0.024). In
      conclusion, higher tTau/pTau and lower Abeta40/Abeta42 CSF levels predict
      unfavorable long-term functional and hrQoL outcomes. Neuropsychological deficits
      correlate with increased CSF tTau and pTau concentrations.

PMID- 28890999
TI  - A genome-wide association study identifies genomic loci associated with backfat
      thickness, carcass weight, and body weight in two commercial pig populations.
AB  - Growth and fatness traits are economically important in the pig industry. To
      dissect the genetic architecture of these traits in commercial pigs, we conducted
      a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for carcass weight, backfat thickness, and
      body weight in two commercial populations: Duroc * (Landrace * Yorkshire) (DLY)
      and Duroc populations. To enhance the detection power, three GWAS approaches
      including single-trait GWAS, multi-trait GWAS and meta-analysis were used in this
      study. A total of 13 suggestive loci were identified on nine chromosomes. The
      most significant locus was detected at 272.05 Mb on SSC1, and it was associated
      with backfat thickness at the first rib in the DLY population. Three genes at the
      identified loci (TBC1D1, BAAT and PHLPP1) were highlighted as functionally
      plausible candidate genes for pig growth and fatness traits. Genome-wide
      significant locus was not evidenced in this study, indicating that large
      populations are required to identify QTL with minor effects on growth and fatness
      traits in commercial pig populations, in which intensively artificial selections
      have been imposed on these traits and small genetical variances usually retain in
      these traits.

PMID- 28891000
TI  - Clinical application of modified bag-of-features coupled with hybrid neural-based
      classifier in dengue fever classification using gene expression data.
AB  - Dengue fever detection and classification have a vital role due to the recent
      outbreaks of different kinds of dengue fever. Recently, the advancement in the
      microarray technology can be employed for such classification process. Several
      studies have established that the gene selection phase takes a significant role
      in the classifier performance. Subsequently, the current study focused on
      detecting two different variations, namely, dengue fever (DF) and dengue
      hemorrhagic fever (DHF). A modified bag-of-features method has been proposed to
      select the most promising genes in the classification process. Afterward, a
      modified cuckoo search optimization algorithm has been engaged to support the
      artificial neural (ANN-MCS) to classify the unknown subjects into three different
      classes namely, DF, DHF, and another class containing convalescent and normal
      cases. The proposed method has been compared with other three well-known
      classifiers, namely, multilayer perceptron feed-forward network (MLP-FFN),
      artificial neural network (ANN) trained with cuckoo search (ANN-CS), and ANN
      trained with PSO (ANN-PSO). Experiments have been carried out with different
      number of clusters for the initial bag-of-features-based feature selection phase.
      After obtaining the reduced dataset, the hybrid ANN-MCS model has been employed
      for the classification process. The results have been compared in terms of the
      confusion matrix-based performance measuring metrics. The experimental results
      indicated a highly statistically significant improvement with the proposed
      classifier over the traditional ANN-CS model.

PMID- 28891001
TI  - Characterization of a novel botybirnavirus isolated from a phytopathogenic
      Alternaria fungus.
AB  - Alternaria fungi are important pathogens infecting a wide variety of organisms.
      Here, we report a novel double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) mycovirus named Alternaria
      botybirnavirus 1 (ABRV1) isolated from a phytopathogenic Alternaria sp. strain
      (SCFS-3) infecting a pear tree in China. ABRV1 has two dsRNA components (dsRNAs 1
      and 2) with the sizes of 6,188 and 5,903 bp, containing two putative open reading
      frames encoding two polyproteins (202 and 192 kDa, respectively). The polyprotein
      encoded by ABRV1 dsRNA1 shares 41% amino acid (aa) sequence identity with the one
      encoded by dsRNA2 (instead of dsRNA1) of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum botybirnavirus
      1 (SsBRV1). Conversely, the polyprotein encoded by ABRV1 dsRNA2 shares 46% aa
      sequence identity with the one (i.e., cap-pol fusion protein) encoded by SsBRV1
      dsRNA1. ABRV1 has isometric spherical virus particles (~40 nm in diameter),
      putatively composed of the 60-, 70- and 80-kDa structural proteins. The genomic
      organization and phylogenetic analyses revealed that ABRV1 belongs to a newly
      proposed family "Botybirnaviridae", and to our knowledge, this is the first
      report of a botybirnavirus infecting an Alternaria sp. strain.

PMID- 28891002
TI  - Fusarium equiseti LPSC 1166 and its in vitro role in the decay of Heterostachys
      ritteriana leaf litter.
AB  - The role of microorganisms in litter degradation in arid and semi-arid zones,
      where soil and water salinization is one of the main factors limiting carbon
      turnover and decay, remains obscure. Heterostachys ritteriana (Amaranthaceae), a
      halophyte shrub growing in arid environments such as "Salinas Grandes" (Cordoba,
      Argentina), appears to be the main source of organic matter in the area. Little
      is known regarding the microorganisms associated with H. ritteriana, although
      they are a potential source of enzymes such as cellulolytic ones, which might be
      important in biotechnological fields such as bioethanol production using ionic
      liquids. In the present study, by studying the microbiota growing on H.
      ritteriana leaf litter in "Salinas Grandes," we isolated the cellulolytic fungus
      Fusarium equiseti LPSC 1166, which grew and degraded leaf litter under salt
      stress. The growth of this fungus was a function of the C substrate and the
      presence of NaCl. Although in vitro the fungus used both soluble and polymeric
      compounds from H. ritteriana litter and synthesized extracellular beta-1,4
      endoglucanases, its activity was reduced by 10% NaCl. Based on these results, F.
      equiseti LPSC 1166 can be described as a halotolerant cellulolytic fungus most
      probably playing a key role in the decay of H. ritteriana leaf litter in "Salinas
      Grandes."

PMID- 28891003
TI  - Contaminant characteristics and environmental risk assessment of heavy metals in
      the paddy soils from lead (Pb)-zinc (Zn) mining areas in Guangdong Province,
      South China.
AB  - In November 2016, the total metal concentrations in nine representative locations
      in lead (Pb)-zinc (Zn) mining areas, located in Guangdong Province, South China,
      were determined experimentally by flame atomic absorption spectrometer. The
      results indicated that the paddy soils were heavily contaminated with Cd (20.25
      mg kg-1), Pb (1093.03 mg kg-1), and Zn (867.0 mg kg-1), exceeding their
      corresponding soil quality standard values and background values. According to
      the results, the mean enrichment factor levels of the studied metals decreased in
      the following order: Cd > Zn > Pb > Cu > Ni > Mn > Cr. Among these metals, Cd,
      Pb, and Zn were predominantly influenced by widespread anthropogenic activities.
      The highest concentrations of the studied metal pollutants were distributed in
      the areas surrounding the mining activity district. Multivariate statistical
      analysis indicated that the major contributing sources of the studied metals were
      metal ore mining, smelting, and processing activities. However, the composition
      of soil background was another potential source. Moreover, the assessment results
      of environment risks showed that the potential ecological risks, in decreasing
      order, were Cd > Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni > Cr > Mn. Additionally, the non-carcinogenic
      risk represented the trend of HI Pb > HI Mn > HI Zn > HI Cu , and the
      carcinogenic risk ranked as CR Cr > CR Cd > CR Ni . Among the environmental risk
      substances, Cd and Pb were the main contributors that pose ecological harm and
      health hazards through their serious pollution. Consequently, greater attention
      should be paid to this situation.

PMID- 28891004
TI  - Cerebral imaging and neurodevelopmental outcome after entero- and human
      parechovirus sepsis in young infants.
AB  - : Enterovirus (EV) and human parechovirus (HPeV) are major causes of sepsis-like
      illness in infants under 90 days of age and have been identified as neurotropic.
      Studies about acute and long-term neurodevelopment in infants with sepsis-like
      illness without the need for intensive care are few. This study investigates
      cerebral imaging and neurodevelopmental outcome following EV and HPeV infection
      in these infants. We studied infants under 90 days of age who were admitted to a
      medium care unit with proven EV- or HPeV-induced sepsis-like illness. In addition
      to standard care, we did a cerebral ultrasound and cerebral magnetic resonance
      imaging (MRI), as well as neurodevelopmental follow-up at 6 weeks and 6 months
      and Bayley Scale of Infant and Toddler Development 3rd edition (BSID-III)
      investigation at 1 year of age. Twenty-six infants, 22 with EV and 4 with HPeV,
      were analysed. No abnormalities were detected at cerebral imaging. At 1 year of
      age, two infants had a moderate delay on both the motor and cognitive scale, one
      on the cognitive scale only and three others on the gross motor scale only.
      CONCLUSION: Although our study population, especially the number of HPeV positive
      infants is small, our study shows that these infants do not seem to develop
      severe neurodevelopmental delay and neurologic sequelae more often than the
      normal Dutch population. Follow-up to school age allows for more reliable
      assessments of developmental outcome and is recommended for further studies to
      better assess outcome. What is known: * Enterovirus and Human Parechovirus
      infections are a major cause of sepsis-like illness in young infants. * After
      intensive care treatment for EV or HPeV infection, white matter abnormalities and
      neurodevelopmental delay have been described. What is new: * In our 'medium care'
      population, no abnormalities at cerebral imaging after EV- or HPeV-induced sepsis
      like illness have been found. * At 1 year of age, infants who had EV- or HPeV
      induced sepsis-like illness do not seem to develop severe neurodevelopmental
      delay and neurologic sequelae more often than the normal population.

PMID- 28891005
TI  - Evaluation of the internal oblique, external oblique, and transversus abdominalis
      muscles in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: an ultrasonographic study.
AB  - The objectives of the study are to compare abdominal muscle thickness in
      ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients with healthy subjects and determine the
      factors affecting these muscle thickness. Thirty-five male patients with a
      previous diagnosis of AS according to the Modified New York criteria and a
      control group consisting of 35 healthy male individuals were included in this
      cross-sectional and case-control study. Thicknesses of the internal oblique (IO),
      external oblique (EO), and transversus abdominalis (TrA) muscles were measured
      with ultrasound (US). AS patients were classified according to the International
      Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). There were 35 AS patients with a mean age
      of 35.17 +/- 8.05 years and 35 healthy subjects with a mean age 32.57 +/- 7.05
      years. No significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of
      abdominal muscle thicknesses (p > 0.005). When the AS patients were classified
      according to the IPAQ scores, thicknesses of the IO and TrA muscles were
      significantly lower in patients who had the low level of IPAQ scores (p < 0.05).
      In the light of our first and preliminary results, muscle thickness of the IO,
      EO, and TrA muscles were similar in AS patients to healthy subjects. However, AS
      patients who had lower level of physical activity have also reduced thickness of
      IO and TrA muscles.

PMID- 28891006
TI  - Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Bone Metastases: Incidence, Prognostic
      Significance, and Management-Single-Center Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents one of the most common
      causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with rising incidence in the USA. Bone
      metastases with HCC, in particular, have an extremely poor prognosis. We present
      prevalence, treatment, and survival of patients with bone and more specifically
      spinal metastases from HCC. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was done at a
      single tertiary care institution of patients with bone metastases from HCC
      between January 2005 and December 2015. RESULTS: Among 1017 patients with HCC, 20
      were found to have bone metastases of which 11 had spinal metastases. Seventeen
      (85%) were male, with median age of 58 years at time of HCC diagnosis. Systemic
      chemotherapy and sorafenib were used in 12 (60%) patients, and 12 (60%) received
      radiation therapy. Among patients who did not receive therapy, median survival
      was 76 days. Median survival after diagnosis of metastasis in patients on
      sorafenib and radiation were 106 and 100 days, respectively. CONCLUSION: Bone
      metastases in HCC are very rare and aggressive. Due to its rarity, optimal
      treatment strategies are not well defined. Early diagnosis is important for
      optimal therapy and improved survival.

PMID- 28891007
TI  - No free lunch in orthopedics.

PMID- 28891008
TI  - Determination of ochratoxin A in fruit juice by high-performance liquid
      chromatography after vortex-assisted emulsification microextraction based on
      solidification of floating organic drop.
AB  - A rapid, simple, and green vortex-assisted emulsification microextraction method
      based on solidification of floating organic drop was developed for the extraction
      and determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) with high-performance liquid
      chromatography. Some factors influencing the extraction efficiency of OTA such as
      the type and volume of extraction solvent, sample pH, salt concentration, vortex
      time, and sample volume were optimized. Under optimized conditions, the
      calibration curve exhibited linearity in the range of 50.0-500 ng L-1 with a
      coefficient of determination higher than 0.999. The limit of detection was 15.0
      ng L-1. The inter- and intra-assays relative standard deviations were in a range
      of 4.7-8.7%. The accuracy of the developed method was investigated through
      recovery experiments, and it was successfully used for the quantification of OTA
      in 40 samples of fruit juice.

PMID- 28891010
TI  - Effect of hydrophobicity of pharmaceuticals and personal care products for
      adsorption on activated carbon: Adsorption isotherms, kinetics and mechanism.
AB  - Adsorption of three pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), namely
      caffeine, ibuprofen and triclosan on commercial powdered activated carbon was
      examined in aqueous medium. The contaminants were chosen based on their diverse
      log Kow (octanol-water partition coefficient) viz. - 0.07 for caffeine, 3.97 for
      ibuprofen and 4.76 for triclosan to examine the role of hydrophobicity on
      adsorption process. The adsorbent characterisation was achieved using BET surface
      area, SEM, pore size distribution studies and FTIR. Influence of mass of PAC,
      contact time, solution pH and initial concentration on adsorption capacity of PAC
      was studied. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics were applied to establish the
      mechanism of adsorption. The kinetics followed pseudo-second order with
      physisorption occurring through particle diffusion. The Freundlich model fitted
      best among the isotherm models. The adsorption capacity increased in the order
      CFN < IBU < TCS which correlates with increasing hydrophobicity (log Kow),
      molecular weight and decreasing water solubility, respectively. We conclude that
      micro-pollutant hydrophobicity contributes towards adsorption on activated
      carbon.

PMID- 28891009
TI  - Aging, Osteocytes, and Mechanotransduction.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The bone is able to adapt its structure to mechanical signals
      via the bone remodeling process governed by mechanosensitive osteocytes. With
      aging, an imbalance in bone remodeling results in osteoporosis. In this review,
      we hypothesized that changes in lacunar morphology underlie the decreased bone
      mechanoresponsiveness to mechanical loading with aging. RECENT FINDINGS: Several
      studies have reported considerable variations in the shape of osteocytes and
      their lacunae with aging. Since osteocytes can sense matrix strain directly via
      their cell bodies, the variations in osteocyte morphology may cause changes in
      osteocyte mechanosensitivity. As a consequence, the load-adaptive response of
      osteocytes may change with aging, even when mechanical loading would remain
      unchanged. Though extensive quantitative data is lacking, evidence exists that
      the osteocyte lacunae are becoming smaller and more spherical with aging. Future
      dedicated studies might reveal whether these changes would affect osteocyte
      mechanosensation and the subsequent biological response, and whether this is (one
      of) the pathways involved in age-related bone loss.

PMID- 28891011
TI  - Treatment of chronic anal fissure with sacral neuromodulation: a pilot study.

PMID- 28891012
TI  - Visualization of multiple organ amyloid involvement in systemic amyloidosis using
      11C-PiB PET imaging.
AB  - PURPOSE: To investigate the utility of Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) positron
      emission tomography (PET) imaging for evaluating whole-body amyloid involvement
      in patients with systemic amyloidosis. METHODS: Whole-body 11C-PiB PET was
      performed in seven patients with systemic immunoglobulin light-chain (AL)
      amyloidosis, seven patients with hereditary transthyretin (ATTRm) amyloidosis,
      one asymptomatic TTR mutation carrier and three healthy controls. The
      correlations between clinical organ involvement, radiological 11C-PiB uptake and
      histopathological findings were analysed for each organ. RESULTS: Organ
      involvement on 11C-PiB PET imaging showed good correlations with the clinical
      findings for the heart and stomach. Abnormal tracer uptake was also observed in
      the spleen, lachrymal gland, submandibular gland, sublingual gland, lymph node,
      brain, scalp, extraocular muscles, nasal mucosa, pharynx, tongue and nuchal
      muscles, most of which were asymptomatic. Physiological tracer uptake was
      universally observed in the urinary tract (kidney, renal pelvis, ureter and
      bladder) and enterohepatic circulatory system (liver, gallbladder, bile duct and
      small intestine) in all participants. Most of the patients and one healthy
      control subject showed asymptomatic tracer uptake in the lung and parotid gland.
      The peripheral nervous system did not show any tracer uptake even in patients
      with apparent peripheral neuropathy. Histological amyloid deposition was
      confirmed in biopsied myocardium and gastric mucosa where abnormal 11C-PiB
      retention was observed. CONCLUSIONS: 11C-PiB PET imaging can be used clinically
      in the systemic evaluation of amyloid distribution in patients with AL and ATTRm
      amyloidosis. Quantitative analysis of 11C-PiB PET images may be useful in therapy
      evaluation and will reveal whether amyloid clearance is correlated with clinical
      response.

PMID- 28891014
TI  - Phosphate-arsenate relations to affect arsenic concentration in plant tissues,
      growth, and antioxidant efficiency of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under
      arsenic stress.
AB  - Relations between phosphate and arsenate are important but inconsistent to
      influence arsenic (As) phytotoxicity depending on many plant and soil factors.
      Present research aimed to investigate the phosphate and arsenate interactions in
      sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) grown in alkaline calcareous soil for 18 weeks
      under natural environmental conditions at three arsenate [0 (As0), 40 (As40), and
      80 (As80) mg As kg-1 soil as sodium arsenate] and three phosphate [0 (P0), 100
      (P100), and 200 (P200) mg P2O5 kg-1 soil as diammonium phosphate] levels. The
      plants were grown in pots according to completely randomized design with five
      replications. Ionic and physiological parameters were measured at 40 days after
      treatment completion. Arsenic contamination with As40 and As80 increased root and
      shoot As concentration with relatively higher concentration in roots,
      malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase
      (POD) while decreased plant P, chlorophyll, protein, and glutathione (GSH), and
      consequently plant growth, yield, and yield attributes. Addition of P100 and P200
      under As stress reduced As transfer from soil to roots to shoots, MDA
      concentration, SOD, CAT, and POD activities while increased GSH, leaf protein,
      chlorophyll, and growth characteristics as well as achene yield compared to As
      treated plants without additional P. In conclusion, P-induced inhibition of As
      transfer from soil to roots to shoots and reduction in MDA concentration
      accompanied with an increase in the synthesis of protein, chlorophyll, and GSH
      could be the main mechanisms responsible for lowered As toxicity in sunflower,
      leading to mitigation of potential risks of As contamination to food chain and
      human health.

PMID- 28891015
TI  - Structural, mechanical properties, and vibrational spectra of LLM-105 under high
      pressures from a first-principles study.
AB  - In this work, we report the structure, mechanical properties, and vibrational
      spectra of 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide (LLM-105), an energetic
      molecular crystal, with a first-principles method based on density functional
      theory (DFT) using the recentely developped HASEM package. The elastic constants,
      acoustic velocity, and parameters of equations of state were calculated, and the
      predicted ordering of stiffness constants is C 33 (38.5 GPa) > C 11 (24.0 GPa) >
      C 22 (17.7 GPa). We also investigated the structure and equation of state of LLM
      105 under hydrostatic pressure up to 100 GPa. The predicted structures are in
      good agreement with experimental results available from ambient pressure to 20
      GPa. Under compressions, the LLM-105 crystal exhibits anisotropic
      compressibility, with a highly incompressible response along the a-axis and c
      axis. It is worth noting that there is a sudden change in the lattice parameters
      and change rate of volume at ~30 GPa. Based on the intermolecular interaction
      analysis and vibrational spectra, a phase transition at the hydrostatic pressure
      of ~30 GPa is predicted.

PMID- 28891016
TI  - Rectal sparing approach after preoperative radio- and/or chemotherapy (RESARCH)
      in patients with rectal cancer: potential pitfalls of a multicentre observational
      study.

PMID- 28891018
TI  - Patch.

PMID- 28891017
TI  - Re-Appraisal of Estrogen Receptor Negative/Progesterone Receptor Positive (ER
      /PR+) Breast Cancer Phenotype: True Subtype or Technical Artefact?
AB  - Expression of the ER and PR receptors is routinely quantified in breast cancer as
      a predictive marker of response to hormonal therapy. Accurate determination of ER
      and PR status is critical to the optimal selection of patients for targeted
      therapy. The existence of an ER-/PR+ subtype is controversial, with debate
      centred on whether this represents a true phenotype or a technical artefact on
      immunohistochemistry (IHC). The aim of this study was to investigate the true
      incidence and clinico-pathological features of ER-/PR+ breast cancers in a
      tertiary referral symptomatic breast unit. Clinico-pathological data were
      collected on invasive breast cancers diagnosed between 1995 and 2005. IHC for ER
      and PR receptors was repeated on all cases which were ER-/PR+, with the same
      paraffin block used for the initial diagnostic testing. Concordance between the
      diagnostic and repeat IHC was determined using validated testing. Complete data,
      including ER and PR status were available for 697 patients diagnosed during the
      study period. On diagnostic IHC, the immunophenotype of the breast tumours was:
      ER+/PR+ in 396 (57%), ER-/PR- in 157 (23%), ER+/PR- in 88 (12%) and ER-/PR+ in 56
      (8.6%) patients. On repeat IHC of 48/56 ER-/PR+ tumours 45.8% were ER+/PR+, 6%
      were ER+/PR- and 43.7% were ER-/PR- None of the cases were confirmed to be ER
      /PR+. The ER-/PR+ phenotypic breast cancer is likely to be the result of
      technical artefact. Prompt reassessment of patients originally assigned to this
      subtype who re-present with symptoms should be considered to ensure appropriate
      clinical management.

PMID- 28891019
TI  - Uncivilizing "Mental Illness": Contextualizing Diverse Mental States and
      Posthuman Emotional Ecologies within The Icarus Project.
AB  - This article argues humans should not be defined strictly at their physical
      boundaries with clear distinctions between anatomical bodies, mental states, and
      the rest of the world. Rather, diverse mental states, which are often diagnosed
      as "mental illness," take shape within greater environmental forces and flows,
      including those that are constructed online. Drawing from a multi-sited
      ethnography of The Icarus Project, a radical mental health community, the author
      situates online narratives written by two of its members within posthuman
      emotional ecologies in which the exchange of ideas online affects mental states
      in a profound way. These narratives can be seen as a new type of psychiatric
      resistance based in new technologies, one that "uncivilizes" mental illness by
      searching for alternative frameworks and metaphors to understand lived
      experiences with mental distress. This ethnographic perspective differs
      significantly from traditional bio-psychiatric models and interventions and can
      offer both patients and mental healthcare providers with an alternative language
      to frame mental health.

PMID- 28891020
TI  - Trace elements in feathers and eggshells of brown booby Sula leucogaster in the
      Marine National Park of Currais Islands, Brazil.
AB  - Levels of trace elements were investigated in feathers of 51 adults and 47
      eggshells of brown boobies Sula leucogaster from one bird colony in the Marine
      National Park of Currais Islands, Brazil, between December 2013 and October 2014.
      Average concentrations (MUg g-1, dry weight) in feathers and eggshells,
      respectively, were Al 50.62-9.58, As 0.35-2.37, Cd 0.05-0.03, Co 0.38-2.1, Cu
      15.12-0.99, Fe 47.47-22.92, Mg 815.71-1116.92, Ni 0.29-11.85, and Zn 94.16-1.98.
      In both arrays, the average concentration of Mg was the highest among all the
      elements analyzed, while the lowest was recorded for Cd. As and Ni presented
      levels at which biological impacts might occur. Zn concentrations were higher
      than those considered normal in other organs. Levels of Al, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Cd
      were higher in feathers, whereas higher contents of Mg, Co, Ni, and As occurred
      in eggshells. The comparison between the elements in eggshells collected at
      different seasons showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) due, probably, to
      the lack of temporal variation on foraging behavior and/or on bioavailability of
      trace elements. Metals and arsenic in feathers and eggshells were mostly not
      correlated. Future studies on Parana coast should focus on the speciation of the
      elements, especially As, Ni, and Zn, which proved to be a possible problem for
      the environment and biota. It is necessary to investigate both matrices, shell
      and internal contents of the eggs, in order to verify if the differences
      previously reported in other studies also occur in eggs of brown boobies in the
      Marine National Park of Currais Islands.

PMID- 28891021
TI  - Anteromedial cortical support reduction in unstable pertrochanteric fractures: a
      comparison of intra-operative fluoroscopy and post-operative three dimensional
      computerised tomography reconstruction.
AB  - PURPOSE: Anteromedial cortical support reduction is favourable for secondary
      stability after limited sliding in unstable pertrochanteric fractures. The aim of
      this study was to compare the accuracy and agreement between intra-operative
      fluoroscopy and post-operative 3D reconstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A
      retrospective analysis of 28 patients (mean 81.6 years) treated with short
      cephalomedullary nails was performed. All patients had full sets of intra
      operative fluoroscopy and post-operative 3D CT images. Observation was focused on
      the position of the anteromedial cortices of the inferior corner between the head
      neck fragment and femoral shaft, and their relationship was categorised into
      three types: positive, neutral and negative. The percentage of subsequent changes
      in cortical reduction quality between fluoroscopy and 3D CT was calculated and
      compared. RESULTS: There were 24 positive (85.7%), four neutral and no negative
      positions in the anteroposterior (AP) view and one positive, 20 neutral (71.4%)
      and seven negative positions in the lateral view from fluoroscopy. On post
      operative 3D CT images with a full range of rotation, definitive anteromedial
      cortical contact (positive and neutral support) was observed in 18 cases (64.3%).
      Ten cases lost the anteromedial cortical buttress. With the posteromedial region
      of the lesser trochanter detached, a positive AP cortical position combined with
      a positive/neutral lateral position on fluoroscopy (17 cases) was highly
      predictive of reliable, definitive cortical support (15 cases, 88.2%) on 3D CT. A
      negative lateral position on fluoroscopy (seven cases), regardless of the
      combination in the AP view, was likely to predict the final loss of cortical
      support (six cases, 85.7%) on 3D CT; a positive/neutral lateral position (21
      cases) was only associated with loss of support in four cases (19.1%) (p < 0.05).
      CONCLUSIONS: A lateral negative position of the anterior cortex on fluoroscopy
      for unstable pertrochanteric fractures may be highly predictive of post-operative
      final loss of the anteromedial cortical buttress, which should be avoided during
      operation.

PMID- 28891022
TI  - Converting a Sleeve Gastrectomy to a Gastric Bypass for Weight Loss Failure-Is It
      Worth It?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is gaining popularity and has become the
      procedure of choice for many bariatric surgeons. Long-term weight loss failure is
      not uncommon. The preferred revisional procedure for these patients is still
      under debate. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the safety and
      efficacy of laparoscopic gastric bypass as a revisional surgery for sleeve
      gastrectomy patients with weight loss failure. SETTING: The study was done at a
      bariatric surgery center in a university hospital. METHODS: We reviewed our
      prospectively collected database and identified all patients who underwent
      conversion of a sleeve gastrectomy to a gastric bypass for weight loss failure.
      Data on patient demographics, baseline characteristics, and outcomes of bariatric
      surgery were retrieved. RESULTS: Twenty-three patients with a mean body mass
      index (BMI) of 41.6 kg/m2 (range 34.1-50.1 kg/m2) underwent conversion to a
      gastric bypass. Four patients underwent a gastric band prior to the sleeve
      gastrectomy, and two patients underwent a re-sleeve gastrectomy prior to
      conversion to a gastric bypass. At a mean follow-up of 24 months (range 9-46
      months), the average body mass index (BMI) decreased to 33.8 kg/m2 and the excess
      body mass index loss (EBMIL) was 42.6%. Diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and
      obstructive sleep apnea resolved or improved in 44.4, 45.5, 50, and 50% of the
      patients, respectively. Three patients developed early postop complications
      (13%), while late complications occurred in four patients (17%). CONCLUSION:
      Converting a sleeve gastrectomy to a gastric bypass for weight loss failure is
      safe, yet weight loss benefit is limited.

PMID- 28891023
TI  - Variation of mucin adhesion, cell surface characteristics, and molecular
      mechanisms among Lactobacillus plantarum isolated from different habitats.
AB  - The adhesion ability to mucin varied greatly among 18 Lactobacillus plantarum
      isolates depending on their isolation habitats. Such ability remained at high
      level even though they were sequentially exposed to the gastrointestinal (GI)
      stresses. The majority of L. plantarum isolated from shrimp intestine and about
      half of food isolates exhibited adhesion ability (51.06-55.04%) about the same as
      the well-known adhesive L. plantarum 299v. Interestingly, five infant isolates of
      CIF17A2, CIF17A4, CIF17A5, CIF17AN2, and CIF17AN8 exhibited extremely high
      adhesion ranging from 62.69 to 72.06%. Such highly adhesive property correlating
      to distinctively high cell surface hydrophobicity was significantly weaken after
      pretreatment with LiCl and guanidine-HCl confirming the entailment of protein
      moiety. Regarding the draft genome information, all molecular structures of major
      cell wall-anchored proteins involved in the adhesion based on L. plantarum WCSF1,
      including lp_0964, lp_1643, lp_3114, lp_2486, lp_3127, and lp_3059 orthologues
      were detected in all isolates. Exceptionally, the gene-trait matching between
      yeast agglutination assay and the relevant mannose-specific adhesin (lp_1229)
      encoding gene confirmed the Msa absence in five infant isolates expressed
      distinctively high adhesion. Interestingly, the predicted flagellin encoding
      genes (fliC) firstly revealed in lp_1643, lp_2486, and lp_3114 orthologues may
      potentially contribute to such highly adhesive property of these isolates.

PMID- 28891024
TI  - Resveratrol supplementation improves lipid and glucose metabolism in high-fat
      diet-fed blunt snout bream.
AB  - Here, we aimed to investigate whether resveratrol (RSV) can ameliorate high-fat
      diet (HFD)-induced metabolic disorder in fish. Blunt snout bream (Megalobrama
      amblycephala) with average weight 27.99 +/- 0.56 g were fed a normal fat diet
      (NFD, 5% fat, w/w), a HFD (11% fat), or a HFD supplemented with 0.04, 0.36, or
      1.08% RSV for 10 weeks. As expected, fish fed a HFD developed hepatic steatosis,
      as shown by elevated hepatic and plasma triglycerides, raised whole body fat,
      intraperitoneal fat ratio and hepatosomatic index, and increased plasma alanine
      aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). RSV supplementation
      lessened increases in body mass, whole body fat, and intraperitoneal fat, and
      alleviated development of hepatic steatosis, elevations of plasma triglyceride
      and glucose, and abnormalities of ALT and AST in HFD-fed fish. RSV
      supplementation increased SIRT1 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and consequently
      hepatic mRNA expression of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), carnitine
      palmitoyltransferase (CPT1a), and microsomal triglyceride transfer protein
      (MTTP), implying upregulation of lipolysis, beta-oxidation, and lipid transport,
      respectively, in the liver. Conversely, hepatic lipoprotein lipase (LPL), sterol
      regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1c), peroxisome proliferator
      activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), and ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) mRNA
      expression were decreased, implying suppression of fatty acid uptake,
      lipogenesis, and fatty acid synthesis. Additionally, RSV downregulated
      glucokinase (GCK) and sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1) and
      upregulated glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) mRNA expression, thus restoring normal
      glucose fluxes. Thus, RSV improves lipid and glucose metabolisms in blunt snout
      bream, which are potentially mediated by activation of SIRT1.

PMID- 28891025
TI  - Stability of BiFeO3 nanoparticles via microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis
      in Fenton-like process.
AB  - Stable catalysts require high catalytic efficiency and repeated consecutive use,
      low mass loss, and metal leaching. This study investigated BiFeO3 (BFO) composite
      with high stability and reusability using a one step microwave-assisted
      hydrothermal method (MAHS) to decompose bisphenol A (BPA) used as the target
      contaminant. After six consecutive reaction cycles in microwave-enhanced Fenton
      like process (MW-Fenton-like), the removal rate of BPA decreased from 94 to 87.4%
      with low metal leaching ratio and mass loss. The morphology, crystal, reaction
      kinetics, and hydroxyl radical (.OH) were used to demonstrate the high stability
      of BFO-MAHS. The results indicated that the benign stability and reusability of
      BFO-MAHS probably occurred because (1) the thermal-effect of MW improved heating
      rate, which led to the rapid formation stable cube structure and (2) MW
      mechanical vibrations existed in the preparation process, which further enhanced
      the cube structure. Therefore, MAHS could be used as a green and environmental
      friendly method to apply in catalysts synthesis, which could immensely shorten
      preparation time and enhance the catalytic performance with no waste production.

PMID- 28891026
TI  - Multitrophic interactions mediate the effects of climate change on herbivore
      abundance.
AB  - Climate change can influence the abundance of insect herbivores through direct
      and indirect mechanisms. In this study, we evaluated multitrophic drivers of
      herbivore abundance for an aphid species (Aphis helianthi) in a subalpine food
      web consisting of a host plant (Ligusticum porteri), mutualist ants and predatory
      lygus bugs (Lygus spp.). We used a model-selection approach to determine which
      climate and host plant cues best predict year-to-year variation in insect
      phenology and abundance observed over 6 years. We complemented this observational
      study with experiments that determined how elevated temperature interacts with
      (1) host plant phenology and (2) the ant-aphid mutualism to determine aphid
      abundance. We found date of snowmelt to be the best predictor of yearly abundance
      of aphid and lygus bug abundance but the direction of this effect differed.
      Aphids achieved lower abundances in early snowmelt years likely due to increased
      abundance of lygus bug predators in these years. Elevating temperature of L.
      porteri flowering stalks reduced their quality as hosts for aphid populations.
      However, warming aphid colonies on host plants of similar quality increased
      population growth rates. Importantly, this effect was apparent even in the
      absence of ants. While we observed fewer ants tending colonies at elevated
      temperatures, these colonies also had reduced numbers of lygus bug predators.
      This suggests that mutualism with ants becomes less significant as temperature
      increases, which contrasts other ant-hemipteran systems. Our observational and
      experimental results show the importance of multitrophic species interactions for
      predicting the effect of climate change on the abundances of herbivores.

PMID- 28891027
TI  - Short Term Oral Zinc Supplementation among Babies with Neonatal Sepsis for
      Reducing Mortality and Improving Outcome - A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled
      Trial.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of short term zinc supplementation on the
      mortality rate and neurodevelopment outcome in neonates with sepsis at 12 mo
      corrected age. METHODS: The clinical trial was undertaken in the neonatal
      intensive care unit of JIPMER during the time period from September 2013 through
      December 2016. Neonates with clinical manifestations of sepsis who exhibited two
      positive screening tests (microESR, C- reactive protein, band cell count) were
      included and randomized into no zinc and zinc group. The intervention was zinc
      sulfate monohydrate given at a dose of 3 mg/kg twice a day orally for 10 d along
      with standard antibiotics. The no zinc group was on antibiotic treatment. Blood
      samples from both groups were collected at baseline and after day 10. Babies were
      carefully discharged from the hospital. The babies were followed up till 12 mo
      corrected age using DASII (Development Assessment Scale for Indian Infants).
      RESULTS: At the time of enrolment, patient characteristics were similar in both
      the groups. The mortality rate was significantly higher in no zinc compared to
      zinc group (5 vs. 13; P = 0.04). Although motor development quotient was similar,
      mental development quotient was significantly better among babies who received
      zinc supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: Short term zinc supplementation of newborns
      with sepsis reduces mortality and improves mental development quotient at 12 mo
      of age.

PMID- 28891028
TI  - The use of optical coherence tomography angiography in pachychoroid spectrum
      diseases: a concurrent comparison with dye angiography.
AB  - PURPOSE: The study objective was to compare dye angiography and optical coherence
      tomography angiography (OCTA) in detecting choroidal neovascuarization (CNV) in
      patients presenting with pachychoroid features and flat irregular pigment
      epithelial detachment (PED). METHODS: Nineteen eyes of 17 patients, presenting
      with flat PED and pachychoroid features, and without age-related macular
      degeneration or any other degenerative change, were analyzed. Fuorescein
      angiography (FA)/Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) and OCTA were performed
      during the same visit. Subfoveal choroidal thickness was measured by enhanced
      depth imaging using spectral domain optical coherence tomography. RESULTS: The
      mean age of the patients was 59.1 years. Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness was
      388 MUm. FA revealed non-patognomic features including RPE alterations, window
      defects, leaking points and leakage from an undetermined source. ICGA revealed
      choroidal vascular plaque in eight eyes (42%) and suspicious plaque in five eyes
      (26%). Nonneovascular features, such as hyperpermeability or dilated choroidal
      vessels, were observed in six eyes (32%). OCTA showed choroidal
      neovascularization in 14 (74%). For all of the eyes, which ICGA was positive for
      presence of CNV, OCTA also showed CNV, and in one case it also revealed
      polypoidal characteristics of the neovascular network. OCTA was also able to
      detect CNV in all of the eyes with suspicious plaque, and in one eye without CNV
      appearance using ICGA. CONCLUSIONS: OCTA demonstrated greater sensitivity in
      detecting type 1 CNV than conventional dye angiography in cases with pachychoroid
      spectrum disease.

PMID- 28891029
TI  - New Horizons in Measurement: a Review of Novel and Innovative Approaches to
      Eating-Disorder Assessment.
AB  - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Eating disorders are serious mental-health concerns that will
      affect over 30 million individuals in the USA at some point in their lives.
      Eating disorders occur across the lifespan, in a variety of ethnicities and
      races, in both men and women, and across the socioeconomic spectrum. Given the
      prevalence and severity of eating disorders, it is important that clinicians and
      researchers have access to appropriate assessment tools to aid in the early
      identification and treatment referral, differential diagnosis, treatment
      planning, and progress monitoring, and to ensure valid research findings. In this
      review, we describe novel and innovative assessment tools that were developed
      within the past 5 years for utilization in research and/or clinical practice with
      individuals with eating disorders. RECENT FINDINGS: We identified six
      multidimensional assessments for eating disorders, all of which can be
      administered online (with some also offering paper-and-pencil versions).
      Strengths of the measures included good internal consistency, test-retest
      reliability, and convergent validity. However, in part, due to problematic scale
      construction methods, certain scales had poor discriminant validity and most were
      developed and validated in mostly female samples. There are promising new eating
      disorder measures from which to choose; however, many measures continue to be
      limited by poor discriminant validity and need additional validation prior to
      incorporation into routine research and clinical practice.

PMID- 28891031
TI  - Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Children in a Tertiary Care Hospital.

PMID- 28891030
TI  - Species differences in pancreatic binding of DO3A-VS-Cys40-Exendin4.
AB  - AIMS: Radiolabeled Exendin-4 has been proposed as suitable imaging marker for
      pancreatic beta cell mass quantification mediated by Glucagon-like peptide-1
      receptor (GLP-1R). However, noticeable species variations in basal pancreatic
      uptake as well as uptake reduction degree due to selective beta cell ablation
      were observed. METHODS: In vitro and ex vivo autoradiography studies of pancreas
      were performed using [177Lu]Lu-DO3A-VS-Cys40-Exendin4, in order to investigate
      the mechanism of uptake as well as the islet uptake contrast in mouse, rat, pig,
      and non-human primate. The autoradiography results were compared to the in vivo
      pancreatic uptake as assessed by [68Ga]Ga-DO3A-VS-Cys40-Exendin4 Positron
      Emission Tomography (PET) in the same species. In vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo
      data formed the basis for calculating the theoretical in vivo contribution of
      each pancreatic compartment. RESULTS: [177Lu]Lu-DO3A-VS-Cys40-Exendin4 displayed
      the highest islet-to-exocrine pancreas ratio (IPR) in rat (IPR 45) followed by
      non-human primate and mouse at similar levels (IPR approximately 5) while pigs
      exhibited negligible IPR (1.1). In vivo pancreas uptake was mainly GLP-1R
      mediated in all species, but the magnitude of uptake under basal physiology
      varied significantly in decreasing order: non-human primate, mouse, pig, and rat.
      The theoretical calculation of islet contribution to the total pancreatic PET
      signal predicted the in vivo observation of differences in pancreatic uptake of
      [68Ga]Ga-DO3A-VS-Cys40-Exendin4. CONCLUSIONS: IPR as well as the exocrine GLP-1R
      density is the main determinants of the species variability in pancreatic uptake.
      Thus, the IPR in human is an important factor for assessing the potential of GLP
      1R as an imaging biomarker for pancreatic beta cells.

PMID- 28891032
TI  - The need for unique risk adjustment for surgical site infections at a high
      volume, tertiary care center with inherent high-risk colorectal procedures.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to create a unique risk adjustment
      model for surgical site infection (SSI) in patients who underwent colorectal
      surgery (CRS) at the Cleveland Clinic (CC) with inherent high risk factors by
      using a nationwide database. METHODS: The American College of Surgeons National
      Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was queried to identify patients
      who underwent CRS between 2005 and 2010. Initially, CC cases were identified from
      all NSQIP data according to case identifier and separated from the other NSQIP
      centers. Demographics, comorbidities, and outcomes were compared. Logistic
      regression analyses were used to assess the association between SSI and center
      related factors. RESULTS: A total of 70,536 patients met the inclusion criteria
      and underwent CRS, 1090 patients (1.5%) at the CC and 69,446 patients (98.5%) at
      other centers. Male gender, work-relative value unit, diagnosis of inflammatory
      bowel disease, pouch formation, open surgery, steroid use, and preoperative
      radiotherapy rates were significantly higher in the CC cases. Overall morbidity
      and individual postoperative complication rates were found to be similar in the
      CC and other centers except for the following: organ-space SSI and sepsis rates
      (higher in the CC cases); and pneumonia and ventilator dependency rates (higher
      in the other centers). After covariate adjustment, the estimated degree of
      difference between the CC and other institutions with respect to organ-space SSI
      was reduced (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.08-1.77). CONCLUSIONS: The unique risk adjustment
      strategy may provide center-specific comprehensive analysis, especially for
      hospitals that perform inherently high-risk procedures. Higher surgical
      complexity may be the reason for increased SSI rates in the NSQIP at tertiary
      care centers.

PMID- 28891033
TI  - Targeted alpha therapy of mCRPC: Dosimetry estimate of 213Bismuth-PSMA-617.
AB  - PURPOSE: PSMA-617 is a small molecule targeting the prostate-specific membrane
      antigen (PSMA). In this work, we estimate the radiation dosimetry for this ligand
      labeled with the alpha-emitter 213Bi. METHODS: Three patients with metastatic
      prostate cancer underwent PET scans 0.1 h, 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h and 5 h after
      injection of 68Ga-PSMA-617. Source organs were kidneys, liver, spleen, salivary
      glands, bladder, red marrow and representative tumor lesions. The imaging nuclide
      68Ga was extrapolated to the half-life of 213Bi. The residence times of 213Bi
      were forwarded to the instable daughter nuclides. OLINDA was used for dosimetry
      calculation. Results are discussed in comparison to literature data for 225Ac
      PSMA-617. RESULTS: Assuming a relative biological effectiveness of 5 for alpha
      radiation, the dosimetry estimate revealed equivalent doses of mean 8.1 Sv
      RBE5/GBq for salivary glands, 8.1 Sv RBE5/GBq for kidneys and 0.52 Sv RBE5/GBq
      for red marrow. Liver (1.2 Sv RBE5/GBq), spleen (1.4 Sv RBE5/GBq), bladder (0.28
      Sv RBE5/GBq) and other organs (0.26 SvRBE5/GBq) were not dose-limiting. The
      effective dose is 0.56 Sv RBE5/GBq. Tumor lesions were in the range 3.2-9.0
      SvRBE5/GBq (median 7.6 SvRBE5/GBq). Kidneys would limit the cumulative treatment
      activity to 3.7 GBq; red marrow might limit the maximum single fraction to 2 GBq.
      Despite promising results, the therapeutic index was inferior compared to 225Ac
      PSMA-617. CONCLUSIONS: Dosimetry of 213Bi-PSMA-617 is in a range traditionally
      considered reasonable for clinical application. Nevertheless, compared to 225Ac
      PSMA-617, it suffers from higher perfusion-dependent off-target radiation and a
      longer biological half-life of PSMA-617 in dose-limiting organs than the physical
      half-life of 213Bi, rendering this nuclide as a second choice radiolabel for
      targeted alpha therapy of prostate cancer.

PMID- 28891036
TI  - Acne Scars: How Do We Grade Them?
AB  - Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that can lead to permanent
      scarring. Although grading scales exist for acne scarring, there are many
      limitations, and there is still a need for a well validated gold standard scale
      for use in clinical practice or research trials. An objective measure of scar
      severity should be a component of global acne severity evaluations. This
      manuscript reviews currently available acne scar grading modalities: lesion
      counting; subjective self-assessment; Acne Scar Rating Scale (ASRS); evaluator
      based qualitative and quantitative scarring grading systems; Echelle d'Evaluation
      Clinique des Cicatrices d'acne (ECCA); Global Scale for Acne Scar Severity (SCAR
      S); and imaging. Despite the varying tools, most of the currently available
      scales do not account for scar color, depth, or change over time. A new,
      validated scale is needed that would allow for a more objective and accurate
      assessment of scar progression over time to assist with effective treatment and
      research.

PMID- 28891034
TI  - RHEB1 insufficiency in aged male mice is associated with stress-induced seizures.
AB  - The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), a protein kinase, is a central
      regulator of mammalian metabolism and physiology. Protein mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1)
      functions as a major sensor for the nutrient, energy, and redox state of a cell
      and is activated by ras homolog enriched in brain (RHEB1), a GTP-binding protein.
      Increased activation of mTORC1 pathway has been associated with developmental
      abnormalities, certain form of epilepsy (tuberous sclerosis), and cancer.
      Clinically, those mTOR-related disorders are treated with the mTOR inhibitor
      rapamycin and its rapalogs. Because the effects of chronic interference with mTOR
      signaling in the aged brain are yet unknown, we used a genetic strategy to
      interfere with mTORC1 signaling selectively by introducing mutations of Rheb1
      into the mouse. We created conventional knockout (Rheb1 +/- ) and gene trap
      (Rheb1 Delta/+ ) mutant mouse lines. Rheb1-insufficient mice with different
      combinations of mutant alleles were monitored over a time span of 2 years. The
      mice did not show any behavioral/neurological changes during the first 18 months
      of age. However, after aging (> 18 months of age), both the Rheb1 +/- and Rheb1
      Delta /- hybrid males developed rare stress-induced seizures, whereas Rheb1 +/-
      and Rheb1 Delta /- females and Rheb1 Delta/+ and Rheb1 Delta/Delta mice of both
      genders did not show any abnormality. Our findings suggest that chronic
      intervention with mTORC1 signaling in the aged brain might be associated with
      major adverse events.

PMID- 28891035
TI  - Equal treatment: no evidence of gender inequity in osteoporosis management in a
      coordinator-based fragility fracture screening program.
AB  - : We evaluated gender imbalance in osteoporosis management in a provincial
      coordinator-based fracture prevention program and found no difference by gender
      in treatment of high-risk fragility fracture patients. This establishes that a
      systemic approach with interventions for all fragility fracture patients can
      eliminate the gender inequity that is often observed. INRODUCTION: The purpose of
      this study was to evaluate an Ontario-based fracture prevention program for its
      ability to address the well-documented gender imbalance in osteoporosis (OP)
      management, by incorporating its integrated fracture risk assessments within a
      needs-based evaluation of equity. METHODS: Fragility fracture patients (>= 50
      years) who were treatment naive at screening and completed follow-up within 6
      months of screening were studied. Patients who underwent bone mineral density
      (BMD) testing done in the year prior to their current fracture were excluded. All
      participants had BMD testing conducted through the Ontario OP Strategy Fracture
      Screening and Prevention program, thus providing us with fracture risk assessment
      data. Our primary study outcome was treatment initiation at follow-up within 6
      months of screening. Gender differences were compared using Fisher's exact test,
      at p < 0.05. RESULTS: After adjusting for subsequent fracture risk, study
      participants did not show a statistically significant gender difference in
      pharmacotherapy initiation at follow-up (p > 0.05). 68.4% of women and 66.2% of
      men at high risk were treated within 6 months of screening. CONCLUSION: Needs
      based analyses show no difference by gender in treatment of high-risk fragility
      fracture patients. An intensive coordinator-based fracture prevention model
      adopted in Ontario, Canada was not associated with gender inequity in OP
      treatment of fragility fracture patients after fracture risk adjustment.

PMID- 28891037
TI  - Analytical insight into degradation processes of aminopolyphosphonates as
      potential factors that induce cyanobacterial blooms.
AB  - Aminopolyphosphonates (AAPs) are commonly used industrial complexones of metal
      ions, which upon the action of biotic and abiotic factors undergo a breakdown and
      release their substructures. Despite the low toxicity of AAPs towards
      vertebrates, products of their transformations, especially those that contain
      phosphorus and nitrogen, can affect algal communities. To verify whether such
      chemical entities are present in water ecosystems, much effort has been made in
      developing fast, inexpensive, and reliable methods for analyzing phosphonates.
      However, unfortunately, the methods described thus far require time-consuming
      sample pretreatment and offer relatively high values of the limit of detection
      (LOD). The aim of this study was to develop an analytical approach to study the
      environmental fate of AAPs. Four phosphonic acids, N,N
      bis(phosphonomethyl)glycine (GBMP), aminotris(methylenephosphonic) acid (ATMP),
      hexamethylenediamine-N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(methylphosphonic) acid (HDTMP), and
      diethylenetriamine penta(methylenephosphonic) acid (DTPMP) were selected and
      examined in a water matrix. In addition, the susceptibility of these compounds to
      biotransformations was tested in colonies of five freshwater cyanobacteria
      microorganisms responsible for the so-called blooms in the water. Our efforts to
      track the AAP decomposition were based on derivatization of N-alkyl moieties with
      p-toluenesulfonyl chloride (tosylation) followed by chromatographic (HPLC-UV)
      separation of derivatives. This approach allowed us to determine seven products
      of the breakdown of popular phosphonate chelators, in nanomolar concentrations
      and in one step. It should be noted that the LOD of four of those products,
      aminemethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), N-phosphomethyl glycine (NPMG), N
      (methyl)aminemethanephosphonic acid (MAMPA), and N-(methyl) glycine (SAR), was
      set below the concentration of 50 nM. Among those substances, N
      (methylamino)methanephosphonic acid (MAMPA) was identified for the first time as
      the product of decomposition of the examined aminopolyphosphonates.

PMID- 28891038
TI  - Characteristics of patients with sorafenib-treated advanced hepatocellular
      carcinoma eligible for second-line treatment.
AB  - Background Regorafenib has been investigated for its efficacy and safety as a
      second-line treatment in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
      We assessed the characteristics of patients with HCC treated with sorafenib who
      might be eligible for second-line treatment in general and regorafenib in
      particular. Methods Patients with HCC treated with sorafenib were retrospectively
      analyzed. We defined second-line candidate patients as maintaining Child-Pugh A
      and ECOG-PS <=1 at the time of sorafenib failure. We also defined regorafenib
      candidate patients as follows: 1) continuing sorafenib at the time of
      radiological progression, 2) maintaining Child-Pugh A and ECOG-PS <= 1 at the
      time of sorafenib failure, and 3) continuing sorafenib 400 mg or more without
      intolerable adverse events at least 20 days of the last 28 days of treatment.
      Results Of 185 patients, 130 (70%) and 69 (37%) were candidates for second-line
      treatment and regorafenib. Child-Pugh score 6 and ECOG-PS 1 at the time of
      starting sorafenib were significantly lower in both second-line treatment and
      regorafenib candidate patients. Moreover, hand-foot skin reaction and liver
      failure during sorafenib treatment were associated with significantly low and
      high probabilities, respectively, of both Child-Pugh score > 6 and ECOG-PS > 1 at
      the time of sorafenib failure. Conclusion Regorafenib candidate patients after
      sorafenib failure are limited, and generally fewer than those who are candidates
      for second-line treatment. A lower Child-Pugh score and a better ECOG-PS were
      predictors of eligibility for second-line therapy and regorafenib treatment in
      sorafenib-treated patients with advanced HCC patients.

PMID- 28891039
TI  - A systematic review of transabdominal levator division during abdominoperineal
      excision of the rectum (APER).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the surgical technique,
      short-term oncological and perioperative outcomes for the transabdominal division
      of the levator ani muscles during abdominoperineal excision of the rectum (APER).
      METHODS: A systematic review was performed to identify studies reporting on
      transabdominal division of the levator ani during APER. A comprehensive
      literature search was performed using a combination of free-text terms and
      controlled vocabulary when applicable on the following databases: MEDLINE,
      EMBASE, Science Citation Index Expanded and Cochrane Central Register of
      Controlled Trials in the Cochrane Library. The search period was from January
      1945 to December 2015. The following search headings were used: "transabdominal",
      "transpelvic", "abdominal" or "pelvic" combined with either "levator" or
      "extralevator" and with "abdominoperineal". RESULTS: Nine publications were
      identified reporting on 99 participants. The male/female distribution was 1.44:1,
      respectively, and the mean age was 56.6 (30-77) years. All tumours were less than
      5 cm from the anal verge. The preoperative radiological staging was T2 in 18% of
      cases, T3 in 53.5% and T4 in 28.5%. Transabdominal division of the levators was
      performed laparoscopically in 55 cases, robotically in 34 and open in 10. The
      mean operating time was 255 (177-640) min. Mean intraoperative blood loss was 140
      (92-500) ml. There were no conversions to open. Circumferential resection margins
      were positive in two cases, and there was one intraoperative perforation. Mean
      post-operative length of stay was 9.3 (3-67) days. Follow-up (from 0 to 31
      months) revealed 19 perineal wound infections, 15 cases of sexual dysfunction and
      7 cases of urinary retention. There was no mortality and 1 readmission.
      CONCLUSIONS: Transabdominal division of the levators during APER is feasible and
      reproducible, with acceptable perioperative and good early oncological outcomes.
      Further comparative studies are needed.

PMID- 28891040
TI  - Dosimetry in clinical radionuclide therapy: the devil is in the detail.

PMID- 28891041
TI  - Influence of genetic background of engineered xylose-fermenting industrial
      Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for ethanol production from lignocellulosic
      hydrolysates.
AB  - An industrial ethanol-producing Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain with genes of
      fungal oxido-reductive pathway needed for xylose fermentation integrated into its
      genome (YRH1415) was used to obtain haploids and diploid isogenic strains. The
      isogenic strains were more effective in metabolizing xylose than YRH1415 strain
      and able to co-ferment glucose and xylose in the presence of high concentrations
      of inhibitors resulting from the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass
      (switchgrass). The rate of xylose consumption did not appear to be affected by
      the ploidy of strains or the presence of two copies of the xylose fermentation
      genes but by heterozygosity of alleles for xylose metabolism in YRH1415.
      Furthermore, inhibitor tolerance was influenced by the heterozygous genome of the
      industrial strain, which also showed a marked influenced on tolerance to
      increasing concentrations of toxic compounds, such as furfural. In this work,
      selection of haploid derivatives was found to be a useful strategy to develop
      efficient xylose-fermenting industrial yeast strains.

PMID- 28891042
TI  - A novel and reliable computational intelligence system for breast cancer
      detection.
AB  - Cancer is the second important morbidity and mortality factor among women and the
      most incident type is breast cancer. This paper suggests a hybrid computational
      intelligence model based on unsupervised and supervised learning techniques,
      i.e., self-organizing map (SOM) and complex-valued neural network (CVNN), for
      reliable detection of breast cancer. The dataset used in this paper consists of
      822 patients with five features (patient's breast mass shape, margin, density,
      patient's age, and Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System assessment). The
      proposed model was used for the first time and can be categorized in two stages.
      In the first stage, considering the input features, SOM technique was used to
      cluster the patients with the most similarity. Then, in the second stage, for
      each cluster, the patient's features were applied to complex-valued neural
      network and dealt with to classify breast cancer severity (benign or malign). The
      obtained results corresponding to each patient were compared to the medical
      diagnosis results using receiver operating characteristic analyses and confusion
      matrix. In the testing phase, health and disease detection ratios were 94 and
      95%, respectively. Accordingly, the superiority of the proposed model was proved
      and can be used for reliable and robust detection of breast cancer.

PMID- 28891043
TI  - Reamed locked intramedullary nailing for studying femur fracture and its
      complications.
AB  - Morbidity associated with femur fractures in polytrauma patients is known to be
      high. The many unsolved clinical questions include the immunological effect of
      the fracture and its fixation, timing of fracture fixation, management of
      fracture non-union, effect of infection and critical size of bone defects. The
      aim of this study was to establish a clinically-relevant and reproducible animal
      model with regards to histological, biomechanical and radiological changes during
      bone healing. A custom-designed intramedullary nail with interlocking system
      (RabbitNail, RISystem AG, Davos Platz, Switzerland) was used for fixation,
      following femur fracture. New Zealand White rabbits were assigned to two groups:
      1. closed fracture model (CF; non-survival model: n = 6, survival model: n = 3)
      with unilateral mid-shaft femur fracture created by blunt force; 2. osteotomy
      model (OT; survival model: n = 14) with unilateral transverse osteotomy creating
      femur fracture. There were no intraoperative complications and full-weight
      bearing was achieved in all survival rabbits. Significant periosteal reaction and
      callus formation were confirmed from 2 weeks postoperatively, with a significant
      volume formation (739.59 +/- 62.14 mm3) at 8 weeks confirmed by micro-computed
      tomography (u-CT). 2 months after fixation, there was no difference between the
      osteotomised and contralateral control femora in respect to the maximum torque
      (3.47 +/- 0.35 N m vs. 3.26 +/- 0.37 N m) and total energy (21.11 +/- 3.09 N m *
      degree vs. 20.89 +/- 2.63 N m * degree) required to break the femur. The data
      confirmed that a standardised internal fixation technique with an intramedullary
      nail for closed fracture or osteotomy produced satisfactory bone healing. It was
      concluded that important clinically-relevant studies can be conducted using this
      rabbit model.

PMID- 28891044
TI  - Considerations for Evaluating Treatment Effects From Randomized Clinical Trials.
AB  - This article focuses on the choice of treatment effect measures in randomized
      clinical trials (RCTs). Traditionally, an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis is
      conducted with an implicit understanding that a treatment-policy effect is of
      greatest interest. In this article we contend that this approach may not always
      provide accurate information about clinically meaningful treatment effects, and
      we present an argument that for any RCT it is desirable to require an explicit
      definition of what treatment effect is of primary interest, known as the
      "estimand." We will discuss the limitations of the traditional ITT effect
      measures as well as the state-of-the art thinking with regard to estimands.
      Furthermore, we will offer alternate choices that acknowledge that treatments
      have multiple effects.

PMID- 28891046
TI  - The association of postoperative pulmonary complications in 109,360 patients with
      pressure-controlled or volume-controlled ventilation.
AB  - We thought that the rate of postoperative pulmonary complications might be higher
      after pressure-controlled ventilation than after volume-controlled ventilation.
      We analysed peri-operative data recorded for 109,360 adults, whose lungs were
      mechanically ventilated during surgery at three hospitals in Massachusetts, USA.
      We used multivariable regression and propensity score matching. Postoperative
      pulmonary complications were more common after pressure-controlled ventilation,
      odds ratio (95%CI) 1.29 (1.21-1.37), p < 0.001. Tidal volumes and driving
      pressures were more varied with pressure-controlled ventilation compared with
      volume-controlled ventilation: mean (SD) variance from the median 1.61 (1.36)
      ml.kg-1 vs. 1.23 (1.11) ml.kg-1 , p < 0.001; and 3.91 (3.47) cmH2 O vs. 3.40
      (2.69) cmH2 O, p < 0.001. The odds ratio (95%CI) of pulmonary complications after
      pressure-controlled ventilation compared with volume-controlled ventilation at
      positive end-expiratory pressures < 5 cmH2 O was 1.40 (1.26-1.55) and 1.20 (1.11
      1.31) when >= 5 cmH2 O, both p < 0.001, a relative risk ratio of 1.17 (1.03
      1.33), p = 0.023. The odds ratio (95%CI) of pulmonary complications after
      pressure-controlled ventilation compared with volume-controlled ventilation at
      driving pressures of < 19 cmH2 O was 1.37 (1.27-1.48), p < 0.001, and 1.16 (1.04
      1.30) when >= 19 cmH2 O, p = 0.011, a relative risk ratio of 1.18 (1.07-1.30), p
      = 0.016. Our data support volume-controlled ventilation during surgery,
      particularly for patients more likely to suffer postoperative pulmonary
      complications.

PMID- 28891047
TI  - BRAF wild-type malignant melanoma developing on a thermal burn.

PMID- 28891045
TI  - A critical period for the trophic actions of leptin on AgRP neurons in the
      arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.
AB  - In the developing hypothalamus, the fat-derived hormone leptin stimulates the
      growth of axons from the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARH) to other
      regions that control energy balance. These projections are significantly reduced
      in leptin deficient (Lepob/ob ) mice and this phenotype is largely rescued by
      neonatal leptin treatments. However, treatment of mature Lepob/ob mice is
      ineffective, suggesting that the trophic action of leptin is limited to a
      developmental critical period. To temporally delineate closure of this critical
      period for leptin-stimulated growth, we treated Lepob/ob mice with exogenous
      leptin during a variety of discrete time periods, and measured the density of
      Agouti-Related Peptide (AgRP) containing projections from the ARH to the ventral
      part of the dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (DMHv), and to the medial
      parvocellular part of the paraventricular nucleus (PVHmp). The results indicate
      that leptin loses its neurotrophic potential at or near postnatal day 28. The
      duration of leptin exposure appears to be important, with 9- or 11-day treatments
      found to be more effective than shorter (5-day) treatments. Furthermore, leptin
      treatment for 9 days or more was sufficient to restore AgRP innervation to both
      the PVHmp and DMHv in Lepob/ob females, but only to the DMHv in Lepob/ob males.
      Together, these findings reveal that the trophic actions of leptin are contingent
      upon timing and duration of leptin exposure, display both target and sex
      specificity, and that modulation of leptin-dependent circuit formation by each of
      these factors may carry enduring consequences for feeding behavior, metabolism,
      and obesity risk.

PMID- 28891048
TI  - Identifying actionable variants using next generation sequencing in patients with
      a historical diagnosis of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma.
AB  - There are limited data regarding the molecular characterization of
      undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas (UPS; formerly malignant fibrous
      histiocytoma). This study aimed to investigate the utility of next generation
      sequencing (NGS) in UPS to identify subsets of patients who harbour actionable
      mutations. Patients diagnosed with UPS underwent pathological re-evaluation by a
      pathologist specializing in sarcoma. Tumor DNA was isolated from archived fresh
      frozen tissue samples and genotyped using NGS with the Illumina MiSeq TruSeq
      Amplicon Cancer Panel (48 genes, 212 amplicons). In total, 95 patients initially
      classified with UPS were identified. Following pathology re-review the
      histological subtypes were reclassified to include: Myxofibrosarcoma (MFS, N =
      44); UPS(N = 18); and Others (N = 27; including undifferentiated spindle cell
      sarcoma (N = 15) and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (N = 6)). Seven cases were
      excluded from further analysis for other reasons. Baseline demographics of the
      finalized cohort (N = 88) showed a median age of 66 years (32-95), primarily with
      stage I-III disease (92%) and high-grade (86%) lesions. Somatic mutations were
      identified in 31 cases (35%)(Total mutations = 36: solitary mutation(n = 27); two
      mutations( =n = 3); three mutations(n = 1)). The most commonly identified
      mutations were in TP53 (n = 24), ATM (n = 3) and PIK3CA (n = 2). Three of 43
      patients with MFS and one of 18 patients with UPS had clinically relevant
      mutations, mainly related to biomarkers of prediction of response; however few
      had targetable driver mutations. Somatic mutation status did not influence
      disease free or overall survival. Based on the small number of clinically
      relevant mutations, these data do not support the routine use of targeted NGS
      panels outside of research protocols in UPS.

PMID- 28891050
TI  - S-shaped tracheal tubes for videolaryngoscopy.

PMID- 28891049
TI  - Differential projections of the densocellular and intermediate parts of the
      hyperpallium in the pigeon (Columba livia).
AB  - The visual Wulst in birds shows a four-layered structure: apical part of the
      hyperpallium (HA), interstitial part of HA (IHA), intercalated part of
      hyperpallium (HI), and densocellular part of hyperpallium (HD). HD also connects
      with the hippocampus and olfactory system. Because HD is subjacent to HI, the two
      have been treated as one structure in many studies, and the fiber connections of
      HD have been examined by afferents and efferents originating outside HD. However,
      to clarify the difference between these two layers, they need to be treated
      separately. In the present study, the fiber connections of HD and HI were
      analyzed with tract-tracing techniques using a combination of injections of
      cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) for retrograde tracing and biotinylated dextran
      amine (BDA) for anterograde tracing. When the two tracers were bilaterally
      injected in HD, a major reciprocal connection was seen with the dorsolateral
      subdivision (DL) of the hippocampal formation. When CTB and BDA were bilaterally
      injected in HI, strong reciprocal connections were found between HI and HA. Next,
      projection neurons in HD and HI were examined by double staining for CTB combined
      with vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (vGluT2) mRNA in situ hybridization. After
      CTB was injected in DL or HA, many neurons revealed CTB+/vGluT2+ in HD or HI,
      respectively. Furthermore, in situ hybridization showed that DL and HA contained
      neurons expressing various subunits of ionotropic glutamate receptors: AMPA,
      kainate, and NMDA types. These results suggest that glutamatergic neurons in HD
      and HI project primarily to DL and HA, respectively.

PMID- 28891051
TI  - Iron homeostasis: complex effects beyond anaemia.

PMID- 28891052
TI  - International publication trends originating from anaesthetic departments from
      2001 to 2015.
AB  - The aim of this study was to analyse publication trends from the anaesthetic
      literature of the G-20 countries. We performed a literature search in Medline to
      identify articles related to anaesthetic departments published between 2001 and
      2015, by specific G-20 countries according to the affiliation field of the
      authors, and to three time periods 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and 2011-2015. The number
      of articles, number of original articles (vs. reviews, editorials or
      correspondence), articles per million inhabitants, and citations per article were
      analysed. In total, 96,920 articles were published between 2001 and 2015 in 74
      anaesthetic and in 4117 non-anaesthetic journals, with an increase of +104%
      absolute (i.e. from 23,028 in 2001-05 to 46,887 articles in 2010-15) and +85% as
      articles per million inhabitants. Similarly, the number of original articles
      increased by 21%, but the anaesthetic specialty's share of original articles (as
      a proportion of total articles in biomedicine) decreased from 31% in 2001-2005 to
      19% in 2011-2015 (-38%). The USA published most articles (2011-15 16,016; 31% of
      total), second came the EU as a whole and third Japan (from 2001 to 2005) or
      Germany (2006-2010) until 2011-2015 when China took over the third rank. In 2011
      2015, Canada published most articles per million inhabitants (68.7
      articles/million inhabitants). China and India exhibited the most publication
      growth 11- and 9-fold, respectively, and are now among the top five countries for
      the number of published articles.

PMID- 28891053
TI  - Surgical Outcome Risk Tool (SORT) validation in hepatectomy.

PMID- 28891054
TI  - Epidural pressure waveforms.

PMID- 28891055
TI  - Ultrasound examination of gastric contents: are qualitative and quantitative
      assessments complementary? A reply.

PMID- 28891056
TI  - Performance of the Minto model for the target-controlled infusion of remifentanil
      during cardiopulmonary bypass.
AB  - We studied the predictive performance of the Minto pharmacokinetic model during
      cardiopulmonary bypass in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Patients received
      remifentanil target-controlled infusion using the Minto model during total
      intravenous anaesthesia with propofol. From 56 patients, 275 arterial blood
      samples were drawn before, during and after bypass to determine the plasma
      concentration of remifentanil, and the predicted concentrations were recorded at
      each time. For pooled data, the median prediction error and median absolute
      prediction error were 21.3% and 21.8%, respectively, and 22.1% and 22.3% during
      bypass. Both were 148.4% during hypothermic circulatory arrest and measured
      concentrations were more than three times greater than predicted (26.9 (17.0) vs.
      7.1 (1.6) ng.ml-1 ). The Minto model showed considerable bias but overall
      acceptable precision during bypass. The target concentration of remifentanil
      should be reduced when using the Minto model during hypothermic circulatory
      arrest.

PMID- 28891057
TI  - 'On lock' - a further single-operator ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia
      grip.

PMID- 28891058
TI  - Medtronic electromyographic tracheal tube.

PMID- 28891059
TI  - Consensus on ethics in airway research - a reply.

PMID- 28891061
TI  - Calculating oxygen consumption during low flow anaesthesia. A reply.

PMID- 28891060
TI  - A survey of acute pain services in the UK.
AB  - The organisational state of inpatient pain management in UK hospitals is
      difficult to determine. We sent an electronic questionnaire to 209 acute pain
      service leads throughout the UK. Questions were about staffing and service
      provision. We received 141 responses (67%); 47% of all UK hospitals. Each service
      was responsible for a median (IQR [range]) of 566 (400-839 [120-2800]) beds. Each
      acute pain specialist nurse was responsible for 299 (238-534 [70-1923]) beds. The
      mean (SD) number of consultant hours per week was 5.54 (4.62), delivered by a
      median of 1.0 (1.0-2.5 [0.2-7.0]) consultant. Overnight cover was provided by 20
      (15%) acute pain services, and weekend cover by 39 (29%). Acute pain services
      commonly (in 50 (35%) hospitals) had roles in addition to acute pain management.
      Most teams (105, (77%)) reviewed medical patients and patients with chronic pain
      (in 131, (96%) teams). Half of the services (56, (49%)), reported that they were
      part of an integrated acute and chronic pain service, however, 83 (59%) did not
      have any members who work in chronic pain clinics. The majority (79, (70%)) were
      able to access a nominated chronic pain consultant for advice. Provision of acute
      pain services throughout the UK is highly variable. The majority do not meet core
      UK standards.

PMID- 28891062
TI  - A systematic review of information format and timing before scheduled adult
      surgery for peri-operative anxiety.
AB  - We included 34 trials with 3742 participants, identified through 6 database and
      supplementary searches (to May 2017): 29 were randomised; 4 were quasi-randomised
      and 1 was cluster-randomised. Disparate measurements and outcomes precluded meta
      analyses. Blinding was attempted in only 6 out of 34 (18%) trials. A multimedia
      format, alone or in combination with text or verbal formats, was studied in 20/34
      (59%) trials: pre-operative anxiety was unaffected in 10 out of 14 trials and
      reduced by the multimedia format in three; postoperative anxiety was unaffected
      in four out of five trials in which formats were compared. Multimedia formats
      increased knowledge more than text, which in turn increased knowledge more than
      verbal formats. Other outcomes were unaffected by information format. The timing
      of information did not affect pre-operative anxiety, postoperative pain or length
      of stay. In conclusion, the effects of pre-operative information on peri
      operative anxiety and other outcomes were affected little by format or timing.

PMID- 28891064
TI  - 3-D printing in anaesthesia: challenges and controversies.

PMID- 28891063
TI  - Ultrasound examination of gastric contents: are qualitative and quantitative
      assessments complementary?

PMID- 28891065
TI  - IL4-induced gene 1 is secreted at the immune synapse and modulates TCR activation
      independently of its enzymatic activity.
AB  - Amino-acid catabolizing enzymes produced by mononuclear phagocytes play a central
      role in regulating the immune response. The mammalian phenylalanine-catabolizing
      enzyme IL4-induced gene 1 (IL4I1) inhibits effector T lymphocyte proliferation
      and facilitates regulatory T-cell development. IL4I1 expression by macrophages of
      various human tumors may affect patient prognosis as it facilitates tumor escape
      from the T-cell response in murine models. Its enzymatic activity appears to
      participate in its effects, but some actions of IL4I1 remain unclear. Here, we
      show that the presence of IL4I1 during T-cell activation decreases early
      signaling events downstream of TCR stimulation, resulting in global T-cell
      inhibition which is more pronounced when there is CD28 costimulation.
      Surprisingly, the enzymatic activity of IL4I1 is not involved. Focal secretion of
      IL4I1 into the immune synaptic cleft and its binding to CD3+ lymphocytes could be
      important in IL4I1 immunosuppressive mechanism of action.

PMID- 28891066
TI  - Fluconazole-induced Sweet's syndrome: A novel association.

PMID- 28891067
TI  - The effect of health insurance on childhood cancer survival in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effect of health insurance on childhood cancer survival has not
      been well studied. Using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data,
      this study was designed to assess the association between health insurance status
      and childhood cancer survival. METHODS: Data on cancers diagnosed among children
      less than 15 years old from 2007 to 2009 were obtained from the SEER 18
      registries. The effect of health insurance at diagnosis on 5-year childhood
      cancer mortality was estimated with marginal survival probabilities, restricted
      mean survival times, and Cox proportional hazards (PH) regression analyses, which
      were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and county-level poverty. RESULTS:
      Among 8219 childhood cancer cases, the mean survival time was 1.32 months shorter
      (95% confidence interval [CI], -4.31 to 1.66) after 5 years for uninsured
      children (n = 131) versus those with private insurance (n = 4297), whereas the
      mean survival time was 0.62 months shorter (95% CI, -1.46 to 0.22) for children
      with Medicaid at diagnosis (n = 2838). In Cox PH models, children who were
      uninsured had a 1.26-fold higher risk of cancer death (95% CI, 0.84-1.90) than
      those who were privately insured at diagnosis. The risk for those with Medicaid
      was similar to the risk for those with private insurance at diagnosis (hazard
      ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.93-1.21). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results suggest that
      cancer survival is largely similar for children with Medicaid and those with
      private insurance at diagnosis. Slightly inferior survival was observed for those
      who were uninsured in comparison with those with private insurance at diagnosis.
      The latter result is based on a small number of uninsured children and should be
      interpreted cautiously. Further study is needed to confirm and clarify the
      reasons for these patterns. Cancer 2017;123:4878-85. (c) 2017 American Cancer
      Society.

PMID- 28891068
TI  - Open-tubular capillary electrochromatography using carboxylatopillar[5]arene as
      stationary phase.
AB  - Pillar[n]arenes have achieved much interest in material chemistry and
      supramolecular chemistry due to unusual pillar shape structure and high
      selectivity toward guest. However, pillar[n]arenes have not yet been applied in
      capillary electrochromatography. This work at first time reports that
      carboxylatopillar[5]arene is used as a stationary phase in open-tubular capillary
      electrochromatography. Carboxylatopillar[5]arene not only possess the advantages
      of pillar[n]arenes but also provide free carboxy groups for immobilizing on the
      inner wall of capillary column via covalent bonding. The characterization of SEM
      and FT-IR indicated that carboxylatopillar[5]arene was successfully grafted on
      the inner wall of capillary. The baseline separation of model analytes including
      neutral, basic, and acidic compounds, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and
      dansyl-amino acids have been achieved thanks to the electron-rich cavity of
      carboxylatopillar[5]arene and hydrophobic interactions between the analytes and
      stationary phase. The intraday, interday, and column-to-column precisions (RSDs)
      of retention time and peak area for the neutral analytes were all less than 3.34
      and 9.65%, respectively. This work indicates that pillar[n]arenes have great
      potential in capillary electrochromatography as novel stationary phase.

PMID- 28891069
TI  - Use of supplemental anti-HBc testing of donors showing non-discriminating
      reactive results in multiplex nucleic acid testing.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Korean Red Cross began nucleic acid amplification
      testing (NAT) for HIV and HCV in February 2005, and added HBV NAT beginning in
      June 2012. The current NAT system utilizes a multiplex assay for simultaneous
      detection of HBV DNA, HCV RNA and HIV-1 RNA. For samples that are reactive in the
      multiplex assay, we do specific tests for each virus. However, there have been
      cases of non-discriminated reactive (NDR) results which appear to be the result
      of non-specific reactions or cross-contamination, although some cases are
      considered to arise from the presence of low levels of HBV DNA due to occult
      hepatitis B infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined the incidence of NDR
      results in previous donations of some NAT-reactive donors. Additionally, for
      those donors with NDR results, we performed an HBV core antibody (anti-HBc)
      assay. RESULTS: From November 2015 to March 2016, there were 408 NAT-reactive
      donors. Of these, nineteen HBV NAT-reactive donors showed a history of NDR
      results in the past donations. Seven donors showed NDR results more than once. Of
      771 NDR donors, 362 (47.0%) were anti-HBc reactive. CONCLUSION: The NDR donors
      had a substantially higher rate of anti-HBc reactivity than other blood donors
      indicating that some with anti-HBc reactivity represent donors with occult HBV.
      Therefore, the incorporation of an anti-HBc testing for NDR donors could improve
      blood safety testing for the Korean Red Cross.

PMID- 28891070
TI  - Screening bioactive compounds from natural product and its preparations using
      capillary electrophoresis.
AB  - Bioactive ingredients of natural products can protect human body from harm, as
      well as prevent and treat disease. Screening bioactive compounds from natural
      products is attracting particular attention. It is a great challenge to separate
      and detect the active compounds from complex matrix natural products. CE plays a
      vital role in screening active compounds because of its unique features such as
      high-efficiency separation, short-analysis time, minimal sample consumption, and
      ease to realize automatization etc. Additionally, CE has been developed various
      modes owing to its abundant advantages in analysis and separation of compounds.
      The purpose of this work is to review previous developments and applications of
      CE in screening bioactive compounds derived from natural products from 2007 to
      2017. This review does not only summarize the traditional methods of detecting
      active ingredients but also briefly introduces some novel assays. The trends in
      the application of CE in active compounds screening are addressed in the article.

PMID- 28891072
TI  - Stable Control of Physiological Parameters, But Not Infection, in Preterm Lambs
      Maintained on Ex Vivo Uterine Environment Therapy.
AB  - Ex vivo uterine environment (EVE) therapy is an experimental neonatal intensive
      care strategy wherein gas exchange is performed by membranous oxygenators
      attached to the umbilical vessels. Our aim was to assess the ability of a newly
      refined EVE system to maintain key physiological parameters in preterm lambs
      within optimal ranges for 48 h. EVE group; n = 6: Preterm lambs were delivered
      under general anesthesia at 115 +/- 2 days of gestational age. Animals were
      submerged in a bath of artificial amniotic fluid on EVE therapy for 48 h.
      Physiological parameters were monitored in real-time over the length of the
      experiment. Control group; n = 11: Ewes carrying a single fetus (115 +/- 2 days
      of gestational age) underwent recovery surgery to allow placement of a fetal
      carotid artery catheter. Fetuses received an infusion of sterile saline only.
      After euthanasia, EVE and Control group fetuses underwent necroscopy to perform
      static pressure-volume curves and for sampling of lung and cord blood plasma for
      molecular analyses. Five out of six fetuses in the EVE group completed the study
      period with key physiological variables remaining within their respective
      reference ranges for the duration of the 48 h study. Bacteremia was identified in
      four out of five EVE fetuses, and was associated with a systemic inflammatory
      response. Using our refined EVE therapy platform, preterm lambs were maintained
      in a stable physiological condition for 48 h. These findings represent a
      significant advance over earlier work with this system; however, the
      identification of bacteremia and a fetal inflammatory response suggests that
      further refinement to the EVE therapy platform is required.

PMID- 28891071
TI  - Genetic variation in the vitamin D related pathway and breast cancer risk in
      women of African ancestry in the root consortium.
AB  - The vitamin D related pathway has been evaluated in carcinogenesis but its
      genetic contribution remains poorly understood. We examined single-nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNPs) in the vitamin D related pathway genes using data from a
      genome-wide association study (GWAS) of breast cancer in the African Diaspora
      that included 3,686 participants (1,657 cases). Pathway- and gene-level analyses
      were conducted using the adaptive rank truncated product test. Odds ratios (OR)
      and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated at SNP-level. After stringent
      Bonferroni corrections, we observed no significant association between variants
      in the vitamin D pathway and breast cancer risk at the pathway-, gene-, or SNP
      level. In addition, no association was found for either the reported signals from
      GWASs of vitamin D related traits, or the SNPs within vitamin D receptor (VDR)
      binding regions. Furthermore, a decrease in genetically predicted 25(OH)D levels
      by Mendelian randomization was not associated with breast cancer (p = 0.23).
      However, an association for breast cancer with the pigment synthesis/metabolism
      pathway almost approached significance (pathway-level p = 0.08), driven primarily
      by a nonsense SNP rs41302073 in TYRP1, with an OR of 1.54 (95% CI = 1.24-1.91,
      padj  = 0.007). In conclusion, we found no evidence to support an association
      between vitamin D status and breast cancer risk in women of African ancestry,
      suggesting that vitamin D is unlikely to have significant effect on breast
      carcinogenesis. Interestingly, TYRP1 might be related to breast cancer through a
      non-vitamin D relevant mechanism but further studies are needed.

PMID- 28891073
TI  - Sexual dimorphism in jaw muscles of the Japanese sparrowhawk (Accipiter gularis).
AB  - Materials suitable for anatomical research of raptorial birds are rare. Bird
      eating raptors show distinct inter-sexual differences in body size and parental
      roles. The large females catch larger prey and prepare small morsels to feed
      their young using their hooked beaks. Here, we investigated the architectural
      properties of different jaw muscles of the Japanese sparrowhawk (Accipiter
      gularis) and examined whether there is sexual dimorphism in their architectural
      design. The results showed that musculus depressor mandibulae, the opener of the
      lower jaw, was characterized by relatively long fascicle length, whereas musculus
      pterygoideus was characterized by its larger mass and physiological cross
      sectional area (PCSA) in both sexes. Females have the potential capacity to
      produce rapid and strong bites by their significantly longer fascicle length of
      M. depressor mandibulae and larger mass and PCSA of M. pterygoideus. For body
      size-matched gender, jaw muscles of males had fibres of relatively longer length
      than females, enabling greater velocity and excursion. Architectural
      characteristics of jaw muscles, together with the absolute dimorphism (the
      fascicle length of M. depressor mandibulae, the muscle mass and PCSA of M.
      pterygoideus) and relative dimorphism in the muscle mass of M. pterygoideus,
      reflect dietary difference and asymmetric parental roles between the sexes.

PMID- 28891074
TI  - Nelarabine toxicity in children and adolescents with relapsed/refractory T-ALL/T
      LBL: can we avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

PMID- 28891075
TI  - Effect of feeding on the pharmacokinetics of oral minocycline in healthy adult
      horses.
AB  - Minocycline is commonly used to treat bacterial and rickettsial infections in
      adult horses but limited information exists regarding the impact of feeding on
      its oral bioavailability. This study's objective was to compare the
      pharmacokinetics of minocycline after administration of a single oral dose in
      horses with feed withheld and with feed provided at the time of drug
      administration. Six healthy adult horses were administered intravenous (2.2
      mg/kg) and oral minocycline (4 mg/kg) with access to hay at the time of oral drug
      administration (fed) and with access to hay delayed for 2 hr after oral drug
      administration (fasted), with a 7-day washout between treatments. Plasma
      concentration versus time data was analyzed based on noncompartmental
      pharmacokinetics. Mean +/- SD bioavailability (fasted: 38.6% +/- 4.6; fed: 15.7%
      +/- 2.3) and Cmax (fasted: 1.343 +/- 0.418 MUg/ml; fed: 0.281 +/- 0.157 MUg/ml)
      were greater in fasted horses compared to fed horses (p < .05 both). Median
      (range) Tmax (hr) in fasted horses was 2.0 (1.5-3.5) and in fed horses was 5.0
      (1.0-8.0) and was not significantly different between groups. Overnight fasting
      and delaying feeding hay 2 hr after oral minocycline administration improve drug
      bioavailability and thus plasma concentrations.

PMID- 28891076
TI  - Natural course and characteristics of cutaneous neurofibromas in
      neurofibromatosis 1.
AB  - Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is characterized by cutaneous, neurological and osseous
      manifestations. Most NF1 patients develop cutaneous neurofibromas. However, time
      dependent change with aging and the predilection site of cutaneous neurofibromas
      remain unclear. To clarify the natural course and characteristics of cutaneous
      neurofibromas, a retrospective study was conducted for 57 NF1 patients who were
      treated at the Department of Dermatology of Tottori University Hospital between
      January 2007 and April 2016. For each patient, we investigated the time-dependent
      changes and the numbers of cutaneous neurofibromas in four body surface regions.
      There was a positive correlation between age and number of cutaneous
      neurofibromas (r = 0.75, P < 0.001). Cutaneous neurofibromas were located on the
      trunk (60.2%), lower limbs (16.1%), upper limbs (14.4%), and head and neck
      (9.2%). There was no significant relationship between each body type (e.g. obese
      or thin) and cutaneous neurofibromas. With respect to the year-to-year percentage
      change in cutaneous neurofibromas, the average annual rate of increase was 0.21
      (range, -0.71 to 1.2). The number of cutaneous neurofibromas had increased in
      approximately 61% of the patients 1 year later. Our data will enable physicians
      to estimate the overall state of cutaneous neurofibromas in NF1 and will be
      useful for handling cutaneous manifestations before they become a serious
      condition.

PMID- 28891077
TI  - A comparison of the effects of CYP3A5 polymorphism on tacrolimus blood
      concentrations measured by 4 immunoassay methods in renal transplant patients.
AB  - WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: The anti-tacrolimus antibodies used in commercial
      immunoassay methods have cross-reactivity with tacrolimus metabolites. The aim of
      this study was to investigate differences in the effects of CYP3A5 polymorphism
      on tacrolimus concentrations obtained by four immunoassay methods in renal
      transplant patients. METHODS: Samples (n = 508) were evaluated using four
      immunoassays (chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay [CLIA], affinity column
      mediated immunoassay [ACMIA], electrochemiluminescence immunoassay [ECLIA] and
      latex agglutination turbidimetric immunoassay [LTIA]). RESULTS: Bland-Altman
      plots showed average biases of -0.12 (+/-1.96 SD: -1.30-1.05) ng/mL for CLIA, 
      0.30 (-1.59-1.00) ng/mL for ECLIA, 0.42 (-1.21-2.05) ng/mL for ACMIA and 1.88 (
      0.51-4.28) ng/mL for LTIA, when considering the mean of the three immunoassays
      (CLIA, ECLIA and ACMIA). In multiple regression analysis, the difference (CLIA
      mean) was affected by haematocrit levels. Differences in ECLIA were correlated
      with red blood cell counts. For LTIA, CYP3A5 genotype and haematocrit levels were
      identified as independent predictors for this bias. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION:
      The results obtained by CLIA, ECLIA and ACMIA were not affected by CYP3A5
      polymorphism. However, in LTIA, CYP3A5*1/*3-derived data exhibited an inverse
      relationship in Bland-Altman analysis (slope: -0.0824). Higher cross-reactivity
      with 12-hydroxy tacrolimus at lower concentrations may occur in patients with the
      CYP3A5*1/*3 genotype. Because patients with the CYP3A5*1 allele identified using
      LTIA may show higher blood concentrations of tacrolimus at lower target
      concentrations, for example 3.0 ng/mL, compared with other immunoassay methods,
      there is a need for sufficient consideration of the interpretation of values
      measured by LTIA.

PMID- 28891078
TI  - Design and Development of Novel Transcatheter Bicaval Valves in the
      Interventional Treatment of Tricuspid Regurgitation.
AB  - The concept of heterotopic implantation of transcatheter tricuspid valve is new
      and has shown promising results thus far. While the Reynolds shear stress values
      measured in the vicinity of this valve are relatively low, the values at some
      time points are higher than the threshold of platelet activation. Hence, in this
      study, we aim to reduce these values with an innovative stent design. It was
      shown that the Reynolds shear stress values measured were lower than those of
      valves made of generic stent design and the maximum Reynolds shear stress values
      in the vicinity of the valves was very low (~10 dynes/cm2 ). The results also
      depicted the interesting flow phenomenon of this non-physiological treatment
      approach. Thus, this study has shown that bicaval valves could potentially be
      considered as a minimally invasive option to treat tricuspid regurgitation and
      valve design improvements could reduce the flow disturbances that were observed.

PMID- 28891080
TI  - Dermatoscope-guided suturing for an open wound adjacent to the lacrimal sac and
      the nasolacrimal duct.

PMID- 28891079
TI  - Successful TS-1 monotherapy as the second-line treatment for advanced
      extramammary Paget's disease: A report of two cases.
AB  - There is no standard chemotherapeutic treatment for advanced extramammary Paget's
      disease, though the effectiveness of some chemotherapy regimens, including
      docetaxel, has been reported. In this report, we report that TS-1 monotherapy was
      effective in two patients with advanced extramammary Paget's disease after
      docetaxel treatment failure. TS-1 monotherapy may be useful as the second-line
      treatment for patients with advanced extramammary Paget's disease.

PMID- 28891081
TI  - Improvement of the initial stage of interstitial lung disease during psoriasis
      treatment with secukinumab.

PMID- 28891082
TI  - Thrombolysis for Massive Pulmonary Embolism in Pregnancy.
AB  - Pregnant women are at high risk for venous thromboembolism, including pulmonary
      embolism (PE), given expected changes in coagulation, fibrinolysis, and venous
      blood flow. In fact, PE is the leading cause of maternal death in the United
      States. Nonpregnant patients who develop PE with hypotension or show signs of
      deterioration after anticoagulation receive thrombolytics as a standard of care.
      Pregnant women, however, have been excluded from clinical trials with
      thrombolytics, and all data available in this population are published as case
      reports or case series. We reviewed all reports of thrombolytics, systemic or
      catheter directed, used in pregnant patients with massive PE. This article
      summarizes the risks for thromboembolism in pregnancy, compares and contrasts
      thrombolytic agents in this setting, and provides a recommendation for management
      of massive PE in this special population. Overall, reports suggest that the use
      of these agents is associated with beneficial outcomes and a relatively low risk
      of complications. The quality of this evidence is low, and clinical judgment is
      required to assess individual patients for risks versus benefits of thrombolysis.

PMID- 28891084
TI  - Structured advice provided by a dietitian increases adherence of consumers to
      diet and lifestyle changes and lowers blood low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
      cholesterol: the Increasing Adherence of Consumers to Diet & Lifestyle Changes to
      Lower (LDL) Cholesterol (ACT) randomised controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence from healthcare professionals suggest that consumer
      compliance to healthy diet and lifestyle changes is often poor. The present study
      investigated the effect of advice provided by a physician or dietitian on
      consumer adherence to these measures combined with consuming foods with added
      plant sterols (PS) with the aim of lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
      (LDL-C). METHODS: One hundred mildly-to-moderately hypercholesterolaemic
      individuals were enrolled into a parallel, randomised, placebo-controlled study.
      Dietitians (dietitian group; DG) advised 50 individuals in six weekly face-to
      face behavioural therapy sessions, whereas the other 50 received standard advice
      from physicians (physician group, PG). Both groups consumed foods with added PS
      (three servings a day) for 6 weeks. Subsequently, all individuals were followed
      up for another 6 weeks under real-life conditions. Blood lipids were measured at
      baseline and weeks 6 and 12 and 3-day diet diaries were taken at weeks 1, 6 and
      12. RESULTS: Individuals in the DG significantly improved their dietary habits,
      physical activity and increased PS intake compared to the PG. After 6 weeks, LDL
      C decreased in both groups compared to baseline without any significant
      differences between groups. At week 12, LDL-C was further significantly improved
      only in the DG (P = 0.006) compared to week 6. Total cholesterol, LDL-C and
      triglycerides were significantly lower in the DG compared to the PG at week 12
      after adjusting for levels at week 6 (P < 0.001, P < 0.001 and P = 0.009,
      respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Although structured counselling by dietitians and
      common standard advice by physicians were equally effective with respect to
      improving blood cholesterol after 6 weeks, dietitians were more effective in the
      longer-term (i.e. 6 weeks after the end of the intervention period).

PMID- 28891083
TI  - A nationwide survey of hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome (a multicenter
      retrospective study).
AB  - Hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome (hMDS) is a distinct entity with bone marrow
      (BM) hypocellularity and the risk of death from BM failure (BMF). To elucidate
      the characteristics of hMDS, the data of 129 patients diagnosed between April
      2003 and March 2012 were collected from 20 institutions and the central review
      team of the National Research Group on Idiopathic Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes,
      and compared with 115 non-hMDS patients. More RA and fewer CMMoL and RAEB-t in
      French-American-British (FAB) and more RCUD and MDS-U and fewer RCMD in World
      Health Organization (WHO) classifications were found in hMDS than non-hMDS with
      significant differences. The overall survival (OS) and AML progression-free
      survival (AML-PFS) of hMDS were higher than those of non-hMDS, especially in
      patients at age >=50 and of lower risk in Revised International Prognostic
      Scoring System (IPSS-R). In competing risks analysis, hMDS exhibited decreased
      risk of AML-progression in lower IPSS or IPSS-R risk patients, and higher risk of
      death from BMF in patients at age >=50. Poor performance status (PS >=2) and high
      karyotype risks in IPSS-R (high and very high) were significant risk factors of
      death and AML-progression in Cox proportional hazards analysis.

PMID- 28891085
TI  - Lipopolysaccharide and cytokines modulate leukotriene (LT)B4 and LTC4 production
      by porcine endometrial endothelial cells.
AB  - Uterine inflammatory response is mediated by inflammatory mediators including
      eicosanoids and cytokines produced by immune and endometrial cells. Interactions
      between lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and cytokines, and leukotrienes (LTs) in
      endothelium, important for the host defence during the inflammation, are unknown.
      We studied the effect of LPS, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin
      (IL)-1beta, IL-4 and IL-10 on 5-lipooxygenase (5-LO), LTA4  hydrolase (LTAH) and
      LTC4 synthase (LTCS) mRNA and protein expression, LTB4 and LTC4 release from
      porcine endometrial endothelial cells, and cell viability. For 24 hr, cells were
      exposed to LPS (10 or 100 ng/ml of medium) and cytokines (each 1 or 10 ng/ml). 5
      LO mRNA/protein expression augmented after incubation with larger doses of LPS,
      TNF-alpha, IL-4 and IL-10 and smaller dose of IL-1beta. Larger dose of TNF-alpha,
      smaller doses of LPS and IL-1beta and both doses of IL-10 increased LTAH
      mRNA/protein expression. LTAH protein content was up-regulated by larger dose of
      LPS, but it was reduced in response to both doses of IL-4. LTCS mRNA expression
      was elevated by larger doses of LPS, IL-4 and IL-10 or both doses of TNF-alpha
      and IL-1beta. LTCS protein level increased after treatment with both doses of IL
      1beta, IL-4 and IL-10, smaller dose of LPS and larger dose of TNF-alpha. Both
      doses of LPS and larger doses of TNF-alpha and IL-10 increased LTB4 release. LPS,
      IL-1beta and IL-10 at smaller doses, or TNF-alpha and IL-4 at larger doses
      stimulated LTC4 release. Smaller doses of TNF-alpha and IL-1beta or both doses of
      IL-4 enhanced the cell viability. This work provides new insight on the
      participation of LPS, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-4 and IL-10 in LTB4 and LTC4
      production/release from porcine endometrial endothelial cells, and the effect of
      above factors on these cells viability. The used cellular model gives the
      possibility to further establish the interactions between inflammatory mediators.

PMID- 28891086
TI  - Patients' perceptions and experiences of patient-centred care in dietetic
      consultations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patient-centred care (PCC) is essential to quality healthcare.
      However, there is a paucity of research on PCC in dietetics, particularly
      regarding patients' experiences and perspectives of PCC. We aimed to enhance our
      understanding of PCC in dietetics by exploring patients' perceptions and
      experiences of PCC in individual dietetic consultations. METHODS: The present
      study used qualitative methods, situated in a constructivist-interpretivist
      paradigm. Maximum variation purposive sampling was used to recruit English
      speaking adult participants who had participated in >=1 dietetic consultations
      for nutrition care. Individual semi-structured interviews explored participants'
      perceptions and experiences of PCC in dietetic consultations. Data were analysed
      thematically. RESULTS: Eleven patients were interviewed between September and
      November 2016. Four overarching themes emerged: (i) fostering and maintaining
      caring relationships; (ii) delivering individualised care; (iii) enabling patient
      involvement; and (iv) taking control of one's own health. CONCLUSIONS: PCC is
      important to patients. Thus, there is opportunity for dietitians to enhance the
      care they provide by adopting patient-centred practices. As the first study of
      its kind, these findings can inform future dietetic practice, education and
      research by contributing patients' perspectives of PCC. By understanding
      patients' unique needs and preferences, dietitians can better align their
      practice with a patient-centred approach. Furthermore, these findings are useful
      for informing future dietetic research and education.

PMID- 28891087
TI  - Elucidation of salvage laryngectomy pathologic and clinical variables to guide
      further treatment intensification investigation.
AB  - OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: There are limited treatment options beyond surgical salvage
      for patients who fail nonoperative treatment for laryngeal squamous cell
      carcinoma. In this study, we examine the failure patterns after surgical salvage
      and the potential pathologic and clinical prognostic variables that might guide
      further postoperative intensification investigation. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective
      analysis at a tertiary academic referral center. METHODS: From an institutional
      review board-approved institutional head and neck cancer registry, a consecutive
      series of 147 patients who underwent salvage laryngectomy for squamous cell
      cancer recurrence or persistence after radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy
      between May 1995 and May 2016 were identified. Variables potentially associated
      with oncologic outcome after surgical salvage were then collected and
      retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: The projected 2-year locoregional failure
      rate was 21.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 14.6%-29.0%]), and the overall
      survival 65% (95% CI, 57.5%-74.3%) for the entire cohort after salvage
      laryngectomy. On multivariable analysis, sarcomatoid/spindle cell pathology
      (hazard ratio [HR], 3.147; 95% CI, 1.181-8.386; P = 0.022), lymphovascular space
      invasion (LVSI) (positive vs. negative; HR, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.21-4.42; P = 0.011),
      and advanced initial American Joint Committee on Cancer 7th Edition grouped stage
      (stages III-IVB vs. stages I-II; HR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.04-2.6; P = 0.035) were
      found to be independently associated with inferior disease-free survival. No
      other clinical or pathologic variables predicted failure. CONCLUSION: Salvage
      laryngectomy after nonoperative treatment failure results in successful
      locoregional control rates and survival in the majority of patients failing
      initial therapy. This should temper enthusiasm for routine treatment
      intensification with postoperative re-irradiation and/or other systemic
      treatments for the vast majority of patients. Sarcomatoid pathology, LVSI, and an
      advanced initial stage are associated with inferior disease-free survival. The
      presence of these factors may warrant further investigational study of treatment
      intensification after salvage laryngectomy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4. Laryngoscope,
      128:823-830, 2018.

PMID- 28891088
TI  - Prevalence of Elevated Serum Creatinine Concentration in Dogs Presenting to a
      Veterinary Academic Medical Center (2010-2014).
AB  - BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of kidney disease is not extensively described in
      dogs. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To better understand the prevalence of elevated
      serum creatinine concentration in dogs. ANIMALS: Client-owned dogs. METHODS: A
      retrospective, observational cross-sectional study design was used. We made a
      dataset of 115,631 hospital visits of all dogs presenting from October 2010 to
      October 2014. We estimated the prevalence and risk of elevated serum creatinine,
      defined as >1.6 mg/dL, in evaluated dogs. RESULTS: Of 115,631 visits, 98,693 were
      outpatient visits and 16,938 were hospital admissions. Among outpatient visits,
      9,983 (10.1%) had serum creatinine assessment (4,423 [44.3%] visits were first
      visits), whereas, among hospital admissions, 12,228 (60.0%) had at least 1 serum
      creatinine (7,731 [75.6%] admissions were first admissions). The prevalence of
      elevated serum creatinine concentration in all evaluated dogs was 11.5% (95% CI:
      11.0%, 11.9%); 10.2% (95% CI: 9.6%, 10.8%) of inpatients and 12.9% (95% CI:
      12.1%, 13.8%) of outpatients had elevated serum creatinine concentration. The
      relative risk (RR) of elevated serum creatinine concentration was significantly
      higher in geriatric dogs (outpatient RR 1.45 [95% CI: 1.23, 1.70], inpatient RR
      1.43 [95% CI: 1.16, 1.76]) and lower in young dogs (outpatient RR 0.39 [95% CI:
      0.26, 0.59], inpatient RR 0.44 [95% CI: 0.32, 0.62]) when compared to the
      measured population risk. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: When selected for
      laboratory evaluation, the proportion of dogs presenting to an academic medical
      center with evidence of kidney injury is high compared to previous reports and
      might reflect a population of sicker dogs.

PMID- 28891089
TI  - Molecular insights into the transcriptional regulatory role of thyroid hormones
      in ovarian cancer.
AB  - The regulation of cancer-relevant genes by the thyroid hormones, 3, 5, 3'-Triiodo
      L-thyronine (T3) and L-thyroxine (T4), was recently acknowledged. However,
      limited data exists on the hormonal effects on gene expression in ovarian cancer,
      a gynecological malignancy associated with a low cure rate. The expression of
      fifteen genes involved in DNA repair, cell cycle, apoptosis, and tumor
      suppression was evaluated in OVCAR-3 and A2780 cell lines, using real-time PCR
      following short incubation with T3 (1 nM) or T4 (100 nM). The thyroid hormones
      downregulated the expression of the majority of genes examined. Support for the
      involvement of the MAPK and PI3K in thyroid hormone-mediated gene expression was
      shown for a set of genes. FAS expression was inhibited in A2780 cells, while an
      unexpected induction was demonstrated in OVCAR-3 cells. An analogous effect on
      the protein levels of FAS receptor and its soluble form was demonstrated by
      Western blotting. We further established, using primer sets that discriminate
      between the different RNA isoforms, that the hormones increase the mRNA levels of
      both coding and non-coding FAS mRNAs. The prevalence of these isoforms, using The
      Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) analysis, was significantly more abundant in 17 cancer
      types, including ovarian cancer, compared to normal tissues. Our results
      highlight the role of thyroid hormones in the expression of cancer-relevant-genes
      in ovarian cancer and provide an important insight into the pathways by which
      mitogenic and anti-apoptotic effects are exerted.

PMID- 28891090
TI  - Molecular targets of vitexin and isovitexin in cancer therapy: a critical review.
AB  - Cancer is a primary public health problem and the second leading cause of death
      worldwide. It causes life-threatening malignancies and results in high financial
      costs for both patients and the healthcare system. Hence, it is important to
      develop effective long-term strategies pertaining to prevention and control of
      cancers. Plant-derived secondary metabolites have been shown to have positive
      roles against various cancers. A number of plant extracts have been evaluated for
      possible use in the treatment of cancer; some have provided direction for new
      strategies for the research and development of antitumor agents. Here, we provide
      comprehensive data on various cancers, potential molecular mechanisms, and
      therapeutic implications of just two plant-derived compounds, vitexin and
      isovitexin. Information on the chemotherapeutic potential of vitexin and
      isovitexin was collected from a library database and through electronic searches
      (ScienceDirect, Pubmed, and Google Scholar). Both in vitro and in vivo studies
      suggest that vitexin and isovitexin are chemopreventive compounds with activity
      against various cancers through proapoptotic processes and/or autophagy.

PMID- 28891091
TI  - Natural products to prevent drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy: a review.
AB  - Chemotherapy is the standard internal medical treatment for cancer. However, the
      resistance of cancer cells to nearly all kinds of chemotherapeutic drugs and
      targeted drugs has become prevalent, and approximately 80-90% of deaths in cancer
      patients are directly or indirectly attributed to drug resistance. The progress
      of new drug research and development has also been impeded by the occurrence of
      drug resistance, which has emerged as a considerable challenge in cancer therapy.
      Fortunately, natural products with diverse chemical structures and
      pharmacological effects serve as effective substances against drug resistance.
      Since the discovery of a series of drug-resistant proteins, drug-efflux
      inhibition has been applied as the primary strategy to overcome drug resistance
      by maintaining the intracellular concentrations of chemotherapeutic drugs.
      Nonapoptotic cell death is considered an alternative strategy because most cases
      of drug resistance result in evasion and insensitivity to apoptosis. In this
      concise review, we summarize two strategies using natural products against drug
      resistance.

PMID- 28891092
TI  - Plant non-starch polysaccharides that inhibit key enzymes linked to type 2
      diabetes mellitus.
AB  - Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a metabolic disease becoming ever more common,
      is the result of disturbed glyco- and lipid metabolism. On the basis of their
      inhibitory effects against several key enzymes linked to T2DM, synthetic
      antidiabetic agents have been developed and used for diabetic therapy, some with
      adverse side effects. Fortunately, many plant non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs)
      have been shown to possess inhibitory effects on the same T2DM-related enzymes.
      Through a simple literature search we found that alpha-amylase, alpha
      glucosidase, lipase, and dipeptidyl-peptidase IV are the enzymes most often
      reported in the context of T2DM. In this short review we discuss published
      evidence for inhibition of these enzymes and the implications for treating T2DM.

PMID- 28891093
TI  - Tocotrienols for bone health: a translational approach.
AB  - Osteoporosis, a degenerative bone disease, is characterized by low bone mass and
      microstructural deterioration of bone tissue resulting in aggravated bone
      fragility and susceptibility to fractures. The trend of extended life expectancy
      is accompanied by a rise in the prevalence of osteoporosis and concomitant
      complications in the elderly population. Epidemiological evidence has shown an
      association between vitamin E consumption and the prevention of age-related bone
      loss in elderly women and men. Animal studies show that ingestion of vitamin E,
      especially tocotrienols, may benefit bone health in terms of maintaining higher
      bone mineral density and improving bone microstructure and quality. The
      beneficial effects of tocotrienols on bone health appear to be mediated via
      antioxidant/anti-inflammatory pathways and/or 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme
      A mechanisms. We discuss (1) an overview of the prevalence and etiology of
      osteoporosis, (2) types of vitamin E (tocopherols versus tocotrienols), (3)
      findings of tocotrienols and bone health from published in vitro and animal
      studies, (4) possible mechanisms involved in bone protection, and (5) challenges
      and future direction for research.

PMID- 28891094
TI  - Regulation of the tumor suppressor PTEN by natural anticancer compounds.
AB  - The tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) has phosphatase
      activity, with phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate (PIP3), a product of
      phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), as one of the principal substrates. PTEN is
      a negative regulator of the Akt pathway, which plays a fundamental role in
      controlling cell growth, survival, and proliferation. Loss of PTEN function has
      been observed in many different types of cancer. Functional inactivation of PTEN
      as a consequence of germ-line mutations or promoter hypermethylation predisposes
      individuals to malignancies. PTEN undergoes posttranslational modifications, such
      as oxidation, acetylation, phosphorylation, SUMOylation, and ubiquitination,
      which influence its catalytic activity, interactions with other proteins, and
      subcellular localization. Cellular redox status is crucial for posttranslational
      modification of PTEN and its functional consequences. Oxidative stress and
      inflammation are major causes of loss of PTEN function. Pharmacologic or
      nutritional restoration of PTEN function is considered a reliable strategy in the
      management of PTEN-defective cancer. In this review, we highlight natural
      compounds, such as curcumin, indol-3 carbinol, and omega-3 fatty acids, that have
      the potential to restore or potentiate PTEN expression/activity, thereby
      suppressing cancer cell proliferation, survival, and resistance to
      chemotherapeutic agents.

PMID- 28891095
TI  - Biological and clinical implications of herbal medicine and natural products for
      the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
AB  - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of chronic inflammatory disorders
      that includes Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Homeostasis of
      various regulatory factors involved with intestinal immunity is disrupted in IBD,
      including the intestinal epithelial barrier, macrophages, and cellular mediators
      such as cytokines and chemokines. No successful treatment is currently available
      for the management of IBD. Natural products and herbal medicines have exhibited
      efficacy for UC and CD in experimental models and clinical trials with the
      following activities: (1) maintenance of integrity of the intestinal epithelial
      barrier, (2) regulation of macrophage activation, (3) modulation of innate and
      adaptive immune response, and (4) inhibition of TNF-alpha activity. Here, we
      discuss the major factors involved in the pathogenesis of IBD and the current
      development of natural products and herbs for the treatment of IBD.

PMID- 28891096
TI  - N-Phosphine Oxide-Substituted Imidazolylidenes (PoxIms): Multifunctional
      Multipurpose Carbenes.
AB  - This article discusses the concept of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) equipped
      with more than one functional moiety, which allows using these NHCs for multiple
      purposes. A pioneering example for such NHCs is N-phosphine oxide-substituted
      imidazolylidenes (PoxIms), and their synthesis and strategic use are highlighted.
      The utility of PoxIms by far exceeds the conventional use as multidentate ligands
      for metal complexes on account of the synergetic functions of the carbene and the
      N-phosphine oxide group(s).

PMID- 28891098
TI  - Heterometallic Zn3 Ln3 Ensembles Containing (MU6 -CO3 ) Ligand and Triangular
      Disposition of Ln3+ ions: Analysis of Single-Molecule Toroic (SMT) and Single
      Molecule Magnet (SMM) Behavior.
AB  - Two new heterometallic Zn3 Ln3 (Ln3+ =Dy, Tb) complexes, with a double triangular
      topology of the metal ions, have been assembled from the polytopic Mannich base
      ligand 6,6'-{[2-(dimethylamino)ethylazanediyl]bis(methylene)}bis(2-methoxy-4
      methylphenol) (H2 L) with the aid of an in situ generated carbonate ligand from
      atmospheric CO2 fixation. Theoretical calculations indicate axial ground states
      for the Ln3+ ions in these complexes, with their local magnetic moments being
      almost coplanar and tangential to the Ln3+ atoms that define the equilateral
      triangle. Therefore, they can be considered as single-molecule toroics (SMTs)
      with almost zero total magnetic moment. Micro-SQUID measurements on the Dy3+
      counterpart show hysteresis loops below 3 K that have an S-shape, with large
      coercive fields opening upon cooling. This behavior is typical of a single
      molecule magnet (SMM) with very slow zero-field relaxation. At around +/-0.35 T,
      the loops have a broad step, which is due to a direct relaxation process and
      corresponds to an acceleration of the relaxation of the magnetization, also
      observed at this magnetic field from ac susceptibility measurements. Simulations
      suggest that the broad step corresponds to two level avoidance of crossing points
      where the spin chiral Kramers doublet meets excited states of the coupled
      manifold, whose position is defined by exchange and dipole interactions. The Tb3+
      counterpart does not exhibit SMM behavior, which is due to the fact that the
      degeneracy of the ground state of the exchange coupled system is lifted at zero
      field, thus favoring quantum tunneling of magnetization (QTM).

PMID- 28891097
TI  - Ventral neural patterning in the absence of a Shh activity gradient from the
      floorplate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Vertebrate spinal cord development requires Sonic Hedgehog (Shh)
      signaling from the floorplate and notochord, where it is thought to act in
      concentration dependent manner to pattern distinct cell identities along the
      ventral-to-dorsal axis. While in vitro experiments demonstrate naive neural
      tissues are sensitive to small changes in Shh levels, genetic studies illustrate
      that some degree of ventral patterning can occur despite significant
      perturbations in Shh signaling. Consequently, the mechanistic relationship
      between Shh morphogen levels and acquisition of distinct cell identities remains
      unclear. RESULTS: We addressed this using Hedgehog acetyltransferase (HhatCreface
      ) and Wiggable mouse mutants. Hhat encodes a palmitoylase required for the
      secretion of Hedgehog proteins and formation of the Shh gradient. In its absence,
      the spinal cord develops without floorplate cells and V3 interneurons. Wiggable
      is an allele of the Shh receptor Patched1 (Ptch1Wig ) that is unable to inhibit
      Shh signal transduction, resulting in expanded ventral progenitor domains.
      Surprisingly, HhatCreface/Creface ; Ptch1Wig/Wig double mutants displayed fully
      restored ventral patterning despite an absence of Shh secretion from the
      floorplate. CONCLUSIONS: The full range of neuronal progenitor types can be
      generated in the absence of a Shh gradient provided pathway repression is
      dampened, illustrating the complexity of morphogen dynamics in vertebrate
      patterning. Developmental Dynamics 247:170-184, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28891099
TI  - Opioid and Benzodiazepine Weaning in Pediatric Patients: Review of Current
      Literature.
AB  - Pediatric opioid and benzodiazepine withdrawal are avoidable complications of
      pain and sedation management that is well described in the literature. To prevent
      withdrawal from occurring, practitioners regularly use a steady decrease of pain
      and sedation medications, also known as a weaning or tapering schedule. The
      weaning schedule is highly variable based on clinician preference and is usually
      dependent on the clinician. The purposes of this review are to evaluate the
      current literature on the process of opioid and benzodiazepine weaning in
      pediatric patients and to assess the various standardized protocols used to
      decrease withdrawal occurrences. We conducted a search of the PubMed, MEDLINE,
      Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL),
      Academic Search Premier, and PsycInfo databases. Studies were included if they
      described a wean or taper in pediatric patients aged 18 years or younger. Studies
      describing neonatal abstinence syndrome were excluded from the review. A total of
      97 studies published between 2000 and 2014 were retrieved; of those, 15 studies
      met the inclusion criteria. Studies were evaluated for selection of withdrawal
      assessment tool, wean protocol summary, preferred weaning agents, benzodiazepine
      withdrawal, and wean-at-home regimen. The most common opioid-weaning protocol
      approaches described a 10-20% dose decrease per day. Benzodiazepine weaning was
      not regularly standardized or described. The use of a standardized opioid-weaning
      protocol reduced withdrawal rates compared with nonstandardized weaning plans.
      Benzodiazepine weaning was inconsistently evaluated and may have affected study
      outcomes. Identified areas of improvement include the use of newer withdrawal
      assessment tools validated in the older pediatric population and standardized
      withdrawal assessment and reporting.

PMID- 28891100
TI  - Roq1 mediates recognition of the Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas effector proteins
      XopQ and HopQ1.
AB  - Xanthomonas spp. are phytopathogenic bacteria that can cause disease on a wide
      variety of plant species resulting in significant impacts on crop yields. Limited
      genetic resistance is available in most crop species and current control methods
      are often inadequate, particularly when environmental conditions favor disease.
      The plant Nicotiana benthamiana has been shown to be resistant to Xanthomonas and
      Pseudomonas due to an immune response triggered by the bacterial effector
      proteins XopQ and HopQ1, respectively. We used a reverse genetic screen to
      identify Recognition of XopQ 1 (Roq1), a nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat
      (NLR) protein with a Toll-like interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain, which
      mediates XopQ recognition in N. benthamiana. Roq1 orthologs appear to be present
      only in the Nicotiana genus. Expression of Roq1 was found to be sufficient for
      XopQ recognition in both the closely-related Nicotiana sylvestris and the
      distantly-related beet plant (Beta vulgaris). Roq1 was found to co
      immunoprecipitate with XopQ, suggesting a physical association between the two
      proteins. Roq1 is able to recognize XopQ alleles from various Xanthomonas
      species, as well as HopQ1 from Pseudomonas, demonstrating widespread potential
      application in protecting crop plants from these pathogens.

PMID- 28891101
TI  - The interstitial lung disease multidisciplinary meeting: A position statement
      from the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Lung Foundation
      Australia.
AB  - Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are a diverse group of pulmonary diseases for
      which accurate diagnosis is critical for optimal treatment outcomes. Diagnosis of
      ILD can be challenging and a multidisciplinary approach is recommended in
      international guidelines. The purpose of this position paper is to review the
      evidence for the use of the multidisciplinary meeting (MDM) in ILD and suggest an
      approach to its governance and constitution, in an attempt to provide a standard
      methodology that could be applied across Australia and New Zealand. This position
      paper is endorsed by the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ)
      and the Lung Foundation Australia (LFA).

PMID- 28891102
TI  - CO Oxidation by Group 3 Metal Monoxide Cations Supported on [Fe(CO)4 ]2.
AB  - Infrared photodissociation spectroscopy of mass-selected heteronuclear cluster
      anions in the form of OMFe(CO)5- (M=Sc, Y, La) indicates that all these anions
      involve an 18-electron [Fe(CO)4 ]2- building block that is bonded with the M
      center through two bridged carbonyl ligands. The OLaFe(CO)5- anion is determined
      to be a CO-tagged complex involving a [Fe(CO)4 ]2- [LaO]+ anion core. In
      contrast, the OYFe(CO)5- anion is characterized to have a [Fe(CO)4 ]2- [Y(eta2 
      CO2 )]+ structure involving a side-on bonded CO2 ligand. The CO-tagged complex
      and the [Fe(CO)4 ]2- [Sc(eta2 -CO2 )]+ isomer co-exist for the OScFe(CO)5- anion.
      These observations indicate that both the ScO+ and YO+ cations supported on
      [Fe(CO)4 ]2- are able to oxidize CO to CO2 . Theoretical analyses show that
      [Fe(CO)4 ]2- coordination significantly weakens the MO+ bond and decreases the
      energy gap of the interacting valence orbitals between MO+ and CO, leading to the
      CO oxidation reactions being both thermodynamically exothermic and kinetically
      facile.

PMID- 28891103
TI  - Does assimilation of problematic experiences predict a decrease in symptom
      intensity?
AB  - : The assimilation model describes therapeutic change as an integration of
      experiences that had previously been problematic, distressing, avoided, or warded
      off. This study assessed whether assimilation was associated with treatment
      outcome in a sample of psychotherapeutic treatments for depression. Further, it
      assessed the direction of the association-whether increasing assimilation
      predicted decreases in symptom intensity or decreasing symptom intensity
      predicted increases in assimilation. METHOD: Participants were 22 clients with
      mild to moderate depression drawn from a clinical trial comparing cognitive
      behavioral therapy with emotion-focused therapy. The direction of prediction
      between assimilation progress and changes in self-reported symptom intensity was
      assessed. RESULTS: The assimilation progress was shown to be a better predictor
      of decreases in symptom intensity than the reverse. CONCLUSION: The results
      supported the assimilation model's suggestion that assimilation progress promotes
      decreases in symptom intensity in the treatment of clients with major depressive
      disorder.

PMID- 28891104
TI  - Patient information websites: how do we assess their usefulness?

PMID- 28891105
TI  - Regioselective Transformation of Long pi-Conjugated Backbones: From Oligofurans
      to Oligoarenes.
AB  - We demonstrate the transformation of oligofurans through sequential Diels-Alder
      cycloaddition reactions to provide oligoarenes in two chemical steps, regardless
      of the oligomer length. By this method, oligonaphthalenes containing up to six
      units were obtained in high yield through the formation of up to 12 new C-C
      bonds. The versatility of this method was demonstrated for various polyaromatic
      hydrocarbons. The regioselectivity of this process enabled the synthesis of a
      library of substituted triarylenes from a single terfuran precursor by
      modification of the dienophile strength and the order of addition. Overall, this
      study demonstrates that long oligofurans are interesting not only as organic
      electronic materials, but also as starting materials for the formation of various
      conjugated systems.

PMID- 28891106
TI  - Treatment resistance in potentially malignant disorders-'Nature' or 'Nurture'...?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Contemporary potentially malignant disorder management is based upon
      provisional histological diagnosis followed by interventional surgery to excise
      or ablate 'high-risk' mucosal lesions. Although the majority of patients achieve
      disease-free status post-treatment, others develop further or persistent disease
      unresponsive to intervention. METHODS: A detailed, retrospective clinico
      pathological review of treatment resistant potentially malignant lesions, from a
      590 patient cohort treated by CO2 laser surgery and followed for a mean of 7.3
      years, was undertaken. Clinical outcome was determined at study census date (31
      December 2014). RESULTS: A total of 87 patients (15%) exhibited PMD disease
      resistant to treatment: 34 (6%) became disease free following further treatment,
      whilst 53 (9%) had persistent disease despite intervention. Disease-free patients
      were younger, changed lesion appearance from erythroleukoplakia to leukoplakia (P
      = .004), developed further lesions at new sites, demonstrated reduction in
      dysplasia severity with time and required multiple treatments to achieve disease
      free status (P = .0005). In contrast, persistent disease patients were older,
      male, often presented with proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) on gingival
      and alveolar sites, displayed less severe dysplasia initially and underwent laser
      ablation rather than excision (P = .027). CONCLUSION: Despite clinico
      pathological profiling of treatment resistant patients, the precise inter
      relationship between the inherent nature of potentially malignant disease and the
      external influence of treatment intervention remains obscure.

PMID- 28891107
TI  - Corrigendum.

PMID- 28891108
TI  - Tailoring Semiconductor Lateral Multijunctions for Giant Photoconductivity
      Enhancement.
AB  - Semiconductor heterostructures have played a critical role as the enabler for new
      science and technology. The emergence of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)
      as atomically thin semiconductors has opened new frontiers in semiconductor
      heterostructures either by stacking different TMDs to form vertical
      heterojunctions or by stitching them laterally to form lateral heterojunctions
      via direct growth. In conventional semiconductor heterostructures, the design of
      multijunctions is critical to achieve carrier confinement. Analogously,
      successful synthesis of a monolayer WS2 /WS2(1-x) Se2x /WS2 multijunction lateral
      heterostructure via direct growth by chemical vapor deposition is reported. The
      grown structures are characterized by Raman, photoluminescence, and annular dark
      field scanning transmission electron microscopy to determine their lateral
      compositional profile. More importantly, using microwave impedance microscopy, it
      is demonstrated that the local photoconductivity in the alloy region can be
      tailored and enhanced by two orders of magnitude over pure WS2 . Finite element
      analysis confirms that this effect is due to the carrier diffusion and
      confinement into the alloy region. This work exemplifies the technological
      potential of atomically thin lateral heterostructures in optoelectronic
      applications.

PMID- 28891109
TI  - Strengthening community mental health competence-A realist informed case study
      from Dehradun, North India.
AB  - Few accounts exist of programmes in low- and middle-income countries seeking to
      strengthen community knowledge and skills in mental health. This case study uses
      a realist lens to explore how a mental health project in a context with few
      mental health services, strengthened community mental health competence by
      increasing community knowledge, creating safer social spaces and engaging
      partnerships for action. We used predominantly qualitative methods to explore
      relationships between context, interventions, mechanisms and outcomes in the
      "natural setting" of a community-based mental health project in Dehradun
      district, Uttarakhand, North India. Qualitative data came from focus group
      discussions, participant observation and document reviews of community teams'
      monthly reports on changes in behaviour, attitudes and relationships among
      stakeholder groups. Data analysis initially involved thematic analysis of three
      domains: knowledge, safe social spaces and partnerships for action. By exploring
      patterns within the identified themes for each domain, we were able to infer the
      mechanisms and contextual elements contributing to observed outcomes. Community
      knowledge was effectively increased by allowing communities to absorb new
      understanding into pre-existing social and cultural constructs. Non-hierarchical
      informal community conversations allowed "organic" integration of unfamiliar
      biomedical knowledge into local explanatory frameworks. People with psycho-social
      disability and caregivers found increased social support and inclusion by
      participating in groups. Building skills in respectful communication through role
      plays and reflexive discussion increased the receptivity of social environments
      to people with psycho-social disabilities participation, thereby creating safe
      social spaces. Facilitating social networks through groups increases women's
      capacity for collective action to promote mental health. In summary, locally
      appropriate methods contribute most to learning, stigma reduction and help
      seeking. The complex social change progress was patchy and often slow. This study
      demonstrates a participatory, iterative, reflexive project design which is
      generating evidence indicating substantial improvements in community mental
      health competence.

PMID- 28891110
TI  - Protein Digestion of Baby Foods: Study Approaches and Implications for Infant
      Health.
AB  - Protein digestion is critical for infants. Dissimilarities between infants and
      adults in food intake and digestive physiology lead to distinct patterns of
      proteolysis between individuals. However, such differences are not well
      represented in many studies on protein digestion of baby foods. The complex
      biological structures of baby foods and the physiology of the infant digestive
      system are key factors affecting proteolysis during the first two years of life.
      Well-controlled in vitro studies have demonstrated that varying digestion
      conditions alter the specificity, rate, and extent of proteolysis of baby foods.
      Nonetheless, these models do not completely replicate in vivo proteolysis or the
      complex biogeography of the gastrointestinal tract. Animal and clinical studies
      have revealed the fate of dietary proteins along the digestive tract and the
      overall health impact on subjects. Building comprehensive and annotated datasets
      from human infants will require innovative and standardized measurement. Now,
      more systematic evaluations of digestion are emerging to advance the knowledge
      and its translation as food design for effective diet and health management in
      infants.

PMID- 28891111
TI  - Construction of polylysine dendrimer nanocomposites carrying nattokinase and
      their application in thrombolysis.
AB  - Thrombotic disease has become one of the leading causes of mortality among humans
      globally. Nattokinase (NK), a novel thrombolytic agent, has attracted the
      attention of researchers. However, NK is a serine protease that is vulnerable to
      environmental effects resulting in its inactivation. In this study, polylysine
      dendrimer (PLLD) was synthesized through divergence-convergence method, and a
      series of NK/PLLD nanocomposites with different molar ratio was prepared. In
      addition, NK was successfully incorporated into the cores of PLLD G4 through
      hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces. In NK/PLLD nanocomposites, when the
      molar ratio of NK to PLLD is 1:30, a high relative enzyme activity level (up to
      117%) was achieved and was more stable at different temperatures and pH than free
      NK. In in vitro thrombolysis experiment, compared with free NK, NK/PLLD
      nanocomposites could control the release of NK. The thrombolysis rate of NK/PLLD
      nanocomposites reached 50% at 12 h, which can effectively avoid other
      complications such as hemorrhage. Interestingly, NK/PLLD nanocomposites with
      positive charge can penetrate into the negatively charged thrombus through
      electrostatic interaction, thus providing a good thrombolytic effect. Hemolysis
      and MTT experiments show that PLLD nanomaterials can serve as ideal carriers of
      protein drugs. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A:
      440-449, 2018.

PMID- 28891112
TI  - Candida albicans isolates from a single hospital show low phenotypical
      specialization.
AB  - Candida albicans is the best-studied opportunistic human pathogenic yeast
      species, and its virulence factors, susceptibility to antimycotics, the diversity
      of its physiological properties and the determinative factors of these traits are
      interesting from a clinical as well as from an evolutionary perspective. By
      applying statistical modeling for the phenotypical differences observed among a
      collection of 63 C. albicans isolates originating from different clinical care
      units, from a diverse group of patients with or without mycosis, collected in a
      Hungarian clinic, we found that (i) host-related aspects like anatomical source,
      care unit of isolation, patients' age, sex, and disease severity, or ABC
      genotypes of the isolates had less effect on the phenotypic features of this
      opportunistic pathogen than host-independent aspects, for example, year or month
      of isolation; (ii) different phenotypic traits did not show any significant
      correlations with each other; and (iii) different genotypes displayed no
      anatomical specialization and rarely showed any significant correlation with
      parameters of isolation either. These results shed light on the dynamic nature
      and low specialization of the C. albicans populations observable in a narrow
      geographic range, namely in the patients hospitalized in the different care units
      of the clinic.

PMID- 28891113
TI  - The impact of repeated mismatches in kidney transplantations performed after
      nonrenal solid organ transplantation.
AB  - The aim of this study was to determine whether kidney transplantations performed
      after previous nonrenal solid organ transplants are associated with worse graft
      survival when there are repeated HLA mismatches (RMM) with the previous donor(s).
      We performed a retrospective cohort study using data from the Scientific Registry
      of Transplant Recipients. Our cohort comprised 6624 kidney transplantations
      performed between January 1, 1990 and January 1, 2015. All patients had
      previously received 1 or more nonrenal solid organ transplants. RMM were observed
      in 35.3% of kidney transplantations and 3012 grafts were lost over a median
      follow-up of 5.4 years. In multivariate Cox regression analyses, we found no
      association between overall graft survival and either RMM in class 1 (hazard
      ratio [HR]: 0.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.89-1.07) or class 2 (HR: 0.95,
      95% CI 0.85-1.06). Results were similar for the associations between RMM, death
      censored graft survival, and patient survival. Our results suggest that the
      presence of RMM with previous donor(s) does not have an important impact on
      allograft survival in kidney transplant recipients who have previously received a
      nonrenal solid organ transplant.

PMID- 28891114
TI  - Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability of Green Tea Catechin Metabolites and their
      Neuritogenic Activity in Human Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y Cells.
AB  - SCOPE: To understand the mechanism by which green tea lowers the risk of
      dementia, focus was placed on the metabolites of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG),
      the most abundant catechin in green tea. Much of orally ingested EGCG is
      hydrolyzed to epigallocatechin (EGC) and gallic acid. In rats, EGC is then
      metabolized mainly to 5-(3',5'-dihydroxyphenyl)-gamma-valerolactone (EGC-M5) and
      its conjugated forms, which are distributed to various tissues. Therefore, we
      examined the permeability of these metabolites into the blood-brain barrier (BBB)
      and nerve cell proliferation/differentiation in vitro. METHODS AND RESULTS: The
      permeability of EGC-M5, glucuronide, and the sulfate of EGC-M5, pyrogallol, as
      well as its glucuronide into the BBB were examined using a BBB model kit. Each
      brain- and blood-side sample was subjected to liquid chromatography tandem-mass
      spectrometry analysis. BBB permeability (%, in 0.5 h) was 1.9-3.7%. In human
      neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, neurite length was significantly prolonged by EGC
      M5, and the number of neurites was increased significantly by all metabolites
      examined. CONCLUSION: The permeability of EGC-M5 and its conjugated forms into
      the BBB suggests that they reached the brain parenchyma. In addition, the ability
      of EGC-M5 to affect nerve cell proliferation and neuritogenesis suggests that EGC
      M5 may promote neurogenesis in the brain.

PMID- 28891115
TI  - Deficiency of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) prevents
      diet-induced aortic valve calcification in vivo.
AB  - Aortic valve (AoV) calcification is common in aged populations. Its subsequent
      aortic stenosis has been linked with increased morbidity, but still has no
      effective pharmacological intervention. Our previous data show endoplasmic
      reticulum (ER) stress is involved in AoV calcification. Here, we investigated
      whether deficiency of ER stress downstream effector CCAAT/enhancer-binding
      protein homology protein (CHOP) may prevent development of AoV calcification. AoV
      calcification was evaluated in Apoe-/- mice (n = 10) or in mice with dual
      deficiencies of ApoE and CHOP (Apoe-/- CHOP-/- , n = 10) fed with Western diet
      for 24 weeks. Histological and echocardiographic analysis showed that genetic
      ablation of CHOP attenuated AoV calcification, pro-calcification signaling
      activation, and apoptosis in the leaflets of Apoe-/- mice. In cultured human
      aortic valvular interstitial cells (VIC), we found oxidized low-density
      lipoprotein (oxLDL) promoted apoptosis and osteoblastic differentiation of VIC
      via CHOP activation. Using conditioned media (CM) from oxLDL-treated VIC, we
      further identified that oxLDL triggered osteoblastic differentiation of VIC via
      paracrine pathway, while depletion of apoptotic bodies (ABs) in CM suppressed the
      effect. CM from oxLDL-exposed CHOP-silenced cells prevented osteoblastic
      differentiation of VIC, while depletion of ABs did not further enhance this
      protective effect. Overall, our study indicates that CHOP deficiency protects
      against Western diet-induced AoV calcification in Apoe-/- mice. CHOP deficiency
      prevents oxLDL-induced VIC osteoblastic differentiation via preventing VIC
      derived ABs releasing.

PMID- 28891117
TI  - The sleeping patterns of Head Start children and the influence on developmental
      outcomes.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sleep has a significant influence on children's development. The
      objective of this study was to investigate Head Start children's sleeping
      patterns and the impact on cognitive and behavioural outcomes. METHODS: Using the
      2009 cohort of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (N = 2,868),
      information on sleeping patterns was assessed through parent interviews.
      Cognitive outcomes were assessed using direct assessments (Peabody Picture
      Vocabulary Test-IV, the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and Subtests
      of the Woodcock-Johnson III) in addition to teacher report. Behavioural outcomes
      were assessed through parent and teacher reports. A multiple regression analysis
      was performed for each outcome variable. RESULTS: Descriptive findings showed
      that 89% of children had a regular bedtime at least 4 days per week and that the
      average amount of sleep per night was 10.41 hr. White mothers were more likely
      than other racial groups to adhere to a consistent bedtime, and maternal
      employment predicted less hour of sleep per night. Multiple regression analyses
      revealed that disrupted sleep had a negative influence on cognitive outcomes,
      especially in areas of mathematical problem solving, receptive language, teacher
      reported literacy behaviours, and approaches to learning. Disrupted sleep was
      associated with the risk of misbehaviour by increasing teacher and parent ratings
      on aggressive behaviours, hyperactivity, and withdrawing in addition to decreased
      scores on overall social skills. Having an inconsistent bedtime negatively
      predicted expressive vocabulary and teacher-reported literacy behaviours.
      CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study support the influential role of sleep on
      children's development. Sleeping through the night and having a consistent
      bedtime were found to be predictive of many areas of cognitive and behavioural
      development. Head Start staff can provide the supports to increase parental
      knowledge on appropriate child sleep practices.

PMID- 28891116
TI  - Measuring treatment outcomes in gambling disorders: a systematic review.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Considerable variation of outcome variables used to measure
      recovery in the gambling treatment literature has precluded effective cross-study
      evaluations and hindered the development of best-practice treatment
      methodologies. The aim of this systematic review was to describe current diffuse
      concepts of recovery in the gambling field by mapping the range of outcomes and
      measurement strategies used to evaluate treatments, and to identify more commonly
      accepted indices of recovery. METHODS: A systematic search of six academic
      databases for studies evaluating treatments (psychological and pharmacological)
      for gambling disorders with a minimum 6-month follow-up. Data from eligible
      studies were tabulated and analysis conducted using a narrative approach.
      Guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta
      Analyses (PRISMA) were adhered to. RESULTS: Thirty-four studies were reviewed
      systematically (RCTs = 17, comparative designs = 17). Sixty-three different
      outcome measures were identified: 25 (39.7%) assessed gambling-specific
      constructs, 36 (57.1%) assessed non-gambling specific constructs, and two
      instruments were used across both categories (3.2%). Self-report instruments
      ranged from psychometrically validated to ad-hoc author-designed questionnaires.
      Units of measurement were inconsistent, particularly in the assessment of
      gambling behaviour. All studies assessed indices of gambling behaviour and/or
      symptoms of gambling disorder. Almost all studies (n = 30; 88.2%) included
      secondary measures relating to psychiatric comorbidities, psychological processes
      linked to treatment approach, or global functioning and wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS:
      In research on gambling disorders, the incorporation of broader outcome domains
      that extend beyond disorder-specific symptoms and behaviours suggests a multi
      dimensional conceptualization of recovery. Development of a single comprehensive
      scale to measure all aspects of gambling recovery could help to facilitate
      uniform reporting practices across the field.

PMID- 28891118
TI  - The effect of regular or reduced-fat distillers grains with solubles on rumen
      methanogenesis and the rumen bacterial community.
AB  - AIMS: The effect of feeding dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) or
      reduced-fat DDGS (RFDG) on ruminal methanogenesis and the rumen bacterial
      community of dairy cattle was evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS: Treatments were
      CONT, a diet with no distillers grains; DG, inclusion of 20% DDGS; rfDG,
      inclusion of 20% RFDG; and MIX, inclusion of 10% DDGS and 10% RFDG. Methane
      emission was measured; rumen bacterial community was evaluated by sequencing the
      V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Total methane production remained unaffected.
      However, feeding distillers grains tended to reduce methanogenesis per unit of
      feed intake, decreased the abundance of the phylum Bacteroidetes and tended to
      increase Firmicutes. The abundance of Prevotellaceae positively correlated with
      feed intake; methane emission was positively correlated with the abundance of
      Prevotellaceae and was negatively correlated with the abundance of
      Succinivibrionaceae. CONCLUSIONS: DDGS or RFDG may reduce methanogenesis per unit
      of feed intake; shifts in the abundance of predominant ruminal bacterial families
      may influence methane formation, likely because of their role on hydrogen
      liberation and utilization pathways. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY:
      Replacing corn and soybean meal with DDGS or RFDG in dairy rations may reduce the
      proportion of dietary energy wasted as methane, without detrimental effects on
      the overall bacterial population.

PMID- 28891119
TI  - Age-Varying Associations Between Cigarette Smoking, Sensation Seeking, and
      Impulse Control Through Adolescence and Young Adulthood.
AB  - Sensation seeking (SS) and impulse control (IC) are constructs at the core of
      dual systems models of adolescent risk taking. Using data from the National
      Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, age-varying associations
      between SS and IC (predictors) and both any smoking in the previous 30 days and
      daily smoking (outcomes) were examined. The association between SS and both any
      smoking in the previous 30 days and daily smoking was strongest during
      adolescence. IC was consistently associated with any smoking in the previous 30
      days and daily smoking, with the strongest association emerging during the mid
      20s to early 30s. The results provide a nuanced perspective on when the
      components of dual systems models may be most related to smoking.

PMID- 28891120
TI  - Hepatitis E in transfusion-dependent thalassaemia patients, in Greece: a single
      centre experience.
AB  - Hepatitis E is considered an emerging disease that may be a threat in both
      developing and industrialized countries all over the world. The risk of chronic
      hepatitis E virus infection is higher among immunocompromised patients. This
      study aimed to assess the status of hepatitis E infection in patients with
      transfusion-dependent thalassaemia from a single centre, in Greece. Our results
      suggest that the prevalence of hepatitis E infection in this group of patients is
      low.

PMID- 28891121
TI  - Mental health courts and forensic assertive community treatment teams as
      correctional diversion programs.
AB  - Problem-solving courts (PSCs) developed as a means of mandating treatment and
      judicial supervision of certain types of court participants. PSCs have rapidly
      expanded in number and type over several decades. Mental health courts (MHCs) are
      a type of PSC that arose in response to the growing number of persons with mental
      illness within the criminal justice system. Their primary role is to divert
      individuals with mental illness from incarceration into psychiatric treatment and
      to reduce recidivism while improving psychosocial functioning of participants.
      Although different in history, philosophy, and program structure, forensic
      assertive community treatment (FACT) programs serve a similar goal of reducing
      recidivism and improving functioning in persons with mental illness who are
      involved with the criminal justice system. FACTs may be used as a standalone
      diversion option or be linked with a MHC as a form of intensive treatment and
      monitoring. Suggestions for future research and evaluation of these programs are
      offered.

PMID- 28891123
TI  - Editorial: Lupus, the Chameleon: Many Disguises Difficult to Capture.

PMID- 28891122
TI  - Nerve-specific, xenogeneic extracellular matrix hydrogel promotes recovery
      following peripheral nerve injury.
AB  - Peripheral nerve possesses the inherent ability to regrow and recover following
      injury. However, nerve regeneration is often slow and incomplete due to
      limitations associated with the local microenvironment during the repair process.
      Manipulation of the local microenvironment at the site of nerve repair,
      therefore, represents a significant opportunity for improvement in downstream
      outcomes. Macrophages and Schwann cells play a key role in the orchestration of
      early events after peripheral nerve injury. We describe the production,
      characterization, and use of an injectable, peripheral nerve-specific
      extracellular matrix-based hydrogel (PNSECM) for promoting modulation of the
      local macrophage and Schwann cell responses at the site of nerve repair in a
      rodent model of sciatic nerve injury. We show that PNSECM hydrogels largely
      maintain the matrix structure associated with normal native peripheral nerve
      tissue. PNSECM hydrogels were also found to promote increased macrophage
      invasion, higher percentages of M2 macrophages and enhanced Schwann cell
      migration when used as a lumen filler in a rodent model of nerve gap repair using
      an inert nerve guidance conduit. These results suggest that an injectable PNSECM
      hydrogel can provide a supportive, bioactive scaffold which promotes repair of
      peripheral nerve in vivo. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res
      Part A: 106A: 450-459, 2018.

PMID- 28891125
TI  - Effect of cryoprotectants and thawing temperatures on chicken sperm quality.
AB  - There is need for standardization of freezing-thawing protocol for rooster semen
      to minimize variability among results. Therefore, we aimed to compare effect of
      four different permeating cryoprotectants and two thawing temperatures (37 vs. 5
      degrees C) on sperm post-thaw motility and to analyse combined effect of the best
      permeating cryoprotectant (P-CPA) with one of four non-permeating cryoprotectants
      (N-CPA) on post-thaw quality of rooster semen evaluated in vitro. Pooled semen
      from Ross PM3 rooster heavy line was diluted in Kobidil extender and frozen in
      cryoprotectant solution containing 6% dimethylacetamide, 7.5% dimethylformamide,
      9% N-methylacetamide or 8% ethylene glycol (EG) in liquid nitrogen vapours. To
      determine the best thawing rate, straws were thawed either at 37 or 5 degrees C.
      Furthermore, samples were frozen in the presence of the best N-CPA either with
      0.75 mol/L ficoll, 0.2 mol/L sucrose, 0.2 mol/L trehalose or 0.05 mol/L glycine.
      Sperm motility, membrane destabilization and viability were analysed to compare
      different freezing-thawing conditions. In addition, morphology and ultrastructure
      analysis were performed to compare fresh and frozen-thawed sperm quality. Our
      results indicate that the combination of EG and the thawing at 5 degrees C
      improves (p <= .05) sperm post-thaw motility. Moreover, ficoll addition to EG
      based freezing extender provided additional beneficial effect (p <= .05) on
      progressive movement and apoptosis incidence. Further work should evaluate
      different N-CPA concentrations to improve freezing protocol. In addition,
      fertility evaluation and testing on different chicken lines are needed in order
      to contribute to animal genetic resources bank.

PMID- 28891126
TI  - 'Drugs don't work in patients who don't take them' (C. Everett Koop, MD, US
      Surgeon General, 1985).

PMID- 28891124
TI  - Dockground: A comprehensive data resource for modeling of protein complexes.
AB  - Characterization of life processes at the molecular level requires structural
      details of protein interactions. The number of experimentally determined
      structures of protein-protein complexes accounts only for a fraction of known
      protein interactions. This gap in structural description of the interactome has
      to be bridged by modeling. An essential part of the development of structural
      modeling/docking techniques for protein interactions is databases of protein
      protein complexes. They are necessary for studying protein interfaces, providing
      a knowledge base for docking algorithms, and developing intermolecular
      potentials, search procedures, and scoring functions. Development of protein
      protein docking techniques requires thorough benchmarking of different parts of
      the docking protocols on carefully curated sets of protein-protein complexes. We
      present a comprehensive description of the Dockground resource
      (http://dockground.compbio.ku.edu) for structural modeling of protein
      interactions, including previously unpublished unbound docking benchmark set 4,
      and the X-ray docking decoy set 2. The resource offers a variety of
      interconnected datasets of protein-protein complexes and other data for the
      development and testing of different aspects of protein docking methodologies.
      Based on protein-protein complexes extracted from the PDB biounit files,
      Dockground offers sets of X-ray unbound, simulated unbound, model, and docking
      decoy structures. All datasets are freely available for download, as a whole or
      selecting specific structures, through a user-friendly interface on one
      integrated website.

PMID- 28891127
TI  - Helicobacter pylori, gastric cancer and other gastrointestinal malignancies.
AB  - In a retrospective study performed in California, U.S.A., ca. 3% of patients with
      gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) developed gastric cancer (GC) within a median
      time period of 4.6 years after diagnosis of GIM. This observation stresses the
      importance of targeted surveillance even in regions with a low GC prevalence.
      Patients with alcoholic liver disease as well as survivors of colorectal and
      lobular breast cancer were found to be at increased risk of secondary GC. A
      population-based Chinese study confirmed "serologic biopsy" as a useful screening
      tool for stratifying the individual risk of developing GC. Concerning GC therapy,
      a post hoc analysis of the MAGIC trial reported that regression of lymph node
      metastases, but not the tumor regression itself, predicts overall survival.
      Furthermore, in patients with high microsatellite instable tumors, perioperative
      chemotherapy leads to an increased risk of mortality. Two studies confirmed that
      eradication therapy is worthwhile as an initial treatment for gastric mucosa
      associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma irrespective of the H. pylori
      infection status and stage. An increased risk of a second primary malignancy
      including GC was observed in these patients treated with immuno/chemotherapy but
      not in patients treated solely with an H. pylori eradication treatment. With
      respect to gastrointestinal malignancies other than GC, discrepant data have been
      published regarding the association of H. pylori with pancreatic cancer whereas
      no association has been reported with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The
      majority of published studies still support an association of H. pylori with
      colon neoplasms.

PMID- 28891128
TI  - Helicobacter: Inflammation, immunology and vaccines.
AB  - Helicobacter pylori is usually acquired in early childhood and the infection
      persists lifelong without causing symptoms. In a small of cases, the infection
      leads to gastric or duodenal ulcer disease, or gastric cancer. Why disease occurs
      in these individuals remains unclear, however the host response is known to play
      a very important part. Understanding the mechanisms involved in maintaining
      control over the immune and inflammatory response is therefore extremely
      important. Vaccines against H. pylori have remained elusive but are desperately
      needed for the prevention of gastric carcinogenesis. This review focuses on
      research findings which may prove useful in the development of prognostic tests
      for gastric cancer development, therapeutic agents to control immunopathology,
      and effective vaccines.

PMID- 28891129
TI  - Gastric cancer: Basic aspects.
AB  - Gastric cancer is one of the most incident and deadliest malignancies in the
      world. Gastric cancer is a heterogeneous disease and the end point of a long and
      multistep process, which results from the stepwise accumulation of numerous
      (epi)genetic alterations, leading to dysregulation of oncogenic and tumor
      suppressor pathways. Gastric cancer stem cells have emerged as fundamental
      players in cancer development and as contributors to gastric cancer
      heterogeneity. For this special issue, we will report last year's update on the
      gastric cancer molecular classification, and in particular address the gastric
      cancer groups who could benefit from immune checkpoint therapy. We will also
      review the latest advances on gastric cancer stem cells, their properties as
      gastric cancer markers and therapeutic targets, and associated signaling
      pathways. The understanding of the molecular basis underlying gastric cancer
      heterogeneity and of the role played by gastric cancer stem cells in cancer
      development and heterogeneity is of major significance, not only for identifying
      novel targets for cancer prevention and treatment, but also for clinical
      management and patient stratification for targeted therapies.

PMID- 28891130
TI  - Pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori infection.
AB  - Helicobacter pylori is responsible for the most commonly found infection in the
      world's population. It is the major risk factor for gastric cancer development.
      Numerous studies published over the last year provide new insights into the
      strategies employed by H. pylori to adapt to the extreme acidic conditions of the
      gastric environment, to establish persistent infection and to deregulate host
      functions, leading to gastric pathogenesis and cancer. In this review, we report
      recent data on the mechanisms involved in chemotaxis, on the essential role of
      nickel in acid resistance and gastric colonization, on the importance of adhesins
      and Hop proteins and on the role of CagPAI-components and CagA. Among the host
      functions, a special focus has been made on the escape from immune response, the
      ability of bacteria to induce genetic instability and modulate telomeres, the
      mechanism of autophagy and the deregulation of micro RNAs.

PMID- 28891131
TI  - XXXth International Workshop on Helicobacter & Microbiota in Inflammation &
      Cancer, 7-9 September 2017, Bordeaux, France.

PMID- 28891132
TI  - Genomics of Helicobacter pylori.
AB  - As Helicobacter pylori infects half the world's population and displays an
      extensive intraspecies diversity, genomics is a powerful tool to understand
      evolution and disease, to identify factors that confer higher risk of severe
      sequelae, and to find new approaches for therapy both among bacterial and host
      targets. In line with these objectives, this review article summarizes the major
      findings in Helicobacter genomics in papers published between April 2016 and
      March 2017.

PMID- 28891133
TI  - Helicobacter pylori infection and extragastric diseases in 2017.
AB  - The huge variety of extragastric diseases linked to Helicobacter pylori infection
      is widely known, and new studies are conducted every year on this topic.
      Neurological disorders and metabolic syndrome are some of the main issues debated
      in the most recent literature. Articles on the association of H. pylori with skin
      diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, immunologic impairment, kidney
      dysfunction, allergic asthma, and respiratory diseases have been published as
      well. In this perspective, eradication therapy for this infection could become a
      mandatory measure in prevention strategy.

PMID- 28891134
TI  - 30th anniversary of the European helicobacter & microbiota study group!

PMID- 28891135
TI  - Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection.
AB  - Important progress is being made in endoscopic methods which allow clinicians to
      predict the presence of Helicobacter pylori based on characteristics of gastric
      mucosa and to obtain targeted biopsies. There are also important developments in
      molecular methods with various techniques derived from standard PCR, applied both
      on gastric biopsies and stool specimens. Progress is being made in microfluidic
      systems to get a reliable diagnosis in a very short time. The interest of the 13
      C urea breath test has been confirmed as well as stool antigen tests. Attempts
      are being made to find biological markers of premalignant conditions by serology,
      other than pepsinogens.

PMID- 28891136
TI  - Helicobacter pylori infection and nonmalignant diseases.
AB  - A substantial decrease in Helicobacter pylori-associated peptic ulcer disease has
      been observed during the last decades. Drug-related ulcers as well as idiopathic
      ulcers are becoming predominant and are more refractory to treatment; however, H.
      pylori infection still plays an important role in ulcer bleeding and recurrence
      after therapy. The effect of H. pylori eradication upon functional dyspepsia
      symptoms has been reviewed in this article and generally confirms the results of
      previous meta-analyses. Additional evidence suggests a lack of impact upon the
      quality of life, in spite of improvement in symptoms. The association of H.
      pylori with gastroesophageal reflux disease and Barrett's esophagus remains
      controversial with a majority of published studies showing a negative
      association. Furthermore, a strong inverse relationship between the presence of
      H. pylori and the esophageal eosinophilia was also reported. Several studies and
      a review addressed the role of H. pylori in autoimmune gastritis and pernicious
      anemia. The association of the above still remains controversial. Finally, the
      necessity of routine endoscopy and H. pylori eradication before bariatric surgery
      is discussed. Several studies suggest the rationale of preoperative upper
      endoscopy and H. pylori eradication prior to surgery. However, the prevalence of
      H. pylori infection prior to surgery in these studies generally reflects the
      overall prevalence of the infection in the particular geographic area. In
      addition, results on the role of H. pylori in developing postoperative
      complications remain controversial.

PMID- 28891137
TI  - Treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection 2017.
AB  - This review summarizes important studies regarding Helicobacter pylori therapy
      published from April 2016 to April 2017. The main themes that emerge involve
      studies assessing the efficacy of bismuth and nonbismuth quadruple regimens.
      While in recent years, much of the emphasis on the use of bismuth has focussed on
      its utility in a second-line setting, an increasing number of studies this year
      have shown excellent efficacy in first-line therapy. The efficacy of bismuth as a
      second-line after sequential and concomitant therapy was particularly noteworthy.
      Antibiotic resistance was more intensely studied this year than for a long time,
      and definite trends are presented regarding an increase in resistance, including
      the fact that clarithromycin resistance in particular is now at a level where the
      continued use of clarithromycin triple therapy first-line as a mainstream
      treatment is not recommended. Another exciting trend to emerge this year is the
      utility of vonoprazan as an alternative to PPI therapy, especially in resistant
      and difficult-to-treat groups.

PMID- 28891138
TI  - Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori infection.
AB  - The study of Helicobacter pylori genetic variability brought us interesting data
      on the history of mankind. Based on multilocus sequence typing and more recently
      on whole-genome sequencing, paleomicrobiology still attracts the attention of
      global researchers in relation to its ancestor roots and coexistence with humans.
      Three studies determining the prevalence of virulence factors illustrates the
      controversial results obtained since 30 years by studies trying to associate
      prevalence of different virulence markers and clinical outcomes of H. pylori
      infection. Three articles analyzed the prevalence and risk of multiple
      (genetically distinct isolates) and mixed (susceptible and resistant isolates)
      infections. A number of studies confirm that H. pylori prevalence is falling
      worldwide especially in the developed world and in children but that the level of
      infection is higher in certain ethnic minorities and in Migrants. There is little
      new in identifying the mode of H. pylori transmission though intrafamilial spread
      appears to be important. There have, however, been some interesting papers on the
      presence of the organism in food, water, and the oral cavity.

PMID- 28891139
TI  - Helicobacter pylori infection in children.
AB  - Helicobacter pylori infection in children differs from that in adults, from the
      point of view of epidemiology, host response, clinical features, related
      diseases, and diagnosis, as well as treatment strategies. The prevalence of H.
      pylori infection, in both children and adults, is decreasing in the Western World
      as well as in some developing countries, which contrasts with the increase in
      childhood asthma and allergic diseases. Recurrent abdominal pain is not specific
      during H. pylori infection in children. The role of H. pylori infection and
      failure to thrive, children's growth, type I diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and celiac
      disease remains controversial. The main initial diagnosis is based on upper
      digestive endoscopy with biopsy-based methods. Nodular gastritis may be a
      pathognomonic endoscopic finding of childhood H. pylori infection. The infection
      eradication control is based on validated noninvasive tests. The main cause of
      treatment failure of H. pylori infection is its clarithromycin resistance. We
      recommend standard antibiotic susceptibility testing of H. pylori in pediatric
      patients prior to the initiation of eradication therapy. H. pylori treatment in
      children should be based on an evaluation of the rate of eradication in the local
      population, a systematic use of a treatment adapted to the susceptibility profile
      and a treatment compliance greater than 90%. The last meta-analysis in children
      did not show an advantage for sequential therapy when compared to a 14-day triple
      therapy. Finally, the high rate of antibiotic resistance responsible for therapy
      failure in recent years justifies the necessity of a novel vaccine to prevent H.
      pylori infection in children.

PMID- 28891140
TI  - Other Helicobacters, gastric and gut microbiota.
AB  - The current article is a review of the most important and relevant literature
      published in 2016 and early 2017 on non-Helicobacter pylori Helicobacter
      infections in humans and animals, as well as interactions between H. pylori and
      the microbiota of the stomach and other organs. Some putative new Helicobacter
      species were identified in sea otters, wild boars, dogs, and mice. Many cases of
      Helicobacter fennelliae and Helicobacter cinaedi infection have been reported in
      humans, mostly in immunocompromised patients. Mouse models have been used
      frequently as a model to investigate human Helicobacter infection, although some
      studies have investigated the pathogenesis of Helicobacters in their natural
      host, as was the case for Helicobacter suis infection in pigs. Our understanding
      of both the gastric and gut microbiome has made progress and, in addition,
      interactions between H. pylori and the microbiome were demonstrated to go beyond
      the stomach. Some new approaches of preventing Helicobacter infection or its
      related pathologies were investigated and, in this respect, the probiotic
      properties of Saccharomyces, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium spp. were
      confirmed.

PMID- 28891141
TI  - Tuberculous cervicitis: A brief report with cytohistological correlation and
      differential diagnosis.

PMID- 28891142
TI  - Network meta-analysis of lorcaserin and oral hypoglycaemics for patients with
      type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity.
AB  - In addition to weight loss, randomized controlled trials have shown improvement
      in glycaemic control in patients taking lorcaserin. The aim of this study aim was
      to compare adding lorcaserin or other glucose lowering medications to metformin
      on weight and glycaemic control. A systematic review and network meta-analysis of
      randomized controlled trials were conducted. Included studies (published 1990
      2014) were of lorcaserin or glucose lowering medications in type 2 diabetic
      patients compared to placebo or different active treatments. Studies had to
      report >=1 key outcome (change in weight or HbA1c, % HbA1c <7, hypoglycaemia).
      Direct meta-analysis was performed using DerSimonian and Laird random effects
      models, and network meta-analysis with Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo random
      effects models; 6552 articles were screened and 41 included. Lorcaserin reduced
      weight significantly more than thiazolidinediones, glinides, sulphonylureas and
      dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, some of which may have led to weight gain.
      There were no significant differences in weight change between lorcaserin and
      alpha-glucoside inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists and sodium/glucose
      cotransporter 2 inhibitors. Network meta-analysis showed lorcaserin was non
      inferior to all other agents on HbA1c reduction and % achieving HbA1c of <7%. The
      risk of hypoglycaemia was not significantly different among studied agents except
      that sulphonylureas were associated with higher risk of hypoglycaemia than
      lorcaserin. Although additional studies are needed, this analysis suggests in a
      population of patients with a body mas index of >=27 who do not achieve glycaemic
      control on a single agent, lorcaserin may be added as an alternative to an add-on
      glucose lowering medication.

PMID- 28891143
TI  - Behavioural Addiction Open Definition 2.0-using the Open Science Framework for
      collaborative and transparent theoretical development.

PMID- 28891144
TI  - Commentary on White et al. (2017): Adolescent drinking and exposure to
      advertising-behaviour does not occur in a social vacuum.

PMID- 28891145
TI  - Commentary on Schmitz et al. (2017): Advancing medication development for
      addiction-behavioral and neuroimaging outcomes as indirect biomarkers of target
      engagement.

PMID- 28891146
TI  - Commentary on Popova et al. (2017): Co-used and co-administered tobacco and
      cannabis (marijuana) require further investigation.

PMID- 28891147
TI  - Commentary on Pardo (2017) and Moyo et al. (2017): Much still unknown about
      prescription drug monitoring programs.

PMID- 28891149
TI  - Commentary on Fazel et al. (2017): High levels of substance use disorders among
      correctional inmates-some implications for interventions of the review data from
      Fazel et al.

PMID- 28891150
TI  - Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cardiovascular diseases: Developmental
      signaling pathways gone awry.
AB  - The process named endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) was observed for
      the first time during the development of the chicken embryo several decades ago.
      Of interest, accumulating evidence suggests that EndMT plays a critical role in
      the onset and progression of multiple postnatal cardiovascular diseases. EndMT is
      controlled by a set of developmental signaling pathways, very similar to the
      process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which determine the activity of
      several EndMT transcriptional effectors. Once activated, these EndMT effectors
      regulate the expression of endothelial- and mesenchymal-specific genes, in part
      by interacting with specific motifs in promoter regions, eventually leading to
      the down-regulation of endothelial-specific features and acquisition of a
      fibroblast-like phenotype. Important technical advances in lineage tracing
      methods combined with experimental mouse models demonstrated the
      pathophysiological importance of EndMT for human diseases. In this review, we
      discuss the major signal transduction pathways involved in the activation and
      regulation of the EndMT program. Furthermore, we will review the latest
      discoveries on EndMT, focusing on cardiovascular diseases, and in particular on
      its role in vascular calcification, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and organ
      fibrosis. Developmental Dynamics 247:492-508, 2018. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals,
      Inc.

PMID- 28891151
TI  - Protein Catenation Enhances Both the Stability and Activity of Folded Structural
      Domains.
AB  - Catenanes are intriguing molecular architectures with unique properties. Herein,
      we report the cellular synthesis of protein catenanes containing folded
      structural domains, aided by synergy between p53 dimerization and
      SpyTag/SpyCatcher chemistry. Concatenation of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was
      shown to increase chemical stability without disrupting the fluorescence
      properties, and concatenated dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) exhibited a melting
      temperature around 4  degrees C higher and catalytic activity around 27 % higher
      than the wild-type DHFR and the cyclic/linear controls. Catenation also confers
      considerable proteolytic resistance on DHFR. The results suggest that catenation
      could enhance both the stability and activity of folded proteins, thus making
      topology engineering an attractive approach for tailoring protein properties
      without varying their native sequences.

PMID- 28891152
TI  - Exfoliation rate of mammary epithelial cells in milk on bovine mastitis caused by
      Staphylococcus aureus is associated with bacterial load.
AB  - The exfoliation rate of mammary epithelial cells (MECs) in milk is affected by
      physiological, breeding and environmental factors. Little is known about the
      relationship between the MEC exfoliation into milk and mammary-infected
      Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) load on bovine mastitis caused by S. aureus.
      The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between S. aureus load
      and the proportion of MEC exfoliation in milk using five substantial bovine
      mastitis models. In 64 randomly extracted milk samples from udders at 3-21 days
      after S. aureus infusion, there were various samples with different numbers of S.
      aureus counts and somatic cell counts. No significant correlations were found
      between the S. aureus counts and somatic cell count (r = 0.338). In contrast, a
      significant correlation was noted between S. aureus counts and the proportion of
      cytokeratin-positive cells in the milk from the infused udders (r = 0.734, P <
      0.01). In conclusion, the increasing MEC exfoliation rate in milk from mastitis
      udders caused by S. aureus may contribute to reduced milk yield.

PMID- 28891153
TI  - A Randomized Trial of Off-Site Collaborative Care for Depression in Chronic
      Hepatitis C Virus.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of a collaborative depression care model in
      improving depression and hepatitis C virus (HCV) care. DATA SOURCES/STUDY
      SETTING: Hepatitis C virus clinic patients who screened positive for depression
      at four Veterans Affairs Hospitals. STUDY DESIGN: We compared off-site depression
      collaborative care (delivered by depression care manager, pharmacist, and
      psychiatrist) with usual care in a randomized trial. Primary depression outcomes
      were treatment response (>=50 percent decrease in 20-item Hopkins Symptoms
      Checklist [SCL-20] score), remission (mean SCL-20 score, <0.5), and depression
      free days (DFDs). Primary HCV outcome was receipt of HCV treatment. DATA
      COLLECTION: Patient data were collected by self-report telephone surveys at
      baseline and 12 months, and from electronic medical records. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:
      Baseline screening identified 292 HCV-infected patients with depression, and 242
      patients completed 12-month follow-up (82.9 percent). Intervention participants
      were more likely to report depression treatment response, remission, and more
      DFDs than usual care participants. Intervention participants were more likely to
      receive antiviral treatment; however, the difference was not statistically
      significant. CONCLUSION: Off-site depression collaborative care improved
      depression outcomes in HCV patients and may serve as a model for collaboration
      between mental health and specialty physical health providers in other high co
      occurring conditions.

PMID- 28891154
TI  - Immune mechanisms in heart failure.
AB  - Elevated levels of circulating pro-inflammatory biomarkers in patients with both
      ischaemic and non-ischaemic heart failure (HF) correlate with disease severity
      and prognosis. Experimental studies have shown activation of immune response
      mechanisms in the heart to provoke cardiac adverse remodelling and cause left
      ventricular dysfunction. Consequently, most of the clinical trials targeting
      elements of the immune response in HF attempted to modulate the inflammatory
      response. Surprisingly, clinical studies targeting immune effectors were either
      neutral or even increased pre-specified clinical endpoints, and some studies
      resulted in worsening of HF. This review discusses immune mediators involved in
      the pathogenesis and progression of HF and potential therapeutic applications
      targeting inflammation in HF. Besides more obvious settings featuring immune
      activation such as inflammatory or ischaemic cardiomyopathy, the relevance of
      immune activation in acute or chronic HF of other origins, including volume
      overload or valvular heart disease, is highlighted. Understanding how cell
      specific and molecular mechanisms of the immune response interfere with cardiac
      remodelling in HF may open new avenues to design biomarkers or druggable targets.

PMID- 28891155
TI  - In Situ-Formed Hierarchical Metal-Organic Flexible Cathode for High-Energy Sodium
      Ion Batteries.
AB  - Metal-organic compounds are a family of electrode materials with structural
      diversity and excellent thermal stability for rechargeable batteries. Here, we
      fabricated a hierarchical nanocomposite with metal-organic cuprous
      tetracyanoquinodimethane (CuTCNQ) in a 3 D conductive carbon nanofibers (CNFs)
      network by in situ growth, and evaluated it as flexible cathode for sodium-ion
      batteries (SIBs). CuTCNQ in such flexible composite electrode is able to exhibit
      a high capacity of 252 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C and highly reversible stability for 1200
      cycles within the voltage range of 2.5-4.1 V (vs. Na+ /Na). A high specific
      energy of 762 Wh kg-1 was obtained with high average potential of 3.2 V (vs. Na+
      /Na). The in situ-formed electroactive metal-organic composites with tailored
      nanoarchitecture provide a promising alternative choice for high-performance
      cathode materials in SIBs with high energy.

PMID- 28891156
TI  - Overcoming preexisting alloantibody in renal transplantation-improving outcomes
      while reducing needs and costs.

PMID- 28891158
TI  - The 17th Congress of Gastroenterology China, Xi'an, China, 14-16 September 2017.

PMID- 28891157
TI  - PTEN in the maintenance of genome integrity: From DNA replication to chromosome
      segregation.
AB  - Faithful DNA replication and accurate chromosome segregation are the key
      machineries of genetic transmission. Disruption of these processes represents a
      hallmark of cancer and often results from loss of tumor suppressors. PTEN is an
      important tumor suppressor that is frequently mutated or deleted in human cancer.
      Loss of PTEN has been associated with aneuploidy and poor prognosis in cancer
      patients. In mice, Pten deletion or mutation drives genomic instability and tumor
      development. PTEN deficiency induces DNA replication stress, confers stress
      tolerance, and disrupts mitotic spindle architecture, leading to accumulation of
      structural and numerical chromosome instability. Therefore, PTEN guards the
      genome by controlling multiple processes of chromosome inheritance. Here, we
      summarize current understanding of the PTEN function in promoting high-fidelity
      transmission of genetic information. We also discuss the PTEN pathways of genome
      maintenance and highlight potential targets for cancer treatment.

PMID- 28891159
TI  - Enhancing a public health nursing shelter program.
AB  - The Shelter Nurse Program offers important nursing care and resources that help
      meet the health needs of the homeless population and improve the health of
      homeless individuals and families. However, formalized program goals and
      objectives, along with an evaluation plan that demonstrates population outcomes,
      had never been developed even as the program has evolved over time. Thus, the
      agency sought our assistance as public health nursing consultants to enhance the
      overall program to improve the health of the homeless population. To accomplish
      this, we worked with the agency and the shelter nurses throughout each step of
      the process to assess the needs of the program, develop appropriate goals and
      objectives, and develop an effective outcome evaluation plan for the existing
      Shelter Nurse Program. Lessons learned included the value and applicability of
      the selected program development model, the importance of agency ownership and
      active participation by front-line workers, and the value of educating the
      workers and introducing resources throughout the process.

PMID- 28891160
TI  - CO2 angiography: Colorless, odorless, but definitely not useless!
AB  - Contemporary approaches to minimize the risk of acute kidney injury from
      radiographic contrast (AKI-RC) rely on preferential use of low- or non-ionic
      contrast; pre-hydration; and limiting contrast volume. This study utilized a meta
      analysis of 677 patients to compare the risk of AKI-RC after CO2 peripheral
      angiography versus iodinated contrast (4.3% vs. 11.1%, odds ratio [OR] 0.465, P =
      0.048). There was no difference in AKI-RC in patients with CKD. This study has
      many limitations. CO2 angiography is an important technique; proper understanding
      of its strengths and limitations is essential.

PMID- 28891161
TI  - Comparison of Acute Expansion of Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffolds Versus Metallic
      Drug-Eluting Stents in Different Degrees of Calcification: An Optical Coherence
      Tomography Study. DOI: 10.1002/ccd.26676.

PMID- 28891162
TI  - Integrating invasive hemodynamic parameters into risk stratification of acute
      myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock.
AB  - A ratio of systolic blood pressure over left ventricle end-diastolic pressure
      (SBP/LVEDP) <=4 identifies patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction
      (STEMI) at greater risk of in-hospital mortality or that may require the use of
      mechanical circulatory support (MCS). The predictive performance of the SBP/LVEDP
      ratio was comparable to non-invasive hemodynamic parameters (the shock index and
      the modified shock index) and established clinical risk stratification tools (the
      TIMI risk score). Alongside established clinical risk factors, invasive
      hemodynamic parameters may help in identifying STEMI patients who may benefit
      from early MCS.

PMID- 28891163
TI  - Patient preferences prompt a peek at priorities.
AB  - Patients rate the downsides of bare metal stents (higher restenosis rates) as
      being of similar magnitude to the downsides of drug eluting stents (longer dual
      anti-platelet therapy). Patient preferences regarding choice of bare metal versus
      drug eluting stents should be elicited before coronary stenting. This article
      does not study actual patient preferences for stent type. Future studies should
      assess how personalized discussions of trade-offs of stent types affect patient
      preferences.

PMID- 28891164
TI  - Heparin or bivalirudin for non-primary PCI: Beware of neat and simple answers....
AB  - The debate regarding the choice of heparin or bivalirudin as the preferred
      anticoagulant in PCI is still ongoing Nonrandomized registry data are severely
      limited for comparative analyses and should therefore always be interpreted with
      caution Clinicians should resist simplistic data interpretations or populist
      cries relating to cost, but rather focus on valid benefit:risk analyses for their
      clinical decision making.

PMID- 28891165
TI  - Drug-coated balloons: "Do they still have a role in treating coronary artery
      disease?"
AB  - Small vessels with coronary artery disease (CAD) are at high risk of restenosis,
      despite the use of drug-eluting stents (DESs). Drug-coated balloon (DCB) therapy
      offers a viable alternative to DESs for the management of small vessel CAD. The
      literature regarding the use of DCBs in lieu of the newer generation DESs to
      treat small vessel CAD is controversial.

PMID- 28891166
TI  - David J. G. White, PhD, FRCPath.

PMID- 28891168
TI  - Xenotransplantation literature update, July/August 2017.

PMID- 28891169
TI  - Computed tomographic findings in three dogs naturally infected with Crenosoma
      vulpis.
AB  - Crenosoma vulpis is a nematode lungworm found in wild and domestic canids in some
      parts of North America and Europe. Reported radiographic findings are nonspecific
      and consist of a combination of bronchial and interstitial changes of variable
      severity. This retrospective, case series study aimed to describe thoracic
      computed tomographic (CT) findings for a group of dogs with confirmed
      crenosomosis. Selection criteria were presentation with a chronic cough during
      the period of January 2016 to February 2017, evaluation by thoracic CT, and final
      diagnosis of C. vulpis infection based on bronchoscopic findings, bronchoalveolar
      lavage fluid analysis, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Medical
      records and CT images were retrieved and reviewed by a board-certified veterinary
      internist, a veterinary internal medicine resident, two board-certified
      veterinary radiologists, and a veterinary radiology intern, and findings were
      recorded. Three dogs met inclusion criteria. Thoracic CT findings for all dogs
      included the following: diffuse bronchial wall thickening, multifocal
      peribronchial ground glass attenuation, consolidation of the pulmonary
      parenchyma, and cylindrical bronchiectasis. In two dogs, the bronchial wall
      thickening was irregular to nodular, which was consistent with the bronchoscopic
      findings. Two dogs showed pulmonary parenchymal bands. Thoracic computed
      tomographic changes in dogs with C. vulpis are consistent with those seen on
      thoracic radiographs and crenosomosis should be considered in dogs with these
      findings.

PMID- 28891170
TI  - Design and evaluation of cryodevice, an easy to use apparatus for maintenance of
      optimum temperature during cryoglobulin assay.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Maintenance of temperature during collection and transport of blood
      is an important pre-requisite for cryoglobulin assays. In this manuscript, we
      describe 'cryodevice', a low-cost device for transportation and/or incubation of
      vials of whole blood at 37 degrees C. Such a device would reduce false negatives
      in cryoglobulin assays. METHOD: The 'cryodevice' takes the embodiment of a
      portable, light, insulated water bath, which can be used as an incubator in a
      plugged-in state, or as a transport container after it is set up and disconnected
      from the power supply. The design of the cryodevice is described here, with focus
      on its construction and electronic control circuit. Computer simulations and in
      vitro trials were performed to study the temperature drop in the blood samples
      placed in the device. Subsequently, the cryodevice was also used with actual
      patient blood samples. RESULTS: Thermal simulations and in vitro testing of the
      cryodevice predicted that the design would meet the temperature maintenance
      goals. When the cryodevice was put in to use for screening 45 patient blood
      samples, it helped identify positive cryoglobulinemia in three of the samples.
      CONCLUSION: The description of the cryodevice envisions enabling the construction
      of a low-cost device in resource-limited healthcare settings in India created
      with locally available resources. On testing, the device was found to be
      satisfactory in performance and is expected to bring down incidences of false
      negatives in cryoglobulin tests.

PMID- 28891171
TI  - Innovation in health service management: Adoption of project management offices
      to support major health care transformation.
AB  - AIM: To explore the characteristics that influence project management offices
      acceptance and adoption in healthcare sector. BACKGROUND: The creation of project
      management offices has been suggested as a promising avenue to promote successful
      organisational change and facilitate evidence-based practice. However, little is
      known about the characteristics that promote their initial adoption and
      acceptance in health care sector. This knowledge is important in the context
      where many organisations are considering implementing project management offices
      with nurse managers as leaders. METHODS: A descriptive multiple case study design
      was used. The unit of analysis was the project management offices. The study was
      conducted in three university-affiliated teaching hospitals in 2013-14 (Canada).
      Individual interviews (n = 34) were conducted with senior managers. RESULTS:
      Results reveal that project management offices dedicated to project and change
      management constitute an innovation and an added value that addresses tangible
      needs in the field. CONCLUSION: Project management offices are an innovation
      highly compatible with health care managers and their approach has parallels to
      the process of clinical problem solving and reasoning well-known to adopters.
      IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: This knowledge is important in a context
      where many nurses hold various roles in project management offices, such as
      Director, project manager, clinical expert and knowledge broker.

PMID- 28891172
TI  - Urolithiasis is prevalent and associated with reduced bone mineral density in
      beta-thalassaemia major.
AB  - Asymptomatic urolithiasis is common and of mixed composition in patients with
      beta-thalassaemia major. Twenty-seven subjects were imaged using dual-energy
      computer tomography to determine the presence and composition of urolithiasis.
      The prevalence of urolithiasis was 59% and affected patients generally had
      multiple stones, often with more than one component: struvite (33%), calcium
      oxalate (31%) and cystine (22%). Hypercalciuria was present in 78% of subjects
      and calcium-containing urolithiasis was associated with reduced femoral neck Z
      scores.

PMID- 28891173
TI  - Challenge to advance care planning.

PMID- 28891174
TI  - Regulation of complementary medicines.

PMID- 28891175
TI  - Massive eucalyptus oil overdose.

PMID- 28891176
TI  - Author reply.

PMID- 28891177
TI  - Cognitive challenges to minimising low value care.
AB  - Clinical decisions often rely on pattern recognition, simple rules of thumb,
      tacit knowledge and habit. In many instances, such intuitive decisions are fast
      and accurate, but they can be subject to cognitive biases leading to delivery of
      care of low value at odds with scientific evidence of best practice. If
      programmes, such as EVOLVE (Evaluating Evidence, Enhancing Efficiencies) and
      Choosing Wisely are to have maximal impact in minimising low value care, such
      biases, and the factors that hide and accentuate them, need to be exposed and
      addressed in a collegiate and non-judgemental manner.

PMID- 28891178
TI  - Author reply.

PMID- 28891179
TI  - Unexpected mirror-image dextrocardia in a patient with ST elevation myocardial
      infarction.

PMID- 28891180
TI  - De novo activating epidermal growth factor mutations (EGFR) in small-cell lung
      cancer.
AB  - In Australia, mutations in epidermal growth factor mutations (EGFR) occur in 15%
      of patients diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer and are found with higher
      frequency in female, non-smokers of Asian ethnicity. Activating mutations in the
      EGFR gene are rarely described in SCLC. We present two cases of de novo EGFR
      mutations in patients with SCLC detected in tissue and in plasma cell free DNA,
      both of whom were of Asian ethnicity and never-smokers. These two cases add to
      the growing body of evidence suggesting that screening for EGFR mutations in SCLC
      should be considered in patients with specific clinical features.

PMID- 28891181
TI  - Something's got to give: time-cost trade-offs in site-specific research approval
      can negatively impact patient recruitment in multi-institutional studies.

PMID- 28891182
TI  - Rare disease registries: a call to action.
AB  - When registries collect accurate clinical data over time, they can act as
      fundamental support structures for patients and their families and powerful cost
      effective instruments to support clinical trials and translational research to
      improve quality of care, quality of life and survival. Registries are critical
      for rare diseases (RD) with low prevalence and propensity for variation in
      treatment and outcomes. Rare Voices Australia is leading a call for action to the
      research and clinical community to prioritise RD data collection and develop an
      integrated RD Registry strategy for Australia. Financial, operational and
      governance challenges exist for establishing and maintaining RD registries. As a
      multidisciplinary team whose interests converge on RD, we highlight the need for
      the establishment of an Australian RD Registry Alliance. This 'umbrella'
      organisation will: (i) bring together existing RD registries across Australia;
      (ii) establish National RD Registry Standards to support interoperability and
      cohesion across registries; (iii) develop strategies to attract sustainable
      funding from government and other sources to maximise the utility of existing RD
      registries and support the development of new RD registries. The most important
      role for the Alliance would be to use the RD registries for translational
      research to address current knowledge gaps about RD and to improve the care for
      the over 1.4 million Australians estimated to live with RD.

PMID- 28891183
TI  - Primary percutaneous coronary intervention for inferior ST-segment elevation
      myocardial infarction in a patient supported by the HeartWare left ventricular
      assist device.
AB  - A 63-year-old man with an ischaemic cardiomyopathy, supported by the HeartWare
      left ventricular assist device (LVAD), presented with ventricular tachycardia and
      inferior ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with associated acute right
      ventricular (RV) dysfunction. He underwent primary percutaneous coronary
      intervention with balloon angioplasty and placement of three drug-eluting stents
      in the proximal-to-mid right coronary artery. Post-procedure, ventricular
      arrhythmias abated, RV systolic dysfunction resolved and RV size normalised.
      Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) facilitated by the use of miniaturised
      percutaneous LVAD has become an increasingly available treatment option for high
      risk patients. PCI in patients on established full mechanical circulatory support
      is not a common occurrence. Indeed, to our knowledge, this is the first case of
      primary percutaneous coronary intervention on an LVAD-supported heart reported in
      the medical literature. The case raises several specific issues that are of
      peculiar interest to clinicians involved in the care of patients supported by
      mechanical assist devices who experience an acute coronary syndrome requiring
      emergent revascularisation.

PMID- 28891184
TI  - Advance care planning: a step in the right direction.

PMID- 28891185
TI  - Complementary medicine products: interpreting the evidence base.
AB  - Many patients use complementary medicine (CM) products, such as vitamins,
      minerals and herbs as part of self-care without professional advice or disclosure
      to their doctors. While use of CM products is gaining awareness by the medical
      community and there is mounting evidence for their safety, efficacy and cost
      effectiveness, there is also the potential for adverse events from inappropriate
      use and/or withdrawal, as well as interactions with other medicines. Due to the
      unique and complex properties of many CM products, research evidence is specific
      to individual preparations and this can lead to confusion when assessing label
      claims and interpreting the results of clinical trials and systematic reviews.
      While the Australian regulatory environment for CM products is the same as for
      prescription medicines and is based on risk, there is a great need for consumers
      and clinicians to have access to easily understood, evidence-based information to
      facilitate informed decision-making.

PMID- 28891186
TI  - End of life issues.

PMID- 28891188
TI  - Author reply.

PMID- 28891187
TI  - Long-term efficacy and safety of the interleukin-1 inhibitors anakinra and
      canakinumab in refractory Behcet disease uveitis and concomitant bladder
      papillary carcinoma.

PMID- 28891189
TI  - How have millions of people with heart failure benefited from our research over
      the last 10-15 years? The sounds of dead silence.

PMID- 28891190
TI  - Is Multiple Overlapping Uncovered Stents Technique Suitable for Aortic Aneurysm
      Repair?
AB  - A computational fluid dynamic model to assess the impact of flow-diverter device
      on intra-aneurysmal flow in complex aortic aneurysm from the viewpoint of
      hemodynamics is presented. The aim of this study is to investigate the
      hemodynamic effects of an endovascular flow-diverter technique using multiple
      overlapping uncovered stents (MOUS) in the treatment of complex aortic aneurysm
      involving side branch. The placement of porous barrier such as MOUS across the
      aneurysm alters the blood flow pattern in the aneurysm sac. Subsequently, flow
      diversion effect creates a natural hemodynamic environment to promote aneurysm
      thrombosis, thus stabilizing the aneurysm. The study revealed that intra
      aneurysmal flow was reduced and low time average wall shear stress (TAWSS), high
      relative residence time (RRT), and high oscillatory shear index (OSI) regions
      were observed in the aneurysm sac. Three to four MOUS stents produced the best
      hemodynamic environment for the formation of thrombus, with saccular aneurysm
      performing better than fusiform aneurysm from the viewpoint of hemodynamics. A
      result also revealed that flow in the branch vessel was not compromised
      suggesting the capacity of preserving patency of branch vessels while at the same
      time stabilizing the aneurysm. Based on the hemodynamic performance of this study
      coupled with existing reported clinical studies, deploying three to four MOUS
      stents is a feasible solution to treat aneurysm with side branch, favorably for
      saccular shape aneurysm.

PMID- 28891191
TI  - Molecular characterization of branched polysaccharides from Tremella fuciformis
      by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation and size exclusion chromatography.
AB  - To accurately characterize branched polysaccharides with high molecular weights
      from medicinal and edible mushrooms and identify the limitations of size
      exclusion chromatography, molecular characteristics of polysaccharides from
      Tremella fuciformis were determined and compared by asymmetrical flow field-flow
      fractionation coupled with multiangle laser light scattering and refractive index
      detection, and size exclusion chromatography coupled with multiangle laser light
      scattering and refractive index detection, respectively. Results showed that
      molecular weights of three batches of T. fuciformis polysaccharides were
      determined as 2.167 * 106 (TF1), 2.334 * 106 (TF2), and 2.435 * 106  Da (TF3) by
      size exclusion chromatography, and 3.432 * 106 (TF1), 3.739 * 106 (TF2), and
      3.742 * 106  Da (TF3) by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation, as well as
      3.469 * 106  Da (TF1) by off-line multiangle laser light scattering,
      respectively. Results suggested that size exclusion chromatography was unable to
      accurately characterize T. fuciformis polysaccharides, which may be due to its
      limitations such as shear degradation and abnormal coelution. Compared to size
      exclusion chromatography, asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation could be a
      better technique for the molecular characterization of branched polysaccharides
      with high molecular weights from medicinal and edible mushrooms, as well as from
      other natural resources.

PMID- 28891192
TI  - Light therapy: is it safe for the eyes?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Light therapy has become an increasingly popular treatment for
      depression and a range of other neuropsychiatric conditions. Yet, concerns have
      been raised about the ocular safety of light therapy. METHOD: We conducted the
      first systematic review into the ocular safety of light therapy. A PubMed search
      on January 4, 2017, identified 6708 articles, of which 161 were full-text
      reviewed. In total, 43 articles reporting on ocular complaints and ocular
      examinations were included in the analyses. RESULTS: Ocular complaints, including
      ocular discomfort and vision problems, were reported in about 0% to 45% of the
      participants of studies involving light therapy. Based on individual studies, no
      evident relationship between the occurrence of complaints and light therapy dose
      was found. There was no evidence for ocular damage due to light therapy, with the
      exception of one case report that documented the development of a maculopathy in
      a person treated with the photosensitizing antidepressant clomipramine.
      CONCLUSION: Results suggest that light therapy is safe for the eyes in physically
      healthy, unmedicated persons. The ocular safety of light therapy in persons with
      preexisting ocular abnormalities or increased photosensitivity warrants further
      study. However, theoretical considerations do not substantiate stringent ocular
      safety-related contraindications for light therapy.

PMID- 28891193
TI  - Psychological Inflexibility Predicts of Suicidal Ideation Over Time in Veterans
      of the Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
AB  - Psychological inflexibility, or how individuals respond to distressing internal
      experiences, may be a modifiable risk factor for suicide in veterans. It was
      hypothesized that psychological inflexibility would predict suicidal ideation
      after accounting for established risk factors at baseline and 1 year later. Post
      9/11 veterans (N = 309) completed clinical interview and self-report measures at
      baseline and 1-year follow-up. Results indicated that psychological inflexibility
      predicted severity of suicidal ideation at both baseline and 1 year later, after
      accounting for established risk factors. Psychological inflexibility is an
      important marker of risk for suicidal ideation, and could be a target for
      interventions aimed at reducing suicide.

PMID- 28891195
TI  - Prevalence of synchronous bilateral tonsil squamous cell carcinoma: A
      retrospective study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of synchronous bilateral tonsil cancer remains
      unexplored. To date, only 38 cases have been described in the literature. With an
      aim to substantiate the Danish recommendation of performing bilateral
      tonsillectomy in patients with suspected or proven tonsil cancer and in patients
      with cervical carcinoma metastasis from an unknown primary tumour, this study was
      undertaken to determine the prevalence of synchronous bilateral tonsil cancer.
      DESIGN: A retrospective review of all patients diagnosed with tonsil cancer in
      the period 2000-2015, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, was performed.
      RESULTS: Seven of 211 (3.3%) consecutive patients with tonsil cancer, who had
      undergone bilateral tonsillectomy (n = 180) or unilateral tonsillectomy
      (clinically normal side) combined with contralateral tonsil biopsy (side with
      suspected cancer) (n = 31), had synchronous bilateral tonsil cancer. Furthermore,
      dysplasia was found in the contralateral tonsil in two patients with unilateral
      tonsil cancer. Four of 171 (2.3%) patients with suspected unilateral tonsillar
      cancer had additional contralateral tonsil cancer. Three of 34 (8.8%) patients
      without clinical signs of tonsillar malignancy on any side (32 patients with
      carcinoma of unknown primary) had synchronous bilateral tonsil cancer. In none of
      the patients were bilateral tonsil cancer suspected. Patients with unilateral vs
      synchronous bilateral tonsil cancer had similar clinical and tumour
      characteristics. CONCLUSION: Knowledge on additional contralateral synchronous
      tonsil cancer is crucial for avoidance of early recurrence of oropharyngeal
      cancer in patients with tonsil cancer. Based on our findings, we recommend
      bilateral tonsillectomy in all patients with suspected or proven tonsil cancer
      and carcinoma of unknown primary.

PMID- 28891194
TI  - Suspended graphene oxide nanoparticle for accelerated multilayer osteoblast
      attachment.
AB  - Mimicking bone tissues having layered structures is still a significant challenge
      because of the lack of technologies to assemble osteoblast cell types into bone
      structures. One of the promising and attractive materials in biomedical and
      different engineering fields is graphene and graphene-based nanostructures such
      as graphene oxide (GO) because of their unique properties. In most studies, GO
      was synthesized using chemical vapor deposition method, and was coated on the
      substrate. In this study, we proposed a simple technique for assembly of cells
      that facilitates the construction of osteoblast-like structures using suspended
      GO synthesized by graphite powder, H2 SO4 , and KMnO4 .Toxicity effects of GO on
      human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) derived from bone marrow were analyzed. In
      addition to normal MSCs, toxicity effects of GO on human cancer cell line saos-2
      as an abnormal cell line that possess several osteoblastic features, was
      examined. The attachment and expression of osteoblast cells genes were evaluated
      after differentiation of MSCs to osteoblast cells in presence of suspended GO by
      scanning electron microscopy and real time PCR. We found that the toxicity
      effects of GO are dose dependent and in oseogenic medium containing suspended GO
      the expression level of osteoblast genes osteopontin and osteocalcin and cell
      adhesion markers connexin were higher than control group. Interestingly, through
      this method GO was found to induce multilayer osteoblast cell morphology and
      enhance the number of cell layer. We expect that the presented method would
      become a highly useful approach for bone tissue engineering. (c) 2017 Wiley
      Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 293-303, 2018.

PMID- 28891196
TI  - A novel use of near-infrared light in assisting with TaTME planes - a video
      vignette.

PMID- 28891197
TI  - Primary mediastinal paraganglioma associated with a familial variant in the
      succinate dehydrogenase B subunit gene.
AB  - Surgical management is the mainstay of therapy for primary cardiac tumors, yet
      due to the rarity of these malignancies, their management and workup remains a
      challenge. Here, we report a unique case of a patient with a primary left
      ventricular cardiac paraganglioma (PGL) and describe the role of a medical
      genetics assessment leading to the identification of a rare variant in the SDHB
      gene to be the causative etiology of this cardiac tumor. Due to decreasing costs
      and accessibility of molecular genetic analysis, genetic testing may become an
      emerging diagnostic adjunct in cases of cardiac tumors.

PMID- 28891198
TI  - Targeted medical nutrition for cachexia in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:
      a randomized, controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cachectic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
      may benefit from nutritional support. This double-blind, randomized, controlled
      trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of targeted medical nutrition (TMN) vs.
      an isocaloric comparator in pre-cachectic and cachectic patients with COPD.
      METHODS: Patients aged >=50 years with moderate-to-severe COPD and involuntary
      weight loss or low body mass index (16-18 kg/m2 ) were randomized 1:1 to receive
      TMN (~230 kcal; 2 g omega-3 fatty acids; 10 MUg 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3) or
      isocaloric comparator twice daily for 12 weeks (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT02442908). Primary safety endpoints comprised adverse events and changes in
      vital signs, laboratory parameters, and concomitant medications. Secondary
      efficacy endpoints included changes in weight, body composition, exercise
      tolerance, metabolic biomarkers, and systemic inflammation. RESULTS: Forty-five
      patients were randomized to receive TMN (n = 22; mean 69.2 years) or isocaloric
      comparator (n = 23; mean 69.7 years). TMN was well tolerated. Adverse events were
      similar in number and type in both groups. Compliance to both products was good
      (TMN, 79%; comparator, 77%). Both groups gained weight, but the TMN group gained
      comparatively more fat mass (P = 0.0013). Reductions in systolic blood pressure
      (P = 0.0418) and secondary endpoints of triglycerides (P = 0.0217) and exercise
      induced fatigue (P = 0.0223) and dyspnoea (P = 0.0382), and increases in high
      density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = 0.0254), were observed in the TMN vs. the
      comparator group by week 12. CONCLUSIONS: Targeted medical nutrition containing
      high-dose omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and high-quality protein is well
      tolerated with a good safety profile and has positive effects on blood pressure
      and blood lipids and on exercise-induced fatigue and dyspnoea. Therefore, this
      TMN could be clinically beneficial in the nutritional and metabolic support of
      pre-cachectic and cachectic patients with COPD.

PMID- 28891199
TI  - Metal-Based Diversity for Crystalline Metal-Fullerene Frameworks.
AB  - Four different three-dimensional metal-fullerene frameworks were synthesized
      through polymerization of two C60 -derived dodecaacids with varying alkyl spacers
      in the presence of Ca2+ , Cu2+ or Cd2+ ions. Structural analysis of the
      frameworks was performed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and porosity of the
      materials was investigated by sorption measurements.

PMID- 28891200
TI  - Enhanced Production of Soluble Recombinant Proteins With an In Situ-Removable
      Fusion Partner in a Cell-Free Synthesis System.
AB  - High-yield production of soluble protein is a common concern in diverse fields of
      biotechnology. In this study, a strategy of using an engineered nucleotide
      sequence of ubiquitin for enhancing the production of soluble proteins in a cell
      free synthesis system is presented. When examined for a series of proteins that
      otherwise were poorly expressed, N-terminal fusion with ubiquitin significantly
      increased both the expression levels and solubility of the translational
      products. The effect of ubiquitin fusion was also markedly augmented by
      engineering the nucleotide sequence of ubiquitin, leading to several fold
      enhancements in soluble production of target proteins. Recombinant proteins were
      produced with their native amino acid sequences through in situ removal of
      ubiquitin during cell-free synthesis reactions in the presence of a
      deubiquitinase. The presented strategy could be employed as a facile route to
      prepare soluble proteins required for various applications.

PMID- 28891201
TI  - Predicting Drug Concentration-Time Profiles in Multiple CNS Compartments Using a
      Comprehensive Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Model.
AB  - Drug development targeting the central nervous system (CNS) is challenging due to
      poor predictability of drug concentrations in various CNS compartments. We
      developed a generic physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for
      prediction of drug concentrations in physiologically relevant CNS compartments.
      System-specific and drug-specific model parameters were derived from literature
      and in silico predictions. The model was validated using detailed concentration
      time profiles from 10 drugs in rat plasma, brain extracellular fluid, 2
      cerebrospinal fluid sites, and total brain tissue. These drugs, all small
      molecules, were selected to cover a wide range of physicochemical properties. The
      concentration-time profiles for these drugs were adequately predicted across the
      CNS compartments (symmetric mean absolute percentage error for the model
      prediction was <91%). In conclusion, the developed PBPK model can be used to
      predict temporal concentration profiles of drugs in multiple relevant CNS
      compartments, which we consider valuable information for efficient CNS drug
      development.

PMID- 28891203
TI  - Effects of epidural volume extension by saline injection on the efficacy and
      safety of intrathecal local anaesthetics: systematic review with meta-analysis,
      meta-regression and trial sequential analysis.
AB  - Epidural volume extension, a modification of combined spinal-epidural
      anaesthesia, involves the epidural injection of saline in order to increase the
      spread of drugs given intrathecally. Results from individual studies have so far
      been contradictory and we aimed to gather the available evidence for this
      technique. We performed a systematic literature search for randomised, controlled
      trials comparing epidural volume extension after spinal injection with a control
      group without epidural injection in patients undergoing surgery. Conventional
      meta-analyses, trial sequential analyses and meta-regression were performed, with
      the Grading of Recommendations on Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE)
      approach used to express reliability of outcome estimates. We included 15 studies
      with 1177 participants. Meta-analyses for the primary outcomes, such as maximum
      sensory height (6 studies, 274 participants, mean difference (MD) (95%CI) -0.59 (
      1.24 to 0.07) dermatomes, low-quality evidence) and hypotension (10 studies, 683
      participants, risk ratio (95%CI) 0.84 (0.66-1.07), low-quality evidence), did not
      differ significantly between the two treatment arms, but trial sequential
      analysis suggested insufficient evidence to be certain of these findings. Meta
      regression suggested a volume-dependent effect, with higher volumes causing a
      higher spread of intrathecal drugs and a higher incidence of hypotension. A sub
      group analysis indicated a pronounced effect on motor block recovery time when a
      lower anaesthetic dose plus epidural volume extension was compared with a higher
      anaesthetic dose without epidural volume extension, the MD (95%CI) being -66.75 (
      76.0 to -57.5) min, with trial sequential analysis suggesting the evidence was
      sufficient to draw this conclusion. In trials using the same anaesthetic mixture
      in the epidural volume extension and the control groups, motor block recovery
      time did not differ between groups, with a MD (95%CI) of -1.06 (-5.48 to 3.36)
      min, although trial sequential analysis suggested insufficient evidence. In
      summary, there is not enough evidence to draw definite conclusions on the effect
      of epidural volume extension. The quality of the current evidence is low for both
      efficacy (maximum sensory height) and safety (hypotension). However, there may be
      a significantly shorter motor block recovery time when different anaesthetic
      mixtures are used in epidural volume extension and control groups; this warrants
      further investigation.

PMID- 28891204
TI  - Patterned Colloidal Photonic Crystals.
AB  - Colloidal photonic crystals (PCs) have been well developed because they are easy
      to prepare, cost-effective, and versatile with regards to modification and
      functionalization. Patterned colloidal PCs contribute a novel approach to
      constructing high-performance PC devices with unique structures and specific
      functions. In this review, an overview of the strategies for fabricating
      patterned colloidal PCs, including patterned substrate-induced assembly, inkjet
      printing, and selective immobilization and modification, is presented. The
      advantages of patterned PC devices are also discussed in detail, for example,
      improved detection sensitivity and response speed of the sensors, control over
      the flow direction and wicking rate of microfluidic channels, recognition of
      cross-reactive molecules through an array-patterned microchip, fabrication of
      display devices with tunable patterns, well-arranged RGB units, and wide viewing
      angles, and the ability to construct anti-counterfeiting devices with different
      security strategies. Finally, the perspective of future developments and
      challenges is presented.

PMID- 28891202
TI  - Mechanical signals protect stem cell lineage selection, preserving the bone and
      muscle phenotypes in obesity.
AB  - The incidence of obesity is rapidly rising, increasing morbidity and mortality
      rates worldwide. Associated comorbidities include type 2 diabetes, heart disease,
      fatty liver disease, and cancer. The impact of excess fat on musculoskeletal
      health is still unclear, although it is associated with increased fracture risk
      and a decline in muscular function. The complexity of obesity makes understanding
      the etiology of bone and muscle abnormalities difficult. Exercise is an effective
      and commonly prescribed nonpharmacological treatment option, but it can be
      difficult or unsafe for the frail, elderly, and morbidly obese. Exercise
      alternatives, such as low-intensity vibration (LIV), have potential for improving
      musculoskeletal health, particularly in conditions with excess fat. LIV has been
      shown to influence bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell differentiation toward
      higher-order tissues (i.e., bone) and away from fat. While the exact mechanisms
      are not fully understood, recent studies utilizing LIV both at the bench and in
      the clinic have demonstrated some efficacy. Here, we discuss the current
      literature investigating the effects of obesity on bone, muscle, and bone marrow
      and how exercise and LIV can be used as effective treatments for combating the
      negative effects in the presence of excess fat.

PMID- 28891205
TI  - Effects on jaw function shortly after whiplash trauma.
AB  - Normal jaw function involves muscles and joints of both jaw and neck. A whiplash
      trauma may disturb the integrated jaw-neck sensory-motor function and thereby
      impair chewing ability; however, it is not known if such impairment is present
      shortly after a neck trauma or develops over time. The aim was to evaluate jaw
      function after a recent whiplash trauma. Eighty cases (47 women) were examined
      within 1 month after a whiplash trauma and compared to 80 controls (47 women)
      without neck trauma. Participants completed the Jaw disability checklist (JDC)
      and Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaires and performed a 5-minute chewing
      test. Elicited fatigue and pain during chewing were noted, and group differences
      were evaluated with Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U-test. Compared to
      controls, cases had higher JDC (P < .0001) and NDI scores (15% vs 2%, P < .0001),
      and reported more fatigue (53% vs 31%, P = .006) and pain (30% vs 10%, P = .003)
      during the chewing test. Cases also had a shorter onset time for fatigue and pain
      (both P = .001) Furthermore, cases reporting symptoms during chewing had higher
      JDC and NDI scores compared to cases not reporting symptoms (both P = .01).
      Symptoms mainly occurred in the trigeminal area for both groups, but also in
      spinal areas more often for cases than for controls. Taken together, the results
      indicate that jaw-neck sensory-motor function is impaired already within 1 month
      after a whiplash trauma. The association between neck disability and jaw
      impairment underlines the close functional relationship between the regions, and
      stresses the importance of multidisciplinary assessment.

PMID- 28891206
TI  - A helpful approach to organ donation: From end-of-life care to effective organ
      transplantation.

PMID- 28891207
TI  - Stable Li Metal Anodes via Regulating Lithium Plating/Stripping in Vertically
      Aligned Microchannels.
AB  - Li anodes have been rapidly developed in recent years owing to the rising demand
      for higher-energy-density batteries. However, the safety issues induced by
      dendrites hinder the practical applications of Li anodes. Here, Li metal anodes
      stabilized by regulating lithium plating/stripping in vertically aligned
      microchannels are reported. The current density distribution and morphology
      evolution of the Li deposits on porous Cu current collectors are systematically
      analyzed. Based on simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics, the tip effect leads to
      preferential deposition on the microchannel walls, thus taking full advantage of
      the lightening rod theory of classical electromagnetism for restraining growth of
      Li dendrites. The Li anode with a porous Cu current collector achieves an
      enhanced cycle stability and a higher average Coulombic efficiency of 98.5%
      within 200 cycles. In addition, the resultant LiFePO4 /Li full battery
      demonstrates excellent rate capability and stable cycling performance, thus
      demonstrating promise as a current collector for high-energy-density, safe
      rechargeable Li batteries.

PMID- 28891209
TI  - Blood component transfusions in mass casualty events.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Planning transfusion needs in mass casualty events
      (MCE) is critical for disaster preparedness. Published data on blood component
      usage were analysed to seek correlative factors and usage rates. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: English-language medical publications since 1980 were searched for MCEs
      with numbers of patient admissions and transfused RBCs. Reports were excluded
      from natural disasters or with total RBC use <50 units. Statistical analysis
      employed Mann-Whitney U-tests and Spearman's rank correlations. RESULTS: In 24
      reports, the average units per admission were 3.06 RBCs, 2.13 plasmas and 0.37
      platelet doses. Five RBCs per admission would have sufficed for 87% of events.
      Transfusion needs involving bombings correlated with admissions (P <= 0.03). In
      the formula (massive-transfusion patients in MCE) times X = (total units for all
      MCE patients), the average X was 35 for RBCs (correlation P = 0.01), 17 for
      plasma (P = 0.10) and five for platelet doses (P = 0.06). From 67% to 84% of all
      components used were given in the first 24 h (event medians). CONCLUSIONS: Blood
      component use in MCEs correlated with numbers of patients admitted or receiving
      massive transfusion. More current data are needed to better reflect emerging
      trauma care practices and refine predictive models of transfusion needs.

PMID- 28891208
TI  - Serum MicroRNA-150 Predicts Prognosis for Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
      and Promotes Tumor Cell Proliferation by Targeting Tumor Suppressor Gene SRCIN1.
AB  - This integrative multistage study was aimed to identify circulating microRNAs
      (miRNAs) as prognostic biomarkers and investigate the treatment target for early
      stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. In stage I-II NSCLC patients,
      we screened and validated the miRNA ratio signatures predictive of prognosis in
      serum. In tumor, we found that the expression of miR-150 in identified miRNA
      signatures was also associated with survival. Increased miR-150 expression
      promoted NSCLC cell proliferation and migration and vice versa. Specific mRNA
      cleavage sites targeted by endogenous miR-150 in 3' untranslated region (UTR) of
      SRCIN1 was identified by utilizing our recently developed novel Stem-Loop-Array
      reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (SLA-RT-PCR) assay. The blocking
      action of miR-150 resulted in repressed NSCLC cell growth in vitro and knockdown
      of miR-150 caused substantial tumor volume reduction in vivo. Our findings
      suggest that miR-150 binding on specific recognition sites in 3' UTR of tumor
      suppressor gene SRCIN1 present a potential therapeutic target for NSCLC.

PMID- 28891210
TI  - Measuring Type 1 diabetes stigma: development and validation of the Type 1
      Diabetes Stigma Assessment Scale (DSAS-1).
AB  - AIMS: To develop and validate a self-report measure designed to assess perceived
      and experienced stigma for adults with Type 1 diabetes: the Type 1 Diabetes
      Stigma Assessment Scale (DSAS-1). METHODS: A large item-pool (64 items) was
      drafted based on qualitative data from interviews with 27 adults with Type 1
      diabetes. Eleven adults with Type 1 diabetes completed the draft questionnaire
      (responding to items using a five-point Likert scale), and participated in
      cognitive debriefing interviews. Based on their feedback, the item-pool was
      reduced and refined. Adults with Type 1 diabetes (N=898) completed an online
      survey including the draft stigma questionnaire (41 items) and other validated
      measures. Psychometric validation included principal components analysis and
      confirmatory factor analysis (split samples), internal consistency reliability
      assessment and Spearman's rho correlations. RESULTS: Scale reduction techniques
      resulted in 19 items (alpha=0.93). An unforced three-factor solution suggested
      three subscales: Treated Differently (six items, alpha=0.89); Blame and Judgement
      (six items, alpha=0.88); and Identity Concerns (seven items, alpha=0.89). This
      was corroborated with a confirmatory factor analysis, which demonstrated
      reasonable model fit with the three factors; less so for a single-factor model.
      Satisfactory concurrent, convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated.
      CONCLUSIONS: The 19-item DSAS-1 is a valid and reliable measure of the
      perceptions and experiences of Type 1 diabetes stigma. This novel, relatively
      brief measure has satisfactory psychometric properties. The DSAS-1 is now
      available for investigations into the nature and magnitude of the relationships
      between diabetes stigma and diabetes self-care behaviours and outcomes.

PMID- 28891211
TI  - A clinical trial combining megakaryocytes and haematopoietic stem cells to
      promote engraftment after autologous transplantation.

PMID- 28891212
TI  - Heart rate in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: target or marker?

PMID- 28891213
TI  - Identification of novel mutations in the HbF repressor gene BCL11A in patients
      with autism and intelligence disabilities.

PMID- 28891214
TI  - Non-redundant functions of the dimeric ABA receptor BdPYL1 in the grass
      Brachypodium.
AB  - Abiotic stresses have severe detrimental effects on agricultural productivity
      worldwide. Abscisic acid (ABA) levels rise in response to abiotic stresses, and
      play a role in coordinating physiological responses. ABA elicits its effects by
      binding a family of soluble receptors, increasing affinity of the receptors to
      type 2C phosphatases (PP2Cs) leading to phosphatase inhibition. In the current
      study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the ABA signaling pathway in the
      cereal model grass Brachypodium distachyon. The Brachypodium genome encodes a
      family of 10 functionally conserved ABA receptors. The 10th in the series,
      BdPYL10, encodes a defective receptor and is likely a pseudogene. Combinatorial
      protein interaction assay further validated computational analysis, which grouped
      Brachypodium ABA receptors into three subfamilies, similarly to Arabidopsis
      classification. Brachypodium subfamily III receptors inhibited PP2C activity in
      vitro and complemented Arabidopsis quadruple (pyr1/pyl1/pyl2/pyl4) mutant. BdPYL1
      T-DNA mutant exhibited clear ABA hyposensitivity phenotypes during seedling
      establishment and in mature plants. Single receptor predominance is in agreement
      with high transcriptional abundance of only a small Brachypodium ABA receptors
      subset, harboring the higher marginal significance of BdPYL1. Our findings
      suggest that unlike the highly redundant ABA core signaling components of
      Arabidopsis, Brachypodium encompasses a more compact and specialized ABA receptor
      apparatus. This organization may contribute to plant adaptations to ecological
      niches. These results lay the groundwork for targeting the prominent ABA
      receptors for stress perception in grasses, and reveal functional differences and
      commonalities between monocots and eudicots.

PMID- 28891215
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of a single intramuscular injection of cefquinome in buffalo
      calves.
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of cefquinome
      following single intramuscular (IM) administration in six healthy male buffalo
      calves. Cefquinome was administered intramuscularly (2 mg/kg bodyweight) and
      blood samples were collected prior to drug administration and up to 24 hr after
      injection. No adverse effects or changes were observed after the IM injection of
      cefquinome. Plasma concentrations of cefquinome were determined by high
      performance liquid chromatography. The disposition of plasma cefquinome is
      characterized by a mono-compartmental open model. The pharmacokinetic parameters
      after IM administration (mean +/- SE) were Cmax 6.93 +/- 0.58 MUg/ml, Tmax 0.5
      hr, t1/2kalpha 0.16 +/- 0.05 hr, t1/2beta 3.73 +/- 0.10 hr, and AUC 28.40 +/-
      1.30 MUg hr/ml after IM administration. A dosage regimen of 2 mg/kg bodyweight at
      24-hr interval following IM injection of cefquinome would maintain the plasma
      levels required to be effective against the bacterial pathogens with MIC values
      <=0.39 MUg/ml. The suggested dosage regimen of cefquinome has to be validated in
      the disease models before recommending for clinical use in buffalo calves.

PMID- 28891216
TI  - The CD45+ fraction in murine adipose tissue derived stromal cells harbors immune
      inhibitory inflammatory cells.
AB  - Stromal cells in adipose tissue are useful for repair/regenerative therapy as
      they harbor a substantial number of mesenchymal stem cells; therefore, freshly
      isolated autologous uncultured adipose tissue derived stromal cells (u-ADSCs) are
      useful for regenerative therapy, and obviate the need for mesenchymal stem cells.
      We evaluated the therapeutic effect of murine u-ADSCs and sorted subsets of u
      ADSCs in a concanavalin A (ConA) induced murine model of hepatitis, as well as
      their characteristics. We found that 10-20% of u-ADSCs expressed the CD45
      leukocyte-related antigen. CD68, which is a marker of macrophages (MPhis), was
      expressed by 50% of CD45+ u-ADSCs. About 90% of CD68+ CD45+ cells expressed CD206
      antigen, which is a marker of inhibitory M2-type MPhis. Genes related to M2-type
      MUs were especially more highly expressed by CD45+ CD206+ u-ADSCs than by CD45- u
      ADSCs. CD45+ u-ADSCs inhibited the expression of cytokines/chemokines and
      suppressed the proliferation of splenocytes stimulated with ConA. We observed
      that not only whole u-ADSCs, but also the CD45+ subset of u-ADSCs ameliorated the
      ConA-induced hepatitis in mice. In conclusion, we show that freshly isolated
      murine u-ADSCs were effective against acute hepatitis, and CD45+ u-ADSCs acting
      phenotypically and functionally like M2-type MPhis, contributed to the repair of
      liver tissue undergoing inflammation.

PMID- 28891218
TI  - Prostate vascular flow: The effect of the ejaculation on the power doppler
      ultrasonographic examination.
AB  - Power Doppler sonography (PD) can accurately depict tissue perfusion, recognize
      slow flows, and is relatively angle independent. The monitoring of local blood
      flow by Doppler ultrasonography is helpful in differentiating prostatic physio
      pathological conditions, but the recognizing of physiological variables that
      could affect it is crucial to apply this technique in clinical practice. This
      study aimed to evaluate if ejaculation affects blood flow to the prostate and to
      state how long this effect lasts. Serial PD examinations of prostate were
      performed in 18 dogs (1-5 years, 6-40 kg) immediately before (T0) and after (T1)
      the ejaculation, and repeated 6 (T2), 18 (T3) and 24 (T4) hours later. For each
      examination, two representative PD images were chosen and ranked by two
      independent observers according to the following scoring system: 0 = mild
      subcapsular (S) vascularization without clear evidence of parenchymal (P)
      vascularization; 1 = moderate P and S vascularization; 2 = severe S and moderate
      P vascularization; 3 = severe P and moderate S vascularization; 4 = severe P and
      S vascularization. Interobserver agreement was assessed using Kappa of Cohen.
      Ranked data, grouped according to time, were compared by ANOVA and Tukey HSD test
      (p < .05). Variations in the vascular flow pattern at different times were
      observed for all dogs. The statistical analysis evidenced a significant
      difference for T0 vs T1 and vs T2 and vs T3 (p < .01), with no significant
      difference for T0 vs T4 (p > .05). Interobserver agreement was very good (Kappa
      of Cohen = 0.86). This study demonstrated a definite increase in vascular flow to
      the prostate after ejaculation. The present results suggest a minimum of 24 hr
      sexual rest before the PD examination of the gland. This result should be taken
      into account whenever Doppler sonography is used to evaluate potential hyperaemia
      in dogs suspected of having prostate abnormalities.

PMID- 28891219
TI  - The health and well-being of children and young people who are looked after:
      Findings from a face-to-face survey in Glasgow.
AB  - Evidence suggests children and young people who are looked after (LACYP) may have
      poorer health outcomes than children and young people in the general population,
      particularly in relation to mental health. This paper discusses findings from a
      survey of the health and well-being of LACYP in Glasgow. A structured
      questionnaire used in the 2010 Glasgow Schools Survey (GSS) was adapted and
      administered in face-to-face interviews with 130 young people aged 11-18 in 2014
      2015 to investigate various aspects of health and well-being including physical
      activity, diet and sleep, smoking, alcohol and drugs, health feelings and
      worries, behaviours, attitudes and expectations. LACYP were more likely to report
      that they had tried drugs, slightly more likely to have scores indicating a high
      level of difficulties on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and
      less likely to report that they ate fruit and vegetables, used active transport
      methods to get to school and expected to go on to further or higher education;
      however, reported rates of physical activity, smoking and drinking were similar.
      LACYP were less likely to report that they had engaged in antisocial behaviour,
      truancy or bullying or been exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, less likely
      to worry or have low self-esteem, and more likely to rate their health
      positively. There were some variations according to placement type. The findings
      of this study present a more positive picture of the health and well-being of
      LACYP in Glasgow than might have been expected but should be treated with caution
      due to small sample size. Further research is needed to identify differences in
      relation to placement type and to determine whether being looked after might be
      associated with improved health and well-being outcomes for some children and
      young people.

PMID- 28891217
TI  - Reproducibility of F18-FDG PET radiomic features for different cervical tumor
      segmentation methods, gray-level discretization, and reconstruction algorithms.
AB  - Site-specific investigations of the role of radiomics in cancer diagnosis and
      therapy are emerging. We evaluated the reproducibility of radiomic features
      extracted from 18 Flourine-fluorodeoxyglucose (18 F-FDG) PET images for three
      parameters: manual versus computer-aided segmentation methods, gray-level
      discretization, and PET image reconstruction algorithms. Our cohort consisted of
      pretreatment PET/CT scans from 88 cervical cancer patients. Two board-certified
      radiation oncologists manually segmented the metabolic tumor volume (MTV1 and
      MTV2 ) for each patient. For comparison, we used a graphical-based method to
      generate semiautomated segmented volumes (GBSV). To address any perturbations in
      radiomic feature values, we down-sampled the tumor volumes into three gray
      levels: 32, 64, and 128 from the original gray-level of 256. Finally, we analyzed
      the effect on radiomic features on PET images of eight patients due to four PET
      3D-reconstruction algorithms: maximum likelihood-ordered subset expectation
      maximization (OSEM) iterative reconstruction (IR) method, fourier rebinning-ML
      OSEM (FOREIR), FORE-filtered back projection (FOREFBP), and 3D-Reprojection
      (3DRP) analytical method. We extracted 79 features from all segmentation method,
      gray-levels of down-sampled volumes, and PET reconstruction algorithms. The
      features were extracted using gray-level co-occurrence matrices (GLCM), gray
      level size zone matrices (GLSZM), gray-level run-length matrices (GLRLM),
      neighborhood gray-tone difference matrices (NGTDM), shape-based features (SF),
      and intensity histogram features (IHF). We computed the Dice coefficient between
      each MTV and GBSV to measure segmentation accuracy. Coefficient values close to
      one indicate high agreement, and values close to zero indicate low agreement. We
      evaluated the effect on radiomic features by calculating the mean percentage
      differences (d-) between feature values measured from each pair of parameter
      elements (i.e. segmentation methods: MTV1 -MTV2 , MTV1 -GBSV, MTV2 -GBSV; gray
      levels: 64-32, 64-128, and 64-256; reconstruction algorithms: OSEM-FORE-OSEM,
      OSEM-FOREFBP, and OSEM-3DRP). We used |d-| as a measure of radiomic feature
      reproducibility level, where any feature scored |d-| +/-SD <= |25|% +/- 35% was
      considered reproducible. We used Bland-Altman analysis to evaluate the mean,
      standard deviation (SD), and upper/lower reproducibility limits (U/LRL) for
      radiomic features in response to variation in each testing parameter.
      Furthermore, we proposed U/LRL as a method to classify the level of
      reproducibility: High- +/-1% <= U/LRL <= +/-30%; Intermediate- +/-30% < U/LRL <=
      +/-45%; Low- +/-45 < U/LRL <= +/-50%. We considered any feature below the low
      level as nonreproducible (NR). Finally, we calculated the interclass correlation
      coefficient (ICC) to evaluate the reliability of radiomic feature measurements
      for each parameter. The segmented volumes of 65 patients (81.3%) scored Dice
      coefficient >0.75 for all three volumes. The result outcomes revealed a tendency
      of higher radiomic feature reproducibility among segmentation pair MTV1 -GBSV
      than MTV2 -GBSV, gray-level pairs of 64-32 and 64-128 than 64-256, and
      reconstruction algorithm pairs of OSEM-FOREIR and OSEM-FOREFBP than OSEM-3DRP.
      Although the choice of cervical tumor segmentation method, gray-level value, and
      reconstruction algorithm may affect radiomic features, some features were
      characterized by high reproducibility through all testing parameters. The number
      of radiomic features that showed insensitivity to variations in segmentation
      methods, gray-level discretization, and reconstruction algorithms was 10 (13%), 4
      (5%), and 1 (1%), respectively. These results suggest that a careful analysis of
      the effects of these parameters is essential prior to any radiomics clinical
      application.

PMID- 28891220
TI  - The missing explanation of the false-belief advantage in bilingual children: a
      longitudinal study.
AB  - Bilingual preschoolers often perform better than monolingual children on false
      belief understanding. It has been hypothesized that this is due to their enhanced
      executive function skills, although this relationship has rarely been tested or
      supported. The current longitudinal study tested whether metalinguistic awareness
      was responsible for this advantage. Further, we examined the contributions of
      both executive functioning and language ability to false-belief understanding by
      including multiple measures of both. Seventy-eight children (n = 40 Spanish
      English bilingual; age M = 49.29, SD = 7.38 and, n = 38 English monolingual; age
      M = 47.75, SD = 6.86) were tested. A year later the children were tested again (n
      = 22 bilingual, n = 25 monolingual). The results indicated that language and
      executive function (inhibitory control) at time 1 were related to false belief in
      monolinguals at time 2. In contrast, bilinguals' metalinguistic performance at
      time 1 was the sole predictor of false belief at time 2. The different linguistic
      and cognitive profiles of monolinguals and bilinguals may create different
      pathways for their development of false-belief understanding. A video abstract of
      this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/vILn2gKjFxw.

PMID- 28891221
TI  - Comparative analysis of the biological effects of the endodontic bioactive
      cements MTA-Angelus, MTA Repair HP and NeoMTA Plus on human dental pulp stem
      cells.
AB  - AIM: To evaluate the biological effects in vitro of MTA-Angelus (MTA-Ang;
      Angelus, Londrina, PR, Brazil), MTA Repair HP (MTA-HP; Angelus) and NeoMTA Plus
      (NeoMTA-P; Avalon Biomed Inc, Bradenton, FL, USA) on human dental pulp stem cells
      (hDPSCs). METHODOLOGY: Cell viability and cell migration assays were performed
      using eluates of each material. To evaluate cell morphology and cell attachment
      to the different materials, hDPSCs were directly seeded onto the material
      surfaces and analysed by immunocytofluorescence and scanning electron microscopy,
      respectively. The chemical composition of the materials was determined by energy
      dispersive X-ray (EDX), and eluates were analysed by inductively coupled plasma
      mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Statistical analysis was performed with the analysis
      of variance and Bonferroni or Tukey post-test (alpha < 0.05). RESULTS: Undiluted
      MTA-Ang, MTA-HP and NeoMTA-P displayed a significant increase in cell viability
      greater than that obtained using complete medium alone (control) (*P < 0.05; **P
      < 0.01; ***P < 0.001). Moreover, a cell migration assay revealed cell migration
      rates after incubation with extracts of MTA-Ang, MTA-HP and NeoMTA-P that were
      similar to levels obtained in the control group. In addition, stretched
      cytoskeletal F-actin fibres were detected in the cells treated with the three
      material extracts. SEM studies revealed a high degree of cell proliferation and
      attachment on all three materials. EDX analysis demonstrated similar weight
      percentages of C, O and Ca in all three materials, whilst other elements such as
      Al, Si and S were also found. CONCLUSIONS: MTA-Ang, MTA-HP and NeoMTA-P were
      associated with biological effects on hDPSCs in terms of cell proliferation,
      morphology, migration and attachment.

PMID- 28891222
TI  - Global population pharmacokinetics of the investigational Aurora A kinase
      inhibitor alisertib in cancer patients: rationale for lower dosage in Asia.
AB  - AIMS: This population pharmacokinetic analysis was conducted to describe
      quantitatively the regional differences and sources of interpatient variability
      on the apparent oral clearance of alisertib. METHODS: A population
      pharmacokinetic analysis was performed on data from 671 cancer patients in
      Western countries and in Japan/East Asia to whom alisertib 5-150 mg once or twice
      daily (b.i.d.) was administered in multiple dosing schedules. The final model was
      used to simulate alisertib pharmacokinetics in patients in the West and East
      Asian regions in the single-agent schedule of 7 days of dosing in a 21-day cycle.
      Exposure-safety relationships for mechanism-related antiproliferative toxicities
      (neutropenia, mucositis and diarrhoea) were estimated by logistic regression.
      RESULTS: Alisertib pharmacokinetics were described by a two-compartment model
      with four-transit compartment absorption and linear elimination. The final model
      included a covariate effect of region on relative bioavailability, with patients
      in the East Asian region estimated to have a 52% higher bioavailability compared
      with Western patients. Population simulated exposure at 30 mg b.i.d. in patients
      in Asia was similar to that at 50 mg b.i.d. in Western patients [geometric mean
      (coefficient of variation) steady state area under the concentration-time curve
      over the dosing interval (AUC(0-tau) ): 21.4 MUM.h (52.3%) and 24.1 MUM.h
      (53.6%), respectively]. Exposure-AE relationships could be described for
      neutropenia, stomatitis and diarrhoea, supporting the lower dosage of alisertib
      in Asia for global clinical development. CONCLUSIONS: Model-based simulations
      support the achievement of similar alisertib exposures in patients in Asia who
      are administered a 40% lower dose compared with the Western population, thereby
      providing a quantitative clinical pharmacology bridging and regional dosing
      rationale for global drug development.

PMID- 28891223
TI  - Promoter architecture and transcriptional regulation of musculoskeletal embryonic
      nuclear protein 1b (mustn1b) gene in zebrafish.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mustn1 is a specific musculoskeletal protein that plays a critical
      role in myogenesis and chondrogenesis in vertebrates. Whole-mount in situ
      hybridization revealed that mustn1b mRNAs are specifically expressed in skeletal
      and cardiac muscles in Zebrafish embryos. However, the precise function and the
      regulatory elements required for its muscle-specific expression are largely
      unknown. RESULTS: The purpose of this study was to explore and uncover the target
      genomic regions that regulate mustn1b gene expression by in vivo functional
      characterization of the mustn1b promoter. We report here stable expression
      analyses of eGFP from fluorescent transgenic reporter Zebrafish line containing a
      0.8kb_mustn1b-Tol2-eGFP construct. eGFP expression was specifically found in the
      skeletal and cardiac muscle tissues. We show that reporter Zebrafish lines
      generated replicate the endogenous mustn1b expression pattern in early Zebrafish
      embryos. Specific site directed-mutagenesis analysis revealed that promoter
      activity resides in two annotated genomic regulatory regions, each one
      corresponding to a specific functional transcription factor binding site.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that mustn1b is specifically expressed in skeletal
      and cardiac muscle tissues and its muscle specificity is controlled by the 0.2-kb
      promoter and flanking sequences and in vivo regulated by the action of two
      sequence-specific families of transcription factors. Developmental Dynamics
      246:992-1000, 2017. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID- 28891225
TI  - Re: Comparison of management regimens following ultrasound diagnosis of non-tubal
      ectopic pregnancies: a retrospective cohort study.

PMID- 28891224
TI  - SMV1, an extremely stable thermophilic virus platform for nanoparticle
      trafficking in the mammalian GI tract.
AB  - AIMS: Analysis of the stability and safety of Sulfolobus monocaudavirus 1 (SMV1)
      during passage through the mammalian GI tract. METHODS AND RESULTS: A major
      challenge of using nano-vectors to target gut microbiome is their survival during
      passage through the extremely acidic and proteolytic environment of the mammalian
      GI tract. Here, we investigated the thermo-acidophilic archaeal virus SMV1 as a
      candidate therapeutic nano-vector for the distal mammalian GI tract microbiome.
      We investigated the anatomical distribution, vector stability and immunogenicity
      of this virus following oral ingestion in mice and compared these traits to the
      more classically used Inovirus vector M13KE. We found that SMV1 particles were
      highly stable under both simulated GI tract conditions (in vitro) and in mice (in
      vivo). Moreover, SMV1 could not be detected in tissues outside the GI tract and
      it elicited a nearly undetectable inflammatory response. Finally, we used human
      intestinal organoids (HIOs) to show that labelled SMV1 did not invade or
      otherwise perturb the human GI tract epithelium. CONCLUSION: Sulfolobus
      monocaudavirus 1 appeared stable and safe during passage though the mammalian GI
      tract. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This is the first study evaluating
      an archaeal virus as a potential therapeutic nanoparticle delivery system and it
      opens new possibilities for future development of novel nanoplatforms.

PMID- 28891226
TI  - Clinical management of peripherally inserted central catheters compared to
      conventional central venous catheters in patients with hematological
      malignancies: A large multicenter study of the REL GROUP (Rete Ematologica
      Lombarda - Lombardy Hematologic Network, Italy).

PMID- 28891228
TI  - Investigating a biomarker-driven approach to target collagen turnover in diabetic
      heart failure with preserved ejection fraction patients. Effect of torasemide
      versus furosemide on serum C-terminal propeptide of procollagen type I (DROP-PIP
      trial).
AB  - AIM: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is associated with
      myocardial remodelling including severe pro-fibrotic changes contributing to an
      increase in left ventricular stiffness and diastolic dysfunction. Serum C
      terminal propeptide of procollagen type I (PIP) strongly correlates with the
      turnover of extracellular cardiac matrix proteins and fibrosis. Torasemide, but
      not furosemide, was described to reduce collagen type I synthesis in clinically
      unstable patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. We evaluated
      whether its effect translated to HFpEF patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
      (T2DM) and abnormal basal PIP levels. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a
      relatively small, single-centre, randomised, double-blind, two-arm parallel
      group, active controlled clinical trial in 35 HFpEF patients with T2DM to
      determine the effects of a 9-month treatment with torasemide vs. furosemide on
      changes of serum PIP levels. Patients with increased PIP levels (>=110 ng/mL), or
      evidence of structural changes with a left atrial volume index (LAVI) >29 mL/m2
      and abnormal PIP levels (>=70 ng/mL), were eligible to participate. Fifteen
      patients were female (42%), mean age was 69 years, body mass index was 34.7 kg/m2
      , 83% were in New York Heart Association class II/III. Echocardiographic
      characteristics showed a mean left ventricular ejection fraction of >60%, a left
      ventricular mass index >120 g/m2 , an E/e' ratio of 14, and a LAVI of 40 mL/m2
      with a NT-proBNP of 174 ng/L and a 6-minute walk distance of 421 m. Mean per cent
      change in PIP was 2.63 +/- 5.68% (+/-SEM) in torasemide vs. 2.74 +/- 6.49% in
      furosemide (P = 0.9898) treated patients. Torasemide was not superior to
      furosemide in improving functional capacity, diastolic function, quality of life,
      or neuroendocrine activation. CONCLUSION: In this hypothesis-generating,
      mechanistic trial in stable HFpEF patients with T2DM, neither long-term
      administration of torasemide nor furosemide was associated with a significant
      effect on myocardial fibrosis, as assessed by serum PIP. Further studies are
      urgently needed in this field. More specific diuretic and anti-fibrotic treatment
      strategies in T2DM and/or HFpEF are warranted.

PMID- 28891229
TI  - Effect of different mini-volume colloid centrifugation configurations on flow
      cytometrically sorted sperm recovery efficiency and quality using a computer
      assisted semen analyzer.
AB  - Straws of sex-sorted sperm are usually packaged at a low concentration (e.g.,
      ~2.1 * 106  sperm/ml) and cost significantly more than unsorted conventional
      semen from the same sire. In order to maximize the efficiency of using sex-sorted
      sperm under in vitro fertilization conditions, the selection of an appropriate
      sperm separation technique is essential. In this study, the effect of using
      different silane-coated silica colloid dilutions and layering configurations
      during centrifugation of sex-sorted sperm was examined over an extended period of
      incubation time. Sperm recovery and viability after centrifugation using the
      colloid separation technique were measured along with several sperm motility
      parameters using CASA. For this purpose, frozen and thawed sex-sorted sperm
      samples were centrifuged using mini-volume single-layer (40%, 60% and 80%) and
      mini-volume two-layer (45%/90%, 40%/80% and 30%/60%) separation configurations
      using PureSperm(r) . A single layer of 40% PureSperm(r) recovered significantly
      more sex-sorted sperm (78.07% +/- 2.28%) followed by a single layer of 80%
      PureSperm(r) (68.43% +/- 2.33%). The lowest sperm recovery was obtained using a
      two-layer PureSperm(r) dilution of 45%/90% (47.57% +/- 2.33%). Single-layer
      centrifugation recovered more sorted sperm (68.67% +/- 1.74%) than two layer
      (53.74% +/- 1.74%) (p < .0001). A single layer of 80% PureSperm(r) exhibited the
      highest sorted sperm viability (72.01% +/- 2.90%) after centrifugation (p < .05).
      The mini-volume single layer of 80% PureSperm(r) was determined to be an
      effective alternative to a two-layer centrifugation configuration for sex-sorted
      sperm selection. In addition, single-layer colloid dilution of 80% performed
      either as well as or significantly outperformed the other treatments, as well as
      the control, with regard to motility (MOT) for all time periods of analysis.

PMID- 28891230
TI  - Synthesis of AgWCNx Nanocomposites for the One-Step Conversion of Cyclohexene to
      Adipic Acid and Its Mechanistic Studies.
AB  - A novel catalyst composed of silver nanoparticles grafted on WCNx has been
      prepared by using a facile pH-adjusted method. The material reported in this
      study presents a non-mineral acid route for the synthesis of the industrially
      significant monomer adipic acid through the selective oxidation of cyclohexene.
      Ag has been stabilized in the hydrophobic matrix during the formation of the
      mesoporous silica material by using aniline as stabilizing agent. A cyclohexene
      conversion of 92.2 % with 96.2 % selectivity for adipic acid was observed with
      the AgWCNx -2 catalyst, therefore, the AgWCNx catalyst was found to be efficient
      for the direct conversion to adipic acid with respect to their monometallic
      counterparts. The energy profile diagrams for each reaction path by using the
      AgWCNx catalyst were studied along with their monometallic counterparts by using
      the Gaussian 09 package. The reported material can avoid the use of harmful phase
      transfer catalysts (PTC) and/or chlorinated additives, which are two among other
      benefits of the reported work.

PMID- 28891227
TI  - Expression of regulatory genes in the embryonic brain of a lizard and
      implications for understanding pallial organization and evolution.
AB  - The comparison of gene expression patterns in the embryonic brain of mouse and
      chicken is being essential for understanding pallial organization. However, the
      scarcity of gene expression data in reptiles, crucial for understanding
      evolution, makes it difficult to identify homologues of pallial divisions in
      different amniotes. We cloned and analyzed the expression of the genes Emx1,
      Lhx2, Lhx9, and Tbr1 in the embryonic telencephalon of the lacertid lizard
      Psammodromus algirus. The comparative expression patterns of these genes,
      critical for pallial development, are better understood when using a recently
      proposed six-part model of pallial divisions. The lizard medial pallium,
      expressing all genes, includes the medial and dorsomedial cortices, and the
      majority of the dorsal cortex, except the region of the lateral cortical
      superposition. The latter is rich in Lhx9 expression, being excluded as a
      candidate of dorsal or lateral pallia, and may belong to a distinct dorsolateral
      pallium, which extends from rostral to caudal levels. Thus, the neocortex homolog
      cannot be found in the classical reptilian dorsal cortex, but perhaps in a small
      Emx1-expressing/Lhx9-negative area at the front of the telencephalon, resembling
      the avian hyperpallium. The ventral pallium, expressing Lhx9, but not Emx1, gives
      rise to the dorsal ventricular ridge and appears comparable to the avian
      nidopallium. We also identified a distinct ventrocaudal pallial sector comparable
      to the avian arcopallium and to part of the mammalian pallial amygdala. These
      data open new venues for understanding the organization and evolution of the
      pallium.

PMID- 28891232
TI  - Crescentic splinter haemorrhages reflect stroke pathophysiology in
      hypereosinophilic syndrome.

PMID- 28891231
TI  - Development and characterization of electrosprayed nanoparticles for
      encapsulation of Curcumin.
AB  - Curcumin has been proven to be an effective herbal derived anti-inflammatory and
      antioxidant biocompatible agent. In this research, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)
      (PLGA) (as a biocompatible and generally recognized as safe (GRAS) polymer)
      nanoparticles containing Curcumin were electrosprayed from different polymeric
      solutions with different concentrations for the first time. Morphology of these
      nanoparticles in the absence/presence of Curcumin was evaluated by scanning
      electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy analyses. Perfectly shaped nanoparticles with an average size of 300
      and 320 nm were observed for neat and Curcumin-loaded PLGA, respectively.
      Curcumin-loaded electrosprayed nanoparticles showed a normal moderate initial
      burst and then a prolonged release period. Weibull, Peppas, and modified
      Korsmeyer-Peppas models were applied to study the kinetic and mechanism of
      Curcumin release from PLGA nanoparticles. Results showed high specific surface
      area and spherical geometry of the nanoparticles. Effectiveness of the
      electrospray method as a promising technique for preparing Curcumin-loaded
      nanoparticles was confirmed in this study. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J
      Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 285-292, 2018.

PMID- 28891233
TI  - Fetoscopic tracheal occlusion for treatment of non-isolated congenital
      diaphragmatic hernia.
AB  - Fetoscopic endotracheal occlusion (FETO) is a prenatal treatment that may
      increase survival in severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). In the USA,
      FETO is offered for isolated severe left-sided CDH in the context of an FDA
      approved feasibility study. FETO in non-isolated cases of severe CDH is only
      performed with a compassionate use exemption from US regulatory bodies. Anomalies
      frequently associated with CDH include congenital cystic lesions of the lung and
      cardiac defects. We describe two cases of non-isolated severe left-sided CDH that
      underwent prenatal FETO, survived after birth and underwent postnatal surgical
      repair. The potential benefit of FETO in this setting is discussed. (c) 2017 John
      Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28891234
TI  - Retrospective analysis of nonradiation complications in dogs undergoing radiation
      therapy.
AB  - Dogs receiving radiation can develop complications unrelated to the radiation
      treatment. No study to date has described these complications in clinical
      patients undergoing multiple radiation therapy treatments. The purpose of this
      retrospective case-control study was to characterize the incidence and type of
      complications that occur in these dogs. A secondary goal was to evaluate whether
      patient and treatment characteristics could be identified to predict the risk of
      these complications. Medical records of 268 dogs receiving at least one radiation
      treatment at a single institution, between September, 2004 and June, 2007 were
      reviewed. Age, breed, gender, body weight, tumor type, tumor location, number of
      treatments, pre-treatment blood work abnormalities, and whether chemotherapy,
      glucocorticoids, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were given were
      collected. Number, type, and severity of nonradiation complications were
      recorded. Complications attributed to the tumor or to the radiation were
      excluded. Statistical analyses were performed to determine whether demographic
      and clinical characteristics were associated with development of a complication.
      General anesthesia was used for all treatments. Complications occurred in 101
      (37%) cases including diarrhea, vomiting, cough, and loss of appetite, which were
      typically mild. Seventeen dogs (6%) developed severe complications. Eight dogs
      (3%) died from their complication. Dogs that developed complications were
      younger, received more treatments, had leukocytosis, received glucocorticoids,
      and were less likely to have thrombocytopenia. On multivariate analysis, number
      of treatments and leukocytosis were significantly associated with complications.
      Findings indicate that nonradiation complications are common in dogs receiving
      radiotherapy under general anesthesia. In this population, complications were
      usually mild or self-limiting.

PMID- 28891235
TI  - Financial arrangements for health systems in low-income countries: an overview of
      systematic reviews.
AB  - BACKGROUND: One target of the Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve
      "universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to
      quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and
      affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all". A fundamental concern of
      governments in striving for this goal is how to finance such a health system.
      This concern is very relevant for low-income countries. OBJECTIVES: To provide an
      overview of the evidence from up-to-date systematic reviews about the effects of
      financial arrangements for health systems in low-income countries. Secondary
      objectives include identifying needs and priorities for future evaluations and
      systematic reviews on financial arrangements, and informing refinements in the
      framework for financial arrangements presented in the overview. METHODS: We
      searched Health Systems Evidence in November 2010 and PDQ-Evidence up to 17
      December 2016 for systematic reviews. We did not apply any date, language, or
      publication status limitations in the searches. We included well-conducted
      systematic reviews of studies that assessed the effects of financial arrangements
      on patient outcomes (health and health behaviours), the quality or utilisation of
      healthcare services, resource use, healthcare provider outcomes (such as sick
      leave), or social outcomes (such as poverty, employment, or financial burden of
      patients, e.g. out-of-pocket payment, catastrophic disease expenditure) and that
      were published after April 2005. We excluded reviews with limitations important
      enough to compromise the reliability of the findings. Two overview authors
      independently screened reviews, extracted data, and assessed the certainty of
      evidence using GRADE. We prepared SUPPORT Summaries for eligible reviews,
      including key messages, 'Summary of findings' tables (using GRADE to assess the
      certainty of the evidence), and assessments of the relevance of findings to low
      income countries. MAIN RESULTS: We identified 7272 reviews and included 15 in
      this overview, on: collection of funds (2 reviews), insurance schemes (1 review),
      purchasing of services (1 review), recipient incentives (6 reviews), and provider
      incentives (5 reviews). The reviews were published between 2008 and 2015; focused
      on 13 subcategories; and reported results from 276 studies: 115 (42%) randomised
      trials, 11 (4%) non-randomised trials, 23 (8%) controlled before-after studies,
      51 (19%) interrupted time series, 9 (3%) repeated measures, and 67 (24%) other
      non-randomised studies. Forty-three per cent (119/276) of the studies included in
      the reviews took place in low- and middle-income countries. Collection of funds:
      the effects of changes in user fees on utilisation and equity are uncertain (very
      low-certainty evidence). It is also uncertain whether aid delivered under the
      Paris Principles (ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results, and
      mutual accountability) improves health outcomes compared to aid delivered without
      conforming to those principles (very low-certainty evidence). Insurance schemes:
      community-based health insurance may increase service utilisation (low-certainty
      evidence), but the effects on health outcomes are uncertain (very low-certainty
      evidence). It is uncertain whether social health insurance improves utilisation
      of health services or health outcomes (very low-certainty evidence). Purchasing
      of services: it is uncertain whether increasing salaries of public sector
      healthcare workers improves the quantity or quality of their work (very low
      certainty evidence). Recipient incentives: recipient incentives may improve
      adherence to long-term treatments (low-certainty evidence), but it is uncertain
      whether they improve patient outcomes. One-time recipient incentives probably
      improve patient return for start or continuation of treatment (moderate-certainty
      evidence) and may improve return for tuberculosis test readings (low-certainty
      evidence). However, incentives may not improve completion of tuberculosis
      prophylaxis, and it is uncertain whether they improve completion of treatment for
      active tuberculosis. Conditional cash transfer programmes probably lead to an
      increase in service utilisation (moderate-certainty evidence), but their effects
      on health outcomes are uncertain. Vouchers may improve health service utilisation
      (low-certainty evidence), but the effects on health outcomes are uncertain (very
      low-certainty evidence). Introducing a restrictive cap may decrease use of
      medicines for symptomatic conditions and overall use of medicines, may decrease
      insurers' expenditures on medicines (low-certainty evidence), and has uncertain
      effects on emergency department use, hospitalisations, and use of outpatient care
      (very low-certainty evidence). Reference pricing, maximum pricing, and index
      pricing for drugs have mixed effects on drug expenditures by patients and
      insurers as well as the use of brand and generic drugs. Provider incentives: the
      effects of provider incentives are uncertain (very low-certainty evidence),
      including: the effects of provider incentives on the quality of care provided by
      primary care physicians or outpatient referrals from primary to secondary care,
      incentives for recruiting and retaining health professionals to serve in remote
      areas, and the effects of pay-for-performance on provider performance, the
      utilisation of services, patient outcomes, or resource use in low-income
      countries. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Research based on sound systematic review
      methods has evaluated numerous financial arrangements relevant to low-income
      countries, targeting different levels of the health systems and assessing diverse
      outcomes. However, included reviews rarely reported social outcomes, resource
      use, equity impacts, or undesirable effects. We also identified gaps in primary
      research because of uncertainty about applicability of the evidence to low-income
      countries. Financial arrangements for which the effects are uncertain include
      external funding (aid), caps and co-payments, pay-for-performance, and provider
      incentives. Further studies evaluating the effects of these arrangements are
      needed in low-income countries. Systematic reviews should include all outcomes
      that are relevant to decision-makers and to people affected by changes in
      financial arrangements.

PMID- 28891237
TI  - The Incidence and Prevalence of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in San Francisco
      County, California: The California Lupus Surveillance Project.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Estimates of the incidence and prevalence of systemic lupus
      erythematosus (SLE) in the US have varied widely. The purpose of this study was
      to conduct the California Lupus Surveillance Project (CLSP) to determine credible
      estimates of SLE incidence and prevalence, with a special focus on Hispanics and
      Asians. METHODS: The CLSP, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and
      Prevention, is a population-based registry of individuals with SLE residing in
      San Francisco County, CA, from January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2009. Data
      sources included hospitals, rheumatologists, nephrologists, commercial
      laboratories, and a state hospital discharge database. We abstracted medical
      records to ascertain SLE cases, which we defined as patients who met >=4 of the
      11 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for SLE. We estimated
      crude and age-standardized incidence and prevalence, which were stratified by sex
      and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: The overall age-standardized annual incidence rate
      was 4.6 per 100,000 person-years. The average annual period prevalence was 84.8
      per 100,000 persons. The age-standardized incidence rate in women and men was 8.6
      and 0.7 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. This rate was highest among black
      women (30.5), followed by Hispanic women (8.9), Asian women (7.2), and white
      women (5.3). The age-standardized prevalence in women per 100,000 persons was
      458.1 in blacks, 177.9 in Hispanics, 149.7 in Asians, and 109.8 in whites.
      Capture-recapture modeling estimated 33 additional incident cases and 147
      additional prevalent cases. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive methods that include
      intensive case-finding provide more credible estimates of SLE in Hispanics and
      Asians, and confirm racial and ethnic disparities in SLE. The disease burden of
      SLE is highest in black women, followed by Hispanic women, Asian women, and white
      women.

PMID- 28891236
TI  - A disease-associated mutation in the adhesion GPCR BAI2 (ADGRB2) increases
      receptor signaling activity.
AB  - Mutations in G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that increase constitutive
      signaling activity can cause human disease. A de novo C-terminal mutation
      (R1465W) in the adhesion GPCR BAI2 (also known as ADGRB2) was identified in a
      patient suffering from progressive spastic paraparesis and other neurological
      symptoms. In vitro studies revealed that this mutation strongly increases the
      constitutive signaling activity of an N-terminally cleaved form of BAI2, which
      represents the activated form of the receptor. Further studies dissecting the
      mechanism(s) underling this effect revealed that wild-type BAI2 primarily couples
      to Galphaz , with the R1465W mutation conferring increased coupling to Galphai .
      The R1465W mutation also increases the total and surface expression of BAI2. The
      mutation has no effect on receptor binding to beta-arrestins, but does perturb
      binding to the endocytic protein endophilin A1, identified here as a novel
      interacting partner for BAI2. These studies provide new insights into the
      signaling capabilities of the adhesion GPCR BAI2/ADGRB2 and shed light on how an
      apparent gain-of-function mutation to the receptor's C-terminus may lead to human
      disease.

PMID- 28891238
TI  - Excised larynx evaluation of subthyroid cartilage approach to medialization
      thyroplasty.
AB  - OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To describe an alternative approach to medialization
      thyroplasty involving dissection underneath the thyroid cartilage with placement
      of a Gore-Tex implant, and to evaluate its effect on a range of phonatory
      measures using an excised canine larynx model. STUDY DESIGN: Animal model.
      METHODS: On each of eight excised canine larynges, the conditions of normal,
      paralysis, medialization thyroplasty by standard transthyroid cartilage approach,
      and medialization thyroplasty by experimental subthyroid cartilage approach were
      performed. Aerodynamic, acoustic, and mucosal wave parameters were measured for
      each condition. RESULTS: Compared to the vocal fold paralysis state, both the
      transthyroid and subthyroid approaches for Gore-Tex insertion resulted in
      significant decreases in phonation threshold pressure and phonation threshold
      flow. Both approaches also significantly decreased percent jitter, decreased
      percent shimmer, and improved signal-to-noise ratio. The mucosal wave was
      preserved after insertion of the Gore-Tex implant for both approaches. For all
      the phonatory measures except phonation threshold flow, there were no significant
      differences between the transthyroid and subthyroid approaches. CONCLUSIONS: Gore
      Tex implantation via a subthyroid approach in an excised canine larynx model can
      produce effective medialization, preserve the mucosal wave, and significantly
      improve aerodynamic and acoustic parameters without meaningful difference
      compared to a traditional transthyroid approach. The subthyroid approach does not
      require creation of a thyroid cartilage window and could be a potentially
      valuable alternative method of performing medialization thyroplasty. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: NA. Laryngoscope, 128:675-681, 2018.

PMID- 28891239
TI  - Understanding the association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and
      peripartum cardiomyopathy.

PMID- 28891240
TI  - Introduction to the JSO enhanced recover after surgery seminar edition.

PMID- 28891241
TI  - Infliximab for severe colitis associated with nivolumab followed by ipilimumab.

PMID- 28891242
TI  - Inorganic vs. organic nitrates for heart failure with preserved ejection
      fraction: it's not all in your head!

PMID- 28891244
TI  - Personalized/Precision Dentistry - The Future of Dentistry?

PMID- 28891243
TI  - The use of mobile health applications in school dental screening.

PMID- 28891246
TI  - Continuing Professional Development Quiz.

PMID- 28891247
TI  - Synthesis of dual thermo- and pH-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic
      acid)-grafted cellulose nanocrystals by reversible addition-fragmentation chain
      transfer polymerization.
AB  - Free and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs)-grafted block copolymers of acrylic acid
      and N-isopropylacrylamide with various poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm)
      block lengths as dual temperature- and pH-sensitive materials were synthesized by
      reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization via an R-approach
      method. Controlling lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the products by
      changing the PNIPAAm block length, addition of CNC, and variation of pH was
      studied. The free and CNC-grafted block copolymers were analyzed by Fourier
      transform infrared and proton nuclear magnetic resonance. LCST of copolymers was
      measured by dynamic light scattering using their hydrodynamic diameters. The
      block copolymers reversibly form core-corona structure with PNIPAAm as core and
      poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as shell above LCST at higher pH values. LCST point
      shifts to higher temperatures by increasing pH and CNC content and also lowering
      PNIPAAm block length. By decreasing pH below 4 at certainly low temperatures, PAA
      becomes core and PNIPAAm forms corona. Thermal behavior of the CNC-grafted
      polymers was studied by thermal gravimetric analysis and differential scanning
      calorimetry. Morphology of the polymer-grafted CNC was examined by X-ray
      diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy.
      (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 231-243, 2018.

PMID- 28891249
TI  - Poly(vinylphosphonic acid-co-acrylic acid) hydrogels: The effect of copolymer
      composition on osteoblast adhesion and proliferation.
AB  - There is a clinical need for a synthetic bone graft substitute that can be used
      at sites of surgical intervention to promote bone regeneration.
      Poly(vinylphosphonic acid-co-acrylic acid) (PVPA-co-AA) has recently been
      identified as a potential candidate for use in bone tissue scaffolds. It is
      hypothesized that PVPA-co-AA can bind to divalent calcium ions on bone mineral
      surfaces to control matrix mineralization and promote bone formation. In this
      study, hydrogels of PVPA-co-AA have been produced and the effect of copolymer
      composition on the structure and properties of the gels was investigated. It was
      found that an increase in VPA content led to the production of hydrogels with
      high porosities and greater swelling capacities. Consequently, improved cell
      adhesion and proliferation was observed on these hydrogels, as well as superior
      cell spreading morphologies. Furthermore, whereas poly(acrylic acid) gels were
      shown to be relatively brittle, an increase in VPA content created more flexible
      hydrogels that can be more easily molded into bone defect sites. Therefore, this
      work demonstrates that the mechanical and cell adhesion properties of PVPA-co-AA
      hydrogels can be tuned for the specific application by altering the copolymer
      composition. (c) 2017 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A
      Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 255-264,
      2018.

PMID- 28891248
TI  - Integrin-FAK-CDC42-PP1A signaling gnaws at YAP/TAZ activity to control incisor
      stem cells.
AB  - How epithelial tissues are able to self-renew to maintain homeostasis and
      regenerate in response to injury remains a persistent question. The
      transcriptional effectors YAP and TAZ are increasingly being recognized as
      central mediators of epithelial stem cell biology, and a wealth of recent studies
      have been directed at understanding the control and activity of these factors.
      Recent work by Hu et al. has added to this knowledge, as they identify an
      Integrin-FAK-CDC42-PP1A signaling cascade that directs nuclear YAP/TAZ activity
      in stem cell populations of the mouse incisor, and define convergence on mTORC1
      signaling as an important mediator of the proliferation of these cells. Here, we
      review recent studies on YAP/TAZ function and regulation in epithelial tissue
      specific stem cells, merging the Hu et al. study together with our current
      knowledge of YAP/TAZ.

PMID- 28891250
TI  - Guidelines for using Bsoft for high resolution reconstruction and validation of
      biomolecular structures from electron micrographs.
AB  - Cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) is becoming popular as a tool to solve
      biomolecular structures with the recent availability of direct electron detectors
      allowing automated acquisition of high resolution data. The Bsoft software
      package, developed over 20 years for analyzing electron micrographs, offers a
      full workflow for validated single particle analysis with extensive
      functionality, enabling customization for specific cases. With the increasing use
      of cryoEM and its automation, proper validation of the results is a bigger
      concern. The three major validation approaches, independent data sets, resolution
      limited processing, and coherence testing, can be incorporated into any Bsoft
      workflow. Here, the main workflow is divided into four phases: (i) micrograph
      preprocessing, (ii) particle picking, (iii) particle alignment and
      reconstruction, and (iv) interpretation. Each of these phases represents a
      conceptual unit that can be automated, followed by a check point to assess the
      results. The aim in the first three phases is to reconstruct one or more
      validated maps at the best resolution possible. Map interpretation then involves
      identification of components, segmentation, quantification, and modeling. The
      algorithms in Bsoft are well established, with future plans focused on ease of
      use, automation and institutionalizing validation.

PMID- 28891251
TI  - Dose/Exposure-Response Modeling to Support Dosing Recommendation for Phase III
      Development of Baricitinib in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - Baricitinib is an oral inhibitor of Janus kinases (JAKs), selective for JAK1 and
      2. It demonstrated dose-dependent efficacy in patients with moderate-to-severe
      rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a phase IIb study up to 24 weeks. Population
      pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PopPK/PD) models were developed to characterize
      concentration-time profiles and dose/exposure-response (D/E-R) relationships for
      the key efficacy (proportion of patients achieving American College of
      Rheumatology 20%, 50%, or 70% response rate) and safety endpoints (incidence of
      anemia) for the phase IIb study. The modeling suggested that 4 mg q.d. was likely
      to offer the optimum risk/benefit balance, whereas 2 mg q.d. had the potential
      for adequate efficacy. In addition, at the same total daily dose, a twice-daily
      regimen is not expected to provide an advantage over q.d. dosing for the efficacy
      or safety endpoints. The model-based simulations formed the rationale for key
      aspects of dosing, such as dose levels and dosing frequency for phase III
      development.

PMID- 28891252
TI  - The Incidence and Prevalence of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in New York County
      (Manhattan), New York: The Manhattan Lupus Surveillance Program.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The Manhattan Lupus Surveillance Program (MLSP) is a population-based
      registry designed to determine the prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus
      (SLE) in 2007 and the incidence from 2007 to 2009 among residents of New York
      County (Manhattan), New York, and to characterize cases by race/ethnicity,
      including Asians and Hispanics, for whom data are lacking. METHODS: We identified
      possible SLE cases from hospital records, rheumatologist records, and
      administrative databases. Cases were defined according to the American College of
      Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria, the Systemic Lupus International
      Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) classification criteria, or the treating
      rheumatologist's diagnosis. Rates among Manhattan residents were age
      standardized, and capture-recapture analyses were conducted to assess case
      underascertainment. RESULTS: By the ACR definition, the age-standardized
      prevalence and incidence rates of SLE were 62.2 and 4.6 per 100,000 person-years,
      respectively. Rates were ~9 times higher in women than in men for prevalence
      (107.4 versus 12.5) and incidence (7.9 versus 1.0). Compared with non-Hispanic
      white women (64.3), prevalence was higher among non-Hispanic black (210.9),
      Hispanic (138.3), and non-Hispanic Asian (91.2) women. Incidence rates were
      higher among non-Hispanic black women (15.7) compared with non-Hispanic Asian
      (6.6), Hispanic (6.5), and non-Hispanic white (6.5) women. Capture-recapture
      adjustment increased the prevalence and incidence rates (75.9 and 6.0,
      respectively). Alternate SLE definitions without capture-recapture adjustment
      revealed higher age-standardized prevalence and incidence rates (73.8 and 6.2,
      respectively, by the SLICC definition and 72.6 and 5.0 by the rheumatologist
      definition) than the ACR definition, with similar patterns by sex and
      race/ethnicity. CONCLUSION: The MLSP confirms findings from other registries on
      disparities by sex and race/ethnicity, provides new estimates among Asians and
      Hispanics, and provides estimates using the SLICC criteria.

PMID- 28891253
TI  - Effect of traditional Chinese and Western medicine on nocturnal enuresis in
      children and indicators of treatment success: Randomized controlled trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is a common pediatric developmental disorder.
      Desmopressin is frequently used for NE and is an evidence-based therapy. Suoquan
      capsule is a Chinese medicine commonly used for treating NE in children but is
      poorly understood by most scholars. METHODS: A total of 369 children with NE were
      randomized to receive either suoquan, desmopressin plus suoquan, desmopressin, or
      behavioral intervention for 2 months, and the response rates evaluated.
      Subsequently, the viable demographic factors that could lead to success were
      investigated on logistic regression analysis. Moreover, after 3 months of follow
      up, the relapse rate was investigated. RESULTS: The complete response (CR) rate
      in the desmopressin plus suoquan group (37.5%) was higher than that in the
      behavioral intervention group (6.3%, P < 0.007). The desmopressin group had a
      lower CR rate (22.5%) and a higher non-response rate (25.0%) than the
      desmopressin plus suoquan group (non-response rate, 21.9%; P > 0.007). The
      relapse rate in the desmopressin group was significantly higher than that in the
      desmopressin plus suoquan group (72.2% vs. 30.6%, P < 0.007). On Multivariate
      analysis, treatment group, NE frequency, and age were independent predictors of
      CR at 2 months (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Combined traditional Chinese and Western
      treatment in children with NE is effective and has a low relapse rate. NE
      frequency, treatment method, and age are important predictive factors for CR
      after treatment.

PMID- 28891254
TI  - Fetal isovolumetric time intervals as a marker of abnormal cardiac function in
      fetal anemia from homozygous alpha thalassemia-1 disease.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether fetal isovolumetric time intervals can be an
      early sonographic marker of fetal anemia in fetuses with homozygous alpha
      thalassemia-1. METHODS: Pregnancies at risk for fetal homozygous alpha
      thalassemia-1 disease at 18-22 weeks were recruited before cordocentesis for
      hemoglobin typing. Isovolumetric contraction time (ICT) and isovolumetric
      relaxation time (IRT) intervals were measured by placing pulsed wave Doppler
      sample volume within the left ventricle to obtain the mitral and aortic waveform.
      Time intervals were compared between the affected group of homozygous alpha
      thalassemia-1 fetuses and the unaffected group. RESULTS: Among 70 fetuses at
      risk, 28 cases were diagnosed as affected by homozygous alpha thalassemia-1
      disease. Mean ICT and ICT + IRT intervals in the affected group were
      significantly longer than in the unaffected group (47.9 +/- 12.5 ms vs 35.0 +/-
      6.7 ms, p < 0.001; and 96.2 +/- 13.6 ms vs 80.9 +/- 10.6 ms, p < 0.001. ICT
      effectively predicted affected fetuses with 71.4% sensitivity and 78.6%
      specificity using a cutoff value >=40 ms. CONCLUSIONS: Isovolumetric contraction
      time was significantly prolonged in fetal anemia from homozygous alpha
      thalassemia-1 during the early stage of hydropic changes. Because of its simple
      measurement and high efficacy, ICT can be a useful marker for prenatal screening
      of abnormal cardiac function in fetal anemia. (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID- 28891255
TI  - Do patients benefit from orthognathic surgery? A systematic review on the effects
      of elective orthognathic surgery on psychosocial functioning and patient
      satisfaction.
AB  - The main purpose of this systematic review was to determine the current state of
      evidence regarding patient satisfaction with, and the impact of, orthognathic
      surgery on psychosocial functioning of patients 17 yr of age and older. A
      secondary aim was to determine whether individuals with psychiatric disorders and
      mental health conditions are more likely to be dissatisfied with the treatment
      outcome than those without. We systematically searched PubMed, PsycInfo, and
      Embase for relevant studies (up to 6 June 2016). After selection of articles we
      determined the Directness of Evidence (DoE) and Risk of Bias (RoB). We identified
      3,948 studies (1,053 studies in Pubmed, 2,023 in Embase, and 872 in PsycInfo). Of
      these, 87 remained after screening of title and abstract, while after full-text
      screening only nine remained for DoE and RoB assessment. All nine studies had a
      high RoB and a low or moderate DoE. The quality of the methods of studies,
      published to date, on the effects of orthognathic surgery on patient satisfaction
      or the psychosocial impact carry a high RoB. Therefore, these do not allow
      inferences on the effects of orthognathic surgery on patient satisfaction or
      their psychosocial functioning.

PMID- 28891256
TI  - Composition and Variation Analysis of the T Cell Receptor beta-Chain
      Complementarity Determining Region 3 Repertoire in Neonatal Sepsis.
AB  - T cell receptor (TCR) diversity is clearly related to protection from infection.
      However, the characteristics of TCR diversity in neonates are not clear. In this
      study, we investigated the TCR diversity of neonates with sepsis. Twenty neonates
      with severe sepsis and eight matched neonates without infection were enrolled in
      the study. For the neonates with sepsis, EDTA-anticoagulated blood was collected
      on day 1 after the diagnosis of sepsis and on day 7 of treatment. For the
      neonates without infection, blood was collected one time. DNA was extracted from
      peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The complementarity determining region 3
      (CDR3) gene was analysed by multiplex PCR and high-throughput sequencing. The
      CDR3 types and lengths were similar in patients and healthy controls. There was a
      significant difference in VJ gene usage among the three groups. Compared to the
      healthy neonates, the neonates with sepsis had different VJ pairs and generated
      different clonotypes. Although the TCR beta-chain diversity was generally lower
      in the neonates with sepsis, there was no significant difference in TCR beta
      chain diversity between the patients and the healthy controls. Our data showed
      the characteristics of the TCR repertoire in neonates with sepsis, which
      represents a potentially valuable data set. This result is useful for
      understanding neonatal susceptibility to infection.

PMID- 28891257
TI  - The K+ channel KZM2 is involved in stomatal movement by modulating inward K+
      currents in maize guard cells.
AB  - Stomata are the major gates in plant leaf that allow water and gas exchange,
      which is essential for plant transpiration and photosynthesis. Stomatal movement
      is mainly controlled by the ion channels and transporters in guard cells. In
      Arabidopsis, the inward Shaker K+ channels, such as KAT1 and KAT2, are
      responsible for stomatal opening. However, the characterization of inward K+
      channels in maize guard cells is limited. In the present study, we identified two
      KAT1-like Shaker K+ channels, KZM2 and KZM3, which were highly expressed in maize
      guard cells. Subcellular analysis indicated that KZM2 and KZM3 can localize at
      the plasma membrane. Electrophysiological characterization in HEK293 cells
      revealed that both KZM2 and KZM3 were inward K+ (Kin ) channels, but showing
      distinct channel kinetics. When expressed in Xenopus oocytes, only KZM3, but not
      KZM2, can mediate inward K+ currents. However, KZM2 can interact with KZM3
      forming heteromeric Kin channel. In oocytes, KZM2 inhibited KZM3 channel
      conductance and negatively shifted the voltage dependence of KZM3. The activation
      of KZM2-KZM3 heteromeric channel became slower than the KZM3 channel. Patch
      clamping results showed that the inward K+ currents of maize guard cells were
      significantly increased in the KZM2 RNAi lines. In addition, the RNAi lines
      exhibited faster stomatal opening after light exposure. In conclusion, the
      presented results demonstrate that KZM2 functions as a negative regulator to
      modulate the Kin channels in maize guard cells. KZM2 and KZM3 may form
      heteromeric Kin channel and control stomatal opening in maize.

PMID- 28891258
TI  - A scoping review of nursing workforce planning and forecasting research.
AB  - AIM: This study will critically evaluate forecasting models and their content in
      workforce planning policies for nursing professionals and to highlight the
      strengths and the weaknesses of existing approaches. BACKGROUND: Although macro
      level nursing workforce issues may not be the first thing that many nurse
      managers consider in daily operations, the current and impending nursing shortage
      in many countries makes nursing specific models for workforce forecasting
      important. METHOD: A scoping review was conducted using a directed and summative
      content analysis approach to capture supply and demand analytic methods of nurse
      workforce planning and forecasting. The literature on nurse workforce forecasting
      studies published in peer-reviewed journals as well as in grey literature was
      included in the scoping review. RESULTS: Thirty six studies met the inclusion
      criteria, with the majority coming from the USA. Forecasting methods were biased
      towards service utilization analyses and were not consistent across studies.
      CONCLUSION: Current methods for nurse workforce forecasting are inconsistent and
      have not accounted sufficiently for socioeconomic and political factors that can
      influence workforce projections. Additional studies examining past trends are
      needed to improve future modelling. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Accurate
      nursing workforce forecasting can help nurse managers, administrators and policy
      makers to understand the supply and demand of the workforce to prepare and
      maintain an adequate and competent current and future workforce.

PMID- 28891259
TI  - Mapping biopsy for Buruli ulcer self-medicated with occlusive dressing.
AB  - Buruli ulcer is the third most common mycobacterial infection next to
      tuberculosis and leprosy caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Although it affects
      the skin, subcutaneous tissues, muscles and sometimes bones, there is no reliable
      evidence to determine the extent of debridement. We present here a case of Buruli
      ulcer treated successfully with a preoperative mapping biopsy procedure, which
      had been self-medicated with occlusive dressing. Because Buruli ulcer is
      accompanied by subtle pain, patients and clinicians tend to initially treat the
      ulcer with occlusive dressing therapy, which leads to the misdiagnosis of Buruli
      ulcer as a common bacterial infection only judging from bacterial culture of the
      surface of the ulcer. We propose the efficacy of mapping biopsy for treating
      Buruli ulcer.

PMID- 28891260
TI  - Rabacfosadine for relapsed canine B-cell lymphoma: Efficacy and adverse event
      profiles of 2 different doses.
AB  - Rabacfosadine (RAB), a novel double prodrug of the acyclic nucleotide phosphonate
      PMEG, preferentially targets neoplastic lymphocytes with reduced off target
      toxicity. Historical studies have suggested that every 21-day dosing is effective
      with acceptable toxicity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate RAB's safety
      and efficacy at 2 different doses every 21 days in dogs with relapsed B-cell
      lymphoma. Dogs that had failed 1 doxorubicin-based chemotherapy protocol were
      eligible for inclusion in this prospective trial. Once enrolled, dogs were
      randomized to receive RAB at either 0.82 mg/kg or 1.0 mg/kg as a 30-minute IV
      infusion every 21 days for up to 5 treatments. Response assessment and adverse
      event (AE) evaluation were performed every 21 days via VCOG criteria. Fifty dogs
      were enrolled, with 16 treated at 0.82 mg/kg and 34 treated at 1.0 mg/kg. The
      overall response rate was 74%, with 45% of dogs experiencing a complete response
      (CR). The median progression free intervals (PFIs) were 108 days, 172 days and
      203 days for all dogs, all responders, and all CRs, respectively. Response rates
      and PFIs were similar in both treatment groups. The incidence of AEs, dose
      delays, dose reductions and withdrawals were not statistically different between
      the 2 groups. The AEs observed were similar to those previously reported and
      included hematologic, gastrointestinal, dermatologic and pulmonary AEs. One dog
      had grade 5 pulmonary fibrosis; otherwise, AEs resolved with supportive
      treatment. Rabacfosadine is a generally well tolerated, effective chemotherapy
      option for dogs with relapsed B-cell lymphoma.

PMID- 28891261
TI  - Home is where the heart is when it comes to transitional care in heart failure,
      but is it the only way to improve health outcomes?

PMID- 28891262
TI  - More than constipation - bowel symptoms in Parkinson's disease and their
      connection to gut microbiota.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The majority of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suffer
      from gastrointestinal symptoms of which constipation is considered the most
      prominent. Recently, in addition to constipation, a diagnosis of irritable bowel
      syndrome (IBS) was also found to be associated with increased PD risk. Gut
      microbiota alterations have been reported in IBS and recently also in PD. IBS
      like bowel symptoms in PD and their possible connection to other non-motor
      symptoms and faecal microbiota were assessed. METHODS: This case-control study
      compared 74 PD patients with 75 controls without any signs of parkinsonism or
      potential premotor symptoms. IBS-like symptoms were assessed using the Rome III
      questionnaire. The non-motor symptoms were assessed using the Non-Motor Symptoms
      Questionnaire and Non-Motor Symptom Scale. Faecal microbiota were assessed by
      pyrosequencing of the V1-V3 regions of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene.
      RESULTS: Symptoms that were IBS-like were significantly more prevalent in PD
      patients than in controls (24.3% vs. 5.3%; P = 0.001). Criteria for functional
      constipation were met by 12.2% of PD patients and 6.7% of controls (P = 0.072).
      PD patients with IBS-like symptoms had more non-motor symptoms and a lower faecal
      abundance of Prevotella bacteria than those without IBS-like symptoms.
      CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that PD patients may suffer from colonic
      dysfunction beyond pure constipation. Therefore, a more comprehensive assessment
      of bowel symptoms could provide valuable information. The lower abundance of
      Prevotella bacteria in PD patients with IBS-like symptoms suggests that the
      microbiota-gut-brain axis may be implicated in the gastrointestinal dysfunction
      of PD patients.

PMID- 28891263
TI  - Superaerophobic Ultrathin Ni-Mo Alloy Nanosheet Array from In Situ Topotactic
      Reduction for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.
AB  - Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has prospect to becoming clean and renewable
      technology for hydrogen production and Ni-Mo alloy is among the best HER
      catalysts in alkaline electrolytes. Here, an in situ topotactic reduction method
      to synthesize ultrathin 2D Ni-Mo alloy nanosheets for electrocatalytic hydrogen
      evolution is reported. Due to its ultrathin structure and tailored composition,
      the as-synthesized Ni-Mo alloy shows an overpotential of 35 mV to reach a current
      density of 10 mA cm-2 , along with a Tafel slope of 45 mV decade-1 ,
      demonstrating a comparable intrinsic activity to state-of-art commercial Pt/C
      catalyst. Besides, the vertically aligned assemble structure of the 2D NiMo
      nanosheets on conductive substrate makes the electrode "superaerophobic," thus
      leading to much faster bubble releasing during HER process and therefore shows
      faster mass transfer behavior at high current density as compared with drop
      drying Pt/C catalyst on the same substrate. Such in situ topotactic conversion
      finds a way to design and fabricate low-cost, earth-abundant non-noble metal
      based ultrathin 2D nanostructures for electrocatalytic issues.

PMID- 28891264
TI  - Hormonal and genetic factors interact to control aromatase expression in the
      developing brain.
AB  - Brain expression of the enzyme P450-aromatase has been studied extensively.
      Subsequent to the aromatisation hypothesis having established brain aromatase as
      a key factor to convert gonadal testosterone to oestradiol, several studies have
      investigated the regulation of aromatase during the critical period of brain
      sexual differentiation. We review previous and recent findings concerning
      regulation of aromatase. The role of gonadal hormones, sex chromosome genes and
      neurosteroids is analysed in terms of their contribution to aromatase expression,
      as well as implications for the organisational effect of steroids during
      development.

PMID- 28891265
TI  - Altered bodily self-consciousness in multiple sclerosis.
AB  - In this study, we assessed the impact of multiple sclerosis (MS) on bodily self
      consciousness (BSC) using the Rubber Hand Illusion. Patients with MS showed a
      dissociation between body ownership and self-location: they did report an
      explicit ownership of the rubber hand, but they did not point towards it, showing
      a defective ability of localizing body parts in space. This evidence indicates
      that MS may affect selective components of BSC, whose impairment may contribute
      to, and even worsen, the functional disability of MS.

PMID- 28891266
TI  - Analysis of outcomes achieved with squamous cell carcinomas of the anus in a
      single university hospital over the last two decades: Clinical response rate,
      relapse and survival of 190 patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We reviewed our series of anal squamous cell
      carcinomas (ASCC) treated over the last two decades. METHODS: ASCC patients
      undergoing treatment at the Leicester Royal Infirmary between 1998 and 2016 were
      selected. Age, gender, pathological tumor characteristics, treatment adopted, the
      overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and disease-free survival
      (DFS) at 5-year follow-up were recorded and calculated. RESULTS: A total of 190
      ASCC were reviewed, of these 64.2% (n = 122) received primary radical
      chemoradiotherapy. Complete response rate was 92.6% (n = 113) and four patients
      with residual disease underwent a salvage APER. Twenty-eight patients experienced
      recurrent disease (23.0%) either systemic (n = 8), local (n = 14), or both (n =
      6); six had a salvage APER. Complete follow-up data are available for 63.1%
      patients (77/122). Overall, the locoregional failure rate of primary
      chemoradiotherapy (residual + recurrent disease) was present in 29 patients
      (29/122; 23.8%). OS was 41.6% CSS was 69.2% and DFS 60.0% at 5 years follow-up.
      CONCLUSIONS: In our series of ASCC primary chemoradiotherapy had achieved
      significant initial complete response rates, however, long term-follow ups still
      present systemic and local recurrences. APR is able to treat 30% of the pelvic
      recurrences (6/20), the others are either associated with systemic disease or
      locally inoperable masses.

PMID- 28891268
TI  - Pediatric respiratory tract diseases: Chronological trends and perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological profile of
      childhood respiratory tract diseases (RTD) in the region of Sfax, Tunisia, and to
      evaluate their trends over a 13 year period. METHODS: We conducted a
      retrospective study of all children hospitalized with RTD aged under 14 years. We
      collected data from the regional morbidity register of the university hospital of
      Sfax from 2003 to 2015. RESULTS: A total of 10 797 RTD patients were enrolled
      from 49 880 pediatric hospitalizations (21.7%). A male predominance was noted
      (60%). The median age was 8 months (IQR, 2-36 months). Acute bronchitis (AB)
      accounted for 53.8%, followed by asthma (15%), pneumonia (14%) and acute upper
      respiratory infection (AURI; 7.2%). The hospital incidence rate (HIR) of RTD was
      34/10 000 inhabitants/year. It was 18.2; 5.07; 4.7 and 2.4/10 000 inhabitants for
      AB, asthma, pneumonia and AURI, respectively. We noted a significant increase in
      the HIR of RTD with an annual percentage change (APC) of 10.94% (P < 0.001); in
      the HIR of AB (APC, 5.27%; P < 0.001); and in asthma HIR (APC, 11.2%; P < 0.001).
      Otherwise, a significant decrease in AURI HIR was observed (APC, -8.8%; P <
      0.001). AB lethality rate increased significantly, with an APC of 7.4% (P <
      0.001). Projected trends analysis up to 2024 showed a significant rise in AB and
      in asthma, while AURI would significantly decrease. CONCLUSIONS: RTD continues to
      be a serious health problem over time in terms of morbidity and mortality.
      Preventive and curative strategies are needed urgently.

PMID- 28891269
TI  - Interpreting clinical trial results by deductive reasoning: In search of improved
      trial design.
AB  - Clinical trial results are often interpreted by inductive reasoning, in a trial
      design-limited manner, directed toward modifications of the current clinical
      practice. Deductive reasoning is an alternative in which results of relevant
      trials are combined in indisputable premises that lead to a conclusion easily
      testable in future trials.

PMID- 28891267
TI  - Needle and syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy for preventing HCV
      transmission among people who inject drugs: findings from a Cochrane Review and
      meta-analysis.
AB  - AIMS: To estimate the effects of needle and syringe programmes (NSP) and opioid
      substitution therapy (OST), alone or in combination, for preventing acquisition
      of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in people who inject drugs (PWID). METHODS: Systematic
      review and meta-analysis. Bibliographic databases were searched for studies
      measuring concurrent exposure to current OST (within the last 6 months) and/or
      NSP and HCV incidence among PWID. High NSP coverage was defined as regular NSP
      attendance or >= 100% coverage (receiving sufficient or greater number of needles
      and syringes per reported injecting frequency). Studies were assessed using the
      Cochrane risk of bias in non-randomized studies tool. Random-effects models were
      used in meta-analysis. RESULTS: We identified 28 studies (n = 6279) in North
      America (13), United Kingdom (five), Europe (four), Australia (five) and China
      (one). Studies were at moderate (two), serious (17) critical (seven) and non
      assessable risk of bias (two). Current OST is associated with 50% [risk ratio
      (RR) =0.50, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.40-0.63] reduction in HCV
      acquisition risk, consistent across region and with low heterogeneity (I2  = 0, P
      = 0.889). Weaker evidence was found for high NSP coverage (RR = 0.79, 95% CI =
      0.39-1.61) with high heterogeneity (I2  = 77%, P = 0.002). After stratifying by
      region, high NSP coverage in Europe was associated with a 56% reduction in HCV
      acquisition risk (RR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.24-0.80) with low heterogeneity (I2  =
      12.3%, P = 0.337), but not in North America (RR = 1.58, I2  = 89.5%, P = <
      0.001). Combined OST/NSP is associated with a 74% reduction in HCV acquisition
      risk (RR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.07-0.89, I2  = 80% P = 0.007). According to Grades of
      Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria, the
      evidence on OST and combined OST/NSP is low quality, while NSP is very low.
      CONCLUSIONS: Opioid substitution therapy reduces risk of hepatitis C acquisition
      and is strengthened in combination with needle and syringe programmes (NSP).
      There is weaker evidence for the impact of needle syringe programmes alone,
      although stronger evidence that high coverage is associated with reduced risk in
      Europe.

PMID- 28891270
TI  - Genetic diversity and pathogenicity of Fusarium species associated with fruit rot
      disease in banana across Peninsular Malaysia.
AB  - AIMS: The aims of this study were to identify the Fusarium isolates based on
      translation elongation factor (tef) 1alpha sequence, to determine the genetic
      diversity among isolates and species using selected microsatellite markers and to
      examine the pathogenicity of Fusarium isolates causing fruit rot disease of
      banana. METHODS AND RESULTS: One-hundred and thirteen microfungi isolates were
      obtained from fruit rot infected banana in Peninsular Malaysia. However, this
      study was focused on the dominant number of the discovered microfungi that
      belongs to the genus Fusarium; 48 isolates of the microfungi have been identified
      belonging to 11 species of Fusarium, namely Fusarium incarnatum, Fusarium
      equiseti, Fusarium camptoceras, Fusarium solani, Fusarium concolor, Fusarium
      oxysporum, Fusarium proliferatum, Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium sacchari,
      Fusarium concentricum and Fusarium fujikuroi. All Fusarium isolates were grouped
      into their respective clades indicating their similarities and differences in
      genetic diversity among isolates. Out of 48 Fusarium isolates tested, 42 isolates
      caused the fruit rot symptom at different levels of severity based on Disease
      Severity Index (DSI). The most virulent isolate was F. proliferatum B2433B with
      DSI of 100%. CONCLUSIONS: All the isolated Fusarium species were successfully
      identified and some of them were confirmed as the causal agents of pre- and
      postharvest fruit rot in banana across Peninsular Malaysia. SIGNIFICANCE AND
      IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Our results will provide additional information regarding
      new report of Fusarium species in causing banana fruit rot and in the search of
      potential biocontrol agent of the disease.

PMID- 28891272
TI  - Synthetic Modular Antibody Construction by Using the SpyTag/SpyCatcher Protein
      Ligase System.
AB  - Efforts to engineer recombinant antibodies for specific diagnostic and therapy
      applications are time consuming and expensive, as each new recombinant antibody
      needs to be optimized for expression, stability, bio-distribution, and
      pharmacokinetics. We have developed a new way to construct recombinant antibody
      like "devices" by using a bottom-up approach to build them from well-behaved
      discrete recombinant antibody domains or "parts". Studies on antibody structure
      and function have identified antibody constant and variable domains with specific
      functions that can be expressed in isolation. We used the SpyTag/SpyCatcher
      protein ligase to join these parts together, thereby creating devices with
      desired properties based on summed properties of parts and in configurations that
      cannot be obtained by using genetic engineering. This strategy will create
      optimized recombinant antibody devices at reduced costs and with shortened
      development times.

PMID- 28891271
TI  - Solubility-Improved 10-O-Substituted SN-38 Derivatives with Antitumor Activity.
AB  - With the objective of improving the poor water solubility of the potent antitumor
      compound SN-38, 10-O-substituted SN-38 derivatives were developed by the
      introduction of fluoroalkyl, fluorobenzoyl, or bromobenzoyl groups. The 10-O
      fluoropropyl-substituted compound 2 {(S)-4,11-diethyl-9-(3-fluoropropoxy)-4
      hydroxy-1H-pyrano[3',4':6,7]indolizino[1,2-b]quinoline-3,14(4H,12H)-dione} was
      found to be 17-fold more soluble than SN-38 in phosphate-buffered saline, and it
      exhibited a level of biological activity ~50 % that of SN-38 in a cytotoxicity
      assay using the prostate cancer cell line PC-3. Five other derivatives did not
      show solubility improvements to the same extent, but their activities in
      cytotoxicity assays were nearly the same as that of SN-38. In vivo studies of 2
      with PC-3 tumor-bearing mice revealed that it has higher antitumor activity than
      SN-38, even at lower dosage. These results will promote the medicinal chemistry
      application of 10-O-modifications of SN-38 and help reestablish the potential
      this drug. Furthermore, the inclusion of fluoro and bromo substituents means that
      the synthetic strategy developed here may be used to obtain 18 F- or 76 Br
      labeled SN-38 derivatives for in vivo positron emission tomography studies.

PMID- 28891273
TI  - Self-Assembly of an Amphiphilic Janus Camptothecin-Floxuridine Conjugate into
      Liposome-Like Nanocapsules for More Efficacious Combination Chemotherapy in
      Cancer.
AB  - The combination of camptothecin (CPT) and fluoropyrimidine derivatives acts
      synergistically at a 1:1 molar ratio. Practically, the greatest challenge is the
      development of a single liposomal formulation that can both encapsulate and
      maintain this drug combination at an exact 1:1 ratio to achieve coordinated
      pharmacokinetics. Consequently, a new type of liposome-like nanocapsule (NC) is
      developed from a highly symmetric Janus camptothecin-floxuridine conjugate (JCFC)
      amphiphile, which is synthesized by coupling two hydrophobic CPT molecules and
      two hydrophilic floxuridine (FUDR) molecules to multivalent pentaerythritol via a
      hydrolyzable ester linkage. JCFC NCs possess remarkably high drug-loading
      contents, and no premature release because of the highly stable co-delivery of
      the drug combination without the need for any carrier. It is shown that JCFC NCs
      consistently provide synergy and avoid antagonism in a broad panel of tumor cell
      lines. In vivo delivery of JCFC NCs leads to longer blood retention half-life,
      higher tumorous accumulation and cellular uptake of drugs, and greatly enhanced
      efficacy in murine tumor models compared to CPT, FUDR, and CPT + FUDR. This
      liposomal strategy can be extended to other hydrophilic and hydrophobic
      anticancer drugs that are coupled to pentaerythritol to self-assemble into
      nanocapsules for drug self-delivery, pointing to potential clinical translation
      in near future.

PMID- 28891274
TI  - Breast cancer risk and germline genomic profiling of women with neurofibromatosis
      type 1 who developed breast cancer.
AB  - NF1 mutations predispose to neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and women with NF1
      have a moderately elevated risk for breast cancer, especially under age 50.
      Germline genomic analysis may better define the risk so screening and prevention
      can be applied to the individuals who benefit the most. Survey conducted in
      several neurofibromatosis clinics in the United States has demonstrated a 17.2%
      lifetime risk of breast cancer in women affected with NF1. Cumulated risk to age
      50 is estimated to be 9.27%. For genomic profiling, fourteen women with NF1 and a
      history of breast cancer were recruited and underwent whole exome sequencing
      (WES), targeted genomic DNA based and RNA-based analysis of the NF1 gene.
      Deleterious NF1 pathogenic variants were identified in each woman. Frameshift
      mutations because of deletion/duplication/complex rearrangement were found in 50%
      (7/14) of the cases, nonsense mutations in 21% (3/14), in-frame splice mutations
      in 21% (3/14), and one case of missense mutation (7%, 1/14). No deleterious
      mutation was found in the following high/moderate-penetrance breast cancer genes:
      ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, BARD1, BRIP1, CDH1, CHEK2, FANCC, MRE11A, NBN, PALB2, PTEN,
      RAD50, RAD51C, TP53, and STK11. Twenty-five rare or common variants in cancer
      related genes were discovered and may have contributed to the breast cancers in
      these individuals. Breast cancer predisposition modifiers in women with NF1 may
      involve a great variety of molecular and cellular functions.

PMID- 28891275
TI  - Cigarette smoking as a risk factor for the development of and mortality from
      hepatocellular carcinoma: An updated systematic review of 81 epidemiological
      studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common
      cancer worldwide and its incidence has increased during the past decade. While
      hepatitis B and C virus infections and alcohol were established risk factors, the
      impact of smoking on the incidence and mortality of HCC was needed to be
      confirmed. METHODS: We reviewed cohort and case-control studies evaluating the
      association between cigarette smoking and incidence and mortality of HCC from
      MEDLINE and Google Scholar. We also checked reference lists of original studies
      and review articles manually for cross-references up to February 2016. We
      extracted the relevant information on participant characteristics and study
      outcomes, as well as information on the methodology of the studies. We also
      assessed the quality of the included trials using critical appraisal skills
      program checklists. Meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software.
      RESULTS: A total of 81 studies were included in the systematic review. Pooled OR
      for HCC development with current smokers was 1.55 (95% CI: 1.46 to 1.65; P <
      0.00001). Pooled OR for HCC development with former smokers was 1.39 (95% CI:
      1.26 to 1.52; P < 0.00001) and pooled OR for HCC development with heavy smokers
      was 1.90 (95% CI: 1.68 to 2.14; P < 0.00001). Pooled OR for the mortality of
      current smokers with HCC was 1.29 (95% CI: 1.23 to 1.34; P < 0.00001); and for
      former smokers with HCC, it was 1.20 (95% CI: 1.00 to 1.42; P = 0.04).
      CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking increases the incidence and mortality of HCC.
      Further studies are needed to evaluate possible impact of quitting smoking on
      decreasing this risk.

PMID- 28891276
TI  - Percutaneous edge-to-edge leaflet repair: a solution to the risk-treatment
      paradox of mitral regurgitation complicated by pulmonary hypertension?

PMID- 28891277
TI  - Role of microbiota in the pathogenesis of functional disorders of the lower GI
      tract: Work in progress.
AB  - Functional bowel disorders affect a significant proportion of people word wide.
      Patients suffer from longstanding symptoms of abdominal pain or discomfort in
      combination with abnormal bowel habits. The evidence for role of microbiota is
      currently contradictory and descriptive. This review aims to summarize the
      reasons which include methodological differences in DNA extraction and sample
      handling along with other factors such as diet, prior antibiotic use and transit,
      all important major determinants of microbiota which are difficult to control.
      Randomized studies of specific intervention in which such factors are varied may
      improve reproducibility and consistency of findings in future research.

PMID- 28891278
TI  - [Gynecological and obstetrical management of rheumatic diseases in reproductive
      age].
AB  - The gynecologist's role in the management of rheumatic patients is complex: it
      includes the prevention of damage caused by drugs, the counseling about
      contraception to avoid pregnancy while taking teratogen drugs, the scheduling of
      pregnancy during the quiescent phase of the specific disease, the replacement of
      teratogen drugs and a competent management of the pregnancy. The task is carried
      out as part of a multidisciplinary team with a focus on the differential
      diagnosis between specific complications of pregnancy and the complications of
      the rheumatic disease. This is the right way to allow a conscious reproduction,
      with reduced risks and acceptable maternal-fetal outcomes, to this kind of
      patients considered at high risk.

PMID- 28891279
TI  - Is pH a vaginal health marker? Phemale Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidemiological data regarding vaginal pH in Spain are scarce. An
      epidemiological study was therefore undertaken to confirm the physiological
      pattern of vaginal pH in Spanish women. The primary outcome measure was vaginal
      pH. Secondary outcomes included the relationship between vaginal pH and BMI,
      physical activity, working status, contraceptive use, sexual intercourse in the
      two days prior to the visit and clinical vaginal symptoms. METHODS: Cross
      sectional study in which 2136 healthy women over 18 years of age who requested a
      check-up were recruited. Vaginal pH was determined using specific for pH testing.
      Results were compared using Spearman's correlation test and ANOVA. RESULTS: The
      mean vaginal pH observed in the different age groups was 4.82 in women aged under
      30, 5.10 in those aged between 30 and 35, 5.11 in those aged 36 to 40, and 6.48
      in those aged over 55. No association was found between vaginal pH and BMI or
      sexual intercourse in the two previous days. Lower vaginal pH values were
      observed in women with some degree of physical activity and in contraceptive
      users, with higher vaginal pH values observed in women who presented clinical
      symptoms (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the physiological patterns of
      vaginal pH changes in Spanish women. Any degree of physical activity and the use
      of contraceptives were associated with lower pH values. The presence of vulvo
      vaginal symptoms was related with higher vaginal pH values. Vaginal pH is a
      marker of vaginal health.

PMID- 28891280
TI  - Pelvic floor evaluation with transperineal ultrasound: a new approach.
AB  - The increased life expectancy, the importance of the prevention in younger age
      and the role of the pelvic floor dysfunction not only in the disease of the third
      age, but also in the childbearing age, as the influence on the type of delivery,
      underline the importance of the evaluation of the pelvic floor. The evaluation of
      pelvic floor is generally clinical, but in the last 2 decades, the use of
      ultrasound has become a mainstream diagnostic tool in the investigation of female
      pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and fecal incontinence and defecation disorders,
      providing an immediate objective confirmation of findings obtained on clinical
      examination and filling some of the gaps of the urogynecological exam. The use of
      transabdominal ultrasound was the first developed, while the use of translabial,
      transrectal and transvaginal techniques started later. This review will focus on
      the use of transperineal ultrasound, including two-dimensional (2D), three
      dimensional (3D) and 4D imaging, as a valuable and objective method in the
      urogynecological evaluation, allowing the assessment of the pelvic floor anatomy
      and its functions and dysfunctions, the choice of the right type of treatment and
      the analysis of the changes after surgical treatment and its complications. The
      ultrasound approach has become an important instrument for the prevention, but
      also for the analysis of the disease, and to understand the importance of the
      pelvic floor function in different period of life of a woman.

PMID- 28891281
TI  - Does endometriosis influence the age of menopause?
AB  - Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease affecting 7-10% of women throughout
      their reproductive life. Few data are available regarding the age at menopause of
      women affected by this disease. Most of the available evidence, although scanty,
      would indicate that both ovarian surgery for endometriomas and endometriosis per
      se appear to influence age at menopause. Other factors might interfere with the
      age at menopause of women affected by endometriosis. The purpose of this review
      was to examine the age at menopause in women with a history of endometriosis and
      to identify factors that might affect the timing of menopause.

PMID- 28891282
TI  - Fabrication of Flexible White Light-Emitting Diodes from Photoluminescent Polymer
      Materials with Excellent Color Quality.
AB  - This study developed flexible light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with warm white and
      neutral white light. A simple ultraviolet flip-chip sticking process was adopted
      for the pumping source and combined with polymer and quantum dot (QD) films
      technology to yield white light. The polymer-blended flexible LEDs exhibited
      higher luminous efficiency than the QD-blended flexible LEDs. Moreover, the
      polymer-blended LEDs achieved excellent color-rendering index (CRI) values (Ra =
      96 and R9 = 96), with high reliability, demonstrating high suitability for
      special applications like accent, down, or retrofit lights in the future. In
      places such as a museum, kitchen, or surgery room, its high R9 and high CRI
      characteristics can provide high-quality services.

PMID- 28891283
TI  - Trends in Chemical Composition of Global and Regional Population-Weighted Fine
      Particulate Matter Estimated for 25 Years.
AB  - We interpret in situ and satellite observations with a chemical transport model
      (GEOS-Chem, downscaled to 0.1 degrees  * 0.1 degrees ) to understand global
      trends in population-weighted mean chemical composition of fine particulate
      matter (PM2.5). Trends in observed and simulated population-weighted mean PM2.5
      composition over 1989-2013 are highly consistent for PM2.5 (-2.4 vs -2.4%/yr),
      secondary inorganic aerosols (-4.3 vs -4.1%/yr), organic aerosols (OA, -3.6 vs 
      3.0%/yr) and black carbon (-4.3 vs -3.9%/yr) over North America, as well as for
      sulfate (-4.7 vs -5.8%/yr) over Europe. Simulated trends over 1998-2013 also have
      overlapping 95% confidence intervals with satellite-derived trends in population
      weighted mean PM2.5 for 20 of 21 global regions. Over 1989-2013, most (79%) of
      the simulated increase in global population-weighted mean PM2.5 of 0.28 MUg m-3yr
      1 is explained by significantly (p < 0.05) increasing OA (0.10 MUg m-3yr-1),
      nitrate (0.05 MUg m-3yr-1), sulfate (0.04 MUg m-3yr-1), and ammonium (0.03 MUg m
      3yr-1). These four components predominantly drive trends in population-weighted
      mean PM2.5 over populous regions of South Asia (0.94 MUg m-3yr-1), East Asia
      (0.66 MUg m-3yr-1), Western Europe (-0.47 MUg m-3yr-1), and North America (-0.32
      MUg m-3yr-1). Trends in area-weighted mean and population-weighted mean PM2.5
      composition differ significantly.

PMID- 28891284
TI  - A Highly Stretchable Nanofiber-Based Electronic Skin with Pressure-, Strain-, and
      Flexion-Sensitive Properties for Health and Motion Monitoring.
AB  - The development of flexible and stretchable electronic skins that can mimic the
      complex characteristics of natural skin is of great value for applications in
      human motion detection, healthcare, speech recognition, and robotics. In this
      work, we propose an efficient and low-cost fabrication strategy to construct a
      highly sensitive and stretchable electronic skin that enables the detection of
      dynamic and static pressure, strain, and flexion based on an elastic graphene
      oxide (GO)-doped polyurethane (PU) nanofiber membrane with an ultrathin
      conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) coating layer. The three
      dimensional porous elastic GO-doped PU@PEDOT composite nanofibrous substrate and
      the continuous self-assembled conductive pathway in the nanofiber-based
      electronic skin offer more contact sites, a larger deformation space, and a
      reversible capacity for pressure and strain sensing, which provide multimodal
      mechanical sensing capabilities with high sensitivity and a wide sensing range.
      The nanofiber-based electronic skin sensor demonstrates a high pressure
      sensitivity (up to 20.6 kPa-1), a broad sensing range (1 Pa to 20 kPa), excellent
      cycling stability and repeatability (over 10,000 cycles), and a high strain
      sensitivity over a wide range (up to approximately 550%). We confirmed the
      applicability of the nanofiber-based electronic skin to pulse monitoring,
      expression, voice recognition, and the full range of human motion, demonstrating
      its potential use in wearable human-health monitoring systems.

PMID- 28891285
TI  - Functional Enzyme-Based Approach for Linking Microbial Community Functions with
      Biogeochemical Process Kinetics.
AB  - The kinetics of biogeochemical processes in natural and engineered environmental
      systems is typically described using Monod-type or modified Monod-type models.
      These models rely on biomass as surrogates for functional enzymes in microbial
      communities that catalyze biogeochemical reactions. A major challenge of applying
      such models is the difficulty of quantitatively measuring functional biomass for
      the constraining and validation of the models. However, omics-based approaches
      have been increasingly used to characterize microbial community structure,
      functions, and metabolites. Here, we propose an enzyme-based model that can
      incorporate omics data to link microbial community functions with biogeochemical
      process kinetics. The model treats enzymes as time-variable catalysts for
      biogeochemical reactions and applies a biogeochemical reaction network to
      incorporate intermediate metabolites. The sequences of genes and proteins from
      metagenomes, as well as those from the UniProt database, were used for targeted
      enzyme quantification and to provide insights into the dynamic linkage among
      functional genes, enzymes, and metabolites that are required in the model. The
      application of the model was demonstrated using denitrification, as an example,
      by comparing model simulations with measured functional enzymes, genes,
      denitrification substrates, and intermediates.

PMID- 28891286
TI  - Conformation Preservation of alpha-Helical Peptides within Supramolecular
      Filamentous Assemblies.
AB  - Hydrogen-bonded beta-sheets are the most commonly explored building motifs for
      creating peptide-based filamentous nanostructures; however, most bioactive
      epitopes must assume an alpha-helix conformation to exert their functions.
      Incorporating alpha-helical sequences into beta-sheet-forming peptides often
      involves the use of a flexible spacer to alleviate the steric impact of the
      intermolecular hydrogen bonding on the alpha-helical conformation. In this
      context, we report our findings on the alkylation-regulated conformation
      preservation of alpha-helical peptides within their filamentous assemblies. We
      found that the chemical conjugation of two short linear hydrocarbons (octanoic
      acids, C8) can retain the alpha-helical conformation of two protein A-derived
      peptide sequences while effectively driving their assembly into filamentous
      nanostructures. In contrast, the use of a single palmitoyl tail (C16) of similar
      hydrophobicity would lead to formation of beta-sheet assemblies. Our studies
      further demonstrated that the length of the conjugated hydrocarbon also plays an
      important role in partially preserving the native alpha-helical conformation,
      with longer ones promoting beta-sheet formation and short ones stabilizing alpha
      helices to some extent. We believe that these findings offer important guiding
      principles for the alkylation of self-assembling peptides containing alpha
      helical sequences.

PMID- 28891287
TI  - Quantifying Nonlinear Multiregional Contributions to Ozone and Fine Particles
      Using an Updated Response Surface Modeling Technique.
AB  - Tropospheric ozone (O3) and fine particles (PM2.5) come from both local and
      regional emissions sources. Due to the nonlinearity in the response of O3 and
      PM2.5 to their precursors, contributions from multiregional sources are
      challenging to quantify. Here we developed an updated extended response surface
      modeling technique (ERSMv2.0) to address this challenge. Multiregional
      contributions were estimated as the sum of three components: (1) the impacts of
      local chemistry on the formation of the pollutant associated with the change in
      its precursor levels at the receptor region; (2) regional transport of the
      pollutant from the source region to the receptor region; and (3) interregional
      effects among multiple regions, representing the impacts on the contribution from
      one source region by other source regions. Three components were quantified
      individually in the case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei using the ERSMv2.0 model.
      For PM2.5 in most cases, the contribution from local chemistry (i.e., component
      1) is greater than the contribution from regional transport (i.e., component 2).
      However, regional transport is more important for O3. For both O3 and PM2.5, the
      contribution from regional sources increases during high-pollution episodes,
      suggesting the importance of joint controls on regional sources for reducing the
      heavy air pollution.

PMID- 28891288
TI  - Selective Synthesis of Alkynylated Isoquinolines and Biisoquinolines via RhIII
      Catalyzed C-H Activation/1,3-Diyne Strategy.
AB  - Described herein is a convenient and highly selective synthesis of alkynylated
      isoquinolines and biisoquinolines from various aryl ketone O-pivaloyloxime
      derivatives and 1,3-diynes via rhodium-catalyzed C-H bond activation. In this
      transformations, alkynylated isoquinolines, 3,4'- and 3,3'-biisoquinolines could
      be obtained respectively through changing the reaction conditions. Mechanistic
      investigation revealed that the C-H activation of aryl ketone O-pivaloyloxime was
      the key step to this reaction.

PMID- 28891289
TI  - In Situ Fluorogenic and Chromogenic Reactions for the Sensitive Dual-Readout
      Assay of Tyrosinase Activity.
AB  - As a well-known copper-containing oxidase, tyrosinase has been anticipated to
      serve as the biomarker of skin diseases. We describe here an exquisite label-free
      fluorescent and colorimetric dual-readout assay of its activity, inspired by the
      specific oxidation ability of monophenolamine substrates to catecholamines and a
      unique fluorogenic reaction between resorcinol and catecholamines. By employing
      commercially available tyramine as the model substrate (dopamine as the product),
      it is found that the tyrosinase-incubated tyramine solution exhibits obvious pale
      yellow with intense blue fluorescence in the presence of resorcinol and O2, where
      the absorbance and fluorescence intensity are directly related to the
      concentration of added tyrosinase (i.e., the amount of conversion of tyramine to
      dopamine). The overall process of sensing tyrosinase activity takes less than 100
      min at ambient temperature and pressure conditions with exceedingly simple
      operation procedure, explicit response mechanism, and formation of fluorophore
      with high quantum yield from scratch. Furthermore, such a convenient, rapid, cost
      effective, and highly sensitive dual-readout assay exhibits promising prospect
      for the tyrosinase activity in extensive bioassays and clinic research as well as
      in screening potential tyrosinase inhibitors.

PMID- 28891290
TI  - Synthesis of Ultrathin Composition Graded Doped Lateral WSe2/WS2
      Heterostructures.
AB  - Lateral transition-metal dichalcogenide and their heterostructures have attracted
      substantial attention, but there lacks a simple approach to produce large-scaled
      optoelectronic devices with graded composition. In particular, the incorporation
      of substitution and doping into heterostructure formation is rarely reported.
      Here, we demonstrate growth of a composition graded doped lateral WSe2/WS2
      heterostructure by ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition in a single heat
      cycle. Through Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the
      monolayer heterostructure exhibits a clear interface between two domains and a
      graded composition distribution in each domain. The coexistence of two distinct
      doping modes, i.e., interstitial and substitutional doping, was verified
      experimentally. A distinct three-stage growth mechanism consisting of nucleation,
      epitaxial growth, and substitution was proposed. Electrical transport
      measurements reveal that this lateral heterostructure has representative
      characteristics of a photodiodes. The optoelectronic device based on the lateral
      WSe2/WS2 heterostructure shows improved photodetection performance in terms of a
      reasonable responsivity and a large photoactive area.

PMID- 28891291
TI  - Solvent Clathrate Driven Dynamic Stereomutation of a Supramolecular Polymer with
      Molecular Pockets.
AB  - Control over the helical organization of synthetic supramolecular systems is
      intensively pursued to manifest chirality in a wide range of applications ranging
      from electron spin filters to artificial enzymes. Typically, switching the
      helicity of supramolecular assemblies involves external stimuli or kinetic traps.
      However, efforts to achieve helix reversal under thermodynamic control and to
      understand the phenomena at a molecular level are scarce. Here we present a
      unique example of helix reversal (stereomutation) under thermodynamic control in
      the self-assembly of a coronene bisimide that has a 3,5-dialkoxy substitution on
      the imide phenyl groups (CBI-35CH), leading to "molecular pockets" in the
      assembly. The stereomutation was observed only if the CBI monomer possesses
      molecular pockets. Detailed chiroptical studies performed in alkane solvents with
      different molecular structures reveal that solvent molecules intercalate or form
      clathrates within the molecular pockets of CBI-35CH at low temperature (263 K),
      thereby triggering the stereomutation. The interplay among the helical assembly,
      molecular pockets, and solvent molecules is further unraveled by explicit solvent
      molecular dynamics simulations. Our results demonstrate how the molecular design
      of self-assembling building blocks can orchestrate the organization of
      surrounding solvent molecules, which in turn dictates the helical organization of
      the resulting supramolecular assembly.

PMID- 28891292
TI  - Ruminal Biohydrogenation Kinetics of Defatted Flaxseed and Sunflower Is Affected
      by Heat Treatment.
AB  - The effect of heat treatment on biohydrogenation of linoleic acid (LA) and
      linolenic acid (LNA) and formation of stearic acid (SA), cis-9, trans-11
      conjugated LA (CLA), trans-10, cis-12 CLA and trans-vaccenic acid (VA) was
      studied in in vitro incubations with diluted rumen fluid as inoculum and partly
      defatted flaxseed (DF) and partly defatted sunflower (DS) as test feeds. Feeds
      were heated in a laboratory oven at 110  degrees C for 0 (unheated), 45, or 90
      min. Michaelis-Menten kinetics was applied for quantifying biohydrogenation rate.
      The DF heated for 90 min showed the lowest biohydrogenation rate of LNA and LA,
      indicated by the lowest Vmax value (P < 0.04 and P < 0.03, respectively). The DS
      heated for 45 min had the lowest biohydrogenation rate of LNA, indicated by the
      lowest Vmax value (P < 0.04). In conclusion, heat treatment decreased
      biohydrogenation of LA and LNA in DF and LNA in DS.

PMID- 28891293
TI  - Controlling Crystallization of All-Inorganic Perovskite Films for Ultralow
      Threshold Amplification Spontaneous Emission.
AB  - All-inorganic lead halide perovskites have gained considerable interest owing to
      their potential applications in an array of high-performance optoelectronic
      devices. However, producing highly luminescent, nearly pinhole-free, all
      inorganic perovskite films through a simple solution process remains challenging.
      Here, we provide a detailed investigation of the crystallization control of
      inorganic perovskite films fabricated by a one-step spin-coating process. Our
      results reveal that the coating temperature in the fabrication process is of
      paramount importance in influencing perovskite crystallization and that lowering
      the coating temperature and fine stoichiometry modification of the precursors
      favor the suppression of trap states in CsPbBr3 perovskite films. A broad range
      of experimental characterizations help us identify that nonsynergistic assembly
      of solutes, resulting from poor diffusion capability of inorganic salts, is the
      dominant cause for the inhomogeneous element distribution, low luminescence
      yield, and poor surface coverage of the resulting films. Importantly, we find
      that polyethylene glycol can also be used for tailoring the crystallization
      process, which enables the attainment of high-quality CsPbBr3 films with a
      maximum luminescence yield of ~30%. Finally, we demonstrate that amplification
      spontaneous emission with an ultralow threshold can be readily accomplished by
      using the developed film as an emissive component. Our findings provide deep
      insights into the crystallization control of CsPbBr3 perovskite films and
      establish a systematic route to high-quality all-inorganic perovskite films,
      paving the way for widespread optoelectronic applications.

PMID- 28891294
TI  - Low Power Consumption Gas Sensor Created from Silicon Nanowires/TiO2 Core-Shell
      Heterojunctions.
AB  - Silicon nanowires/TiO2 (SiNWs/TiO2) array with core-shell nanostructure was
      created by sol-gel and drop-casting methods. The hybrid material displayed
      excellent sensing performance for CH4 detection at room temperature. The
      chemiresistor sensor has a linear response toward CH4 gas in the 30-120 ppm range
      with a detection limit of 20 ppm, which is well below most CH4 sensors reported
      before. The enhanced gas sensing performance at room temperature was attributed
      to the creation of heterojunctions that form a depletion layer at the interface
      of SiNWs and TiO2 layer. Adsorption of oxygen and corresponding gas analyte on
      TiO2 layer could induce the change of depletion layer thickness and consequently
      the width of the SiNWs conductive channel, leading to a sensitive conductive
      response toward gas analyte. Compared to conventional metal oxide gas sensors,
      the room temperature gas sensors constructed from SiNWs/TiO2 do not need an
      additional heating device and work at power at the MUW level. The low power
      consumption feature is of great importance for sensing devices, if they are
      widely deployed and connected to the Internet of Things. The innovation of room
      temperature sensing materials may push forward the integration of gas sensing
      element with wireless device.

PMID- 28891295
TI  - Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance-Mediated Charge Trapping/Detrapping for Core
      Shell Nanorod-Based Optical Memory Cells.
AB  - For following the trend of miniaturization as per Moore's law, increasing efforts
      have been made to develop single devices with versatile functionalities for
      Internet of Things (IoT). In this work, organic optical memory devices with
      excellent dual optoelectronic functionality including light sensing and data
      storage have been proposed. The Au@Ag core-shell nanorods (NRs)-based memory
      device exhibits large memory window up to 19.7 V due to the well-controlled
      morphology of Au@Ag NRs with optimum size and concentration. Furthermore, since
      the extinction intensity of Au@Ag NRs gradually enhance with the increase in Ag
      shell thickness, the phototunable behaviors of memory device were systematically
      studied by varying the thickness of Ag shell. Multilevel data storage can be
      achieved with the light assistant. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate
      that the phototunable memory property is originated from the multimode localized
      surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Au@Ag NRs, which is in consistent with the
      experimental results. The Au@Ag core-shell NRs-based memories may open up a new
      strategy toward developing high-performance optoelectronic devices.

PMID- 28891296
TI  - Noninvasive Body Fat Burn Monitoring from Exhaled Acetone with Si-doped WO3
      sensing Nanoparticles.
AB  - Obesity is a global health threat on the rise, and its prevalence continues to
      grow. Yet suitable biomedical sensors to monitor body fat burn rates in situ, to
      guide physical activity or dietary interventions toward efficient weight loss,
      are missing. Here, we introduce a compact and inexpensive breath acetone sensor
      based on Si-doped WO3 nanoparticles that can accurately follow body fat burn
      rates in real time. We tested this sensor on 20 volunteers during exercise and
      rest and measured their individual breath acetone concentrations in good
      agreement with benchtop proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry
      (PTR-TOF-MS). During exercise, this sensor reveals clearly the onset and
      progression of increasing breath acetone levels that indicate intensified body
      fat metabolism, as validated by parallel venous blood beta-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB)
      measurements. Most importantly, we found that the body fat metabolism was
      especially pronounced for most volunteers during fasting for 3 h after exercise,
      with strong variation between subjects, and this was displayed correctly by the
      sensor in real-time. As a result, this simple breath acetone sensor enables
      easily applicable and hand-held body fat burn monitoring for personalized and
      immediate feedback on workout effectiveness that can guide dieting as well.

PMID- 28891297
TI  - Validating Missing Proteins in Human Sperm Cells by Targeted Mass-Spectrometry-
      and Antibody-based Methods.
AB  - The present study is a contribution to the "neXt50 challenge", a coordinated
      effort across C-HPP teams to identify the 50 most tractable missing proteins
      (MPs) on each chromosome. We report the targeted search of 38 theoretically
      detectable MPs from chromosomes 2 and 14 in Triton X-100 soluble and insoluble
      sperm fractions from a total of 15 healthy donors. A targeted mass-spectrometry
      based strategy consisting of the development of LC-PRM assays (with heavy labeled
      synthetic peptides) targeting 92 proteotypic peptides of the 38 selected MPs was
      used. Out of the 38 selected MPs, 12 were identified with two or more peptides
      and 3 with one peptide after extensive SDS-PAGE fractionation of the two samples
      and with overall low-intensity signals. The PRM data are available via
      ProteomeXchange in PASSEL (PASS01013). Further validation by immunohistochemistry
      on human testes sections and cytochemistry on sperm smears was performed for
      eight MPs with antibodies available from the Human Protein Atlas. Deep analysis
      of human sperm still allows the validation of MPs and therefore contributes to
      the C-HPP worldwide effort. We anticipate that our results will be of interest to
      the reproductive biology community because an in-depth analysis of these MPs may
      identify potential new candidates in the context of human idiopathic
      infertilities.

PMID- 28891298
TI  - Immune checkpoint molecule PD-1 acts as a novel biomarker for the pathological
      process of gestational diabetes mellitus.
AB  - AIM: Accumulating evidence suggested that challenge of the maternal-fetal
      interaction during pregnancy might cause the impairment of immunological
      hemostasis and lead to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) pathological process.
      Immune checkpoint molecule PD-1 is one of the critical molecule balancing immune
      response and immunological tolerance. METHODS: PD-1 expressions on T-cell subsets
      of GDM patients and control groups were measured via flow cytometric analysis and
      followed up. RESULTS: Downregulation of PD-1 acted as an indicator for GDM
      occurrence in the third trimester of pregnancy. With the recovery of GDM, PD-1
      expression restored to normal level. CONCLUSION: PD-1 expression on T-cell
      subsets is a novel biomarker for the occurrence and recovery of GDM.

PMID- 28891300
TI  - Borderline personality disorder and polycystic ovary syndrome: A review of the
      literature.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This review examines the existing evidence for the relationship
      between borderline personality disorder and polycystic ovary syndrome, and to
      identify commonalities in etiological mechanisms of borderline personality
      disorder and polycystic ovary syndrome that might explain the relationship
      between these seemingly disparate disorders. METHODS: A search of Medline, EMBASE
      and Cochrane Central was undertaken on 5 December 2016 to identify studies
      investigating women with borderline personality disorder and polycystic ovary
      syndrome (or symptoms and markers specific to polycystic ovary syndrome).
      RESULTS: Nine studies were identified, including three cross-sectional studies
      investigating symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome in women with borderline
      personality disorder, two cross-sectional and one cohort study examining the
      prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses in women with polycystic ovary syndrome and
      three case reports of comorbid borderline personality disorder and polycystic
      ovary syndrome. CONCLUSION: Overall, the literature shows women with borderline
      personality disorder to have higher than expected serum androgen levels and
      incidence of polycystic ovaries, which can be key features of polycystic ovary
      syndrome. However, this research is still in its infancy, which limits our
      understanding of this potential comorbid phenomenon. Given the emerging anecdotal
      and empirical evidence to date, a theoretical discussion of the potential
      psychoneuroendocrinological mechanism underlying the borderline personality
      disorder and polycystic ovary syndrome comorbidity is provided. Further rigorous
      studies using standardized diagnostic criteria for polycystic ovary syndrome are
      warranted. Specifically, the use of prospective controlled cohort studies may be
      able to determine the causality and temporality of observed comorbid borderline
      personality disorder and polycystic ovary syndrome.

PMID- 28891299
TI  - Spatial Learning Responses to Lipopolysaccharide in Adult and Aged Rats.
AB  - Sickness behaviors, adaptive responses to infections, include lethargy,
      depression, reduced eating and grooming, and concentration problems resulting
      from interactions between the immune and neuroendocrine systems. Detecting these
      responses is especially critical in the elderly, as the infections that cause
      them can lead to cognitive impairment. While deficits in spatial learning, a
      hippocampal-dependent form of learning, are part of the sickness response,
      directional heading errors (DHEs; an indicator of spatial-learning deficits) and
      their time trajectories need further examination. Therefore, we simultaneously
      investigated the time trajectory of age-dependent sickness responses and spatial
      learning over 5 days in adult (5-6 months) and aged (22 months) male Brown-Norway
      rats injected with 250 MUg/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS; experimental group) or
      0.9% sodium chloride (control group). LPS administration resulted in pronounced,
      age-dependent weight loss and decreased food intake that persisted in the aged
      group. Animals were tested for 5 days (trial) in the Morris water maze. After 7
      days of rest, animals were retested for 2 days (retention). Adult and aged LPS
      treated animals displayed greater differences in mean DHE than the control
      groups, indicating that they exhibited more DHE over the trial days. Experimental
      groups did not show consistent DHE improvement until Day 4 (adult) or 5 (aged).
      LPS had no effect on probe or retention trials. We conclude that LPS activation
      of the immune system results in a selective, age-dependent impairment in spatial
      learning, decreased food intake, and weight loss. All of these results are
      prolonged in aged animals.

PMID- 28891301
TI  - Treating body, treating mind: The experiences of people with psychotic disorders
      and their general practitioners - Findings from the Australian National Survey of
      High Impact Psychosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To describe from the perspective of people living with psychotic
      illness their use of general practitioner services over a 12-month period and the
      experiences, attitudes and challenges general practitioners face providing health
      care to this population. METHODS: A two-phase design was used. Phase 1, screening
      for psychosis, occurred in public specialised mental health services and non
      government organisations within seven catchment sites across Australia. In Phase
      2, 1825 people who were screened positive for psychosis were randomly selected
      for interview which included questions about frequency and reason for general
      practitioner contact in the 12 months prior to interview. General practitioners
      (1473) of consenting participants were also surveyed. RESULTS: Almost all (90.3%)
      survey participants had consulted a general practitioner in the 12-month period,
      on average 8.9 times, and 28.8% of attenders had consulted 12 times or more. The
      majority (83.5%) attended one general practitioner practice. Most (77.6%) general
      practitioners wanted to be involved in the mental health care of their patient.
      Although 69.1% said the management of their patient was not problematic for their
      practice, one in five general practitioners reported issues related to patient
      non-compliance with treatment and non-attendance at scheduled appointments; time
      constraints; and lack of feedback from treating mental health services.
      CONCLUSION: People with psychotic disorders consult general practitioners, some
      very frequently. Most Australian general practitioners believe they have a
      responsibility to review the physical and mental health of their patients.
      Improved communication between general practitioners and mental health services,
      and easier access to mental health support, may help general practitioners manage
      the complex mental, physical and social problems of their patients.

PMID- 28891302
TI  - Gastrocnemius Contracture in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease affecting multiple joints
      of the body. More than 90% of patients affected by rheumatoid arthritis develop
      foot or ankle pain over the course of their disease. The purpose of the current
      study was to report ankle dorsiflexion in rheumatoid arthritis patients as well
      as a control group utilizing a validated measurement instrument. METHODS: Using a
      previously validated device, 70 patients presenting with rheumatoid arthritis and
      70 controls were measured for ankle range motion and isolated gastrocnemius
      contractures. Clinical and goniometer measurement of ankle range of motion was
      also performed. RESULTS: The rheumatoid arthritis group had a mean dorsiflexion
      of 12.3 degrees compared to a mean of 17.3 degrees in the control group ( P <
      .05). The difference in dorsiflexion was significantly less utilizing a
      goniometer than using the validated device, which may be due to measurement
      technique and external landmarks ( P < .05). CONCLUSION: Patients with rheumatoid
      arthritis had less ankle dorsiflexion than the control group. The clinical
      significance of this study is that it provides evidence that patients with
      rheumatoid arthritis have decreased ankle dorsiflexion even despite a lack of
      foot and ankle pain. In light of the high lifetime incidence of foot and ankle
      pain in these patients, this study provides some evidence that the decreased
      ankle dorsiflexion may be a contributing factor in foot and ankle pain, but
      further studies are needed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, prospective cohort
      study.

PMID- 28891304
TI  - Impaired amino acid metabolism in autism spectrum disorders.

PMID- 28891305
TI  - Antioxidant phenolic acids from the leaves of Armeniaca sibirica.
AB  - Phytochemical investigation of the leaves of Armeniaca sibirica (L.) Lam. led to
      the isolation of two new phenolic acids (1-2), together with eight known
      compounds (3-10) from the ethanol extracts of this plant. Structures of these
      compounds were elucidated through detailed spectroscopic analyses, using 1D-NMR
      and 2D-NMR in combination with HR-EI-MS techniques. All the compounds were
      evaluated for their antioxidant capabilities in vitro using 2, 2'-azino-bis-3
      ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS), 1, 1'-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl
      (DPPH) free radical scavenging assays, and ferric-reducing antioxidant power
      (FRAP) methods.

PMID- 28891306
TI  - Active residents in care homes: A holistic approach to promoting and encouraging
      meaningful activity for residents living in care homes (innovative practice).
AB  - The active residents in care homes intervention aim to promote meaningful
      activity among care home residents. Residents, family members and staff from
      three residential care homes in South London are participating. It is a whole
      systems approach which involves formal and 'on the floor' training to empower
      care home staff to facilitate activity. Training is delivered by two occupational
      therapists, a physiotherapist and a rehabilitation assistant. This paper
      describes the active residents in care homes intervention, the evaluation methods
      and discusses some preliminary findings.

PMID- 28891303
TI  - Redefining the endophenotype concept to accommodate transdiagnostic
      vulnerabilities and etiological complexity.
AB  - In psychopathology research, endophenotypes are a subset of biomarkers that
      indicate genetic vulnerability independent of clinical state. To date, an
      explicit expectation is that endophenotypes be specific to single disorders. We
      evaluate this expectation considering recent advances in psychiatric genetics,
      recognition that transdiagnostic vulnerability traits are often more useful than
      clinical diagnoses in psychiatric genetics, and appreciation for etiological
      complexity across genetic, neural, hormonal and environmental levels of analysis.
      We suggest that the disorder-specificity requirement of endophenotypes be
      relaxed, that neural functions are preferable to behaviors as starting points in
      searches for endophenotypes, and that future research should focus on interactive
      effects of multiple endophenotypes on complex psychiatric disorders, some of
      which are 'phenocopies' with distinct etiologies.

PMID- 28891307
TI  - A comprehensive narrative review of diagnostic biomarkers in human primary
      membranous nephropathy.
AB  - Membranous nephropathy (MN) is relatively major cause of nephrotic syndrome in
      adults which is recognized as an organ-specific autoimmune disease. The etiology
      of most cases is idiopathic, whereas the secondary MN is caused by systemic
      autoimmune diseases, infections, medications and malignancies. The idiopathic
      disease is developed by the formation of sub-epithelial immune complex deposits
      most likely due to binding the circulating auto-antibodies to intrinsic antigen
      on podocytes. The major auto antibody is the anti-phospholipase A2 receptor (anti
      PLA2R), however, it is not enough sensitive. Several attempts for diagnostic
      biomarker identification by modern analytical technologies have been devoted
      recently. This article reviews the biomarker candidates for primary type of MN
      that are detected by different approaches on human subjects.

PMID- 28891308
TI  - Adenovirus Infection as an Imitator of Hemophagocytic Lymphocytosis.

PMID- 28891309
TI  - A Calibration-Free Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) Quantitative
      Analysis Method Based on the Auto-Selection of an Internal Reference Line and
      Optimized Estimation of Plasma Temperature.
AB  - The quantitative analysis accuracy of calibration-free laser-induced breakdown
      spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) is severely affected by the self-absorption effect and
      estimation of plasma temperature. Herein, a CF-LIBS quantitative analysis method
      based on the auto-selection of internal reference line and the optimized
      estimation of plasma temperature is proposed. The internal reference line of each
      species is automatically selected from analytical lines by a programmable
      procedure through easily accessible parameters. Furthermore, the self-absorption
      effect of the internal reference line is considered during the correction
      procedure. To improve the analysis accuracy of CF-LIBS, the particle swarm
      optimization (PSO) algorithm is introduced to estimate the plasma temperature
      based on the calculation results from the Boltzmann plot. Thereafter, the species
      concentrations of a sample can be calculated according to the classical CF-LIBS
      method. A total of 15 certified alloy steel standard samples of known
      compositions and elemental weight percentages were used in the experiment. Using
      the proposed method, the average relative errors of Cr, Ni, and Fe calculated
      concentrations were 4.40%, 6.81%, and 2.29%, respectively. The quantitative
      results demonstrated an improvement compared with the classical CF-LIBS method
      and the promising potential of in situ and real-time application.

PMID- 28891310
TI  - The adverse effects of perinatal exposure to nonylphenol on carbohydrate
      metabolism in male offspring rats.
AB  - BACKGROUND: We sought to investigate the adverse effects of perinatal exposure to
      nonylphenol (NP) on carbohydrate metabolism of male offspring rats. METHODS:
      Thirty-two healthy pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into four
      groups, control normal diet group (C), NP normal diet group (NPN), control high
      energy diet group (CH), and NP high-energy diet group (NPH). Both of the control
      groups were received a gavage of corn oil and the NP-groups were received NP (200
      mg/kg/day) from gestational days 6 to post-natal day (PND) 21. The concentrations
      of NP in pancreatic tissues were measured by high-performance liquid
      chromatography (HPLC). The key genes of glucose metabolism expression were
      detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The
      pancreatic tissues were stained with hematoxylin/eosin (HE). RESULTS: On PND 1,
      the body weights of male pups in the NPN and NPH groups were lower than those of
      the CH group (p = 0.012 and 0.001, respectively). On PND 30, the body weight of
      male pups from the NPH group was elevated compared with the C group (p = 0.019),
      while the body weights of male pups in the NPN and NPH groups were elevated
      compared to the CH group (p = 0.034 and 0.004, respectively). On PND 60, the body
      weights of NPN and NPH pups were higher than those in the C (p < 0.001) and CH
      groups (p < 0.001). The levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG) were increased
      significantly in the animals treated with NP compared to control animals (F =
      29.14, p < 0.001). The FBG levels in the treatment groups are ranked as follows:
      NPH > NPN > CH > C (p < 0.05). The concentrations of NP in pancreas tissues in
      both the NPN (2045.0 +/- 130.1 MUg/L) and NPH groups (2038.0 +/- 104.2 MUg/L)
      were higher than those in the C (499.5 +/- 27.4 MUg/L) and CH groups (494.2 +/-
      22.4 MUg/L; p < 0.05). Morphological examination of tissues from rats exposed to
      NP shown that the NP-treated groups appeared to have a higher degree of
      inflammatory injury, edema, and focal necrotic cells in the pancreatic tissues.
      Compared with C group, expression of glucokinase (GCK) was down-regulated, while
      Uncoupling protein-2 (UCP-2) was up-regulated in the NP-treated groups (FGCK =
      218.89, p < 0.001; FUCP-2 = 18.82, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to
      NP could induce glucose metabolism disorder in male F1 rats, which may be due to
      the fact that NP induces abnormal expression patterns of GCK and UCP-2.

PMID- 28891311
TI  - Does Previous Open Renal Stone Surgery Affect the Outcome of Extracorporeal
      Shockwave Lithotripsy Treatment in Adults with Renal Stones?
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of previous ipsilateral open renal stone surgery
      (ORSS) on outcomes of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) in adults with
      renal stones. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 2097 renal units with renal
      stones underwent SWL treatment at our institution between March 1997 and February
      2013. One thousand eight hundred thirty-nine (87.7%) of these had no history of
      ORSS and were categorized as group 1, and 258 (12.3%) patients having history of
      ipsilateral ORSS were categorized as group 2. Characteristics of patients, stone
      and treatment, stone-free, and complications rates were documented in detail and
      compared in each group. These groups were also subclassified into four subgroups
      according to the stone location. RESULTS: The stone-free rates were statistically
      higher in group 1 than group 2 (73.2% and 61.6%, respectively). There were no
      differences between groups regarding the complications and steinstrasse. The
      stone-free rate of SWL for stones located at lower calix has significant
      difference according to groups 1 and 2 (64% vs 48.4%, p = 0.001). Logistic
      regression analysis showed that history of ORSS increased SWL failure rate 1.39
      times. CONCLUSION: Overall stone-free rates after SWL treatment was found to be
      significantly lower in patients with the history of ORSS than in patients
      without, and this finding was significantly prominent for lower calix stones. We
      believe that retrograde intrarenal surgery or mini- /micro-percutaneous
      nephrolithotripsy, despite its possible difficulties in accessing due to
      anatomical changes, might be a good alternative for SWL.

PMID- 28891312
TI  - Consequences of market withdrawal of fluphenazine and trifluoperazine: Letter to
      the editor and case series.

PMID- 28891313
TI  - Mid-Sole Release of the Plantar Fascia Combined With Percutaneous Drilling of the
      Calcaneus for Treatment of Resistant Heel Pain.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heel pain with or without calcaneal spur is a challenging problem.
      Once conservative measures have failed, surgery may be indicated; there has been
      debate about the best surgical procedure. Two standard operative procedures have
      been either releasing the plantar fascia or removing the spur with drilling of
      the calcaneus. In this study, we evaluated the results of percutaneous drilling
      of the calcaneus combined with mid-sole release of the plantar fascia for
      treatment of resistant heel pain. METHODS: This study included 20 cases with
      resistant heel pain after failure of conservative measures for 6 months.
      Clinical, radiological evaluation and scoring patients' conditions according to
      the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) Ankle-Hindfoot scale was
      done preoperatively and postoperatively. Percutaneous drilling of the calcaneus
      combined with mid-sole release of the plantar fascia was done in all cases, and
      the functional results were evaluated through the follow-up period that extended
      from 9 to 16 months with a mean duration of 12 +/- 2.3 months. RESULTS: There was
      statistically significant improvement in the mean AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot scale
      score from 50.8 +/- 7.5 preoperatively to 91.6 +/- 7 postoperatively at the last
      follow-up. There were no surgery-related complications, and the mean time for
      full recovery was 8 +/- 3.7 weeks with no recurrence of pain by the last follow
      up. CONCLUSIONS: The results were very satisfactory with using this minimally
      invasive and simple technique for treatment for resistant heel pain. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: Level IV, retrospective case series.

PMID- 28891314
TI  - Correlation Between Recovery of Triceps Surae Muscle Strength and Level of
      Activity After Open Repair of Acute Achilles Tendon Rupture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine whether physical findings reflecting
      triceps surae strength recovery could predict return to activities such as
      jogging and sports and whether patients' age and sex would influence recovery of
      triceps surae strength postoperatively. METHODS: Between 2009 and 2013, 96
      consecutive cases of postoperative acute Achilles tendon rupture were reviewed.
      The postoperative triceps surae strength recovery rate was investigated in all
      patients by using half body weight 1-time heel rise, full body weight (FBW) 1
      time heel rise, FBW 20-time heel rise, jogging, and full return to sports
      activities. Influence of age and sex on triceps surae strength recovery was also
      investigated. RESULTS: FBW 1-time heel rise and jogging were achieved at an
      average of 14 weeks (range, 6-24 weeks) and 15 weeks (range, 8-25 weeks)
      postoperatively, respectively. FBW 20-time heel rise and full return to sports
      activities were achieved at a mean of 21 weeks (range, 12-29 weeks) and 22 weeks
      (range, 13-29 weeks) postoperatively, respectively. Ability to perform FBW 1-time
      heel rise was directly related to resilience of jogging capability ( R2 = 0.317,
      P < 0.001), and ability to perform FBW 20-time heel rise was related to full
      return to sports activities ( R2 = 0.508, P < 0.001). Time to heel rise was not
      correlated with patient age or sex. CONCLUSION: Postoperative ability to perform
      FBW 1-time heel rise in patients postoperatively was directly related to
      resilience of jogging, and ability to perform FBW 20-time heel rise was directly
      related to full return to sports activities. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, case
      series.

PMID- 28891315
TI  - Development of pyridine dicoumarols as potent anti HIV-1 leads, targeting HIV-1
      associated topoisomeraseIIbeta kinase.
AB  - AIM: A structural study of a series of pyridine dicoumarol derivatives with
      potential activity against a novel Topoisomerase IIbeta kinase which was
      identified in the HIV-1 viral lysate, compounds were designed and synthesized
      based on a 3D-QSAR study. MATERIALS & METHODS: Based on QSAR model we have
      designed and synthesized a series of pyridine dicoumarol derivatives and
      characterized by spectral studies, all the molecules are biologically evaluated
      by kinase assay, cytotoxicity assay, ELISA and PCR method. RESULT: We
      demonstrated the achievement of water soluble disodium pyridine dicoumarate
      derivatives showing high anti-HIV-1 activity (IC50 <25 nM) which provides a
      crucial point for further development of pyridine dicoumarol series as HIV-1
      associated topoisomerase IIbeta kinase inhibitors for clinical application
      against AIDS. CONCLUSION: A new class of anti-HIV-1 lead compounds have been
      designed and tested. Further studies would result in development of  novel and
      potential drugs.

PMID- 28891316
TI  - Associations of the ABCA1 and LPL Gene Polymorphisms With Lipid Levels in a
      Hyperlipidemic Population.
AB  - We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the effects of the adenosine
      triphosphate-binding cassette transporter 1 (ABCA1) I883M and lipoprotein lipase
      (LPL) HindIII polymorphisms on lipid levels in patients with hyperlipidemia. A
      total of 533 patients were enrolled. Serum lipid parameters were determined by an
      automatic biochemistry analyzer. Genotyping of the ABCA1 I883M and LPL HindIII
      was carried out using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length
      polymorphism technique. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to estimate
      the associations between serum lipid levels and the genetic polymorphisms. The
      frequency distribution of the ABCA1 I883M and LPL HindIII polymorphisms did not
      deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The major finding of our regression
      analysis showed that neither the ABCA1 I883M nor the LPL HindIII polymorphism was
      associated with baseline serum lipid levels in the total population. However,
      among patients with elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels (ALT >= 40
      U/L), carriers of the M allele of the ABCA1 gene had lower levels of high-density
      lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and higher levels of low-density lipoprotein
      cholesterol (LDL-C) after adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, alcohol
      consumption, education level, occupation, and work intensity ( P < .05 for both).
      A test on interaction terms between the ABCA1 I833M polymorphism and ALT on HDL-C
      and LDL-C levels also remained significant ( P = .001 and P = .014,
      respectively). Our data suggest that there are significant interactive effects
      between ABCA1 I883M and ALT levels on HDL-C and LDL-C levels. However, the LPL
      HindIII polymorphism did not influence lipid levels.

PMID- 28891318
TI  - What Would an HIV Cure Mean to You? Qualitative Analysis from a Crowdsourcing
      Contest in Guangzhou, China.
AB  - Much HIV cure social science research has focused on high-income countries. Local
      key population perspectives, especially from people living with HIV (PLHIV), are
      needed in low- and middle-income countries. We organized an open contest
      soliciting responses from key populations, including PLHIV, about what a cure
      would mean in their lives. Tailored in-person events and social media were used
      to engage PLHIV, men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs, and
      local residents. We received 471 contributions over 4 months. Our thematic
      analysis showed that many people perceived that a cure would sterilize HIV and
      bring about new life for PLHIV. Many individuals believed a cure would decrease
      PLHIV discrimination and many MSM perceived a cure would decrease MSM
      discrimination. Some participants noted that a cure could help improve
      interpersonal relations, particularly with families and partners. Many
      individuals envisioned HIV cure as a panacea to bring about social stability.
      Some participants also anticipated changes in attitudes toward sex that may
      result in increased condomless sex. Our findings suggest a continued need for
      careful management of patient expectations and community engagement.

PMID- 28891319
TI  - Lower antioxidant capacity in the prefrontal cortex of individuals with
      schizophrenia.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The glutathione (GSH) pathway is the main antioxidant system to
      protect against oxidative stress in the human brain. In this study, we tested
      whether molecular components of the GSH antioxidant system are changed in
      dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tissue from people with schizophrenia compared to
      controls. METHOD: The levels of total glutathione and reduced GSH were determined
      by fluorometric assay via quantifying thiols in extracts from frontal cortex of
      68 people. Immunoblotting was used to measure levels of enzymes responsible for
      maintaining GSH, the glutamyl-cysteine ligase (GCL) catalytic subunit (GCLC) and
      the GSH peroxidase (GPx)-like protein ( n = 74). Quantitative reverse
      transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to measure GCLC
      messenger RNA (mRNA) expression. RESULTS: Both total glutathione ( t(66) = 2.467,
      p = 0.016) and reduced GSH ( t(66) = 3.001, p = 0.004) levels were significantly
      less in people with schizophrenia than in controls. However, there were no
      significant differences in either GCLC-like protein ( t(72) = -1.077, p = 0.285)
      or GCLC mRNA expression ( t(71) = -0.376, p = 0.708) between people with
      schizophrenia and control subjects. There was also no significant difference of
      GPx-like protein levels between schizophrenia and controls ( t(72) = -0.060, p =
      0.952). Moreover, no significant correlations of putative confounding factors
      with GSH changes were detected. DISCUSSION: These results suggest that people
      with schizophrenia have impaired GSH antioxidant capacity, alongside normal
      levels of key regulatory proteins.

PMID- 28891320
TI  - Improving Drainage After Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy Based on Health-Related
      Quality of Life: A Prospective Randomized Study.
AB  - PURPOSE: The impact of drainage type after percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) on
      the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been rarely studied. We conducted
      a prospective randomized study to evaluate the differences in HRQoL among
      patients who received different drainage types. METHODS: A total of 90 patients
      who underwent PCNL were randomized into three groups to receive a nephrostomy
      tube (Group 1), a Double-J (JJ) stent (Group 2), and an open-ended ureteral
      catheter (Group 3) after PCNL, respectively. We compared the perioperative
      characteristics, surgical outcomes, and HRQoL using Wisconsin Stone Quality of
      Life (WiSQoL) questionnaire among three groups. RESULTS: There were no
      significant differences in patients' characteristics such as age, gender ratio,
      body mass index, stone burden, and so on. Majority of the surgical outcomes
      (operative time, estimated blood loss, hemoglobin drop, postoperative
      complications, and stone-free rate) were also comparable, except for the duration
      of hospitalization, visual analog scale, and analgesic required. The preoperative
      WiSQoL scores were similar among the three groups, but significant differences
      occurred postoperation (Groups 1, 2, and 3, 122.0 vs 105.6 vs 124.4, p < 0.001).
      Besides, patients in Group 2 had lower willingness (Groups 1, 2, and 3, 86.7% vs
      70.0% vs 96.7%, p = 0.02) to undergo the same procedure as future treatment, if
      needed. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that the drainage types after PCNL using
      a nephrostomy tube or a JJ stent or an open-ended ureteral catheter were equally
      safe and efficacious, but patients who received a nephrostomy tube or an open
      ended ureteral catheter had better HRQoL.

PMID- 28891321
TI  - Two new ent-kaurane diterpenes from the stems of Eurya chinensis.
AB  - Two new ent-kaurane diterpenes (1-2), together with five known analogs, were
      isolated from the stems of Eurya chinensis. The structures of new compounds were
      established by extensive analysis of mass spectrometric and 1D and 2D NMR
      spectroscopic data. Compound 3 exhibited noticeable anti-inflammatory activity as
      denoted by inhibiting LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW264.7 cells
      with an IC50 value of 7.82 MUM. Compound 4 showed potent cytotoxic activity
      against human cancer cell lines NCI-H46, HepG2 and SW480 with IC50 values ranging
      from 7.45 to 8.54 MUM.

PMID- 28891317
TI  - The Role of Sirtuins in Antioxidant and Redox Signaling.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: Antioxidant and redox signaling (ARS) events are regulated by
      critical molecules that modulate antioxidants, reactive oxygen species (ROS) or
      reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and/or oxidative stress within the cell.
      Imbalances in these molecules can disturb cellular functions to become
      pathogenic. Sirtuins serve as important regulators of ARS in cells. Recent
      Advances: Sirtuins (SIRTs 1-7) are a family of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
      (NAD)-dependent histone deacetylases with the ability to deacetylate histone and
      nonhistone targets. Recent studies show that sirtuins modulate the regulation of
      a variety of cellular processes associated with ARS. SIRT1, SIRT3, and SIRT5
      protect the cell from ROS, and SIRT2, SIRT6, and SIRT7 modulate key oxidative
      stress genes and mechanisms. Interestingly, SIRT4 has been shown to induce ROS
      production and has antioxidative roles as well. CRITICAL ISSUES: A complete
      understanding of the roles of sirtuins in redox homeostasis of the cell is very
      important to understand the normal functioning as well as pathological
      manifestations. In this review, we have provided a critical discussion on the
      role of sirtuins in the regulation of ARS. We have also discussed mechanistic
      interactions among different sirtuins. Indeed, a complete understanding of
      sirtuin biology could be critical at multiple fronts. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: Sirtuins
      are emerging to be important in normal mammalian physiology and in a variety of
      oxidative stress-mediated pathological situations. Studies are needed to dissect
      the mechanisms of sirtuins in maintaining redox homeostasis. Efforts are also
      required to assess the targetability of sirtuins in the management of redox
      regulated diseases. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 28, 643-661.

PMID- 28891322
TI  - Data-Driven Topological Filtering Based on Orthogonal Minimal Spanning Trees:
      Application to Multigroup Magnetoencephalography Resting-State Connectivity.
AB  - In the present study, a novel data-driven topological filtering technique is
      introduced to derive the backbone of functional brain networks relying on
      orthogonal minimal spanning trees (OMSTs). The method aims to identify the
      essential functional connections to ensure optimal information flow via the
      objective criterion of global efficiency minus the cost of surviving connections.
      The OMST technique was applied to multichannel, resting-state neuromagnetic
      recordings from four groups of participants: healthy adults (n = 50), adults who
      have suffered mild traumatic brain injury (n = 30), typically developing children
      (n = 27), and reading-disabled children (n = 25). Weighted interactions between
      network nodes (sensors) were computed using an integrated approach of dominant
      intrinsic coupling modes based on two alternative metrics (symbolic mutual
      information and phase lag index), resulting in excellent discrimination of
      individual cases according to their group membership. Classification results
      using OMST-derived functional networks were clearly superior to results using
      either relative power spectrum features or functional networks derived through
      the conventional minimal spanning tree algorithm.

PMID- 28891323
TI  - Functional Outcome of Acute Achilles Tendon Rupture With and Without Operative
      Treatment Using Identical Functional Bracing Protocol.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the functional results of
      operative and nonoperative treatment of acute Achilles tendon rupture using an
      identical rehabilitation program of functional bracing. METHODS: Over a 10-year
      period, 200 patients (99 operative, 101 nonoperative) aged between 18 and 65
      years were treated at our institution's physiotherapy department after acute
      Achilles tendon rupture. There were 132 patients (62 operative, 70 nonoperative)
      available for a minimum 2-year follow-up (average 6.5 years; range, 2-13 years).
      Functional outcome was assessed using the Achilles tendon total rupture score
      (ATRS). RESULTS: With the numbers available, no significant difference could be
      detected in ATRS between operative (mean 84.8, median 90) and nonoperative groups
      (mean 85.3, median 91; P = 0.55). No significant difference could be detected in
      ATRS between male and female patients however treated ( P = 0.30) or between
      patients younger and older than 40 years at time of injury ( P = 0.68). There was
      no correlation between ATRS score and age at injury in all patients (rho = 
      0.0168, P = 0.85). In male patients, there was a weak trend with older patients
      at follow-up having better scores (rho = 0.21, P = 0.069). However, among female
      patients, there was a significant negative correlation between ATRS scores and
      increasing age (rho = -0.29, P = 0.03). Logistic regression analysis failed to
      show any significant effect of age at rupture, gender, or mode of treatment on
      ATRS. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed no significant difference detectable in ATRS
      between operative and nonoperative patients in the treatment of acute Achilles
      tendon ruptures using an identical rehabilitation program with functional
      bracing. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, prospective comparative study.

PMID- 28891324
TI  - Relationship between monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio and coronary plaque
      vulnerability in patients with stable angina.
AB  - AIM: To investigate the relationship between monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR)
      and plaque vulnerability assessed by virtual histology intravascular ultrasound
      in patients with stable angina. METHODS: 133 patients with stable angina were
      enrolled. RESULTS: MLR was found to be an independent risk factor of thin cap
      fibrous atheroma (OR: 2.61; p = 0.025). MLR could differentiate thin cap fibrous
      atheroma with a sensitivity of 73.7% and a specificity of 61.8%. MLR level was
      positively correlated with the percentage of necrotic core (NC) area at the sites
      of minimum lumen area and the largest NC area, and positively related to the
      percentage of NC volume. CONCLUSION: Circulating MLR level has potential in
      identifying the vulnerable plaques in the setting of stable angina.

PMID- 28891326
TI  - Indications for Use of Combination Acetaminophen/Opioid Drugs in Infants <6
      Months Old.

PMID- 28891327
TI  - Composition of the oily compounds, phytochemical screening and biological
      activity of different aerial parts of Smirnovia turkestana Bunge.
AB  - In the present study, chemical composition of the oily compounds isolated from
      different parts of Smirnovia turkestana (Kashan, central Iran) using n-hexane was
      determined for the first time. GC-MS analysis revealed that dodecanoic acid,
      trans-beta-ionone and methyl palmitate are the major components of leaves
      extract. Trans-beta-ionone and hexadodecanoic acid were also, identified as the
      major compounds of flowers extract. Heptacosane, trans-beta-ionone and vitamin E
      acetate were the main components of fruits. Phytochemical screening of the
      methanol extract proved the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, flavonoids and
      anthocyanin in the leaves, flowers and fruits of S. turkestana, while tannins
      were present only in its fruits. Evaluation of the biological activities showed
      that different aerial parts of S. turkestana have high antioxidant activities;
      antimicrobial activities were also considerable against some selected bacteria.

PMID- 28891328
TI  - An illness-specific version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire in
      patients with atrial fibrillation (AF IPQ-R): Unpacking beliefs about treatment
      control, personal control and symptom triggers.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study modified the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ
      R) in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). DESIGN: Qualitative
      interviews and think-aloud techniques informed modification of the IPQ-R to be
      specific to AF patients. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) (n = 198) examined
      the validity of the modified IPQ-R (AF-IPQ-R). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
      examined the new AF-triggers scale. Construct validity examined associations
      between the AF-IPQ-R, quality of life (QoL) and beliefs about medicines. Test
      retest and internal reliability were examined. RESULTS: Interviews indicated that
      patients viewed triggers of AF rather than initial causes of illness as more
      applicable. Patients believed specific behaviours such as rest could control AF.
      Treatment control beliefs related to pharmacological and procedural treatments.
      These data were used to modify the IPQ-R subscales and to develop a triggers of
      AF scale. CFA indicated good model fit. EFA of the triggers scale indicated three
      factors: emotional; health behaviours; and over-exertion triggers. Expected
      correlations were found between the AF-IPQ-R, QoL and treatment beliefs,
      evidencing good construct validity. CONCLUSION: The AF-IPQ-R showed sound
      psychometric properties. It provides more detailed specification than the IPQ-R
      of beliefs that may help to understand poor QoL in AF patients, and guidance for
      future interventions in this area.

PMID- 28891325
TI  - Epigenetics and Immunometabolism in Diabetes and Aging.
AB  - SIGNIFICANCE: A strong relationship between hyperglycemia, impaired insulin
      pathway, and cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes (T2D) is linked to
      oxidative stress and inflammation. Immunometabolic pathways link these pathogenic
      processes and pose important potential therapeutic targets. Recent Advances: The
      link between immunity and metabolism is bidirectional and includes the role of
      inflammation in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders such as T2D, obesity,
      metabolic syndrome, and hypertension and the role of metabolic factors in
      regulation of immune cell functions. Low-grade inflammation, oxidative stress,
      balance between superoxide and nitric oxide, and the infiltration of macrophages,
      T cells, and B cells in insulin-sensitive tissues lead to metabolic impairment
      and accelerated aging. CRITICAL ISSUES: Inflammatory infiltrate and altered
      immune cell phenotype precede development of metabolic disorders. Inflammatory
      changes are tightly linked to alterations in metabolic status and energy
      expenditure and are controlled by epigenetic mechanisms. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: A
      better comprehension of these mechanistic insights is of utmost importance to
      identify novel molecular targets. In this study, we describe a complex scenario
      of epigenetic changes and immunometabolism linking to diabetes and aging
      associated vascular disease. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 29, 257-274.

PMID- 28891330
TI  - A house is not a home: The great residential divide in autism care.

PMID- 28891331
TI  - Development of an observational measure of therapy engagement for pediatric
      rehabilitation.
AB  - PURPOSE: The Pediatric Rehabilitation Intervention Measure of Engagement
      Observation (PRIME-O) version was designed to capture signs of affective,
      cognitive and behavioral involvement for clients and service providers and in the
      client-provider interaction. METHODS: Phase 1 examined interrater consensus and
      construct validity of a pilot version, using observer ratings of engagement
      indicators made while viewing videos of therapy sessions differing in high and
      low engagement (Sample 1). Phase 2 examined these properties in a 10-item version
      (Samples 2 and 3). Phase 3 examined the content validity of the 10-item version,
      using observed signs of child, youth and parent engagement, as reported in an
      interview study involving 10 service providers. RESULTS: There was excellent
      interrater consensus for both versions and ratings significantly discriminated
      between videos differing in high and low engagement, providing evidence for
      construct validity. Content validity was demonstrated by service provider reports
      of engagement signs. More behavioral signs were reported for children and more
      cognitive signs were reported for youth and parents, providing evidence for the
      developmental appropriateness of the PRIME-O. CONCLUSIONS: The PRIME-O provides a
      multifaceted view of affective, cognitive and behavioral components of engagement
      in pediatric rehabilitation. The PRIME-O has potential utility for research,
      clinical practice and continuing education. Implications for Rehabilitation
      Measures of engagement in therapy are needed to identify factors associated with
      successful therapy sessions and positive client outcomes. The PRIME-O is an
      observational measure that captures indicators of affective, cognitive and
      behavioral components of engagement for both clients and service providers. The
      PRIME-O may further help in understanding of the strategies service providers can
      use to facilitate an optimal state of engagement within a therapy session.
      Clinical practice may be enhanced by attending to the client's signals of
      engagement in therapy. The PRIME-O can help service providers to more accurately
      identify signs of engagement and disengagement, monitor their own success in
      creating an engaging intervention atmosphere, and instigate strategies to
      optimize engagement.

PMID- 28891332
TI  - Subretinal delivery of erythropoietin alleviates the N-methyl-N-nitrosourea
      induced photoreceptor degeneration and visual functional impairments: an in vivo
      and ex vivo study.
AB  - Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a heterogeneous group hereditary retinal disease
      that is characterized by photoreceptor degeneration. The present study sought to
      explore the therapeutic effects of erythropoietin (EPO) on the N-methyl-N
      nitrosourea (MNU)-induced photoreceptor degeneration. The MNU-administered mouse
      or normal control received a subretinal injection of EPO (at the dose of 10U).
      Twenty-four hours after EPO injection, the retinal EPO levels of experimental
      animals were quantified. Subsequently, the experimental animals were subjected to
      optokinetic tests, ERG examination, SD-OCT examination, histology assessment, and
      immunohistochemistry evaluation. The retinal superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity,
      malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and expression levels of several apoptotic factors
      were also quantified. The subretinal injection of EPO up-regulated the retinal
      EPO level in the retinas of MNU-administered mice. The optokinetic tests and ERG
      examination suggested the visual functional impairments in MNU-administered mice
      were ameliorated after EPO treatment. The SD-OCT and histological examination
      suggested the morphological devastations in MNU-administered mice were alleviated
      after EPO treatment. The cone photoreceptors in MNU-administered mice were
      protected from the MNU-induced detrimental effects. Moreover, the EPO treatment
      rectified the apoptotic abnormalities in MNU-administered mice, and enhanced the
      expression level of Foxo3, a critical mediator of autophagy. The EPO treatment
      also mitigated the MDA concentration and enhanced the retinal SOD activity,
      thereby counteracting the retinal oxidative stress in MNU administered mice. In
      ophthalmological practice, the subretinal delivery of EPO is a feasible
      therapeutic strategy to alleviate photoreceptor degeneration. These findings
      would enrich our pharmacological knowledge about EPO and shed light on the
      development of an effective therapy against RP.

PMID- 28891333
TI  - Profile of medical care costs in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in
      the Medicare programme and under commercial insurance.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To determine amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-associated costs
      incurred by patients covered by Medicare and/or commercial insurance before,
      during and after diagnosis and provide cost details. METHODS: Costs were
      calculated from the Medicare Standard Analytical File 5% sample claims data from
      Parts A and B from 2009, 2010 and 2011 for ALS Medicare patients aged >=70 years
      (monthly costs) and >=65 years (costs associated with disability milestones).
      Commercial insurance patients aged 18-63 years were selected based on the data
      provided in the Coordination of Benefits field from Truven MarketScan(r) in 2008
      2010. RESULTS: Monthly costs increased nine months before diagnosis, peaked
      during the index month (Medicare: $10,398; commercial: $9354) and decreased but
      remained high post-index. Costs generally shifted from outpatient to inpatient
      and private nursing after diagnosis; prescriptions and durable medical equipment
      costs were much higher for commercial patients post-diagnosis. Patients appeared
      to progress to disability milestones more rapidly as their disease progressed in
      severity (14.4 months to non-invasive ventilation [NIV] vs. 16.6 months to
      hospice), and their costs increased accordingly (NIV: $58,973 vs. hospice:
      $76,179). CONCLUSIONS: For newly diagnosed ALS patients in the U.S., medical
      costs are substantial and increase rapidly and substantially with each disability
      milestone.

PMID- 28891334
TI  - "Poems in the Entrance Area": Using Photo-Stories to Promote HIV Medication
      Adherence.
AB  - Adherence to antiretroviral medication among people living with HIV (PL-HIV) is
      critical to individual and public health. By some estimates only a quarter of PL
      HIV are sufficiently adherent, underscoring a continued need for adherence
      promoting strategies. In this analysis we explore the effect of adherence
      education posters developed via Photovoice. A group of PL-HIV generated images
      and captions to describe their adherence experiences and used their photo-stories
      to design 10 posters. We assessed viewers' ( N = 111) adherence knowledge, self
      efficacy, and communication changes quantitatively and qualitatively before and 3
      months after poster placement in the clinic. We analyzed quantitative data with
      an independent groups t test or a Mann-Whitney test, and qualitative interviews
      via theme analysis. Quantitative findings indicated no significant differences.
      Qualitative interviewees said that posters enhanced knowledge with
      nonthreatening, relatable information; self-efficacy by motivating patients to
      take medicine and disclose HIV to others; and communication by facilitating
      adherence conversations and creating a visually supportive clinic. Divergent
      quantitative and qualitative findings can be partially explained by inquiry
      methods. The posters may be more effective as part of discussions about their
      content, like those facilitated by qualitative interviews. Additional research
      regarding the application of Photovoice to health promotion is warranted.

PMID- 28891335
TI  - Development of DNA tetrahedron-based drug delivery system.
AB  - Nanocarriers of drugs have attracted significant attention to tackle the problems
      of drug resistance or nucleic acid drug delivery, which can optimize
      pharmaceutical parameters and enhance the cellular uptake efficiency. Nowadays,
      DNA nanostructure presents an opportunity in the field of nanomaterial due to its
      precise control in shape and size, excellent biocompatibility, as well as
      multiple sites for targeting decoration. DNA tetrahedron, which is stable and
      easily synthesized, is used for various applications, including nuclear magnetic
      resonance imaging, molecular diagnosis, targeting drug delivery, and so on. In
      this review, we will discuss the applications of DNA tetrahedron about drug
      delivery, intracellular routes and its fates. Also challenges and possible
      solutions for developing DNA tetrahedron-based drug delivery system are detailed.

PMID- 28891336
TI  - Polyunsaturated fatty acid-based targeted nanotherapeutics to enhance the
      therapeutic efficacy of docetaxel.
AB  - Since breast cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, targeted strategies
      are urgently needed. In this study, we report the enhanced therapeutic efficacy
      of docetaxel (DTX) when combined with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) for
      effective treatment of multi-resistant breast cancers. Folic acid (FA)-conjugated
      PUFA-based lipid nanoparticles (FA-PLN/DTX) was developed. The physicochemical
      properties, in vitro uptake, in vitro cytotoxicity, and in vivo anticancer
      activity of FA-PLN/DTX were evaluated. FA-PLN/DTX could efficiently target and
      treat human breast tumor xenografts in vivo. They showed high payload carrying
      capacity with controlled release characteristics and selective endocytic uptake
      in folate receptor-overexpressing MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. PUFA
      synergistically improved the anticancer efficacy of DTX in both tested cancer
      cell lines by inducing a G2/M phase arrest and cell apoptosis. Combination of
      PUFA and DTX remarkably downregulated the expression levels of pro-apoptotic and
      anti-apoptotic markers, and blocked the phosphorylation of AKT signaling
      pathways. Compared to DTX alone, FA-PLN/DTX showed superior antitumor efficacy,
      with no signs of toxic effects in cancer xenograft animal models. We propose that
      PUFA could improve the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer agents in cancer
      therapy. Further studies are necessary to fully understand these findings and
      achieve clinical translation.

PMID- 28891337
TI  - Enhanced tumor targeting effects of a novel paclitaxel-loaded polymer: PEG-PCCL
      modified magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) have been newly
      developed for tumor-targeted drug carriers. To address challenges including
      biocompatibility, stability, nontoxicity, and targeting efficiency, here we
      report the novel drug deliverer poly(ethylene glycol) carboxyl-poly(E
      caprolactone) modified MNP (PEG-PCCL-MNP) suitable for magnetic targeting based
      on our previous studies. METHODS: Their in vitro characterization and
      cytotoxicity assessments, in vivo cytotoxicity assessments, and antitumor
      efficacy study were elaborately investigated. RESULTS: The size of PEG-PCCL-MNP
      was 79.6 +/- 0.945 nm. PEG-PCCL-MNP showed little in vitro or in vivo
      cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility, as well as effective tumor-specific cell
      targeting for drug delivery with the presence of external magnetic field.
      DISCUSSION: PEG-PCCL-MNP is a potential candidate of biocompatible and tumor
      specific targeting drug vehicle for hydrophobic drugs.

PMID- 28891338
TI  - Synthesis and biological evaluation of benzenesulphonamide-bearing 1,4,5
      trisubstituted-1,2,3-triazoles possessing human carbonic anhydrase I, II, IV, and
      IX inhibitory activity.
AB  - A library of benzenesulphonamides incorporating 1,2,3-triazole rings
      functionalised with ester, carboxylic acid, carboxamide, carboxyhydrazide, and
      hydroxymethyl moieties were synthesised. The carbonic anhydrase (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1)
      inhibitory activity of the new compounds was assessed against four human (h)
      isoforms, hCA I, hCA II, hCA IV, and hCA IX. Among them, hCA II and IV are anti
      glaucoma drug targets, being involved in aqueous humour secretion within the eye.
      hCA I was inhibited with Ki's ranging between 8.3 nM and 0.8737 uM. hCA II, the
      physiologically dominant cytosolic isoform, was excellently inhibited by these
      compounds, with Ki's in the range of 1.6-9.4 nM, whereas hCA IV was effectively
      inhibited by most of them, with Ki's in the range of 1.4-55.3 nM. Thirteen of the
      twenty sulphonamides were found to be excellent inhibitors of tumour associated
      hCA IX with Ki's <= 9.5 nM. Many of the new compounds reported here showed low nM
      inhibitory action against hCA II, IV, and IX, isoforms involved in glaucoma and
      some tumours, making them interesting candidates for further medicinal
      chemistry/pharmacologic studies.

PMID- 28891339
TI  - Immunotherapy in managing metastatic melanoma: which treatment when?
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Ten to fifteen percent of melanoma patients develop distant or
      unresectable metastasis requiring systemic treatment. Around 45% of the patients
      diagnosed with metastatic cutaneous melanoma harbor a BRAFV600 mutation and
      derive benefit from combined targeted therapy with MAPK pathway inhibitors. These
      offer a rapid response that translates into improvement of symptoms and increased
      quality of life. However, resistance often develops with subsequent progressive
      disease. Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors may be offered to BRAF-mutated
      and wild-type patients and is associated with longer and durable responses that
      can continue over years. Areas covered: In this review, the authors discuss the
      late evidence for targeted and immunotherapy in melanoma patients, as well as
      therapy sequencing. Immunotherapy in special populations is also addressed.
      Expert opinion: Effective treatments are currently available. However, there are
      still unanswered questions of the best therapy sequence, the clear superiority of
      combined immunotherapy versus monotherapy in all patients, and therapy duration.
      Since different promising treatments will become available, clinical trials
      comparing the diverse options in terms of safety, efficacy and cost-
      effectiveness are required to make the right decisions. Consequently, patients
      should be encouraged to participate in clinical trials, whenever possible.

PMID- 28891340
TI  - Do model polymer therapeutics sufficiently diffuse through articular cartilage to
      be a viable therapeutic route?
AB  - The ability of a polymer therapeutic to access the appropriate subcellular
      location is crucial to its efficacy and is defined to a large part by the many
      and complex cellular biological and biochemical barriers such that a construct
      must traverse. It is shown here that model dextrin conjugates are able to pass
      through a cartilaginous extracellular matrix into chondrocytes, with little
      perturbation of the matrix structure, indicating that targeting of potential
      therapeutics through a cartilaginous extracellular matrix should be proven
      possible. Rapid chondrocytic targeting of drugs which require intra
      cellularisation for their activity and uniform extracellular concentrations of
      drugs with an extracellular target, is thus enabled though polymer conjugation.

PMID- 28891341
TI  - Small molecule therapy for managing moderate to severe psoriatic arthritis.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The majority of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients experience a
      good clinical response to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic
      drugs (csDMARDs) and biologic therapies (bDMARDs). However, treatment failure
      with these drugs can represent a relevant clinical problem. Moreover, in daily
      clinical practice, the appropriate identification of patients eligible for these
      agents can be conditioned by numerous aspects, mainly represented by
      comorbidities, such as history of malignancies, chronic and recurrent infectious
      diseases. Areas covered: We searched in the PUBMED database and review published
      data on the efficacy and safety profile of the small molecules, inhibitor of
      phosphodiesterase 4, apremilast, and of JAK/STAT pathways, tofacitinib, in PsA.
      Moreover, we report data on the other JAK inhibitor, baricitinib, and the A(3)
      adenosine receptors agonist, CF101, emerging by studies conducted in psoriasis
      patients. Expert opinion: In Psoriatic Arthritis, apremilast appears promising
      for PsA and recent studies have shown a good efficacy and an acceptable safety
      profile. Data on tofacitinib in PsA are limited. Studies on the small molecules,
      baricitinib and CF101 are still incomplete and limited to trials conducted in
      Rheumatoid Arthritis and in psoriasis. Further studies on small molecules and on
      their underlining mechanisms are advocated in PsA.

PMID- 28891342
TI  - Towards a Critical Health Equity Research Stance: Why Epistemology and
      Methodology Matter More Than Qualitative Methods.
AB  - Qualitative methods are not intrinsically progressive. Methods are simply tools
      to conduct research. Epistemology, the justification of knowledge, shapes
      methodology and methods, and thus is a vital starting point for a critical health
      equity research stance, regardless of whether the methods are qualitative,
      quantitative, or mixed. In line with this premise, I address four themes in this
      commentary. First, I criticize the ubiquitous and uncritical use of the term
      health disparities in U.S. public health. Next, I advocate for the increased use
      of qualitative methodologies-namely, photovoice and critical ethnography-that,
      pursuant to critical approaches, prioritize dismantling social-structural
      inequities as a prerequisite to health equity. Thereafter, I discuss
      epistemological stance and its influence on all aspects of the research process.
      Finally, I highlight my critical discourse analysis HIV prevention research based
      on individual interviews and focus groups with Black men, as an example of a
      critical health equity research approach.

PMID- 28891343
TI  - Current and future contraceptive options for women living with HIV.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Among women living with HIV, half of the pregnancies are
      unintended. Effective contraception can prevent unintended pregnancies and
      consequently reduce maternal mortality and perinatal transmission of HIV. While
      contraceptive options available for all women also apply to women living with
      HIV, specific considerations exist to the use of contraception by women living
      with HIV. Areas covered: First, general principles guiding the use of
      contraception among women living with HIV are discussed, such as choice, method
      mix, relative effectiveness, and drug-drug interactions. Second, a detailed
      discussion of each contraceptive method and issues surrounding the use of that
      method, such as drug-drug interactions, follows. Third, future contraceptive
      options in advanced development for use by women or men are briefly discussed.
      Expert opinion: Contraceptive methods available to all women should also be
      accessible to women living with HIV. When the relative effectiveness of a
      contraceptive method is reduced, for example due to drug-drug interactions with
      antiretrovirals, the method should still be made available to women living with
      HIV with the appropriate information sharing and counseling. Greater research on
      various aspects of contraceptive use by women living with HIV and more
      comprehensive testing of co-administration of hormonal contraceptives and common
      medications used by these women are warranted.

PMID- 28891345
TI  - Comparison of the sensitivity to change of the Functional Independence Measure
      with the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills within different rehabilitation
      populations.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine whether there was a difference in the sensitivity to change
      of the subscales of the Functional Independence Measure and the Assessment of
      Motor and Process Skills within three different post-acute inpatient
      rehabilitation populations. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted retrospective
      chart review of patients consecutively admitted to inpatient rehabilitation
      units, with both admission and discharge Functional Independence Measure and
      Assessment of Motor and Process Skills scores. A total of 276 participants were
      included and categorized into diagnostic groups (orthopedic, oncology, and
      geriatric). Within group, sensitivity to change was evaluated for the subscales
      of each measure by calculating the difference in standardized response means
      (SRM) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: The Functional Independence
      Measure motor subscale was more sensitive to change than the Assessment of Motor
      and Process Skills in the orthopedic and geriatric groups (SRMdifference = 1.53
      [95% CI 0.93, 2.3] and 0.65 [95% CI 0.3, 1.02], respectively) but not in the
      oncology group (SRMdifference = 0.42 [95% CI -0.2, 1.04]). For the cognitive
      subscales, the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills was more sensitive to
      change than the Functional Independence Measure in all three groups
      (SRMdifference = 0.38 [95% CI 004, 0.74], 0.65 [95% CI 0.45, 0.90], and 1.15 [95%
      CI 0.77, 1.69] for orthopedic, geriatric, and oncology, respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: The Functional Independence Measure is a mandated measure for all
      rehabilitation units in Canada. As the cognitive subscale of the Assessment of
      Motor and Process Skills is more sensitive to change than the Functional
      Independence Measure, we recommend also administering the Assessment of Motor and
      Process Skills to better detect changes in the cognitive aspect of function.
      Implications for rehabilitation When deciding between the Functional Independence
      Measure or the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills, it is important to
      consider whether patients' functional status is expected to change similarly or
      differently. The difference in sensitivity to change between the subscales of the
      two outcome measures varies with the characteristics of change (similar or
      different) in patients' functional status. We recommend using the Assessment of
      Motor and Process Skills, along with the Functional Independence Measure, for
      patients who are expected to make similar amounts of change in functional status,
      as the cognitive subscale of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills is more
      sensitive to change and can better detect changes in the cognitive aspect of
      functioning. For patients whose functional status are expected to change
      differently (diverse diagnoses), the Functional Independence Measure may be more
      useful as the motor subscale was more sensitive to change when comparing between
      rehabilitation populations.

PMID- 28891344
TI  - When "the Cure" Is the Risk: Understanding How Substance Use Affects HIV and HCV
      in a Layered Risk Environment in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Substance use, particularly injection drug use, continues to fuel the
      HIV/HCV (hepatitis C virus) epidemics in San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR). AIM: This
      article examines individual and sociostructural factors that affect HIV/HCV risk
      among people who use drugs (PWUD) living with or at risk for HIV/HCV in San Juan,
      PR. Findings were used to inform a community-level intervention to enhance HIV
      care access and retention for this population. METHOD: A rapid ethnographic
      assessment in collaboration with a community-based organization was conducted.
      Data collection took place between June and December 2013 and included field
      observations, 49 unstructured interviews with PWUD, and 19 key informant
      interviews with community stakeholders. Fieldnotes, photographs, and interview
      transcripts were analyzed for recurrent themes and to address the intervention
      planning needs. Study results are presented as fieldnote excerpts, direct quotes
      from interviews, and photographs. RESULTS: Findings suggest that PWUD in PR face
      myriad challenges that affect HIV/HCV risk and hinder linkage to and retention in
      care. Results describe a layered risk environment where PWUD encounter many
      barriers to prevention, care, and treatment such as transience, social isolation,
      stigma, limited housing options, and inadequate medical and substance use
      disorder treatment services. DISCUSSION: These observed circumstances provide an
      empirical basis for the development and evaluation of comprehensive interventions
      that may serve to reduce barriers to care and link individuals to other
      supportive services. CONCLUSION: New approaches and comprehensive interventions
      are needed to break the structures that perpetuate risk and lack of engagement
      and retention in HIV care and substance use disorder treatment in San Juan.

PMID- 28891346
TI  - Lumacaftor/ivacaftor, a novel agent for the treatment of cystic fibrosis patients
      who are homozygous for the F580del CFTR mutation.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disease affecting up
      to 90,000 people worldwide. Approximately 73% of patients are homozygous for the
      F508del cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator [CFTR] mutation.
      Traditionally treatment has only included supportive care. Therefore, there is a
      need for safe and effective novel therapies targeting the underlying molecular
      defects seen with CF. Areas covered: In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration
      and the European Commission approved LUM/IVA (Orkambi), a CFTR modulator that
      includes both a CFTR corrector and potentiator, for CF patients homozygous for
      the F508del CFTR mutation. This article reviews the pharmacologic features,
      clinical efficacy, and safety of LUM/IVA and summarize the available pre-clinical
      and clinical data of LUM/IVA use. Expert commentary: LUM/IVA showed modest, but
      significant improvements from baseline in percent predicted FEV1 (ppFEV1) as well
      as a reduction in pulmonary exacerbations by 35% It was shown to be safe for
      short- and long-term use. Currently, LUM/IVA is the only oral agent in its class
      available and represents a milestone the development of therapies for the
      management of CF. Nonetheless, pharmacoeconomic data are necessary to justify its
      high cost before is use becomes standard of care.

PMID- 28891347
TI  - Synthesis and biological evaluation of aminomethyl and alkoxymethyl derivatives
      as carbonic anhydrase, acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors.
AB  - Compounds containing nitrogen and sulfur atoms can be widely used in various
      fields such as industry, medicine, biotechnology and chemical technology.
      Therefore, the reactions of aminomethylation and alkoxymethylation of
      mercaptobenzothiazole, mercaptobenzoxazole and 2-aminothiazole were developed.
      Additionally, the alkoxymethyl derivatives of mercaptobenzoxazole and 2
      aminothiazole were synthesized by a reaction with hemiformals, which are prepared
      by the reaction of alcohols and formaldehyde. In this study, the inhibitory
      effects of these molecules were investigated against acetylcholinesterase (AChE),
      butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes and carbonic anhydrase I, and II isoenzymes
      (hCA I and II). Both hCA isoenzymes were significantly inhibited by the recently
      synthesized molecules, with Ki values in the range of 58-157 nM for hCA I, and 81
      215 nM for hCA II. Additionally, the Ki parameters of these molecules for BChE
      and AChE were calculated in the ranges 23-88 and 18-78 nM, respectively.

PMID- 28891348
TI  - Shifting the Culture Around Public Health Advocacy: Training Future Public Health
      Professionals to Be Effective Agents of Change.
AB  - There is a critical need to build the capacity of our current and future public
      health workforce and the communities we serve to engage in public health
      advocacy. Advocacy should be an integral piece of our intervention strategies and
      public health discourse. Incorporating public health advocacy into public health
      training, practice, and research serves as a long-term investment for the
      public's health. Advocacy can achieve systemic change by addressing the social
      determinants of health. We developed an advocacy training program that embeds
      students in community-based organizations (CBOs) for 9 months, providing students
      with experiential education through the application of advocacy skills and CBOs
      with opportunities to expand and broaden their advocacy efforts. We have three
      priority populations: graduate students, CBOs serving Los Angeles County, and the
      broader Los Angeles County community, focusing on vulnerable populations. Our
      multifaceted approach addresses the necessity of public health advocacy among the
      health professions. Through changing how we train students and how communities
      and universities collaborate, we can strengthen the public health workforce and
      build healthier communities.

PMID- 28891349
TI  - Next generation beta adrenoreceptor agonists for the treatment of asthma.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A fixed-dose inhalation of a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) and
      inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is commonly recommended for moderate to severe
      asthmatic patients not adequately controlled by an ICS only. In order to improve
      the patients' adherence and the control of disease there is a noteworthy interest
      for the next generation inhaled beta adrenoreceptor agonists maintaining an over
      24 hours bronchodilatation and used once-daily (ultra-LABAs). This review focuses
      on the currently available evidences on the clinical role of any single ultra
      LABAs in the treatment of asthmatic patients. Areas covered: New ultra-LABAs have
      been developed in recent years for the treatment of asthma. In particular,
      several evidences in asthmatic patients include indacaterol, vilanterol,
      olodaterol, and abediterol. Expert opinion: Pharmacologically, all new ultra
      LABAs considered have demonstrated a good ability to maintain a true
      bronchodilatation for over 24 hours and a good safety profile. This aspect could
      be a key point to improve the patient's perspective, the adherence to the
      treatment regimens and therefore the control of disease. At this time, however,
      limited data are available and no ultra-LABA+ICS may be recommended as preferred.

PMID- 28891350
TI  - Dental age estimation in a group of Kenyan children using Willems' method: a
      radiographic study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Radiographic study of developing teeth provides a reliable indication
      of chronological age. In Kenya, dentists are often required to estimate age.
      However, there is a paucity of publications on the performance of dental age
      estimation methods. AIM: To determine the accuracy of Willems' method of dental
      age estimation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done at The
      University of Nairobi Dental Hospital. Panoramic radiographs of children aged
      3.00-16.99 years old were studied. Dental age was estimated according to Willems'
      method and compared to chronological age and the difference compared to zero
      using a t-test. RESULTS: Radiographs of 187 (47%) females and 214 (53%) males
      were analysed. Willems' method significantly over-estimated the mean overall age
      by -0.24 +/- 1.17 years (p < .000). Age was over-estimated in girls by -0.10 +/-
      1.18 years (p = .254); however, age in boys was significantly over-estimated by 
      0.37 +/- 1.14 years (p < .000). CONCLUSIONS: Willem's model over-estimated dental
      age slightly and the method performed better in estimating the age of girls
      compared to boys. The majority of the children had their age estimated within 1
      year of their chronological age. This suggests that Willems' method is suitable
      for estimating the ages of individual children in Kenya.

PMID- 28891351
TI  - Radiofrequency electric field hyperthermia with gold nanostructures: role of
      particle shape and surface chemistry.
AB  - Hyperthermia treatment of cancerous cells has been recently developed drastically
      with the help of nanostructures. Heating of gold nanoparticles in non-invasive
      radiofrequency electric field (RF-EF) is a promising and unique technique for
      cancer hyperthermia. However, because of differences between particles (i.e.
      their surface chemistry and dispersion medium) and between RF-EF sources, the
      research community has not reached a consensus yet. Here, we report the results
      of investigations on heating of gold nanoparticles and gold nanorods under RF-EF
      and feasibility of in-vitro cancer hyperthermia. The heating experiments were
      performed to investigate the role of particle shape and surface chemistry (CTAB,
      citrate and PEG molecules). In-vitro hyperthermia was performed on human
      pancreatic cancer cell (MIA Paca-2) with PEG-coated GNPs and GNRs at
      concentrations that were found non-toxic based on the results of cytotoxicity
      assay. Application of RF-EF on cells treated with PEG-GNPs and PEG-GNRs proved
      highly effective in killing cells.

PMID- 28891352
TI  - Development of the Italian version of the trunk impairment scale in subjects with
      acute and chronic stroke. Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability, validity and
      responsiveness.
AB  - PURPOSE: To cross-culturally adapt and psychometrically analyse the Italian
      version of the Trunk Impairment Scale on acute (cohort 1) and chronic stroke
      patients (cohort 2). METHODS: The Trunk Impairment Scale was culturally adapted
      in accordance with international standards. The psychometric testing included:
      internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), inter- and intra-rater reliability
      (intraclass correlation coefficient; standard error of measurement and minimal
      detectable change), construct validity by comparing Trunk Impairment Scale score
      with Barthel Index, motor subscale of Functional Independence Measure, and Trunk
      Control Test (Pearson's correlation), and responsiveness (Effect Size, Effect
      Size with Guyatt approach, standardized response mean, and Receiver Operating
      Characteristics curves). RESULTS: The Trunk Impairment Scale was administered to
      125 and 116 acute and chronic stroke patients, respectively. Internal consistency
      was acceptable (alpha > 0.7), inter- and intra-rater reliability (ICC > 0.9,
      Minimal Detectable Change for total score < 1.6 in cohort 1 and < 1.1 in cohort
      2) were excellent. The construct validity showed acceptable correlations (r >
      0.4) with all scales but the motor Functional Independence Measure in cohort 2.
      Distribution-based methods showed large effects in cohort 1 and moderate to large
      effects in cohort 2. The Minimal Important Difference was 3.5 both from patient's
      and therapist's perspective in cohort 1 and 2.5 and 1.5 from patient's and
      therapist's perspective, respectively, in cohort 2. CONCLUSION: The Trunk
      Impairment Scale was successfully translated into Italian and proved to be
      reliable, valid, and responsive. Its use is recommended for clinical and research
      purposes. Implications for Rehabilitation Trunk control is an essential part of
      balance and postural control, constituting an important prerequisite for daily
      activities and function. The TIS administered in subjects with subacute and
      chronic stroke was reliable, valid and responsive. The TIS is expected to help
      clinicians and researchers by identifying key functional processes related to
      disability in people with subacute and chronic stroke.

PMID- 28891353
TI  - Development of an inhalation unit risk factor for ethylene dibromide.
AB  - The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) follows standard scientific
      methods to develop up-to-date toxicity factors for chemicals emitted in the state
      of Texas. An inhalation unit risk factor (URF) was developed for ethylene
      dibromide (EDB, CAS 106-93-4) based on an increased incidence of nasal cavity
      adenocarcinomas observed in female rats in a 2-year inhalation cancer bioassay
      conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP). The NTP study provided
      evidence of several EDB-induced tumors in male and female rats and in female
      mice. Tumor incidences that were statistically increased at the low dose and that
      showed a statistically significant increasing trend were considered in
      identifying the critical effect. Following benchmark concentration (BMC) modeling
      and animal-to-human dosimetric adjustments, the increased incidence of nasal
      cavity adenocarcinomas observed in female rats was determined to be the most
      sensitive tumorigenic effect in the most sensitive species and sex and was
      utilized as the carcinogenic endpoint for the development of the URF. The 95%
      lower confidence limit of the BMC at the 10% excess risk level (BMCL10 of 292.8
      ppb) was determined for calculation of the URF. The resulting URF based on
      increased nasal cavity adenocarcinomas observed in female rats is 3.4E-04 per ppb
      (4.4E-05 per ug/m3). The lifetime air concentration corresponding to a no
      significant excess risk level of one in 100,000 is 0.029 ppb (0.22 ug/m3), which
      is considered sufficiently health-protective for use in protecting the general
      public against the potential carcinogenic effects of chronic exposure to EDB in
      ambient air.

PMID- 28891354
TI  - BRCA2 protects mammalian cells from heat shock.
AB  - PURPOSE: Heat shock induces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in mammalian cells.
      Mammalian cells are capable of repairing DSBs by utilising the homologous
      recombination (HR) pathway. Breast cancer susceptibility gene 2 (BRCA2) is known
      to regulate the HR pathway. Here, we investigate the role of BRCA2 in repairing
      DNA damage induced by heat shock. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chinese hamster lung
      fibroblast cell lines and human tongue squamous cell carcinoma SAS cells were
      used. RAD51 foci formation assay was used as an HR indicator. Heat sensitivity
      was analysed with colony forming assays. Phosphorylated histone H2AX (gammaH2AX)
      intensity, which correlates with the number of DSBs, was analysed with flow
      cytometry. RESULTS: RAD51 foci appeared with heat shock, and the number of cells
      with RAD51 foci was maximal at about 4 h after heat shock. Heat-induced RAD51
      foci co-localised with gammaH2AX foci. BRCA2-deficient cells were sensitive to
      heat when compared to their parental wild-type cells. Heat-induced gammaH2AX was
      higher in BRCA2-deficient cells compared to parental cells. In SAS cells, cells
      transfected with BRCA2-siRNA were more sensitive to heat than cells transfected
      with negative control siRNA. Apoptotic bodies increased in number more rapidly in
      BRCA2-siRNA transfected cells than in cells transfected with negative control
      siRNA when cells were observed at 48 h after a heat treatment. In addition, cells
      deficient in BRCA2 were incapable of activating heat-induced G2/M arrest.
      CONCLUSION: BRCA2 has a protecting role against heat-induced cell death. BRCA2
      might be a potential molecular target for hyperthermic cancer therapy.

PMID- 28891355
TI  - Fertility challenges for women with sickle cell disease.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Sickle cell disease (SCD) represents one of the most common
      monogenic blood disorders worldwide, with an incidence of over 300,000 newborns
      affected per year. Reproductive challenges for men and women with SCD have been
      previously reviewed; however, evidence-based strategies to prevent and manage
      infertility and increase fecundity are lacking in women with SCD, which is one of
      the most important factors for quality of life. Areas covered: This review
      article summarizes the known risk factors for infertility, low fecundity, and
      premature menopause related to SCD. Expert commentary: Women with SCD have unique
      risk factors that may impact their ability to conceive, including chronic
      inflammation, oxidative stress, transfusion-related hemochromatosis, and ovarian
      sickling, causing ischemia and reperfusion injury to the ovary. Contraception is
      strongly recommended while on hydroxyurea therapy during reproductive years and
      discontinuing hydroxyurea for family planning and during pregnancy based on
      teratogenicity in animal studies. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT),
      the only curative therapy, sometimes involves conditioning regimens containing
      alkylating agents and total body irradiation that contribute to infertility and
      premature ovarian failure. Prior to HSCT or gene therapy, we strongly recommend
      referral to a reproductive endocrinologist to discuss fertility preservation and
      surrogacy options for all women with SCD.

PMID- 28891356
TI  - Benefits and burdens: family caregivers' experiences of assistive technology (AT)
      in everyday life with persons with young-onset dementia (YOD).
AB  - BACKGROUND: People with dementia and their family caregivers may benefit from
      assistive technology (AT), but knowledge is scarce about family carers' (FC)
      experiences and involvement in the use of AT in everyday life. AIM: To examine
      the FC roles and experiences with AT as means of supporting people with young
      onset-dementia (YOD). METHOD: Qualitative interview study with follow-up design.
      Repeated semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 FC of people with YOD,
      participating in an ongoing intervention study investigating the families' use
      and experiences of AT in everyday life. RESULTS: Six main themes emerged: (1)
      timely information about AT; (2) waiting times; (3) AT incorporated into everyday
      living; (4) AT experienced as a relief and burden; (5) appraisal of AT qualities
      and (6) the committed caregiver. CONCLUSIONS: The study found benefits for the
      FC, especially with simply designed AT, but also several barriers for successful
      use. A committed caregiver is vital throughout the process. Users will need
      professional advice and support, and occupational therapists may have a
      significant role in the process. Interventions implementing AT must be based on
      analysis of the needs of the person with YOD and the carers: their capabilities,
      preferences, embodied habits, and coping strategies. Implications for
      Rehabilitation Committed family carers (FC) play an important, often decisive,
      role in providing support for the person with young-onset dementia (YOD, onset
      <65 years) to use and benefit from the AT. The simpler the AT, the better. The AT
      should be introduced at "the right time", before the cognitive and adaptive
      reduction is too great. The "window" for implementation may be short. AT has
      potential to ease caregiving and give relief for FC. However, many barriers,
      difficulties and problems must be attended to. A system for individualized
      support over time is necessary for implementing AT for this group.

PMID- 28891357
TI  - Cesarean hysterectomy for abnormally invasive placenta: is urologists'
      participation in the surgery always necessary?

PMID- 28891358
TI  - Defensive medicine among obstetricians and gynaecologists in Turkey.
AB  - In recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in medical malpractice
      litigations against OB/GYNs in Turkey and globally. This high litigation
      atmosphere may have changed attitudes, behaviour and practice of OB/GYNs. In the
      current study, opinions and attitudes of OB/GYNs regarding defensive medicine and
      to what extent they practice it were investigated. One hundred and eight OB/GYNs
      participated in the study. All participants found obstetrics and gynaecology
      riskier when compared with other medical branches and reported that they were
      increasingly practising defensive medicine. The majority of the OB/GYNs stated
      that they abstained from many risky interventions and expressed their belief that
      the high caesarean section (C-section) rate was associated with medico-legal
      concerns. The majority of the participants supported enacting of a specific
      medical malpractice law and supported the establishment of medically specialised
      courts. These regulations demanded by OB/GYNs should be taken into account by
      health authorities. Impact statement What is already known on this subject: In
      recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in medical malpractice
      litigations against OB/GYNs in Turkey and globally. Turkey has serious problems
      with the high C-section rate, which has been suggested to be related to
      medicolegal issues in a previous research. Fifty-one percent of babies, namely
      most of them, are delivered via C-section. There is no specific medical
      malpractice law and medically specialised court in Turkey. What the results of
      this study add: It seems like there is a professional liability crisis among
      OB/GYNs in Turkey. OB/GYNs reported that they were increasingly practising
      defensive medicine, and stated that they abstained from many risky interventions.
      A high C-section rate was found to be related to medicolegal concerns in OB/GYNs'
      perspective in the current study. OB/GYNs demanded some reasonable regulations.
      What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further
      research: Regulations demanded by OB/GYNs, which were probed in the current
      study, such as enacting a specific medical malpractice law and establishment of a
      medically specialised court, should be taken into account by health authorities
      in Turkey. The findings of the current study is believed to produce important
      results for the success of Health transformation programme put into practice in
      Turkey, which was not able to stop increasing C-section rates. Studies evaluating
      the direct or indirect costs related to defensive medicine practices of OB/GYNs
      in Turkey should be performed in subsequent research.

PMID- 28891359
TI  - Updated results of a phase 2 study of panobinostat combined with melphalan,
      thalidomide and prednisone (MPT) in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

PMID- 28891360
TI  - Global patent landscape of programmed cell death 1: implications of the rapid
      expansion.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Inhibitors of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligands are
      producing a paradigm shift in cancer treatment. The promising clinical outcomes
      and a multi-billion dollar market have prompted active research and development
      and resulted in relentless patent protection. However, the global patent
      landscape in this field remains unclear. Areas covered: The patent landscape
      encompassing global patenting activities and developing trends in the field is
      discussed based on a data set of 1287 patent families. Patenting activities have
      expanded rapidly in the past three years. Specific trends in relevant aspects are
      presented, including patent filing countries, patent ownership, co-patents,
      technical areas, and technological connections in terms of patent citation
      relationships. Expert opinion: Together with patenting momentum in recent years,
      fragmented ownership and dense technological connections of PD-1-related
      inventions raise the possibility of a patent thicket. The explosion of patent
      applications and complex citation relationships could also lead to considerable
      patent conflicts and disputes on overlapping intellectual property rights, in
      addition to existing legal uncertainties. Patent applicants in this field are
      encouraged to be aware of these concerns when developing valid patent strategies.

PMID- 28891361
TI  - Risk factors and complications of manual placental removal after vaginal delivery
      - how common are additional invasive procedures?
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to assess risk factors and complications of
      manual placental removal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An historical prospective study
      of all parturients undergoing manual placental removal between 2012 and 2014.
      Parturients were matched by time of delivery with parturients delivering
      vaginally with spontaneous placental separation. Multiple gestations, preterm
      deliveries, incomplete placental separation and uterine malformations were
      excluded. Delivery characteristics and short-term complications were studied.
      Telephone questionnaires were conducted to assess the likelihood of invasive
      procedures performed for retained products of conception (RPOC) up to 12 weeks
      postpartum. RESULTS: Overall 293 (1.5% of all vaginal deliveries) were
      complicated by manual placental removal. Independent risk factors included
      advanced maternal age (odds ratio (OR) 1.08, 95% CI 1.03-1.12), previous manual
      removal (OR 9.27, 95% CI 3.15-27.31), regional anesthesia (OR 3.49, 95% CI 2.14
      5.70), and labor induction (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.12-2.88). Short-term complications
      included blood product transfusions (OR 18.26 95% CI 5.37-62.13) and prolonged
      hospitalization (OR 1.51 95% CI 1.06-2.16). Invasive procedures for removal of
      RPOC occurred in 12.2% of women in the study groups and in none of the women in
      the control group (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Manual placental removal harbors short
      and long-term complications, including a high likelihood of RPOC necessitating
      further invasive procedures.

PMID- 28891362
TI  - Alternatives to antibiotics in poultry feed: molecular perspectives.
AB  - The discovery of the growth promoting property of antibiotics led to their use as
      antibiotic feed additives (AFAs) in animal feed at sub-therapeutic doses.
      Although this has been beneficial for animal health and productivity, it has
      been, essentially, a double-edged sword. The continued and non-judicious use of
      AFAs has led to the selection and dissemination of antibiotic-resistant strains
      of poultry pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli. The
      rapid spread of drug-resistant pathogens as well as emergence of antibiotic
      related environmental pollutants is of global concern. Hence, the identification
      and development of new and effective alternatives to antibiotics that do not
      hinder productivity is imperative. For this, it is essential to understand not
      only the molecular basis of development of resistance to AFAs but also the
      mechanisms of action of AFA alternatives and how they differ from AFAs. This
      review provides a molecular perspective on the alternatives to antibiotics that
      have been proposed till date and their current trends, as well as novel
      approaches such as development of improved delivery systems.

PMID- 28891363
TI  - Exploring the association of dental care utilization with oral impacts on daily
      performances (OIDP) - a prospective study of ageing people in Norway and Sweden.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To explore the association of dental health care utilization with
      oral impacts on daily performances (OIDP) across time focusing ageing Norwegian
      and Swedish adults adjusting for predisposing, enabling, and need related-factors
      as defined by Andersen's model. METHODS: Data were based on Norwegian and Swedish
      1942 birth-cohorts conducted in 2007 (age 65) and 2012 (age 70). In Norway, the
      response rates ranged from 54% to 58%. Corresponding figures in Sweden were from
      72% to 73%. Self-administered questionnaires assessed OIDP, dental care
      utilization and predisposing, enabling and need related factors. Logistic
      regression with robust variance estimation was used to adjust for clustering in
      repeated data. RESULTS: Significant covariates of OIDP were satisfaction with
      dental services, dental care avoidance due to financial constraints, frightening
      experience with dental care during childhood and patient initiated dental
      visiting. Frequency and regularity of dental attendance were associated with OIDP
      in the Swedish cohort, only. CONCLUSIONS: In spite of country differences in the
      public co-financing of dental care, dental care utilization indicators were
      associated with OIDP across time in both cohorts. Encouraging regular and dentist
      initiated visiting patterns and strengthening beliefs in keeping own teeth could
      be useful in attempts to reduce poor oral health related quality of life in
      ageing people.

PMID- 28891364
TI  - An update on PCR use for minimal residual disease monitoring in acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the first neoplasm where the
      assessment of early response to therapy by minimal residual disease (MRD)
      monitoring has proven to be a fundamental tool for guiding therapeutic choices.
      In recent years, thanks to real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), MRD monitoring has
      further achieved higher levels of sensitivity and standardization. However, some
      outstanding issues still remain to be addressed and emerging technologies hold
      the promise of improving MRD detection in ALL patients. Areas covered: Through a
      comprehensive review of the literature, we analyze the state-of-the-art of
      molecular MRD assessment in ALL to better understand how, in the upcoming years,
      some of its limitations could be tackled by emerging molecular technologies.
      Furthermore, we highlight the future role of molecular MRD monitoring in the
      context of personalized protocols, taking into account the growing genetic
      complexity in ALL. Expert commentary: Although new molecular technologies are
      promising tools for MRD assessment, qPCR still remains the gold standard for
      evaluating MRD in ALL. High-throughput sequencing and droplet digital PCR allow
      to identify new prognostic factors and/or MRD targets at diagnosis and to perform
      earlier MRD evaluations, thereby optimizing patient stratification and earlier
      MRD-based clinical intervention to improve ALL patient outcomes.

PMID- 28891365
TI  - Gout in a rheumatology clinic: results of EULAR/ACR guidelines-compliant
      treatment.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Surveys of treatment results of gout in primary care have shown that
      less than 25% of patients reach the recommended treatment target (serum urate <
      0.36 mmol/l). The aim of this study was to measure the results of a specialized
      European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology (EULAR/ACR)
      guidelines-based treatment of gout in a rheumatology clinic. METHOD: Data from
      consecutive new crystal-proven gout patients were analysed in a prospective
      observational study. RESULTS: The study included 100 patients: 88 males aged 62.1
      +/- 13.1 years (mean +/- sd) and 12 females aged 74.1 +/- 6.9 years. Disease
      duration was 8.6 +/- 6.9 years, and the disease pattern was monoarticular,
      oligoarticular, polyarticular, and tophaceous in 18, 37, 25, and 20 patients,
      respectively. Overall, 42% had tried urate-lowering treatment (ULT) ever and 15%
      were on ULT at entry. ULT was initiated or intensified in a treat-to-target (T2T)
      approach in 93 patients, with flare prophylactic colchicine treatment in 90
      patients. T2T was successfully reached in 85 patients after 4.7 +/- 3.9 months
      and 82 patients reached a state of well-controlled disease (T2T reached for 3
      months and no flares or anti-inflammatory treatment for 1 month) after 10.4 +/-
      5.6 months. Ten patients did not reach T2T owing to low compliance and five
      patients did not reach T2T owing to adverse effects or nephropathy. CONCLUSION:
      EULAR/ACR guidelines-compliant treatment in a rheumatology clinic with verified
      diagnosis, patient education, T2T with ULT, and flare prophylaxis led to
      successful treatment results in 85% of patients.

PMID- 28891366
TI  - Efficacy and safety of B-cell receptor signaling pathway inhibitors in
      relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a systematic review and meta
      analysis of randomized clinical trials.
AB  - Ibrutinib and idelalisib, B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling pathway inhibitors,
      have been recently approved for use against relapsed/refractory chronic
      lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). To assess the efficacy and safety of BCR pathway
      inhibitors in relapsed/refractory CLL, we conducted a systematic review and meta
      analysis of five randomized controlled trials (1866 patients). Our study
      demonstrated that BCR pathway inhibitors significantly prolonged progression-free
      survival (PFS; pooled HR = 0.24; 95% CI: 0.19-0.30) and overall survival (HR =
      0.58; 0.46-0.73) compared with control treatment. BCR pathway inhibitors
      increased the probability of response (RR = 3.54; 95% CI: 1.69-7.41) and
      decreased the risk of progression (RR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.13-0.34). However, BCR
      pathway inhibitors increased the risk of grade 3 and 4 adverse events (AEs; RR =
      1.25; 95% CI: 1.08-1.44) and serious AEs (RR = 1.32; 95% CI: 1.17-1.50). AEs
      causing discontinuation (RR = 1.26; 95% CI: 0.88-1.81) or death (RR = 1.06; 95%
      CI: 0.72-1.57) were not significantly increased. No statistically significant
      difference in any aspect of meta-analysis was noted between ibrutinib and
      idelalisib.

PMID- 28891367
TI  - Effect of Foeniculum vulgare (fennel) on symptoms of depression and anxiety in
      postmenopausal women: a double-blind randomised controlled trial.
AB  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Foeniculum vulgare (fennel)
      on anxiety and depression symptoms in postmenopausal women. This study was a
      double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, in which 60 eligible
      postmenopausal women were selected and then randomly assigned to fennel and
      placebo groups. Then, symptoms of anxiety and depression were measured using
      Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Zung's Self Rating Depression
      Scale (SDS). Following the intervention, the score of HADS (depression and
      anxiety subgroups) and SDS did not show any significant decrease in the sample
      under study. However, the analysis of patients with depression or anxiety
      disorder showed a borderline or significant improvement. Further studies with a
      larger sample size are required to confirm the findings. Impact statement Current
      knowledge on the subject: Based on the results of in vivo and in vitro animal
      studies, fennel may have anti-depressant and anti-anxiety properties. The
      contribution made by this study: It appears that fennel is effective in
      menopausal women with depression and anxiety disorders. The implications of
      findings for clinical practice and future research: Further studies with a larger
      sample size are required to confirm the actual effect of fennel in clinical
      setting.

PMID- 28891368
TI  - Medication Management in Schools: 2015 Survey Results.
AB  - The increasing prevalence of chronic conditions in children, for both common and
      rare conditions, over the past 30 years, and the increase in the number and range
      of medications used to manage these conditions, has contributed to the need to
      address medication management in schools. The purpose of this article is to
      present the key findings from a national survey on medication administration in
      schools. A nonexperimental cross-sectional design was used in this descriptive
      study. An online survey was sent to school nurses across the country. Responses
      from a total of 6,298 school nurses were used in the analysis. Results of the
      survey related to prescription and nonprescription medications, medication
      storage, student's carrying their medications, delegation of medication
      administration, documentation, and medication errors are discussed. The article
      concludes that many different medications are administered during the school day.
      School nurses must advocate for proper policies and procedures to guard the
      safety of students.

PMID- 28891369
TI  - Caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption and melanoma risk: a dose
      response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.
AB  - To determine the association between total, caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee
      consumption and melanoma risk a dose-response meta-analysis on prospective cohort
      studies were performed. Eligible studies were identified searching PubMed and
      EMBASE databases from the earliest available online indexing year to March 2017.
      The dose-response relationship was assessed by random-effects meta-analysis and
      the shape of the exposure-outcome curve was modelled linearly and using
      restricted cubic splines. A total of seven studies eligible for meta-analysis
      were identified that comprised 1,418,779 participants and 9211 melanoma cases. A
      linear dose-response meta-analysis showed a significant association between total
      coffee consumption and melanoma risk. An increase in coffee consumption of one
      cup per day was associated with a 3% reduction in melanoma risk (RR 0.97; 95% CI
      0.95-0.99). Our findings suggest that coffee intake may be inversely associated
      with incidence of melanoma. Nevertheless, further studies exploring also the role
      of confounding factors are needed to explain the heterogeneity among studies.

PMID- 28891370
TI  - Countering the Consequences of Ego Depletion: The Effects of Self-Talk on
      Selective Attention.
AB  - This study examined the effects of a self-talk intervention on selective
      attention in a state of ego depletion. Participants were 62 undergraduate
      students with a mean age of 20.02 years (SD = 1.17). The experiment was conducted
      in four consecutive sessions. Following baseline assessment, participants were
      randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. A two-session training
      was conducted for the two groups, with the experimental group using self-talk. In
      the final assessment, participants performed a selective attention test,
      including visual and auditory components, following a task inducing a state of
      ego depletion. The analysis showed that participants of the experimental group
      achieved a higher percentage of correct responses on the visual test and produced
      faster reaction times in both the visual and the auditory test compared with
      participants of the control group. The results of this study suggest that the use
      of self-talk can benefit selective attention for participants in states of ego
      depletion.

PMID- 28891371
TI  - An observational, retrospective analysis evaluating switching to raltegravir plus
      abacavir/lamivudine in HIV-1-infected patients: the ORASWIRAL study.

PMID- 28891372
TI  - Controversies and advances in the management of ventilator associated pneumonia.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Although national surveillance data suggests that the incidence of
      ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is down-trending, it remains one of the
      most commonly encountered hospital acquired infections in the United States and
      worldwide. Its association with increased healthcare costs and worsened patient
      outcomes warrants continued effort to improve the care of patients with VAP.
      Areas covered: The increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria further
      drives the need to explore advances in diagnostic and treatment options. In this
      review, controversies pertaining to the definition and diagnosis of VAP as well
      as empiric treatment strategies will be discussed along with several developments
      related to rapid microbiologic testing methods and the use of non-traditional
      antimicrobial agents. Expert commentary: The application of rapid diagnostic
      techniques to identify microbial pathogens is perhaps one of the most impactful
      advancements in the treatment of serious nosocomial infections. This technology
      has the potential to reduce inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy,
      unnecessary antimicrobial exposure, and mortality in patients with VAP. In
      addition, the anticipated approval of new antimicrobial agents within the next
      several years will provide a much-needed expansion of available treatment options
      in an era of growing antimicrobial resistance.

PMID- 28891373
TI  - The Emotional Labor of Personal Grief in Palliative Care: Balancing Caring and
      Professional Identities.
AB  - The paid provision of care for dying persons and their families blends
      commodified emotion work and attachments to two often-conflicting role
      identities: the caring person and the professional. We explore how health care
      employees interpret personal grief related to patient death, drawing on
      interviews with 12 health care aides and 13 nurses. Data were analyzed
      collaboratively using an interpretively embedded thematic coding approach and
      constant comparison. Participant accounts of preventing, postponing, suppressing,
      and coping with grief revealed implicit meanings about the nature of grief and
      the appropriateness of grief display. Employees often struggled to find the time
      and space to deal with grief, and faced normative constraints on grief expression
      at work. Findings illustrate the complex ways health care employees negotiate and
      maintain both caring and professional identities in the context of cultural and
      material constraints. Implications of emotional labor for discourse and practice
      in health care settings are discussed.

PMID- 28891374
TI  - Spontaneous dissection of the celiac artery in the young: a case report and
      systematic review of the literature.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The spontaneous isolated celiac artery dissection (siCAD)
      represents a challenging cause of abdominal pain and complete information
      regarding incidence, etiology and risk factors in the young is still lacking. In
      this study, we report a case of siCAD occurred in a young woman and we
      systematically searched for information on siCADs in literature databases.
      METHODS: PubMed/Embase and Cochrane were searched for, using the following terms:
      Isolated celiac trunk dissection, isolated celiac artery dissection, celiac
      artery dissection, celiac trunk dissection, spontaneous isolated visceral artery
      dissection, spontaneous isolated dissection of visceral arteries, isolated celiac
      artery dissection in the young, isolated celiac trunk dissection in the young.
      Patients were included if they were younger than 50 years, if they had a
      spontaneous etiology and a selective involvement of the celiac artery (with or
      without involvement of its branches). RESULTS: 180 studies were found, and 18
      remained after screening. Twenty-one patients (male = 19, female = 2) with siCADs
      were included. Mean age was 44.71 +/- 3.61 years. Hypertension was the most
      prevalent comorbidity. All patients presented with abdominal pain, more often
      located in the epigastrium (n = 11). Almost all patients underwent CT to confirm
      the diagnosis. A conservative treatment was adopted in 13 patients while an
      invasive approach was adopted in 8 patients (endovascular approach in 7).
      DISCUSSION: siCADs represent a rare but important cause of vascular dissection in
      the young. Uncomplicated cases can be safely treated with conservative
      strategies. The surgical or endovascular repair is indicated when dissections
      complicate or symptoms persist despite an adequate conservative treatment.

PMID- 28891375
TI  - Results of AFX Unibody Stent-Graft Implantation in Patients With TASC D
      Aortoiliac Lesions and Coexistent Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms.
AB  - PURPOSE: To describe results of AFX unibody stent-graft treatment for
      TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus (TASC) D aortoiliac occlusive disease
      (AIOD) with coexistent abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). METHODS: A retrospective
      analysis was conducted of 21 consecutive patients (mean age 73.6+/-6.4 years; 17
      men) with TASC D AIOD plus AAA (diameter >3.5 cm) treated electively using the
      AFX stent-graft. Common iliac artery (CIA) and external iliac artery (EIA)
      stenosis or occlusion was reported. Outcome measures were technical and clinical
      success, improvement in ankle-brachial index (ABI), and improvement in Rutherford
      category. Immediate and midterm patency, AAA exclusion, major adverse events
      (MAE), and mortality were also evaluated. RESULTS: After AFX deployment (100%
      technical success), 18 EIAs required adjunctive stenting (none required in the
      CIA). One patient required a reintervention for closure device failure. At 30-day
      follow-up, no death or MAE was recorded. Improvement in ABI was registered in all
      patients (mean 0.91+/-0.11), with 100% primary patency. At a mean follow-up of
      25.2+/-11.1 months, primary patency was maintained in all cases. No death or
      amputation occurred; 2 patients had a myocardial infarction. Improvement in ABI
      was maintained (0.88+/-0.13) as well as Rutherford category. CONCLUSION: This
      study examined the use of the AFX unibody stent-graft for the treatment of TASC D
      AIOD with concomitant AAA. The AFX stent-graft appears to be a safe and effective
      solution for these complex lesions, with low morbidity and mortality.

PMID- 28891376
TI  - Long-term Outcomes of a Telementoring Program for Distant Teaching of
      Endovascular Aneurysm Repair.
AB  - PURPOSE: To prospectively evaluate the long-term outcomes after a telementoring
      program for distant teaching of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) and the
      degree of EVAR procedure assimilation into routine practice. METHODS: A
      telementoring protocol using stepwise introduction of EVAR was implemented
      between a university care center and a remote vascular health care site; from
      March 1999 to October 2003, 49 EVAR patients (mean age 72 years; 48 men) were
      treated during telementoring at the remote center. After the telementoring
      period, 86 patients (mean age 71 years; 77 men) underwent EVAR procedures carried
      out at the secondary care center from November 2003 to July 2011. The long-term
      outcomes were compared between the EVAR procedures performed during telementoring
      with the procedures performed independently thereafter. RESULTS: No significant
      difference was appreciated between telementored and not telementored procedures
      either in 30-day mortality (4.1% vs 2.3%, p=0.621) or in the initial technical
      success (93.9% vs 97.7%, p=0.353). The telementored group showed no significant
      difference in overall aneurysm-related mortality (6.1% vs 2.3%, p=0.353) or in
      the overall complication rates (p=0.985). The reintervention rate was
      significantly lower among the unmentored procedures (11.6% vs 32.7%, p=0.004). In
      particular, significantly fewer patients underwent late endovascular procedures
      (1.2% vs 12.2%, p=0.009) and late percutaneous interventions (7.0% vs 20.4%,
      p=0.027) after telementoring ceased. CONCLUSION: The telementoring program
      followed here allowed excellent EVAR skill assimilation into the routine practice
      of a remote health care site. Telementoring is a feasible strategy to support
      skill introduction in remote medical facilities.

PMID- 28891377
TI  - Executive Function Measures for Children: A Scoping Review of Ecological
      Validity.
AB  - Children use executive function (EF) skills within everyday occupations; however,
      EF poses a difficult and complex construct to measure. Currently, many measures
      of EF lack applicability to daily life, or ecological validity. The aim of this
      scoping review was to examine two aspects of ecological validity across measures,
      assessments, and tasks of EF in children. A scoping review of 355 peer-reviewed
      articles published between 1996 and 2016 was performed. Searching revealed 43
      articles addressing the ecological validity of EF measures for children and 40
      measures addressing ecological validity. An increasing number of articles address
      ecological validity of EF measures. Future research should address the interplay
      between context and EF performance. In addition, research should begin
      recognizing the importance of parental involvement in assessments, as well as
      ways to capture the EF strengths of children.

PMID- 28891378
TI  - In vitro inhibition of human UGT isoforms by ritonavir and cobicistat.
AB  - 1. Ritonavir and cobicistat are pharmacokinetic boosting agents used to increase
      systemic exposure to other antiretroviral therapies. The manufacturer's data
      suggests that cobicistat is a more selective CYP3A4 inhibitor than ritonavir.
      However, the inhibitory effect of ritonavir and cobicistat on human UDP
      glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) enzymes in Phase II metabolism is not established.
      This study evaluated the inhibition of human UGT isoforms by ritonavir versus
      cobicistat. 2. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen were used as substrates to evaluate
      the metabolic activity of the principal human UGTs. Metabolite formation rates
      were determined by HPLC analysis of incubates following in vitro incubation of
      index substrates with human liver microsomes (HLMs) at different concentrations
      of ritonavir or cobicistat. Probenecid and estradiol served as positive control
      inhibitors. 3. The 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of cobicistat and
      ritonavir were at least 50 uM, which substantially exceeds usual clinical plasma
      concentrations. Probenecid inhibited the glucuronidation of acetaminophen (IC50
      0.7 mM), but not glucuronidation of ibuprofen. At relatively high concentrations,
      estradiol inhibited ibuprofen glucuronidation (IC50 17 uM). 4. Ritonavir and
      cobicistat are unlikely to produce clinically important drug interactions
      involving drugs metabolized to glucuronide conjugates by UGT1A1, 1A3, 1A6, 1A9,
      2B4 and 2B7.

PMID- 28891379
TI  - Linking Coach Interpersonal Style With Athlete Doping Intentions and Doping Use:
      A Prospective Study.
AB  - We brought together various lines of work on motivation, morality, and doping by
      testing a theory-based model prospectively linking contextual and personal
      motivational variables, moral attitudes, moral disengagement in doping, doping
      intentions, and doping use. Participants were 257 Greek athletes who completed a
      questionnaire pack at the beginning of a sport season. In the case of doping use,
      we also obtained data close to the end of the same season. The model showed that
      perceptions of controlling coach behaviors predicted athlete need frustration,
      which in turn predicted low moral functioning and doping intentions/doping use.
      The findings highlight pathways (direct and indirect) by which the social
      environment may impact on athletes' intentions and decisions to engage in doping
      and could pave the way for future antidoping interventions aimed at improving
      coaching interpersonal style.

PMID- 28891380
TI  - Stories of Hell and Healing: Internet Users' Construction of Benzodiazepine
      Distress and Withdrawal.
AB  - Benzodiazepines are a group of drugs used mainly as sedatives, hypnotics,
      antiepileptics, and muscle relaxants. Consumption is recommended for 2 to 4 weeks
      only, due to fast onset of dependency and potentially distressing withdrawal
      symptoms. Few peer-review studies have drawn on the user experiences and language
      to appreciate firsthand experiences of benzodiazepine withdrawal or
      discontinuation syndrome. We looked extensively at patient stories of
      benzodiazepine withdrawal and recovery on Internet support sites and YouTube. Our
      analysis indicated that users employ rich metaphors to portray the
      psychologically disturbing and protracted nature of their suffering. We
      identified seven major themes: hell and isolation, anxiety and depression,
      alienation, physical distress, anger and remorse, waves and windows, and healing
      and renewal. By posting success stories, ex-users make known that "healing" can
      be a long, unpredictable process, but distress does lessen, and recovery can
      happen.

PMID- 28891381
TI  - The impact of empathy and reappraisal on emotional intensity recognition.
AB  - Empathy represents a fundamental ability that allows for the creation and
      cultivation of social bonds. As part of the empathic process, individuals use
      their own emotional state to interpret the content and intensity of other
      people's emotions. Therefore, the current study was designed to test two
      hypotheses: (1) empathy for the pain of another will result in biased emotional
      intensity judgment; and (2) changing one's emotion via emotion regulation will
      modulate these biased judgments. To test these hypotheses, in experiment one we
      used a modified version of a well-known task that triggers an empathic reaction
      We found that empathy resulted in biased emotional intensity judgment. To the
      best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a bias in the
      recognition of emotional facial expressions as a function of empathy for pain. In
      experiment two, we replicated these findings in an independent sample, and
      further found that this biased emotional intensity judgment can be moderated via
      reappraisal. Taken together, our findings suggest that the novel task used here
      can be employed to further explore the relation between emotion regulation and
      empathy.

PMID- 28891382
TI  - An Investigation of the Factors Related to Low Parent-Adolescent Attachment
      Security in Taiwan.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adolescence may involve increases in many behavioral problems and
      psychosocial maladaptation. Adolescents must successfully cope with these
      challenges to achieve positive developmental milestones. OBJECTIVES: To
      investigate whether low parental attachment security among adolescents in Taiwan
      is associated with their demographic characteristics, psychosocial maladaptation,
      and depression. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. A total of 335 adolescents
      completed the questionnaires. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, the
      Chinese version of the Youth Self-Report, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II
      were used to survey the participants. Correlation and multiple linear
      regressions, using low attachment security as the response variable, were used in
      the statistical analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of Taiwanese adolescents with
      low parental attachment security was 38.5%. Low parental attachment security in
      adolescents was significantly associated with parental remarriage status and
      psychosocial maladaptation. CONCLUSIONS: By considering these risk factors,
      nursing educators and nurses could develop effective interventions to strengthen
      parent-adolescent attachment security.

PMID- 28891383
TI  - A Hypothesis: Moderate Consumption of Alcohol Contributes to Lower Prevalence of
      Type 2 Diabetes Due to the Scavenging of Alpha-Dicarbonyls by Dietary
      Polyphenols.
AB  - The world is experiencing an epidemic of type-2-diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This
      has led to increased morbidity and mortality, explosive growth in health care
      budgets, and an even greater adverse, if indirect, impact on societies and
      economies of affected countries. While genetic susceptibility to T2DM is a major
      determinant of its prevalence, changes in lifestyles also play a role. One such
      change has been a transition from traditional diets characterized by low caloric
      and high nutrient density to calorie-rich but nutrient-poor Western diets. Given
      this, one solution to the epidemic of T2DM would be to abandon Western diets and
      revert to traditional eating patterns. However, traditional diets cannot provide
      enough calories for the increasing global population, so transition from
      traditional to Western foodstuffs appears to be irreversible. Consequently, the
      only practical solution to problems caused by these changes is to modify Western
      diets, possibly by supplementing them with functional foods containing nutrients
      that would compensate for these dietary deficits. I present in this study a
      hypothesis to explain why shifts from traditional to Western diets have been so
      problematic and to suggest nutrients that may counteract these adverse effects. I
      postulate that the components of traditional diets that may compensate for
      deficiencies of Westerns diets are scavengers of reactive alpha-dicarbonyls
      produced as unavoidable by-products of glucose and lipid metabolism. Most
      important among these scavengers are some plant secondary metabolites:
      polyphenols, phlorotannins, and carotenoids. They are found in alcoholic
      beverages and are abundant in seasonings, cocoa, coffee, tea, whole grains,
      pigmented vegetables, fruits, and berries.

PMID- 28891384
TI  - Nutrient and organic matter removal from low strength sewage treated with
      constructed wetlands.
AB  - The role of Eichhornia crassipes for removing pollutants from low strength sewage
      was evaluated in three pilot-scale constructed wetlands (CW): CW 1, planted with
      E. crassipes in a filter media; CW 2, unplanted, composed by filter media; and CW
      3, composed by E. crassipes floating on the sewage. The operation was divided
      into three stages by varying the nominal hydraulic retention time into: (I) 24 h;
      (II) 48 h; (III) 72 h. Temporal sampling profiles were carried out with
      collection of the influent and effluent samples to determine temperature, pH,
      chemical oxygen demand (COD), TKN and TP. Contents of TP and TN were analyzed in
      the plant tissue of the macrophyte. The best removal efficiency rates for
      phosphorus (38%) and TKN (47%) were obtained in CW 3 for 72 h. The highest COD
      removal was observed in the CW 2 (80%) for 48 h. The macrophyte E. crassipes
      contributed to the absorption process with uptake rate percentages of 8.3% (CW 1)
      and 9.0% (CW 3) for TN and 0.78% (CW 1) and 1.56% (CW 3) for TP on the dry matter
      of the plant. The chosen species planted in the systems contributed to the
      achievement of higher nutrient removal.

PMID- 28891385
TI  - Trauma-Informed Parenting Classes Delivered to Rural Kinship Parents: A Pilot
      Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Without an informed approach, kinship parents, often grandparents,
      may struggle to effectively interact with their children who have experienced
      trauma. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this pilot study was to describe the overall
      impact and acceptability of a trauma-informed parenting curriculum delivered to
      16 rural-dwelling kinship parents. Nursing faculty partnered with Cooperative
      Extension Educators to deliver this curriculum, developed by the National Child
      Traumatic Stress Network. Semistructured interviews, an acceptability survey, and
      measures of parent, child, and family environment were used. DESIGN: This pilot,
      multisite, mixed-methods, intervention study employed a pre-post, paired test
      design. RESULTS: Significant differences were revealed on select items that
      measured parent-child nurturing and the families' cultural, political, and
      intellectual activities with posttest scores lower than pretest scores. Themes
      revealed processing the aftermath of child trauma and being a kinship parent.
      CONCLUSIONS: Although quantitative measures failed to demonstrate the impact of
      the curriculum, qualitative and satisfaction data provide preliminary evidence to
      support this intervention.

PMID- 28891386
TI  - Testing a Personal Narrative for Persuading People to Value and Use Comparative
      Physician Quality of Care Information: An Experimental Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study tests whether a personal narrative can persuade people to
      value comparative data on physician quality. METHOD: We conducted an online
      experiment with 850 adults. One group viewed a cartoon narrative on physician
      quality variation, another saw text on physician quality variation, and there was
      a control group. Study participants hypothetically selected a physician from a
      display of four physicians. The top-quality physician was furthest away and most
      expensive. We conducted multivariate models examining the relationship between
      experimental group and choice of the top-quality physician. RESULTS: There was no
      overall relationship between narrative or text information and choice of the
      highest quality physician. Among higher numerate participants, however, those who
      viewed the narrative had odds 2.7 times higher of selecting the top-quality
      physician compared with the control group. DISCUSSION: Personal narratives can
      persuade higher numerate people to consider quality when selecting physicians.

PMID- 28891387
TI  - A Discourse Analysis: One Caregiver's Voice in End-of-Life Care.
AB  - Informal family caregivers make a significant contribution to the U.S. health
      care system, and the need for caregivers will likely increase. Gaining deeper
      insights into the caregiver experience will provide essential knowledge needed to
      support the future caregiver workforce delivering care. Discourse analysis is a
      viable approach in analyzing textual caregiver data that focuses on the end-of
      life caregiving experience. The purpose of this study was to conduct an in-depth
      discourse analytic examination of 13 hours of caregiver interview data, which
      reveal the multiplicity of shifting stances and perceptions of one caregiver in
      the midst of end-of-life care, specifically with regard to his perceptions of
      self (caregiver) and other (care recipient). By isolating a specific but limited
      set of reference terms used throughout the discourse, we gained systematic
      glimpses into the mind and perceptions of this single caregiver in relation to
      his role as caregiver for his terminally ill wife.

PMID- 28891388
TI  - Men Respond Too: The Effects of a Social-Evaluative Body Image Threat on Shame
      and Cortisol in University Men.
AB  - Framed within social self-preservation theory, the present study investigated
      men's psychobiological responses to social-evaluative body image threats.
      University men ( n = 66) were randomly assigned to either a high or low social
      evaluative body image threat condition. Participants provided saliva samples (to
      assess cortisol) and completed measures of state body shame prior to and
      following their condition, during which anthropometric and strength measures were
      assessed. Baseline corrected values indicated men in the high social-evaluative
      body image threat condition had higher body shame and cortisol than men in the
      low social-evaluative body image threat condition. These findings suggest that
      social evaluation in the context of situations that threaten body image leads to
      potentially negative psychobiological responses in college men.

PMID- 28891389
TI  - Bioactive zwitterionic polymer brushes grafted from silicon wafers via SI-ATRP
      for enhancement of antifouling properties and endothelial cell selectivity.
AB  - Zwitterionic copolymers keep good resistance to platelet adhesion and nonspecific
      protein adsorption. In this study, A block copolymer brushes consisting of
      carboxybetaine methacrylate (CBMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) were grafted
      from silicon wafers via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization,
      and then the Arg-Glu-Asp-Val (REDV) peptide was attached to the polymer brush via
      an reactive epoxy group of the P(GMA) unit to improve endothelial cells (ECs)
      selectivity. These modified surfaces were evaluated with scanning electron
      microscopy, atomic force microscopy, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier
      transform infrared spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and static water
      contact angle measurement. The results showed that REDV-modified zwitterionic
      brushes were successfully constructed on silicon wafers. The biocompatibility of
      the membrane was determined by plasma recalcification time assay and platelet
      adhesion test. The results showed that the modified substrate exhibited good
      blood compatibility. Moreover, the proliferation of ECs and smooth muscle cells
      onto the REDV-modified copolymer brushes were examined to demonstrate the
      synergistic effect of CBMA with antifouling property and REDV peptide with ECs
      selectivity. All assays showed that the silicon wafers displayed excellent EC
      selectivity after modification. In summary, REDV-modified zwitterionic brushes
      had great potential for cardiovascular stent implantation.

PMID- 28891391
TI  - Characteristics of Female Solo and Female Co-Offenders and Male Solo Sexual
      Offenders Against Children.
AB  - Studies have highlighted differences in the victim choice, offender, and offense
      characteristics of female and male sexual offenders. However, little is known
      about how solo and co-offending females differ from solo male sexual offenders.
      We compared the characteristics of 20 solo and 20 co-offending females (co
      offended with a male and/or female accomplice), and 40 male sexual offenders
      against children. We found that solo female offenders showed the most evidence of
      personal problems, including depression and sexual dissatisfaction. Compared with
      male offenders, female co-offenders showed poorer self-management, but better
      sexual self-regulation. Male offenders had a greater history of offending and
      showed more evidence of sexual abuse supportive cognitions relative to both solo
      and co-offending females. These results are consistent with the need for a gender
      specific approach to working with sexual offenders and may have implications for
      understanding the often complex treatment needs of these clients.

PMID- 28891390
TI  - Pathology and Epidemiology of Oxalate Nephrosis in Cheetahs.
AB  - To investigate cases of acute oxalate nephrosis without evidence of ethylene
      glycol exposure, archived data and tissues from cheetahs ( Acinonyx jubatus) from
      North America ( n = 297), southern Africa ( n = 257), and France ( n = 40) were
      evaluated. Renal and gastrointestinal tract lesions were characterized in a
      subset of animals with ( n = 100) and without ( n = 165) oxalate crystals at
      death. Crystals were confirmed as calcium oxalate by Raman spectroscopy in 45 of
      47 cheetahs tested. Crystals were present in cheetahs from 3.7 months to 15.9
      years old. Cheetahs younger than 1.5 years were less likely to have oxalates than
      older cheetahs ( P = .034), but young cheetahs with oxalates had more oxalate
      crystals than older cheetahs ( P < .001). Cheetahs with oxalate crystals were
      more likely to have renal amyloidosis, interstitial nephritis, or colitis and
      less likely to have glomerular loop thickening or gastritis than those without
      oxalates. Crystal number was positively associated with renal tubular necrosis (
      P <= .001), regeneration ( P = .015), and casts ( P <= .001) but inversely
      associated with glomerulosclerosis, renal amyloidosis, and interstitial
      nephritis. Crystal number was unrelated to the presence or absence of colitis and
      was lower in southern African than American and European animals ( P = .01). This
      study found no evidence that coexisting chronic renal disease (amyloidosis,
      interstitial nephritis, or glomerulosclerosis), veno-occlusive disease,
      gastritis, or enterocolitis contributed significantly to oxalate nephrosis.
      Oxalate-related renal disease should be considered as a potential cause of acute
      renal failure, especially in young captive cheetahs. The role of location, diet,
      stress, and genetic predisposition in the pathogenesis of oxalate nephrosis in
      cheetahs warrants further study.

PMID- 28891392
TI  - ESR2 Gene and Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma.

PMID- 28891393
TI  - Improving Ambulatory Care Resident Training: Preparing for Opportunities to Treat
      Mental Illness in the Primary Care Setting.
AB  - PURPOSE: The development of an outpatient psychiatry clinical practice learning
      experience for PGY2 ambulatory care pharmacy residents in preparation for the
      treatment of psychiatric disorders in the primary care setting is described.
      SUMMARY: With the increased prevalence of psychiatric disorders, significant
      mortality, and limited access to care, integration of mental health treatment
      into the primary care setting is necessary to improve patient outcomes. Given the
      majority of mental health treatment occurs in the primary care setting,
      pharmacists in patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) are in a unique position
      with direct access to patients to effectively manage these illnesses. However,
      the increased need for pharmacist education and training in psychiatry has
      prompted a large, Midwestern academic health system to develop an outpatient
      psychiatry learning experience for PGY2 (Postgraduate Year 2) ambulatory care
      pharmacy residents in 2015. The goal of this learning experience is to introduce
      the PGY2 ambulatory care residents to the role and impact of psychiatric clinical
      pharmacists and to orient the residents to the basics of psychiatric
      pharmacotherapy to be applied to their future practice in the primary care
      setting. CONCLUSION: The development of an outpatient psychiatry learning
      experience for PGY2 ambulatory care pharmacy residents will allow for more
      integrated and comprehensive care for patients with psychiatric conditions, many
      of whom are treated and managed in the PCMH setting.

PMID- 28891394
TI  - The Role of Chemokines in Thyroid Carcinoma.
AB  - The global incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing, and metastatic spread to
      the lymph nodes is common in papillary thyroid carcinoma. The metastatic course
      of thyroid carcinoma is an intricate process involving invasion, angiogenesis,
      cell trafficking, extravasation, organ specific homing, and growth. A key aspect
      in this process involves a multitude of interactions between chemokines and their
      receptors. Chemokines are a group of small proteins, which act to elicit normal
      physiologic and immune responses principally through recruitment of specific cell
      populations to the site of infection or malignancy. Thyroid cancer cells, like
      other tumors, possess the ability to corrupt the chemokine system to their
      advantage by altering cell movement into the tumor microenvironment and affecting
      all aspects of thyroid cancer progression.

PMID- 28891395
TI  - Effects of catechins and caffeine on the development of atherosclerosis in mice.
AB  - Atherosclerosis is one of the diseases related to metabolic syndrome which is
      caused by obesity. Previous reports have shown that green tea and its components
      have anti-obesity effect. We examined whether catechins and caffeine can prevent
      the development of atherosclerosis by oral administration, singly or in
      combination to the atherosclerosis model mice. Results demonstrated that the
      number of atherosclerotic regions in the aorta was significantly reduced by the
      combined treatment, and the atherosclerotic area was also improved. Serum HDL-C
      increased by caffeine single treatment, but no effect on the TG and TC by any
      treatments. Moreover, ECG illuviated to atheromatous lesions in aorta and the
      illuviation was enhanced by caffeine. The mRNA expression levels of LOX-1 and TNF
      alpha showed a tendency to suppress by the combined treatment. These results
      indicated that the combined administration of catechins and caffeine has the
      inhibitory effect on the development of atherosclerosis in mice.

PMID- 28891396
TI  - Dielectric and electric properties as a tool to investigate the coagulation
      mechanism during sludge treatment.
AB  - The analysis of the complex permittivity, electrical complex modulus and the
      hopping conductivity have been employed in order to investigate the impacts of
      calcium oxide during sludge treatment in textile such as coagulation process. In
      this context, impedance measurement was performed on five samples, including raw
      sludge and four compositions containing different amounts of calcium oxide: 2%,
      3%, 4% and 5% (w/w). The dielectric spectra of each composition were described by
      the summation of a power law and a Cole-Cole relaxation model. The relaxation
      time and the magnitude of the dielectric relaxation obtained from the analysis of
      dielectric properties showed an increase up to 3% of these parameters with the
      addition of calcium oxide. Above this critical value, both parameters showed a
      very small change, suggesting that the aggregation became more stable. In
      addition, the evolution of the hopping conductivity reached a minimum value at
      this critical amount (3%). This evolution was well described by a double power
      law, which allowed us to estimate the optimal amount of the calcium oxide to
      achieve coagulation process. The analysis of the dielectric properties was found
      useful in monitoring aggregation processes that occur during the coagulation
      mechanism in textile sludge.

PMID- 28891397
TI  - Pharmacokinetic evaluation of beta-caryophyllene alcohol in rats and beagle dogs.
AB  - 1. beta-caryophyllene alcohol (BCPA) has shown therapeutic promise in the
      treatment of asthma and inflammation with low toxicity. The aim of the current
      study was to report the pharmacokinetic profiles of BCPA in rats and dogs. 2.
      Following intravenous administration, BCPA exhibited moderate volumes of
      distribution (Vz) ranging from 5.63 to 8.97 L/kg in rats and low Vz (2.89 +/-
      1.12 L/kg) in dogs. Systemic plasma clearance was high in both species, resulting
      in a short elimination half-life ranging from 29.6 to 48.3 min. In rats, the
      intravenous pharmacokinetics was dose dependent. The measured oral
      bioavailability was low in rats for BCPA solution (1.17 +/- 0.78%), suspension
      (1.21 +/- 0.33%) and PEG formulation (6.22 +/- 2.63%). The bioavailability was
      lower in dogs for BCPA solution (0.12 +/- 0.05%) and PEG formulation (0.25 +/-
      0.07%), indicating significant species difference. However, treatment of plasma
      samples with beta-glucuronidase increased the systematic exposure of BCPA as
      assessed from AUC (0-infinity) by 24.7- or 2.62-fold in rats and dogs,
      respectively, which suggested glucuronidation was a significant metabolic pathway
      for BCPA possibly due to first-pass metabolism. 3. In summary, this was the first
      preclinical pharmacokinetic investigation of BCPA in animals, providing vital
      knowledge for further preclinical research and subsequent clinical trials.

PMID- 28891398
TI  - Geometric analysis of loco-regional recurrences in relation to pre-treatment
      hypoxia in patients with head and neck cancer.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: A previous pattern-of-failure study has suggested that up to 50% of
      the loco-regional failures (LRF) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)
      occur outside the initial hypoxic volume determined by [18F]-fluoromisonidazole
      PET ([18F]-FMISO-PET). The aim of the present analysis was to correlate spatial
      patterns of failure with respect to the pretherapeutic dynamic [18F]-FMISO-PET/CT
      in HNSCC after radiochemotherapy (RCT). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Within a running
      phase 2 trial using [18F]-FMISO-PET imaging prior to RCT in HNSCC patients (n =
      54), we have observed so far 11 LRF with a minimum follow-up of 12 months. For
      nine patients, LRF imaging (CT or [18F]-FDG-PET/CT) for pattern-of-failure
      analysis was available. Analysis included the static 4-h hypoxic subvolume (VH)
      as well as a M-parameter volume (VM), which is derived from modeling of dynamic
      PET. Deformable image registration of the CT scan with the recurrent tumor to the
      pre-treatment [18F]-FMISO-PET/CT and the planning CT was done to quantify the
      hypoxic subvolumes compared to the recurrent tumor volume. Moreover, a point-of
      origin analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of five local, two regional and
      two loco-regional recurrences were detected. After deformable image registration
      of the CT scan with the recurrent tumor to the pre-treatment [18F]-FMISO-PET/CT
      and the planning CT, a significant overlap of the recurrence volume with [18F]
      FMISO-positive subvolumes in the initial gross tumor volume (GTV) was observed.
      Median overlap of 40.2%, range 9.4-100.0%, for VH and 49.0%, range 4.4-96.4%, for
      VM was calculated. The point-of-origin analysis showed median distances of 0.0
      mm, range 0.0-11.3 mm to VH and 8.6 mm, range 0.0-15.5 mm to VM, respectively.
      CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that loco-regional recurrences after RCT originate
      from the initial GTV (primary tumor and/or lymph node metastases) containing
      hypoxic subvolumes, which supports the concept of hypoxia imaging-based dose
      escalation.

PMID- 28891399
TI  - Response of Human Fetal Liver Progenitor Cell Types to Temperature and pH
      Stresses In Vitro.
AB  - Prolonged physiological stresses, including abnormal pH and temperature, are
      deleterious. However, human hepatic progenitors have been shown to be quite
      tolerant of temporary temperature stress such as in cold ischemia. We aimed at
      identifying how various stresses affect liver progenitors, and at determining
      whether distinct effects exist on different progenitor cells of the human liver.
      Total fetal liver cells were exposed to low (25 degrees C), normal (37 degrees
      C), or high (40 degrees C) temperatures, or low (6.76), normal (7.35), or high
      (7.88) pH in vitro. Culture at 25 degrees C increased cell numbers and
      percentages of proliferation marker Ki67+ total cells. In total cell cultures,
      percentages of CD326+ hepatic progenitors co-expressing DLK1 (delta-like 1
      homolog), SSEA4, or CD90 increased, as well as proliferation of SSEA4+ and
      CD235a+ progenitors. Analyses of presorted hepatic progenitors revealed that
      culture at 25 degrees C increased cell numbers of CD326+ hepatic stem/progenitor
      cells but not DLK+ hepatoblasts. The expression of several mesenchymal genes was
      reduced, and distinct hepatic stem/progenitor cell colonies emerged. At 40
      degrees C, numbers of adherent hepatic cells decreased but those of hematopoietic
      nonadherent cells increased. High pH did not cause major effects. Acidic pH
      resulted in decreased total cell numbers and affected hematopoietic cells.
      Percentages of DLK1+ hepatoblasts were increased, but those of hematopoietic
      mature CD45+ cells were decreased. In particular, proliferation of adherent
      hepatic CD326+, SSEA4+ progenitors, and hematopoietic CD45+ cells and CD235a+
      erythroblasts was reduced. Conclusively, our data indicate that low-temperature
      stress stimulates hepatic progenitor and erythroblast proliferation, whereas
      acidic pH promotes hepatic maturation and reduces hematopoietic cells.

PMID- 28891400
TI  - Glycosylated Cell Surface Markers for the Isolation of Human Cardiac Progenitors.
AB  - The aim of stem cell therapy after cardiac injury is to replace damaged cardiac
      tissue. Human cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) represent an interesting cell
      population for clinical strategies to treat cardiac disease and human CPC
      specific antibodies would aid in the clinical implementation of cardiac
      progenitor-based cell therapy. However, the field of CPC biology suffers from the
      lack of human CPC-specific markers. Therefore, we raised a panel of monoclonal
      antibodies (mAb) against CPCs. Of this panel of antibodies, we show that mAb
      C1096 recognizes a progenitor-like population in the fetal and adult human heart
      and partially colocalize with reported CPC populations in vitro. Furthermore, mAb
      C1096 can be used to isolate a multipotent progenitor population from human heart
      tissue. Interestingly, the two lead candidates, mAb C1096 and mAb C19, recognize
      glycosylated residues on PECAM1 (platelet and endothelial cell adhesion molecule
      1) and GRP78, respectively, and de-N-glycosylation significantly abolishes their
      binding. Thereby, this report describes new clinically applicable antibodies
      against human CPCs, and for the first time demonstrates the importance of
      glycosylated residues as CPCs specific markers.

PMID- 28891402
TI  - You Do What? A Qualitative Investigation Into the Motivation to Volunteer With
      Circles of Support and Accountability.
AB  - Most community members are not accepting of individuals convicted for sexual
      offenses living in their communities, let alone having regular contact with them.
      However, a select number of community members choose to give their time to assist
      these individuals reintegrate from prison into the community. Circles of Support
      and Accountability (CoSA) was developed as a way to address the issues that many
      individuals convicted of sex offenses face, that is, little to no prosocial
      support in the community. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with
      18 CoSA volunteers in New Zealand to gain a more thorough understanding of
      volunteers' motivation to be involved with CoSA. Thematic analysis was used to
      analyze the data. Three key themes of motivation were identified: (a) Restorative
      and Justice-Based Motivation, (b) Altruistic Motivation, and (c) Faith-Based
      Motivation. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future
      recruitment of volunteers for CoSAs.

PMID- 28891401
TI  - Revascularization of the superficial femoral artery with paclitaxel-coated
      balloon for claudication.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Percutaneous angioplasty of the superficial femoral artery (SFA) with
      paclitaxel-coated balloon, intended to reduce restenosis, has been proven safe
      and effective in recent randomized controlled trials. OBJECTIVE: To assess
      outcome results of angioplasty of the SFA with paclitaxel-coated balloon in
      claudicants in real-world practice of a single center. MATERIAL & METHODS: A
      continuous prospective cohort study of 53 claudicants (62 lower limbs) from
      January 2015 to December 2016. Study end points include primary patency, freedom
      from clinically driven target-lesion revascularization and symptom relief.
      RESULTS: It concerns 17 women (32%) and 36 men (68%) with a mean age of 67.8
      years, suffering life-style-limiting claudication. Only short to intermediate
      length stenoses or occlusions (30.6%), with a mean length of 59.6 mm were
      selected for percutaneous angioplasty with a paclitaxel-coated balloon. Technical
      success was 100%. At 16 months, primary patency attained 92.0% (3 early
      occlusions, 2 restenoses). There were two re-interventions at 6 and 9 months,
      resulting in a clinically driven target lesion revascularization rate of 3.2%. At
      the end of the follow-up of 16 months, all but two patients (96.2%) remained
      symptom-free. Two patients died during follow-up (no procedure-related deaths).
      CONCLUSION: Paclitaxel-coated balloon angioplasty of the SFA gives in routine
      clinical practice excellent midterm results, with a restenosis rate of 6.5% at 1
      year. This procedure has authors' preference as first-choice technique for
      correction of short- and intermediate-length symptomatic stenoses of the SFA.

PMID- 28891403
TI  - A sensory evoked response or precise anticipatory modulation? Mechanisms
      underlying the reported C1 modulation by spatial attention.
AB  - Almost ten years ago, Kelly and collegues reported that the earliest component
      (i.e., the C1) of the visual evoked potential (VEP) could be modulated by spatial
      attention. Using a similar experimental design and data analysis methods,
      however, Baumgartner et al. (this issue) recently failed to provide confirmative
      evidence. In this commentary, I suggest that some minor differences in
      experimental design may account for the inconsistent results between the two
      studies. I also propose a hypothesis that the C1 effect reported in Kelly et al.
      may not necessarily reflect modulations of the initial visual evoked response in
      human V1.

PMID- 28891404
TI  - Adapted Morris Water Maze protocol to prevent interference from confounding motor
      deficits on cognitive functioning.
AB  - : Purpose/aim of the study: Cognitive functioning in the Morris Water Maze (MWM)
      is assumed to be reflected by path length. In this study, the interference of
      motor deficits, as a confounding factor on cognitive functioning, was assessed by
      means of a lateralization study with hemicerebellectomized (HCX) mice. This model
      is characterized by motor deficits restricted to the lesion side, allowing
      comparison within the model itself (left vs. right), rather than the effect of
      the manipulation on this measure (experimental vs. control). MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Spatial learning was assessed after left or right hemicerebellectomy in
      adult mice by means of two MWM designs in which the location of the starting
      positions was altered for one condition in the adapted (Adap) MWM experiment,
      hypothesizing that motor impairments ipsilateral to the lesion side result in a
      difference in path length. RESULTS: When the starting positions were equal for
      both conditions in the traditional (Trad) MWM experiment, path length during the
      acquisition phase and spatial memory were more affected for the left HCX, while
      these effects disappeared after mirroring the starting positions in the Adap MWM,
      implying that motor phenotype and corresponding increase in task difficulty are
      responsible for the contradictory results in the Trad MWM experiment. CONCLUSION:
      The differences found in the latter experiment were circumvented in the adapted
      MWM protocol, and therefore, excluding the motor deficit as a confounding factor
      on cognitive MWM parameters.

PMID- 28891405
TI  - Projecting Survival in Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Comparison of the Seventh and
      Eighth Editions of the American Joint Commission on Cancer/Union for
      International Cancer Control Staging Systems in Two Contemporary National Patient
      Cohorts.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This study aims to compare the seventh and eighth editions of the
      American Joint Commission on Cancer/Union for International Cancer Control
      (AJCC/UICC) tumor, node, metastasis staging system for patients with papillary
      thyroid cancer (PTC) in two national patient cohorts. METHODS: Adult PTC patients
      undergoing surgery were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End
      Results (SEER) program (2004-2012) and the National Cancer Database (2004-2012).
      Staging criteria for the seventh and eighth AJCC/UICC editions were applied
      separately to each cohort. Survival probabilities were estimated using the Kaplan
      Meier method. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate
      the association of stage with survival in both settings. The Akaike information
      criterion was used to assess model performance. RESULTS: About 23% of patients
      were downstaged from the seventh to the eighth edition in SEER, while 24% were
      downstaged in the National Cancer Database. Disease-specific survival (DSS) and
      overall survival (OS) were significantly related to stage at diagnosis when using
      both the seventh and eighth editions of the AJCC/UICC staging system (p < 0.001).
      Patients classified into higher stages (III and IV) in the eighth edition showed
      a worse prognosis than those classified into similar stages in the seventh
      edition. After adjustment, PTC stages as defined by both editions were
      significantly associated with DSS and OS. With respect to both DSS and OS, the
      eighth edition PTC model appeared to be a better fit to the data (smaller Akaike
      information criterion values) compared to the seventh edition. CONCLUSION: Based
      on these large contemporary national cohorts, the eighth edition AJCC/UICC tumor,
      node, metastasis classification for PTC is superior to the seventh edition for
      predicting survival.

PMID- 28891406
TI  - Clinical Practice Guideline: Evaluation of the Neck Mass in Adults.
AB  - Objective Neck masses are common in adults, but often the underlying etiology is
      not easily identifiable. While infections cause most of the neck masses in
      children, most persistent neck masses in adults are neoplasms. Malignant
      neoplasms far exceed any other etiology of adult neck mass. Importantly, an
      asymptomatic neck mass may be the initial or only clinically apparent
      manifestation of head and neck cancer, such as squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC),
      lymphoma, thyroid, or salivary gland cancer. Evidence suggests that a neck mass
      in the adult patient should be considered malignant until proven otherwise.
      Timely diagnosis of a neck mass due to metastatic HNSCC is paramount because
      delayed diagnosis directly affects tumor stage and worsens prognosis.
      Unfortunately, despite substantial advances in testing modalities over the last
      few decades, diagnostic delays are common. Currently, there is only 1 evidence
      based clinical practice guideline to assist clinicians in evaluating an adult
      with a neck mass. Additionally, much of the available information is fragmented,
      disorganized, or focused on specific etiologies. In addition, although there is
      literature related to the diagnostic accuracy of individual tests, there is
      little guidance about rational sequencing of tests in the course of clinical
      care. This guideline strives to bring a coherent, evidence-based,
      multidisciplinary perspective to the evaluation of the neck mass with the
      intention to facilitate prompt diagnosis and enhance patient outcomes. Purpose
      The primary purpose of this guideline is to promote the efficient, effective, and
      accurate diagnostic workup of neck masses to ensure that adults with potentially
      malignant disease receive prompt diagnosis and intervention to optimize outcomes.
      Specific goals include reducing delays in diagnosis of HNSCC; promoting
      appropriate testing, including imaging, pathologic evaluation, and empiric
      medical therapies; reducing inappropriate testing; and promoting appropriate
      physical examination when cancer is suspected. The target patient for this
      guideline is anyone >=18 years old with a neck mass. The target clinician for
      this guideline is anyone who may be the first clinician whom a patient with a
      neck mass encounters. This includes clinicians in primary care, dentistry, and
      emergency medicine, as well as pathologists and radiologists who have a role in
      diagnosing neck masses. This guideline does not apply to children. This guideline
      addresses the initial broad differential diagnosis of a neck mass in an adult.
      However, the intention is only to assist the clinician with a basic understanding
      of the broad array of possible entities. The intention is not to direct
      management of a neck mass known to originate from thyroid, salivary gland,
      mandibular, or dental pathology as management recommendations for these
      etiologies already exist. This guideline also does not address the subsequent
      management of specific pathologic entities, as treatment recommendations for
      benign and malignant neck masses can be found elsewhere. Instead, this guideline
      is restricted to addressing the appropriate work-up of an adult patient with a
      neck mass that may be malignant in order to expedite diagnosis and referral to a
      head and neck cancer specialist. The Guideline Development Group sought to craft
      a set of actionable statements relevant to diagnostic decisions made by a
      clinician in the workup of an adult patient with a neck mass. Furthermore, where
      possible, the Guideline Development Group incorporated evidence to promote high
      quality and cost-effective care. Action Statements The development group made a
      strong recommendation that clinicians should order a neck computed tomography (or
      magnetic resonance imaging) with contrast for patients with a neck mass deemed at
      increased risk for malignancy. The development group made the following
      recommendations: (1) Clinicians should identify patients with a neck mass who are
      at increased risk for malignancy because the patient lacks a history of
      infectious etiology and the mass has been present for >=2 weeks without
      significant fluctuation or the mass is of uncertain duration. (2) Clinicians
      should identify patients with a neck mass who are at increased risk for
      malignancy based on >=1 of these physical examination characteristics: fixation
      to adjacent tissues, firm consistency, size >1.5 cm, or ulceration of overlying
      skin. (3) Clinicians should conduct an initial history and physical examination
      for patients with a neck mass to identify those with other suspicious findings
      that represent an increased risk for malignancy. (4) For patients with a neck
      mass who are not at increased risk for malignancy, clinicians or their designees
      should advise patients of criteria that would trigger the need for additional
      evaluation. Clinicians or their designees should also document a plan for follow
      up to assess resolution or final diagnosis. (5) For patients with a neck mass who
      are deemed at increased risk for malignancy, clinicians or their designees should
      explain to the patient the significance of being at increased risk and explain
      any recommended diagnostic tests. (6) Clinicians should perform, or refer the
      patient to a clinician who can perform, a targeted physical examination
      (including visualizing the mucosa of the larynx, base of tongue, and pharynx) for
      patients with a neck mass deemed at increased risk for malignancy. (7) Clinicians
      should perform fine-needle aspiration (FNA) instead of open biopsy, or refer the
      patient to someone who can perform FNA, for patients with a neck mass deemed at
      increased risk for malignancy when the diagnosis of the neck mass remains
      uncertain. (8) For patients with a neck mass deemed at increased risk for
      malignancy, clinicians should continue evaluation of patients with a cystic neck
      mass, as determined by FNA or imaging studies, until a diagnosis is obtained and
      should not assume that the mass is benign. (9) Clinicians should obtain
      additional ancillary tests based on the patient's history and physical
      examination when a patient with a neck mass is deemed at increased risk for
      malignancy who does not have a diagnosis after FNA and imaging. (10) Clinicians
      should recommend evaluation of the upper aerodigestive tract under anesthesia,
      before open biopsy, for patients with a neck mass deemed at increased risk for
      malignancy and without a diagnosis or primary site identified with FNA, imaging,
      and/or ancillary tests. The development group recommended against clinicians
      routinely prescribing antibiotic therapy for patients with a neck mass unless
      there are signs and symptoms of bacterial infection.

PMID- 28891407
TI  - Substance Use and Self-Harm: Case Studies From Patients Admitted to an Urban
      Hospital Following Medically Serious Self-Harm.
AB  - Few qualitative studies have explored the relationship between substance use and
      self-harm. We employed a multiple-case study research design to analyze data from
      80 patients who were admitted to a hospital in South Africa following self-harm.
      Our analysis revealed, from the perspective of patients, a number of distinct
      ways in which substance use is implicated in self-harm. Some patients reported
      that substance intoxication resulted in poor decision making and impulsivity,
      which led to self-harm. Others said substance use facilitated their self-harm.
      Some participants detailed how in the past their chronic substance use had served
      an adaptive function helping them to cope with distress, but more recently, this
      coping mechanism had failed which precipitated their self-harm. Some participants
      reported that substance use by someone else triggered their self-harm. Findings
      suggest that there are multiple pathways and a host of variables which mediate
      the relationship between substance use and self-harm.

PMID- 28891409
TI  - Health Among Schoolchildren From the School Nurse's Perspective.
AB  - The aim of the study was to investigate Swedish school nurses' perceptions of
      schoolchildren's health. The study is based on two national surveys in which
      school nurses responded to questions about schoolchildren's health in 2015 ( n =
      181) and 2005 ( n = 129). A statistical comparison showed that physical and
      mental health of schoolchildren in high-risk areas was perceived as worse than
      that of children in low-risk areas. There were no differences regarding the
      number of spontaneous visits or consulting reasons related to gender in high- and
      low-risk areas. A national framework for data collection and reporting of
      schoolchildren's health may be important for school nurses to demonstrate the
      need for increased support in, for example, high-risk areas. By paying attention
      to factors that can affect schoolchildren's health, school nurses can also direct
      health promotion to areas where it is needed. Increased cooperation among school
      health professionals may also prevent illness and improve health.

PMID- 28891408
TI  - Adjuvant Dabrafenib plus Trametinib in Stage III BRAF-Mutated Melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Combination therapy with the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib plus the MEK
      inhibitor trametinib improved survival in patients with advanced melanoma with
      BRAF V600 mutations. We sought to determine whether adjuvant dabrafenib plus
      trametinib would improve outcomes in patients with resected, stage III melanoma
      with BRAF V600 mutations. METHODS: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled,
      phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned 870 patients with completely resected, stage
      III melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations to receive oral dabrafenib at a
      dose of 150 mg twice daily plus trametinib at a dose of 2 mg once daily
      (combination therapy, 438 patients) or two matched placebo tablets (432 patients)
      for 12 months. The primary end point was relapse-free survival. Secondary end
      points included overall survival, distant metastasis-free survival, freedom from
      relapse, and safety. RESULTS: At a median follow-up of 2.8 years, the estimated 3
      year rate of relapse-free survival was 58% in the combination-therapy group and
      39% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for relapse or death, 0.47; 95% confidence
      interval [CI], 0.39 to 0.58; P<0.001). The 3-year overall survival rate was 86%
      in the combination-therapy group and 77% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for
      death, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.79; P=0.0006), but this level of improvement did
      not cross the prespecified interim analysis boundary of P=0.000019. Rates of
      distant metastasis-free survival and freedom from relapse were also higher in the
      combination-therapy group than in the placebo group. The safety profile of
      dabrafenib plus trametinib was consistent with that observed with the combination
      in patients with metastatic melanoma. CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant use of combination
      therapy with dabrafenib plus trametinib resulted in a significantly lower risk of
      recurrence in patients with stage III melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations
      than the adjuvant use of placebo and was not associated with new toxic effects.
      (Funded by GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis; COMBI-AD ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01682083
      ; EudraCT number, 2012-001266-15 .).

PMID- 28891410
TI  - Strategies of Adolescent Girls and Boys for Coping With School-Related Stress.
AB  - Stress among adolescents in Western societies is becoming an issue of increasing
      concern of adolescent's health. The aim of this study was to gain greater
      knowledge about how girls and boys perceive and cope with school-related stress.
      Participants were 14- to 15-year-old adolescents from a medium-sized municipality
      in southern Sweden. The data were collected from focus group interviews. The data
      were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings show that
      adolescents "prioritizing the future or the present by making choices, finding
      their own private sphere to relax, and recovering with family and friends." There
      were gender differences in how these strategies were used. The findings could be
      used for initiating and planning health promotion interventions in school with
      focus on supporting girls' and boys' equal terms to cope with school-related
      stress in present and for the future and to give equal condition for future
      studies and opportunities in life.

PMID- 28891411
TI  - Student Projects and Publications.

PMID- 28891412
TI  - A novel prothrombin time method to measure all non-vitamin K-dependent oral
      anticoagulants (NOACs).
AB  - BACKGROUND: There is a clinical need for point-of-care (POC) methods for non
      vitamin K-dependent oral anticoagulants (NOACs). We modified a routine POC
      procedure: Zafena's Simple SimonTM PT-INR, a room-temperature, wet-chemistry
      prothrombin time method of the Owren-type. METHODS: To either increase or
      decrease NOAC interference, two assay variants were devised by replacing the
      standard 10 uL end-to-end capillary used to add the citrated plasma sample to 200
      uL of prothrombin time (PT) reagent by either a 20 uL or a 5 uL capillary. All
      assay variants were calibrated to show correct PT results in plasma samples from
      healthy and warfarin-treated persons. RESULTS: For plasmas spiked with
      dabigatran, apixaban, or rivaroxaban, the 20 uL variant showed markedly higher PT
      results than the 5 uL. The effects were even more pronounced at room temperature
      than at +37  degrees C. In plasmas from patients treated with NOACs (n = 30 for
      each) there was a strong correlation between the PT results and the concentration
      of NOACs as determined by the central hospital laboratory. For the 20 uL variant
      the PT response of linear correlation coefficient averaged 0.90. The PT range was
      INR 1.1-2.1 for dabigatran and apixaban, and INR 1.1-5.0 for rivaroxaban. Using
      an INR ratio between the 20 uL and 5 uL variants (PTr20/5) made the NOAC assay
      more robust and independent of the patient sample INR value in the absence of
      NOAC. Detection limits were 80 ug/L for apixaban, 60 ug/L for dabigatran, and 20
      ug/L for rivaroxaban. CONCLUSIONS: A wet-chemistry POC PT procedure was modified
      to measure the concentrations of three NOACs using a single reagent.

PMID- 28891413
TI  - Post-infectious glomerulonephritis.
AB  - Post-infectious glomerulonephritis (PIGN) is one of the most common causes of
      acute glomerulonephritis in children. Although post-streptococcal
      glomerulonephritis (PSGN) is still common, there is a wide spectrum of causative
      agents of PIGN. Non-streptococcal organisms are emerging as the main aetiological
      agents in high-income countries. Nephritis-associated plasmin receptor (NAPlr)
      and streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin B (SPeB) are the two common antigens
      implicated in the pathogenesis of PSGN. Both NAPlr and SPeB activate the
      alternative complement pathway, resulting in low serum complement levels, and
      have an affinity to plasmin and glomerular proteins. The clinical presentation of
      PIGN varies from a benign asymptomatic condition to rapidly progressive
      glomerulonephritis requiring dialysis. In most cases, PIGN is self-limiting and
      the evidence base for the treatments used is quite weak. Renal biopsy is
      indicated when there are atypical features, rapid progression or inadequate
      recovery, or where an alternative diagnosis has to be considered. IgA-dominant
      nephritis, endocarditis-associated nephritis and shunt nephritis are special sub
      subtypes of PIGN. The prognosis is generally excellent, although long-term follow
      up may be needed.

PMID- 28891414
TI  - Therapeutic effects of walnut oil on the animal model of multiple sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Therapeutic approaches for multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune
      disease of the central nervous system (CNS), are accompanied by various
      undesirable side effects. Owing to the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects
      of walnut, we investigated its effects on the experimental autoimmune
      encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model of MS. METHODS: After EAE induction in mice,
      the treated group was gavaged daily with walnut oil. The weights and clinical
      symptoms were monitored daily for 21 days following the onset of symptoms. The
      spleens and brains of the mouse were removed and used for ELISA and histological
      studies. RESULTS: The average disease severity and plaque formation in the brains
      of the walnut oil-treated group were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than those of
      the untreated group. Stimulated splenocytes of the treated group expressed
      significantly less INF-gamma and interleukin (IL)-17 than the untreated group
      with no significant differences in IL-10 or IL-5 production. In serum from the
      treated group, IL-17 expression was also significantly less than in the untreated
      group, while IL-10 was greater (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Walnut oil significantly
      reduced disease severity, inhibited plaque formation, and altered cytokine
      production. More studies are required to identify the mechanism of action of
      walnut oil as a valuable supplement in the treatment of MS.

PMID- 28891416
TI  - Role of Innate Immunity in Preeclampsia: A Systematic Review.
AB  - Innate immune system dysfunction has been known to be a key player in
      preeclampsia (PE). Activation of the maternal innate immunity may be triggered by
      invading microorganisms or endogenous ligands, which are detected by different
      pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Although some studies have linked PRR
      activation to PE, it is still unclear if dysregulated PRR expression is
      associated with the development of this complication. Therefore, we conducted a
      systematic review of the literature, searching articles that evaluated
      associations of PRRs with PE. Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria: 20
      of them analyzed PRR expressions and 6 studies investigated the association
      between PRR polymorphisms and PE. Among the PRRs, only few studies analyzed
      retinoic acid-inducible gene I-like helicase (RLH) and/or toll-like receptor
      (TLR)-1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 expressions in immune cells or placentas from women
      with PE and controls; thus, it is inconclusive if these PRRs are involved in PE.
      Results from the 10 studies that analyzed TLR-2 expressions in women with PE and
      controls are also contradictory. The majority of the studies that investigated
      TLR-3 and -4 expressions indicate that these PRRs are increased in placenta or
      immune cells from women with PE compared to pregnant control woman. To date,
      polymorphisms in TLR-2, - 3, and - 4 and nucleotide-binding oligomerization
      domain-like receptor 2 genes do not seem to be associated with PE development. No
      study has evaluated the association between polymorphisms in genes codifying
      other TLRs or RLHs genes. In conclusion, available data in literature support a
      role for TLR-3 and TLR-4 in the pathogenesis of PE.

PMID- 28891417
TI  - Androgens Upregulate Endometrial Epithelial Progesterone Receptor Expression:
      Potential Implications for Endometriosis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Androgenic compounds have been implicated in induction of endometrial
      atrophy yet the mechanisms of androgen effects on human endometrium have not been
      well studied. We hypothesized that androgens may promote their endometrial
      effects via modulation of progesterone receptor (PR) expression. METHODS:
      Proliferative phase endometrial samples were collected at the time of
      hysterectomy. We evaluated the effect of the potent androgen 5alpha
      dihydrotestosterone (DHT) on endometrial PR expression by treating human
      endometrial explants, endometrial stromal cells, and Ishikawa cells with DHT.
      Ishikawa cells were also treated with DHT +/- the androgen receptor (AR) blocker
      flutamide. The PR-B, total PR messenger RNA (mRNA), and PR protein expression
      were assessed. Expression of cyclin D1 and D2 was checked as markers of cell
      proliferation. RESULTS: As expected, estradiol induced PR expression in isolated
      stromal cells, endometrial epithelial cells, and tissue explants. The DHT
      treatment also resulted in increased PR expression in endometrial explants and
      Ishikawa cells but not in stromal cells. Further, protein levels of both nuclear
      PR isoforms (PR-A and PR-B) were induced with the DHT treatment. Although
      flutamide treatment alone did not affect PR expression, flutamide diminished
      androgen-induced upregulation of PR in both endometrial explants and Ishikawa
      cells. Although estradiol induced both cyclin D1 and cyclin D2 mRNA, DHT did not
      induce these markers of cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: Androgens may mediate
      endometrial effects through upregulation of PR gene and protein expression.
      Endometrial PR upregulation by androgens is mediated, at least in part, through
      AR.

PMID- 28891418
TI  - Two years follow-up of an open-label pilot study of treatment with rituximab in
      patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Following results in open-label studies of rituximab in patients with
      systemic sclerosis, a Belgian three-centre initiative was launched to explore
      safety and efficacy of rituximab in early, diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis
      (dcSSc). METHODS: Open-label study of 17 patients with early dcSSc, treated with
      two courses of rituximab, at month 0 and 6. Clinical examination, lung function
      testing, echocardiography, disease activity score (DAS) and functional status
      were performed at baseline and over 24 months of follow-up. RESULTS: Modified
      Rodnan skin score (MRSS) changed significantly over time, with a mean of 25.5
      (standard deviation [SD] 6.0) at baseline to 12.6 (SD 5.1) at month 24 (Mixed
      Model Analysis [MMA] p < 0.0001), which is a decrease of 51% at month 24 vs.
      baseline. DAS showed significant decrease over the total study period, with a
      score of 4.1 (SD 1.7) at baseline to 1.5 (SD 1.8) at month 24 (MMA p < 0.0001).
      Additionally, this was significant at all time points vs. baseline, both for MRSS
      and DAS. Internal organ status remained clinically stable throughout the study
      period. No statistically significant differences compared to baseline were found
      at the follow-up time points. Seven serious adverse events took place, all except
      for one, considered unrelated to study medication. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first
      multicentre Belgian collaboration investigating potential efficacy of rituximab
      in early dcSSc. Rituximab appears to be safe and tolerable and it may have
      beneficial effects on skin involvement, on overall disease activity and on
      stabilization of internal organ status in early dcSSc.

PMID- 28891420
TI  - Influence of Al(III) on biofilm and its extracellular polymeric substances in
      sequencing batch biofilm reactors.
AB  - This paper presented the influence of Al(III) on biodegradability,
      micromorphology, composition and functional groups characteristics of the biofilm
      extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) during different growth phases. The
      sequencing batch biofilm reactors were developed to cultivate biofilms under
      different Al(III) dosages. The results elucidated that Al(III) affected biofilm
      development adversely at the beginning of biofilm growth, but promoted the
      biofilm mass and improved the biofilm activity with the growth of the biofilm.
      The micromorphological observation indicated that Al(III) led to a reduction of
      the filaments and promotion of the EPS secretion in growth phases of the biofilm,
      also Al(III) could promote microorganisms to form larger colonies for mature
      biofilm. Then, the analysis of EPS contents and components suggested that Al(III)
      could increase the protein (PN) of tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) which alleviated
      the metal toxicity inhibition on the biofilm during the initial phases of biofilm
      growth. The biofilm could gradually adapt to the inhibition caused by Al(III) at
      the biofilm maturation moment. Finally, through the Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy, it was found that Al(III) was beneficial for the proliferation and
      secretion of TB-EPS functional groups, especially the functional groups of
      protein and polysaccharides.

PMID- 28891419
TI  - Effects of listening to Holy Qur'an recitation and physical training on dialysis
      efficacy, functional capacity, and psychosocial outcomes in elderly patients
      undergoing haemodialysis.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine whether listening to Holy Qur'an
      recitation would augment the beneficial effects of physical exercise on
      physiological and psychological measures in elderly patients undergoing
      haemodialysis. Fifty-three male haemodialysis patients were randomly assigned to
      an intervention group (listening to Holy Qur'an recitation in combination with
      endurance-resistance training, n = 28) or a control group (endurance-resistance
      training only, n = 25). Functional capacity was assessed using the Timed Up and
      Go test (TUG) and the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT). Psychosocial outcomes were
      assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF
      36) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Dialysis adequacy (Kt/V)
      was calculated for all patients. After intervention, a significant Group * Period
      interaction effect was observed for all measured parameters (p < 0.05), except
      for 6MWT performance (p > 0.05). All measured parameters were significantly
      improved over baseline in both groups, except for Kt/V in the control group (p >
      0.05). Moreover, final measurements were significantly higher in the intervention
      group than in the control group for all measured parameters, except for 6MWT
      performance and the physical component summary of the SF-36 (p > 0.05). In
      conclusion, the present study showed that listening to a recitation of the Holy
      Qur'an in combination with interdialytic endurance-resistance training induced an
      improvement in physical condition and quality of life and a large reduction in
      anxiety among patients undergoing haemodialysis.

PMID- 28891421
TI  - Bone marrow aspiration for regenerative orthopedic intervention: technique with
      ultrasound guidance for needle placement.
AB  - AIM: We review relevant anatomy of the iliac crest, and describe an
      interventional technique to maximize harvesting of desired progenitor cells with
      ultrasound to guide safe trochar placement. MATERIALS & METHODS: We validated the
      technique on both sides of the pelvis in four human cadavers. RESULTS: Using
      ultrasound guidance, 32 BMA needles were placed in a safe zone along various
      portions of the iliac crest. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound guidance can improve accuracy
      of bone marrow aspirations form the iliac crest. Mastery of this procedure will
      facilitate cell harvest and aid in patient safety when procuring mesenchymal stem
      cells from a bone marrow source.

PMID- 28891422
TI  - Water-soluble and amphiphilic phospholipid copolymers having 2
      methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine units for the solubilization of bioactive
      compounds.
AB  - We summarize the development and evaluation of new type of phospholipid polymers
      as a solubilizer for poorly water-soluble compounds. That is, a water-soluble and
      amphiphilic poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine-random-n-butyl
      methacrylate) contains 30 mol% hydrophilic 2-methacryloyloxyethyl
      phosphorylcholine units and its weight-averaged molecular weight is around 5.0 *
      104. When the polymer is dissolved in an aqueous medium, a large portion of
      hydrophobic n-butyl methacrylate units assemble, forming polymer aggregates. To
      avoid severe biological reactions caused by conventional solubilizers, the
      phospholipid polymer can be applied for the solubilization of poorly water
      soluble bioactive compounds. The polarity inside these polymer aggregate is the
      same as that of ethanol and n-butanol. Therefore, bioactive compounds, whose
      solubility is poor in water but good in these alcohols, can be entrapped in the
      polymer aggregate. The phospholipid polymer can penetrate the cell membrane by
      molecular diffusion, carrying inside the cell the bioactive compound, without
      exhibiting significant cytotoxicity. Several animal experiments have revealed
      that the pharmacological performance of various bioactive compound/phospholipid
      polymer complexes is excellent. Furthermore, functionalization of the polymer
      aggregate with biomolecules, such as antibodies and oligonucleotides, can be
      done, leading to selective capturing of the target molecules. These examples
      clearly indicate that water-soluble and amphiphilic phospholipid polymer is a
      candidate for preparing safer formulations and more effective pharmaceutical
      treatment with several bioactive compounds.

PMID- 28891425
TI  - Plain Language Summary: Evaluation of the Neck Mass in Adults.
AB  - This plain language summary serves as an overview in explaining the evaluation of
      the neck mass in adults. The summary applies to patients aged >=18 years and is
      based on the 2017 "Clinical Practice Guideline: Evaluation of the Neck Mass in
      Adults." The evidence-based guideline includes research to support more effective
      evaluation and diagnosis of the neck mass in adults. The guideline was developed
      as a quality improvement opportunity for evaluation of the neck mass by creating
      clear recommendations to use in medical practice.

PMID- 28891424
TI  - Clinical Practice Guideline: Evaluation of the Neck Mass in Adults Executive
      Summary.
AB  - The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation has
      published a supplement to this issue of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
      featuring the "Clinical Practice Guideline: Evaluation of the Neck Mass in
      Adults." To assist in implementing the guideline recommendations, this article
      summarizes the rationale, purpose, and key action statements. The 12
      recommendations developed emphasize reducing delays in diagnosis of head and neck
      squamous cell carcinoma; promoting appropriate testing, including imaging,
      pathologic evaluation, and empiric medical therapies; reducing inappropriate
      testing; and promoting appropriate physical examination when cancer is suspected.

PMID- 28891426
TI  - In Reference to "Analysis of the Relationship between the Location of the
      Anterior Ethmoid Artery and Keros Classification"-Reply.

PMID- 28891427
TI  - In Reference to "Analysis of the Relationship between the Location of the
      Anterior Ethmoid Artery and Keros Classification".

PMID- 28891423
TI  - Adjuvant Nivolumab versus Ipilimumab in Resected Stage III or IV Melanoma.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Nivolumab and ipilimumab are immune checkpoint inhibitors that have
      been approved for the treatment of advanced melanoma. In the United States,
      ipilimumab has also been approved as adjuvant therapy for melanoma on the basis
      of recurrence-free and overall survival rates that were higher than those with
      placebo in a phase 3 trial. We wanted to determine the efficacy of nivolumab
      versus ipilimumab for adjuvant therapy in patients with resected advanced
      melanoma. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, phase 3 trial, we randomly
      assigned 906 patients (>=15 years of age) who were undergoing complete resection
      of stage IIIB, IIIC, or IV melanoma to receive an intravenous infusion of either
      nivolumab at a dose of 3 mg per kilogram of body weight every 2 weeks (453
      patients) or ipilimumab at a dose of 10 mg per kilogram every 3 weeks for four
      doses and then every 12 weeks (453 patients). The patients were treated for a
      period of up to 1 year or until disease recurrence, a report of unacceptable
      toxic effects, or withdrawal of consent. The primary end point was recurrence
      free survival in the intention-to-treat population. RESULTS: At a minimum follow
      up of 18 months, the 12-month rate of recurrence-free survival was 70.5% (95%
      confidence interval [CI], 66.1 to 74.5) in the nivolumab group and 60.8% (95% CI,
      56.0 to 65.2) in the ipilimumab group (hazard ratio for disease recurrence or
      death, 0.65; 97.56% CI, 0.51 to 0.83; P<0.001). Treatment-related grade 3 or 4
      adverse events were reported in 14.4% of the patients in the nivolumab group and
      in 45.9% of those in the ipilimumab group; treatment was discontinued because of
      any adverse event in 9.7% and 42.6% of the patients, respectively. Two deaths
      (0.4%) related to toxic effects were reported in the ipilimumab group more than
      100 days after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients undergoing resection of
      stage IIIB, IIIC, or IV melanoma, adjuvant therapy with nivolumab resulted in
      significantly longer recurrence-free survival and a lower rate of grade 3 or 4
      adverse events than adjuvant therapy with ipilimumab. (Funded by Bristol-Myers
      Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical; CheckMate 238 ClinicalTrials.gov number,
      NCT02388906 ; Eudra-CT number, 2014-002351-26 .).

PMID- 28891428
TI  - Highlights from the Current Issue: September 2017.

PMID- 28891429
TI  - Management of Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid Leaks of the Temporal Bone.

PMID- 28891430
TI  - Response to "Middle Ear Obliteration with Blind-Sac Closure of the External
      Auditory Canal for Spontaneous CSF Otorrhea".

PMID- 28891431
TI  - Therapist strategies early in therapy associated with good or poor outcomes among
      clients with low proactive agency.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Within a mixed methods program of research the present study aimed at
      expanding knowledge about interactions in the initial therapeutic collaboration
      by combining focus on client interpersonal style and therapist contribution.
      METHOD: The study involves in-depth analyses of therapist-client interactions in
      the initial two sessions of good and poor outcome therapies. Based on
      interpersonal theory and previous research, the Inventory of Interpersonal
      Problems (IIP-64-C) was used to define poor outcome cases, that is, low proactive
      agency cases. To compare good and poor outcome cases matched on this
      interpersonal pattern, cases were drawn from two different samples; nine poor
      outcome cases from a large multi-site outpatient clinic study and nine good
      outcome cases from a process-outcome study of highly experienced therapists.
      RESULTS: Qualitative analysis of therapist behaviors resulted in 2 main
      categories, fostering client's proactive agentic involvement in change work and
      discouraging client's proactive agentic involvement in change work, 8 categories
      and 22 sub-categories. CONCLUSION: The findings revealed distinct and cohesive
      differences in therapist behaviors between the two outcome groups, and point to
      the particular therapist role of fostering client agency through engagement in a
      shared work on change when clients display strong unassertiveness and low
      readiness for change. Clinical or Methodological Significance Summary: The
      present analysis combines focus on client interpersonal style, therapist
      strategies/process and outcome. The categories generated from the present
      grounded theory analysis may serve as a foundation for identifying interactions
      that are associated with agentic involvement in future process research and
      practice, and hence we have formulated principles/strategies that were identified
      by the analysis.

PMID- 28891432
TI  - Neonatal treatment with ovarian hormones and suckling among distinct litter
      sizes: Differential effects on recognition memory and spreading depression at
      adulthood.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Ovarian hormones (OH) and early malnutrition may affect the
      developing brain, with repercussions on behavioral and excitability-dependent
      processes. However, the possible synergistic effects of both factors have not
      been analyzed. In this study, we investigated the effect of treatment in early
      life with OH and suckling among distinct litter sizes on recognition memory,
      anxiety behavior, and the excitability-dependent phenomenon known as cortical
      spreading depression (CSD). METHODS: Female Wistar rats were suckled under
      favorable and unfavorable lactation, corresponding to litters with 9 and 15 pups
      (L9 and L15 groups, respectively). From postnatal days (P) 7 to 21, the animals
      received 50 ug/kg of beta-estradiol or progesterone. From P80 to P84, we tested
      behavioral reactions. From P90 to P120, we analyzed CSD parameters. RESULTS:
      Compared with the corresponding L9 groups, the OH-treated L15 groups performed
      worse in recognition memory tasks. No intergroup difference in the anxiety
      parameters was observed. Compared with naive and vehicle-treated controls, OH
      treated groups displayed higher CSD velocities and amplitudes and shorter CSD
      durations. DISCUSSION: Early treatment with OH facilitates recognition memory and
      CSD, and in association with unfavorable lactation (L15) impaired recognition
      memory, but not anxiety behavior, in the adult brain. OH treatment and L15
      lactation condition seem to interact regarding OH action on memory, but not on
      CSD. Data suggest a long-lasting differential effect that might be related to the
      lasting hormonal action on brain excitability. We postulate and discuss the
      possibility that these findings may be implicated in human neurological diseases.

PMID- 28891433
TI  - Innate Lymphoid Cells Mediate Pulmonary Eosinophilic Inflammation, Airway Mucous
      Cell Metaplasia, and Type 2 Immunity in Mice Exposed to Ozone.
AB  - Exposure to elevated levels of ambient ozone in photochemical smog is associated
      with eosinophilic airway inflammation and nonatopic asthma in children. In the
      present study, we determined the role of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in the
      pathogenesis of ozone-induced nonatopic asthma by using lymphoid cell-sufficient
      C57BL/6 mice, ILC-sufficient Rag2-/- mice (devoid of T and B cells), and ILC
      deficient Rag2-/-Il2rg-/- mice (depleted of all lymphoid cells including ILCs).
      Mice were exposed to 0 or 0.8 parts per million ozone for 1 day or 9 consecutive
      weekdays (4 hr/day). A single exposure to ozone caused neutrophilic inflammation,
      airway epithelial injury, and reparative DNA synthesis in all strains of mice,
      irrespective of the presence or absence of ILCs. In contrast, 9-day exposures
      induced eosinophilic inflammation and mucous cell metaplasia only in the lungs of
      ILC-sufficient mice. Repeated ozone exposures also elicited increased messenger
      RNA expression of transcripts associated with type 2 immunity and airway mucus
      production in ILC-sufficient mice. ILC-deficient mice repeatedly exposed to ozone
      had no pulmonary pathology or increased gene expression related to type 2
      immunity. These results suggest a new paradigm for the biologic mechanisms
      underlying the development of a phenotype of childhood nonatopic asthma that has
      been linked to ambient ozone exposures.

PMID- 28891435
TI  - Ninety-day Local Tolerability and Toxicity Study of ND0612, a Novel Formulation
      of Levodopa/Carbidopa, Administered by Subcutaneous Continuous Infusion in
      Minipigs.
AB  - A 90-day study in Gottingen minipigs was conducted to test the local tolerability
      and systemic toxicity of ND0612, a novel aqueous solution of carbidopa
      (CD)/levodopa (LD) intended for the treatment of Parkinson's disease by
      continuous subcutaneous administration using a discrete infusion pump. To
      evaluate tissue site reactions, we used a unique study design involving multiple
      infusion sites to evaluate the effect of dose per site (270/63, 360/45, and
      360/84 mg LD/CD), volume of infusion per site (4.5 and 6 ml per site),
      formulation concentration (60/14 and 60/7.5 mg/ml LD/CD), daily rate of infusion
      per site (240 MUl/hr for16 hr and 80 MUl/hr for 8 hr, 320 MUl/hr for 16 hr and
      100 MUl/hr for 8 hr, or 750 MUl/hr for 8 hr), frequency (once every 5, 10, 15, or
      20 days), and number of infusions (4, 6, or 9) to the same infusion site. No
      systemic adverse effects were observed. Histopathological changes at infusion
      sites started with localized minimal necrosis and acute inflammation that
      progressed to subacute and chronic inflammatory and reparative changes with
      evidence of progressive recovery following the final infusion. None of the
      infusion site effects were judged to be adverse, and clinical exposures to ND0612
      are not expected to result in adverse responses.

PMID- 28891436
TI  - Radio-localization of Non-Palpable Breast Lesions Under Ultrasonographic
      Guidance: Current Status and Future Perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Due to the spread of mammographic screening programs, a constant
      increase of clinically-occult breast cancer diagnosis has been registered. A
      correct approach to nonpalpable breast lesions requires an accurate intra
      operative localization in order to achieve a complete surgical resection. The aim
      of this paper is to describe the state of the art of the US-guided procedures
      such as Radio-guided Occult Lesion Localization (ROLL) and Radio-guided Seed
      Localization (RSL) in comparison to the most widely adopted Wire-Guided
      Localization (WGL). METHODS: Links to full text papers and abstracts published in
      the last 25 years regarding localization of non-palpable breast lesions were
      researched using PubMed service of US National Library of Medicine. Using the
      term "non-palpable breast lesions localization", different localization
      techniques were considered and analyzed. Human studies, published in English,
      French, German, Italian, and Spanish in journals with an impact factor index,
      were taken into account, independently of the type of article (clinical trial,
      review, editorial, etc.) or radiopharmaceutical used. Since the aim was to assess
      the clinical value of the procedures, a higher relevance was assigned to studies
      with significantly high number of patients and to those comparing at least two
      localization techniques. The reliability of each technique was evaluated taking
      into account several parameters such as correlation index between two
      localization procedures, risk of complications, lesion margin involvement and
      rate re-operation. CONCLUSIONS: Since their introduction in clinical practice,
      several randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses showed the accuracy and
      reliability of radio-guided procedures performed under ultrasonographic guidance.
      ROLL and RSL offer a practical approach to the management of clinically-occult
      breast lesions.

PMID- 28891434
TI  - Histology Atlas of the Developing Prenatal and Postnatal Mouse Central Nervous
      System, with Emphasis on Prenatal Days E7.5 to E18.5.
AB  - Evaluation of the central nervous system (CNS) in the developing mouse presents
      unique challenges, given the complexity of ontogenesis, marked structural
      reorganization over very short distances in 3 dimensions each hour, and numerous
      developmental events susceptible to genetic and environmental influences.
      Developmental defects affecting the brain and spinal cord arise frequently both
      in utero and perinatally as spontaneous events, following teratogen exposure, and
      as sequelae to induced mutations and thus are a common factor in embryonic and
      perinatal lethality in many mouse models. Knowledge of normal organ and cellular
      architecture and differentiation throughout the mouse's life span is crucial to
      identify and characterize neurodevelopmental lesions. By providing a well
      illustrated overview summarizing major events of normal in utero and perinatal
      mouse CNS development with examples of common developmental abnormalities, this
      annotated, color atlas can be used to identify normal structure and histology
      when phenotyping genetically engineered mice and will enhance efforts to describe
      and interpret brain and spinal cord malformations as causes of mouse embryonic
      and perinatal lethal phenotypes. The schematics and images in this atlas
      illustrate major developmental events during gestation from embryonic day (E)7.5
      to E18.5 and after birth from postnatal day (P)1 to P21.

PMID- 28891437
TI  - Investigation of Ocular Bioactivation Potential and the Role of Cytochrome P450
      2D Enzymes in Rat.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Timolol is clinically administered topically (ocular) to reduce
      intraocular pressure and treat open-angle glaucoma. Ocular administration of
      timolol in low doses (0.5% w/v in the form of eye drops) has led to challenges
      for in vivo metabolite identification. An understanding of drug metabolism in the
      eye is important for clinical ocular therapeutics and potential drug candidates.
      METHODS: We aimed to investigate the metabolism of timolol in rat ocular and
      liver S9 fractions, as well as rat ocular tissue and plasma following a 0.5%
      topical (ocular) dose of timolol. We explored the potential in vitro metabolic
      bioactivation in the eye/liver by conducting trapping studies for putative
      aldehyde and iminium ion intermediates that may arise from the morpholine
      functionality. RESULTS: Oxidative metabolism of timolol to its major metabolite
      (M4) in ocular S9 and recombinant rat cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms supports the
      possible role of rat ocular CYP2D2, 2D4, and/or 2D18. Observation of N-acetyl
      timolol (M5) is suggestive that the ocular N-acetyltransferases may also play a
      larger role in ocular disposition of timolol, a previously unreported finding.
      This research is the first comprehensive report of in vitro ocular metabolism of
      timolol in rat. CONCLUSION: This study also indicates that in vitro hepatic
      metabolism is over-predictive of ocular metabolism following topically ocular
      dosed timolol. The research, herein, highlights the eye as an organ capable of
      first pass metabolism for topical drugs. Thus, new ophthalmologic considerations
      for studying and designing long term topical therapies in preclinical species are
      needed in drug discovery.

PMID- 28891438
TI  - Emerging Role of CD44 Receptor as a Potential Target in Disease Diagnosis: A
      Patent Review.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The CD44 receptor is a cell surface glycoprotein, which mediates many
      physiological and pathological activities. Its key role is to provide defence
      against inflammatory reactions by cellular transmigration and cell signalling. In
      pathological conditions, it gives destructive outcomes by mediating migration of
      pathogenic cells to vital organs resulting in tissue and organ damage. It binds
      to several ligands principally the hyaluronan. OBJECTIVE: This review explores
      CD44 structure, functions, and its potential as a disease indicator and
      therapeutic target. METHOD: From a thorough literature review on the CD44
      receptor, several patents of targeting approaches have been identified and
      herewith reviewed which recommend CD44-binding proteins, CD44-binding antibodies,
      antibody fragments, pharmaceutical compositions, as well as nucleic acids as a
      targeting moiety. RESULT: Applicability of CD44 overexpression and its targeting
      has now been extensively utilized in the disease diagnosis and real-time bio
      imaging of pathologic cells. CONCLUSION: A thorough understanding of CD44
      receptor structure, expression and diverse functions towards different cell types
      would offer an opportunity to develop better therapeutic approaches in the near
      future by overcoming all the shortcomings of toxicity and efficacy. The present
      review includes recent patents of CD44 receptor targeting approaches that have
      been presented in the different agencies: European (EP), US, and World
      Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and a general analysis of the future
      developments and trends in this emerging area.

PMID- 28891439
TI  - The Regulation of Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem-cells into Skeletal Muscle:
      A Look at Signalling Molecules Involved in Myogenesis.
AB  - Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are an attractive option for the development of
      treatment for musculoskeletal pathologies due to their wide availability,
      clinical safety and multiple techniques available. Understanding the control of
      MSC differentiation into skeletal muscle is vital for developing protocols and
      therapeutic applications that are safe and effective. This paper therefore aims
      to review the current understanding of factors that regulate the differentiation
      of MSCs into skeletal muscle. Medline, Embase, Pubmed and Web of Science were
      searched for December 2015 using the terms 'differentia*, skeletal*, skeleton*,
      myocyt*, myogen* and mesenchym* stem-cell*. This returned a total of 1215
      results. 48 papers were included in the review. Forty-eight studies were
      reviewed. Eight related to external signalling molecules, sixteen related to
      local environmental factors and twenty-four related to intracellular signalling
      pathways. Uniaxial strain, medium stiffness of the extracellular matrix and
      submicron grooved topography were identified as promoting myogenesis. TGF-beta
      was identified as a main inhibitor of myogenesis. Smad and Pax signalling were
      identified as important intracellular pathways and the relationship of menin,
      Setdb1, GEFT, PAX3-FOXO1, IGF-II, TAZ and PRDM2 with MyoD and MyoG was explored.
      Further research into the effect of the inflammatory response on skeletal muscle
      differentiation is suggested. Clarification of the mechanism of action of TGF
      beta, the role of submicron grooves and cyclic uniaxial strain, and two important
      factors in the development of tissue scaffolds.

PMID- 28891440
TI  - A Systematic Review of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Spinal Cord Injury,
      Intervertebral Disc Repair and Spinal Fusion.
AB  - Spinal surgery presents a challenge for both neurosurgery and orthopaedic
      surgery. Due to the heterogeneous differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem
      cells, there is much interest in the treatment of spine surgery. Animal and human
      trials focussing on the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells in spinal cord injury,
      spine fusion and disc degeneration were included in this systematic review.
      Published articles up to January 2016 from MEDLINE, PubMed and Ovid were used by
      searching for specific terms. Of the 2595 articles found, 53 met the selection
      criteria and were included for analysis (16 on spinal cord injury, 28 on
      intervertebral disc repair and 9 on spinal fusion). Numerous studies reported
      better results when the mesenchymal stem cells were used in co-culture with other
      cells or used in scaffolds. Mesenchymal stem cells were also found to have an
      immune-modulatory role, which can improve surgical outcome. This systematic
      review suggests that mesenchymal stem cells can be used safely and effectively
      for these spinal surgery treatments. Whilst, in certain studies, mesenchymal stem
      cells did not necessarily show improved results from existing treatments, they
      provide an alternative option. This can reduce morbidity that arises from current
      surgical treatment.

PMID- 28891441
TI  - Tissue Engineering in Achilles Tendon Reconstruction: A Systematic Review of
      Preclincal Studies.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Tissue engineering is now being used in Achilles tendon (AT) repair
      in animal models. There are many preclinical studies that have used different
      types of stem cells for AT repair. However, there are no systematic reviews that
      evaluate all these studies to see which type of stem cell provides the most
      improvement for AT repair in animal models. Sahni V et al.,(1) divided the
      multiple stem cell types into three broad categories; Tendon derived stem cells
      (TDSCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs). These
      three categories have been used in this systematic review to group the different
      stem cell types together and to also see which category of stem cells provide
      superior enhancement of AT repair. METHOD: All studies that have focused on using
      different types of stem cells in animal models for AT repair and have also
      included an outcome measure to identify any improvement made with stem cells have
      been included in this systematic review. Online published articles from 1946 to
      January 2016 were searched using Ovid MEDLINE (R) and PubMed databases. RESULTS:
      Of the 181 articles found and assessed for eligibility, 15 articles met
      predefined selection criteria and were included in this systematic review. Stem
      cells can either augment current methods of surgical repair or can provide an
      alternative route for tendon regeneration because of their unique ability of
      improving histological characteristics and biomechanical properties. CONCLUSION:
      This systematic review shows that stem cells can provide an improvement in AT
      repair in animal models. Histological analysis of the tendon tissue as well as
      biomechanical tests such as ultimate failure load have been used to show this
      improvement in AT repair. Nevertheless, we do not know which type of stem cell,
      from the three broad categories, provides a superior enhancement of AT
      regeneration in animal models. Our results underscore a need for a head-to-head
      comparison of the different types of stem cells used in AT repair with or without
      current methods of surgical repair.

PMID- 28891442
TI  - Systematic Review Investigating Multi-disciplinary Team Approaches to Screening
      and Early Diagnosis of Dementia in Primary Care - What are the Positive and
      Negative Effects and Who Should Deliver It?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Primary care services frequently provide the initial contact between
      people with dementia and health service providers. Early diagnosis and screening
      programmes have been suggested as a possible strategy to improve the
      identification of such individuals and treatment and planning health and social
      care support. OBJECTIVE: To determine what early diagnostic and screening
      programmes have been adopted in primary care practice, to explore who should
      deliver these and to determine the possible positive and negative effects of an
      early diagnostic and screening programme for people with dementia in primary
      care. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken using
      published and unpublished research databases. All papers answering our research
      objectives were included. A narrative analysis of the literature was undertaken,
      with the CASP tools used appropriately to assess study quality. RESULTS: Thirty
      three papers were identified of moderate to high quality. The limited therapeutic
      options for those diagnosed with dementia means that even if such a programme was
      instigated, the clinical value remains questionable. Furthermore, accuracy of the
      diagnosis remains difficult to assess due to poor evidence and this raises
      questions regarding whether people could be over- or under-diagnosed. Given the
      negative social and psychological consequences of such a diagnosis, this could be
      devastating for individuals. CONCLUSION: Early diagnostic and screening
      programmes have not been widely adopted into primary care. Until there is
      rigorous evidence assessing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of such
      programmes, there remains insufficient evidence to support the adoption of these
      programmes in practice.

PMID- 28891443
TI  - The Ambivalence of Early Diagnosis - Returning Results in Current Alzheimer
      Research.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Based on an analysis of the potential consequences of disclosing AD
      suspicions from respective research and using the research ethical principle of
      non-maleficence, the authors of this paper argue for the thesis that the benefits
      of early AD detection in research outweigh the risk of potential adverse effects
      only in cases where studies are conducted with symptomatic people actively
      seeking for support, e.g. as they utilize the services of memory clinics.
      CONCLUSION: In the case of non-symptomatic volunteers, the result of the risk
      benefit-assessment seems to be less distinctive. Given that disclosing results
      can, at least initially, cause severe distress and harm and taking into account
      that research examinations have a significantly increased risk of producing false
      positive findings, we suggest to make use of a research-ethical "princple of
      caution" that supports a restrictive disclosure policy for the second group of
      potential study participants. This differentiated view on the benefits of
      disclosed findings in AD research is reflected in recommendations for the set-up
      of return of result processes.

PMID- 28891444
TI  - Acceptability and Results of Dementia Screening Among Older Adults in the United
      States.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To measure older adults acceptability of dementia screening and
      assess screening test results of a racially diverse sample of older primary care
      patients in the United States. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of primary care
      patients aged 65 and older. SETTING: Urban and suburban primary care clinics in
      Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2008 to 2009. PARTICIPANTS: Nine hundred fifty-four
      primary care patients without a documented diagnosis of dementia. MEASUREMENTS:
      Community Screening Instrument for Dementia, the Mini-Mental State Examination,
      and the Telephone Instrument for Cognitive Screening. RESULTS: Of the 954 study
      participants who consented to participate, 748 agreed to be screened for dementia
      and 206 refused screening. The overall response rate was 78.4%. The positive
      screen rate of the sample who agreed to screening was 10.2%. After adjusting for
      demographic differences the following characteristics were still associated with
      increased likelihood of screening positive for dementia: age, male sex, and lower
      education. Patients who believed that they had more memory problems than other
      people of their age were also more likely to screen positive for dementia.
      CONCLUSION: Age and perceived problems with memory are associated with screening
      positive for dementia in primary care.

PMID- 28891445
TI  - Patient Variables Associated with the Assignment of a Formal Dementia Diagnosis
      to Positively Screened Primary Care Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Main objective was to analyze the associations of patient variables
      (depression, quality of life, anti-dementia drug treatment, knowledge about
      dementia) with the assignment of a formal diagnosis of dementia to community
      dwelling primary care patients who have screened positive for dementia. METHODS:
      DelpHi-MV (Dementia: life- and person-centered help in Mecklenburg-Western
      Pomerania) is a general practitioner based randomized controlled intervention
      trial. Present analyses are based on cross-sectional data of 319 positively
      screened patients (age 70+, living at home) who had not been formally diagnosed
      with dementia before the screening. The medical diagnoses (ICD-10) were retrieved
      from the patient's medical records. Depression (Geriatric Depression Scale; GDS),
      quality of life in Alzheimer's disease (Qol-AD), knowledge about dementia, and
      anti-dementia drug treatment were assessed after the screening test at the
      baseline examination. RESULTS: At the baseline examination, 171 out of 319
      patients (54%) had been formally diagnosed with dementia after they have screened
      positive. Univariate comparisons showed no statistically significant differences
      between diagnosed and undiagnosed patients regarding depression (GDS>=6: 11% vs.
      15%; p=0.396), quality of life (mean (SD): 2.8 (0.3) vs. 2.8 (0.4); p=0.833), and
      the knowledge about dementia (75% vs. 75%; p>0.999). Patients who had received a
      formal diagnosis were more often treated with anti-dementia drugs (20% vs. 11%;
      p=0.040). Multivariate analyses controlled for confounding variables confirmed
      these findings. CONCLUSION: Present findings do not support concerns that the
      assignment of a formal dementia diagnosis after screening is associated with
      potential harms. If confirmed in a prospective study, our data would suggest that
      patients may benefit from being formally diagnosed regarding anti-dementia drug
      treatment.

PMID- 28891446
TI  - The Clock Drawing Test: A Reasonable Instrument to Assess Probable Dementia in
      Primary Care?
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of the study was to determine accuracy, sensitivity
      and specificity of the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) in detecting probable dementia as
      compared to the multi-domain dementia screening test DemTect. METHODS: The sample
      was derived from the general practitioner (GP)-based, cluster-randomized
      controlled intervention trial DelpHi-MV (Dementia: life- and person-centered help
      in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). Selected from 6.440 patients systematically
      screened for dementia in primary care, we examined three groups (a,b,c) where the
      CDT (as index test) as well as the DemTect (as reference standard) were
      available. After excluding cases with missing values, we included a sample of
      n=462 with "probable dementia", n=586 with "mild cognitive impairment" and n=553
      with "no cognitive impairment" matched for age and gender. We analyzed the
      accuracy of the CDT in identifying people with probable dementia by the DemTect
      and report sensitivity, and specificity for the CDT. We further analyzed age and
      gender differences associated with the groups. RESULTS: In comparison to the
      DemTect the CDT identified more than twice as many of the screened patients as
      cognitively impaired (63.1% in the CDT vs. 28.9% in the DemTect). The sensitivity
      and specificity for the CDT were 84.4% and 45.6% respectively. We found
      considerable age and gender differences for the performance of the CDT. Higher
      age (p < 0.001) and female sex (p < 0.001) were associated with incorrect clock
      drawings. CONCLUSION: The CDT shows a considerably high rate of false positive
      screening outcomes compared to the DemTect and disadvantages older people and
      women. Thus, in contrary to previous findings our results indicate that the CDT
      should not be used as exclusive instrument to screen for probable dementia in
      primary care.

PMID- 28891447
TI  - Potential Role of Neuroimaging Markers for Early Diagnosis of Dementia in Primary
      Care.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The use of imaging markers for the diagnosis of predementia and early
      dementia stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has widely been explored in research
      settings and specialized care. The use of these markers in primary care has yet
      to be established. OBJECTIVE: Summarize current evidence for the usefulness of
      imaging markers for AD in primary compared to specialized care settings. METHOD:
      Selective overview of the literature, and pilot data on the use of MRI-based
      hippocampus and basal forebrain volumetry for the discrimination of AD dementia
      and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) cases from healthy controls in 58 cases from
      a primary care cohort and 58 matched cases from a memory clinic's sample.
      RESULTS: Molecular imaging marker of amyloid pathology, and volumetric markers of
      regional and whole brain atrophy support the diagnosis of AD dementia and MCI due
      to AD, and contribute to confidence in the differential diagnosis of AD and non
      AD related dementias in specialized care. Limited evidence from the literature
      and our primary care cohort suggests that the diagnostic accuracy of volumetric
      imaging markers may be similar in the dementia stage of AD, but may be inferior
      for cases with MCI in primary compared with specialized care. CONCLUSION:
      Evidence is still widely lacking on the use of imaging markers for early and
      differential diagnosis of AD dementia, and detection of prodromal AD in primary
      care. Further progress to fill this gap will depend on the availability of
      international multimodal data from well-defined primary care cohorts.

PMID- 28891448
TI  - A Special Focus on Selexipag - Treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
AB  - BACKGROUND: This review focuses on the treatment of pulmonary arterial
      hypertension (PAH) with selexipag and compares its drug-related therapeutic
      effects with those of prostacyclin analogues. METHODS: We searched the relevant
      literature and summarized the current clinical trials concerning selexipag and
      PAH. RESULTS: With only few cases per million, PAH is a rare disease, but when
      untreated it can be life-threatening. PAH is linked to elevated levels of
      endothelin (ET-1) and decreased levels of nitric oxide (NO) and prostacyclin
      (PGI2). PAH-specific therapeutic approaches concentrate on these characteristics
      with drugs targeting the endothelin- receptor (e.g. bosentan), phosphodiesterase
      5 (e.g. sildenafil) or the prostacyclin-receptor (e.g. treprostinil). Recently,
      the new drug selexipag acting as a non-prostanoid IP2-receptor agonist has been
      approved for PAH therapy. The active form of selexipag (ACT-333679) was designed
      by the help of a medicinal chemistry program and it was further modified by
      replacing the terminal carboxyl group with an N-acylsulfonamide group to form the
      more stable oral drug, selexipag. Selexipag has a high selectivity for the IP2
      receptor and differs from conventional prostacyclin analogues in its chemical
      structure. In the GRIPHON trial selexipag was demonstrated to significantly
      improve the primary composite endpoint of death or complications related to PAH
      (hazard ratio 0.6, 99% confidence interval, 0.46 to 0.78; P < 0.001) as well as
      exercise capacity in the form of the 6-minute walk distance (12.0 m treatment
      effect, 99% confidence interval, 1 to 24; P = 0.003). However, no significant
      reduction in all-cause mortality was achieved. Selexipag has also shown promising
      results in combination therapy with phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE-5i)
      and/or endothelin receptor antagonists (ERA). The most common adverse effects
      (AEs), associated with selexipag, are headache, diarrhea, jaw pain, and nausea.
      Nevertheless, Selexipag was generally well tolerated during the GRIPHON trial.
      CONCLUSIONS: Selexipag is a valuable addition to PAH therapeutics especially by
      reducing the PAH-related hospitalizations and thus improving quality of life in
      PAH patients.

PMID- 28891449
TI  - Role of Pharmacogenomics in Antiepileptic Drug Therapy: Current Status and Future
      Perspectives.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Growing evidence indicates that pharmacogenomics will positively
      impact treatment for patients with epilepsy in the near future, leading to the
      implementation of a precision-based use of antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy,
      thereby providing a cornerstone for precision medicine. OBJECTIVE: In this
      review, we briefly summarize the studies of pharmacogenomics in epilepsy, recent
      advances, and how it may progress in the future. METHODS: We subdivided the
      review into two main sections: genetic variants that may modulate response to
      AEDs through pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics mechanisms; and gene variants
      that may affect tolerability and safety of AEDs. RESULTS: Results from most
      studies have been contradictory, due to several flaws, including small sample
      sizes, inaccurate phenotyping, and genotyping strategies. However, even with
      these limitations, very recent developments indicate that the goal of
      incorporating genetic data into clinical practice may be attainable in the near
      future. In addition, recent pharmacogenomic studies of hypersensitivity reactions
      to AEDs have also made important strides, as its prevention appears attainable
      with the identification of HLA-A genotypes for patients at high risk of
      carbamazepine hypersensitivity. CONCLUSION: To better clarify the relationship
      between genetic factors and AEDs, future studies will require more precise
      epilepsy phenotypes, larger sample sizes, and astute use of new genotyping
      strategies. Reasonably, this will lead to novel therapeutic approaches in drug
      targeting and antiepileptogenesis.

PMID- 28891450
TI  - The "Neurocentric" Approach to Essential Hypertension: How Reliable is the
      Paradigm of Hyperkinetic Hypertension? A Focus on the Sympathetic Nervous System
      Dysregulation in Essential Hypertensive Patients with Elevated Resting Heart
      Rate.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinic resting heart rate (RHR), is one of the cardiovascular
      parameters more easily measurable. In the general population RHR has been
      associated with total and cardiovascular mortality and higher rate of vascular
      events. OBJECTIVE: The case of essential hypertension is in some ways peculiar:
      in the past decades has often been attributed to hypertensive subjects higher
      values of RHR than healthy controls as a result of the effects of the different
      factors leading to the development of essential hypertension itself, first of all
      the presence of an increased tone of the sympathetic nervous system Methods:
      Several excellent articles debated the issue of autonomic dysfunction in
      essential hypertension; nevertheless of this, after various decades of debate,
      this issue is to-date unresolved. The aim of this review is to discuss the
      reliability of the hypothesis that elevated resting heart rate in hypertensive
      subjects is associated to high blood pressure and both to elevated sympathetic
      nervous system activity or rather if these three phenomena coexist in a limited
      portion of subjects being not necessarily linked each other with a causal
      relationship. RESULTS: The ascertainment of the exact proportion of the
      hypertensive subjects having sympathetic overdrive appears to be hard, not only
      due to the multiple interferences and the constant interplay between the various
      determinants of the sympathetic tone, but also because a significant uncertainty
      remains with regard to the validity of the methods used for assessing the
      sympathetic tone. CONCLUSIONS: To date, any threshold used to define tachycardia
      is arbitrary. The percentage of hypertensive patients with elevated RHR varies
      considerably between the various studies, first of all because the modality of
      assessment influences the results. The "white coat tachycardia" is a clinical
      entity that must be taken into account. Ambulatory heart rate represents a good
      diagnostic alternative, since nocturnal mean heart rate appears to be the
      parameter with the highest prognostic value, probably because is less conditioned
      by external factors, being more representative of the "real" heart rate of the
      subject.

PMID- 28891451
TI  - Fibrinolytic and Anticoagulation Therapy in Patients Undergoing Ultrasound
      Assisted Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis for Pulmonary Embolism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-assisted, catheter-directed thrombolysis (UA-CDT) relieves
      right ventricular stress without a significant increase in the risk of bleeding
      compared to systemic thrombolysis. Although concomitant anticoagulation is
      provided to prevent thrombus expansion, the optimal anticoagulation regimen in
      patients receiving UA-CDT remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: We sought to describe
      anticoagulation practices for patients receiving UA-CDT. METHODS: Patients
      receiving UA-CDT for acute pulmonary embolism (PE) between Jan 1, 2013 to Sept
      30, 2014 at a single center were analyzed. We collected patient characteristics,
      fibrinolytic and anticoagulant usage as well as clinical outcomes. RESULTS:
      Fourteen patients were included in the final analysis. The mean alteplase dose
      was 16.8 +/- 5.6 mg and 24.3 +/- 3.4 mg in unilateral and bilateral PE,
      respectively. Mean unfractionated heparin (UFH) rates were 7.4 (+/-2.17) IU/kg/hr
      and 12.4 (+/-3.1) IU/kg/hr during and after fibrinolytic therapy, respectively.
      The median aPTT was 42.4 sec [IQR 34.5-51.8] and 77.9 sec [IQR 66.5-96.8] during
      and after fibrinolytic therapy, respectively. There were no recurrent VTE within
      30 days of hospital discharge. One patient had a major bleeding event
      (intracranial hemorrhage). CONCLUSION: In patients with acute PE, our institution
      utilized low levels of anticoagulation during fibrinolytic administration and
      therapeutic doses after completion of fibrinolytic infusion. Standardized
      protocols for anticoagulation during UA-CDT are warranted.

PMID- 28891452
TI  - Congenital FX Deficiency Rio Tercero: A New Heterozygous Missense Mutation
      (Cys241Gly) with a Potentiating Effect by a Polymorphism (c. 503-57C>T).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim was to report a new family with congenital FX deficiency.
      PATIENTS AND METHODS: The proposita is a 41 year old female with a moderate
      bleeding tendency (easy bruising, menorrhagia). Parents were not consanguineous.
      Family history was positive for a mild bleeding tendency. RESULTS: Coagulation
      and genetics studies revealed that the proposita and two of her siblings were
      heterozygotes for a new mutation Cys241Gly in exon 6 but had different FX level
      (2-3% of normal in the proposita and about 50% in the two siblings. The same was
      true for one of her three children. The mother and the other two children of the
      proposita had also slightly decreased FX levels but no mutation. On the suspicion
      that the proposita was carrying another defect which had escaped the Sanger
      method, we carried out a whole exome analysis and discovered that the proposita
      and one of her siblings were also homozygous for a mutation of a known
      polymorphism (c.503-57C>T). The daughter of the proposita was instead, besides
      being a carrier of the missense new mutation Cys241Gly, heterozygous for the same
      polymorphism. The mother and two other daughters were also heterozygous for the
      polymorphism. There were no deletions or duplications. CONCLUSION: The
      polymorphism present in the family seems to be capable of potentiating the defect
      induced by the new mutation. This, safe for epigenetics phenomena, is the only
      possible explanation for the discrepancy found in the FX level between mother and
      daughter despite the fact that both carried the same new mutation.

PMID- 28891453
TI  - Management of Hemophilic Arthropathy of the Ankle.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hemophilic arthropathy (HA) of the ankle is prevalent in people with
      hemophilia (PWH). It is frequently severe and incapacitating, due to recurrent
      bleeding into the ankle articulation during infancy. Around 50% of hemophilic
      patients suffer from ankle pain and radiological signs of HA. OBJECTIVE: To
      review current treatment of HA of the ankle in PWH. METHOD: A literature review
      of hemophilic ankle arthropathy in PWH was performed utilizing MEDLINE (PubMed)
      and the Cochrane Library. RESULTS: Primary hematologic prophylaxis could keep
      away from the development of ankle HA if the level of the patient's deficient
      factor is prevented from dropping below 1% of normal. Recurrent articular
      bleeding can be prevented by the intravenous infusion of clotting factor
      concentrates (prophylaxis). Major articular bleeds and chronic hemophilic
      synovitis should be managed fiercely to prevent ankle HA. In the circumstance of
      advancing articular involvement, some noninvasive and invasive procedures can
      procure symptomatic mitigation and ameliorate the patient's function and quality
      of life. CONCLUSION: The ideal treatment for the hemophilic ankle when
      hematologic prophylaxis fails includes physical medicine and rehabilitation,
      orthoses, radiosynovectomy, arthroscopic ankle debridement (in the initial stages
      of cartilage degeneration), and ankle distraction, ankle fusion or total ankle
      replacement (in advanced stages of cartilage degeneration).

PMID- 28891454
TI  - Current Technology in the Discovery and Development of Novel Antibacterials.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of the most serious
      challenge to global public health. The introduction of new antibiotics in
      clinical settings, i.e. agents that belong to a new class of antibacterials, act
      on new targets or has a novel mechanisms of action, may not be sufficient to cope
      with the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens such as Staphylococcus
      aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae,
      Acinetobacter baumannii and Escherichia coli, which are increasingly prevalent in
      healthcare settings in Europe, the USA and Asia. Hence, coordinated efforts in
      minimizing the risk of spread of resistant bacteria and renewing research efforts
      in the search for novel antibacterial agents are urgently needed to manage this
      global crisis. OBJECTIVE: This review highlights the challenges and potential in
      using current technologies in the discovery and development of novel
      antibacterial agents to keep up with the constantly evolving resistance in
      bacteria. CONCLUSION: With the explosion of bacterial genomic data and rapid
      development of new sequencing technologies, the understanding of bacterial
      pathogenesis and identification of novel antibiotic targets have significantly
      improved.

PMID- 28891455
TI  - Epigenetic Biomarkers for Risk Assessment of Particulate Matter Associated Lung
      Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Particulate matter directly emitted into the air by sources such as
      combustion processes and windblown dust, or formed in the atmosphere by
      transformation of emitted gases are the major contributors to air pollution that
      triggers a diverse array of human pathologies including lung cancer. The
      mortality in lung cancer is usually high as the disease is not symptomatic at its
      early treatable stage. Moreover, available methods for screening are costly and
      mainly rely on imaging techniques which lack sufficient sensitivity and
      specificity. Despite progress in the identification of biomarkers, gene mutation
      based approaches still face formidable challenges as the disease evolves from a
      complex interplay between environment and host. Therefore, identification of an
      epigenomic signature might be useful for early diagnosis with the potential to
      reduce the environmental-associated disease burden. OBJECTIVE: The review
      discusses the utility of epigenomic signature in identification and management of
      the environmental-associated lung cancers. CONCLUSION: Non-invasive 'liquid
      biopsy' based epigenomic screening has recently emerged as a methodology which
      has potential to characterize tumor heterogeneity at initial stages. Epigenetic
      signatures (methylated DNA, miRNA, and post transcriptionally modified histones)
      known to reflect the vital cellular changes, circulate at higher levels in the
      individuals with lung cancer. These circulating biological entities are reported
      to be closely associated with the clinical outcome of lung cancer patients and
      thus strongly stand as the probable candidate to identify disease at an early
      stage and monitor treatment response, thereby, benefiting patients and improving
      their lives. However, for effective implementation of the strategy as "point-of
      care" test for screening population-at-risk will require exhaustive clinical
      validation.

PMID- 28891456
TI  - Spatiotemporal risk mapping of hand, foot and mouth disease and its association
      with meteorological variables in children under 5 years.
AB  - Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) risk has become an increasing concern in the
      Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which is the biggest urban agglomeration in north
      eastern Asia. In the study, spatiotemporal epidemiological features of HFMD were
      analysed, and a Bayesian space-time hierarchy model was used to detect local
      spatial relative risk (RR) and to assess the effect of meteorological factors.
      From 2009 to 2013, there was an obvious seasonal pattern of HFMD risk. The
      highest risk period was in the summer, with an average monthly incidence of
      4.17/103, whereas the index in wintertime was 0.16/103. Meteorological variables
      influenced temporal changes in HFMD. A 1  degrees C rise in air temperature was
      associated with an 11.5% increase in HFMD (corresponding RR 1.122). A 1% rise in
      relative humidity was related to a 9.51% increase in the number of HFMD cases
      (corresponding RR 1.100). A 1 hPa increment in air pressure was related to a
      0.11% decrease in HFMD (corresponding RR 0.999). A 1 h increase in sunshine was
      associated with a 0.28% rise in HFMD cases (corresponding RR 1.003). A 1 m/s rise
      in wind speed was related to a 6.2% increase in HFMD (corresponding RR 1.064).
      High-risk areas were mainly large cities, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang
      and their neighbouring areas. These findings can contribute to risk control and
      implementation of disease-prevention policies.

PMID- 28891458
TI  - ppGpp and cytotoxicity diversity in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC)
      isolates - CORRIGENDUM.

PMID- 28891457
TI  - Current prevalence of chronic hepatitis B and C virus infection in the general
      population, blood donors and pregnant women in the EU/EEA: a systematic review.
AB  - This systematic review aimed at estimating chronic hepatitis B (HBV) and C virus
      (HCV) prevalence in the European Union (EU) and Economic Area (EEA) countries in
      the general population, blood donors and pregnant women. We searched PubMed(c),
      Embase(c) and Cochrane Library databases for reports on HBV and HCV prevalence in
      the general population and pregnant women in EU/EEA countries published between
      2005 and 2015. Council of Europe data were used for HBV and HCV blood donor
      prevalence. HBV general population estimates were available for 13 countries,
      ranging from 0.1% to 4.4%. HCV general population estimates were available for 13
      countries, ranging from 0.1% to 5.9%. Based on general population and blood donor
      estimates, the overall HBV prevalence in the EU/EEA is estimated to be 0.9% (95%
      CI 0.7-1.2), corresponding to almost 4.7 million HBsAg-positive cases; and the
      overall HCV prevalence to be 1.1% (95% CI 0.9-1.4), equalling 5.6 million anti
      HCV-positive cases. We found wide variation in HCV and HBV prevalence across
      EU/EEA countries for which estimates were available, as well as variability
      between groups often considered a proxy for the general population. Prevalence
      estimates are essential to inform policymaking and public health practice.
      Comparing to other regions globally, HBV and HCV prevalence in the EU/EEA is low.

PMID- 28891459
TI  - Prevalence of Clostridium difficile infection and colonization in a tertiary
      hospital and elderly community of North-Eastern Peninsular Malaysia.
AB  - Little is known about Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in Asia. The aims of
      our study were to explore (i) the prevalence, risk factors and molecular
      epidemiology of CDI and colonization in a tertiary academic hospital in North
      Eastern Peninsular Malaysia; (ii) the rate of carriage of C. difficile among the
      elderly in the region; (iii) the awareness level of this infection among the
      hospital staffs and students. For stool samples collected from hospital
      inpatients with diarrhea (n = 76) and healthy community members (n = 138), C.
      difficile antigen and toxins were tested by enzyme immunoassay. Stool samples
      were subsequently analyzed by culture and molecular detection of toxin genes, and
      PCR ribotyping of isolates. To examine awareness among hospital staff and
      students, participants were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire.
      For the hospital and community studies, the prevalence of non-toxigenic C.
      difficile colonization was 16% and 2%, respectively. The prevalence of CDI among
      hospital inpatients with diarrhea was 13%. Out of 22 C. difficile strains from
      hospital inpatients, the toxigenic ribotypes 043 and 017 were most common (both
      14%). In univariate analysis, C. difficile colonization in hospital inpatients
      was significantly associated with greater duration of hospitalization and use of
      penicillin (both P < 0.05). Absence of these factors was a possible reason for
      low colonization in the community. Only 3% of 154 respondents answered all
      questions correctly in the awareness survey. C. difficile colonization is
      prevalent in a Malaysian hospital setting but not in the elderly community with
      little or no contact with hospitals. Awareness of CDI is alarmingly poor.

PMID- 28891460
TI  - Source of Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret planthopper (Hemiptera: Cixiidae) in
      southern France and potential effects of landscape.
AB  - Cixiid planthoppers are considered of major economic importance, as they can
      transmit phytoplasmas responsible for many plant diseases. While thorougly
      studied in vineyards, the epidemiology of stolbur phytoplasma, transmitted by
      Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret, was rarely investigated on minor crops as
      lavender, where it leads to 'yellow decline' disease and large economic losses.
      The objective of this paper is to understand the effect of the local landscape
      characteristics on the presence and density of H. obsoletus in the 'Plateau de
      Valensole', southern France. Potential host plants of H. obsoletus were surveyed
      in three contrasted zones (in terms of crops and disease intensity), by uprooting
      plants and capturing adults in emergence traps. The localization and potential
      movements of H. obsoletus from the host plants towards lavandin (infertile hybrid
      of lavender) were determined using yellow sticky traps. Clary sage plants were
      found as major hosts of H. obsoletus. Flying insects were also caught in fields
      of lavandin, although emergence traps and plant uprooting did not confirm this
      crop as a winter host, i.e., as a reservoir for the insect. Based on one zone, we
      showed that attractiveness may depend on crop (clary sage or lavandin) and on its
      age, as well as on the distance to the supposed source field. These results
      suggest that clary sage could be an important host of H. obsoletus, whose density
      largely varies between zones. Genetic studies would be required to confirm the
      role of clary sage in the dissemination of yellow decline of lavandin.

PMID- 28891461
TI  - Direct cost comparison of totally endoscopic versus open ear surgery.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Totally endoscopic ear surgery is a relatively new method for managing
      chronic ear disease. This study aimed to test the null hypothesis that open and
      endoscopic approaches have similar direct costs for the management of attic
      cholesteatoma, from an Australian private hospital setting. METHODS: A
      retrospective direct cost comparison of totally endoscopic ear surgery and
      traditional canal wall up mastoidectomy for the management of attic cholesteatoma
      in a private tertiary setting was undertaken. Indirect and future costs were
      excluded. A direct cost comparison of anaesthetic setup and resources, operative
      setup and resources, and surgical time was performed between the two techniques.
      RESULTS: Totally endoscopic ear surgery has a mean direct cost reduction of
      AUD$2978.89 per operation from the hospital perspective, when compared to canal
      wall up mastoidectomy. CONCLUSION: Totally endoscopic ear surgery is more cost
      effective, from an Australian private hospital perspective, than canal wall up
      mastoidectomy for attic cholesteatoma.

PMID- 28891462
TI  - Co-infection with a wheat rhabdovirus causes a reduction in Mal de Rio Cuarto
      virus titer in its planthopper vector.
AB  - Mal de Rio Cuarto virus (MRCV, Fijivirus, Reoviridae) causes one of the most
      important diseases in maize (Zea mays L.) in Argentina and has been detected in
      mixed infections with a rhabdovirus closely related to Maize yellow striate
      virus. In nature both viruses are able to infect maize and several grasses
      including wheat, and are transmitted in a persistent propagative manner by
      Delphacodes kuscheli Fennah (Hemiptera: Delphacidae). This work describes the
      interactions between MRCV and rhabdovirus within their natural vector and the
      consequences of such co-infection regarding virus transmission and symptom
      expression. First- and third-instar D. kuscheli nymphs were fed on MRCV-infected
      wheat plants or MRCV-rhabdovirus-infected oat plants, and two latency periods
      were considered. Transmission efficiency and viral load of MRCV-transmitting and
      non-transmitting planthoppers were determined by real-time quantitative
      polymerase chain reaction analysis (RTqPCR). Vector transmission efficiency was
      related to treatments (life stages at acquisition and latency periods).
      Nevertheless, no correlation between transmission efficiency and type of inoculum
      used to infect insects with MRCV was found. Treatment by third-instar nymphs 17
      days after Acquisition Access Period was the most efficient for MRCV
      transmission, regardless of the type of inoculum. Plants co-infected with MRCV
      and rhabdovirus showed the typical MRCV symptoms earlier than plants singly
      infected with MRCV. The transmitting planthoppers showed significantly higher
      MRCV titers than non-transmitting insects fed on single or mixed inocula,
      confirming that successful MRCV transmission is positively associated with viral
      accumulation in the insect. Furthermore, MRCV viral titers were higher in
      transmitting planthoppers that acquired this virus from a single inoculum than in
      those that acquired the virus from a mixed inoculum, indicating that the presence
      of the rhabdovirus somehow impaired MRCV replication and/or acquisition. This is
      the first study about interactions between MRCV and a rhabdovirus closely related
      to Maize yellow striate virus in this insect vector (D. kuscheli), and
      contributes to a better understanding of planthopper-virus interactions and their
      epidemiological implications.

PMID- 28891463
TI  - Epidemiology of seasonal influenza infection in pregnant women and its impact on
      birth outcomes.
AB  - Seasonal influenza can cause significant morbidity in pregnant women. Much of the
      existing epidemiological evidence on influenza during pregnancy has focused on
      the 2009 A/H1N1 pandemic. To measure the epidemiological characteristics of
      seasonal influenza infection among pregnant women and the impact on infant
      health, a cohort of 86 779 pregnancies during the influenza season (2012-2014)
      was established using probabilistic linkage of notifiable infectious disease,
      hospital admission, and birth information. A total of 192 laboratory-confirmed
      influenza infections were identified (2.2 per 1000 pregnancies), 14.6% of which
      were admitted to hospital. There was no difference in the proportion of
      infections admitted to hospital by trimester or subtype of infection. Influenza B
      infections were more likely to occur in second trimester compared with influenza
      A/H3N2 and influenza A/H1N1 infections (41.3%, 23.6%, and 33.3%, respectively),
      and on average, infants born to women with influenza B during pregnancy had 4.0%
      (95% CI 0.3-7.6%) lower birth weight relative to optimal compared with infants
      born to uninfected women (P = 0.03). Results from this linked population-based
      study suggest that there are differences in maternal infection by virus type and
      subtype and support the provision of seasonal influenza vaccine to pregnant
      women.

PMID- 28891464
TI  - Concentration dependent chromatin states induced by the bicoid morphogen
      gradient.
AB  - In Drosophila, graded expression of the maternal transcription factor Bicoid
      (Bcd) provides positional information to activate target genes at different
      positions along the anterior-posterior axis. We have measured the genome-wide
      binding profile of Bcd using ChIP-seq in embryos expressing single, uniform
      levels of Bcd protein, and grouped Bcd-bound targets into four classes based on
      occupancy at different concentrations. By measuring the biochemical affinity of
      target enhancers in these classes in vitro and genome-wide chromatin
      accessibility by ATAC-seq, we found that the occupancy of target sequences by Bcd
      is not primarily determined by Bcd binding sites, but by chromatin context. Bcd
      drives an open chromatin state at a subset of its targets. Our data support a
      model where Bcd influences chromatin structure to gain access to concentration
      sensitive targets at high concentrations, while concentration-insensitive targets
      are found in more accessible chromatin and are bound at low concentrations. This
      may be a common property of developmental transcription factors that must gain
      early access to their target enhancers while the chromatin state of the genome is
      being remodeled during large-scale transitions in the gene regulatory landscape.

PMID- 28891465
TI  - Unusual prism adaptation reveals how grasping is controlled.
AB  - There are three main theories on how human grasping movements are controlled. Two
      of them state that grip aperture and the movement of the hand are controlled.
      They differ in whether the wrist or the thumb of the hand is controlled. We have
      proposed a third theory, which states that grasping is a combination of two goal
      directed single-digit movements, each directed at a specific position on the
      object. In this study, we test predictions based on each of the theories by
      examining the transfer of prism adaptation during single-digit pointing movements
      to grasping movements. We show that adaptation acquired during single-digit
      movements transfers to the hand opening when subsequently grasping objects,
      leaving the movement of the hand unaffected. Our results provide strong evidence
      for our theory that grasping with the thumb and index finger is based on a
      combination of two goal-directed single-digit movements.

PMID- 28891466
TI  - Thalamic input to auditory cortex is locally heterogeneous but globally
      tonotopic.
AB  - Topographic representation of the receptor surface is a fundamental feature of
      sensory cortical organization. This is imparted by the thalamus, which relays
      information from the periphery to the cortex. To better understand the rules
      governing thalamocortical connectivity and the origin of cortical maps, we used
      in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to characterize the properties of thalamic
      axons innervating different layers of mouse auditory cortex. Although
      tonotopically organized at a global level, we found that the frequency
      selectivity of individual thalamocortical axons is surprisingly heterogeneous,
      even in layers 3b/4 of the primary cortical areas, where the thalamic input is
      dominated by the lemniscal projection. We also show that thalamocortical input to
      layer 1 includes collaterals from axons innervating layers 3b/4 and is largely in
      register with the main input targeting those layers. Such locally varied
      thalamocortical projections may be useful in enabling rapid contextual modulation
      of cortical frequency representations.

PMID- 28891469
TI  - Influence of the sequence of proximal optimisation technique and side branch
      dilation for the opening of jailed struts after coronary bifurcation stenting.

PMID- 28891467
TI  - Removal of inhibition uncovers latent movement potential during preparation.
AB  - The motor system prepares for movements well in advance of their execution. In
      the gaze control system, the dynamics of preparatory neural activity have been
      well described by stochastic accumulation-to-threshold models. However, it is
      unclear whether this activity has features indicative of a hidden movement
      command. We explicitly tested whether preparatory neural activity in premotor
      neurons of the primate superior colliculus has 'motor potential'. We removed
      downstream inhibition on the saccadic system using the trigeminal blink reflex,
      triggering saccades at earlier-than-normal latencies. Accumulating low-frequency
      activity was predictive of eye movement dynamics tens of milliseconds in advance
      of the actual saccade, indicating the presence of a latent movement command. We
      also show that reaching a fixed threshold level is not a necessary condition for
      movement initiation. The results bring into question extant models of saccade
      generation and support the possibility of a concurrent representation for
      movement preparation and generation.

PMID- 28891470
TI  - Residual "inter-clip" regurgitation due to a partial detachment, treated with
      AMPLATZER Vascular Plug II implantation.

PMID- 28891468
TI  - Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor neddylation is regulated by a desmosomal-COP9
      (Constitutive Photomorphogenesis 9) signalosome complex.
AB  - Cell junctions are scaffolds that integrate mechanical and chemical signaling. We
      previously showed that a desmosomal cadherin promotes keratinocyte
      differentiation in an adhesion-independent manner by dampening Epidermal Growth
      Factor Receptor (EGFR) activity. Here we identify a potential mechanism by which
      desmosomes assist the de-neddylating COP9 signalosome (CSN) in attenuating EGFR
      through an association between the Cops3 subunit of the CSN and desmosomal
      components, Desmoglein1 (Dsg1) and Desmoplakin (Dp), to promote epidermal
      differentiation. Silencing CSN or desmosome components shifts the balance of EGFR
      modifications from ubiquitination to neddylation, inhibiting EGFR dynamics in
      response to an acute ligand stimulus. A reciprocal relationship between loss of
      Dsg1 and neddylated EGFR was observed in a carcinoma model, consistent with a
      role in sustaining EGFR activity during tumor progression. Identification of this
      previously unrecognized function of the CSN in regulating EGFR neddylation has
      broad-reaching implications for understanding how homeostasis is achieved in
      regenerating epithelia.

PMID- 28891471
TI  - Polymer-Free Drug-Coated Coronary Stents Are Cost-Effective in Patients at High
      Bleeding Risk: Economic Evaluation of the LEADERS FREE Trial.
AB  - AIMS: In patients at high risk of bleeding who undergo PCI the biolimus A9
      polymer-free drug coated stent (DCS) has superior efficacy and safety compared to
      a bare metal stent (BMS). We estimated the cost effectiveness of DCS vs. BMS.
      METHODS AND RESULTS: The Leaders FREE-based economic evaluation estimated service
      use and quality of life data collected prospectively. The entire trial population
      was analysed using cost-weights from England, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland
      and Spain. Country-specific QALYs were derived from EQ-5D scores. We estimated
      cost per event averted and per QALY gained. DCS use resulted in -0.095 cardiac
      deaths, target vessel MI, stent thrombosis and revascularization per patient
      (0.152 vs. 0.237;p<0.001). One-year QALYs were non-significantly higher in the
      DCS group. Total costs for the index admission were similar between groups. One
      year costs using cost-weights from each of the 6 countries, including the
      additional ?300 per DCS stent, ranged from ?4,664-8,593 for DCS and ?4,845-9,742
      for BMS and were lower in the DCS group (England:?-428, France:?-137, Germany:?
      33, Italy:?-522, Scotland:?-298, Spain:?-854). CONCLUSIONS: The probability that
      DCS dominated BMS was >50% in all countries. At a threshold of ?10,000 per event
      averted DCS had a 98% probability of being cost-effective in all 6 countries.

PMID- 28891473
TI  - Breastfeeding and Breastmilk - A Commitment, Not an Option.

PMID- 28891472
TI  - Characteristics of extension and de novo recurrent spontaneous coronary artery
      dissection.
AB  - AIMS: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an under-recognised and
      important cause of myocardial infarction in young women. Recurrent SCAD is
      frequent but poorly understood. We aimed to explore the clinical and angiographic
      characteristics, and outcomes of recurrent SCAD. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients
      with SCAD extension or recurrence prospectively followed at Vancouver General
      Hospital were included in this retrospective study. SCAD diagnosis was confirmed
      by two experienced cardiologists. Detailed medical history, baseline
      demographics, angiographic results, and clinical details of index SCAD and
      recurrent events were recorded. SCAD extension was defined as angiographic
      extension of a previously dissected coronary segment, and de novo recurrent SCAD
      was defined as new spontaneous dissection. We identified 43 patients with SCAD
      recurrence with mean age 48.9+/-8.4 years; 38/43 were women, and 32/43 had
      fibromuscular dysplasia. Nine patients had SCAD extension at median time of five
      (1-19) days, while 34 patients had de novo recurrent SCAD at median time of 1,487
      (107- 6,461) days after the index SCAD event. All SCAD extension patients had
      worsening of the index dissected segment, with 5/9 involving extension to
      adjacent segments, while all de novo recurrent SCAD patients had new dissections
      affecting coronary segments distinct from the index dissection. CONCLUSIONS: De
      novo recurrent SCAD invariably affected new segments distinct from previously
      dissected segments.

PMID- 28891474
TI  - Late Preterm Birth and Growth Failure in Childhood: What do we do now?

PMID- 28891475
TI  - Comparison of Transcutaneous Bilirubin Measurement With Total Serum Bilirubin
      Levels in Preterm Neonates Receiving Phototherapy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare transcutaneous bilirubin with total serum bilirubin in
      preterm neonates after initiation of phototherapy. METHODS: Jaundice was assessed
      in 30 preterm neonates with transcutaneous bilirubin and total serum bilirubin
      before initiation of phototherapy and at 12 hr after initiation of phototherapy.
      A photo-occlusive patch was applied over the sternum. RESULTS: Transcutaneous
      bilirubin has a good correlation with total serum bilirubin after initiation of
      phototherapy. (r=0.918, P<0.001). Transcutaneous bilirubin at 28-32 weeks of
      gestation (r = 0.97) was better correlated with total serum bilirubin than those
      at 32-37 weeks (r =0.88). The correlation was better for neonates <72 hours old
      (r = 0.96) than those >72 hours of age (r = 0.82). Conclusion: Transcutaneous
      bilirubin correlates significantly with total serum bilirubin at the patched
      sternal site after initiation of phototherapy in preterm neonates.

PMID- 28891476
TI  - Effect of Conventional and LED Phototherapy on the Antioxidant-Oxidant Status in
      Preterm Neonates with Jaundice.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To compare oxidative stress due to conventional and LED phototherapy
      among jaundiced preterm neonates. METHODS: Cross-sectional study conducted in
      NICU on 82 neonates (equal numbers received conventional and LED phototherapy).
      Total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant status (TOS) and Oxidative stress
      index (OSI) were assessed. RESULTS: Post-phototherapy, mean (SD) OSI increased
      significantly compared to baseline in both conventional [0.26 (0.24) vs. 0.61
      (0.41); P<0.001] and LED groups [0.24 (0.20) vs. 0.32 (0.23); P<0.001]. Across
      groups, mean (SD) TAC was lower [0.28 (0.16) vs. 0.53 (0.27); P<0.001] mmol
      Trolox equiv/L; mean (SD) TOS higher [15.6 (10.9) vs. 14.6 (10.2); P=0.711] umol
      H2O2/L and mean (SD) OSI higher [0.61 (0.42) vs. 0.33 (0.23); P<0.001] in
      conventional as compared to LED phototherapy. CONCLUSION: Both modes increased
      oxidative stress index; however, conventional phototherapy resulted in higher
      oxidative stress.

PMID- 28891477
TI  - Dexamethasone vs Placebo in Children having Pneumonia with Pleural Effusion:
      Evidence-based Medicine Viewpoint.

PMID- 28891478
TI  - Dexamethasone vs Placebo in Children having Pneumonia with Pleural Effusion:
      Contemporary Researcher's Viewpoint.

PMID- 28891479
TI  - Dexamethasone vs Placebo in Children having Pneumonia with Pleural Effusion:
      Pediatric Pulmonologist's Viewpoint.

PMID- 28891480
TI  - Dexamethasone vs Placebo in Children having Pneumonia with Pleural Effusion:
      Pediatrician's Viewpoint.

PMID- 28891481
TI  - Cardiac Manifestations in Children with Inborn Errors of Metabolism.
AB  - NEED AND PURPOSE: Cardiac involvement is a part of many inborn errors of
      metabolism, but has not been systematically studied. This review focuses on
      studies describing cardiac manifestations of inborn errors of metabolism in
      childhood. METHODS: Two independent reviewers searched the topic using PubMed
      database. Studies published within 20 years were considered, without applying any
      restrictions related to study design. Despite the small number of existing
      systematic studies on the topic, several case series/reports were identified.
      CONCLUSIONS: Cardiomyopathy is the most frequent heart disorder in most metabolic
      defects. Heart rhythm disorders are mainly encountered in mitochondrial disorders
      and acidemias, whereas valvular dysfunction is a prominent finding in storage
      disorders. Cardiac involvement in mitochondrial disorders, congenital disorders
      of glycosylation and acidemias usually constitute an early symptom. On the
      contrary, in storage disorders, heart problems are revealed in later stages
      during routine multisystemic evaluation, with the exception of Pompe disease. As
      a variety of cardiac manifestations can be found in inborn errors of metabolism,
      these children should be systematically screened for heart problems during their
      follow-up.

PMID- 28891482
TI  - Encephalopathy in Henoch-Schonlein Purpura.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) is the most common vasculitis in
      childhood. Severe central nervous system (CNS) involvement is rare in HSP. CASE
      CHARACTERISTICS: Three children with features of HSP presented with seizures and
      CNS dysfunction. OBSERVATION: All three children had abnormalities on
      neuroimaging; 2 had complete remission but one was left with severe neurological
      damage. MESSAGE: HSP patients may rarely present with CNS involvement with a
      prolonged course requiring aggressive treatment.

PMID- 28891483
TI  - Emergency Surgery for Refractory Status Epilepticus.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Management of refractory status epilepticus in children is extremely
      challenging. CASE CHARACTERISTICS: Two children with medically refractory status
      epilepticus, both of whom had lesional pathology on MRI and concordant data on
      EEG and PET scan. INTERVENTION: Emergency hemispherotomy performed in both
      patients. A complete, sustained seizure freedom obtained postoperatively.
      MESSAGE: Emergency surgery is a treatment option in selected cases of drug
      refractory status epilepticus with lesional pathology and concordant data.

PMID- 28891484
TI  - Variable Expressivity and Response to Bisphosphonate Therapy in a Family with
      Osteoporosis Pseudoglioma Syndrome.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis pseudoglioma syndrome (OPPGS) is a rare autosomal
      recessive genetic disorder characterised by congenital blindness and
      osteoporosis, caused by biallelic mutations in the LRP5 gene. CASE
      CHARACTERISTICS: A consanguineous family with four OPPGS-affected members with
      variable expressivity. OBSERVATION: A novel homozygous missense pathogenic
      variant (c.3709C>T) was identified in the LRP5 gene. Good response to
      biphosphonate therapy was observed in all affected members. Message: This case
      highlights the importance of screening for osteopenia in a case of familial
      exudative retinopathy, for early institution of bisphosphonate therapy.

PMID- 28891485
TI  - Severe Complications of Mumps.

PMID- 28891486
TI  - Outcome of Biliary Atresia After Kasai's Portoenterostomy: Few Concerns.

PMID- 28891487
TI  - Outcome of Biliary Atresia After Kasai's Portoenterostomy: Few Concerns: Author's
      Reply.

PMID- 28891488
TI  - Some Problems Associated with Generic Drugs.

PMID- 28891489
TI  - Generic Drugs: A Call for Balanced Approach.

PMID- 28891490
TI  - Subluxation of Eyes in Crouzon Syndrome.

PMID- 28891491
TI  - Genital Herpes Infection in an Adolescent with Diabetes Mellitus.

PMID- 28891492
TI  - Porokeratotic Eccrine Ostial and Dermal Duct Nevus.

PMID- 28891493
TI  - Infantile Scurvy.

PMID- 28891494
TI  - Large-area epitaxial growth of MoSe2 via an incandescent molybdenum source.
AB  - We have developed an incandescent Mo source to fabricate large-area single
      crystalline MoSe2 thin films. The as-grown MoSe2 thin films were characterized
      using transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy,
      atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL), reflection
      high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and angular resolved photoemission
      spectroscopy (ARPES). A new Raman characteristic peak at 1591 cm-1 was
      identified. Results from Raman spectroscopy, PL, RHEED and ARPES studies
      consistently reveal that large-area single crystalline mono-layer of MoSe2 could
      be achieved by this technique. This technique enjoys several advantages over
      conventional approaches and could be extended to the growth of other two
      dimensional layered materials containing a low-vapor-pressure element.

PMID- 28891495
TI  - Highly stable cesium lead iodide perovskite quantum dot light-emitting diodes.
AB  - Recently, all-inorganic perovskites such as CsPbBr3 and CsPbI3, have emerged as
      promising materials for light-emitting applications. While encouraging
      performance has been demonstrated, the stability issue of the red-emitting CsPbI3
      is still a major concern due to its small tolerance factor. Here we report a
      highly stable CsPbI3 quantum dot LED with red emission fabricated using an
      improved purification approach. The device achieved decent external quantum
      efficiency (EQE) of 0.21 % at a bias of 6 V and outstanding operational
      stability, with a L70 lifetime (EL intensity decreases to 70% of starting value)
      of 16 h and 1.5 h under a constant driving voltage of 5 V and 6 V (maximum EQE
      operation) respectively. Furthermore, the device can work under a higher voltage
      of 7 V (maximum luminance operation) and retain 50% of its initial EL intensity
      after 500 s. These findings demonstrate the promise of CsPbI3 quantum dots for
      stable red LEDs, and suggest the feasibility for electrically pumped perovskite
      lasers with further device optimizations.

PMID- 28891496
TI  - Core to shell switching of the conduction channel on SnO<sub>2</sub> nanowire
      sensors.
AB  - A sensor based on random connections of single crystalline SnO<sub>2</sub>
      nanowires (NW) has been fabricated for ethanol detection. Crystal growth was
      achieved on r-cut sapphire substrates using the vapor-liquid-solid process and
      vapor transport technique. The NWs length of ~10 MUm leads to the formation of
      several random node connections ensuring the electrical conduction between
      electrodes during sensing experiments. The samples were submitted to thermal
      treatments under a reducing atmosphere of H<sub>2</sub>/Ar, to generate oxygen
      vacancies at the surface of the NW. As a result, an impurity band of shallow
      donor electrons, located at 0.37 eV below conduction band, is formed and the
      switching of the conduction channel from the core to the surface of the NW takes
      place eliminating the potential barrier at each NW node.

PMID- 28891497
TI  - A framework to reconcile frequency scaling measurements, from intracellular
      recordings, local-field potentials, up to EEG and MEG signals.
AB  - In this viewpoint article, we discuss the electric properties of the medium
      around neurons, which are important to correctly interpret extracellular
      potentials or electric field effects in neural tissue. We focus on how these
      electric properties shape the frequency scaling of brain signals at different
      scales, such as intracellular recordings, the local field potential (LFP), the
      electroencephalogram (EEG) or the magnetoencephalogram (MEG). These signals
      display frequency-scaling properties which are not consistent with resistive
      media. The medium appears to exert a frequency filtering scaling as 1/f, which is
      the typical frequency scaling of ionic diffusion. Such a scaling was also found
      recently by impedance measurements in physiological conditions. Ionic diffusion
      appears to be the only possible explanation to reconcile these measurements and
      the frequency-scaling properties found in different brain signals. However, other
      measurements suggest that the extracellular medium is essentially resistive. To
      resolve this discrepancy, we show new evidence that metal-electrode measurements
      can be perturbed by shunt currents going through the surface of the brain. Such a
      shunt may explain the contradictory measurements, and together with ionic
      diffusion, provides a framework where all observations can be reconciled.
      Finally, we propose a method to perform measurements avoiding shunting effects,
      thus enabling to test the predictions of this framework.

PMID- 28891498
TI  - A model of ion transport processes along and across the neuronal membrane.
AB  - In this study, we provide a foundational model of ion transport processes in the
      intracellular and extracellular compartments of neurons at the nanoscale. There
      are two different kinds of ionic transport processes: (i) ionic transport across
      the neuronal membrane (trans-membrane), and (ii) ionic transport along both the
      intracellular and extracellular surfaces of the membrane. Brownian dynamics
      simulations are used to give a description of ionic trans-membrane transport.
      Electro-diffusion is used to model ion transport along the membrane surface, and
      the two transport processes can be linked analytically. In our model, we found
      that the interactions between ions and ion channels result in high-frequency
      ionic oscillations during trans-membrane transport. In ion transport along the
      membrane, high-frequency ionic oscillations may be evoked on both the
      intracellular and extracellular surfaces of the plasma membrane. The electric
      field caused by Coulomb interactions between the ions is found to be the most
      likely origin of those ionic oscillations.

PMID- 28891499
TI  - Astroglial hydro-ionic waves guided by the extracellular matrix: An exploratory
      model.
AB  - Calcium waves are generated from the astrocyte endoplasmatic reticulum, in
      response to neuronal electrochemical stimulation. The waves feed back on neurons,
      modulating (reinforcing or depressing) their activity and the resulting behavior.
      How do these waves propagate from the astrocyte endoplasmatic reticulum to the
      synaptic space and reach neuron membrane channels? An exploratory model is
      elaborated, on the basis of complex interactions of ions, water negative
      exclusion zones and charged sites of proteins. The mechanism includes a role for
      the extracellular matrix to guide the hydro-ionic wave towards regions of the
      neuronal membrane where they are functional. The function of the waves is
      explored, suggesting that their dynamic patterns compose an adequate substrate
      for feelings (from basic feelings as hunger and thirst, pain and pleasure, to
      more complex ones, such as joy and sadness, love and hate).

PMID- 28891500
TI  - On the Nernst-Planck equation.
AB  - This review first discusses Nernst's and Planck's early papers on electro
      diffusion, the brief priority conflict that followed, and the role these papers
      played in shaping the emerging concept of membrane excitability. The second part
      discusses in greater detail the constraints of the Nernst-Planck theory, and
      shows more recent examples of its applicability for neuronal modelling.

PMID- 28891501
TI  - A comparison of computational models for the extracellular potential of neurons.
AB  - The extracellular space has an ambiguous role in neuroscience. It is present in
      every physiologically relevant system and often used as a measurement site in
      experimental recordings, but it has received subordinate attention compared to
      the intracellular domain. In computational modeling, it is often regarded as a
      passive, homogeneous resistive medium with a constant conductivity, which greatly
      simplifies the computation of extracellular potentials. However, novel studies
      have shown that local ionic diffusion and capacitive effects of electrically
      active membranes can have a substantial impact on the extracellular potential.
      These effects can not be described by traditional models, and they have been
      subject to recent theoretical and experimental analyses. We strive to give an
      overview over current progress in modeling the extracellular space with special
      regard towards the concentration and potential dynamics on different temporal and
      spatial scales. Three models with distinct assumptions and levels of detail are
      compared both theoretically and by means of numerical simulations: the classical
      volume conductor (VC) model, which is most frequently used in form of the line
      source approximation (LSA); the biophysically detailed, but computationally
      intensive Poisson-Nernst-Planck model of electrodiffusion (PNP); and an
      intermediate model called the electroneutral model (EN). The results clearly show
      that there is no one model for all applications, as they show significantly
      different responses - especially close to neuronal membranes. Finally, we list
      some common use cases for model simulations and give recommendations on which
      model to use in each situation.

PMID- 28891502
TI  - Extrapolating meaning from local field potential recordings.
AB  - Local field potentials (LFP) reflect the spatially weighted low-frequency
      activity nearest to a recording electrode. LFP recording is a window to a wide
      range of cellular activities and has gained increasing attention over recent
      years. We here review major conceptual issues related to LFP with the goal of
      creating a resource for non-experts considering implementing LFP into their
      research. We discuss the cellular activity that constitutes the local field
      potential; recording techniques, including recommendations and limitations;
      approaches to analysis of LFP data (with focus on power-banded analyses); and
      finally we discuss reports of the successful use of LFP in clinical applications.

PMID- 28891503
TI  - Extracellular matrix and its role in conveying glial/neural interactions in
      health and disease.
AB  - We review the concepts and findings that may be related to the occurrence of non
      linear glial/neural dynamics involving interactions between polyelectrolytes of
      the extracellular matrix and the basement membranes that cover the endfeet of
      glia at CNS interfaces. Distortions of perception and blocking of learning
      expressed in functional syndromes are interpreted as macroscopic electrochemical
      patterns that emerge in grey matter through glial/neural interactions.

PMID- 28891504
TI  - Special issue on extracellular space.

PMID- 28891505
TI  - Sleep microstructure dynamics and neurocognitive performance in obstructive sleep
      apnea syndrome patients.
AB  - The present study examined the relationship between the increment in cyclic
      alternating patterns (CAPs) in sleep electroencephalography and neurocognitive
      decline in obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) patients through source
      localization of the phase-A of CAPs. All-night polysomnographic recordings of 10
      OSAS patients and 4 control subjects along with their cognitive profile using the
      Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE) test were acquired. The
      neuropsychological assessment involved five key domains including attention and
      orientation, verbal fluency, memory, language and visuo-spatial skills. The
      standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) tool was
      used to source-localize the phase-A of CAPs in sleep EEG aiming to investigate
      the correlation between CAP phase-A and cognitive functions. Our findings
      suggested a significant increase in CAP rates among OSAS subjects versus control
      subjects. Moreover, sLORETA revealed that CAP phase-A is mostly activated in
      frontoparietal cortices. As CAP rate increases, the activity of phase-A in such
      areas is dramatically enhanced leading to arousal instability, lower sleep
      efficiency and a possibly impaired cortical capacity to consolidate cognitive
      inputs in frontal and parietal areas during sleep. As such, cognitive domains
      including verbal fluency, memory and visuo-spatial skills which predominantly
      relate to frontoparietal areas tend to be affected. Based on our findings, CAP
      activity may possibly be considered as a predictor of cognitive decline among
      OSAS patients.

PMID- 28891506
TI  - Association of sleep impairments and gastrointestinal disorders in the context of
      the visceral theory of sleep.
AB  - It was noticed long ago that sleep disorders or interruptions to the normal sleep
      pattern were associated with various gastrointestinal disorders. We review the
      studies which established the causal link between these disorders and sleep
      impairment. However, the mechanism of interactions between the quality of sleep
      and gastrointestinal pathophysiology remained unclear. Recently, the visceral
      theory of sleep was formulated. This theory proposes that the same brain
      structures, and particularly the same cortical sensory areas, which in
      wakefulness are involved in processing of the exteroceptive information, switch
      during sleep to the processing of information coming from various visceral
      systems. We review the studies which demonstrated that neurons of the various
      cortical areas (occipital, parietal, frontal) during sleep began to fire in
      response to activation coming from the stomach and small intestine. These data
      demonstrate that, during sleep, the computational power of the central nervous
      system, including all cortical areas, is engaged in restoration of visceral
      systems. Thus, the general mechanism of the interaction between quality of sleep
      and health became clear.

PMID- 28891507
TI  - Comparison of separation performance of independent component analysis algorithms
      for fMRI data.
AB  - Independent component analysis, a data-driven analysis method, has found
      significant applications in task-based as well as resting state fMRI studies.
      There are numbers of independent component analysis algorithms available, but
      only a few of them have been used frequently so far for fMRI images. With a view
      that algorithms that are overlooked may outperform the most opted, a comparative
      study is taken up in this paper to analyze their abilities for the purpose of
      synthesis of fMRI images. In this paper, ten independent component algorithms:
      Fast ICA, INFOMAX, SIMBEC, JADE, ERICA, EVD, RADICAL, ICA-EBM, ERBM, and COMBI
      are compared. Their separation abilities are adjudged on both, synthetic and real
      fMRI images. Performance to decompose synthetic fMRI images is being monitored on
      the basis of spatial correlation coefficients, time elapsed to extract
      independent components and the visual appearance of independent components.
      Ranking of their performances on task-based real fMRI images are based on the
      closeness of time courses of identified independent components with model time
      course and the closeness of spatial maps of components with spatial templates
      while their competencies for resting state fMRI data are analyzed by examining
      how distinctly they decompose the data into the most consistent resting state
      networks. Sum of mutual information between all the permutations of decomposed
      components of resting state fMRI data are also calculated.

PMID- 28891508
TI  - Spike propagation in axons under stretch growth conditions in cultured neurons
      from dorsal root ganglion.
AB  - Computational software NEURON was used to simulate the stretch growth neurons in
      order to investigate the ability of dorsal root ganglion neurons to generate and
      propagate action potentials after a period of rapid axon stretch growth in vitro,
      and under what stimulating parameters can evoke action potentials. In the
      simulation, we found the stretch growth neuron had higher spike amplitude than
      from the static culture neuron in the soma and all axonal branch. In addition,
      the conduction velocity was also faster in the stretch growth axon. When the
      stimulating frequency was less than 15 Hz or the stimulating voltage was lower
      than 15 mV, no spike was evoked. Increasing stimulating frequency from 15 Hz to
      5000 Hz or stimulating voltage from 15 mV to 100 mV had almost no effect on the
      spike amplitude. Interestingly, the first spike time and absolute refractory
      period (ARP) in different axonal branches and somas decreased stepwise with
      incremental increase in the stimulating frequency. It is concluded that the
      stretch growth neuron had higher amplitude and faster conduction velocity than
      the static culture neuron. In addition, some stimulating parameters had been
      analyzed in this study, which provided guidelines for electrophysiological
      experiments in future.

PMID- 28891509
TI  - Role of the medullary lateral tegmental field in sympathetic control.
AB  - The sympathetic nervous system maintains and regulates arterial pressure and
      tissue perfusion, via control of cardiac output and vasomotor tone. Sympatho
      vascular-mediated increases in blood pressure are effected by
      arterioloconstriction, which causes an increase in afterload, and/or
      venoconstriction, which increases venous return, left ventricular preload, and
      consequently, the force of cardiac contraction via Frank-Starling mechanisms;
      withdrawal of sympathetic drive elicits reciprocal effects. Spinalization reduces
      mammalian arterial pressure to 40-50 mm Hg consequent to the elimination of
      descending medullary pre-sympathetic bulbospinal drive to preganglionic
      sympathetic fibers in the intermediolateral cell column of the spinal cord.
      Beyond agreement that sympathetic tone is generated supraspinally, there is only
      controversy. One hypothesis posits that pre-sympathetic medullary regions, such
      as the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and caudal raphe group, possess
      intrinsic tonic activity. Alternatively, pre-sympathetic medullary regions may
      receive tonic excitation from other areas in the brainstem. Neurons in the
      lateral tegmental field (LTF), an exclusively propriobulbar entity (cf. pre
      Botzinger complex - the propriobulbar inspiratory rhythmogenic kernel of the
      respiratory network), fire before and project to pre-sympathetic units in RVLM
      and caudal raphe and exhibit activity correlated to the cardiac-related rhythm in
      sympathetic nerve discharge, making the LTF a likely candidate for the primary
      source of basal sympathoexcitation. The LTF is additionally involved in a variety
      of cardiovascular and sympathetic reflexes (i.e., baroreflex, Bezold-Jarisch
      reflex). As it receives descending afferents from the infralimbic cortex and
      associated limbic structures, suggesting a role in the sympathetic response to
      fear, as well as vestibular inputs, consistent with a role in coordinating the
      sympathetic response with emesis proper, the LTF appears to play an extensive
      integrative role. In this review, we discuss the LTF, a once mysterious, poorly
      characterized, and ill-defined region, the contribution of which to
      cardiovascular reflexes and basal sympathoexcitation has been more thoroughly
      elucidated in recent years and any model of central control of sympathetic output
      must take into consideration the contribution of this important region.

PMID- 28891510
TI  - Influence of visual elicitation over emotion regulation: An investigation
      employing the heart rate variability.
AB  - Several works studied the elicitation of emotions through the exposure of
      individuals to relevant stimuli, using spectral analysis of Heart Rate
      Variability (HRV) when people are subject to emotional elicitation. If
      correlation exists between HRV and emotional responses, spectral analysis can be
      used to study emotion regulation under external stimuli. In this work, we studied
      the relationship between visual elicitation and emotion regulation, employing
      HRV. Images (with pleasant, unpleasant and neutral emotional content) were
      selected from the IAPS (International Affective Picture System) dataset. Ninety
      eight participants were enrolled, and subject to view all images, displayed in
      random order for each participant. Heart rate was recorded during the experiment,
      and HRV analysis was performed. Spectral values were studied for the different
      images. The presentation order of images was relevant, mainly when unpleasant
      images were viewed in first place; this significantly affects HRV values.
      Spectral values were higher for men, being this difference stronger when pleasant
      pictures were displayed. Age and gender dependences of spectral indexes were
      found. The influence of visual elicitation, with different emotional contents,
      over HRV, was assessed. Results indicate that HRV parameters are affected when
      individuals are subject to external, emotional-based stimuli.

PMID- 28891511
TI  - Gender similarities and differences in brain activation strategies: Voxel-based
      meta-analysis on fMRI studies.
AB  - Gender similarities and differences have long been a matter of debate in almost
      all human research, especially upon reaching the discussion about brain
      functions. This large scale meta-analysis was performed on functional MRI
      studies. It included more than 700 active brain foci from more than 70 different
      experiments to study gender related similarities and differences in brain
      activation strategies for three of the main brain functions: Visual-spatial
      cognition, memory, and emotion. Areas that are significantly activated by both
      genders (i.e. core areas) for the tested brain function are mentioned, whereas
      those areas significantly activated exclusively in one gender are the gender
      specific areas. During visual-spatial cognition task, and in addition to the core
      areas, males significantly activated their left superior frontal gyrus, compared
      with left superior parietal lobule in females. For memory tasks, several
      different brain areas activated by each gender, but females significantly
      activated two areas from the limbic system during memory retrieval tasks. For
      emotional task, males tend to recruit their bilateral prefrontal regions, whereas
      females tend to recruit their bilateral amygdalae. This meta-analysis provides an
      overview based on functional MRI studies on how males and females use their
      brain.

PMID- 28891512
TI  - Decoding of visual activity patterns from fMRI responses using multivariate
      pattern analyses and convolutional neural network.
AB  - Decoding of human brain activity has always been a primary goal in neuroscience
      especially with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. In recent
      years, Convolutional neural network (CNN) has become a popular method for the
      extraction of features due to its higher accuracy, however it needs a lot of
      computation and training data. In this study, an algorithm is developed using
      Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) and modified CNN to decode the behavior of
      brain for different images with limited data set. Selection of significant
      features is an important part of fMRI data analysis, since it reduces the
      computational burden and improves the prediction performance; significant
      features are selected using t-test. MVPA uses machine learning algorithms to
      classify different brain states and helps in prediction during the task. General
      linear model (GLM) is used to find the unknown parameters of every individual
      voxel and the classification is done using multi-class support vector machine
      (SVM). MVPA-CNN based proposed algorithm is compared with region of interest
      (ROI) based method and MVPA based estimated values. The proposed method showed
      better overall accuracy (68.6%) compared to ROI (61.88%) and estimation values
      (64.17%).

PMID- 28891513
TI  - Electrode channel selection based on backtracking search optimization in motor
      imagery brain-computer interfaces.
AB  - Common spatial pattern algorithm is widely used to estimate spatial filters in
      motor imagery based brain-computer interfaces. However, use of a large number of
      channels will make common spatial pattern tend to over-fitting and the
      classification of electroencephalographic signals time-consuming. To overcome
      these problems, it is necessary to choose an optimal subset of the whole channels
      to save computational time and improve the classification accuracy. In this
      paper, a novel method named backtracking search optimization algorithm is
      proposed to automatically select the optimal channel set for common spatial
      pattern. Each individual in the population is a N-dimensional vector, with each
      component representing one channel. A population of binary codes generate
      randomly in the beginning, and then channels are selected according to the
      evolution of these codes. The number and positions of 1's in the code denote the
      number and positions of chosen channels. The objective function of backtracking
      search optimization algorithm is defined as the combination of classification
      error rate and relative number of channels. Experimental results suggest that
      higher classification accuracy can be achieved with much fewer channels compared
      to standard common spatial pattern with whole channels.

PMID- 28891514
TI  - Cognitive responses and cortical oscillatory processing at various stereoscopic
      depths - a simultaneous EEG/MEG study.
AB  - Due to the recent explosion in various forms of 3D content, the evaluation of
      such content from a neuroscience perspective is quite interesting. However,
      existing investigations of cortical oscillatory responses in stereoscopic depth
      perception are quite rare. Therefore, we investigated spatiotemporal and spatio
      temporo-spectral features at four different stereoscopic depths within the
      comfort zone. We adopted a simultaneous EEG/MEG acquisition technique to collect
      the oscillatory responses of eight participants. We defined subject-specific
      retinal disparities and designed a single trial-based stereoscopic viewing
      experimental paradigm. In the group analysis, we observed that, as the depth
      increased from Level 1 to Level 3, there was a time-locked increase in the N200
      component in MEG and the P300 component in EEG in the occipital and parietal
      areas, respectively. In addition, initial alpha and beta event-related
      desynchronizations (ERD) were observed at approximately 500 to 1000 msec, while
      theta, alpha, and beta event-related synchronizations (ERS) appeared at
      approximately 1000 to 2000 ms. Interestingly, there was a saturation point in the
      increase in cognitive responses, including N200, P300, and alpha ERD, even when
      the depth increased only within the comfort zone. Meanwhile, the magnitude of low
      beta ERD decreased in the dorsal pathway as depth increased. From these findings,
      we concluded that cognitive responses are likely to become saturated in the
      visual comfort zone, while perceptual load may increase with depth.

PMID- 28891515
TI  - A computational approach towards the microscale mouse brain connectome from the
      mesoscale.
AB  - The wiring diagram of the mouse brain presents an indispensable foundation for
      the research on basic and applied neurobiology. It is also essential as a
      structural foundation for computational simulation of the brain. Different scales
      of the connectome give us different hints and clues to understand the functions
      of the nervous system and how they process information. However, compared to the
      macroscale and most recent mesoscale mouse brain connectome studies, there is no
      complete whole brain microscale connectome available because of the scalability
      and accuracy of automatic recognition techniques. Different scales of the
      connectivity data are comprehensive descriptions of the whole brain at different
      levels of details. Hence connectivity results from a neighborhood scale may help
      to predict each other. Here we report a computational approach to bring the
      mesoscale connectome a step forward towards the microscale from the perspective
      of neuron, synapse and network motifs distribution by the connectivity data at
      the mesoscale and some facts from the anatomical experiments at the microscale.
      These attempts make a step forward towards the efforts of microscale mouse brain
      connectome given the fact that the detailed microscale connectome results are
      still far to be produced due to the limitation of current nano-scale 3-D
      reconstruction techniques. The generated microscale mouse brain will play a key
      role on the understanding of the behavioral and cognitive processes of the mouse
      brain. In this paper, the conversion method which could get the approximate
      number of neurons and synapses in microscale is proposed and tested in sub
      regions of Hippocampal Formation (HF), and is generalized to the whole brain. As
      a step forward towards understanding the microscale connectome, we propose a
      microscale motif prediction model to generate understanding on the microscale
      structure of different brain region from network motif perspective. Correlation
      analysis shows that the predicted motif distribution is very relevant to the real
      anatomical brain data at microscale.

PMID- 28891517
TI  - Selective attention and the "Asynchrony Theory" in native Hebrew-speaking adult
      dyslexics: Behavioral and ERPs measures.
AB  - The main aim of the present study was to determine whether adult dyslexic readers
      demonstrate the "Asynchrony Theory" (Breznitz [Reading Fluency: Synchronization
      of Processes, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Mahwah, NJ, USA, 2006]) when
      selective attention is studied. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral
      parameters were collected from nonimpaired readers group and dyslexic readers
      group performing alphabetic and nonalphabetic tasks. The dyslexic readers group
      was found to demonstrate asynchrony between the auditory and the visual
      modalities when it came to processing alphabetic stimuli. These findings were
      found both for behavioral and ERPs parameters. Unlike the dyslexic readers, the
      nonimpaired readers showed synchronized speed of processing in the auditory and
      the visual modalities while processing alphabetic stimuli. The current study
      suggests that established reading is dependent on a synchronization between the
      auditory and the visual modalities even when it comes to selective attention.

PMID- 28891516
TI  - Effects of donepezil on liver and kidney functions for the treatment of
      Alzheimer's disease.
AB  - Aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of medication with
      donepezil (acetylcholinesterase inhibitor) on the liver and kidney function in
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to compare the effects of donepezil medication
      during short (one month) and long term (six years) follow-ups. We evaluated
      female and male patients from Cukurova [42 AD patients; short term (5 mg/day)]
      and Dokuz Eylul [68 AD patients; long term (10 mg/day)] University Hospital. The
      results compared with the geriatric population without dementia in other words
      who are not in medication with donepezil. For short term evaluation all subjects
      underwent periodic examination with tests regarding hepatic and renal functions;
      firstly, before starting treatment and then repeated one month later. For long
      term evaluation all subjects underwent periodic examination with tests regarding
      hepatic and renal functions; three times at the end of each two consecutive years
      of treatment with donepezil. AD patients' results were also compared with 79
      neurologically healthy geriatric patients without dementia who were over 65 years
      of age and were not receiving medication with donepezil. For this task, serum
      aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels are
      used to predict possible liver damage, while the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and
      creatinine (CRE) levels for kidney damage. No significant difference between the
      groups regarding the routine control of biochemical parameters was observed in
      short term drug medication. In long term patients' group; the effects of two
      years use of donepezil on renal and hepatic function were also evaluated and
      levels of AST, ALT, BUN and CRE were found to be increased significantly compared
      to pretreatment levels. But, they remained in the reference intervals. However,
      levels of AST and ALT at the end of the fourth year of therapy were similar to
      those measured at the end of the second year, levels of BUN and CRE continuing to
      increase with staying below the reference limits. Functional markers obtained at
      the end of the sixth year of therapy were not differing from those of the fourth
      year. No significant difference was found during comparisons within the results
      of the neurologically healthy geriatric patient group. During comparisons between
      the two groups, measurements obtained at all-time points were significantly high
      in donepezil treated AD patients. We concluded that customized dosage according
      to hepatic and renal functions is necessary for using acetylcholinesterase
      inhibitor in AD patients.

PMID- 28891518
TI  - Temperature effects on accommodative processes in simulated amyotrophic lateral
      sclerosis in the physiological range.
AB  - The present study investigates the temperature dependence of electrotonic
      potentials in mathematically-simulated myelinated axons with one of three
      increasingly-severe type of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology, termed
      as ALS1, ALS2 and ALS3, respectively, in the physiological range (30-37?C). These
      potentials were elicited by long-lasting (100 ms) subthreshold polarizing current
      stimuli (+/-40% of the threshold). Numerical solutions were computed using our
      temperature-dependent multi-layered model. The results showed the following
      trends: (i) in ALS1, polarizing electrotonic potentials were normal; (ii) in ALS2
      and ALS3, action potentials were elicited in the early parts of the depolarizing
      electrotonic potentials, and (iii) in ALS3, spontaneous discharges were elicited
      after the termination of applied hyperpolarizing stimuli (i.e., post-anodal
      excitation). The ionic currents underlying electrotonic potentials in the ALS1
      case were attributable to the activation of potassium fast (Kf+) and slow (Ks+)
      channels in the nodal and internodal axolemma beneath the myelin sheath. By
      contrast, in ALS2 and ALS3, the depolarizing stimuli activated the classical
      "transient" Na+ channels in the nodal and internodal axolemma beneath the myelin
      sheath eliciting action potential generation. These results obtained were closer
      to those observed in hypothermia (?25?C) than in hyperthermia (?40?C).

PMID- 28891519
TI  - Following during physically-coupled joint action engages motion area MT+/V5.
AB  - Interpersonal coordination during joint action depends on the perception of the
      partner's movements. In many such situations - for example, while moving
      furniture together or dancing a tango - there are kinesthetic interactions
      between the partners due to the forces shared between them that allow them to
      directly perceive one another's movements. Joint action of this type often
      involves a contrast between the roles of leader and follower, where the leader
      imparts forces onto the follower, and the follower has to be responsive to these
      force-cues during movement. We carried out a novel 2-person functional MRI study
      with trained couple dancers engaged in bimanual contact with an experimenter
      standing next to the bore of the magnet, where the two alternated between being
      the leader and follower of joint improvised movements, all with the eyes closed.
      One brain area that was unexpectedly more active during following than leading
      was the region of MT+/V5. While classically described as an area for processing
      visual motion, it has more recently been shown to be responsive to tactile motion
      as well. We suggest that MT+/V5 responds to motion based on force-cues during
      joint haptic interaction, most especially when a follower responds to force-cues
      coming from a leader's movements.

PMID- 28891520
TI  - Neurons in dorsal premotor cortex represent the switching of intended hand path
      in a delayed reaching task.
AB  - Dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) is considered to play a crucial role in motor
      preparation, yet how the variation of neuronal activity affects the generation of
      different circumstances dependent movements remains unclear. Here we trained two
      monkeys to perform a delayed reaching task instructed by two sets of cues, one
      for indicating the target locations and another for indicating a conditionally
      presented virtual obstacle in the reaching path, which required the monkey to
      make a bypassing instead of straight reaching. We recorded the activity of PMd
      neurons and investigated how they responded to the switching of intended hand
      path induced by obstacle bypassing. Comparing the neuronal activity between hand
      bypassing trials and straight reaching trials, we found 30% of the total 687 set
      related neurons showed different overall discharging level, and another 24%
      showed different onset time during the delay period. We also found 16% of the
      neurons were modulated only by target location and 14% were modulated by both
      target location and path switching. Our results demonstrate PMd neurons not only
      represent the planning of reaching to different target locations, as many
      previous studies have shown, but also represent the switching of intended
      reaching path induced by hand bypassing, suggesting how PMd neurons coordinate
      for such circumstances dependent motor planning.

PMID- 28891522
TI  - Impairments of cingulated cortex in the generalized tonic-clonic seizure epilepsy
      by combining morphological and functional connectivity magnetic resonance
      imaging.
AB  - Previous studies suggested that the patients with generalized tonic-clonic
      seizure had structural abnormalities in the thalamus, cingulated cortex and some
      other specific brain regions. Concurrently, the abnormality in thalamocortical
      network and basal ganglia network has been found in idiopathic generalized
      epilepsy. The cingulated cortex, a nexus of information processing and regulation
      in human brain, is implicated in the propagation of generalized spike in IGE and
      the previous studies have suggested that the structural features and functional
      connectivity of the cingulated cortex have been changed. The aim of this study
      was to demonstrate the alterations in the cingulated cortex in generalized tonic
      clonic seizure by combining morphological and functional connectivity magnetic
      resonance imaging. 19 patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizure and 19 age
      and gender-matched healthy controls were involved in the study. The three
      dimensional high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data were
      acquired for voxel-based morphometry analysis, two-sample t-test run on the T1
      weighted structural images revealed clusters exhibiting significant decreases in
      grey-matter volume in the generalized tonic-clonic seizure group, located within
      the cingulated cortex, thalamus, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and cerebellum. The
      decreased gray matter volume in the cingulated cortex indicating that the
      cingulated cortex has structural impairments in generalized tonic-clonic seizure
      patients. The bilateral cingulated cortex, as detected with decreased gray matter
      volume in patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizure through voxel-based
      morphometry analysis, was selected as seed regions for functional connectivity
      analysis. Compared with controls, we found decreased functional connectivity to
      left anterior cingulated cortex (ROI1) in the cuneus, frontal lobe and precentral
      gyrus. There was no significant result when seeding at the right anterior
      cingulum gyrus (ROI2). The results of the ROI3 (left middle cingulum) revealed
      the significantly decreased functional connectivity in the parietal lobe and
      frontal lobe. Seeding at the ROI4 (right middle cingulum), decreased functional
      connectivity showed in the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, frontal lobe. Seeding
      at the ROI5 (left posterior cingulum), decreased functional connectivity showed
      in the temporal lobe and frontal lobe. Seeding at the ROI6 (right posterior
      cingulum), decreased functional connectivity showed in the cuneus and frontal
      lobe. We did not find any increased functional connectivity of the posterior
      cingulated cortex (ROI3-ROI6) for the generalized tonic-clonic seizure patients
      in comparison to the controls (p<0.001). Our findings demonstrated that the
      abnormalities of the functional connectivity were likely to be related to the
      decreased gray matter volume in the cingulated cortex.

PMID- 28891521
TI  - Effects of high fat diet and perinatal dioxin exposure on development of body
      size and expression of platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta in the rat
      brain.
AB  - Environmental exposure to dioxins, consumption of a high fat diet, and platelet
      derived growth factor receptor beta signaling in the brain affect feeding
      behavior, which is an important determinant of body growth. In the present study,
      we investigated the effects of prenatal exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p
      dioxin and high fact diet after weaning on body growth and expression of platelet
      derived growth factor receptor beta in the brain in rat pups. Subjects from the
      control and dioxin exposure groups were assigned to 1 of 3 different diet groups:
      standard diet, high fat diet in the juvenile period, or high fat diet in
      adulthood. Body weight gain rate in the juvenile high fat diet group and the
      length gain rate in the adult high fat diet group were greater than the
      corresponding values in the standard diet group only in male offspring, although
      the effects of dioxin exposure on growth were not significant. Consumption of a
      high fat diet decreased platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta levels in
      the amygdala and hippocampus in both sexes compared to control groups, while
      2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin decreased platelet-derived growth factor
      receptor platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta levels in the amygdala and
      striatum only in females receiving an high fat diet. Furthermore, platelet
      derived growth factor receptor beta levels in the hippocampus and platelet
      derived growth factor receptor beta striatum were inversely correlated with
      increases in body length, while changes in platelet-derived growth factor
      receptor beta in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens were significantly correlated
      to body weight gain or body mass index. In conclusion, these findings suggest
      that these 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and high fat diet-induced changes
      in body growth and feeding behaviors might be partially mediated by changes in
      brain platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta levels.

PMID- 28891524
TI  - Semantic category-based decoding of human brain activity using a Gabor-based
      model by estimating intracranial field potential range in temporal cortex.
AB  - Predicting and decoding the recorded neural activity for visual stimuli is the
      topic of many studies. This prediction can be made by comparing the model's
      responses to different stimuli with the available recorded brain signal. The
      neural activities can be decoded then by finding the stimulus which has generated
      the nearest model's response to the recorded signal. In this study, a model is
      proposed which can estimate the response of human brain to images from different
      conceptual categories by inserting the visual stimuli as the model input after
      filtering by Gabor wavelets. This helped us to find each image's low level visual
      features. Afterward, the extracted image features were applied to the input of a
      curve fitting neural network. As the output, the range of intracranial field
      potential was estimated. This was performed separately for each pixel of the
      image. To evaluate the model's accuracy, two factors were used, namely the
      Pearson correlation and Normalized root mean square error. The results show that
      the proposed model can accurately estimate the brain's response to conceptual
      categories To decode the brain' activity based on the observed semantic category
      in each test observations by using of the model, we calculated the distance
      between the recorded signal and the model responses to all stimuli from different
      categories and assigned the category of the nearest model response to brain's
      response in that trial. To this end, a K-nearest neighbors classifier based on
      Euclidean distance was used. This leaded to a classification accuracy which was
      significantly higher than chance level. So, the proposed model can be used to
      decode the activity of the brain in response to the visual stimuli.

PMID- 28891523
TI  - Sensitivity analysis of discharge patterns of subthalamic nucleus in the model of
      basal ganglia in Parkinson disease.
AB  - Parkinson disease alters the information patterns in movement related pathways in
      brain. Experimental results performed on rats show that the activity patterns
      changes from single spike activity to mixed burst mode in Parkinson disease.
      However the cause of this change in activity pattern is not yet completely
      understood. Subthalamic nucleus is one of the main nuclei involved in the origin
      of motor dysfunction in Parkinson disease. In this paper, a single compartment
      conductance based model is considered which focuses on subthalamic nucleus and
      synaptic input from globus pallidus (external). This model shows highly nonlinear
      behavior with respect to various intrinsic parameters. Behavior of model has been
      presented with the help of activity patterns generated in healthy and Parkinson
      condition. These patterns have been compared by calculating their correlation
      coefficient for different values of intrinsic parameters. Results display that
      the activity patterns are very sensitive to various intrinsic parameters and
      calcium shows some promising results which provide insights into the motor
      dysfunction.

PMID- 28891525
TI  - Hodgkin-Huxley model based on ionic transport in axoplasmic fluid.
AB  - Hodgkin-Huxley model has been reframed to incorporate the physical parameters of
      fluid inside the axon. The reframed model comprises of set of partial
      differential equations containing the physical parameters: density, mass fraction
      of sodium, potassium and chlorine ions, longitudinal diffusivity of ions and rate
      of additions of ions along with the temperature. Obtained conduction velocity of
      19.5m/sec at a temperature of 18.5 degree celcius and conduction velocity
      dependency on temperature within the range 5 to 25 degree celcius are two
      important results that strongly validate the proposed model. The behavior of all
      the physical parameters has been characterized with respect to the action
      potential. Action potential conduction velocity along with axoplasmic fluid
      viscosity has been characterized with respect to different temperatures.
      Longitudinal diffusivity of ions is also quantified.

PMID- 28891526
TI  - Facial expressions triggered by imagining the future.
AB  - A body of research has investigated the cognitive and affective features of
      imagining the future. Our study aimed at extending this research by evaluating
      expressions that are triggered by future thinking. Participants were asked to
      remember and to imagine personal events. Both past and future thinking were video
      recorded and the recording was later analyzed by a software for facial analysis
      that detects and classifies basic emotional expressions (i.e., happy, sad, angry,
      surprised, scared, disgusted and neutral). The analysis showed more emotional and
      fewer neutral facial expressions during imagining the future than during
      remembering the past. These findings mirror a wealth of psychological research
      highlighting the emotional valence of future thinking, which has been mainly
      assessed in this research by subjective methodologies. Our work provides an
      empirical description of facial expressions that can be triggered by imagining
      the future.

PMID- 28891527
TI  - Glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor gene polymorpisms affect severity and
      functionality of bipolar disorder.
AB  - Glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor and other neurotrophins have important
      role in the development of mental disorders. Here, we aimed to assess the effects
      of Single nucleotide polymorphisms at potentially regulated regions of GDNF on
      severity and functionality of bipolar disorder and GDNF serum levels in bipolar
      disorder patients and healthy volunteers. Severity and functionality of bipolar
      disorder were evaluated using the Clinical Global Impression and Global
      Assessment of Functioning scales in sixty-six bipolar disorder patients. The GDNF
      serum levels obtained from bipolar disorder patients and healthy volunteers who
      had been already reported SNPs information by our group. GAF scales were lower
      and GDNF serum levels were higher in Bipolar disorder patients with T/A genotype
      at 5:37812784 and 5:37812782 compared to patients with T/T genotype. There were
      significant difference in severity and functionality scores, but not in GDNF
      serum levels, between patients with G/G and G/A genotype of rs62360370 G > A
      SNP.rs2075680 C > A and rs79669773 T > C SNPs had no effect on bipolar disorder
      severity and functionality scores and GDNF serum levels. The results suggest that
      some SNPs of GDNF have potential association with severity and functionality of
      bipolar disorder. In addition, except two SNPs, none of GDNF SNPs had association
      with GDNF serum levels.

PMID- 28891529
TI  - Nonsynaptic plasticity model of long-term memory engrams.
AB  - Using steady-state electrical properties of non-ohmic dendrite based on cable
      theory, we derive electrotonic potentials that do not change over time and are
      localized in space. We hypothesize that clusters of such stationary, local and
      permanent pulses are the electrical signatures of enduring memories which are
      imprinted through nonsynaptic plasticity, encoded through epigenetic mechanisms,
      and decoded through electrotonic processing. We further hypothesize how retrieval
      of an engram is made possible by integration of these permanently imprinted
      standing pulses in a neural circuit through neurotransmission in the
      extracellular space as part of conscious recall that acts as a guiding template
      in the reconsolidation of long-term memories through novelty characterized by
      uncertainty that arises when new fragments of memories reinstate an engram by way
      of nonsynaptic plasticity that permits its destabilization. Collectively, these
      findings seem to reinforce this hypothesis that electrotonic processing in non
      ohmic dendrites yield insights into permanent electrical signatures that could
      reflect upon enduring memories as fragments of long-term memory engrams.

PMID- 28891528
TI  - 2-(2-benzofuranyl)-2-imidazoline (2-BFI) improved the impairments in AD rat
      models by inhibiting oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis.
AB  - Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is one of the commonest neural degeneration in aging
      population, and has become a global health challenge. 2-(2-benzofuranyl)-2
      imidazoline (2-BFI) was reported to effectively improved the damage of patients
      with neuropathological disorders. In the present study, we investigated the
      effect of 2-BFI on the improvement of antioxidative, inflammation, and apoptosis
      in AD rats. Sprague-Dawley rats (2 months old, n=40) were used in this study and
      after injection of Abeta1-42 into hippocampal CA1 (Cornu Ammonis) region, the
      rats were given high, moderate and low dose of 2-BFI though intraperitoneal
      (i.p.) injection. Then spatial memory and navigation ability were analyzed by
      Morrize Water Maze. For the molecular testing, chemical colorimetry, ELISA and
      immunoblotting were performed to measure the activities of antioxidative enzymes,
      the abundance of immune cytokines and expression of apoptotic proteins,
      respectively. Hematoxylin and Eosin staining was used to analyze the pathological
      changes. We observed that 2-BFI significantly ameliorated the learning and memory
      abilities in rat models with AD by dosage treatment, as demonstrated by the
      shorten learning latency and greater times of travel across the platform
      quadrant. Additionally, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA),
      were decreased after treatment of 2-BFI with dosage dependency, while the
      activities of superoxidase dismutase (SOD) and (GPX) Glutathione peroxidase were
      in turn enhanced, suggesting that 2-BFI could protect the antioxidative enzymes
      and reduce the oxidative stress in the hippocampus. Moreover, the expression of
      inflammatory factors including TNF-a and IL-1beta were decreased after 2-BFI
      treatment. Additionally, the neuronal apoptosis was also attenuated, as shown by
      Western blot results. Taken together, the cognitive impairment in AD rats could
      be significantly improved by 2-BFI in a dose-dependent manner through suppressing
      oxidants accumulation, inhibiting of inflammatory response, as well as enhancing
      the neural viability.

PMID- 28891531
TI  - Development of dysplastic nevus during radotinib therapy in patients with chronic
      myeloid leukemia.

PMID- 28891532
TI  - Successful treatment of total obliteration of vulva caused by inveterate vulvar
      lichen sclerosus.

PMID- 28891533
TI  - What is new in recommendations on ophthalmological screening in patients treated
      with chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine? Update and literature review.
AB  - Based on the present literature, in March 2016, new recommendations of the
      American Academy of Ophthalmology for ophthalmic screening tests in patients
      treated with chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were published. These
      recommendations emphasized the fact that toxicity is related to the dose
      calculated by real weight. The recommended hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine
      doses have been limited. It is no longer recommended to calculate the cumulative
      dose of chloroquine to establish the risk of toxicity. Kidney failure and the use
      of tamoxifen are proven risk factors of ocular complications in these patients.
      The screening agenda was established and available diagnostic methods were
      evaluated. Screening in patients treated with chloroquine derivatives may prevent
      an irreversible complication-toxic retinopathy. The present recommendations warn
      against making premature decision on medicine withdrawal, especially in the light
      of the most recent studies on their beneficial systemic influence. This paper
      systematizes the information on ophthalmological screening in chloroquine
      derivatives users.

PMID- 28891534
TI  - Effect of irradiation on the shear bond strength of self-adhesive luting cement
      in different preparation depths.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of pre- and post
      irradiation application on the shear bond strength of self-adhesive luting
      cements to dentin and enamel. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-two extracted human
      maxillary incisor teeth were used in this study. Teeth were divided into two main
      groups according to preparation depth (0.5 mm and 1 mm) as Group E and Group D
      and were divided into four subgroups according to treatment protocol (n = 12).
      Teeth were irradiated and preparation was done after radiation. Adhesive luting
      cement was placed on the irradiated enamel and dentin surface (Groups E1, D1).
      Preparation was done before irradiation and resin cement was placed on the
      irradiated enamel and dentin surface (Groups E2, D2). The resin cement was first
      placed on their enamel and dentin surfaces and then the specimens were irradiated
      (Groups E3, D3). Irradiation was done with a total dose of 60 Gy, applied in
      fractions over 6 weeks for each groups (2-Gy/day fractions, 5 days per week).
      Nonirradiated groups were determined as controls groups (Groups C1, C2). The
      shear bond strengths of adhesive luting cement were examined. RESULTS: According
      to the two-way ANOVA results, depth of preparation and treatment protocol and
      their interactions were significant on shear bond strength of resin cement (P
      Conclusions: This study detected significant differences between the irradiated
      and nonirradiated groups, probably due to the changes in the crystalline
      structure of dental hard tissues.

PMID- 28891535
TI  - Doppler sonographic evaluation of venogenic extremity swellings: Analysis of 170
      patients from Kano, Nigeria.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is a serious problem that can
      potentially lead to many complications including life-threatening pulmonary
      arterial thrombosis. Screening and confirmation of the diagnosis are critical in
      the care of this condition. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to
      evaluate the role of Doppler sonography in diagnosing DVT and to illustrate the
      pattern in 170 suspected cases from our local environment. MATERIALS AND METHODS:
      This study was conducted at our department over 18 months. A total of 170
      patients with clinical suspicion of limb DVT were recruited. The characteristics
      of the patients, risk factor for DVT, and the site of the lesion were documented.
      Sonographic examination was done using 7.5 MHz linear and 3.5 MHz convex
      transducers. RESULTS: Out of the 170 patients, there are 89 (52.35%) males and 81
      (47.65%) females. Their mean age was 50.6 years (+17.9 years). The common risk
      factors for DVT include chronic medical illness (28.8%), long distance travel
      (15.3%), previous DVT (8.8%), stroke/paralysis (5.3%), neoplasms (5.9%),
      pregnancy (5.9%), and trauma/surgery (5.9%). About 55.8% (95) of them were
      confirmed to have DVT on ultrasound while 44.2% (75) had normal ultrasound
      findings. There was a female preponderance among the 95 cases of DVT, 58.9% of
      them were females while 41.1% of them were males. It was found that contiguous
      femoro-popliteal and ilio-femoro-popliteal segments were most commonly
      thrombosed. These lesions were predominantly left sided (59.5%). CONCLUSION:
      There was a predominance of females and femoro-popliteal segments in DVT. Doppler
      ultrasound is very useful in the evaluation of extremity DVT. All clinically
      suspected cases should be evaluated with this modality due to limited sensitivity
      of clinical evaluation in the diagnosis of DVT. Further correlative studies in
      comparison to venography and hematologic indices are also recommended.

PMID- 28891536
TI  - Urine osmolality in treatment-naive HIV-positive subjects in Southeast Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Urine osmolality varies over a wide range of values in
      a healthy state. Dilute urine or concentrated urine may be observed in many
      environmental, physiologic, and disease conditions. Urine osmolality is not
      commonly evaluated in routine clinical practice and in human immunodeficiency
      virus (HIV) subjects. The factors that influence urine osmolality have not been
      completely identified. The aim of this study was to evaluate urine osmolality in
      treatment-naive HIV subjects and to identify the factors that may influence
      dilute and concentrated urine in this group of patients. METHODOLOGY: This was a
      cross-sectional study of treatment-naive HIV subjects conducted in Federal
      Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri, Nigeria. Demographic and anthropometric data were
      obtained. Urine osmolality and other relevant investigations were conducted.
      Normal urine osmolality was defined as 24-h urine osmolality (24 HUOsm) 300-750
      mOsm/kgH2O, dilute urine as 24 HUOsm 2O and concentrated urine as 24 HUOsm> 750
      mOsm/kgH2O. The association between the variables and urine osmolality and the
      strength of variables to predict dilute urine and concentrated urine were
      determined. RESULTS: The mean 24HUOsm was 564 +/- 501 mOsm/kgH2O and the mean
      spot urine osmolality (SUOsm) 464 +/- 271 mOsm/kgH2O. Normal urine osmolality was
      observed in 29.6%, dilute urine in 64.5%, and concentrated urine in 5.9% of the
      HIV subjects. There was a significant association between urine osmolality and
      body mass index (BMI), creatinine clearance, as well as serum cholesterol level.
      Only high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) predicted dilute urine, whereas
      BMI, spot urine protein, 24-h urine protein, spot urine creatinine, serum HDL,
      and CD4 cell count predicted concentrated urine. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of
      dilute urine was high among the treatment-naive HIV subjects. Abnormalities of
      serum lipids, renal function, and weight were common in treatment-naive HIV
      subjects who had dilute urine. There is a need for clinicians to routinely assess
      urine osmolality and further diagnose for dyslipidemia, renal function
      impairment, and abnormal weight in HIV subjects at the early stage of the
      infection.

PMID- 28891537
TI  - Clinical performance of a combined approach for the esthetic management of
      fluorosed teeth: Three-year results.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The long-term clinical performance of combined therapy including
      enamel microabrasion and vital bleaching is debatable due to the abrasion of
      outer enamel surface. The aim of this longitudinal cohort study was to evaluate
      the 3-year clinical performance of enamel microabrasion in combination with vital
      tooth bleaching for the esthetic management of fluorosed teeth. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Fifteen patients with 176 fluorosed incisors and canines were included
      in this study. All the teeth were treated with enamel microabrasion (Opalustre,
      Ultradent), and at-home bleaching technique (10% Opalescence PF, Ultradent).
      Fluorosed teeth were evaluated at baseline, after microabrasion, after combined
      therapy, and at 3-year follow-up in terms of esthetic criteria (esthetic
      appearance, brown stains, and opaque white areas), side effects, and patient
      satisfaction using visual analog scales. The data were statistically analyzed
      (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: Fluorosed teeth revealed significantly better esthetic
      appearance after microabrasion and combined therapy and at 3-year follow-up
      compared to those at baseline (P P Conclusions: The combined therapy was
      effective in the esthetic management of fluorosed teeth. However, a significant
      relapse was observed in the esthetic appearance and brown stains of these
      patients after 3 years, which also reduced patient satisfaction.

PMID- 28891538
TI  - Treatment alternative for irreparable rotator cuff ruptures: Arthroscopic
      biodegradable balloon.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The treatment of massive irreparable rotator cuff rupture has still
      no consensus among shoulder surgeons. It is assumed that symptomatic rotator cuff
      tendon rupture is accepted as irreparable if retraction amount of tendon is Patte
      stage 3 on MRI; degree of fatty atrophy is Goutallier stage 3 or 4; narrowing of
      acromiohumeral distance is lesser than 7 mm and excursion of tendon to repair has
      decreased and patient has severe pain. Biodegradable balloon is one of the newest
      methods for the treatment of irreparable massive rotator cuff ruptures.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess shoulder function in the patients
      who underwent biodegradable balloon procedure for irreparable massive rotator
      cuff ruptures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Arthroscopic biodegradable balloon method
      was carried out on the 12 patients, who presented with symptomatic irreparable
      massive rotator cuff rupture, from October 2010 to November 2013. RESULTS:
      Preoperative and postoperative mean constant score of patients were 25.8 and 75.4
      respectively. The mean Oxford shoulder score of the patients were 21.3 and 42.9
      respectively, and mean shoulder abduction degree of the patients were73.5 and 165
      respectively. All the patients stated that they were satisfied with the treatment
      and there was significant regression in their complaints. CONCLUSION: If
      conservative treatment is insufficient for patients with irreparable rotator cuff
      tears, biodegradable balloon method has yielded favorable outcomes in terms of
      pain and functionality in comparison with other surgical methods. Moreover,
      lesser morbidity, short procedure time and absence of postoperative
      rehabilitation requirement can be considered as advantages of this method.

PMID- 28891539
TI  - Evaluation of the learning and teaching environment of the Faculty of Medical
      Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
AB  - PURPOSE: The study aimed at evaluating the learning and teaching environment of
      undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Nigeria.
      METHODS: The study was a descriptive, cross-sectional survey. The Dundee Ready
      Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was self-administered to the
      final year medical students during the second semester of 2013/2014 academic
      year. The 50-items of the questionnaire were sub-divided into five sub-groups:
      perception of learning, perceptions of teachers, academic self-perceptions,
      perceptions of atmosphere, and social self-perceptions. RESULTS: The
      questionnaire was completed by 128 out of the 139 students (92.1%). Of the
      maximum score of 200, the total mean score was 101.82 +/- 20.36 SD. The mean +/-
      SD score of students' perception of learning was 25.97 +/- 4.18 (maximum score,
      48). The mean +/- SD score of teachers was 24.40 +/- 4.74 (maximum score, 44),
      whereas that of students' academic self-perception, perception of atmosphere, and
      social self-perception was 19.96 +/- 5.29 (maximum score, 32), 19.02 +/- 7.69
      (maximum score, 48), and 11.86 +/- 4.22 (maximum score, 28), respectively.
      CONCLUSION: The overall mean score shows that the students' perception of their
      learning environment was more positive than negative according to the practical
      guide of McAleer and Roff on the interpretation of DREEM questionnaire. However,
      there are problematic areas revealed by this study that will inform policy
      formulation and remedial intervention.

PMID- 28891540
TI  - The effect of calcium phosphate-containing desensitizing agent on the
      microtensile bond strength of multimode adhesive agent.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of calcium
      phosphate containing desensitizing pretreatments on the microtensile bond
      strength (MTBS) and microleakage of the multimode adhesive agent to dentin.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, twelve noncarious, freshly extracted human
      third molar teeth for MTBS and 20 premolar teeth for the microleakage test were
      used. The teeth were restored using Clearfil Universal Bond + Clearfil APX and
      Teeth mate Desensitizer (TMD). For MTBS test, Group 1: Self-etch, Group 2: Etch
      and rinse (G1 and 2, nondesensitizer treatment served as a control), Group 3:
      TMD/self-etch, Group 4: Acid-etch/TMD/etch and rinse. For microleakage test,
      Class V adhesive cavities (3 mm * 2 mm * 2 mm) were prepared and restored as
      mentioned before. The restored teeth were subjected to thermal cycling. The MTBS
      test was performed in all procedures. The MTBS data were submitted to a one-way
      ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test (P P Results: Control groups exhibited a higher
      mean MTBS value than TMD groups, and there were statistical differences between
      the groups. TMD groups also demonstrated significantly less microleakage than
      control groups (P Conclusions: This study proves that the application of TMD with
      a multimode adhesive bonding system produced significantly lower MTBS and
      microleakage.

PMID- 28891541
TI  - Inequity in access to childhood immunization in Enugu urban, Southeast Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The Nigerian National Programme on Immunization aims at increasing
      the immunization coverage of children under 1 year of age. However, there is
      still a gap between the national immunization targets and the immunization
      coverage rates, and data are rarely disaggregated according to socioeconomic
      status. As a result, there is a dearth of information about the coverage of
      subgroups, especially at the local level. This study determined the socioeconomic
      differentials in immunization coverage for children under 5 years and under 1
      year in Enugu urban, Southeast Nigeria. METHODS: This was a community-based,
      descriptive cross-sectional study in Enugu urban of Southeast Nigeria. A modified
      30 * 7 cluster sampling design was adopted as the sampling method to select and
      interview 462 mothers of 685 children under the age of 5 years on their
      sociodemographic and economic characteristics and immunization status of their
      children. Principal components analysis in STATA software was used to
      characterize socioeconomic inequity. RESULTS: Immunization coverage was as
      follows: Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus third dose(DPT3), 3, 65.3%; oral polio
      vaccine 3, 78.0%; hepatitis B3, 65.2%; and measles, 55.8%. The full immunization
      rates for children 1-5 years and st year of life was selected as the reference
      group, the immunization rates in all other age groups decreased significantly.
      Using the same logistic regression model for children under 1 year of age, every
      added month of the child's life increased the full immunization coverage, and
      this was statistically significant (OR 2.752, 95% CI 2.304-3.418). CONCLUSIONS:
      Full immunization coverage for children aged < 1 year was lower than the national
      target of 95%. There are differences in immunization coverage rates between
      different wealth quartiles in the area with the least poor benefiting more than
      the poorest, thus creating equity problems. Health managers need such community
      based information about the vaccination status of their target population to plan
      and implement interventions that aim to improve immunization coverage in these
      areas.

PMID- 28891542
TI  - Drug-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome in Indian population: A multicentric
      retrospective analysis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN)
      are life-threatening hypersensitivity reactions mainly caused by drugs. Data on
      incubation period, hospital stay, and outcome for HIV-positive patients are
      sparse. Role of corticosteroids in their management is still controversial.
      METHODS: Indoor cases of SJS, SJS-TEN overlap, and TEN were analyzed for
      causative drugs, incubation period, a severity-of-illness score for toxic
      epidermal necrolysis (SCORTEN) score, HIV status, treatment, and outcome.
      Comparison of parameters between HIV and non-HIV cases was done. Utilization
      pattern of corticosteroids and their role in outcome were evaluated. RESULTS:
      Four SJS, 15 SJS-TEN overlap, and 21 TEN cases were evaluated. Antimicrobials
      (27.1%), antiviral (23%), antiseizure drugs (8.4%), and analgesics (8.4%) were
      commonly associated drugs. Among 12 (30%) HIV-reactive cases, nevirapine (97.6%)
      and cotrimoxazole (41.6%) were common causative drugs. Males (75%) were affected
      more than females (25%) among HIV-positive individuals. Incubation period was
      significantly higher in HIV-reactive patients. Total 30 (75%) patients were
      treated with corticosteroids. Dexamethasone (90%) and prednisolone (26.6%) were
      most commonly used. No significant difference was found among cases treated with
      or without corticosteroids. CONCLUSIONS: Antimicrobial drugs are common to cause
      SJS/TEN. Among HIV-reactive patients, male have more risk, incubation period is
      more and severity of reaction is less. Effectiveness of corticosteroids for
      treatment of SJS/TEN is inconclusive.

PMID- 28891543
TI  - A survey of asthma management practices and implementation of Global Initiative
      for Asthma guidelines among doctors in a resource-limited setting in Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Bronchial asthma is a global health problem that causes significant
      morbidity and mortality in all age groups. Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA)
      seeks to standardize the care asthma patients receive. We assessed the knowledge,
      attitude, and practices of doctors in Umuahia, Southeast Nigeria, regarding
      asthma and determined the extent to which they abide by GINA guidelines in their
      management of asthma. METHODOLOGY: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A
      pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from the
      participants regarding knowledge of asthma prevalence, asthma risk factors, and
      management practices. RESULTS: Out of 142 questionnaires administered, 117 were
      retrieved giving a response rate of 82%. About 70% were men, and the most common
      age group was 30-39 years (57.3%). The median duration of medical practice was 6
      (3-12) years. About 77% reported asthma prevalence to be on the increase. While
      105 (89.7%) respondents had seen a spirometer, only 28 (23.9%) use spirometry in
      asthma diagnosis. Similarly, 95 (81.2%) had seen a peak flow meter, but only 41
      (35.5%) use it in asthma diagnosis. Only 7 (6.0%) respondents reported that their
      patients keep a peak flow diary. Of 117 respondents, 94 (80.3%) know about GINA
      guidelines for asthma control, 45 (38.5%) apply GINA guidelines in patient care,
      86 (73.5%) regularly review patient inhaler technique, 33 (28.2%) use adult
      asthma control test while 17 (14.5%) regularly review asthma action plan with
      patients. CONCLUSION: There is a wide gap between GINA guidelines and the
      knowledge, attitude, and practices of doctors in Umuahia regarding asthma
      management. Improvement and standardization of asthma care are recommended.

PMID- 28891544
TI  - Comparison of Epidrum, Epi-Jet, and Loss of Resistance syringe techniques for
      identifying the epidural space in obstetric patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Identifying the epidural space is essential during epidural
      anesthesia (EA). Pressure of the epidural space in pregnancy is higher than that
      in nonpregnant woman. Loss of resistance (LOR) method is the most commonly
      preferred method for identifying the epidural space. Epidrum and Epi-Jet are
      recently innovated supporting devices that facilitate identifying process for
      epidural space. In this study we aimed to compare Epidrum, Epi-Jet, and LOR
      methods in identifying the epidural space, feasibility of technique. METHODS: Two
      hundred and forty pregnant women who were scheduled for caesarian section surgery
      under lumbar EA or combined spinal epidural anesthesia (CSEA) were randomized
      into three groups (Group I Epidrum, n = 80), Group II (Epi-Jet, n = 80), and
      Group III (LOR, n = 80). We recorded the time required to identify the epidural
      space and deflation of Epidrum balloon and Epi-Jet syringe, number of attempts,
      additional methods used to identify epidural space, usefulness of methods,
      accuracy of identification of epidural space, and outcomes of epidural
      catheterization. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the
      groups with respect to demographic data, duration of deflation of Epidrum balloon
      and Epi-Jet syringe and distance between skin and epidural space. The mean time
      required to enter epidural space in Group I was shorter than that in Group II (P
      = 0.031). Feasibility of Epi-Jet was easier than that of Epidrum (P = 0.015).
      Number of uncertainties of epidural space identification was higher in Group I
      than that in Group II (P = 0.009). Also, the requirement for LOR to confirm
      epidural space and failure rates was higher in Group I than Group II (P < 0.001).
      CONCLUSION: We suggest that Epi-Jet is superior to Epidrum in pregnant patients
      in terms of clarity of epidural space identification, usefulness, and success
      rates of EA or CSEA.

PMID- 28891545
TI  - Protein C and antithrombin levels in patients with sickle cell anemia in Ahmadu
      Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, Nigeria.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Alterations in the components of hemostasis, namely platelet
      function, the procoagulant, anticoagulant, and the fibrinolytic systems, are
      observed in sickle cell anemia (SCA) and are in favor of a procoagulant
      phenotype. Therefore, study of protein C and antithrombin (AT) levels in patients
      with SCA in steady state may be used in the treatment and/or prevention of SCA
      related thrombotic complications. We studied the changes of these naturally
      occurring anticoagulants in patients with SCA attending the sickle cell clinic in
      Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria. METHODS: We conducted a case
      control study involving 50 SCA (HbSS) patients in the steady state as cases and
      25 healthy volunteers with normal hemoglobin (HbAA) as controls. Protein C and AT
      levels were estimated by semi-automation using Diagnostica Stago hematology
      coagulation analyzer. Frequencies, proportions, and independent t test were
      performed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: The mean ages of both the patients and
      controls were 23.80 +/- 7.46 and 24.28 +/- 3.48 years, respectively, and study
      participants comprised 40 (53.0%) women between the ages of 15-50 years and 15-34
      years (P = 0.76). The mean values of protein C and AT levels in patients with SCA
      in the steady state and the control group were 60.26 +/- 20.58% versus 81.30 +/-
      19.74%, 95% CI 11.13-30.96, and 42.11 +/- 5.01% versus 61.88 +/- 11.27%, 95% CI
      16.03-23.51 with P values (P < 0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study
      showed that there was a significant decrease in the levels of protein C and AT
      between the SCA patients in the steady state and the controls. We recommend
      baseline investigations of these naturally occurring anticoagulants in patients
      with SCA, especially in those with frequent vaso-occlusive crises. This will give
      us an insight into the additional pathophysiologic mechanism in SCA-related
      thrombotic complications for better patient management and outcome.

PMID- 28891546
TI  - Work-Related musculoskeletal pain among lebanese dentists: An epidemiological
      study.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of
      musculoskeletal disorders and identify their associated factors among a group of
      Lebanese dentists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 314 Lebanese, dentists
      completed an anonymous questionnaire that focused on occupational health
      problems. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Saint-Joseph
      University of Beirut, Lebanon. The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS
      for windows. The alpha error was set to 0.05. RESULTS: The mean age of the
      participants was 39.2 (+/-11.66) years. The results showed that 61.5% of the
      surveyed dentists complained of spinal pain: 31.6% of cervical pain, 22.3% of
      lumbar pain and 13.0% of dorsal pain. Moreover, the pain was continuous in 20.7%
      and, occasional in 65.8%. Our statistics showed that 7.6% had a problem with the
      carpal tunnel. A total of 22.3% suffered from tendinitis and 9.2% from arthritis
      of shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. The frequency of headaches was 30.6%.
      Concerning sports activity, 49.7% practiced it occasionally and 3.6% did so
      frequently. CONCLUSIONS: The occurrence of musculoskeletal pain in the upper
      extremities is a serious concern that affects Lebanese dentists. Most of them
      often complained of tendinitis and headaches because they do not practice sports;
      thus, encouraging them to practice sports may reduce or solve such health
      problems. Issuing brochures that include exercises to perform and hiring trained
      assistants could help reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Finally,
      these occupational health problems should be highlighted at all clinical and
      research symposia to increase awareness.

PMID- 28891547
TI  - Classification of alveolar bone destruction patterns on maxillary molars by using
      cone-beam computed tomography.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The defective diagnosis of alveolar structures is one of most serious
      handicaps when assessing available periodontal treatment options for the
      prevention of tooth loss. The aim of this research was to classify alveolar bone
      defects in the maxillary molar region which is a challenging area for dental
      implant applications. To our knowledge, this is the first study of periodontal
      bone defect prevalence by using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). MATERIALS
      AND METHODS: In this study, the remaining alveolar bone patterns of 669 maxillary
      molars of 243 patients with periodontal bone loss were investigated on four
      aspects and the furcation areas of teeth, and then they were classified into six
      main groups. Combined periodontal-endodontic lesions (CPELs) were also reported
      in another category. RESULTS: Following exclusion of 39 (5.8%) teeth with CPEL,
      the most common group was horizontal bone defects (71.4%) and the least seen
      group was three-walled vertical bone defects (1.9%) in all alveolar bone sides of
      teeth. Osseous crater was found at the rate of 6.7% on interdental alveolar bone.
      Dehiscence and fenestration were detected at rates of 2.7% and 3.3%,
      respectively. In the assessment of furcation areas, there was no furcation
      involvement in 61.4% of all teeth and the rate of Grade-II involvements was
      26.2%. CONCLUSIONS: The most appropriate treatment option may be decided through
      accurate imaging of periodontal defect morphology. CBCT can provide comprehensive
      information about the remaining alveolar bone structures. In this way, the need
      for dental implant can be prevented in many cases and be replaced with a more
      conservative approach on the maxillary molar region.

PMID- 28891548
TI  - Short segment bulbar urethral strictures: Review of 48 cases managed in a
      resource-poor setting.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To share our experience on the presentation and management of short
      segment bulbar urethral strictures (BUSs) in a resource-poor center. METHODS:
      Short segment bulbar urethral strictures (BUSs) managed from January 2009 to
      December 2014 were analyzed. Patients'age, stricture aetiology, mode of
      presentation, stricture characteristics, time to surgery, associated morbidity,
      operative procedure, and post-operative outcome were reviewed. All patients had
      bulbar anastomotic urethroplasty (BAU). RESULTS: Total 42 bulbar anastomotic
      urethroplasties (BAUs) were done. The mean age of the patients in years was 37.46
      (+/- 13.80). Fall astride injuries accounted for most strictures, 39(89.3%) of
      cases. The mean stricture lenght was 1.04 cm +/- 0.49 and was longer in patients
      who had prior instrumentation,1.45 cm (+/- 0.37) versus 0.70 cm (+/- 0.26), P =
      0.000. Associated lower urinary tract comorbidities were noted in 38 (79.2%)
      patients. Mean time to surgery was 10.20 (+/- 4.96) months. Patients operated on
      after 6 months of presentation had more associated comorbidities, 24/26 patients
      (92.3%), compared to those operated on within 6 months; 8/16 cases (50%), P =
      0.003. However, this did not impact negatively on the outcome of surgery (P =
      0.275). Patients with complete strictures tended to accept surgery earlier than
      those with incomplete strictures, 29 patients (60.4%) versus 19 patients (39.6%),
      P = 0.208,with no difference in outcome between the two groups, P = 0.581.The
      overall success rate was 92.9%. CONCLUSIONS: Fall astride injuries are the
      commonest cause of short segment BUSs. Prior urethral instrumentation is
      associated with recurrence and longer stricture lenght. Suprapubic catheter
      related associated comorbidity increases with the duration of catheterization but
      does not impact negatively on the surgical outcome. BAU has low morbidity and
      high success rate of 92.7%. It should be the first line treatment for short
      segment BUS in low-resource countries.

PMID- 28891549
TI  - Effects of health-care services and commodities cost on the patients at the
      primary health facilities in Zaria Metropolis, North Western Nigeria.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The payment for health-care services is a major problem for many
      poor patients in developing nations. The aim of the study was to examine the cost
      of services and commodities and how these affect the patients who utilizes the
      primary health-care centers in Zaria, North western Nigeria. METHODOLOGY: A
      descriptive cross-sectional survey of six primary health-care facilities in Zaria
      metropolis, namely Baban dodo, Tudun Wada, Magajiya PHCs from Zaria local
      government areas (LGA) and Samaru, Kwata, and Dogarawa PHCs from Sabon Gari LGA,
      was carried out. RESULT: The mean age of the respondents was 28.87+/- 8.63 years,
      most of them were married (53.3%), Hausa (63.3%), and Muslims (85.7%); also, they
      were unemployed housewives with daily stipends from their husbands less than 1
      dollar/day. The major method for payment for health-care services was out of
      pocket (98.3%). More than one-third of the clients were not aware of the National
      Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) (39%). There was a significant inverse
      relationship between the monthly income of the clients and the experience of
      financial stress and a positive association between patients' monthly income and
      awareness of the NHIS (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The respondents were paying user
      fees for essential health-care services at the primary health-care centers and
      this was not convenient for them. RECOMMENDATION: There is a need for the LGA
      health department to intensify the supervision of the activities at the PHCs.
      Standardization of prices of services and commodities and the implementation of
      the National Health Act may alleviate the burdens of the poor community members
      who access PHCs in Nigeria.

PMID- 28891550
TI  - Common types and countermeasures of ankle ligament injury caused by intense
      basketball movement.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To analyze ankle ligament injury of basketball players caused during
      movement, summarize injury types, analyze the causes of injury, and put forward
      corresponding control measures. METHODS: The author selected 3100 basketball
      players with ankle ligament injury during basketball movement and admitted to
      different hospitals from June 2011 to June 2015 for stochastic analysis. Through
      the literature, investigation, and observation, etc., common types of injuries of
      basketball players are analyzed, and damage preventive measures of basketball
      players are discussed, so as to find measures to prevent and treat ankle ligament
      injury of basketball players and promote physical rehabilitation of players,
      which is in favor of their better career development. RESULTS: Basketball players
      are prone to ankle ligament injury in training or competition, which has a direct
      relationship with players' poor safety consciousness and insufficient preparation
      during movement. CONCLUSION: Basketball players will often have serious ankle
      ligament injury in the process of movement. Basketball coaches and players should
      reduce serious injury to players in training or competition, so as to stimulate
      passion of more professional basketball sports students for basketball, which
      also has a positive meaning for their future career.

PMID- 28891551
TI  - Mondor's disease of the breast in a Nigerian woman previously treated for
      invasive ductal carcinoma in the contralateral breast: A case report.
AB  - Mondor's disease is a self-limiting sclerosing angitis mostly affecting the
      superficial veins of the breast and chest wall. It is seldom diagnosed, and its
      etiology and epidemiology are speculative. However, numerous predisposing factors
      including breast cancer have been postulated. In Nigerian literature, only two
      cases have been documented to the best of our knowledge. This report is aimed at
      reminding breast specialists to include it as a diagnostic consideration in
      patients presenting with a breast lump in the appropriate clinical setting. Its
      imaging features are also highlighted because it may be incorrectly overlooked as
      mere ductal dilatation. We present the case of a 60-year-old woman who complained
      of a painful cordlike lesion in her right breast. Mondor's disease was diagnosed
      based on the clinical and radiological findings. She had also been previously
      treated for invasive ductal breast carcinoma in the contralateral breast.
      Mondor's disease is usually a benign entity, which may resolve spontaneously. On
      the other hand, it may also be the sole presenting symptom or clue of a breast
      malignancy; hence, a need for increased awareness.

PMID- 28891552
TI  - Omental herniation through the diaphragmatic defect: Two cases mimicking
      mediastinal lipomas.
AB  - Omental herniation through a diaphragmatic defect without involvement of the
      stomach is rare and has often been misdiagnosed as mediastinal lipoma. We herein
      report two cases of intrathoracic omental herniation through adiaphragmatic
      defect in patients that were misdiagnosed as a mediastinal lipoma at
      presentation. They both underwent successful laparoscopic diaphragmatic hernia
      repairs with full resolution of their symptoms. Doctors should pay attention to
      the differential diagnosis between diaphragmatic hernia and mediastinal lipoma
      when a fatty mass is found in the mediastinum at the magnetic resonance imaging
      (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan.

PMID- 28891553
TI  - Hyperthyroidism and sick sinus syndrome, a rare but challenging association: A
      study of three cases.
AB  - Hyperthyroidism is usually associated with sinus tachycardia or supraventricular
      tachyarrhythmias, but rarely with dysfunction of the sinus node or other
      conduction disturbances. Evidence of bradyarrhythmia in patients with
      hyperthyroidism is clinically relevant, but the fact that several drugs with
      negative chronotropic effects (beta-blockers and calcium channel antagonists) are
      frequently used in the management of these patients must be taken into account.
      In the presence of sick sinus syndrome (SSS) or other conductance disturbances,
      therapy with agents that delay the activity of sinus node or atrioventricular
      conduction can lead to extreme bradycardia with syncope. In this paper, aspects
      of diagnosis and therapy in three patients with SSS and hyperthyroidism, admitted
      in the Clinic of Endocrinology or/and Cardiology of the County Hospital,
      Timisoara, have been presented.

PMID- 28891554
TI  - Interocclusal registration for diagnosis and treatment planning for implant
      restorations.
AB  - This paper describes a new technique to record the interocclusal relationship of
      an implant case where multiple posterior teeth are missing and need to be
      replaced by implant restorations. In the case presented, an appliance was
      designed to be supported only by hard immovable tissues; teeth that provide a
      precise fit of records. The well-fitting appliance can be used to accurately
      mount implant cases with inadequate posterior support for diagnosis and treatment
      planning. This technique of interocclusal registration has the advantages of
      accurate mounting, preservation of materials and financial expenses, and
      reduction of chair-side time. This appliance may also be used in all cases of
      multiple missing posterior teeth requiring prosthodontic treatment.

PMID- 28891556
TI  - T cells: Proteasome dictates CD8+ T cell fate.

PMID- 28891555
TI  - Corrigendum: Synaptic NMDA receptor activity is coupled to the transcriptional
      control of the glutathione system.
AB  - This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7761.

PMID- 28891558
TI  - Mucosal immunology: Probiotic induction of tolerogenic T cells in the gut.

PMID- 28891559
TI  - Immune homeostasis: Regulatory ILCs don't rely on FOXP3.

PMID- 28891560
TI  - Facile activation of alkynes with a boraguanidinato-stabilized germylene: a
      combined experimental and theoretical study.
AB  - A boraguanidinato-stabilized germylene, [(i-Pr)2NB(N-2,6-Me2C6H3)2]Ge, reacts
      with alkynes RC[triple bond, length as m-dash]CR selectively in a 2 : 1 molar
      ratio to afford 3,4-R,R'-1,2-digermacyclobut-3-enes 1a-e as the products of
      formal [2 + 2 + 2] cyclization [R/R' = Me/Me (1a), Ph/Ph (1b), Ph/H (1c), t-Bu/H
      (1d) and Cy/H (1e)]. Ferrocenyl-substituted alkynes react similarly, yielding the
      corresponding ferrocenylated 3,4-R,R'-1,2-digermacyclobut-3-enes 2a-d [where R/R'
      = Fc/H (2a), Fc/Me (2b), Fc/Ph (2c), and Fc/Fc (2d); Fc = ferrocenyl]. By
      contrast, only one of the triple bonds available in conjugated diynes RC[triple
      bond, length as m-dash]CC[triple bond, length as m-dash]CR is activated with the
      germylene, while the second one remains intact even in the presence of an excess
      of the germylene. The exclusive formation of 3,4-R,(C[triple bond, length as m
      dash]CR)-1,2-digermacyclobut-3-enes 3a-c [R = Ph (3a), t-Bu(3b), and Fc (3c)] was
      ascribed to a steric repulsion around the second triple bond. On the other hand,
      the reaction of the germylene with more flexible dialkyne fc(C[triple bond,
      length as m-dash]CPh)2 (fc = ferrocene-1,1'-diyl) proceeded in the expected
      manner, producing compound 4, where both triple bonds are transformed into 1,2
      digermacyclobut-3-ene rings by reaction with four equivalents of the germylene.
      All compounds were characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, Raman and IR
      spectroscopy, and in the case of 1a-c, 2a, 2c, 3a, 3b and 4, also by single
      crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The ferrocenyl substituted compounds were
      studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Finally, the plausible reaction pathway was
      studied for a model reaction of [(i-Pr)2NB(N-2,6-Me2C6H3)2]Ge with MeC[triple
      bond, length as m-dash]CMe using DFT computations.

PMID- 28891561
TI  - Online monitoring of hepatic rat metabolism by coupling a liver biochip and a
      mass spectrometer.
AB  - A microfluidic liver biochip was coupled with a mass spectrometer to detect in
      real time the drug metabolism of hepatocytes. The hepatocytes were cultivated in
      the biochip for 35 h. The biochip was placed in a small-scale incubator in which
      the temperature and CO2 concentration were controlled. The biochip was connected
      serially to a mass spectrometer, a peristaltic pump and a culture medium
      reservoir. The injection in the mass spectrometer was performed every 10 min for
      11 h. The metabolism of midazolam, phenacetin, omeprazole, dextromethorphan,
      repaglinide, rosuvastatin, tolbutamide and caffeine was investigated. We
      monitored the apparition of omeprazole sulfone, hydroxy omeprazole, repaglinide
      glucuronide, rosuvastatin lactone, dextrorphan, 1-hydroxy midazolam, 4-hydroxy
      midazolam, 1,4-hydroxy midazolam, paracetamol and 1,3-methylxanthine. Although
      these were observed, hydroxytolbutamide, 3-methoxymorphinan and midazolam
      glucuronide, hydroxy repaglinide were not detected. Based on a pharmacokinetic
      model, we calculated in vitro intrinsic clearances in which adsorption onto the
      perfusion circuit was taken into account. Then, using a liver organ model, we
      extrapolated the in vitro intrinsic clearances to the in vivo clearances. The
      estimated in vivo clearances were in agreement with the literature data on rats
      for midazolam, dextromethorphan, phenacetin, tolbutamide and caffeine.
      Rosuvastatin, omeprazole and repaglinide prediction underestimated the in vivo
      data.

PMID- 28891562
TI  - Quantitative surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of single bases in
      oligodeoxynucleotides.
AB  - To address the question of whether the SERS signals of ss-DNA are simply
      combinations of the signals from the individual bases that comprise the sequence,
      SERS spectra of unmodified ss-DNA sequences were obtained using a hydroxylamine
      reduced Ag colloid aggregated with MgSO4. Initially, synthetic
      oligodeoxynucleotides with systematic structural variations were used to
      investigate the effect of adding single nucleobases to the 3' terminus of 10-mer
      and 20-mer sequences. It was found that the resulting SERS difference spectra
      could be used to identify the added nucleobases since they closely matched
      reference spectra of the same nucleobase. Investigation of the variation in
      intensity of an adenine probe which was moved along a test sequence showed there
      was a small end effect where nucleobases near the 3' terminus gave slightly
      larger signals but the effect was minor (30%). More significantly, in a sample
      set comprising 25-mer sequences where A, T or G nucleobases were substituted
      either near the centres of the sequences or the 5' or 3' ends, the SERS
      difference spectra only matched the expected form in approximately half the cases
      tested. This variation appeared to be due to changes in secondary structure
      induced by altering the sequences since uncoiling the sequences in a thermal pre
      treatment step gave difference spectra which in all cases matched the expected
      form. Multivariate analysis of the set of substitution data showed that 99% of
      the variance could be accounted for in a model with just three factors whose
      loadings matched the spectra of the A, T, and G nucleobases and which contained
      no positional information. This suggests that aside from the differences in
      secondary structure which can be eliminated by thermal pre-treatment, the SERS
      spectra of the 25-mers studied here are simply the sum of their component parts.
      Although this means that SERS provides very little information on the primary
      sequence it should be excellent for the detection of post-transcription
      modifications to DNA which can occur at multiple positions along a given
      sequence.

PMID- 28891563
TI  - Synthesis, stability and Li-ion mobility of nanoconfined Li2B12H12.
AB  - This communication presents the first synthesis of nanoconfined Lithium closo
      borate, Li2B12H12, using nanoporous SiO2 as scaffold. The yield of Li2B12H12 is
      up to 94 mol%. The as-synthesized nanoconfined Li2B12H12 exhibits a structural
      transition around 380  degrees C and conversion to H-deficiency Li2B12H12-x at
      580  degrees C.

PMID- 28891557
TI  - Functions of tissue-resident eosinophils.
AB  - Eosinophils are a prominent cell type in particular host responses such as the
      response to helminth infection and allergic disease. Their effector functions
      have been attributed to their capacity to release cationic proteins stored in
      cytoplasmic granules by degranulation. However, eosinophils are now being
      recognized for more varied functions in previously underappreciated diverse
      tissue sites, based on the ability of eosinophils to release cytokines (often
      preformed) that mediate a broad range of activities into the local environment.
      In this Review, we consider evolving insights into the tissue distribution of
      eosinophils and their functional immunobiology, which enable eosinophils to
      secrete in a selective manner cytokines and other mediators that have diverse,
      'non-effector' functions in health and disease.

PMID- 28891564
TI  - Standardisation of a European measurement method for organic carbon and elemental
      carbon in ambient air: results of the field trial campaign and the determination
      of a measurement uncertainty and working range.
AB  - The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Technical Committee 264 'Air
      Quality' has recently produced a standard method for the measurements of organic
      carbon and elemental carbon in PM2.5 within its working group 35 in response to
      the requirements of European Directive 2008/50/EC. It is expected that this
      method will be used in future by all Member States making measurements of the
      carbonaceous content of PM2.5. This paper details the results of a laboratory and
      field measurement campaign and the statistical analysis performed to validate the
      standard method, assess its uncertainty and define its working range to provide
      clarity and confidence in the underpinning science for future users of the
      method. The statistical analysis showed that the expanded combined uncertainty
      for transmittance protocol measurements of OC, EC and TC is expected to be below
      25%, at the 95% level of confidence, above filter loadings of 2 MUg cm-2. An
      estimation of the detection limit of the method for total carbon was 2 MUg cm-2.
      As a result of the laboratory and field measurement campaign the EUSAAR2
      transmittance measurement protocol was chosen as the basis of the standard method
      EN 16909:2017.

PMID- 28891565
TI  - An aryl-triazole foldamer containing a 1,8-naphthalimide fluorescent motif for
      monitoring and enhancing the anion-induced folding.
AB  - A novel aryl-triazole foldamer incorporating a 1,8-naphthalimide motif was
      designed and synthesized. 1H NMR, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopic titration
      experiments with halide anions (Cl-, Br-, I-) demonstrated that the pi-pi
      stacking interaction of 1,8-naphthalimide building blocks could largely enhance
      the folding and anion binding of the foldamer.

PMID- 28891566
TI  - One-pot synthesis of imidazolinium salts via the ring opening of tetrahydrofuran.
AB  - A new one-pot synthesis of C2-hydroxypropyl-substituted imidazolinium salts via
      the ring opening of tetrahydrofuran (THF) with N,N'-disubstituted diamines has
      been developed. Preliminary studies of the reaction mechanism suggest the CO2
      promoted oxidative ring opening of THF followed by Hg(ii)-mediated oxidation of
      an imidazolidine intermediate. These novel C2-substituted imidazolinium salts
      have shown to be active catalysts for the aza-Diels-Alder reactions.

PMID- 28891567
TI  - Enantioselective electrophilic cyanation of beta-keto amides catalysed by a
      cinchona organocatalyst.
AB  - An operationally simple protocol for the enantioselective electrophilic alpha
      cyanation of beta-keto amides catalyzed by cinchona-derived catalysts has been
      demonstrated. The resulting products could be obtained with good to high
      enantioselectivities (up to 88% ee) and with excellent yields (up to 94%) by
      employing the mild active 4-acetylphenyl cyanate as the cationic cyano source in
      the catalytic asymmetric alpha-cyanation reaction.

PMID- 28891568
TI  - Selective antitumoural action of pressurized mango leaf extracts against
      minimally and highly invasive breast cancer.
AB  - Mango leaf tea has been traditionally used by different cultures to reduce
      inflammation in the body. There is evidence that chronic inflammation increases
      the risk of cancer. This study investigates the antitumoural effects of
      pressurized mango leaf extracts on minimally (MCF7) and highly invasive (MDA-MB
      231) breast cancer cells as well as on non-tumourigenic cells (MCF10). Extracts
      showed protective properties against oxidation and cytotoxic effects against
      breast cancer cell lines, causing minor damage to non-carcinogenic cells.
      Nonetheless, some selective activity, depending on hormone receptor status, was
      observed. This was possibly related to the presence of minor compounds. Extracts
      with high levels of gallotannins showed cytotoxic action against MCF7 cells,
      while those which had methyl gallate and homomangiferin as common components were
      more effective against MDA-MB-231 cells. Therefore, the cytotoxic effect of mango
      leaf extracts might be attributed to the synergistic effect of different
      polyphenols and not just to mangiferin on its own as the predominant compound in
      mango leaves.

PMID- 28891569
TI  - Improved catalytic activity of Mo1-xWxSe2 alloy nanoflowers promotes efficient
      hydrogen evolution reaction in both acidic and alkaline aqueous solutions.
AB  - Layered transition metal dichalcogenides are noble-metal free electrocatalysts
      for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Instead of using the common
      hydrothermal synthesis, which requires high pressure and temperature, herein a
      relatively simple and controlled colloidal synthesis was used to produce an alloy
      of Mo1-xWxSe2 with nanoflower morphology as a model system for the
      electrocatalysis of hydrogen evolution in both acidic and alkaline environments.
      The results show that Mo1-xWxSe2 alloys exhibit better catalytic activity in both
      acidic and alkaline solutions with low overpotentials compared to pure MoSe2 and
      WSe2. Moreover, the electrode kinetics was studied using electrochemical
      impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the results indicate that the alloys exhibit
      improved catalytic activity with low Tafel slopes, making them appealing for HER
      in either environment. Additionally, when MoSe2 nanoflowers (NFs) are prepared by
      using different metal salts and chalcogenide precursors, changes in the HER
      catalytic activity were observed, despite the morphology and crystal structure
      similarities. This finding suggests that different results reported in the
      literature could originate from different synthetic methods of the TMD,
      emphasizing that a better understanding of the relationship between the synthetic
      route and the catalytic performance is still lacking.

PMID- 28891570
TI  - N-Heterocyclic carbene palladium-catalyzed cascade annulation/alkynylation of 2
      alkynylanilines with terminal alkynes.
AB  - A straightforward and highly effective N-heterocyclic carbene-palladium catalyzed
      cascade annulation/alkynylation of 2-alkynylanilines with terminal alkynes has
      been enabled to afford free (NH)-3-alkynylindole derivatives in moderate to good
      yields. This protocol features mild conditions, broad substrate scope, and high
      atom- and step-economy. Notably, the resultant 3-alkynylindoles could be
      conveniently transformed into a variety of functionalized indole scaffolds, thus
      illustrating their potential applications in synthetic and pharmaceutical
      chemistry.

PMID- 28891571
TI  - Crown ether complexes of actinyls: a computational assessment of AnO2(15-crown
      5)2+ (An = U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm).
AB  - For further fundamental understanding of the nature and extent of covalency in
      actinyl-ligand bonding, and the benefits that this may have in the design of new
      ligands for nuclear waste separation, there is burgeoning interest in the nature
      of actinyl complexes with polydentate or multiple-point-donor ligands, such as
      crown ethers. There are few cases of structurally authenticated molecular actinyl
      crown bonds under ambient conditions. We report here the computational
      characterization of AnO22+-(15-crown-5) complexes, where An = U, Np, Pu, Am, and
      Cm, and 15-crown-5 is the cyclic polyether ligand with five ether oxygen atoms.
      In the gas-phase complex, the actinyl group is located inside of the crown ether,
      tilted slightly out of the plane of the five equatorial oxygen atoms that
      coordinate the actinide metal center. The actinyl-cyclic ether complexes are
      found to exhibit a conventional conformation, with typical An-Oaxial and An
      Oequatorial distances and angles. A striking result is the enhanced stability of
      the insertion complex for UO22+versus NpO22+, PuO22+, AmO22+ and CmO22+, which is
      evaluated in the context of An-O binding strengths (esp. bonding covalency), and
      may have ramifications for the utility of actinyl-crown complexes in separation
      applications.

PMID- 28891572
TI  - Novel spirocyclic systems via multicomponent aza-Diels-Alder reaction.
AB  - Here we present a two-step diastereoselective methodology building on a
      multicomponent aza-Diels-Alder reaction. Using previously unexplored cyclic
      ketones, heterocyclic amines and cyclopentadiene derivatives, we obtained novel
      spiro-heterocyclic frameworks at the interphase between "drug-like" molecules and
      natural products.

PMID- 28891573
TI  - Methylation of Ir(iii)-tetrazolato complexes: an effective route to modulate the
      emission outputs and to switch to antimicrobial properties.
AB  - Two neutral cyclometalated Ir(iii)-tetrazolato complexes that differ by
      variations of the substituents on either the phenylpyridine or the tetrazolate
      ligand have been converted into the corresponding methylated and cationic
      analogues. NMR (1H and 13C) characterization of the Ir(iii) complexes provided
      the results in agreement with the chemo- and regioselective character of
      methylation at the N-3 position of the Ir(iii)-coordinated tetrazolato ring. This
      evidence was further corroborated by the analysis of the molecular structures of
      the cationic complexes obtained by X-ray diffraction. In view of the
      photophysical properties, the addition of a methyl moiety to neutral Ir(iii)
      tetrazolates, which behave as sky-blue or orange phosphors, caused a systematic
      red shift of their phosphorescence output. The transformation of neutral Ir(iii)
      tetrazolates into cationic Ir(iii)-tetrazole complexes was screened for any
      eventual antimicrobial activity in vitro against Gram negative (E. coli) and Gram
      positive (D. radiodurans) microorganisms. While both kinds of complexes were not
      active against E. coli, the conversion of the neutral Ir(iii) tetrazolates into
      the corresponding methylated and cationic Ir(iii)tetrazole derivatives determined
      the turn-on of a good to excellent antimicrobial activity toward Gram positive
      Deinococcus radiodurans, a non-pathogenic bacterium that is listed as one of the
      toughest microorganisms in light of its outstanding resistance to radiation and
      oxidative stress.

PMID- 28891574
TI  - Claisen rearrangements of benzyl vinyl ethers: theoretical investigation of
      mechanism, substituent effects, and regioselectivity.
AB  - Recently we reported the aromatic Claisen rearrangements of benzyl ketene
      acetals, which form one of the few examples of aromatic Claisen rearrangements
      involving benzyl vinyl ethers (as opposed to allyl aryl ethers, which are the
      usual substrates for aromatic Claisen rearrangements). Theoretical calculations
      predict that these rearrangements proceed via a concerted [3,3]-sigmatropic
      transition state, which is similar in geometry to the TS for the Claisen
      rearrangement of an allyl aryl ether but has a 4 kcal mol-1 higher barrier. The
      effects of donor (OMe) and acceptor (CN) substituents on the kinetics of the
      [3,3]-rearrangement mirror those reported for allyl vinyl ethers: the largest
      substituent effects are seen for 1-OMe, 2-OMe, 2-CN, and 4-CN substituents, which
      lower the barrier by 5-9 kcal mol-1. Substituents on the aromatic ring have
      smaller effects on the barrier (<=2 kcal mol-1). The regioselectivities of
      Claisen rearrangements of meta-substituted benzyl ketene acetals favour 1,2,3
      trisubstituted products in preference to the less sterically congested 1,2,4
      isomers due to favourable orbital interactions in the 1,2,3 transition state.

PMID- 28891575
TI  - Sheared edible oils studied using dissipative particle dynamics and ultra small
      angle X-ray scattering: TAGwood orientation aggregation and disaggregation.
AB  - Previous work on the computer simulation of edible fats and oils showed that
      triglyceride crystalline nanoplatelets (CNPs) aggregated into cylindrical
      structures dubbed "TAGwoods". This was experimentally verified using Ultra Small
      Angle X-ray Scattering experiments. In this paper, the aggregation of these
      TAGwoods was studied using the fluid simulation technique, Dissipative Particle
      Dynamics. The intent was to predict the TAGwood aggregation structures which
      arise via the application of a series of shear rates, [small gamma, Greek, dot
      above]. The effect of shear on TAGwood orientational order was also investigated.
      Three aggregation regimes were identified: At shear rates below a certain
      critical value, 0 < [small gamma, Greek, dot above] < [small gamma, Greek, dot
      above]t aggregation was enhanced. The value of the critical shear rate depended
      on the size of the CNPs. With large CNPs possessing a side length of ~500 nm, the
      critical shear rate was [small gamma, Greek, dot above]t ~ 0.6 s-1. However, if
      the CNPs were smaller with a side length of ~100 nm, then [small gamma, Greek,
      dot above]t ~ 75 s-1. For shear rates above the critical shear rate, [small
      gamma, Greek, dot above] > [small gamma, Greek, dot above]t aggregation was
      inhibited. The USAXS data was analyzed using the Unified Fit model and the
      observations were in accord with the simulation results. Three regimes were
      identified based on the values of the linear slope P2 of the USAXS data. P2
      increased as [small gamma, Greek, dot above] increased, indicating increased
      aggregation of the TAGwoods as the shear rate was increased. P2 ceased increasing
      and began to decrease when [small gamma, Greek, dot above] ~ [small gamma, Greek,
      dot above]t. With further increases in [small gamma, Greek, dot above], P2
      decreased as [small gamma, Greek, dot above] increased further, which is
      indicative of a decrease in aggregation. The orientational quadrupole order
      parameter, S = <Q33> = 1/2<cos2theta - 1>, was computed, where theta is the angle
      between the axis of the TAGwood and the axis of flow, and showed that, for large
      [small gamma, Greek, dot above], it achieved a near-maximum value. This indicates
      that at high shear rates, the long axis of the cylindrical TAGwoods aligns in a
      direction parallel to that of the fluid flow.

PMID- 28891576
TI  - In vitro assessment of the ability of probiotics, blueberry and food
      carbohydrates to prevent S. pyogenes adhesion on pharyngeal epithelium and
      modulate immune responses.
AB  - Group A streptococci (GAS) cause 20-30% of pediatric pharyngitis episodes, which
      are a major cause of ambulatory care visits. Therefore, a strategy to prevent GAS
      dissemination in children could significantly benefit public healthcare.
      Contextually, we assessed the possibility of employing alternative food-grade
      strategies to be used with the oral probiotic L. helveticus MIMLh5 for the
      prevention of pharyngeal infections. First, we demonstrated through an antagonism
      by-exclusion assay that guaran may potentially prevent S. pyogenes adhesion on
      pharyngeal cells. Subsequently, we showed that an anthocyanin-rich fraction
      extracted from wild blueberry (BbE) exerts anti-inflammatory effects on the human
      macrophage cell line U937. Finally, we showed that BbE reduces interferon-beta
      expression in MIMLh5-stimulated murine dendritic cells, resulting in a reduction
      in the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-12 and TNF-alpha. In conclusion, this proof
      of-concept study indicates that different food-grade strategies may be
      concomitantly adopted to potentially prevent GAS colonization and modulate local
      immune defences.

PMID- 28891577
TI  - DBU-mediated [4 + 1] annulations of donor-acceptor cyclopropanes with carbon
      disulfide or thiourea for synthesis of 2-aminothiophene-3-carboxylates.
AB  - DBU-mediated [4 + 1] annulations of donor-acceptor cyclopropanes with carbon
      disulfide or thiourea to form 2-aminothiophene-3-carboxylate derivatives have
      been discovered. This reaction proceeds via the ring opening of donor-acceptor
      cyclopropanes to produce a 2-(iminomethylene)but-3-enoate intermediate, followed
      by the attack of an S-nucleophile for regioselective intermolecular nucleophilic
      addition, intramolecular S-nucleophilic addition, and final aromatization. A
      variety of functional groups could be tolerated under the reaction conditions.

PMID- 28891578
TI  - In situ formation of luminescent CdSe QDs in a metallohydrogel: a strategy
      towards synthesis, isolation, storage and re-dispersion of the QDs.
AB  - A one step, in situ, room temperature synthesis of yellow luminescent CdSe QDs
      was achieved in a metallohydrogel derived from a facially amphiphilic bile salt,
      resulting in a QD-gel hybrid. An ordered self-assembly and homogeneous
      distribution of the CdSe QDs in the hydrogel network was observed from optical
      and electron micrographs. The different excited state behavior of the CdSe QDs in
      the hybrid was revealed for the first time using time resolved spectroscopy. We
      also describe the successful isolation of the photoluminescent CdSe QDs from the
      gel followed by their re-dispersion in an organic solvent using suitable capping
      ligands.

PMID- 28891579
TI  - Sensitive and selective detection of the p53 gene based on a triple-helix
      magnetic probe coupled to a fluorescent liposome hybridization assembly via
      rolling circle amplification.
AB  - Developing a sensitive and selective sensing platform for the p53 gene and its
      mutation analysis is essential and may aid in early cancer screening and
      assessment of prognosis. Here, we developed a highly sensitive and selective p53
      gene assay based on the coupling of a triple-helix magnetic probe (THMP) to a
      fluorescent liposome hybridization assembly, a process initiated by rolling
      circle amplification (RCA). In the presence of p53, the THMP unfolds and
      activates an enzymatic cleavage reaction, thus releasing the RCA primer and
      initiating the RCA product-assisted fluorescent liposome hybridization assembly.
      The resultant double-stranded DNA structures bind the intercalating SG dye from
      the fluorescent liposomes, thus dramatically enhancing the fluorescence signal.
      In the absence of p53, the THMP remains intact and blocks the trigger release and
      fluorescent liposome assembly, thus resulting in a low background signal. The
      THMPs were designed with integrated target recognition by Watson-Crick base
      pairing, site-specific cleavage by an endonuclease and background signal
      elimination by magnetic isolation, thus avoiding the need to design multiple
      probes. Moreover, the use of fluorescent liposome assembly and magnetic isolation
      helps in avoiding sample matrix interference and nonspecific staining. Through
      cooperative amplification coupling with enzyme cleavage recycling, the RCA
      assisted fluorescent liposome assembly and magnetic isolation improved the
      sensitivity, with a detection limit of 0.07 fM. The excellent capacity of the
      THMP to specifically detect the involved targets and the precise site-specific
      endonuclease cleavage ensured remarkable selectivity for p53 against single-base
      mismatches. This proposed approach worked well in biological samples, thus
      demonstrating great potential for biomedical and clinical diagnosis applications.

PMID- 28891580
TI  - Facile fabrication of mesoporous silica micro-jets with multi-functionalities.
AB  - Self-propelled micro/nano-devices have been proved as powerful tools in various
      applications given their capability of both autonomous motion and on-demand task
      fulfilment. Tubular micro-jets stand out as an important member in the family of
      self-propelled micro/nano-devices and are widely explored with respect to their
      fabrication and functionalization. A few methods are currently available for the
      fabrication of tubular micro-jets, nevertheless there is still a demand to
      explore the fabrication of tubular micro-jets made of versatile materials and
      with the capability of multi-functionalization. Here, we present a facile
      strategy for the fabrication of mesoporous silica micro-jets (MSMJs) for tubular
      micromotors which can carry out multiple tasks depending on their
      functionalities. The synthesis of MSMJs does not require the use of any
      equipment, making it facile and cost-effective for future practical use. The
      MSMJs can be modified inside, outside or both with different kinds of metal
      nanoparticles, which provide these micromotors with a possibility of additional
      properties, such as the anti-bacterial effect by silver nanoparticles, or
      biochemical sensing based on surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) by gold
      nanoparticles. Because of the high porosity, high surface area and also the easy
      surface chemistry process, the MSMJs can be employed for the efficient removal of
      heavy metals in contaminated water, as well as for the controlled and active drug
      delivery, as two proof-of-concept examples of environmental and biomedical
      applications, respectively. Therefore, taking into account the new, simple and
      cheap method of fabrication, highly porous structure, and multiple
      functionalities, the mesoporous silica based micro-jets can serve as efficient
      tools for desired applications.

PMID- 28891581
TI  - Femtosecond laser ablation of transparent microphotonic devices and computer
      generated holograms.
AB  - Femtosecond laser ablation allows direct patterning of engineering materials in
      industrial settings without requiring multistage processes such as
      photolithography or electron beam lithography. However, femtosecond lasers have
      not been widely used to construct volumetric microphotonic devices and holograms
      with high reliability and cost efficiency. Here, a direct femtosecond laser
      writing process is developed to rapidly produce transmission 1D/2D gratings,
      Fresnel Zone Plate lenses, and computer-generated holograms. The optical
      properties including light transmission, angle-dependent resolution, and light
      polarization effects for the microphotonic devices have been characterized.
      Varying the depth of the microgratings from 400 nm to 1.5 MUm allowed the control
      over their transmission intensity profile. The optical properties of the 1D/2D
      gratings were validated through a geometrical theory of diffraction model
      involving 2D phase modulation. The produced Fresnel lenses had transmission
      efficiency of ~60% at normal incidence and they preserved the polarization of
      incident light. The computer-generated holograms had an average transmission
      efficiency of 35% over the visible spectrum. These microphotonic devices had
      wettability resistance of contact angle ranging from 44 degrees  to 125 degrees .
      These devices can be used in a variety of applications including wavelength
      selective filters, dynamic displays, fiber optics, and biomedical devices.

PMID- 28891582
TI  - Infrared spectroscopy of O- and OH- in water clusters: evidence for fast
      interconversion between O- and OHOH.
AB  - We present infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectra of (H2O)nO- and
      (H2O)nOH- cluster ensembles for n[combining macron] ~ 8 and 47 in the range of
      2400-4000 cm-1. Both hydrated ions exhibit the same spectral features, in good
      agreement with theoretical calculations. Decomposition of the calculated spectra
      shows that bands originating from H2OO- and H2OOH- interactions span almost the
      whole spectral region of interest. Experimentally, evaporation of OH is observed
      to a small extent, which requires interconversion of (H2O)nO- into (H2O)n-1OHOH-,
      with subsequent H2O evaporation preferred over OH evaporation. The modeling shows
      that (H2O)nO- and (H2O)n-1OHOH- cannot be distinguished by IRMPD spectroscopy.

PMID- 28891583
TI  - Nickel hexacyanoferrate/carbon composite as a high-rate and long-life cathode
      material for aqueous hybrid energy storage.
AB  - A nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF)/carbon composite is prepared to realize reduced
      structure vacancies and enhanced conductivity simultaneously. The resultant
      composite as a cathode material exhibits good capacity retentions both for rate
      capability (93% of that at 0.1 A g-1 for 2 A g-1) and cycle stability (94% after
      900 cycles at 0.5 A g-1). This feature is also kept in an aqueous hybrid energy
      storage device, after coupling with rGO as the anode. After 5000 cycles at 2 A g
      1, 94% of the initial capacity is preserved, exhibiting extraordinary stability
      at high rates.

PMID- 28891584
TI  - A new synthetic method for non-symmetric pillar[5]arenes with simple isolation
      and improved yield.
AB  - The conventional method to synthesize non-symmetric pillar[n]arenes (PA[n]s)
      generally results in a low yield and requires laborious isolation. We developed a
      new synthetic method to prepare non-symmetric PA[5]s with various substitutions.
      Monomers were synthesized starting from commercially available chemicals. The
      desired products could be easily isolated with an improved yield.

PMID- 28891585
TI  - First-principles calculations of oxygen interstitials in corundum: a site
      symmetry approach.
AB  - Using site symmetry analysis, four possible positions of interstitial oxygen
      atoms in the alpha-Al2O3 hexagonal structure have been identified and studied.
      First principles hybrid functional calculations of the relevant atomic and
      electronic structures for interstitial Oi atom insertion in these positions
      reveal differences in energies of ~1.5 eV. This approach allows us to get the
      lowest energy configuration, avoiding time-consuming calculations. It is shown
      that the triplet oxygen atom is barrierless displaced towards the nearest regular
      oxygen ion, forming a singlet dumbbell (split interstitial) configuration with an
      energy gain of ~2.5 eV. The charge and spatial structure of the dumbbell is
      discussed. Our results are important, in particular, for understanding the
      radiation properties and stability of alpha-Al2O3 and other oxide crystals.

PMID- 28891586
TI  - Poly-N-acryloyl-(l-phenylalanine methyl ester) hollow core nanocapsules
      facilitate sustained delivery of immunomodulatory drugs and exhibit adjuvant
      properties.
AB  - Polymeric hollow nanocapsules have attracted significant research attention as
      novel drug carriers and their preparation is of particular concern owing to the
      feasibility to encapsulate a broad range of drug molecules. This work presents
      for the first time the synthesis and development of novel poly-N-acryloyl l
      phenylalanine methyl ester hollow core nanocapsules (NAPA-HPNs) of avg. size ca.
      100-150 nm by the mini-emulsion technique. NAPA-HPNs are biocompatible and
      capable of encapsulating sodium nitroprusside (SNP) at a rate of ~1.3 MUM per mg
      of capsules. These NAPA-HPNs + SNP nano-formulations maintained homeostasis of
      macrophages which carry and facilitate the action of various drug molecules used
      against various diseases. These NAPA-HPNs also facilitate the prolonged release
      of a low level of nitric oxide (NO) and enhance the metabolic activities of pro
      inflammatory macrophages, which are important for the action of various drugs in
      body fluids. NAPA-HPN mediated skewing of naive macrophages toward the M1
      phenotype potentially demonstrates its adjuvant action on the innate immune
      system. These results potentially suggested that NAPA-HPNs can serve both as a
      carrier of drugs as well as an adjuvant for the immune system. Thus, these
      nanocapsules could be used for the effective management of various infectious or
      tumor diseases where immune-stimulation is paramount for treatment.

PMID- 28891587
TI  - Ag3I[(MoO3)2(IO3)2]: a new polar material synthesized from the structural
      modulation of molybdenyl iodate architectures by polarizable cation (Ag+) and
      anion (I-).
AB  - A new polar material Ag3I[(MoO3)2(IO3)2], which contains the extended 2D
      [(MoO3)2(IO3)2]infinity2n+ molybdenyl iodate framework found in the known
      noncentrosymmetric material K2[(MoO3)2(IO3)2], has been synthesized through the
      conventional hydrothermal method at 200  degrees C. It crystallizes in the
      orthorhombic system space group Pna21 with a = 8.0072(2) A, b = 21.2678(6) A, c =
      7.3241(2) A, and V = 1247.26(6) A3. Its structure features 2D corrugated
      [(MoO3)2(IO3)2]infinity2n+ anionic layers with neighboring anionic layers
      stitched through 1D [IAg3]infinity2n+ cationic chains to form a 3D structure. The
      1D [IAg3]infinity2n+ cationic chain acts as the template for parallel alignments
      of the polar iodate anions along the c axis in 2D [(MoO3)2(IO3)2]infinity2n+
      anionic layers, which leads to the polar structure of the material. Second
      harmonic generation (SHG) measurements on Ag3I[(MoO3)2(IO3)2] show a moderate SHG
      efficiency of about 0.7 times that of the KDP reference under 1064 nm laser
      radiation. In addition, the thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and optical
      measurements of the compound were also carried out.

PMID- 28891588
TI  - Ursodeoxycholic acid for cystic fibrosis-related liver disease.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Abnormal biliary secretion leads to the thickening of bile and the
      formation of plugs within the bile ducts; the consequent obstruction and abnormal
      bile flow ultimately results in the development of cystic fibrosis-related liver
      disease. This condition peaks in adolescence with up to 20% of adolescents with
      cystic fibrosis developing chronic liver disease. Early changes in the liver may
      ultimately result in end-stage liver disease with people needing transplantation.
      One therapeutic option currently used is ursodeoxycholic acid. This is an update
      of a previous review. OBJECTIVES: To analyse evidence that ursodeoxycholic acid
      improves indices of liver function, reduces the risk of developing chronic liver
      disease and improves outcomes in general in cystic fibrosis. SEARCH METHODS: We
      searched the Cochrane CF and Genetic Disorders Group Trials Register comprising
      references identified from comprehensive electronic database searches,
      handsearches of relevant journals and abstract books of conference proceedings.
      We also contacted drug companies and searched online trial registries.Date of the
      most recent search of the Group's trials register: 09 April 2017. SELECTION
      CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials of the use of ursodeoxycholic acid for at
      least three months compared with placebo or no additional treatment in people
      with cystic fibrosis. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors independently
      assessed trial eligibility and quality. The authors used GRADE to assess the
      quality of the evidence. MAIN RESULTS: Twelve trials have been identified, of
      which four trials involving 137 participants were included; data were only
      available from three of the trials (118 participants) since one cross-over trial
      did not report appropriate data. The dose of ursodeoxycholic acid ranged from 10
      to 20 mg/kg/day for up to 12 months. The complex design used in two trials meant
      that data could only be analysed for subsets of participants. There was no
      significant difference in weight change, mean difference -0.90 kg (95% confidence
      interval -1.94 to 0.14) based on 30 participants from two trials. Improvement in
      biliary excretion was reported in only one trial and no significant change after
      treatment was shown. There were no data available for analysis for long-term
      outcomes such as death or need for liver transplantation. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:
      There are few trials assessing the effectiveness of ursodeoxycholic acid. The
      quality of the evidence identified ranged from low to very low. There is
      currently insufficient evidence to justify its routine use in cystic fibrosis.

PMID- 28891589
TI  - Association of factor VIII and factor IX mutations, HLA Class II, tumour necrosis
      factor-alpha and interleukin-10 on inhibitor development among Thai haemophilia A
      and B patients.

PMID- 28891590
TI  - Co-administration of cyclosporine and ticagrelor may lead to a higher exposure to
      cyclosporine: a case report of a 49-year-old man.
AB  - ADVERSE EVENT: A drug interaction leading to higher exposure to cyclosporine.
      DRUGS IMPLICATED: Cyclosporine and ticagrelor. THE PATIENT: A 49-year-old man
      with a stable renal graft, managed with cyclosporine with stable trough blood
      concentrations for several years, was treated with ticagrelor for unstable angina
      pectoris. EVIDENCE THAT LINKS THE DRUG TO THE EVENT: The timeline was consistent
      with the appearance of an interaction, the interaction was confirmed by an
      increase in trough concentration of cyclosporine, and there were no alternative
      causes that by themselves could have caused the increase in cyclosporine
      exposure. MANAGEMENT: Cessation of ticagrelor. MECHANISM: Inhibition of CYP3A4
      and P-glycoprotein by ticagrelor. IMPLICATIONS FOR THERAPY: Clinicians should be
      aware of this potential interaction as ticagrelor is frequently prescribed in
      individuals using cyclosporine. Close monitoring of cyclosporine serum
      concentrations is warranted to avoid overdosing of cyclosporine. A
      pharmacokinetic study is needed to further examine the probable interaction
      between cyclosporine and ticagrelor.

PMID- 28891591
TI  - Factors associated with treatment seeking for malaria in Madhya Pradesh, India.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine household factors associated with treatment seeking for
      malaria. METHODS: The study was carried out in four districts of Madhya Pradesh
      with different malaria endemicity. A total of 1470 households were interviewed in
      which at least one member suffered from microscopically confirmed malaria in the
      3 months preceding the survey. Socio-demographic, economic, cultural
      characteristics, their health beliefs, knowledge and practices regarding malaria
      and choice of treatment seeking were explored. RESULTS: A total of 764 households
      were from high-endemic and 706 from low-endemic areas. More than half of
      household heads were illiterate; most are farmers. Approximately 46% sought
      treatment for malaria from unqualified informal providers; 19% from qualified
      private health practitioners and 35% from government health providers. Analysis
      revealed that household's area of residence, education, occupation, ethnicity,
      use of preventive measures, economic status, knowledge and practices, distance
      and delayed treatment seeking was strongly associated with the type of healthcare
      providers selected. CONCLUSIONS: Demand for formal health services among the
      poor, illiterate, tribal population living in remote areas is low. Accessible and
      affordable health services and a sensitisation programme to increase the demand
      for formal providers are needed.

PMID- 28891592
TI  - Decreased gamma-aminobutyric acid levels in the brainstem in patients with
      possible sleep bruxism: A pilot study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: An increasing number of studies have indicated that the central and
      autonomic nervous systems play roles in the genesis of sleep bruxism (SB). The
      role of specific neurochemicals in SB has been a subject of interest. OBJECTIVE:
      In this study, we use proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) to
      determine whether the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate
      (Glu) are different in the brainstem and bilateral cortical masticatory area
      (CMA) between possible sleep bruxism (SB) patients and controls, and discuss
      whether the brainstem or cortical networks which may affect the central
      masticatory pathways are under the genesis of SB. METHODS: Twelve possible SB
      patients and twelve age- and gender-matched controls underwent 1 H-MRS using the
      "MEGA-Point Resolved Spectroscopy Sequence" (MEGA-PRESS) technique in the
      brainstem and bilateral CMA. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy data were
      processed using LCModel. Because the signal detected by MEGA-PRESS includes
      contributions from GABA, macromolecules (primarily proteins) and homocarnosine,
      the GABA signal is referred to as "GABA+". The glutamate complex (Glx) signal
      contains both glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln), which mainly reflect
      glutamatergic metabolism. RESULTS: Edited spectra were successfully obtained from
      the bilateral CMA in all subjects. There were no significant differences in
      neurochemical levels between the left and right CMA in possible SB patients and
      controls. In the brainstem, significantly lower GABA+ levels were found in
      possible SB patients than in controls (P = .011), whereas there was no
      significant difference (P = .307) in Glx levels between the 2 groups.
      CONCLUSIONS: SB patients may possess abnormalities in the GABAergic system of
      brainstem networks.

PMID- 28891594
TI  - Effect of telescopic distal extension removable partial dentures on oral health
      related quality of life and maximum bite force: A preliminary cross over study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This cross over study aimed to evaluate the effect of telescopic
      distal extension removable partial dentures on oral health related quality of
      life and maximum bite force MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients with complete
      maxillary edentulism and partially edentulous mandibles with anterior teeth only
      remaining were selected for this cross over study. All patients received complete
      maxillary dentures and mandibular partial removable dental prosthesis (PRDP,
      control). After 3 months of adaptation, PRDP was replaced with conventional
      telescopic partial dentures (TPD) or telescopic partial dentures with
      cantilevered extensions (TCPD) in a quasi-random method. Oral health related
      quality of life (OHRQoL) was measured using OHIP-14 questionnaire and Maximum
      bite force (MBF) was measured using a bite force transducer. Measurements were
      performed 3 months after using each of the following prostheses; PRDP, TPD, and
      TCPD. RESULTS: TCPD showed the OHIP-14 lowest scores (i.e., the highest patient
      satisfaction with their OHRQoL), followed by TPD, and PRDP showed the highest
      OHIP-14 scores (i.e., the lowest patient satisfaction with OHRQoL). TCPD showed
      the highest MBF (70.7 +/- 3.71), followed by TPD (57.4 +/- 3.43) and the lowest
      MBF (40.2 +/- 2.20) was noted with PRDP. CONCLUSION: WITHIN The Limitations of
      This Study, Mandibular Telescopic Distal Extension Removable Partial Dentures
      with Cantilevered Extensions Were Associated with Improved Oral Health Related
      Quality of Life and Maximum Bite Force Compared to Telescopic or Conventional
      PRDP. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Telescopic distal extension removable prostheses is
      an esthetic restoration in partially edentulous patients with free end saddle.
      This article describes the addition of cantilevered extensions of this
      prosthesis. The results showed that telescopic distal extension removable
      prostheses with cantilevered extensions were associated with improved oral health
      related quality of life and maximum bite force compared to telescopic or
      conventional RPDs.

PMID- 28891593
TI  - Effect of radiosynoviorthesis on the progression of arthropathy and haemarthrosis
      reduction in haemophilic patients.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Repeated haemarthrosis is widely accepted as the triggering cause
      of synovitis and haemophilic arthropathy. A first-line treatment of chronic
      synovitis is radiosynoviorthesis (RS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the
      RS effects on the progression of arthropathy and on a reduction in bleeding in
      patients with haemophilia. METHODS: An observational-retrospective study was
      performed. Bleeding episodes in the 12 months following and in the 12 months
      preceding RS was compared. The arthropathy was clinically and radiologically
      analysed by age range, joint and subject, comparing those undergoing RS
      (Radiosynoviorthesis Group, RSG) against those not undergoing this treatment (Non
      Radiosynoviorthesis Group, Non-RSG). RESULTS: One hundred and seventy-four RS
      were performed in 71 patients (90 Y in Knees and 186 Re in
      elbows/ankles/shoulder). RS resulted in significant reduction in bleeding (582
      preintervention and 168 postintervention, P < .001). In general, the level of
      arthropathy measured clinically and radiologically was greater with age increase
      in both groups (RSG and Non-RSG), especially in the 25-40 age range. A
      significant increase (P < .05) in the progression of arthropathy was also
      observed, both globally by patient and specifically for each joint, in non-RSG
      and RSG group. CONCLUSION: RS is an effective method to reduce the number of
      haemarthrosis episodes in chronic synovitis. Moreover, RS can positively affect
      arthropathy by slowing down its progression. However, the results obtained
      suggest that arthropathy may be conditioned by the subject's age, regardless of
      whether or not the joint has undergone RS.

PMID- 28891595
TI  - The effect of bolus volume on laryngeal closure and UES opening in swallowing:
      Kinematic analysis using 320-row area detector CT study.
AB  - This study investigated the effects of three different volumes of honey-thick
      liquid on the temporal characteristics of swallowing. Twenty-six healthy subjects
      (15 males, 11 females) underwent 320-row area detector CT scan while swallowing
      3, 10 and 20 mL of honey-thick liquid barium. Three-dimensional images were
      created at 10 images/s. Kinematic events involving six structures (velopharynx,
      hyoid bone, epiglottis, laryngeal vestibule (LV), true vocal cords (TVC), upper
      esophageal sphincter (UES)) and timing of bolus movement were timed using frame
      by frame analysis. The overall sequence of events did not differ across three
      volumes; however, increasing bolus volume significantly changed the onset and
      termination of events. The bolus head reached to pharynx and esophagus earlier
      and the duration of bolus passing through UES was significantly longer in 10 and
      20 mL compared to 3 mL (P < .05). Consequently, the onset of UES opening was
      significantly earlier with increased volume (P < .05). LV and TVC closure
      occurred later in 20 mL compared to 3 mL (P < .05). These changes in motion of
      pharynx and larynx appeared to promote swallow safety by preventing aspiration,
      suggesting that anatomical structure movements adapt in response to bolus volume.
      Our findings also suggest that the pharyngeal swallow behaviours may be modified
      by afferents in the oral cavity. The three-dimensional visualization and
      quantitative measurements provided by 320-ADCT provide essential benchmarks for
      understanding swallowing, both normal and abnormal.

PMID- 28891596
TI  - External evaluation of population pharmacokinetic models for ciclosporin in adult
      renal transplant recipients.
AB  - AIMS: Several population pharmacokinetic (popPK) models for ciclosporin (CsA) in
      adult renal transplant recipients have been constructed to optimize the
      therapeutic regimen of CsA. However, little is known about their predictabilities
      when extrapolated to different clinical centres. Therefore, this study aimed to
      externally evaluate the predictive ability of CsA popPK models and determine the
      potential influencing factors. METHODS: A literature search was conducted and the
      predictive performance was determined for each selected model using an
      independent data set of 62 patients (471 predose and 500 2-h postdose
      concentrations) from our hospital. Prediction-based diagnostics and simulation
      based normalized prediction distribution error were used to evaluate model
      predictability. The influence of prior information was assessed using Bayesian
      forecasting. Additionally, potential factors influencing model predictability
      were investigated. RESULTS: Seventeen models extracted from 17 published popPK
      studies were assessed. Prediction-based diagnostics showed that ethnicity
      potentially influenced model transferability. Simulation-based normalized
      prediction distribution error analyses indicated misspecification in most of the
      models, especially regarding variance. Bayesian forecasting demonstrated that the
      predictive performance of the models substantially improved with 2-3 prior
      observations. The predictability of nonlinear Michaelis-Menten models was
      superior to that of linear compartmental models when evaluating the impact of
      structural models, indicating the underlying nonlinear kinetics of CsA.
      Structural model, ethnicity, covariates and prior observations potentially
      affected model predictability. CONCLUSIONS: Structural model is the predominant
      factor influencing model predictability. Incorporation of nonlinear kinetics in
      CsA popPK modelling should be considered. Moreover, Bayesian forecasting
      substantially improved model predictability.

PMID- 28891597
TI  - Twelve-month longitudinal parasitological assessment of lymphatic filariasis
      positive individuals: impact of a biannual treatment with ivermectin and
      albendazole.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Mass drug administration (MDA) for the control of lymphatic filariasis
      (LF), in Ghana, started in the year 2000. While this had great success in many
      implementation units, there remain areas with persistent transmission, after more
      than 10 years of treatment. A closer examination of the parasite populations
      could help understand the reasons for persistent infections and formulate
      appropriate strategies to control LF in these areas of persistent transmission.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a longitudinal study, we assessed the prevalence of
      microfilaraemia (mf) in two communities with 12 years of MDA in Ghana. In
      baseline surveys 6 months after the National MDA in 2014, 370 consenting
      individuals were tested for antigenaemia using immunochromatographic test (ICT)
      cards and had their mf count determined through night blood surveys. 48 ICT
      positives, of whom, 17 were positive for mf, were treated with 400 MUg/kg
      ivermectin + 400 mg albendazole and subsequently followed for parasitological
      assessment at 3-month intervals for 1 year. This overlapped with the National MDA
      in 2015. RESULTS: There was a 68% parasite clearance 3 months after treatment.
      The pre-treatment mf count differed significantly from the post-treatment mf
      counts at 3 months (P = 0.0023), 6 months (P = 0.0051), 9 months (P = 0.0113) and
      12 months (P = 0.0008). CONCLUSION: In these settings with persistent LF
      transmission, twice-yearly treatment may help accelerate LF elimination. Further
      large-scale evaluations are required to ascertain these findings.

PMID- 28891598
TI  - Prevalence of human papillomavirus in benign and malignant laryngeal lesions in
      Egyptian patients: Cross-sectional study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in benign and
      malignant laryngeal lesions among Egyptian patients. DESIGN: Observational
      analytical cross-sectional study. SETTING: Ain Shams University hospital,
      Otorhinolaryngology department PARTICIPANTS: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded
      specimens of 126 patients (70 benign laryngeal lesions and 56 squamous cell
      carcinoma lesions) were assessed for the presence of HPV DNA using MY09/11 PCR
      based DNA detection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentage of positive samples was
      calculated. RESULTS: All 70 benign laryngeal lesion specimens were negative for
      the HPV DNA, while 2 of the 56 squamous cell carcinoma lesions (3.6%) were
      positive. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of HPV DNA in only two specimens in our study
      suggests that the proportion of laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas attributable
      to infection by HPV seems to be very low in Egypt.

PMID- 28891599
TI  - Expression in Escherichia coli of fusion protein comprising alpha-conotoxin TxIB
      and preservation of selectivity to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the
      purified product.
AB  - Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are ligand-gated ion channels, which
      are widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous system. The
      alpha6beta2* nAChR is an important subtype, which is closely associated with
      nicotine addiction and movement disorders etc. alpha-conotoxin TxIB with 16-amino
      acid residues specifically targets alpha6beta2* nAChR with no obvious effect on
      other nAChR subtypes. However, chemical synthesis of TxIB is expensive, and the
      quantity of native TxIB extracted from cone snail is limited. In the present
      study, we attempted to obtain TxIB using biological method based on the
      recombinant expression in Escherichia coli (E. coli). The synthetic gene encoding
      mature peptide of TxIB was inserted in pET-31b(+) vector and transformed into E.
      coli strain BLR(DE3)pLysS for expression. The recombinant fusion protein KSI-TxIB
      His6 (KSI, ketosteroid isomerase) was expressed successfully as inclusion body in
      E. coli, which was purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography column and cleaved
      by cyanogen bromide (CNBr) to release recombinant alpha-conotoxin TxIB (rTxIB).
      Then, rTxIB was purified by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography
      (RP-HPLC) and was identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI
      MS). Pharmacological activity of rTxIB was assessed by electrophysiological
      approaches. The results indicated that it preserved about 50% of potency, but,
      was even more important, had the same selectivity as the natural conotoxin which
      may provide an alternative method for quantity production of small peptides with
      low cost on the premise of not changing their potency.

PMID- 28891600
TI  - The effect of milling and postmilling procedures on the surface roughness of
      CAD/CAM materials.
AB  - PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the surface roughness and analyze
      the surface topography of five different CAD/CAM ceramics and one CAD/CAM
      composite resin for CEREC after milling and postmilling procedures. MATERIALS AND
      METHODS: Blocks of the ceramics Mark II, IPS Empress CAD, IPS e.max CAD,
      Suprinity and Enamic, and blocks of the composite resin Lava Ultimate were milled
      at CEREC MCXL. Ten flat samples of each material were obtained. The surface
      roughness (Ra) test was performed before and after milling, crystallization,
      polishing, and glaze when indicated, followed by SEM and AFM analysis. Data were
      submitted to one-way ANOVA with repeated measures and the Tukey HSD test (alpha =
      0.05). RESULTS: The milling step significantly increased the roughness of all the
      tested materials (P < .05). Lithium-based ceramics (IPS e.max CAD and Suprinity)
      were more suitable to roughness than the other tested materials (P < .05).
      CONCLUSIONS: The polishing methods were able to reduce roughness to baseline
      values, except for lithium-based ceramics. Glaze reduced significantly the
      roughness of lithium-based ceramics without a difference from the baseline. SEM
      and AFM images revealed that glazed surfaces are smoother than polished surfaces.
      CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: All hard-milling CAD/CAM materials, that is, fully
      sintered, should be only hand polished. The glaze step can be suppressed
      resulting in time saving. However, the glaze step in soft-milling lithium
      disilicate is imperative.

PMID- 28891601
TI  - [Quality control in Menthae Haplocalycis Herba and its decoction slices].
AB  - Menthae Haplocalycis Herba has been widely applied in such fields as food,
      cosmetics, daily necessities, medicine and health, due to its unique efficacy.
      However, as the safety of traditional Chinese medicines has been of increasing
      concern, the quality issue of Menthae Haplocalycis Herba and its decoction slices
      has become a key obstructive factor for exports. This article focused on the
      control over Menthae Haplocalycis Herba's adulterants, exogenous hazardous
      residues and internal properties (chemical compositions, spectrum effect
      relationship). Moreover, current studies on the quality of Menthae Haplocalycis
      Herba and its decoction slices, as well as the existing problems in recent years
      were systematically summarized in the expectation of improving the means of
      quality control of Menthae Haplocalycis Herba and its decoction slices, enhancing
      its quality standards, and ensuring the use safety and effectiveness.

PMID- 28891602
TI  - [Cloning and expression analysis of 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol
      kinase gene in Cinnamomum camphora].
AB  - The 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase was the fourth key enzymes
      in plant terpenoid biosynthesis pathway of methyl erythritol phosphate
      pathway(MEP). According to the study of Cinnamomum camphora transcriptome data,we
      abtained the 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase gene using RT
      PCR,and named CcCMK1,then deposited it in GeneBank(Accession number:
      Ku376098).Bioinformatics analysis showed the open reading frame (ORF) of the
      CcCMK1 was 1 212 bp.The putative protein encoded 403 amino acids,and its
      molecular weight was 44.46 kDa and theoretically isoelectric point was
      4.99.Transmembrane structure analysis showed that there was no transmembrane
      structure. Signal peptide analysis showed that it was a non secretory protein,
      and there was no signal peptide. The subcellular localization showed that the
      chloroplast was located in the chloroplast.Analysis of the expression of CcCMK1
      gene in five chemotypes of C. camphora using Real-time PCR showed its expression
      level was highest in C. longepaniculatum, and the lowest in Borneol camphor.This
      research provided a basis for characterizing the key enzyme genes of terpenoid
      biosynthetic pathway in C. camphora.

PMID- 28891603
TI  - [Analysis of metabolic pathway of terpenoids in Blumea balsamifera].
AB  - In order to provide a theoretical basis for the regulation of active ingredient,
      the terpenoids metabolic pathway and specific enzymes in Blumea balsamifera are
      investigated. Basing on transcriptome information, B. balsamifera terpenoids
      metabolic pathway was analyzed in KEGG data base. Four metabolic pathway of
      terpenoids were found in KEGG data base. They were terpenoid backbone
      biosynthesis, monoterpenoid biosynthesis, diterpenoid biosynthesis,
      sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis, contained 103, 10, 29,59 genes,
      respectively. Through the analysis of the enzyme and product in the pathway, the
      result showed that there were 8 kinds of monoterpenes, 3 kinds of diterpenes, 3
      kinds of triterpenes and sesquiterpenes. The mainly key enzymes were
      deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate synthase, HMG-CoA reductase and allyl transferase
      system. In B. balsamifera, there were relatively few monoterpenes synthetic
      enzymes, while the type of products was much more than other terpenes. This may
      be relate to the non-specific catalytic characteristic of monoterpene synthase.
      It is expected to improve the yield of terpenoids in B. balsamifera by analysis
      the pathways and regulation the key enzymes.

PMID- 28891604
TI  - [Viability of 7 kinds of medicinal plant seeds stored in medium-term gene bank of
      the National Medicinal Plant Gene Bank].
AB  - In order to evaluate seed viability of Platycodon grandiflorum, Schizonepeta
      tenuifolia, Andrographis paniculat, Codonopsis pilosula, Scutellaria baicalensis,
      Leonurus japonicus, Rabdosia rubescens, stored in the medium-term gene bank of
      the National Medicinal Plant Gene Bank for 4 years, we tested seed germination
      rate of 7 species of medicinal plant and analyzed the change of significance of
      levels of the germination rate in pre and post store. Seed germination rates of 7
      species of medicinal plants were all decreased after 4 years, and the decrease of
      S. tenuifolia and S. baicalensis germination rates were much smaller than other
      species. The higher initial germination rate of P. grandiflorum, C. pilosula, R.
      rubescens seed has the smaller decline of germination rate, but the data of A.
      paniculata showed the opposite trend. The rate decline of the germination of S.
      tenuifolia and S. baicalensis was roughly the same in different germination rate
      interval. The results showed that low temperature storage could effectively
      prolong the seed longevity, and maintain the seed vigor. Moreover, it is
      necessary to study on the storage characteristics of the main medicinal plant
      seeds, and establish the monitoring plan and regeneration standard.

PMID- 28891605
TI  - [Study on ecological environment and accompanying plants' community
      characteristics study of wild Panax japonicus in Enshi].
AB  - The paper is aimed to study the distribution, population density, soil conditions
      and community characteristics of accompanying plants' in Enshi sub-regional
      different areas, with a typical habitats investigation method. The results showed
      that the wild Panax japonicus mainly distributed in moist places under the
      forests, by streams, or secondary forests of high grass, within east longitude 29
      degrees -30 degrees , north latitude 108 degrees -110 degrees and about 1 000-15
      00 meters above sea level. The soils were mainly tide soil and humus with yellow
      brown soil, yellow soil and red soil, and the humus thickness was5-30 centimeter,
      pH 6.0-6.8, the moisture content of 16.8%-24.2%, soil bulk density of 1.39-2.12.
      Its geographical vegetation types were mainly evergreen coniferous forest,
      evergreen-deciduous mixture broad leaved forest and evergreen coniferous forest
      mixed deciduous broad-leaved forest, including three levels community structure
      of arbors, shrubs and herbaceous; Its accompanying plants reached 86 families,
      118 genera, 134 species of seed plants, the arbors included 15 families, 21
      genera, 26 species and the dominant species community mainly Pinaceae such as
      Pinus massoniana, P. tabuliformis, P. henryi and Taxodiaceae such as Cunninghamia
      lanceolata, Cryptomeria fortunei etc. The shrubs included 39 families, 54 genera,
      62 species with the dominant species such as Camellia oleifera, Kalopanax
      septemlobus, Akebia trifoliata, Trachycarpusfortunei, Rhamnus globosa, Smilax
      corbularia and so on. The herbaceous included 32 families, 43 genera, 46 species,
      and Ferns such as the black-footed Dryopteris, Dryopteris crassirhizom,
      Coniogramme affinis, Polystichum tripteron, Adiantum pedatum, Lunathyrium
      acrostichoides, Woodsia ilvensis and Woodwardia japonica were dominant species.
      The cover layer covered a large number of lichens and mosses. The wild P.
      japonicus can be found among the P. massoniana, P. tabuliformis, P. henryi,
      lichens and mosses. These may indicate that the wild P. japonicusin Enshi
      requires higher demands on the ecological environment, its accompanying plants
      are mainly the tree layer-shrub layer-herb layer, and vertical structure is
      obvious. The study provides a basis for domestication and conservation of P.
      japonicus resources.

PMID- 28891607
TI  - [Quality of commercial Amomum villosum].
AB  - In recent years, with the price rise of Amomum villosum, the quality of A.
      villosum in the market has been in disorder. To understand the quality status of
      A. villosum in the market and provide reference for the commercial size fifty
      seven samples were collected from different producing areas or markets from
      August 2013. The samples were detected with evaluation on appearance quality,
      determination of the contents of bornyl acetate, determination of pesticide
      residues and heavy metals residues based on Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2015. The
      results showed that the pesticide residues and heavy metals residues met the
      requirments, all the samples from different producing areas were qualified except
      one sample from Fujian province. The qualified rate of native products and
      imports products samples from market were 43.75% and 14.29%, respectively, the
      qualified rate of the samples of Yunnan province from producing areas was higher
      than that from the market. There are two ports at the national level in Yunnan
      province, where the southern herbs from. A. villosumis one of import medicines
      from Southeast Asia, and lots of A. villosum samples import to China from Yunnan
      ports. Most of pharmacists believed that all of the samples from Yunnan province
      produced in Yunnan. The great majority of commercial species was A. villosum, but
      A. longiliglare was scarce. Through the survey, it isfound that the main factors
      affecting the quality of Amomi Fructus was source, lots of A. villosum samples
      have been replaced by the Amomi Fructus, so the source of imports Amomi Fructus
      was not clear, which was also more difficult to identify. The quality of A.
      villosum needs to protect, optimize germplasm, strict control of medicinal
      sources, specification for medicinal harvesting and processing technology.

PMID- 28891606
TI  - [Effects of endophytic fungi from Dendrobium officinale on host growth and
      components metabolism of tissue culture seedlings].
AB  - The paper aims to study the effects of endophytic fungi from D. officinale
      cultivated on living trees on growth and components metabolism of tissue culture
      seedlings. Morphological characteristics and agronomic characters of tissue
      culture seedlings infected and uninfected by endophytic fungus were observed and
      measured. Polysaccharides and alcohol-soluble extracts contents were determined
      by phenol-sulfuric acid method and hot-dipmethod, respectively. Monosacchride
      composition of polysaccharides and alcohol-soluble extracts components were
      analyzed by pre-column derivatives HPLC and HPLC method, respectively. It showed
      that effects of turning to purple of stem nodes could be changed by endophytic
      fungus. Besides, the endophytic fungus could affect the contents and
      constitutions of polysaccharides and alcohol-soluble extracts. The strains
      tested, expect DO34, could promote growth and polysaccharides content of tissue
      culture seedlings. The strains tested, expect DO12, could promote the
      accumulation of mannose. Furthermore, DO18, DO19 and DO120 could increase alcohol
      soluble extracts. On the basis, four superior strains were selected for mechanism
      research between endophytic fungus and their hosts and microbiology engineering.

PMID- 28891608
TI  - [Analysis of hot spots and trend of molecular pharmacognosy research based on
      project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of 1995-2014].
AB  - This study collected 1995-2014 molecular pharmacognosy study, a total of 595
      items, funded by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). TDA and Excel
      software were used to analyze the data of the projects about general situation,
      hot spots of research with rank analytic and correlation analytic methods.
      Supported by NSFC molecular pharmacognosy projects and funding a gradual increase
      in the number of, the proportion of funds for pharmaceutical research funding
      tends to be stable; mainly supported by molecular biology methods of genuine
      medicinal materials, secondary metabolism and Germplasm Resources Research; hot
      drugs including Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Radix Rehmanniae, Cordyceps
      sinensis, hot contents including tanshinone biosynthesis, Rehmannia glutinosa
      continuous cropping obstacle.

PMID- 28891609
TI  - [Optimization of reaction conditions and methodological investigation on microtox
      based fast testing system for traditional Chinese medicine injection].
AB  - Vibrio fischeri CS234 was used to establish and optimize microtox assay system,
      laying a foundation for the application of this method in comprehensive acute
      toxicity test of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) injections. Firstly, the
      Plackett-Burman method was carried out to optimize the factors which would affect
      Vibrio fischeri CS234 luminescence. Secondly, ZnSO4*7H2O was chosen as reference
      substance to establish its reaction system with quality control samples. The
      optimal luminescence conditions were achieved as follows: 1At a temperature of
      (15+/-1) C, Vibrio fischeri CS234 lyophilized powders were balanced for 15 min,
      then, 1 mL resuscitation fluid was added and blended for 10 min. 100 MUL bacteria
      suspension was taken to measure the initial luminescence intensity, and then 1 mL
      resuscitation fluid or test sample was immediately added; after reaction for 10
      min, corresponding luminescence intensity was measured again. Resuscitation
      diluent, osmotic pressure regulator and ZnSO4*7H2O stock solution showed no
      interference to the determination of Vibrio fischeri CS234 luminescence
      intensity, so this method was of good specificity. The within-and between-batch
      precisions of quality controls and the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ)
      samples were <5% and <10% respectively, while the accuracy ranged between 85.8%
      and 103.2%. The standard curve equation of ZnSO4*7H2O ranged from 3.86 mg*L-1 to
      77.22 mg*L-1 (final concentrations) was y=21.78lnx-15.14, R2=0.998; meanwhile,
      IC50 of ZnSO4*7H2O to Vibrio fischeri CS234 was 19.90 mg*L-1. ZnSO4*7H2O stock
      solution and its quality controls were continuously investigated for 120 h and 8
      h respectively, and their RSD was lower than 2%, indicating stability at room
      temperature and 4 C storage conditions. Between pH 4.5-8.0, luminescence
      intensity of Vibrio fischeri CS234 was controlled within +/-10%, and such pH
      value range could meet the testing needs of the vast majority of traditional
      Chinese medicine injections. The Vibrio fischeri strain CS234 assay system was
      specific, stable, sensitive, accurate and adaptable after optimization, so it was
      suitable for the comprehensive acute toxicity assessment of TCM injections.

PMID- 28891610
TI  - [Attenuation mechanism of gamboges during processing based on inflammatory
      toxicity and AQP3, AQP4 protein and mRNA expressions in rat gastric and duodenal
      tissues].
AB  - To expand the clinical application of gamboges, it is necessary to study crude
      gamboges' toxicity after oral administration and attenuation mechanism during
      processing. In this study, crude gamboges' toxicity was judged by multiple
      assays, including inflammatory mediums [such as nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis
      factor alpha (TNF-alpha), and interleukin 6 (IL-6)] released by macrophage
      RAW264.7, and pathological manifestations of rat stomach and duodenal tissues
      after oral administration with crude and processed gamboges. The attenuation
      mechanism during processing was studied by detecting AQP3, AQP4 protein and mRNA
      expression in rat gastric and duodenal tissues using immunohistochemical assay
      and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR technique. According to the results,
      crude gamboges group showed promotion in release of NO, TNF-alpha and IL-6 by
      macrophage RAW264.7 in a dose-dependent manner; Compared with crude gamboges
      group, processed gamboges group showed reduction in release of NO and IL-6, with
      increase in TNF-alpha. Crude gamboges could cause rat diarrhea, white blood cells
      increase, lymphocytes decrease, hyperemia and edema in rat gastric mucosa,
      duodenal mucosal necrosis and inflammatory cells infiltration. All of these
      results proved that gamboges had the inflammatory toxicity in gastric and
      duodenal tissues after oral administration in a dose-dependent manner, which
      however reduced after processing. In addition to the inflammatory toxicity, the
      mRNA and protein expressions of aquaporin 3 (AQP3), aquaporin 4 (AQP4) in gastric
      and duodenal tissues of high-dose crude gamboges group were increased
      significantly (P<0.05), while the protein and mRNA expressions of AQP3, AQP4 were
      weakened in processed gamboges group. The results showed that AQP3, AQP4 protein
      and mRNA expressions were positively correlated with the inflammatory toxicity.
      In conclusion, down-regulation of AQP3, AQP4 protein and mRNA expressions may be
      one of attenuation mechanisms in processing gamboges.

PMID- 28891611
TI  - [Evaluation for extraction process of Shenqi Tongmai Yizhi particles based on
      antioxidant capacity in vitro and its spectrum-effect relation].
AB  - Based on DPPH method, the antioxidant activities of Shenqi Tongmai Yizhi
      particles with different extraction processes were compared. The contribution to
      the anti-oxidant capacity in vitro was explored by means of grey relational
      analysis on different chemical compositions in the fingerprint. The results
      showed that the IC50 concentration values of water extract, water extract from
      alcohol precipitation, alcohol extract, and alcohol and water extract were 0.801
      4, 0.859 1, 0.796 1, 0.918 0 g*L-1; and the alcohol extract is the best method to
      extract antioxidative components, with the highest antioxidant activity and
      lowest IC50. When the mass concentration of the herbs reached a certain degree,
      its free radical clearance rate was similar to that of vitamin C control group.
      The order of different chemical contributions of constituents to the antioxidant
      activity in the fingerprint was 4>3>33>53>9>10>11>34>15>59>8>61>52>20>42>18>29.
      The preliminary exploration for the spectrum efficiency relations provides
      reference for studying traditional Chinese medicine compound processing method
      and the pharmacodyamic material basis.

PMID- 28891612
TI  - [HPLC specific chromatograms of Xingnaojing injection].
AB  - To establish and analyze the HPLC specific chromatograms of Xingnaojing injection
      manufactured by different factories. The separation was performed on a Thermo BDS
      Hypersil C18 column (4.6 mm*250 mm, 5 MUm), with the mobile phase consisting of
      acetonitrile-0.02% formic acid aqueous solution for gradient elution. The flow
      rate was 1.0 mL*min-1, and the column temperature was 35 C. The detection
      wavelength was set at 254 nm, and the sample size was 20 MUL. Eleven
      chromatographic peaks were identified as characteristic peaks of HPLC specific
      chromatograms of Xingnaojing injection, after analyzing 29 batches of Xingnaojing
      injection samples. Compared with the reference substances, seven of them were
      identified as eucarvone, camphor, curcumenone, curcumenol, curdione, curzerenone
      and germacrone, respectively. HPLC specific chromatograms of Xingnaojing
      injection manufactured by three factories could be easily classified into three
      categories after investigation with computer-aided similarity evaluation system
      combined with principal component analysis. The established HPLC specific
      chromatograms provide a basis for scientific evaluation and effective control of
      the quality of Xingnaojing injection.

PMID- 28891613
TI  - [A new isoindole alkaloid from leaves of Cassia siamea].
AB  - A new isoindole alkaloid (1), has been isolated from the leaves of Cassia siamea
      by using various chromatographic techniques. Compound 1 is a new compound,
      determined as 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methyl-6-prenylisoindolin-1-one, and it
      displayed cytotoxicity against NB4, A549, SHSY5Y, PC3 and MCF7 cell lines with
      IC50 values of 3.2,4.6,2.8,6.4, 2.5 MUmol*L-1, respectively.

PMID- 28891614
TI  - [Study on active constituents against Alzheimer's disease from Valeriana
      amurensis].
AB  - In this study, the chemical constituentsfrom Valeriana amurensis AD-effective
      fraction were investigated based on the effect of Valeriana amurensis on
      Alzheimer's disease (AD) in previous study. Valeriana amurensis was extracted
      with 75% ethanol and the obtained extract were extracted and subjected to AB-8
      macroporous resin column to obtain the AD-effective fraction of Valeriana
      amurensis. 9 compounds (1-9) were isolated with silica gel, ODS column
      chromatography and preparative HPLC. The structures of these compounds were
      determined as 6-hydroxy-7-(hydroxymethyl)-4-methylenehexahydrocyclopenta[c]-pyran
      1(3H)-one (1), suspensolide F (2), loganin(3), alpha-morroniside(4), beta
      morronisid (5), partinovalerosidate (6), zansiumloside A (7), (-)-angelicoidenol
      2-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (8), citroside A (9). Compounds 6-9 were isolated from
      the valerian genus for the first time and further investigated the anti-AD effect
      of compounds 1-9 in vitro found that compound 2 and 6 protected the PC12 cells
      from injury significantly.

PMID- 28891615
TI  - [Bioactive lignans from Silybum marianum].
AB  - The seeds of Silybum marianum were extracted by hot water, and the extract was
      isolated by D101 macroporous resin, MCI resin, MPLC, HPLC, et al. As a result, 7
      compounds including tricin 4'-O-[threo-beta-guaiacyl-(7"-O-methyl)-glyceryl]
      ether(1), tricin 4'-O-[erythro-beta-guaiacyl-(7"-O-methyl)-glyceryl] ether(2), 5'
      methoxyhydnocarpin-D(3),palstatin(4),(8R,7'S,8'R)-5,5'-dimethoxy-7
      oxolariciresinol 9'-O-D-xylopyranoside(5), 9-O-D-glucopyranoside(6), and(-)
      haplomyrtoside(7) were isolated and identified for the first time. Compounds 1,
      3, 4, and 5 exhibited activity against influenza A(H5N1)with IC50 value of 0.65,
      0.21, 0.32, and 0.56 MUmol*L-1, respectively. Compounds 1, 2, 6, and 7 exhibited
      cytotoxity against HepG-2 with IC50 value of 0.35, 0.25, 0.53, 0.66 MUmol*L-1,
      respectively.

PMID- 28891616
TI  - [Study on chemical constituents in Lysinotus wilsonii by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS].
AB  - The Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole Time-of-flight Mass
      Spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS)was applied to analyze the chemical components in
      Lysinotus wilsonii. A Waters ACQUITY UPLC-BEH-C18 S column(2.1 mm*100 mm,1.7
      MUm)was used with a gradient elution of acetonitrile-water containing 0.1% formic
      acid. The mass spectrometry equipped with ionization source was used and the data
      was collected in negative ion mode. Results showed that 57 components were
      identified as 42 phenylethanoid glycosides, 5 benzyl alcohol glycosides, 6
      flavonoids and 4 other components. Among them, 43 compounds were firstly
      identified in Gensneriaceae and one benzyl alcohol glycoside may be a new
      compound. We have quite completely identified the components in L. wilsonii for
      the first time, which may lay the foundation for further study and utilization of
      the medicinal plant.

PMID- 28891617
TI  - [Spectrum-effect relationship in antioxidant activity of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus
      based on DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays].
AB  - Characteristic chromatogram of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus which were processed by
      heat treatment with different temperatures and times was developed by HPLC. DPPH,
      ABTS and FRAP assays were performed to determine the antioxidant activity. The
      spectrum-effect correlation was studied using Partial Least Squares(PLS)to
      explore the active ingredients of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus by investigating the
      relationship between HPLC spectrum and antioxidant activity. S1, S2, S15, S24,
      S27, S29, S32, S33 and S35 were characteristic compounds in 35 matching
      characteristic chromatograms which were positive relationship with scavenging
      DPPH free radical activity. S1, S2, S5, S8, S16, S27 and S33 were significantly
      positively related to scavenge ABTS free radical activity. S12, S20, S22, S28,
      S30, S31, S32 and S34 were significantly positively related to restore Fe3+
      activity. Among the chromatographic peaks, S1, S2, S27 and S33were positively
      related to scavenge DPPH free radical and ABTS free radical activity, and S32 was
      positively related to scavenge DPPH free radical and restore Fe3+ activity. S3,
      S19, S21, S22, S23, S33 and S34 were determined as salidroside, luteolin-7-O
      glucoside, specnuezhenide, oleuropein, ligustroflavone, luteolin andapigenin,
      respectively. The results showed that although specnuezhenide and salidroside
      were stipulated index compounds to evaluate the quality of Ligustri Lucidi
      Fructus, the Ligustri Lucidi Fructus pharmcodynamic effect did not depend on the
      contents of those index components. The quality of traditional Chinese
      medicines(TCMs)should be determined by the compound groups associated with
      pharmcodynamic effect.

PMID- 28891618
TI  - [Quality evaluation of American ginseng using UPLC coupled with multivariate
      analysis].
AB  - An ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)method combined with
      multivariate data analysis was developed to evaluate the quality of American
      ginseng by simultaneously determining the concentrations of six ginsenosides
      (Rg1, Re, Rb1, Rc, Ro and Rd)in the samples. For UPLC, acetonitrile with 0.01%
      formic acid and water with 0.01% formic acid were used as the mobile phase with
      gradient elution. Under the established chromatographic conditions, the six
      ginsenosides could be well separated and the results of linearity, stability,
      precision, repeatability, and recovery rate all reached the requirement of
      quantification analysis, respectively. The total contents of Rg1, Re, and Rb1 in
      57 samples all reached the requirement of the 2015 edition of Chinese
      Pharmacopoeia. At the same time, the experimental data were analyzed by principle
      component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS
      DA). The crude drugs and the decoction pieces can be discriminated by a PCA
      method and the samples with different age can be distinguished by a PLS-DA
      method.

PMID- 28891619
TI  - [Quantitative HPLC analysis of main effective constituents and integrated
      chemical quality index(ICQI)in Dida].
AB  - "Dida" is one of the most representative commonly used Tibetan medicines in
      treatment of hepatobilaiary diseases. To analyze and compare the content of 7
      effective constituents in 11 species which are used as Dida. Integrated
      evaluation of them, which supply a basis for the resources exploitation for them.
      In this paper, most appropriate absorption wavelengths of different natural
      iridoid compounds, xanthones and oleanolic acid have been performed by using 3D
      spectrum technique. According to the results, the wavelength 210, 240 and 265 nm
      were used for detection of 7 effective constituents. By means of calculation,
      determination of 7 effective constituents indicated good linearity over the
      linear range with coefficients (r) of 0.999 9 respectively. The recoveries were
      found in the average range of 99% to 101% with RSD being less than 3%. Normalize
      and integrate by three-dimension the data. Get their integrated chemical quality
      index(ICQI). Results suggested that these plants used as Dida in Tibet medicine
      mostly contain these 7 effective constituents, but the different is notable. The
      integrated evaluation by the integrated chemical quality index (ICQI) has
      reference value for quality control.

PMID- 28891620
TI  - [Experimental study of Tangshen formulain improved lipid metabolism and
      phenotypic switch of macrophage in db/db mice].
AB  - Obesity and its associated metabolic disorders, including non-alcoholic fatty
      liver disease (NAFLD), have become major chronic diseases threatening public
      health. NAFLD is a chronic liver disorder that is strongly associated with type 2
      diabetes and obesity. In this study, we investigated the effects and mechanism of
      Tangshen formula (TSF) on hepatic dyslipidemia and phenotypic switch of
      macrophage in db/db mice. Eight-week-old male C57BLKS/J db/m control and db/db
      mice were divided into 3 groups (namely db/m, db/db, db/db+TSF), and fed with TSF
      or distilled water for 12 weeks. It was found that after treatment with TSF, the
      triglycerides accumulation in db/db mice was decreased on the basis of oil red O
      staining with cryosections of liver tissues. And protein expressions of
      macrophage activation markers CD68 and F4/80 were decreased according to
      immunohistochemical analysis of hepatic sections. The mRNA level of TNF-alpha (M1
      marker) was significantly decreased by TSF in db/db mice, but with no significant
      difference in Mrc1 and Arg1 (M2 marker). According to the results, TSF attenuated
      hepatic steatosis and relieved dyslipidemia, its mechanism may be correlated with
      the regulation of macrophage activation and phenotypic switch.

PMID- 28891621
TI  - [Establishment of coronary heart disease models of Qi-deficiency and blood-stasis
      syndrome in rats].
AB  - To establish Qi-deficiency and blood-stasis syndrome type coronary heart disease
      models by fatigue running exercise and high ligation of left anterior descending
      coronary artery (LAD), male Wistar rats were selected and randomly divided into
      sham operation group (JSS), coronary ligation group (DZ), fatigue running
      exercise+coronary ligation group (PZ). Coronary ligation alone was done in DZ
      group; while the rats in PZ group had running exercise in on the animal treadmill
      system for 2 weeks to establish fatigue models, and then coronary ligation was
      done based on the models. The exhausted running was maintained for 28 days at the
      frequency of 1 time/2 days after operation. Twenty-eight to thirty-one days after
      the operation, all the rats were observed for macroscopic physical signs, and
      ultrasonic echocardiography indexes and breathing extent of the rats were
      collected to evaluate the main symptoms of rats with Qi-deficiency and blood
      stasis syndrome type coronary heart disease; related indexes of open field test,
      exhaustive running time, and colorimetric analysis data on images of plantar were
      collected to evaluate the accompanied symptoms; colorimetric analysis data on
      lingual surface was collected to evaluate the tongue characteristics; pulse
      distension data was collected to evaluate the pulse condition, and meanwhile,
      blood rheology and coagulation function were also detected. From the 28th day
      postoperatively, the main symptoms, accompanied symptoms, tongue characteristics
      and pulse conditions of rats in PZ group conformed to the symptoms of coronary
      heart disease and Qi-deficiency and blood-stasis syndrome. Combined with related
      pathological results, the study revealed that Qi-deficiency and blood-stasis
      syndrome type coronary heart disease models could be successfully established by
      fatigue running exercise and high ligation of left anterior descending coronary
      artery for the rats.

PMID- 28891622
TI  - [Mechanism of Tongsaimai tablet for atherosclerosis based on network
      pharmacology].
AB  - Network pharmacology method was adopted in this study to explore the active
      compounds and mechanism of Tongsaimai tablets for atherosclerosis. In molecular
      docking and molecular-target protein network analysis, 97 molecules in Tongsaimai
      tablets showed good interaction with the atherosclerosis-related target protein
      (docking score >= 7), and 37 molecules of them could act on more than 2 targets
      (>= 2) with higher betweenness, suggesting that these 37 molecules might be the
      main active compounds group in Tongsaimai tablets for atherosclerosis treatment.
      Furthermore, the predicted active compounds contained more flavonoids and
      saponins, reminding more attention should be paid on flavonoids and saponins in
      study of effective compounds and quality standards of Tongsaimai tablets. Targets
      network analysis showed that, the active compounds of Tongsaimai tablets could
      regulate inflammation, stabilize plaque, protect vascular endothelial cell,
      regulate blood lipid and inhibit blood coagulation through acting on the main 22
      target proteins, such as Toll-like receptors (TLR1, TLR2), matrix
      metalloproteinase (MMP1, MMP2, MMP3, MMP9), angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE),
      leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4-H), 5-lipoxidase (5-LOX), peroxisome proliferators
      activated receptors (PPARalpha, PPARgamma). These active compounds can
      participate in regulating different pathologic stages of atherosclerosis and thus
      treat atherosclerosis finally. This study revealed the main active compounds and
      possible mechanism of Tongsaimai tablets for treatment of atherosclerosis and
      meanwhile, verified the characteristics of multi-components, multi-targets and
      integral regulation for Tongsaimai tablets, providing theoretical references for
      the following systematic laboratory experiments on effective compounds and action
      mechanism of Tongsaimai Tablet.

PMID- 28891623
TI  - [Dosage-toxicity-efficacy relationship of Kansui Radix in malignant pleural
      effusion models based on Walker 256 analysis].
AB  - To investigate the dosage-toxicity-efficacy relationship of Kansui Radix, explore
      its regularity of the toxicity and efficacy change, and provide scientific basis
      for its clinical rational application, the malignant pleural effusion models were
      used to observe the effect of Kansui Radix with larger dose range (0.045-1.620
      g*kg*d-1 for Kansui Radix) on biochemical indexes and hydrothorax volume in
      experimental animals. Factor analysis method was also used to comprehensively
      assess the dosage-toxicity-efficacy relationship of Kansui Radix. The results
      showed that the rats in model group had larger hydrothorax volume, and ALT, AST,
      LDH, HBDH, IFN-gamma, IL-2 and TNF-alpha levels were significantly increased
      (P<0.05), while TP and ALB levels were decreased (P<0.05) as compared with the
      blank group. After drug administration, various treatment groups decreased
      hydrothorax volume, IFN-gamma, IL-2, TNF-alpha and increased TP and ALB levels as
      compared with model group, indicating certain therapeutic effect; and increased
      ALT, AST, LDH and HBDH levels, indicating certain liver and cardiac toxicity. In
      the factor analysis, two common factors were extracted from nine indexes,
      explaining 89.1% of the information. The analysis results suggested that there
      was no obvious toxicity in case of independent use of Kansui Radix within the
      dosage range set in pharmacopeia, while it would produce liver toxicity and
      cardiac toxicity upon 3 times of the dosage set in pharmacopeia, and the toxicity
      was increased with the increase of dose. At the same time, Kansui Radix can
      decrease the hydrothorax volume in malignant pleural effusion models and improve
      relevant physical indexes in a dose-dependent manner. Comprehensive analysis
      results of its toxic effect characteristics indicated that the upper-limit dose
      of Kansui Radix in pharmacopeia shall be regarded as the relatively optimal
      therapeutic dose.

PMID- 28891624
TI  - [Anti-radiation effect and mechanism studies of ethanol extracts from Spatholobus
      suberectus and its active component catechin].
AB  - To study the anti-radiation effect and mechanism of ethanol extracts from
      Spatholobus suberectus and its active component catechin, ICR mice were exposed
      to 6Gy irradiation and randomly divided into normal group, model group, positive
      control group (amifostine, 43.6 mg*kg-1, iv 30 min before irradiation), SSD group
      (10, 20, 40 g*kg-1) and catechin group (50, 100, 200 mg*kg-1). The mice were
      administered the appropriate drugs once a day after irradiation for 28
      consecutive days. Blood samples were collected from the tail end and the number
      of peripheral blood cells was counted before irradiation and on day 1, 3, 7, 14,
      21 and 28 using a microcell counter. Changes of thymus and spleen index of mice
      on day 7 were observed. The serum SOD, GSH-Px activity and MDA level were
      detected by the colorimetric method. The colony forming ability of bone marrow
      hematopoietic progenitor cells on day 7 was detected by semi solid culture
      method. The HE staining was adopted to observe the pathological changes. The
      apoptosis of bone marrow cells was detected by flow cytometry. The expression of
      cleaved caspase-3 and Bax of bone marrow cells were measured separately by
      western-blotting and immunohistochemistry method. SSD and catechin can both
      significantly revert the irradiated-induced decline in hematological parameters
      (RBC, WBC, PLT, Hb), improve thymus and spleen index, significantly enhance serum
      SOD and GSH-Px activity and decrease the MDA level. The proliferation and
      differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor cells in bone marrow were promoted,
      the apoptosis of bone marrow cells was significantly up-regulated and the
      expression of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax was significantly reduced in SSD and
      catechin group. SSD and catechin have significant anti-radiation effect and its
      mechanism may be related to hematopoietic promoting, antioxidant and anti
      apoptotic effects.

PMID- 28891625
TI  - [Effect of Fuzheng Huayu capsule on serum metabolomics in rats with liver
      fibrosis induced by dimethylnitrosamine].
AB  - To investigate the effect of Fuzheng Huayu capsule(FHC) on serum metabolomics in
      rats with liver fibrosis induced by dimethylnitrosamine(DMN). The metabolic
      profiles of rat serum of normal group, model group, and FHC group were
      established by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry technology. Furthermore,
      the levels of endogenous metabolites such as amino acids and bile acids were
      measured in each group. The results showed that there were significant
      differences in the serum metabolic fingerprints between the FHC group and the
      model group. Moreover, 5 potential lysophosphatidylcholines biomarkers were
      identified by using principal component analysis(PCA) and partial least squares
      discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Quantitative analysis of amino acids and bile
      acids in serum of rats showed that 14 kinds of amino acids and 5 kinds of bile
      acids returned to normal levels after four weeks of FHC treatment. In conclusion,
      the anti-hepatic fibrosis mechanisms of FHC may be related to the metabolic
      process of lysophosphatidylcholines, amino acids and bile acids.

PMID- 28891626
TI  - [Pharmacokinetics of magnolol and honokiol in Weichang'an pill].
AB  - To conduct multiple-reaction monitoring(MRM) quantitative analysis with high
      performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry method,
      establish the quantification method of magnolol and honokiol in blood sample
      under negative ion mode with ibuprofen as internal standard, investigate the
      pharmacokinetic process of lignans constituents after oral administration of
      Weichang'an pill(WCA) at different doses, and provide theoretical basis to
      further reveal the material basis of WCA's anti-diarrhea effect. In the plasma
      samples, the linear relationship was good over the concentration range of 5.25 to
      1 344.00 MUg*L -1 for magnolol and 10.08 to 2 580.00 MUg*L -1 for honokiol. The
      results of precision, stability, and extraction recovery tests showed that the
      determination method of plasma concentration for such compositions was stable and
      reliable. Dose-dependence was shown for magnolol and honokiol in the plasma
      concentration-time profile. The results indicated that the time to reach the
      maximum plasma concentration(Tmax) for lignanoids was 0.55-1.42 h, when the
      maximum plasma concentration(Cmax) could reach 996.36-2 330.96,189.87-1 469.43
      MUg*L -1 respectively for magnolol and honokiol. The lignanoids could be absorbed
      rapidly in the blood after oral administration of WAC pills, providing
      experimental basis to prove rapid and long-acting anti-diarrhea effect of WAC
      pills after oral administration.

PMID- 28891627
TI  - [In vitro metabolism of anti-tumor compound E7 in different species of liver
      microsomes].
AB  - To investigate the metabolic stability of E7 in liver microsomes of human, Beagle
      dog, Cynomolgus monkey and SD rats, and compare the metabolic differences between
      different species. Selective chemical inhibitors were used to determine the
      effects of different inhibitors on E7 metabolic rate, and predict the main
      enzymes involved in E7 metabolism in rat liver microsomes. The experimental
      results showed that the in vitro half-lives (T1/2) of E7 in liver microsomes of
      human, dog, monkey and rats were 57.75, 69.30, 16.90,30.13 min respectively.
      Their intrinsic clearance rate was 0.004 8, 0.004 0, 0.016 4 and 0.009 2 mL*min
      1*mg-1 respectively. Hence, it could be speculated that the metabolic rate of E7
      was similarly slow in human and dog liver microsomes; while it was similarly fast
      in monkey and rat liver microsomes. There was significant difference in metabolic
      rate of E7 between different species. The results showed that CYP2E1, CYP2A6,
      CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 might participate in metabolism of E7, while the contribution
      of polymorphic CYP3A4 was small.

PMID- 28891628
TI  - [Systematic review on safety of Xinyuan capsules].
AB  - To systematically review the adverse drug reactions/adverse events(ADRs/AEs) of
      Xinyuan capsules in clinical application. A systematic literature search was
      performed in the databases of the Cochrane Library, Medline, EMBASE, the Web of
      Science, Clinical trials, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data and CBM. The literature was
      screened and data was extracted according to the inclusion and exclusion
      criteria. Because of the substantial heterogeneity among different studies, we
      assessed them only with descriptive analysis by study type, disease diagnosis,
      and ADRs/AEs conditions. All included studies were assessed by using the
      internationally recognized report quality evaluation standard or methodological
      quality assessment tools. A total of 42 studies involving 3 671 patients were
      included finally. Two thouand four hundred and thirty-mine patients of them took
      Xinyuan capsules, and 1 242 patients did not take Xinyuan capsules. No serious
      ADRs occurred in all patients. One patient died as AE during the research.
      Sixteen patients of the 2 439 patients taking Xinyuan capsules (alone or in
      combination) had ADRs, including 7 patients with polytherapy of Xinyuan capsules
      and 9 patients with monotherapy. The most common ADRs were in gastrointestinal
      tract, mainly including thirst, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, etc. The
      ADRs included 10 gastrointestinal tract ADRs, 3 renal ADRs and 1 ADR respective
      in skin system, respiratory system and cardiovascular system. Xinyuan capsules
      was generally safe in clinical application. The reports on the study of Xinyuan
      capsules were dispersed in various clinical studies, the study on drug safety
      still should be strengthened in the future. Further mechanism studies or clinical
      observation studies of the drug safety shall be conducted to better guide
      clinical application in the future.

PMID- 28891629
TI  - [Medicinal laws and application examples of traditional Chinese medicine
      prescriptions for multiple aorto-arteritis].
AB  - To collect the literature on traditional Chinese medicine treatment for multiple
      aorto-arteritis from China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI), establish
      prescriptions database after screening and normalizing the prescriptions reported
      in these literature, and analyze their medicinal rules by using traditional
      Chinese medicine inheritance support system. A total of 126 prescriptions for
      multiple aorto-arteritis were screened, containing 212 kinds of Chinese herbs. 26
      core herb combinations were obtained by analysis of the commonly used herbs and
      their use frequencies. The treatment for multiple aorto-arteritis was manly of
      tonifying qi to nourish blood, promoting blood circulation to remove blood
      stasis, warming yang to dredge collaterals, and four new prescriptions were
      obtained. On this basis, two clinical cases were taken as the examples by
      analyzing the medicinal rules and the features of multiple aorto-arteritis. The
      first case showed that the herb combination of this study conformed to the basic
      core drug application mode and the core pathogenesis of multiple aorto-arteritis.
      The second case reflected the characteristics of the new prescriptions' herb
      combinations based on entropy hierarchical clustering. The practical analysis of
      the two clinical cases further indicated the reliability of the results. This
      study has certain guiding significance and reference value on new medicine
      research and development as well as clinical traditional Chinese medicine
      treatment for multiple aorto-arteritis.

PMID- 28891630
TI  - [National physician master Jin Shiyuan's dispensing technology of Rehmanniae
      Radix Praeparata based on Li Shizhen's pharmaceutical academic thought].
AB  - To collect the historical origin, processing methods and clinical application of
      Rehmanniae Radix Preparata in Compendium of Materia Medica, compare and analyze
      the theoretical knowledge and relevant practical operation of national physician
      master Jin Shiyuan, which is beneficial for the inheritance and development of
      Rehmanniae Radix Preparata's clinical dispensing technology. In the analysis
      process, CNKI was searched with "Rehmanniae Radix Preparata", "Processing
      method", "Clinical application" "Li Shizhen", "Jin Shiyuan", and "Dispensing
      technology" as keywords. In addition, Shennong's Herbal Classic, Bencao Tujing
      (illustrated Classics of Materia Medica), Compendium of Materia Medica, Jingyue
      Quanshu (Jingyue's Complete Works) and related ancient books were accessed
      systematically to summarize the historical change of processing methods and
      efficacy of Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata. Professor Jin Shiyuan emphasizes the
      clinical dispensing technology of Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata, including its
      nature identification technology, clinical processing technology, prescription
      audit technology, prescription coping technology, drug delivery technology,
      clinical decocting technology, purchasing management technology as well as
      storage, maintenance and supply technology. Through the collation and research,
      it was confirmed that historical origin, processing methods and clinical
      application of Rehmanniae Radix Preparata were recorded in details in Compendium
      of Materia Medica. Steaming method of Rehmanniae Radix Preparata was originated
      from Synopsis of Golden Chamber. Li Shizhen attached great importance to the
      processing method of "steaming and drying alternatively for nine times" for
      Rehmanniae Radix Preparata, and differentiated it from Radix Rehmanniae Recen and
      fresh rehmannia root in clinical applications. Professor Jin Shiyuan has
      developed and improved the clinical dispensing technology of Rehmanniae Radix
      Praeparata, and carried forward the essence of Li Shizhen's pharmaceutical
      academic thought with his own proficient knowledge structure in medicine,
      providing scientific pharmaceutical service for clinical application of
      Rehmanniae Radix Preparata in future.

PMID- 28891631
TI  - Design and Fabrication of an All-Solid-State Polymer Supercapacitor with Highly
      Mechanical Flexibility Based on Polypyrrole Hydrogel.
AB  - A conducting polymer-based hydrogel (PPy/CPH) with a polypyrrole-poly(vinyl
      alcohol) interpenetrating network was prepared by utilization of a chemical cross
      linked poly(vinyl alcohol)-H2SO4 hydrogel (CPH) film as flexible substrate
      followed by vapor-phase polymerization of pyrrole. Then an all-solid-state
      polymer supercapacitor (ASSPS) was fabricated by sandwiching the CPH film between
      two pieces of the PPy/CPH film. The ASSPS is mechanically robust and flexible
      with a tensile strength of 20.83 MPa and a break elongation of 377% which is
      superior to other flexible conducting polymer hydrogel-based supercapacitors
      owing to the strong hydrogen bonding interactions among the layers and the high
      mechanical properties of the PPy/CPH. It exhibits maximum volumetric specific
      capacitance of 13.06 F/cm3 and energy density of 1160.9 MUWh/cm3. The specific
      capacitance maintains 97.9% and 86.3% of its initial value after 10 000 folding
      cycles and 10 000 charge-discharge cycles, respectively. The remarkable
      electrochemical and mechanical performance indicates this novel ASSPS device is
      promising for flexible electronics.

PMID- 28891632
TI  - Design of Boron Nitride/Gelatin Electrospun Nanofibers for Bone Tissue
      Engineering.
AB  - Gelatin is a biodegradable biopolymer obtained by collagen denaturation, which
      shows poor mechanical properties. Hence, improving its mechanical properties is
      very essential toward the fabrication of efficient nontoxic material for
      biomedical applications. For this aim, various methods are employed using
      external fillers such as ceramics or bioglass. In this report, we introduce boron
      nitride (BN)-reinforced gelatin as a new class of two-dimensional biocompatible
      nanomaterials. The effect of the nanofiller on the mechanical behavior is
      analyzed. BN is efficiently exfoliated using the biopolymer gelatin as shown
      through Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction
      (XRD). The exfoliated BN reinforces gelatin electrospun fibers, which results in
      an increase in the Young's modulus. The Electrospun Mats (ESM) are stable after
      the glutaraldehyde cross-linking, and the fibrous morphology is preserved. The
      cross-linked gelatin/BN ESM is highly bioactive in forming bonelike
      hydroxyapatite as shown by scanning electron microscopy. Due to their enhanced
      mineralization ability, the cross-linked ESM have been tested on human bone cells
      (HOS osteosarcoma cell line). The cell attachment, proliferation, and
      biocompatibility results show that the ESM are nontoxic and biodegradable. The
      analysis of osteoblast gene expression and the measurement of alkaline
      phosphatase activity confirm that these materials are suitable for bone tissue
      engineering.

PMID- 28891633
TI  - High Strength Astringent Hydrogels Using Protein as the Building Block for
      Physically Cross-linked Multi-Network.
AB  - Integrating proteins into a hydrogel network enables its good bioactivity as an
      ECM environment in biorelative applications. Although extensive studies on
      preparing protein hydrogels have been carried out, the reported systems commonly
      present very low mechanical strength and weak water-rentention capacity. Learning
      from the astringent mouthfeel, we report here a protein engineered multinetwork
      physical hydrogel as TA-PVA/BSA. In a typical case, the BSA protein-integrated
      poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solution is treated by the freeze-thaw method and forms
      the first hydrogel network, and tannic acid (TA) then cross-links with BSA
      proteins and PVA chains to form the secondary hydrogel network based on the
      noncovalent interaction (hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interaction). The as
      prepared TA-PVA/BSA composite hydrogel is a pure physically cross-linking network
      and possesses ultrahigh tensile strength up to ~9.5 MPa but is adjustable,
      relying on the concentration of TA and BSA. Moreover, its mechanical strength is
      further improved by prestretching induced anisotropy of mechanical performance.
      Because of its controllable and layered structure as skin, the composite hydrogel
      presents good water-retention capacity compared to traditional high strength
      hydrogels. This work demonstrates a novel method to design high mechanical
      strength but layered physical cross-linking hydrogels and enables us to realize
      their biorelative applications.

PMID- 28891634
TI  - Photochemical Anti-Fouling Approach for Electrochemical Pollutant Degradation on
      Facet-Tailored TiO2 Single Crystals.
AB  - Electrochemical degradation of refractory pollutants at low bias before oxygen
      evolution exhibits high current efficiency and low energy consumption, but its
      severe electrode fouling largely limits practical applications. In this work, a
      new antifouling strategy was developed and validated for electrochemical
      pollutant degradation by photochemical oxidation on facet-tailored {001}-exposed
      TiO2 single crystals. Electrode fouling from anodic polymers at a low bias was
      greatly relieved by the free .OH-mediated photocatalysis under UV irradiation,
      thus efficient and stable degradation of bisphenol A, a typical environmental
      endocrine disrupter, and treatment of landfill leachate were accomplished without
      remarkable oxygen evolution in synergistic photoassisted electrochemical system.
      Electrochemical and spectroscopic measurements indicated a clean electrode
      surface during cyclic pollutant degradation. Such a photochemical antifouling
      strategy for low-bias anodic pollutants degradation was mainly attributed to the
      improved electric conductivity and excellent electrochemical and photochemical
      activities of tailored TiO2 anodic material, whose unique properties originated
      from the favorable surface atomic and electronic structures of high-energy {001}
      polar facet and single-crystalline structure. Our work opens up a brand new
      approach to develop catalytic systems for efficient degradation of refractory
      contaminants in water and wastewater.

PMID- 28891635
TI  - The Combination of Superhalogens and Bronsted Acids HX (X = F, Cl, Br): An
      Effective Strategy for Designing Strong Superacids.
AB  - A series of 27 composite structures, consisting of superhalogen and Bronsted
      acid, is designed and systematically studied based on combined ab initio and DFT
      calculations focusing on their potentials as novel superacids. As indicated by
      high-level CCSD(T) results, all the composites here fulfill the theoretical
      criterion for superacid and the acidities of two of them are close to the
      strongest superacid ever reported. The influences of various factors on the
      superacid properties of these composites were analyzed in detail. Our results
      demonstrate that the acidity of these superacids is mainly determined by the
      superhalogen components while the effect of Bronsted acids, irrespective of their
      number or type, is relatively mild. Therefore, it is probable to design novel
      composite superacid with enhanced property through the regulation of the
      superhalogen component. It is encouraging that MP2 and DFT could also provide
      reliable results when compared with the high-level CCSD(T) method. The
      reliability of these low-cost methods implies the capability of theoretical
      calculations for future composite superacid of enlarged size, and thus it is
      highly probable that an effective guide to the related experimental research
      could be provided by the theory.

PMID- 28891636
TI  - CuAAC-Based Click Chemistry in Self-Healing Polymers.
AB  - Click chemistry has emerged as a significant tool for materials science, organic
      chemistry, and bioscience. Based on the initial concept of Barry Sharpless in
      2001, the copper(I)-catalyzed azide/alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction has
      triggered a plethora of chemical concepts for linking molecules and building
      blocks under ambient conditions, forming the basis for applications in autonomous
      cross-linking materials. Self-healing systems on the other hand are often based
      on mild cross-linking chemistries that are able to react either autonomously or
      upon an external trigger. In the ideal case, self-healing takes place efficiently
      at low temperatures, independent of the substrate(s) used, by forming strong and
      stable networks, binding to the newly generated (cracked) interfaces to restore
      the original material properties. The use of the CuAAC in self-healing systems,
      most of all the careful design of copper-based catalysts linked to additives as
      well as the chemical diversity of substrates, has led to an enormous potential of
      applications of this singular reaction. The implementation of click-based
      strategies in self-healing systems therefore is highly attractive, as here
      chemical (and physical) concepts of molecular reactivity, molecular design, and
      even metal catalysis are connected to aspects of materials science. In this
      Account, we will show how CuAAC reactions of multivalent components can be used
      as a tool for self-healing materials, achieving cross-linking at low temperatures
      (exploiting concepts of autocatalysis or internal chelation within the bulk CuAAC
      and systematic optimization of the efficiency of the used Cu(I) catalysts).
      Encapsulation strategies to separate the click components by micro- and
      nanoencapsulation are required in this context. Consequently, the examples
      reported here describe chemical concepts to realize more efficient and faster
      click reactions in self-healing polymeric materials. Thus, enhanced chain
      diffusion in (hyper)branched polymers, autocatalysis, or internal chelation
      concepts enable efficient click cross-linking already at 5  degrees C with a
      simultaneously reduced amount of Cu(I) catalyst and increased reaction rates,
      culminating in the first reported self-healing system based on click
      cycloaddition reactions. Via tailor-made nanocarbon/Cu(I) catalysts we can
      further improve the click cross-linking reaction in view of efficiency and
      kinetics, leading to the generation of self-healing graphene-based epoxy
      nanocomposites. Additionally, we have designed special CuAAC click methods for
      chemical reporting and visualization systems based on the detection of ruptured
      capsules via a fluorogenic click reaction, which can be combined with CuAAC cross
      linking reactions to obtain simultaneous stress detection and self-healing within
      polymeric materials. In a similar concept, we have prepared polymeric Cu(I)
      biscarbene complexes to detect (mechanical) stress within self-healing polymeric
      materials via a triggered fluorogenic reaction, thus using a destructive force
      for a constructive chemical response.

PMID- 28891637
TI  - Bioconjugation Approaches to Producing Subunit Vaccines Composed of Protein or
      Peptide Antigens and Covalently Attached Toll-Like Receptor Ligands.
AB  - Traditional vaccines derived from attenuated or inactivated pathogens are
      effective at inducing antibody-based protective immune responses but tend to be
      highly reactogenic, causing notable adverse effects. Vaccines with superior
      safety profiles can be produced by subunit approaches, utilizing molecularly
      defined antigens (e.g., proteins and polysaccharides). These antigens, however,
      often elicit poor immunological responses, necessitating the use of adjuvants.
      Immunostimulatory adjuvants have the capacity to activate antigen presenting
      cells directly through specific receptors (e.g., Toll-like receptors (TLRs)),
      resulting in enhanced presentation of antigens as well as the secretion of
      proinflammatory chemokines and cytokines. Consequently, innate immune responses
      are amplified and adaptive immunity is generated. Recently, site-specific
      conjugation of such immunostimulatory adjuvants (e.g., TLR ligands) onto defined
      antigens has shown superior efficacy over unconjugated mixtures, suggesting that
      the development of chemically characterized immunostimulatory adjuvants and
      optimized approaches for their conjugation with antigens may provide a better
      opportunity for the development of potent, novel vaccines. This review briefly
      summarizes various TLR agonists utilized as immunostimulatory adjuvants and
      focuses on the development of techniques (e.g., recombinant, synthetic, and
      semisynthetic) for generating adjuvant-antigen fusion vaccines incorporating
      peptide or protein antigens.

PMID- 28891638
TI  - Photochemistry of Hydrochar: Reactive Oxygen Species Generation and Sulfadimidine
      Degradation.
AB  - Biochar, mainly including pyrochar produced via pyrolysis of biomass at moderate
      temperatures of 350-700  degrees C and hydrochar formed by hydrothermal
      carbonization in a range of 150-350  degrees C, has received increasing attention
      because of its significant environmental impacts. It is known that pyrochar can
      generate reactive oxygen species even in the dark owing to the presence of
      persistent free radicals, but hydrochar is far less studied. In this study, we
      systematically investigate the photochemistry of hydrochar and check its effects
      on the sulfadimidine degradation. Different from pyrochar derived from the same
      biomass, hydrochar could generate much more H2O2 and *OH under daylight
      irradiation, which could enhance the sulfadimidine degradation rate six times
      more than that found in the dark. Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared
      spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and X-ray photoelectron
      spectroscopy were employed to elucidate this interesting phenomenon.
      Characterization results revealed that the higher reactive oxygen species
      generation ability of hydrochar under solar light irradiation was attributed to
      its abundant photoactive surface oxygenated functional groups. This study
      clarifies the differences of pyrochar and hydrochar on organic pollutant
      degradation, and also sheds light on environmental effects of hydrochar.

PMID- 28891640
TI  - A-Site Ordered Double Perovskite CaMnTi2O6 as a Multifunctional Piezoelectric and
      Ferroelectric-Photovoltaic Material.
AB  - The double perovskite CaMnTi2O6, is a rare A-site ordered perovskite oxide that
      exhibits a sizable ferroelectric polarization and relatively high Curie
      temperature. Using first-principles calculations combined with detailed symmetry
      analyses, we identify the origin of the ferroelectricity in CaMnTi2O6. We further
      explore the material properties of CaMnTi2O6, including its ferroelectric
      polarization, dielectric and piezoelectric responses, magnetic order, electronic
      structure, and optical absorption coefficient. It is found that CaMnTi2O6
      exhibits room-temperature-stable ferroelectricity and moderate piezoelectric
      responses. Moreover, CaMnTi2O6 is predicted to have a semiconducting energy band
      gap similar to that of BiFeO3, and its band gap can further be tuned via
      distortions of the planar Mn-O bond lengths. CaMnTi2O6 exemplifies a new class of
      single-phase semiconducting ferroelectric perovskites for potential applications
      in ferroelectric photovoltaic solar cells.

PMID- 28891639
TI  - Three Principles of Diversity-Generating Biosynthesis.
AB  - Natural products are significant therapeutic agents and valuable drug leads. This
      is likely owing to their three-dimensional structural complexity, which enables
      them to form complex interactions with biological targets. Enzymes from natural
      product biosynthetic pathways show great potential to generate natural product
      like compounds and libraries. Many challenges still remain in biosynthesis, such
      as how to rationally synthesize small molecules with novel structures and how to
      generate maximum chemical diversity. In this Account, we describe recent advances
      from our laboratory in the synthesis of natural product-like libraries using
      natural biosynthetic machinery. Our work has focused on the pat and tru
      biosynthetic pathways to patellamides, trunkamide, and related compounds from
      cyanobacterial symbionts in marine tunicates. These belong to the cyanobactin
      class of natural products, which are part of the larger group of ribosomally
      synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). These results
      have enabled the synthesis of rationally designed small molecules and libraries
      covering more than 1 million estimated derivatives. Because the RiPPs are
      translated on the ribosome and then enzymatically modified, they are highly
      compatible with recombinant technologies. This is important because it means that
      the resulting natural products, their derivatives, and wholly new compounds can
      be synthesized using the tools of genetic engineering. The RiPPs also represent
      possibly the most widespread group of bioactive natural products, although this
      is in part because of the broad definition of what constitutes a RiPP. In
      addition, the underlying ideas may form the basis for broad-substrate
      biosynthetic pathways beyond the RiPPs. For example, some of the ideas about
      kinetic ordering of broad substrate pathways may apply to polyketide or
      nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis as well. While making these products, we have
      sought to understand what makes biosynthetic pathways plastic and whether there
      are any rules that might generally apply to plastic biosynthetic pathways. We
      present three principles of diversity-generating biosynthesis: (1) substrate
      evolution, in which the substrates change while enzymes remain constant; (2)
      pairing of recognition sequences on substrates with biosynthetic enzymes; (3) an
      inverse metabolic flux in comparison to canonical pathways. If these principles
      are general, they may enable the design of unimagined derivatives using
      biosynthetic engineering. For example, it is possible to discover substrate
      evolution directly by examining sequencing data. By shuffling appropriate
      recognition sequences and biosynthetic enzymes, it has already been possible to
      make new hybrid products of multiple pathways. While cases so far have been
      limited, if this is more general, designed synthesis will become routine.
      Finally, biosynthesis of natural products is regulated in elaborate ways that are
      just beginning to be understood. If the inverse metabolic flux model is
      widespread, it potentially informs on what the timing and relative production
      level of each enzyme in a designer pathway should be in order to optimize the
      synthesis of new compounds in vivo.

PMID- 28891641
TI  - Toward High Conductivity of Electrospun Indium Tin Oxide Nanofibers with Fiber
      Morphology Dependent Surface Coverage: Postannealing and Polymer Ratio Effects.
AB  - High electrical conductivity of metal oxide thin films needs uniform surface
      coverage, which has been the issue for the thin films based on electrospun
      nanofibers (NFs) that have advantage over the sputtered/spin-coated films with
      respect to large surface area and mechanical flexibility. Herein, we investigated
      a reduction in the sheet resistance of electrospun indium tin oxide (ITO) NF
      films with improved surface coverage. We found that the surface coverage depends
      significantly on the electrospinnable polymer concentration in the precursor
      solutions, especially after post-hot-plate annealing following the infrared
      radiation furnace treatment. The postannealing process increases crystallinity
      and oxygen vacancies. However, with a higher PVP content, it makes the surface of
      ITO NFs more prominently rough as a result of the formation of larger sphere
      shaped ITO particles on the NF surface, which gives rise to poor surface
      coverage. A less poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) content in ITO NF films by
      electrospinning for short deposition times was found to improve surface coverage
      even after postannealing. The sheet resistance notably decreases, down to as low
      as 350 Omega/sq, with a high transmittance of over 90%. Our study provides an
      understanding on how to achieve high electrical conductivity of ITO NF films with
      high surface coverage, which can be utilized for the optoelectronic and sensing
      applications.

PMID- 28891643
TI  - MOF-Bacteriophage Biosensor for Highly Sensitive and Specific Detection of
      Staphylococcus aureus.
AB  - To produce a sensitive and specific biosensor for Staphylococcus aureus,
      bacteriophages have been interfaced with a water-dispersible and environmentally
      stable metal-organic framework (MOF), NH2-MIL-53(Fe). The conjugation of the MOF
      with bacteriophages has been achieved through the use of glutaraldehyde as cross
      linker. Highly sensitive detection of S. aureus in both synthetic and real
      samples was realized by the proposed MOF-bacteriophage biosensor based on the
      photoluminescence quenching phenomena: limit of detection (31 CFU/mL) and range
      of detection (40 to 4 * 108 CFU/mL). This is the first report exploiting the use
      of an MOF-bacteriophage complex for the biosensing of S. aureus. The results of
      our study highlight that the proposed biosensor is more sensitive than most of
      the previous methods while exhibiting some advanced features like specificity,
      regenerability, extended range of linear detection, and stability for long-term
      storage (even at room temperature).

PMID- 28891642
TI  - Supramolecular Host-Guest System as Ratiometric Fe3+ Ion Sensor Based on Water
      Soluble Pillar[5]arene.
AB  - Developing a specific, ratiometric, and reversible detection method for metal
      ions is significant to guard against the threat of metal-caused environmental
      pollution and organisms poisoning. Here a supramolecular host-guest system
      (WP5?G) based on water-soluble pillar[5]arene (WP5) and water-soluble quaternized
      perylene diimide derivative (G) was constructed. Morphological transformation was
      achieved during the process of adding WP5 into G aqueous solution, and a
      fluorescence "turn-off" phenomenon was observed which was caused by
      supramolecular photoinduced electron transfer (PET). Meanwhile, hydrophobic
      effect and electrostatic interaction played important roles in this
      supramolecular process, which was confirmed by isothermal titration calorimeter
      (ITC) and zeta potential experiments. Furthermore, the supramolecular host-guest
      system could be a "turn-on" fluorescent probe for Fe3+ ion detection through the
      process of interdicting supramolecular PET. Moreover, the Fe3+ ion detection
      showed specific, ratiometric, and reversible performances with a detection limit
      of 2.13 * 10-7 M, which might have great potentials in biological and
      environmental monitoring.

PMID- 28891644
TI  - Comment on Vapor Pressure Isotope Effects in Halogenated Organic Compounds and
      Alcohols Dissolved in Water.

PMID- 28891645
TI  - SET-LRP in the Neoteric Ethyl Lactate Alcohol.
AB  - Ethyl lactate (EtLa), a green and safe agrochemical solvent, is gifted with some
      properties that make it a good candidate for SET-LRP. It dissolves CuBr2,
      mediates an efficient disproportionation of CuBr in the presence of tris(2
      (dimethylamino)ethyl)amine (Me6-TREN), and is capable to dissolve both aqueous
      (polar) and hydrocarbon (nonpolar) soluble monomers and polymers. Here, we report
      that EtLa is an excellent solvent for the Cu(0) wire-catalyzed SET-LRP to produce
      both hydrophilic and hydrophobic polyacrylates that exhibit precise chain end
      functionality. These results will expand the table of SET-LRP solvents with a new
      green member of biological origin that is also biodegradable and, therefore, are
      expected to contribute to continue expanding the use of SET-LRP in the field of
      biomacromolecules, bioconjugates, and other biology and medicine related
      disciplines.

PMID- 28891647
TI  - Correction to "Lipid Spontaneous Curvatures Estimated from Temperature-Dependent
      Changes in Inverse Hexagonal Phase Lattice Parameters: Effects of Metal Cations".

PMID- 28891646
TI  - Synergic "Click" Boronate/Thiosemicarbazone System for Fast and Irreversible
      Bioorthogonal Conjugation in Live Cells.
AB  - Fast, high-yielding, and selective bioorthogonal "click" reactions employing
      nontoxic reagents are in high demand for their great utility in the conjugation
      of biomolecules in live cells. Although a number of click reactions were
      developed for this purpose, many are associated with drawbacks and limitations
      that justify the development of alternative systems for both single- or dual
      labeling applications. Recent reports have highlighted the potential of boronic
      ester formation as a bioorthogonal click reaction between abiotic boronic acids
      and diols. Boronic ester formation is a fast dehydrative process; however it is
      intrinsically reversible in aqueous medium. We designed and optimized a synergic
      system based on two bifunctional reagents, a thiosemicarbazide-functionalized
      nopoldiol and an ortho-acetyl arylboronic acid. Both reagents were shown to be
      chemically stable and nontoxic to HEK293T cells at concentrations as high as 50
      MUM. The resulting boronate/thiosemicarbazone adduct is a medium-sized ring that
      forms rapidly and irreversibly without any catalyst at low MUM concentrations, in
      neutral buffer, with a rate constant of 9 M-1 s-1 as measured by NMR
      spectroscopy. Control experiments in the presence of competing boronic acids
      showed no crossover side-products and confirmed the stability and lack of
      reversibility of the boronate/thiosemicarbazone conjugates. Formation of the
      conjugates is not affected by the presence of biological diols such as fructose,
      glucose, and catechol, and the thiosemicarbazide-functionalized nopoldiol is
      inert to aldehyde electrophiles of the sort found on protein-bound glyoxylyl
      units. The suitability of this system in the cell-surface labeling of live cells
      was demonstrated using a SNAP-tag approach to install the boronic acid reagent
      onto the extracellular domain of the Beta-2 adrenergic receptor in HEK293T cells,
      followed by incubation with the optimal thiosemicarbazide-functionalized
      nopoldiol reagent labeled with fluorescein dye. Successful visualization by
      fluorescence microscopy was possible with a reagent concentration as low as 10
      MUM, thus confirming the potential of this system in biological applications.

PMID- 28891648
TI  - NAOMInova: Interactive Geometric Analysis of Noncovalent Interactions in
      Macromolecular Structures.
AB  - Noncovalent interactions play an important role in macromolecular complexes. The
      assessment of molecular interactions is often based on knowledge derived from
      statistics on structural data. Within the last years, the available data in the
      Brookhaven Protein Data Bank has increased dramatically, quantitatively as well
      as qualitatively. This development allows the derivation of enhanced interaction
      models and motivates new ways of data analysis. Here, we present a method to
      facilitate the analysis of noncovalent interactions enabling detailed insights
      into the nature of molecular interactions. The method is integrated into a highly
      variable framework enabling the adaption to user-specific requirements.
      NAOMInova, the user interface for our method, allows the generation of specific
      statistics with respect to the chemical environment of substructures. The
      substructures as well as the analyzed set of protein structures can be chosen
      arbitrarily. Although NAOMInova was primarily made for data exploration in
      protein-ligand crystal structures, it can be used in combination with any
      structure collection, for example, analysis of a carbonyl in the neighborhood of
      an aromatic ring on a set of structures resulting from a MD simulation.
      Additionally, a filter for different atom attributes can be applied including the
      experimental support by electron density for single atoms. In this publication,
      we present the underlying algorithmic techniques of our method and show
      application examples that demonstrate NAOMInova's ability to support individual
      analysis of noncovalent interactions in protein structures. NAOMInova is
      available at http://www.zbh.uni-hamburg.de/naominova .

PMID- 28891649
TI  - Polarized Supramolecular Aggregates Based on Luminescent Perhalogenated Gold
      Derivatives.
AB  - The reaction of [Au(C6F5)(tht)] (tht = tetrahydrothiophene) with 1,3,5-triaza-7
      phosphaadamantane (PTA) and 3,7-diacetyl-1,3,7-triaza-5
      phosphabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane (DAPTA) leads to the formation of [Au(C6F5)(phosph)]
      (phosph = PTA, 1; phosph = DAPTA, 2). The compounds are slightly soluble in water
      and aggregate at higher concentrations, giving rise to the formation of needle-
      and rodlike structures (1) and well-organized spherical aggregates (2). Compounds
      1 and 2 were reacted with AgPF6, giving rise to the formation in all cases of
      luminescent water-soluble 1:1 Au...Ag heterometallic complexes, as evidenced by X
      ray crystal structure determination. The use of different silver salts that
      differ on the counterion induces changes in the resulting luminescence and
      aggregation morphology.

PMID- 28891650
TI  - Asiaticoside Mitigates the Allergic Inflammation by Abrogating the Degranulation
      of Mast Cells.
AB  - The effects of asiaticoside (AS) on allergic responses mediated by mast cells
      were investigated. AS showed no obvious cytotoxicity on RPMCs (rat peritoneal
      mast cells). AS reduced the intracellular calcium in RPMCs and deprived the
      histamine release and degranulation. AS also decreased the generation of antigen
      induced tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin (IL)-4, IL-8, and IL-1beta in
      RBL-2H3 cells sensitized by IgE. The suppression of AS on pro-inflammatory
      cytokines was related with the activation of the intracellular FcepsilonRI and
      the inhibition of the nuclear factor-kappaB signaling pathway. In addition, AS
      disabled the phosphorylation of antigen-induced Syk, Lyn, Gab2, and PLCgamma1,
      thus suppressing the downstream Akt phosphorylation and MAPKs pathways. It also
      increased HO-1 and Nrf2 expression time dependently. In summary, we demonstrate
      that AS suppresses the allergic inflammation mediated by mast cells and this
      effect might be mediated by FcepsilonRI-dependent signaling pathways.

PMID- 28891652
TI  - Iterative Design of a Biomimetic Catalyst for Amino Acid Thioester Condensation.
AB  - Herein, the design of a catalyst that combines lessons learned from peptide
      biosynthesis, enzymes, and organocatalysts is described. The catalyst features a
      urea scaffold for carbonyl recognition and elements of nucleophilic catalysis. In
      the presence of 10 mol % of the organocatalyst, the rate of peptide bond
      formation is accelerated by 10000-fold over the uncatalyzed reaction between Fmoc
      amino acid thioesters and amino acid methyl esters.

PMID- 28891651
TI  - Two-Step, One-Pot Synthesis of Visible-Light-Responsive 6-Azopurines.
AB  - The first general two-step, one-pot synthetic route to 6-azopurines is presented.
      Microwave-assisted nucleophilic aromatic substitution of protected 6
      chloropurines with hydrazines or hydrazides, followed by metal-free oxidation
      with oxygen, gives 6-azopurines in high to excellent yields. Photophysical
      studies revealed intensive n-pi* absorption band that makes trans-to-cis
      photoswitching possible using visible light (lambda = 530 nm).

PMID- 28891653
TI  - The Molecular Origin of Anisotropic Emission in an Organic Light-Emitting Diode.
AB  - Atomistic nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations have been used to model
      the induction of molecular orientation anisotropy within the emission layer of an
      organic light-emitting diode (OLED) formed by vapor deposition. Two emitter
      species were compared: racemic fac-tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium(III) (Ir(ppy)3)
      and trans-bis(2-phenylpyridine)(acetylacetonate)iridium(III) (Ir(ppy)2(acac)).
      The simulations show that the molecular symmetry axes of both emitters
      preferentially align perpendicular to the surface during deposition. The
      molecular arrangement formed on deposition combined with consideration of the
      transition dipole moments provides insight into experimental reports that
      Ir(ppy)3 shows isotropic emission, while Ir(ppy)2(acac) displays improved
      efficiency due to an apparent preferential alignment of the transition dipole
      vectors parallel to the substrate. The simulations indicate that this difference
      is not due to differences in the extent of emitter alignment, but rather
      differences in the direction of the transition dipoles within the two complexes.

PMID- 28891654
TI  - From Simple to Complex: Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed C-C Bond Cleavage and C-H Bond
      Functionalization for the Synthesis of 3a,8b-Dihydro-1H-cyclopenta[b]benzofuran-1
      ones.
AB  - A rhodium(III)-catalyzed strategy for the one-step synthesis of polysubstituted
      cis-3a,8b-dihydro-1H-cyclopenta[b]benzofuran-1-ones from simple 2'
      hydroxychalcones and alkynes is developed. This novel transformation involves a
      sequential C-C bond cleavage and dehydrogenative annulation, leading to the
      product bearing a quaternary and a tertiary carbon center. 13C labeling
      experiments revealed that C-C bond cleavage takes place not only at the C-C(C?O)
      bond but also at the C=C bond. This study provides an alternative strategy using
      C-C bond cleavage thus demonstrating the power of this strategy combined with C-H
      bond functionalization for assembling complex structures from simple starting
      materials.

PMID- 28891655
TI  - Longitudinal intra-individual variability in neuropsychological performance
      relates to white matter changes in HIV.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Recent studies suggest that intraindividual variability (IIV) of
      neuropsychological performance may be sensitive to HIV-associated neurologic
      compromise. IIV may be particularly dependent upon the integrity of frontal
      subcortical systems, and therefore may be a meaningful phenotype in HIV. We
      examined the relationship between change in IIV and white matter integrity among
      HIV seropositive (HIV+) and HIV seronegative (HIV-) individuals. METHOD: The
      sample consisted of 38 HIV+ participants and 26 HIV- control participants who
      underwent neuroimaging and a neuropsychological evaluation at baseline and at 2
      year follow-up evaluation. RESULTS: Among HIV+ participants, increases in IIV
      (greater dispersion) were related to lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in
      the anterior thalamic radiations (ATR) and the superior longitudinal fasciculus
      (SLF). Changes in mean-level global cognitive functioning were not significantly
      related to white matter integrity. Additionally, there was a significant Group *
      IIV interaction effect in the SLF demonstrating that the relationship between IIV
      and white matter integrity was specific to HIV. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, findings
      suggest that IIV may be more sensitive, relative to mean-level global cognitive
      functioning, in the detection of neurologic compromise among HIV+ individuals.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891656
TI  - Implied reading direction and prioritization of letter encoding.
AB  - Capacity limits hinder processing of multiple stimuli, contributing to poorer
      performance for identifying two briefly presented letters than for identifying a
      single letter. Higher accuracy is typically found for identifying the letter on
      the left, which has been attributed to a right-hemisphere dominance for selective
      attention. Here, we use rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of letters in two
      locations at once. The letters to be identified are simultaneous and cued by
      rings. In the first experiment, we manipulated implied reading direction by
      rotating or mirror-reversing the letters to face to the left rather than to the
      right. The left-side performance advantage was eliminated. In the second
      experiment, letters were positioned above and below fixation, oriented such that
      they appeared to face downward (90 degrees  clockwise rotation) or upward (90
      degrees  counterclockwise rotation). Again consistent with an effect of implied
      reading direction, performance was better for the top position in the downward
      condition, but not in the upward condition. In both experiments, mixture modeling
      of participants' report errors revealed that attentional sampling from the two
      locations was approximately simultaneous, ruling out the theory that the letter
      on one side was processed first, followed by a shift of attention to sample the
      other letter. Thus, the orientation of the letters apparently controls not when
      the letters are sampled from the scene, but rather the dynamics of a subsequent
      process, such as tokenization or memory consolidation. Implied reading direction
      appears to determine the letter prioritized at a high-level processing
      bottleneck. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891657
TI  - The role of a "common is moral" heuristic in the stability and change of moral
      norms.
AB  - Moral norms are fundamental for virtually all social interactions, including
      cooperation. Moral norms develop and change, but the mechanisms underlying when,
      and how, such changes occur are not well-described by theories of moral
      psychology. We tested, and confirmed, the hypothesis that the commonness of an
      observed behavior consistently influences its moral status, which we refer to as
      the common is moral (CIM) heuristic. In 9 experiments, we used an experimental
      model of dynamic social interaction that manipulated the commonness of altruistic
      and selfish behaviors to examine the change of peoples' moral judgments. We found
      that both altruistic and selfish behaviors were judged as more moral, and less
      deserving of punishment, when common than when rare, which could be explained by
      a classical formal model (social impact theory) of behavioral conformity.
      Furthermore, judgments of common versus rare behaviors were faster, indicating
      that they were computationally more efficient. Finally, we used agent-based
      computer simulations to investigate the endogenous population dynamics predicted
      to emerge if individuals use the CIM heuristic, and found that the CIM heuristic
      is sufficient for producing 2 hallmarks of real moral norms; stability and sudden
      changes. Our results demonstrate that commonness shapes our moral psychology
      through mechanisms similar to behavioral conformity with wide implications for
      understanding the stability and change of moral norms. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891658
TI  - The digital mental health revolution: Opportunities and risks.
AB  - This editorial introduces the special issue on digital mental health. The promise
      of digital, mobile, and connected technologies to advance mental health, and
      especially psychiatric rehabilitation, continues to rapidly evolve. New sensors
      and data, such as those derived from increasingly ubiquitous smartphones, offer a
      new window into the functional, social, and emotional experiences of illness and
      recovery at a personalized and quantified level previously unimaginable (Ben-Zeev
      & Badiyani, 2016; Free et al., 2013; Torous, Kiang, Lorme, & Onnela, 2016). These
      new technologies may also help assess and monitor mental health on a population
      level and provide early interventions and resources to those in need, regardless
      of their location (East & Havard, 2015). The papers comprising this special issue
      make important and exciting contributions to the mental health field in general
      and to digital mental health for psychiatric rehabilitation in particular. These
      papers illustrate that we are at the beginning of an era that may provide new
      knowledge and evidence-based tools to better promote mental health diagnosis,
      treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891659
TI  - High potential but limited evidence: Using voice data from smartphones to monitor
      and diagnose mood disorders.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This article evaluates the potential of smartphone audio data to
      monitor individuals recovering from mood disorders. METHOD: A comprehensive
      literature review was conducted based on searches in 9 bibliographic databases.
      RESULTS: Seven articles were identified that used smartphone audio data to
      monitor participants with bipolar disorder from 4 to 14 weeks. The studies
      captured audio data in various contexts (e.g., in-person daily conversations,
      phone calls) and used common audio features (e.g., pitch and volume) to ascertain
      clinically relevant outcomes, including mood and social rhythm. Findings suggest
      that the utility of audio data in clinical and research contexts remains
      relatively unexplored and presents some challenges. For example, information on
      adherence and engagement among individuals recovering from bipolar disorder were
      often insufficient to gauge the generalizability of findings. CONCLUSIONS AND
      IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Despite growing interest, additional research is
      required to confirm clinical utility of smartphone audio data for mood disorders.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891660
TI  - Augmenting mHealth with human support: Notes from community care of people with
      serious mental illnesses.
AB  - TOPIC: This article describes the activities of 2 mHealth specialists who
      supported the deployment of FOCUS-a smartphone self-management application for
      individuals with serious mental illnesses. PURPOSE: Several support activities
      have been identified as potentially advantageous for individuals using mHealth
      interventions: facilitation of user engagement, data utilization to enhance care,
      and promotion of meaningful use. We present 3 examples to demonstrate the
      implementation of these activities during a 12-week smartphone intervention.
      SOURCES USED: The personal experiences of 2 mHealth specialists are shared within
      the context of 3 examples of individuals who participated in the smartphone
      intervention. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The application of these
      support activities highlights the future opportunities that mHealth interventions
      could offer to individuals with serious mental illnesses and their providers.
      Additionally, these examples call for conversation about technology support roles
      and where they belong in the context of community-based care. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28891661
TI  - Behavioral health workforce development challenges in the digital health era.
AB  - TOPIC: This column describes challenges for hiring, training, and supervising
      psychiatric rehabilitation service providers for positions that involve the use
      of digital health technology. PURPOSE: Adoption and implementation of any new
      technology or technique requires workforce development. This article outlines
      considerations for policymakers, funders, and service agency administrators as
      digital health technologies become more widespread. SOURCES USED: The article
      discusses issues based on professional experience of the authors and available
      literature. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The literature on adoption
      of innovations in general, and the adoption of psychiatric evidence-based
      practices in particular, indicates that funding and adoption of new techniques
      and technologies are not adequate to ensure full and sustained implementation.
      The use of any new treatment or technology requires training and other supports
      to ensure that users have the competencies needed to make it work and that the
      workplace supports its use. As new digital health technologies become available,
      considerations of their cost and effectiveness need to include an examination of
      the required competencies of the service providers who will use them and the
      added cost of developing, enhancing, and maintaining those competencies. Specific
      attitudes, knowledge, and skills will be relevant to hiring decisions. Relevant
      preservice and on-the-job training opportunities, technical assistance, and
      supervision will be needed. Implementation needs to be monitored, not assumed,
      and the rights of the people who use technology-supported services must be fully
      protected. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891662
TI  - Increase and decrease of other substance use during recovery from cannabis use
      disorders.
AB  - Little is known about whether recovery from one addiction is associated with
      increased or decreased risk of subsequent other addictions. This study explored
      self-reported increases and decreases in other substance use among individuals
      who have recovered from cannabis use disorder. Media recruitment was used to
      obtain a sample of 119 individuals with lifetime but not past year cannabis use
      disorder (30% female). The median length of recovery was 5.0 years. Results
      showed that both increase and decrease in the use of other substances is very
      common in recovery from cannabis use. In general, other substance use decreased
      more than it increased. Individuals who reported only a decrease in other
      substance use (39%) and individuals who reported both increases and decreases in
      various substances (21%) reported a greater degree of cannabis-related problems
      and treatment-seeking than individuals who only reported an increase (26%) or no
      change (14%). Individuals who only increased use of other substances reported
      fewer cannabis-related problems and were more likely to have had self-directed
      recoveries. They were also less likely to use helping relationships (e.g.,
      friends, family) as a recovery process and self-help group involvement as a
      maintenance strategy. Their recoveries seem to have been less socially influenced
      and socially imbedded than individuals who reduced other substance use. The
      findings suggest that treatment involvement and social influences may
      successfully discourage use of other substances upon recovery from cannabis.
      However, the impact of such use or lack of use on individuals' functioning needs
      to be clarified in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891663
TI  - A call for theory to support the use of causal-formative indicators: A commentary
      on Bollen and Diamantopoulos (2017).
AB  - In this issue, Bollen and Diamantopoulos (2017) defend causal-formative
      indicators against several common criticisms leveled by scholars who oppose their
      use. In doing so, the authors make several convincing assertions: Constructs
      exist independently from their measures; theory determines whether indicators
      cause or measure latent variables; and reflective and causal-formative indicators
      are both subject to interpretational confounding. However, despite being a well
      reasoned, comprehensive defense of causal-formative indicators, no single article
      can address all of the issues associated with this debate. Thus, Bollen and
      Diamantopoulos leave a few fundamental issues unresolved. For example, how can
      researchers establish the reliability of indicators that may include measurement
      error? Moreover, how should researchers interpret disturbance terms that capture
      sources of influence related to both the empirical definition of the latent
      variable and to the theoretical definition of the construct? Relatedly, how
      should researchers reconcile the requirement for a census of causal-formative
      indicators with the knowledge that indicators are likely missing from the
      empirically estimated latent variable? This commentary develops 6 related
      research questions to draw attention to these fundamental issues, and to call for
      future research that can lead to the development of theory to guide the use of
      causal-formative indicators. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891664
TI  - Notes on measurement theory for causal-formative indicators: A reply to Hardin.
AB  - The current article is a rejoinder to "A Call for Theory to Support the Use of
      Causal-Formative Indicators: A Commentary on Bollen and Diamantopoulos." Our
      article comments on the 6 research questions raised by Hardin (2017) in his
      constructive commentary on our original article (i.e., "In Defense of Causal
      Formative Indicators: A Minority Report"). (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891665
TI  - Levels of and changes in life satisfaction predict mortality hazards:
      Disentangling the role of physical health, perceived control, and social
      orientation.
AB  - It is well documented that well-being typically evinces precipitous decrements at
      the end of life. However, research has primarily taken a postdictive approach by
      knowing the outcome (date of death) and aligning, in retrospect, how well-being
      has changed for people with documented death events. In the present study, we
      made use of a predictive approach by examining whether and how levels of and
      changes in life satisfaction prospectively predict mortality hazards and
      delineate the role of contributing factors, including health, perceived control,
      and social orientation. To do so, we applied shared parameter growth-survival
      models to 20-year longitudinal data from 10,597 participants (n = 1,560 [15%]
      deceased; age at baseline: M = 44 years, SD = 17, range = 18-98 years) from the
      national German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Our findings showed that lower levels
      and steeper declines of life satisfaction each uniquely predicted higher
      mortality risks. Results also revealed moderating effects of age and perceived
      control: Life satisfaction levels and changes had stronger predictive effects for
      mortality hazards among older adults. Perceived control was associated with lower
      mortality hazards; however, this effect was diminished for those who experienced
      accelerated life satisfaction decline. Variance decomposition suggests that
      predictive effects of life satisfaction trajectories were partially unique (3%
      6%) and partially shared with physical health, perceived control, and social
      orientation (17%-19%). Our discussion focuses on the strengths and challenges of
      a predictive approach to link developmental changes (in life satisfaction) to
      mortality hazards, and considers implications of our findings for healthy aging.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891667
TI  - In the eye of the beholder: Can counter-stereotypes change perceptions of older
      adults' social status?
AB  - Negative age-related stereotypes often entail the perception that older adults
      have a lower social status than middle-aged adults. We hypothesized that older
      adults are perceived to have lower social status because they are less likely to
      be seen in prestigious occupational positions. People tend to infer general
      assumptions about group characteristics from exemplars. According to this,
      presenting a stereotype-inconsistent exemplar (i.e., older person in a high
      status position) should change perceptions of older adults' social status. Study
      1 (60 countries, N = 86,026, 18-99 years) showed that people in countries with an
      older relative to a younger political leader do not perceive as great a decline
      in social status from middle-aged to older adults. Study 2 (N = 131; 19-74 years)
      tested the causal link demonstrating that participants exposed to older exemplars
      holding a prestigious occupational position were significantly more likely to
      rate older adults as having a relative higher social status. We discuss
      implications for future interventions to change negative age-related stereotypes.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891666
TI  - Adversity in childhood and measures of aging in midlife: Findings from a cohort
      of british women.
AB  - Very few studies have assessed whether socioeconomic and psychosocial adversity
      during childhood are associated with objective measures of aging later in life.
      We assessed associations of socioeconomic position (SEP) and total psychosocial
      adversity during childhood, with objectively measured cognitive and physical
      capability in women during midlife. Adverse childhood experiences were
      retrospectively reported at mean ages 28-30 years in women from the Avon
      Longitudinal Study of Parents And Children (N = 2,221). We investigated
      associations of childhood SEP and total psychosocial adversity, with composite
      measures of cognitive and physical capability at mean age 51 years. There was
      evidence that, compared with participants whose fathers had professional
      occupations, participants whose fathers had managerial/technical, skilled
      nonmanual, skilled manual, and partly or unskilled manual occupations had, on
      average, lower physical and cognitive capability. There was a clear trend for
      increasing magnitudes of association with lowering childhood SEP. There was also
      evidence that greater total psychosocial adversity in childhood was associated
      with lower physical capability. Total psychosocial adversity in childhood was not
      associated with cognitive capability. Lower SEP in childhood is detrimental to
      cognitive and physical capability in midlife, at least in part, independently of
      subsequent SEP in adulthood. Greater psychosocial adversity in childhood is
      associated with poorer physical capability, independently of social disadvantage
      in childhood. Our findings highlight the need for interventions to both identify
      and support children experiencing socioeconomic or psychosocial of adversity as
      early as possible. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891668
TI  - Visual attention and emotional reactions to negative stimuli: The role of age and
      cognitive reappraisal.
AB  - Prominent life span theories of emotion propose that older adults attend less to
      negative emotional information and report less negative emotional reactions to
      the same information than younger adults do. Although parallel age differences in
      affective information processing and age differences in emotional reactivity have
      been proposed, they have rarely been investigated within the same study. In this
      eye-tracking study, we tested age differences in visual attention and emotional
      reactivity, using standardized emotionally negative stimuli. Additionally, we
      investigated age differences in the association between visual attention and
      emotional reactivity, and whether these are moderated by cognitive reappraisal.
      Older as compared with younger adults showed fixation patterns away from negative
      image content, while they reacted with greater negative emotions. The association
      between visual attention and emotional reactivity differed by age group and
      positive reappraisal. Younger adults felt better when they attended more to
      negative content rather than less, but this relationship only held for younger
      adults who did not attach a positive meaning to the negative situation. For older
      adults, overall, there was no significant association between visual attention
      and emotional reactivity. However, for older adults who did not use positive
      reappraisal, decreases in attention to negative information were associated with
      less negative emotions. The present findings point to a complex relationship
      between younger and older adults' visual attention and emotional reactions.
      (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891669
TI  - An age-related deficit in resolving interference: Evidence from speech
      perception.
AB  - The presence of noise and interfering information can pose major difficulties
      during speech perception, particularly for older adults. Analogously,
      interference from similar representations during retrieval is a major cause of
      age-related memory failures. To demonstrate a suppression mechanism that
      underlies such speech and memory difficulties, we tested the hypothesis that
      interference between targets and competitors is resolved by suppressing
      competitors, thereby rendering them less intelligible in noise. In a series of
      experiments using a paradigm adapted from Healey, Hasher, and Campbell (2013), we
      presented a list of words that included target/competitor pairs of
      orthographically similar words (e.g., ALLERGY and ANALOGY). After a delay,
      participants solved fragments (e.g., A_L__GY), some of which resembled both
      members of the target/competitor pair, but could only be completed by the target.
      We then assessed the consequence of having successfully resolved this
      interference by asking participants to identify words in noise, some of which
      included the rejected competitor words from the previous phase. Consistent with a
      suppression account of interference resolution, younger adults reliably
      demonstrated reduced identification accuracy for competitors, indicating that
      they had effectively rejected, and therefore suppressed, competitors. In
      contrast, older adults showed a relative increase in accuracy for competitors
      relative to young adults. Such results suggest that older adults' reduced ability
      to suppress these representations resulted in sustained access to lexical traces,
      subsequently increasing perceptual identification of such items. We discuss these
      findings within the framework of inhibitory control theory in cognitive aging and
      its implications for age-related changes in speech perception. (PsycINFO Database
      Record

PMID- 28891670
TI  - Aging and syntactic representations: Evidence of preserved syntactic priming and
      lexical boost.
AB  - Young adults can be primed to reuse a syntactic structure across otherwise
      unrelated utterances but it is not known whether this phenomenon exists in older
      adults. In a dialogue task, young and older adults described transitive verb
      target pictures after hearing active or passive sentences. Both groups were more
      likely to produce a passive sentence following a passive prime than following an
      active prime (indicating syntactic priming), and this effect increased when the
      prime and target involved the same verb (indicating lexical boost). These effects
      were statistically equivalent in young and older adults, suggesting that the
      syntactic representations underlying sentence production are unaffected by normal
      aging. (PsycINFO Database Record

PMID- 28891672
TI  - Sepsis-3 in Community-acquired Pneumonia: How Reliable Is It?

PMID- 28891673
TI  - Correlation between serum lead and thyroid diseases: papillary thyroid carcinoma,
      nodular goiter, and thyroid adenoma.
AB  - Studies have showed that lead was associated with human health. However, the
      effects of lead on thyroid functions are inconsistent, and studies based on
      Chinese population are fragmentary. To evaluate the correlation between lead and
      thyroid functions of Chinese with different thyroid diseases, we conducted a
      hospital-based study. Ninety-six papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), 10 nodular
      goiter (NG), and 7 thyroid adenoma (TA) patients were recruited from the First
      Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, China. Serum triiodothyronine
      (T3), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxin (FT4), and thyroid stimulating
      hormone (TSH) were evaluated with chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay.
      Serum lead was assessed with ICP-MASS. Partial correlation was used to explore
      the correlations of serum lead and thyroid diseases. Compared to PTC, the level
      of lead was significantly higher in TA, and lower in NG (p < 0.05). This
      difference remained significant in females when stratified by sex. Serum lead was
      negatively correlated with TSH (rs =  - 0.27, p < 0.05) in PTC group. T3 was
      positively related to lead at quartile4 (rs = 0.61, p < 0.05) in PTC group. No
      significant correlations were observed between lead and FT3 or FT4 in any group.
      The results suggested that lead might have different etiological roles in these
      three thyroid diseases.

PMID- 28891675
TI  - Abstracts The Society of Biomolecular Imaging and Informatics 4th Annual Meeting
      Poster Session September 13-15, 2017 San Diego Convention Center San Diego, CA.

PMID- 28891674
TI  - Reply to Akinosoglou and Gogos: Sepsis-3 in Community-acquired Pneumonia: How
      Reliable Is It?

PMID- 28891676
TI  - Pornography use in sexual minority males: Associations with body dissatisfaction,
      eating disorder symptoms, thoughts about using anabolic steroids and quality of
      life.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We examined two hypotheses regarding the potential association of
      pornography use with body image-related and eating disorder-related
      psychopathology among sexual minority males (i.e. non-heterosexual males). Our
      primary hypothesis was that pornography use would be associated with males' body
      dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, thoughts about using anabolic steroids
      and quality of life impairment; our secondary hypothesis was that the type of
      pornography, namely, professional versus amateur pornography, which contains
      idealised and non-idealised (i.e. regular) bodies, respectively, would moderate
      these associations. METHODS: A sample of 2733 sexual minority males living in
      Australia and New Zealand completed an online survey that contained measures of
      pornography use, body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, thoughts about
      using anabolic steroids and quality of life. RESULTS: Almost all (98.2%)
      participants reported pornography use with a median use of 5.33 hours per month.
      Multivariate analyses revealed that increased pornography use was associated with
      greater dissatisfaction with muscularity, body fat and height; greater eating
      disorder symptoms; more frequent thoughts about using anabolic steroids; and
      lower quality of life. Effect sizes for these associations were uniformly small.
      Neither relationship status nor genital dissatisfaction was associated with
      pornography use. The association between pornography use and thoughts about using
      anabolic steroids was stronger for viewers of professional pornography than
      viewers of amateur pornography. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that the use of
      pornography is weakly associated with body dissatisfaction and related variables
      and that the type of pornography (amateur vs professional) viewed may be a
      moderating factor in some cases. Within the limits of a cross-sectional study
      design, these findings may have implications for clinicians who treat individuals
      with eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, anabolic-androgenic steroid
      dependence and related concerns.

PMID- 28891677
TI  - Genetic variation in the MITF promoter affects skin colour and transcriptional
      activity in black-boned chickens.
AB  - 1. Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) plays a pivotal role in
      melanocyte development by regulating the transcription of major pigmentation
      enzymes (e.g. TYR, TYRP1 and DCT). A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), c.
      638T>C, was identified in the MITF promoter, and genotyping of a population (n =
      426) revealed that SNP c.-638T>C was associated with skin colour in black-boned
      chickens. 2. Individuals with genotypes CC and TC exhibited greater MTIF
      expression than those with genotype TT. Luciferase assays also revealed that
      genotype CC and TC promoters had higher activity levels than genotype TT.
      Expression of melanogenesis-related gene (TYR) was higher in the skin of chickens
      with the CC and CT genotype compared to TT chickens (P < 0.05). 3. Transcription
      factor-binding site analyses showed that the c.-638C allele contains a putative
      binding site for transcription factor sterol regulatory element-binding
      transcription factor 2, aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator,
      transcription factor binding to IGHM enhancer 3 and upstream transcription factor
      2. In contrast, the c.-638T allele contains binding sites for Sp3 transcription
      factor and Kruppel-like factor 1. 4. It was concluded that MITF promoter
      polymorphisms affected chicken skin colour. SNP c.-638T>C could be used for the
      marker-assisted selection of skin colour in black-boned chicken breeding.

PMID- 28891678
TI  - Prevalence of gastrointestinal helminth infections in free-range laying hens
      under mountain farming production conditions.
AB  - 1. A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2015 to July 2016 in
      South Tyrol, Northern Italy to examine the prevalence of gastrointestinal
      helminths in free-range laying hens under mountain farming production conditions.
      2. A total of 280 laying hens from 14 free-range mountain farms (4 organic, 10
      conventional) were randomly collected at the end of the laying period. Faecal
      samples were taken to analyse faecal egg counts (FEC) and faecal oocyst counts
      (FOC). The gastrointestinal tracts were removed post mortem and examined for the
      presence of helminths. 3. In faeces, FEC values averaged 258 eggs per g of
      faeces, which were dominated by Ascaridia galli and Heterakis gallinarum. Mean
      FOC was 80 oocysts/g. In the gastrointestinal tract, at least one nematode
      species was found in 99.3% of the examined hens. H. gallinarum was the most
      prevalent nematode (95.7%), followed by Capillaria spp. (66.8%) and A. galli
      (63.6%). Thirty per cent of the chickens were infected with cestodes (tapeworms).
      Correlation coefficients between worm counts of H. gallinarum, Capillaria spp.
      and A. galli ranged from 0.41 to 0.51. 5. The helminth prevalence did not differ
      between conventional and organic farms, whereas total worm burden was higher in
      organic compared with conventional farms (318.9 vs. 112.0). Prevalence and
      infection intensity did not differ between farms that used anthelmintic
      treatments and those that did not. 6. In conclusion, free-range laying hens under
      the studied mountain farming conditions are at high risk of nematode infection,
      especially in organic systems. The vast majority of hens are subclinical infected
      with at least one helminth species.

PMID- 28891679
TI  - Patient-reported outcomes after aortic and mitral valve surgery - results from
      the DenHeart Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Clinical course, co-morbidity and age often differs between patients
      undergoing aortic and mitral valve surgery and this might affect patient-reported
      outcomes. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to describe differences in patient
      reported physical and mental health and health-related quality of life after
      aortic valve or mitral valve surgery, and to identify demographic and clinical
      characteristics associated with worse patient-reported physical and mental
      health, and health-related quality of life. METHODS: Patient-reported outcomes
      were measured at discharge as a part of a national, cross-sectional study
      (DenHeart). Patient-reported outcome measures included: Short-Form-12, Hospital
      Anxiety and Depression Scale, EuroQol-5D-5L, HeartQol and Edmonton Symptom
      Assessment System. Demographic and clinical information was obtained from
      national registers. RESULTS: Of 354 patients (65% men, mean age: 68 years), 79%
      underwent aortic valve surgery. Patients who had undergone aortic valve surgery
      had more symptoms of anxiety compared with patients who had undergone mitral
      valve surgery (34% vs 17%, p=0.003, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale anxiety
      cut-off score of eight). Being female was associated with worse patient-reported
      outcomes on all measures, whereas being unmarried was associated with worse
      physical health (Physical Component Score Short-Form-12) and symptom burden
      (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System). Length of stay was associated with worse
      symptoms on EuroQol-5D-5L Visual Analogue Scale. Age and comorbidity were not
      associated with patient-reported outcomes. CONCLUSION: Patients who had undergone
      aortic valve and mitral valve surgery did not significantly differ in patient
      reported health at discharge, except for symptoms of anxiety. Being female was
      the only characteristic associated with overall worse patient-reported outcomes
      at discharge.

PMID- 28891680
TI  - Expanding Treatment Options for Improving Health Outcomes in Type 1 Diabetes.

PMID- 28891682
TI  - Empirically Corrected Rescaled Statistics for SEM with Small N and Large p.
AB  - Survey data often contain many variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is
      commonly used in analyzing such data. With typical nonnormally distributed data
      in practice, a rescaled statistic Trml proposed by Satorra and Bentler was
      recommended in the literature of SEM. However, Trml has been shown to be
      problematic when the sample size N is small and/or the number of variables p is
      large. There does not exist a reliable test statistic for SEM with small N or
      large p, especially with nonnormally distributed data. Following the principle of
      Bartlett correction, this article develops empirical corrections to Trml so that
      the mean of the empirically corrected statistics approximately equals the degrees
      of freedom of the nominal chi-square distribution. Results show that empirically
      corrected statistics control type I errors reasonably well even when N is smaller
      than 2p, where Trml may reject the correct model 100% even for normally
      distributed data. The application of the empirically corrected statistics is
      illustrated via a real data example.

PMID- 28891683
TI  - Six global and local QSPR models of aqueous solubility at pH = 7.4 based on
      structural similarity and physicochemical descriptors.
AB  - Aqueous solubility at pH = 7.4 is a very important property for medicinal
      chemists because this is the pH value of physiological media. The present work
      describes the application of three different methods (support vector machine
      (SVM), random forest (RF) and multiple linear regression (MLR)) and three local
      quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) models (regression corrected
      by nearest neighbours (RCNN), arithmetic mean property (AMP) and local regression
      property (LoReP)) to construct stable QSPRs with clear mechanistic
      interpretation. Our data set contained experimental values of aqueous solubility
      at pH = 7.4 of 387 chemicals (349 in the training set and 38 in the test set
      including 16 own measurements). The initial descriptor pool contained 210
      physicochemical descriptors, calculated from the HYBOT, DRAGON, SYBYL and
      VolSurf+ programs. Six QSPRs with good statistics based on fundamentals of
      aqueous solubility and optimization of descriptor space were obtained. Those
      models have an RMSE close to experimental error (0.70), and are amenable to
      physical interpretation. The QSPR models developed in this study may be useful
      for medicinal chemists. Global MLR, RF and SVM models may be valuable for
      consideration of common factors that influence solubility. The RCNN, AMP and
      LoReP local models may be helpful for the optimization of aqueous solubility in
      small sets of related chemicals.

PMID- 28891681
TI  - Lacto-Vegetarian Diet and Correlation of Fasting Blood Sugar with Lipids in
      Population Practicing Sedentary Lifestyle.
AB  - Rising burden of diabetes in India requires quick intervention that integrates
      policies and programs for effective prevention and control of disease. This
      retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to observe effect of diet in
      two Indian communities practicing sedentary lifestyle. Fasting blood samples were
      analyzed for blood sugar, glycated-hemoglobin (HbA1C), and lipid profile. Body
      mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) measurements were recorded.
      Diabetes incidence was lower in lacto-vegetarian (1.7%) than in non-vegetarian
      group (5.3%) despite similar lipid profiles and BMI/WC between the groups.
      Fasting blood sugar (FBS) was positively correlated with LDL and VLDL levels and
      negatively correlated with HDL, only in lacto-vegetarian group. Study suggests:
      (1) Indian lacto-vegetarian diet has beneficial effects on diabetes incidence
      irrespective of high body weight and sedentary lifestyle; (2) intervention to
      reduce body lipids, such as lipid-lowering drugs and exercise, may have greater
      effect in reducing FBS levels in this lacto-vegetarian group.

PMID- 28891684
TI  - A Computational-Based Method for Predicting Drug-Target Interactions by Using
      Stacked Autoencoder Deep Neural Network.
AB  - Identifying the interaction between drugs and target proteins is an important
      area of drug research, which provides a broad prospect for low-risk and faster
      drug development. However, due to the limitations of traditional experiments when
      revealing drug-protein interactions (DTIs), the screening of targets not only
      takes a lot of time and money but also has high false-positive and false-negative
      rates. Therefore, it is imperative to develop effective automatic computational
      methods to accurately predict DTIs in the postgenome era. In this article, we
      propose a new computational method for predicting DTIs from drug molecular
      structure and protein sequence by using the stacked autoencoder of deep learning,
      which can adequately extract the raw data information. The proposed method has
      the advantage that it can automatically mine the hidden information from protein
      sequences and generate highly representative features through iterations of
      multiple layers. The feature descriptors are then constructed by combining the
      molecular substructure fingerprint information, and fed into the rotation forest
      for accurate prediction. The experimental results of fivefold cross-validation
      indicate that the proposed method achieves superior performance on gold standard
      data sets (enzymes, ion channels, GPCRs [G-protein-coupled receptors], and
      nuclear receptors) with accuracy of 0.9414, 0.9116, 0.8669, and 0.8056,
      respectively. We further comprehensively explore the performance of the proposed
      method by comparing it with other feature extraction algorithms, state-of-the-art
      classifiers, and other excellent methods on the same data set. The excellent
      comparison results demonstrate that the proposed method is highly competitive
      when predicting drug-target interactions.

PMID- 28891685
TI  - Risk of falling in a stroke unit after acute stroke: The Fall Study of Gothenburg
      (FallsGOT).
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate incidence of falls and different
      baseline variables and their association with falling during hospitalization in a
      stroke unit among patients with acute stroke. DESIGN: Prospective observational
      study. SETTING: A stroke unit at a university hospital. SUBJECTS: A consecutive
      sample of stroke patients, out of which 504 were included, while 101 declined
      participation. METHODS: The patients were assessed a mean of 1.7 days after
      admission and 3.8 days after stroke onset. MAIN MEASURES: The primary end-point
      was any fall, from admission to the stroke unit to discharge. Factors associated
      with falling were analysed using univariable and multivariable Cox hazard
      regression analyses. Independent variables were related to function, activity and
      participation, as well as personal and environmental factors. RESULTS: In total,
      65 patients (13%) fell at least once. Factors statistically significantly
      associated with falling in the multivariable analysis were male sex (hazard ratio
      (HR): 1.88, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-3.14, P = 0.015), use of a walking
      aid (HR: 2.11, 95% CI: 1.24-3.60, P = 0.006) and postural control as assessed
      with the modified version of the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients
      (SwePASS). No association was found with age, cognition or stroke severity, the
      HR for low SwePASS scores (?24) was 9.33 (95% CI: 2.19-39.78, P = 0.003) and for
      medium SwePASS scores (25-30) was 6.34 (95% CI: 1.46-27.51, P = 0.014), compared
      with high SwePASS scores (?31). CONCLUSION: Postural control, male sex and use of
      a walking aid are associated with falling during hospitalization after acute
      stroke.

PMID- 28891686
TI  - Innovative processes and technologies for modified atmosphere packaging of fresh
      and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.
AB  - Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) technology has been commercially viable since
      the 1970s. Currently, MAP is extensively used worldwide to preserve the quality
      and extend the shelf-life of whole fresh fruits and vegetables, but is also
      increasingly used to extend the shelf-life of minimally processed fresh fruit and
      vegetables. This review discusses new processes and technologies that can be used
      to improve quality preservation and consumer acceptability of minimally processed
      produce where high respiration rates and challenging degradation processes
      operate. New packaging innovations are enabling producers and retailers to
      further maintain quality for longer. Innovative approaches to extend shelf-life
      include active MAP with differentially permeable films, films that incorporate
      antimicrobial properties, edible coatings that confer barriers properties, and
      the use of non-traditional gases to modify respiration. Intelligent packaging
      using integrated sensor technologies that can indicate maturity, ripeness,
      respiration rate and spoilage are also appearing. This review demonstrates that
      preservation technologies and associated packaging developments that can be
      combined with modified atmosphere are constantly evolving technology platforms.
      Adoption of combinations of technology improvements will be critical in
      responding to commercial trends towards more minimally processed fresh-cut and
      ready-to-eat fruit and vegetable products, which require specialized packaging
      solutions.

PMID- 28891687
TI  - The Application of the Weighted k-Partite Graph Problem to the Multiple Alignment
      for Metabolic Pathways.
AB  - The problem of aligning multiple metabolic pathways is one of very challenging
      problems in computational biology. A metabolic pathway consists of three types of
      entities: reactions, compounds, and enzymes. Based on similarities between
      enzymes, Tohsato et al. gave an algorithm for aligning multiple metabolic
      pathways. However, the algorithm given by Tohsato et al. neglects the
      similarities among reactions, compounds, enzymes, and pathway topology. How to
      design algorithms for the alignment problem of multiple metabolic pathways based
      on the similarity of reactions, compounds, and enzymes? It is a difficult
      computational problem. In this article, we propose an algorithm for the problem
      of aligning multiple metabolic pathways based on the similarities among
      reactions, compounds, enzymes, and pathway topology. First, we compute a weight
      between each pair of like entities in different input pathways based on the
      entities' similarity score and topological structure using Ay et al.'s methods.
      We then construct a weighted k-partite graph for the reactions, compounds, and
      enzymes. We extract a mapping between these entities by solving the maximum
      weighted k-partite matching problem by applying a novel heuristic algorithm. By
      analyzing the alignment results of multiple pathways in different organisms, we
      show that the alignments found by our algorithm correctly identify common
      subnetworks among multiple pathways.

PMID- 28891688
TI  - Double Decomposition of Level-1 Variables in Multilevel Models: An Analysis of
      the Flynn Effect in the NSLY Data.
AB  - This paper introduces an extension of cluster mean centering (also called group
      mean centering) for multilevel models, which we call "double decomposition (DD)."
      This centering method separates between-level variance, as in cluster mean
      centering, but also decomposes within-level variance of the same variable. This
      process retains the benefits of cluster mean centering but allows for context
      variables derived from lower level variables, other than the cluster mean, to be
      incorporated into the model. A brief simulation study is presented, demonstrating
      the potential advantage (or even necessity) for DD in certain circumstances.
      Several applications to multilevel analysis are discussed. Finally, an empirical
      demonstration examining the Flynn effect (Flynn, 1987 ), our motivating example,
      is presented. The use of DD in the analysis provides a novel method to narrow the
      field of plausible causal hypotheses regarding the Flynn effect, in line with
      suggestions by a number of researchers (Mingroni, 2014 ; Rodgers, 2015 ).

PMID- 28891689
TI  - Multimodal Drug Therapy and Physical Rehabilitation in the Successful Treatment
      of Capture Myopathy in a Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor).
AB  - A wild-caught lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) from the Fort Worth Zoo (Fort
      Worth, TX, USA) presented with moderate lameness that progressed to the inability
      to stand 2 days after restraint and handling. Results of blood tests showed
      severely elevated creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and aspartate aminotransferase
      (AST) activities, confirming suspected capture myopathy. Intensive supportive
      therapy, consisting of intravenous fluids and muscle relaxants, along with
      physical rehabilitation therapy, nutritional support, and anxiolytics, were
      instituted to aid in relaxation and muscle regeneration. After 2 weeks of
      intensive therapy, the bird showed substantial improvement and could remain
      standing throughout the day after being assisted to a standing position. By day
      23, the bird was able to stand independently and walk completely unassisted, with
      no discernible lameness. The bird has subsequently remained healthy since it was
      returned to the flock approximately 27 days after it was first presented for
      treatment. Although anecdotal communications of successful treatment of this
      condition in flamingos exist, this is the first report, to our knowledge, that
      describes in detail the successful treatment of capture myopathy in any flamingo
      species. Success in this case is attributed to the combination of early fluid and
      drug therapy, intensive physical rehabilitation therapy, and anxiolytics to
      counteract the hyperexcitable nature of this wild-caught bird.

PMID- 28891691
TI  - What is Your Diagnosis?

PMID- 28891692
TI  - Second-generation Anticoagulant Rodenticide Poisoning in a Captive Andean Condor
      (Vultur gryphus).
AB  - A 28-year-old female Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) housed in an outside exhibit
      at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, PA, began showing signs of weakness.
      Toxicosis with an anticoagulant rodenticide was suspected because its mate had
      died 1 day earlier from possible brodifacoum poisoning. A rapid decline in the
      packed cell volume, despite vitamin K1 treatment, necessitated a blood
      transfusion with blood from bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and Steller's
      sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus). Supportive therapy after transfusion included
      vitamin K1 (5 mg/kg IM q12h) as well as enrofloxacin, vitamin B complex, selenium
      and vitamin E, and subcutaneous fluids as needed. After a 39-day treatment
      period, a tapering dosage of vitamin K1 was initiated, and treatment ended after
      17 weeks. However, 2 weeks later, the bird suffered from a potential relapse. It
      was successfully treated with a repeat tapering vitamin K1 regimen lasting a
      total of 4 months.

PMID- 28891690
TI  - Compendium of Measures to Control Chlamydia psittaci Infection Among Humans
      (Psittacosis) and Pet Birds (Avian Chlamydiosis), 2017.
AB  - Psittacosis, also known as parrot fever and ornithosis, is a bacterial infection
      that can cause severe pneumonia and other serious health problems in humans. It
      is caused by Chlamydia psittaci. Reclassification of the order Chlamydiales in
      1999 into 2 genera (Chlamydia and Chlamydophila) was not wholly accepted or
      adopted. This resulted in a reversion to the single, original genus Chlamydia,
      which now encompasses all 9 species including Chlamydia psittaci. During 2003
      2014, 112 human cases of psittacosis were reported to the Centers for Disease
      Control and Prevention through the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance
      System. While many types of birds can be infected by C psittaci, in general, the
      literature suggests that human cases can most often occur after exposure to
      infected parrot-type birds kept as pets, especially cockatiels, parakeets, and
      conures. In birds, C psittaci infection is referred to as avian chlamydiosis.
      Infected birds shed the bacteria through feces and nasal discharges, and humans
      become infected from exposure to these materials. This compendium provides
      information about psittacosis and avian chlamydiosis to public health officials,
      physicians, veterinarians, the pet bird industry, and others concerned with
      controlling these diseases and protecting public health. The recommendations in
      this compendium provide standardized procedures to control C psittaci infections.
      This document will be reviewed and revised as necessary, and the most current
      version replaces all previous versions. This document was last revised in 2010.
      Major changes in this version include a recommendation for a shorter treatment
      time for birds with avian chlamydiosis, additional information about diagnostic
      testing, including genotyping, clearer language associated with personal
      protective equipment recommended for those caring for confirmed or exposed birds,
      and incorporating a grading scale with recommendations generally based on the
      United States Preventive Services Task Force's methods.

PMID- 28891693
TI  - Radiography and Ultrasonography in the Backyard Poultry and Waterfowl Patient.
AB  - The keeping of backyard poultry and waterfowl as pets has become increasingly
      popular in recent years, resulting in a rising case load of these patients in
      veterinary practices. Diagnostic imaging techniques are taking a leading role in
      rapid diagnosis in the live bird. We provide an overview of the most important
      points regarding radiographic and ultrasonographic imaging procedures in these
      birds. We also review the most commonly documented radiographic and
      ultrasonographic signs in these species, as well as discuss unique anatomic
      characteristics with which the veterinarian should be familiar.

PMID- 28891694
TI  - Zoonotic Disease: A Concern for Everyone.

PMID- 28891696
TI  - Repair of Tibiotarsal Rotation in 7 Chukar Partridges (Alectoris chukar) and 12
      Domestic Pigeons (Columba livia domestica) with Type-2 External Skeletal Fixator
      Intramedullary Pin Tie-in.
AB  - Rotational deformities of the long bones affect various avian species.
      Tibiotarsal rotation may cause the leg to deviate up to 180 degrees  from the
      dorsoplantar axis in a matter of days, thus preventing the birds from walking
      freely and leading to the inability to stand. In this study, tibiotarsal rotation
      observed in pigeons and partridges was managed by creating a closed fracture in
      the tibiotarsus and then, following reduction, stabilizing it with an
      intramedullary tie-in Type 2 external skeletal fixation system. Functional
      healing was achieved in 12 pigeons (Columba livia domestica; mean healing time,
      38 days) and 7 partridges (Alectoris chukar; mean healing time, 40 days). This
      treatment was successful. In small bird species (<1 kg), this simple and
      inexpensive surgical intervention may provide a highly effective method for the
      treatment of rotational deformities.

PMID- 28891697
TI  - Management of a Nonhealing, Superficial Corneal Ulcer in a Hyacinth Macaw
      (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus).
AB  - A 26-year-old, female hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) was presented
      for ophthalmology consultation for a history of a chronic, nonhealing corneal
      ulcer of the right eye. On examination, a 5 * 4-mm axial, superficial corneal
      ulcer with loose epithelial edges was found. During multiple recheck examinations
      over 4 months, the ulcer was treated by debridement with a sterile cotton-tipped
      applicator, diamond burr debridement, diamond burr debridement with cyanoacrylate
      tissue adhesive, and grid keratotomy with cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive, all
      performed under anesthesia with eventual resolution of the corneal ulcer.

PMID- 28891698
TI  - Serratospiculosis in Captive Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) in Switzerland.
AB  - Infection with Serratospiculum species was identified in a captive peregrine
      falcon (Falco peregrinus) in Switzerland. Pathologic and parasitologic
      examination results revealed generalized severe granulomatous airsacculitis, with
      intralesional adults, larvae, and eggs of Serratospiculum species. Subsequently,
      an individual coprological analysis of the remaining 15 falcons (peregrine
      falcons and gyrfalcons [Falco rusticolus]) from the same owner was performed.
      Eggs of Serratospiculum species (4 birds) and Capillaria species (11 birds), and
      oocysts of Caryospora species (1 bird) were detected. Treatment with ivermection
      (2 mg/kg SC) was effective, as none of the falcons excreted Serratospiculum
      species eggs 10 days after one dose. To our knowledge, this is the first report
      of infection with Serratospiculum species in captive falcons in Europe.

PMID- 28891699
TI  - Radiographic Anatomy of the Metatarsophalangeal Joint and Digits of the Ostrich
      (Struthio camelus).
AB  - The aim of this study was to develop a detailed and accessible set of reference
      images of the normal radiographic anatomy of the digits of the ostrich (Struthio
      camelus), with emphasis on the metatarsophalangeal joint and its arthrography.
      The distal excised pelvic limbs of 10 normal ostriches of different ages (ranging
      from 10 to 365 days of age) obtained from an abattoir were radiographed, and 2
      arthrograms were performed. To illustrate the normal radiographic anatomy of the
      tarsometatarsal bone, 39 images were selected, labelled, and presented along with
      detailed descriptions and corresponding images of the bony skeleton. These
      results provide a valuable dataset to assist in understanding the normal anatomy
      of the ostrich metatarsophalangeal joint and digits and allow comparison of
      abnormal corresponding structures in clinical cases in ostriches.

PMID- 28891700
TI  - Rhabdomyolysis and Artifactual Increase in Plasma Bicarbonate Concentration in an
      Amazon Parrot (Amazona species).
AB  - A 7-year-old male Amazon parrot housed outdoors presented with acute collapse,
      marked lethargy, and open-mouth breathing. The patient had stiffness of the
      pectoral muscles, and petechiation and ecchymosis noted around the eyes and
      beneath the mandible. Laboratory data revealed markedly increased aspartate
      aminotransferase, creatine kinase, and lactate dehydrogenase activity consistent
      with rhabdomyolysis, as well as markedly increased plasma bicarbonate
      concentration. Marked clinical improvement and resolution of laboratory
      abnormalities occurred with fluid therapy, administration of a nonsteroidal anti
      inflammatory medication, and husbandry modifications, including indoor housing
      and dietary alteration. A spurious increase in bicarbonate measurement as
      documented in equine and bovine cases of rhabdomyolysis also occurred in this
      avian patient and must be considered for accurate interpretation of acid-base
      status in exotic species presenting with consistent clinical signs.

PMID- 28891701
TI  - Sedative Effects of Intranasal Midazolam Administration in Wild Caught Blue
      fronted Amazon (Amazona aestiva) and Orange-winged Amazon (Amazona amazonica)
      Parrots.
AB  - Safe and effective sedation protocols are important for chemical restraint of
      birds in clinical and diagnostic procedures, such as clinical evaluations,
      radiographic positioning, and blood collection. These protocols may reduce stress
      and ease the management of wild-caught birds, which are susceptible to injury or
      death when exposed to stressful situations. We compare the sedative effect of
      intranasal midazolam in wild-caught blue-fronted (Amazona aestiva) and orange
      winged (Amazona amazonica) Amazon parrots. Ten adult parrots of each species (n =
      20), of unknown sex, weighing 0.337 +/- 0.04 (blue-fronted) and 0.390 +/- 0.03 kg
      (orange-winged), kg were used. Midazolam (2 mg/kg) was administered intranasally
      and the total volume of the drug was divided equally between the 2 nostrils.
      Onset time and total sedation time were assessed. Satisfactory sedation for
      clinical evaluation was induced in all birds. Onset time and total sedation times
      were similar in both species: 5.36 +/- 1.16 and 25.40 +/- 5.72 minutes,
      respectively, for blue-fronted Amazons and 5.09 +/- 0.89 and 27.10 +/- 3.73
      minutes, respectively, for orange-winged Amazons. A total of 15 animals showed
      absence of vocalization, with moderate muscle relaxation and wing movement upon
      handling, and 2 animals presented with lateral recumbence, with intense muscle
      relaxation and no wing movement, requiring no restraint. Three blue-fronted
      Amazons had no effective sedation. Intranasally administered midazolam at a dose
      of 2 mg/kg effectively promoted sedative effects with a short latency time and
      fast recovery in wild-caught parrots.

PMID- 28891703
TI  - Coming Meetings.

PMID- 28891702
TI  - Pharmacokinetics of a Sustained-release Formulation of Meloxicam After
      Subcutaneous Administration to Hispaniolan Amazon Parrots (Amazona ventralis).
AB  - Meloxicam has been shown to have a safe and favorable pharmacodynamic profile
      with individual variability in Hispaniolan Amazon parrots (Amazona ventralis). In
      the current study, we determined the pharmacokinetics of a sustained-release
      formulation of meloxicam after subcutaneous administration to Hispaniolan Amazon
      parrots. Twelve healthy adult parrots, 6 males and 6 females, were used in the
      study. Blood samples were collected before (time 0) and at 0.5, 1, 2, 6, 12, 24,
      48, 72, 96, and 120 hours after a single dose of the sustained-release meloxicam
      formulation (3 mg/kg SC). Plasma meloxicam concentrations were measured by high
      pressure liquid chromatography. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined by
      noncompartmental analysis. Plasma concentrations reached a mean Cmax of 23.4
      MUg/mL (range, 14.7-46.0 MUg/mL) at 1.8 hours (range, 0.5-6 hours), with a
      terminal half-life of 7.4 hours (range, 1.4-40.9 hours). Individual variation was
      noticeable, such that some parrots (4 of 12 birds) had very low plasma meloxicam
      concentrations, similar to the high variability reported in a previous
      pharmacokinetic study of the standard meloxicam formulation in the same group of
      birds. Two birds developed small self-resolving scabs at the injection site. On
      the basis of these results, the sustained-release meloxicam formulation could be
      administered every 12 to 96 hours in Hispaniolan Amazon parrots to manage pain.
      Because of these highly variable results, the use of this formulation in this
      species cannot be recommended until further pharmacokinetic, safety, and
      pharmacogenomic evaluations are performed to establish accurate dosing
      recommendations and to understand the high pharmacokinetic variability.

PMID- 28891704
TI  - Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma in the Skull of an Orange-winged Amazon Parrot (Amazona
      amazonica).
AB  - A 33-year-old female intact orange-winged Amazon parrot (Amazona amazonica)
      presented for a slowly growing mass over the right eye. A computed tomography
      scan performed with and without intravenous contrast revealed a heterogeneous
      mixed soft tissue and mineral-dense mass with a small area of non-contrast
      enhancing fluid density located between the orbits at the caudal aspect of the
      nasal passages, with associated lysis of the right caudal nasal passage and the
      right frontal bone. Following euthanasia, the mass was found to consist of soft
      tissue between the right eye and nostril over the right frontal bone. Lysis of
      the underlying bone resulted in a bony defect leading into the infraorbital sinus
      along the dorsorostral aspect of the right eye. Histopathology revealed an
      unencapsulated, poorly demarcated, highly cellular neoplasm composed of islands
      and trabeculae of neoplastic cells embedded in abundant loose fibrovascular
      stroma which completely obliterated the cortical bone and sinuses of the rostral
      skull and infiltrated the surrounding muscle and soft tissue. Histologically, the
      tumor was consistent with a high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma, characterized by
      the presence of epidermoid, intermediate, and mucous-producing cell types. No
      evidence of metastasis was identified. The tissue of origin was suspected to be
      salivary or nasal mucous glands, but was difficult to confirm due to distortion
      of normal tissue architecture as a result of the tumor. Although mucoepidermoid
      carcinomas are a common salivary gland tumor in human medicine, they are not well
      recognized in avian species, and no specific case reports exist describing this
      pathology in an Amazon parrot. Despite the lack of distinct salivary glands in
      most avian species, mucoepidermoid carcinomas can occur, can cause significant
      clinical disease, and should be included as a differential diagnosis for avian
      patients presenting with similar lesions.

PMID- 28891705
TI  - [Why would doctors from Debrecen go abroad? Results of a questionnaire].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Numerous beliefs have arisen in relation to the emigration of
      doctors. First of all, in most cases emigration has been attributed to, almost
      exclusively, low salaries. There are a number of non-financial issues that could
      possibly be more easily addressed. METHOD: In order to get closer to these
      issues, we sent out a 37-item questionnaire to doctors, who originally graduated
      from the University of Debrecen. Altogether 82 of them sent back the
      questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean age at the time of emigration was 32 years. The
      most popular destination was the United States, however, many colleagues left for
      the US to do research, as well as clinical practice. Among the European
      countries, the most popular ones were Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom,
      Switzerland and Norway. The five most popular clinical specialties were general
      practice, internal medicine, anesthesiology/intensive care, laboratory/pathology
      and surgery. With respect to the planned duration of working abroad, at the time
      of emigration one-fourth of our colleagues planned very short (<2 years) stay.
      When we asked them now, 38% plans much longer, even indefinite stay. The most
      common reasons of emigration were also assessed. The most common one was the lack
      of career track, followed by low salary, quality of life, family issues and
      adventurousness. Interestingly, burnout and "gratuities" were at the end of the
      list. A mean 1.3 million HUF per month would make our colleagues satisfied but
      they think that a mean 486.000 HUF would be realistic and would keep most doctors
      within the country. As far as university education is concerned, our colleagues
      agreed that the basic medical knowledge of Hungarian doctors is excellent, but
      their practical skills are much worse. CONCLUSIONS: Although returning to Hungary
      would be unrealistic by most colleagues, low salaries are definitely not the most
      important or exclusive reason for leaving the country. These issues are rather
      complex, there are numerous non-financial issues, which could be addressed much
      easier by expressing a positive attitude. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(37): 1458-1468.

PMID- 28891707
TI  - [Experiences with the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R21 in young men].
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Eating behaviours play a crucial role in the development of
      obesity. AIMS: To conduct a psychometric analysis of the Three-Factor Eating
      Questionnaire-R21 and to investigate the correlates of obesogenic eating
      behaviours among males. METHOD: Participants of the cross-sectional questionnaire
      based study were male university students (n = 239, mean of age: 20.3 years, SD =
      2.78 years). MEASURES: self-reported body weight and body height, Three-Factor
      Eating Questionnaire-R21, Trait Anxiety Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety
      Inventory. RESULTS: Results of confirmatory factor analysis supported the
      theoretical model of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R21 (chi2(186) =
      366.1, p<0.001, CFI = 0.959, TLI = 0.954, RMSEA = 0.064). Internal consistency of
      the scales was adequate (Cronbach's alpha: 0.79-0.88). Body Mass Index and trait
      anxiety showed significant, positive associations with eating behaviours, such as
      uncontrolled eating, cognitive restraint, and emotional eating. CONCLUSIONS:
      Results support the construct validity and reliability of the Three-Factor Eating
      Questionnaire-R21 among males and highlight the importance of taking
      psychological factors into account in the prevention of obesity. Orv Hetil. 2017;
      158(37): 1469-1477.

PMID- 28891708
TI  - [The crisis of the hormonal system: the health-effects of endocrine disruptors].
AB  - The endocrine disruptors are natural or arteficial molecules wich are present in
      the animal (human) environment and entering into the organism. They are bound by
      hormone receptors, simulating or inhibiting the normal hormonal message. This way
      they are able to stimulate or hinder the function of the given cell, as well as
      the synthesis and transport of hormones or receptors. They can cause faulty
      hormonal imprinting in critical periods of development with lifelong
      consequences, as alteration of hormone-influenced cell functions, inclination to
      or manifestation of diseases, so they have medical importance. The number of
      endocrine disruptors as well as their amount are large and continously growing.
      Numerous, in adult age manifested disease (e.g. malignant tumors) can be deduced
      to perinatal harms. Their long-lasting effect can cause the alteration of basal
      human developmental characteristics (e.g. start of menarche). Vitamins A and D
      are hormones (exohormones) and could be endocrine disruptors. Perinatal
      imprinting caused by endocrine disruptors is transmitted to the progenies
      epigenetically, which also can influence the drug-sensitivity of offspring'
      receptors. If the epigenetic change is continuously transmitted to the progeny
      generations, this could have human-evolutionary importance. Orv Hetil. 2017;
      158(37): 1443-1451.

PMID- 28891709
TI  - [Carvedilol in the everyday interventional cardiology practice].
AB  - The treatment of severe coronary stenoses with stent implantation is very
      effective nevertheless, the underlying problem of atherosclerosis remains
      unsolved with the implantation of a stent. Therefore, besides lifestyle changes,
      the adequate medication therapy is of pivotal importance. In the majority of
      patients scheduled for or acutely undergoing catheterisation, beta-blockers form
      the basis of medication therapy. Members of the group, however, show significant
      differences in terms of pharmacodynamics. The third-generation beta-blocker and
      vasodilator carvedilol possesses complex adrenerg-blocking and Ca-channel
      blocking effects as well. In the background of the favourable effects, a further
      positive property is its anti-free-radical effect which most beta-blockers do not
      have. Therefore, as has been proven by several studies, it provides considerable
      benefits in hypertension, after myocardial infarction, in diabetes and also in
      the treatment of patients with cardiac failure. These positive effects have been
      markedly observed in interventional cardiology practice, as the majority of
      patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation have hypertension, diabetes or
      hyperlipidaemia. Its anti-free-radical effect is especially beneficial together
      with its smooth muscle proliferation-inhibitor effect which may favourably affect
      in-stent restenosis (ISR) as well. To summarise, due to its vasculoprotective
      effect, carvedilol is an ideal drug of choice following stent implantation in
      routine everyday practice. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(37): 1453-1457.

PMID- 28891710
TI  - The use of a thyroid shield for intraoral anterior oblique occlusal views-a risk
      based approach.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To estimate the radiation dose reduction to the thyroid for an
      anterior oblique occlusal view from the use of a thyroid shield, compare this
      with the variation in thyroid dose resulting from differences in examination
      positioning and discuss the additional considerations associated with the use of
      a thyroid shield before making a recommendation on their routine use for this
      examination. METHODS: Doses to the oral mucosa, the salivary glands, the thyroid,
      the extrathoracic airways, the oesophagus and the lungs were directly measured
      for anterior oblique occlusal X-rays of a Rando phantom with and without a
      thyroid shield using strips of calibrated XRQA Gafchromic film. The examination
      was also simulated using Monte Carlo software for the without thyroid shield case
      for a comparison of the dose and to evaluate the dosimetric effect of suboptimal
      examination positioning. RESULTS: A 36% reduction in thyroid dose was measured as
      a result of thyroid shield use; the effective dose reduction is of the order of
      22%. Suboptimal positioning was found to increase thyroid dose by a far more
      significant amount. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the reduction in thyroid dose, cost
      benefit considerations mean that the purchase of a thyroid shield is only
      recommended where a very high number of anterior oblique occlusal views are
      undertaken. Optimization efforts for this examination are better focussed on
      training in examination positioning.

PMID- 28891711
TI  - Time-Dependent Effects on Synovial Fluid Composition During the Acute Phase of
      Human Intra-articular Ankle Fracture.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The study objective was to examine the effect of time and fracture
      severity on the undiluted synovial fluid (SF) microenvironment during the acute
      phase following intra-articular fracture (IAF) of the human ankle. METHODS: Ankle
      SF from 54 patients with an acute IAF was analyzed for concentrations of 10
      cytokines, 5 matrix metalloproteinases, 2 products of cartilage catabolism, and
      combined products of heme metabolism. All analytes were correlated with time from
      fracture and further analyzed for an effect of 3 time subgroups (0-2 days, 3-9
      days, and >=10 days) corresponding to timepoints for clinical ankle fracture
      interventions. The effect of fracture severity was determined by grouping SF
      according to the number of radiographic intra-articular fracture lines. RESULTS:
      Fifteen of 18 analytes were significantly correlated with time. Temporal grouping
      of SF revealed an initial (0-2 days) spike of pro-inflammatory (IL-12p70, IL
      1beta, IL-6) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10 and IL-4) cytokines, matrix
      metalloproteinases (MMP) MMP-9, and sGAG, followed immediately (3-9 days) by
      products of heme metabolism and an unchallenged surge in mediators and products
      of cartilage catabolism (MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-10, and CTX-II). After 10 days,
      there was a decrease in pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines but a persistence of
      mediators of ECM catabolism. There was no clear relationship between the number
      of fracture lines and SF levels of analytes. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated
      acute temporal fluctuations following ankle IAF resulting in an overall catabolic
      environment by 10 days post-fracture and supports consideration of an early
      evacuation of the joint space to reduce the intra-articular inflammatory burden.
      Clinical Relavence: This study contributes to the understanding of the intra
      articular events that potentially contribute to the development of posttraumatic
      osteoarthritis acutely following IAF in the ankle.

PMID- 28891712
TI  - Molecular and clinical features of second-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase
      inhibitors: ceritinib.
AB  - The discovery of ALK rearrangement in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
      triggered rapid clinical development of a family of specific drugs targeting this
      alteration, called ALK inhibitors. Despite high rate of responses, the vast
      majority of patients treated with first-generation ALK inhibitor crizotinib will
      ultimately develop disease progression. The second-generation ALK inhibitor,
      ceritinib, is an oral, small-molecule that inhibits the ALK kinase activity with
      a potency 20-fold greater than crizotinib, being able to tackle some of the
      principal mechanisms of resistance to crizotinib. Evidences from five large
      prospective clinical trials have so far showed impressive activity of ceritinib
      in ALK inhibitor pretreated and naive NSCLC patients. This review will focus on
      the preclinical and clinical data available regarding ceritinib pharmacology,
      clinical efficacy and safety profile.

PMID- 28891713
TI  - Effect of Preoperative Deformity on Arthroscopic and Open Ankle Fusion Outcomes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Coronal deformity is considered a relative contraindication for
      arthroscopic ankle fusion. This study assessed whether preoperative coronal ankle
      joint deformity influenced the outcome of arthroscopic ankle fusion. METHODS:
      Ninety-seven patients had 62 arthroscopic and 35 open ankle fusions between 2005
      and 2012. Clinical outcomes were prospectively recorded with use of the Ankle
      Osteoarthritis Scale (AOS) and Ankle Arthritis Scale (AAS) preoperatively and at
      6, 12, and 24 months and final follow-up. Radiological alignment was measured
      using the tibiotalar angle, the tibial plafond angle, the lateral talar station,
      and the lateral tibiotalar angle. Both groups had the same demographics. RESULTS:
      Preoperative deformity was the same regarding sagittal alignment and overall
      coronal alignment, but the arthroscopic group had less tibial deformity (tibial
      plafond angle range 0-19 degrees vs 0-43 degrees). At final follow-up, the mean
      AOS was 34.2 for arthroscopic (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.3-45.2) vs 33.9
      for open (95% CI, 17.8-49.9). The AAS at final follow-up was 26.0 for
      arthroscopic (95% CI, 21.0-31.0) vs 27.5 for open (95% CI, 19.7-35.2). Both
      groups had the same tibiotalar angle, lateral talar station, and lateral
      tibiotalar angle at follow-up. Regression analyses revealed no influence of type
      of surgery, preoperative deformity, postoperative radiological alignment, age,
      sex, body mass index, smoking status, etiology of the arthritis, and need for
      bone grafting on outcome scores (all P > .05). CONCLUSION: Arthroscopic and open
      ankle fusion yielded equivalent results for both patient-reported outcome measure
      and radiographic alignment in patients with coronal and sagittal joint deformity.
      Patients with higher tibial plafond angles more often underwent open fusion.
      LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III, comparative series.

PMID- 28891714
TI  - Preliminaries to Treatment Recommendations in UK Primary Care: A Vehicle for
      Shared Decision Making?
AB  - This paper focuses on a recurrent practice observed in UK primary care data - how
      physicians use pre-recommendations: action sequences that when initiated post
      diagnosis are recognisably preliminary to the drug treatment recommendations that
      they contingently project. Data are drawn from recorded primary care
      consultations collected in England. Pre-recommendations consist of physician
      requests for information about prior medicines such as, What've you tried taking?
      or Have you taken anything so far? Patient responses subsequently shape the first
      part of the base treatment recommendation pair. These preliminaries can help
      physicians manage potential obstacles to patient acceptance: by avoiding
      prescribing something a patient is already taking, or has tried and found to be
      ineffective, and by accommodating concerns such as side effects or practical
      barriers to acceptance. Pre-recommendations are a strategy for
      convincing/persuading whilst allowing physicians to avoid making an ill-fitted
      recommendation that might be resisted or rejected as unwanted or unnecessary.

PMID- 28891715
TI  - "Where It Falls Apart": Barriers to Retention in HIV Care in Latino Immigrants
      and Migrants.
AB  - Latino immigrants in the United States are disproportionately affected by HIV.
      Barriers to consistent attendance (retention) in HIV primary care constrain
      opportunities for HIV treatment success, but have not been specifically assessed
      in this population. We conducted semistructured interviews with 37 HIV-infected
      Latinos (aged >=18 years and born in Puerto Rico or a Latin American Spanish
      speaking country) and 14 HIV providers in metropolitan Boston (total n = 51). The
      Andersen Model of Healthcare Utilization informed a semistructured interview
      guide, which bilingual research staff used to explore barriers to HIV care. We
      used thematic analysis to explore the processes of retention in care. Six
      ubiquitous themes were perceived to influence HIV clinic attendance: (1) stigma
      as a barrier to HIV serostatus disclosure; (2) social support as a safety net
      during negative life circumstances; (3) unaddressed trauma and substance use
      leading to interruption in care; (4) a trusting relationship between patient and
      provider motivating HIV clinic attendance; (5) basic unmet needs competing with
      the perceived value of HIV care; and (6) religion providing a source of hope and
      optimism. Cultural subthemes were the centrality of family (familismo),
      masculinity (machismo), and trusting relationships (confianza). The timing of
      barriers was acute (e.g., eviction) and chronic (e.g., family conflict). These co
      occurring and dynamic constellation of factors affected HIV primary care
      attendance over time. HIV-infected Latino immigrants and migrants experienced
      significant challenges that led to interruptions in HIV care. Anticipatory
      guidance to prepare for these setbacks may improve retention in HIV care in this
      population.

PMID- 28891716
TI  - Implementation of a "County-Township-Village" Allied HIV Prevention and Control
      Intervention in Rural China.
AB  - In China, rural areas are a weak link of HIV/AIDS prevention and control. From
      September 2011, an innovative "county-township-village" allied intervention was
      implemented in Longzhou County, Guangxi, which assigned the tasks of HIV/AIDS
      prevention and control to the county Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
      (CDC), township hospitals, and village clinics, respectively, instead of
      traditional intervention in which the county CDC undertook the entire work. A 6
      year consecutive cross-sectional survey, including 3-year traditional
      intervention (2009-2011) and 3-year innovative intervention (2012-2014), was
      conducted to evaluate the effects of the new intervention. Compared to
      traditional intervention, the innovative intervention achieved positive effects
      in decreasing risky behaviors. Among female sex workers, condom use rate in the
      last month increased from 72.06% to 96.82% (p < 0.01). Among drug users, having
      commercial sex rate in the last year reduced from 17.20% to 5.94% and condom use
      rate increased from 14.06% to 76.09% (p < 0.01). The risk ratio of HIV infection
      during innovative intervention was 0.631 (95% confidence interval 0.549-0.726)
      compared with traditional one. Cost-effectiveness analysis indicates that
      innovative intervention restores each disability-adjusted life year costing an
      average of $124.26. Taken together, Longzhou's innovative intervention has
      achieved good effects on HIV/AIDS prevention and control and provides a good
      reference for rural China.

PMID- 28891717
TI  - Longitudinal Viral Suppression Among a Cohort of Adolescents and Young Adults
      with Behaviorally Acquired Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
AB  - Youth living with HIV (YLWH) are less likely than older adults to achieve and
      sustain viral suppression. While treatment guidelines recommend decreased viral
      load (VL) monitoring in individuals with well-controlled HIV, the appropriateness
      of this strategy for adolescents is unknown. We conducted a retrospective cohort
      study to describe longitudinal viral suppression and identify incidence of, and
      risk factors for, virologic failure among YLWH at a US adolescent HIV clinic from
      2002 to 2015. We utilized Cox proportional hazards modeling to compare hazard
      ratios (HRs) for virologic failure stratified by baseline characteristics. Study
      participants (n = 365) were predominately African American (87%) and cisgender
      men and transgender women who have sex with men (80%) and the majority (79%)
      entered care from 2002 to 2012. Of antiretroviral therapy (ART)-treated
      participants (n = 201), 88% achieved viral suppression, with 29% subsequently
      developing virologic failure at a median 12.0 months [interquartile range (IQR)
      6.9-22.4] after suppression. The cohort incidence rate of virologic failure was
      200 (confidence interval [95% CI]: 151-264) per 1000 person years (PY), with a
      rate after >=2 years sustained suppression of 113 (95% CI: 57-227) per 1000 PY.
      After adjusting for time to ART initiation, initial regimen class, and year of
      cohort entry, cisgender women had increased hazards of virologic failure (HR 3.2
      95% CI: 1.3-7.9, p = 0.01). In conclusion, youth remained at high risk of
      virologic failure throughout their treatment course, with higher hazards of
      virologic failure among cisgender women compared with other youth. Maintaining
      frequent VL monitoring in YLWH may be warranted, even after prolonged viral
      suppression.

PMID- 28891718
TI  - Identification, expression analysis, and the regulating function on C/EBPs of
      KLF10 in Dalian purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus nudus.
AB  - Accumulating evidence indicates that Kruppel-like factors (KLFs) play important
      roles in fat biology via the regulation of CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins
      (C/EBPs). However, KLFs and C/EBPs have not been identified from
      Strongylocentrotus nudus, and their roles in this species are not clear. In this
      study, the full-length cDNA of S. nudus KLF10 (SnKLF10) and three cDNA fragments
      of S. nudus C/EBPs (SnC/EBPs) were obtained. Examination of tissue distribution
      and expression patterns during gonadal development implied that SnKLF10 and
      SnC/EBPs play important roles in gonadal lipogenesis. The presence of
      transcription factor-binding sites (TFBSs) for KLFs in SnC/EBPs, and the results
      of an over-expression assay, revealed that SnKLF10 negatively regulates the
      transcription of SnC/EBPs. In addition, the core promoter regions of SnC/EBPs
      were determined, and multiple TFBSs for transcription factor (TFs) were
      identified, which are potential regulators of SnC/EBP transcription. Taken
      together, these results suggest that SnC/EBP genes are potential targets of
      SnKLF10, and that SnKLF10 plays a role in lipogenesis by repressing the
      transcription of SnC/EBPs. These findings provide information for further studies
      of KLF10 in invertebrates and provide new insight into the regulatory mechanisms
      of C/EBP transcription.

PMID- 28891719
TI  - Understanding Strategic Information Use During Emotional Expression Judgments in
      Williams Syndrome.
AB  - Detailed analysis of expression judgments in Williams syndrome reveals that
      successful emotion categorization need not reflect "classic" information
      processing strategies. These individuals draw upon a distinct set of featural
      details to identify happy and fearful faces that differ from those used by
      typically developing comparison groups: children and adults. The diagnostic
      visual information is also notably less interlinked in Williams syndrome,
      consistent with reports of diminished processing of configural information during
      face identity judgments. These results prompt reconsideration of typical models
      of face expertise by revealing that an age-appropriate profile of expression
      performance can be achieved via alternative routes.

PMID- 28891720
TI  - Vestibular rehabilitation following surgical repair for Superior Canal Dehiscence
      Syndrome: A complicated case report.
AB  - Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS) causes auditory and vestibular
      symptoms. Following surgical repair of the dehiscence, patients often experience
      dizziness and imbalance. This case report describes a postoperative vestibular
      exercise program, focusing on the principles of central compensation and
      habituation, and how it was modified for a patient with delayed progress
      secondary to strabismus and visual vertigo. A 63-year-old male with history of
      strabismus eye surgery, right hearing loss, aural fullness, and sensitivity to
      loud sounds was referred for vestibular rehabilitation (VR). He was seen for one
      preoperative and six postoperative PT visits over eight months. Outcome measures
      two weeks postoperative were as follows: Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI)
      38/100; Timed Up & Go (TUG) 9.92 seconds; Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) 16/24; and a 3
      line difference in Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA). Improved outcomes at discharge
      included: DHI 18/100; TUG 6.87 seconds; DGI 23/24; and 1-line difference in DVA.
      He was able to return to work and previously enjoyed recreational activities.
      Postoperative vestibular rehabilitation programs are functionally and
      symptomatically beneficial following surgical repair for SCDS. Deviations from
      expected recovery should be addressed to achieve optimal outcomes as demonstrated
      in this complicated case report.

PMID- 28891721
TI  - The Regions on the Light Chain of Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A Recognized by T
      Cells from Toxin-Treated Cervical Dystonia Patients. The Complete Human T-Cell
      Recognition Map of the Toxin Molecule.
AB  - We have recently mapped the in vitro proliferative responses of T cells from
      botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A)-treated cervical dystonia (CD) patients with
      overlapping peptides encompassing BoNT/A heavy chain (residues 449-1296). In the
      present study, we determined the recognition profiles, by peripheral blood
      lymphocytes (PBL) from the same set of patients, of BoNT/A light (L) chain
      (residues 1-453) by using 32 synthetic overlapping peptides that encompassed the
      entire L chain. Profiles of the T-cell responses (expressed in stimulation index,
      SI; Z score based on transformed SI) to the peptides varied among the patients.
      Samples from 14 patients treated solely with BoNT/A recognized 3-13 (average 7.2)
      peptides/sample at Z > 3.0 level. Two peptide regions representing residues 113
      131 and 225-243 were recognized by around 40% of these patients. Regarding
      treatment parameters, treatment history with current BOTOX(r) only group produced
      significantly lower average T-cell responses to the 32 L-chain peptides compared
      to treatments with mix of type A including original and current BOTOX(r).
      Influence of other treatment parameters on T-cell recognition of the L-chain
      peptides was also observed. Results of the submolecular T-cell recognition of the
      L chain are compared to those of the H chain and the T-cell recognition profile
      of the entire BoNT/A molecule is discussed. Abbreviations used: BoNT/A, botulinum
      neurotoxin type A; BoNT/Ai, inactivated BoNT/A; BoNT/B, botulinum neurotoxin type
      B; CD, cervical dystonia; L chain, the light chain (residues 1-448) of BoNT/A;
      LNC, lymph node cells; H chain, the heavy chain (residues 449-1296) of BoNT/A;
      HC, C-terminal domain (residues 855-1296) of H chain; HN, N-terminal domain
      (residues 449-859) of H chain; MPA, mouse protection assay; SI, stimulation index
      (SI = cpm of 3H-thymidine incorporated by antigen-stimulated T cells/cpm
      incorporated by unstimulated cells); TeNT, tetanus neurotoxin; TeNTi, inactivated
      TeNT.

PMID- 28891722
TI  - Requirements, Strengths and Weaknesses of Inhaler Devices for COPD Patients from
      the Expert Prescribers' Point of View: Results of the EPOCA Delphi Consensus.
AB  - The study aimed to assess the preferences of expert physicians about the
      requirements for inhalation devices for patients with chronic obstructive
      pulmonary disease (COPD) and to identify the most relevant advantages and
      disadvantages to their prescription. In a two-round Delphi survey, 96 Spanish
      COPD-expert pulmonologists completed an internet-based questionnaire to evaluate
      the degree of importance of the characteristics of the inhaler devices in their
      choice for COPD. The requirements needed for use in COPD were that the device
      permits a high pulmonary deposit of the drug, allowed its dispensation at low
      inspiratory flows, did not require hand-mouth coordination, generated an exact
      and reproducible dose, its operation was easy to teach, provided the perception
      of a correct inhalation, had an intuitive use mechanism and security mechanisms
      to prevent overdosing and generates a reduced oropharyngeal deposit (very good
      consensus). Modulite(r), Respimat(r) and NEXThaler(r) were associated with high
      pulmonary deposit, and Respimat(r) showed correct dispensation at low inspiratory
      flows. All dry-powder inhaler devices were associated with the advantage of not
      requiring coordination, and Respimat(r) was the only device considered as
      difficult to teach by more than 50% of the experts. Breezhaler(r) and Genuair(r)
      were positively associated with patients' awareness of correct inhalation,
      whereas Spiromax(r) stood out for its intuitive use mechanism. In conclusion, our
      study contributes to defining the inhaler device properties required for their
      use in patients with COPD, and to identify the devices that, in the opinion of
      experts, best meet each requirement.

PMID- 28891723
TI  - State-Mandated Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Screen Time Policies in Child
      Care Centers.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The child care center (CCC) environment presents opportunities for
      healthy weight promotion in preschoolers. Our study examined the current state of
      CCC adherence to nutrition, physical activity, and screen time legislative
      regulations and the differences in their adherence by center socioeconomic
      position (SEP: low, middle, high) in Miami-Dade County. METHOD: In 34 CCC, we
      used the Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation tool to evaluate
      nutrition, physical activity, and screen time practices during 1-school day.
      RESULTS: Twenty-five of the centers (73.5%) were participants of the Child and
      Adult Care Food Program. Almost 80% of the centers adhered to serving low-fat/fat
      free milk to children older than 2 years. Only 34.5% served vegetables and 75.9%
      served whole fruits during meals/snacks. Ninety-four percent of the centers had
      quiet and active play incorporated into their daily routines. All centers adhered
      to the 2-hour screen time limit for children older than 2 years. Low- and middle
      SEP centers fared better in the serving of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat/fat
      free milk. The centers averaged 1 hour in outdoor play regardless of SEP. High
      SEP centers had no TV or screen time during day of observation. CONCLUSION: CCC
      practices highlight opportunities for improvement in nutrition, physical
      activity, and screen time practices in the prevention of overweight in early
      childhood.

PMID- 28891724
TI  - What Makes Systematic Reviews Systematic and Why are They the Highest Level of
      Evidence?

PMID- 28891725
TI  - Age-related change in corneal biomechanical parameters in a healthy Caucasian
      population.
AB  - PURPOSE: To determine the effect of aging on corneal biomechanical parameters
      measured via ocular response analyzer in a homogenous healthy Caucasian
      population. METHODS: A total of 2039 Caucasian adults were consecutively
      recruited and divided into seven groups according to decades of age. The
      difference in mean corneal hysteresis (CH), mean corneal resistance factor (CRF),
      mean Goldmann-correlated intraocular pressure (IOPg), and mean corneal
      compensated IOP (IOPcc) between decades of age were investigated. The strength of
      the correlations between corneal biomechanical parameters, and between each
      biomechanical parameter and age were evaluated. The effect of age on each corneal
      biomechanical parameter was analyzed. RESULTS: Mean age of the participants (1173
      female and 866 male) was 43.30 +/- 14.64 years. Mean CH, CRF, IOPcc, and IOPg
      were 11.49 +/- 1.89 mmHg, 11.40 +/- 2.30 mmHg, 15.01 +/- 3.11 mmHg, and 15.72 +/-
      3.80 mmHg, respectively. There were significant differences in mean CH, CRF,
      IOPcc, and IOPg between groups (p < 0.001 for all parameters). There was a
      significant negative correlation between age and CH (r = -0.067 and p = 0.003),
      and a significant negative correlation between age and CRF (r = -0.053 and p =
      0.017). There was a significant positive correlation between age and IOPg (r =
      0.25 and p < 0.001), and between age and IOPcc (r = 0.20 and p < 0.001). Linear
      regression analysis showed that for every 1-year increase CH decreased 0.011
      mmHg, CRF decreased 0.004 mmHg, IOPcc increased 0.053 mmHg, and IOPg increased
      0.047 mmHg. CONCLUSIONS: Aging can cause significant changes in corneal
      biomechanical parameters. Corneal biomechanical parameters were correlated with
      each other, and each was correlated with aging.

PMID- 28891726
TI  - NK Cell Effector Functions Regulation by Modulating nTreg Cell Population During
      Progressive Growth of Dalton's Lymphoma in Mice.
AB  - Natural killer (NK) cells are large granular lymphocytes of the innate immune
      system and play a pivotal role against virus-infected cells, microbial pathogens,
      and tumor cells. NK cells secrete several cytokine,s but IFN-gamma secreted by NK
      cells play a vital role in the activation of the innate and adaptive immune
      systems. But during any infection or tumor burden, functional activity of NK
      cells is downregulated significantly by nTreg cells. It is also found that during
      tumor progression, the number of nTreg cells increases as a result; it
      effectively suppresses the antitumor activity of NK cells. Therefore, in the
      present investigation, we intend to examine the mechanism of downregulation of
      antitumor immune response mediated by NK cells. We observed increased NK cell
      population at an early stage of Dalton's lymphoma (DL) growth, while at late
      stage, NK cell numbers were decreased. The NK cell functional activity was govern
      by high level of IFN-gamma measurement during tumor progression. The FoxP3+ CD25+
      CD4+ T regulatory cell population was found to be continuously increased with
      high-level expression of FoxP3 during DL growth. The rapid increase in the number
      of Treg cells during DL progression may be due to high level of the FoxP3
      transcription factor. The tumor microenvironment of DL cell progression has
      highly deleterious effect on NK cells after massive growth of tumor burden in
      BALB/c mice. This result also indicates that NK cell proliferation, activation,
      and accumulation are under the control of regulatory T cells.

PMID- 28891727
TI  - Methodology of the ZOC-BHVI High Myopia Cohort Study: The Onset and Progression
      of Myopic Pathologies and Associated Risk Factors in Highly Myopic Chinese.
AB  - PURPOSE: The increasing prevalence of high myopia and its associated pathologies
      has raised challenges to ophthalmic services. This project aims to explore the
      onset and progression of myopic pathologies in highly myopic eyes through a
      prospective research cohort established in South China. METHODS: Patients with
      high myopia (sphere <= -6.00 D) visiting the optometric clinic of Zhongshan
      Ophthalmic Center (ZOC) were invited to participate in the baseline examinations
      and follow-up visit over a 10-year period. People having secondary myopia,
      history of any refractive surgery, significant ocular media opacity, or other
      severe health problems were excluded. The measurements included visual acuity,
      ocular biometry, visual function, cycloplegic refraction, fundus imaging, ocular
      shape by MRI, blood tests and questionnaires. RESULTS: A total of 890
      participants completed the baseline examinations, with a mean age at baseline of
      22.7 +/- 12.4 years. The mean spherical equivalent at baseline was 10.13 +/- 3.65
      D, and the mean axial length (AL) was 27.52 +/- 1.63 mm. The older subjects
      tended to have more severe myopia and longer ALs. CONCLUSION: The study will
      provide new knowledge on the relationship between high myopia and pathological
      changes such as myopic macular degeneration and staphyloma.

PMID- 28891728
TI  - Bioengineered dermal substitutes for the management of traumatic periocular
      tissue loss.
AB  - PURPOSE: Traumatic periocular injuries occasionally result in significant soft
      tissue loss, for which there are limited management options that provide
      satisfactory cosmetic and functional outcomes. The authors describe the use of a
      bioengineered dermal substitute (Integra(r) Dermal Regeneration Template [DRT],
      Integra LifeSciences, Plainsboro, NJ) as an alternative to immediate flap
      reconstruction or skin grafting. METHODS: Retrospective interventional case
      series of patients who underwent DRT placement for periocular tissue loss at the
      time of trauma. In each case, primary closure or immediate flap reconstruction
      was deemed impractical or undesirable due to the size and location of the primary
      and associated secondary defects. One to four weeks later, the outer silicone
      layer was removed and healing assessed. Additional reconstructive techniques were
      performed as needed. RESULTS: Three patients were treated at Bascom Palmer Eye
      Institute and one at Byers Eye Institute at Stanford. The defects healed
      completely in two patients, and by 79.2% in a third, with no need for additional
      reconstructive surgery. In the remaining patient, the defect was significantly
      downsized by 56.1%, allowing for a simpler flap reconstruction. CONCLUSIONS:
      Bioengineered dermal substitutes should be considered as a viable alternative to
      traditional reconstructive techniques for large periocular defects resulting from
      trauma. The outer silicone layer prevents desiccation and serves as a protective
      barrier, while the inner collagen matrix organizes the growth of neo-dermis and
      minimizes wound contraction. The dimensions of cutaneous defects can therefore be
      reduced dramatically, potentially eliminating the need for skin grafting and/or
      reducing the ultimate complexity of flap reconstruction.

PMID- 28891729
TI  - Early Age-related Macular Degeneration with Cardiovascular and Renal
      Comorbidities: An Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination
      Survey, 2005-2008.
AB  - PURPOSE: A cross sectional study was designed to examine the relationship of
      early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with comorbidities of cardiovascular
      and renal conditions in the representative population using National Health and
      Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2005-2008. METHODS: Participants (>=40
      years) who underwent retinal photography were included. Early AMD was defined by
      the retinal digital images. The comorbidities were self-reported stroke and heart
      disease (HD), including angina pectoris (AP), coronary heart disease (CHD),
      congestive heart failure (CHF), and myocardial infarction (MI). Chronic kidney
      disease (CKD) was determined based on self-report, estimation of glomerular
      filtration rate (GFR), or the level of urine albumin. RESULTS: The age-adjusted
      odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI for having early AMD for persons with the selected
      conditions were: 2.6 (1.9, 3.6) for any type of HD. When the conditions were
      considered separately, ORs (95% CIs) were: 2.0 (1.2, 3.4) for AP; 2.5 (1.6, 3.8)
      for CHD; 2.4 (1.6, 3.6) for MI; 2.3 (1.3, 3.9) for CHF; 3.3 (2.2, 5.0) for
      stroke; and 2.4 (1.8, 3.2) for CKD. Covariable-adjusted ORs (AOR) were attenuated
      for all examined conditions, but remained statistically significant. Having any
      single condition (AOR [95%CI]: 2.7 [1.5, 4.8]) was significantly associated with
      early AMD, as was having >= 2 conditions (AOR [95%CI]: 5.2 [3.0, 9.0]). The
      strongest association was between early AMD and the combination of HD and stroke
      (AOR [95% CI]: 6.3 [2.9, 13.8]). CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular and renal
      comorbidities are associated with early AMD in a representative sample of the US
      general population.

PMID- 28891730
TI  - Evaluation of Approaches to Analyzing Continuous Correlated Eye Data When Sample
      Size Is Small.
AB  - PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of commonly used statistical methods for
      analyzing continuous correlated eye data when sample size is small. METHODS: We
      simulated correlated continuous data from two designs: (1) two eyes of a subject
      in two comparison groups; (2) two eyes of a subject in the same comparison group,
      under various sample size (5-50), inter-eye correlation (0-0.75) and effect size
      (0-0.8). Simulated data were analyzed using paired t-test, two sample t-test,
      Wald test and score test using the generalized estimating equations (GEE) and F
      test using linear mixed effects model (LMM). We compared type I error rates and
      statistical powers, and demonstrated analysis approaches through analyzing two
      real datasets. RESULTS: In design 1, paired t-test and LMM perform better than
      GEE, with nominal type 1 error rate and higher statistical power. In design 2, no
      test performs uniformly well: two sample t-test (average of two eyes or a random
      eye) achieves better control of type I error but yields lower statistical power.
      In both designs, the GEE Wald test inflates type I error rate and GEE score test
      has lower power. CONCLUSION: When sample size is small, some commonly used
      statistical methods do not perform well. Paired t-test and LMM perform best when
      two eyes of a subject are in two different comparison groups, and t-test using
      the average of two eyes performs best when the two eyes are in the same
      comparison group. When selecting the appropriate analysis approach the study
      design should be considered.

PMID- 28891731
TI  - Relationships among Type-D personality, symptoms and quality of life in patients
      with ovarian cancer receiving chemotherapy.
AB  - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Type-D
      personality and identify its relationships among the symptoms and quality of life
      in patients with ovarian cancer-receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: A total of 150
      patients with ovarian cancer undergoing chemotherapy were recruited between
      December 2015 and August 2016. The subjects were assessed using the Type-D
      Personality Scale-14, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale - Short Form and
      Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General questionnaire completed through a
      face-to-face interview. RESULTS: About 56% of patients were classified into the
      Type-D personality group. This personality group showed statistically
      significantly higher symptoms and lower quality of life than the non-Type-D
      personality group. According to stepwise multiple regression, the most
      significant factor influencing quality of life was symptoms, followed by Type-D
      personality, performance status and cancer stage. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of
      Type-D personality in patients with ovarian cancer was high, and Type-D
      personality was significantly associated with a high symptom score and lower
      quality of life. Health professionals should consider Type-D personality in the
      assessment and intervention of symptoms and quality of life, along with
      performance status and cancer stage.

PMID- 28891733
TI  - Application of laboratory and digital techniques for visual enhancement during
      the ultrastructural assessment of cilia.
AB  - Routine diagnostic electron microscopy of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is
      based on the findings of ultrastructural defects of axonemal components.
      Assessment of the typical abnormalities can be enhanced by improving the sample
      preservation status using tannic acid (TA) as additive in the biopsy fixation or
      processing steps. Another option is the implementation of computer-assisted image
      analysis tools. Advancements in high-resolution 3D visualization of the axonemal
      structure have been noted, with great potential for the future diagnosis of
      inherited cilia disorders.

PMID- 28891734
TI  - Through a Student's Eye.

PMID- 28891732
TI  - Effects of vitamin D supplementation on carotid intima-media thickness in HIV
      infected youth.

PMID- 28891735
TI  - Coexistence of two novel resistance plasmids, blaKPC-2-carrying p14057A and
      tetA(A) -carrying p14057B, in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

PMID- 28891736
TI  - Neural Correlates of Expert Behavior During a Domain-Specific Attentional Cueing
      Task in Badminton Players.
AB  - The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates associated with
      sports expertise during a domain-specific task in badminton players. We compared
      event-related potentials activity from collegiate male badminton players and a
      set of matched athletic controls when they performed a badminton-specific
      attentional cueing task in which the uncertainty and validity were manipulated.
      The data showed that, regardless of cue type, the badminton players had faster
      responses along with greater P3 amplitudes than the athletic controls on the
      task. Specifically, the contingent negative variation amplitude was smaller for
      the players than for the controls in the condition involving higher uncertainty.
      Such an effect, however, was absent in the condition with lower uncertainty. We
      conclude that expertise in sports is associated with proficient modulation of
      brain activity during cognitive and motor preparation, as well as response
      execution, when performing a task related to an individual's specific sport
      domain.

PMID- 28891737
TI  - Erratum: Jones, Karageorghis, & Ekkekakis (2014).
AB  - The DOI for the article "Can High-Intensity Exercise Be More Pleasant?
      Attentional Dissociation Using Music and Video," by Leighton Jones, Costas I.
      Karageorghis, and Panteleimon Ekkekakis, in the Journal of Sport and Exercise
      Psychology 36(5), was incorrectly printed. The correct DOI for this article is
      http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2013-0251 . The online version of this article has
      been corrected.

PMID- 28891738
TI  - Restless Genital Syndrome (ReGS) Should Be Distinguished From Spontaneous
      Orgasms: A Case Report of Cannabis-Induced Spontaneous Orgasm.
AB  - A case is described of a 40-year-old woman with persistent spontaneous orgasms
      after use of cannabis and five hours of intense pounding sexual activity. She
      presented with severe anxiety, in particular suffering from restless genital
      syndrome (ReGS). However, she did not fulfill any of the five criteria of ReGS.
      It was concluded that her spontaneous orgasms were the result of the use of
      cannabis combined with the long duration of previous sexual activity. This
      finding is not only important for physicians, but also for highly exposed
      subjects such as those active in the sex industry.

PMID- 28891739
TI  - Reply to the Comments by Mortazavi and Doss on "Solid Cancer Incidence among the
      Life Span Study of Atomic Bomb Survivors: 1958-2009" (Radiat Res 2017; 187:513
      537).

PMID- 28891740
TI  - Host Abundance, Sea-Grass Cover, and Temperature Predict Infection Rates of
      Parasitic Isopods (Bopyridae) on Caridean Shrimp.
AB  - Caridean shrimp are critical components of sea-grass communities and occasionally
      harbor parasitic bopyrid isopods, which can negatively impact their hosts.
      However, the ecological factors that drive infection rates of parasitic bopyrid
      isopods in host carideans are poorly known. We examined 43,875 carideans
      belonging to 6 families and 11 genera from 19 shallow-water localities throughout
      south Florida. Of these, only 114 shrimp (belonging to 5 genera) were found to be
      infested with bopyrids (an additional 251 had deformed carapaces consistent with
      recent infestation). We identified 13 bopyrid species ( Bopyrina abbreviata,
      Bopyrinella thorii, Eophrixus subcaudalis, Loki circumsaltanus, Metaphrixus
      carolii, Ovobopyrus alphezemiotes, Parabopyrella lata, Parabopyrella
      richardsonae, Parabopyriscus stellatus, Capitetragonia alphei, Probopyrus
      pandalicola, Schizobopyrina urocaridis, and an unidentified Diplophryxus sp.).
      Bopyrid infection rates were very low throughout the study area, with mean
      prevalence of 0.26% (range 0.04-1.48%). Furthermore, each isopod species was only
      ever recovered from a single host genus, suggesting a high degree of genus-level
      specificity. At the community level, multivariate analyses (RELATE and BVSTEP)
      indicated that bopyrid community composition was correlated with host community
      structure, latitude, and temperature, as well as the relative coverage of the sea
      grasses Thalassia sp. and Syringodium sp. and the alga Penicillus sp. Only 4
      parasite taxa were sufficiently abundant to warrant further analysis at the
      individual taxon level: B. abbreviata, B. thorii, Diplophryxus sp., and P.
      pandalicola; stepwise regression indicated that bopyrid infection rates were
      primarily driven by the abundance of their specific hosts, and secondarily by
      environmental variables such as temperature and depth, as well as algal and sea
      grass community composition.

PMID- 28891742
TI  - The Digest.

PMID- 28891741
TI  - eRNA binding produces tailored CBP activity profiles to regulate gene expression.
AB  - Enhancers are cis- regulatory genetic elements crucial for controlling temporal
      and cell-type specific patterns of gene expression. Active enhancers generate bi
      directional non-coding RNA transcripts called enhancer RNAs (eRNAs). eRNAs are
      important for stimulating gene expression, but precise mechanisms for this
      ability remain unclear. Here we highlight recent findings that demonstrate a
      direct interaction between RNAs and the transcriptional co-activator Creb-binding
      protein (CBP). Notably, RNA binding could stimulate the core histone
      acetyltransferase activity of the enzyme, observable in cells as a link between
      eRNA production, CBP-dependent histone acetylation and expression of genes
      regulated by specific enhancers. Although RNA binding was independent of RNA
      sequence, specificity arises in a locus-specific manner at transcribed sites
      where CBP was bound to chromatin. The results suggest a functional role for eRNAs
      as regulatory molecules that are able to stimulate the activity of a key
      epigenetic regulatory enzyme, thereby promoting gene expression. Furthermore,
      they suggest an intriguing role for eRNAs: by modulating the activity of
      chromatin modifying enzymes, they could directly impact transcription by altering
      the chromatin environment.

PMID- 28891743
TI  - High-intensity cardiorespiratory and strength exercises reduced emotional
      distress and fatigue in patients with axial spondyloarthritis: a randomized
      controlled pilot study.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of high-intensity exercise on emotional
      distress, fatigue, and ability to do a full day's activities in patients with
      axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). METHOD: A total of 28 physically inactive axSpA
      patients were randomized to either an exercise group (EG), which performed 12
      weeks of cardiorespiratory and strength exercises, or a control group (CG), which
      received treatment as usual. The outcomes reported in this paper are secondary
      outcomes in the trial and included emotional distress (General Health
      Questionnaire-12, 0-36, 36 = worst), fatigue [numeric rating scale (NRS), 0-10,
      10 = worst], and ability to do a full day's activities (NRS, 0-10, 10 = worst).
      Post-intervention differences were assessed by analysis of covariance with
      baseline values as covariates. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients were included in the
      analyses. All patients in the EG followed the exercise protocol. The EG had a
      statistically significant beneficial effect [mean group differences (95%
      confidence interval)] on emotional distress [-5.8, (-9.7, -1.9), p < 0.01],
      fatigue [-2.4, (-4.3, -0.4), p = 0.02], and ability to do a full day's work [
      2.2, (-3.9, -0.4), p = 0.02] compared to the CG. CONCLUSION: This pilot study
      showed promising effects of cardiorespiratory and strength exercises on emotional
      distress, fatigue, and ability to do a full day's activities in patients with
      axSpA. The findings need to be confirmed in a larger trial.

PMID- 28891744
TI  - Caloric restriction promotes rapid expansion and long-lasting increase of
      Lactobacillus in the rat fecal microbiota.
AB  - Previous studies indicated that caloric restricted diet enables to lower
      significantly the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. In experimental
      animal models, life-long lasting caloric restriction (CR) was demonstrated to
      induce changes of the intestinal microbiota composition, regardless of fat
      content and/or exercise. To explore the potential impact of short and long-term
      CR treatment on the gut microbiota, we conducted an analysis of fecal microbiota
      composition in young and adult Fisher 344 rats treated with a low fat feed under
      ad libitum (AL) or CR conditions (70%). We report here significant changes of the
      rat fecal microbiota that arise rapidly in young growing animals after short-term
      administration of a CR diet. In particular, Lactobacillus increased significantly
      after 8 weeks of CR treatment and its relative abundance was significantly higher
      in CR vs AL fed animals after 36 weeks of dietary intervention. Taken together,
      our data suggest that Lactobacillus intestinal colonization is hampered in AL fed
      young rats compared to CR fed ones, while health-promoting CR diet intervention
      enables the expansion of this genus rapidly and persistently up to adulthood.

PMID- 28891745
TI  - Motor control of handwriting in the developing brain: A review.
AB  - This review focuses on the acquisition of writing motor aspects in adults, and in
      5-to 12-year-old children without learning disabilities. We first describe the
      behavioural aspects of adult writing and dominant models based on the notion of
      motor programs. We show that handwriting acquisition is characterized by the
      transition from reactive movements programmed stroke-by-stroke in younger
      children, to an automatic control of the whole trajectory when the motor programs
      are memorized at about 10 years old. Then, we describe the neural correlates of
      adult writing, and the changes that could occur with learning during childhood.
      The acquisition of a new skill is characterized by the involvement of a network
      more restricted in space and where neural specificity is increased in key
      regions. The cerebellum and the left dorsal premotor cortex are of fundamental
      importance in motor learning, and could be at the core of the acquisition of
      handwriting.

PMID- 28891746
TI  - Impact of Sex on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-Related Causes of Premature
      Mortality in the United States.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease
      that is a source of significantly decreased life expectancy in the United States.
      This study investigated causes of deaths among males and females with SLE.
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study used the national death
      certificate database of ~2.7 million death records in the United States, 2014.
      SLE was defined using Tenth Revision of the International Classification of
      Diseases codes: M32.1, M32.9, and M32.8. We compared sex-stratified demographic
      characteristics and the most commonly listed comorbidities in decedents with and
      without SLE. Relative risks (RRs) quantified the risk of dying with the most
      commonly listed comorbidities among decedents with SLE aged <=50 years compared
      with non-SLE decedents. RESULTS: There were 2,036 decedents with SLE in the
      United States (86.2% female). Female SLE decedents were 22 years younger than non
      SLE females (median: 59 years vs. 81 years). This difference was 12 years among
      male decedents (median: 61 years vs. 73 years). The most frequently listed causes
      of death among female SLE decedents were septicemia (4.32%) and hypertension
      (3.04%). In contrast, heart disease (3.70%) and diabetes mellitus with
      complications (3.61%) were the most common among male SLE decedents. Among
      younger male decedents, SLE had higher co-occurrence of coagulation/hemorrhagic
      disorders and chronic renal failure compared with non-SLE (RR = 16.69 [95%
      confidence interval {CI} = 10.50-27.44] and RR = 5.76 [95% CI = 2.76-12.00],
      respectively). These also contributed to premature mortality among women (RR =
      4.98 [95% CI = 3.69-6.70] and 8.55 [95% CI = 6.89-10.61], respectively).
      CONCLUSIONS: Our findings identify clinically relevant comorbidities that may
      warrant careful consideration in patients' clinical management and the natural
      history of SLE.

PMID- 28891747
TI  - An important question: Which LPS do you use?

PMID- 28891748
TI  - Teammate Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors Predict Task Cohesion and Burnout:
      The Mediating Role of Affect.
AB  - The manner in which teammates behave toward each other when playing sport could
      have important achievement-related consequences. However, this issue has received
      very little research attention. In this study, we investigated whether (a)
      prosocial and antisocial teammate behaviors predict task cohesion and burnout,
      and (b) positive and negative affect mediates these relationships. In total, 272
      (Mage = 21.86, SD = 4.36) team-sport players completed a multisection
      questionnaire assessing the aforementioned variables. Structural equation
      modeling indicated that prosocial teammate behavior positively predicted task
      cohesion and negatively predicted burnout, and these relationships were mediated
      by positive affect. The reverse pattern of relationships was observed for
      antisocial teammate behavior which negatively predicted task cohesion and
      positively predicted burnout, and these relationships were mediated by negative
      affect. Our findings underscore the importance of promoting prosocial and
      reducing antisocial behaviors in sport and highlight the role of affect in
      explaining the identified relationships.

PMID- 28891749
TI  - It Depends on the Partner: Person-Related Sources of Efficacy Beliefs and
      Performance for Athlete Pairs.
AB  - This study explored person-related sources of variance in athletes' efficacy
      beliefs and performances when performing in pairs with distinguishable roles
      differing in partner dependence. College cheerleaders (n = 102) performed their
      role in repeated performance trials of two low- and two high-difficulty paired
      stunt tasks with three different partners. Data were obtained on self-, other-,
      and collective efficacy beliefs and subjective performances, and objective
      performance assessments were obtained from digital recordings. Using the social
      relations model framework, total variance in each belief/assessment was
      partitioned, for each role, into numerical components of person-related variance
      relative to the self, the other, and the collective. Variance component by
      performance role by task-difficulty repeated-measures analysis of variances
      revealed that the largest person-related variance component differed by athlete
      role and increased in size in high-difficulty tasks. Results suggest that the
      extent the athlete's performance depends on a partner relates to the extent the
      partner is a source of self-, other-, and collective efficacy beliefs.

PMID- 28891750
TI  - Acceptability and Preliminary Efficacy of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
      Transgender-Affirmative Mental Health Practice Training in a Highly Stigmatizing
      National Context.
AB  - PURPOSE: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in Romania
      encounter pervasive stigma and discrimination and there is a high need for LGBT
      competent mental health professionals (MHPs). We tested the impact of a pilot
      LGBT-affirmative training for MHPs in Romania on these professionals' LGBT
      relevant attitudes, knowledge, and perception of clinical skills. METHODS: We
      conducted a 2-day training for MHPs in Bucharest. Fifty-four attended and 33
      provided training evaluation data at baseline and follow-up. RESULTS: The
      majority of trainees were female (90%) and heterosexual (73%) with a mean age of
      36.4 (SD = 7.7). From baseline to follow-up, trainees demonstrated a significant
      increase in perceived LGBT-relevant clinical skills (P < 0.001) and perceived
      knowledge (P < 0.05). LGBT-affirmative practice attitudes (P < 0.05) and comfort
      in addressing the mental health of LGBT individuals (P < 0.01) increased
      significantly, and homonegative and transnegative attitudes decreased
      significantly (P < 0.01). Negative attitudes toward LGBT individuals were low at
      both baseline and follow-up. The majority of trainees reported being highly
      interested in the training (84%), which they reported had prepared them to
      interact with and care for LGBT individuals (74%). CONCLUSION: This pilot
      training appeared to be effective in increasing perceived LGBT competence among
      participating MHPs. This type of training model needs to be tested further in a
      randomized controlled trial with longer follow-up periods to assess intervention
      durability and implementation of clinical skills. Future trainings can be
      incorporated into existing curricula. National accreditation bodies might
      consider encouraging such training as part of standard educational requirements.

PMID- 28891751
TI  - Rotavirus vaccine response correlates with the infant gut microbiota composition
      in Pakistan.
AB  - Rotavirus (RV) is the leading cause of diarrhea-related death in children
      worldwide and ninety-five percent of rotavirus deaths occur in Africa and Asia.
      Rotavirus vaccines (RVV) can dramatically reduce RV deaths, but have low efficacy
      in low-income settings where they are most needed. The intestinal microbiome may
      contribute to this decreased RVV efficacy. This pilot study hypothesizes that
      infants' intestinal microbiota composition correlates with RVV immune responses
      and that RVV responders have different gut microbiota as compared to non
      responders. We conducted a nested, matched case-control study comparing the pre
      vaccination intestinal microbiota composition between 10 6-week old Pakistani RVV
      responders, 10 6-week old Pakistani RVV non-responders, and 10 healthy Dutch
      infants.  RVV response was defined as an Immunoglobulin A of >=20 IU/mL following
      RotarixTM(RV1) vaccination in an infant with a pre-vaccination IgA<20. Infants
      were matched in a 1:1 ratio using ranked variables: RV1 dosing schedule (6/10/14;
      6/10; or 10/14 weeks), RV season, delivery mode, delivery place, breastfeeding
      practices, age and gender. Fecal microbiota analysis was performed using a highly
      reproducible phylogenetic microarray. RV1 response correlated with a higher
      relative abundance of bacteria belonging to Clostridium cluster XI and
      Proteobacteria, including bacteria related to Serratia and Escherichia coli.
      Remarkably, abundance of these Proteobacteria was also significantly higher in
      Dutch infants when compared to RV1-non-responders in Pakistan. This small but
      carefully matched study showed the intestinal microbiota composition to correlate
      with RV1 seroconversion in Pakistan infants, identifying signatures shared with
      healthy Dutch infants.

PMID- 28891753
TI  - The influence of Schisandrin B on a model of Alzheimer's disease using beta
      amyloid protein Abeta1-42-mediated damage in SH-SY5Y neuronal cell line and
      underlying mechanisms.
AB  - Schisandrin B, an active substance, is derived from Chinese herb fruit Wuweizi,
      which exerts various pharmacological activities and has displayed significant
      beneficial effects in ameliorating Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this
      study was to further extend our examination for the use of schisandrin B extract
      in the potential treatment of AD effects by investigating DNA methylation (DNMT),
      known to be modified in this disease using SH-SY5Y neuronal cell line exposed to
      beta-amyloid protein (Abeta1-42). In particular, the purpose of this
      investigation was to examine alterations in mRNA and protein expression of DNMT.
      Data demonstrated that schisandrin B blocked Abeta1-42-mediated injury in SH-SY5Y
      neuronal cell line as evidenced by a restoration of cellular morphology and cell
      viability to approximate control levels at the highest 10 MUg/ml Schisandrin B.
      Incubation with Abeta1-42 significantly decreased mRNA and protein expression of
      DNMT3A and DNMT1 in SH-SY5Y neuronal cell line. Incubation with Abeta1-42
      followed by 24 treatment with schisandrin B significantly inhibited the Abeta1-42
      -induced changes in mRNA and protein expression of DNMT3A and DNMT3B in a
      concentration-dependent manner. It is of interest that the mRNA expression of
      DNMT3A and DNMT1 were significantly higher than control. Data thus indicate
      schisandrin B was effective in inhibiting the actions of Abeta1-42 on cell
      survival and morphology and that DNA methylation may be associated with the
      beneficial findings.

PMID- 28891752
TI  - Development of EMab-51, a Sensitive and Specific Anti-Epidermal Growth Factor
      Receptor Monoclonal Antibody in Flow Cytometry, Western Blot, and
      Immunohistochemistry.
AB  - The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a member of the human epidermal
      growth factor receptor (HER) family of receptor tyrosine kinases and is involved
      in cell growth and differentiation. EGFR homodimers or heterodimers with other
      HER members, such as HER2 and HER3, activate downstream signaling cascades in
      many cancers. In this study, we developed novel anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies
      (mAbs) and characterized their efficacy in flow cytometry, Western blot, and
      immunohistochemical analyses. First, we expressed the full-length or ectodomain
      of EGFR in LN229 glioblastoma cells and then immunized mice with LN229/EGFR or
      ectodomain of EGFR, and performed the first screening using enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assays. Subsequently, we selected mAbs according to their efficacy
      in flow cytometry (second screening), Western blot (third screening), and
      immunohistochemical (fourth screening) analyses. Among 100 mAbs, only one clone
      EMab-51 (IgG1, kappa) reacted with EGFR in Western blot analysis. Finally,
      immunohistochemical analyses with EMab-51 showed sensitive and specific reactions
      against oral cancer cells, warranting the use of EMab-51 to detect EGFR in
      pathological analyses of EGFR-expressing cancers.

PMID- 28891754
TI  - Mounier Kuhn syndrome presenting with recurrent atelectasis.
AB  - Objective and importance Mounier Kuhn syndrome is usually diagnosed in adulthood,
      and only a few cases have been described in childhood. Clinical presentation We
      present the case of a seven-year-old boy suffering from recurrent pneumonia and
      atelectasis. Intervention Previously performed chest X-rays showed bilateral
      hyperinflation and tracheobronchomegaly. Chest computed tomography (CT) confirmed
      the presence of distal enlargement of trachea and bronchi. Tracheobronchomegaly
      associated with recurrent respiratory tract infections is consistent with Mounier
      Kuhn syndrome. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from the sputum of the
      patient. He was then treated according to the guidelines for P. aeruginosa
      management in cystic fibrosis patients considering the similarities in clinical
      presentations and pathophysiology of both diseases. Antibiotic treatment resulted
      in a remarkable reduction of events of pulmonary exacerbation and
      hospitalizations. There are no specific guidelines for treatment options in case
      of pulmonary exacerbation of Mounier Kuhn syndrome. Case reports discussing the
      choice and efficiency of antibiotic treatment are random. Conclusion headings We
      share our experience of treating pulmonary exacerbation caused by P. aeruginosa
      in a patient with Mounier Kuhn syndrome suggesting a possible treatment option of
      pseudomonas infections in this syndrome.

PMID- 28891755
TI  - Early career reflections of three female gerontologists: Motivations,
      perceptions, and the life course.
AB  - As the number of individuals age 65 and older increases, so does the need for
      those prepared to work with this population. Doctoral-level preparation in the
      field of gerontology creates a uniquely prepared contingent who advocate, conduct
      research, instruct future generations, and serve the older adult population
      directly. Women are especially likely to pursue gerontology doctoral degrees, yet
      little is understood about the unique challenges and opportunities they face. The
      purpose of this reflection was to examine the experiences of three women who
      pursued doctoral-level gerontology education and faculty positions at different
      life stages to explore their challenges and opportunities through their
      educational process and early career experiences.

PMID- 28891756
TI  - Evaluation of distribution, redox parameters, and genotoxicity in Wistar rats co
      exposed to silver and titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
AB  - The increasing production of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and titanium dioxide
      nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) has resulted in their elevated concentrations in the
      environment. This study was, therefore, aimed at determining the distribution,
      redox parameters, and genotoxic effects in male Wistar rats that were treated
      with either AgNP or TiO2NP individually, as well as under a co-exposure scenario.
      Animals were exposed via oral gavage to either sodium citrate buffer (vehicle),
      0.5 mg/kg/day TiO2NP, 0.5 mg/kg/day AgNP or a mixture of TiO2NPs and AgNPs.
      Exposure lasted 45 days after which rats were sacrificed, and tissue
      biodistribution of Ag and Ti measured. The blood concentration of glutathione
      (GSH) and activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) were
      determined while the genotoxicity was analyzed using the comet assay in
      peripheral blood and liver cells. The tissue concentrations of Ag followed the
      order; blood > liver > kidneys while for Ti the order was kidneys > liver >
      blood. There was no significant change in the measured redox parameters in
      animals that were exposed to TiO2NPs. However, there was a significant increase
      in GSH levels accompanied by a reduction in the GPx activity in AgNP-treated and
      co-exposed groups. The individual or co-exposure to TiO2NP and AgNP did not
      markedly induce genotoxicity in blood or liver cells. Data showed that TiO2NP did
      not produce significant oxidative stress or genotoxicity in rats at the dose used
      in this study while the same dose level of AgNPs resulted in oxidative stress,
      but no noticeable adverse genotoxic effects.

PMID- 28891757
TI  - Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in
      Our Lifetime.

PMID- 28891758
TI  - Effects of an evidence-based parenting program on biobehavioral stress among at
      risk mothers for child maltreatment: A pilot study.
AB  - Parental stress is an important risk factor for child maltreatment (CM)
      perpetration. Evidence-based, parent-training programs can decrease CM
      perpetration risk and reduce self-reported parental stress; however, little is
      known about how such programs impact physiological stress correlates. In this
      quasi-experimental pilot study, maternal biobehavioral responses were measured in
      response to SafeCare(r), an evidence-based program targeting CM, often
      implemented by social workers in child welfare settings. Maternal participants (N
      = 18) were recruited to complete SafeCare and repeated within-subject assessments
      pre- and post-intervention. Analyses examined associations between self-reported
      parental stress and mental health symptomology with stress markers for cortisol,
      alpha-amylase, and dihydroepiandrosterone at baseline and follow-up. Baseline
      correlation analyses showed strong associations between parental stress, salivary
      cortisol levels, and alpha-amylase. At follow-up, significant correlations were
      found between parental stress and alpha-amylase for intervention completers (n =
      7). Completers on average exhibited decreases across self-reported parental
      stress and global distress symptomology and improvements in salivary cortisol and
      alpha-amylase levels. Participants with impaired cortisol levels at baseline were
      within normal limits post-intervention. These pilot findings suggest that
      salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase are compelling physiological correlates of
      parental stress among high-risk parents. Results also support short-term,
      positive effects of SafeCare in potentially regulating physiological stress
      systems among at-risk mothers.

PMID- 28891759
TI  - The validity and reliability of the sphygmomanometer for hip strength assessment
      in Australian football players.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To investigate the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the
      sphygmomanometer for the assessment of the adductor squeeze test and isometric
      hip abduction strength and to investigate the concurrent validity of the
      sphygmomanometer for the assessment of hip muscular strength. METHOD: Thirty-two
      healthy adult male community Australian football players (age 23.9 +/- 4.5 years)
      were assessed by two blinded raters that measured the strength of the adductor
      squeeze test and isometric hip abduction, using a commercially available
      sphygmomanometer. Concurrent validity was calculated using handheld dynamometry
      as the reference standard. RESULTS: Moderate to high intra-rater reliability (ICC
      = 0.61 to 0.92) and high inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.77 to 0.91) were found.
      High concurrent validity (Pearson's r = 0.77 to 0.91) was established. Sixteen of
      the participants reached the maximal reading of the sphygmomanometer,
      demonstrating a ceiling effect. CONCLUSIONS: A sphygmomanometer is a cost
      efficient device that appears to be both reliable and valid for the assessment of
      hip strength, offering clinicians an alternate and easily accessible option to
      obtain objective strength data. A ceiling effect may limit the application of the
      sphygmomanometer as a strength measurement device in stronger individuals.

PMID- 28891760
TI  - The Nottingham Fatigue After Stroke (NotFAST) study: results from follow-up six
      months after stroke.
AB  - Background Post-stroke fatigue is common and disabling. Objectives The aim of
      NotFAST was to examine factors associated with fatigue in stroke survivors
      without depression, six months after stroke. Methods Participants were recruited
      from four UK stroke units. Those with high levels of depressive symptoms (score
      >=7 on Brief Assessment Schedule Depression Cards) or aphasia were excluded.
      Follow-up assessment was conducted at six months after stroke. They were assessed
      on the Fatigue Severity Scale, Rivermead Mobility Index, Nottingham Extended
      Activities of Daily Living scale, Barthel Index, Beck Anxiety Index, Brief
      Assessment Schedule Depression Cards, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and Sleep
      Hygiene Index. Results Of the 371 participants recruited, 263 (71%) were
      contacted at six months after stroke and 213 (57%) returned questionnaires.
      Approximately half (n = 109, 51%) reported fatigue at six months. Of those
      reporting fatigue initially (n = 88), 61 (69%) continued to report fatigue. 'De
      novo' (new) fatigue was reported by 48 (38%) of those not fatigued initially.
      Lower Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living scores and higher Beck
      Anxiety Index scores were independently associated with fatigue at six months.
      Conclusions Half the stroke survivors reported fatigue at six months post-stroke.
      Reduced independence in activities of daily living and higher anxiety levels were
      associated with the level of fatigue. Persistent and delayed onset fatigue may
      affect independence and participation in rehabilitation, and these findings
      should be used to inform the development of appropriate interventions.

PMID- 28891761
TI  - Acute and physical effects of water-based drilling mud in the marine copepod
      Calanus finmarchicus.
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate impacts of fine particulate fraction of
      a commonly used barite-containing drilling mud on the pelagic filter feeding
      copepod Calanus finmarchicus. The results show that the tested drilling mud had a
      low acute toxicity on C. finmarchicus (LC50 > 320 mg/L) and that the observed
      toxicity was likely caused by dissolved constituents in the mud and not the
      particle phase containing the weighting agent barite. Further, animals were
      exposed to drilling mud at a concentration of 10 mg/L for 168 hr followed by a
      100 hr recovery phase. A rapid uptake of drilling mud particles was observed,
      while the excretion was slow and incomplete even after 100 hr recovery in clean
      seawater. The uptake of drilling mud particles caused a significant increase in
      sinking velocity of copepods, indicating that uptake of drilling mud particles
      affected their buoyancy. Long-term exposure to low concentrations of drilling mud
      could therefore cause physical effects such as impacts on the animal's buoyancy
      which may affect the energy budget of the copepods.

PMID- 28891762
TI  - Reading and Phonological Awareness in Africa.
AB  - Literacy levels in Africa are low, and school instruction outcomes are not
      promising. Africa also has a disproportionate number of unschooled children.
      Phonological awareness (PA), especially phoneme awareness, is critically
      associated with literacy, but there is little evidence about whether PA is gained
      through literacy, schooling, or both, because most children studied are in
      education and can read at least letters. Our previous study of PA and reading in
      children in and out of school in Tanzania found that PA was associated with
      reading ability, not schooling or age, and many unschooled children learned to
      read. We retested 85 children from the baseline study, on measures of PA and
      literacy, approximately 2 years later. We found that more unschooled children had
      now learned to read but PA had generally not improved for these children.
      Unschooled children were still poorer at PA than schooled children. At 2 years,
      schooling now independently predicted PA and literacy. PA also predicted literacy
      and vice versa. Explicit phoneme awareness was again poor, even in accurate
      readers. More unschooled children have now learned to read, possibly because
      local literacy is in their first language; however, schooling improves reading
      and PA.

PMID- 28891763
TI  - Letter and reply.

PMID- 28891764
TI  - How to establish and standardize wide-awake hand surgery: experience from China.

PMID- 28891768
TI  - Hand surgery in Denmark.

PMID- 28891769
TI  - EDITORIAL.

PMID- 28891765
TI  - Factors determining outcome of corrective osteotomy for malunited paediatric
      forearm fractures: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
AB  - : The aim of this study was to identify predictors of a superior functional
      outcome after corrective osteotomy for paediatric malunited radius and both-bone
      forearm fractures. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of
      individual participant data, searching databases up to 1 October 2016. Our
      primary outcome was the gain in pronosupination seen after corrective osteotomy.
      Individual participant data of 11 cohort studies were included, concerning 71
      participants with a median age of 11 years at trauma. Corrective osteotomy was
      performed after a median of 12 months after trauma, leading to a mean gain of 77
      degrees  in pronosupination after a median follow-up of 29 months. Analysis of
      variance and multiple regression analysis revealed that predictors of superior
      functional outcome after corrective osteotomy are: an interval between trauma and
      corrective osteotomy of less than 1 year, an angular deformity of greater than 20
      degrees  and the use of three-dimensional computer-assisted techniques. LEVEL OF
      EVIDENCE: II.

PMID- 28891770
TI  - Treating Panic Disorder Hypnotically.
AB  - A hypnosis protocol for treating panic disorder is provided. The implementation
      of this protocol is demonstrated through a case example involving the successful
      treatment of a 28-year-old firefighter presenting with a 4-month history of near
      daily panic attacks. Core principles associated with this protocol include: (1)
      Elementary education about the physiology of panic; (2) A review of primary
      factors contributing to the evolution and manifestation of panic; (3)
      Encouragement of physical activity; (4) Utilization of hypnosis applications; and
      (5) Monitoring and measuring progress evidenced by a reduction in the frequency
      and intensity of panic attacks. Six years after his last hypnosis session,
      "Jason," the once panicked firefighter returned to my office for concerns
      unrelated to panic, and reported that he remained panic-free, retained his job,
      and was twice promoted.

PMID- 28891771
TI  - The Effectiveness of Hypnosis Intervention for Labor: An Experimental Study.
AB  - Hypnosis has been shown to help pregnant women experience improved labor and
      postpartum periods. The present study compares the differences between
      experimental (n = 23) and control groups (n = 22) on specific variables measured
      both during labor and 24 hr postpartum. The participants in the experimental
      group received the hypnosis intervention at weeks 16, 20, 28, and 36 of
      pregnancy, while those in the control group received only routine antenatal care.
      The data collected at the labor stage describe the length of the labor stage,
      pain relief used during labor, the method of delivery, and the type of assisted
      vaginal delivery. Within 24 hr of delivery, data on neonatal birth weight,
      neonatal Apgar scores, and self-reported pain were obtained. The labor stage
      results showed no significant differences in the length of the second and third
      stages of labor. Although the participants in the experimental group reported
      higher pain levels immediately prior to, during, and immediately after delivery,
      their use of pethidine during labor was significantly lower than the control
      group participants. None of the experimental group participants opted for an
      epidural, and they had a greater number of assisted vaginal deliveries than the
      control group participants. The 24 hr postpartum results showed that the neonates
      of the experimental group participants had nonsignificantly higher Apgar scores
      than those of the women in the control group. Group differences in neonatal
      weight were not significant. The results of the present study indicate that
      hypnosis is useful for assisting pregnant women during labor and the postpartum
      period.

PMID- 28891772
TI  - Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Plus Hypnosis for Distress During Breast
      Radiotherapy: A Randomized Trial.
AB  - Radiotherapy is a common and effective treatment for women with breast cancer.
      However, radiotherapy has also been shown to adversely affect patients' emotional
      well-being. Currently, few mind-body interventions are designed to improve
      patients' quality of life during radiotherapy. One intervention which has
      demonstrated clinical efficacy in the breast cancer radiotherapy setting is
      Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus Hypnosis. The goal of this study was to
      investigate the impact of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus Hypnosis on emotional
      distress in women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy. One hundred
      patients were randomly assigned to either the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus
      Hypnosis (n = 50) or Attention Control (n = 50) group. Results revealed
      significant benefits of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus Hypnosis on emotional
      distress at the mid-point (d = 0.54), the conclusion (d = 0.64), and 4 weeks
      following the conclusion (d = 0.65) of radiotherapy (all ps < 0.05). In summary,
      results support further study of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus Hypnosis as an
      evidence-based intervention to reduce emotional distress in women with breast
      cancer. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus Hypnosis has the benefits of being
      brief, noninvasive, lacking side-effects, and producing beneficial effects which
      last beyond the conclusion of radiotherapy. Given these strengths, we propose
      that Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy plus Hypnosis is a strong candidate for greater
      dissemination and implementation in cancer populations.

PMID- 28891773
TI  - Hypnosis for Hot Flashes and Associated Symptomsin Women with Breast Cancer.
AB  - Women with breast cancer experience a host of physical and psychological
      symptoms, including hot flashes, sleep difficulties, anxiety, and depression.
      Therefore, treatment for women with breast cancer should target these symptoms
      and be individualized to patients' specific presentations. The current article
      reviews the common symptoms associated with breast cancer in women, then examines
      clinical hypnosis as a treatment for addressing these symptoms and improving the
      quality of life of women with breast cancer. Clinical hypnosis is an effective,
      nonpharmaceutical treatment for hot flashes and addressing many symptoms
      typically experienced by breast cancer patients. A case example is provided to
      illustrate the use of clinical hypnosis for the treatment of hot flashes with a
      patient with breast cancer.

PMID- 28891774
TI  - REVIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE.

PMID- 28891775
TI  - Self-Talk Monitoring and Utilization for Enhancing Hypnotic Induction.
AB  - In contemporary hypnosis, language constitutes the hypnotist's rudimentary
      instrument for developing and utilizing the hypnotic trance. In the current
      article, the author proposes a theoretical and clinical approach for using
      patient self-talk during hypnotic induction by discussing the influence of self
      talk on consciousness regulation. The article includes some historical background
      on the use of language during hypnotic communication and demonstrates some
      clinical applications of patients self-talk in the process of hypnotic induction.

PMID- 28891777
TI  - Hypnosis for Smoking Relapse Prevention: A Randomized Trial.
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine whether hypnosis would be more
      effective than standard behavioral counseling in helping smokers to remain
      abstinent. A total of 140 current smokers were enrolled in a randomized
      controlled smoking cessation trial at an urban Veterans Affairs medical center.
      Participants (n = 102) who were able to quit for at least 3 days received either
      a hypnosis or behavioral relapse prevention intervention. Both relapse prevention
      interventions consisted of two 60 min face-to-face sessions and four 20 min
      follow-up phone calls (two phone calls per week). At 26 weeks, the validate?d
      point-prevalence quit rate was 35% for the hypnosis group and 42% for the
      behavioral counseling group (relative risk = 0.85; 95% confidence interval: 0.52
      1.40). At 52 weeks, the validated quit rate was 29% for the hypnosis group and
      28% for the behavioral group (relative risk  = 1.03; 95% confidence interval:
      0.56-1.91). It was concluded that hypnosis warrants further investigation as an
      intervention for facilitating maintenance of quitting.

PMID- 28891780
TI  - The role of social work in free healthcare clinics and student-run clinics.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The role of social work in free healthcare clinics and student-run
      clinics remains an understudied topic. METHOD: We conducted a literature review
      of the published studies through four online databases: Google Scholar, Social
      Work Abstracts, Academic Search Complete, and PsycInfo. RESULTS: The literature
      review revealed 449 possibly relevant studies, but only nine met the criteria for
      the final review. Based on these findings, social work is not fully utilized in
      free healthcare clinics and student-run clinics. CONCLUSION: Our literature
      review provides evidence for the need for social work in free healthcare clinics
      and student-run clinics.

PMID- 28891781
TI  - Occipital Alpha and Gamma Oscillations Support Complementary Mechanisms for
      Processing Stimulus Value Associations.
AB  - Selective attention is reflected neurally in changes in the power of posterior
      neural oscillations in the alpha (8-12 Hz) and gamma (40-100 Hz) bands. Although
      a neural mechanism that allows relevant information to be selectively processed
      has its advantages, it may lead to lucrative or dangerous information going
      unnoticed. Neural systems are also in place for processing rewarding and
      punishing information. Here, we examine the interaction between selective
      attention (left vs. right) and stimulus's learned value associations (neutral,
      punished, or rewarded) and how they compete for control of posterior neural
      oscillations. We found that both attention and stimulus-value associations
      influenced neural oscillations. Whereas selective attention had comparable
      effects on alpha and gamma oscillations, value associations had dissociable
      effects on these neural markers of attention. Salient targets (associated with
      positive and negative outcomes) hijacked changes in alpha power-increasing
      hemispheric alpha lateralization when salient targets were attended, decreasing
      it when they were being ignored. In contrast, hemispheric gamma-band
      lateralization was specifically abolished by negative distractors. Source
      analysis indicated occipital generators of both attentional and value effects.
      Thus, posterior cortical oscillations support both the ability to selectively
      attend while at the same time retaining the ability to remain sensitive to
      valuable features in the environment. Moreover, the versatility of our
      attentional system to respond separately to salient from merely positively valued
      stimuli appears to be carried out by separate neural processes reflected in
      different frequency bands.

PMID- 28891782
TI  - Functional Preference for Object Sounds and Voices in the Brain of Early Blind
      and Sighted Individuals.
AB  - Sounds activate occipital regions in early blind individuals. However, how
      different sound categories map onto specific regions of the occipital cortex
      remains a matter of debate. We used fMRI to characterize brain responses of early
      blind and sighted individuals to familiar object sounds, human voices, and their
      respective low-level control sounds. In addition, sighted participants were
      tested while viewing pictures of faces, objects, and phase-scrambled control
      pictures. In both early blind and sighted, a double dissociation was evidenced in
      bilateral auditory cortices between responses to voices and object sounds: Voices
      elicited categorical responses in bilateral superior temporal sulci, whereas
      object sounds elicited categorical responses along the lateral fissure
      bilaterally, including the primary auditory cortex and planum temporale. Outside
      the auditory regions, object sounds also elicited categorical responses in the
      left lateral and in the ventral occipitotemporal regions in both groups. These
      regions also showed response preference for images of objects in the sighted
      group, thus suggesting a functional specialization that is independent of sensory
      input and visual experience. Between-group comparisons revealed that, only in the
      blind group, categorical responses to object sounds extended more posteriorly
      into the occipital cortex. Functional connectivity analyses evidenced a selective
      increase in the functional coupling between these reorganized regions and regions
      of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex in the blind group. In contrast, vocal
      sounds did not elicit preferential responses in the occipital cortex in either
      group. Nevertheless, enhanced voice-selective connectivity between the left
      temporal voice area and the right fusiform gyrus were found in the blind group.
      Altogether, these findings suggest that, in the absence of developmental vision,
      separate auditory categories are not equipotent in driving selective auditory
      recruitment of occipitotemporal regions and highlight the presence of domain
      selective constraints on the expression of cross-modal plasticity.

PMID- 28891783
TI  - Cortical Local Field Potential Power Is Associated with Behavioral Detection of
      Near-threshold Stimuli in the Rat Whisker System: Dissociation between
      Orbitofrontal and Somatosensory Cortices.
AB  - There is growing evidence that ongoing brain oscillations may represent a key
      regulator of attentional processes and as such may contribute to behavioral
      performance in psychophysical tasks. OFC appears to be involved in the top-down
      modulation of sensory processing; however, the specific contribution of ongoing
      OFC oscillations to perception has not been characterized. Here we used the rat
      whiskers as a model system to further characterize the relationship between
      cortical state and tactile detection. Head-fixed rats were trained to report the
      presence of a vibrotactile stimulus (frequency = 60 Hz, duration = 2 sec,
      deflection amplitude = 0.01-0.5 mm) applied to a single vibrissa. We calculated
      power spectra of local field potentials preceding the onset of near-threshold
      stimuli from microelectrodes chronically implanted in OFC and somatosensory
      cortex. We found a dissociation between slow oscillation power in the two regions
      in relation to detection probability: Higher OFC but not somatosensory delta
      power was associated with increased detection probability. Furthermore, coherence
      between OFC and barrel cortex was reduced preceding successful detection.
      Consistent with the role of OFC in attention, our results identify a cortical
      network whose activity is differentially modulated before successful tactile
      detection.

PMID- 28891784
TI  - Familiarity Speeds Up Visual Short-term Memory Consolidation:
      Electrophysiological Evidence from Contralateral Delay Activities.
AB  - To test how preexisting long-term memory influences visual STM, this study takes
      advantage of individual differences in participants' prior familiarity with
      Pokemon characters and uses an ERP component, the contralateral delay activity
      (CDA), to assess whether observers' prior stimulus familiarity affects STM
      consolidation and storage capacity. In two change detection experiments,
      consolidation speed, as indexed by CDA fractional area latency and/or early
      window (500-800 msec) amplitude, was significantly associated with individual
      differences in Pokemon familiarity. In contrast, the number of remembered Pokemon
      stimuli, as indexed by Cowan's K and late-window (1500-2000 msec) CDA amplitude,
      was significantly associated with individual differences in Pokemon familiarity
      when STM consolidation was incomplete because of a short presentation of Pokemon
      stimuli (500 msec, Experiment 2), but not when STM consolidation was allowed to
      complete given sufficient encoding time (1000 msec, Experiment 1). Similar
      findings were obtained in between-group analyses when participants were separated
      into high-familiarity and low-familiarity groups based on their Pokemon
      familiarity ratings. Together, these results suggest that stimulus familiarity,
      as a proxy for the strength of preexisting long-term memory, primarily speeds up
      STM consolidation, which may subsequently lead to an increase in the number of
      remembered stimuli if consolidation is incomplete. These findings thus highlight
      the importance of research assessing how effects on representations (e.g., STM
      capacity) are in general related to (or even caused by) effects on processes
      (e.g., STM consolidation) in cognition.

PMID- 28891785
TI  - Attachment style moderates effects of FKBP5 polymorphisms and childhood abuse on
      post-traumatic stress symptoms: Results from the National Health and Resilience
      in Veterans Study.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To determine the main and interactive effects of four FKBP5
      polymorphisms (rs9296158, rs3800373, rs1360780 and rs9470080), childhood abuse
      and attachment style in predicting severity of PTSD symptoms in two independent,
      nationally representative samples of US military veterans. METHODS: Data were
      analysed from two independent samples of European-American US military veterans
      who participated in the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (N =
      1,585 and 577 respectively). RESULTS: Results revealed that carriage of two FKBP5
      minor alleles, childhood abuse and insecure attachment style were associated with
      greater severity of PTSD symptoms. Gene * environment interactions were also
      observed, with the interaction of FKBP5 homozygous minor allele carriage and
      history of childhood abuse associated with greater severity of PTSD symptoms;
      however, these effects were fully counteracted by secure attachment style.
      CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study build on prior work demonstrating a gene *
      environment interaction between FKBP5 polymorphisms and childhood abuse in
      predicting risk for PTSD by suggesting that attachment style may moderate this
      effect. This study has implications for prevention and treatment efforts designed
      to promote a secure attachment style in veterans with high-risk FKBP5 genotypes
      and childhood abuse histories.

PMID- 28891786
TI  - A framework and case studies for evaluation of enzyme ontogeny in children's
      health risk evaluation.
AB  - Knowledge of the ontogeny of Phase I and Phase II metabolizing enzymes may be
      used to inform children's vulnerability based upon likely differences in internal
      dose from xenobiotic exposure. This might provide a qualitative assessment of
      toxicokinetic (TK) variability and uncertainty pertinent to early lifestages and
      help scope a more quantitative physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK)
      assessment. Although much is known regarding the ontogeny of metabolizing
      systems, this is not commonly utilized in scoping and problem formulation stage
      of human health risk evaluation. A framework is proposed for introducing this
      information into problem formulation which combines data on enzyme ontogeny and
      chemical-specific TK to explore potential child/adult differences in internal
      dose and whether such metabolic differences may be important factors in risk
      evaluation. The framework is illustrated with five case study chemicals,
      including some which are data rich and provide proof of concept, while others are
      data poor. Case studies for toluene and chlorpyrifos indicate potentially
      important child/adult TK differences while scoping for acetaminophen suggests
      enzyme ontogeny is unlikely to increase early-life risks. Scoping for
      trichloroethylene and aromatic amines indicates numerous ways that enzyme
      ontogeny may affect internal dose which necessitates further evaluation. PBTK
      modeling is a critical and feasible next step to further evaluate child-adult
      differences in internal dose for a number of these chemicals.

PMID- 28891787
TI  - Biochemical approaches to assess oxidative stress induced by exposure to natural
      and synthetic dyes in early life stages in zebrafish.
AB  - Zebrafish early life stages were found to be sensitive to several synthetic dyes
      widely used in industries. However, as environmental concentrations of such
      contaminants are often at sublethal levels, more sensitive methods are required
      to determine early-warning adverse consequences. The aim of this study was to
      utilize a multibiomarker approach to examine underlying oxidative stress
      mechanisms triggered by sublethal concentrations of synthetic azo dye Basic Red
      51 (BR51), the natural dye erythrostominone (ERY), and its light-degraded product
      using zebrafish embryos. Biochemical biomarkers included parameters of
      detoxification and markers of antioxidant system, as well as oxidative damage.
      Results showed pro-oxidant mechanisms attributed to BR51 and ERY as evidenced by
      increased glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity, a phase II detoxification
      enzyme related to reactive oxygen species detoxification. BR51 also elevated
      total glutathione (GSH+GSSG) levels and catalase activity. However, both dyes
      induced oxidative damage as evidenced by elevated lipid peroxidation content. In
      contrast, when the natural dye was photodegraded, no marked effects were observed
      for all biomarkers assessed. Data indicate that such dyes are pro-oxidants at
      sublethal concentrations, predominantly involving GSH and/or related enzymes
      pathway.

PMID- 28891788
TI  - Week 48 resistance analysis of Elvitegravir/Cobicistat/Emtricitabine/Tenofovir DF
      versus Atazanavir + Ritonavir + Emtricitabine/Tenofovir DF in HIV-1 infected
      women (WAVES study GS-US-236-0128).
AB  - Background Women and those with non-B subtype HIV-1 are typically
      underrepresented in clinical trials. WAVES (GS-US-236-0128) was a double-blind
      phase 3b study among treatment-naive HIV-1-infected women that demonstrated that
      elvitegravir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir DF (EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF; N = 289)
      was superior to atazanavir + ritonavir + FTC/TDF (ATV + RTV + FTC/TDF; N = 286)
      for HIV-1 RNA < 50 copies/mL by FDA snapshot analysis at week 48. Here, we
      describe resistance development through week 48 in women with virologic failure
      and determine the impact of pre-existing mutations and HIV-1 subtype on viral
      suppression. Methods Genotypic analyses (population and deep sequencing) and
      phenotypic analyses of HIV-1 protease, reverse transcriptase (RT), and integrase
      (IN) were performed. The resistance analysis population (participants with HIV-1
      RNA >= 400 copies/mL at confirmed virologic failure, at discontinuation >= week
      8, or at week 48) had genotypic and phenotypic analyses at failure and baseline.
      Results The proportion of women qualifying for resistance analyses was similar
      between treatment groups (6.2% EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF; 7.3% ATV + RTV + FTC/TDF).
      Emergent resistance was rare (0% EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF; 1% ATV + RTV + FTC/TDF - 3
      with M184V/I in RT). Deep sequencing of HIV-1 did not detect additional
      resistance development. Pre-existing mutations did not lead to virologic failure;
      most with the polymorphic primary IN substitution T97A (92%), or with
      substitutions in RT (i.e. A62V, V90I, K103N, or E138A/G/K/Q; 68-82%) demonstrated
      virologic suppression at week 48, with no resistance development except for one
      patient with M184V and pre-existing K103N in the ATV + RTV + FTC/TDF group. Most
      participants (74%) had non-B HIV-1, and subtype did not affect outcome.
      Conclusions Emergent resistance to study drugs was rare in this study of women,
      with no resistance observed among EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF-treated participants, despite
      a high proportion of participants with natural or transmitted viral mutations and
      non-B HIV-1 subtypes.

PMID- 28891789
TI  - List of new names and new combinations previously effectively, but not validly,
      published.

PMID- 28891790
TI  - Notification that new names of prokaryotes, new combinations, and new taxonomic
      opinions have appeared in volume 67, part 6, of the IJSEM.

PMID- 28891791
TI  - The E3 ubiquitin ligase IDOL regulates synaptic ApoER2 levels and is important
      for plasticity and learning.
AB  - Neuronal ApoE receptors are linked to learning and memory, but the pathways
      governing their abundance, and the mechanisms by which they affect the function
      of neural circuits are incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that the E3
      ubiquitin ligase IDOL determines synaptic ApoER2 protein levels in response to
      neuronal activation and regulates dendritic spine morphogenesis and plasticity.
      IDOL-dependent changes in ApoER2 abundance modulate dendritic filopodia
      initiation and synapse maturation. Loss of IDOL in neurons results in
      constitutive overexpression of ApoER2 and is associated with impaired activity
      dependent structural remodeling of spines and defective LTP in primary neuron
      cultures and hippocampal slices. IDOL-deficient mice show profound impairment in
      experience-dependent reorganization of synaptic circuits in the barrel cortex, as
      well as diminished spatial and associative learning. These results identify
      control of lipoprotein receptor abundance by IDOL as a post-transcriptional
      mechanism underlying the structural and functional plasticity of synapses and
      neural circuits.

PMID- 28891792
TI  - PGAM5 promotes lasting FoxO activation after developmental mitochondrial stress
      and extends lifespan in Drosophila.
AB  - The mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) has been associated with long
      lifespan across metazoans. In Caenorhabditis elegans, mild developmental
      mitochondrial stress activates UPRmt reporters and extends lifespan. We show that
      similar developmental stress is necessary and sufficient to extend Drosophila
      lifespan, and identify Phosphoglycerate Mutase 5 (PGAM5) as a mediator of this
      response. Developmental mitochondrial stress leads to activation of FoxO, via
      Apoptosis Signal-regulating Kinase 1 (ASK1) and Jun-N-terminal Kinase (JNK). This
      activation persists into adulthood and induces a select set of chaperones, many
      of which have been implicated in lifespan extension in flies. Persistent FoxO
      activation can be reversed by a high-protein diet in adulthood, through mTORC1
      and GCN-2 activity. Accordingly, the observed lifespan extension is prevented on
      a high-protein diet and in FoxO-null flies. The diet-sensitivity of this pathway
      has important implications for interventions that seek to engage the UPRmt to
      improve metabolic health and longevity.

PMID- 28891794
TI  - A new target for G protein signaling.
AB  - G protein-coupled receptor stimulation inhibits TRPM3 channel activity through
      direct binding of the Gbetagamma subunit to the channel.

PMID- 28891795
TI  - [Intravesical botulinum toxin under local anestesia as ambulatory procedure.]
AB  - Bladder hyperactivity is described as the presence of "voiding urgency, generally
      associated with increased daytime frequency and nocturia, with or without urinary
      incontinence, in the absence of urinary tract infection or other obvious
      pathology". Onabotulinum toxin A (BTA) is a recommendable therapeutic option in
      case of failure, contraindication or refusal of the conservative therapy or other
      non-pharmacological therapies. The injection of BTA in the detrusor has been
      performed under local, regional or general anesthesia either in the conventional
      or major ambulatory surgery operative room or in the cystoscopy room. The
      objective of this paper is to describe the procedure to perform BTA therapy as an
      ambulatory operation under intravesical local anesthesia in the cystoscopy room,
      describing its advantages and limitations.

PMID- 28891796
TI  - [Validation of the spanish version of the pediatric lower urinary tract symptoms
      scale (PLUTSS).]
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction (LUTD) is the most common clinical
      problem in pediatric urology. To our knowledge non-validated instruments properly
      designed to screen lower urinary tract symptoms in the pediatric population has
      been translated and adapted to Spanish population. Pediatric Lower Urinary Tract
      Symptoms Score (PLUTSS) has proven to be a valid questionnaire for screening and
      evaluation of the response of children with LUTD to therapy. The aim of this
      study was to validate the PLUTSS questionnaire into Spanish, and put it to
      clinical use in pediatric patients, with cross-cultural equivalence to the
      original version. METHODS: The PLUTSS questionnaire was validated between
      February 2015 and February 2016. The Spanish version was obtained by using the
      forward/ back-translation method with expert, bilingual translator, complying
      with the ISPOR principles. The questionnaire was administered to 80 patients with
      either lower urinary tract symptoms (40) or without any urological complaints
      (40). A descriptive statistical analysis of interscale correlation was performed.
      To confirm reliability, testretest reliability was assessed by intra-class
      correlation coefficient, and the internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's
      alpha coefficient. ROC curve was used to define cutpoint and its validity in
      discrimination between groups. RESULTS: The median of the two groups was
      significantly different: 20.53 (patients with LUTD) vs 3.27 (controls). Internal
      consistence of the 13-item scale (without quality of life item) was high:
      Cronbach alpha coefficient 0.827. The test-retest analysis of reproducibility
      showed an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.997 (95%IC: 0.994-0.999)
      (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the PLUTSS questionnaire has
      proven to be acceptable and culturally equivalent to the original version. It has
      a good degree of consistency, validity and reliability. PLUTSS showed a high
      power to discriminate patients with LUTD.

PMID- 28891793
TI  - Regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor via a BET-dependent enhancer drives
      antiandrogen resistance in prostate cancer.
AB  - In prostate cancer, resistance to the antiandrogen enzalutamide (Enz) can occur
      through bypass of androgen receptor (AR) blockade by the glucocorticoid receptor
      (GR). In contrast to fixed genomic alterations, here we show that GR-mediated
      antiandrogen resistance is adaptive and reversible due to regulation of GR
      expression by a tissue-specific enhancer. GR expression is silenced in prostate
      cancer by a combination of AR binding and EZH2-mediated repression at the GR
      locus, but is restored in advanced prostate cancers upon reversion of both
      repressive signals. Remarkably, BET bromodomain inhibition resensitizes drug
      resistant tumors to Enz by selectively impairing the GR signaling axis via this
      enhancer. In addition to revealing an underlying molecular mechanism of GR-driven
      drug resistance, these data suggest that inhibitors of broadly active chromatin
      readers could have utility in nuanced clinical contexts of acquired drug
      resistance with a more favorable therapeutic index.

PMID- 28891797
TI  - [Overall survival and renal function after partial and radical nephrectomy in
      malignant localized renal tumors.]
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the overall survival rate and renal function in our series
      after radical nephrectomy (RN) and partial nephrectomy (PN) in renal tumors in an
      early stage. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 229
      patients who underwent RN or PN for renal cancer T1-T2N0M0 in our center between
      1995 and 2015. We described demographic factors, first symptom, TNM, histology,
      post-surgery data, recurrence rate and renal function. We utilized Fisher test,
      Chi square test and T-Student and we considered statistical significance when
      p<0.05. RESULTS: 203 patients underwent RN and 26 PN. 39.4% of the tumors who
      received RN were T1bN0M0 and 76.92% of PN were T1aN0M0. We report nine
      complications grade II of modified Clavien System for RN and only one grade I for
      PN. We detected an 11.3% recurrence in RN and none in PN. 66%of patients from RN
      are alive today, 12.81% died as result of renal cancer and 22.7% suffered a non
      cancer-specific death. No deaths were observed in PN group. We observed similar
      mean preoperative serum creatinine (Cr) in both groups. Creatinine after the
      first post-operative month was 1.81mg/dL and 1.06mg/dL for RN and PN,
      respectively; At one year post-operative we registered Cr 1.82mg/dL and Cr
      0.97mg/dL, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Both methods provide excellent oncologic
      results for renal carcinoma in an early stage. PN is safe and reduces the
      incidence of renal dysfunction with a lower rate of non-cancer-specific death.

PMID- 28891798
TI  - [Effect of the cellular and humoral immune response in infertile couples and its
      relationship with infections.]
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of different
      microorganisms isolated from the urogenital tract of infertile men and assess
      whether there are differences in semen parameters according to the presence or
      absence of genital infections. METHODS: 280 semen samples from infertile men were
      studied retrospectively. Semen parameters were analyzed according to the World
      Health Organization criteria (WHO 2010). Microbiological analysis was performed
      using the modified method of Stamey and Meares proposed by Santoianni et al.
      RESULTS: Microbiological studies showed absence of microorganisms or presence of
      usual colonizing flora in 67.86% of the samples (GROUP 1) and presence of at
      least one pathogen or potential pathogen in 32.14% (GROUP 2). No significant
      differences in ejaculate volume (p=0.353), pH value (p=0.801), motility (p>0.30),
      citric acid concentration (p=0.383) and viscosity (p=0.948) were observed between
      the two groups. The relative sperm count was significantly lower in infected
      patients than in those without pathogens (p=0.05). Teratozoospermia index (TZI)
      was evaluated. Samples of infected patients showed TZI values higher than
      patients without microorganisms or normal genital tract flora (p<0.0001).
      CONCLUSIONS: A third of the studied population had genital infections. Based on
      our results, sperm culture may be considered in the early stages of the study of
      the infertile patient. Early diagnosis of an infectious disease could be useful
      for a suitable treatment for couples with reproductive failure.

PMID- 28891799
TI  - [Paratesticular sarcoma with synchronous renal carcinoma.]
AB  - OBJETIVE: Primary undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) of the testicular
      tunics is rare, and synchronism with other malignancies of the urinary tract is
      uncommon, and may complicate the staging and therapeutic approach. We report the
      case of a patient diagnosed with primary paratesticular UPS with synchronous
      Renal Carcinoma. METHODS: Patient presenting with intrascrotal tumor who
      underwent left radical orchiectomy. In staging work up studies a second urologic
      neoplasia was found in the kidney. Histological diagnosis using
      immunohistochemical techniques for adequate characterization was performed.
      Adjuvant treatment options were evaluated. We review the literature and discuss
      the case. RESULTS: The UPS diagnosis was performed with immunohistochemistry.
      Paratesticular origin from testicular tunics was evident in the macroscopic
      evaluation. After finding the synchronic ipsilateral renal tumor, he underwent
      conventional left radical nephrectomy, ipsilateral adrenalectomy, excision of
      remnant left cord and para-aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy. He received
      chemotherapy and adjuvant radiotherapy. Currently, after twelve months of follow
      up there is no evidence of disease. CONCLUSIONS: The UPS is a heterogeneous group
      with an exclusion immunohistochemical diagnosis. Its management requires a
      multidisciplinary approach; the initial surgical treatment is accepted for the
      paratesticular mass with high section radical orchiectomy. Although there is
      insufficient evidence of the efficacy of adjunctive lymphadenectomy, chemotherapy
      and/or radiotherapy.

PMID- 28891800
TI  - A novel heterozygous mutation in the Birt-Hogg-Dube Syndrome.
AB  - OBJETIVE: Our aim is to present a novel mutation of the Birt-Hogg-Dube Syndrome.
      METHODS: We present a case report of a 70-year-old male with three solid nodulary
      lesions of 4, 2.6, and 3 cm each in the right kidney, and two lesions of 1.5 and
      1.3 cm in the left kidney. RESULTS: Needle biopsy was performed. The pathological
      analysis of right kidney lesions revealed a renal tumor suggestive of chromophobe
      renal cell carcinoma and medullar tumor with zones that suggested oncocytosis.
      Genetic test results were positive for a novel heterozygous mutation c.1198G>A;
      p.V400I in exon 11 of the FLCN gene. CONCLUSION: In patients presenting with
      bilateral multifocal renal tumors of oncocytic hybrid histology, Birt- Hogg-Dube
      syndrome should be the first diagnosis in mind. The mutation found in this
      patient has not been previously described in the literature in the context of
      BHD.

PMID- 28891801
TI  - A retrospective analysis of mathieu and tip urethroplasty techniques for distal
      hypospadias repair; A 20 year experience.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify the changes in the application rate of two
      surgical techniques in distal hypospadias repair in years and compare the most
      popular two surgical repair techniques for distal hypospadias in terms of
      surgical outcomes, the factors that affect the outcomes, which were performed
      over a 20 year period. METHODS: In this study, the records of 492 consecutive
      patients that had undergone an operation for distal hypospadias in the urology
      clinic of Ankara between May 1990 and December 2010 using either Mathieu or TIPU
      surgical techniques were reviewed retrospectively. The patients who had glanular,
      coronal, and subcoronal meatus, were accepted as distal hypospadias cases. Among
      the 492 examined medical records, it was revealed that 331 and 161 surgical
      interventions were performed by using the Mathieu urethroplasty technique (Group
      1) and TIP urethroplasty technique (Group-2), respectively. Group-1 was divided
      into two subgroups; namely Group-1a (patients with primary hypospadias) and Group
      1b (patients with previous hypospadias operation). Likewise, Group-2 was divided
      into two subgroups; namely group-2a and group-2b. The patients' ages, number of
      previously urethroplasty operations, localization of the external urethral meatus
      prior to the operation, chordee state, length of the newly formed urethra,
      whether urinary diversion was done or not, post-operative complications and data
      regarding the follow-up period were evaluated, and the effects of these variables
      on the surgical outcome were investigated via statistical analyses. The primary
      objective of this study is to identify the changes in the application rate of two
      surgical techniques in distal hypospadias repair over the a 20 year period, and
      the secondary objectives are to compare the most popular two surgical repair
      techniques for distal hypospadias in terms of surgical outcomes, and the factors
      affecting the outcomes. Independent samples t test and Pearson's Chisquare test
      was used for statistical analysis. p<0.05 was considered as statistically
      significant. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between
      the subgroups in terms of age, length of the neo-urethra, number of previously
      performed urethroplasty operations, surgical success rates, or complications
      (p>0.05). The concurrent utilization of the cystostomy and urethral stent was
      significantly more frequent in group-1 (p<0.05; Pearson's Chi-square test). It
      was determined that over time, TIP urethroplasty has become a more preferred
      technique for the repair of distal hypospadias. CONCLUSIONS: Both surgical
      techniques have similar success rates in distal hypospadias cases. TIP
      urethroplasty has become the method of choice over time.

PMID- 28891802
TI  - [Una vez en un millon.]

PMID- 28891803
TI  - Fractura de cuerpo cavernoso con lesion uretral.

PMID- 28891804
TI  - Detection of suspended nanoparticles with near-ambient pressure x-ray
      photoelectron spectroscopy.
AB  - Two systems of suspended nanoparticles have been studied with near-ambient
      pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: silver nanoparticles in water and
      strontium fluoride-calcium fluoride core-shell nanoparticles in ethylene glycol.
      The corresponding dry samples were measured under ultra high vacuum for
      comparison. The results obtained under near-ambient pressure were overall
      comparable to those obtained under ultra high vacuum, although measuring silver
      nanoparticles in water requires a high pass energy and a long acquisition time. A
      shift towards higher binding energies was found for the silver nanoparticles in
      aqueous suspension compared to the corresponding dry sample, which can be
      assigned to a change of surface potential at the water-nanoparticle interface.
      The shell-thickness of the core-shell nanoparticles was estimated based on
      simulated spectra from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
      database for simulation of electron spectra for surface analysis. With the
      instrumental set-up presented in this paper, nanoparticle suspensions in a
      suitable container can be directly inserted into the analysis chamber and
      measured without prior sample preparation.

PMID- 28891805
TI  - Graphene-Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Hybrid on PDMS as Stretchable
      Electrodes.
AB  - Stretchable electrodes are a critical component for flexible electronics such as
      displays, energy devices, and wearable sensors. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and
      graphene have been considered for flexible electrode applications, due to their
      mechanical strength, high carrier mobility, and excellent thermal conductivity.
      Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) provide the possibility to serve as
      interconnects to graphene sheets as stretchable electrodes that could maintain
      high electrical conductivity under large tensile strain. In this work, a graphene
      oxide (GO) -VACNT hybrid on a PDMS substrate was demonstrated. Here, 50 MUm long
      VACNTs were grown on a Si/SiO2 wafer substrate via atmospheric pressure chemical
      vapor deposition (APCVD). VACNTs were directly transferred by delamination from
      the Si/SiO2 to a semi-cured PDMS substrate, ensuring strong adhesion between
      VACNTs and PDMS upon full curing of the PDMS. GO ink was then printed on the
      surface of the VACNT carpet and thermally reduced to reduced graphene oxide
      (rGO). The sheet resistance of the rGO-VACNT hybrid was measured under uniaxial
      tensile strains up to 300% applied to the substrate. Under applied strain, the
      rGO-VACNT hybrid maintained a sheet resistant of 386+/-55 Omega/sq. Cyclic
      stretching of the rGO-VACNT hybrid was performed with up to 50 cycles at 100%
      maximum tensile strain, showing no increase in sheet resistance. These results
      demonstrate promising performance of the rGO-VACNT hybrid for flexible
      electronics applications.

PMID- 28891806
TI  - Hybrid-DFT  +  V w method for band structure calculation of semiconducting
      transition metal compounds: the case of cerium dioxide.
AB  - Hybrid functionals' non-local exchange-correlation potential contains a
      derivative discontinuity that improves on standard semi-local density functional
      theory (DFT) band gaps. Moreover, by careful parameterization, hybrid functionals
      can provide self-interaction reduced description of selected states. On the other
      hand, the uniform description of all the electronic states of a given system is a
      known drawback of these functionals that causes varying accuracy in the
      description of states with different degrees of localization. This limitation can
      be remedied by the orbital dependent exact exchange extension of hybrid
      functionals; the hybrid-DFT  +  V w method (Ivady et al 2014 Phys. Rev. B 90
      035146). Based on the analogy of quasi-particle equations and hybrid-DFT single
      particle equations, here we demonstrate that parameters of hybrid-DFT  +  V w
      functional can be determined from approximate theoretical quasi-particle spectra
      without any fitting to experiment. The proposed method is illustrated on the
      charge self-consistent electronic structure calculation for cerium dioxide where
      itinerant valence states interact with well-localized 4f atomic like states,
      making this system challenging for conventional methods, either hybrid-DFT or LDA
      +  U, and therefore allowing for a demonstration of the advantages of the
      proposed scheme.

PMID- 28891807
TI  - Electronic structure of ferromagnetic heavy fermion, YbPdSi, YbPdGe, and YbPtGe
      studied by photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray emission spectroscopy, and DFT  + 
      DMFT calculations.
AB  - Electronic structures of ferromagnetic heavy fermion Yb compounds of YbPdSi,
      YbPdGe, and YbPtGe are studied by photoelectron spectroscopy around the Yb 4d-4f
      resonance, resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy at the Yb L 3 absorption edge,
      and density functional theory combined with dynamical mean field theory
      calculations. These compounds all have a temperature-independent intermediate Yb
      valence with large [Formula: see text] and small [Formula: see text] components.
      The magnitude of the Yb valence is evaluated to be YbPtGe [Formula: see text]
      YbPdGe [Formula: see text] YbPdSi, suggesting that YbPtGe is the closest to the
      quantum critical point among the three Yb compounds. Our results support the
      scenario of the coexistence of heavy fermion behavior and ferromagnetic ordering
      which is described by a magnetically-ordered Kondo lattice where the magnitude of
      the Kondo effect and the RKKY interaction are comparable.

PMID- 28891808
TI  - The offset droplet: a new methodology for studying the solid/water interface
      using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
AB  - The routine study of the solid-water interface by XPS is potentially
      revolutionary as this development opens up whole new areas of study for
      photoelectron spectroscopy. To date this has been realised by only a few groups
      worldwide and current techniques have significant restrictions on the type of
      samples which can be studied. Here we present a novel and uniquely flexible
      approach to the problem. By introducing a thin capillary into the NAP-XPS, a
      small droplet can be injected onto the sample surface, offset from the analysis
      area by several mm. By careful control of the droplet size a water layer of
      controllable thickness can be established in the analysis area-continuous with
      the bulk droplet. We present results from the solid-water interface on a vacuum
      prepared TiO2(110) single crystal and demonstrate that the solid/liquid interface
      is addressable.

PMID- 28891809
TI  - Relaxation dynamics and polydispersivity associated with defects and
      ferroelectric correlations in Ba doped EuTiO3.
AB  - We presented detailed frequency and temperature dependent dielectric response in
      Eu1-xBaxTiO3 (0 < x < 0.5). Excluding grain boundary effects, four relaxation
      mechanisms have been observed. Relaxation dynamics were observed to arise due to
      hopping conduction associated with defects namely, oxygen vacancies, Eu3+ and
      Ti3+ ions. Dielectric relaxation analysis led to identification of Ti ions in two
      different environments with different relaxation rates in the overall EuTiO3
      perovskite structure. Emergence of another relaxation mechanism associated with
      ferroelectric order as a consequence of formation of polar regions have also been
      observed for higher Ba concentrations. Addition of Ba led to the identification
      of relaxation dynamics associated with hopping conduction between Eu ions, Ti
      ions (in the regions with and without oxygen vacancies) and with the formation of
      ferroelectric polar regions. Furthermore, polydispersivity and relaxation times
      have been extracted within the frame work of modified Debye model. Relaxation
      times have been observed to increase with decrease in temperature while larger
      values of polydispersivity revealed wide distribution of relaxation times due to
      the presence of lattice parameter and energy barrier distributions.

PMID- 28891810
TI  - Halogenation of SiC for band-gap engineering and excitonic functionalization.
AB  - The optical excitation spectra and excitonic resonances are investigated in
      systematically functionalized SiC with Fluorine and/or Chlorine utilizing density
      functional theory in combination with many-body perturbation theory. The latter
      is required for a realistic description of the energy band-gaps as well as for
      the theoretical realization of excitons. Structural, electronic and optical
      properties are scrutinized and show the high stability of the predicted two
      dimensional materials. Their realization in laboratory is thus possible. Large
      band-gaps of the order of 4 eV are found in the so-called GW approximation, with
      the occurrence of bright excitons, optically active in the four investigated
      materials. Their binding energies vary from 0.9 eV to 1.75 eV depending on the
      decoration choice and in one case, a dark exciton is foreseen to exist in the
      fully chlorinated SiC. The wide variety of opto-electronic properties suggest
      halogenated SiC as interesting materials with potential not only for solar cell
      applications, anti-reflection coatings or high-reflective systems but also for a
      possible realization of excitonic Bose-Einstein condensation.

PMID- 28891811
TI  - NF-kappaB regulates GDF-15 to suppress macrophage surveillance during early tumor
      development.
AB  - Macrophages are attracted to developing tumors and can participate in immune
      surveillance to eliminate neoplastic cells. In response, neoplastic cells utilize
      NF-kappaB to suppress this killing activity, but the mechanisms underlying their
      self-protection remain unclear. Here, we report that this dynamic interaction
      between tumor cells and macrophages is integrally linked by a soluble factor
      identified as growth and differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15). In vitro, tumor
      derived GDF-15 signals in macrophages to suppress their proapoptotic activity by
      inhibiting TNF and nitric oxide (NO) production. In vivo, depletion of GDF-15 in
      Ras-driven tumor xenografts and in an orthotopic model of pancreatic cancer
      delayed tumor development. This delay correlated with increased infiltrating
      antitumor macrophages. Further, production of GDF-15 is directly regulated by NF
      kappaB, and the colocalization of activated NF-kappaB and GDF-15 in epithelial
      ducts of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma supports the importance of this
      observation. Mechanistically, we found that GDF-15 suppresses macrophage activity
      by inhibiting TGF-beta-activated kinase (TAK1) signaling to NF-kappaB, thereby
      blocking synthesis of TNF and NO. Based on these results, we propose that the NF
      kappaB/GDF-15 regulatory axis is important for tumor cells in evading macrophage
      immune surveillance during the early stages of tumorigenesis.

PMID- 28891813
TI  - No evidence of HIV replication in children on antiretroviral therapy.
AB  - It remains controversial whether current antiretroviral therapy (ART) fully
      suppresses the cycles of HIV replication and viral evolution in vivo. If
      replication persists in sanctuary sites such as the lymph nodes, a high priority
      should be placed on improving ART regimes to target these sites. To investigate
      the question of ongoing viral replication on current ART regimens, we analyzed
      HIV populations in longitudinal samples from 10 HIV-1-infected children who
      initiated ART when viral diversity was low. Eight children started ART at less
      than ten months of age and showed suppression of plasma viremia for seven to nine
      years. Two children had uncontrolled viremia for fifteen and thirty months,
      respectively, before viremia suppression, and served as positive controls for HIV
      replication and evolution. These latter 2 children showed clear evidence of virus
      evolution, whereas multiple methods of analysis bore no evidence of virus
      evolution in any of the 8 children with viremia suppression on ART. Phylogenetic
      trees simulated with the recently reported evolutionary rate of HIV-1 on ART of 6
      * 10-4 substitutions/site/month bore no resemblance to the observed data. Taken
      together, these data refute the concept that ongoing HIV replication is common
      with ART and is the major barrier to curing HIV-1 infection.

PMID- 28891812
TI  - Herpes simplex virus-1 evasion of CD8+ T cell accumulation contributes to viral
      encephalitis.
AB  - Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) is the most common cause of sporadic viral
      encephalitis, which can be lethal or result in severe neurological defects even
      with antiviral therapy. While HSV-1 causes encephalitis in spite of HSV-1
      specific humoral and cellular immunity, the mechanism by which HSV-1 evades the
      immune system in the central nervous system (CNS) remains unknown. Here we
      describe a strategy by which HSV-1 avoids immune targeting in the CNS. The HSV-1
      UL13 kinase promotes evasion of HSV-1-specific CD8+ T cell accumulation in
      infection sites by downregulating expression of the CD8+ T cell attractant
      chemokine CXCL9 in the CNS of infected mice, leading to increased HSV-1 mortality
      due to encephalitis. Direct injection of CXCL9 into the CNS infection site
      enhanced HSV-1-specific CD8+ T cell accumulation, leading to marked improvements
      in the survival of infected mice. This previously uncharacterized strategy for
      HSV-1 evasion of CD8+ T cell accumulation in the CNS has important implications
      for understanding the pathogenesis and clinical treatment of HSV-1 encephalitis.

PMID- 28891814
TI  - Fibroblast-specific TGF-beta-Smad2/3 signaling underlies cardiac fibrosis.
AB  - The master cytokine TGF-beta mediates tissue fibrosis associated with
      inflammation and tissue injury. TGF-beta induces fibroblast activation and
      differentiation into myofibroblasts that secrete extracellular matrix proteins.
      Canonical TGF-beta signaling mobilizes Smad2 and Smad3 transcription factors that
      control fibrosis by promoting gene expression. However, the importance of TGF
      beta-Smad2/3 signaling in fibroblast-mediated cardiac fibrosis has not been
      directly evaluated in vivo. Here, we examined pressure overload-induced cardiac
      fibrosis in fibroblast- and myofibroblast-specific inducible Cre-expressing mouse
      lines with selective deletion of the TGF-beta receptors Tgfbr1/2, Smad2, or
      Smad3. Fibroblast-specific deletion of Tgfbr1/2 or Smad3, but not Smad2, markedly
      reduced the pressure overload-induced fibrotic response as well as fibrosis
      mediated by a heart-specific, latency-resistant TGF-beta mutant transgene.
      Interestingly, cardiac fibroblast-specific deletion of Tgfbr1/2, but not Smad2/3,
      attenuated the cardiac hypertrophic response to pressure overload stimulation.
      Mechanistically, loss of Smad2/3 from tissue-resident fibroblasts attenuated
      injury-induced cellular expansion within the heart and the expression of fibrosis
      mediating genes. Deletion of Smad2/3 or Tgfbr1/2 from cardiac fibroblasts
      similarly inhibited the gene program for fibrosis and extracellular matrix
      remodeling, although deletion of Tgfbr1/2 uniquely altered expression of an array
      of regulatory genes involved in cardiomyocyte homeostasis and disease
      compensation. These findings implicate TGF-beta-Smad2/3 signaling in activated
      tissue-resident cardiac fibroblasts as principal mediators of the fibrotic
      response.

PMID- 28891815
TI  - RNA-binding protein ZFP36L1 maintains posttranscriptional regulation of bile acid
      metabolism.
AB  - Bile acids function not only as detergents that facilitate lipid absorption but
      also as signaling molecules that activate the nuclear receptor farnesoid X
      receptor (FXR). FXR agonists are currently being evaluated as therapeutic agents
      for a number of hepatic diseases due to their lipid-lowering and antiinflammatory
      properties. FXR is also essential for maintaining bile acid homeostasis and
      prevents the accumulation of bile acids. Elevated bile acids activate FXR, which
      in turn switches off bile acid synthesis by reducing the mRNA levels of bile acid
      synthesis genes, including cholesterol 7alpha-hydroxylase (Cyp7a1). Here, we show
      that FXR activation triggers a rapid posttranscriptional mechanism to degrade
      Cyp7a1 mRNA. We identified the RNA-binding protein Zfp36l1 as an FXR target gene
      and determined that gain and loss of function of ZFP36L1 reciprocally regulate
      Cyp7a1 mRNA and bile acid levels in vivo. Moreover, we found that mice lacking
      hepatic ZFP36L1 were protected from diet-induced obesity and steatosis. The
      reduced adiposity and antisteatotic effects observed in ZFP36L1-deficient mice
      were accompanied by impaired lipid absorption that was consistent with altered
      bile acid metabolism. Thus, the ZFP36L1-dependent regulation of bile acid
      metabolism is an important metabolic contributor to obesity and hepatosteatosis.

PMID- 28891816
TI  - Syntaphilin controls a mitochondrial rheostat for proliferation-motility
      decisions in cancer.
AB  - Tumors adapt to an unfavorable microenvironment by controlling the balance
      between cell proliferation and cell motility, but the regulators of this process
      are largely unknown. Here, we show that an alternatively spliced isoform of
      syntaphilin (SNPH), a cytoskeletal regulator of mitochondrial movements in
      neurons, is directed to mitochondria of tumor cells. Mitochondrial SNPH buffers
      oxidative stress and maintains complex II-dependent bioenergetics, sustaining
      local tumor growth while restricting mitochondrial redistribution to the cortical
      cytoskeleton and tumor cell motility. Conversely, introduction of stress stimuli
      to the microenvironment, including hypoxia, acutely lowered SNPH levels,
      resulting in bioenergetics defects and increased superoxide production. In turn,
      this suppressed tumor cell proliferation but increased tumor cell invasion via
      greater mitochondrial trafficking to the cortical cytoskeleton. Loss of SNPH or
      expression of an SNPH mutant lacking the mitochondrial localization sequence
      resulted in increased metastatic dissemination in xenograft or syngeneic tumor
      models in vivo. Accordingly, tumor cells that acquired the ability to metastasize
      in vivo constitutively downregulated SNPH and exhibited higher oxidative stress,
      reduced cell proliferation, and increased cell motility. Therefore, SNPH is a
      stress-regulated mitochondrial switch of the cell proliferation-motility balance
      in cancer, and its pathway may represent a therapeutic target.

PMID- 28891818
TI  - Machine-learning Support to Individual Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment
      Using Multimodal MRI and Cognitive Assessments.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Understanding whether the cognitive profile of a patient indicates
      mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or performance levels within normality is often a
      clinical challenge. The use of resting-state functional magnetic resonance
      imaging (RS-fMRI) and machine learning may represent valid aids in clinical
      settings for the identification of MCI patients. METHODS: Machine-learning models
      were computed to test the classificatory accuracy of cognitive, volumetric
      [structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI)] and blood oxygen level dependent
      connectivity (extracted from RS-fMRI) features, in single-modality and mixed
      classifiers. RESULTS: The best and most significant classifier was the RS
      fMRI+Cognitive mixed classifier (94% accuracy), whereas the worst performing was
      the sMRI classifier (~80%). The mixed global (sMRI+RS-fMRI+Cognitive) had a
      slightly lower accuracy (~90%), although not statistically different from the
      mixed RS-fMRI+Cognitive classifier. The most important cognitive features were
      indices of declarative memory and semantic processing. The crucial volumetric
      feature was the hippocampus. The RS-fMRI features selected by the algorithms were
      heavily based on the connectivity of mediotemporal, left temporal, and other
      neocortical regions. CONCLUSION: Feature selection was profoundly driven by
      statistical independence. Some features showed no between-group differences, or
      showed a trend in either direction. This indicates that clinically relevant brain
      alterations typical of MCI might be subtle and not inferable from group analysis.

PMID- 28891819
TI  - Factors Influencing Successful Lumbar Puncture in Alzheimer Research.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Lumbar puncture (LP) is increasingly common in Alzheimer disease
      research; however, agreement to undergo LP varies. We sought to determine factors
      influencing LP consent at Alzheimer's Disease Centers (ADCs) in the United
      States. METHODS: A 3-part survey was distributed to each ADC: (1) ADC LP
      Experience; (2) LP Requestor Experience; and (3) Patient LP Experience (both
      Initial and Follow-up). In all, 64 LP Requestor, 579 Patient/Initial, and 404
      Patient/Follow-up surveys were collected. Logistic regression analyses with
      generalized estimating equations were used to assess factors associated with LP
      agreement and post-LP complications. RESULTS: Asians and those viewing LP
      negatively were less likely to agree to LP. Three hundred fifty-two participants
      had an LP; LP headache occurred in 11.9% (blood patch required in 1.4%) and 9.9%
      reported other complications. Younger individuals, women, those diagnosed with
      mild cognitive impairment, use of a Quincke needle, <=20 mL cerebrospinal fluid
      drawn, and hemorrhage during LP were associated with LP headache. Use of gravity
      flow during LP was associated with fewer other complications (nausea, dizziness,
      vasovagal response, back pain, neck stiffness, and/or nerve root pain).
      CONCLUSIONS: LP in Alzheimer disease research is generally safe and well
      tolerated. Factors influencing LP agreement potentially could be studied to
      advance participant acceptance of the procedure.

PMID- 28891820
TI  - Transitional Objects to Faciliate Grieving Following Perinatal Loss.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Parents who experience a perinatal loss often leave the hospital with
      empty arms and no tangible mementos to validate the parenting experience.
      Opportunities to create parenting experiences with transitional objects exist
      following the infant's death. PURPOSE: This article offers suggestions for staff
      in units where infant loss is possible to best assist parents in optimal grieving
      through the offering of transitional bereavement objects. METHODS/SEARCH
      STRATEGY: CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic
      Reviews were searched using the following key words-perinatal bereavement, grief,
      perinatal loss, transitional objects, bereavement photography-and the search was
      limited to 5 years and the English language. FINDINGS/RESULTS: Recommendations
      exist and are well supported by leading neonatal and perinatal nursing and
      medicine organizations for the use of transitional objects to facilitate healthy
      grieving when parents experience perinatal loss. Transitional objects are
      mementos that validate the meaning of parenthood-even if the physical act of
      parenting was brief. Nursing and medical staff have significant roles in guiding
      parents to a healthy state of bereavement and ultimately managing long-term
      grief. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Transitional objects can be provided by staff
      that are low-cost or free, such as taking photographs for parents, or they can
      involve purchased products from perinatal bereavement programs. In the latter
      case, funding needs are a consideration for budgeting decisions. IMPLICATIONS FOR
      RESEARCH: Immediately following a loss, parents experience a brief sense of
      healing after receiving mementos of their infant. However, further research is
      needed to assess long-term effects of receiving transitional objects following
      perinatal loss.

PMID- 28891817
TI  - Neutrophil FcgammaRIIA promotes IgG-mediated glomerular neutrophil capture via
      Abl/Src kinases.
AB  - The kidney glomerular capillaries are frequent sites of immune complex deposition
      and subsequent neutrophil accumulation in post-infectious and rapidly progressive
      glomerulonephritis. However, the mechanisms of neutrophil recruitment remain
      enigmatic, and there is no targeted therapeutic to avert this proximal event in
      glomerular inflammation. The uniquely human activating Fc receptor FcgammaRIIA
      promotes glomerular neutrophil accumulation and damage in anti-glomerular
      basement membrane-induced (anti-GBM-induced) glomerulonephritis when expressed on
      murine neutrophils. Here, we found that neutrophils are directly captured by
      immobilized IgG antibodies under physiological flow conditions in vitro through
      FcgammaRIIA-dependent, Abl/Src tyrosine kinase-mediated F-actin polymerization.
      Biophysical measurements showed that the lifetime of FcgammaRIIA-IgG bonds
      increased under mechanical force in an F-actin-dependent manner, which could
      enable the capture of neutrophils under physiological flow. Kidney intravital
      microscopy revealed that circulating neutrophils, which were similar in diameter
      to glomerular capillaries, abruptly arrested following anti-GBM antibody
      deposition via neutrophil FcgammaRIIA and Abl/Src kinases. Accordingly,
      inhibition of Abl/Src with bosutinib reduced FcgammaRIIA-mediated glomerular
      neutrophil accumulation and renal injury in experimental, crescentic anti-GBM
      nephritis. These data identify a pathway of neutrophil recruitment within
      glomerular capillaries following IgG deposition that may be targeted by bosutinib
      to avert glomerular injury.

PMID- 28891821
TI  - Heart Rate Variability as a Feeding Intervention Outcome Measure in the Preterm
      Infant.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Feeding interventions for preterm infants aim to reduce the
      physiologic stress of feeding to promote growth. Heart rate variability (HRV) is
      a potential noninvasive measure of physiologic stress that may be useful for
      evaluating efficacy of feeding interventions. PURPOSE: To evaluate whether HRV is
      a sensitive measure of physiologic stress compared with standard physiologic
      outcomes in the context of a feeding intervention study. METHODS: This was a
      secondary analysis of a within-subjects, cross-over design study comparing usual
      care feeding with a gentle, coregulated (CoReg) feeding approach in 14 infants
      born less than 35 weeks' postmenstrual age. HRV indices were calculated from
      electrocardiogram data and compared with standard physiologic outcomes, including
      oxygen saturation (Spo2), respiratory rate (RR), apnea, heart rate (HR), and
      bradycardia. Data were analyzed using linear mixed modeling. RESULTS: Infants fed
      using the CoReg approach had fewer apneic events and higher RR, suggesting they
      were able to breathe more during feeding. No statistically significant
      differences were found in SpO2, HR, bradycardia, or high frequency power (the
      most commonly reported measure of HRV). Infants fed using the usual care approach
      had significantly higher SD12, a measure of HRV indicating randomness in the HR,
      which is a potential indicator of elevated stress. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:
      SD12 was more sensitive to stress than SpO2, HR, and bradycardia. The utility of
      HRV as a measure of feeding outcomes in clinical practice needs further
      exploration. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: Further exploration of HRV as an
      intervention outcome measure is needed, particularly evaluating nonlinear
      indices, such as SD12.

PMID- 28891822
TI  - Panniculectomy: Perioperative nursing considerations.

PMID- 28891823
TI  - Longitudinal Changes in Electrically Evoked Auditory Event-Related Potentials in
      Children With Auditory Brainstem Implants: Preliminary Results Recorded Over 3
      Years.
AB  - OBJECTIVES: This preliminary study aimed (1) to assess longitudinal changes in
      electrically evoked auditory event-related potentials (eERPs) in children with
      auditory brainstem implants (ABIs) and (2) to explore whether these changes could
      be accounted for by maturation in the central auditory system of these patients.
      DESIGN: Study participants included 5 children (S1 to S5) with an ABI in the
      affected ear. The stimulus was a train of electrical pulses delivered to
      individual ABI electrodes via a research interface. For each subject, the eERP
      was repeatedly measured in multiple test sessions scheduled over up to 41 months
      after initial device activation. Longitudinal changes in eERPs recorded for each
      ABI electrode were evaluated using intraclass correlation tests for each subject.
      RESULTS: eERPs recorded in S1 showed notable morphological changes for five ABI
      electrodes over 41 months. In parallel, signs or symptoms of nonauditory
      stimulation elicited by these electrodes were observed or reported at 41 months.
      eERPs could not be observed in S2 after 9 months of ABI use but were recorded at
      12 months after initial stimulation. Repeatable eERPs were recorded in S3 in the
      first 9 months. However, these responses were either absent or showed remarkable
      morphological changes at 30 months. Longitudinal changes in eERP waveform
      morphology recorded in S4 and S5 were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: eERP responses
      in children with ABIs could change over a long period of time. Maturation of the
      central auditory system could not fully account for these observed changes.
      Children with ABIs need to be closely monitored for potential changes in auditory
      perception and unfavorable nonauditory sensations. Neuroimaging correlates are
      needed to better understand the emergence of nonauditory stimulation over time in
      these children.

PMID- 28891824
TI  - Low FODMAP: A Preliminary Strategy to Reduce Gastrointestinal Distress in
      Athletes.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Gastrointestinal (GI) distress in endurance athletes is prevalent
      and detrimental to performance. Adverse GI symptomatology can be analogous with
      irritable bowel syndrome, where fermentable oligosaccharide, disaccharide,
      monosaccharide, and polyols (FODMAP) reduction has demonstrated efficacy. This
      study investigated the effects of low FODMAP (LFOD) diet on GI distress
      parameters in runners with a history of nonclinical exercise-associated GI
      symptoms. METHODS: Eleven recreationally competitive runners (five men, six
      women; 5-km personal best 23:00 +/- 4:02 min:s) participated in the study.
      Runners were allocated to a randomized 6-d LFOD or high FODMAP (HFOD) diet
      separated by a 1-d wash-out in a controlled, single-blinded cross-over study. In
      each period participants completed two strenuous running sessions consisting of 5
      * 1000 m and a 7-km threshold run. GI symptoms (during-exercise and daily) and
      the Daily Analysis of Life Demand for Athletes questionnaires were completed.
      Area under the curve was calculated for daily GI symptoms across each dietary
      period and analysis was conducted using multilevel mixed-effects linear
      regression for comparison between the two diets. RESULTS: A significantly smaller
      area under the curve for daily GI symptoms 6 d during the LFOD compared with HFOD
      (mean difference, -13.4; 95% confidence interval, -22 to -4.60; P = 0.003) was
      observed. The daily GI symptoms that were significantly lower during LFOD were
      flatulence (P < 0.001), urge to defecate (P = 0.04), loose stool (P = 0.03), and
      diarrhea (P = 0.004). No significant differences in during exercise symptoms or
      Daily Analysis of Life Demand for Athletes responses were observed between diets
      (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings suggest that short-term FODMAP
      reduction may be a beneficial intervention to minimize daily GI symptoms in
      runners with exercise-related GI distress.

PMID- 28891825
TI  - Hemiepiphyseodesis for Juvenile and Adolescent Tibia Vara Utilizing Percutaneous
      Transphyseal Screws.
AB  - BACKGROUND: In juvenile and adolescent tibia vara patients with sufficient growth
      remaining, implant-controlled hemiepiphyseodesis, or guided growth, can be used
      to correct deformity. Recent reports have described hardware failure of certain
      hemiepiphyseodesis implants in overweight patients with tibia vara. We describe
      our experience using transphyseal screws to correct deformity in this patient
      population. METHODS: A retrospective chart and radiograph review was conducted on
      all juvenile and adolescent tibia vara patients who underwent lateral proximal
      tibial hemiepiphyseodesis using a single transphyseal screw. Charts were queried
      for preoperative and postoperative mechanical axis deviation, medial proximal
      tibial angle, lateral distal femoral angle, and postoperative complications or
      need for further surgery. RESULTS: In total, 14 affected limbs in 9 patients (6
      males) who underwent lateral proximal tibial transphyseal screw
      hemiepiphyseodesis were considered. Average chronologic age at implantation was
      10.4 years and average body mass index was 31.7 kg/m. At average 23-month follow
      up, the average mechanical axis deviation improved from 46 to 0 mm (P<0.001), and
      the average medial proximal tibial angle improved from 81 to 92 degrees
      (P<0.001). No limbs underwent further surgery to correct residual deformity.
      There were no complications or instances of implant failure associated with the
      transphyseal screws. CONCLUSIONS: Hemiepiphyseodesis using transphyseal screws is
      an effective technique to correct deformity in juvenile and adolescent tibia vara
      patients with sufficient growth remaining. This method can be used safely with
      few complications and with minimal risk of mechanical failure, even in overweight
      patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV-therapeutic.

PMID- 28891827
TI  - Development of an Animal Model for Inducing Various Degrees of Severity of
      Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis.
AB  - PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the biological changes after
      incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) induction by pancreatin in the guinea
      pigs and to explore the potentially appropriate timing and pancreatin
      concentration for IAD induction with different severity. DESIGN: In vivo,
      experimental study. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: An experimental animal model (guinea
      pig) in a controlled laboratory setting was used for investigation. METHODS: We
      developed an IAD model in guinea pigs by occluded application of 1%, 5%, and 10%
      pancreatin solutions for 1, 3, and 5 days, respectively. The irritant was applied
      to the posterior aspect of shaved guinea pigs. We used an adapted visual scoring
      system to evaluate IAD and its severity. We also measured differences of the
      fluid absorption rate as a proxy for transepidermal water loss and enzyme-linked
      immunosorbent assays of interleukin 2 and interferon-gamma expression as
      indicators of IAD-related inflammation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to
      examine group differences. RESULTS: Higher pancreatin concentrations led to more
      severe skin responses and higher mean visual scale scores, yet the statistically
      score differences were only observed in the 1% and 5% pancreatin groups after 3
      and 5 days of exposure compared with 1 day of exposure (P < .05). The average
      absorbed fluid rate increased from 1 to 3 days of exposure and reached a plateau
      at 3 days; significant differences were observed in 3 and 5 days of exposure (P <
      .05) when compared with 1 day of exposure but not between 3 and 5 days of
      exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure of a guinea pig animal model to 1%, 5%, and 10%
      pancreatin solutions over a 3-day period induced IAD with different levels of
      severity. Additional studies using this model are warranted.

PMID- 28891826
TI  - Injection Volume and Anesthetic Effect in Serratus Plane Block.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Serratus plane block is performed for analgesia of the
      anterior chest wall. However, there has been no study concerning the appropriate
      volume for this block. This prospective randomized controlled study assesses the
      dermatomal spread and analgesic effects of serratus plane block. METHODS:
      Ultrasound-guided serratus plane block was performed for breast cancer surgery.
      The patients were randomly assigned to receive 20 or 40 mL of 0.375% ropivacaine.
      The primary end point was the number of affected dermatomes as assessed by cold
      test and pinprick test 20 minutes after the block procedure. Secondary end points
      were the time until the first postoperative analgesic rescue, adverse effects,
      and complications. RESULTS: The number of affected dermatomes assessed by the
      cold test for patients receiving 40 mL of 0.375% ropivacaine was significantly
      larger than that for patients receiving 20 mL (P = 0.002; 6 [5-7] vs 4 [3-4]
      dermatomes). Similarly, with the pinprick test, the affected area was larger for
      the 40 mL group than for the 20 mL group (P = 0.009; 4 [2-6] vs 2 [1-3]
      dermatomes). There were no differences between the 2 groups in secondary end
      points. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound-guided serratus plane block spread in the
      craniocaudal direction is more widespread with 40 mL than with 20 mL of 0.375%
      ropivacaine. The time until the first postoperative analgesic rescue dose was not
      extended by a larger volume of injection. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: UMIN
      Clinical Trials Registry (identifier UMIN000016549).

PMID- 28891829
TI  - Laparoscopic Procedure is Not Independently Associated With the Development of
      Intra-Abdominal Abscess After Appendectomy: A Multicenter Cohort Study With
      Propensity Score Matching Analysis.
AB  - AIM: The aim of this study was to identify independent risk factors for
      postoperative intra-abdominal abscess (IAA) after appendectomy for patients with
      acute appendicitis. BACKGRAOUND: Although laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) has been
      performed universally, whether LA is associated with an increased incidence of
      postoperative IAA compared with open appendectomy (OA) remains controversial,
      which causes some surgeons' increasing concerns. METHODS: We retrospectively
      analyzed 6805 consecutive adult patients with acute appendicitis who underwent LA
      or OA at 7 general hospitals in China. Patient characteristics, operative
      variables, and surgical outcomes were collected and compared between patients who
      underwent LA and OA. Propensity score matching analysis was used to minimize the
      bias in patient selection differing from various procedure of appendectomy.
      Independent risk factors associated with the development of postoperative IAA
      after appendectomy were identified by univariate and multivariate logistic
      regression analysis in the propensity matched cohort. RESULTS: Over a 3-year
      period, 2710 (39.8%) and 4095 (60.2%) patients underwent LA and OA respectively.
      Patients who underwent OA had more males, American Society of Anesthesiologists
      score 2-3, preoperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and perforated
      appendicitis than those who underwent LA (all P<0.01). Propensity score matched
      analysis created 2542 pairs of patients. Univariate analysis revealed that
      patients who underwent LA had a higher incidence of postoperative IAA than
      patients who underwent OA (6.7% vs. 5.3%; P=0.039). However, multivariate
      logistic regression analysis identified LA not to be an independent risk factor
      associated with the development of postoperative IAA (odds ratio, 1.053; 95%
      confidence interval, 0.922-1.657; P=0.216). CONCLUSIONS: The present study
      identified that laparoscopic procedure was not an independent risk factor
      associated with the development of postoperative IAA after appendectomy of acute
      appendicitis. Therefore, concerns of increased incidence of IAA because of
      laparoscopic procedure are unwarranted.

PMID- 28891828
TI  - Poor Performance on a Preoperative Cognitive Screening Test Predicts
      Postoperative Complications in Older Orthopedic Surgical Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The American College of Surgeons and the American Geriatrics Society
      have suggested that preoperative cognitive screening should be performed in older
      surgical patients. We hypothesized that unrecognized cognitive impairment in
      patients without a history of dementia is a risk factor for development of
      postoperative complications. METHODS: We enrolled 211 patients 65 yr of age or
      older without a diagnosis of dementia who were scheduled for an elective hip or
      knee replacement. Patients were cognitively screened preoperatively using the
      Mini-Cog and demographic, medical, functional, and emotional/social data were
      gathered using standard instruments or review of the medical record. Outcomes
      included discharge to place other than home (primary outcome), delirium, in
      hospital medical complications, hospital length-of-stay, 30-day emergency room
      visits, and mortality. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate
      analyses. RESULTS: Fifty of 211 (24%) patients screened positive for probable
      cognitive impairment (Mini-Cog less than or equal to 2). On age-adjusted
      multivariate analysis, patients with a Mini-Cog score less than or equal to 2
      were more likely to be discharged to a place other than home (67% vs. 34%; odds
      ratio = 3.88, 95% CI = 1.58 to 9.55), develop postoperative delirium (21% vs. 7%;
      odds ratio = 4.52, 95% CI = 1.30 to 15.68), and have a longer hospital length of
      stay (hazard ratio = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.42 to 0.95) compared to those with a Mini
      Cog score greater than 2. CONCLUSIONS: Many older elective orthopedic surgical
      patients have probable cognitive impairment preoperatively. Such impairment is
      associated with development of delirium postoperatively, a longer hospital stay,
      and lower likelihood of going home upon hospital discharge.

PMID- 28891830
TI  - Comparison of Postoperative Pain and Residual Gas Between Restrictive and Liberal
      Fluid Therapy in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Different fluid regimens are used in the clinical management of
      perioperative fluid therapy, but there still is the argument about which fluid
      regimen is better for patients. This study was mainly designed to compare
      different fluid regimens on postoperative pain and residual gas in patients
      undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS: A total of 100 patients were
      equally randomized to receive restrictive fluid infusion (n=50) with lactated
      Ringer (LR) solution 5 mL/kg/h or liberal fluid infusion (n=50), with 30 mL/kg/h
      lactated Ringer solution. Postoperative pain was evaluated at 1, 6, and 24 hours
      after surgery using a visual analog scale (VAS). Postoperative subdiaphragmatic
      residual gas was monitored by x-ray at 24 hours after surgery. RESULTS: Patients
      in the restrictive group had significantly higher VAS pain scores at 6 hours
      after surgery than those in the liberal group (P=0.009). The incidence of
      subdiaphragmatic residual gas in the restrictive group was higher than in the
      liberal group (P=0.045). Patients who had residual gas had higher VAS pain scores
      than those with no residual gas in the restrictive group at 6 hours after surgery
      (P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy with
      restrictive fluid therapy may suffer more severe postoperative pain than those
      receiving liberal fluid therapy. It suggests that the higher incidence of
      subdiaphragmatic residual gas may have occurred with restrictive fluid therapy.

PMID- 28891831
TI  - Mucosal Cytokine Profiles After Induction Therapy With Granulocyte/Monocyte
      Apheresis in New-onset Inflammatory Colitis.
AB  - Granulocyte/monocyte apheresis (GMA) selectively removes circulating granulocytes
      and monocytes; important producers of proinflammatory cytokines. Seven children
      with new-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) colitis were treated with GMA
      together with mesalazine, and had significant decreases in Pediatric UC Activity
      Index (P = 0.018) and Mayo endoscopic score (P = 0.013). We investigated the
      colonic mucosal cytokine profiles (analyzed with real-time polymerase chain
      reaction), before and after induction treatment, and in 6 non-IBD controls.
      Significant decreases were seen in Colony Stimulating Factor 2 (P = 0.018), tumor
      necrosis factor-alpha (P = 0.028), interleukin (IL)-23alpha (P = 0.043), IL-1beta
      (P = 0.028), IL-36gamma (P = 0.018), IL-10 (P = 0.028), and transforming growth
      factor beta 1 (P = 0.043) after treatment. In 6 non-IBD controls there were
      significantly lower levels of IL-12beta (P = 0.023) and IL-23alpha (P = 0.046)
      compared to the patients with IBD at onset, and IL-22 (P = 0.088) and IL-36gamma
      (P = 0.062) showed lower values without reaching significant differences. We
      speculate that the decreases in colonic mucosal cytokine profiles after treatment
      may explain the observed clinical efficacy in the GMA-treated children with IBD.

PMID- 28891832
TI  - Mimicking Own Mother's Milk for Preterms: Are We Getting Closer?

PMID- 28891833
TI  - Differences in Antipsychotic Prescriptions Between Centers in Young Outpatients
      With Schizophrenia.

PMID- 28891834
TI  - Naltrexone for Self-Injury in Borderline Personality With Venlafaxine-Associated
      Hyponatremia.

PMID- 28891835
TI  - The Effect of Dextromethorphan Premedication on Cough and Patient Tolerance
      During Flexible Bronchoscopy: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled
      Trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing bronchoscopy can experience problems such as
      anxiety and cough, requiring various doses of sedatives and analgesics. The
      purposes of this study were to investigate the effect of premedication with
      dextromethorphan on patients' cough and anxiety, and the use of
      analgesics/sedatives during flexible bronchoscopy (FB). METHODS: A randomized,
      double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective study was performed to assess the
      effect of dextromethorphan premedication on patients who underwent diagnostic
      bronchoscopy. Seventy patients included in this study were randomly allocated
      into 2 groups: group A consisted of 35 patients who received dextromethorphan
      before FB; and group B consisted of 35 patients who received a placebo. A
      questionnaire was given to the patients and bronchoscopist about perception of
      cough, anxiety, and discomfort. The amount of sedative medication and lidocaine
      use during the procedure and the procedure time were recorded. RESULTS: The group
      that was premedicated with dextromethorphan had lower complaint scores,
      significantly less coughing, significantly less stress assessed by the patient
      and the physician evaluation, shorter total procedure time, and fewer midazolam
      requirements during FB (P-value <0.05). CONCLUSION: Considering its safety
      profile, dextromethorphan premedication is an effective approach to facilitate
      the performance of FB for the physician, and could improve patient comfort.

PMID- 28891836
TI  - Feasibility and Safety of Flexible Bronchoscopy Performed Via Tracheal Tubes in
      Patients With Tracheostomies: A Retrospective, Single-Center Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Flexible bronchoscopy (FB) is commonly performed to assess, diagnose,
      and treat patients with respiratory disease, and is typically performed via
      transnasal or transoral approaches. FB can be performed via tracheal tubes in
      patients with tracheostomies; however, the safety and technical feasibility has
      not been established. The present study evaluates the safety and feasibility of
      performing FB via tracheal tubes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 45 patients
      underwent 56 procedures involving FB via tracheal tubes at a single institution
      from November 2013 to November 2014 and were included in this retrospective case
      series. RESULTS: Patients had a median age of 68 years (interquartile range, 56
      to 82.5), and 51% were female. Most patients had 2 comorbidities (interquartile
      range, 1 to 3), with the most common being hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and
      chronic kidney disease. Upper airway obstruction was the primary indication for
      bronchoscopy in 40% of patients. Fifty-three percent of patients had a Shiley
      tube #6, [internal cannula diameter (ICD) of 6.5 mm]; tracheal tubes in the
      remaining patients ranged from Shiley #4 (ICD, 5.5 mm) to Shiley #8 (ICD, 8.5
      mm). One patient did not complete the procedure due to severe hypertension
      (intraprocedural systolic blood pressure >180 mm Hg). During FB, no patients
      experienced cardiorespiratory arrest, arrhythmia, bleeding, or desaturation that
      required resuscitation. Eleven patients had a mucus plug leading to atelectasis
      during bronchoscopy, and 8 of these had a postprocedural chest x-ray finding of
      lung reexpansion. CONCLUSION: FB via tracheal tubes is a technically feasible and
      safe procedure that does not compromise patient oxygenation.

PMID- 28891837
TI  - An acute care approach to functional abdominal pain.
AB  - Functional abdominal pain disorders are commonly seen in the acute care setting
      and can be a source of frustration for patients and providers given their
      inherent chronic nature. However, an understanding of both the general approach
      to these disorders and the approach to specific common subtypes can help
      alleviate this frustration and lead to both short-term and long-term therapeutic
      success. This article describes the pathophysiology of these disorders and
      outlines a diagnostic and therapeutic approach to commonly seen functional
      abdominal pain disorders in adults.

PMID- 28891838
TI  - Disease screening and prevention for transgender and gender-diverse adults.
AB  - Primary care clinicians have an important role in the health and wellness of
      transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) adults and need to know best practices of
      health maintenance and disease prevention interventions. This article focuses on
      how exogenous use of sex steroids provided as hormone therapy and gender
      affirming procedures affect screening and prevention. Hormone therapy can affect
      the heart, liver, lipids, bones, brain, skin, and reproductive organs; likewise,
      behaviors and gender-affirming procedures may alter the risks, prevalence, and
      screening techniques of sexually transmitted infections. Where applicable,
      modifications accounting for those differences should be incorporated into the
      primary care of TGD adults.

PMID- 28891839
TI  - The relative effects of dexmedetomidine and propofol on cerebral blood flow
      velocity and regional brain oxygenation: A randomised noninferiority trial.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Dexmedetomidine constricts cerebral blood vessels without a
      concomitant reduction in cerebral metabolic oxygen consumption. Its safety as a
      sedative in patients with neurological diseases thus remains uncertain.
      OBJECTIVE: Our primary objective was to test the hypothesis that dexmedetomidine
      is noninferior to propofol as regards cerebral blood flow (CBF) velocity and
      brain oxygenation. DESIGN: Unblinded randomised trial. SETTING: Cleveland Clinic
      Hospital, Cleveland, from November 2010 to July 2013. PATIENTS: Forty-four
      patients scheduled for insertion of a deep-brain stimulating electrodes.
      INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomised to receive either dexmedetomidine or
      propofol sedation during deep-brain stimulating electrode insertion. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Intraoperative CBF velocity was measured with transcranial Doppler, and
      brain oxygenation was assessed with near-infrared spectroscopy. Noninferiority of
      dexmedetomidine to propofol was defined as a less than 20% difference in means.
      RESULTS: Twenty-three patients were given dexmedetomidine and 21 propofol.
      Baseline characteristics and operative management were similar in each group.
      Dexmedetomidine was noninferior to propofol on both CBF and brain oxygenation,
      confirming our primary hypothesis. For cerebral flood flow, the estimated ratio
      of means (dexmedetomidine/propofol) was 0.94 [90% CI: 0.84 to 1.05], P = 0.011
      for noninferiority. For brain oxygenation, the estimated ratio of means was 0.99
      [90% CI: 0.96 to 1.02], P < 0.001 for noninferiority. Superiority was not found
      for either primary outcome. Dexmedetomidine provided deeper sedation than
      propofol, with a difference of medians of 1 [90% CI: 0 to 2], P < 0.001 on the
      Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation scale. No significant differences
      were observed in pulsatility index, cerebral perfusion pressure, number of
      hypertensive or apnoeic episodes. CONCLUSION: Regional brain oxygenation and CBF
      velocity are comparably preserved during dexmedetomidine and propofol sedation.
      Thus, the use of dexmedetomidine in patients with movement disorders appears
      reasonable. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov
      (NCT 01200433).

PMID- 28891840
TI  - Comprehensive Training and Safe Implementation of a Transanal Total Mesorectal
      Excision Program.

PMID- 28891841
TI  - Need a LIFT?

PMID- 28891842
TI  - The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons Clinical Practice Guidelines
      for the Treatment of Colon Cancer.
AB  - The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons is dedicated to ensuring high
      quality patient care by advancing the science, prevention, and management of
      disorders and diseases of the colon, rectum, and anus. The Clinical Practice
      Guidelines Committee is composed of society members who are chosen because they
      have demonstrated expertise in the specialty of colon and rectal surgery. This
      committee was created to lead international efforts in defining quality care for
      conditions related to the colon, rectum, and anus. This is accompanied by
      developing Clinical Practice Guidelines based on the best available evidence.
      These guidelines are inclusive and not prescriptive. Their purpose is to provide
      information on which decisions can be made, rather than to dictate a specific
      form of treatment. These guidelines are intended for the use of all
      practitioners, health care workers, and patients who desire information about the
      management of the conditions addressed by the topics covered in these guidelines.
      It should be recognized that these guidelines should not be deemed inclusive of
      all proper methods of care or exclusive of methods of care reasonably directed to
      obtaining the same results. The ultimate judgment regarding the propriety of any
      specific procedure must be made by the physician in light of all the
      circumstances presented by the individual patient.

PMID- 28891843
TI  - Neuroendocrine Tumors of the Colon and Rectum.

PMID- 28891844
TI  - Expert Commentary on Neuroendocrine Tumors of the Colon and Rectum.

PMID- 28891845
TI  - Uptake of Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision in North America: Initial
      Assessment of a Structured Training Program and the Experience of Delegate
      Surgeons.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Transanal total mesorectal excision is a new approach to curative
      intent rectal cancer surgery. Training and surgeon experience with this approach
      has not been assessed previously in America. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study
      was to characterize a structured training program and to determine the experience
      of delegate surgeons. DESIGN: Data were assimilated from an anonymous, online
      survey delivered to attendees on course completion. Data on surgeon performance
      during hands-on cadaveric dissection were collected prospectively. SETTINGS: This
      study was conducted at a single tertiary colorectal surgery referral center, and
      cadaveric hands-on training was conducted at a specialized surgeon education
      center. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome measurement was the use of the
      course and surgeon experience posttraining. RESULTS: During a 12-month period,
      eight 2-day transanal total mesorectal excision courses were conducted. Eighty
      one colorectal surgeons successfully completed the course. During cadaveric
      dissection, 71% achieved a complete (Quirke 3) specimen; 26% were near complete
      (Quirke 2), and 3% were incomplete (Quirke 1). A total of 9.1% demonstrated
      dissection in the incorrect plane, whereas 4.5% created major injury to the
      rectum or surrounding structures, excluding the prostate. Thirty eight (46.9%) of
      81 surgeon delegates responded to an online survey. Of survey respondents, 94.6%
      believed training should be required before performing transanal total mesorectal
      excision. Posttraining, 94.3% of surgeon delegates planned to use transanal total
      mesorectal excision for distal-third rectal cancers, 74.3% for middle-third
      cancers, and 8.6% for proximal-third cancers. The most significant complication
      reported was urethral injury; 5 were reported by the subset of survey respondents
      who had performed this operation postcourse. LIMITATIONS: The study was limited
      by inherent reporting bias, including observer and recall biases. CONCLUSIONS:
      Although this structured training program for transanal total mesorectal excision
      was found to be useful by the majority of respondents, the risk of iatrogenic
      injury after training remains high, suggesting that this training pedagogy alone
      is insufficient. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A335.

PMID- 28891846
TI  - Quality of Life in Rectal Cancer Patients After Chemoradiation: Watch-and-Wait
      Policy Versus Standard Resection - A Matched-Controlled Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Fifteen to twenty percent of patients with locally advanced rectal
      cancer have a clinical complete response after chemoradiation therapy. These
      patients can be offered nonoperative organ-preserving treatment, the so-called
      watch-and-wait policy. The main goal of this watch-and-wait policy is an
      anticipated improved quality of life and functional outcome in comparison with a
      total mesorectal excision, while maintaining a good oncological outcome.
      OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the quality of life of watch-and
      wait patients with a matched-controlled group of patients who underwent
      chemoradiation and surgery (total mesorectal excision group). DESIGN: This was a
      matched controlled study. SETTINGS: This study was conducted at multiple centers.
      PATIENTS: The study population consisted of 2 groups: 41 patients after a watch
      and-wait policy and 41 matched patients after chemoradiation and surgery.
      Patients were matched on sex, age, tumor stage, and tumor height. All patients
      were disease free at the moment of recruitment after a minimal follow-up of 2
      years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Quality of life was measured by validated
      questionnaires covering general quality of life (Short Form 36, European
      Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30), disease-specific
      total mesorectal excision (European Organization for Research and Treatment of
      Cancer QLQ-CR38), defecation problems (Vaizey and low anterior resection syndrome
      scores), sexual problems (International Index of Erectile Function and Female
      Sexual Function Index), and urinary dysfunction (International Prostate Symptom
      Score). RESULTS: The watch-and-wait group showed better physical and cognitive
      function, better physical and emotional roles, and better global health status
      compared with the total mesorectal excision group. The watch-and-wait patients
      showed fewer problems with defecation and sexual and urinary tract function.
      LIMITATIONS: This study only focused on watch-and-wait patients who achieved a
      sustained complete response for 2 years. In addition, this is a study with a
      limited number of patients and with quality-of-life measurements on nonpredefined
      and variable intervals after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: After a successful watch-and
      wait approach, the quality of life was better than after chemoradiation and
      surgery on several domains. However, chemoradiation therapy on its own is not
      without long-term side effects, because one-third of the watch-and-wait patients
      experienced major low anterior resection syndrome symptoms, compared with 66.7%
      of the patients in the total mesorectal excision group. See Video Abstract at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A395.

PMID- 28891847
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Peritoneal Metastasis in Stage IV Colorectal Cancer
      Patients With R0 Resection: A Multicenter, Retrospective Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Stage IV colorectal cancer encompasses various clinical conditions.
      The differences in prognosis after surgery between different metastatic organs
      have not been fully investigated. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess
      prognostic significance in peritoneal metastasis in R0 resected stage IV
      colorectal cancer. DESIGN: We conducted a multicenter retrospective study of
      patients with R0 resected stage IV colorectal cancer; they were categorized into
      3 groups according to the number and location of metastatic organs, including
      single-organ metastasis in the peritoneum, single-organ metastasis at sites
      except the peritoneum, and multiple-organ metastases. SETTINGS: This study used
      data accumulated by the Japanese Study Group for Postoperative Follow-Up of
      Colorectal Cancer. PATIENTS: A total of 1133 patients with R0 resected stage IV
      colorectal cancer were registered retrospectively between 1997 and 2007 in 20
      referral hospitals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cancer-specific survival rates between
      the groups were measured. RESULTS: The median cancer-specific survival of the
      single-organ metastasis in the peritoneum group was considerably shorter than
      that of the single-organ metastasis at a site other than the peritoneum group and
      was almost comparable to that of the multiple-organ metastases group (3.41 years,
      6.20 years, and 2.99 years). In a multivariate analysis of cancer-specific
      survival, peritoneal dissemination was confirmed as an independent prognostic
      factor of survival. The median postrecurrence survival of single-organ metastasis
      in the peritoneum group was considerably shorter than that of the single-organ
      metastasis at a site other than the peritoneum group. Approximately half of the
      patients who experienced recurrence of single-organ metastasis in the peritoneum
      experienced peritoneal recurrence. LIMITATIONS: This was a retrospective,
      population-based study that requires a prospective design to validate its
      conclusions. CONCLUSIONS: Peritoneal metastasis of colorectal cancer frequently
      recurred in the peritoneum even after R0 resection. The cancer-specific survival
      of the single-organ metastasis in the peritoneum group was as poor as that of the
      multiple-organ metastases group. See Video Abstract at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A398.

PMID- 28891848
TI  - Adjuvant Chemotherapy After Preoperative Chemoradiation Improves Survival in
      Patients With Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Practice guidelines differ in their support of adjuvant chemotherapy
      use in patients who received preoperative chemoradiation for rectal cancer.
      OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of adjuvant
      chemotherapy among patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who received
      neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery. DESIGN: This was a retrospective study.
      Multivariable Cox proportional hazard modeling was used to evaluate the adjusted
      survival differences. SETTINGS: Data were collected from the National Cancer
      Database. PATIENTS: Adults with pathologic stage II and III rectal adenocarcinoma
      who received neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery were included. MAIN OUTCOME
      MEASURES: Overall survival was measured. RESULTS: Among 12,696 patients included,
      4023 (32%) received adjuvant chemotherapy. The use of adjuvant chemotherapy
      increased over the study period from 23% to 36%. Although older age and black
      race were associated with a lower likelihood of receiving adjuvant chemotherapy,
      patients with higher education level and stage III disease were more likely to
      receive adjuvant chemotherapy (all p < 0.05). At 7 years, overall survival was
      improved among patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy (60% vs. 55%; p <
      0.001). After risk adjustment, the use of adjuvant chemotherapy was associated
      with improved survival (HR = 0.81 (95% CI, 0.72-0.91); p < 0.001). In the
      subgroup of patients with stage II disease, survival was also improved among
      patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy (68% vs 58% at 7 y; p < 0.001; HR =
      0.70 (95% CI, 0.57-0.87); p = 0.002). Among patients with stage III disease, the
      use of adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a smaller but persistent
      survival benefit (56% vs 51% at 7 y; p = 0.017; HR = 0.85 (95% CI, 0.74-0.98); p
      = 0.026). LIMITATIONS: The study was limited by its potential for selection bias
      and inability to compare specific chemotherapy regimens. CONCLUSIONS: The use of
      adjuvant chemotherapy among patients with rectal cancer who received preoperative
      chemoradiation conferred a survival benefit. This study emphasizes the importance
      of adjuvant chemotherapy in the management of rectal cancer and advocates for its
      increased use in the setting of neoadjuvant therapy. See Video Abstract at
      http://link.lww.com/DCR/A428.

PMID- 28891850
TI  - Ligation of Intersphincteric Fistula Tract for Fistula in Ano: Lessons Learned
      From a Decade of Experience.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract is a well-described
      sphincter-preserving technique for the management of fistula in ano. In 2007, we
      reported our early experience demonstrating a primary success rate of 94.4%.
      These findings have since been supported by several short-term studies, but long
      term results and secondary cure rates after ligation of intersphincteric fistula
      tract failure remain unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to report a 10-year
      experience of ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract with extended long-term
      follow-up. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of single-center data from May 2006 to
      October 2010 was performed. SETTINGS: This study was conducted at a large
      tertiary hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. PATIENTS: All patients with primary or
      recurrent fistula in ano who underwent a ligation of intersphincteric fistula
      tract procedure were included. Patients with malignancy, incontinent patients,
      and patients with rectovaginal fistula were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
      Healing as defined by the absence of symptoms with no visible external opening on
      clinical examination. Follow-up was continued until May 2016. RESULTS: In total,
      251 patients were identified, with a primary healing rate of 87.65% at a median
      follow-up of 71 months. The healing rates for low transsphincteric,
      intersphincteric, high transsphincteric, semihorseshoe, and horseshoe fistulas
      were 92.1%, 85.2%, 60.0%, 89.0%, and 40.0%. Of the 42 patients who had an
      unhealed fistula after previous non-ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract
      surgery, 38 (90.48%) healed after the first attempt at ligation of
      intersphincteric fistula tract. There were 31 patients with unhealed fistulas
      after the first ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract. Of these, 3 healed
      spontaneously, and the rest underwent either repeat ligation of intersphincteric
      fistula tract, fistulotomy (if the recurrence was intersphincteric), or simple
      curettage (if no internal opening was found). Ultimately, only 2 of the original
      251 patients remained unhealed, and there was no change in subjective continence
      status after surgery. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by its retrospective
      design. CONCLUSION: Ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract is an effective
      technique for the treatment of fistula in ano, including recurrent or unhealed
      fistula after other procedures. See Video Abstract at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A387.

PMID- 28891849
TI  - Adrenal Lesions in Patients With (Attenuated) Familial Adenomatous Polyposis and
      MUTYH-Associated Polyposis.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The reported proportion of patients with familial adenomatous
      polyposis who have adrenal lesions varies between 7% and 13% compared with 4% in
      the general population; the prevalence of adrenal lesions in patients with
      attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis and MUTYH-associated polyposis is
      unknown. Data on the clinical relevance and clinical course are limited.
      OBJECTIVE: We aimed to report on the frequency, characteristics, and progression
      of adrenal lesions in polyposis patients. DESIGN: This was a historical cohort
      study. SETTINGS: The study was performed at the Academic Medical Center,
      Amsterdam. PATIENTS: All of the patients with familial adenomatous polyposis,
      attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis, and MUTYH-associated polyposis were
      included. Medical charts and imaging reports were analyzed for data on adrenal
      lesions. A radiologist reassessed all of the images. Patients had not routinely
      been screened for adrenal lesions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The frequency,
      characteristics, and progression of adrenal lesions in patients with polyposis
      who underwent abdominal imaging were assessed. Findings were compared with a
      reference. RESULTS: A total of 39 adrenal lesions were identified in 23 (26%) of
      90 patients with familial adenomatous polyposis, 2 (18%) of 11 with attenuated
      familial adenomatous polyposis, and 5 (24%) of 21 with MUTYH-associated
      polyposis. Mean age at time of detection was 50.7 years (range, 17.1-83.3 y).
      Median lesion size at baseline was 1.4 cm (range, 1.0-5.0 cm) versus 1.7 cm
      (range, 1.0-5.7 cm) after a median of 3.5 years (range, 1.0-11.4 y). Two patients
      were diagnosed with a hyperfunctioning lesion, and 4 underwent adrenalectomy: 3
      lesions appeared benign, and 1 was oncocytic of uncertain malignant potential.
      The OR for detecting at least 1 lesion in a patient with polyposis versus
      reference was 6.2 (95% CI, 3.2-12.3), with no significant differences in ORs
      among the 3 syndromes. LIMITATIONS: The study was limited by its retrospective
      design. CONCLUSIONS: Adrenal lesions are frequent in patients with polyposis who
      undergo abdominal imaging. They appear to follow a benign and slowly progressive
      course and are mostly nonhyperfunctioning. See Abstract Video at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A323.

PMID- 28891851
TI  - Sphincter-Sparing Anal Fistula Repair: Are We Getting Better?
AB  - BACKGROUND: Sphincter-sparing repairs are commonly used to treat anal fistulas
      with significant muscle involvement. OBJECTIVE: The current study evaluates the
      trends and efficacy of sphincter-sparing repairs and determines risk factors for
      fistula recurrence. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: A retrospective review was performed at
      3 university-affiliated teaching hospitals. PATIENTS: All 462 patients with
      cryptoglandular anal fistulas who underwent 573 sphincter-sparing repairs between
      2005 and 2015 were included. Patients with Crohn's disease were excluded. MAIN
      OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the rate of fistula healing defined as
      cessation of drainage with closure of the external opening. Risk factors for
      nonhealing were also analyzed. RESULTS: Five hundred three sphincter-sparing
      repairs were analyzed, whereas 70 were lost to follow-up. Two hundred twenty
      sphincter-sparing repairs (44%) resulted in healing, 283 (56%) resulted in
      nonhealing with a median follow-up of 9 (range, 1-125) months. The median time to
      fistula recurrence was 3 (range, 0-75) months with 79% and 91% of recurrences
      noted within 6 and 12 months. Patients treated with a dermal advancement flap,
      rectal advancement flap, or ligation of the intersphincteric tract procedure were
      less likely to have a recurrence than patients treated with a fistula plug or
      fibrin glue (p < 0.001). Over time, there was a significantly increased use of
      the ligation of the intersphincteric tract procedure (p < 0.001) and a
      significantly decreased use of fistula plugs and fibrin glue (p < 0.001); healing
      rates improved accordingly. There were no significant differences in healing
      rates with respect to patient demographics, comorbidities, or fistula
      characteristics. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by its retrospective design.
      CONCLUSIONS: Healing rates following sphincter-sparing repairs of cryptoglandular
      anal fistulas are modest, but have improved over time with the use of better
      surgical techniques. In this study, ligation of the intersphincteric fistula
      tract and flaps were superior to fistula plugs and fibrin glue; the former
      procedures are therefore favored. See Video Abstract at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A391.

PMID- 28891852
TI  - Condyloma Acuminatum, Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia, and Anal Cancer in the
      Setting of HIV: Do We Really Understand the Risk?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The gold standard for surveillance of patients with anal lesions is
      unclear. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to stratify patients for risk of
      progression of disease and to determine appropriate intervals for surveillance of
      patients with anal disease. DESIGN: This was a retrospective chart review for
      patients treated for anal lesions between 2007 and 2014. Only patients with >=1
      year of follow-up from index evaluation, pathology, documented physical
      examination, and anoscopy findings were included for analysis. SETTINGS: The
      study was conducted at an urban university hospital. PATIENTS: HIV-positive
      patients with anal lesions treated with excision and fulguration were included.
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Recurrence of anal lesions, progression of disease, and
      progression to cancer were measured. RESULTS: Ninety-one patients met inclusion
      criteria. The mean age was 41.6 years, and mean follow-up was 38.6 months (range,
      11.0-106.0 mo). On initial pathology, 8 patients (8.8%) had a diagnosis of
      condyloma acuminatum without dysplasia, 20 patients (22%) had anal
      intraepithelial neoplasia I, 32 (35.2%) had anal intraepithelial neoplasia II,
      and 31 (34.1%) had anal intraepithelial neoplasia III. Sixty-nine patients
      (75.8%) had repeat procedures. Seven (87.5%) of 8 patients with condyloma and 6
      (30%) of 20 patients with anal intraepithelial neoplasia I progressed to high
      grade lesions. Five (15.6%) of 32 patients progressed from anal intraepithelial
      neoplasia II to III, and 2 patients with anal intraepithelial neoplasia III
      (6.5%) developed squamous cell carcinoma (2.3% for the entire cohort).
      LIMITATIONS: This was a single institution study. High-resolution anoscopy was
      not used. CONCLUSIONS: All of the HIV-positive patients with condyloma or anal
      intraepithelial neoplasia, regardless of the presence of dysplasia, should be
      surveyed at equivalent 3-month time intervals, because their risk of progression
      of disease is high. Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A389.

PMID- 28891853
TI  - Design and Psychometric Evaluation of the Quality of Life in Patients With Anal
      Fistula Questionnaire.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Quality of life is often considered when deciding and evaluating the
      treatment strategy for patients diagnosed with anal fistula. OBJECTIVE: The
      purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically test the Quality of
      Life in Patients with Anal Fistula Questionnaire. DESIGN: This was an
      observational cross-sectional study for the development and validation of a
      psychometric tool. SETTINGS: The study was conducted at a general hospital in the
      southeast of Spain. PATIENTS: A convenience sample included 54 patients diagnosed
      with anal fistula. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The reliability of the tool was
      assessed through its internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) and temporal stability
      (Spearman correlation coefficient (r) between test-retest). The content validity
      index of the items and the scale was calculated. Correlation analysis and an
      ordinal regression analysis between the developed tool and the Short Form 12
      Health Survey examined its concurrent validity. Principal component analysis and
      known-group analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test examined its construct
      validity. RESULTS: The reliability of the developed questionnaire was very high
      (alpha = 0.908; r = 0.861; p < 0.01). Its content validity was excellent (all
      item content validity index = 0.79-1.00; scale validity index = 0.92). Evidence
      of its concurrent validity included strong correlation between the developed tool
      and Short Form 12 Health Survey (r = 0.734; p < 0.001), and participant scores on
      the developed tool explained ~46.2% of the between-subject variation for the
      participant scores on Short Form 12 Health Survey (Nagelkerke R = 0.462).
      Confirming its construct validity, principal component analysis revealed that 2
      factors explained 81.63% of the total variance found. Known-group analysis
      evidenced the ability of the questionnaire to detect expected differences in
      patients presenting with different symptomatology. LIMITATIONS: The major
      limitations of this study were the use of a small sample of Spanish-speaking
      patients, not including patients in the initial development of the questionnaire,
      and developing the scoring system using a summation method. CONCLUSIONS: The
      Quality of Life in Patients with Anal Fistula Questionnaire has proven to be a
      valid, reliable, and concise tool that could contribute to the evaluation of
      quality of life among patients with an anal fistula. See Video Abstract at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A368.

PMID- 28891854
TI  - Racial and Socioeconomic Differences Manifest in Process Measure Adherence for
      Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Pathway.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Adherence to care processes and surgical outcomes varies by
      population subgroups for the same procedure. Enhanced recovery after surgery
      pathways are intended to standardize care, but their effect on process adherence
      and outcomes for population subgroups is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to
      demonstrate the association between recovery pathway implementation, process
      measures, and short-term surgical outcomes by population subgroup. DESIGN: This
      study is a pre- and post-quality improvement implementation cohort study.
      SETTING: This study was conducted at a tertiary academic medical center.
      INTERVENTION: A modified colorectal enhanced recovery after surgery pathway was
      implemented. PATIENTS: Patients were included who had elective colon and rectal
      resections before (2013) and following (2014-2016) recovery pathway
      implementation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Thirty-day outcomes by race and
      socioeconomic status were analyzed using a difference-in-difference approach with
      correlation to process adherence. RESULTS: We identified 639 cases (199
      preimplementation, 440 postimplementation). In these cases, 75.2% of the patients
      were white, and 91.7% had a high socioeconomic status. Groups were similar in
      terms of other preoperative characteristics. Following pathway implementation,
      median lengths of stay improved in all subgroups (-1.0 days overall, p <= 0.001),
      but with no statistical difference by race or socioeconomic status (p = 0.89 and
      p = 0.29). Complication rates in both racial and socioeconomic groups were no
      different (26.4% vs 28.8%, p = 0.73; 27.3% vs 25.0%, p = 0.86) and remained
      unchanged with implementation (p = 0.93, p = 0.84). By race, overall adherence
      was 31.7% in white patients and 26.5% in nonwhite patients (p = 0.32). Although
      stratification by socioeconomic status demonstrated decreased overall adherence
      in the low-status group (31.8% vs 17.1%, p = 0.05), white patients were more
      likely to have regional pain therapy (57.1% vs 44.1%, p = 0.02) with a similar
      trend seen with socioeconomic status. LIMITATIONS: Data were collected primarily
      for quality improvement purposes. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in outcomes by race
      and socioeconomic status did not arise following implementation of an enhanced
      recovery pathway. Differences in process measures by population subgroups
      highlight differences in care that require further investigation. See Video
      Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A386.

PMID- 28891855
TI  - Patient Satisfaction With Propofol for Outpatient Colonoscopy: A Prospective,
      Randomized, Double-Blind Study.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Previous literature has shown that propofol has ideal anesthetic
      properties for patients undergoing colonoscopy, a common procedure at outpatient
      surgery centers. However, there is a paucity of information regarding patient
      satisfaction with propofol. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate
      patient satisfaction with propofol compared with nonpropofol (fentanyl/midazolam)
      anesthesia for outpatient colonoscopies. Safety and complications were secondary
      end points. DESIGN: This study was a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group
      controlled clinical trial (NCT 02937506). SETTING: This study was conducted at a
      single ambulatory surgery center at an urban teaching community health system.
      PATIENTS: Patients were scheduled for outpatient colonoscopy. Those with high
      risk cardiac or pulmonary disease were excluded. INTERVENTIONS: Anesthesia
      personnel administered either fentanyl/midazolam (n = 300) or propofol (n = 300)
      for sedation during outpatient colonoscopy. A single, highly experienced
      endoscopist performed all colonoscopies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary
      outcomes measured were patient satisfaction (5-point Likert scale) and procedure
      complications. Data were collected on the day of endoscopy by the nursing staff
      of the postanesthesia care unit. A subinvestigator blinded to the randomization
      called patients 24 to 72 hours after discharge to obtain data on postprocedure
      problems and status of resumption of normal activities. Analysis was intention-to
      treat. RESULTS: Fewer patients who received propofol remembered being awake
      during the procedure (2% vs 17% for fentanyl, p < 0.0001) and were more likely to
      rate the amount of anesthesia received as being "just right" (98.7% vs 91.3% for
      fentanyl, p = 0.0002) and state that they were "very satisfied" with their
      anesthesia (86.3% vs 74% for fentanyl, p = 0.0005). Twenty-six percent of
      fentanyl procedures were rated "difficult" compared with 4.3% for propofol (p <
      0.0001), and complications were fewer in the propofol group (2.7% vs 11.7%, p <
      0.0001). LIMITATIONS: The endoscopist could not be completely blinded to the
      anesthetic administered. CONCLUSIONS: Patients prefer propofol over a combination
      of fentanyl/midazolam as their anesthetic for outpatient colonoscopies. From a
      patient and provider perspective, propofol appears to be superior to
      fentanyl/midazolam for outpatient colonoscopy. See Video Abstract at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A445.

PMID- 28891856
TI  - Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision: Pneumodissection of Retroperitoneal
      Structures Eases Laparoscopic Rectal Resection.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Laparoscopic total mesorectal excision is effective and safe but
      often technically challenging because of inadequate exposure. Transanal total
      mesorectal excision was introduced to mitigate this limitation and improve the
      quality of mesorectal dissection in even the most challenging cases. Currently,
      the technique for transanal total mesorectal excision dissection is not
      standardized. TECHNIQUE: The sequential approach to transanal total mesorectal
      excision mirrors the principles of the transanal abdominal transanal procedure.
      It begins with the transanal step, followed by the laparoscopic step, and then
      the transanal total mesorectal excision. The perirectal space is entered via a
      full-thickness dissection of the anterior rectal wall. Carbon dioxide is left
      flowing, widening the embryonic planes between the mesorectal and pelvic fascias,
      then moving upward through the retroperitoneal space. The surgeon switches to the
      abdominal field and begins laparoscopic dissection, consisting of inferior
      mesenteric artery dissection and division, inferior mesenteric vein dissection
      and division, and possible splenic flexure dissection. Pneumodissection
      facilitates this procedure by distancing the inferior mesenteric artery from the
      hypogastric nerves and opening the embryonic fusion plane between the Toldt and
      Gerota fascias to allow faster division of the left colon lateral attachments.
      The operation continues with a switch to the perineal field and mesorectal
      excision. RESULTS: A total of 102 patients underwent transanal total mesorectal
      excision as described. Mean operative time was 185.0 + 87.5 minutes (range, 60
      480 min), and there was no conversion to open surgery. Postoperative morbidity
      was 33.3%. Mortality rate at 30 days was 1.96% (2 cases). Quality of mesorectal
      excision according to Quirke was assessed in all of the specimens and found to be
      complete in 99 cases (97.1%) and nearly complete in 2.9% of cases. CONCLUSIONS:
      Transanal total mesorectal excision may benefit from pneumodissection, expedites
      the laparoscopic step, and the sequential approach facilitates the visualization
      of the correct dissection planes. The safety and cost-effectiveness of the
      procedure still warrant consideration. See Video at
      http://links.lww.com/DCR/A418.

PMID- 28891857
TI  - Modified Pull-Through Technique With A Delayed High Coloanal Anastomosis: No
      Stoma and Scarless Surgery for Low Rectal Cancer.

PMID- 28891858
TI  - Early Postoperative Decrease of Serum Albumin Predicts Surgical Outcome in
      Patients Undergoing Colorectal Resection: Methodologic Issues.

PMID- 28891859
TI  - Revolution or Evolution.

PMID- 28891860
TI  - The Authors Reply.

PMID- 28891861
TI  - Is BMI a Virtual Predictor for Perioperative Outcome of Colorectal Surgery?

PMID- 28891864
TI  - Photosensitization of TRPA1 and TRPV1 by 7-dehydrocholesterol: implications for
      the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome.
AB  - Loss-of-function mutations in the enzyme 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase are
      responsible for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, in which 7-dehydrocholesterol (7
      DHC) levels are markedly increased in the plasma and tissues of patients. This
      increase in 7-DHC is probably associated with the painful and itchy
      photosensitivity reported by the majority of patients with Smith-Lemli-Opitz
      syndrome. To identify the molecular targets involved in the activation and
      photosensitization of primary afferents by 7-DHC, we focused on TRPA1 and TRPV1,
      two ion channels expressed in nociceptive nerve endings and previously shown to
      respond to ultraviolet and visible light under pathophysiological circumstances.
      Recombinant human TRPA1 is activated and photosensitized in the presence of 7
      DHC. Prolonged preexposure to 7-DHC causes more pronounced photosensitization,
      and while TRPV1 contributes less to the acute effect, it too becomes highly
      photosensitive upon preincubation with 7-DHC for 1 to 15 hours. Dorsal root
      ganglion neurons in primary culture display acute sensitivity to 7-DHC in the
      dark and also light-evoked responses in the presence of 7-DHC, which are
      exclusively dependent on TRPA1 and TRPV1. Similarly, prolonged exposure of mouse
      dorsal root ganglion neurons to 7-DHC renders these cells photosensitive in a
      largely TRPA1- and TRPV1-dependent manner. Single-fiber recordings in mouse skin
      nerve preparations demonstrate violet light-evoked activation and a sensitization
      to 7-DHC exposure. Vice versa, 7-DHC pretreatment of the isolated trachea leads
      to a TRPA1- and TRPV1-dependent increase of the light-induced calcitonin gene
      related peptide release. Taken together, our results implicate TRPA1 and TRPV1
      channels as potential pharmacological targets to address the 7-DHC-induced
      hypersensitivity to light in patients.

PMID- 28891865
TI  - Opioid prescription levels and postoperative outcomes in orthopedic surgery.
AB  - Given the basic need for opioids in the perioperative setting, we investigated
      associations between opioid prescription levels and postoperative outcomes using
      population-based data of orthopedic surgery patients. We hypothesized that
      increased opioid amounts would be associated with higher risk for postoperative
      complications. Data were extracted from the national Premier Perspective database
      (2006-2013); N = 1,035,578 lower joint arthroplasties and N = 220,953 spine
      fusions. Multilevel multivariable logistic regression models measured
      associations between opioid dose prescription and postoperative outcomes, studied
      by quartile of dispensed opioid dose. Compared to the lowest quartile of opioid
      dosing, high opioid prescription was associated with significantly increased odds
      for deep venous thrombosis and postoperative infections by approx. 50%, while
      odds were increased by 23% for urinary and more than 15% for gastrointestinal and
      respiratory complications (P < 0.001 respectively). Furthermore, higher opioid
      prescription was associated with a significant increase in length of stay (LOS)
      and cost by 12% and 6%, P < 0.001 respectively. Cerebrovascular complications
      risk was decreased by 25% with higher opioid dose (P = 0.004), while odds for
      myocardial infarction remained unaltered. In spine cases, opioid prescription was
      generally higher, with stronger effects observed for increase in LOS and cost as
      well as gastrointestinal and urinary complications. Other outcomes were less
      pronounced, possibly because of smaller sample size. Overall, higher opioid
      prescription was associated with an increase in most postoperative complications
      with the strongest effect observed in thromboembolic, infectious and
      gastrointestinal complications, cost, and LOS. Increase in complication risk
      occurred stepwise, suggesting a dose-response gradient.

PMID- 28891867
TI  - Tired of pain? Toward a better understanding of fatigue in chronic pain.

PMID- 28891866
TI  - Passive transfer autoimmunity in a mouse model of complex regional pain syndrome.
AB  - It has been proposed that complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a
      posttraumatic autoimmune disease, and we previously observed that B cells are
      required for the full expression of CRPS-like changes in a mouse tibia fracture
      CRPS model. The current study used the mouse model to evaluate the progression of
      postfracture CRPS-like changes in wild-type (WT) and muMT fracture mice lacking B
      cells and antibodies. The pronociceptive effects of injecting WT fracture mouse
      serum antibodies into muMT fracture mice were also evaluated. Postfracture pain
      behaviors transitioned from being initially dependent on both innate and
      autoimmune inflammatory mechanisms at 3 weeks after fracture to being entirely
      mediated by antibody responses at 12 weeks after fracture and spontaneously
      resolving by 21 weeks after fracture. Furthermore, serum IgM antibodies from WT
      fracture mice had pronociceptive effects in the fracture limb when injected into
      muMT fracture mice. IgM antibody levels gradually increased in the fracture limb
      hind paw skin, sciatic nerve, and corresponding lumbar cord, peaking at 12 to 18
      weeks after fracture and then declining. Immunohistochemistry localized
      postfracture IgM antibody binding to antigens in the fracture limb hind paw
      dermal cell nuclei. We postulate that fracture induces expression of neoantigens
      in the fracture limb skin, sciatic nerve, and cord, which trigger B cells to
      secret IgM antibodies that bind those antigens and initiate a pronociceptive
      antibody response. Autoimmunity plays a key role in the progression of
      nociceptive and vascular changes in the mouse fracture model and potentially
      contributes to the CRPS disease process.

PMID- 28891868
TI  - Bivalent ligand that activates mu opioid receptor and antagonizes mGluR5 receptor
      reduces neuropathic pain in mice.
AB  - The mu opioid receptor (MOR) and metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) are
      well-established pharmacological targets in the management of chronic pain. Both
      receptors are expressed in the spinal cord. MMG22, a bivalent ligand containing 2
      pharmacophores separated by 22 atoms, which simultaneously activates MOR and
      antagonizes mGluR5, has been shown to produce potent reversal of tactile
      hypersensitivity in rodent models of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-and bone cancer
      induced chronic pain. This study assessed whether intrathecal MMG22 also is
      effective in reducing pain of neuropathic origin. Furthermore, we theorized that
      MMG22 should reduce hyperalgesia in nerve-injured mice in a manner consistent
      with a synergistic interaction between MOR and mGluR5. Several weeks after spared
      nerve injury, tactile hypersensitivity was reversed in mice by the intrathecal
      injection of MMG22 (0.01-10 nmol) but also by its shorter spacer analog, MMG10,
      with similar potency. The potencies of the bivalent ligands were 10- to 14-fold
      higher than those of the compounds upon which the bivalent structure was based,
      the MOR agonist oxymorphone and the mGluR5 antagonist MPEP. Coadministration of
      oxymorphone and MPEP demonstrated analgesic synergism, an interaction confirmed
      by isobolographic analysis. This study indicates that in the spared nerve injury
      induced model of neuropathic pain, the 2 pharmacophores of the bivalent ligands
      MMG22 and MMG10 target MOR and mGluR5 as separate receptor monomers. The observed
      increase in the potency of MMG22 and MMG10, compared with oxymorphone and MPEP,
      may reflect the synergistic interaction of the 2 pharmacophores of the bivalent
      ligand acting at their respective separate receptor monomers.

PMID- 28891870
TI  - Letter to the Editor: Regarding Deep N, Besch-Stokes J, Lane J, Driscoll C,
      Carlson M, "Paget's Disease of the Temporal Bone: A Single-Institution
      Contemporary Review of 27 Patients".

PMID- 28891869
TI  - Chronic exposure to insufficient sleep alters processes of pain habituation and
      sensitization.
AB  - Chronic pain conditions are highly comorbid with insufficient sleep. While the
      mechanistic relationships between the 2 are not understood, chronic insufficient
      sleep may be 1 pathway through which central pain-modulatory circuits
      deteriorate, thereby contributing to chronic pain vulnerability over time. To
      test this hypothesis, an in-laboratory model of 3 weeks of restricted sleep with
      limited recovery (5 nights of 4-hour sleep per night followed by 2 nights of 8
      hour sleep per night) was compared with 3 weeks of 8-hour sleep per night
      (control protocol). Seventeen healthy adults participated, with 14 completing
      both 3-week protocols. Measures of spontaneous pain, heat-pain thresholds, cold
      pain tolerance (measuring habituation to cold over several weeks), and temporal
      summation of pain (examining the slope of pain ratings during cold water
      immersion) were assessed at multiple points during each protocol. Compared with
      the control protocol, participants in the sleep-restriction protocol experienced
      mild increases in spontaneous pain (P < 0.05). Heat-pain thresholds decreased
      after the first week of sleep restriction (P < 0.05) but normalized with longer
      exposure to sleep restriction. By contrast, chronic exposure to restricted sleep
      was associated with decreased habituation to, and increased temporal summation in
      response to cold pain (both P < 0.05), although only in the past 2 weeks of the
      sleep-restriction protocol. These changes may reflect abnormalities in central
      pain-modulatory processes. Limited recovery sleep did not completely resolve
      these alterations in pain-modulatory processes, indicating that more extensive
      recovery sleep is required. Results suggest that exposure to chronic insufficient
      sleep may increase vulnerability to chronic pain by altering processes of pain
      habituation and sensitization.

PMID- 28891871
TI  - Bone Density Development of the Temporal Bone Assessed by Computed Tomography.
AB  - HYPOTHESIS: The temporal bone shows regional differences in bone development.
      BACKGROUND: The spreading pattern of acute mastoiditis shows age-related
      differences. In infants, it spreads laterally and causes retroauricular swelling,
      whereas in older children, it tends to spread medially and causes intracranial
      complications. We hypothesized that bone maturation may influence the spreading
      pattern of acute mastoiditis. METHODS: Eighty participants with normal hearing,
      aged 3 months to 42 years, participated in this study. Computed tomography (CT)
      values (Hounsfield unit [HU]) in various regions of the temporal bone, such as
      the otic capsule (OC), lateral surface of the mastoid cavity (LS), posterior
      cranial fossa (PCF), and middle cranial fossa (MCF), were measured as markers of
      bone density. Bone density development curves, wherein CT values were plotted
      against age, were created for each region. The age at which the CT value exceeded
      1000 HU, which is used as an indicator of bone maturation, was calculated from
      the development curves and compared between the regions. RESULTS: The OC showed
      mature bone at birth, whereas the LS, PCF, and MCF showed rapid maturation in
      early childhood. However, there were significant regional differences in the ages
      of maturation: 1.7, 3.9, and 10.8 years for the LS, PCF, and MCF, respectively.
      CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first report to show regional
      differences in the maturation of temporal bone, which could partly account for
      the differences in the spreading pattern of acute mastoiditis in individuals of
      different ages.

PMID- 28891872
TI  - Vertigo in Vestibular Schwannoma Patients Due to Other Pathologies.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To report findings from a cohort of vestibular schwannoma (VS)
      patients presenting with vertigo from a secondary comorbid vestibular disorder;
      and to discuss management strategies for this subset of patients presenting with
      both episodic vertigo and VS. PATIENTS: All VS patients who presented with
      vertigo as the primary symptom from 2012 to 2015 and endorsing no other major
      complaints were examined. INTERVENTION: Treatment with migraine lifestyle and
      prophylactic therapy, or Epley maneuver. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Resolution of
      vertigo following medical treatment alone. RESULTS: Of the nine patients studied,
      seven (78%) suffered from vestibular migraine, and two (22%) experienced benign
      positional vertigo. All patients experienced complete resolution of symptoms
      after treatment. As a result of symptomatic improvement, seven patients (78%)
      avoided surgery in favor of observation, while two patients (22%) underwent
      radiosurgery due to continued tumor growth and other nonvertigo symptoms.
      CONCLUSION: VS patients can sometimes present with a history of recurrent
      episodic vertigo. The etiology of the vertigo could be due to the tumor itself or
      may be due to an underlying comorbidity such as vestibular migraine or benign
      positional vertigo. VS patients presenting with vertigo should undergo a standard
      vertigo history and examination to identify other potential causes of vertigo.
      Most VS patients in our cohort avoided intervention and had resolution of their
      vertigo.

PMID- 28891873
TI  - Hearing Outcome With the Use of Glass Ionomer Cement as an Alternative to
      Crimping in Stapedotomy.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate early hearing outcomes using glass ionomer cement to fix
      the Teflon piston prosthesis onto the long process of incus to minimize residual
      conductive hearing loss after stapedotomy. STUDY DESIGN: Original report of
      prospective randomized control study. SETTING: Tertiary referral center.
      PATIENTS: A total of 80 consecutive patients with otosclerosis were randomized
      into two groups. Group A is a control group in which 40 patients underwent small
      fenestra stapedotomy using the classic technique. Group B included 40 patients
      who were subjected to small fenestra stapedotomy with fixation of the incus
      prosthesis junction with glass ionomer bone cement. INTERVENTIONS: Stapedotomy
      with the classical technique in group A and the alternative technique in group B.
      PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: The audiometric results before and after surgery.
      RESULTS: Analysis of the results was performed using the paired t test to compare
      between pre and postoperative results. chi test was used to compare the results
      of the two groups. A p value less than 0.05 was considered significant from the
      statistical standpoint. Significant postoperative improvement of both pure-tone
      air conduction thresholds and air-bone gaps were reported in the two studied
      groups. The postoperative average residual air-bone gap and hearing gain were
      statistically significant in group B (p < 0.05) compared with group A.
      CONCLUSION: The use of glass ionomer bone cement in primary otosclerosis surgery
      using the aforementioned prosthesis and the surgical technique is of significant
      value in producing maximal closure of the air-bone gap and better audiological
      outcomes.

PMID- 28891875
TI  - Collaboration and Lifelong Learning.

PMID- 28891874
TI  - Reply to Letter to the Editor: Paget's Disease of the Temporal Bone: A Single
      Institution Contemporary Review of 27 Patients.

PMID- 28891876
TI  - Impact of a Nurse Residency Program on Transition to Specialty Practice.
AB  - A nurse residency program can support transition for new-to-specialty nurses but
      requires commitment of time and resources. This implementation project used a
      specialty residency program shown to be effective in a Burn Center, and
      translated it into the Emergency Department and Maternal Child Health area
      located within the same medical treatment facility. Preceptor survey responses
      and leadership assessment of program suitability provided data related to
      intervention impact. The evidence pertaining to developing specialty knowledge,
      skills, competency, and clinical reasoning validated program efficacy. Project
      outcomes justify investment in building a standardized transitional support
      system.

PMID- 28891877
TI  - Facilitating NPDP Role Development: One Healthcare System's Experience.
AB  - Transitioning into the Nursing Professional Development Practitioner role
      requires development of new knowledge and competencies, which takes time and
      resources. One healthcare system took advantage of the skills and experience of
      its expert Nursing Professional Development Specialists to efficiently and
      economically facilitate novices' role development. They created an online
      repository of learning materials to provide useful resources and demonstrate
      various presentation methodologies, thereby sharing their expertise and extending
      support to those new to nursing professional development practice.

PMID- 28891878
TI  - Using High-Fidelity Simulation and Video-Assisted Debriefing to Enhance
      Obstetrical Hemorrhage Mock Code Training.
AB  - The purpose of this descriptive, one-group posttest study was to explore the
      nursing staff's perception of the benefits of using high-fidelity simulation
      during mandated obstetrical hemorrhage mock code training. In addition, the use
      of video-assisted debriefing was used to enhance the nursing staff's evaluation
      of their communication and teamwork processes during a simulated obstetrical
      crisis. The convenience sample of 84 members of the nursing staff consented to
      completing data collection forms and being videotaped during the simulation.
      Quantitative results for the postsimulation survey showed that 93% of
      participants agreed or totally agreed that the use of SimMan made the simulation
      more realistic and enhanced learning and that debriefing and the use of
      videotaped playback improved their evaluation of team communication. Participants
      derived greatest benefit from reviewing their performance on videotape and
      discussing it during postsimulation debriefing. Simulation with video-assisted
      debriefing offers hospital educators the ability to evaluate team processes and
      offer support to improve teamwork with the ultimate goal of improving patient
      outcomes during obstetrical hemorrhage.

PMID- 28891880
TI  - Safe Searches: The Scale and Spread of a Quality Improvement Project.
AB  - To ensure the safety of staff, patients, and visitors to psychiatric inpatient
      units, a standardized safe search protocol was developed and implemented across a
      psychiatric facility. This article provides an overview of the methods used in
      the planning, implementation, and spread of this quality improvement initiative,
      focusing on the concepts of change management, leadership, and team involvement.
      The professional development of point-of-care staff is enhanced by active
      engagement in quality improvement initiatives.

PMID- 28891881
TI  - Thriving in Chaos: Leadership in a Rapidly Changing Environment.

PMID- 28891879
TI  - Accelerating the Development of Higher-Level Clinical Thinking in Novice Nurses.
AB  - Enhancing clinical expertise of novice nurses is a challenge for nursing
      professional development practitioners. Time and availability of expert
      preceptors are limited. This article describes a process evaluation project using
      a specific method of cognitive skills training to expose inexperienced nurses to
      expert thinking and help them develop more advanced cognitive skills. Development
      of scenarios, decision points, and expert rationale is described along with
      project outcomes and lessons learned. Nursing professional development
      practitioners and inexperienced nurses may benefit from using this method.

PMID- 28891882
TI  - Transition to Practice in Ambulatory Care Nursing.

PMID- 28891883
TI  - Standardized Patients, Simulations, and Scenarios: What if I am not a Simulation
      Expert?

PMID- 28891885
TI  - The Association Board as Servant Leader.

PMID- 28891884
TI  - Preceptorship: Linguistic Upgrade.

PMID- 28891886
TI  - Endless Opportunities.

PMID- 28891887
TI  - Implementing Nursing Professional Development: Scope and Standards of Practice
      (3rd Ed.): One Organization's Journey.

PMID- 28891888
TI  - Impact of Training Frequency on Nurses' Pediatric Resuscitation Skills.
AB  - The ideal time frame for frequency of resuscitation skills training has yet to be
      determined. Results obtained from this performance improvement project using
      hands-on practice sessions suggest that 6 months may be an adequate time frame
      for retention of resuscitation skills. Professional development educators may
      want to consider 6-month retraining intervals for low-volume/high-risk skills
      such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation to optimize nurses' proficiency in these
      life-saving competencies.

PMID- 28891889
TI  - Facilitating NPDP Role Development: One Healthcare System's Experience.

PMID- 28891890
TI  - Methodology for ACOEM's Occupational Medicine Practice Guidelines-2017 Revision.

PMID- 28891893
TI  - Postoperative Changes After Closed Reduction of Nasal Fracture.
AB  - Nasal bone fracture is the most common facial fracture; however, surgery does not
      guarantee reduction and complications, such as undercorrection, overcorrection,
      and deviation, may occur. By analyzing findings of computed tomography (CT)
      immediately and at 3 months postoperatively, we evaluated the accuracy of
      reduction and long-term changes to the nasal bone.Patients with pure nasal bone
      fracture were evaluated from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011. First, we
      categorized fracture types according to the Stranc-Robertson classification
      system, using preoperative CT findings (ie, F1, F2, L1, and L2). We categorized
      each result of reduction by immediate postoperative CT scan findings as
      "Excellent," "Good," "Fair," and "Poor," with "Excellent" and "Good" ratings
      being considered a "Success." We evaluated changes to the nasal bone at 3 months
      after reduction, using the same grade.A total of 128 patients were analyzed. The
      results of patients in the F1 group were better than those of other patients
      immediately postoperatively, whereas those of the L2 group were worse. The
      overall success rate was 49.2% (58/118). At 3 months postoperatively, 33 cases
      exhibited an improvement to a higher grade, whereas 25 cases improved from an
      unacceptable outcome to a successful outcome, with the overall success rate being
      70.3% (83/118).Immediately postoperative CT scans can be helpful for surgeons in
      determining whether a secondary adjustment is necessary. Incompletely reduced
      nasal bone showed spontaneous improvement in bony arrangement according to our
      study, so simple observation could be a choice.

PMID- 28891895
TI  - Large-Scale Study of Long-Term Anteroposterior Stability in a Surgery-First
      Orthognathic Approach Without Presurgical Orthodontic Treatment.
AB  - Presurgical orthodontic treatment has long been known as a prerequisite in the
      traditional orthognathic approach. However, achieving ideal decompensation is
      very difficult even in the presurgical orthodontic period. For minimization of
      this problem, the surgery-first orthognathic concept has been introduced. The
      authors hypothesized that this treatment modality will be feasible for skeletal
      class III dentofacial deformity patients. In this study, the authors tried to
      compare the traditional and surgery-first approaches regarding long-term outcomes
      in terms of stability, based on large-scale data. The patients included in this
      study had skeletal class III dentofacial deformities, and all underwent, and
      completed, orthognathic surgery between December 2007 and December 2015. The
      inclusion criteria were based on presurgical simulation on the dental model, and
      the authors predicted the potential of the surgery-first approach by this
      preoperative simulation model. Patients with cleft-related syndromes, those who
      underwent orthognathic surgeries due to facial asymmetry or class II deformity
      were excluded from the study. In total, 104 class III patients were enrolled in
      the surgery-first group and 51 class III patients in the traditional orthodontic
      first group. Satisfactory results were achieved in all 155 patients with
      dentofacial deformity in this study. Overall, the analysis revealed that
      anteroposterior skeletal long-term stability in the surgery-first approach was
      not different, statistically or otherwise, from that in the orthodontic-first
      approach. Anteroposterior skeletal stability was maintained well in the surgery
      first approach. In conclusion, surgery-first approach without presurgical
      orthodontic treatment can achieve similar results of long-term anteroposterior
      stability in correcting dentofacial deformities as the orthodontic treatment
      first approach.

PMID- 28891894
TI  - Dentoalveolar Effects of Early Orthodontic Treatment in Patients With Cleft Lip
      and Palate.
AB  - No agreement exists on the most appropriate timing of orthodontic treatment in
      patients with cleft lip and palate. The aim of this study is to investigate the
      effect of early orthodontic treatment on development of the dental arches and
      alveolar bone.A dental casts analysis was performed on 28 children with cleft lip
      and palate before orthodontic treatment (T0; mean age, 6.5 +/- 1.7) and at the
      end of active treatment (T1; mean age, 9.2 +/- 2.1 years). The considered
      variables were: intercanine and intermolar distances; dental arch relationships,
      evaluated according to the modified Huddart/Bodenham system.The study group was
      divided into 2 samples according to the age at T0: Group A (age < 6 years) and
      Group B (age >= 6 years). A statistical comparison of the treatment effects
      between the 2 samples was performed.Patients in Group A exhibited a greater
      increase of intercanine distance (8 mm versus 2.7 mm; P<0.001), intermolar
      distance (7.2 mm versus 5 mm; P = 0.06), and Huddart/Bodenham score (7.1 versus
      3; P < 0.05) when compared with patients in Group B.Early orthodontic treatment
      strongly improved the dental arch relationship, since subjects starting the
      therapy before the age of 6 had a better response in terms of anterior maxillary
      expansion.

PMID- 28891896
TI  - Examination of Nasolacrimal Duct Morphometry Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography
      in Patients With Unilateral Cleft Lip/Palate.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: The cleft lip/palate (CLP) deformity negatively affects the anatomy of
      the nasal cavity and maxilla. The effects of this deformity on the lacrimal
      system have been unidentified yet. This study aimed to evaluate the morphometric
      changes in the nasolacrimal duct using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in
      patients with unilateral CLP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective bilateral
      measurements of the narrowest transversal diameters and the lengths of the
      nasolacrimal ducts were made for the affected and unaffected sides of 28 patients
      with CLP and 28 control patients, using the CBCT images. The measurements were
      statistically compared. RESULTS: The mean narrowest transversal diameter of the
      nasolacrimal duct for the affected side of the patients with unilateral CLP was
      statistically significantly narrower than the unaffected side (P = 0.01). There
      were no statistically significant differences between the control group and the
      affected and unaffected sides of patient group with unilateral CLP regarding the
      nasolacrimal duct diameter. The differences were not statistically significant
      among all groups regarding the mean nasolacrimal duct length. CONCLUSION: The
      diameter of the nasolacrimal duct at the affected side of unilateral CLP was
      narrower than the unaffected side. According to this result, the CLP deformity
      can have an effect on the nasolacrimal duct diameter. However, CLP might not
      affect the nasolacrimal duct length.

PMID- 28891897
TI  - Simultaneous Reconstruction of Both Facial Paralysis and Temporomandibular Joint
      Ankylosis With a Composite Flap From Dorsum of Foot.
AB  - Free extensor digitorum brevis muscle flap in facial paralysis, and the second
      metatarsophalangeal joint flap is used at the temporomandibular joint
      reconstruction for a long time. Anatomically, these flaps can be harvested
      through even the same pedicle flap even on the same regions. Literature is
      available of their usage along with the use of hand and upper extremity
      reconstruction. Unlike this example, the authors have used these flaps in
      maxillofacial region where facial paralysis and temporomandibular joint
      reconstruction will be performed together. In this study, clinical report and
      surgical details of this flap have been shared.

PMID- 28891898
TI  - Vascular Anomalies of Posterior Fossa and Their Implications.
AB  - Posterior fossa houses very vital and sensitive structures namely midbrain, pons,
      medulla, and cerebellum. These structures are irrigated by vertebral, posterior
      inferior cerebellar, anterior inferior cerebellar, and superior cerebellar
      arteries. Parts of brain located in posterior fossa control important parts of
      body so any variation pertaining to stenosis, atresia, hypoplasia, fenestration,
      agenesis, and duplication in the arteries supplying these parts alter the
      irrigation pattern culminating into various morbid and mortal neurologic
      disorders. Therefore, a sound understanding and thorough knowledge of posterior
      circulation vascular variant anatomy builds the foundation for the accurate
      diagnosis and appropriate management of neurovascular ischemic and hemorrhagic
      diseases of posterior fossa. To aid in addressing these complex neurologic
      disorders and neurosurgical treatment to be carried out successfully, updating
      and consolidating the knowledge of all the variations/insults of these arteries
      becomes essential. Therefore, review study has been carried out.Literature search
      was carried out using databases, including Scielo, Scopmed, Medline, PubMed, and
      Wiley online library. Papers containing original data were selected and secondary
      references retrieved from bibliographies. Search terms used were posterior fossa,
      anomalies of vertebral, posterior inferior cerebellar, anterior inferior
      cerebellar, and superior cerebellar arteries.The study will be of paramount
      importance to angiographers in interpreting angiographs, neurologists in
      diagnosis and treatment of neurologic disorders, and neurosurgeons in performing
      surgery in posterior fossa and craniovertebral region particularly dealing with
      tumors and vascular malformations.

PMID- 28891899
TI  - Does a Premaxillary Setback and Lip Adhesion Have a Negative Impact on Lip
      Outcome in Bilateral Cleft Patients?
AB  - BACKGROUND: The early premaxillary setback and lip adhesion remains as a
      controversial maneuver in the treatment of bilateral cleft lip and palate
      patients. This study aimed to assess extent of preoperative deformity and lip
      outcomes during the first year after surgery in bilateral cleft patients who
      underwent premaxillary setback and lip adhesion and to compare to those with
      primary lip repair. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted of
      16 nonsyndromic consecutive bilateral complete cleft lip patients (with and
      without Simonart band), who underwent primary cleft lip repair. Patients were
      allocated in group 1 without premaxillary setback and group 2 with premaxillary
      setback and lip adhesion. Preoperative and postoperative linear measurements were
      used for intergroup and intragroup comparisons. RESULTS: Cutaneous lip height of
      patients in group 2 significantly (P < 0.05) improved after combined premaxillary
      setback and lip adhesion and primary cleft lip repair. There were no significant
      (all P > 0.05) differences in intragroup 1 comparisons, and in intergroup
      comparisons. CONCLUSION: Bilateral cleft patients with a protruded and deviated
      premaxilla over 10 mm discrepancy of the lateral maxillary achieved noninferior
      lip symmetry 1 year postoperatively compared with patients with less severe
      original deformity.

PMID- 28891900
TI  - Use of a Balloon Catheter With Intraoperative C-Arm Fluoroscan for Reduction of
      Zygomatic Arch Fractures.
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
      usefulness of C-arm fluoroscan with a balloon catheter in patients undergoing
      closed reduction of zygomatic arch fractures. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: All patients
      who had zygomatic arch reduction surgery between 2006 and 2015 were identified
      and classified into 2 groups. Group A included those patients who underwent
      closed reduction of zygomatic arch fractures. Group B included those who
      underwent zygomatic arch reduction surgery with a C-arm fluoroscan and supporting
      balloon. A balloon catheter was used to stabilize the zygomatic bone after
      reduction. Results were scored from 1 (poor) to 3 (good) to assess surgical
      outcomes based on 3 criteria: alignment of the zygomatic arch on a postoperative
      computed tomography scan, facial asymmetry in photography, and the patient's
      subjective satisfaction. RESULTS: The authors enrolled 32 patients with zygomatic
      arch fractures. 18 patients underwent closed reduction for zygomatic arch
      fractures (group A), while 14 patients underwent closed reduction with C-arm
      fluoroscan and balloon support (group B). The average score for group A was 2.00
      for alignment, 2.56 for facial asymmetry, and 2.67 for subjective satisfaction
      compared with 2.64 for alignment, 2.86 for facial asymmetry, and 2.79 for
      subjective satisfaction in group B. There were statistically significant
      differences in the alignment and facial asymmetry scores between the 2 groups.
      CONCLUSION: The authors suggest that C-arm fluoroscan with balloon support is a
      useful modality for reduction of zygomatic arch fractures that provides better
      surgical outcomes than conventional closed reduction surgery.

PMID- 28891901
TI  - Maxillary Hypoplasia: Differential Diagnosis of Nasal Obstruction in Infants.
AB  - Maxillary hypoplasia (MH) is a rare cause of respiratory dysfunction in infants
      and may occur in association with genetic abnormalities or as an isolated
      condition. It is included in the differential diagnosis of congenital nasal
      obstruction. This paper seeks to report a case series of infants with MH, discuss
      methods for its diagnosis, and compare computed tomography (CT) measurements of
      nasal cavities of infants with MH and without craniomaxillofacial abnormalities.
      The therapeutic approach in each patient is also described. All infants with MH
      admitted to a tertiary hospital between 2012 and 2015 were included. Baseline
      nasal endoscopy was performed at bedside. The width of the infants' nasal
      cavities was measured by a radiologist with experience in CT scanning of facial
      bones. Control patients were infants of matched sex and similar age who underwent
      head CT scanning for various reasons. Overall, 8 infants with MH and 8 controls
      were assessed. All nasal cavity dimensions of infants with MH were significantly
      smaller than those of control subjects. The authors conclude that the diagnosis
      of MH should be considered in infants with nasal obstruction and nasal cavity
      narrowing at nasal endoscopy.

PMID- 28891902
TI  - Nasal Deviation in Patients With Asymmetric Mandibular Prognathism.
AB  - PURPOSE: This study was aimed to evaluate the nasal deviation in patients with
      asymmetric mandibular prognathism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-five patients
      with skeletal class III malocclusion were included in the study. Significant
      mandibular asymmetry of >4 mm menton deviation in three-dimensional (3D)
      reformatted cone beam computed tomography images was defined as asymmetry group
      (n = 20). Patients without mandibular asymmetry served as control group (n = 15).
      The mandibular asymmetry was evaluated pre- and postoperatively. RESULTS: Nasal
      tip was significantly shifted to the deviated side of the mandible (short side)
      in the asymmetry group, as compared to the control group (1.5 +/- 0.9 degree, P <
      0.01). Alar base angle (ABA) was significantly narrower in nondeviated side (long
      side) than in the deviated side in asymmetry group. However, control group showed
      no bilateral difference in ABA. Correction of deviated mandibular prognathism by
      isolated mandibular surgery resulted in change in the ABA but not the columella
      base position or nasal asymmetry. ABA on nondeviated side significantly decreased
      in proportion to the amount of transverse menton movement by surgery (r = -0.560,
      P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that mandibular chin deviation was
      accompanied by nasal deviation. Isolated mandibular surgery can potentially
      influence the alar base position on the contralateral side of deviation but not
      the nasal tip asymmetry. Therefore, clinicians should inform patients
      preoperatively of the fundamental limitation of mandibular surgery in cases with
      preexisting nasal asymmetry.

PMID- 28891903
TI  - The Effectiveness of Oxidized Regenerated Cellulose as a Graft Material in
      Transalveolar Osteotome Sinus Lift Procedure.
AB  - The posterior maxilla is challenged with postextraction alveolar bone resorption
      and pneumatization drive of the Schneiderian membrane that reduces the subantral
      distance. To overcome such anatomic obstacle a sinus augmentation procedure was
      introduced either via lateral or crestal approach depending on residual ridge
      height. The current study evaluated oxidized regenerated cellulose (ORC) as a
      grafting material versus osteon II by measuring bone gain and graft density, 24
      weeks postoperatively. Twenty consecutive patients (24 cases) aged from 20 to 65
      years were considered eligible after clinical and radiographic evaluation. These
      patients were allocated in 2 groups (study and control) that underwent
      transcrestal osteotome antral membrane balloon elevation and surgical void
      augmentation with ORC in the study group, while the control group grafted with
      collagen membrane and osteon II with simultaneous dental implant placement in
      both groups and were followed up for 1 year. Cone beam computed tomography was
      taken for all patients preoperatively and postoperatively to verify neoformed
      bone and density in Hounsfield units (HU). The mean gained height of the bone was
      6.48 mm (5.94 mm in the study and 7.02 mm in the control). The mean density of
      graft above implant apex was 497.99 HU (434.23 HU in the study and 561.75 HU in
      the control). Apart from Schneider membrane thickening in 2 patients from the
      control group, there were no serious complications reported throughout the study.
      These results demonstrate that ORC is a reasonable grafting material with
      comparable outcomes when compared to osteon II with less postoperative
      complications.

PMID- 28891904
TI  - A Patient Information Leaflet Reduces Parental Anxiety Before Their Child's First
      Craniofacial Multidisciplinary Outpatient Appointment.
AB  - INTRODUCTION: It is expected that a child's first outpatient appointment with a
      craniofacial multidisciplinary team (MDT) instills anxiety in parents. Limited
      data exist on the aspects of the appointment that parents are most concerned
      about and what information they desire. The effect of written information
      provision on this cohort is unstudied. METHODS: Parents attending their child's
      first outpatient appointment with the Birmingham Children's Hospital Craniofacial
      MDT between September and December 2012 completed a questionnaire to identify
      concerns they had relating to the appointment. A patient information leaflet was
      subsequently developed and distributed. From September 2015 to January 2016,
      questionnaires completed by parents assessed the usefulness of the leaflet and
      whether it reduced parental anxiety. RESULTS: Twenty-six initial questionnaires
      were returned. Seventeen respondents (65%) reported that they were concerned
      about some aspect of their child's appointment. Twenty-two (86%) expressed a
      desire for more information surrounding their child's appointment. Thirteen (50%)
      requested for this information to be provided using a patient information
      leaflet. After the introduction of the leaflet, 30 questionnaires were returned.
      All 30 (100.0%) found the leaflet easy to understand. Twenty-nine (96.7%) felt
      the leaflet provided helpful information. Eighteen (60.0%) felt less worried
      about the appointment after reading the leaflet. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of
      parents of children referred to a craniofacial MDT appointment displayed concerns
      that related to the appointment itself. Specific information relating to the
      appointment process itself was desired. A purpose-built leaflet successfully
      provided parents with desired information and lowered anxiety among the majority
      of attendees.

PMID- 28891906
TI  - First-in-Human Treatment With a Dendritic Cell-targeting Lentiviral Vector
      expressing NY-ESO-1, LV305, Induces Deep, Durable Response in Refractory
      Metastatic Synovial Sarcoma Patient.
AB  - Effective induction of antitumor T cells is a pivotal goal of cancer
      immunotherapy. To this end, lentiviral vectors (LV) are uniquely poised to
      directly prime CD8 T-cell responses via transduction of dendritic cells in vivo
      and have shown promise as active cancer therapeutics in preclinical tumor models.
      However, until now, significant barriers related to production and regulation
      have prevented their widespread use in the clinic. We developed LV305, a
      dendritic cell-targeting, integration-deficient, replication incompetent LV from
      the ZVex platform, encoding the full-length cancer-testis antigen NY-ESO-1. LV305
      is currently being evaluated in phase 1 and 2 trials in metastatic recurrent
      cancer patients with NY-ESO-1 positive solid tumors as a single agent and in
      combination with anti-PD-L1. Here we report on the first patient treated with
      LV305, a young woman with metastatic, recurrent, therapy-refractive NY-ESO-1
      synovial sarcoma. The patient developed a robust NY-ESO-1-specific CD4 and CD8 T
      cell response after 3 intradermal injections with LV305, and subsequently over
      85% disease regression that is continuing for >2.5 years posttherapy. No adverse
      events >grade 2 occurred. This case demonstrates that LV305 can be safely
      administered and has the potential to induce a significant clinical benefit and
      immunologic response in a patient with advanced stage cancer.

PMID- 28891907
TI  - Treatments for Emotional Issues After Traumatic Brain Injury.

PMID- 28891908
TI  - Potential Impact of Amantadine on Aggression in Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of amantadine on anger and aggression among
      individuals with a chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: A cohort of 118
      persons with chronic TBI (>6 months postinjury) and moderate-severe aggression
      selected from a larger cohort of 168 participants enrolled in a parallel-group,
      randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of amantadine 100 mg twice
      daily (n = 82) versus placebo (n = 86) for treatment of irritability were
      studied. Anger and aggression were measured at treatment days 0, 28, and 60 using
      observer-rated and participant-rated State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2
      (STAXI-2) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Agitation/Aggression domain (NPI-A) Most
      Problematic and Distress scores. RESULTS: Participant-rated day 60 NPI-A Most
      Problematic (adjusted P = .0118) and NPI-A Distress (adjusted P = .0118) were
      statistically significant between the 2 groups, but STAXI-2 differences were not
      significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons. Substantial improvements
      were noted in both amantadine and placebo groups (70% vs 56% improving at least 3
      points on day 60 Observer NPI-A; P = .11). CONCLUSION: Amantadine 100 mg twice
      daily in this population with chronic TBI appears to be beneficial in decreasing
      aggression from the perspective of the individual with TBI. No beneficial impact
      on anger was found. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:
      NCT00779324;
      http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00779324?term=irritability&rank=6.

PMID- 28891909
TI  - Improving Emotion Regulation Following Web-Based Group Intervention for
      Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury.
AB  - OBJECTIVE: Preliminary evaluation of the efficacy of a Web-based group
      intervention (Online EmReg) to improve emotion regulation (ER) in individuals
      with traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN: Pre-/post-within-subject design with
      baseline, end-of-treatment, and 12-week follow-up assessments. PARTICIPANTS:
      Ninety-one individuals with TBI and deficits in ER. INTERVENTION: Twenty-four
      sessions of training in ER skills delivered by group videoconference. MEASURES:
      Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Positive Affect Negative Affect
      Schedule (PANAS), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Problem Solving Inventory
      (PSI), Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised: Short Form (SPSI-R:S), and
      Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX). RESULTS: Significant changes with large effect
      sizes were found for the DERS at the 12-week follow-up assessment. Significant
      and moderate changes were found on the SWLS, DEX, PSI, and subscales of the PANAS
      and SPSI-R:S. CONCLUSIONS: Online EmReg appears to be a promising method of
      delivering a group intervention to improve ER following TBI.

PMID- 28891910
TI  - Descriptive Statistics: Reporting the Answers to the 5 Basic Questions of Who,
      What, Why, When, Where, and a Sixth, So What?
AB  - Descriptive statistics are specific methods basically used to calculate,
      describe, and summarize collected research data in a logical, meaningful, and
      efficient way. Descriptive statistics are reported numerically in the manuscript
      text and/or in its tables, or graphically in its figures. This basic statistical
      tutorial discusses a series of fundamental concepts about descriptive statistics
      and their reporting. The mean, median, and mode are 3 measures of the center or
      central tendency of a set of data. In addition to a measure of its central
      tendency (mean, median, or mode), another important characteristic of a research
      data set is its variability or dispersion (ie, spread). In simplest terms,
      variability is how much the individual recorded scores or observed values differ
      from one another. The range, standard deviation, and interquartile range are 3
      measures of variability or dispersion. The standard deviation is typically
      reported for a mean, and the interquartile range for a median. Testing for
      statistical significance, along with calculating the observed treatment effect
      (or the strength of the association between an exposure and an outcome), and
      generating a corresponding confidence interval are 3 tools commonly used by
      researchers (and their collaborating biostatistician or epidemiologist) to
      validly make inferences and more generalized conclusions from their collected
      data and descriptive statistics. A number of journals, including Anesthesia &
      Analgesia, strongly encourage or require the reporting of pertinent confidence
      intervals. A confidence interval can be calculated for virtually any variable or
      outcome measure in an experimental, quasi-experimental, or observational research
      study design. Generally speaking, in a clinical trial, the confidence interval is
      the range of values within which the true treatment effect in the population
      likely resides. In an observational study, the confidence interval is the range
      of values within which the true strength of the association between the exposure
      and the outcome (eg, the risk ratio or odds ratio) in the population likely
      resides. There are many possible ways to graphically display or illustrate
      different types of data. While there is often latitude as to the choice of
      format, ultimately, the simplest and most comprehensible format is preferred.
      Common examples include a histogram, bar chart, line chart or line graph, pie
      chart, scatterplot, and box-and-whisker plot. Valid and reliable descriptive
      statistics can answer basic yet important questions about a research data set,
      namely: "Who, What, Why, When, Where, How, How Much?"

PMID- 28891912
TI  - Postoperative Complications Affecting Survival After Cardiac Arrest in General
      Surgery Patients.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Postoperative cardiac arrest is uncommon but associated with a high
      mortality risk in general surgery patients and is often preceded by postoperative
      complications. The relationships between previous complications and mortality
      after cardiac arrest in general surgery patients have not been completely
      evaluated. METHODS: A retrospective, observational cohort of general surgery in
      patients with cardiac arrest occurring after postoperative day (POD) #0 (and up
      to POD #30) was obtained from the 2012-2013 American College of Surgeons National
      Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Previous complication was defined as at
      least one of the following occurring before the POD of cardiac arrest: (1) acute
      kidney injury; (2) acute respiratory failure; (3) deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary
      embolus; (4) myocardial infarction; (5) sepsis/septic shock; (6) stroke; and/or
      (7) transfusion. The associations between previous complications and mortality
      after cardiac arrest were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models that
      adjusted for preoperative risk factors. RESULTS: Of 1352 patients with
      postoperative cardiac arrest, 746 patients (55%) developed at least 1
      complication before cardiac arrest. Overall 30-day mortality was 71% (958/1352)
      and was similar among patients with and without a previous complication (71%
      [533/746] vs 70% [425/606]; P = .60). Patients with previous complications did
      not have an increased risk of mortality, compared to patients without previous
      complications, in adjusted Cox models (hazard ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence
      interval, 0.90-1.18; P = .70). In addition, no previous complication was
      associated with increased mortality risk in individual analyses. CONCLUSIONS:
      Among general surgery patients with cardiac arrest after POD #0, complications
      occurring before cardiac arrest are common but are not associated with increased
      mortality risk.

PMID- 28891911
TI  - Delineating the Trajectory of Cognitive Recovery From General Anesthesia in Older
      Adults: Design and Rationale of the TORIE (Trajectory of Recovery in the Elderly)
      Project.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Mechanistic aspects of cognitive recovery after anesthesia and
      surgery are not yet well characterized, but may be vital to distinguishing the
      contributions of anesthesia and surgery in cognitive complications common in the
      elderly such as delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction. This article
      describes the aims and methodological approach to the ongoing study, Trajectory
      of Recovery in the Elderly (TORIE), which focuses on the trajectory of cognitive
      recovery from general anesthesia. METHODS: The study design employs cognitive
      testing coupled with neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic
      resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and arterial spin labeling to
      characterize cognitive recovery from anesthesia and its biological correlates.
      Applying these techniques to a cohort of age-specified healthy volunteers 40-80
      years of age, who are exposed to general anesthesia alone, in the absence of
      surgery, will assess cognitive and functional neural network recovery after
      anesthesia. Imaging data are acquired before, during, and immediately after
      anesthesia, as well as 1 and 7 days after. Detailed cognitive data are captured
      at the same time points as well as 30 days after anesthesia, and brief cognitive
      assessments are repeated at 6 and 12 months after anesthesia. RESULTS: The study
      is underway. Our primary hypothesis is that older adults may require
      significantly longer to achieve cognitive recovery, measured by Postoperative
      Quality of Recovery Scale cognitive domain, than younger adults in the immediate
      postanesthesia period, but all will fully recover to baseline levels within 30
      days of anesthesia exposure. Imaging data will address systems neuroscience
      correlates of cognitive recovery from general anesthesia. CONCLUSIONS: The data
      acquired in this project will have both clinical and theoretical relevance
      regardless of the outcome by delineating the mechanism behind short-term recovery
      across the adult age lifespan, which will have major implications for our
      understanding of the effects of anesthetic drugs.

PMID- 28891913
TI  - The Assignment of American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status
      Classification for Adult Polytrauma Patients: Results From a Survey and Future
      Considerations.
AB  - BACKGROUND: The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status (PS)
      classification system assesses the preoperative health of patients. Previous
      studies demonstrated poor interrater reliability and variable ASA PS scores,
      especially in trauma scenarios. There are few studies that evaluated the
      assignment of ASA PS scores in trauma patients and no studies that evaluated ASA
      PS assignment in severely injured adult polytrauma patients. Our objective was to
      assess interrater reliability and identify sources of discrepancy among
      anesthesiologists and trauma surgeons in designating ASA PS scores to adult
      polytrauma patients. METHODS: A link to an online survey containing questions
      assessing attitudes regarding ASA PS classification, demographic information, and
      8 fictional trauma cases was e-mailed to anesthesiologists and trauma surgeons.
      The participants were asked to assign an ASA PS score to each scenario and
      explain their choice. Rater-versus-reference and interrater reliability, beyond
      that expected by chance, among respondents was analyzed using the Fleiss kappa
      analysis. RESULTS: A total of 349 participants completed the survey. All 8 cases
      had inconsistent ASA PS scores; several cases had scores ranging from I to VI and
      variable emergency (E) designations. Using weighted kappa (Kw) analysis for a
      subset of 201 respondents (101 trauma surgeons [S] and 100 anesthesiologists
      [A]), we found moderate (Kw = 0.63; SE = 0.024; 95% confidence interval, 0.594
      0.666; P < .001) interrater-versus-reference reliability. The interrater
      reliability was fair (Kw = 0.43; SE = 0.037; 95% confidence interval, 0.360
      0.491; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates fair interrater
      reliability beyond that expected by chance of the ASA PS scores among
      anesthesiologists and trauma surgeons when assessing adult polytrauma patients.
      Although the ASA PS is used in some trauma risk stratification models,
      discrepancies of ASA PS scores assigned to trauma cases exist. Future
      modifications of the ASA PS guidelines should aim to improve the interrater
      reliability of ASA PS scores in trauma patients. Further studies are warranted to
      determine the value of the ASA PS score as a trauma prognostic metric.

PMID- 28891915
TI  - Re: "Intravenous Steroids With Antibiotics on Admission for Children With Orbital
      Cellulitis".

PMID- 28891916
TI  - Reply re: "Intravenous Steroids With Antibiotics on Admission for Children With
      Orbital Cellulitis".

PMID- 28891917
TI  - Re: "Blepharoplasty Effect on a Described Algorithmic Approach to External Ptosis
      Repair: Is It Time for Unbundling?"

PMID- 28891918
TI  - Reply Re: "Blepharoplasty Effect on a Described Algorithmic Approach to External
      Ptosis Repair: Is It Time for Unbundling?"

PMID- 28891919
TI  - Re: "Conjunctiva-Sparing Posterior Ptosis Surgery: A Novel Approach".

PMID- 28891920
TI  - Reply re: "Conjunctiva-Sparing Posterior Ptosis Surgery: A Novel Approach".

PMID- 28891921
TI  - Re: "Conjunctiva-Sparing Posterior Ptosis Surgery: A Novel Approach".

PMID- 28891922
TI  - Reply re: "Conjunctiva-Sparing Posterior Ptosis Surgery: A Novel Approach".

PMID- 28891923
TI  - Re: "Lateral Rectus and Medial Rectus Expansion Following Orbital Decompression".

PMID- 28891924
TI  - Three-Dimensionally Printed Conformers for Treatment of Congenital Anophthalmos.

PMID- 28891925
TI  - An Alternative for Permanent Punctal Occlusion: Labial Mucous Membrane Graft in
      the Management of Severe Dry Eye.

PMID- 28891926
TI  - Superior Rectus Intramuscular Lipoma.

PMID- 28891927
TI  - Differential CMOS Sub-Terahertz Detector with Subthreshold Amplifier.
AB  - We propose a differential-type complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sub
      terahertz (THz) detector with a subthreshold preamplifier. The proposed detector
      improves the voltage responsivity and effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) using
      the subthreshold preamplifier, which is located between the differential detector
      device and main amplifier. The overall noise of the detector for the THz imaging
      system is reduced by the preamplifier because it diminishes the noise
      contribution of the main amplifier. The subthreshold preamplifier is self-biased
      by the output DC voltage of the detector core and has a dummy structure that
      cancels the DC offsets generated by the preamplifier itself. The 200 GHz detector
      fabricated using 0.25 MUm CMOS technology includes a low drop-out regulator,
      current reference blocks, and an integrated antenna. A voltage responsivity of
      2020 kV/W and noise equivalent power of 76 pW/?Hz are achieved using the detector
      at a gate bias of 0.5 V, respectively. The effective SNR at a 103 Hz chopping
      frequency is 70.9 dB with a 0.7 W/m2 input signal power density. The dynamic
      range of the raster-scanned THz image is 44.59 dB.

PMID- 28891928
TI  - High-Performance Wireless Ammonia Gas Sensors Based on Reduced Graphene Oxide and
      Nano-Silver Ink Hybrid Material Loaded on a Patch Antenna.
AB  - Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been studied as a resistive ammonia gas sensor
      at room temperature. The sensitive hybrid material composed of rGO and nano
      silver ink (Ag-ink) was loaded on a microstrip patch antenna to realize high
      performance wireless ammonia sensors. The material was investigated using
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).
      Firstly, interdigital electrodes (IDEs) printed on the polyethylene terephthalate
      (PET) by direct printing were employed to measure the variation of resistance of
      the sensitive material with the ammonia concentration. The results indicated the
      response of sensor varied from 4.25% to 14.7% under 15-200 ppm ammonia
      concentrations. Furthermore, the hybrid material was loaded on a microstrip patch
      antenna fabricated by a conventional printed circuit board (PCB) process, and a
      10 MHz frequency shift of the sensor antenna could be observed for 200 ppm
      ammonia gas. Finally, the wireless sensing property of the sensor antenna was
      successfully tested using the same emitted antenna outside the gas chamber with a
      high gain of 5.48 dBi, and an increased reflection magnitude of the emitted
      antenna due to the frequency mismatch of the sensor antenna was observed.
      Therefore, wireless ammonia gas sensors loaded on a patch antenna have
      significant application prospects in the field of Internet of Things (IoTs).

PMID- 28891929
TI  - Towards Understanding the Polymerization Process in Bitumen Bio-Fluxes.
AB  - Bitumen is a commonly used material for road construction. According to
      environmental regulations, vegetable-based materials are applied for binder
      modification. Fluxed road bitumen containing a bio-flux oxidation product
      increases the consistency over time. The efficiency of crosslinking depends on
      the number of double bonds and their position in the aliphatic chain of fatty
      acid. The main goal of this paper was to examine the structural changes taking
      place during hardening bitumen with bio-flux additives. Two types of road
      bitumens fluxed with two different oxidized methyl esters of rapeseed oil were
      used in this study. Various chemical and rheological tests were applied for the
      fluxed-bitumen at different stages of oxygen exposure. The oxidation of rapeseed
      oil methyl ester reduced the iodine amount by about 10%-30%. Hardening of the
      fluxed bitumen generally results in an increase of the resins content and a
      reduction of the aromatics and asphaltenes. In the temperature range of 0 
      degrees C to 40  degrees C, bio-flux results with a much higher increase in the
      phase angle than in temperatures above 40  degrees C in the bitumen binder. The
      increase in the proportion of the viscous component in the low and medium binder
      temperature is favorable due to the potential improvement of the fatigue
      resistance of the asphalt mixture with such binders.

PMID- 28891930
TI  - Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms Associated with Childhood Autism.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of heterogeneous,
      behaviorally defined disorders whereby currently no biological markers are common
      to all affected individuals. A deregulated immune response may be contributing to
      the etiology of ASD. The active metabolite of vitamin D3 has an immunoregulatory
      role mediated by binding to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in monocyte,
      macrophages, and lymphocytes. The effects of vitamin D and interaction with the
      VDR may be influenced by polymorphism in the VDR gene. METHODS: Genetic
      association of four different VDR polymorphisms (Apa-I, Bsm-I, Taq-I, Fok-I)
      associated with susceptibility to the development of autism in children was
      investigated. RESULTS: We uniquely found an association between the presence of
      the T allele at position Taq-I and presence of the a allele at position Apa-I of
      the VDR gene with decreased ASD incidence. There was also an association between
      female gender and the presence of the T allele. We found no statistical
      significant correlation between VDR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and
      vitamin D3 concentration in serum of ASD children. CONCLUSION: Genetic
      polymorphism in two SNP in VDR may be correlated with development of ASD symptoms
      by influencing functionality of vitamin D3 metabolism, while vitamin D3 levels
      were not significantly different between ASD and non-ASD children.

PMID- 28891931
TI  - Beneficial Effects of Common Bean on Adiposity and Lipid Metabolism.
AB  - In developed countries which are at the epicenter of the obesity pandemic, pulse
      crop consumption is well below recommended levels. In a recent systematic review
      and meta-analysis of 21 randomized controlled clinical trials, pulse consumption
      was associated with improved weight control and reduced adiposity, although the
      underlying mechanisms were a matter of speculation. Common bean (Phaseolus
      vulgaris L.) is the most widely consumed pulse crop and was the focus of this
      investigation. Using outbred genetic models of dietary induced obesity resistance
      and of dietary induced obesity sensitivity in the rat, the impact of bean
      consumption was investigated on the efficiency with which consumed food was
      converted to body mass (food efficiency ratio), body fat accumulation, adipocyte
      morphometrics, and patterns of protein expression associated with lipid
      metabolism. Cooked whole bean as well as a commercially prepared cooked bean
      powders were evaluated. While bean consumption did not affect food efficiency
      ratio, bean reduced visceral adiposity and adipocyte size in both obesity
      sensitive and resistant rats. In liver, bean consumption increased carnitine
      palmitoyl transferase 1, which is the rate limiting step in long chain fatty acid
      oxidation and also resulted in lower levels of circulating triglycerides.
      Collectively, our results are consistent with the clinical finding that pulse
      consumption is anti-obesogenic and indicate that one mechanism by which cooked
      bean exerts its bioactivity is oxidation of long chain fatty acids.

PMID- 28891932
TI  - Inadequate Vitamin C Status in Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus:
      Associations with Glycaemic Control, Obesity, and Smoking.
AB  - Vitamin C (ascorbate) is an essential micronutrient in humans, being required for
      a number of important biological functions via acting as an enzymatic cofactor
      and reducing agent. There is some evidence to suggest that people with type 2
      diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have lower plasma vitamin C concentrations compared to
      those with normal glucose tolerance (NGT). The aim of this study was to
      investigate plasma vitamin C concentrations across the glycaemic spectrum and to
      explore correlations with indices of metabolic health. This is a cross-sectional
      observational pilot study in adults across the glycaemic spectrum from NGT to
      T2DM. Demographic and anthropometric data along with information on physical
      activity were collected and participants were asked to complete a four-day
      weighed food diary. Venous blood samples were collected and glycaemic indices,
      plasma vitamin C concentrations, hormone tests, lipid profiles, and high
      sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were analysed. A total of 89 participants
      completed the study, including individuals with NGT (n = 35), prediabetes (n =
      25), and T2DM managed by diet alone or on a regimen of Metformin only (n = 29).
      Plasma vitamin C concentrations were significantly lower in individuals with T2DM
      compared to those with NGT (41.2 umol/L versus 57.4 umol/L, p < 0.05) and a
      higher proportion of vitamin C deficiency (i.e. <11.0 umol/L) was observed in
      both the prediabetes and T2DM groups. The results showed fasting glucose (p =
      0.001), BMI (p = 0.001), smoking history (p = 0.003), and dietary vitamin C
      intake (p = 0.032) to be significant independent predictors of plasma vitamin C
      concentrations. In conclusion, these results suggest that adults with a history
      of smoking, prediabetes or T2DM, and/or obesity, have greater vitamin C
      requirements. Future research is required to investigate whether eating more
      vitamin C rich foods and/or taking vitamin C supplements may reduce the risk of
      progression to, and/or complications associated with, T2DM.

PMID- 28891934
TI  - Fatigue Properties of the Ultra-High Strength Steel TM210A.
AB  - This paper presents the results of an experiment to investigate the high cycle
      fatigue properties of the ultra-high strength steel TM210A. A constant amplitude
      rotating bending fatigue experiment was performed at room temperature at stress
      ratio R = -1. In order to evaluate the notch effect, the fatigue experiment was
      carried out upon two sets of specimens, smooth and notched, respectively. In the
      experiment, the rotating bending fatigue life was tested using the group method,
      and the rotating bending fatigue limit was tested using the staircase method at 1
      * 107 cycles. A double weighted least square method was then used to fit the
      stress-life (S-N) curve. The S-N curves of the two sets of specimens were
      obtained and the morphologies of the fractures of the two sets of specimens were
      observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the
      fatigue limit of the smooth specimen for rotating bending fatigue was 615 MPa;
      the ratio of the fatigue limit to tensile strength was 0.29, and the cracks
      initiated at the surface of the smooth specimen; while the fatigue limit of the
      notched specimen for rotating bending fatigue was 363 MPa, and the cracks
      initiated at the edge of the notch. The fatigue notch sensitivity index of the
      ultra-high strength maraging steel TM210A was 0.69.

PMID- 28891933
TI  - Tyrosine-Kinase Inhibitors Therapies with Mainly Anti-Angiogenic Activity in
      Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma: Value of PET/CT in Response Evaluation.
AB  - Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most frequent renal tumor and the majority of
      patients are diagnosed with advanced disease. Tumor angiogenesis plays a crucial
      role in the development and progression of RCC together with hypoxia and glucose
      metabolism. These three pathways are strictly connected to the cell growth and
      proliferation, like a loop that is self-feeding. Over the last few years, the
      ever-deeper knowledge of its contribution in metastatic RCC led to the discovery
      of numerous tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting pro-angiogenic receptors
      at different levels such as sunitinib, sorafenib, pazopanib, axitinib, tivozanib,
      and dovitinib. As anti-angiogenic agents, TKIs interfere the loop, being able to
      inhibit tumor proliferation. TKIs are now available treatments for advanced RCC,
      which demonstrated to improve overall survival and/or progression free survival.
      Their effects can be detectable early on Positron Emission Tomography/Computed
      Tomography (PET/CT) by change in 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-2-d-glucose (18F-FDG) uptake,
      the main radiotracer used to date, as a strong indicator of biological response.
      18F-FDG PET/CT demonstrated an ability to predict and monitor disease
      progression, allowing an early and reliable identification of responders, and
      could be used for image-guided optimization and "personalization" of anti
      angiogenic regimens. New radiotracers for biometabolic imaging are currently
      under investigation, which exploit the other pathways involved in the cancer
      process, including cellular proliferation, aerobic metabolism, cell membrane
      synthesis, hypoxia and amino acid transport, as well as the angiogenic process,
      but they require further studies.

PMID- 28891936
TI  - The Short-term Effects of a Cyberbullying Prevention Intervention for Parents of
      Middle School Students.
AB  - This study experimentally evaluated the short-term effects of the Arizona
      Attorney General's cybersafety promotion presentation, a key component of which
      is cyberbullying prevention. Fifty-one parents of children attending a middle
      school in the southwestern United States participated in the study. Results
      reveal parents who viewed the presentation believed their children to be more
      susceptible to cyberbullying, and indicated that they were more likely to talk to
      their children about saving evidence, not retaliating, and telling an adult
      compared to parents who had not viewed the presentation. The theoretical and
      practical implications of these results are discussed.

PMID- 28891937
TI  - The Impact of a City-Level Minimum-Wage Policy on Supermarket Food Prices in
      Seattle-King County.
AB  - Background: Many states and localities throughout the U.S. have adopted higher
      minimum wages. Higher labor costs among low-wage food system workers could result
      in higher food prices. Methods: Using a market basket of 106 foods, food prices
      were collected at affected chain supermarket stores in Seattle and same-chain
      unaffected stores in King County (n = 12 total, six per location). Prices were
      collected at 1 month pre- (March 2015) and 1-month post-policy enactment (May
      2015), then again 1-year post-policy enactment (May 2016). Unpaired t-tests were
      used to detect price differences by location at fixed time while paired t-tests
      were used to detect price difference across time with fixed store chain. A multi
      level, linear differences-in-differences model, was used to detect the changes in
      the average market basket item food prices over time across regions, overall and
      by food group. Results: There were no significant differences in overall market
      basket or item-level costs at one-month (-$0.01, SE = 0.05, p = 0.884) or one
      year post-policy enactment (-$0.02, SE = 0.08, p = 0.772). No significant
      increases were observed by food group. Conclusions: There is no evidence of
      change in supermarket food prices by market basket or increase in prices by food
      group in response to the implementation of Seattle's minimum wage ordinance.

PMID- 28891938
TI  - Time Course of the Phenotype of Blood and Bone Marrow Monocytes and Macrophages
      in the Lung after Cigarette Smoke Exposure In Vivo.
AB  - Alveolar macrophages play a central role in the pathogenesis of chronic
      obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Monocytes are recruited from blood during
      inflammation and then mature into alveolar macrophages. The aim of this study was
      to investigate the effect of cigarette smoke (CS) at different times in lung
      macrophages and monocytes from blood and bone marrow in mice. Male mice (C57BL/6,
      n = 45) were divided into groups: control, CS 5 days, CS 14 days and CS 30 days.
      Five days' CS exposure induced a pronounced influx of neutrophils and macrophages
      in the lung associated with increased levels of keratinocyte chemoattractant
      (KC), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), nitric oxide (NO) and matrix
      metalloproteinase (MMP)-12. After 14 days of CS exposure, neutrophil recruitment
      and cytokine production were greatly reduced. Moreover, chronic CS exposure led
      to increased recruitment of macrophages (with high expression of CD206),
      transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) production as well as no detection of
      TNF-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6 and KC. CS can also change the monocyte phenotype
      in the blood and bone marrow, with an increase in Ly6Clow cells. These results
      show for the first time that CS can change not only macrophage polarization but
      also monocyte. These results suggest that continued recruitment of Ly6Clow
      monocytes may help the distinct renewing macrophage M2 population required for
      COPD progression.

PMID- 28891935
TI  - Alteration of Mammary Gland Development and Gene Expression by In Utero Exposure
      to Cadmium.
AB  - Environmental exposure to estrogens and estrogen like contaminants during early
      development is thought to contribute to the risk of developing breast cancer
      primarily due to an early onset of puberty; however, exposure during key
      developing windows may also influence the risk of developing the disease. The
      goal of this study was to ask whether in utero exposure to the metalloestrogen
      cadmium alters mammary gland development due to acceleration of puberty onset or
      to an effect on early development of the mammary gland. The results show that, in
      addition to advancing the onset of puberty, in utero exposure to the
      metalloestrogen cadmium altered mammary gland development prior to its effect on
      puberty onset. In utero exposure resulted in an expansion of the number of
      mammosphere-forming cells in the neonatal mammary gland and an increase in
      branching, epithelial cells, and density in the prepubertal mammary gland. In the
      postpubertal mammary gland, there was a further expansion of the mammary
      stem/progenitor cell population and overexpression of estrogen receptor-alpha
      (ERalpha) that was due to the overexpression and altered regulation of the
      ERalpha transcripts derived from exons O and OT in response to estradiol. These
      results suggest that in utero exposure to cadmium increases stem/progenitor
      cells, cell density, and expression of estrogen receptor-alpha that may
      contribute to the risk of developing breast cancer.

PMID- 28891939
TI  - The Burden of Suicide in Rural Bangladesh: Magnitude and Risk Factors.
AB  - The aim of the paper is to quantify the burden and risk factors of fatal and non
      fatal suicidal behaviors in rural Bangladesh. A census was carried out in seven
      sub-districts encompassing 1.16 million people. Face-to-face interviews were
      conducted at the household level. Descriptive analyses were done to quantify the
      burden and Poisson regression was run to determine on risk factors. The estimated
      rates of fatal and non-fatal suicide were 3.29 and 9.86 per 100,000 person years
      (PY) observed, respectively. The risk of suicide was significantly higher by 6.31
      times among 15-17 and 4.04 times among 18-24 olds compared to 25-64 years old.
      Married adolescents were 22 times more likely to commit suicide compared to never
      married people. Compared to Chandpur/Comilla district, the risk of suicide was
      significantly higher in Narshingdi. Students had significantly lower risk of non
      fatal suicidal behavior compared to skilled laborers. The risk of non-fatal
      suicidal behavior was lower in Sherpur compared to Chandpur/Comilla. Among
      adolescents, unskilled laborers were 16 times more likely to attempt suicide than
      students. The common methods for fatal and non-fatal suicidal behaviors were
      hanging and poisoning. Suicide is a major public health problem in Bangladesh
      that needs to be addressed with targeted interventions.

PMID- 28891940
TI  - The Effects of Socioeconomic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Services, and Social
      Service Spending on Family Reunification: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis.
AB  - Socio-environmental factors such as poverty, psychosocial services, and social
      services spending all could influence the challenges faced by vulnerable
      families. This paper examines the extent to which socioeconomic vulnerability,
      psychosocial service consultations, and preventative social services spending
      impacts the reunification for children placed in out-of-home care. This study
      uses a multilevel longitudinal research design that draws data from three
      sources: (1) longitudinal administrative data from Quebec's child protection
      agencies; (2) 2006 and 2011 Canadian Census data; and, (3) intra-province health
      and social services data. The final data set included all children (N = 39,882)
      placed in out-of-home care for the first time between 1 April 2002 and 31 March
      2013, and followed from their initial out-of-home placement. Multilevel hazard
      results indicate that socioeconomic vulnerability, controlling for psychosocial
      services and social services spending, contributes to the decreased likelihood of
      reunification. Specifically, socioeconomic vulnerability, psychosocial services,
      and social services spending account for 24.0% of the variation in jurisdictional
      reunification for younger children less than 5 years of age, 12.5% for children
      age 5 to 11 years and 21.4% for older children age 12 to 17 years. These findings
      have implications for decision makers, funding agencies, and child protection
      agencies to improve jurisdictional resources to reduce the socioeconomic
      vulnerabilities of reunifying families.

PMID- 28891941
TI  - COX Inhibition Profile and Molecular Docking Studies of Some 2-(Trimethoxyphenyl)
      Thiazoles.
AB  - Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used therapeutic
      agents that exhibit frequent and sometimes severe adverse effects, including
      gastrointestinal ulcerations and cardiovascular disorders. In an effort to obtain
      safer NSAIDs, we assessed the direct cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition activity and
      we investigated the potential COX binding mode of some previously reported 2
      (trimethoxyphenyl)-thiazoles. The in vitro COX inhibition assays were performed
      against ovine COX-1 and human recombinant COX-2. Molecular docking studies were
      performed to explain the possible interactions between the inhibitors and both
      COX isoforms binding pockets. Four of the tested compounds proved to be good
      inhibitors of both COX isoforms, but only compound A3 showed a good COX-2
      selectivity index, similar to meloxicam. The plausible binding mode of compound
      A3 revealed hydrogen bond interactions with binding site key residues including
      Arg120, Tyr355, Ser530, Met522 and Trp387, whereas hydrophobic contacts were
      detected with Leu352, Val349, Leu359, Phe518, Gly526, and Ala527. Computationally
      predicted pharmacokinetic profile revealed A3 as lead candidate. The present data
      prove that the investigated compounds inhibit COX and thus confirm the previously
      reported in vivo anti-inflammatory screening results suggesting that A3 is a
      suitable candidate for further development as a NSAID.

PMID- 28891942
TI  - Automatic Classification of Tremor Severity in Parkinson's Disease Using a
      Wearable Device.
AB  - Although there is clinical demand for new technology that can accurately measure
      Parkinsonian tremors, automatic scoring of Parkinsonian tremors using machine
      learning approaches has not yet been employed. This study aims to fill this gap
      by proposing machine-learning algorithms as a way to predict the Unified
      Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), which are similar to how neurologists
      rate scores in actual clinical practice. In this study, the tremor signals of 85
      patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) were measured using a wrist-watch-type
      wearable device consisting of an accelerometer and a gyroscope. The displacement
      and angle signals were calculated from the measured acceleration and angular
      velocity, and the acceleration, angular velocity, displacement, and angle signals
      were used for analysis. Nineteen features were extracted from each signal, and
      the pairwise correlation strategy was used to reduce the number of feature
      dimensions. With the selected features, a decision tree (DT), support vector
      machine (SVM), discriminant analysis (DA), random forest (RF), and k-nearest
      neighbor (kNN) algorithm were explored for automatic scoring of the Parkinsonian
      tremor severity. The performance of the employed classifiers was analyzed using
      accuracy, recall, and precision, and compared to other findings in similar
      studies. Finally, the limitations and plans for further study are discussed.

PMID- 28891943
TI  - Development, Physicochemical Characterization and In Vitro Anti-Inflammatory
      Activity of Solid Dispersions of alpha,beta Amyrin Isolated from Protium
      Oilresin.
AB  - alpha,beta Amyrin (ABAM) is a natural mixture of pentacyclic triterpenes that has
      shown a variety of pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory
      effect. ABAM is isolated from Burseraceae oilresins, especially from the Protium
      species, which is commonly found in the Brazilian Amazon. This work aimed to
      develop solid dispersions (SD) of ABAM with the following hydrophilic polymers:
      polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-K30), polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) and
      hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC). The SDs were prepared by physical mixture
      (PM), kneading (KND) and rotary evaporation (RE) methods. In order to verify any
      interaction between ABAM and the hydrophilic polymers, physicochemical
      characterization was performed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning
      electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TG)
      and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Furthermore, an in vitro
      anti-inflammatory assay was performed with ABAM alone and as SDs with the
      hydrophilic polymers. The results from the characterization analysis show that
      the SDs were able to induce changes in the physicochemical properties of ABAM,
      which suggests interaction with the polymer matrix. In vitro anti-inflammatory
      assay showed that the SDs improved the anti-inflammatory activity of ABAM and
      showed no cytotoxicity. In conclusion, this study showed the potential use of SDs
      as an efficient tool for improving the stability and anti-inflammatory activity
      of ABAM without cytotoxicity.

PMID- 28891945
TI  - Optical Characterization of Nano- and Microcrystals of EuPO4 Created by One-Step
      Synthesis of Antimony-Germanate-Silicate Glass Modified by P2O5.
AB  - Technology of active glass-ceramics (GC) is an important part of luminescent
      materials engineering. The classic method to obtain GC is based on annealing of
      parent glass in proper temperature and different time periods. Generally, only
      the bulk materials are investigated as a starting host for further applications.
      However, the effect of an additional heat-treatment process on emission and
      structural properties during GC processing is omitted. Here, we focus on the
      possibility of obtaining transparent glass-ceramic doped with europium ions
      directly with a melt-quenching method. The influence of phosphate concentration
      (up to 10 mol %) on the inversion symmetry of local environment of Eu3+ ions in
      antimony-germanate-silicate (SGS) glass has been investigated. The Stark
      splitting of luminescence spectra and the local asymmetry ratio estimated by
      relation of (5D0->7F2)/(5D0->7F1) transitions in fabricated glass confirms higher
      local symmetry around Eu3+ ions. Based on XRD and SEM/EDX measurements, the EuPO4
      nano- and microcrystals with monoclinic geometry were determined. Therefore, in
      our experiment, we confirmed possibility of one-step approach to fabricate
      crystalline structures (glass-ceramic) in Eu-doped SGS glass without additional
      annealing process.

PMID- 28891944
TI  - New Tetra-Schiff Bases as Efficient Photostabilizers for Poly(vinyl chloride).
AB  - Three new tetra-Schiff bases were synthesized and characterized to be used as
      photostabilizers for poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) films. The photostability of PVC
      films (40 MUm thickness) in the presence of Schiff bases (0.5 wt %) upon
      irradiation (300 h) with a UV light (lambdamax = 365 nm and light intensity =
      6.43 * 10-9 ein?dm-3?s-1) was examined using various spectroscopic measurements
      and surface morphology analysis. The changes in various functional groups'
      indices, weight and viscosity average molecular weight of PVC films were
      monitored against irradiation time. The additives used showed photostability for
      PVC films, with Schiff base 1 being the most effective additive upon irradiation,
      followed by 2 and 3. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) images for the PVC surface
      containing Schiff base 1 after irradiation were found to be smooth, with a
      roughness factor (Rq) of 36.8, compared to 132.2 for the PVC (blank). Several
      possible mechanisms that explain PVC photostabilization upon irradiation in the
      presence of tetra-Schiff bases were proposed.

PMID- 28891946
TI  - Self-Calibrated In-Process Photogrammetry for Large Raw Part Measurement and
      Alignment before Machining.
AB  - Photogrammetry methods are being used more and more as a 3D technique for large
      scale metrology applications in industry. Optical targets are placed on an object
      and images are taken around it, where measuring traceability is provided by
      precise off-process pre-calibrated digital cameras and scale bars. According to
      the 2D target image coordinates, target 3D coordinates and camera views are
      jointly computed. One of the applications of photogrammetry is the measurement of
      raw part surfaces prior to its machining. For this application, post-process
      bundle adjustment has usually been adopted for computing the 3D scene. With that
      approach, a high computation time is observed, leading in practice to time
      consuming and user dependent iterative review and re-processing procedures until
      an adequate set of images is taken, limiting its potential for fast, easy-to-use,
      and precise measurements. In this paper, a new efficient procedure is presented
      for solving the bundle adjustment problem in portable photogrammetry. In-process
      bundle computing capability is demonstrated on a consumer grade desktop PC,
      enabling quasi real time 2D image and 3D scene computing. Additionally, a method
      for the self-calibration of camera and lens distortion has been integrated into
      the in-process approach due to its potential for highest precision when using low
      cost non-specialized digital cameras. Measurement traceability is set only by
      scale bars available in the measuring scene, avoiding the uncertainty
      contribution of off-process camera calibration procedures or the use of special
      purpose calibration artifacts. The developed self-calibrated in-process
      photogrammetry has been evaluated both in a pilot case scenario and in industrial
      scenarios for raw part measurement, showing a total in-process computing time
      typically below 1 s per image up to a maximum of 2 s during the last stages of
      the computed industrial scenes, along with a relative precision of 1/10,000 (e.g.
      0.1 mm error in 1 m) with an error RMS below 0.2 pixels at image plane, ranging
      at the same performance reported for portable photogrammetry with precise off
      process pre-calibrated cameras.

PMID- 28891947
TI  - Review of Batteryless Wireless Sensors Using Additively Manufactured Microwave
      Resonators.
AB  - The significant improvements observed in the field of bulk-production of printed
      microchip technologies in the past decade have allowed the fabrication of
      microchip printing on numerous materials including organic and flexible
      substrates. Printed sensors and electronics are of significant interest owing to
      the fast and low-cost fabrication techniques used in their fabrication. The
      increasing amount of research and deployment of specially printed electronic
      sensors in a number of applications demonstrates the immense attention paid by
      researchers to this topic in the pursuit of achieving wider-scale electronics on
      different dielectric materials. Although there are many traditional methods for
      fabricating radio frequency (RF) components, they are time-consuming, expensive,
      complicated, and require more power for operation than additive fabrication
      methods. This paper serves as a summary/review of improvements made to the
      additive printing technologies. The article focuses on three recently developed
      printing methods for the fabrication of wireless sensors operating at microwave
      frequencies. The fabrication methods discussed include inkjet printing, three
      dimensional (3D) printing, and screen printing.

PMID- 28891948
TI  - Early Embryogenesis of Brown Alga Fucus vesiculosus L. is Characterized by
      Significant Changes in Carbon and Energy Metabolism.
AB  - Brown algae have an important role in marine environments. With respect to their
      broad distribution and importance for the environment and human use, brown algae
      of the order Fucales in particular became a model system for physiological and
      ecological studies. Thus, several fucoids have been extensively studied for their
      composition on the molecular level. However, research of fucoid physiology and
      biochemistry so far mostly focused on the adult algae, so a holistic view on the
      development of these organisms, including the crucial first life stages, is still
      missing. Therefore, we employed non-targeted metabolite profiling by gas
      chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry to create a non-biased picture of the
      early development of the fucoid alga Fucus vesiculosus. We found that embryogenic
      physiology was mainly dominated by a tight regulation of carbon and energy
      metabolism. The first dramatic changes of zygote metabolism started within 1 h
      after fertilization, while metabolism of 6-9 days old embryos appeared already
      close to that of an adult alga, indicated by the intensive production of
      secondary metabolites and accumulation of mannitol and citric acid. Given the
      comprehensive description and analysis we obtained in our experiments, our
      results exhibit an invaluable resource for the design of further experiments
      related to physiology of early algal development.

PMID- 28891949
TI  - Isaria fumosorosea KCh J2 Entomopathogenic Strain as an Effective Biocatalyst for
      Steroid Compound Transformations.
AB  - The catalytic activity of enzymes produced by an entomopathogenic filamentous
      fungus (Isaria fumosorosea KCh J2) towards selected steroid compounds
      (androstenedione, adrenosterone, progesterone, 17alpha-methyltestosterone and
      dehydroepiandrosterone) was investigated. All tested substrates were efficiently
      transformed. The structure of the substrate has a crucial impact on regio- and
      stereoselectivity of hydroxylation since it affects binding to the active site of
      the enzyme. Androstenedione was hydroxylated in the 7alpha-position to give a key
      intermediate in the synthesis of the diuretic-7alpha-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17
      dione with 82% conversion. Adrenosterone and 17alpha-methyltestosterone were
      hydroxylated in the 6beta-position. Hydroxylated derivatives such as 15beta
      hydroxy-17alpha-methyltestosterone and 6beta,12beta-dihydroxy-17alpha
      methyltestosterone were also observed. In the culture of Isaria fumosorosea KCh
      J2, DHEA was effectively hydroxylated in the C-7 position and then oxidized to
      give 7-oxo-DHEA, 3beta,7alpha- and 3beta,7beta-dihydroxy-17a-oxa-d-homo-androst-5
      ene-17-one. We obtained 7beta-OH-DHEA lactone with 82% yield during 3 days
      transformation of highly concentrated (5 g/L) DHEA.

PMID- 28891950
TI  - Impact of Silicon in Plant Biomass Production: Focus on Bast Fibres, Hypotheses,
      and Perspectives.
AB  - Silicon (Si) is an abundant element which, when supplied to plants, confers
      increased vigor and resistance to exogenous stresses, as well as enhanced stem
      mechanical strength. Plant species vary in their ability to take Si up and to
      accumulate it under the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2) in their tissues:
      emblematic of this is the example of Poales, among which there is rice, a high Si
      accumulator. Monocots usually accumulate more Si than dicots; however, the impact
      that Si has on dicots, notably on economically important dicots, is a subject
      requiring further study and scientific efforts. In this review, we discuss the
      impact that Si has on bast fibre-producing plants, because of the potential
      importance that this element has in sustainable agriculture practices and in
      light of the great economic value of fibre crops in fostering a bio-economy. We
      discuss the data already available in the literature, as well as our own research
      on textile hemp. In particular, we demonstrate the beneficial effect of Si under
      heavy metal stress, by showing an increase in the leaf fresh weight under growth
      on Cd 20 uM. Additionally, we propose an effect of Si on bast fibre growth, by
      suggesting an action on the endogenous phytohormone levels and a mechanical role
      involved in the resistance to the turgor pressure during elongation. We conclude
      our survey with a description of the industrial and agricultural uses of Si
      enriched plant biomass, where woody fibres are included in the survey.

PMID- 28891951
TI  - Analysis of Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex Gene Transcription in Human
      Tumors Caused by Human Papillomavirus Infection.
AB  - Oncoproteins from high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) downregulate the
      transcription of the class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) antigen
      presentation apparatus in tissue culture model systems. This could allow infected
      or transformed cells to evade the adaptive immune response. Using data from over
      800 human cervical and head & neck tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we
      determined the impact of HPV status on the mRNA expression of all six MHC-I heavy
      chain genes, and the beta2 microglobulin light chain. Unexpectedly, these genes
      were all expressed at high levels in HPV positive (HPV+) cancers compared with
      normal control tissues. Indeed, many of these genes were expressed at
      significantly enhanced levels in HPV+ tumors. Similarly, the transcript levels of
      several other components of the MHC-I peptide-loading complex were also high in
      HPV+ cancers. The coordinated expression of high mRNA levels of the MHC-I antigen
      presentation apparatus could be a consequence of the higher intratumoral levels
      of interferon gamma in HPV+ carcinomas, which correlate with signatures of
      increased infiltration by T- and NK-cells. These data, which were obtained from
      both cervical and oral tumors in large human cohorts, indicates that HPV
      oncoproteins do not efficiently suppress the transcription of the antigen
      presentation apparatus in human tumors.

PMID- 28891952
TI  - Lipid Profiles, Glycated Hemoglobin, and Diabetes in People Living at High
      Altitude in Nepal.
AB  - This study aimed to describe lipid profiles and the distribution of glycated
      hemoglobin (HbA1c) in a sample of a high altitude population of Nepal and to
      explore associations between these metabolic risk variables and altitude. A cross
      sectional survey of cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors was
      conducted among 521 people living at four different altitude levels, all above
      2800 m, in the Mustang and Humla districts of Nepal. Urban participants
      (residents at 2800 m and 3620 m) had higher total cholesterol (TC) and
      triglyceride (TG) than rural participants. A high ratio of TC to high-density
      lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL) (TC/HDL >= 5.0) was found in 23.7% (95% CI 19.6,
      28.2) and high TG (>=1.7 mmol/L) in 43.3% (95% CI 38.4, 48.3) of participants
      overall. Mean HbA1c levels were similar at all altitude levels although urban
      participants had a higher prevalence of diabetes. Overall, 6.9% (95% CI 4.7, 9.8)
      of participants had diabetes or were on hypoglycaemic treatment. There was no
      clear association between lipid profiles or HbA1c and altitude in a multivariate
      analysis adjusted for possible confounding variables. Residential settings and
      associated lifestyle practices are more strongly associated with lipid profiles
      and HbA1c than altitude amongst high altitude residents in Nepal.

PMID- 28891953
TI  - The Effect of Vitamin A on Fracture Risk: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies.
AB  - This meta-analysis evaluated the influence of dietary intake and blood level of
      vitamin A (total vitamin A, retinol or beta-carotene) on total and hip fracture
      risk. Cohort studies published before July 2017 were selected through English
      language literature searches in several databases. Relative risk (RR) with
      corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to evaluate the risk.
      Heterogeneity was checked by Chi-square and I2 test. Sensitivity analysis and
      publication bias were also performed. For the association between retinol intake
      and total fracture risk, we performed subgroup analysis by sex, region, case
      ascertainment, education level, age at menopause and vitamin D intake. R software
      was used to complete all statistical analyses. A total of 319,077 participants
      over the age of 20 years were included. Higher dietary intake of retinol and
      total vitamin A may slightly decrease total fracture risk (RR with 95% CI: 0.95
      (0.91, 1.00) and 0.94 (0.88, 0.99), respectively), and increase hip fracture risk
      (RR with 95% CI: 1.40 (1.02, 1.91) and 1.29 (1.06, 1.57), respectively). Lower
      blood level of retinol may slightly increase total fracture risk (RR with 95% CI:
      1.11 (0.94, 1.30)) and hip fracture risk (RR with 95% CI: 1.27 (1.05, 1.53)). In
      addition, higher beta-carotene intake was weakly associated with the increased
      risk of total fracture (RR with 95% CI: 1.07 (0.97, 1.17)). Our data suggest that
      vitamin A intake and level may differentially influence the risks of total and
      hip fractures. Clinical trials are warranted to confirm these results and assess
      the clinical applicability.

PMID- 28891954
TI  - Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution and Health Risks in the Soil-Plant-Human
      System in the Yangtze River Delta, China.
AB  - Heavy metal (HM) contamination and accumulation is a serious problem around the
      world due to the toxicity, abundant sources, non-biodegradable properties, and
      accumulative behaviour of HMs. The degree of soil HM contamination in China,
      especially in the Yangtze River Delta, is prominent. In this study, 1822 pairs of
      soil and crop samples at corresponding locations were collected from the southern
      Yangtze River Delta of China, and the contents of Ni, Cr, Zn, Cd, As, Cu, Hg, and
      Pb were measured. The single pollution index in soil (SPI) and Nemerow composite
      pollution index (NCPI) were used to assess the degree of HM pollution in soil,
      and the crop pollution index (CPI) was used to explore the degree of HM
      accumulation in crops. The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was used to investigate
      the translocation of heavy metals in the soil-crop system. The health risks
      caused by HMs were calculated based on the model released by the U.S.
      Environmental Protection Agency. The SPIs of all elements were at the unpolluted
      level. The mean NCPI was at the alert level. The mean CPIs were in the following
      decreasing order: Ni (1.007) > Cr (0.483) > Zn (0.335) > Cd (0.314) > As (0.232)
      > Cu (0.187) > Hg (0.118) > Pb (0.105). Only the mean content of Ni in the crops
      exceeded the national standard value. The standard exceeding rates were used to
      represent the percentage of samples whose heavy metal content is higher than the
      corresponding national standard values. The standard exceeding rates of Cu, Hg,
      and Cd in soil were significantly higher than corresponding values in crops.
      Meanwhile, the standard exceeding rates of Ni, As, and Cr in crops were
      significantly higher than corresponding values in soil. The chronic daily intake
      (CDI) of children (13.8 * 10-3) was the largest among three age groups, followed
      by adults (6.998 * 10-4) and seniors (5.488 * 10-4). The bioaccumulation factors
      (BAFs) of all crops followed the order Cd (0.249) > Zn (0.133) > As (0.076) > Cu
      (0.064) > Ni (0.018) > Hg (0.011) > Cr (0.010) > Pb (0.001). Therefore, Cd was
      most easily absorbed by crops, and different crops had different capacities to
      absorb HMs. The hazard quotient (HQ) represents the potential non-carcinogenic
      risk for an individual HM and it is an estimation of daily exposure to the human
      population that is not likely to represent an appreciable risk of deleterious
      effects during a lifetime. All the HQs of the HMs for the different age groups
      were significantly less than the alert value of 1.0 and were at a safe level.
      This indicated that citizens in the study area face low potential non
      carcinogenic risk caused by HMs. The total carcinogens risks (TCRs) for children,
      adults, and seniors were 5.24 * 10-5, 2.65 * 10-5, and 2.08 * 10-5, respectively,
      all of which were less than the guideline value but at the alert level. Ingestion
      was the main pathway of carcinogen risk to human health.

PMID- 28891955
TI  - Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes Based Cryogenic Temperature Sensor Platforms.
AB  - We present an investigation consisting of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)
      based cryogenic temperature sensors, capable of measuring temperatures in the
      range of 2-77 K. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) due to their extremely small size,
      superior thermal and electrical properties have suggested that it is possible to
      create devices that will meet necessary requirements for miniaturization and
      better performance, by comparison to temperature sensors currently available on
      the market. Starting from SWCNTs, as starting material, a resistive structure was
      designed. Employing dropcast method, the carbon nanotubes were deposited over
      pairs of gold electrodes and in between the structure electrodes from a solution.
      The procedure was followed by an alignment process between the electrodes using a
      dielectrophoretic method. Two sensor structures were tested in cryogenic field
      down to 2 K, and the resistance was measured using a standard four-point method.
      The measurement results suggest that, at temperatures below 20 K, the temperature
      coefficient of resistance average for sensor 1 is 1.473%/K and for sensor 2 is
      0.365%/K. From the experimental data, it can be concluded that the dependence of
      electrical resistance versus temperature can be approximated by an exponential
      equation and, correspondingly, a set of coefficients are calculated. It is
      further concluded that the proposed approach described here offers several
      advantages, which can be employed in the fabrication of a microsensors for
      cryogenic applications.

PMID- 28891956
TI  - Panax ginseng Leaf Extracts Exert Anti-Obesity Effects in High-Fat Diet-Induced
      Obese Rats.
AB  - Recent studies have reported that the aerial parts of ginseng contain various
      saponins, which have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-obesity
      properties similar to those of ginseng root. However, the leaf extracts of Korean
      ginseng have not yet been investigated. In this study, we demonstrate the anti
      obesity effects of green leaf and dried leaf extracts (GL and DL, respectively)
      of ginseng in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese rats. The administration of GL
      and DL to HFD-induced obese rats significantly decreased body weight (by 96.5%
      and 96.7%, respectively), and epididymal and abdominal adipose tissue mass.
      Furthermore, DL inhibited the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 adipocytes through
      regulation of the expression of key adipogenic regulators, such as peroxisome
      proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein
      (C/EBP)-alpha. In contrast, GL had little effect on the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1
      adipocytes but greatly increased the protein expression of PPARgamma compared
      with that in untreated cells. These results were not consistent with an anti
      obesity effect in the animal model, which suggested that the anti-obesity effect
      of GL in vivo resulted from specific factors released by other organs, or from
      increased energy expenditure. To our knowledge, these findings are the first
      evidence for the anti-obesity effects of the leaf extracts of Korean ginseng in
      vivo.

PMID- 28891957
TI  - Four Prenylflavone Derivatives with Antiplasmodial Activities from the Stem of
      Tephrosia purpurea subsp. leptostachya.
AB  - Four new flavones with modified prenyl groups, namely (E)-5-hydroxytephrostachin
      (1), purleptone (2), (E)-5-hydroxyanhydrotephrostachin (3), and terpurlepflavone
      (4), along with seven known compounds (5-11), were isolated from the CH2Cl2/MeOH
      (1:1) extract of the stem of Tephrosia purpurea subsp. leptostachya, a widely
      used medicinal plant. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of NMR
      spectroscopic and mass spectrometric evidence. Some of the isolated compounds
      showed antiplasmodial activity against the chloroquine-sensitive D6 strains of
      Plasmodium falciparum, with (E)-5-hydroxytephrostachin (1) being the most active,
      IC50 1.7 +/- 0.1 MUM, with relatively low cytotoxicity, IC50 > 21 MUM, against
      four cell-lines.

PMID- 28891958
TI  - The Application of Quantitative 1H-NMR for the Determination of Orlistat in
      Tablets.
AB  - A quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) method to measure the content of
      Orlistat in tablets was studied and found to be efficient, accurate, reliable,
      and simple. In this paper, phloroglucinolanhydrous and dimethylsulfoxide-d6 (DMSO
      d6) served as the internal standard and solvent, respectively. The qNMR
      methodology, including the linearity, range, the limit of detection (LOD) and
      quantification (LOQ), stability, precision, and accuracy, was validated seriatim,
      and the results were very favorable. The content determination results of three
      batches of Orlistat in tablets were almost identical upon comparing the qNMR
      method and the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The
      recommended method authentically compensated the deficiencies of the current HPLC
      method for determining Orlistat content, and proved to be a method complementary
      to traditional analysis for the purity measurement of Orlistat in some
      pharmaceutical preparations.

PMID- 28891959
TI  - The PI3Kdelta Inhibitor Idelalisib Inhibits Homing in an in Vitro and in Vivo
      Model of B ALL.
AB  - The quest continues for targeted therapies to reduce the morbidity of
      chemotherapy and to improve the response of resistant leukemia. Adhesion of acute
      lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells to bone marrow stromal cells triggers
      intracellular signals that promote cell-adhesion-mediated drug resistance (CAM
      DR). Idelalisib, an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved PI3Kdelta
      specific inhibitor has been shown to be effective in CLL in down-regulating p-Akt
      and prolonging survival in combination with Rituximab; herein we explore the
      possibility of its use in B ALL and probe the mechanism of action. Primary B ALL
      in contact with OP9 stromal cells showed increased p-Aktser473. Idelalisib
      decreased p-Akt in patient samples of ALL with diverse genetic lesions. Addition
      of idelalisib to vincristine inhibited proliferation when compared to vincristine
      monotherapy in a subset of samples tested. Idelalisib inhibited ALL migration to
      SDF-1alpha in vitro and blocked homing of ALL cells to the bone marrow in vivo.
      This report tests PI3Kdelta inhibitors in a more diverse group of ALL than has
      been previously reported and is the first published report of idelalisib
      inhibiting homing of ALL cells to bone marrow. Our data support further pre
      clinical evaluation of idelalisib for the therapy of B ALL.

PMID- 28891960
TI  - Alterations in Pharmacokinetics of Gemcitabine and Erlotinib by Concurrent
      Administration of Hyangsayukgunja-Tang, a Gastroprotective Herbal Medicine.
AB  - Gemcitabine and erlotinib are the chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment
      of various cancers and their combination is being accepted as a first-line
      treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Hyangsayukgunja-tang (HYT) is a
      traditional oriental medicine used in various digestive disorders and potentially
      helpful to treat gastrointestinal adverse effects related to chemotherapy. The
      present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of HYT on the pharmacokinetics of
      gemcitabine and erlotinib given simultaneously in rats. Rats were pretreated with
      HYT at an oral dose of 1200 mg/kg/day once daily for a single day or 14
      consecutive days. Immediately after pretreatment with HYT, gemcitabine and
      erlotinib were administered by intravenous injection (10 mg/kg) and oral
      administration (20 mg/kg), respectively. The effects of HYT on pharmacokinetics
      of the two drugs were estimated by non-compartmental analysis and pharmacokinetic
      modeling. The pharmacokinetics of gemcitabine and erlotinib were not altered by
      single dose HYT pretreatment. However, the plasma levels of OSI-420 and OSI-413,
      active metabolites of erlotinib, were significantly decreased in the multiple
      dose HYT pretreatment group. The pharmacokinetic model estimated increased
      systemic clearances of OSI-420 and OSI-413 by multiple doses of HYT. These data
      suggest that HYT may affect the elimination of OSI-420 and OSI-413.

PMID- 28891962
TI  - Quantifying Neighborhood-Scale Spatial Variations of Ozone at Open Space and
      Urban Sites in Boulder, Colorado Using Low-Cost Sensor Technology.
AB  - Recent advances in air pollution sensors have led to a new wave of low-cost
      measurement systems that can be deployed in dense networks to capture small-scale
      spatio-temporal variations in ozone, a pollutant known to cause negative human
      health impacts. This study deployed a network of seven low-cost ozone metal oxide
      sensor systems (UPods) in both an open space and an urban location in Boulder,
      Colorado during June and July of 2015, to quantify ozone variations on spatial
      scales ranging from 12 m between UPods to 6.7 km between open space and urban
      measurement sites with a measurement uncertainty of ~5 ppb. The results showed
      spatial variability of ozone at both deployment sites, with the largest
      differences between UPod measurements occurring during the afternoons. The peak
      median hourly difference between UPods was 6 ppb at 1:00 p.m. at the open space
      site, and 11 ppb at 4:00 p.m. at the urban site. Overall, the urban ozone
      measurements were higher than in the open space measurements. This study
      evaluates the effectiveness of using low-cost sensors to capture microscale
      spatial and temporal variation of ozone; additionally, it highlights the
      importance of field calibrations and measurement uncertainty quantification when
      deploying low-cost sensors.

PMID- 28891961
TI  - Visible Light-Cured Glycol Chitosan Hydrogel Containing a Beta-Cyclodextrin
      Curcumin Inclusion Complex Improves Wound Healing In Vivo.
AB  - Scarless wound healing is ideal for patients suffering from soft tissue defects.
      In this study, we prepared a novel wet dressing (beta-CD-ic-CUR/GC) based on the
      visible light-cured glycol chitosan (GC) hydrogel and inclusion complex between
      beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) and curcumin (CUR). We also evaluated its efficacy in
      the acceleration of wound healing as compared to that of CUR-loaded GC (CUR/GC).
      The conjugation of glycidyl methacrylate (GM) to GC for photo-curing was
      confirmed by 1H-NMR measurement, and the photo-cured GC hydrogel was
      characterized by the analyses of rheology, swelling ratio, SEM and degradation
      rate. After visible light irradiation, the surface/cross-sectional morphologies
      and storage (G')/loss (G'') moduli revealed the formation of hydrogel with
      interconnected porosity. The dressing beta-CD-ic-CUR/GC exhibited a controlled
      release of 90% CUR in a sustained manner for 30 days. On the other hand, CUR/GC
      showed CUR release of 16%. beta-CD acted as an excipient in improving the water
      solubility of CUR and affected the release behavior of CUR. The in vivo animal
      tests including measurement of the remaining unhealed wound area and histological
      analyses showed that beta-CD-ic-CUR/GC may have potential as a wet dressing agent
      to enhance soft tissue recovery in open fractures.

PMID- 28891964
TI  - The Design and Development of an Omni-Directional Mobile Robot Oriented to an
      Intelligent Manufacturing System.
AB  - In order to transport materials flexibly and smoothly in a tight plant
      environment, an omni-directional mobile robot based on four Mecanum wheels was
      designed. The mechanical system of the mobile robot is made up of three separable
      layers so as to simplify its combination and reorganization. Each modularized
      wheel was installed on a vertical suspension mechanism, which ensures the moving
      stability and keeps the distances of four wheels invariable. The control system
      consists of two-level controllers that implement motion control and multi-sensor
      data processing, respectively. In order to make the mobile robot navigate in an
      unknown semi-structured indoor environment, the data from a Kinect visual sensor
      and four wheel encoders were fused to localize the mobile robot using an extended
      Kalman filter with specific processing. Finally, the mobile robot was integrated
      in an intelligent manufacturing system for material conveying. Experimental
      results show that the omni-directional mobile robot can move stably and
      autonomously in an indoor environment and in industrial fields.

PMID- 28891963
TI  - The Effect of Bisphenol A on Puberty: A Critical Review of the Medical
      Literature.
AB  - Many scientific studies have revealed a trend towards an earlier onset of puberty
      and have disclosed an increasing number of children that display precocious
      puberty. As an explanation, some authors have considered the global socio
      economic improvement across different populations, and other authors have
      considered the action of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Among these,
      bisphenol A (BPA), an aromatic compound largely used worldwide as a precursor of
      some plastics and chemical additives, is well known for its molecular oestrogen
      like and obesogenic actions. We reviewed the medical literature of the previous
      20 years that examined associations between BPA exposure and the age of puberty
      in humans, considering only those referring to clinical or epidemiological data.
      Of 19 studies, only 7 showed a correlation between BPA and puberty. In
      particular, the possible disruptive role of BPA on puberty may be seen in those
      with central precocious puberty or isolated premature breast development aged 2
      months to 4 years old, even if the mechanism is undefined. Some studies also
      found a close relationship between urinary BPA, body weight, and early puberty,
      which can be explained by the obesogenic effect of BPA itself. The currently
      available data do not allow establishment of a clear role for BPA in pubertal
      development because of the conflicting results among all clinical and
      epidemiological studies examined. Further research is needed to fully understand
      the potential role of exposure to EDCs and their adverse endocrine health
      outcomes.

PMID- 28891966
TI  - Cellulose-Based Smart Fluids under Applied Electric Fields.
AB  - Cellulose particles, their derivatives and composites have special
      environmentally benign features and are abundant in nature with their various
      applications. This review paper introduces the essential properties of several
      types of cellulose and their derivatives obtained from various source materials,
      and their use in electro-responsive electrorheological (ER) suspensions, which
      are smart fluid systems that are actively responsive under applied electric
      fields, while, at zero electric field, ER fluids retain a liquid-like state.
      Given the actively controllable characteristics of cellulose-based smart ER
      fluids under an applied electric field regarding their rheological and dielectric
      properties, they can potentially be applied for various industrial devices
      including dampers and haptic devices.

PMID- 28891965
TI  - Molecular Mechanisms of Acetaldehyde-Mediated Carcinogenesis in Squamous
      Epithelium.
AB  - Acetaldehyde is a highly reactive compound that causes various forms of damage to
      DNA, including DNA adducts, single- and/or double-strand breaks (DSBs), point
      mutations, sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs), and DNA-DNA cross-links. Among
      these, DNA adducts such as N2-ethylidene-2'-deoxyguanosine, N2-ethyl-2'
      deoxyguanosine, N2-propano-2'-deoxyguanosine, and N2-etheno-2'-deoxyguanosine are
      central to acetaldehyde-mediated DNA damage because they are associated with the
      induction of DNA mutations, DNA-DNA cross-links, DSBs, and SCEs. Acetaldehyde is
      produced endogenously by alcohol metabolism and is catalyzed by aldehyde
      dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). Alcohol consumption increases blood and salivary
      acetaldehyde levels, especially in individuals with ALDH2 polymorphisms, which
      are highly associated with the risk of squamous cell carcinomas in the upper
      aerodigestive tract. Based on extensive epidemiological evidence, the
      International Agency for Research on Cancer defined acetaldehyde associated with
      the consumption of alcoholic beverages as a "group 1 carcinogen" (definite
      carcinogen) for the esophagus and/or head and neck. In this article, we review
      recent advances from studies of acetaldehyde-mediated carcinogenesis in the
      squamous epithelium, focusing especially on acetaldehyde-mediated DNA adducts. We
      also give attention to research on acetaldehyde-mediated DNA repair pathways such
      as the Fanconi anemia pathway and refer to our studies on the prevention of
      acetaldehyde-mediated DNA damage.

PMID- 28891967
TI  - Ginsenoside Rg3 Prevents Oxidative Stress-Induced Astrocytic Senescence and
      Ameliorates Senescence Paracrine Effects on Glioblastoma.
AB  - Senescent astrocytes in aging brain express senescence-associated secretory
      phenotype (SASP) and link with increased brain aging and its related diseases. In
      order to determine whether ginsenosides ameliorate the astrocytic senescence in
      vitro, human astrocytic CRT cells and primary rat astrocytes were used in the
      present study. Ginsenosides Rg1, Re, Rb1 and Rg3 (5 MUg/mL) could effectively
      prevent the astrocytic senescence induced by H2O2 exposure. However, these
      ginsenosides did not reverse the astrocytic senescence. Importantly, senescent
      astrocytes herein produce SASP. The expression of major components of SASP, IL-6
      and IL-8, are greatly increased in senescent astrocytes. Ginsenoside Rg3 (10
      MUg/mL) effectively suppressed the expressions of IL-6 and IL-8, which is
      associated with regulations of NF-kappaB and p38MAPK activation. In addition,
      after incubation with Rg3, conditioned medium from senescent astrocytic CRT cells
      significantly decreased the ability to promote the proliferation of astrocytoma
      U373-MG, U87-MG and U251-MG cells compared with non-treated senescent samples.
      Similar patterns were confirmed in chemotherapy-induced glioblastoma senescent
      cells. The present study explored a potential candidate for amelioration of
      astrocytic senescence and SASP in brain aging, which provided a basis for
      developing strategies to reduce the dark side of senescence in normal or
      pathological aging process.

PMID- 28891968
TI  - Biogenetic Relationships of Bioactive Sponge Merotriterpenoids.
AB  - Hydroquinone meroterpenoids, especially those derived from marine sponges,
      display a wide range of biological activities. However, use of these compounds is
      limited by their inaccessibility; there is no sustainable supply of these
      compounds. Furthermore, our knowledge of their metabolic origin remains
      completely unstudied. In this review, an in depth structural analysis of sponge
      merotriterpenoids, including the adociasulfate family of kinesin motor protein
      inhibitors, provides insight into their biosynthesis. Several key structural
      features provide clues to the relationships between compounds. All adociasulfates
      appear to be derived from only four different hydroquinone hexaprenyl diphosphate
      precursors, each varying in the number and position of epoxidations. Proton
      initiated cyclization of these precursors can lead to all carbon skeletons
      observed amongst sponge merotriterpenoids. Consideration of the enzymes involved
      in the proposed biosynthetic route suggests a bacterial source, and a
      hypothetical gene cluster was constructed that may facilitate discovery of the
      authentic pathway from the sponge metagenome. A similar rationale can be extended
      to other sponge meroterpenoids, for which no biosynthetic pathways have yet been
      identified.

PMID- 28891969
TI  - Growth Method-Dependent and Defect Density-Oriented Structural, Optical,
      Conductive, and Physical Properties of Solution-Grown ZnO Nanostructures.
AB  - It is time for industry to pay a serious heed to the application and quality
      dependent research on the most important solution growth methods for ZnO, namely,
      aqueous chemical growth (ACG) and microwave-assisted growth (MAG) methods. This
      study proffers a critical analysis on how the defect density and formation
      behavior of ZnO nanostructures (ZNSs) are growth method-dependent. Both
      antithetical and facile methods are exploited to control the ZnO defect density
      and the growth mechanism. In this context, the growth of ZnO nanorods (ZNRs),
      nanoflowers, and nanotubes (ZNTs) are considered. The aforementioned growth
      methods directly stimulate the nanostructure crystal growth and, depending upon
      the defect density, ZNSs show different trends in structural, optical, etching,
      and conductive properties. The defect density of MAG ZNRs is the least because of
      an ample amount of thermal energy catered by high-power microwaves to the atoms
      to grow on appropriate crystallographic planes, which is not the case in faulty
      convective ACG ZNSs. Defect-centric etching of ZNRs into ZNTs is also probed and
      methodological constraints are proposed. ZNS optical properties are different in
      the visible region, which are quite peculiar, but outstanding for ZNRs. Hall
      effect measurements illustrate incongruent conductive trends in both samples.

PMID- 28891971
TI  - Risk Factors for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).
AB  - It was has been my pleasure to have acted as the guest editor for the Brain
      Sciences Special Issue on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).[...].

PMID- 28891972
TI  - Erratum: Balconi, M.; et al. Evidences from Rewarding System, FRN and P300 Effect
      in Internet-Addiction in Young People SHORT TITLE: Rewarding System and EEG in
      Internet-Addiction Brain Sciences 2017, 7, 81.
AB  - We would like to submit the following erratum to our recently published paper [1]
      due to the error in the title.[...].

PMID- 28891970
TI  - The ABCC6 Transporter: A New Player in Biomineralization.
AB  - Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is an inherited metabolic disease with autosomal
      recessive inheritance caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene. Since the first
      description of the disease in 1896, alleging a disease involving the elastic
      fibers, the concept evolved with the further discoveries of the pivotal role of
      ectopic mineralization that is preponderant in the elastin-rich tissues of the
      skin, eyes and blood vessel walls. After discovery of the causative gene of the
      disease in 2000, the function of the ABCC6 protein remains elusive. More than 300
      mutations have been now reported and the concept of a dermal disease has
      progressively evolved toward a metabolic disorder resulting from the remote
      effects caused by lack of a circulating anti-mineralization factor. Very
      recently, evidence has accumulated that this anti-mineralizing factor is
      inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi). This leads to decreased PPi/Pi (inorganic
      phosphate) ratio that results from the lack of extracellular ATP release by
      hepatocytes and probably renal cells harboring the mutant ABCC6 protein. However,
      the mechanism by which ABCC6 dysfunction causes diminished ATP release remains an
      enigma. Studies of other ABC transporters, such as ABCC7 or ABCC1 could help our
      understanding of what ABCC6 exact function is. Data and a hypothesis on the
      possible roles of ABCC6 in acquired metabolic diseases are also discussed.

PMID- 28891973
TI  - Transfusion of Red Blood Cells to Patients with Sepsis.
AB  - Sepsis is one of the major causes of death worldwide, and is the host response to
      infection which renders our organs malfunctioning. Insufficient tissue perfusion
      and oxygen delivery have been implicated in the pathogenesis of sepsis-related
      organ dysfunction, making transfusion of packed red blood cells (pRBCs) a
      reasonable treatment modality. However, clinical trials have generated
      controversial results. Even the notion that transfused pRBCs increase the oxygen
      carrying capacity of blood has been challenged. Meanwhile, during sepsis, the
      ability of our tissues to utilize oxygen may also be reduced, and the increased
      blood concentrations of lactate may be the results of strong inflammation and
      excessive catecholamine release, rather than impaired cell respiration.
      Leukodepleted pRBCs more consistently demonstrated improvement in
      microcirculation, and the increase in blood viscosity brought about by pRBC
      transfusion helps maintain functional capillary density. A restrictive strategy
      of pRBC transfusion is recommended in treating septic patients.

PMID- 28891974
TI  - Recent Advances in Experimental Whole Genome Haplotyping Methods.
AB  - Haplotype plays a vital role in diverse fields; however, the sequencing
      technologies cannot resolve haplotype directly. Pioneers demonstrated several
      approaches to resolve haplotype in the early years, which was extensively
      reviewed. Since then, numerous methods have been developed recently that have
      significantly improved phasing performance. Here, we review experimental methods
      that have emerged mainly over the past five years, and categorize them into five
      classes according to their maximum scale of contiguity: (i) encapsulation, (ii)
      3D structure capture and construction, (iii) compartmentalization, (iv)
      fluorography, (v) long-read sequencing. Several subsections of certain methods
      are attached to each class as instances. We also discuss the relative advantages
      and disadvantages of different classes and make comparisons among representative
      methods of each class.

PMID- 28891975
TI  - Statistical Methodologies for the Optimization of Lipase and Biosurfactant by
      Ochrobactrum intermedium Strain MZV101 in an Identical Medium for Detergent
      Applications.
AB  - The Plackett-Burman design and the Box-Behnken design, statistical methodologies,
      were employed for the optimization lipase and biosurfactant production by
      Ochrobactrum intermedium strain MZV101 in an identical broth medium for detergent
      applications. Environmental factor pH determined to be most mutual significant
      variables on production. A high concentration of molasses at high temperature and
      pH has a negative effect on lipase and biosurfactant production by O. intermedium
      strain MZV101. The chosen mathematical method of medium optimization was
      sufficient for improving the industrial production of lipase and biosurfactant by
      bacteria, which were respectively increased 3.46- and 1.89-fold. The duration of
      maximum production became 24 h shorter, so it was fast and cost-saving. In
      conclusion, lipase and biosurfactant production by O. intermedium strain MZV101
      in an identical culture medium at pH 10.5-11 and 50-60  degrees C, with 1 g/L of
      molasses, seemed to be economical, fast, and effective for the enhancement of
      yield percentage for use in detergent applications.

PMID- 28891976
TI  - Mechano-Physical Properties and Microstructure of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced
      Cement Paste after Thermal Load.
AB  - The article presents the results obtained in the course of a study on the use of
      carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for the modification of a cement matrix. Carbon nanotubes
      were introduced into a cement paste in the form of an aqueous dispersion in the
      presence of a surfactant (SDS-sodium dodecyl sulfate), which was sonicated. The
      selected physical and mechanical parameters were examined, and the correlations
      between these parameters were determined. An analysis of the local microstructure
      of the modified cement pastes has been carried out using scanning electron
      microscope (SEM) and X-ray microanalysis (EDS). In addition, the effect of carbon
      nanotubes on the change in characteristics of the cementitious material exposed
      to the sudden, short-term thermal load, was determined. The obtained material was
      characterized by a much lower density than a traditional cement matrix because
      the phenomenon of foaming occurred. The material was also characterized by
      reduced durability, higher shrinkage, and higher resistance to the effect of
      elevated temperature. Further research on the carbon nanotube reinforced cement
      paste, with SDS, may contribute to the development of a modified cement binder
      for the production of a lightweight or an aerated concrete.

PMID- 28891978
TI  - Coercivity Mechanism of (Nd0.8Ce0.2)2.4Fe12Co2B Ribbons with Ferromagnetic Grain
      Boundary Phase.
AB  - Understanding the coercivity mechanism has had a substantial impact on developing
      economically more attractive RE-based (RE = rare earth) permanent materials
      because of price volatility of key RE metals (i.e., Nd and Dy) in recent years.
      In this work, we investigated the microstructure and magnetic properties of melt
      spun (Nd0.8Ce0.2)2.4Fe12Co2B ribbons and annealed samples at 773 K for 15 min
      with 1 Tesla (T) magnetic field to better understand the coercivity mechanism. We
      found hard magnetic grains were surrounded by thin and continuous layers along
      the grain boundaries (GBs) with a high concentration of ferromagnetic elements
      (Fe + Co >74 at%). The obvious positive peak in the deltaM plot and the
      interaction domain structure observed by Lorentz magnetic microscopy indicate
      that there is strong exchange coupling interaction through the ferromagnetic GB
      phase between hard magnetic grains. The annealing in an applied magnetic field of
      1 T increases the remanence by enhancing the exchange coupling interaction,
      leading to a maximum product energy ((BH)max) which is 16% higher than that of
      melt-spun ribbons. We also studied the temperature dependence of the coercivity
      in a temperature range of 300-500 K, and proposed that the coercivity of melt
      spun (Nd0.8Ce0.2)2.4Fe12Co2B ribbons with ferromagnetic GB phase at room
      temperature was from the combination of strong domain-wall pinning and
      nucleation. The same mechanism works in the annealed ribbons.

PMID- 28891977
TI  - Polytrauma Defined by the New Berlin Definition: A Validation Test Based on
      Propensity-Score Matching Approach.
AB  - Background: Polytrauma patients are expected to have a higher risk of mortality
      than that obtained by the summation of expected mortality owing to their
      individual injuries. This study was designed to investigate the outcome of
      patients with polytrauma, which was defined using the new Berlin definition, as
      cases with an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) >= 3 for two or more different body
      regions and one or more additional variables from five physiologic parameters
      (hypotension [systolic blood pressure <= 90 mmHg], unconsciousness [Glasgow Coma
      Scale score <= 8], acidosis [base excess <= -6.0], coagulopathy [partial
      thromboplastin time >= 40 s or international normalized ratio >= 1.4], and age
      [>=70 years]). Methods: We retrieved detailed data on 369 polytrauma patients and
      1260 non-polytrauma patients with an overall Injury Severity Score (ISS) >= 18
      who were hospitalized between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2015 for the
      treatment of all traumatic injuries, from the Trauma Registry System at a level I
      trauma center. Patients with burn injury or incomplete registered data were
      excluded. Categorical data were compared with two-sided Fisher exact or Pearson
      chi-square tests. The unpaired Student t-test and the Mann-Whitney U-test was
      used to analyze normally distributed continuous data and non-normally distributed
      data, respectively. Propensity-score matched cohort in a 1:1 ratio was allocated
      using the NCSS software with logistic regression to evaluate the effect of
      polytrauma on patient outcomes. Results: The polytrauma patients had a
      significantly higher ISS than non-polytrauma patients (median (interquartile
      range Q1-Q3), 29 (22-36) vs. 24 (20-25), respectively; p < 0.001). Polytrauma
      patients had a 1.9-fold higher odds of mortality than non-polytrauma patients
      (95% CI 1.38-2.49; p < 0.001). Compared to non-polytrauma patients, polytrauma
      patients had a substantially longer hospital length of stay (LOS). In addition, a
      higher proportion of polytrauma patients were admitted to the intensive care unit
      (ICU), spent longer LOS in the ICU, and had significantly higher total medical
      expenses. Among 201 selected propensity score-matched pairs of polytrauma and non
      polytrauma patients who showed no significant difference in sex, age, co
      morbidity, AIS >= 3, and Injury Severity Score (ISS), the polytrauma patients had
      a significantly higher mortality rate (OR 17.5, 95% CI 4.21-72.76; p < 0.001),
      and a higher proportion of patients admitted to the ICU (84.1% vs. 74.1%,
      respectively; p = 0.013) with longer stays in the ICU (10.3 days vs. 7.5 days,
      respectively; p = 0.003). The total medical expenses for polytrauma patients were
      35.1% higher than those of non-polytrauma patients. However, there was no
      significant difference in the LOS between polytrauma and non-polytrauma patients
      (21.1 days vs. 19.8 days, respectively; p = 0.399). Conclusions: The findings of
      this propensity-score matching study suggest that the new Berlin definition of
      polytrauma is feasible and applicable for trauma patients.

PMID- 28891979
TI  - Determination of the Main Nucleosides and Nucleobases in Natural and Cultured
      Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis.
AB  - Ophiocordyceps xuefengensis, a recently described species of Ophiocordycepsthat
      is associated with the larvae of Phassusnodus (Hepialidae) in the living root or
      trunk of the medicinal plant Clerodendrumcyrtophyllum, isthe largest known
      Cordycepsspecies and is recognized as a desirable alternative for natural
      Ophiocordycepssinensis. This study investigated the main nucleosides and
      nucleobases in natural and cultured Ophiocordycepsxuefengensis. The contents of
      the nucleosides and nucleobases in the natural and cultured samples were
      determined by reverse phase HPLC. The highest concentration of adenosine was
      found in the natural fruit body and the cultured stroma, with almost no adenosine
      in the cadaver of Phassusnodus. The contents of adenine, guanosine, uridine and
      uracil in the cultured mycelium were significantly higher than those in the
      natural sample. Inosine was only detected in the natural samples. Thymidine and 2
      deoxyadenosine were only found in the cadaver of Phassusnodus. Cordycepin was not
      detected in the five samples examined. These results suggested that the cultured
      mycelium and cultured stroma of Ophiocordycepsxuefengensis might be a promising
      substitute for natural O. xuefengensis.

PMID- 28891981
TI  - Feasibility of Serial 6-min Walk Tests in Patients with Acute Heart Failure.
AB  - BACKGROUND: Functional status assessment is common in many cardiovascular
      diseases but it has undergone limited study in the setting of acute heart failure
      (AHF). Accordingly, we performed a pilot study of the feasibility of the six
      minute walk test (6MWT) at the emergency department (ED) presentation and through
      the hospitalization in patients with AHF. METHODS AND RESULTS: From November 2014
      to February 2015, we conducted a multicenter, observational study of ED patients,
      aged 18-85 years, whose primary ED admission diagnosis was AHF. Other criteria
      for enrollment included a left ventricular ejection fraction <=40%, systolic
      blood pressure between 90 and 170 mmHg, and verbal confirmation that the patient
      was able to walk >30 m at the baseline, prior to ED presentation. Study teams
      were uniformly trained to administer a 6MWT. Patients underwent a baseline 6MWT
      within 24 h of ED presentation (Day 1) and follow-up 6MWTs at 24 (Day 2), 48 (Day
      3), and 120 h (Day 5). A total of 46 patients (65.2% male, 73.9% African
      American) had a day one mean walk distance of 137.3 +/- 78 m, day 2 of 170.9 +/-
      100 m, and day 3 of 180.8 +/- 98 m. The 6MWT demonstrated good reproducibility,
      as the distance walked on the first 6MWT on Day 3 was similar to the distance on
      the repeated 6MWT the same day. CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study demonstrates the
      feasibility of the 6MWT as a functional status endpoint in AHF patients. A larger
      study in a more demographically diverse cohort of patients is necessary to
      confirm its utility and association with 30-day heart failure (HF) events.

PMID- 28891980
TI  - Sinomenine Hydrochloride Inhibits Human Glioblastoma Cell Growth through Reactive
      Oxygen Species Generation and Autophagy-Lysosome Pathway Activation: An In Vitro
      and In Vivo Study.
AB  - Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor, and it is one of
      the causes of cancer fatality in both adult and pediatric populations. Patients
      with glioblastoma require chemotherapy after surgical resection and radiotherapy.
      Therefore, chemotherapy constitutes a viable approach for the eradication of
      glioblastoma cells. In this study, the anti-tumor activity of sinomenine
      hydrochloride (SH) was evaluated in U87 and SF767 cells in vitro and in vivo. The
      results showed that SH potently inhibited U87 and SF767 cell viability and did
      not cause caspase-dependent cell death, as demonstrated by the absence of
      significant early apoptosis and caspase-3 cleavage. Instead, SH activated an
      autophagy-mediated cell death pathway, as indicated by the accumulated
      microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3B)-II, triggered autophagic
      flux and enhanced cell viability after pretreatment with autophagy inhibitors. SH
      mediated autophagy in the two cell lines was implicated in reactive oxygen
      species (ROS) generation, protein kinase B (Akt)-mammalian target of rapamycin
      (mTOR) pathway suppression and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway
      activation. The ROS antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC), the Akt-specific
      activator insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and the JNK-specific inhibitor
      SP600125 attenuated SH-induced autophagy. Moreover, ROS activated autophagy via
      the Akt-mTOR and JNK pathways. Additionally, SH treatment may promote lysosome
      biogenesis through activating transcription factor EB (TFEB). The in vivo study
      found that SH effectively suppressed glioblastoma growth without exhibiting
      significant toxicity. In conclusion, our findings reveal a novel mechanism of
      action of SH in cancer cells via the induction of autophagy through ROS
      generation and autophagy-lysosome pathway activation; these findings also supply
      a new potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of human glioblastoma.

PMID- 28891982
TI  - Genome Survey Sequencing of Luffa Cylindrica L. and Microsatellite High
      Resolution Melting (SSR-HRM) Analysis for Genetic Relationship of Luffa
      Genotypes.
AB  - Luffa cylindrica (L.) Roem. is an economically important vegetable crop in China.
      However, the genomic information on this species is currently unknown. In this
      study, for the first time, a genome survey of L. cylindrica was carried out using
      next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. In total, 43.40 Gb sequence data of
      L. cylindrica, about 54.94* coverage of the estimated genome size of 789.97 Mb,
      were obtained from HiSeq 2500 sequencing, in which the guanine plus cytosine (GC)
      content was calculated to be 37.90%. The heterozygosity of genome sequences was
      only 0.24%. In total, 1,913,731 contigs (>200 bp) with 525 bp N50 length and
      1,410,117 scaffolds (>200 bp) with 885.01 Mb total length were obtained. From the
      initial assembled L. cylindrica genome, 431,234 microsatellites (SSRs) (>=5
      repeats) were identified. The motif types of SSR repeats included 62.88% di
      nucleotide, 31.03% tri-nucleotide, 4.59% tetra-nucleotide, 0.96% penta-nucleotide
      and 0.54% hexa-nucleotide. Eighty genomic SSR markers were developed, and 51/80
      primers could be used in both "Zheda 23" and "Zheda 83". Nineteen SSRs were used
      to investigate the genetic diversity among 32 accessions through SSR-HRM
      analysis. The unweighted pair group method analysis (UPGMA) dendrogram tree was
      built by calculating the SSR-HRM raw data. SSR-HRM could be effectively used for
      genotype relationship analysis of Luffa species.

PMID- 28891984
TI  - In Vitro Sonodynamic Therapeutic Effect of Polyion Complex Micelles Incorporating
      Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles.
AB  - Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) can act as sonosensitizers, generating
      reactive oxygen species under ultrasound irradiation, for use in sonodynamic
      therapy. For TiO2 NPs delivery, we prepared polyion complex micelles
      incorporating TiO2 NPs (TiO2 NPs-PIC micelles) by mixing TiO2 NPs with
      polyallylamine bearing poly(ethylene glycol) grafts. In this study, the effects
      of polymer composition and ultrasound irradiation conditions on the sonodynamic
      therapeutic effect toward HeLa cells were evaluated experimentally using cell
      viability evaluation, intracellular distribution observation, and a cell staining
      assay. TiO2 NPs-PIC micelles with widely distributed features induced a
      significant decrease in cell viability under ultrasound irradiation. Furthermore,
      prolonging the irradiation time killed cells more effectively than did increasing
      the ultrasound power. The combination of TiO2 NP-PIC micelles and ultrasound
      irradiation was confirmed to induce apoptotic cell death.

PMID- 28891983
TI  - Protective Effects of Ethanolic Extracts from Artichoke, an Edible Herbal
      Medicine, against Acute Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury in Mice.
AB  - Oxidative stress and inflammation are well-documented pathological factors in
      alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a healthy food
      and folk medicine with anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. This
      study aimed to evaluate the preventive effects of ethanolic extract from
      artichoke against acute alcohol-induced liver injury in mice. Male Institute of
      Cancer Research mice were treated with an ethanolic extract of artichoke (0.4,
      0.8, and 1.6 g/kg body weight) by gavage once daily. Up to 40% alcohol (12 mL/kg
      body weight) was administered orally 1 h after artichoke treatment. All mice were
      fed for 10 consecutive days. Results showed that artichoke extract significantly
      prevented elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine
      aminotransferase, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and malondialdehyde.
      Meanwhile, the decreased levels of superoxide dismutase and glutathione were
      elevated by artichoke administration. Histopathological examination showed that
      artichoke attenuated degeneration, inflammatory infiltration and necrosis of
      hepatocytes. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that expression levels of toll
      like receptor (TLR) 4 and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) in liver tissues
      were significantly suppressed by artichoke treatment. Results obtained
      demonstrated that artichoke extract exhibited significant preventive protective
      effect against acute alcohol-induced liver injury. This finding is mainly
      attributed to its ability to attenuate oxidative stress and suppress the TLR4/NF
      kappaB inflammatory pathway. To the best of our knowledge, the underlying
      mechanisms of artichoke on acute ALD have been rarely reported.

PMID- 28891985
TI  - Cross-Correlation-Based Structural System Identification Using Unmanned Aerial
      Vehicles.
AB  - Computer vision techniques have been employed to characterize dynamic properties
      of structures, as well as to capture structural motion for system identification
      purposes. All of these methods leverage image-processing techniques using a
      stationary camera. This requirement makes finding an effective location for
      camera installation difficult, because civil infrastructure (i.e., bridges,
      buildings, etc.) are often difficult to access, being constructed over rivers,
      roads, or other obstacles. This paper seeks to use video from Unmanned Aerial
      Vehicles (UAVs) to address this problem. As opposed to the traditional way of
      using stationary cameras, the use of UAVs brings the issue of the camera itself
      moving; thus, the displacements of the structure obtained by processing UAV video
      are relative to the UAV camera. Some efforts have been reported to compensate for
      the camera motion, but they require certain assumptions that may be difficult to
      satisfy. This paper proposes a new method for structural system identification
      using the UAV video directly. Several challenges are addressed, including: (1)
      estimation of an appropriate scale factor; and (2) compensation for the rolling
      shutter effect. Experimental validation is carried out to validate the proposed
      approach. The experimental results demonstrate the efficacy and significant
      potential of the proposed approach.

PMID- 28891986
TI  - Variability of Secondary Metabolites of the Species Cichorium intybus L. from
      Different Habitats.
AB  - The principal aim of this paper is to show the influence of soil characteristics
      on the quantitative variability of secondary metabolites. Analysis of phenolic
      content, flavonoid concentrations, and the antioxidant activity was performed
      using the ethanol and ethyl acetate plant extracts of the species Cichorium
      intybus L. (Asteraceae). The samples were collected from one saline habitat and
      two non-saline habitats. The values of phenolic content from the samples taken
      from the saline habitat ranged from 119.83 to 120.83 mg GA/g and from non-saline
      habitats from 92.44 to 115.10 mg GA/g. The amount of flavonoids in the samples
      from the saline locality varied between 144.36 and 317.62 mg Ru/g and from non
      saline localities between 86.03 and 273.07 mg Ru/g. The IC50 values of
      antioxidant activity in the samples from the saline habitat ranged from 87.64 to
      117.73 MUg/mL and from 101.44 to 125.76 MUg/mL in the samples from non-saline
      habitats. The results confirmed that soil types represent a significant influence
      on the quantitative content of secondary metabolites. The greatest concentrations
      of phenols and flavonoids and the highest level of antioxidant activity were
      found in the samples from saline soil. This further corroborates the importance
      of saline soil as an ecological factor, as it is proven to give rise to increased
      biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and related antioxidant activity.

PMID- 28891987
TI  - Total Body Irradiation Mitigates Inflammation and Extends the Therapeutic Time
      Window for Anti-Ricin Antibody Treatment against Pulmonary Ricinosis in Mice.
AB  - Ricin, a highly toxic plant-derived toxin, is considered a potential weapon in
      biowarfare and bioterrorism due to its pronounced toxicity, high availability,
      and ease of preparation. Pulmonary exposure to ricin results in the generation of
      an acute edematous inflammation followed by respiratory insufficiency and death.
      Massive neutrophil recruitment to the lungs may contribute significantly to ricin
      mediated morbidity. In this study, total body irradiation (TBI) served as a non
      pharmacological tool to decrease the potential neutrophil-induced lung injury.
      TBI significantly postponed the time to death of intranasally ricin-intoxicated
      mice, given that leukopenia remained stable following intoxication. This increase
      in time to death coincided with a significant reduction in pro-inflammatory
      marker levels, and led to marked extension of the therapeutic time window for
      anti-ricin antibody treatment.

PMID- 28891989
TI  - Optimal Structure of a Plasmonic Chip for Sensitive Bio-Detection with the
      Grating-Coupled Surface Plasmon-Field Enhanced Fluorescence (GC-SPF).
AB  - Surface plasmon field-enhanced fluorescence (SPF) has been one of the powerful
      tools for biosensors and bioimaging. A wavelength-scale periodic structure coated
      with a thin metal film is called a plasmonic chip, and it can provide SPF. SPF of
      Cy5-streptavidin (Cy5-SA) was measured on a biotinylated plasmonic chip with a
      grating of 480 nm-pitch. The optimal structure of a plasmonic sensor-chip was
      designed for improving detection sensitivity. The silver film thickness
      dependence of the SPF intensity was measured under the irradiation of the top
      panel of a sensor chip. Furthermore, the dependence of the SPF intensity on the
      distance from the metal surface was also investigated. The optimal structure for
      the largest fluorescence enhancement factor was 150 nm-thick silver and 10 nm
      thick SiO2 layers due to the enhanced electric field (excitation field), the
      surface plasmon coupled emission (SPCE), and the interference effect with
      reflected light. The largest enhancement factor was found to be 170-fold.
      Furthermore, not only the largest fluorescence intensity but also stable lower
      background noise were found to be essential for higher-sensitive detection.

PMID- 28891988
TI  - A Multivariate Dynamic Spatial Factor Model for Speciated Pollutants and Adverse
      Birth Outcomes.
AB  - Evidence suggests that exposure to elevated concentrations of air pollution
      during pregnancy is associated with increased risks of birth defects and other
      adverse birth outcomes. While current regulations put limits on total PM2.5
      concentrations, there are many speciated pollutants within this size class that
      likely have distinct effects on perinatal health. However, due to correlations
      between these speciated pollutants, it can be difficult to decipher their effects
      in a model for birth outcomes. To combat this difficulty, we develop a
      multivariate spatio-temporal Bayesian model for speciated particulate matter
      using dynamic spatial factors. These spatial factors can then be interpolated to
      the pregnant women's homes to be used to model birth defects. The birth defect
      model allows the impact of pollutants to vary across different weeks of the
      pregnancy in order to identify susceptible periods. The proposed methodology is
      illustrated using pollutant monitoring data from the Environmental Protection
      Agency and birth records from the National Birth Defect Prevention Study.

PMID- 28891990
TI  - Efficient Inverted Organic Solar Cells Based on a Fullerene Derivative-Modified
      Transparent Cathode.
AB  - Indium tin oxide (ITO) is a transparent conductive material which is extensively
      used in organic solar cells (OSCs) as electrodes. In inverted OSCs, ITO is
      usually employed as a cathode, which should be modified by cathode buffer layers
      (CBLs) to achieve better contact with the active layers. In this paper, an amine
      group functionalized fullerene derivative (DMAPA-C60) is used as a CBL to modify
      the transparent cathode ITO in inverted OSCs based on PTB7 as a donor and PC71BM
      as an acceptor. Compared with traditional ZnO CBL, DMAPA-C60 exhibited comparable
      transmittance. OSCs based on DMAPA-C60 show much better device performance
      compared with their ZnO counterparts (power conversion efficiencies (PCEs)
      improved from 6.24 to 7.43%). This is mainly because a better contact between the
      DMAPA-C60 modified ITO and the active layer is formed, which leads to better
      electron transport and collection. Nanoscale morphologies also demonstrate that
      the surface of DMAPA-C60-modified ITO is plainer than the ZnO counterparts, which
      also leads to the better device performance.

PMID- 28891991
TI  - A Graphene-Based Flexible Pressure Sensor with Applications to Plantar Pressure
      Measurement and Gait Analysis.
AB  - In the present study, we propose and develop a flexible pressure sensor based on
      the piezoresistive effect of multilayer graphene films on polyester textile. The
      pressure response results from the deformation of graphene conductive network
      structure and the changes in resistance. Here, we show that the graphene pressure
      sensor can achieve a sensitivity value of 0.012 kPa - 1 , the measurement range
      can be as high as 800 kPa, and the response time can reach to 50 ms.
      Subsequently, a stable in-shoe wireless plantar pressure measurement system is
      developed and dynamic pressure distribution is acquired in real-time. Overall,
      the graphene textile pressure sensor has the advantage of wide dynamic range,
      flexibility and comfort, which provides the high possibility for footwear
      evaluation, clinical gait analysis and pathological foot diagnosis.

PMID- 28891992
TI  - An Efficient, Eco-friendly and Sustainable One-Pot Synthesis of 3,4
      Dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones Directly from Alcohols Catalyzed by Heteropolyanion
      Based Ionic Liquids.
AB  - Efficient, eco-friendly and sustainable access to 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones
      directly from alcohols under microwave and solvent-free conditions has been
      reported. The practical protocol involves heteropolyanion-based catalyzed
      oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes with NaNO3 as the oxidant followed by
      cyclocondensation with dicarbonyl compounds and urea or thiourea in a two-step,
      one-pot manner. Compatibility with different functional groups, good to excellent
      yields and reusable catalysts are the main highlights. The utilization of
      alcohols instead of aldehydes is a valid and green alternative to the classical
      Biginelli reaction.

PMID- 28891993
TI  - Complete Chloroplast Genome of Pinus massoniana (Pinaceae): Gene Rearrangements,
      Loss of ndh Genes, and Short Inverted Repeats Contraction, Expansion.
AB  - The chloroplast genome (CPG) of Pinus massoniana belonging to the genus Pinus
      (Pinaceae), which is a primary source of turpentine, was sequenced and analyzed
      in terms of gene rearrangements, ndh genes loss, and the contraction and
      expansion of short inverted repeats (IRs). P. massoniana CPG has a typical
      quadripartite structure that includes large single copy (LSC) (65,563 bp), small
      single copy (SSC) (53,230 bp) and two IRs (IRa and IRb, 485 bp). The 108 unique
      genes were identified, including 73 protein-coding genes, 31 tRNAs, and 4 rRNAs.
      Most of the 81 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) identified in CPG were
      mononucleotides motifs of A/T types and located in non-coding regions.
      Comparisons with related species revealed an inversion (21,556 bp) in the LSC
      region; P. massoniana CPG lacks all 11 intact ndh genes (four ndh genes lost
      completely; the five remained truncated as pseudogenes; and the other two ndh
      genes remain as pseudogenes because of short insertions or deletions). A pair of
      short IRs was found instead of large IRs, and size variations among pine species
      were observed, which resulted from short insertions or deletions and non
      synchronized variations between "IRa" and "IRb". The results of phylogenetic
      analyses based on whole CPG sequences of 16 conifers indicated that the whole CPG
      sequences could be used as a powerful tool in phylogenetic analyses.

PMID- 28891994
TI  - Mdivi-1 Protects Adult Rat Hippocampal Neural Stem Cells against Palmitate
      Induced Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis.
AB  - Palmitate concentrations in type 2 diabetic patients are higher than in healthy
      subjects. The prolonged elevation of plasma palmitate levels induces oxidative
      stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in neuronal cells. In this study, we
      examined the role of mdivi-1, a selective inhibitor of mitochondrial fission
      protein dynamin-regulated protein 1 (Drp1), on the survival of cultured
      hippocampal neural stem cells (NSCs) exposed to high palmitate. Treatment of
      hippocampal NSCs with mdivi-1 attenuated palmitate-induced increase in cell death
      and apoptosis. Palmitate exposure significantly increased Drp1 protein levels,
      which were prevented by pretreatment of cells with mdivi-1. We found that
      cytosolic Drp1 was translocated to the mitochondria when cells were exposed to
      palmitate. In contrast, palmitate-induced translocation of Drp1 was inhibited by
      mdivi-1 treatment. We also investigated mdivi-1 regulation of apoptosis at the
      mitochondrial level. Mdivi-1 rescued cells from palmitate-induced lipotoxicity by
      suppressing intracellular and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production
      and stabilizing mitochondrial transmembrane potential. Mdivi-1-treated cells
      showed an increased Bcl-2/Bax ratio, prevention of cytochrome c release, and
      inhibition of caspase-3 activation. Our data suggest that mdivi-1 protects
      hippocampal NSCs against lipotoxicity-associated oxidative stress by preserving
      mitochondrial integrity and inhibiting mitochondrial apoptotic cascades.

PMID- 28891995
TI  - Performance Study of a Torsional Wave Sensor and Cervical Tissue
      Characterization.
AB  - A novel torsional wave sensor designed to characterize mechanical properties of
      soft tissues is presented in this work. Elastography is a widely used technique
      since the 1990s to map tissue stiffness. Moreover, quantitative elastography uses
      the velocity of shear waves to achieve the shear stiffness. This technique
      exhibits significant limitations caused by the difficulty of the separation
      between longitudinal and shear waves and the pressure applied while measuring. To
      overcome these drawbacks, the proposed torsional wave sensor can isolate a pure
      shear wave, avoiding the possibility of multiple wave interference. It comprises
      a rotational actuator disk and a piezoceramic receiver ring circumferentially
      aligned. Both allow the transmission of shear waves that interact with the tissue
      before being received. Experimental tests are performed using tissue mimicking
      phantoms and cervical tissues. One contribution is a sensor sensitivity study
      that has been conducted to evaluate the robustness of the new proposed torsional
      wave elastography (TWE) technique. The variables object of the study are both the
      applied pressure and the angle of incidence sensor-phantom. The other
      contribution consists of a cervical tissue characterization. To this end, three
      rheological models have fit the experimental data and a static independent
      testing method has been performed. The proposed methodology permits the
      reconstruction of the mechanical constants from the propagated shear wave,
      providing a proof of principle and warranting further studies to confirm the
      validity of the results.

PMID- 28891997
TI  - Optimal Base Station Density of Dense Network: From the Viewpoint of Interference
      and Load.
AB  - Network densification is attracting increasing attention recently due to its
      ability to improve network capacity by spatial reuse and relieve congestion by
      offloading. However, excessive densification and aggressive offloading can also
      cause the degradation of network performance due to problems of interference and
      load. In this paper, with consideration of load issues, we study the optimal base
      station density that maximizes the throughput of the network. The expected link
      rate and the utilization ratio of the contention-based channel are derived as the
      functions of base station density using the Poisson Point Process (PPP) and
      Markov Chain. They reveal the rules of deployment. Based on these results, we
      obtain the throughput of the network and indicate the optimal deployment density
      under different network conditions. Extensive simulations are conducted to
      validate our analysis and show the substantial performance gain obtained by the
      proposed deployment scheme. These results can provide guidance for the network
      densification.

PMID- 28891996
TI  - Synthesis of Bisimidazole Derivatives for Selective Sensing of Fluoride Ion.
AB  - Rapid and efficient analysis of fluoride ion is crucial to providing key
      information for fluoride ion hazard assessment and pollution management. In this
      study, we synthesized one symmetrical structure called 1,4-bis(4,5-diphenyl-1H
      imidazol-2-yl)benzene (1a) and two asymmetrical structures, namely 2-(4-(4,5
      diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)-1H-phenanthro(9,10-d)imidazole (1b) and 2-(4
      (4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)-1H-imidazo(4,5-f)(1,10)phenanthroline
      (1c), which served as an efficient anion sensor for fluoride ion over a wide
      range of other anions (Cl-, Br-, I-, NO3-, ClO4-, HSO4-, BF4-, and PF6-) owing to
      imidazole group in the main backbone. The absorption intensity of compound 1a at
      lambdamax 358 nm slightly decreased; however, a new band at lambdamax 414 nm
      appeared upon the addition of fluoride ion, while no evident change occurred upon
      the addition of eight other anions. The photoluminescence intensity of compound
      1a at lambdamax 426 nm was nearly quenched and fluorescence emission spectra were
      broadened when fluoride ion was added into dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution of
      compound 1a. Compared with the optical behaviors of the DMSO solution of compound
      1a in the presence of Bu4N+F-, compounds 1b and 1c exhibited considerable
      sensitivity to fluoride ion due to the increase in coplanarity. Furthermore,
      compared with the fluorescence emission behaviors of the DMSO solutions of
      compounds 1a and 1b in the presence of Bu4N+F-, compound 1c exhibited the most
      significant sensitivity to fluoride ion due to the charge transfer enhancement.
      Consequently, the detection limits of compounds 1a-1c increased from 5.47 * 10-6
      M to 4.21 * 10-6 M to 9.12 * 10-7 M. Furthermore, the largest red shift (75 nm)
      of the DMSO solution compound 1c in the presence of fluoride ion can be observed.
      Our results suggest that the increase in coplanarity and the introduction of
      electron-withdrawing groups to the imidazole backbone can improve the performance
      in detecting fluoride ion.

PMID- 28891999
TI  - Underdetermined Blind Source Separation of Synchronous Orthogonal Frequency
      Hopping Signals Based on Single Source Points Detection.
AB  - This paper considers the complex-valued mixing matrix estimation and direction-of
      arrival (DOA) estimation of synchronous orthogonal frequency hopping (FH) signals
      in the underdetermined blind source separation (UBSS). A novel mixing matrix
      estimation algorithm is proposed by detecting single source points (SSPs) where
      only one source contributes its power. Firstly, the proposed algorithm
      distinguishes the SSPs by the comparison of the normalized coefficients of time
      frequency (TF) points, which is more effective than existing detection
      algorithms. Then, mixing matrix of FH signals can be estimated by the
      hierarchical clustering method. To sort synchronous orthogonal FH signals, a
      modified subspace projection method is presented to obtain the DOAs of FH. One
      superiority of this paper is that the estimation accuracy of the mixing matrix
      can be significantly improved by the proposed SSPs detection criteria. Another
      superiority of this paper is that synchronous orthogonal FH signals can be sorted
      in underdetermined condition. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency
      of the two proposed algorithms.

PMID- 28891998
TI  - Bioactivity In Vitro of Quercetin Glycoside Obtained in Beauveria bassiana
      Culture and Its Interaction with Liposome Membranes.
AB  - Quercetin (Q) was used as substrate for regioselective glycosylation at the C-7
      position catalyzed by Beauveria bassiana AM278 strain. As a result the glycoside
      quercetin 7-O-beta-d-(4"-O-methyl)glucopyranoside (Q 7-MeGlu) was formed. The
      goal of the studies was to determine the anti-oxidative (liposome membrane
      protection against free radicals IC50Q 7-MeGlu = 5.47 and IC50Q = 4.49 uM) and
      anti-inflammatory (COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes activity inhibition) properties of Q 7
      MeGlu as compared to Q. Every attempt was made to clarify the antioxidant
      activity of these molecules, which are able to interact with egg
      phosphatidylcholine liposomes, using a fluorometric method (by applying the
      probes MC540, TMA-DPH and DPH). The results indicated that Q 7-MeGlu and Q are
      responsible for increasing the packing order, mainly in the hydrophilic but also
      in hydrophobic regions of the membrane (Q > Q 7-MeGlu). These observations,
      confirmed by a 1H-NMR method, are key to understanding their antioxidant activity
      which is probably caused by the stabilizing effect on the lipid membranes. The
      results showed that Q 7-MeGlu and Q have ability to quench the human serum
      albumin (HSA) intrinsic fluorescence through a static quenching mechanism. The
      results of thermodynamic parameters indicated that the process of formation
      complexes between studied molecules and HSA was spontaneous and caused through
      Van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding.

PMID- 28892000
TI  - Development of a Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion Extraction Combined with UPLC/Q
      TOF-MS for Determination of Phenolics and Terpenoids from the Euphorbia
      fischeriana.
AB  - A method based on a simplified extraction by matrix solid phase dispersion (MSPD)
      followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with the quadrupole
      time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS) determination is
      validated for analysis of two phenolics and three terpenoids in Euphorbia
      fischeriana. The optimized experimental parameters of MSPD including dispersing
      sorbent (silica gel), ratio of sample to dispersing sorbent (1:2), elution
      solvent (water-ethanol: 30-70) and volume of the elution solvent (10 mL) were
      examined and set down. The highest extraction yields of chromatogram information
      and the five compounds were obtained under the optimized conditions. A total of
      25 constituents have been identified and five components have been quantified
      from Euphorbia fischeriana. A linear relationship (r2 >= 0.9964) between the
      concentrations and the peak areas of the mixed standard substances were revealed.
      The average recovery was between 92.4% and 103.2% with RSD values less than 3.45%
      (n = 5). The extraction yields of two phenolics and three terpenoids obtained by
      the MSPD were higher than those of traditional reflux and sonication extraction
      with reduced requirement on sample, solvent and time. In addition, the optimized
      method will be applied for analyzing terpenoids in other Chinese herbal medicine
      samples.

PMID- 28892001
TI  - Synthesis and Immunological Evaluation of Virus-Like Particle-Milbemycin A3/A4
      Conjugates.
AB  - Milbemycins are macrolide antibiotics with a broad spectrum of nematocidal,
      insecticidal, and acaricidal activity. To obtain milbemycin A3/A4 derivatives
      suitable for chemical conjugation to protein carriers (milbemycin haptens),
      succinate linker and a novel 17-atom-long linker containing a terminal carboxylic
      acid group were attached to the milbemycin core in a protecting group-free
      synthesis. The obtained milbemycin A3/A4 derivatives were coupled to Potato virus
      Y-like nanoparticles by the activated ester method. The reaction products were
      characterized and used in mice immunization experiments. It was found that the
      mice developed weak specific immune responses toward all tested milbemycin
      haptens.

PMID- 28892002
TI  - State of Panax ginseng Research: A Global Analysis.
AB  - This article aims to understand the global and longitudinal trends of research on
      Panax ginseng. We used bibliometrics to analyze 3974 papers collected from the
      Web of ScienceTM Core Collection database during 1959-2016. The number of
      publications showed a steady growth before 2000 and exponentially increased in
      stage III (2000-2016, about 86% of the papers were published). Research on P.
      ginseng was conducted in 64 countries, mainly in Asia; in particular, 41% and 28%
      of the publications were from South Korea and China, respectively. The
      institutions from South Korea and China had high publication output and close
      cooperation and provided the majority of financial support. All top 10 authors
      and four of the top 20 journals in terms of number of publications originated
      from South Korea. The leading research subjects were pharmacology (39%), plant
      science (26%), and integrative complementary medicine (19%). The hotspot of P.
      ginseng research transformed from basic science to application, and
      multidisciplinary sciences will play a substantial role in the future. This study
      provides a comprehensive analysis to elucidate the global distribution,
      collaboration patterns, and research trends in the P. ginseng domain.

PMID- 28892003
TI  - Special Issue: Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding 2017.
AB  - Even after more than a century of study [1-6], scrutiny, and detailed
      examination, the H-bond continues [7-12] to evoke a level of fascination that
      surpasses many other phenomena [...].

PMID- 28892004
TI  - Arenobufagin Induces Apoptotic Cell Death in Human Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
      Cells via the Noxa-Related Pathway.
AB  - Arenobufagin, an active component isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine
      Chan Su, exhibits anticancer influences in several human malignancies. However,
      the effects and action mechanisms of arenobufagin on non-small-cell lung cancer
      (NSCLC) are still unknown. In this study, we reported that arenobufagin acted
      through activation of Noxa-related pathways and promoted apoptotic cell death in
      human NSCLC cells. Our results revealed that arenobufagin-induced apoptosis was
      caspase-dependent, as evidenced by the fact that caspase-9, caspase-3 and poly
      (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) were cleaved, and pretreatment with a pan-caspase
      inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK inhibited the pro-apoptosis effect of arenobufagin.
      Mechanistically, we further found that arenobufagin rapidly upregulated the
      expression of the pro-apoptosis protein Noxa, and abrogated the anti-apoptosis
      protein Mcl-1, a major binding partner of Noxa in the cell. More importantly, the
      knockdown of Noxa greatly blocked arenobufagin-induced cell death, highlighting
      the contribution of this protein in the anti-NSCLC effects of arenobufagin.
      Interestingly, arenobufagin also increased the expression of p53, a direct
      transcriptional activator for the upregulation of the Noxa protein. Taken
      together, our results suggest that arenobufagin is a potential anti-NSCLC agent
      that triggers apoptotic cell death in NSCLC cells through interfering with the
      Noxa-related pathway.

PMID- 28892006
TI  - Localization of Ferromagnetic Target with Three Magnetic Sensors in the Movement
      Considering Angular Rotation.
AB  - Magnetic detection techniques have been widely used in many fields, such as
      virtual reality, surgical robotics systems, and so on. A large number of methods
      have been developed to obtain the position of a ferromagnetic target. However,
      the angular rotation of the target relative to the sensor is rarely studied. In
      this paper, a new method for localization of moving object to determine both the
      position and rotation angle with three magnetic sensors is proposed. Trajectory
      localization estimation of three magnetic sensors, which are collinear and
      noncollinear, were obtained by the simulations, and experimental results
      demonstrated that the position and rotation angle of ferromagnetic target having
      roll, pitch or yaw in its movement could be calculated accurately and effectively
      with three noncollinear vector sensors.

PMID- 28892007
TI  - Time-Dependent Material Properties of Shotcrete: Experimental and Numerical
      Study.
AB  - A new experimental program, focusing on the evolution of the Young's modulus,
      uniaxial compressive strength, shrinkage and creep of shotcrete is presented. The
      laboratory tests are, starting at very young ages of the material, conducted on
      two different types of specimens sampled at the site of the Brenner Basetunnel.
      The experimental results are evaluated and compared to other experiments from the
      literature. In addition, three advanced constitutive models for shotcrete, i.e.,
      the model by Meschke, the model by Schadlich and Schweiger, and the model by
      Neuner et al., are validated on the basis of the test data, and the capabilities
      of the models to represent the observed shotcrete behavior are assessed. Hence,
      the gap between the the outdated experimental data on shotcrete available in the
      literature on the one hand and the nowadays available advanced shotcrete models,
      on the other hand, is closed.

PMID- 28892005
TI  - FeCl3?6H2O/TMSBr-Catalyzed Rapid Synthesis of Dihydropyrimidinones and
      Dihydropyrimidinethiones under Microwave Irradiation.
AB  - An efficient and practical protocol has been developed to synthesize
      dihydropyrimidinones and dihydropyrimidinethiones through FeCl3?6H2O/TMSBr
      catalyzed three-component cyclocondensation under microwave irradiation. This
      approach features high yields, broad substrate scope, short reaction time, mild
      reaction conditions, operational simplicity and easy work-up, thus affording a
      versatile method for the synthesis of dihydropyrimidinones and
      dihydropyrimidinethiones.

PMID- 28892008
TI  - Ultrasonic Assisted Extraction of Paclitaxel from Taxus x media Using Ionic
      Liquids as Adjuvants: Optimization of the Process by Response Surface
      Methodology.
AB  - (1) Background: Ionic liquids (ILs) are considered "green" solvents and have been
      widely used in the extraction and separation field in recent years; (2) Methods:
      In this study, some common ILs and functionalized magnetic ionic liquids (MILs)
      were used as adjuvants for the solvent extraction of paclitaxel from Taxus x
      media (T. x media) using methanol solution. The extraction conditions of methanol
      concentration, IL type and amount, solid-liquid ratio, extraction temperature,
      and ultrasonic irradiation time were investigated in single factor experiments.
      Then, three factors of IL amount, solid-liquid ratio, and ultrasonic irradiation
      time were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM); (3) Results: The MIL
      [C4MIM]FeCl3Br was screened as the optimal adjuvant. Under the optimization
      conditions of 1.2% IL amount, 1:10.5 solid-liquid ratio, and 30 min ultrasonic
      irradiation time, the extraction yield reached 0.224 mg/g; and (4) Conclusions:
      Compared with the conventional solvent extraction, this ultrasonic assisted
      extraction (UAE) using methanol and MIL as adjuvants can significantly improve
      the extraction yield, reduce the use of methanol, and shorten the extraction
      time, which has the potentiality of being used in the extraction of some other
      important bioactive compounds from natural plant resources.

PMID- 28892009
TI  - Nrf2 Activation by 5-lipoxygenase Metabolites in Human Umbilical Vascular
      Endothelial Cells.
AB  - 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HETE) and 5-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acid (5
      HEPE) are major metabolites produced by 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) from arachidonic
      acid (AA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Effects of hydroxides on endothelial
      cells are unclear, although 5-LOX is known to increase at arteriosclerotic
      lesions. To investigate the effects of hydroxides on human umbilical vein
      endothelial cells (HUVECs), the cells were treated with 50 MUM each of AA, EPA, 5
      HETE, and 5-HEPE. Treatment of HUVECs with 5-HETE and 5-HEPE, rather than with AA
      and EPA, increased the nuclear translocation of NF-E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) and
      upregulated the expression of heme oxygenase-1 and cystine/glutamate transporter
      regulated by Nrf2. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was markedly elevated
      in HUVECs after treatment with 5-HETE and 5-HEPE, and the pretreatment with alpha
      tocopherol abrogated ROS levels similar to those in the vehicle control. However,
      ROS generation was independent of Nrf2 activation induced by 5-HETE and 5-HEPE. 5
      HETE was converted to 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid (5-oxo-ETE) in HUVECs, and 5
      oxo-ETE increased Nrf2 activation. These results suggest that 5-HETE works as an
      Nrf2 activator through the metabolite 5-oxo-ETE in HUVECs. Similarly, 5-HEPE
      works in the same way, because 5-HEPE is metabolized to 5-oxo-eicosapentaenoic
      acid through the same pathway as that for 5-HETE.

PMID- 28892010
TI  - Interface Characteristics of Sapphire Direct Bonding for High-Temperature
      Applications.
AB  - In this letter, we present a sapphire direct bonding method using plasma surface
      activation, hydrophilic pre-bonding, and high temperature annealing. Through the
      combination of sapphire inductively coupled plasma etching and the direct bonding
      process, a vacuum-sealed cavity employable for high temperature applications is
      achieved. Cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) research of the
      bonding interface indicates that the two sapphire pieces are well bonded and the
      cavity structure stays intact. Moreover, the tensile testing shows that the
      bonding strength of the bonding interface is in excess of 7.2 MPa. The advantage
      of sapphire direct bonding is that it is free from the various problems caused by
      the mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion between different
      materials. Therefore, the bonded vacuum-sealed cavity can be potentially further
      developed into an all-sapphire pressure sensor for high temperature applications.

PMID- 28892011
TI  - Review on the Antimicrobial Properties of Carbon Nanostructures.
AB  - Swift developments in nanotechnology have prominently encouraged innovative
      discoveries across many fields. Carbon-based nanomaterials have emerged as
      promising platforms for a broad range of applications due to their unique
      mechanical, electronic, and biological properties. Carbon nanostructures (CNSs)
      such as fullerene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and diamond-like carbon
      (DLC) have been demonstrated to have potent broad-spectrum antibacterial
      activities toward pathogens. In order to ensure the safe and effective
      integration of these structures as antibacterial agents into biomaterials, the
      specific mechanisms that govern the antibacterial activity of CNSs need to be
      understood, yet it is challenging to decouple individual and synergistic
      contributions of physical, chemical and electrical effects of CNSs on cells. In
      this article, recent progress in this area is reviewed, with a focus on the
      interaction between different families of carbon nanostructures and
      microorganisms to evaluate their bactericidal performance.

PMID- 28892013
TI  - Polyphenols in Raw and Cooked Cereals/Pseudocereals/Legume Pasta and Couscous.
AB  - Pasta and couscous are popular foods manufactured (in their traditional form)
      from durum wheat semolina. In recent years, the consumers' quest for novel,
      functional, gluten-free, wholegrain foods has prompted the industry to
      manufacture new pasta and couscous products in which durum wheat has been
      partially or totally replaced by other vegetable flours. Besides dietary fibre,
      these raw materials might be an interesting source of phytochemicals. In this
      work, 16 commercial samples of pasta and four samples of couscous representative
      of the new products and made of refined and wholegrain flours of different
      species of cereals, pseudocereals and legumes were analysed for free,
      hydrolysable bound and total polyphenol content by means of the Folin-Ciocalteu
      procedure. Analyses were repeated on cooked samples to assess the quantity of
      polyphenols ingested by the consumers. The raw legume and pseudocereal products
      had a total polyphenol content higher than most cereal products (up to 1743.4 mg
      of Gallic Acid Equivalent (GAE) per 100 g dry weight). Wholegrain products had
      higher contents than refined products. The free fraction underwent up to 46% loss
      with cooking, probably because of solubility in water. The water absorption of
      pasta and couscous during cooking was in a ratio of 2:3, resulting in higher
      dilution of polyphenols in the cooked couscous.

PMID- 28892012
TI  - Bordetella Adenylate Cyclase-Hemolysin Toxins.
AB  - Adenylate cyclase-hemolysin toxin is secreted and produced by three classical
      species of the genus Bordetella: Bordetella pertussis, B. parapertussis and B.
      bronchiseptica. This toxin has several properties such as: (i) adenylate cyclase
      activity, enhanced after interaction with the eukaryotic protein, calmodulin;
      (ii) a pore-forming activity; (iii) an invasive activity. It plays an important
      role in the pathogenesis of these Bordetella species responsible for whooping
      cough in humans or persistent respiratory infections in mammals, by modulating
      host immune responses. In contrast with other Bordetella toxins or adhesins, lack
      of (or very low polymorphism) is observed in the structural gene encoding this
      toxin, supporting its importance as well as a potential role as a vaccine antigen
      against whooping cough. In this article, an overview of the investigations
      undertaken on this toxin is presented.

PMID- 28892014
TI  - A Novel Approach to Estimate the Plastic Anisotropy of Metallic Materials Using
      Cross-Sectional Indentation Applied to Extruded Magnesium Alloy AZ31B.
AB  - In this paper, a methodology is presented for obtaining the plastic anisotropy of
      bulk metallic materials using cross-sectional indentation. This method relies on
      spherical indentation on the free edge of a specimen, and examining the out-of
      plane residual deformation contour persisting on the cross-section after
      unloading. Results obtained from numerical simulation revealed that some
      important aspects of the out-of-plane residual deformation field are only
      sensitive to the extent of the material plastic anisotropy, and insensitive to
      strain hardening, yield strain, elastic anisotropy, and the selected displacement
      threshold value. An explicit equation is presented to correlate the plastic
      anisotropy with the characteristic parameter of the bottom shape of residual
      deformation contour, and it is used to uniquely determine the material plastic
      anisotropy in cross-sectional indentation. Effectiveness of the proposed method
      is verified by application on magnesium alloy AZ31B, and the plastic anisotropy
      parameter obtained from indentation and uniaxial tests show good agreement.

PMID- 28892015
TI  - The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions: Why Harm-Benefit Analysis and Its
      Emphasis on Practical Benefit Jeopardizes the Credibility of Research.
AB  - It is our concern that European Union Directive 2010/63/EU with its current
      project evaluation of animal research in the form of a harm-benefit analysis may
      lead to an erosion of the credibility of research. The HBA assesses whether the
      inflicted harm on animals is outweighed by potential prospective benefits. Recent
      literature on prospective benefit analysis prioritizes "societal benefits" that
      have a foreseeable, positive impact on humans, animals, or the environment over
      benefit in the form of knowledge. In this study, we will argue that whether
      practical benefits are realized is (a) impossible to predict and (b) exceeds the
      scope and responsibility of researchers. Furthermore, we believe that the
      emphasis on practical benefits has the drawback of driving researchers into
      speculation on the societal benefit of their research and, therefore, into
      promising too much, thereby leading to a loss of trust and credibility. Thus, the
      concepts of benefit and benefit assessment in the HBA require a re-evaluation in
      a spirit that embraces the value of knowledge in our society. The generation of
      scientific knowledge has been utilised to great benefit for humans, animals, and
      the environment. The HBA, as it currently stands, tends to turn this idea upside
      down and implies that research is of value only if the resulting findings bring
      about immediate societal benefit.

PMID- 28892016
TI  - CleAir Monitoring System for Particulate Matter: A Case in the Napoleonic Museum
      in Rome.
AB  - Monitoring the air particulate concentration both outdoors and indoors is
      becoming a more relevant issue in the past few decades. An innovative, fully
      automatic, monitoring system called CleAir is presented. Such a system wants to
      go beyond the traditional technique (gravimetric analysis), allowing for a double
      monitoring approach: the traditional gravimetric analysis as well as the optical
      spectroscopic analysis of the scattering on the same filters in steady-state
      conditions. The experimental data are interpreted in terms of light percolation
      through highly scattering matter by means of the stretched exponential evolution.
      CleAir has been applied to investigate the daily distribution of particulate
      matter within the Napoleonic Museum in Rome as a test case.

PMID- 28892017
TI  - Biodiversity of Actinobacteria from the South Pacific and the Assessment of
      Streptomyces Chemical Diversity with Metabolic Profiling.
AB  - Recently, bioprospecting in underexplored habitats has gained enhanced focus,
      since new taxa of marine actinobacteria can be found, and thus possible new
      metabolites. Actinobacteria are in the foreground due to their versatile
      production of secondary metabolites that present various biological activities,
      such as antibacterials, antitumorals and antifungals. Chilean marine ecosystems
      remain largely unexplored and may represent an important source for the discovery
      of bioactive compounds. Various culture conditions to enrich the growth of this
      phylum were used and 232 bacterial strains were isolated. Comparative analysis of
      the 16S rRNA gene sequences led to identifying genetic affiliations of 32 genera,
      belonging to 20 families. This study shows a remarkable culturable diversity of
      actinobacteria, associated to marine environments along Chile. Furthermore, 30
      streptomycete strains were studied to establish their antibacterial activities
      against five model strains, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes,
      Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, demonstrating
      abilities to inhibit bacterial growth of Gram-positive bacteria. To gain insight
      into their metabolic profiles, crude extracts were submitted to liquid
      chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) analysis to assess the
      selection of streptomycete strains with potentials of producing novel bioactive
      metabolites. The combined approach allowed for the identification of three
      streptomycete strains to pursue further investigations. Our Chilean marine
      actinobacterial culture collection represents an important resource for the
      bioprospection of novel marine actinomycetes and its metabolites, evidencing
      their potential as producers of natural bioproducts.

PMID- 28892019
TI  - Study of the Relevance of the Quality of Care, Operating Efficiency and
      Inefficient Quality Competition of Senior Care Facilities.
AB  - The purpose of this research is to examine the relation between operating
      efficiency and the quality of care of senior care facilities. We designed a data
      envelopment analysis, combining epsilon-based measure and metafrontier efficiency
      analyses to estimate the operating efficiency for senior care facilities,
      followed by an iterative seemingly unrelated regression to evaluate the relation
      between the quality of care and operating efficiency. In the empirical studies,
      Taiwan census data was utilized and findings include the following: Despite the
      greater operating scale of the general type of senior care facilities, their
      average metafrontier technical efficiency is inferior to that of nursing homes.
      We adopted senior care facility accreditation results from Taiwan as a variable
      to represent the quality of care and examined the relation of accreditation
      results and operating efficiency. We found that the quality of care of general
      senior care facilities is negatively related to operating efficiency; however,
      for nursing homes, the relationship is not significant. Our findings show that
      facilities invest more in input resources to obtain better ratings in the
      accreditation report. Operating efficiency, however, does not improve. Quality
      competition in the industry in Taiwan is inefficient, especially for general
      senior care facilities.

PMID- 28892018
TI  - Antioxidant Artemisia princeps Extract Enhances the Expression of Filaggrin and
      Loricrin via the AHR/OVOL1 Pathway.
AB  - The Japanese mugwort, Artemisia princeps (yomogi in Japanese), has anti
      inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Skin care products containing Artemisia
      princeps extract (APE) are known to improve dry skin symptoms in atopic
      dermatitis. Atopic dry skin is associated with a marked reduction of skin barrier
      proteins, such as filaggrin (FLG) and loricrin (LOR). Recently, aryl hydrocarbon
      receptor (AHR), and its downstream transcription factor OVO-like 1 (OVOL1), have
      been shown to regulate the gene expression of FLG and LOR. The focus of this
      paper is to evaluate the effects of APE on the AHR/OVOL1/FLG or LOR pathway since
      they have remained unknown to this point. We first demonstrated that non
      cytotoxic concentrations of APE significantly upregulated antioxidant enzymes,
      NAD(P)H dehydrogenase quinone 1 and heme oxygenase 1, in human keratinocytes.
      Even at these low concentrations, APE induced nuclear translocation of AHR and
      significantly upregulated CYP1A1 (a specific target gene for AHR activation),
      FLG, and LOR expression. AHR knockdown downregulated OVOL1 expression. The APE
      induced upregulation of FLG and LOR was canceled in keratinocytes with AHR or
      OVOL1 knockdown. In conclusion, antioxidant APE is a potent phytoextract that
      upregulates FLG and LOR expression in an AHR/OVOL1-dependent manner and this may
      underpin the barrier-repairing effects of APE in treating atopic dry skin.

PMID- 28892020
TI  - Identification of Staphylococcus aureus Cellular Pathways Affected by the
      Stilbenoid Lead Drug SK-03-92 Using a Microarray.
AB  - The mechanism of action for a new lead stilbene compound coded SK-03-92 with
      bactericidal activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
      is unknown. To gain insight into the killing process, transcriptional profiling
      was performed on SK-03-92 treated vs. untreated S. aureus. Fourteen genes were
      upregulated and 38 genes downregulated by SK-03-92 treatment. Genes involved in
      sortase A production, protein metabolism, and transcriptional regulation were
      upregulated, whereas genes encoding transporters, purine synthesis proteins, and
      a putative two-component system (SACOL2360 (MW2284) and SACOL2361 (MW2285)) were
      downregulated by SK-03-92 treatment. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain
      reaction analyses validated upregulation of srtA and tdk as well as
      downregulation of the MW2284/MW2285 and purine biosynthesis genes in the drug
      treated population. A quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis
      of MW2284 and MW2285 mutants compared to wild-type cells demonstrated that the
      srtA gene was upregulated by both putative two-component regulatory gene mutants
      compared to the wild-type strain. Using a transcription profiling technique, we
      have identified several cellular pathways regulated by SK-03-92 treatment,
      including a putative two-component system that may regulate srtA and other genes
      that could be tied to the SK-03-92 mechanism of action, biofilm formation, and
      drug persisters.